#Shifting the Lens

[luxebeat]

J Vineyards & Winery Shifting The Lens This Summer

For the past two year,  Shifting the Lens culinary series at J Vineyards & Winery has been a sell out success showcasing culture, cuisine and J wines. J Vineyards J Vineyards & Winery offers a beautiful space and culinary platform that is rarely featured in winery environments. Now in its third year, Shifting the Lens actively builds a more diverse wine and culinary community by inviting…

[petricorah]

scenes i loved from Real Enough to Get Me Through by @marriedzukka <333 [ids in alt]

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

forever thinking about how the long quiet embracing their full divinity involves The Voices coming back. like yeah being plural is basically the same thing as being a godi'll cosign that

[aeonophagic]

SCORCHED EARTH

[thepersonperson]

Ngl your post summarises so well why i love sukugo and why im so insane about them

Like of fucking course those two would work together when Sukuna deeply does not care about any social rules to ever exist. Of course they do when Gojo is confronted with someone gay for him and not hiding behind anything. This is not survivable and i love them and care them. I even had written in the notes for my fic about Gojo being the person who generally prefers to keep things as they are but i couldnt actually formulate why i think that. You are so smart your analysis is so wonderful

This is also why I like Sukugo a lot. It's not just that Sukuna matches Gojo's freak, he enables it. Encourages it even. Makes it worse. Sukuna's existence is a twisted opposition to Jujutsu Society. It's very hedonistic, sadistic, and selfish but by golly it is rebellion.

The flattery is also appreciated, but please understand that I am very stupid and am capable of making mistakes. Alternate perspectives like yours are just as valuable. Which is why I'm shoehorning your tags on this post into this ask. (They are great tags and everyone should see them. Also I don't know how to respond to them otherwise.)

#yeah youre right # sorry i got time to think about it #and im kind of writing gojo rhe same but a vit more influenced by sukuna lmao #tbh as the person coming from a post soviet country #i honestly cant like #fully agree with everything due to just #like i understand that what people want from socialism isnt what was in soviet union #but its still very much hard to accept that anyone could want what we went through lol #when i tell you that socialism actually pitted everyone against each other isnt not a joke #but i understand what you lead into and yeah yeah true

#tbf to gojo he really tried even if his method ultimately failed #like he had genuinely tried to do better for the kids that came after him despite the desperate lack of empathy of understanding of others #and himself #like i can appreciate the desperate desire to make change for the better

#and yeah geto was so horribly jealous its insane #of anything really #i also kinda really think geto has the mentality that after toji gojo is different? #that the boy he knew died and this is someone else #and what he does it ultimately for the boy he loved and for the boy who survived through changing #it also may be a bit of a fucked up coping mechanism how to deal with it all and differentiate what gojo was to him and is

#but yeah i was thinkinf about it and talking a lot #they were so badly exploited as children #we know its better with gojo than it was before #but then also if gojo takes on the hardest missions for the students that means he’s not present to teach its a fucked up circle #he doesnt understand enough to be a full leader to make a rebellion but he is trying god damn #but yeah the only way he could articulate what he’s actually feeling is through battle which is sad

#i take the way he stopped looking for exciting battles growing up is him growing up #like sending yuuta for cursed tools. he made his peace that he cant just chase men while he needs to take care of the kids #idk its all deeplt fucked up and im very sad for them

That's a fair criticism and even better commentary. I understand the aversion to some of the words I'm using to describe this. It's just that I don't know how else to effectively communicate what I think is the main issue. I do appreciate you're willing to hear me out on this though! (You're applying Umineko's "Without love, it cannot be seen." which makes me very happy.)

I'm US based which is a hypercapitalist hellscape, so when I talk about socialism it doesn't mean "do exactly what the Soviet Union did" (that would be very bad) but instead some of the ideas behind workers rights are good and desperately needed to curb stomp the type of labor exploitation they're experiencing. (Like unions for better pay, hours, and working conditions.)

Theory is useful because it give you the words to describe exactly what's wrong and the ideas that can guide you towards productive solutions. I can say Jujutsu Society is bad because of labor exploitation from the higher ups and therefore unions would help mitigate their power because I learned about those things.

Gojo and Geto don't have those words or background so they see part of the problem but have no name for it. And because they don't understand why it's happening, their solutions are surface-level treatments that don't address the real source of their suffering.

Toji was a symptom of the problem. Geto saw Toji as the entire problem so he thinks eradicating anything like Toji is the solution. Gojo saw Toji as a symptom and a potential solution to the real problem—Jujutsu Society. He recognized that Toji being strong is what helped him escape this problem so he laser focused on it. If he and his students are strong, they can change things. What things exactly? Gojo doesn't have the knowledge or time to dwell deeper on it. To him strength=revolution. He neglects the need for mutual aid, addressing overwork, and limiting child labor because the words and framework to deal with that are missing.

Gojo can't really do anything other than keep things the sameish because he doesn't know how the better world he's seeking works. (Similar to how you recognized this flaw of his, but couldn't put it into words since you didn't have them.) He both does things better for his students and screws them up in whole new different ways as a result of this. It's very tragic.

And everything wrong with Jujutsu Society is still just a microcosm of Japanese work culture that leads to this exploitation in the first place. Nanami is the only character that makes this connection and he has no idea what to do about it other than work where he feels less bad about it.

It's kind of like knowing a grease fire is dangerous but not knowing how to put it out.

>Gojo throws water on the grease fire trying to put it out and makes it worse before he starts suffocating it with his body instead of a blanket.

>Geto tries to eradicate grease from existence not knowing that other types of fire exist.

>Nanami realizes oxygen and fuel are the source of fires but he has none of the tools to put them out or prevent them.

>Sukuna understands that letting the fire burn everything to ash means there will never be fire again. ...While ignoring this also means there will be nothing left in the aftermath.

If any of these people were taught fire safety (labor theory), their methods of dealing with the fire (labor exploitation) and preventing it in the future would be so much better.

Japan has some of the lowest union memberships and the worst working conditions amongst rich countries. JJK has a lot to say on the topic so I'm being very annoying about it because I don't see others talking about it this way.

[yellowocaballero]

i simply must ask- what makes an OP character (protag or otherwise) *work* for you, vs what doesnt?

Hi! This is a very astute and good question.

It's tension.

When a character is in a fight scene, the basic question and source of the tension is "Will they win?". Logically, they're probably going to win, they're the hero - but there should be a push and pull within the fight, where the audience pinballs between "he's going to win!/oh no, he might lose!".

You can't do that with an OP character. There's never any question. He's going to win. So the tension has to come from someplace else. You have to ask a different question.

The question can vary. "Will he win under his self-imposed constraints?" (e.g., your OP character is a pacifist and wants to win without shooting his gun). "Will he win without going Sicko Mode, which is bad and distresses all of us?" (e.g., your OP character is only OP when he unleashes the Demon Self, which is bad for him). "Will he win without revealing his identity or secret? (e.g., your OP character has to win a fight without using his OP powers, because otherwise he'll face social repercussions).

Alternatively/in addition, you change the type of conflict. If your character is guaranteed to succeed at every physical fight, then the primary/'real' conflict should be on an emotional, intellectual, or psychological level. The story can no longer be about the physical fights. They have to be won through intellect or cleverness. The path towards victory has to be through intelligence, kindness, self-actualization, etc.

But absolutely most importantly: watching the OP character be OP should be fun. It should make us pump our fists in the air and go 'fuck yeah!'. It should be thrilling, exciting, and a spectacle. We know the detective is going to catch the bad guy - we're watching for the how. We know the clever protag is going to pull one over on the bad guy through sleight of hand and trickery, we're watching for the reveal of what exactly they did. Don't neglect the joys of watching Mr. OP be delightfully OP. But that is the payoff, and we need sufficient buildup to get there. Watching Mr. OP go sicko mode is the joy, but it's not the path. It's no longer about the if they're going to win, it's about the how. And that should be fun to watch.

My friend @lazuliquetzal has good commentary on this, as usual: that when we say "a character needs to have flaws to be interesting", what we really mean is "a story should not bend itself to accommodate a character". A character without flaws is fine, actually. But the story shouldn't backflip to give them everything they want. This is all really simple. For some reason people act as if this is extremely hard.

TL;DR: Watch Mob Psycho 100 and then sit and figure out why Mob Psycho 100 is one of the best anime of all time. Between One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100, ONE understands how to do this.

[callixton]

the thing is that i understand how sexual transgression functions in rocky horror pretty intricately but i can’t voice it bc people will misunderstand and think i’m excusing the rape scene when i’m Not i just understand it. it’s not on accident any more than the incest is on accident and it’s supposed to be understood as an assault. unfortunately this is where people stop instead of like. digging into what exactly these taboos are expressing and from who’s point of view they’re from and how they’re functioning in the wider story.

[stanford-photography]

Follow By Jeff Stanford, 2023 From my series "Asbury Park, New Jersey". I worked on the boardwalk there, the summers of 1974 and 1976. Buy prints at: https://jeff-stanford.pixels.com/

[everett-true-daily]

[luxebeat]

J Vineyards & Winery is Shifting the Lens in Sonoma County

J Vineyards recently won Sonoma County Tourism’s Stars of the Industry Innovation Award, at the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country. The winery is one of the best and brightest in Sonoma County’s tourism and hospitality industry. Winners! Photo by J Vineyards & Winery They are one of 11 businesses and individuals recognized for their excellence and positive effect on the Sonoma County tourism and…

[undersetaskblog]

Sans? Why do you wear headphones when you don't have any ears?

[novelconcepts]

If I had a dollar for every time I was stoked to watch a lesbian movie, only to find out it was actually about a lesbian being won over by a Persistent-Ass white man, I would have…just so many dollars.

[cream-and-tea]

planning ghoststory book two and asking myself “does the intensity of pallas and calliopes hatred for each other come out of nowhere???” as if there isn’t a whole scene in lay me down where calliope tries to kill pallas by dropping a potted plant on their head looney-tunes style

[sachermorte]

What's the fic about? 👀

Thematically? Overarchingly? It's about how being a bigger person often solves nothing and sometimes to solve your immediate problems you need to Get Worse.

[stargirl-and-potts]

S2:1 and 2 make the most sense to me if Ed is terrified of mutiny.

He came back in s1 to find the crew just hoisting Izzy over the rail. He knows they turned on Izzy. He expects them to want to kill Izzy in s2 ep1, after he shoots him. When he realizes they haven't, that's when his downward spiral really begins. Because now he expects them to turn on him instead.

Because Izzy had been saying for years that Ed couldn’t handle a crew. He said he was the one who managed them whenever they wanted to mutiny; he was the one who wrangled their loyalty. He said Ed never won it. He might have even believed it. (Never mind that we don’t see Izzy wrangle them, we see Izzy tell Fang and Ivan that Ed's nuts. Ed doesn't know that.) Izzy insists they don't love Ed. And after Ed says he’ll give up piracy Izzy says that he doesn't want Ed either; that he only serves Blackbeard.

And after Ed heard Izzy, who's always told Ed he can't trust himself, he's too erratic, too distractible, he'd lose a crew the minute he lost Izzy -- after Ed heard Izzy tell him to watch his step, he is desperate to keep Izzy controlled, so Izzy can keep the crew controlled. He listened to them chant his name in 1:9 and looked afraid. The last time Ed had sent Izzy off, he'd returned with the Navy; he can't send him off for threatening him; he has to keep Izzy close. And he can't tell the crew Izzy threatened him; he has to keep him standing between Ed and the crew.

(And Ed has spent his whole life keeping hard, dangerous men off his back. It feels terribly familiar. It feels like this is just how life is.)

So in s2:2, when Izzy tells him the crew isn't happy, that he isn’t happy either, and it's because Ed loves Stede, Ed despairs. Ed thinks, I can't stop loving him. If that's what it would take, I'm never going to be good enough for Izzy. He isn’t keeping the crew happy. I can’t keep him happy. And I can't fire him. Why am I keeping him around? It can’t be worse than it is. They wanted to kill him; I should let them.

But then they won't do it. He asks Frenchie to, and says in near tears that they can just sail on together forever, fighting and looting, and Frenchie doesn't argue. He doesn't say that isn't what they want from Ed. He agrees; and then Frenchie and the rest save Izzy.

What that really means is that Frenchie is too scared of Ed to ask him what went wrong, why he came back without Stede and cast off half the crew and went wild. He doesn’t know Ed doesn’t want to be doing this. And he doesn’t choose Izzy over Ed; he isn’t trying to betray Ed. He’s just too loyal to his crewmates to kill one, even a dick.

But what Ed sees is: they all chose Izzy over me. I have no one’s loyalty. And nothing I do to keep them happy will ever be enough, and now I don't even have him covering my ass.

That's when Ed goes from depressed and drugged but functioning to fully begging someone to kill him; and on a rewatch, I really believe he's been afraid of it all along, waiting for the moment he forgets to watch his step and Izzy makes good his word, or the moment Izzy can't hold the crew off any more and they go after him again.

Ed thinks that's just how life at sea is, and that's how things are for people like him. He thought differently, once, but the only man who ever said he deserved better left him on a dock, so why wait for the others to give him the death they want to? Why not invite them to?

He asks Izzy to kill him, stop putting it off, but Izzy can't follow through on his threat. So Ed pushes the rest to do it. He’s sure they want to (the atmosphere on this ship is fucked!), that without Izzy between him and them he's done for and it might as well be now.

He has no idea they'd have been there for him if he'd asked. He no longer believes they really wanted the soft version of him who'd showed up on deck once upon a time. He thinks that version and every version of him was doomed, because there's something fundamentally wrong with him. He's soft, and people like him don't get to be.

So yeah -- I think if Izzy hadn't made him frightened of mutiny for years, then Ed would not have tried to get the crew to kill him; he wouldn't have been waiting for it. He wasn’t just suicidal because Stede was gone. He had been trained to be afraid, and he was so tired of it. He had been exhausted trying to be captain for so long; he would have willingly surrendered it, the way he tried to -- "Why are we even being pirates?" And he would have seen that he was loved.

But instead he was scared and tired to the bone. So he gives up. And it's not till Stede shows up to protect him that he feels he is safe enough to be soft again, to try and make amends and to do what he wants; and it's not till Izzy tells him at the end that he was holding Ed back and that the others have always loved him that Ed realizes he's never been alone, not on that ship. He didn’t have to be the legend Izzy demanded, or even the softer pirate Stede is. He can decide to be a fisherman, or an innkeeper, or just Ed, and he will be loved. There's always been people there who would want him, whoever he wanted to be, if he could have seen it.

Now he can see it.

[fruityumbrella]

blorbo brainrot is a genuine sickness. tell me why im projecting gay pirates onto an early-retiree ukrainian beekeeper and his neighbour