i've put off answering this bc every time i see it i think of them stealing glances in the dim tv light and gradually moving closer until she's slightly resting against him and falls asleep watching something he's not really interested in so he pays more attention to the sound of her breathing and her weight at his side. silver wolf comes out of her room to get something and is about to speak to them before he signals to her to be quiet and gestures at kafka and she raises her eyebrows but doesn't say anything bc kafka's been very tired recently although she tries not to show it. there's something very comforting to me about the thought of her feeling safe enough to fall asleep with someone else so close by and ofc she's shared hotel rooms and even beds with each of them at some point but to willingly be close enough to someone long enough to fall asleep on them is incredibly rare. she's a light sleeper so she wakes up when he tries to better secure her blanket around her and since he's so accustomed to reading her by now he catches her hesitation before she announces that she's moving to her room. and he just nods bc he couldn't possibly selfishly suggest that she stays. he believes it's not his place to make such a request and he's not even certain why he wants her to stay regardless so when she tells him to sleep well all he manages is a quiet "you too" and as he watches her leave he wonders why her absence bothers him

they're so annoying and i hope they explode

so sorry for taking nearly a month to respond to this omg 😭 i finally finished the current event and while i can't remember the dialogue well in the previous ones you mentioned i did enjoy their interactions here! i think her kindness towards march is mostly bc she's a nice and thoughtful person overall (i feel like the fandom generally looks past this in favor of reducing her to a stereotypical gamer), she's willing to invest herself into anything/anyone that interests her and i agree that she likely appreciates march's self expression, curious nature and pursuit of enjoyment! i love the encounter session where silver wolf proposes adding hacker apps to march's phone and if you select the "is there a total victory?" button silver wolf responds with "your words invoke a sense of thoughtless beauty" which i think is really funny and cute. i'd really love to see them interact again in canon!! i can see them having a very fun and cute friendship and enjoying spending time together

love that little guy so much, same as always. i really loved his conversation with yunli where he was discussing when he truly felt fear for the first time and has been trying to find happiness again. he tries so hard all of the time and even with defeat fresh in his mind he still says his reason to keep going is bc he loves the feeling of giving it his all against any obstacle. i'm looking forward to seeing how he continues to grow and i think it's interesting how through yunli's comments about his sword and how he isn't deserving of it we're getting another look at his emotional turmoil and a hint at the danger that can come from it, whether it's directed towards himself or others. i need to fold him in bubble wrap

their first meeting is so crazy to me bc he's spent 700+ years suffering largely in isolation and kafka and firefly have to kill and restrain him to even have a chance to talk to him and when she uses her whisper his mind is able to focus on her words more than his pain and it's possibly the first time anyone had spoken to him in a gentle tone since his exile. on elio's behalf she offers the end he's been seeking and this is her first time suppressing his mara so her approach is more to try to quiet his thoughts entirely rather than targeting anything specific but with the remaining clarity he has he recognizes her sadness and even speculates about her loss which is very significant to me bc all things considered he has no reason to give any thought to her beyond what threat she poses, especially since he's spent so long away from others suffocated by his own torment and feeling disconnected from his personhood, yet when his own pain temporarily subsides his thoughts linger on her as a person, not just her offer or the quietness caused by her whisper

me when two characters who've dedicated themselves to becoming weapons to serve larger purposes recognize each other's suffering bc they're both familiar with grief and they see and treat each other as people with their own thoughts and feelings regardless of their respective beliefs about themselves instead of viewing each other as a means to achieving their own goals (cat exploding gif)

i feel like this question is kind of vague considering how disabilities are incredibly varied but if you're referring to his sight i have wondered if he has some extent of blindness since kafka says "if we had elio's eyes the world would not appear as it does to you and i" but that could just be referring to his abilities and belief system so i'm not sure 😭 it's killing me that we don't know more about him but it does seem like kafka serves as his eyes when it comes to the present moment so i wonder what implications that has, if any, for his senses. that being said the others are canonically disabled so i wouldn't be surprised if elio is as well. i'm sure i'll have more thoughts on this once we learn more about him. i hope this answers your question! feel free to comment or submit another ask if it didn't

i really love how hoyo continuously emphasizes how powerful, respected and important feixiao is, especially when it comes to making it very clear that feixiao is jiaoqiu and moze's priority. i think in an effort to discredit romantic interpretations people are unfortunately pushing against that fact and i'm not surprised but like i've said before it is always at the expense of the woman character and hoyo's intentions for her. i think the yaotrio have an interesting dynamic, i appreciate their closeness and like i've said with the sh, previous experiences impact how they express themselves so while their closeness, especially when it comes to centering feixiao, isn't particularly conventional, it still successfully portrays how her importance and their respective traumas shape what their understanding of care is and how it can tie into an individual's sense of self worth

when it comes to feiqiu i think viewing them in a romantic context can expand upon their existing dynamic instead of limiting it so i am inclined to view them as having something going on and like kafblade, i can see their trauma limiting how they actually allow themselves to experience relationships, platonic and romantic. i'm honestly not really focused on feixiao ships at this time so i don't have many thoughts but i do like oomfs' posts about them

in regards to 2.4 overall i think hoyo continues to explore trauma and trauma responses in ways that are meaningful and realistic which is something i really appreciate. they're continuing to expand on the complexity of jing yuan and yanqing's relationship which inherently explores the characters' individual traumas, yunli's firm beliefs around herself and her responsibilities very directly parallels real children's developmental trauma responses and jiaoqiu's character provides an approach to another aspect of the trauma of war. we've already seen it from the perspectives of high ranking officials, soldiers and the children raised in military states so i appreciate them exploring it from the perspective of a medic as well since working in the medical field overall can be incredibly traumatic regardless of the position and context

i'm really looking forward to seeing feixiao, lingsha and yunli more and learning more about them and i was pleasantly surprised by the comments on blade/yingxing bc i wasn't 100% sure that he'd come up but i'm glad hoyo's continuing to emphasize how he will never lose his humanity or control how others see hirm regardless of how he views himself

i usually don't come up with hcs until i know more about the character so i don't currently feel confident saying too much about elio as an individual 😔💔 i felt similarly about sam until firefly's release and i'm also hesitant to speculate too much about kafka's upbringing for the same reason. that being said it's canon that kafka and elio have strong mutual respect and trust so i'm inclined to believe they understand each other well and he's closest to her. since we learn about his beliefs and behaviors through kafka's and firefly says that he and kafka "know people's hearts" i think he's very mindful and respectful of people's beliefs and values and allows for some flexibility when it comes to the scripts especially for firefly since he knows about and respects her desires to make her own choices and exist as her own person not defined by her work as a sh

considering the pattern of isolation with the sh, how they've experienced some degree of loss and/or disconnect from their surroundings and that 3/4 of their homeworlds are lost i'm wondering if that's the case for him as well. i think it'd be interesting if he had tried to save his own civilization and failed so he's dedicated to finding a way to challenge nanook and/or maybe he wants to help people reach their own goals bc of something that was taken from him, whether it was his individuality, agency or companions, but that's really only brief speculation on my part based on patterns with the others and not intended to be actual predictions

dei when i get you. okay but on a serious note i'm torn on this bc i'm somewhat reluctant to think she'd make this decision of her own volition considering the use of her whisper is implied to be mostly scripted and she's had opportunities to sway the tb's idea of her but hasn't so i'm fairly inclined to believe this is a decision she'd want blade to make. that being said suppressing certain memories seems to be based on her own judgement and is an inherent part of their arrangement so it's not out of the realm of possibility

i do wonder though how effective it'd actually be. i think it's fair to say that her inability to permanently suppress memories of his past is largely due to the nature of mara itself and the extent of his emotional distress so undoing 700+ years of agonizing grief and resentment is impossible. she seems to be successful in suppressing the tb's memories but i don't think it's ever explicitly stated whether the tb initially forgetting their time with her was entirely due to her whisper or if there were additional factors related to the tb's physical composition and/or the stellaron itself

if she has to erase blade's memories for a script i will actually 💥 but also i doubt that'll happen (and i don't want it to so if it does canon is not real and can't hurt me). one of my hcs for blade is that he's very disturbed by his lapses in memory at times and there are moments where his inability to remember baiheng despite the intensity of his grief causes him to worry that he'll forget the sh too so he's started writing down things that happened or how he feels about them bc firefly mentioned journaling and it caught his attention (i hc that she has a history of writing down her thoughts and feelings and then burning it bc she wasn't allowed to express herself while in the iron calvary and it's a habit she hasn't fully let go of bc it can be therapeutic and she'd rather preserve the happier thoughts and memories)

i think he repeats to himself not to forget things and he may not fully express his appreciation but i believe he holds onto any photos or notes they give him and tries to memorize them, especially bc of his conversations with firefly about life and death. he'd really respect her desire to find herself and live how she wants to and he wouldn't want to forget her bc she wants to be remembered as herself and he's afraid he won't be able to honor that (i also hc that she reminds him of baiheng so this just adds onto his anxiety around forgetting her and being unable to honor her after her death)

kafka would know about this and respect it so based on my own hcs i'm inclined to believe she'd ultimately give him the choice to remember and i think she'd still be torn between wanting to prevent him from suffering another loss and wanting him to remember her bc he's one of the few people who ever saw her for who she is and i think part of her would be hesitant to erase that especially bc we know it's difficult for her for the tb not to remember their time together

i love her so much omg 😭😭 i really enjoyed her appearances, i think she's a sweetheart, i'm really hopeful for her interactions with bailu and i'm looking forward to learning more about her upbringing, her time in the alchemy commission, her master and their relationship, her personal life and views of herself and while i'm not the biggest xianzhou politics follower i'm particularly interested in the vidyadhara bc of how dan feng and the current vidyadhara characters are treated and the sentiments they express. lingsha's comment about her master not understanding the human heart really stood out to me too bc it reminds me of how dan feng, dan heng and bailu were/are viewed more for their title and responsibilities. i'm wondering if/how this pattern will carry over to lingsha and what impact it had on her relationship with her master

i really really hope so!! i love their dynamic and think it's very important but it's been.. interesting (to put it nicely) seeing the conversations around their relationship and jing yuan's parenting bc like you said there's a lot of resistance to its complexity and how it resembles real emotional neglect and generational trauma. i think conversations about mental health regardless of the context can be very limited for multiple reasons including misinformation, preexisting biases, assumptions and an overall lack of nuance so naturally these all drastically shape conversations around parenting and children's health

all that aside i'm really glad to see their dynamic get more attention in canon and i've enjoyed seeing some people's comments so it's good to know that more people are coming around to the fact that a caretaker can deeply love their child and wish only for their wellbeing and still fall short in providing for them. it's unfortunately extremely common due to how systemic oppression shapes generational trauma through intentionally harming marginalized communities, restricting access to resources and reinforcing stigmas around mental health

yeah same! i think all of them do what they can to welcome him in their own activities and try to engage in whatever's catching his interest too bc it helps reinforce the fact that he can and does exist outside of what he believes is his purpose. i've mentioned this before when i talked about his cooking but being involved in seemingly mundane activities keeps him occupied and within some sort of routine even if it's not very structured which i think would help to some extent with his emotional instability (not that blocking out emotions is healthy but you get what i mean 😭). it's also all such a stark contrast to the 700+ years he spent mostly in solitude. he has a kitchen where he cooks with kafka, a common space to watch silver wolf play games, a bathroom to do firefly's hair in and a room and bed to return to. he can move through these spaces as he pleases and seek/receive company and solitude when he wants and those comforts are so contradictory to how he views himself, his purpose and what he's deserving of yet no amount of grief, resentment, shame or guilt will change the freedom and affection his friends give him