#even though that was an aspiration more related to moving out of the situation he was in at that point in time

[spiders-in-the-valley]

i keep seeing people talk about how you marrying the bachelors is 'ruining their dreams' or whatever when a) not even true for all of the bachelors and b) it's implied by the game mechanics that each of the bachelors would be happy in the company of the farm and would like having kids*

*albeit some may be overwhelmed by having two of them, but even in these cases all were happier having at least one

[hauntsnhoes]

'Your Monster' made me remember I love romance [spoilers]

I knew NOTHING about this movie going in. All I'd seen was the clip of her first seeing the monster and him saying 'what's up?'

Just in case ya'll don't know the plot: a young aspiring actress, Laura, gets diagnosed with cancer. Her boyfriend, Jacob, leaves her because he 'can't handle the stress'. The two worked together to write a musical that was meant to be a star vehicle for Laura and is still going on without her in it. When Laura is brought home from surgery by her best friend, she mournes the loss of her health and her relationship. She hears noises coming from her closet and discovers there's a monster living with her. He tells her that the house is his and that she has 2 weeks to move out. But the two wind up bonding.

Of all the monsterf*cker movies I've ever seen, I think Laura is the most relatable protag. for me, personally. She's a latin theatre nerd with a thing for monster men. I have defo been in the spot where I was so woefully depressed I craved hugs from random strangers like the Amazon delivery guy in that early montage scene.

Then ofc there's Monster. (That's his name, just 'Monster'.) I'll be honest, I wasn't too impressed with how he looked AT FIRST. But as I learned through consuming a lot of monster media, it's bad to judge on the appearance of a monster before getting swept away by the characters personality. Which Monster is positively brimming with. He's like if you took Ryan Reynolds characters (any of them) personality and mixed them with Jack Black's. (Not any of Blacks' characters. Just his own real personality.) Winning combo! The look gives me Beauty and the Beast live action tv show vibes. I grew to love his long thick hair and beard. I found myself wanting to cuddle and love on him, rubbing my body all over him like a cat. He's SO sweet. Even though he was a tad obnoxious at first. Unplugging the vacuum cleaner while Laura was using it and then running away. A scene that killed me with laughter was when she was talking to him and we cut to a shot where we see him laying on the ground, while sticking out from under the bed. Like a casual bunk bed situation. And the scene when he goes under the bed while she's lying in it and she smiles when she knows he's there killed me with love.

The whole movie, I couldn't for the life of me understand why she kept crawling back to Jacob. Especially when she had Monster at home to take care of her. BTW Laura and Monster DO wind up having sex and I GREATLY approve of the way the scene was done. It was better than the monster sex scene in Shape of Water. Not that there's anything wrong with artsy sex. But sometimes we just like to see a grittier, more real version of it. But I think the reason why she keeps trying to get back with Jacob is because she's still in love with him and ofc spoiler reasons. I'll circle back around to that later.

If I may nitpick, I feel like the part when she's telling him off in front of everyone at rehearsals could've been done better. She called him out for not wanting to do the laundry. I thought the real 'gotcha' she had against him was that Jacob broke up with her at the hospital where she was undergoing cancer treatment, literally because of her illness. But, I suppose it's possible that she didn't want the others to know she had cancer.

Laura has sex with Jacob after this scene. After they bone, Jacob fires her from the musical. Laura goes back home, looking for Monster. At first she can't find him. I was like 'oh no! Monster followed her and saw what she did with Jacob!' But no, he was only in his weird little studio apartment behind her closet. She actually told him what happened, which I was surprised about. He gets mad and she pushes him away. She shuts the closet door on him, and he begs her not to shut him out again. (A reference to a flashback of whens he was younger and he saved her from a boy.) Then he says 'fine, I'm gone,' and when she opens the door again, Monster and his apartment had both vanished. I felt so awful for her. I'd want to disappear forever, myself if I lost a sexy, sweet Monster like him.

The girl who replaced Laura for the lead role in the musical and Laura decide to have Laura play the lead role instead on opening night. She gets through all of act 1 and Jacob gets Laura backstage alone during intermission. He tells her that she's ruining everything. She tells him to watch what he says to her or she'll rip his throat out. Then act 2 of the musical begins and we slowly see that she's covered in blood and Jacob lies dead and bloodied on the stage floor near her. We see a montage of Monster coming to Laura's rescue and mauling Jacob for her. The lovers kiss and Monster says that she'll never be without him because he's her monster. Cue me happy crying like a sap in a movie theatre where I'm the only watcher present. As Laura finishes the number, her eyes go steely and demonic at the very last moment of the film before the credits role, implying that Monster only ever existed in her head.

Now, there's nothing wrong with this ending at all. As a matter of fact, it's a commentary about how women are expected to stay quiet and polite about the mistreatment we get and Monster is a manifestation of her feminine rage. An alternative title for the movie could be 'Your Anger'. I approve of that kind of message and story telling. But, in my heart, I still want to believe there was a big sexy monster looking after Laura all her life who was there to guide her, befriend her, protect her, love her. Yet another thing I find relatable about Laura is that she doesn't seem to have any family to take care of her. That and she's just been through so much shit. Of which we know of. Given her family's very lax reaction to their daughter getting cancer, there might be even more.... When you've been through a lot of shit, it's hard keeping friends because you have so much misplaced rage boiling inside of you and odd things make it come out sometimes. I would've written it so that the strong, silent, emotional, lonely protag. actually has *someone*. The kind of ending the movie has makes me feel like they're painting us monsterf*ckers as crazy people. ....Well almost. They absolutely made Monster sexy on purpose. If I may nitpick again; I feel like they should've added more shots of Monster himself, from Laura's pov. Even if he really is just a figment of her imagination.

The entire experience of getting to see this on the big screen was breathtaking. As I sat there alone in the theatre I couldn't help but wonder if this is how normal women felt when they go out to see your average rom com. It later dawned on me that I'd never gone out to see a rom com in a movie theatre in my LIFE, before this. A few days after seeing this movie, I remembered that I used to LOVE romance as a youngling. Not just the shmexi wexi good stuff we all love about monsterf*cking but real honest to goodness romance. It got me thinking about when I stopped enjoying it so much. Without giving you my whole life story; it was around the time life crushed my hopes and dreams. As it does to most of us growing up. Bottom line: this movie is SO good, it wound up helping me remember a part of myself that I'd pushed to the back of the shelf and that is an amazing accomplishment. Bless everyone who worked on it. It deserves WAY more praise and attention then it's getting.

Happy Halloween, ya'll!

(Tomorrow, I review Venom 3! 🖤)

[cadybear420]

What does Aiden like about your Evie the most? ☺️

Her free-thinking attitude. Evie is a proud GNC woman, passionate about her sports, outspoken against dickheads, and a confident leader. He aspires to be more like that. There's also some relatability between them as Evie could see a lot of herself in Aiden– she too had been and still sometimes is fairly unsure of herself in quite a few aspects, and she also shares a degree of dedication and passion. But upon moving to Berry High, Evie had soon decided to push herself to be the kind of person she wants to be, and knowing that sort of inspires him to do the same. He becomes more confident himself and more open to stepping outside of his comfort zone, one notable one being his eventual interest in trying more GNC clothing styles like crop tops and short shorts.

Her care for him. The way Evie is so willing to give time of day to him and his music. The way Evie loves to hear him talk about his music and compositions, even though she's not a musician at all. The way she gets inspired by his own passion and dedication just as he's inspired by her confidence. The way she always wants to be there for him when he's going through a rough time, and how she understands him due to having been in similar situations herself. The way she's so fiercely protective of him and makes him feel safe, and how she's always got his back. The way she swoons over his appearance and his best features (which is a whole other list on its own), and how her eyes light up just about every time she sees him. The way she loves to spoil him like he's her precious princess and praise the absolute shit out of him. The way she sweeps him off his feet– both metaphorically and literally.

Their semi-shared interests. Evie can't play an instrument for shit let alone compose a song, and a lot of the musical terminology is mostly just pure jargon nonsense to her. But! She's quite the enthusiast for good songs and soundtracks. She excitedly raves to him about her favorite soundtracks from movies, video games, TV shows, etc. Often she'll even recommend a show or movie to him partly on the basis of it having a bomb-ass soundtrack, and almost 100% of the time he will enjoy it and they'll rave about best parts of the soundtrack together.

Her appearance. He finds every part of her gorgeous. But his favorites? As per canon, he's most fond of her nose because it makes him think of how close she is to him. But what he's most attracted to is definitely her abs and especially her biceps. Being a musician, he does have a bit of a fascination with dexterity of the arms and hands. Although it generally isn't music related, just about anything Evie does that involves arm strength and/or making her biceps flex will make his knees go weak. Especially if it involves him, eg. lifting him up and carrying him, hugging him in a protective embrace, pulling him into her lap, etc.

There's probably more but I think this covers all the bases

[characterclassificationsystem]

Updates and Introductions

Hey guys! We’ve posted our final class to the blog and are now moving onto bigger and brighter things. We’re going to utilize all the information we’ve posted to upload analyses classifying characters in media, and why we believe they fit the criteria of a certain class!

When we post these, feel absolutely free to disagree with us on our verdicts! Just be prepared to provide your reasoning, we’ll be sure to ask. If after mutual consultation and review we agree with your claims, we will add an addendum to the post clarifying our new view. Contrarily, if you’d like to provide further evidence / participate in the discussion for why the classification fits, once again, feel free! Also be sure to recommend some characters you would like us to analyze! We’re always looking for fun and interesting characters to break down and theorize about.

Our post schedule will be changing, too. It would be a near-impossible feat to get an analysis up every single day, so while our team remains this size we will bring down the posts to twice a week (Mondays and Fridays at 12pm EST)! Our first analysis will go up on the following Monday.

Now finally, for a little insight to the people behind this system! Currently, we are a team of two, but we’re always looking to expand our partnership to make a brighter future for CCS. Here are mini-profiles of how we would classify ourselves to shed some light on our personalities.

Apollo (he/him 🏳️‍⚧️)

Yellow-Dominant Courier

Adaptable. I’d say I’m a solid 5/10 in terms of adaptability. There’s a fifty-fifty chance when I go into a situation that I’ll be able to really thrive or straight up book it out of there. No in between. 

Eccentric. My colleague says this should be higher but I disagree, I’m going with a 6/10 since I certainly have my moments but I’d die if I had to be “on” all the time. 

Encouraging. While I like being the one who pushes someone to be their best self, I also don’t like the idea of asking others to perform above realistic capabilities so… 6/10.

Idealistic. This is definitely one of my higher ones. I live for the light at the end of the tunnel, the reason to keep moving forward. Easy 8/10.

Passionate. At my best I am quite a passionate individual, but like eccentricity it cannot be my every waking minute. I’d rank this slightly higher though, so I’ll settle on a 7/10.

Philosophical. Let’s philosophize right here, right now, I am so ready! Let’s get into the weeds, asking the big questions about whether God or anything for that matter is even real. I love understanding the underlying reasons and motivations behind why people do the things that they do, and more than anything I want to nail down what we’re really here to do. Self proclaimed but well deserved 10/10.

Related Characteristics:

Ambitious (from Captain).

Creative (from Artist).

Inquisitive (from Inventor).

Introspective (from Merchant). 

Ash (he/him)

Green-Dominant Athlete

Bold. Perfect 10/10. If you wanna challenge it, come and face me. However, on a more realistic note, I like to take a lot of risks and jump into scenarios where other people may hesitate. It’s an ideal trait I’ve seen in many forms of media, and I aspire to use said boldness to help others to the best of my ability.

Capable. My ability to manage the situation and take control is something that has been forged into my very body from when I was young. I am the blade that will not quit in a fight. 8/10.

Disciplined. Apparently my colleague thinks I should rate this higher than I think I deserve. I'm lazy but I do follow a weekly routine and like to make a schedule. 6/10

Dynamic. While I love to be in motion and using my hands to do whatever, I do also love being lazy and in bed when I have nothing else to do. Action is my passion, but not being on the run is a lot of fun. 5/10.

Formidable. I’m only a 3/10. If you saw me in the streets, you would see the rats mugging me.

Keen. If this was One Piece, I’d specialize in Observational Haki. 9/10

Related Characteristics:

Attentive (from Inventor).

Dependable (from Warden).

Playful (from Bard).

Strategic (from Tactician).

[minutiaeoflife]

Slipping Through My Fingers

"The hardest part of growing up is letting go of what you were used to, and moving on with something you’re not." – Unknown

Adulthood for me is quite scary, totally scary haha. I mean, who wouldn't? Right? Well it depends on the person on how he or she handles it. Others may feel overburdened by the demands of juggling job, relationships, and their own aspirations, while others may welcome the obligations and difficulties as chances for personal development. But I suppose that when we overcome these obstacles, we gain a better understanding of who we are, our advantages and disadvantages, and our priorities. It's a process of learning how to strike a balance between support and independence, making choices that will affect our future, and, in the end, figuring out our own feeling of security and direction.

At this stage of development, I actually considered a few people who I wanted to interview with. But then I ended up deciding I would love to hear some things from my friend. Her name's Rhea, she's a very close friend of mine. We actually grew up together, although not literally, we've met since 7th grade and until now we're still very close with our other 2 friends, well she doesn't have any choice though, kidding aside. Actually I chose her because aside from the fact that she's nearby and convenient, I think it would be best to interview someone who's still entering the early adulthood stage, and I want to hear their thoughts about this. And since she's the same age as me, I think again, I would be able to empathize and relate with her.

As she entered this stage, as per her statement, her weight gain is undeniable, as she always consumes foods that are sweet and oily. These types of foods can't be really avoided especially to those kinds of students like her who are boarding or renting an apartment/house because it's convenient. Since she's always stressed and often pulls an all-nighter. As a compensation, she eats more, thinking that through eating, she can gain energy even though she's restless. Ever since the class started, her average sleep every day is about 2 hours since she has to study. Whenever she has no classes or activities to complete, she'll take that advantage to sleep. Rhea actually has a heart condition in which as of now, it's worsening. Recently, she fainted due to restlessness, and to be honest as her friend, I got worried about her situation, because who wouldn't right?

As college students, we can't deny the fact that we are mostly busy doing or studying for our acads, but Rhea tries her best to achieve her so called "healthy living" thing. She often exercises or jogs early in the morning whenever she has time to do so. I'm glad that her friends and classmates encouraged her to to some outdoor activities or play sports, like playing badminton with them, since it would help her physical health to somehow have a break from stressful things she's getting from acads.

When I asked her if her decision-making skills and way of thinking have improved when she entered this stage, she answered using this quote. "We tend to make impulsive decisions when we are young" Justifying that when we're still a young, we don't mind about the consequences of our actions and decisions, we have the tendencies to think and make decisions abruptly because we are driven by our emotions in that moment. But now, that we are already an adult, we tend to cautiously think of the consequences of our actions and decisions because it's either we hurt someone, or we hurt ourselves. And I think that the beauty and essence of being an adult because it is the ability to take a moment, think things through, and decide with awareness and responsibility. As we grow older, we take into account the wider effects of our decisions on both ourselves and those around us rather than acting only on instinct or emotion.

Studying effectively is a skill that she wants to improve. Before, when she was still in her freshie days, she tends to study 4 to 5 times because she can't easily retain or remember the things she studied, which she found it hard. Now, she's doing her best to study twice or thrice as much as she could because she wants to challenge herself to understand and remember the topics immediately. She is committed to improving her understanding of the topics and challenging herself to step outside of her comfort zone in order to develop better study habits and reach a higher degree of mastery.

About making complex decisions, she's not confident when other people are involved because she's scared that they might judge her or blame her when things go downhill. Other than that, when it comes to experiences and other deals, she's handling it with maturity, like, when we're still in high school, she used to be bossy, which made some of our classmates feel scared or intimidated by her. But now, she tries to think maturely and take some things into considerations and much more understanding because she believes that not everyone is capable of doing this and that, make time, and so on.

She admitted that she felt more satisfaction when she gets a high grade and doesn't get a fail grade, because of course, sino ba namang student ang hindi, diba?. She's the type of a person who always give her all, no matter how hard situations may get, she keeps on moving forward.

Her ideal healthy relationship between romantic partners would involve being considerate and understanding toward each other. In such a relationship, both partners must meet in the middle to avoid misunderstandings. There are times when a partner may want to go out, and for Rhea, she would allow her partner to do so because she trusts him. She believes that constantly reprimanding a partner for spending time with friends will eventually lead to frustration, suffocation, and dishonesty. Therefore, Rhea thinks it's important to give her partner the space he needs, no matter how long they've been together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's this part in Mamma Mia (the movie) where Donna watches her daughter, Sophie, fixing her hair while singing "Slipping Through My Fingers." It's a moving scene that perfectly conveys the conflicted emotions of seeing a child mature and gradually move out. When I interviewed Rhea, I felt a similar surge of emotions coming out from me, but I couldn’t quite distinguish what it was. I felt a mixture of pride, nostalgia, and perhaps even a little melancholy, as though I were witnessing her enter a new stage of life, much like Donna had witnessed Sophie grow into her own person. It got me thinking about time and how, despite our best efforts, moments eventually pass and are replaced with memories.

Even though I'm just a friend of hers, I got emotional whenever I try to reminisce about our bond. Our friendship started young, and now, the four of us are still together, sharing countless memories and experiences. It feels like I've seen her growth through the lens of both a parent and a friend. It's been such a fascinating experience to watch her change from the person I knew to the strong, independent person she is now. As I consider how much time has gone by and how much we've all changed, I feel a mixture of pride and sadness. However, it's also lovely to see her develop into the person she was always destined to be. Even as a friend, I can’t help but feel a sense of fulfillment, knowing I’ve been there to see her through every step of her journey.

Mamma Mia reference

photo ops;

*this was during the interview, we called our two other friends as well*

Her college friends.

Love,

Irish & Jairine <3

[more-than-a-princess]

Sonia couldn't stop a ladylike snort at Yaguchi's comment: empathy was not Byakuya Togami's strong point. She doubted it ever was, but it was particularly lacking where she was concerned. His managing of her journey back to Novoselic and what awaited her there were proof of it. From what she'd heard from others, Yaguchi had an equally awful time working with him.

At least her discomfort wasn't all in her head. The other members of the Future Foundation either embraced his unfeeling way of working or begrudgingly insisted that he wasn't all bad. She wasn't convinced, as she settled into the very edge of the bed Miss Kitty and her growing family allowed for Sonia to occupy as the mother began to strain for the last kitten, the little ones eagerly suckled, and the former princess watched a little witch leave home with big dreams and aspirations. Not unlike herself, she thought, when she'd left Novoselic behind for a normal high school life in Japan.

"Generally, difficulty accepting praise is the fault of the person receiving it for some reason," She replied, as the country town Kiki left had vanished into a bustling city. "Though often not due to a personal failure: our past shapes us into who we are. Even if you regret much of it."

She spoke of her own of course, reaching out to pet Miss Kitty's head as she yowled again, finding no comfort from the film or the little black cat with sassy comebacks. At least between the new movie and the last kitten being born, Sonia didn't have to think about kept secrets and betrayals by those she thought she could trust. It wrapped up prettily for a romantic comedy of course, but real life would always be more complicated. Yaguchi seemed to understand that and hadn't pressed her further: Sonia appreciated that. At least she hadn't asked about romance directly: that was a ship that had long since sailed. Countless incidents of sexual abuse and murder tended to make one no longer desireable for such a thing. Gundham had only confirmed it, and it wasn't like she needed to be loved in order to fulfill her duties to the Future Foundation and her country. Just a functioning uterus, which she was often reminded as one of the primary reasons she was kept alive and would be returning home to put it to good use.

But cats...cats could love her, Sonia supposed, as a grey striped kitten was brought into the world with a shrieking meow as Miss Kitty cleaned it off with the last of her strength before collapsing against the mattress, her head in Sonia's outstretched, cupped hand. She was exhausted and seemingly would get no relief, not with five kittens suckling at her. She seemed to appreciate any comfort she could find, purring against Sonia's fingers as she scratched her cheek.

"Well, that's that," Sonia murmured the obvious as five tiny kittens with closed eyes, wobbly steps, and loud cries all clamored for a nipple. It would take some careful moving about to make sure two kittens didn't fight over the same source of sustenance. Which she did with the newest arrival, situating it close enough to its brothers and sisters while giving it ample space to drink. "And you will all need names, won't you. I'm not sure what to even call all of you: all of the animals I used to know had mythological names, or occult-related ones. I am not sure either would be suitable for you all, not anymore."

The mother didn't seem to care too much what her children were called, as long as they were fed and taken care of, and she had some time to eat and rest as well. Only Yaguchi seemed agitated by it all, Sonia giving her a puzzled look. "You make it sound both serious and mysterious," She replied. The film had turned to a series of sequences in a bakery, making all sorts of delicious breads. Sonia's mouth watered: yeast was hard to come by on Jabberwock Island and baking was an art form, one Teruteru hadn't been able to indulge in since he'd awakened.

At least Novoselic had that going for it: bread, in varying degrees of freshness. "I doubt I have any influence on your schedule, Yaguchi," Sonia told her matter-of-factly. "That would likely be something you'd need to take up with Naegi, or the headquarters back in Japan. The Future Foundation has say over the lot of us, not the other way round. If so, I imagine we would have thrown Togami on the next ship back to the mainland with a note pinned to his jacket insisting he never be returned."

"I... mm." Shinobu took another sip of her water as she looked away. Anzu was tracking blood all over Sonia's floor. How rude of her, and how unbecoming of a girl who had always taken such great pains to look her best. "I suppose I just feel as though I'm doing as anyone would do. Er, anyone with any sort of empathy, that is. Not exactly in like with the Byakuya Togami types, or the Future Foundation goons who take every opportunity to vent their anger by making others feel worthless or weak."

Well, it wasn't like empathy was Shinobu's strongest emotion anyway. All things considered, they were rather new to it. Sometimes it felt authentic, and other times it felt forced, as though they were just going through the motions, hoping that repetition would make it real. Deep in her core, she was still that sharp, misanthropic, violent person - the person who had turned Byakuya Togami's nose into a scene from a horror film, and attempted to crack a rib or two in the process. An ongoing process, perhaps, to be better.

"Though, please don't mistake my hesitation to accept any praise as reflecting upon you in any way, Miss Nevermind. It does make me happy to know that you think at least some measure of positive thoughts in my direction." More than happy, really, especially given the frayed, tangled knot of emotions currently working its way through her chest. Discerning the specifics would, of course, have to wait, but for now, at least she could safely say that she wanted to be someone important to Sonia in some way. Maybe that had always been true, in which case, why had she been so desperate to push her away, once?

Sonia's explanation about why she thought as she did was, of course, reasonable - exactly as Shinobu had expected, though having expected it did little to keep it from stinging. On some level she could empathize with the boy on screen. To admit the truth would be inviting change, and what if he didn't want anything to change? What if he preferred to keep things as they were, even if only for a moment more, even knowing that it would come eventually. In her own case... Well, for whatever justifications she could conjure, Shinobu could admit it was her own selfishness that drove the deceit. They wished to continue at her side, caring for her, supporting her, and there was no doing that if she never wanted them around again. So selfish of them.

"No, I understand," she murmured with a soft shrug, before standing and moving over to the television. "It must be frustrating. I'm sorry." After pulling out the DVD and placing it in its case, Shinobu hesitated to start the next one. It was burning in her chest, now, the desire to bring up Novoselic, in light of the conversation. If she couldn't be honest about everything, she could at least be honest about that much, and yet it seemed as though it would be a conversation destined for interruption. Wasn't it better, then, to wait a short while longer?

After the moment of pause and introspection, Shinobu shook it off and started the next film, then returned to her seat. "I wouldn't want to draw your attention away from the cats when they still might require assistance," she mumbled, "but when things have settled down, there's something I'd like to talk to you about, Miss Nevermind." At first, they were content to leave it at that, but then they realized it could be misconstrued, or otherwise taken in a poor light. "Ah... it's nothing to concern yourself with. It's just about my schedule, going forward." Tilting her head, she shifted her gaze over towards the cats. "Though, there's no reason to rush on my account."

[bitchesgetriches]

10 Rad Black Money Experts To Follow Right the Hell Now

Rich and Regular

There’s a reason Julien and Kiersten’s blog is at the top of this list. If you’re looking to read one blog by a black couple seeking FIRE (financial independence, retire early), this is the one. They are exactly what’s on the box: charming, relatable, down-to-earth people who are also admirably transparent about their inspiring successes and rare failures. If I were building my fantasy neighborhood (which is like fantasy football, but for people who can’t leave their houses due to global pandemics), R&R would live no fewer than three doors down from us and we would catch all the neighborhood poop bandits together.

Home: Rich and Regular

I Love Me More than I Love my Job, So I Quit

Why Financial Rules of Thumb are Trash

Letter to Middle Class Black America

Interview: Paychecks and Balances Episode 139: Financial Independence Retire Early (with kids) ft. Rich and Regular

And if their blog isn’t enough for you, watch their show, Money on the Table. It’s part food porn, part #relationshipgoals, and 100% helpful if you struggle to communicate about finances. Julien can cook for me any time!

Paychecks and Balances

Rich Jones is a national treasure. His Paychecks and Balances blog is only rivaled by his podcast, The Mental Wealth Show. Some would say his swoon-worthy voice alone makes his podcast worth listening to, and they would be correct, yet they would also be fools! For this millennial money expert constantly delivers fresh takes on the real financial concerns of our generation. He is uncannily good at finding interesting voices to interview. (And I’m not just saying that because he had us on, though he did, yes we’re cool.)  More than half of the folks we’re highlighting today have been on his show.

Home: Paychecks and Balances

Let’s Have Some Real Talk

Finding Joy and Career Moves During a Crisis ft. Tiffany Southerland of the How Does She Do It Podcast

The Value of Awareness ft. Kassandra Dasent

Two Guys One Therapy (And Career!) Session (Seriously, the “casual” episodes are some of my all-time favorites. This one in particular is refreshing like mountain dew. Not Mountain Dew—actual dew from an actual mountain.)

Rich founded Paychecks and Balances with the equally awe-inspiring Marcus Garrett, who sold his stake in the biz in 2020. But Marcus is worth following too, and not just because of his inspiring debt pay-off story. That’s right! This one’s a two-fer! Which is why you should check the book Debt Free or Die Trying by Marcus Garrett post-haste!

Yes I Am Cheap

Sandy Smith is a pillar of financial wisdom and encouragement. She started blogging to hold herself accountable to her debt repayment goals, and over many years found it was her calling to help women and people of color get out of that same situation. She was honored all up and down the 2019 Plutus Awards for her tireless work helping others get out of debt and live their best lives, and she absolutely deserves the recognition.

Home: Yes I Am Cheap

Stay Out Of My Uterus

Charity Begins With You

Cheap? Frugal? Why Is There Even A Debate?

Interview: Journey to Launch Episode 146 – How To Earn More Through Alternative Income Streams, Side Hustles & Leveraging Your Skills w/ Sandy Smith

A Purple Life

I so deeply admire this amaranthine goddess that I got purple hair extensions to match hers AND I’M NOT SORRY ABOUT IT. Purple (as we are blessed to call her) writes about finance, traveling the world, achieving financial independence, and delicious food. Would you like to hear about how she’s retiring at thirty—yes, thirty, that number with the three up front and a zero at the back?? Yeah, you’d better! She is candid, courageous, methodical, and utterly aspirational.

Home: A Purple Life

Her entire Countdown to Retirement series

I’ll Be Happy At Work When I Have [Insert Nonsense Here]

P.S. I’m Bi

Interview: Journey to Launch Episode 126 – How She’s Building a $500,000 Portfolio & Retiring Early at 30 Years Old (w/ A Purple Life)

Michelle is Money Hungry

Have you ever been so intimidated by a person’s aura of having-their-shit-together that you can’t decide whether you want to be them or be friends with them? Yeah, that’s how I felt when I beheld Michelle Jackson for the first time. This smart, thoughtful woman writes and podcasts about finance, debt, entrepreneurship, frugality, and all things money. Her ability to give speedy, helpful insights into current events makes her an invaluable follow. (Her ‘Rona coverage = without peer.)

Home: Michelle is Money Hungry

How to Become a Financial Ally and Why It’s So Important

A Candid Conversation About Race in America

How to Nurture Your Dreams During Chaotic Times

Interview: Paychecks and Balances Episode 145 – Money Hungry ft. Michelle Jackson

Greenbacks Magnet

Are you looking for the friendliest, bubbliest, sweetest person in personal finance? Good news, you found her. Miriam is a great everywoman money writer, as ambitious as she is easy to relate to. (Plus, she published the best interview with the Bitches you’ll ever read—sorry, it’s #SelfPromotionSunday somewhere.) If you come to BGR for our embarrassingly deep analogistic reads of financial wisdom through 90s pop culture, all five of you should leave now to read Miriam’s blog. She’s got us beat, beat, beat like Marie Antoinette’s royal mug.

Home: Greenbacks Magnet

My So Called Finances

4 Financial Futuristic Nuggets: The Economics of The Jetsons

Money Mayhem And Mishaps: Money Lessons From Adventures In Babysitting

Why You Should Always Trust But Verify

Wealth Noir

Damien Peters started this blog and community to “teach and preach” about the importance of accumulating generational wealth in black communities. He’s utterly brilliant, with the kind of tough love and no-nonsense advice that some of us just fucking need to hear. He’s an especially good resource for black folks working in tech.

Home: Wealth Noir

Is Financial Freedom Worth It?

4 Ways to Thrive During a Market Downturn

Will 2053 be the end of Black Wealth in America?

Interview: Building Generational Wealth ft. Damien Peters of Wealth Noir

Journey to Launch

Not only is Jamila a Certified Financial Education Instructor (which means she literally knows more than us on just about any topic), but she uses her blog and podcast to teach money lessons on the things she learned through trial, error, and discipline over the years. She’s had a ton of fascinating guests, and has helpfully broken them out by topic and demographic here, making it super easy to find the kind of voices you need to hear right now.

Home: Journey to Launch

Black Lives Matter & The Black Tax: The Cost of Being Black in America w/ Shawn Rochester (Episode 158)

How To Thrive in the Current Financial Market Turmoil & Better Position Yourself Financially with Jackie Cummings Koski (Episode 150)

How to Avoid Burnout On Your Financial Journey and Charging Your Worth with Sarah Li Cain (Episode 142)

My Debt Epiphany

Chonce Maddox started her blog to document her journey out of debt. Over time it became the heckin’ inspiring story of her personal transformation and finding purpose. I think she’s a great follow for anyone, but I’d particularly recommend her for someone who’s looking to develop a side gig and/or make money from home. Her listicles are actually good! Trust and believe: in this industry, that compliment is rarer than rocking horse crap.

Home: My Debt Epiphany

This Has to Be Said

70 Ways to Save More Money While Living Paycheck to Paycheck

Buying a Home in a Brutal Real Estate Market

Interview: How Single Mom Chonce Maddox Is Working Hard To Become Debt Free

Money the Wright Way

K. Wright does more than write about personal finance from the perspective of a millennial black woman: she questions conventional advice about budgeting, investing, and the one-size-fits-all approach to financial stability. Personal definitions of happiness are as rare and unique as fingerprints, but it’s easy to get lost in what you’re told everyone should want. She is a great writer for someone who needs help finding that definition and keeping it at the center of all their decisions. I kinda want her to do my thinking for me???

Home: Money the Wright Way

I Haven’t Bought a Latte in 2 Months. Why Am I Not Rich Yet?

Pay Inequality is Still a Thing

“I’m Bossy:” A Closer Look at Black Women And Money

What I Did During the Last Recession, & What I Would Do Now

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

if carlisle and dumbledore were put in each other's respective stories / dilemmas , how do you think they would react? how would a carlisle cullen have dealt with voldemort/grindelwald? and how dumbledore would have dealt with vampirism, etc? i almost view the two of them as a sort of foil to each other, not yet able to articulate why or how though

I mean, they'd live completely different lives, because they're completely different characters. It's very unlikely they'd end up in the same situations.

But alright.

Carlisle is Dumbledore

Carlisle's born in a working class family that quickly begins to fall apart. His father's sent to prison, his mother dies, his sister has a chronic illness that will never disappear, and it's just him and his brother left with very little chance of a future between them.

Handsome Gellert Grindelwald moves in next store with grand, new, ideas concerning the muggles.

Now, this particular Carlisle won't be Christian, he's a pureblood wizard and we can pretty safely assume that the Dumbledores were no more religious than any other wizarding family is.

It's a little up in the air whether Carlisle would be seduced by Gellert or not. Gellert is learned, foreign, and has all these radical, new, theories that weren't very prevalent at the time (well, anti muggleborn sentiment was, the facism was new). On the other hand though, Carlisle is also a man who once radically changed his own beliefs to something that went against nearly every edict of his previous religion. This is not a guy who takes things for granted and is not afraid to both confront himself and the true nature of the world he lives in.

And he has a deep respect for human life that, had it been any lesser, would have undoubtedly led to him eating humans as a vampire.

So, I'm going to say no, or if he does, it lasts up until Gellert says, "We should totally make the muggles our slaves." The muggles may have irreparably damaged Carlisle's sister, they may be hated by society, but they are free thinking beings who should be enslaved to no one. Carlsile raises his pacifism flag.

As a result, Gellert probably thinks he's a tool. Hot, of course, and intelligent, but a useless tool. Without somebody to bounce ideas off of/confirm his radicalization, Gellert has little to no interest in Carlisle or any of the Dumbledores. Gellert spends his time in Godric's Hollow then goes elsewhere, Ariana lives, at least for now, unclear how long her lifespan was going to be otherwise, Carlisle does not have the Gellert incident, and he and Abeforth remain on good terms.

Carlisle graduates Hogwarts and either is a) bullied into taking Flamel's apprenticeship opportunity by Abeforth who screams "DUDE, GET YOURSELF A FUTURE or b) immediately sets about trying to find a relatively high paying job so he can support the family. In the case of B, I imagine he goes to work for the goblins who seem to hire those straight out of Hogwarts with good enough grades. In the case of A, well, he goes to study alchemy.

Knowing Carlisle, he does a bastardization of both. He studies alchemy under Flamel and then works nights as a bartender in Paris or something to that effect. When he finishes, what career he does then is out in the air.

Given that, as a vampire, he had all the choices in the world open to him in terms of education (and tried many different things) before eventually settling on and sticking with human medicine despite the dangers, I think that's telling. Carlisle probably tries to get a job in something healing related.

However, that strays more into the "What if Carlisle was in the wizarding world" vs. "What if Carlisle was Dumbledore" so we'll say that the idea of teaching appeals to him and he returns to Hogwarts for the Transfiguration position.

This all goes well except then there's a first world war on, the muggle world goes completely insane, and no one understands why Carlisle's so upset.

And now we enter the world where Carlisle starts really making choices in Dumbledore's shoes.

First, Tom Riddle. Carlisle, I imagine, makes 100,000 times of a better impression than Dumbledore on the young Tom. He does not, for one, light his wardrobe on fire and threaten him. Carlisle might think this kid is weird, but he lives in poverty and an orphanage, much of his behavior can be explained from that. I imagine Carlisle becomes determined to take Tom under his wing.

I imagine at first Tom thinks this is excellent, LOOK HOW MUCH HE'S MANIPULATING THIS ADULT! And then he realizes that, no, Carlisle is perfectly aware he's a little shit. He just likes talking to Tom after classes about how to fit in with pureblood society/weird esoteric muggle philosophy.

Trouble is, Carlisle is so damn likeable (see his friends all over the world), that Tom can't help but like him. When the Blitz begins, and Carlisle undoubtedly offers Tom (and any other muggleborn who was not moved to the country) a place to stay, that seals the deal, the wizarding world might suck but Carlisle's a pretty cool guy.

Of course, Tom still thinks the government should be reformed or overthrown, but he and Carlisle actually sit down to talk about things like communism and facism (Carlisle's not a fan though the modern, muggle, form of democracy not practiced in the wizarding world is a weird concept to him).

My point being, it's unlikely this Tom Riddle becomes Voldemort or even really aspires to become him. You want more on that topic, check out these posts.

Grindelwald meanwhile, becomes a bigger and bigger deal, and things start looking... bad. However, it's not immediately obvious that Carlisle's the one who should do something about it. He's not a duelist, he's a professor, and his job is to teach the children. He may have been alright in school, but that was decades ago now. More, unlike Albus, he feels no personal responsibility, he knew Gellert, briefly, yes, but they had no real connection. Gellert spoke about insane things and Carlisle said, "Mm, don't like". Add to that that Carlisle's a pacifist, he's going to insist that someone trained for the position do the job.

Given canon, this means that Grindelwald likely invades and takes over wizarding England and, with a strong enough foothold, enacts his "enslave the muggles" plan. Which very well might result in a nuclear holocaust as Grindelwald was likely not keeping up with muggle technology and the muggle world war.

The muggle world collapses, which in turn causes society collapse, and the world may or may not be a nuclear wasteland that Tom and Carlisle get to wander around.

If Carlisle by some divine intervention has a prophetic dream of "YOU MUST DEFEAT GRINDELWALD OR DOOM DOOM DOOM" then he goes and tries to defeat Grindelwald. Considering Grindelwald has the elder wand, he probably needs Deus ex Phoenix to win, but if it worked for Dumbledore it might work for Carlisle.

Well. No one saw that coming.

Carlisle's an overnight sensation and a national hero, the hero of Western Europe even. He's suddenly being presented medals, honors, seats of power, and Carlisle desperately tries to refuse, feeling very squeamish that he's being given these things because he took it upon himself to murder another human being (yes, even a war lord).

Tom finds this funny and Abeforth is ureservedly proud and tells everybody.

All Carlisle wanted to do was teach children and now he has to reside over trials in the Wizengamot. This is terrible.

As for what happens to the wizarding world from there, well, inertia probably carries it along for a good while. However, antimuggleborn sentiment is still on the rise an even without Voldemort I imagine there's quite a bit of unrest.

I imagine Carlisle, not wanting in any way to be a political figure, is not nearly as outspoken as Dumbledore on anything. He just wants to be headmaster, guys, leave him alone.

Tom may or may not go into politics and do it for him. But he probably ends up teaching too and just laughs as the country collapses.

Harry Potter is an ordinary student who has no prophecy surrounding him. Carlisle did not recruit children to join an illegal resistance movement nor does he have a plethora of spies and moles in the ministry.

Harry Potter canon does not happen.

Dumbledore is Carlisle

Well, Dumbledore undoubtedly also burned witches and very much believed in their existence. An irony there. He may chase the vampire, probably isn't first in the mob, in which case he remains human or dies.

If he does survive being bitten, I imagine it pains him for a while, but I don't see Albus having the same willpower as Carlisle. Or at least, not as much, Albus probably ends up eating people. He at first probably tries to be picky and eats those who harm society in some way (pick your poison for what that means) and then over time becomes less picky.

They're just humans, after all.

Albus probably isn't invited to stay in Volterra, he's not all that interesting. He doesn't become a human doctor, he's just your ordinary vampire. He might hang around libraries as much as he can but that's about as far as that extends.

He probably turns a Gellert equivalent at some point as a mate and they have a grand time together.

Edward is never turned nor the rest of the Cullens and Bella dies in a parking lot.

[agermanadventurer]

A start

Let’s start somewhere shall we?

The German language is generally considered quite hard because of it’s grammar - which is understandable. If you are a monoligual English speaker you have never encountered the different complexities that are going to show up. But have no fear-! All of these things have been learned before and can be learned by you if you aspire to. I am not going to make this blog a step-by-step blog to learn German - I simply don’t have neither the time nor the patience to do that. But I will guide you to some free sources to get started to be able to follow along with other things I’ll be talking about in the future, and these are both things I’ve come across in my studying and also things I wish I had found earlier.

BOOKS (pdfs)

german language course - Simply named German Language Course is a pdf book that is written by several collaborating authors in an effort to create a beginner’s guide to the German language. It’s constantly being improved but the newer version here is lacking a bit and the original release from 2006 linked above is a bit more put together but choose from your own accord.

basic german - Basic German, a text/work book for grammar! Really- there’s a lot of grammar in there but it’s quite easy to navigate and can be useful for anyone learning the language or the grammar. 

mein-deutschbuch.de - Mein Deutschbuch is technically a website but nevermind that. It offers lists of different grammar rules and gives you excercises to practice your grammar. The only downside is that everything is in german. It’s great for more advanced learners though.

pdfdrive.com/german-language-books - And here’s a link to many other free books that can be downloaded.  

YOUTUBE CHANNELS (for language learning)

Get Germanized - A youtube channel dedicated to teaching it’s viewers German and also about the German culture. There are full course German videos only focusing on exposing and teaching as well as shorter videos with cultural comparisons and entertainment. 

Easy German - Easy German publish videos for both advanced learners and beginners. They focus much on teaching spoken German but also talks about grammar,  and they offer new vocabulary. 

Learn German - A channel that uses a simple artstyle to explain different parts of the German language. The channel also sorts their videos after language level so even for someone in level C1 might find something useful in there.   

Learn German with Herr Antrim - Herr Antrim wants to teach you German for free. His videos brings up grammar, pronounciation, and tak about the German culture.

Besides these channels you also have plenty of videos repeating german phrases and vocabulary for when you sleep (can’t really recommend to sleep while you listen to them) and you can sit down and take a few notes from those too if you want to become familiar with the sounds and some of the phrases.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS (for entertainment and exposure)

Hi From Hamburg - Lila is an american who moved to Hamburg and is making videos talking about her experience with it and she makes a lot of videos for simple entertainment. Her channel is one of the few English ones I’m going to include in this list. 

Dinge Erklärt - Kurzgesagt -  Kurzgesagt is a channel with pretty animation explaining different concepts, ideas, and myths in our modern society today. They talk about philosophy, science, religious ideas, psychology, and more.

maiLab - MaiLab is a scientific channel in German. In their videos they talk about various topics within biology, chemistry, psychology, or of different concepts and myths in society today.

Related to maiLab are also channels like Quarks and MrWissen2go.

100SekundenPhysik - For those who are into physics, this one can be intresting for you. 100SekundenPhysik brings up and explains physics, but in German and in short comprehensible videos. 

Dagi Bee - For those not as interested in science, here’s an entertainment channel (and a few more after this). Dagi Bee is a channel created for entertainment, she features music videos, make up and hair turtorials, reaction videos, vlogs and more.

Marvyn Macnificent - Marvyn makes entertainment and vlog videos; challenges, make up tutorials and reviews, collaborations (and videos with friends), and also different types of discussions of other social media figures.

Alycia Marie - This channel is for any make up and cosplay fan. Alycia’s channel is made up of make up tutorials, make up reviews and comparisons, as well as cosplay displays. She also have a second channel for her music.

Other channels like Dagi Bee and Alycia Marie is for example Luisa Crashion and Jasmin Azizam

DoctorBenx - A look into the gaming part of youtube and we have DoctorBenx as a prominent figure on the list. His videos consist of him playin games such as Minecraft and Roblox but also GTA5 and simulator/indie games. He works closely with the youtuber AwesomeElina.

Vlesk - If anyone’s still into Among Us you’ll want to check out Vlesk who almost exclusively makes videos of said game at the moment. His channel is rather young still but the older videos are him playing TTT in Garry’s Mod. 

Zombey - For those more intrested in playthroughs, Zombey is more appropriate. His channel features many different games such as Demon’s Soul and Fall Guys. 

APPS

Duolingo - Duolingo is always mentioned when it comes to these things, but it’s a good app. It provides a simple, almost game-like, format that helps you practice different concepts in your target language.

Memrise - Can’t forget Memrise on this list. Memrise uses video clips of real life people using the language to get you to associate the phrases with the situation and to get you to immerse yourself with the language. 

Drops - Drops focuses on visual learning, getting your brain to associate the vocabulary you’re exposed to with the pictures and symbols on the screen. The app is great for learning new vocabulary and you can choose yourself which topic to start with.

Wordbit German - WordBit German is useful for vocabulary exposure. You download it and every time you open your phone a German word is shown on the screen and you can mark different word by familiarity.

HelloTalk - This app helps you to reach out to native speakers of your target language and you can also help others seeking to learn your language. You can send voice messages, make corrections and translate the messages directly. The app can be used for free, but there are many functions that are limited without paying. Other similar apps are also available (often with lower quality but they are free). 

PODCASTS (language learning)

Slow German - The journalist Annik Rubens talks about everyday topics and phenomenons in the german culture and society in short recordings. Perfect to practice your listening comprehension as a beginner and get used to the new parts of the phonology - and it’s available on Spotify. 

Easy German - They also have a podcast! They also talk about the german culture but also topics relevant to the rest of the world, though in a bit more natural speed and with a bit more relaxed manner. (Available on Spotify)

Radio D - Unfortunately not available on Spotify but it is easily found with just a google search (and by the attached link). The podcast is made for complete beginners, guiding you throughout different scenarios and settings and building up your understanding and basic knowledge of the language. Transscripts are also available for download.

Coffee Break German - A series of lessons where the listener, together with the English speaking host Mark, gets to learn German phrases and vocabulary from scratch with the help of Thomas. Each episode is between 20 to 30 minutes so get your pen and paper out to take effective notes. (Available on Spotify)

 You will come across many other podcasts, these are just a good place to start.

PODCASTS (for entertainment)

Eine Stunde History - With new episodes every Friday this podcast takes events throughout history and compare their relevance to today and the future. Perfect for those who have an interest in history. (Available on Spotify)

ZEIT WISSEN - Woher weißt Du dass? - The central theme being science, this podcast gives you a scientific perspective on a new question that is being explored every week. You want to know if humans can hybernate or what the consequenses of having sex with the neanderthals were? Not necessarily! But now you can! (Available on Spotify)

Verbrechen - This podcast features true crime, being led by Andreas Sentker and Sabine Rückert. Sabine is the one talking about the cases she’s been met with throughout her career in law enforcement. (Available on Spotify)

Biologie Passion Podcast - If you have a biology test coming up, if you want to repeat some long lost knowledge from school, or maybe you just have a passion for biology - then this is a good podcast for you. Christian Schweda is happy to teach (or reteach) you some biology. (Available on Spotify)

Eli’s Abitur Crashkurs - For those of you who are study freaks in general, you can visit Eli on Spotify! She has made a podcast on everything she has to study for during her Abitur. And the best thing is - they only come in 10-20 min episodes. But be aware for speedy speech. (Available on Spotify)

Die Copycats - Both on Youtube and on Spotify these guys talk about all sorts of nerdy things from video games to bad music and give their opinions on many other things. They’re quite small so go and give them a bit of love. (Available on Spotify)

#QueerAsBerlin - Not available on Spotify unfortunately. But as the title suggests is this podcast a commentary, interviews and a view on different aspects of social problems through the lens of the LGBTQ+ community in Berlin.  

Bin ich Süßsauer? - For my fellow asian LGBTQ+ people out there; this underrated podcast features an asian host in Germany, talking about different parts of LGBTQ (from what I understand the host themselves are trans and therefore the general theme) with different guests. Of course this can be enjoyed by anyone, just a small shout out for diversity. (Available on Spotify)

Schnapsidee - der Podcast über Liebe, Love & sexy sein - From the name alone you are most likely able to deduse the theme of this podcast. Anna and Paula talks about their love life, relationships, and sex! Their content is lighthearted and enjoyable to listen to. (Available on Spotify)

Dick und Doof - Without any real theme to their podcast, the two friends Sandra and Luca is having a great time, and we get to listen to their conversations about anything and everything. The both of them focus mostly on humour, sprinkled with an insight in their private lives. (Available on Spotify)

Alliteration am Arsch - Or AAA in foreshortening, features Bastian Bielendorfer and Reinhard Remfort who found themselves as friends after realizing the things they had in common and now we get to listen as the both of them discuss anything and everything through the lens of comedy. (Available on Spotify)

[harleyquilt]

This is so sweet and cool!! I'm so glad you liked my points enough to reflect on them, and I completely understand the experience of having your views change with age and maturity. Even between the ages of 16 and 18, and I'm 22 now, my personality has changed so drastically. When I was 16, I was nihilistic, depressed, and incredibly tired, but the gradual freedom of being an adult, (and a healthy dose of prescribed medication lol), allowed that heat to cool, and when it does, you learn to approach content with an open mind. It is all due to new experiences, friendships, and situations that help shape one's mindset, and it's what makes Touka so incredibly relatable, as I think you'll agree.

Quickly touching on that further, you're right. She did have dreams, and they changed. And that's okay. She had to leave everything again, including her aspirations. And Touka, steeling herself, moves on, just as she has always done. The difference is that she takes a much more mellow, even bittersweet approach as we go into ;Re, swallowing the bitter pill but hoping it'll be worth it in the end.

She has seen time and time again what happens if you choose to fight, if you continue to seek out revenge. She herself has experienced a touch of it. And she decides that it simply isn't worth it, not if it means falling into the same pit as all those before her. Yomo has a similar shift in perspective when trying to avenge Hikari, eventually realising, (thanks to Yoshimura), that it's not worth it if it means abandoning the last remnants of his family. And it's a deliberate move from Ishida to have him teach Touka this, even if it causes her more pain in the process.

What follows this is Touka ageing into someone who's prioritises now rest on preserving her own family. It is the one thing she will fight for. I think many with trauma, (including me), can find a lot of solace in growing your own family, in turn breaking the cycle of trauma that came beforehand. It's why Touka is symbolic of hope, both at the end of the first series and throughout the second series. Motherhood has always been used to symbolise these themes, and Ishida leans into it, using a character he clearly respects to do so. That Chomski quote is a perfect example of how people might see this as demeaning, and though it has been misused in media in the past, that doesn't apply here. Her pregnancy weakens her, but it also gives her strength, just as it gives Kaneki strength, because it represents hope in a world wracked in despair. There's a lot of power in that.

I also want to take this moment to say I'm not opposed to any and all criticism. @kyanitedragon actually makes some good points in their tags that I agree with -- it would've been nice if we had explored Touka's time as the owner of ;Re more, or the time leading up to it. Or how the time between 125 and their move to the underground could have been lengthened, exploring Touka's new role by his side in the process. It's completely fair to want to see how Ishida would have portrayed that development, even while being sympathetic to the fact that Ishida could not take the time to explore every bit of development; writing for a big cast is so difficult, especially on a weekly basis, and then there was his dismal health. For what it's worth, the fact that he gave us enough to draw from shows his intent to do so, allowing us to read in between the lines to see the development he couldn't explicitly outline. And hey, it's fun! Speculating on these things together and tying together the threads between the two series in a critical manner.

This ended up being a bit longer than intended, but it is really refreshing to see someone who, with age, can see just how relatable Touka's characterisation is, the subtlety of her growth, and the appreciation for her role as a strong feminine icon in the series.

Misreading Touka (Tokyo Ghoul Meta)

For some reason, I've been seeing more dung being thrown at Touka's characterisation in the series, and since I've been wanting to write a meta for a while now, I decided to do a short one addressing some of the criticism I've seen around. This won't go into everything, of course -- the series is far too dense with analytical potential and I am a busy bee. Just know that I do want to dive deeper into Touken/Kanetou at a later point.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Touka is not reduced to a simple, meaningless housewife, and I do not understand why this perspective is used to undermine her character so often in the fandom. For the sake of this argument, I will be mostly focusing on her characterisation in ;Re, as that is where this criticism is mostly rooted. Yes, she is less active in the first part of the second series, but between all the other characters, events, and plot points, it is bizarre to me that people see so little in Touka, despite all that she does. 

I could dive into how Touka as a whole symbolises key themes throughout both series, and how that relates to Kaneki’s development, but I think I will save that for a separate meta. For now, I just want to discuss how Touka is positioned in the second series, and how it does not weaken the characterisation Ishida set up in the first. 

Following the end of the first series, which set its tone as a tragedy, Touka opens the ;Re café to act as a refuge for ghouls, just as Yoshimura did beforehand. To clarify, Yoshimura saved Touka from her miserable life on the streets, giving her the chance to live with some semblance of normalcy following the tragic consequences of her childhood. And now, as an adult, and with Yoshimura gone, Touka strives to recreate that environment once more. There are those that think she has done this for Kaneki and Kaneki alone, but that is clearly not the case, even if she does hope for Kaneki’s return one day; she allows Nishiki to take refuge there while he tries to find Kimi, she saves Tsukiyama after the Rosewald operation, and before anyone argues that she was still not directly involved in either case, she actively takes part in Ayato’s mission to save Hinami. It is there that she then sees Kaneki and allows him a place to stay too, following his battle with Arima. She even provides Akira and Amon a place to stay, reconciling their differences in the process, (underrated chapters, I think).

Up until this point, Touka has been forced to ‘live while losing’, and whether she decides to fight or not, it is an unavoidable outcome when it comes to war. She is simply trying to do what she can without trying to kill herself in the process – a flawed sentiment she has seen in her father and Kaneki before, and even to some extent, Ayato and Hinami.

She fights when she can, runs if she has to. She is forced to make this choice again and again, especially when the underground ward is attacked, and for the sake of her unborn child and other weaker ghouls, she must retreat if she doesn’t want all of them to needlessly die. 

That said, it is not as if she leaves without trying to fight first, she just isn’t stupidly overpowered like her opponents, (and that isn’t a jab at Ishida, I’m simply clarifying that she can’t defeat these foes with just Hinami at her side). Even then, she manages to stand her ground for a long time, despite the pregnancy and her hunger. Moreover, her kagune has developed since the first series, and like Ayato, she’s able to create more advanced structures with her ukaku. You just have to read in between the lines to see that Touka has never allowed herself to grow soft in the years Kaneki was away, and that only now, during this battle, can you see more of her capabilities.

And when Kaneki is trapped within Dragon, she finally decides that she cannot lose him – she refuses to lose him, because to do so would bring on too much despair. Just as Kaneki has prioritised Touka, Touka, too, will prioritise him, and so, even with her exhaustion, she battles against Mutsuki, digs through the Dragon’s flesh until her fingers and nails break, and almost succumbs to grief at the thought that he was already lost to her. The chapter is overlooked far too often, her desperate determination conveying to the reader the importance of love as a driving force.

Again, we saw this with Kaneki, who pushed himself past his limits in hopes of reaching Touka. Whether you like it or not, love is a powerful thing, and that has been shown throughout the series with many, if not all the characters. And for Kaneki and Touka, their love is their hope, and to lose that love is to lose their hope. So they fight, again and again, for each other and the light they bring into each other’s lives. 

Now I can argue all day about how Touka is far more active in the series than people care to admit, but I do not think that is why Touka is labelled as a housewife. I’ve been in the fandom for a long time and this label has been around long before their relationship was canonised, and I think it’s to do with the fact that Touka is clearly more feminine in ;Re. 

I’ve already explained that in terms of action, Touka still has plenty of moments to speak of, and personality-wise, I really don’t think she’s as different as people claim her to be. Yes, she’s calmer, but that shouldn’t be seen as a bad development. She’s an adult now, and with adulthood comes maturity, (or it should, anyway). She doesn’t need to fight anyone and everyone to prove herself, that is simply a childish perspective to take. Besides that, she’s still curt in the way she talks, is sarcastic and blunt, though not as harsh as she was before, and she still carries herself with plenty of pride and dignity, which was what was so appealing about her in the first series. Ffs, she confronts the whole CCG and tells them to eat shit because their arguments were annoying her. It’s ridiculous to me that people think she is a shadow of her former self, when there’s plenty of great moments involving her. 

As for her more maternal depictions, that is also something that has always been present, if you take a moment to connect the two series together. She was forced to grow up quickly when she became responsible of Ayato, and she effortlessly took Hinami under her wing after the death of her parents. This is an attribute that she continues to exhibit throughout ;Re, watching over the children and trying to comfort them. It’s a touching image, one that circles back around to her pregnancy. And to deem this progression as detrimental is rather…strange to me. In a time when we see women as strong and powerful for everything we represent – our hardships, both physically and emotionally, as well as our strengths – why is it seen as weak when female characters are utilised to represent the strength of womanhood. Because she’s a woman married to a man? Don’t be so childish. If you respect her characterisation at all, you will acknowledge how she continues to exhibit her strengths as an adult, whether that be in battle or beyond it. 

After all, Ishida could have easily written it so that she is no longer involved in anything past the discovery of her pregnancy. Except he doesn't, and instead, she fights even more, even harder, in spite of her pregnancy. Because of her pregnancy. And yet, this is somehow weakens her character? She is quite literally going beyond her limits to fight for her future, I see nothing weak in that.

It might be that readers dislike how she changes aesthetically, and that’s fine, but from that comes arguments that excuse why they don’t like her character. I could argue against every little argument I’ve seen about her, but at the end of the day, I feel like most of these points are made just to excuse a personal preference. And that is not an effective use of critical reading. You can’t make the story something it isn’t, and you can’t assume Touka was going to be a character she wasn’t written to be. If you don’t like that or disagree, then maybe this series isn’t for you and it’s time to move on. For now, at least, please give her characterisation the respect she deserves. Her role is so much more than the shallow labelling this fandom tends to give her.

[ramblingaboutglee]

Do you have an opinion about Blaine’s character and how they changed him each season?

If this blog has proved anything, it’s that I can ramble, so here we go. 

Watching Glee independently of fandom was... weird. There are a lot of times I delved into fandom after and saw some plot point that I’d loved and found a perfect culmination, actually considered out-of-character or some such. From what I can tell, S2 was such a huge point in-fandom and with fanfic that the fan interpretations of a lot of characters ended up superceding the characters as they were on the show (take Will Schuester getting retconned to Journey superfan in one episode, when in S1 Journey was sung because of its association to Finn when Will wasn’t leading the group, so the show was clearly aware of what I assume are fandom jokes esp in regard to Will not listening to the kids and willing to play it up, and it did seem to happen at a few points). 

All that to say, with Klaine being as big as it was, I feel like Blaine got hit with that harder than most? How much was writers responding to some fandom-takes, how much was the televised version of the character departing from the fanon iteration, and how much was retconning is hard to say.

So, to go season by season. 

Whoops sorry, yeah this is going on for a while. 

Originally... Blaine didn’t really have much of a character? Season 2 was very bare-bones on the character front, they’d shifted the show’s focus to what was almost a sketch comedy at times so everyone was just one or two traits ramped up to insanity with little cohesion, Blaine existed solely in relation to Kurt, and he was ‘advice-giving gay kid, who’s less experienced than he lets on.’ (Like, he’s less sure of even his sexuality than Kurt). That was it. But I imagine this was also the time fanfic solidified him in a lot of people’s minds, when a lot of it wasn’t reflective of who Blaine was on the show? Especially with his minimal arc being presenting himself as more wise and knowing than Kurt, when at the end of the day this turned out to basically be an act/how he presents himself, and him being just as capable of misreading situations (Gap attack) as anyone. But if you read fic when you’d only seen him in his element with all the Warblers at his back and none of the layers being peeled back, I can see that messing with perception of him.

Season 3 defined him more clearly as a hopless romantic and a dreamer, both making more sense of his character, and fitting in with the themes of the show. The optimist who sometimes does questionable things in the name of that optimism, but trusts that things will work out well. Cliche views of sex, overcoming odds, romance... Which justifies his previous characterisation, though cracks start to show as he adjusts from being a big deal in the Warblers, to The New Kid. This carries on to season 4, where he faces he consequences of those aspirations, and acknowledges that switching schools for a guy is, well, a romantic idea in a storybook but kinda ends poorly in reality, following on from his alienation as well when the New Directions aren’t as in-sync with him as the Warblers were. Cue Blaine going from basically the head of a gay cult show choir in a private school with strict no bullying policies, in regular contact with his boyfriend, to alone in a homophobic less well-to-do school. He made the decision out of cheerful, unrealistic idealism, and it ended up the way it inevitably would. 

Which is when the meta element comes in again. Blaine is definitely acting different in season 4, but he’s also existing in a different context. For me, at least, it felt like natural development? He’s the hopeless romantic who feels like he can’t relate to his boyfriend, because Kurt’s graduated high school and moved to NY, Kurt has a completely different life and set of life experiences to Blaine. Heck, the fact Kurt ends up in an open relationship in S4, while the end of his dynamic with Blaine was down to him sleeping with someone else says a lot. Post high school, Kurt’s development is necessarily supercharged because that’s just how life goes once you’re out away from home for the first time, S4 was admittedly too overstretched to fully justify it all, but the fact that the NY cast had to adjust to a massively different context was one of the conflicts of the season. Blaine, meanwhile, is still in McKinley. Still in Lima. Unsurprisingly, he lags behind, and feels that pressure. 

Season 5 I guess is where we get weird? 5B, at least the New York stretch, follows on from the above well - post-graduation, Blaine is still the romantic, still tries for things with Kurt, and they definitely chafe a little to begin with when they try to completely jump into living together fresh after barely having gotten back together, and it clicks as a good follow-up to where they were. They have to get to know who one another are now, after massive transitional points in their lives. 

5A is, okay, tricky. The proposal fits who Blaine was - the same guy that swapped schools for Kurt, the impulsive romantic - but after, Blaine gets a gimmick every week, but then every episode of 5A was a different gimmick every week (then again, the same can be said for S2 where Blaine originated so hey) so it’s hard to say much about character. You have him befriending Tina and Sam, with all the crushes there, some stuff I am not touching, but it sticks out as well that Blaine does tend to stick with what’s familiar to him. But yeah, this is the bit where it feels like Glee dropping consistency for set pieces and jokes. 

S6 then sweeps in to conclude the arc. Obviously a big recurring element of Glee was characters finding themselves, deciding who they are and what they want to be, and Blaine gets matched with Rachel in this regard - he ostensibly gets a big success, but it doesn’t last, and he’s back doing nothing with no lodestone. So he does the same thing she does, and returns to his high school for the familiar atmosphere - and picks the school where he felt the most comfortable. One arc later, and his big song with Kurt for the finale includes the line “The daydream believer and the homecoming queen,” and I’m just assuming there are, like, a hundred klaine fics with that exact title.

Okay so, after all that. I don’t feel like Blaine necessarily changes at his core? At least for me, the arc’s easy to trace out - he’s a dreamer, a romantic, an optimist, who figures problems are easy to solve and that things will work out the way they do in daydreams. Reality challenges that at a few points, it hits him hard, and he loses both his Warbler-fame and Kurt and does start to spiral as Glee characters are wont to do. He definitely develops, but the core seems pretty consistent. 

Glee is really consistent with making characters question what it is they want, and whether it’ll make them happy. Like, basically every character has to go through that arc and come to their own answers. Rachel has her Broadway dreams and ends up struggling with the reality, Quinn has basically everything in regards to what she perceives as the ‘proper’ way to live her life, Kurt has his Broadway dreams especially with the limited roles for his range of voice... For Blaine, his dreams hit a similar beat, coming with the storybook idea as to how his relationship will go, solving someone’s problems with a few words (with Karofsky - a failure), being the wise mentor, grand romantic gestures that end up being bad ideas... 

Though I guess the oddities stick out more, with S2 and 5A as seasons with different focuses meaning you’re getting the same character in functionally a different genre which is always messy, and the vibe I get that fandom had a solid conception of who Blaine ought to be, before the end of S2? 

This was probably too long a reply, but hey. 

Overall, my opinion of Blaine is... relatively neutral? Which is no reflection on him - as much as I can make jokes about a lot of dynamics, I’m most attached to the characters after graduation just because, well, I watched the show as an adult. Unavoidably, they’re the ones I find more relatable. So barring characters with really solid inherent hooks (so, Quinn) I can enjoy the high school drama, but none of the characters immediately stand out to me - so Blaine works at a disadvantage with less than a full season’s length graduated. (Equally, to be honest, the seasons where Blaine felt like more of a presence, 2 and 5, were also my least favourite seasons, which definitely isn’t down to him but it does hurt his character, for me). I like his arc, Klaine is obviously fun, I like their dynamic as exes awkwardly navigating one another too sorry. He isn’t someone I hugely thought about because out-of-fandom he was a fairly secondary-to-tertiary character a lot of the time, but I like his development and he has some good arcs. I like how he goes full circle, from playing the part of a mentor in S2, to actually gaining the experience and confidence to fill that role by the end. 

Thanks for the ask! And, er, sorry

[logicalbookthief]

Things Left Unsaid -- An Analysis of Rei & Touya

Apparently Rei has been getting a lot of flack lately, all of it undeserved, and since I had a post analyzing her relationship with Touya in the works already, I figured no time like the present.

Disclaimer #1: There are a lot of issues with the writing for Rei’s character that have nothing to do with her and everything to do with how the storyline is using her, which I will address and examine.

Disclaimer #2: I’m someone who, while always curious as to what kind of relationship Rei had with her oldest son before he died, never thought it would be revealed that Touya was close to his mom. I don’t think you get the Dabi we see in Chapters 290-295 without him being so warped by his relationship with his father yet so dependent on his attention that he was willing to kill his brother and himself simply for his father’s acknowledgement.

But that’s what I find so interesting about Rei and Touya -- it’s a relationship that mainly consists of regrets and things left unsaid. There isn’t the anger or resentment Dabi feels for Endeavor, because that intense level of emotion sprung from the loss of the father who used to be his whole world. His feelings toward his mother seem more amicable, but also more distant.

And while she could’ve done some things differently in regards to her oldest, I want to make it clear that the distance between them was very much by design.

After all, Touya was the end goal of their marriage. It was never any secret as to why Enji wanted to marry her and to some extent Rei must’ve realized that this child was not meant to be hers: the child was the transaction, the thing she was needed to create, to give to her husband. Of course she loved Touya and was likely his primary caregiver for most of his life, but there was no doubt that once his quirk manifested and he could begin his hero training, his life would be dominated by his father. Which is what happened.

Here, I would like to point out something I noticed in the flashback chapters. We never see any panels of Enji alone with any of his children during their infancy -- even with Shouto, the perfect child he longed for, we see Rei holding Shouto, sitting by him as he sleeps. Enji is there tangentially. Once Shouto begins his training, that is when we see him with his father.

So to see Enji with Touya when he was a baby, prior to his quirk manifesting, strikes me as a big deal. But it makes sense if you remember that he’d placed all his hopes, dreams and expectations on his firstborn. Initially, it doesn’t look like he even considered the possibility that Touya wouldn’t be his successor or that his little eugenics experiment would fail; this was his first, most optimistic attempt at a masterpiece. So I don’t believe it’s far-fetched to see him spend more time with Touya right off the bat (it’s what will make the eventual abandonment all the more crushing).

However, Rei isn’t seen at all in the snippet of Touya’s infancy, despite us knowing she was relegated to the caregiver role. Rei is literally out of the picture. Compare this to how she features prominently in Shouto’s infancy or how we see her holding a baby Natsuo. You could argue that, hey, we don’t see her holding a baby Fuyumi either, but there’s other scenes where Fuyumi’s attached to her mother’s hip or crying over her being hurt. Things that suggest a closeness, when the only scene we get of just her and Touya is one where they’re at odds. 

As we move further into Touya’s childhood, though, Rei becomes the only voice we hear advocate for him against his father. I’m referencing two specific instances:

When Enji coerces her into having more children to replace Touya now that his father has deemed him a failure, something she knows will hurt their son deeply.

And after Touya lashes out at Shouto, which Rei doesn’t blame on Touya, but rather on his father. She delivers such a satisfying condemnation of his actions, probably the most cutting one Endvr’s received to date, and it so accurately sums up one of his major character flaws.

How can you call yourself a hero when you can’t even face your own son?

The tragedy of it all is that Rei never said any of this in front of Touya -- it was always said in private, just to her husband. That alone took courage, yes, but it would’ve meant everything to Touya to hear her condemn his father aloud. Instead when she does speak to him, she says this:

It’s why I can’t wrap my head around that scene in Ch 302, where after Enji admits he didn’t know what to say to Touya, Rei replies, “Neither did I.” 

When we’re shown in flashbacks during that same chapter that she did understand her son. “He just wants to be acknowledged by you” is quite the indication that she, at the very least, understood the cause of Touya’s turmoil even if she couldn’t fully relate to it herself. So why can’t she say any of this to him?

The answer is in the way she addresses Touya, as it is nearly identical to how Nao addresses Tenko in this scene:

Both Touya and Tenko grew up in similar households: the father had all the power, physical and financial, so the mothers were left to try and comfort their children in a way that didn’t go against their husbands’ desires -- and so, to use Tenko’s own words, they would “reject them with kindness.”

So it’s no wonder that Touya lashes out at his mother after she suggests he pursue other things. He isn’t five like Tenko was, he’s thirteen and has a much clearer understanding of why she says this and why it’s a bit hypocritical, since he’s aware of her situation, too.

Just as she was bound by her family, who wanted her to marry Endvr for the money and status, he’s bound by the expectations of his family. I’m not sure if I’ve seen anyone else touch on this detail, but when Touya states that he knows his grandparents sold his mom into marriage so his dad could have a child, we could infer that Touya knows enough to realize that his mother might not have necessarily wanted him.

Not him specifically, but any child — the story has neglected to flesh her out beyond her marriage and motherhood, so we have no idea if Rei wanted to become a mother prior to this arrangement, despite how much she loves her kids now — although it is possible that he might’ve internalized it this way.

So you have Touya, who at least knows with certainty that his father wanted him to exist, yet he comes to understand that his father only wants him if he can meet a specific set of expectations, and if he cannot, he’ll be discarded. If he can’t surpass All Might, he can’t fulfill his reason for existing and his father will have to replace him. So to have his mother urge him to follow a path other than becoming a hero would mean, to Touya, accepting that he is the mistake he fears he is. Of course he isn’t going to respond well to that.

I don’t like when people try to compare Touya’s reaction in this moment to Shouto’s when Rei tells him he isn’t bound by his father’s blood, using that to paint Shouto as the “good” child and Touya as the “bad” one. They didn’t react differently because of any innate sense of goodness or lack thereof -- they reacted differently because the situations are different.

Telling Shouto that he didn’t have to be like his father comforted Shouto, who only knew his father as the bully who hurt his mom. He associated his father, and his father’s fire, with all of that fear and pain -- and thus, he associated the part of himself that took after his father with those feelings. She wasn’t denying his dream of becoming a hero, only assuring him that when he became a hero it could be whatever kind of hero he chose to be, that he wasn’t doomed to be like his father.

Whereas what she tells Touya sounds a lot like what his father told him, which was to give up on being a hero and pursue other aspirations.

Encouraging Shouto to become his own version of a hero still falls in line with what Endvr ultimately wants, which is for Shouto to be a hero capable of surpassing All Might. Whereas this is what happens when Touya continues to train to do that against his father’s wishes:

This is where the framing begins to bother me and where Rei’s characterization becomes inconsistent. 

So in this scene from Ch 302, we see Enji abusing his wife for “letting” Touya continue to train, punishing her for her “failure” to stop him. Obviously, none of that is Rei’s fault. If anything, Enji would be more responsible for preventing Touya from hurting himself since he’s the reason his son is hurting himself in the first place.

Moreover, the fact that he hits Rei over this sort of muddies the water of an previously-established narrative. Since the Sports Festival arc, we’ve known that Endvr abused his wife because she tried to interfere with Shouto’s training. It got to the point where she was terrified of her husband and it drove her to a breakdown. Why introduce this new aspect to the abuse, when it was already established that a) he was physically abusive and b) his motivations for abusing her were explicit to the audience? 

I’m not saying it doesn’t make sense that a man who hits his wife for one reason could find another reason to do it and justify his actions to himself. And while the scene does portray Endvr in a bad light to show how wrong his actions are, literally draping his figure in shadow, why does it even dare to suggest the idea that Rei was remiss in her duties as a mother? Again, the scene isn’t even necessary, since the narrative has long-since showed the audience that Enji abused his wife. 

By itself, the scene would read as further exploration of how Rei was victimized and how it affected her children. When you look at it with the chapter as a whole, though? Remember, this is the chapter where Rei claims that all of the family shares the blame in what happened to Touya, displacing some of the blame that rightfully rests on Enji. 

But my major gripe with this scene is how it reframes the sole moment we get of Rei and Touya alone. Because we know that Rei understands Touya, based on her confrontations with her husband in Ch 301 & 302. Rather than encourage him to be what he wants or acknowledge that his father is in the wrong, however, her advice falls in line with what Enji wants -- to stop Touya from training. And this comes after a scene where we see Enji beat his wife when she doesn’t stop Touya from training.

With all that in mind, it could potentially be read as Rei trying stop Touya for the sake of protecting herself and the family -- I don’t think it’s coincidence that in the scene where he hits her that we see Shouto, Fuyumi & Natsuo all as witnesses who are very distressed by what’s happening to their mother -- at the cost of Touya’s need to be validated. And if executed well or at least better than it has here, that wouldn’t be a bad choice of narrative per se, and it would fit into the pattern where the households the villains were raised in -- notably Shigaraki, Dabi & Toga -- mimic the society they live in, just on a smaller scale.

Except. Does that sort of narrative make sense based on what we already know about Rei?

Certainly, it is natural to want to protect yourself under physical and/or emotional duress by appeasing your abuser. This sort of complicated dynamic appears in the Shimura family, too. Just like in the house that Kotaro built, the Todoroki family revolves around the desires of the abuser and is dictated by his whims.

I would argue that Nao does give us a well-written example of this narrative. From the beginning, it’s established that she loves Tenko dearly. But in the house her husband built, there’s no room to love her son as he deserves. She prioritizes the feelings of Tenko’s father for the sake of maintaining peace in the household and this is established quickly and plainly.

Early on in the flashback, Kotaro exerts his control over the house, while Nao + her parents look uncomfortable. Despite this, we watch as they comply with his rules, all at the expense of Tenko’s feelings. When she stands up to Kotaro at last, it is not where Tenko can see and already too late. It’s a painful story, full of regret and sadness, but it is consistent from start to end. Nobody feels out-of-character or there to prop up anybody else.

So why doesn’t Rei feel as consistent in this narrative?

Because it doesn’t fit with everything we knew about Rei prior to her abuser’s subpar redemption arc.

The way she interacts with Touya would make sense, if this was how she was portrayed from the start. However, her behavior in Shouto’s flashback -- where she was first introduced -- contrasts what we get in the later Todoroki flashbacks.

Let’s compare this to the scenes in Ch 302. Here, Rei interferes on Shouto’s behalf. She advocates for her son in front of Shouto where he can hear. She stands up to his bully/villain and tries to protect him, while also validating his feelings in the process. Directly after this, Enji hits her, not for failing to comply with his demands, but for defying him. 

It is difficult to reconcile this Rei with the Rei we get in Ch 302. And if you try to find an in-story reason for the inconsistency, the options either do a disservice to Rei or make things even more painful for Touya. But I’m sure most of you have realized that I’m going to suggest a reason for this inconsistency that goes beyond the canon.

Because when Rei was first introduced in the story, Endvr was unequivocally the villain in the Todoroki family, not some misguided patriarch trying to atone for his “past” mistakes. Years later and in the midst of his redemption arc, the narrative seems to be intent on making this man more palatable to readers, and it’s used Rei at every opportunity to prop up his efforts to be better. Often, though, it takes some of the heat off Enji by displacing it onto other family members, most significantly Rei & Touya.

Like, you can literally see the difference in the frame from early in the manga to now:

Ch 39: Endvr trains his five-year-old to the point where he’s throwing up due overextension and being punched by a fully grown adult who is also his father. Rei tries to protect her son and gets slapped by Endvr. All the blames rests squarely on Endvr, who is clearly the aggressor and painted as the villain here.

Ch 302: Endvr hits Rei for not preventing Touya from sneaking out to train, knocking her to the ground. Again, Endvr is clearly the aggressor, but oh this time it’s not driven solely by his selfish desires it’s also cocnern for his son; Rei is the victim but oh she also should have been watching him more closely, and oh well why was Touya going out in the first place, when everyone has told him to stop and he knows his mom will get punished for it?

Honestly, I can understand where some people have mixed feelings over Rei’s character, particularly since the writing has done her such a disservice recently. With that being said, however, it takes a minimum amount of critical thinking to recognize that while you can criticize some choices she made, you cannot hold her to the same standard of accountability as Enji, it’s absurd. The power imbalance was obviously tipped in Endvr’s favor, always.

It is a shame, too, that we can’t have more discussions that don’t turn into some readers (a lot of whom are attempting to make Endvr sound less horrible than he actually was) trying to demonize her. It’s doubly a shame the story itself doesn’t bother to flesh her out as a person, instead using her as a prop, because the complex relationships she has with Touya -- with all her children, really -- has plenty of room for exploration. 

Like, there was no reason to add this new dimension of resentment due to her spouting Enji’s words back at Touya, when there was already a source of tension supported by previous canon -- the neglect the Todoroki kids suffered because Rei couldn’t be the parent they needed, due to her declining mental health and eventual breakdown.

Or, if you want to complicate their dynamic further, why not add something that focuses on Rei and has nothing to do with Enji? We learn in the flashbacks that Rei agreed to the marriage more-or-less to please her family, lamenting that she “intended to smile through it to the end,” essentially admitting that her hope was she could grin and bear it. It is telling that she had this attitude before entering her marriage; evidently, she was raised with the idea that she should be acquiescent to her parents’ whims and not express herself if she was only going to be contrary. Maybe she didn’t know how to deal with Touya’s very expressive, very emotional outbursts as a result. And her inability to respond would be the exact opposite of what Touya was seeking.

Not to mention that Touya died, and for the last decade, Rei was under the impression she had lost her son forever. He died while she was hospitalized, torn up with guilt over what she did to Shouto, only to find out that her other son died in a frankly horrific manner, and she could do nothing. By the time she would’ve found out, it was too late to even try to do anything. I can’t imagine what she must’ve felt in terms of regret alone, plus her grief. And I’m still mad we were robbed of her reaction to Touya being alive, because now suddenly there is a chance to do something, to change what was once written in stone.

Or what about Touya’s feelings for his mother, that have yet to be given much depth? As the oldest and most aware of his existence, it seems like he was the first to truly understand his mother’s situation and I can’t help but wonder: If Touya knew he vessel for his father’s ambition, and his mother was sold into role of creating/caring for him, did he question her love for him? Once he found out one parent’s love was conditional, it wouldn’t be a leap for him to consider it for the other. And yet if that’s true, Dabi doesn’t appear to hold any ill-will towards her for that. He was angry at her hypocrisy, because he knows she should understand, but her words to him didn’t reflect that.

All of that is fascinating and so much better than what we got in canon, so far at least. I’m hoping for them interact in the present at least once before the end of the series, and I think they will, but as to how satisfying a reconciliation it’ll be, I guess we’ll have to wait to see how the Todoroki plotline progresses from here on out.

[sunlightandsuffering]

Corruption au Eren cockwarms mikasa once they’re together, he says ‘it helps him remember things’ and then every so often he gives her an orgasm just to keep her pliant against him while she plays with her boobs, he doesn’t do it in a cruel kind of way, it just he wants to pleasure her while doing his work

however when they’re not together, he’s such a sadist about it, he refuses to let her come even after he’s done his hw and is just fucking her, he always leaves when he’s done. Until one day when he starts feeling bad, he lets her come and it absolutely ruins him, he becomes obsessed with pleasuring her and seeing her face flushed pink, and hearing the needy sounds she makes and the quiet sighs, and the way her hands frantically move around until he Holds them together

STOP U GUYS KNOW ABOUT MY COCKWARMING OBSESSION STOP IT 😂😂 omg bless corruption Eren tho, this is my favourite kink for him, its so hot and it fits their situation perfectly.

It starts slow for Eren, to be honest he has no fucking idea when it really started. One day he'd been failing calculus, accepting he wasn't going to pass the year and thinking about maybe dealing drugs as a career path over his previous dreams of doctor. The next he was being forced to study three days out of the week with high school princess, Mikasa Ackerman.

At first he'd hated it, hated her really. He'd never been able to stand her, not since they were little and she'd chosen the dark side of Historia Reiss, bully and mean girl if there ever was one. Historia had sweet innocent baby Mikasa under her thumb. Mikasa followed her around like a dumb fucking puppy and Eren hated followers, they were all the same, no personalities, no aspirations of their own. She had no backbone either. She let all the shit Historia did slide, all the bullying, the holier than thou attitude because her family was richer than god. So very typical of the rich kids from the upper class neighbourhood. Eren would know, he used to be that rich kid, used to live that life. That was until his parents died in a brutal car accident, Zeke had inherited half the estate on the condition he'd take care of Eren and the rest was tied up in Eren's trust fund until he was twenty one.

Big surprise, no one had taken care of Eren and he was fucking lucky Armin and his grandpa had been there to help him out.

Everyone else, all his other 'friends' had given him the cold shoulder upon finding out he was no longer rich for the moment, he'd been dropped like a hot potato. So Eren's hatred of the upper class of Shiganshina had begun.

And Mikasa Ackerman was the pinnacle of it all, the worst the rich had to offer. She was beautiful, smart, loaded, had every opportunity in life, completely innocent and sweet, and the cherry on top of it all she volunteered on the weekend at the pound.

She disgusted him, so prim and proper and all around good girl while she was letting her 'friends' bully him for being poor, watching the injustice happen like a fish in a bowl.

He couldn't fucking stand her.

Of course, she would be the person who ended up tutoring him though, Principal Erwin mandating it if he wanted to graduate. So here he was sitting in the computer lab at five on a Wednesday watching her plump lips move as she explained integrals to him for the third time in an hour.

It's been a few months since they've started this little arrangement and he's gotten used to her presence. He wouldn't say he likes her, thats a stretch but he's not quite as cruel as he once was. He'd be lying if he said he didn't get a kick of watching that beautiful mouth part every time he does something mean though, those little gasps when he pinches her thigh or touches her where he shouldn't.

It's probably the highlight of these sessions.

Today he's feeling bold, maybe he'll push his luck. After all, he's done it before and she's never protested. For some reason or another Mikasa Ackerman has a soft spot for him, and no matter how mean, she lets him get away with murder. "Miki, come here I can't hear you properly." "And then you take the-what?" She looks up, pretty dove-grey eyes wide, sparkling as she explains her favourite subject, fucking math.

"You heard me, get over here." As usual, she takes orders so fucking well, it brings out the absolute worst in him. She's standing up and next to him in seconds and he's eye level with her perfect chest, those tits he dreams about every night, ripping her bra off with his teeth and sucking at those pretty pink nipples of hers. He's only seen them a few times, when he convinces her it's okay, when he's sure there's absolutely no one around, but they keep him awake at night. He pats his lap, grinning as she goes easily, settling into her favourite spot, he knows she loves it just as much as he does. Her thighs always shake and she shudders as his hands find their place cupping those beautiful creamy thighs, head tucked into her shoulder.

Mikasa starts talking again, beautiful lilt soothing him as she launches into a renewed explanation of integrals while his hands move up, up, up and to his absolute favourite spot, her panties. Today she's wearing cotton, he can feel it, must be laundry day and he kisses her shoulder as he feels how wet she is. Fucking perfect.

Lately she's been more partial to fancier underwear and he can't help but wonder if it's for him. He has a feeling it is, because the first month of their little arrangement he'd snuck as many peaks as they could and it was always pink or white cotton with polka dots and pretty bows. They were his favourite, so fucking innocent, so untouched by anyone but him.

He watches as she moves her pencil drawing lines and numbers, a little bit of the alphabet too and he ignores it all in favour of watching her chest, her breath hitch as he slides a finger inside her panties, feeling those velvet lips, it's been a while.

He's been on his best behaviour lately since Levi almost caught them at her house that one time, but he's horny and she's wet and he misses being inside her, misses watching her try to talk through him fucking her, how her voice would waver, change pitch. How many times she'd stumble through her sentences, have to start all over again, because she can't handle how big he is, doesn't know how to deal with the all-consuming sensation of him fucking deep within her walls, just sitting there filling her right up to her cervix.

Fuck.

He can't really be blamed for what he does next, and besides it doesn't matter, Eren's not a stupid kid, he allowed himself to get this far behind in calculus. He'd spent an hour last night going over integrals with the sole purpose of knowing what was going on today so he could fuck with his favourite toy.

He moves her a bit so she's resting more heavily on one thigh and slides his joggers and boxers down just enough expose his heavy cock to the air, already rock hard and waiting. Mikasa gasps a little bit, a breathy sound quick and sharp as she sees him, her eyes transfixed on his dick and he grins, sliding her panties to the side and slamming her down on him before she even knows what hit her. The slide is so fucking easy too, it takes almost nothing and he gets a sick sense of satisfaction that even with little to no prep she can take him, probably better than anyone else he's ever fucked. She takes it all no complaints, as deep as she can and he bottoms out.

She lets out a long moan, that pretty sound he wants to record and listen to on his phone over and over again, her head lolling back uselessly against his shoulder as she takes in the sensation.

"Miki baby you know this helps me remember better right, sorry it just wasn't getting through my head I was too distracted, but now I'm all ears, why don't you continue. What's that rule you were talking about, how are derivatives and integrals related again baby, they're opposites?"

She's breathing quick and Eren doesn't blame her, he's struggling to keep his tone level as her walls squeeze him, warm and soft and he wants to stay buried there forever, she's so fucking tight.

"I-Eren-I-yeah, opposites," she finally manages to get the last word out ending a little broken as she struggles to sit up and make herself comfortable on his cock, she should be used to it by now with how often he does this, but it never fails she always reacts like she's taking him for the first time all over again. He fucking loves it.

"Why don't you explain again baby, I don't think I really understand? And make sure you're clear Mikasa." She nods, still squirming around, every movement shooting electricity up through both of them as she accidentally grinds down, she lets out an involuntary moan and Eren smirks.

Eren takes it upon himself to move her up and off his cock a few inches before impaling her back down, biting down on her neck a little bit as punishment and she whines, teeth coming out to bite down on her lip brutally as she tries to keep quiet.

"Stop moving baby, you're distracting me, just take my cock like a good girl and explain for me yeah?" She replies brokenly her voice soft and struggling with her breaths, "Yeah."

[raincitygirl76]

Reblogging yet again for a VERY on point addition by @retrieve-the-kraken I think they’re right, August told Simon he was broke (granted, he wasn’t thinking clearly at the time). Simon used that information to blackmail him into selling drugs to their classmates. Then when August tried to get Simon expelled (in revenge for Simon having once gotten the better of him), Simon gave that information to Wilhelm. Who used it to humiliate August in front of all the Society boys, seize control of the Society, and protect his boyfriend from expulsion.

August really LIKES Sara, probably even loves her. He doesn’t want to reveal that information to her. What if she thinks he’s emasculated because he can’t handle his financial business, and loses interest in him sexually and romantically? Plus, in 1.06 when Sara first cut a deal with August, she said, “I want to be like you.” She didn’t mean she wanted to be broke, she meant she aspired to have his pedigree, his privilege, his ability to move through the world as a superior being compared to ordinary mortals.

Carl Johan committed SUICIDE because he was faced with the prospect of having to sell Arnas after he’d mismanaged his inheritance and become an addict. Those two things are probably related, by the way. I don’t know whether Carl Johan turned to drugs to escape the pressure of his worsening financial situation, or if drug use contributed to him making bad financial decisions. Doesn’t really matter which came first.

The point is financial failure and the public humiliation of potentially losing Arnas was so INTOLERABLE to Carl Johan, he preferred to die. And in 1.03, when Louise urges her son to sell something to pay his tuition, August himself says, “I’d rather die.” I’m not saying August is necessarily suicidal like his father. But he has totally internalized Carl Johan’s inflexible, unrealistic attitude towards their ancestral home. An attitude which most likely contributed to Carl Johan getting to the point where suicide seemed like a valid way out.

Also, August probably interpreted his father’s suicide as a rejection of him personally. He wasn’t good enough for Carl Johan to choose him over death. Please note, nobody who’s suicidal THINKS of themselves as abandoning or rejecting their loved ones by their actions. I have clinical depression and have been suicidal (though a long time ago). When I attempted suicide, I was convinced I was saving my loved ones from the burden of having to deal with toxic me. But the EFFECT of suicide (or attempted suicide) on someone’s loved ones is they often feel rejected/abandoned.

A few months after Carl Johan’s death, Louise packed her only child off to boarding school. Not long after, she quickly remarried, not to another nobleman, but a mere lawyer. She replaced her husband with an inferior substitute, which probably made August even more determined to be a son Carl Johan would’ve been proud of.

So now August is determined to save Arnas, and to be perfect, or at least to maintain an image of perfection and never let that image drop. The only role model he’ll accept is Carl Johan, who wouldn’t compromise on his obsession with Arnas. Also an addict who committed suicide, thus inadvertently abandoning his wife and child.

Once August got to Hillerska, his cousin Erik was a third year when he was a first year. Erik was kind to August, took him under his wing, realized he was traumatized by his father’s recent suicide. But Erik also overlooked August’s bad qualities, or tried to explain them away as a result of trauma. Which they probably were.

August tried to become a carbon copy of his older cousin. He idolized Erik, made him a role model. In his own third year, he was a prefect and captain of the rowing team, just like Erik had been. But he didn’t copy Erik’s behaviour as a loving big brother, just copied his accomplishments at Hillerska.

When Erik dropped his little brother off at Hillerska in 1.01, he wanted August to look out for Wilhelm the same way Erik had looked out for August when August was also 16 and troubled. But Erik failed to realize (or didn’t want to realize) that August and Wilhelm would never get along. The more August asserted his authority, the more Wilhelm rebelled. And to August’s disgust, Wilhelm took up with the wrong kind of people. Who August inconveniently owed money to.

After Erik died, August and Wilhelm fought even more. Wilhelm had moved past befriending the unsuitable non-resident who knew dirt on August, and was now sleeping with him. When August tried to get Wilhelm’s secret boyfriend expelled, Wilhelm retaliated, as I mentioned above. August was so enraged, he didn’t give a shit that Erik had trusted him to look out for his little brother. August had genuinely grieved Erik, but revenge on Wilhelm was much more important.

Erik had assured Wilhelm that August might be annoying, but he should overlook the annoyance because August was intrinsically trustworthy. August was family, and you could always depend on family. When Erik had asked August to look out for Wihelm at Hillerska, I doubt he ever expected August to put Erik’s 16 year old brother’s naked body all over the internet, and out him and his boyfriend to the entire world.

August’s need to show dominance over Wihelm and Simon after the Society debacle took priority over his supposed role model. What Erik would’ve wanted from the younger cousin he’d mentored and supported when August was vulnerable and grieving didn’t matter. Only revenge mattered, even though August surely knew Erik had loved his little brother and trusted August to protect him. Instead August violated Wilhelm. August’s anger issues led to him betraying his own family, and undermining the monarchy his precious Society had all sworn loyalty to.

But enough about Erik, let’s get back to another dead family member August and Wilhelm had in common. Carl Johan might also have had undiagnosed mental health issues which led to his suicide. I’m sure the drugs and the financial stress were a huge factor, but most addicts aren’t suicidal. If the show had wanted Carl Johan to have died because of his addiction, he could’ve overdosed. Instead, he canonically took his own life.

Wihelm is a blood relative (Carl Johan’s first cousin once removed) and has an undiagnosed anxiety disorder. Other mutual relatives we haven’t met yet might also struggle with depression, anxiety, and other issues. Mental health issues often run in families. How much is genetic and how much is the family environment is unclear, but regardless, they run in families. And August (Carl Johan’s only child) not only has an explosive temper, he also very likely has an eating disorder and body dysmorphia. Which are also mental health issues.

And as @retrieve-the-kraken mentioned, August is incapable of backing down. EVER. He incurs a debt to Simon in early S1, Simon isn’t cowed by his position and insists on payment, and it escalates. August MUST retaliate after Simon gains the upper hand. It’s intolerable to be weak, to let someone dominate you and not make them pay for having exposed your weakness. So it continues to escalate.

The ongoing conflict with Simon merges with August’s ongoing conflict with Wilhelm. An attempt at getting rid of Simon backfires, when Wilhelm protects his boyfriend and gets into a power struggle with his cousin as a result. August is exposed to the Society as nearly bankrupt. The same danger that led to his father’s death. August’s precious image of perfection destroyed, at least in front of the Hillerska boys he considers important enough to be his peers. Landed aristocrats like the one August might stop being, if he can’t save Arnas.

August NEEDS revenge on both Wilhelm and Simon for making him look weak. So he leaks the video on the internet, and now he’s a sex offender. If the police ever find out, August risks prison and public disgrace. Not that he realized that at the time, but the thirst to dominate Wilhelm and Simon and make them pay for humiliating him was more important than any rational or family considerations. Like, “maybe I should just delete that video I accidentally took of my 16 year old cousin having sex with another boy, instead of holding onto it for future leverage.”

Wilhelm also has an explosive temper, that also might run in the family. But Wilhelm is capable of backing down. He definitely has major anger issues, but he’s not so consumed by toxic masculinity that he can’t break a destructive cycle when he gets some much-needed perspective. Yeah, he does have toxic masculinity issues, particularly in early S2 when he’s trying to humiliate August and take away the things in life August values. But toxic masculinity doesn’t consume him.

From 2.01 to early 2.04, Wilhelm is consumed by thirst for revenge on August and desperate desire to get Simon back. He never stops holding a grudge against August, but he eventually realizes if he loves Simon, he has to let him go. Simon can’t be happy with him, and it’s better to see Simon happy with someone else than to see Simon miserable. Wilhelm letting him go in 2.04 doesn’t work out at ALL the way he expects, but he makes that decision unselfishly. Wilhelm does plenty of stupid, selfish shit, and he hurts people he cares about. But he has the capacity for self-reflection, and the capacity to prioritize other people’s happiness over his own desires.

Also the capacity to step back and choose not to continue feeding an arms race of tit-for-tat continual escalations. In 2.05, Wilhelm considers giving August his heart’s desire by abdicating his own place in the succession. He doesn’t want to make August happy, but he realizes his life might be better if he could walk away from all the royal bullshit. And he might be able to get Simon back if he weren’t crown Prince.

Kristina only tells Wilhelm August is his backup to try and fuel his anger with August. She expects him to want to hang onto his birthright, to be a more cooperative crown prince so he can ensure August never takes his place. But again, Wilhelm has enough capacity for self-reflection to wonder if staying crown prince and becoming king someday just to spite August is worth it. Will successfully spiting august actually make him happy? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t think that’s what Kristina intended when she told her son! She’s counting on his anger at August prevailing over any other considerations. She underestimates him.

In 2.06, Wilhelm holds August at gunpoint! Their arms race has escalated to the point where it’s potentially fatal. When Sara reveals she’s known it was August who leaked the video all along, Wilhelm is initially even more enraged. His gut reaction when he finds out August has destroyed Simon’s family is to escalate yet again.

But then Simon is distraught by his big sister’s betrayal and runs away. Wilhelm immediately stops dominating August and making him beg for his life. He drops the gun, and chases after Simon to try and comfort him. He fails, but wanting to nurture takes precedence over wanting to punish and destroy. That’s the opposite of toxic masculinity.

August has hurt Simon, but Wille instinctively prioritizes trying to help Simon through this trauma. Getting back at August for hurting Simon would be a nice to have for Wille, but it’s not his top priority. When push comes to shove, Wilhelm chooses supporting someone he loves over getting revenge on someone he hates. He literally walks away from August, who’s on his knees at the shooting range. August just isn’t that important to Wille anymore.

August isn’t capable of that kind of insight. He’s too caught up in toxic masculinity, in maintaining a false image of perfection, in striving for the perfect muscular body via obsessive exercise, in vengeance for past humiliations. The boy Wille loves decides to forgive him his betrayal from 1.06, and agrees to be with him in secret. Simon sees Wilhelm’s capacity for love and is willing to take a leap of faith and trust him again. Also, Simon and Wilhelm both hate August, but they don’t want that hatred to consume them. Finding happiness together is more important.

Wille has plenty of anger issues but he’s capable of self-reflection and prioritizing people he cares about over his own anger. He also has the capacity to back down and change his mind, when he realizes his actions aren’t helping. By contrast, August’s actions result in him losing the girl he loves. Even buying Rousseau for her isn’t enough to win her back. She’s too disgusted with him and with herself. August sold one of Carl Johan’s paintings (something he’d sworn he’d never do) just to make Sara happy. But Sara rejects both August and the expensive gift he sacrificed one of his father’s possessions for.

And she calls the cops to report August’s crime. He’s a legal adult at 18. If he becomes the prime suspect in a case of child pornography, the media can report his name. Even if the case never goes to trial or he has great lawyers and gets acquitted, his reputation would be damaged. Also, even his fellow aristocrats might be appalled by his actions. Not because they necessarily care about child pornography of two queer minors, but because by leaking the video, August damaged the monarchy.

August thought his father’s addiction problems and suicide were bad for the Horn name. August could damage their family name much worse. Because he can’t walk away from a confrontation, it’s intolerable for anyone to dominate him, he MUST retaliate and punish them if they ever got the better of him, even once. His vision of himself as strong, masculine, and capable is incredibly fragile and conditional, so he can never back down. August is soaking in toxic masculinity, and not only is everybody who knows him miserable as a result of his actions, HE’S miserable too. He’s the architect of all his own misfortunes.

Goddamn, this got RIDICULOUSLY long. And rambling. Who would’ve thought there’d be so much stream of consciousness meandering possible over that prick?

I am largely pro-season 2 of Young Royals, and support Lisa’s script decisions. Every once in a while, though, I find myself wishing for a line here or there that could clarify/add to the story. Nothing that would fully take over the plot or extend the length of a scene, but merely something that could function as a clarifier.

Today I’m thinking about how I wish we could have gotten a line in the first half of the second season where August lets slip to Sara that his bank account is empty. I’m assuming this is still the case at the beginning of the season—we see him spending Christmas alone at Hillerska instead of going on a lavish vacation, and when his schoolmates come back from break talking about their trips, Malte’s face acting seems to suggest that August feels shut out by these conversations/is feeling a little disillusioned by them for the first time in his life.

If August mentions to Sara that he’s “broke” (in a casual offhand way that doesn’t get into the footnote about having assets tied up in art, land, etc) that’s another way for Sara to let her guard down and connect with him. She’s been struggling to pay for coffee and feels a little taken aback by the fancy riding pants she received as a gift from her friends; it probably takes pressure away from Sara if she realizes she’s not going to be expected to spend money or have money spent on her. It also makes it a bigger betrayal later on when August buys Sara the horse and mentions offhand that he was able to sell some art his family owns to do it. Like that scene is already devastating, but oof. Imagine the added layers!

A moment like that would be valuable class commentary, too, because while socioeconomic class is certainly about how much money people have, it’s also about where and how that wealth is stored. Rich people can use stocks and luxury items and land to stow their assets away for emergencies and give themselves tax breaks and the laws largely protect them doing so.

I’m not sure whether to end this with a gif of Jenny Joyce from Derry Girls saying she’ll just “dip into her trust fund” or with your standard guillotine meme, so you know, choose whichever one works for you and mentally attach it to the post.

[canmom]

Animation Night 107: Mamoru Hosoda's digital worlds

Hi friends. Apologies for running late once again. It is once more Animation Night. Still grieving, but this ritual is important.

Tonight, I’ve decided it’s time to go back to our friend Mamoru Hosoda, last seen on Animation Nights 15, 47 and 61...

The occasion is of course the release of Hosoda’s latest movie Belle (竜とそばかすの姫, Ryū to Sobakasu no Hime - lit. The Dragon and the Freckled Princess). This film reprises a theme that was very prominent in Hosoda’s early films such as Summer Wars and in fact the franchise film Digimon Adventure: young people going into an immersive digital world. It’s finally escaped the film festivals and, of course, landed in the hands of fansubbers.

Since I’ve already told the story of Hosoda’s career, I won’t write a huge writeup tonight. But I will point to a fascinating recent article by kVin which draws out some parallels between Hosoda’s One Piece film, Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island, not entirely subtly reflecting his terrible experience at Studio Ghibli... and the recent film Pompo the Cinephile directed by Takayaki Hirao. We’ll get to Pompo at some point soon, trust me!

In previous Animation Nights, or kVin’s articles, you can read about the clockwork two year cycle that Hosoda uses to produce his films, and their characteristic elements: a strong focus on family relationships, kagenashi (unshaded) designs, splendid and charming character animation drawing on the many talented animators with whom Hosoda has cultivated relationships. With good reason, he’s one of the most popular ‘auteur’ directors in anime at the moment.

That all had to start somewhere, though, and for Hosoda that was his franchise films at Toei, the first being a series of short films relating to Digimon Adventure (which would be recut as one movie in the US, often called Digimon: The Movie). I never saw this as a kid - for some reason the kids at my school imagined a kind of rivalry between Pokémon and Digimon, and rather than enjoy both I ended up receiving this sense of Digimon as an inferior knockoff best skipped! - but they’re well-remembered, as this detailed writeup by kVin 20 years on in 2019 attests.

Digimon began life as a line of Tamagotchi-style ‘digital pets’ made by WiZ/Bandai in 1997, making it just narrowly younger than Pokémon. The premise is that there is a virtual realm in which you can go and form relationships with little virtual creatures, and beyond that, things are rather vague, and there wasn’t a lot of story to it.

This changed at the end of the 90s, with a move to make a PS1 game and a TV anime to plant the desire for their products in the soft vulnerable minds of children. To this end, they hired the venerable Toei, still one of the largest anime studios who handle many of the really ‘big’ franchises such as One Piece. So this is where Hosoda came in, working on a short film that was to become the pilot for the anime.

In kVin’s account, Hosoda played quite a large role in shaping the story:

Chances are that your mental image of an anime project meant to promote a property with aspirations of becoming a merchandising behemoth is restrictive, with countless guidelines set before the creators come into play. And while that’s true in many situations, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re meticulously planned or that producers know what they want in the first place. As mentioned by Hosoda himself, Digimon Adventure: The Movie (not to be confused with the embarrassing western mishmash) was in the works before the TV show was pitched, even though it’s now seen as nothing but its prologue. There was no real narrative to use as a springboard either, nor was there an established cast of characters; though the looks of certain characters like protagonist Taichi were determined by cross-media obligations with series that preceded the anime like Digimon Adventure V-Tamer 01, it was Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru‘s designs that served as the starting point for the cast

Some of Hosoda’s early vetoed ideas sound wild:

Execs would vaguely nudge the staff in certain directors and sometimes veto their wildest ideas – we’ll never have Hosoda wacky Digimon comedy set in the 60s and led by Taichi’s dad – yet never offer constructive guidance. 

Despite these less than auspicious circumstances, the freedom granted to Hosoda gave him the opportunity to make something much better than one might presume for this kind of project, with appearances of animation legends like Mitsuo Iso(!) perhaps prefiguring his later Dennou Coil; it is also the start of what we could call the ‘bubble’ around Hosoda:

Regular Hosoda allies like Takaaki Yamashita (supervisor for the first of many Hosoda films) and Hideki Hamasu (ace animator of sorts, a role he’d also reprise in multiple occasions) are joined by people like Mitsuo Iso who need no introduction, but it’s the hyperrealism in Hisashi Mori‘s animation that anchors the battle to reality in such hair-raising way.

This touches on a question we might have - it takes hundreds of people working diligently for a long time to make a film, and yet, we often fall into the habits of auteurism where every major artistic quality is seen as ultimately flowing from the director. Perhaps the reason this works at all is because of these clusters of relationships: ‘Mamoru Hosoda’ is a shorthand for not just the man himself, but also the group of his friends/colleagues/comrades/whatever you wanna say, who we can expect to come back on many of his films with their own particular touch. Altogether we can refer to the ‘will’ that shapes a film as something of the egregore created by this group. (Talking about studios is another such handle on identifying these clusters of people.)

Hosoda would go on to direct two more short films for Digimon, the main one being Our War Game! (2000); these would be awkwardly sutured into a movie along with one of the post-Hosoda movies in the dubbed release. We're here for Hosoda though so rest assured I’m getting the short films.

A full ten years after Digimon, Hosoda had left franchise films behind and gone to work instead with Madhouse, creating the delightful The Girl who Leapt Through Time which we watched way back on AN 15. This is where we come to Summer Wars (2009), which reprises this idea of a virtual reality battle between kids, developing the ideas of Our War Game. Here, a virtual social network heavily integrated into infrastructure causes chaos when hacker kids accidentally activate an evil AI.

The film is set in Ueda, a town near where Hosoda grew up with historical significance as a fortress used by the Sanada clan during the sengoku period. By now we’ve reached the mature version of Hosoda’s style: the clean kagenashi look, emphasis on energetic character animation, and family relationships are all right there; main character Kenji is staying with his friend Natsuki’s dying grandmother and she gets caught up in the chaos. It sounds delightful honestly and I’m really looking forward to watching it; regrettably I don’t have a detailed writeup of this one beyond the usual material on Hosoda.

Then at last we have Belle - once again coming to a digital world, this time just slightly more than ten years on! Hosoda’s latest film follows a seventeen-year-old girl Suzu who lost her ability to sing after the death of her mother, but rediscovers her passion for performance as an avatar in a colourful virtual world. Here, she gets drawn into the intrigue surrounded by a mysterious figure called the ‘Dragon’ after he disrupts one of her concerts. This time, the digital world spills out into the real in a different way: a vigilante named Justin starts threatening both Suzu and the ‘Dragon’ with doxxing, essentially.

The film is notable for being one of Hosoda’s first films to make heavy use of CG; the scenes inside the virtual world use 3DCG to attempt to hit that sense of overwhelming spectacle, while more usual usual cel animation is used outside. It also breaks a little from strict kagenashi with some use of digital compositing and filters, although the designs still carry that familiar simplicity and direct, childlike appeal. This change proved a little controversial for fans of Hosoda, and I’m going to be interested to see how well it holds up...

And sadly that’s about all I have time to write! Animation Night will go live shortly at https://twitch.tv/canmom - hope you can join me there! And afterwards I think I may stay up to try and get drawing again, but we’ll see.

[ouvertyr]

On the topic of team scientists…

Perhaps Damian has a bit of a unique experience when it comes to Charon. First, and perhaps foremost, he and the estranged scientist are related by blood. Something Damian had been made aware of in his youth through that of his 2nd cousin’s publically broadcasted ostracization and followed sentencing. The man had cursed and howled until his face had turned blue live on television, denying any wrongdoing despite admitting to conducting unlawful and unethical experiments on live animals for years. Something he’d deemed a great step forwards for science, and that the public were but sheep who did not yet see the potential within these ancient, powerful beasts.  His first impression of Charon was therefore perhaps not shown in the most charitable of lights – but it was also not something that he kept in mind as his own life moved on. After all, what was the difference between a cousin he’d never met and a stranger on the street?

It wasn’t until his own aspirations grew beyond the law that he was reminded of his distant relative.

Damian personally sought out Charon for his expertise and relied heavily on the senior’s expertise and hunger for knowledge to achieve his own goals. No matter how immoral, Charon simply wished to test the limits of the world as they knew it and if it was to further his young cousins delusions or not didn’t truly matter. Damian was simply pleased that it was an effort which bore fruit.  What he personally thinks of the old man, however… Well, it’s complicated. It’s no secret to anyone that’s met him that Charon is an unusually unpleasant person to be around. He’s vulgar, deranged and demeaning – especially if you’re a woman or girl. There are few in the world of which Charon cherishes, if even such a list exists. Though Damian didn’t spent a lot of time with the scientist, he knew more than perhaps most. Charon’s background, the life of which he could’ve led had it not been for the loss of his entire family – mother, father and little sister all at once. A child abused through the foster system, cast to fend for himself at the earliest opportunity… He wouldn’t ever excuse his cousins foul ways – despite making use of his experiments, Damian never found enjoyment in harming living creatures. Not like how Charon seemed to glee at the opportunity of hearing their agonizing cries.

But, he could understand that his cousin was molded by the life that he led. The situations of which he found himself within and the way of which the systems in place failed him.  And it was but one other motivator in his ultimate goal – to assure that people like Charon no longer would have to exist.

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