#a reminder you really are cared about

[rohirric-hunter]

You guys do realize that we NEED Barnes & Noble, right? Support your local bookstores but understand that if Barnes & Noble goes under that WILL destroy traditional publishing. Which will also eventually destroy your local bookstores too. Used books aren't some kind of infinite resource that just kind of spawns in the world. They have to come from somewhere. And like, yeah, I hate the big publishing companies too, but unless you have something locked and loaded to set up in their place or are just really enthusiastic about Kindle exclusives and Amazon print on demands, maybe keep your mouth shut. I'm not even saying you have to shop at Barnes & Noble but you do gotta stop actively wishing for its downfall

[heartorbit]

make a wish! 🍃

happy 1st anniversary, in stars and time 🤍

[gentlenotes-moved]

hey, you guys. life gets so much more fun when you let yourself enjoy the small pleasures of life, love your friends loudly and wholeheartedly, and let yourself be loved.

[batboopp]

as much as I love batgirl 2024, I have to admit the lack of Barbara Gordon mentions in the whole series so far, especially with the first arc having such a big theme of motherhood/daughterhood and the things that comes with it, makes me soo sad. Barbara was the first person Cass actually considered as a mother! Barbara, although she wasn’t the best at it at first, truly did try to understand and love Cass unconditionally even when she was separated from the Bat mantle! And that panel where Cass overhears Barbara tell Dick that she doesn’t know how to really care for Cass could’ve been the perfect parallel to the whole “is a Mother just being connected by blood? No, Something more is owed/Being a daughter is more than being connected by blood” lines that Cass says in the last (current) issue because Barbara, though she did not physically bring Cass into this world, has sacrificed SO much for her, and in return Cass gave so much back.

[medicalunprofessional]

never change, man !

[chawliekin]

and if I said that dennis’ insistence on being the breadwinner/provider despite literally being a pampered princess who dgaf about traditional roles of masculinity in every other regard (aside from ego) is because his mom only stayed with/chose frank for his wealth and dennis is highly aware that he’s difficult to love and unable to show his emotions openly so he has to be contributing something to the relationship materially in order to feel like he’s worth staying for… and mac grew up with parents who were extremely ambivalent to him and eachother so he has to overcompensate by proving his worth at every given moment and seeking praise/validation from people (and religious icons) who will never demonstrate the same amount of dedication to him but he has no idea how else to desperately keep himself close to those he loves other than by eroding himself into something they’ll approve of… dear god they’re both exactly what the other needs — someone who can’t and won’t leave them even if they try — and they don’t even see it…

[travelling-on-the-octopath]

i feel like . perhaps i have an uncommon attitude towards maruki. thoughts are going under the cut and they are negative, people!

i'm going to start right off the bat by saying I think Maruki is easily the most morally bankrupt antagonist of the game. HOWEVER!!!! BEFORE you scroll away in a huff (or scroll away anyway, I'm not your warden) I think he works as well as he does because the sympathy you feel for him outdoes every other target by leaps and bounds. You're literally forced to learn his backstory, and understand why he's made all these choices.

And they're all reprehensible choices.

Backtracking a little: having found a 100% completion playthrough to make up for my game-ruining bug (i literally replayed the entire game just so i could properly do this fight . . . and then i win . . . and then game says FUCK YOU!!!!!), I watched the game starting from finding Maruki's weakness to mid-March when the game ends proper with Ren on the train. With this completed picture in mind I've started looking back on the game as a whole, and while it really is near and dear to my heart, I'm left scratching my head just a little.

As with a lot of popular media, I feel like P5 doesn't commit to the moral greyness it wants to portray. Literally right out the gate you're presented with a monster of a human who is, like, almost comically evil. To the point where I don't understand the Thieves' "are we doing the right thing . . . ?" hand-wringing because, well! See: abuse, rape, assault, general dickery to any students who don't kiss the ground he walks on. But playing the philosophy game so early on really doesn't land.

I think what people forget is word-of-god when it comes to situations like these, and by word of god I mean authorial intent. We are not the general public of this game; we are presented with the objective truth about how stealing hearts works, or at the very least are never presented with something that directly contradicts that truth. Palaces are born from cognitive dissonance. It is the long-term, damaging justification of criminality and moral depravity that ends up distorting your worldview so totally as to create in your subconscious a place where all the things your doing are completely okay, actually. In other words, destroying a Palace is destroying that dissonance; you are taking away their cognitive pattern of saying "this bad thing I'm doing is okay because xyz" and leaving them ONLY with their actions and the respective consequences. Once you take away the justification, all you have left is what you did, who it hurt, and the same that comes from both. That is the pattern every time.

There are two exceptions to this: One girl whose view of herself is so completely distorted that she knows she has to reach out for help to right her worldview, and a woman whose possession of a Palace is irrelevant because of what Ren is able to convince her of outside of her own subconscious. Everybody else? Objective pieces of shit and I'm not hearing anything about it. I don't think the game wants to hear about it either, because neglecting to take down any of these targets is game-ending, but something tells me that the writers either couldn't or didn't want to commit to a story truly rooted in themes of deviation, because every time you add a member to the team they become a vehicle for doubting the Phantom Thieves' methodology. However, I don't mind that too much, because it's understandable that dealing with something as delicate and new as "taking hearts" instills in these children a healthy dose of trepidation, I think.

NOW. Maruki is both status quo and something entirely different. I think his actions are easily the most stomach-turning in the game, but so too are his reasons the most sympathetic. Honestly, he's the perfect escalation from the Yaldabaoth. What's more terrifying than a god who keeps you complacent? A man stumbling into godhood in the distorted, wacked-out desire to make sure no one has to endure what he thinks is undue suffering.

Here is my problem: The minute we saw what Maruki's powers did to Rumi, he EFFECTIVELY became a murderer to me. It's semantics, and no he didn't take a physical life, but he took the memories and the pain and the joy that make up a life. I literally sat there watching this fuck-ass VHS tape thinking, "He literally just killed his girlfriend. The woman he knew is dead." And TO BE HONEST! I find that so incredibly compelling! Because then, at that point, what do you as Maruki do? Do you accept that you've terminated any chances at the real Rumi coming back, of her healing, no matter how long that takes? Or do you convince yourself that this is for the best, so long as she's free of pain? Even if you took her memories of her parents, and altered her entire recollection of her life, and walked away when she clearly tried to reach out to you? She's not suffering, so any price paid is the right one.

He THEN proceeds to fire off this outlook at the rest of the world. (Or, if you did what I really REALLY wanted to do and avoided seeing this fuck-ass counselor, brainwashes a grief-ridden teenager.) And what I don't understand is that Akechi seems to be the only one who treats that with the sort of severity its due given how violating that attitude is--because it's not just the worldview of "I could make everyone happy if only they just Trusted Me"; it's the presumption of authority and the sentiment that "They don't need to know what I'm doing, what I've given them is better than anything they could choose for themselves, they're Free of Suffering now and I can sleep easier knowing that :)"

I say all of this because I cannot in good conscience nod along to people comparing the Phantom Thieves' actions to what Maruki did, because if that's what P5 was going for they missed this mark, that mark, every mark. Like I said before: They give you objectively awful people from which to steal hearts--a pedophilic, violent rapist; a man who allowed a woman to die right in front of him to more easily steal her legacy; a mob boss who blackmails children and uses them as drug mules and moneybags; the literal embodiment of capitalism who has NO issue running people's lives and health into the ground and selling off his daughter like a bargaining chip to bring his goals closer; and democracy-fucking nationalist who smears the name of everyone who opposes them, and those who aren't deterred by THAT method, he kills by using the boy he EXPLICITLY SUSPECTS TO BE HIS SON to do hits.

For the two characters who are NOT pieces of shit (the only women on this list, but that's a discussion for another day), the circumstances are different: One reached out for help, the other changed of her own volition. This is because, frankly, their crimes are either nonexistent (Futaba's amounts of self-flagellation, the smearing of her mother's memory that she recognizes as unfair even if she can't remember why) or inflict minimal in damage (Sae's promotion-oriented ruthlessness in her practice of law, where justice matters less than securing her monetary future for both her and Makoto). Now, as for the latter, Sae's view of the law is disturbing, but her first mention of going outside the law to get a verdict she knows will get her that bag, as it were, is when it comes to the Phantom Thieves. I can't recall any mention of her ruining a life with a false conviction, though if I'm wrong on that front I'm as always open to correction. I suppose my point is that rather than actively, consciously, shamelessly inflicting harm upon those for whom she's responsible, her Palace comes across more as the deeply internalized results-based system of law she entered for the right reasons, but in which she is treading water for the wrong reasons. She's playing the game as it's been taught to her (a game that is one-sided, and corrupt, but the game she learned nonetheless) rather than finding the set of rules she believes in most. This, she does towards the end, through talking things out with Ren and without ever having her treasure stolen.

Despite my not understanding just how MUCH waffling these characters do given the severity of their target's crimes, I think it all plays out fairly well.

And then we get to Maruki, and it seems like all hell breaks loose as to what we're willing to call out as crimes.

Looking back on his behaviours now, his therapy seems to me an extension of his self-righteousness--and that is what this is. However sympathetic, however I can understand the pain of what he went through, his entire shtick is rooted in a god complex bigger than my goddamn ego. I can save you from the pain, just trust me, don't worry about it. He asks people what they want, because he believes in a world where one day he'll be able to give it to them. The GAME EVEN MAKES THIS CONNECTION! When they discover the changes Maruki made, there are flashbacks to the therapy sessions! He stopped being interested in helping people work through their pain and instead let his Persona awakening distort his approach to the entire practice and profession. Again, sympathetic, but morally bankrupt. He was put in charge of these kids' mental health! And while I understand his conviction that he's doing the utmost for them, the fact is that he is not. Emphatically, he is putting them right back where he started because he himself has an unhealthy relationship with pain.

I really think the cruelty of what he does flies under the radar. He reopens everyone's wounds! He gives them a taste of what could have happened, maybe, in a different world. But S, I hear you say, they weren't supposed to know any better. That was supposed to be their new world. If your "help" for a person is predicated on their not knowing how you're meddling in their life, it is not help. In this specific instance, at least. This is a matter of autonomy. He looked at these teenagers and decided he knew better what to do with their lives than they did, and damn the consequences.

Also his palace was horrifying? Cultish? The fucking brainwashing helmets, the allusion to the Garden of Eden? I don't understand how people don't treat this Palace like any other, given that the narrative has you steal the Treasure of a man who is doing active harm. The core of his distortion is what happened to Rumi. His distortion! His utter lack of understanding of the world and how he's meant to weave through it!

But hey. Fine. Only one person is as hard on Maruki as I think he deserves. (Seriously, PEOPLE, in your group is living proof that Maruki's pain relief is ignorance. This girl was brainwashed to believe she was her sister so that she didn't have to suffer the loss of her, because her self-worth was so low that she couldn't imagine a world that would want her instead of her now-dead sister. She is a testament to how FUCKED UP this is, to how this salvation is manipulation in disguise, and yet--milquetoast responses. And don't even get me started on how FUTABA SITES MARUKI AS SOMEONE FOR WHOM SHE WANTS TO STUDY COGNITIVE PSIENCE????? DID THESE TWO EVER SPEAK!?OHGJG>RS WHY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT HIM LIKE HE'S A LONG-LOST FRIEND. ARE WE SERIOUS?) Akechi, we had a bumpy road together, but hey, we are joined in the spirit of Maruki-hating.

H o w e v e r .

You are going to sit there. And look me in the eye. And make this FUCK! ASS! COUNSELLOR! MY CAB DRIVER!?RLKGJSR And talk about new beginnings!? No you deranged motherfucker, we're going to circle back for a few seconds and remind us ALL that you knew about the Phantom Thieves from the word "go"! At the tail end of the Kamoshida business, he suspected Ren's involvement with the Metaverse/cognitive psience, and I feel no shame in saying absolutely abused his relationship with Ren to further his own research. Too harsh a word? It's not. Maruki knew something that Ren wished to keep a secret, and continued to use their counselling sessions as a means of cracking the code to the Metaverse. Ren is supposed to trust this man. If he continues to respond to Maruki's request for help, he obviously does. (I'm using very agency-heavy language for a player insert, but you get what I mean. If you, the player, send Ren continuously to Maruki's office, he trusts Maruki; if not, obviously Ren can't be fucked with the new therapist. A Ren who does not go to these sessions is a very smart Ren.) Maruki was put in a position of power over this boy, and like every other condemned adult in this story, abuses that power!

So I'm going to verbalize my gut feeling: Maruki is not given NEARLY the lashings he deserves by the narrative. Fine, you can't arrest him for crimes against human autonomy and a gross oversimplification of the human condition. I understand that. But giving him a cheeky send-off, having these characters mourn a man who is first and foremost interested in his own ideal world rather than actually trying to help those put in his care via MANDATORY COUNSELLING for some characters--I hate it I hate it I hate it.

TL;DR: Maruki's moral bankruptcy is as proportional to his sympathy as every other antagonist, in that though the other Palace-havers were by and large far less sympathetic, their crimes did not involve his violation of the mind and life--this strange ""killing"" of people in the elimination of their memories--and I do not like how much the story wants me to feel bad for him when he is just as distorted, misguided, and pathetic to me as every other antagonist whose Treasures you have to steal. He's a great antagonist. His motives makes sense, and he disgusts me profoundly. I do not feel bad for him, though I may pity him, and I do not want to watch his victims feel bad for him. Good night.

[lyxchen]

Okay so I've heard this said a bunch of times and I'm gonna admit I thought like that too for a while but no, Gi-hun did not win the games because he was lucky. A lot of people think that's how he won because he never killed anybody but that's really not the point. Gi-hun won the games because a) he's smart and is able to look at things from a different angle, b) because he is a good and kind person who also believes in others and c) because of the goodness and care get got back from other people.

In the first game he survived because Ali saved him and that wasn't luck, that was Ali being a good person and helping somebody not get killed. Ali could've not caught him, let him die, he didn't even know Gi-hun at all at that point and he put himself in more danger too by having to hold on to a person while standing completely still but he still saved Gi-hun because Ali is a good person.

In the Dalgona game he quite literally Was Not Lucky. He decided to go with the umbrella which is the worst shape to pick and he probably would have died if he hadn't looked at the game in a different way and decided to change his strategy. Gi-hun is smart. He is also optimistic and so he tried something new and found a different way to beat that game.

In the third game he survived because he was smart and kind enough to listen to Il-nam. The other people in their group dismissed him as just an old man speaking but Gi-hun didn't and that way they had a good strategy to beat the other team. The same goes for him listening to Sang-woo's idea of running three steps and then stopping, which ultimately was what saved them. His group also chose him as their leader (who, as Il-nam said, needs to not seem weak or loose hope because then the whole team is doomed). His team trusted in him and his optimism and they were right to do so.

In the marbles game he won because he was once again kind and decided to team up with Il-nam and also because in the end Il-nam decided to "sacrifice himself" for Gi-hun because he showed him kindness before. Yes Il-nam didn't actually die but he also knew that Gi-hun had cheated and still let him continue on to the next game, probably because Gi-hun had been good and kind and caring towards him before, even though he really didn't have to be. Gi-hun also didn't know this but by teaming up with Il-nam he inadvertently ensured that Il-nam had a lot more fun in the games than he would have had, had everybody just ignored to "old, fragile man". Gi-hun was good to Il-nam throughout all the games and it ended up saving him in the marbles game.

In the fifth game it's only some small moments as Gi-hun isn't really involved in the game because he's the last number but still it wasn't just luck. First of all he was kind enough to give the number 1 to the player that asked him for it. Yes, that number was bad but he didn't know that and had he been selfish enough to say no to that other player he wouldn't have survived. Being the last to play in any game can end up being bad for you, still he decided to give up the number he picked because the other player asked him to. Secondly he also survived that game because Sae-byeok was kind enough to remind him of which glass tile to step on after he had forgotten which one it was. It's only small but she didn't have to tell him and still she did. Sae-byeok btw is also good to him because before that he was good to her and protected her (even though he was angry at her at first) and that way he was able to gain her trust.

Lastly he won the Squid Game because Gi-hun was kind to Sang-woo and because Sang-woo deep down was still a good person. There were probably many reasons as to why Sang-woo decided to kill himself in the end but part of it, I'm sure, was also because Gi-hun was a good friend to him. I mean Gi-hun was even willing to give up all the money and go back home with nothing gained if it meant that Sang-woo didn't have to die and would be able to come home with him. Gi-hun deserved that win and that money and in the end Sang-woo knew that. He also knew that Gi-hun would make sure to take care of Sang-woo's mother and that he wouldn't just take all the money for himself because Sang-woo knew that Gi-hun is a good person. (Gi-hun technically also won the Squid Game because he was good at it which is also him being smart)

So in conclusion and I hope y'all haven't stopped reading yet: Gi-hun didn't win the games because he was lucky. He didn't just sit around doing nothing and won anyways. He won because he was smart but even more importantly he won because of the kindness and goodness that exists in humans and that is especially present in him. He won because he had empathy, because people trusted him, because he got back from them what he gave to them first. He never killed anyone and we can clearly see that he Could Never kill anyone in those games but that's not his weakness. Just because he didn't let himself get corrupted and turned into what the games wanted him to turn into doesn't mean he won because of luck. Him not playing by those subtle, hidden rules that are made to force him to be bad, to not care about others and to give up his kindness actually means he was better than the games. He won because he didn't let them turn him into a monster. They tried really hard and they failed and that's how he won!! But also on top of that he also won because he isn't the only good person in this show. He also won because other people helped him, were kind to him and gave a shit about him. Each and every person that helped Gi-hun didn't have to do that. They all could have not helped him, Ali could have not caught him, Sae-byeok could have not told him which one was the correct glass tile, hell, she could have Lied to him about it and the only difference it would have made for the other players would have been them being one more dead person closer to winning all that money. But that's really not how humans are and act which is why all these people helped Gi-hun, helped each other in small or big ways and in the end his own kindness and the kindness that exists in other people is what lead to Gi-hun winning. That's not luck. That humans being good

[shorthaltsjester]

Imogen Temult, Exaltant Hope of the Red Storm

Heroes and Monsters by Penny & Sparrow // Critical Role Campaign 3

[happyk44]

percy needs to be haunted by bianca's ghost more

[positivelyadhd]

I wanted to remind everyone trying to support people in crisis to remember to support themselves as well.

It's alright if you need to take a step back and look after yourself.

You can't be one person's only support system and you shouldn't have to feel like you are.

It doesn't make you a bad person if you need to distance yourself for a while.

[uncanny-tranny]

If somebody in your life offers to knit or crochet or, really, create anything for you, please be an active participant in the creation of the piece they are making. I adore making and gifting things, but nothing bums me out quicker than a person who passively just goes "okay," to my ideas about what I'm making them - it can send the message that they won't like it, or that they don't care, even if they're happy about my offering. The back-and-forth feedback is a great way to make sure that you are being gifted something that was truly worth the time, effort, expertise, and money that will inevitably go into the gift!

I know it's really hard to be an active participant, believe me, I'm an anxious ball of horror, but it will only do good for both parties to interact in this situation. It is a big deal to be offered a hand-crafted gift, but it's also something we want you to love and use, and that can only happen if you tell us what would make you fall in love with what we create.

[anxious-chaos-art]

Something something there will always be love and joy and mundanity even in moments of strife

Something something even those in the worst possible place will still find it in them to love and be loved and have small joys

Something something there will be people who care for you and love you no matter what

Something something you will carry your dead with you wherever you go and they will shape you

Something something there is always love and nothing can change that.

[felixcosm]

Say whatever you want about Dylan's Russian being rusty but WOE.BEGONE is like one of the only podcasts out there that has slavic characters that aren't the big bad villain.

[oneluckygoose]

Nah but the way Bucky and Rhodey would have hated Lemar Hoskins because when you have a best friend who has all the power in the world you have a hand on their collar behind their neck keeping them in line, safe, and the same fucking person they were, and Lemar did anything but that, and I don’t think either Bucky nor Rhodey could watch Lemar enable John and still respect him

[smile-files]

mister layton and luke striped tiger