#but i still cannot believe that one of the biggest ones likes to reduce one of the main characters to

[magic-owl]

When shippers make a character into a caricature and lesser than they actually are in order to support their ship and claim that it’s everyone else in the fandom’s fault

#‘x character is a poor teen parent of multiple other teenagers who was the ONLY one who had to mature too fast nobody else only them’ #‘and therefore they MUST be shipped with y character who is the only other character they didn’t have to parent’ #‘and also they have matching traumas’ #like i don’t like any of the ships in this fandom like none of them #but i still cannot believe that one of the biggest ones likes to reduce one of the main characters to #‘underappreciated mistreated teen mom being sexually harassed by one of their children who just needs someone who UNDERSTANDS them’ #‘WHY would you reduce this character to their trauma about x?’ demands fanbase who routinely reduces character to their trauma about x #i’m sure y’all know dang well who i’m vaguing in the tags rn #but like heck am i going to summon the demons to my doorstep #and yes this discourse is DINOSAUR old but due to certain recent events #i can smell the resurgence given how many BRAINLESS takes i’ve seen on my dash recently

[epickiya722]

Haha right? It's so normalized while it's actually so inappropriate to go to a stranger and talk about their sexual preferences.

I hate how "x fans" is called "x fuckers" now. Yeah I like Sukuna. No I don't want to fuck him. But all there is in his tags.

I'd go as far as to say that people don't care about characters. They just want to put them into tropes box to imagine them as their vampire/alpha male/ceo lover.

And I find it ironic how the same will trash talk about fanboys while they do the exact same thing. '"let women be horny" they will say, because reducing a story to you being horny is ok.

I still want to publish my stories because some fandom gave me hope. But I don't hold my breath anymore.

It is very inappropriate. Like, damn, I can't just like the character? I can't be entertained by their antics?

There are just so many things that shouldn't be normalized across fandoms and going into someone's inbox to be like "*insert character* fucker" is one.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind people having their fantasies about their faves, let alone am I gonna police anybody on or care to. Waste of my time, I got fics to write! Posts to post! 😭

But sometimes I do think "does this person actually care about the character's story"?

Because some of those same people will have so many takes on their faves that don't even be that character. That is a whole OC you created!!

I actually wasn't aware of this until only recently that people accepted for Sukuna to become some absolute horndog when Yorozu was up all over him. Maybe I missed something, but Sukuna only ever expressed being interested in fighting and killing people and personally, he never really came across as some sexual deviant to me.

I feel like sometimes if you have this fanon version of your fave, that is not your favorite. In no way, should you feel the need to like this whole other version of your "fave" in order to like him. Then why have them as your favorite in the first place?

I like Sukuna because he entertains me. He's this evil ass menace who wants all the smoke and the biggest beef he has is with a 15 year old (who is my all time favorite of JJK). Sukuna also this mysterious air about him because we still don't know much about his backstory, let alone everything he can do. (I had this recent thought about a technique that I should probably get to writing.) I have theories about his character, like how he may really be as a person, true. But at the same time, I'm not gonna believe my theories about him are canon because "I know him better than Gege". Anything I say isn't canon unless said so explicitly. I didn't create Sukuna. I am just another fan just vibing along with the story.

And it really is insane to me that people will do that. People were saying "female fans of JJK are ruining the fandom, they're all so horny" as if all us are horny, let alone engage in the anime for said reasons.

The same people *cough cough* misogynists *cough* who say that be the same people who will have a wallpaper of someone like Nami as their header and she'll have boobs bigger than what she has in canon.

Oooh, y'all don't like folks be objectifying the JJK men, huh? Even though for years female characters have gotten the treatment in Shonen. You cannot be dragging Gojo fans when you want to be Makima's dog. Stop that now.

Also, its not just the men! Uh, Yuki Tsukumo exists! She has a lot of fans who find her attractive. There's Shoko, Utahime, Takako, Mei Mei...

I'm waiting for the day 143 gets animated because I just know people are gonna go 👀.

Like, either way, if you're a person who gets constantly horny over your faves, why are you upset with someone doing the same?

I saw this meme post about how people tend to overlook the story and its details and only focus on the attractive cast and fights. And some people were like "but people are only focusing on the fights and attractive cast".

No, they're not. You're missing the point.

For one, you can find the characters attractive and enjoy the fights. That is fine. But at the same time, don't miss the story. Pay attention to it because it's just as important, if not more.

Second, not everyone is focused on just the fights and cast. If that was the cast, why do we have theories and meta posts? Why do we have people writing fics that study the character they're writing about? If no one is focusing on the story and only like the fights and attractiveness of the characters, then those kind of posts from fans wouldn't exist.

#kiya answers #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jjk spoilers #jjk manga spoilers #ryomen sukuna #sukuna

[bklsandwich]

Jello's cat

-

some emojis

actually he can hold any signs

-

▶ Razziez

SV Wizard has particularly diverse appearance

compared to other NPCs

and I know some popular versions of those

and they are all intrinsically cute

▷Chaekal / Gigi's

if I try to follow the exact same track as the original, they would be like this

maybe this one is most popular for RRRR users

because RRRR gives you hi-res Gigi portraits / 64px Event portraits as the default

I like how Chaekal's wiz smiles

by default, his expression is somewhat grumpy and distant

but when he smiles, he suddenly kanda radiates the brightest smile in the world

and he even literally sparkles lol

and I like the golden deco on Gigi's wiz

when I first saw it, I didn't know what it was

since razzy isn't a person who puts on make-up every day, I simply merged the deco into his eyes when I drew the rrrr-compat-portraits

like this:

anyway, confronting my past me's work is quite challenging for me

nexus says I drew this on November 16, 2023

but I've quite changed a lot in the past 1.5 months

I'll redraw it one day, when I have acquired enough skill and courage to confront my past _(:3 」∠ )_

-

▷Whos'

first time drawing a whos' wizard

quite easy to draw

he's even simpler than my own OC...

except for the clothes

I failed to comprehend them

I'm too exhausted to even complete this doodle

and he somewhat gives me a floating extravagant notion of 'the unfortunate vampire lord now locked himself in a very forsaken, stark, lonesome place of exile who once was a very ordinary cute chestnut boy (and still cute)'

his strawberry-ish color would be the culprit

anyway it's quite true except that he doesn't drink blood

▷if razzy were a vampire - and vampires are not common, so he can't just buy blood from Amazon > he would just buy a bunch of animals and drink their blood, not a single drop of a human's - if vampires could only drink human blood, without causing lasting harm to prey > he would starved to death because he can't afford ask people, 'May I drink your blood? It won't cause any harm.' /j > or he would still survive in this case: 1. if he starve, he'll driven insane, causing the bloody massacre and further cursing his guilty conscience. Or simply a government aid for those in need so the ministry decided to offer some food for everyone's sake (anyway nobody gets hurt) 2. look for applicants who wants sell their blood meet the super hot, sexy and shy vampire and get paid ... what if: 'your family just sold you to the vampire lord to get some money and reduce the number of mouths to feed- razzy tries to send you back to your family but you don't want to go back because they will just happy that they can sell you again and receive the price twice so he is convinced and allow you to live in his lair' this is quite a sort of fanfic idea I believe someone will write it one day during my lifetime

anyway, his clothes never allow me dare to comprehend

so I think this would be the last time I draw him unless I have a reason to draw :ded:

-

▷vanilla

I call him 'oldzrd'

in my head, he has a face that has faced the years of agony head-on

and never knows the razor

even he cannot escape from the wizard's intrinsic cuteness

cuz he is still a dorky genius who is unable to act appropriat to his age as other razzy does plz don't make me slap you, all razziez

but I hardly draw him

the biggest reason is that he is hard to draw

and I have a habit of imitating the expression while I drawing

so my face becomes like this whenever I draw the oldzrd:

I won't draw him again...

-

▷Parrot's (mackrelka)

orange

original portraits mod : link

when I draw him, I think about greek statues

he looks like a living greek statue orange elf

and also reminds me a Hades(game) and Jojo(manhwa)

drawing his hair is super-ez: just draw as it comes to my mind, and it suddenly becomes hair

but the rest parts of the face is super-hard: quite more masculine than my usual style, yet not so straight lines at the same time

so he is the most challenging to draw :3

-

▷my OC

I amalgamated my OC W with RRRRRazzy

when I draw him, he looks too childish, but his actual apparent age is 23~27 in my headcanon since he's my OC, it's a canon

half-officially, every razzy should have at least 20% dead eyes /j

and it seems my Wagnus Razzy's eyes don't even appear alive

anyway, I shall redraw my portraits one day for my sake...

-

when I draw razzy, I usually draw:

Chaekal-Gigi-Jello based everyone's purple razzy, when he is alone

Wagnus razzy, when he is with my OC Enn

super boring mid-age math teacher with glasses razzy is still floating in my mind

when I actually draw purple razzy in my way, my OC W somewhat succrently stealth into my drawing

this would be why I keep failing to get his appearance

life is harsh

-

dorky sketches

-

me already getting tired while sketching

I think I picked wrong color for my oc

too difficult to color

-

it seems I have only two level:

never say a single symbol

say a bunch of sentences

I want say just some symbols~ few words

#einternal: drawings #stardew valley #Romanceable Rasmodius redux revamped #sdv wizard

[who-is-page]

Hey! (Sorry about the fever, hope it gets better soon) Read something you were mentioning about your own phantom limbs responding to painkillers and PT, and I was wondering, do you have any advice/suggestions on that front for other folks who get some degree of pain/tension apparently stored in phantom parts? S especially has that happen some, even though neither of us have 24/7 phantoms, and we've tried things like "attempting to back-calculate what muscles/spots on our human body feel like they correspond Closely Enough to the phantoms for work on those spots to help the phantom pain", but it's definitely a challenge sometimes. (For me, it's more often stuff where I can just...stretch my phantom wings, if they're aching, and it'll help loosen everything up, but for him it seems to get more 'stuck') Best wishes, L+S

Thanks for well-wishes, I am in misery but am thankfully on the upswing. Sorry it took a little while to respond to this; we got started on mobile, but then mobile Tumblr wouldn't let us continue to edit the draft when we paused to get more medication. :') Functioning app.

For us, treatment depends on the type of phantom limb pain, and the severity. Phantom pains for us tend to come in three types:

Spasms: The phantom is twitching and flailing uncontrollably, and painfully. It might also "hit" people or objects around it, which can cause further brain freak-outs. It's exhausting to deal with.

Cramps: The phantom has retracted against the body tightly and painfully, and cannot be moved or adjusted. It's stiff, it hurts like a spring wound too tight with a muscle, and it hurts double to try and force it to readjust. Like spasms, it's hugely tiring.

Aches: The phantom just aches and hurts, plain and simple.

We also get generalized discomfort, tension, and itchiness. Some people in our system are more prone to different types of pains than others. Noel most often gets severe aches along her phantom scars, for example, while I tend to end up more often dealing with cramps and occasionally spasms.

Here are some of the forms of treatment we use, how much they help us, and what types of pain they usually help with:

Medication: This is in reference to anti-inflammatory and pain reducing medication like ibuprofen. It works best on specifically aches, although it can also help to relieve some of the pain caused by cramps and spasms. This is the easiest and first line of defense-- if we can feel the pain starting up or know that something is beginning to trigger it, taking this early is a good move. Unfortunately, its effectiveness isn't perfect. It will never relieve all of the pain, it just dampens it, and some days it works better than others.

Prosthetics: This is in reference to using prosthetics that line up with and match our phantom body parts to some degree. Having a partner or ourselves gently interact with the prosthetic, especially if we can see it visibly or in a mirror, can relieve a lot of tension we've found, but usually isn't fantastic with handling outright pain just because of the limbs we typically find to be painful. We're still experimenting with this one, because we only discovered it about a year or two ago. We've found that having a prosthetic is great because we can interact with it and our brain will fully believe that we're physically interacting with our phantom limbs and will register it as such. It's like putting ice water on a fire. It's the biggest relief.

Touch: This one usually requires another person to work. It works well with all three kinds of pain depending on the type of touch, and on our lucky days can sometimes resolve the issues entirely. Having a friend or partner put pressure on the effected area, or gently stroke or massage, can sometimes convince your phantom muscles to unwind or hurt less, just like physical aches and pains. We usually use pressure for the aches; massages for the cramps; and gentle strokes for the spasms.

Stretches and Movement: This one is pretty hugely hit-or-miss, and only usually works on aches to help relieve some of the pain. Gently stretching the phantom in tandem with our physical body in slow, steady movements can sometimes help it stop hurting. We've found that it's important not to go too fast or do too much, because that will make the pain increase. We usually do arm and back stretches for wing aches (I might draw it out), leg stretches for tail aches (rare, but they've happened before).

Heat: This can be in reference to a hot compress, a hot shower, an electric blanket, anything that generates a notable amount of heat. It typically only works with our cramps and aches, not spasms, but sometimes it can resolve the issue entirely. The idea is simple: wherever on your body is connected to the painful limb, apply heat and try your best to relax.

Breathing Exercises and Meditation: Probably the most unreliable of the list for us where it rarely, if ever, works, but we personally know quite a few other people who vouch for this. It's exactly what it says on the tin-- you sit, calm yourself, and do breathing exercises. Or you sit and try to meditate. Our ADHD makes this one extremely hard and impractical, but it might be worth a whirl for other folks.

General Exercise: This is referring to light exercises, just enough to get our blood pumping, because we're disabled and our body can't handle too much. It only really helps with cramps, and only cramps of a very low severity, but sometimes it's enough to make them go away entirely. For this, lifting and taking walks are our preferred exercises, based on what we like to do.

System Shenanigans: We're part of a system with a mindscape and can interact with one another within it. Sometimes we can get pain to alleviate or lessen by interacting with the pained limb in the mindscape. We've shoved Noel into a hot spring for her phantom scar pain before, for instance. This one is a pretty big coin flip though, because sometimes it just doesn't work and I really don't understand the rules or why or how.

Obviously YMMV when trying any of these out, but you're more than welcome to mix-and-match or adjust as needed to suit your personal needs. We also always heavily encourage making sure to rule-out or treat physical causes that might be inadvertently causing or increasing what your brain is translating as phantom pain too-- things like back issues, etc. In our experiences, phantoms can and are affected by parallel physical issues. They're not neatly separated in our brains, because our brains recognize the sensations from both and wires can easily get swapped and crossed; our electric meat machines are just doing their best with the input they've got.

We're having that issue right now, as we type! Because we're so sick with the fever, our whole physical body and our entire phantom body are wracked with pain. So sometimes treatment and prevention is multi-layered and a balancing act.

I hope this helped, and I hope it made sense. We're still pretty sick, so if there's anything here that you need clarification on because we went off on a tangent or just weren't clear in what we meant, just reblog and let us know and we'll try to explain it better when we're feeling less like death.

#alterhuman #ask #Also we found out it wasn't the flu like we thought IT WAS COVID AAAAAAAAAA

[ominouspositivity-or-else]

“Seeing exceptions will never cause these people to rethink the rules they make up.“ But my sister in Christ, do not these “rules” apply to the Catholic Church to an extent? The Church has certain ideals of male and female behavior, there is a “complementary”masculine/feminine complementarity” and “natural law” and “traditional gender roles” are held as the ideal. I can provide evidence of this from magisterial Church documents. I admire the Church it’s just that I have a lot of confusion regarding certain topics, gender roles being one of the biggest. I’m aware the Church is not so shallow as to say “women cannot be intelligent/men cannot be emotional” and has always educated both sexes, it doesn’t think “women are actually sinning if they aren’t doing x job exactly” but it still upholds the general trends that differentiate men and women, which logically leads to the idea “men are x and women are y by nature”. Which is true, men and women are, in general, different, both physically and psychologically . This has been an endless source of confusion for me. This is also why I wonder about how many Catholics on this site seem to reject gender roles altogether which seems antithetical to Christian history (and indeed all history, all cultures have gendered divisions of labor and gender roles). For the record I’m not a particularly “masculine” man either.. so it does affect me..

My brother in Christ, of course there are differences between men and women. Spiritual, psychological, physical. I don't? Believe? I've ever said otherwise?

But what I usually say is that your masculinity and femininity is deeper than toys, books, and clothes. It's deeper than colors, than emotions, than personality types. You're inherently male because you are a man. Congratulations. If you are wholly being truly yourself, you will be a masculine person, simply because that's what you are. Likewise, if I am truly being myself, I will be a feminine person, because that is what I am. We are both created in the image and likeness of God, meant to do different things in this world, but like.

The way you cut your hair doesn't factor into your masculinity of femininity. Whether or not you wear pink doesn't factor in.

You're a man by the virtue of being one.

And none of this is to say you don't have a role that's specific to your masculinity. Of course you do! You're made to fight and to protect and to love! You're made to be a father just as I am made to be a mother.

But what I think you may be seeing a lot of on my account is not the degradation of roles that belong to the sexes properly, because I don't believe I've ever reblogged a post about how "the wife should be in charge on the home" or how "a man should obey his wife", but rather that society's ideas of masculinity and femininity are so screwed up that we reduce our ideas of what it means to be male and what it means to be female to a simple stereotype.

Because you know what? Boys can like pink and play with dolls. Girls can like trucks and monsters. None of those things make them any less of what they were created to be.

When I was a little girl(to this day, ngl to you) I always fell more in line with my male peers versus my female peers. I've got a personality that has more stereotypically masculine standings, I've got a brutal honesty to me that some women have a hard time with. I never liked dolls in the way that my female friends did, but then again I never played with them like my brother did. I have a more masculine style of dress but I like my hair long. I don't like make-up or fashion or shopping or stuff. None of that stuff makes me less feminine. Nor does liking that stuff make someone MORE of a female.

That's all I try to say.

As far as legitimate roles for each sex to play, there is definite places for that, and it specifically in my opinion exists in the construct of the family. It's not "women sit down and bite your tongue in work meetings", it's "wives, listen to and respect your husband's for they are the symbol of Christ to you and your kids."

The gender roles exist naturally and for good reason. Makes your relationships healthier if your wife is on the same page as you and is willing to let you take the lead. Likewise it's a more healthy relationship if your husband is willing to take the lead and your advice as well, to lead the family where all of you need to go.

But that dichotomy seems to exist outside all the surface level stuff.

Your wife could cut her hair into a buzz cut and wear combat boots and a military jacket. She's still your wife, and she ought to listen to you.

Your husband could paint his nails, grow his hair out long, like pink. He's still you husband, and he should love you like Christ loves the church.

Men and women are different creatures, but I think a lot of what you're seeing, anon, is our unwillingness as a group to fall in line with the idea that there are surface level boxes on what make men men and women women.

There isn't a check list. There are things you are called to do depending on your sex, but that's deeper than how you style your hair or how often you cry. I think that's what you might be seeing.

My advice is to try to separate gender stereotypes and gender roles! Ik it can be difficult but like. Don't let society tell you what to do and who you are. Let the Lord do that!

Lmk if I didn't answer this enough, or I was too broad. Praying for you, anon! God bless!

#catholic things #thanks for the ask!

[alastairstom]

Okay, second controversial ask. Half the fandom has a shit opinion of Grace. On both sides, the people who don't like her, and the people who defend her.

For the people who hate her. I feel like, they cannot see beyond the fact that she is an antagonist, and they do not want to see the full picture. She had been groomed from a young age by her mother. She grew up isolated, alone, with a ghost, who as much as he wanted to protect her, could not do much. She was failed by everyone in the Clave ( it's kind of a thing for the Clave to fail kids anyway), and she did not know better. She is fucking 16, and people cannot see that some of her actions were her only way to protect herself.

Now for the people who defend her. I cannot stand the opinion that the fandom hates/dislikes Grace just because of the ship, and then branding the misogyny card on every person who has reasons to dislike her. For the 1st time, we have a brown female protagonist in a fantasy book. For a lot of readers, they finally saw themselves in an adventure story. And the person who is in a way responsible for some of the sorrows of said brown protagonist, is the most mediocre (at best) white female character, who has a tragic back story. Stories are not written just to be in a weird vacuum world. For a lot of these young brown readers, including myself, the antagonists were white women, and some of them had tragic stories. And I feel like reducing the dislike for Grace to a ship war is just ignoring/erasing the feelings and sentiments of a lot of young non-white readers.

Same with the SA, and what she did to Matthew, Charles, and James. There should not be an "I know what she did is wrong BUT", " "her brother should have been kinder when she learned what she did", and "the other characters don't have to accept her apologies but should not be rude to her" rhetorics. There is no need for the but in these cases. I'm going to go a little personal here, but as someone who is in her 20s now, (and kind of sees beyond my nose), do not care about the tragic back story of the person who SAed my sister when she was a preteen. And I can acknowledge that maybe they grew up in an abusive household and that it's a disgusting cycle. It is still not the job of the victims to accommodate the feelings of the assaulters once they realise they fucked up.

Overall, I do believe the character of Grace was ruined in cot. I always thought that she should have killed Tatiana and that she should have left London by the end of the series, for her own sake and healing, and the sake of the other characters, who will always remember her as the blade of Tatiana. The fandom needs to see that she is one of the biggest victims in the series, while being one of the worst characters. Both can mutually exist.

I'm a massive Grace stan, lol. Please keep that in mind when reading my response.

There's a lot here, and I agree with some of it but disagree with a lot of other stuff. (This is a great ask, btw - I am SO GLAD we're in the age of fandom with nuance. Because the Grace situation is SO NUANCED and I think we should talk about it.)

Starting off on a positive note, I 100% agree with your takes on the people who hate her. She was a child that was PURCHASED by a batshit crazy woman that enchanted her when she was like 11 and pimped her out in Paris to practice the powers that were forced on her. Grace Blackthorn is actually one of my favourite TSC characters and I will always be in her corner.

Moving on, I actually haven't seen people say that they think others just hate Grace because of the ship. Where have you seen that? Not saying it didn't happen, bestie! I just haven't seen it.

OKAY SO let's get on with the Grace/Cordelia stuff.

I am a huge Cordelia stan and will defend her to the death. I have a lot of controversial opinions about her, specifically the way that the fandom treats her. My opinion is "yeah she's the main character but she's super overlooked/sidelined by basically everyone and I think we should address that because she's really awesome." I make a point to post about her sometimes because I think she doesn't get the love she deserves, and always want Cordelia-related asks (so go for it, anyone reading this!)

I do disagree with your assessment of Grace as "mediocre at best," but I'll get to that in a minute. I do agree that it's really fucked up to dismiss readers of colour for siding with one of the few main WoC protagonists in mainstream books.

This is a good segue into my next point. I actually am 100% on Cordelia's side in this particular situation. I do not think Cordelia has any obligation to befriend Grace, and I do not think she has any reason to, either. If I were Cordelia, I sure as hell wouldn't forgive Grace. I also do feel irked when people act like James and his loved ones should all accept and embrace Grace with open arms because, like, no. She totally violated James, and Matthew and Charles, too. No one in the main TLH group has any obligation to forgive her whatsoever, though I have a different take specifically on Jesse (you can read it under the cut because I hardcore dislike that character). I do hope that she can find friendship with Alastair, because I think he can understand and empathize with her, but he's sure as hell not obligated to.

You're right about the fact that there shouldn't be an "I know what she did is wrong BUT" for them. They owe her nothing.

Grace does, however, deserve a second chance. I adore her and will die on that hill, too. Not a second chance with this lot, but with other people. I will die on the hill of "Grace should have been sent to another Institute never to see any of these people she's traumatized again." Both because she's triggering for them AND because she deserves a better situation where she has the chance to be forgiven and loved and heal.

Back to Grace SAing people, yeah, you're right. She did that. It's shitty, and we should talk about its impact on James and Matthew and even Charles. I was absolutely furious with her after ChoG specifically on Matthew's behalf because Matthew is precious to me. Like, I cannot put into words just how precious Matthew is to me. And I hope James and Matthew aren't forced to interact with her anymore. They don't need to care about her backstory. They should not accommodate her feelings.

And yet.

YET.

I love the character of Grace, and I love her personally despite her actions. I definitely did not feel like she as a person was ruined in ChoT, and I love the character even more after the book. (ChoT hit a REALLY good place for me that I don't think it hit for a lot of people. It's my favourite TSC book, and probably my favourite-ever book.)

HOWEVER, I do think that the character, as she was written, was handled very, very badly. Her storyline is the only one I'm super dissatisfied with in ChoT (and Kit's, obviously, though my problem was more how the death was handled than the death itself). Grace should have killed Tatiana and left London; that's the arc I wanted for her, too. Grace also should have been able to rely on Jesse for support, and she should have been allowed to go start over at another Institute. She also should have gotten more development. It was very clear that Cassie just got bored with the character and didn't know what to do with her, so she just winged it.

I'm sorry I have ADHD so I ranted a lot but I'll stop here.

At this point, I'm also going to talk about Jesse/address him. I'm doing this at the end so I can put it under a cut. Devoted Jesse fans, exit stage left. This is not Jesse friendly.

In my opinion, Jesse is the only person in the main cast to owe Grace support. She did everything to resurect him, and he knows that he is the ONLY thing she has. And, even more importantly, Tatiana fucked him up, too. She made him an anchor for a prince of Hell. She left him half-dead for years. He of all people should understand what she went through, and he of all people should know that she didn't have a choice (as he didn't when Belial possessed him and murdered a bunch of people). Jesse was such a huge fucking asshole to Grace, and the ONLY reason he was not treated as she was is that he is a) a boy, and b) biologically related to Tatiana, which only may have made the difference. If I were Grace, I would never forgive Jesse for what he said. I hope she doesn't. After everything she has done for him, after everything he has gone through, and after all he knows her for, he OWED her compassion. Once again, a great reason for her to cut ties and be sent somewhere else. I'm captain of the fuck Jesse Blackthorn crew, especially since he has 0 canonical personality traits besides "jackass to Grace."

#anti jesse blackthorn

[souryogurt64]

it’s funny that palahniuk is a little woman hating considering he knows so much about feminism. he brings up ariel levy (feminist author) in one of his books and has a very dark short story called speaking bitterness about radfems sexually assaulting a woman they believe to be trans. just the way it’s written it’s brutal and he def knows a lot about women’s issues it’s just not always written in the best way

Yeah in the Peteryan essay I wanted to quote from a lot of their biggest influences because they're pretty misogynistic. And there's this quote in Choke about how women secretly want to be oppressed by men and their entire identity depends on it. And the book is satirical and I didn't want to include it in bad faith if it was like making fun of this idea, so I was like looking into his viewpoints or whatever

And two of his newest books are like, one is apparently about how women get enslaved by men and then the men can't dress themselves or cook and the other one is about like a feminist that secretly loves romance novels and she gets raped in public in the opening scene and then this like billionaire kidnaps her for sex to sell his sex toys that like make women want to be tortured to death or something and it's like satirizing 50 Shades and Twilight and like dark romance novels or whatever. Anyway all the reviews were saying it was just terrible

I didn't read these so maybe it's like bad for me to point fingers at it but the second one had horrible reviews and then I looked up like what he's said and he was like justifying it by saying that like third wave feminism was bad and had gone too far and is just about women wanting to have their tits out and bringing up the schizophrenic woman who shot Andy Warhol as like an example of feminism going too far. And like first of all that woman had very, very serious mental issues so pick a better example and secondly that happened in 1968 which was over 20 years before third wave feminism and thirdly we have just lost Roe so clearly feminism has less teeth than it did 50 years ago. Grow up

And like I get there's harmful things about these books and there's definitely valid criticisms to be made but like first of all Twilight is like a very Mormon book and large portions of the US are deeply religious or were at least raised deeply religious. And I think a lot of people who are not raised with that kind of belief system just cannot compute it which is fair but part of why those books gripped the nation is because a large portion of women are raised with the belief system that dating and enjoying sex is the worst thing you can do and that it should hurt and be bad and decreases your value as a person to the point where it is very difficult for many women to come or enjoy penetration

And part of why books like Twilight got so popular and like gripped the nation is because there's elements of the story that reduce that sense of guilt by decreasing the girl's ability to like be chaste and leave and never talk to the guy again like they're "supposed to", and every romance novel across hundreds of years from like before Jane Eyre to Sold to One Direction fanfiction is like a widespread phenomenon that contains a lot of the exact same beats because of this

And like you can definitely still satirize those things or criticize them or argue that mass production and exposure to that content is harmful, and personally I think 50 Shades is written very weird and not hot and parts of Twilight like with Rosacoeleene or whatever the fuck her name is are extremely strange.

But Survivor feels so raw in it's depiction of that exact concept regarding being unable to enjoy sex due to religious trauma and how the narrator is obsessed with sex but struggles to be able to have sex because of the cult he was raised in it's just so weird to me that this book is such a hard pivot on that and doesn't seem to think about it or try to understand what it's satirizing at all and the big takeaway is supposed to be that like "regular women with jobs that identify as third wave feminists that want careers and read romance novels aren't REAL feminists and secretly want to be raped" like get a grip dude

I understand that there's another level with like religion and gay sex which is alluded to being what the straight romance is actually about in Survivor but I guess maybe he didn't bother to think about the romance books he was satirizing or like empathize with the idea that women can feel similar things

And also it just pisses me off because it never goes both ways, like with the exception of Pretty Tied Up by Guns N Roses almost every single classic rock song about bondage is about a dominatrix but nobody EVER would seriously make the claim that like ACDC or Van Halen or whatever are closet misandrists because that's just fucking ludicrous but even left-leaning people are so quick to act like being into mild spanking and choking with someone you trust is like the end all gotcha of feminist politics. Like probably at least a slight majority of people fantasize about that sort of thing because they want to be the center of attention and object of desire and don't want to do any work lol

ANYWAY TO CONCLUDE I feel like when Choke came out you could argue the women want to be oppressed line was satirizing masculinity and misogyny like he does in Fight Club but the later books he wrote just like..... make it seem like that line was actually written in bad faith lol

[annealeph]

Cross-post from a Youtube comment I wrote on a video about Hermes which I feel would be right at home on Tumblr too

SPOILERS FOR FFXIV ENDWALKER

Something I believe is very important to always to is to be capable of criticizing actions but still empathizing with people

I do not forgive or dismiss Hermes actions, especially not the one s after hearing the Meteion answers to his search for meaning. He undoubtedly doomed the universe to a fate we only managed to escape because **we cheated his challenge by both travelling back in time and escaping with our memories** and for that it is best that he is no longer around

However, we cannot hold his perspective on one hand while holding the gavel on the other, to understand we need to cease judgement, we can condone or condemn to our hearts content afterwards

Hermes was broken, he was filled with existential questions created by the society around him, and questions that were dismissed by the very same, He wanted to cherish life (And I hear you thinking about the video counter argument given in the video, but remember to put the gavel down) but at every turn what he perceived as life was discarded, and thus, the things that troubled him grew and festered.

Ideally, he would be able to talk this out with others, and with us he did, and though we did not have time to sit with it I believe that our presence would have helped him clear his mind a bit, he couldn't find any connection with the other ancients on his existential dead because the source of it is something no one bats an eye to, no one would understand it, and even outside the game many people don't (Gavel down please)

And just as he found someone he could share his burden with, he received a response from his other recourse to set his minds at ease, the Meteion, and the answer was simple...

Pure Nihilism

The lives you thought shouldn't be discarded like used up parchment? They are pointless. The strife you wanted to believe had meaning? It does not. All life ends and that is the only truth in this existence. There is no meaning, and even this race of yours that puts itself above their creations will cruble onto itself one day, and all that came in between was worthless (Again, gavel)

Hermes just had his biggest fears confirmed to him, and despite Hades himself pointing out that the premise of the question is flawed, he has already lost, Hermes is no longer capable of thinking properly not because "he crazy", but because his life, and the lives he mourned, are **entirely meaningless**, he as well as the rest of the ancients and their creations would be discarded just like that one creature he had to put down

And this is where my talk of setting aside judgement and arguments ends, because unfortunately, I cannot sympathize with his actions after that. To me his actions are no longer rational, and just like the beast that was goung rampant just a few hours before, he needs to be stopped or else Meteion will bring forth the Final Days, them being fueled by the nihilism of a dozen stars that could not provide them with a meaning, only providing tales of loss and fire and pain with no succor at the end

I can understand what led Hermes to losing himself to the point of completely breaking, I do not agree with his conclusions or even with his questions however and neither did the writers, seeing as Hades himself criticizes his though process, Hades as an outsider can see that the mission and purpose for the creation of Meteion is going to fail spectacularly but he only knows what that is **after** everything goes to shit, and thus, cannot prevent it.

And like I said before, Hermes very much **had** to be stopped at that point, I can empathize with him, but when push comes to shove, he was about to doom his own world and we cannot let that happen

We have all the right and some would argue even the duty to adequately judge the actions of others, but reducing them to only their actions is counter-productive, the writers had moments making you Sympathize with him not as a "uwu plz fowgive me fow my fucky-wucky" but as a way to explain why he lost himself and cursed the world to oblivion, again, not to justify it, but to **explain**, after all, "would you be happy had I a good reason?"

Hades had a reason, and I understand his reason, but I do not forgive him, he cause calamity after calamity and we are still untangling the mess that is the 13th, a mess that **his group** caused. I will not forgive Hermes either, he had a reason, and I understand his reason (In short, desperation and nihilism, not disagreeing with the ancients), but he still created a being for a mission he did not realize was doomed from the start

This is a tendency of his as he also gave humanity a mission that would have been impossible were it not for us disregarding its rules and running with our memories and Venat (Who is also on paper-this thin ice which only hasn't broken because I did not give her a lot of thought)

In the end, his reasons are not meant for you to condone his actions, as they are unforgivable and driven by anguish and despair, not logic, but it is also not without reason that he reached the point he did

#ffxiv #endwalker

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

I wonder if you could give us your opinion (and knowledge) about a certain part from the TIME article:

His aides are keenly aware of that mission, and some give Zelensky mixed reviews. “Sometimes he slips into the role and starts to talk like an actor playing the President,” says Arestovych, who was himself a theater actor in Kyiv for many years. “I don’t think that helps us.” It is only when Zelensky is exhausted, he says, that the mask comes off. “When he is tired, he cannot act. He can only speak his mind,” Arestovych told me. “When he is himself, he makes the greatest impression as a man of integrity and humanity.”

I think it was pretty mean from Arestovych to say something like this. Zelenskyy's enemies are going to use this against him.

Like...are they having some kind of old feud or something?! It's just such an odd and weird statement to make during times like this. And also kind of offensive.

Alright. I'm going to answer that in two parts (and it's going to be a long one - I also hope this will make some kind of sense because there are a lot of thoughts I wanted to put in this answer, and it was somehow difficult to say it in English).

About Arestovych

Look, I'm going to be honest. I'm not his biggest fan for several reasons. Mostly because I think he has a rather…odd…way of saying things. While I get what he's trying to say most of the time, I think he manages to say things in a somewhat arrogant/offensive way or just in a really weird way, so people misinterpret it. Not to mention that he has some…questionable views on specific topics and a really blunt way of saying things.

I still don't get why he's part of Zelenskyy's team. This is probably because Zelenskyy wants all kinds of opinions. Arestovych certainly offers some contradicting views compared to other people's opinions in Zelenskyy's team.

So...about that part in the TIME interview.

I get why Arestovych said this, and I get what he wanted to say, but I think he said it in quite a disadvantageous way. So yes, the Kremlins will use that against Zelenskyy since they try to reduce him to "just being an actor" the whole time. Did he do Zelenskyy a favour with how he said it? No. Did he do Zelenskyy a favour with what he actually wanted to say? Kinda yes.

Let me explain because even if Arestovych said it in a pretty wrong way, he's not wrong about it entirely.

When Zelenskyy announced his candidacy, he was mostly known as an actor and comedian. He was also mostly known for playing the president in SOTP.

He was always open (to a certain point) about his (private) life, mainly because there is nothing to hide: He's a good human being, he has an "impeccable" character, has a lovely and sweet family and believes in Ukraine and being able to make it a better country. Hooray. That is what people knew about him and how they viewed him. Because despite all the fame and money he always proved over the years, he's still a regular guy like them. He's like everybody else, and he doesn't attempt to be something he's not. You get what you see and what's the first impression. He can openly talk about his strengths and flaws and the mistakes he made in life.

Well, all of this works perfectly if you're an actor/comedian/celeb and want to stay down to earth and if you're really just like that. People liked (and voted) for him because he was different. He was normal, almost boring. No scandals, no drama. He wasn't a career politician. He did the whole campaign differently. While Poroshenko and everyone else did the usual stuff, he played his shows, shot SOTP season 3, toured with his team and released videos and pics on social media. When his opponents made fun of him (like him being a clown), he laughed about it, didn't take it personally and made fun of them making fun of him (like when he started the "Clown Challenge"). When Poroshenko accused him of not having a program, he created one - based on what the people wanted and not mainly what he wanted. When Poroshenko criticized him for not being in talk shows and political debates, Zelenskyy did what he does best: he entertained people. So instead of some boring talk show, no one would watch, he invited everyone to the stadium. Instead of trusting the media owned by enemies and opponents, he used social media and created his own content. He barely gave interviews or press conferences. (Which turned out to be a problem sooner or later because they looked for revenge and wrote negatively about him all the time - but's that another post.)

So basically, Zelenskyy proved over and over again that he's not like anyone else, like all the other politicians and certainly not like the previous presidents. That he's just a regular Ukrainian who's ruining for office, loves his country and wants to change things for the better. And in SOTP, he proved he could be president.

Well…all this worked perfectly fine during the campaign. And then he became president. And that was a problem.

Because suddenly Zelenskyy had two problems:

He's not Goloborodko.

He's Zelenskyy.

People who voted for him partly did that because they saw Goloborodko in him. Goloborodko solves problems in Ukraine quickly and easily. He walks in and announces what he's changing. He tricks the "bad" guys. He may be a bit awkward, but in the end, everything plays out in his favour, and he wins because he's also a bit smarter than everyone else in the room. And politics are a relatively easy to understand topic in the show.

Unfortunately, this is not how reality works. And that was a problem for Zelenskyy. Because people held him accountable to Goloborodko-standards, which he never could fulfil. Because in real life, he can't change laws just like that. Oligarchs are not that easy defeated. Corruption is not over when you stop one person. And while Zelenskyy may be smart, there are also other intelligent people in the room, trying to trick him into making mistakes and setting up traps for him.

People had such high standards set for him that it was impossible to reach them. People didn't expect him to make mistakes. And when he did, he lost the support.

So during the past 2 1/2 years (until the war), Zelenskyy struggled with his role as president. And the whole world could see it.

I wouldn't call him naive because that wouldn't quite catch it. But I think Zelenskyy imagined this would be a lot easier than it actually was in the end. I think he overestimated his power and ability to change things a bit and underestimated people in general. People who previously worked for or with him switched sides after the election when he didn't do what they wanted him to do. Or when he turned out actually be different from the previous presidents. Or when he didn't tolerate certain behaviour. His enemies also made sure to make his life as difficult as possible and tried to stop the progress and sabotage him whenever possible.

So while Zelenskyy deeply loves his country and is 100% committed to his job…he had no idea how to be The President because he's still a regular guy. And that was not only a problem for him but also for the world, hence why literally everyone underestimated him. So now everyone is surprised about what he is capable of (not to mention that not many people took him seriously, listened to him, or decided to believe the lies and just repeat them). It's basically what his wife says about him right now: She and Zelenskyy's friends always knew he would make a good president. But the people and the world didn't know that.

I think Zelenskyy learned in quite a hard and painful way what it means to be The President and that he either has to change parts of himself to be the president or find another way to be the president. Because you can't make faces during a press conference with the American president, despite that guy being a lunatic and talking bullshit. You can't just release videos and state your opinion on your social media as president. You can't just go on a vacation after a business trip as president. You can't do an opening speech at an international conference like you would do an opening speech during a show when you're the president. You can't pose for official photos like you're on the red carpet. … … …

The world has a very clear image of what a president should look like. How he should dress, what he's supposed to say or not to say, how he's supposed to act and what he's supposed to do. It may be a problem that we're too used to the presidents we all know, and we're not more open-minded to new presidents like Zelenskyy. But we have a specific idea about how someone should be if he's the president. And Zelenskyy didn't do any of what we expected. He was just himself, saying whatever came to his mind and not being very presidential at the same time. This is admirable - that he stayed true to himself - but still, a problem if you're the president of a country. Especially if you want to achieve things.

And while being himself gave him votes, it was now a problem as president.

You can actually see quite a difference during the first 2 1/2 years of his presidency. Every time he has to be the president, he acts (as president). He isn't the president at that moment, but he gives the people what they want. Basically, what Arestovych said in that TIME interview.

And when Zelenskyy acts to be the president, he's much more reserved. He holds himself back. He says things diplomatically. He acts presidential because that's what people want. When you watch speeches and he acts as president, you can see that he's not really relaxed. Never. He's pretty tense. Constantly aware of the cameras around him and people watching him. You can see him getting nervous and always looking around the room. Trying to keep a poker face. His speeches are also "polished" and very diplomatic, polite and what you would expect from a president.

Because he learned to act as the president a hard way.

Especially during his first year, he had some kind of reality check on what it meant to be The President. In the beginning, he acted as president like he was used to it as an employer. He has a problem with someone? He openly addresses this and talks about it. There is some problem? Let's name it, and let's talk about it. Someone misbehaves and is showing bullshit behaviour? Zelenskyy is calling that person out.

That works if you're the employer, but not if you're the president. During his first year (1 1/2), he fought with many people openly (he also still did that later, but not as much as before). Not only politicians but all kinds of people because he openly criticized them. He was not only losing sympathy with that, but it also stopped him from changing things in the country for the better. Because on the one side, his enemies tried to start fights with him to discredit him and keep him busy. On the other side, he scared supporters away with his behaviour. They began to work against him and his plans.

He started to have friends around him who worked for him and advised him because he could count on them. But he also learned to act as The President. And "act" because he can't just change who he is as a person. And he doesn't want to do this. So he acts as the president everyone wants and expects.

What he probably only slowly realized (and we're back to Arestovych's statement): while being himself is his biggest weakness, it's also his biggest strength.

He has his best "president moments" when he is just himself. Not when he interacted with politics or other politicians. But when he was the president and talked with other regular people. When he's just himself. When can say whatever he wants. When he can openly show empathy and genuine interest in things and his country and people. When he can do whatever he wants. When he can be the leader of the people and not of the country. That's also when he had his greatest speeches. When they were open and honest and when he could interact with people. Say things without having to pay attention if he's diplomatic or not.

When he sits in someone's kitchen, with no shoes and talks with that person. When he hosts a barbecue with reporters, dressed in jeans and a shirt. When he posts selfies from trips. When he goes grocery shopping like everyone else. When he goes to the theatre or visits the Christmas market with his wife. … … …

That's when he's the most authentic. Or how Arestovych said it: "When he is himself, he makes the greatest impression as a man of integrity and humanity."

When he's Zelenskyy, the president. And not Zelenskyy, THE President.

So yes, it took Zelenskyy a long time to understand his role as president and find his peace with it, understanding that sometimes he has to act as president and sometimes he can just be the president. And ironically, he needs both sides during this war.

Because while President Zelenskyy makes a big impression on the world stage, making sure his country gets weapons and money while he delivers mind-blowing and impressive speeches (as well as video addresses)…he has his biggest (and most human) moments when he's just Zelenskyy. This guy is president of a war country. His speeches in parliaments may be part of history books one day, but what people will keep in mind are his human moments. When he needs ammo and not a ride. When he called Russians "bastards". When you could see the grief and horror during his Butcha visit. When he talks about his possible death or how he misses his family and what it's like to live like that during the war. When he's still making jokes, he's humble and kind despite and after everything that happened to him. When he's holding back tears. When he just says what comes to his mind in his video addresses and selfie videos and doesn't control his movements or face, and slams his hand a bit too hard on the table because he's angry or when he's visibly moved or when he shows a little smile because he's happy about something or when he is completely exhausted but still shows himself working, loving, being thankful and optimistic Ukraine is going to win. … … …

So yes, Arestovych is right. While President Zelenskyy (when he acts) may help the country get weapons and money, the regular guy Zelenskyy is helping much more. Because people can connect with that guy, have empathy and sympathy for him and feel with and for him. Because the regular guy Zelenskyy is making sure Ukraine still gets attention and help. And Zelenskyy is the best version of himself when he's himself. Because while this has been a problem in the past, it's now extremely helpful and a good thing.

#volodymyr zelensky #wolodymyr selenskyj #president zelensky #volodymyr zelenskyy #president zelenskyy #selenskyj #volodomir zelensky #president volodymyr zelenskyy #vladimir zelensky #volodimir zelenski #zelensky #selenski

[akemshow]

Health And Fitness

Analyze and Change Your Lifestyle into A Healthier One

In modern times, life is very tough and competitive. You have to work hard, in order to stay in this society, and in this hectic work routine, you often forget to take care of yourself. I have seen people who work for more than 12-15 hours a day and still, they feel unsatisfied with their work. In this kind of lifestyle, there are so many glitches that you can fix to optimize your routine.

These glitches are also not very hard to find and with very little attention, you can get them and repair them easily. You must have heard this too often that you should live a healthy lifestyle but have you ever thought about what actually a healthy lifestyle is? Is it just about not smoking, doing exercise, and keeping your weight under control? This formula sounds simple but believes it or not, it takes some time and hard work to be implemented in real life.

If you do not exercise, and your eating habits are also unstable then, it will take very small steps to bring you on track. You just need to make some very slight adjustments in your daily lifestyle and these adjustments will make your life healthier and fit.

Lack of Physical Activity

The biggest drawback of modern office life is the lack of physical activity. You have to sit in your chair throughout the day and after a tiring day in the office, you go to your home and after taking your dinner you cannot even walk and go to sleep. This is a very dull and unhealthy routine but you can make it a little more energetic for you and that will also not get too much attention or time from you. You can just get up 20-30 minutes early than you do now and go out for a short walk.

Even if you think that is not possible for you then, you can just take a bus to your office instead of your car. This will add some walking to your routine. This much movement and activity can be so much advantageous for you that it can save you from lots of heart diseases as well will improve your respiration and will make you feel your weight. Your joint stability will get improve and you will be flexible enough according to your age. It will also help you in reducing anxiety and depression and will improve your mood and you will be able to work with more concentration. Smaller movement schemes like gardening on weekends, daily walks,s and similar other activities can also help you to control your weight.

Control Your Weight with Little Extra Movement

There are some very simple and basic things which you can do to make your life more active and to increase your physical activities. It is not necessary that you pay heavy gym fees to exercise and to do proper weight loss instead if your weight is not alarmingly high and you just want to control it then, you can do it by adding some simple thing like you can go out for a walk daily with your family instead of just sitting on the couch and watching TV. No matter whether that walk is to your local grocery store but it will be a lot more active task than just sitting on the couch. Walking is a very important aspect which can help you to reduce and control your weight. There are so many ways which can add some walk in your life for example instead of going to the mall in your car, taking a walk, taking your dog for some extra outing in a nearby park and similar other things can be very healthy for you.

Some people and especially men have this habit of not doing any home chores. This is also an unhealthy lifestyle because house chores like gardening, some light cooking, and other similar things which you can do on your weekends are very healthy activities and these activities will increase the physical workout.

Do you want to laugh? Click here

These chores will also give you a chance to facilitate your partner and she will feel very happy as you are helping her in her work. The best way to add physical activities to your daily routine is to make a list of everything you do in one day and analyze that list. If you find yourself sitting around too much then, try and look for some alternate time where you can add some physical activity.

Check Your Eating Habits

Eating is another thing which can impact a lot on your daily life and especially on your weight management. A healthy diet plan can always keep your weight in check and if you are eating without any certain plan then, it will create chaos for your body and will ultimately increase or decrease your weight alarmingly. You need to know how many calories you are consuming every day. There are lots of different calorie meters available which can tell you the exact amount of calories in your daily diet. Following

are some of the general trends which you can follow to make your diet plan healthier.

First of all, you need to add more fruit to your diet. Fruit is the healthiest natural diet you can get and almost every fruit is enriched with different vitamins and these vitamins are available in their purest form in these fruits.

Do you want to laugh? Click here

These days, people are very afraid of vegetables and they do not like to add vegetables to their diet because vegetables are not very spicy but you should not be a victim of this trend as it is a very unhealthy trend and you need to add a good amount of vegetables in your diet.

Even if you do not like to take vegetables in their traditional form then, add them to some snacks and eat them every now and then with lunch or dinner. You should also try and add a salad to your dinner and lunch.

This is a very healthy habit which can make you cut your appetite and you will be eating healthier food. Cut the use of fat and try to use some fat-free dairy. Try to avoid junk and fast food as much as you can because it is very unhealthy food full of unhealthy fats.

Secrets of Health and Fitness

What’s Behind It

First of all, you need to know that, in order to achieve a healthy and fit life, you must be living a very healthy life with a proper and healthy lifestyle. There are some very important ingredients in making your life fit and healthy and without those ingredients; you will not be able to get that precise health and fitness.

Most people think that without adapting to a certain tasteless diet plan and working hard in the gym, they cannot get a healthy and fit life but this is not entirely true. Although doing exercise and keeping your diet healthy is important but this is not everything that you have to do for maintaining your health.

There are some other secrets that you must know and these secrets are also very easy to implement and execute. No matter how busy your life is you can always find some time to execute these things which I am going to tell you now.

Healthy Eating

This is a well-heard word that almost every person tells you that to get a healthy and fit body, you need to control your eating habits and make it healthier but no one tells you some easy way to do that. When it comes to healthy eating then, it does not just include eating healthier food but it also includes avoiding eating all the unhealthy stuff.

You need to add natural elements like vegetables, fruit, unsaturated fat, and unrefined carbohydrates. At the start, you will find it difficult to integrate these things into your diet plan but with time, you will learn about the nutritional values of different diets and it will become a lot easier for you to pick up the best diet plan. You should avoid eating junk and fast food because these food items contain unhealthy fat, refined carbohydrates and other similar things which can be very unhealthy and can increase your weight a lot.

Do you want to laugh? Click here

Regular Exercise

Another very important thing is exercise and you must include some sort of exercise in your daily routine. Some people have this misconception that only joining a gym and paying a heavy fee for that gym will give them a proper workout routine but this is not necessary secondly, people do not have that much time these days to go to the gym daily. Office routines are very tough and to survive and make it work, you need to work more than 12 hours a day.

You need to find some alternative to that gym. You can add some light walking and jogging either in the evening or you can get up 25-30 minutes earlier than routine and go out for a walk. You can also add some walking to your routine by minimizing the use of the car. You often use the car for going to the grocery store as well as to other routine places but you can avoid that car and go on your foot.

Stress Management

Being stress-free is another thing that can give very positive effects on your life. A hectic work routine and no relaxing time can increase the stress level a lot and in lots of cases I have seen people going through sleeping disorders due to this constant stress. To avoid this stress and to minimize its effects, you can adopt some relaxation exercises like yoga or you can opt for a massage after every 2-3 weeks.

These methods will help you a lot in decreasing the effects of stress and will make your life peaceful and stress-free. When you are less tense then, you will be able to concentrate even more on your work and will increase your overall productivity.

Alternate Health and Medicine Options

Traditional doctors and medicines also have some side effects on your health and you should avoid them as much as possible. If you happen to be suffering from some minor health problems like temperature, flu, and other similar problems then, you should not look for more traditional antibiotics instead look for some unorthodox medicines and look for side effect-free medicines like homeopathic, massage therapy, and other similar methods.

These methods will not also get you rid of that health problem but are also made from totally natural elements which makes them even healthier for your body. In other alternate medicine options, you can look for herbal medicine, massage therapy, meditation, Ayurveda, reflexology, and aromatherapy.

Sleep Well

Sleeping is another very important aspect of your life and it is the basic thing which helps your body and brain to relax and get ready for work. If you experience problems in getting good and proper sleep then, you must do something to make this state better because I have seen people going half mad just because they cannot get proper sleep. In order to make your sleep more proper and better, you need to make sure that you are not taking your work to your bed. Make sure that before going to bed, you have solved all of your office and work problems, and even if there is something left then, forget about it for the night and concentrate on getting good sleep.

To implement all of the above things in your life, you need to make your life disciplined in the first place. You need to make a commitment to yourself that you are going to make your life better and then follow that commitment to your fullest effort.

Some people try to adopt such schemes as proper diet plans, and proper exercise plans but they tend to execute them just for a very small period of time. This is also not very effective because you need to be very consistent for proper results. This is the reason that I have described some very easy-to-adopt things that you can continue doing no matter what your daily life is.

Do you want to laugh? Click here

Healthy Nutrition and Its Benefits

You would have heard lots of people saying that healthy nutrition is important for a healthy body but you need to know that is the actual meaning of healthy nutrition and why it is so important. Let’s define nutrition.

“Nutrition is the process of giving your body all the important and necessary elements which can help it to grow in a proper and balanced way.” This is the simplest definition which tells you that you need to get proper food and a proper diet which can help your body to grow in a better way. Healthy nutrition can make your body strong and can help it to grow and repair itself while an unhealthy nutrition plan can make your body weaker and can make you ill and you will not be able to fight against certain minor diseases.

Understanding Nutrition

The purpose of nutrition is quite simple to understand and there are three things that can tell you its importance and purpose. First of all, you have a body and secondly, that body needs some very precise things to nourish and grow. Thirdly nutrition includes all those things which can help your body to grow. Now after this understanding, you need to know what the actual relationship between food and nutrition is. First of all, make this fact concrete that food and nutrition are not the same things and there is some difference present between both of these.

Every food has not got nutrition and the degree of nutrition in every food can vary. It may happen that some food items may contain a high percentage of nutrition while some food items may not contain any nutrition at all. For example, an apple can provide your body lot more nutrition than a doughnut. You can make it more interesting by understanding that when an apple goes into your system then it breaks down in substance which your body uses for growth and blood production but when you eat a doughnut then, your digestion system will say “hmm, I do not need much of this stuff, so, either throw it away or store it somewhere like in butt cheeks.”

Relationship between Food, Health, And Nutrition

Food, health, and nutrition all are very closely related. The food which you eat can be either full of nutrition or it can not contain any nutrition. The nutrition which you provide to your body affects your health directly. The basic goal of everyone is to improve health and to improve health, you must provide enough an adequate amount of nutrition to your body, especially for your physical health and fitness, you must make sure that you are providing enough nutrition to your body. There are four categories of nutrition that your body always need in enough amounts. These four categories are protein, fat, carbohydrate, and vitamins. You need to make sure that the food you are eating contains the necessary amount of these elements and if you observe all the processed food then, you will know that all of these are labeled with their nutrition values and these labels are there for you to make an informed choice about your nutritional needs.

Guidelines for Proper And Healthy Nutritional Food

In order to provide your body with proper nutritional elements, you need to follow these very simple food guidelines and these will help you to make better choices of food. You should have a general idea of healthy and unhealthy food in the first place and this idea will allow you to choose healthier food without going through lists of food items.

Every food which can be metabolized means that can be converted into a substance that is needed to grow healthy food. You can make a measuring foot that can tell you the health value of a particular food item. Make it in three parts and first of all think about those foods which are totally processed and baked as these foods have almost zero natural elements in them like doughnuts, fast food, and other similar items. These foods have absolute nutritional value and in most cases, they are found to be harmful to your body. Second is that food that is cooked with natural ingredients like meat, chicken, vegetables, and similar other items. These foods are nutritional to some extent because they contain natural elements and you can add these food items to your regular diet. Third are the food items that are totally natural and have no preservatives and other similar things added like fruits, fresh juice, milk, and other similar items. These are the items that carry the most nutritional value.

Read more here

#healthcare #health #exercise #fitness #nature #lifestlye

[mcbex]

**COWS!**

"COWWS!….Ya missed it!” My son shouts as we roll up on a field filled with these delicious beasts. It's a rule in the car, anytime we see one (or 3) we must make sure the entire car knows and possibly missed the chance to say "Oh look, cows!" We're goofballs, but if you know me, you knew that. Apparently bovine are intelligent, intuitive, adaptable and sensitive to human emotion. They are worshipped in India as gods or holy idols. I'm not sure how that actually works, however if all of this is factual why are they so easily manipulated by a small amount of fencing?

The bible tells me, Jesus says, I have strength beyond what I am consciously aware of. The bible says the Holy Spirit will fill me with the power of God if I believe without doubt in my heart. We can move mountains, we can heal the sick, we can do more for others than we would care to dream. To quote Doc. Oc from a Spiderman movie, "the power of the sun in the palm of my hand"... except that the power of Jesus is bigger than that. He's not only bigger, he's stronger and more precise. It’s more than the power of the sun, it’s strength emanating from the creator of everything. If this is also truth, why do I feel so much like those cow fenced in by wire and wooden posts? Why do I allow such small things like approval or fear of rejection to keep me penned in.

I've been thinking a lot about my blind spots these past couple weeks. More specifically, I've been thinking heavily about ways that I could be serving the Lord better but fail to act, fail to see, fail to even understand that I'm missing a need. The blind spot, a perfectly placed spot in our vision where obvious things can hide. Whole trucks can ride tagalong beside us there without us even knowing they exist. In fact, I cut a car off accidentally earlier this week because of this. That irony is not lost of me.

I pondered all of this out loud with my kids as we pass the cows. I ask them why they think the animals are so easily manipulated or so quietly subdued. My son gets to the meat of the issue.. "they don't know it's just string Mom". They aren't aware that there sheer size alone could topple the fence and save their back sides from my dinner plate. Oh and together what they could accomplish in the name of there freedom? Of course they wont be sending any cows to the moon. Regardless of how smart they are, they still lack some basic functions we humans are able to enjoy.... like opposable thumbs.

However my line of questioning is still good. What could we accomplish together as a body of Christ if we overturn the fences in our own lives and expose the freedom God has for us? I know I can't be the only one needing the power to spy out my blind spot and reduce its size. Powerless by my own choices I guess. Maybe my faith resided in my blind spot. Where I'm unaware or maybe not bold enough to claim it.

COWS!! I hope I didn't miss it.

Luke 17:6 The Lord answered, "if you had faith as big as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ' Pull yourself up by the roots and plant yourself in the sea!' and it would obey you.

Matthew 13:31-32 Jesus told them another parable: “The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man takes a mustard seed and sows it in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows up, it is the biggest of all plants. It becomes a tree, so that birds come and make their nests in its branches.”

Hebrews 11:1 To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.

#godthoughts

[obihoe]

one thing that always comes up in my mind when thinking about kishimotos whole narrative of rins death being the one and Only thing that made obito despair and lose hope in the shinobi system .. is gaara. gaaras whole life story.

bc think about it. what obito thought happened to rin happened in reality to gaara, just a thousand times worse bc w him it wasnt just a bunch of random ninjas from an enemy village. it was his own father who sealed the bijuu in him so that he could use his powers in the interest of the village, giving zero shits about what that would mean for gaaras quality of life. and gaara was used during the attack against konoha, he was known as sunas biggest asset there. and i know orochimaru turned out to be responsible for the attack on konoha but u cannot tell me that gaaras father wouldnt have used him exactly the same way if it had been him the whole time. bc thats what he was there for in his eyes. meanwhile gaara was going completely insane the whole time, remember how he would always hold his head in his hands, how he finally broke down during his fight against sasuke, how his whole life he could never even Sleep properly bc if he did, shukaku would take over his body and go kill everyone.

instead of worrying about his sons wellbeing his father helped ostracize him from everyone in the village by continuing to treat him like shit and never once standing up for him or helping him w the burden of being forced to live w a bijuu as destructive as shukaku. which just made him become even more insane until he finally just turned into a complete psychopath and an actual danger to himself and others, i will always remember how gaara once said that everyone was afraid of him anyway, so at some point he just decided to give them a reason. to which his father was like, well, seems like he failed then. he's unstable, he cant handle shukaku, the experiment failed. lets just kill him then. and then he just kept trying to have him assassinated over and over again while at the same time STILL making him fight for the village whenever convenient. and i dont remember that being like a controversial thing for him to do either. it was just like, well, thats what life is like when u have a demon sealed inside of u, its just what happens. every shinobi is just a tool of the state anyway and the more powerful u are, the less ppl will care about u as a person. gaaras father wasnt known as like a tyrant everyone hated, gaara was the one everyone in the village hated even tho he was the victim all along in this.

i could go on forever about all the shit that gaara had to go thru actually but the point of this post is: gaara was made jinchuuriki so that he could be instrumentalised as a weapon. he didnt have a choice in that, nobody saw him as a person, he was just a means to an end, the end being warfare. and that is the same thing that obito was made to believe happened to rin. the rin-incident thus wasnt a singular occurence, in fact it actually wouldve been a pretty typical, "normal" thing to have happened in the shinobi system. even with madara canonically being the one responsible for that, the principle of what obito hated so much about the world still stands. obito knew all about the jinchuurikis, he knew about narutos childhood, he must have known about gaaras life story too. obviously what happened to rin weighed much much heavier for him bc he had a personal relationship w her, however he said himself that he had kept looking for something out there that could make him hopeful about the world again after rins death. but found nothing. gaaras story wouldve been one of many things where he wouldve been like yeah. my anger at the world is actually 100% justified bc these things happen all the time and i need to find a way to end it.

making obito regain hope in the shinobi system after finding out the truth about rin takes away an incredible amount of depth from his character imo bc it reduces his motives to just being sad and angry that a girl he had a crush on as a child died. instead of critical awareness of and justified anger at all the shit and abuse thats been going on in the shinobi system forever

#posts #naruto #obito #gaara #naruto meta #long post

[juneviews]

Hi Axelle,

I cannot verify the source from where this news came from,..but it is true that to a great extent lobbying works in the BL industry.

I mean,...Glamour & Entertainment industry through out the world is extremely competitive, and ruthless. And BL is no exception to that. And though BL isn't a sub-genre anymore,...it's still evolving. So what applies to other industries, applies to BL as well. Having said that,...news spread fast, and rumours spread even faster in the BL industry.

Now,...

Does Godji have anything to do with the whole fall-out between Mike & TopTap? Because,...it's believed that Godji is one of the influential person in GMMTV, and that she is close to Mike, and did not like the close proximity between Mike & TopTap, that's why the whole fallout.

And since TopTap is almost reduced to a side-character now,...GMMTV is launching Krist and Mike as a couple, trying to mint money out of their popularity.

If this is news to you,...how far do you think it's true?

And,...

Do you think the BL audience will accept Mike & Krist as a BL couple?

xoxo

Arjuna

hi! personally I think it's kinda annoying how people always find a way to blame women for everything lol. at the end of the day, none of us really know what happened, and all we can do is speculate on a situation we don't even have all the facts on. so yes, godji has some influence in gmmtv but I don't believe her to be THAT influent either, she's just overly present in projects bc she's primarily a mc so she's chosen to basically do most lives & events gmmtv have. and I don't believe in the slightest that toptap is getting sidelined, seeing how he's one of gmmtv's biggest actors & people love him. sure, he doesn't have the most front & center projects this year, but we don't know what the future looks like so it means nothing for now. what I believe happened was that mike & toptap fought, because godji is very close to mike she got involved by also unfollowing toptap so sadly people started blaming things on her, and then mike & toptap decided to get on slightly better terms but clearly didn't mend their relationship entirely, causing their ship to die. since both toptap & mike don't have a ship anymore and krist doesn't either bc singto left gmmtv, gmmtv paired krist & mike together (probably to krist's demand who's a huge opportunist.) I really don't think it's that deep tbh, and all the theories about toptap being in love with mike but him rejecting him bc he's with godji... these are all pure speculations that frankly people have gotten out of their asses. so clearly we should let them both do what they want to do, which is move on from their ship. as for whether or not mike & krist will be a successful ship... I have trouble seeing it happen considering half the fandom hates krist's guts, but also I've learned along the years that manage my expectations bc there's always some surprises down the line. we shall see!

xxx

#answers

[earthly--truth]

What I believe in

These are my beliefs as someone who aligns with democratic socialism and progressivism. Feel free to critique it, challenge it, even just a few sections, whatever, but this is what I believe will make the world a better place, because people (and animals) deserve to live the best possible lives they can live with the only chance at life they got. This is going to be super general and long, and not get into nearly everything, but I hope it sheds a positive light on leftism.

Strong unions so that workers (the majority of people in society) have the ability have better footing to negotiate better wages, work hours, vacation days, benefits, etc. I also believe that in instances where it’s pragmatically viable that there should be a push for more worker co-op’s, in which every employee has a stake in the company they work at, and the ability to give their input (all companies should strive for more democracy). Both of these contribute to healthier, happier, and, and better payed people.

Raising the minimum wage in the U.S to $15 an hour. The current wage of  $7.25 is way too low. It’s just not a livable wage. There’s a reason why McDonald’s and Walmart are called corporate welfare queens, and it’s because they’re employees require welfare to survive, despite being the biggest corporations on the planet with multi-billionaire CEO’s. The richest in society should also pay more in taxes.

Stop investing so much in the American military, cut it by a third if you can. (Firstly this frees up a lot of money for other things) Get the military out of the middle east, and create other more peaceful avenues to ensure it doesn’t crumble like every single time the military pulls out and doesn’t try to actually fix the mess they created. The people in the middle east deserve to be able to rebuild and they���ll need help to do that (just not the type of help where america installs their own leaders).

Healthcare should be universal, paid for by taxes. Every developed nation is capable of doing it. Many developing countries are doing it. Americans pay more in taxes for healthcare than so many other countries, yet a trip to the hospital still can put you in debt for the rest of your life. That is inhumane, and people shouldn’t have to choose between crippling debt and their health.

There’s also an argument to be made for free/way cheaper university, since countries like Canada or America force people to get a degree if they want to live a decent life, yet in order to do that you have to pay $15,000 a year for university. A system like that either forces people to skip out on uni, or again go into major debt. If Europe can figure it out, I think the U.S and Canada can figure it out too.

Black Lives Matter. To be more specific, I want police/criminal justice/prison reform. I want police de-militarized and to stop acting so abusive towards to civilians and real justice for the police that do, I want an end on the war on drugs (this helps drug addicts get help and delivers a blow to gangs and the cartel). I want an end to mass incarceration and laws that make it easier to throw people in jail for years for basically nothing. I want an end to for profit prisons. I want an end to the policy of retribution rather than rehabilitation for inmates (countries who rehabilitate are way more successful at non-returning inmates). I want an end to treating prisoners like slaves so corporations can get cheap labour. I also want the government to actually start caring about the poorest communities, many of which are predominantly black and latino (in cities anyways). (Also the indigenous in Canada). Better infrastructure, better public works programs. These all contribute to the proliferation of these communities and helps lessen the potential for criminality by making their lives better.

The dismantling of gender norms and roles, and de-stigmatization of LGBTQ+ people. I want people to be whoever they want to be. For far too long we have expected men and women to act a certain way. Women have come a long way, but there are still remnants of the old way of looking at things. We still have a lot of social stigma about how women should look, and that they are not worth even paying attention to if they aren’t conventionally attractive. We still have social stigma about sexuality and sex work. We hyper sexualize women in the media, yet shame women as sluts if they have a lot of sex. We shame women who choose abortion as murderers, yet don’t offer any support for the mother once the child has arrived. On top of that, the positions of power are still predominantly very old men. I also believe in helping men. Men are lonelier, men are increasingly staying sexless (not by choice), men are getting more suicidal. I want to address this two ways. One, by tackling toxic masculinity (not masculinity itself, just the bad parts). TM is telling men to man up and not to cry, TM is telling men not to act feminine or gay. TM is telling men to bottle up their emotions and resolve their problems through violence. The second way to address this is through my beliefs about workers. Men are the most suicidal in countries where there is a heavy work culture, like Japan and South Korea. Where they can’t have lives, and live to make money for the company they work at. That isn’t good.

When it comes to LGBTQ+ people, we need more positive representation in the media. We need people to see gay, trans, and non-binary people as normal people. When it comes to trans people specifically, we need to end the constant wars against them. Whether you’re talking about bathrooms, or sports, or children/teens receiving trans affirming healthcare. Let trans people be the gender that they say there are in the places they want to be, and allow them to receive the healthcare they need which is just the overwhelming medical consensus. This, combined with more supportive parents. all goes a long way to reducing the suicide rate amonst trans people.

The proliferation of the developing world. I want developing countries to be more autonomous, and to stop being under the boot of western corporations. I want an end to sweatshop labour or borderline sweatshop labour. I want the west to stop treating these actual people like their robots for pennies to produce our ungodly amounts of junk, and to actually pay these people decent wages. I want the world bank to stop giving money in an exploitative way to poor nations so that they cave to western business interests. These are people, human beings, and they deserve to develop and live good lives just like us. I also want them to fight for democracy in their countries.

Environmentalism. To go off the last section, 100 Corporations are contributing 71% of greenhouse gases. That needs to change. Corporations are participating ungodly amounts of devastations to eco-systems and the atmosphere. Ecosystems destroyed, and the exacerbation of the climate crises. I want a green and blue earth, and that can start by a) changing to green energy as much as humanly possible; solar, wind, and even nuclear (and whatever we come up with in the future) are far better than the fossil fuels we use now, which we’ll run out of anyways. And second we need to hold corporations accountable for destroying the planet. If we don’t do this, we risk the climate crises getting really bad. Oceans rising which will flood coastlines, creating millions of refugees, more periods of extreme dry (no water/bush fires) and extreme cold (look at what happened to texas). Something needs to be done about it.

Finally, veganism, for many reasons. One, the switch to veganism will be a big contributor to saving the planet. Whether you’re talking about the devastation we do to places like the Amazon Rain forest and other ecosystems to clear the way for animal farming, or whether you’re talking about reducing emissions. Most emissions and waste from agriculture are from the production phase of animal farming. So much food, water, and energy is wasted by giving it to billions of animals that we purposefully breed into existence, then slaughter, rinse and repeat, every single year, when we could just grow food and give water to people and skip out the middle man (think about how many people are hungry and without water in the world).

Philosophically, it is also wrong to kill a living creature that desires to live, that is able to connect with other living things and it surrounding, to form bonds. A cow, pig, chicken, lamb, sheep, are no different than a dog, cat, or rabbit, and they should not be killed, exploited, and tortured (confinement, abusive conditions in industrial farms) for pleasure. I know it’s pleasure for most people, because vegans are living proof that you can live happy and healthy lives without animal products. Vegans are statistically healthier than non-vegans, and we can get all the nutrients we need, even on an inexpensive diet. There are exceptions of course. A very small portion of people literally cannot eat plants and can only eat meat, and the developing world doesn’t have the same access to vegan products as the developed world does. Those people are valid, but many many people can make the switch and they should, especially in the developed world

All I see from this is making the world better. Hopefully you can too.

#socialism #progressive #veganism #vegan #demoratic socialism #leftist #workers rights #feminism #lgbt #black lives matter #environment #climate change #climate crises #universal healthcare #unions #minimum wage #mens rights #police reform #animal rights #drugs

[illuminatedquill]

Nevertheless, An Analysis

Do Hyeok vs Jae Eon

Hello, again. Today I’m going to talk about Do Hyeok versus Jae Eon; specifically how love affects both of their characters relationship with Na Bi. Love, as presented in Nevertheless, is the driving factor behind nearly all the actions and dialogue between our main leads. In this post, we’re going to focus on our two male leads and how love acts as a megaphone for their personalities.

Park Jae Eon, Frankenstein’s Creature

“I have love in me the likes you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy one, I will indulge in the other.”

- Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Jae Eon, at this point in the story, is a man undone. The smooth playboy, content with keeping a safe distance from the women he chases, has crossed numerous lines and broken all his rules for Na Bi. All in the name of love. And Na Bi burned him for it. It was a long time coming and much needed for his growth as a person. Time will tell if he learns from this experience and moves on to a happier, healthier version of himself.

Love, as some people say, is a transformative emotion. I don’t really believe that. I think people can change but not their entire personalities or the core of who they are. I think back to one of my favorite shows, Modern Family, where one of the characters says that people in a relationship can change maybe fifteen percent of their personality. But that fifteen percent can be enough.

Maybe that’s right. But, in my opinion, love is less a transformative element rather than it acts like a megaphone for your personality. It doesn’t give you the ability to do things you couldn’t before but instead allows you to be more of who you are. And that holds true for Park Jae Eon. Love unlocks these deeper parts of him, shedding light on thoughts and emotions long buried from whatever trauma (we still don’t know, thanks writers) he’s experienced.

But does that make him a better person?

No.

It makes him worse. At the end of episode 9, we see him at his lowest; his most manipulative, toxic, and cruel. What he did to Do Hyeok, and how he used Na Bi to do it; it’s not something I could say the Jae Eon from the first half of the series would do. But love makes him desperate and drives him to act on his darker impulses.

He’s become a monster, single minded in his pursuit. He can’t control himself when he’s around her and that does lead to acts of genuine sincerity and kindness. But when she’s not around and spending time with Do Hyeok, that loss of control cuts the other way, leading into possessiveness and rage. There’s no balance with him; it’s all or nothing to get Na Bi back to his side and away from Do Hyeok.

These toxic qualities were always a part of him but they were reigned in because he had not acknowledged his feelings. Jae Eon always kept his distance, preventing something like this. But now he’s drowning in them, lost as Na Bi was (but she had a life raft, a way out: Do Hyeok).

All this leads to his undoing. And the end of his relationship with Na Bi.

Maybe, for a time, his relationship with Na Bi was exactly what she needed; something passionate, stormy, and tumultuous enough to wipe away her pain from her abusive ex. But while storms can clear away anything in their path, they do so by causing massive damage to anything they touch; reducing structures to rubble or uprooting trees from their places and flinging them away. The cure for Na Bi’s pain ended up being worse. She only just managed to avoid the worst of it.

Ultimately it was not meant to be for Jae Eon and Na Bi. They were two people who were unable to find balance with each other and did irreparable damage.

Let’s talk now about his rival, Yang Do Hyeok, and what love’s megaphone reveals about his character. How does his love succeed for Na Bi in a way Park Jae Eon’s didn’t?

Yang Do Hyeok, Love’s Paradox

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt; only more love.”

- Mother Teresa

Yang Do Hyeok is the embodiment of the above quote. He unwittingly joined the rollercoaster ride between Jae Eon and Na Bi but it’s not until episode 8 that he willingly chooses to go for another round. He’s quite possibly the craziest character in the drama; in a sane world, we’d all be advising him to run for the hills while he still has a chance and let Na Bi and Jae Eon’s train wreck of a relationship continue to it’s inevitable conclusion.

But, he’s Do Hyeok and he loves Na Bi. So, he must try.

We see Do Hyeok at his lowest in episode 9; in a similar position to his rival, jealousy and insecurity threaten to overcome him. He can’t focus on his cooking and he’s irritable; his trademark smile is not present. He thinks to himself whether he should give up. Jae Eon’s little trick is hurting him bad and he doesn’t know how to handle it.

So, like Jae Eon, he falls back on what he knows. The hurt is there, but he accepts this is part of the risk in loving Na Bi and he continues to be there for her when she needs him. The megaphone lets Do Hyeok be more of himself, just like Jae Eon, but the qualities that are magnified are his kindness, his sincerity, and his pure, unconditional love for Na Bi.

He bites down on his hurt and continues to love. Where Jae Eon’s hurt poisons his love for Na Bi, Do Hyeok lets the hurt inform of what’s most important to him - Na Bi - and it sharpens his focus and allows him to move past Jae Eon’s trick. He doesn’t hide or shy away from his pain; he reveals it to Na Bi. This further strengthens their friendship to the point that Na Bi, upon discovering Jae Eon’s manipulation, finds the resolve to end it with permanently or else further risk more harm to her relationship with Do Hyeok.

The megaphone reveals something essential about Do Hyeok’s character to us and Na Bi; that in the face of heartbreak like this, the solution isn’t to hide away or hurt those who hurt us. It’s to love more. Trust more. And that’s what he does.

It’s what he’s always done. Because it’s what Na Bi needs and deserves. A partner who reassures and comforts in the worst moments and lifts us up when we feel down.

If Park Jae Eon’s love is the thunderous storm, relentless and all consuming, then Do Hyeok’s is the gentle green of rolling hills and pastures. The storm may come and threaten to shake apart everything but it always passes. And the hills and pastures are still there. And they endure, to grow again and again, no matter the damage.

That is what Na Bi needs. The promise of spring. That life can be good again and that she can be happy, that she deserves to be happy. And her friendship with Do Hyeok is the biggest indication to me that she is going to make it. With him by her side, she can get through this last hurdle.

Do Hyeok’s love is big and selfless. Where Jae Eon wants to possess Na Bi, Do Hyeok wants to simply be the one by her side. And that’s why he’s the last one standing in this rivalry.

#jtbc nevertheless #nevertheless #kdrama #han so hee #chae jong hyeop #song kang #yu na bi #yang do hyeok #park jae eon

[hafanforever]

Keep Your Hands to Yourself

In Frozen, we see that Elsa occasionally displays a nervous habit of holding herself by placing her hands on her elbows and positioning them inward towards her. Most of the time, she creates ice and snow from her hands, especially when she extends them out in front of her. The appearance of Elsa’s creations relate to her emotions, and she has trouble maintaining control of her magic whenever she feels scared, angry, panicky, or any other strong negative emotion(s). So whenever she experiences said emotions, Elsa assumes this posture to reduce the chances of releasing ice unintentionally or accidentally, and subsequently losing total control of her magic.

But the other major reason why Elsa holds herself is that it has become a gesture of comforting herself of sorts, one that no one else could do. If you remember, when she is 12, Elsa is still struggling to control her powers, especially when her negative emotions run rampant. When Agnarr tries to reach towards and comfort his terrified daughter, Elsa pulls away, refusing to be touched. By now, Elsa has become deathly scared that she might gravely harm or kill anyone who comes in contact with her, with her biggest concerns being aimed towards her family. Unable to bear the thought of harming them due to the instability of her magic through her anxiety and fear, Elsa refuses to let her father touch or hug her. This scene is so heartbreaking because Elsa clearly needs a hug here, but to her, it’s no longer an option. 

By the time she is 18, Elsa has completely banned herself from having any physical contact with her sister and parents. Before Agnarr and Iduna leave for their trip, all Elsa does to bid them goodbye is curtsy. No physical contact is initiated between either party. After the couples’ death and funeral, Elsa is seen alone in her room, which is frozen with ice and snowflakes hang in the air, suspended by her grief. 

Although it’s short, this is the first moment in the film where Elsa displays the posture of holding herself. This scene subtly reveals that when she holds herself, she is actually “hugging” herself as a means of comfort in her time of mourning. Since Elsa no longer allows anyone to hug or affectionately touch her to ease her when she feels sad, worried, anxious, or scared, “hugging” herself is the only option she has left.

The second scene, but the first major one, in which Elsa holds herself is after she tells Anna “Then leave”, and she continues to do it when she walks away and says, “Enough, Anna!”, while Anna badgers Elsa with questions about why she coldly closes herself off from her (Anna) and the rest of the world. Anna’s nonstop persistence of questioning her sister culminates with Elsa’s agitation reaching its tipping point when she unleashes a barrier of ice spikes from her hand upon turning around and shouting, “I said, ENOUGH!”

Immediately before all of this happens, Elsa orders the gates to be closed, and Anna objects by following Elsa, grabbing one of her gloves (though she was actually trying to take Elsa by the hand instead), and desperately pleading for Elsa to realize that she (Anna) can no longer live her life being cut off from the people of Arendelle and the rest of the world. Elsa assumes this posture because she is growing agitated by Anna’s demanding persistence of her distant behavior. This scene shows perfectly that Elsa has trouble maintaining control of her powers when experiencing negative emotions, and especially so when Anna is around to spur them. Elsa doesn’t want things to get out of hand (no pun intended, of course! 😆😝) and attract unwanted attention, so she tries to walk away and keep her hands closed in to prevent any magic from being let loose...which is ultimately unsuccessful by the end of this scene.

Then later, after Elsa runs away following her secret being exposed, Anna comes to find her sister at the ice palace. Although both girls are initially delighted to see each other, after Anna says they can be close again like they were as children, Elsa becomes consumed by anxiety and fear because she cannot forget the horrible childhood memory of when she nearly killed Anna. Like the earlier scene, Elsa wants to avoid taking a chance of losing control of herself and making dangerous ice, so while saying they cannot be close again, Elsa assumes her posture as she attempts to bid Anna goodbye and walk away from her.

After throwing Anna, Olaf, and Kristoff out of her palace, Elsa’s fear intensifies because she has learned of the fate she has brought upon Arendelle. Not only does she briefly fold her arms inward and hold herself again, but she paces back and forth around her palace while telling herself “Control it” and “Don’t feel.”

In the six years since Frozen came out, we had the shorts Frozen Fever and Olaf’s Frozen Adventure take place after it. Both films depict Elsa being happier and much more confident in herself, her magic, and in her role as the queen of Arendelle. So perhaps some fans thought that by the time that Frozen II takes place, which is three years after Frozen, Elsa would be so happy and confident that we would never see the habit of her holding herself again.

But no, that does not happen; Elsa resumes this posture a few times in Frozen II. Seeing her do it in this film made me realize a few other reasons of why she does it in the original film that I didn’t realize when I first saw it years ago.

Elsa is first seen with this posture when she finally tells Anna about the voice, which is immediately after the people of Arendelle have been evacuated from the kingdom. Then she does it a couple more times when she and Anna discover the wreck of their parents’ ship and how they died.

The fact that Elsa holds herself in these scenes tell me that, despite the obvious progress she has made about herself since the end of Frozen, like the one song says, some things have not changed. Elsa still exhibits this habit because she has been doing it for years; 13 years, in fact. Doing any nervous habit like this for such a length of time is EXTREMELY hard to break. At the end of the first movie, Elsa was only just BEGINNING to gain confidence in herself because she realized that love is the key to controlling her powers, and her people have accepted her once they see the good things she can do with them. But these sudden changes, no matter how optimistic they would be, would NOT make Elsa instantly gain confidence and think nothing but positivity about herself and her magic. When you spend so many years thinking pessimistically about yourself, it can take many more years to be completely convinced to think just the opposite. Lots of positive reinforcement is always a good start, but it is easy to slip up and fall back into bad habits, and Elsa proves this by resuming the posture in the aforementioned scene.

So even after three years, Elsa has not grown confident and happy enough to change her old ways.

Two realizations I had about Elsa assuming this posture in the original film is that it emphasizes her having feelings of guilt (in which she takes any and all blame on herself) and reluctance. These feelings are further stressed during the scenes in Frozen II because Elsa barely makes eye contact with Anna. In the scene following Arendelle’s evacuation, Elsa’s posture and avoidance of looking at Anna implies that she is feeling guilty, not just about not mentioning the voice sooner, but also about having wakened the spirits and forced the citizens to evacuate after Arendelle’s elements were disrupted. Her actions also shows that Elsa is still very reluctant to open up about her feelings and admit things to Anna, especially anything secretive, anything that bothers her. This makes a lot of sense to me since Elsa spent more than a decade being taught to conceal her emotions and feelings in order to control her magic. Guilt was another negative emotion Elsa had felt for years and struggled to control, especially after Anna’s accident. And now, as the sole ruler of Arendelle, Elsa carries the weight of the kingdom on her shoulders. She assumes the responsibility of the safety and well-being of her people. When she causes problems or misfortunes in Arendelle that affects many, if not all, of its citizens, Elsa either carries large amounts of guilt and blames herself for them or feels tremendous amounts of worry and anxiety about how to resolve them. She is VERY hard on herself, and like her posture, shedding strong feelings like guilt and learning to not take all of the blame are not things that Elsa would be able to do in a snap.

So again, even after three years, being more optimistic, less guilty, and open about her feelings are things that are not particularly easy for Elsa to do.

For the entire scene with their parents’ shipwreck, Elsa holds herself when she and Anna watch the water memory of Agnarr and Iduna’s final moments, when she heartbrokenly walks away and assumes responsibility for their deaths, and then finally after she sends Anna and Olaf away in the ice canoe. 

Like earlier, Elsa does her posture while and after watching her parents’ final moments. She realizes that Agnarr and Iduna died while they were searching for answers about her powers, and so she guiltily pins herself as the sole cause for their deaths. When Anna tries to get Elsa to see that it is not her fault at all, Elsa again (initially) refuses to make eye contact with her sister as part of her guilt. Again, Elsa’s guilt is emphasized here like the earlier scene because she assumes responsibility for the well-being of her family just like she does with her kingdom. Anything her family members do that relate to her makes Elsa believe that she holds all the responsibility for their decisions, and this is why she believes she alone is the reason her parents are dead. This is perhaps the only moment in the whole film where Elsa reverts back to her old beliefs that her powers make her a danger, burden, and curse to her family and the world. Although Elsa begins to regain her faith when Anna says that Elsa is a gift because of their mother’s good deed of rescuing their father and that she (Anna) believes in her (Elsa) to free the forest and save Arendelle, it would be Elsa’s eventual discovery of her purpose as the fifth spirit that would make her gain ultimate confidence in and acceptance of herself and her powers. 😉😊

The last moment in the film that shows Elsa holding herself is when she sends Anna and Olaf away in the ice canoe. Before this moment, Anna insists on coming with Elsa to Ahtohallan to keep Elsa safe, to keep her from dying. But Elsa adamantly refuses to let Anna come, knowing that they would both perish trying to cross the Dark Sea. After saying she can’t lose Anna and hugging her, Elsa creates the boat and watches Anna and Olaf slide away down the bank until they are out of sight. Now Elsa’s face in this moment shows that she does feel guilty and unhappy what she did, but she had to do it anyway. As I said here, Anna could not come with Elsa to Ahtohallan because the perils of the Dark Sea could have killed them both, and then they would have been unable to complete their mission. For now, Elsa may have broken her promise that she and Anna would do their mission together. But even though they weren’t physically together the whole time, they did do it together. So in the end, Elsa still kept her promise.

But these two scenes aren’t the only times since the original film that Elsa has exhibited these actions to show her guilt about something. In Frozen Fever, when Anna holds the sick, weak Elsa as they walk back to the castle together, Elsa folds her arms in and doesn’t look Anna in the eye as she apologizes for her belief that she ruined her sister’s birthday.

Like I said before, some things did not change between Frozen and Frozen II, and these are two things that Elsa did not change about herself following 13 years of repression and isolation to three years of no longer hiding from the world.

The other realization I had about Elsa’s posture, particularly with these two scenes in Frozen II and the scene in Frozen Fever, is that it is a clear sign of her introversion, and so is her reluctance to make eye contact with Anna. These are things to which I can strongly relate because I am also an introvert. We introverts do not always like to be open about our feelings, particularly whenever something is bothering us. It’s only after encouragement from the people to whom we are the closest, be it family members, friends, or both, that we are more willing to be honest and less reluctant about our feelings, and share them rather than hide them.

By the end of Frozen II, and I can’t stress this enough, Elsa finally knows exactly who and what she is, has discovered her true calling in life is, and knows why she has magic. And by finally having all of the answers to what she has wanted to know all of her life, Elsa can definitely change her actions of holding herself and not making eye contact when feeling guilty, as well as learning to be less reluctant to hide her feelings and admit them. Like any habit that is practiced for years, changing them would be a gradual practice for her, not instant. But I have every confidence in my girl that she can do it. 😁😄❤️

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