#it gets sorta comparable to erasure | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sepublic · 6 months

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I’ve already brought up how the loss of glyphs is deeply tragic for Luz on an interpersonal level, given her relationship with the Titan as being kinda found family in a spiritual successor to Manny sorta way…

But on a larger, cultural level? It’s straight-up genocide. Because glyphs were an ancient practice; They were a tradition at one point, as Eda explains. The earliest witches used to learn glyphs from the Titan on her knee, and eventually stopped when that became redundant with the more convenient source of their bile sacs.

But it was still an important part of their history; It was how witches and demons first communicated and interacted with the land and nature, and their ‘god’ in a mutualistic way. It was how they respected their world.

So even if glyphs were evidently forgotten by the Deadwardian Era, they were still available for those who needed them… And in comes fucking Philip, the racist colonizer, and because of his possession of the Titan’s heart, she finally dies and glyphs can no longer work. They’re obsolete now.

They still happened, but now that part of magic, of history and this world, is gone forever. It’s cultural erasure, it’s what Luz alludes to when she mentions how scars from Belos’ reign still remain, like the left arm being permanently shifted upwards; Who knows how many were displaced, how much the local flora and fauna and ecosystems were devastated, with the desert of Palm Stings now colder than even the knee itself?!?

It’s just so deeply painful because Luz really helped to bring back an ancient, lost tradition and unlike Philip, breathed new life into it; Glyphs could be used to help people without bile sacs, who didn’t utilize spell circles as well. We actually saw Luz experiment with using individual glyphs, and figure out the combos; Things she did on her own. She shared knowledge of glyphs with her loved ones, like Eda, King, Lilith, Gus, Amity, etc.

There really was going to be a return of something lost, but now it’s gone forever because of a bigoted old white man who was too bitter about things that are different and needed to feel big and important by standing on the shoulders of others. It’s cultural genocide. That memory where Belos' destructive lies about wild magic drive witches away from the knee that they still had the potential to learn from, leaving behind only ruins in the present-day? With some murdered via the coven sigils that cut them even further off from their own magic they forgot glyphs for? It's truly symbolic of the final nails in the coffin.

And it’s also desecration of the dead, too; Caleb is not the only one to have had his corpse bastardized by Belos, misused against everything he stood for. Belos also misused that corpse, first by stealing the Titan’s name, then misusing her magic, her resources such as Palistrom wood… And finally possessing that body literally, which is what murders the Titan. It’s like colonizers bastardizing and salting the land that locals carefully maintained a proper relationship with, and keep in mind this fucker is a literal Puritan colonist. There’s no respect, not for the dead and/or past. Compare that to Luz, who lives on in Manny’s memory and makes him proud.

I’m just imagining Caleb and the Titan watching, in agony, as their bodies are used to create a vicious mockery towards their actual kin, who remain totally unaware, and in the case of the Grimwalkers, it’s another lineage that is also abused. Meanwhile the Clawthornes remain unknowing of their past because colonialism erases history, hence Belos hiring Flora, and hell even getting Lilith to participate in her own historical erasure, as both Clawthorne and witch!

Meanwhile, King remains oblivious and unconnected to his own heritage. And most of that can also be attributed to the Titan Trappers and Archivists, themselves perpretrators of genocide. So King and Eda go without knowing their heritage for so long, in Eda’s case she may never find out entirely, because it’s part of the many voices who are lost and silenced due to genocide, buried in the past to be forgotten.

And you know one thing more that fucks me up? It’s that I genuinely suspect that Philip initially had it easier with glyphs than Luz, and that he made them more difficult for her. Because based on his dialogue by finding the Ice glyph in a snowflake, and his diary and memory portraits showing him arriving in the isles via Eclipse Lake, at the Knee…

Philip was probably shown his first spell on his first day in the Demon Realm. And it makes sense; The first human, the precedent that the Titan would’ve known by this point, was Caleb; Himself Philip’s brother, who was also raised to be a witch hunter, yet learned better. We know people can view both worlds from that in-between realm, but the Titan still isn’t omnipotent and can only watch through a limited number of cubes at a time, while having to know what and who to look for.

But even so; With Caleb’s precedent, there could’ve been hope that Philip would follow in his footsteps, that he would learn and be more, and actually choose to be better instead of defaulting to Puritan predestination and the like as an excuse to stay the same and absolve him of responsiability. But we know what happened; Philip started off easy, but then made things difficult by rejecting the Titan’s compassion, by misusing her magic for evil and murder and genocide. The Titan showed Philip compassion first and this was how he responded.

I really feel as if there’s an implicit reluctance with how Luz is taught glyphs, one at a time, in separate scenarios, usually as a result of character development and/or engaging with the world around her, which are things the Titan would really need to see to start trusting another human again (and if he knew Luz gave Philip the last glyph, that would also add to the wariness that Belos caused by manipulating her). Luz didn’t learn her first spell until a few days into her journey, and Luz had already had a few perilous encounters by that point! But she continued to brave her way through everything, continued to accept the isles and its messier side.

And so the Titan showed Luz her first spell, and only that, in response to Luz needing it, wanting to learn magic, and most of all humbling herself to be kind to the Titan’s own son, and listen to him; Because neglecting King was what low-key led to Eda’s transformation placing everyone in danger, since he only told Luz about the elixir and agreed to steal it for the sake of getting her attention.

So that makes Luz listening to the Titan for the first time, intentionally, with her second spell –Ice, Philip’s first- so much more hard-hitting. The way she wanted to live out her dream so she went for the wand behind people’s backs, but then recognized and owned up to her mistakes. And she really was just a lonely kid in need of guidance, and not a stubborn adult committed to his cruelty; Luz always had an open mind! She always wanted to learn!

And she got to! She learned each glyph at a time… And that’s all the Titan could do for her, something the Titan had already done for so many others, long ago, before they realized they had bile sacs and didn’t need to rely on the land around them as much. Luz still experimented even when she just had one glyph; She understood how intent mattered. She and Lilith built off of each other’s knowledge to collaborate and create combos. Meanwhile Belos, he agonized because he made things pointlessly difficult by refusing to adapt to the ways of another land, and only got his first and last glyphs by taking the compassion of someone who knew them and betraying it.

Plus there’s what I said about Lilith, her whole thing as Caleb’s descendant, directly abused by Belos and belittled by him, made to participate in her own erasure loss of past, separated from that… Really, one could argue the Clawthornes are like the Boiling Isles equivalent to the Irish; Yeah they're white but that doesn't mean they aren't victims of British colonialism that sought to 'conquer the land' and all that.

The Clawthornes are generally known for big orange hair, with Lilith's curly hair being straightened and dyed dark-blue in an attempt to assimilate within the Emperor's Coven's (AKA Philip's) standards of conformity. They worked with the land via the Palistrom carving and began to lose that because of the trees being endangered by Belos' gluttony, as well as the curse disabling Dell; The very curse created by the Archivists, who also invaded this world, the very curse cast by Lilith because the coven system influenced her to feel shame over wild magic and embrace hierarchy instead.

The curse leads to Eda's loss of bile magic, something very important to her and witches in general, and Lilith loses her own trying to mitigate her own mistakes. So not just glyphs are taken from witches, but even their own bile magic they initially replaced them with, and the other resources of the land. And Lilith is cut off from her family, her real family, as she's taken in by an ancestor who has deliberately distanced himself and loathes her on multiple levels as something to be 'fixed'.

But Lilith gets her hair back and re-embraces it, she gets her family back. She still manages to somewhat retain her past; After all, Lilith gets to go to the Deadwardian Era herself! And she meets, as much as it loathes anyone to acknowledge it, an ancestor, and influences history in a subtle yet personally meaningful way. And Lilith helps re-establish contact with the lost practice of glyphs by figuring out how to combine them, which goes hand in hand with her passion of being a historian, and her additional function as both parallel and especially foil to Philip.

Just… Luz and the Titan. And Caleb. And Lilith. There’s dead people and there’s history and there’s land, there’s bodies and respect. There’s compassion and actually working with people and finding no shame in that, instead of stealing and taking credit. And in the end, even though they manage to regain some things, a lot was still inevitably lost to genocide, and possibly gone forever.

But the effects and legacy still linger, Luz still remembers and holds dear what the glyphs did; And she honors not just Manny’s legacy, but Caleb’s, by bridging the gap between humanity and witches, and showing both can co-exist in harmony. She helped his descendants, and even the last Grimwalker, find happiness and reconnect with their heritage, even if they don’t know just how close it is to them in particular. Luz honored the Titan by clearing his name, finding his son, and ensuring the last of the Titans is no longer alone and in understanding of his heritage. Luz even made amends with the Titan’s other greatest regret, harming the Collector, by making peace; And she proved glyphs were still useful, they were still kind, and that compassion wasn’t wasted.

So even if the Titan’s glyphs are gone now, Luz still honored their memory by sharing them freely and helping, teaching, cultivating. The Clawthornes are rebuilding the Palistrom forests, among them is Hunter who as a Grimwalker was one of the purposes for which Belos devastated those natural resources for. And King… King is beginning to develop his own glyphs! And Luz is learning her first one, Light, from a Titan all over again, because she showed King kindness.

That honors the Titan’s memory by keeping it alive through her son; Who keeps the memory of glyphs alive through the ones he’ll sustain and share with everyone else, and those glyphs will spread to those without and even with bile sacs. And a lost art is brought back, irreversibly different but still intact in the important ways. People are relearning old practices to apply to a new world, because the past is gone but it still lingers and is simply… reborn. Despite the scars and changes it survives and is still itself.

And with how all of this loops back to Luz’s relationship with her father Manny, who passed away, and how all that was based on Dana’s own relationship with her deceased father, who left her a final gift in Pokemon Red that she chose to cherish to this day, and embrace her own creativity and keep it alive. It’s a story about things dying but still managing to live anyway.

#the owl house #meta #luz noceda #boiling isles titan #lilith clawthorne #caleb wittebane #glyphs

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animehouse-moe · 10 months

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Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 Episode 5: Hidden Inventory 5

This ending scene for the episode captures arguably my biggest frustration ever. They nailed the character designs here. They got them just right, making subtle adjustments to the ones from S1 to bring them closer to the manga style. They look great, even in the new art style. So then why, pray tell, does Mappa struggle so greatly with the designs and facial expressions of this episode to the point that it can entirely misconstrue characters? I'm not really sure, but thankfully I'll have a two week break to mentally prepare for Shibuya's adaptation after what's gone on here.

Unsurprisingly, I have a lot of gripes with this episode. I say unsurprisingly because Gosso storyboarded for it, but the part that does get me is that the episode director is Jun (sometimes seen written as Atsushi?) Nakagawa. They've done some really solid episodes for Ousama Ranking (which is where they would have come into contact with Gosso), alongside stuff like Akiba Maid War. Regardless, the point is that Gosso's style as the lead director and storyboarder overrides the sensibilities of Nakagawa's direction and produces something decidedly different.

I think the easiest example is the use of space in the episode. Sometimes it's great, other times.... you're left wondering what's up.

Like this sequence, it's a bit of a two-in-one. The first being that with the space it doesn't really look that great, because well, it's just sorta an empty scene devoid of any details or importance with a distant Gojo as the focal point as we look from Geto's perspective.

It's one of those things that's on the tails of discovering greatness, sadly. Looking from Geto's perspective, and seeing Gojo so far away. It's a great idea, except for the fact that it's not balanced. Take a look at the manga panel it's meant to compare to. It switches out Geto's downward gaze for distance, which works well, but does nothing to address Gojo's proximity and levity.

The whole point is how distant Geto feels to Gojo, but that Gojo has none of that to him. What we're shown is a one-sided affair in the anime, that really had potential to go and one-up the manga but stopped halfway through and called it done.

Now, moving on to a similar story in the so-close-yet-so-far territory: Geto's monologue. I still despise them for shifting such important dialogue to episode 1, especially considering they feel comfortable re-using it here. What I hate even more than that though is the fact that they discard the most important pieces visually.

I don't mind the idea of him being on a train and through his monologue the crowd around him growing to show his feeling of suffocation, but it's just so divorced from the action of him ingesting the curses of humanity, the evil born from the masses. I especially despise it because they entirely erase the disgust painted on Geto's face in the manga.

I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a total erasure of Geto's most pivotal moment as a character, but it does try to weaken it considerably in how it approaches it.

Now, just to touch on something good for a second. The idea behind how Geto's mind wanders in the shower is well done. No two ways about it. The idea borrows from the manga and extrapolates it impressively well. The idea of the water from the shower turning into applause is well executed and fits the scene just right.

But that's about where my praise for the scene ends, because good old Mappa steps up to the plate. I'm sure plenty of other people have caught it, and I'm sure I've said it at least once or twice, but Mappa is reaching a convergence point with their art and coloring, the origin/core of it being Chainsaw Man. It's pretty incredible to have scenes adapted from such a stylistically unique manga end up looking laughably alike a totally different anime.

Especially when it's so disparate to the manga. It just plain hurts to see them entirely unable to capture Geto's character for whatever reason. It's not even about the hair at this point, rather it's just the eyes. The way it's a downcast expression rather than a gaze that looks out into nothing. The difference in thought and feel that it provides is just something else.

Really though, this episode completely forgoes Geto's internal struggle and replaces it with aimless depression. Rather than his struggle with right and wrong, what should and shouldn't be, it's just "Geto's sad". It's such a weird change that I can't begin to understand. He doesn't express depression or sorrow in the manga. It's frustration, confusion, hatred. Negative emotions that he ascribes to both normal humans and the Jujutsu world. It's the entire basis for his hate, not the words that Yuki Tsukumo gave him. Those are simply the catalyst for his choices, but they are ultimately his and his alone.

Speaking of Yuki, what the hell happened Mappa? Apparently new characters/designs are just on the chopping block for this season? Sure, you can easily ignore the proportion differences here and there, but the hair? Just a totally different style, for zero reason. Also? Weird decision with the closing where it is now skintight and form fitted rather than the more accurate (and far more normal/less sexual) style Yuki sports in the manga.

Also on the topic of Yuki/Geto, they erased the involvement of this panel for, you guessed it, the use of space. I don't know if I have to even say it, but I will: it's a continuation of the removal of Geto's character and the shallow reconstruction that takes place. Geto's still on edge, he's still his wary and aloof self that carries a sharp gaze. But that's of course nowhere to be found in the anime.

And then there's whatever this is. Geto looks desperate, he looks like he's fishing for justification, for praise and kindness. Manga Geto on the other hand? He's engaging in some classic self-deprecation. He's finding ways to hurt and discredit himself as he's stuck in a swirl of emotions and thoughts. Also, anime geto's hair just sorta sucks.

It's almost funny how painfully similar JJK and CSM's adaptations come in terms of line art, colors and shading, and just overall design. I think the environment art is about the only thing in this image that would give people the inkling that it's not CSM (if they hadn't seen JJK before).

Anyways, another good thing! Wow, so many today (I say, in jest). The use of superimposition for exposition. Overall, I'd probably say unironically that the exposition of the story is the best handled aspect in all of these 5 episodes. I'm not kidding. And it's because it has effectively free reign. There's no rules to how you'd explain something, so long as it fits. Though I'd say this episode in particular has the most creative uses of it.

Back to basics though. Poor Geto. I love his character so much. I love his story arc through Hidden Inventory so much. And it's just sort of toyed with. They ignore every piece of visual importance for his character and instead impose their own weird interpretations and executions upon it. Geto's supposed to be shocked here, he's supposed to be afraid of someone voicing the sentiments that he's had. He's afraid of that side of himself, that a piece of what Gojo left in the Star Plasma Church may appear in him. He saw it, and as much as he understands that side, he doesn't want it at this junction.

The easiest way to explain it might be how someone acts in frustration. "Oh I could just hit this person!", says Person A. Person B responds with, "Then do it. You're justified". It obviously creates a rift in logic where the frustration and rage that is on display is being used as a vent rather than as a tool. And that's what's happening with Geto right now. He's venting, he's expressing his hatred in a non-committal way that has hardly even bubbled up to the surface. But then Yuki Tsukumo arrives and tells him that she's seriously considered killing all non-sorcerers because it's easier.

Hell, the whole idea of Geto's shock at Yuki's statement is collected in his uncertainty about how he views non-sorcerers. It's something he has no side in currently. It's something that he doesn't understand fully. Yuki has not flipped a switch, she has done nothing to Geto at this point aside from forcing him to explore the darker parts of his heart.

Anyways, the conversation comes and goes and this pointlessly goofy bit of Yuki leaving on her motorcycle appears. Seriously, what's the point in slowly rolling out of frame not once, but twice?

I really struggle at times to understand what it is this staff team sees as significant vs insignificant in terms of adaptation and importance. Because really, they replaced Geto's reaction to such an important turning piece in his character with Yuki just sorta gliding by in frame. I'm not even kidding. I'm not really gonna complain about not seeing the dejection in his face in the following scene, but I'll just say that Gosso's vision and approach alongside Nakagawa's influence here really stifles a lot of the core sentiment in regards to characterization for people like Geto. A sense of space and visual consistency is proving more important than presenting the best version of a character.

Also, Yuki's sorta of grinning in the anime? While telling Geto, and fully knowing, that what he and Gojo did was for nothing. That Riko died for nothing. And in the anime they paint her with a more cheery demeanor.

Honestly, I'm already getting tired of pointing out all the easily solvable issues with this episode, but we still haven't reached the highest point, so I'm just going to skip there and call it a day.

Gojo and Geto. The untouchable one, and the one forced to take on the sins of humanity. Opposites that once represented a whole.

And they just sort of ruined it. There's a chance that people haven't caught the significance of what Gege did here, so let me explain. They're supposed to start off head to head because they're challenging one another. They're testing the waters to see where one stands in comparison to the other. That's the whole point, having Geto not even face Gojo is just a failure in that regard. What I hate even more is that they still understood the assignment. They understand that the roles in this sequence are reversed, so rather like the previous episode that had Gojo on the right and Geto on the left, this time their sides are reversed.

They get it, they can understand these pieces, but continue to choose to misrepresent what it is that's going on here. Gojo didn't give up on Geto in the previous episode, and it's not until the end of the argument in this episode that Geto gives up on Gojo. It's such a simple thing to grasp but they choose to deny that aspect of the characters for a reason that I simply can't understand.

And that's not even talking about the brutal expressions that they give Geto (and Gojo) here. I should have known what to expect with how the prior episode was handled, but I foolishly held onto hope.

Anyways, here's an angry/shocked Gojo from the anime, I guess. Yeah, I don't know either.

I don't even know if I want to continue this into Shibuya, really. It's not that it's hard or whatever else, it's just draining. It's draining to point out a mountain of flaws that are self-inflicted, with zero reason or purpose. I struggle to call a lot of this JJK when I compare it to the manga, season 1, or the movie. There's just so much that it deviates from. The art style, the character designs, the animation choices (bar a few incredible efforts), and even things like the soundtrack. I mean, they put one of the more upbeat and JJK-sounding tracks over Satosugu's breakup. I just lack the energy to continue to show how the anime fails to live up to a meaningful amount of the manga. Thankfully we've got a two week break coming up, so I might find the means or reason to recharge to come back for Shibuya.

#jujutsu kaisen #呪術廻戦 #jjk #sorcery fight #gojo satoru #geto suguru #toji fushiguro #anime review #anime and manga #anime

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kiwikipedia · 2 years

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So its moon knight time again and I think I should start with a disclaimer that I’ve never read the comics so I really only am using the show and mythology as my refrence

Anyways.

As per my last post, I mentioned that I was odd that instead of Anubis, it was Taweret who was there to greet Marc and Steven in limbo/the after life. I had maybe hoped for a bit more or maybe Marc to realize something was weird— or maybe even just a complete erasure of Anubis. But that wasn’t the case.

We see the Scales are designed to be like Anubis, meaning that Anubis was the Arbiter originally. But now it’s fallen to Taweret to do so.

I won’t go over everything again, but we do get confirmation that Taweret is ‘new’ at the whole judgment thing— she really isn’t sure what she’s doing, to the point where she has notecards on everything. Meaning she likely hasn’t been the Arbiter for some time. To really look into why I think more on why Taweret and not Anubis again, we sorta have to go backwards to another theory I have.

We’ve already gone over the gods associted with death, and again I do find it odd that Osiris was still so flippant about everything.

Which brings up a theory that perhaps the Osiris we see isn’t actually the ‘real’ Osiris— either by Corruption, or something else.

Big Name Gods (gods like Ra, Osiris, Ptah, Toth, the ones who deal with creation of life and balance) wouldnt be so careless about all of this.

And Osiris, being a god of death, would have no reason to not go extra lengths to keep the world in balance if someone was trying to bring back something that was already deemed corrupted— as Ammit was deemed that. There is a lot of emphisis on balance and peace, from what I can tell, but you know who doesn’t really care about that shit?

Set.

Now, in myths Set is the brother of Osiris, and Set kills Osiris— there’s a number of possible reasons why, one of which was because he was furious because his wife, Nephthys, had conceived a child, named Anubis, by Osiris, others are because of jelousy, etc.

Some other shit happens, Set and Osiris’ son— Horus— fight for the throne of the gods, and somewhere along the line, Osiris comes back to life through the help of a bunch of other gods including Anubis, but what if it wasnt just that?

Set, in myths, would go to great lengths to protect Ra. In fact, before the Osiris Myth, Set had a positive role where he accompanied Ra on his barque to repel Apep, the serpent of Chaos.

I might have said this before, but, I do also think something happened to Ra— we don’t see Ra when the gods met, which makes little sense to me considering how the actual, principal ennead was the Great Ennead of Heliopolis. This was headed by the sun god and creator Re/Ra or Re-Atum, followed by Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, and Osiris, Isis, Seth or Set, and Nephthys. Notice how Osiris and Tefnut are the only gods who are actually part of the Ennead of Heliopolis who appear in the summoning of the gods.

Now, I do feel as if the faith of people has some sort of impact on the gods— as the people pulled away from Ra and towards Osiris, Osiris could have usurped Ra’s power. Depending on how many gods followed Osiris, he could have had him sealed away, or possibly killed him. Osiris’ wife already tried to kill him once so that Horus could bolster his royal authority, who is to say that Osiris wouldn’t try the same thing?

Whatever the case is, what happened to Ra caused Set's spiral into a being of Chaos— Set was not always seen as an Evil God, just like how Ammit was not always seen as an Evil Being either.

So, what if instead of Osiris being resurrected, but it was Set assuming Osiris' form? I did go back and look at the wall of imprisoned gods again, beacuse of course I did, and compared some of them to other statues. One of them looks a lot like Osiris. Osiris got sealed away post death so he could not be resurrected or at least not fully and when Anubis ‘killed’ Set, Set fully assumed the shell of Osiris’ corpse.

Of course, After doing so— Set as Osiris could then systematically started to remove all the competent death gods for the sake of chaos— perhaps as revenge for Ra. Death and life are a balance, after all, and if he starts to remove one, he throws the other off.

Anubis, perhaps, was first. Both because of him being a cornerstone of the Afterlife and, almost because of revenge. Again, Anubis might not be Set’s son. Set seals Anubis away because of a duel reason, and because Anubis is gone now Ma'at and Toth have to focus on the under world instead of their usual duties.

Take Thoth away and Ma'at has to run the whole show and shes under suspicion because Thoth is her husband— and vice versa.

That allows for Set to start whispering things to Ammit, for her to start being manipulated, to start sowing chaos. And perhaps it wasn’t exactly in his plans to get Ammit sealed away as well, but whichever one of the judgement gods remains can’t just rule the underworld alone— they have other domains, after all.

And, if Set can put a god who has zero experience into the underworld, cases that require a delicate hand would be brushed off. The whole no exceptions rule like this case, for example.

Anubis, I believe, would likely see that something is wrong— and honestly, there's probably a procedure for DID souls that is a different from what Taweret is doing. Not only that but the whole incomplete thing I feel is like a "One can survive or all can survive" and Anubis would notices that there's one heart missing without fail.

Taweret’s inexperience with actual judgement when it comes to souls that arent as straight forwards like Marc and Steven’s case, would allow for improper blanace even in the underworld. And, it would allow for obsticles that would make things difficult to be claimed before anything could get settled as Taweret would have no idea how to hold off the process like I’m assuming Anubis might be able to.

TL;DR:

We know now that Taweret is inexperienced and likely hasn’t been the Arbiter of the Dead for very long in comparison to the other gods of judgement.

The lack of proper judgement and her being in place could be a choice made by Set, who could possibly be in control of or acting as Osiris due to myths and how strange it is that Osiris, a literal god of death, is not really doing much in regards to things that would be happening in his domain.

Granted, this is all just insane ramblings and theories, me stringing up pins and yarn because I just think that it is intersting. Hopefully the final episode clears shit up too

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight Spoilers #egyptian mythology #I WANT TO SEE THE DOG GOD DAMMIT #Anubis #Set #Seth #Thoth #Ma'at #Maat #Taweret #Orisis #Kiwiki Speaks

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rena-te · 3 years

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I’m gonna throw some random thoughts/predictions about NEO at the wall. Mostly bc I’ve been thinking about this stuff for a while and need to shout into the void about it. (It will get into the Game’s Opening Sequence as well as any information that’s come out so far, just to mention it in case you were avoiding that content.) Join me for a lot of this down below the cut!

First of all, Tsugumi. In A.N.D we see her in a destroyed Shinjuku. Along with the visions of the future she gives Neku there are these messages.

“Everyone’s gone away..... All that’s left in the world is me.” (City being destroyed.)

“I can’t hear a thing...” (Tsugumi is walking the streets alone.)

“Hello? Is anybody there?” (Joshua shooting.)

“Somebody... Anybody... Can anybody hear me?” (Rhyme dying to (purple) shark noise.)

This last one isn’t a vision. It happens after Coco shoots Neku and he vanishes. Which leads me to think, since it is mostly a repeat of the first two future visions, it’s actually happening in this moment. It could be Tsugumi calling out one last time...... Before she’s overtaken by something?

“Too late... It’s all over...” (Same as first two. Tsugumi’s eyes notably turn red more than before.)

How is she giving Neku these visions? (It seems that she’s just calling out to anybody, and for some reason Neku heard her.) To send visions like that I’d think that Tsugumi is either Shinjuku’s Composer or maybe an angel? Or something else we’ve not seen? And they’re all visions of the future. Is Tsugumi speaking into the past as well as projecting those images? (We’re assuming that the reason for Shinjuku Reapers being in Shibuya is bc the UG in Shinjuku has been destroyed. So are the visions congruent with Shinjuku being destroyed or is the city being destroyed in the future, likely sometime between TWEWY and NEO?) The possibility of time travel makes things a million times more complicated.

Or maybe Tsugumi wasn’t quite sending him visions at all, and it was a kind of side effect of being linked to a Composer (since they are somewhat omniscient, and bc some of those visions were not really related to Tsugumi.) She was just trying to communicate with him, but some of that power leaked through their psychic bond and gave Neku a bit of clairvoyance?

If Shinjuku’s UG got destroyed, does that leave the Composer alive? We know that the Composer killing themselves would effectively shut down the UG, but if it happens the other way around? The Composer still exists, but would there be no consequence for losing an integral part of themselves? If the Composer’s connection to the UG is so pivotal, maybe the UG being gone is the reason why Tsugumi seems so...empty? (Is she so vacant that someone else is pulling the strings at this point?) It’s odd for Tsugumi to call out to Neku for help, but target him in NEO. (Given orders to target him.)

Also maybe the UG being destroyed but the Composer still existing explains Joshua’s....odd reaction to her? “How fortunate she managed to escape erasure.” Said when he was just in a position of wanting to kill himself in order to destroy his UG. He doesn’t use that sprite often ya know. It could explain the expression he has and the mumbled speech bubble used. Joshua said that he needed to get rid of His UG bc it could negatively tamper with the other grounds. To discover that could be done without killing himself... (And without him knowing of the apparent side effect of a “vacant Composer” Assuming that theory is true in the first place.)

But why does she have a Mr.Mew doll? Uhhhhh.... There’s also some time shenanigans happening too. And that throws many “what-ifs” into the mix, so I’ll avoid going down that rabbit hole. Basically I have no idea, the possibilities are kinda endless with time travel.

Another thing. This guy is also important. Very important apparently. I had a vague idea about him at first, a guess kinda outta left field, but I mean....I’m liking what bits I’ve scraped together for my guess theory by now. Onto speculating about Mr.Kubo here......

In the game’s opening sequence he walks right past Tsugumi (so connected to her in some way), leans in towards the camera, looks at you and does his little eccentric pose.

The only other characters who sorta look into the camera for the opening sequence are Shiba and Shoka, BUT in Shiba’s case it’s more like the camera is centered on him looking forward, and Shoka is more so interacting with Rindo with the way her scene was done. Here Kubo is just walking alone, stops and his eyes lock with the camera...... so wtf does this mean, you’re probably asking. It’s just a funky game introduction, it’s just this dude being weird. Yes, that is all true.

I know that he’s introduced in the line up as a Shinjuku Reaper, along with everyone else. But... I think this guy is Shinjuku’s Producer. If Tsugumi is Shinjuku’s Composer it makes sense for him to follow Her into Shibuya, he’s basically tasked to watch over Her.

Compared to the other Shinjuku Reapers, his color scheme is more...grey scaled. The girl has a grey suit, but Kubo doesn’t have any colors to his outfit at all. His clothes are plain compared to everyone else in this lineup. His facial expressions are the only...unique thing to his appearance. In the little bit of English dialogue we have of him so far, it seems that he’s giving us some kind of advice? And Fret looks to be put off with his eccentric (I can’t think of a more accurate word for it) demeanor.

So the middle aged man with an eccentric personality, with a tendency to give advice (?), pretending to be involved in the game in ways they are not, clothes styled in only neutral colors, and the funky little watch they’re wearing....along with the light poking at the fourth wall (Mr.H- “You mean those teasers?”) both Kubo and Hanekoma fit that bill.

Tbh Hanekoma is a bit eccentric, we’re just so used to how he is by now. The watch is just a minor thing that’s a fun little similarity in their designs don’t worry about it. Don’t tell me the watch isn’t important it ties everything together. Also after a quick goggle search, one website is telling me that Kubo’s name means “sunken ground” in Japanese and this other website is telling me what the individual kanji means, (I do not know Japanese in any way and am assuming that the internet is right about all this. I feel like it tracks with him being a Producer though.)

And just to cap it off, maybe Shiba was Shinjuku’s Conductor. If he rose through Shibuya’s ranks so quickly he’s gotta know what he’s doing. Did he throw Shinjuku out of balance and get rid of the UG so the Composer would be an empty puppet (like Tsugumi kinda seems to be.) Is that why he’s doing all this? Does he plan to become the Conductor (right hand man of the Composer) and then erase the UG, rendering it’s Composer vacant and take control? Shiba wouldn’t know about the Producer, naturally. Is that what it’s all culminating too? Will Joshua be in danger at some point from this guy? I’m wondering when the Higher Plane would step in, but this might just be Kubo’s job since Shiba was Shinjuku’s Conductor (and Hanekoma’s job, since it’s happening in Shibuya now) unless it gets completely out of control. They don’t seem to interfere much, just letting the assigned angels do the groundwork.

So that’s all my thoughts about stuff. I wouldn’t go into the game heavily expecting much of this though. As fun as theories are I’ll be fine enjoying the game for whatever happens. The world-building in twewy is just extremely fascinating to me and I love it so much. This is just my take on a “‘what if” situation anyways so nothing close to this may happen, hahaha. But speculation is very fun and I love to flex my twewy knowledge (it’s been next to useless for like 10 years. Finally twewy is relevant.

#neotwewy #neo the world ends with you #ntwewy #Neo twewy #twewy #the world ends with you #analysis #Neo predictions #I said there’d be PepeSilvia vibes to this #it feels like it makes sense- but it could also be a complete jumble of nothing #idk very fun to make the post though- relieved to get it outta my head a bit #Kubo #A New Day #tsugumi matsunae #Kubo twewy #Kubo neotwewy #mine #I’m glad I figured out how to do ‘readmore’s on mobile and with how long these posts have gotten I’m sure other ppl are glad too

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jesstielle · 3 years

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okay i have Feelings about NEO: TWEWY and nobody to shout them at because literally nobody else I know plays it which is truly a crime; the original twewy remains one of my favourite games to this day. but anyway. massive NEO TWEWY spoilers inbound:

First of all it truly is a miracle that this game even exists. I never once actually believed we’d get a sequel. Let alone one this good!! It is really, really good!!!

Things I Enjoyed:

- The gameplay. Whoo boy. Up to about 4 team members, anyway. It’s fast paced, button mashing satisfaction, that manages to keep elements from the original game while still being fresh and fun, if not entirely chaotic, which is why after 4 characters, it was a bit like, ‘okay, chill, let us switch out or something’ lmao

- The new characters. Although I feel like we leave the game not knowing as much about them as I would like, the new team are really great, and Nagi in particular really shone in terms of character grown. Rindo.. I feel like I know as little about him now as I did at the start :|a Maybe I just missed something.

I honestly found the teams and their leaders kinda forgettable >>;; Although the heel-face turn on Motoi was pretty great. I needed more from Kanon to feel anything when she, yknow.

The new reapers were... a mixed bunch. Shoka was fantastic, Susukichi was... a bit much in English, great in Japanese, Tsugumi was great but didn’t get enough screen time (unless she gets more post game, I dunno yet) Shiba annoyed the fuck outta me, Kaie was alright.. the others... meh. They don’t hold up to Kariya and Uzuki. And obviously Kubo sucks ass pfft

- The reappearing characters. of course i loved them. i got a hit of serotonin every time one appeared on my screen. neku my son. josh the reapers. i was never a huge minamimoto stan lmao but he was fun. even curry don. but some were DIRELY underutilised which i WILL COME BACK TO

- THE MUSIC. twewy cannot fail on its music, it’s amazing, it’s glorious, it’s multi faceted, it goes hard. and adding in Beat’s psyche, a rhythm mini game acting as the fast walk button???? yes. yes yes yes yes. yessssssss.

- The graphics. Mostly. Everything looked beautiful, and HD, and the character designs were great - not toooooooooo Nomura but Nomura enough, yknow? And the occasional chibi faces were great lol. The chaotic battles sometimes caused lag which... I mean, they coulda given us the option to turn off some of the animations or damage graphics lmao but hey. the forced perspective on shibuya was a bit off occasionally but it was how the original game did it and it’s all for the ~aesthetic~ so hey. And it was great seeing some of the original locations looking so much more fleshed out

- The Localisation. Personally, I think the translators struck a perfect balance that made the kids seem like they’d fit right into today’s culture. It wasn’t forced, it wasn’t ‘look at us we are Teenagers’, it was right on the mark. And it was really, really interesting hearing just how different the Japanese VA lines were compared to the English translations. They really went all out and it paid off, imo.

Dislikes: (i haven’t read the secret reports yet tho)

- UNDERUTILISATION OF THE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS - now, look, okay, I’m biased. I admit it. I’m a Josh and Neku stan lmao, so I was looking forward to seeing them the whole game. And as it went on and on and I realised I wouldn’t be until much later, it bummed me out. The bait n’ switch with Beat was funny at first, and I enjoyed it a lot, until I realised that yeah, that’s what they’re going with. Beat’s probably my least favourite partner from the original (sorry) but even disregarding that, it annoys me that they gave him like 10,000x more screen time than even Neku.

Not to mention Shiki and Joshua! Josh in particular I could write a whole essay on how pissed I am. The lost potential. Nobody mentioning him, ever, once. Until he just sorta shows up and says a few things. It makes NO SENSE, he’s the fucking composer, Neku and Beat worked with him, why aren’t they questioning his whereabouts when Shibuya’s turning to shit??????’ I just?????? I had low hopes for Josh content tbf but I am still disappointed :( And naught but one singular Hanekoma mention, as well. Sigh.

Shiki, it’s a shame she doesn’t appear more, she certainly could have - I can think of like 5 ways off the top of my head - having her as a partner would have also been extremely good.

Neku at least we got..... half a week with. and as a PC. And like, I know it’s not supposed to be about them, but throw us a bit more than cheap fanservice, yknow. And Kariya and Uzuki were great too.

- why, oh why, was every single team lackey male???? they couldn’t be arsed to make female designs????? it baffled me.

- SO. MUCH. SHIBUYA. TRAVERSING. I don’t remember if it was that bad in the original?! But oh my god lol. I think a lot of it was padding. Sure felt like it. Paired with the slightly hand hold-y mission progression cutscenes, they coulda cut a bunch of those out.

Other Stuff:

- The voice acting - fantastic in Japanese, okay in English, except for the returning characters?? didn’t sound great??? in english??? I was hyped to turn English back on for Beat but.... nah. Nahhh. Nagi’s English VA was absolutely the best imo.

- They nailed the feel of the old game without totally copying it - the food, clothes, general aesthetic, music. That said, it still felt a little too tied to the original. Ironic considering the rant above I know lmao but... yeah. The player psyches were a nice touch but I feel like it needed something to set it apart a lil more from its predecessor.

- I didn’t realise A New Day existed until literally today and I wish I had seen it before I played Neo. Now I know who Coco is lmao. And Shinjuku’s erasure was part of that too! arghhhh. Nomura stop burying plot points in other things. I’m a DS OG dont do this to me

- Rindo’s time travel power was cool but jumping back to the same point like 3 or 4 times in some cases got old

- You could really feel the KH3 energy of ‘play 30 hours until something or someone pivotal finally appears’ lol. Nomuraaaaa.

... anyway.

TL;DR good game, needed more Josh, also needs more fans please

#twewy #neo twewy spoilers #neo twewy #yoshiya kiryu #neku sakuraba #spoilers

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vg-sanctuary · 3 years

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The World Ends with You

Jupiter - DS - 2008

[screenshots from Nintendo Life, jack-reviews.com, and LPArchive; please excuse the low res, I couldn’t find better ones]

TWEWY is an RPG with modern (circa 2008) style and character designs by Tetsuya Nomura, the director of Kingdom Hearts. I meant to write about it the day its sequel NEO: TWEWY came out but missed that by a few days. anyway, I think it's reasonable to call this game the epitome of the Nintendo DS. it has every feature to be expected of any game on the wildly unique handheld: a touch-based minigame with wireless multiplayer and little bearing on the main game, a sleep mode puzzle, touch controls, forced use of both screens, and gameplay and plot designed to be enjoyed in short bursts. it's loaded with cool ideas, some of which are more than questionable, even barring the crazy DS features, hence the remakes. (savvy readers will notice I left out the iOS and Switch platforms and, while there are remakes of the game for both platforms that have extra content and a more elegant combat system, they don't hit quite like the DS original.)

I don't fancy myself an RPG fan for the most part. the usual high fantasy themes and turn based combat are boring to me. usually, if an RPG has either one I'm not interested, and this has neither of those. I decided to try TWEWY while collecting DS games, and the plot and combat had grabbed me within two hours. I haven't mentioned the awesome music and visuals, both wonderfully stylish and unique in the same way Persona's UI is stylish and unique, only this game uses the style on its game world and characters instead of menus.

the premise is the antisocial protagonist, Neku, wakes up in a killing game wherein each day has a mission that he and his partner either complete or face erasure. after a week of these missions he'll be free. I can’t tell you the massive general plot spoiler that makes the whole thing so compelling as it goes on, so this section of the post is sadly pretty short. there is an anime that goes over the main events, but it's only four hours long compared to the game's 20, character development is sometimes lacking in detail or totally inaccurate, and it generally doesn't include the hardships you would go through as a player e.g. having to try a boss five times.

almost everything about TWEWY's gameplay is intriguing, so I'll try to be concise. combat is a strange beast that comes from developer Jupiter's need to use both screens to the fullest. by the way, don't let this wall of text scare you away from the game; it introduces these mechanics much slower and it's easier to understand and use. the bottom screen is gesture-based ARPG combat where, for example, short swipes over an enemy makes Neku use a sword attack or touching somewhere on the screen makes him fire a bullet. the exact gestures and attacks are determined by what pins he's wearing. the top screen asks you to use the d-pad to attack with Neku’s partner and navigate along a tree of cards where getting the right card grants a star; enough of those allows you to use a powerful and health-restoring fusion attack. there's this green light puck that passes between characters when the one holding it does a finisher and multiplies the finisher's damage with each successful pass up to five times, but disappears if held by one character for too long. fortunately the game has an auto mode for the top screen that's roughly equivalent to mashing left or right on the d-pad so you don't have to try to split your brain between both, but you get a little more experience if that's turned off. I love the bottom screen and the idea of the top screen but could never really get my head around doing both at once. maybe the intent was to focus on the character that has the puck and leave the other standing still or spamming defense? (in NEO: TWEWY, the light puck mechanic was changed to beat drop combos, where using a different character to attack shortly after a finisher gives you some charge for a super. no attention splitting, just fun ARPG combat with an interesting combo system that can inform what pins you use.)

turning up the game's difficulty makes enemies stronger and mostly drops different pins. there aren't random encounters: you have to scan for enemies and mostly get to choose which encounters to take. you can choose to fight multiple in a row without getting health back between them and multiply your drop rate multiplier, with enemies getting stronger the more encounters you take. you get your health back when you return to the overworld, which cuts out a lot of the obligatory spending for healing items and the trouble of running out for the player. there are still some pins that can heal you during a battle, though.

leveling up, instead of arbitrarily increasing every stat, only increases your HP, but you can turn your level down to lower your HP and multiply the drop rate of pins by one for each level. other stats can be increased with clothes or food, with different foods permanently increasing different stats and have different calories. each character can only eat so much in a single real time day, which is wack but still interesting. the food system in NEO is similar except without the per-day limit, and I think it's a great idea that gives the player agency in terms of what stats they want to increase and whether they want larger or smaller boosts.

pins can evolve when leveled up enough, but may only evolve if you give them the right kind of pin points, which is like experience for pins. there's PP from battles, from the game's proto-StreetPass mingle mode (that you could only get randomly roughly every hour, from other folks in TWEWY's mingle mode, or from other DSes running any wireless software; thankfully this is removed from the remakes but it's a neat idea), and from turning off the game for up to seven real time days. if a pin reaches max level with the wrong kind of PP, you have to go get another one to evolve it, but I don't think there are any super rare pins that evolve. the game doesn't show what kind of PP you need to evolve a pin, so while it's a cool idea, there's a fair chance that you'll miss lots of evolutions and not even notice.

there are lots of rare pins that can be worn as a set to do something ridiculously powerful, but you have to go out of your way to get them, like the Darklit Planets. it's a set of seven pins that are useful alone, but if worn all together they become three times more powerful. they all drop rarely from bosses on the highest difficulty. I love wacky, mystical, obscenely powerful postgame stuff like this but can't be bothered to actually go and get it. some games give you their best weapons last, which is always a shame because there's nothing to use it on, but in TWEWY, there's a boss rush that saves your best time and lots of bosses to re-fight for their rare pins, so you'll have a reason to fight bosses until you've got every one of those rare pins.

speaking of postgame, TWEWY's is rather extensive, with a bonus day focused on the Tin Pin Slammer minigame and goofy non-canon alternate personalities plus four sort of tedious missions for every ingame day that unlock secret reports for much more lore about the Reapers' Game. (one of the missions for every day is "find and destroy the pig Noise," which mostly have puzzle-ish fights; one is killed by closing the DS and opening it again, which is the sleep mode puzzle I mentioned.) if you get them all, it unlocks a special scene in the ending, but again, I can't be bothered to do that kind of postgame. not all of it, anyway, the bonus day's missions are too tedious for me.

in Tin Pin Slammer, the minigame with almost no bearing on the main game, you use your pins to play kinda-sorta Beyblade. every pin has different stats, many of which are hidden, and different amounts of the different weapons to stun your opponents' pins with. it's a rather extensive side mode and a totally unnecessary inclusion, but really fun anyway, and can be played wirelessly with others. there are some other mechanics that are also interesting but not quite worth adding any more words to this ridiculously long post, including a brand trends system and an interesting way to limit running from fights.

even with all of these words and some pictures, I seriously can't offer a glimpse of the vibes, the combat, the music, the story, the characters, the entire energy of The World Ends with You in a blog post, and in my opinion, it's not the same without the crispy DS sprites or peculiar dual screen combat. if you like the DS, 2000s energy, or action RPGs, this is an essential addition to your library if you don't want to track down a DS copy or you prefer more elegant combat, try one of the remakes instead. you're this far into the blog post, so I'm sure you won't be disappointed. (NEO: TWEWY is very good too and has a free demo on PS4 and Switch; while not the same, it's still worth trying. it carries a modernized audiovisual energy of its predecessor, more elegant combat improvements to other TWEWY systems.)

#twewy #the world ends with you #ds #nintendo ds #nds #retro gaming #my writing

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krakenator · 3 years

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You: reblogs that post

Me, immediately: GO CRAZY. GO STUPID.

YEETS YOU AAAAAALLL OF THESE:

For Abby: 4, 20, 31, 33, 37 & 59?

For Ro-ro: 14, 20, 25, 31, 37, 39, 51, 55 & 68?

For Heehoo Accidental Magic Dad: 2, 11, 14, 17, 21, 28, 29, 37, 47, 51 & 66

Another long one that’s partially going under a cut!

before they met their party, what was their main goal?

Craigory was having a GRAND old time following his curiosity on various spells and alchemy alone in the woods. No superiors to tell him “no that’s a bad idea” or “no don’t do that”.

if they could learn one spell that isn’t available to them at present, which spell would it be?

Abbigull would LOVE to learn Heroes Feast. Feeding her family, friends, and guests? INSTANT PARTY?! All the buffs and benefits that result? God she’d love that

what skills are they proficient in? why?

Craigory’s got Arcana and Investigation. He’s a wizard, what can I say

what is something they love about themself?

Bilgerat: it’s taken a long time for Bilgerat to like anything about himself. Any confidence/ease he projects is mostly performed. But… he likes his singing voice. He likes messing with his design to make people laugh/freak realkind out. He’s got a long way to go on LIKING himself maybe, but he’s arrived at a slightly spiteful self respect, and that’s step one.

Craigory: …vain, he’s vain, oh my god. I was struggling here, thank you for helping me fully realize this about him. Who needs a functional charisma stat and ability to talk good when he’s got a face like THIS?

what do they dream about, when their dreams are their own?

Craigory: empty homes. He searches for anyone at all- thinks he maybe hears a front door closing but he can’t find it, much less find whoever closed it. He seems to be going in circles- or maybe he’s been forgetting where he’s already been.

which of the five senses do they rely the most on?

Abbigull: well she’s got a bum eye, her hearing ain’t what it used to be, so sense of touch is the winner. Just standing on the Squabble, she can feel how it’s moving underneath her

Bilgerat: sense of smell, without a doubt. His hearings also sharp- those swiveling ears. But the nose is where it’s at.

do they follow their head, their heart, or their body?

Head. Craigory follows logic, to the point he overthinks and paralyzes himself in a panic. Many thoughts, head full. In those times he’s gotta fall back on the body- gut instinct.

what stories do they like to tell? what stories do they like to hear?

Bilgerat is that really animated campfire storyteller who’s doing the motions and voices and is absolutely trying to scare you with a ghost story. He likes stories he hasn’t heard yet- far away places, new information.

who would they kill? who would they kill for?

Craigory’ll kill anyone stupid enough to mess seriously with his family. It’d have to be a lot, but- yeah. There’s a tipping point.

who would they save? who would they be saved by?

anyone who he knows would save him in turn. Craigory’s loyalty is reciprocal and dedicated

they’re given a blank piece of paper–what do they do with it?

Abbigull: entertains the kids by making elaborate origami structures

Bilgerat: Starts shredding it into bits without realizing

what makes them cry?

Finding out that someone was in trouble and she could have helped if she’d KNOWN. Frosty, you KNOW Abby’s gonna be crying. Hell, she learns anything about Bilgerat she’ll be crying too. She’s more the type to GET MAD in the moment and go after the culprit with all the wrath of hells fury, but after the fact? Calming down some? Tears.

what is their favorite thing to hold?

ALL OF EM would love to hold your hand! Sorta. Abbigull, absolutely. Craigory, he won’t initiate, but if YOU reach out to hold his hand? Oh, 100%, he’ll hold that hand for days. Bilgerat, it’s gotta be someone he knows and likes. No touchy from strangers or acquaintances. He might even reach out first!

are their hands calloused, soft, or something else entirely?

Bilgerat: calloused! Them’s working hands. They’ve also got BEANS. Little rough bean pads.

when they meet someone, what is the first thing they notice?

Craigory: Height, especially not having really SEEN anyone for a solid 2 years there. He’s tall compared to the Toon average- he minds that if you’re smaller than him, but he definitely notices if you’re taller. It’s just more unusual.

what is the most beautiful thing in the world, for them?

Craigory: A library full of books he’s never read. The sounds of loved ones coming home.

whose hand do they reach out for?

Bilgerat: Bisig. Messo & Gray are great but they’re kids.

what is a quiet passion of theirs?

…I don’t think you can call STORM CHASING a quiet passion. I truly don’t think Abby’s even done anything “quietly” in her life. But, Abbigull loves a good storm. Erasure for her so often manifests itself as passive and gradual slow- fog, water lapping, tides changing a landscape over centuries- it’s fun to also dive into the sudden, violent variation. Nevermind that she lost her foot in storms exactly like this- Abbigull’s not one to shy away from what’s hurt her before. You gotta get back on the horse, as they say!

who makes them feel warm?

Craigory: Being cared about and for, paid attention to.

what was the best moment of their life?

Bilgerat: The night he broke into the captains quarters, took the pay he was not being given and a little extra for good luck, wriggled out the porthole, and swam away. Hit shore for the first time and left SS. Barker behind, finding new ships and better people

#admiral abbigull #bilgerat #craigory danthew #toonkind #dozydin-keyfree

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yukipri · 5 years

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I'm a little curious about Yasha and Victor relationship, since Yasha has mother complex, also has a hard time opening up with other dads (including Victor) and did they have some sort of rivalry going on between him and his biological dad?

Yasha’s overall a lot more dependent on his mum which means a lot less on his dads compared to the other kids, but he gives Victor an especially rough time. Not necessarily because Victor’s treating him any differently from his siblings or because he’s doing something wrong as a father, but because of how the public ALWAYS compares Yasha to his biological dad, and Yasha HATES IT.

A lot of it’s sorta inevitable and predictable. Victor, at least at the beginning, is the most high profile of Yuuri’s husbands, especially in the skating world. While Yuuri and Yurio’s achievements are comparable (or arguably greater), they’re both also his students, which adds to the Legend. And as the eldest in the household, he’s often seen as the “head of the household,” even when no such hierarchy actually exists.

And Yasha, well he’s the eldest son, and given how much he looks like Victor on top of that, everyone’s calling him the Victor 2.0.

Yasha prides himself on being unique and original and Himself. He’ll do whatever he wants because he wants to (like dressing in feminine clothing), and he likes choosing his own path. He’s skating because he loves it and wants to, and gets that being compared to his parents is sorta inevitable, but it’s GRATING how much worse he has it than all his siblings.

If being compared wasn’t bad enough, people ALWAYS compare him ONLY to Victor, which pisses Yasha off not because he dislikes his father, but because it’s an erasure of his mother. Yes, Yasha’s an amazing skater and part of that has to do with his heritage, but people always only credit his dad, when an equal amount comes from his beloved mother. So not only is it personally insulting to be only seen as a Victor clone, but Yasha feels that people are unintentionally insulting his MOM, which is infinitely worse.

To make things worse, even though his twin brother Shura looks arguably as much like Yurio as Yasha does Victor, Shura gets compared to Yuuri a lot more (the fact that it’s mostly the negatives like Shura’s awful competition anxiety and emotional fragility goes straight over Yasha’s head). They’re pretty evenly matched in everything else, why not THIS? (This of course leads to Yasha taking it out on Shura through more bullying...)

But “the public” isn’t really an enemy he can attack, and sure he and his parents try in their own ways to find solutions. But at the end of the day, when Yasha has to walk out of another interview after being called “Nikiforov” five times with the interviewer completely ignoring the first half of his last name, being complimented on perfecting his “father’s quad flip” as though it wasn’t also his mother’s...well, the only person he has to take it out on is Victor ^ ^;

Rivalry isn’t quite the right word, but Yasha’s trying to overcome a lot of things, and Victor’s reputation is one of them. And the only way he really knows how to do that is to work harder and to outshine his dad in every way possible, but that only adds to the comparisons, and the cycle goes on...

Victor, for his part, was at first confused and hurt because he didn’t see why he wasn’t able to form a bond with his biological son like he could with all of his other children, and all the dads with everyone including Yasha. He figures it out eventually, and Yasha mellows out a lot as he gets older. But his pre-teen/teen years were ROUGH ^ ^;

This post has been added to the YOI Future!Verse ABO AU Useful Asks Compilation post ^v^)b

#missanimesworld #YukiPri replies #Future!Verse ABO AU #OCs #Yasha Katsuki-Nikiforov #headcanons

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dawnofspeed · 7 years

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ok this is gonna be a sort of mini rant/feels thing so just bear with me.

so i went through the tornado twins tag, and there’s a lot of great things in there. wayyyy more than there used to be bc the show has gained traction, and westallen is all the rage and then barry mentioned the ‘we need more diapers’ line in new season, which added to previous foreshadowing everyone believes THE TWINS ARE COMING or a baby is at any rate. and while that’s great, and i love the excitement, heck i’m excited and i love that it renews interest in dawn and don, there’s something that’s troubling me. i’m worried guys, and here’s why.

dawn and don have always kind of been a footnote in the comics, besides from providing the odd storyline for wally west angst and for giving the grandkids from the future, bart and jenni, the twins kinda sorta basically didn’t exist. but there’s still a discrepency between who kinda sorta got more erasure than the other- dawn.

dawn in the comics had the first interracial relationship and she had a daughter. compared to don who appeared way more ‘traditional’ and had a son. in fact, his relationship was way more fleshed out and he got way more references than dawn ever did, possibly also because bart got way more attention than jenni. not to mention, his love interest, meloni thawne appeared quite a few times after don’s death (and retconned deaths). don’t get me wrong, i love meloni and i love bart but doesn’t it come off, well... BAD that the women characters and the mixed race fam had significantly less development and ‘screen time’ than the straight laced boys club?

which brings me back to the dc and cw problems at hand. i’ve been kinda vocal for a while now about a few shows- dc’s animated stuff has come up a lot. i’m a massive fan of both young justice and their superhero girls programs. in fact, yj was one of the first things that moved me over to dc. before that i was pretty marvel based. and bart’s appearance on the show is awesome. but... it does piss me off too. because bart had already had a tv show appearance- smallville. and the cartoon already had a male speedster boy- kid flash. jenni had just as much right to be there, and ties to barry. and i get from a commercial standpoint- bart has a huge fanbase and the show was trying to appeal more and more to boys. but it would have meant so much to have a biracial speedster girl on that show. then you go to superhero girls... THE NAME OF THE SHOW is superhero GIRLS. the only speedster making an appearance? barry. an older guy. dawn would have been easy to introduce in this alternate universe where harley quinn and poison ivy hang out with batgirl and supergirl. barry’s speedster daughter who is learning to use her powers and wants guidance from older more experienced girl role models? like?

so now we go back to cw. and we have fans calling on the show to introduce bart. skip the twins altogether. some people calling for the twins to be replaced with a son called bart. other people suggesting that there will still be twins, but called bart and nora but nora will stay to help iris deal with some problem in the future and bart will go back in time and get stuck.

don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with speculation and a lot of people are very articulate. i mean there are some who have whitewashed bart and don in castings (not kidding, someone suggested a white guy for don but a biracial girl for dawn, that was weird.) but here’s why some of this bothers me and why i’m imploring people to think about what they’re posting about the twins and how we want the cw, and the show’s creative team, to look at what we say about this. as someone who just got their degree in film, and had to FIGHT HARD even in SMALL productions to get people of color and their stories made we have a huge thing in iris west, and the west family, being black now. and a biracial family at the centre of a superhero show. not only that, women of color at the centre of a superhero show. but if we go the way of the comics and past adaptations, as much as we loved them, those women will be cast aside. disappear. get no screen time or mention. and we might also get some heavy whitewashing.

so please, PLEASE, do not advocate for bart to be the next key core member. as much as you love him. or, if you do, implore for jenni to be there too. cousins in hand, front and centre. girl speedster RIGHT THERE IN YOUR FACE. implore for dawn and don to be equally present in their parents lives. ask for dawn to be in on that adventure as much as her brother (or nora, or whatever you want their daughter to be called). i worked at a kids care centre for three years and girls were always being teased for their superhero interests, until superhero girls came out, and supergirl and wonder woman. we want our girls of color to believe they can be that special speedster kid as much as any boy. especially when the flash is finally getting to a good place of including women in their show, even if they still use a slur for one of them.

#long post for ts #long post #tornado twins #dawn allen #don allen #... i'm probably gonna get backlash for this but it's important you guys #as much as you love some characters there needs to be changes #there needs to be more inclusion #women matter. girls matter. people of color matter. BOTH IN ONE PERSON IS HARD.

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avannak · 7 years

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Sandbusted

Let’s start off with my first LOL Moment: Hiccup’s fucking leg just *pops* off and Hookfang belatedly digs in the sand.

Ooooh my god, the leg. The fucking leg. Freaking... Snotlout and Hiccup interacting, once again, is the best Hiccup-involved anything this show has to offer.

Snotlout’s probably one of the best things this show’s done right

And his relationship with Hiccup is one of the best so far

I also greatly enjoyed the Fishtrid bromance. I always love other friendships. That’s one such boon of the TV show.

Leave it to Hiccup to make Astrid feel “useless”. So, this is what I like about the ‘show’s’ version (you know, the one that ignores canon). They do get some things right, and one such thing is Astrid getting to point out that Hiccup has everything. He got it all at the end of the first movie (working out the kinks after getting it all, is what I would have liked to have seen in a bridge).

Here’s the thing: I wouldn’t have reflexatory cringing if the show didn’t TRY to claim the TV series as following “canon”. Because it’s not. They did their own thing--at first just fumbling along, sorta mistargeting their audience, and then later attempting a patch-job between movies, and that’s great... if only they had nutted up and admitted as much instead of trying to lay claim to something anyone over the age of 8 could question. In that case, the fandom would have been spared a lot of strife, and the show itself probably quite a few less naysayers.

I mean, it was downright offensive to many fans. And I’m only laying this down to preface why I find all the “oooo Hiccstrid uwu” lackluster. It’s not my Hiccstrid, with all its flaws and subtle depth.

The TV show itself has just hollowed out their version of Hiccstrid. The character interactions are shallow, and funny, and the writers seem to be having a lot of fun with it (there are some clever angles to that camera ;)). That’s great! However, theres no deep, rich storytelling here, particularly between Hiccup and Astrid. Even the movies, which had flubbed the couple’s get-together, had more nuanced substance in their relationship.

So, yeah, we’ll assume all the interactions in between S4 and S5 have led to a betrothal. Hiccup and Astrid are “just friends” with an inexplicable attraction to each other when, at 17/18 (?) they’ve decided the hormones were too much so they’ve gotten together and... in a couple week’s time of suffering a volcano they’ve made arrangement for marriage. Maybe that’s how its done on Berk? We don’t know. And apparently they’re going to stay ‘betrothed’ for the next couple years... pfff

I don’t mind the pair’s interactions at all. They’re cute. But the fact remains that Hiccup, in his “proposal” whatsit, dropped the phrase “you’ve always been a part of our family”. That’s canon erasure right there. And right after some cuteness of pointing out how much Stoick adores Astrid (and Stoick would totally help/hand-anything-down for getting Astrid into his family). Like, I said, it’s that dark cloud hanging over it of the show trying to claim any of this as “canon”. That one offense seems to be constantly shadowing anything remotely cute or canon-like, reminding me to compare it to canon. It will always fall short. They did this to themselves :/

On another note... I’m loving the increase of violence. But also, TF.

#RTTE s5 #rtte review #rtte spoilers #hiccstrid talk #rtte hiccstrid

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radroller · 5 years

Note

You know while I get the idea New 52 can be seen as an elongated Heroes Reborn....let's be honest we got a lot better stuff out of New 52 than Heroes Reborn. New 52 gave us stuff like Geoff Johns & Jeff Parker's Aquaman, Demon Knights, Swamp Thing, Tomasi's Batman & Robin, Equinox (who sadly got ignored as time went on), JLD, Midnighter, & The erasure of Identity Crisis. Heroes Reborn just gave us Rikki Barnes & even that's debatable.

Oh no i wasnt comparing them in terms of quality, tons of great things and characters have come from New 52, im just glad all the continuity bits it sorta steamrolled are now being....unsteamrolled?

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theworstbob · 7 years

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yellin’ at songs: 1997, part three

freedom. horrible, horrible freedom. in this post i get distracted a whole lot, so hey, look forward to that!

5.17.1997

36) "It's Your Love," by Tim McGraw & Faith Hill

a fun game to play with pop music sometimes is "what song does this chorus sound like." this is rachel platten's "fight song," like maybe i'm going crazy but "fight song" sorta jacked its chorus from this wack-ass country ballad.

47) "It's No Good," by Depeche Mode

It's a new session. It's a glorious Sunday morning, I have coffee, already listened to a couple dope albums, made some lists, got the Wimbledon final in the background, am feeling generally good about my life. I could have had a sub-2:30 in an LttP rando if I hadn't forgotten to check Dark Kakariko. (I’m a special boy.) So maybe that's why I'm way more into this Depeche Mode song than I was the last one I listened to, but this also sounds closer to the Depeche Mode I'm interested in, less of the shitty Prodigy influence, more of the exceedingly dark '80s post-punk sound. This one goes so much harder and is so much deeper than the other, and I believe this to be an honest thought, because if I were truly in a positive place I wouldn't be responding so well to a Depeche Mode song.

61) "5 Miles to Empty," by Brownstone

You know how R. Kelly's "Ignition" is basically a song in which R. Kelly says he's gonna fuck a car? (Not to be confused with "Ignition (Remix)," which is not a remix of "Ignition" but a song about what will go down when the remix to "Ignition" is released.) I have found the song to which "Ignition" is a response. After years of searching, this pop music archaeologist has finally uncovered the song R. Kelly was thinking about when he decided to compare a woman to a car. And maybe that's not true, maybe R. Kelly made "Ignition" because he was born to make it, but the only way I could make this song interesting is if I gave it a place in music history as the headwaters of the "Igniton (Remix)" river. (I wrote this before the new allegations came out but am leaving it in because I also wrote it while being aware of the old allegations.)

64) "If I Could Change," by Master P ft./Steady Mobb'n, Mia X, Mo B. Dick, & O'Dell

One thing I haven't mentioned on this guided tour of 1997: so many songs are from the soundtracks of movies! Obviously, 2007 will soon house High School Musical 2, and 2017 had "Beauty & the Beast," but it seems like every week, the credits theme for some movie makes it to the chart. Movie soundtracks are a lost art. I don't know why we think Avangers movies are better served with a dramatic orchestral score than some dunderheadedly thunking nu-metal single. Am I ever going to see I'm 'Bout It? Of course not. Why would I? But I can tell you something about this film by listening to this song from its soundtrack. If you played me selections from the Avangers and Suicide Squad soundtracks, I wouldn't be able to tell you which came from which, and that's with me having heard at least one song from the Suicide Squad soundtrack.

96) "It Must Be Love," by Robin S.

This song almost doesn't exist. Neither the song nor Robin S has a Wikipedia page of its own, it doesn't seem to belong to any soundtrack for any film, and the only relevant result on YouTube is a Robin S. - Topic page with fewer than 2,000 views and one comment that just says "Best." That's a damn shame. This is a really solid track, a really fun disco throwback with a powerful vocal performance, and it deserves better treatment from the history books. Truly, this is the forgotten classic, this is why this project exists, to highlight a song no one remembers and say, "We should've done better." Truly, this is the "Run Up" of its day.

97) "Sometimes," by The Brand New Heavies

sometimes, 1997 will give me some actual funk, and that is truly appreciated. This is a somewhat cerebral funk song that found a home on this chart, maybe only for a couple of weeks and only in the back half, but it still made the chart. You can hear the craft that went into composing this track, just the way it keeps building and building until it reaches this really cool climax just before it starts fading out. There's love in this track. You miss that level of craftsmanship in the music in 2017, and even in 2007 to a certain extent, but more in 2017. I don't think I've ever thought about Calvin Harris sitting down to write one of his songs, I just think about him making some noises and saying, "Yeah, sure, whatever, this is good enough to release." His songs don't sound written as much as they sound packaged, and the lack of effort in the writing process is maybe not readily apparent but certainly felt when you listen to his music. Which isn't to say no one in 2017 is thinking about their music, hey remember that one week we all agreed Kendrick was amazing that was a good week, but no one is putting the same energy into writing their music as these cats did.

5.24.1997

5) "Say You'll Be There," by Spice Girls

1997 is coming off a really solid week, so it's understandable why it would want to take a play off. Spice Girls: still bad in a very real and incredibly unfun way! I just remembered Spice Girls are British. Europe, you ruined everything good.

55) "In My Arms," by Erasure

Y'know what, I'm here for this. I'm glad these dorky dudes from Britain are making their synthpop music, and honestly, anything that had even a small role in bringing Future Islands' "Seasons (Waiting on You)" into this world can't be pure evil, and this sounds like something that was influenced by something much cooler that also influenced Future Islands. This isn't a great song, I'm not going to run to Facebook to tell everyone how great this band is, but hey, if every song were the best song ever, this project would have no meaning. I am here to experience 1997 in its totality, and between the dizzying highs and plunging lows, there is an interminable middle to be traveled. I began this paragraph saying I liked this song and for the life of me I don't know what changed in my heart between then and now.

64) "The World Tonight," by Paul McCartney

I know I talked about this when Paul McCartney popped up on a 2007 chart, but it has to be absolutely amazing to know you could spend seven minutes writing a song and thirty minutes recording it and then make $50,000. There's more effort in this song than there was in "Fun Dance Yes!" or whatever that thing was, and I have spent so long thinking about the "I'm going back so far I'm in front of me" line that there is some catharsis in finally knowing what song it came from, but I would have rather listened to most anything else. Like, say what you will about "My Baby Daddy," at least people sounded like they were trying when they made that song.

94) "If U Stay Ready," by Suga Free ft./Playa Hamm

I wanna know who played guitar on this track because this guitar part does work. I'm also way into this dude's flow, like maybe I'm just overly impressed by someone who can rap fast (I'm so stoked for the Twista song 1997 is gonna give to me), but this dude and that guitarist made this song way more interesting than a song like this typically is. You can kinda hear how dull this song might've been when Playa Hamm and his more conventional voice pops up and wastes everyone's time. Really impressive.

5.31.1997

36) "Do You Know (What It Takes)," by Robyn

Did you guys know "Dancing on My Own" didn't chart in the US? There might be a whole swath of our (I assume this isn't finding much love in Germany or whatever) population that only knows Robyn as the sweetheart singing the line "Do you know what it takes to do me right?" and not as the ABSOLUTE TITAN who crafted maybe the best pop song of the last eternity? This is the same swath of the population that probably only knows "Dancing on My Own" through that trashdick cover Kings of Leon did. Like, it's kind of weird to think about the scads of pop music children the '90s produced and wonder if anyone at the time knew that Robyn would be the one to make an era-defining smash.

48) "The Perfect Drug," by Nine Inch Nails

On the topic of Fire Walk with Me, the cinematic follow-up to David Lynch's television masterpiece and failure Twin Peaks, Quentin Tarantino said he felt "David Lynch had disappeared so far up his own ass that I have no desire to see another David Lynch movie until I hear something different." This is germane to the song, as it was made for the soundtrack of a David Lynch movie, and it feels like the sort of song a David Lynch fanboy would make if they knew David Lynch made fucked-up things but didn't have any idea what made David Lynch such a compelling director, were just being fucked-up for the sake of being fucked-up.

78) "The New Pollution," by Beck

Man, if you were a white teenager who thought they were smarter than they actually were, this was a killer week for you. But #actually this song is good because Beck can play a lot of instruments, and if you don't make all your music all by yourself it is artistically worthless. The Notorious B.I.G. didn't even write the music for his song, therefore his work has no artistic merit and Beck is the only true artist that has ever performed. What a joy it is to live in a world with Beck in it! (We should all be salty any entity which claims to be a governing body for music thought any Beck album was better than any Beyonce album.)

6.7.1997

34) "Alone," by Bee Gees

oh good, i was hoping to catch the bee gees during the country downswing of their career. this is so pleasant, this is everything i wanted, no no no, this is amazing. gosh, if there's one thing i love, it's when well-known musicians realize they probably can't hit on the pop charts anymore and dip into that sweet sweet country honeypot.

56) "Go the Distance," by Michael Bolton

I could have guessed that Disney's Hercules would have inspired such ardor. Disney's Hercules has one of the all-time Disney soundtracks. This song is not what makes the soundtrack great! This song sounds completely out of place with the rest of the gospel-influenced selections on the soundtrack. Like, you have the muses doing these legit amazing things, and then Michael Bolton shows up and Michael Boltons it up in the most Michael Bolton fashion, and even outside the context of the Disney's Hercules soundtrack, Michael Bolton doing Michael Bolton things isn't something people should be into.

74) "One More Day," by New Edition

Going on a first date with a '90s R&B singer is probably the most exhausting experience. You just wanna get to know this person and have a nice time at dinner, and this dude's pledging his eternal love for you and swearing to God he will defend you from those who'd do you wrong and telling you that he will give you an unending pleasure you can never get from any other man. Like, dude, just chill for a second and tell a story from your awkward teen years, like drop down to my level. This relationship needs to advance past the unending breadsticks phase before we get to the unending love phase.

84) "Who You Wit," by Jay-Z

"I'ma stay with it, rock the custom drop Bentleys/Never eat at Denny's and party like Lil' Penny." That's amazing. Just burn Denny's to the ground for absolutely no reason. Guys, this Jay-Z fella, I don't know if we hear more from him in the future, but I hope we do.

85) "When I Die," by No Mercy

So this is just '90s R&B, I don't know what you want me to say but will say it if needed. Let's see what the YouTube comments have to say. Top comment: God where did the 90's go ? Please bring them back ! Reply: The same could be said when standing for judgement before our creator...where did our past life go? Hey. Hey, fella? Fella. Calm down. I know this dude has been claiming he'll love his woman 'til she dies (I mean, I wasn't paying close attention because ho could I, but this is a safe assumption), but no one is here to talk about death. "I miss the music of our youth!" "Fun fact! Youth is fleeting and we are on an inexorable march to death. You may still have time to get right with your god. I suggest you get on that." Just have some spaghetti, fella. Chill.

6.14.1997

1) "I'll Be Missing You," by Puff Daddy ft./Faith Evans & 112

This was written from a place of the deepest grief, the likes of which I will one day know but still hope I can worm my way out of ever knowing, and it is heartfelt and pure and open. I'm okay with making fun of the other tributes, because they're written from less real places, but this, I think I'm gonna lay off this. Like, Diddy's a millionaire and doesn't need me to protect his feelings, but it's more about respecting another person's humanity than anything else. Anyhoo, back to deeply shallow snark.

29) "You Bring Me Up," by K-Ci & JoJo

OH DIP! It's a '90s R&B song with ATTITUDE! Been a hot minute. Still '90s R&B, still running out of things to say after nearly a week of contending with '90s R&B, but it's so refreshing to hear a "fuck you" after miles of "EVERY BEAT OF MY HEART IS IN TRIBUTE TO YOU." This is the first "fuck you" since "Return of the Mack," and while this isn't the same statement of purpose "Return of the Mack" is, 1) what else is?, and 2) a "fuck you" is always refreshing.

48) "We Trying to Stay Alive," by Wyclef Jean ft./Refugee Allstars

The first half, which is just dudes rapping over "Stayin' Alive," is really cool, if only because I'm a simpleton who didn't realize what a fantastic beat "Stayin' Alive" would be for a rap song. Like, of course people rapping over "Stayin' Alive" would be listenable, how did I not realize this? And then there's a second half, which sure exists, and I'm sure it exists for a reason, but I'll never forget what a treat the first two minutes were.

61) "Gimme Some Love," by Gina G

62) "Butterfly Kisses," by Raybon Bros.

Lest we ever think country music was ever immune to pandering, this song shouts out Jesus before the first chorus. I'm also having trouble believing this song coming from Raybon Bros. Like, this is clearly about one of their daughters. Why do we need Uncle there? "Jeff, it really was sweet how your daughter would butterfly kiss you." Like you wouldn't write a song about your niece, why would you sing on your brother's tribute to his daughter. Imagine the main Raybon playing this song for his daughter, and it's a tender emotional moment and then Bill belches "I helped. That's me on guitar."

84) "Come with Me," by Keith Sweat ft./Ronald Isley

The intro for this song gives me a great idea: there should be a bass trapper. Like, none of these trap dudes have particularly deep voices. Some of them have pleasant growls, but none of them sound like the intro to this song. Like, give us one bass singer, man. I'm still angry at that one dude who called himself Marc E. Bassy, we need an actual bass singer. Even country is piled high with nasal tenors, they don't have any friends for Josh Turner. Give me bass. Give me someone with a voice that can shake the earth. The bass singer isn't on this song after the intro, but that doesn't mean this song made the right call.

87) "Da' Dip," by MC Luscious ft./Kinsui

This is a remake of the Freak Nasty song "Da' Dip." Does the name Freak Nasty feel weirdly familiar to you? It felt weirdly familiar to me, too! Do you remember, in 2007 Week 19, the song "Do it Just Like a Rock Star," which surged onto the chart due to an indexing error? That is the very same Freak Nasty! Evidently Freak Nasty is tangential to music history in years that end with 7, so I am looking forward to his upcoming feature on a DJ Khaled track. Freak Nasty is the most important irrelevant rapper alive, and YAS is evidently devoted to promoting his life and work.

90) "Felton St.," by Leschea

This song is legit. There's a certain energy about this song I can't quite place, it just feels, what am I looking for, unresolved? Let's try to figure this out. It's like, this song is about meeting this dude from your block and getting him to fall for you and starting that life together, but the song doesn't feel particularly jubilant, does it? It feels on edge, like there's something amiss. And there's that one line, "Fantasy's reality/Much respect to you baby," and now it's no longer clear that he ever did meet her, if he swung his Jeep her way and cell phone checked her at all. This could all be in her head, and she's ruing that this dude doesn't notice her. The first verse in this song is about how she bumped into him and he didn't think to stop moving, which, apart from being inconsiderate, doesn't set up a happy ending. So this could all be a dream, which is why the song never feels stable, why her voice sometimes does these cool dips at the end of lines, because none of this is real. This song is legit, man.

95) "Rhythm of Love," by DJ Company

I accept this. We struck gold with "Felton St," found that buried treasure, and then we got greedy and our most recent dig has unearthed a nest of angry bees somehow. I don't know how bees would burrow underground, but I also don't understand how this awful nonsense made its way Stateside. Life is full of mysteries we just have to accept. I do like that the last couple of dance songs sound like something a human being would dance to, though. We're getting closer to acceptable.

6.21.1997

4) "Look Into My Eyes," by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

"What makes a nigga think he can bite my shit and call his shit original?/What's worse, tellin' people you made the style we put down three fuckin' years ago!" This was a selection off the official soundtrack for Batman & Robin, and I really hope this is the lyric that made someone think, "Yes. This display of pettiness is the soundtrack the world imagined for Batman." Like, this is a song in which Bone Thugs is angry at people who bit their style, and it's fun to imagine people picking up the Batman album and trying to find the connection. Batman had a lot of things, but no imitators.

22) "Smile," by Scarface ft./2Pac & Johnny P

See, this doesn't feel sincere. This feels like Scarface using a 2Pac sample because he could and because mentioning 2Pac would get sales. Like, I'm sure he felt shitty when Pac died, but it is unclear why Scarface needed a 2Pac verse on his songs. The only 2Pac features on Scarface songs came after Pac died. I don't see the connection. This feels cynical.

47) "Smokin' Me Out," by Warren G ft./Ronald Isley

this is so much better than "i shot the sheriff" that "i shot the sheriff" is even more embarrassing now. This song is kind of perfect. (Only the second time I've used that phrase so far!) It's light, it's groovy, it's laid-back, it's kind of the apotheosis of pop/rap as a thing that exists. This is the most I've enjoyed an Isley all year (weirdly ubiquitous, the Isleys! I thought they were '60s things! Apparently I'm an idiot!), and the song's not even over-the-top gross, despite being about the girl who is best at smoking pot in all the land! This is cool.

89) "How Do I Live," by LeAnn Rimes 91) "How Do I Live," by Trisha Yearwood

THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING. We never get to do this. We never put two divas or bravos(? there should be a boy term for divas) into a ring with the same song and let the market decide who survives. Like, we let Ryan Tedder write the same song over and over again, and I guess that suffices, but we don't let Ryan Tedder say, "This song is a hit. This song will be a classic, and it will be attributed to either one of you. Who wants it more?" As far as the head-to-head, I think LeAnn Rimes is the clear winner, not just in sales but in quality of song. This song needs an great singer to sell it, to keep up with the song in the climax, and Trisha Yearwood is barely hanging on in the verses. But man, to have been able to have seen this battle played out in real time. Country music Twitter would have been... Created, I guess, country music Twitter doesn't seem like the most active place in the world. Trisha Yearwood's also has a completely unnecessary saxophone solo. Like, gurl, don't hide behind the sax. If I'm saying a song doesn't need a sax solo, you know it's a bad sax solo.

92) "Get Your Groove On," by Gyrl

I sure will, Gyrl! /turns off this song /turns "smokin' me out" back on Thanks for the suggestion! Nothing against your song, it's acceptable, but like "Smokin' Me Out."

6.28.1997

24) "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)," by Backstreet Boys

So evidently "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" is something I completely missed while archiving the list of 1997 hits, despite the fact it hit #2. But another thing to consider: there were serious flaws with how the Hot 100 was calculated in 1997. It underwent a massive overhaul in 1998, and that'll be fun to deal with when we get there, but I guess it wasn't factoring in radio play at the time, because "As Long as You Love Me," a song every single one of us knows by heart, doesn't make the chart. But basically, this entry serves to remind of two things: 1) The chart if flawed and does not represent an entirely accurate snapshot of music history 2) I am flawed and probably missed a song or two. So instead of thinking about this song, which let's be real is sort of shitty and boring, let's talk about two songs we're aware we missed.

Oops!) "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)," by Backstreet Boys

As far as songs about reintroducing an entity which most people weren't aware existed before this point, this song pales in comparison to "Return of the Mack." This does not make it any less iconic, I only wish to remind you how iconic "Return of the Mack" is. Like, this is the best kind of garbage, just loud and obnoxious and catchy as fuck. There's a reason this ridiculous song has endured in the culture for so long. Also Panic! At the Disco completely ganked this video for "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies." Fewer monsters, but plenty of dudes in top hats in bad make-up.

Oh also!) "Semi-Charmed Life," by Third Eye Blind

There's a cover of this song some indie band or another did for AV Club a few years back that haunts me to this day, simply because I was never that attached to the original and was never confronted with the lyrics, I was always distracted by the dude's bad rapping and worse falsetto. This song is beautiful, though. Even the original is tinged with this certain sadness, buried in '90s alt-rock trappings as it is. I am thankful to the indie band at the AV Club for unlocking the full potential, but I also appreciate the silly things the original could do. Frontier Ruckus. That was the band. Guys, y'all did a cool thing with this song.

67) "Hip Hop Drunkies," by The Alkaholiks ft./Ol' Dirty Bastard

You know how, in the '50s, pop music was still at the point where people could drop songs about hula hoops and have a pretty big hit from singing their song about hula hoops? Hip-hop was still in that stage in the '90s, where you could have a silly song and a name to match that song and people would be into your dumb novelty single. If The Alkaholiks had any career beyond this song, it's a miracle. "I drink more brewsters than Punky." Even in 1997, that's dated!

79) "Listen," by Collective Soul

This is the song the youth pastor sings when he needs to convince the #teens that Jesus can rock. I don't have to write about Vertical Horizon's "Everything You Want" for a good while, so I'm comfortable firing this bullet in anticipation of the fact I can pick it up and rechamber it in a couple years and none of y'all will ever know. But like this has a surprisingly unique guitar line and lyrics that are a bright smile away from being Christian rock -- "you crucify your honesty!" A youth pastor could go to town on that line.

83) "Can't Let Go," by Laurnea

The producer of the song may or not be in the comments for this song. It is probably him, because who on earth would pretend to be the producer of this whelming '90s R&B song, and specifically who would pretend they were the producer of this song just to say "Laurea was a class act to work with with." But this does give me an idea: when I listen to the songs of 1998, I want to leave a comment under each that's a different story from a prom night that never happened. I'm inspired by the comments under TRONICBOX '80s remixes, and I can't wait to forget this stupid idea after I hit post on this hot YAS content.

7.5.1997

50) "C U When U Get There," by Coolio ft./40 Thevz

"The other homie shot the other homie and ran off with his 20/And when the other homies heard about it they thought that it was funny/But who's the dummy, 'cuz you just lost a hustler/A down-ass brother been replaced by a buster." I know you're trying to warn against the dangers of street life, Coolio, but this sounds more like you're lecturing low-level drug dealers on the importance of retention. "Attrition affects productivity, which affects the bottom line, not to mention the time sink you put into training that team member and now training their replacement!" What other efficient management solutions does Coolio have for us? This is a maudlin hip-hop song that would never badmouth synergy. Also "C U When U Get There" is passive-aggressive and helps no one. What a shitty thing to say to someone.

73) "Just Another Case," by CRU ft./Slick Rick

there's a lot of atmosphere in this song, how it tells a tragic story about good people caught in the wrong time. kinda sucks these guys only got one album together, these guys had a strong point of view and a handle on what they wanted to do, and it would've been awesome to see what could've happened if they had a chance to grow. just another case of a group getting scooped up and forgotten by a major label.

79) "Things Just Ain't the Same," by Deborah Cox

This song comes before a Whitney Houston song, and it is also the 12th-to-last song I have to listen to for this leg of the project. I will never know if this song is legitimately boring or if I'm looking ahead to the end zone, but I do know I'm probably not gonna listen to this song again to find out. Sorry it couldn't work out, Ms. Cox. I hope we meet again in 1998, when I'm better able to give you a shot!

81) "My Heart Is Calling," by Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston is a fantastic singer and she single-handedly keeps me a thousand times more interested in this song than I know I otherwise would be. I am sorry to keep calling Deborah Cox out like this. I am sure she is a phenomenal friend and a generous soul.

83) "Love II Love," by Damage

Anyone who uses Roman numerals when numbering anything but Super Bowls is not a person I can be friends with, and anyone who would use Roman numerals for this specific purpose has lost any trace of humanity and should be shackled in a heavily-guarded cage twenty miles below the ocean floor to enusre they can never hurt. I don't care how fresh this song is, these people are monsters.

86) "What's Stopping You," by The O'Jays

I would like to renounce my right to say anything even remotely critical about this song because The O'Jays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

94) "Summertime Summertime," by Corina

I'm eight songs away and life's too short to try to determine if this has any value. I am sorry for being derelict in my duties two songs in a row but this song is bad and I hated the part of it I listened to and I have a fake self-imposed deadline to meet. YEAH I KNOW THERE'S TWELVE TO LISTEN TO FOR THE POST AFTER THE POST, BUT THAT'S A HILL COMPARED TO THE WEEK I'VE SPENT ASCENDING MOUNT GARBAGE.

95) "Serenade," by Shades

Since this may be the last one of the project, just wanna shout GIRL GROUP HYPE!!!! for the last time before we resume regularly scheduled programming. There was a scad of girl groups, each more wonderful than the last, and we need to have a stern chat with 2017 about the things we can expect from it going forward. This song is delightful. I dig that "True" sample, and, yeah, I'm kind of over gentle voices sweetly whispering, but I'm also not really looking for vocal dynamos over the "True" sample, like this makes it work. Good work, y'all.

7.12.1997

8) "Sunny Came Home," by Shawn Colvin

This song already has the deck stacked against it, because we've listened to no insignificant amount of quality songs, and this is the one the Grammys decided was the best song released in 1997. Now, mind you, the Record of the Year field in 1997 was kind of not representative of the songs that made 1997 great. You had "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" and "Everyday Is a Winding Road," which are both inferior female singer-songwriter fare, "MMMBop," which is there for ratings, and a song by a monster. Of the five, it's the least objectionable winner. It's a fine song, expertly crafted and deeper than I've considered either of the times I've listened to it for a dumb marathonny project, but it's not "Hypnotize" or "Return of the Mack" or "Bill" or "Bitch." (Also, fun fact, it didn't even win Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Sarah McLachlian got robbed!) And like, you don't want to judge a song against your expectations for it, but this song is etched into stone as the best song of 1997, and great a song as it is on its own, it ain't that.

26) "All for You," by Sister Hazel

This is probably the finest of any of the alt-rock songs we've heard so far, simply because it's influenced by something more than grunge, there's this upbeat energy to it. It's bouncy, full of fun, not trying to be weighty and imbued with so much meaning and HEY YEAH YEAH YEAH, OH NO, it just wants to shout this girl out for being a neat person he wants to hang with. It's sweet! It's a nice song by nice boys who want the world to have a nice time.

33) "Not Tonight (Ladies' Night Remix)," by Lil' Kim ft./Da Brat, Left Eye, Angie Martinez & Missy Elliott

HELL YES. I'M NOT EVEN GONNA TRY TO ANALYZE WHAT MAKES THIS SONG PERFECT BECAUSE IT IS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. THIS IS SUCH A TREAT! I HAD NO IDEA DA BRAT WAS THIS GOOD LIKE JIMINY DA BRAT'S VERSE BUT ALSO EVERYONE ELSE'S VERSE BUT ALSO THAT TRACK BUT ALSO I AM SO PLEASED I HAVE LIVED TWENTY YEARS OF MY LIFE WITHOUT THIS SONG AND I HAVE REALIZED THAT IS THE SOURCE OF MY DEPRESSION, IT ISN'T SERATONIN IMBALANCE OR PASSED ON FROM GENERATIONS OF SAD PEOPLE, IT'S BECAUSE I NEVER LET MYSELF ACCEPT THIS NEVER LET MYSELF PUT THIS INTO MY LIFE MY STARS! MY STARS!!!!!!!!

57) "More Than This," by 10,000 Maniacs

What a comedown from "Not Tonight!" Imagine if this and "All for You" got flipped, where I would be thinking about this not knowing what "Not Tonight" had in store for me, and then "All for You" was the alt-rock song that got hecked by its spot in the project. Like, this is fine. It's just not an absolute jam, and that's what I'm in the mood for right now.

77) "Invisible Man," by 98 Degrees

1997 kind of knows "Not Tonight" is the true finale and is now clearing out the bar. OK, guys, hope you liked your dance partner during "Not Tonight," because we're gonna play this shitty song by the sixth-best boy band of the '90s, and you need to be outta here by the time it's done. I'm paying more attention to the video than to the song because one of the degrees is absolutely swole, like he's way more muscly than any boy band member should be. How come he isn't linebacking?

87) "Everything You Want," by Ray J

I appreciate that the timing of this project meant we got to come full circle. We began with '90s R&B slow jamz, we end with '90s R&B slow jamz. And while I'd like to say we pick back up on Wednesday with R&B slow jamz, hoo boy, we very don't! But anyway, this song. It's OK. It's, it's nothing. I'm not as tired of R&B as I am of trap, but it's nice to be free from this particular obligation.

THE TOP TWENTY 20) "Sometimes," by The Brand New Heavies (5.24) 19) "Don't Keep Wasting My Time," by Teddy Pendergrass (4.19) 18) "Feelin' It," by Jay-Z (5.3) 17) "Step by Step," by Whitney Houston (3.15) 16) "On and On," by Erykah Badu (1.25) 15) "I Want You," by Savage Garden (3.1) 14) "It Must Be Love," by Robin S. (5.24) 13) "Smokin' Me Out," by Warren G ft./Ronald Isley (6.21) 12) "Silent All These Years," by Tori Amos (3.22) 11) "What They Do," by The Roots (1.11) 10) "Step Into a World (Rapture's Delight)," by KRS-One (4.5) 9) "I'm Not Feeling You," by Yvette Michele (2.22) 8) "Bill," by Peggy Scott-Adams (3.29) 7) "Just Another Case," by CRU ft./Slick Rick (7.5) 6) "I'll Be," by Foxy Brown ft./Jay-Z (2.15) 5) "Felton St.," Leschea (6.14) 4) "Bitch," by Meredith Brooks (4.26) 3) "Return of the Mack," by Mark Morrison (3.1) 2) "Hypnotize," by The Notorious B.I.G. (4.26) 1) "Not Tonight (Ladies' Night Remix)," by Lil Kim ft./Angie Martinez, Left Eye, Da Brat & Missy Elliott

And you may be wondering: “Bob. When are you going to give us a list of which years won with week without including even one of the songs from any week or, really, any context at all?” HERE IS YOUR NONSENSE LIST OF NUMBERS Week One: 2007 Week Two: 2007 Week Three: 2007 Week Four: 2017 Week Five: 2017 Week Six: 2007 Week Seven: 2017 Week Eight: 1997 Week Nine: 2017 Week Ten: 1997 Week Eleven: 1997 Week Twelve: 1997 Week Thirteen: 1997 Week Fourteen: 2007 Week Fifteen: 2017 Week Sixteen: 2007 Week Seventeen: 2017 Week Eighteen: 2017 Week Nineteen: 1997 Week Twenty: 2007 Week Twenty-One: 2017 Week Twenty-Two: 1997 Week Twenty-Three: 2007 Week Twenty-Four: 1997 Week Twenty-Five: 2017 Week Twenty-Six: 1997 Week Twenty-Seven: 1997 HERE ARE THE OFFICIAL STANDINGS 1997: 10 2017: 9 2007: 8 IT IS CLOSER THAN ANYONE EVER COULD IMAGINE. 1997 has the lead! Will that lead sustain through Wednesday? ...Oh gosh Wednesday. Shackles. Sweet, sweet shackles.

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yukipri · 7 years

Text

Random text HCs for the YOI Future!Verse ABO AU - Adults 03

So I actually initially wrote this headcanon post in response to an ask, but the answer got super long so I decided to make it a headcanon post instead of an ask response ^ ^ The ask in question:

DEFINITELY not a quick answer HAHA!!

So! This post will talk about my headcanons for their pheromone scents ^ ^

So as my Future!Verse AU is technically A/B/O, pheromones are a thing that most adults have. Everyone has their own unique scent, which can then be colored by their emotions/mental state. Some people just have more naturally potent scents, others not as much, and some people fluctuate. Some people also project their scents, while others are skilled at intentionally hiding/broadcasting/otherwise manipulating them. There’s more detailed info on pheromones in this AU in my World-Building essay, under “Pheromones.”

This headcanon post primarily talks about their individual scents.

Should note that pheromone scents and regular smelling scents are a bit different, and not exactly comparable. While inhaled the same way, pheromone scents are like a separate 6th sense, and are also said to sometimes transfer into a tinge of flavor on the individual’s skin. For the purposes of this ask, I’ll mostly try to use scents/colors/visuals to help describe how I imagine it, but these are by no means meant to be taken literally, and other people smelling the same pheromones could probably describe them differently ^ ^;

Victor

Victor is on the far extreme end of the alpha spectrum in terms of pheromone intensity. He’s had very little reason to restrain his pheromones growing up, so his natural state is to just let them fly around him, and they’re STRONG. For people with exceptionally sensitive noses who aren’t used to him, standing next to him is like having a megaphone in your ear and it can honestly make your eyes water, it hurts. Usually these people would describe it as “like something burning, it stings!” as the potency of the scent alone kinda washes out the delicacies of it.

Yuuri used to not have a very sensitive nose, so he was never particularly bothered by Victor’s scent though even he was aware his broadcasting in Hasetsu basically screamed “FOREIGNER!!!” and floated a giant arrow above his head. He thought there might be an undercurrent of something smokey, woodsy, dark, deep, and rich. As he gets to know Victor better and also becomes more receptive to his pheromones, he definitely thinks Victor’s pheromones feel deeper, like he’s being sucked into a bottomless well of mahogany-colored honey the closer he leans. There’s a hint of something that might be sweet, might be spice, but when he tries to pursue it he just feels himself getting lost in the depths of the scent. It’s thick, and clings to everything Victor touches. Yuuri sorta gets why omegas flock to Victor by scent alone, it has that kind of magnetism and almost inevitable pull that draws the gaze and then the body.

Yet despite how Yuuri can definitely smell when Victor’s unsettled and it’s swirling, Victor’s still hard to read even after all these years, rarely letting any emotions tint his pheromones. When they do, it’s like a slight temperature change, or like in the saturation of color, and hard to define exactly what he’s feeling.

Yurio

Yurio’s also an alpha on the far end of the spectrum in terms of pheromone intensity, but in a very different way from Victor. When he first presented and his pheromones were haywire, they were literally all over the place as is typical of freshly-presented people with strong pheromones. Sometimes they’d spike, other times down to nothing. If the strength of Victor’s pheromones is like unmovable pressure, Yurio’s is sharp, like the razor edge of an unavoidable blade that cuts deep and leaves an impression before it’s gone. As he gets older, he learns more control and his scent stabilizes strong, but even so the pressure is less solid, more like a sharp blade skillfully pressed against skin not hard enough to draw blood but with ever present threat that sends zings of electricity up Yuuri’s spine when it presses just a bit deeper before backing off. But other times, when Yurio wants it to hurt and intimidate, it can cut, compared to Victor’s method of drown.

In terms of flavor, it’s also very different from Victor’s. It’s colorful, and changeable, extremely vibrant and volatile. Yuuri wants to say there’s always a strong undercurrent of spice, but sometimes it leans towards sweet, other times spicy, sometimes confused what it wants to be but always demanding to be noticed. It’s hot and burns bright, sears his skin rather than covers it. People tend to imagine it more as red/warm, but he can instantly turn to a cold biting blue too, and it’s always sparking, flashing other colors. Unlike Victor whose emotions don’t bleed through, Yurio’s do, boy they do. When he’s pissed, his pheromones swirl around him like a tornado, searing bright white at its core, making everyone avert their eyes and give him a wide berth. When he’s upset, even if he’s not moving his emotions lash out in cold icy whips, daring anyone to get close. When he’s happy the whole room lights up and seems to get a few degrees warmer, with bright tendrils wrapping all over those close to him. He’s been training with Phichit to try to hide his emotions better when he doesn’t want them to be known, but it’s still a work in progress even as an adult and definitely doesn't come naturally to him ^ ^;

Phichit

Phichit’s the master of pheromone control in this AU. His natural pheromones are those of an alpha in the upper mid range, projecting the image of someone much bigger and bulkier than he actually is, if not nearly as painfully intimidating as Victor or Yurio. But around a year after he presented at sixteen, due to some plot-relevant events he decided he needed to train pheromone control and did so obsessively, even taking a brief break from skating to train with some masters back in Thailand.

Pheromone control, at its most basic level, is simply controlling the amount one projects their natural pheromones or conceals them, the default level of which varies for every individual. In some cultures, learning how to conceal pheromones is socially mandatory, though some may struggle. At the intermediate level, it’s learning how to keep emotions from bleeding in too vibrantly, or to project genuine emotions to show sincerity. This level is common among skilled businessmen and is also a valuable social skill in some cultures. At the master level, it’s absolute control, the ability to create and manipulate scents that aren’t there to begin with by sheer will power and making them real. It requires superior acting skills, enough to convince your own body that’s the reality. This may mean projecting emotions one may not actually feel in order to influence others, such as projecting calm, or intimidation. It could also mean subtly altering ones natural pheromones so an alpha may pass as beta, possibly even omega. At the most extreme sends of scent potency, it may mean suppressing one’s pheromones to the point of erasure, becoming pheromonally “invisible” like deltas, or the other far end, sharpening and projecting ones pheromones in “pheromonal violence” intentionally meant to cause physical pain.

Phichit’s been honing his skills ever since he first began and has long surpassed the skills of any average person. Even Yuuri doesn’t know the full extent of what he can do, and it honestly sometimes terrifies him. Phichit’s always been good in social situations, but his ability to casually exude calm or welcome certainly helps put people at ease around him when they otherwise would be wary, and sometimes it honestly seems like magic. Phichit began training in the first place so he could be with Yuuri in situations where other alphas couldn’t; he can pass as “beta” and be close to Yuuri without provoking his omega pheromones, or he can even pass as omega when Yuuri needs that too.

Controlling his pheromones and letting out only what he wants to let out is so natural now that it’s a part of Phichit, and Yuuri knows this and would never tell him to just “be himself” in a way that takes away his control. At the core though, Yuuri feels that Phichit’s pheromones are always warm, and that basking in their presence is like sitting in a lovely bright patch of sunlight on a cool day, comforting and undemanding but oh so welcoming. Not a solid, but as natural and necessary as air, golden in color, and warm like freshly baked bread.

Minami

Minami is a gamma-alpha, which in the context of this AU means that he’s on the border of beta and alpha and that his pheromones are naturally fluid, fluctuating between “beta” and “alpha” modes based on his environment and the external pheromones he’s exposed to and his emotional state. Yuuri thinks both his beta and alpha modes smell similar, despite being different, almost like twins. In beta mode, his scent is much milder, typical of the secondary, but with an undeniable undercurrent of something vibrating with energy. It’s warm, less like the all encompassing environmental warmth of Phichit, more like holding a warm body close, solid and familiar but slightly muted, like through a soft sweater or perhaps fur. There’s also the taste of something savory, nothing too greasy or heavily spiced but warm and filling and fresh off the stove…

As an alpha, all these scents are ramped way up, like the frosted glass of a light bulb being removed. The warmth is now pure heat, comparable to Yurio, hot and almost feverish but dry. It feels like it should scald, almost surprising that it doesn’t. The scent that was previously content to just touch now wraps around and encompasses, slightly constricting, unwilling to let go. Yuuri imagines this color to be a darker, richer gold, almost with an auburn tint, tinged almost black at the edges.

Minami’s trying desperately to learn control, but it’s frustrating to him because unlike everything else he can achieve by throwing himself at it and working his ass off, as a gamma he can’t control or predict when his alpha mode is switched on, and therefore he’s always a bit unprepared for the sudden ramping up of his senses and the increased potency of his own scent and that of those around him (especially Yuuri). He’s getting better at it, but as a result his emotions not only bleed heavily into his alpha mode, but his emotions are sometimes reverse affected by the pheromones themselves, leading to some extreme mood swings and actions when he’s provoked or threatened with little control.

It’s why he’s most likely to pick a physical fight with other alphas threatening Yuuri. But despite the physical boost perks as an alpha, he’s much more level headed as a beta, and he prefers his “beta” mode when he needs to be stable, such as when dealing with medical emergencies or teaching the kids. After becoming Yuuri’s student, and later his mate, he learns to better predict and even intentionally trigger his own mode switches, which becomes easier and easier with Yuuri’s presence at his side to guide him.

Yuuri

Yuuri only had super faint pheromones until post “canon” timeline, aka all of his teen and part of his young adult life. He was considered technically omega because of his reproductive abilities, but in terms of international pheromone standards he was beta, leaning almost delta spectrum in terms of scent visibility. Like sure, you could tell that he’s a presented adult, but other than that, not much. His family and Yuu-chan assured him that it wasn’t a bad scent, pleasant if anything, sorta unassuming and blends well with everything else, which is a good thing! Kinda like the white rice in a rice dish, like katsudon! You don’t really notice the smell of the rice itself behind the steaming pork, eggs, onions, sauce etc., but it’s a necessary undercurrent! Warm and filling, good white rice is perfectly fine on its own too, even if it doesn’t have the richest flavor.

The first person to tell him anything counter to this was Phichit. Phichit can maybe see where people are coming from but can’t really agree with that description himself, and later hypothesizes that if he had met Yuuri after presenting, he might have been able to smell that. As it is, he met Yuuri when he was unpresented, and was already pretty close to him when he presented (which Yuuri helped him through). And he was already very, VERY aware of his own growing feelings towards Yuuri before that happened…

Yuuri was the first person Phichit ever scented pheromones on, and it was honestly like a sledgehammer to the face. A nice one, he rushes to add at Yuuri’s pained expression, but like, still sorta painful and hyper direct and blunt, most likely as a result of him being freshly presented and super sensitive. Even as he gets used to pheromones, Yuuri’s scent more or less stays the same. Many omegas smell sweet, like a dessert or ripe fruit, or possibly even floral sweet, like any combination of stereotypically “feminine” things in our universe. Phichit wouldn’t quite call Yuuri a dessert, if a food, definitely a main savory dish of some sort. Kinda pale in color, not pure white but milky, tinted warm. Sorta thick, but without putting up resistance, like smooth cream. There’s some noticeable sweetness, but it’s rounded, subtle, hidden, and makes Phichit want to press his tongue against Yuuri’s skin to find it. But despite all the soft stuff on the surface, there’s an undercurrent of something more vibrant and volatile, sometimes like a bright flash of color that gives a jolt of warmth, sometimes something darker that explodes into flavor at just a slight touch that roils with Yuuri’s emotions.

Yuuri bluntly tells Phichit that doesn’t sound very pleasant and is confusing, and gives him the cold shoulder (for only a few minutes though).

Victor totally got the “rice” analogy at first, and tbh he didn’t even notice Yuuri’s scent at all. At the banquet it was completely covered by alcohol, and at Hasetsu it was blown away in the wind. Victor didn’t mind, he doesn’t consider pheromones to be necessary to be attracted to someone, but as they get closer, he starts scenting something on Yuuri with increasing persistence, and it baffles him a bit until he realizes it’s Yuuri’s scent. He agrees with Phichit’s description, but adds that it seems sweeter, richer now–but less like an actual edible item, or even perfume on skin, but almost like the scent of a candle, warm and fluttering when lit, so good he can almost taste it and can’t get enough of it and close enough to feel the heat–but frustratingly physically intangible beyond that.

Yurio has a similar experience to Phichit, Yuuri’s scent being the first pheromones he smells (hell, his entire presenting was basically triggered by them). Yuuri’s scent has grown much stronger now, to the point most of his rink mates do a double take and frown at the almost omega-like scent lingering around who they assumed was a beta, and Yurio wonders if this is what a drug addiction is like. He’s still very much in denial of any feelings he may have for Yuuri, but he literally feels physically ill when he goes too long without scenting Yuuri’s pheromones. Reluctant to say anything positive about Yuuri, he heatedly claims that everything else in the world just smells unbearably strong and nasty, like thick unbreathable smog, and Yuuri just happens to be the one patch of okay-ish fresh clean air. NO that’s NOT a compliment, those are like, super low standards!!

Years later, a much more honest and mature Yurio describes Yuuri’s scent as something like the inside of his thigh, juicy and bitable but you probably shouldn’t literally eat it (though it’s super easy to mark up with your mouth), soft and squishy and pale but under that, steel corded muscle. (Yuuri may have smacked him for saying such an embarrassing thing out loud)

Yuuri’s scent continues to bloom, and as a married man with kids, no one can now mistake him for anything but an omega, though he often gets double takes on the streets because his physique doesn’t fit the physical stereotype of an omega. While the rice analogy really no longer fits, if one thing it’s that Yuuri’s scent still melds with and compliments other scents, and that his own “natural” scent is seemingly always colored by that of his mates. When they scent him to get their pheromones to stick, it’s different from just scenting any other person, but seems to meld into his skin itself to subtly flavor his natural scent, like an emotion, but different. While the concept itself makes them all feel a bit warm, it’s also a bit of a pain because this makes it easier for strangers to assume that it’s Yuuri’s natural scent, not making the connection that it was a possessive scent mark until the mate in question personally appears. But even as Yuuri’s scent becomes more visible to others, those he’s attached to and reciprocate are the only people who can smell the full extent of his pheromones.

Should note that Yuuri also doesn’t have too much control over his pheromones, as for most of his life he didn’t really need to. Phichit’s been working with him, though it all goes to shit when he gets hit by his heats... ^ ^;

#YukiPri rambles #Future!Verse ABO AU #Headcanons #Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics #Omegaverse #A/B/O #YOI

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