#and also. granted this has nothing to do with the actual issue. but that teachers response really baffled me...

[mercymornsimpathizer]

.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Sorry to bother, I felt it was better to ask here than your main. Not to be so blunt but, what's your method for doing research? Done you have any advice for someone with adhd or attention span issues? I feel I've tried everything. i have adhd and struggle with studying and note taking, i can go on entire rabbit holes but retaining the information is a problem (even saving information, i have so many bookmarks and tabs but i don't remember for what lol), your lessons are very informative and has been helpful! you said your research takes a while but the end results are so well done. I want to do my own research for my own essays and personal projects, but this was something I always struggled with in HS... I'm no longer in school so the pressure of a deadline isn't entirely there anymore so I'm in no rush for a long answer! have a good rest of your day!

I feel like this gonna be a disappointing answer 😅 well, part of it really was just being taught how to take notes. When I was an 8th grader, I had a history teacher who said he would teach us to take notes by speaking them, and the most important things he'd say three times, but that's it. Not a PowerPoint, nothing. Dare I say it, I learned how to take outlines better and it has lasted me my entire life. (Granted I like history and I enjoyed listening to him talk bc his voice was pleasant)

But I also... Think in outlines, if that makes sense. It makes me less stressed than just a Mass of Information, when you break it down. So what I'll do is I'll start with random notes that fall under one topic on my phone. Then, as time goes on and I add more things, it sort of starts to break down into categories. Rather than keeping up the tabs (because tabs and notifications stress me TF out) I just save the URL under the category and move on. So I now know whatever this is, it falls under this point. I'll essentially organize "beginning", "points", "conclusion".

Once the outline gets too large (subjective, when I feel like I'm overwhelmed) I move it to a word doc and make it an actual outline. When I feel like it, I eventually go back and fill in the details, read the articles at hand. Thing about the articles is, you gotta be able to skim well. Not just skim quickly to say you read it; but to be able to say "out of all of this, this section here and here will strengthen my essay". I admit I do read fast though, but I also read multiple times. No need to rush- you're here to understand, not pass a test. So I might go "today, I want to focus on reading stuff within Category 2".

As for attention span issues, I deal with that by doing shit when I want, and also doing what little I can manage. Anything is better than zero. If all you can do that day is five minutes of review, so be it. Make it count. But I also am the type of person who will go from "five minutes every week" to "I'm at the computer obsessed for six hours" so that's probably not helpful 😅

If it helps, I've got a whole Masters degree. I've had to work hard and practice note taking and retention, via what works for me. You don't have to hold yourself to that strict of a standard for research that you enjoy, I just do what I'm used to from academia. Plus this is all stuff that I've lived- it's easy to retain information when it's literally your life, versus something wholly new.

[celestialholz]

The Resurrectionist (or 'Crowley's dying briefly because character-building, and here's why')

I should start off by saying, friends, that I have written exactly zero books. (Bloody lot of fanfiction, but no actual novels). And I like coffee, but not particularly with oat milk. (The poison's metaphorical, not physical), but... well, you guys can keep both of 'em, because they're just not relevant to this conversation. I am also, as you may have already guessed, not Neil Gaiman. A chick can only speculate, but she does like to back it up with actual evidence.

No, I'm simply here to ask you a question.

What's the single worst thing Heaven could ever do to Aziraphale?

What would drive our angel so far from the clutches of Heaven that he would never, ever wish to return? What would set him unequivocally free from six millenia of assumed responsibility; what would make him realise that God can never change? What would strip everything away from him?

Because of course, this is what we have to do next series. This is Aziraphale's whole arc. If he doesn't try and change things and fail, he will always wonder. Always have a 'what if.' Will never be able to truly move on, will never be free from the eternal abuse cycle.

And so the severing has to be monumental, and everlasting. Then we get our happy ending. Storytelling, loves, done flawlessly. (Again, not a novelist... just a girl who's been writing for over half of her lifetime.)

And so, I ask again:

What's the single worst thing Heaven could ever do to Aziraphale?

And, well, it's a manifold question isn't it, with lots of potential ans - no I'm just kidding. Very simple question, very simple answer.

So congratulations to the very likely hundreds of you who have just said 'murder Crowley,' because a. you're very much correct and b. we've all just predicted the end of series three.

(... I mean, probably not the very end. But the emotional crux, definitely.)

And naturally, I'm not talking discorporation. I'm talking 'wiped from the universe altogether, leaving our angel eternally alone' kinda murder. The real shit. The good shit. Never mind any of this 'editing the Book of Life leading to an ineffable paradox' kinda bullshit - this is Heaven, the natural source point of holy water. One miracled Supersoaker and our demon's ancient history, friends.

Because y'see guys, severing Aziraphale's connection isn't the only problem we face in terms of narrative romance. We've also got Crowley, who has spent six millennia being in love with a guy who just takes, takes, takes... him for granted.

And this is NOT to say that Aziraphale gives him nothing back - he so very clearly does. (I am a consummate Aziraphale apologist, Crowley's just as much of a fool post-series two as our angel is, and Aziraphale needs this, as I've mentioned.) But... Crowley is his teacher. His moral guide. His protector. It mostly goes one way, and despite all of that and him being happy to be that guy for all this time... right when it matters most, Aziraphale (to Crowley, at least) has abandoned him. He's told him he isn't good enough.

(... Which is bollocks. That's not what Aziraphale's said at all, they're both as overprotective as each other and have a desperate, painful longing to keep one another safe in their own best way. But it sure fucking looks like it to CROWLEY, which is what matters.)

And so, we have two issues in achieving our happy-ever-after.

Sundering Aziraphale from Heaven forever;

Ensuring Crowley trusts him fully and knows completely that he is Aziraphale's only choice.

(And also by GOD do they need to have a proper conversation, but that one kinda goes without saying. It'll happen.) We have to even up this relationship; we have to make it absolute narrative equilibrium, and I am absolutely sure Neil knows this probably far better than I do.

... And so, how do we achieve both these things in one hit, whilst also telling a Second Coming story and holding a celestial war?

Well, we kill Crowley. Obviously. Not until episode five or six and after an emotional, romantic reunion of mutual understanding, but... we kill Crowley.

... And then Aziraphale brings him back. Yes, from complete death.

I would like at this juncture to remind you that miracles, apparently (and this is a thing we've just learned guys, almost like it's suddenly going to be relevant ongoing) are measured in Lazarii.

(Great thanks to the Aziraphale to my Crowley, @porgthespacepenguin, for these few screenshots I'm showing off here today. You'd never leave me, not even for my own good. <3)

Lazarii is very obviously named after Jesus' apparently greatest miracle, of raising Lazarus from the dead in the book of John. They managed to achieve twenty-five times the necessary amount of energy it takes to bring someone back from death... without actually fucking trying.

Let's take a look at the book of John a sec. Or more specifically, its eleventh chapter and twenty-fifth verse.

Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The person who believes in me, even though he dies, will live."

My thanks to Neil once again for murdering me like Heaven's going to murder Crowley. Cold blood, point-blank.

'Who believes in me.' Huh. Only for the past six thousand years, Aziraphale dear...

Here's a little of what the internet has to say about the number 25 in numerology, by the way.

And may I also remind you at this stage that there is a pub in this series called The Resurrectionist, and only Aziraphale goes into it.

I mean sure, Crowley's booksitting and trying to make the ladies hilariously like him and Aziraphale fall in love in the same way he himself did, but the fact remains... one relevant pub name. One guy. (We all need a narrative excuse sometimes Neil, I get you.)

Considering all this, friends, let me ask you another question. This one's a little more wordy, that's on me.

What do you think would happen when a being capable of raising someone from the dead twelve and a half times over for the sake of his beloved's protection loses said beloved beyond all doubt?

... And this will be after he gains the ultimate celestial power-up, by the way. In case we'd forgotten that that alone is also about to boost Aziraphale to the fucking stratosphere, and finally put him on an equal footing with Crowley. (Who is clearly an ex-archangel, but not Lucifer, so Neil's since said.)

... And I think we know the answer, don't we? The kind of miracle that

(You can't see me, but I'm staring into the camera like I'm one of The Office main cast right now.)

This is the kind of power that fucks with reality - the kind of power that scares Heaven and Hell to absolute death, hence Metatron being in the DMs. And crucially, this miracle was boosted because of love. Because of a desire to keep the status quo, their 'own side'. You amplify both those conditions to the nth degree by destroying one of them? It's over, lads. Resurrection is the beginning.

Resurrection evens up a playing field. It destroys Aziraphale and renews him in one hit; it proves to Crowley once and for all that Aziraphale loves him exactly as he is.

... It's a no-brainer, pals.

And what do they do after this? Well, fuck up the celestial order, naturally. I have theories, the main one of them being that they're going to be God and Satan respectively and unite Heaven and Hell in eternal marriage, but... that's just a theory. A television theory.

The resurrection thing? Not so much.

... See, this is the thing, my friends. You don't need to have written a 16k essay to predict the future.

All you need is the ability to tell a story, an observant eye for that which is already present, and a simple question. (Followed by a mildly more complex one. It's a working allegory.)

... I'm just going to leave you with this one shot of Aziraphale picking up his own destiny. Because poetic cinema.

[astral-tracer]

I'm ill and not really good at words to begin with but. I think we should just hard reset the entire USA. Like burn the whole motherfucker down and start over. And here's what I would change personally

(readmore bc this is getting Lengthy)

- almost every state is its own individual country. It's too fuckin big and there's too many people for a central federal government to Work. I say almost because some of the really small states could clump together if they want idk I live in one of the bigger ones. In fact most physically large countries should probably do this

- likewise, the "union" of the state-countries should become like Europe where it regulates like. Travel and currency. And emergency wartime shit. Keep free travel open between the states like you can just cross most country borders in Europe

- if we MUST stay as a single country, COMPLETELY rework the voting system. Make it like Australia in particular that shit fucks severely. Honestly even if the states become their own countries we should do this.

- universal basic income. Like do I even need to explain this. Give everyone a basic livable wage that covers basic housing & food comfortably.

- shorter work hours. I'm not an expert but I think it's been proven that like a 5-hour 4-day work week would be just as productive or smth. Don't quote me on that one.

- ban private prisons. Like come on what the fuck.

- (ubi should cover prisoners too. Btw. And literally everyone else over 18. And ppl like 15-17 should start to get a smaller amount that goes into like a trust account that they can access when they're 18. just as a boost)

- COMPLETELY rework school funding oh my GOD what the fuck are we doing. Give grants to struggling schools and schools in poor areas. Abolish this "no child left behind" CRAP that incentivizes memorization over actual learning. MANDATE A HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE FOR TEACHERS.

- Actually tax the 1%. Also no one should be able to be a billionaire. Any income over like $10m (am open to constructive criticism on exact amount cap) should be taxed at 100%.

- universal healthcare. I will *allow* private hospitals to exist (for now) but EVERY state should have at least one easily accessible non-privatized hospital system where every individual hospital is a certain radius from each other so that p much everyone has access to it. The reason private hospitals COULD still exist is so that ppl could choose to pay a bit for expedited care if wanted. Open to constructive criticism on this one.

- decriminalize drugs. All of them. Rehab centers should be covered under universal healthcare too. People turn to drugs most often when nothing else is helping them - it's a systemic issue, not a personal failing.

- abolish student loans. Colleges should run on grants and donations. I shouldn't have to go into debt to learn, even if I just want to take a class or two a year. Also all textbooks should be available for free online, at least to students, or be available in bulk quantities in the library of any college that requires them for any course.

- decapitalize the Internet. It should be ILLEGAL for certain public websites (search engines, wikis, news, etc) to run ads. For websites like YouTube ads should be limited to like 5-10 seconds PER VIDEO.

- (also this isn't like a government level thing but they should totally bring back the branded game sites. Like the sites w barbie browser games n shit. That shit SLAPPED.)

- there should be both an increase in minimum wage and a cap on how expensive necessities can be. Things like bread, eggs, meats, locally growable produce, etc should be capped at a certain price point and not allowed to go above that point. This includes things like medications and menstrual products and also like condoms. "Luxury goods" (premade meals/snacks, coffee, alcohol, etc.) could be exempt from this. Open to constructive criticism on that.

- ban use of oil/gasoline wherever possible. Full stop. There's no fucking reason for it. Also power & water shouldn't be allowed to be privatized in any way and use of renewable energy like solar and wind should be mandatory. Also it should be free to everyone ever

- all companies and their products should be required to be under a certain carbon footprint/pollutant threshold. This includes limited or outright banned use of plastic products forever. We can find disposable alternatives that don't fuck us and the planet.

- nobody over like 60 should be able to run for office I'm fucking sorry but I'm sick to death of old ass motherfuckers running shit get outta here grampa no one likes ur policies

- medical euthanasia should be legal to perform but NOT legal to professionally recommend. Like a doctor can perform it but doctors and nurses cannot tell you that you should. It should also be regulated in some ways but I'm not about to get into that rn

- decriminalize sex work. Just. Full stop. People are gonna do it no matter what laws are in place, it's the oldest profession for a reason, decriminalize it and put in place laws protecting sex workers from abuse & exploitation.

- (obvs with above there should be SOME laws against specifically shit like performing sex work for/with a minor & other shit like that but that falls under "pedophilia is illegal" which like yeah good.)

- (on that topic though any CLEARLY DRAWN/NOT PHOTOGRAPHICAL porn REGARDLESS OF CONTENT should be fully allowed so long as it can e reasonably determined that no real life people were used as reference or could be recognized via the art. Like I'm Not Into even fictional children being in porn art but it isn't hurting anyone even if it's gross and I don't get it. Adults can to photo porn stuff as long as everyone's consenting tho)

- decensor the Internet. I don't care that there are children here. Sure you can have specific sites catered to children but they should not be allowed to have ads AT ALL (see "decapitalize the Internet") and anywhere not designated as specifically "for children" should be completely uncensored or have options to be completely uncensored. Make people parent their own fucking kids again.

- actual separation of church and state. If the only root argument in favor of a law or bill is "bUt ThE BiBlE" it should just be tossed full stop no exceptions. Also businesses and such should be incentivized to allow people of any religion their holy days off (unless no one is guaranteed to have their holy days off)

- On that note strengthen anti-discrimination laws. No one should ever be denied anything simply for their gender, presentation, religion, sexuality, race, etc.; this does not apply to any closed religious practices (where no one outside that particular religion is supposed to take part in a ceremony, style of dress, etc.) by any recognized nonprofit group.

- just give the native americans back their lands already. National parks should be allowed to be "maintained" (lived in) by indigenous people in whatever ways they want tbh. The only "rule" should be that visitors/tourists should still be allowed to enjoy the spaces so long as they are respectful of the land and the people. Humans are not inherently separate from nature.

- (if anything in the above point is worded badly I'm sorry once again I am The Sick and words are hard)

- work with Canada and Mexico on fully opening borders bc seriously what the fuck.

Idk I'm sure there's more I would change but I can't think of anything else right now tbh. But like to do any of those we'd have to completely uproot the entire system and I dont. Know how we would do that. without putting people through unnecessary risk. Idk I'm just fuckin weird rn

[lilislegacy]

(This gets a little rant-y sorry!)

I just saw the post that somebody said about Annabeth and Percy dropping out of college and I totally see that.

Something that I see a lot, especially in fanfiction, is people forgetting that these 2 are neurodivergent and severely traumatized.

College is really hard. In general, for a neurotypical person, it would be difficult.

I'm writing this from an autistic, dyslexic, adhd, ptsd point of view. College is really fucking hard.

I've seen fics where people will talk about how they'll be taking 4-5 classes per semester. That's not really possible for them.

I have been taking one class a semester, and it is excruciating.

Granted, I do not go to New rome University, which is mainly demigods. So it might be tailored differently to how most demigods learn, but still, college is really difficult.

I could definitely see them trying college but taking it at a substantially lower pace than normal.

Like the original ask said, they might just drop out because it would be too much of a mental load.

Especially because of how soon the turnaround is from their severe trauma (tartarus) and them going to college. Even if they tried their best, they wouldn't do well. (This is also me speaking from experience. When I was going through stuff in high school, it made my gpa drop like a brick.)

I'm just tired of people acting like the only symptoms of their trauma is bad dreams and that their only symptoms of their adhd and dyslexia are "oh squirrel!" And not being able to read.

(Sorry for ranting. This is just kind of a sore subject for me. Especially recently, I have had to deal with some ableism from my professor, and I'm looking into transferring to a different college because of it)

thanks for the ask @invadericee!

i totally see where you’re coming from. college is really really hard on its own. being dyslexic, adhd, and traumatized does not help.

however, i really do not believe that they would drop out. the biggest reason being they are both so determined to get though it. and when those two are determined, nothing is stopping them.

you also have to remember that new rome university doesn’t just accommodate for kids like them. the university is made specially for people like them. most everyone there has adhd. most everyone there has dyslexia. and many of them have ptsd. and likely, the teachers and staff are demigods. so they are the same way, and therefore know how to teach in a way that actually works for them. also, new rome university is a very very small college, so the students would get a lot of one-on-one time with professors and counselors, etc. so i don’t believe their learning disabilities will hurt them very much there, because the entire system is built around them having those learning disabilties. you know?

but i completely agree with you that i don’t like how people downplay their trauma a lot. and rick riordan himself is the biggest suspect of this. in chalice of the gods, percy and annabeth are mainly just happy to be alive and having a good time, and percy only makes one passing remark about his mental state not being great. and i get why rick didn’t dive into it - he wanted the book to just be happy and silly and enjoyable. but still, i wish he would show how they’re coping a little bit more. in the bits i’ve seen of TSATS, sally mentions how percy and annabeth have horrible nightmares, which probably means percy wakes up screaming in the middle of the night. but like you said, ptsd isnt just nightmares. and adhd and dyslexia aren’t just cute little issues either. now, i will say, i don’t think their adhd is the same kind you and i have. theirs is more hyperactivity than anything. and while most people with adhd struggle with not being able to focus on one thing, i think with them it’s more that they are constantly focused on a million things (becasue that keeps them alive.) i don’t know why it matters, but i just felt like giving my thoughts on that lol.

i don’t even know what my point is anymore. basically i don’t think college will be as hard for them as you think, but i agree with you on everything else 😂

[small-tragedies]

001 The Simpsons!

Favorite character: Of course it’s Lisa Simpson. 🤣 When I first started watching The Simpsons, I was really intrigued by her character, and she grew to be my favorite character ever!

Least Favorite character: It would have to be Elizabeth Hoover. Lisa’s teacher at Springfield Elementary School. I just never liked the woman, at least with Edna Krabappel, who seemed like she didn’t like Bart. The thing was, she did actually care about her students and Bart, unlike Miss Hoover, who really doesn’t give a rat’s ass about any of them and has actually bullied an 8-year-old just because she felt like Lisa was a show-off. (Granted, Lisa can be a little full of herself at times, but she’s just a kid, and Miss Hoover is an adult who has personal issues and is taking them out on a little girl.) (Hehehe, I really info dump when it comes to a character I don’t like lol.)

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Lisa and Jessica are my OTP forever and ever! And I could go on all day about why I love them, but then I wouldn’t be able to talk about any other ship lol. I like to ship Lisa with the twin weasels ( I affectionately call them this and like to think Lisa does too 😂), Sherri, and Terri Mackleberry in a polycule V-type relationship (no incest), with Lisa as the hinge. (It probably goes without saying that I also ship the twins’ separately with Lisa too, and it’s usually Sherri. 😆) third pairing (yes, we are counting the twins’ as just the second ship, okay? They’re a unit right now, so I can say more ships,😂) would be Lisa and Allison. I love to think that if they had stayed very close friends, it would have turned into a friends-to-lovers situation, and I just think their relationship would be very cute and sweet, and they would grow old together. And my fourth pair I fancy is Lisa Simpson and Francine Rhenquist... You all are probably noticing a pattern... And you’re right because I have a thing—a thing for shipping Lisa with bullies... I just think she can be a bully whisperer and tamer, okay?! 🤣 And now, last but not least, my final and fifth pairing is Allison Taylor and Hubert Wong. I just think these two are too cute for each other! And they are just two cute little nerds in love. (Shout out to my sister @twisting-echo for getting me into shipping these two nerds).

Character I find most attractive: Groundskeeper Willie hands down! Have you seen that man without his shirt on? Absolutely beautiful~ 

Character(s) I would marry: Kang and Kodos, two one-eyed aliens, just for little ol’ me lol. 🤣💕💕💕

Character I would be best friends with: Professor Frink. I always loved his character and his zany antics.

A random thought: I once had a random thought about making a fic where it would be an AU where everyone had animal-like features, and I had wanted the whole Simpsons’ family to be cats. 😅🤣

An unpopular opinion: Oh, boy, here it goes... My unpopular opinion is that I really haven’t liked how they have written Marge in the newer seasons of The Simpsons. Just some of the storylines they do for her feel like they’ve done it a thousand times before, and it’s gotten old. And I have never liked how they have made it so that Homer has no problems bonding with his daughters, especially Lisa, but nothing with Bart. The same goes for Marge. I never like how in some episodes she can’t bond with her daughter, but honestly, it’s the writing overall because they always make either Lisa an asshole to her own mother or Marge is the asshole. Just why can’t they have cute bonding episodes for the whole family like what I’ve seen in Bob’s Burgers? 😭

My canon OTP: I wouldn’t say OTP, but I had always thought Comic Book Guy and Kumiko’s relationship was surprisingly cute and sweet. 

Non-canon OTP: This wouldn’t be me if I didn’t say it was Lisa and Jessica, now would it? Yessss, they’re my little babies! This ship is very dear to me; it’s been my OTP for years. 🤣💕💕💕

Most badass character: Gina Vendetti. I love her and think she’s a little badass. I also love to ship her with Bart. She’s his scary Amazon girlfriend who terrifies everyone around her lol.

Pairing I am not a fan of: Milhouse and Lisa; just no, I have never thought they worked well together ever! It's just sad to see him pine for someone who does not like him at all. Seriously, it was a running joke that Lisa settled for him, and that’s just sad. Millhouse deserves someone who actually cares and will love him, and Lisa needs to be with someone she’s not settling with because it’s all she’s ever known, and she knows he won’t leave her because he loves her too much and it’s just not healthy or fair to either one of them. (I love my girl, but she has to let him go so he can move on).

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): I have never liked the slow decent at which they have taken Lisa’s character in how the show writes her. Back when the show first came out, she was intelligent, kind, and passionate about the planet and all living things. Mind you, she is still very intelligent, but they have taken some parts of her personality and turned it up to an 180. She is flawed, which is why I love her, but over the years, they have made her more of a snotty brat at times who throws her intelligence in people’s faces, and it doesn’t seem like she’s that kind anymore, and most of what she rebels against feels performative and hollow now. She could always be somewhat intolerant of opinions that differed from her own, often refusing to consider alternative perspectives and showing a feeling of self-righteousness. But it feels like that’s how she is all the time now, and I just haven’t been a big fan of what her character has become.

Favourite friendship: Now I’m going to completely talk about a “fanon” friendship since The Simpsons didn’t give me it in the canon of the show. I mean, sure, I could talk about Millhouse and Bart’s friendship, but sadly, while I like it, it is not my favorite, and the truth is, sometimes they abused each other more than they were good friends with each other lol. 😂😅 No, I’m going to talk about a friendship between Lisa Simpson, Allison Taylor, and Hubert Wong. I always thought it would have been nice for Lisa to at least have someone who was her friend in the show, someone she could bond with, just like Bart with Millhouse. But no, they have always made her a loner just for the sake of writing that not a lot of people like her in Springfield (poor baby, 😭) and they wasted the potential of Lisa and Allison’s friendship. In the show, they always show Lisa as a miserable adult who’s so bitter about everything. I like to think she would have grown up a little differently if she had at least one consistent friend (not Janey; Janey was just as bad as the twins’ with the way they bullied Lisa). And honestly, it would have been nice to see her hang out with two other people who shared similar interests as she did, and it just would have been cute. I definitely have more things to say about their friendship, my sister and I have made up in fanon over the years, but that’s definitely for a different post lol.

I’m so sorry that this is soooo long. 😂 Once you get me started on the Simpsons, I can’t stop rambling like a mad woman about it. 🤣 Thank you so much for this ask. This was so much fun to write out.

[mindlessrelieve]

I've been reading people's thoughts on the latest chapter of Jujutsu Kaisen and I'm legit surprised at the amount of people who think Gojo adopted Megumi and raised him as his son, and not only that but write out entire paragraphs and analysis based on this. Not to be that person, but maybe your problem is not the writing itself but the fact that some people look more into the headcannons that the actual manga.

Gojo did not adopt Megumi, in reality the fact that he abided for him to receive financial aid in return of being a sorcerer is actually the most important part of their relationship, not some emotional attachment.

Maybe some of the issues people have with their characters steam from the fact the some believe that Gojo raised Megumi, so for Megumi, if he was raised by the strongest sorcerer why hasn't he been able to fulfil his potential? And for Gojo, why didn't this altruistic teacher and single father dedicated more time to thinking about his adopted son at the moment of his demise?

Gojo didn't approach Megumi because he wanted to be a teen father, he didn't even approach him because he felt bad he was now an orphan thanks to him, he approached him because he wanted strong allies (same with Yuji and Yuta) and what better way to accomplish this than to nurture them himself at a time where they desparately need help.

Megumi, on the other hand didn't gain a family member, he acquired a life debt, he is a sorcerer solely to pay off Gojo and the Jujutsu society simply because he valued his sister's happiness above his own and understood that the Zenin clan was going to be a terrible place for her.

Of course they value each other, Gojo wants Megumi to grow beyond his mental walls and Megumi is capable of accepting he owes Gojo his life. They go way back and have come to really know one another. But they are not family, and thinking they are may lead you stray in terms of some aspects of their characterization, like the fact that Megumi pretty much resents everything Jujutsu related because of the transactional nature of this deal.

Their characters also share some themes as they were both born with inmense talent, so much that honed to perfection it can only rival one another. But being this blessed within this universe is nothing but a curse, as you are granted only the option of refining your talents up to perfection in order to be considered valuable, it's the crushing weight they have to live and die under.

This is something that they both struggle with in different ways, as reflected in their domains. Gojo becomes an 'entity' who has achieved detachment from humanity "given everything, but unable to do anything", while Megumi can't see himself becoming stronger than the man he owes his life to, so he sinks into the darkness "you have to take on the weight of what you've stored in your shadows".

I would have also wanted to see Gege explore this a little more, mostly out of curiosity since I think it's interesting, and it would also be really good for Megumi's character, but as I said before, his pacing sometimes works against him.

[cq-studios]

Questions for 15 Friends Tag Game

Tagged by @corishadowfang ^^

Rules: Answer the questions, then tag 15 people.

ARE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?

Not that I know of. I think my middle name was after someone but, if that's the case, I don't know who.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?

This weekend watching Days. That game breaks me every time.

DO YOU HAVE KIDS?

Nope and don't ever plan on it.

WHAT SPORTS DO YOU PLAY/HAVE YOU PLAYED?

Uhhhh, none.

I tried out for the basketball team twice in elementary school but didn't make the team either time. That school, and especially the coach, had it out for me though (I am neurodivergent had behavioural issues so they didn't let me do much).

If it counts, I was on the Improv team in middle school. That was a ton of fun and I would've kept doing it into highschool if the teacher who was in charge of the competitions didn't retire (no one stepped up after that)

Other than that not really anything.

DO YOU USE SARCASM?

Oh definitely. I grew up in an incredibly sarcastic household lol

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?

Uhhh, I haven't really thought about it...

Probably hair? That's how I tend to recognise most people, which is most definitely unreliable (thanks for that brain lol).

Shout out to that one time my friend got a drastically different haircut than usual, didn't tell me, and I didn't recognise her until she spoke to me lol

WHAT’S YOUR EYE COLOUR?

Brown.

SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?

Definitely happy endings. I have absolutely no tolerance for scary things.

My pour soul got nightmares so easy as a kid I wasn't allowed to watch Scooby Doo because it would keep me up at night lol

ANY TALENTS?

I'd feel weird saying anything artistic, because honestly I consider those skills more than talents (since they're something I actually work towards improving and not something that I can just do for some reason lol).

So alternatively, I think my talent is simultaneously have the worlds worst and best balance. Like I can fill up a cup completely (and I mean completely, there's a meniscus and everything) and I can bring that up to my mouth without spilling a drop, but at the same time, there have been several occasions where I have fallen out of chairs while doing nothing but colouring. I can walk across a completely rounded balance beam (like curtain rod look and size) eyes closed and backwards, but walking I'm tripping every other step.

I can also quack like a duck so convincingly I've tricked hunters lol

WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

I'm not entirely sure...

Somewhere around the southern Quebec-Ontario border I think?

WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?

Drawing, animating, reading, writing, and playing video games (and doing stuff for local theatre productions if that counts).

DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS?

Yes, currently I have a dog, Neve. She's a Golden Retriever-Labrador mix and she's very strange.

My brother also has a cat, but she lives in the basement and I never see her lol

HOW TALL ARE YOU?

I couldn't tell you the last time I measured my height, but I'm only a bit taller than my mom (4"11 and a bit), so probably 5"-5"1.

FAVOURITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL?

Chemistry.

I love chemistry. I love balancing formulas. I love the experiments and demonstrations (even if when I was doing them I kept burning my hands... I swear I was being careful I'm just cursed lol). I love learning about all the elements properties and stuff. The math isn't awful (like in physics). And it makes me feel smart.

DREAM JOB?

My dream job is whatever I have to do to be able to make my own show (my current plan is making an indie studio) and also being able to make a living off of doing tables at cons.

I'm actually slowly but surely working towards both right now. A lot of just saving and planning at the moment but I'm getting there.

Gonna start applying for grants soon-ish, so wish me luck lol

I don't really have 15 people to tag so, uhh, open tag I guess lol

[invisiblegarters]

Dangerous Romance Ep 1

It's here, it's here, it's finally here! Perth back in BL, which I never ever thought would happen. AND GMMTV coming for my throat for an entire weekend. Between this, Only Friends, and Hidden Agenda I feel like GMMTV is trying to take over my drama life.

...are you, GMMTV? If so, you're going about it the exact right way.

Alrighty so we're just gonna jump right into the social disparity and Perth's character being a huge asshat. Cool cool.

Okay liking Chimon already (yes I could go to MDL to look up the names but also no, I don't want to).

Papang! Hello! And we get a character name. Sailom. Got it. But I do like the relationsip between the brothers even if I feel like Papang's a little too, uh. Cavalier about doing things the illegal way to get up in the world.

Oh that ticket is totally getting stolen. Poor kid.

And here come the rich assholes. One of the Js (because it's a law one of them must be part of a trio in at least three of these a year), Pawin, and Perth. Good trio, nice to see all of them. Why do I feel like it's been a hot minute since I've seen Pawin even though he was in like every Our Skyy2 ep?

Aw glasses friend's mom really likes Sailom. Me too, mom.

Follow him boys. Don't just let him go! You know it's not right!

Oh yay, Perth's character is a huge asshole. Love that for him. Looking forward to hating him at first, haha.

Hey, Sailom's phone is an old model, right? Love that. So often in these dramas you have characters that are ostensibly supposed to be poor using the same stuff as the supposed rich kids.

And there goes the ticket. Dammit I knew this would happen. That poor kid.

Oh my god this teacher sucks. I am gonna have to try to take a breath here because bullying always sets me off like nothing else. I hate bullies.

Wow wow wow I hate this. Please tell me that he will face real consequences.

Delete it but send it to your friend first. Always make sure you have copies of that stuff.

Interesting that Sailom really doesn't seem frightened of this dude. I love that for him. I'm sure they'll come for him later but I do think it's great that he can't just intimidate him the way he so clearly wants to. Ass.

View is so pretty.

What a little ass. Is he seriously going to sic his goons on Sailom? Of course he is. What's the point of having toadies if you can't send them off to do your dirty work.

I like violent football friend. He and I are in perfect accord. Granted I know it will do nothing to the little bully but still.

Okay but does he not have backups? Sailom you're supposed to be smart.

Aw but his friends are absolutely adorable.

Hahahaha okay the bit with Kang's dad's name being on the table was funny. I have to admit that.

But Sailom really has the wrong idea. Bullies never ever ever give up when you ignore them. That advice just doesn't work. I say let violent friend whale on Kang. I mean, that probably won't help either but it'll be much more satisfying.

Okay this little shit better not mess with Sailom's job. I can abide many, many things but I can't abide some little shitheel messing with someone's livelihood.

Yep he's totally going to make him lose his job. Ew.

YES! Oh I love Sailom I love him. I love him I love him. I was actually starting to get hot for a second there.

I mean I still hate Kang and I'm still fairly gleeful about it, but I was genuinely mad for a moment. Good job, show.

Sorry guys can't care about rich boy's daddy issues. Damn though, the casual way he belittles Kang is pretty rough. Still doesn't excuse taking your whiny little issues out on other people, though. I just have no time for whiny rich boys.

You know, I actually like that conversation about dogs. Because my guess is that Kang is going to wind up being that dog that is trained via softness. Wanna bet? He thinks he's the alpha here but I feel like he's very very wrong. He's just a pathetic little kid waving around his dad's money. Of course, that can always go extremely wrong - see Beom Seok from Weak Hero Class 1 - I don't think Kang is quite there yet.

Aw what a good friend. They probably made him pay for that.

Auto is the sweetest.

He's gonna kiss Kang isn't he.

Yes. Yes he is. I love this guy.

Really not a fan of the homophobia though. Although my guess is there's some uh, latent feeling there from Kang already, since his punishments are a bit homoerotic.

I actually really liked this ep. I will say again, I like that they're not afraid to make Kang awful. I deeply, deeply appreciate it when dramas are okay with it having a deeply unlikeable main character - Japan does it all the time, but you don't see it as often from Thailand. Although I feel like lately we're getting a few of them. It gives them - and us - room to grow.

Sailom is lovely and totally my favorite right now. I really really like how he's portrayed - he's struggling but he's not spineless, he will let himself be pushed but only so far, and he's absolutely not afraid of Kang and his little group. I love him, your honor. And I am very worried about his financial situation and what that's going to mean.

HIs friend group is also absolutely lovely. Still on board with violence, me, but well. I have a temper. I really love how they support and stand up for each other.

I was going to watch this the entire way through regardless of how good it is for Perth and Chimon, but I thought this was a very strong first ep. As of right now I don't think I'm going to have to force myself to watch anything. I'm already ready for episode 2.

[ravynfyre]

do you not realize that activism isn't a zero sum activity? That we can, and SHOULD, be resisting BOTH the people who create the issue - Felon 47 and his whole enabling coterie - AND the people who mindlessly obey?

I'm not going to reward someone for HELPING him to enact his shitty, hateful, asinine plans. I'm going to expend my effort and money at places who are ALSO resisting - like Costco, Dicks Sporting Goods, and Apple, to name a few. Companies that are both much larger than Target, *and* much smaller.... who have CHOSEN to IGNORE the felon's demands and do the RIGHT thing.

"Perhaps Target aren't making a good and decent choice"??? PERHAPS? Because empowering hate *could be* a "good and decent choice"??? This kind of wishy washy language is the language of someone who would have turned the Frank family in because that's what the big guy in charge ordered. If you can't actually see or agree that encouraging white supremacy is BAD - because that is ultimately what eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity programs IS... an attempt to empower white supremacy - then we have nothing further to discuss.

It's all part of the same philosophy and movement that resulted in a supremely qualified four star general with years of exemplary service being FIRED from leading a branch of our armed services, in order to instate a man who didn't even hold the qualifications to be *considered* for the position, and had to have a special executive waiver applied to grant him the position, because the former was black and the latter was white. Full stop. All done in the name of "eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity initiatives."

THAT is what the boycott of Target is about. They made the calculated decision to empower that kind of behavior, even though there IS NO ACTUAL PUNISHMENT THAT THE FELON CAN LEGALLY APPLY.

See, you keep talking about how that executive order has power.... except it DOESN'T. It only has the power THAT WE GIVE IT. And by rewarding companies that bow down to it, WE GIVE IT THAT POWER.

How hard is it, really, to just not fucking shop at Target? If there's a Target in a community? There are other stores to shop at. GUARANTEED. Target doesn't build where there's no market, so I'm genuinely not sure where these comments about expending energy fighting Target are coming from. You don't need energy to just not fucking do a thing. Maybe not using Target will require you to go a little further to a different store... If you choose not to, that's on you. But advocating that we not encourage other people to simply not do the thing simply because Target isn't the one originating the issue is frankly irresponsible and LAZY.

We aren't "fighting" Target. We're JUST NOT UTILIZING THEM. The extent of "fighting" them is to encourage other people to join us in voting with our dollars and NOT USE THEM EITHER. And doing so, again, DOE NOT NEGATE THE ABILITY TO PROTEST AND FIGHT THE ADMINISTRATION THAT INITIATED THE ENTIRE ISSUE. I'm frankly not sure where that idea even came from.

If Little Johnny willfully and with forethought flings a rock through the front window of your house because his teacher gave him the rock and told him to do it, you don't *reward* Little Johnny with a candy bar for doing so, just because it wasn't his idea. You explain to Little Johnny why he shouldn't have done that, AND THEN YOU ALSO GO AFTER THE TEACHER who gave him the rock and the order to throw it through your window.

You CANNOT teach critical thinking and consequences by REWARDING the behavior you are trying to extinguish, REGARDLESS of where that behavior actually originates.

And a final point... boycotts... protests.... none of these are meant to be *easy* or *convenient*. That's kinda the point. That we, the People, are prepared to be INconvenienced in order to show that we are unhappy with the direction things are going. That we are willing to endure DIScomfort in order to show that the current path in unacceptable. If we don't speak up, if we don't vote in the ONLY way that matters - with our dollars - then none of these companies will ever change (or change BACK) for the better.

I'm very sorry that such a concept is so very alien to you.

I wasn't aware of this one, so I'm trying to spread the word.

[shamsabaddai-ardn631]

Wk 1: SDL - Research the 'Afghan Girl' image, and the story behind it.

https://theboar.org/2023/12/the-hidden-truth-behind-the-infamous-national-geographic-afghan-girl-photo/

Steve McCurry’s famous 1984 photograph of Sharbat Gula (at 12 years old), called “Afghan Girl,” became a symbol of the refugee crisis.

The reason for this image's controversy, is because of McCurry’s lack of permission from Gula and her family before taking the photo, which raised the issue of ethics, especially since the photo has been so famous, widespread across the entire world via the National Geographic magazine's cover.

Another point to note, is if he posed Sharbat Gula, so that the image would convey what he wanted it to convey, which enhances his & the magazine's personal narrative, and perhaps the emotion in her eyes is being misinterpreted or misread by the masses.

Also, despite substantial profits for the magazine, & Steve rising to fame, Sharbat received nothing, no compensation of any form, which is honestly, exploiting her naivety. Plus she was inconvenienced, because she rose to notoriety, and again, she is entitled to protection and compensation for that.

We have another issue... In her culture, taking a photo like that could cause her death or incarceration in the Taliban, it also puts the child in the spotlight on a world stage....She could not have consented to the photo at that age either. Who consented? According to Steve, the teacher gave permission, but does the teacher have the right to give consent on her behalf, plus how do we even know that the teach was told all the details regarding the circumstances and use of the photo? I don't think so.....

The public were not aware of any of this background when consuming the photo, while noting its beauty....So it was consumed by the masses and paraded everywhere, because the assumption was that the concept/intentions behind it was good = social justice & highlighting the cause

Gula was paraded in front of television cameras, before being expelled to Kabul. “That photo created a lot of problems for me […] I would have preferred it had never been taken” says Gula. “I remember that day well, that photographer who arrived at the Nasir Bagh camp school. I was a child. I didn’t like photos. In Afghan culture, women do not appear in photos. But there wasn’t much choice.”

On another hand Steve M & the National Geographic team defend themselves by stating that this photo has highlighted the plight of the refugees, and helped further their cause. Steve also defends his ethics by stating that he requested permission from the teacher, and that she was at an age where she would not have been punished for a photo.

I do not feel that those are strong enough reasons for ethics to be left behind: her safety, rights and control over her image, were forgotten about. It's ironic actually, in a world where the women there are seeking social justice over their image, power, and bodies, here comes a white saviour to highlight their plight & need for refuge, and 'grant' some form of social justice with his act of photojournalism, only to enforce the same thing upon them, & diminish them, yet again.

[locustheologicus]

The Ordo Amoris: Understanding Charity in relation to Justice.

Valentine's Day is an appropriate time to reflect on the Order of Love, the Catholic/Christian principle that JD Vance utilized when he suggested that the command to love exist within a hierarchy of relationships. Pope Francis has clarified that this is not the case reminding us of the Good Samaritan parable. Another Catholic member of the Trump administration, Border Czar Thomas Homan, offered his own disparaging remarks to the Holy Father this past week.

Homan's rant is such utter nonsense. Somehow he is treating the Holy Father as a foreign potentate rather than the magisterial teacher of faith and morality that he is for us Catholics. Conservative Catholics I am sure remember how much they look to the Church for moral clarity on certain issues like abortion. Evidently they are not comfortable with the same moral clarity on issues that they do not appreciate. I offer the following theological warning from St. Augustine who famously told us,

"If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself."

Both Vance and Homan (and other ideologically driven Catholics) need to check their misplaced moral umbridge at the door and instead recognize that their own moral opinions are in need of further clarity and elucidation. For us theologians it is clear how uninformed their moral opinions are and many of us feel that they should be careful in dismissing the moral values of the faith. As the famous Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner, SJ once said.

Each of us has to answer before God questions of whether we have fulfilled our political task, whether we have loved our neighbor, whether we have respected people’s freedom and treated them with justice. If this life of ours, with its unavoidable 'political’ component, has been lived the right way, it will be gloriously harvested in our eternity. (Diaz, pg. 108)

Have Vance and Homan forgotten about their ultimate end? Is the glorious harvest no longer as important as their current temporal power? Have many of us forgotten the famous adage tempus fugit, momento mori? Seems to be.

But perhaps there is an opportunity to learn here. Perhaps some Catholics are open to understanding the depth of our Catholic morality which guides and develops our social teaching on issues like immigration and the economy. If so may I offer the following insights on how these theological positions developed through the works of Aquinas and the scholastics.

Understanding the Influence of Architectonic Virtues:

Both Vance and Homan are actually not referring to Love (Homan never does) but they seem to defer to their own national focus on Justice. Justice is not only an important connatural virtue but an architectonic virtue that sets a moral foundation for important social relationships. It establishes the social themes of equity and right relationships that are crucial for the establishment of conventional norms. It may be that in both cases Homan and Vance are looking at their social obligations from a perspective of Justice that is framed with a nationalistic ethic. Aquinas and the Church will suggest that their limited nationalistic perspective does not allow them to recognize the full scope of Justice. What is missing for both these men is the theological clarity that informs Justice when it is interpreted through the lens of the virtue of Charity (Love).

Jean Porter, a recognized authority of thomistic and natural law ethics, helps unpack this in her book ��Nature and Reason” and I will quote the following two paragraphs from her book to help illustrate this point.

This brings us to a critical point. Even if we grant that the other-regarding acts of charity can also be regarded as acts of justice, this does not mean that we could arrive at the relevant precepts by reflection on the demands of justice, apart from the new perspective conferred by charity itself. Nothing in Aquinas's analysis rules out the possibility that our considered judgments about the substantive demands of charity might rest, in part at least, on grounds that would be inaccesible to us apart from revelation and our experiences of trying to live by its demands. This, I want to suggest, is in fact the case. That is, our judgments about the requirements of charity stem from an extended process of communal discernment regarding what it means concretely to love the neighbor for the sake of God, and also, to the extent possible and appropriate, to love the neighbor as God loves the neighbor. This process will involve wide-ranging reflection on distinctively theological claims about who God is, what it means to say that God loves men and women, what the possibilities and limtations of imitating this love might be, and who the neighbor is, seen as an object of God's love and as a potential or actual companion in grace. Clearly, reflection along these lines will take us well beyond an analysis of what it means to be fully human, unless this is simply equated with reflection on what it means to be human, seen from the perspective of faith. (Porter, Pg. 392)

Let's pause right there and appreciate what is breathtakingly suggested in this paragraph. Porter reminds us of Aquinas' famous formula gratia non tollit naturam, sed perficit or in our vernacular, "grace does not destroy nature but perfects it." It is great that Vance is willing to raise the ordo amoris but is he ready to be formed by this architectonic theologcal virtue of charity that will perfect how he comprehends the true nature of justice and how it is meant to be applied. The answers is no, for if he did he would recognize the universal application of Justice that Christ clarified when he offered us the “Good Samaritan” parable.

Architectonic refers to the notion that, like a building, the virtues must exist in proportional relation to one another. It also means that certain virtues form a crucial foundational value that sets the other virtues in proportion to each other in the capacity where they can fulfill their teleological end. Once Catholics like Vance, Homan and others are willing to grasp the role of Charity in relation to Justice they may then be able to recognize the moral perspective that the Catholic faith offers that is distinct from a limited national perspective. Issues will be seen in a different light and if nothing else it can help them understand that issues like the economy and immigration are not relegated to ideological opinions but are framed within a consistent moral ethic based on Charity.

Let's continue with Porter's description which raises a poignant example of how this architectonic relationship exists.

In this way, reflection on the demands of charity will not only draw on a sense of the demands of justice, it will also and correlatively shape the conception of justice itself. It is important to note that this process amounts to transforming, and not merely supplementing, justice as we would otherwise understand it. In the first place, the precepts implied by the exterior acts of charity might turn out to be inconsistent with what we might otherwise regard as demands of justice. For example, if we believe that forgiveness is one of the exterior acts required by charity, we may find ourselves committed in principle to forgo certain forms of retributive punishment that would otherwise seem to be permitted, perhaps even required, by the demands of justice. Secondly, on almost any showing the other-regarding obligations of charity are universal in scope, and they imply the equal value of each person, at least in some respects (cf. II-II 26.5,6). If this is so, then it implies that we must specify the domain of justice in such a way as to include all persons, and to regard them all as equally valuable in some fundamental respects - judgments we would not otherwise be compelled to make, rationally or on broader natural considerations. (Porter, pg. 393)

What is being suggested here is ethically powerful. In accepting their discipleship a Christian is formed by the theological virtue of Charity (informed by Faith and seen within the context of Hope) which transforms and gives direction to our connatural (acquired) virtues including Justice. Consider how Porter characterizes Justice as being universal in its application and prone to restorative justice seen from the perspective of Charity. Consider further what Charity would transform our ideals of economic justice and reassess our economic and border policies.

Can Catholic politicians take a moment to reflect on the architectonic virtues of charity and justice while fulfilling their civic obligations. The administration may have to raise their own position and priorities but they should articulate their own moral position (America First) while respectfully recognizing why the Catholic Church will not acquiesce to these issues. As for all Catholics, please do not allow yourselves to be caught with ideologically driven opinions that bash the Church and its moral authority. We Catholics have a Magisterium which is the teaching authority of the Church and its theologians assist the Church in discerning these moral positions. All people can have the right to their own opinion but policies ought to be driven not by opinions but by a dialogical process of social analysis and reflection of values. The Church has its role in offering this guidance and clarity and while Catholics may disagree they ought to respect it.

[bigthingsforeverintheworks]

I want to list out my problems with DR3 because I think it has a lot of cool concepts and definitely don't hate it but I kind of disagree with some things

Ok I'm actually not fully against the idea of Chiaki being real, I mean yeah the DR0 characters and all that but probably she's too like good for all of that

The brainwashing is stupid yup; I don't think they could've properly done a whole manipulation thing on screen with how the story was going but they do just do it like that. I don't entirely hate it in terms of how it affects the broader population (somewaht I don't know why it needs to be literal brainwashing besides maybe for hope arc? And there'a n argument that it isn't entirely, but they should be hopeful, especially after the teacher helps them; that's the other thing with chiaki really is that the teacher should be the one entirely motivating them (and then like. put the two students from DR0 in and have ultimate impostor be not supposed to be part of the class because yeah and you can still keep the animator guy in there) I think that has decent potential for the whole school commentary thing

Also on the brainwashing it's so unclear what the ending means? And also for what's called the despair arc & is generally quite gruesome they don't really explain what specifically the remnants of despair did (this could be in UDG:AE i think?) ever and that kind of takes away from a lot of it

I honestly didn't hate ikusaba, junko, or izuru (though the hair is kind of goofy) on first pass

This is probably a comprehension issue but like... why is komaeda pretty much evil for no reason whhen it comes to the students from future arc like he's only blowing stuff up when he knows they're ultimate despair later & I think there's more potential for like actual misunderstandings among those guys

Ok why does Izuru have every talent?? I feel like that's one of the things that they don't actually mean because. you know.

Yeah Naegi rebuilding Hope's Peak really isn't that good & is easily the worst part of an otherwise great episode; maybe could've worked if they clarified that like they were preventing things from going the same both in terms of secret research and everything else

Killing & reiving kyoko is not really great; I think if they wanted to kill a character aoi could have reasonably died but I'm extremely biased, but also they had a good idea with her lose condition thing so i don't entirely blame them but then like... go through with it (granted it's messy given old drunk guy sacrifices himself for her and arguably there's supposed to be something about like new generations etc)

why do they just like... kill future foundation members like it's nothing seemingly (I couldn't tell if they're really dead but it sure seems like it)

Ok the bracelet things have a lot of potential but just end up being kind of goofy like "don't use your talent" vs. kyoko's too OP one vs. "you can't go through that door"

The execution on the "oh they're all killing themselves" thing could've been done better if there was a proper like reason, they somewhat explain how it's personalized but eh?? like the teacher she is ultiamte despair etc. has msitakes

on the same level why does makoto almost fall for it like... he shouldn't

They don't really resolve the theme besides "um actually platitudes pretty much do work" and then the evil guy is like "ok"

Some of the characters could probably have been cut in future arc, especially those that don't have direct ties to the despair arc (besides computer girl who's actually other girl)

Honestly I think future arc could've benefitted a lot from like condensing the killing game into maybe like 6-8 episodes (with the cut characters too) and then focusing on something else

I don't really like how everyone from SDR2 is just... better all of a sudden it kind of takes away from a lot of the stakes of that game in retrospect that like... nothing happens in the end

Also they aren't wrong but it's really funny both: that that one guy tells makoto to kill himself & that that other guy causes everything because he won't come out of the closet

ugh unironically like I'm kind of mad about izuru being like... literally OP instead of maybe being kind of fast & spooky and like being the ultimate hope, maybe they could've done it in some other way & his nihilism is generally nice just.

The bit with dead teacher & Junko is... not really that good and the "isn't the neo world program basically brainwashingn" question is so flat i think it makes the sections deserve to be cut on their own

I do really wish that the forbidden actions were like related to character flaws or meant to inhibit hteir strenghts or... something.

I think everything else was nice if maybe a bit underdeveloped (vaguely agree with yasuhiro's character development being reset but not that strongly) I haven't finished DR AE UDG nor did i watch the like 2.5 thing that existed apparently but like I think it was overall fun & did enough with the two intersecting plotlines to be interesting even if there are plot holes and stuff oh twilight murder case does get especially shafted in that regard

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Not My Kind of Hero by Pippa Grant

Starting over is never easy to do but when you have nothing left where you have lived most of your life, have raised your daughter, and the climate is no longer friendly…having a dude ranch inherited from an uncle might seem almost a safe haven to head to with your teenage daughter…maybe…?

What I liked:

* Maisey: recently divorce, mother of sixteen-year-old Juniper, has secrets, more skilled than the part she played in a handyman program she was on for six years with her ex, wants to be the best mother ever to her daughter, also seeking her own best self, not in the market for a relationship no matter how much she might be attracted to Flint

* Flint: math teacher, soccer coach, has commitment issues, had a rough childhood, good friend, giving, caring, kind, rule keeper, very attracted to Maisey, wants what is best for Juniper and her daughter

* Juniper-June-Junie: sixteen, has two years of high school left, loves soccer, wishes her father cared more than he does, wise, doing her best, misses much and not a lot of where she lived before, a good person, has a bright future

* Earl: a bear that pops up from time to time

* Gingersnap: a cow that had history with the town and belonged to Uncle Tony * Uncle Tony: black sheep of his family, a safe harbor for Maisey as a teenager, thought of Maisey and her possible future needs even though they did not see one another often, that his presence was felt even though he was never actually seen in the book

* The slow-burn and strong chemistry and almost soul-connection between Maisey and Flint

* Opal, Charlotte and others in the town who make Junie and Maisey feel at home

* Kory: Flint’s best friend, sounding board, and good person

* The plot, pacing, setting, and writing

* That I Flint and Maisey both wanted what was best for Juniper…though they also wanted to have something for themselves, too

What I didn’t like:

* Who and what I was meant not to…mostly the ex-husband, Dean

Did I enjoy this book? Yes

Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

BLURB

From USA Today bestselling author Pippa Grant comes a rollicking romantic comedy about a single mom and a grumpy math teacher tackling their differences on a Wyoming ranch. I knew fixing up my life with a fresh start on the hobby ranch I inherited in Hell’s Bells, Wyoming, would come with challenges. Things like snow. Wildlife. Local gossip about why my daughter and I are here. But the biggest challenge? My surly new tenant. He’s like a bear. Fascinating from a distance, but don’t get too close, or he’ll bite. His personality should be a good thing. I have no need of a new man in my life. But he’s not only my tenant; he’s also my daughter’s math teacher and soccer coach. I keep running into him. He keeps thinking I need to be saved. Maybe I do, but here’s what I don’t expect: he’s a fixer-upper in need of saving too. And I might be the only woman for the job. Hell’s Bells, help me.

[darkcircles4lyfe]

Death to All Might, Rebirth to Yagi Toshinori

So about All Might. I’ve been extremely wary of talking about what could happen to him because straight up saying “I don’t think he’s gonna die” is asking the universe to spite me. Plus it also feels like a room full of people turning to stare at me as if I said the Sun isn’t a star. Man has death flags everywhere, I know. 

But, okay, *Bill Nye voice* consider the following:

Mr. Yagi here, if he overheard everything, just received the final nail in the coffin on his career. His time as the symbol of peace is not only over, it was in fact partially responsible for the current state of things, since he once did so much on his own that his absence now makes heroes and civilians alike ill-prepared to cope. I think it was very apt for that one guy to be wearing an All Might shirt--he was acting as a mouthpiece for the latent societal problems embedded in All Might’s legacy. 

We know already that he’s been feeling useless. I love this scene and although I’m not gonna talk about it right this second, remember what Aizawa says about just “being here” being enough:

And we know from conversations with Inko that Toshinori is also reframed his purpose around looking after Izuku. But in the end, Izuku rejected his help, and it was his classmates instead who were able to save him. Now the very progress of humanity is rejecting him too. You may me wondering how on Earth I don’t see the logical conclusion of all this being his death. Hold on. It actually has a lot to do with the fact that we’re all expecting it. Nighteye himself saw it, and despite any contrary convictions anyone might have, the plot doesn’t seem to be veering away from that end. All Might Is Gonna Die, says absolutely everything. 

It’s occurring to me that I have previous experience with this kind of plotline that probably little to no one else in this fandom shares, being that I’ve read a certain book series in which the main character is told in no uncertain terms that he will die (no, I’m not talking about hp). The series in question is T*e Und*rland Chronicl*s (censoring so it doesn’t get put in their side of tumblr) and I’m sorry but I’m about to go on a shameless tangent about it and spoil the ending for you.

So in this series there is a prophecy in every book, each one having something to do with war and conflict, and so far all of them have been right. In the last book [mc] finds out that it’s prophesied that he will be killed. Lots of the things in the prophecies are convoluted and metaphorical, but no, this one literally says “when the [mc’s title] has been killed.” He spends the whole book coming to terms with this, and he gives into it, only to find himself waking up in the hospital instead. “Wow, plot twist. /s” you may be thinking, and yeah sure, the mc in a kids book survived, big shocker. But it doesn't end there. After the war, there are peace talks, but they escalate until the two sides are on the verge of declaring war again. And [mc], bless him, has just been caught in the middle of all of this the entire time. He’s sick as shit of fighting, of watching the suffering and death of people he cares about. He draws his sword against both of them angrily, gives a speech saying he won’t take a side, and then promptly breaks his sword across his knee: “There. [mc’s title in the prophecies] is dead. I killed him.” He’s giving a huge middle finger to everyone there, to the man who wrote the prophecies, to the entire fucked up culture of it all. And so something that was taken literally turns out to be metaphorical. That is, if you still believe in the prophecies at all.

Hopefully you’re catching my drift here. What I’m saying is, even though this other series has nothing to do with bnha, it goes to show sometimes it’s the most absolute certainties that are red herrings, and a “death” can consequently be a symbolic one. In All Might’s case, it could be the death of hero society and a rejection of his own past. In other words, character development for Toshinori himself that reflects on the way the world is changing, too. Also there’s the fact that the mc from that other series I’m trying not to name has an honorary title, and I’m imagining that role he occupied “dying” could correspond to something that amounts to, “All Might is dead. I (Yagi Toshinori) killed him.” 

And here’s another thing: we also have to ask ourselves what good a dead Toshinori is to Izuku, narratively speaking. Yes, Izuku has spent his whole life idolizing even the more toxic parts of All Might, and his idealized vision of his hero does need to “die.” But how about Toshinori as a father figure?  Izuku regretting that his last interaction with Toshinori was to reject his help may drive home the fact that he shouldn’t go off on his own, but at this point it’s kinda redundant. If anything it would negate some of the progress that was just made because it’d make him extra paranoid about losing other people too. To be honest, the whole “Uncle Ben” trope, the mentor/father figure who dies and gives the mc a reason to do better, is so tired. Experiencing the death of a loved one really doesn’t deserve to be romanticized like that. I might as well admit that I’m speaking from experience, and let me tell you, losing someone you love suddenly, when you weren’t around, and with unfinished business--it makes you paranoid as hell that it will happen again. It literally gives me nightmares. Y’all, I cannot stress enough that trauma does not equal character development. Granted, just because I know this doesn’t mean Horikoshi does, but in general he does seem to lead his characters toward healing.

Okay, back to the present. Toshinori is turning away from UA. He likely feels useless and rejected. We can infer that what happens next will involve Stain, and we have a couple of extra clues to go with it: Stain considers All Might a true hero, and has stated that he would let All Might kill him. And since Horikoshi loves his parallels, we also have this fight between Endeavor and this random villain who admires him so much that he wants to die by Endeavor’s hand:

This suggests a confrontation in which Stain challenges All Might to live up to himself as he once was, so that as a hero he can vanquish Stain and symbolically overcome society's perversion of that role. But based on what All Might has learned about the system he upheld, Stain is wrong. All Might is not a “true hero” in the sense that the societal issues Stain witnessed exist not in spite of All Might, but (in part) because of him, because he took too much of the responsibility for himself.

Stain probably had no idea about the personal cost of All Might’s lonely burden until after the fact. Maybe he’s seeing it now. So then perhaps the confrontation would be more about Stain claiming he’s just as fake as the rest. Either way, Toshinori has the opportunity to denounce himself and be rid of “All Might,”  to stop living in his own shadow. Nighteye’s vision has been defied before, and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the combination of society shifting + Toshinori’s own conviction is enough to do it again and work fate in his favor.

He is not All Might. He is Yagi Toshinori: quirkless, worn down, and directionless except for his dedication to Izuku. If he survives his interaction with Stain, he can resolve his imperfect mentorship by confessing about his shortcomings and simply supporting Izuku as a part of his family, not as his teacher (as Aizawa said, just “being there”). And that’s how you really get character development, for both of them. I mean, shit, imagine Toshinori straight up telling Izuku to stop calling him All Might.

[deusvervewrites]

Here is the thing with the Aizawa vs Kakashi comparison:

Kakashi is also a rather bad teacher and often portrayed/dragged/fixed as such in the Naruto fandom.

Yes, the circumstances around his expulsion scare are a lot less severe (Ninja work is way more deadly, they get back to the academy, he directly points out how many ninja die and that that's the reason for this rule, etc...), but that is only one aspect of Kakashi.

For example: As the protags sensei, he is supposed to take care of them & train them.

Take care? Well, Naruto and Sasuke are both heavily traumatized ostracized 12 year old Children that live completely alone at the beginning of canon. It's implied that they get some sort of allowance from the village but that's it. Nothing about this changes when Kakashi becomes their sensei. Yes, he protects them during dangerous missions, but that's very similar to how Aizawa protects the students at the USJ. Good ninja, bad teacher.

Case in Point: The first time we see Kakashi actively, intentionally train his students is several months(!) in, while they are on their first mission outside the village. This WAS supposed to be a simple mission with little to no risks, but of course this goes the way of the USJ and they end up faced with an opponent that could literally chop apart the kids in less than a second. After he is defeated, they learn that he probably survived and Kakashi FINALLY trains them in:

drum roll please...

Walking up trees by using Chakra, aka the most basic form of traversal that literally EVERY ninja can do.

Here is the thing, just like with Aizawa, all of this makes perfect sense from a writers perspective: Changing the order of arcs or interjecting training or exposition about what ninja kids can and can't do would kill the pacing really quick, especially this early in the series. This way readers slowly learn about the universe and it's rules alongside the protagonists but also get drama and action.

But from an in universe perspective it creates the weird appearance that Kakashi is lazy/doesn't care about his team, after all, despite trying to fail them to save their lives, he only does the absolute bare minimum to teach them how to actually stay alive.

It does not help either, that the only other two times he teaches his kids anything, he specifically singles out one of the two boys each. Also, one of those two cases, once again, mostly focuses on teaching something that sounds like basic shit that they should have learned in school, or immediately after. (Though this was apparently retconned into the series at that point.)

And that's without even starting to go into the personal connections he (supposedly) has to two of the three protags, but barely ever acts upon.

It is definitely an interesting comparison, and I can totally see that Aizawa is inspired by Kakashi, but I do think we should keep in mind that they both have their own sets of issues that can't be easily compared due to the differing circumstances.

I've seen some discussions of Kakashi failing as a teacher thanks to the time I spend on TV Tropes, but I have very little context for it. Gotta admit, feel like teaching people the movement ability before the mission would make the mission itself go smoother, but I will grant it was supposed to be a safe mission but still