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rggshiptournament · 11 months

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HEAT #1

#001: tsuyoshi nagumo vs yuta usami

#002: mikiko sadamoto vs kaoru sayama

#003: takayuki yagami vs masayoshi tanimura

#004: nick ogata vs christina

#005: shintaro kazama vs osamu kashiwagi

#006: keiji shibusawa vs koichi adachi

#007: saori shirosaki vs makoto makimura

#008: makoto date vs makoto tsukumo

#009: joon-gi han (y6) vs fumiya sugiura

#010: daisaku kuze vs hiroki awano

#011: shusuke kenmochi vs seong-hui

#012: daisaku minami vs rikiya shimabukuro

#013: saeko mukoda vs eri kamataki

#014: masaharu kaito vs yuya

#015: yasuko saejima vs jin kuwana

#016: kazuki vs tetsu tachibana

#017: tashiro vs daigo dojima (y2)

#018: naoki katsuya vs the lingerie thief

#019: satoshi shioya vs masaru watase

#020: dd vs mitsuru kuroiwa

#021: hana vs yuki

#022: producer kiryu vs american boy mitsuo

#023: yoshitaka mine vs akira mabuchi

#024: jun sadamoto vs yu nanba

#025: ai uehera vs hibiki otsuki

#026: chika arimura vs saki hatsumi

#027: the areshi brothers vs etsuko

#028: toru higashi vs shun akiyama

#029: shinada vs shrimpnada

#030: ryuji goda vs daimu akutsu

#031: sohei dojima vs masumi arakawa

#032: reina vs yayoi dojima

#033: ryo aoki vs hiroaki arai

#034: jo sawashiro vs jun oda

#035: futoshi shimano vs akira nishikiyama (y1)

#036: masaru sera vs tsukasa sagawa

#037: shigeki baba vs joon-gi han (y7)

#038: shinji tanaka vs takeshi kido

#039: nishida vs taiga saejima

#040: tesso vs akira nishikiyama (y0)

#041: goh hamazaki vs wen hai lee

#042: homare nishitani vs sosuke komaki

#043: miss tatsu vs mirei park

#044: bacchus vs sotaro komaki

#045: ono michio vs kamulop

#046: haruka sawamura vs kyoko amasawa

#047: goro majima vs the florist

#048: toranosuke sengoku vs kazuma kiryu

#049: yoko sawa vs yumi sawamura

#050: gary "buster" holmes vs andre richardson

#051: tianyou zhao vs takumi someya

#052: ichiban kasuga vs daigo dojima (post y2)

#053: masato arakawa vs masato aizawa

INTERIM #1

BONUS ROUND: dead souls costumes

BONUS ROUND: wildcard qualifier

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aufhebcn · 4 months

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mahito, nihilism, and yuji ( cropped bc long )

this is probably going to be multiple headcanons; however also important to my portrayal ! i find that mahito is really emblematic of not just the human inclination to hate but the long trend of post-enlightenment philosophy towards nihilism. moreover, he represents that current obstacle in modern philosophy of how to contend with nihilism.

nietzsche and stirner ( paraphrasing you can find the actual quote though out there ) are of the opinion that ideals that attempt to be consumate and universal will eventually collapse in on themselves. stirner moreso. mahito is very much representative of that school of thought. he's a creature of purely instinct that ridicules humanity's universal ideals - selflessness, justice, kindness, ect.

something interesting i read lately is keiji nishitani's take on nihilism. nishitani was a philsopher of the kyoto school and sought to merge western and eastern philsophy to come up with a solution to nihilism. he presents the buddhist concept of sūnyatā (or emptiness) as a solution to western nihilism. specifically, he says that humanity has to move through nihilism.

relevant quote:

There was a sense that, now that Nietzsche had stated that “God was dead,” taking with him metaphysics and the belief in a transcendent order of the world, the word “absolute” could not be used any longer... Nishitani found this basic category in “emptiness” (sunyata, ku), an idea that was, as he said, “demanded by the problem of nihilism.”

another relevant quote

“words, and the concepts based on them, are ultimately empty, and to be mistrusted as a medium for fully understanding” (12) while the latter (wu/mu) constitutes an invitation “to return to the non-discriminating source of [one’s] experience or of reality,”

i think ( in a way ) we kind of see this all unfold when yuji realizes his position in things. he abandons absolute ideas or grander ideals, realizing they're all futile in confronting mahito. he accepts the reality of the situation; that mahito must 'die.' and that there isn't much beyond that.

this realization is how yuji moves past mahito, confronting his nihilism and forcing yuji to accept reality as it is. to accept that there really was no "good death" or greater ideals of justice - it was just curses and humans acting on instinct.

#► headcanons ( obliged to no one )#im also not a philosophy expert #or expert in nishitani / zen buddhism #so errors perhaps but either way something i think about

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sir-yeehaw-paws · 1 year

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top five silly yakuza moments/facts?

WHAT A GREAT ASK

Ask Me My Top 5

Okay, well I could pick SO many so I'll break up some of my favourites just at random. I do have others, but these are the ones I can think of.

1. Kazuma Kiryu: Professional Voice Actor (Kiwami 2)

A sidestory about Kiryu acting in a BL Game. Largely meta due to Kiryu’s vioce actor, Kuroda Takaya having a decently large presence in the genre. Unbelievably second-hand cringe in the best way and unbearably funny.

2. Goro Majima Infiltrates a Cult (Yakuza 0)

A sidestory that has an extremely infamous hip-thrusting gifset. Majima invades a cult to rescue a girl. It’s hysterical and has some of the most meme-worthy moments in the series. MUNANCHO (Hip Thrusting)

3. Nishitani Homare’s Ground Crab Attack (Yakuza 0)

“I’M ROCK HARD BUDDY OLD PAL” Rest in peace Fujiwara Keiji, rest in peace Nishitani, that’s just unbeatable. (The way he says it is half the moment, tbh) But I have linked one of his most hilarious fight moves instead.

4. NANCY-CHAN THE CRUSTACEAN DAMNATION (Yakuza 7)

After you get nancy the lobster as a PoundMate (Yes that is what they’re called) she can be summoned, and her summoning is glorious.

5. Shinada Tatsuo Is Not Subtle (Yakuza 5)

What happens when you put one himbo baseball player turned adult magazine writer on a train with a yakuza undercover? Hilarity. I love Shinada I love Daigo, this bit’s a match made in heaven.

Thank you for sending in! I loved this ask a lot.

#asks #ask games #answered asks #top 5's

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yubitsumes · 11 months

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** MUSES

this is a blog for a set of original characters based in the ryuu ga gotoku universe.

@yakzas ( rgg oc mumu ) / @seashanties ( op mumu )

** DISCLAIMER

this is a blog that contains themes of violence, crime, potential drugs, and sex, please do not follow if you are uncomfortable with such things. Minors will also be blocked without hesitation.

mun is 25. full time student. part time worker. low - ish activity, and often running off a queue.

** TRACKER

drafts ( 0 ) / inbox ( 0 ) / starters ( 0 )

** RULES

- this is a 18+ blog and i will not interact with minors. i may also not follow any blogs that have minors have a sole muse. this blog contains violence, gore, sexual themes, drug topics, gang related activity, and possibly many more. please keep yourself safe, if you are uncomfortable, please hardblock.

- i generally follow most people back. the only exception is if i really can't see our muses working out together, or i have no interest in mingling with the fandom. i tend not to avoid fandoms unless i don't like the way things are portrayed or if i had a personal bad experience.

- i'm a slut for shipping. i will literally ship most anything, friends, lovers, enemies, etc. platonic and hate relations are also included in what i consider shipping. i'm okay with pre - established and working out neat relationships.

- my muses are villains and i don't intend to downplay them. this blog is heavily involved with depictions of crime, from small offenses to large ones. all of the muses on this blog are involved with crime and they are antagonists. i will not soften my muses for anything; not for a ship, or for any sort of interaction.

- i practice mains, and ship exclusives. once i get more comfortable with writing here again, i will be writing a mains call. that muse will be the main person when referenced in any sort of writing. i will not ship with dupes of multiple characters out of respect for various writers.

- please tag all drama. i do not want to be involved, i do not want to see it, and i do not want it on my dash. i have enough stress as is in my daily life as a manager and a full - time student, i don't want it in my safe place.

- if you need something tagged and i forgot it, please let me know privately. i follow quite a few people and will forget tags. i do not do it on purpose, i'm just a forgetful bitch.

** MUSE LIST

( primary )

NISHITANI HOMARE , ARAKAWA MASATO , AKIRA NISHIKIYAMA , KUZE DAISAKU

( secondary )

ARAKAWA MASUMI , SAWASHIRO JO , SHIBUSAWA KEIJI , AWANO HIROKI , SHIMANO FUTOSHI , SAWAMURA HARUKA , MAKIMURA MAKOTO , MAJIMA GORO , SAGAWA TSUKASA , ISHIODA REIJI , TACHIBANA TETSU , KAZAMA SHINTARO

#( ooc ) * sol speaks !#( ooc ) * pinned post !

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obinya · 1 year

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Reposting my Ardyn stuff for his birthday.

Here’s most of the Ardyn stuff I have dating back a year+ to the present.

To Die or Not to Die Complete

Did Ardyn see his immortality as a curse?

Did he desire death?

My answer is No. I provide interpretations of his lines and developer interviews. I conclude with my thoughts on Ardyn’s misunderstanding of the Light and Truth (referenced in Magna Insomnia). Perspectives on the Truth (of the True King) include: “You are not alone” , “The Reality of Death-Life”, and “ You are Empty”.

Complete refers to the added page on the Kimya/Ardyn allusion.

I have since had more thoughts on Ardyn’s use of “mottainai”, the “waste” is the lost potential due to Ardyn’s rejection. It’s worse!

Ardyn is Not Saved (Part 1)

The title refers to Terada’s vision of EPA. I have many thoughts about Episode Ardyn and Dawn of the Future. On one hand they are incongruent with Final Fantasy XV, on the other they underline the thrusts of the main story.

Dawn of the Future is not Revelatory, it is Illusory.

This piece covers some observations on the imagery in EPA that work as visual foils with FF15 proper, contrasting Ardyn with Noctis, underlying his villainy— his radical evil. For whatever reason this is ignored.

I conclude again with my thoughts on the Truth of the True King, with an excerpt from Religion and Nothingness (What is Religion?) by Keiji Nishitani. Absolute vs Relative Nothingness::Noctis vs Ardyn.

I’ve since tried working through Kitaro Nishida’s work. The field of bonds, I guess, is like the field of Absolute Nothingness in that contradictory identities are unified there… as is Reality. Removing the contradiction by saying the two are only one or the one are actually two stops short of Reality. The contradiction of many are one and one are many has to remain. I think the image for this is the Night Sky. Nishitani wrote about Overcoming Nihilism by going through it, I visualize Ardyn as stuck in the darkness of the night sky. Like each star is now the one light, one oppressive light, the predicate of King is cruel and cunning and no different from Bahamut - despite the choices of each star... ? Idk. It’s complicated.

But not as complicated as how Dawn of the Future contradicts established FF15 plot while seemingly contradicting FF15 story and themes until you snap out of it— Oracles speak to Messengers not the Crystal given to Lucis. They speak to exchange the Wills of mankind and the Six, necessitating 1.) the existence of both and 2.) a unity. FF15 is the story of the True King not a Prisoner of Fate.

Ardyn Lucis Charlie Complete in 8 Tweets

Commentary of my old Ardyn music video using Charlie Big Potatoes by Skunk Anansie with a bit of Nishida’s Inquiry into the Good and some of my NN Unitary Theory.

Basically, Ardyn’s a hedonist. That’s not good enough.

I still missed actually doing a play-by-play of the scene and shot choice… but I did include a mapping of Axis Memorae! The twitter version has an alternate Turks ending�� maybe I’ll upload to YouTube someday…

I see EPA as a 4th wall breaking troll by Ardyn… a bored dream where he tells us what we want to hear… which isn’t what he already told us.

youtube

#final fantasy xv #ff15 #final fantasy #square enix #noctis lucis caelum #ardyn #episode ardyn #hbdardyn

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deoffal-mp-adm7000-n-s1-2022 · 2 years

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A more concise progression with a lot more to still be desired:

This map is far simpler than the first, with key names being attributed to key subjects just to simply my first map’s ideas way better, it’s alot of the same really, not much to mention here other than naming certain figures and maybe giving a little context to terms that I feel I haven’t written about enough before now.

The names featured here being listed in relation to their key subject:

Martin Heidegger - Nihilism, existentialism, and hermeneutics are all his key subjects, especially on subjects of orientation and relation to space etc in relation to nothingness. A common character in the works of Eugene Thacker in particular.

Keiji Nishitani - From the Kyoto school of philosophy, a student of Heidegger and profoundly fascinated by the sunyata, a groundless nothingness, the natural progression of considering decadence against the force of the unknown and the will as first argued by Arthur Schopenhauer.

Thomas Ligotti - Horror fiction and pessimist philosophy writer, none best for being one of the many authors who came after H.P. Lovecraft and continued his dark mystical legacy by writing quasi-philosophical works that are philosophically based in the works of Peter Wessel Zapffe (A fundamental iconoclast of Arthur Schopenhauer's teachings) and based on the fiction works of such horror writers as Robert W. Chamber (Famous for The King in Yellow) and Algernon Blackwood (Famous for naturalist horror stories like the willows, the wendigo and the Man whom the Trees Loved).

Anton Szandor LaVey - Gets a mention here due to my religious connection to him and LaVeyan Satanism, a huge source of occult inspiration, a religion based on the works of Ayn Rand, Friedrich Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley and Charles Darwin.

Emil Cioran - Romanian Philosopher who again deals in representing the legacy of pessimism found in the works of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, in particular arguing against such things as natalism and fighting the will of the universe, a common thread among pessimists.

Nick Land - Contemporary controversial philosopher, who writes prophetic works about accelerationism and the future of a techno-capitalistic world based in factionalism and a dystopia climate for socioeconomic issues, wherein we become our own doom through our own eventual and drawn out cannibalistic ways, something science fiction writers and horror artists quite like writing about and debating, especially on the concepts of mutually assured destruction and the Anthropocene’s eventual collapse, as written by Harlan Ellison in his short story, I have no mouth and I must scream (1967)

Jean Paul Sartre - Not too dissimilar to the works of Heidegger, yet instead of speaking explicitly on orientation and being in relation to the other and space, Sartre instead focused on the human connotations of existentialism, interpersonal relations and existentialism as humanism in particular (as lectured in 1946, Existentialism is a humanism), often writing plays and scripts for stories which discuss the absurdity of human relations and how our consciousnesses intersect and interpret each other in relation to our own experience phenom- logically speaking, such a notable example would be No Exit (1944).

Now the last name (I won’t write more after this considering I have already said written about Agrippa and Thacker, Schopenhaur less so but more of him will come out soon and this map is just a simple summary of the last map, plus alot of the terms are quite obvious here if you’ve been reading the research closely):

Georges Bataille - A famous critic of Sartre for his discussions on the importance of literature as a media which has the ability to influence and encourage action in the people compared to the more contemporary liberal mind of Sartre, especially considering Bataille had more sympathy for fascism in history more than most other french philosophers at the time, but it’s still tricky to represent that part of his history well so I won’t go too much into detail here. Georges Bataille was a prolific written on the taboo, sadean media and psychology, the difference between animal and man, ritualism, mysticism and deconstructionism as a post-nietzschean writer. He often wrote about the values of philosophy in discourse while arguing it is still divorced from reality, he like say Thomas Aquinas, would often write in paradoxes and open contradiction to fully unpack a taboo subject such as death or incest to cover all side of the provocative and questionable, often playing devil’s advocate like Sigmund Freud and arguing that the nature of man is one loose cannon that is only now tied and bound by sociality from acting up and causing chaos, a common thread in psychology and the works of Bataille being to argue in objectively brutal terms that humanity is not some greater image of a god or superior power, but more chaotic than any other species in the animal kingdom, yet repressive of it’s nature to save the horrors that humanity’s consciousness creates when truly confronting the taboo and disquieting internally. Bataille will be written about more in this project, as his work in Eroticism, as featured in my reading list, is all about confronting challenging subjects and why humanity has fear of the taboo, an important motif within the horror genre of course, in particular the subjects of death, discontinuity and nothingness in the universal.

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sleeg · 7 months

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solsticedawn · 1 year

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HELLO !!

welcome to sol's blog seeking roleplay ~

I'm 25F, and I tend to like ships of all kinds: canon x canon / oc x canon / oc x oc but i prefer oc x canon! My writing tends to be between 2 - 3 paragraphs, third person with some prose added in. I enjoy doubling up on roleplays, and I tend to easily pick up canon characters with good enough research. I also enjoy writing NSFW content, but it's not a requirement.

*** I really like older characters, so I tend to like to write against older men. If you are uncomfortable with consensual, adult age gaps over 10 yrs please don't worry about interacting.

MY FANDOMS / CHARACTERS I'D LIKE TO WRITE AGAINST

One Piece / Crocodile, Doflamingo, Crocodile, Buggy, Mihawk, Sakazuki, Borsalino, Isshou

Bleach / Sosuke Aizen, Kenpachi Zaraki, Shunsui Kyouroku, Ryuuken Ishida, Isshin Kurosaki

Fullmetal Alchemist / Van Hohenheim, King Bradley, Scar, Father, Alex Armstrong, Dr. Knox

Hellsing / Walter, Integra, Enrico, Makube, Anderson

Katekyou Hitman Reborn! / Xanxus, Squalo, TYL!Yamamoto, TYL!Gokudera

Pokemon / Giovanni, Archer, Proton, Petrel, Archie, Maxie, Rose, Clavell

Yakuza ( Like A Dragon ) / l(im a slut for so many im so sorry) Daisaku Kuze, Hiroki Awano, Keiji Shibusawa, Homare Nishitani, Tsukasa Sagawa, Masumi Arakawa, Masato Arakawa, Ichiban Kasuga, Daigo Dojima, Jo Sawashiro.

THE RULES

please do not rush for a reply. I work and go to school full time, I will definitely be a little slow but I will never make someone wait longer than 3 days for a reply!

Please do not judge. I do have somethings I enjoy doing ( darker content, but nothing involving any triggers you have! ) that may not be enjoyed by all. If we don't work out, we just don't and I won't force it.

Please be kind. We all have our preferences for things, please keep that in mind.

Please don't come in with harsh expectations. This is a hobby, my writing may not be the greatest, or the grammar isn't that great, just remind yourself this isn't a job.

I love making friends with my partners. I tend to keep partners for a LONG time, so I love making friends. I find it's easier to find a connection with each other muse wise as well!

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alahiseva · 2 years

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Filosofía de un novato. Escuela de Kioto.

EL apartado al que citaré y por el que pretendo guiar esta exposición fue escrito por Javier del Arco, el texto también se encuentra en teams y la coordinación me permitió imprimirlo, se lo traigo a cualquiera que guste leerlo o, si quiere sacarle copias, adelante, ya que para mi es mucho más divertido leer en físico cualquier cosa, pues los invito e intento facilitárselo a cualquiera que le interese. También cuenta con algunos errores de edición que valdría la pena señalar para su corrección a quien corresponda, por si durante su lectura los notan, creo que no debe ser infravalorado de todas formas lo expuesto en el artículo.

Sin más, comencemos a exponer el tema.

La escuela de Kioto

La primera observación pertinente que hay que hacer es que esta no es una escuela que se incline expresamente hacía ningún lado, no es occidental, tampoco cristiana, no es budista, tampoco oriental, es una contribución a la filosofía como tal, (nota: pienso yo personalmente que es redundante decirlo, toda la filosofía es filosofía, luego pasa a tener apellido, occidental u oriental u latinoamericana o africana, pero siempre es filosofía).

Fueron 3 sus fundadores, Kitaro Nishida, Hajime Tanabe y Keiji Nishitani, sin embargo, resurgió debido a que sus trabajos intelectuales llegaron traducidos a occidente.

Tomados sus trabajas como un puente, encontraron una relación de crecimiento, como una bola de tenis que pasa de un lugar del mundo al otro, retornando con mejores ideas, una relación dialéctica donde no sé busca ganar, sino conocer.

Es precisamente este conocer que le lleva fuera de los márgenes que podrían parecer limitativos de la filosofía occidental, viéndolo como todo, literatura, ciencia religión y filosofía, sintetizado.

En el articulo dónde esta unión entre conceptos se diluye hasta llegar a la unidad es en la relación filosofía y religión, ya que ambas pretender elevar la mente humana a algo más.

Ya que lo que se busca es una transformación espiritual, se utiliza a la religión y a filosofía como medio para llegar a dicha transformación, al no yo, a la insustancialidad del ego.

Aquí la filosofía sirve como principio interior, está en ella y no como su contrincante.

Aquí religión toma un camino distinto, pienso yo ¡un culto y congragación al pensamiento no sería una religión?

Entonces la meta a la que se apunta es a la transformación de nosotros mismos y de lo que nos rodea desde el pensamiento.

Pensamiento entendido como auto -alumbramiento, un re nacer a un plano nuevo en el que todo se ve de manera distinta.

Esto incluye todo, todos los temas que involucren pensamientos podrás ser participes de esta iluminación, por lo tanto las divisiones quedan de más, solo buscamos elevarnos, y ya las disciplinas no tienen supremacía la una sobre la otra, pero al mismo tiempo pretende superar ciertos aspectos de ellas, pero no para descartarlas, sino para emanciparlas, para quitarles los limites, las fronteras, curiosamente lo que intentan hacer con oriente y occidente es esto mismo, por lo tanto lógico.

También pretenden desligarse de las instituciones sociales para entender a la religión y a la cultura, se pretende criticar el orden de la cultura, no a la cultura misma, se cumple el mismo propósito, emancipar a la cultura, pero nunca verla como algo sin mejoría, solo no con la visión de su descaramiento.

Esta unidad no solo se da al plano de las disciplinas o de los contextos sociales, va más allá queriendo ligar la experiencia y la realidad, aquí entra su idea de dios, usada más como metáfora, como alegoría a la armonía que hay entre lo que pensamos y lo que es, el propio ensayo nos señala que esta es una de las partes mas desconcertantes de la filosofía de la escuela de Kioto, sin embargo a mi me suena razonable, aunque no estaría de acuerdo, en pensar esta armonía entre lo que pensamos y lo que es como el punto máximo de la filosofía, el conocimiento verdadero, correcto y cierto, dios, ese es su dios, como mencionaba antes, el culto al pensamiento o a la filosofía también puede ser religioso y esto, ni en occidente, ni oriente, es novedad.

En combinación, tenemos una filosofía que busca la paz, las buenas relaciones, es incluso hasta conmovedor, pero no inocente, un trabajo reflexivo que busca el dialogo y no la conquista la comunidad y no el gobierno, esto se ve con su no-yo, donde intenta liberarse del egoísmo, esto para las relaciones intelectuales suena maravilloso, en un intercambio de ideas tolerante, aunque nuestros filósofos apuntaban a toda una vida así, en el no-yo por elección, y pensaban que al rededor de esto giraba lo demás, se llega aquí atraves del pensamiento y la reflexión y se mide su despertar mientras mas se libere del egoísmo y se resigne a las cosas tal como son.

Lo real es mas real cuando se alcanza la conciencia mas pura.

Tenemos pues elementos para conseguir desde el budismo y la filosofía la meta que los filósofos como los estoicos o epicúreos tenían, la de vivir mejor.

Vemos ligados entonces, religión filosofía y varias corrientes de las mismas para llenar el plato de la escuela de Kioto, sin duda un trabajo reflexivo y revolucionario.

#FIlosofía #Escuela de Kioto #ensayo

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fake-gamer-boy · 3 years

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I'm back on my bullshit

#THEY ARE SO FINE AND FOR WHAT #Daisaku Kuze #Keiji Shibusawa #Hiroki Awano #yakuza #kazuma kiryu #majima goro #ryu ga gotoku #yakuza 0 #tsukasa sagawa #Nishitani homare

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vidoxi · 4 years

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yakuza 0 characters and their face models + VAs

#yakuza #i dont wanna tag all these bitches ugh #tachibana tetsu #nishitani homare #sagawa tsukasa #kuze daisaku #shibusawa keiji #awano daiki #iura arata #fujiwara keiji #shingo tsurumi #ozawa hitoshi #nakano hideo #takeuchi riki

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obinya · 2 years

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To Die or Not To Die

Ardyn wanted to kill Noctis, the True King, the Hope of Lucis and the World. Period.

I go through game dialogue and developer comments and conclude Ardyn did not wish to die or truly see his relationship to the scourge as a “curse.”

I still missed some, namely the lines related to Kimya and Izana.

Ardyn is one of my favorite characters ever. However, impression of Ardyn is not the same as Mr. Terada and Mr. Osanai who both led the development of Episode Ardyn and Dawn of the Future. My impression is closer to Mr. Tabata and Ms. Itamuro who directed and led the scenario team on Final Fantasy XV.

I need that early interpretation, because there’s something about how common, how human Ardyn’s grievance is. How profound the role of the True King is. I think Ardyn and Noctis are foils because of their opposing conclusions as they begin in a similar place. In my opinion, neither Ardyn nor Noctis should begin pious.

The long shadow of death cast in XV - and even Final Fantasy. I think XV is the epitome of FF’s iterative spiral of Life, Death, and Dreams. The answer it gives to a certain feeling of loss and hopelessness is so simple.

The difference in the way Ardyn and Noctis face death, the nihility grounding reality, the darkness seeping from underfoot, is profound. The way one of them affirms life, especially. (Along with the UX developed to drive that home over hours of gameplay.)

I concluded this look at XV’s dialogue a bit of distance away from it. A conclusion based in head-canon and a novice’s reading of Keiji Nishitani.

There’s a lot for me to learn.

On Ardyn’s fundamental misunderstanding of the Light – and of the Truth.

Within Eos and XV’s world at large, creation shares an origin in spirit. Because all creation shares an origin in spirit, spirit can dwell within many different aspects of creation. In Eos this spirit is known as Light. This spirit manifests as light, for example when Noctis gather’s a Royal Arm – the sword glows resonating with a light from his chest or heart.

The Truth is ineffable. A truth is, “You Are Not Alone.” Another truth is the reality of Death. If Life is real, so is Death as Life’s absolute negative. Life without Death is almost meaningless and certainly unreal. The same goes for Death without Life. Yet, it is also when Life approaches Death that Life seems to begin to lose its certainty and importance - like a fleeting dream or fantasy. It is normal to question the transience of all things that come into being and pass away in the world of our reality. It is normal to feel a pain as well, a pain of losing a loved one forever, a pain wherein rests a fundamental uncertainty about our own existence. A pain that can lead to suffering. For the living this ultimate negation is awakened to as a layer grounding reality and everything in it, a layer of nihility – the absolute negative to being. To become aware of this nihility is to become aware of yourself, the limits of your self-existence. What if everything you thought you were was in fact False or the blessings afforded you by a benevolent God were naught but an illusion or trap by a malicious daemon. Perhaps, it does not matter because as long as you “think,” you “are”?

Ardyn faced death. As a Lucis Caelum, their magic was tied to quickening death’s approach. As a Lucis Caelum, he would be allied with an Oracle and the Six who again rely on the approach of death. Ardyn himself died. Ardyn saw his fleeting dream end only to give way to a waking nightmare within a nihility grounding a very real existence outside of himself, a reality he refused to reconcile. When Ardyn woke from death, he lost the mercy of impermanence; yet he fell deeper into unreality – a Life without Death. Whatever he thought… did he exist? He “was”, but he “wasn’t.” His person, real and imagined, what he thought was true and false, was gone, yet he remained. Ardyn refuses to accept that he is Empty. Ardyn retreats into himself, deeper into the darkness of nihility. There is nothing from which he can derive himself other than himself, or his self-centered assertion of his own realness; everything else in the natural world appears as bearing no living connection to him or his internal solitary self – everything and everyone else is cold and lifeless: tools with which to leave his mark.

Another truth is, “You are Empty as Emptiness”.

Nothing is what it is, in and of itself; Everything is what it is, dependent on other things - on every other thing.

We are Empty in that we are not what we are in and of ourselves. Behind our “person” is the entanglement of many things. Emptiness grounds even Nihility. For Japanese Buddhist, Emptiness - Sunyata – Ku, is written with the kanji for sky. “The sky is an eternally constant empty space with unlimited depth and endless width,” which is why it has been useful as a visual metaphor for Emptiness. Emptiness grounds the highest heavens and the lowest abyss, the benevolent God, and the malicious daemon; it is like an unending sky above and below. Emptiness is like an absolute nothingness that opens up to all things, by virtue of emptiness everything can arise. Emptiness is like potential. It is an absolute affirmation of things that are not things.

Noctis sacrificed the joy of living but not his life that was lived. What is life without death? The reality of death affirmed his life as it negated it. Noctis also saw fit to retrieve Ardyn from the darkness of his nihility, of his solitude (minus points from the English localization for using ‘emptiness’). Forgiveness of the accused is an affirmation of the evil that occurred, even as divine love negates the evil. Noctis was self-emptying (again, minus points from the English localization for not externalizing the position of the Light), bringing him closer to a realization of his true self connected to others.

JP Gather together, power.

FR The light... is with me!

GER Give me your power!

ENG Power...of light!

Yes, Noctis utilized the Light of the Star, but his power was the ability to gather it and not bury it. An absolute mediation. This is in opposition to Ardyn who filled himself, then others with Darkness. Daemons would know peace, assimilated under Ardyn’s thumb, but that is a sort of stagnation. The truth of the True King is a chaos and harmony actively emptying itself bringing forth possibility. Ardyn’s perception of himself, his persona, was shattered, however the potential within the emptiness within was not lost. He had a choice. We are more than what we think of ourselves because we are not alone. When are our expectations aren’t met, we face uncertainty. This great doubt is not comfortable, but our reality is not grounded on certainty; it is grounded in possibility. We can choose Hope.

Ardyn was not wrong, or at least if he’s like other red-haired or Keiji Fujiwara-played Nojima characters his starting home-ground was closer to the Truth before his utter rejection. I think Ardyn did what he did with the scourge to protect his loved ones, even if it broke some rules. Ardyn probably prioritized his connections with others over anything else. One issue he may have though, is that he doesn’t know other people. He can’t. I’m not sure why he was betrayed, his proximity to the scourge, the jealously of his brothers, or his own jealously. Either way Ardyn’s reaction was to wrest control away from the damned cosmos - no matter the cost. The reality, of course, was that he was no closer to controlling those he did not know, he was only retreating deeper into himself and cutting out those around him. He could only dehumanize and make mindless daemons of others, creatures without the independent will of the human heart. He is not unlike FF villains of the past aside from is very personal goal. He wanted desperately to kill one man. That goal was Ardyn’s meaning for life after falling into nihility. In a twisted way, he was bringing himself closer to those that rejected him and turned him away. His redemption could not be earned if he died, if he accepted defeat, accepted the loss of himself and those he loved – those he hated. Ardyn chose Hate.

He would have no expectation that Noctis whose default state was almost apathetic depression in the face of loss, would actually dive into and through the nihility that found himself buried in. A Father who abandoned his son to die in battle, a Lover who abandoned her fiancé to be willingly consumed by nature, a Brother who would strike down his own flesh and blood for the sake of peace, a Sister who rejected happiness for love…?

How can someone Trust in a world like this? Who can suffer the pain of bonds like chains?

Although we cannot know each other as we know ourselves, and the selves that we know are not true in this ever-changing world grounded in possibility - we can meet in this emptiness. We can meet and depart. As disparate and distant as we seem, we are connected in the entanglement of being and nonbeing. Beneath the nihility grounding our reality is a tapestry of light, like stars against the night sky. Constellations connected by invisible strands permeating from the empty through the nihility into being and back again.

Noctis Lucis Caelum, the True King, wielded these invisible bonds, across time, through space, and brought light back to his world.

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