#I sadly don’t have the source to this quote

[tamamatango]

HAPPENING……MAYBE!! (Addressing the anime rumors + Keroro’s birthday plan revealed)

*holding my hand out toward you with sparkles framing me* Let’s take copium together!

Not the post I was planning to make next, but here’s a sudden update for a couple of reasons. Some very exciting rumors which you may very well have seen have been floating around for the last day or so, and while I was initially hype as fuck to corroborate it as fact, there’s a little asterisk to the whole thing that I wanna tack on before we shit our pants too much. In addition, the official accounts have revealed what they’re planning for Keroro’s birthday this year, and while it’s not that closely related, I might as well cover that too.

So, a summary of what alleged info just came out:

A typically reputable anime news/leak account, SugoiLITE, shared yesterday that the Keroro anime series is planned to be broadcasted in Spring 2025, and a new movie is planned for 2026. However, the only publicly verifiable info hinting toward this is a recently released interview in an anime magazine with animation director Fumitoshi Oizaki (from the original series, and was also credited on April’s PV), where he describes the series and movie projects but does not specify the series name. This info is per another credible reporter, blogger ryokutya.

Now, here is my translation of Oizaki’s quote as presented in the post: “Details haven’t been made public yet, but I’m working on a series to be broadcasted next spring. Concurrently, a movie scheduled to be released in 2026 has also started production.”

Sadly, the blog post does not specify which anime magazine this was in, so I don’t have the full context for the interview or the question asked. I checked a few table of contents from recently released anime magazines and didn’t see Oizaki’s name in any of them. My hunch is telling me that it’s Newtype, which doesn’t have a digital version, so there’s no feasible way for me to have it that quickly. So yeah, we’re kinda stuck with that quote floating in the void for now.

I can’t go too deep into it so you’ll have to trust me on this one, but I’ve got a little knowledge myself about roughly how and from where anime leaks usually get sourced. It is very possible SugoiLITE does indeed know this information in advance, but it’s also equally possible he only saw this same quote and extrapolated the most likely scenario from it. If it is the latter, I’d say he made a pretty safe bet anyway.

In the quote, what I chose to translate as “concurrently” can also mean “in parallel”, so the interpretation I’m getting is that the spring 2025 series and 2026 movie are connected and being developed in tandem. Ryokutya also guesses that the work in question is Keroro since it does have a project announced. I’ve speculated that the new series will air in either spring or summer next year for a while now (BNP has a mysterious gap in their schedule, with two series airing in January and the Gintama spinoff announced in late 2023 being pushed to October). A movie in 2026 also make a lot of sense, since it’s the 20th anniversary of the first movie. Oizaki does work on other franchises with recent relevancy, such as Kaleido Star which had its 20th anniversary in 2023, and some works in the Shigeru Mizuki-verse like Akuma-kun and last year’s Gegege no Kitaro prequel. But given the specific language in the quote and just Occam’s razoring it down to the fact that we know Keroro is getting things already, I think this double feature is pretty likely what’s going on. Maybe it’s the hopium talking, but it’s certainly not a reach (trust me I’ve made reaches before I was here for the nothingburger that was the anime’s 15th anniversary).

Okay, tl;dr: Given the one available source we have and the credibility of both reporters involved, I think there’s a pretty good chance the anime will really be next spring and there will be a movie in 2026 as people have been corroborating. But the probability that this is an educated guess and the probability that it’s confirmed are pretty much equal at the moment. So get excited! But not too excited. Just like a bit above average excited. You may draw the party popper pull string back about three quarters.

When I first started drafting this post, I was looking forward to saying that we’ll likely find out next month what the truth is, knowing that today the official accounts were going to reveal what this year’s Keroro birthday celebration is. But…they explicitly stated there will not be any new anime info at the event they have planned. Booooooo. Well, here’s what we are getting:

It’s actually not a physical event like they held last year. This time, they’re commemorating Keroro’s birthday with the first episode of a new live radio show called “Kero! to Radio”, featuring Keroro’s voice actress Kumiko Watanabe and Tamama’s voice actress Etsuko Kozakura. It will be broadcasted irregularly on the official Keroro YouTube channel, and next month’s premiere will be here. There will be various different segments of the show which feature messages and questions sent in by listeners. Submissions are sent in via the program’s Onsen page, which also has details about each segment. You do need an account to send messages, but I don’t think a Japanese address is required unless you want to enter the optional raffle. I’ll play around with it later and potentially do a separate post going more into the show’s structure if that’s something people are interested in (obviously you need to know Japanese to really get anything out of this, so I’d like to gauge if it’s worth it first).

While it’s disappointing that there seemingly won’t be any news about the new anime revealed on the legendary birthday, it’s pretty neat to have another VA radio show. It seems like this is sort of following in the footsteps of Keroro and Giroro’s Earth Invasion Radio from back when the original show was still airing, although Keroro Channel also had been doing its own livestreams featuring the BNP/Kadokawa staff running the channel giving updates about the series’s various collabs and stuff (the majority of these episodes were done before the new anime announcement). It’s unclear if this is going to replace those or not; this is quite different structurally. It would be really cool if they rotate the voice actors out each episode and change the segments up a little since the broadcasts are irregular anyway. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

*Exhale* All right, that’s enough yapping for today. I know the wait for more concrete details on the anime has been excruciating, especially now that we have a very tantalizing possibility dangling right before our noses. But if spring really is the airdate, it can’t be too much longer now. We already waited over a decade—what’s a few more months, right? Heh heh... (I’m dying Squirtle.)

[atopvisenyashill]

i can elaborate if anyone wants, i’m not joking when i say i will be stuck in this car for like four hours 😭 why is urban sprawl so bad (it’s white flight i know this, not the point).

PROBLEMS

uneven as FUCK pacing - maybe there’s no getting around this but i do think this ties back to the idea that they do not care about the source material the way they should. so they just like, rush past the parts they clearly don’t think are interesting to get to what they DO like, because they only have 10 (and EIGHT) episodes to do it in. that’s not enough time!!!! 13 episodes MINIMUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SLOW IT DOWN LET IT SIMMER

in season 1, i think the younger generation suffer from this writing choice the most, but so did the strongs & the velaryons most acutely. i also think older rhaenyra is often too busy with Plot to have good Character Moments while older alicent gets a much more even hand. viserys dominates screentime, & we all know i want to top that old man but now he’s dead and the characters that are alive need so much more work.

in season 2, i think the velaryons once again suffer from this, and around idk rooks rest the greens very suddenly drop off. rhaenyra becomes much more balanced and alicent spends too much time being sadly silent instead of doing serious character work w other characters + they completely cut off aliotto & alilarys (and arguably aligon) for That Other One and i just don’t get why u would focus on the worst ship out of those three.

criston should have spent more time w aemond & gwayne should have been daeron. daemon gets too much fuckijg focus in harrenhal and only half of it is interesting. alys & simon you’ve done nothing wrong ever in your lives and i love you.

which tbc i don’t think they have SIDES they love i think there are EVENTS they find interesting & they prioritize getting to those events quickly (bc they don’t have enough episodes).

Alicent should have been older than Rhaenyra. you can make her a child bride, you can make her friends with Rhaenyra, you can make her homoerotic relationship with Rhaenyra the beating heart of your show and still have her be several years older than Rhaenyra, if you’re not a fucking coward.

Tullys - if i thought they did this because they felt it was too many characters to juggle, i’d get it. but you know damn well they did it bc they don’t think the muppet names fit their serious business aesthetic and they are fake fans for that shit.

The Lads - where is Black Aly. Where is Benjicot. Where is Sabitha. Where is Red Robb Rivers. what the fuck. why do the riverlands always get the shaft even when they’re technically getting focus.

the north - i’m sorry did we find it enjoyable when bran disappeared for a season. did u know that this doesn’t have to feel like nostalgia bait if you don’t TREAT IT like nostalgia bait??

nettles - cutting nettles defeats like, at least 33% of the reason you even adapt the dance. even if they backtrack, it is a mind boggling decision to attempt to do the dance without nettles. if u wanted to cut a dragonseed, i’m sorry, i kno i got ulfhusbands following me but cut one of those dudes. “oh but what about their dragon” vermithor & silverwing are the two most boring dragons and you can quote me.

Sunfyre & Dreamfyre - LIKE YOU KEPT VERMITHOR & SILVERWING, WHEN VERMITHOR IS THE UGLIEST DRAGON & SILVERWING IS JUST A LESS COOL DREAMFYRE BUT U CUT 90% OF THE SUNFYRE & DREAMFYRE CONTENT??? ARE YOU SILLY????

Velaryons - where do i even begin. it’s bad to racebend a family and then completely rework their characters so they’re less prevalent. idk how many times this has to be said, but idc if u think rhaenicent is the better ship, there was no reason to write laena the way they did. what was the point of having laenor live if they were just gonna kill him offscreen. what did THEY think they were cookin with vaemond huh. why do rhaenys & jacaerys never fucking interact on their own. can we get corlys talking to any of his grandkids except that one time with luke. pls.

the strongs - every day matthew needlham comes onto set and slays and they go “you know what. let’s have daemon do carpentry instead.” harwin’s entire character was either cut or implied. i like the alys stuff but hollywood has a problem with refusing to cast milfs and i won’t let it stand bc why can we have paddy AND rhys the dilfs but not alys. why is daemon played by a 40 year old but alys can’t be??

rhaenyra’s hair - it’s TWO BRAIDS do NOT piss me the fuck OFF. have the nerve to be RISKY instead of redoing dany’s fifty little braid big braid thing!!!

daeron - let me stop here.

honestly so many of the character troubles can be traced to “needs more time” - the kids in the back half of s1, corlys, rhaenyra in the back half of s1, the strongs, the riverlands, the north.

OR “i need u to acknowledge your limitations as writers” - alicent, the velaryons, the twins, some of the gender stuff, imo this comes from not having a diverse enough writers room & not having anyone writing that’s darker than a paper bag Does affect this.

listen. does brienne become plot relevant right away? no, she’s just kinda following catelyn around after some weird shit happened to her. but we still get to MEET her and CARE about her before stuff gets crazy. oberyn is introduced so we have an emotional tie to dorne in affc. hugh & ulf & the hull boys felt a bit randomly added but imo this is bc they narrowed the scope so much w everyone else.

NOT PROBLEMS

the yuri is INTEGRAL to the plot dont pmo

i have never seen a rhaenyra criticism that didn’t annoy tf out of me

“oh she’s too perfect” no “oh they favor her” no “um excuse you but rhaenyra is FEMININE” im mailing my dog’s shit to your house as we speak

they don’t have a favorite side stop saying that

the concept of black velaryons/dragon twins. i literally did that graphic and it would be so easy to have corlys explain this in his monologue to daemon but i actually think that In This Day And Age, it’s fine to look at a vey white source and go “now where can i maybe race or gender swap some stuff to add to the narrative” pls see iwtv & anne with an e for examples. what they did was maybe perplexing (well no it’s not, it’s a common trope) but still workable and tbh Corlys as a Black man is simply canon to me, eat shit.

“oh they softened this character i hate but they wrote the characters i love badly” it’s bc the writing is incredibly uneven across the board i need everyone to get over themselves. i’m a rhaenyra apologist and even then, they just clearly miss the mark in a few spots bc this series is sloppily written bc it’s on a time crunch. the vision they were going for in their softening of every single character makes sense & are often changes they made to deal with a source material that is VAGUE and PURPOSEFULLY CONFUSING. it’s fine.

the abigail thorne cameo. should tyland & her have done jack shit for like a third of the runtime? no. but like, just casting a funny lady in this part is fine?

i’m sorry i think the hairstyles can be whack but the wigs are great?? why is everyone always shittalking the wigs?? well okay the aegon s2 & jacaerys s1 wigs were p bad but i don’t think any of the rest of them are particularly egregious. everyone shits on the daemon wigs specifically but i think he looks very good??!

the cgi is good i think some of u are too picky

Alicent - listen. obviously i think some of the complaints about her writing has merit. but some of the shit i see is just the the stupidest shit. making alicent a child bride was a good choice, bc we don’t see aemma’s child brideness. also, she’s 17 when they start fucking around, viserys is not like Meaningfully better in the books about her. making alicent a young mom IS the correct choice! keeping alicent as a main character in s2 IS the correct choice. “this is a story about the fight between rhaenyra & aegon” your brain is the size of a pea.

Visaemon is the correct choice (imo they should have leaned in slightly harder to the Viserys/Rhaenyra angle to really bring it home, but everything they did regarding the characterization of this triangle is good.)

and for that matter, bringing aegon, helaena, and aemond closer in age to jacaerys, lucerys, and the twins is also the correct choice. the helaena visions, aegon sadboy, jacaerys classism allegations, baela not gaf abt the bastard allegations, these were all good choices. leo hurt! aemond save me, same me leo hurt! aemond.

helaena and viserys being dreamers is genuinely inspired

criston being dornish is also a good move, all the people who complain about this are just like. so clearly racist aksjdjd and i think they do a good job with Criston As The Lone Dornishman (though they fail a LOT with What Does Being Dornish Mean To Criston but again, this goes back to the writer’s room)

the prophecy stuff is GOOD i’m stealing from kingcunny here but if u don’t like the idea of rhaenyra getting fixated on the same prophetic magic that drove her father to murder her mother, and driving her son away, then maybe targaryen madness isn’t for you!! “well i don’t like the targaryens” i also wish they’d do a show about literally anyone else & i think these overhyped lizard fuckers are obnoxious but like, the main series is FULL of prophecies, you can’t SPIT without landing on another prophecy, wanting LESS MAGIC in the MAGIC SHOW is exactly why we have the dumpster fire that is the main show. be serious!!!!!

[nistley]

An Isekai anime that doesn't use only stereotyping is refreshing!

(as a woman it’s nice to not roll my eyes or sigh for every panty shot or normalized sexual harassment behavior from the male hero)

Suzune and Ryusen relantionship

One of my favorite : Yes, Woman and man can spend time together and being friends. It is nice to enjoy time with a colleague.

(well, we don’t know for sure if their relantionship will evolve. Ship them if you want. For now my ace heart was pleased).

Multidimensional characters are what I crave !

Within 5 minutes of the episode we have three stereotypes :

- Genious student council president : smart, team leadar, sportive … : Suzune

- Smart, capable and composed student council vice-president : Ryusen

- normal guy : Usato

Don't get me wrong, clichés and stereotypes are useful. They give you a sense of knowledge and help you get into the story more easily.

Although when someone is only the "funny guy/girl" who is a cute and silly cinnamon roll for 10 episodes. Then, say an inspirational quote for the last episode, it is a frustrating and quite boring experience.

That’s why, when the magic circle appeared I was happily surprised.

Ryusen is freaking out. Usato is surprised but almost chill and Suzune is really excited about the event

That’s the moment, I said to myself, it might be interesting.

Usato has empathy and is attentive to his surrondings (I link it to the bird scene). Before saying Ryusen as to calm down, Usato acknowlegdes his anger and makes him understand that it is not a good option for them.

Like in real life, only shooting to someone to stop is often not effective, but if you add emotion (by example : « you seem hurt let’s discuss about it » or « you are right to be angry but it’s not my fault » …) you create a space for both your emotion to connect (at least in my real life experience maybe their is an on/off bouton I haven’t discovered yet).

THIS, THIS !

Am I too old ? Is the world a better place now for teenagers ? (calm down. I am not your mom, I am only in my late-twenties) ,or I have watched too many crappy or clichéd anime.

Simply, two guys checking how they are feeling. « Like, are you alright dude ? I am pretty angry to be here. How about you ? ».

No stupid joke, nothing pervy about the magician « nun outfit » (I don’t mak judgmenys, she is rocking this outfit).It feels realistic. Amazing.

To sum up, I enjoyed being surprised. I have watched countless anime for years and more often than not you can predict what will happen or what characters will say. I know I am not the only one. Sadly we are not super human, it is the source material which is poor.

Suzune is not the « Damsel in distress » or the nurse / the one caring for the guys . In fact she is the main character in spirit. Usato and Ryusen are bonding over their insecurities about being

thrown out into another world (in opposition to Suzune who is living her best life).

Additionally, I am sick and tired of genre stereotypes. . Woman as to be gentle, elegant, weak … Man have to be strong, fearless, insensitve …

It doesn’t seem like it in this anime, I have hope 

[circular-bircular]

Firstly, thanks so much for your patience! I wanted to give a really comprehensive review, but therapy kicked my ass yesterday. Then, I left my computer charger at home, so I did most of this post on my phone. Oof!

Alright.

The claim that endogenic has been used to fakeclaim DID systems is, perhaps, a bit of a misnomer on my part. Has it been used that way? Yes. In medical spaces, however, it has been more often used to fakeclaim trauma based disorders in general.

The sources here are a combination of what various people have found on this topic, as well as my own research -- predominantly these sources are from others, as they’ve done a LOT of research that I frankly don’t have the chance for right now. (Also, apologies if I don’t have everything italicized or formatted correctly for citations -- I’m not used to APA. MLA for life, sadly).

The Trinity of Trauma: Ignorance, Fragility, and Control by Ellert R.S. Nijenhuis: This book goes into detail about how trauma has been viewed throughout the centuries, discussing topics such as hysteria and how people fakeclaimed trauma via endogenic theory. It’s a really comprehensive view honestly! I unfortunately can’t find a good accessible copy at the moment (the price point of 109 dollars on Google Play is a bit hefty), but here’s a few choice quotes with their pages listed:

(Page 38-39) “Freud’s theoretical conversion of a predominant endogenic interpretation of trauma and hysteria (sexual abuse → sexual overstimulation, deferred action, repression → hysteria) in an extreme endogenic view (Oedipal sexual wishes → fantasy, repression → hysteria) had major clinical implications. Not sexual overstimulation, but sexual desires were being repressed; not the free-floating unconscious sexual affect, but Oedipal sexual desires had to be brought to conscious awareness. And because these desires are essentially of a biological nature, the essence of hysteria would also be biological.” This is to say, Freud popularized the theory that people were traumatizing themselves due to their own biological desires to fuck their parents; this view of trauma was saying that the disorders we know today to be caused by trauma were all biologically caused. It’s the basis for the Fantasy Model.

(Page 157) “Many World War I psychiatrists also took a one-sided endogenic explanatory route by claiming that soldiers who broke down had a weak mental and moral will.” This is to say, endogenesis, as an idea, was being used to explain away the effects of trauma on the brain, deeming those who were struggling with their traumatic experiences to be weaker than those “normal” people.

(Page 158) “Another revived historical idea involves a contemporary variety of a particular mix of endogenic and exogenic causes, that is, the idea that dissociative symptoms and disorders are due to the patient’s fantasy proneness and suggestibility (endogenesis) in combination with suggestive, illness-inducing or illness-reinforcing actions of other therapists and the media (exogenesis). These thoughts have been influential, but individual views and facts can be opposite (see Chapter 15). An attempt by some proponents of the so-called sociocognitive model of DID to erase DID as a mental disorder in DSM-5 failed.” This is to say, the sociocognitive model of DID (that lovely, lovely model that assholes like to try to use to complain about people with DID existing online) is based on the idea of endogenic (biological, “from within”) fantasy proneness (the fantasy model of DID) and exogenic (influence that is not from within, but is not traumagenic) factors led to dissociative disorders existing.

All this to say, Freud’s endogenic theory led to the mass fakeclaiming of DID systems. Freud’s pseudosexual theories, which relied on endogenic causes of trauma, led to the idea that it was the traumatized individuals’ own self (their endogenic body/mind/person) that led to them being traumatized, rather than the world around them being inhabitable (an exogenic factor).

This shows clearly that the term endogenic has been used against DID systems since Freud’s time, since before DID was even a term. Endogenic theories were used to try and remove DID from the DSM for crying out loud -- that’s pretty severe. This idea is also based particularly in the ableism of the time and the desire for Victorian abusers to hide their actions; after all, if Freud stuck with his original trauma theories, that would be outing a lot of abusers as being the way they are. His theories shifted with the political and social norms of the time. It’s a shame to see the term come into resurgence, then, and stumbling across it as a medical term fakeclaiming my trauma when I try to research my disorder. It felt strongly, when I first encountered it, that the term endogenic was being used to claim that non-traumagenic systems were experiencing the same thing as my disorder, but they were doing it through fantasy -- the idea that one could develop DID through just… imagining it. This is an incredibly harmful reiteration of the fantasy model, so you can understand where some of the hurt and pain comes from.

Of course, this was not the intention of Lunastusco when they “coined” endogenic. It’s a really very unfortunate case of someone not doing a lot of research into a term, and I will say, I fully don’t expect someone to know this unless they’re actually… y’know… seeking this information out. Unless Lunastusco looked specifically into how endogenic had been used in medical spaces, I highly doubt they’d have found anything. They’ve also gone on record to say that they regret not being more proactive with the label, and that they only did about 30 minutes of research into the label before applying it (I would cite that number, but it seems the original post where they stated this has disappeared into the ether. I had no luck finding it.)

The issue being that, rather than acknowledge that endogenic has absolutely been used to fakeclaim DID and trauma-based disorders, many major pro-endo syscoursers push the idea that this is an “anti-endo lie.” But the sources are right there, so… take what you will.

At the end of the day, it’s very clear that the term endogenic isn’t meant like that, at least not in its modern majority usage in the community (more on this later).

But Freud didn’t say “endogenic!”: A common argument I’ve seen is that Freud didn’t use the term endogenic. And, well. Technically, I guess you’re right — he spoke and wrote in German, so he didn’t use endogenic. He used endogen (and various conjugations of the term based on the tense and gender of the discussion). The translations appear as endogenous frequently, as endogenic and endogenous are the same thing; Endogenic causes are endogenous in nature. The terms are used interchangeably.

Personal Connection: There are more sources than this, obviously, which SysmedsareSexist has compiled on a post of mine about this topic. It’s actually where I found most of the quotes already from this post, as he and (I assume) the mods there did a lot of this legwork around October. This has actually been a discussion for some time in syscourse spaces, passed off as an “anti-endo lie” by major syscoursers. I was told repeatedly that I was making this up for attention, that the term was never used, that I was moving goalposts by translating things from the original german, that I hated endogenic systems for using the term endogenic, and that I was demanding apologies from people for using it.

… Yeah. I have something of a personal connection to this argument. Here’s a link to the post from October when I summarized my points, and where SAS laid out all of their sources. It’s far more comprehensive than my explanations here, and shows the usage of the term for decades, well before Lunastusco coined it in 2014.

Slightly To The Left of Fakeclaiming: This is more tangential, but I wanted to include modern versions of the way endogenic systems or pro-endo systems have utilized articles about multiplicity to fakeclaim DID, intentionally or otherwise. This isn’t quite the same as them using the term Endogenic to fakeclaim trauma-based DID, but there’s similarities that I’ll go into.

This post as well as this post go into my debunking of Normal Dimensions of Multiple Personality Without Amnesia. This article is commonly cited as “proof” of endogenic plurality, but what people who don’t read it don’t realize is that it’s fakeclaiming DID systems. The entire end of the article fakeclaims a diagnosed case of DID, suggests she imagined her trauma, and falls back on false memory foundation ideals. Seeing this touted as “proof of endogenic plurality” is similar to saying “DID systems are secretly endogenic and are imagining their trauma.” I doubt people are trying to do this, but… as a DID system, it fucking sucks to see. Given that this idea is based off of the Fantasy model, which… is based off of Freud’s endogenic hysteria theory… Not a great resource to use.

This trend of people seeing the term endogenous/endogenic and thinking it immediately means non-traumagenic plurality being proven continues, as A Jungian Perspective on the Dissociability of the Self by Brian R. Skea is the next article on my debunking series list. It’s another one that’s been given to me to prove endogenic systems exist, and… frankly, it’s been hard to get through. The quote I often see passed around is: “In actual fact, Jung, early in his work, minimised the impact of exogenous trauma on complex formation, emphasising more the endogenous trauma caused by conflictual fantasy. He also focussed on the capacity of the psyche to split into different personalities or systems of consciousness as an aspect of normal, that is, supposedly non-trauma-related complex formation.” The… endogenic trauma “caused by conflictual fantasy.” You mean. Fantasy model? Woohoo.

This… whatever it is, came up while I was trying to research the models of how DID can form -- you know, how the disorder, unrelated to endogenic plurality in the slightest, develops -- only for the argument here to be “we need a multi-factor model that doesn’t use trauma as heavily because the Fantasy Model makes some good points.” Ough. I can only access the abstract, sadly, but the reason I put it here is because I then promptly tried reading over this article that was given to me as “something written by an actual plural system, who was actually recognized as a system in the authorship!” and it struck me as. Eerily similar. I don’t think it’s intentional that these authors use the same language as the more fakeclaimy “the false memory foundation had good points” article, but it’s unfortunate again how much these languages overlap.

Lastly, as little as this counts as a “source,” there are so many systems with the personal experience of being fakeclaimed as “being endogenic.” I’m one of them and have spoken about this frequently on this blog. I was pressured for years to identify as autigenic and was told repeatedly by pro-endo systems that I “wasn’t traumatized enough” to have DID. This isn’t the term endogenic being used medically, but rather, the fact that people use endogenic plurality as yet another way to fakeclaim DID systems. Now it’s not “you’re faking because your trauma isn’t real” -- it’s “you’re an endogenic system because your trauma isn’t real.” Thankfully, it’s not much of the community that’s like this anymore, from what I’ve seen, and usually, it’s people in denial of their own trauma that I see telling traumatized people that their trauma isn’t real.

Thank you to @small-clover for asking for these. I hope this gives you some good reading material! As I said, most of this was gathered by others (thank you to the mods of SAS, a now deleted user who I won’t name here because they wanted entirely out of syscourse, Flowers, etc etc etc) and a few by myself. I hope it helps!

[x-on-the-calendar-business]

ryan ross iceberg (tier 7)

tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, tier 4, tier 5, tier 6, tier 8

deep waters:

light up skechers fancam:

this is a fancam made by twitter user fleetwood_wac. the background song is skechers by dripreport, and i think it was a tiktok song? (i don’t have tiktok) in 2020/2021, it became famous on ryan ross stan twitter. i don’t think the original tweet is still up, but aryn has it in this reply.

side note, if you weren’t on ryan ross stan twitter in 2020, you were sorely missing out.

go figure. to late honey:

this is a quote from one of ryan’s livejournal posts from july 3, 2005. it’s SO iconic.

zrosswald:

this refers to ryan/z berg/alex greenwald. i think it’s meant to refer more to their friendship; the golden trio, if you will. however, i’m sure there are people who genuinely ship them all together, just like rydan.

they have been a tight group for a while, as z and alex both played with the young veins some. also, ryan and alex made appearances at z’s prom events.

eta: as i suspected, this is definitely a real ship.

here's a tumblr post explaining the ship dynamics a bit more. this blog has a lot of zrosswald content if you're interested!

kale:

on thanksgiving of 2011, ryan tweeted this:

in 2021, it became a meme in the ryan stan twitter community, and people tagged gordan ramsay in the tweet, asking his opinion on ryan’s cooking.

first male model for mac:

the story goes that in the fever era, the makeup company mac offered ryan a spot to be their first male model. unfortunately, he declined. according to the comments on a livejournal post i found, ryan discussed this in a 2006 spin magazine interview [i]. there were scans of the interview, but sadly, they’re not available, like most pictures on lj. it hasn’t been archived either.

the same commenter says that article doesn’t specifically mention mac, though. mac did offer ryan free products, but he doesn’t say if he accepted them [i].

so, it’s unsure if ryan was offered to be mac’s male model (unless there’s another source i’ve missed) or another brand’s. either way he turned it down. my guess is that the mac idea came from the fact that he used mac’s products back then.

beef with pete wentz:

after the split, brendon got pete in the divorce.

in a MTV interview that ryan did in 2009, it says “…he wishes Urie and Smith well and still considers them both to be his friends…The same cannot be said, however, about his former boss -- Decaydance Records honcho/ Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz -- who seems to have clearly aligned himself with the Urie/Smith camp following the split" [ii].

in the same interview, ryan specifically says:

"I haven't spoken to him in a while, since this happened. I guess I've been meaning to call him back. He called me, but I've missed a lot of phone calls this week," Ross said. "We're not sure [whether Ross' and Walker's new band will be on Wentz's Decaydance Records]. I'll have to talk to him, but obviously from what's happening online, I think he's ... he's written a lot about them. I don't know if they're working together on their stuff. I'm not really sure, but it's been awhile since we've spoken. It's strange. It's kind of weird" [ii].

the author of the article speculates that ryan and pete’s friendship is over [ii]. i can’t find the source for this, nor can i remember what the specific comments were, but i swear that pete did make some shady comments about ryan at one point.

however, it does seem that their relationship is not on negative terms currently. in 2016, pete tweeted this and this about ryan [iii] [iv]. also, this year (2023), pete mentioned ryan in a video fall out boy posted of pete reviewing his old fashion! you can watch it here:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fall Out Boy (@falloutboy)

i’m also going to link an article i found that chronicles ryan and pete’s entire relationship, which is an interesting read (although i get the feeling they’re a little biased against ryan…).

ryan’s pet turtles:

i can’t find the post or comment, but on a lj post, ryan commented “this reminds me of when my dad ran over my pet turtles with the lawn mower. thanks.”

“i went to high school with ryan:”

i have two sources for this, and i’m not sure of which one is the original. however, this one is the one i remember seeing first (around 2014).

on tumblr, someone sent in an ask saying essentially the same thing, also in 2014.

i know that both are referring to the same thing; i’m just not sure if the first pic is based on the ask, or if the ask is based on the image. either way, the sentiment is the same.

honestly, i don’t think this story is true. still funny nonetheless

hot girls eating pizza:

this is another one i cannot find a source for anywhere (not even a tweet mentioning it), even though i was able to in the past. i apologize.

but i’m pretty sure that what this is about is a tweet/social media post in which he referred to hot girls eating pizza.

if anyone has a source or more information on this one though, please let me know!!

(i was going to dm the creator of one of the icebergs i referenced to ask her, but twitter won’t allow me to send dms to someone who doesn’t follow me unless i pay for twitter blue. i’m committed to explaining this iceberg but not enough to give elon musk my money i fear)

sent to an island:

in an alternative press interview from 2018, z said that on christmas eve, she shipped ryan off to an island to clear his head. ryan says, “true story” [v].

kate moss playboy:

in the following picture from ryan’s instagram, you can see a kate moss playboy on the table.

hentai:

in the fever era, panic did interviews for a japanese magazine. someone ran ryan’s portion through an image translation, and it brought back something about hentai.

eta: update, twitter user givememallce bought the actual magazine from japan and provided us with translations of this image and the questions the band was answering! they also included the answers from the rest of the band if you're curious about those [vi]. so the biggest shoutout to them and their service.

fake wedding with z:

in 2009, ryan and z pretended to be married. ryan tweeted a picture of z with a wedding ring, called her his wife, and also tweeted a quote of her calling him “the best husband ever” [vii].

later, he tweeted that his wife left in the middle of the night. he then had a revelation:

the best part is that all of these events took place within a single day.

here’s the masterpost with all the details:

not actually 5’11:

this is a conspiracy that ryan is lying about his height.

one piece of evidence was that brendon is 5’9, meaning ryan would be 2 inches taller than him. however, in a lot of photos they look to be relatively the same height.

the other piece is that multiple fans who have met ryan said that compared to their own heights, he can’t be 5’11. i don’t have specific sources of people saying that, but i know it was discourse on twitter at one point.

next is the final entry in the iceberg, where we get into the most obscure stuff the iceberg has to offer and finish this thing up.

tier 8

references:

[i] https://bandfandom-ref.livejournal.com/133181.html

[ii] https://www.mtv.com/news/1fedpk/exclusive-ryan-ross-talks-about-leaving-panic-at-the-disco

[iii] https://twitter.com/petewentz/status/794988164901261312

[iv] https://twitter.com/petewentz/status/795025751930114048

[v] https://www.altpress.com/ryan-ross-z-berg-the-bad-list/

[vi] https://twitter.com/GIVEMEMALlCE/status/1695649402663363028

[vii] https://pathetic-at-the-disco.tumblr.com/post/180912208431/ryan-ross-and-z-bergs-wedding-masterpost

[thunders-warcats-stuff]

TALLSTAR'S ROUGH CHILDHOOD

Based on this:

https://www.tumblr.com/thunders-warcats-stuff/714680353463369728/character-deconstruction-sandgorse-and-talltail?source=share

AND “No Light No Light by Florence and the Machine

I dreamt of a scene where Tallstar was talking to Rusty about his family and I woke up from that dream and was like "that's it, no more "dying to erase pain and harm you caused. You don't get to escape the consequences of your actions." Because death isn't real for these cats. They'll see their loved ones at the end of their life and possibly in the middle of it! It's confirmed! So! The Rocky Road to Redemption: Sandgorse Edition

LOUDER THAN WORDS VERSION

<So what was your family like? Did you have any siblings? Who was Dawnstripe to you? Who were your parents? Are they the reason you're this awesome?>

(Tallstar is talking *and* signing here, so quotes and brackets)

<"You sure are curious, kid. Let's see... I have five siblings, but unlike your litter, they weren’t all born at the same time. Forest cats have smaller litters. Four was a lot for anyone, but my mother and heart-father handled it! Really well.">

<Heart-father?>

<'I have the father who sired me with Palebird and the father who helped me grow, like Dawnstripe did. His name was Woolytail.">

Tallstar made the sign and sound for sheep and waved his tail.

SNIPPET 1

🎵“[Heaven] StarClan help me, I have to make it right!”🎵

“Why won't you just talk to me?! Can't you see that I'm trying?!”

"You're trying?! Palebird has been struggling since Tall was born, but you're trying!

You told your only son, the boy who just wants you to love him, to stay away from you and the tunnels but you're trying!

Have you even apologized?! Have you asked Palebird how she's coping? Have you talked to Tallpaw about anything but the tunnels?!

Do you even know how close or far he is to getting his warrior name?!"

"I-!"

"No! You don't! You spent all this time growling and groaning about what you can't have while your whole life is right before your eyes! But it's okay, mollies and toms, he's trying!"

SNIPPET 2

Dawnstripe defends Tallpaw from Sandgorse “Tallpaw!”

“Are you here to ask about his progress?”

“No, I-!”

“Are you here to watch what we're doing today?”

“No, I-! Sure. Might as well see the life of a runner.”

“Alright. Sit over there and be quiet. If you have any questions, talk to me and me alone. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Tallpaw, that's the worst crouch I've ever seen! Don't you-?!”

“Quiet!” Dawnstripe barked. “Tallpaw, just like we practiced. To the TallSlate and back.”

Tallpaw took off at half-speed.

“A kit can go faster than that!”

“Shut up!” Dawnstripe snarled. “If you're not going to be helpful, go lay somewhere else! Tallpaw doesn't need your snake's tongue!”

SNIPPET 3

Woolytail helps Palebird out a lot and eventually they fall in love but at first he and the rest of the tunnelers are trying to get Pale back into the swing of things

Palebird stands up to Sandgorse when confronted about Woolytail

🎵You want a revelationyou wanna get it rightwell that's a conversation I just can't have tonight🎵

Pale: “even if he is just doing this to catch my eye, he's helping! You haven't done anything to make up for your horrible attitude to me or Tall, and it's not fair that you want to take away the cats who care just because you're jealous!”

SNIPPET 4

Dawnstripe sees Talltail off

“You know you don't have to do this, right? Sandgorse might be grumpy and snappish, but you don’t have to take that. He's going to be fine in the elder's den.”

“I need to find out what happened. He doesn't remember. He thinks he took someone down there but he didn't know for sure, and the Passing Cats left before we could ask them anything. If I can do this, if I can get answers for my father, then maybe…”

“Maybe?”

“I just want him to see me as worthy of being his son.”

“Oh, Tall…” Dawnstripe purred sadly, pressing her side to his. “I know it doesn't feel like it, but you were always worthy of being his son. He hasn't been a very good father to you.

"I don’t think he'd have been any better had Finch lived. He's always going to be like this, and his early retirement certainly won't help things… Are you sure this will help you?”

“Yes.”

“Then go, kid. Good luck. Remember what I've taught you. Hunting will be challenging, because we usually run our prey down and you can't do that in close-quarters.

"I think your battle training might help there. It relies on being fast enough to hit your opponent but avoid getting hit in return. Do you want to tell anyone else, or should I?”

“I…”

Talltail choked up.

How could he explain his quest to his mother and heart-father?

To Barkface and Shrewclaw?

Would Sandgorse even say anything if he told the older tom?

“I'd be glad to do it, if only to see the look on Sandgorse’s smarmy face when he realizes he ran you off.”

“I'm not trying to run away-.”

“You are, even if you come back. But I don’t blame you at all. I'd run too, if Heatherstar could spare a runner.”

“Do you know why she can't? She did close the tunnels.”

“Yes, but the tunnelers have to get used to a very different method of hunting and fighting than they're used to. We runners will all have our paws full teaching our grown Clanmates like apprentices. Stars help me, this is gonna be rough!”

“Maybe I shouldn't-.”

“Nope, you're going! Remember how we practiced following through? It'll be put to good use during this trip. Cats will understand.”

“I kinda figured they'd all be mad at me.”

“That'd be Sandgorse and him alone. And we'll all be barking at him for the rest of his days if he tries any of his rabbit-dung on you.”

[disco-cola]

ok im boutta rant so hard. so honestly the reaction of people (or sometimes lack thereof) to the recent events between palestine and israel is so telling… so many people even in my own surroundings are so ignorant and stupid and one-sided. being in support of a free independent palestine and still acknowledging the ongoing nearly daily mistreatments of Palestinian people by the IDF in the gaza strip west bank etc. even now after those recent horrible attacks on israel (which are not condonable or justifiable ever to me) does not make you a „terror sympathizer“ or even „anti-semitic“ like be so for real. this is exactly what the western media has been trying to make people believe for all those past years and they‘re doing it again now and using it for propaganda- which is why it’s so important to ALSO get updates from Palestinian sources (I use eye.on.palestine and theimeu and byplestia on insta since getting back from the trip and actually learning about the situation in 2020 and they are doing educational work on top of news too but beware it also contains uncensored extremely disturbing footage that a lot of western media just casually completely refuses to report about). It’s this complete disregard and erasure of Palestinian struggles for the past nearly eight decades and history under israeli occupation. The complete justification of the counterattack and pledges of unwavering solidarity in the big western newspapers without telling the whole story NEUTRALLY. Like what I’ve read in newspaper articles in the past days is actually SCARY bc it sounds like absolute brainwashing and is not neutral truthful reporting at all. I will say it as it is I don’t give a flying fuck about any of those violent colonialist settlers losing their lives. I also dont give a shit about any violent hamas member who killed an israeli civilian involved bc they are just as racist and evil. Scum like that needs to be wiped off the earth so that maybe one day this place really can find a solution in peace. And I really do wish that for Palestinian AND Israeli people, for Jewish AND Muslim people. I‘m so sorry for all the innocent lives lost who get caught in the crossfire but you also can’t tell me, and I’ve literally read this today in a big newspaper that I quote „israeli forces will do anything to protect Palestinian civilian lives“ bc it doesn’t line up at all with the footage shared from targeted regions in Gaza and that „Palestinian terrorists will use their children as shields and then cry into cameras and we cannot show sympathy for them“ when all I’ve seen are traumatized mothers or fathers who couldn’t even walk or stand up straight bc they were crying so hard. It’s inhuman to not show empathy like hello? I can’t believe this is actually what they’re printing and people are buying into it bc they think this is the right and political correct thing to do.

Also don’t forget about the fact Israel has one of the top high tech modern military forces in the world. Israel has iron dome and david’s sling (and thank god they do bc it does prevent more senseless deaths) which are highly advanced air defense systems which are said to have a catch rate of 90%. they are not catching and preventing ALL missiles from hitting sadly but A LOT of them. however when israeli military fires missiles on gaza, they KNOW for sure they WILL hit. Even if they apparently give „warnings“ to the population before starting an attack. In Gaza at least 900 civilians have already died in in the last 3 days, reportedly half of whom are women and children. Please think about them too when you mourn the victims, even if their pictures are not shown in the newspapers.

[raxistaicho]

“Red Lady stoopid”

Who wants more Fantasy Invader?

... Well I don’t either, but he is a darkly amusing source of content to debunk.

Next we’re diving into a... fever dream where FI tries to convince everyone Edelgard’s a stupid, stupid little girl who was lied to and tricked.

Because Edelcrits don’t even respect that Edelgard is aware of what she’s trying to do unless they convince themselves she’s just trying to take over Fodlan.

Sadly, I’ve long forgotten what he was replying to. Judging from usual trends, probably something RandomNameless said.

Anyways, Aegir was working with the Agarthans, so that’s a distinction without a difference.

Fascinating how, when it’s time to deny Edelgard’s agency and portray her as a stupid little girl in over her head, they actually listen to what Thales said during that cutscene in White Clouds, but when it’s time to blame her for Duscur or justify Dimitri’s irrational assertion that she did Duscur, they just take it at face value when he says Duscur was done for her. In actuality, the Agarthans did Duscur for themselves.

First off, Aymr has nothing to do with the secret history unless you’re Fantasy Invader and you think “Devil Arcana! Devil means EVIL!”

Secondly, if Aymr represents the Agarthans having control over Edelgard in SB (you know, the route where she betrays them and kills them...), why do you get it in the story branch where Byleth - Sothis’s avatar - doesn’t die? Wouldn’t it be the other way around?

This’ll come up later (FI has a lot to say about Claude and GW in future posts) but FI does actually just cut to the quick and says the player getting Blutgang in GW is further “proof” of it being a bad route. So yes, Marianne’s Crest is a sign of corruption and she was right to hate herself. And naturally, this story branch gets the Blue Lions the “good” item, because if FI didn’t have double standards he wouldn’t have any.

No. I’ve touched on this subject before, but knowing the secret history (for god’s sake, stop it with the “sekrit”, you sound like a petulant child who realizes he’s already lost the argument and is resorting to being petty) is not what motivated Edelgard to go to war.

Secondly, here’s the full quote where Edelgard tells what she’s learned:

Edelgard: Professor... Do you know the true story behind the legend? The Relics were created by the hands of mankind. Seiros collected them after killing the 10 Elites. Seiros manipulated the people of the world and defeated the all-powerful King Nemesis.

This is all true.

Rhea created the Empire to get revenge on Nemesis. She admits to deceiving her followers herself:

Choice 1: I thought he was corrupted by his power?

Choice 2: Why would she do that?

Edelgard: That's the history the Church of Seiros maintains. However, it was little more than a simple dispute. The church maintains the false history that he was corrupted and turned evil.

Completely true. Nemesis was not corrupted by “evil gods”.

However, it was little more than a simple dispute.

In this, Edelgard’s mistaken: it was far more than a “simple dispute”. However, if you want to blame someone for Edelgard’s misunderstanding, blame Rhea. Neither Nemesis nor the Ten Elites had any clue why she was fighting them until the end.

As I’ve said before, the importance of this scene is NOT what Edelgard knows, but what she doesn’t know, the implication behind her not knowing it is that even Wilhelm didn’t know Rhea’s motives for wanting to fight Nemesis.

Should the one leading the people of the world be someone with humanity or a creature that can merely masquerade as a human at will? In the end, Seiros was victorious. The Immaculate One and her family then took control of Fódlan. I know this because that knowledge is passed down from emperor to emperor. And that is the because the first emperor is the human who cooperated with Seiros, allowing humanity to be controlled in secret.

This seems to be why Fantasy Invader thinks the secret history is why Edelgard fights Rhea, but it isn’t. She fights her out of an understanding that the Church of Seiros is the cornerstone of Fodlan’s horrific system of Crests and aristocracy.

It’s more of this recurring trend from Edelcrits where they want to de-legitimize anyone’s reasons for fighting Rhea. Edelgard wants to fight her because she was lied to, the Western Church want to fight her because they’re racist, and Claude at first doesn’t like her because he’s ignorant and needs enlightening by the white dragon pope (we’ll get to that...)

Jesus christ “her simp”. How fucking old is Fantasy Invader? 16? Am I justified to call Dedue a simp now? Probably not. I actually hold myself to standards.

And yeah, FI still thinks Hubert is an Agarthan.

And “Jeritza the serial killer”. How come when Dimitri falls to his violent psychosis he’s given infinite sympathy and chances to redeem himself, but when Jeritza becomes desperately mentally unwell he’s a “serial killer”. They’ve accused me of ableism just to do it themselves.

Ah well, good opportunity to shill a pretty old post of mine that got big last year.

But now to cycle back to the “willing to turn a blind eye” portion.

Fantasy Invader never sources anything he says (which means I then have to research what the fuck he’s even talking about), but I believe he’s referring to Edelgard’s B support with Hubert in Hopes.

To open, Hubert’s lamenting that Rhea escaped into the Kingdom because they didn’t surround Garreg Mach and tear it apart when they had the chance. Edelgard admonishes him;

Hubert, that idea came from Lord Arundel... That is to say, Thales. And it’s an impractical idea at that - one based on unreliable experimental assets that had never been tested in battle.

That’s really it. We don’t know how much she knows of the nature of the “assets” or how they were even going to be made. Given how alarmed she is at the sight of Remire, it’s very unlikely she was aware of the full scope of the devastation the Agarthans planned to cause.

She never said Nemesis was the hero. She doesn’t make any moral statement on Nemesis at all, just that he wasn’t corrupted by evil gods - which he wasn’t.

She can see with her eyes that Rhea has enormous influence over Fodlan, and that she was a cruel beast to screamed her intent to murder Byleth in an exceedingly violent way the moment Byleth turned on her - funny how Edelcrits never seem to notice Edelgard only calls Rhea a “cruel beast” on the route where she behaves with extreme violence.

Something to recall about Edelgard is that she’s a very dramatic person; she tends to make grandiose statement that fall short of her actual intent. See her saying she would “obliterate” Rhea, just to then offer her terms of surrender.

And lastly, she probably doesn’t believe the legends that her family claims descent from Seiros - and she’d be right to, given we know House Hresvelg has its Crest of Seiros through blood transfusion, not from Rhea boinking Wilhelm.

Also, fucking “Willy”...

No, she’s not descended from Rhea. When Rhea says she “shared blood”, she means that quite literally, not in the usual metaphorical sense. Unless you want to propose that Flayn had kids with Linhardt’s ancestors, you creep.

So what FI is talking about on the second point comes from the original Japanese reading of Edelgard’s A support with Byleth in Houses.

Now in this regard I have to rely on machine translation, sadly, but;

I'm relieved that even though you're so far from humans, you still have a human side. 

Well, in the same way, I may have drifted away from ordinary people a little. 

In much the same way Céline uses “human” when talking to Alear,

Edelgard’s not saying she and Byleth aren’t literally human, just that they’ve grown apart from ordinary people.

(Unless you want to accuse Céline of being racist against dragons, which would be a pretty hard sell, I have to say).

The Divine Dragon in Engage and the Nabateans in Houses and Hopes occupy a similar space; they’re treated like gods, not another species. In this regard, “human” means not the species but the trait of being approachable and limited. Mortal, not divine, which is the crux of Byleth’s dichotomy.

Additionally, Edelgard, who is human but has grown detached due to her experiences and trauma, is comparing her experiences to Byleth’s. How on earth is Edelgard being metaphorically distant from her fellow man comparable to Byleth supposedly literally not being human?

Maybe Fantasy Invader thinks Edelgard is applying the “one drop of blood rule” to herself. Yuck.

Oh, and Byleth’s not half-Nabatean. Jeralt was human, Sitri was neither.

She’s creating a world for the Agarthans by... killing the Agarthans.

Again, Fantasy Invader seems to think Thales’s plan was:

1. Kill Rhea.

2. Spend the next thousand years binging Netflix at my pad in Shambhala.

Nah, he kinda wanted to take over the surface, too, and he fails at that in Crimson Flower.

Edelgard isn’t achieving the Agarthans’ goals for them if she completes step 3 of their plan and then turns on them and kills them with steps 4 through 6 still in progress.

Fantasy Invader is exhausting to deal with sometimes, lol. It’s all half-formed gish-gallops with him, it reminds me of the angry ranting car vlogs Logicked debunks on You Tube.

Luckily he sticks to the same points so frequently that I can often just point back to earlier posts I made and go “nuh-uh”. Also I enjoy the rhetorical exercise.

[hageny]

Succession Thoughts: Gerri x Roman 

1. Cash In, Cash Out.

This episode afforded us no Roman and Gerri content as of yet, but it did build on the interesting themes already at play in episode one. We see the siblings--mainly Shiv and Kendall--trying to undercut the deal Logan has struck with Matsson to let Gojo buy Waystar. Shiv, as usual, is following her own best interests in spite of her alleged interest in a team-up with her siblings, speaking privately on the phone to Sandi at the beginning of the episode, and leaving her siblings in the dark about the phone call. Kendall, later, does the same thing when he receives a text from Stewy. Like in the birthday episode of last season, both Shiv and Ken are playing their own games, but try to squash Roman for receiving a text from their father. Their anger at him is understandable, but hardly fair, considering their actions. The same goes for the halting of the sale of Waystar, which Roman seems mostly uninterested in. Already we can see the seeds it dissent growing. Roman wants to move forward with his life; revenge is boring to him, and he’s savvy enough to see a horizon that doesn’t involve hating his father, but also doesn’t involve being in business with his father. He’s attempting to make the smart choice to disengage rather than continue to beat a dead horse. While he may believe there is a future with his siblings and he on the same side, deep down the viewer knows that this is highly unlikely. They can’t move forward, and they don’t have near enough respect for his tenacity and knowledge to utilize him in the way they should. Gerri was the only one who tapped into Roman’s strengths, molded him, overlooked and forgave his weaknesses. One can hope this might mean that a future without both his siblings and his father might involve a future teamed with her--at the very least in a business sense--but considering the universe these characters inhabit, such a rosy view of things is probably naive to take. Even so, the fact remains that the cracks in the surface of the union between Roman, Shiv, Kendall, and Connor are starting to show. Granted, Connor isn’t involved in their business dealings per say, but while he and Roman have a similar view of their place and lot in life, Shiv and Kendall seem  most capable of sinking the ship.

2. Oldest One Out.

The good thing about having a family that doesn’t love you is you learn to live without it. 

I don’t touch on Connor too often, but I will say that the ending scene with him was such a nice glimpse into who he is as a person. He’s in the midst of a tough him--Willa has bolted after the reception, his political career is murky at best--and when his siblings sit down with him at the reception just after Willa has left, he makes it clear that all he’d really like is to spend time with them, to connect and have fun and take his mind off of things. Sadly, for him, Shiv and Ken are mostly uninterested/incapable of not talking business, it being the primary source of connection between them for the whole of their lives. They’ll pat him on the shoulder every now and again before launching into a new tactic, new strategy, and when Connor does utter the sentence quoted above it’s hard to argue with him. He’s always attempted to be neutral in the middle of whatever chaos is engulfing his family, and it’s noted a few times throughout the series that he was essentially a surrogate father to his younger siblings because Logan was so often absent. This moment of vulnerability in the last episode showcases exactly why Connor is with Willa. It’s clear to everyone she’s not in love with him, and really is too yielding to tell him the truth, dancing along to his every whim and becoming more dissatisfied in the process. While Connor is incredibly selfish in his relationship with her, that selfishness is borne less from a malicious intent and more from a desperate desire to be loved by someone, anyone, because his family does not care about him. Roman, arguably, showcases the most interest in him, having likely bonded with him as a child on whatever excursions Connor took him on that were meant for father and son, but there is still a distance present between them. However, as anyone with life experience knows, you cannot make people love you, no matter how you try. You can be present, honest, nurturing, and it could still not be enough, and this sad fact is at the center of his relationship with Willa. No amount of giving and begging will turn her tolerance for him into love, and if Connor doesn’t realize this and let her go, he is in for more pain than even he has yet felt before. 

[odaclan]

Colonialism/foreign interference Honnouji theory

One of the less-talked about theory about the political environment that led to Honnouji is the theory of how the European priests and missionaries were “Trojan horses” that are being used to facilitate colonisation.

Japanese fiction and media tend to focus on domestic conspiracies (shogunate revival, Hideyoshi/Ieyasu/some other person being the mastermind, etc). There have been some manga I saw that did use this European interference theory (e.g Nobunaga no Chef), but I don’t believe this theory is used very frequently. I also didn’t know what was the reasoning/source for it until recently.

Getting the details on this will probably require a lot of reading into the European paperwork (such as Frois’s Historia and other Vatican letters), which is even less easy to access, so I don’t have much on me right now. Just some brief claims from an article written by a writer/independent researcher.

In 1582, Alessandro Valignano wrote a letter that alluded that King Felipe of Spain had interest of conquering China. Valignano also wrote that the Japan is worthless to conquer, but their people can be “useful” for the purpose of the China conquest. 

The article also quotes from Frois’s Historia, saying that Hideyoshi promised the Europeans that when he conquers China, he would order all the Chinese to convert to Christianity.

With these “proofs”, the writer theorizes that maybe Nobunaga refused to be involved in this conquest of China, so the Europeans plotted to overthrow him and install Hideyoshi as the new ruler.

This theory is interesting, and probably worth looking into. European material have information that you don’t really find anywhere else in the Japanese accounts, and they do need to be taken into consideration. However, this theory specifically has some problems because it seem to contradict other existing texts.

The writer here, for example, said that Nobunaga “broke ties” with the Europeans. He quoted no source, so it’s a bit questionable why he thinks so. 

From what resource I have of Frois’s writings, I don’t see any problems between Nobunaga and Frois or the other priests even after Nobunaga met with Valignano. Frois wrote scathing comments about Nobunaga or his son being involved in “devil worship” around 1582, but he does that all the time when he talks about Shinto and Buddhist practices. It is not really any indication of souring relationship.

This outside interference theory also contradicts the claims that Frois recorded, either in his Historia or in his letters, that Nobunaga himself said he wanted to conquer China. I’ve not yet found a timestamp for when Nobunaga supposedly said this, but either way, this record destroys the theory. If Nobunaga wanted this out of his own volition, then the Europeans didn’t manipulate him for their colonisation purposes. If he said this because the Europeans had egged him on, that means he didn’t refuse them. 

Sadly there’s no easy compilation of the European letters, so I cannot investigate this matter. There’s a few compilation out there that only consist of Frois’s letters (but not exhaustive), and a ship captain whose name is skipping my mind at the moment (edit: his name is Jorge Álvares). There’s Japanese translations of those letters, but even getting the Japanese collection would not be easy (and costly). 

[avatar0ftheeye]

TW for swearing, descriptions of gore and violence!

Jesus Christ thank you guys????? For everything? The likes, the comments, the reposts, they make my little DM heart so happy knowing that people enjoy the story my players and I worked so hard on

I’d also like to introduce @thomas-chase-sobbing , Thomas Chases player and the source of pure shitpost worthy quotes during sessions

now, let me set the scene for Dungeons and Teenagers Part 4!

The scream was one none of the teens had ever heard in their 15-17 years of life. It was one of pure and utter agony.

Jim’s arm has flipped completely inside out. His veins, nerves, and flesh all visible to everyone in the vicinity. It pulsed with agony

“ALEX, THOMAS PLEASE!” Jim screamed. He crumpled to the ground, screaming and sobbing, “HEAL ME PLEASE OH MY GOD”

Alex, feeling the magic well up deep inside him, cast Cure Wounds onto Jim. Jim’s arm began to slowly fold back in on itself until his arm was back to normal.

his arm was scarred, no denying that. Long, light Green lines traveled up to his shoulder, signaling the pain he was in.

Jim laid on the floor, heaving heavily.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT??” Screamed Maisie. Damien stood deadpanned, unmoving and seemingly unbothered by this gory display

Jim stood, his calm and composed stature shattered. He now just looked like a scared kid, no different than the rest of them.

“I…” he began, “I can’t tell you. If I say ANYTHING, that- that thing will happen again.” Jim paced, deep in thought. “I can’t tell you, but maybe I can mime it?”

the players gathered together while Jim stood in front of them. “Okay, I made a deal,” he held out his other, not scarred beyond belief arm, to show a long red scar up his arm. Jim’s scars were lighter than his skin tone (a dark green), never red. No, this was a mark of a blood pact. “I made a deal with SOMEONE-“ he mimed Devil horns, “that I would have to do- shit how do I phrase this? I would have to, send them somewhere when I found them.”

“where did you send them?” Damien demanded.

“I…don’t know.” He lied. Damien (succeeding an insight check) knows he’s lying

“well, you’re apparently the devils bitchboy so where ARE THEY?” He demanded again. Jim stumbled backwards

“I can’t tell you!”

“ARE THEY DEAD??” Demanded Alex

“NO!” a scream, sadly a scream they were used to now. Jim’s hand had flipped inside out again, he has said too much. Thomas rushed forward. “FUCK?!????” Thomas screamed. Well, I mean that WAS a healing word so- his hand begun to slowly flip back to normal. Jim’s hand was now far more scarred then than rest of his arm. “the more I tell you, the more likely this is to happen. It’s better…” he took a breath, “it’s better if I just show you.”

Jim begun to walk. No words, just silent walking. The facade of annoyance back on his face, but with a goose insight check, it’s revealed that he’s terrified. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen to him.

he’s scared

They approach the front of a castle. A large, black and red castle with a large red front door. It is menacing, terrifying, and sickening. Jim pulls the door open to reveal the throne room. It is empty and cold. All that sits in the middle is a throne

there sits a man. He is tall and muscular. He has a small beard and long red horns, the same color as his skin. He wears a black and red suit, and he sits upon his throne looking bored.

“Invitations?” He asks.

“what?” The party replies. The Devil gestures vaguely over the the standing suit of armor which has a plate full of invitations. Each player grabs at least one, some grab more for some reason.

“Great. Jim, I see you’ve brought the humans here.” The Devil says with a snarl. Jim walks forward and bends to one knee, bowing to the devil and his boss.

“yes, we have received intel that Damien’s father, Zach Shadow, is here and we have come to retrieve him.” Jim’s voice is shaky. He doesn’t want to be doing this, but he has no choice.

the devil lets out a hearty laugh. “Wow, really? Christ I had no clue he was here!” He said, sarcastically. He snapped his fingers and out from behind his throne stepped a tall man

his aura was enough to send anyone running. He seemed like a regular man, tall, brown hair, jeans and a t-shirt, but he was menacing. His smile was never one of good times, but of suffering.

this is Zach Shadow

Damien steps back behind the party, trying to hide from his fathers line of sight. Zach places a hand in the devils shoulder, and the Devil smiled.

“he’s not the only one we have here, I have the one you call…Skylar? I believe her name is?”

“mom!” Alex called out. His mother was here, he would be damned if he didn’t get her back. The devil laughed another hearty laugh.

“yeah, sure kid. Your mom. You can find her, if you want to, but you’ll have to open those invitations first.” The devil smiled wider, revealing rows of sharp teeth. Jim stood up by his side, his face strewn with terror.

“I’m sorry,” he mouthed to Damien.

the party begun to open this invitations. Each contained a card, just one singular card. If they had drawn more than 1 invitation, they had more than one card.

“What are These?” Asked Thomas. Zach laughed along with the devil. They took joy in their pain.

“these are cards from the Deck of Many Things. Each card can bend reality in any way it wishes. If you survive, you can go to the dungeon and find your mother. If you fail? Well, I have more souls for my collection.”

the players were trapped. They had no where to go, they had to face what was to come no matter what.

[darks-arts]

It’s so fascinating how people can ship of Theseus a character into completely different dude and then when confronted about this, simply say the source material is wrong. I’m not talkin minor shit like “oh Aradia LOVES mcr” I’m talkin like have a whole OC and then slapping the name tag “KARKAT” on it. It seems less common these days at least in Homestuck spaces, but like it’s something I grew up around and still see happen to this day. Apologies for the Homestuck centered examples as i muse through this thing on my mind

Like I’ve seen dudes make the take that Gamzee doesn’t say honk, Nepeta hates cats , n jake LOVES peanut butter he drinks it by the gallon. This wasn’t like “oh cool edgy AU to explore the character” stuff just, at some point the character in their mind drifted, so what they associated with the character’s name no longer lined up with canon.

This isn’t nessisarrily a bad thing, everyone does this to some degree. Different aspects of a character stand out to different people. Rose is a cool girl with wizard powers to some, and a nerd in way over her head who uses big words to others. But at the same time everyone knows who Rose is, these are both parts of her characters dna. Then with some people “Rose” has drifted so far that she doesn’t even believe magic anymore in their heads, she thinks knitting is dumb and uses only the smallest of words. Rose means a different thing to them now and that’s so fascinating to me.

I have to wonder why at that point do they not just commit and make this blorbo of their own design an oc, why does it HAVE to cling to the nameplate that does not fit them anymore. Like at least in my view fictional characters are sadly set in stone so to speak. Even with the dif takes and drift I talked about, you can always just re-read/watch/listen/etc the thing. Doing this refreshes the brain version of the character, reminds you who the vague concept of a Kanaya is. Not to say there’s NO ROOM for people to fill in the blanks, lil joke fan fills for gaps are like a different thing. I’m mostly talkin when fanon mutates to its own original work I hope it’s clear.

All this to say I don’t think it’s a bad thing when this happens, it can make discussion around the character a head ache sometimes, but like it just really interesting. Wonder if there’s any studies on this or related psychology whateves I should shift through. Human brain be fascinating like this sometimes.

Personal example, one time I was talkin in a discord server about the symbolism behind Gamzee and hussies whole “religion is for fools, fools and LIBERALS” takes. Then some dude rolls into the convo and starts going off how Gamzee is “a good Christian boy” and there is nothing toxic about Gamzee at all. He just a good boy who does not curse and does not sin. When someone brought up that his catch phrase is “motherfucker” the Christian Gamzee take dude simply disagreed! No that is not a thing Gamzee has ever said. Then they just restated their take without like, elaboration. Felt like they had just emerged out of a different universe quoting a different Homestuck written by “Hussie from the universe where they have blonde hair”. The Gamzee they where trying to communicate wasn’t the Gamzee that everyone in the discussion knew about.

I don’t really have a conclusion just dang this is a thing that happens and why it happens is a mystery I’d love to see solved.

[cmcsmen]

Friendship

Photo: Friends At The Park - Many friendships are found and shared at the park - Copyright 2022 Frank J Casella

(From way back in the blog archives. Enjoy!)

“If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re very scarce. … If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere”.

~ Zig Ziglar

I love this quote, because I find it to be so true.  What do you think?

I recently sent this quote in an email to around sixty of my friends, as I usually do with different topics a few times a month, but this time it was different.  An unusually more than fifty percent sent me a reply!  From what they were sharing I’ve concluded that most of us long for friendship … and to be loved.  Or put it another way, having a true friend is important to us.

So the question then is, what is a true friend?  The Lord Jesus Christ gave us the definition of a true friend: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:13-15). Jesus is the pure example of a true friend, for He laid down His life for His “friends.” What is more, anyone may become His friend by trusting in Him as his personal savior, being born again and receiving new life in Him.

Proverbs is another good source of wisdom regarding friends. “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” (Proverbs 17:17). “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24). The issue here is that in order have a friend, one must be a friend. “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses” (Proverbs 27:6). ” As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).

So to have a true friend means that you have to be one. I first learned how to be a true friend by the example of my father with his friendships. I consider myself fortunate.  I learned too that sometimes to have true friendship is easier said than done.  I stopped counting the number of times that I’ve been honest with a friend – someone I cared much about – who gave me the (trust or) permission to speak to them about their life …. as others have done with me … only to find the person doesn’t want to hear it or talk about it, or becomes hurt or offended by what I said.  I’ve learned the hard way that either few people today know what a true friend is, or we are fortunate to have one person in our lives that we consider a true friend  – someone that we trust to be matter of fact with us, loyal, and to share our deepest secrets with.  And often (sadly) this is someone other than a sibling or our wife, rather than in addition to.

As I’ve said before in other blog posts, Jesus confronted people because he loved them. However, you don’t have to look real hard to see in our self-gratification culture today that many friendships are on the basis of “if you don’t tell me what I want to hear, then you’re not my friend”.  It’s common today to work at giving others their own space and not offending them. Even spouses are to be the best of friends – a gift to each other – yet many marriages I find have too many stressors and distractions to even think about working at friendship, much less marriage.  This I think is one reason many couples today live together without marriage vows.

Reconciliation and forgiveness is the most important action in maintaining a true friendship …. and marriage.  It happens when we care about others and their feelings before our own, when we have to put our pride and our personal agenda on the back burner, so to speak.  I have discovered that unless it hurts it’s not true friendship, for God gives us true friends not only to inspire each other, but to help us to grow and to strengthen our trust and faith in Him and the power of prayer.  Sometimes this process of God “pruning” our lives can take years.  It means going through – as many times as it takes – the process of working through misconceptions, barriers, etc. when society says walk away and move on to another relationship.

In Sunday’s Gospel the poor widow gave two small coins worth a few cents.  And Jesus said, “”Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.  For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

True friendship gives from it’s poverty, from what we don’t have.  Not financially, but from our ‘unfamiliar territory’.  When our conscience and our will tell us to do what the Lord commands us, despite our human understanding.  The way to know you have a true friendship is that, a true friend keeps coming back. It’s usually a person whom you’ve never known anyone like them …  And you know that you never will again. That you are both better persons for knowing each other.  Someone you can thank God for bringing into each others lives.

All of this reminds me of the old James Taylor song, “You’ve Got A Friend”.  The lyrics go something like:

” You just call out my name

And you know wherever I am

I’ll come running, to see you again

…. You’ve Got A Friend”.

How many of us have a friend like that?  Or even, how many of us ARE a friend like this?

Today, ask your wife, your kids, and your friends, “How can I be a better friend to you?”

I know that I’ve only scratched the surface here about friendship.  So, we at CMCS would like to learn what friendship means to you. Click on the comment area below or reply.

Frank J. Casella

[internationalrealestatenews]

[ad_1] In my consulting follow, there's one quote I at all times dwell by, and I remind our actual property group leaders and brokers over and over of its significance: “When you don’t write it down, you possibly can’t measure it. When you can’t measure it, you possibly can’t enhance it.” What we measure—our key efficiency indicators, or KPIs—is critically necessary. In actual property, there are various KPIs we will measure. Brokerages and group leaders typically begin with these, every of which have their very own subset of necessary measurement standards: Agent recruiting Agent retention Agent productiveness Purchaser/vendor referrals Firm income per deal At my firm, Actual Property Site owners Inc., my job will be summed up very merely: to generate web revenue for my prospects. That’s it! Sure, we make you look nice and provide help to win design awards; our search engine marketing and PPC providers are world-class; and our customized engineering capabilities are unmatched in the actual property area. However all of these issues are simply essential elements of the journey. Introducing ‘REW Offers’: A Actual Property Recreation-Changer Ever want there was a button you possibly can push that may let you know the way you’re doing in your actual property enterprise? All of your necessary conversion and ROI numbers? How a lot you’ve spent on every advertising supply and which of them are producing optimistic income? I do know I've! I've dreamed of this for years! In truth, the primary downside I run into when working with brokerages just isn't with the ability to entry the numbers. It’s not that they gained’t share them—it’s a lot worse than that. It’s that they don’t have them. Think about working a group or brokerage that generates billions of dollars in annual gross sales quantity and never with the ability to reply these questions: What have we spent on advertising this quarter? This 12 months? What number of leads have we generated? Which lead sources have generated offers for us? The place are we getting our greatest ROI? It’s easy stuff, proper? We must always know this stuff! Sadly, there's not a single buyer who can inform me these numbers once I begin working with them—a minimum of not with out a variety of digging and conversations with a number of departments. And once they do current this knowledge, it’s normally not dependable or correct. As we dig deeper into this problem, there are various variations of why we don’t simply have these metrics at our fingertips. However throughout all prospects, the one commonality is that it’s a variety of work. Typically, these metrics are owned by completely different departments (advertising, IT, closing coordinators), and there's no one device that permits for collaboration between these teams. There’s definitely nothing on the market that takes the vital subsequent step of calculating and measuring the KPIs and outcomes. REW Offers seeks to unravel these issues. With our new finances attribution system and supply monitoring, mixed with full deal workflows and reporting, brokerages can now simply run reviews on the well being of their firm. What did the final quarter/12 months appear like? How are we doing proper now? Is our pipeline wholesome for subsequent quarter? The place are we successful? The place are we failing? As with every system, the output is simply nearly as good as the information that's entered. To fulfill this problem, now we have constructed a deal-tracking system for brokers that offers them the exact same reporting and forecasting for his or her enterprise. 2024 is an entire new ballgame. If brokerages and group leaders wish to come out on high and seize market share, they have to begin incorporating knowledge into their companies. Keep in mind: “When you don’t write it down, you possibly can’t measure it. When you can’t measure it, you possibly can’t enhance it.”

Let’s go enhance our companies collectively! [ad_2]

[adventuresinclientservice]

The sanctity of deadlines.

Every week for the past 13-plus years I have felt a lingering, persistent obligation to write something for Adventures.  I suppose I could balk at this self-imposed mandate, but in truth, I actually like the weekly routine:  posting every seven days adds an element of structure to what otherwise is a largely structureless week, without unduly burdening me with a more frequent commitment I often would find myself unable to fulfill.

Even with the leniency of a once-weekly schedule, I struggle to formulate a story line engaging to me and ideally helpful to at least some of you, which is why I often turn to other sources for a starting point:  something I see on television, an opinion piece I see in The New York Times, or an article I read in The New Yorker. 

I am hardly alone in this paucity of ideas.  Unable to find a reason to write, colleagues I know whose work I read and admire often go weeks, even months, between posting content.  A few sadly have abandoned their posts.

I suspect they have come to the realization they no longer have something to say.  I will give no quarter to such a realization.  Posting once a week might not matter to many if not most of you; it matters a great deal to me. 

Writing is a muscle; to borrow from my years as a regular, gym-going fitness person, “You don’t use it, you lose it.”  I have no intention of losing it, at least not today, not next week, or next month.  Maybe not ever.

This post was the furthest thing from my mind as I read a New Yorker Profile on the author, producer, director, and show running Scott Frank, creator of two highly esteemed, award-winning scripted dramas, Godless and The Queen’s Gambit.  Buried in the story as a near-afterthought was a quote from the character Chili Palmer (played by Jon Travolta, from a favorite movie based on the Elmore Leonard novel, Get Shorty, for which Frank served as writer).  There’s a moment when Palmer says, “Sometimes you do your best work when you got a gun to your head.”

My remit to publish once a week is like having a gun to my head, a small-bore one, likely to do damage but not be fatal if I fail and it discharges.  All of you, however, faced with demanding, I-need-it-yesterday clients, unreasonable you-will-do-this-now bosses, and I-really-need-your-help colleagues, face a much larger caliber weapon, one that can do real damage to the prospect of success or failure, to your career, and to your morale.

I know just how hard this can be, so what do you do when you are faced with multiple deadlines, all of which need to be met?

Your circumstance of competing interests – family, work, other priorities particular to you – make me ill-equipped to offer advice.  What I can do is share what I used to do when I needed to hit a date with a deliverable:  a presentation, a proposal, a response to a client complaint, or anything else that cried out for an answer.  As you read what follows, keep in mind I was younger and slower, without the advantage of the technology I rely on today to accelerate my work.

I would start by sorting seemingly competing needs by priority:  if it were urgent and important, I’d jump on it, putting it first in line.  If it wasn’t, I’d put it aside for the moment; not ignore it, but not attend to it either, with me having the courtesy to inform my client, colleague, or boss why it was not a priority, managing their expectations, and anger, by telling them when I would get to it.

I’d then turn my attention to the on-fire item.  Back then I was single, without children and the responsibilities that come with them, so if I needed to stay late, I stayed late, even if “late” meant extending to early morning hours.  If I needed to work a weekend, I did so, sometimes both days and occasionally nights. 

On rare occasions, if a deadline was looming and I absolutely, positively had to get something done, I’d stay all night.  On one occasion, I stayed two straight nights.  In retrospect, that was insane, but the need was great, the time was short, and my skills were wanting.  I muscled the job to completion.

I never procrastinated, mostly because I was deathly afraid of falling short, of not meeting that deadline, which motivated me to start as early as I could and work as diligently as possible.  The longer I worked, the more practiced and disciplined I became.

On Monday I turned 73; next month it will be 40 years since I began my advertising career at Digitas.  You might think that, with the passage of time, a deadline doesn’t hold the same degree of attention it once did.  The truth is, I respected it when I started out; I respect it today. 

Your situation and circumstances are different from and likely vastly more challenging than mine, but even so, the sanctity of a deadline and the need to pay heed to it remains.

[booksandwords]

Dancing Lessons by R. Cooper

Read time: 1 Day Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

The Quote: “There are a lot of misconceptions about what it means to lead, where the man leads and the lady—or whoever—must follow.” Rafael stepped forward, flashing another smile when Chico immediately responded by stepping back and then to the side. “But that forgets that no one has to follow. It’s always the partner’s choice to keep dancing. If the person leading steps on your toes, steers you into the wall, turns you when you don’t want to be turned, then you can stop.” — Rafael Winters

Warnings: mentions of past emotional abuse

Dancing Lessons is the charming story of Rafael Winters and Francisco 'Chico "Nobody calls me Francisco but my mother and bill collectors."' Silva. Chico is pronounced in the way that shows his Portuguese heritage, Sheeco. The story is told entirely through Chico's eyes in varying degrees of flawed narration. As sometimes happens in R. Cooper's works there are some gorgeous life messages, advice and analogies. In this case that is obviously in the dances and ballet used. To be honest, there is a moment in Dancing Lessons that is going to haunt me. It shouldn't but it's a sign of exactly how emotionally invested I got in this novella. For me this is a 4.5-star book that I'm rounding up to 5, there are some concerns with pronouns for Davi. The female support cast is strong and fierce though only one is intimidating (as becomes her former career)

Chico Silva is new to the small largely holiday town of Brandywine. He is living with his cousin Davi, using it as a place to be himself again after a fairly shattering relationship and break-up. Honestly, he spent a large part of the story slowly breaking my heart. At 34 he is an emotionally broken man who just needs to heal. His touch starvation which I picked from the earliest pages was near devastating to read. R.Cooper may have used Chico as a slightly unreliable narrator but that allowed for the creation of deception leading to a moment I entirely didn't see coming in the middle somewhere that might haunt me. Also, Chico's unreliability is fully backed by his history and experiences. I think you can see the markers in the support cast.

Rafael Winters is exceptionally charming, attractive and endearing. His patience with both students and the emotionally wounded Chico is perfect. His love of teaching dance and dedication to his students shines. There is a revelation with him at one point that sounds like a joke but really isn't. The dance elements are so well intertwined. As a couple, I adore Chico and Raf. They have a style and chemistry to them that doesn't appear every day. Though the chemistry between Rafael and Chico is so sizzling it feels more like it belongs in the Latin ballroom rather than the slightly more structured waltz. The waltz still has the perfect meaning for them. The performance put on but the kids is a fantastic choice with its metaphor for their relationship. If the source material is real I will be reading it (I can't find it sadly).

The support cast is impressive. We never meet the dick, John aka, the gaslighting bastard, aka Chico's ex only hear about the damage he caused. Davi is the adorable trans cousin. Unfortunately, their pronouns are a tad inconsistent I think. They are fun though Chicos greatest cheerleader supporter and the biggest tattletale. The kids gave their own messages to send. Crushes, confidence and being overlooked. The maternal characters are both impeccably strong and fierce though only one is intimidating (as becomes her former career). Ruthie is fantastic for the little we see her, she reminds me of the librarian-type characters that Cooper often includes. There are two badass old queers, Ethal and Alonzo that help Chico build his confidence and see the light "“You’re not very bright, are you, sugarpuss?” Alonzo said as he petted the back of Chico’s hand. “You could make a man do anything.”" (Alonzo). But the strongest and most intimidating character is Elisabet Winters, Rafael's mother. She is a retired dancer and exceptionally fierce and demanding of her dancers. Most people run from her when she enters a room. But she loves her son, just wants him to be happy and she knows talent when she sees it. She acknowledges and encourages Chico's talent for delicate sewing. I really like her. More than expected.

Have some quotes

extended his hand in a graceful movement reminiscent of a Disney prince. — R. Cooper shows that way with words I know and love. That is such a brilliantly visual description. (Chico)

Chico was and always had been a small and fragile creature. He caught a glimpse of his wrist and wondered how it had felt when the dance instructor had held it to carefully pull Chico’s hand to his skin. No one should be that gentle in real life unless they were handling a newborn or trying to catch a ladybug. — Oh... That's pretty. And self-deprecating which just works for him. This is less that 10% of the way in, we know that there is something not quite... whole (💔😢) about Chico but it is hard to tell to what amount. (Chico)

“Davi hasn’t said anything except in response to what I asked after you arrived in town.” He put his hand out reassuringly when Chico froze. “Davi and I talk a lot. We’re neighbors. And Davi likes to say small town queers have to stick together.” — Yas Davi! 🌈 Davi is right. I like Davi's role in this relationship. Just stay out of it and be happy when your friend and cousin get their s**t together. (Rafael)

“I promise not to show you off in front of everyone again, cross my heart. Not unless you want me to.” “Oh God.” — Chico. You totally want that. And god your chemistry is made for dance. Given the first time they meet Chico is almost unwillingly used as a dance mannequin. But the gentle human contact to someone who is touchstarved is absolutely someone he wants. (Rafael and Chico)

“Especially your partner. Complementing them is about matching your movements to theirs, which means knowing them, noticing what their bodies are telling you about their mood and their intentions and their feelings. When you don’t do that, you’ll not only have a stiff, awkward dance, but you could actually cause damage. Don’t force anything. Just pay attention and try to make each other better. And for God’s sake, no showing off. You know who I’m talking to." — This is Raf talking to his teenage dance class. But you know what this could easily be an analogy for. Do I have a slightly dirty mind? Maybe. But this is R. Cooper and they write in such away that it leads you to think. (Rafael)

“I'm seriously considering ‘accidentally’ sticking you with a pin,” Chico told him as meanly as he knew how, which only meant Travis rolled his eyes again. “Doesn’t everyone, when dealing with Travis?” Rafael inquired from outside the door. Chico had partially closed the door to give Travis some privacy, although he hadn’t really gotten undressed. Travis calmly flipped his teacher off and seemed amused when he got the bird in return through the crack in the door. Rafael inquired from outside the door. Chico had partially closed the door to give Travis some privacy, although he hadn’t really gotten undressed. Travis calmly flipped his teacher off and seemed amused when he got the bird in return through the crack in the door. — This is just a moment. Travis is one of Raf's older students he has an atitude but really suits the role he's dancing. This is just fun Raf's dynamic with his students and Chico slipping so easily into an unextepect role. Coming out of that shell. (Chico and Rafael)

That’s not what I meant. I’m thinking about you. I’m anxious, and I’ll miss you; that’s what I’m trying to say. Someone ought to kick your ex in the balls. — This is a gem of a line. It is Raf speaking for the audience, most of whom had likely already decided John needed something unpleasant to happen to him. So... can we all please form an orderly queue to kick the ex-boyfriend in the junk? Preferably with steel caps on. (Rafael)