#He was a thinker

[authenticity2025]

He was a thinker, but also a man of action. Dan Millman

[quail-in-red]

Not me forgetting potions, scrolls, and spells every time I need to jump down somewhere

[chimifuckinchanga]

why is deadpool just straight up the most shippable character of all time. this man can be with anyone and it’s adorable. logan?? goes without saying. spidey?? for sure. vanessa?? totally. cable?? why not.

it’s becoming baffling at this point like. is he drinking magical ship juice. how did this man harness such lovable magnetism

[yuukirita]

Today B-127 has constructed a noise box. 

His task was to make something useful 

Suffice to say, he failed. 

Supplementary note: He spends too much time with Soundwave.

[loriache]

"I've been waiting for ages for somebody to unmask them."

This moment tends to elicit negative reactions in a first read through, and I've got some opinions about why where Kabru is coming from here actually makes a lot of logical sense. So I thought I'd elaborate on that.

I think people hear this and go, "He thinks they must be hiding something because they gave money to someone? What a cynic." Or "he dislikes them because they did charity?? What's wrong with this guy!". And obviously, a lot, a lot is wrong with him. But I think this makes more sense than it seems at first glance! What people evaluating this judgement miss is why Kabru is paying attention to Laios and co to begin with.

Kabru knows of the Touden siblings because (he's a little bit of a stalker-) he is keeping an eye on all the relevant parties in events developing on the island, in order to be able to guide them to his preferred outcome. This includes adventurers because they are the ones actually exploring the dungeon! He's well aware that something as minor as internal tensions between party members could be key to the historical events that are developing. (He would love the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.)

His desired outcome is that whatever the rewards are of breaking the dungeon's curse, whether that's kingship or the ancient elven secrets of dungeons, are claimed by:

A) a short lived person

B) Someone who will be a good, effective leader and/or use those secrets and the power they carry wisely, with foresight, and to establish a political bloc for short lived people.

The person he can best trust to do this is, of course, himself. But due to his PTSD regarding dungeons and monsters, he's not able to develop the necessary skills to conquer the dungeon. Once he realises this, he starts looking for someone else who he can support to that end.

But most of the adventurers don't have any intentions of conquering the dungeon, don't have the skills, or are unsuitable in other ways. In fact, it seems like some potentially suitable people are the Toudens. There are a lot of good rumours about them going around - they actually seem to have a very positive reputation! That's what Kabru means when he says "unmask".

So when Kabru is observing something like them giving money to an old comrade from their gold-peeling days, he doesn't consider it a problem because "they're giving money to this person who doesn't actually need it" or because they must have some dark secret if they act superficially nice. I think he actually understands this situation and what it implies about Laios (in particular) perfectly well.

Laios and Falin gave money to an old comrade who got injured and couldn't work. That person then healed up but kept taking their money. Then he used the money to start smuggling illicit goods to the island.

The key is that for Kabru, the problem here is the same as with the corpse retrievers - people using the dungeon's resources to fuel dangerous, selfish, or violent pursuits cause problems for the island, attract more criminals and people with motives other than breaking the curse, and increase the chances of the whole situation ending in tragedy.

Kabru is willing to work with the Shadow Lord of the island if it gets him to his goal - he isn't scrupulous - but the criminal element of the island increasing is something he sees as a major issue.

Also, when you're evaluating someone as a candidate for power, riches, secrets, potentially kingship - then being curious about how the money you give to people is going to be used is kind of a relevant trait!

Interpersonally, Kabru's actually very easygoing - I mean, Mickbell isn't exactly an upstanding guy, is he! But Kabru likes him and they get along well. These traits wouldn't be a problem at all in a friend, or a comrade, or someone Kabru was confident he could use. But he can't get a handle on Laios, and Laios is someone who has the potential to be a major player!

On Laios' end, this is the same as with the marriage seeker who joined their party. She kept asking for things and he gave them to her, because he tries to be nice to others. He even gives her money! It's the exact same thing.

That's fine, but it became a problem because he basically wasn't interested in her motives, didn't notice she was trying to manipulate him, and it also didn't occur to him that the other party members would notice or be affected. We can assume the situation with the gold peeler is the same. When Kabru says that "It's not that they're bad people, they just aren't interested in humans," he isn't wrong.

The extent to which this is true of Laios is linked to his autism imo, (because it isn't just disinterest - he genuinely isn't able to notice nonverbal cues that people are lying to him or have ulterior motives) but to a greater or lesser extent I think it's a very common trait. Most people aren't actually that interested in other people who aren't close to them. Kabru is the weird one here. It isn't an issue except as a leader - which is why we see an immediate comparison to the Island's Lord, because that's how Kabru is evaluating them.

And disinterest in/lack of ability with people to the extent Laios exhibits it, it does, actually, make him a worse leader... it's just that as we see in the story, people can help him out. The rest of the party tell him the marriage seeker is taking advantage of him so he tells her he can't give her special treatment anymore. They're pissed and it's a crisis point - he couldn't have recovered their trust without Marcille and Falin - but that's exactly the point. With Marcille and Falin, he was able to recover their trust.

And he has other good traits that make up for it, such as his intelligence, strategic knowledge, open-mindedness and sense of fairplay.

Kabru doesn't disqualify Laios as a candidate based on what he sees about him from afar, though - he still tries very hard to get close to him, obviously hoping that if he manages he can steer Laios to defeat the dungeon and make up for his lack of people-skills in the aftermath. (Which... he does eventually achieve that goal!) He completely fails until the events of the story, so... definitely I think "They just aren't interested in humans" could also partially be a stung reaction to Laios' complete disinterest in him.

Anyway, that's my read on what exactly Kabru's "issue" with Laios is. Obviously, once he does find out what Laios' true nature is like - about his love for monsters - he develops an entirely new set of fears about Laios' priorities. But since Laios kept that a secret until the start of the story, he has no idea of that yet.

Given all that, I think it's interesting that he says that he doesn't think that the Toudens are suitable to defeat the dungeon, and that he's hoping they'll turn out to be the thieves. As some of his few potential candidates, people who he thinks may play a big role in the island's future, you'd think he'd hope they would be good people!

I suppose it's better, in his eyes, because it means that he's involved in something "interesting". They haven't just had their stuff stolen by regular criminals (boring, puts them further away from his goal) - they've been caught up in the beginning stages of "a historic event". The desperate and dwindling group forgetting morals in their quest to retrieve their lost comrade probably appeals to his sense of melodrama. Because he also just... loves drama.

Despite it being "uglier than anything he was expecting", he still pursues Laios as the person he wants to conquer the dungeon pretty much as soon as it becomes clear that he won't be able to do it himself and they are out of time. That's because... well, to be fair, there aren't any other options. And he fits standard A: he's short-lived!

and Kabru still hopes he can fit standard B, too, and be persuaded to use the power he wins for good. No matter how many nightmares he has about Laios, or whether he thinks about killing him. He doubts him, but ultimately he puts his faith in him and seems happy after the manga's ending that he made the right decision.

[sublimerences]

waow… so animal crossing

[batsyheere]

The unreliable narrator that is Shang Qinghua haunts my thoughts almost daily because he quite literally wrote ten thousand words a day? He survived this long in a world he half remembers, managed to make it as a spy and peak lord, had plans and ideas that were somewhat coherent and worked out in the long run even if not fully in tact, and he still had the audacity to think himself on the lesser end of characters in the world.

??? Buddy. This is poor self-esteem and a life of survival mindset that has you comparing your competency to others. You are, in fact, one of the more dangerous beings on the mountain.

[zvezdacito]

*dear theodosia audio*

Look at my son

Pride is not the word I'm looking for

[wasongo]

Hauled ass to get this done on time. Happy Birthday to the best character of all time. 💖 Up a little early for my late friend Eden, the #1 Komui fan, who lived 12 hours ahead.

[patrothestupid]

death by thinking

[lucyandlucy]

Pony definitely the type of person who has a script in his head of what he and other people should say and the second they go off the script he’s completely loss. And it happens a lot because he’s HORRIBLE at predicting what other people would say.

Pony’s mind:

Okay so Darrys going to ask me about my test today and I didn’t do too good on it so he’ll say something like, so pony how’d you do on that test? And I’ll say, honestly Darry I didn’t do too good, I’m sorry, and he’ll say, Next time study harder and I’ll say, ok your right, I will and he’ll say now go to your room and study, and I will. Alright here we go

Darry: Hey Pony how was that test you had today?

Ponyboy: Honestly Darry I didn’t do too good, I’m sorry

Darry: Oh that’s ok little buddy, you don’t have to be sorry

Ponyboy: what

Darry: I know you studied real hard

Ponyboy: excuse me

Darry: Don’t worry about it, you’ll do better next time

Ponyboy: I’m so confused

Darry: I’m cooking dinner, it’ll be ready in a half hour

[sexhaver]

okay so uploading ur consciousness is a bad idea obviously BUT what if you ship of theseus'd the brain itself

like one neuron at a time

as much as i disagree with John Searle about pretty much everything (including his second scenario here, which i personally find a bit dramatic), i do have to give him credit for foreseeing basically every single relevant cognitive science question of the next half-century and showing his work for how he arrives at his conclusions. he wrote this in 1992

[polyshodivorce]

Random Rui trait I like is how he looks alittle angry when he’s thinking really hard

[dailyhmsw]

loop 116

[silently-standingstill]

LITTLE GRASSY!!

[toddthinkeritis]

not incredibly well-worded but what makes the current way bruce is portrayed so not compelling to me is the way that he's always (in the words of my friend) rewarded for being wrong. it's not that bruce isn't allowed to be self-destructive post-jaybin death, or bruce isn't allowed to have control issues or inherent biases, it's not that bruce isn't allowed to be self-righteous or victim blame jaybin. it's that the narrative (formed by dc editorial team and writers) agrees with bruce and praises him, rewards him for it.

saying this mostly in the light of.. whatever the fuck that 'when robins come pre-broken' is. i don't know what they're thinking, honestly, about that one. it makes bruce look even worse than he already is, especially the panels with alfred where alfred tells him he's just telling bruce 'the truth' and 'the truth' is that 'bruce is an optimist, while jason doesn't want and can't be shown light.' (paraphrased and summarized)

the narrative, through alfred, coddles bruce and tells him it's okay sweetie, you made a mistake, it's not you, you're not a mistake, it's the mistake, separate from you and your actions. because robins come pre-broken, sometimes... right? even the way the words are said 'richard was exceptional, jason is DEEPLY troubled' sound like pre-fed lines being parroted. very intentional. i don't even know if the writer chose that or the editorial told the writer to script it that way.

nevermind the fact that that's not what happens at all. i don't like starlin's run, but even in starlin's run, bruce is shown to 'make a mistake' in the form of 'picking up another child soldier.' it's recognized and then punished, the punishment being jason's death. and when starlin out of all people had better writing than whatever this story is... that's when i know the story isn't even worth reading or contemplating about. despite the very banger very cute art. it's a shame tbh.

i've been thinking for a while that even with the... odd and very questionable actions modern bruce has committed, from not allowing his kids to have a life outside vigilantism to like, motherfucking lobotomy, maybe he would be more compelling to me, more interesting and even more beloved if these actions and flaws were presented by the narrative in a way that's more.. neutral? and less biased towards making bruce seem the most correct and right and kind and morally just and strong and smart and tragic and victimized? like, i don't need to be told that it's negative. the narrative just needs to be more neutral.

he would be far more compelling, because maybe then bruce would come across as a guy who's constantly trying, trying so fucking hard whether with the kids he picks up or his mission in vigilantism... and is also wrong, often failing and so on. maybe then his successes would resonate stronger and despite his many privileges that i don't have, maybe i'd relate to him more. maybe it'll be a lesson in how love and care don't always show up sweet, but that it'll have its own values anyway. maybe it'll be a message about compromising and reaching an understanding and letting past ghosts rest despite current hurts.

but then i also realize that maybe someone in the dc team realizes that bruce would be perceived negatively even if the narrative stayed neutral. like, if the narrative doesn't side with him and actively excuses his actions, rewards his behaviors, coddles him, then someone would maybe notice that hitting your kids is bad actually. or taking in a kid while being under-prepared for it, as a replacement for your other kid that you drove away, is bad actually. which he did more than once, btw.

so yeah. i guess for doylist reasons, the dc team knows bruce has to be beloved by the narrative.

just that maybe not all of the audience will eat up that narrative blindly.