Welcome back to Rice’s dumbassary. Today, we have more Imaginary rambles.

@owlf45

First and foremost I will say I was semi convinced that Owl was fucking with me with those recent posts, but also it makes too much sense that First would be ambiguous and perhaps… the Second and First epic love story is a little less epic than I may have thought, but that won’t stop me from drawing sappy fanart for them. I’ve been bugging Owl for the past few days on Discord with my shenanigans, and tonight’s topic was First. I am inspired and I just drank a lotta tea so I’m ready to roll.

Nonsense galore is under the cut in a slightly more organized manner than last time.

I started this whole thing because Owl was posting about Second again, so it only makes sense that I go over my interpretation of his character: where he was, is, and is going. I recommend listening to “Married Life” from Up while reading this segment.

Second is a total dad. I’m not going to try to get too detailed on the intricacies or whatever of how relationships affect the way you interact with people, but in this post’s tags, Owl did say that “it’s not like second had the most healthy relationships growing up”. My thoughts on this is sort of like that trope where characters treat others they want to parent well because they want to, in a way, make up for their own childhood. Also, I do want to bring up the worldbuilding Owl does in Imaginary, especially their take on “quirky marriages”. First’s wedding gift to Second was a cat, as per this post. Since they couldn’t even get legally married, I doubt they would have the chance to even consider legally adopting children. A part of me thinks First knows about Second’s urges to emotionally adopt people, and maybe giving him a cat was his way of encouraging that behavior.

Second seems to have a low baseline for relationships. Arguably, his closest relationships we’ve seen in Imaginary itself are with Third, Sixth, and Izuku, and he’s kept all of them at arm’s length in some form or another. Third knows so much about him mainly because he snooped around his journal. Third’s backstory chapter, titled Third, delves into his relationship with what are essentially his children – when he’s past the point of even remotely caring about the law and is considered a vigilante. He was notably distant from them emotionally, and basically spent the rest of his life before he died obsessing over First and trying to avenge him only to be curb stomped by All for One. Which makes me sad, but I digress.

With Sixth, he barely acknowledged him as a vestige, and only really saw him as he was dying. They have more interactions when they’re both dead.

With Izuku he is the first imaginary friend Izuku has when he’s four. He’s on the bench, the same one he spends every night waiting for First for five years straight on, and is initially distant from Izuku too. However, Izuku is the protagonist and he jumpstarts Second’s arc throughout the story. Izuku is super open with his love for Second, and I think that’s really important to Second. For all we know, his relationship with Izuku is one of the only open and loving relationships he’s ever had, and he’s not even that open with Izuku.

Let’s talk about All for One and Second now because transitions are hard and it’s midnight where I am currently.

In this post, Owl notes that First didn’t really talk too much about First to All for One. It makes sense, considering First’s death that All for One was undoubtedly a part of, that they wouldn’t be super close, but Owl also mentions another thing that kinda threw me for a loop.

“You could even say AFO was concerned for Second when they eventually met, like the good older brother figure he is”

The wording threw me off, because it implies that All for One wasn’t concerned about his brother in a relationship with Second, but Second in a relationship with First, as in Second was in a position of concern. He also attended their wedding, and is a notable third wheel in this post. To quote that post, “AFO though?? Absolutely. He almost seemed to enjoy [being the third wheel] since he was always the one butting in.” This suggests that All for One was an active figure not only in First’s life, but in Second’s as well. They like… hung out. I’m just wondering how they went from “haha third wheeling older brother” to “grinding your face in the pavement and having your children watch as I kill you”. Owl also says that All for One approves of Second and First’s relationship, but Second cannot fathom why. Can First understand why? I mean, they’re family and (probably) grew up together. The people you surround yourself with are bound to rub off on you in some way or another, like behavioral osmosis or whatever.

What about First and All for One and how their behaviors might not be as dissimilar as we might think. In canon, we know that All for One isn’t above emotional manipulation as a way to get people on his side. If First needed people on his side, then Second was there. Depending on how close they were before they started dating, maybe First knew about the lack of healthy relationships and took this as a way to get somebody vulnerable to follow him and his ideals. Considering Second dedicated the rest of his life, and afterlife, to First, he succeeded to an extent. However, this is a super sad take and I’m not convinced there’s all there is to their relationship.

My best guess is that they both had very skewed views of what relationships with other people were. If I had to go by a gut-feeling on Second’s relationship with the people in his life pre-First, I think he was probably abandoned in some ways or another (neglect, some form of foster/orphan situation, or anything of the sort), so when he falls for somebody or is in some sort of relationship with somebody he is susceptible to codependency. I think there definitely was a level of codependency on Second’s part to First, and when First died he could never truly get over it because of that. It makes me depressed thinking about how Second has spent so many years chasing after First when First died, and how their relationship probably isn’t as wholesome as I thought it was.

However, while Second seems codependent, First was probably more detached. I think they loved each other, and I refuse to believe otherwise, but First has a lot of mystery surrounding him, so the extent of that love is... dubious.

Owl’s notes from this post, again, states that “ambiguous first… that would make him capable of lying about his love for second wouldn’t it?” which is super fucking depressing. Owl also says in those same notes “who’s to say [Second] wasn’t just another one of first’s pawns against afo.. so many things to consider”.

First of all, one of many pawns? Emotionally manipulative First is depressing, I’m sad, but probably not as sad as Second. Looking at the environment for quirked individuals in that era, I’m guessing that Second probably didn’t have a happy home life. We don’t know his quirk, but we can assume he has one because of this post of Owl’s reference for the One for All holders, where his quirk besides from One for All is just “?”. He had one, and back in those days that’s all that mattered. He probably felt abandoned and ostracized by everyone of significance in his life, then First comes along and says some stupid shit and Second falls super hard and latches on tightly to one of the only, if not the only, positive relationship in his life that seemed like it was going to stay. Anyways, we also know that First is the one to “propose” because of this quote from this post: “There wasn’t really a formal proposal to speak of, for,,, a lot of reasons, but you could say the closest thing to a proposal came from First.” Could be interpreted as making sure Second stayed, but I like the idea of romance so I want to believe that First actually loved him and wanted to be with him. Relationships in real life are really complicated, and we can see the way Owl writes relationships in their stories. For instance, in Imaginary we can see that while Inko really loves Izuku, she’s still a flawed character and that affected her relationship with him as Izuku grew up without his dad. First and Second are both flawed character with complex views of what love means to them and what it means in their relationship, and I can only hope they can come to a healthier conclusion in Imaginary – even though I am under the impression they won’t get a happy ending, a bittersweet one at best.

Might I also add that in this post by Owl, they say in the tags that Second has been waiting on the bench for 5 years. Second was introduced when Izuku was 4 and left when Izuku was 9. Does this mean that he’s done waiting when he gets back, for better or for worse?

 Okay now I wanna talk about the possibilities for chapter 11. I’ll keep this somewhat short because it is now 1 in the morning where I’m at and I’m only awake because I drank some pretty strong thai tea a few hours ago. Maybe tomorrow I’ll add more, but for now I’ll keep it short. I recommend listening to Class of 2013 by Mitski (the audiotree version) for this section, mostly because it has the Angsty vibes I’m going for.

Anyways, from chapter 10, we know that Izuku is on his way to Kouta’s. He makes one of those bastardly “what could go wrong?” remarks that lets us know that shit is about to go down. All the way back in September, Owl answered an ask about their WIPs during an author game. For Imaginary, this is what they had to say:

“Fourth, Shrimp, Muscular, and Crimson Riot make an interesting mix. I haven’t even started the chapter but BOY AM I EXCITED. My love for these ofa characters knows no bounds.”

First of all, we already know that Muscular kills Kouta’s parents in canon. Izuku is going to the Pussycats’ place to babysit Kouta. That rings some alarm bells for the next chapter. Crimson Riot is also most probably dead already, especially since he’s from all the way back from Third’s generation. Fourth, as we know him is some unnamed military guy Third trusted with One for All before his suicide mission (otherwise known as the Night of the Crystal Children). Shrimp is a bunny. What the ever living fuck do you have in mind, Owl?

From this post, Owl addresses Fourth coming into Imaginary canon, “according to [their] watch… too soon.” He’s probably going to be making some sort of appearance in the next chapter, and it’s probably going to have something to do with Muscular. I can’t tell if Owl meant that all four characters are going to be interacting in that ask or that those characters are simply highlighted in the upcoming chapter.

I touched on this detail as well in my other rambley theory post, but Third is also going to be in trouble this upcoming chapter. Owl posted a part of the upcoming chapter in a WIP challenge:

““Come on now,” Sixth says, eyes harsh and full of ice. “Show me the ‘can be’. Show me what future you want to have.”

Third isn’t going to save himself.

And at that moment, it is no wonder why the wary man from his dream likes Sixth so much.”

I previously theorized that First is the “wary man” that was mentioned, and I still stand by that. I don’t think we’re going to see much of First in the next chapter, I think it’s gonna be like how Owl treats Nana – we see snippets of her dialogue interactions with Izuku at random points in the story without her actually appearing and interacting with the other characters. Or maybe at the end of the chapter First is gonna appear and we’ll be left with a cliffhanger, I guess it depends on how mean Owl’s feeling.

Anyways, Third is trouble, and just a reminder that All for One can hurt the vestiges. In chapter 5 he tossed Sixth around and twisted his ankle. Perhaps First is hanging around All for One for whatever reason, and that’s how we see him again? Third needs rescuing from All for One (or maybe the object he’s possessing is in All for One’s possession), and while they go out to get him they end up meeting First. First doesn’t even need an object to appear, that is only for the vestiges Izuku had when he had his seizure. 

Either way, I’m expecting some shenanigans for the upcoming chapter.

At this point I’ve become rather rambley, so I think I’ll leave it off here.