#again I was in high school in the late 2000s - early 2010s so this is the stuff I’m familiar with

[strscrossed]

high school reincarnation au hcs ✨

okay so here are all the ideas I have so far for it! also excuse me if anything seems weird because I graduated high school in 2012 lol. this is a modern au so consider it a world like ours.

mikasa is adopted by kenny when she’s 9 because her parents were killed in a road accident on a rainy day

because she doesn’t have the warmth of the jaeger family, her life takes a different turn. kenny isn’t an emotionally present guardian and he’s away for work a lot so she basically raises herself. levi is a grown man and he does check in and call her frequently

because of no therapy and an almost non-existent support system, she develops some really unhealthy coping mechanisms. she breaks into kenny’s liquor cabinet often because he barely touches it. she starts partying and everything that implies. she smokes, she self-harms, and she’s disturbingly good at hiding it

her other hobbies are painting, reading, playing the keyboard, and singing

she and kenny move just before her junior year of high school (11th grade, grade 11, whatever year applies between the ages of 16 and 17) just so she’s in a better area with a good school because he does want to see her succeed

despite her alcoholism, she’s a star student. she’s one of those “read it once and absorb it like a sponge” types

eren is born to a doctor and restaurant owner. he has an older half brother and the family is actually very happy. he meets his friends who all make him work for it but they eventually forgive him. he also plays on the varsity soccer team because at a young age, his parents made sure he’s constantly active and busy. as a result he’s also a good student (shocking!!!)

he and lara meet and despite some bad blood, she looks like mikasa and he’s hot so there’s a mutual physical attraction with them becoming fwbs. it’s purely physical but lara is kind of clingy post orgasm and he goes along with it

when mikasa starts, she just continues on as she always does. she joins art club and book club. she avoids social contact because well, again, she’s severely traumatized and has convinced herself that she doesn’t deserve happiness

during a project for class she goes out into the balcony for fresh air and that’s when she sees eren and lara being too comfortable on the balcony (making out)

unfortunately for her, she moves back and hits something and they both hear it. and eren sees her. she makes a mad dash for it.

eren finds her the next day because he’s a weirdo who got her schedule and gets her alone. they talk and she says that she’s not ready to date anyone. they can be friends.

he respects that even though he’s not satisfied with that at all. he pulls her into his friend group and they’re all so happy to see her

but she’s off. she’s quiet. she seems out of it most of the time and she freaks out if anyone grabs her arm

eren finds out about her drinking problem and her issues because he takes her home one day and finds empty cans under her bed. they have a huge fight and after she tells him to leave and he only does because his mother calls him yelling

she’s pretty cold to him after that and all of their friends when they try to stage an intervention

she starts partying again and somehow she maintains her grades despite being so often due to going on benders more than usual

this is as far as I got. I really like angst and well, eren and mikasa end up fighting a lot here because she’s completely destroyed from her trauma and he just wants to love her.

[luckykiwiii101]

What I Will Be Manifesting This Week :

What I will be manifesting this week:

- Desired Body (Revised)

- Always Waking Up In The Void State Aware

- That my 3D always conforms in under 48 hours

What Will I Be Doing?

- Embodying the state of having my desires.

- Fulfilling myself in imagination whenever I think of my desires.

- Fulfill through visualisation and inner conversations because that is what feels most natural to me.

What Will I Manifest In The Void State?

- Desired Face & Body but with some finishing touches. (doll - like, kind of like Karen smith from mean girls)

- Desired Height (5’7)

- Desired hair (doll - like)

- Desired Name (so elegant and pretty!)

- Desired Personality

- Desired voice (singing & speaking)

- Desired Vibe (90s Supermodel)

- Desired house (so luxurious)

- Desired room (Barbie x Gossip Girl themed)

- Desired Wardrobe (Blair Waldorf type outfits)

- iPhone 15 Pro + Desired Phone Case

- New Desired Biological Dad + New cousins & aunties etc to match

- Revising that my parents got married in Paris

- Rich Family

- All my family members are happy and have everything they want

- Privacy

- Pretty School Interior & Exterior

- Desired School Uniform

- My best friends to live on the same road as me and to have everything they want.

- Perfect mental and physical health for all my loved ones.

- Desired Career to start early (Supermodel for when i’m 17)

- Perfect Posture

- Perfect Eyesight

- Perfect Culinary & Baking Skills

- Fluency in French & Dutch

- Piano Prodigy + being able to play desired songs on it

- Good at playing electric guitar

- Changing Appearance of my family members

- Revising my family’s names

- Always knowing what to say

- Family celebrates holidays like Christmas & Halloween

- Revising my memories to align with my dream life

- Photographic & audiographic memory

- Perfect grades

- Whenever I listen to a song, it feels like listening to it for the first time again.

- Desired Items

- Immune from embarrassment + Revising that any past embarrassing moments never happened

- Life feels like the early 2010’s again

- Life feels like a Gossip Girl Episode (You know I had to XoXo 💋)

- Life feels like a barbie movie (like princess charm school or smthg idk)

- Looking like desired songs

- Can Choose To feel hot or cold

- airport and plane processes to be always extremely fun and quick for my family, friends and I

- Teen Wolf & The Originals to be put back on Netflix

- Season 3 of One Of Us Is Lying to come out

- Some cute things for my pets

- Always know what my pets want

- My whole family to have good taste in fashion

- Go on nice holidays every year

- Materialise something instantly by affirming for it x3

- Kind, Respectful & Secular Family

- Disgusting Roadman fashion in London to be stopped (ew if u saw that shizz)

- Fashion to go back to the 90s and early 2000s

- People At School Don’t annoy me

- High Spice Tolerance

- Always Wake Up Feeling Fresh & Energised

- Never late to school

- Desired ear piercings

- Scary Insects never come near me (especially spiders AAAAH!!!)

- I appreciate all aspects of life

- Never abuse my manifesting abilities

- Everything i manifest manifests 10x better than how i imagined

- Basically revising my whole entire life top to bottom

+ much more personal things

Things I Will Be Manifesting For The World:

- World Peace in all realities

- No wars in all realities

- Palestine being free in all realities

- World healing

- Healed society

- Righteous justice system

- No corrupt leaders

- No corrupt governments etc

- Healthcare everywhere is free

- People are good people

- People treat eachother with respect and kindness

Guys, I will definitely go into more depth when i actually materialise all these and post my success story. + Will probably post some picture proof of materialistic things in my home and outfits etc but not my face or anything personal like that.

I wrote everything i’m going to manifest on here because I know i’m not going to be bothered to type it all out when i’m actually living my dream life in the 3D 💀

Share what you guys will be manifesting and stick to your new story so we can all post our successes together!!!

[ghxstlike]

i love loving you

leon kennedy x reader content/warnings: petnames (baby), leon being awkward, leon antics, awkward flirting, teasing, cigarette mention, leon’s music taste, anxiety mention, nightmare mention. authors note: i am down bad for this man. he is rotting my brain and i am very okay with it. these are personal headcanons :)

leon's smile always starts out as a smirk. it's very cute.

always has a hand on you. around your shoulders, holding your hand, lightly gripping your thigh. he wants other people to know that you're taken- you're his.

he is a slightly possessive and jealous man. if someone is flirting with you, his eyes are narrowed at the person who is way too close to you, and his leg is bouncing with anxiety.

sooner or later, he saunters over to the two of you and wraps an arm around your shoulders.

"hey, baby," he whispers in your ear, but it was loud enough for the person in front of you to hear. you shiver, slightly leaning into leon's embrace.

when you first met leon, you were immediately attracted to him. so, of course, you started to flirt with him.

though, he isn't dumb. he knew you were flirting with him (he was flirting back, after all). he teased you for it, obviously.

"are you flirting with me?" he says with a smirk. leon leaned down to get closer to your face, tilting his head.

people say that leon is a flirting machine and is good with women. no he is not.

i mean, yes, he does flirt a lot, but he is not good with women at all.

you found it very charming and cute when he asked you out. a huge smile was plastered on your face, staring at the nervous man in front of you.

“i- hm, i was just- fuck. i was wondering if you, i dunno,” he clears his throat. his face is slightly pink, but he thinks that his face is a deep red by how hot his body feels. “do you want to go get dinner with me sometime?” he manages to get out. he sighs out of relief- he did it. he feels a drop of sweat roll down his temple onto his cheek, shoving his clammy hands into his jean pockets.

of course, you said yes. i mean, who wouldn’t?

y’all aren’t gonna like this, but he definitely smokes cigarettes.

i mean c’mon, he was born in 1977. though, he didn’t willingly start smoking. his friends in high-school peer pressured him.

he tried to stop smoking before his first day at rpd, but it failed miserably. he felt antsy and he was more on edge- angry. he hated that he got easily frustrated with people. he’ll try again someday.

he smells like cigarette smoke and leather. occasionally he smells like coconut & patchouli (his cologne).

always has a stress toy with him. i like to think he wears a fidget ring on his middle finger or thumb. playing with a stress ball or twirling a pen makes him more focused and calm.

bites the inside of his cheek when he’s deep in thought. he doesn’t even notice that he’s doing it, it just happens.

his music taste is decent!

he doesn’t listen to the radio, thinks 2010 music is trash and it’s annoying.

it’s mostly a combination between 90s alt & grunge and early 2000’s rock. his favorite band is radiohead.

always gives eye contact. never looks away when you're talking, especially when you're talking about your long day at work or something you're passionate about.

as we all may know, he's bad at communicating his feelings. you can tell he's getting better with it, but it's still a challenge for him.

he never talks about raccoon city. you only found out about this from overhearing a conversation he had with claire. you brought it up one time, but he fell silent and never looked up at you. ever since then, you never talked about it with him.

mans suffers with frequent nightmares, so obviously he never sleeps. when he's with you though, he doesn't have any nightmares. so, he stays up until you're ready for bed.

when you're out late, he's waiting for you in bed.

leon loves to get his hair played with. he loves the feeling of your nails lightly scratching his scalp.

if you take meds, he always reminds you to take them. he also watches you take them, just in case.

leon always wants the best for you. he just loves you, so so much.

[danganronpa96]

Sorry for asking again (I'm sure everytime you see my messages you're like oh God no) but what do you think about the theory that YTTD takes place somewhere in the late 70s and the death game with the previous contestants (Hayasaka, Kurumada and Mai) took place in the early 60s? I mean the way they talk, dress and all that (and the fact that Reko was on a magazine for being with her band, that's some 70s things because who'd do that now, let alone the early 2010s) and the school uniforms and all that, I refuse to believe that it takes place in 2017. And the fact that Mai is said to be a swell gal or something, it clearly shows the late 50s-early 60s vibe here.

Little did you know, I enjoy answering your asks 😼 (checkmate me, but also really you)

It’s really interesting because I’ve never heard of this theory before. But in my opinion, I don’t really see it.

First, magazines were pretty popular in the 2000s as well, and although they’re not really as relevant today, I think they were still a thing around the early 2010s as well. So, it’s not really a stretch to assume Reko’s band appeared on a magazine in modern times (plus it might’ve just been a convenient plot device as they obviously don’t have access to the internet in the death game facility).

I will agree that the school uniforms are pretty outlandish, but that’s just for Sara and Joe’s school, really. We get to see Anzu’s school uniform in her side story thing, and it looks pretty standard to me. I feel like Sonobeno High just has a strange uniform to give Sara an interesting design lol

With Mai being called a ‘swell gal’, I think that might just be a lexical choice on the translator’s part? After all, Japanese language fads are different to English so maybe the word that ‘swell’ was translated from is actually a common word? I don’t really know.

Plus, there are some factors that make it look like this is during a modern time. First, we do physically see a mobile phone and a laptop in the story (Kanna’s sister, Kugie, has ‘her’ phone shown with that message, and obviously Kai’s laptop is this big plot thing anyway). Also, with all the technology such as the AIs, unless this was a 70s sci-fi dystopia, it doesn’t make much sense for really advanced technology to be present back then.

Another, smaller thing is that Shin claims to work for a convenience store. In Japan, these weren’t a common growing thing until at least the 1980-90s. So I mean he could be working in one still in those times but it feels like more of a common modern occupation to me.

Also I’m not sure what you mean by ‘previous contestants’ because the dummies were in the exact same death game as the main 12, but they all just died in the first trial before we got to meet them as humans. Unless you mean Asunaro was lying and brought back participants who died in a previous game. However, Hayasaka specifically calls Sara out before he dies, so it’s clear they have a connection to her in the same time period.

But that’s just my thoughts on it. I would be surprised if it was true in some way.

[asofterepilogue]

when I was a wee teen in the ancient year of 2009 everyone my age in my country had a blog on one specific platform (skyrock.com if you're curious). mine was about fandom (do we ever really change) but teenagers logged on to discuss literally anything from their bikes to their favourite anime or their hatred for their teachers lol. it was really one huge diary.

by 2012, everyone had moved on to more modern and evil pastures (facebook, I think?), and the platform basically became a ghost town, but it was still up so you could still give yourself a shot of embarrassment to keep yourself humble.

they're taking it all down tomorrow though, so I've been doing some archiving, which means I'm feeling extra nostalgic today. if you weren't a french teenager in the late 2000s/early 2010s you can't possibly understand how big skyrock.com was and how bittersweet it is to hear of its upcoming demise years after you last logged in lol. I kept no diary through high school but that platform basically served as one. there's so much of teenage me and my high school friends on there it's a little insane. in a way it feels like that era is ending again, which is weird because I haven't actually been there in 11 years.

anyway, cheers to my 15 yo self's sheer delight in writing, her subpar characterisation skills, her questionable taste in music, and her total lack of shame in creating (and posting!) possibly-mediocre stuff. I've missed her every day.

[gracegrove]

The kind of boys Metalsandwich would be if they had gone to Catholic high school with me in the late 2000's to early 2010's.

Steve: The popular boy. The boy that teachers deny is their favorite. The Abercrombie™ boy. The boy whose hair is slightly out of line with the dress code but never gets in trouble for it. The boy who wears four bracelets at all times: a braided bracelet, some nonsense hippy bead save the such-n-such charity aligned bracelet, the 'i ❤️ boobies' bracelet, and a wood bead bracelet with Catholic saints on them. Wears the girl's uniform shorts and the girl's uniform cardigan and dares anyone to dress code him or tell him that those items are only for female students to wear. He thinks they compliment his figure and his long legs and he's absolutely 100% right. The boy who tailored his uniform slacks 2" shorter so he could wear patent leather Italian shoes on Mass days without socks and show off his ankles. The boy that goes to Mass with his parents but never attends the provided Confession or Chapel hours during school days. The boy who throws the parties people talk about all next week. The boy who knows how to tie a tie at least three different ways. The boy who owns a Barbie pink Hummer.

Billy: The boy who's always reminded at the beginning of the school day to do up his shirt buttons, and is again reminded after returning from lunch. The boy who rolls his cigarette carton up in his shirt sleeve. The boy who has received so many fines for chewing gum in class that he could probably make 1,000 paper cranes by now. The boy whose hair is in violation of the dress code, but that's the least of anyone's worries. The boy who successfully stuck 3 pencils in the 20' high library ceiling, and they still haven't fallen out this many years later. The boy who always has to borrow a tie for Mass and then flirts someone into doing it up for him. The boy that every girl wants to sit next to. The boy that has to sit closest to the teacher during Mass because he mutters snide and critical comments about the Church under his breath. The boy that has openly proclaimed Jesus as gay in Catholicism class. The boy that immediately breaks dress code the minute end-of-day announcements come on. The boy who says "Jesus fuck!"

Eddie: The boy who is so far out of line with the dress code that nobody is quite sure how he is still enrolled in this school. The boy who sits with his feet up on the desk. The boy who pulverizes an entire roll of Smarties candies and snorts it off his desk. The boy who altered his school sweater with pins and frayed the cuffs. The boy who thinks no one can see or hear the music from his headphones when he runs it through his sleeve and rests his chin on his hand. The boy who gets his wallet chain caught on every desk, chair, and doorknob in the entire building. The boy who purposely sings hymns off-key and the loudest during Mass. The boy who has never worn, and will never be prepared for a Mass day in his life. The boy who isn't Catholic but attends confession anyways so that he can proceed to confess to the most heinous of sins and see if they would be forgiven. The boy who has been hit by a fellow student in the school parking lot... on at least one occasion.

[europa-ganymede]

So this dude that went to high school with my ex and was in a band that actually made it big from my area back in the early 2010′s, late 2000′s (when we were in HS) has been following me on social media for a while. When I say made it big I mean their music video was on MTV. They played Warped Tour. He never really interacted with me but would delete his account and come back randomly. Sometimes interact with my stories on IG. I never gave it much thought.

He randomly started interacting with me again when his IG account popped back up. When I tell you this convo with him I had recently was so unhinged. I didn’t know him personally so I have no idea what his personality is like. But personally? NOT A FAN. 

He is either a terrible communicator or is really bad at expressing his personality through text but the conversation was somewhat funny except when he would be rude for no reason. He sent me some response to something that didn’t make sense and I said “what does that mean?” He goes “you could go back and read it again”. I said “I did, three separate times. Still doesn’t make sense.” And he skirted around answering to clarify. Changes the subject and then I said something and he goes “yeah no shit, dummy”. First of all, I don’t know who you’re talking to like that but you’re calling ME a dummy? Learn to type, bitch. So I continue responding to him but I’m half-assing the responses now and being super dry but he’s not getting it. He keeps telling me off and on that he thinks I’m hot (duh) and “i’m sorry I didn’t tell you that you were such a babe sooner”... then he asks me how I feel about the “R” word and I’m like “Religion?” He goes “No, God doesn’t exist retard”. I literally sent a “...” and went “are you fucking around right now or are you just really stupid?” He just replied with “hahahaha” 

Then I tell him that negging doesn’t work on me and I’m not insecure so he should try that with someone else. Because LITERALLY, WHO CALLS A GIRL THEY’RE INTERESTED IN RETARDED? I don’t know you like that. He asks me if I’m upset because I’m retarded and I said “no, but you might be judging by how this conversation is going”. And he goes “No dear, we don’t do mean here”. At this point I’m like “omg stop responding to me” and he goes “Jokes aside thanks for the good convo, I’m sad I didn’t tell you how hot you were earlier. I thought you were scary and mean.”

Good Convo? Are we on the same planet? 

I’m just going to put this out here - this is not the first time nor will it be the last that a conversation with a man had be questioning my sanity.

[meeda]

I don’t want to say I have “favorite” true crime cases but there are ones that stand out to me for various reasons

the slenderman stabbing for one because the perpetrators and victim were so young, and the one who did the stabbing has the same illness as me. I like to stay up to date on this one, hearing how the victim is doing (apparently she’s pursuing a career in medicine) but also the perps. I know one got released from the psych ward recently and her gps monitor is getting removed, but I believe she still has to have her internet access restricted. The main perp also petitioned for release a couple times but her team keeps withdrawing it for some reason.

the gianni versace murder also intrigues me because the perp was a “spree killer,” which is less common than a serial killer. he was also gay, half filipino, and an escort, not the usual demographic for a violent killer.

alyssa’s case terrifies me, because she was fifteen when she murdered a nine year old girl. when you look at pictures of Alyssa, she just looks like an average high school girl going through her edgy scene phase. her diary entries were reminiscent of late 2000s/early 2010s rawr XD type verbiage. she looked so normal but she was a monster. the interrogation footage was haunting as well, as her grandmother was present and you could see the exact moment she learns that her granddaughter is a killer.

and of course there’s jodi, the gaslight gatekeep girlboss of murderers who many a female manipulator girlblogger love to idolize for reasons i can honestly kind of understand. She’s gorgeous, manipulative, possessive, she’s a man’s worst nightmare and a tumblrina’s power fantasy. I only recently watched some videos discussing her case, and in all of them, they attempt to paint her victim in a good light. But if you ask me, he sounded like a prick, and also made weird pedophilic comments about jodi. you won’t find me mourning his death. I don’t care as much about this case as I do about the, uh, fandom? jodi has many admirers, mostly female, which is amusing to me. Usually I only see hybristophile women attracted to ugly male killers. but like I said, jodi is seen as a sort of power fantasy. Shes probably not the kind of person people should be idolizing, but then again there are worse people to look up to.

[my-ace-life]

Discovery

I’ve always known that I was different from my classmates in several key ways. One, I was abnormally good at math. I was usually the first person in my class to pick up new concepts, and I often had to help explain it to my friends after class. Two, I placed way more importance on reading time than the rest of my classmates did. While my friends would lament about having to be silent for an hour and read a book, I couldn’t get enough of it. I devoured books faster than my teacher could keep up with, but I didn’t mind re-reading books as long as I got to read at all. Three, I never had crushes on boys like my female friends did. I didn’t get nervous around whoever was deemed “the cutest boy in class” that week. I didn’t want to conspire with my friends for a boy’s attention. I didn’t look at boys as anything other than people who I could play with during recess and pester during class activities. But, in order to fit in, I pretended like I did. I played the part perfectly, even going so far as to do play-pretend weddings to my friends who were playing the part of the boy we were all supposed to be crushing on.

This trend continued well into middle school, because that was the only thing I could do. I lived in North Carolina in the late 2000s and early 2010s, so being anything other than straight wasn’t an option. I didn’t even know what being gay was until I was in the 7th grade. At this point, my family had moved to Colorado, so I was at a new school and was making new friends. As if it were the universe’s idea of a funny joke, I managed to weasel my way into the most queer friend group that existed - the absolute antithesis of all my friends growing up. I am still friends with all of them today, so clearly I got something right in choosing them. And, honestly, thank the stars that I did meet them, or I would probably be a much more unhappy person today. 

My friends in middle school taught me all about the LGBTQ+ community, and I eagerly soaked up all of the information like a sponge. Thankfully, I hadn’t inherited any of the external homophobia from my mom, but unfortunately internalized homophobia lived deep inside me. Which made what happened next so hard for me to handle. I had developed feelings for my female best friend, much to my surprise, especially because I had convinced myself that I had a crush on one of the male friends in my group at the same time. I was absolutely destroyed by the idea of being gay, because that wasn’t supposed to be something that I was. I had absolutely no problem with other people being gay, but me? No way. 

As it turns out? Yes way. It took years for me to come to terms with it, but it was an inescapable fact about myself that wouldn’t go away no matter how many boys I pretended to like. I liked women in a romantic way, and that was going to have to be okay. And it was okay. Better than okay, even. I got my first girlfriend in my sophomore year of high school and finally felt all of the things that my friends talked about all the way back in elementary school. Looking at her made me so nervous, and I did anything to get her attention, and I wanted to be special to her like she was to me. It all finally made sense. I was an out-and-proud lesbian. 

That is, until sex came into the conversation. It was all my friends could talk about. How they had sex with their first significant other, how they wanted to have sex before college, how they couldn’t wait until the second they turned 18 so they could download tinder and start hooking up with people. It felt like I was five years old hearing about crushes again. I didn’t want to do any of those things. I felt like I was going to combust just from holding my girlfriend’s hand. Just the thought of having sex with her (or anyone else for that matter) was actually too much for my brain to handle. I didn’t like the idea of being that vulnerable with someone, even if I trusted my girlfriend in all other parts of my life. Thankfully, but also sadly, my girlfriend broke up with me before that was a conversation that we could have. But the feelings persisted - I still didn’t want to have sex. I figured that it was because I was too young, and that it was something that I would grow into.

I wasn’t a late bloomer like I had hoped. I found myself two years later at 17 years old still not interested in having sex, and I felt like there was something wrong with me. Literally everyone I knew had either had sex at that point or had expressed the strong desire to do so. My friends would rib me about “finding the right girl” that would make me want to, and I laughed along with them, but I knew that was never going to happen. I just didn’t feel the way that my friends did, and for the second time in my life I felt broken. 

So, like all good moody teenagers do, I went to my dear friend Tumblr for some answers. I was scrolling through LGBTQ+ advice blogs, seeing if other lesbians ever felt this way when they were teenagers, when I stumbled upon a text post with the title “Do you not want to have sex? That’s okay.” My interest was piqued, so I read on, and the post ended up being an informational post about the asexual spectrum. It described my experiences near-perfectly, and honestly, I cried at that moment. I was so relieved. I wasn’t broken for feeling this way. There were other people who still had romantic interests like I did, but not sexual attraction. There was a community of people who felt what I had felt and shared resources online to help others (aka me) get out of that sooner. 

So here I stand, an out-and-proud asexual and homoromantic woman, and I am finally comfortable in my own skin. And I owe it to Tumblr for that. I will forever be grateful for the online resources that I found here, and I am so happy that I get the opportunity to try to be that source of discovery for some other baby ace out there. If you’re just figuring out who you are and have stumbled into reading this like I did with another post years ago, know that you are not alone. You are not broken. You can and will find happiness in your relationships with others. Being asexual or aromantic or both just adds another layer of richness to your life experience, and I for one am happy that we can share this point of connection. 

Thank you so much for getting this far and reading my story of discovering who I am. I hope that this can be of help to anyone reading, and I hope that you have a great rest of your day. 

Until next time,

Morph

[witflitmanict]

A question for the youths

One of the things I find myself thinking most often when I talk to people younger than me is “Do you realize how fast things changed?”

I realize how old I must sound saying this, but the thing about working with children the entirety of your “adult” life is that you are just used to sounding old. It can’t be helped. When you make a living off of caring for the safety and wellbeing of others, and have a responsibility to educate and help raise them…you are going to sound old.

So I accept that I sound old here. Just as I accept that there are people out there who would consider my ripe old age to be old. It’s only fair, I certainly thought people past 30 were old for most of my life. 

But I don’t mean to sound old here. And I am not trying to talk about how things were in the old days. Certainly I am not trying to tell anyone that things were better in the past. I am simply amazed at how much has changed so fast. 

I was born in 1990. I am a queer, white, working class person. I went to schools that were pretty shitty, in a town that was shittier, until I moved to a new better school in a bigger more diverse but honestly just as shitty town. I was, thankfully, raised by very open minded people who did their damndest to instill in me the value of treating everyone around you as the complex being they are. This has always put me a bit at odds with much of society. 

When I was in school other students asked me if I was gay. They called me a fag, a lesbian, a freak and they suggested it would be better if I was dead. I was 12. 

While I never said the word, I had no problem having “tough, criminal” or “typical teenage boy” characters say the word fag. I type it here because it is what I typed then. It was thrown at me, and I had characters throw it out as a way to demean their enemies. I also had them say things were “gay” and that one I cannot promise I never used. 

When I was in school no one thought twice about the fact that we only had one black student in the class. And no one intervened when one other black student, a girl, came to school and students riddled her with questions like “Why do all black girls have short hair?” or said things like “Can I have her on my team? I heard black people are good at basketball.” I went home one day and asked my parents what the word “N****” meant and they told me in horrified voices that I should never say that word and asked me where I had heard it. When I told them, they told me they were not surprised, and to tell the teacher should I ever hear them say that word again. A similar thing happened a few years later with the word “ch***” thrown as my close, Asian friend. The students who said these words were told off by the teachers and principals, and maybe got detention. Nowadays, words like that usually mean an automatic suspension at a minimum. (At least where I am).

By the time I reached high school this was changing, admittedly. It was also a much more diverse area. But I have no doubt if I went back and talked to many of the students of color at my high school, they would have plenty of stories about microaggressions or even simple aggressions that were never dealt with. 

But it goes beyond the obvious things. Today I listened to a podcast where one of the hosts mentioned working on a show that’s whole premise was to take angry, nerdy boys and young men who had been unlucky in love, and teach them how to woo a woman. They told them that their anger towards women was legitimate, and could be used to attract them (although probably not in so many words). The other host asked when this was, suggesting the early 2000s. The first host hesitated a moment, before saying he thought it was as late as 2010, possibly even 2012. 

I was in university by that point. But that checks out. The word “incel” was only just starting to come into the vernacular. People at my college knew that “gay” was now a word that should not be said but back home even other “progressive” friends still used it to describe things they did not like. I believe “cringe” is probably closer to what it meant by then. No one had told the world that black lives matter, trans people only existed on the fringes of society, and women should be happy that they now had important jobs and know that sexism (like racism) was over. 

For god’s sake, I still had to argue with people that climate change (still called global warming) was real and that not all Muslims were terrorists in 2013. 

And all of that was barely a decade ago. That seems like a long time when a decade means half your life, I understand that, but it was a blink of an eye for most people. 

But for me, and many people like me, one day I suddenly woke up and found that most of what I had been saying for years was now considered the correct, common knowledge and that I was likely behind on recognizing my own biases. I found that the same people who had once fought me on issues like whether an all girls school should accept a trans woman or whether inner city neighborhoods had an increased number of “gang members” because of an inherent problem vs a systematic one…agreed with me. And what was worse, they often tried to now repeat to me the same things I had been saying for years. It was a whiplash I am not sure I have recovered from. 

And again, this is not to say that there is anything wrong with this. Nor is it even to tell young(er) people to be more forgiving of the mistakes older people make when trying to navigate the very complicated nature of politics, race, gender and sexuality. Be angry. You deserve that. It may drive me crazy sometime but hey, I drove lots of old(er) people crazy too when I was younger. 

But I really do wonder: do young people realize how quickly things changed? Because while I want to give you all the benefit of doubt, my own experience of being a young person makes me think that you probably do not. I certainly did not have a good gauge of how much the world had changed from the time my parents were teens (in the 70s) to when I was a teen (in the 2000s) and that was a much longer amount of time. Although it now feels like very little in the grand scheme of things. 

So how could you understand it? Perhaps you can, because you have better access to the media of 10, 20, even 30 or 40 years ago than I did growing up. You can watch our old movies and be horrified by what people do and say (I certainly am). But then I find that often you question how those things could be said or done at that time. And that’s the difference. I don’t wonder about that. There was no mention of body shaming or fatphobia when the movie Shallow Hal came out.  It was generally thought of as funny, and anyone who suggested it may not be, was told to be less sensitive. I suspect it was much the same as how people felt about blackface in the 20s. 

But Shallow Hal came out in 2001. 

(Is 2001 now a very long time ago to you? My current group of students was born mostly in 2003 and they are considered adults…so I suspect the answer is yes…)

(1355)

[venus-haze]

Have you ever written for any other fandoms before? i know you started this blog last year and like congrats🎉 but im curious!!

I have been all over the goddamn place with my fic writing, it’s honestly fucking ridiculous. I first started writing fics after I read The Outsiders in 7th grade and I was so distraught at the ending that I wrote absolutely bananas fics where everyone was happy and they all lived (and were so fucking out of character lol). This was the late 2000s/early 2010s so I was posting on Quizilla and FFnet back then. I did write some One Direction fics on Wattpad too🫣 This has all long since been deleted and lost to the depths of the Wayback Machine, probably.

In high school I wrote a few Dead Poets Society fics about Neil and Todd which I posted on AO3. I orphaned them a few years ago, which I don’t exactly regret per se, but I just checked because I remember the fic names (my Anderperry fics are some of the oldest in the Neil/Todd results, Jesus Christ), and reading them over again, they’re not awful considering I wrote them when I was 14? 15? They’re simple but sweet.

Through most of college and honestly until last year (so like mid 2010s to 2022), I mostly just wrote for my degree, but I honestly think all the literature courses I took helped my writing more than the creative writing classes did. The handful of fics I started, I never actually finished or posted anywhere. Then I watched Elvis last summer and that lit a fire under my ass for a few months🤭 

And now we’re here lol!

🦇 Battie

[nikitalovesmelissa]

Nostalgic Fanboys rant

this is my first rant, and yes, i will be making a rants on Tumblr because i cant get to uploaded on YouTube because of sanctions we have in Russia, well, i gotta say that we Russians are living in hard times because of war we having for a year now, since Putin invaded Ukraine in March 2022. but beside that topic. Today Topic is gonna on Those idiotic nostalgic fanboys that are so immature and bashful about modern times and just need to grow up

These Nostalgic fanboys are driving me nuts sometimes, because they praise every media in the past, and bash the new ones just, because its modern. Like seriously, is that going to help, well im going to discuss the one point here, to reaching these moronic people out there,

No Decade is perfect, lets say about the 1980s, i mean i guess this decade has good cartoons, but in that decade we have to deal with A.I.D.S epidemic, and the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. or 1990s there's a lot of good media that are great and nostalgic, but we also had the Los Angeles riots and Midwestern U.S Heatwave that happen in Chicago in 2995 and 700 people died in Chicago during Heatwave, the death of Doctor Suess, and the Columbine high School massacre, or the 2000s and of cousrse, there a lot of stuff thats actually best like Best Cartoons, Video Games, and Movies too, but yet, there's 9/11 that happen on September 11 in 2001, The War in Iraq, and other stuff happening in that decade, the point im trying to make is that our childhood wasnt as great as we thought it was, its because we were kids back then, if you say you born in the 90s or 2000s or present to be teenagers or adults, they are going to say the same thing, so our Childhood is not just Rainbows and sunshine, they act like everything was perfect likes they had no flaws and bash everything that is modern for no reason, and it ticks me off, i mean really, i going to say again, No decade is perfect, they have a pros and cons, its never predictable in any way, i was a the late 2000s to the Early 2010s theres still things i love from those decades, and no, im not going to praise these decades like it was they were the best, also there are many Star Wars nostalgic fanboys who whine and flame on the New Star Wars Movies or Tv Shows just, because it ruined Star Wars for them. I mean, What the heck, just because its new that doesn't mean that you have to absolute bash it and also they seem bash and hate over The Last Jedi or The Rise of Skywalker, are you really that dumb, you basically are just bashing on the movies that are okay or mediocre at best but you idiotic nostalgic fanboys are going to bash and talk every negative idiotic nitpick and is that gonna help with your lives, huh, No, oh gosh they just thick me of sometimes and they also hate on 2020s because of celebrity deaths, i mean what else is new People are dropping like flies in every year, and seriously is that going to help, i mean like Gosh, they are going to post on internet and talk about it online, i mean 2023 is a okay year so far for me. but you want to know know why this decade sucks its because all of these idootic moronic butthurt nostalgic fanboys who whine about todays entertainment, Cyberwolf and SonicShadow98 are right. they are idiotic nostalgiatards that they should grow up and stop being stuck in the past.

[orlamount]

Research into the 90s

I already had a basic understanding if the 90s, however I wanted to delve deeper and understand the era further.

The 1990s is often remembered as a decade of relative peace and prosperity: The Soviet Union fell, ending the decades-long Cold War, and the rise of the Internet ushered in a radical new era of communication, business and entertainment. However, the decade was not without violence and tragedy, including the Bosnian genocide, the Rodney King beating and subsequent L.A. Riots, and the bombing of the World Trade Center. The Columbine High School shooting marked a solemn chapter in gun violence, and the devastatingly deadly Oklahoma City bombing by a domestic terrorist followed lethal standoffs between federal agents and armed civilians at Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas.

I looked through this website as it bulletpointed what made the 90s great in sections.

Culture:

The rise of environmentalism and eco-consciousness The popularity of grunge and alternative fashion The emergence of the internet and the beginning of the digital age The influence of hip hop culture on fashion and language The popularity of coffee culture and the rise of Starbucks

I also found these interesting

Parenting:

Encouragement of creativity and self-expression Encouragement of independence and problem-solving skills Promotion of outdoor play and exploration

It was the start of Gen X being able to work in a more creative industry.

Generation X young people often bonded over musical tastes. Humor in television and film was often marked by ironic self-reference mixed with popular culture references. Alternative music movements like grunge, Eurodance, and hip-hop, became popular with young adults worldwide, aided by the rise in popularity of tiered pricing satellite and cable television, and the internet. New music genres such as drum and bass, post-rock, happy hardcore, denpa, and trance emerged in the 1990s. The computer game industry began to boom again, the rivalry of music and film markets. Video game popularity exploded due to the development of CD-ROM supported 3DCG on platforms such as PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and PCs.

The 1990s represented continuing social liberalization in most countries, coupled with an increase in the influence of capitalism, which would continue until the Great Recession of the late 2000s/early 2010s.

Youth culture in the 1990s responded to this by embracing both environmentalism and entrepreneurship. Fashion of the Western world reflected this by often turning highly individualistic and/or counter-cultural, which was influenced by Generation X and early millennials: tattoos and body piercings gained popularity, and "retro" styles, inspired by fashions of the 1960s and 1970s, were also prevalent. Some young people became increasingly involved in extreme sports and outdoor activities that combined embracing athletics with the appreciation of nature.

Music in the 90s

Music marketing became more segmented in the 1990s, as MTV gradually shifted away from music videos and radio splintered into narrower formats aimed at various niches. However, the 1990s are perhaps best known for grunge, gangsta rap, R&B, teen pop; Eurodance, electronic dance music, the renewed popularity of punk rock from the band Green Day and their 1994 album Dookie (which would also help create a new genre pop punk), and for the entrance of alternative rock into the mainstream. U2 was one of the most popular 1990s bands; their groundbreaking Zoo TV and PopMart tours were the top-selling tours of 1992 and 1997, respectively. Glam metal died out in the music mainstream by 1991. Grunge became popular in the early 1990s due to the success of Nirvana's Nevermind, Pearl Jam's Ten, Alice in Chain's Dirt, Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger and Stone Temple Pilot's Core. Pop punk also becomes popular with such artists as Green Day, Blink-182, Weezer, Social Distortion, The Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX and Rancid. Other successful alternative acts included Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Nickelback, Creed, Radiohead, Gin Blossoms, Soul Asylum, Third Eye Blind, Faith No More, The Smashing Pumpkins, Live, Everclear, Bush, Screaming Trees and Ween.

The rise of industrial music, somewhat a fusion of synthpop and heavy metal, rose to worldwide popularity with bands like Godflesh, Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein, Ministry and Marilyn Manson. Groove metal was born through the efforts of Pantera, whose seventh studio album Far Beyond Driven (1994) was notable for going number one on Billboard 200. Another heavy metal subgenre called nu metal, which mixed metal with hip hop influences, became popular with bands like Korn, Slipknot and Limp Bizkit selling millions of albums worldwide.

[cobycobsy2k]

Things from the 2000s that have returned and could return

Well guys, you know that I LOVE everything that has to do with the 2000s, the 90s and the 70s. I had planned this blog for several months but for reasons (Breakdowns, school, exams and etc...) I couldn't do this blog,

 So let's look at some trends from the 2000s that have come back very quietly and others that could come back faster than you think!

1.- The iconic Highlights of the 2000s:

If there is one thing that came back from the 2000s with a pretty big improvement it would be The Highlights, this style was worn by girls like Christina Aguilera (Especially in 2000 and 2002), Kelly Clarkson (in her American Idol and Debut Era), Shakira ( During Laundry Service Era). Well this style is back, the other day a girl at my high school was wearing them and they looked great on her, and this post leads me to the next one.

2.-The Pouf hairstyle:

The most iconic hairstyle of the mid to late 2000s, was worn by almost everyone from Britney Spears, Xtina, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Scherzinger, Hilary Duff and etc... (The greatest heyday of this hair style could be said which was the years 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007), well, what if I told you that this style is making a comeback so to speak? I have seen several people wearing this style, including a friend. (I think the girl in this picture is Addison Rae):

3.- The Gladiator Sandals:

Gladiator sandals or as I like to call them: Roman sandals, I wouldn't know very well if this is very mid 2000s or early 2010s (But investigating well, it could be said that these sandals began to be worn in 2004), this type of Shoes were very essential for boho chic (very characteristic aesthetic of the mid 2000s), Kate Moss and every girl who had the boho chic style wore them. Well, it turns out that when I went on vacation to the beach, I saw a woman with gladiator sandals, would you wear gladiator sandals?

4.-Thin eyebrows:

One of the most hated trends of the 2000s (having its origins in the 20s and 30s), thin brows are making a somewhat chaotic comeback, Doja Cat, Bella Hadid, Rihanna, Barbie Ferreira and other celebrities are embracing this trend. . In my honest opinion, thin brows would look good If only they looked a bit thick plus the brows of the moment would be Fluffy Brows (Which I find pretty unlike Instagram Brows, which scare me a bit as they give a feeling of anger)

5.-Jewelry:

Jewelry in the 2000s was so varied (from hoop earrings, pearl necklaces and rings) it's making a big comeback, I've seen a lot of guys wearing rings on almost every finger on their hands and I've seen a lot of girls with the earrings from earrings, One of the celebrities who is embracing y2k fashion with a lot of style is our dear Riri, I find her outfits super cute, especially this one with jewelry:

(By the way this Outfit reminds me a lot of this outfit of Britney in 2003):

6.-Emos?:

The emos were the most iconic subculture of the 2000s, after their disappearance, a great return was expected and precisely with the return to the mainstream of Pop Punk, the subculture could also be returning. Honestly, I have a somewhat conceptualized idea of ​​the possible emos of this decade: Smokey Eyes like Damiano David or Victoria de Angelis, Wearing dark lipsticks or glosses like Willow, Copying MGK's style in a certain way

7.-Scene Kids:

The same as the Emos, only that the scene Kids are characterized by the use of bright colors, the celebrity that is imposing the possible return of the Scene Kids would be Avril Lavigne, who with her album "Love Sux" showed an image more similar to a Scene Kid:

8.-Gaucho Pants:

One of the trends of the 2000s that I personally find great, Ashlee Simpson and Nicole Richie were some of the celebrities who wore this style in the 2000s. This year the Gaucho Pants are beginning to be seen again thanks to some models and TikTok, although Dua Lipa has also worn them

9.-French Tips:

The French Tips were the most iconic nail style of the 2000s (especially if they were a bit small and checkered), they looked simple and pretty, and that's why for their return, they decided to adapt to the tastes of each person (Now the line white can be painted the color you like the most or you can even make some different designs), I like this return of french tips! And you?

10.-Navel Piercing:

This trend was obviously going to come back yes or yes thanks to the revival of Low Rise jeans and the whale tail, I have always liked this trend and I feel that it can shine with a Mid Rise and a Low Rise (I plan to do navel piercing before the end of August)

11.- Uggs:

I saved the best/worst trend for last, yes folks... Uggs are making a comeback (In their original form)I've seen several guys and girls wearing uggs (very similar to the original ones from the 2000s), honestly I wouldn't use that trend, but since I live in a bit of a cold place, some uggs wouldn't do me any harm haha

Which of these trends do you like? I hope to hear your opinion!😁❤

[kurokoros]

Whenever people talk about being bullied in school my immediate reaction is “can’t relate” until I remember that, no, no, my bullies were just my friends.

When I was in middle school back in the late 2000s into the early 2010s, I hung out with a group of four other girls and one day one of them decided she was going to rank us in order of who she found most attractive. She, of course, was at the top. I was at the bottom. I’ve had crippling self-image issues ever since. It severely affected the one (1) relationship I’ve been in. I skipped prom both years in high school because I couldn’t stand to have my photo taken and was ashamed of my body. I can’t take compliments because I assume people are making fun of me.

In high school, my friends gaslit me into thinking I had feelings for a guy while I was still in a relationship with my boyfriend at the time. I’m not being hyperbolic. I’ve always had good relationships with men, and I’d been friends with this guy since early middle school, and my friends kept “teasing” me about liking him to the point where I started to think I did. I broke up with my boyfriend at the time, practically crying my eyes out as I did, and spent the next six years unsure if I was pining for this guy or not because we went to the same college. I’m 25 now and still think about it sometimes. In hindsight, I’ve had to question the legitimacy of all of my middle school crushes as well.

I played tennis for my first three years of high school, but dropped the sport my final year because I learned that my three friends the also played on the team were talking shit about me behind my back because I wasn’t a good player. I only learned about this when a different friend threw that information in my face during an argument.

My best friend of almost ten years constantly called me “awkward”. No matter what I was doing, no matter where we were, she had to point out how awkward I was. Usually she said this when I was just minding my own business and having fun. This happened so often that by the end of high school I had a crippling fear of public speaking, when in middle school I was a bubbly, outspoken student. We drifted apart during college and the last time I saw her was when I was working retail and she came into the store. I completely clammed up as soon as I recognized her and, while checking out, she again felt the need to comment on how awkward I was. It’s been three years. I haven’t forgotten.

I now have major trust issues when it comes to friendships. I’m constantly worried that people are mocking me behind my back, or that they’re only talking to me out of obligation or pity. 

Be kind to people. And don’t put up with toxic friendships. You are so much more than how they make you feel.

[indecisive-behaviors]

Originally I was just going to add this as a reblog to my previous post about the parking lot scene in KK2 but it’s almost 2k words so now it’s getting it’s own post. Be forewarned- this is fucking long.

TW for discussion of PTSD, child abuse, neglect, injury, and death, in relation to topics surrounding the show, under the cut-

Obviously, Cobra Kai is a show based around the premise of “what happened to that Lawrence kid after he got kicked in the face?”, which is honestly a pretty cool idea for a show. Johnny’s story is never explained past sitting on the sidewalk with his head in his hands at the tournament, and there are no real context clue’s to figure out what may or may not have happened.

In the show we get to learn early on that Johnny’s life spiraled after the tournament, going from bad to worse to “holy shit how are you still alive”-dropping out/never going to college, working jobs he seems to hate, becoming an alcoholic, presumably many dead end relationships, and not being there for his kid. And yeah, obviously, this would be a hard pill to swallow for anyone watching the show if Johnny had just lost the tournament. If we never got the scene in KK2, he would have just been some kid who lost a tournament- we see at the end of the first movie that(through tears holy shit Billy) that Johnny is the one who gives the trophy to Daniel with his famous line, “You’re alright, LaRusso.” There’s a level of grudging respect in that moment that isn’t lost on anyone who sees that movie- that Johnny, who throughout the movie only sees Daniel as some whimpy kid, gets proven wrong and respects that. If we didn’t have that scene, there’s reason to believe Johnny would have apologized, tried to make amends, Something, even if it was just being less of a dick at school.

But then, we get the parking lot. We get a far off shot, intended to distance you from the scene, framed over Daniel’s shoulder. This makes sense, Daniel is the main character, the protagonist, the underdog hero- why wouldn’t it be framed in his perspective? But the scene is about Johnny. We get the shouting match, the back and forth- “No, you’re the loser man.”- and again it’s fairly obvious how Johnny sees this situation. This is a man who we assume(and is later confirmed) to be a surrogate father figure, who set his friend up for failure, and then basically forced him to do the same by targeting an injured opponent, and forcing him to fight without honor. This same man presumably follows a teenager out to the parking lot, to harass him, to tell him he’s off the team, to tell him he’s a loser, that he’s nothing.

But at that point, Johnny knows the truth, even if subconsciously. At the end of the day Johnny knows that Daniel LaRusso was a worthy opponent, and that regardless of the cheating and manipulation, Daniel could have won anyway, and did win, despite of it.

And then Kreese grabs him, too fast to react to, Johnny too surprised even knowing that Kreese is the bad guy here, not believing that he would ever willingly hurt him- and Johnny isn’t strong enough to fight him off, none of the boys are, so Johnny is forced to suffocate for almost a full 30 seconds(which I double checked for the record- also as a reference, 30 seconds is about the average time it takes for a person voluntarily holding their breath to pass out- this does not account for the oxygen lost during a struggle, and the lack of preparation from both surprise and panic. The only silver lining here is the fact that Kreese was most likely compressing his windpipe, not his jugular, which would have made him pass out in about 5-10 seconds, and would have caused permanent brain damage or death in about 15).

Now, PTSD is a complex thing. I’m not a psychiatrist, and what small amount of information we have is all we have to work off of, but I feel fairly comfortable in saying Johnny mostly likely developed it after the incident. This not an uncommon take in the fandom as far as I’m aware either. But, if we assume this, we also have to assume that after the fact nothing would have been done about this. Not just in the sense that we still don’t really know everything that happened right after the tournament, but that in the early 80s, PTSD wasn’t really a thing yet.

Sure it was absolutely a condition that existed, but Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wasn’t even added to the DSM-III until 1980- and for a long time afterward, was only seen as a condition that affected primarily war vets. Even after an event as traumatic as having a man you considered a father trying to kill you, in public, without remorse, would not have been seen as something to warrant the diagnoses, let alone treatment.

Johnny Lawrence was 17 when Kreese tried to kill him, and this boy would have been offered no resources beyond filing charges with the police. And as we see in KK3, either this didn’t happen either, or someone(presumably Silver) got the charges dropped. So on top of almost being murdered, Johnny had to live with the fact that the man who did that to him was still out there, and to top it off, still ran a dojo at least for a few months after the event. The only relief he could have gotten is after Kreese faked his death.

And sure, Mr Miyagi may have gotten Kreese to let go eventually, but as several people have pointed out in comments and tags, left him and the other boys alone with Kreese still standing there in the parking lot and just... drove off. Kreese has already been established to be a psycho with no problem hurting children, a little bit of glass might not have prevented him from trying again.

So why did I talk about all of that? Because it all contributes to why Daniel LaRusso works as a credible antagonist in season 1 of Cobra Kai.

Think about this- Johnny blames losing everything on Daniel in season 1, but we specifically get a shot in KK1 and later KK2(”You’re alright, LaRusso” and “I did my best” come to mind) where he seems to be at least mostly accepting of the fact that he lost(with what was actually an illegal kick but that’s a rant for another time). So why does he blame him for everything 30 years later?

Because 30 years later, Johnny is forced to go outside, go to work, and pretend like he doesn’t see what feels like every street corner(including right outside his apartment mind you), a literal billboard sized reminder of what happened to him.

The rest of this is mostly speculation but it makes sense in my head so bear with me.

When we get introduced to Robby, it’s made pretty clear that Johnny has not been in his life for a bit. In season 2 we get Johnny’s heart to heart with Miguel, where he divulges that he missed the birth, because he spiraled after his mom’s death. This however doesn’t suggest that he stayed gone, especially knowing that it wasn’t long enough for Robby to not consider seeking out his dad. Because tacked up to the fridge, is a picture of Robby in his soccer uniform as a kid. It’s an early detail you can see in previous episodes, and says a lot about how Robby grew up. To be fair, this could have been given to him by Shannon, and not taken himself, but it’s the sport Robby’s playing that makes me question this. KK1 dedicates an entire scene to Johnny being on the soccer team in high school. Soccer, while maybe not as important to him as karate, is still part of his character. Robby does not know karate in season 1, Johnny obviously didn’t share it with him, but that doesn’t mean Johnny didn’t share anything with him.

So Johnny’s back in his kids life, maybe doing better for himself, maybe cutting back on the drinking. LaRusso Auto is already established to exist at this point but it’s in Encino, a place Johnny has no reason to go to, and probably doesn’t want to. He’s trying again and things are okay. But Robby knows enough about Daniel to know that going to him will piss off his dad. So Johnny had to have talked about him at some point. The billboards here are what’s important- they’re in the first episode, the first scene montage, Johnny draws a dick on one of them as some petty revenge.

The first billboard goes up in the late 2000s to mid 2010s. Johnny sees it, maybe he has Robby with him at the time, maybe he goes home and says something there, but he says something in a way that sticks with even a child as being important. More billboards go up. Dealerships starting popping up more and more. Daniel’s face, and by extension, the memories, the flashbacks, become inescapable. Johnny, for a third time, spirals again. Before he even knows what’s happening, he’s lost his relationship with his son. And it’s all Daniel’s fault. Of course Daniel doesn’t do it deliberately, but the constant reminders are enough to send him back into a tailspin and Johnny blames him for it.

Because it’s Daniel who is a constant reminder of his failures- it’s Daniel who caused him to lose the tournament and almost get killed, Daniel who put up the billboards that trigger his flashbacks, it’s always Daniel Daniel Daniel.

And then Johnny gets it in his head that he wants to be better. He opens a dojo, teaches Miguel and the other kids, wants to try again- and he almost succeeds.

Johnny up to this point has not deliberately antagonized Daniel in any way. Sure he named the dojo Cobra Kai, but Cobra Kai is all he knows. Besides Johnny doesn’t blame karate for his failures, his best memories are Cobra Kai and he’s trying to be better than Kreese. So what’s the harm in this really? His building is in Reseda, there’s no reason for Daniel to ever be there, he doesn’t do it out of spite, it’s because he lives there and rent is cheap. He doesn’t know about KK3, doesn’t know about Daniel’s own trauma. This isn’t an attack. Johnny sincerely just doesn’t know.

Enter Daniel, stage left. Daniel makes no attempt to talk to him- he simply makes demands and accusations, before he starts making active attempts to put him out of business.

Sure, we as the audience know Daniel has good reasons to not want Cobra Kai back. But Johnny doesn’t. All Johnny knows is that the kid he picked on in high school- who won, who got everything Johnny wanted, who grew up to be successful, has a wonderful wife, two kids who love him, a thriving business- is doing everything he can to make his life hell 30 years after the fact.

And this could only have happened because in 1986 John G. Avildsen decided to add in a scene meant for the original movie into the sequel, for absolutely no fucking reason.