Rivvszn - Alisha

and what happens if jing yuan succumbs to mara right when he has to fight jingliu/blade again, thus changing the commonly regarded "torturous fate" of being mara-struck to salvation from his personal worst nightmare i.e. killing his old companions with his own hands.

what then.

“Call me if you’re in a pinch, chant these words three times: ‘The Hero Appears! The Hero Appears! The Hero Appears!’”

—Peco

i've been trying to put my finger on the exact reason ping pong the animation hits so hard for a while now, and i think i finally got it : there's just so much love in it.

the effort and determination poured into creating this masterpiece, every frame painstakingly drawn by the person behind it, every dialogue voice acted in a way that transcends language barriers, transcends the screen itself, the music that pulls you along, promising an unforgettable ride if you just get up and dare to hope. kensuke ushio, i am forever grateful for your existence and your creations. i stumbled upon ping pong by accident while listening to the csm soundtrack, and it is perhaps the best thing to ever happen to me.

and of course, the story itself. the brilliant mind behind it, who put this story into words for all to see and appreciate, Taiyō Matsumoto. the way this story treats its characters, never afraid to show failure, never afraid to show flaws, never afraid to show the ugly and the regret and the desperate and the sadness. never afraid to stand back up, to show passion and friendship and hard work and determination and confidence.

it takes the characters by the hand, it takes you by the hand, and it tells you it's okay to fall because you can get up again. it redefines the word hero again and again, and stops at the simplest yet grandest form of it : the one who shows up when you call them. the one who transcends logic.

genuinely, altered my brain chemistry forever. so jealous of anyone who watches it for the first time.

using this as an opportunity to say that the hatred can be resolved SO easily because mu qing does not deserve most of the shit he gets. my boy tries so hard to be perfect and is almost always misunderstood i'm :((((( the fact that he only ever wanted hua cheng to stay alive because he KNEW the conditions hua cheng came from but couldn't bear to see him die because somewhere in there he saw his own past. jealousy didn't even cross his mind. the fact that he always, ALWAYS, admired xie lian to the point of doing anything for him, even when he thought xie lian hated him. he only left xie lian because of sheer desperation, and even then he hesitated. he came back. never once while reading tgcf did i get the impression that he was anything short of grateful to xie lian which makes him a better person than i would be if i had to consistently chalk up my achievements to someone who "allowed me to cultivate" (love you xie lian but just. no.)

the two solid reasons hua cheng hates him have a basis in misconceptions and it really fucks with my brain.

hualian is great but huaqing. ohhhh huaqing. two bastards with equally sharp tongues who will give as good as they get. but also if you dig a little deeper into their mutual dislike it's like. oh fuck they're so similar that it's easier for them to "hate" each other than admit the deeply ingrained insecurities they have.

i like the whole devoted aspect of hualian but if you shift canon a little and make it so that mu qing is the one who caught hong-er you get to see hua cheng watch someone who was born into the same situations as him, who was consistently ridiculed and treated as inferior, grow to be a fiercely powerful and loyal individual. it's not just god x devotee anymore, you've given it a raw humanizing aspect because mu qing CLAWED his way to where he is, and so did hua cheng.

even without changing canon you can see that hua cheng went down the path of surviving because gege became his reason FOR living, but mu qing has always been willing to keep himself and others afloat even as they kick and scream and beg to drown.

there's just this desperation mu qing carries in everything he does and to see that blend with hua cheng's uncaring or even disdainful attitude towards others is something that i think would be beautiful. like they balance out each other's most hidden and scarred parts so easily.

they're so similar yet so different it's like they're dancing around each other oh my fucking god i just. the parallels and possibilities huaqing has make me violently ill.

honestly it is infinitely more funnier for me to imagine that nobody has ever perceived atsumu as cocky despite him trying so hard. like first meeting he gives people that hooded eye stare and makes a sassy comment but he forgets he's usually surrounded by great volleyball players so two seconds later he's staring at them from across the net all starry-eyed and vibrating with excitement. the people at his school regularly see him getting his ass beat by osamu and the only reason they let him do that hand gesture thing at matches is because he pouts for DAYS if he doesn't get his cool™ moment. he wants to be one of those senpais who command respect forcefully but kita asks him to be responsible and he gets so excited at seeing new faces anyway that he just pampers the fuck out of his juniors, gaining respect in a completely unintended way. he probably fails to bully kids on roblox because he's sensitive as fuck and complains to aran when anyone insults him. whenever he acts up suna threatens to post embarrassing pics of him. he's one-third of the idiot msby trio. he has somehow annoyed half the japan team and iwaizumi into adopting him. he's probably forced by osamu to dress as an onigiri mascot once a month to promote the restaurant. basically let miya atsumu be a himbo sunshine loved by everyone this man is a loser omfg.

sorry but i find it extremely funny that the love interest we focus on the most in the movies :

is literally the odd one out (again, movie characterisation only!) compared to others who are shipped with thomas :

"no.....something is horribly wrong....."

— the universe when tommy is about to end up with teresa & not a bad bitch hiding behind 10 layers of sarcasm who makes his ass look like the cringe boyfailure he is.

haven't watched naruto and tbh my only impression of it being that there's an unnecessarily long arc of naruto going "SASUKE you HAVE to come back i CAN'T live without YOU 😭😭💔💔" is objectively funnier

catching up on hxh really makes me realise i forgot how brilliant of a writer togashi is. the way he's able to bring together so many characters, each with their unique goals, personalities, and abilities, and make ten different plot points converge in a beautiful web is absolutely crazy. while i do think that his hiatus helps him to some degree, i do NOT tolerate people who cannot recognize the massive creativity that goes into this manga. hxh is goddamn complicated, and every character in it is done justice in the way they're portrayed. some of the most mind boggling abilities i could never even imagine have been introduced by togashi while complying WITH the rules of the complex nen system (contamination, cat's name, bungee gum, rising sun, bodhisattva, emperor time, love dial and so many more are increasingly unique abilities which showcase how massive and nuanced togashi's power system is). every arc is consistently gripping with a healthy focus on action AND politics, wherein togashi forces you to face some of the worst deeds of society (with kakin empire being the most recent and perhaps the most disgusting example), and that is no easy feat. plus the way he's constantly able to resist the classic good triumphs evil narration, instead choosing to showcase gray characters who simply happen to have goals aligned with the "good side" and who still leave a trail of destruction in their wake?? selfishness is an extremely common theme throughout the characters, whether it's Gon's actions in Chimera Arc, Killua's possessiveness, Leorio's motivations, Kurapika's rage and grief that threatens to overpower even himself, or hell even Phantom Troupe's actions, and it really sticks with me as a reader. seriously, what an inspiration.

for a long time i thought voyeurism just meant, like, pirate sex because i confused the word with voyages

yoohankim domestic au is so amusing to me because in my mind their average day goes something like han sooyoung sitting on the sofa and arguing with her editor on call while periodically pausing to yell slurs in kim dokja's direction as he loudly reads some fuckass smut book written for bored housewives and yoo joonghyuk lies in a corner listening to knife sounds asmr on full blast trying to sleep 😭😭

whc2 spoilers

just thinking about the fact that juntae gets introduced in the same way beomseok did, and parallels him all the time, and he's the one who ultimately tells sieun "it wasn't your fault" in regards to suho.