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siramay-the-showgun-dragon · 4 months

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DR3 episode 10 Makoto Vs Munakata BREAKDOWN

recently someone else made a post about Makoto's feral-ness during the showdown he had with Munakata in episode 10, of course it's quite cool, but i feel some may take it the wrong way so i wanna set the record strait and also gush about stuff i love in that scene that people may not notice so first lets lay some context

future arc episode 10: prior to this Munakata has gone on a downward spiral of insanity being a knight templar and that his way is the right way and that he must kill all despair meaning everyone he even practically killed Juzo and even before his full berserk mode he was highly aggressive and hostile towards Makoto not listening to his words at all and belittling him, in short at the time he was far from "a reasonable folk" and Makoto at the time just had his girlfriend friend Kyoko die in which Munakata challenged him to a once and for all face off, in which Makoto bears his will and steady's himself, though being open about the pain in his heart of her apparent passing and this is important as his heart is his most powerful weapon ok now lets start

so we start with the precursor as Makoto walks to Munakata and they think over their ideologies. and how Munakata wants to pull a "kill them to save them" with Makoto and everyone cause he thinks despair must be destroyed and you know its interesting cause then Makoto says

i remember it shaking me how steadfast and determined he was, to stop Munakata at all cost but i just want to point out something from here on out that i feel is very important to what we shall be seeing

Makoto Planed all this

not the before stuff i mean as soon as he walked in that room he knew what he would say and what he would do, he had his end goal in mind he even says so near the climax with the doors but even before that he planned what would happen prior it may not seem like it due to how he always seemed on the losing side and sure he probably didn't plan to get beaten up so much but he still knew what he would do and how he would do it, and people don't talk about that much but this all shows how Makoto is much more intelligent then we give him credit for, but I'll explain as we go on

so then we start Makoto steps on glass to alert Munakatas attention, you can tell it's on purposes as there's no indicator of uncertainty or fear on Makoto's part, it's to say "i am here lets end this" as when Munakata speaks makoto still stands strong not faltering or fumbling. then he says "i wont hesitate anymore" makoto will face munakata head on and do what he needs to but even then befor anything he trys to talk down munakata saying how killing eachother is pointless and that they can still work together

of course munakata doesn't listen but no one can say Makoto didn't try

and that's when the chase begins, but who's the hunter and who's the hunted? that's what one must ask

so though munakata attacks makoto runs out closing the door as it's revealed in the end makoto knows munakata can't open doors and uses this to his advantage drawing distance and gaining time to make his next move, as

open door which of course Munakata knows is a set up,

but jokes on him makoto knew he would know it's a set up, or not, it's a win win either way because if he didn't know

deep fried zealot on the barbie! but since he did know he survived which leads to the next phase of makotos plan. and if any of you are wondering why makoto would do such a thing

he was always feral! he just didn't have much chance to act on it because he's polite and sees the good in people, but even he has his limits, so you best start appreciating the kindness Makoto shows in you when he does, well on to phase 2!

cause munakata survives with his sword and shoots makoto with tengans weapon which hurts of course so makoto runs off as his blood leads munakata exactly where makoto wants him to be he even says so

of course makoto knows about the fire extinguisher and he dosent just mean that but I'll bring that up in a second as we see makoto look around waiting for munakata who comes in soon after and makoto is hidden now holding the fire extinguisher to bop munakata on the head! which fails, he also throws it but that fails, now one ask if this could kill munakata but from my research it seems it would only hurt maybe konk him out as for something to hit your head and kill you it must be about 24 kg (52 lbs). for it to be lethal from arm length and the average fire extinguisher is around 5-10 pounds and as much as i like to believe makoto is this

hes more likely this

so that fire extinguisher is more then defiantly not killing just gonna sting maybe knock him unconscious which would be a win, but he failed but dont worry! this leads the phase 3! which brings up how before he threw it he planed on using it for its intended purpose, (which is a important part of phase 3)

because though it gets thrown away and jammed in the wall it BLOWS UP HITTING MUNAKATA IN THE BACK AND MAKEING A SMOKE SCREEN EVERYWHERE! which disorients and distracts munakata for makotos phase 3!

JUMP HIM AND PUSH HIM IN THE HOLE!

which leads me to point out something genius The dud fire extinguisher? It was the same one that Asahina tried to use to cover their escape in episode 2. Likewise, the hole in the floor is the one Great Gozu smashed for an escape route in the same episode. In "fighting" Munakata, Makoto made use of observation, deductive reasoning, and a pretty good memory; skills that he'd honed in his own Killing Game, which Munakata had earlier derided for being too orderly compared to fighting in the real world.

which of course leads to the kicker as they are both down the hole, munakata apears to have makoto right where he wants him right there in on a silver platter for a kill, but on the contrairy, makoto has munakata right where he wants him as makoto reveals he knows munakats forbidden action, and thus makeing it so munakata cant kill him and has to listen. moral of the story

munakatas like "your plan faild i am not dead" makoto:

this of course all leads to the epic confrontation scene

it was with empathizing and saying these words to munakata did he finally pierce his heart and get munakata to back down...

so much for useless platitudes ay munakata?

#danganronpa #dangnaronpa #makoto naegi #danganronpa 3 #kyosuke munakata #analysis

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bettsfic · 9 months

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Hi betts! Hope you're doing good! Do you have any advice on how to distance yourself from social media? I saw that you've done so with success and the older I get the more I feel a bit trapped by the internet.

social media certainly has benefits: keeping people connected, giving a voice to those who otherwise wouldn't have a platform, and it allows you to meet new people in the context of interest rather than location.

at least, these are the things social media set out to be, and over time those benefits, to me anyway, haven't been able to outweigh the drawbacks: compulsively checking apps, doomscrolling, content appearing by algorithm to attempt to cater to my interests, and just generally a lot of wasted time.

i don't necessarily believe that if you stop using social media, suddenly you'll be able to devote every minute of your day to a higher pursuit. the brain doesn't work like that. it always needs downtime. before phones, we had television. before television, we had radio. lacking glowing screens and people telling us things from far away, i think we'd all spend a lot of time looking at the things humans are built to look at: fire, water, mountains, sky. we'll listen to stories or read them or watch them.

during your mind's downtime, i don't think anything you decide to do is fundamentally better or worse than any other thing. but i do think social media is designed to manipulate our attention toward it during that downtime (and honestly, all other times) and that pisses me off. it also pisses me off that even though we impose cause-and-effect sequences to our interaction with social media, it doesn't often provide us with a narrative the way reading, watching tv, or listening to a podcast would. stories are a psychological necessity; without the mind's ability to perceive sequences of events and connect them, we wouldn't have memories. we would have no concept of time, of thinking into the past or casting our thoughts into the future. social media, in its drive to keep us scrolling, looking at posts with no narrative connection to one another, deprives us of the stories our minds seek during our downtime.

this got super long so i'm putting it under a cut. tl;dr you need to remove social media as a positive stimulus and build immediate positive stimuli into other aspects of your life. in other words, social media feels good immediately but neutral or bad over time; most other things like reading feel bad or neutral initially but good over time. so you have to find ways to make the latter feel good with the immediacy of the former.

i don't mean to be "old man shakes fist at cloud" about this. i'm a millennial. from facebook's widespread release through the beginning of the pandemic, i raced to every new social media platform. i was an early myspace adopter. my high school graduating class was the very first year people outside of college could use facebook, and so we're the first cohort to have all befriended each other before graduation and never lost touch, completely removing the appeal of a reunion. i joined twitter in 2008 but never used it, and i joined tumblr in 2012 and never stopped using it.

i remember the day i got a smartphone. i was a few years behind everyone else. it was 2010 and i'd just gotten my first office job and i was desperate to be able to look at social media, scroll through stuff or read something, when i was bored. it was an iPhone 4. and as soon as i got it out of the box, i sat and played on it for 10 straight hours.

for those of you who are too young to remember a time before smartphones, i can't emphasize enough how much they changed things. in my life, i went from waking up and eating breakfast and reading for a little bit, to waking up and eating breakfast and getting on my computer to look at facebook and read my daily webcomics, to waking up and reaching over to my nightstand and looking at my phone.

and i don't know, i just decided i didn't want that anymore. last fall i was at this artist residency with no cell service and barely any wifi. and one day the wifi went out. i had a visceral negative reaction to that, which made me step back and go, oh wow, i am way too tethered to the internet. that day, wandering around the property with nothing to do, i got this intense urge to read an old paperback novel. you know, the mass market paperbacks with the pulpy yellow paper and the misaligned typeface. and so i found a very old copy of fellowship of the ring, cracked it open, and read it all day.

the thing about getting away from social media is that it's slow. i don't think you can really go cold turkey. when i got home from the residency, i went on a long hiatus and had all these strict rules for myself about when i was allowed to look at my phone and when i wasn't, but that didn't really work for me. but i did delete all the social media apps from my phone, and on my computer i logged out of all of them and deleted my saved passwords, so if i wanted to check them, i had to go to that extra step of logging in and even typing in my password. and that doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're checking social media out of habit, muscle memory, something to attend to that might give you a brief blip of dopamine, having to type your password is just one step too far. the brief pleasure i would get from checking my notifications was less than the hassle of logging in.

and that's what it all comes down to: feeling good. in the moment, it feels good to check a social media app, to see that somebody has interacted with your content or maybe with you directly. it's that tiny subconscious exclamation point, the feeling we get when somebody politely smiles or waves at us, when a dog comes up to us wagging his tail, when a well-meaning stranger compliments your outfit. that's the social part of social media. but that's also the part that keeps us cycling through our apps out of habit and boredom.

so you have to take away that stimulus from yourself, and you have to create positive stimuli elsewhere. to take away the positive stimulus of social media, you have to stop posting content on it. content is the mind killer. when you tweet something, your impulse might be to check that someone has interacted with it. but if you step away from the great conversation of social media, nobody speaks back to you, and you develop more patience for the longer-term good feelings of reading a book.

of course, that's complicated. i guess the first step that i did a long time ago was losing interest in traffic and developing the internal validation skills that make interaction on social media a bonus, not a need. before that, though, i had a drive to be seen and listened to. i think i just grew out of that. regardless of the existence of the internet, all people throughout history have spent their lives developing their relationship with themselves, learning who they are and coming to accept it. i'm not sure there's a way to rush that inner journey along.

creating positive stimuli is a matter of adopting a kind of little-treat attitude toward things. you have to really pay attention to yourself. the day i picked up the fellowship of the ring, i remembered that paper is important to me. vitally important. i like to write on it. i like to read from it. and it's kind of weird to say "paper is my special interest," but it is. all tools of writing interest me. so acknowledging that, accepting it and choosing to accommodate it, was my first small goal of building immediate positive stimuli.

some of the connection we have to social media (and phones in general) is the physical habit that develops from it. when smokers quit smoking, their hands feel empty. they're used to having something between their fingers, and so they replace that with something like a pen or a straw.

for me, i replaced the physical habit of phone-checking with paper-holding, either in the form of a book, or a notebook and pen. i set about finding my perfect notebook: the one that feels best to hold, the one i'm eager to fill, the one whose paper is quality enough that i love to write on it. the one i found and that kind of changed my life was a Rhodia A4 spiral bound. i take it everywhere with me. in fact i went to the doctor earlier this week and because i was holding my notebook, it didn't even occur to me to look at my phone while i was waiting for the doctor to see me, even though it was in my pocket (and i did download tumblr again, and instagram to support my sister, who is kind of a local influencer). the positive stimulus of looking at it had become less than the positive stimulus of holding my notebook. the potential to easily write something or doodle felt better than the distraction of social media.

did my doctor probably think it was weird that i was taking notes? maybe. did i look weird sitting in the theater before seeing oppenheimer, brainstorming barbie fic ideas? definitely. but i just don't care anymore. sometimes making healthy choices for yourself in a world built to manipulate your attention makes you look weird.

my advice is to spend a week without social media apps on your phone, logged out of them on your computer, and pay very close attention to the things that make you happiest. find ways to interact with those things continuously, and see what happens.

#writing advice #reading advice #social media

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vendettasfanfictioning · 4 months

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I need more fics framing The Rupture as something necessary for destiel—it hurt like a fucking bitch, sure, and it was a low blow for Dean to hit Cas exactly where he knows Cas hurt most (in being the problem or a burden), but also. Looking at it from Dean's perspective, it really did feel like a move that old, early-seasons Cas would do; withheld information, acted on his own, took risks that could cost others.

And when it all piled up? From Jack's soulless behaviors directly killing Mary, to the deal with Belphegor in hell costing them Rowena. Again, hard agree that it was one of the most painful lines dropped in the show (especially so if you remember that this is post-Empty deal), but context guys, context.

Plus, I believe this separation wasn't only long-time coming but also a pretty important addition because what is destiel if not a pair of stubborn idiots who can't communicate. That's not to say an argument is necessary to talk (it can be, in certain situations, sure) but they've been on different pages since Cas came back in S13.

The center of their disagreement seemed to mostly lie in their belief in Jack. I can't remember a time they really sat down and smoothed things out so much as they avoided talking about what happened during the Widower arc altogether, and that's when the wound really began to fester. (It didn't help that they had to deal with so many problems all at once; the Brits, Asmodeus, Apocalypse World, Lucifer, then AU Michael...)

Here is what we know that Cas believed (from the canon narrative): Jack formed a bond with Cas, even before he was born he somehow showed Cas a possible future; paradise. It's the same power, perhaps a protection mechanism with nephilim seeing as God labeled them as Abominations, that turned Kelly as well. What we know Cas saw (from the deleted scene/script): Cas' paradise consisted of everyone he loved, his family, being safe. This included Sam, Kelly, and Dean on a beach, with more focus on Dean as he tells Cas, "thank you."

From what we could see that Cas did not, Dean had enough resentment against Jack that wasn't going to magically go away overnight. Jack hadn't formed the same bond with Dean that he did with Cas.

What happened before Jack was born: Heaven and Hell both sought out Jack for their respective goals, an innocent woman was going to die from the sheer magnitude of giving birth to a Nephilim, and Cas left by what Dean assumed was delusions and manipulations. What happened when Jack was born: Mary fell into a portal to a different universe—a rift that only opened due to the anomaly and power of Jack's existence—Kelly died, and Cas got stabbed right in front of him.

And this isn't to discredit Dean's love for Jack, when he did allow himself to love him or see him as family, but you can love someone and still resent them or feel bad about them. Moreso during extreme circumstances, however unfair or illogical it may be. Again, did they ever really talk? Maybe my memory is failing me but I'm pretty certain they didn't, or at least never in great detail, or came to an agreement about it.

Dean and Cas... just had so much dirty laundry and Rupture made sure they aired it all out. But I think we, as a society, would benefit greatly from not framing Dean as the big bad villain here or Cas as some poor innocent bean. Supernatural's theme was never about brotherhood or family, it's about how shit could have been so much easier if they just communicated.

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alittledizzy · 8 months

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Hi, I have zero knowledge of dream and george and stuff other than enjoying you talking about them, Can you explain to me whats going on and why people hate dream all of a sudden?I'm am nosy ngl and also he seems like a good guy from when you talk about him?!

he is a good guy, tbh. i will stand by that unless something happens in the future that gives me genuine reason to rethink my opinion.

as far as why people hate him - it's not all of a sudden, it's been a slown burn over the past year. i have a few reasons why i think it.

but the main theories:

he was very, very, very successful. and anyone that is very successful and ends up on a pedestal subsequently ends up with groups of people that want to see that pedestal crumble and the person fall. i think the anti base simply began with thinking if he got that successful he deserved to not be, out their favorite streamer deserved it instead. he also cheated at minecraft, so there's that. (but if you want a full blow by blow of why the cheating wasn't intentional - and that has been verified by third parties - that's gonna need to be a separate post.) also isn't it a funny sentence to even say. "Cheated at Minecraft." i know i have the perspective of not being in the fandom at the time it happened but it's so unserious. but it did impact public perception.

some streamers just hate him because his audience is full of women and queer people and dream himself is not straight. i would say these are more strictly outside of the mc community but it still also impacted public perception. dream is also very vocally appreciative of the fanbase he does have.

he made the careers of many people and those people became resentful for being known for being part of the thing dream made. they turned bitter wanting to be known for their own projects instead. those people express that bitterness toward dream and the dsmp and then their fans take cues from that and ramp them up to eleven, like it's a personal vendetta it is their responsibility to carry out.

he has been accused of things that are not true and do not stand up to the least bit of scrutiny. but the internet is a game of telephone and sometimes all it takes is one person whispering in the ear of another person for something to be considered fact in the realm of common knowledge, when it's just not and never was true. the most recent example of this is when a small content creator - eighteen himself, and drunk when he tweeted it - said dream took an 18 year old girl to his hotel room to get drunk at vidcon. the facts: the hotel room was a master suite so no one was in a bedroom, it had a living room. they had an open room party for their friends where they played board games. a friend of dream's asked if they could bring a friend of theirs along and that friend of a friend happened to be a eighteen year old content creator. she was not invited by dream, she was not given alcohol specifically by dream, she was never alone with dream, and the most important fact: she herself was not uncomfortable because she asked if she could come back the next night. the girl in question asked the cc that made the accusation to take the tweets down and he issued an apology the next morning saying he didn't have the facts right. but what will people that hate dream remember from this? he had an eighteen year old drinking in his hotel room, with none of the context. so this scenario times a dozen times over the past years eroded his reputation.

upset and confusion over dream's public response to technoblade's death. i think that dream hero-worshipped techno and when he died dream did what dream does and reached out to try and help. he clearly became close to techno's family, including visiting with them and working with them on projects and - according to technodad himself - offering invaluable behind the scenes support. i think other content creators were closer to techno himself and probably feel upset and put out that dream's grief is so public and recieves more attention because when dream cares for someone he just wants everyone to appreciate that person. i don't think that's dream's fault, but i can also understand how someone that knew techno better privately might be upset.

#anon asks #dnf asks

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hisbutler-problematic · 1 year

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On the topic of Sebastian being completely enthralled about everything Ciel is, I personally love it so much more knowing manga context, because O!Ciel was the 'spare'. He was not supposed to carry the family nane and, frankly, people didn't think he'd be capable of it due to his poor health anyway (Remember Frances and Vincent's conversation in the flashback chapters? It's obvious O!Ciel was quite saddened by what he heard).

By all means, in a twisted way, Sebastian might just be the first person to regard O!Ciel as someone deeply capable, a shiny singularity that doesn't live in anyone's shadow. The adults around him were - tho not unrightfully - seeing his fragility first and foremost while his brother, despite seeing him as worthy, didn't wish for him to leave and forge his own path. R!Ciel's reaction came from childishness sure, but that isn't to say that it didn't feed into the idea that O!Ciel was 'his backup'.

Going off from this, Sebastian is also the one thing in his life and is irrevocably his. Again, twisted, but all O!Ciel built has been under another's name. The manor, the company, the engagement etc. None of them truly his, but his brother's. And the other servants? They are loyal, however ultimately their own people. Sebastian? In an entirely different spot. He'll be there until the end after all.

This is an aspect of their relationship that tugs at my heartstrings so much. It's so toxic and depressing yet strangely soft and tender somewhat at least to me.

Sorry, I just really wanted to pour my thoughts and I appreciate your posts. So here I am!

anon, i’m in love with you

i literally think about this all the time like. that conversation frances and vincent had? imo vincent just flippantly saying "i guess ill just have to give the estate back to the queen lmao" could be taken 2 ways which is: at face value OR (what i think is more likely) vincent just saying what he knows will piss frances off to get her to stop talking. tbh vincent seems like a good dad imo and like he doesnt super underestimate o!ciel (he seemed absolutely fine with the idea of o!ciel going off to london by himself and opening a toy store in the future), but he DOES know that o!ciel is frail and sickly, and it makes me wonder how seriously he considered the idea that o!ciel might inherent the title of the queen's watchdog.

honestly, i feel in some respects, r!ciel treats o!ciel more carefully than their parents. he very much has an attitude of "my baby brother NEEDS me, he cannot survive without me!!" (gasps and shock, to learn it is actually the other way around /s)

all this to say, whether you lean more towards my interpretation or yours, or a fun mix, or whatever, it is undeniable that all of o!ciel's relationships were 'tainted' (for lack of a better term) by his illness and the way it made others view him and treat him.

AND THEN COMES SEBASTIAN

sebastian, who takes one look at o!ciel, and goes "lmao what a fucked up lil dude. time for little a snacky". sebastian, who then sits down to forge a contract with said little dude only to realize Oh Okay So This Child Is Clever. And o!ciel being sickly does kind of come up when they're making the contract, but sebastian focuses more on the actual logistics of that and o!ciel says 'nvm we'll deal w it when it comes up' (which is hilarious imo. he really said a sudden chill can put me on my deathbed but thats a problem for future me).

and then it turns out o!ciel is hella sheltered. but also a huge bitch.

and at this point, all i can assume is sebastian is so bewildered by this experience that the fact that o!ciel is frail and sickly and fragile is like. just another thing about this kid. o!ciel has never made sebastian's life easy and it would be stupid to think he would start now, sebastian thinks as his young master suffers from yet another cold just bc it rained yesterday. "i never knew you had asthma" says sebastian, who has read every medical journal to date on chest colds. "you never asked," says the bane of sebastian's existence.

and the thing is you can say "sebastian is only worried about o!ciel bc if o!ciel dies, he loses his meal" which is true and accurate and tbh if i was sebastian and i had put up w that much, i wouldn't want to lose my meal to a mere cough.

BUT ALSO

then you see the way sebastian is so fascinated and intrigued and bewitched by o!ciel. i think to sebastian the fact that o!ciel is frail and sickly is just another contradiction in the sea of contradictions that makes o!ciel so fascinating. and i think sebastian is the only one who really sees all those contradictions, he's the only one who sees everything that makes up o!ciel. and he loves what he finds.

(not to mention the fact that sebastian is the only person o!ciel allows to see his every aspect. or, well, some he tries to hide, but only because he thinks sebastian will try to use something against him. either way, sebastian is still the only person who he lets see the most of him. because sebastian is the only person who knows who he really is, who he doesnt have to put up a front for. he doesn't have to pretend to be his brother, he doesn't have to worry about being the spare.)

#kuroshitsuji #black butler #sebastian michaelis #our ciel #sebaciel #sky posting #sky talks #sorry if this doesnt make sense i started thinking about them and blacked out

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small-strong-bookish-butch · 21 days

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I'm almost done reading The Handmaid's Tale, and I don't like it. I've never read it before, I know it's a classic, and I was intrigued enough to keep reading.

But.... God, where do I start? Ranty jumble below the cut.

Especially after Roe V. Wade got overturned, a lot of people were like "Ooooh, it's just like Handmaid's Tale!"

I Googled if Atwood is transphobic, and got mixed results.

Within the interview I read, she said she doesn't predict the future, she just reads a lot of history, which put a lot of the book into context....

I think, as someone who does not know a lot of history and isn't interested in history, a lot of the events in THT seemed to be just:

[Atwood in 1985 voice] "Ooooh, what if slavery [against Black people] in the U.S. happened to white women?"

The no-reading rule. Only used for their bodies. Punished by mutilating their hands and feet. Public lynchings, to put it bluntly. De-gendered (?) for 'running away.' All dressing the same. Not allowed to use their own names. Being sent to 'the Colony.' Being traded among men if they misbehaved.

There are probably many more examples I'm forgetting.

But what really got it for me was the mention of the "Underground FemaleRoad." Really?? You're going to basically name-drop the historical way that enslaved people could actually escape and give them and their allies no credit for any of it???

I know, I know, practically the definition of cultural appropriation is "a white person does something that POC have been doing for a while and doesn't credit them/takes it as their own invention", but like, seriously?!

She wrote this whole book about "oh no what if Bad Things happened to White women 😢😢😢" and didn't mention anything about like, slavery or colonization or imperialism or anything like this that's happened to people of color in history, let alone the US Slave Trade.

Uhhhhh what else....

A lot of the ways the book talked about sexuality and purity culture and Christianity felt very like.... a mix of dramatic irony, regular irony, and almost post-ironic?

Like, especially with the prayers— you could tell that the Aunts did mean it sincerely, but I couldn't tell how much Offred herself did (or would have) actually disagreed with the Biblical teachings if they hadn't been used to like..... oppress her into subservience or whatever.

(Like when she talked about how her mom was pro-choice and how she, as a teenager, was 'humiliated' by how her mom would like, go to pro-abortion protests and be proud of people's right to choose. My personal reading of it was that, had they not been in this new overdramatic apocalypse, Offred would still feel like that and not be pro-choice at all.)

I think I need to cite my sources on all that; like, most of the time, with how THT talked about [patriarchy, reproductive rights, 'women's' bodies, abortion, Bible verses, the paranoia of getting caught doing something wrong, etc.] I couldn't tell if the narrator was saying something ironically, or if it was meant to be taken ironically, or if it was supposed to be post-ironic, and we all— including the narrator— were supposed to understand that it had started ironically and had now evolved past that to mean something totally opposite its original meaning....

(Though honestly, I don't think the book or Atwood is smart enough to be as post-ironic as you'd think for most of it.)

The fucking. "Pen Is Envy." I wanted to scream. 'Aunt Lydia told us that. They were right. I see the pen and do feel envy" are you serious right now? Really?! Really. It's all so fucking absurd. To take Freud's words, who was well known as a pseudoscientist, and use it as a 'male privilege' analogy in the sense where it's logical??? Get real.

The Marthas were mentioned briefly as having brown skin, and I assumed, given the almost no context of any of it, that they're women of color who are like, housemaid slaves and aren't seen as good for anything else?

I don't remember any mentions about what happened to the men of color, anywhere.

Overall? I hated the book. I spent most of it waiting for it to get interesting, or even to feel like Offred gave any fucks about like, courage or anything meaningful (beyond surviving a room without a light fixture or whatever the fuck). I didn't like her as a character, I didn't think she was a useful narrator, I think there were whole swatches of things that were left out and unexplained, and the book doesn't make sense. Full stop. It doesn't make sense. I felt a sense of unease while reading.

Overall I interpreted the book to be very...... pro-gender- and biological essentialism and white supremacy and eugenics in a "white people can be the only people" kind of way, and I think Atwood's perspective is NOT well-clarified enough to be strongly against any of that in a way that is meaningful, let alone action-oriented.

#personal #the handmaid's tale #i have opinions #abortion #margaret atwood #reproductive rights #gender essentialism #biological essentialism #white supremacy #tw white supremacy

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lakesbian · 4 months

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considering how he's severely depressed, do you think he even thinks about what he would do after one uping his dad and/or killing him?

dunno, i just get suicidal vibes from. what if he couldn't have his apt and games to distract him? i feel like he suffered and suffers so much constantly.

i forgot to say but this is about alec

to be so honest with you i frequently start posts about alec on here with just "he" and i always have to remember to go back and add his name to the start for context. you know, Him. the one boy we're always discussing on here. that one. don't say he suffered and suffers so much constantly at me it will make me so sad forever and i will simply lay down in the pouring rain and pass away and melt into the gutter.

the idea of becoming more successful than his dad/getting revenge on his dad was one of the only bits of miserable little shriveled charcoal burning to keep his engine going, but he didn't have a concrete plan for doing it, let alone any goals for the future afterwards. it's like when he tells brian that he doesn't need to be able to fistfight because he can just tase people, and brian is like "ok but what if the taser gets broken/lost," and alec just Doesn't Answer and goes back to playing video games. it's not really something he's powerfully driven for. he's a chronically depressed fifteen year old who doesn't have any real reason to enjoy being alive. he is, at best, ambivalently okay with it. the notion of surpassing his father is less something he's actually functional enough to work towards and more just an idea that keeps him getting up in the morning. the only things preventing him from simply passing away in his sleep like an old dog giving up are Spite and The Potential Of Tasty Little Treats.

so, y'know. i don't think he really thought about how he was going to one-up or kill his dad. let alone about what he was going to do afterwards. maybe he assumed things would just sort of magically be fixed in the process, maybe he didn't even notice that there was anything wrong to be fixed. he certainly would not have ended up anywhere good if he didn't have the undersiders. existentially tired little thang

#ask #worm spoilers

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tame-a-messenger · 2 months

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too long for comment so I am going into ask box again

I am kinda sad how the handled sword AF so far in general and are STILL handling it. Even if the answer is "hey, we are not sure when sword AF will return/we are uncertain about the future of it in general,". It would be so much better to get than just silence. Also, I get that it kind of underperformed, and it must be one of the most expansive things to produce. So yeah, it kind of underperformed slightly in a Smosh context, but it had SO FUCKING MUCH FANWORK. Like, fewer people cared about it, but the people that did care A LOT. Which, like, you can tap into that to finance it. For example, I feel like sword AF merch would perform really well.

We can't know, but if we are not getting Sword AF for financial reasons, that would be so stupid. Because I don't think it has to be that way.

This is all just wild speculating when it comes down to it, and the reasons are definitely more complicated that (time is very likely a BIG factor as well)

Typically, I am really not a fan of guessing and speculating based on so little, but because it is about a show, I give myself a pass haha

*Rattling at the gates of Smosh HQ, "WILL SWORD AF RETURN FROM THE WAR???"

(Additional thing: In a way it was kinda funny they announced that sword AF wasn't going to happen hours after it was supposed to drop. Like were they actually surprised people cared about it??? Haha. )

That's what I find so disrespectful about all this. They haven't said a peep about Sword AF since they delayed it.

I understand that the views didn't do SUPER amazingly well, but they didn't do worse than a lot of other content they've put out? The first ep of S1 got 1.4mil and over the whole 9 eps it got a total of 4.7mil views? (I'm including the "Movie"-comp of all the eps - it had 403k)

The least viewed video (weirdly) is the final ep. I think it's because a lot of people fell off watching it. Keep in mind, they uploaded episodes every two weeks, which I'm willing to bet is a big reason why a lot of people stopped watching.

I feel like most first seasons of D&D campaigns don't start out with crazy views, it's expected to gain traction the more it goes on? That's how I feel.

I agree that running a D&D campaign does take a lot of effort and (from what I've heard) takes a lot of world building and really is a huge time sucker, I can see how they would want need more time to work on it (giving only 3-4 months to write a whole season in-between doing voice over/other freelance work sounds like a lot) so wanting more time I understand. It's just that they haven't given any updates or talked about it AT ALL, that's what's really weird.

SO many people love Sword AF! There was so much fan art! and everyone was talking about it in fan spaces!

Like it was so loved! and I know a lot of table top/D&D people are LOADED, and they would 100% buy even the worst looking merch because of how much they liked the series! (I would by something with Rumpum on it! That sounds so fucking cute!) so I don't see there being any real reason not to do a S2 except either they don't have the time to write it/or are just generally really busy, or some totally unknown reason behind the scenes??

At the end of the day it is just really bizarre to me that they haven't mentioned it at all? like not a peep?

"(Additional thing: In a way it was kinda funny they announced that sword AF wasn't going to happen hours after it was supposed to drop. Like were they actually surprised people cared about it??? Haha. )"

(Was it not the exact time it was supposed to be uploaded? I remember waiting for it and seeing the community post notif at the exact time it was supposed to drop? or maybe 15mins after? either way-)

That was such a slap in the face. It hurts worse now that it's been enough time that I can be certain there was NO WAY it was even close to being finished (or maybe even started?) They really waited till the absolute last- no, PAST the last second to let us know it wasn't dropping. What a way to shit in the face of the people that cared.. (I literally cleared my schedule to be able to watch it and was waiting for the clock to hit 1pm (I live est) thinking I was gonna spend at least an hour watching the new ep.. I can only imagine how many other people had gotten stuff set up to watch, that got fucked with.)

I do want a S2, I want them to say something about it at least. And they BETTER apologize about how they handled it.

#Smoshblr #smosh #smosh games #sword af season 2 #sword af #sword af s2 #spit in my mouth and shit in it while youre at it #smosh... really I mean this #DO. BETTER.

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curio-queries · 2 months

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Run BTS: 049 | Eve of Episode 50 Festival part 1

Original Air Date: 17 APR 2018 Episode Length: 23:43 Total Parts: 2 YouTube English Subtitles: Yes Title Song: Blood Sweat & Tears

Synopsis: A summary episode - reliving moments from the past 50 episodes

Production: so...it's exceedingly obvious that they intended this to only be one episode but they spilled it over into the next one. Most of the time that will work but when you're making a big deal about it being the 50th, it doesn't really work. Overall, not the worst execution of a 'clips' ep but i think we'd all agree that we'd rather have original content than watch compiled clips. if I want to watch those moments, I'll go watch the actual eps. It's not that I hate the idea of a bottle show via past content but this one just wasn't executed well. It's really nice to see the ceramics complete from a few episodes before.

Here's a weird editing note: pointing out the prod team didn't know the members were hungry and surprised they were eating. I get that sometimes the food is for show (especially on their livestreams) but why did they feel the need to state it in the subs? It just makes the guys and the prod team look ill-prepared.

Another thing, i know most probably won't notice but when they do cut to clips, it's like they've ripped them straight from the internet instead of the original files. The audio is SO disjointed. To do this properly, they should have grabbed the clips without the music and added new music in the compilation. Also the part where they watch their own clips is too long. Don't get me wrong, i actually enjoy watching BTS react to their own content but that's in the context of a reaction livestream or a Bomb, not as an episode of a variety show. A little hint of it would have been sufficient but it does nothing for the pacing of this episode. Final also, is it just me or is there something off about the translation? The quality just seems more lacking than we're used to.

Endearment: Uh, if my above notes didn't give it away, i think this episode does absolutely nothing for the guys. it's vaguely interesting to me to see what moments they remember from past episodes before the clips are played but I wouldn't call it endearing at all. They're put in this hard spot where they know that the audience is infinitely more knowledgeable about their content than they are but they still have to put on this show. oh, it was nice to hear them talk about what they'd like to do for the future, knowing which actually become episodes

Winner/Loser: none

Best Cheater: none

Member Moments:

RM: RM still remembered the names of the dogs. my heart!

JN: Jin confusing the Santa Run ep with when they filmed Bon Voyage at Santa Village.

YG: Yoongi being iconic for playing along with the question asking how Yoonji is doing now.

JH: Savage Hobi! Jimin complimenting everyone's acting and saying he should act, Hobi hits him with the 'not you'

JM: Way to go Jimin with the guessing...it's almost sus...

V: Tae's adorable squashed pottery as a callback to the squirrel garden.

JK: Im glad JK was enjoying the snacks.

Bonus Content: So much more engaging than the actual episode! absolutely worth the watch. (plus you can see Tae drink through a million straws at the same time...slight exaggeration..)

CQ Rank: 1.5

youtube

(CQ Eval Date: 05 FEB 2024)

Check out this post for my Masterlist of all episodes and descriptions of how I'm evaluating these.

Previous Episode: 048

Next Episode: 050

#Youtube #run bts #ep.049 #bangtan sonyeondan #jeon jungkook #bts #park jimin #jung hoseok #kim seokjin #kim taehyung #kim namjoon #min yoongi

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butterflydm · 2 years

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wot on prime rewatch: 1x01 leavetaking

spoilers for all of season one of the show; I’m going to do a reblog of this post to include book-related thoughts that go past The Eye of the World.

1. There are several things that I really love about Moiraine’s intro scene: it sets up the two items that she uses at the EotW (the sa’angreal and the knife) and she is wearing PANTS thus immediately already trimming away one of Jordan’s super-weird continent-wide gender quirks where It Is a Weird Thing for women to wear pants. Moiraine’s traveling outfit gives me life. But, frankly, the pants were the first thing that made me believe that we would be getting a genuinely UPDATED version of the story, without all the super-weird stuff about how men and women are so impossibly different that they can’t ever understand each other (even when, ex. the woman in question is behaving remarkably similar to your male friend that you have no issue understanding, and vice versa) and that was so exciting to me. And I’m still excited about it! Another thing that I love is Moiraine talking about how arrogant the ~men~ were to believe they could cage darkness in one big pre-emptive strike and then that’s basically exactly what she takes Rand off to do at the end of S1.

2. In S1E5, we find out that what Liandrin and her Red Ajah sisters do here is extremely illegal! They are not supposed to be hunting down male channelers and gentling them on the spot, they are supposed to take them back to Tar Valon for trial (...when they will get gentled, so for the actual men, it’s something of a distinction without a difference). This is also our first look at the ‘madness’ that afflicts male channelers due to the corruption and I’m really curious about how this will continue to be portrayed as we get more men channeling in the future.

3. The first appearance of Moiraine’s wishful thinking appears in this scene (arguably, the first appearance of her wishtful thinking is in the intro scene when she says that the Dragon might be reborn as a girl; that would definitely make things easier for her!), when she insists that the man that Liandrin just gentled CANNOT be the Dragon Reborn. She happens to be right in this case, but this attitude works less well for her when we get to the end of the season.

4. And then we get the super-awesome shot of the tall ‘moss-covered mountains’ that are actually abandoned skyscrapers. Perfect match for the Age of Legends scene that we get at the end of the season. Continue to love how they wove in the post-apocalypse threads. Subtle but once you know, you can see it in lots of place.

5. I really like how this opening scene with Egwene is all very metaphorical for how embracing saidar is described in the books. And getting our first glimpses of Egwene and Nynaeve is great, but I also like how it’s in the context of this woman-only group in their community because that’s a huge part of their story that they will need to navigate in the future (we know they’re both planning to head to the White Tower as of the end of S1). I do think it’s very interesting how the ‘Women’s Circle’ is not a governing body here but rather the community that all women join when they’re old enough for a braid. I don’t think we get any mentions of the Village Council or Bran as the Mayor either. The Two Rivers seems purely people chilling without a leader and just being a small community together.

6. The locations are so pretty. So, we get introduced to Moiraine & Lan, then Liandrin, then Egwene & Nynaeve, and now we have Rand and Tam. Tam is remembering the old days. Aw, this intro with Rand and Tam is cute, plus it does set up: wolves acting strangely, that Rand’s mom is out of the picture (implied dead), and him and Egwene as childhood sweethearts.

7. I think the show did a good job of marrying together the different backstories that Rand and Egwene’s romance have in the series. In the show, they’re first loves, currently in a relationship but inexplicably not married for reasons that perhaps neither of them could put a finger on if you asked them directly. Before Egwene gets the Wisdom apprentice invite, I imagine they would both vaguely say, “oh you know. we’ll get married some day” and then just keep not doing it.

8. This set of scenes in the Winespring does a good job setting up the friendship between the three boys. We see Rand and Perrin worrying over Mat losing money; and then Perrin also comes over to talk to Rand when he notices him brooding off by the wall. And Mat, in his more teasing way, is trying to make sure that the three of them stay connected as a friendship unit, even if Perrin is married and Rand is with Egwene and off in the mountains most of the year besides. And Perrin and Mat are both introduced in context of their friendship with Rand. This scene is also used to show how insular the Two Rivers is, hearing news of the world only second or third-hand.

9. Lan and Moiraine are such drama llamas, I swear. So Dramatic at all times. Nynaeve gets positioned as the village Protector even here in this introduction -- she’s the one that challenges Lan and tells him to name himself. Nynaeve and Rand are the two characters set up to be the most distrusting of Moiraine, but we see a lot of whispering between villagers in the background.

10. It’s an interesting set of shots that they set up here, actually, given some of what happens later. The people that Moiraine looks at: first, it’s Mat with the girl that we find out later that he stole from; then Nynaeve with Lan in the foreground; and finally Egwene with a shot that racks focus to include Rand and Perrin behind her (who will have a brief love trangle-ish moment later on in the season). But I like this shot of Moiraine looking around and clocking all the potential people who might be the correct age to be the Dragon Reborn.

11. Again, on a rewatch, Perrin’s secret crush on Egwene (and Nynaeve’s knowledge of it) is actually made pretty clear.

12. We get introduced next to Mat’s change in backstory which I’ve personally thought was a brilliant choice from the beginning. Mat’s background feels fairly disconnected from his characterization in the books and this new backstory grounds him as a character, gives him some strong motivations and some strong personal fears. It does add a slightly darker/seedier side to the Two Rivers, in that the Cauthons have clearly fallen through the cracks, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing either.

13. But the set-up here really is heartbreaking for Mat -- a father that is constantly breaking his mother’s heart, a mother who is so consumed by her husband’s betrayal that she’s barely a mother to her children, and Mat left to essentially parent his little sisters. And it sets up Mat as someone who has both strong reasons to want to be far away from the Two Rivers (to escape his family and the reputation his family would have in the village) and to return to the Two Rivers (to take care of his sisters). And he’s also set up as someone who only has his ‘true self’ seen by a handful of people -- his sisters, Rand, and... potentially Perrin, though Perrin doesn’t get as much screentime about it, and potentially Nynaeve as well -- and everyone else sees this surface gloss of who he is, including Moiraine, Egwene, and his own parents.

14. I do actually wonder if part of the reason that they cast the sisters so young was because filming just takes a long time, longer than the books are set in, so they may just be planning to have the events of the books take place over a longer time frame.

15. We do see here than Egwene and Rand’s relationship is definitely favored by both his father and her parents. Tam and Rand stay behind after everyone else has left to help the al’Vere’s clean up the inn, essentially acting as in-laws already. The scene between them alone is really good, too, and you can feel the tension of Egwene having something to tell Rand and being uncertain about it, and Rand is clearly aware that something is Going On but isn’t sure he wants to know, and so they ended up sleeping together first and then dealing with their actual issues afterwards.

16. I also really really love the platonic bath scene with Moiraine and Lan. Nonsexual and nonromantic intimacy between people who are essentially platonic life-partners at this point. It’s a great look under the ~dramatic~ surface that they were portraying to the villagers earlier. And it’s nice that our first bit of nudity is a guy’s butt. And I love the implication that, over the years, Moiraine has embraced some of the customs from Lan’s homeland.

17. Rand does essentially take this as something of a break-up while Egwene seems more torn on whether it is or isn’t. But then part of the issue that they end up running into later on in this episode and at the end of the season, is that Rand likes to process things alone in his head and Egwene wants to talk it all out as it’s currently happening, so they have some communication incompatibilities but it isn’t chalked up to Women are just Like This and Men are just Like That, the way that things like that tend to be spun as in the books.

18. And the intro to Padan Fain, where we find out that he acts essentially as Mat’s fence for items stolen from people in the Two Rivers works really well and it just... it does make me sad about how the show had to get adjusted post-Covid, and was not able to have Mat end out the season facing off against Fain, as I’m sure he was originally supposed to do. Fain’s whole speech about how he hated going to the Two Rivers every year would have hit harder if he’d been saying it to Mat.

19. We do see here, in a more subtle way, how most of the villagers are eyeing Moiraine and Lan suspiciously.

20. The sort of semi-post-relationship conversation with Egwene and Rand on the mountainside is very good as well. That she knows where to look for him when he’s in a thoughtful/brooding mood and the actual content of the talk as well. Honestly, I feel so puzzled by a lot of the complaints from some people about Rand’s behavior towards Egwene that I saw? It all makes perfect sense to me? She breaks up with him but then, next episode, she wants him to be instantly over any heartbreak and, at the same time, offer her boyfriend-type cuddles at night. And I get it from Egwene’s PoV too -- it’s a very stressful situation and she’s used to looking to Rand for comfort in stressful situations, so she’s going back to her instincts/old habits. But it’s just weird how I saw people call him clingy when she is the one who literally tries to physically snuggle up with him after she breaks up with him? How is he supposed to ‘just get over her already’ when she’s doing stuff like that? idk some people don’t seem to expect men to have human emotions and it’s weird to me. She’s allowed to be nostalgic about him to Aram but he’s not allowed to be nostalgic about her.

21. Rand had a whole Vision about his future (not the magic kind) and he needs some time to adjust to that vision changing. And, like... that’s fair and completely a normal human reaction to being broken up with and I do not understand why I saw so many people being weird about it when this set of episodes aired. It’s not like Rand had a made-up fantasy about Egwene -- they were literally in a romantic and sexual relationship! That ended extremely abruptly! And then they all got traumatized by having their village attacked! Even without the additional trauma that Rand was operating under, his behavior made sense.

22. Nynaeve and Moiraine do get off on such a hilariously bad footing here. Moiraine takes such a terrible approach to trying to feel Nynaeve out on her parentage, etc. Though I can see how the sort of overwhelming presence that she’s trying to use here would work against a lot of people, but it just majorly puts Nynaeve’s back up. I’ve thought a lot about how Rand might react to learning that Moiraine sent the Red Ajah after Mat, but Nynaeve would also have an extremely explosive reaction, especially because she shows a lot of sympathy and understanding for Mat in Primeverse.

23. Aaah, Nynaeve firmly establishing herself as The Protector of the Two Rivers Folk and she is, she so very much is. Zoë Robins is just so perfect as Nynaeve and I love her in the role so much. The casting is so on-point.

24. We get another establishing friendship scene with our three boys. And Mat just instantly can tell something’s wrong with Rand, even as Perrin is just like ??? about it. He susses out that it’s about Egwene and that it was Really Bad in terms of their relationship. Then a little later, we also get the bit where Rand and Perrin give some money to Mat so that he can buy lanterns for the girls. There really is kinda a vibe where Mat is extremely emotionally aware of both Rand and Perrin, and while Rand and Perrin are both emotionally aware of Mat, they are not particularly aware of each other. Which tracks with Perrin having a secret crush on Egwene and that making himself distance himself from Rand (slightly). Rand and Perrin still care about each other but don’t ever really get the one-on-one scenes that Rand and Mat, and Mat and Perrin get. But they did a really good job setting up these three as a close friend group.

25. And we do see that Egwene is also sad over the ending of her relationship with Rand (she’s crying on the bridge) and Nynaeve comes to listen to the wind with her. I do think it’s interesting that they set up both Nynaeve and Egwene as each having strong bonds to two of the boys but somewhat-to-mildly disapproving of the third one -- Nynaeve is very compassionate with Rand and Mat later on, but tells Perrin to go home to his wife; Egwene was in a romance with Rand and trauma-bonds with Perrin, but has a more antagonistic view of Mat. It makes things feel more complex than they were in the books, imo.

26. Oh, hey, that’s a beeswax candle! Nice. I love what they did with the candle ceremony. The show did such an interesting thing where it made the whole Wheel and the reincarnation feels a lot more like a vibrant cultural aspect than it does in the books. It influences the Two Rivers beliefs here and it influences the Tuatha'an people’s beliefs when Perrin talks to them in later episodes. It just really grounds the people’s behavior when it’s attached to these spiritual rituals (and I am saying this as an atheist who does not personally perform any spiritual or religious rituals -- I don’t do it, but it is a very common part of the human experience and it makes sense that it would have this kind of impact on people who live in this world). And the whole idea that the candles light the way for souls to come back and then you have a celebration to remind them of what’s worth coming back for.

27. The little touch of Nynaeve setting out the candle on the other side of the river and wiping away her tears immediately and walking away, because she feels like she needs to be strong for the village and not let them see her show her pain. And then her not dancing at Bel Tine. Those little touches showing how she has to set herself slightly apart from all of them.

28. The horror of the Trolloc attack in the middle of the dancing works really well, imo. We don’t see any of this in the book because we’re entirely in Rand’s PoV but this whole section does set up a lot: we see Mat going back into danger to act as a protector, we set up Perrin having an understandable trauma centered around the violence of the axe, we get Nynaeve trying to protect the villagers and Egwene by her side ready to fight with her, we see the initial panic of the villagers and then them rallying together, we have Padan Fain sneaking off in the middle of the attack, and we get Rand and Tam dealing with that same horror in isolation up mountain. And we get to see how well Aes Sedai and Warders work as a team, which was very cool and useful. They did a good job with the choreo there, because it really does feel like they can anticipate each other’s moves. And Egwene and Nynaeve both get a close look at what Aes Sedai are capable of accomplishing.

29. We don’t get to see Rand and Tam’s conversation in the woods here, but since this is a rewatch, we all know that it happened and will impact Rand’s behavior going forward. He just found out that his dad picked up a kid in the aftermath of a battle and took him home, so he’s got an identity crisis going on in the background of every scene that he’s in from this point forward.

30. I’m just gonna feel bad for Egwene for a moment, because she went through the rough journey of believing that Nynaeve was dead from here until they’re reunited in E6, and then post-E8, she is potentially going to be told/implied to that Rand is dead as well. Anyway, like I mentioned above, I totally understand why Egwene seeks Rand’s comfort in E2 because this is a very traumatic experience.

31. Moiraine and the Winespring collapsing together is such a cool shot. I really love it. Epic. And Lan covering her to shield her from the debris. What an amazingly visual illustration of what a Warder does.

32. Rand arriving back to the absolute ruin of the town. Heartbreaking. Ah, and Egwene telling Rand that Nynaeve ‘is gone’. Just this whole section of people counting up their losses is heartbreaking. And the little moments of connection in the tragedies, like Egwene and Rand hugging each other or Mat putting his hand on Perrin’s shoulder. Interestingly, the hand motions that Moiraine does here to heal Tam are similar from what I remember of how she draws Shadar Logoth’s corruption from Mat, both scenes that Rand witnesses.

33. Rand immediately challenges Moiraine which was another thing that viewers held against him despite it... making sense? He talks about the same sort of logic later on re: Thom as well -- that it’s possible that the convenient stranger who showed up right before the trouble conveniently helped them in order to win their trust. Rand doesn’t know that Moiraine is getting Protagonist Hero Shots.

34. The things that Moiraine tells them (notably: she tells them because Rand challenged her): that an Aes Sedai saw glimpses of the future twenty years ago, that the Dark One is waking, that his whispers are in the backs of their minds, and that the Dragon (the one person who can stand against the Dark One) has been reborn and is one of the four of them. And that they need to leave, because the Trollocs are chasing them, specifically, and if they stay then the town will be destroyed.

35. I’m also intrigued by the implication that maybe the entire village just learned that one of their four kiddos is the Dragon Reborn? Since Moiraine isn’t leaving in secret the way that they did in The Eye of the World. It’s difficult to say, because everyone else is busy working on the town and we don’t get reaction shots. But everyone does know that their four kiddos are very publicly leaving with the Aes Sedai and it’s clear that there were goodbyes, if short ones, so even if they don’t know that the Dragon is involved, they do know more than the Two Rivers knew in the book.

36. Love getting that iconic ‘a wind rose’ line. <3

#wot rewatch #wot on prime #wot #wheel of time #moiraine damodred #lan mandragoran #nynaeve al'meara #egwene al'vere #rand al'thor #mat cauthon #perrin aybara #the wheel of time #wotwatch

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nozoditz · 3 months

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In Defence of Takkun (Saki's Faceless Fiancé)

I hate having to be the one to do this. I ship Sakimai. I was disappointed that canon sank it. I wish they hadn't. But Otona bashers keep bringing this up, and just like the Coconozo antis spreading misinformation that is contradicted by the text, they're convinced that Otona is trash and Toei is hateful and manipulative for ever daring to do this. This isn't just about a popular ship being sunk to them, this is a moral outrage. And since the guy doesn't have a voice to speak up for himself (and couldn't anyway, being fictional and all), I'll go through all the common objections and refute them all.

1) This Is Straight-Ironing! Isn't It?

Short answer: no.

I've already gone over this on Mai's part in my theory post that she's still in love with Saki, but Mai's character arc in Otona reads like dealing with and rejecting compulsory heterosexuality. Her boyfriend dumped her via text message and, rather than being heartbroken, she wrestled with the guilt she felt because she was okay with that, happy even. So here I'm just going to focus on Saki. Or rather, not just Saki.

Saki, in Splash Star, had a crush on Mai's older brother, Kazuya. She fell in love with him at first sight way back in episode 5. She got flustered every time he noticed her existence. She spent the Christmas episode worrying about giving him a cake and spiralling (heh) over seeing him with a girl on Christmas to the point that she had to be reminded to pay attention to the whole world-saving thing she was supposed to do.

Being with a guy isn't a new thought or concept for Saki. Yes, her close bond with Mai is the core of Splash Star, to the point that they come off as even more of a couple-to-be than Nagisa and Honoka, who (according to Hugtto and anniversary merch) are an item. But just as you wouldn't ignore Fuji-P and Kiriya when noting that Nagihono is a thing, you shouldn't engage in bi erasure to complain about Sakimai not happening in Otona.

2) It's Insulting to Pair a Main Character with a Faceless Cipher

Maybe, maybe not. Toei's been doing this for decades. The epilogue of Digimon Adventure 02 pairing everyone outside of the most set-in-stone canon couples off with offscreen randos and giving them future children made a lot of people froth and scream about their sunken ships. But, just like in Digimon, the point here is the show isn't about Takkun. It's about the Precure.

Otonapre is, at its heart, nostalgia bait. When the girls reunite as adults, it's to reforge their old friendships the way you remember it. When the Time Flowers give them back their youth, it's to make your heart fuzzy seeing the old stock footage in higher definition. Their poses and pastimes in the OP are a mirror of the Yes OP. The flashbacks are all in the old show's quality, with concessions made for Splash Star having aired in standard definition. Catchphrases remain. Everyone's career aspirations panned out. Grandparents and pets have miraculously all lived for the past 16-20 years in perfect health.

This is the context we're working with. The reason we don't ever see Takkun's face, hear his voice, or get his full name, and only get his nickname from Saki's phone, is that he wasn't in the original, and you're here to see people who were. If Saki had ended up with Kenta, who had a crush on her in the original, or Kazuya, who she liked in turn, you would have seen them. But she didn't, and the person she did end up with is a new character; more on that later. So why would they show him any more than they had to, when they could just give you another shot of Michiru and Kaoru's vtuber career?

3) It Cheapens Saki and Mai's Bond

This is kind of a wild accusation if you look at the show. Saki and Mai are one of the only pairs in the series who spent the entire gap between seasons constantly in contact. They still need each other to transform. They give each other advice. They're introduced together. Saki's focus episode is called "Their Bond." For Blue's sake, the Otonapre collab cafe has a "Saki and Mai's Bond Open-Faced Sandwich" on the menu, and yes, they really called it that.

Their bond has suffered the least, and it's even shown right in the aforementioned episode: Saki fears that they won't be able to transform because she's not the same, because she's faced reality and grown up, and she flashes back to being with her boyfriend. But Mai breaks her out of this, and they're able to transform anyway. And it's clear there that, even if Saki has someone she loves, her bond with Mai hasn't gone away.

Saki and Mai are still the most important people in each other's lives, even if Saki has a romantic relationship. It may be common for your most important person to be your partner, but that's not how it works for everyone in every situation, and that's not how it is for Saki. In the last episode, Mai is the one who sees her off at the airport! Sure, the Hyuugas and Takkun are probably offscreen, but the show clearly wants you to know that Mai is the important one here. That hasn't changed.

4) It's a Precedent for Mahou Girls 2 to Break Up Mirai and Liko

No.

There are a lot of assumptions being thrown around that the message of Saki getting married to a man and Mai having a temporary relationship with one is that girls who like other girls will just "grow up" and turn straight, and that that would carry forward to the Mahoutsukai sequel. (Mahoutsukai? Mahou Girls? Witchy? Toei, can you please pick one official title and stick with it?) But that doesn't gel with the text for all the reasons stated above and below, and there's another reason that I doubt it.

Nostalgia sequels will not, unless they cannot, break up a canon ship. Sometimes this goes to a stupid extent, like Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card only on the surface keeping Tomoyo's having gotten over Sakura but having her then start fangirling over the ideal of the magical girl so that she can still keep doing her "you're so cute, Sakura-chan" thing and not actually grow and find herself a new girlfriend. (At least Otona didn't do that and it let Kurumi get over Coco for real.) But if they weren't gonna sink Coconozo despite a bunch of foreign children whining about "the optics," why do you think they would do it for something else that was stated?

This isn't Sakimai. This isn't the first six seasons where there was always the option of a boy for the girls to date; sometimes, yes (the franchise is pretty bi on the whole), but not always, and not here. Mirai and Liko are one of the most blatant f/f ships in the entire franchise. They kissed in the manga. Sure, it was to undo a magic spell, but you don't give the third wheel a peck on the cheek and your partner a full two-page spread kiss scene without there being a reason.

Also, Otonapre aired at prime time. Mahou Girls 2 is airing at butts o'clock at night. This indicates that content that might set off advertisers in one time slot might slide off another. So if you're worried that pearl-clutching executives might demand Mirai and Liko get boyfriends, I sincerely doubt it. Especially not with the TV yuri anime we've been getting as of late.

And did you forget that the first big chunk of Otona's canon romance, before we even saw Saki and Mai or heard confirmation of their relationship status, before Coco and Nozomi, the main couple, got back together, was Kurumi's drunken love confession to Karen? Just saying.

5) But Then Why Would They Do It?

You know, for people who claim to understand Japanese culture and ideals so much that they'll go on rants for days about how sinking Sakimai means Otona perpetuates the concept of same-gender attraction being training wheels for a "real" straight relationship, these people don't seem to understand that the actual message of their story was attacking another sexist cultural concept: that women shouldn't want to advance in their career and have no hope of doing so because they will and should just get married and quit to serve their husband's wants.

Remember when I touched on why Saki's not just marrying a man, but marrying a rando? This is why. A major part of the show's throughline is that Coconozo, the pairing that was a huge part of Yes and maintains its position as the core of Otona, faces the conflict of both Coco and Nozomi having achieved their dreams. The reason Coco stepped back and focused on work, not visiting Nozomi for years and barely writing even though they still loved each other, was that now that Coco's grown up (and not just pretending to be an adult to become their teacher in a half-baked "how to be useful and stick close to the team" plan that launched years of discourse and misinformation), he's become the king and has more responsibility, and he can't just tear Nozomi away from her dream career. The message here is that he can't, and that's why they compromise in the end, and so if you, viewer at home who identified with Nozomi as a child, feel pressured to quit your job for a man, you shouldn't have to. And that's a big thing for the audience the show is going for.

For that to work, that story needs these foils, and that's where Saki and Mai getting offscreen boyfriends come in. Mai's is the common negative example. He doesn't appreciate how much time and effort she's putting into her art job; in fact, he thinks it's a burden on him, and he breaks up with her via text message. Rather than come crawling back, even if her friends don't understand at first, she ends up washing her hands and throwing the whole man away. He never comes up again.

Saki, on the other hand, deals with her own problem later. Her fiancé hasn't been pressuring her like Mai's boyfriend has, but the expectations of society in general have percolated the guilt in her heart just the same, and she fears that she'll be letting both him and her parents down if she goes for her dreams because it'll get in the way of theirs. With Mai's encouragement and a reminder that she's still the girl who would do things because she wanted them back in 2006, Saki steps up and confesses what she wants, and Takkun is fine with it as long as she's happy. Note that she clears it with him before she clears it with her parents because she knows they will (and they do) ask "are you sure he's okay with this."

Thus, the offscreen boyfriends are there to serve a narrative purpose more than being actual characters. Toei couldn't do that if Saki had ended up with Kazuya or Kenta, and definitely not if she had ended up with Mai. They establish the negative "what if" first with Mai and have her overcome it (so what if he leaves you? If he did, he was trash anyway), and then give Saki a similar "what if" with genuine tension that wouldn't happen if her fiancé was already someone we knew and trusted, then use her story as the positive. That's the foundation that takes us into the finale and the culmination of the romance plot.

Of course, since a lot of the people who hate Otonapre for other reasons like the sinking of Sakimai are also Coconozo antis, Sakimai being sunk for a literary device to allow Coco and Nozomi's love to conquer all may come off as more of a reason to hate it, not less. But if you were going into a sequel to a show where romance was a key point and honestly expected them to get rid of the big main canon ship, please take a breath and go watch something you'll like instead.

#Otona Precure

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master-gaia-tetron-crystalblue · 3 months

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The reasons why the main character of Robotrek could be the reincarnation of Dr. Leo from Soul Blazer.⚪

⚠️This writing contains spoilers of *Soul Blazer and *Robotrek.

「いつか、私のような発明家が必要になった時、再びこの世に生まれてくることだろう」

"Someday, when the world needs an inventor like me, I will be born again."

Dr. Leo in the Japanese version.

The theory is based that although the genius inventor, Dr. Leo thought of returning to this world, it is likely that The Master (God in the Japanese version), would allow him to reincarnate in another world and without remembering his past, since being on Earth, it is possible that the same thing would happen to him again. Then, to help him, the Master would give him the joy of being reborn on a planet called Quintenix (*Gokuraku), as a new opportunity to live again as a human and with the dream of becoming a good inventor, yes we are referring to the protagonist of Robotrek.

Let's remember a fragment of what he said before leaving in the Japanese version:

「私は生まれてくる時代を間違えたのだと思う。　発明家は様々な機械を作り出し、人々を幸せにする。　だが、時代に合わない天才の出現は逆に文明を衰退させてしまうのだ。　人は何もそんなに焦って幸せになることはない」。

"I think I was born in the wrong era. Inventors create various machines and make people happy. However, the emergence of geniuses who do not adapt to the era actually causes the decline of civilization. People do not become happy being in such a hurry. I hope everyone can find happiness little by little."

About Robotrek, one of the important premises of the game is that the player takes the role of an apprentice inventor and helps others with inventions.

Now, the reasons listed:

■That child's dream is to be a good inventor like his father.

■He is an inventor's apprentice, so he starts from scratch.

■He has an inventor father, as Lisa, Dr. Leo's daughter.

■Absence of his mother, like Lisa, however, changes because his father built an android named Nagisa who, apart from being his son's assistant, secretly takes on the role of mother.

■He lived at his father's house who is an inventor. At the beginning of the game he moves to another house that will be his new home, because he wants to be independent and study about inventions, which his father agrees would try not to involve him with the "evil" organization called Hackers.

■The same thing almost happened to him as Lisa regarding the Hackers who wanted her father to work for said "evil" organization.

■He likes animals and with an invention of his father’s colleague, who learned to create, he talks with them. In general, he appreciate nature, in fact he donated a seed for a little girl to make bloom in Rococo Town.

■He met two dogs named Turbo.

■He was in contact with the replicas of the Soul Blade. Mentioned by Robot K as the Legendary Blade.

■Explodes in three scenes of the game, but without any damage, including in the opening. In the game he is saved from exploding with the help of the Tetron and later by Kotetsu; although in the present, his father found him in the rubble of the destroyed Hackers air base.

■Some Hacker combatant understood his situation.

■When you talk to the Mayor again, after Rose's betrayal, he says in the Japanese version: "Women totally confuse men. It is a terrifying creature. You should remember that well too."

It might sound sexist, but no, he is referring to his secretary Rose, potentially making the player remember the evil Queen Magridd.

This concludes the reasons why it is; Now I would like you to comment about post and if you have more reasons for that kid could be new life of Dr. Leo, I would like you to write, share them in the comments.

Note: Of course Dr. Leo is an allegory of the Renaissance genius Leonardo Da Vinci or rather the version of the same in the Quintet universe, but that would be a topic for a future post.

✨Special thanks to @kahran042 for the idea that the protagonist of Robotrek could be the reincarnation of Dr. Leo.✨

*Soul Blader.

*Slapstick.

*Gokuraku, a Japanese word that has many meanings depending on the context, but they all mention happiness, such as "The Greatest Happiness", "Paradise."

#soul blazer #robotrek #ソウルブレイダー #スラップスティック #soul #trilogy #quintet #saga #snes #video games

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martymcflown · 6 months

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Okay I wanna ramble about the OFMD S2 finale now. This is a fucking ramble and a half but it was do this or continue posting disconnected, inarticulate messages at 5am. Spoilers ahead.

I wanna start this with the things I LIKED this season so I'm not just being a hater. Overall, I'm super happy this show even exists. A historical pirate show with an entire cast of queer characters (and many queer actors/creators) is always a good thing in my book. It's better that these shows succeed and show that it's a viable creative endeavor. Specific things I liked about s2: -Zheng. She's incredible. I loved her the second she revealed who she was and just found her so entertaining whenever she was on screen. I hope Ruibo Qian gets more chances to shine in the future, preferably as a lead.

-All the guest stars gave 110% and I found them delightful. I completely understand why the toxic lesbians took off the way they did on social media when Minnie Driver and Rachel House were so charismatic. -The Innkeeper. This episode made me so hopeful for what the season COULD be because I thought Ed's internal conflict was handled in such a great way. Kind of a shame that they set up this beautiful story of a self-loathing, suicidal person who's wronged the people he loves as worthy of second chances only to fuck that up later BUT WHATEVER THAT'S A FUTURE PROBLEM. -There are plenty of individual moments that made me feel great. That really made me love these characters and came close to capturing what I felt in the first season. But I will add a caveat to this thought in the next bit... Specific things I did not like about OFMD s2: -So, while I did enjoy individual moments when separated from the whole of the series, when trying to think of them in context everything felt so...cobbled together? Instead of feeling like I was watching a cohesive story, it felt more like the writers' room had sat down and said "All right, what scenes would people like to see? What character moments would get people talking?" Which I think was a mistake. -Plot threads were left dangling in the wind. Character conflicts were either wrapped up in a blink or were entirely forgotten. It felt like a season with no consequences (which is WEIRD, considering). I'd had an in-depth conversation with a friend around episode 2 or 3, but I'd said I was excited to see how Izzy and Stede's conflict could develop as the season went on--I specifically wanted an exploration into the idea that regardless of how hard you work to redeem yourself, nobody owes it to you to accept your apology. And that that's OKAY. Instead it felt like everyone looked at Izzy as if his previous behavior was the behavior of a mischievous cat who knocks shit off counters as opposed to a toxic force within the crew.

-I'm not an Izzy hater, I'm not an Izzy fanboy; I'm just someone who likes coherent character arcs. His character arc sucked, guys. Like I'm sorry, I know most of us were delighted with his drag show and casual, friendly bitchiness. But it made no goddamn sense for who he was in the last season, and I feel that the total 180 he did from being the symbol of toxic masculinity to giving heartwarming speeches about pirate life being all about acceptance and family to be...messy. I genuinely thought that Izzy was going to be used as an allegory for Ed having an addiction and needing to withdraw from it over a season, or that the season would at least confront the toxic nature of their relationship in a way that wasn't THREE SECONDS BEFORE IZZY DIED. Also sorry Izzy is coming up in another point but it's because it felt like 70% of this season was Izzy. -The shafting of the side characters. Remember when Ed was like "I'm the fuckin' devil. And these are the kids"? Yeah, that was kind of the vibe the whole damn time, eh? I'll be totally upfront with you, I didn't love the first season because the two Kiwis kissed. I loved the first season for the characters. I was SO intrigued by every one of them, particularly Jim and Olu. This season, every single member of the crew felt more like Polly Pockets who would get pulled out when convenient and then tossed into the sand when the episode grew tired of them. Did any of them actually have character development? Did any of them get an actual moment to shine? Also, god, on the note of the handling of crew relationships. I can't believe this season managed to polybait but here we are. I would love to understand what the reasoning was to break up Olu and Jim. Was it because they couldn't imagine two new characters (Zheng and Archie) existing without a romance? Did amatonormativity strike again? Even removing the romantic development Olu and Jim had for each other, it really felt like they hadn't gone through ANY of the shit they had in the former season. Which I suppose you could say about any of the threads connecting characters because I swear these people acted like they'd just met at a work conference as opposed to having long-standing relationships to one another. -I would like to say for the record that I was never terribly invested in Izzy Hands as a character outside of what he symbolized, but I was initially hopeful he could lead to some fantastic character development for Ed, Stede and himself. Instead, as mentioned before, he had the most rushed character development I have EVER seen and for reasons I still can't really fathom. And maybe this is just a personal thing for me, but I actually really hate showing a suicidal person learning to love life and find new value in allowing themself the opportunity to grow as a person only to fucking murk them for a cheap, rushed emotional moment.

Closing thoughts--have you ever seen the special finale episode of Sense8 where the creators knew they'd been screwed by Netflix and so had to scramble to put together a cohesive end for those characters? And the episode we got was messy, it left threads dangling, it wrapped up character conflicts quickly, but it also ultimately seemed to reflect the overall heart of the show? Yeah, this was like that Sense8 finale episode but, at least for me, lacked any of the heart. I've seen people argue that the creators of OFMD wrapped so many conflicts so quickly because they wanted us to have "closure" in case they didn't get a season 3. But, I would argue that I would much rather receive a season that leaves me with questions but feels coherent only to not get answers to those questions than to get the cinematic equivalent of an Uber Eats refund. I'm not satisfied. I'm still hungry. I just have someone telling me I should still be grateful, anyway. I hope they get a season 3, I really do.

#ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd spoilers #woof

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drowninginblox · 8 months

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Season one

Season two

Season three

God.. this season… so much in so little time fr. B u t. I am a committed woman, and I will continue what I started.

So. Let’s get into this.

Keith’s heritage

I’m beginning to take back what I said in one of my prior posts about how I want to redo Keith’s heritage. Specifically about it being a secret to everyone on the team. I’m learning to love the way the show reveals that fact about him to the audience. Truly.

But I think he should know. Not everything, just that he's not fully human. And I still stand by the fact that his galra side should be more physical. Fucking love the galra Keith HC so much wE WERE ROBBED MEN-

Growing pains- Heavy spoilers. Watch Voltron already if you haven't bc I will be talking about (arguably) the best arc of the series

This is going to be something.

As of starting the third season, I really like the change. Purely because of how uncomfortable it is for everyone involved. It’s gonna be painful. The best kind though. Because even though we aren’t expecting it, we know that through the context of the show- this could’ve happened at any time, to any of the paladins

Voltron is out here saying actions have consequences, and that is very compelling. Both in concept and in execution.

I think this plot point is fucking amazing.

The question of where tf Shirio is after the season 2 finale is great, the natural progression of the lions is a stark but needed change (love prioritizing the narritive, I hope this keeps happening in the future), hell- the character growth is fucking phamominal (will talk about that after this point)

WE ALSO GET THE JOURNEY FUCK I LOVE THAT EP-

Also- THE INTRO CHANGES WITH THE CHANGING OF LIONS SO YOU DON’T KNOW WHO THE BLACK PALADIN IS- UGGHHH!!!

I fucking love it man. I'm rocking with what season 3 is giving me. But I'm afraid of what season 4 has to offer. I remember how Shiro's missing/dead arc resolves itself (in season 4ish) but i dont fully remember the indetween bits and the stigma of Voltron falling off by that point is blarring through my mind

Looking forward to that Shiro/Keith fight tho!

Now let’s take some time for the characters during this transition

Keith... god what can I say about him that hasn't already been said? probably nothing honestly. His responce to all of this is so natural and realistic. Of course he doesn't want the responciblity of the Black lion. Shiro was qualified to be leader, not him! Just because this is what Shiro wanted, dosent mean it's what he wants for himself. The struggle is delicious!

Lance is really mature about this AND I AM LIVING FOR IT. Its moments like this that reminds me that Lance is a wonderful addition to Voltron. A needed addition even. (I really wanna ramble about the five man band dynamic, but I'll link a video about it when I find it again right here) I want to see more of this!!!! Give me serious Lance for more than just a minute!!

Hunk and Pidge are bystanders. I’m sorry but other than comic relief and voices of reason, they are secondary to Keith, Lance and Allura. Bless them both. They deserve better. I can feel it as soon as the first episode- they are slowly being ushered into the background. It leaves a sour taste in my mouth with hindsight.

Allura is radiating vibes that I can’t describe other than- “o k a y girl I see you.” In all honesty, the more I watch the show the more distain I have for Allura comes out. That bratty privileged princess that acts on impulses rather than thinking things through is grating. Now this could easily be fixed with intervention in the form of someone more mature than her- for the first two seasons, it was Shiro. But now that he’s gone, that aspect of her is showing more and more and no one is actually going against her like Shirio did. When it was at its worst, Shiro was the only one to put himself in danger as a kind of surogate bodyguard while the rest of the group is on standby. But ever since Keith became leader, there’s this mentality of “if the princess is going we’re all going.” And it’s Stupid. Stand your ground man! Be the stuburn dude you are!! Pleasae, ctually think about this for a moment! The worst part is that if anyone brought up Allura's implusivity then it would be amasing character development to the person that dose and to Keith and Allura as well! Keith would have to repremend/ talk to Allura about how dangerous that is to her and the team and Allura would have to learn the consequences of her actions!

Coran, Im so sorry that you are given crumbs my man. I love you so much- You are THE FUCKING FATHER FIGURE WE NEED!!! IM SO SORRY YOU ARE TASKED WITH LORE DUMPING, YOU ARE MORE THAN JUST A PLOT TOOL

Forming voltron

Bitches got this down too quick ngl. More team bonding rather than trauma bonding please

FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK COLOR COORDINATE!!!

Make LANCE RED

MAKE KEITH BLACK

M A K E ALLURA B L UE

It’s fucking irritating

And yes, I think it’s cool that Allura wears pink and pink is a color that Alteans used to honor those who fought for them. That’s cool. But it pisses me off to see Allura with a freaking blue bracer, and in the blue lion wearing pink like it’s Wednesday. Get with the program bitch. There is a uniform.

IF ANYTHING- give these bitches highlights for the lions they used to pilot. For example, give Keith a black uniform with red highlights along the shoulders or arms

Lotor

Mans said reading is fundamental 💅✨

I love his introduction. Manipulating the people into this unification that’s obviously distinct from his fathers but at the same time so traditional. Dude knows what he’s doing and he is going to do it for as long as he can.

This man also having combat prowess is fucking scary. He feels like more of a threat than his dad.

I also love his task force. Having a entourage that is distinctly other from the majority of the population is such a bold choice, whether it be from an audience or in universe point of view, it shows that the prince isn’t like the king. He is willing to make use of what's given to him with little public fuss.

Only critism I have is that I don't know any of these bitches names. Yall have them- please use them?

Allurance

Believe it or not, I can see more groundwork for the ship at the start of this season

With the passing over of the lions in Shiros absence, it’s allowing more neuance given the current plot.

Even though Keith and Lance don’t like it, they have to change because they’re in a time of change. War forces change.

I wish we can see that bleeding over to Coran, considering that his surrogate daughter is now on the front lines. But c’est la vie ig

Im rambling- Allurance

I can see this ship being built up but I don't know how to feel about the foundation yknow? I understand that the lion change would force Lance to mature. I love that shit. Good shit.

The slight role reversal Lance has with Alurra is refeshing. Love serious Lance

But like I said before- I don't like Alurra this season.

It also doesn't help that lance is still on his loverboy shit. Wich is fine! I have nothing against the trademark! I swear! It's just annoying that Lance has a specail place in his heart for Allura but continues on to swoon to/over every pretty girl he sees.

For the love of god- say dedicated Lance!! If you did maybe you'd get the girl!!

“Hole in the sky”

Desusex Machina the episode but I kind of like it

I hope someone made a fanfic out of this episode

The other reality is honestly v compelling it’s such a waste we only see it once

Shiro

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

FUCK THE JOURNEY WAS SO GOOD-!!!

Honest that whole episode makes up for the fact that dDeamworks had a Shirio bias my GOD

That episode was such a good lesson in (mostly) show don’t tell

And it still leaves the question of WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO SHIRO MY GOD

All of this to say, I’m torn.

Part of me wants the finality of Shiros death but the idea of Shiro clones is so good to me

Eh, I’ll figure it out.

So babes, rather than ramble about how long it’s been since I’ve done this I’d like to get an opinion from y’all.

Anyways that’s it. Take care of y’allselves

#voltron #voltron rewrite #voltron season 3 #TW voltron #voltron shiro #Shiro discussion lol

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theantarwitch · 2 years

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Tarot: About Spreads and Readings

I’m aware that the big majority of the tarot books, manuals and guides are based to the “this spread, cards in this position, this mean this, period” kind of mindset and, as an eclectic asshole who hate when people tell me what to do, I struggled a lot when I started my journey as a tarot reader a decade ago, to only figure out later that there are way very few rules in witchcraft, and how use tarot is not one.

I’m also aware that there are books now exploring the different ways to do tarot, like The Big Book of Tarot by Joan Bunning (My friend Ethan do an excellent review of that book and others here), but well, a book of 150 pages can be dense to read, and that one in particular is impossible to download for free, so I will do a “simple” post about this topic.

And as warning, I’m not a professional, and I speak mostly from my own experience, so take all what I say as you always should do: with a grain of salt. Also, the next ones are not “official names”, are my way to separate them to make it easier to explain.

About spreads…

Pre-Defined Spreads:

This are the typical spreads that you can find everywhere, the “Cards in specific sites mean exclusively this”. Like the “Past Present Future” spread or the “Celtic Cross”.

These ones are pretty good to beginners because are easy to remember, have not so many variations and their structure made it easy to read, more if you have the guide of the cards close to you.

Of course, there are exceptions, like weird complex spreads as this one:

The bad thing with the pre-defined spreads is that give little room to adapt the questions to our specific needs, so if the spread itself don’t have the “questions” you need, then lol…

Semi Open Spreads:

With the practice, you will maybe want to be more open and change the questions as the “form” of the spread remain the same. So instead “past, present and future” you can ask “yesterday, today and tomorrow” if you are not interested in check the far away past or future. So the idea of the meaning of the position of the card is the same, the variation come from the details of the question.

You also can just add cards to the spread. For example, instead of do the Wheel of the Year with one card each month, you can add one or two cards to add depth, or to see the bad and good thing of each month in particular.

Open Spreads:

In this case, the position and all is gone, and you just made up the spread accordingly your needs. For example, the “one card to answer a specific question” is one of this open spreads. But it can turn so complex or simple as you need. You want to add two more cards for details? A spread of 5 cards where the one in the middle is the important? A spread in which you use 20 cards in any position? Any question? The where, the what, the who, position, quantity… Is all up to you.

About Readings (or interpretation) …

Of the Book: This is the one people mostly use, the reading with the full guide on hand. Is great to when you can’t memorize a ton of details (specially if your deck is advanced with a ton of numbers and stuffs), pretty logic based, and, why lie? Is comfy and secure, you rely almost solely in what your cards say. I know, you will be like “As it should be, right?”, but I will touch that in the next, calm.

Intuition Mediated: Is pretty much as the book one but using the perception to change a little the meaning of the cards if they “feel” different. For example, in a spread with good cards, you have The Tower, which by the book is not a very good one, but the context of the spread was because you are going to a beach where is a lighthouse, so you feel The Tower is more a symbol of that lighthouse, than a bad omen. Is a good technique, it can bring info that’s outside the cards, but it demands be in touch with your perceptive side and very aware that unconsciously you can be changing the meaning of the cards, because the subjectivity of the mind see different things, and our minds hate the info that goes against our own beliefs.

Full Intuition/ Clair: The opposite of the book, the cards lost their main specific meaning and the reading depend fully in our perceptive side. This demand even more of our perceptive side or clairs, since the main info come from “us” and not from the cards. The cards are more a mirror of what we are detecting, so the reading become into an introspective research than just “read” them. In this way we can get info that we maybe couldn’t take from a logical reading, but also is even more affected by our own unconscious mind.

About the “Norms”:

There is a lot of bullshit about tarot, but also, DO WHAT SUIT YOU.

Some don’t believe in buy cards; others buy them all, others made their own.

Some use the major arcana only, others the minor too, normal deck, playing cards, oracles (which technically are not tarot), etc.

Some shuffle until a card slips away the deck and they pick that one, some shuffle until they feel enough, some shuffle and spread them all and watch until some call them.

Some don’t allow others touch it or cut the deck, some do.

Some don’t do a spread if is not over a specific cloth, or in their altar, some spread it even in the Mc Donald’s.

Some cleanse and charge the deck before and after use it, some only when they feel the deck “needs it”, some never.

Some have specific rituals with them, some put them names, some use different decks for different kind of questions or even day times.

Some use one deck and never mix them with other, some do a collage of cards (ehem… I use a playing deck, an oracle and runes in the SAME time lol).

If you like it, if it works for you, go ahead. The type of spread, the reading, anything. Is your craft. What you learn and read from books are important, yes, because only KNOWING, is when you can discern what is in tune with you and your needs.

The only norms I would suggest is: No cultural appropriation. And say “Thanks” is basic manners team.

#witchcraft #witch #wicca #wiccan #witchy #baby witch #new witch #pagan #paganism #witch beginner #tarot #divination

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