#I like your understanding of the lesson

[fuck-em-up-your-grace]

The fact that Shadow Milk is a foil to Pure Vanilla but a parallel to White Lily will never not be funny to me. Like, Devsisters really looked at Pure Vanilla and cursed him with A Type and that type is Narrative Atom Bomb

[pan-kojiwa]

I remember, when I just started learning English, being SO dumbstruck at the concept of missing someone like i couldn’t comprehend what do y’all meant by “I miss YOU?????” Tf??? Wdym I miss you?? You’re the one that I miss??? I know it makes sense to you guys but before I was just like WTF?? cuz in french we say TU me manques-> basically YOUR absence is making me miss you/ you’re missing FROM ME.

And saying I miss you was like saying Je te manque in french which is like saying “you miss me” instead of “I miss you”

So I = Je, miss = manque, You= te

Oh so ->Je te manque? wrong! Tu me manques? Yes

And Tu = You, me (muh) manques = miss me (me is I in this context)

So does it means ->You miss me? NOPE! I miss you

See why I was losing my mind back then?

Tu me manques is I miss you

And it’s so mind blowing when you finally understand that french focuses on how the person’s absence is affecting you: you are the one suffering from the other’s absence, TU me manques -> your absence is making me miss you. Or the fact that you are not here is making me miss you (that’s how I explain it to myself lol)

But English focuses on how the speaker feel the person’s absence: I miss you -> I AM feeling your absence

I probably didn’t explain it right cuz now that I understand it perfectly it kinda blurs in my head and it’s like wait why was this confusing already?? Both make perfect sense??? ugh but I hope i got my point across 😭😭

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I'm glad totk has no connection to the previous ganon (oot-onwards) because it would totally ruin him as a character.

Honestly I consider totk ganondorf separate even from botw, because I do love the idea of botw ganon being a completely self-dehumanized, seething, eldritch representation of this ageless grudge no one has any context for anymore, so he might as well be understood as a natural disaster or a vicious plague. I find this incredibly juicy!! Buuuut to me it only works within the context of a dozen other games building the ground up for this goopy, demonic, hateful incarnation with too many limbs and far too many angry eyes.

If you decide to connect BotW Ganon to TotK Ganondorf however.... like. I'm sorry, but. Sir, you are not this angry. You have zero reason to be anywhere near this level of rancor. You haven't even been stabbed, ever!!!! You never had your wish ripped out from under you!!!! You have never been forced to rot away in the void while fully aware of every agonizing second for centuries, not even a single time!!!! Rauru merely grounded you so you'd have your little power nap (:>), and then you woke up with renewed energy to topple down the other kid's sand castle just because it's fun to watch him cry. And honestly TotK Ganondorf does kind of feel like a toddler, gleeful to discover his own capacity for destruction for the first time. Which. I guess that could have been, something? I don't know, to me it's still pretty stupid and inconsistent honestly. But either way, that is not Dislocated Screeching Essence of a Mad Pig material.

TotK Ganondorf has no grudge, and as far as we know (which is insane!!!! this guy's core characterization is envy, yet he doesn't have this corrosive toxic energy at all in totk!!! he's far too happy to be here and break stuff just because, and like sir you are a grown man you've been a king for decades what are you so giddy aboutttt), the worse he had to suffer through in totk, as far as the game tells us, was a temporary humiliation. Which could absolutely be motivating for sure, but it feels very human and political and measured. Not "I will shred my own skin and forget my own name and suffer death a thousand times over just to show you all the depths of my hate" levels of fury. Again, to remove our familiarity to the character as players cheapens decades of buildup, and!!!!!!! anyway. Anyway.

anyway.

[shallowseeker]

I was thinking about Cas's little sarcastic dig in Family Matters here ("Of course. Your problems always come first.")

Sam, and especially Dean, don’t want to be treated like they’re being babysat by Cas, yet in the early days, they often hope Cas will be endlessly available, invincible, and strong.

(And it's complicated because... compared to them, Cas kinda IS!!!)

Cas, for his part, occupies a complicated space for them. While he is given room to be vulnerable at times, he’s also relied on to be everything at once: Dean's partner in times of trouble, someone who will "be there when Sam calls" and "tear the attic up for Sam," all while shouldering cosmic battles.

The irony is even deeper when Cas gets referred to as "a child" or "a baby in a trench coat"—yet his strength, sacrifice, and loyalty are counted on without question.

(Cas is often goaded into being stronger, of course, because Dean is scared and needs that strength from Cas more than Dean needs it from anyone else, even if Dean doesn't understand why that is. And even if Cas doesn't catch everything in those references, Cas can't help but FEEL that expectation.)

///

BY ANYWAY, BOBBY. In Weekend at Bobby's, Bobby is SOOooooo parent-coded in this episode in a way that kinda parallels Cas in s6.

It's an off-key parallel, but both Bobby and Cas are expected to be there. Bobby without "selfish" complaint, Cas without visible weakness.

Their struggles often go unnoticed unless voiced outright—something Bobby, in true crusty Bobby fashion, has no prob doing in Weekend at Bobby’s:

INT. BOBBY’S HOUSE – NIGHT BOBBY: I – I hear you, son. I – it just ain’t a good time. DEAN (over the phone): Yeah, okay. You know what – Forget it. I mean I'm baring my soul like a freaking girl here and, uh –And you've got stuff to do. So that is – that's fine. That's fine but, seriously, a little selfish. Not all about you. [Bobby gets angry and leans forward.]

///

Dean is going through a LOT, but it's funny how like a child he comes off here. He's spinning out, and he has "no one to talk to," and Bobby's his DAD!

Dean invokes his own emotions like "baring his soul," and is clearly taken aback when Bobby isn't immediately receptive. It shows how Dean expects Bobby to always be there, without question, no matter what Bobby might be dealing with.

That’s classic "invincible parent" territory: the idea that their needs are secondary, or even non-existent.

(Aside// This is sometimes a bit how Sam can treat Dean throughout the run of the series, and how both boys occasionally treat Cas in s6).

///

And then Bobby tears them a new one!!! :D Yay!!! It's a real family moment and I LOVE IT:

DEAN (putting Bobby on speaker after Bobby tells him to go get Sam): You're on speaker, Bobby. BOBBY: Sam. Dean. love you like my own. I do. But sometimes [Bobby pauses and takes a long drink.] Sometimes… You two are the whiniest, most self-absorbed sons of bitches I ever met! I'm selfish? Me? I do everything for you! Everything! You need some lores scrounged up – You need your asses pulled out of the fire –You need someone to bitch to about each other – [Sam looks at Dean, puzzled.] BOBBY (over the phone): You call me and I come through – Every damn time! And what do I get for it?Jack with a side of squat! DEAN: Bobby – BOBBY: Do I sound like I'm done? Now look. I know you've got issues. God knows I know. But I got a news flash for you. You ain't the center of the universe! Now, it may have slipped your mind …that Crowley owns my soul! And the meter is running! And I will be damned if I'm going to sit around –And – and be damned! So how about you two sack up and help me for once? Dean looks very humble and Sam calm. SAM: Bobby, all – all you got to do is ask. DEAN: Anything you need... we're there.

Hits like a tired, overlooked parent.

He reminds them he gets nothing in return from them, which is a HUGE call out to how invisible and thankless his role as caretaker has become.

Bobby’s "sack up and help me for once" is both a plea and a challenge, demanding they grow up and recognize that he, too, is vulnerable and needs support.

It's the parent figure finally voicing the toll of always being strong—for once, asking to be seen.

Dean especially is humbled here. He's been the caretaker for his family, so he gets it immediately.

How hard he was leaning on Bobby.

///

Aside/// This season, Dean's actual support group is small, maybe even consists of just Bobby and Cas. Dean is short on "Dean understanders" this season; that is, he's short on people who see his core experience as not merely a brother, but an actual *pseudo-parent. Dean is a parent of Sam Winchester: and Sam is a complicated, apocalyptic-torn person who's often saddled with shouldering waaaay too much cosmic responsibility...

...which in turn has Dean shouldering too much responsibility too!

So when it comes to Bobby and Cas, Dean puts what he can't take on them! His family!

///

But unlike Bobby, Cas doesn't ask for help.

Which... it's complicated. (And very human.)

For starters, thanks to his upbringing, Cas WANTS to be strong. He thrives and is comfortable being that. Second, there are definitely little ways Cas gets the not-so-coded message that it's bad to be weak, even if those weren't the messages Dean intended to send. (Dean is desperate for everyone to be okay, and he needs someone to want to shoulder the real, complete Dean, with all his duties and complications. And for some reason, subconsciously, Dean wants that someone... to be Cas.)

Regardless, lines like "Babies whine" and "Without your powers" dig a lot deeper than intended for Cas, because Dean didn't have the full scope of the angelic war or Cas's fears about Raphael. And even when Dean DID get glimpses of that, it didn't yield the full story.

///

For his part, Cas is keeping Sam and Dean at arm's length, trying to place them in a "these are my charges to protect" role.

Bu unlike with Bobby, who Dean firmly places in a parental role, something is trying to FUNDAMENTALLY shift between Cas and Dean.

They often find themselves eye-to-eye in the kitchen, making decisions together in a way that feels imho very spousal, creating a dynamic where Dean doesn’t quite know how to navigate this growing sense of wanting to be an equal partner with Cas.

So you get their weird push-pull power struggle between them, sniping and bitching, mirroring what happens in real-life couples early in the relationship when responsibilities are heavy and scary. It's this swirling mix of "Oh shit, I don't know what to do! And YOU don't know what to do! What do WE DO?!" And "You are such a baby / be careful you idiot / be stronger plz for the love of god"

But yeah.

So... Cas holds himself in the role of an ANGEL, remaining largely invisible throughout the season and trying his best to keep his struggles INVISIBLE too, including the war he's fighting on humanity's behalf. Cas prefers that. From a distance. Emotions are scary af; he even calls them CRIPPLING in Mommy Dearest.

(Aside///Call-forward to Mary’s: "I was trying to make things right. Just from a distance, because... being here with you was too hard. Seeing what I'd done to you and to Sam, I..." /// Mary was ashamed of her deal; And Cas was ashamed of his brothers, of angelicity itself, of what they KEEP doing to humanity.)

Anyway, Dean doesn’t quite know how to handle their strange bond, that longing, that closeness, especially as Cas insists on remaining emotionally and physically distant, trying to handle a war they can't even see.

//

As for Bobby and Cas...

While they have their moments of pushback (Bobby’s explosion in Weekend at Bobby’s, Cas’s barbed sarcasm in Family Matters), and it definitely reveals the strain they’re under...

...it often also works to underscore just how invisible their labor has become to the very people they love.

But while Dean begins to grow up enough to see and name Bobby's sacrifices, his understanding of Cas's struggle is murkier, tangled up in pride, love, and the deep, unspoken hope that Cas will always be strong enough for both of them. (Save-me-save-US-but-let-me-help-you.)

I think the thing I love about it all… is the dualistic (subconscious) desire for Cas to make everything okay versus the worry for Cas not to shoulder these burdens alone. It's SOOOOO! HNNNNNnNNnngg. It's very real.

///

EDIT DISCLAIMER: This wasn't exactly the point of this post (Bobby and Cas feeling misunderstood/underappreciated), but for completionist's sake:

Dean's grief is attenuated by the experience of being a "pseudo-parent," and definitely a caretaker in the context of "cosmic-inflicted illness," and that's a riptide that runs through season 6 in a big way. Dean needs the people he loves to SEE this aspect of his life in order to feel understood.

That's what 12x22 is all about. The thread from season 6 to season 12 is surprisingly thick! That's why this:

prefaces this: BEING SEEN

It's not a question of how fair or unfair it is, or if he "should be" or "shouldn't be" "a parent." It's about those very real efforts being seen and understood by those around him, including the grief and continued sense of responsibility this has wrought under worsening and frankly, incredibly unfair cosmic circumstances.

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

the most annoying thing about digging through the The Americans tag is the oh-so-progressive people there complaining about how the show is actually failing to portray Marxist-Leninist theory correctly 💅

like did you really come to a US drama series expecting a dissection of the fine points of Communist theory. you will note the conspicuous absence of "inspired by real events" at the beginning of the episodes. you will notice also the immense focus on a small cluster of characters and perhaps, eventually, reach the understanding that this is a story examining relationships that it has chosen to set in the backdrop of the late Cold War. nobody ever claimed accuracy here and more importantly nobody involved with this show ever claimed it was politically revolutionary or instructional. the showrunners literally said it was "basically a show about a marriage" and the spy stuff is a metaphor. what's not clicking.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Hi!! I love this series so much, and as someone who hasn’t really drawn since they were a kid but wants to start as a hobby, do you have any advice for sort of learning to doodle on paper and get better at it? I want to start but I don’t really know how/where

The most important step in getting better at any skill is Persistence and Consistency. Practice and keep practicing! The best way to do that is to keep it fun! Picking a project helps generate ideas (e.g. drawing Pokémon, or characters from a series you like). There are also a ton of monthly prompt lists out there!

I also highly recommend scheduling in a 'drawing/practice' time in your day. For me, I started with 30-60 min before bed (bonus: its a good 'no screentime' activity), and the habit took root there.

There are a lot of 'technical' things to study but find the fun first. At a certain point you will discover you've hit a wall, and have a specific aspect/goal you want to target (colour theory, anatomy, lighting, comic layout). Then it's time to go looking for resources.

Once you have the habit and some goals, go collect some inspiration! Find people who inspire you and study their work!

Another little 'art skill builder' I recommend is the Shrimp Method! Only if you find technical challenges like this fun though (Example of one of my studies below)

[lokh]

and listen. old men yaoi aside. wouldnt de-ageing snake like. defeat the point

[quatregats]

Like he just looks so much happier talking in Welsh at this point

[unionizedwizard]

funniest thing ive learned (and that's coming from someone who had debilitating perfectionist tendencies) is that making your own mistakes is actually thrilling and really fun because it really feels like gaining xp and leveling up but irl. like ah shit i see. well i'll know that's a soak marker next time kinda deal

[notbecauseofvictories]

it's always interesting to talk to my sister, because we can vivisect every single member of our family and their psychology, the dynamics that radiate out from our parents, our grandparents; how it has affected our brothers, parents, aunts and uncles, and even friends, partners....

but when it comes to us---two members of said family, affected by the same dynamics and psychology---we are very carefully silent.

[ukulelegodparent]

Oh Polish my beloved, it is such a joy to be speaking you again <3

[ceramicbeetle]

finding a character that grates against your nerves and eventually thinking, well, that's not fair, you haven't done anything; why do i dislike you? and then you dwell on this for a while and discover 'oh! you are like me when i was younger' and decide well, i'll simply learn how to love the both of you. power in this.

[rigelmejo]

Just a little clarification. Because a lot of 'comprehensible input' study materials and advice-giving methods market themselves as 'learning a language like a child'

Comprehensible Input Lessons specifically are lessons designed to be VERY understandable using pictures and gestures, so that no translations are needed for the student to understand what is being taught. These lessons ARE in regular classrooms, are in many immersion class programs, are in many language tutoring centers, and they're online made by lots of tutors and teachers. They're just a type of lesson. They don't require you to specifically do anything 'like a child.' They only require the student to do something besides follow the lesson itself, if the specific teacher or program is telling you X is a requirement! Anyone can use these kinds of lessons. Any teacher can utilize these lessons, if they're trying to make their lessons as understandable to students as possible - these lessons are useful when students don't speak the same native language so every student can understand the material, and for supplementing lessons that use translations (by giving the students VISUAL context along with translations). TPRS Teaching Proficency through Reading and Storytelling is one example of this type of lesson, often TPRS uses some amount of translations and a lot of visual context.

Comprehensible input GENERALLY is just... material you can comprehend. That's it. Material you can generally understand the meaning of. Comprehensible input would be any graded reader or textbook dialogue that you as a student can understand the meaning of by reading, any conversation you have in the target language you can understand, any show you can understand, any lesson the teacher does IN the target language that you can understand. As you learn more of the target language, obviously the amount of input that is comprehensible (that you understand) increases. That's it. That's all comprehensible input is. It's a very broad category. It does NOT require you to think or do things in a certain way to be 'comprehensible input,' it's just engaging in some situation or engaging with some material you understand. Comprehensible input lessons specifically are a TYPE of comprehensible input, designed by teachers and tutors to be extremely understandable to learners of various levels. Similar to how graded readers are made to be VERY understandable to the learners at the level the graded reader is designed for. But comprehensible input lessons and graded readers are NOT the only kind of comprehensible input. So are cartoons you understand, fanfictions you read and understand, people talking to you where they gesture and you understand what they're trying to convey, people who talk and don't gesture but you still understand because you know enough things to understand them, etc.

Comprehensible Input Learning Programs - these are the only things that MAY tell you to 'learn like a child.' It depends on the learning program, and the teacher's instructions. These Learning Programs typically are made up of teachers providing a lot of Comprehensible Input Lessons, directions on how they want the student to study/think/engage with the lessons provided, and directions to engage with other experiences the student understands in the target language (which will increase as the student learns more).

If you are using Dreaming Spanish and following Pablo's directions completely, then you'll study the Comprehensible Input Lessons on his website in the way he recommends. So when he says no translating in your head, no reading about translations and explanations, you follow his directions. It's his teaching program, and if he says not to do those things, then you follow his directions if you've chosen to follow the teaching program as directed. The rules Pablo gives are not required to learn from the material, they are the requirements to follow his teaching program as directed and get the results he's expecting the program to provide students. He can't guarantee students will get the same results if they vary from his directions. There are many people who use the Comprehensible Input Lessons posted on dreamingspanish.com without following Pablo's directions. That's also fine. The directions to learn a certain way, to do certain things, are not required to 'use' comprehensible input... everything you understand, is comprehensible input. You can engage with it however you like, and you will learn from the experience, because you understand the experience.

ALG is another example of a comprehensible input learning program: comprehensible input learning programs generally are structured with teachers providing Comprehensible Input Lessons specifically, encouraging students to seek out other comprehensible input experiences - experiences the student understands in the target language (which will become easier as the student understands more), and for students to follow the program's directions.

Alice Ayel's Lessons for French also follow this structure: if you pay for her website's lessons, she gives directions on how she wants students to engage with the Comprehensible Input Lessons, and the student is expected to do the Comprehensible Input Lessons.

If you are not specifically deciding to follow a Learning Program, you don't have to avoid thinking about the target language, avoid translations, or avoid grammar explanations. Those are just directions some Learning Programs give students, and you can choose to follow if you're doing that Learning Program and want to follow the teacher's directions.

You can also just use Comprehensible Input Lessons as a tool, like any other lessons or resources. And comprehensible input in general is just... experiences and materials you understand. You can engage with comprehensible input however you want, you will eventually run into comprehensible input (stuff you understand) as you learn more and understand more. Textbooks include comprehensible input - assuming you are studying the material previously presented. Graded Readers are comprehensible input - assuming you're the language level the graded reader is recommended for. Classes often have comprehensible input moments - moments the teacher says stuff you understand, because it's stuff you've learned. Some teachers do Comprehensible Input Lessons specifically - using minimal translations and a lot of gestures and pictures. Some teachers do TPRS. Some teachers eventually ask you to read novels, or watch shows, in the target language, and as you understand novels and shows those count as comprehensible input. Every conversation you participate in the target language and understand, is comprehensible input.

[shagchateau]

.

[blackvahana]

i am really never going to understand why people post "shifting antis dni" in the astral projection tag. "here practice that constantly gets appropriated by us and used as a weird justification for a new set of beliefs that aren't really based in the same reality you work with, and that also gets completely misunderstood by our community because we don't care to understand what you do and just pretend we know it's what we do like christians saying other religions worship the christian god, have a post! Also dni if you don't like our practice that has nothing to do with the one whose tag we just shoved this into"

if you're not astral projecting don't put shit in the ap tag. if you don't even know the difference between AP and RS I dont think your opinion holds enough weight to counter the pushback against flooding a separate practice's tag with "if you dont like the practice I'm talking about in your tags dni"