narashikari

[narashikari]

Hey guys, did you know that it's world penguin day today? And some of you might know that I love penguins a lot! Some of you might even remember this pride penguin series that I did a while ago. I never posted them all together so here we go. The whole collection for you to enjoy. Happy penguin day, y'all! :D

[image ID: Nine digital drawings of various pengiun species. All of them are wearing flower corwns on their heads. Each penguin has different flowers on their head and a different pride flag in a circle behind them as background. More detailed description in alt text. End ID.]

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#both my name and nickname get misspelled a lot lmao #the former because it's so uncommon and the latter because it has lots of variations

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"Elderly Palestinian couple looking at their former home, now occupied by a couple from Brooklyn. 🇵🇸" [@/RamAbdu on X. April 4th, 2024.]

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Gaza civil defence crews said more than 300 bodies have been recovered from the mass grave at the Nasser Medical Complex so far. According to Al Jazeera’s correspondent Hani Mahmoud, those being retrieved from the grave included women, children, patients and medical staff. He said medical staff and evacuees who had managed to leave the hospital before the Israeli army’s withdrawal had described scenes of “horror, mass killings and arrests to the point the entire hospital turned from a place of healing into a massive graveyard”. The civil defence group on Monday said it uncovered many of the bodies from what appear to be temporary graves inside the Nasser complex as Israel’s siege prevented access to cemeteries, The Associated Press news agency reported. Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman with the UN’s human rights office, said some of the bodies found at the Khan Younis hospital were “found with their hands tied and stripped of their clothes”.

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Berlin announced on 23 April that it will resume cooperation with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza. Germany’s move came after an independent investigation headed by former French diplomat Catherine Colonna that found “neutrality-related issues” in implementing UNRWA’s procedures to “ensure compliance with the humanitarian principles of neutrality.” Colonna’s report made note that Israel provided no proof of whether UNRWA staff were involved with the Palestinian resistance’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October. “The German government has dealt intensively with the allegations made by Israel against UNRWA and has been in close contact with the Israeli government, the United Nations, and other international donors,” a joint statement by the German Foreign Office and the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development read. The former French diplomat’s investigation proposed reforms to UNRWA to increase the neutrality of staff and behavior, education, and governance, including methods to achieve these goals through engagement with donors. Germany pushed UNRWA to implement these recommendations, strengthen its internal audit functions, and improve the external surveillance of project management. “In support of these reforms, the German government will soon continue its cooperation with UNRWA in Gaza, as Australia, Canada, Sweden, and Japan, among others, have already done so,” the joint statement continued. Germany gave the UN agency over $200 million in 2023 and is the organization’s second-largest donor after the US. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the attacks on the agency “have nothing to do with neutrality issues but in reality, they are motivated by the objective to strip the Palestinians from the refugee status.”

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i know that "unalive" is part of larger worrying trend of self censorship but if you really are in a situtation where you have to avoid the words "die" or "kill" the english language already has centuries worth of much better euphemisms. the iconic and perennial "six feet under"? the lovely imagery of "pushing up daisies"? "shuffle off this mortal coil"????? literally anything from the monty python dead parrot bit???? you have so many options. please try to be more creative at least

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Gotchard and love languages

Watching Gotchard (and being probably one of the very few fans of the show) got me in the mood to do some more character insight and character study. I really enjoy watching how the characters interact with one another, which is easily one of the main strengths of the main writer, Hasegawa. In particular, the smaller moments and scenes stand out to me more than the bigger plot points, though more so for the students than the adults.

Crap, I sound like Kyuun.

Renge

Let’s start with the Osaka alchemist, Renge. Renge initially sticks out as a receiving gifts kind of person. She’s very upfront about possessions, seeming very comfortable with asking Houtaro to trade two of her on hand Chemies (Energyl and Sasukemaru, the bois!). When Minato moves to mind wipe his students, Renge’s immediate action after escaping is to start discarding her prized alchemy equipment, as Sabimaru points out. Renge felt happy receiving her alchemist tools, because it meant that she could start making an effort to help her family’s financial situation. But now those tools become a reminder of the state of the academy under Geryon’s control.

Around the time everyone resolves to keep collecting (and saving) the Chemies, Renge’s love language shifts to quality time. Some part of her has realized that she’s happier spending time with Sabimaru, Houtaro, and Rinne, more so than when she was all in on learning how to be a big-shot alchemist. Really, all four members of the Kitchen ICHINOSE Alliance seem to gravitate more towards quality time after they meet Daybreak Houtaro. Beyond that, however, Renge’s character moments become more focused on her bond with the others: how she and Sabimaru planned out extracting and transmuting Zukyunpire’s essence as a counter against the Abyssalis sisters as a way of supporting their Kamen Rider junior students. The Ninetail arc in her grandmother’s hometown really sells how Renge is focusing on spending time with her loved ones. Even when the Kyūbi Malgam unearths the hot springs, Renge focuses on how her grandmother’s town is safe, and that she’s still going to be able to visit her, rather than be like, “My Nana’s hometown can make money!”

Sabimaru

In contrast to Renge, Sabimaru starts out as a quality time kind of guy. Given that he’s poor at communication without the help of Isaac, it’s a bit surprising to see that just being around his new junior, Houtaro, is enough to get him excited about Chemy hunting. It’s not about hunting for the Chemies that gets to him, it’s more about how he can now spend time with others who share his interests. And that extends to the Chemies as well. Aside from Houtaro, Sabimaru is easily the next best friend to the Chemies, with how he’s seen playing with them while Houtaro and Rinne are away on their school trip. When he’s invited to the Ichinose Christmas celebration, he bonds with Kajiki about the idea that Santa is an alien. Now he has another friend outside of the academy that he can share interests in.

His brief stint as Dread also further reinforces his need for quality time. The way Sabimaru acts while captured by the Sisters, and his reluctance to fight, despite being strong armed to do so (so much so he breaks his arm trying to resist), it’s clear he misses his classmates. His friends. And when Houtaro saves him with the power of UFO-X, a Chemy he’s been fascinated with, he’s elated. He’s home, he’s back with his friends, he can spend time with them again, he’s not going to die as a pawn of the Sisters. Sabimaru is definitely going to double down on quality time with his friends.

Spanner

Spanner is a bit difficult to pin down, mainly because he’s a jackass so elusive. Despite that, it feels like Spanner responds more to physical touch, which is ironic, since he keeps everyone at arm’s length. Obviously, he doesn’t make many moves to get to know the rest of the gang, especially Houtaro, but it’s more telling when the only one he really lets in is his mother Kyoka. Kyoka is the only one who is shown to be allowed to invade Spanner’s personal space. When Houtaro offers him a handshake, he brushes him off. When he and Houtaro are duking it out over possession of the Gotchardriver, he’s keeping Houtaro at a distance, only striking him with the bokuto. When he takes over Houtaro’s call to Sabimaru, he basically rips Sabi’s phone from his hands (rude). Even Rinne, who we see he’s making an effort to be cordial to, he avoids contact with. When Bolt has her dangling in the air, Spanner ignores her and goes straight for him.

When his parents are revived, it’s one of the few times Spanner is visibly happy. Full smile and everything, not the arrogant smirk he gives the younger students (Houtaro). While he doesn’t physically interact with them, the implications of his time as Kyoka’s ward really start to sink in. Without his parents to offer him guidance, Spanner will lose himself to his black flames. The flashbacks of his adjustment to living with Kyoka show her hugging him, patting his shoulder in congratulations and encouragement, physically interacting with him. He’s not completely happy with her, but his is better than if he were to be left alone. And especially after he returns as Kamen Rider Valvarad, the first thing Kyoka does? She side-hugs him. Spanner, despite the torment and despairing realization he’ll never see his parents again, is content.

Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis

All three of the Abyssalis sisters start as receivers of words of affirmation, especially from Geryon. Leading up to his appearance, everything is for HIS plans. They don’t really have any other purpose than to start development on the Dreadriver. However, the creation of Dread isn’t as important to them as gaining Geryon’s approval.

Clotho is the simplest of the sisters, at least at first. Receiving the belly warmer power-up to her is evident that she’s received Geryon’s approval. And that seems to be all she needs. Grabbing the Gotchardriver from Houtaro would grant him access to the Door of Darkness, and further their plans. The process of doing so would easily net her more approval, so she steps up her game to seize power. But then Geryon gets yeeted into the shadow realm disappears, leaving her without purpose. Houtaro’s questioning of her purpose, her Gotcha, makes her realize that she craves approval, but also that she wants to keep her sisters, her family, intact. She craves quality time with Lachesis and Atropos, but her pride and rivalry with Houtaro prevents her from admitting so. And with her recent power up, who would need quality time when she can easily crush her rival?

Atropos is very clear cut from the start. She’s easily Geryon’s favorite, so out the gate she’s the only one receiving praise, apologies, and validation. Her specialty in escalating the situation easily wins her most of Geryon’s approval, so she’s content with keeping the situation as uniform as possible. Unlike Clotho, who basically wallows in uncertainty after his disappearance, Atropos doubles down on the scheming and escalating the situation, imagining herself winning more of Geryon’s affection, likely as a coping mechanism. The incident with Tsukumo could also be her attempt to deprive Rinne of her love language, as revenge for the disappearance of her own parent.

Unlike her sisters, Lachesis has rarely received Geryon’s approval. She’s the only one who doubts his leadership and methods. When Clotho tries to overclock the Dreadriver to take down Gotchard at the likely cost of her own life, Lachesis is visibly scared and worried for her sister, realizing that his plans don’t account for the sisters’ well-being. Upon Geryon’s arrival, he basically HIJACKS her body to be used for the Orochi Malgam, and leaves her defeated and alone, if not for Clotho coming to retrieve her. When Geryon creates the Cerberus Malgam, he doesn’t even bat an eye when Lachesis is thrown aside and injured, and only shows concern for Atropos, leaving the youngest sister bitter and envious. And then the tipping point comes when Geryon targets Spanner. Now Lachesis, having been given the short stick multiple times, bears witness to how truly relentless and unforgiving Geryon truly is. Is she going to be tortured like Spanner? Suddenly validation doesn’t seem so enticing when she’s at the risk of being torn apart in exchange.

Now Lachesis understands the hollowness of Geryon’s approval. Why should she try to receive validation when it’s clear he never cared for her in the first place? Her misgivings are further cemented when her own sisters are ordered to eliminate her. Clotho is hesitant, but Atropos is all in. Now she’s been abandoned, so what else can she do? She flees. Joins up with the Alchemists’ Academy as a ward of Kyoka. Lachesis is not happy, and the only love language she’s ever known now seems hollower than ever.

Rinne

I won’t go much into Rinne’s analysis since I did that in my last post. But at the very least, it’s obvious that Rinne is recipient to words of affirmation, just like the sisters. Her self-esteem is lower than that of her peers, though that may be the result of her self-isolation and full focus into her studies and alchemy, so it stands to reason that just hearing encouragement from another person (Houtaro) would be enough to make her feel seen, loved, and happy. Like mentioned above, Atropos capitalizes on this with Tsukumo by creating a scenario where Rinne would be unable to receive affirmation from her greatest connection, Houtaro, though this isn’t the case, since Houtaro absolutely trusts Rinne no matter what. In #4, just hearing Houtaro say that he believes her is enough to convince Rinne to escape the labyrinth. Houtaro believes her, believes in her, and is willing to let her know that as much as he can.

A side tangent: as seen in #14, as well as outright stated by Clotho in #27, the Gotchardriver gains power through cheers, encouragement, and belief. As such, it’s probable that the Alchemis Driver works similarly, only the effect is much more noticeable. Before Minato arrives to encourage Rinne, she’s getting easily overwhelmed by the Mammoth Malgam, enough so that her transformation fails. As soon as her teacher arrives and tells her to, “Fight like yourself,” she’s able to overpower the Malagm right back. And with enough encouragement, Majade is able to synergize herself easily with Platinum Gotchard.

Houtaro

The Gotcha boy himself. Houtaro is definitely one of the happier characters on the show, always surrounded by his friends and loved ones, whether they be Chemy or human. So it would stand to reason he’d be the happiest receiving words of affirmation or spending quality time with others. Yes, that’s true, but Houtaro seems to be at his brightest whenever he’s engaging in acts of service. For him, the simple act of helping someone is enough to make him happy. Receiving affirmation and quality time is also important, but to him, they’re more like smaller goals that help him reach the overall larger picture goal. Fighting against Malgams and freeing the Chemies will definitely make the Chemies happy that they are understood and have someone who is so willing to just be their friend, instead of seeing them as tools or freaks of nature. And if there’s someone who’s connected to the Chemy incident of the week? Houtaro makes it his goal to help them as well. Think of Mr. Asahi, who gave up on pro wrestling, only to be able to live his dream again thanks to Houtaro’s intervention. What about Riku, the boy with an overbearing parent? If eliminating the malice in his father’s heart can help resolving things and bring a happy end to all parties, then Houtaro is all for it. A classmate who wants to revive the drama club? Houtaro is willing to take part in the play just to get more students to join. Who cares if they find his acting hokey, or if Rinne s l a p s him in the middle of the show? As long as Mikuriya’s satisfied, then that’s great! Even at the cost of his well-being (fighting monsters) or striving for his Gotcha, Houtaro aims to make people happy.

Because isn’t that what Kamen Riders do?

His cooking skills also point to him favoring acts of service as a love language. Here, he is expressing his appreciation, his acknowledgment, what have you, of the recipient. Of course, since his choice of ingredients is… unique, the response of disgust and/or dismissal (or insults, in Spanner’s case) would be seen as a refusal or a downplay of his act of service. Rinne’s comment of “Something’s off,” followed by his outburst of “No Gotcha!” shows that he’s upset the other person didn’t understand his feelings. Of course, being Houtaro, it’s not enough to make him give up, and instead, he resolves to better next time. And the next time. So on and so forth. Until his feelings are properly conveyed.

TLDR, I love the character interactions in this show, and I’ve spent so much time thinking about it.

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it's really cool how you can dedicate 20 years of your life to serving the US state dept and get murdered by a cop in one of their colonies and your government won't even mention that to avoid making the colony look bad

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Igarashi Papa-san joined the cast too!! How many Kamen Riders does that make now?

He's playing Tomoya's character's dad... cue the jokes about Hikaru marrying into the Igarashi fam 🤣

Obligatory henshin pose pic

#kimi to yukite saku: shinsengumi seishunroku #kamen rider revice #this show and the toku people it keeps attracting #am i praying for junya to get cast in it so i can see him in period costume? #...mayhaps #Instagram

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Amaury the chocolate guy has done it again

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THE BANANAS ARE GAY

THESE BANANAS

THE BANANAS IN PAJAMAS ARE GAY

BELATED HAPPY PRIDE MONTH EVERYONE

#the bananas in pyjamas were gay?! #🏳️‍🌈🍌

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I guess, but considering how much the writers did him dirty? the losses he garnered pop out more than his wins.

But yanno... in hindsight? As much as Kei-chan DID get played a lot throughout the series, at least he did get as much character development as Ace (regardless of what Yuya later say that some of the things Ace talked about his past may not always be completely true, which may cancel any chara development Ace had). Like Kei-chan's not just THE secondary character but he's also the secondary main character. Kei-chan had a lot of GROWTH. Which says a lot about the REST of the series' characters BESIDES Ace and Keiwa.

Like... how much character development arc that Michi ACTUALLY had? Like as much as he had that base setting of Tohru's death being the trigger to his wanting to gain power to destroy Kamen Riders, we don't really get much from that aside when Knight Jyamato taking Tohru's face and whenever Michi needed someone to hit some sense to him THEN you see Tohru appear.

The whole JGP arc only had him being shoved around leading the Jyamato pack sabotaging stuff and being angry at being lied to and fighting Ace. And then being an instrument to murder during Heaven and Hell round and feeling no remorse about sacrificing all those people during that round and I gonna stress this: As much as the show never really mention anyone other than Ace and Keiwa being missing for a week without any explanation, WE HAVE NO CONFIRMATION whether or not the 'npcs' that got turned to bubble was restored back to life... or not. ESPECIALLY since we're talking about the JYAMATO GP and not a normal DGP. Is Beroba the type of person to really follow the DGP's usual policy about the npcs? Wouldn't the extra sacrifices be a good addition to nourish the garden? Considering how the arc kept hinting how it would be 'bad' for the championship season to be concluded with the crowning of a new Jameity instead of the usual Desaity, the aftermath of the JGP win felt lacklustre despite the whole dystopia vibe. Like I thought post-JGP the world would be overrun by the Jyamato.

On top of this... does anything about the JGP and DR really have any impact in Michi's life cos I din see any. Like we DON'T REALLY see what made Michi change his mind from his shitty attitude to saving ppl mentality. can you even call that chara development?

The series never really got to explore all the possible plot holes regarding the Jyama Garden and the part about 'not all of the npcs are revived' plot. (Isn't the JGP supposed to be a game to allow the Jyamato get THEIR happy ending? It's certainly SHOULDN'T be about giving a happy ending to Michi.) I mean, was the Sakurai couple the ONLY exception? Or was there a lot more undocumented missing people that was NOT the DGP players that we never be aware of? Esp since Kurama corp was subtly doing all of the cover ups. Heck, we end up not getting much sponsor related plot. Like what was Win's Grandpa's function as a sponsor? Niram hinted that they were bigwigs... BUT WE NEVER GET TO KNOW!

That said? Did Michi get ANY proper growth of character at all? I mean, not counting the whole "Why can't I do it like you?" shit he said when he supposedly died. Or the magical "im a good guy now" instant cure without a proper lead up. (Dude din even answer Ace's question properly on whether or not they would save a player if a Jyamato try to kill them. PLAYER not the civillians. Series never resolve the issue of misplaced hate on the players in general and u expect me to trust his stance during the DR?) Cos considering how snob he was prior to that, that whole dumb line that sorta hint that actually Michi was Ace's secret fanboy was DUMB. Esp since afterwards that guy reset back his personality after supposedly finding out the 'truth' that Beroba told him.

Also i have TONS of questions for the guy's plot. Did he ever found out who was it that stole all of Tohru's items and left them to die? We KNOW it was THREE players, but we were never shown WHO. Did he even get his revenge on Tohru's death? I don't count his 'win' to be that. Because in the end, Michi NEVER punished those three or took revenge on them on the same LEVEL as how Keiwa hunted him and Daichi. Michi was just given 'Oh, Tohru really died in this game so Knight wasn't really Tohru revived. Lalala let's 'trust' ACE to fix the world plot while Michi adds unnecessary casualty while putting all the blame on Keiwa for 'ruining' the world.

I feel bad for Moku-chan for actually getting the short straw. Like Neon's overal plot wasn't all too good either but at least her story had some direction. Michi's plot was going NOWHERE. That wish for eating good meat was the best joke 😃 Even Daichi got a better redemption, which Kanato don't even get.

I'd add more if I want but nah... I rather invest in simping the Azuzu 😂😂😂😂 I mean MichiDai ship on the sidelines cos they'd make a good couple XD

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Meanwhile, Mei:

#on the other hand: mei would absolutely grin seeing rintouma gay sex #eating popcorn and everything #kamen rider saber