Something I love about M!iK and don't really see be often talked about is the morals of the story.
Shonen stories usually have to work under the same story restrictions of "power of friendship" and "we can accomplish anything by never giving up!", and while MIK certainly has that, I adore the way they twist it.
Yes, both tropes are present but taken to their absolute extreme. Power of friendship? Ok, here's a huge cast of characters who are all in some level Extremely Possesive of eachother. Never give up on your dreams? Alright, the cast are literal demons who feed on desire.
And the best part is that this is openly encouraged by the story. The story is saying "Yes, be selfish! Chase what or who you want without any shame! Take what you love and guard it ferociously because it's YOURS and no one is allowed to harm it."
Iruma's character growth is not connected to "how much more powerful can he get?" Or "how much better of a person can he be?". He's already powerful and he's already a deeply good kid. His growth is explicitly about how much more demonic he can be.
How much more tightly can he hold onto his loved ones and his desires.
How much more selfish.
Just how refresing is it to read a story where gluttony is a virtue and a goal?
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everybody stay with me im shifting back into speculation & analyzing mode, this time about everybody's favorite pair of besties. ill put this under the cut for everyone's sakes
and please, take all of this with a Hefty grain of salt.
so ive been... thinking about a thing. a maybe-possibility. which if this has some merit, the part of me that loves characters having a good time and feeling good feels is screaming in fear. but the louder part of me that loves angst and hurting characters is rubbing its little fly hands together.
short version: i think Barnaby is going to emotionally distance from Wally, if not outright grow to resent him. maybe temporarily, maybe not.
full version: *cracks knuckles* strap in folks. so.
first of all, an entire chunk of Barnaby's bio is dedicated to his character relation to Wally. everyone else only has one-off lines dedicated to their relationships to other neighbors - even Frank & Julie just have single sentences about each other (note that they're described as "partnered with" and "depicted with" respectively. more on that soon). even Wally's bio has his Barnaby mention tacked onto the end of his first paragraph instead of being its own dedicated section
and then there's their character designs - their bios explicitly point out that they share characteristics; color schemes, hearts on their soles, similar outfits.
they were made to be best friends. literally. this quote is what made me start turning this theory over in my mind (sourced from @ /theneighborhoodwatch's collected & absolutely fascinating livestream trivia)
it appears that Barnaby literally did not have a say in whether or not he and Wally are friends. their bios even say "illustrated pages note that they were best friends multiple times." they have to be best friends.
which brings us back to Frank & Julie. they briefly reference each other in their bios, but they aren't described as best friends. it's incredibly likely that they were meant to be a romantic couple - i briefly covered that theory in this post (dont read the first one i was going insane) but they managed to avoid that. Frank and Julie defied the script and chose to be best friends instead.
and then in the trivia document a few more character relationships are briefly touched on, like how Howdy considers Barnaby a close friend, and Sally considers either Barnaby or Poppy as her closest friend, etc.
everyone else seems to be choosing who they're close with. they're forming their own opinions and dynamics and relationships. & its interesting that Barnaby is stated for both of these - as if implying that he may return the friendship feelings, or at the very least he's developed enough of a relationship with them to earn their affection
Barnaby and Wally... i doubt they ever got that. they were best friends from the start, no development, no choice. it's written into them.
and then there's how their relationship has been portrayed so far. i believe i saw an ask where Clown stated that Barnaby is very polite to Wally, which struck me as odd. have you ever had a polite relationship to your best friend? have you ever seen best friends be polite? i'd be surprised!
best friends mess with each other! they tease and rib and roast! what is a best friend for if not mutual tomfuckery?! jesting around? playfully pushing boundaries? a Polite best friendship... that's a straight up oxymoron. no such thing. that sounds boring and exhausting.
not only that, but the fact that Barnaby is often used for Wally's painting segments, and is the go-to guy for teaching Wally something new, is kind of concerning. it gives me the vibe that a big part of Barnaby's literal reason for existing is to be Wally's friend & guide.
which would make the fact of him being described as polite to Wally make sense. of course he's not going to push their relationship or try to deepen it - he's forming his own dynamics with the other neighbors. with Wally... it's already established. that is how they are with each other. that is what they are to each other.
and it's not like Wally can be the one to introduce nuances. i don't mean that as a slight or anything - he's just the way he's been described and the things stated about him that make me think that he wouldn't really... know how to? it just wouldn't occur to him. he probably thinks his and Barnaby's relationship is what a best friendship is and is how it should be.
but they have to hang out. they have to refer to each other as best friends. and while i believe that Wally does wholeheartedly think that they're best friends, close as can be... i doubt Barnaby feels the same. like - yes, he probably does care about Wally. everybody likes Wally.
but it's gotta be frustrating for Barnaby, especially as time goes on and he becomes more himself as a person over just being a character playing a part. it probably stunts his relationship growth with others, since his ~best friend spot~ is already taken and who would want to encroach on that? especially since its taken by Wally mcfuckin Darling?
their friendship might become less of a role and more of a responsibility. Barnaby might grow to feel obligated to stick with Wally as his "best friend". someone invites Barnaby to hang out and/or help with something? sorry, he has to pose for Wally's painting. Barnaby is trying to do his own thing? sorry, Wally is knocking on the door and asking for help with something.
i wonder if Barnaby ever hopes that Wally will go to someone else, or feels relief when he does. and then does he feel irritation/guilt over that denied hope or that granted relief? then does he get angry at himself for those emotions?
how would this effect how he treats Wally and acts around him? this confusing muddle of emotions and this strange growing resentment for his painfully earnest friend who only ever means well, if he means at all.
it makes me curious whether or not this theory has merit. and how this could come to a head. what would Barnaby, in this situation, do if/when he discovers that they're puppets on a set, and he's literally written to be Wally's bestie while everyone else changed their scripts and chose their own relationships.
personally, i don't think he'd be happy, and i doubt he'd handle it well.
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Ok now that the excitement is out of the way.
Phineas and Ferb got a proper, good ending. It had a nice follow up movie. If anything, we could have just had a single mini series revolving around Perry and Stacy, because that was the only plot point in the show that never got wrapped up.
Phineas and Ferb didn't need a series renewal. There are many other shows (looking SPECIFICALLY at The Owl House, btw) that deserved a renewal more. Please keep that in mind as we stay tuned for release dates
And tbh it wouldn't hurt to pressure Dan and Disney on social media and let them know we want more queer and poc rep, as well as expanding on the rep we already HAVE. Explore Isabella's and Baljeet's and Stacy's families more (without the weird stereotypes), make characters canonly queer (I mean this seriously guys, I do not mean perryshmirtz )(trans Doof is ✨right there✨), explore Buford and Isabella living with single parents, anything. I know ultimately it's up to Disney, but if Dan won't even try for it, then the renewal was worthless.
The world has grown in the 8 years since we were left in the backyard. Why should the show remain stagnant and the same as it always was?
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Little thing I finally finished!
Warnings for vague homophobia, tranphobia, and religious trauma.
Do you remember the double doors leading into your paradise? Paradise, where you were liked and loved. Valued, even.
Do you remember the double doors, where the smiling faces met you? With a computer in hand and a name badge to match. Welcoming you to the music with the worship and the snacks
Do you remember the double doors, and the auditorium inside? With gaming systems and food, a bribery was made. Your time for their beliefs.
Do you remember the double doors? Do you remember what lied before them?Remember being shunned and being told love is a sin?
Do you remember those double doors once they no longer hid paradise? The daunting feeling of those doors could suffocate the strongest of men.
Do you remember the double doors that hid the cruelty of children? Ignorance for others that could only be taught by their elders.
Do you remember the day the double doors shut for you, when the house no longer felt like a home? When the cross no longer felt familiar?
Do you remember sinking, falling, dying, when the double doors came into view?
Do you remember the double doors, and how they had sealed shut for you?
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It was so warm and tender that he thought he might have died.
It was a fleeting thought, bursting from his chest with the rustle of a small bird's wings as it left him only a heart beating fast and gentle, and a splendid unknown with curious eyes looking up as it laid beneath him.
Could he have described it? Oh, he didn't know; he wasn't enough of an artistic soul to do such a thing justice with his words. If he was forced to wrack his brain about it, he would have said it was incomplete: like a sketch left unfinished, the vague shape of an anatomical structure made of sand abandoned at the cruel mercy of the rising tide, some new flavor of sublime.
But he didn't want to think, and all he could describe it as was handsome.
He leaned down upon it, basking in the heat and light and barely completed physicality. His hand brushed the cheek, pressure causing its infinite pieces to crumble before they returned to their rightful place.
So handsome, he muttered as he settled between the ever shifting legs. So handsome.
The marvelous being looked at him with the gleaming eyes of a puzzled child beholding a strange rite for the first time.
"What is this?" it asked.
"Oh, we've got names for it," he replied: "Some crass or mean or downright silly."
He sunk into the body of multitudes like one sinks in a warm, dense liquid, with a pleasant mellow resistance enveloping him wholly; his gorgeous partner gasped without a mouth, and its arms melted briefly as it was taken by surprise. He kissed its forehead kindly, feeling its fluid chest lurch slowly forward for an overwhelmed second before deflating so sweetly.
"If you like it, we can call it making love," he said with a smile.
The body beneath him raised to surround him.
"I do," his wonderful lover replied breathlessly, wrapping him within itself slowly, limbs rising to consume him, swallow him, with such magnificent tenderness, and on its yet to be drawn face bloomed something akin to watercolor blush beneath its shining eyes: "I do like it - I do like it very much."
He moved forward, sliding without opposition deeper within the gentle mound covering him, embracing him slowly.
It felt sweet, and good, and just like he'd imagined it, or almost; the strange non-existence of the body he pierced at such a deliberate pace felt welcoming despite the peculiarity, the fleeting sensation as it barely clasped around him like a spectre's shadow upon a wall - but after all, he could not expect the taking of a formless minor god to feel too similar to that of a creature of flesh and blood.
A blissful sigh grazed his face through a cloud of mild golden embers.
"I like it so, my friend," the wondrous beast whispered, its voice propagating through him in long waves: "I do like it - I truly do like it so, my friend, truly, truly..."
He was slow, so slow, so gentle, as he kept going, going, going, sinking further and further down in that barely held together shape that kept enveloping him with relaxed coils as if trying to turn him into another part of itself - here he was, inching slowly along its stomach, digging in its faux entrails to fill it up completely, kind and warm and loving, moving into its chest where a quiet thrumming spasmed rhythmically through the sand-like form while it curled around him, covering every single inch of him, leaving a sensation so indescribably good across his skin.
He leaned down to kiss where its mouth should have been and felt a pair of lips kiss back.
"I love it - I love it, I do," it breathed through him, overwhelmed by something too delightful to explain: "I do, I do, I do."
In a moment, he was swallowed up completely.
The splendid creature exhaled through his lungs, long and quiet, as they both unwound.
"I do," they both repeated longingly, bodies and minds muddled together imperfectly like too much syrup in too little water, distinct but not for long: "I do. I do."
His hand reached out.
Something akin to another palm caught it.
He held onto his marvelous lover for a long while, feeling it pulse over him slowly.
"How wonderful," it sighed through him, smitten.
He laughed quietly, just as lovestruck.
"How wonderful indeed." he whispered through it.
The dream kept going - longer than it should have, really; the shapeless body enveloping him held him down, close to the unknowable core of the gorgeous chimera in his grasp, until their thoughts began clearing from the humid mist overtaking them again, until their forms began to divide enough to be pulled apart from each other again, until he could see those magnificent eyes clearly again (half-lid and heavy and gleaming with the soft sheen of velvet, taking all the time in the world to return from their bliss), until he could feel the hand gently resting on his nape as something outside himself again, until the invisible mouth that met him halfway to a kiss was one with his own in a manner different from the inexplicable unity that had bound them again.
He felt a quiet sigh curl upon his cheeks, just for a moment, warm and tired. Then his sublime partner closed its wonderful eyes, breathing deeply, fast asleep - and Ackar woke up still groggy, with his body half aching from moving in ways it hadn't enjoyed in a long while now, as Mata Nui slumbered deeper still in his own rest, exhausted from making love.
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