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Franziska doing her best to not fall after Maya's surprise tackle hug <3

This original watercolor sketch painting is available in my shop and if you're interested in your own custom piece, my commissions are open~

Also the digital version of my FranMAYa Zine is now available on my ko-fi!

hychlorions

some swimsuit headcanons because it's summer i guess 😎👍

bloodraven55

inject this shit into my veins right now I ADORE SEEING LESBIANS JUST BEING HAPPY AND CUTE AND IN LOVE

tofusquisha

have your laughs; i'll make my own

cloudemojie

assigned kitty at birth

rorynni

thinking about the vbs sleepover after rad blast when ken made the boys sleep downstairs as if an has any interest in those two whatsoever

tom-is-online

what do you think the worst thing any main project sekai character has done?

feel free to be as specific as u want idgaf im just v curious and bored

ravenclod

i blame this more on writing but the way vbs did fuck all during LUTF to help an and just kept singing

like i mean kohane was mildly concerned but akitoya had like NO REACTION to an freaking out apart from when it related to rad weekend/the rap battle shit and even koha didnt do anything

it just pisses me off they didnt rlly address her grief at all

mattielavender

I feel like they tried to patch it up in the area convos and some side stories (like kohanes where she calls with an and is w her and helps her feel better about everything, or where they hang out and take a break as a squad to help an rest from it all) but them just doing nothing at the scene of the battle does come off as,, inconsiderate at best, downright unfeeling at worst

u could argue that for example it was akitos biggest dream right there being redefined and his entire resolve, what he dedicated his entire life to being questioned so its understandable he wouldnt take a second to think of what this means for an, but yeah still

monimolimnion

ok hi sorry i have thoughts about this

To preface: I certainly don't think LUTF is an example of perfect writing, and I think it's not only held back by the 8-chapter limit (it's already very long within those) but by how much of the narrative is necessarily taken up by RADDER flashbacks.

However!

I think takes like this misunderstand something really important about VBS's narrative: it's a shounen, with certain genre expectations along with that, and it is also written within an in-universe culture where all high emotions are expressed through music, not through words.

It's not that nobody on Vivid Street comforts or encourages each other by talking, far from it (Find a Way Out is more than enough example of that), but it's a genre expectation that moments of high tension aren't resolved through talking. Would you expect a basketball anime to do anything off-court except character work and heightening tension, for the inevitable next game? It's like in musical theater, where the genre conventions allow characters to break into song once they feel too much emotion to expess it in dialogue - the big moments are always where the tension is highest, and it can't just be released quietly, that's not how the story payoff works.

You can find this motif explained in-universe in other events that characterise VBS as well, such as Let's Study Hard - An expresses to Mizuki that she's an open and friendly person specifically because Vivid Street taught her to express herself with new people through music, and that they learn about each other and can find common ground more easily through music (specifically duelling).

Because of this, the out-of-world genre expectation which is explained by an in-universe culture, I would argue that stopping to help her was the opposite of what An actually wanted in that moment.

An wanted to sing. She wanted to surpass her heroes. Even in a moment where she was experiencing unimaginable agony and betrayal, all An has done since she was born is express herself through singing, and fight with others as a way to understand them and herself - and you see that reflected in the narrative! As soon as VBS pick themselves up to keep fighting, she gets right back up alongside them, understanding that their actions meant they had her back and she wasn't alone. All she wants is to understand Taiga, and to understand herself, and to do that she needs to sing.

I wanted to see Vivid BAD SQUAD offer her words of condolence as much as the next guy, but not right then, because that's not what the narrative called for in that moment. Mattie pointed out correctly that VBS gave her as much verbal emotional support as they could after the fact, which imo is all she could have asked for (and I imagine there was a lot more offscreen.)

But by fighting back in the moment, they were supporting her. They were telling her everything people wanted them to say out loud, but speaking the language An was born into, which is exactly what she needed to hear.

mattielavender

thank you for your addition madi!!! i absolutely agree with you, we need to consider the genre conventions we are operating within too. what we see onscreen is not gonna be 1:1 with real life and we have to look for what the story is actually trying to say through its own symbolic cues - in case of vbs, singing.

and the entire situation with anchan communicating via rivalry/singing instead of words could be found in whip the wimp girl too, i think - an described her fears regarding kohane in a short summary, and didn't let her say anything back. i saw some people people argue that we lacked an actual, in-depth conversation afterwards. but considering the genre convention and the meaning of singing to an herself, battling kohane head on without wasting too much time on explanations was actually the most straightforward and impactful way they could communicate.

so going by this line of thought, vbs's reaction (or lack thereof) to an finding out about nagi is not that inappropriate. we just gotta accept that they have a different medium of communication to ours. while still being conscious of the format constraints and writing quality, ofc.

oh and dw, you didnt come off as rude at all!! im really glad you said this, i rlly like hearing ur thoughts, and it enriched the conversation!!

#YEA ALL OF THIS.#vbs