#anyway I love him a lot

[shannonsketches]

Something I really, really love about super's manga and what I think is so appealing about Vegeta's character arc in general is that it's, in my opinion, good, earnest restorative justice in fiction.

Vegeta has no say in how he's raised, he's conditioned to have a certain mindset and worldview that he has to put in the work to pull himself out of. It's messy. It's ugly. He relapses. He faces it. He works on it. He learns that death and justice aren't the same thing, even when it comes to himself. He grows.

But his backstory never serves to excuse his horrific actions or his shitty behavior. Not by Vegeta himself, and not by the narrative. (At least not in the manga.)

It's never used as a sob story excuse about why he's allowed to be like this. It's never used to explain away why he's a bad person or imply that everyone needs to be nice to him. It's never, as my friend puts the trope, 'Aw, poor little war criminal.' There are people who forgive him and there are people who don't. Obviously the forgiveness of his immediate community affects him in a positive way, but the lack of forgiveness from people he's harmed also affects him in a positive way, and the narrative slowly rewards him because he's making the decision to do and be better, regardless of whether or not anybody claps (in fact, there's a whole bit in BotG that he does not like it when people call attention to and quite literally clap for his decision to do and be better).

He gets an arc about how that has no bearing on his decision to do better. He asks, point-blank, if someone is still angry with him for a horrible thing that harmed them. He's given an honest answer. Rejection doesn't change his determination to help the people who are left to save, not even for a moment. He accepts that it's permanent damage, keeps helping, and does not bring it up again.

The narrative tells us it's no one's responsibility to forgive him, and more importantly the narrative tells us he knows that, and knows that it's entirely his responsibility to keep trying to do better for the people who are still here.

He gets a minor plot bringing attention to the fact that he bears the weight of his father's legacy, and while he gets to deny that his fathers decisions were not his responsibility -- he gets a follow up plot that addresses that he was (and was wholly intending to be) just as bad, if not worse, given a seat of power.

He gets that whole arc to explore how there's nothing he can do to change his past. He is not responsible for the sins of others, but the burden of his past is something he has to take with him into his future, and that guilt is not entirely a bad thing. The guilt is something he chooses to embrace. It gives him empathy he didn't have before. It gives him awareness of himself and his power from the new perspective of self-imposed kindness, and allows him to help someone much like himself be less alone and navigate the anger without making the same isolating mistakes.

(Toriyama's version of) The story starts rewarding him (in terms of his stated, consistent goals) when he starts actively, knowingly, and willingly pursuing kindness toward others on his own, and it becomes his natural response. He's never going to be a sweetheart like Gohan, or the Fun Opponent like Goku, but slowly he becomes the best version of himself, while still very much being Himself. And it's only after his goals are completely freed of malice and insecurity that he's able to meet them.

I just think that's a neat moral and a really well-done way to write restorative justice.

[hinamie]

subject, specimen, spectacle;

should i say that you're dead?

[thecosmicsleep]

the way my main pawn has separation anxiety

[lotus-pear]

charm stat at debonair ‼️‼️

[egophiliac]

buckle up lads we're going BACK INTO THE BOOK

[teddybeartoji]

you kiss the back of toji's hand one day very casually before intertwining your fingers with his and the man just kind of shuts down . bc what the hell did you just do????? kissed his hand?? you kissed his hand????? that's.. what?????? isn't he supposed to be kissing yours?????? and the fact that you're now just acting like nothing happened has him staring at you with widened eyes and slightly furrowed brows. you turn back to check on him because you realize that he's not following you anymore and just laugh lightheartedly when you see the faint blush on his cheeks and his burning ears. brining his hand to your mouth again, you press another kiss to his knuckles with a teasing smile glued to your lips and that makes him snap out of his daze. he tries to brush you off with a quiet click of his tongue but you know he liked it. you know he loved it.

[jinaxxo]

to whom do i surrender my heart?

[suja-janee]

I’ve been losing my mind over these guys recently

[reekiiroo]

symbrock doodles ! !

accidentally made a lineart brush that’s really fun to draw with lmao

[fellhellion]

mija

thank u @theoldkyokodied for this commission i love it so much <3

[heartorbit]

figure skating set right now please. thanks

[hinamie]

spiraling

[homosexualslug]

realized that both the beginning and the end of the happy paris stage of Loumand's relationship has this same contrasting orange to blue/green color scheme. and like. the visual metaphor of Armand literally leaving his cold, lifeless world behind him and choosing the bright, golden warmth of life with Louis instead of killing him like he was supposed to in that tunnel. but as soon as he chooses the coven over Louis, he separates from the warmth like oil in water that was never supposed to be there. and now he's back out in the cold. I'm normal about this, btw.

[technically-human]

Hey, don't cry. Ghost yuri, okay?

(Now that you know the girls, they need to meet the boys!)

[disappearedsock]

yeah so uh. those paintings sure were Something.

[ducktracy]

there are a lot of evil people in the world and a lot of darkness in the world and so it’s very important for me to stress that now more than ever is the time to spread kindness and compassion. combat the evil by not only not partaking in it, but actively refuting it. destroy the notion that being compassionate or generous or kind to someone is uncool or embarrassing or even scary. be the change you want to see. start a chain reaction. positivity only breeds more positivity. do an act of kindness for someone so that that person who is too afraid to do it themselves can see you, realize that they’re not alone, and perhaps sheepishly follow your example. and then the next person who is too afraid but sees that person can do the same. when bad news comes out about bad people or horrible atrocities in the world it’s such an easy impulse to despair, and obviously it’s important to feel what you need to feel. grieve. be angry. be sorrowful. be empathetic. but dust off your pants and get up and be a part of a chain reaction that, no matter how small the scale, and spread compassion and love and care. all the reasons why you might not—“it’s hard! it’s scary! people will make fun of me! it’s useless because there’s too much evil!” are all grade A arguments as to why you should. you have no idea how many people you could inspire to do the same. even if it doesn’t get you anyway far, you can at least say you have the nobility of trying. please choose love and please choose life. you are worth loving and you are worth inspiring others to love