#and then write myself an essay for it

[boughkeeperdain]

Honestly Naoki Urasawa's 'Monster' is such a well written story on so many levels.

My favourite part about it is that it's cyclical- the way it ends calls back to how it began. (Spoilers ahead)

Kenzo starts, and continuously stays this way, as someone who stays true to what he believes. He has a strong moral compass and won't really stray from it. He has the firm belief that all lives are created equally, which ultimately leads him to save Johan's life as a child.

Johan on the other hand believes that humans are only equal in death, and his end goal is to get Tenma to be the one to kill him, to understand the monster inside of him. If this were what happened then even that woukd be good writing- it was Tenma who saved him, and Tenma who would end him. Almost a poetic end for Johan, and would completely break down Tenma's morals and personal code of ethics.

But this isn't the case. Even when faced with Johan's likely death after he was shot (once again in the head), Kenzo makes the effort to save him- to go out of his way. Its comparable to the trolley problem on a way, and Kenzo takes the decisive action to try and make a change.

All lives are equal in the beginning, and all lives are equal at the end. An infallible ideology for our main character and brings us back to the start of saving Johan's life. And then we get the perfect end and callback to the start with the empty hospital bed, a mirror of Johan's first time in the hospital.

I quite like the ambiguity on whether Johan did survive or not, because both outcomes would have such different weight to them.

[beepboopappreciation]

In case I wasn't clear.

[daphnalia]

and they were galpals

[sandushengshou]

to defeat monsters: become the greater monster | m.a.w

(requested by @highwarlockkareena for my 1 follower celebration)

[deoidesign]

Thinking about vampires, death, life, and the space they occupy in between

[shepscapades]

In light of my recent… Minor (tm) Ranchers obsession, and also in light of the confirmation that the life series are canon to dbhc, I raise for consideration: dbhc wamcherms…. ;.; sniff. wanchers…

Tango is already deviant by the start of Double Life, so the burned ranch isn’t what triggers his deviancy or anything, but this does leave him with permanent damage. His model is built to withstand extreme heat and explosions, but I imagine that he gets so angry that his insides fry, circuits catching flame and making the plastic shell crack from the inside out, kind of like an engine fire erupting from the hood of a car. Jimmy knows next to nothing about androids, so he just does what he thinks is best: keeping Tango from hurting anyone else and… shouting every computer lingo phrase he can think of in the hopes it’ll do something to get him to calm down.

[youkaigakkou-tl]

why you should read yohaji: the powerpoint

send this to ur friends ur family ur hamster tape it to ur forehead etc etc

[macdenlover]

thinking about sunny and also about the color yellow as a symbol for madness and illness and rot and suffocation in literature.

[sygneth]

Things are starting to get awkward hehe

Part 5 of of Holmes' collage adventures

Chapter 1: part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6 Masterpost (Index) AO3

[seasonofprophecy]

It shouldn't be that serious but I haaate people summarizing Simon and his struggles in Fionna and Cake as the symptoms of one mental illness or another. Like, his struggle with being content now that he's Simon again echo depression and he very well may have it. The way I've seen some people examine his character and conflict through a pathological lens, though, just picks out what words and actions they can diagnose as some documented and studied condition. They divorce his character and conflict from his setting, his time as the Ice King, and how he fits in the extended narrative of Adventure Time.

Simon is a pre-mushroom bomb era human in a post-mushroom bomb world. The people he knew, the surroundings he's come to understand, and the life trajectory he had going are all long gone. He's come to in a new society where things function in much more fantastical, irrational, and advanced ways. He's been a part of this society- even shaping it- as the Ice King, and now he must continue playing into the happenings of Ooo as Simon Petrikov. The new civilizations are alien, the new Earth functions by new social and natural laws, and he has the remains of new life that disgusts, horrifies, and humiliates him.

Simon spent almost a thousand years as a man stripped of his former values, dignity, and cognisance. As the Ice King, he lost his ability to control himself, and inflicted what would accumulate to be significant harm unto others. He learned how to get along with others by the end of his time as the Ice King, but those years were a blip in the span of a near millennium, and the degree of self-control he learned was basic decency. Simon spent his life before the mushroom bomb developing to be a composed and academic man, and endured having his antecedent personal growth and his own autonomy regarding his identity nullified by the ice crown.

Adventure time is a fantasy show that explores the consequences of the endless possibilities inherent to a fantastical setting. Powerful magic and magical existences destroy and ruin lives, abundances of mystical organisms amount to exhausting effort to defend oneself from danger, and the lack of predictability of what the world has to offer someone next spells out a compromised sense of security and stability.

Simon/the Ice King's story is one example of the show's exploration of the undesirable side of fantasy, and one story that's been built on for over eight years now. It's a story with circumstances unique to the show, with numerous writers informing its contents, with some parts planned and some spontaneous. It's a charged story, and it's narratively reductive to effectively whittle Simon's character and conflict as the showing of a real world mental illness

[magicandmundane]

Something something Clone Force 99 breaking binders in every season finale

[systemrestart]

"The New Planets" — Heaven Will Be Mine

[boilingrain]

I've been doing Alhaitham's story quest and I understand why people ship these two. They're like an old married couple

[denkies]

The BSD 5 Opening, Tetsu no Ori, is a love song from Atsushi to Akutagawa

Let's start at the beginning of the song, with the accompanying scenes.

Putting Atsushi and Akutagawa with those specific lyrics was probably not a silly mistake done by complete coincidence. But let's keep going!

These lyrics specifically pertain to Atsushi's feelings after Akutagawa's death. Both "places" in these lyrics refer to the afterlife-- somewhere only seen after death, and somewhere Atsushi doesn't want Akutagawa to go.

"A place you can't go" can also be foreshadowing that Akutagawa doesn't go to the afterlife. He becomes a vampire. On that note, Atsushi believes that Akutagawa can be woken up from his brainwashed state-- and actually begins to succeed in chapter 108. He doesn't believe Akutagawa to be in the afterlife, because he has faith that he's still there.

The anime opening ends with those lyrics, but the full song continues. I'll be talking about some specific parts, which pertain to the topic.

This one is pretty quickly explained, as Akutagawa and Atsushi quite literally symbolize Yin and Yang, even physically. The line about being unable to ignore the "bug in the iron cage" comes up later!

Past tense, expressing the sorrow that came after the heat of battle. "The loss of ecstacy" seems to reference the 2 battles that they won against Fukuchi, as the ecstacy of winning was taken from them.

"That we can only be slaves to something; knowing that you will lose." is referencing these rewritten battles again -- Fukuchi tells them that they won, but he went back in time (chapter 87). In the lyrics, Atsushi recognizes that they are slaves to Fukuchi's sword, that they can't win.

"Knowing that you will lose" might also reference Atsushi's thoughts on Akutagawa's sacrifice. Atsushi knows that the escape route was only for him; that Akutagawa's first and foremost priory was getting Atsushi out alive. Knowing that he couldn't have saved Akutagawa from Fukuchi, because Akutagawa didn't want to be saved. He was going to lose, in every scenario, to keep Atsushi safe.

And finally, this part. "You've already taken flight; you've become a butterfly," again, referencing Akutagawa's death. Funnily enough, I think this also ties into Akutagawa not actually being dead. Butterflies symbolize the soul, death, and rebirth. All of these are relevant to him in vampire form, so equating him to a butterfly isn't too far off. It's also very pretty and sweet.

The line about the iron cage comes up again, this time, Atsushi revealing himself to be the "bug in the iron cage." The entire sequence seems to be about Atsushi's grief, that he can't ignore and is trapped in like a cage.

His desire to be free is also tied to him wishing to be reunited with Akutagawa. "You've already taken flight / If I could fly now, outside the iron cage..." I think it conveys that Atsushi wants to escape this grief, but only if it means reuniting with Akutagawa once more.

Lastly, as my evidence, the song title "Tetsu no Ori" (鉄の檻) literally means "Iron Cage". The song itself is about Atsushi being trapped in his grief, and love, after Akutagawa's death.

I rest my case.

[salamie-baby]

If I posted an entire essay in several parts on why the movie wolfwalkers and similar media connects with me emotionally on the basis of therianthropy would you guys read it be honest

[rect-bibi]

another one