#I love this story so much

[mapoeggplant]

I absolute love how takamatsu-sensei is always so meticulous with writing her characters and always so worried about making sure they feel as real as possible. by exposing their flaws and working on it, she's showing how human they are and how they are learning and growing each day. this will connect so many different people to skip to loafer because everyone will be able to see themselves in one character or more, no matter what. it's not just a story about teenagers learning about life and growing, but a story that is able to connect people from all ages and make them reflect a little more about themselves. how many times have I stopped to think "wow, this makes me feel so seen" and made me want to explore more of this side of myself? or how many times people came to me and said they relate so much with X character and finally feel free to open up or just found the comfort they were looking for?

takamatsu-sensei, I hope you know you're making history with skip to loafer and that everyone is extremely grateful for it

[friendshippedbox]

I Edited Translucent Drdt Characters Onto Text Conversation Bits I Found On Pinterest

Seen this sort of thing before and I thought it would be fun to do xD

So I'm sharing these!! Hope you enjoy and it makes you laugh or something ^^

[sarahjtv]

Say what you want about Endeavor; I think his atonement/development arc is one of the best in My Hero Academia. The Todoroki Family storyline is definitely one of the best and most grounded ones in the whole story IMO. Phenomenal chapter so far.

[grapedemon]

Made a really rough sketch of a scene from this amazing story (Silly writing with silly guys, which I think everyone should read)

Scene that I sketched

[macaronitrash]

this article is a trans analysis of little shop of horrors and it’s INCREDIBLE.

[niqhtmeep]

Omg what’s this? An old sj animatic? Woah that’s crazy 😱 Sleuth jesters is by @naffeclipse and it’s so scrumptious I’ve got to re read all of it sometime 🫣 also the song is the world we knew (over and over) by frank Sinatra, if anyone wanted a listen :)

[tonguetiedraven]

So I was cleaning up a few manga panels for my other blog, and darn it, I need to talk about my thoughts on two scenes in the Shimane Illuminati arc (specifically chapters 61 and 62) because Kato deserves all the applause for everything. This post will be for chapter 61 and I'll post 62 later.

TW/CW for character death, medical abuse, and mental health struggles. Content below the cut.

First, in chapter 61 we get this heart breaking page when Tamamo Kamiki dies.

To get into what I'm seeing with this panel, I need to give a brief (or I'll try and make it brief) overview of Tamamo. Tamamo gets introduced to us in chapter 52 and the first panel we get of her is her sobbing into the camera that everyone acts so cold towards her because she is sleeping with the head priest and not married to said high priest.

We are then told that she was an irresponsible and careless woman by Mike. We find out three really important things though.

Tamamo is judged by the people around her and gets a cold shoulder

Tamamo relies heavily on her daughter and the byakko to have the house run at all and has dreams of a fantastic family and house she has shown no ability to actually run.

Tamamo is in love with the (shitty) Chief Priest of Inari and that he isn't married to her.

We then find out:

That Tamamo and her entire line have always managed the terrifying and unruly Nine Tails by assimilating the god and becoming her, and that the town/shrine distrust her because of that, even though she does it to protect them. They ostracize her for the duty her family has and they judge the entire family because she had Soji's children.

Notice Soji isn't in the judged club and that Soji has never seen his daughters. He's never been to her house. It is always her going to him.

This theme of ostracization is something that pops up over and over and over again in Blue Exorcist. Almost all of the main characters had a childhood that was lonely and where they were rejected by their peers--almost always for things outside their direct control and almost always in someway connected to demons, even if they didn't know it, but I'll get to that more in a moment. Suffice to say, at this point we can see that Tamamo is isolated outside of her illicit meetings with Soji (not at all healthy as we'll see later on) her interactions with the demons around her, and her daughters, neither of which are old or mature enough to offer her the type of companionship she's in need of, which leads to everyone in this tangled dynamic having unhealthy relationships with each other.

We see Tamamo seeking connections and affections and largely being rebuffed by it everywhere except Tsukumo and the byakko. Soji's affection has strings attached, and Izumo is too fed up to offer any affection. The other members of the shrine ostracize her and give her a cold shoulder, and I'd bet money that they're vocal about their opinions any time she's around. (And they likely don't care if the kids are around or not.)

What I'm getting at is that Tamamo is lonely and you see that in how desperate she is for approval and connection and it mostly comes out with Soji. She does whatever he wants to keep her connection to him intact. We've also had a few indications thus far in the manga that isolation and depression and poor mental health are things demons take advantage of. We'll get more explanation on that later on, but suffice to say that Tamamo is not at all in a healthy spot to be constantly risking possession against an immensely powerful and evil demon.

I'll be honest and clear up front that I have no love for Soji and think him deplorable and he did not do anything to help Tamamo that we see. Rather, it seems he exclusively used her for his own pleasures without any care for her or the consequences their time together had.

I also think it's important that everyone know that Nine Tails -- at least the Nine Tails in this story -- is based of Tamamo no Mae who is an infamous yokai in Japanese lore. She has a long and complicated history with her origins unknown and a lot of political manipulation, but an important thing to know about her is that she is always depicted as a child eater. She devours women as well, and thrives on seducing men. She's beautiful and powerful and alluring, and she's manipulative.

So generations of women manipulated and regularly partially possessed by Nine Tails down the line, we have a shrine and town that reject Tamamo and her losing her grasp on the one adult who 'likes' her, and we see this moment:

We see her staring at him, enjoying the light atmosphere and gathering her courage (the sweat drop in the panel has me thinking she's nervous about this because it's not the first time this convo has happened.)

She wants him to come to her house and is trying to make it as appealing as possible. She wants a family and the life she's been dreaming up.

Soji rejects the idea entirely and pushes further by saying if she asks for him to interact with the kids in any way he'll dump her. The one adult connection she has will be lost because of her children. (Not actually. It's because he's a dick but she sees it as the children being the problem.)

She then goes immediately to Nine Tails to do the dance of spirit invocation which we're told this about:

So Tamamo--who has been isolated and lonely for at least a large chunk of her adult life is now seeing the one connection she's made with another adult (and an unhealthy one at that) potentially break because of her children-- goes to assimilate the Nine Tails in that unstable and unhealthy emotional and mental state.

It is heavily implied that Nine Tails started to take her over at this point, and you see her become more and more obsessed with Soji and more angry with her children, further isolating herself away from the small amount of support and connection she did have until she's entirely possessed by the vengeful and malevolent spirit of Nine Tails.

She murders Soji and tries to do the same to her children before the Illuminati take her and subject her to years of torture, all while she's still possessed by the Nine Tails.

One more detail and I'll get back to the scene in chapter 61.

When Tamamo was last fully in control of her faculties and saw her daughter, she saw Izumo in the same place she was. Ostracized by her community with no one but their small family to lean on. Her daughter was doomed to follow the same path Tamamo had, and at this point, it looks like this was a cycle that had been going on for at least a few generations. Isolated and connection starved women raising daughters who were isolated and connection starved children. Tamamo became overly touchy and clingy to everyone where Izumo became mistrustful. (And man does she have a lot of reasons for that.)

Now back to chapter 61 and the moment Tamamo dies.

She wakes up amongst the chaos of the zombie hoard going towards possessed Izumo, and she immediately intervenes to get the Nine Tails spirit back inside herself to save her daughter.

That's important to understand for her. She moved before the next moment I'm going to talk about. She saw Izumo possessed and didn't seem to hesitate to save her daughter. She has been tortured for five years and immediately moves to start that horrible possession again.

But while she's dancing to contain Nine Tails in herself, this is going on in the background:

Each of the other teens in the room came to get Izumo and they're shouting their support of her even while they fight an endless hoard of zombies because they came to get her. Tamamo can hear that happening and she can see that they came to help Izumo.

No one came to help Tamamo. At no point did anyone ever come to rescue her or fight for her. She was blamed for everything and was left to bear all the consequences for five years. (I am not blaming Izumo for that. She was a child and was not responsible for saving her mother.)

But with "We're here for you!" ringing in Tamamo's ears, she completes the ritualistic dance and frees her daughter from the possession.

Tamamo in her dying moments looks at her daughter and sees a community around her that Tamamo didn't have. She sees people willing to intervene and help and fight even though Izumo is pushing them away and possessed and not easy to get along with.

Tamamo, from everything we saw, was isolated and rejected by her community and had no one to support her. She was manipulated and played by her significant other and left vulnerale to possession by a society that needed her to do the thankless job and hated her for doing the thankless job. She was bubbly and friendly and still pushed away and rejected and ostracized until she succumbed to Nine Tails.

back to chapter 52

Blue Exorcist talks a lot about curses and ostracization. All the main cast suffer from it in some way or another. They've all been called terrible things and most of them have been treated as if they aren't human, and a lot of them have complicated lineages and may not be fully human which just amplifies the amount they're rejected by their peers.

For Tamamo, that curse was literal and figurative. The literal curse was the constant absorption of an insane demon that eventually consumed her until she'd destroyed what little family she had.

It was figurative in that as the head priestess and medium in charge of the rituals, she was rejected by the community she needed to support her. She was left floundering on the outside, always given just a taste of what she could have had if she was born to a different family, and left with a longing for what she would never be given and always wondering why she couldn't have it. (And yes, I'm probably reading into some things and filling in the blanks with hypothesis and assumptions.)

But in that final moment, Tamamo sees that curse of isolation and rejection has been broken by Izumo. That her daughter, who like all the daughters of the Kamiki line was alone, is no longer alone. That she has friends and support. Support that followed her into this hell and reached out to call her back even from a demon like Nine Tails.

I don't know if I've made myself all that clear, but I love the way that Kato has shown this over and over again and keeps showing the rejection of isolation and ostracization as any kind of solution. That she keeps showing through each of these relationships and arcs that it's reaching for and connecting with other people that brings change and healing and hope, and I love how she shows that through moments like this. It's a little moment that's so easy to miss, but it's so immensely huge when looked at in the context of the entirety of Tamamo's life.

I wish she knew that they would have come for her if they'd known she'd been there all this time. I wish she'd have found a community to support her and I wish she'd had someone to tell her Soji was a dick and she could do better.

I wish she could see Izumo now, still connected to her friends and even though it's the end of the world, she's fighting with and beside them. That she's seeking out connections and learned her lesson about not needing to be alone. That she's teased and loved and welcomed.

But I'm pretty sure in that final moment, she saw it all anyway.

[junespriince]

Flowers floating in the dark void au

Pirithous, in the underworld ready to yoink Wally from Dick: hey Hades, nice to see you here.

Dick, who knows, smiling: yes, I was hearing you two were coming, please I made a feast, eat.

Theseus: cool!

Pirithous: nice.

Sit down, both wrapped in their chair by snakes, both panicking.

Those idiots: what's happening!?

Dick: you think I don't know you are hear to still my husband? You shall consider yourself lucky I don't end you where you stand. *Snaps his fingers and furies attack the two, as he leaves to go back to his office where Wally is there eating a pomegranate*

Wally, looks confused: what's the screaming I hear?

Dick, smiling genuinely this time: oh nothing, just some idiots getting punished.

Wally: ah, so are you free? I have this date idea, there's this field of flowers it's perfect for a picnic!

Dick: I'm free now, let's go.

[the-feathered-dragon-hoard]

UnOrdinary — chapter 341

[winterpixel]

rylan villanueva from when twilight strikes by @evertidings

kinda scared to post this but. PLEASE GIVE THIS AUTHOR LOTS OF LOVE. such an amazing person and one of my favorite stories wooo

[madamemidnight]

Also, Happy Birthday to the cultural phenomenon that is Homestuck.

My drawing of John Egbert that is so old Homestuck was still updating regularly before the giga pause when I made it. 😅 Never posted it before, but I recently had to document all my art and found it, just in time for the holiday. 💙🤍💚

[avenin]

📓

HI THANK YOU

I’ve had this fun little (revalink) story idea where Link doesn’t pull the Master Sword as a child. Instead his father gets transferred to Rito village and he grows up in the Tabantha region. Soon befriending young Revali and the two of them become menaces together (and best friends). Very much a childhood crush/best friends story (similar to Mipha/Link).

Revali still becomes champion of the Rito and all, but Link stays home in the village. Only getting to see him sporadically when he’s not traveling with the other champions. Zelda’s father is still an asshat, almost more so because the hero of legend hasn’t been found. And the champions all kind of despair because of it as well. It isn’t until Link visits the castle while Revali is there (as a surprise) and eventually pulls the Sword (closer to 17 than the hypothesized 13). Revali is less jealous and more concerned for his friend and what it means. The king wants Link to come train at the castle, Link and Revali BOTH disagree.

Also the champions get to see Revali be a soft idiot teenage boy around his crush which is cute.

[justendrix]

I drew Ambrosius Goldenloin from Nimona! Mixing the comic design and the movie design was so fun! I may have accidentally leaned closer to the comic design - twas an accident

[lonelybiscuits]

@devilheartsblog : Dark harmony fans here’s your food

Me:

Meant to upload this earlier but never got the chance

[lensinski]

Petition for mystery files to tackle the German Cookie Monster gate. That's the exact right amount of whaky crime that would fit. People 'kidnapped' a 44 pound golden cookie statue and sent a ransom note to the cookie manicaturer demanding they donate chocolate cookies to a local children's hospital and 1000 Euros to an animal center, otherwise the cookie would 'end up with Oscar in his trash can'. This is the picture they sent:

In the end, they reached a peace treaty with the manufacturer and just gave the cookie back. No one was ever caught.

[whumpsoda]

Omg I cannot stop writing for WSFSP box boy whump is on my mind at all times I’m like a writing machine I’m going nuts everyone go read it /lh