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danganronpaprideicons · 5 years

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Alrighty then!!

Well, I can clearly say that I didn’t expect that kind of a response, or one that fast!! But here we are!!! I’m putting everything under the cut, btw!

@kaito-helps-kins @fujisakis-kin-blog

Kaede Akamatsu, Ultimate Tennis Pro. Cheery and bright, loves the thrill of all sports. Tennis is just her latest obsession, after she was deemed too short for basketball. Can be found playing at the courts for hours, excelling in both singles and doubles.

Rantaro Amami, Ultimate Supreme Leader. Benevolent, and very down-to-earth despite his power. Claims to only run his organization to help better humanity, but dislikes democracy for its slowness and lack of efficiency.

Ryoma Hoshi, Ultimate Detective. Prisoner, framed for the murder of his girlfriend after he crossed the mob by convicting one of their higher-ups. Blames himself for her death, since he failed to protect her.

Kirumi Tojo, Ultimate Assassin. Highly trained political weapon of Japan. Takes orders without hesitation, devoted to helping her country, no matter how much blood may be on her hands.

Angie Yonaga, Ultimate Magician. Devout Prophet of Atua, and claims he is where she gains her magical prowess from. Most of her tricks can be explained away, but there are a few that defy any explanation.

Tenko Chabashira, Ultimate Astronaut. Wishes to be the first woman on the moon, and claims that her first action once there will be to blow a kiss to Venus. Often was belittled by others in the male-dominated space program, with her dislike of men being rather recent as such.

Korekiyo Shinguji, Ultimate Artist. Best known for his "Inner Beauty" portraits, which depict half of the person as their physical self, and half as the person he views them to be. Makes death masks of the victims.

Miu Iruma, Ultimate Aikido Master. Has been training since she was a teen, and loves to toy with her opponents. Longs for and craves someone who can finally defeat and humiliate her in a match.

Gonta Gokuhara, Ultimate Pianist. Learned to play, as learning the arts is considered Gentlemanly! Knows only classics.

Kokichi Oma, Ultimate ???. Switches between his claimed Ultimates constantly. Foreshadows events before they happen, knows far more than he should.

Kaito Momota, Ultimate Inventor. Believes anything is possible with enough elbow grease and electricity. Craves to build something so impactful, his name goes down in history.

Tsumugi Shirogane, Ultimate Maid. Aspires to one day work at the most prestigious maid café in the country, and has worked for various powerful figures abroad. Finds comfort in the maid role, even though she doesn't find real maid work all that appealing.

Keebo Idabashi, Ultimate Anthropologist. Trained by his father and famed Anthropologist, Professor Idabashi. Has almost no field training, and has trouble conversing with the other students. Speaks in a far-too-technical way.

Himiko Yumeno, Ultimate Cosplayer. Loved cosplay as a child, but her height severely limits the characters she can convincingly pull off. Has done work for live-action reboots of children's animated media.

Maki (Officially MACH-1), Ultimate Robot. Has almost no prior memories of her life, besides vague flashes. Flashback light does not affect her nearly as well as everyone else. The longer she goes without maintenance, the more emotional and physically powerful she becomes.

Shuichi Saihara, Ultimate Entomologist. Shy. Finds it much easier to spend time with bugs and animals than with people. Only keeps a few bugs as pets, but names them all after people he wishes he knew better

#i'm sorry there isn't more!!#like i said i only came up with the idea today #but maybe i'll expand on it in the future!!#chatter #rantaro's talentswap au #(just in preparation in case anyone wants to block that tag!)#v3 #danganronpa

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multifandomaddictedfangirl · 5 years

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Misconceptions about Breaking bad ~ my theory (Spoilers!)

So I’ve just finished watching Breaking Bad. All seasons. I really loved the show. It was well written, well directed, well thought in every details, very well played with such talented actors. It is a masterpiece. Clearly, it was a show that had been thought of and worked on for a while to be perfect (like no plot holes, no OOC actions, no wasted moments, no pointless moves, no useless lines, etc.). Besides, this show had everything: badass action, fighting scenes, tension, drama (big time), humor sometimes (not often) and emotions (a lot).

However, I think there is a HUGE misunderstanding to what this show is about and an ENORMOUS misconception of why it’s so good and really likeable.

A lot of people I have met IRL, or read online, really loved this show as well. That’s not a surprise. As I’ve said, this show was really good for a lot of reasons and I will never deny that.

But as I was reading them/talking to them IRL, I’ve realised something. They loved Breaking Bad because they loved the story and the character of Walter White. They loved the story of an american middle aged white man, with a normal life, a traditional family and a boring job, becoming this super extra badass who ends up building and controlling a meth empire. Usually, they particularly loved season 3-4 when Walt is supposedly at its greatest moments. They loved Walter White and what he has become: a badass, a smart ass meth dealer, a dominating boss, a good provider for his family... a real man. They loved him as a hero. They loved him as a protagonist who should succeed and get what he wants in the end. They loved him as a character that they were rooting for. They also loved the dream of a normal guy starting off nothing and ending up being the big boss in the game. They loved the idea of having this exciting/dangerous/ illegal/ outlawed/badass “dream life”. Like in an action movie. They loved the fantasy that Breaking Bad exposes.

So here’s the thing... Those people don’t like Breaking Bad. Because that’s not the show. That’s not its point. That’s not its essence. That’s not what it’s trying to show us. That’s not what it’s about. At all.

Obviously, there are multiple interpretations and levels of lecture in a piece of art. And I don’t think some are overall better than others. I think it’s pretty condescending and arrogant to believe there is a “good way” of consuming medias/arts, and a “bad way”. There are just different ways. And that’s great.

However, if you pay attention to the show, for like 10 minutes, it’s pretty clear what it is about.

Breaking Bad is a criticism of Walter White and of this fantasy of a badass action-movie lifestyle. The whole point of the show is basically to say: “Look at that kind of lifestyle society makes you fantasise about, and look how you really don’t want to have it cause it actually sucks. Look at how you DON’T and SHOULDN’T want to become Walter White.”

Walter White isn’t portrayed as a glorious badass mastermind hero by the show. He shouldn’t be read like that. Of course, he is the main protagonist and so, the audience is meant to follow his story. But Walt is first portrayed as a bad guy. Not only like a villain. But as a bad person. Someone you should despise for his personality. Someone who should disgust you. Someone you should hate for who he truly is. Someone you shouldn’t be rooting for. Someone you should quite quickly want dead.

When the show begins, yes, he is portrayed as a normal family man, working a basic job, providing for his family which he seems to care about. But the show already makes it clear that he is a very proud man, who thinks he deserves better than his current life, who thinks he can do better and have better just because. Just cause he is Walter White, a chemistry genius. His world, what he has, doesn’t seem to be enough for him.

(Btw some of my friends argued that Walter White wasn’t such a bad person in the beginning of the show, and that “the meth dealing turned him into an asshole”. While I would agree with that, I also wanna point out that in the beginning of the show, Walt isn’t the greatest person neither... His life is built around a very sexist scheme. He always expects Skyler to do breakfast for him and basically all the housework, because she is his housewife and that’s the way things are supposed to be. We never see him being grateful for what she does. If he’s the only one working, “providing for his family”, it’s more likely because he didn’t want Skyler to. Skyler is a competent woman, she could have found a job with a better income than high school teacher. But I don’t think Walt, fulled with pride, would have accepted to be taken care of by his wife. He wanted to be the alfa male since day one. Because he more likely already had internalised pride, sexism and toxic masculinity and fake virility. We never see him share his true feelings with Skyler. He doesn’t want to look vulnerable. Never. He’s never real with anybody. He refuses to admit that he feels bad about his life and prefers to hide behind a mask, which he will continue to do throughout the show. Because expressing your true feelings to someone who cares about you is not an alfa male move, so Walt rejects this idea. So no, I don’t believe Walter White was such a great person in the beginning. He already was an asshole. He just became waaaaaaaay worse.)

Anyway, then he got diagnosed with cancer. And the money issue appears. If the family pays for Walter’s chemotherapy, they will take a huge risk of bankrupt. They need more money. The family needs more money. But let’s note that Walt’s friends, Eliot and Gretchen, DO propose to pay for his therapy. But Walter refuses, again because of his pride. All the events that follow, all the murders, all the meth dealing, all the horrors, EVERYTHING could have been avoided if Walter White hadn’t decided to be an arrogant jerk and say “suck it” to genuine help.

The money and the (supposedly) rightful idea providing for his family will be Walter’s justifications for ALL his actions during the ENTIRE show (even when his cancer is cured and the family doesn’t necessarily needs this huge amount of money anymore).

The truth is Walt never just wanted the money for chemotherapy or to help his family. He wanted the money because money equals power and influence. And Walt dreamed of power and control over the others. He wanted to be the only one capable of providing, the one everyone else would praise, admire and thank for the rest of his life. He wanted to be a god. Before even cooking his first batch, he already was a narcissist self-centered and arrogant prick, only thinking about his own good.

When he starts to cook meth, it just becomes even worse. The show gets darker, bloodier, more violent. Everything breaks bad, as thev title of the show clearly explicits. Walt finds a new way to express his desire of control, his dream of being finally respected/feared, and the silent violence which he was hidding inside of him.

(I think Walt somehow wants to turn the symbolic violence he was victim of (not being manly enough, especially compared to his brother-in-law, Hank who kinda bullies him in the beginning of the show) into a physical violence he is now in control of).

He then becomes a monster, who is capable of the most cruel, creepy, insane actions to get what he wants. He completely looses sense of reality. If we sum up what he did: he started cooking meth, he missed his daughter’s birth because of the meth dealing, he lied to everybody who cared about him, he tricked his DEA agent brother-in-law Hank, he mentally abused and manipulated Jesse to make him his puppet, he provoked Hank’s accident paralysing him for a while, he turned Junior against Skyler, he abused Skyler and made her part of his business letting her no other choice, he killed Gus’s men, he disolved murdered bodies in acid, he let Jane died while he could have saved her, he made Jesse kill Gale, he blew up a old people’s house killing Gus and hurting multiple innocents, he told nazis where Andrea lived and therefore caused her death, he ordered killings in prison, he blackmailed Hank with a fake confession video, he kidnapped Holly, he caused Hank and Gomez’s deaths, he killed Krazy8, he killed Mike, and he poisoned a child.

And the show makes it pretty clear that it’s not sane, that NONE of this is cool/badass, that it’s just miserable actions provoked by a desperate man, that it will just bring him sadness, loneliness, loss, misery and disfurtune, that Walt slowly but surely goes down this path of destruction and cruelty and that he will never come back. That what he once had (a family who loved and respected him, friends who cared about him, friendly neighbors, a stable job which had always been enough to provide for the family, a beautiful house, a great life, really) will be gone forever. And he will never get all of that back. Even if Walt just realises that in the final episodes.

His problematic lack of trust (even towards Jesse who never betrayed him!), his egocentric paranoia (the fact that he always thinks he is the center of some sort of conspiracy in the meth empire, despite the fact that it is a huge business and he is just not alone in this), his insane quest of power (the fact that he is never happy with what he has and always wants to extend his market/to extend his influence) and his huge PRIDE will always and constantly lead him to making huge mistakes and screwing up everything, making everything way worse. Walt is often the cause of his own failures.

But rather than learning from his mistakes, grow up and adapt, those mistakes just reinforce his beliefs, his fears, his desires, and justifies somehow even more his further actions. Walt is stuck in a vicious circle that, you know already from season 1-2, will lead him towards his end.

Everytime Walt tries something, he fails. He is not a badass mastermind meth dealer. He takes a lot of stupid decisions because he is too impulsive and doesn’t know how things really work in the real life. There is plenty of things he doesn’t know, even if he never admits it. He always have more competent person around him to do the job. Sure he cooks meth better than anybody else (except maybe Jesse in season 5), but meth dealing isn’t just cooking. Without Jesse, without Gus, without Mike, Walt would have never been Heisenberg.

Relying on other isn’t a bad thing (on the contrary), but that’s not what Walt does. Walt USES people. He manipulates them, he mentally ABUSES them, destroys their self esteem, threatens them, makes them believe they have no other choices but to order him. He did that with Jesse (big time), and also with Skyler for instance. The truth is Walt sucks and he needs others but he always denies it because he doesn’t want to admit that he is vulnerable and lost and that he actually is not “the big boss in the game”.

And whenever he makes a decision by himself (usually to cross someone), he FAILS. Like dramatically. He always puts himself in a position that is worse, usually more dangerous, just because he couldn’t shut up and keep his pride. Yes, sometimes, he also succeeds but it’s then quickly shown that what he thought was a success will turn up against him.

Even when Walt does look badass, it’s during short moments taken apart from big story. Yes, if you take some scenes out of context, Walt looks cool. But if you just take some time to analyse the context, than the scenes loose all its power and Walt appears the way he is inside: powerless, weak, insecure, pathetic.

For instance, when Walter says to his wife “I’m the danger”, it’s not meant to be seen as a badass line (and it has, by many people). It’s pathetic because he has, at that point in the show, lost control in his professional life. So he’s trying to regain control and influence in his private life by terryfing someone who looks weaker than him. He cannot hurt or scare his actual enemies in the meth empire because they are more powerful than him. He is at this point lost, confused and vulnerable. He needs to regain his manhood, his position of power, his role of alfa male. So to do so, he decides to terrify his wife, who is just a normal person and doesn’t know the meth world (and so, who has to take anything Walt says for granted). He’s like a bully, in school, attacking the weakest because they are in quest of manhood and influence. And we know bullies are actually the most insecure kids.

Besides, when Walt fails, he doesn’t even admit he screwed up, says sorry and learns from his mistakes. He denies he made a mistake and takes the blame on others. That’s, again, profoundly PATHETIC. He lies to everyone. While he claims that he doesn’t want anybody’s pity, he keeps lying to make it look like he was just the victim of unfortunate events against him. That’s why Walt isn’t even a good likeable villain. He denies what he truly wants (money, power, control, sense of manhood...), he hides behind a fake justification, and he doesn’t realise or admit that his means are deeply cruel (murder, mental abuse, meth dealing, child poisoning, lying, bloodbath assassinations...). Even if he has convinced himself he’s doing all of this for a good reason (provide for his family), it’s like he is not aware of the monstrosity of his actions. He never admits he has become a merciless monster. Not to his family, not to his wife, not to his partners in crime. Most villains would say: “I believe what I do is fair and justified, but to do so, I have to become a monster and do unspeakable things and that’s what I’m gonna do”. But Walt doesn’t.

(Walt would probably say something like “I’m a good person, I want to help my family which totally explains all my actions which weren’t even THAT bad if you look at it a certain way and there was no other choice anyway, I’m just a victim, but I’m still powerful, but I had to, but I’m in control.” And honestly? UGH.)

Walt is a looser, who tries to hide the fact that he sucks. He is not a badass, or a mastermind. He’s mostly scared, pathetic and lost. Breaking Bad always show us that. Breaking Bad is about the fail and the path towards the end of Walter White. It’s about Walt becoming worse and worse, but not by doing things more and more illegal/horrible. He’s becoming worse and worse as a person. More pathetic as the show evolves. More miserable. More lost. More desperate. And he ends up with NOTHING.

Walter White looses everything. His friends are so terrified of him that they don’t want to have any contact with him. His wife completely despise him. His son is ashamed and disgusted of him. His daughter will grow up without a father. His former associates are mostly dead. His partner, Jesse, hates him and runs away from him. Walt dies alone, abandonned by everyone, knowing nobody will miss him and that he has failed to do what he first wanted (take care of his family), that the person he once was, who had a great life actually, is gone.

The show makes it very clear that following Walter’s path is not something cool. It’s not something you should want or dream about. Because in your fantasy, the meth business is badass and cool and fun. But in reality, it’s difficult, horrifying, dangerous and life-ruining. The point of the show is to stay: Walt got stuck in this because he was, and always had been, a proud, narcissist and pathetic person and he has LOST everything when he tried to be the badass he never was.

This fictional lifestyle, based on pride, toxic masculinity and badass action fantasy, that is nourished by a lot of fictions and medias that we consume, is BAD (hence the title). The show criticises it over and over again.

And in my opinion, that’s why it’s so good. The show doesn’t glorify what society already praises to be the dream. It questions it, it shows us its true nature, and criticises it. At the end, Breaking Bad isn’t just a badass exciting action-movie turned into a serie (it would have been quite boring if it was). It’s more than that. It tells a story about us as human, as people, and it deconstructs a fantasy we all have had at some point. And it does it perfectly. So I really loved this show, but it saddened me to see so many people having this misunderstanding about what the show was trying to say.

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hellocheyenne-ashe · 5 years

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The Online Influences Of Today

The internet is a millennial. Officially born and released to the public in 1990 through the studies and efforts of Tim Burners-Lee, this unfathomable idea of an untouchable “network of networks” (Andrews) had finally become a reality. As the host of our world’s most vast and fast-paced culture, no one could have predicted the extensive influence of the internet. As of today, it is one of the world’s most prevalent and important cultures shaping the radical behavior, trends and outlook of modern society.

Despite growing from “738 million in 2000 to 3.2 billion in 2015…” (Davidson) the internet still retains a sense of community. Different social media platforms cater to different personalities but there are common threads that tie it all together, into one cohesive virtual civilization. A civilization is based on and unified by its traditions and customs and the internet is no different. Defined majorly by around-the-clock contact and instant updates from anywhere in the world with access, communication no longer has borders. Wi-fi culture has allowed this to be the most inclusive and boundless group of people yet. With translate buttons at our fingertips, language is no longer an insurmountable barrier. Because language barriers are few and far between on the internet, everything from businesses to friendships flourishes.

Cyberspace does come with its own vernacular, as does every enclave. The closest thing online dialects and communication can be compared to is abstract art and cave paintings. The slang used, the sarcastic humor and the images sent and received are all biased toward those who are aware of and relate to their context. For example, gifs are the tiny and pixelated images on a loop that move for just long enough to convey your point. If someone finds out that their friend has just been broken up with, a gif of a cat being scared and jumping straight up could convey the kind of shock that is being felt without actual dialogue or human involvement.

Common slang includes the term ‘mood’, which tends to be connected to things sporadically and means “that object/event is something that can be identified with as an emotional feeling.” If one is having a bad day and sees a picture of a child who dropped his taco, one might respond with “Mood.” Another example would be one saying “There’s tea.” which would pertain to gossip or drama. Shortened words and acronyms such as omg, brb, btw, lmao, and af are also highly popular online. For most teenagers who have well developed online presences, including multiple social media profiles, their online vernacular tends to spill over into their daily language and life. One could bump into a trash can and say “Mood.” and one’s friends might respond with “Me too.” or “Same.” even though they did not physically bump into the trash can themselves.

Internet culture would be incomplete without internet humor and some of it is quite complex. Lack of punctuation and proper capitalization is notorious among younger internet users, so when capital letters are used (see fig. 1) the context and tone are key to the delivery of what is being said. It is important to have the first sentence as a reference sentence so when the irregular capitalization is used in the second sentence it conveys a sense of mockery of what was originally being said, which is only amplified when paired with the photo below. Someone who was not aware of these unspoken grammar rules might see the same photo and only assume that Republicans have poor grammar.

Other people are the biggest influence on the internet. As opposed to the culture of a country or a city, the amount of people there are to be exposed to is almost impossible to comprehend. There are billions of people as far as the other side of the world, but also as close as just the other side of a cell phone screen. Everything is a tap, follow or like away. Online culture is having 134 million people check Instagram to see what Selena Gomez had for dinner during Fashion Week (Gomez).

Food has created its own niche in social media and online platforms. Aesthetically pleasing food pictures are a core part of successful social profiles so much so that the visual aspect of food and marketability of their trendiness has flooded real world eateries. Starbucks previously launched a Unicorn Frappuccino because the pastel color scheme of the drink made it desirable for social media. In spite of its mediocre taste, people spent their money on it. Recent online food trends have also included the infusion of squid ink in food as an anti-pastel option, making the food of choice an abnormal black color instead. Squid ink is being included in ice creams, pancakes, doughnuts and spaghetti so far. This is just the beginning of wacky and wild food trends because food is a necessity and aesthetic is marketable.

No culture is complete without honoring the ones that came before them and it is seen here through fashion. Vintage pieces become relevant and trendy again thanks to the supermodels posting their outfit of the day. Current online fashion is an art because it enforces the need to “…think nontraditionally and to be on the hunt for the next best thing” (Cummings). It is an homage to one’s parents and the trends that might have been decades prior. It is localized high fashion because getting dressed is now an art of expression. It is athletic but never sweaty, only sporty and coined as athleisure. The difference is crucial because to look too much like you actually just came from the gym would not be high fashion. The terms co-exist and serve as a balance for those who care enough to walk the line. Online is the new standard of style. Trendsetting is virtual, so fashion is the forefront.

Following closely behind fashion, however, is dance trends. Upload a 30-second video of one’s dance moves and one might go viral. Trends like Whipping, Dabbing, or Juju On That Beat flood social networking sites, being retweeted and recreated again and again. These dances become so popular that they are almost universally recognizable in style and name.

One of the most recognizable names on the internet is the folktale of Slenderman. Created via photoshop the original photo is a grainy black and white featuring Slenderman. He is characterized as having no face and abnormally long and stretched out limbs and causing death in numerous ways, shapes and forms but hardly by his own hand. The myth spread like a virus, “the legend had become so deeply embedded in the Web…that even its original creator, Victor Surge, couldn’t believe how much it had spread.” (Dewey)

In 2014, when two young girls from Wisconsin attacked their friend and left her for dead in the name of Slenderman, the world was shocked. Every town has a scary story, a boogie monster, but these girls truly believed in what they were seeing go viral. Their belief in him and his promises of immortality led them to attempt a sacrifice by stabbing their friend 17 times. The internet is not entirely to blame. It has been revealed that one of the attackers had early-onset schizophrenia. The girls were tried and convicted as adults. Most societies are susceptible to the darker influences at play, but none more so than the internet.

The internet is something that has woven itself into almost every aspect of daily life. It is only logical that the behaviors and culture that are experienced on the World Wide Web would eventually bleed into real world societies. The integration and immersive qualities of the internet only further the proof that human bonds have no limits. When limits are broken radically like so, human kind is blessed with a new complex and inclusive culture unlike before. Everyone has a place on the internet, because people are what define human culture.

- Cheyenne Ashe

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