#(ha!!!)

There are a lot of narratives around healing in TTYE, and how it can go forwards, backwards, sideways, and completely awry. To some extent I'm interested in this aspect of every character, but probably the most relevant are Anzu, Yuugi, Kaiba, Ganondorf, and Hyrule itself.

Anzu is both the most straightforward and the least straightforward. She is the group's 'healer.' That's her role in the most technical sense. The problem is that Anzu's personality doesn't map well to a typical fantasy healer archetype! There was an early draft where I actually considered switching her and Honda, and having Anzu in the Knight Protector role. But in the end, it proved more interesting to ask: what is healing? Does it really have to be gentle? Can it be forceful, temperamental, and deeply, deeply kind even as it can be abrasive - like Anzu herself?

So TTYE takes on different aspects of healing, and in a way the healing mechanics & narratives around it are reverse-engineered to Anzu specifically. Anzu talks a big game about prioritizing your friends, doing the right thing, protecting the people you love; so I wanted to be in dialogue with her, and ask her questions about that. What happens when you're given a choice of two friends, gravely injured, and you can't save them both - you have to make a choice that will hurt or kill someone? What if you can only save a friend's life in an imperfect way that leaves them with permanent injury? What if sacrificing yourself turns out to be the easy way out, because you get your big heroic moment and don't have to deal with the aftermath of a group deprived of its healer? What if it's actually harder to say 'enough, this is all I can do,' even when there's still suffering around you, and even if you're the type of person who believes anything can be overcome with enough persistence?

(What if part of your job extends to stewardship of the dead, and their spirits don't always want to be stewarded in the way you think is best? Can you listen to the people you're trying to help, and accept what they actually want and need from you?)

how fucking dare you. i should shrink you with my shrinking machine actually

- hero-of-the-wolf

(also you forgot to turn Anon back on again btw lol)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

(No I did NOT forget I am trying to be safe because X bah humbug!)

If not this chapter, probably the next.

EDIT: Okay, no, I don't trust Yuta popping back because now that Rika has came into the fight against Sukuna, I looked at her face and got reminded of Mahoraga...