So, despite some faults, I really enjoyed totk, and on its anniversary I want to say something about it. Other people have said similar things before but it’s really important to me and actually a big part of why the story of totk was meaningful to me, so I want to also say it:

Zelda needed to come back from draconification. The story needed that. It wasn’t lazy and just ignoring “consequences” because (imo) that was the *point*

The point is to feel like there are going to be terrible consequences and then say actually, no. You can come back from this, with the help of other people.

To me at least, that was the theme of the whole story.

If botw was about how the world goes on past loss and grief and starts to heal (how flowers grow in the ruins and the world can be beautiful again, be worth saving, even if it has changed)…then totk was about a more personal kind of healing.

The weight of the world should not be on your shoulders alone…you, alone, should not have to fix everything…you should not have to sacrifice yourself, but when you do, someone will be there to save you from it.

This turned into a really long ramble so:

You (Link) gained so much and now it’s gone. It feels like you’re back to where you started and yet you know you have to do it all again…you were weak and you failed and you’re weaker now…but

You go down to the surface. Monsters swarm across it once again. Other people are fighting them too though. You help, but it’s not just you…

You go to the Rito, the Gorons, the Zora, the Gerudo…just like with the divine beasts, there are friends who help you save each region. But this time, part of them comes along with you when you leave. It’s nice, you realize, the first time one of them protects you from a monster you weren’t prepared for. You’re still weaker than you were before, but someone has your back…

When you go up to the sky you see a strange new dragon there. There’s something about them that feels familiar. You try not to think about it.

You go down to the depths too. It’s terrifying at first. You hate it. You only want to get what you came for and get out of the dark….but slowly, the light grows. You get stronger. The dark feels like a challenge you can face (and someone has your back).

There are spirits down there. You don’t know when they’re from, but some part of you wonders…are these all the people you let die in the Calamity? (You help them find rest from their wandering. The weight on your shoulders feels a little less heavy).

There’s so much gloom. The first few times the sky turns red and hands chase you (a reminder of what you’ve lost, how you failed) you just run. Eventually though, you have to fight. It feels like the (second) worst day of your life again. But you manage to get free of the grasping gloom and stand and fight, as wild and desperate as it is. Beneath the manifestation of your worst fears, there’s another thing to fight, but this time it has a face (a voice in the back of your head says…you know this isn’t all on you and your failure…it’s really Ganon’s fault right?). You get through it.

At every turn in your travels, it seems like something reminds you of Zelda. Her passion, her curiosity, her kindness. You miss her.

At first, the tears you find reassure you. She may be in the past, but she’s safe. She’ll come back somehow…but then you hear the word draconification for the first time. You want to believe she wouldn’t do it but you know her and the fear sits cold inside you. (Zelda is a lot of things. She’s been allowed to be more of them, since she was freed from her hundred year battle, without her father holding her back. But deep down inside her, there’s a vein of self-sacrifice that still runs strong. It’s what saved the world before, after all).

She did it. She really did it. She’s gone from you (from Hyrule) forever, and it’s all your fault. If only you hadn’t failed so utterly in the battle (you can hardly even call it that) under the castle. If only you’d caught her. If only you hadn’t let the sword break. You should have protected her you should have been better it’s all your fault and now she has to live with the consequences, forever. Everything really is on you, you should have been better.

(Zelda POV: you couldn’t call upon Hylia’s power in time, you were too content to let it wither and fade away from you, ready to be free of it. You shouldn’t have. He got hurt, the sword got hurt, it’s your fault…Sonia and Rauru help you channel it again, Sonia helps you learn how to turn back time…but you don’t save her. She dies because you couldn’t save her. Rauru dies not long after. There is no one left to guide you, once again. You could spend years trying to figure it out on your own. But you did that last time. It didn’t work. Self-sacrifice, stepping in front of someone you love, that worked. (You do what you can, to call upon the sages, to help Link in the future, first). And then you swallow the stone. You’ve come a long way, in the past five years, allowing yourself to exist. But in the end, self-sacrifice worked last time. It’ll work this time too.)

You (Link) go down beneath the castle. You were supposed to bring the sages but you didn’t. It’s nice, for someone to have your back. But no one else should get hurt to fix your mistakes.

They follow you anyway. They fight with you, against the hordes, against the greatest enemies you defeated together, along the way. They’ll have your back, even if you don’t think you deserve it.

You fight Ganondorf, and then the demon king, in the hardest battle of your life. You think it’s over and then the demon king decides it’s better to lose himself completely than let you win. You’re exhausted and afraid of yet another battle, but up there in the sky, when you’re falling, the Light Dragon catches you (you wonder why she changed her path to catch you, you wonder if there’s still something of Zelda left in there to save). With her help, you win.

And then you’re in some other realm. The spirits of Sonia and Rauru are there. You remember how the two of them and Zelda channeled such incredible power together. You think about Recall. Turning something back to the memory of what it was before, like Sonia said. You stand with them and you allow yourself to hope. Maybe the Light Dragon can remember the form she took so long ago, the person that she was.

And then you’re falling, and Zelda is falling, but this time you catch her. You catch her. She’s back home with you, finally, finally.

And maybe, one mistake doesn’t have to be the end of the world. You don’t have to be perfect. Sometimes, someone else can stand with you, and it’ll all turn out alright. (You can put the weight of the world on your shoulders, you can sacrifice yourself, but someone will be there to catch you, someone will be there to pull you back to yourself, when all is said and done).

@traceofexistence asked for these and I was more than happy to do it.

If you have the time, I would like to hear your thoughts on the parallels between itadori and suguru pretty pls😌🎤

omg i would love to. it’s honestly one of my fav parallels in jjk. i think it sometimes gets overlooked bc itadori is more jovial/fun/light color schemed like gojo and fushiguro is more serious/dark color schemed like getou BUT. just listen!!

to begin this parallel, we can start with the most obvious one in my mind. and that’s the fact that itadori and getou both ingest curses. they quite literally eat them. they’ve both talked about their taste—how gross they are. getou remarks that no one knows the taste of a curse. but now itadori does.

my next parallel between them is more in terms of their story arc. both of them have very strong morals; morals which their counterparts (gojo and fushigro) sort of scoff at in the beginning. itadori and getou both believe that people need to be protected. and those who are stronger, should work to protect them. NOW….getou’s do change. but let’s look at the moment that forever changes him; it’s strikingly similar to a moment itadori has, too.

the moment riko dies for getou is incredibly similar to how junpei dies for itadori; in the sense that, here was this person they had worked to protect and save, here was this friend who they wanted in their life, and all their ideals they had placed in them, being torn very gruesomely away. this is also a pivotal moment for every wide-eyed sorcerer. they must deal with death. and the death of those closest to them.

morally, this is where their paths diverge. but we certainly see itadori begin to spiral the way getou also had to spiral when faced with the constant death and loss of other sorcerers. specifically i’ll show these next two panels to depict that;

same position. same idea is being conveyed for both. lost, traumatized, uncertain of the morals they once held; where did it get them? where did it get others? for both, many ended up dead.

now the other parallels i’ll draw…one of which is almost an exact replica of the other, is the way in which their bodies are not fully their own anymore. kenjaku inhabits getou completely and uses his body to do things he would not have done. similarly, sukuna does the same to itadori. and there are moments where getou and itadori have tried to fight back against the one controlling them;

that parallel is the one that really did it for me. oh it’s so poetic in the most wretched way. i love it.

beyond that, both itadori and getou are not from prominent families in the sorcerer world. there is little expectation placed upon them in this regard. also, they both get entangled in the politics of the higher ups and both are ordered to be hunted and executed at a point in their story.

now i could also bring in gojo and fushiguro, too, which would also highlight the parallels between them. both are from prominent sorcerer families and have a lot of expectations placed upon an extremely powerful inherited cursed technique. both grew up in the sorcerer world. getou and itadori juxtapose them in which they have to learn how brutal this world is. in fact, they serve to remind gojo and fushiguro that the world doesn’t have to be the way it’s always been.

now, of course, morally, itadori is not like getou. and their parallels are not exact nor should they be!

itadori (and fushiguro) serve to try and end the cycles that getou (and gojo) were trapped in.

in my mind, the parallel here was always one of hope; itadori is supposed to do what getou failed to do. narratively, he has been set up to end the cycle.

at least, he had been. i’ll stop here before i start cursing out akutami and his absolute assassination of itadori’s character in more recent arcs and chapters. but really truly the getou/itadori parallel is a favorite of mine, much like the gojo/fushiguro parallel. i think this is where jjk’s writing is at some of its strongest.

thank you for asking!! i hope you enjoyed my lil analysis/presentation!

rereading order of the stick (again), and greyiew is only in a few comics so far but man do i love this nihilistic wolf

Everyone Introduced in Dimension 20′s Mentopolis episode 6 (finale)

Need everyone to understand that saying “the SW timeline always turns out worse if Anakin doesn’t have Luke and Leia as kids” makes the future of the galaxy contingent on Padmé’s willingness to have sex with Anakin (not even to mention Anakin’s willingness to have sex with Padme or overall readiness to raise children)

To suppose that this is a good or normal idea is to suppose that either (a) Padmé falling for/being attracted to Anakin is an inevitability—not true—or worse (b) she needs to be willing to give up her sexual autonomy for the sake of the universe.

Frankly if you give a shit about the reproductive rights of anyone, especially anyone with a uterus, (including anyone who has one and would prefer not to), the idea that anyone needs or deserves to have kids—let alone biological kids with a specific person of their choosing—is one you need to remove from your head immediately and with prejudice.

But y’know it’s fiction so also do whatever I guess, I’m not your parent. Food for fucking thought

rewatched the premier definitely super legally and just look at them

curious to know why you dislike juline?

tbh i had no opinion at all of her and then about a year ago there was a poll on which member of the collective was the best. and the tiergan lovers website let tiergan down. in favor of her. /hj

in seriousness, dislike was a bit strong. im still mostly neutral on her. she does sort of feel like just another sparkly girlboss in the series which. admittedly is a trope in kotlc thats started to piss me off a bit bc it seems like every adult woman falls into it.

juline is like. the final evolution of that sparkly girlbossery. she has no real relationship damage for more than 2 minutes after revealing shes been lying to her family for years and was part of the organization that grady thought killed his daughter.

in general! it doesnt seem like she ever faces any consequences for lying to her family or pushing them to the side a bit in favor of the black swan.

idk maybe there were problems (specifically with dex) and we never saw them bc theyre not sophies problem but. whatever.

also what is her "official job." was she passing off as a stay at home mom? does she work in the nobility? idk

You know sometimes I think that the reason I stopped being on the sokai ship online is that the reasons why I think the ship is nice are so separate and different from how I see most people interpreting the characters and wanting the ship to be that it just loses all appeal to me.

every now and again i reread "always raining here" and get so got dam emotional !!! FUCK !!! that's my EMOTIONAL SUPPORT BL WEBCOMIC RIGHT THERE !!!!!!!!

CHECK IT OUT AND SUPPORT THE CREATORS IF U FEEL INCLINED

Me remembering a random russian proverb and going like "oh. that reminds me of gabe actually"

The proverb in question is "Перед смертью не надышишься" (Pered smert'yu ne nadyshish'sya), literally "Can’t breath enough before death"

It can mean:

"Putting it off won't make it any easier"

"At the last moment, you can not manage to do what you had to do beforehand"

"You can't make up for lost time"

"It's too late for that now"

And it's also sometimes interpreted as like,, "well it's too late for that now, so no point in trying anyway"

And this made me think of AUs/HCs where Gabe actually Dies™️ (and I've pretty much accepted that it's the most likely thing to happen in canon too. who knows for sure tho, maybe not)

Like. He has so much stuff to do, so many topics to think of, so many emotions to go through (esp if he has Feelings™️ for V1, or anyone else for that matter), but whelp! too late for that loverboy!

And him either desperately trying to do at least something with the little time he has left, OR just. Giving up. Shutting down and waiting for everything to end

And about the "putting it off" part, makes me think that Gabriel must've had at least some trauma/issues related to the Council (about the time when they took the light from him, if nothing else), so it could've been hard for him to go back here, and actually deal with it, face it head on, but he did it anyway because it's not gonna get any easier if he waits

me rotating gabe in my head like in a microwave rn

as much as i obviously enjoy exploring gabriel as a fallen angel, i 100% agree that he's going to die in canon as ultrakill sees the world at the end of its lifespan and that goes for just about everything in it. and on a character level for gabriel, i think it makes sense for the exact reasons this proverb brings up: gabriel has had an end of life epiphany and, like everything else, it is too late now. his world has crashed down around him in his death throes, and all he can do is what is most important in the precious few hours he has left while the rest, all of the personal trauma he must harbor, will now remain forever untouched. but we've already seen whatever gabriel will do with that time remaining will be worthy of it.

the majority of the day he has left has likely already been spent, but he has used it fully to contemplate his long existence and then hearken to newfound autonomy - after which, he swiftly dispatches the entirety of the council to liberate heaven from their rule (the way he chooses to slay the final councilor has interesting parallels now to his execution of sisyphus, and i'm sure that figures into gabriel wishing to right wrongs he can't take back). we know after this he will depart forever from heaven, and his only destination can be hell to meet once again with v1 as he promised. gabriel has so much he could do, so much it could be argued he needs to do, but with his death impending and the very world around him crumbling with it, there is actually very little left for him to do realistically. gabriel is leaving a life full of regret that he will never remotely understand because he has no time for it, but he's ensuring that whatever can be tangibly, immediately addressed is. his life will never be put into context for him, but his death will be.

because gabriel leaves behind a cruel, bloody life that he once thought to be one of supreme order but is, instead, a mess. his time spent serving god had wronged so many, it had likely constantly gone against his own internal morals (that he no doubt punished himself over and over for, torturing himself over sins he now understands were compassion) - yet those feelings don't matter because ultimately he upheld god's will, he carried his banner of violence against humanity, and now there is no one to confront or repay with god and humans all dead. and under the rule of the council, he became a dog he must be disgusted with - they were not god, they never held that ultimate authority that at least he may have been able to shift the blame onto somewhat. they were angels just like him, perhaps higher in rank but not his ruler and certainly not his maker, yet he conformed to their every order, he furthered their political gains again at the expense of his morals. secretly he cared for those in limbo. secretly he cared for the ferrymen. secretly, perhaps, he was some kind of friend to hell. but then the council came and he obeyed them as unconditionally as he had god, reining terror on the citizens of hell and becoming their blight after ripping minos's crown from him as judge of hell. these are the festering regrets he will never account for, will never make reparations for - they are all dead, and he is dying.

so what can gabriel do except address his death and what brought him to it - a poor substitute for making sense of an entire life now left undone, but he seems to working within what he has instead of giving into panic or despair. and all he has left, all he has time for and all he knows he can manage in the hours remaining, is going to see v1 one last time. i'm sure with this, gabriel has a definite goal in mind: i think foremost is fully immersing himself in his feelings for v1 and just what this machine did for him. ultrakill, despite all appearances, is a love story in many ways, and i strongly believe gabriel's feelings toward v1 will be woven into that theme. he wants to feel his love as fully himself and now that he has realized it, to wrap himself in it after the revelation has occurred and allow it to flow through him with acceptance. it happens through a fight, of course, but what i don't know is what gabriel's ultimate goal for that fight will be - does he want his last act to be stopping v1, to have them die together in a sense, or does he desire to be killed by v1 rather than letting that loss of light take him? maybe gabriel would be content with either, but i think of him as a character with now well-defined ideas of what he wants, so i believe he's more likely to want something concrete.

listen. to get me invested in a relationship between 2 characters, it can't JUST be Deep Serious Emotions all the time. they gotta be silly together sometimes too. cuz really, what's the point if they aren't having fun?

2003 tbrm looks like a doll thats bathed in virginal uchiha blood

2003 hsrm looks like he painted his nails, joined a band and called himself Lil' Wood

grabbing you by the shoulders he’s not a villain he’s not a Batman rogue he’s literally just an anti-hero he has his own separate thing going on he’s NOT a Batman villain 

The inclusion of Hermes as a father figure rather than a narrator in Hadestown is the single best thing Anaïs Mitchell could possibly have done for the framing of her story in this essay I will-

One thing that I do think House did remarkably well is that every single (main cast) character is compelling. And - with the exception of Cuddy, imo - they do an excellent job of revealing at least some of their compelling early on as the characters are introduced.