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where-i-overanalyze · 1 year

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conquering the Soul Eater manga timeline

this can be an open discussion because i haven't read Not and i unfortunately cannot get my hands on any officially translated volumes, so if there's anything that proves my alignments wrong, feel free to tell me and i'll update this!!! i break the timeline up by month and what year of the story we are in. i'm not doing math and not considering the exact days and alignments for what day of the week the dates are lining up on, that is something i am not willing to put myself through. this is post is long af, so if you don't care about all of my explanation, i'll put a summary of the timeline at the end for easy reading.

admittedly, the beginning half of the manga is easier to label because this is when we get some distinct timeframes, but it is still a horror. because of this, i'm going to use this as a reference to how time passes with the other events in the manga. i'll be referencing the Soul Eater wiki as a basic guide as much as i can and scouring the manga for any hints about how time is passing for everything else. honestly, if the second half of the manga was speed run, the entirety of Soul Eater could take place less than a year. i don't think that is the case purely because of the pace at the beginning of the manga, so let us begin.

November (1)

this is where everything starts: the prologue chapters, the remedial lesson with Sid and Stein, Kid enrolling in the DWMA. there is no specific day in which this all starts, the wiki says it's just "after October 31st," so i'm going to start us off on exactly November 1st for the beginning of all of this. every one of these events could easily be happening within the first two weeks of November.

following this, realistically it would be a day or two before Maka and Soul take on the extra lesson where they meet Crona. Soul gets slashed and, according to my google search, wounds that are large or "surgery incisions" usually take about 1 week to stop being super inflamed. total healing times vary, but i'll say that since weapons are kinda human kinda not, that Soul would be able to be up and walking around somewhat normally in about a week, maybe less. last week of November can be when Masamune and Tsubaki's fight takes place, so this is our entire first November stacked up.

December (1)

strong start! and from here on out, the timeline gets confusing. wiki says chapters 10-15 take place from December-February. this includes the Free jailbreak, the super exam, and the whole Nidhogg and Black Dragon mission for Kid. in the next chapter (15), we're at the DWMA Foundation Eve ceremony which is supposed to take place . . . on April 1st.

this is one of the very few times we're given an exact date (Chapter 32), so i'm using it as an anchor for everything else. i'm also going to assume that these students sometimes have days off and breaks and have "normal" school life to a certain extent. i'm also going to assume that they have some sort of winter holiday off, whether it's some sort of Christmas or Yule or just the New Year doesn't matter; what actually matters is that they would get probably 2 or more weeks off of school because of it. they're in Nevada, which means that it is (maybe? probably?) the New years that is on January 1st.

let's say December starts with Chapter 9. it opens with the Witch's Mass where Medusa puts the snakes in Eruka. then it cuts to Soul having a general check-up on his wound. Stein gives Black☆Star the jar of funky water that will strengthen his soul for the phantom sword mode. for the sake of stretching this out to something reasonable, i'm going to say that this check-up takes place at least one week after the Witch's Mass, because Eruka trying to confront Medusa takes place the same day as the check-up and i doubt Eruka would have shown up to confront her like the day after the mass. after this, i want to say that the Free jail and bridge plot takes a while to set up, but . . .

tomorrow. god, i have never hated a word more. this speeds up the entire chain of events with fighting Free on the bridge. i'd say that it takes 2-3 days to break Free out, for Maka and Soul's wavelength to get messed up, and then they fight on the bridge. this puts us at week 2 of December. Maka's hands are fucked up after the fight and Soul makes a comment about how he'll have to make dinner for a while by the looks of her hands, so i'm exploiting that and saying that is when DWMA has their "winter holiday break." while all of that is happening, Crona is harvesting souls and stuff w/ Ragnarok (shown at the end of Chapter 11). i'll say that this is all in preparation for the Nidhogg in a bit.

January & February (1)

and now, we do a little time exploitation. let's say they come back to school the 2nd week of January. Maka's healed, everyone's back, wahoo!! Chapter 12 is the super written exam, and this is where my exploitation comes in.

test in one week, Maka's already been studying for a whole month. i'm imagining the first day back from winter break goes something like this: Stein walks into the room, writes "Super Written Exam" on the chalkboard, slaps it and yells "THIRD WEEK OF FEBRUARY," and Maka goes home that day and immediately starts studying. i know Maka's a nerd and reasonably was studying the whole year and between missions and whatever, but this is for my sanity. scores probably took a whole day to come out and be posted. anyone below Soul (Kid, Liz, Patty, and Black☆Star) had to take extra lessons, so those probably took up the remaining week of February.

March (1)

i am deeming March as the month of nothing but the Nidhogg mission. after the Nidhogg mission and Ragnarok eating all the souls on that boat, it's Kishin revival time at the party, which means the Nidhogg mission needs to be right at the end of March b/c then Kid knows about the Kishin being under the school and i doubt he sat on that information for a super long time or else he would've gone to investigate.

April (1)

April fools, it's Kishin awake time!! this covers Chapter 16-22 and it's got all the fun stuff: the first Crona redemption, the first Medusa death, and Lord Death calling together all of the Death Scythes. this is also supposedly the time when Maka checks out the Book of Eibon from the library, so i'm making the call that she did it after she connected with Crona and before the Death Scythes arrived b/c her purpose for taking it was because she wanted to know more about black blood and Medusa's research and somehow ended up there.

i really can't put a guess on how long it takes the Death Scythes to get to Death City because the speed at which people travel across entire countries in Soul Eater is insane. Kid flew from Egypt to Nevada and back within a day on his skateboard, there is no explanation i can come up with. for the sake of my sanity, let's say that it takes at least a week or two for the Death Scythes to get here b/c they have to find arrangements to take over whatever positions they had at their previous stations. the students are also recovering from various injuries and the city is rebuilding from the fight between Lord Death and Asura

these panels make it seem like at least the DWMA has gone on a break for a bit because of all the Kishin junk and that the Death Scythes arrived the day before school was resuming. let's say that the "tomorrow" is going to start the Monday of the third week of April.

this puts Crona's trial day of school as the Monday of the last week of April since Maka's day with her dad already happened (presumably the day before). Crona's been in the dungeon ever since April 1st, and their trial day is the same day that Arachne makes her first appearance (which is pretty rough smh, first day out of prison and you meet your evil aunt?? damn). this is all happening in Chapters 23-26.

from this point on, Maka's completely paralyzed for . . . an undisclosed amount of time. we've got Black☆Star's second run-in with Mifune maybe a day or two after Maka is set up in the infirmary at the DWMA. i used to think that the candy Black☆Star got from Mifune somehow cured her, but i have now realized that's not the case because,

May (1)

the party Kid hosts that is interrupted by the runaway train happens on the same day Maka comes back to class for the first time. Azusa says that the runaway train mission happened on May 21st (in Chapter 38), which ultimately means that, according to the timeline we've got going, Maka was in the infirmary for almost the entirety of May. this truly does make sense since, in that time, Medusa took over Rachel and Rachel's family had enough time to put up missing posters for her. May 21st is also when Medusa makes her appearance to Crona and everything starts going bad for them, which means Medusa had enough time to get in contact with Eruka again. Kid then seems to spend the rest of May after the runaway train looking for information about Eibon.

June (1)

this is the point of no return, this is the last specific date the wiki has. after June 1st, we are absolutely in the dark as to when tf anything happens (according to the wiki), so i'm probably going to get even more picky about the details. June 1st is when Kid is in the library and realizes that the Book of Eibon has been checked out. a day or two after that, Crona gets the snake and puts it in Marie's drink. all of that happens in Chapter 32, and in Chapter 33 we've got the group soul resonance lesson.

time exploitation time, Stein says "in the near future," so i will take that to mean "in a week" because that is the near future. a week after the group lesson, it's Lost Island Brew Tempest mission time. i'll say that the Brew mission happens on like in the middle of the second week of June (this also makes me realize that they don't have summer break! smh! i guess evil never rests, but whatever). this covers Chapters 34-37, Lord Death immediately calls for BJ after the Brew missions. i'll say that it takes BJ a few days to get to DWMA and his investigation takes place sometime in the third week of June. this happens on a day during the school week because Kid and Black☆Star have their fight where Kid absolutely demolishes Black☆Star, and Maka leaves her "Maka notes" at school and ends up overhearing a conversation between Crona and Eruka.

Maka Notes. anyways, Black☆Star gets suspended and goes to Japan with Tsubaki, BJ gets murdered, Stein is set up to be the murderer and he leaves with Marie to find the really culprit, and Crona leaves the DWMA all on the same day. a lot happens that day, RIP BJ, lived for two chapters. Crona was only at school for about two months, and one of those months was full of being worried about Medusa being alive!! makes me sad

July (1)

after that specific day, i feel like Chapters 41-43 have to take place in the tail end of June, if not the beginning of July. everyone has extracurricular lessons, Medusa surrenders herself, and Kim and Jackie run away from DWMA within a day or two after Chapter 43 now that everyone's extracurricular lessons are done. three days after Medusa surrenders herself, operation Capture Baba Yaga happens, which covers . . . Chapters 46-60. this is where things get even more uncertain for when things happen. there is an "unknown time skip" after Baba Yaga finishes up. i will be basing this time skip off of Black☆Star's insane amount of wounds that he has to recover from after killing Mifune (rip Mifune, wish he had lived tbh).

Black☆Star's fingers are MANGLED. he has other injuries from this fight, but i think it's those fingers that are gonna give us the best bet as to how long the time skip actually is. we see some stuff right after the battle with Justin and Giriko, then probably 2-3 days after that (putting us at the end of the first week of July), Kim and Angela are granted permission to stay with the DWMA, and Stein and Marie confront Justin, providing me with my absolute favorite panels of the manga.

anyways.

we see Black☆Star's fucked up in Chapter 61, he's got his finger cast on, again this is probably 2-3 days after Baba Yaga, still at the end of that first week of July. with Black☆Star's broken fingers, we continue on.

August & September (1)

my google search says that "fractured fingers typically take 6-8 weeks to heal, but can take up to 3-4 months to fully regain strength." i won't say that it takes 3-4 months for Black☆Star's hand to heal, mainly b/c he wouldn't be able to stay inactive for that long, but i think the 6-8 weeks is reasonable considering those fingers were obliterated. people in Soul Eater heal pretty fast and Black☆Star is super strong, so we can settle on a solid 8-10 weeks before Black☆Star is healed enough and had some physical therapy to be sort of back in action in Chapter 62. all of the other students seem to be full healed and adjusted to this schedule they've got (Ox has also grown out his bald ass head, so that's another time indication). enough time needs to have passed for Maka and Soul to have acquired 99 souls for Soul to become a death scythe. they probably had gotten some souls in the gaps between actual events and whatnot, so it's not like they're going 0-99 in a matter of 10 weeks. so, we come into Chapter 62 at around the end of the third week of September with Stein and Marie returning after beating tf outta Justin, Black☆Star is well and healed, Soul becomes a Death Scythe, and the Spartoi is officially formed.

from here, we get Maka and Soul practicing flying and abilities now that Soul is a Death Scythe and we have Gopher and Noah's forces showing up. this is definitely the next day, maybe two days, so i'm gonna say that this is that start of a new week. it seems that everyone is kind of just spending time to train and get stronger in preparations for whenever the next move from the opposing side happens.

this both emphasizes the fact that everyone is spending time getting stronger, and it also makes it clear that the other members of the Spartoi aren't on the Witch's Research mission while Maka is training and fighting in Chapters 63-65. Chapter 65 ends with a glimpse of Medusa telling Crona that they're going to start moving forward with her plan, and i will say that this ends September.

October (1)

full honesty, i can't tell how long it's been between Chapter 65 and Chapter 66. it obviously is after the run in with Gopher, but how long? i don't know!! for some reason, Maka was not assigned the Witch's Research mission even though they were looking for Medusa and her lab, which probably could be good for her high ability soul perception.

i get it, she wasn't assigned, but this whole mission consists of the rest of Maka's resonance team (minus Kid b/c he's stuck in the book) and team B, minus Ox and Harvard. maybe it was purely to play around with different team dynamics since Kilik wields Liz and Patty in Kid's absence (i'm also pretty sure they say that Kilik has the same type of ability as Stein when it comes to matching with weapons' wavelengths and whatnot). anyways, i think this whole mission probably happens over halfway into October for a few reasons.

firstly, Black☆Star being healed earlier doesn't mean he was Fully ready for missions yet. his appearance in Chapter 62 was probably his test to see if he was physically ready to take something on again. this seems to be his first mission after being recovered, so i'd say that the new Spartoi group had to do some adjusting now that everyone is ready to go by then. secondly, Gopher attempted to assassinate Maka, which probably put the DWMA more on alert since it's an enemy they haven't even seen before this point. this also might be why Maka isn't on this mission. they wanted to make sure that this mission went off without a hitch, they didn't want to rush into it so they super planned it, and it worked for the most part. lastly, Medusa said "It's time, Crona" at the end of Chapter 65. she probably already had preparations for all of this stuff, but i feel like since this is also her "reappearance" with Crona and her clown experiments, it works as a "time to get things moving" rather than "we're starting this right now." we also have no indication as to when tf she even says that, so it could be right after Maka's attempted assassination, or it could actually be right before the mission!!! with all of that, i am dubbing the Witch's Research (Chapters 66-68) mission to have happened at the end of the third week of October.

after all of this happens, Chapter 69 (nice) gives us some random school life where Soul is getting "Partner Requests" from other students, which also supports my idea that this happens late October rather than right after Maka's run-in with Gopher, because now Soul's been a Death Scythe long enough for the younger students to start trying to fuck around with Maka and Soul's partnership (unrelated but there's also some insane foreshadowing about Medusa's fuckin death in this chapter?? i might have to make my own short post about that b/c it's crazy to me). this picks up right after the Witch's Research mission (i think) because Black☆Star brings in Eruka in to Lord Death to help retrieve Kid from the Book of Eibon. there's a bunch of "one day earlier" and "the appointed day" when they're talking about performing the magic to send the Spartoi into the Book of Eibon, so for my mental health, i'm going to say that the Witch's Research team takes a day to get back, brings in Eruka the next day and Maka confesses to checking out the Book of Eibon, and then they perform the ritual to get the Spartoi in the book, which puts Chapters 69-72 in the third week of October (Kid's in the book for over two months!).

as for the entire Salvage arc, Chapters 72-81, once again there is little-to-no time indication as to how long it takes the Spartoi to get through the Book of Eibon. the DWMA teachers show up at Noah's hideout by the time the Spartoi are able to get Kid out, it's night time, but who knows!! i'm assuming that it's a mission that takes only one day based off of the fact that the witches and other Spartoi members that didn't go in the book are still hanging around the site of the ritual where the Spartoi entered even after the teachers have left to confront Justin and Noah.

good news tho, Maka was pretty injured, which means that i can use her wound healing as a basis for time passing!! we get a lot of exposition from Lord Death, Kid, and Stein in Chapter 82, then we find out Tezca didn't die, and then we see Crona in Moscow fighting the Death Scythe stationed there. and no time indication. i'm assuming that since Kid apologizes to Lord Death for being missing and he's still wearing his little white coat, that all of their conversation must be right after they get back from that mission, which i think is probably the morning after their fight with Noah since they fought at night. this keeps all of their convo in the third week of October. as for Moscow . . . we must now return to Maka's wounds from Chapter 76.

Maka gets kinda fucked up here by Giriko. even if it is a soul wavelength thing and meister's are super fit b/c of training and whatnot, Giriko is literally a chainsaw. she fights when they get out of the Book of Eibon, but i'm going to chalk that up the definite adrenaline she's feeling because she collapses as soon as that fight is over. google says that minor lacerations take less than 2 weeks to heal and major ones take 6-8 weeks to heal. i am realizing now as i type this that Kim's witch abilities could probably heal a lot of people faster (including Black☆Star earlier which i will choose to IGNORE b/c there still had to be enough time for Maka and Soul to get 99 souls) but i think i will choose to ignore that because i don't think the DWMA wants to use her like a school nurse.

November (2)

i want to say that it's been at least 3 weeks, if not a whole month. even if the timeline is fucked, if someone was really injured in the manga, there always seems to be enough time given to them to heal between big acts of the story. it's always kind of obvious when things happen back to back and Medusa probably makes adjustments to the black blood between missions, so i think that it's reasonable to give Maka the time to properly heal from those wounds. she and Soul look pretty casual in those panels, meaning they're able to have some down time.

also, that puts us at officially a whole year since the beginning; we're at the third week of November with Maka's healing time. we won't be over two years for the whole timeline since we're near the end, which kind of surprises me, but whatever. anyways, by the time Crona does their blood thing in Moscow, it seems that Maka has fully recovered from the Giriko fight. Maka, Soul, Kim, Jackie, and Stein go to Moscow after Crona does their blood orb thing, which is probably the day after it happens by the time they get there. it's also snowing in Moscow, and my google search says that it usually starts snowing in Russia around October-November, so that tracks. everyone finds out that the Ukraine blood orb happens while they're in Moscow. Justin shows up at the Ukraine blood orb during the day and Tezca gets decapitated, so some time has passed since the orb appeared b/c there is a significant lack of security and helicopters shown when it first appeared.

full disclaimer: things get very confusing after this point and i'm going to take some liberties to make things make sense. Kid confronts Lord Death about some raids that the DWMA have been doing in order to get people to find the Kishin, and then we see him go to the Lost Island to talk to Eibon, but then we also see Kid on the Lost Island while Crona kills Medusa, and then after Crona kills Medusa . . . Maka, Soul, Black☆Star, and Tsubaki are in some random village helping them hunt down a sky whale??? then, after they return and it's revealed that Crona has been added to Lord Death's list, Kid comes back from the Lost Island???? and then there is, presumably, some sort of a time skip because we see everyone preparing for the missions AND there has been enough time to build an entire air ship.

i'll tackle the air ship last. first, i'm going to put a definite order for the events i just listed b/c they don't make sense. Kid's trip to the Lost Island is shown across multiple chapters (Justin killing Tezca, Crona killing Medusa, and the sky whale mission, which is Chapter 86-88) that talk about things that do not seem to be happening at the same time, so i'm taking advantage of this. Kid's mission being interspersed means that Tezca's and Medusa's death happen before Kid is actually in the Lost Island. i think it all goes something like this: Justin goes to the Ukraine blood orb, kills Tezca, skip a day or so and Crona returns to Medusa and kills her, the raid Kid asks about happens and the news comes out (via newspaper Kid is holding in Chapter 86), then he says he's going to the Lost Island. that probably takes at least a single day to prep. going to say that by the time Kid is actually on his way to the Lost Island, it is the 1st of December.

December (2)

Kid can only be in the magnetic field for 20 minutes, so he is on the Lost Island the same day Maka and the gang deal with the sky whale, because that's the day they find out Crona's been added to Lord Death's list and Maka senses the Kishin on the moon, and then they have to plan how to get to the moon. from there, we have the preparation time skip and, according to my google search, it takes usually over a year to build an air ship/blimp.

there's no way it took the entire DWMA that long to build the air ship purely b/c 1) if it had taken a whole year, i'm pretty sure it would've been mentioned, 2) fantasy type world, DWMA has magic tools in the air ship, so there were probably some magic tools involved in the actual making of the ship, 3) the Spartoi search for Crona and train while the whole time the DWMA was preparing and planning, and i really doubt it took Maka a whole year to think about the church and, honestly, that Crona could survive on their own for a year without being noticed again (both because they're crazy and probably can't take care of themself very effectively, and that people were probably on the look out for another "black blood" event and nothing ever surfaced).

Crona hasn't been seen "since the incident in Russia," which means the DWMA has been looking, but they've gone radio silent in regards to causing any problems. Maka has been trying to see the whole world at once this entire time, so she's getting sensory soul overload, and probably can't do a search like that super often, maybe once every other day or so to try and actually get results that make any sense.

considering all of this, i turn back to the construction of the air ship. this is a mission that is extremely important, so the DWMA is putting a lot of power and planning into it. there is no previous mention (that i know of) of an airship owned by DWMA, so i'm assuming they're starting from the ground up with the help of any magic tools that speed up the process. with that, i and going to say that the air ship took AT LEAST a month to build, probably more than that.

January (2)

magic tools or not, you can't prevent all general workplace construction errors with better tools. maybe the DWMA did already have an air ship, maybe it didn't actually take that long, but it makes the most sense to me with the evidence given. there's the point to be made that "oh, why would the Kishin not come attack them if they're all just spending the time building a blimp?" Stein makes a point of saying that it would be "disadvantageous" for the Kishin to leave the moon because he still gets to spread madness from there whether they fight or not. i really doubt they'd be able to cut down an entire construction process that usually takes upwards of a year to anything less than a month. it can't be too quick because then the plans to go to the moon and find Crona would be too hasty and ill-prepared. the negotiations with the witches also began before the DWMA attacked the moon (Chapter 97). plus, i'm going to use this panel as a way to confirm to myself that things did take a bit of time to prepare.

"finally" meaning that those moon bitches had to wait a while before DWMA got to the moon. from here, we're basically at the end. even if the air ship took less or more than a month, the entire manga finishes up with the battle on the moon, which takes, at most, two days of straight fighting.

what i have decided on puts us at the very beginning of January, and that's where it ends!! Chapters 91-112 all happen within that two-ish day battle and that's where it ends. there is no 113th chapter of Soul Eater. hypothetically, if there was a 113th chapter where a funeral for Lord Death and a coronation ceremony for Kid took place, those events would probably take place within the second and third week of January.

here is the summary of the entire timeline:

November (1): very beginning of the manga, Crona and Medusa's introduction, Masamune is defeated

December (1): Medusa puts the snakes in Eruka, Free is released from witch prison and he fights Maka and gang on the bridge, winter break for the students?

January (1): essentially nothing, come back from an assumed winter break

February (1): super written exam

March (1): Nidhogg mission

April (1): Kishin revives on the eve of DWMA's anniversary, Maka befriends Crona, the Death Scythes (Maria, Azusa, and Justin) arrive, Crona trial day at school, Arachne wakes up and Maka is paralyzed, Black☆Star fights Mifune for the second time and gets the candy

May (1): Maka gets better from being paralyzed, Medusa possesses Rachel, runaway train, Medusa approaches Crona again

June (1): Kid realizes the copy of the Book of Eibon is missing, Crona puts the snake in Marie's drink, Lost Island Brew Tempest mission, BJ shows up and instantly is murdered, Crona runs away from DWMA

July (1): Maka meets the Clown in the factory, Medusa surrenders herself, Kim and Jackie run away and join Arachnophobia for a minute, Baba Yaga mission, Kid gets sucked into the Book of Eibon, Kim and Angela are allowed to stay at DWMA

August (1): everyone recovers and gets strong after Baba Yaga

September (1): Soul becomes a Death Scythe, Maka and Soul learn how to fly, Gopher tries to kill Maka

October (1): Witch's Research mission, Spartoi goes into the Book of Eibon to rescue Kid

November (2): Crona kills the Death Scythe in Moscow, Crona destroys a city in the Ukraine, Justin kills Tezca, Crona kills Medusa

December (2): Kid goes to the Lost Island to talk to Eibon, Crona is put on Lord Death's list, Maka senses the Kishin on the moon, construction of the air ship is started

January (2): Maka finds Crona in the church in Italy, the moon battle begins and ends, Lord Death dies and Kid is named the new Shinigami.

and that is the end!! if you've made it to the end of my madman rambling, please converse with me if you have any thoughts on this. DM, reblog, reply, whatever, let me know what you think. it took me multiple days to write all this up and actually look through the manga thoroughly enough to kinda figure out how and where everything happens. i did it out of pure frustration that it's hard to tell the order of things and i'm glad i found a way to make it make a bit more sense

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chattegeorgiana · 18 days

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Hey Chatte hope all is well! I saw your special Narusakra comic and your most recent post on IG showing off the Crown of the Sun for Sakura. Can’t wait to read & see how she gets there. I saw a lot of awesome pieces for NarSaukra day so I want to thank you and the rest of the community for keeping it alive.

I have been rereading Kaika and the chapters 11-13 so far are my favorite. I’m excited to how you are going to make the aliens/gods work and to be honest you have done a better than the canon. As for everyone’s favorite snake sanin I’m interested to how he ends in the plot. While personally I didn’t care for him be a “good” guy in canon in the present. He will always be a creature of habit and self serving. So I’m excited. Also a headcannon I thought of regarding him and Shina’s Gen. He would be interested Shina the most compared to the U twins probably feed up with Uchilas in general. Also given the fact that he probably shoot’s himself for overlooking Naruto and Sakura originally for the more polished product in Sauake. Shina also looking and sharing personality with Minmato would be funny because he would take as Minmato ghost coming back and trolling him. Best part is Shina would have no idea how much his presence would be triggering for him lol.

One last point it’s a little something I wanted to share with you. So I used to live in this suburb next to Newark NJ, USA and in Newark there is this section called Forest Hills. This neighborhood is famous for two reasons one is its old fashion mansions and Branch Brooke Park, which has over 5,000 Japanese cherry blossoms trees planted there. They have their own cherry blossoms festival and everything.

Hiii dear, welcome back again to my inbox!

Glad to hear you liked the NaruSaku special and Sakura's Crown of the Sun art.

To be honest, can't wait to get there myself. I have sooo many interesting ideas about how she gets it. Too many even, lol. I finally got to understand what other writers were meaning when they said you will get to discard some ideas at some point.

In the beginning I was like naa, I won't be doing that. But with time the ideas developed so much, that I see no other way than to drop a few from the beginning or better said, reform some of them to fit the new, updated idea lol.

Also thank you for your kind words. It is my pleasure, and many other artists, I'm sure, to keep the community alive.

After all, it's just pure love for them and that's it. We're free of the shackles of canon, so yay for us!

Now, to get back to Kaika.

First of all, thank you once again for your compliments! I'm so happy to see you liked what - at least - I'm trying to do there with the Otsutsukis.

I believe that the idea with them was not bad. It's the execution that's problematic, imo. That's why I tried to take a different route with them, while still referencing the canon element. I will be referencing a lot of elements from the OG franchise, because I do like the idea. I just don't like the execution.

As for Orochimaru well... We have a here saying in my country that says the wolf changes its fur, but not its habits.

What I can say is that, that's what I'll follow. Narratively as well.

Because like you said, deep down, he's a creature of habit. Habits are our second nature. That's why it's not that easy to change one self and you first gotta change your habits.

In OG it is shown to us that Oro didn't actually changed his habits at all, he is just being let loose. Which narratively makes so little sense?

You tell me that the man who basically put in motion everything that we've been witnessing along the path of Naruto manga, is just going to be left to do whatever he wants because... he's a necessary evil?

That's not how you act with the necessary evil. You don't let it loose and just barely keep him under supervision, imo.

If anything, he's a "joker" type of character. You never know when he's gonna pop off the box to scare ya away with some machiavellian ploy.

As for your headcanon of him and Shina, well, there is a common element in there that we have. I can't say that he's fed-up with the Uchihas (after all, Uchihas were his obsession), but...

I have a certain idea in mind about the path I have with him and him overlooking Naruto & Sakura's family, generally, because well, Sakura Haruno doesn't come from any prestigious clan that could benefit his pursuits, right?

And yet, surprise-surprise, the ones you least expect are the ones who get to bring the biggest turnarounds.

The thing is, I have two routes I want to take with him in terms of his eventual demise and I'm undecided on which side to go with, lol.

One involved him and Tsunade and was kinda dramatic, and the other one involves NaruSaku family, ironically. So I really don't know which way to go.

Because all this will be happening in Kaika Shinsei's timeline, which I am yet to settle.

I guess I'll see after I finish writing Saisei how things evolve until then, so that'll probably help me decide.

And WOOW, thank you so much for sharing that piece of info with me?! I ADORE cherry blossoms.

I grew-up with them and other types of blossoms, so for me, spring blossoms, especially cherry ones, are very special.

Actually the city where I moved has some parks filled with

I dream of travelling to Japan one day and live the original cherry blossoms season experience. But until then I enjoy the wanna-be one from here haha.

ANyway, thanks once again for the ask. Hope you have an amazing rest of your time today/tonight. <3

#kaika saiseik #kaika shinsei #kaika au #narusaku #orochimaru #shinachiku

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strawberrycircuits · 10 months

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tell us about this npc...

sam localvoidcat i owe you my LIFE!!! i have a lot of meta analysis thoughts about her but i said pretty much all of it like 4 days ago for a bingo card ask game so uh. heres all of that. tldr: malon has a lot of potential as a character and theres something v interesting with her in that her and links storys run parallel which is sooo compelling but nintendo and the loz/oot fandom tends to reduce her to Link's Wife and nothing else (as for why they do that uuuh. twilight princess link is canonically the link from ocarina of time's descendant, which implies time had kids after majoras mask. tp link is a rancher (like malon) and knows eponas song at the start of the game without it having to be taught to them (eponas song was written by malons mother + malon teaches it to time + malon sings it in oot). insert its always sunny conspiracy board meme here. i was already fixated on her when i was little and i thought the malink thing was a lame theory for a while but then i thought abt them both a little too hard and now im here ig)

ok time for me to go crazy insane. im gnna use this post to talk abt canon stuff and then im gnna use libras ask to talk abt my own headcanons LO)L!!!!

-shes described as very headstrong and driven and she very strongly believes in doing whats necessary even when its not what you want (which. the parallels man. vaguely gestures to all of the links) which conflicts with her father who doesnt rlly care as much as he should. and so shes kinda left to pick up all of the slack which is RIDICULOUS becauses shes LIKE 9 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! a child should not have to run a fucking farm and she def shouldnt be left alone in CASTLE TOWN to worry to death abt her father (bc she had to DRAG HIM there to do smthn he shouldve taken care of anyway)!!!!!! what the hell !!!!! me when the game about adults failing children contains adults failing children

-^and like. she is acutely aware that this is not normal. she is so overworked that she does not get to have friends her age (iirc she refers to epona being her "best friend" and epona is. a horse). where oot link is kind of like "woohoo adventure !!" up until zelda gets kidnapped and she pulls the sword (but theres inklings there before that. like having to leave kokiri forest and watching her dad die), malon Knows this isnt normal and that she is missing out on her own childhood. and YET!! she holds no contempt for her father. she knows that he is failing her and she loves him anyway. WHAT THE HELL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-its also greatly suggested shes extremely isolated bc she works all the time and doesnt have time to play or be around people her age. + it doesnt help lon lon ranch is far from hyrule castle town + hyrule field is Fucking Dangerous so its not like she can easily cross it herself. Why did they mess up this girls life so bad!!!!!! (the answer is to parallel link. im insane)

-she had a trophy in one of the smash games that uses her 3DS model im so proud of her. sorry i love when nintendo acknowledges her even tangentially lol ⬇️ also she was referenced in smash ultimate i think idk

-shes not just in ocarina of time!!! shes also present in the minish cap, oracles, and four swords adventures!!!!! why did she have multiple incarnations? who knows ! also i think she can die in fsa. sad

-shes in the manga and she gets kidnapped in like the 1st chapter and when link comes to save her shes like umm no youre ugly go away and meanwhile links like IM LITERALLY TRYING TO HELP YOU YOU ARE IN FUCKING DANGER!!!!!!!

-she also proceeds to fall in and out of love with link in the span of two pages. the manga is not very good sometimes i think. himekawa saw the dialogue line abt malon secretly waiting on a "knight in shining armor" to save her and ignored everything else abt her which sucks ass but is also very predictable for how himekawa writes. i will probably still redraw one of the panels from it anyway lol

-^btw the knight in shining armor thing is an interesting thing to note bc thats something she (malon) seems to be, like, ashamed of? maybe?? which imo feeds back into her whole thing of overworking herself while also understanding that its not okay or normal for her to be doing so. like. "no you cannot want for other things you have responsibilities (even though you undeniably do already)" but omg girl youre nine. except for seven years later when youre sixteen and even still. please take care of yourself please let urself relax and CONSIDER happiness i am begging yuo

-malon is so funny shes just a massive mario reference in game. when u go to the ranch u find Talon and Ingo respectively (talon is her dad ingo just works there) and they look like this. also she has a bowser pendant ?? literally whyd they do this lmao

-one of oots minigames involves beating the horseriding record at lon lon ranch (set by malon at 50secs) and when u win she gives u a cow which she puts in ur house. the thing is that 1. links house is in kokiri forest and 2. links house is a treehouse with a ladder. which implies she SURVIVED THE LOST FUCKING WOODS (WHICH MOST EVERYONE CANNOT) and carried a goddamn COW up a LADDER. how fucking strong is she i love her

-shes gives u an item called the Weird Egg 🕺

-in BOTW you can find the ruins of lon lon ranch where she lived!!!!! :] its called "ranch ruins" on the map :P you can easily find more comparisons but believe me when i say they, like. put a weird amount of effort into getting this one as close to how it looked in oot as possible

-shes also a reference to marin from links awakening but i did not play that so i cant speak on it </3

-its implied she never actually bothers to learn links name in the games. she only ever calls her fairy boy and thats it

-iirc during the child segments of the game she's taller than link but during the adult segments shes shorter. rip

-there is a single piece of dialogue that implies young link has a crush on her which is cute lmao

-so in oot she sings in the lon lon ranch theme (but its the n64 so it like. it sounds like a human voice but also not.) and twilight princess's hyrule field (night) theme uses the same singing effect which i am incredibly normal about forever and ever

-after the 7 year time skip, ingo gets the farm via ganondorf giving it to him (which he can do. apparently. this is a n64 game man leave me alone) and he kicks talon out. malon stays even though everything is considerably worse solely bc she wants to protect the animals, which is also why she was so insistent on keeping the farm running as a kid too.

-generally speaking malon is a very kindhearted and overwhelmingly understanding character and those traits are almost always at her own expense. she knows her dad is the reason shes as alone and stressed as she is, but she loves him anyway. she knows itd be best if she just left the farm once ingo takes over, but shes scared for what will happen to the animals so she stays somewhere that makes her sad and miserable instead. she wants to have friends her own age, but she understands how important keeping the ranch running is so she doesnt pursue it at either of the points in which we see her.

-i like to think things considerably change for her after ganondorf is neutralized prior/after majoras mask

-but thats for the headcanons post

so u may be thinking. Wow strawb this is kind of, like, nothing. why do you like this character. and you would be correct,

#a lot of this is maybe not well worded or misremembered #to which i say . as well as .#ocarina of time #malon #malon oot

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vergess · 2 years

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Re: The "Fandom teaches people to analyse media a specific way" Thread, fucking thank you!! I've come across that thread multiple times now, and every time I see it, always with all these brand new, nuanced additions to boot, I can never get through it without being majorly frustrated despite how fascinating the topic actually is, because nobody points out the elephant in the room of, hey, actually, fandom is very huge and very diverse, to the point that the phrase "fandom culture" is highly inaccurate. There are fandom *cultures*. Multiple cultures, not just for every fandom, but also, if the fandom in question is big enough, multiple cultures in a *single* fandom. This goes double for practically any and all international works.

I mean, come on, as a single example, the Japanese Pokémon fandom and the USAmerican Pokémon fandom are absolutely *not* the same, and in many ways aren't comparable. I speak from personal experience. But also, the USAmerican Pokémon fanartist community and the USAmerican Pokémon fanfic writer community are very different as well. Again, from personal experience. And while the Japanese and USAmerican Poké fandoms, and the USAmerican Poké artist and fanficcer communities can and regularly do intersect, they are still their own different sects of the same fandom(s), not to mention all the sub-communities within them all as well. *And* I am only referencing online communities, specifically, here. (Not even going to get into the cluster-fuck that is the Pokémon Anime Fandom vs the *Other* Pokémon Anime Fandom vs the Pokémon Main Games Fandom vs the Pokémon Side Games *Fandoms* vs the Pokéspe Fandom vs the *Other* Pokémon Manga Fandom lol)

What you wrote about this point-of-view coming from encounters with a select few mostly young, mostly monolingual native English speaking USAmericans in (some) online transformative fandoms, and then this being pushed onto the entirety of fandom, as an international phenomenon, hit really close to home. Like, I don't know, as a young non-native English speaking non-USAmerican who is in both transformative and archival fandoms, and who first got into fandom not online but offline, together with a close friend who is currently studying English Language and Literature on a university level, no actually, I don't think this flat, monolithic idea of fandom "taught" me this specific type of analysis and *only* this type of analysis. Personally, I already knew this type of analysis and many others way before I joined fandom spaces, and then when I did I was and am able to use my prior knowledge to develop transformative works, and to also socialise with other fandomgoers, including ones more knowledgeable than me such as my friend, through meta. Your Experiences Are Not Universal, and all that.

Anyways, as you can probably tell from the username, I (mostly) use this account to lurk, so I'd never go and write all of this down in the actual thread. So, again, thank you for expressing my own grievances with your addition.

Yeah, I'm glad I could help!

Your comment on pokeani actually reminds me of a more... robust culture gap.

One that happened when fans of Korean and American cinema tried to analyze the other school of film.

A gap that has unfortunately persisted academically for decades, in spite of the efforts of pretty much anyone familiar with both.

Oh yeah, and in spite of S Korea's government spending the largest percent of their GDP of any country on earth, for decades, doing cultural outreach that is broadly recognized as the most advanced in the world.

A gap which was, unironically, closed in the last years by everyone's "most hated" fandom. The very essence of ~self-obsessed fandoms that go too far.~

Teenage American K-pop fans.

Because the willingness to enjoy Korean cinema on its own terms by that group created a body of tools and vocabulary for explaining it to other Americans that had never and could never exist without them.

How? Why??

Two factors.

First, Korean cinema is relatively younger than American and thus is intimately influenced by it, leading to the use of similar body direction, set design, and camera language.

And second, Korean literary traditions are far older and culturally completely different.

This led, inevitably, to the same circle of American and Korean publics seeing very technically adept films with writing that was unavoidably alienating and directing that seemed to completely disagree with the rest of the film.

For YEARS we were stuck with Americans calling Korean film beautiful, evocative, and boring. Koreans calling American film visually stunning, fast paced... and boring. Imports of S Korean film and TV to the US, when they existed at all, tended to have weak receptions by US audiences.

Enter: K-pop girlies.

Their motives ranged from "learn the language" to "watch the hotties" and all manner of other things.

But their actual ACTIONS were to ravenously consume Korean film and TV across every genre and era.

And then to talk about it. Constantly. To play with the cinematic language until they were so fluent they created a new genre of micro film. To make friendships with S Korean music and film fans, artists, and writers and learn from them.

To network and rework with a scale and passion never before seen from US citizens over Korean art.

Until they developed a whole suite of easily understood English vocabulary for studying Korean art and literary history that did not exist in English before then.

Let me be clear: all the shitty things you've heard about US kpop fans are true and probably even worse IRL.

But, even so?

K-pop fans created an entire system of film translation and localization between the US and Korea that not only didn't exist, but that academics, studios, and entire governments had been trying to make for decades.

Once the framework was there, American film studios, writers, etc had the tools and data to actually determine which Korean films would be INTERESTING to American audiences. Which ones would land correctly. How to translate important lines or scenes into film language US audience's understand.

And now, US cinema is a foreign film renaissance. I mean holy shit, Americans are going to see subtitled Korean films in theaters.

But, of course, the fact that an only somewhat related fandom managed to thrust international film criticism and as a result international cinematic cooperation forward by DECADES?

Doesn't matter. Not when one American woman so proud of her ignorance calls fandom a closed audience of calvinists.

And that was done by the exact type of young, American fan she was actively mocking as ~incapable of critical interpretation due to closed minds and ignorance.~

The irony abounds.

#asks #ask answers #evil-eyedlurker #vulgar art #vulgar arts #folk art

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obsessive-dumpling · 2 years

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so, you stated you wanted someoned to discuss chapters, well I AM HERE to talk about 362( or any other cjapter you'd like)

Amazing! I love it! Where should we begin? I'll give you some initial thoughts but feel free to redirect.

From the start my focus was on Tamaki. Horikoshi did that well. Because at the end of 361, I started to fear that HE would be the one to die in 362. I don't know how or why but I feel like the readers were meant to FEEL death coming. And it did. Just not how we expected it. Not to say I wanted Tamaki to die, because I didn't, but I also didn't want THIS. Either way. When Shigaraki calls out, "USE YOUR HEADS!" We immediately see Bakugo respond. And we knew he would, right? Because he had started really observing and reading Shiggys moves and muttering like Izuku in 361. This is when my stomach began to sink. The focus of the chapter had changed. It was no longer about Tamaki and the big three but instead about Bakugo. Namely, about Bakugo and what he thought Izuku would do in this situation. As he re-approaches the battle he says that "Gotta win...right Izuku...?" This hesitation feels telling, but I'm not exactly sure what of. Is this referencing Izuku's unhealthy self sacrificial nature OR is this referencing his and Izuku's fight during their test battle with All Might where Izuku yelled at him for saying he'd "rather lose than work with Deku". Because those are definitely two very different paths to walk. Honestly I could get stuck here all day so I'll push on. Next we see the results of his channeling of Izuku's habits as he figures out the pattern in Shiggys moves. We also see that his explosions have taken a new shape. I actually got super super hung up on this IMMEDIATELY because to me they remind me of what Izuku and Bakugo looked like through "Search" the quirk that AFO took from Ragdoll. I'm specifically referencing when they were trying to lead AFO/Shiggy away from the city during the first battle of the war. I don't know why but I can't stop thinking about that. Of course what happens next is a narrator returns to explain what's happening with Bakugo and it is safe to assume that this is Izuku. He is the narrator of the story and it has rarely NOT been him. To me, this was not a good sign. Bakugo is having a quirk awakening, and the mood has shifted almost to reluctance. This is odd because Izuku is both obsessed with quirks and obsessed with Katsuki. And then... Bakugo takes back the narrative. It was at this moment that I was repeating "no, no, no, no!"

"So, Izuku...can I...still catch up to you?"

I felt like I had been punched in the gut. And with a light in his eyes that reflects his changed explosion....I don't even really know what to say about that without my soul shattering. So, this is where Shiggy/AFO (we aren't quite sure which is having this vision of Second) panics and connects the Second with Katsuki. Which I mean, we all wanted, but not like this! At this snap, we already see that "explosion" in Katsuki's eye dimming, AND THEN- *snap* welcome to vestige world. We all knew here right? He looks so stress free. The most stress free we have probably ever seen him. He uses his pretty face instead of his gremlin face the e n t i r e time! Especially when remembering [seemingly] the last time him and Izuku were happy and laughing together. Ugh. And then....and then everyones heart breaks as his bursts...freeze frame as the big three can do absolutely nothing to stop The Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight's death. As if we aren't suffering enough, we see that his last move put him almost on par with All Might from the beginning of the manga. We have his mom, thinking and speaking of him, as he dies. Jeanist on the brink, Monoma on the phone (sidenote: I haven't seen anyone talk about this but HE IS ON THE PHONE! Which means someone else- OUTSIDE OF THE PRESENT COMPANY- KNOW what is happening), Miriko trying her fucking best but not being fast enough, Mirio breaking and of course, to really drive it home, Aizawa losing one of his precious kids. We end on this tragically beautiful, double spread piece of him sprawled and bloody. With our only smidge of hope being that the light in his eye, dim yet not extinguished is still present.

Now. What do we want to address? 😭

#bakudeku #bkdk #discussions #ask dumpling #lets talk about 362 #katsudeku #dekubaku #decchan #bnha #mha #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #lets make horikoshi proud

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sayakxmi · 5 months

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[Magi reread; special edition] Episode 3: Magician of Creation [Part 1]

I swear, sometimes Magi is called just magician of creation, and sometimes it's magician of world creation, and tbh the latter is a mouthful, but sounds so much cooler.

Hole in the sky.

It's a reference to something, except I don't remember what I'm referencing, just know that I am referencing it.

It might be Pokemon, actually.

Good news, everybody. Jamil dies in this episode.

"When you get your flute back, can you introduce me and Ugo?" I'm still so salty it hasn't happened. Don't worry, guy, I'll fix it in that rewrite.

The perspective in this series never ceases to amaze me. To be fair, Aladdin and Alibaba stand a bit lower, but still, man.

I wanted to focus on Aladdin getting wrecked but

Morgiana did a cool spin after killing Aladdin.

Jamil: -appears- Me: oh, just die already

His going on his dumb classist spiel, literally nobody cares.

Don't get excited, Jamil. You're about to be put in your place.

"I can't believe I was scared of this guy." He doesn't say it here, tho we can probably asume it's what he's thinking. What he actually ends up saying is "You must've seen something awful." and then goes to talk how it's too late to go back, cuz it's the dungeon, and they're all putting their lives on the line etc. But it's still kinda interesting. In the manga Alibaba actually mocks Jamil, then talks how it's a dungeon, but in the anime he almost comes off as if he's actually feeling sorry for the guy.

On a semi-related note, I really like this expression. Idk why. I feel like this is how Alibaba feels about 98% of the cast. They're all fucking weirdos, how did he get himself involved in any of this?

I can't believe Aladdin's dead.

Damn, that was some jump. Very fancy, 10/10. I've mentioned that I love Balbadd's Royal Swordplay? And also, again, Jamil, why are you telling him what you're gonna do? I know you're dumb, but seriously.

Aww, yes.

AWWW, YESSSSS

In the manga he barely avoids it, in the anime he sort of counters her.

That actually looks pretty cool.

Alibaba just got wrecked, nobody's surprised. But do you ever think how much of this series is Alibaba getting wrecked?

As I was saying. But also, in the anime he's trying to protect himself, as much as he can at least, while in the manga I got the impression that he couldn't move. Which was, frankly, pretty understandable given how hard he was hit.

Somebody give her a break.

Also I've suddenly remembered that Jamil is voiced by the same guy Aomine from Kuroko no Basuke's voiced. Aomine was way cooler.

Also, what's up with the most importantTM members of a King's Household meeting them through trying to kill them (whether they wanted to do it or not). Makes me wonder if the Kous also had such Funny first meetings with them, lmao.

Also, that's a very cool moment - as Morgiana raises the sword, it transitions into the staff raised by Aladdin, 10/10.

Wheee.

That's a pretty nice shot, actually.

Ok, but, like, in the anime Alibaba at least sits up (with Aladdin's help). In the manga he was laying on the floor for a bit there. Like, a chapter or two.

Deoxyribonucleic acid-coded if you ask me. Missing em, nitrogenous bases, but close enough.

He looks like a magical girl.

Notre Empire playing again. Man, was it seriously playing So Often?

Letz gooooo

Gdi, I'm a corvid at heart, I see shiny stuff and I'm just OMG this is so pretty. But this is so pretty :/

Finally! Aladdin being done with Jamil's bullshit!

This does look pretty cool.

You know, it's kind of hilarious when you have these two serious as shit, and then there's Alibaba like "what the actual fuck is going on". Mood.

And with this optimistic shot we're ending this post, becaues I'm almost at the photo limit.

Ok, but you gotta admit, it looks cool. RIP Morgiana.

#alibaba saluja #magi #aladdin #morgiana #saya's magi rewatch

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levbolton · 1 year

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As funny as it sounds, the chapter two of Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu has strong duality vibes.

this post is kind of messy so please excuse me beforehand

This discussion about the difference between different dragonflies is rather obvious, because they look pretty much the same, but they’re entirely different species (you’ve caught that, didn’t you?)

In many cultures these insects represent overall growth, one’s transformation through maturity. They can symbolize going past self-created illusions that limit our growth and ability to change, as the site I linked says.

Which leads to that reference to Emil Sinclair from Demian (by Herman Hesse) as ‘Hikaru’ mentioned. I want to make an entirely different post about Demian and HGSN because I think it deserves it. In short Demian is coming of age story about growing up and finding yourself, that part is easy to understand, but it’s quite philosophical and that isn’t as easy to explain (thus me not making the post yet).

Update 26 July 2023: the original post is from 1st January 2023, so here I am 7 months later to tell you that it is not Demian that’s referenced, but Das Nachtpfauenauge, still by Herman Hesse. Everything I wrote here was before any official version would be out, so I might be wrong to mirror Demian, however, some aspects are still similar (maybe because both the manga and Demian are coming of age stories).

Almost everything is expressed through concepts of religion,the mc going from seeing the world split in two (the bright world and the world that’s perverted) to Abraxas that’s the god of both good and bad at the same time, just as the scanlator said, the main theme of the book is duality. And just like that site I’ve linked, Emil grows past those self-created illusions he had as a child. It’s very obvious if you read the book, my mind is a bit burnt out so i hope you get what i mean.

*something I also wanted to point out is that the dragonfly makes its first appearance (and probably there aren’t any after chapter 2, i didn’t skim through every chapter before writing this sorry) at the end of the first chapter when he “accepts” ‘Hikaru’

and the way I can see this is Yoshiki’s (or maybe Hikaru’s?) start of maturity journey with the “help” of ‘Hikaru’. There’s something in me that would rather think it’s about Yoshiki’s growth rather than ‘Hikaru’ (despite Moku saying they want to focus on the feelings of the one who has been substituted) after reading Demian.

and then my question on this chapter is, why did Moku choose to draw ‘Hikaru’ like this in these panels? Yeah the lightening of the golden hour probably (i can visualise it clearly), but why did they choose to represent it like this? half of ‘Hikaru’s face being shaded, half in light, you see the duality in this, right?

After revising this post, it makes me think of Demian again... (i’m sorry this is so messy). Emil Sinclair is the main character, and then there’s this other character named Max Demian whose looks are rather often described as both young and old at the same time. So you can see this in Hikaru, his face is both lit by the sun and in complete darkness. Not to mention the switch between the text box fill, white and black, yeah it’s for dramatic effect, but isn’t this maybe another hint to the book?

Even the cicadas have a meaning of being born anew, yeah they’re the sound of summer and Moku said they use it for the creepy effect but it’s interesting to see all the background details point towards one route.

My hypothesis for now, as of when the first 14 chapters are out, is that, this story will try to focus on the growth of Yoshiki, to learn about himself, to accept himself. Yeah i bet that you can see clearly that he liked Hikaru, but moku did not intend it like that from Yoshiki’s point of view, they said it repeatedly with the word “bromance”. Put yourself in Yoshiki’s place of a youth in a traditional small village with strong traditions, so i think that Yoshiki’s growth will also focus on him accepting these feelings and letting go of this grief. The whole plot? I have no idea, I trust moku’s story telling and creativity that this series will be very impactful as these 14 chapters have already been.

All i can say for sure it’s that the manga covers represent the sky, and moku said they want the sky to turn into a gradient (did they like that heritage tumblr post?), so at some point there will be complete darkness and i’m not sure if we will reach dawn though...

#please someone read demian so we can talk about the symbolism it has for hgsn #hikaru ga shinda natsu #the summer hikaru died #I love the symbolism #indoh hikaru #indou hikaru #indo hikaru #tsujinaka yoshiki #hgsn analysis

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ashitomarisu · 1 year

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Ghost in the Shell (Final Thoughts)

For as long as I have been doing anime watches (albeit since 2013 as a monthly ordeal), my range of genres usually fall within one of three things: magical girl, fantasy/adventure, or music-based (including idols). Dubs are not my cup of tea (since I have grown up seeing localized versions of certain anime titles growing up from Toonami, Jetix, and 4Kids). In recent years, however, I wanted to start looking into older or more mature titles as the age of 30 is quickly approaching my way.

Luckily, there was one dub I recall fondly from my early adulthood that was due for a rewatch.

Note: For this special "final thoughts", I'll only focus on the dub version of Stand Alone Complex, 2nd GIG, and Solid State Society. The 1995 movie is an alternate telling of the manga, which I do not wish to relive that experience. On the other hand, let's not EVEN go near the 2017 live action movie starring Scarlett Johansson because no, absolutely not. That can go back to the burning barrel where it came from. With that being said, let's get on to the post.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

To be brief:

Prior to rewatching this, I never knew of a second English dub that was done around the time Bandai's dub aired. Apparently, Animax did a version, in which Motoko Kusanagi's VA and a couple of others were changed.

It dawned on me that there was a meaning between "stand alone" and "complex" episodes. The term "stand alone" refers to an episode that has NO ties with the main plot of the "Laughing Man Incident of 2024". "Complex" episodes do involve this main plot.

My feelings about the whole "Laughing Man" ordeal was awkward. The previous times I watched this, my head could not wrap around who really was the "Laughing Man". Even after the eighth time, I STILL CANNOT believe Aoi may have been the culprit, when they keep assuming the whole "Laughing Man" idea may have never been a person at all.

That climax...still got chills from those last several episodes. It was such a fucking hellfire at first, but it did tie loose ends pretty well near the end of the season.

Oh, and that iconic opening sequence; one of the best openings to execute CGI in the year 2002 like it was cakewalk. There will never be another song as eerily yet fascinating as [inner universe] by the late Origa (bless her vocals, damn it).

TACHIKOMAS

Oh, and Catcher in the Rye was referenced (one of the books that inspired this series)

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2nd GIG)

Once again, there are three different sets of episode variants: dual (which involves the Individual Eleven as well as the CIS/Gouda arc), dividual (episodes that are independent from the two main arcs, but could have some relevance), and individual (obviously, the Individual Eleven plot-heavy episodes).

Personally, I loved this season a little more for having better writing, slightly better CGI, and a ton of mature/political themes.

The animation can be a bit (and I mean it's very subtle) wonky or off-model, but that did not bother me much during the exposition scenes.

The second OP is great, but not as iconic as the first.

[Spoiler alert], you may want to shield yourself from trauma, but that scene was shocking yet violently executed in a way you'd want to read into the lore as to what made them do it in the first place.

You thought last season's finale was crazy? How about [spoiler alert] getting [spoilers] while trying to stop a [redacted]? Even I still cannot believe the writers decided to go there.

Solid State Society

Frankly, this is the first time seeing the movie; only one thing comes to my head.

Human trafficking (mainly children abduction) being the focus of this antagonist's scheme. Not to mention hacking was involved to minimize the damage when in reality, it's a HUGE freaking deal. It's kind of like...seeing a beehive nestled on the side of someone's house. You think it's not gonna be so difficult to remove, until you notice the bees somehow got into the walls (probably a small crack that wasn't patched up when it was originally constructed) and you find tons of honeycombs plaguing the whole inside of that wall.

(I was not using the glacier anecdote as that is too obvious).

Now, the awkward thing about this movie was how the writers kinda pulled a slight twist to the perpetrator's intentions.

Usually, my perspectives on villains is usually the typical "boo, hiss, dni" ordeal. However, this guy's intention was fueled by several factors:

rising unemployment rates

low birth rate

excessive child abuse rates

rising geriatric population (Noble Rot Senior Citizen)

So, I get what this dude was trying to fight for, but his motives were illegal. Was he a sick son of a bitch? Yeah, for the actions.

Although, I will give the writers damn good credit for tackling subjects like these, because even the topic of a broken healthcare system was alluded (these citizens at end-of-life stage dealing with such poor attention by the system).

Conclusion

Overall, how much more praise could I give to something as exceptional as the Ghost in the Shell dub?

As I have said before, not many English dubs stand out to me more than this. The story, concept, world building, and development are all top tier quality that leave thought-provoking questions to be taken into consideration. Production I.G., Gainax, and these other studios who contributed to the series did such a stellar job creating an adaptation that may still be ahead of its time (for now).

If you're up for some drama, suspense, heavy imagery/themes and a damn good time, I HIGHLY recommend just watching the SAC era of Ghost in the Shell (2005-2008) in its Bandai dub.

You will thank me later.

----------

Before I announce the next review, let me extend some kudos to the late Origa, who lost her battle to lung cancer back in 2015. Part of my adolescence/adulthood was listening to both OPs constantly, mainly [inner universe], which still leaves a chilling, yet beautiful phenomenon to this day. Rarely (and I seriously mean rarely) do I listen to any Russian/English new age. May her legacy continue to be remembered through her contribution to this anime and her other projects.

----

Coming up in a few days, I will be releasing my "Final Thoughts on Toradora!" There are some loose ends I need to get to before I can fully give this my two cents. Until then, stay tuned.

#final thoughts #ghost in the shell #2022 anime rewatch (dub)

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makeste · 3 years

Text

BnHA 323: “I Don’t Know How to Explain to You That You Should Care About Other People”

Previously on BnHA: Kacchan was all, “Izuku, I’m sorry.” Bakugou Stans were all, “[sobs for a week straight and tearfully awards him the Nobel Prize for character development].” Deku was all, “[faints in Kacchan’s arms].” Iida was all, “[trying to decide if Ochako genuinely tried to kill him a few minutes ago].” Horikoshi was all, “NO TIME FOR HUGS WE MUST GET BACK TO UA.” The civilians holed up at U.A. were all, “WE TOOK A VOTE AND DECIDED THAT WE’RE ALL GOING TO BE JERKS ABOUT THIS AND MAKE A BIG FUSS ABOUT YOU LETTING DEKU BACK INTO THE SCHOOL.” Deku was all “[stands there looking like he expected nothing less and breaking my heart more and more with each passing moment].” Ochako was all, “that does it, looks like I’m gonna have to do something about this... next chapter, that is.”

Today on BnHA: Flashback!Rat Principal is all “I just want you all to know that I spent nine million dollars turning U.A. into a giant Battleship-style grid that can burrow underground and zoom around in a giant subway maze because Horikoshi lacks a grounded understanding of both civil engineering and economics.” Back in the present day, Jeanist is all, “EVERYONE TAKE HEED, MY COMRADES AND I HAVE DEEMED IT EXPEDIENT TO CONVEY THIS AUSPICIOUS YOUTH BACK TO THIS STRONGHOLD. WE ANTICIPATE THAT WE MAY DEPEND UPON YOUR GOODWILL AND ACQUIESCENCE TO THESE TERMS.” The civilians were all, “NO.” Ochako was all, “EMPATHY, MOTHERFUCKERS, DO YOU SPEAK IT?!” The civilians were all, “oh shit.” Anyway so Ochako is a giant badass, but I’m a little worried that she’s going to get struck by lightning. Please come down from there.

so before we start this chapter, I would just like to apologize for having not posted the ch 321 recap yet, and would like to reassure everyone, and especially Iida who is staring at me with Sad Wobbly Guilt Trip Eyes, that I will get to that as soon as I can

OMG FLASHBACK??

yes please Horikoshi please show us more of class 1-A and their Deku intervention strategy jam sessions

oh dear

Iida you are too pure and good for this cruel world. [sprays the U.A. civilians with a water bottle] NO. BAD CIVILIANS! NO OSTRACIZING SCARED AND EXHAUSTED CHILDREN IN THE HOUSE

EXCUSE ME RAT PRINCIPAL WHAT’S WITH THESE MIXED MESSAGES

???

RAT PRINCIPAL: he’s free to return to us at any time!!

ALSO RAT PRINCIPAL: but it’s too risky for him to return to us

?? ??????? ?????????????????????

so now he’s going on about how strong the U.A. Barrier is, and how it’s comparable to the defensive capabilities of Tartarus. this would have sounded a lot more impressive before chapter 297 lol

OH!!!! HELLO, WHAT’S THIS!!!

A TIMELY CALLBACK TO A CERTAIN MYSTERIOUS EVENT WHICH HASN’T BEEN REFERENCED SINCE USJ? [U.A. TRAITOR MUSIC INTENSIFIES]

so now Rat Principal says he upgraded U.A.’s security systems with his own “modifications”, whatever the fuck that means. I mean look, I’ve been saying for a long time now that U.A. is the best place for everyone to hole up, don’t get me wrong. but that was mostly on account of there not being any other practical alternatives. but you’re making it sound like you figured out a way to actually make it Decay-proof or some wild shit like that

-- hold up, DID YOU ADD A FORCE FIELD. DID YOU TRICK THIS SCHOOL OUT WAKANDA-STYLE YOU CRAZY MARSUPIAL. HOLY SHIT. because that would actually be perfect

LMAO

WHAT KIND OF GALAXY BRAIN BULLSHIT. “NAH THERE’S NO NEED FOR A FORCE FIELD, LET’S JUST PUT WHEELS ON IT”

oh okay so the whole campus is basically capable of burrowing itself underground. that’s insane lol I wonder how they pulled that off. probably got poor Cementoss working overtime

blah blah blah so basically the entire campus is split into a grid and each section of the grid is capable of its own independent movement. lol this is just the Merone Base from KHR. you thought no one would notice this casual plagiarism ten years after the fact, but YOU UNDERESTIMATED YOUR AUDIENCE, HORIKOSHI

“joke’s on you imma just lampshade it” WELL ALL RIGHT THEN

“look at me I’m so fucking self-aware” fucking swear to god. I can’t believe this man is my favorite mangaka of all time smdh

“excuse me, I wasn’t finished describing all the rest of this bullshit yet,” Rat Principal breaks in impatiently. “we also added a steel wall all around the underground of the campus that’s 3000 steel plates thick. that’s fifteen fucking meters of solid fucking steel just fyi. and if anyone fucks around with any part of it the defense system will activate immediately! and also all of the plates are independently motorized, whatever the fuck that means!! in conclusion you’re gonna need a fucking tower crane to suspend all of your disbelief by the time I’m through with this paragraph”

“also Shiketsu is almost as reinforced as U.A. but not quite because we still had to make sure we were better.” but of course. and apparently the two schools are connected via a secret tunnel as Hagakure mentioned earlier

LSDKFJLSDKJFLK

“WAIT WHAT” LMAO YOU HEARD HIM, NOW INASA CAN VISIT YOU BOTH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND TELL YOU ALL ABOUT THE WEIRD DREAM HE HAD. GOD BLESS YOU HORIKOSHI

(ETA: moment of appreciation for Shouto and Katsuki having the same thought at the same time and making Knowing Eye Contact and saying the exact same thing out loud in perfect unison like the best friends they are. what a blessed day.)

so Tokoyami is all “but wait if you engineered all this shit all the way back during the Band arc how did you even know that Tomura’s quirk awakening would become a thing, Horikoshi -- uh, I mean, Principal Nezu”

and Rat Principal is all “lol idk”

“basically I just woke up one morning and was all ‘say, you know what this school really needs? a fifteen-meter-thick underground steel wall, and the ability to break up into little pieces that individually zoom around wherever the fuck they want.’ jesus christ. lol if money and common sense were apparently no obstacle why didn’t you just teleport U.A. to the fucking moon or something. maybe I should shut up before I given him any ideas

dsfaelkjldkjgl

you heard it here first, folks, all of this cost a grand total of nine million U.S. dollars. well technically it cost “more than” nine million dollars. never has that distinction been more important lmao. are we sure this barrier was really made of steel and not cardboard? who the hell sold it to them, Ea-Nasir??

this is my favorite manga series of all time. yes I am ashamed

“in conclusion please do your best to reach Deku-kun” SO WHAT WAS ALL THAT NONSENSE ABOUT IT BEING TOO RISKY THEN. anyway thank you for this super informative and edifying flashback, Horikoshi. I will cherish it always. I don’t even want to read another translation of this absurdity lmao, there’s something special about it just the way it is. pretty sure Horikoshi just had a cracked out fever dream one night and transferred it to the pages of the manga verbatim

anyway so back to the unruly mob

not their finest moment. please excuse me while I cover poor Deku’s ears and give him a good shoosh pap

oh wow the parents are out here too

is Mitsuki trying to hold Inko back?? that’s the last thing this fandom needs right now is more Mitsuki discourse fffwlkjs. and even Jiroudad, scientifically proven to be the best dad in all of BnHA, is just standing there silently looking vaguely unhappy. way to rise to the moment you guys

MONOMA

so this settles it for me that Aizawa is not at UA. I know a lot of people have been wondering about his whereabouts, and if I had to wager a guess it would be that something happened with Shirakumo/Kurogiri. I can’t think of anything else -- even the loss of an eye and a limb -- that would keep him from his kids at a time like this

anyway but this is excellent Monoma content right here though. I love that he apparently adopted Eri after a single interaction with her. also WHERE IS SHINSOU DAMMIT. THE PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW

and Kouta’s there too looking like he wants to run over to Deku but Ragdoll won’t let him :/

it’s gotta be pretty upsetting for him to see his hero like this and not having anyone stand up for him. [taps megaphone] IS THIS THING ON. OKAY YEAH IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING. AHEM. PAGING URARAKA OCHAKO. GONNA NEED YOU TO GET OVER HERE ALREADY AND MAKE THAT BIG DRAMATIC SPEECH WHICH YOU ARE CLEARLY DYING TO MAKE. IF YOU DON’T DO IT SOON I’M GONNA HAVE TO STEP IN, AND YOU REALLY DON’T WANT ME TO DO THAT SINCE MY SPEECH WILL NOT BE VERY GOOD OR INSPIRING, AND WILL PROBABLY JUST CONSIST OF “HELLO, YOU ARE ALL STUPID, PLEASE SHUT UP AND GO AWAY”

so now Mic is telling them to calm down. at least someone’s speaking up here, geez

OH MY GOD

MY MAN JEANIST OUT HERE DOING WHAT HE DOES BEST: MAKING EVERYONE FEEL GUILTY AND JUDGED

OH MY GOD HE IS GIVING SUCH A LONG AND BORING SPEECH LMAO IS YOUR STRATEGY TO PUT THEM ALL TO SLEEP OR WHAT

truly in awe of this man’s ability to take messages which could easily be conveyed in ELI5-speak, and stubbornly convert them into incomprehensible language the likes of which you need a graduate degree in order to understand

“hey guys, so originally our plan was to use Deku as bait for the villains, but that didn’t really work and also we realized it was kinda dumb and was probably gonna get him killed, so we brought him back here instead.” was that really so hard, Jeanist. also are we all really just gonna sit back here and watch Jeanist take full credit for Bakugou’s plan just like that lmao

(ETA:

WHERE DID ENDEAVOR GO AND WHO IS THIS DIABOLICAL MASTER OF DISGUISE. lol I genuinely didn’t notice this because I was too busy digging through thesauruses trying to rewrite Jeanist’s speech; many thanks to @class1akids for pointing it out and making my day immeasurably better. take it easy there Dick Tracy.)

“anyway so please stop being dicks and let him fucking rest so he can save all your ungrateful asses” what an impassioned and inspiring plea. time to see if the masses will listen to reason

narrator: they did not listen to reason

oh my god finally Ochako is doing something. YEAH OCHAKO WOOOO SHOW THEM HOW IT’S DONE

hmm

this entire chapter is truly and utterly nonsensical to me lol

(ETA: on my second readthrough I’m fucking dying at how she stole the megaphone right out of Mic’s hand lmao. and how Kacchan is all “fuck yeah nothing I appreciate more than some quality fucking larceny.”)

oh I see she was jumping on top of the main building so as to scream down at them all more impressively

“ANYWAY DEKU IS PRETTY COOL ACTUALLY, YOU GUYS ARE JUST MEAN” couldn’t have said it better myself Ochako

lol uh

gotta say I did not have “Ochako reveals the secret of OFA to the entire U.A. Citizen Clown Parade” on my bingo card for this week. it’s a bold strategy cotton let’s see if it pays off

SDLFKJSL

“NO, SERIOUSLY, HAVE YOU LOOKED AT HIM YOU GUYS. YOU THINK HE LIKES RUNNING AROUND DRESSED LIKE A RUSTED OIL DRUM?? HE DID THAT FOR YOU YOU UNGRATEFUL SLOBS”

so she is basically explaining the entire Deku Angst arc to them and explaining what a good and selfless protagonist Deku is, YES, PREACH

OMG IT’S THE GIGANTIC FOX LADY

not to insinuate anything, but what exactly were you doing standing out here with the hysterical mob, Gigantic Fox Lady? you’re better than that

-- KACCHAN SIGHTING!!

sdlkfjl. thanks for weighing in with that helpful and important observation. where have you been for the last five minutes. were you asleep. was it Jeanist’s speech

never mind, now he’s yelling at the civilians so I instantly forgive him

THE FUTURE NUMBER ONE HERO, EVERYONE. THANK YOU, THANK YOU. HE’LL BE HERE ALL WEEK

“anyway so I’m just going to end the chapter here” lmao seventeen pages truly do go by so fast. at least he didn’t try to force in a cliffhanger at the end this time. dare I say, growth

so I guess the civilians are either gonna have a Kamino and/or Fukuoka-esque moment where they remember how to be decent people and apologize to this poor young man, or else they’ll remain unpersuaded, and so Kacchan will have to knock a few of their heads around until they become more inclined to be reasonable. either option is fine by me lol

#bnha 323 #uraraka ochako #rat principal #class 1-a #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

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ourmondobongo · 2 years

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Hello! I'm new on tumblr :) I found your blog and came to love your interpretation on Levi's character ❤

I've recently come to notice that aside from many eruri shippers, there's also a vast majority of the fandom consider Levi as an obsessed revenge-seeker who doesn't give a flying crap about humanity in the final battle. I personally disagree with this idea and can't even bear the thought. Levi only proved to us in the final battle how much he cares. He was ready basically ready to put himself in danger anytime and almost forgot about the promise. But anyway the reason I'm here is because a few people and I were discussing this issue with a guy who keeps saying:

"1) He was just happened to be there in the final battle. He was there for Zeke and he made it clear in 126 that his intention is killing the beast titan to Magath and Pieck. No Zeke. No care"

"2) On the plane all he was thinking about was killing the monkey and it's not because it was Hanji's theory. He just wanted to kill tbe beast"

"3) Before getting onto the plane he didn't participate in battle but once he knew they were getting close to Eren's whereabouts, where Zeke probably was, he took part and don't tell me it was because he was recovering in those days while Hange and the other were fighting the Jaegerists. If we were to consider that then he needed rest till the very end of the series. He didn't need to take part in the battle"

"4) While flying on Falco he kept saying "Where is he? Where is the beast? And kept remembering Erwin's orders. Doesn't that sound like a simp to you?"

I'm sorry this turned out long but these horrible things are only parts of what he said. We tried arguing with him but well sometimes it's really hard to make someone understand lol What do you think about each of these 4 takes? I would love to read your thoughts and analysis. You sound like a very logical person.

Hello!!!

Welcome to Tumblr!!!

Thank you for the kind words! I love Levi a lot!

And though I'm nowhere near as in depth or accurate as other snk metas writers who long live here, I try my best to at least one or two points here and there as best as I can!

Before we begin exploring your points, excuse me for a sec while I share a bit of a concern I have…

You know, I feel like these last volumes of snk had a strange pacing, which compromised the depiction of facts and how the characters were living the events. Because while many things are getting clear now, almost one year later, the fact that there were an incredibly lot of faithful and sincere readers feeling way off or confused about the end of snk isn't normal, imo. Veteran people here on Tumblr - who used to write very in depth analysis of snk! - were so disappointed they dropped out of the fandom, or wrote frustrating rants. I can’t help but feel like there is a communication gap begging to be fixed and crossed between Isym, the manga, and the readers (at least the non-Japanese ones?).

And besides the seemingly need for a less rushed pacing, be it for the lack of more accurate manga translations, or side material officially published (such the smartpasses and other guidebooks), or snk interviews published in a official place to be referenced easily, or WIT's badass-biased portrait of characters - there seems to be a little gap between what Yams had been trying to say and what was written and shown in the manga, imo. Not to mention all the wild push-and-pull between ships, yeagerist x alliance, "the ML is always right" x "the ML is a complete maniac incel", and whatevers...

So I think this is why the anime now seems to be adapting the chapters slower, more detailed, orderly in timeline, and kinda heavy, brutal, and more humanistic. Though at first I didn't want to see a snk movie for the end, I'm somewhat starting to like the idea - if this is for the anime to fill up and smooth out the convoluted transitions between what Isym managed to present in the manga and what he wanted to do but couldn't on the paper for whatever reason. I think it will be good for the general audience who will still stick to the conclusion!

Now, let's go to the points you brought up!!

"1) He was just happened to be there in the final battle. He was there for Zeke and he made it clear in 126 that his intention is killing the beast titan to Magath and Pieck. No Zeke. No care"

Sometimes I feel like the fandom kinda forgets that EMA are the MCs of snk. I've forgotten sometimes that as well ngl

Levi certainly grew to become the most beloved and why not to say most important character of snk alongside Eren. But still, the main plot was not his history to resolve the final problems himself. The "hierarchy" is Eren-Mikasa-Armin, and then Levi. Or even, Levi's story was paralleled with Eren's.

Regardless of this, most of the time I feel like people who claim Levi was just by chance/alive in the final battle are mostly arguing based on "death plot armor" and "Levi was nerfed so Mikasa could shine" ideas. And tbh, it kinda bothers me when I read people saying "Isym nerfed Levi because he was too OP and would have killed Zeke and Eren in a blink" and other typical shounen sayings because I don't think it was the case at all.

While it's kinda controversial that Levi could fight on such horrible conditions considering that in the Female Arc he was put out of commission due to his injured feet, they were facing the end of the world now, and with barely anyone left to join the fight. But since my own view is but my own on the matter, I like to reference people to this interview here, in which pretty much Isym explains Levi wouldn't always be placed on the front lines by being too powerful. But rather than simply "nerf" him, this actually adds depth to Levi's character (as well to all other characters who had to put themselves together and face the danger). Levi's worried face and clenched fist in chapter 33 tells us how hard it was for him to stand by and only watch people having to fight while he can't...

...But this nuance is mostly lost because anime people usually pick the manga to read from where the anime season ended, and Thank you WIT for bringing Levi out of nowhere and making him save everyone's asses in the anime for the sake of fanservice - it helped to unnecessarily OP his character a lot!! (*sighs*)

(As a side note about Levi's injuries after 115, the drawings of Levi's chest and abs on 126, there weren't broken ribs or any other visibly serious injury, nor major problems aside from his face. I believe Hanji would have wrapped his abs with something to show it, or Yams would have made it bleed or purple or whatever. Levi definitely should have purple bruises since he fell hard on the ground, tho, but please MAPPA do NOT cover Levi's sexy back LOL)

And talking about chapter 126 - imo, it falls in the list of chapters that definitely should have been split into two different chapters. It feels kinda rushed, too much info packed into 45 pages, borderline cringe in some parts. Maybe it's why the aot leaks say the anime will have a whole episode dedicated just for it - they might flesh out the content to make the plot flow more smoothly.

But regarding Levi and Hanji’s talk with Magath and Pieck, something everyone should consider is that MagaPi didn't know LeviHan at all - just that they were highly capable soldiers and leaders of the Survey Corps. They were "sworn enemies", the ones who put into shame ALL their precious Titan Shifters. And as far as MagaPi knew, LeviHan were supposed to be cunning and merciless, vengeful "Island Devils" that had invaded Liberio and wreaked havoc, and killed military and civilians just a month ago; they had been secretly working with Zeke all the time.

So why would MagaPi believe our devoted hearts would want to save their deadly, hate-filled persecutors? And also after all the tragedies Marley itself had imposed on them?

As humans and soldiers that had all the reasons to distrust one another, LeviHan presumably understood that MagaPi needed some solid goal or purpose besides the "we want to save the same people that want to kill us all!!!". If even readers mocked this idea, and Isym also kinda ironizes this in the "Avengers Pose" at the end of 126 as well as using Yelena to make critics over the superficiality/naivety of the thought of saving the world in 127, what makes anyone think this would simply work with LeviHan and MagaPi right of the bat?

That's why they use Zeke as a credible link to instigate the start of a conversation.

I presume MagaPi were well aware of Levi and Zeke’s animosity. They might have deduced that Levi’s hurt predicament was due to a fight with Zeke too. I would like to point out, tho, that while Levi proposes the idea, Isym does a close up on Hanji, Magath, and Pieck's faces. Hanji's eye is hidden (meaning it's not simply this killing intention they had in mind), and Magath isn't buying it just yet too, and above all Pieck once again dislikes the idea of killing Zeke, just like in 119.

Their main interest definitely isn't aligned as of yet. But it was the best first step they could try out.

Thus, "No Zeke, no care" is but a heavily blindly obsessive-revenge interpretation of Levi's character. Thank you Kodansha for officially translating Hanji's words of vexing feelings as a need for revenge too 🙃 Levi's character was benefited by it (*sighs*).

As for Levi’s general feelings and thoughts in the final battle, I think chapter 136 couldn't be more explicit than that!

Levi is literally dropping his burden goal of killing Zeke because he is too injured to fight him (and it would bring more dangers to his kids if he died meaninglessly),

and Levi is shoving up and scrubbing into our faces that the world he himself and the others hoped for when they decided to fight in the SC wasn't to destroy others (but thanks again, KodanshaTM, for changing WE DREAMT to YOU DREAMT 🙃👌),

and when gripping his sword, Levi is showing he is renewing his will to not give up his dream and die succumb to the pressure of the horrors of the moment, and that he is gonna fight until his dying breath now - whether Zeke appears or not - while entrusting the future to the youth who held the same look of hopeful freedom he saw at the Heart of the SC.

But, ofc, there comes Erwin's name after this all, and Levi expressing no regrets about having let him die, and near the eyes' sentence; and as the first KodanshaTM "you" wasn't translated as plural you, Levi's heartbreaking and multilayered monologue is read as him being a one-dimensional-soon-to-be-dead-vengeful-impaired-simp nerfed by Isym and that just wanted to fulfill a promise "to kill monkeyTM".

At this point, I can only hope the animation can somehow save Levi's character now. Or maybe, Isym himself may give an interview which clarifies this all with his own words so people can settle this matter once and for all. I wonder what Japanese readers think of this whole crazy ordeal...

Lastly, Super-peace-fangirl has shown perfectly panel by panel how much Levi cared about snk final events especially on chapter 138, after Zeke's death. If Levi isn't clearly showing AGAIN that he is saving and caring and battling for humanity, I don't know what his character is doing anymore!!

"2) On the plane all he was thinking about was killing the monkey and it's not because it was Hanji's theory. He just wanted to kill the beast"

Being a bit bitter, I'm not even shocked over Hanji erasure here.

Hanji’s treatment in this ending was… rushed and kinda unfair. And it doesn't help that Yams drew Hanji mentioning the Zeke hypothesis back in chapter 126, in a minuscule panel during a supposedly important conversation that made enemies worked together but that only lasted for 02 pages (*sighs*).

Still, at least two key points are being forgotten when people argue that Levi is but "obsessively hunting down his prey" in chapter 133 and so on:

The Characters don't have ORVP

We, readers, have the omniscient reader viewpoint. The characters don't. So we readers might know whatever is going on inside the Founder and the extension of Zeke’s relationship with its power, but Levi and the others didn't know.

And when we read the scenes projecting our awareness upon the text and the characters actions, then we slip down on the problem of "Oh, this is so obvious!". Which ends up with us proceeding to read events and statements as a "broken record", which I feel that happens with Levi regarding Zeke (and the vow too).

Hanji is the Biggest Titan Specialist of snk World

Levi is one of the most sincere narrators of snk, even if sometimes he needs a translator.

If he himself said "I'm not certain, but that was what Hanji predicted", then Levi (Professional Titan Killer, and not ORVP/reader/Yams) might not be 100% sure that killing Zeke will stop the Rumbling, but since Hanji (the Biggest Titan Specialist of their world, as even hinted by Pieck on 126) predicted as much, Levi was betting on it. To him, following Hanji's experience and knowledge of 10 years regarding Titan studies, killing Zeke has a great chance to stop it all. And if it spares Eren's life, then it's something even better. So Levi is not using lame excuses, or blind vengeful reasons, to go after Zeke. This, or Yams is fucking kidding with Hanji’s character. I can’t believe he would go so low as use this crap with Levi of all characters.

And I also want to highlight that no one else there but Armin and Levi could have thought of that idea. But it's quite logical Armin wouldn't be used in this because his dilemma over killing Eren had to last longer. At the same time, imo, this is Isym also showing that Levi was reluctant on killing Eren as much as everyone else. We can see it from 112, then his behavior in 133 in Paths, and then until chapter 137/138. Things are not simply one-dimensional-in their interpretation in AOT.

Another note, I want to highlight how broken Levi looks when mentioning that it was Hanji's idea, and then how he asks for everyone's cooperation and help later. If revenge is the 1st and only thing that comes into one's mind when seeing these panels - and not Levi heavily struggling to keep focused physically, mentally, and emotionally in the battle ahead because he is deeply injured, and has just become the last veteran, the last one carrying all the weight of thousands of devoted hearts on his back alone, and millions of people are dying because Eren and Zeke meet, and Levi just wants all that slaughter and pain and suffering to end - then...

I.don't.know.

Levi's character is already a "I will kill monkey" meme by now. Curse it all lol

They themselves answer their arguments while overlooking the obvious facts lol Way to purposely find reasons to shit on Levi's character. They must hate Levi for nothing lol

Well, in chapter 128-129, it has been 2 days since Levi nearly died in a thunderspear explosion. While us readers had to wait 10 - 12 months to read the chapters, to the characters it was 2 days! Levi is totally wrecked at that time, which is made even clearer at the beginning of chapter 132. And while Levi's bad hair moment is cute in chapter 127, it is also a little reminder that for a man who usually slept only 3-4 hours per day to be asking people to shut up after he had been sleeping for almost two entire days… well, Levi is definitely wrecked.

And, again, just like on chapter 33 moment, Levi is worriedly watching Hanji, his kids, Titan Shifters, and his former SC subordinates (because as SC Captain, Levi was still on top of the Survey Corps) all fight to death while he is powerless to do a thing - powerless to protect everyone. I dare anyone to look at Levi's body language here, and say he didn't want to be capable of fighting!

And as if not enough, Yelena also goes and rubs salt on his psychological wounds saying Humanity can't be separated from violence. Levi is being crushed from all sides just in 2 days of having to kill his 30 titanized soldiers + nearly have died + now this, and with millions of people dying meaninglessly under Colossal Titan feet because of Eren!!

Oh, Levi definitely needed to rest until the end of the story - to be wrapped on warm blankets, cradled to sleep, with someone softly combing his hair, and calmly whispering to him that the fight was over, and that everyone was okay and safe, and that they're finally free so he could sleep how much he wanted!! But Isym said, "No, sweetie! The Titanpocalypse is here, and you better pull yourself together, and get your nearly-kissed-by-Death body into that goddamn hell after rising from the dead in three days, and save everyone's asses - making parallels with the One with whom you share your birthday date!"

He can't even mourn Hanji's death in peace either

"4) While flying on Falco he kept saying "Where is he? Where is the beast? And kept remembering Erwin's orders. Doesn't that sound like a simp to you?"

That's what we get when the only remaining adult who is not actively engaged on the physical battle to rescue Armin is trying to do something useful despite being nearly incapacitated on a Flying Titan's back (*sighs*).

I don't blame anyone for thinking whatever they think Levi looks like in this part though. This is the moment Levi has to reflect about his and the SC's role, and this also has to do with his matter regarding Zeke and Erwin and the vow indeed.

Levi believed in Hanji's theory that the Rumbling - which was about to crush the rest of humanity right under Levi's sight - was going to stop once Zeke was killed, but I definitely can see from where it comes the "Levi is obsessed with killing Zeke for Erwin's order from 4 years ago". The drawing and Levi's words are all in front of our eyes. Moreover, it's to Erwin (person) that Levi makes the vow to, and in a position where he is clearly set as a Knight making an oath to his King. And at the same time it's interesting that Levi remembers Erwin tired, the lights of his eyes dead, and when he looks up at him, Erwin isn't free as Levi remembered when he saved Armin during serum bowl. If anything, it's the first time Levi feels like he has failed his duty, disappointed his Commander, and imagines a dead person expecting something from him.

But the more I reread Levi's chapters (80, 81, 112, and 136), the more I feel like Levi's take towards the vow is multilayered. Killing Zeke has been one of the focus of Levi's narrative since chapter 75, where Erwin says he just trusts Levi to kill the Beast, and this got to another level along the years/story/chapters, especially after chapters 80-81, 112, 113. And, boy, Levi's devotion to fulfill a promise to the dead was his ultimate shackle - the biggest curse of his life, in a way.

But just like everything else Yams does when dealing with human nature, I don't think the vow can be solely understood as a plain "I'll kill the Beast Titan". It’s part of it, but not it all? Or maybe it's just me struggling to comprehend how Levi succumbed to the danger of being drunk on something that Kenny had warned him in his dying bed. Levi hellbent on fulfilling Erwin's last order as his duty (as he addresses the topic on 136) makes absolutely more sense to me than just revenge.

Still, at the very end, as strong as Levi's unwavering will to give meaning to all SC deaths, he helped humanity have a chance of survive at all because it was the right thing to do. I particularly feel like it is a reduction of Levi whenever he is frequently marked as a man who fulfilled a promise to his Commander rather than also praising ALL aspects that encompasses it. Levi's devotion to his duty, his sense of responsibility, his inhuman willpower to keep fighting even after nearly losing everything is incomparable. And this belongs to Levi's character in such a broader way. That's why he is Humanity’s Strongest after all!!

Another point people forget is that killing Zeke doesn't give meaning to the SC devoted hearts. It might have helped stop the Rumbling, but that's not enough - never was, and never would be worth their sacrifices. Levi also makes it very clearly in 139. The Titans are gone, the nightmare is over, humanity is free and not all doomed to die eaten alive or stomped powerless = "I guess this is the result of all of your devoted hearts". At most, killing Zeke is Levi finally breaking free from a curse that lasted way too long, and Levi held no personal triumphant satisfaction with it - just the damned realization this shit was finally over, forever.

Another poignant matter is that it was thanks to Erwin and the recruits' sacrifices that Paradis could learn about the truth of the World - the most crucial matter at stake at that moment. And the RtS victory allowed for the Island to be freed of the horror of the Titans. Yet, Levi rejects this huge fact as enough to be worth the devoted hearts. I can’t imagine how getting Zeke’s head alone would ever be comparable, or superior, to all that the SC had accomplished until they got the brats to the sea. Unless, ofc, Levi's narrative is really supposed to be the "Revenge-Avenge" Tragic Hero...

Then, if considering this idea is a part of him, it's interesting to remember too that Levi knows Zeke killed Mike, Nanaba, and the Ragako Village; and that Levi chose to send around a hundred people to their death in the Beast's hand so that Humanity inside the Walls could survive; and that the massacre on Marley was orchestrated by Zeke mostly (bc Eren doesn't have the brains for it), and that Zeke titanized Levi's soldiers in the forest... Then it makes sense Levi also had assumed to be his role to guarantee Zeke wouldn't get out of this all in impunity for all the deaths he had committed. But there is still a difference between revenge, punishment, and retributive justice.

Levi knows, though, what Grisha did to Zeke, and he had a brief idea what Zeke lived in Marley, and must have imagined how Zeke was used as Beast Titan for years in Marley wars, and what Zeke ultimately wanted to do when Yelena asked Hanji and everyone to admit Zeke’s plan was better. I really wanted to see what happened in chapter 132, when Levi reflects about Yelena's words, and hearing Hanji blaming herself/taking responsibility for Eren's downfall, and saying she was powerless. But thank you, Yams, for leave me hanging on this too 🙃

Anyway, in chapter 136, Levi has a lot to cover of his and SC's narratives in the brief 03-04 pages he is given. And imo, it goes as the one chapter I wanted Yams himself talking about just for the sake of full understanding. But we're probably never getting it, so at this point, everyone will take Levi's words and actions however they want - from reduced to a simp who just fought to kill monkey to get revenge from the man Levi himself chose to let die (and *cough* had no regrets about it *cough*) up to Humanity’s Strongest soul and last bearer of the Wings of Freedom, with a unmatched devoted heart.

However, blessed be the new OP!! I think the nihilism and despair and desperation and tears are setting even more clear the state of the last events of snk. Scratch the stupid ass shipper interpretation of that moment, and focus on Levi's journey with SC's devoted hearts in a world bathed on blood, death, and meaninglessness. Hopefully, it and the animation will help dissipate the mist over Levi's character too.

Yes, it's raining tears

#answering devoted hearts #this was long #lol #i love how Levi is reduced to Humanity’s Strongest Simp #🙃#can't blame anyone tho #the last volumes of aot seemed so dragged and strange #and a lot of us were actually burned out at some point?#oh i might have digressed on this #but yeah

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shadowed-dancer · 3 years

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How the anime enhanced the Touya mystery

Season 5 of MHA just finished adapting the Endeavour Agency Arc. While everyone has their own opinion on how the anime adaptation is doing, I wanted to take a moment to praise something that (I think) they handled really well: The Touya Mystery. Today we’re going to walk through how the anime handled this plot point, and why it worked so well.

Proud to say this post is free of manga spoilers! Today we’re ONLY talking about the anime.

Intro: What is the Touya Mystery?

The Touya mystery is the ongoing mystery of what happened to the third Todoroki son. It is foreshadowed in seasons 2 and 4, but it exists in earnest throughout season 5. It is never explicitly stated, but is instead referenced in passing by the characters, allowing the audience to try and piece everything together until it is eventually confirmed.

Disclaimer

Obviously the manga has this mystery as well, but anime as a medium has certain factors that the manga simply doesn’t have. OPs and EDs are a good example, but there’s also the way hiatuses affect the way we consume the story, as well as how the breakdown of seasons clump certain storylines closer together then they were in the manga (compare 6 months to get through Joint Training in the manga, compared to 2.5 months for the anime).

I am also aware of the theories surrounding Touya’s potential connection to a previously established character. You’ve probably seen the theory at some point, but I won’t name names just incase some of you haven’t. Either way, this post isn’t about that theory.

Finally, I’m very well aware that most viewers may not have picked up on some of the stuff I’m saying. A lot of these points are minor details, and I don’t fault anyone for missing out on that. In fact, I’m sure there are some fans out there who never even realized there was a 4th Todoroki sibling because they just... didn’t care or pay attention. I’m going at this with the mindset of someone who is very, VERY analytical, not your average viewer who’s just here to enjoy the show.

The Set Up: Season 2

We are first introduced to the Todoroki siblings way back in Season 2, Episode 10 (Todoroki’s fight with Deku in the Sports Festival). During Shoto’s flashback, we are given this frame to introduce his siblings...

We have the white-haired brother, the red-haired brother, and the sister. In this scene, the red-haired brother fumbles his soccer move and ends up falling, causing his siblings to laugh. This added movement (which was never in the manga) causes the red-haired brother to stand out slightly more than his siblings.

Now, granted, I’ve seen quite a few people who didn’t realize these were Shoto’s siblings at first. They just thought he was watching his neighbours. That’s why, if their hair colours weren’t enough to clue you in on their relationship to Shoto, we meet the sister a few episodes later (Season 2, Episode 12).

She refers to Endeavour as “dad” which informs the audience that she is also Endeavour’s child, and is therefore Shoto’s sister. It then stands to reason that the two boys she was playing with (both of whom share their hair colour with her and Shoto) would be her brothers.

The Set Up: Shout Baby

Season 4, Episode 15 gives us a new ending sequence, Shout Baby, in which we see this...

Todoroki Family photos. On the left is a photo of Shoto on his first day of school (I double checked and the sign behind him indicates some sort of entrance ceremony). On the right, we are given a photo of the sister and white-haired brother as adults.

(Despite it not being explicit, you can tell that’s the white haired brother based on context clues. He looks so similar to the kid in the flashback that it doesn’t make sense for him to be anyone else. This is of course confirmed later in the season).

However, the red-haired brother is missing, which now launches the mystery of why. Why is he not in any of the photos? And then, as the frame pans down, we get this...

A torn, burnt corner of a photograph. For a while, I had some trouble making out what that blue stuff was in the corner, but a comment on Youtube helped point out that it is the exact same Sakura tree as the one in Shoto’s photo. You can even see the branch in the same spot.

So what does this tell us? Well, it’s the same place Shoto went to school, but the photo is burnt. Is it just a burned up copy of the same photo to symbolize how Endeavour ruined Shoto’s childhood? Or is it a photo of one of the other kids attending the same school, burned for mysterious reasons?

The actual answer is that it’s an Easter egg for manga readers who already know about the red haired brother but shhhhh we’re only talking about the anime right now.

The point is, we now have intrigue.

The Set Up: Season 4

Season 4, Episode 25 gives us our first full look at the Todoroki Family, with the siblings (sans Shoto) on a visit to their mom.

We get confirmation that the man in the photo from the ED is the white haired brother, and we learn their names as well, with the sister being named Fuyumi and the white-haired brother being named Natsuo! But, just like the ending sequence, the red-haired brother is missing.

His absence is never brought up, but this is only highlighted by the fact that Fuyumi teases Natsuo for not calling often ever since going away for college. His response ISN’T “aw come on, why do you only pick on me?” or “hey, at least I’m here! Unlike [red-haired brother]”. Instead he says, “aww come on, sis, I call you guys!”

No one calls attention to the fact that one of the siblings is missing. The red-haired brother is never even mentioned, which tell us as the audience that the characters know something we don't. Whatever reason they aren’t mentioning the 3rd brother is common knowledge amongst them, so there’s no need to bring him up.

But the anime ensures we remember that, yes, there IS in fact another brother. They replay the soccer flashback as Natsuo and Fuyumi watch Endeavour’s fight from their laptop, but we are also given this...

... Our second look at the red haired brother (played when Endeavour reminisces about his family). From this, we notice that the brother is significantly shorter than his siblings. It’s also worth noting that his bangs are in front of his face, meaning we never get a clear idea of his appearance (I’ll bring this up again later).

This episode also serves as the season finale, meaning fans were treated to an entire year of hiatus to theorize on the red-haired brother.

The Mystery Starts: His Name

Season 5, Episode 2 begins the mystery-of-the-missing-brother in earnest by providing us with this quote...

“Mom’s screams, Shoto’s crying, and what happened to our big brother, Touya”

Not only is this quote the first time the red-haired brother is being directly spoken about, but it also provides us with 3 pieces of information.

FIRST: His name is Touya. We now have something to call him besides “the red-haired brother”.

SECOND: He’s Natsuo’s big brother. At this point in the series, the age order for Natsuo and Fuyumi had not been confirmed in the anime, but we now knew Natsuo is either the second oldest child, or third oldest.

Touya being Natsuo’s “big brother” means Touya is either the oldest child, or the second oldest. But the fact that Natsuo says “our big brother” does seem to indicate Touya is the big brother to all of them.

This seems to be contradictory to the fact that Touya is just so small compared to his siblings in the 2nd flashback, but it’s certainly not impossible for younger siblings to outgrow the oldest.

(Yes I know technically their age order is revealed in episode 17 but I’m trying to walk through the experience live)

THIRD: We learn something happened to Touya. We don’t know what, but it’s implied to be bad. At the very least, it implies that whatever happened led to Touya no longer seeing his family.

The Mystery Continues: Quirk Singularity

In Season 5, Episode 3, the anime adds a fun visual while Deku explains the Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory (the theory that, as quirks combine through generations, kids will end up with stronger and stronger quirks with bodies that cannot control them).

In the manga, this is just Deku talking to All Might, but the anime adds the same flashbacks Endeavour had during his Nomu fight for some visual intrigue. Not only does this flashback remind us that the Todoroki siblings exist, but it implies that they are somehow connected to the Quirk Singularity Theory (Shoto is shown as an example of how quirks combine to create stronger quirks, but perhaps we’ll learn some more about Touya to connect him to the theory as well).

The Mystery Continues: Touya’s Quirk

Season 5, Episode 7 gives us another flashback to Shoto’s childhood. Here, Endeavour comments on some very interesting details of Touya’s quirk...

“Touya was close. He had more firepower than me, but he had Rei’s weak constitution. He... was close”

It’s also worth noting that the English Dub of this scene has Endeavour end this line with, “He was close, until...”

So what does this teach us?

FIRST: The English Dub implies he was doing well UNTIL something happened. Was it the incident that Natsuo was referring to? Either way, it has once again created intrigue.

SECOND: Touya had a fire quirk, and it was even stronger than Endeavour’s (hey, look at that, kind of like quirk singularity, right? How the next generation gets stronger than their parents?).

Viewers may have been able to theorize that Touya had a fire quirk based purely on his hair colour (think of how Shoto’s hair represents which side produces which quirk) but this line gives us solid confirmation on his quirk.

THIRD: Touya “had Rei’s weak constitution”. Now, it’s debatable on what exactly a “weak constitution” means. Is this referring to his resolve? Was he too passive? Or is this referring to something else? (Perhaps Rei’s physical constitution?)

Well, wouldn’t you know it, but all the way back in Season 5, Episode 2 (the same one where we learn Touya’s name, go figure) we hear this exact phrase used in reference to the original OFA user... but ONLY in the English Dub.

Here’s what AFO says in the sub...

“My brother is frail”

...vs the dub

“My little brother has a weak constitution”

This gives us a direct reference point that a “weak constitution” in this series can be another way of saying someone is frail (and even if you don’t want to cross reference the dub and sub, OFA is portrayed as weak no matter what). This seems to tie in well with the fact that Touya was so much smaller and appeared weaker than his supposed younger siblings.

The Through Line: Arc Rearrangement

If you didn’t know, I’m here to tell you that the anime pulled a little sneaky on us manga readers by rearranging the arcs.

The manga originally went from Joint Training to (the upcoming arc) to Endeavour Agency, and while the anime has kept these events in the same chronological order, it changed the way they were presented to us. Endeavour Agency has been put first, which means we get more Touya information a heck of a lot closer to the rest of his reveals, compared to the manga.

Regardless of how you personally feel about the arc rearrangement, it works wonders for Touya’s mystery. Endeavour is sprinkled throughout many episodes of the Joint Training Arc in the anime, so it feels rather natural to go straight to the Agency Arc because Endeavour is acting as our narrative through line. He’s been a reoccurring presence, so it doesn’t feel as if he’s coming out of nowhere.

The Reward: The Photo

If you’ve been paying attention to the clues the series has left regarding the missing Todoroki child, you are rewarded in Season 5, Episode 17.

The episode is rather... flashback heavy, but it does a good job reminding us of all the Todoroki drama before we head to the dinner. And at the end of the episode (literally the last thing we see before the ED), observant viewers who have been keeping track of Touya are rewarded when we finally get to see...

... Touya’s face. The first instance where it’s unobstructed. There he is. The missing Todoroki son. He’s so cute!

(Also yes yes I know his hair is now white and I’m sure that was very confusing for anime onlies. However, I promise it is the same kid.)

But, perhaps more importantly, we learn the implication that Touya is dead. His photo is on a shrine where Endeavour is praying, and the shrine seems to be set up in a child’s room that has remain unchanged (small shoes, a soccer ball, and toys on the bookshelf, all of which seem to be too young for any of the living Todoroki siblings). Suddenly it becomes all too clear why the family didn’t bring him up that often, and why Natsuo was so upset about “what happened to our big brother, Touya”.

The Tease: What Comes Next?

Season 5, Episode 18 leaves us with a teaser for the future of Keeping Up With The Todoroki's.

Touya’s death is confirmed, and we even learn a bit more on the circumstances surrounding it, as we learn Endeavour feels responsible for whatever happened. We also learned that Natsuo blames Endeavour, hinting that he certainly played some part in it.

However, all of these hints lead to a story for another time (more likely Season 6, to be precise). I won’t spoil what exactly happens, but I can confirm that we eventually see Touya’s death and the events leading up to it through flashback, and I’m honestly so excited.

Perhaps I’ll make a part 2 to this post when the anime gets to that point.

Hope you enjoyed!

#bnha #bnha season 5 #todofam #toya todoroki #touya todoroki #enji todoroki #shoto todoroki #natsuo todoroki #fuyumi todoroki #bnha meta #bnha season five #mha season 5 #mha season five #bnha analysis #if you liked this please reblog I've been working on this for forever #just had to wait for today's episode to finish it off

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elliotoille · 4 years

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Do you have any advice for understanding hands better? I’ve been practicing them for years but feel like compared to other aspects of anatomy it’s the one thing I haven’t seen much improvement in. I draw both from life and images and draw nearly everyday but nothing I’m doing seems to help

I personally get by mostly from remembering poses that I’ve already practiced a ton, like I figure out how to draw it once and am able to file that away in my brain and use it again later, and tweak bits of the pose or the level of simplification to suit what I’m drawing.

I’ve paid special attention to drawing hands for like.... most of my life so I have a LOT of poses I’m easy comfy with now, but when I need to figure out something complicated or new, I can usually work it out by breaking a hand down into shapes, remembering a few key points/”rules” from what I’ve learned about hands in order to help me break it down in a way that makes sense. And if that’s not enough either, then I take photo refs.

^^^ here is a pose I use a ton. I have a quick way of drawing it from various angles. the first time I had to draw a pose like this, I had to think and figure it out, but in drawing it a bunch of times and having to use various angles like this, I’ve eventually come up with a quick, reliable way to draw it from a few of the most common angles that fits the style I like to draw in. I’m blessed with a good memory for observations, so when I see a beautifully posed hand, I can usually really quickly analyze what I like about that pose and why, and that helps me absorb it so I can recreate my saved impression later. But I know not everyone thinks the same way. it might benefit you to quickly scribble down a study in a sketchbook when you see a pose you find beautiful and want to learn from for later.

^^^ here are some poses I had to stop and spend time figuring out, calling up the “rules” for how hands are built to kind of logic-out how they should look from angles I’m less familiar with. results can be mixed, but... if I end up with something expressive that fits the style of the rest of the drawing, I’m usually really forgiving of fudged anatomy or slightly wonky proportions. as long as the thumb is on the right side and there aren’t too many fingers, that’s a great start lol.

^^^ and here are ones I had to take reference-selfies for. I try to use this as a last resort because 1) it’s a lot of trouble 2) interrupts my drawing and 3) if I’m not careful I stick too close to the reference, and the drawing ends up with the hand looking referenced and the rest of the pose not, which is jarring to me. not to mention I have tiny manlet wrists that without fail, look horrific and emaciated in photos, and the lens distortion makes my fingers look scary too... ugh, photo reference has definite flaws. I actually don’t like the look of drawings for which I can Really Tell the artist drew from photo reference, because most often that means they’re taking the ref too much at face value and incorporating ugly lens distortions into their drawing. so I have to think extra hard not only about interpreting the ref, but also might have to make multiple passes just to get the hand to look normal, AND match the style of the rest of the drawing.

Anyway, here are some of the ““rules””” I mentioned earlier that I fall back on to help me figure out more complicated poses:

1. probably seen this before, but basic proportions. the palm is usually half the total height of the hand. obviously you can mess with this purposefully.

2. I think of joints as like, ball joints or hinges. I find that easier than trying to remember bones & muscles. here’s a drawing of the wrist as a hinge. note that when you’re thinking of it this way, it’s a shortcut, but a shortcut is only good if you use it with precision. notice the pin for the wrist hinge is not just halfway, it’s closer to the top of the hand. being precise about that is what allows this shortcut to work. the heel of the palm juts out, while the top of the hand transitions into the wrist quite smoothly.

3. simplified planes. planes are important yo. in super simple terms: top is flat, bottom is round. this works on the fingers too, actually. the tops are bony and tendony, and the bottom is where the fat is, so it’s rounder and soft

thinking of the hand as abstract shapes REALLY helps simplify the task of drawing hands, and is just as helpful even if you are drawing from reference. I can say “the palm is a box” and obviously the palm is not really as simple as a box, but if I think of the palm, wrist, and each finger joint as various shapes of box, then all of a sudden, psychologically, my task is SO much easier. I’m not drawing a Hand, which is hard, I’m drawing boxes, which is easy.

4. that prominent knob some people have on their wrist? that’s on the pinky side.

1. the knuckles aren’t really a flat row on top. the hand is like a cup right, so your palm can hold water and things. so we can think of the hand as a box to make figuring out the pose easier, but when it comes down to it, you’ll want to make it more of a curve. this curve is why you can see multiple fingers in a side view

2. when curled up, the fingers nestle together. the fingernails also turn slightly toward the center. even if I’m simplifying the hands significantly, I usually still draw the fingernails because they are SO useful for communicating the pose of the hand effectively.

3. lots of people suggest to think of the hand as a mitten, grouping the pinky/ring/middle fingers and singling out the index finger. this works great, the index finger is more independent from the other three. on the flip side, those three are really stuck together; if you’re drawing the pinky curled up all the way, then you better not draw the ring finger sticking straight up, cause that would HURT. anyway, singling out the index finger leads to more interesting poses in my experience.

1. this is another illustration of top = flat and bottom = curved. this is a really easy way to organize your line quality. straight lines and sharper angles where there is bone, and soft gentle lines where there is muscle and fat. your drawing as a whole will read very clearly if you find some guidelines like that to stick to, as it means all your lines are intentional and thoughtful.

2. this one’s about overlaps. when forms overlap, it makes a crease, and when you draw that crease you’re communicating which form is in front of the other. in the second drawing I reversed all the creases, and it looks.... messed up. think about how pieces connect.

so when you’re trying to make up a pose without using specific reference, I think it’s good to think about the.... flow of energy through the pose. honestly, I know it’s really abstract, but if I have an ability to make interesting poses that communicate weight and movement, the things that make people say your character feels ALIVE, like they really EXIST in a space... it’s because I started to think of poses this way. imagining streams of energy bouncing through the body, flowing down the limbs and out through the fingers. this is why hands are so important to me, cause they’re where the kinetic energy of the pose ultimately ends up. I talk about it when drawing the torso and arms and legs, but an interesting drawing has a bounce back and forth between opposites: for every curve, an opposing straight line, alternating back and forth down the entire body. if you’re sensitive to the energy of the pose, then even very simple poses will be interesting to look at.

anyway, with regards to hands, I imagine the energy getting sort of cinched in as it passes through the wrist, and then emanating out through the fingertips. I hope my drawing at least SORT of communicates this imagery. it makes sense because that’s BASically how the bones in the hand are anyway. and then the right side of the image above is just demonstrating some highly simplified gestures. see how the fingers fan out and curl in, rarely parallel to eachother. when you’re figuring out the pose, using a line to stand in for the row of knuckles is super valuable.

aaand finally, here’s two hands where I intentionally neglected correct anatomy and proportion because I felt it worked better for the style of the whole drawing. Left side: since this is a really simple and cartoonish style, I was thinking back to kids’ and shoujo manga I have read where the style was very solid and distinctive, but definitely NOT overly concerned with correct anatomy, or even really drawing hands, uh, “well” at all. to me, that sort of approach has a Look that I like to invoke sometimes, since for years I felt like I learned a bunch of anatomy and proportion and drawing from life actually in detriment to the liveliness and appealness of my drawings. this hand is mushy and makes very little sense, but it turned out as intended. Right side: sometimes I like to pretend fingers only have 2 bones in them, cause i am a Queen and i do what i want

and there you go. I hope that helped, like, at all? Look at real hands and photos of hands and hands in motion, but also look at drawn hands as well. find what you like, and work towards expressing that yourself. and remember the hand is part of the whole drawing. not only in the art style like I’d been talking about, but because the angle and placement of the hand is reflected in the angles of the arm, which in turn reflects on the angles of the shoulder, which affects the whole torso, etc etc etc. and the techniques you can use to understand and draw the rest of the body, works on hands too. as you improve everything else, your hands will improve as well.

DISCLAIMER: I whipped up these diagrams quickly, they’re not meant to be good drawings or accurate refs, just diagrams to illustrate my thought process lol

#god im long winded as usual #Anonymous

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lavender-lotion · 3 years

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Fanfic Writer Asks

I was tagged by @asarcasticwitch - thank you so much!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

737, which is an ugly number :(

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,890,054 words, which ... AH I might actually get to 2mil by the end of the year!

3) How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

thank you, ao3 dashboard for this handy list:

Teen Wolf (TV) (377)

X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies) (187)

Marvel Cinematic Universe (93)

Glee (29)

Young Justice (Cartoon) (11)

Kingsman (Movies) (9)

Original Work (9)

The Avengers (Marvel Movies) (8)

Criminal Minds (US TV) (7)

Thor (Movies) (6)

Deadpool (Movieverse) (5)

Weird City (TV) (5)

X-Men (Original Timeline Movies) (4)

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga) (4)

Ragnarok (TV 2020) (4)

Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) (3)

Teen Wolf (TV) RPF (3)

Iron Man (Movies) (3)

The House in the Cerulean Sea - T. J. Klune (2)

Venom (Marvel Movies) (1)

Stranger Things (TV 2016) (1)

Captain America (Movies) (1)

Fate: The Winx Saga (TV) (1)

Power Rangers Ninja Storm (1)

X-Men - All Media Types (1)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan (1)

Riverdale (TV 2017) (1)

X-Men Evolution (1)

Push (2009) (1)

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

With You, I Belong

Mates and Marriage Proposals

The Perceptions of You and I

(baby) maybe that matters more

Breathing You In

5) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

ughh so, fair warning, I have a lot of works. I definitely do not remember all of them, however I do have four works tagged as Unhappy Ending and then another nine works tagged Ambiguous/Open Ending, which is way more than I’d thought I had!

however, there is one fic that stands out in mind when I think about which of my works has the angstiest ending! Heed the tags :)

And Now?

Stiles Stilinski finds out who his soul mates are by setting one on fire.

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

ughhhhhhhh I truly do not know???

7) Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I don’t write many crossovers at all! I have some mcu/teen wolf cross overs, I have a teen wolf/glee cross over plotted (that i’ll probably never write), but my strangest is probably this teen wolf/x-men cross over!

what-ifs (don’t fuckin’ matter to no one)

Teen And Up Audiences | No Archive Warnings Apply | M/M | X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)Teen Wolf (TV) | Logan (X-Men)/Sheriff Stilinski | Logan (X-Men), Sheriff Stilinski, Stiles Stilinski | Memory Loss, Telepathy, Mentions of War, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Child Neglect, Grief/Mourning, Telepath Stiles Stilinski, Telekinetic Stiles Stilinski, Nightmares, Cuddling & Snuggling

There’s somethin’ there. Somethin’ that has him sleeping curled up on his side with a pillow tucked to his chest, somethin’ that has him splittin’ up his food ‘fore he eats ‘cause he don’t need as much as a baseline. Has him turnin’ to tell someone shit that ain’t there. There’s just...there’s just somethin’ there that’s missin’ and it shouldn’t be missin’.

8) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

sometimes! I don’t write a lot of smut because I actively dislike writing it, but the smut I do write is super super soft and sappy and full of emotions lol

9) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I respond to almost all of my comments! comments i won’t respond to: negative comments, unsolicited criticism, comments that aren’t relevant to the fic itself, comments simply asking for more

I love love love responding to comments! I love every single comment that I get and I want to show how much I appreciate getting them, and personally I think responding to comments is the only way to do that! everyone has different comment philosophies, but for me, if someone is taking the time to comment on my fic like I so badly want them to, I think it’s important to respond to show my appreciation!

10) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

aha YEAH I DO. this past weekend I actually got a number of shitty comments and had to file two ao3 abuse reports for harrasment (: I love it

I am no stranger to hate comments. I write copious amounts of age difference fic. I write copious amounts of incest. I am not going to apologize nor am I going to feel bad for enjoying either.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

ughhh I sure as heck hope not!

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I have a number of them :) I always always do my best to make sure it’s linked to the original fic, AND that I add a tag noting that there’s a translation!

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have made a few attempts! the only successful attempt is there's nothing i wouldn't do to make you feel my love which is a collaboration with @flightinflame, not quite a co-write!

14) What’s your all-time favorite ship?

I am unable to answer this lol I don’t have an all-time favourite. mutli-shipping forever.

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

god okay this is such a good question! imma ramble about a few so bear with me here! (i may have 700 posted works but I also have a few hundreds wips & ideas floating around in my gdrive, too)

gone & past - this is a starrish wip i’d started in 2017. I ended up deleting it from ao3 to rewrite it and never got there, but I have about 20k of content! I built my home, inside of you - thorki human au with college jock thor and high school dancer loki. i’ve got a start and nothing else Sheriff Stilinski Gets Some Sweet Sweet Lovin’ - massive wip where... well, the sheriff fucks his way through the entire pack. I want to write it but. trans allison au - this is an au where allison is trans and that changes the entire season 1 canon. it features stallison, petopher, and a looooooong ass outline that will never exist beyond my wips You Fill My Heart (With Such a Gentle Love) - this is a stetopher a/b/o au with pregnant omega stiles and alpha pair petopher falling in love. it started as a labour of love to someone I no longer have in my life. I have about 30k, a full outline, but idk. makes me sad to think about it they slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered - this is my big x-men first class rewrite that I honestly don’t think i’ll ever finish. I have a few thousand words, a full outline, but no love lost for cherik so. doubtful Physiotherapy (I'll Be Your Baby) - this was a fic I was SO excited about, and then it kinda flopped and stayed a wip because I didn’t have a plan or the motivation to finish it. it’s a winterspider human au with amputee bucky and science twink peter that I adore the premise of but who knows breathing you in chapter 2 - I have a massive second chapter planned for this fic but the first did so good so fast I am way too intimidated to write more in case everyone hates it lmao

there are more arjgoirjeg there are so many more but these are the bigger ones I can think of right now!

16) What are your writing strengths?

ughhhhh I hate answering this because I have, like, seriously bad imposter syndrome around my writing BUT I do think i’m able to weave poignant backstory into narration & i write strong, distinctive narrative voices!

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

literally I can’t write settings at all. I don’t know how people vividly describe settings but I absolutely cannot do that and it’s one of the reasons I haven’t delved into original fiction. I need to write the town my characters live in?? fuck that imma just use a location we’ve seen on screen & let readers fill in the blanks lmao

I am also shit at long fic. I don’t have the mind for long and interesting plots, and I don’t have the focus to write long fic (which is why every long fic i’ve ever posted has taken me literal years to complete smh).

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I like it! both as a reader and as a writer. as a writer, I generally only use a few words, or small sentences that can be understood by context, and I generally don’t

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

the last thing I wrote and posted was this one:

Languish

It was a really, really hot Saturday, and most of the school was outback, enjoying the sun, not caring about the heat, and having the time of their life.

Everyone but Bobby, of course, who was melting away.

“I just want to remind everyone that I make ice. I am the Ice Man. I am not built for the heat and soon enough I’m going to melt away into nothing.”

20) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

this is another impossible question! I have a few I really enjoy, but I really don’t think I have a favourite that stands out above the rest!

i’m tagging: @4magicandmayhem @insertmeaningfulusername @midrashic @wynnefic @ikeracity @stronglyobsessed @elledelajoie @wolfnprey & anyone else who sees it and wants to do it! seriously! go ahead :)

blank questions below the read more!

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

3) How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

7) Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

8) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

9) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

10) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

14) What’s your all-time favorite ship?

15) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

16) What are your writing strengths?

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

18) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

19) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

20) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

#lavenderlotion #my writing #writing tag #writing meme

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the-musical-cc · 3 years

Text

Either Clow lied to Yuuko's face or Eriol lied to Sakura's face and the memories left behind for her were lies too.

Or maybe a bit of both?. Bear with me. Basically, the problem is there are conflicting versions regarding Clow's 'Death' and his motivations for it between CCS and Tsubasa/Holic:

I've said it in previous rants, but Yuuko states in the Holic Kei CD drama that his death came as a surprise to her ('Even though red wine was your favorite, I couldn't make you have some- by then you were already gone, all of a sudden') which- you'd think maybe if he and Yuuko are like the big masterminds behind everything that's going on along with Fei Wang, he'd like.... let her know what he's going to do??? Specially since he knows (Either because he decided or just foresaw it) WHEN he was going to 'Die'?? Like he let Yue and Kero know in advance and all??? He definitely knew WHEN he was going to 'Die' and just decided not to tell her. So that's one thing.

Then, when her time starts moving again and she's disappearing, she's expecting to reunite with him ('To death... to where you are...') which kind of makes sense within a simplistic vision of 'He died' that she's seemingly subject to... except, we know Clow is not as much 'Dead' as 'Nonexistant' by then. As per CCS canon shown to us through a vision Sakura has, at the time where he was supposed to die, he split into two separate, living beings: Eriol, who has all of his memories and magic (And yet is still a different person as per his own statement.), and Fujitaka, who is a common human being. In other words, he can't meet her ever again because he isn't anywhere. But she doesn't seem to know this.

(You could argue that he didn't as much lie to her as deliberately with-held information- an you'd have a point, but it's still a pretty shitty thing to do to the woman you're already leaving with a shit-ton of problems to solve in your stead, specially if she's under the impression that the two of you will eventually meet again when she's done playing her role cleaning after your mess.)

Not sure why Eriol didn't like- drop by and explain things to her but perhaps he didn't want to pain her further by letting her know Clow didn't exist anymore? And instead he left her with an empty promise. Charming. (To be fair, he's not Clow anymore, so technically this wasn't his business anymore, but like- he's just not gonna say anything because he's technically someone else? Bruh.)

Then there's the matter of Clow having spent some time (At least a good five years) as the king of Clow Country. By TRC's account, this would have happened after he told Yue and Kero that he was going to die- an here's where another contradiction enters because, as I've already stated, Sakura Kinomoto SAW the moment where he split into two happen. So we're left with- he either was lying to Sakura in her vision regarding WHEN his 'Death' happened (In reality it happened years into Yue and Kero being asleep and not on that same day.) OR he lied to Yuuko and was coming and going from Clow country for years, even as they were still making the Mokonas and later when they were sharing custody of them, making his final moment with Yue and Kero completely true.

(In the case Sakura summoned that vision by herself without his participation, this would make it the truth and mean he definitely lied to Yuuko.)

The only other options are: 1- Because time flows differently in each dimension, he managed to live a handful of years in Clow Country and then go back to his world to 'Die' within the same day. Or 2- Because logic was already collapsing, the timelines are not really meant to add up in any way that makes sense... which just sucks for the reader because everything else can more-or-less be explained in a satisfactory way, even if it's one that includes time paradoxes. This just feels lazy.

Now, timing aside, the contradictions between Sakura's account of his 'Death' and what Yuuko thinks it to be leave us with another matter: Either he, once more, lied to Sakura in that vision he left behind for her OR he lied to Yuuko, making her think he was going to come back to visit still when in reality he was going to 'Die' and THEN making her think he was dead and in the world of the dead when in reality Clow is completely gone and what's left of him is still among the living.

(Once more, Even in the case Sakura summoned that vision by herself without his participation, it'd only mean he definitely lied to Yuuko.)

Then, Eriol reveals that when Clow split himself in two, his wish was to 'Not be the most powerful magician in the world anymore', and the motivation behind this, he says, is that the knowledge of the future was too painful a burden for him. Meanwhile, Tsubasa establishes that the reason he begun to hate his power and his status as the world's most powerful magician was his accidental wish. So what is the truth?

Look, I know, OK? I know CCS predates Tsubasa and Holic and it's possible CLAMP hadn't really planned on explanding the Clow lore like that, but the matter still stands that these conflicting statements make Eriol look like a liar.

(UNLESS, an this is something I for whatever reason had stored in my memory as canon but I don't know WHERE I got it because it's nowhere in the manga and I don't think it's in the anime either, though it's been a good ten years since my last full rewatch... unless Eriol has lost all the memories of Clow's life and therefore completely forgotten about Yuuko. Which would make him an unreliable narrator more than a liar, but certainly adds insult to injury where Clow's treatment of her regards.)

Finally, there's the matter of Clear Card's current problem being that Sakura is growing too powerful to control her magic- which, Tomoyo HAD pointed out it sounded like it could happen when Eriol revealed he was wrecking shit up to help her become more powerful so that she could help him give half of his magic to Fujtaka at the end of CCS. What did the creepy little ferret say back then? 'Nah, we're good, she can handle it'. So, that was a lie. It's specially bad when you realize it's also stated that Touya is recovering his powers little by little- meaning their magic grows with time. Meaning there was no way Sakura's power wasn't going to grow enough to start being a problem eventually.

Again, Clear Card is a new work and CLAMP probably didn't plan on expanding CCS when they finished the original manga, but the fact that all of this happened despite Eriol straight out telling them it wouldn't makes him look like either an idiot or a liar, and one that threw Sakura under the bus to save himself. I have a feeling a lot of things in Clear Card are going to get reversed conveniently because the wand Sakura Kinomoto hands to her adult!clone self in Tsubasa is still the star one (which doesn't exist anymore in Clear Card), but right now as per April 2021, Eriol is not looking great.

Of course, it's always possible this is just CLAMP not quite fact-checking themselves as well as they could before referencing their other works in the newer ones or something like that but if I'm right... we just added another layer of fucked-up to Clow's character.

#CLAMP #xxxHoLic #CCS #tsubasa reservoir chronicle #Clow Reed #srsly this is another one of the reasons I have such a strained relationship with Clow x Yuuko #It just seems o me like she continuously got the short end of the stick whenever it involved him #cc rants

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