#hence what i am trying to convey here

[bookwyrminspiration]

dad finished reading Stellarlune! he said “this book was *checks random page* all talking.” and “if this was what she was building to—which she said in the acknowledgements—why didn’t we do this like. four books ago.” and “this was an information dump, telling us everything to get us caught up. and where’s Ro?? she’s the next problem.” just thought I’d let you know.

[pikahlua]

I hope this will be short.

I guess this line is the fandom drama of the chapter?

I understand a lot of you are really passionate about the accuracy of the English translation. I just want to encourage you to try to engage with the official translation in good faith.

Ojama shimasu literally means "I am disturbing you/I will get in your way." It's often spoken as a greeting where the "apology" is implied (hence the brackets in my translation), but as usual context is everything in Japanese. Izuku is saying this line in defiance of Tomura's wishes. It basically comes across as Izuku plugging his fingers in his ears.

Me personally? If I were the official translator, I'd have strongly considered translating the line as "I'm coming in whether you like it or not."

The purpose in my pointing out the "common greeting" nature of this line was to demonstrate Izuku's sassiness. This is Izuku doing his "meddling where you don't technically have to" thing. The level of formality in Izuku's speech doesn't necessarily translate to actual politeness (check out @bakuhatsufallinlove's excellent post on that here).

Does "You will let me in," mean the exact same thing? Technically no, but it's the sentiment that counts. From an official translator's point of view, "You will let me in," is shorter, punchier, fits in the speech bubble a lot easier, and still conveys the general idea of what's happening in the scene.

I don't know. I wanted to talk about this because I guess a lot of people are concerned about Izuku's characterization and how it reflects on Japanese culture and how the official translation may be misrepresenting Japanese culture to the English-reading audience, and I just...can I ask that everyone take a step back a minute? Horikoshi isn't writing his story for an English-reading audience. He's not considering at all how any of this sounds to English speakers. That's the translator's job, not just to translate what is said but to translate that into the context of who is reading it. Localization is not a dirty word--it's an important aspect of translation. And the notion that Izuku is being polite and respectful here as a Japanese person is just such a...take. Izuku is being hella rude here lol. Japan itself, not just the MHA Japan but REAL WORLD Japan, notoriously has a bystander problem where people will ignore others who are being harassed because they don't wanna get involved. They won't step in to help nor will they even testify as a witness against others for fear of what it means to speak out and break from the pack. Izuku is quite obviously Horikoshi's direct answer to that phenomenon. He's meant to be an example of the morally correct thing to do, which is to be "rude" in these cases.

So I mean, sure, we can talk about what is lost in translation by the line, "You will let me in." But to me what's lost may just be grammatical and pedantic (like the passive voice that switches the onus of action onto Tomura instead of Izuku and what that may do to the focus on Izuku's rise to action here). In any case, it's not a BAD translation that changes Izuku's perceived politeness, just one that may prompt new discussion--and I don't think that's a bad thing.

[marengogo]

Are You Sure ?! - #4: I Hate that YOU Love Hate You but, I Love YOU, so ...

I’m listening to a Mellow/Angsty Love playlist - (yes) it has BTS/ solos BTS songs as well

[Music is a very big part of my life and I’m MOSTLY INCAPABLE of writing without music, so I just thought I'd share what I am listening to while writing this]

–🐺–🐺–🐺–

Hello My Sentimental Girls, Bois and Enbys,

Please be kindly warned that I am going to be overpoweringly sensitive as I write this. Not necessarily because Are You Sure?! has unfortunately come to an end, but because, as I try to write this post, as always, “through” my TwinFlame’s JK emotional lens, the last two episodes really were so full of so many feelings that I am trying my best to order my thoughts and do them justice. Like, let me tell you, this boy really felt plenty, or better yet he allowed himself to truly feel a lot hence, as always, through respectful speculation and educated guessing I’ll try my best to convey my related observations. 

Towards the end of the post I’ll also have a little confession to make about something that I have been so determinedly ignoring, because the mere thought always makes me so uncomfortable, sad, and a tiny bit scared, so there’s also that.

All that being said, here I am, concluding this physical/sentimental journey, with my unrequested thoughts but with a hopeful sense that perhaps writing this down will somehow lessen my emotional weight, because let’s be for real, I am going to have AYS withdrawals on Thursday. So, is this post going to be long?  … 🤡 I mean, you should know me by now. For those who don’t know me, yes, it will be a long post 🙏🏾.

Truly free things are hard to come by nowadays. Undoubtedly, money has effectively found its way into our everything. Yet, there is one thing that hasn’t changed in its acquired value as in, how you get by it, and how you get it, etc. This one thing is still available free and you can find it anywhere, LITERALLY. However, whether or not you’ll be able to acquire it, and eventually keep it, is, to this day, one of the most debated, discussed, joyed over, cried over, mused over, etc, topic. 

Yes, you’ve guessed; it’s Love. 

I don’t believe I was actually ever taught about just Love in all its forms. Not at home, not at school school talked about famous people in love, sexual education, popular love … basically they beat around the bushes 🙄, or amongst friends, and if I had, I do not recall it, at all and y’all, I have one heck of a good memory, I will not be humble about that. I think that my first notions and ideas I formed about the concept of Love came through books and films, and let me tell you, there is an infinite related archive out there, which can be as exciting, as much as dangerous. Regardless, even though it was never really explained to me same for everyone most likely, as I grew up, EVERYONE loooved to talk about it, ALL THE TIME, so somehow, I made my own understanding of it. 

One of the things I understood was that some day, when I would become a woman, I would find an adult man, have a family, children, and live happily ever after because I would fall in love and some man would fall in love with me. I understood it as a given; Everyone, of a certain gender, falls in love with someone, of the opposite gender, because there is someone out there, of a certain gender, for everyone, of the opposite gender, just waiting to find you or to be found. Basically, Everyone will eventually find, and forever keep, mutual heterosexual romantic Love.

Spoiler alert: It wasn’t not true.

In fact, the true state of things is actually the very opposite. The minority of people on this planet, heterosexual or not, will experience, and live with true mutual romantic love, and will be able to keep it for a very long time, and even fewer others will be able to take it all the way to the day they die, those are at the Legendary Level ones. And I am not saying this because I am jaded or bitter or any other hurt and/or hater-inclined-behaviour, you can really miss me with alla dat. This is just that one very helpful, and hard, to accept and you don’t have to accept it by the way! reality that should hit everyone at some point, but not always does. When it doesn’t hit, people may end up tormenting themselves sometimes to death when and/or if they can’t “find love”, wondering if they are unloveable, what is wrong with them, etc etc etc.  

Reason why, it is paramount to love yourself first and foremost. 

Because it might be true that someone is “unlovable” or that there is “something wrong with them” but, if true, this is principally hindering one’s well-being because, finding and trying to fix whatever might be amiss with one's self, may not guarantee a successful mutual romantic love, but it does guarantee a happier life in general. I mean, listen, if in the scope of things, you might end up having to spend the rest of your life without a mutual romance, meaning, you have to spend infinite time with you, yourself & YOU, how is that going to work, if you don’t love yourself …? And, just in case it wasn’t common knowledge, Loving Yourself is not easy, like any other relationship, it takes work. The reason why therapy ain’t cheap ✌🏾💰💋but needed, honestly.

So, let’s make no mistake; alas Love, in any of its forms btw, if it is harmful, it is not Love is needed. In fact, as it turns out, human beings were “programmed” in such a way that having it in one's life would make their existence progress less painfully, or even painlessly. In addition, self-love is one of the purest, satisfying, and incredibly useful types of love out there.

ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, for those lucky enough to find & keep romantic love regrettably, thus far, I am not one of those, trust me when I tell you, it is not at all smooth sailing. There are just so many factors to be factored in and the bear thought of it all can honestly be enough to make anyone not want to be bothered by it.

Yet, my beloved and most precious, TwinFlame seems to have found it. Now, I can’t guarantee it to be romantic as always, despite me believing it to be so but he sure as hell is fighting his darn life to keep it. So, yes, hm, I think

JK is in Love.

If it wasn’t clear enough in episode 1 all the way to this finale, JM is a person whose presence JK particularly wants in his life, and whose absence kinda makes him feel sort of … unsettled? … but I’ll dive deep into this, later on in this post. For now, it is important to point out that my TwinFlame not only actively looks after JM, but he actively seeks JM’s attention, he actively wants to be sought by JM, he actively tries to make JM happy, he actively wants to level with JM, he actively wants JM to be comfortable around himself JK and for JM to be comfortable with himself JM. Basically, JK cares, in his own way, quite loudly for JM. And I say “his own way” because I believe JK’s emotional intelligence (EI) to be somewhat different from the common ones. I actually received an ask about his EI, which I plan to answer very soon 🙏🏾, so for now, I will not dive into that in this, cos I really ain’t trying to compete with the length of dictionaries with this post 😬. 

Japanese people, traditionally, have a fascination for sad love stories, and ever since I got into 875, I’ve been wondering if Koreans feel the same way but in their case, it is likely to be just Sadness period. You see, in the West, we “all” love a heartbreaking and passionate love story, the reason why Romeo and Juliet will probably be eternally famous. Yet, we don’t believe that true love is love, because it is brought about by unbearable suffering, so it must be real. We are more of the true love, is love, because it leads to immeasurable happiness kinda style. Basically we Westerners love Romeo and Juliet because of what they could have been, but Japanese and maybe Koreans would love Romeo of Juliet because of what they were to each other. So when a person like me watches a movie like 5 Centimetres per Second and swears to never watch it EVER AGAIN which I haven’t and refuse to, a Japanese person might think that is probably one of those movies they’ll find themselves watching over and over again and let me tell you, it was great, I just don’t think I can handle a second viewing, no thanks.

So if I am correct in thinking that Koreans feel similarly as Japanese in this matter, JK, like many other Korean folk, loves to sing sad/angsty/melancholic songs. Either by himself, or in company, like he used to with Tae probably they still do as well as watching sad movies, like JM’s favourite being The Notebook and JK’s being Titanic. Yet, here is where the glitch in the matrix happens; JK was most likely not that serious but wasn’t he? 😬 when he brought this up however, he seemed to be a little bothered by the fact that JM really liked “Hate You” out of all the song in his album. JM sang Seven, 3D and Standing Next to You this particular one he kept bringing up like there was no tomorrow, throughout all 3 trips, yet, when he played Hate You in the car, for the second time because he had as well in episode 6 JK was like; “Why?”. 

Let me tell you something.You know how I usually skip Spring Day, cause I can’t really handle it? Before AYS Ep. 8 I used to skip Hate You as well for the same reasons as Spring Day; it was too sad for me to bear as it felt closely related him singing it alone makes me relate it to him in my flowed brain, even though he didn’t write it 🙃 to people I love, people being the Tannies. Lovely by Khalid and Billie Eilish in comparison is MUCH SADDER but because I am in no way emotionally connected to either Khalid or Billie I don’t mind listening to the song at all I love that song. 

Anyways, Long story short, it looked like it bothered him a tiny bit. It felt almost as if “Sure, we are Koreans and we like sad love songs, this being an excellent one, but I don’t want MY love story to be sad” kind of bothered “also this better have NOTHING to do with the fact that Shawn Mendes wrote this song!” - perhaps nervously thought JK 🤡🤣😂. In fact, there are a few situations that came up, involving him and JM, which “bothered” him and he had no qualms in bringing up with JM right away, which by the way is healthy AF. JK seems to be the type of partner that wants to confront you right away and will not let it be until he hears the words that make him know that the “conflict” is cleared to his own satisfaction, or until he senses you don’t want to talk about it any further in that particular moment.

Those are all examples, during AYS, where JK was satisfied with the answer that JM gave him to the legit concerns/silly questions he brought up. JK’s reaction right after all of those answers was him being content/happy, by laughing, singing along, or something else, hence moving on. Below is an example where he wasn’t satisfied with the answer:

Did he just drop it? Did they talk it out? As always, we will never know, as this part cuts into another scene. Only JK, JM and the editors will know and this is a fact we should never forget. Never forget about editing limitations, and this is a very good moment to add that even though whoever translated this show did a shitty ass job, the crew that went with them, to film in Sapporo specifically, seemed to be quite familiar with them, their dynamics almost like friends, which I think contributed with JK and JM feeling as comfy as they did in Japan.

Japan.

By the looks of it, this is the country that holds special meaning to both myself and my TwinFlame and, NGL, this kinda makes me happy and feel special LOL 😜. BUT, I DIGRESS! Didn’t JK seem a bit more … relaxed? Besides the very romantic fact that he wanted to go back to Tokyo because it was their first trip, didn’t JK seem a tad flirtier, a tad cuter, a tad more annoying, a tad comfier and just so fucking happy? He, and I’d dare say JM as well, truly let their guards down, even if just a tad. The fact that JK & JM wondered how the crew would have edited the content tells me that they were fully aware about the fact that they were being filmed, but didn’t want to think too much about it, because they wanted to also have a sense of freedom. Because of that, perhaps, they tried to give us as much realness as they could, restraining themselves in some instances, while also saying Fuck it! in few other cases during which they perhaps forgot about the fact that they were being filmed, confidently relying on their trusted crew to properly edit the footage in the best way possible. But back to the main point,

JK is in Love.

JK is probably the type of person who wishes he could have an answer, and/or remedy, to any problem his significant other may have. Yeah, he is probably the type of man that wishes he could take away all their pain, or feel it for them instead, and it is exactly because he seems to be willing to do anything for his loved one’s well-being that I think that sometimes he does struggle with some of their societal boundaries, such as; age hierarchy. Without getting too much into his EI, the part in episode 7 where he brings up how things would have been if he and JM would have been born the same year really stood out and stayed with me.

In this particular instance, for the first time I finally got to see him kinda mind about their age difference, almost troubled and not because he might think it to be a lot which it isn't at all, but because according to their societal practices, he theoretically should constantly be mindful about it, limiting greatly the actions he can do, not that he’s ever heed to them, but the fact is that he should, and in certain situations, he must. If we think about it properly, right from their debut years, JK has struggled a lot with referring, and treating, JM as a hyung, which is actually quite weird considering that the person he treated more like a “chingu” friend of the same age in this context was is Tae, even though, to my knowledge, he’s never dropped honorifics with him and had no desire in doing so, as explained during the first In The Soop which in hindsight, I’m sure must have confused Tae a lot who has been trying to be his cool hyung for as long as I can remember  (the following pictures are not from In The Soop, but Festa 2021). 

Like, it is honestly so peculiar how, back in the day, JK had never really treated JM as your typical “chingu”, nor a hyung, yet found himself sticking by JM’s side a lot, off cameras, filming him a lot, acting stand-offish just to apologise right after, staring at him a lot, learning all his likes and dislikes, studying his body and habits, doing questionable things such as focusing rather often on his lips and butt through a camera lens, which eventually evolved into JM being the first member he’s ever bought a gift for, as well as being the first member he’s ever travelled alone with… basically, as I’ve stated, JK has really never seen JM as his hyung or friend though he does try to remind himself of it.��

So if JM is not a hyung, or a “chingu”; then what is he? 🙄… 

Wanna know what’s even funnier? JM clearly cares about JK enormously and though he likes most of all of his sides cos JK can be annoying when he wants to 🤡✌🏾 the side he likes the most is his cute side; but here comes the catch. It would seem that from their debut days, JM truly became fond of that cutesy, happily skipping, side that JK shows with his hyungs in particular and the fact that they are ALL his hyung, including JM, just made writing this sentence so weird NGL …, that cuddly, super-maknae aura he has many a time, with literally everyone but the 95s, because Tae, as speculated, he seems to see as a chingu and JM as a … charming person?? Whatever that means.

Now JK does give JM “cute”, sometimes, but it is not the little brother kind of cute. It’s that “don’t go without me…” kind of cute, “let’s buy the same one” kinda cute, “you didn’t show me first, so I am hurt” kinda cute, “how do I look?” kind of cute “I can film you, but don’t film me” kind cute, “... spend time with ME!” kinda cute … you get the jist, don’t you? Cause, repeat after me; He a simp, he a simp, he a simp! And there is nothing wrong with being a simp tbh, as long as you own up to it, and JK does own up to it marvellously 💋.

And remember when I mentioned about him feeling sort of unsettled when JM isn’t around? I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of days but doesn’t it almost feel like a sort of … separation anxiety? Through the whole episodes it sometimes felt like he tried to do as much as possible, of anything, with JM as if he would just take off and leave at some point. This could also explain him always popping up on WEVERSE whenever JM took a flight, or trying his darn best to get him to come around even though they had just spent so much time together in the US. But who knows right? Perhaps he just really loves to spend every hour, every minute, every second with JM because, like crazy,  

JK is in Love.

So in love that he thought it important for himself to drive them to the airport, hence he didn’t drink that last beer I know he was dying inside, as well as taking a flight to Korea with JM, when he really could have just flown to the US from Japan. So in love that out of all the trips he's been to in his life, Are You Sure?! is the best trip he’s ever been on and he wishes to reboot when they come out of the military, where, by the way, they presently are together 🤡 . So in love that he wasn’t going to have JM get sad and lost in his own thoughts while in his presence, no, reason why, like a knight in shining armour, he “went and saved” him from his slump and not because JM was a princess in distress, but because prince charming also needs saving every once in a while If you ask me, the main “princess” in this relationship is my TwinFlame, no doubt, cause I also fo happen to think that they do take turns, for sure. Hence, the main “prince charming” is most definitely JM, and btw, frequency of a certain behaviour is not a factor that determines who is “main” 💋. 

Marengo Confession-Time!  😬- here it goes: I love watching people react to ANY 875 content, but I haven’t been able to watch anybody react to Are You Sure?! Because to put it plainly I am scared. I’m scared that people will question their relationship, or have homophobic reactions, or feel uncomfortable watching them when they do what they do. I just don’t want them to be hated for something they can’t help and are comfortable with. For the most part I am sure they would maybe nt comment, or chalk it up as “brotherly behavior", but what if they don’t? In fact, I am also so apprehensive of the reaction the world would have if they are a couple if they ever came out, it genuinely terrifies me.

I don’t want them to be looked at like freaks, or worse, so I am not able to bring myself to watch people react to them, in the same way I turn off when people have unwarranted shit to say when reacting to 875’s music. If they are a couple, I truly want them to be happy, safe, and become part of the Legendary Level ones. So, even though the world may not be fully ready to want their chapter in their history books, I hope it will someday,  because theirs would be such a motivating and enthralling chapter at that. 

I don’t know what will await them when they come out of ME. It is interesting though that JK made all these memories during the trip to take with himself and think about while serving. The snow he watched with JM, the restaurants they ate at, the time they tried skiing for the first time, the antics in the sauna and the “scuzzi”, the tuna-mayo gimbap he knew JM would love, the good afternoon and good night whiskey, and more. Now that I think about it, in some way, JK has a similar Love background to mine, he most likely wasn’t taught that romantic Love can come from someone of the same gender and he wasn’t exactly taught that not having children or a traditional family can be okay. 

Yet, I have a feeling that just like me, through movies perhaps, songs, or other means he’s figured out a thing or two. I have a feeling that he will decide for himself what Love is to himself, all the forms of Love he will need, who embodies Love for him, and what role Love will take in his life, and whether or not JM turns out to be that person MAKE NO MISTAKE: JM is an incredibly important person in his life. So, it is a strong feeling I have, but then again when has JK ever not taken control of his own life? When has he ever not followed his instincts and/or succumbed to what people want him to do? Same for JM really. 

These are two boys who found themselves in Seoul even though they were born in Busan, like, the universe wanted them to meet. They are two boys, who, along with the other five, made the phrase impossible Is Nothing feel real. After all, these are indeed two boys who really can’t be told to do anything. There is a very famous quote, which kinda makes me think of them:

I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul.

So yeah, the future is uncertain but one thing is for sure, no relationship that took so long, so much care, and so many trails to build, can be so easily destroyed. So, fighting TwinFlame, whatever it is you want, you got this! 👊🏾.

Always respectfully yours 🫰🏾💜,

Marengo.

PS - Dammit! I miss them so much 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[thewritingmagician2022]

Hi! I was wondering if you could write how the boys would react to an mc that don’t speak English very well? Spanish it’s my first language and it’s funny because some times I misunderstand what they say and I just stay like 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sorry for my bad english 😅 I hope you’re fine and healthy uwu

Ironically, I am not healthy - hence the really long delay. But thank you!

Lucifer: Lucifer is not impressed with himself; how did he manage to not realize that you didn’t speak English as a primary language? This complicates things just a little bit but he’s not going to feel too bad about it or give you any leeway.

His favorite thing to say is “you know what I mean!” when you act like you don’t understand what he’s saying. Sometimes you’re able to figure it out and sometimes you’re not but Lucifer doesn’t care. He pushes you to be self-sufficient; you better find a way to make it work while you’re down here.

On the low, he will sign you up for English classes at RAD or get you a private tutor to make sure you’re able to communicate well enough while you live down there.

Mammon: He is so confused sometimes. The two of you will go back and forth, just confusing each other more and more as you try to figure out what the other person said/meant.

Mammon is the kind of person who’s flipping through a pocket dictionary and trying to speak Spanish to you but he’s absolutely butchering it almost every time and ends up saying something rude/nonsensical by accident

It’s really cute that he tries though and he usually just finds it more funny than anything when you don’t understand him

Levi: Levi is embarrassed when you guys can’t fully understand each other. He feels ashamed that he obviously can’t communicate clearly and wonders why you would ever bother trying to talk to an otaku like him

He definitely hides away in the beginning because the language barrier bugs him

The more you talk, the more you both understand each other. He even starts speaking Spanish a little; he learned Japanese for anime so the least he can do is learn a little Spanish for you

Still, he much prefers texting because the phones can auto translate everything and he doesn’t have to worry about either of you being confused/a misunderstanding

Satan: Satan finds it funny in the “well, well, well, Lucifer finally screwed up” kind of way and he tends to dramatize how many misunderstandings there are just to spite Lucifer even more for accidentally choosing a human that doesn’t speak fluent english

With that in mind, Satan starts learning Spanish pretty much immediately and, once you two are on friendly terms, he starts tutoring you in English as well to make sure you can understand and communicate well while you live in the Devildom

Like Mammon, he carries around a little pocket dictionary; however, he’s much more efficient with it and can actually use it to translate

Asmo: Asmo doesn’t need to understand what you’re saying for him to understand you and vice Versa!

He thinks it’s so cute when you get confused and he loves to use gestures and dramatic facial expressions to convey whatever point he is trying to make - it usually doesn’t work well and ends up even more confusing but you both have fun the whole time

Definitely someone who will sometimes pretend to not notice you’re confused (or if he’s rambling about something he genuinely may not even notice) and he doesn’t need you to reply to keep the conversation going; he can talk enough for you both

Beel: Beel is confused and you’re confused

Like Levi, he may avoid communication in the beginning because Beel is usually quiet anyway but it sometimes feels like it’s not worth the hassle and confusion

Beel mimes things to you sometimes to try to better explain himself. He’s surprisingly good at charades and it usually clears things up well enough for you.

If he doesn’t understand you, he usually tries that nod/smile people do when they have no idea what the fuck is going on because he wants to be polite

Belphie: Belphie is too tired for this shit. You’re just going to have to figure out what he said for yourself; use your phone to translate or something

He will draw pictures sometimes, if it’s something he really wants to share with you and he can’t find the right words

When he doesn’t understand you, he doesn’t even pretend to. He just stares at you until you figure out a way to say it in English or make your point known in another way

Diavolo: Diavolo is entirely charmed by the language barrier. He loves that humans have so many different languages and loves how clever you all are about trying to understand each other

He does feel a bit bad considering it makes your life more difficult and miscommunications can be a pain in the ass

To rectify this issue, he tries to make all the demons learn Spanish and asks you to lead them in Spanish lessons and then everyone can speak your language!

Obviously that’s not realistic though and he settles for learning some Spanish himself and making sure all of your learning materials at RAD are translated for you to make things easier

Barbatos: Somehow Barbatos always knows how to say things in a way you understand and he’s always able to understand what you’re saying too

You have a sneaking suspicion that he may actually be fluent in Spanish but he refuses to admit it

Barbatos doesn’t even needs words; he understands your mannerisms and facial expressions well enough and he’s equally good about making himself clear to you

Solomon: Solomon speaks all human languages, both current and past. However, he’s not very good at it because he doesn’t practice the skill often so he’ll be a bit rusty in the beginning

Definitely uses spells and engagements to help communicate better and auto translates books and things for you so you have an easier time rather than struggling to read everything in English and he’ll translate any papers you write in Spanish to English too to make your life easier

Being the mischievous man he is, Solomon does love to laugh a little when you’re not able to understand someone, especially the brothers, and occasionally he may “misinterpret” what they’ve said to cause a bit more chaos

Simeon: Simeon actually already speaks some Spanish. He’s not fluent like Solomon but he understands enough to get by and he’s really good at helping translate between you and another person if there’s an issue

He’s asked you to teach him more Spanish so you guys can communicate better and he offers to help you with English as well

Simeon is a little ridiculous and loves playing the guessing game when he doesn’t understand something, rather than looking it up. He and Luke make a bit of a game of it to see who can figure it out first when there’s a miscommunication

[catras-breakup-song]

Since you seem to debunk some stuff about catradora I'll give you one (if you wan to)

Apparently some people critise catra in the final scene between her and adora when she said "Please just this once stay" and say that she has not changed and still thinks adora left her

Your take on this?

ha lol, i'm not sure i want to be known as the person who debunks anti arguments because that sets up a lot of discourse to be invited to my door and i don't feel confident about debating very much, so i try not to bring it up on my own that often.

but anyway, that plea isn't about adora leaving catra as much as adora leaving life. we can see that catra has in fact changed & grown, because even if they don't have a future to share together, that doesn't mean adora doesn't deserve to live and be happy anymore. an earlier villainous catra from the earlier seasons who was out to make adora hurt probably would have left her to deal with the weight of the world on her shoulders by herself (although to be fair, we've never had an event during that period when adora was on the verge of death and catra genuinely believed she wasn't going to make it out just fine); this reformed current catra will do everything she can within her power to save adora from destruction, even if it costs another successful sacrifice of her own survival.

i once saw someone say in an analysis video a while back that the journey to the heart allowed catra to learn to love freely without expecting it to be given back. this person was, of course without surprise, five by five takes in their "why catra matters" video at the timestamp 18:08 - 18:31, which quotes:

and finally, with no guarantee of reciprocation, she stays with adora, and tells her that she is loved ─ it's love that catra doesn't believe is reciprocated, and she doesn't need it to be. when she lets go of expectations, she's able to give love freely, and when it's given freely, adora is able to accept it, and so they traverse the biggest gulf in their separate arcs.

if adora was to survive the failsafe, she would accept that a romance might not be in the cards afterwards. perhaps they weren't meant to be together, and that would hurt like hell, and she would struggle to move on just as she did the first time, but that doesn't mean she won't be there for her now when it counts and uphold her end of the promise ─ hence this scene:

i can't lose her again, okay? i promised her a long time ago that i'd look out for her. it's time i made good on that.

and this one too:

no. i'm not leaving. whatever happens, i am staying with you.

if this was about whether or not adora was going to remain loyal to their relationship, then why did she insist on doing the same thing herself anyway?

it wasn't requested, but it's implied to be tied into all of this, so in order to address what happened at the end of "failsafe" beforehand, i think it needs to be understood that selfishness is not inherently a bad thing, which was adora's side of that coin in terms of learning an important lesson and closing their character arcs. if catra needed to be selfless, then adora needed to be selfish. that's exactly what catra was trying to convey here:

why are you like this? why do you always have to sacrifice everything for everyone else? when do you get to choose? what do you want, adora?

but of course, we know that was a failed attempt of convincing. since adora is going to insist on martyrdom, catra is going to relapse back into her old ways out of grief. you can't help someone who isn't willing to save themself, as she should know from past experience, so she figured it wouldn't matter if she was present for such a traumatizing event (the violent death of your closest friend would absolutely affect you to witness) or not. i can't say if this was the right or wrong decision because it's quite complicated, as many topics in this show are, but i hope anyone could at least understand her perspective.

regardless though, obviously she changes her mind and remembers to pay off the debt she was willing to owe since childhood. she course-corrects and even confidently confronts her abuser (whom she'd feared for the longest time) out of desperation to protect someone who matters to her above all else. this is what matters. this is where/when we see her strength shine through. this is how she's become a better person. you'd be hard-pressed to find an individual who makes a perfectly smooth transition, because it's not easy to improve and it's certainly not something that happens overnight. sometimes we fall back into old habits, but we continue to push through and put in that overall effort to make a difference at the end of the day.

so, no, if nothing else, there wasn't any bitter connotation or petty grudge being held in those words begging adora to come back one last time. it was an urge to keep living & loving so that her remaining time on etheria wouldn't be wasted away as a memory. it was a desperate plea for her to realize she is loved before she passes away, and still has so much to give & be given.

also, @g-hostbody added the brilliant detail that it’s almost like catra was subtly saying “i know why you couldn’t stay before, but please do it now, because you have to fight this and get a happy ending!”

if that somehow gets twisted into "this was a manipulative endeavor to avoid losing a co-dependent connection to someone she can't live without", i think i'm just going to go insane and do something similar to this in order to relieve myself from all the pain & suffering (half-joking...):

[ddoxhan]

letters from me to you

every letter you didn't send to jimin

word count : 0.9k words

genre : angst; you loved jimin more than you ever imagined, and it hurts that you still do; non-idol! karina x gn! reader

t/w : none :) other than a relationship breaking apart and there's absolutely nothing that can be done about it

a/n : unrequited love, something so ever ethereal yet burns a hole in your heart and leaves a scar you will never forget. but does it hurt more when it becomes unrequited? since it wasn't from the beginning, and you had a taste of that person's love.

— 26/01/2014 | sunny ☀️

to my dearest jimin,

happy first anniversary! it's been 12 months, 365 days, 8760 hours, 525,600 minutes since you said yes under those bright stars on this very day last year. time has gone past so fast yet so slow, when I look into your eyes, everything around us seems to slow down and allow me to drown myself in those galaxy-like orbs of yours. you know I've never been expressive with my words hence this letter but still, I can never find the very words to convey my love to you. however, these four words might actually just do the trick.

I love you, forever.

your love

—  11/04/2015 | spring sun 🌸

to my crybaby jimin,

don't get mad just from reading 'crybaby' but I can't help but call you that. not after you so adorably sniffled while watching 'the notebook'. I just wanted to squeeze those cheeks of yours but I knew you were going to be upset for breaking the mood, so I held myself back. okay, this was definitely not the purpose of this letter, but oh well, I just wanted you to know you're the cutest.

happy birthday, my baby jimin! once my baby, forever my baby. I hope you had a blast today after been to the amusement park, cafes and even the late night movie later before the end of your big day. I have never been more blessed with a gift like you to be in my life and better, as my girlfriend.

once again, happy birthday. let's spend this day together in the years that are to come. I love you, forever.

your beloved

— 08/07/2015 | cloudy ☁️

to my precious jimin,

I know I'm in the wrong so I am not going to make up any excuses to justify what I did. you felt hurt and neglected by my actions and nothing can ever undo those wounds. but will you let me make it up to you? if you need time to think, take as long as you need because I'll be right here waiting until you give me a chance to prove my love for you that never faded. if anything, I only find myself loving you more than I did the day before.

work has doubled in amount but I should have known to try harder to spend time with you despite that. it is my responsibility to do that, yet I chose the easy way out and hurt you. I'm so sorry, baby. please forgive me. I love you so so much, I love you, forever.

your dumb bear (still in regret)

— 17/03/2016 | rainy 🌧️

to my wonderful and amazing jimin,

there is nothing special about today, surprise! although there isn't a special occasion today, I want to let you know that every day that I spend with you is special and every moment we have together is engraved in memory forever no matter what happens.

I know I can be cheesy but I feel like every time I tell you that I love you, it just feels more overwhelming and unbelievable. so unbelievable that I have the most beautiful; in and out; person in the whole world as my girlfriend. it would be better if one day, it would change to my wife. I can already tell how your face would start burning up and the tip of your ears cutely beet red. even though I had told you I love you numerous times, it never feels enough. I love you, forever.

yours forever

—  02/10/2017

to my lovely jimin,

it's been five years since we've been together, and I know how you are when something or someone upsets you. if you don't talk to me or even be next to me, I would not know what to say or do to help you, honey. we promised to never go to bed with complicated feelings, regardless of whether it be about us or someone else. you said it is not good for the health if we keep our feelings bottled up.

if it's about me, please, please tell me what I did wrong. tell me what I need to fix so that you would not be upset. please, talk to me, jimin. let me be by your side as I always did. I love you, forever.

—  19/01/2018

to my one and only jimin,

please take me back, I love you so much. please don't leave me all alone in this shared home of ours. it's too painful to see the memories of us, filled with happiness and joy. let me still call us, us. please, please come home and whisper sweet nothings like you used to, say that everything was all a prank. that you went overboard with the joke. please bring me into your embrace and stroke my back, tell me everything's alright, we're alright.

I love you, jimin, you know that right? I love you, forever.

yours

.

.

.

.

you know, I've always imagined us walking down the aisle as I take you in my hand and swear the oath to be each other's seasons, side by side all the way through our future days together. but sadly, all I could do now was clap for you, your happiness with your lover, staring at each other so lovingly on the pedestal. if you were happy, so would I be.

because I've always loved and will love you forever, my jimin.

[alpaca-clouds]

On Writing Fight Scenes

I have been asked about it, so let me try and talk about it. Because those of you who are reading my fics, will know that I actually do like writing my fight scenes. Be it just characters having sparing matches - or outright fights. There is quite a few fics I have written that go into the action/adventure area.

Yet, I do know that a lot of people struggle a lot with fighting sequences. So, I will try to explain some of the core aspects needed to make an fight scene work. Most of these also work for other types of action sequences - though I might write a bit more on those in a seperate blog.

See, I think there are six aspects you need to keep in mind when writing a fighting sequence.

Characters

Pacing

Skills

Perspective

Emotion

Space

Let me explain those points.

Characters

In a fighting scene you need to keep in mind, that actions speak louder than words. Which is to say, that how the characters act within the fight scenes is going to tell the reader about who they are. Their tactics, how brutal their attacks are, how precise they are, how much they care about preventing friendly fire, how much effort they put into preventing collateral damage... It all says something about the characters involved in the fight scene. Hence it makes sense to start with thinking about what characters are participating in a fight and how they would act within it. This goes both for your protagonists and the antagonists.

There is also other stuff. Like: Do they attack head on? How tactical are they about the fight? How aware would they actually be of their surroundings (more on that a bit later)?

This would technically be a good point for me to rant about modern action movies, that often just do not do this AT ALL. And yes, yes, I am talking about fucking Marvel.

Pacing vs Details

I think one of the aspects that most often get messed up in written out fighting sequences is the pacing. Even in a lot of published books (even those by some big names) this is often not done very well - and I will not say that I do fully master this myself. Because it might be the hardest aspect of a fight scene to master.

Simply put, an fight scene needs flow. It will always struggle against the aspect that what it is describing is happening faster than words can convey it. Something that happens within a few seconds is so easily blown up into 300 words or more. And that... is a problem.

Because within a fight scene two opposite aspects struggle against each other: The pacing of the writing - and the need to convey enough information to the reader, so that the reader can get immersed in the scene.

So as a writer you are constantly trying to balance those two things against each other.

Something I personally found works well is putting effort into making sure you know what perspective you are writing - and find way to shorten things. Make the sentences short. Maybe just make super short additions. Two examples:

She aimed, breathed, shot. Once. Twice. Thrice.

Making the description very short. And accented. The same here:

He stabbed her, then stabbed her again. Again. Again. Until the blood was splattering across his face.

Skills

Something that is closely connected to the character, is that they all have different combat skills. How skilled are they with different weapons? How physically strong or dexterous are they? How fast do they think?

Let's face it. Most of us will probably write within some phantastic setting, in which the characters might also be able to use some magic or otherwise supernatural abilities.

All of this needs to be kept in mind. Especially in how it relates to the characters and their actions. This is especially true when you the characters might have an ability that would actually end the fight rather quickly and the writer does not use it. Something that might actually rub readers the wrong way.

Perspective

Alright, let me talk about another thing that I see a lot of people struggle with - once more including a lot of actually published work. And that is something that I actually find really annoying: Know your perspective.

Most of us use personal narrators - so a narrator who usually is narrating from the limited perspective of a character. And this means in a fight scene you will also still be limited to this characters point of view.

And especially in a bigger action scene a single character might not be completely aware of everything happening in that fight. Because their attention is on whoever is the biggest threat on them right now. Maybe they are also somewhat aware of the persons closest to them (be it physically or emotionally), but probably not of everything. And that is okay.

If you go out of the point of view, there is a good chance, you will just confuse the readers, or will break their immersion. Given that again, this will tell you a lot about who the character is. Because if a character diverts a lot of attention towards other things happening in a battle for example. And this might actually not be quite what you want to say about a character.

Not to mention that it actually might take from the perceived threat of the battle. Because you are saying: "Oh, yes, their opponent is unthreatening enough that the character can totally take their attention away from that opponent."

Emotion and Thought

This also ties very much into another aspect of this: How much attention is diverted towards the emotions and the thoughts of a character.

Let me be fully honest here: I have been in life threatening situations before - though never in a fight where my life was in danger. But I can tell you even from the non-lethal fight, as well as just really some dangerous situations. And I can tell you something: Adrenaline will usually make it that you are hyperfocused on the situation at hand, and will furthermore actually kinda block out a lot of emotions. Because that is literally one of the things we have the adrenal gland for.

Sure, the character might think about the situation, trying to find a good solution to win the fight. Especially, when they are more experienced fighters. But even they will probably not think about some implications or why like their one friend had been in an argument with someone else before... Stuff like that once again is immersion breaking - unless it actually has some influence on the fight. Like, if the character thinking about something else making them distracted and that leads to them getting badly injured. Stuff like that.

But even if in a fight you see someone you care about getting injured or killed... The emotions of it will usually only hit after it. And I actually think that makes it even more raw.

Space

Okay, let me talk about the last point, that again tends to be something that a lot of folks struggle with (and here I will very much include myself, especially once we get three-dimensional). And this is the space and spatial relationships within a fight scene.

Again, it is fine that a character is not aware of where everyone is - because they will probably focus on the biggest threats against themselves. But they will at least be vaguely aware of the geography of the space the fight is taking place - and probably have a very general idea of where different people are. And the reader should be able to understand this so that they can understand vaguely what is happening in the room.

This is of course most important to relay the information of where the POV is in regards of their active opponents. Which is gonna be important if you want to understand their actions - and the danger characters pose to them.

So... Make sure to keep that in mind.

Well, that is the most important stuff I can think off. To whoever this might be helpful.

[zarya-zaryanitsa]

Hi! I hope you're well! I recently came across the term guślarz in the context of Slavic pre-christian practices and I was wondering if you know of any information/sources that discuss them? Thank you!

Honestly I do not know any sources that discuss guślarze specifically but I can convey to you what little I am aware of regarding the use of this word.

So firstly, guślarz is a Polish word. Similar words no doubt exist in other Slavic languages but I am only focusing on the role of this term in Polish language because that’s what I know.

The word guślarz is derived from gusła meaning magical rituals of some sort. Guślarz is a man who practices magic, performs rituals, a folk healer, a sorcerer. His feminine counterpart is guślarka (historically this one was used much less often but still can be found). The word gusła took the meaning of „magical rituals” and „fortune telling” in XVth century - so pretty late. My sources on this are two Polish philologists, linguists and slavists Franciszek Sławski (as relayed to us by Krzysztof Bilica and PWN dictionary of Polish language) and Andrzej Bańkowski (as relayed to us by Monika Grotek). Word guślarz is first found in Polish language in XVIIth century, evolving from earlier words gusłarz and guślnik dating back to XVIth and XVth century.

I will try my best to translate what Monika Grotek has to say on the subject of guślarz in her article Etymologia polskich nazw postaci ludzkich rodzaju żeńskiego i męskiego parających się magią (Etymology of Polish names for people, male and female, who practice magic):

However, the authors of etymological dictionaries argue about the origin and original meaning of the word gusła. Bańkowski conservatively recognizes the difficulty in unambiguously determining the etymology of, in his opinion, the Polish relic word †guslo, which was probably in the form †gud-slo and meant 'ways to ward off evil powers', and derived from the verb gud-i-ti, which in Old Russian meant as much as 'to blame, to condemn' and is related to the synonymous common Slavic †gad-i-ti 'to make disgusting, to disgust' (hence, e.g. the word gad) and the later †gyd-i-ti derived from it, 'to repulse' (hence hydzić and ohyda). Thus, a sorcerer is likely a man dealing with protection against disgusting and socially condemned evil powers, expelling hideous demons or counteracting charms. On the other hand, Wiesław Boryś notes that the word gusła may come from *gud-slo or *gǫd-slo (plural *gudsla or *gǫdsla), in which we can find the name of an activity with the suffix *- slo originating from the Proto-Slavic *gǫsti, *gǫdǫ 'to play a stringed instrument' (hence e.g. the instrument gusle), or from the variant †gusti, †gudǫ (with the old alternation *u/*ǫ), which is also indicated by the Bulgarian gùsla/gъsla, meaning 'stringed instrument, gusle'. Therefore, the original meaning of the word guslo is 'playing a stringed instrument', 'playing gusle' - and music, with its ability to induce a state of trance could be used in magical ceremonies performed by a sorcerer who, thanks to music and through music, was able to make contact with the supernatural world like a shaman in the native cultures of the peoples of Africa or America.

Here you have two sound theories on the role and conception of guślarz.

The modern associations of the word guślarz in Polish language originate from much later times - the Romanticism and Dziady (eng. Forefathers Eve) a XIXth century poetic drama written by Adam Mickiewicz. The drama describes in it’s second part a folk ritual known as dziady, typically a feast commemorating the ancestors. In the drama however guślarz accompanied by a crowd of villagers summons ghosts of people who for some reason cannot enter heaven and tries to help them access it.

Funnily enough originally the character conducting the ceremony was a priest. Mickiewicz changed it to guślarz at a later stage of his work. The later version also includes a line about how the priest forbade people from conducting the ritual. It is speculated that the character of guślarz was added specifically to include more magical and folkloric motifs that Romanticism was all about.

This is where we get the dominant view of guślarz as a man who works with the souls of the dead, this is also quite literally where we get guślarz as seen in The Witcher 3 (Pellar), since quests connected to him are heavily inspired by the drama Dziady and some of his incantations draw directly from its text.

In modern Polish the words gusła and guślarz are slightly archaic and have a pejorative undertone, with gusła being used as something synonymous with „superstitions”.

When it comes to pre-Christian Slavic traditions you might have more luck researching words such as zhrets (pl. żerca) or volkhv (pl. wołchw) which I believe are a bit better explored than guślarz.

Best of luck!

Zarya

[kaistoast]

Thoughts on UtsuKare S2 EP3

The fact that I see that many people find Hira annoying feels like a truth because often neurotypical people think and feel like neuro-divergent people are self-centered, inconsiderate, and therefore annoying.

I don’t know if some peeps here watched Extraordinary Attorney Woo Young-woo one of the main conflicts was similar to this. WYW didn't want to get together with LJH out of fear of making him feel lonely and how it will be hard on him to love her. Woo Young-woo’s autism is very much parallel to Hira’s neurodivergence in Utsukushii Kare.

The difference in UtsuKare S1, is that Hira took a step forward despite his fears and confirms to Kiyoi that he loves him while WYW hesitated and went as far as to reject LJH. Hira even if he views him as his King (idolizing him), he wants to love him (as a person) and remain by his side. This is a significant leap in his character as conveying his feelings became some sort of a climax at the end of the first season.

S2 feels like Hira's been taking one step forward and two steps back because he's struggling with his low self-esteem, and finding the foreign emotions he’s never felt before while Kiyoi is succeeding in every way possible in his career, changing individually too. Change is difficult for Hira, but he's still striving to stay with Kiyoi despite his insecurities and be worthy despite of his own "shortcomings."

Hira doesn't know how to fix his feelings and expectations towards situations but he clearly wants to because he knows it's making Kiyoi sad. As a fan and Kiyoi’s  lover he doesn’t want that. Hence the scene, him frustrated and riding the bike screaming, "ETERNAL." He doesn't want to make Kiyoi sad or lonely and he wants him to be happy together with him but he doesn’t know how.

The timing of his cousin visiting him blows up in his face as he's faced with having to acknowledge the “change” he feels between the both of them. There’s a difficult hurdle in communicating his complex emotions which are already hard for him to identify what more to vocalize, in addition to the fact that they're both still closeted too. He's clearly dissatisfied with himself for not being to par with Kiyoi but minimizes it to the extreme going as far as saying "A friendship is disrespectful towards Kiyoi who’s way better than I am."

I feel for Kiyoi because he misunderstood Hira. Kiyoi read it as Hira doesn't want to be in the relationship / doesn’t love him enough to involve his family with him. Kiyoi feels lonely from the way Hira is lowering himself and the whole scenario becomes more confusing for him because he thought Hira was on the same page with him, that he wanted to stay with Kiyoi forever. 

The thing is Kiyoi never vocalizes his confusion seen in EP2. This of course becomes a problem and a reason to why he blew up in EP3. Hira wants to stay with Kiyoi forever but he’s unsure if Kiyoi is going to. Hira knows that he’s hard to love due to his “sins/burdens.” When Hira tried to tell Kiyoi not to worry about their parents being involved it was him trying to comfort Kiyoi from what he sees could be another burden he’s placing upon Kiyoi or a reason for Kiyoi to leave. 

But, Kiyoi misunderstood that as Hira placing another barrier to their relationship. Versus Hira sees it as protecting and comforting Kiyoi from a possible discomfort so that Kiyoi can remain together with him. Just like how he cooked an unusual amount of food for dinner when he lost the photography contest, he feels the need to overcompensate or comfort Kiyoi for what he feels are his shortcomings which he believes are burdens he’s given to Kiyoi.

Kiyoi felt frustrated by the way Hira minimizes himself (which is very understandable) the misunderstanding accumulates from his confusion and loneliness causing him to lash out at Hira. Hira then panics and further digs his foot in the mud by trying to appease Kiyoi's anger because Hira’s own insecurities are now on full blast and Kiyoi doesn't understand him nor does he understand Kiyoi’s anger. 

So, Hira defaults into saying he doesn't know and he doesn't want to understand him because Kiyoi is different, he’s not like him and he shouldn’t be like him. Kiyoi gets hurt from his words and Hira immediately wants to comfort him despite his own confusion. 

We see how Hira has changed he’s never raised a voice of frustration towards Kiyoi and always kept this own thoughts under the wraps. But now, he’s become more vocal trying to make Kiyoi understand him. I don’t think Kiyoi has noticed this change since they're both hurt and extremely emotional during that fight.

None of them wants to meet at a middle ground. Hira accuses Kiyoi for being too out of his reach and Kiyoi accuses Hira for not wanting to be within his reach.

Kiyoi apologizes for falling in love with Hira and Hira doesn't understand all of the emotions he's developed from loving Kiyoi. All he knows is that he yearns for Kiyoi to love him, and to remain by his side despite his insecurity, “sins” and all.

Kiyoi despite saying that he loves Hira still apologized to Hira for loving him and isn’t completely transparent with Hira. His character has changed he shows his love to Hira in more subtle ways which is confusing for Hira who struggles to read others unless being told out right in addition to his own lack of confidence and self-worth.

They both got work to do and it’s so wonderful to see. I definitely got frustrated myself watching Hira absolutely mess it up and pour fuel to the fire but truly, this series is great I can't wait to see how they'll patch this up in the final episode next week.

[goldenspecter]

Did the ask about the whole Leo being above and manipulative not go through? I'm not pressuring you or anything it's just that sometimes I get anxious if people don't give me some kind of responds to an ask such I'm not answering this types and what not it's completely fine if you don't of course also I'm talking about the ask that was made about the 2007 fight post about Leo and raph fighting constantly here's some of what your wrote in case you don't rember the post it's kind of old

your post: Once again, I am wishing Rise fans can praise the movie without insulting/demeaning other iterations of TMNT. It's absolutely frustrating, as a fan of all the iterations plus Rise, constantly seeing people go "Rise did the Raph/Leo fight better than other where it's not just "Who's a better Leader/Leader" fights!" when not that's not the case. Rise didn't do it 'better' than the others, they just made it much more explicit, without using leadership as the framing of the fight, but the other iterations are not actually fighting about Leadership.

again sorry if this comes off as peer pressuring I'm just trying make it clear what post I'm talking about so were both on the same wave length again I apologize if this is annoying.

Hi anon!

Yes your ask did get through, the only reason I didn't answer quite immediately was due to me not really being on Tumblr this past week. I saw your ask and was intrigued because it's a BIG /pos question, I had to ramble to my partners @dakotafinely and @namiikilo about this, and share my thoughts with them about what you asked first.

I also wanted to present my answer in a way that makes sense, hence why it took me so long. So don't worry about pressuring me, I just wanted to take time and make sure I could convey my point in a coherent manner. Sorry about causing the anxiety /gen

This is the original ask:

Since the way you worded your ask leans more towards Bayverse Leo from how you included certain actions only he does, I have to compare him to 07 Leo to make my point. Here are my thoughts, as coherent I can make them:

The Short Answer: I think Bayverse Leo, as a whole, was an attempt by the writers to expand upon 07 Leo's characterization, but fundamentally misunderstood what made 07 Leo so infuriatingly perfect.

The Long Answer(buckle up):

07 Leo is, at his core, a natural evolution of how Leo would have matured as an adult Pre-Rise. Perfectionism and having such a high standard on himself of all people combined with the knowledge of him being so good at what he does, would heightened his arrogance and beliefs in his own skills.

This is how it was/is before he took the journey, across the world that kept him separated from his brothers for over a year. Leo has been expected to be perfect for so long there would only be a matter of time before that expectation jades him, that he would become a bit of an asshole who wrongly believes he doesn't need to lower himself to anyone's standards because he is the standard.

*I discuss things that are mentioned in the prequel comics, specifically the issue that discuss and expands upon Leo's Journey. So I'll include screenshots from the wikia that explain the events in that.

** I also own these 5 prequel comics!

However, since he went on the trip by himself, and with none of his brothers, especially Raphael, to keep him in check, his ego and sense of self got warped, and especially with the things he's gone through on his journey. He learned all of these things from his journey but never actually put them in use towards his own family in several different ways:

Leo lacks compassion when it comes to his brothers and why they took on their jobs and new roles and scoffs at April when she's explains to him what they do. He lacks the compassion to inquire with his brothers and the way they were all hurting-- Mikey feeling like his family isn't whole anymore, hence his nostalgia for the good days, Donnie having to care for their arguably disabled father while also working an at home job, Raph having the trauma of witnessing an former vigilante who seemed to understand him die in front of him, and that being how he got the Nightwatcher armor we see in the movie(Promise he would take it because David, the vigilante, didn't want anyone in his family/police to figure out who he really was.) Compare this to Bayverse Leo, who audibly and explicitly hears and knows how his actions harm his family, but chooses not to engage with it and dismiss their feelings.

Leo lacks humility and refuses to understand his brothers as they've changed. Because of that, he refuses to try and understand his brothers as the people they are now.

07 Leo is extremely selfish and shortsighted because of how he constantly frames the journey he went on was for them, to better himself for them.

He lacks the courage having the courage to even consider how badly they were effected by him going on this journey.

He most importantly lacks community that he continually estranged himself from

Each one of these things that's bolded or italicized is a trait that he was supposed to have learned and fully understood on his journey.

In my eyes, the things that makes 07 Leo stand out from Bayverse is more so how all of these external components worsened his fractured development. Bayverse, in a way, engineered those components that fractured his development.

07 Leo has never actively gone out of his way to revoke or invalidate his family's autonomy, right in front of them compared to Bayverse(who as a reminder forced Donnie to lie to his brothers about the possibility to be human and got on Raph when he called him out for revoking their autonomy to make a choice at the chance of gaining privilege where they are currently systemically disadvantaged), but does it in the way that can be perceived as him doing what is best for his family. Examples being him not wanting to admit or entertain the idea that the night watcher is going good or that his own family made the choice to idolize the vigilant on their own—he believes that night watched is encroaching on his territory and also being a bad influence to his brothers, primarily Raph and Mikey and fights to stop Nightwatcher from being a bad influence on the two and the fact that Leo perceived his own methods to be effective, combined with his own hypocritical view of Nightwatcher—or him attributing fault to everywhere else but 07 Leo potentially being part of the problem as well.

However, you can possibly argue that because the world has jaded him so hard and he has forgotten the point of community, the world had literally made him hate humans on his training journey. It eroded him of certain things that by the time he gets back home, he just doesn't have that compassion he supposedly learned on his training and doesn't learn to dig within himself to practice empathy to his brothers and doesn't bother seeing them as who they are now, he literally scoffs at the idea of who they have become when April tells him and expects them to fall inline as perfect soldiers and obey orders, to erase what made them them, doing unto them as what has been done to him.

In addition, along with him being a pretty perfect development for a character like Leo, pre-rise,he has been expected to be perfect for so long there would only be a matter of time before that expectation jades him, that he would become a bit of an asshole who wrongly believes he doesn't need to lower himself to anyone's standards because he is the standard.

Leo's and his family's arc in the 2007 movie is about growing up and fixing a broken family caused by abandonment from pretty much all angles, Bayverse Leo is the one who's the agent and inevitable cause of abandonment nor is he mired by the tenets of nostalgia among him and his family either and the unwillingness to grow up and mature.

Could this be more coherent? Absolutely, maybe in the future I'll make a video essay giving a full retrospective on the 2007 movie and especially with the frustrating yet beloved nuance of 07 Leo's character.

Either way! Hope you enjoyed hearing my (still somewhat disjointed) thoughts! <3

[ihopesocomic]

you know sometimes i get a little frustrated with how you respond to anons, especially when it seems like theyre being genuine, but at the same time, god i couldnt imagine one of my passion projects getting this popular. the toyhouse is literally linked in the pinned post

I get where you're coming from. Maybe me trying to explain how some things being conveyed can come across as reductive (i.e. how not everybody in a cult is automatically evil or unsympathetic) may seem confrontational but I assure you, that's not the intention. My apologies if it comes across as such.

I do sometimes wish folks would remember that this comic is still a work in progress and to maybe wait and see what happens before jumping the gun on characters and their whole deal but I think you get that.

As for the Toyhouse being linked, I am gonna kinda defend the anons here and point out that - sometimes - I guess folks are overly cautious when it comes to spoilers and/or they just wanna experience our characters as they turn up in the comic vs. reading about them beforehand. Though I also wouldn't recommend reading this blog if that's the case because we got into a lot more detail here than necessary sometimes. lol

I also feel some folks just don't know what a Toyhouse is, hence why we try and link it as 'cast' whenever we can. c: - RJ

[julietsbb]

Hi, it's G again. I opened Twitter this morning to escape a nasty meeting to see all the updates. AND IT WAS GLORIOUS!!

You write them so exquisitely. The emotions you conveyed for both of them, especially in trying to resolve their conflict... 1000/10, no notes. The hurt between them was a living breathing thing that made me want to choke. But the communication, the openness, the care, all of the ways they were determined to not let it break them; it was so so beautiful. I died reading the bit where Phuwin is taking off Pond's shirt ( he's so careful with him, like he thinks Pond is a delicate crystal and any wrong move will leave him shattered on the ground). I love the way Pond responded to the whole situation. He had to step in, both to stand up for himself and to stop Phuwin's doom spiral. Not sure if he's even consciously considering the doom spiral aspect though. It just feels like something he would do for someone he loves.

There is so much love and affection in them. I'm not sure if they even realise it themselves. It'll be fun to see where this goes when they are back home and no longer forced to live in the same space. Will the physical space manifest space in their relationship? I can't wait to find out!

I had a nice little laugh about Phuwin's thoughts while looking at Pond. Very 'No Homo' while being anything but. Oh baby Phu, you remind me of my own baby gay moments.

I might have to dig out my old stan account to gush at you on Twitter, but till I do that, I hope it's okay to send you these over here.

Love, G

HI ANON G WELCOME BACK!!! :D

i'm so glad you enjoyed the update!! that was a lot of my sunday LOL

thank you so much for your sweet sweet words and for coming back to me to talk to me about this monster that started on accident...

"It just feels like something he would do for someone he loves." it does anon G, it does T_T

ah yes the going home... it's the next big segment in my notes doc and it's listed in all caps.... i have a couple of different ideas i like that i want to incorporate re: that, specifically.

lolololol you're the third person to point out that moment to me and i'm endlessly amused by it because i really didn't give it that much thought as i wrote it, it just made sense aslfkaldkf

but yes they are but gaybies, hence why they get easily confused and also know nothing, aren't even thinking of what they're doing under the umbrella term of 'kinky' ....i am still very unsure whether to have one of them actually do some research at some point but i guess we'll see 🤷‍♀️

It is MORE than okay, anon G, i am delighted, I am HONOURED, and if you do decide to dust off your twitter, you're more than welcome to say hi and pls introduce yourself as anon G if you do 🙏 Thank you again for your sweet ask and have a lovely morning/evening/timezone, where ever you are! I'm so chuffed I could help you escape a nasty meeting and I hope you survived it okay!

[a-friendly-fangirl]

Hello! It's been a while. I wasn't missed, I'm sure... and yet here I am once again.

So, I've had my Boygenius tattoo for months and I recently realised that I never explained the symbolisms behind it. Shame on me. Time to fix this!

The tattoo:

The idea behind it:

When I started thinking of a Boygenius inspired tattoo, the only clear thing about it was what I wanted from it. And what I wanted was to honor them and their friendship, but also my own relationships. The three cups were immediately chosen as the best vessel to convey this idea. But I didn't want it to be all. I wanted songs references and a way to show what friendship is to me. Hence, the symbols in the cups!

The first cup:

The first cup is obviously very Me & My Dog and Phoebe inspired. We have moon, stars and a spaceship. All of these elements bring me back to some amazing people in my life and to my wonderful dogs. It's also a throwback to one of my favourite Boygenius interviews, the one with Pitchfork where Lucy made Julien and Phoebe laugh by talking about outer space. Moon Song was also a clear reference as well as my favourite Phoebe song, Chinese Satellite, Emily I'm Sorry, We're in Love and Letter To An Poet. But I must admit that Graceland Too started it all.

This cup is the one encapsulating sadness the most. There's grief and there's bitterness, with a tiny bit of melancholy. On this cup, the others stand.

The second cup:

I'm extremely fond of it. This is where everything begins in this tattoo. Sadness and hope rule. This cup is very Julien. A moth stands close to a light bulb (Turn Out The Lights, Brittle Boned, Happy To Be Here, Leonard Cohen and Bite The Hand reference), reminding us of Favor. An hand comes out of the cup or sinks in it, giving Stay Down and Anti - Curse (my favourite Boygenius songs) vibes, along with Phoebe's Funeral and Lucy's Triple Dog Dare allusions. Trying to save itself, the hand grabs the third cup, throwing all the cups off balance and pours its special water on them as well as on itself.

This cup's main theme is the light or the possibility of seeing hope, even in the darkest of times. There's drowning and suicidal ideation, along with sadness... but there's also swimming back and accepting love, even when you feel like you don't deserve it.

The third cup:

This third cup is very Lucy. The heart, the hummingbird and the pink carnation are all clear allusions to We're in Love, with a touch of Kissing Lessons, Trust, Televangelist and Please Stay, while the pen is a mention to the latter and to Letter To An Old Poet and a little nod to Lucy's love for journaling and my own love for books and writing. Last but not least... the water. Water is a recurrent theme in the Boys' writing and gives meaning to the whole tattoo, showing hints of True Blue, Stay Down, Anti - Curse, Triple Dog Dare and Christine.

This third cup is a testament to love and friendship, showing off a lot of the symbols that Lucy especially has devoted to it, like the pen that reminds me of books and in particular the books on Julien's shelf. Or the carnation, whose colour was decided by both her and Phoebe.

The whole meaning behind it:

The tattoo in itself is my way to say: "I love you. You mean the world to me" to my friends. There's this sadness on which I stand (the first cup), but there's also a deep love for my chosen family that makes me want to try to swim back (the second cup), because their love can make things better. Which is why the hand has decided to reach the third cup and use that water (where symbols of love have been) to bless the other two cups, trying to bring relief to their contents.

In other words, as my tattoo states, my friends to me are "An incantation like an anti - curse/ Or even a blessing".

[umbracirrus]

Random Friday WIP go-

I have had just a massive writing inspiration moment today after about two, three weeks of just having no writing fuel (hence why I've been drawing my OCs!). And because I'm really happy with this and the turn in events, I want to share some of my WIP today.

I'm trying to write some of the story of my Dragonborn Aevra, and I'm actually hoping to maybe post the first chapter of it soon because things are going very well with gettng it written! It's going to be called 'As a leaf would scatter to the wind'... I just kind of liked the visualisation of a leaf getting blown around matching Aevra trying to get her life in order with the chaos which unfolds around her.

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

"Ah, General… Not too long ago, we received a missive addressed to you. I am glad that you arrived when you did, I was just about to have a soldier carry the message to Solitude for your attention," the Legate stated as he approached the General, the only person of the convoy who had so far dismounted their horse upon their arrival. "Here."

Tullius frowned as he took the rolled-up parchment from the Altmer's hand, before unfurling it where he stood. There was a slight tension as he then released the bottom of the paper, allowing it to naturally start curling back up, and clenched his fist by his side. He then turned around, and cast his eyes across them all. "There has been a change in plan. We are no longer escorting the prisoners to Cyrodiil." Quiet whispers were cast between soldiers who were close enough to each other to talk. Had something happened? Was the missive directly from the Emperor? Were they needed elsewhere? "We shall instead be making our way to Helgen, where preparations are being put into place to… pass on judgement."

That particular phrasing, and the tension in his tone of voice conveyed to Aevra exactly what wasn't being said. She had no doubt that many other of her fellow soldiers also knew what was being implied. Her hands tightened around the reins of her horse as she took in a quiet but sharp inhale.

The prisoners were to be executed.

Silence hung heavy and thick over the group, until the General gave a brisk "as you were," to everyone, which set forth the bustle of unpacking any carts and wagons, checking over supplies, ensuring that the prisoners were moved somewhere secure for the night, and setting up tents to account for the camp exceeding capacity until they were ready to move on to Helgen.

Aevra quietly dismounted her horse, then reached into a small pack attached to the saddle to pull out a carrot to feed him before she took him to the camp stable for the night. She smiled and gently patted at his mane as he ate, before giving him a tired smile. "I wonder if you are aware of the part we have played in history over these past few days, boy…" She closed her eyes as she got yet another nicker in response, most likely a request to feed him the rest of the carrot over continuing her musing. She extended her hand out for him to get what he wanted, but continued nonetheless. "These old bones of mine have taken part in far too many 'once-in-a-lifetime' historic events already. What's one more, hm?"

The horse nuzzled at her after a few more moments of standing there, and she took that as a sign of needing to get moving. There were things to do, and she wasn't going to accomplish any of them if she were to remain stood still.

Just as she went to move, she heard a voice to her side.

"Soldier, before you go-" She paused as she looked at the General, who was now stood in her vicinity and looking directly at her, making her curious as to what he was wanting to say. In that brief, quiet moment, another soldier approached her, and quickly offered to take her horse off her hands as he took his own horse to the stables. As she handed over the reins, the General gave his orders. "I need you to go and get us some more firewood. I don't doubt that Legate Fasendil doesn't have enough for the extra numbers in the camp tonight. If we have none spare, chop some – and be quick about it. How you Nords can stand this cold, I have no idea..."

Nodding at her orders, having to stop herself from chuckling at his mumbling afterwards about the temperature which she was presumably not meant to have heard, she made her way over to where she knew the quartermaster to be holed up from her previous stint in the camp a few months back. He would know if there was enough wood, and would most certainly have an axe to spare if there wasn't.

A simple, menial job to get her mind off what was to come. There was nothing better. It would make the nice, warm meal afterwards all the more deserved.

[primordialruin]

munday writing detail meme!

Name: Kotys

Age range: under 18 | between 18 and 25 | 25 and older

Pronouns: She/Her

Random fact about me: I have sectoral heterochromia. My irises are half blue and half green.

When it comes to planning threads: I like to wing it completely | I like to plan the start of the thread | I like to plan several key points in the thread | I like to plan every reply | It depends (elaborate)

Pre-established relationships between muses: I enjoy them | I like them occasionally but mostly prefer to play the relationship out | I don't do pre-established relationships

When it comes to replies, I like to: Keep mine short (1-2 paragraphs) | Keep mine to medium length | Keep my replies long (10+ paragraphs) | It depends (elaborate) The mood dictates the length of the reply, and it also depends on the driving point of my reply. It's important to me that I can express my muse in an appropriate way that gives your muse & the overall thread the necessary hooks for us to grab and continue the story.

I generally try to reply in: 1 day | 3 days | A week | Within a month | More than a month

I like getting asks for memes I reblogged a long time ago: Yes | No | Depends

I like getting random IC asks from my mutuals: Yes | No | Depends

I like getting tagged in unplanned starters from my mutuals: Yes | No | Depends

I like getting getting OOC asks from my mutuals to plan our threads: Yes | No | Depends

I like getting getting OOC asks from my mutuals just to chat about things not related to RP: Yes | No | Depends (K here - I'm not good at keeping conversations cuz I get tired fast in social situations. You can talk to me about regular degular stuff if you wanna but it's not what I seek here. I'm here to focus on rp first and foremost 🫶 hence ooc friendships might be hard to create with me but I prommy I love all the friends who have patiently grown a friendship with me over months of friendly slowburn lmao)

I enjoy writing: Drama! I love having an external conflict that drives our muses in a certain direction where they can grow their relationship. :) I'm not great at banter for the sake of banter. I need a story.

I don't enjoy writing: Fast banter. I don't have the time to spend on quick back and forths. I wish I did tho. It looks super fun! Also smut. I'm so awkward with it, I just can't do it without being beet red in the face. I can try, but it's got to be part of a bigger story so I don't feel like there's a spotlight on the act.

My favourite tropes are: Rivals to friends/lovers and friends/lovers to rivals. Found family. Secret identities. Funny slice of life situations.

Opinion on shipping (for a specific character or in general): It's good 👍 I'm a huge sucker for slowburn. I don't like jumping into ships because I love building up to them. Sometimes baking the cake is more fun than eating it if you catch my drift.

I get inspired to write by doing this: Listen to music that feels appropriate to the storyline's current mood, hallucinate the scene with my mind's eye, write down the main idea I want to convey in my reply, note a couple of bullet points then take a break and come back when I'm able to revise my ideas and actually write the reply. This is mostly for big threads with big plot points, or threads I've lost the initial creative inertia for. I don't always take breaks to revise, but this is mostly the gist of my process.

One of my favourite threads/drabbles/etc: On my SpyxFam blog, my Yor and I wrote an AMAZING thread in which our fake spouses found each other after my muse had to fake his death. I think it was the best thread I've ever written with someone. My incredible RP partner helped me push against my writing limits & I feel like I am a much better writer thanks to them. I think our thread went for 6 months lol it was such a good experience!!! I've also written Lilith a couple years ago with an incredible Lucifer that I hold fondly to my heart. It was just as good!

A writing partner (or partners!) I've enjoyed writing with: My incredible Yor on my SXF blogs and a couple of writers I've sadly lost contact with. I hope they're fine.

A mutual I want to write with but haven't yet: Oh man, all of you!

Tagged by: none, found this on the for you page

Tagging: you!

[inventors-fair]

Innovation Nation

Everything about us here at the Inventor's Fair, and in the custom Magic community as a whole, is about creation, pushing the envelope, finding new and amazing ways to express our ideas. And you know, WOTC does the same thing every year with their Draft Innovation set. But... what if we could do better?

This week's contest: Design a card that represents a new type of Draft Innovation Set, OR design a card that shows a new take on one of the existing Draft Innovation sets.

That's... a bit vague, I know. What do I mean by "represents"? What's a Draft Innovation Set? Let's break it down.

Draft Innovation was a concept that began with Conspiracy, where each summer WOTC would release a unique product. Originally, these were centered around drafting/Sealed, hence the name. Most still are, though there has been some deviation. You can find the list of Draft Innovation sets here.

So what am I asking you to do? Come up with a new concept for a draft innovation set! Try to figure out what the angle, or gimmick of the set is. For example, Conspiracy was "draft matters" and "multiplayer" rolled into one. Battlebond, a few years later, was "Two-Headed Giant Draft". Then there were things like Jumpstart or Modern Horizons, whose gimmicks are pretty clear. I want you to come up with an idea for a Draft Innovation set, then design me a card that will sell me on that set.

Obviously, a single card won't be able to convey the entirety of a set, but it should be able to imply the general idea you had for it. Let's look at some examples!

Agent of Acquisitions turns the entire draft process on its head by allowing you to take an entire pack, showing off the ways that Conspiracy cements its identity as the Draft-Matters set.

Regna the Redeemer gives us a couple hints to 2HG, both that "Partner With" indicates that another player can search, and that her ability references the idea of a Team.

Prismatic Piper clearly shows that it's made for a commander set, and the flexibility of color identity is pretty good at suggesting that it was made to fix the problem of color identity in draft. Take the two together, and it's pretty obvious it comes from a Commander Draft set.

Jumpstart may not be as easy to represent in a single card, but the Thriving Lands do a decent job. They're so locked in on two-color, in a way that a typical draftable set might not appreciate, so it lets you know something else is going on. You might not be able to get "two unique 20-card packs shuffled together to make a deck" from this card alone, but it at least gets you thinking about what it could be representing.

Of course, as mentioned above, you can also

This is definitely a bit of a tricky contest, but I have faith in you all, and I can't wait to see what you do! One more note- I will NOT be reading any additional descriptions submitted alongside the card (except for art). I expect the card to speak for itself, so please don't send me five paragraphs about your idea for the set. If you want to share that with me after submissions, I would be thrilled to hear it then!

Ciao,

~judge @naban-dean-of-irritation

Show us something new by submitting here!

Push the envelope in our Discord!