Winter Capes

Bao Tran Trung (Vietnamese, based Saigon, Vietnam) - 1: Dreamer at Day  2: Insomniac at Night, 2021, Photography

What if the Beasts and Ancients swapped?

Once the beloved Hero who brought upon the gift of Knowledge to all Cookiekind, Blighted Orchid Cookie sought knowledge never meant for the minds of those baked by the Witches, succumbing to madness after learning what should have been left unknown. Now, the Beast of Revelation seeks to undo what he's started, blessing cookies with peaceful, ignorant bliss, forever unknowing.

Born of a thirst for knowledge, Luminous Cream Cookie dances on the edge of the foreign and the familiar, a storyteller draped in silks and half-truths. As the Light of Wonder, he does not seek to know all- rather, he delights in the unknown, weaving tales that inspire and questions that linger.

--- so im starting a new au LMAO

it's called LegendSwap, and the basic premise is that i take the beasts and the ancients and flip the script :) if this gets enough traction i might do more with them, but we'll see (thinking of doing an ask blog perchance)

next up: VOLITION

(blighted orchid redesign because i hate this one)

how i look with they/them in my bio

Holly and pure vanilla are always one to care for others despite themselves,, I just love this moment that highlights Holly caring nature AUGHHHH

Ok I have to talk about the translation here.

In JP, Yoru says 私とやりたいのか？(watashi to yaritai no ka?) "You wanna do it with me?" which ofc, has common usage in referring to participation in sex with someone.

The availability of that implication is interesting here following my recent thread about Yoru and Denji's relationship.

In that it sounds like Yoru's reminder to Denji about what their relationship is based around and who holds the leash because of it. An owner reminding her growling dog of the promised treat if he behaves.

It's a romance that operates on a level of superficiality that's thinner than every woman Denji has had that run in with so far at least with its current presentation, that it feels like Denji being thrown a bone that's well bare-bones. Esp with the appearance of Chimerasaw Man here. Like ok the hero kinda gets what he's always wanted but is this realllyy what he wants? If he just wants to get it on with Yoru why get mad that she's devilishly cruel? She's after all, his "only woman". Yoru nipping his alternative convictions to keep him obedient.

But the double entendre of the phrasing works for misdirection too!

Especially so when it's the virtuous, just replica of Chainsaw Man that Yoru takes aim at!! That it's this voice of justice that inquires Denji if his conflict with Yoru is a falsehood and Denji's like NOPE she's just that bad!!

And Yoru responds by saying it's cold, that she's going home! The coldness befalling them in Denji's awareness, his distancing from apathy, ignorance because of Yoru's actions.

The heat Yoru represents for Denji thus far in the place of his family, so he doesn't have to face the cold.

But knowing now that Famine was in fact Death kinda further solidifies my thoughts on Denji's continued distancing of what death carries for him. Death as the bogeyman essentially. Denji inching closer towards fire/sex for warmth so he's further from the cold (the snow). The poignancy of his house w Nayuta and the pets going up in flames as he leans into being the CSM bc the heat from the fire that destroyed his normal beckons to him in the wake of his loss, him telling Pochita his next dream is "I want to be Chainsaw Man". Denji reminiscing Power and Control in what is already lost as Yoru makes him hers. His family the frozen potstickers that Yoru cooks with the heat she provides through sex and romance in making him her family as the potstickers take a messy form through her cooking and love. But then Denji cooks the potstickers himself to revive that normal in some fashion against the backdrop of death with him and AsaYoru at the center strung by their family.

Just as the heat of Makima's tea warmed up his cold hands at her house in his grief over Aki as her dog, the comfort of not having to think.

AND THEN THIS????

The heroic Chainsaw Man defended, saved by the cluster of his fandom just as much as they've become his collateral.

That these civillians are made inextricable from this embodiment of Chainsaw Man as justice as what should be Denji's justice as a hero. The heart that made him a saviour to the people in the first place.

I see what is represented here to be a case of Denji's heroism being presented to us via Chimerasaw Man in Denji's actions and his heart vs Yoru in Denji's desire and material goal. The way Denji's hero's journey is officiated through Makima's promise, teaching of sex by defeating Gun.

And we see it again in Yoru's promise of sex, love by defeating Death. The notion that Denji's heroism is marked by achievement reached by being unthinking, unfeeling. Motivation pushed by plot over character nuance.

If Denji has Yoru, he doesn't have to worry about saving lives, only killing Death matters, only having sex matters.

But there's more than what meets the eye, just as fondling Power's boobs wasn't the only reason Denji cared enough to save Power, but because he empathised with her feelings for Meowy.

Chimerasaw Man using the coldness of the snow in Denji's hands and the height which his heart and body falls in his remembrance of it against him as a mirror of justice.

Him saving Asa from falling in this shared cycle of pain and grief in his inheritance of Aki's that led Aki to saving Angel.

The way we're presented w this just 2 chapters after ch.200 as its counterpoint.

What does being Chainsaw Man mean for Denji? Is Chainsaw Man all sex and violence or is there still heart behind his story despite it all, with a life like his in a world like csm.

What makes The Chainsaw Man Denji and vice versa.

I'm gonna make the most girl failure x stunning put together girl thing you have ever seen. New cookie run ocs are being made JUST so I can make one shots of them.

French Fry Cookie and Milk Shake Cookie. WILL. HAPPEN.

E quem é nesse mundo que a respeita nós, pobres, infelizes e desgraçados? A vingança tem de vir pra curar os anos de sofrimento. // And who on earth respects us, the poor, miserable and dishonored? Revenge must come to heal all these years of suffering.

Antonio das Mortes (1969) dir.: Glauber Rocha

New Secret Knots comic: "Cryptid".

Mitsuba as the Goodbye Eri cover