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imminent-danger-came · 9 months

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I was rewatching s2 last night, and ohhh man mk looks over mei so much it's not even funny. times mei has been ignored:

maybe you need to really listen! (during the blindfold ep)

mk just? grabs stuff she's using out of her hands all the time? (video game ep)

maybe you shouldn't skip the tutorials? (video game ep again)

the way he addresses her in dumpling destruction and then immediately pushes her aside for tang

i honestly remember it lowkey kinda bothering me on first watch but now it's REALLY egregious on rewatch. are you scared? I'm so scared. do you WANT to end up like shadowpeach MK

2x03 is so rude because the whole fucking episode they're like "MK you don't listen" and it's so true. He doesn't. Pigsy literally points it out again at the end of 4x14 with the whole sun screen bit:

Pigsy: "Tch, don't bother, I've been telling him that for years but he LITERALLY never listens." Sun Wukong: "Yep! That's how we role."

THEY'RE SO FUCKING RUDE. "That's how we role." We. We????? Wukong and MK???? Like WHATEVER. FINE. (("I told you going against the Jade Emperor was a bad idea, but no. Wukong doesn't listen to ANYONE! He just does whatever he wants" Like shut up. Shut up!))

MK gets so stuck in his own head ("You're all stuck up in your own head! None of this is your fault!" +1 to the MK ignoring Mei counter from 4x08) and I think that really contributes to his s2 scramble to get more powerful.

LIKE:

MK: "Stop? Now? Never! I just have to try harder. It's just like the Monkey King said! *laughs manically* I just need to get stronger!"

(2x06 Game On)

MK: "Why didn't he just stop, right here? He was already so much stronger than anyone ever needed to be!" Macaque: "Wukong didn't think so, he always felt he had to be stronger—more immortal."

(4x11 A Lifetime of Mistakes)

(Bonus thing between eps 2x03 and 2x06, look at 0:42 in this video for MK hearing Mei but not listening to her. Because of course that's what he would do. *head in my hands .png*)

The terrible s2 choices both Wukong and MK make in relation to their friends is just absolutely delicious after 4x11. Like, OH. This has been a lifelong pattern of Wukong's—paranoia is one of his fatal flaws (paired with his terrible communication and self-sacrificial nature), and while he had the power to stop LBD before he still feel's the need to go after the Samadhi Fire to stop her now, and to protect MK.

Hold on look at this parallel that I don't know what to do with:

MK: "Ugh, I can't do it!"

Mei: "It's alright MK—you did it before, you'll do it again!" Sandy: "Yeah! Maybe it's like Monkey King said: the power will come when you need it most!"

(3x04 The Winning Side)

MK: "What! But you said the Samadhi fire was the only thing that could stop her!" Sun Wukong: "I KNOW WHAT I SAID! But I've beaten her before I'll- I'll do it again! Mei was right—I need to stop dragging you into my fights, all of you."

(3x10 The Samadhi Fire)

Wukong and MK's reach for power inspires a lot of fear in me! It does! Because, well, MK's current reach for power is going to lead him to his Monkey Form, and uh:

Like I'm scared. I'm scared!

"All doomed to play a role in tearing this world apart!" ; "This is Azure's utopia, and this barren wasteland is the price he paid to build it." ; "I'd do anything for my friends! But at the cost of the world?" "I'm sorry pal, ain't NOTHIN' worth that price!"

#I've said it once and I'll say it again: 2x06 is one of the MOST retroactively mean episodes #Game motif. The callback that 4x10 does. Whatever the fuck is going on with the MK and SWK parallels in that ep #I hate lmk's exchange theme I hate it. Like FUCK #Anyways #asks #wlw-wukong #lmk #lego monkie kid #lmk MK #lmk SWK #lmk Sun Wukong #lmk analysis #lmk theme: exchange #fuckasdfoqweg #Sandy saying ''Helping my friends is more important than anything in the world!'' in 2x08 vs #''I get it! I'd do anything to help my friends! But at the cost of the world?'' in 4x13 is SICK. SICK IT'S SICK #Sometimes it's like. Hmmm. ''If you aren't doing everything in your power to help your friends you are nothing!''#''I'd watch my sword shatter 1000 times so long as I used it to protect the ones I care about''#I'm telling you Mei would choose MK over the world. I'M TELLING YOU #MK'S ALREADY CHOSEN MEI OVER THE WORLD (thank you 3x10) AND PIGSY/TANG/SANDY OVER THE WORLD (4x02)#MK really went: ''Oh releasing this curse could end the world? Well I'll risk it for my friends!'' and I went ''ohhhh nooooooooo''#WE ARE IN SOME DEEP SHIT IN S5 #And Wukong? Lol of course he's choosing the people he cares about over the world. No surprise there.#He's like ''yeah I'll go fight the jade emperor to finally be strong enough''. If eamk theory proves true he like #Chose MK over the world initially #And he was totalllyyy willing to sacrifice LBD's child host to protect his friends (MK)/the world #I'm. AUGHGHG.#''It's what he would do if he had to. That's the hard part of being a hero!'' OKAY BUT MEI WOULD YOU DO THAT SO EASILY IF IT WERE MK #ME THINKS NO #ME THINKS YOU WOULD NOT

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staliaqueen · 1 year

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I’m half a man at best With half an arrow in my chest I miss everything we do I'm half a heart without you

Forget all we said that night No, it doesn't even matter 'Cause we both got split in two

If you could spare an hour or so We'll go for lunch down by the river We can really talk it through

Post Canon AU where Stiles calls Malia up to apologize for how he ended things and they reconnect for @scintalla

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goodobservationshirley · 1 year

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All night, I waited for you at the railway station. Why didn’t you come? By being selfish, I did not want to ruin others’ lives.

#maja ma #majamaedit #i love this movie a lot actually #the tragedy of this moment!#'look what you've done to me! i'm the perfect woman'#it kinda parallels with pallavi's conversation with her son later on #where she's like 'by seeing me as a god you denied me the right to be human'#and she's about to disown him in this moment #because it IS a terrible thing to do to someone #this movie really went 'perfect is the enemy of human because it can only exist in a lie' and it went HARD #also: the fact in 30 years they had never talked about this #even though they kept being in each other's lives #tragic

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no1ryomafan · 4 months

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Very stupid getter thing I’m thinking about as it’s such a minor detail but my brain is circling around how color is used in the series, more specifically for the robot.

Color palettes for your badass giant robot mean everything but the color choices in Getter are *very* important as it was the first-and few-robots to have multiple different forms in one, and are all compromised of jets to make the robot.

The designs needed to be consistent with this aspect, having the Getters color palette use all three individual colors of the jets. What’s noteworthy about the colors used is the robots almost follow using the primary colors of red, blue and yellow, but the blue is swapped out for white. This was likely due to a better color balance, as while the primary colors would work if the robots weren’t individually joined but still a group, keeping in mind the concept of how they form from jets the blue would likely clash too much with red and yellow, where as white makes it all smoothly come together.

Nearly every Getter set since tries to follow this tradition of using red, white and yellow in there palettes, but aside from a few obvious exceptions for Getters that were meant to stick out-like Neo/Go, as that robot doesn't run on getter rays so the palette was changed drastically to reflect its nature-the most obvious example of a traditional Getter breaking this tradition and going for blue over white is Getter Robo G.

While each and every Getter has its own factors to stand out and differentiate itself, the G line for simply having one small color change really sets it apart. Especially with its OG design above, it’s hard to not notice its version of Getter Two (Liger) had a color change that affects the whole palette. So people either love or hate G for this, even if later takes of its design like Armageddon, try to tweak the colors to be more visually appealing by keeping it strictly to the main color of the respective jet. (This also carrying over for Shin Getter in the show)

But why do I mention any of this? Well I was in fact thinking about this regarding Arma and Getter 2, but less on the actual designs itself and more so a rather small yet likely intentional detail: How Kei is associated with the color blue before it’s even shown that she pilots Shin Liger. From her own promo art with Shin 2 having her being colored in blue despite Go and Gais colors being their respective robot, to her pilot suits having blue shoulder pads to match with Liger, which we see before the robot even appears. (Yes I’m using a SRW art instead of a show shot, just deal with it lol)

This is such a small detail but the team likely had probably a rough idea of what to do with Shin Dragon, so seeing them giving small hints to the viewer-albeit one has to see a art of this prior to know lol-before it even happens is pretty cool. Just goes to show how much insane detail Getter has across its series.

#meg text #getter robo armageddon #getter robo g #my first ramble of the year and it’s a fucking mess LOL #(I was tempted to delete it after until I looked at the time and went “I don’t wanna waste time like this”)#I do wanna make a more in depth post about the build up to go team piloting shin dragon but need my thoughts organized #by which I need to make a whole google doc for it (which I tried and deleted for some fucking reason bc I’m dumb)#hopefully it still in my deleted drafts but probably not (but I didn’t finish so eh)#rants aside my autistic brain was just thinking so hard about this because arma really like it’s pilot suit colors #I think about how ryomas team also has their scarves be the corresponding colors to their robots… love that #the go teams shoulder pads is a nice parallel to that but I like how between all pilots hayato and kei are the ones not to match #simply because liger stands out but that fits with kei so well because she’s the one pilot on the team who’s a girl #yet her suit is also white so it’s not like she doesn’t entirely not match with hayato lol

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elinorapologist · 6 months

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Um.. UM. uM um UUUMMMMM...... I JUST GOT A SPOILER FOR OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH. A spoiler. A SPOILER LIKE NO OTHER

#do not tell me that was ed kissing who i think it was ed kissing #i literally caught a glimpse and scrolled so hard i went into YESTERDAY #so i actually dont know #but it was a parallel of him kissing someone and the good omens big damn kiss side by side..#ive been reading queer vibes asf from every one of these goofballs #but him and stede specifically it was like 'okay are we really getting this or is my gay as reading into things'#ofmd #our flag means death #im so confused #okay dont mind me #just LOSING MY MIND #also #totally unrelated but izzy is fucking sexy #like idk what is about that man that makes me Q U A K E #and tremble like a small dog #everytime he speaks or is on screen #when he got tossed off the boat after his duel with stede and he shows up in jackies tavern #and he pulls his hair back with one hand and i just like. melted out of my chair #im still only on season 1 so if izzy does something like irredeemable i dont know about it yet #so just let me love him

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capricornsicle · 1 year

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"I'm going to tell you a story. Maybe it will sound familiar." Visionary x Insatiable x Status Asthmaticus x The Wolves of War

#this is really a show about coming of age in a vicious and unfamiliar world more than a show about werewolves #think about it. scott is sixteen and to him losing his first love is as incomprehensible and unfathomable as the supernatural.#and we're constantly reminded of how being sixteen and in love goes -- 'you're not in love you're sixteen and a child' etc.#these three characters make for such a good parallel to one another in how they werewolf + seeking guidance #especially + sudden change of worldview/stakes when confronted with sudden and unexpected loss and grieving #of course derek loses paige and becomes cold and jaded (see: literally becomes cold w/ blue eyes)#scott loses allison and commits harder to saving all of his friends even though one of them (or someone possessing him) killed her #liam is stopped from killing because of hayden's death #here are three werewolves who were sixteen and held their first love's dead body in their arms #and each of them took a different path. do you close yourself off? refuse to? do you change completely because of it?#and ofc it's teen wolf so everything always comes in threes #I have a lot of issues with the writing but the use of death (barring 6b) is not one of them. they really went hard on meaningful death.#also consider: lori holding brett's hand so he doesn't die alone and theo responding to tracy kissing him by killing her as she does #teen wolf writers went is anyone going to bastardize the original narrative to ponder new ideas about it and didn't wait for an answer #also women's deaths are always about love/for a man (thanks hollywood) but goddamn if they don't kill their women wisely #and the thing is they are all running. they're running from death and what does it get them? it gets them here.#derek wants to turn paige so she'll live forever. scott wants allison to live happily even with someone else. liam wants to save hayden.#none of them consider that cheating death will catch up to them until they run right into its arms #and all three die because of getting involved with the supernatural. all of them would presumably not have died otherwise.#coming of age into a world that takes and hurts and destroys and where you are now old enough for people around you to die.#this is not a show about werewolves.#teen wolf #twedit #teenwolfedit #my edit #derek hale #paige krasikeva #scott mccall #allison argent #liam dunbar

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aq2003 · 2 years

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good night to dan torrance from doctor sleep (2019) :) . and also to the rest of you all i guess :/

#doctor sleep #(re)watched th movie but w the directors cut version. and god i love him so much he deserves everything.#reading the novel did not give me the sense of satisfaction i wanted even though he survives at the end #oh also i broke my promise to myself and i watched the shining and i did not like it HGSJLDKHFKAJD #but it did heighten my viewing experience of doctor sleep directors cut. so theres that i guess #i know that they went hard w the dan and jack parallels but the dan and wendy parallels really hit better for me #him goin up the stairs w the axe like his mom w the bat. defending abra from rose like wendy protected him from jack. i cry and i sob #i think actually the dan and jack parallels are interesting specifically through the lens of how dan chooses to be different #he chooses to be a better person than his father. at SO many turns.#i just. ahhgghghhghg. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

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locria-writes · 2 years

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hi, welcome to my ted talk where i gush about my good and unproblematic children who accidentally help set in motion everything bad that happened leading up to the personal writing catastrophe that i've yet to name :D also not this soft enemies-to-friends-to-lovers arc

lan xiaoyun (兰霄云) aka local friendly nihilist aka friendly neighbourhood miser

24, single, very much ready to not mingle

thinks she's in a psychological military horror-drama (she's half-wrong)

only became a sergeant major in the earth coalition military bc there were too many ppl dead and they needed to fill in ranks. resigned the first chance they accepted lol

should probably see a therapist and stop seeing alcohol and sleeping pills as her best friends

needs to get a hobby

absurdly high standards for beauty/handsomeness

would be on an episode of extreme couponing ngl

natural-born bully, actively tries to not bully but can't help herself. doesn't help that she's just a naturally blunt person, but she does have a filter

aspires to be in a permanent head-empty state, does not like thinking, but works a cognitive-intense job and is renowned for her ability to pull absurdly long hours with minimal sleep

hates sweet food, prefers spicy and sour

may or may not have a slight brocon but it's okay he's dead lol

is 157cm, therefore radiates the same energy as a feral chihuahua

is ambivalent and not averse to sex and kissing on the first date, or even just hookups

watched her 3 previous bfs die brutal deaths (#1 in an exploding ship, #2 had his face smashed in, #3 vapourized), so she's kinda convinced anyone she dates is gonna die brutally and it's her fault

florentius asturias aka overgrown puppy when in love aka wholesome lad

30, single, very much ready to mingle if it's xiaoyun

thinks he's in a family friendly romcom (he's half-right)

prodigal venator pilot, equally prodigal commander, a marshal in concordia and basically one of their living legends

25% kind and altruistic, 25% honest and forthcoming, 25% patient, 10% calculating, 5% pragmatic, 5% charming, 5% clumsy = 100% endearing

has good taste, but always picks the worst people for his current state aka he chased upward when he was down and is now chasing down when he's up

also really needs to get a hobby

had two messy breakups in the past (#1 broke up to marry someone richer, #2 was just a mess with infidelity), but is surprisingly still an optimistic romantic

known to be stoic and aloof to his subordinates and colleagues, but is actually a big softie on the inside and is very emotive

a true gentleman, chugs his respect women juice and has indeed killed people who don't

extremely competent at his job, but is actually kinda useless otherwise; man can't cook, can't decorate for shit, has no hobbies, but since he's 190cm, can be used as a very pretty and motivational ladder

currently being exiled to bad baby jail (less lucrative post) by his superior bc he's not married and initially had no intentions of getting hitched

unabashedly a sweet tooth, has never hid it, will never hide it, and shouts it proudly from the rooftops

does not believe in sex on the first date, or even kissing on the first date, does not believe in hookups (for himself) either

is convinced this relationship will work out since she hasn't managed to kill him the previous 48 times she tried

#marginally writing related #they give the same energy as the 'someone is going to die -' 'of fun! :D' meme #once i finish their backstories i might post it they form cool parallels and he's a great foil for her older bro #her sibset is cute i like it her brother is sun she's cloud and her sister is rainbow v cute my proudest sibset yet #unironically i think he would have a live laugh love thing in his house bc he would've gotten it as a joke and kept it #his subordinates and colleagues are all assholes and he's just there vibing in his wholesomeness how iconic #all of her colleagues are just as messy as she is so that dynamic is a trainwreck #it's also really funny that she just assumes he's a rich boy without any hard evidence and gives him a hard time bc of it bby no stop pls #anyway i'm glad to report their second date went much smoother bc he learns v quickly #he did such a good job he even earned himself a kiss on the cheek and bby boy was so proud of that

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friend-dispenser · 5 days

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Just realized I wrote these tags in their own post not in a reblog of the post I was trying to add them to!!!!!! Ugh!!!!!

AND I LOST THE POST!!!!!

It basically went like "I'm sick of hearing about taylor swift. Tag the most obscure band you listen to." If anyone comes across it please let me know cause I wanted to look through the notes again in a week or two! And also share my tags!

#Aki Akane (Japanese utaite rock singer who has crazy texture control)#Hillsburn (Folk Rock with violins and powerful harmonies and sad mad bittersweet lyrics #got synthier and a lot sadder with their third album. It's a great album in its own right but I prefer the first two)#Courage My Love (imagine Paramore but with a million layers of vocals and guitars and sometimes strings and pianos too #Becoming was my all-time favourite album for several years. Only reason it's not now is that it reminds me too much of my junior high years #Uncanny (slightly Prog-y Hard Rock band I went to see on a whim when I lived in Montreal for a month. Only have a few songs unfortunately #They're great though really good balance of intense and catchy and they were even better live)#Eat Lead Tracy is a super fun garage rock aggressive-but-a-little-tongue-in-cheek-about-it band #Kids Losing Sleep (Pop Punk with some The 1975-esque glitter and grime. Their EP called Loves is by far my favourite thing from them)#The Maes (aka The Mae Trio. I only know one song by them and it's Parallel Park but I love that song.#three part harmonies guitar mandolin and violin folk singer-songwriter cute and soft but not too cute and soft y'know)#Mother Falcon (someone else mentioned them. Folk Punk Orchestra what else do I need to say)#Orla Gartland (idk exactly how obscure she is but incredible rock singer songwriter. like if Boygenius was way less sad)#oh and Backpackparty!! (like Owl City + early Lorde + that youtuber you really liked when you were 11)#(their drummer/keyboardist was a youtuber I really liked when I was 11. Still listen to their EP Possibly pretty regularly though)

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inkskinned · 4 months

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she's three years younger than i am, and i put on cascada as a throwback, cackling - before your time! i've been borrowing my brother's car, and it's older than dirt, so the trunk is like, maybe permanently locked. when the sun comes through the window to frame her cheekbones, i feel like i'm 16 again. i shake when i'm kissing her, worried i won't get it right.

in 2003, my state made gay marriage legal. where she grew up, it wasn't legal until 11 years later - 10 years ago. if legal protections for gay marriage were a person, that person would be entering 5th grade. online, a white gay man calls the fight for legal marriage boring, which isn't kind of him but it is a common enough opinion.

it has only been 9 years since gay marriage was nationally official. it is already boring to have gay people in your tv. it is already boring to mention being gay - "why make it your entire personality?" i know siblings that have a larger age gap than the amount of time it's been legally protected. i recently saw a grown man record himself crying about how evil gay people are. he was begging us, red in the face - just do better.

i am absolutely ruined any time my girlfriend talks about being 27 (i know!! a child!), but we actually attended undergrad at the same time since i had taken off time to work between high school and college. while walking through the city, we drop our hands, try not to look too often at each other. the other day i went to an open mic in a basement. the headlining comedian said being lesbian isn't interesting, but i am a lesbian, if you care. as a joke, she had any lesbian raise their hand if present. i raised mine, weirdly embarrassed at being the single hand in a sea of other faces. she had everyone give me a round of applause. i felt something between pride and also throwing up.

sometimes one thing is also another thing. i keep thinking about my uncle. he died in the hospital without his husband of 35 years - they were not legally wed, so his husband could not enter. this sounds like it should be from 1950. it happened in 2007. harassment and abuse and financial hardship still follow any person who is trying to get married while disabled. marriage equality isn't really equal yet.

and i don't know that i can ever put a name to what i'm experiencing. sometimes it just feels... so odd to watch the balance. people are fundamentally uninterested in your identity, but also - like, there's a whole fucking bastion of rabid men and women who want to kill you. your friends roll their eyes you're gay we get it and that is funny but like. when you asked your father do you still love me? he just said go to your room. you haven't told your grandmother. disney is on their 390th "first" gay representation, but also cancelled owl house and censored the fuck out of gravity falls. you actively got bullied for being gay, but your advisor told you to find a different gimmick for your college essay - everyone says they're gay these days.

once while you were having a hard day you cried about the fact that the reason our story is so fucking boring to so many people is that it is so similar. that it is rare for one of us to just, like, have a good experience across the board. that our stories often have very parallel bends - the dehumanization, the trauma, the trouble with trusting again. these become rote instead of disgusting. how bad could it be if it is happening to so many people?

i kiss my girlfriend when nobody is looking. i like her jawline and how her hands splay when she's making a joke. there is nothing new about this story, sappho. i love her like opening up the sun. like folding peace between the layers of my life, a buttercream of euphoria, freckles and laughter and wonder.

my dad knows about her. i've been out to him since i was 18 - roughly four years before the supreme court would protect us. the other day he flipped down the sun visor while driving me to the eye doctor. "you need to accept that your body was made for a husband. you want to be a mother because you were made for men, not women." he wants me to date my old high school boyfriend. i gagged about it, and he shook his head. he said - "don't be so dramatic. you can get used to anything."

the other day a straight friend of mine snorted down her nose about it, accidentally echoing him - she said there are bigger problems in this world than planning a wedding.

#splled ink #writeblr #it's really hard to describe what im feeling

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lunahearts · 3 months

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Soooo I read all of Dungeon Meshi in this past week and I have many thoughts bouncing around in my brain and I think the only thing to do with them is some AGGRESSIVELY CLOSE READING of a scene I wanted to come back to and try to understand better.

So: I want to talk about chapter 28

This entire section of the story is something I feel like I am going to want to come back to a lot, because its such a transitional time and I feel like there are a lot of themes/ideas that I wasn't fully aware of during my first reading, and stuff I missed because of that.

One of the biggest things I have been turning over in my head is... hey, what was UP with the Marcille/Falin bath scene? Maybe it was because I was already primed to pay attention to stuff with them going into the story, or because I had already seen a couple of panels out of context. In any case, it really kind of stuck out to me as being very short but also VERY intense, while also being... hard for me to define? Some part of the nature of the intensity felt like it was going over my head.

I wasn't sure that revisiting it would help with this right away, but to my surprise, it actually WAS a lot easier for me to follow and understand when I went back to it. So I want to just do a close reading of That Scene and some other parts of the chapter & context around it all, because I think it offers insight into Falin & her relationships, and what purpose this chapter serves within the story as a whole.

So first of all, I think it's interesting that the scene starts with Marcille bathing Falin.

It feels very caring in a more platonic, less charged way then what will follow.

Marcille goes from this caretaker mode to joining Falin in the bath, and then of course we get the first of The Panels

(as a small note, I only noticed when revisiting that Marcille is using the rest of her Kelpie soap in the bath. Isn't that just the most heartwrenching little detail. Augh)

Anyway, one of the first things I thought was interesting going back to this is how much it reminded me of the very different sort of intimacy that came just before it - when Laios and Marcille assembled Falin's bones.

This is such a beautiful and intimate sequence, and something about Marcille examining Falin, whole, after the fact... I can't imagine there are not some echoes of those bones in Marcille's mind. The action seems more startling/intense for Falin at first, and maybe part of that is because Marcille has already experienced this level of intimacy with Falin's body in a way Falin herself wasn't a part of.

This panel in particular I think is a summation of the difference in the experience for them. This looks like... near orgasmic for Falin tbh, and Marcille is very focused on the actual like practical part of what she's doing, seemingly completely unaware of the Effect she is having on Falin.

The whole short sequence is focused on this intimacy that Marcille initiated seemingly without fully being aware of what she was actually doing. And once Marcille is satisfied, she is also the one that ends it, sitting back in the bath and moving out of Falin's proximity. All on her own terms, and for her own ends.

HOWEVER... Falin doesn't just let things go.

Instead, she returns Marcille's attention. First, by asking after her wellbeing:

Marcille, of course, deflects (there will be a lot of that in this scene).

But Falin doesn't let it go.

Falin is not a confrontational person. She likes to keep the peace. In this context, and in context of the way that Marcille was the one to come into Falin's space initially, the way that Marcille controlled the initial intimacy... this is striking. I genuinely think that these three panels might convey one of the most assertive actions Falin (as herself) takes in the entire story. One of the only things that outdoes it is the fucking INCITING INCIDENT OF THE WHOLE STORY.

I'd also like to point out here that this action of Falin's also parallels her resurrection by Marcille & Laios. It's is also a forbidden magical action done to save someone(s) she loves, and its something she does TO them, that they are not fully aware/able to react to until its done.

Anyway, back to the bath scene. Falin is taking action here and asserting herself. And how does Marcille react?

She flips out!! She rejects it! She tells Falin that she isn't supposed to be acting like that.

It's a very distancing response from Marcille, and also one that puts her back in that caretaker mode from the start of the scene. She also puts even more distance between herself and Falin by sinking into the water.

Falin doesn't give up though! She continues to assert herself. She's okay, she is allowed to chose to do this.

And Marcille continues to push her away. It looks to me like she only starts to relax a little once she fits Falin into a role she can better define and control. You're a patient, you're recovering, I understand this fact and you don't. Let me take care of you.

But, for a third time, Falin pushes back.

I don't think it’s coincidence that this is where she opens her eyes. She asks directly about the thing that they have both been dancing around:

The resurrection spell. The fact that Falin KNOWS about this, at least in part, recontextualizes the quiet battle for control between the two them. They both know at least some part of the truth. Marcille wants nothing else then to ignore it. Falin wants to be able to talk about it. Marcille's blatant refusal to give her those answers, I think, is what keeps them out of sync - intimate only ever in one direction at a time, never fully together.

And of course, even when directly confronted, Marcille refuses to engage with the truth.

This moment being on the bottom of the page is notable too. There's a beat here. The last panel holds on Falin's face. The reader reaches the bottom of the page, and they are held here for a beat as well, with Falin. It's not quite a rejection yet. What Marcille says isn't directly an answer to Falin's question, but it is a response. A valid one, even! Falin wasn't just asking the question after all, but struggling with guilt that Marcille has every reason to want to reject.

But then you move on the next page, and...

Marcille isn't actually addressing the question at all, not directly. She's deflecting, again. Oh we had a ~difficult time~, there were a lot of "tough situations." Even though she and Falin both know about the resurrection, and Falin has made it clear that she wants to talk about it, Marcille pushes away from the actual topic. She keeps things broad and indirect.

She offers the smallest gesture to Falin - nothing more than a whisper of 'don't worry about it I won't get in trouble' (even though Falin's concern was never just about Marcille getting in trouble).

Marcille then continues to deflect even further, completely changing the subject onto clothes and frog adventures, which seems to distract Falin as well, as she finally gives up on pushing.

And that's where the scene ends! Marcille pushes into Falin's space (without fully realizing), and Falin pushes back. She tries three times to get Marcille to acknowledge her wants, and three times Marcille rejects her, though she does eventually convey some truth. She is honest in her belief that Falin doesn't need to feel guilty, and that things will all work out, even as she continues to deflect the rest of the question. Falin finally accepts that, the topic of conversation changes, and we move on.

But there is a little bit more that happens between them. Towards the end of the chapter, they have this little 'oh no we have to share a bed' situation. Classic stuff.

And Falin seems to realize that the context of this is kinda different now then it was when they were in the magic academy. She's not a kid any more, and they just had those intimate moments in the bath. There's a new tension between them, or one that new at least to the bed sharing of it all.

And in this respect, too Marcille pulls away from what Falin is trying to say. She tries to frame Falin as a kid, tries to insist that nothing is different.

When I first got to this part, it honestly felt... a little uncomfortable? After the bath scene, it is really weird to move into a new intimate situation with Marcille explicitly treating Falin as a kid.

What I have realized in coming back to this scene, though, is how much I think its meant to feel uncomfortable. Throughout the chapter, Marcille's responses to Falin become increasingly patronizing. By letting some of that conflict between them resolve at the end of the first scene, the chapter seems to let things rest, and lets you set it out of your mind.

Then, when the same type of conflict comes back at the end of the chapter, Marcille is even more blatantly treating Falin like a kid, and the unfairness of it hits even stronger. They are both adults, and Falin deserves the truth. After 27 chapters from the perspective of Laios, Marcille, and the others in the group, this progression lets you feel things from Falin's perspective. It's supposed to feel uncomfortable because it IS uncomfortable for Falin, the way no one will quite tell her the truth.

After all, Marcille isn't the only one to do this kind of deflecting when Falin tries to ask about what happened. Laios has a similar response, right down to the 'treating her a bit like a kid' part.

Even more importantly, this final conversation of the chapter reveals one last layer in the knowledge/power imbalance between Falin and the rest of the party: she doesn't actually remember sacrificing herself and teleporting them out.

As I mentioned before, that action was one of the most assertive things we see Falin do in the story, and she doesn't even get to keep that for herself. Instead of being her action, her choice, it becomes yet another thing that the others know more about than her.

I think that's part of why there is such an air of melancholy to this hug they share on the next page

Obviously, obviously, there are so many emotions here for Laios and I don't think its all meant to be viewed as a negative thing, or that he or Marcille are being completely unreasonable. They've been through a lot, and what's more, they think they have time now. So much more time then they actually will have. Time to explain, to open up, to let Falin return to the group in full - as a teammate and not just as someone to be cared for and protected.

But they don't get time. And this relenting by Falin, this "I won't do it again," it's not something that feels triumphant. It's an attempt to comfort them, more a prayer than a promise. As if she is trying to exorcise a spirit. As if she is capable of promising that death won't come, eventually. It's what Laios needs, not what she wants.

That's the real tragedy of the chapter, I think. It's the one time, in the midst of everything, that they have the chance to give Falin what she wants - and they don't do it.

But I do think they realize that, and I think that this failure is a core part of their journey. It's another bittersweet taste to add to the mix - all the missed chances in this chapter to connect, amidst the moments of genuine peace they do get throughout it.

As Laios puts it later...

If Falin hadn't been eaten by the dragon, and perhaps if they hadn't failed her here, they never would have had the adventure that they got to share.

(or, perhaps more tactfully: in life & chapter 28, there are both good times and bad. Thanks, Chilchuk)

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #falin touden #marcille donato #laios touden #dunmeshi analysis #dungeon meshi spoilers

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