Now I've Seen A Ton Of You Asking Why People (like Me) Ship Ribbun

Now I've seen a ton of you asking why people (like me) ship Ribbun

I have 2 words for you Character. Development.

A common criticism I see of the ship is that Jax bullies Gangle, which is understandable, but let me make this clear: I don't ship them in a "boy bullies girl because he secretly likes her" way. I ship them in a "Jax is an emotionally stunted person with unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as acting like a jerk to distance himself from others, and he needs to get his shit together" kind of way. Jax is waist deep in denial about caring for other people and doesn't allow himself to feel certain emotions or form relationships with others. He'd rather make them hate him so he doesn't have to go through the pain of losing them/they won't feel bad when he abstracts one day. Obviously this cycle is harmful to himself and to others, and at some point Jax has to realize that what he's doing isn't the way to go. And what better way to make him finally realize that than to give him a wake up call with the person who deals with his shit the most— Gangle. I want Gangle to snap at him one day. I want her to stand up to him. I want her to yell and scream and call him out on his behavior. I want Jax to be ridden with guilt and remorse and realize just how much his actions have affected her, himself, and others. I want Jax to take responsibility. I want him to face his issues and accept the consequences of what he's done. I want him to buckle down and put in the effort to be a better person and make things right with Gangle despite knowing nothing will ever make up for the damage he's done, not because he wants her to forgive him, but because she deserves better and he KNOWS that. I want Gangle and Jax to come to an understanding. I want them to gradually build a better relationship with each other. I want them to slowly open up to one another as they spend more time together. I want Jax to allow himself to be vulnerable around someone and express his true feelings. I want Gangle to gain more confidence as she spends time with Jax and grow as a person as well, one step at a time. I want them to give each other strength and face their demons together. Not everything is fixed with a love confession. Jax's actions aren't magically forgiven, it doesn't make everything okay. I want Jax to earn it. THIS IS WHY I SHIP RIBBUN If people can ship him with Pomni or Ragatha or anyone else, then shipping him with Gangle should be accepted too. Gangle isn't the only one that gets picked on by Jax, he does that with everyone, you just see it more prominently with Gangle in the pilot. Also not all ships need to be pure and good. Some ships are interesting because it's like watching a train wreck.

And really, this ship isn't that much different from a typical "enemies to lovers" story.

My love language is the block button

Things antis need to actually get acquainted with

The block button

The AO3 tagging system

The block button

Blocking keywords on twitter and other social platforms

Not clicking on fanfics that have blatant warnings on them for triggering topics

Dear God the block button

Zeus: "If you don't end him now, you'll have no one left to save."

Athena: "Finish it."

Aeolus: "The end always justifies the means."

Poseidon: "Ruthlessness is mercy."

Hermes: "You can be hurt or you can beat her. ... I'll help you conquer her."

Tiresias: "I see a man who gets to make it home alive, but it's no longer you."

Hestia, probably:

You just described why I have problems with this arc thank you sm!

Honestly I just exited to see Loke again after him being irrelevant for the rest of the anime but man it's very disappointing unfortunately. I need Loke appreciation arc so bad :(

The Fairy Tail anime should not have made the Eclipse Spirits arc.

Spoiler Warning

I was super excited for this arc. I knew it was filler and would end up relatively inconsequential to the main story because it can’t (or at least shouldn’t) mess with manga canon, but I felt like the Eclipse designs were really cool (most of them anyway) and the celestial spirits were finally getting the attention that they so deserved! So when I finally got to watching it as the episodes came out week by week, I was so disappointed to slowly witness the anime equivalent of a train wreck that only got worse with every new release.

It’s bad. Might as well start with that. Plain and simple. It’s horrible. It lures the viewer in with an intriguing premise: Lucy’s golden spirits aren’t appearing when summoned, her silver spirits are harmed and in distress. Suddenly, her beloved Zodiacs appear before her —having taken on completely new forms— to declare their freedom from the shackles of celestial contracts; even though they have no memory of Lucy and what they’ve been through together.

And, already, therein lies the anime’s first mistake. The Zodiacs, simultaneously, have absolutely no recollection of their previous lives or masters, and yet also harbour a deeper resentment for both. So much so that they are willing to give up their immortality and lives just for a taste of some ‘true freedom’. This implies that, despite the amnesia, there is deeply-rooted residual trauma that Lucy and friends could have addressed in order to reach out to them. Although Lucy, famous for being especially respectful of spirits, may not have done anything specifically wrong, this could still be a good chance for her to better understand what freedom, bond and loyalty actually mean to her spirits. And then, she could readjust to meet their needs. Instead, the anime gets very stuck by the fact that they’ve forgotten everything. So the spirits just end up sounding like petulant children, covering their ears. The anime can’t decide whether we, the viewers, should be taking their concerns seriously or just feeling bad for Lucy who has to deal with her oddball pesky spirits again- But This Time, They Might Die!! Edition.

One could argue that the anime didn’t want to explore the same concept of freedom 12 times over. Except, they didn’t have to. There are so many different ways to explore what freedom means to each spirit, especially since each one has a room dedicated to them. It’s a perfect yet wasted opportunity to actually delve into each spirit and how they feel about their existence. Some quick, underdeveloped ideas: Leo could have been a reflection on what it means to have power, but the way that that power is used is out of his control; Aries could be a deep-dive into how to deal with abuse and trauma when stuck with a soft heart; Aquarius could have a been a deliberation on independence vs codependence; Virgo— exploring the difference between loyalty and servitude, etc.

One may argue that it would have taken too much time to do that though, considering the allotted amount of episodes for the arc (being 15). But I would argue that some of the *checks Wikipedia* 10.5 extra filler episodes before and after this arc could have been used for this purpose, instead of filling more space with (cute, but mostly mediocre) one-shots that, honestly, could have just been OVAs. I don’t think they’re useless or anything, I just feel that those episodes could have been better spent on making the Eclipse arc actually good. (Except Kemo-Kemo~ sweet baby’s story is exactly where it should be and he deserves so much love.)

However, we instead get a hodgepodge of slapstick gags and situational ironies in nonsensical minigame-esque battles. Taurus getting defeated because he’s a germaphobe? Really? You’d rather make fun of OCD (or other related neurodivergent diagnoses) over just actually having a meaningful conversation about what Taurus wants to achieve out of this rebellion? A boring Game Show where Levy is forced to reveal her oh-so-not-secret crush? Magic The Gathering Scorpio??? Don’t even get me started on Aries and Virgo… On top of that, the characters speak to one another as if they’ve resolved… something (for example, Wendy and Aquarius wanting to play together again someday), and will see each other again in the spirits’ eclipse forms—which I had assume they were trying to revert. Unfortunately, there’s literally no point to any of their bonding… especially after they forget it all when they become normal again anyway.

Not to mention, every other conversation is just a looped wall: “Loke, I’m saving you cuz you’re my friend and Lucy is sad!” - “My name is Leo!!!”; “Virgo, let’s talk, I don’t want you to feel enslaved, I swear!” - “Yeah right, stupid human, have some mayo down your tits”; “Please, Libra, I just wanna be friends again!” - “Shut up, balance is all”. Worst of all, these are the few examples where the humans managed to break through to them minimally. Everyone else simply had no brain cells left and were just like: “Welp, guess I lost. Peace out.” It is just the laziest writing. They even chose to ignore Loke and Gray’s canonical friendship, all for the sake of making Natsu shine again… (listen, I love Natsu- but THE BROMANCE C’MON. It all just felt forced.)

And on top of that, you know all those interesting themes that could have been explored but that ultimately amount to nothing? The story then pivots and decides: “you know what? It actually DOES mean NOTHING!!!” Because (plot twist!) the freedom they actually wanted was from their power-hungry overlord beast of a King! (|Sarcasm incoming->) But of course, that wasn’t a believable enough reason for wanting freedom, and they’d rather die than ask humans for help. (Sarcasm over|) The fact that Ophiuchus tricked them into giving up their lives “for the king” without the Zodiacs realizing is probably the worst plot twist I’ve ever read.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t necessarily mind “we did this all for nothing” or “we tried to help but ended leading them to their demise” premises. Having said that, not only was this one poorly executed, but it also removes any reason for the viewer to take the spirits’ concerns seriously. After all, they were just taking out their misunderstood fear on the humans. Their feelings were misplaced, therefore we no longer have to worry about them wanting to actually leave Lucy or choosing to die. Also, why did they hurt the silver keys? Were they just acting out? Were they working under the influence of the king? Or is the implication that it’s actually the king who hurt them? If it was the Zodiac spirits who hurt them, despite the fact that the silvers are also under threat of the beast- WHY???

*siiiiigh*

In short, just because filler arcs should be inconsequential to the canon story line, that doesn’t mean that they can’t have something meaningful to explore or add to the existing story. Instead, Fairy Tail anime decided to waste everyone’s time on half-baked battles, cheap (borderline offensive) gags, and a plot twist that ultimately implies: “if the spirits don’t belong to Lucy (and Yukino), then they don’t matter.” And then— The spirits don’t even remember being saaaaved. *slow clap* Veeeery funny, anime. What a clever clever this-was-all-for-nothing final jest.

THAT'S MY BOY

Gosh he's such a mess of a wet cat i love him with all my heart <3

Thanks for the hc love it

the amount of times he forgets his name is leo and loke is embarrassing

he had to train himself out of responding to leo when he left blue pegasus (was already conditioned to only respond to karen calling out to him, if any human did). there were too many people talking about karen or leo the constellation or leo the spirit for the first few months after her death and he tried to make it not affect him by just. discarding it and taking up loke

which worked until he became leo the spirit again. it was fine sometimes, because the humans he was around most often still called him loke for the most part, but being back in the celestial world? nightmare. 'leo, can you get me the wine?' 'leo, let me cut that mane of yours' 'leo, we have a meeting in thirty' 'leo, lucys far moooo-re receptive to my flirts than yours'

it got to the point where, around the oración seis arc, loke had two masks, similar to that celestial eclipse arc in the anime. there was loke the human and leo the spirit. loke would flirt unabashedly with anything that moved, leo would focus on the mission first and relationships second. loke would grab almost anything someone handed him, leo would be far more reserved and skeptical. loke would eat almost as much as natsu for the hell of it, leo would never touch human food.

when aries showed up on tenrou, he had such an identity crisis it heavily impacted his fighting ability. he was summoned as leo, so he was trying his damnedest to not let distractions cloud his judgement, to not let relationships hinder him, to not let memories drag him down. but aries was right there and his own memories were pulling the loke mask up while still drowning him in hurt and pain and he dealt with that with the loke mask but he was summoned as leo

the more he's been able to heal from karen, the more he's able to be both leo and loke at the same time. sometimes he jokingly ignores the other spirits when they call for leo. sometimes he genuinely forgets when the humans call for loke. sometimes he gets such whiplash when a spirit calls him loke or a human calls him leo that he just short-circuits for a solid ten seconds.

it gets to the point some of the more reactive ones (aquarius, lucy, freed, sting, etc.) start calling him 'lion'. and he still forgets that he's the lion spirit, come on dude—

This is the only place where I can block negativity and drama and live happily

It’s so sad to me how scared the Twitter and Reddit refugees are of making mistakes on this website.

Dear refugees, as someone who used to be on both Twitter and Reddit but who uses Tumblr the longest of all sites (besides Youtube):

This is the website without cringe culture. Don’t be ashamed. You won’t get downvoted or beat up for even your weirdest opinions because frankly, 90% of the users on this website are either neurodivergent or queer or a mix of both (me, I’m talking about me)

This website is like the table of bullied kids you always used to avoid in highschool.

We all know we’re different, strange, cringy, obsessive.

That’s why this place holds so little judgement.

We aren’t insecure incels. We embrace our differences.

So if you want to talk about your unhealthy life obsession dedicated to a sidecharacter from an unknown animated movie from 1978 that had approximately 2 minutes of screen time - do it.

Heck even dedicate a whole sideblog to them for fucks sake.

This platform is literally what the ancient prophecy has foretold:

We are cringe, but we are free