#Tag Later

[scarlet-bee]

[ID: A blurry photo of a phone being held, with the notes app open. The note reads:

five year plan !!

2022 - 2024

- fuck it

- we ball

2025

- fully develop brain

2026

- if still insane, kill self

- if normal, start podcast

End ID.]

we're running out of time to fuck it we ball....

[creamecafe]

Here it is guys! An official taglist for all my squid game works!

[campwillowpeakvn]

diff anon I want Nonna as my grandma/parental figure

We all do anon, we all do u3u

[old-posts-archive]

December 31st, 2010

[wasyago]

the tek of the slab variety...

[catastrophyte]

they love me for my hovering swag

[fell-e]

hey :) *pushes my sibling-coded adeuyuu agenda onto you*

(reference under cut)

i got lazy with the background as you can tell

[starstrike]

Mithrun's desire as an SA analogue

TW discussion of SA and detailed breakdown of aesthetics evoking SA. The way I discuss this is vivid in a way that may be triggering, though there is no discussion of actual sexual assault. Just survivor's responses to it.

People relate to Mithrun and see his condition as an analogue for a few different things, like brain injury or depression. And I think all of them are there. But I also see Mithrun's story as an SA analogue, and Ryoko Kui intentionally evokes those aesthetics. I think it's a part of Mithrun's character that a lot of people miss, but I very much consider it text. This is partially inspired by @heird99's post on what makes this scene so disturbing; so check out their post, too :)

So to start off with, the demon invades Mithrun's bed, specifically. There's even a canopy around it, which specifically evokes this idea of personal intrusion; the barrier is being pulled apart without consent or warning. The way the hand reaches towards Mithrun's body from outside of the panel division makes it almost look like the goat stroking over his body. It's an especially creepy visual detail; similarly, the goat's right hand parts into the side of the panel as well. It's literally like it's tearing the page apart; but gently. So gently.

Mithrun is in bed. It is his bed that the demon is intruding on. He's in a position of intimacy. The woman behind him is a facsimile of his "beloved" that he left behind; the woman who, in reality, chose Mithrun's brother. He is in bed with his fantasy lover, who is leaning over him. While this scene isn't explicitly sexual, it is intimate. And it is being invaded. The goat lifts Mithrun gently, who is confused, but not yet struggling.

The erotics of consumption and violence in Ryoko Kui's work(remember that the word 'erotic' can have many different meanings, please) are a... notable part of some of her illustrations. I would say she blurs the lines between all forms of desire: personal, sexual, gustatory and carnal, in her illustrations in order to emphasize the pure desire she wants to work with and evoke to serve her themes. Kui deploys sexual imagery in a lot of places in Dungeon Meshi, and this is one of them.

In this case, horrifically. The goat's assault begins with drooling, licking, and nuzzling. The goat could be enjoying and "playing with" its food. But it can also be interpreted as it "preparing" Mithrun with its tongue as it begins to literally breach Mithrun's body. The goat also invades directly through his clothing; that adds another level of disturbing to me. There's nothing Mithrun can do in this moment of violation. Mithrun is fighting, but he is fighting weakly, trying to grip on and push away when he has no ability or option to. All he can do is beg the goat to stop. And it doesn't care. This all evokes sexual assault.

The sixth panel demonstrates a somewhat sexual position, with Mithrun's thighs spread around the goat's hunched over body. In the next, the goat pulls and holds apart Mithrun's thighs as he nuzzles into him. The way the clothing bunches up looks a bit as if it has been pushed up. It has pinned Mithrun down onto the bed, into Mithrun's soft furs and pillows. It takes a place made to be supernaturally warm and comfortable, and violates it. It's utterly and intimately horrifying. To me, this sequence of positions directly evokes a rape scene. I think Kui did this very explicitly. These references to sexual invasion are part of what makes this scene so disturbing; albeit, to many viewers, subconsciously.

This is also the moment the goat takes Mithrun's eye. Other than this, the goat seems exceptionally strong, but also... gentle. It holds Mithrun's body tightly, but moves it around slowly. It doesn't need to hurt Mithrun physically. But in that moment, it takes Mithrun's eye. Blood seeps from a wound while an orifice that should not be pierced is penetrated. This moment, the ooze of blood in one place specifically, also evokes rape. That single bit of physical gore is a very powerful bit of imagery to me.

Finally; it is Mithrun's desire that is eaten. After his assault, Mithrun can find no pleasure in things that he once did. He is fully disassociated from his emotions. This is a common response to trauma, especially in the case of SA. It's not uncommon for people to never, or take a long time to, enjoy sex in the same way again; or at all. They might feel like their rapist has robbed them of a desire and pleasure they once had. I think this makes Mithrun's lack of desire a partial analogue for the trauma of sexual assault.

Mithrun's desire for revenge was, supposedly, all that remained. Anger at his assaulter, anger at every being that was like it; though, perhaps not anger. Devotion, in a way. To his cause. I don't know. But the immediate desire to seek revenge is another response to SA. But on to Mithrun's true feelings on the matter.

This is... So incredibly tragic. Mithrun feels used up. Like his best parts have been taken away. Like he's being... tossed aside. This certainly parallels the way assault victims can feel after being left by an abuser. Or the way assault victims feel they might be "ruined" forever for other partners. These are common sentiments for survivors to carry, and need to overcome. In the text, it's almost like Mithrun feels the only being who can desire him is a demon who might "finish devouring" him. That that's his only use. It's worth noting that Mithrun trusted the demon. Mithrun's world was built by the demon, and Mithrun, in that way, was cared for by the demon. I think this reinforces Mithrun's place as a victim.

There's also something to be said about Mithrun as a victim of his own possessive romantic and sexual desire. The mirror shows him his beloved just dining with his brother, and it infuriates him. He doesn't know if the vision is real, nor if she has really chosen his brother as a romantic partner. The goat then creates a whole fantasy world where she loves him. As Mithrun's dungeon deteriorates, she is the only person that continues to exist. Mithrun continues to have control over her. And that is the strongest desire the demon is eating, isn't it? There's something interesting there, but I don't know what to say about it.

In conclusion, I think Mithrun's story is an explicit analogue for sexual assault-- though, certainly, among other things! The way the scene plays out and is composed explicitly references sexual violation and invasion of the body. His condition mirrors common trauma responses to sexual violence. And, at the end, he finally realizes he can recover.

Let's end on a happy Mithrun, after taking the first step on his journey to recovery :) You aren't vegetable scraps Mithrun. But even if you were-- every single thing in this world has value. Even vegetable scraps.

[20dollarlolita]

Quick reminder that if you have a manual wheelchair that folds to 13x36x48 or smaller, on a plane with 100+ passenger capacity and that operates in the USA, the airline must make room to keep that chair in the cabin and not planeside check it.

Planes with a 100 person capacity must have a cabinet for your wheelchair. If that cabinet is not available they must strap it to seats. If those seats are occupied, they must defer those passengers and compensate them for missing their flight. The airline personell are not allowed to try to stop you from carrying your wheelchair in the cabin by telling you that passengers will be removed from the flight to accommodate a wheelchair.

This is the law. This is not airline policy. The airlines do not get to decide if they honor this. This is the law.

It is annoying for airlines to accommodate this, which is why they will still tell you to planeside check your chair. But until we don't have to write United Breaks Guitars 2: Aer Lingus Breaks Wheelchairs, it's going to be a very good idea for wheelchair users to exercise this legal right.

[hobiesdump]

So beautiful

[lunaballoona09]

@bobthefred me and you and the two clones of you also

just finished iii i loved the part in the finale where cabby gets one trillion girlfriends

[captainunderkrupp]

I love Bruce's GIANT wife

[slythereen]

finally rewatching the race with f1tv commentary and charles' onboards is traumatizing but umm something interesting of note...

"you need to let max by" vs. "norris past, piastri and hamilton, and then there's a gap to alonso"

[twilight0wanderer]

Something else to consider in the initial discussion of 12-13 year-old Tobias is that he canonically tries to commit suicide in Book 3, well before the accumulated trauma of being a child soldier. To be fair, he was recently trapped as a hawk, but that suggests to me that at that point in his life, he's one new significant stressor away from being potentially ready to end it all. All that to say that Tobias surviving to college age is even more in question.

Assuming he does make it though, I've got a couple more additions from personal experience. For context, I was initially applying for college in the late 2000's, attended community college off and on throughout the 2010's, and transferred to university at the end of the 2010's, all in southern California.

First, as far as grades go, as of the late 2000's universities seemed to care more for standardized test results than high school grades. My grades were inconsistent because I was smart but didn't vibe well with my school's pedagogical methods, so I frequently skipped work or handed in partial assignments. Despite that, I scored well on the SAT and even better on the ACT, so I was accepted into every school I applied to (mostly CalState and UC). If Tobias can test well, he should be able to get in the door, although financial aid may be tight for the first year, until his college GPA picks up.

Second, the community college to university pipeline is decently good in California, so that presents another alternative. Even with poor grades, Tobias could almost certainly make it into a community college and use that to save some money and build up his GPA for transfer, or just pick up an Associate's and run with that. When I was attending, my CC had merit-based waivers that completely remove tuition for high GPA students, and even without that, it cost pennies on the dollar compared to university tuition. In larger cities, you could often find faculty splitting their time between the local state school and CC, so you could get effectively the same level of instruction on the cheap.

Ultimately, I agree that it's possible for Tobias to make it out and have a happy, fulfilling life in a world without yeerks, but the odds certainly are not in his favor.

do you ever think about how if tobias had not become an animorph his life would probably be way worse

at the very least, it'd be much lonelier

[campwillowpeakvn]

Screw the Yanderes, I want you~ 😏🥵

There are like 6 non-yandere characters and several side/joke characters here, you're gonna need to be more specific .3.

[4s-status]

Day 4375

Today, Inanimate Insanity Season 2 Episode 18 was released.

MePhone4S was downgraded on December 7th, 2012. Today is November 29th, 2024. MePhone4S has returned as a character, though not alive.

It took 4375 days for MePhone4S to return. That is very nearly 12 years (8 days short of exactly 12 years if my calculations are correct).

Inanimate Insanity as a whole has also ended. Thank you for joining me on this journey.