#Thoughts post

[a-cha0tic-intr0v3rt]

ok thoughts/confession post—

it makes me so sad that oso san isn’t as popular as many other anime out there i mean— come on its so unhinged like its so funny— its also my favorite anime of all time 😕

yes i know its a bit popular in its native japan but in other parts of the world— its quite niche and its hard to see people talk about it 🥺

and yes the humor is crude but still— i wish more people knew about this hidden gem-

hell it even has a really funny english dub (its as funny as the original japanese version) that gives off major ghost stories energy (tho it only covers the first two seasons and idk if the third season or the upcoming 4th season will get dubbed at all)

this is an anime i highly recommend checking out if ya’ll are into gag humor— or just comedy/slice of life in general— though quick warning as i said before there are a lot of dirty jokes so please watch with caution

[lilyginnyblackv2]

Thoughts on Barbie - Feminism, Power Fantasies, Isekai, & Existentialism - SPOILERS!

I really like how the feminism in Barbie is actually kept simplistic. I don’t think the feminism in it needs to be super layered to make for an excellent and engaging movie, especially due to how Barbie the Movie, itself, is structured.

Of course the feminism presented in it is rather simplistic in nature. This makes sense since this is Stereotypical Barbie’s first exposure to feminist ideology and thoughts. She was a doll with a very childlike understanding of how the world works and functions. This also makes sense, since the Barbies in general are all toys geared at young girls. Their world is a reflection of the fluffy promises and hopes that we, as adults, feed to young children (especially girls). This idea that they can be anything and do anything.

But the reality is much more messy and complicated than that. We see the Barbies (and Kens) beginning to understand this towards the end of the movie - after they have all been “touched” by the Real World. They have engaged with Gloria and Sasha and the CEO of Mattel and so on and so forth. There is now no instant change in ideology (like what we see happen when Ken brings over patriarchy to Barbie Land), instead, we see the sort of social change that happens in the Real World - slow moving and made in small intervals. But, at the same time, we see Stereotypical Barbie and Ken working through more complex ideas and emotions surrounding feminist thoughts and ideologies. 

I also feel like it was less the feminism itself that makes the movie stand out in a way, but the way they present it. They don’t hide it behind a dark and grim story, they don’t have it being presented just generally to the audience or subtlety hinted at - instead the movie is bright and colorful and silly - and we have two older women (Gloria and Ruth) guiding younger women (Sasha and the Barbies) through the ups and downs of womanhood. Right, Sasha is a teen girl in the Real World who is starting to understand more and more of life’s complexities, but still missing some of the time and experience that can add more nuance and understanding to many areas of life. While Barbie is like a young adult woman - a college girl that is just getting ready to graduate and really head out into the actual Real World. 

So it’s all about being able to relate (whether in a big way or a small way) to the shared experiences that are being depicted on the screen. It’s a movie created by a woman specifically for women (and yes, that includes trans women - the Youtuber, Kat Blaque, who is a trans woman, did a review of Barbie where she talked about the trans rep and how they got it right - I’ll link her video below). It is speaking directly to us women. All of us.

Which also gets me into thinking about power fantasies, isekai (and reverse isekai) a genre that is about “normal human ends up in a fantasy land,” with the reverse being that a fantasy being (usually of some high power or standing) ending up in the normal human world, and how men and women tend to play into these narratives. 

Many power fantasties that we see tend to involve men - even the ones aimed at women - such as the take I’ve seen of how “teen girl x immortal (usually male) being” in YA novels is about girls seeing themselves in a place of emotional power over men. Superhero narratives are all about normal people gaining superhuman powers - usually in a way that makes them physically stronger - and these all tend to play into male power fantasies and gazes, even when the superhero is a woman. Even if they may touch on feminist ideologies, the way the power fantasy element is handled is still very different from what we see here in Barbie.

In Barbie, we follow Stereotypical Barbie. She is like that ordinary human. Nothing about her really stands out and she doesn’t have any amazing job. That being said, there are elements about her existence that we, as humans, would find to be almost superhuman or advantages over us - never aging, never dying, being able to float from the top of your house right into your car, etc. But, Stereotypical Barbie herself, like within her own world, doesn’t hold any kind of power or high standing. Her journey into the Real World is essentially a reverse isekai. 

In the end, Barbie chooses to stay in the Real World and become a human. She chooses the more flawed existence over the more perfected one (or seemingly perfected one anyway). And I think it is the moments that touch on this aspect of Barbie’s journey which is what makes the movie so special to so many women. Not necessarily the Feminism 101 aspect, which is just an element to Barbie’s journey into womanhood. It’s Barbie seeing the elderly lady next to her on the bench and seeing the beauty in her. It is Barbie meeting Sasha and Gloria and learning from them about how hard life is for women in the Real World still. It is Barbie’s talks with Ruth. Quiet and introspective and filled with a soft patience that comes with age and life. And it is Barbie seeing and experiencing all of these things and then choosing to become human and live in the Real World.

Not because of men. Not because of romance. Not because of any sort of power fantasy that engages in a male gaze and perspective. But because of the women she has met in the Real World. The connections she made with them and the hopes, dreams, and feelings of all girls and women in the Real World.

That’s the moment that makes Barbie so special. That’s the moment that really makes everyone in the theater feel connected, especially the other women and girls present there. That moment is what made the movie for me. The culmination of Barbie’s exploration of existentialists ideologies through a purposefully and specifically woman focused lens. 

[redspiderlilygrave]

I love that Jing Yuan is very clearly protecting Blade.

Letting him escape multiple times not just because he's a wanted criminal. But because he knows what the ten lords commission dose to people who are mara struck. He won't even talk to us about Blade until he knows he can trust us not to possibly put him in danger.

After everything Fu Xuan mentioning Jing Yuan made multiple violations and I'm pretty sure most of those were to keep Blade safe.

[bloodgulchblog]

Uhhhh decided to make a collage things I've talked about in the past re: my complicated feelings about shipping Chief and Cortana and why I don't generally, because it seems like the topic has come up a lot lately.

I promise this is in good faith and I don't want anyone to not have fun.

But also I'm putting it below a cut so no jumpscares, only come in if you feel like it:

I have some other thoughts on this if anyone cares, but this is most of the old ones.

I used to ship them when I was younger but I burned out on it, and now I just don't see them that way anymore (at least as they were in canon.) Which... also isn't necessarily a barrier, especially because characters caring intensely about one another and being ready to die for one another is a great place to start, but it's not something I'm willing to do the work for at this point.

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

Help I’m thinking about Kaz being the only survivor after his unit was attacked by the Mist Unit (the Skulls) and how he’d have woken up as a prisoner completely unaware of that fact and how it must’ve felt to be the only one left after knowing how much trouble he was having getting men to be with him for Diamond Dogs (since they wanted to follow Big Boss-not him) and how monumental another loss must’ve felt after Mother Base and Snake and-

[xiabablog]

Managing work projects, an apprenticeship game project, bootcamp projects, future blog planning, a tech book project I started making a week ago and a lot more things I still want to do!

Multipotentiality.

Multipotentiality is the ability or tendency to have many different interests, skills, and creative pursuits. It is a term often used to describe individuals who have the ability to excel in a variety of fields or disciplines, rather than specializing in just one.

Do I feel like that? Sometimes! 8/10 I feel like this!

So many things I want to do but oh my goodness I hop on it and get upset that I'm not progressing as far as I wanted to so I drop it and move on. Then I come back months later and give it another try and then I stop. I've done this with the following:

multiple programming languages

animation

different art styles e.g. realism, pixel art, rococo

knitting and crocheting

writing and reading books

studying folk magic

robotics, AI and electronics

So much but I feel like my brain is too little to comprehend it all! But I still have the urge to learn more!

[vimbry]

[slutdge]

could you imagine trying to navigate this bar drunk, this is the 9th circle of hell

[regina-cordium]

Guy just walked in with a shirt that said “I don’t question my wife’s choices because I’m one of them” and frankly I’m obsessed

[some-pers0n]

Hey you ever think about The Characters so much to the point where

[yellowpoet]

hold on. Was suck him good and hard through his jorts supposed to conjour the image of someone who has an unzipped fly because this entire time I've been imagining someone slurping on wet denim

[soul-from-another-era]

Unconditional love isn't a free pass to hurt me.

[pelopona]

me and my moots <3

[redspiderlilygrave]

It's October and you know what that means, monster time. I've already seen some people write vampire Blade and that's good.

But what about werewolf Blade? I mean people have said he talks about his mara like he's a werewolf.

But finding out his parents were killed by literal space werewolves makes me think of an idea. What if his curse of abundance is making him turn into a borisin?

Essentially turning into a space werewolf? Becoming the thing that killed his parents and that he created weapons to destroy.

I know it probably doesn't work like traditional werewolfism where you can be turned into one but, what if?

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[dio7r]