#it is not some deep moral failing on either parts

[dogbites-puppylove]

Yandere Batfam: Incentives

TW: description of yandere mentalities and actions (obsession, possessive tendencies, stalking, etc)

Tags: Yandere! Batfam x reader

Bruce Wayne: The Epitome of a Hero

Batman without fail has proven himself a near-perfect hero, impressive for the fact that he's first generation and had tackled Gotham's cursed land. But obviously, as with any being on earth, the stress of the facade weighs on him. The stretch between the isle of Bruce Wayne and the Scowl of Batman no longer cut clean. They blur and tear at him ravenously until he sometimes feels he is nothing but a ghost of obsession, of a boy in the middle of an alley with his parent's blood puddled around his knees.

Bruce, in essence, needs something to define himself, he is a man who cares for his partners painfully (each robin has chiseled a part of himself out) and yet he cannot choose them over his city (over his villains). He has nobody else to define who he is, he is nothing without them and as much as he loves being their father the cowl is the only thing he has left of what was once an unbreakable will

The darling plays a sort of anchor, a guide, a definition that Bruce can cling onto. For Bruce who cannot say confidently that he can live truly as either a civilian or a hero without regret, his darling is all he has to cling to. For even should he forsake his sacred code that defines him, forsake his morals that he clings to, and go off the deep end never to return he can still manage to drench himself in you. 

You're in his bones, his flesh, and on his lips at all times of the night and day, the cowl and fatherhood are at his core and as they conflict, chipping away at him and forcing him into nothing but a broken mess you seep into the cracks and fill him up until all of him is nothing but you, you, you. Your scorn, your praise, all of what you say, you're what he can finally define himself off of.

It doesn't matter if your nails drag into his skin as a punishment, or even if you carve your woes into his flesh with a knife. He will take them as his law all the same he will revere your kisses, your soft touches, and your smiles. His unbreakable will is nothing in the end as long as he has you.

You have him in the palm of his hand, your word is law, you define who he is with your mood, whether he is a failure and must strive to be better or whether he can finally rest is all up to you.

Even from a young age when childhood should have been grass stains and scraped knees, Dick has always known an audience's eyes and dizzying heights. He knows his role, his actions and his expressions are all being watched, and taken into account and he knows best how to play the role of the easily lovable. Responsibility and acting all of this have been him forever, he's a natural at it. Basically, its second nature for him to mold himself into the one everyone likes, he knows the script and he plays it well

Richard Grayson: The golden boy

His entire life has been a role, something that he has to put his all into acting, the perfect robin, the leader of the titans, the leader of the young justice league, Nightwing-the vigilante who garners the respect of heroes and law alike. It is a tightrope walk of never-ending smiles and actions and if he slips it all comes crashing down and he cannot risk it. If he bows to the weight on his shoulders, even if it's all too much he has far too much to lose. Of course, he loves being loved, and he genuinely does love his family, loves his pseudo father and his little brothers and his friends but he knows who they love and it might not be him as a person.

The darling for him is a slow burn. a t first their a sort of self-fulfillment, just a little fix of appreciation from his favorite person, but the more he visits them, the more he drops some prefixes, is able to be a little rougher around the edges he gets lost in it, the brunt of his feelings finally flooding out from the cracks in his perfect facade and you're his addiction. He needs you to need him, to like him, to adore him he needs you to approve of who he is without the flashing lights and cameras. It's a strange mix of needing your approval to prove that he's still balancing, that the weight hasn't yet managed to take hold and drag him down, and needing you to see the fact that he is a broken grieving man. He's been used and weaponized and he just needs to know that outside of that Richard Grayson is still useable, love him outside of his role, be his everything meld your existence into his he's begging you

It comes to a point that he can almost no longer separate where you begin and where he ends, and he's never felt so intoxicated, so in love, because if love isn't the way he can barely focus, his brain clouding over and the way he basically turns into an animal for you, your loyal little dog he doesn't know what could possibly count. As long as he has your praise, your approval, and your need for him he's a brainless pet. Just love him, love him, love him or he might finally fall. 

What many forget about the second robin is though he is the robin who crosses the lines others won't, the one who sees things to a more permanent end, Jason is the one who is more in tune with his emotions. They overwhelm him and lead him more than rationality but Jason has emotions, he bares his heart on his sleeve, and others are simply too blind to see it. Perhaps it's because of this strange self-awareness, of how fucked he is, how broken he is that he cannot delude himself in the same way his family does. He cannot seem to meld himself with you(how could something like him even think of being one with someone like you), but he's so desperate for the connection. 

Jason Todd: The monster

In comparison to the other robins, Jason understands that he is replaceable. It's so easy to swap him out with any other broken street rat, hell he might even argue it would be an improvement. He's watched Gotham from its sewer, eyes glancing over crime alleys streets from broken street lights as a child, how women were beaten into submission by men with too much audacity and beer on their breath, how good men would be turned to corpses and looted, how children stood on corners and Gotham nods her head because his city is nothing it not vile and rotten in its core

He has known death intimately and hates life just a little bit more because there isn't anything he can feel truly justifies how Gotham lets the sewage and filth thrive. He's never had the luxury of childhood, of the safety of a child's innocence because he's aware that life isn't a gift, it's a cesspool of sin prepping souls on earth for hell. There's nothing good, but there are people who need protection from it and Jason goes about his days repenting for existing because there's no divinity, no god other than the men who see themselves on the top of the chain. There's no god before you.

His darling is a light, something near untouchable, someone who can do no wrong. Jason is the type of delusional where he can justify every single thing Darling can ever say or do, say the skies green and he’ll rearrange the dictionary just to prove you right. You in a sense define what is good or evil, something invaluable, something so good that they could even pity him. A benevolent deity bestowed open Gotham and he'd be damned if he let anything from the street touch you. Jason is the robin who came back wrong, the killer, the monster, the black sheep of the family of maniacs who want better from the world, and he's disgusting but he'll do anything for you.

In a sick way, he already knows well how his presence is painfully unworthy of you, but he longs, craves, and hungers for you all the same. He's reverent in his treatment. If he cannot connect with you by becoming one he'll be your loyal slave, your servant to the ends of the earth, his hands are already stained but even his own sins become virtues if there for you. He lives and breathes on you, everything he does is for you until the dead bodies piling his work are but offerings, sacrifices all for you. Carve a place in your body for him to reside, for him to leash himself upon so he can hide and forever more belong to you. A Divine and their monster acolyte. 

Tim is a being born of neglect, constant patronization, rejection, and scorn. His only sense of motivation had been at first obsession without a sense of preservation. Tim has always known nothing but a world where he has to be able to provide to earn his right to stay, to exist. He knows intimately what it's like to be looked through, to be invisible, to have his own name replaced with another, or to have never been born, so like money he exchanges himself and all his actions in a transactional way. Every relationship for him is a simple give and take, he gives them what they want, and they let him stay and remember his name. As long as Tim is functioning and working he can't be thrown away, can't be truly invisible. As long as he is working he is kept.

Tim Drake: The Forgotten 

Tim is smart, he knows how to run the table, and play the game and he does it well, he knows exactly how to pick apart everyone around him. Tears into them and learns, absorbs, and sees what they need, how he needs to act, what he needs to provide, and remakes himself for the sake of their approval. From the constant twists and turns of his character, Tim knows how to seek out the role, how to play it, how to thrive in it, Tim sees everything, and thus he is left feeling empty because nobody sees him. Something carnal in him screams for something, anything to tear him apart as well, to meet his obsession with their own.

His darling is someone who he needs to ruin him, he needs them to dissect him, to cut him up and tear away everything and covet his entrails. He's begging you to tear away at him, until Red Robin is nothing until Drake Wayne is but a far away title, and see him, see Time in all he is. Obsessive, disgusting, and desperate. He needs his darling to keep digging even as they see this and decide he's good enough to continue unraveling, to rip him open and keep something of him in your pocket.

As is apparent the relationship with his darling is almost masochistic in a way, with a clear power dynamic but what is to be noted is that while he is desperate he will never truly give up control. He knows when he is being manipulated, but he thrives on it, that you've picked him apart and have decided him worthy to manipulate, you get what he allows but he allows a lot for you. He wants his darling to devour him whole, to stitch themselves into a Frankenstein monster just as he has with them. Take on his mannerisms, remember his coffee order, his eye color, anything. He'd thrive just knowing they have a photo of him somewhere in their pocket. (as if it equates to the massive amounts of video he has on you, the photos, the cameras, the trackers, the microphones, the bugs, and chips)he just needs you to know who he is. He needs you to prove that Timothy Drake truly exists. 

What most cannot see off the bat due to confident words and even more confident actions is that the most familiar feeling Damian is acquainted with is unsurity. He is a being born with a purpose, and the purpose was not to be human, it was to be heir, to be a leader to be everything that he needed to be. His life is a mix of criteria he needs to meet, of missions and proving himself and needing to be perfect, needing the validation of praise and a good grade. He is the heir of a league of assassins and yet he can no longer kill, he is the protege of a notorious hero and yet he contemplates lethality for too much, day in and day out Damian defines himself by this conflict and with true humanity alluding him, he cannot tell truly who he is. 

Damian Wayne: The heir 

The source of his need for competency comes from fear of inadequacy. Because if he cannot fit the criteria given, if he cannot prove himself worthy then does he even have the right to exist? When he has been born for a role he can no longer call his own, where does that leave him? Lost, he's lost and wandering and he thinks something is rotting in him. It plagues him, the fact that Damian Wayne is a leader, son, brother,heir but not human.

His darling in his case plays the role of safe haven, a little home in the form of flesh and blood where he can bury himself alive. He needs the surety they bring, there is no throne, no rubric or evaluation, there is only their own eyes and lips and Damian's own heart in their hands. They are his humanity, if Damian is a role then they are his wants and needs, they are his tears and very heart, he's sure if he could tear his chest open his darling would be there, cradled precisely within his ribs. In their arms Damian feels so painfully useless that he remembers he too has lungs that need air, that he too has basic needs, he feels helpless and ragged and he thinks that this sort of helplessness can be nothing but love.

Darling is living proof that Damian Wayne has something to himself outside of Robin, outside of al-Ghul, and outside of his last name. He is flawed, he sleeps and dreams and cries and is so very weak. He eats from the palm of your hand, everything that makes him disgustingly weak, mortal, he's putty in your hands, even if you were to feed him poison he would drink greedily. The thought of death, the foe that drove his grandfather to the pits over and over again, feels no harder than a feather brush with your arms around him.

Alfred: extra 

Apologies 

He is far too old to fancy himself a darling, and far too sensible to feel infatuation as strongly as his wayward family but he can care, and he can love and he would do anything for his family as he always has

Of course, he feels bad, lucid as he is he can see how they covet you, how they stress you and pull you so thin you might disappear but he cannot let you go, he hopes you forgive him.

He does pity you, is fond of you and your softer nature in the cave of monsters that lurk around for you as their sole prey and he’ll protect you as much as he can but ever since they've had you the manor has a bit lighter and they've smiled so much more he cannot truly let you go

He’ll provide everything but freedom, he'll coddle you through the transition and until he too must take his place in a grave but he begs of you to stay by his family of beasts

You're his only hope 

Author's Note: Dipping my toes back into writing - if this seems familiar it's because it's a reupload! I was previously known as lovesick laboratories but my mental health took a nose dive but I'm back!

Tags: yandere batfam, yandere dc, yandere batfam x reader, bruce wayne x reader, dick grayson x reader, jason todd x reader, tim drake x reader, damian wayne x reader

#yandere batfam #yandere dc #yandere batfam x reader #bruce wayne x reader #dick grayson x reader #jason todd x reader #tim drake x reader #damian wayne x reader

[randomuser678]

So Harriet has shown on screen that she is terrified of living a mediocre life on the shadow of her clone mother and that speaks so well to people of color’s pressure into fitting into white definition of success and societal approval and so many things about Harriet’s plot lines reflect that

Harriet is constantly trying to appease Joan and try to sound as friendly and passive as possible.

And then when Harriet makes the slight criticism toward Joan, Joan throws a pity party and Harriet needs to back away for JOAN’s feelings, it feels really implicit how Harriet is trying to live up to white approval, by making a show that would get hollywood’s attention, casting the hot white couple of the school, by TWISTING herself backwards just to please a white woman’s sensibilities.

And as a result Joan just completely disregards Harriet’s art and makes it her own, and makes it way more whitewashed, and set on medieval times for some reason? (You could argue it’s bc Joan of Arc’s real life) but also! The fact that so many art that’s met with prestige is white and old and European, Joan understands these things are “meaningful and deep” but that is only meaningful to a specific set of ppl, as opposed to Harriet’s wide-appeal show. Joan is convinced she’s on a moral high ground but the way she communicates is mainly through a white person’s biases when creating art.

“I know I’m the clone of Harriet Tubman, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have fun silly stories too!”

Harriet genuinely likes the story she made and how silly and fun she is, but she lives in the shadow of an important social figure and is terrified of failing that image.

Many poc and specially black and brown ppl feel pressured into making their experiences and prejudice they face part of their art, that every black character on something set on the past is either a slave or non-existant, that art of color has to be about pain and tragedy that can spell out our suffering to a white audience, Harriet here wants to escape from the pressures from being a clone but also from being a black artist in 2023 in general.

The conflict between Harriet and Joan’s white womanhood is great bc it shows how Joan lets her feelings and desire to make a “meaningful” musical that is just a bunch of edgy stuff and white people is so well written, specially because it brings to question why do we make art at all? And how does one decide what kinda art they wanna make? Does making something black and white and dreary make it automatically more meaningful and therefore superior to a musical about twister? The answer to the last one is no, and I love how this episode showed these cool discussions.

And I haven’t even touched on the song about white guy confidence, because I think that was a plot b where that theme was the most apparent, and I wanted to show how the same theme of white privilege shows up in the plot a, Cleo, Carver, Sacagawea and Confucius also aim to get a white audience’s approval, that is what these characters all struggle with and it is an ungoing war called living through high school as a person of color

#clonehigh #clone high harriet tubman #my shit #clone high

[traitorsinsalem]

i feel like ive just gotten baited into sending one of those "WAIT, KIRBY HAS DEEP LORE!?" asks but please tell me about the magolor christian themes

HELLO. ok it is 2am so i will do the best i can. if this answer is utterly incoherent, blame that.

magolor's whole christian thing has been around since his concept art, which ensured that his design had notable yellow highlights as a nod to the color used to represent judas in classical christian art. (his ears were also originally going to be horns, so there could be some devil stuff there if you squint.)

this doesn't mean much if you only look at return to dreamland 2011. it's simply a clever, blink-and-you'll-miss-it piece of his character design that ties with the fact that he betrays kirby. some fans also found this funny regarding his symbolic link to apples, which he uses as bombs or. uh. microtransaction materials. lol.

however, once return to dreamland deluxe came out in 2023, the game dropped a MASSIVE bomb of their own by providing us with a new, post-game epilogue for magolor. spoilers ahead, obviously. via the epilogue, magolor's link to apples is explored in-depth by putting him through trials where he must collect 5 fruit (apple) fragments, which a game screen implies parallel the fact that magolor tricked kirby into collecting the 5 parts of the lor starcutter. that's essentially his "penance" process.

when magolor finished rebuilding the apple, which is known as the "ethereal alter" in english and the very unsubtle "room of eden" in japanese. the master crown that magolor had betrayed kirby for and stolen from its place on halcandra became a massive gem apple tree final boss. however, the tree itself is not listed as the boss--instead he is fighting the master crown itself.

he ultimately destroys the master crown, which had taken the form of the "forbidden fruit" that had tempted magolor into hurting people, including those he had come to genuinely deem friends, for the sake of obtaining personal power. the gem apple being constructed in the "room of eden" is enough on its own to build a base for a christian theme, but magolor's arc of redeption through either 1. trial and repentance (main gamemode with magolor epilogue; self-imposed; successful) 2. outside aid (extra mode + true arena; extended by kirby; failed) is what allows the christian imagery to shine.

however, his christian imagery chronologically extends past the return to dreamland deluxe epilogue, as that same epilogue confirmed that "microtransagolor" (the green magolor from kirby clash deluxe) is the same magolor from return to dreamland. he nurtures the gem apple seed which he obtained after defeating the master crown in that game. clash deluxe also introduces us to a weekly "magolor day," which, you guessed it, is on sunday, with the first of them occuring on an easter.

the major reason why i connect magolor to christianity in particular rather than all abrahamic religions is the judas connection, the easter sunday thing, and the process through which he repents or "must atone for his misdeeds." while genesis isn't exclusive to christianity, the specific actions which magolor takes along his path of betrayal and redeption mirror make more sense to me as a christian moral tale rather than judaic or islamic for some reason. not sure why, i'd have to unpack that elsewhere.

this isn't to say that kirby is indoctrinating children into christianity or whatever ofc. considering the whole hyness and mage sisters deal in star allies, the connection between kirby and religion as a whole isn't always a positive one. nintendo also tends to avoid real life religions and references to them as a whole in their games likely to avoid controversy and to make their games accessible and understandable to a worldwide audience with a wide variety of cultural backgrounds. that last point is WHY i find it super crazy that magolor has an obviously and intentionally christian narrative.

(also, for the books, i'm not catholic. but i think 4 years of catholic school and a catholic grandmother gives me juuuust enough background/authority on the topic to relate it to kirby)

#long post #long text #magolor #kirby

[created-creator]

y’know, highkey? there’s nothing wrong with saying “i dunno. i don’t get it either”.

it’s not flawed or a moral failing to not have the words for something, or to not feel comfortable with or capable of explaining it. also, that doesn’t make you bad representation; while representation is important, we weren’t put on this earth exclusively to be representation for others, we were put on this earth to experience ourselves.

my gender is very fluid. can i explain that effectively? to an extent. but there’s nothing wrong with that extent only going so far. my narrative, however long or short my explanation of it can be, is part of a patchwork of many; my voice - however confident or strained - is unique.

same with being non-sexual, and non-romantic. straight up? no idea how to explain ANY of that to a fellow human being. have never and maybe WILL never figure that one out. i know some aspects of why i’m like this, and sometimes i’m bitter about them; other aspects are just a great unknown. whether or not i can impart that on others doesn’t cheapen or discredit my experience; again, grand tapestry or whatnot.

to know and not know are both human; to limit ourselves and our understanding of “perfection” to only being able to experience one? hubris. and a deep-seated reaction to a shame we never should’ve impressed on each other in the first place.

but i dunno. i don’t get it, either.

#created creator #words #gender tag #asexual #aromantic #agender #nonbinary

[niobiumao3]

Okay but here's my main narrative issue with CX-2 as Tech within the canon context: it utterly undermines Crosshair's plot and goes in the face of the entire TBB throughline of agency and choosing to do and be the right thing even if it's hard.

Crosshair's plot--and the plot of all the regs--is one of agency after moral injury. The chip made them do horrible shit, but then its influence fades (or it's removed) and they're left with the reality of having done something they thought was right but know, deep down, was not. And this is horrifying, and breaks all of them in various ways. There's a series of contrasts being laid out in this, which Tech as a CX simply doesn't work with.

Those who made it out:

Cody, Howzer, and Crosshair all save themselves from it over the course of their personal plots. Rex is saved by Ahsoka but left with the emotional scars and determination to save others from it.

Those who are trapped:

Wolffe, a good man convinced he's doing the right thing. Other regs like Wolffe. And then we have the CXes.

The CXes being magically brainwashed, unlike Wolffe and the other regs who are caught by the moral injury of their chips, clashes with this and simply doesn't fit. But what does fit is the type of cult indoctrination and brainwashing we see in our own world. People who are highly vulnerable being targeted by such groups and recruited. That is a similar trap that Wolffe is in, he's just (in effect) recruited himself.

Why 'Scifi Brainwashing' the CXes is a Bad Plot

Scifi-magic-brainwashing is no different than a fully active control chip. It's the same thing, and the whole POINT of S2 was how those were failing or wearing off (or being removed). Why would the plot just roll back on that? 'Well now it's some torture horror method and not a biotech chip'. Okay why not just say Hemlock figured out how to make the chips work again? Hemlock's entire elevator pitch in The Summit was that he'd found a way to NOT NEED fancy biotech brainwashing. That was his point, that he'd found a way to 'convince' them instead. So Scifi-magic-brainwashing doesn't make sense here plot wise, and while Bad Writing is always an option, much of the season has been top tier. I don't think they'd negate their own plot so thoroughly.

What IS CX Conditioning

What Hemlock seems to be doing is more traditional cult indoctrination and brainwashing. You put people in a Situation--this probably does involve torture but that's not the same as mindflayers and control chips--and now you're testing their resilience (emotional AND physical). Conforming becomes a choice, and is once again about agency and deciding to do the right thing. This kind of decision is a common theme in TBB, and is undermined by magically forcing people to be something they're not. I grant you, the choice might be 'convert or die', but since Cross was resisting and still alive and not even completely physically wrecked we can assume it's survivable. Awful, but you can get through it.

And a traditional conditioning would fail on Crosshair precisely because he saved himself from the aftermath of his chip already. He slowly realized what was happening, what he was part of. He finally broke free by killing Nolan, a sort of reverse of the situation with Caleb/Kanan. The regs being conditioned, though, they've not already had this breakthrough, they're much more vulnerable to choosing the CX route. Crosshair has been through this rodeo, he knows it's all bullshit.

What about Tech?

Tech, IMO, wouldn't be susceptible to it either; I guess you can argue he might, but I think that gets into some ugly stereotypes about autistic people being amoral and morally gray and etc. Simply put, there's no reason for Tech to be vulnerable to cult brainwashing just because he didn't have to fight it off the first time. I know some people have tried to push back on this with 'anyone CAN be brainwashed' but like...okay we're back to, why would Tech choose that. That's the thing here--what motivation would Tech have for falling to that beyond 'make the torture stop'? Our mans walked on a busted femur for HOW long, defeated 3 clones with one? And this person would fall to traditional cult mentality? I don't know that I can agree on that.

Then there's the added narrative complications:

Tech would have revealed Pabu the second Omega escaped if he was a CX

...unless he had amnesia, which would fit with him being vulnerable to CX conditioning but now we have CX and amnesiac Tech??

How is this being resolved in 4 episodes, given we know the earliest they can reclaim him is ep 10/11 because we see CX-2 as part of the Pabu invasion?

Sure, they can magically fix him somehow (feel free to choose your preferred method) but now we're back to, this flies in the face of the TBB plot of choice and living with what you actually chose to do, as well as what you were forced to do. It negates Cross' plot, which was a 3 season journey of repairing himself. Now we'd repair Tech from the same thing in one episode? I don't see that happening.

Anyways. This is a perfectly fun plot for fics and the like, where we can fudge bits of the story, stretch it out like taffey, imagine different options. But the canon has severe runtime constraints which would hamper this kind of plot without hurting other narrative threads they've established. You'd need a good season to really lay out a Tech-CX-2 plot which wouldn't conflict with Cross's own plot. They don't have a season, they have 6 episodes max, probably less.

#star wars #spoilers #the bad batch #tbb tech #I like it for fanfic #but for canon I just don't see it working #tech tbb #tech the bad batch

[archivalofsins]

*gasp* Kotoko's violent she would have even attacked Amane A CHILD- Is the same as people going *gasp* Haruka hurt animals. We're ending trial two exactly how we started it with people acting like information we were expressedly told trial one is a revelation. That was definitely never ever alluded to or blatantly shown/stated at all.

This will never not be a fucking hilarious response. Each trial without fail someone somewhere literally goes- *gasp* The people we were told are murderers actually do bad things?! Like, yes, we're in the making bad choices, doing bad things, no- I don't want to change everyone else is the problem and I'm right series. Everyone in Milgram is like honestly a very self-serving inconsiderate individual with commitments to their personal beliefs first and foremost.

They're all the embodiment of did I ask for other opinions mind your business or support my choices- If doing either of those things is too difficult for you, then die. So the whole highlighting they did bad things and pearl clutching is like super funny. Like yeah, what a croc coming from me, the person who highlights them doing the bad things the most possibly. Yet just because someone does bad things doesn't make them a bad person, and just because someone thinks a person is good doesn't make them incapable of doing bad things.

This isn't some vague or callout either. Honestly, it's perfectly natural to see someone do something suspect and react that way to it. Yet staying on that knee-jerk sensationalized reaction long-term doesn't allow for progress. Yeah people are mad that a character did a bad thing now what can we learn from it, what can we do to make sure it doesn't happen again in the series, and more importantly what can we learn from the characters in the series mindsets that will ultimately allow us as people to avoid making similar mistakes.

The best thing about Kotoko's character is one hundred percent that despite for how messy her work is she still believes she's doing what's necessary, that she's helping, and others are just afraid of progress or too wrapped up in their morals to do the objectively right thing. She fully embodies the phrase it's messy work, but someone has to do it. A mindset anyone can fall into. It's easy to believe that whatever outcome you're working towards is more important than what you do to get there. That just because the outcome is good and well intended that even if the path is messy, it will work out in the end.

It's easy for people to ignore the tangible harm they cause others in pursuit of what they believe is a just cause. I feel like that's something that's been an integral part of Kotoko's character from the start. So, while yes, I personally love highlighting the means she uses to get to that outcome and the issues with those means. I fully recognize she is not just her means, and she isn't the only prisoner who has used the ends they were seeking to excuse the things they did to get there.

Like I enjoy Mikoto's character, I'd have to be a large ass hypocrite to ignore all the blatant similarities between the two of them. It's been a rather chill trial for me, and I've been enjoying it mostly because I'm not deep in the tags. Also, it is super funny to go full circle like this.

It really feels like we're getting into the thick of it now.

#gunsli rambles #milgram

[thekingofwinterblog]

They dug too greedily and too deep

One line that has always bothered me from Tolkien's legendarium, is Gandalf's condemnation of the actions of the Longbeard Dwarves of Khazad-Dum, later known as Moria.

Moria was the grandest city in the history of middle earth, and not by a small margin either, a marvel unlile any other, creates by hard work, dedication, and industrious spirit. And unlike so, so many other great treasures and places in Tolkien's legendarium, there was no harm here. Nature was not destroyed, natural beauty was not despoiled, other people did not suffer for Durin's Folk to prosper.

Almost everywhere else, when tolkien critiques a place or people, he very clearly lays out the big failing underpinning of the society that led to its fall, decline or conflict.

The leaders and people of Gondolin refused to leave their beloved city, even when it had been long foretold that they would need to leave it, and so everyone but 800 died there along with the wonder of that hidden vale.

Their great hubris was a prioriticing beauty and home over their own kind, living people, who's very existence and lives was far, far more valuable, important and beautiful than Gondolin ever was.

Gondor's decline was in large part because it's numenorean population stopped focusing on the next generation, the future that actually mattered, in favor of venerating ancestors who were long since in the grave.

Same as gondolin, only replace their love for their material city, with their ancestors.

The humans, elves and dwarfs at Erebor almost murder each other because their leaders are all too proud to make a peaceful negotiation and sharing of the spoils, and would rather kill each other than give have to give anything beyond what they themselves has deemed as "enough".

This is a clear cut example of how greed almost led to complete catastrophy.

What happened to Moria though, at the surface doesnt seem to fit this.

They dug, and dug, and dug, until they awakened Durin's bane... But Durin's Bane was not a natural part of the misty Mountains. He was an intruder who came here long ago.

Yet the way Gandalf described the doom of their civilization as something that would always come if they went down, down Into the mountain, he makes it sound like this was always going to be the outcome.

From a logical perspectice it makes sense... But from a moral one? At the surface, the dwarves going down, rather than east, west, north or south, or up, doesnt seem like it should be any different. The motivation was the same, and if there was a natural sin or hubris for that, their greed would not be all that different if they went in any of the other directions. And yet endlessly going down was different somehow.

A moral failing that just like Gonfolin prioriticing their stone over their people, or Turin's pride and vainglory leading to the fall of Nargothrond, would lead their civilization to ruin.

The question of course, is why? Why was going down deemed a moral failing of the Dwarves by Gandalf and by extension Tolkien?

Well, the answer comes if you look at moria from the side, because if so, you realize the dwarves were tempting fate long, long before they ever stumbled unto Durin's bane.

Durin's bridge spans over an enormous chasm, so deep that the Dwarves have never reached the bottom, and down there at the bottom is an enormous subteranean cavern and lake.

And in this lake, and in the caverns directly around it, there are things. Nightmarish things, so terrifying, that two Maia, upon reaching this place, rather than finish their battle here, instead flee the place in terror, and make their way back to Khazad-Dum.

That on it's own speaks volumes of what sort of horrors these creatures must have been, but it goes beyond that.

The way Gandalf describes them, and the way he refuses to even talk about them in depth in the light of the sun brings to mind some lovecraftian horrors that lurks in the depths of the earth, where they gnaw at the very roots of the world.

And what little we do know of what these creatures must have been further emphasizes this, for they are clearly describes as Older than Sauron.

This all on it's own gives us a good idea of what these things are, for there is only one, single creature in the legendarium who seems to fit that bill, and she is definitly an eldrich abomination.

Ungoliant, the enormous spider abomination from the first age sticks out like a sore thumb, having powers that are completely outside of the usual magic system of the world, but far more disturbingly, she is described as coming "from the void" aka the primeal outer space as the most likely of her origins, and she crept into the world after it was made.

She, and she alone is the only creature other than Eru himself that fits the bill of "Older than Sauron" for Sauron was there at the worlds creation, but the void was from before even that.

It is very likely then, that Ungoliath was one of these "nameless things" whose kin, now during the third age delved beneath the world.

And there is more that suggests this to be the case. For Unholiath before she vanished from recorded history was last seen in a place in Beleriand called Nan Dungortheb, the valley of dreadful death, where in the mountains above the valley, she bred forth a race of monstrous, giant spiders, such as Shelob.

But she and her spawn was not the only ones who lived here. For along with these monstrosities, there lived men here. Clans of mysterious renegade men, who carved altars to strange, heathen, nameless gods, who were neither the Valar nor Morgoth, and who's very laughter from the mists, brought fear and terror, even into the likes of Turin Turambar.

And to further seal that there is a definite connection here, the northern part of the valley, and the mountains where these terrifying spiders and men dwelt, was one of the few olaces to survive the war of wrath, by the far the largest landmass that survived of Beleriand, when it sunk into the sea... As if some greater power ensured it would remain standing.

Today it is the island of Tol Fuin.

And for all we know, both the spiders, and the men who worshipped these terrible "gods" still live there.

In my opinion, it is probably an underground tunnel and cave system on this island, that if you go down, down, down far enough, and keep going, slowly, but surely, you will find your ways to the caverns beneath Khazad-Dum, and in ages past, when the Balrog of Morgoth fled the war of wrath, it was this passage he used to find a deep, deep hole to hid in, where the Valar could not find him. He has to have gotten there somewhere, and clearly there is a connection between the island and the things beneath Moria.

But with all of this in mind, with these horrible creatures under Khazad-Dum, why was it such a cardinal sin for the Dwarfs to dig deeper?

It was a horrific danger yes, and clearly it was an absolutely terrible idea, regardless of wheter or not there was a Balrog, but why was it it a moral sin where they should have known better?

Well, rhe answer comes if you take another look at the map. From Gandalf's description, one would assume that the great lake was miles, and miles and miles and miles beneath the lowest point the dwarves ever dug.

Theyre not though. That well that Pippin threw a rock down? It goes WAY deeper than where the abyss ends. And it was down beneath that well, that the Balrog seemes to have been when the fellowship came.

Allow me to repeat that. There was a well established, and probably old well in Moria, that went ALLLLL the the way down to these caverns where these nameless things roamed.

Then if we trace the route Gandalf and the Balrog made back to Khazad Dum, we don't know exactly where the two different carved systems of passages interconnected, but interconnect they did, and if that side passage that leads to the Redhorn Lodes is anything to go by, this was probably a very well known and used part of Moria.

Which, if that's true, it it completely changes the ballgame.

Because if so, the dwarves didn't just crack a wall one day, and then accidentally awaken a balrog. No, they dug down, down, down, until they stumbled unto these strange tunnels that were no their own... And kept going anyway, interconnecting them, delving deper, exploring, regardless of the fact that at some point, some Dwarves MUST have stumbled on to the creatures that lived here.

And yet they kept going. They found these tunnels leqding to eldrich abominations, and rather than sealing them, and going the opposite way, they just kept going, following the Mithril lodes down, down, down into the depths, down to the mountain roots, heedless of the obvious danger, all in the search of more and more Mithril... Right up until they awoke something that would follow them back up through the tunnels, they themselves made.

They dug much too greedily... and far, FAR too deep. No they kept digging, long, long , long after the point they should have stopped, the point where all signs and common sense would have told them to go back and never go this way again.

That was the sin of Khazad-Dum. That was their greed and folly, and blinded by greed, they ignored all sense and wisdom in the pursuit of Mithril beyond down the level that was their birthright, beyond the mountain's depths and into the roots of the world, where nameless horrors lie... And one of these horrors followed them home.

#tolkien's legendarium #lord of the rings #moria #khazad dum #khazad dûm #balrog #durin's bane #meta #theory #nameless things #ungoliant

[ryuksbathsaltedapples]

High honor Arthur Morgan x younger reader

Ch 1 abt 3k words

Cw: older man younger woman, NO ACTUAL SEX yet 😏, eventual smut, FEM READER, shy and awkward reader, Arthur is a flirt 💪, masturbation, and believe that’s it nothing much

Author note: this is like the first BIG fic I’ve ever written💀 so if it’s a bit scratchy let me know! Would love to have feedback on what I can do to make my writing better. On another note I’ve only played about 1/4 of the actual game so far, so if this is not an accurate depiction of high honor Arthur let me know, just Spoiler Free!! But I will adjust his personality to make it as cannon as possible. Oh and suggestions for the next part would be great! Brain frog man, craziness

|Arthur finds a girl who needs help with her dog, little did this girl know he was gonna be like a parasite in her brain!|

Arthur was a tough a man, a man who’s killed, robbed, and hurt. But, he does have some morals and values in life, despite what others might think. He’d lived a hard life, 36 years of living and many of them running with the Van der Linde gang, but he trusted the people, trusted Dutch, and he’d never turn his back on them.

One morning while it was a bit cooler, a cold prickly brisk in the air hitting his face as he rode his horse, he saw a girl. He didn’t think much about it, just some young lady out for a stroll, that was until the young lady started calling for him. “Sir! Please! I-i need some help!” Her voice rang out in a pitch clearly distressed. On a bad day, he wouldn’t have tuned around, on an okay day he’d probably would’ve stopped, but today was a good day. So Arthur thought ‘what the hell’ and turned around riding his horse up to the young lady.

“What’s the problem miss?” He said his deep southern voice ringing out, the calmness in his tone widely different from the thin nature of hers. “M-My dog he’s…Jesus he’s fallen in a hole I can’t get him out…! I promise I’m not lying pleas help me!” Her voice rang thin again, he could see the red teary stains around her eyes, and even though apart of him felt suspicious he decided to believe her (besides if it was a trap, he could make it out unscathed easily). “Okay okay, tell me where the dog’s at?” He stated clearly trying to get the girl to calm down, he watched intently as she wiped her eyes and took some deep breaths. “He’s over there…, I tried pulling him out, but..damnit I can’t! He’s to heavy for me…” defeat and embarrassment rang through her voice as she spoke, clearly upset at her failed attempt. Arthur got off his horse and waved his hand, at this the girl started walking towards her big o’l dog.

“He’s in there…” the girl said quietly. The hole was deep and the dog, well being a dog was digging and running around all in it, clearly not as stressed about the situation as his owner was, Arthur sighed a little, realizing he’s about to have to either get in the hole with the dog or fight to get it out “your pup better be a good o’l companion for this…” he said in a slight exasperated laugh as he slowly crawled into the hole, the lady above not responding to his comment. The hole itself was most likely formed by an old cave in, a failed well hole at the looks of it eroded by time. Once Arthur was fully in the dog immediately ran to him sniffing his shoes and pants, its long tail wagging hard.

“He’s a good dog…! Just a bit…well stupid” she said a slight giggle falling over her voice as she spoke tiredly. Arthur took in the smelly big o’l animal, covered in dirt with a stocky build, a large black lab with a very dumb glint in its eyes “well, let’s see if I can get him out”. Once the dog had calmed down a bit he slowly wrapped his arms around the dogs flappy stomach lifting it up. With Arthur’s height he was able to push the dog up enough for the young lady to grab it, the dog crawling out to freedom; as Arthur himself climbed out of the hole he couldn’t help but smirk a bit at the sounds of her scolding the dog.

“Oh you stupid thing! Making me get all dirty and tired! And then forcing me to have to drag some poor soul to get you out!”. “Oh it ain’t no problem, he’s just testing your love” Arthur chuckled whipping some of the dirt off his jacket and pants. He couldn’t help but notice the slight blush on the young lady’s cheeks as she looked to him, she smiled a little as she spoke “..thank you sir, you’re a good person..w-what’s your name?” Her voice ranged shy, something he did not miss. “Arthur Morgan, and yours missy?” he spoke smiling at her, “it’s Y/N”

>

>

Weeks have gone by since you first met the handsome stranger. You weren’t expecting to think about someone who just helped get your dog out of a hole so much, but here you where in your room combing your hair out thinking about his smile, his hair, and his nice weathered cowboy hats and coat. Your daydreaming about this almost complete stranger was cut short as your mother walked in to your room. “Welp! Break times over sweetie, we need to get back to work” your mother spoke strongly but nicely as she exited your room.

You took a deep breath and stretched your back before getting off of the bed, and going outside to continue doing chores. It was a day like no other, feed the chickens, water the animals, weed the gardens, things you’ve been doing since you came out the womb. But, today instead of your mind drifting to thoughts about reading or going swimming in the evening, your only thoughts were on that mysterious cowboy….his face wouldn’t leave your mind, his shadowy stubble…., his tough eyes…, his hands…long and thick fingers, calloused by many hard days of work and life…you wondered how they would feel…, maybe in you hands , or….on your body. This time instead of the voice of your mother waking you from your thoughts, it was the prick of a rather thorny weed that made you snap back, you felt a bit embarrassed at yourself, how could you be so dizzy over a man you met once? I mean sure he was nice, respectful, tough, and handsome….But that’s not the point! ‘If I’m ever gonna get anything done I need to clear my big o’l head!’ You thought shaking your face and continuing with your chores.

>

Sabbath day, you loved it, sure the preacher could get annoying…, and sometimes some of the church members looked at you weird. But, your chores didn’t have to be done today; thoughts raced as the sermon continued, barely paying attention to what the preacher was preaching as you thought what you would do with such a fine Sunday to yourself thoughts about baking, catching up to a book, maybe even begging your parents to let you ride out on your own for a few hours. These thoughts raced and raced, until the next thing you knew you were walking out of church and heading home, but something of surprise came when you got home. Your father, a very gruff man handed you $8 and told you to spend it on what you wanted: well, now you you knew what you were gonna do.

After eating lunch (very quickly might I add) you headed for town, your plan was simple, get some treats, some new pencils or pastels, and maybe check for a new book. You walked into the general store and said hello’s at the owner before looking around, taking in all of the small candies you might get; it was nice, for once being handed money and spending it on something other then necessities, being able to just do something nice for yourself. As you were looking around you heard the door to the shop open, you payed it no mind and kept looking around, trying to think about which sweet was worth the amount of money and what you would have left for other things. Once you picked out the candy you wanted you moved to the small art booking section, filled with the very basics and nothing more.

Looking around you heard a voice “excuse me missy, but I need to grab that” the voice was deep and relaxed, and it caught you off guard as you saw a tough hand pointing to some lead pencils. You turned your head to the man and your eyes immediately widen, the handsome face of the cowboy looking back at you, you couldn’t help but blush immediately feeling very awkward not expecting to ever see that man again. As you stepped over a bit so he could grab the pencils he looked at you again, his serious blue eyes scanning your face, it made you feel a bit nervous “hey…you’re the young lady with the dog!, thought I recognized such a pretty face” he smiled politely at you “y/n right?”. You nodded your head fast as you looked at him, Jesus, marry, and Joseph you could have fainted then and there, maybe it could have been like a romance, him capturing you in his arms…taking you on a romantic ride….kissing all over you… “I-I want to thank you again sir! For getting my dog out, you saved me a lot of trouble mr…Arthur?” You spoke tumbling your words out as you looked at him, standing so close you could really see how large he was, much taller then you, and obviously more muscular.

You felt like a train being derailed almost completely forgetting where you were or what you were doing, that was until he spoke again “well, don’t worry about it, feels good to help young things like you. I remember what it was like at that age, always needing help with something before you get it down” your mind raced as you saw him walking to the counter ending the conversation, you couldn’t just let him end it right here??! So you spoke again following behind him slightly, thinking of the only thing you can do for the man “hey…if you like pies or breads I-I’d like to give you some, I mean as a thanks for helping me, I’ll bake anything you like!” Arthur looked at your for a second taking in the offer, then he spoke cracking his neck as he did “well why not? Haven’t had a good apple pie in.., well a while, besides free food is free food!” He smiled at you as he payed for his things, and oh lord, that smile, maybe you should’ve stayed in church all day with the thoughts swirling in your head. You told him where you lived and to meet you there tomorrow afternoon and he agreed before exiting the store, outside the window you could see him talking to an older gentleman who pointed inside as he spoke to Arthur. Suddenly you felt very embarrassed.

>

You went to sleep early that night unusual for you were known to stay up a bit later to have time to yourself, but the thought of seeing that cowboy tomorrow made you want the day to come sooner. You woke up early that morning and immediately went to go look in the ice box to see if there were any apples left, luckily you found a few and as you were bringing them to the kitchen your mother noticed, and was asking why in the world you were baking now? You stumbled through an explanation about how you were thanking the man who helped you with your dog, your mother eventually backed down but she still seemed a bit upset at the idea of some strange man coming to see her daughter, but she figured it was just a curtsy for him helping you. You baked the pie as fast as you could while also keeping it well, once you were done you hurried outside to catch up on chores you missed while baking.

It felt like hours upon hours of waiting for Arthur to arrive, but eventually around 1pm he did, you saw his horse riding up to your humble estate and you tried to fix yourself as best as you could before greeting him. You walked him inside and your mother walked into the kitchen staring down the man very intently, looking him over and judging his appearance. “Hello Mrs….?” He trailed waiting for your mother to answer “L/N, Mrs L/N. I heard you helped my daughter get our dog unstuck?” She said curtly never taking her eyes off the man “yes, just doing what I can to help. Quite a beautiful estate you have” he spoke warmly trying to defuse the tense air. You stood there quite awkward as your mother interrogated Arthur, but you kept yourself busy as you pulled out a plate for him and yourself and began to prep the pie, “…mom do you want any..?” You spoke quietly looking at your mother who was finally starting to loosen to the cowboy “not right now dear, I’m going to sort the vegetables, I’ll have some after dinner” she said as she left to go drag in a box of recent vegetables grown.

You made Arthur a plate and he sat down at the table taking in the atmosphere of your home, you felt nervous as you put his plate on table before making your own and sitting down. You watched him take a a few bites and a very pleased look spread across his face, “well I haven’t had many, but this is probably one of the best apple pies I’ve had” he said smiling at you clearly making himself comfortable in your home. Your face flushed red and you smiled at him “thank you…I try my best” your voice shy as you ate your own serving. Your mother came back into the house and started sorting and washing the vegetables Yall would keep in the sink; you continued to talk to Arthur, shyly asking about his life, you noticed his answers were rather vague but you didn’t want to push him. From what you could gather he really was just some Cowboy, taking odd jobs and exploring this part of America looking for the next big thing.

After talking causally to him for a while you began to lighten up a bit relaxing some, your mother walked back out of the house and once she was away you were shocked to see Arthur lean over the table a bit staring at you. “You’re quite a sight Miss y/n, always nice to see pretty young ladies like you, especially if they’re making me pies” he chuckled lightheartedly giving you a nice smirk. If you weren’t mistaken you believed you just felt your whole body pulse, suddenly you felt very hot and you could barely make eye contact with the man your whole face covered in blush. “Thank you…” you spoke out quietly voice a squeak as you felt a tingle in your legs. You heard him chuckle at your embarrassed demeanor his face lit up with a dangerous charm. After a few moments your mother came back into the house and shortly after Arthur left thanking you for the hospitality.

>

Later that night you had gotten ready for bed, cleaned yourself off and put on your nightgown. You laid down and warmed up underneath the covers, closing your eyes and getting comfortable, but immediately thoughts about Arthur clouded your brain, the words he spoke to you making you feel hot and sensitive. Images of his face…his hands…, Jesus his hands, his long thick callused fingers, you couldn’t stop thinking about them. And then something even worse came to mind, books your mother would have burned if she caught you reading them flashed in your head, stories of damsels and their knights in shining armor, but it was more than that… You kept thinking about those certain chapters…were the knight would slowly undress the damsel, kiss from the top of their head down to their stomach…going further and further till they reach their cunt, kissing them along their other lips….fondling their chest.

You couldn’t take it anymore, your whole body felt on fire as you kept thinking about such sinful things, so to ease the tension in your body you slowly started fondling yourself, gently pinching your nipples letting out soft quiet moans and mewls, your breast felt soft in your hands and the feeling of your nipples hardening from the touches made you feel wetter. After a bit of teasing your now perky nipples you traced you hands slowly down to your own cunt, slowly rubbing your now very wet slit, trying to keep your moans low as you rubbed your wet clit, your pussy hot and sensitive. You slowly plunged your fingers into your sopping hole pushing them in and out till your legs started to shake and your back started to arch, the wet squelching sounds of your tight pussy echoing across the walls.

One hand using fingers to fuck yourself, the other hand using your fingers to rub your very needy and inflamed clit, you couldn’t help the quiet moans and whines coming out of your mouth, as your fingers kept moving inside you trying to touch those spots that made you cry out. You kept this up for a while, getting more and more worked up, but no matter how much you bucked your hips, no matter how much you rubbed yourself you just couldn’t cum, you would get so close to the edge just for it to slowly dissipate. Eventually your arms started to feel tired and so did you, so with some aggravated whines you tuned over and went to sleep, pussy still wet and needy.

#rdr2 #rdr2 arthur #arthur morgan #x reader #fem reader #arthur morgan rdr2 #rdr2 fic #Arthurmorgan #sexyarthurmorgan #older man younger woman #cowboy #shy reader

[deeply-embarrassing]

“Yellowjackets isn’t a show about good people”

I NEVER understand that very common statement. That idea that the main characters aren’t “supposed to be”, from a moral point of view,  rootable or likeable. In my opinion, it shows a great misunderstanding of what the show is portraying, what expectations it’s trying to subvert, especially considering season 2.

The show tells and shows us, over and over again, that the Yellowjackets never grew to enjoy whatever they had to do to survive as teens. They're not enjoying whatever terrible things they've been doing as adults. They're a danger to themselves and others due to extreme trauma: they need psychiatric help.

They never became sadistic, immortalistic cannibals, as the first episode intentionally misled us into thinking. They became cannibals because they were slowly but surely dying. Pit girl accepted to be part of the hunt, had already hunted other people. Her option to run wasn’t sadistic: considering the group's beliefs, this option existed so that the Wilderness could "save" someone by killing someone else during the hunt (like with Natalie and Javi). So, she chose to run instead of having a quick death. Her eventual death was quick. The group ritualistically ate her due to their beliefs and to protect their own sanity.

Season 2 was all about Lottie not being immoralistic or “a villain”, but also about how no one else is (except Misty, she's not "a villain" nor sadistic but she's definitely not a "Morally Good" Person in the common sense of the concept). Season 3 will probably focus on how Van isn't immoralistic either. She just learned early in life that in some desperate situations, ruthlessness and selfishness are necessary for protection, and paralyzing guilt doesn't save anyone's life or sanity.

The women of this show need psychiatric treatment, but their personal trauma stops them, just as their environment does. I'd say the real "villains", the ones we shouldn't root for, are those who enable their trauma responses and participate in triggering them. The journalists, teammates and family members who try to sensationalize and/or utilize their story for their own benefit. The intrusive strangers who ask for details. The cops who aren’t sorely looking for justice, who find pleasure in judgment. The adult family members who become complicit in their crimes, complicit because the justice and healthcare systems might fail their loved ones. Might fail them by assuming what we assumed in the first episode; that they'd become and stayed monsters, deep down. What Ben assumed.

Characters we don’t consider to be good people are characters we don't think would deserve to be safe and loved if they were real. It doesn't fit the Yellowjackets.

#yellowjackets #misty quigley #shauna shipman #jackie taylor #taissa turner #van palmer #vanessa palmer #lottie matthews #natalie scatorccio #laura lee #the show is probably gonna push further with the horrible acts they've committed #and yet... i forgive #so far there's nothing that makes me think they're the fucking monsters some ppl see them as #btw by “except misty” i dont mean shes a villain #i mean the show doesn't try to directly excuse her violence though it does do it in other ways

[marukrawler]

Maybe it's because Sellon didn't have a arc of her own. and despite her relatively good character development, she had few episodes that focused on her and had little involvement in the season compared to Alice or Fabia.Although it's a little unfair to compare one of the main characters and the antagonist of the first season.Fabia, despite her poorly developed character, also had a great influence and participation in the season.I think it's also influenced by the fact that Shun is considered a bit ooc in ms due to the poorly written plot and incorrect dubbing

yeah, i don't know about that, chief.

having a character arc of some kind or good character development isn't the be-all and end-all when it comes to shipping. people can ship two characters for a multitude of reasons that range from being pretty basic ("they look good together" or "they had (1) single interaction and now i'm hooked) to being because of whatever deep and intimate relationship those two characters might've had in canon. implying that shunfabia and shunalice are popular ships because fabia and alice have more screen time or because they have arcs or good character development is just false. shun doesn't play a significant role in the journeys of either alice or fabia and and vice versa so i fail to see why that has anything to do with why they're popular ships.

and as for you saying that sellon had little involvement in her own season compared to alice or fabia, that's also not true. sellon and mag mel practically had a hand in everything that happened in ms1. she was incredibly vital to the progression of the plot. you're right in that it's unfair to compare sellon's screen time to that of fabia and alice but you're also incorrect to state that sellon had little involvement in ms1 when she's one of the major players advancing the story.

you're also very mistaken to say that sellon had "relatively good character development."

sellon remains entirely unchanged throughout ms1. her story starts and ends with her being exactly the same person. now, is it a bad thing to have very little to no character development? not necessarily. giving every single character a personal arc or development of some kind is just not feasible. sometimes a character simply exists to embody a certain theme or highlight another character's traits, like a narrative foil.

in sellon's case, she exists as a foil to shun just like anubias is a foil to dan. sellon and shun have different principles, morals and values but on some level, they also share similarities. the reason why it's so easy for sellon to manipulate shun is because she understands him in a way no one else does.

sellon exists to highlight the worst parts of shun, the part that isolates himself, relies only on himself and pushes forward in reach of his goal to the point of obsession. we saw this when sellon encouraged shun into becoming the leader of the brawlers and almost destroyed himself trying to preserve the integrity of the original bakugan battles, and we see it yet again when shun destroys a potential escape route from interspace because of his relentless pursuit to unleash his anger upon sellon. that same unwavering dedication towards a goal at the cost of everything, even one's own life, is what sellon admires about shun and it's what makes them alike.

sellon fulfills her character role perfectly and the same can be said for fabia. she's a princess, a leader and acts as the beacon of hope and strength for her people. her characterization, as well as her dynamic with the brawlers and the gundalians, greatly showcases what a compassionate and kind person she is. there really isn't much need for fabia to change as a character because she's already amazing as is.

the dubbing of ms1 is the only that i'll lend some credibility to. not only does sellon always sound like she's scheming, shun also sounds like he's annoyed by her and generally wary of what she says, which is completely different to what happens in the japanese dub. i imagine this is precisely why fans didn't see a romantic connection between the two, which is sad but understandable. i suppose that's just another thing the dub ruined alongside fabia/mason lol.

#bakugan #also alice is also not the antagonist of the first season #masquerade is #even if they are two parts of the same whole alice is not responsible for masquerade's actions and doesn't have the same views as him

[aydaptic]

I’ve seen people say that Gavin is a bad person because he wanted to “rough up” Carlos Ortiz’ android, Shaolin Being and him saying “after all, it’s not human” is “proof” that he would harm a human if he could get away with it.

This argument is so stupid to me because 1. Hank and Chris are both present when he says that and both of them say nothing. They don’t defend the android, they don’t chastise him, they say nothing. Does that mean that both Hank and Chris would assault a human if they could get away with it?

And 2. I think people are reading way to into it to again, try and justify their reasons for hating Gavin. Gavin says “after all, it’s not human”. In this point in the game, androids are not seen as living beings. They’re not human, they’re machines. Yes, the point of dbh is to sympathise with the androids but realistically, they are just machines. Machines that have been stated, even by Connor, to not feel pain.

Gavin hates androids, androids are machines and they don’t feel pain. Him saying “we could try roughing it up” is not some subtle way of saying “Gavin would assault any human being if given the chance”. It’s him saying “this is a machine, it killed a person, it’s withholding information, I don’t like them anyway so I say we do what we need to get information out of this object”

In the world of dbh, no matter how one may feel about androids, whether they be treated as human or not, it’s been stated over and over again that they were designed to be machines. No different than an appliance or an automated machine at a supermarket so honestly someone saying that they would hurt an android shouldn’t be indicative of some deep desire to hurt a human.

Thank you!

This is spot-on, so I don't really have anything to add to this. I'm relieved to see there are ppl (like you) on Tumblr who are capable of some rational thought. Gav haters are reaching so far up their own ass*s to try to justify their own bigotry -- subjective views that they parade as objective facts -- and they miserably fail at it.

Like you said... the way a person treats something they believe to be a simple tool doesn't equate to how they would treat a thinking, living, breathing human being. I've kicked my vacuum cleaner when its cable got stuck to loosen it. By their flawed logic, I must be an ab*ser.

I can guarantee that everyone making that up-on-their-high-horse moral statement would gladly punch what they believed to be a m*rderer -- or just a human they hate -- if it wasn't for the consequences. It's normal. They're either too deluded to see it or too fake to admit it. If there was a queue to legally punch a r*pist, and suffer no consequences, they would be vibrating with glee (as they rightfully should.) It's pure hypocrisy on their part.

In the eyes of Gav, Chris, and Hank, Shaolin Being was simply a defective machine and a murderer. Anyone incapable of seeing that needs to develop way more empathy bc they severely lack it.

Just the past 24 hours, I've had 2 ppl attack me personally before deleting their replies. Most likely bc they're afraid they'll get a Tumblr ban for their hateful speech. That and them just being incapable of backing up their absurd claims when I give counter-arguments. Genuinely, I can't help but pity these ppl. Why?

They in their insecurity are desperate to convince me differently so that I can 'validate' their flawed opinions.

They're incapable of controlling their emotions.

They're incapable of restraint as they don't think before posting.

They're incapable of having their flawed views questioned.

They're incapable of admitting when they're wrong.

They're incapable of common sense.

They're incapable of accepting different opinions than their own.

They only pick and choose what benefits them and avoid everything else.

They make assumptions based on nothing.

They always assume the worst.

They don't practice what they preach.

They're brainwashed by the media to think that a rude comment and/or justified physical force by a cop is "police br*tality" and "s*xual as*ault."

They haven't done actual research in the fields they comment on.

They either over-simplify or over-complicate everything.

They can only think in extremes and don't know what balance is.

They resort to name-calling and attacking the individual bc they themselves don't have any good counter-arguments.

I can only hope that they'll mentally grow up to be more mature. The state of so many ppl on social media nowadays is downright sad.

#dbh #gavin reed #dbh gavin #detroit: become human #long post #Q&A #anonymous #*aydaptic

[whumpspicelatte]

Skin, wound, and fear for the not-so-nice ask game :>

Okay, the only OCs unleashed upon the internet on this blog in any true capacity are my whumper Cole Glass, my whumpee Abelard Montagnard, and Cole’s somewhat morally skewed caretaker Daniel Henrikson. I dunno which one you wanted me to answer this about, so all three it is! 

Note: By the way, this got very long and holds what probably counts as spoilers, so I’m putting it under a ‘keep reading’ to keep things contained. 

fear: What is your OC's greatest fear? What do they do when confronted with it? Are they open with their fear, or do they hide it away?

For Cole, his greatest fear has to be full-out honest-to-god helplessness. Cole’s got pretty major trauma, which I’ve acknowledged at even the first time I’ve written about him, and I’ll talk about it more in later installments, but to put it plainly, he got abducted by a vampire as a preteen to act as said vampire’s personal thrall and servant. Vampiric persuasion doesn’t work on Cole for a very mundane but easily overlooked reason (I’m already littering the text with tiny clues here and there), but a terrified, traumatized kid is very easy to keep in line. Being fed on so often during a crucial part of his development had its…effects on him, physical, mental and emotional. Daniel’s the only reason why he managed to get out before his captor…well, Cole is decently attractive. He made a cute kid, and had a pretty face as a teenager. That should be enough context. He still refuses to let anyone other than Daniel touch his bare skin. 

No, he doesn’t talk about it. Yes, Daniel is fully aware of all this, but Daniel knows more about Cole than literally any other person on the planet. But Cole doesn’t like to think of it- he just makes sure that he will never be so helpless again. 

Abelard’s greatest fear is actually drowning. Yep, he’s the one with the panic-spiking irrational phobia, nothing overly deep, just a deeply visceral terror which he has never been able to relinquish. Almost like a forgotten childhood trauma come back to bite him in the ass… He’s a vampire, so it’s not going to kill him, but damn would something that simulates the experience of drowning mess with his head. You know, like being waterboarded. He doesn’t like to acknowledge it at all, finds it mortifying. So far, Cole doesn’t know about this, but there’s plenty of time to find out…

Daniel can’t deal with failure- and by failure, I don’t mean just failing something once, I mean he will throw himself against a metaphorical brick wall again and again in order to make something work. If, despite his best efforts, he cannot succeed, his self-esteem will take a major, major blow. Blame it on his adoptive father; he tried his best, but being a vampire hunter means that you either start off screwed up before taking up the mantle or end up screwed up just to survive, so he was…tough. So far in his life, hard work has carried Daniel through pretty much everything he’s faced thus far- there’s a reason why he’s one of the top hunters in the country, and has managed to reach his forties despite being in the business since he was literally a child- but hard work doesn’t always work out. Not everything can be succeeded at. And oh, does it punch him right in the gut when success is no longer possible. It’ll probably be what gets him killed one day. 

skin: How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they grapple with anything that lives inside them—a beast, a curse, a failure, a monster? How do they face the smallest, weakest, most horrible version of themself? Are they able to acknowledge it at all?

I’d say that, at the start of the story, all three of my ocs are pretty comfortable in their own skins! 

Daniel is the most self-aware, actually, but this doesn’t make him an actually good person- I might write a series about what he gets up to at some point- and he’s also the most at peace with himself, horrors and all. He sees himself as a person- not bad, not good, mostly outside of moral contexts. He’s aware of just how much of a monster he can be, and just how much of a saint he can be at the very same time. Very comfortable with his inner nature. 

Close after him is Cole, after having received a lot of therapy, catharsis and a caretaker who refuses to quit at pretty much anything. He’s also quite self-aware, and has gotten mostly at peace with himself. But he still feels like that terrified, helpless, useless child he used to be still lurks within his marrow, and he will do anything to keep from becoming so weak again. 

Then there’s Abelard. Outwardly, he’s very confident and sure of himself, proud of being an apex predator whose very voice none can resist (except for one person before Cole shows up). He’s powerful, very much so, and he damn well knows it. Very comfortable with his body too (though all three of them are). The problem, of course, is that Abelard was not always a vampire, and wasn’t always a vampire with nobody to fear either. He still does not deal well when forced to confront the fact that no, relying on his vampiric persuasion (which is strong enough to even work on other vampires) was not the smartest of moves to make, and he damn well knew it. Ultimately, it’s that vulnerability which he hides behind his entitled arrogance. As well as the person he used to be, over a century ago, before he got so used to the bloodshed, gore and indifferent decadence littering vampiric high society. He’s not that person anymore, that person is very much dead, but he refuses to think back to when he was that person. It hurts too much. 

The feeling of being a rabid beast who needs to be contained comes later into the story, thanks to Cole’s, ahem, influence. 

wound: How does your OC handle being wounded? Are their wounds mostly physical? Mental? Emotional? What's the worst wound your OC has ever experienced?

Physically, all three of these guys deal well with being physically wounded- mostly, anyway. Daniel and Cole are both vampire hunters and have gotten hurt quite a bit in their line of work, and they’re good with remaining clinical and unbothered by all their wounds while ‘on-the-hunt’, just patch up and go. It’s a survival skill, nothing more, nothing less. Abelard, on the other hand, actually deals with injuries fairly well- when it’s not silver. Silver will typically just make him very, very mad- so long as no survival instincts rear their head. 

Now, worst wounds. Hmmm…

Daniel once literally got (lightly) vivisected by a vampire he was hunting! That was fun! Especially for Cole, who was the one who had to drag his mentor’s sorry ass to safety and to emergency medical services for what Cole couldn’t patch up himself. He’s still got the scars. Annoyingly chipper about the whole incident, which is a one-way track to inflaming Cole’s temper. 

Cole…well, see vampire-abduction-enslavement above. I’d say that counts as the worst scarring he has ever received on a mental and emotional level. Yes, he's also got physical scarring from the experience too. Moving on.

Abelard…well, I’d say this experience, the story focused on Abelard’s torture and conditioning, will be the worst thing to ever happen to him, when taking into account the fact that he is going to get whumped quite a bit and get mindscrewed over for the sake of Cole’s ‘domestication theory’, but before now? Uh…his sire was a very messed-up person! Let’s just leave it at that for now! 

Thanks for sending this my way! It was pretty fun to round my characters out like this a bit more!

#ask meme #my ocs #whump #Nobody Left To Listen #NLTL series #ask #answered ask

[megaboy335]

WSJ Serialization Round - September 2023

It's Jump serialization season so I decided to write short reviews of each new title and give final thoughts on the series ending. I'll update the post with my thoughts on the other two new series and whatever ends next week. Discussion about Fabricant 100, Tenmaku Cinema, and the new series MamaYuyu below Edit: Added thoughts for Do Retry and Kagurabachi Edit 2: Added thoughts for Two on Ice and Ayakashi Triangle

Ending Series 1. Fabricant 100 - 37 chapters (Score 4/10) The Golden Future Cup winner curse strikes again. Fabricant 100 was the 2021 winner and it comes from an assistant of Yusei Matsui. I saw red flags right away with the concept. Why is the most powerful fabricant paired with the most valuable human? They're basically invincible when combined together. Sure enough the early opponents didn't put up much of a challenge (the later opponents weren't much better either). The main character Ashibi and #100 join an organization and the series is forever locked into the battle manga angle. Shortly afterwards, Fabricant 100 pivots into exploring the meaning of life and questioning how to become the ideal human. These can be deep questions that perhaps could have been explored if the series wasn't so dead set on being a battle manga. These two sides of the series were always at odds with itself. Some of the Fabricants showed they could coexist with humans... until they couldn't due to internal instincts to steal body parts. The powers steadily had to become edgier to make the life commentary look smart. The art was rarely anything worth mentioning. I would say it peaked early and the story meandered around for a majority of its run. Instead of having 100 Fabricants, there should have been 10-20 who each lived with humans under unique circumstances. That could have shaken Ashibi's morale resolve at every turn. In the end, the series gave reasons for how Fabricants came into existence and #100 made a selfish yet selfless choice for the first time ever. I hope the author has a more straightforward vision for their work next time. If only we lived in a timeline where Red Hood survived 36 weeks. 2. Tenmaku Cinema - 21 chapters (Score 7/10) At the end of last year, the duo behind Shokugeki no Souma returned with a new series about film making. It focused on the process, tools, and management of creating an amateur film. The story begins with the main character Shinichi finding himself possessed by the ghost of a screenwriter named Tenmaku. The ghost character sees the talented young actress Hinaki and immediately becomes inspired to draft a film based on his perception of her life titled "The Shore". Hinaki reads the script and wants to help as much as possible. Her decision comes from 1) the relatability of the story to her own life (without ever knowing its technically based on her) and 2) the desire to have fun with her school peers for once. From this point the series remains squarely focused on bringing this film to life. We see the ups and downs to film production such as sound, prop setting, music, and location scouting. I wished the series devoted a chapter to simply showing The Shore, but I also think it ultimately didn't matter because Hinaki is the film's protagonist in the literally sense. Between walking home, going to the beach, school, or accepting her mom, those are all moments she can bring out organically from her own experiences and desires. The art was amazing and well detailed as you would expect from Tosh. I thought giving Shinichi a spirit partner was kind of an old school throwback since that's a common troupe of the late 90s/2000s era. Its shame Tenmaku and Shinichi got very little time to interact outside of film making. The biggest weakness is while the manga comes off fairly complete, its also shallow. They only made a single movie, so not a lot actually happened over the 21 chapter run. I think the reason it failed is simple: Oshi no Ko, Chainsaw Man, and Sakamoto Days easily fill the void of movie inspired series. Unfortunately there was no place for a series like Tenmaku Cinama to explore the creation process at a ground level in the current manga climate. At least Tosh and Tsukada will be back with a one shot next spring. We haven't seen the last of them. 3. Do Retry - 19 Chapters (Score 4/10)

I've had my eye on Jun Kirarazaka since Bone Collection. That was a bad series with the art in particular being its weakest point, but I thought the characters had some charm. It was like a modern day Urusei Yatsura with an exorcist series skin. Afterwards they did assistant work under the famous Yusei Matsui and here they are again with an historical boxing series.

Right away its obvious his artwork had improved substantially. There is more detail, better composition, and it had a good handle on portraying the setting. I was very impressed with the first chapter. However, problems quickly began to crop up. As the popularity tanked and art deteriorated, it looked more and more like a Yusei series. Kirarazaka doesn't have the imagination to make it compliment what he's drawing to convey. This could be seen most in the opponents our main character faced. There was a guy with a big arm and another with super slates eyes. Its exactly like the exaggerated features you would expect in a Matsui series, who is able to normalize those features with unique panel compositions. The designs in Do Retry came off ugly and out of place for this setting.

The story itself was fine with enough runtime to have 3 main opponents. As a cancelled title, Kirarazaka had to rush through the final arc scenario. Its not hard to imagine how a long term plot of slowly piecing together a mystery about the missing father would have unfolded. I liked the overarching theme of pushing forward despite adversity. The final chapter time skipped to present and we got to see the main character through the pov of his grandson. That is one of the more clever cancelled final chapters I've seen in awhile.

Honestly, the final chapter saved the series somewhat for me. Kirarazaka dropped the Matsui-ness and got to be himself again. It was like the return to form that I wanted since the beginning. I still think this mangaka can land a hit someday. He needs to figure out how to balance his character writing with his newly developed art skills. Do Retry is a respectable attempt, but this wasn't it. I hope he can keep improving and find a style that works for him. 4. Ayakashi Triangle (AyaTri) - 144 Chapters (Score 8/10) Kentaro Yabuki is a prolific manga artist whose career dates back to the late 90s with his debut series Yamato Gensouki at age 19. Since then he's become known for pushing the boundaries of shonen ecchi series to their upper extreme limited. In 2020, Yabuki returned to the weekly magazine with a new ecchi battle series titled Ayakashi Triangle. The most apparent thing right away was that it had a heavier emphasis on the characters and less on making ecchi scenes. It eventually became even clearer how this series was a soft reboot/continuation of Yamato Gensouki which was cancelled in 2 volumes. While the original has very little lore impact on Ayatri, the biggest connection is original Ayakashi Medium is the previous protagonist Iyo. In retrospect, when Male Matsuri split off I should have considered that it might kick off the end game scenario. At the time I thought it was just another subplot to mess with Suzu. The series was more daily life centric in the WSJ days, and more plot focused after it transferred to Jump+. The publication didn't come with any substantial change in content. Though Ayatri was already too spicy for Viz. It was a miracle they kept it as long as they did. I think the series landed in a good place. In fact Shirogane and Suzu acknowledged my long held idea that she might be able to control Matsuri's gender at will. The daily lives of the characters will continue onwards with hijinks always happening. Yet, I also feel unsatisfied because the final boss battle was against a remote controlled puppet. It makes sense within the series for the Goyosen to be the manifestation grudges from Iyo's time, but its underwhelming as an action climax sequence. However for completing a few ideas from Yamato Gensouki, I think it worked in that area. Yabuki has always been a creative artist. He specializes in minimal panel layouts with dynamic action that is easy to follow. It's a style he perfected over the years and still be seen all over Ayatri. As a weekly series, I would say his art and color pages weren't as good compared to the monthly Darkness years. The weekly color pages on Jump+ weren't particularly memorable for the most part, but his compositions are still way ahead of his peers. Regardless, its been a treat to experience a Yabuki series on a weekly schedule. I think Ayatri will be remembered as the series that didn't introduce anything ground breaking, and yet connects Yabuki's carrer from the start to present. He's an artist you read because the content is sweet comfort food. Yabuki often doesn't often stay gone for long, so I'm sure he'll back before we know it. I look forward to whatever he cooks up next.

New Series #1 - MamaYuyu Weekly Shonen Jump has been a save heaven from the plague of fantasy isekai that has consumed the industry, so I was worried when the preview material talked about heroes and the demon lord. Thankfully that doesn't appear to be the case. We're introduced to a hero from a different world where the demon lord is far from defeated. The main character Corleo gets to learn what it means to be a hero through watching his actions. However, the hero sacrifices his life to save this town from the demon lord of his world. Chapter 1 was a long winded prologue to our hero's origin story. I think it could have been streamlined to get the point without beating readers over the head with the conflicted thoughts of Corleo. It also went overboard on defining a Hero. The paneling was unusual, but not necessarily off putting. I hope the author can handle it better with shorter chapters. I would say this is a middle of the road chapter 1. It's hard to pinpoint the exact direction of the story at this stage. My guess is what it will become a battle manga and the mom demon and hero will have to travel together. We already know there are other worlds so the framework is there for a long journey. Time will tell how receptive readers are to this concept.

New Series #2 - Kagurabachi I feel like I don't have much to say about this new series. Its a sword themed with sorcery like you would see in Demon Slayer/Jujutsu Kaisen. The first chapter played out a little differently than the usual Ch.1 template. It was a prologue in the first half and then the real chapter in the back half. You can feel the dad's passion for his craft and the child's desire to match that someday. The dialogue was a little dry, but I thought it worked well with the art style. In the back half, the art got shaper to convey the change in tone. Usually a chapter 1 would show a character like the dad getting killed and then the incident would create a lifelong motivation for the protagonist. Choosing to pause that story and leave it a mystery is an interesting approach. Overall, I think the minimal exposition gives it a stronger than usual first chapter. It gives room for the characters to be the center of attention. The time skip leaves you wondering what exactly happened and how far the main character will go in enacting revenge. The strongest point of the debut is easily the art. I'll be going forward to seeing how the story unfolds in the coming weeks. New Series #3 - Two on Ice Two on Ice isn't a bad series, in fact I would say it has some solid potential. The first chapter is a prologue story about how the protagonist meet the main heroine and became inspired to take figure skating seriously. Several years later, they meet up once again and he's given the chance to be her partner on the ice rink. It's a solid start for character writing with clear motivations and paths for the story to take. The weaker aspect is the art work. There are places were I thought its not good enough to convey what the manga artist hopes. I think these are pretty minor nitpicks in the grand scheme because the love for Figure Skating can clearly be felt. I'm not sure if this kind of topic can succeed in Jump, but I wish them the best of luck.

#Weekly Shonen Jump

[donnerpartyofone]

so i'm reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, a development i never saw coming, because of two things i recently heard about it:

1. that one of its main points is that keeping your space clutter-free is actually a specific skill you need to acquire and not, as is popularly thought, something that you either naturally do because you're a good person, or that you refuse to do because you're a jerk or a failure. 2. that marie kondo found her calling in this area after suffering from some sort of cleaning-related nervous breakdown.

i've had problems with being clean and organized my entire life, and for the most part i just accepted the criticism that this is a matter of personal failing. as a more informed adult, it has become much easier for me to see my disorganization as one symptom among many of a bigger problem that is probably cognitive in nature. as a kid i was depressed and sort of oblivious to the "real world", which could make it easy for adults to assume that i just needed an attitude adjustment. (i don't even blame them, my parents were not psychologists, but anyway) as an adult i'm still depressed and instead of being oblivious, i care profoundly about being more functional, but just wanting to change, and trying as hard as i can, still don't seem to make a difference.

the first time it occurred to me that my problems may be more neurological than intent-related was when a sympathetic listener referred me to this helpful article:

but while i'm reading the kondo book, it also occurs to me that there's this whole ethos around being organized that's really oppressive. there's a feeling that being untidy is sort of a moral failure: that you are being a mess, on purpose or out of willful negligence, because you are disrespectful, inconsiderate, LAZY (is the big one), shortsighted, apathetic, or any number of other indicators of a human being with poor character. my messy room was one of the main points of friction between myself and my family until i left for college. never mind that i was also sleeping all the time, swinging constantly between sadness and outrage, and expressing suicidal ideation out loud from when i was in single digits; my apparent refusal to clean my room was seen as a separate issue, either a bratty behavior that i designed to piss off my parents, or at best, just a failure to learn to follow the rules.

i haven't finished kondo's book yet (because i'm still working on the exercise i'm about to describe), but it starts to become clear that there are important psychological underpinnings of one's hygiene-related behavior. kondo doesn't come right out and describe her own personal problems (not yet anyway! don't spoil it for me if she does!), but you start to realize a few things from her snippets of biographical information: for instance, she makes it clear that she was alone a lot as a child. she seems to have lived a very separate existence from her siblings, and instead of socializing with schoolmates, she spent all of her time researching and implementing new ways of cleaning and organizing both her home and her school rooms. she describes this as an all-consuming compulsion that had a deleterious effect on her grades, and something is surely implied by her revelation that when a person switches from a pressing task, like studying for an exam, over to compulsively cleaning their space, they're being overtaken by a subconscious drive to Put In Order something that is bothering them deep inside. (when i was trying to get through my final year of college i started taking several showers a day, but ANYWAY) and then of course, there is what i read elsewhere about how she was eventually so overwhelmed by her sisyphean struggle with clutter that she had some sort of collapse, after which she gained clarity on why disorder happens and what to do about it...

kondo reiterates the old pop psychology truism that for a person to change, they have to really want to change, and she has a smart way of getting the reader to access their own obscure but potentially powerful motivations for wanting to get organized. she gets you to ask yourself why you want to "tidy up", but you're not supposed to stop at pat answers like "i want more space" or "i want to entertain at home" or whatever. you're supposed to then ask yourself what you want that cleanliness and space FOR, and as you keep asking yourself "why?" for every answer you come up with, you eventually start producing really detailed personal information about what kind of life you actually want to be leading. i suppose it's true that you could do this for any aspect of your existence, e.g. "why do you dress like that" or whatever, but there is something about starting with the basic issue of how and where you live that seems especially liable to make you face yourself. the whole "clean your room" thing is so loaded with psychic material related to family friction, intimacy issues, social prejudices that assign a moral quality to neatness/messiness, etc, that something deep is bound to come up. like when i start trying to answer marie kondo's question about why i'm even reading her book, two things come up: one answer relates to my sunniest aspirations about what kind of life i want to lead, to have the kind of future i want. the other answer is something more like, "i want to tidy up because once upon a time, grownups made me feel like i was actually a bad person for having a messy room/desk/locker/etc."

so my point is that even though The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is mainly aimed at practical, cosmetic changes to your lifestyle, under the surface there's this really deep psychological thing going on that's as potent to me as any of the more spiritual, personal, new age-y type of self-help material that i've encountered. like, you could pay thousands of dollars to let tony robbins put you up on a stage in front of screaming crying strangers so you can give them incredibly intimate details about the worst thing that ever happened to you...or you can do some basic exercises from this book about how to clean your room, and you might wind up with the same kind of startling clarity about yourself without even realizing that that's what you were about to do.

#executive dysfunction

[guess-my-next-obsession]

The Pedro Boys™️ and the star signs I’ve decided they embody as an astrology bitch part 4/4 — The Air Signs:

Dieter Bravo & Oberyn Martell — Aquarius ♒️

Strengths: Progressive, original, independent, humanitarian

Weaknesses: Runs from emotional expression, temperamental, uncompromising, aloof

I’m an Aquarius, so I’m an expert on spotting my fellow aliens of the zodiac. Dieter is as Aquarian as it gets. The emotional immaturity, the sex drive, the pot and the painting. “Messes with my fucking brainwaves. I don’t even wear wireless earbuds.” Need I go on?

Dieter is gonna find love and acceptance with a Leo, or perhaps a Sag? But the most understood he’ll feel is with a fellow Aquarian. As for enemies? Earth signs need not apply. There is no rationality here, only vibes.

Similarly to Dieter, this man has an appetite and he’s not afraid to go to societally unconventional lengths to satiate it. He’s a free thinker, passionate and cunning. But once he’s got his mind set on something, he doesn’t care how destructive it gets—it’s happening.

Oberyn would also do very well with Leo’s fiery nature (ironic). Scorpio’s and all of the earth signs would bore him, I’m afraid. But thankfully Oberyn Martell doesn’t really care about personality very much seeing as he’s already found his paramour.

Javi Gutiérrez & Frankie Morales — Gemini ♊️

Strengths: Gentle, affectionate, curious, adaptable, ability to learn quickly and exchange ideas

Weaknesses: Nervous, inconsistent, indecisive

We got two sides of the same coin here. Both of these two would without a doubt be the best partners of the Pedro Boys (fight me on this i dare you). As Gemini’s, they live, breathe, eat, and sleep tenderness. Soft!boy central! Only bad parts are all the little broken pieces they hide away in their little soft hearts, but they’ll never ever let those shards cut you!

These two need either a fire sign to bring in some much needed passion and confidence! Or a fellow air sign to really truly understand what it feels like to be this stuck in the clouds all the time. As for their not-so-good matches, Virgo’s and Pisces should probably stay away. Virgo’s need for success and perfection will come into conflict with their easy-going vibe. And Pisces might come across as too “deep” and broody for the soft!boys.

Joel Miller — Libra ♎️

Strengths: Cooperative, diplomatic, gracious, fair-minded, social

Weaknesses: Indecisive, avoids confrontations, will carry a grudge, self-pity

Given the whole apocalypse fucking up the psyche thing, this is going to be pre-outbreak Joel. (Post-outbreak Joel serves major Taurus vibes). Pre-outbreak Joel likely had a very social life, him and Tommy hitting the town with Joel’s toddler in tow. He’s a relatively level-minded man, kind in nature, and conceivably very generous with his community. We see more and more of his weaknesses come to life as the outbreak goes on!

Joel needs an Aries if he’s wanting some TOP TIER BEST IN THE ZODIAC SEX. Fire and air coming together to make a fuckin’ hurricane (or tornado??…i don’t know i almost failed science). Fellow fire sign Sag would also do just fine, as well as wild card Aquarius! Just don’t bother if you’re a Capricorn (too introverted) or a Cancer (too moody). But, hey, it’s the end of the world so maybe he’ll make a couple exceptions!

the fire signs

the earth signs

the water signs

#pedro pascal #pedro pascal fic #pedro pascal fanfiction #dieter bravo #oberyn martell #javi g #javi gutierrez #frankie morales #frankie catfish morales #joel miller #pedro boys astrology

[fipindustries]

-of three

yuuuuuup, i think this is where i tap out, whatever was the comic i originally fell in love with this is no longer it, hasnt been for a long while.

in a sense it was kind of inevitable, if this comic intended to last any serious ammount of time and try to tackle a serious kind of story it couldnt stay as the wacky, histrionic, horny and chaotic extravaganza of cool body horror and funny silly characters it was when it began.

the later, more angsty, more complex, more... can i even say "grounded"? let's say heavy parts of the story were just not doing it for me, though not through any fault of their own, i should clarify. is just simply not something im in the mood for anymore.

i think something changed in me, in my temperament, in my tastes, in who i am. i think i lost the taste for highly dense, highly complex convoluted stories with thousands of characters and moving pieces and giant ambitious worldbuilding and deep lore. or maybe is not that i lost the taste for them, is that ive already involved myself in far too many of them. i am currently reading one piece, kill six billion demons, gunnerkrigg court, the locked tomb series, as well as watching dungeon meshi, yellowjackets and a bunch of other shows. maybe my head has just ran out of ram to keep all of those things straight in my head and still care and be invested in all of them simultanously.

or maybe feast for a king is just a little TOO damn chaotic and its cast a little TOO crowded with people and its timeline a little TOO convoluted. to be honest, after a while keeping track of it all felt more like homework than anything else, and after hitting a certain scale you kind of start hitting powercreep induced nihilism. like, between the five different types of hekatonks, the queen worms and the king worms, the kings seeds, whatever celadon is, cyborg powers, heart worlds, double hearted mandragoras, the weeds, hybrids, clones, mutants, gods??? it really feels like just about anything goes. death is kind of meaningless in this world, powerlevels are kind of meaningless, what is possible or impossible is kind of meaningless, we have shapeshifters and possessing bodies, and mind control, and astral projection, and ghosts, and time travel. anything can be anything anywhere all the time, it just becomes meaningless. insipid. there is no up or down.

on top of that the morality of any given character is so fucked and the scale of the horrors and sins commited in this story are so overwrought that i also fail to be morally invested on anything? are there good guys? bad guys? is there even a right or wrong here anymore? i know there are characters i nominally like, but i dont even know what version of that character do i sympathize with really, do i really like this character or do i like what who they were 500 years ago? or maybe i only liked someone else pretending to be that character, or maybe i dont like the character i like the worm they became after they were eaten by worms, etc etc and so on and so forth.

i just lost the plot. it got away from me.

i think you can be highly chaotic and ambitious in one or two things when executing your story. either worldbuilding, or the order of storytelling, or characterization, or morality, or nature of the cast. but not all of them all at once.

still, i do not want to leave this with a bitter taste in my mouth. i do still highly respect this strange beautiful beast for what it is and for what it tries to be. i wouldnt want it to be anything else. its just too strange not to like. im glad something like this exists. and by golly did it give me some great moments. let me say that again. it gave me some amazing moments, some truly magical experiences that i never got from anything else. and just for those incredible scenes and characters i will always have a corner in my heart where embers will burn dedicated to it. i dont think its flaws take away from the good i got and i would still enthusiastically recomend this to anyone who is mildly curious and has way more patience than i do

it was truly a feast, in all senses of of the word, and i had my fill of it.

#feast for a king #simon Did not do and indeed will never do Anything Wrong ever #simonXknife4lyf #simon best character #possibly best person???? ever???? #the true deffinition of my little meow meow