#more yapping

He has the very important job of making sure Futaba actually keeps a consistent sleep schedule while at her Kirijo internship :> All the Thieves sort of agreed letting their youngest intern at a megacorp with Metaverse ties all alone wasn't the Best idea and Morgana wasn't all that jazzed about following shuake on their (permanent) honeymoon. thus! Futaba. She spoils him rotten and is not above bribes.

You better believe Akira kidnaps him every time he and Akechi come home for a visit though!

while we're on the subject, he's also got a pretty wholesome dynamic going with Akechi post palace, i didn't get into it in the PT cat introduction post,

Tbh, I do get the criticism too because I too wish that the interaction could have been a bit more fleshed out and showcased the characters a bit more strongly and how those could play off each other in a dynamic...and it does feel like an abrupt shift from the somewhat tense but curious dynamic we have from the voicelines we have of the interactions so far... Loki has not managed to catch her off balance like this so far and if anything she's been the one taking him by surprise in their interactions thus far so what changed here in this conversation and why. it's a fun idea that he could finally get her a bit flustered, honestly, after so much of her taking his attempts of winning her over in stride. BUT you gotta indicate for those who aren't combing through interactions obsessively that this is the exception and not the rule or it loses some of its impact!! and most importantly...tell me more!!! I wanna know..... (in lieu of answers I will make up my own as usual, but also....tell me what it's Supposed to be, marvel...) I definitely hope they are potentially planning to go into it much more. I've enjoyed a lot of the writing in Rivals, I want to see these two get to interact in one of the more Involved bits of writing and see what happens or if we can get more insight. But yes I definitely agree, a lot of what makes Mantis very lovable to me too is that she's silly and strange and awkward and earnest and indeed relatable. And I do get very 'um actually' when I see people saying specifically that Mantis is the all powerful Celestial Madonna actually and would neeever stammer or blush, especially not for an Unrighteous fellow, for she is too Pure and Strong. no!!! shut up! wrong! not liking the ship is fine, but abandon all ideas of strength = stoicism!! in general and especially for this particular weird little freak! earnest and unfettered emotion is literally her power and she preaches explicitly never to hold your feelings back!! getting shamelessly emotional makes her buff!! of course she gets nervous!! like anyone else!! probably more than anyone else sometimes, and potentially on purpose! it'll make her surge with nervousness power probably! I need people to acknowledge this not just because it's true and interesting and cool but also because it's so so so fucking funny and absolutely rife with comedy potential. like. come on. Pictured: pure raw power. you may not like it but this is what peak performance and terrifying levels of raw celestial energy looks like.

Hello again! Back at it again with another theory about who possibly mothered our beloved twins from the Mononoke trilogy! And this time, I got more historical information. (Light warning, many ideas of this theory comes from historical and logical sources about the actual Ooku and the Q&A’s, so I will have my sources linked below if that helps)

First of all, we gotta look at the ages. The twins are implied to be 10, as they are in their training stages of becoming a shrine maiden, which typically happens around the preteen or teen stage. While Hokuto’s age is unknown, it’s likely that he’s middle aged since many Shinto priests like him had to attend lessons and school to become one, so he at least has to be a bit older than 20. Now, while we don’t have the ages for all of the women within the Ooku, we do have an age chart from the official Mononoke account’s Q&A! With this in mind, we can see that a few of the women (who joined before Asa and Kame) are technically adults.

Typically, we may think Kitagawa is the mother of the twins but there is a key issue. Kitagawa was 18, which would make an extremely problematic situation since she would have been 8 at the time if she were the twins mother, considering that they are implied to be 10. Also, we should look into the rules of The Ooku, which is the Jochū Hatto. Now you may ask, Lille, what is the Jochū Hatto? Well, the Jochū Hatto is the strict set of written rules created for the lower ranking maids to follow after joining the Ooku, some include taking an oath to secrecy, remaining loyal to the Ooku unless you are kicked out, or even preventing lower ranking maids from having romantic relationships, which was heavily punishable. Plus, Kitagawa mainly focused on her duties as a scribe so she likely wouldn’t even have the time to be a mother if you consider her lore.

The paper held in Utayama’s hand during the festival preparation scene is likely the Jochū Hatto, which was typically in possession of the lady in charge of the Ooku. Now unfortunately, I cannot find any physical copies of the official Jochū Hatto as it was a crime to leak it to the public. But overall, with these rules in mind, the maids like Awashima, Mugitani, or the other low ranking members could not partake in romantic relationships with men as it was heavily against the rules. So, they’re off the list. It can’t any of the concubines either because they were legally tied to the shogun/emperor, so having another man’s baby would not look good for said concubine, especially considering they had attendants with them at all times to tend and keep an eye on them. And they usually lived within the deeper parts of the Ooku, which is typically only accessible to monks or the shogun himself.

Now, let’s actually take a deep dive into Hokuto’s role within the Ooku and how it may help. As you all know, Hokuto is the Ooku’s priest, a Shinto priest to be specific. Within the Shinto belief, shintoist priests were allowed to get married and have children, and his daughters are shrine maidens in training since it was a common practice, until the Meiji Period, for priesthood to be a hereditary job for priestly families. Uniquely, despite the Ooku’s strict “no men” rule, there were some exceptions like doctors, clergy members, and guards. Hokuto obviously fits into that clergy exception, which means he is allowed access within the Ooku, even if it may be limited. But here comes a thought, what if Hokuto’s daughters were born within the Ooku? Typically, any female child born in the Ooku tends to stay in the Ooku, but do we have proof of an idea that Hokuto’s wife was in the Ooku?

Yes, yes we do. With this Q&A posted by the official Mononoke account, it mentions something about Hokuto’s wife and how she hasn’t seen anyone in a long time. With context from the last section with the rules, it’s said that any of the Ooku’s members could not visit their families due to the Ooku’s isolation of the maids, and it mentions a key detail, which is “a long time”, so his wife could have been in the Ooku for an extended period of time, making her also middle aged like him. This can be tied down to a few women who may be middle aged during the events of the movie! Also, if we take into consideration that Hokuto is probably middle aged, it’s likely that he knew this person for a bit.

With these in mind, I connected the dots on who the potential mother of the twins are. And that woman is Utayama, the Ooku’s previous head lady! Typically, a woman of Utayama’s rank is from an extremely high ranking family and is often in their 30’s or 40’s (I know, it’s weird that her rank is called “Old Lady” but life expectancy were way different back then), which is a clue. Now, if you check my previous post, you will know that I personally headcanon Utayama and Tenshi as half siblings which would give Utayama a high status boost. And, Hokuto and Tenshi were childhood friends, so with that logic, Hokuto has had to at least meet Utayama a few times which may have resulted in them having something going on. Oh, there’s also some physical appearances as well. For example, eye color, Hokuto has a pit of purple in his eyes while Utayama has dark blue eyes, which could possibly mix into Futsukazuki and Mikazuki’s eye color. Also, due to my theory of Utayama and Tenshi being related, black hair is a recessive gene that she got from her mother (Tenshi’s mom) and it passed onto the twins instead. Also, the twins have a similar chin shape as Utayama, even if they got a bit of a baby face. I would include hair texture and all that stuff but it’s sorta hard to tell so I won’t include that.

So with this theory in mind, Hokuto has “befriended” Tenshi’s sister. But seriously, even though we may never know who the twins’ mom is, this theory could at least bring some possible insight on who their mother possibly is.

Theory inspired by the lovely @purplealmonds!

Credits:

"Can you... Sami, now you're bullying me, you'll get fired soon. Can you put some scent in this? Mikko can do it, can I get a fart smell? It would be nice that shit went over there - then I would put on an oxygen mask on and everyone would be like [passed out]. Then Sami, we could rob everyone, wallets and everything. When I'm ending my career, I'll stuff this thing full of shit, you all be knocked out, I'll empty your pockets and get the fuck out of here."