#Had to put the disclaimer for the piss on the poor site

[infamouslydorky]

Why I think Mael Stronghart can be an interesting character:

Stronghart is often regarded by others, especially in a western audience, to be a boring antagonist. Most often I see aa fandom put his enjoyers in one of two categories:

1. You find him physically attractive or

2. You love to hate him.

I'm here to propose a third option: perhaps he is, in fact, interesting. He isn't necessarily the most openly expressive individual, and that seems to make people inclined to think him boring, but it's more that is his outward presentation to people. Like Damon Gant with his jovial persona, Stronghart wears a veneer to give a sense of invulnerability, a resoluteness, security, and impartiality, which would probably be required in his mind of someone not only a judge in authority but a person who is representative of a larger governmental judicial whole.

Ace attorney is no stranger to the concept of antagonists serving as representative symbols of a larger systemic corruption, Stronghart being part of this lineage, though if discussing what makes him individual, it would be that he needs control. He needs security. He mentions himself that he likes things to run smoothly, like the gears of a clock.

This brings the point of the clock analogy being relevant to his character. If ever encountering a traditional clock, the mechanations operate by an elaborate system of gears. The maintenance of which requires particular maticulousness, the likes of which, if neglected, begin to show wear on the machinery and the clock begins to slow and fall apart. His chronic tardiness is also reflective of this idea, as it shows his negligence. He adds more gears and systems to the elaborate mechanations of his plans that he can not keep up to attend to them all and begins to show signs of deterioration by his delays being unable to keep up with the mess he's made to keep as much in order and control as possible.

Truly, Stronghart's journey as a character is one of obsession with control and by putting all responsibility of everything on himself because he finds difficulty in putting trust in others, he bites off more than he can chew, and Sholmes exploits that to take him down. It certainly doesn't help that "Chunosuke" decides to hickory dickory dock up and down said clock, further throwing a wrench into these unsustainable plans, exacerbating the original issues in the first place.

He serves as a foil to all of the protagonists for this reason. Ryuunosuke is ultimately successful because he relies on others. Likewise with Sholmes, Barok, Susato, Iris, Gina, and others. Stronghart can't do that because he can't trust others for loss of control, and a key component of trust is vulnerability. He will not give his vulnerability. He can't. He can not trust a broken system that allows guilty individuals to get away with their crimes by means of corruption, so he takes matters into his own hands. It's that inability to trust that brings his downfall and allows Ryuunosuke and friends to actually bring about positive change.

The last time we see Stronghart, he is laid bare before all the consequences of his actions and only when he is finally caught, does he display any act of vulnerability, not because of giving trust, but because he's given up on everything and the one person he had any sort of trust in: the queen because, in his mind, she betrayed him. He's a royalist because the Queen represented the ultimate symbol of control and security. "The benevolent force guiding the empire." So when she leaves him to rot for his misdeeds instead of rewarding him for doing what he believed was justified for the betterment of Her Majesty's empire, he dies alone, a broken, lonely man.

[kingofthenorth]

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this since I first reblogged this. Like, I'm THAT put off by what a huge downgrade this is. I'm seized by some primal need to hate on it a bit and hopefully drive it from my fucking mind.

Disclaimers (since this is the piss on the poor site): I AM ATTRACTED TO WOMEN AND LIKE BREASTS. I've also watched plenty of anime. I am also broadly in favor of horny art. So no, this is not about me "not getting it" because of my sexuality, not understanding what anime looks like, or being against sexual art. Not even remotely.

It just... gets so goddamn ugly.

Episode 5 has what is genuinely a very cute and likable art style. I had forgotten One Piece once looked like this. It's exaggerated and cartoony in a way that's very charming. Even though this is the era of One Piece I actually watched, it's been so long that I forgot it used to look good.

Episode 155, to me, is almost reminiscent of how not-total-beginners-but-not-very-good-yet fanartists draw anime girls. The long, slender build and lack of much detail outside the hair and bikini feels like it belongs on someone's deviantart. It's not really that bad, but neither is it especially good. What bothers me more than anything is that it looks more like the quality you'd expect of the first season of an anime rather than well over 100 episodes in.

Episode 380 looks awful, but I had to stare at it a long time before I could put my finger on why. My best guess is that it has to do with her shoulders playing a way bigger part in this than you'd think. Unlike ep 5 and 155 Nami, she actually has shoulders proportioned more normally to her head... but none of the rest of her matches up with that. She still has 155's twig body, now sporting even bigger boobs, and it looks horrible. If you crop her such that you can't see her waist and arms, she actually looks almost normal. Busty, sure, but not bad. It's the waist half the width of her head (counting hair) and stick arms that make her look so freakish (and the huge breasts are not helping). See?

Episode 550... Jesus Fucking Christ. Good LORD. Where do I even begin? I almost don't want to talk about her massive tits. They're the low hanging fruit. They're so bad, just looking at them says it all. Her shoulders aren't as wide as 380's, but the rest of her proportions are so fucked that it makes no difference, positive or negative. Look at her waist. It's only twice the width of the widest part of her arm, and comparable in width to just ONE of her enormous knockers. Her face is so squished, it could fit on one of the giant breasts. I honestly don't understand how this is supposed to be sexy. She no longer looks human. She has no internal organs. She is just a spine with boobs and something resembling a face. Jesus.

Even ignoring the fact that Oda makes most of his female characters look this way while giving the men far more variety in body shape--which SHOULDN'T be ignored--it still looks SO bad. I cannot get over this. How did it get this ugly...

how the fuck does anyone watch one piece when it looks like that 💀

[canvasandsketchbook]

DON’T FRIGHTEN YOURSELF, STRANGERS ARE NOT MONSTERS.

disclaimer : Well, you probably are. We all have it inside us, yet some prefer to own themselves, whilst others let the monsters take over their helpless mind.

Hi! It’s been a quite long time since I wrote my last long and real journal. I hardly find the most suitable time in between all of these projects and .....youtube streaming. Moving on.

Last August, I had an amazing trip to West Europe with my sister. We spent 10 days crossing countries, visiting memorable touristy spots, meeting new people, and learning tons of things from the locals, and I want to use this opportunity to talk about what I got from the trip. Just for you guys to note, I have no intention to brag. I simply want to share about my experience and what I have in mind.

I was fascinated (and still am) by the juxtaposition of European’s way of living and the surrounding. The cities are breathtaking, the color tones you find in every avenues and lanes are soothing, diaphanous melody on the streets, descent city scape and historical buildings, and of course -- if any of you really know me, then you know what I really like about traveling -- incredibly friendly social interactions. You know, the people. 

I am all about meeting new people, guys. I appreciate nice small talks and genuine smile from strangers a LOT, despite me rarely being friendly here in Jakarta. I enjoy explaining myself there to others’, like answering typical questions like “where are you come from?” or “how long have you been here in the city?” or “which one would you order?” “how do you like Europe so far?”. These small conversations felt nice they wiped off my paradoxical thoughts I had before my arrival in Rome, our first stop.

Regardless, we actually talked to many strangers, nice ones. Probably it was just a part of them being polite, but still, it felt good. You might thought I am overreacting and cheesy, but I tried to remember some of the small talks. 

When we were in Rome, we had a local tour guide for a day, his name is Guiseppe, around 30ish yo (I hope I spelled the name right). First 2 hour I called him Joseph, since I barely heard him. How did I found out his real name? Stupid part, I won’t talk about it. His part would be very long because we were with him all day long on our first day in Italy. Okay, so we are heading to St. Peter Basilica, a world-must-visit architectural attraction. Before we could reach the entrance, we had to queue for around 1 hour or so outside with a temperature of 38 C. First day and I am burnt, red as cooked lobster shell. During our endless queue, we have this nice talks with the guide. He’s Italian, he used to work as an archaeologist, he loves his city, he was born on the small beautiful hill next to the Vatican, and he is an amazing tour guide. We talk much about architecture of Vatican and its surrounding, how the typical buildings on the front of St. Peter Basilica are considered new buildings even though they’ve been constructed for hundreds of years. He also described to us the day when the Catholics are usually gathered on the St. Peter Square (Piazza San Pietro) on Sunday whilst being blessed by the Pope who stands on the Papal Apartment balcony. For the detail mapping of St. Peter Basilica and the square, you might want to visit this site. The talking was very interesting I just acknowledge a bit about others’ culture from my first pre-entrance-to-the-church line experience, which allows me to be even more thankful and appreciate everyone. True? 

Still sticking with Guiseppe, once he felt comfortable talking to people, he could be very chatty, guys. Believe me. But still in a good way. Once, we laughed at this poor-mannered guy who was failed at his attempt to disrupt the line of exhausted tourists. Clicked! Long story short, (I forgot several parts of the conversation because .... I’m just me :)) we made it to the inside of the Church. I'm telling you guys, the architecture, art, colors, and everything are so magical they hurt my brain in a flabber-gasting way. I always behind my camera, not wanting to left any details undiscovered and forgotten, because my capability in memorizing is terrible. Then Guiseppe showed up, poked me saying nice stuffs like “I saw you taking all those pictures beautifully from unique angles! Bet you captured plenty of good shots there in your camera. I can see it.” GUYS. I hope we Indonesian could learn to be this nice to others, in spite of considering too long to greet strangers! He even insisted in checking some of the pictures I took. 

We then moved to Colosseum and some other beautiful spots, then wrapped up the first day in Trevi Fountain. It was 6 pm already. Me and my sister were standing nearby the Fountain pool’s fences when Guiseppe greet us and explain that he had to go home, cause every local guide in Rome end their shift at 6. Before he left, he asked us to take some selfies together (me and my sister didn’t even asked him the first time since we just don’t know what to do) and spontaneously use his phone to take selfies with us. SO TOUCHED. Then, he left tho.

The next one is the stranger we met in a Gelato shop around Trevi Fountain. In fact, he’s the employee of the shop. Saw both of us lining up for the gelato, he, who also an Italian, greeted us with “Assalamualaikum” while putting 3 full scoops of gelato onto our cups with 2 tiny thin waffles as a bonus. We also talked about so many things before he actually asked which flavor did we want, and the line was getting longer and longer and he didn’t even care lol. He kept asking us about what is there to visit in Indonesia, how do we like Italy, are you guys just sister or twins (just like what everyone thought of us), telling all these trips he had in south Asia, stuffs like that. He seems so happy that it pissed off some people behind us who were waited to be served. After he finally handed us our order, he shouted “GOODBYE GIRLS! ENJOY! HAVE A NICE DAY!”.

Milan is such a beautiful city. We had quite a day there, there was an unpleasant experience, and some amusing moments. We met Michael, a very unique, cute pink-haired, and friendly employee at Lush shop behind Milan’s Duomo. He moved like an antelope, jumping around cheerfully like he was made out of cotton. “Giiiiirrrrlsss, you will like this one!” “Feel it! So softttt no?” “I like it when you say ‘OOOOH YAAA’ it’s cute tho!” “C’mon which one do you prefer? You like it? Me too!” “Here! follow me!” Then I recorded him moving so oddly around the store, and he also did this video of him introducing himself in my snapgram, and told me to tag his IG. Milan is cute!

Not so long after, me and my sister went to sit on a small restaurant on the street and ordered a pizza. After some minutes, the couple beside us said Hi to us. They introduced themselves to us, and we also had this great small and short talk. They are Costa Ricans, went to Milan for a holiday and planned to stay there for a good couple of days. “Oh wowww Indonesia! Are you guys on a vacation too? You guys came alone?” “That’s great!” “Where are you heading after this?” “Omg that’s cool. Have an amazing trip guys, have an amazing holiday. Byeee!” Then we left, went home, pizza box are in my hand.

Aaaaand this one would be the last example. On our way to Switzerland (which is now my fave country because.....omg I can’t even explain) we stopped in AutoGrill restaurant. AutoGrill is like all over the places, we can find it everywhere there. So I ordered 2 Chicken Cordon Bleu, take away please. Then my sister went to the toilet. And when I was alone standing on the storefront paying attention on how the cook do the entire dishes, he was trying to talk to me. He is...if I’m not mistaken...a Bangladeshi who happened to live in Swiss for years already. "Are you a student? Which school?” “O really? you born in.....oh, oh yeah of course. Right. Wow!” “Are schools in Indonesia having their holiday too right now? Really? So it is similar with the European holiday!” “Do you guys use english language as an everyday medium?” *and then a long talk about school and my interest(s) and stuffs* “So, chicken cordon, ya?” “How long? 3 months? Is it like summer or winter there? Just...Okay, okay. I see” “Young lady do you want it cooked like this, or this is good for you?” “Okay, okay” “2 days? No way! too short.” “Aren’t you feel cold?” I can’t remember much about this conversation and the topics we had during his cooking, but I could still remember that he could always bring up something so that we can keep continuing the conversation, since there are no other people around us waiting in line. And trust me, he is good at that, whatever his name is. He could just mentioned random topics about Indonesia and thereafter another conversation slides in. Not to mention that we were in Swiss, where the people are sooooo friendly and full of smile. 

During my trip, I kept thinking about the differences that these interactions made to me and comparing it way too hard with what I feel when I walk around Jakarta. I never expect to have such conversation in Jakarta, or Indonesia, cause we barely speak to the guy sitting beside us on the train, or bus stops. Sometimes when it does happen, I don’t feel quite comfortable. It was so not what I feel when I speak to strangers in Europe. They were all so naturally gifted when it comes to social interaction and it was not because I am a tourist. I’ve seen locals talking to each other as strangers too. It beautifies the city I visited even more, because people do smile, and when they got curious, many would try to ask directly to get the right answer. So, what is there the factor that makes Indonesian and European are so different in this state? 

I, then, begin to list several hypotheses to answer my own questions. We do it all the time to our unanswered questions, no? Speculate? So, I am sure that this is related to how we live, what do we usually do around the city, you know, culture and stuffs like that. 

First, Indonesian, especially Jakartans, we don’t walk our way to a building which are 400 m away from us. We drive, or use those public private transportations offered, which reduce the opportunity to bump at strangers. Then because we are so used to this already, we rarely feel like starting a conversation when there is even a chance.

My second point would be about our lifestyle. Many Indonesian prefer to go to such fancy places with all socialites and sleek image that put us in utter individualism. We are being far from flexible, too hard to look around, most probably because of all these surreal relationships on our social medias and more. We want to look crazy rich, fabulous on medias, trying hard to reach the basic, and ended up being homogenous. And again, we lose one more chance to talk to strangers.

Third point. Most of all, I feel like it’s important to have a supportive environment, where people could meet more often and have more activities on the streets. So I would compare the activities that European or other countries have along the streets with what we Indonesian have. The concept of public spaces in Indonesia (Jakarta, especially) is dominated by malls. We could find it literally everywhere, most contains similar combination of stores, only located in different part of the city. The malls themselves always in the form of vast-fancy-3-or-more-levels-compact-building where people are so busy window shopping and setting their eyes on price (and discounts) and stuffs, which means, no small talks cause “I don’t know you, you are wasting my time, none of us seems interested in chit chattin’.” Other than malls, we hangout mostly in restaurants, and how we get there? Cars. Motorbikes. 

In the other hand, public spaces in other countries have many more variety. Usually it has more open spaces with well-managed landscape in which designed to create a soothing and refreshing sense of place for pedestrians and users, eyes-on-the-street kind of space, parking lots are centered in one spot to reduce traffic, and innovative theme to attract people to walk down the alleys. The areas could be malls, parks, beautiful streets, outdoor exhibitions, traditional markets, modern bazaar, and many more. Thoughtful urban planning would lead the city to experience social improvement and get to know their region even better. It would probably reduce the stress and intensify the value of the streets, intersections, and community itself. It may also loosened up the tense between the citizens a bit and enforce strangers to smile and greet each other more. 

But since the third point is a bit too heavy for us to handle for now, we might wanna work on the 1st and 2nd argument first. I can’t say it would totally work, but just give it a shot or more, you know. Liven up a little bit, help ourselves to smile more often. Maybe by talking to more people we would acknowledge more about things that are gonna be useful for us in the future. There are millions of bad people out there (probably we are also included) but don’t be afraid to be friendly sometimes. This world is already tough and we surely need it to be more likable. Sit next to stranger and start a conversation. I am so happy when I got to talk about simple things with strangers during my holiday, surely I would also be happy if it happens to me in my home country. 

Don’t frighten yourselves, strangers are not (all) monsters. So, good luck and have a nice easy day! <3

b.o.n.u.s : Our selfie with Guiseppe in case any of you is curious about him.