“We have to be back in three hours," Ronan said. "I just fed Chainsaw but she'll need it again." "This," Gansey replied "is precisely why I didn't want to have a baby with you.”
by norhuu on tumblr Ah, The Raven Cycle. A Young Adult series, four books in total, that are much beloved, if not as widely read. Here on Fantasy, there is not nearly as much love for the YA 'genre' (it's not a genre, it's a marketing thing, but that's another post). People consider them immature and filled with dumb tropes. I blame Twilight and the rise of Twilight-readalikes on that. Everyone expects a bland love triangle, copious amounts of angst, a perfect heroine, and teenagers with way too much emotional maturity. The Raven Cycle has some of those things. It subverts others. And it's excellent. For this spotlight, I will focus on a few things. YA Tropes, The Characters, The Relationships, the Prose, The Themes, and The Magic. BUT FIRST. What is this series? A series of four books (The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily Lily Blue, and The Raven King), published 2012-2016, by Virginian author Maggie Stiefvater. The author wrote this wonderfully little blurb that she was not allowed to use:
A host of co-dependent teens with a battery of psychological issues comb rural Virginia for a dead Welsh king with dubious magical powers. Trees talk; hitmen put down roots; dead people live; living people die. Cars are described in loving detail. Fuckweasel. A house full of psychics tells everybody the future and drinks a lot on-page considering it's a young adult series. Nobody kisses anybody, which is weird because everybody loves everybody. There's rich boys! Poor boys! Sad boys! Angry boys! Raven boys! Collect them all!
(Source: her since deleted tumblr). If you read the back of the first book, the blurb will not give you a good sense of this book. It talks way too much about kissing and pretty boys, when really this is a book about not kissing and very sad boys.
YA Tropes in The Raven Cycle
Ok first. The YA tropes.
Love triangles. Yes, this book has a love triangle. It ends in the second book and the entire time it feels... real. It's not a "I can't choose between two boys", but a "I refuse to let fate dictate my life and therefore I choose this boy" (but fate is still going to win). You go in knowing who the main character will end up with. Both relationships are extremely well down and nuanced. Blue and Adam fit together due to their class. Of the group, they are the poor ones and that feels more natural to them. Plus, Adam is kind when Gansey is a dick at first. When they break up, it's upsetting but not angsty.
Angst. This book has a lot of angst. The main characters all have a lot of reason to be angsty. Whether it's because their dad just died or because they are living in a trailer and going to a school with uber wealthy peers. Or they are dead. Or they were dead and now are alive again.
A perfect heroine. Blue is the perfect imperfect heroine. She's quirky and weird, but not in the Bella Swan way (where she's clumsy but it's cute! How quirky!) She wears weird clothes. She does her own hair. Her family are psychics. She's also bitchy, angry, and yearning for something more in life than what her lot dictates.
Emotional maturity. These characters are pretentious as well. Or at least Gansey is, but that's part of his character. The rest... they've got some emotional maturity. At times. And other times they slam the door on their friends and ruin relationships. They are teens, after all.
The Characters
Blue Sargent. She's not a psychic, even though every other woman in her family is. Her lack of magic leads her wanting. Her character development can be summed up by her desire for something more. I'm 26. I turn 27 this year. I still yearn for something more, that nebulous quest for your life to have meaning, for something greater than yourself. And unlike a lot of YA heroines, Blue knows she won't find it in a boy. In fact, she is extremely against the idea of finding her something more in a boy.
Richard Campbell Gansey III,orDick. His mother is running for congress. His family is rich. Like casually using a helicopter rich. Gansey, as he is usually called, is also on a quest. This is a very typical fantasy quest, despite the book taking place in modern day Virginia. He is searching for Owain Glendower, a dead Welsh king who just may be able to grant him a wish, should he be found. Like all the characters, Gansey is complicated. He's a confident, shining young man, absolutely perfect, but hides deep insecurities and frustrations at himself. See the comic linked at the bottom.
Adam Parrish. Strange, strange Adam Parrish. Unlike Gansey, Parrish is dirt poor. He lives in a trailer and works two jobs in order to afford to go to the same school (even though he has a scholarship). All he does is work, school, and go home to an extremely unhealthy home environment. Gansey gave him purpose, but as the story continues, he grows into his own man, into The Magician. A beautiful thing about this character is his relationship with autonomy. It's a driving force for him, to be able to do things on his own. This quote sums it up just wonderfully. Having autonomy when you are too poor to afford autonomy is a heart breaking thing.
Ronan Lynch. Fan favorite and a bit of an author insert. Ronan is the bad boy of the group. He has a back tattoo that he got as a fuck you to his brother. He shaves his head, doesn't do his school work, and would 100% beat up a child for looking at him weird. Too much of his story is a major spoiler, so I recommend ignoring his faults in the first book. They make sense later. But I can say this: Ronan is a character who hates himself. He hates everything about himself, and seeing him learning to get over that is just beautiful. Also he does get a pet raven that he names Chainsaw, so already he’s a perfect character.
Noah. This cinnamon roll punk is also too far behind a wall of spoilers to talk about well, but I can say that he made me cry like 7 times in the series and is so well developed and strange, but just can't say hardly anything, dangit. But he's soft, or he has learned how to be.
The Relationships
I don't just mean the shipping (even though that is great). It's seeing 'the raven boys' together, complicated friends. It's seeing Blue become friends with them, fall in love with them.
“In that moment, Blue was a little in love with all of them. Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness. Her raven boys.”
When she wrote this series, Maggie Stiefvater had a sticky note at her desk that she kept referring to. It was the core of the series. It read "The worst possible thing would be for them to stop being friends." These characters are complicated, but they love each other. They feed off each other in different ways, stoke different parts of themselves. And they fight. They disappoint each other. But they are always friends. The relationships with other characters is also remarkably well down. Blue lives with her mother and a bunch of other psychic women and each relationship is beautifully done. Ronan's relationship with his now deceased father and his two brothers is meticulously done. And yes, the romance is great. It's believable. It's kind. There is a wonderful chapter in the last book, one that I think is written beautiful - it feels like you are really at a toga party with new friends - where two of the main characters let their guards down and address their feelings. But nothing is said outright. There is no "I love you" statements. Just tender motions, forlorn words.
The Prose
It’s YA, but I love how Stiefvater writes. I’ll talk about the chapter I mentioned in the above segment. In it, Blue and Gansey go to a toga party hosted by a new character, Henry (who deserves his own post honestly). Every paragraph starts the same, creating this dizzying affect of what the party is like. Here’s the beginning of it:
The toga party was not terrible at all. It was, in fact, wonderful. It was this: finding the Vancouver crowd all lounged on sheet-covered furniture in a sitting room, all dressed in sheets themselves, everything black and white, black hair, white teeth, black shadows, white skin, black floor, white cotton. They were people Gansey knew: Henry, Cheng2, Ryang, Lee-Squared, Koh, Rutherford, SickSteve. But here, they were driven. At school, they were driven, quiet, invisible, model students, Aglionby Academy’s 11-percent-of-out-student-body-is-diverse-click-the-link-to-find-out-more-about-our-overseas-exchange-programs. Here, they slouched. They could not afford to slouch at school. Here, they were angry. story could not afford to be angry at school. Here, they were loud. They did not trust themselves to be loud at school. It was this: Blue, teetering on the edge of offense, saying I don’t understand why you keep saying such awful things about Koreans. About yourself. And Henry saying, I will do it before anyone else can. It is the only way to not be angry all of the time. And suddenly Blue was friends with the Vancouver boys. It seemed impossible that they accepted her just like that and that she shed her prickly skin just as fast but there it was: Gansey saw the moment that it happened. On paper, she was nothing like them. In practice, she was everything like them. The Vancouver crowd wasn’t like the rest of the world, and that was how they wanted it. Hungry eyes, hungry smiles, hungry futures. It was this: Koh demonstrating how to make a toga of a bedsheet and sending Blue and Gansey into a cluttered bedroom to change. It was Gansey politely turning his back as she undressed and then Blue turning hers —maybe turning hers. It was Blue’s shoulder and her collarbone and her legs and her throat and her laugh her laugh her laugh. He couldn’t stop looking at her, and here, it didn’t matter, because no one cared that they were together. Here, he could play his fingers over her fingers as they stood, she could lean her cheek on his bare shoulder, he could hook his ankle playfully in hers, she could catch herself with an arm around his waist. Here he was unbelievably greedy for that laugh. It was this: K-pop and opera and hip-hop and eighties power ballads blaring out of a speaker beside Henry’s computer. It was Cheng2 getting impossibly high and talking about his plan to improve economics in the southern states. It was Henry getting drunk but not loud and allowing Ryang to trick him into a game of pool played on the floor with lacrosse sticks and golf balls. It was SickSteve putting movies on the projector with the sound turned down to allow for improved voice-overs.
Ok I could write out the whole dang chapter. In my opinion, it’s beautiful. Each line says many beautiful things about the characters - even the ones who don’t matter in the story. And the use of “It was this” in each chapter creates a dizzying affect where time isn’t real, but each moment is. There is another aspect of this book that is so well done. Mild, mild spoilers, but something odd happens with time in the last book. Something happens at 6:21. And for about half the book, the characters will look at the clock and it will say 6:21. No, it was 8:30. It happens randomly and you don’t know why. The characters don’t even realize it’s happening. This creates a tremendous suspense without anything actually happening and I just love it. Not every line in the series is perfect and beautiful, but many of them. I even have a tattoo of my favorite line: Dream me the world.
The Themes
Some of the themes are very YA in nature - finding yourself, for example - but Stiefvater addressed them in a nuanced way. Mostly, she adds class and socio-economic status into the equation. The main character, Gansey, is so rich that he can dick around and look for a dead Welsh king while Blue and Adan are constantly worrying about money. Not just having the money to accomplish their dreams, but the money to *attempt* their dreams. This book addresses relationships - with your family, with friends, and most of all with yourself. Mental health, death, time. Just some of the subjects that this casual YA book deals with.
The Magic
This book takes place in a small town in modern day Virginia. It isn’t an epic fantasy, it is barely even urban fantasy. The magic is small and mundane, especially at first. There are psychics who can see the dead and read the future in tarot cards. There are ghosts and not-dead magicians and strange caves that hold old, old secrets. There are ancient eldritch horrors and demons, and rich suburban women who might as well be called Karen and are just as scary as the aforementioned horrors. But there are two kinds of magic in this book that mean everything to me. The magic of trees, and the magic of dreams. Both of these are just a little too nebulous to fully go into, but it's amazing. And the trees talk.
Other Reasons to Read This Series
Arbores Loqui Latine. The Trees Speak Latin
Bees
Disaster bisexual
HUGE disaster gay
Boys who learn to drink "respect women juice"
A lot of bees
Tarot card imagery
There's a raven named Chainsaw and she is sort of a dick.
A guy gets kidnapped while in nothing but booty shorts and a Madonna t-shirt. #goals
A robo-bee!
Expressing your love by giving your crush hand lotion
The author is absolutely hilarious on twitter. I highly recommend.
There are a lot of bees in this series. It should be called The Bee Cycle.
plants
there's a lot of car stuff too. i'm not into cars, but if you are, then boy howdy you'll like this book
the author also writes and performs her own music for her series? her soundcloud
Expanding on a controversial theory and why I think it's possible
Disclaimer: I'm not on Eren's side, and I think that what he's doing is completely wrong and he deserves to die for his actions. This is important to say because to some of you it might make what I'm about to say more credible. I've been talking to my friend about these leaks and we're getting more and more confident that Eren is remote controlling his titan from the island. At first I brought this theory up to my friend because I thought it was just funny coping from people who want Eren to win, but I think it's very in-line, and quite likely. TL;DR of the theory before I explaining my reasoning: Eren is remote controlling the giant titan using the warhammer's ability, and he's still on Paradis. Also, Zeke being killed means that the beast titan will be inherited to a newborn Eldian baby; coincidentally, Historia is having birth, so the beast is transferred to the baby, creating another royal blooded Titan. Eren holds the baby causing the rumbling to resume. There's a few reasons:
Yelena and Zeke in 137
Yelena was depicted as a follower of Zeke with religious, cultlike worship to him. She even had the most terrifying panel in the series. But what has Yelena actually done to warrant such a scary characterization? Not much. She told us that Eren was going to Fort Salta and then just left the story. For months I've thought this was incredibly strange. But with this theory I think I've figured it out. If I'm correct, Yelena will return next chapter to explain to Kiyomi how Eren isn't inside of his titan, to Kiyomi's horror. But why would Yelena lie? Well, I think this chapter gave us our answer. Zeke was complacent in the rumbling, even though it obviously wasn't his goal. We learn this chapter that Eren still needs a royal blooded titan to control the rumbling. I think that Yelena was aware of this fact. In fact, I believe that to her, the rumbling still continuing was, in her mind, a direct message from Zeke that this is what he wants to happen. This would explain why she was, as Levi said, so willing to provide answers as to where Eren was going.
The Warhammer's cable ability has been unused
This is the biggest one imo. I was watching an anime-only video on youtube, he was sharing his predictions and he was talking about how pretty much everything that's introduced in this story gets introduced for a reason. To paraphrase what he said "there must be some reason Eren needed the Warhammer's abilities for what's to come". I watched this a few days ago and I was like, yeah he needs the Warhammer to fight against Reiner in Shiganshina and to escape his prison cell. But I've thought about it more. Really? Is that it? Why would such a specific power like "remote controlled titans" be introduced but then never brought up again? I think there's a very good chance that this ability is going to come into play (even if this theory isn't correct).
Why is Eren even using a giant titan?
Strategically, there's no benefit to him being there. It makes him a giant moving target. It is however, a perfect distraction to get everyone away from his true location.
The baby inheritance has been unused
We learned a while ago that if a holder of titan powers dies, their powers are transferred to a newborn/unborn baby. This chapter marks the first time we have ever seen a titan shifter die without being eaten, which is very interesting to me. Why was this rule established if we would never see it happen? Is this just a lore detail or is it a chekhov's gun?
A final plot twist
Even if this isn't correct, there's surely going to be at least one more plot twist or major reveal. This satisfies that condition.
The Mist
The biggest criticism of this theory I've seen is that it undermines Eren's character. After all, a large part of why he chose to do the rumbling was to protect Historia and her children, so that they wouldn't have to continue the cycle of inheritance. But to that I'd like to bring up a quote from Isayama in his "Mist ending" interview: “By the middle of the film, the story of The Mist is at the typical level of a B-list movie. But at its conclusion, it used the main character’s deep, intrinsic beliefs of what’s right to corrupt the main character himself, leading him to act in contrary ways." What if Eren has, ironically, in a desperate attempt to protect Historia, done the exact thing that contradicts his beliefs? In the end, he has to use the very child he wanted to protect as the means for destroying the world. That being said, I do think that after the rumbling is completed, Eren will find a way (asking Ymir or some other way) to eliminate Titan powers from the world, leading to the baby becoming free, which could explain the last panel. Only somewhat related, but I think that if this happens Eren will choose to spare Fort Salta and his friends. I think theres an almost 0% chance that he's going to kill all of his friends. I don't necessarily think this theory will come true, but within the setup we've been given it's absolutely possible. Edit: Some more stuff I thought of, Eren's body isn't connected to his head. Is his "nape" considered to be part of the spine that flew out of his body? Or could his nape still be on his actual body in Shiganshina? Someone else pointed out that consciousness transfer was introduced in RTS. Why? It was never reused and seemed really stupid. Could it be that Eren transferred his consciousness to his body?
I saw a post by u/jinsmangoricbe saying how they'd love a master thread of idols being supportive of LGBTQ+ and I felt super compelled to do it so here it is! Of course this won't be a comprehensive list with every single idol ever but I will try my best to list down as many as possible. I will go through the groups I know from A-Z and try to include groups I'm not familiar with as well. I just want to apologize in advance to the fandoms cause I will probably miss a L O T of stuff so feel free to comment whatever I didn't include! I'll edit the post and add them to the list since I want this to be a master thread after all. Also I apologize if I can't find the source for all of them. Some are just things I remember seeing a while back but I'll try my best to include links/sources as much as possible!
MALE IDOLS
ASTRO
During a VLive with Moonbin and Eunwoo, a fan said "Oppa congratulate me, I finally became a couple!" and Moonbin replied with "Congratulations, I don't know if the person is a girl or boy but please turn them into an Aroha!"
Moonbin played a gay character in the drama Moment at Eighteen
MJ played the role of a 17-year old who dreams of becoming a drag queen in the musical Jamie (the other members went to his first show and supported him)
ATEEZ
A fan asked if Hongjoong was aware that he has a lot of LGBT fans to which he replied he's thankful and that he gets a lot of inspiration from them
A fan asked Yunho what hair colour he'd like to try next to which he replied rainbow. The fan told him about it's relation to LGBT and he replied with "love is love, doesn't matter who it is with as long as you're happy"
During a fanmeet, a male fan told Wooyoung that he confessed to a guy he likes (he didn't respond) and Wooyoung told him not to give up
BTOB
In BTOB4U's Show Your Love MV, Eunkwang portrays a gay character from the movie Kill Your Darlings
BTS
“I want to hear your conviction. No matter where you’re from, skin, colour, gender identity, just speak for yourself. Find your name and find your voice.” - RM in his speech at UN
RM collaborated with Lil Nas X for Old Town Road who is openly gay
RM said he liked the song Same Love by Macklemore twice as much after finding out it was a LGBT anthem in an interview
In the same interview Suga said all love is equal
They decided that BT21, the characters they came up with to represent them, would be non-binary
V said Call Me By Your Name is one of his favorite movie and quoted it several times.
Jungkook said he would be honored to collab with Troye Sivan and covered several of his songs
Troye Sivan has collaborated with BTS in their latest album 'Map of the Soul: 7' with songwriting credits for the BTS song Louder than Bombs.
Cravity
Taeyoung reacted positively to a fan who told him that the colour of his hair highlight looked like the LGBT rainbow which brought the fan and other LGBT fans comfort although he said it wasn't intentional
Cross Gene
Terada Takuya played the lead role in a gay drama called The Lover, which was inspired by a shōunen-ai (boy love) manga
When questioned if he was gay in an interview after he started in The Lover, he said that he wasn't; but he believed that there was no reason why the role he portrayed didn't reflect a beautiful kind of love, and that he thinks love has many forms which the other members agreed with
He also played the role of a character in love with another character with gender dysphoria in Kataomoi Spiral (Unrequited Spiral)
Yongseok replied "why not a boyfriend" when asked about his ideal type in a girlfriend
On the behind the scenes of After School Club he also said that gay fans are welcome to their fandom
Day6
Jae telling LGBT fans that they should be themselves and that's beautiful
Jae replied to mxmtoon's tweet about her coming out story on National Coming Out Day with the word "Respect"
Day6 have a whole music video trilogy featuring Wonpil's character having a secret crush on his best friend, Sungjin
Eric Nam
He was asked to dress up like Hong Suk Chun for an SNL skit but he refused as he didn't want to make fun of LGBT people (he also refused to dress up like Gandhi for this skit!)
EXO
Suho congratulated a female fan who told him she was getting married to her girlfriend
Some members had to watch a scene and think of what could happen after, and Suho thought about a gay plot twist for the 2 male leads
He was supportive when a fan said that she would be moving to Canada to get married to her girlfriend
D.O has watched/recommended various films with LGBT themes such as Priscilla, Hedwig and The Angry Inch, The Handmaiden, Dallas Buyers Club, Another Country, Close-knit
Kai attended and represented an exibition celebrating the LGBT+ community in South Korea, called "No Space, Just a Place"
Chanyeol has said he doesn't think love is only between a man and a woman
Baekhyun's Young MV (ft. Loco) at 1:36 there's a part that includes the LGBT+ flag in the background
GDragon
Has a tattoo of artwork by Keith Haring, an openly gay artist who's artwork constantly has LGBT and safe sex themes
GOT7
JB is friends with MRSHLL, an openly gay South Korean artist
Jackson and JB are both friends with Hong Suk Cheon back in their rookie days when he was the only openly gay celebrity in Korea and even posted a picture of them having a meal together
Mark's sister is openly gay and married to her significant other
Heechul
He explained the reason why he doesn't want to vehemently deny gay rumours because it could be disrespectful to LGBT people
Openly supported the same-sex marriage of film director Kim Jho Kwang-soo
Hoya
Played a gay character in Answer Me 1997 and responded to backlash with support to the community and says he has no prejudice against them
Jo Kwon
In response to the backlash he got for his crossdressing performances on Golden Tambourine, he posted "don't be a drag, just be a queen" on Twitter and proceeded to perform Born This Way in drag on the show as retaliation
When he got backlash for posting a picture with Hong Suk Cheon on his Instagram, he replied with "There are people who look this way, that way, with this kind of personality and that personality, this kind of preference and that kind of preference. They all deserve to be loved. I hope you learn to respect others first."
Defended himself and the LGBT community from the backlash he received playing the role of a drag queen for the musical Priscilla (he also played the role of Jamie alongside MJ and Ren)
He has made Instragram posts supporting Pride like this one
He recommended the film Prayers for Bobby which is a film about how a devout Christian mother drives her son to suicide from her trying to "cure" her son's homosexuality
Jonghyun
He changed his profile picture to the protest sign of a bisexual trans woman and sent a heartfelt private message as support. This caused a large group of people to flood their fansite with hate.
Jonghyun and Taemin got backlash for their performance of Internet War for being "too homoerotic". In response, Jonghyun changed his profile picture to one from the performance
Key
Key covered Alejandro and did not change the pronouns in the song.
Monsta X
Wonho saying his ideal type is anyone who can cook ramen well, doesn't matter the gender
Wonho and Jooheon responded thoughtfully to a fan who shared their concerns regarding lack of parental acceptance due to their sexuality
Jooheon saying "no matter where you come from or who you love, I love each and everyone of you the same"at their concert in LA
They are against gender norms and preconceived notions of how men or women should be/act
NCT
Ten's supportive message for LGBT fans "I want you to be yourself. We are the same, we are all humans so love yourself. Don't try to change yourself, just be you and that's enough."
When a fan asked for advice on their crush, Yuta asked whether it was between a boy and a girl to which Doyoung replied "I'm not sure, could be boyxgirl, boyxboy or girlxgirl"
On a TV show, Yuta expressed concern for transgender people getting bullied in Thailand
N.Flying
Hweseung was in his second musical recently and added themes of homosexuality to his character though it wasn’t required in the script or by the director
Hweseung and Dongsung both watched The Umbrella Academy together and have gone out of their way to promote it at least twice, citing the characters as part of why they loved it
The whole band is obsessed with Bohemian Rhapsody and Freddie Mercury in general
Hweseung pretty much only consumes media with LGBT+ representation (with the exception of anime) and is very open about that fact
Hweseung has said his favorite musical is Kinky Boots and he wants to be in it one day
Cha Hun created a doll that he purposefully made gender neutral so that everyone could be included despite the ship he based the doll off of being straight
Seunghyub, the group’s leader who’s been handling their music (musically and lyrically) since early 2019 makes sure to make most of his love songs gender neutral
NU'EST
Ren played the role of a 17-year old who dreams of becoming a drag queen in the musical Jamie
Kino and Wooseok co-wrote and co-composed the song Always Difficult, Always Beautiful based on a episode of Black Mirror called San Junipero which centers around a lesbian couple
A fan asked Seventeen if they had any words for their LGBT fans to which Vernon said they were thankful for their support and "I hope we can make a better place together for everybody. For all equal rights."
Vernon recommended the film Moonlight, a movie that depicts a gay relationship, to fans
Naeun portrayed a character in love with a female friend in Empty Words MV
Blackpink
A female fan gave Rosé a stuffed animal that her gf gave her on their first date. Rosé said "Aw that's cute" after the fan pointed out her gf in the crowd and asked if the fan wanted to keep it since it was a meaningful gift
Jisoo recommended the book "A Prince Of Salt" to fans who asked what she was reading recently on a VLive. The book revolves around the relationship between two women.
BoA
Performed at 2009 San Francisco Pride Festival
Brown Eyed Girls
In the Wonder Woman music video, the popular Neon Milk Drag Queens make an appearance
Gain performed at a pride party
CL
In an ELLE interview, she acknowledged her large LGBT fanbase and said she loves them, also mentioning drag queens and how she has friends in the LGBT community
Posted in support when Taiwan became the first Asian country to legalize gay marriage
Dreamcatcher
A Brazilian fan asked JiU and Yoohyeon if they supported all kinds of love and they replied "Of course, why wouldn't we?"
Another Brazilian fan asked SuA to marry her and when she said "but I'm a girl" SuA replied with "love wins"
When asked her ideal type, Yoohyeon responded with "hard-working people". When the interviewer said "hear that? Yoohyeon likes hardworkingmen*"* she corrected them and said "I like hardworkingpeople."
EXID
LE is well known to frequent gay bars as she has many LGBT friends, her trans friend once posted a video of her dancing to I Love You at one
Sakura wrote a review of the Japanese movie Close-knit which features LGBT themes where she said "When it comes to falling in love, between who and who should it take place? Is the right answer male and female? For human emotions, there is no right or wrong answer. Love between men, love between women, it’s fine that they exist. And in my opinion, Japan needs to deepen its understanding of homosexuality"
IU
Openly displayed her close friendship with Hong Suk Cheon despite getting backlash
Loona
In an interview they said they said they were thankful that New and Heart Attack were interpreted in an LGBT light and that they want to go beyond gender, race, and nationality when it comes to their fans
Yves told a fan that they're very grateful to their LGBTQ+ fans and that they don't see any reason why they shouldn't talk about it, because we're all people who deserve respect and acknowledgement
Lunarsolar
ESEO has said "All beings should be loved and respected" in response to a fan asking her to give advice to LGBT fans
She has also said"I think there is no correct answer for appearance, style, or taste. I want you to be the person who loves yourself as you are. Don't forget that you're all precious. I support you as you are, and love you" in response to fans discussing their sexuality
She replied to another fan said she was confused about her sexuality with "No matter what you say, I don't feel uncomfortable and I respect you. I love you."
In response to a fan that said "I don't know if I like boys or girls, you still love me right?"ESEO responded with "Of course, how can I not love you? That can't be a reason for me. Everyone's different. You can trust your heart, I still love you."
In response to a fan that said she was coming out to her parents as a lesbian, Yuuri responded with "Be brave and do your best, I support you. I hope you cheer up. I hope you can laugh!"
Jian responded to the same fan with "Don't be afraid! It's natural and it's not your fault. I hope everything goes well!"
ESEO responded to the same fan with "You didn't do anything wrong. Everything's gonna be fine. I want you to believe in yourself. I wish you good luck."
Mamamoo
Moonbyul often posts supportive messages on their fancafe during National Coming Out Day
Here is a picture of them with Harisu, the first transgender entertainer in Korea
In the HIP music video Solar had a scene with well-known drag queens Nana Kim and Bambi from Neon Milk who have a YouTube channel that Solar watches
They performed with a genderfluid dance group called Pinky Cheeks for MMA 2016
Mamamoo are very supportive of and often are seen wearing pins that represent their official queer fanbase Rainbowmoos who are often raising funds and donating to lgbt related issues
Red Velvet
Wendy and Seulgi loved the traffic lights they saw in Vienna depicting couples, some of which depicted a lesbian couple. "It aims to decrease prejudice against gender and disability, and respect diversity. That’s why they installed traffic lights like that." - Wendy about the lights
Yeri is very close friends with openly gay idol Holland
Sunmi
She straight up tweeted that she's 100% a LGBT ally
Said that SNSD could be the ideal type for both men and women
Tiffany
Wrote an open letter for Billboard talking about how LGBTQ+ themes of acceptance, freedom of expression, and hope have inspired and uplifted her during difficult times and how she has love for the community
TWICE
TWICE Chaeyoung enjoyed the movie Carol which is about a relationship between two women and recommended it to fans asking them to "watch it with an open mind" and "love is love"
Sana and Momo agreed with the statement "love is not only the love between men and women right?"
Twice performed Born This Way and kept the lyrics "No matter gay, straight, or bi, Lesbian, transgendered life, I'm on the right track baby, I was born to survive."
WEKI MEKI
Lua has posted "Love has no boundaries" on her Instagram in response to a fan that said "I love you a lot but I am a girl"
Yoojung has said gender doesn't matter to her when it comes to dating
Doyeon recommended A Portrait Of A Lady On Fire to her followers, a film centered around a wlw storyline
WJSN
Dawon covered Youth by Troye Sivan, an openly gay artist.
Black Conscious Classics Rate (D'angelo/Solange/Kendrick Lamar)
Hello Popheads It’s currently February, which means It’s Black History Month … and what better way to celebrate it than to dive into three amazing albums. So sit back, take your mask off, and grab a nice cold Pepsi while I pass it off to my incredible Co-Host u/plvstvcbvrds to get us started In the Black community, it is a well-known tradition to clean one's entire house on a Saturday. Sweeping, mopping, wiping down the baseboards, opening up windows and letting in a breeze past yellowing lace curtains. Over the Texas hills and into perfumed houses with plastic covered furniture, hair greased with Blue Magic, and crumbling concrete steps for Sunday pictures. This rate is for three of the most Blackity Black Black albums to ever Black. These are albums that reshaped genres, created impressive, spectacular imagery and audio, and that will go on to define and inform generations of politics and art. Kendrick, D'angelo, & Ms. Knowles are all important figures in Black culture, and right now we get to celebrate and enjoy that. Break out the card tables and your best deck, y'all. Cultural Context So before we jump into the albums, seeing as these albums are so intertwined with themes of blackness and black culture, there are various articles linked throughout the album blurbs that add context and information to a few of the topics here. They are of course not required in order to do the rate but they do add some context that I think would be beneficial to be aware of going in if you aren't all that familiar with Black (American) Culture Black Messiah - D’angelo D'angelo's Black Messiah album was released in 2014. It is his third studio album. It won Best R&B album at the 58th Scammy Awards. But this was his first studio album in 14 years, and came as a bit of a shock. He would guest star, but we hadn't seen new music from him in over a decade. What D'angelo had been doing instead was building networks of artists. He was guesting on other people's albums. He taught himself to play the guitar and worked on perfecting his craft, and then when he was ready, this album happened. And a "a slow-simmering gumbo finally boiled over", it was (Jenkins, 2014). This is an explosion of soul, flavor, spirituality, and Blackness. It's creative, it's full of love and culture and care. On songs like 'Sugah Daddy', he's playful, funky, and downright vulgar in his lyricism ("Can't snatch the meat out of the lioness mouth Sometimes you gotta just ease it out"), but he always makes sure to pull back and let the instrumental breathe in jazz tradition. The entire album is an experiment in Black musicality and joy. Tracklist 1.Ain't That Easy 2.1000 Deaths 3.The Charade 4.Sugah Daddy 5.Really Love (Ft. Gina Figueroa) 6.Back to the Future, Pt. 1 7.Till It's Done (Tutu) 8.Prayer 9.Betray My Heart 10.The Door 11.Back to the Future (Part II) 12.Another Life A Seat At The Table - Solange To pull the curtain back a bit, when Solange released this album, it was right before the election of That Man. But the writing was on the wall. I lived in the deep South at the time, and I was scared for my life. All of these uprisings had been happening, but Black people were still being brutalized and murdered in the streets. All for wanting to have life, and liberty, and the freedom to exist without fear. Leading up to the election, Black people were terrified of the future. When this album dropped, it was like a community balm. Each song a hymn, a blessing, a mutual understanding, an act of care. Solange Knowles travelled the world, but she always came back to be inspired by New Orleans and Houston. The album explores themes around Blackness and Black bodies. She talks about anger and frustration, exhaustion, and even the politics of hair and bodies and touch. And she didn't do it for a white audience, even if they listen to her music. As she explained on FUBU, Black people are the backbone of pop culture and music at large, even as they are rejected, ridiculed and brutalized. The showcase of Black complexity on this album isn't an accident. And as she boldly proclaimed, this shit is for us, by us. (Co-Host Note:) Also wanted to link these two additional articles related to this album, this one for the album as a whole and this one about dont touch my hair Tracklist 1.Rise 2.Weary 3.Interlude: The Glory Is in You (Ft. Master P) 4.Cranes in the Sky 5.Interlude: Dad Was Mad 6.Mad (Ft. Lil Wayne) 7.Don't You Wait 8.Interlude: Tina Taught Me (Ft. Tina Lawson) 9.Don't Touch My Hair (Ft. Sampha) 10.Interlude: This Moment (Ft. Devonté Hynes, Kelsey Lu & Master P) 11.Where Do We Go 12.Interlude: For Us by Us (Ft. Master P) 13.F.U.B.U. (Ft. BJ the Chicago Kid & The-Dream) 14.Borderline (An Ode to Self Care) (Ft. Q-Tip) 15.Interlude: I Got So Much Magic, You Can Have It (Ft. Kelly Rowland & Nia Andrews) 16.Junie 17.Interlude: No Limits (Ft. Master P) 18.Don't Wish Me Well 19.Interlude: Pedestals (Ft. Master P) 20.Scales (Ft. Kelela) 21.Closing: The Chosen Ones (Ft. Master P) To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly. Whew. This album is an explosion of sound and culture. On this album, Kendrick explores themes of Blackness, money, sexuality, brutality and violence, and what it means to grow up in Compton. Inspired by a trip to South Africa, Lamar explained that he wanted to create an album that explored Black unity rather than division. He wanted to bring the magic of his trip back to Black kids growing up like him who didn't know that their Blackness is something to embrace and love. He grapples with the complexities of being a famous Black man and what that means for his masculinity and understanding of himself. He pulls in jazz, gospel, and rock influences. He experiments with instruments and samples, having a veritable tour through Black music, movies, shows, and references. This is an album not interested in explaining itself to people, and it shines because of that fact. Alright became and still is a protest anthem for Black Lives Matter, the haunting mantra of 'we been down, we been hurt before'/ 'my knees getting weak and my gun might blow, but nigga we gon be alright' to this day is chill-inducing. This album is a love letter to Black resiliency. Tracklist 1.Wesley's Theory (Ft. George Clinton & Thundercat) 2.For Free? (Interlude) 3.King Kunta 4.Institutionalized (Ft. Anna Wise, Bilal & Snoop Dogg) 5.These Walls (Ft. Anna Wise, Bilal & Thundercat) 6.u 7.Alright 8.For Sale? (Interlude) 9.Momma 10.Hood Politics 11.How Much a Dollar Cost (Ft. James Fauntleroy & Ronald Isley) 12.Complexion (A Zulu Love) (Ft. Rapsody) 13.The Blacker the Berry 14.You Ain't Gotta Lie (Momma Said) 15.i 16.Mortal Man The Rules First time doing a rate? Don’t exactly know how this works? It’s okay Here are the rules that absolutely did not copy and paste from the last pandemic rate i hosted
Listen to each song and assign each a score between 1 and 10. Decimals are fine so long as it is only 1 decimal place. Ex) 9.2 and 4.9 are good, 3.33 and 7.75 are not.
You have to rate EVERY SONG in the RATE. If you submit a ballot with just a few songs rated we will not be able to use it. If there's a mistake and you skipped a song one of the host will message you to get it fixed
Your scores should NOT be considered confidential.Feel free to share them and campaign for your favorite song to win and bully those who are more tasteless than you
You may give ONE (1) song a 0 and ONE (1) song an 11. Please reserve these for your least favorite and most favorite tracks.You must leave a comment for these.
You can change your scores at any time! Feel free to contact the host anytime after you submit before the deadline to change a score, and we will be more than happy to help you.
Don’t Sabotage. You’re entitled to your own opinion on these albums but dont give an album a significantly lower average without any justification! For ex: Just because Solange Flopped last time in the rate does not mean you can redeem her at this rate by tanking D’angelo!
Make sure you use the prepared link that can be found here in order to make sure that your scores are formatted correctly.
Speaking of formatting, this is the correct way of formatting your comments
Alright: 10 amazing song
This is the only way your comments should be formatted, any other way is incorrect and will crash the system The final due date will be determined at the end of the month but try to have it in by that time.
The 'Option 3' Heresy (Conspiracy Theory for the Siege of Terra Finale)
Whether it's wondering if the Emperor has a twin brother or if Cypher is actually Omegon, I LOVE to explore the more esoteric, conspiratorial side of the 40k mythology. To that end, I'm seeing a possible trending conspiracy brewing the finale of the Siege of Terra. Like all my theories, take it with a grain of salt. Although there IS source support for it, that doesn't make it any more or less likely to be true. In other words, I feel that the pieces are there for Black Library to build a cool table... but they just might take those parts and make a spice rack out of it (get it... because maybe it'll make the fans salty?). Who knows? So, if that disclaimer and/or terrible joke haven't scared you away, let me lay it out for you. I think there's a 'greater than zero' probability that there will be a second heresy by the conclusion of the Siege of Terra. A conspiracy that will shape the way the galaxy turns out for the next 10 millenia. My friends, Malcador is going to betray the Emperor. He and his possible co-conspirators will do so in an attempt to avoid the apocalyptic scenario that seems set to occur if either the Emperor OR Horus are victorious. They will choose 'Option 3', as it were. So, let's establish why either Horus or the Emperor winning outright is bad for everybody. I think the most obvious support for this comes from a common trope amongst the setting, stated explicitly by Argel Tal in Betrayer:
‘We’re definitely on the wrong side, Khârn.’ ‘How can you say that?’ ‘Because both sides are wrong.’
This sentiment isn't unique to the 40k universe. The idea that nobody is the good guy is engrained in the setting. We can also see this through the desperate actions of Lorgar. 40K's Cassandra of Troy, who sees the terrible futures that wait for humanity, but is doomed to have no one heed his warnings. Lorgar sees the future. Sees all the possible futures, even. He knows what happens to the Emperor, he just might not know he's the cause:
‘You are destroying the Imperium! You are betraying your own blood!’ The wildness in the Raven Lord’s black eyes was something Lorgar had never even imagined before. ...'I have seen what will be. Our father, a bloodless corpse enthroned upon gold, and screaming into the void forever.’ ‘Lies.’ The black eyes narrowed, and the Raven Lord’s pale muscles bunched, locking harder. ‘You are reducing a kingdom to chaos. Overthrowing the perfect order.’ Lorgar’s grey eyes danced with light despite the strain on his body. ‘The opposite of chaos is not order, brother. It is stasis. Lifeless, unchanging... stasis.’
Then again, in Betrayer, we see Lorgar has envisioned the actual future of 40K:
He’d even seen glimpses of potential futures where the Imperium came to worship the Emperor as a god. What would have to transpire in countless trillions of human hearts for that faith to ever take hold? The very faith Lorgar was chastised for spreading, the very beliefs he was punished for believing – how could mankind’s empire ever embrace their lord as a deity, after the XVII Legion had been humiliated for daring to claim such a truth?
Lorgar isn't the only person who sees these 'thousand futures', but unlike most people we see, Lorgar is right almost always. He sees the Emperor's state, yet apparently nothing he did prevented it. He warns Erebus (another person who likes to boast of their ability to see the future) that his attempt on Sanguinius will fail. It does. He tells Magnus to watch out for what Ahriman will do. Magnus fails to prevent the Rubric. He sees Horus failing, but the gods side with Horus and Lorgar's attempted coup to 'right the ship' fails. And this could all be traced back to something that Lorgar was shown 'off page'. A vision so horrifying that it cemented his drive to turn against the Emperor:
The primarch hesitated. ‘And before I return to the Imperium, there is one thing I must see above any other... Show me what happens if we lose.’
We don't know exactly WHAT Lorgar saw, but it was enough to cement his decisions to join Chaos. What was so bad that Chaos seemed like a good alternative? We have hints, but maybe the most current evidence is from John Grammaticus in Saturnine, the most obvious conspirator in this new Heresy, as he chats with Erda about why she tried to stop the Emperor:
'Through His sons, He would force the human race into the future, force it into submission, and defy the warp to do it... 'My fundamental objection to Neoth’s Great Work,’ she said firmly, ‘is His haste and urgency. To supplant the natural flow of life with an artificial version that tramples ethics and morality and wise prudence. Artificial Perpetuals, John. That was His plan, and look, see how it has worked...' ‘Tell me, John,’ she asked, ‘who do you fear more, the Emperor or Horus Lupercal?’ ‘At this stage, it’s hard to tell,’ he replied.
In addition to showing how destructive even the Emperor would be if he won, this conversation also serves as the core from which I believe the second heresy will unfold:
'Only one can stop the other. Either way. Jury’s out. However, Horus will only destroy. He cannot be reasoned with. But intervention might work with your beloved Neoth. I’m not talking about helping Him win the war. I’m talking aboutstopping it completely.’ ‘He has never listened, never learned,’ said Erda. ‘In the cycles of old lore, He is Saturn. Inflexible authority... I believe you may be a trickster god, John, but tricksters have always had their vital place. They cannot be trusted, but they are needed... The Saturnine aspect is lead. Lead is heavy. But lead, John. Lead can be moulded.’ ‘Lead can be moulded,’ he repeated. He smiled. ‘Yes, it can.’ ‘It can be shaped. It can be re-formed.’
In this conversation, it's abundantly clear that John is hatching a plan for 'option 3'. A plan which would shape the Emperor in a way that would be less destructive than if he won the war outright. So what is the plan? Well, this is where Malcador comes in, because I think he's already thinking about 'Option 3', as we see in his conversation with a Custodes about why he's allowed the Imperial Cult to exist during the Siege:
‘The webway was only one means for protecting mankind from the lure of Chaos,’ said Malcador, taking a step forward, eyeing the drop with some concern. ‘The Emperor thought that the best means to break the Dark Powers was to starve them of energy at the source.’ ‘Mastering the secrets of the webway would have allowed humanity to traverse the stars without the warp. No warp, no Navigators, no psykers.’ ‘Yet psykers are still born among us.’ Malcador tapped the side of his head, reminding Amon that he spoke to one with such abilities... 'What would we do with all of those psykers?' ‘The Astronomican is power…’ Amon realised the meaning of Malcador’s question. ‘With the webway there is no need for the Emperor to project the light of the heavens. The void would fall dark.’ Malcador edged closer, fingers tight around his staff as he peered down to the processional far below, people still making their way to the gathering. ‘What if that psychic power was used by the Emperor rather than projected?’ Malcador shrugged. ‘If our base emotions feed the Dark Powers, what of our common humanity?’ ‘The webway project failed, this is idle speculation.’ ‘Not so. Not for me. Dorn wrestles with the logistics of waging war across a continent-sized fortress-city, I contend with the implications of a battle that rages over the boundless realms of the immaterial.’ Leaning on his staff, he sighed, gaze turning towards the distant speaker. ‘If we cannot stifle the gods’ power in the warp, then what better means to defeat them than to channel it away? Or perhaps given sufficient psychic energy, could the Emperor weaponise the Astronomican? Rather than light the warp, could He purge it?’ ‘This discussion is a distraction. I do not understand why you came here.’ ‘To see it for myself. To see faith growing, in the flesh even as I feel it in my thoughts.’ Malcador smiled but there was no humour in his eyes. ‘You see, everyone is a psyker. Everyone has a tiny connection to the warp, even you. Except the Silent Sisters, of course, and a relative handful of others. Instinct, empathy, sympathy… They are products of the soul, communicating in infinitesimally small ways with the souls of others. What if a force bound not just the powerful psykers together, but every soul in humanity?’ ‘That force is faith, you think?’ Amon was not sure he could deal with the nuances of Malcador’s suggestion... ‘You want to see if faith has power? Is that why you have let this folly grow so wildly?’ ‘Let us call it weapons research,’ said the Regent.
With the webway down, Malcador is already thinking of the next thing for humanity. The way to save them. A way that is strictly in opposition to the Emperor's beliefs and overall plan. Like Erda told John Grammaticus, the Emperor won't change his mind. He can only be molded. The Emperor won't use faith as a weapon the way Malcador is considering if he makes the decision for himself. As such, Malcador may orchestrate a situation where he doesn't get a choice. A future where psykers are free because, effectively, the warp would be purged. Symbiosis with, rather than denial, of these in-born gifts. Where the Emperor is forced to become the deity he always swears he isn't. So who are other likely candidates to participate in this? Well, for starters, I think that it's highly likely that Malcador is going to reach out to Lorgar. At first, this sounds insane, right? But we already know that Malcador is researching faith. Who better to consult than the person who wrote the bible? The primarch to whom faith is like breathing, something so ingrained to his core that he's willing to stand against the Emperor to defy him on principle alone. And we know that Malcador can contact him psychically because, as stated in the Siege series, he knows where all of the traitor primarchs are. Now at this point, you might be saying "Woah, woah... Lorgar is number one Chaos boi! No way." But where IS Lorgar right now? He's been banished from Horus's side. he lost faith in Horus. He knows he's going to fail and, as such, he knows what the future is for that failure. He's not with them that we know of. In fact, none of the bullet points we have from previous history doesn't mention Lorgar at all. From the time of Slaves of Darkness, the only mention of Lorgar is during the Scouring when Corax fights him in the Warp. That's it. No mention of him otherwise. Surely, the First Heretic has to have some role in the finale, right? But whatever that role is, it's not something the history books seemed to have noted. It's at this point, I'd like to bring up some non-Siege references. Specifically, the book Apocalypse. In it, a former Word Bearer (interred in a dreadnought AFTER the Heresy) referred to as the Anchorite is the central plot focus. I already have a massive analysis of how the Anchorite appears to be intended as a mirror or parallel for Lorgar. If true, then consider these words from the Anchorite in relation to where Lorgar is at right now in the Heresy:
‘Then, an epiphany. A crash of understanding, amid the tumult of war. I saw the futility of it all. Ouroboros, the serpent that devours its own tail. They broke us, and we sought to break them. But we had become stronger for the breaking, and so too might they. And then what? More wars? More vengeance, meted out across the tapestry of the galaxy?’ ...'I saw then that the cycle could end only one way. So I stopped. I set aside my blade, and bent my knee. I waited for my cousins – for Guilliman’s sons – to kill me, there in the dark. And they might have. But fate had other plans in store... I was put in chains, and interred in an oubliette. Left to rot for the rest of that war. When my brothers broke themselves on the walls of Terra, I sat in the dark, and prayed for their souls.’
This is remarkably similar to what Erda told John in Saturnine:
‘It’s still about force, not nature,’ she said. ‘The aggressive application of unnatural force.’ ‘Yes, it is,’ he agreed. ‘Because of where we are now. It’s all about force. We are sitting in the eye of the greatest war that has ever been... My effort is simply in response to His. I am trying to apply force in response to force.’
The cycle of violence. The war that John Grammaticus is trying to stop. Lorgar may be coming to similar conclusions about things: We need 'Option 3'. A reshaping/redirection of force. Although Lorgar's inner thoughts are purely speculative, what's not speculative is Malcador's desire to make amends with Lorgar. In a quote I feel is truly adding fuel to the conspiracy fire, Malcador openly states the following in The Sigillite:
'I remember how they were, each of them, in conception and in reality. I see them as they are now, and the withering of their souls pains my heart. They have unleashed forces they cannot control. They have been lied to, and not only by the enemy. It breaks me to witness it.’ ...'Do you know,’ murmured the Sigillite, ‘out of them all, if I could have saved just one, it would have been Lorgar? Even though he despises me, and even though I was… wounded by him. He was such a fragile soul, so subtle and ready to bruise. We might have handled him better.'
So Malcador has a soft spot for Lorgar AND a growing need to seek knowledge on using faith as a weapon. These things, combined with the fact that ADB (who, as a Word Bearers fan, I consider THE author for him), stated that his next novel (which may or may not be his entry in the Siege series) has an inordinate amount of metaphysical conversation/analysis surrounding it. Even if Lorgar spurns Malcador's olive branch, I'm willing to bet, more than any other part of this theory, that this interaction takes place. A conversation about warp and the nature of faith. Malcador is already pushing the boundaries of what the Emperor would probably find acceptable, this just seems like the next logical step. Ok, so we have a disenfranchised Lorgar that could be convinced in a secret Heresy to mold the Emperor into a faith-weapon to cleanse the Warp, thus clearing for the 'symbiosis' Lorgar desires. Who else? Omegon is an easy add here. Like Lorgar, he is no longer with Horus. Omegon has always questioned Alpharius's decision to follow the Cabal's prophecy and side with Horus, even going so far as to sabotage plans that aided the Imperium, allowing Ravenguard survivors to escape Istvaan AND most likely keeping some juiced up genetic research that they told Horus was lost/tainted. And you know who one of the only people to know Omegon exists is? John Grammaticus, who dealt with the twins in Legion when he was working with the Cabal. Hell, even the Emperor may not know about Omegon's existence, which makes him one hell of a trap card for a described 'trickster god' to pull out in his grand finale. We know Horus doesn't know about Omegon. If the Emperor also doesn't know... whooo boy. It gives some monkey-paw fulfillment of the Cabal's words, as they mistakenly thought Alpharius was the youngest, but it was, in fact, Omegon, the hidden trump card, that's actually the youngest:
'It became clear to us that the oldest and the youngest sons were the most significant of all. Horus, for what he will do, and you for what you will undo.'
Omegon's ties to Malcador are a lot less concrete, but still numerous. These ties are through the Grey Knights and Knights Errant, as there are no shortage of theories already well-established in the community that points out all the thematic connection Omegon has to the Grey Knights. Since this theory is so wide-spread, it has been mentioned in numerous wikis on the subject, I'll save some space and assume you can find these on your own (if you aren't already aware). What I'll add is that, while Omegon himself may not be Janus, the connections to the Grey Knights still stand, as it wouldn't be the first time Omegon was a guy secretly in charge, this time, with Revuel Arvida being the public figure-head. Either way, there's plenty of indication that Omegon is going to cross paths with the Grey Knights or Knights Errant in the future, which means crossing paths with Malcador. The conspiracy group grows even more connections when you realize that Lorgar is ALSO one of the few people who know about Omegon, having written a personalized version of his book for each of his brothers... and he gave two copies to Alpharius. Somehow, Lorgar knows and chose to keep this from the Warmaster. Like Lorgar, Omegon seemingly abandons his legion at some point, allowing them to be leaderless for millenia, an idea at the forefront of two separate novels, based on legion members characterized by their drive to bring their primarchs back to their legion, Amatnim (Word Bearers) of the novel Apocalypse and Occam from Sons of the Hydra. In fact, these two characters further tie in with the idea of this possible conspiracy. If turning the Emperor into a faith weapon is the plan, then it would make sense that the best thing a traitor legion could do to serve that end is by acting as the villain. Without their primarch, they are too scattered to pose a real threat, but they still stoke defense against Chaos, regardless. Occam still prays to the Emperor and believes their attacks on the Imperium are actually strengthening it (a concept related to the Istvaanism Inquisitorial idea). Amatnim even goes so far as to directly state that their actions resulting in more worship of the Emperor is a good thing:
‘Places like Almace – or Pergo – are cancerous nodes of deceit in the body of ultimate truth. Anathema worlds, where all but the strongest Neverborn are rendered ineffectual upon their surface, and the words of the gods sound hollow. If they are allowed to flourish unchecked, all that has been done, might yet be undone. What we do, here, now, might well cease their spread.’ ‘Or it might encourage it,’ Apis said... Amatnim smiled. ‘Yes. Either way, the gods will be pleased.’
So, Lorgar and Omegon both, like the words of the Anchorite, have seemingly put their weapons down and stepped aside, allowing their legions to be scattered, disorganized, and often-times fighting themselves. It would make sense if this was because they have the same goal: that their legions stoke unity in the Imperium by acting as its antogonist. If this were true, it could also reframe the events of Plague War, with the Living Saint. Guilliman refuses to believe that the saint is due to his father and correctly states that a powerful psyker like Magnus could be doing this, both because of his immense psychic power AND because Tzeentch opposes Nurgle. I find it strange that, although he's mentioned several times in the book (Guilliman's last thoughts of the novel are about Lorgar), he never speculates that the golden-light and daemon banishing (both things Lorgar is known for) could be Lorgar (who is also an extremely powerful psyker). If the conspiracy theory holds true, I think Lorgar could wind up saving Guilliman from Mortarian in the finale of the Dark Imperium. It'll be a mystery as to why.. but it could be the teasetie-in to the finale of the Siege... which may have been a reason why the last of the trilogy has been so long coming... because it had to wait for other series to lock into place before a big reveal. In closing, if you made it this far, I appreciate you taking the time to look over my frantic, conspiracy theory wall on the subject. It's something I've been seeing pieces of for a while now and just knew I had to get them coalesced into one spot. Hopefully you've got a kick out of it. Even if there's truth here, I think the conspiracy will fail at some point. We know Malcador dies on the Golden Throne. Maybe the Emperor having Vulkan put the kill switch on it was a 4-D chess move, meaning Malcador wouldn't be around to guide the Imperium in the way they want. Lorgar ends up a daemon prince, so maybe his blowing up of that plan is why he was rewarded. After all, the last the gods spoke to Lorgar, they betrayed him and caused him to be banished by Horus. Seems like a bridge to cross from being on their outs to being in their good graces. Unless his ascension is a punishment for him trying to go back with Malcador? And who knows where Omegon has got to (unless he's Cypher... just sayin')? Lots of possibilities. Either way, I can't wait for the next Siege book... oh wait (realizes it looks like it's about Titan warfare, then goes to silently sulk in the corner). Well, there's still probably SOMETHING to sink my tinfoil teeth into.
I'm back with another write-up! This one might not be as long as the others because I'm kind of more of a casual fan of Kang Daniel, but I wanted to write this because I rarely see him getting talked about or mentioned (plus people keep associating him as only Jihyo's ex) which I think is unfair because even as a casual fan, he is someone I respect a LOT and he has lots of amazing qualities about him that should be appreciated more. I'm really sorry if a lot of this info is surface-level as I'm a casual fan but I'll try to research as much as possible and hopefully do him justice. Also DANITYs feel free to comment anything I missed/got wrong!
WHO IS KANG DANIEL?
Kang Daniel is well-known for winning 1st place on Produce 101 S2, being the center of Wanna One and now as an established soloist. Since his debut as a soloist, he has released 3 successful EPs with Color On Me, Cyan and Magenta. He also established his own company in 2019 and is now the CEO of Konnect Entertainment which handles all his activities in the entertainment industry. He will be making a comeback sometime this month with Paranoia. (Semi-related but do yourself a favor and check out Waves, his collab with Jamie and Simon Dominic. It's legit one of my favourite collabs ever)
WHY YOU SHOULD STAN
TALENT
He has history as a b-boy dancer and I legitimately love it when he shows off his b-boy moves like on PD101 with Get Ugly and the dance battle with Haknyeon or on Knowing Bros
He's a very solid dancer, I literally got into his music because I was randomly recommended this dance practice of his song Who U Are on my YouTube and from there I went through a lot of his dance practices and came out super impressed! My personal faves are Through The Night and I Hope. Also of course I had to link his collab with 1M dance studio
This is 100% personal but he kind of looks like my younger brother lmao so I find him cute af
OVERCAME LM ENTERTAINMENT's BS Kang Daniel was in a legal dispute with LM Entertainment over contract negotiations and it was messy af due to LM and their bullshittery throughout the whole process which ended in contract termination. A full timeline of events can be found here which y'all should read if you wanna see the full extent of LM's bullshit but TL;DR :
After Daniel first filed against LM, what came was an influx of shady articles (written by mostly the same people) and negative media play which one severe case included accusing him of being involved with "shady dealings" with a woman introduced by Seungri to supposedly seek for investors (this article was released in the midst of Burning Sun scandal). The woman was later revealed to be an event organizer Daniel had met during Wanna One's Hong Kong fan meeting.
Suspicious accounts were flooding his Twitter and fancafe saying that he should settle with LM. An article was even released saying how DANITYs were divided on the issue of whether he should settle with LM or not. This sparked the anger of his fans as they did an analysis of the fan accounts that made these comments on the fancafe + the #KangDanielSettle twitter hashtag and found that most of the accounts were new accounts and that the twitter hashtag was barely used compared to the other 2 hashtags which fans trended in support of Daniel.
LM signed a joint business contract that sold Daniel’s exclusive rights (including content creation and management rights) to a third party without his consent.
The court hearing was constantly getting delayed (a lot of which was due to stuff from LM's end)
The entire dispute lasted 6 months, during this period Kang Daniel was effectively "blacklisted" by broadcasting companies due to complications of the dispute
God bless him for coming out of that whole mess not only fine, but successful af. To quote the iconic lyrics of Formation by Beyoncé "you know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation, always stay gracious best revenge is your paper"
PERSONALITY
HUMBLE/POLITE I can't understate this enough since this was one of the main reasons I became a fan of his but every time I see him he comes across as very down-to-earth and humble, even though he's one of the biggest KPOP idols ever. From what I've seen people who have worked with him have nothing but praises for the guy and a bunch of celebrities are fans of him.
Wanna One's Jisung said that he could've been arrogant considering he became such a huge star but he still acts like a kid as usual
He visited the cast of Home Alone at their fashion show despite his busy schedule (he only had time to drop by for like a few minutes before leaving immediately) and he literally bowed so much to the cast/models and promised to come on the show
On It's Dangerous Outside The Blankets when EXO's Xiumin entered their room really late due to schedule, Daniel woke up and the first thing he did was greet+bow sleepily (then when he realized it was Xiumin he did a full on proper kneeling bow even though XM kept asking him to continue sleeping)
His fellow cast members on It's Dangerous Outside The Blankets had tons of good things to say about him
"Daniel has a very pure soul. When my recent drama ended, he was the first person to send me a message and congratulate me. He said in the message, “Thank you for your hard work hyung”. I think he is a dongsaeng that makes me feel very comfortable. I like him." - Lee Yi Kyung "Kang Daniel is very pure, just as he seems on TV. He definitely gives people a boost of energy." - Loco "He’s like a 12 year old boy. If he’s sleepy, he’d ask “May I sleep a little?” and he’d play games behind the stairs when it was break time. It’s surprising to see Daniel had this innocence about him and shows his real self, without putting on any airs." - Lee Yoon Hwa
The production director of Running Man had this to say about him
"Because we heard about his popularity, we had quite a bit of prejudice against him. But after meeting him I realised how kind, bright and humble he is. He said that he feels lucky to have so much popularity after having only trained for two years. He’s so grateful for his popularity and has good manners, he is someone who will make it even further in the future." - Jung Chul Min
In an interview with Star1 magazine, he said he was thankful that people even knew his name when asked about how he'd like the public to perceive the name Kang Daniel
On the show Coffee Friends, he visited the pay-what-you-want cafe run by the cast after being asked to come visit by EXO's Sehun. The customers are free to pay as much or as little as they like for the food/beverages and all the proceedings will be donated to charity afterwards. He helped out with chores and before he left he put money in their donation box while no one was looking.
For his Colour On Seoul fanmeeting, flower wreaths were not allowed but they opted for fans being allowed "wreaths" that could be donated such as rice, briquettes, feed etc.
DaniTV episode 9 is all about him, his mother and the KONNECT staff participating in Holt Children’s Service’s virtual volunteering campaign where volunteers make book covers by hand and deliver them to children in need. They were able to sew 100 book covers across the span of two weeks.
Whenever his fans ask him what he wants for his birthday, his response is always for them to donate to charity.
I've seen a lot of charitable acts from Kang Daniel, but it's even better when his fans DANITYs follow up his acts of charity with ones of their own!
He posted a video on Wanna One's instagram account of him doing the ALS ice bucket challenge and donating 2 million won through the Seungil Hope Foundation which caused a bunch of his fans to donate and and spread awareness which caused their website to crash. Jinusean's Sean who is a director later made a positive post regarding this on instagram thanking Kang Daniel and his fans for their support. His Daum fancafe DeumDaniel even matched his donation, donating 2 million won themselves.
Sometimes it's Kang Daniel who matches the charity of his fans! When South Korea announced a national emergency regarding on of the largest wildfires affecting Gangwon province, over 4000 of his Korean fans were able to donate as much as 150 million won to Hope Bridge Disaster Relief. Kang Daniel responded by making a 30 million won donation himself.
He donated 30 million won in DANITY’s name to The Snail of Love, a social welfare group for the deaf and hard of hearing. Within a week, his fans donated over 95 million won in his or DANITYs name after his donation. The Snail of Love chairman reported that Kang Daniel had personally visited their offices to see the first 10 children who will receive a cochlear implant due to his and DANITYs donations. The organization also held a ceremony for Kang Daniel and DANITYs to thank them for their combined donations.
I've seen lot of clips of him looking tired af on shows but still trying his best. On Master Key he literally fell asleep after lying down for a few minutes and didn't wake up with all the noise going around him either.
When I first started watching Produce I thought Daniel would be one of those trainees who was high ranked from the beginning but I was surprised. It was nice to see the process of him going from being one of the lower ranking trainees all the way to becoming #1.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I didn't watch Produce 101 S2 when it first aired, I just knew that afterwards there was a breakout star named Kang Daniel and I saw him everywhere. I'm going to be 100% honest, when he first debuted with Wanna One, then as a soloist I didn't know much about him or W1 and I didn't understand the appeal. Afterwards, I watched Produce and a few of his appearances on variety shows. Now I totally see why he's one of the biggest idols ever. People can say what they'd like about his skill or whatever, but it's hard to deny how easy-to-like he is. Now that I'm a fan, I get sad when people only know him as Jihyo's ex, or they say things like he doesn't deserve his fame just because he isn't the best singer out there. Whenever I see him whether it's on Produce, or in Wanna One or now as a soloist he just always comes across as a caring, humble person + he has a kid-like quality to him that is super endearing. Also while doing the research for this post, can I just say I'm genuinely impressed by DANITYs? Most of the people I interact with are multis, so color me surprised when I look into DANITYs and most of them are dedicated stans of Kang Daniel only. They mostly mind their own business and interact with each other exclusively. As a casual/multi fan, that was pretty cool to see in it's own way. Not to mention DANITYs countless acts of charity inspired by Kang Daniel's own acts of charity. Through the process of making this post I have a new found appreciation of both Kang Daniel and DANITYs. If there are any DANITYs reading this, y'all are great and I am in awe of y'all. I hope you liked this post!
The Cycle of Hatred and why the Rumbling won't succeed
Isayama has hammered in time and time again the horrors and the misfortune brought about by the cycle of violence, this is nothing new. There have been several approaches to solve this throughout, with the most prominent ones being:
Being destroyed (King's ideology, Zeke)
Destroying the enemy (Eren, Floch, Yeagerists)
Reconciliation (Armin, Mr. Blaus)
I think that Isayama speaks about how he feels about topics through the characters, and since he wants to finish the story "expressing his feelings" and tackling the "root of the issue" (i.e. the cycle of hatred) I think it's indicative of how he wants to finish the manga. At the end, I'm going to bring up some unresolved issues with the manga so far, and further theorize how things might end up. This is a long post, so skip to the TL;DR if you don't really care that much. Before I get into things, I should note that I am NOT inserting my opinion about how I think the themes should be written. I am elaborating on how I interpret ISAYAMA's feelings through his work, regardless of how I feel about his message.
Being Destroyed by the Enemy
I'll be quick with Zeke's part, since it is more obvious. Zeke is not too different from Eren: they both hope to accomplish some form of genocide in order to achieve peace. Zeke is the embodiment of anti-natalism, and how it is a meaningless and even terrible thing to be born into the world. However, we've seen time and time again how it is a wonderful thing to be born into the world, and that children represent the future (as shown by Carla, Eren, Armin, and Onyakopon). Zeke's arc involves realizing that there is more to life than suffering and reproducing, and so he somewhat gives up his anti-natalist ways before dying. I don't think I need to go too much more in depth about why Isayama does not view anti-natalism as the solution. Surrendering to violence is the sentiment taken by King Fritz and his vow to renounce the war. Frieda sums it up succinctly: https://preview.redd.it/kgq45i3x3eg61.jpg?width=1036&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=276c2be856c6107f9f31176cc4c58dde218454a0 However, it should be pointed out that this cowardly approach is not a far cry from the opposite side of the spectrum (that being destroying your enemy). The only difference is the side that you're on. Both extremes, destroying and being destroyed, assume that there is no common ground to be found among parties, and that peace can only be achieved through violence. Choosing to submit as a victim and allowing yourself to be destroyed does nothing to break the cycle of violence, as we have seen in the uprising of the victims of this ideology (Floch, Eren, Yeagerists). This leads into the next alternative.....
Onyakopon points out that the Yeagerists are hypocrites that indulge in the same "sudden, indiscriminate murder" as their oppressors
Shadis tells recruits that want to rebel against the Yeagerists to lay low and one day take back Paradis in the future. At this point, the Yeagerists have been portrayed to be in the wrong by basically everyone.
If it wasn't already clear, these are showing how Yeagerists are continuing the cycle of hatred: violence begets more violence, and it is not a real solution to the root of the problem. These first two criticisms (Onyakopon and Kyomi) are also very relevant to Eren's solution in the Rumbling. Moving onto Eren, this gets more tricky. Eren has always been Mr. Freedom: "I will rob those of freedom who attempt to rob my own." Whether this is a good or a bad thing to Isayama is more complicated. For this, I'm going to detail what he said in a 2017 interview (which also described his Guardians of the Galaxy inspiration, which is extremely relevant to recent chapters....) We've seen how Eren's ideology has become extreme, and how Isayama has used inspiration from The Mist to portray this:
[The Mist] used the main character’s deep, intrinsic beliefs of what’s right to corrupt the main character himself, leading him to act in contrary ways. What the audience believed to be correct is also flipped upside-down.
This has of course accumulated in the Rumbling. To Isayama, Eren is corrupted and contradictory: a "half assed bastard" if you will. In the same interview, he talks about the movie In This Corner of the World, which is about the perspective of WWII from a rural Japanese woman. This is what he has to say:
The main character, whose livelihood is opposite from a battlefield, also became someone who heeded the calling “fight on!” And then, she was defeated by such a development.
To summarize, the main character Suzu was a regular girl who was harmed immensely by the war (lost her hand, lost her family). She became invested in "staying strong" and doing her part, but was ultimately crushed when Japan was defeated. The takeaway that I can glean from Isayama's interpretation is that becoming invested in "fighting" in the world is something that ultimately and ironically leads to defeat, even if you are a victim. This seems incredibly antithetical to most of the themes of fighting for freedom that have been established, but in the context of war makes more sense: to pick a side is to lose. If fighting is no different from losing, then how is it that you can win?
Reconciliation
Forgiveness and understanding is constantly shown to be the most effective, and perhaps the only solution to the cycle of violence to Isayama. One of the biggest pieces of evidence for this is with Gabi and the Blaus family. Reiner's feelings, Falco's sensible views, killing Sasha, and meeting Kaya were still not enough to change Gabi's hateful outlook towards Paradisians. The thing that finally got to her wasn't violence, it was forgiveness: https://preview.redd.it/o85nr5h54eg61.jpg?width=1066&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bcadede6a9e9324e3870f92f428027e50e65fc5b This is perhaps the most obvious theme that Isayama has wanted to represent in his story: the cycle can only end by "leading children out of the forest", or in other words, making sure future generations do not follow in the same violent and vengeful ways as the previous generations. I'm not going to bore anyone with the elaboration of every single time reconciliation is used/proposed as a solution in the story, so I am going to just bullet point list the examples:
Magath being regretful of his past crimes and making peace with his victim, as well as his victim making peace with him in both their deaths.
Muller's speech, "We used hate, grew hate, thought of it as our savior, and the result is the devil which as come back to repay all the hate we ever showed it. If I had the chance, I would never make the same mistakes again."
Marco's death, "we haven't even talked this out"
Kruger's words to Grisha, "love someone within the walls.... or else the cycle will keep repeating itself over and over."
At Stohess, when Annie was being cornered (Annie got crystaled)
At the battle of Shiganshina, talking with Bertholt (Bert got eated)
At Niccolo's restaurant, trying to have a dialogue with Eren (Coincidentally, Armin is the one who rose to physical aggression, and he got his ass kicked for it)
At Marley, when attending the Eldian rights conference (Marleyans got squished)
At the port, when trying to convince the Yeagerists to give them the flying boat (death of many Yeagerists)
In paths, trying to get Eren to stop the Rumbling (led to getting the Rumbling stopped, founder exploded)
However, there are two times when dialogue has worked with Armin, and we can see how it led to the best result for both parties:
At Trost, when EMA were about to be cannon-balled (sort of worked, got Trost plugged)
In paths (again), trying to get Zeke to give up on his dream and die (succeeded in stopping the Rumbling)
Now I know this seems like extremely peachy, idealistic, Kumbaya fluffiness. And I would have to agree for the most part. I won't get much into my own opinion, but for anyone out there that are still looking for hope in a different ending than just peace talks, Isayama did say this in his final exhibition interview:
I think I wanted to attack something. Like betraying people or hurting people. And, well, it's not exactly nice, but hurting the readers too... In all honestly, I feel that's what I really wanted to do. For me, as a reader, when I think, "this manga will remain in my heart," it means, for example, it phenomenally hurt me: It's those kinds of experiences I'm after.
If there is any way that Isayama could betray the reader at this point (besides writing an ending that is just awful): Having Eren succeed in the extermination of humanity as a cautionary tale. The final cumulation of the cycle of hatred was such that it destroyed everyone and all hopes of finding a proper solution. Humanity could not learn to love each other in time to escape its own destruction. The future of Paradis is secured from external threats, but is internally unsafe: the world has just been made smaller. I don't think this is going to happen, though, since I firmly believe that Isayama wants to properly eliminate the "root of the problem" more than anything. There is also the easy to overlook thing Isayama says about how he's going to end the story in the same 2017 interview from earlier.
Although I’m progressing towards the ending that had been set before, my approach towards the ending itself has changed from the original plans. Because now I feel responsible towards the reader.... At first I explored emulating The Mist, but now you could say that I’m moving in a more peaceful direction, similar to Guardians of the Galaxy. I’m not talking about whether Shingeki no Kyojin will have a good or bad ending - I only speak of my own attitude as the creator, as well as differences in my methods of ensuring that the readers enjoy the series.
The wording here is interesting: The original ending Has Not Changed from what he originally envisioned. However, his approach to reaching that conclusion has changed: as we've seen, we have so far gotten an extremely Guardians of the Galaxy-esque climax, just like Isayama said that he wanted. This makes me believe that the ending itself will in fact not be similar to the ending of GotG, but will be similar to Muv Luv, the story that inspired Isayama to write AoT the most. Look at the theory about the ending being similar to Muv Luv and alternate universes here. It details how the endings and beginnings of both stories are extremely similar, frighteningly so in fact. This makes me think that alternate universes might be at play... maybe not so much an alt high school universe like the previews though. In another very recent interview after the release of chapter 136, when asked if the ending will be "unpredictable", Isayama responded with:
It's just the beginning!
If we were just at the beginning of the end, certainly it wouldn't mean that the alliance would just cap the rumbling and be done with it. With all this considered, it may be that Isayama is completely playing us, making us focus on an alliance vs. rumbling conflict as the end of the story, when he actually has something grander in mind that would successfully "betray" both sides of the aisle. There are also the big points that we don't know yet:
We don't know Ymir's true goals: why she would send a message to Eren (To you, 2000 years from now), lead him to paths, and seemingly contradict these actions by aiding Armin and the alliance. And the fact that she seems attached to the world, yet is helping Eren destroy it. In any case, it doesn't seem like Ymir has completely betrayed Eren. We did get one volume preview with a quote though: "A girl has a dream. She dreams of a world free from curses and fate." Eren has been the one who has been built up to resolve this conflict, not Armin, however.
The natural end to the story must end with the end of Paths and the Titans
We STILL don't know Eren's true location or his POV, which is extremely suspicious.
We don't know what child Eren in Paths means. He might already have full control of the Coordinate even without Zeke or royal blood, since like Ymir, he is shown at the age when he first inherited the Founding Titan. Unlike the dead shifters that we saw appear in chapter 137, who appeared to be the same age as when they died, Eren is not shown to be in his most recent state (as a 19 year old) .
Armin's premature celebration "thank you all for helping to stop the rumbling" is a big red flag.
"See you later, Eren" means that Eren is absolutely not dead (yet)
Eren has the power of future memories, as well as the quote "It is all still ahead of us", which would align with Isayama's quote "It is just the beginning!"
The Colossal titans didn't die, just stopped in their places.
The final panel seems like it must be Eren and Historia's child at this point. I feel like Grisha's resurrection and "redemption", if you could call it that, is the last we will see of Grisha or other dead characters, as this was their Swan Song so to speak. Meaning he won't be in the final panel: his character is done, no need to bring it back. Also, Grisha has not really cared about freedom so much as Eldian Restoration, so the dialogue doesn't make sense. Historia's child is also heavily symbolic of the future, breaking the cycle, and rebirth, so it would make much more sense than a baby Eren. Or this is all a load of bull, and the final panel was a complete ruse, which is possible.
Eren's character is incomplete: he doesn't yet know if after moving forward he will find "hope or another hell" and he has not ended the rule of the Titans like he has promised throughout the whole story. However, this is assuming Eren's character isn't completely ruined, and he hasn't stopped moving forward.
There are some things that are FOR SURE not going to happen:
Historia's child won't be used to restart the rumbling. The fact that this is even a somewhat popular opinion is incredibly disappointing. Eren would NEVER use Historia or her child as a tool for the Rumbling, and his efforts to prevent them from being titanized would be completely in vain. If Eren did this, it would completely ruin his character. Have some imagination, guys.
Trojan horse theory: bizarre theory that Armin is actually going to kill the alliance because he's being controlled. This would be an incredible disservice to his character, and it doesn't make sense with the Armin cycle that we've seen (Armin has self doubts but then saves the day. Has happened a lot).
Memory control: Nothing is actually happening, it's all a nightmare made by Eren and Ymir from paths using memory control. This is as dumb as saying "the entire story was all a dream". Also, Ackermans can't be memory controlled. Neither can non-Eldians, who we know have been witnessing the fight unfold from the fort.
Lelouch theory: Because we all know Eren's famous line: "I just keep moving forward, until a lot of my enemies are destroyed, and then I want to be killed by Armin and Reiner."
The reason why I think we've gotten an alliance "victory" as of now is to complete Armin's character arc. He needed validation that he was the right pick instead of Erwin, and Isayama not addressing this would have damaged his character immensely (granted, his character was already arguably hurt by being a fence sitter for the 4 years before the time skip). However, ending it like this would also be detrimental to Mikasa's and Eren's arcs: Eren's whole ideology of moving forward and erasing the First King's world (i.e. one ruled by titans) would be for nothing, and Mikasa doesn't get closure on her independence (or lack thereof) from Eren. Essentially, Armin usurping all of Eren's goals in the span of one or two chapters, which Eren had built up for the entire story, is laughable. https://preview.redd.it/abx6jqpa4eg61.jpg?width=2133&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=18d8daf7792361e55ea8c3fb135f389d52870c11 To reiterate, I don't want this to be interpreted as my views on what is the correct solution to the cycle of violence. This is Isayama's story, and he is going to write the story how he feels it should be written: not me or you. Whether the developments that the story takes to portray these themes make sense, seem contrived, or are just downright stupid: that is another story.
TL;DR
The Rumbling is pretty much doomed to lose due to Eren's ideology being one that does not solve the cycle of hatred. Destroying the enemy and allowing yourself to be destroyed are both invalid as they both contribute to the cycle of violence rather than end it. The only way to solve this problem is to make peace and amends with your enemies. Edit: fixed broken picture links
[anime] The crunchyroll awards of 2016, or that time Yuri on ice caused drama in multiple fandoms
Hi everyone! Firstly I'd like to apologise for a post I made about onsion on here earlier for breaking the subs rules; I have checked them with my other posts and they should be fine, but please let me know if they aren't. I'll delete them and upload them to the relevant subreddit or imgur as soon as I can. Secondly thank you to u/Groenboys for reminding me of this drama! Without further ado, let's get into this: 1: What is Yuuri on ice?: Yuuri on ice is an extremely popular sports anime which aired from October to December of 2016. The series focuses on Yuuri Katsuki, who returns to his hometown of hasetsu following a crushing defeat at the grand prix final. After a video of yuuri dancing to fellow male figure skater Victor nikiforov's routine is posted online, Victor goes to Japan and becomes Yuuri's coach. There's a bit more to it, but this is the shortest and most spoiler free summary. 2: What is crunchyroll/ crunchyroll awards?: Crunchyroll is a very popular anime streaming service which distributes anime such as Naruto, Haikyuu!! and more; they have also produced crunchyroll originals and helped create the very popular music video for Porter Robinsons Shelter with multiple Japanese animators. The crunchyroll awards are an anime awards show hosted by crunchyroll created in 2016, where a mix of judges and votes from fans are used to determine who will win. The awards are split into various categories including best girl, best opening and best action. Part 1: The nominees are announced: Before I start this part, I'd like to emphasise two things: how insanely popular Yuri on ice was, and how stacked the categories were. When Yuri on ices final episode premiered in December of 2016 both tumblr and crunchyroll crashed with how many people were using the sites, actual Olympic figure skaters such as Johnny Weir gushed about the show, other figure skaters skated to the music or re created the routines from the show, and American figure skater Joe Johnson referenced the anime on live TV. It was big. Yuri on ice was also released in 2016, when other popular anime such as Erased, Mob psycho 100, Jojo's bozzare adventure: diamond is unbreakable and boku no hero academia were also released. In December 2016, Crunchyroll announced it was making its first anime awards show and these were the categories: anime of the year, hero of the year, best fight scene, villain of the year, most heart warming moment, best boy, best girl, best couple, best animation, best drama, best comedy, best action, best opening and best ending. The nominees were chosen for each category, and the race was on for their respective fandoms to get people voting. Many posts were made during this time encouraging people to vote once January 3rd rolled around, and on January 11th the winners were announced. This is where shit hits the fan. Part 2: Yuri on ice sweeps the awards: As I said, in January of 2017 the winners of the first official crunchyroll anime awards were announced. The winners are as follows: Anime of the year: Yuri on ice Hero of the year: Deku Midoyira, My hero acadamia Villian of the year: Gaku Yashiro , Erased Best boy: Yuri Katsuki, Yuri on ice Best girl: Rem, re: zero Best fight scene: Shigeo vs. Koyama, mob psycho 100 Best animation: Yuri on ice Most heart warming scene: The kiss, Yuri on ice Best drama: Erased Best couple: Yuri and Victor, Yuri on ice Best comedy: Haven't you heard? I'm Sakamoto! Best action: Mob psycho 100 Best opening: History maker, Yuri on ice Best ending: You only live once, Yuri on ice There was a ... pattern in the winners, to say the least. There were some people who were satisfied with the results; I don't think I need to say what fandom they were apart of. But in general the anime community was pissed, and drama, fights and debates ensued. Mob psycho 100 fans in particular were annoyed with the results, as they argued their anime deserved the sweet best animation and best anime award. The erased fandom also wasn't happy that the kiss won best heart warming moment over *SPOILERS* the scene where Kayo eats a homecooked breakfast for the first time. The animation quality in Yuri on ice also became a meme for a bit after it won; since the animation is all modelled from the moves of retired figure skater Kenji Miyamoto, the animation gets... interesting at times. This was a particularly sore spot for mob fans, as the unique animation is one of the most praised parts of the show. The debate of whether Yuri on ice was even good in the first place also raged on with many weaboos, though most people generally agreed that Yuri on ice was good but didn't deserve all of the awards it got, including YOI fans themselves. The Yuri on ice fandom and the voters also naturally got involved to defend the anime. Others fans also criticised crunchyroll for nor having any kind of moderation or judges to weigh in on the votes and stop YOI from winning every category it was nominated for; while I did find this podcast from mothers basement where one person said they were a judge for the awards, it seems like the judges were there to pick what should be nominated rather than having any actual say in what won. Other people began attacking YOI fans for... being fans of an anime that won a lot of awards I guess? The debate raged on for quite some time, until eventually the drama faded away as Yuri on ice went on hiatus and the crunchyroll awards moved onto the next year. Part 3: the aftermath: After this whole drama, the 2017 crunchyroll awards made some changes: firstly the categories where changed, with most heart warming moment and best couple being taken out and judges chosen by crunchyroll who had knowledge of or worked in the industry of anime / manga. In 2020 crunchyroll also gave voters the chance to vote for judges. The awards were also not this controversial again; some reasons may include that while there are still very popular anime from 2017-2020, none of them have arguably gotten to the level of hype that Yuri on ice was at the time of the nominations. Another reason is that YOI has been in hiatus since the first awards; while a prequel movie named ice adolescence has been announced and confirmed to be in production shortly after the ending of season 1, the most recent update was this post from the Yuri on ice team in 2020 stating the movie was being delayed. As a result of this YOI hasn't been nominated since, which is sad for YOI fans but probably relieving for fans of other anime. The nominees for 2017 were also more balanced, with popular name such as a silent voice, your name, little witch academia, the ancient magus bride and Miss Kobayashi's dragon maid being among the nominees that year. Also while you can take this part with a grain of salt, because I don't really have any sources for it, as a fan of YOI at the time I believe the drama definitely helped in killing of the hype; while other anime fans at the time such as the anime man, mother's basement and super eyepatch wolf criticised or just disliked the anime, YOI discussions became less about how great it was and more about whether or not it was overrated or truly the pinnacle of LGBT representation the fandom touted it as being (I may also make a post about the drama surrounding YOI vs. no.6 / killing stalking / classmates / banana fish / samurai flamenco because that was a wild ride too). And now we have come to the end of this story! Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this. As always if anything in here is wrong please let me know, and I will leave with this quote from an absolute prophet of our time :" Can't wait to see Mob Psycho get robbed "
With the final Gou arc, Satokowashi, upon us, a new ending song, and no confirmation of a new season transitioning from question to answer arcs, I figured now is the time to present my ultimate "Satoko is the mastermind" theory, since "Satoko is a looper" has just been confirmed by Gou Episode 17. The main purpose of this theory is to show a plausible motive for Satoko to trap Rika in Hinamizawa, mastermind the culprits of each previous arc, and achieve a goal common to her methods, without relying on the crutch of selfish desire. My intention with this theory is to hopefully change perceptions of the "mastermind Satoko" possibility as only negative, to range from misguided pragmatist to benevolent extremist. And Rule Z from the OG Higurashi arcs is at the very crux.
Defining Rule Z
I quote from the beginning of Minagoroshi with the 07th Mod English translation:
Now, have you realized that these two pieces and the roles they fulfill have their own rule too? They talk about the Sonozaki family, and the listeners always believe them. This is Rule Z, and what a humorous rule it is. You should already have an answer to this mystery in your Fragments on hand. The fact is that the Sonozaki family always acts as if they are responsible, no matter if they are or not. They always pretend to be the villains in order to make sure that people continue to fear them. As a result, the villagers have believed that the Sonozaki family has been pulling the strings ever since the dam conflict ended. Kuraudo Ooishi and Miyo Takano were simply fooled by that rule. Actually, the whole village is fooled by it. Still, the more I think about it... The stranger the series of mysterious deaths in Hinamizawa seems to me. Hee hee hee... Do you know why? Nearly all of the Fragments of memories we have here are from 1983, so I have no idea about the incidents from 1980-1982. But it's likely that interpreting these murders as "serial" is simply a result of falling victim to Rule Z, believing that the Sonozaki family is pulling the strings behind everything. In short, they may be trying to conflate those multiple crimes, which each happened for different reasons, into one big case.
And again with a summary of the 3 Rules of Higurashi:
The memories that I have here are all mainly about the chaos brought about by Rika's friends, that is, Rule X... ...but its foundation, Rule Z, and the obvious hostility common among all worlds, Rule Y, are what I believe to be the true rules governing this stage. If so, then Rika's path is a thorny one. She needs to fight Rule Y in order to survive. Unless she defeats it, she has no future past June 1983. And to win her own happiness, she must also beat Rule X to win her friends' safety. So long as that's undefeated, one of Rika's precious friends may be led to tragedy. If that happens, then even should Rika survive, she wouldn't have the happy future she hopes for. She also may have to defeat Rule Z, just as Sonozaki Shion faced it in Meakashi. So long as Rule Z remains, then even if she escapes 1983, it's possible another tragedy may lie waiting in 1984. ...It's extremely likely that Rule Z is the breeding ground for Rule X. Hinamizawa's fundamental belief that the Sonozaki family is behind everything, and the custom that anything can be misconstrued as the curse, may indirectly be the root of all evil here. People are not surprised to see somebody die on the night of Watanagashi. That type of thinking is keeping the curse alive in Hinamizawa, where it causes even more tragedy. It's Rule Z reinforcing itself.
Interpreting Rule Z
There seems to be two interpretations of Rule Z, one of which was used to then "solve" it in Minagoroshi and Matsuribayashi, "Ooishi and Takano talk about the Sonozaki family, and the listeners always believe them." This is a wrong interpretation of Rule Z, according to the quote, "So long as Rule Z remains, then even if (Rika) escapes 1983, it's possible another tragedy may lie waiting in 1984." Ooishi will retire after 1983, the last Watanagashi for him to solve the mysteries of the deaths and disappearances, so his involvement in Rule Z will not continue into 1984 Watanagashi. Takano is hellbent on carrying out her plan for 1983 Watanagashi, driven by the budget cuts to the Irie Clinic, so Rule Z is irrelevant after the Great Hinamizawa Disaster. Therefore, the more plausible interpretation from the above quotes is, "The Sonozaki family is behind every mysterious death and disappearance." Using the latter interpretation, Rule Z was never solved peacefully in any of the OG arcs, only violently in Watanagashi and Meakashi. In those arcs, Shion, a rogue actress killed Oryou, the main proponent of maintaining the power of the Sonozaki family through Rule Z, thus paving the way for them to lose that status. To simplify, the negative of Rule Z, "the Sonozaki family is not behind every mysterious death and disappearance," is never explicitly nor directly, implicitly (i.e. a counterexample) announced in public to Hinamizawa by either Sonozaki family head, Oryou or Mion. According to the above quotes, Rule X is "extremely likely" to correlate with Rule Z. If Rule Z remains after 1983, then Rule X could remain unsolved as well. Rule Z may be inherently benign, but Rule X goes against the goal of Rika to keep her friends safe. There is a time limit to Rule X however. Irie is developing a cure for Hinamizawa Syndrome that will take 3 years to complete after 1983. Since Rule X is dependent on Hinamizawa Syndrome, once the cure is completed and distributed, Rule X will be solved while Rule Z could remain benign. My first assumption for Rule Z Theory is that something happens during those 3 years to trigger Rule X from Rule Z, thus leaving Higurashi unsolved.
Umineko Connections
My second assumption is that Satoko is Lambdadelta. For those against using Umineko evidence, I have this defense. I can treat Umineko as an outside resource, like I would treat a dictionary, encyclopedia, textbook, etc. For example, I once defended my earlier hypotheses by quoting Irie, who used medical jargon, "anaphylaxis" and "remission." The former term is usually considered common knowledge for only those with higher, medical education, while the latter term has multiple, more common definitions, but I had to use a medical dictionary to find the most plausible definition for the context Irie spoke in. For the question of relating information between different contexts, assume an audience viewing Higurashi has those with higher medical knowledge and those with Umineko knowledge. Umineko knowledge has more in common with Higurashi than higher medical knowledge. If those with just higher medical knowledge were not allowed to contribute their interpretations of Higurashi, then terms like "anaphylaxis" and "remission" would need to be defined within Higurashi literature. Since they were not (to my knowledge of OG arcs only), Higurashi interpretations would be uninformed without the contributions of audience members with higher medical knowledge, therefore the possibility of missing information lead me to draw on Umineko information in order to support Higurashi concepts. I can translate terms found in Higurashi literature using outside resources, and draw explicit connections between concepts and contexts, as long as that connection is independent of, not dependent on that outside resource. So Satoko could be Lambdadelta, like Rika could be Bernkastel and Hanyuu could be Featherine, but Featherine controlling Satoko has no equivalent concept in Higurashi. I use three pieces of Umineko evidence for Rule Z Theory that should be unnecessary to present in an actual solution to Gou, but helps further comprehend a motive for Satoko regarding Rule Z. The first is from the UminekoEpisode6manga, and the second and third are from the Umineko Tsubasa VN. Given that all three implicitly reference Higurashi, I believe Higurashi the game was at first between Featherine and Lambdadelta. I propose that Satoko became Lambdadelta in the process of the game by Featherine promoting her from a piece, or Hanyuu appointing her as her miko, as she says is possible during the disembowelment in Gou Episode 16. Afterwards, Featherine switched her piece to Furude Rika to grant her looping, who later became a Witch and renamed herself Frederica Bernkastel. Since the second piece of evidence implies that Lambdadelta influenced Takano, I also propose that when viewing Higurashi as a game, Rule Y was manufactured by the influence of Lambdadelta, and was not a part of base Higurashi. With the confirmation of Takano not carrying out her plan in Gou Episode 17, I discard Rule Y from this theory and thus dependence on Umineko. However, the absence of Rule Y helps me understand why Satoko as Lambdadelta still wants to solve Higurashi. The base game of Higurashi had a Logic Error (I literally interpret this as a logical error in the game mechanics or narrative), but Higurashi with Rule Y was able to be "solved" in Matsuribayashi. My final proposal is that Lambdadelta manufactured Rule Y in order to beat the Logic Error, while pretending it was a trap for Bernkastel, so she could make Rika a Witch. Bernkastel would not realize this if Rika became a looper just after Lambdadelta, so she would not recognize Satoko as Lambdadelta (to my knowledge of Umineko literature). Thus Higurashi Gou is an unsolved game with a Logic Error and only Rules X and Z, but with two Witches to solve it despite initially working against each other.
Deducing Satoko
To lay the foundation of a motive for Satoko as the mastermind, I will deduce what that motive could not contradict. Tying back to OG Satoko, her motive as a protagonist then was in my interpretation, "to keep living and getting stronger for her brother (Nii nii)." Therefore, the motive should not involve purposefully compromising her life until at least 3 years later when the Hinamizawa Syndrome cure can be administered to Satoshi. Unless, with my first assumption that something happens in 3 years after 1983, it could have stopped Satoshi from returning to Satoko. That means with Satoko dying in Gou, if she has to get herself killed as the mastermind in order to loop, her motive would not be based on the knowledge that Satoshi would return if he never could. Also, Satoko considers Keiichi as another Nii nii as early as Tatarigoroshi before the bridge scene. I split my interpretation into two parts, "to keep living (and getting stronger)" and "belief in her Nii nii," to mean that she will keep living for as long as she believes either Nii nii is alive. Thus, purposefully compromising her life as the mastermind would not contradict her motive if she believes that Keichii dies or is incapacitated beyond saving in a loop, while despairing over the lack of information regarding Satoshi. https://preview.redd.it/u9u8s5oex5f61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=73d72c6b5b0d335298e35ebfa4fdf82d88205e98
The Means
Gou Episode 16 revealed the possible means of Satoko as the mastermind used to influence culprits. She uses her memory of information from past arcs to trigger the progression of Hinamizawa Syndrome in her targets. This is similar to how Ooishi and Takano triggered culprits in OG, with references to the curse (Rena, Kimiyoshi), demon blood (Akane), and parasites (Akasaka, Keiichi). Mion and Ooishi as culprits instead followed closer to Rule Z, suspecting the Three Families directly. Since Ooishi and Takano were considered the messengers of Rule Z in OG, I tie together the means as a usage of Rule Z to therefore trigger Rule X, with Satoko acting as a new messenger in Gou. Teppei is the exception to this, which I will talk about for his respective arc. The excessive blood, guts, and film grain or other visual effects of graphic scenes signify a "magic filter" as someone commented on my previous hypotheses. This represents my assumption that Satoko is Lambdadelta, because of my third piece of Umineko evidence mentioning magic alongside Rule Y, which I proposed earlier was manufactured by Lambdadelta, who also granted a "magic filter" to Beatrice for her plans. Other scenes with those visual effects are the ladder scene with Mion in Gou Episode 8, and Hanyuu in Gou Episode 14 existing on a meta plane. The “magic filter” could even explain the visibility of Hanyuu in Matsuribayashi as the solution to Rule Y. Though again, Satoko being Lambdadelta is not essential to proving this theory, some visual effects can be explained as hallucinations while others as meta aesthetics.
The Method of Onidamashi
After Tsumihoroboshi, Rena starts turning to her friends for help with Rina, which unfortunately includes Satoko. The Onidamashi plan for Satoko as the mastermind starts in Gou Episode 1, when Rena leaves the classroom to rest followed by Satoko. She tells Rena that she can get away with the murders of Rina and Teppei using information from Tsumihoroboshi (technically true up until they die from the Great Hinamizawa Disaster) and triggers her to kill. However without the interference of her friends and the Sonozakis to move the bodies, and unbeknownst to Rena (even denied by her when Keichii tells her), Satoko could also know information presented in a Tsumihoroboshi TIP, that the forestry service will have a logging operation in the area Rena chose to bury the bodies. In a subversion of Rule Z, Satoko would wait for the forestry service to discover the bodies, turn them into the police, and have them traced back to Rena, hopefully not to the Sonozakis. The plan goes awry when Satoko does not account for Rika unknowingly interfering, and meta knowledge that Tsumihoroboshi is the answer arc to Onikakushi. As an answer arc it is implied that Rena kills Rina and Teppei in Onikakushi as well, which should be why Rena stalks Keiichi in Onikakushi after he talks to Ooishi the police. Rena was suspicious of Keiichi having caught on to her murders and planned to kill him as well, by deducing that he was going to be home alone after following his family buying instant noodles for him at the supermarket in an Onikakushi TIP. Since he did not let her into his home in Onikakushi, Rena followed Keiichi the next day hoping for another opportunity to kill him, but when he broke down and laid out his own suspicion of her, she realized she was mistaken and thus had a change of heart. Because Rika tells Keiichi to trust his friends in Onidamashi, he lets Rena into his home allowing the murder attempt to happen. Satoko happened to follow Rena into the home with the front door unlocked after Keiichi let Rena in, saw their bodies and called emergency services, then contemplated suicide with the kitchen knife because Keiichi appeared incapacitated beyond saving. But knowing that Rika could stay alive past June 1983 without Rule Y in effect, Satoko opts to kill Rika beforehand in order to reset both of their loops.
The Method of Watadamashi
In Gou Episode 5, Satoko begins her new plan by winning her game in the tournament right after Mion, then leaving the game shop with her for a while. Satoko triggers Mion to purge the Three Families by appealing to her love for Satoshi and suspicion over his disappearance (yes I know it should be Shion, but Satoko would not know this if she had the same looper handicap as Rika of not remembering death scenes). This ultimately gets Oryou killed, which could have paved the way for Mion to publicly announce the Sonozakis not being responsible for any of the mysterious deaths or disappearances. Everything goes to plan until Rika gets killed, which Satoko may have counted on keeping her safe to not loop again, because the modus operandi of "Mion'' in Watanagashi and Meakashi is to lure victims to her home rather than pursue them. At the end of Gou Episode 7, Rika determines from Keiichi that they are in a Watanagashi or Meakashi like arc, and according to Mion in the classroom next episode, she last saw Rika with someone in a construction uniform. That someone could be a Yamainu member disguised as an Okonogi Gardener, which does gardening for the school, and Rika could be telling them to watch the Sonozaki home, which they do later in the episode. However, Mion would get suspicious of Rika talking to apparent henchmen, and decides to kill her on the spot, then dump her body in the school outhouse septic tank. Satoko takes a while to put this together, then pays Mion a visit. Mion kills her then herself out of terminal Hinamizawa Syndrome with the gun she brought from the underground bunker, but the Yamainu spring into action afterwards in order to clean up the existence of the disease like in Onikakushi, by replacing the gun with the BB gun Mion usually has to fake a double murder rather than murder suicide.
The Method of Tataridamashi
The Tatarigoroshi and Minagoroshi like arcs would be the worst scenarios for Satoko as the mastermind, because she has little opportunity to trigger someone by the Watanagashi festival when forced to live with Teppei, her uncle. Even though she did not suffer physical abuse in Tataridamashi, Teppei expressed enough hostility in his Gou Episode 10 scene with Chie to suggest he was keeping Satoko against her will. The reason he is not physically abusive could be due to suppression of his stress and thus violent tendencies with medicine from the Irie Clinic shown in the beginning of Gou Episode 9. Regardless, Satoko acts upon the one opportunity she does get, banking on Keiichi to kill Teppei again despite risking his health, to be cared for later perhaps with the same medicine Satoko takes for her Hinamizawa Syndrome. She fakes her breakdown to attempt triggering Keiichi, while not raising the suspicion of Rika in plain sight, despite Teppei not having abused her for suspecting the call to child welfare services was from her (a Minagoroshi TIP shows he suspected Chie after her visit). When that fails due to interference by Rika like in Minagoroshi, Satoko decides to trigger Teppei via information of him dying to Keiichi in Tatarigoroshi. Ooishi was another point of interference Satoko did not account for. When he arrives to arrest Teppei, Satoko has to stop him from ruining her plan by triggering him as well through his usual suspicion of the Three Families, specifically their treatment of the Houjous. Ooishi continues to use Teppei as bait to catch a culprit for 1983 Watanagashi, so leaves without arresting him. When Satoko enacts her plan she draws Keiichi away from their friends, which would look more suspicious to Rika than the previous plan to trigger Keiichi, hence this is the worse outcome. Satoko lures Keiichi into her home to be ambushed by a paranoid Teppei, having calculated that Keiichi would still win the fight (the only times Satoko made mistakes were due to Rika interfering). Though Keiichi appears to also be triggered into Hinamizawa Syndrome, he could have displayed self control by dropping the bat from his last overhead stance, if it reminded him of his Tatarigoroshi dream from the beginning of Gou Episode 10. Thus he has no neck guard, like in Onidamashi, to protect against scratching when he wakes up from his coma at the end of Tataridamashi, because deja vu can override triggers as I will talk about in The Methods of Nekodamashi. Afterwards she calls the police and watches the scene unfold from afar. Ooishi arrives, sees Keiichi is the murderer, then due to his mistrust of Keiichi shown at the school scene in Gou Episode 10, makes the logical leap under Hinamizawa Syndrome that Rika used Keiichi as her hit man. Satoko follows Ooishi for a similar reason to visiting Mion in Watadamashi (perhaps with the medicine), realizing that he went off the deep end dragging the bat alongside him, and gets killed against her will after Shion, Mion, and Rika die.
The Methods of Nekodamashi
I split the methods of Nekodamashi between Akasaka, and Akane, Kimiyoshi, and Keiichi, since the latter three share the most in common as culprits. Any arc where Akasaka returns is also a worst case scenario for Satoko, because Rika can ask him to foil any plan Satoko tries. Therefore she specifically targets him despite using the most generic trigger of parasites and neck itchiness, like how the nurse asked Keiichii at the end of Gou Episode 4. This may not even count as a subversion of Rule Z, since Akasaka is an outsider to Hinamizawa, but without Satoko seen dying at the end of this loop it is unconfirmed what else she does before moving onto the next loop. I believe in each Nekodamashi loop where Satoko is not seen dead or incapacitated she could have continued living as long as Keiichi could be alive. There are two connections to draw between Akane, Kimiyoshi, and Keiichi. The first is that Akane and Kimiyoshi are members of the Three Families, so they are the most intimate culprits with Rule Z. Akane can kill Oryou thus paving the way for a public announcement, and Kimiyoshi has the position to pressure the Sonozakis into it after sacrificing Rika. For the question of why Akane and not Mion or Shion was chosen to be triggered by Satoko that loop, deja vu is the key (and also the other twin can never have terminal Hinamizawa Syndrome). As shown in the beginning of Gou Episode 17, the flashback to Minagoroshi is an example of deja vu experienced by Takano to convince her not to carry out her plan. This is similar to my observation of Keiichi holding back in Tataridamashi, and even to Rena despite her killing Rina and Teppei in Onidamashi, because her specific deja vu is described in Minagoroshi (first Furude Shrine scene about the lottery) as an event in Tsumihoroboshi before the murders. Deja vu prevents the individual from reenacting the same event in the current arc, so Satoko could have tried to trigger Mion and Shion but failed. Akane was the next most logical Sonozaki to trigger because of her personal rough history with Oryou, her mother. The second connection to draw is between Akane and Keiichi because of the effects of deja vu. The dialogue between Keiichi and Rena in his loop Gou Episode 15 suggests that they are in a Tsumihoroboshi like arc, where Rena could have had deja vu of Onidamashi. Failing to trigger Rena a second time, Satoko banks on Keiichi again, who as an anomaly has had two different motives for murder in each OG arc he was a culprit, Onikakushi and Tatarigoroshi, and technically Tsumihoroboshi has different enough events from Onikakushi to separate the two. She gives Keiichi the generic parasite trigger as a motive, then regrets not accounting for his unpredictability when he kills her. The second time using her Nii nii as a culprit could have drove her to change her method for the next loop disemboweling Rika, convincing her under duress to work together, perhaps to wait for the next 3 years after 1983 with Rika staying in Hinamizawa instead of leaving before my first assumption happens. https://preview.redd.it/0yw52nm766f61.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=03c604ce0f094a3395edb7584aa5a0d7847566ba
The Motive
What would be common in every Gou arc to Satoko as the mastermind is her use of Rule Z to trigger culprits, and opposition to Rika. Satoko trapping Rika as loopers also suggest the two have something in common in their understanding of the loops. It is plausible that Satoko as Lambdadelta could have reached the same conclusions for the 3 Rules of Higurashi as Frederica Bernkastel did by experiencing the OG loops. However, Matsuribayashi was "solved" with a wrong interpretation of Rule Z by Rika, which she has not caught on to in Gou. If Rika, as a member of the Three Families, has this as a blind spot in her understanding of Higurashi, Satoko could see otherwise that Higurashi is yet to be solved. Therefore, this is my "mastermind Satoko" motive, "Satoko triggers the culprit to kill in order to subvert Rule Z. Either the culprit is not a Sonozaki and can be traced back towards, or the culprit kills Oryou. She hopes either method will pave the way to the Sonozakis publicly announcing deaths caused this way, or the mysterious deaths and disappearances, are not their responsibility, leading to mistrust among Hinamizawan residents of the power and security of the Sonozakis, which ends Rule Z." Satoko could also have a more personal motive as a Houjou, seeing this as an opportunity for revenge against the Sonozakis for mistreating her family. Her traumatic childhood could lead her to this black and white thinking of taking extreme measures, or similar experiences to Rika looping lead her to uncompromising pragmatism. On a meta level, Lambdadelta could have been demonstrating her violent solutions to Bernkastel, challenging her to try and find a peaceful alternative in their game. Considering the recent change in method, Lambdadelta could have finally ceded to Bernkastel for a peaceful solution, but also to prove a point to her, perhaps a negative one. There is still a Logic Error to deal with after all...
In Conclusion
The question I always ask myself, when reading Gou theories on this Reddit, is, “What is the point?” As in, what is the point of the author, Ryukishi07, to write a solution along the lines of this theory? To answer for my own theory, I have two messages to derive that can relate to OG. The first is the tragedy of a young individual struggling against an old establishment, touched upon in Matsuribayashi as Akane mentions the need for young people to take over from the old. Old versus young is a common theme in modern Japanese literature, with the latter disillusioned by the overbearing power of the former. The second message is that factionalism leads to hatred and conflict, best represented in the OG arc Meakashi with the struggle of Shion and her love for Satoshi. These two messages could round out the overlying OG themes of friendship and guilt, where passing the blame ends when the individual acknowledges their fault, then asks for cooperation with others to fix it. I hope my theory illuminates an understanding that if Satoko is the mastermind, it does not have to betray her OG character, nor detract from Higurashi as a nuanced reflection on many experiences in life.
Hi everyone! First post here. Hope you'll enjoy. I'll cut to the chase: I think there is a fourth dragon and that it's living on Skagos. It was sleeping beneath Winterfell until it got freed when it was sacked. Now, these are not new theories by any means. But I think that they are not always given the credit that they're due. So I will try to bring them all together and explain why I think a fourth dragon on Skagos fits the narrative of GRRM's story. First, I want to give shout outs to Quinn's ideas for this video and to u/pobeb for this post. I've relied on both of their work here. This post has three parts:
Foreshadowing of a fourth dragon
Skagos
Narrative need for an additional dragon
Let's begin! PART I – FORESHADOWING OF A FOURTH DRAGON 1.1 Dragon eggs were laid beneath Winterfell We know that the dragon Vermax laid eggs in the crypts of Winterfell when Prince Jacaerys Velaryon visited it to broker the Pact of Ice and Fire with Lord Cregane Stark. Fire and Blood and The World of Ice and Fire both tells us this this :
We can dismiss Mushroom's claim in his Testimony that the dragon Vermax left a clutch of eggs somewhere in the depths of Winterfell's crypts, where the waters of the hot springs run close to the walls, while his rider treated with Cregan Stark at the start of the Dance of the Dragons. As Archmaester Gyldayn notes in his fragmentary history, there is no record that Vermax ever laid so much as a single egg, suggesting the dragon was male. The belief that dragons could change sex at need is erroneous, according to Maester Anson's Truth, rooted in a misunderstanding of the esoteric metaphor that Barth preferred when discussing the higher mysteries. AWOIAF – The North: Winterfell
But we know that Septon Barth is usually right and his opinions on dragons are confirmed by Maester Aemon in AFfC:
"What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise! The error crept in from the translation. Dragons are neither male nor female, Barth saw the truth of that, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame. The language misled us all for a thousand years."
So there are likely eggs down the crypts of Winterfell. I think it is the big mystery in the crypts that the books have hinted at. 1.2. The Dragon eggs can hatch there GRRM goes further and makes it clear that those eggs have all the right conditions to hatch. In Fire in Blood Part 1, Kings Jahaerys discusses with Grand Maester Benifer the dragon eggs stolen by Ellisa Farnam:
“If those eggs should hatch, there will be another dragonlord in the world, one not of our own house.” “They may not hatch,” Benifer said. “Not away from Dragonstone. The heat…it is known, some dragon eggs simply turn to stone.” Birth, Death and Betrayal under King Jaehaerys I
And the World of Ice and Fire tells us:
Hot springs such as the one beneath Winterfell have been shown to be heated by the furnaces of the world—the same fires that made the Fourteen Flames or the smoking mountain of Dragonstone. AWOIAF - The North: Winterfell
Winterfell's volcanic activity is directly compared to those of Valyria and Dragonstone, where dragon eggs have been known to hatch. And we know that Vermax’s eggs were left at just the right place. 1.3. Bran saw the dragon coming out of Winterfell In the last chapter of CoK, Bran is warging in Summer and sees the following:
“The smoke and ash clouded his eyes, and in the sky he saw a great winged snake whose roar was a river of flame. He bared his teeth, but then the snake was gone.” A Clash of Kings – Bran 6
I have seen some argue that this phrase is just a metaphorical or symbolic description of smoke or fire. I don’t buy it, mostly because of the phrase winged snake. It would be one thing if the author had written a flying snake or a fiery snake, but the snake is winged. Some have also argued that Summer might have seen the red comet, but the comet had been gone for a while by the time of this chapter (and a comet does not have wings!!!!). Also, I have to mention this quote from the same chapter:
“We made noise enough to wake a dragon,” Osha said, “but there’s no one come.” A Clash of Kings – Bran 6
1.4. Age and size of the dragon Some argue that the dragon would be too big or would not have had anything to eat in the crypts. I disagree. We don’t know when this dragon was born. It could be around the same time as Dany’s, when the red comet was passing. After all, Drogon was flying and breathing fire by the end of ACoK. Or the dragon could have been born a while before and be bigger than Dany’s, which would better fit the quote of a “great winged snake”. Some rats in the crypts are said to be as big as dogs, so I think that GRRM has some leeway to make the dragon as big as he wants. PART II – THE DRAGON IS ON SKAGOS Other people have theorized that there may be a dragon on Skagos. The Cannibal is often put forward as a likely candidate, but I think it would simply be too old. I believe the dragon on Skagos is the one from the crypts. I will argue this point mostly with narrative arguments. 2.1 It explains why the dragon was not seen in the North This is one of the counter-arguments I’ve read, but I think that if the dragon flew straight away to Skagos, it could have been seen by very few people. The Skagosi are likely aware that a dragon has come to their island, but the news has not yet reached the mainland. 2.2 It explains why GRRM wants Davos to go to Skagos With the books getting so big and GRRM struggling to streamline them, I always wondered why he needed to have Rickon be on Skagos and have Davos go get him there. Maybe it’s because GRRM needs Skagos to stage his reveal of the existence of the fourth dragon. 2.3 It explains why Davos’s Skagosi storyline was pushed to TWoW From a timeline perspective, it seems to me that Davos could have easily journeyed to Skagos during the timeline of AFfC/ADwD. In the span of the books, Stannis rides to Deepwood Motte, hangs out there, and slowly makes his way to Winterfell. During the same time, Sam journeys to Oldtown and Victarion to Meereen! We know that GRRM initially intended for the Battle of Ice to take place in ADwD. And I think that Stannis will win this battle. Wouldn’t it be best for Davos to arrive with Rickon shortly after the battle? This way, Rickon could be gloriously installed as Lord of Winterfell after Stannis’s victory. Why didn't GRRM arrange the timelines this way? If my memory is good, PoorQuentyn suggested in some Tumblr post that Mance Rayder will go down the crypts after Stannis takes Winterfell and will find the dragon eggs. He suggested that Stannis may burn Shireen to try and hatch these dragon eggs. I think he’s right, but I think there is more to it. What if Mance finds a hatched egg? What if there are signs that a dragon was born? It would be an excellent way for GRRM to explain to the casual reader where the dragon comes from right before we see the actual dragon on Skagos. Or maybe they will find the eggs right after we see the dragon. Either way, Davos needs to be on Skagos when the eggs are discovered, for the reveals to coincide. This is why his timeline was pushed back a bit. PART III – DRAGONRIDERS TIMELINE LOGISTICS This part is the most speculative of this post. So I apologize in advance! This part assumes that you know about the theories of Dany triggering a wildfire explosion in King’s Landing and burning down the city. I agree with Adam Feldman’s analysis of Dany in The Meereeneese Blot, which have apparently been confirmed by GRRM. Mad Dany plotline is a thing! And like many here, I think that Aegon Targaryen/Blackfire/Young Griff will be holding the city when this happens. Bearing this in mind, let’s try to figure out who will ride which dragon. 3.1 Who rides which dragon? Drogon is ridden by Dany. Done! Next. Viserion will be ridden by Euron or Tyrion or both. I personally think that Euron will steal Viserion using Dragonbinder and that he will have part of the plotline that the show gave to the Night King. There is also foreshadowing that Tyrion might ride Viserion. I kind of hope not, but I can’t dismiss it either. But who will ride Rhaegal? Aegon, Jon or both? I think it will be Aegon. There will be a Second Dance of the Dragons between Dany and Aegon. It wouldn’t be much of a Second Dance if it wasn't dragon vs dragon. Also, Drogon is Black, Rhaegal is Green. It would make for the Black vs the Green, a neat parallel with the original Dance. I doubt it’s a coincidence. But if Aegon rides Rhaegal? What about Jon? Jon could ride Rhaegal after Aegon’s death, but I think there are timeline issues with this option. 3.2 Timeline issues with Jon riding Rhaegel after Aegon’s death As I mentioned, I believe Dany will end up burning King’s Landing when trying to take it from Aegon. I also believe that Jon will then kill Dany. Or that Dany will sacrifice herself. Or something that fulfils the prophecy of the “betrayal for love” and loosely fits what we saw on the show. (Maybe it will also light lightbringer? fingers crossed!!) But here’s the thing… it would mean that Aegon can't die until King’s Landing blows up. And I also don’t think that Jon could fall in love with Dany after he saw her burn the city. I think it’s rather the event that will drive them apart. So if Aegon dies after we saw Jon and Dany’s romantic relationship, when does Jon get his dragon? Either Jon only rides a dragon at the end, around the time he turns on Dany. Or… Jon already has his own dragon when he meets and falls in love with Dany. Jon will ride the dragon that was born in the crypts and that made its lair on Skagos, the dragon that is his birthright, as per the Pact of Ice and Fire. TLDR / CONCLUSION One of the dragon eggs laid by Vermax in the crypts of Winterfell has hatched at some point. The dragon was freed during the sack of Winterfell and was seen by Summer flying away. The dragon is on Skagos. This is why Davos needs to go there and why his plotline was pushed to the Winds of Winter. The existence of that dragon has to be revealed at the same time as the secret in the crypts. A fourth dragon will allow Jon and Aegon to ride dragons at the same time in the final act of the story. This seems likely because Aegon will only die towards the end. [EDIT: Typos and emphasis.]
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BlazBlue: Central Fiction All Win Quotes - YouTube
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