#do I need to say this is self-indulgent or is it inferred lol

[dunsparceappreciator]

English translation under the cut teehee

[logicalbookthief]

What do you think will happen with dabi and endeavor? We already know shoto endgame but I’m curious what will go on between “father/creator” and “son/creation”

Tbh? I can’t say for sure. My hope is that it doesn’t end with Dabi dying. I’ve read a lot of good metas that point out that Dabi is the shadow to Endeavor and you don’t kill your shadow, you have to reconcile with it or something along those lines -- if you intend to complete your character arc, rather than stagnate or regress which is why Hawks can’t come back after killing Twice imo.

Personally, I would prefer that to complete his arc Endeavor dies by way of sacrifice. While I don’t disagree with people who say that would be letting him off too easy, I don’t trust the manga not to give him a happy life with his family should he live, and I find that harder to stomach than if he gets a somewhat “noble” death that is still narratively satisfying.

However, this would only work if he dies to protect Touya in a way that doesn’t help to defeat the endgame villain or contribute to the greater good. Actually, it would be even better if his sacrifice impedes the heroes. A sacrifice like that would show he loves his son and wants him to live no matter what, a parallel to how he couldn’t give a shit when he was a child and let him die. But I don’t think we can get anywhere near a point like that unless a few things happen first.

To expand on that, I want to mention I love how anon referred to Endeavor and Dabi as  “father/creator” and “son/creation” because I, like many others, see the numerous parallels between Dabi’s story and Frankenstein.

Contrary to what pop culture might lead you to believe, Mary Shelley’s story is about parenthood. Before I read the novel, I had thought it was a cautionary tale of man acting as god, because that’s usually how it gets depicted in media. But it’s not that at all! Rather, the core theme of the story is that if you create life, you have a responsibility to care for it now that you have brought it into the world.

Victor Frankenstein and Endeavor are alike in that the life they create fails to meet the expectations they had and so they abandon it completely. Rejected by its creator and hated by society, the Creature becomes the monster it is treated as. Sound familiar?

At the end of Frankenstein, Victor loses everyone and everything he holds dear to the Creature, who vowed revenge upon his creator for his negligence and lack of compassion. Victor spends the remainder of his days chasing the Creature, hunting him to the ends of the earth, until at last he dies. Rather than be overjoyed or vindicated, the Creature weeps over Victor’s body and states that now he can die, too. It is a tragedy, because in spite of the toxicity of the relationship, they were left with only each other.

And if it was up to Dabi, that’s what the endgame would be for him and Endeavor. What else can we infer from the line, “Come dance with your son in hell!” He intends to destroy his father and destroy himself in the process. However, there’s a crucial way in which the manga and Frankenstein differ that proves this will not be the case.

After he’s abandoned by his creator, the Creature makes an attempt to reach out and connect to others, only to be spurned every single time. He realizes that he will never be accepted, so the Creature confronts Victor and gives him an ultimatum: if Victor creates a companion as  monstrous as him so he will not be alone, he will leave Victor in peace and never hurt another person again. It is where we get this quote, which I love, and I think it fits Dabi rather nicely:

“I do know that for the sympathy of one living being, I would make peace with all. I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”

At first Victor agrees to these terms, only to go back on his word, which is what dooms them both to loneliness and ruin. Because for the Creature, that was his one chance of finding another being who could understand and thus form a connection with him. And what did we see Touya trying and failing to do in these flashbacks?

Find someone who will understand and validate these feelings he has. And validate his very existence.

I know Shouto is set up as his main foil and will undoubtedly be the one to save his brother, so this may be an Unpopular Opinion, but... I don’t believe that can happen unless Touya connects with the League of Villains first.

What the end of Ch 302 did for me is confirm that while they have reckoned with the past and what happened to Touya, the Todorokis (except for maybe Natsuo, specifically Natsuo in the Spanish translation lol, courtesy of @redphlox) have yet to understand what Touya needs. What he needed from them all along as a child.

They resign themselves to fighting Touya, and well, yeah; this is a shounen manga. But Touya wants to fight Endeavor and Shouto. He engineered his entire identity as a villain as someone who his father and his father’s masterpiece will have to fight. He doesn’t care who wins or loses because he doesn’t intend to survive. He intends to burn.

The revelation that “Dabi is me” was monumental progress for Shouto, yet while he can relate to his brother as one of Endeavor’s projects, he was never a rejection or a failure. Never the bad child or the scapegoat or the monster. He was always a hero and told he could be a hero, which is solidified by Rei’s words in the latest chapter.

Touya does need to be saved by the heroes in the end, but as it is, he’s not at a place where a confrontation with his family would lead to anything except more self-destruction. They’re dealing with him as a villain, they aren’t going to be in a position to give him the praise and affirmation he craved as a child.

But you know who could? The League of Villains. They understand what it’s like to be scapegoated by their families and vilified by society, while those who hurt them are excused and unpunished. They can see the strength in Touya that allowed him to survive this long without help, because they also were forced to become strong and even monstrous in order to survive.

If Shouto or Endeavor try to reach out to Touya as he is now, he can dismiss it as them doing it out of a “hero’s sense of duty” rather than doing it out of genuine compassion or love for Touya. Because if Touya as an innocent child was not loved or worthy of this compassion, how in the world is he supposed to believe that Dabi is?

Which is why he needs to be saved by the League first. They care for Touya not in spite of his heinous acts. They don’t give a shit! He’s a friend, that’s all the reason they need. They don’t have to be righteous or have a moral obligation to want him to live -- they’re selfish, they protect what they love and destroy what they hate. And they would have no qualms with laying the blame on Endeavor for what he’s done. 

Dabi spent his childhood without unconditional love, and then crafted his persona as a villain around this very idea, that he is the outcast, the monster, someone only capable of destroying. He acts like he’s alone, but the truth is, he does have people who can understand. Companions as “monstrous” as he is. 

To realize he can be loved as he is, through his ties to the LoV, it paves the way for him to believe he could be loved enough by his family that they still want to save him. It would definitely make him more receptive to Shouto and less self-destructive around his father.

Anyway, I hope this answers anon’s question, despite the digression into Frankenstein parallels and the League of Villains lol.

[atemusluckygal-fanfiction]

Hey! I just wanted to say that I've been a fan of your work for YEARS. I'm normally a puzzleshipper, but you've managed to get me into Revolutionshipping, as well :) My question is how do you manage to keep Yami so in-character. I watch the dub mostly, and no matter how much I practice, my Yami just seems...off. Yours is perfect! Any advice? (Sorry if this is all jumbled---I'm typing this on my lunch, so I'm not really proofreading) :) anyway, thanks for being fantastic! -Caterina

Hi @enchanteddreamer614! Thanks so much for your kind words! I’m glad to know that I helped you broaden your horizons a bit :-) That’s the lovely thing about fiction, there’s a lot to interpret, and it’s fun to learn of different perspectives of the same work.

To answer your question, I think in general it’s very hard to keep an existing character believable in an original piece–because you have to reeeaaally understand him/her, to the point where you’re able to replicate their personality/mannerisms with an original idea and script. The thing is, you’re required to replicate traits you don’t have, or even like. Personality-wise, Yami Yugi and I are very different people, and honestly I’m not even sure we’d get along lol. So it took a lot of practice for me to depict him the way I do now.

My personal depiction of Yami Yugi has changed a lot over the years, and that mostly has to do with my own maturity. He was always my top anime crush, mostly thanks to Dan Green’s voice, and the idea of confidence and self-respect he represents. When I was younger and newer to the fan fiction world, my intentions were mostly indulgent and self-serving, and my works felt more like an ode of admiration for him through Tea as an avatar than a compelling story. They reflected what I wanted to happen, which was often at odds with reality. And that can rob the readers of a willing suspension of disbelief. I eventually learned to accept who he is, for all his strengths and weaknesses and quirks, and focused on representing him as close as possible to canon–and that’s when I started to sound less like a fangirl and more like an author.

The manga and Japanese anime have a lot of clues from which you can infer information about his nature and what influences his thoughts and actions, that aren’t present in the American dub (which might be part of why you feel that your portrayal of Yami feels limited). The dub didn’t do a great job of showing the full palette of his character, so you have to operate on mostly conjecture, especially depending on how mature a theme you’re working with. If you study the canon material enough, you’ll be able to understand his psyche a little more just by paying close attention to how he responds to each scenario he is dealt, and how he treats each person he interacts with. Then, you’d see how much he develops as a character, when you observe how he deals with the same type of scenario in a different, usually more matured way. Going on tvtropes.org helps me break down his character from a writer’s/producer’s point of view. Reading different character studies on him helps me a lot, too, as there were a lot of things I missed and didn’t consider. I’m actually thinking of doing a few character studies of my own at some point.

Yami Yugi in particular is tricky, and I believe the secret sauce is showing restraint.

Though he is a strong and confident duelist, he is also extremely introverted and broody, and it’s difficult to capture that well–all you want to do is grab him by the arm and pull him into a silly situation! When you are personally fond of a character like him, his reserved nature almost feels like a bit of a tease… and that frustration is real. Off the battlefield, he’s a man of few words and is not the type to go out of his way to be sociable, and that’s a hard trait to stretch for re-characterization. It’s common for writers to portray him as a social butterfly or some sort of suave Casanova ladies-man type, just because his (American) voice and confidence on the battlefield would suit it (again, I was guilty of this too). Unfortunately, while his voice/confidence might fit, his personality does not. His various moments with Tea/Anzu with vague romantic implication, as shown in all continuities, are all the information you need to paint a more accurate picture. My banner picture on my page is my favorite example of this XD

Okay, so this is getting long… sorry!

Basically, it boils down to what purpose you’re trying to serve. Some writers produce fiction to indulge themselves and others similar, some write crack fics because they’re goofy and fun (and intentionally OOC because crack), some write to simply continue canon material with similar themes and depth, others write to explore uncharted territory… and then there’s smut. ‘Nuff said.

This all said, there are many, many ways to interpret the same character, and there’s never only one correct answer. There’s a lot of room for debate and differing opinions. If you want, I’d be happy to read a story of yours that you’re concerned about and offer my two cents. Just keep in mind that my opinions on him are technically no more legitimate than anyone else’s, so it’s possible you may not agree with what I have to say. My speculation is still just fan speculation, but I do try to always back up any artistic decisions I’ve made in his portrayal with evidence from canon.

Anyway, I hope that answers your question. Thanks for asking!

xo ALG

[gethealthy18-blog]

How I Meal Prep Intuitively

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/uncategorized/how-i-meal-prep-intuitively/

How I Meal Prep Intuitively

If you asked me 7 years ago what I thought of meal prep I would have told you it was essential. And at the point in my life, it was. I was rigid and inflexible with food. Food was something meant to be controlled, not enjoyed. Food was both a source of my anxiety and also my means of dealing with anxiety. My Sunday meal prep sessions were long, exhausting and in my mind, the key to health and wellness.

And then for lack of a better word: I woke the f*ck up. Many of you have followed my journey from disordered eating to intuitive eating, the process of which has been long and winding and always evolving. A few years ago I wouldn’t have been caught dead writing a blog post about meal prep. After years of restriction and control the pendulum swung in the opposite direction and I was vehemently against meal prep. I felt like all the services and blog posts out there writing and sharing tips and lists for meal prepping were perpetuating disordered eating and not allowing individuals to customize their food choices to their personal needs and the whims of life. And on some level I still feel this way. Unless you have a serious health concern and are working one-on-one with a nutrition professional, you really should not be following anyone else’s food or nutrition plan. Can you take inspiration for meal ideas? Absolutely. But just because Sally Sue insists on steaming her veggies on Sunday and pre-cooking her chicken doesn’t mean you have to. Which brings me to an important conversation topic…intuitive eating.

What is Intuitive Eating?

I’m going to briefly summarize this but basically the term “Intuitive Eating” was introduced by Elyse Resch and Evelyn Tribole in their groundbreaking book by the same title in 1995. Though the concept is simple, it was very new for the time, discussing the principles of getting back to a healthy body image and living with food freedom. As diet culture continued to grow it emphasized the idea that only WE can decide how we eat, why we eat and letting go of food rules our culture has thrust upon us.

In the past few years I’ve watched this term get reworked in a way that it was never intended. The whole point of Intuitive Eating is that it’s not a diet. It understands that our food choices change based on the flow of our lives. While I certainly identify as an “intuitive eater”, I would never tell people I follow an intuitive eating diet. For me, intuitive eating means enjoying food and making choices that feel good for me. Absolutely nothing is off limits (except buckwheat and peas cause I hate them!) but I also don’t eat a plate of cookies for dinner or popcorn for breakfast. Could I? Totally. And in some ways I think this permission has empowered me with choice rather than a reaction to rules, but I don’t because I just wouldn’t feel great if I did.

So how does this all connect to meal prep? Up until this past year I didn’t think meal prep could work in conjunction with intuitive eating. I associated meal prep with rules and that strips away all of the joy of food for me. But recently my mind has changed. I found myself kind of scatterbrained and overwhelmed when it came to meal time. I also found myself eating out a lot because I put in ZERO planning when it came to food. I realized that I needed a bit more structure around my meals and that some forethought was not the worst thing in the world.

For the past year I’ve experimented with flexible meal planning and prepping and have found that I’ve been able to make intuitive meal prep work for me. I’m not slaving away in the kitchen trying to prep all my food for the week, and I’m also not running around my kitchen trying to figure out a meal when I’m already starving. So I thought I’d share some of my best intuitive meal prep tips with you.

My Best Tips for Intuitive Meal Prep

1. Know your Why

I truly believe in the power of intention. If your goal is to meal prep because you want full control of your food and want to make sure everything is 100% healthy, this is a very rigid approach to food. While I’m all for making healthy choices, it needs to come from a place of feeling good, not from a place of fear or self-hatred (which I see a lot). I want to share a few approaches to meal prep that I believe can lead to a sustainable habit:

Money – if you’re on a budget or saving, meal prep can save you a lot of money rather than eating out all the time

Easing stress – we all have busy lives with a lot of stress. If meal times are causing you extra anxiety, a little planning can’t hurt

Fun – One of the best parts of meal planning and prepping is finding inspiration and playing around with different cooking styles. Doing a little prep work can actually make meal time fun and dare I say, enjoyable!

Meal prep is not something that should happen if you don’t trust yourself at meal times. I used to be terrified that if I didn’t have healthy food on hand I would fall into a bit of indulgent eating. The funny thing is, I only did because I had so many rules around food. I eat cookies and pizza and pasta and foods that bring me joy because I can, not because I can’t and my lack of rules around food means that more often than not I actually enjoy salads and soups and healthier brownies. I trust myself around food. If you don’t, please take some time away from meal prepping to reestablish healthier boundaries.

2. Find Inspiration

One of the biggest pieces of meal planning is finding inspiration for what to cook. My best tip: make this fun but not overcomplicated. Keep a list of recipes you love from blogs, cookbooks and friends. I keep a running list on my computer so when I start planning my grocery shop I can decide what meals I want to make. From there I’ll go through ingredients to see what I need to buy and what I already have.

If you’re lacking inspiration check out Pinterest or ask friends for some of their favorite recipes. Or dare I say, check out the THM archives!

3. Plan a flexible schedule

I always look at my schedule for the week ahead and see where I have plans and likely won’t be able to cook for meal time. These are my priorities. After saying no to so many social engagements because of my fear and rigidity around food, I will never say no to something because I want to stay home and cook. That being said, I’m usually at home at least 5 nights a week, not to mention breakfasts and lunches.

I generally estimate I’ll need at least 4-5 dinner recipes, 6 breakfasts and 5 lunches. Most lunches are leftovers from dinner the night before (if C doesn’t eat all of them!) and breakfast is really a cravings thing for me but I try to have ingredients for 1 sweet (i.e. a smoothie) and 1 savory breakfast option (i.e. avocado toast). Most dinners I turn to my inspiration list. I also aim for 1-2 snack recipes if we don’t have packaged stuff on hand.

So to recap, I’ll plan:

5 dinner recipes (usually doubled for lunch leftovers)

2 breakfast recipes

1-2 snacks

This will change week to week depending on my schedule. If I have more social engagements, am travelling etc…it may look different. Flexibility is KEY.

5. Prep food that won’t go bad

One of the biggest realizations I had after my come to jesus meal prepping moment (lol) was that I’d often say no to plans because I already had food prepped that I didn’t want to go bad. I believe there are a multitude of reasons to say no to plans (I have big-time JOMO so this has never been an issue for me) but saying no because you already have sweet potatoes roasted is not a good excuse. The thing I’ve learned about intuitive meal prep is that the planning piece is more important than the prepping piece. I no longer spend my Sundays trying to precook all my food. Here’s what it looks like instead:

Start with a list of meals you know you’ll be home for (yes this can change but estimate)

Get inspiration for these meals

Make your grocery list (I order what I can from Imperfect Foods and fill out the rest with a grocery shop)

Precook or make things that will LAST – usually this means most of my snacks which won’t go bad after a couple of days

I don’t pre chop my veggies or precook proteins. Doing this infers I don’t have trust in my body that I will make choices intuitively based on how I’m feeling and/or prevents me from being flexible with my schedule if plans change.

*I understand that people have kids and families or unpredictable work schedules. My recommendation for this would be to make meals that you can freeze. That way your food won’t go bad and meal times don’t have to be stressful.

6. Assess how it’s working

Don’t take your meal prep as a given or write it off as impossible. Our lives and priorities are ever changing. I’ve been a rigid meal prepper and a vehement anti meal prep evangelist. Finding intuitive meal prep has been a journey for me and one that will change throughout my lifetime. If you’ve been meal prepping for years and find yourself burnt-out, uninspired and/or inflexible, maybe it’s time for a break. If you love flexibility and fun with food but find meal time overwhelming and stressful, play around with a little bit of planning.

And as always, come back to your why. Intention is everything when it comes to our choices to make sure you’re still connecting with yours.

As always, open to hearing your suggestions or anything I missed. Feel free to drop your best intuitive meal prep tips below.

Like this post? Here are some other healthy living posts you might enjoy:

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