#remember the core reason we're all here is the same
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bleeding blue | apocalypse au
part thirteen
—other parts
pairing: Simon "Ghost" Riley x fem!reader
words: 3k
tags: death. blood. cannibalism mention. zombies of course. AFAB reader. single dad ghost. there will be sex but it isn't here yet. slow burn!!! enemies to lovers.
summary: After losing your companions, you run into a skull-masked man and his daughter. They are your last hope for survival.
"Twix."
Blue says your name in a single exhale of relief. You didn't expect her to be awake. She sits with her legs outstretched by a barely-there fire as you enter the cabin, the busted door groaning shut behind you. Fatigue sinks you to the floor beside her. You're about to curl your numb hands within the long sleeves of your new jacket, but the burn on your fingers makes you wince from the friction.
“You're filthy." She reaches for your hand, gently inspecting the burn. "And someone hurt you."
"Well, technically, I hurt them."
Blue shakes her head, the tone of her voice hardening the moment she drops your hand. "You shouldn't have gone."
"It was important—"
"It was stupid. You saw how those guys tried to kill us!" She huffs out a breath before snapping her gaze back to the flames. "You... you didn't tell me you were leaving. You didn't even say goodbye. I just woke up and you were gone.”
"I didn't want to wake you this morning because you needed rest,” you reason.
"That's a shitty excuse," she grumbles back, gesturing to the pink bracelet on her wrist. "I may not have a lot of friends, but I do know they're supposed to tell each other things like this."
Your eyes trail down from the burnt skin on your fingers, red and bubbly, to the cheap, plastic beads encompassing your wrist.
"You're right," you speak softly. "I should have told you."
A few minutes lapse in thick silence. In the midst of it, you swallow a few chalky pills to help with all the pain. You've been conservative in using them so far, but with your additional score of medicine, you figure you can afford some relief. There's no way you'll be able to sleep with your bitten wrist throbbing incessantly.
You're about to lean against the wall and let your eyes flutter shut when Blue speaks again, this time her voice so quiet you wonder if you're imagining it.
"You know, I was excited to go on this trip," she whispers, still looking at the fire. "I even secretly hoped we'd run into other people, just because—" she pauses to swallow, "—because I never get to meet any. And the ones we have met, my dad always kills. Except for you."
She drags her sleeve over her face and it’s now you notice she is crying. A knot forms in your throat and, after the day you've had, you struggle to find the right words.
"He kills them for a reason," you settle on, voice equally hushed. "A lot of people are—"
"A threat, I know." Blue repeats the words like a bitter mantra, then looks at her bandaged leg. "What does it feel like?" she asks after a moment, sliding her glossy eyes to yours. “Killing a person. Ghost told me it feels just like killing an animal or a Grey."
You inhale, then fix your stare to the dark ceiling. "No— I don't think it feels the same. It's much worse. I still get sick from it,” you admit.
"How many have you killed?"
"I don't remember anymore, but not that many." Certainly not as many as Ghost has. "It was always in self-defense. Always because I had to."
"I wish nobody ever had to," she says.
"I know. Me, too.”
With a sigh, she carefully scoots closer to you. "I'm sorry for getting mad. I just want to go home.”
"Don't be sorry. I’m the one who is sorry." You shake your head and offer her a shoulder until both of you have your backs against the wall. Her hair tickles your cheek. A small hand slips around your waist in a tender embrace, her fingers latching onto the fabric of the jacket. The sore muscles of your core flex instinctively from the touch before you finally force yourself to relax. It’s just Blue.
"Your dad says we're going back tomorrow,” you whisper, jaw grazing the crown of her head. “Sleep. It'll be a long day again."
"A long day for you maybe," she murmurs against your shoulder. "I get to ride on his back."
"Lucky you." You drape the heavy blanket over your bodies. Together you are warmer, if only by a little.
Deft wind whooshes through the trees, kissing your wet skin. Splotches of wriggling orange and red follow the water's current, along with a trail of brown muck as you scrub your breasts, hair, and cheeks. The sight of fish makes your stomach grumble. It's been far too long since you've had anything but squirrel and deer and berries, but this is not the time or place to ponder a way to catch one. The blue wash of early morning lightens with each second that passes. You wring out your hair, rewrap your wrist, and put your clothes back on before carefully climbing up the slope, satisfied enough with your icy bath.
"Ready," you announce, blowing a white breath into your hands and rubbing them together. Ghost crouches down so Blue can teeter onto his back. The backpack full of ammo hugs his front. He appears exceptionally bulky with all the baggage, and yet, he makes it look effortless.
Together, you head towards the infamous bridge, if one could call it that. Silvery fog makes it hard to see more than ten meters ahead of you, but Ghost seems to have the area memorized. Your hands ball up in your pockets, feeling empty and useless. With no bow, you have to rely on Ghost to get you back. It's a weird thing. Though, you suppose if there's anyone you'd want to be stuck out here with, it would be him. His presence alone offers more safety than the measly knife around your ankle.
"Ghost, we should go behind her," Blue says when you reach the beam.
He steps aside to allow you on first. "Try not to go for a swim this time."
A flush of pink bites your cheeks, though you blame it on the cold. It's hard to believe just four days ago you slipped off this thing. With his hands preoccupied, Ghost can't hold onto your shoulders like before, but he lingers close behind and repeatedly orders you to keep your eyes on the bank.
Once you're all across, a calm quiet settles, a vast contrast to how talkative Blue was the first time around. It makes you absentmindedly pick the skin around your nails. By the time you reach the road, you've looked behind your shoulder at least ten times, half-expecting to spot a burnt face hiding among the trees. Squirrels prattle by. A starling calls above your head. But no people. You force your eyes onward and take a deep breath.
"So, uh, would you rather get mauled by a bear," you break the silence, stepping over a stray tire, "—or be struck by lightning?"
It takes a second for Blue to respond. "Oh. That's a good one. Do I have a gun while the bear attacks me?"
"No. No weapons. Just you and the bear."
"Then lightning." She pats Ghost's shoulder. "Could you take a bear?"
"On a good day, maybe," he answers.
"What about you, Twix?"
"No," you instantly scoff, kicking at a rock. "A bear would rip me apart. I would choose lightning because it'd be quick."
"Okay, I have one," Blue quips. "Would you rather be ripped in half, or fall off a tall building?"
"Ripped in half by what?" Ghost asks, tilting his head back.
"It doesn't matter." You can hear the roll of her eyes.
"It does matter. Might change my answer."
"Fall off a building," you interject. "The way down would suck, but I bet you don't feel a thing once you hit the ground."
"But you'd look like a dead bug," says Blue.
"I don't care what I look like. I'll be dead."
Ghost clears his throat. "My turn, then."
"No! You have to pick one," she exclaims.
"Building," he drawls. A shadow of movement passes to the right of you. You naturally flinch closer to them, but it's just a doe hunkering down tall weeds that reach out of the concrete. A chuff of breath leaves your lips as you look away, only to find Ghost staring at you. For a few seconds, his eyes flicker between you and the deer before he goes back to focusing straight ahead.
"Would you rather," he begins, "—chop off all your fingers, or take out your own eyes?"
"What do I use to take out my eyes?" Blue asks.
"Knife."
"I guess my eyes," she winces. "I mean, I'd rather get rid of two things than ten."
They both glance at you expectantly. A frigid gust of northern air takes hold of your hair, so you tuck the unruly strands behind your ears. "Uh, fingers," you decide after a moment. "I could probably live without them."
In the village, the air stinks enough for Ghost to come to a halt. Before, he was able to pass right through. This time, a group of fourteen or fifteen Greys seems to be trapped on the main street between a crumbled wall and a fallen telephone pole. He has to decide between expending ammo or time. It's not long before he nods to a small building and the three of you scale the rusted fire escape. From the safe distance of the roof, he takes out the Greys one by one with an accuracy that barely leaves a dent in the ample stockpile of cartridges. With the route cleared, he's saved at least an hour or two of precious daylight.
The fog lifts. The ambery sun tries to peek through the clouds, but the sky is bent on staying grey. By the time you are back, your blisters have blisters. Blue has fallen asleep, cheek smushed against the back of Ghost's neck. Relief, thick and palpable, tastes sweet on your tongue. The fence, the rabbit hutch, the much-cozier cabin; none of it is home to you, but still, it calls your name in a welcoming coo.
You have to aim Ghost's flashlight so he can unlock the gate. Blue stirs, but her eyes remain closed even when he pushes inside the cabin. It's shrouded in darkness. You prop the flashlight on the table as his boots scuffle against the floor.
He puts her to bed. As he does, you feel around for the sofa and nearly choke when your worn fingertips graze shabby fabric. Not icy water or solid wood or muddy ground, but something soft. You're about to sink into it, your bones desperate for the springy cushions, when he returns to the threshold of the hallway with an ugly, flannel sheet in his hands.
"Here."
It's hard to be certain if you thank him or not; your brain conjures up the words, but your voice doesn't seem to function quite right. One thing is certain: you accept the sheet, tuck it on with urgency, and then lay down, burying your face in the crook of the pillow and arm. You kick off your boots and let the darkness take you, swift and heavy. It could be a coma or death disguised as sleep, and you figure you'd still slip into it without fuss.
Those first days back are quiet. Blissfully uneventful. You sleep and sleep. In fact, you don't move from the couch except to relieve yourself and eat a little. Ghost and Blue don't seem to do much, either. Or maybe you just don't notice.
At one point, you wake up to a small stack of shirts beside the couch. All black. One long sleeve, the rest short. You change into one and continue sleeping.
At another point, Blue hovers above you with a whisper that draws out a groan from you. "Hey. Ghost is making me skin some rabbits. Apparently, it's the only chore I can't get out of. Do you want to help me?"
"I think I'm good." You stuff the pillow over your face to make your point.
"You've been sleeping for three days, you know."
"I could go for another three."
She takes the hint and staggers away. Walking now. You hear her right leg drag a little.
The sleep is good until it's not.
On the fifth night, you're no longer fatigued enough to keep the dreams squandered. They start as whispers. Hoarse and gritty. Then they get louder and louder, shouting your name until they are so loud it feels like someone is screaming in your ear. Different voices blend into an indecipherable cacophony. One screams in pain; another in anger. You feel someone's cold fingers take hold of your neck and are finally pried awake, flying up against the couch with fiery pants burning through your lungs. But all that's there is a dark room.
Sweat clings to every inch of you. It feels like everything is on fire, and all you want to do is cool down. You haven't bathed since the river. Catching your breath, you swing your legs down and quietly pad to the bathroom where you hope a little water is left. Luckily, in the glint of moonlight, you find a bucket used for washing hands and scoop some to your face. Then, you comb it through your sweat-laced hair.
You unwrap your wrist and brush your fingers over the bite. You dab some water on it. You can't see well, but you feel the constellation of congealed scabs beneath your fingertips. Scars. Wounds. Your nostrils flare as a you wonder if one day you'll be so covered in them you won't even look like yourself. It's a good thing there is not enough light to spot the reflection of your face in the mirror, because you're not thrilled to greet the one now on your brow.
On your way out of the bathroom, something solid and immobile blocks your path. You startle backward, sucking in air as you peer up at a masked face. Ghost. It's Ghost. You haven't spoken to him since getting back, and in this moment, you long for the ability to push past him, but his wide shoulders consume the narrow hall.
It's silly to think you can avoid him when you sleep in the same space now. The thing is— you have no idea what to think of him. Before, it was easy to settle on fear of how easily he could snap your neck, and annoyance for how he treated you. And then, when forced to, you could engage in a pragmatic conversation about how to keep yourselves alive.
But now, you don't know what you are supposed to feel around him, and you have spent zero time reflecting on it so far.
"Sorry. I was just, uh, washing my face."
"In the middle of the night?" he rasps, tilting his gaze down.
You teeter back a step, keeping a healthy bubble of space between your bodies. You're not sure why he hasn't just moved out of the way, or what he would be up and about for at this hour, but briefly, you wonder if he is suspicious of you. If after everything you went through, he still thinks you're trying to do something and might send you back to the shed. The three of you relieve yourself outside the cabin since the plumbing doesn't work, so it certainly does seem odd that you'd be in the bathroom during the night.
"I was sweating a lot." Inwardly, you curse at yourself. "I mean, I haven't bathed since we got back, and I..." You trail off in a whisper.
"And you what?"
"I don't know." You fiddle with the hem of the oversized shirt he gave you. "I'm not trying to kill you or your daughter in your sleep, though, if that's what you're thinking."
He simply stares at you. It feels like he can see right through you, and your eyes drop to your wool socks. Then, he murmurs, “I wasn't thinking that."
"Okay," you reply carefully. "Could you... please move, then?"
Finally, he steps out of the way, but you feel the burn of his eyes on your skin as you brush past him.
"Twix."
You pause, looking back. "Yes?"
A shake of his head. And then: "Take a proper bath tomorrow. You could use it.”
You bite the inside of your cheek. "Will do."
With that, you crawl back onto the couch.
#simon riley x reader#simon ghost riley x you#cod#ghost#simon ghost riley x reader#zombie apocolypse au
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Some of Gilbert von Obsidian's best quotes
[Warning: Heavy spoilers about Gilbert's route]
"Ahaha, what is the prince of Obsidian, if not rotten?"
"I hate people."
"No matter how hard I try not to, I can't help but be gentle with her. What kind of villain am I?" (—Gilbert talking about Emma to himself)
"(...) I hope you don't accidentally end up calling me 'big bro' or anything." (—Gilbert to Leon)
"(...) You were just saying what you really think. I don't think doing that is rude. And it's true I'm someone scary."
"I like you because you're so warm, little rabbit."
"Ahaha! You're so sassy. But I like that about you."
"I want to make things awkward for you."
"You can't just focus on the best of someone while ignoring the worst of them."
"If you were a bother, I'd kill you, so don't worry." *smile intensifies*
"...I'm no match for that pure, innocent gaze of yours. You're the only one capable of pushing me around, you know."
"Depending on what you say next, I might just take your head clean off." (—Angry Gilbert to Emma)
"(...) You nearly died. ...Do you have any idea how much that chilled me to the core?"
"The only thing I can ever be for you is a villain. ...Unfortunately."
"...Thank you. I almost got murdered by some dust."
"If you keep on lying over and over about being fine, I might just... Well, you can guess, right?"
"I found it in a book in the little rabbit's room. They need to understand what happens to them if they try to interfere with what's mine... Don't they?" (—Gilbert talking about a poisoned needle targeting Emma to Roderic)
"You said it, remember? You said you wanted me to learn to love Rhodolite. To me, you are Rhodolite."
"Those born with status have the right to do whatever they like to those who are lesser than them. That's what you want to say, isn't it? (...) Hmm? What's that? You look a little distressed for some reason. But I suppose that's no surprise. You see, I have the right to tyrannize you however I please, just as you tyrannized those children who had no one to protect them. I'm imperial royalty, and you're just a third-rate aristocrat. So I'm going to have to teach you just how different our social positions are... Aren't I? (...) Aren't you lucky that we're in Rhodolite? You've narrowly escaped death. If this was Obsidian, you'd be dead for sure. After all, we have no need for disgusting nobles who defile the purity of children." (—Gilbert to a Baron of Rhodolite)
"Wait, so you're telling me you baked cookies for another man, even though I'm right here. Ouch, that hurts."
"(...) if by chance I run into your dear papa, he'll kill me." (—Gilbert talking about Akatsuki)
"Welcome to Obsidian. (...) I introduced myself as Gilbert von Obsidian, didn't I? There's only one person in this country allowed to use the Obsidian name. And that's the emperor."
"There's nothing about you or me that makes one of us intrinsically inferior or superior to the other. Humans are all basically the same. And naturally, from a societal perspective, we probably need people who can take the lead. People who are capable, and talented, who can bring others together, and build a better tomorrow. That's a healthy way to be. I'm the ruler of a country that knows deception and decay all too well, so I understand better than most. That's why my ideal, my ambition, is to conquer all the royalty that have infested this whole continent, and free the people who are under their control."
"I wrote that story based on you. (...) Akatsuki told me a lot of stories about you, and they were always stories about you showing love and affection for others. He made it sound like you believed that the true nature of people is love, and that the happiness of others was what made you the happiest. The idea of living like that was repulsive to me, but at the same time, it made me curious. I got to wondering what sort of choices you'd make, if you were in the same position I was."
"You were bullying small children to amuse yourselves. That Rhodolitian might have stopped at just punching you, but I'm not that kind. Did I make military regulations or didn't I? And do those regulations say attacking non-combattants is forbidden, or don't they?" (—Gilbert to Obsidianite soldiers)
"Then how about you call me papa?" (—Gilbert to Luke)
"...Don't go. (...) I don't know... if I can hold on... until you get back. Being on my own... is lonely..."
"...You're the only one I'll ever love."
"I'm taking your daughter." *smile intensifies* (—Gilbert to Akatsuki)
"I'm not oppressing you with my power, it's just my love for you, overflowing."
"You can't do things like this with other men... Unless you want to see dead bodies."
"You're liked by everybody. A lot of the princes helped you out today. That's because people adore you, and they naturally want to help you out. They're all beasts with strong characters, but you're important to all of them. Do you know how rare that is? That means you're charming to everyone you meet. ...Including me, of course."
"There's no way I'd ever let anyone else kill you. It has to be me."
"I can't just bare my body for free."
"I've never liked seeing you clothe your body in things that other people have put their hands all over."
"Don't force yourself to talk. I'm not so narrow-minded that I'll go around saying you're disrespectful just because you didn't thank me. You're sick; you're supposed to just drink medicine and sleep."
"Wah, boohoo. I can't believe we were on different pages this whole time. I've given you my entire heart, and yet, look at what you've done with it! (...) Waaah, I'm so heartbroken that the only thing that could bury my sadness is world domination!"
"For his sake, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear him call me 'eyepatch bastard'. Rude." (—Gilbert's thoughts about Silvio)
"Her ability to right what was wrong, purify what was once sullied... It runs at complete odds with my nature. I may have truly met my match." (—Gilbert's thoughts about Emma)
"I blinked a few times as my vision seemed to expand all at once... and the little rabbit become clearer and even more beautiful." (—Gilbert's thoughts about Emma)
"I'm never letting you go. If you run away from me, I'll conquer the whole world and follow you to the ends of the earth if that's what it takes. No wait... I just need to control your heart, so that you'll never even want to leave me." (—Gilbert's thoughts about Emma)
"We all approach life differently. Chevalier slices hearts in two. I trample on them. But, you... You respect them."
"I wanted to see you bawling your eyes out."
"You're... the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
"I like the little rabbit very much, you see. So I certainly hope that bold declaration of yours doesn't end up turning into a lie." (—Gilbert to Silvio, in Silvio's route)
#gilbert von obsidian#ikeprince gilbert#ikemen prince#ikemen series#cybird ikemen#cybird#otome game#cybird otome
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I said I was gonna so a whole long post about the monologue after my rewatch so: having watched the whole Vecna monologue v Mike monologue that happens in the Piggyback in full for the first time in actual months…god damn. Just.
There is no way to understand what’s happening with El (and her relationship with Mike) during the monologue without looking at Vecna's monologue that comes right before it. There just isn’t, and if you try you’re 100% going to miss critical context for why things happen the way they do both in mlvn’s relationship and on screen.
First off: after what Vecna says to her, El is fully in self-defeat (and self-loathing) mode. She’d just learned that every single attempt of hers to do "right" with the knowledge she had at the time had actually been useful to the person destroying her world—
—and despite trying so hard to overcome her sense of destructiveness about things like scaring Mike and hitting Angela by going to “learn who she is” at Nina, it turned out that even the moments she perceived as her “heroic” ones (like closing the gate and stopping the mindflayer monster in S3) were actually tools useful to Vecna…just like her Piggybacking in to save Max.
El is literally hearing that even her best attempts at being “good” were used for evil, which makes her an accomplice to Vecna even if she didn’t mean to be—
—which we're shown, as El remembers all the moments she thought she was "helping" only to be told each one of those was her having her powers used by Henry/Vecna.
If that wasn't enough, we literally watched as El paralleled herself directly to the person whose powers are now being used to destroy the world, even as we (the audience) know most of what is happening is just Vecna do what he does best by tapping into her deepest core fears.
Vecna adds insult to injury here by making it clear that he once "wanted her by his side" in the first place (aka the powers she's been trying to use for good cannot be divorced from bad things)—
—and from this second onward (in El's perception at least) there is no way for her powers to be used correctly even when she wants to be helpful—which is why she “gives up,” lets the vine loop around her neck in the first place, and stares unmoving and crying at Max.
Basically: What Vecna says steals even the little resolve she gained back at Nina…which is why she stops fighting entirely.
Now, all of this is an extremely fair reason to feel defeated and dejected about trying to fight (on top of traumatizing af for El)—
—the problem is (like everything else wrong in their relationship) Mike once again has no sense of El’s internal state because she doesn’t and has not historically shared it (or can’t in this case), and therefore can only answer what he externally perceives her state to be—which he guesses, based on their last argument, has to do with him not being able to say he loves her.
The disjointedness between what is really happening with El and what Mike wrongly perceives the issue to be is why we see El not only look repeatedly displeased by his confession—
—but why the only thing she can think of in relation to Mike positively is his initial rescue, when he takes her to a space where her powers are neutral / unknown (and not the force for evil even her best attempts at using them just became in her mind).
That dissonance is also why she doesn’t fight until he starts saying she need to get over herself and save someone else…which is why she looks at Max and decides to fight anyway.
In truth, Mike could have glossed over the entirety of the “I love you," "not I'm scared of you but I’m afraid of losing you” part and just said “I believe you can do anything, but right you need to fight” and gotten the same result, given that what needed to be addressed was her self-loathing, not Mike’s (lack of) romantic affections.
Basically: even if they weren’t on the precipice of a breakup, Mike’s love wasn’t going to make up for the fact that El has basically just learned that what Brenner said was true—she wasn’t ready, not even physically, but mentally…because she was not prepared to learn that even her best attempts at saving the world were actually helping Henry build to the end of it.
Combine that with the fact that she ends up losing Max despite trying to fight with Mike's encouragement...on top of the fact that all of her relationship with Mike was rooted in her wanting to feel "normal" (aka what Vecna just shot out the window permanently)?
...no amount of "I love you's" from a boy as insecure as Mike (who she keeps at emotional distance) is was going to help that, especially given that Mike was directly mirroring what Brenner (who she literally cannot stand atp) said to her trying to encourage her.
All of this...we haven't even touched on anything happening on Mike's side or how her powers (that he so admires her for) are now officially "evil" in El's mind, never mind every other aspect of their incompatibility? ☠️
—I know I'm gonna move from this post on to how what Brenner said to her about "facing the good and the bad / humans are rarely so simple" is actually how El's arc has to be resolved in the end, but.
For now I'm at 30 images and anything more would get convoluted easy, so I'll just leave us (and my million mile an hour thoughts) here.
#this post turned out so long but I HAD to get it out before it drove me insane lmao#byler#< target audience#anti mlvn#el hopper#mike wheeler#martin brenner#my s4 rewatch#henry creel#vecna#my st commentary#stranger things
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Queerness and the House of Usher (spoilers!)
See I just added these Thoughts to the tags in @quecksilvereyes 's post but now I have Feelings too
TFotHoU (or HoU, as I will refer to it here), as expected from a Mike Flannagan show, has a bunch of Queer Rep™ to talk about. HoU is, also, about remarkably evil people - amoral capitalists who'll step over anyone if it means they'll get something from it. And look! Some of them are queer! Kinky too!
That's bad queer representation... right?
The show isn't that clear when stablishing sexualities, but we see that at least three of the Usher kids - Napoleon, Camille and Victorine - have same sex SOs/assistants with curious job descriptions. Prospero's taste for orgies probably implies queerness too, but honestly I don't remember if he gets it going with any guys in the story. I honestly have no idea about Tamerlane's voyerism thingie and Frederick is the only one with a "traditional family" going on.
Unrelated, but: Leo is definitely cheating on his bf Julius. Completely dismissing about his worries for him too. And for his cat. That's objectively evil, clearly. Vic literally killed her fiancée Alessandra, though she didn't stuff her under the floorboard, which is an L when compared to Poe's original. Cam doesn't believe in true love. Perry blackmailed his sister in law. Mean. He's also got a surprisingly high kill count for the family's disappointment, but since unlike Roderick he only killed rich people, we stan. I don't belong in Kinky spaces so I haven't got a big take on Tammie, only that - well, she's completely dismissing of her husband and sees him as a prop, just like the sex worker she hires.
Huh.
See, the nature of a story called "the fall of X family" is that X family is going to be the main character. The title kinda implies that they're falling for a reason, ergo, they're despicable fucking people. And they're queer! They're very queer. Many flavors of gay. They're the main characters, and they're monsters, and they're gay.
No, that's not bad rep.
Queerness as a movement, a community and a theory is very focused on scaping a cisheteronormative society's binaries (ie man/woman, husband/wife, public/private) and creating living conditions to those who fall outside of these categories - mlms and wlws, the trans, the nbs, the aros and aces... we are all queer, strange and estranged from this weird and limited worldview. And so we create a community for ourselves. It's very focused on care and anti-stablishment. Since a cisheteronormative society tends to be very white, rich and western, it's also focuses on anti-racism, anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism. Y'all know that, this is Tumblr and we love leftist Discourse.
I also know many, many gay people irl who are not like that at all. Libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, terfs, completely apolitical people and the like. Sexuality at it's core is personal, not political, so there are gay people out there who are perfectly comfortable with their sexuality on an individual level but do not see the point of getting involved in the broader context. They're queer, but are they...?
Well—
Not to mention there's lots of asshole gays out there! Don't you have a shitty ex? Have you never been almost run over by a drunken butch who blew cigar smoke into your face? I have! Life experiences are just like that. Maybe you should touch more grass. You'll probably find a lucky gift from your neighbour's dog, who is an astrology-obsessed bisexual and also really hot but stopped making out with you at a party once she found out you're a pisces (the neighbour, not the dog).
(Granted, none of this is as bad as implanting an experimental heart contraption into the fiancée you just killed because she dared to have ethical principles and then being so consumed with grief you stab yourself in front you'd your dad but you know how it goes. We're not the 1%.)
My point is, queer people are people. We are complex. We fuck up, and sometimes there's still times to fix things and sometimes... there isn't. We're consumed by jealousy and regret and sometimes we're so locked into our own head we stop believing the rest of the world is real too. Just like any other people, because unfortunately, queerness isn't a sign of morality.
And even if queerness does mean community, kindness and acceptance, tell me... Where the hell would the Usher kids get those from? The people around them are not really peers – they're ass-istants, blowjob-giving apartments, orgy mates, heart surgery providers, hired fitness moneybags, perfect housewives. Even if the partners are all shown to care for the Ushers, there's still a distance, a power gap, that makes the relationships fundamentally wrong.
And the partners? Arguably they're the good queer rep in the show, but look – even when Julius and Alessandra are shown to be good people (or at least people with an ethical boundary), they're not the good gays, they're simply the good SO's to a family of psychos. Exactly like Bill and Morrie, who afawk are straight people.
Which leads us to HoU's parameter of morality - Auguste Dupin. He refuses to drink the Amontillado, symbol of all the Usher opulence over the years. He got screwed over by the Usher twins and by the Raven herself, but he refused to cave in (except for the informant part, admittedly). He's not a good gay guy; he is gay and he is a good man.
The fundamental difference between our show's main tragic yaoi couple isn't that Auggie is a happily out gay man (and therefore is good) while Roderick is a sad divorced hetero (and therefore is bad). Auggie is the richer man because he is a good man; he has a spouse and children and grandchildren he loves with all his heart. He has a family and a community and he has found a sort of happiness no money can buy. Roderick owns the world – but what does he really have? What do his children even have? How could they ever build communities for themselves if they were never in one? Their father made them compete for his love. He never nurtured their bonds, he just showered them with money and excess until it was too much for them to handle. Juno herself pointed out - they were never a family. The House of Usher was only that. A house. It is empty and soulless.
What is queerness without a community? How could the people who represent the relentless corporate normativity and cutthroat capitalism ever be good queer rep? How can they even be queer?
Hear me out: on the most individual, simple level, being queer is still about not fitting in. These kids are bastards. They are are PoC and women in a predominantly male and white dominated space. They're on top of the world, but they're still outsiders to their own House. How could they not be queer?
And yes, I know this discussion takes a different turn when it comes to representation in media, but it's not like Flannagan fell into a Hays Code-era flamboyant villain trope. Queerness is just there. Just like Victorine and August are both black people in (arguably) the opposite ends of the morality spectrum, there are queer characters of many kinds here. The story just happens to be about the fucked up ones.
HoU is a poignant critique of capitalism and a surprisingly funny adaptation of Poe. We'll judge it by that. It happens to be queer – more things should be.
#the fall of the house of usher#TFotHoU#victorine lafoucarde#camille l'espanaye#napoleon usher#prospero usher#tamerlane usher#roderick usher#queer theory#queerness#lgbtqia#edgar allan poe#mike Flannagan#sun o' mine
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Let's talk about the Bakugou Problem
Yes, everyone, it's finally time, what is probably my most requested rant: The Bakugou Problem. Or rather, the Bakugou problems, because there's two:
The first is the fact that he's an unrepentant asshole who is only now, at the end of the manga, truly starting to realize basic shit like 'apologizing'. The second is that, for all intents and purposes, the Bakugou the characters seem to interact with is a different person than what we're being shown.
There's been plenty of deep dives on his issues, so I doubt I'll propose anything new, but this should fun anyways, right? Let's start here:
I think, at the core, Bakugou's problem is he just never grew up.
Way, way back early on, we see some flashbacks to Earlygou, and in summary? Earlygou is an ass. Fun fact: for all that it's commonly held that Bakugou grew worse over time after getting his Quirk? He called Izuku Deku before that. He was just a bit ahead of the class, looked at Izuku's name, and saw 'Deku'. Boom, he starts saying it, and it's only further entrenched in his mind as he outperforms his peers physically, while Izuku lags behind.
Then he gets his Quirk. Let's quote what he's told: 'Ooh, another impressive Quirk! You could be a hero with a Quirk like that, Katsuki!'
I know we all think he got coddled for his Quirk, and later on he was, but that? That was just a teacher giving him the verbal equivalent of a gold star. Meanwhile, Bakugou?
'Makes sense. I'm awesome. I'm better than everyone else!', he thinks, while having this look on this face like he's being enlightened to a Fundamental Truth. He took some generic praise and ran off with it.
So yeah, Earlygou was an ass. Here's the thing: a lot of kids are assholes. It can be hard to remember sometimes, but kids, really young kids who don't get how the world works at all, do and think a lot of impulsive, assholish shit, not because they think the world revolves around them, but because they can't comprehend a world that isn't all about them.
Here's another thing: kids grow out of that. They realize, eventually, that other people matter, that their actions have consequences, and all that other stuff that makes people into functioning adults.
I don't blame Earlygou for being an assholish child. I blame Bakugou for never growing beyond that. And it's interesting to think about that, because his parents seem legit. His dad is quiet, sure, but he's solid and down to earth, and while Bakugou clearly takes after his mother, she also seems to have gotten the 'morals' message he didn't, and has concerns that he didn't do the same. They're not poor, and are working in fashion, and implied to be doing well enough that, if they're not rich, they're at the very least well off.
So... school, I guess? Here's one of the times where the setting suffers for its lack of lower level development, because I would love to see what non-Aldera schools were like. Everyone else in 1A seems like they wouldn't have a major problem with Izuku being Quirkless, or at least be mild enough in their prejudices to not spend their free time torturing him. Is Aldera different? Is it an age thing? Are they just the good eggs and would have had assholish classmates who would act like Aldera did? Would other teachers be OK with how Izuku was treated (my limited understanding of the depressing Japanese view on bullying says, 'yes', but fuck if I know, and honestly, two hundred years in the future, shouldn't they be better than modern Japan)? More than that, the public view on Quirklessness is, for understandable reasons (cough cough Bakugou), highly underdeveloped, so we don't know how much Izuku was treated was the normal, but I think part of the reason Bakugou got so bad is that he had Izuku near him, as this convenient target. By pushing down on the 'acceptable' target, all his peers approved him, cheered him on, which both fed his ego and his popularity, and combined with his high-status Quirk, this cycle continued swelling his head until we reached canon Bakugou, king of all he surveys. The kids follow him, the teachers suck up to him, his potential, his future, all are limitless!!!!
...Sigh. Before I keep going, let me touch on one other thing: Izuku trying to save Bakugou after he fell when they were children.
On the first take, it seems utterly unreasonable, how badly he responded to that, right? And the second, and third, it still seems the same.
Someone, somewhere, said this take in a comment in a fic I read and I've never been able to forget it: think about it from the view of a heroic saturated society.
Think about it from the lenses of MHA, where All Might is a few steps short of a god in the eyes of the public. Everyone knows him, everyone loves him, especially the kids, and especially Bakugou and Izuku.
Look at that scene again, how Izuku reaches down for him. Overlay him with All Might.
That is what Bakugou saw: Izuku making himself unto All Might. While Izuku just wanted to save him, of course, somewhere deep in his unconcious Bakugou took that symbolism and ran with it, and reached a completely (ir)rational conclusion: Izuku was looking down on him. It went, I imagine, a little something like this:
All Might is the strongest. All Might looks like that when saves other people, who are weaker than him. Izuku is channeling All Might, therefore he is saying that he is stronger than me.
Bakugou, in his child mind, saw Izuku, not as helping him, but T-posing at him. To him, that was Izuku trying to assert dominance.
And he never got over that. Never grew beyond that impression. Do you want to know the worst part about it, though, when you look at it that way?
Think about Bakugou again, and his motivations, with your Bakugou Logic goggles on: All Might is strong. Bakugou wants to be strong like All Might. All Might asserts his power over others by saving them. Therefore?
Bakugou wants to save people like All Might.
Can you imagine if Bakugou was built of that dynamic? Like, with Shirou in Fate, if that scene was etched in his mind forever, and he was obsessed with remaking it over and over, but on his terms, with him as the savior? Him as the one looking down on the weak?
Still canon-style Bakugou, still an asshole, still lusting for power... but when asked what he wanted to do with it, or why, he would answer: so I can save everyone.
And even if it was for the crudest, most self serving of reasons, even if it was only so he could feel good about himself and lord it over everyone else that he was the one who saved them; it would have been so much better than canon. There's so much fascinating complexity to explore in a character like that, as well as a clear path to redeem him: under that logic, Bakugou would, over time, learn to save people, not for his own satisfaction, but just because it's the right thing to do. Hell, even the way people treat him would make more sense, because even if he was an asshole, if his motivation, which he cheerfully shouts about at any given moment, was to save people, then suddenly his acceptance feels more realistic, doesn't it? Him being compared to Izuku as a rival makes more sense when both of them are in it to save everyone, that core of heroism, but each represent a different part of how modern heroism is expressed, with Bakugou as the corrupt, media saturated part of it, while Izuku channels the original, pure spirit of heroics.
Can you imagine that with me? What could have been in another life? It could have been beautiful.
But, sadly, that's nothing more than a dream, and we should return back to reality (though I might want to expand on that at some point, it really does sound interesting to me).
Change and Improvement. These are words that some hold in the air whenever Bakugou is judged harshly, and they wave them like talismans to try and banish others objections.
Let me tell you a truth: change and improvement are hollow words without context. They are a statement that something has happened, not a measure of how much it has happening. In many ways, this is similar to a unit of measurement, like inches, and a number of inches. If you're talking about something, and you say, 'it can be measured in inches'.... that is generally unhelpful. Saying that it is, say, eight inches long is far more useful information.
Still, these aren't exactly moral statements, and change in particular is distinctly amoral. If something has 'improved a little bit' it, you know that it's better, and generally how much. But is it good now? Was it good then?
Let me put it another way: say that, once a day, every day, I appear to you out of the shadows and force you to eat a cup of shit. Exactly a cup, every day, at 2:30 PM, without fail; nothing you do to protect yourself from me makes any difference, nowhere you go is safe. You can't run. You can't hide. I am inevitable. The shit is inevitable. You will eat that shit, no matter what you think about it.
Then, one day, I come with only a half cup, and from then on you are only forced to eat a half cup of shit a day instead of a full one.
Isn't that both a change and an improvement? It's literally half as bad; doesn't that sound like a lot better? Yet, while that may be true, is the situation actually better in a meaningful way, or it as firmly negative as it was before? Should you be mewling gratefully to me that I'm being less horrible to you, or can you still hold a grudge against me for everything I've done to you and continue to do?
What if I apologized, one day, after forcing yet another half cup down your throat? What if I told you that I shouldn't have done it, but the way you looked, the way you acted, that vapid, cow-like look of joy on your face... it was just so shitty that I had to, that you made me do it? Then I say this changes nothing, and that we're still on for tomorrow for your daily dose at the normal time.
Tell me something: do you feel better? Has my generous apology moved your heart? Are we friends now?
This is Izuku's situation in a nutshell. Bakugou's treatment has changed, has improved even. It's reached a point where there are actual differences in Izuku's daily life. That doesn't mean it's still not shit treatment, and it doesn't matter if it's served in a cup or a tablespoon, shit is still shit. And the thing is Bakugou treated him like shit, and he still treats him like shit.
Context matters. So let's talk about the context. Let's talk about what Bakugou did.
Well, first off, there's the Deku thing, but I feel a lot people don't get how bad that is, so let's spell it out in detail. Once upon a time, as I've said, Bakugou was a little better at reading than everyone else. He looked at Izuku's name and saw 'Deku' in this, and thought it was hilarious, and so he started talking about it.
Bakugou looked at his name, and saw Useless in it. He didn't just call Izuku that, he said, this is in your name, it always has been there, to the point that, all these years later, he physically struggles to use Izuku's actual name.
For Izuku's entire childhood, the one person truly on his side, who truly loved him, was his mother.... who gave him that name.
In other words, every time Bakugou called him that name, with that history behind it? Bakugou was telling him that, when Izuku was born, Inko looked at the child she held in her arms, turned to the nurse, and said, "I'll call him... Useless."
He called him this, every day, every time they talked, for over a decade. Saying that the real meaning of the name his mother gave him was useless.
But it's not just that, even. He led the school, his neighbors, effectively everyone Izuku knew in anywhere near his age group, to call him that. There were probably people in Aldera who didn't know Izuku by any other name. There were probably times Izuku thought of himself by that name, that his name was Useless. It's not that big a reach from responding to it as his name, after all, and by the time the story start's he was well trained in responding to it.
Then, there's the more 'basic' bullying; insults, taking his stuff, breaking his stuff, using his Quirk on him. Again, for years and years, until Izuku is beaten down into terrified compliance, where Bakugou blowing up his stuff, his desk, and him* in front of a teacher isn't something anyone even really notices anymore. And why does he do it? Because it's fun. Because he feels strong breaking things, hurting people, being the big man on campus. Because he wants attention, respect, glory.
Because he can. Because it's fun.
(*And isn't that weird, when you think about it? Bakugou has been hands free with his Quirk on Izuku since they were, what, four? Why doesn't Izuku have burns?
Bakugou uses explosions. His hands can burn hot enough (probably as part of the lighting process) to burn clothes, and that's when he's clearly holding back with it. There's no way he's been careful enough, kind enough to not hit skin with that his entire life. So why doesn't Izuku have burns from all that?
Answer? There is no good reason. You can mention how MHA humans are, well, inhumanly strong, but we see heat resistant Shoto being burned with boiling water; it's not like they're immune to it. More than that, though, Izuku is explicitly Quirkless. He is a mortal in a world of magic. He wouldn't have that same kind of resiliency.
So Izuku isn't burned because, A, Hori didn't want his main character to be scarred over, both for aesthetic reasons, and probably for ease of drawing, and B, because that would make Bakugou look worse. Because even then, back when Bakugou had consequences, that would be too much consequences for him, that he permanently scarred Izuku, since the Heroes Rising was the original ending, and Bakugou was always supposed to be redeemed. Hori probably figured, if he thought about it, that that was too far for the readers to forgive him for, and finally, C, he just didn't think about the consequences of Bakugou's actions.
But let's be honest: Izuku would be burned. The fact he isn't is just the prettying up of the situation.)
This is where Bakugou starts from: abusing Izuku to the point where he doesn't dare protest out of years of deeply ingrained terror, doing his best to systematically destroy Izuku's life, while being careful to avoid going too far and damage his chances for UA, which judging by his comment on smoking, may be the only real internal check he has on his behavior.
Because that's the thing; he's cruel, but calculatingly so. He's not a wild animal. It motivates him, but he can think about his actions, think about the possible consequences of them, how they'll react... and as long as they won't harm him, he's all for it.
Then we go to UA, and when he realizes that 'Deku' has a Quirk? Much less such a strong one? He attacks. Viciously, instinctively he goes into attack. He's stopped, but no consequences are given (more on that later), so he doesn't stop. Why would he? All he's learned is this teacher won't let him attack Izuku without a motive.
And then he gets one. Bakugou walks into the Battle Trial planning what he'll do to Izuku. His first words in there are don't dodge... which is especially bad considering what he'll say in a little bit.
His plan? To beat the living shit out of Izuku, to vent all his frustration on him, but stopping just short of it being bad enough for the Trial to be stopped. And as Izuku defies him (by dint of not letting himself be beaten up), he gets angrier and angrier at him for the gall of it, for the audacity to not lay down and let Bakugou beat him up until he feels better, until it reaches the point where Bakugou brings out those gauntlets of him.
'Dammit, Deku, don't dodge me!' 'He won't die if he dodges!'
Yeah. He says both of these things in the space of the same fight. When Bakugou fires that damn gauntlet of his, he's finally reached the point where, for the first time we've seen, he's no longer thinking of the consequences even a little. He wants to kill Izuku, if only to prove that his Quirk, that he, is better (note this too; we'll talk more later about this) than Izuku and his Quirk.
Well, for obvious reasons, that doesn't work out for him, since Izuku's Quirk is the strongest in existence, and small fraction of it, badly used, is still enough to clap Bakugou's attack, enhanced by support equipment (who the hell approved that, by the way? It literally destroys buildings. It seemingly exists for no other reason than to cause massive collateral damage). Then he's forced into an existential crisis when Deku 'wins'. His arm is broken, he's beat up, but by the rules of the game he won anyways and because of that, Bakugou's world collapses.
This, more than anything, I think is Bakugou's true catalyst for change: not being saved by 'Deku', but losing to him. Granted, being saved is enough to force him to avoid him, but it probably helped that Izuku only bought him moments of air. He may have saved him, but All Might did the work, All Might the strongest, the greatest, his idol.
This though? This was Izuku surpassing him, and all on his own.
And I want to pause to consider something here: something that was stressed since the beginning of the story, and still is, besides the terrible mixed messaging at times, is that being heroic is more important to being a hero than sheer ability. Izuku was heroic with his complete lack of ability at the start, after all, while All For One is one of the strongest beings in the setting, and is the farthest thing from heroic. And when you look at Bakugou, as we're introduced to him? There's not a speck of that in him. There's no kindness, no mercy, no sympathy; Bakugou has no positive aspects to him. He has talent, talent for days, but talent isn't a person, a personality. He is a creature of pure ability, and nothing more, and that makes him a singularly unheroic creature.
But the story continues, and Bakugou is forced to confront his own weakness compared to his classmates... except, you know, he doesn't. Even as he does everything wrong, as picks fight with classmates, teachers, villains he should be avoiding... he faces no real consequences for it.
Because, as I've said? Bakugou used lethal force on Izuku. Knowingly. As a teacher tells him not to. That... that sounds like something that even a normal school would be concerned about, much less this elite school that is focused around being a hero, and whose student body is largely comprised of very lethal people, who they intent to unleash upon the world with minimal restrictions on their behavior.
I mean, forget the school; why is All Might fine with this? Aizawa? Nezu? Any of these teachers? How about all of their fellow students, all of who are heroic, and watched this happen live, and All Might's response, no less?
This is the second problem of Bakugou: what they see, talk to, and interact with, doesn't seem to match with the reality that we see, and these two problems are so intertwined that is hard to talk about them separately.
Because on Day One of school, Bakugou attempts to murder his fellow student, and no one cares. The worst he gets is a waggled finger. The fact that he isn't expelled is mind boggling beyond belief, when you pause for a second and consider that fact.
Aizawa talks like he just rough housed too hard or something, and the worse thing All Might mentions is failing the exercise.
This is something that many people have talked about, and at times have named many different ways. For this, I've decided to call it, 'Bakugou's Tsundere Field', because it makes other people act like Bakugou is tsundere, acting tough but with a kind heart, instead of just... acting like a shit person. You know, like he does.
Like I said, it's hard to realistically seperate that from Bakugou's general behavior, so I'm just going to keep going and point it out as I go along.
Next, let's talk about... the Sports Festival. The Sports Festival is where, if you need the reminder, Bakugou starts things off by insulting everyone else and making them hate his class. Twice.
First, by insulting the, admittedly vulture like crowd gawking over 1A's near death experience (I still don't like that), and the second as the valedictorian, where his 'speech' is his two sentence statement that he's going to be first... and yet, for some reason, Izuku watches this and marvels over how he's changed. Because normally, he'd do this but he'd be gloating. Izuku. Izuku. This isn't some mind boggling big thing to be in awe of.
Actually, let's chat about that a bit, because that's honestly such a big problem it's almost a third concern on it's own right: Izuku is our major narrator, right? So we get a lot of our views on Bakugou from his perspective, and... well, he's very much an unreliable narrator, whenever it comes to Bakugou. Every time he talks, there's this sense of awe in it that's been there ever since he was a child; it taints his narrative every time he talks about Bakugou, makes it always more positive than it should be.
Because, wow, Bakugou, that's different from before, an improvement, right? Well guess what? That shit is still shit, even if there's less of it. Izuku is just so biased, so traumatized, such... an abuse victim, that he he takes what Bakugou gives him and doesn't think there's anything wrong with it, because he, Deku, has no self respect, and Bakugou is the biggest and the baddest, the most beloved of their childhood, and it's something he never seems to get past. Even when he stands up to Bakugou, fights him, he still can't get past staring at him in awe, and barely ever complains about how he's being treated.
And because Izuku is our main viewpoint? This view on Bakugou taints our view on him, and it's easy to look at him with Izuku's admiring eyes.
But I digress. In the cavalry battle, Bakugou basiclly breaks the rules by flying off the horse, but gets away with it because of a technicality, which, you know, is great impulse to nurture: it's fine as long as it's technically legal! Sounds really heroic, right? Like something you want your law enforcement to live by?
Meanwhile, during this same fight, both Aizawa and All Might praises him for his ambition, and I just. Do you know what Bakugou says right before they think about that?
'I'm going to be Number One and leave piles of bodies in my wake!', he screams, while literally throwing a tantrum on national television and hitting the top of Kirishima's head like it's a desk.
...Wow. You know what? Maybe you two are mixing tenacity with bloodlust. That's one of the least heroic things I've ever heard in my life, and yet everyone just falls over themselves to praise him for it just because he's not content to settle for second place.
It's times like that I have to wonder: are they... are they seeing something different than what we do? Are all of Bakugou's most violent phrases and actions edited out for them? Did Hori add them for his fans? Or is it just The Tsundere Field(TM)?
Not even mentioning third stage where: he's praised for taking a woman 'seriously' for no apparent reason, and dragging it out when he would normally, just like he always does, just leap in mindlessly to attack, and this one time he really thinks it through it backfires when Ochaco turns it back around on him, only for him to just... over power it, with no ill effects. This comes with the double plus stupid on his part of him doing that because he's... what, afraid of her touching him?
Seriously? This entire post exists for me to call Bakugou out, but even I can't call him a coward. Every time he fights a villain, all of which want to kill him, and one who has Ochaco's power but lethal, he still charges in. Moreover, all it does it make you weightless; Bakugou's power explicitly gives him a way around that; if she tosses him, he can just fly back to the stage.
So... why is this a thing? This is a thing so, when the heroes, who at this point are symbolizing the audience's discontent with Bakugou, start complaining, Aizawa can step in, verbally slap them, us, and then explain how great Bakugou is, which get magnified by how casually he shoots down her plan at the end.
And here's the super special bonus problem with all of this: a hero's job isn't to protect themselves. A hero's job is to protect everyone else. Even if they, personally, are hurt, a hero is expected to risk their health, and lives, so that the general public is safe. You want to know what the problem is when protecting yourself and allowing the villain time to do things in the process? It means they get to do things. Like, say, set up a giant meteor shower that could cause mass casualties? You know, like what Ochaco actually did as Bakugou held back?
This is that plan that, need I remind you, Eraserhead was defending.
Then there's the fight with Shoto where, under the actual logic of the setting, according to Hori's very notes on how their Quirks work, Shoto should have froze him and thusly stopped him in his tracks, no fire needed, since it would stop Bakugou from sweating. But, instead, Bakugou powers through, somehow, and clinches a win anyways. And then, and this is after he eavesdrops on Shoto's conversation, BTW, which means he knows exactly why Shoto doesn't use his fire, he throws a fit that Shoto didn't use his fire on him anyways (which, considering he sweats nitroglycerin, means he would have exploded).
Now let's look at the Intern Arc, and I'll be honest: no matter how much a non-character Best Jeanist, I'll always be a fan of him for one simple reason:
When everyone else looked at Bakugou, and says, 'This kid is awesome', this is the one person in the entire setting who saw a problem. And as a bonus, he acts to do something about it.
In the same vein, I'll never forgive Hori for making him seem like such a pretentious twit, much less how hard he ends up cheering for Bakugou's every word later in the series. I'm relooking at these manga chapters, and his big attempt seems to be... jelling up Bakugou's hair, and... something like focusing the body and mind via the power of... tight jeans.
Wow. I mean, wow. The one time we get someone honestly, actually trying to change Bakugou for the better, to call him for what he is, and his big plan to do this is apparently giving him a new look.
Really? Like, beyond how much of a failure of an opportunity this is, beyond how it makes Best Jeanist look useless, it can give the reader that the impression that the reason why Bakugou is so wild and untamed is that those who want to reign him in are elitists who are wildly disconnected to reality, that he is right to be this way, because people following the rules are just holding him back.
And we come to... sigh. The Final Exam test. The fact that anyone who has spent five minutes with Izuku and Bakugou thinks that this clustefuck needs to happen is more proof of the terrifying powers of the TF. I mean, I just... when one person is constantly yelling, constantly aggressive, constantly swearing, constantly throwing fits, and this same person is constantly picking fights with another student, who, at worst, defends himself, and and more often just seems to take it..... what do you think they need?
Is it to be thrown together into a teamwork based, sink or swim test with seemingly enormous penalties for failure? Or is it to make one of them get therapy? And also detention?
Well, according to All Might, Aizawa, Nezu, and who knows who else....
*shrugs helplessly*
If only we could use Bakugou's powers for good, rather than making Izuku suffer.
But we can't. So the school locks an abuser and his victim together in a pseudo-deathmatch where teamwork is required to survive, as a form of therapy to treat the lack of cooperation that comes entirely from one party. Wonderful.
And, as anyone could predict, this promptly goes terribly. Bakugou attacks his teammate for the crime of... *checks notes* trying to work together with him against All Might, the strongest being in the setting. This is such a terrible crime because *checks notes again* ...Bakugou can totally take him.
Bakugou Katsuki, everybody. A 'genius' with the brain of a yipping chihuahua trying to fight a mastiff.
Recovery Girl watches this happen live and just goes, 'They're just absolutely the worst team, those two."
And oh, and I'm going to be honest, when you look at Recovery Girl she's kind of a piece of shit. She barely gets any scenes and any time they involve Izuku (a lot of that small amount) they are pure ass. But this? This just takes the cake.
Wow. They're such bad teammates, sure. Such heroic insight. Why, that's like saying putting Muscular on the same team with Kouta would be a bad team! That would have some truly terrible teamwork as well, right? It's something that is technically correct, but is just.... so heinously missing the core of the problem that you honestly have to wonder what in the actual fuck she's thinking. All Might and Aizawa, at least, have the excuse that they don't see that, at least as far as we know, but she deadass watches it happen, what the fuck.
And, as it has often been pointed out, Bakugou passes, after attacking his teammate and being carried out afterwards while Sero, who heroically sacrifices himself for the win and never once attacks his teammate, loses for exactly the same thing.
Simply marvelous.
Now let's move Training Camp Arc... where, when Bakugou is informed in the middle of an attack by villains that he is the target (and oh, we'll get to that in a moment). What is his first response to this? What does he do?
Le-fucking-roy right at them. Here's something that bothers me about how the story talks about Bakugou: he's so intelligent, he's analytical, all this stuff... but every time he gets into a fight? Or near a fight? His response is always, always to jump in. Needless to say, a heedless charge at the problem backfires, and he's captured. Surprise!
And back to Bakugou as target: the League of Villains watch him on TV and the first thing they thought about him is, I like the cut of his jib.
The worst people look at Bakugou and say he's clearly one of them.
This... this is something that's never really discussed. There's a press conference, Aizawa basiclly says he's too heroic to ever join them (ironically, since Bakugou's argument isn't about heroism or villainy, but that they're losers), and this just... never comes up again. There's no doubt in anyone's mind about anything after Eraserhead gives him that support
No one is concerned that, hey, maybe he did actully join them. Or the man with ten-thousand Quirks did something to him, brainwashed him, and honestly? That's not even a reach. That is actually what AFO was planning to do to him. This is a setting, need I remind you, where actual brainwashing Quirks exist, much less whatever the fuck happens to the Nomu and no one is concerned, after they all agree that there is already a mole, that Bakugou could become another mole, or maybe even was that original mole in the first place. No one goes, 'Hmm, well, the scum of Japan think he's one of them, maybe this is something we should be concerned about?'
I mean, fuck, no one just sits Bakugou down and tells him to pull his shit together, your image is ass and the media is probably going to be watching you until you die, ready to stain you with the accusation of villainy, and they can make your life hell if you slip up, and so far you don't seem even seem to care. Also, your heroic career, that you're oh so concerned about, is never going to get off the ground if everyone thinks your a villain, and a villain will never be Number One.
There's just... nothing. Bakugou is made out of warning signs, one the entire fucking setting ignores at times, but this is just... fuck.
Alright. Bakugou vs Izuku Two; Wank Bakugou Harder!
Actually, no. Before that... let's talk about one of the major lead ups to that: Bakugou finding out about OFA. Why? In part to force him into the plot, sure, but a large part of it is Izuku feeling... guilty. He feels guilty for lying to him, guilty for seeming to have a Quirk of his own; I'm not really going anywhere with this, I just want to talk about how fucked up that mentality is, that he felt he owed Bakugou that. He owes Bakugou nothing. Bakugou isn't his friend, isn't even his acquaintance, he's his abuser. Bakugou doesn't treat him in a way that deserves such sympathy, much less information on one of the greatest secrets in the setting. If Bakugou wants to assume that Izuku somehow hid that he had a Quirk for his entire life? Allowed himself to be constantly beat down, insulted, and mistreated, and for what? For this one gotcha moment of surprising Bakugou? Let him. If he's too stuck in his own idiocies to think of anything else, let him wallow in his own ignorance.
Anyways, BvI2: also known as that time Bakugou pulled his frequent victim aside to attack him and both of them got in trouble for it.
And this is billed as this big thing for Izuku, but he fights against Bakugou, metaphorically, all the time, and he's already had this big moment of physical defiance in BvI1. This fight isn't about Izuku, on any level. This fight exists solely for Bakugou. It starts because he starts it, he starts it because he feels upset and violence is apparently how he sorts through his emotions, and he wins it because he needs to.
But not just because he needs to win, oh no, there's more to that. Thematically, you see, this is important for Bakugou's growth. Or rather, the idea of his growth that never seems to persist between his growth moments. You see, thematically, Bakugou stands for victory via force, but him winning this fight doesn't make him right, doesn't give him All Might's approval, and to him, that's almost a paradox; that paradox is needed to move beyond who he is.
But that's the thing though. Bakugou needs it. Bakugou needs to win for Bakugou's growth. This growth is, both literally and thematically, at the expense of Izuku, because Izuku? If he won this, just... out matched Bakugou in a fight, no tricks, no technicalities, no crippling injuries, none of the things from their first fight? That would have been huge for him, for his confidence. It would have been Izuku, heroic Izuku, finally and truly eclipsing his old bully in every possible way, and that would have been great for him, for his confidence, for his self respect. Moreover, though, that still would have been good for Bakugou, because even when he loses, he never loses, and he could use an actual, humbling defeat to help screw his head on straight.
But Bakugou loses all the time, I hear people say? He lost in their first fight, true, but that's a technicality; anyone looking at them would know who won combat wise. He won the Sports Festival, even though he bitches about how it wasn't 'right'. He loses against All Might, sure, but All Might is the strongest man on the planet; that loss means nothing. Moreover, he wins against him through the goal of the exam at the end anyways. He loses to the villains, sure, but it was a bunch of them against him; it wasn't a fair fight, which is the whole reason him picking it was stupid in the first place. And now, here, he could have finally had a real loss to give him some perspective... but he doesn't.
Moreover, Hori just... hypes up Explosion as a Quirk more than it really deserves. Is it a good Quirk? Strong? Sure. But let's be honest here: he sweats nitroglycerin. Literally, his Quirk is his two parents mashed together into the best possible option, and it's basiclly lazy ass chemistry via genetics. There is, by the very definition of the substance that he explicitly makes, a cap to how much it can do with a certain volume; that's why new, more explosive explosives were made to replace it
One For All, all the heroic thematics aside, is literally just pure power. All Might changes the weather with a punch on accident; I'm convinced if he punched the ground and meant it, he could actually fuck up Japan as a island. The cap with OFA is yes. There is no way, under the logic of the setting, that Bakugou can ever contest that.
Like, look at Endeavour: when he wants more fire, he makes more fire. It's bigger. What the fuck is Bakugou going to do, rain his sweat on people? What happens when he dehydrates, because again, this is his sweat, which comes from his body? Cluster doesn't even make sense, really, that he somehow super concentrates it to make it more powerful, and AP Shot is literally him making a circle with his fingers before blowing up a bomb in it, yet somehow it makes, like, a laser?
The thing is that more loose Quirks, like Endeavour's, again, aren't as limited to science as the more 'realistic' Quirks like Bakugou's, so there's nothing really saying he can't just... make more flames. He could damage himself, sure, but since he already pulls that shit out of nothing, Endeavour increasing the volume of his magic ass firebending isn't hard to accept. Hori wrote himself into a hole here because if Bakugou just made explosions by magic? If he just... conceptually made explosions? A lot of this stuff would make sense (except AP Shot; fuck AP Shot), and it feels like that's how he treats it sometimes. But that's not what he did: it was his Dad's Acid Sweat with his Mom's Glycerin which means he sweats explosive sweat. And then, when it's convenient, he has shit like the Gauntlets, and basiclly all the rest of his support gear, that are explicitly filled with his sweat.
Bakugou's powers are basiclly whatever the fuck Hori wants at any given moment, and it's honestly frustrating when he tried to play so much of this setting's powers so seriously at first, and Bakugou's Quirk in particular is explained more than almost anyone else, and yet he tosses it the moment he thinks of something that sounds cool.
...But I've gotten off topic. The point is, OFA is OP and Izuku should have just won that on pure ability alone.
Anyways, after all this, the teachers finally come, once it's settled in Bakugou's favor, and they're both in trouble. For a fight that was 100% Bakugou's fault.
So, throughout all of this, Bakugou has changed, yes, but beyond the first couple of days, the changes have been grudging and glacial, and the reasons why are best exemplified in the License Exam where we find out that, for all intents and purposes, Bakugou is incapable of showing basic empathy. I mean, fuck, he fails to show that when, with any amount of logic, much less that of the genius Bakugou, would say that now is the time to fake it. An actual, factual sociopath would do better than him, purely because they would know to act for their own betterment.
(And the fact that his teachers look at this, explicit proof that he is seemingly incapable of actually trying to save a person, but do nothing with this information speaks volumes.... mostly about how bad Hori is at writing Bakugou and the implications of what he does constantly. Surely there's no way that, without the Author hyping him up, they'd just let that slide, right? ...Right?)
But, then, hope on the horizon! He has a make up exam, and it's apparently centered around pounding basic morals/how to deal with civilians into his thick skull! Surely, this is the time Bakugou will finally, finally, get the point, right?
And that's the thing: he does. There's this, probably to other people, touching moment where he sees himself in this asshole kid and talks about how you can't just look down on people. And it's like... finally. Finally! The switch has finally been flicked! He gets it! Change, improvement, development, fina-
Then the second he gets out of it he promptly goes back to calling everyone extras.
That dynamic in many ways is the perfect embodiment of Bakugou's development, and it's... It's like watching someone fighting off a disease. There's an infection, right and symptoms increase. Sometimes the symptoms appear out of nowhere, sometimes they increase over the span of several days. They peak, finally, then they fall back down, again either dramatically, or over the span of several days, and then you are back to normal.
Bakugou makes changes. He makes realizations. He gets 'humbled'. He has a single moment of heroism that the narrative hypes up, sometimes with a bit of build up before hand for a few chapters, and with people sometimes reacting to it for a few chapters afterwords.
And then it passes, like he's just finished fighting off a case of Morals.
You see, Bakugou is well liked. And, honestly, I get it. The asshole can be therapeutic to root for, at times. The problem is that he's too popular, and that this story is too about people being good. So Bakugou, to keep the fan base, to keep the sales, has to stay Bakugou, stay the unrepentant asshole constantly telling people to die.
But, at the same time, Bakugou is an anti-hero, basiclly, and this is a setting that just... can't handle the complexity of an anti-hero, in how people react to them, what they do and the morality of it, how it would affect society and so on, and so Bakugou can't stay as Bakugou, has to grow and be better and become a hero proper.
So... Hori goes, 'Why not both?' Thus, Bakugou gets his moments of 'development', and a slow, slow, slow trend to the better, and the fans get to see him do his thing, even though he's 'changed'. And it's easy, when you just sit back and accept the narrative, to believe that. But if you don't....
All of that? It makes his character empty because after a certain point, it's clear that Bakugou won't change, in so many fundamental levels, even if everyone around him acts like he does. Like attacking his teammates, like blindly charging the enemy , like constantly insulting everyone around him is just different because he's The New Bakugou now, like it's just fun and games, even when this was a dead serious problem early on. He didn't stop, he didn't change, or dial it back; everyone else just started acting differently when he does it. The same way in day one he attacks Izuku for having a Quirk, far later on he throws his metal... hair thing at him for daring to talk about his Quirk. And it, like, impales him, but haha! It's just funny now, it's so funny, that we can apparently see Izuku's brain! It's funny that, when Izuku is seriously thinking about his predecessors, Bakugou just instantly insults them for not being famous! Look at how patient Izuku is dealing with him as he acts like a bratty five year old child throwing a fit, look how fond All Might is as he insults his beloved teacher that he probably has deep seated trauma about regarding her untimely death!
In the War Arc, where Bakugou 'Rises'? Maybe ten minutes before his 'Rise', he was threatening to attack Izuku for daring to ask why he's following him. In a war zone.
The entire story, Bakugou has been described as a creature of instinct, a natural born warrior with a talent for battle. All of that is to contrast him with Izuku: where Izuku, instinctively, has the urge to save, Bakugou has the instinctive urge to fight. This is fundamental to him, a core characteristic, one of the (many) ways it's explained about how good he is at fighting.
And yet, suddenly, when Izuku is in danger, he moves without thinking (aka instinctively), but it's not attack Shigaraki, which, you know, he was shouting about doing not too long ago, it's to save Izuku.
And. And am I supposed to believe that?
I mean, fuck. In the FInal Arc, he has a Big Speech in response to SFO: about being 'way over fear and rejection since long ago', which SFO was talking in the context of how they create inequality in society, and how he wants to fix it... which, doesn't that mean Bakugou just doesn't care about them? Because being over them doesn't actually solve them, genius, it just means you, personally, are beyond them, and even now, he still treats everyone like they're unequal to him. Bakugou has always been the one to profit from inequality in society, between his Quirk, his talent, his well off family, so honestly all of that rings hollow.
He talks about how he has friends now, who are willing to move beyond them, and OK, that works a bit better, except when he still doesn't treat them like friends, in fact not too long ago he yelled at Momo for getting his stupid ass chuunibyou name wrong.
Or, maybe a minute later, when Bakugou gets a power up and/or realization about how SFO moves or something, and you know what he does? He instantly charges in blindly, alone, and is killed over it. Right after this speech about teamwork, while everyone was just... cheering his determination, and prissy Best Jeanist says, with a straight face and actual awe, 'Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight'.
And then when he sees Bakugou get smacked around, Eraserhead's first thought is to scream, desperately, 'Save him! Save him so he can try and become the Number One Hero!' in the middle of all this shit that is happening.
All of this is presented to us as this... thrilling thing, with music that is going to be swelling in the background when its animated, and everyone cheering him on, right before he's tragically struck down for being too stupid to live (no, seriously, SFO actually lampshades this. Before this big 'dramatic' moment, he says that getting up close to him is pure idiocy, and all that it will do is allow you to get get smashed by an All Might like power. Then, you know, Bakugou closes in, again, because he had bitchslapped Bakugou before, and then a second time during that boast, and it goes exactly as SFO said) and we're supposed to mourn him. Again, actually, even though this is a blatant set up for him powering up, since this is literally the same set up as the War Arc.
All of this work, all of this emotion, and all of it rings hollow because, well, it's Bakugou, and no amount of trying to hype up teamwork battle is going to make it work for me when the second the Big Moment is over he reverts to his normal asshole routine.
That Tsundere Field, guys. Too strong, too broken.
While I'm at it, let's talk about Bakugou being Quirkist, because, well, he is. It's a big part of his early character: the reason he rags on Izuku so hard, so successfully, the reason he's so big and important as a child, is about Quirks. When they get introduced the past users? His first comment is that they have weak Quirks.
Izuku saves him and he still doesn't think much about him; it's only later when he starts actually acknowledging Izuku.
When he has a Quirk.
And it's not just a Quirk, it's more than that: it's a strong Quirk, powerful. Enough for him to defeat Bakugou. All the respect Bakugou builds for Izuku? And while it stagnates for awhile, I do have to admit he does respect Izuku more than he did originally... and it's not because Izuku is kind, or heroic; he still hates that. No, he starts respecting Izuku because he is strong. His respect isn't about Izuku as a person, it's about Izuku's Quirk. All his respect, slowly built up throughout the series, comes from the corrupt foundation that Izuku is worth respecting only because he has a Quirk. Later, this gets worse because he learns about OFA and starts valuing Izuku as important, but it's only because his Quirk is important. It's All Might's Quirk. His second fight with Izuku is because of it's All Might's Quirk. He starts training him (that one time, and apparently never gain) because it's All Might's Quirk. When Izuku goes 'rogue'? And when he heroically goes to hunt him down? One of the first thing he does is talk about how he's so great because he has One For All, and then calls him an All Might wannabie*.
And you know what? I just talked about Class A hunting down Izuku recently, but let's talk about that more, because I hate it so much.
I really, honestly wonder if Hori is blind to the parallel he set up here, or if he invoked it on purpose, to try and show how Bakugou has 'improved'.
Look back at the first chapter, where we first see Bakugou. Think about that dynamic: Izuku, beaten down, on one side, while on the other, Bakugou. Strong, proud, with minions at his back, all of them ready to throw down at his command.
The thing is? The first time is shown as clearly villainous in nature, a cruel bully against someone who is weak but heroic. The second time, everything is the same, but it's shown differently. Bakugou is being shown as heroic for doing this, heroic for leading Izuku's friends to hunt him down, heroic for attacking him.
*And ah, Bakugou the Hypocrite. Let's finish this up by talking about Bakugou's name. When we first talk about hero names, Bakugou's naming sense is much like it is for his final name, and Midnight promptly shoots down every one of them because, well, they aren't heroic, and the story pokes fun at him a little because he clearly doesn't get it.
Then it's the War Arc. Bakugou has 'grown', there's all this hype for his big heroics moments, and he announces his new name... Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight. And I'm just wondering... am I getting punked? This is the the same shit as before! No, actually it's worse than that, it's bigger, longer, and more ridiculous.
The universal response is that it's tacky. Nejire thinks it's disgusting. Mirio literally thinks it's a joke.
But the story itself treats it seriously, and over time? People start accepting it, taking it seriously as well, treating that stupid name with respect. What the fuck kind of hero name has the word murder in it? What kind of hero calls himself a god?
And finally, it's Dynamight. Which resembles All Might, the Greatest, Most Beloved Hero, the one Bakugou has always considered the best and viewed as his goal to surpass.
And yet he says that Izuku, who is calling himself Deku, is the one viewing himself as an All Might wannabie.
#this got way too long#basically an ask at this point#bnha critical#mha critical#bakugou critical#anti bakugo#izuku deserves better#izuku is basiclly an abuse victim#why doesn't izuku have burn scars?#the power dynamics of saving#'change and improvement' are hollow words without context#bakugou's SCP Worthy Tsundere Field#Izuku is an unreliable narrator#AP Shot makes no sense#Bakugou's development is like watching someone get over an infection of Morals
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Is the flash-forward in Ao no Exorcist (chapters 139 & 140) relevant?
Is essentially the direction this post will take and the question it seeks to answer. This WILL contains spoilers for the manga, from chapter 110 to the current last update, chapter 148. You've been warned.
So! One thing I've noticed lately in the direction Aoex is taking is that it seems to be gearing up for a final arc.
Big confrontation against the Big Bad with all the allies gathered in a desperate last stand? The world at stake? Allies actually suffer losses and are subject to mortality?
Check, check, and check.
By all metrics, this looks like a final batttle, final arc material. Except! There are a bunch of things that make me say the manga is far from over. Mostly it's a dual thing. The big one is the flash-forward chapter. The other reason is how the content of those two chapters is linked intrinsically to everything else.
And now another warning. All of this is speculation and theorizing. Take it with a grain of salt, don't get too hyped up. I could be wrong and reading too much into it. So keep that in mind.
That said, in the aforementioned chapters, halfway through chapter 139 and two-thirds of chapter 140, we see the future in a vision. More precisely, Mephisto is given a vision.
The funny thing with Mephisto is that he already broke the fourth wall once, in that one chapter I can't remember for the life of me. This, for me, gives credit to the flash-forward right away. Beyond the fact that its existence is a deliberate choice made by Katou of course.
Besides, since we're on the topics of choice, there are many elements present in those two chapters that tell me all of this was thought of in advance. Because those elements are referenced directly or in a roundabout way in the previous or following chapters. Here's my list:
Shima's dream of becoming an idol:
Chapter 139 page 27
And here is him saying it outright when asked about what they'd do after the battle in their story's present.
Chapter 144 page 9
Rin's powers:
The fun thing Kato Kazue has always done was color code Rin's power for our convenience, especially lately. In the recent fight with Yukio, he makes mention of Rin's appearance and how the way his brother looked then, bright hair and visible demon's core, meant that he was unstable. And later, Rin said that he tamed his demon's side.
Chapter 132 pages 20-21
BOOM. TRANSFORMATION
And as it happens, in the flash-forward there are also transformations and what's special about those is that he doesn't need to sheath and unsheath Kurikara to make them happen.
Chapter 140, pages 9, 16 and 18
But that is before and during the flash-forward. What about closer to the story 'present'?
Here is Yukio reaching out to Rin so his big brother can talk about his problems if he wants to. Because he learned his lesson about bottling up and trying to face everything on his lonesome. Isn't awesome and cooing worthy?
Anyways, Rin gives us access to his inner thoughts and tell us how he offered to make peace with Satan and was harshly rejected. But the whys of this are especially important.
Here he is, on the eve of their final battle, asking himself if this is the right way. Not outright rejecting Satan's words. Still on his journey of acceptance of his heritage.
The stages we've seen so far are; denial, acknowledgement, looking at the whys and hows of his nature by witnessing the past, trying to repress and then tame his demonic self by exerting control. The missing parts for me are understanding and acceptance. There is a space left for it in the 'present' and in the flash-forward, our vision of the future, he seems to have gone through those stages and be able to use his powers at will, finally at peace with himself.
Chapter 143 pages 27-28
The Paladin condition:
Chapter 139 page 21 & chapter 140 page 31
The exact same form of damage that one of the Ba'al's host bodies incurs through rapid cell regeneration/degeneration. Also, because I don't think Arthur's status as the only Lucifer's clone & prospective host to survive was put in here just to give him an existential crisis he refuses to engage with.
Speaking of the Ba'al's hosts though.
Astharoth's incarnation:
Chapter 144 pages 25 & 28
As funny as those panels are, and they are funny, I don't think it was done solely for the bit. If they were, why bother bringing back the guy who can theoretically be accredited with kicking off the whole plot by forcing Rin's first transformation?
Manga likes being self-referential and it's arguably a better idea than crafting a new guy out of whole cloth, but then why bother giving us these little glimpses into the individuals' attitudes, goals, wishes, and dreams of the Ba'al in the eleventh hour?
Katou Kazue has taught us to expect better.
And now that I've mentioned expectations...
Shiemi's uncle:
Chapter 114 pages 8-9 and chapter 131 pages 11-12
So, what's up with this guy? He scares Shiemi on an instinctual level when she's not easily frightened, and with the bloody hand and the way we see him smile in Shiemi's forgotten repressed memories, my personal bet is that he killed someone, she witnessed it and he told her to forget or made her forget. Also, has ambitions to shape her to his will, given the nature and tone of their short conversation.
Something else that's also important with Shiemi's uncle, he's the one who purposefully lied to Arthur about his origins and exudes absolutely creepy (controlling) vibes in general.
Chapter 111 pages 14-17
The Uzai family, attendants of Shemihaza, raised him once he got out of Section 13 Asylum due to Shemihaza's interest in him. That is what he's told at least. But... he's already been lied to about his past.
At the time it is very possible that Hilkiah was following the current Shemihaza's lead and keeping mum on exactly what Section 13 was or how it connected to the True Cross Order.
What matters in this section is the story's present. When presented with an opportunity to tell the truth, Jeremiah reinforced the lie.
Arthur considers him family, calls him brother. They're close enough that he expresses his deepest and most ruinous doubts to Jeremiah, the question that would make him reconsider his entire existence.
The question is, why would Jeremiah lie to Arthur?
I think the reason is that Jeremiah was assigned to stay at Lucifer's side by his uncle (despite Shemihaza's protests) to keep an eye on Lucifer and saw all of this:
Chapter 118 pages 20, 22-23
Chapter 119 pages 15-16
[Not included (I'm fighting with the image limit) but relevant. Before Lucifer zapped them all to cinders there was a first flash of light that mesmerized Arthur. He walked to it, saying, "It shines like something special... I want to be like that too." When the possibility he could die heading toward the light (ironic, I've just realized) is raised, teenage Arthur responds, "It's okay. If I die I can be part of it."]
So what Jeremiah saw is this; a child unharmed among corpses reduced to cinders, despite withstanding the full intensity of a lethal attack from Lucifer itself. The success of Section 13's research, a bargaining chip in the future for when Lucifer comes back.
And the reason I think he lied was to keep that bargaining chip nice and snug for eventual possession by Lucifer. Because demons feast on Exorcists' doubts and struggles. And what's more offputting and likely to put someone off kilter than touching upon their very identity?
Uncharitable? Maybe.
But Arthur is drawn into a fight by the guy who created Satan's host body, baited into getting close enough to be injected with something, and the next (and only) time we see him after that is during the flash-forward where he shows signs of advanced degradation.
This takes us to the final point I wanted to make.
The Looks:
Chapter 139 page 28
They're the law enforcement of the dystopian future which tracks its citizens' location and schedule; that Paku is a victim of and which Rin works against, so what? What's the only other place we see the extras wear berets alongside their uniform?
Chapter 110 pages 5-6
And which other faction wears white among the True Cross Order than the Grigori and more precisely, Shehimiza's faction? No one. Manga is a visual way of doing storytelling and this is why I think the visual coding is important.
Plus, Katou Kazue did go through the pain of giving the True Cross Order's uniforms. Uniforms that very visibly change design in that future we're allowed to glimpse, so to me, it's not a coincidence.
Also, I think, (this part is purely speculation) that in the flash-forward Jeremiah and his faction seized power, and allied with Lucifer, took control of the True Cross Order. Hence why the organization is so repressive and controlling, to the point that Rin (who didn't kill homicidal zombies because he's on the side of humans) actually kills one of their... chief operatives? Someone who represents a legion, presumably, someone important enough to be hunted down.
Previous paragraph aside, none of this was put in there on a whim or at random. In fact, the flash-forward is surprisingly cohesive, plot and characterization-wise (I'll definitely have to do an in-depth analysis of it to do it justice) and I'm of the firm belief that it is a teaser of what's to come.
Personally, and this one is a gut feeling only. I think that the current arc is either: the penultimate arc or the midway point of the manga.
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RWBY Volume 9 Was A Total Missed Opportunity:
Putting this out there right now. Volume 9 is by far my favorite volume of RWBY for many reasons which I will not be addressing in this post, but there are a few things that have been on my mind since it's been released where I feel the storyline went wrong and could have been something so much more meaningful for the character's story arcs and development.
Starting off with our main man or should I say our old man Jaune Arc. His presence throughout Vol. 9 felt out of place not just for his character, but also the way his development was handled didn't feel right in the slightest. Becoming a crazy old crackpot because he foolishly made bad decision after bad decision, completely altering and undoing a lot of his character's timeline, and turning into this sort of secondary antagonist for Team RWBY made no sense to me. The way he said so many out of pocket things throughout the different episodes, including completely crossing a line with Ruby and being insensitive towards her mental and emotional condition instead of showing genuine concern like he normally would have, made me cringe to where I wasn't enjoying what I was watching anymore. Not in a good way!
Here's how I would have done it:
Going back to the very end of volume 8 where we see Jaune running towards the portal and barely missing it by mere inches, followed by seeing him fall into the dark abyss and joining the same fate as Team RWBY and Neo. Instead of that, we see him jumping through the portal at the very last second and making it to Vacuo by the skin of his teeth. The others see him and question why he's alone and where Team RWBY was, only for him to go "Uh..." and then the screen cuts to black and the credits start rolling.
We're gonna skip the three year hiatus and jump right into the beginning of Vol. 9 where only Team RWBY and Neo have fallen into the Ever After. For the first few episodes leading up to the reveal of the Rusted Knight, I don't think much needs to change except for the fact that they won't ever encounter Jaune, but they will still encounter the Rusted Knight who, in this version, is someone that would have had the entire fandom shook to their core when the big reveal of the Rusted Knight's identity happened: Pyrrha.
Now, how would she get to this point, you might ask? Well, remember when she got pierced by Cinder's Arrow and her body seemed to disintegrate? This scene:
This death compared to all the other characters who were killed off was unique in the fact that there was no body left behind and it almost appeared her energy was transported to another place. Hmm, perhaps another realm such as the In Between or the Ever After? Why this happened, in my opinion, was because of the use of someone else's semblance. We know very little about Pyrrha's family and have only seen her mother on screen once, so we don't know much about her backstory or semblance either. However, if her semblance worked anything like Raven's to where she needed to be attached to someone in order for her semblance to work and transfer her loved ones to a safer location to escape a deadly threat, now we have something. What if her mom's semblance transported the body to another realm of her choice right before the moment of death? (I like to call it a "divine intervention" semblance.) If that's the case, then why wouldn't it make sense for a mother's love to send her daughter somewhere familiar and (relatively) safe and still accessible to Remnant? The Ever After was based on a children's tale that everyone knew growing up and Pyrrha being as smart as she is would instantly recognize where she was transported to. Maybe she had knowledge of her mother's semblance and knew this might have happened one day, or maybe not. I find the one scene her mother is in to be very interesting because while she was talking to Jaune, she had a very bitter-sweet attitude about it and almost talked as if she knew more than she let on, but I digress.
In the story's timeline, when Team RWBY arrives in the Ever After, Pyrrha would have been there already for a couple of years. That would have given her enough time to establish herself and explore the different acres because let's be real here, Pyrrha wouldn't have stumbled upon the time travel fruit and messed around with it like Jaune did, nor would she have focused all her energy into the people of the land even though she would protect them with her life if she had to, but at the end of the day, she was just trying to figure out a way home. Once she stumbles across Team RWBY, it would all make sense why the Tree didn't let her return to Remnant yet. By this point, I'm sure she would have encountered Alyx, Lewis, and the Curious cat, probably handled the situation a lot better than Jaune did, and give Team RWBY a cautionary tale about the Curious Cat in a way that wasn't bitter or vengeful. The bee's having their special moment still would have happened, the team's fallout with the Curious Cat still would have gone down, and then we get to the scene with Neo's Jabber Walker clones and Ruby has her mental breakdown and identity crisis. I don't see Pyrrha blaming Ruby for what happened to the Paper Pleasers despite her immense sorrow for the loss of her only friends she had during her time in the Ever After. Her experiences with the Paper Pleasers would have been way different too because there's no way she'd be a gold-hearted tyrant like Jaune was painted out to be. I do see Ruby blaming herself and still running off anyway because she feels like a burden and a failure as a leader. I didn't enjoy the way Jaune was the center of focus when Ruby was very clearly in a dangerous state of mind and I'm positive Pyrrha would have picked up on it right away and address it to Ruby's team after the fact and not go off on her for not doing enough.
Team RWPY would go on the search for Ruby and still find her in Neo's torture dungeon, which would have been just as painful to watch, especially from Pyrrha's point of view. Ruby having to watch Pyrrha die in Vol.3 and now she had to witness Ruby "die" in Vol. 9 is kind of a trippy coincidence that fits so well. The only difference being Pyrrha immediately taking the initiative to find Ruby before the cat does and the final battle being way more epic. Jaune certainly gained a lot of battle experience throughout the series, but Pyrrha was always ahead of him in that respect and without a doubt would have sharpened her skills to perfection while she was on her own in the Ever After. Ruby emerges as a new version of herself, they defeat the Curious Cat, Neo ascends, and all of the girls finally get to go home together, hand in hand.
I can even go as far as to say this would have made Vol. 9 Beyond so much better too. Picture it, Team RWBY and Pyrrha leaving the portal and the first person to see them is Jaune. The potential for Arkos here is so strong it kills me inside! They'd have a raw moment between each other, there'd be lots of crying on Jaune and maybe even Pyrrha's part too, a long hug, and most definitely a romantic kiss that would have tied their relationship arc together in such a perfect way. It would have brought Pyrrha back and that's honestly all I want.
Of course, this is all just for shits and giggles, but I'd love to hear what y'all think or if you have something else to add! ^-^
#rwby#rwby theory#ruby rose#weiss schnee#blake bellodona#jaune arc#old man jaune#pyrrha nikos#arkos#bumbleby#different timeline#alternate universe#rwby ever after#curious cat#neo rwby#jaune x pyrrha#team rwby#team jnpr#save rwby#greenlight volume 10#rwby volume 9#rwby volume 9 beyond#rwby volume 10#monty oum#rooster teeth
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The thing about Avery being banned right now is that people have been pushing back against the site's moderation for well over a year by now citing overzealous moderation - specifically, flagging trans selfies as sexual content even when the user is fully clothed - while dragging their feet on accounts that explicitly break the TOS.
We've seen users arguing between buying the checkmarks and the crabs to make the website profitable for the reason that this may be the first avenue of monetization to actually sustain the website, ever - and users who don't want to reinforce the haphazard standard that the website is being run by. We've even seen staff try to push users towards mass-buying the Tumblr crabs on a specific date, calling it "Crab Day", using the same rhetoric, only to be rebuked by users who are unhappy with the way the website is being run.
The issues that led to Avery being targeted by TUMBLR'S FUCKING CORPORATE BOSS have existed for well over a year by now. This is simply a progression in a direction that Tumblr has been criticized about before. What makes it notable is how explicitly targeted this has been towards a single user of the website, and how gormless and petty it reflects on a figurehead who singlehandedly reflects the management of Tumblr - the captain of the ship.
The core issues that led us to this point have existed for longer than this blowup, this is just the most public, unbelievably immature way that it could have crossed from "plausible deniability" to "explicit, textual confirmation".
And I just want to say: Tumblr users have never been beholden to the administration of the website. Historically, Tumblr users have rejected changes to the site whether it be the visual design, changes in TOS or whenever the website has changed hands. I remember when Tumblr was bought out by Yahoo for over a billion dollars, everyone was melting down over "yumblr" and fearmongering about a massive corporate entity forcing sterile corporate values onto our vibrant community.
That certainly did come to pass with the porn ban, but for most of the time it was just Yahoo flailing around trying to monetize the site and getting pushback at every turn, before ostensibly admitting defeat by selling the website for just over a million bucks. The porn ban sucked and we feel its effects to this day, and frankly it's probably the harbinger of this exact scenario - where again, the CEO of the website is beefing with a user after that user was harassed for years, WITH EVIDENCE, only for the administration to ban her for life and dismiss her concerns entirely on the way out.
But the sheer majority of the naysaying didn't come to pass, and the stuff we didn't want that Yahoo did try to push? Users fought back. People weren't afraid to say to management "this isn't why I use Tumblr, it sucks ass and we're going to bug the fuck out of you for it". People complained when post editing was taken away. People complained about ask limits and fanmail. Tumblr users have been complaining about Tumblr for longer than any other userbase on the internet. We have never been beholden to the administration of the website.
Are we bound by TOS? Sure, but look at all the cowards who flag users en-masse and send them death threats, who somehow come out the other side unscathed. Fuckfaces break TOS all the time. Being noticed by staff obviously puts a lot of pressure on you to follow the TOS, but think of every bastard on this website you've ever seen break the rules and go unpunished. Secondly, think about the raw, hyperbolic nature of Tumblr's comedy. This website has always had leaner guidelines than other social media sites. Short of making terroristic threats - and Christ, can't that be exploited by the world's most thin-skinned CEO - Tumblr users are known for taking a joke way further than it probably needs to go.
I'm getting off track, so here's my point.
Tumblr's culture, its norms and community, come from us. And that has always come at the expense of the reigning power over the website - whether it be David Karp or Yahoo before Automattic. Tumblr users have been enjoying the website at the expense of the website for years, but it might be time to become more vocal about it. Go back to your roots as Tumblr users. Complain. Make memes. Make sure this shit goes down just as noticeably as shit like Do You Like The Color Of The Sky. That has always been what we do.
This was not an isolated incident. It was the most visible instance of this happening, and given that once again, the CEO OF THE WEBSITE - THE CAPTAIN OF THE WORLD'S STUPIDEST SHIP - is the one going after this one disgruntled user in front of the entire userbase, this is arguably the most notable case of transphobic moderation happening since Automattic bought Tumblr.
It's not transphobic solely because the user is transgender - it's transphobic in the way that her posts were mass-marked by bad faith actors, those posts were slapped with sexual content disclaimers, the user disputed these claims (successfully, until the team reversed that decision later) and she was personally banned while nothing happened to the people whose harassment of her and admittance to abusing the moderation tools to make her a target were catalogued and submitted to Tumblr staff. As if to add insult to injury, they followed up as they banned her a second time, saying that they found nothing wrong with the evidence of harassment she submitted.
Trans users have been reporting unfair treatment ever since Automattic bought the site Avery is just one of multiple trans women who've had to deal with this treatment, and she arguably got banned for being the most vocal about it. A bit hyperbolic in what she said, but nothing that other users haven't said before and perfectly in the spirit of the Tumblr community openly and brazenly taking the administration to task for their fuck-ups.
I do feel sorry for the staff who chafe under Matt Mullenweg. A former staff member has come forward to answer questions and talk about their time working at Automattic, and there are people working there who are employed around the world, who are always putting out fires, who need the steady paycheck for the work that they do. This isn't a call to harass or single out staff.
But I do think that Tumblr users have rested on their laurels in regards to criticizing and challenging Tumblr's administration. The institution of Tumblr. And given that the foremost authority over this entire fucking website is singling out and personally banning users, and threatening to report them to the police and the FBI, I think that has to change.
I think Tumblr users have to rediscover their sense of civil disobedience and challenge this horseshit as far as it will go.
All that Matt Mullenweg can do is shut down the website. That's bad for sure, but WE are Tumblr. WE give this website its value ("value" as in the content of its character, its beating heart. Revenue-wise, we suck the place dry lmao). And I would rather take Tumblr down in a blaze of glory than let this malignant cunt fail his users and personally go after them when they get too loud in criticizing how he runs the site.
So do what Tumblr users do best, and complain. It's all we really can do imo. The worst case scenario is that Matt Mullenweg goes full meltdown, drops an orbital nuke on some tags and/or decides to ax the entire website. And that would genuinely fucking suck - I would lose a lot of longtime internet friends who have shaped my life for the better over the course of a decade.
But if the CEO of Tumblr got so ass-blasted he wiped out a bunch of tags, that's a point where we can point at him and go "that's wrong, you fucked up and broke your own terms of service, you literally cannot justify that outside of sheer petty anger". And if he nukes the website? That would genuinely be hilarious. There's no coming back from that. Dude would go down as the most high-profile ragequitter in the history of the entire tech industry.
I've lost my original point in the mix. Point is, Tumblr users have never taken this corporate dogshit lying down. Make memes. Bake this horseshit into the history of the site, and never let Matt forget the day he lost the trust of Tumblr's entire userbase. There's no way for Matt, or Automattic, to win this. So make it as hard as possible to justify what happened to Avery, and shitpost as hard as you can.
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Random Untitled Erika Furudo Post
Was thinking about Umineko lately, and namely the antagonists in Umineko, of which there are several.
This "hot take" post here calls them to mind:
And here's my own hot take that it led me to: Erika Furudo is one of the most well humanized and developed villains in Umineko, and it makes her one of the most likable. Which on its face seems totally against what we all agree makes Erika Furudo the powerhouse of gloriously over-the-top, wretched, reprehensible villainy that she is: she's the worst little gremlin ever and we love to hate her for that.
Hating on Erika and having fun doing so is a what. How about the why that makes it so possible and so invigorating? The heart of it if you will, ironic given that Erika's fundamental weakness is in how she ignores the heart of any given mystery situation she investigates. When you get down to it, there's honestly very little about Erika's basic overlining characterization that's too terribly unlikable any moreso than other Umineko characters. Even when she has to play an evil role, she's like a Batman villain - sort of a combination of the Riddler, Harley Quinn, Lady Firefly and Killer Moth - who's too fun and extravaggent to loathe too much. Most of what is viscerally hateable and despicable about Erika doesn't really come from Erika alone, but from her master Bernkastel and what she brings out in Erika. Bernkastel is the one who built her up to be the greatest, most specialist and awesomest super detective ever or else. She's the one who hard-wired Erika to behave as terribly as she often does through what Lambda calls a process for creating the Grade A Bully (abuse and demean person repeatedly, then give that person power). She's the one who, as Erika's master, directly assigns Erika to all of her objectives and either orders or encourages the methods she turns to. And she even made Erika her personalized doppelganger piece who shares her blue hair and face (and possibly the name, a play on Rika Furude.) In order to please and recieve the love and praise of such a thoroughly cruel and cold-hearted master, Erika emulates her in being just as cruel and cold-hearted. Whenever Erika morphs into the worst concievable version of herself, it's because she's had Bern's prodding and Bern's permission. Bern and Erika are two identical faces to the same whole menace, and we thus despise them both.
But here's the most twisted and deepest facet of Erika's character: we're shown on a number of occassions that were she not tied to Bern, and was just free to act on her own and follow her own course as the detective she naturally is, Erika would not be an evil person. She is, at her core, a maladjusted, arrogant, unkind, deeply flawed, morally gray antihero type character; not all good, but not truly evil. And this is fundamental in understanding why Erika is how she is and appreciating the value in the role she plays. In the extra meta joke segment of the Umineko special epilogue written by Ryukishi07, Last Note of the Golden Witch, there's a very morbidly humorous sequence where some of Erika's characteristics and some of her deeds are being described to characters who've lost all memory of who Erika was, and their takeaway is that whoever was being described sounds like the worst kind of person in the world who no one would ever want to be friends with or invite to parties. A savage evisceration of Erika's character that she's not even present to hear, but the ironic "punchline" of this bit is that, like Erika herself, all these people are missing the heart, as they cannot remember that heart. For without love, it cannot be seen; they've lost memory of the love they all had for this person along with the dislike and displeasure of her unsavory qualities, so they cannot see what reason there could concievably be to want her around. But when they do all regain their memories of Erika's existence, they revert back to knowing that while Erika may be a pain in their rear ends, she's also a precious friend to them who they cherish and appreciate in spite of her many flaws.
This is what I believe to be the paradox that makes up the core of Erika Furudo's character: she is a character who evokes and earns our irritation, disgust, and hatred of her every step of the journey while also being a character that even we can recognize deserves to be loved and be shown love. We love to hate Erika not simply because she's The Worst, we love to hate Erika because we know she has it in her to be better. And so long as she's being The Worst instead, we relish her comeuppances and hope she gets taught a good lesson from all the mishaps and that maybe, just perhaps, long shot though it may be, it'll help her grow and improve in the long run. Through this she crosses the line into being quite a lovable and popular character, as our own softer feelings on her manifest in five different ways:
- Affectionate endearment and adoring of her cuteness and quirks.
- Amusement at her antics and how humorous she can be.
- Pity and sympathy for her when she's sad, pathetic, in pain, etc.
- Begrudging respect and admiration for her better qualities.
- Even finding her to be distressingly relatable at times! Yes really!
A well known piece of trivia among fans is that much like Princess Azula of Avatar: the Last Airbender fame, the character concept that ultimately became Erika began as a male character - the evil young detective Virgilius, who'd be introduced in EP3 posing as an obscure and overlooked member of the Ushiromiya family, would investigate a dark, brutal version of the Rokkenjima murders that would tie into the origins of Beatrice, and would become Battler's archrival who'd clash with him as a recurring antagonist afterwards. He had only a concept, rough character design, and a few planned scenes to his name before he ended up getting scrapped, but from the look of him, Virigilius was set up to be the Anti-Battler whose character would parallel Battler's own despite the superficial differences. While I'm not the biggest fan of EP2 compared to the other chapters that aren't EP7, I'm ultimately thankful it turned out like it did, as the polarized and confounded fan response led to Ryukishi07 overhauling his plans for the following chapter, replacing Virgilius with the very different Virgilia, and repurposing those original EP3 concepts for EP5. And Erika Furudo as we know her was effected in a major way by two fateful decisions: bumping her debut up to EP5, and making her female. The former tremendously changed up what her dynamic with Battler would be like, having it start off like what was planned for Virgilius but at a more appropriate place in the narrative for that sort of Difficulty Spike in the challenge presented by this character to Battler (rather than Virgilius "beating Battler down to rock bottom" in just the third arc) and then flipping the script completely so that Battler becomes Erika's "Beatrice" and Erika is now Golden Sorceror Battler's own "Battler", making for more interesting and meaningful conflict between them. And the latter meant that rather than be an Evil Counterpart to Battler as Virigilus was going to be, Erika instead became an Evil Counterpart to Ange, being brought in to replace Ange as Bern's piece to use against Lambda and with Ange herself noting the similarities at least twice (which is likely a huge factor in why Ange could so easily forgive Erika after the whole "wanted to marry and rape her big brother" thing, but then again Beato and even Battler himself have no hard feelings about that nasty business...)
Gonna spend the rest of this post with some manga panels from the EP5 adaptation, 'cause while I think Erika's humanizing moments in her subsequent appearances are well known, the manga art for EP5 that allows for more vibrant body language and expressive faces really adds to her and enhances the nuances in her characterization.
Erika's excited enthusiasm for chopsticks is 100% genuine, as is her request for Gohda to bring her chopsticks with which to eat the next dish, 'cause "with a pair of chopsticks, she can eat absolutely any dish!" Except that turns out not to be so, as the next dish is soup. There's a pin drop. Erika is no doubt embarrassed and internally going "Fuck fuck FUCK!" But, she saves face by giving a shrug with an adorably goofy grin on her cute little face, much to everyone's amusement. Of course this is also when everyone starts shilling her to an obnoxious, insufferable degree, but this was a good starting point for Erika's characterization and nice little gesture from her.
The family dinner continues to go well as Erika remains polite and laughs, jokes, and chats with all the others. It's part of her fake good girl routine and doesn't reflect her actual character, but as Jessica puts it, the Ushiromiya conference atmosphere is normally strained and not pleasant to endure. Even if it comes from a disingenuous place, Erika's done a decent thing by livening up the get-together and ensuring that everyone gets to enjoy themselves more than usual.
Note that all this happens before Erika has any reason to despise Battler, nor is she at the point where she wants to use him to find and attain the hidden gold just to spite Jessica and watch how the rest of the family reacts - she actually respects Piece Battler and gets along with him quite well, which is a harbinger for their dynamic to come.
I love that Erika and Dr. Nanjo spent a good many minutes on end just geeking out about different intellectually stimulating topics with each other, and she even uses her famed catchphrase in a joking manner. Granted, Nanjo is a bit inebriated from wine at the moment, but as a funny little aside, Erika says she wouldn't mind being so too!
This is when having someone as bright and genre-savvy as Erika with you during a tense and dangerous situation is a blessing, as she points out why it's both a cliched and terrible idea to split up and look in different places rather than stay together as a group. The scene then escalates into a joke where Erika mocks how easy Beatrice is being to figure out here and how "third-rate" it makes her seem as a culprit before randomly noting that third-rate action movies go in the direction opposite of third-rate horror and mystery stories because the main character can act alone yet always survive. Go figure!
Erika starts to get bored when it's seeming like the mystery isn't going to be an intellectual challenge to think her way through and figure out, and that face of her's conveys that she's not just being snarky here, she is actually getting disspirited by the unfolding of events and had really expected Beatrice to be a worthier opponent.
This is an interesting artistic choice, having a brief panel of Erika's face close up in between Battler's question and Erika giving her cheeky reply. I think she's meant to be thinking "Of course I have a heart. What kind of question is that?", because if she had no heart, she'd never had experienced heartbreak in her past relationship with her unnammed, unseen ex-boyfriend....but that only reminds her that it is because she suffered that heartbreak that she'd much prefer to NOT have a heart, to live in accordance with her mind, intellect and deductive reasoning rather than her heart and feelings for others.
Look at how excited she gets over a closed room! It's so precious! <3
And in another strangely relatable moment for Erika Furudo, she expresses some pleasure at the idea of finding Kinzo dead!
This is Mystery Nerd Erika Furudo fully unleashed. While she gets into smug, insufferable know-it-all territory and displays her lack of empathy by equating the mass murder of 18 people with fictional murders of fictional characters in fictional mystery stories (but to be fair to her, when you come from the Meta Realm and are well aware of the nature of "the gameboard" and "game pieces" in a Witch's Game, it's sort of hard not to have this mental conflation!), it starts off with some genuine gushing and trivia concerning her special interest, which is hard not to find a bit adorable and even identifiable.
After Battler demolishes Erika with facts concerning detective fiction that she didn't know or overlooked, Erika feels humiliated and furious over it, getting visibly flustered and twitchy but trying her best to not lose her cordial front and keep her respect for Battler, both internally and externally. When Battler tests her further, she's brought to the verge of tears from how embarrassed, shown up and shamed she's getting. Even when she's getting back to business as the detective, you can see the tears still in her eyes. Damn, this really cut her deep.
OK, now it's just getting funny. Poor Erika, your ego is so fragile!
Erika was absolutely petrified of having to give her full report of how her investigation's gone and what theories she's come up with to her beloved master. She fears her master will start to hate her and will abuse her verbally, emotionally, and physically for her failings. So Bern seeming to be chill and gracious brings her such visible relief...
....And then Lambda tears into her deductions and theories, ripping them to shreds with Red Truth, and being the most terrifying menace possible. Just look at how Erika takes to it: she's panicked, she's struck by stark horror, she's despairing and feeling violated here!
And there's the abusive treatment from Bern that Erika was fearing! Right after a moment where it looked like her master still had some degree of pride and respect towards her only to cruelly yank the chain and tear her down instead. Erika's horrified face really sells it.
She's the ultimate asshole, but how can you heart not break for her seeing her like this? Even she doesn't deserve to be put through this.
While this is mostly a strange and comical moment where Erika just spontaneously has an outburst at the breakfast table about how she's figured out how Battler was able to pull off an escape from the closed room of Kinzo's Study in an implausible way that he shouldn't have lived through, including saying stuff about her master than no one in the room would understand, this point at the end is just pitiful - Erika is close to shedding tears again and pleading out loud for Bern to forgive her and accept her, to not think her an incompetent failure who can't play her role right, and to not throw her away as her piece.
And then after Bern sends her a sign from above that she heard her plea and understands? We get this. And it's bizarrely wholesome.
This is a particularly interesting bit. Natsuhi tells Erika that she surely must have never really been in love before in her life. Which raises an eyebrow on Erika and she retreats into her head, thinking back to the girl in a shaky, unfaithful relationship that she used to be before she became the great detective and "intellecutal rapist". She dated some guy, she suspected him of being unfaithful to her and invaded his privacy in order to investigate and obtain proof of it, and she was heartbroken by how he threw her out and they broke things off...but in all those memories, she finds no proof that she was ever really, truly in love. And even now, she's never known a loving relationship.
Some really solid fleshing out of this brief line via artwork. When Natsuhi refuses to break down and confess her guilt, still insisting upon her innocence in all the murders (which she's right about, but Erika absolutely needs Natsuhi to be the TRUE "Beatrice" in this case so that Lambda's game can by won for her master and is going to follow the most heartless and twisted logic imaginable in order to reach the solution she wants to reach), Erika's eyes narrow in this very joyless way, shadow falls over her face, her expression glum. Almost like a part of her wanted this case to be wrapped up before she'd have to reach this point and go to the lengths she's about to go to, like she'd hoped she wouldn't have to resort to the slut shamey deduction she'll soon make and feels a bit icky deep down inside that it's about to come to that. She expresses both disdain and pity to Natsuhi, assigning her the blame for what she's about to pull as she was giving her that one chance to avoid it, and Natsuhi refused it.
This is all just so sweet, you almost forgot that Erika's a despicably villainous detective who intends to instill a reign of terror over Beato's gameboard in her master's name, and that Bernkastel is just as despicable for now showering Erika with all the kind treatment and rewards she'd been yearning for from her even when she mistreated her so horribly beforehand and will again horribly mistreat her later.
Just like that, all that kindness from her master, all that she'd been rewarded with, all that good, proud, accomplished feeling she had upon winning the game and becoming the Witch of Truth is gone. Erased. Utterly obliterated. With Lambda sadistically rubbing it in because she gets off on seeing the humiliation of friends and rivals. No wonder Erika undergoes what is by far her most massive mental breakdown in the series at this point and is ready to destroy Battler.
One of the most heartbreaking moments of pity and sympathy for Erika, which is then turned into one of the most heartwarming too. Dlanor comes to Erika's defense and validates the truth she'd managed to pull from this case as being effective and plausible, with Battler also vouching for it since while it can't be definitively proven, it can't be definitively disproved either, both Battler and Dlanor firing shots at Bern by reaffirming it's not a truth that can be written off as pathetic and arbitrarily denied, and Dlanor's vow to protect Erika and her truth finally breaking down all of Erika's walls as she wails and sobs on the floor. Even Lambda seems to find it sweet and pleasing!
Erika Furudo, wherever you are, know that we think you're the Worst Girl and we appreciate you for it. You're bad, and that's <Good>.
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Here Lies the Boy known as Wilbur Soot
He was the best in the show, an apple of his kind, a diamond in the rough. One that was jagged at the edges and rotten to the core all the same.
He played his part in the only way he knew possible, taking hands outstretched his way with a smile filled with cyanide and eyes filled with graciousness at the humility of others over himself. Truly a sight to behold, what majesty. Such grace. To consider those below him when he had no time to do so with his touring and whatnot. How splendid.
He did all that he could to better himself, relinquishing his woes in song rather than working on himself in private. Not for the better of course, work is for the common after all. No, rather to air out his dirty laundry under the pretense of an act. And what an act it was. Haha, teehee, what a great act to see the incel he could never me. Who me?
Never.
A ship in a bottle, a cat in a castle, a banana peel on a sidewalk. Fragile to fall but nothing out of his control, small in a world far bigger than the one he knows, a punchline waiting its blows.
All of this was him.
At least, not the one he wanted to be. Or the one he wanted us to see. Rather the one he left backstage, in his dressing room, in a tote, under the desk, dead to the world that never knew he existed. Or in a chatroom, behind a door, even in the black mirror as soon as the stream ended. When the show was done, the audience left. There he was, the man disillusioned with the consequences of his actions. A taunt to everyone who wants to see the good in people, even when we know that's not true but we hope for it anyway.
He was the great pretender. He pushed the button, he sang the songs, he had a family, and he lost it all.
We fell for it, and we'll do it again.
But god damn it, there is a reason we mourn. At least the memory of them.
Because in this disappointment, we have community. In this sadness, we once had hope. In his name, we had worlds. We are the ones who will never see buttons the same way. We are the ones that are haunted by the implication of salmon. We are the ones who don't think of hallelujah when we hear that broken melody.
For the oldest of us, we will think of the soot house as a soot home before our lungs give out. And for the youngest, we will see everything that he promised us in his daughter and then some- because she's real. At least to us. and to anyone who dares to wonder who Wilbur Soot was, we will say "no one that matters." because he doesn't. It's what we take from him that dose.
I don't know about you, but L'manburg was made by Tommyinit as a safe space for his friends and his discs, Talulah was born not for a white man but out of hope, and soot house, that's a month-long coughing fit that gave me momentary highs in the suffocation.
Wilbur Soot is a name that has as much power as we give it, and I'm not giving it the satisfaction of my quarantine.
Here lies Wilbur Soot, a man that's grave is gonna be pissed on by those who remember it.
Thanks for reading. This is my way of getting my emotions out. Take it as seriously as you want. We're all going through it right now. Take care of yourselves.
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Thank you for having anon on, you must get a lot of hate, but i'm a hidden recently deprogrammed ex-TIF and i appreciate being able to... confess to being a woman without being hung for it. i know that when i come out with this i will lose most of my friends because my detransition will "invalidate" them all. they will push me out so they can remain "gay men".
i wanted to ask what you think about ex-TIFs? and if you've seen how it plays out when we (re)integrate into womanhood, from the side of women. i've only seen it from the side of TRAs and it's an excommunication and violent rejection. i'm going to lose my community, and i have (since i started looking into it) fully agreed with most radfem core beliefs you see here on tumblr.
i took testosterone for years, but i also stopped in 2019 because it made me so angry. i have no breasts and a deepened voice. i wonder how radfems might see me. will i seem like a returned traitor?
will other women be interested in me still? i'm bisexual, but was pushed to mainly date men as a TIF because those relationships were "gay" and dating women was hetero and "lesser" love. i don't want to center men anymore. but i have no breasts, and i have no woman's voice. do women care? i don't know.
i ask you because you are older and maybe you would know. my best wishes to you. thank you.
I keep anon on for just this reason, because I remember how insane I felt when I found the courage to stop pushing aside those thoughts that, surely, everyone knows we're making all this up and just being nice, right?
It's an unfortunate part of human nature that it's easier to con someone than persuade them they've been conned. Once the con is taken up, it's agonizing to admit it and pull away from it. You have to live with the harms you've done along the way, which I admit to and which will eventually weigh on you as well. It's not easy, especially when your immediate friends will be harsh with you. If they don't cast you out, you might find yourself self-isolating to pre-emptively remove yourself and spare yourself the pain.
I'm not going to lie, you will encounter women who regard you as a traitor because they, themselves, have not come to terms with the harms they've done, or they've been lucky enough to not have been tested on this crucible and can't believe that anyone can be turned so upside down as we have.
However, you're not alone. I have no statistics but in meeting younger lesbians I'd guess at least 1 in 3 of them are detransitioners from varying stages of identifying as trans. If you are same-sex attracted or gender non-conforming in any way, today's society will digest that as 'trans?' and without saying a word you will find yourself being they/them without ever asking, and transition will be suggested if you suffer from so much as a bad period cramp or any frustration with your body. As women and as lesbians, we experience so much pain that society ignores, and the most powerful articulation of that anguish in our time is 'this can't be the body I'm meant to be in.' Like anorexia, dissociative identities, cutting and other expressions of female despair, we are permitted to lash out destructively as long as we bring down that rage on our own bodies. We continue to inhabit these scarred battlefields long after the fighting has moved on.
I guess the main thing to know is that you are not alone. In fact, I suspect that the 'part of my story where I was convinced I was trans' is going to be part of the coming-out pantheon for lesbians in the future that is as common as having a crush on a straight friend and have the talk with your parents. I don't think having breasts or a deeper voice will condemn you to loneliness, I don't think anyone can blame you for what's happening or being swept up in it. If they do, you can ask them why they didn't stop you, why their voices didn't reach you when you needed it most, and why - now that you've found your own way home with very little help from anyone around you - they aren't appreciating the courage and effort it took for you to find your way.
Welcome home, sister.
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Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R tierlist ranked by how each character treats A.B.A
Based on their win-quotes against A.B.A
Reasoning under the cut
Niceys :) <333333
Sol Badguy
"Well, at least you've got a strong head."
It isn't much, but remember that this is Sol we're talking about. He is blunt, brutally honest, and a bit mean in general. He does not give out compliments lightly. Even a slightly sarcastic one like this means A.B.A has impressed him, and he conveys that well.
Ky Kiske
"You should tend to your wounds properly. Especially if you're a woman."
The "especially if you're a woman" thing is a little weird, but reads more like misplaced chivalry than anything. The point here is that he is concerned about her wellbeing, hoping for her to take care of herself.
Faust
"Your prescription is…to learn about society. That is all."
He has examined her through battle, and his conclusion is that there isn't anything wrong with her. He wishes her well, and hopes for her to come out of her shell.
Axl Low
"What an original and sexy fashion sense! How exciting!"
Self-explanatory. He just thinks she's super hot.
Kliff Undersn
"Your injuries look grave. Are you all right? Hmm..That axe looks familiar... Have I seen it somewhere before?"
He's worried about her, and wants to make sure he didn't hurt her too hard. He's also interested in Paracelsus, likely remembering his days in the crusades as the Sanguine Gale. He's just being a nice old man :)
Johnny
"You should learn to communicate from my band of merry thieves. Come on…"
He offers her a position in the Jellyfish Pirates! He does this in the story mode as well! He barely knows her, but he wants to help her out the only way he knows how! What a kind dude!
Venom
"Guild members are required to learn a certain degree of interpersonal skills. Perhaps you could benefit from the same training?"
Much like how Johnny offers to let her join the Jellyfish Pirates, Venom offers to let her join the Assassin's Guild to help her out! He is nice :)
Dizzy
"I don't know how to say this…but we could be good friends! Don't you think?"
She wants to be friends!!!!! She's so sweet!!!!!!!!
Slayer
"Flament Nagel and an artificial life-form, hmmm? I find your story quite interesting!"
It's a bit nonpersonal, but he is interested in A.B.A and wants to learn more. I can only imagine them chatting over a couple glasses of blood :)
Bridget
"Nice! You'd definitely get a lot of money with that talking key!"
Her first thought is on money, but still. She thinks Paracelsus is cool, and is super supportive of the two of them!
Zappa
"Eek! A woman's on the floor covered in blood and bandages! I gotta find a doctor Faust…err, fast!"
He's a little scared of her, but he still wants to help! What a sweetie
I-No
"Wouldn't you prefer something warm-blooded instead of that cold metal rod you have there?"
"That thing's your husband? It looks like a big toy for such a little woman. Can you handle all of it? Haha! You have great taste in men!"
Look, I dunno how else to say it. I-No is just super DTF.
Neutral
A.B.A
"There's another artificial life-form besides me!? There was no record of it…"
More surprised than anything, no positive or negative feelings shown beyond that.
Order-Sol
"A homunculus, huh? Now that's rare."
Deeply impersonal, barely even interested. She's barely a curiosity for him.
Robo-Ky
"WHAT A SHAME, WHAT A SHAME. YOU'RE NEITHER HUMAN NOR ROBOT. PICK A SIDE!"
Considering A.B.A's quote for winning against him, I feel like there's potential for a friendship, but Robo seems more confused by A.B.A's existence than anything. There is some annoyance, but that seems more directed at the not-knowing than at A.B.A herself.
May
"What a big weapon you got there…isn't it heavy?"
May seems more interested in Paracelsus than A.B.A. She's a nice girl in general, so I think they could develop a friendship eventually, but it's off to kind of a weird start.
Potemkin
"…I'm not like you! Don't look at me like that!"
This is a little mean, but given how he treats her in story mode, I feel like it's more confusion and annoyance at the situation than at A.B.A herself. He just doesn't want people to think he's an artificial being.
Chipp Zanuff
"You really think I'd lose to someone who's injured!? Who do you think I am!?"
This is just Chipp being cocky as always. It could've been anyone, if he wins against anyone, he's gonna lord over them for a bit. He holds nothing against A.B.A specifically.
Eddie
"I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG THAT ARTIFICIAL ENERGY LASTS, SO I'LL LET YOU GO. FOR NOW."
This is probably about as nice as Eddie can be to anyone who isn't Zato, and it's still pretty limp. A.B.A is nothing but a potential body to him. He literally does not care one way or the other about her. There is no love, nor disdain.
Testament
"You also took the blood oath? Hmph, I guess not."
They're a little interested in her, perhaps thinking she's also a Gear. Once they realize she isn't, they lose interest. Perhaps modern Testament would be kinder to her, but as they were in ACPR, they just kind of don't care.
Jam Kuradoberi
"Your complexion is terrible! Blood transfusion pack? My food's much better for your health."
She starts with an insult, but then offers to help, so it's less neutrality and more a situation of both the good and the bad. I think Jam is just a weirdo.
Mean to her!!!!!!!
Millia Rage
"You should learn some manners before seeking knowledge. I suggest you go home."
The least mean mean thing someone says to her, it's still clear Millia has no patience for A.B.A. How rude.
Baiken
"You're such a pain. I hate people that just sneak around in the shadows."
MEAN TO HER!!!!!!!!
Justice
"Accursed homunculus! It's ridiculous that the gate will open with just that. I hope you wander in the darkness eternally."
This is so personal and rude, Justice fuckin' hates A.B.A and for no reason. Kill this woman NOW!!!!!!!!!
Anji Mito
"Stand straight and speak louder, will you? Just looking at you drives me nuts."
What did she ever do to you, huh? Kill this man NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
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How has the feedback been on the plural versions of characters at different rarities, separated only by rarity in LoTR? I personally am having a hard time remembering which Gandalf does which thing, for instance, where I don't have a problem remembering the difference between a Gandalf and a Rosie Cotton, so I'm interested to know whether that's just a me problem or if that's something more widespread.
For the record, I'm not neurotypical, so my interest here is more than just academic. If it's just a "me" problem, it means I'm going to have to study up on situations like this.
The reason for the various versions of the same character boils down to the core of how a trading card game works. If we design it only for lower rarities then it tends to be trickier to make constructed versions. If we make them only for high rarities, the characters you know never show up in limited.
The way I think of it is, over time we tend to do many versions of our favorite characters. For Universes Beyond, it's condensed down to a much smaller time frame because that's when we're making that property.
We do tend to put different versions in different color combinations, partly to expand where they can be played, but also to help players differentiate between them.
For feedback, the cards with named, known characters score higher than most other things in the set. This goes for all versions.
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TBOC thoughts feelings questions reelings
This is kind of a placeholder post before I do my rewatch of DD S1, gathering things to look out for. I'm trying to find my thoughts! The things I'm missing. Little bit on Isabelle.
The most recent trailer. I know there are differing opinions over whether it is Carol or Isabelle asking Daryl to tell her a story.
All my thoughts are hinged on not really knowing what does and what does not have a deeper meaning or connection to Caryl (the boats), which is distracting, so I'm going to ignore that and just delve in.
"Tell me a story."
My thoughts go straight to Carol in Alexandria, and her reasoning that, "these people are children, and children like stories."
And Isabelle is infantile within her manipulation. She's perfectly capable of looking after herself, in the way Carol learned to. Isabelle doesn't seem to want to do that though? Not when Daryl's around. Gotta rewatch.
This is at a time when Daryl's mind is still buzzing with Carol saying, "You never have to worry about me, Daryl."
Leading into TBOC, I don't have any concerns about Caryl's feelings for each other or their loyalty. But I am prepping for an emotional journey with a Nun who recklessly lies, who could potentially feel threatened, who could not necessarily cause harm, but could maybe not intervene if it was needed. All in order to benefit herself, what she wants, despite how this might affect someone she seems to care about. That's what I see! It could be interesting. Or it could all just be a hinge. Like all the boats. I really wanted the boats to mean something.
Further referencing stories, Daryl says to Isabelle (in 1x06), "This has always been the story, ever since I washed ashore here." Cementing that his motivation to return home has never wavered.
The family thing? The promise? Home?
The promise is another hinge. Daryl knows something is up with Carol. "You sure you're ok?" She misses you, Daryl. You're not there. She needs you!
"I'll be back in about a week, I promise."
This promise is mostly used to propel Daryl's story, like he needs to return because he made a promise. (Not just because he wants to go home). There are other promises being made around this, to get to the nest, anything related to the ultimate goal of Daryl fulfilling his own promise to Carol (his happy ending).
This promise carries more weight than, "it's not like we're never gonna see each other again." It's in the same vein as, "I wish you were coming with me." In their radio call, the line cuts out, so there's no way of knowing how they might have said goodbye to each other.
So, what I think, and stay with me, is that everytime Daryl talks about the promise he made, he's just basically saying that he loves Carol. No, this is going to make my rewatch so fun, let me have this! I can't remember so much of this show I swear.
I mentioned in my DD overall thoughts, that some things are too painful to say (eg, Carol's name over Connie's in the name drop, IMHO). It's easier for Daryl to say that he made a promise, or that he has family back home, and also, nothing with unsaid looks, than it is for him to say that he left the love of his life, and he promised (loves) her, and he needs her.
"He is the the only family I have left."
This is a tying thread for me, this family thing.
Daryl says, "I got family waiting for me back home."
I have 3 points:
1. Carol is trying to convince someone to help her get to Daryl? She's trying to make her case as convincing as possible, really sell that thing with butter and icing.
2. There may be others at the Commonwealth Carol could consider family. Like who though? Ezekiel and Jerry are friends, but family is under the skin. Family was that core group. The kids aren't going to provide her with that companionship she longs for. I'm not sure on the timeline if Rick and Michonne are back yet. But my point is, Carol's happy ending is not going home to an empty apartment, she doesn't want to be alone, she tells Daryl he never needs to worry about her, with the commitment of someone who made dinner plans when they were feeling social and energetic, and now she's home in her pyjamas, and Daryl hears straight through it.
3. When Carol dreams, she dreams of Daryl and Henry. I think it's reasonable to suggest that in her mind, the notion of a nuclear family springs, and in that, Daryl is really the only family she has left. This is the empty apartment thing again, but I like having 3 points. It makes sense to me. She is his home, she is his promise, she is his family. And he is hers.
There is annoyingly a fair bit of discussion about maybe Daryl realising that he actually belongs where he doesn't belong, and that his home is somewhere else, like in France, away from his family. This is irritating because Daryl completely ignores this line of thought, instead of just shutting it down. But, also, Daryl completely ignores this line of thought, and the only thing he says of that notion, to Isabelle, at the nest, is:
"I kinda like it here. Yeah. It kind of grows on you. Feels like home."
But he says this as he's getting ready to leave Isabelle, and more significantly, Laurent, in this place, which feels homey. He's reassuring himself that he's doing the right thing by these new clingy folk who like to pull at his saviour complex heartstrings. Daryl is happy, his boat is coming in. He spends a significant amount of time staring out the window during this scene, where I'm wondering if the ocean is? It's an island right. Where the boats sometimes are? Cause the boat is his path home. The point is, he's not entirely present in this moment. Not with Isabelle and her wound.
And the very last thing he says on the matter is, "And this place feels like home to you, and I truly hope it is for both of you. But I have my own home to get back to."
Lastly, I love Caryl. I already have more than I need from this beautiful pair. But these characters deserve to be happy. They want what they want, I tell you.
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Welp, here in Texas, Summer's finally here. The streets are empty and the power's going out from everyone turning the AC on at the same time. And that means that soon enough people living further north in reasonable climates are going to be getting hit with record high temperatures, because that's just what happens every year now.
SO! To repay their kindness of the past few years in providing tips on staying warm during our Big Freeze(s), I'm gonna share some Gen-U-Ine Texas Wisdom(TM) on beating the heat. Anyone else from similarly hellish climates is more than welcome to chip in anything I miss or forget.
1) STAY! HYDRATED!
Most things on this list are tips and suggestions, but this is a hard-and-fast rule. I know that probably sounds really obvious but I literally cannot stress it enough. If you're hot and sweating, you're losing water and it needs replacing. If you're hot and not sweating, you're out of water and it REALLY needs replacing. Sweat is not your enemy, it's your body's natural cooling mechanism.
Straight water is best obviously but if you can't do that for whatever reason, go whatever you've got. I personally keep a big jug of water by my computer and refill it regularly. A fairly reliable metric is if you go to take a drink and you find yourself just guzzling it down, let it happen; your body knows what it needs. If you start drinking and immediately start sweating, it means you needed to sweat but were too dehydrated to spend the water. Keep. Drinking.
2) Ice water is your friend
I preface this by saying if you're elderly or have heart conditions, be very careful with this one: going too cold too fast can shock your system and stop your heart. Even if you don't have heart conditions, you should be careful about it if you're particularly overheated (e.g. you just came in from doing yard work in the heat). Even if it doesn't mess with your heart, it can mess with your stomach and make you throw up. Start off with cool room temperature water and work your
way down.
That said, there is no better tool for cooling down your core. Remember there is no such thing as cold, just lower and higher amounts of heat, and most of your organs are on the inside, not the outside. You can climb into a freezer or sit in front of an AC going full blast, but you're still gonna have to wait for the heat to diffuse its way from your core to your skin before it actually leaves your body. With ice water, you're introducing a great big thermal battery right into your core where it can pull that heat out directly before getting expelled in the myriad way the human body has to lose moisture.
3) Cold showers: not just for horndogs anymore!
Now we've got your core taken care of, but your outer layer's still plenty hot. Lucky for you, water is a great conductor for heat on the outside of your body too! Showers are particularly effective because it's a constant stream of new cold water rather than a singular body that will warm up over time. As with the previous tip, those with heart conditions or the severely overheated should start with a cool or even lukewarm temperature before easing their way lower to prevent adverse reactions from the sudden shock.
4) Keep the air movin' and coolin'
We all know the relief a nice cool breeze can bring when you're feeling hot, but those are often short-lived and not available on command. Now, the people this list is for (by virtue of needing this list) probably don't have central air conditioning, so we're gonna have to find another way. First off, if you can afford it (both the up-front cost and the utility cost; suckers really suck up the juice), a 1-room or window unit air conditioner in your bedroom or whichever room you spend the most time can be an absolute lifesaver. I pretty much guarantee whatever room you put it in will become the room you spend the most time.
4b) No AC, no problem
If that's not an option for you, you're not out of luck though; I'm going to let you in on the tried-and-true method of those too budget-bound for AC; the wind-tunnel method. This should be particularly effective for people with the grave misfortune of spending the summer months in a home built for the winter, made to retain every ounce of heat it can.
All you need is (at least) 2 large box fans (or similar high-power exhaust fans) and (at least) openable windows (or doors to the outside if you don't mind bugs/birds/neighbors coming in). If your home has a built-in attic fan, that can substitute for at least one of the fans and windows, that's what they're made for.
Pick at least two windows on opposite ends of your home. If you only have windows on one side of your home (e.g. a small appartment), choose the two farthest away from each other. If you live in a multi-story home, at least one should be on the top floor and one should be on the bottom. At one window set up one of the box fans blowing in, and at the other window, blowing out. In a multi-story home at least one fan blowing out should be on the topmost floor you're looking to cool. Heat rises and you will notice.
Because they might be called something different where you live, this is what I mean by a box fan:
The idea is to create a gentle wind tunnel through your home to constantly keep the air circulating, bringing in new (cooler) air from outside and venting the old warmer air back out. As such, there will need to be a constant open-air path from one fan to the other, so leave the interior doors open. A few additional tips:
If you have a windowless room you want to include on the circulation, put another box fan (or one of those squat barrel fans) on the floor in the doorway blowing in. The cooler air will flow in at the bottom of the doorway and the warmer air will flow out at the top
Any room that generate it's own heat when in use (i.e. kitchens, computer rooms, etc) should definitely be included in the system, unless you plan on never going in there. Kitchens in particular should get an exhaust fan.
When you run the fans can make a lot of difference. You'll need to work out what works best in your personal situation (especially if you've got a lot of insulation) but what works best for me is to run them from evening to morning when it's coolest out, then shut them off during the heat of the day so the house holds on to the cool for as long as it can.
For a little extra cooling, take some light fabric soaked in water or a wide pan of it and place it in front of the intake fan. The air blowing over/through the water will cause it to evaporate, cooling the air as it comes in. This may not always be effective however, because...
5) Humidity is NOT your friend
Somewhat paradoxically, water can be as much an enemy as a friend in the fight to keep cool. In simple terms, the more water is in the air, the less water can evaporate into it, the upshot of which is your sweat stops doing its job and instead of evaporating away, leaving you slightly sticky but cool, it just stays there, leaving you hot, damp, and miserable. The only real ways to combat this are to a) not introduce unnecessary steam into the air (and venting any you do generate) and/or b) get a dehumidifier. The problem with b is it doesn't really work with the Wind Tunnel Method for obvious reasons. If you live somewhere both hot and humid, an AC unit really is the best of both worlds because it dries the air as it cools it.
So, other than small obvious stuff like "Stay out of the sun" and "Try not to move around too much", that's what I've got for y'all. If I think of anything else I'll be sure to add it, and again, anyone else with tips to add is welcome to do so. And even if you don't have something to add, I'd appreciate y'all reblogging this anyway so it can hopefully reach more people who need it so we can help our northern neighbors like they helped us these past few winters.
Good luck out there and keep cool!
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And We're Live!
Bruh a Miss Kaya update? Sweet! As we've said with Academy, this blog fully stans certified good girl Miss Kaya. I love her outfit here, she was really one of this series's first more classy, modest girlies and say what you will about how Oda draws women but I'm noticing she's not one of the ones who got a Timeskip breast augmentation. Usopp's former crew look like they're growing up fast too. This is a good group, still hope we get more Kaya in Academy because I really like her as the sickly girl who doesn't make it to school all the time. Clever use of a character on Sohei Koji's part.
We can talk about Academy over Golden Week though, because Vegapunk's message is going live! Which means sadly we're done with the fun of dicking around for ten minutes. The Vega Coffee bit was so, so good though. We'll get to the ramifications as we go but first there is a reason for Miss Kaya. Take note of all these people we see, how places like Torino highlight that darker side. VP will even own up to some of his own "sins" in his message. It's a very diffuse reaction to the man. Someone who inspires a lot of different reactions. It's important to pay attention when a story does that, but let's move on:
Hahaha lol eat a dick Mars. Classic decoy maneuver. We did get the brain in a jar! In a chapter where Vegapunk "confirms" his own death and an arc where we've played this game with Kuma. Remember Mars doesn't actually know the deal, he himself is pondering a little over what counts as the real Vegapunk. So I'm inclined to ponder if it is just what we see; part of his brain serving as more or less a hard drive. As much the real him as that paw bubble of memories was the real Kuma. Shout-out to Bonney and her Giant-ish future by the way. It was cool, but pretty much reinforces the same themes. You're acting like Luffy and the crew has fully shifted to treating you (appropriately) as a little kid to watch out for.
The decoy snail though...I like it. Could it have been a long game by Vegapunk? Of course, and keeping York out of the loop is believable. But being on the floor randomly is still weird and putting it right in front of the big brain tank seems rather risky for Vegapunk. Why would he want to nudge at that connection. Get what I'm saying? This is a weirder beat than it seems, but it would make perfect sense through the lens of someone else reacting. Great way to cover one's tracks by just letting the natural assumption take course. There's one part of Vegapunk's speech that bolsters this to me:
Please do not assume that the ones who strike me down are evil. That plus what he says here? Do...not track with thinking the Gorosei would be the ones who came after him. Sounds a little more like he expected Luffy, Bonney, someone like that to take him out. Or even Lucci. It's subtle, but actually a great remind that this all has nothing to do with the Straw Hats. Remember that old theme? The extra effort from the World Government is because of an emperor drifting into the situation. You can't act so casually when the world rocks in your wake. That still seems to be the core lesson for Luffy.
Speaking of, we get another nudge at one of last night's big mysteries. How did Robin get in such rough shape? The scenes before we skip the night set it up okay, she was headed right into a confrontation with York. But it's still a lingering question. And speaking of "lingering," you have the Gorosei hammering that Bakura Town/Ryokugyu theme hard. Reminds me of someone who knows no one called Vermin. The message though, it's what we're all here for. Well, I'm here for Nami Protect Mode.
I have some thoughts about this. Not the reveal itself. Sorta what we saw with Lulusia at the start, the fallout I mean. Excellent through line with Wano and it's own history. Makes Iceberg look so cool in hindsight because he at least was a good enough leader to see it happening locally. Type of thing a shipwright-turned-politician would notice your typical noble wouldn't. Very classic looming threat, makes me think of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou which was our world after massive sea level rise.
Let me just say one thing. This is fucking hilarious from a certain perspective. Imagine you're chilling. Doing your thing. Every PC and Windows product in the world fires up. Bill Gates is streaming live. He takes ten minutes to dick around with coffee then promptly announces his death before telling everyone their own death is imminent because [government conspiracy]. The reaction is going to be wild. Makes me think of David Bowie's "Five Years." If you're a fan, see if you can find the live version from the Dinah Shore show. You won't regret it. That Man Who Fell to Earth look was iconic and you gotta love managing a 4th wall break in a rock opera.
We've talked about this with Robonosuke, who's hanging around in the background still. This is an even better detail someone who learned a lot from Toki would know. Even if it's indirect relevance, it's the exact type of knowledge a modern scholar would find as a big surprise but a friend of the lady from the Void Century could just casually know. Maybe not a fancy sea chart, but say to the degree of a rough map?
Just saying, type of thing there's scenes to support it. The map is right there with some of the first ones that really show Kiku acting like a nanny with Momonosuke. The Act plot with Olin had a lot of subtle bait the girl's a little distinct from the group we'd build on in Act 3. Aside from all that though, just this basic setup of the chapter? We start on a few vignettes around the world showing different reactions to Vegapunk. Then we set up everyone in dire straits as Luffy's run out of gas. Injected a little new mystery through Stussy/York. Now we end on a big reveal that doesn't affect the matter at hand as we pull away from the island?
It's easy to say at a lot of points but if there's a third cutaway...we may be going into it after Golden Week.
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Free-Range Artisinal Memes
alkalam47
İsimsiz
hatemate101
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sturdav
Davud🎧