ryn

21 // tbhk elder // lurker till the hiatus ends,,, unpolished thoughts and fun stuff on the sideblog, -> cherrydotrambles <- (really only active there nowadays, thanks 2 the Drought)

[cherrydotrambles]

unlike teru and akane, nene never saw kou or mitsubas’s corpses in the well following their original new present death. i thought that contributed heavily to her mind palace recreation of their dead bodies as depicted in 122- so sanitized and idyllic, and even more so, very contradictory to kou’s depiction of new present amane as some sort of vicious axe murderer.

they don’t look very axe murdered to me!

and i think it’s interesting how abstracted their condition post-well-death is depicted in 128, too!!!

so cutesy 😇😇 almost like an afterthought for her lol

a lot of this is probably just nene being sort of unserious and silly about the whole situation, little miss lighthearted as always, but i thought it was interesting how her unique position of never having seen mitsuba or kou’s corpses shapes her perspective and recollection:)

[cherrydotrambles]

kou's (intentional) character regression across the timelines is soooo funny to me he went from "who could ever find happiness in a fake world" to okay maybe i could find happiness in a fake world if i just stuck my head Really Really Deep in the sand

(kou, fingers in his ears) LALALA I CANT HEAR YOU !!! SOUSUKE NEVER DIED !!!

[cherrydotryn]

user @poopyfarts1 asked in the comments if i had any ideas as to why this may be. so of course i owe them an answer!

thought 1: i think there are tangible personality differences between old present kou and new present kou just because of their different life experiences. one could consult 116 to see that new present kou (who wasn't kitchen-bound and had more exorcist-related experiences) was seemingly more adept/confident in spirit-related affairs. as an example, kou had to have the concept of a yorishiro explained to him by hanako in ch.6, yet in this timeline he seems perfectly knowledgable of the mechanics on his own.

it's kind of backwards logic to say that kou is more experienced in this timeline and yet less brave, but i do think an argument can be made that his personally developed differently in this timeline, just as a result of different life experiences (seems to be a reccuring tbhk motif, huh?)

thought 2: well, the situations really are different, to be fair. picture perfect was so Obviously fake, and the sense of wrongness that kou and nene experienced was immediate and disorienting. new present life isn't their classmates crumbling in front of them- it's weird dreams, it's déjà vu, and it's that finicky feeling that maybe you're forgetting something.

thought 3: can i make it about mitsukou for a second? unlike both the old present and the picture perfect world, this is a reality where sousuke gets to live. if you wanted to be truly devastating and say that kou never really got over sousuke, this would be your best argument for it.

guilty as charged :(

it's not just sousuke, by the way! his mother gets to live, too! he isn't a stand-in for his dead mom here!! his dad is even more involved in his life?!? on paper, kou's life is a lot better in this timeline. it had allure and promise that the picture perfect world just didn't :(

my best guess is that its a combination of all three of these things? maybe?? would love to hear any further thoughts on this :))

[cherrydotryn]

(rough) translation of the soukou bonus comic 💪💪

[cherrydotryn]

tbhk volume 24 soukou bonus comic ^_^ ill tl it later ….

[cherrydotryn]

once again thinking about kou snatching hanako’s line here. aidairo how about next time you give us a timeline where they get along