#dozens of times

[crehador]

finished gankutsuou as my last anime of 2022 and it more than lived up to the hype, i mean HELLO??? HELLO??????

like good god my friend why don’t you fuck the count of monte cristo and maybe you’ll calm down

in all seriousness, this was a downright gorgeous series. the story never lost its grip on me (i’ve not read the novel, so i went in with zero ideas of what to expect) and i thought the art style was absolutely gorgeous, i’m just mad that real clothes don’t look like that because i now desire that aesthetic carnally

the cast was full of phenomenally interesting characters, though albert... oh, albert... you dumb bitch GOD i can’t lie, there were times when he was so incredibly frustrating that i just wanted to pick him up by the ankles and shake him upside down like there’s Dumb Twink Energy and then there’s whatever the hell albert had going on here

also franz oh my god franz my beloved honey we need to get you a better taste in men babygirl you deserved the world absolute same goes for eugenie and basically all the kids like albert’s problem was he was dumb as fuck and literally everyone else’s problem is they were unfortunately morosexual

so since i haven’t read the novel i don’t know what the actual count of monte cristo was like but this one gaslit, gatekept, and girlbossed his way through the whole story and i for one was ENCHANTED i will now accept no count of monte cristo except the biblically accurate count of monte cristo depicted here

there were times when the socialite drama just wasn’t for me, mostly earlier on in the series, but overall i was completely captivated especially in the final episodes where everything that was set up paid off

suffice it to say this one’s going to be sticking with me for a while

[theblackestofsuns]

"Dozens Of Times"

Amor Y Cohetes (2008)

Jaime Hernandez

Fantagraphics Books

[cosmic-dichotomy]

Sometimes I think I should just completely scrap the current vessels and try again

Like full scorched earth entire plot and concept gone, try and come up with a whole new one

[crustaceousfaggot]

Every time The Doctor goes "I am very old and have seen so very many things" and the person they're talking to goes "wow, we must seem so tiny and unimportant compared to that" and the Doctor goes "actually I am fascinated and a little bit in love with every single one of you" I cry a little bit

[platoapproved]

I want you to come. I want you to witness.

[quiddie]

Just had a friend show me a conversation in a fan discord about Suvi as a Black American woman in the context of the fallout from the election. And honestly? Yeah. The blueprint is simple: Black women are expected to put their own priorities and emotions on hold to show up for everyone else's battles and hold endless space for everyone's feelings while simultaneously weathering attacks on our character (oh she's so angry/aggressive/violent/rude) and authority (she's a woke hire/affirmative action quota/nepobaby) without complaint. We're expected to save the day under nigh-impossible circumstance, and with fewer resources and support that is AT BEST, conditional.

So yeah, relistening to Suvi's speech in The Witness hurts now. Because that's exactly the feeling I'm wrestling with, and what I see mirrored in the Black women around me. We are exhausted and angry and sad. Those voter percentages are a betrayal of "we" that was promised by other marginalized groups when speaking of the interconnectedness of our liberation. And the unexamined expectation that we immediately rise from the depths of our despair to prepare for the next fight is a cruelty. Suvi isn't real, but if this helps lend empathy toward actual Black women in the world, then I'm glad.

[paintedcrows]

Some Oldies in the 80s AU sketches! Grunkle Stan and Young Ford this time.

They are so funny to me. Like to me Stan is completely secure in his relationship with Older Ford. He has just spent MONTHS alone on the open ocean with the guy. Nothing this Young Ford can throw at him can compare. Ford, still a bundle of ego and grudges, has no idea how to respond. Also Bill is a menace

[generallyjl]

truly a game changer episode of all time

[mithrandirl]

Aiya Eärendil Elenion Ancalima! ↳@lotrweek day 3: the green earth in the daylight

[medusaesque]

Kim's itchy trigger finger

So, Kim reaches for his gun often. Very often. sometimes for the most ridiculous reasons- opening the bear fridge, the experiment in the church, a note from Klaasje.

This one is just from being anxious going into the communist reading group. Kim doesn't want to be the kind of cop who draws his gun constantly, who shoots instinctively, but he is, or at the very least it's very difficult for him to stop himself from becoming one.

Perhaps the most horrifying example is with The Pigs-

Even if he KNOWS the gun isn't loaded, even if he knows it's safe, the instinctual muscle twitch could have ended in an unnecessary death. Kim is very well aware of that fact, and it's horrifying to him. @shufflerock-jam has this really good post about it, where they wonder how many of Kim's kills were unnecessary. "Something about a pair of traumatized cops, one fighting against shooting himself and one fighting against shooting everyone else".

At the end of The Pigs exchange, if Harry says she tried to kill him, Kim begins to interject, but stops himself and agree this situation could've been very bad. Then Empathy chimes in- 'He's trying not to think about how bad it could have been had the gun been loaded.' Which is the heart of the issue, right? that leads us to Eyes-

This is such a fascinating background to give Kim as a character- not just losing his partner, which gives him the trauma and survivor's guilt that lead to this unhealthy relationship with his gun and frankly with death in general, but losing his Eyes, and having that not interfere with his shooting. Kim doesn't need to see well to hit, he doesn't need to think. It's all in his hands, a reflex. A reflex that nearly took an innocent life. That might have taken one before.

His awareness of looming danger, to him and to his partner, is fueling his version of Hand/Eye Coordination to have him constantly on edge, his whole body is like a loaded spring, always prepared to make sure it doesn't happen again. Then it does-

In his nightmare scenario, leaning over his partner's bleeding body, Kim only needs one word to shoot without a second's hesitation. He's never not ready to take that shot. He doesn't need his Eyes.

Harry is distraught to discover he's killed before- his body remembers it. He wants a drink to soften the feeling. Kim however is impressed with how little he's killed- especially coming from the bloody murder unit. He wants to be 'one of the good ones' (Kim's adamant belief in the possibility of a Good Cop is a whole other can of worms) the kind of cop he would think highly of. Kim is disgusted by cops who kill like it's a game. Espirit gives us a vision of a cop exactly like that, who kills so often it doesn't feel like anything anymore. In a way that is completely mechanical- no thought, no feelings, just a thing your body does. Not unlike the way Kim shoots- like a spring unloaded. Kim has 6 confirmed kills before the tribunal, double the amount Harry has. He doesn't react the same way though-

It's doesn't bother Kim that he has killed, even if he declines to elaborate on it, and he seems to frown upon (or worry about) Harry's destructive coping mechanism. If they're unable to save Ruby, he says "Control your emotions. We did our job. This won't be the worst thing that happens on this case… believe me. You can't let this break you." When you wake up after the tribunal, he doesn't dwell on the lost lives on either side. Harry's skills call him a killer, a bloodstained killer, but when he tells Kim he also killed he simply nods. He's smoking though. I'm not saying that Kim is heartless or careless, he's rattled by nearly blowing The Pigs' head off, very sorry for the lives lost during the case, and clearly hunted by death, having been surrounded by it for his entire life. But I do think death is a part of the job for him- not just possible civilian causalities, but his own potential death. He speaks plainly about how he might die in the lie of duty, and he narrowly avoided it more than once, with others dying in his place..

He walked into the line of fire with harry expecting for of them to die, and his quick fingers on the trigger made it so they lived another day. Even if more ghost joined the list that hunts him in his sleep, he is alive. He goes on. He can't afford to fix this habit, as much as he wants to.

So it's so horrible and so touching that when Dros asks "What have you done?" Kim says-

It's a tragedy, really. A wartime orphan who wanted to be a revolutionary pilot and played with Franconigerian knights, who grew up to be a cop, a job that slowly shapes his body into a killing machine. And when you ask what he does, what you both do, he says keep people alive.

[birdy-babe]

Are we going to talk about how they used the L word

How Blitzo acknowledges that Stolas LOVED him and Stolas doesn’t correct it.

I don’t remember Stolas mentioning love in The Full Moon

They just both know this is a matter of love and they wont deny it

[harbingersecho]

evil peepaw serving absolute cunt with his fur collar leather coat and fingerless gloves

[xjade-lotusx]

Edwin be like: "I know my man will hand me whatever I want." And sits there with his palm out, so expectantly.

Edwin also be like: "I know my man will be there to take whatever I hand him." And thrusts whatever he is holding in the vague direction of Charles.

[arsenicflame]

Bonus round! Do you use a queue tag?

[rad-roche]

Rebelle keeps undos in the timelapses it generates so you can see me problem solve as I hash out a process, mistakes and all

[seancefemme]

would you tell me if you want me, cause I can’t move until you show me