#and taught them the importance of love

[flabotanum]

feeling emotional about elaina nolastname today

[goldensunset]

all electric/flying types go to hell

[ipushedthewrongbutton]

uuuuh yeah, i’m a little sick of romance being treated as the only type of love that matters, so yeah, get headcanoned as aro/ace

[perenians]

oh merrill...

[uncanny-tranny]

Hey, you're being lied to about what fitness constitutes. If you can't work in an hour-long crossfit slog, but you can work in a five-minute walk, then that is still fitness. If you can't use your legs but you can do arm circles every now and again, that is still fitness. If you're moving around at work, that's still fitness. It can be intentional or incidental, but here's the best part: your body doesn't care if you're dedicating specific work-out times. It doesn't care if the "only" fitness it gets is your nine to five on your feet. It doesn't care, fitness is fitness is fitness. Some of us do it differently, but the end result is more or less similar.

If you can do any type of fitness safely, your body isn't going to care if you're doing it like an Olympic athlete or if you're just a casual.

[frobby]

BLUE EXORCIST FANS

im here to show you:

baby yukio and shiemi

[blue-cat-shitposts]

Looking back on it after so many years, something that I remember was missing from early fandom discussion of Undertale's narrative and its themes was the understanding of Undertale as a heavily meta narrative.

Don't get me wrong, people knew and laughed at meta references or the game acknowledging game mechanics, but somehow, that fact was more often than not entirely omitted from the discussion of Undertale's storyline. As soon as discussion went into plot territory, its as if people would entirely forget that you, the player, are also treated as an acting agent in the narrative. Most people back then would treat Undertale as a self-contained story and would shift the game aspect onto "Frisk has magic time travel powers that work on video game-ish logic", and would address all of the "this is a game to you" remarks to Frisk as the fully-fledged character that belongs in this world and is playing god with their magic powers. Which is not necessarily a bad take, and it worked excellently for some Undertale fan stories, but it misses the true impact of the story by millimeters.

I remember that back then, this erasure of the player's involvement generated a lot of criticism for Undertale's pacifist route. People would complain about how it's unrealistic to expect a child that fell into a realm of monsters trying to kill it to be a True Pacifist, which people religiously believed it to be the only legal route endorsed by the game since it is the "true ending", after all - so it must be the "canon" ending of that story. I remember people critiquing it on the basis of the pacifistic mindset being completely inapplicable to real life, or even just realistic situations, which it is, because real life is more complicated than the world of Undertale.

The thing is though - the thing that everyone was somehow ignoring at the time - is that Undertale is not meant to be a realistic story. Undertale can hardly stand on its own as a self-contained story that isn't seen through the lens of the world being a video game without losing a lot of its sense and internal logic that makes it work.

And possibly the greatest example of that, and the reason why those joking critiques rub me the wrong way now, is that- you are not a helpless child. Your role in the story is not playing a helpless child. You, the player, are a character in the story yourself - and your role is NOT that of a helpless being. Quite the contrary, actually. You are the most powerful being in this world from this world's perspective. You are above everyone by the simple virtue of the way in which you, from your position behind the screen, can interact with the world. You, the player, are not in any physical pain from dying over and over, you have the power to replay, reset, redo, as much as you want, at no cost to yourself as an individual playing the game (maybe aside from eyestrain of hours spent behind a screen, but that's on you - you have the power to pause and quit anytime you want too, after all). You are not on the same level as the other characters, you are not their equal, and you are definitely not weaker than them. You are not the one who's at a disadvantaged position here. It's the monsters.

This isn't a story about a child who's at the mercy of ruthless, powerful monsters that they have to trust in the innocence of. This is a story about you - the individual reading this - having an incredible, unfathomable amount of power over an entire world and all its inhabitants, and choosing how you would use that power when there are no consequences that would stop you. Because there really aren't any. Physically, on a meta, real level, there genuinely aren't any consequences to you, the player, playing a goddamn video game. And the game knows that. The only question the game is asking is how do you, an individual playing a game, interact with it? What kind of a player are you? When you are given absolute power over a world that is presented as a plaything to you, do you believe that the characters of the game you're playing could be real people with feelings that you're toying with? You don't have to believe that, nobody out there in real life is forcing you or judging you for it (except for the aforementioned rabid fanbase, but that is outside the game's narrative). Every player is different, and each one is meant to experience the story in their own personal way - whether or not you like it, this story is a self-insert. But it doesn't change the fact that all players are inherently put in a position of power over this world, and they need to recognize that first in order to properly understand the actual moral dilemma of the game:

What would you do in a position of power if none of the people you have power over could stop you?

And I'm really glad that as the fandom developed over the years, people started recognizing that that was the true meaning of Undertale's narrative, and that Deltarune is doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down on that theme. Because it really is a great one. It's a difficult and uncomfortable question to ask, for sure, but it is, undeniably, one that guarantees a deep emotional journey and a cathartic experience if you decide to search for the answer to it.

[meadowsofmay]

i really like the point percy makes (and that vax eventually agrees with) about civilization during their conversation about westruun after umbrasyl was killed — a city built by very people's hands deserves preservation and saving as much as those same people leaving in it.

«the death of the city is such a blasphemy. it is the murder of the dead. and i am horrified.»

«building will give them [people of westruun] something to do. and if the dragon comes back, they will be safe underground. and if the dragon doesn't, we have saved thousand of years of inspiration and life. it's... you can't just abandon something like this! there's too much here.

vax: otherwise, what else are we fighting for?

otherwise, it becomes our friend pike from nowhere.»

it's such a beautiful point about history and culture being as important to keeping human civilization alive as saving lives of people. preserving knowledge build into the walls of cities can become a new starting point, a foundation that the new generation will be built upon, more equipped and smart. and just not entirely faceless. remembering the culture is important, it's an identity, it's a customized dress that tells about the roots of beliefs and explains people's behavior. it's a wisdom carefully interwoven into the tale of creation of this specific piece of the world.

the culture is important.

and percy being the one who lost overnight his whole family and his town knows about it more than a man of his age would want to. the history of his family was inseparable from the culture of whitestone and one of briarwoods' goals was to tear it down in the most cruel way. to smear the de rolo's name in their own blood and dirt and render their town faceless and hopeless, only useful of their own vicious plans.

and it now makes so much sense to me personally why vax was so determined to use pelor as a symbol of hope, spreading it as a signal everywhere he went. he understood it, too. he saw pieces of whitestone culture being destroyed and wanted to bring them to life in people's hearts in the form of symbolism carried over in spoken word. and yes, he wanted to help percy. yes, it was done for the rebellion. but one doesn't cancel the other. and in my opinion, it wasn't just about percy defeating the briarwoods but more about percy being a still alive and standing piece of whitestone history and culture that can be and should be a symbol himself.

a symbol of rebirth of the culture that there used to be, a culture attached to the de rolo family and hence attached to whitestone.

i just find all of this incredibly compelling in terms of character building and in terms of simply being a human being serching for what's important in life.

[anonyanonymouse]

It's crazy to think how altered my perception of all this would be if they showed us the full story between Malleus and Lilia before they showed us the full story between Silver and Lilia

[donnatroyyyy]

When Mitski wrote “I will wash your hair at night/ And dry it off with care/ I will see your body bare/ And still I will live here” do you think she’d been thinking about Donna and Dick while writing it?

[cloud-somersault]

Semi continuation to the ask about shadowpeach not thinking about the fact they might have been trapped simultaneously. I understand them thinking the other purposefully abadoned them NOW, in present times with all the bad blood. But seriously how in all the years they were trapped, how did they not think 'hey maybe the reason my loving mate isnt rescuing me is because he actually cant. Im being punished, why not him'

(comes crawling out of the chap.4 document covered in blood and picks this ask up off the kitchen table) ........... uhhhh oh okay. yes. okay

in chapter 4 (SOBS AND CRIES) this will be vaguely explained. maybe? I don't know anymore. but also uhm.

A lot of this has to do with, like, expectations. We know, since this was from Wukong's perspective, what he thought about Macaque even if he's being all "I hate you, you suck!!" right now. He fucking is impressed with Macaque's powers and takes him seriously in every fight. He knows Macaque can't be underestimated. He respects his abilities and magic. He thinks it's cool that Macaque can teleport anywhere! In the Mate Day flashback, he DEADASS thought Macaque just...made a new shadow spell out of the blue. I don't know if I've made this clear, but it is difficult to make new spells.

Wukong held Macaque in a high regard. He was the only one (and still is) who can stand toe to toe with him, after all.

And we all know Macaque thought Wukong could do anything. He's the MONKEY KING. Sun Wukong! Able to beat celestial armies and stand up to gods! He's invincible! He gets whatever he wants! Past!Macaque saw all of this and got it into his head that .. there is nothing that can stop Wukong.

When you have those expectations, you're left with this feeling of... "Why isn't he here???? He can do anything... I've seen it. Why isn't he saving me?" Because you don't think of them being beaten. That's not feasible in that mindset. Incomprehensible. It's also a very childlike notion but they were young then.

It's grappling with the fact that the person you thought was all-powerful and amazing...isn't. Everyone has limitations. No one is perfect. People are going to disappoint you. A person cannot be there for you 24/7 and expecting that is unrealistic.

Also, in chapter 4, you'll see why Macaque wasn't...thinking about that as much. He had other stuff going on.

For Wukong, since we know his story and that he was under that mountain for a while, he did do some thinking...but he just didn't want to believe it. He couldn't...see that happening. Not Macaque.

I think it's clear by this point that...both of them have a hard time coming to grips with the truth.

[kigiom]

actually super excited to start learning scottish gaelic

[itspileofgoodthings]

I think the fundamental part of growing up re: Anne of Green Gables is that Gilbert Blythe is such a good idea but Lucy Maude didn’t spend enough time on him to make him a fully real person.

[drawnecromancy]

Sometimes my dad's friends are kind to me and it beats up the imposter syndrome in my brain a little bit

[cosmicthoughtzalign]

I could recognize that soul anywhere,

Oh the warmth and joy you bring

I hope to lay by you as I sleep

You mean everything to me,

Even if I’d let you go

In every lifetime I would choose you.

-

Starzalign

[marklikely]

i think as time goes on itll be easier to like the beatles as long as we keep up the trend of younger people not liking them.