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After the newest episode of Daima, I’m now just thinking of Vegeta and Bulma having this conversation from Friends:

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so I was thinking about the Maslow Pyramid for Goku and Vegeta, which basically si like:

Goku: Food (weakness/priority) - Fight (relevant) - Sex (highly appreciated) Vegeta: Sex (weakness/priority) - Fight (relevant) - Food (highly appreciated)

which makes the gochi and vegebul couple so cool because both of their wives give them that in the exact order they need lol

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Literally! It was the first thing I thought of this scene when I saw that chapter!

Daima canonized what Vegeta’s priorities are and I can’t stop making memes on it XD

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[Spy x Family ch. 109 spoilers]

I just finished the chapter as of two minutes ago, and I have to tell you, I am having the best time getting to use whip out my psychology degree again.

Good people of tumblr, allow me to introduce to you:

Capgras delusion

It's interesting that Melinda disclosed that she was a patient of the hospital before. It is no small feat to be admitted into psychiatric care - especially in a hospitalised setting. Psychiatric hospitals typically deal with very high-risk disorders and behaviours, with many patients being admitted to hospital either for their own safety, or for the safety of those around them.

What has this got to do with capgras delusion?

Capgras delusion is a very serious psychiatric disorder in which a person believes that someone very close to them has been replaced with an impostor.

It is not uncommon for sufferers of capgras delusion to believe that their loved ones have been replaced by aliens, a doppelganger, or a clone.

It can be from many causes: psychosis, schizophrenia, brain damage, neurodegenerative disease. In very rare cases there have even been documented unexepcted triggers such as ketamine, diabetes, migraines, and urinary cystitis.

And, crucially; it is not unheard of for sufferers of capgras delusion to be physically agressive towards the perceived impostor.

(Is that why she was sent to psychiatry before? Is that why she is estranged from Donovan and the children? Is that why she is kept under very close watch? Or is there something more sinister going on?)

From this chapter alone, I wonder if we will see a link between Melinda's delusion, and her past experiences. If Endo chooses to take the scientific route, we may see a history of physical abuse that resulted in brain damage, or a history of psychological abuse that made Melinda vulnerable to psychosis.

I would be really interested to see if Melinda's current way of thinking may have originated from having an initially loving relationship with Donovan Desmond, but she saw a sudden change in behaviour in him to become the heartless warmonger we now know him to be, which could have pushed her into this delusional belief.

After all, how could the man she fell in love with (conjecture), have turned into such a monster? The only explanation must be that Donovan Desmond is not the Donovan she knew, and just an impostor, right?

....Right?

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Donovan before

Donovan Now:

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Will world peace happen when Donovan takes a cow with him in his spaceship?

Okay, after seeing thousands of memes on twitter of Donovan being a dancing green Alien. I would like to give a brief speculation on my part.

Honestly, I don't want to believe that Donovan is an alien in the “conventional” sense of the word. But, perhaps, a person who was subjected to some experiment during the war, related to the ���Apple” experiments.

If we place ourselves in the post war era, with the creation of weapons, something that became popular was the science fiction stories and the constant paranoia of extraterrestrial contact. So it is not surprising that in SxF a fictional series (including a telepathic girl and an oracle dog), touches on these themes. So, the theory that many have mentioned that Donovan at some point underwent an experiment that is responsible for the scars on his head may not be far-fetched. But what if, before Melinda's eyes, Donovan's abilities unleashed a level of paranoia so great that it led her to conclude that her husband is an extraterrestrial?

It's not so crazy, if you think that one of Anya's greatest fears has been rejection by her parents and other people close to her if they were to learn of her powers. In fact, thinking back, I remember that when Twilight adopted Anya, we were given to understand that the orphanage owner and previous families had already rejected Anya.

Melinda clearly shows signs of a person who has been psychologically abused.

Melinda, clearly shows signs of a person who has suffered psychological abuse related to her husband and has developed disorders that affect her mental health, and this not only affects her but also her bond with her children (as we saw with Demian).

Perhaps Melinda's mind created this idea that Donovan is an alien as a defense mechanism to deal with the abuses (and possible crimes) of her husband?

And considering how the war has affected the entire generation of Loid, Yor and Melinda who lived their whole lives with the war. It is not surprising that Melinda at some point has been affected by all the media talking about this issue, and started to link all these events to Donovan's co-ducts.

Then… No spaceships?

I can't rule out that the “Apple” experiments may have had a slight contact with technology or some kind of unknown being, and this may have been the basis for experimentation to obtain Anya and Bond's powers. (Remember we haven't confirmed if Anya has real horns, have we?) Also, this chapter made me think that Anya mentioned that her powers are linked to the lunar phases, so she may lose her telepathy with the crescent moon.

Girl, what are you saying?

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A while back My Happy Marriage's twitter account revealed a special early viewing of the first 3 episodes of season 2 in Japan. Obviously I couldn't watch it, but today I stumbled upon a VERY special leak from the 3rd episode and it has a MAJOR scene between Miyo and Kiyoka! This is the best way to end 2024 for me.

Look below to see the spoiler pic, but beware it'll do a number on your heart!!!!

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Donovan to his family: I'm not locked up with you .... You are locked in here with me....

Melinda if you want me to call the police look away)

I guess you can't kidnap your kids and wife, and give them a life of probation..... Right Donovan?

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Average family games:

The person who makes others uncomfortable wins!

Donovan wants to be undefeated in this game

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Forger Family: We are a fake family, with no feelings, everything is a cover for appearances, and we don't care about each other's welfare:

Familia Desmond: ...... Ehhhhh.... Well

Well... They have the last name, don't they?

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It's honestly painfully profound and human as Saitama struggles with his own identity and self-concept.

You really understand when ONE says that “a normal life is hard,” especially when you're not particularly privileged from the start. And your constant struggle to fit into the world becomes uphill. Which makes you sympathize more with Garou's vision.

Watching OPM you realize that Saitama is particularly talented, and although he doesn't see it, he absorbs more knowledge than he realizes. He could be on par with geniuses like Garou, -whose mind is focused on technique and refinement- if he had the motivation to do so. For his level of commitment and discipline drove him to be so strong in the first place.

It is painfully human that our ability to grow is very much tied to our perception. Whether we see ourselves as capable or we see ourselves as failures. But Saitama's constant discouragement in believing that “Being strong is all there was in him, all that gave him meaning.” But when he became absurdly powerful, he believes he reached his limit as an individual.

Your focus is on the result. If the result is the same, then there is no improvement, right?

It is paradoxical, because Saitama is someone who motivates others not to focus on defeats but to move forward.

He genuinely needs to stop seeing his strength as the only thing that exists in himself, and perhaps open up more to all that he can achieve. After all, supreme strength doesn't always guarantee you to be the most efficient hero and save everyone, we learned that the hard way, didn't we?

Honestly, Saitama's perception and self-concept is painfully human and one that more than one can relate to, if you remember that many of us don't feel capable of achieving some goal just because we think we are incapable, or we think we have reached a plateau and we are nothing more than that.

Reasons to love OPM & little tidbits #9

Small characterizations details that are easy to miss ep9:

Saitama is far better in martial arts than it appears.

Saitama from the very beginning has actually been interested in how the human body works, even when he was a mere 12-year old kid, he rather studied human health and physical education than interact with his peers. (Chapter 8.5: "200 yen)

Saitama does not often show this capacity for both learning and understanding martial arts and how the human body works, often just being ragdolled around by his opponents, but when he does, for instance, when Garou attempted to chop him because he thought he was another pursuer, Saitama perform a very difficult and even dangerous chop maneuver back to hit the vagus nerve on Garou's neck with precision and makes Garou pass out like a light. One could say he simply copied the maneuver, but Garou did perform his maneuver a fair bit differently than Saitama. (Chapter 51: Headgear)

Saitama is also not only interested in the subject at hand when Tank top master explains how Garou can take down heroes, but he also understands the concept of striking vital body parts and does not ask any follow up nor clarifying questions but follows the thought process easily and he's very happy to find someone with a martial artist background as his potential opponent. (Chapter 49: I'm bored anyway)

Saitama from time to time, has actually showcased real Karate and boxing maneuvers, such as during the matrial arts tournament wherre he performs a kata without a prompt and when he fought Garou on I.O., he gives him a right hook and later even uppercuts him. (Chapter 70: Being strong is fun) (Chapter 167: I.O)

Unfortunately for Saitama, he himself consciously believes he cannot actually learn anything like martial arts, despite instinctually learning so much from Garou in such a short duration, to the point of being able to turn back time by merely copying him. It is a sad prospect that Saitama fully believes he does not gain a thing, after getting burned so much from learning during his childhood that the entire prospect of learning new things in his adulthood is demotivating. (Chapter 76: Stagnation and Growth)

Here's hoping Saitama gets past that demotivating hurdle at some point, that stops him from learning new things to better himself.

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Call Him Janus-ide, The Way He's Two-Faced

With the kind permissions of Rayadraws and theOmnicode. Bless your sharp eyes.

Genos better have a birthday in January. January, Janus's month, is typically portrayed as a two-faced man, representing the month's position as the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one. Janus is the god of thresholds, places of transition -- inside to out, holy to profane, beginnings to endings. Beyond that, this is the god of duality, seemingly opposed items that nevertheless form part of a whole.

Characters in OPM start really simple but as ONE keeps layering on them, they become more than initially meets the eye. However, when it comes to duality, Genos has to be the most dual-natured character there.

How? Well, let's count the ways.

1. What's in a name?

Let's start with the low-hanging fruit, his name. While he generally goes by Genos, his name is really Genocide. Yes, as in the systematic elimination of a group of people identified by their religion, ethnicity, or just by happening to encumber some valuable land without the benefit of sufficiently heavy weaponry. It's just about possible to pretend not to see it when it's written out on his clothing; however, when Kuseno makes Genos a virtual practice tool called The Virtual Genocide System, what kind of sick fucker does this is all one can say.

Extra credit: if you want another horrifying duality, look up 'ketsugo'.

It gets a little more interesting when we look at how his name is written in Japanese, for that's where the duality emerges. On the one hand, the kanji means 'great slaughter', so far, so unsurprising. On the other hand, it also means 'to fight fiercely to the end', and the image of undaunted resistance in the face of impossible odds is just as fitting to this character as is his surviving a massacre -- and warning of yet another to come.

2. Fire Worship

Of necessity, Genos is forged in fire. The metal that makes up much of his body must be grubbed up as ore, melted out of it, refined, alloyed, smelted, and worked to produce something useful, all of which requires fire. The parts that are plastic are drawn out of the Earth as crude oil, distilled (more fire), admixed, reacted, processed. And the parts that are ceramic, well, nothing loves fire as much as a ceramic. And yet, that's not all Genos is. He is a cyborg, which means that he is also human, someone living, fragile, and yet resilient. We see many cyborgs in One-Punch Man, but someone like Genos, who is very comfortable owning his humanity *and* having a mostly mechanical body, is rare. The cyborgs we meet tend to either hide the fact or double down on being inhuman.

Being happy being both man and machine, no matter how weird it looks to anyone.

Speaking of fire, Genos's choice of weapon is just as dual-natured as his name. In the first instance, he burns things. It's little wonder that fire used to be regarded (gotta love those Greeks) as one of the four essential elements: its ability to transform is fundamental to humanity. Its ability to transform the merely edible to the cooked literally enabled human development by freeing up more calories than are normally available in food. Fire warms; fire razes; fire drives away darkness; fire propels; fire impedes; fire cauterizes; fire burns; fire refines; fire smelts; fire consumes. Wherever you find humanity, something is burning. One hopes in a controlled way.

As Genos uses it as a weapon, it's very much the destructive aspect of fire we see him use. The Hero Association calls him Demon Cyborg because they hope he keeps turning those flames onto enemies of humanity, thankyouverymuch.

Like the fire of Hell striking the sinful and consuming them utterly, Genos showing the utter destruction that got him his hero name.

Of course, we have long since moved beyond burning dry sticks and lumps of coal to make what we call fire. Which takes us quite naturally to the third thing.

3. Core matters

Want to divide a crowd of well-educated people? Just ask them their opinion on 'nuclear energy.' Whether it's energy liberated by splitting or fusing atoms, do we like it for its ability to create an eye-watering amount of energy from incredibly little material, live in awe of its ability to destroy enemies, dread its capacity to maim and mutate with the ionizing radiation that comes as part of the package deal, or fear its eon-long tail of contamination? To say 'views differ' is to understate the heat of the debate.

There may have been a time when Genos's core was battery-powered, but since his energy demands have gone from extreme to extortionate, this baby is nuclear. With all the hazards inherent.

Heroes are just built different: instead of running away, they're like 'keep it together, man.'

So far, so obvious. However, the visual references of the core are even more interesting. Via Rayadraws, the reference of the core is the guidance system of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Entirely mechanical (and thus not able to be interfered with remotely), it ensures that the ICBM, once launched, will absolutely hit its target without fail. A very fitting device for the heart of a character hell-bent on finding and destroying his sworn enemy, whatever the cost.

Doesn't that look ominously familiar? Mutually-assured destruction.

However (I use this word a lot, don't I?), that's not the only way to see the core. When Saitama brought back Genos's core from the future and the latter plugged it in, the core is seen from a different angle, and it's another powerful symbol: a vajra (h/t Omnicode). In Buddhism, it's a ritual weapon symbolizing the properties of a diamond (indestructibility) and a thunderbolt (irresistible force).

A much more positive image: one of power, wisdom, and enlightenment. The more positive version of what he's seeking.

Probably the most interesting thing about the school of Buddhism this comes from is that it's about transmuting vices into virtues. Again, incredibly fitting.

4. So, Where is ONE going with this?

Here we have it. Nominatively, Genos names both the most hideous crime against humanity and the strength of character to resist such crime. Physically, Genos stands at the nexus of man and machine, happily occupying the liminal space between them. The power Genos has sought can be incredibly destructive to both friend and foe... and we've seen him use it to do great good. We've seen how harsh and cold he can be, but we've seen, too, that when he cares to temper his strict pursuit of justice with empathy, something wonderful comes to light.

But most of all, this is a character whose fate rests on a knife edge of apparently small decisions. No matter what, Genos is not going to be dissuaded from finding and destroying the rampaging cyborg and anyone who may have supported him. The question is: will that quest bring great destruction, or is there a way to bring something positive out of it? Either is equally possible with this guy.

We just have to wait and see.

PS: Yes, there are other dualities I could name. I'm hoping y'all come up with them. :D

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The woman with the cutest thinking pose in the world 🤔🩷