#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.

[freenos]

I think it’s so interesting how Medea is the person Melinoe tends to discuss moral quandaries with, especially on her way to battling Prometheus.

[lewkwoodnco]

a week in the life of London's youngest agency head (insp.)

[beepboopappreciation]

In case I wasn't clear.

[randomminty]

Five billion octopath 2 scribbles i feel sick

[daphnalia]

and they were galpals

[thatstoomanysausages]

Does anyone ever think really hard about Grian's inability to team? To stick with the same people he'd allied with at first after it shows the slightest hint of going downhill? Or about everyone's knowledge to be weary with teaming with Grian as he's notoriously disloyal with his teammates?

Cause the gutting thing is, he isn't. He isn't disloyal. He doesn't have an inability. In fact, I'd argue he is one of the few people who are tragically loyal to a fault, at least in most cases.

In Last Life, although he killed both Jimmy and Mumbo, he still felt the need to return to his allies after he'd turned red, feeling betrayed when they threw him out for being red. After that, he stuck with Joel and didn't dare betray him.

In Double Life, although he cheated on Scar and constantly complained, he stuck by Scar almost obsessively. His aim to protect him, even if he said it was for his own benefit, was painful. He didn't try to leave Scar behind like Cleo or Scott, he didn't try to sever the bond between him and Scar, nothing. It was almost like he was desperate.

In Limited Life, he was beyond loyal to his boys. He was loyal until the very end. And although he immediately switched to join the Nosy Neighbours, he didn't try to team with anyone permanently until Jimmy and Joel were dead. His silence when he realised he was truly the last Bad Boy was deafening. He hid his grief by saying that he had a backup team, just to save face, even though he built a gravestone for both boys and grieved them meaningfully.

In Secret Life, it wasn't as if he was fine with having no allied, like someone would be if they truly didn't care for loyalty, he was desperate once again. Having no teammates later in the game would hurt him, yes, but his desperation felt lonely, not power hungry. He didn't dare betray Etho nor Cleo, and stuck by them until the end. He was losing his mind on his hill before he teamed with the two, he needed to have close allies to depend on.

Now, in Wild Life, Mumbo is out of the series and Grian goes to say he needs to find some more friends, even with Skizz still around. Now, I don't think this is a power play thing, it's a desperation thing. He's hiding his grief by pretending everything is fine because if it wasn't he'd be vulnerable. For the past couple sessions, he had been working tirelessly to help get Skizz a kill so he could get off of being a red life, even to his own detriment.

Grian doesn't half ass teams. He will not team with everyone. However, he gets vulnerable when the ones that he connects to die.

Because that's how it went about in 3rd Life. He allied with Scar throughout the whole game, it starting simply because Grian felt guilty about what he'd done to Scar. He felt guilty. He stuck with him the whole game, undying loyalty, and all it ended in was him standing at the top with his best friend's blood drying on his hands.

To him, being loyal to someone like he was in 3rd Life ended badly. So, to avoid that, he found a way to still stay teamed with people, but not be left at the top of that mountain again, alone, even if his teammates die.

But so far, the curse keeps following him. He will always outlive his teammates. And this season is following the pattern, again, Mumbo dying right in front of his eyes, so close, yet so far. Always in a distance where he could've done something different, and he'd still have a teammate.

He may move from person to person, but only when they are dead or reject him. He is the forever Widow, cursed to always face his consequences, over and over and over again.

[magicandmundane]

Something something Clone Force 99 breaking binders in every season finale

[sandushengshou]

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

(requested by @highwarlockkareena for my 1 follower celebration)

[madbard]

I just realized another reason I love Hozier’s music. It’s not just that the lyrics are complex, or the music itself is beautiful - it’s that Hozier is a musical liar.

Take Cherry Wine. This is a song about an abusive relationship, told from the perspective of someone very much in love with their abuser. Throughout the song, the narrator describes their lover’s cruelty. Lyrics like “I walk my days on a wire” and “open hand or closed fist would be fine” make the darker aspects of their relationship all too evident. At points, the song suggests that they are defending this relationship to someone else who cares about them (“it looks ugly but it’s clean. Oh mama, don’t fuss over me”) and even the more beautiful and seemingly romantic lines later in the song (“oh but she loves like sleep to the freezing”) have dark undertones (what else is sleep to the freezing but death?) Still, I often come across the song being used in a wholesome, romantic context. A lot of factors contribute to this, but I would argue that this song mainly gets mistaken for a romantic song because of how soft and gentle the music is - it presents as a sweet love song in every way except the lyrics. Even those lyrics are told through the lens of someone defending their broken and abusive relationship, deepening the lie. Our narrator wants to portray this relationship as something dark, yet also immensely beautiful and encompassing. The result is a song about the agony and pleasure of a broken relationship, disguised so well as a love song in every possible way that it gets mistaken for something romantic. (Even if you are aware of the meaning, there is still that deep urge to experience the song as something romantic. Just like the narrator, the listener is drawn in by beauty and the powerful idea of love, so much so that it can blind them to reality.)

Variations of this can be seen in Talk. In this song, the narrator makes their intentions very clear - they are sweet-talking someone in order to hide their own thoughts and desires (“I try to talk refined, for fear that you find out how I’m imagining you”). Despite knowing this, the sheer power of the lyrics (“I'd be the voice that urged Orpheus / when her body was found. / I'd be the choiceless hope in grief / that drove him underground. / I'd be the dreadful need in the devotee / that made him turn around, / and I'd be the immediate forgiveness in Eurydice”) overwhelms the listener. We know the speaker is putting on a show. We know they have ulterior motives, and likely don’t even believe what they are saying. But their words are so beautiful that we don’t care. The intense, almost mythic music in the background is so lovely and deep, it makes the lyrics seem genuine, because what lie could sound so astounding and true? In this case, the song about smoke and mirrors and empty talk becomes a love song because the narrator is just that skilled at lying.

Even songs like Too Sweet, sung by a narrator who refuses to be with someone unless they allow their standards to slide, become ‘romantic’ and ‘sweet’ to certain listeners - not because the lyrics are impenetrable, but because so many of Hozier’s narrators are unreliable. His songs spin sweet stories, lies so stunning that listeners are willing to deny what they know in order to experience the beauty of that untruth, the complexity of that space between what is real and what we want to believe.

And isn’t that more true to the experience of being a person, and loving other people, than the simple truths we often see in these types of songs?

[varilien]

pine barrens by jakey THEEE existential personhood horrors song ever.... applies to the stans uncomfortably well tbh (╥﹏╥)

Palestine: Funds | Action | eSims | Info Sudan Resources | Congo Resources | Lebanese Red Cross

[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

[emmbrr]

i decided to go back to 1/3 blonde and i’m really happy about it

[macdenlover]

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