posalis

[posalis]

a summary of MHA shipping

#bakudeku #bkdk

[posalis]

"If you love me, you don't love me in a way I understand." - 'Wishbone' by Richard Siken x

#challengers #art donaldson #patrick zweig #yeah i'm mad bc i still can't believe she was into you; nothing to do with you sleeping with my wife and not choosing me #sure you miss me; that's why you went to tashi straight away and didn't even try to reconnect with me. #actually i'm the one who don't miss you or want you so take that #they make me so tired they're so complicated #artrick #patrickart #artpatrick

[posalis]

I don’t know man :/ i think I’m just tired of being me

#web weaving

[posalis]

this year while we all celebrate pride month and celebrate ourselves as well as those who came before us and paved the way for us to do so, we must also think of those in gaza, queer or not, who live every day under a brutal occupation and don’t have that same privilege. happy pride, and may we see a free palestine in this lifetime.

[posalis]

I'm taking such good care of my little white boys.

TASHI DUNCAN about ART DONALDSON & PATRICK ZWEIG Challengers (2024) dir. Luca Guadagnino

#challengers

[posalis]

"If you ever looked at me once with what I know is in you, I would be your slave." Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

#challengers #art donaldson #patrick zweig #patrickart #artrick #artpatrick #gifset #edit

[posalis]

tennis trio brainrot dump

#challengers #fanart #<3

[posalis]

Strangers on a Train (1951), directed by Alfred Hitchcock Challengers (2024), directed by Luca Guadagnino

#// #challengers #luca guadagnino

[posalis]

Challengers, Luca Guadagnino (2024)

Claire’s Knee, Eric Rohmer (1970)

#// #luca guadagnino #challengers

[posalis]

morning after

#challengers #art donaldson #fanart #<3

[posalis]

CHALLENGERS (2024, dir. Luca Guadagnino)

#challengers #art donaldson #patrick zweig #tashi duncan

[posalis]

424

All right, listen. It’s pretty damn funny that two weeks ago I posted all like, “oh I don’t really comment chapter-by-chapter, I’m waiting to see what happens next,” but this one broke me.

This chapter was everything I wanted for bkdk, and it’s so much more tender than I ever dreamed it could be.

This post is not going to be like most of my posts, because I am a flood of emotion. If you’re wanting some detailed, well-researched analysis of this scene, that ain’t coming for a while.

I don’t have some kind of comparative linguistics to show you. I just have my visceral reactions as someone who speaks Japanese and has absorbed Japanese media for many years. I have shared my heart with others in Japanese, I’ve sputtered out words between sobs and felt the many kinds of comfort different people try to offer. I have comforted others who let themselves be vulnerable with me.

In all these moments, just as in English, I wondered if my words and feelings reached them. Each time, I felt the warmth of connection when they looked at me, and I decided that they knew I did my best. They accepted me, even if it wasn’t perfect.

I’m gonna tell you the truth, and I wouldn’t normally say this so directly, but it matters to me: the fan translation for this specific scene is not good. The tone is wildly off in some ways and it outright omits a number of very important words.

The official translation gets so much of it right.

But that’s not really what I want to talk about right now. I want to talk about how people are reading this scene.

I have seen a ton of, frankly, oblivious interpretations of Izuku’s side of things.

Listen to me. Izuku is not making fun of Katsuki for crying, he is not telling Katsuki that crying isn’t like him, that isn’t in the text at all. He is not rejecting Katsuki’s feelings, or belittling them, or ignoring them, or any of that.

Izuku has seen Katsuki cry in-canon a number of times, but every time it was over his own personal failures, and the frustration, anger, guilt, and grief associated with them. We see it in the aftermath of Deku vs. Kacchan 1. We see it during Deku vs. Kacchan 2.

Izuku is shocked to see Kacchan cry because this is the first time he has cried for Izuku.

When Katsuki apologized in 322, he looked Izuku in the eye and told him his feelings with conviction and poise. He was gentle and vulnerable, but strong, because he was asking Izuku to trust them and rely on them. To come back with them and believe in them, like they believe in Izuku. He bowed his head to show his remorse. He caught Izuku when he fell, and he accepted Izuku’s own apology.

He embodied dignity, sincerity, and strength of character. He was a true hero.

This?

This is the raw, honest sorrow of a young boy. It is a tender, earnest, unguarded display of how much Izuku means to him.

These are the tears you shed for someone you cherish. These are tears for when you think you are losing something you can’t live without. Because Katsuki isn’t just crying for the loss of Izuku’s dream—it’s their dream, the future they dreamt up together as kids.

Izuku is almost pathologically incapable of understanding how other people see him and feel about him, but this is unmistakable. He is stunned because there is no other explanation.

There is unmitigated heartache and longing at the core of Katsuki saying, “I just thought somehow we would be together like this, competing and chasing after each other, forever.”

And Izuku is reeling, but so, so touched, and filled with fondness. Look at how his shock shifts to this overwhelmed, affectionate smile.

He’s right—this isn’t the usual Katsuki, and that is precisely why it means so much. We as the audience have been privy to Katsuki’s feelings, but until now Izuku himself has never really grasped the depth of them. This is all the tenderness Katsuki has kept locked up inside, and he is letting Izuku see it for the first time.

To see Kacchan—strong, fierce, and absolutely unstoppable—shed these innocent, helpless tears for him and tell him through sobs that he wanted things to stay this way forever, I can’t blame him for being blown away.

I think Izuku expected Katsuki to be shocked and a little sad that he gave up OFA, both for Izuku’s sake and because it is the legacy of their hero. Before Katsuki even starts crying, Izuku has this small smile on his face, like he was ready to reassure him that he had made peace with his own choice.

But he clearly didn’t expect for Katsuki to weep openly in front of him about it or to confess to wanting him by his side. Izuku had so enjoyed just being allowed near Katsuki, allowed in his life at all—to think that Katsuki could want the same and want it this much, to the point that he worries that things would change, that Izuku would abandon him or deny him? How could that ever be?

In what world could Izuku ever stop chasing Kacchan?

Izuku is a bit of an idiot. He has always thought that Katsuki understood how much he cared for and admired him—that’s why he is so shocked during DvK2 to hear that Katsuki thought he looked down on him for years. Izuku thought Katsuki understood his feelings and simply rejected them.

The way he loves Kacchan is natural and unquestionable. Even now, he can’t understand how Katsuki doesn’t know. It’s baffling to him.

But he still accepts Katsuki’s vulnerability and responds to the intimacy.

This is such an affectionate, loving thing to say. Izuku is being so sweet. I cannot convey to you strongly enough how Izuku telling Katsuki, “C’mon, stop it, this isn’t like you!” reaffirms their closeness.

If Izuku had not said this line and instead skipped straight to this nervous, awkward little attempt at comfort here:

It would have read as so much more distant.

With his tears and his confession, Katsuki pleads with Izuku to not leave him. To be with him always.

And in response, Izuku unabashedly stakes his claim on their bond by being bold enough to affectionately scold him and even assert authority on what kind of person Katsuki is. Remember these?

Chapters 202 and 319

This is such a staple in Japanese media for showing close bonds. Your loved ones know you. They tease you. They scold you. They have that right. You gave it to them.

The people you love cheer you up by reminding you that you’re strong and brave and that even if things feel hopeless and like you can’t go on, that they know you can. Everything will be okay, and they know so because they’ll be right there with you. Of course they’ll be there.

Symbolically, throughout the series, Izuku’s response to Katsuki trying to be closer to him has always been: “Of course.”

He has always accepted Katsuki as much as he is able to, as much as he had awareness for. He is wildly lacking in self-awareness, so it’s certainly not perfect, but by god does he try.

What Izuku is really saying is a mixture of “Really? You want that, too?” and “Don’t be silly!”

One part is him being shocked and touched; the other is him being absolutely certain of his own heart, and showing it as best he can.

He does get flustered and self-conscious, though—because it’s overwhelming to see Kacchan this way, and this is kind of new territory for them. So he switches tactics to reassure Kacchan about how things are now, and make sure he doesn’t feel embarrassed about this outburst. He still has the embers, so it’s okay for now. And their bodies are weak, so of course their heads will be in a bad place too, it’s easy to get low spirits. Of course Katsuki would be feeling vulnerable. It’s normal.

He gives Katsuki so many things here. He gives him as much as he can.

Izuku doesn’t know how long he’ll have the embers for and, frankly, he doesn’t have any guarantee that he will be able to satisfy this longing of Katsuki’s after he loses them. This, too, is a staple of promises in Japanese media: “I don’t know if I can satisfy you, but I want to try. I hope you can accept me.”

Things will be different—the future is always uncertain, now more than ever for their world. But what will never change is what they feel in their hearts.

After this scene, I honestly don’t care if we get something other people see as “bkdk canon.”

What Katsuki says is as good as a confession to me. What Izuku says in return is genuine and pure. This is a messy pair of teenage boys figuring out how to reach each other with words, when they have always been so damn bad at it. This is the two of them both reaching a new point of intimacy and reaffirming everything that came before.

#bkdk #bakudeku #424

[posalis]

challengers twitter pointed out something very cool: art's coach speaking to him in german!

the subs says "just invite her to serve." (which doesn't make any sense? and art doesn't even go to her after that lmao?) but he apparently actually says "wirf den ball etwas höher." which means "throw the ball a little higher.".

so art knows what patrick's house looks like which means he went there, he understands when his coach speaks to him in german and he's the only one who can pronounce "zweig", a german surname, the right way.

art learning german for patrick and spending holidays with him and his family is canon, i don't make the rules.

#challengers #art donaldson #patrick zweig #idk if a lot of people actually noticed that but i didn't so!! #showing intimacy in such subtle ways... challengers knows how to talk to me #artrick #patrickart #artpatrick #“ZWWWWEIG” lol #anyway putting little nice things like this for non english speakers only to understand is so cool #this with germans #pensiero stupendo for italians #“l'oeuf” track (beach scene) being pronounced “love” for the french #to me; a french person; “l'oeuf” sounds more like “laugh” but i don't see why it would be called like that #and “love” obviously fits the track and their discussion on the beach wayyyy more so #anyway i love it #idk if i prefer art learning german for patrick OR patrick teaching art some german #art wanting to learn SO patrick taught him is the best i think

[posalis]

ah yes. “i thought we’d keep competing for a while”.

yes, the “i don’t wanna lose to you but i don’t wanna win simply because i don’t want any ending to what we have with each other, so please keep challenging me since that’s the only way of being together as equals that i know”

yes. basically the love confession. the “i want to be with you forever”, if i may say so. i think none of them understands it yet, though.

#bkdk #bakudeku

[posalis]

People underestimate how stubborn Art is because he doesn’t talk a lot, and when he does, he usually speaks softly. Tashi and Patrick took minutes to reconcile in Atlanta, yet Art held out for YEARS and had to be cornered in the sauna to speak to Patrick at all. It’s also a safe assumption to make that the main reason things didn’t go further with Art and Patrick after the hotel scene is that Art wasn’t ready to admit he wanted that and Patrick knew better than to push him.

Patrick and Tashi took the fact the three of them would be better off together in stride, but Art held out with dogged determination to try to make the traditional heterosexual monogamous thing work. He persisted with that until all parties involved were so miserable they had to basically stage an intervention behind his back.

Art played tennis at an elite level until he didn’t feel like it anymore, and even though he wasn’t willing to say that until the end of the film, his actions did. Tashi couldn’t beg, threaten, berate or bargain him into doing his damn job with some level of competence to save her life. She had to figure out how to get him to WANT to do it, because MAKING him do it was off the table. Not to imply the other two don’t have their own character flaws, just to state Art’s actual issue isn’t that he’s just so submissive and agreeable, it’s that he’s stubborn as hell, but too conflict-averse to state it clearly when he thinks what he wants is in conflict from what others want from him.

#challengers #art donaldson #tashiartrick

[posalis]

In the end, I’d do it all again. You’re my best friend.

unknown, coffeepeople on tumblr, ribs / lorde, mid90’s (2017), us against you / fredrik backman, war of the foxes / richard siken, radio silence / alice oseman, the morning star / anne carson, my friend / hayley williams

#web weaving #best friends #patrickart #hidekane

[posalis]

“We wanted to make it clear that Tashi was in charge,” says Guadagnino. “And that she knew in advance what was underneath [the two men’s friendship], and she pulled it out in order to manipulate and hold them, but also to release them and herself.” It’s a scene that sets the erotic energy that powers the rest of the movie. “The only person that brings out that real fire from both Art and Tashi is Patrick.” Says Zendaya. “And it drives them fucking crazy.” — challengers cast for empire magazine

#challengers #luca guadagnino #zendaya #interview