Frequently Watching, Wreading, and Writing

[dayeongi]

STRINGS

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: KPop Demon Hunters (2025) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jinu/Rumi (KPop Demon Hunters), Mira/Zoey (KPop Demon Hunters) Characters: Jinu (KPop Demon Hunters), Rumi (KPop Demon Hunters), Mira (KPop Demon Hunters), Zoey (KPop Demon Hunters), Celine (KPop Demon Hunters), Bobby (KPop Demon Hunters), Original Male Character(s) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, POV Alternating, POV Third Person, Jinu Loves Rumi (KPop Demon Hunters), Rumi Loves Jinu (KPop Demon Hunters), Angst with a Happy Ending, POV Rumi (KPop Demon Hunters), POV Jinu (KPop Demon Hunters), Background zoemira, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Reincarnation, Soul-Searching, Mixture of Buddhism Confucianism and Shamanism, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Deities, Shamanism, Red String of Fate, Fate Worse Than Death, Happy Ending, Self-Worth, Romance, Will update tags if needed, First Love Interrupted Series: Part 4 of Echoes Summary:

Sequel to ECHOES. It had seemed so promising, too, the way the mudang described all of Rumi’s symptoms – that restless feeling, like there was something she needed to do or somewhere she needed to go, her waking up crying from whatever dreams she kept having that she could not remember, and the lethargy and the feeling of lacking something. Yearning for something that she just couldn’t put her finger on. “You need to find the man,” the mudang said. “Find him, and soon everything will return to you. You’re suffering because you couldn’t let him go.” Rumi asked if maybe she meant her dad, but the mudang had rattled her bells, and fanned with her fan, and shaken her head. “No, no. This is a romantic partner. A man you were separated from. A handsome one.” Which just couldn’t be because self-aware, nearly-ascetic, career-focused Rumi had never dated anyone – ever.

[flightfoot]

So I watched KPop Demon Hunters and yeah, that was good! We've been in dire need of good musicals, so this filled that hole. If I had to describe it in terms of other things, I'd say that it's like Turning Red meets Jentry Chau.

I really liked all the musical numbers and fight scenes (especially since those were also usually musical numbers), and I thought the movie did a good job of portraying how distraught Rumi was over her patterns, and feeling like she was wrong and wouldn't be accepted because of them. It captured that emotion well.

As for criticisms... I was kind of annoyed when the girls' eyes would turn into emojis or when they were made to be super goofy. I can kind of see it being part of the aesthetic of the movie, but it didn't jive with me personally.

On a more serious level, I think that the lack of development for Mira and Zoey really hurt the movie. They seemed like interesting personalities, but I could see why, with the short runtime, there may not have been time to give them the sort of attention that was paid to Rumi.

That being said, the movie REALLY needed to actually show a bit more focus on Mira and Zoey after the breakup. They went from pointing their swords at Rumi as she was breaking down, upset and scared, because of her patterns, to suddenly joining in with her song once she started up at the stadium. And yeah, it was a good song, but... what actually changed? The movie doesn't make it clear what changed about how Mira and Zoey perceived Rumi, to make them suddenly be buddy-buddy with her again and not, ya know, seeming to be tempted to kill her. If the movie had shown them talking about Rumi more, perhaps interacting with Celine, realizing that maybe they were in the wrong here, then it would've worked much better. As it is, it kinda makes it feel like Mira and Zoey were doing whatever was needed for the plot, regardless of whether it made sense with their previous characterization.

[reganisdefinitelyprobablyhuman]

I agree Mira and Zoey's development was a bit rushed, but they didn't just act out of plot convenience when siding again with Rumi. There was a major shift in how they perceived Rumi. After learning Rumi was half demon and working with Jinu, Mira and Zoey were upset that Rumi was deceptive and uncertain of her motivations now. How much did she identify with the demons because of her half demon heritage?Also, I don't think they wanted to kill Rumi but were taking more precaution as they couldn't fully process what was happening. They pointed their weapons but didn't attack.

Nonetheless, their trust in her was shaken, but Rumi proved that she was on the human sides in the end. When the humans were at their most vulernable because the demons were on the verge of taking everyone's souls, Rumi showed up to recreate the Hanmoon and admitted that she was wrong for not trusting her friends and waking them up from the trance so they could fight the demons together. She showed that she always shared the motivation to protect humanity and that is why they were able to rekindle their relationship.

Due to the limited run time, there are some threads that were not resolved or fleshed out. For example, I would imagine Zoey and Mira would feel guilty for how they turned on their friend during her lowest moment, and after learning that Celine reinforced in Rumi that she would not have been accepted, they would understand more why Rumi never told them. If it weren't for Celine, I think she would have revealed to them her identity. There was a comic here that depicted their apology to Rumi that I liked. I imagine that they had this interaction off screen.

The run time limited the storytelling, but I think they did great working within that limitation.

[sheiyavlad]

Switch 🔄 Powers

[newenglandotaku]

[henkeboy]

"Anya wil get da starchips and make papa prooud!"

Anya would be in Slifer Red, no question...

[wondrousmay]

Endo-sensei’s commemorative illustration to celebrate the 100th chapter of SPYxFAMILY! (Source)

His comment:

“Thanks to everyone, I was able to continue to the 100th chapter. Thank you.

This is a memorable (?) chapter, but I don't want to worry too much about such things and just want to proceed steadily and carefully.”

[tazuransi]

yuri babysitting

[micia-posts-stuff]

Damianya doodle dump part 1

(Click for better quality)

[roucaelum-art]

Twiyor week Day 3: nightmare

[peachiiwren]

chloe doodles after today's chapter

[peachiiwren]

hopefully this will actually show up in the tags this time! mini comic for ep 5

[s-p-r-i-n-g-t-i-m-e]

mayhaps this is a hot take but I truly dislike “Loid gets murderous and overprotective of Anya dating Damian” content

like. there are sm reasons I dislike it

first off, just fundamentally, I hate that trope. I think parents being protective of children in general is cute, and even maybe protective against their partners to an extent, but it rlly feeds into the Western (esp American) notion of parents owning their children. it gets even grosser when it’s the dad and his daughter, it’s just a branch of ‘women and their purity having to be guarded until they’re properly married’ sexism

secondly, if this is pre-reveal (either Damian comes over/talks to Anya in front of Loid and it’s p obvious he has a crush, so Loid, of course, course notices, OR somehow, post-canon yet not revealed, they get together), Loid would absolutely use that to advance Operation Strix lol

obviously Loid is NOT a bad or uncaring father, he is absolutely not that, BUT he does also very vehemently care about achieving world peace thru his spy work, AND ANYA UNDERSTANDS AND EVEN AGREES WITH THIS (to the highest extent she can as a child, at least). he would never partake in extensive manipulation that’d harm Anya emotionally (or even Damian tbh, his whole goal is to create a world where no children have to cry) but he would DEFINITELY encourage their relationship in order to eventually, somehow get to Desmond the ghoul-eyed freak

thirdly, even if this is POST-reveal, I still don’t think Loid would be unreasonable. sure, he may apprehensive due to Damian’s family and more concrete examples of Anya growing up (MAYBE bc honestly I think Loid would be ecstatic with every milestone in Anya’s life considering how genuinely supportive and proud of her that he is) BUT. but

he, again, not only wants to create a world where no children have to cry, so he clearly values the youth and their quality of life, but ALSO KNOWS abt how shitty Damian’s father is. personally, I think he’d be GLAD that Damian has a safe place to come to, with ppl who’ll support him (unconsciously, bc Loid is very oblivious to his own emotions tbh)

anyways, tldr; the “Loid being super hostile to Damian dating Anya” trope is tired and sucks and we should move onto appreciating a trope that honours the CORE of sxf, more found family, where Damian joins the Forgers, even before he and Anya potentially marry (even before they date if possible tbh)

[eternal-echoes]

Anya's outfits from Season 1 Second Cour:

[spyxfamily-yapper]

I love how Twilight both severely underestimates and overestimates Bond's abilities and intelligence. Like one moment he's like

"this dog is so weird he's just a silly little dog guy he's not built for all this attacking stuff maybe it's too much for such a goofy little doggie. why is he grabbing people??? he must not understand me at all hoho. I guess he needs more training heehee"

and then he's like

"dog. I see you have come here to avenge your brothers and sisters. let us join forces and bring about peace by combining our efforts. I see you have used your acute sense of smell to detect dangers, you are truly a capable partner"

[fijiwater33]

Anya isn’t into romance shows and movies like Becky is, but she would definitely be the type to have a bunch of ships in all the shows she watches. She would totally ship Bondman with a femme fatale assassin that would appear on the show for an obvious reason

[piracytheorist]

What if Frankie found out about Yor and/or Anya's secrets first? With Anya, he has more loyalty to Loid and he knows he'd eventually have to tell him.

You know, you're right, as much fun as it would be to have Franky play along with Anya and protect her secret, that secret means she very much knows about Loid being a spy as well as about many many of his spy coworkers. And himself! And he knows it's a heavy information to have, and Twilight should know how deeply he has been compromised. It's all fun and games until you remember they're all working to maintain a peace that's as fragile as glass. Just by reading their minds, Anya makes herself either a target... or an accomplice. It's a dangerous situation and as much as I believe Franky would be on Anya's side and would have some fun teasing Loid with this knowledge that Loid doesn't have, he would need to let him know about it.

Now it would be different for him to learn about Yor; as far as Franky or Twilight are concerned, if she doesn't pose a threat to them or their work then what she does is none of their business. I don't know about Franky, but he certainly knows that Twilight would have no standing to judge her morals. So, Yor's secret wouldn't be his to tell and again, as long as she stays out of Twilight's business then he also has no reason to expose her. Now that could provide for some humor in the story, where Franky knows Loid is a spy and Yor is an assassin, they know he knows about them but they don't know about each other, and he tries to balance everything out, while Anya knows everything and can't say a word. Like, imagine a scene where he's babysitting her because Yor and Loid had "work" to do, and they're both pretending that it's city hall and hospital work respectively, when they know they're out there doing assassin and spy work. How would that conversation go, especially with Anya reading Franky's mind and seeing how hard he's trying to not spill everything?

Yeah, I think that would provide the humor SxF is so well-known for XD

(anime only fan here, don't spoil me for the manga)

[reganisdefinitelyprobablyhuman]

There's also this sad scenario with Franku learning about Anya, where Anya begs Franky to not tell Loid because she's afraid she'll leave her and Franky will via his thoughts reveal that he had always planned to leave if the mission fails or succeeds. Anya unfortunately hasn't realized that the success of STRIX means Twilight will have to abandon the Loid Forger cover. She may thinks the operation is waaay longer term than it is. I think a couple years at most WISE would allow it to go on, but not for Anya's entire school career.

With a Franky and Yor reveal, it would really depend on the circumstances.

Franky learns about Yor but Yor doesn't know Franky knows -- not a big deal and could have potential humor. I really like your babysitting scenario. A lot of layers.

Franky learns and Yor knows Franky knows -- this might put Frankie in danger because of how secretive the Garden is. Frankie would obviously keep it to himself and Yor might let him off, but is especially dangerous if Yor learns he is an informant. This makes him a concern she feels she would have to notify Shopkeeper even though she might trust Franky. He might promise to her to keep her secret but she might still feel obligated to tell her boss, which puts a target on his back.

I wonder what other people think?

[floralcavern]

We are missing out on peak potential for Loid x Yor’s ship name to be Princess Twilight.