#he was justified for all his actions and he was right about everything in cobra Kai

[theweirdcobrakaifan]

Made a Daniel and Mr miyagi video to shut all those Daniel hater up

[brizzlovesyou]

I’m really shocked by how underrated the pairing of Migueli re on this site. I mean all of the signs are there! Hawk/Eli’s arc in season 3 was all about Miguel, he did everything to avenge him. Even when they were at odds Hawk/Eli still defended him against Kreese and couldn’t accept that Robby was in Cobra Kai. Also it really irks me how Miguel is erased as a major part of why Hawk/Eli switches at the end. Demetri does play a role as well but compared to Miguel it’s so minor. Kyler is celebrating with Hawk/Eli after he just beat Miguel. Hawk/Eli then hears what I believe is Miguel’s voice first when he starts to realize he’s made a huge mistake and doesn’t want to be in Cobra Kai anymore. And maybe it’s just the way Demetri and Hawk/Eli have treated each other since season 1 that I find that realationship more unappealing outside of rebuilding their friendship. Even when they were at odds Hawk would never hurt Miguel physically the way he did to Demetri and Miguel would never emotionally hurt or belittle Hawk/Eli way Demetri did. I guess I just see so much more genuine love between Migueli then I do any other pairing.

Omg this is one of the best asks I’ve ever gotten here thank you… I completely agree!! With all of your points. I’ve been really shocked too about there not being more chatter on Miguel’s role/motivating force in Hawk’s decision to switch sides for exactly the reasons you mentioned.

What’s always stood out to me about Migueli (even on a friendship level) is that their relationship is built on mutual respect. They genuinely trust and care about the other’s opinion. There’s not an attempt to talk over each other or corral them into acting differently. There’s a healthy competition/rivalry that only exists on the mats for them (or sometimes, the woods lol). 

I think it’s probably easier to see that happening on Hawk’s side. As you said, basically all of his actions in S3 are motivated by this warped need to get revenge for Miguel. That’s genuinely what he thinks he should be doing on his behalf. They’d all been kind of invincible up until then but when Miguel goes down, you can see this switch flip in Hawk. He’s the first one to Miguel’s side. There’s the trauma of watching someone close to you almost die and then there’s Hawk’s ever-present need to do something. To be a man of action. To avenge not just a fellow Cobra but also the person closest to him. You can see his shock when Miguel doesn’t understand why Hawk has been pulling all the stunts he has in Miguel’s defense. You can see his disbelief at Kreese not just welcoming Robby but encouraging him to join CK. Because how is that justified? What happened to the intense loyalty and brotherhood that Kreese has been talking about, that Hawk signed up for? 

But there’s also a fundamental difference in how Miguel treats Hawk, in a way that (at least from what the show has shown us) nobody else in Hawk’s life ever has. He valued Eli’s opinions from day one. He’s the first person to stand up for that kid, to offer him solutions on how to fix his own problems. He doesn’t speak over Eli or tell him to ride it out until things miraculously get better on their own. When Hawk confesses about trashing Miyagi-Do, Miguel doesn’t sever ties or hold it against him, even though that vandalism cost the entire dojo some brutal punishments. It’s Miguel who approaches Hawk the next day to make sure they’re cool. In fact, he does the same thing after returning to school. He finds out about Hawk breaking Demetri’s arm and two seconds later he’s inviting him to join Eagle Fang and saying it’s Kreese talking, not Hawk. 

Even during what I like to refer to as their brief break-up phase, they weren’t targeting each other. There was an acknowledgement that they’d ended up on opposite sides of a war but they weren’t eager to hurt the other. There’s also something to be said about the fact that they just plain accept each other. Miguel seems to have liked Eli just as much as he likes Hawk. Sure he rolls his eyes at some of the more alpha-bro comments but he’s overall pretty stoked for his friend. And Hawk supports Miguel in just about everything he does. Don’t even get me started on how Hawk basically turns into the heart-eye emoji anytime Miguel walks into the room. It’s just!! It’s all right there!! How is support for this ship so small?! Anyways stan Migueli for clear skin, thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[aestheticsuwu]

✨🌇•Like theres No one else but us •🌇✨

Bonfire au Demetri x Eli " Hawk "

[ Part 2 ]

.......... ✨🌇✨ ...... ........

Hawk was so pumped for the bonfire , finally where they could party . Miguel and Sam had come up with the idea and he was on board in a instant . Who knew Sam could be fun , They were still not friends level but they could have a conversation without fighting so that a win .

But when Miguel told him Kyler might go to the bonfire he was ready to yeet Sam , and when he voiced his thoughts to miguel it just gave him a lecture about forgiving and something about clean slates and blah blah , thank god for his mind supplying images of Dem .

He tried to look like he was listening because he knows Miguel would get Sensei LaRusso on the lecture too .

He doesnt have that much brain capacity to listen to all of it , i mean he does but doesnt mean he wants too .

....... ..... .  ..

 The day was going alright the sun was out but not scorching hot , the only thing that was hot was him .... and Dem . But that didnt excuse Demetri playing Volleyball terribly making them lose to Chris and Mitch and now Moon and Piper .

 He was reconsidering on changing teams , until Demetri warned him if he did he wasnt allowed to kiss him . Like if that would scared him ,

So like a good boyfriend he was he did his best to do all the work for they could win , in return he got a kiss for every score .

Later on after multiple games of volleyball they went in the water for a swim , he was trying to convince Dem to go in farther with him but only got his a rant about sharks or him getting washed away  .

" I promise to hold your hand , Dem . Cmon lets have fun . " 

He tried to do his best pout to convince him but Demetri still didnt want to , he will just use this to his advantage to make him play chicken fight .

" Fine , we can look for seashells if you want . "

" No you go have fun Sam and Miguel are going to join , go play with Chris and Mitch . "

Hawk grabs Demtris hand and leans up to kiss and giving his reasurring smile that it was fine . He rather look for seashells with his Dem and talk about the new comic book .

Once they gather enough seashells , they all gathered when He called them to play chicken fight , His eye caught Kylers . He looked away once Demetri started saying no that he wouldnt take part .

Soon Demetri stopped to point out Robby had arrived , from where he was standing the figure that was walking with keene was Rickenberger .

Sam , Miguel and Demetri went to keene while he stayed with the rest , Kyler nod his head to speak with him in private .

He waited for Kyler to speak , he wore a nervous expression .

" Look man , my actions are not justified.  What i did to you and others are just fucked up and i wish i could take back everything but i cant . What i can do is to try to choose the way its best for me and for the rest . Man , im bad at worst but Mr. LaRusso told me his wisdom about roots and bonsai trees . What im trying to say is im sorry . "

" Your right,  i shouldn't forgive you but if Demetri took me back and forgave me for all the shit and stuff i did to hurt me , and if your being sincere about changing then i will accept your apologies , just remember i can kick your ass . "

They both laughed at the last comment,  they did a bro hug to seal the deal , going back he can see everyone waiting for them  to come back , he couldnt help but to ask when he sees Yasmine .

" Sooo ... You and Yasmine ? "

" Yeah , it felt right . "

" Good , keep her away from Demetri will ya  . "

Kyler chuckles agreeing with him , once arriving Miguel announces their playing chicken fight .

..... ....

" Alright everyone knows the rules , cheating is allowed if needed for the losers ! Alright teams , Moon , Piper , Yasmine , Kyler ,  Tory and Aisha are Team Cobras .. What ? i couldnt come up with a better name . "

He adds quickly when they gave him a deadpan face every single one of them , turning to look at his team that he didnt choose on purpose . Wink , Wink .

" El serpiente , Sam , Rickenberger,  Keene , Dem and Me . Our team name is  Balance per Request of Sam . Alright , lets start  ! "

They went seprately to plan their moves , they decided Hawk and Demetri to go first to Dems displeasure . The originals Myagi-do students would go on top .

" If you guys need to do your Katas to win do it because im not losing today ! "

They were going against Moon and Piper , It was easy win althought moon put a good fight . Then went Rickenberger, Robby vs Tory and Aisha . He didnt say it outloud but he honestly thought Tory and Aisha was going to win until Tory got to cocky and didnt see the push that was coming from Keene .

High fiving Keene and Doug , it was 2 against none . He was teasing Miguel about skipping leg day , when he sees Doug kiss Keene .

" What the ?!  When did this happen ?! "

" Dont be suprised  , I thought everyone knew about Dougs crush . "

Robby answered while the rest laughed  , He knew about the guys crush but why was he the last one to know ? He didnt honestly see the appeal of the blond but hey who was he to judge for lack of taste .

Robby and Demetri helped Sam up to Miguels shoulder , He quickly asked Doug a Question .

" What made you crazy for  Robby ? "

Rickenberger face got all sappy with love expression

" His eyes , cute smile and his freck--  "

" It was his ass, right  ? " He said with a smirk .

" If i told yes would you stop bothering me ? "

 

Doug gave him a annoyed look , sheesh next time he would let him recite poetry about Robby .

" What are you guys talking about ?"

Robby questioned with Dem beside him .

" Doug's obssesion with your ass ! "

And okay he did deserve that push to the sand from Doug , atleast Dem gave him a kiss and helped him up .

They one the first round , who wouldve guess Yasmine was good at playing but not good enough to beat sam . The play few more rounds until they all went for a walk and came back to set the bonfire .

It was an awesome day , and the night was beautiful of eating snacks playing games like never have i ever and Singing . While Miguel was singing to Sam and everyone else distracted he turns to Demetri .

" Hey , have i told you much i love you today ? "

Dem pretended to think , he shakes his head . He leans to kiss him , He whispers to Demetri that he loves him . Hearing Dem say the words back made his heart feel warm .

" I love you too , Eli "

yup , it was a good day .

[amphtaminedreams]

COVID-19, Negligent Manslaughter, and a Timeline of Tory Indifference

“I feel sorry for Boris Johnson. He is doing the best he can in the situation and I don’t think anybody else could have done a better job.”

[exhibit A: a gem somebody that I’m Facebook friends with reposted earlier]

It’s a sentiment that I cannot quite wrap my head around. I sit here hopeless and furious and trying to hold back tears because it’s been almost a year since England first went into lockdown and yet here we are, almost 100,000 dead, in an even worse position than we were before whilst other countries begin to slowly return to normality. It is clear to me who is to blame for this, however there are a large proportion of people who don’t want to “politicise” the actions of the PRIME MINISTER with regards to his approach towards handling a virus sweeping the country he GOVERNS. 

Typically, these kind of posts making the rounds on social media will be accompanied by some kind of photo of Boris Johnson looking somber as if to suggest that the way things have played out were beyond his control and that he is some kind of broken man beleaguered by the suffering he has, despite good intentions, inadvertently caused.

This one in particular of Johnson with his head in his hands is a staple. In reality, this is a photo taken back in 2018 whilst he was receiving flack from party members for comparing Theresa May to a suicide bomber (for her handling of Brexit, ironically) as well as from the papers due to his rumoured (now also proven, in a completely non-surprising turn of events, to be true) affair with his former aide, Carrie Symonds. 

So let’s shut this narrative-where we should feel for Boris because he’s doing his best, and apparently a better job than anybody else could’ve done in his situation- down right here. In a supposedly developed country with one of the world’s largest economies, if we’re talking by proportion, our COVID-19 death toll is up there with the worst of them. It seems that every other state figurehead (bar a small handful), and I mean almost every single one of them, is doing a better job. People love to throw figures out there about how densely populated we are to combat damning statistics as if we haven’t got just as many factors playing to our advantage, as if it’s unfair to compare our response to Germany’s or Japan’s or Singapore’s (both of which are far more densely populated) or New Zealand’s or Vietnam’s, but we are an ISLAND with world-leading technology and infrastructure and healthcare equipment and professionals and a relatively high standard of living. In what world is almost 70,000 dead in a country with abundant time and means to prepare a response reflective of said country’s leaders doing a good job?

Apparently we’re supposed to believe that Johnson feels some sense of moral responsibility for this astronomical failure. A man who refuses to acknowledge the multiple children he has fathered outside of his marriages and who has had repeatedly engaged in affairs and one-night stands throughout said marriages. A man who continued to cheat whilst his most recent wife was receiving treatment for cervical cancer, for fuck’s sake. Yep, a real stand-up guy. 

So where does this idea that Johnson must feel remorseful for this catastrophe come from? We haven’t seen a second of remorse or a hint of accountability for the lives lost from him nor any members of his cabinet. That much is really no surprise; I have this hypothesis, and it’s not a stretch, that these people do not have an ounce of empathy in their bodies. These ridiculously privileged, privately-educated individuals who have had everything handed to them their entire lives simply cannot put themselves in the shoes of the average working person and that is the problem. Unable to recognise that what distinguishes them from most others is little more than the luck of being born into wealth and the abundance of recourses and connections that has entailed throughout their lives, they see us as beneath them-as less intelligent, less driven, and thus less deserving of the status and respect they enjoy. They see us as a bunch of whining, unmotivated idiots who do not recognise the chokehold they have over our media nor the fact that everything they do is a desperate grab to keep money and power within the hands of a select group of people, an exclusive members club from which most of us are barred (just take a simple Google search and watch Jacob Rees-Mogg’s opinion of the Grenfell victims or the buried Johnson speech where he talks about how inequality is essential). They know that we will squabble amongst ourselves about who is to blame rather than wising up to the truth which is that every decision they make is fuelled by cronyism and the inability to make and follow through with difficult choices, the pandemic being no exception. The supposedly self-made elite see the life of the average working class person as having far less value than their own, and their parties actions over the last 10 years have made that very clear. 

It was in December 2019 that the first case of COVID-19 was declared to the World Health Organisation and on March the 11th that they announced they considered it as a pandemic. In Wuhan, people were dying of pneumonia in their clusters. And what was Boris Johnson doing in this time? Well for starters, here in the UK we didn’t even have a pandemic committee-Johnson had scrapped it six months before. If years of benefits cuts and defunding of the NHS in favour of funding nuclear weapon programs, keeping British troops on other people’s lands, and tax breaks for the mega corporations that donate to their party didn’t convince you that the Conservatives have little regard for human life, them getting rid of this committee-whilst a pandemic has been declared year after year as the greatest threat to mankind-should have been the first sign of trouble. As if that wasn’t enough, he also skipped five of the COBRA (meetings are made up of a cross-departmental committee put together to respond to national emergencies and PMs routinely attend those pertaining to crises on the scale of COVID-19) meetings addressing the situation. Whilst other countries were closing their borders and stocking up on PPE, Johnson and his ministers were selling PPE abroad and simply telling people to wash their hands to the length of the tune of happy birthday. Their only policy was one of “herd immunity”, which was in fact not a policy but just an abandonment of their party’s public duty disguised as one, intentionally obfuscated with pseudoscientific jargon.

Even thinking the absolute worst of politicians you would hope that when it came to the point where the UK’s non-response to COVID-19 was becoming an international disgrace, Johnson and his ministers would take proper protective measures if only to save face. But when they eventually seemed to do so, it became clear that the priority was not the safety of the ordinary people affected by the virus. Outsourcing their test and traces system to companies such as Serco, Sitel, Deloitte and G4S rather than public health services, Conservative ministers could not resist attempting to line the pockets of their friends and benefactors in the process. According to the Guardian, instead of reaching out to the experts or using publicly funded services to handle COVID containment measures, the Conservative party has awarded a disgusting £1.5 BILLION WORTH of contracts to businesses with explicit connections to its MPs and donors, the majority of which lack any relative experience of the tasks they’ve been trusted to carry out. Unsurprisingly, the National Audit office found that when awarding contracts relating to the production of COVID-19 protection measures and treatment needs, there was a “high-priority lane” for suppliers referred by senior politicians and officials; companies with a political referral were 10 times more likely to end up winning a government contract than those without. On top of this, it is not hard to draw a link between the late initiation of lockdown measures and preemptive openings of pubs and restaurants against scientific advice to the interests of frequent donors such as Wetherspoons owner Tim Martin. Even if one chooses to ignore the blatantly obvious correlation between the owners of the businesses whose profits were prioritised over safety concerns and the number of those owners who donate to the Conservatives, party officials at the very least were reluctant to follow the lead of many other countries in financing furlough schemes themselves and instead avoided this responsibility by using loose lockdown measures to leave it down to the discretion of small business owners, who couldn’t themselves afford to furlough staff, whether or not to stay open. 

Time and time again, as the government flounder and fuck about, favouring personal desires to keep their powerful, high-paying jobs and to satisfy the corporate allies who make this possible, blame has been shifted from the public to care homes to NHS workers and back again whilst we, the public, make the biggest sacrifices of all under the illusion that we were being guided out of this pandemic rather than lied to and thrown under the bus. Whilst the elite continue to pick and choose what rules apply to them, it’s students and the elderly and the vulnerable paying the fines and scrabbling to afford basic living costs and hoping that they don’t lose someone dear to them.

Don’t get me wrong, a large proportion of the public have contributed to the spread too with their selfishness and entitlement and the arrogance it takes to develop a sudden refusal to acknowledge basic science from experts who have studied in the field their whole lives so that they can justify their need to go to the pub (speaking of, it’s absolutely HILARIOUS how many “mental health advocates” are suddenly coming out of the woodworks on football avi Twitter after they’ve spent years calling people on mental health Twitter attention seekers). And don't get me wrong, there were inevitably going to be casualties of this pandemic. But it didn't have to spread to this many people, and there didn’t have to be so many deaths due to a lack of preparation, and this wouldn’t have been the case if it weren’t for the inherent apathy of the Conservative party towards the lives of people of lesser status than them, the reluctance to put those lives before party interests. I wish I felt like there was an end in sight, I wish there was some positive takeaway from all of this, but even now, we continue to see corners being cut with the vaccine lauded as our saving grace and anti-maskers gathering outside hospitals to chant about how “oppressive” it is to be urged to wear a bit of cloth over their faces for the short periods of time in which they leave their houses and all I can think of is the selfishness that runs like poison through our country. It makes me sick and leaves me to question desperately where we go from here. I don’t like unanswered questions, I don’t like feeling politically directionless, and I don’t like the growing fear I have about the state of the world which seems to intensify every single day. In the UK at least, it’s starting to feel like nothing will ever change-we’re told we live in a democracy and yet mainstream media is owned by the people whose interest is to keep their Conservative friends in power. The stronghold they have over print media in particular allows them to continually get away with smearing and defaming every person who comes along and seems to want to actually help ordinary people, without being challenged, to the point where the only kind of “opposition” we’re left with promises nothing but a big boss approved tactical reshuffling of the status quo (which they call “electability”); it doesn’t feel like democracy when the majority of the country are being fed misleading information and convinced against voting in their best interests. 

This is the result of that. The state we find ourselves in is the inevitable result of being manipulated into helping the elite build their protective wall whilst the rest of us scrabble to get in and step on each others heads along the way, the people inside shouting over that it’s those even more vulnerable than ourselves that are taking our places. Outside the wall, the earth is falling from beneath our feet, and instead of throwing over the ropes to help us out, the people inside are stockpiling them so they can secure their firm place above ground and then later flog the rest. How many more people have to die before we reach some kind of widespread realisation of that? Where do we go from here and what do we do? Well for one, we can stop spreading those god-fucking-awful textposts on Facebook and get our heads out of our arses. Wear our masks over and wear them over our fucking noses. Have some fucking consideration for others. Don’t wait til an issue affects you personally to give a fuck about it. AND START HOLDING THE FUCKING PRIME MINISTER AND HIS MINISTERS AND HIS ENTIRE PARTY AS WELL AS THE OPPOSITION MPS THAT HAVE SAT BY THE SIDELINES AND ALLOWED THIS TO GO ON WITHOUT PROTEST ACCOUNTABLE. That would be a good start. 

I’m so tired. Things didn’t need to be this way, and yet because of the selfishness of the few, thousands upon thousands are dead. It’s not about “throwing around blame”, it’s not about “throwing around” anything, it’s about expecting a leader to do his best to protect lives. If that is “throwing blame”, let’s get things clear, I have no issue with hurtling it torpedo style at those who handed out a death sentence to so many in this country rather than do anything that might compromise their own privilege. Honestly, pass me the shovel after and I’ll happily bury the wreckage in the ground. Who wants to join?:-)

[chaotictommy]

For the character ask game

from a question by @wanderingspiritys

Tommy...

👀 Tommy

Omg 😱 thank you ☺️ 💕

Okay so Tommy is a great character, if you can get around the loud and slightly ‘obnoxious’ parts of his personality, and sadly I’ve talked to many who don’t, you‘d see a very loyal person who sticks up for his friends, a person who has a sharp wit and uses sarcasm as a weapon... he’s bold enough to not hold back when he feels someone he values or loves has been wronged and will go overboard to help or protect them, taking the situation over the top because of this sense of justice he has, it’s a skewed sense of justice that only is for his friends though, and if he sees that one of them was wronged (even though Johnny wasn‘t in the right though neither was Daniel) he feels that the wrong done to Johnny is a wrong done to himself and all his friends, or at least I think he’d feel that. Also, being abused and bullied, turned him into a bully as well as the others. I think it would probably make him feel better about his predicament by bullying Daniel as he feels justified in it by the way Daniel acts, bringing up old wounds and new. Though Tommy’s actions aren’t justified — having been in his position — I found myself becoming someone I would have not become if I wasn’t being bullied and abused... I think it’d make him bully Daniel because he himself is being bullied and it makes him feel better about himself and the situation they found themselves in. I think he’s very self aware and has a dislike of himself from being bullied so much so that part of the loud personality is him trying to protect and hide the vulnerabilities he has... I think he’s a good person but lacks the ab to hold back any more, feeling their lives are fight or flight. In a way I liken him to Tory’s quote ‘“The world shows no mercy, so, why should we? Some people have it good, but the rest of us, we have to fightfor every inch of what’s ours. Not just to score a point. For everything.” I feel like the Tommy everyone knows in the movie is this whole quote — like he is fighting for every inch and he’s fighting for him and his friends against the world that has always been showing them ‘No Mercy’ — I think his personality was learned ... I also think he’d be very protective of Jimmy who is a best friend...

Who I Ship him with:

Johnny/Tommy

Bobby/Tommy (My fave ship)

The whole mess of Og Cobras 😅😂

Tommy/Dutch

on a minor scale Tommy/Ali

General Opinions: I’ve said too much up there 👆 so 😂

[regular-lord-reckoner]

i don’t want to speak too soon in case none of this works out, but...i think i figured out my job situation possibly ?? 

my mom seems to be pretty confident that it wouldn’t be that hard for me to be hired on as a full time employee at where i’m at with my second job and that they could probably get a few more providers who need their charts done as well so that i’d have enough work to justify a full time position AND that i could potentially get $15 an hour (which......i don’t see why not, pretty much all the other jobs i know how to do there are paying that much apparently and i.....definitely have not been making that) 

this would be great because it’s something i can do from home so like....not only do i no longer have to do public speaking, i don’t even have to interact with people!! 

the more important thing, though, is that right now my dad’s having a lot of issues with his hip. i’m not entirely sure what all is going on, my mom seems to think right now surgery is the best course of action rather than just physical therapy, but it’s giving him a lot of grief and making it hard for him to do a lot of the stuff he normally does

which...he already has a lot of health problems and in general is just getting older so he’s had to slow down a lot, but now he’s using a cane and even with the medications he’s taking he’ll still be in so much pain he can’t walk and it zaps all his energy so i’ve already been having to do things around the house he normally does and run errands for him, but if i were working from home (and at a company that knows me and knows my mom and would be understanding if i needed to take off to help him) it would probably be best. especially because one of the things we’re most worried about is him being here by himself while we’re both at work and he falls somewhere and can’t get to the phone or something. 

as for my insurance situation, i’m going to turn in an enrollment form tomorrow to cobra my current plan at least until the first of the year. i’ve already met my deductible and out of pocket so i’d really like to be able to keep what i’ve got now so i don’t rack up additional medical debt. 

after the first of the year i’ll either go on this company’s insurance plan since i’ll be full time (and i’m hoping by then they’ll have picked a better plan because their insurance last time i worked there SUCKED) or i’ll look into the marketplace and see what’s available and if there isn’t anything better i’ll just stick with theirs, but either way i should be covered 

the only downside to this route is that keeping my insurance right now is probably gonna be like $600 a month, but my mom said she’d help me with it and i’ll just keep track of how much it is (i think all told it’ll be like...$2,400?) and i’ll slowly pay her back the same way i’m slowly paying off my medical bills 

monetarily speaking that means i’ve really got to be careful about my spending and not just....buy shit i don’t need so i’m going to try my best to not do that and the only little treats i’ll give myself will be few and far between, but i’m hoping with making that much more an hour i should be able to more quickly pay all this shit off and be back to a position where i can actually start saving money......i hope!!! 

i think this will be good too because i really more than anything just need to be in a position where i can start focusing on my mental health and doing everything i need to in order to sort all that out. this job could give me the time to do that, plus since i’ll be home there’s also a lot of cleaning and organizing i need to do that should hopefully be easier to do since i’ll be right here. 

i’ll also be saving a lot on gas too since i won’t have to be commuting 30 minutes to work and 30 minutes home every day so all in all i think it’ll be a good plan i just....need everything to come together and be official before i can breathe easier 

but....things might be okay !!! i hope !! 

also there’s apparently going to be a new m83 album out next month so that’s something to look forward to for sure !! 

[pyropsychiccollector]

Danganronpa, Another IF: Goodbye Despair (Prologue)

            “Makoto…!” Mukuro Ikusaba called out to the Luckster as she dashed over to him. Contrary to the usually stoic expression she had on her face two years ago, Mukuro appeared genuinely concerned and emotional. The area around them had previously been a battlefield – before that, it had been a city – and the sky was tainted a blood red. The soldier gave a quick once-over for any injuries, but there didn’t seem to be a hair out of place, so she didn’t have to fret over his wellbeing… Yet she still did, because this was Makoto… “I told you not to go running off on your own! It’s not safe

            Naegi just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

            “Sorry for worrying you, Mukuro! I just thought… with this area cleared…” He trailed off in embarrassment.

            Mukuro sighed patiently. The Luckster didn’t need to explain himself anyway; she knew why he had gone off on his own. It didn’t justify his actions, but, at least she could understand.

            That was Makoto for you, though. Transparent as an open book, friendly as a scruffy little puppy… Just as adorable as one of them, too.

            … But don’t you dare tell him.

            He must never know she has such thoughts….

            “Makoto… You know you can’t confront these people by yourself…” Mukuro told him softly, but firmly. If it was common Despair soldiers wearing Monokuma helmets, Mukuro might trust Makoto to handle himself…

            But Makoto was wanting to meet with the Ultimate Despairs themselves. Or, as they were known since Junko’s death, the Remnants of Despair. And while they had managed to capture a few of the Remnants… it was through force, not diplomacy. They were known as million-class murderers because they had earned those violent reputations… Compared to them, their former classmate Genocide Jack (Touko Fukawa’s alternate personality) would have looked normal, and that was saying something.

            Hiyoko Saionji and Ibuki Mioda were in their custody, as was a man impersonating their former classmate, Byakuya Togami. They were the Ultimate Traditional Dancer, the Ultimate Musician, and the Ultimate Imposter respectively. Despite their fearsome reputations, through some… miraculous luck, the Future Foundation had yet to realize just who was in their custody. Even with a mole for the Ultimate Despairs lurking within the walls of Future Foundation, Makoto had found it amazing they’d been processed and confined like regular Despair agents. Mukuro wasn’t too surprised; given that it took them watching Junko’s Killing Game to work out that Junko was behind everything. The Ultimate Despairs didn’t exactly advertise that they were the leaders of the apocalyptic movement – there were just whispered rumors about their existence, and even then, there were a good number of Future Foundation personnel who assumed “Ultimate Despair” referred to just Junko. And they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong; while Class 77 were technically Ultimate Despairs like Mukuro had once been, Junko had been something akin to Despair incarnate. The problem was the ambiguity about the title. It did refer to a group just as much as it did Junko herself. Junko meant for it to be confusing that way.

            And yet, as accountable as they were, Class 77 were just as much victims as perpetrators. Junko had made them into Ultimate Despair, twisted their very natures. Future Foundation higher-ups would never acknowledge that, only look at their innumerable crimes. Foundation policy was to exterminate Despair, not save people who had been brainwashed into a ludicrous cause.

            Naegi and the rest of Class 78 knew, though. Knew the kind of people they once were. Thanks to Miaya Gekkogahara and Fujisaki for going over Yasuke Matsuda’s notes, they were able to restore their memories of their school years. And they had a plan to save their former senpai. Two years later, and they were finally making strides to round them up. Makoto didn’t like that it took this long to make progress, but the Future Foundation hadn’t made it easy for them since escaping – and that was largely because… they wanted Mukuro executed for working directly under Junko. It took… all of her surviving classmates to stand up for her changed character, as well as the Foundation’s leader, Kazuo Tengan, to earn Mukuro’s right to live… her right to atone. In spite of the victory, they had all been watched closely, and had been heavily evaluated by Gekkogahara, the Ultimate Therapist, to make sure they weren’t tainted by Despair.

            Two years… But finally, the Foundation was allowing them some mobility. They’d split ways for the time being; Leon and Mondo were absorbed into the Sixth Branch, the custody enforcement unit; Celes joined the Tenth Branch, which dealt with reviving education and culture; and Fujisaki joined Gekkogahara in Seventh Branch, as he had a personal collaborative project to be working on with the therapist. The remaining four – Makoto, Mukuro, Sayaka, and Kyoko – remained in the new Fourteenth Branch, which was more or less set up to keep an eye on Class 78 as it was to stroke the Foundation’s ego so to speak, spreading word about their efforts to fix the world. Makoto and Sayaka actually fit quite well with this branch, but Mukuro was forced to remain a part of it because the Sixth Division Head, Juzo Sakakura, didn’t trust the Ultimate Soldier to work under him, believing she’d sabotage their branch at every possible turn; he and Kyosuke Munakata, the second-in-command of the organization, were the most suspicious of Mukuro out of everyone in the Foundation. As for Kyoko… while she would have been a fit for the Sixth Branch, being a detective, she wanted to become a Division Head so Class 78 could have some authority in the Foundation, even if it wasn’t much. Makoto would’ve taken up the role in her place, but because he defended Mukuro so fervently, he was under heavy suspicion as well, “Ultimate Hope” title or not.

            “Must you make so much noise…? I do not know which is more astonishing… that you are arrogant enough to lower your guard this deep in enemy territory, or that you have not been attacked yet…”

            Mukuro’s eyes snapped wide open, and her entire body tensed as it moved to get in-between Naegi and the newcomer. She knew that voice. It was little wonder this man had evaded her sharp senses… But even so. She hadn’t expected a confrontation so soon after leaving Hope’s Peak… Hell, she’d wondered if she would ever see this expressionless face again.

            “Makoto, stay behind me.” Mukuro sternly told the Luckster. Still, he couldn’t help himself as he peeked over her shoulder at the newcomer. The man seemed rather tall and lanky, wore a pressed black suit, and had very long untamable dark hair that ran far down his back. What’s more, while he was expressionless and didn’t seem to have hostile intent, the man’s red eyes were intense, and Makoto felt himself fixated on them.

            “How come, Mukuro? Who is he?” Makoto asked instinctually. Though Mukuro was protective, he’d never seen her so… unsettled. Like a cobra waiting to strike at any moment.

            Mukuro didn’t get the chance to respond.

            “You know you cannot fight against me and win. If I so desired, I could knock you out and take Naegi with me… If I wanted, I could kill you both.” The young man spoke in a light, flat tone, as if they were just talking about the weather. “Why do you insist on confronting me? I happened to be passing by, for I have luck as well… There is no need for conflict.”

            Unsurprisingly, Mukuro didn’t buy that. Ever since meeting him, he had always rubbed her the wrong way… And that did not change, even with her being against Ultimate Despair now. He was dangerous. And any threat to Makoto needed to be treated cautiously…

            She would not lose Makoto.

            “Then why are you here…?” Mukuro could not conceal the suspicion in her voice, nor did she have a desire to.

            The man continued to regard Mukuro expressionlessly, and Makoto grew all the curiouser. There were few who could face-off with Mukuro and not be intimidated… Most of them were simply unfamiliar with her talent, but there were those who knew she was the Ultimate Soldier and refused to be intimidated – because they had an intense hatred for her, and wanted to see her dead. Back during their school days, Sakura respected her as a warrior, yet was unafraid of her because she could handle the soldier in a straight-up fight…

            This man felt like he fit into that last category. He just didn’t show emotions, and they seemed familiar with each other. What sort of talent did he have? He had to be an Ultimate for Mukuro to be on edge, and for him to face off with her like this…

            “I came to talk with Naegi.” The young man intoned flatly. He eyed the Luckster from over Mukuro’s shoulder. “… Alone.”

            “Absolutely not. Out of the question.” Mukuro hissed furiously. The man raised an eyebrow at her dully.

            “I do not need your permission. I will be talking with Naegi. Whether I have to incapacitate you first to do it will be entirely up to you…” As her defensive stance grew more rigid, he sighed airily. “I am willing to let you watch us from a distance, and you are even free to survey the area for threats first. … Though it will be pointless, as I have eliminated all Despair agents.”

            Mukuro still seemed unconvinced. That is, until Makoto placed a hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

            “It’ll be fine… I don’t know why, but I get this feeling we can trust him for now. If he’s the Ultimate Despair that was in the area… I wanted to talk with him anyway.”

            Mukuro shook her head fearfully as she looked back at him.

            “M-Makoto, this man’s not like the others…! And there was supposed to be someone entirely different, but instead…!” She stopped as the man pointed to a location a short distance from where they were.

            Crumpled on the ground was the unconscious body of a man who appeared to be in a fur coat… There was a wild look to his physical appearance, but he was clearly incapacitated.

            “Tanaka Gundham, the Ultimate Breeder.” The man flatly intoned. “You are welcome to take him with you when you leave. All I require is a little time with Naegi…”

            Mukuro continued to look uneasy. Conflicted. But… Makoto was earnest about talking with this dangerous man. And she was supposedly being allowed to watch them from afar…

            Squeezing her eyes shut, Mukuro felt like she was going to regret this…

            “N-No more than fifteen feet away…!” She bit out. The man just stared at her passively.

            “… Acceptable.”

            ~*~

            It had not taken long to rid Towa City of the Despairs plaguing it… Though Monaca Towa was formidable with her army of Monokuma’s, Celestia Ludenberg, along with Mondo Oowada and Leon Kuwata, managed to lead the Future Foundation to success. And they even managed to prevent the conflict from turning into a full-scale war…

            The Warriors of Hope that Monaca manipulated, they managed to escape during the final battles… But Celes had let them go, as a sign of good faith.

            In terms of hostages, they had saved most of them. Notable fatalities were Kirigiri’s grandfather, Sakura’s lover, and Hagakure’s mother… But the rest of the hostages, Class 78’s loved ones, they rescued them and put them under the care of Future Foundation.

            Probably one of the better spoils of war… was the “Servant” that had been working under Monaca and the Warriors of Hope. They captured him, and discovered he was one of the Remnants of Despair that Mukuro gave them details on.

            “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised…” The white-haired man smiled amicably at Celes as he was handcuffed. “With such bright beacons of Hope leading this Towa City operation, it’s little wonder the Future Foundation overcame the Despair here. Still, I’ll confess I never saw you capturing me. To overcome my abysmal luck… You must truly be worthy of your Ultimate Gambler title!”

            Celes narrowed her eyes at the man, electing to say nothing as he was taken away.

            Nagito Komaeda. The Ultimate Lucky Student of Class 77. It was suspicious how he didn’t put up a fight, but then again, he didn’t seem like the other Remnants they’d captured… Unlike them, he seemed to have a fascination with Hope, even if he was a bit… obsessive about the topic. That, and he was arrogant to anyone who didn’t possess a talent…

            Still, he was processed like all the other Despairs…

            ~*~

            “My, my~ What’s a sweet little morsel like you doing, stepping into my kitchen?” The chef wiggled his eyebrows suggestively as he stepped out from behind the counter.

            Though she was dressed rather seductively – wearing a skirt that didn’t even reach her knees, a tight shirt that revealed her ample chest, and a coat with a fur fringe that she’d loosened around her bare shoulders, showing them off – the blue-haired woman beamed with a tinge of uneasiness at the young chef’s perverted leer.

            “Oh, well, you know… I was just looking to order some sort of meat dish.” The woman’s smile twitched the slightest amount.

            The chef in red widened his eyes as a stream of blood spurted from his nose.

            “Oho… Ohohoho… I think I can help you find just what you’re lookin’ for, my dear… My culinary abilities are second to none.” As the brunet chuckled uncontrollably, the blue-haired woman turned around to walk back to the front of the diner, where there was meat on display. As she did so, she made sure to shake her hips sensually.

            “Then, come and help a girl out~…” She beckoned him, and she heard the excited footsteps of the stout chef behind her.

            She didn’t miss him secretly picking up a butcher knife while her back was turned…

            “Avril Lavigne…! I never thought I’d see the day a goddess stepped into my quaint Hanamura Diner!” The man gushed. Again, the woman ignored his perverted antics.

            For a while, the woman seemed to genuinely peruse the selection of choice meats. The chef explained each of them in vivid and exquisite detail, while the woman patiently listed. And when it finally seemed like the woman had settled on her choice…

            “Oooh…” The chef moaned as he fell forward, unconscious. His knife fell from his grasp and clattered on the floor. Behind him stood a short-haired woman with narrowed eyes.

            “…” The soldier said nothing as she glared somewhat moodily at the blue-haired woman.

            “I thought you were out on another assignment?” The blue-haired woman pouted. She’d been prepared to knockout the chef before he could try to murder her.

            “I finished up early.” Mukuro deadpanned. “Happened to be in the area.”

            “I had it under control!” She insisted stubbornly.

            “You’re a little too good at seduction…” Mukuro deadpanned again, though the accusation was clear. The blue-haired woman just laughed it off.

            “Relax! It’s just practice for Makoto-kun, anyway. I’d never cheat on him.” Never ever.

            Mukuro didn’t seem convinced.

            “… You will be watched.” The soldier decided, dragging Teruteru with her as she left. Sayaka huffed as she crossed her arms moodily.

            “Not like you aren’t doing that already…”

            ~*~

            “There we go…” The nurse panted as she finished strapping in her ‘patient’. She stroked his face intimately – the man was gagged, unable to reply. But his pleas for her to stop could be heard, muffled through the gag. “Shh, shh… I’ll make everything better~… Make the ouchies go away.”

            To the man’s dismay, the nurse climbed on top of him, with a needle that had an ominous pink fluid within the attached vial. In the dim green light of the ‘surgery room’, the nurse’s red eyes glowed with malicious intent.

            However, just as she was about to inject the man with the needle, a second woman broke into the room, taking a firm hold of the nurse’s wrist and revealing she, too, was not ‘normal’. She was on some sort of drugs that enhanced her strength, and as such, it did not take all that much for Seiko Kimura, the Ultimate Pharmacist, to subdue the Ultimate Nurse…

            ~*~

            The factory was a madhouse. Motorcycles were revving all over the place, running over normal-sized Monokuma’s while avoiding the larger ones. The pink-haired overseer of the facility waved his fist at the idiot bikers who were disrupting his work, but he went largely ignored.

            At least until a man with an aippa – a cross between an afro and a pompadour – somehow managed to get his bike up to the upper level where the mechanic was holed up, and gunned straight for him. Obviously, the mechanic panicked with a motorcycle bearing down on him, but then he grinned maniacally before revealing he was well defended. Two Monokuma’s that towered seven feet each climbed up the railing beside him and knocked the biker off his ride and destroyed it before it could harm the mechanic.

            “Hehe! Serves you right for underestimating me!” Kazuichi’s shark-like grin earned a growl from the biker who was now crouched on the floor and looked ready to pounce.

            Just as the mechanic maneuvered his Monokuma’s to advance on the biker, though, there was a sort of rumbling sound throughout the factory as everything – everything – abruptly stopped working. The machines that produced the animatronic bears, and even the bears themselves – they all shutdown. Kazuichi hammered at the controls in anger.

            “Get up, you damn machines…!” Souda howled in fury. But as he was caught up in trying to regain control of his factory, Mondo took that opportunity to get in close and knock him out without a moment’s hesitation. And then as he scooped up Souda and slung him over his shoulder, Mondo noticed his friend’s smiling face flash across the terminals all around the facility.

            Chihiro Fujisaki had taken over the main Monokuma production facility. Near effortlessly at that.

            “Way to go, kid!” Mondo grinned as he gave the programmer a thumb’s up.

            ~*~

            Meanwhile, in Tokyo, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu stood arrogantly in front of an organized faction of yakuza wearing Monokuma helmets. He was facing down Kyosuke Munakata, who was similarly backed up by a faction of Future Foundation soldiers.

            A harsh wind blew past, and then a swordswoman appeared out of nowhere, assaulting the Future Foundation’s second-in-command. However, Kyosuke repelled her easily enough, and Peko skidded back to a defensive position as she stood between Munakata and Kuzuryu, the gangster’s sole red eye glinting dangerously.

            Peko was soon joined by two others – Akane Owari and Nekomaru Nidai. Both had their dukes up, and looked like they would fight to the bitter end. On Munakata’s side, the Great Gozu, Juzo Sakakura, and Sonosuke Izayoi appeared to even out the battle of Ultimates.

            It would be a drawn-out and intense battle… But the four Ultimate Despairs were detained and processed like all other prisoners of war.

            ~*~

            “Well, would ya look at that!” Leon grinned roguishly as Mukuro dragged in the last two Ultimate Despairs. Mahiru Koizumi and Sonia Nevermind.

            “They were both in Novoselic…” Kirigiri pointed out, glancing at the soldier shrewdly. “How did you…?”

            “They were ‘donated’ to us…” Mukuro answered, glancing off to the side toward a camera in the room. While Fujisaki could wipe the camera feeds, they still had to be cautious while within the Future Foundation.

            Regardless, Mukuro’s answer explained everything for the Ultimate Detective. Clearly, the man who had spoken to Naegi had done as he’d said, and had rounded up the Ultimate Despairs that they would have had the toughest time acquiring… It made Kirigiri suspicious that both Makoto and Mukuro would not reveal who that man was, but that was apparently part of the bargain in order to round up all the Ultimate Despairs. The man’s identity could not be revealed to their friends.

            It pained Makoto to keep that information from them, but… even with Mukuro’s knowledge of Ultimate Despair’s movements, it would’ve taken an even more considerable amount of time to capture them all; time that the Future Foundation would have used to discover just who these Despairs were. And Class 78 couldn’t let that happen – not when the Future Foundation would have executed them all on the spot, upon discovering their identities as Ultimate Despair.

            ~*~

            Though all of the Ultimate Despairs were rounded up after an intense period of months… There was one more Despair agent that Mukuro wanted to be rounded up with Class 77. She would be the trickiest because she was one of the Division Heads of the Future Foundation, and getting her alone took quite a bit of time and effort to arrange…

            But they did it. They accomplished what they set out to do. The abandoned Future Foundation facility on Jabberwock Island had been converted by Miaya Gekkogahara and Chihiro Fujisaki into a rehabilitative facility, where the Ultimate Despairs would be placed into a virtual world program and have their memories wiped so that they could revert back to the people they used to be…

            The ethics were questionable, but when the only other option was for Class 77 to be executed for being brainwashed into Despair, extreme rehabilitation seemed like the more inviting option. Yukizome’s disappearance would most likely raise some flags and put the Foundation on high alert, but hopefully between her leaving a message that she would be out of the office, combined with Class 78 taking a long confusing route to Jabberwock Island, hopefully that would buy them enough time to cure everyone.

            … They should have known it would never be that simple… Not when their enemy was Despair itself.

[aion-rsa]

Cobra Kai: How the Show Tackles Bullying in Season 3

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At its heart, The Karate Kid has always been about standing up to bullies. Actually, when it comes right down to it, almost every high school drama is about standing up to bullies. It’s just that The Karate Kid responds with a crane kick to the face. High school bully versus underdog stories are easy to tell, and they resonate with anyone who survived their teenage years. That first major pubescent dose of testosterone or estrogen makes us all want to assert ourselves, and in that search for identity, many find it in bullying. Whether it was Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), or even Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), they all bullied poor little Daniel-san (Ralph Macchio).

Or did they?

Cobra Kai has fleshed out Johnny’s character to new depths, redeeming his shallow portrayal in the original movies. Through the Netflix series, Johnny has had the rare opportunity to explain his odious actions. Everyone is the hero in their own story, and Johnny sees Daniel as the bad guy. In the eighth episode of season 1, “Molting,” Johnny tells Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) his side of the events in The Karate Kid. “Out of nowhere he sucker punches me,” whines Johnny about their first fight at the beach. 

And it’s true. Johnny pushed Daniel first, but Daniel caught him back with a sucker punch (Daniel relies heavily on sucker punches throughout the films). Daniel stole Johnny’s high school sweetheart Ali (Elisabeth Shue). Daniel drenched Johnny with water in the bathroom at the high school dance (as he was rolling a joint – something he omits from his retelling to Miguel). Daniel won the All-Valley Karate Tournament with an illegal kick to the face. In Johnny’s eyes, he’s the victim of Daniel’s bullying. And this is perpetuated in Cobra Kai. Daniel is now in the position of power, the head of a successful business and living in a mansion with his wife and kids. Johnny is now the underdog and must cope with some of Daniel’s microaggressions. 

It may seem far fetched to some, but the notion that Daniel as the bully isn’t new. Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) from How I Met Your Mother thought so too, and that was back in 2003. In the season 8 episode “Bro Mitzvah,” Barney’s dream was to have the hero of The Karate Kid attend his bachelor party. However, when his friends arrange for Ralph Macchio (playing himself in a hysterical cameo) appears, Barney is disappointed because to him, the real hero is Johnny for exactly the reasons that he outlined in “Molting.” It’s a standout episode with Zabka also making a cameo appearance as himself. And while Barney could be accused of being a bully in a manner of fashion too, this notion is upheld within a contingent of the Karate Kid fanbase who now feel validated by Cobra Kai’s take on it. 

Johnny’s story arc is one of the most engaging aspects of Cobra Kai. Over the course of the first two seasons, he has transformed from being a stubborn loser to a sympathetic antihero. Even though Johnny was raised as a privileged kid living in an Encino mansion, his stepfather Sid (Ed Asner) is horribly abusive. Johnny’s sins are the perpetuation of Sid’s bullying behavior, exacerbated by Kreese’s (Martin Kove) merciless Karate lessons. While Johnny’s backstory doesn’t redeem all his nefarious actions, it does provide some insight into his motivations. And in his heart of hearts, Johnny still wants to do the right thing. 

Cobra Kai has really shined in how it represents bullying. Bullying has become a global crisis, so much so that in 2018, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics released data showing that one third of young teens around the world have experienced bullying. In the United States, bullying is linked to low self-esteem, anxiety, and depression in childhood. And although bullying isn’t typically the sole cause, it can be contributing factor in teen suicide and school shootings. Undoubtedly, bullying has always been a social issue, however nowadays there are new factors to consider. Currently we live in a world of cyberbullying. Racism, exclusion, harassment, are all regular headlines of our daily newsfeeds. The youth of today face a more complex world, especially when it comes to bullying.

Cobra Kai has been engaging the high school bully trope from multiple perspectives well beyond the ongoing 30+ year feud between Johnny and Daniel. Back in the 80s, Johnny, Chozen, and Terry were the bullies. Now with Cobra Kai, it’s become far more complex. The new generation of teenage characters all grapple with their shifting social standings and relationships. Take Eli Moskowitz (Jacob Bertrand). At the beginning of the series, he’s a victim of bullying, picked on for his cleft lip scar. But as he becomes empowered through his Karate training, he heeds Johnny’s advice to ‘flip the script’ transforming into Hawk, a mohawked tattooed bully. But after seeing his character’s trials, is he really a bully at heart? 

“It’s kind of a loaded question,” says Bertrand of his character. “Honestly, I would say he’s more of a bully. I think everyone has the opportunity to make choices. And I think, yes, he definitely has been a victim in the past, but that doesn’t really excuse his actions for what’s transpired. Especially for Season 3 being under Kreese’s wing and having him leading Cobra Kai, I think that furthers some of his bad guy tendencies.”

Another leading villainess from season 2 is Tory Nichols (Peyton List). Tory is a troubled teen who comes from a poor family. According to Tory, her mom worked as a waitress but was fired for taking some discarded food to feed her family. Always looking out for number one, Tory’s background is a little mysterious because she has had some previous martial arts training, leading many fans to wonder if her previous sensei was a character from the original series, perhaps even Terry Silver. But is she a bully or a victim of circumstance?

“I think a victim,” says List hesitantly. “I mean… Yes. Both. 50/50. I have to admit, I justify everything she does. I don’t really like the victim mentality though, and I don’t think Tory would either. So I don’t think she would think of herself as a victim, but I do think after a certain amount of abuse and tearing down from the world, that it just gets wearing, and it’s easy to act out, but that is the easy route. 

“So it’s both. You see how conflicted I am?”

No matter how you slice it, the lineage of bullies traces back to one man – the founder of Cobra Kai, Sensei John Kreese. Kreese has always been a sociopath. He was a Green Beret during the Vietnam War who earned the rank of Captain, as well as a U.S. Army Karate championship title. In Ssason 2, Kreese tells some stories about serving in Operation: Desert Storm and other U.S. military actions, however Johnny’s top student Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) confidentially points out the errors in his tales to Johnny. It motivates Johnny to follow Kreese, only to discover that he’s been living in homeless shelters for the past decade or so. Kreese admits that he tried to re-enlist but was rejected, alluding that it might have been because of failing the psychiatric evaluation. The implication is that Kreese suffers from PTSD. 

Does this redeem Kreese’s heinous behavior? Not really. Kreese has been poisoning the minds of teenagers for three decades and that’s utterly unforgivable. As Daniel’s mom Lucille LaRusso (Randee Heller) once said about the Cobra Kai Dojo, “They’re nothing but a bunch of bullies,” and there’s no one to blame more for that than Kreese. But at least Cobra Kai gives it some reason for his mercilessness. Rumors have been circulating that there will be some sort of redemptive arc for Kreese in Season 3. But honestly, that’s going to take a lot of redeeming before Kreese gets any sort of pardon. 

What’s more, the season 3 trailer revealed that Chozen will be appearing in Cobra Kai. In The Karate Kid Part II, Chozen was a special kind of over-the-top psycho bully who went so far as to push Daniel-san into a death match over ‘honor.’ Might there be some redemption coming for Chozen too? No spoilers here. Wax on, wax off and tune in. 

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Cobra Kai season 3 premieres Jan. 1 on Netflix.

The post Cobra Kai: How the Show Tackles Bullying in Season 3 appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[keepyourpantsongohan]

Ayesha Liveblogs Fairy Tail S2

It seems like Gray was too pretty so they decided to dress him down a bit

“Are you and Loke going out?” I mean in a manner of speaking they are bonded for life

Don’t stand him up Lucy that’s not very nice - I stand corrected he apparently doesn’t care 

DON’T BE CREEPY JUVIA LET GRAY LIVE 

“Would you get OUT OF HERE?” Lucy’s reaction to thinking other people like her is the same as mine

“What is this strange sensation I’m feeling?” rohypnol

Fgdfjghdkfjghkjfdkjhg IT’S A RIVALRY POTION THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER

GRAY’S GONNA TRY TO FLY OH MY GOD

“And so Lucy’s bad luck with men has crossed into a second consecutive episode” 

THAT’S RIGHT YOU FIGHT THAT ARROGANT HORIZON BABY

Those boat boys are so nice constantly looking out for Lucy

Lucy.... you are a wizard.... you have spirits who can help you stave off attackers

Papa Heartlessfilia returns to be a dick to his daughter once more

“You loooove her” “Watch it or I’ll punch your face in, Cat!” that is not a no Gray

Every time Lucy is remotely in danger Gray, Natsu and Erza run like the wind to be with her she is so adored

“The uniforms aren’t all that bad if you ask me,” said Gray, in a bowtie and underpants 

I can’t believe that they’re teaming up with One Direction

They didn’t exactly send the most diplomatic members of the guild 

“DO NOT TOUCH” same Lucy same leave the underage girl alone Hibiki

“I’m so over the posing” “I think they’re starting to grow on me” Lucy and Gray’s snarky asides about the Backstreet Boys are giving me life 

Maiden of the Sky sounds like a celestial spirit name but it seems pretty soon after the whole Loke thing to do another wizard-is-really-an-otherworldly-being and also Virgo is technically the maiden

Wendy is kind of young to have become a dragon slayer more than seven years ago how old was she when that happened like 5?

At this point it’s just like blue hair = related to Jellal

Lyon, upon seeing a bunch of adorable cartoon squirrels: What are they, Goblins?

“I’m the fastest man alive” is that so Toucan Sam

I can’t believe Jellal stopped to rob Erigor of his clothing lmao 

“You’re a ventreeloquist?” Gfgkfdjhjfdkdkjghfkgl Natsu pls 

Lucy has chemistry with literally everyone I mean she’s probably gonna marry Natsu but everyone she interacts with would marry her

Don’t use the enemy’s vehicle Gray he’s probably gonna take your magic away

Gray @ Lyon: Be my riding bitch

“That’s weird, why are they taking off their clothes?” Because they are ridiculous

I guess Racer isn’t so quick with monologues 

What the fuck when all’s said and done Lyon wasn’t even that bad he hasn’t really hurt anyone he did not deserve to be Goku’d in Racer’s Cell attack

I gotta say though, the fact Lyon sacrified himself specifically for Gray was also very Extra like bruh you were just talking shit about how you’re not friends

“No matter the era, the ones who triumph are the rich” He’s a literal capitalist puppet

I am expecting Karen to come up based on the images of Aries and Leo in this intro so right now my best guess is that Hibiki knew Karen and when he sees Lucy’s spirits Nirvana will affect him

“I guess Evil Natsu wouldn’t be much different than Normal Natsu” Natsu is chaotic good

“He’s got plenty of info on Lucy, a newcomer to Fairy Tail, definitely easy on the eyes. He likes the whole package” GRAY’S ATTRACTION TO LUCY HAS BEEN #EXPOSED

Since Angel is a celestial wizard she probably has Aries 

Oh wow my theory about Hibiki was actually very accurate I’m almost surprised

My darling girl Lucy offering her life for her spirits and giving all the Zodiac hope for a better future <33333333333

YASSSS LUCY GETS A POWER-UP I AM LOVING THIS GO HIBIKI

“Why does she look like she fought a tornado head-on?” Hate to break it to you Lucy but ur the tornado

I knew Lyon wouldn’t be gone for long that death scene was too ambiguous

“Wow Natsu, where’d you find that get-up?” said the shirtless man with patterned skinny jeans

That was a beautiful speech Jellal but why does everyone thinking killing themselves is the solution to everything like calm down for a minute

Erza is so strong she just hoisted herself and a full grown man from the edge of the tower she was dangling on

“Now, the world is doomed,” Jellal still retained his penchant for dramatics I guess

I know Jellal has made Erza’s life a living hell but also now that he’s an amnesiac I kind of want them to make out

“Stupid hot-head nearly gave me a heart attack” You’re giving him Gray hairs Natsu

Props to Fairy Tail for actually having different members win different battles like a lot of anime prefer to have most battles eventually finished off by the Chosen One but they actually do a good job of letting Natsu save his strength and usually only fight once or twice depending on the situation

 I’m very concerned about why the babes are crying in the intro who is hurting them 

I just want an in-character season commentary of Lucy and Gray making snarky comments about everyone they know

Is Dragon Slaying really a lost magic if Natsu knows like five dragonslayer at this point

Cobra: I’m not lonely look my best friend is with me it’s this snake

Lmao @ Natsu biting his enemies

Omg have my character commentary dreams come true Gray and Lucy have not stopped their asides

“I think it’s just cause that’s the kind of thing villains do” Gray doesn’t have any time for villainous tragic backstories

“I can’t wait to see your face as I twist your body apart” calm down Edward Speculum Hands

I LOVE IT WHEN PROTAGONISTS LIST THE FLAWS IN ENEMY ATTACKS GO ERZA

I like how Erza’s artificial eye (for all intents and purposes, a disability) is continuously portrayed as a strength rather than a weakness

So it’s sort of like Zero is to Brain as Voldemort is to Tom Riddle like neither one is good but one was perceived as charismatic and had goals and the other was like “my crazy lifeforce magic has induced albinism also I’m here to murder everyone”

IS HE SERIOUSLY GOING TO MURDER ALL THOSE PEOPLE

“What happened?” Divine intervention??

HIBIKI MY SMART BEAUTIFUL SLUTTY MESS

REN, SHERRY, LYON, HIBIKI, EVE I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU

They weren’t crying they were rising from the ashes my babies I’m gonna physically weep 

Happy looks like he’s seen into hell jfc

Jellal, swaying from side to side as he tries to walk: I’m perfectly fine

How dare you Jellal I was rooting for you

“Although I have no recollection of acting like a vile cretin, it seems that was the case” I don’t know what I love more this psyche out, Jellal holding himself accountable for actions he can’t remember, or the fact he calls himself a ‘vile cretin’

I’m proud of Jellal for sending a replacement not all characters have such foresight

“Know that whatever happens, I, Igneel, will always be proud of you” why is this dragon a better dad than Lucy’s actual dad

Amazing Gray popped out of that collapsing building like a firework

“Who’s that, another pretty boy from Blue Pegasus?” lmao I guess Lucy and Gray have never seen Jellal’s actual face

Erza confessing quietly confessing to her feelings to Jellal while pink squirrels mime their inner affection is my jam

BLOCKHEAD IS BROTHERS WITH THE CAPITALIST PUPPET THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE

I can’t believe Jellal’s last name is Fernandes

On one hand it makes sense that Richard and Jellal pay for their crimes but on the other hand Jellal literally can’t remember doing anything wrong and they’ve both since reformed

Gdfgjhdfkjghkfjdhg every single member of the alliance would risk their freedom not only for Jellal but for Erza’s happiness 

Just OTP things: When one of them doesn’t have a name and the one goes “yes you do” and gives them one

Blue Pegasus and Fairy Tail are so ridiculous it’s great

This is deeply traumatizing for Wendy all she’s ever known was a lie

But if they were all illusions how did they make real clothing for the girls 

“Sherry!” “Ren!” Does this imply not only the Lyon reciprocated Sherry’s feelings but that EVE AND REN WERE A THING

“Snakes aren’t manly enough to fly” Elfman pls

GAJEEL “I’m a dragon slayer too, when do I get my flyin’ kitty-kat, huh?” I CNA’T BREATHE

I hope Gajeel wants to be her partner I will fucking weep

Gray seems so sombre and sinister as he talks about the dragons I don’t trust this

“I’m through with Fairy Tail and I’m through with all of you” Gray is going full Sasuke what is going on

I’m crying the way they measure Gray’s realness is by how often he strips

I love Erza:

Elfman: You’re gonna need a man with you

Erza: No

Um?? Why would Gray do this??? Where is he really?? What is going on

I’m very upset about all this if Gray was going to go dark he would need the length of an entire arc to justify instead of this random garbage betrayal which is probably filler

“You can’t have Fairy Tail without Natsu. That’s not even a possibility!” That’s gay

Natsu’s inner voice: [Gray] can’t help that he’s awesome

Honestly this filler is 1/10 if they are going to have Gray and Natsu properly at odds in the future I need it to be at least 500% more homoerotic

[mahleur]

100 (big) little idea

Depressive Realism: Depressed people have a more accurate view of the world because they’re more realistic about how risky and fragile life is. The opposite of “blissfully unaware.”

Skill Compensation: People who are exceptionally good at one thing tend to be exceptionally poor at another.

Curse of Knowledge: The inability to communicate your ideas because you wrongly assume others have the necessary background to understand what you’re talking about.

Base Rates: The success rate of everyone who’s done what you’re about to try.

Base-Rate Neglect: Assuming the success rate of everyone who’s done what you’re about to try doesn’t apply to you, caused by overestimating the extent to which you do things differently than everyone else.

Compassion Fade: People have more compassion for small groups of victims than larger groups, because the smaller the group the easier it is to identify individual victims.

System Justification Theory: Inefficient systems will be defended and maintained if they serve the needs of people who benefit from them – individual incentives can sustain systemic stupidity.

Three Men Make a Tiger: People will believe anything if enough people tell them it’s true. It comes from a Chinese proverb that if one person tells you there’s a tiger roaming around your neighborhood, you can assume they’re lying. If two people tell you, you begin to wonder. If three say it’s true, you’re convinced there’s a tiger in your neighborhood and you panic.

Buridan’s Ass: A thirsty donkey is placed exactly midway between two pails of water. It dies because it can’t make a rational decision about which one to choose. A form of decision paralysis.

Pareto Principle: The majority of outcomes are driven by a minority of events.

Sturgeon’s Law: “90% of everything is crap.” The obvious inverse of the Pareto Principle, but hard to accept in practice.

Cumulative advantage: Social status snowballs in either direction because people like associating with successful people, so doors are opened for them, and avoid associating with unsuccessful people, for whom doors are closed.

Impostor Syndrome: Fear of being exposed as less talented than people think you are, often because talent is owed to cumulative advantage rather than actual effort or skill.

Anscombe’s Quartet: Four sets of numbers that look identical on paper (mean average, variance, correlation, etc.) but look completely different when graphed. Describes a situation where exact calculations don’t offer a good representation of how the world works.

Ringelmann Effect: Members of a group become lazier as the size of their group increases. Based on the assumption that “someone else is probably taking care of that.”

Semmelweis Reflex: Automatically rejecting evidence that contradicts your tribe’s established norms. Named after a Hungarian doctor who discovered that patients treated by doctors who wash their hands suffer fewer infections, but struggled to convince other doctors that his finding was true.

False-Consensus Effect: Overestimating how widely held your own beliefs are, caused by the difficulty of imagining the experiences of other people.

Boomerang Effect: Trying to persuade someone to do one thing can make them more likely to do the opposite, because the act of persuasion can feel like someone stealing your freedom and doing the opposite makes you feel like you’re taking your freedom back.

Chronological Snobbery: “The assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited. You must find why it went out of date. Was it ever refuted (and if so by whom, where, and how conclusively) or did it merely die away as fashions do? If the latter, this tells us nothing about its truth or falsehood. From seeing this, one passes to the realization that our own age is also ‘a period,’ and certainly has, like all periods, its own characteristic illusions.” – C.S. Lewis

Planck’s Principle: “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”

McNamara Fallacy: A belief that rational decisions can be made with quantitative measures alone, when in fact the things you can’t measure are often the most consequential. Named after Defense Secretary McNamara, who tried to quantify every aspect of the Vietnam War.

Courtesy Bias: Giving opinions that are likely to offend people the least, rather than what you actually believe.

Berkson’s Paradox: Strong correlations can fall apart when combined with a larger population. Among hospital patients, motorcycle crash victims wearing helmets are more likely to be seriously injured than those not wearing helmets. But that’s because most crash victims saved by helmets did not need to become hospital patients, and those without helmets are more likely to die before becoming a hospital patient.

Group Attribution Error: Incorrectly assuming that the views of a group member reflect those of the whole group.

Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon: Noticing an idea everywhere you look as soon as it’s brought to your attention in a way that makes you overestimate its prevalence.

Ludic Fallacy: Falsely associated simulations with real life. Nassim Taleb: “Organized competitive fighting trains the athlete to focus on the game and, in order not to dissipate his concentration, to ignore the possibility of what is not specifically allowed by the rules, such as kicks to the groin, a surprise knife, et cetera. So those who win the gold medal might be precisely those who will be most vulnerable in real life.”

Normalcy Bias: Underestimating the odds of disaster because it’s comforting to assume things will keep functioning the way they’ve always functioned.

Actor-Observer Asymmetry: We judge others based solely on their actions, but when judging ourselves we have an internal dialogue that justifies our mistakes and bad decisions.

The 90-9-1 Rule: In social media networks, 90% of users just read content, 9% of users contribute a little content, and 1% of users contribute almost all the content. Gives a false impression of what ideas are popular or “average.”

Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy: Goals set retroactively after an activity, like shooting a blank wall and then drawing a bullseye around the holes you left, or picking a benchmark after you’ve invested.

Fredkin’s Paradox: Confronted with two equally good options, you struggle to decide, even though your decision doesn’t matter because both options are equally good. The more equal the options, the harder the decision.

Poisoning the Well: Presenting irrelevant adverse information about someone in a way that makes everything else that person says seem untrustworthy. “Before you hear my opponent’s healthcare plan, let me remind you that he got a DUI in college.”

Golem Effect: Performance declines when supervisors/teachers have low expectations of your abilities.

Appeal to Consequences: Arguing that a hypothesis must be true (or false) because the outcome is something you like (or dislike). The classic example is arguing that climate change isn’t real because combating climate change will hurt the economy.

Plain Folks Fallacy: People of authority acquiring trust by presenting themselves as Average Joe’s, when in fact their authority proves they are different from everyone else.

Behavioral Inevitability: “History never repeats itself; man always does.” – Voltaire

Apophenia: A tendency to perceive correlations between unrelated things, because your mind can only deal with tiny sample sizes and assuming things are correlated creates easy/comforting explanations of how the world works.

Self-Handicapping: Avoiding effort because you don’t want to deal with the emotional pain of that effort failing.

Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

False Uniqueness Effect: Assuming your skills are unique when they’re not. Comes from conflating “I’m good at this” with “Others are bad at this.”

Hard-Easy Effect: Hard tasks promote overconfidence because the rewards are high and fun to dream about; easy tasks promote underconfidence because they’re boring and easy to put off.

Neglect of Probability: Arguing that Nate Silver was wrong when he said Hillary Clinton has a 70% chance of winning, and using Donald Trump’s victory as your proof. Good predictions are based on probabilities, but the assessment of predictions are always binary, right or wrong.

Cobra Effect: Attempting to solve a problem makes that problem worse. Comes from an Indian story about a city infested with snakes offering a bounty for every dead cobra, which caused entrepreneurs to start breeding cobras for slaughter.

Braess’s Paradox: Adding more roads can make traffic worse because new shortcuts become popular and overcrowded.

Non-Ergodic: When group probabilities don’t apply to singular events. If 100 people play Russian Roulette once, the odds of dying might be, say, 10%. But if one person plays Russian Roulette 100 times, the odds are dying are practically 100%.

Pollyanna Principle: It’s easier to remember happy memories than bad ones.

Declinism: Perpetually viewing society as in decline, because you’re afflicted by the Pollyanna Principle and you forget how much things sucked in the past.

Empathy Gap: Underestimating how you’ll behave when you’re “hot” (angry/aroused/rushed), caused by the inability to accurately foresee how your body’s physical response to situations (dopamine, adrenaline, etc.) will influence decision-making.

Abilene Paradox: A group decides to do something that no one in the group wants to do because everyone mistakenly assumes they’re the only ones who object to the idea and they don’t want to rock the boat by speaking up.

Collective Narcissism: Exaggerating the importance and influence of your social group (country, industry, company, department, etc.).

Moral Luck: Praising someone for a good deed they didn’t have full control over. “Avoid calling heroes those who had no other choice.” – Taleb.

Feedback Loops: Falling stock prices scare people, which cause them to sell, which makes prices fall, which scares more people, which causes more people to sell, and so on. Works both ways.

Hawthorne Effect: Being watched/studied changes how people behave, making it difficult to conduct social studies that accurately reflect the real world.

Perfect Solution Fallacy: Comparing reality with an idealized alternative. Prevalent in any field governed by uncertainty.

Weasel Words: Phrases that appear to have meaning but convey nothing tangible. “Growth was solid last quarter,” or “Many people believe.”

Hormesis: Something that hurts you in a high dose can be good for you in small doses. (Weight on your bones, drinking red wine, etc.)

Backfiring Effect: A supercharged version of confirmation bias where being presented with evidence that goes against your beliefs makes you double down on your initial beliefs because you feel you’re being attacked.

Reflexivity: When cause and effect are the same. People think Tesla will sell a lot of cars, so Tesla stock goes up, which lets Tesla raise a bunch of new capital, which helps Tesla sell a lot of cars.

Second Half of the Chessboard: Put one grain of rice on the first chessboard square, two on the next, four on the next, then eight, then sixteen, etc, doubling the amount of rice on each square. When you’ve covered half the chessboard’s squares you’re dealing with an amount of rice that can fit in your lap; in the second half you quickly get to a pile that will consume an entire city. That’s how compounding works: slowly, then ferociously.

Peter Principle: Good workers will continue to be promoted until they end up in a role they’re bad at.

Friendship Paradox: On average, people have fewer friends than their friends have. Occurs because people with an abnormally high number of friends are more likely to be one of your friends. It’s a fundamental part of social network dynamics and makes most people feel less popular than they are.

Hedonic Treadmill: Expectations rise with results, so nothing feels as good as you’d imagine for as long as you’d expect.

Positive Illusions: Excessively rosy views about the decisions you’ve made to maintain self-esteem in a world where everyone makes bad decisions all the time.

Ironic Process Theory: Going out of your way to suppress thoughts makes those thoughts more prominent in your mind.

Clustering Illusions: Falsely assuming that the inevitable bunching of random results in a large sample indicates a trend.

Foundational Species: A single thing that plays an outsized role in supporting an ecosystem, whose loss would pull down many others with it. In nature: kelp, algae, and coral. In business: The Federal Reserve and Amazon.

Bizarreness Effect: Crazy things are easier to remember than common things, providing a distorted sense of “normal.”

Nonlinearity: Outputs aren’t always proportional to inputs, so the world is a barrage of massive wins and horrible losses that surprise people.

Moderating Relationship: The correlation between two variables depends on a third, seemingly unrelated variable. The quality of a marriage may be dependent on a spouse’s work project that’s causing stress.

Denomination Effect: One hundred $1 bills feels like less money than one $100 bill. Also explains stock splits – buying 10 shares for $10 each feels cheaper than one share for $100.

Woozle Effect: “A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth.” - Daniel Kahneman.

Google Scholar Effect: Scientific research depends on citing other research, and the research that gets cited the most is whatever shows up in the top results of Google Scholar searches, regardless of its contribution to the field.

Inversion: Avoiding problems can be more important than scoring wins.

Gambler’s Ruin: Has many meanings, the most important of which is that playing a negative-probability game persistently enough guarantees going broke.

Principle of Least Effort: When seeking information, effort declines as soon as the minimum acceptable result is reached.

Dunning-Kruger Effect: Knowing the limits of your intelligence requires a certain level of intelligence, so some people are too stupid to know how stupid they are.

Knightian Uncertainty: Risk that can’t be measured; admitting that you don’t know what you don’t know.

Aumann’s Agreement Theorem: If you understand your opponent’s beliefs you cannot agree to disagree. If you agree to disagree it’s because one side doesn’t understand the other side’s view.

Focusing Effect: Overemphasizing factors that seem important but exist as part of a complex system. People from the Midwest assume Californians are happier because the weather is better, but they’re not because Californians also deal with traffic, bad bosses, unhappy marriages, etc, which more than offset the happiness boost from sunny skies.

The Middle Ground Fallacy: Falsely assuming that splitting the difference between two polar opposite views is a healthy compromise. If one person says vaccines cause autism and another person says they don’t, it’s not right to compromise and say vaccines sometimes cause autism.

Rebound Effect: New symptoms, or supercharged old symptoms, emerge when medicine or other protections are withdrawn.

Ostrich Effect: Avoiding negative information that might challenge views that you desperately want to be right.

Founder’s Syndrome: When a CEO is so emotionally invested in a company that they can’t effectively delegate decisions.

In-Group Favoritism: Giving preference to people from your social group regardless of their objective qualifications.

Bounded Rationality: People can’t be fully rational because your brain is a hormone machine, not an Excel spreadsheet.

Luxury Paradox: The more expensive something is the less likely you are to use it, so the relationship between price and utility is an inverted U. Ferraris sit in garages; Hondas get driven.

Meat Paradox: Dogs are family, pigs are food. Some animals classified as food are wrongly perceived to have lower intelligence than those classified as pets. An example of morality depending on utility.

Fluency Heuristic: Ideas that can be explained simply are more likely to be believed than those that are complex, even if the simple-sounding ideas are nonsense. It occurs because ideas that are easy to grasp are hard to distinguish from ideas you’re familiar with.

Historical Wisdom: “The dead outnumber the living 14 to 1, and we ignore the accumulated experience of such a huge majority of mankind at our peril.” – Niall Ferguson

Fact-Check Scarcity Principle: This article is called 100 Little Ideas but there are fewer than 100 ideas. 99% of readers won’t notice because they’re not checking, and most of those who notice won’t say anything. Don’t believe everything you read.

Emotional Contagion: One person’s emotions trigger the same emotions in other people, because evolution has selected for empathizing with those in your social group whose actions you rely on.

Tribal Affiliation: Beliefs can be swayed by identity and a desire to fit in over rational analysis. There is little correlation between climate change denial and scientific literacy. But there is a strong correlation between climate change denial and political affiliation.

Emotional Competence: The ability to recognize others’ emotions and respond to them productively. Harder and rarer than it sounds from https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/100-little-ideas/

[allspark]

It’s time for our weekly Diamond Comics Shipping List! Check out some great titles IDW has in store for us next week like Transformers Unicron, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, Ghostbusters, Marvel Action Black Panther, and much more! All coming your way for April 3rd!

TRANSFORMERS UNICRON TP

John Barber, Chris Ryall, David Rodriguez, Brandon Easton, Christos N. Gage, Magdalene Visaggio (A) Alex Milne, Sara Pitre-Durocher, Kei Zama, David Messina, Nelson Daniel, Juan Samu, Paolo Villanelli, Fico Ossio (A/CVR) Andrew Griffith

ADVANCE SOLICITED FOR MARCH RELEASE! Every IDW Transformers comic has led to this cataclysmic story! The culmination of IDW’s Transformers Universe! The end is nigh! Unicron, a planet-sized being that devours other worlds, has set its sights on Cybertron and all of its colonies-including Earth! Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and their friends must unite every Cybertronian, Earthling, and ally they have to stand against this threat to all existence. But why is Unicron hell-bent on destroying Cybertron-what original sin did Optimus Prime’s ancestors commit to earn this wrath? It’s an all-out battle against extinction as the world-destroying, universe-shattering threat of Unicron is on its way.

GI JOE A REAL AMERICAN HERO #260

Larry Hama (A/CVR A) Ron Joseph (CVR B) John Royle

“The Cobra’s Venom,” Part 5. Mad scientists, even madder robots, and a small, desperate team of Joes left alone to defeat them at any cost! The final chapter in the latest bombastic arc of living legend Larry Hama’s magnificent G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero run!

Fifth of five JOE/COBRA vehicle/gear-themed RI covers by Jamie Sullivan!

MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC TP VOL 16

Paul Allor, Ted Anderson, Jeremy Whitley, Thom Zahler (A) Toni Kuusisto, Agnes Garbowska (A/CVR) Andy Price

Advance solicited for April release! Things are getting a little crazier than normal in Ponyville! Pinkie Pie gains extraordinary powers after eating a magic apple, but will she use her new powers for good, or for fun? Meanwhile, the entire town is getting into the spooky spirit for Nightmare Nights! Then, Rainbow Dash decides the elder ponies of the retirement village could use some more excitement in their lives. So she invents EXTREME BINGO! What could go wrong? Collects issues #69-73.

AMBER BLAKE #1

Jade Lagardere (A/CVR A) Butch Guice

Amber Blake was only a child when she was recruited to the Cleverland Institute, a school for gifted children. But predators hide in the school’s administration, abusing the children they’re meant to protect, and, on the verge of exposing them, Amber finds herself fleeing for her life from the very man who recruited her. But she’s not dead yet-and she’s not the only one who wants to see Cleverland’s leaders burn.

ATOMIC ROBO AND THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA #4

Brian Clevinger (A/CVR A) Scott Wegener (CVR B) Valentina Pinto

Atomic Robo just opened Tesladyne Institute’s doors to the next generation of Action Scientists. Meanwhile, an old comrade has an urgent message about the Vampire Dimension: it’s bad. Bernie might be speaking with the real Queen of Hollow Earth, instead of a hallucination? Jury’s still out on that one. Oh, and y’know the subplot about Robo’s secret robot son? Well… it’s fine. Everything’s fine.

DANGER GIRL DANGEROUS VISIONS 3-D

J. Scott Campbell, Andy Hartnell (A/CVR) J. Scott Campbell

The first issue of J. Scott Campbell’s Danger Girl (plus the original preview story) are presented in glorious full color 3-D-or as we like to describe it… DANGERVISION! Plus, as an added bonus, we are showcasing an incredible gallery section making this a true 3-D Extravaganza!

Comes with your very own set of DANGEROUS 3-D glasses!

GHOSTBUSTERS: 35TH ANNIVERSARY: GHOSTBUSTERS

Erik Burnham (A/CVR) Dan Schoening

The 35th Anniversary of the Ghostbusters is upon us! Let’s celebrate with four spooktacular weekly comics featuring different Ghostbuster teams in all-new standalone adventures!

First out of the Firehouse are the original ‘busting team of Peter, Winston, Egon and Ray, who have seen a lot of things during their time as paranormal investigators, but the latest case might just turn history on its head! Could it be that they’ve found proof of… Atlantis? It’s a case full of saltwater and slime with the ORIGINAL GHOSTBUSTERS!

GIANTKILLERS

Bart Sears (A) Rick Leonardi, Matthew Dow Smith (A/CVR B) Meghan Hetrick (A/CVR A) Bart Sears

Arkon the Giantkiller is fated to protect Auoro, the One True Chosen, so that she may destroy the evil Lord Omin. She just has to survive long enough to do it! Bart Sears pens the story he has always wanted to tell, a tale of brutal sword-swinging action as Arkon seeks to rescue the infant Auoro from her captors. With art by the all-star team of Rick Leonardi (X-Men) and Matthew Dow Smith (X-Files), the issue also includes a short story with art by Meghan Hetrick (Red Thorn), and a prose story written and illustrated by Bart Sears. Only an oversized, prestige format could contain this much epic storytelling!

An exciting new one-shot printed in prestige format!

IMPOSSIBLE INC #5

J. M. DeMatteis (A/CVR A) Mike Cavallaro

Lost in an ocean of Infinite Nothingness, Number Horowitz has to wonder: Has the universe disappeared-or have I? It’s a question she has to answer quickly, because the lives of every living creature in Creation depend on it! Join Number and the Impossible Inc. crew for the cosmic conclusion to the mini-series!

LODGER #4

David Lapham, Maria Lapham (A/CVR A) David Lapham

The line between hunter and hunted gets blurred when the Lodger gives into temptation. And out on the open road, Ricky and Golddigger close in for the kill.

The first black & white book from Black Crown! A new story from comics legends David & Maria Lapham (Stray Bullets)! Letters column, behind-the-panels process pages, & more!

“LODGER is from the team that brought us Stray Bullets, so you know we’re in safe hands, hands that just need one more rinse under a faucet to get the blood off them. This is small-town noir at its gothic best. Bleed on…”-Ian Rankin, best-selling author of Inspector Rebus

MAGIC THE GATHERING CHANDRA #2

Vita Ayala (A/CVR A) Harvey Tolibao

After her latest defeat, Chandra feels broken as events of the past continue to haunt her, and a familiar foe seizes the opportunity to strike! Will Ajani’s heroic intervention be enough to help her overcome the threat and stop her from traveling farther down a self-destructive path?

Rising star writer Vita Ayala and powerhouse artist Harvey Tolibao continue to expand the bounds of the Multiverse in the first Magic: The Gathering® series in nearly five years!

STORY SPINS DIRECTLY OUT OF THE NEWEST CARD SET, OCTOBER’S GUILDS OF RAVNICA , AND ITS SEQUELS, JANUARY’S RAVNICA ALLEGIANCE AND THE UNNAMED SPRING 2019 SET!

Magic: The Gathering, its logo, Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, and character names and distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast LLC and are used with permission. ©2018 Wizards of the Coast LLC. All Rights Reserved

MARVEL ACTION BLACK PANTHER #1

Kyle Baker (CVR RI-A) Kyle Baker (A/CVR A) Juan Samu

Readers of all ages can get lost in the technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda as they follow the adventures of its monarch, the Black Panther! King T’Challa is responsible for defending his people-and the world-from any threats. And he gets plenty of help-and sass-from his genius sister Shuri. A Marvelous new era begins here!  A bold new era for Black Panther begins here! From the mind of multiple Eisner and Harvey award winner Kyle Baker!

NIGHT MOVES #4

V.J. Boyd, Justin Boyd (A) Clay McCormack (CVR A) Chris Burnham

A terrifying noir nightmare in the occult underworld of Las Vegas! Face to face with an ancient evil, Alexis searches for signs of her old partner inside of what is now the demon Ashmedai. Narrowly escaping defeat (at a heavy cost), Chris and Alexis grow closer, only to be confronted by true evil-and it’s not what they expected… From the mind of VJ Boyd, co-executive producer of S.W.A.T. and producer of Justified, comes a fantastic new noir-ish tale!

UNCLE SCROOGE #43

Vito Stabile, Carlo Panaro (A) Francesco Guerrini, Paolo Campinoti (CVR A) Marco Mazzarello

What happens when Uncle Scrooge gets his greedy hands on Donald Duck’s magical hammock? Nothing simple and easy, that’s for sure! While Donald just wants a well-earned nap, Uncle Scrooge has other ideas in mind… See the hilarious results in “The Helpful Hammock!”

YE TP

Guilherme Petreca (A/CVR) Guilherme Petreca

Ye is a curious young man, named after the only sound he knows how to make. His voice must have been stolen by the Colorless King, the source of all the world’s sorrows-terrifying, unrelenting, all-taking and never-giving. Now, Ye has no choice but the embark on a long voyage over land and sea, past grizzled pirates, a drunken clown, and more, to find the famous witch who can help him defeat the Colorless King. What he discovers may be a lesson for us all.

•   Advance solicited for January release! •   Young cartoonist Guilherme Petreca won Brazil’s prestigious HQ Mix Award for Best Artist due to the unforgettable imagery on every page of Ye, his first full-length graphic novel. •   In the tradition of The Little Prince, The Neverending Story, and A Wrinkle in Time, this graphic fable will leave young and old readers awestruck and eager to relive the journey.

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[tortuga-aak]

I lost my job after 14 years — and it's made me realize that a day job might not be the best way to build wealth

Flickr/Eelke

After 14 years, an investor was laid off from his full-time job, giving him time to focus on his side-projects and family.

He realized self-employment is stressful — it comes with the unique challenges of self-scrutiny and less stability.

Having a break between full time jobs is allowing him to be selective about what his next step is.

He also says that earning a salary as well as additional income from a side job is the path of least resistance for reaching financial independence.

  Around friends and neighbors, I'm using the phrase "in between jobs" to describe my current employment situation. That's a convenient euphemism to make it sound less bad.

Most people aren't familiar with my business so they only see a jobless Dad of three kids married to a non-working Mom, dealing with a mortgage and the same suburban costs they struggle with.

I used the term "unemployed" the other day with a former co-worker and I sensed sorrow in his reply text message.

"Oh damn," he wrote.

In a town where conversations often revolve around employment, I'm conflicted about my actual status.

Yes, I'm between jobs because I left a job and intend to go back to a new one. Yes, I'm technically self-employed because I work on a business that earns money. Yet, I was laid off and I'm looking for work. So I'm unemployed.

The way I frame my story changes depending on who I talk to. The truest answer is it's a long story that only my family and a few friends understand.

And you.

Regardless of what it's called, I like my status right now. I'm home every day. I make breakfast for the kids and take them to school. I go to the gym when l feel like it. Errands are easy.

We have multiple income streams and cash savings to get us through this period, so we're not stressed or panicking about money. Though our cash savings account is shrinking and I don't like that.

My side business work is fulfilling and challenging. It makes money and has the potential to grow more. That's exciting.

It's all got me thinking… what if I don't go back to work full-time?

Never enough

For those new here, I lost my job of 14 years in early October when my project lost funding. I was always treated well, but my employment situation was never ideal. I hope to go back to work full-time in the new year in a similar field.

I miss the benefits and salary.

Even so, my plan remains intact to leave full-time work by 2022 and retire completely and never work again at age 55, one year before my Dad retired.

During this period of searching for a new position, I have time to focus on my side projects to set them up for future growth.

Working for myself, I'm under constant personal scrutiny. Whatever I manage to accomplish on any given day is never enough. There's always more to do. More writing, more optimization, more tracking, more upgrading, and more organization. I'm trying to automate where I can. But my business requires manual work on my part.

On top of that, since I'm home all day, I'm under constant pressure to be accessible to my kids. When I worked in an office building, they couldn't knock on my door to ask for a butt wipe.

Young kids don't understand the concept of work. All they want is more time with Dad. Being more available is part of why I'm embracing this lifestyle in the first place. But balancing work and kids while self-employed is much more difficult than I anticipated.

Waking up early is more difficult too. Planning out my day is not a straightforward as I hoped. When I work during the day, I tend to justify that working in the evening and on weekends isn't necessary.

Maybe it isn't. But that feeling of not doing enough is always there.

My biggest fears if I don't go back to work

As a sole breadwinner, I'm responsible for providing health and dental insurance for my family. Without a sponsoring employer, insurance is expensive. I want excellent insurance, not average insurance.

We are on COBRA for now, but it's been a slow and somewhat stressful process.

Maybe this is something I need to get over. Plenty of self-employed people have good coverage for their families. For now, at least, I want this aspect of my life to be stress-free. Working for a good employer with excellent benefits would put my mind at ease about healthcare for my family.

Another fear is that the local or national economy will sour while I'm unemployed. This scenario would be bad for my side business if the market tanks and people stop reading about investing. And it would be difficult to find a new job.

Not working for a salary puts a damper on my ability to grow wealth. I'm not contributing to retirement accounts and I've paused our college savings for now. Both actions make me uncomfortable.

At age 42, I'm not ready to draw down my wealth for the rest of my life.

A salary is a solid baseline. Any side income is gravy on top. This combination, I still believe, is the path of least resistance to financial independence for me.

But I may have that all wrong.

What scares me about going back to work

If I go back to work, I won't be able to work on my side business as much as now. My side business could be the real path of least resistance to financial independence. It's a riskier venture, but perhaps the more lucrative one.

Going back to full-time work, in a way, says that I can't make enough money as an entrepreneur. But I'm conflicted because this blogging business was never meant to be a full-time gig.

However, online businesses have a way of growing exponentially. Potentially. Not guaranteed. There are many risks and speed bumps.

My new job may require too many hours and I won't have the time or energy for my side gigs. Definitely possible.

Another fear is I could go into worker ant mode and fall into contentment and lose my ambition.

But the most painful aspect of full-time work is the loss of control of my time. I love choosing what to do each day. Even though I always feel short on time, having the choice is a premium luxury.

Looking back at the last 14 years of my career, the hardest part of the job was the time commitment. The work wasn't so bad. But 40 hours per week is a lot despite being normal. The full-time job prevented me from extended traveling. It prevented me from seeing my kids four mornings a week. And it meant that my work was ultimately making someone else wealthy.

The happy medium

Weighing everything over and over again, I've come to the conclusion that after some time in between jobs, I can position my side business to flourish and return to a healthy and lucrative nine-to-five career. I'll need to be selective in my job choice so I am not overwhelmed by a full-time work commitment where I still have some control of my time.

Finding the right balance might take a while. I am at the point in my career when I can be pickier with employers because I don't really need the job. Yeah, it would be tough financially not going back to work full-time if the business doesn't thrive. But our savings and passive income can carry us for some time.

We can always move to achieve financial independence. And there's "always money in the banana stand" to keep us going.

But I'm not ready to stop building wealth.

More than anything, the desire for good health insurance is driving the decision to go back to work. Until my side business income surpasses what I can make as a professional, I don't expect that to change.

Conclusion

Now that I've been unemployed for two months, I've seen the challenges of being self-employed.

Actually living the self-employed lifestyle is a blunt realization that it's not as easy as it seems. The challenges are real and many.

So far, this experience reaffirms that going back to work is the right choice. Though it hasn't changed my broader goals of leaving full-time work in a few years and retiring completely at age 55.

When I do go back to the daily grind, I'll be relieved to have the coveted benefits to support my family, re-energized to do good work, and intoxicated by the notion that it may be the last job I ever have.

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