anxious-and-asexual

[anxious-and-asexual]

Rewatching Aouad and it's so interesting watching the dynamic of the group change when they reunited with Ms Park.

The group is, of course, frazzled and distressed at the start of the apocalypse, arguing with one another and getting into arguments. Very heated and quick to snap on one another.

But when they meet back with Ms Park, an adult that all of the students trust, they instantly get less pissed, less frightened because of the adult in their presence. They feel safer. Heck, even when that other teacher first ran into the classroom, they all immediately obeyed him because he was an adult.

It's a small detail that I've noticed and it shows how the show highlighted how children need the guidance of adults to help them. They all waited for adults of any form to come and rescue them, and when they didn't, there's a subtle shift in how they go about saving themselves. And by the end of the show, all the kids have lost faith in adults, in a world where they were raised to always trust people older than them.

[anxious-and-asexual]

my favourite characters

1. deeply traumatised and fucked up, has obvious issues

2. also fucked up if you can see through 10 layers of denial, sarcasm and humor

3. fucking goofball

[anxious-and-asexual]

These bitches are gay as hell omfg

[anxious-and-asexual]

the found family trope is inherently queer and you can’t change my mind

[anxious-and-asexual]

After my last essay I just. Ugh. Epic as a stage show that happens every day every week would be absolutely perfect. Every day Athena contemplates a better future, a better world, and every day she tells Odysseus’ story to the audience and teaches us to make the world kinder, and she will do so over and over again until the end of time because she is immortal and will live forever to hopefully one day see these changes happen and her life’s mission fulfilled

[anxious-and-asexual]

Odysseus: I know you waited 20 years for me but would you fall in love with me again if you knew what I’ve done?

Penelope: Before I answer that, could you do me a favor and move our marriage bed out of the room?

Odysseus: What! I- I built that bed as a testimony to our love! How could you ask me that!?!

Penelope: Oh sorry, I just thought we were taking turns asking each other stupid questions.

[anxious-and-asexual]

Odysseus: I am different, I am no longer the man you married, it's been 20 long years but if you could just fall in love with me again?

Penelope: if you can do something for me

Odysseus: anything

Penelope: move my wedding bed.

Odysseus: I can't, it's made out of a living tree, to move it I would have to destroy it. How can yo-

Penelope: oh, I thought we were asking each other stupid questions?

Odysseus:

Penelope: 'FaLl iN lOvE wItH mE aGaiN' to do that I would have had to stop loving you.

[anxious-and-asexual]

i rlly like how odysseus has been willing to show mercy up until this point. like EVEN ON POSEIDON AT FIRST he offered “hey we can both just like leave” and only began fighting when poseidon tried to drown him

then fucking ANTINOUS shows up and is like “i’m going to sexually assault your wife and kill your son” and ANY THOUGHTS of showing mercy on him or anyone in that room immediately went OUT OF THE WINDOW

even when the suitors tried to beg for mercy, odysseus didn’t even dignify them with a proper response. he just said “no.”

[anxious-and-asexual]

Penelope meeting Odysseus’ rage with her own is so >>>

The reminder that she’s suffering too. She’s grieving too. She’s angry too.

Odypen you will always be famous

[anxious-and-asexual]

Penelope “you’re always my husband” and Odysseus “next to my wife” of Ithaca everyone

I’m afraid they invented romance actually

[anxious-and-asexual]

Jokes aside the cast struggling to get to Ithaca irl and then also struggling to stream the Ithaca saga is so funny and appropriate

[anxious-and-asexual]

”don’t be mad at Jorge about the stream cancelling” BRO THIS IS SO FUNNY I COULD NEVER BE ANGRY, THE ODYSSEY MUSICAL BEING AFFECTED BY A STORM? Beautiful

[anxious-and-asexual]

kudos to jorge for continually making the release of the ithaca saga an immersive experience by going to ithaca itself, missing the ferry, getting caught in a storm, and having the livestream delayed. can’t wait to see everyone in ten years for the final album!

[anxious-and-asexual]

How the nine covers fit together!

[anxious-and-asexual]

Apothecary Diaries is pog as fuck bc serious political issues and dynamics from a woman's POV are rarely depicted in ANY form of media

It's always a man's world where women's issues surround him. Even if we get a female perspective once in awhile- it all comes back to how it facilitates his game in the end. She's a footnote in the overarching scheme of things. Misogyny exists. Back to the real plot.

Apothecary Diaries is strictly from a female perspective and how each class of woman has to act, what limits they have, what rights they have and don't have between each class, etc. These women have to behave a certain way under a patriarchy, which you would think makes it a man's story, but it never is. The women are THE focus of this show, their struggles are THE plot. The focus is about how the patriarch effects them.

Take the concubines for example. The show dives into how bearing a child affects their rank, how traumatizing it is to lose that child, the consequences of that, etc. We have barely seen the emperor who sired all these kids because this is not about him.

Jinshi's personal plot is secondary to Mao Mao's journey- he is mostly there to provide new cases for Mao Mao to solve and to learn more about the shortcomings of his class when taking care of citizens like Mao Mao.

Jinshi is not a bad person, but by virtue of his position in the higher classes, he cannot understand how harsh life as a poor WOMAN is specifically- he can only catch glimpses of it from what Mao Mao tells him and feel outrage but powerless in his wealth and luxury

Mao Mao is a fortunate commoner woman for what privileges someone in her class should and shouldn't have. She happened to be adopted by a knowledgeable man. She is allowed to read, write, learn, and has enough skill to be a poison tester and have a job EXTREMELY out of her class limit as an apothecary, also a job not traditionally meant for women

Mao Mao is not a "noT lIkE oThER gIrLs" protagonist, she is FOR THE GIRLIES. She only wants to help the women around her, and women are whom she has the closest relationships to. She sees a woman being harassed and can't let it stand. She sees a frail, traumatized woman dying from the recklessness of those who should be caring for her and spends day and night nursing her back to health, while also punishing the people who were so careless with her needs.

My girl has STUDIED UP on THE BODY to TEACH these upper class ladies on how to really HEAT things up in the BEDROOM

Sex depicted in Apothecary Diaries is both something women are not shamed to be enjoying, while at the same time being acknowledged as an unfortunately huge economic necessity to market themselves.

Like shit is just so real in this series???

Listen, I can go on and on about how GOATED the series and especially Mao Mao is but you get the picture

[anxious-and-asexual]

It’s incredibly important to me that the anime decided to include this scene that wasn’t in the manga. In the manga, Maomao does pass out in Jinshi’s lap after saving him from what was obviously an assassination attempt.

HOWEVER, the manga cuts off at this point, keeping strictly in Maomao’s perspective, and cuts straight to when she regains consciousness in bed after being treated for her injuries. The manga doesn’t show how she got back. They SAY how, and she briefly mentions, “wow that must have been embarrassing; he carried me back,” but we don’t SEE it. We don’t get to feel the true impact of what that means. But the anime DID show us, and holy shit.

They SHOW us how taboo this is. They show Jinshi carrying her out of the temple, after a public attempt on his life.

They show us the shock and horror on Lakan’s face as Jinshi silently walks past him. Horror at the state his daughter is in, horror at another man—a man with a status he could never dare to question—staking such a public claim over his child, horror at the fact that he could never have this level of closeness with her (as Maomao would never allow it).

Everyone hides their gazes, as is their custom when someone of his rank passes by, but the air is different this time. Jinshi is furious, he’s terrified, and he could not give a single shit about how inappropriate it looks to these palace officials.

The shot that slowly follows her trail of blood—even though it’s a small detail—that in particular leaves such a intense impression of how poignant this is for him.

Maomao talked about this scene in the manga like it was nothing to her. She did what she set out to do: she saved the person who was targeted by the attack. She didn’t even know the target would be someone she knew. But she has no idea that this happened afterwards as a result of her bravery. To her, it likely wasn’t even an act of bravery at all. She acted on impulse; she did what she knew was the right thing to do.

The anime didn’t need to include this, because the manga didn’t show it. But damn, I’m so glad they did.

[anxious-and-asexual]

Hello, I apologize if I'm bothering you, and I hope you’re well.💔 Unfortunately, I’m not. Please, imagine yourself in my position: two months ago, I emerged from the rubble after losing my grandfather and aunt, while my father was seriously injured; shrapnel is lodged in his body, and he needs urgent treatment and travel. We’ve lost everything—our source of income and our home—and now we live in a tent, shivering from the cold, without food, winter clothes, or blankets to protect us from the freezing temperatures, and we have no medicine or basic necessities.

Your donation is our only hope. $100 can help provide my father's daily treatment, $50 can assist us in buying winter clothes and blankets, as a single pajama costs $100, and we are eight family members. Even $20 can make a significant difference in securing our basic needs.

No matter the size of your contribution, it means life to us. Please, help us to survive, and don’t let us face this cold and pain alone.🙏

my link in bio

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^