#he is very smart. and also an idiot

[protectorcraft]

sometimes i have to remind myself that siffrin probably doesn’t have more than a middle school level education- at least academically.

[professorcalculusstanaccount]

I remember discussing Tintin casting choices with a friend from Germany and remarked how it was odd he often has an English accent in adaptations rather than a Belgian one, and my friend just replied "that's because Tintin gives incredibly strong English boy energy (derogatory)"

Here in the UK there's a lot of weird classism tied into accents. Today accent diversity and representation in broadcasting is actively pursued but in Tintin's time there certainly was a preferred accent to have.

imagine this exchange happens between pages 28-29 in The Crab with the Golden Claws

[whoatherebigguy]

finally got a comic to showcase the dynamic between these two in my universe[since they share a spaceship]. i do not know why it had to be in full color, but here we are! they are painful+fun to draw

featuring: Viras "typing" away on his gamer computer, Zigra waking up from a nap, and a fire that's been burning for at least 3 hours!

and no, they weren't planning on doing anything about it.

[barbieaiden]

sorry i cant help that he's everything to me :/

[bumblingbabooshka]

Vulcan Dumb & Dumber

[keen-eye]

Hello, Dean 🫵

[wiskiemonk]

The more I see of Sakamoto the more convinced I am that his stupidity is at least partially a deliberate cultivation

[poneglph]

teach will spend hours reading historical documents, planning his next move, outsmarting the world ― && then say the dumbest shit you've ever heard.

[villain-in-love]

Now, allow me to get aggressive about Thistle's infantilization again. This post was brought to you by a whole year of my observations and frustrations.

I keep getting annoyed every time someone points out this moment in the manga and goes "Of course, it all makes sense, he has bad handwriting because he's a CHILD!"

Excuse you, how old do you think Thistle is, fucking 8 or 9 years old? Most kids develop their handwriting by the end of elementary school. He is sure as hell older than that, and had decades to practice. He just naturally has a shitty handwriting, leave him alone.

This also goes for people acting like he took over the dungeon and locked everyone up in this fucked up purgatory "because he's a kid". Did they miss the whole "Sooner or later, all dungeon lords go insane" part of the lore that was directly explained to the readers?

Some Thistle fans seem to misunderstand Thistle's circumstances – he didn't just take over the dungeon like a child who immediately goes for the extremes. It was his last resort after everything else failed, and at this point it was the only way the Golden Kingdom could be saved.

He didn't lock everyone up for eternity in the dungeon and went spiralling into paranoia just because he broke under the pressure, because of "adult responsibilities being placed on a child", he fell under the dungeon's harmful influence that was canonically explained to make all dungeon lords murderous and paranoid. He literally had the Winged Lion gradually consuming his other desires which is likely what made him this obsessive and single-minded.

Not saying that he would have been okay without those influences, his life was deeply messed up, and being responsible for the entire country is a goddamn nightmare, especially for a young person, but I doubt it would have gotten this bad.

And yes, speaking of, Thistle's background (you know, being supposedly abandoned by his parents in childhood, being brought into a foreign environment where it was made crystal clear that he's seen as an outsider and a potential threat, having an unequal power dynamic and unstable position in relation to people he considered to be his new family...) already fundamentally fucked him up as a person. That kind of trauma, especially untreated and unacknowledged, can make anyone at any age make batshit decisions. And then the dungeon and the demon just made it all worse.

Also people talking about Thistle being scared of people close to him dying as if it's an indicator of him being a little kid. Excuse me, but have you forgotten about Delgal, a grown-ass man, who was also the one afraid of death, and couldn't cope with his son dying? Who was begging Thistle to do any possible magic to prevent that? If his thirty-or-forty-something-year-old brother couldn't accept death, what the fuck do you expect from Thistle himself, who was indeed undeniably mentally younger than Delgal? And because he couldn't reassure his older brother about their shared trauma (you know, the assassination of king Freinag definitely influenced them both), it suddenly means that he's a little baby? (I legit once saw a person who claimed that if Thistle was indeed not a child, he should have acted like an actual older brother and helped Delgal get over it...)

I remember this moment also being pointed out in trying to prove how "childish" he is, as if this isn't the most classic line of any villain who tries to justify their abuse of power:

Also another person talked about Thistle being childish in going overboard by wishing for the Golden Kingdom citizens to "live in peace forever, not be troubled by illness, natural disasters, sudden deaths and starvation". But in my opinion, he did great, he got it all covered!

Because in the "Pandora Hearts" I already witnessed Xerxes (or rather, Kevin) making a mistake of simply asking the Will of Abyss to turn back time and prevent that incident of mass murder from occurring... Which just ended with the people he cared for still dying, but a few years later, because he didn't think far enough to wish for the Sinclair family to live long and well, which is what he actually wanted, he just asked for a specific situation to not happen. And he was 24 at that time, just for the record.

And like. Thistle was just plainly asked "What is your wish" by some book. That wasn't a question of "what you would realistically expect to achieve?" We're talking about desires, not actual plans. And in any case, what is so childish about a desire for the people of his kingdom to know no suffering? That is the ultimate goal of the every government! (By the way, at that moment he didn't mention absolute immortality, which would actually be unreasonable, just early and unnatural deaths, so it's safe to assume that the idea to completely "prohibit" dying came to him later, most likely after he started going insane... And that is supported by the fact that people did continue to age for at least ten or twenty more years, for Delgal's son to grow up and have a kid of his own, and then that kid growing up to at least teenage years).

Another point is that Thistle never knew about the full effect the dungeon has on it's ruler and the dangers posed by it. From his perspective and with knowledge available, he wasn't even trying to take any huge risks (aside from possibly violating international laws regulating the usage of ancient magic, but who gives a shit about those). And it wasn't his own foolishness or immaturity causing this ignorance, because there was the entire plot point about the elven nation hiding this information from other kingdoms and races for centuries. Thistle literally had no information available that could have indicated that this idea will backfire like that.

And he did all research that he could! This solution didn't suddenly drop in Thistle's hands for him immediately to use, he's been investigating those dungeon ruins and ancient magic for a while. He came to this solution himself, he clearly studied this shit and knew what he was doing.

[david-watts]

I don't want to talk about this too much for a few reasons but firstly. incredible how different things can seem if you're not suffering symptoms. truly the 'nothing in life matters' meme but replace it with 'I know nothing about my favourite guy (t. e.)'. but still hole in brain aside most of that was suffering symptoms as bad of an excuse as either of those are

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

I do think that Muros way of projecting his power is much more calm and subtle than many of his peers, especially as he gets older. After he has proven himself as someone to be feared and respected he is more than happy to let his reputation- and indeed name*- inform people of his power and abilities without random shows of strength.

Not to say he doesn't enjoy a threat or two to shut someone up but hes more likely to make a sly comment about a family member or frequented and secret location than use his stand to show of his power. Often with enough clever worldplay it takes them a minute or two to realize they have been threatened.

He deals very heavily in information and makes it his business to know goings on far outside his own territory, especially after vento aureo, meaning every conversation and negotiation with him is a careful game of figuring out what he knows [A lot] lest you lie to his face and he decides to call you out on it.

While he was a very young Capo by comparison when he rose to that rank, Muro and his people are firmly some of the oldest members, and he is certainly the most well established by the time New Passione has settled. This means he holds many of Passiones secrets and holds them hostage, many of his peers and previous superiors having to bow to him lest he spill everything to the new don. Even Giorno at the hight of his power would hesitate to threaten Muro because of how much information Muro holds, information that Giorno largely doesnt know and doesnt know the extent of and would only become relevant to tear him of his throne if he moves against Muro.

*someone who is called Wall[ed] Tomb with utter seriousness, fear and respect by even those who hate him is not someone you want to mess with because you will find out exactly why he is called that [hint: its because thats what any room with him and his enemies turns into]

[nthflower]

Okay epidoes ended show really won me with this season it was such a banger. I will miss it one year now.

[m4ndysk4nkovich]

does anybody else think that they dumbed ian and kev down a LOT as the seasons went on for comedic effect

[sparatus]

the reason they disappeared abrudas from evolution after 5 pages of screentime and without even an on-page fate is cause they knew the plot only works if both desolas and harper grab the idiot ball like a terrier with a squeaky toy, and they knew abrudas was too powerful and would avert the plot entirely by telling desolas he's being stupid and also killing harper and co with her bare hands

[kerakeriza]

you know if i had to choose... i would say i definitely prefer jason as "slightly dumb and overly clingy but still has an actual goal in mind with what he does and who he kills or doesn't kill" as opposed to "a total fucking maniac who just shoots everybody and kills anybody in the most gruesome ways despite it not really making sense." if we're going with jasons that aren't written in an ideal way. i would definitely choose the former.

[bookwyrminspiration]

shakes my head at my nurse dad deciding to simply do nothing about him potentially having pneumonia and just wait for it to sort itself out. then turns away and continues not mentioning I've got like a swollen tonsil or something and it hurts to swallow because I'm just gonna wait for it to sort itself out. the apple barely even fell I think it's still touching the tree and also it's in a glass house