#Living a Life of Significance

[borngeniusworld]

Obsession is the Engine

I am Obsessed with Success Quotes 1. “Obsession is the engine that fuels the pursuit of growth and change.” 2. “Hard work is the cornerstone of success; obsession is the architect of transformation.” 3. “In the realm of progress, obsession is the compass pointing towards excellence.” 4. “Dedication is the ignition, but obsession is the relentless drive for continuous improvement.” 5. “To…

[dykealloy]

ripple effect legacy // my tears are becoming a sea, M83

[sergle]

I don't disagree w this person's tags in general BUT!! my thought: it's almost even better that way- the fact that she CHOSE to be fat and that wasn't even her default appearance. like that she could choose to look any type of way, and that's what she picked.

[lucy-moderatz]

I understand that the kids are your link to Sara. But my adopting them is never going to change that.

[tinartss]

on moving out

[fmet]

Mithrun is a fantastic, fantastic character. He is undoubtedly severely disabled, cannot care for himself, has clear physical and mental limitations but people still recognize his authority as the Canary’s captain, for his knowledge about the dungeon’s demon, and for his vehemence, and as a result he’s highly respected. This doesn’t mean that his limitations are ignored, but they don’t negate the abilities that he is alleged to have. For a lot of the manga, these extraordinary abilities in spite of his limitations are what define his character. Because he can, and desires to, continue fighting and involving himself in the dungeon’s fate, he does, and we’re expected to believe that because he does is the only reason he can continue going. His exceptionalism in magic, in knowledge, and in character is what is keeping him alive, and without any of these things, his disability would kill him—is what we’re supposed to believe.

But this isn’t what happens. When all three of these points become moot after the dungeon collapses and the demon is defeated, he doesn’t die. He would have died, certainly, if the circumstances were different, but the words Kabru and Senshi spoke to him about the concept of renewal, both directly and indirectly, made him realize how much he could still do with life if he wished. He has a brother and many of the canary’s who are willing to continue caring for him, and in post-canon it’s shown that this is what ends up happening. He lives on not through the brute force of his skills, but through an open perspective and the helping hands of others.

A big overarching question that dungeon meshi likes to pose through it’s story is what makes a person, society, idea, etc, able to propagate— what lets someone or something continue on, establish a legacy, accomplish their goals, or simply not die. We’re shown people who live through their physical strength, their exploitation of others, their charisma, their mind, sheer force of will (whether their own or someone else’s), but all of these are eventually demonstrated to be inefficient on their own, because they disregard the inherent nature of mortal living things: Those that eat, live; Those that eat with others will thrive; and those able to feed others have the highest character of anyone. This is why the Winged Lion is such a powerful concept, this is why Laios makes a good king, this is why Falin survives despite all odds, this is why Thistle doesn’t.

Mithrun may have survived for his revenge, and gained renown for doing so, but he could never live for it, because it inevitably would lead to his death (and this turns out to be what he wanted anyway). It wasn’t his abilities or this desire that made him “worth” rehabilitating or caring for. His disability was never a caveat to these “advantages” of having him live. It’s only his willingness to eat, and others making sure he continues to do so (Misiril, the Canary’s, his brother, Kabru, Senshi), that made his survival for this long possible. Realizing this in the wake of lacking the “admirable” desire for vengeance he once did is one of the more healing character conclusions that Dungeon Meshi offers. As long as he has something he wants to do, he will eat, and he will live, and people will be at his side as he does so. The value of his character “in spite” of his disability is irrelevant.

[marlynnofmany]

We need a meme like the wimdy fox but for earthquakes. It would be very popular here in California.

[that-starlight-prince]

It is kinda striking how not ever planning on having kids just removes so much of the "I'm approaching 30 and I don't have my life together" anxiety that it seems like a lot of people have. Like if your dream is to get married and have two kids and a dog then you probably want to have a stable, settled, well-paying career and the financial ability to buy a detached house with a yard in the suburbs and have enough left over to pay for sending your kids to preschool and space camp or whatever, and you probably don't want to be 30 years old and have no idea how you're going to get those things!

I can't relate personally but it makes sense if that's the path you want to take in life.

[a-sketchy]

i kinda like akechi’s status being unknown. him being dead or purposely staying out of akira’s life are net equal, which is fun

[bayetea]

I don't like to think about this because it makes me sad but given that og pjo had a whole thread going about how you need to accept death for what it is it's the natural order of things and bad things happen when you try to change it (the most obvious example is nico coming to terms with bianca's death but tbh I think the same general notion applies to other things, e.g. all the times we hear about demigods trying to force quests to happen a particular way and it ends very badly)

I think hazel should've been sent back to the underworld after hoo but instead this time she goes to elysium. yes it's angsty and sad and no one wants hazel dead but the justifications given for why her lasting reanimation is okay just this one time are pretty flimsy when it's emphasized so many times in the franchise that You Can't Disrupt The Way Things Are Meant To Be (more in tags)

[nevermeanttoknow]

hes a vast avatar to me for reasons

[freckliedan]

On the topic of secrets, your person that you tell everything to is entitled to YOUR secrets, not anyone else’s. If I tell my best friend something in confidence, I know she won’t tell her husband. He gets to know everything about her, not everything about me.

Dan and Phil definitely understand that distinction and don’t share other’s secrets with each other.

THANK you you get it!!!! i've been losing my fucking mind at the attitude on my dash like... pretty much everyone is out here proving dan's point. by interpreting what he said to mean the exact opposite of what he told us. are people incapable of taking dnp at their word????

[blluespirit]

I sort of like the thought that Zuko and Aang take the Sun Warriors' warning not to tell anyone about the dragons a little more seriously… and they keep it between them. Of course, they trust Sokka, Toph and Katara. Of course they know they wouldn’t tell anyone, but now three people (including Iroh) know the truth about Ran and Shaw. And that’s three too many when you’re trying to keep a secret.

(and there are other people at the temple as well - like Haru, Teo and The Duke - who, while trustworthy, aren’t as close to them as the others, and when it comes to secrets with as much consequence as this one, you can’t afford to take any chances.)

Furthermore, the culture within the Fire Nation since Sozin’s rein has been warped. The culture is not to respect the dragons as the original firebenders, it’s to conquer and kill them. It’s the ultimate proof of your strength as a firebender. All it takes is one mistake before rumour spreads, and people go looking for the ultimate hunt. It’s not something Zuko or Aang can risk.

Whether Katara, Toph and Sokka (and Suki) ever find out the truth is up to you. But post-war, after Zuko returns from a strange, poorly explained trip with a dragon, and eventually develops the ability to use rainbow fire, either the others have some questions about Aang’s knowing look, or they are finally let in on a monumental secret.

[something-random18]

"I would die for her/him" okay but would you live for her/him

[palaceoftears]

Magnificent Century Rewatch: One Picspam per Episode

Episode 17: The Double Joy

-My dear mother used to say "walk barefoot on earth and it shall take away all your troubles and sorrows, earth shall give you happiness and joy"

-Your mother spoke well, one can only find peace in earth. But I'm not sure if it is on earth or in it.

[iniziare]

Kafka crossed my thoughts tonight at random, and so I wanted to re-post a little something here, with some minor edits thrown in. I just think it's often overlooked how... many human elements they've tied into her. A hungering sense of curiosity, the inherent sense of longing that clings to her being like a fever, and how she's caught (very humanly so) between the belief of we are tied to fate and thus it shall be, and the insistence on choice and how the Trailblazer seems to be inherently representative of its existence. And then I think of what being 'human' entails, and one could argue that it represents the experience of life, before one's end by the hand of destiny/fate. Is that... why she's so enthralled by all these human concepts? Because she's so firmly tied to fate? Yes, I still linger in the thought that she bears strong connections to fate, there are too many hints at the Moirai to me to ignore. But it's not even that, it's her Spirit Whisper, it's that her wanted poster made by the Devils that she used to hunt on her home of Pteruges-V, had to describe the ability and what it does— which tells ms that it's not native to there. But— I'm getting sidetracked, this isn't about any kind of potential nature that is far from humanity, it's about the evidence, even if she may turn out not to be inherently human at some point in the future of HSR, that she is drawn to, portrays and in some form, lives, very human concepts. And one of the ways I tried to make that clear before, was by talking about her in relation to her violin— or more specifically: the presence of its absence, the latter being which I will always firmly believe to be the eternal overarching narrative of Kafka's character. Any way, onto the babble:

I'll forever remember looking into the notes of someone's playthrough of HSR's first scenes, which is just something I like to do because you never know what kind of little treasures you might find. And there was a violinist tucked away in there, who I'd also seen in the notes of her main trailer, commenting on the intense accuracy of the movement of her fingers. And then on top of that, how they've usually been let down by the details when other games have tried to simulate it as well, but it was more so done to iterate how intentional this must've been for Hoyo to have focused on its accuracy so much.

So in that sense, I think it's close to a given that she knows how to play it, similarly to how I believe that she is someone who also plays or has played the piano. Where I differ however, is that I don't believe that she actually owns a violin at present, nor is she seeking to obtain one by her own means. Moreover, what and where I think the 'mimicking' comes from, actually, is from her memories and the emotional attachment that she once held for these instruments in them. Kafka's character, to me, revolves around and thrives within two concepts, that of intimate longing and that of loss (the pearl earring, the broken winged butterfly pin, and Blade's character story to name some) which plays intricately into the former. Now for me, her connection to the violin and the piano (primarily the former) play wonderfully into representing both of these, and thus can be drawn into these prevalent topics across the board for her incredibly easily. In simple terms, I think that there is a sense of longing to play them. Now, I feel confident in noting that Kafka does not come across as one who, if she had access to (in this case) a violin of her own, that she would crave to play it so intensely all the time, that when drawn from it for even the briefest of time, that she would enact the part of playing one during her separation from it. No, I think she's actively choosing not to obtain one, for one reason or another. Perhaps it's a memory that plays into the loss that her character seems to stray towards, or perhaps it's a lack of something else; I don't quite yet dare say. But there's something oddly wistful about it, if you look past the surface. All in all, I think her little moments of mimicking and humming, makes for an incredibly interesting "little" tidbit to me. It reminds me of something I wrote in an older post last year:

(...) And yet, and yet, I actively think if she were to find herself in a hotel room, even on her own, and there would be a piano right there— I can see her fingers tracing over the keys so very clearly, even as if she were touching the keys to play and yet she would never press down.

I still stand by this to this day. It's the ache to do something again, and yet for one reason or another, you can't bring yourself to do it. Whether it feels wrong, or there's something missing, something or someone; it doesn't matter, it's a longing of some kind. It really is the overarching topic and/or concept that I see in her character, and the fact that she's tied to such an inherently fragile instrument, only further solidifies it in my brain. But in that, I also feel a deep sense of melancholy when I think of her and that violin. And it plays into all of this, of course, but also the fact that I genuinely see no evidence in canon at present that tells me that she has one, and we know she could obtain one if she so wanted to,but she doesn't. Which tells me, on some level, that she doesn't want one. Which then has me entertain the concept of... if one were gifted to her, would that be different? Would that offer the person who gifted it to her a glimpse that no one else could ever get? The answer is a very likely yes, but I can't see it being gifted by most by any means; it'd need to be by someone who could come to grasp the significance of one, put in the appropriate research, who would know where to go, who to speak to, where to find the significance. And that, isn't most people.