#i like talking about symbolism but i also hate it because it's difficult to put into words

[cheshirequeenwithoutaheart]

How is Aoife linked to the sun?

thanks for the ask!

aoife is linked to the stars, of which the sun is one, because of her... eldritch form, i guess? like how she appears normally isn't her only appearance, as well as through related symbolism.

her eldritch forms almost embodies a star (along with a bird, giving it something of an appearance similar to a phoenix, which brings with it a completely different kind of symbolism).

symbolically the sun has been associated with life, confidence, power and, obviously, light, amongst others, which are things aoife has or is or embodies. she embodies light because of her connection to the stars, she has confidence, she has a great degree of power (physical and social) and she's associated with life in that she's a mother and often takes care of others in order to ensure their survival.

she is also associated with burning, or death by burning, so not all of the links are positive.

[kidcosky]

Okay.... Let's analyze what happened in dcmk these last few weeks. Obvious SPOLIERS will be commented so you know.

> Appearance of Aoko's mother in Magic Kaito.

Where was she all this time? Why did she never appear or even show a sign of life? She didn't even call her daughter on her birthday... She appears so oblivious to everything, she didn't even know who Kaitou Kid was since her husband has always been obsessed with trying to catch this thief for YEARS. It seems like Gosho just randomly placed her in the story without trying to connect with the canon, it's almost as if she was a character outside of her original manga.

> Film 27 and its breaks in logic and common sense.

After all these years, Gosho decided to go against everything he had already said and made the Kaishin to be cousins, not only ruining a unique relationship (whether you shipped or not) but also bringing plot holes and contradictions in the story. If they are cousins ​​what's the excuse for them never trying to even interact before? Why was it that when Yukiko first met Kaito, she never acted like she was related to her? The same with Toichi, she always talked about him as just her teacher and NOTHING more than that, it doesn't make sense to put that in the story now. Why did Kaito never even have support from his family? Not even showing up at Toichi's symbolic funeral? How come Yusaku never went to talk to his late brother's family, even if he knew the truth KAITO DIDN'T KNOW...

No one even considered his feelings...

> All the bullshit involving Kaishin.

The biggest problem for me about them being cousins ​​is not just because of the ship but because of all the history and construction they had. It's as if everything that's different about them is summed up in the simple fact that they're related. But Kaishin has always had something unique, something that Gosho himself defined as "a mysterious bond". Them not having the slightest type of relationship made everything so unique, a connection that only the two of them could have together, one would easily understand the other even though they were complete strangers. Now I feel like they want to throw that away.

> TOICHI KUROBA AND MY HATE FOR HIM.

Gosho had already said that Toichi was possibly alive but the confirmation brought me a wave of anger and contempt that I had never felt for any other dcmk character (even bo). Let's think about Kaito in this whole story:

• lost his father when he was just a child and is still traumatized by it today.

• for 8 FUCKING YEARS he discovers that his father's death was never an accident but a murder.

• His father was actually an internationally wanted thief who was after a precious stone capable of bringing immortality.

• he steps into his father's shoes as KID and decides to try to find out for himself what happened to his father, who killed him and why.

• now there is a criminal organization that thinks he is the KID who didn't really die and they are trying to kill him once and for all.

• he decides to put himself at risk looking for Pandora, being something belonging to the organization and the police themselves.

• a lot of people hate him, regardless of whether he hurts people or not.

• more and more he becomes more and more removed from everything and becomes burdened with the KID charade.

• his own mother doesn't care about him, on the contrary, it seems like she likes to make things even more difficult for her son (she disguised herself as her dead ex-husband just to screw with her son's head, that's sickening to say the least).

• everything Kaito does is because of his father's murder, he never wanted to be KID, he never liked stealing, he doesn't do any of that for pleasure (except when it involves a certain mini detective but that's not the focus now ).

• and in the end his father was ALIVE all this time, doing who knows what while his son was risking his life because of him... BRO...

This whole thing is insane. And not in a good way.

[creatingblackcharacters]

For a few years now, since I became aware of the concept, I've tried to impress upon my white friends that the culture-less state of being American whiteness relies on is A, a sad way to live; B, something that can and does lead to harm, including but not limited to cultural appropriation, and especially at the expense of Black people and culture; and C, something that is in their interest to try to escape from without performing said harm.

This has been a somewhat difficult idea to explain, but Sinners does it so flawlessly. It really gives white viewers the tools they need to understand not only that this type of harm exists, but also that they are quite capable of it. I'm often the friend who has to take people aside and be like, "heyy, you actually do capitalize the first letter of Indigenous, yes even in this context," and movies like Sinners make that kind of work so much easier.

This is not to say it is the responsibility of movies and such to educate audiences in this way of course, but when such a piece does come around, it can be a lot more accessible and thus more effective than, say, a textbook. To that end, do you know any other media that do a similar job of giving audiences the tools to make race and racism easier (if not less heavy or painful) to talk about?

Thank you for your help, and for running another accessible resource for learning about this stuff! I really appreciate what you do here.

Btw, while I am in your inbox--do you have any other media you want to hype up, whether or not they have to do with the topic at hand?

There is plenty of media about real world figures suffering under the violence of racism- Malcolm X, Fruitvale Station, When They See Us, Jasper, TX, 12 Years a Slave, Selma. None of those things are "easier" watches, but it does put the brutality in your face. I'm not sure how you could watch them and not get it. There are also documentaries- look up documentaries of the Black experience! Grass is Greener, Stamped, 13th, I Am Not Your Negro, LA 92.

I am averse to saying that fiction movies would necessarily make it easier or more accessible than a documentary telling you the facts straight up. Because even for Sinners, the movie didn't give you the tools, it gave you the symbolism- if you lacked the tools walking in (media comprehension and the base understanding of antiblackness and manifestations of white racism), then no, you didn't understand the movie- and a LOT of people have shown that they did not understand Sinners!

I will say that I have mixed feelings about this. A lot of Black people are very tired of Black trauma movies. Now, I do think it's important to recognize the violence in our history- it is CLEAR that we need to know and remember these things, to show that they happened and that we saw them! But I understand their frustration when it comes to questions like yours, where you want people to understand racism through being- and I hate to say it this way- entertained by our suffering. Because it's like... How many of these movies do we have to make, where we bleed and suffer and die on screen, and y'all still don't do anything after watching it? Why do you have to see fictional people suffering to understand, when the real ones don't move you? Why does it take a movie to enforce our humanity?

That's why you can show them these movies, but if they're not willing to watch the documentaries or do the reading, their efforts at antiracism will only go so far. Make sure you tell them that last bit I said, because it's something y'all need to think about.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

I want to talk a bit about Kira’s character in Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night. Before I reached that episode in my rewatch, I’d seen people characterizing it as claiming that the “Bajoran comfort women were collaborators” or otherwise as victim blaming towards Kira Meru. But upon watching it again, I really disagree, and I think it presents Meru and her situation with a lot of sympathy and nuance.

Kira herself characterizes her mother as a collaborator at the end, in her conversation with Sisko:

I’ve always hated collaborators. I mean, what could be worse than betraying your own people? During the occupation, if I ever had any doubt about what their fate should be, I would think of my mother, how she gave her life for Bajor. She was a hero, they were traitors. It was that simple. Or so I thought.

Do you know how many Bajorans died in the labor camps during that time? Died, while my mother sat sipping kanar with Dukat?

But I don’t think we’re intended to take Kira’s judgment of her mother at face value. The episode is pretty clear that Dukat is the bad guy here, and draws specific attention to how he manipulates Meru into trusting him by setting up the scene where he “rescues” her from the other Cardassian (and discloses this to her himself later in a further manipulative cycle of feigned repentance). Not to mention the abundance of food she’s given after experiencing extreme deprivation, another factor in why she’s inclined towards trauma bonding with him. The fact that she is drinking Dukat’s kool-aid a little bit does not take away from the fundamentally coercive nature of their relationship. And the degree to which she’s making excuses for him is pretty clearly a result of his manipulation. He is a manipulator! This is shown both here and in plenty of other places!

Meru even gets a moment where she stands up for herself to Kira and points out that she has very limited options and is motivated in part by wanting to protect her family. And there’s the scene right near the end where she breaks down crying while listening to the message from her husband, which really hammers home that she’s ultimately in an awful situation that she never asked for and will likely never be allowed to see her family again. Also, the episode presents us with an actual collaborator - the man who’s in charge of corralling the captured women is himself Bajoran, and a much more active and willing party to the colonial and patriarchal violence on display than the women are.

Furthermore, Kira frequently falls back onto a very black and white moral framework, and experiences a very strong sense of moral injury when people she cares about or idolizes falls on the wrong side of that. You see this with Tekeny Ghemor in Ties of Blood and Water, when Kira finds it enormously difficult to forgive his involvement in the destruction of Kiessa Monastery - and, just as she saves her mother’s life as a testament to their family connection, she ultimately goes to Ghemor at his deathbed for her own personal closure re: her failure to do the same for her father, rather than because she’s fully forgiven him. Her anger is more comprehensible there, because of course there’s no comparison between Meru’s level of complicity and being part of an occupying army (even if Ghemor’s role was negligible, as Odo speculates). But that’s exactly the thing - Kira reacts to them pretty similarly, and is not really ready or willing to acknowledge different degrees of complicity, or to put the symbolic affront of her mother living in luxury during the Occupation into perspective re: actual material harm (or the very, very limited amount of power her mother actually had within that lifestyle). How Kira reacts to Odo sentencing innocent people to their deaths in Things Past is similar - she was very invested in not categorizing him as a collaborator, even though he literally did work with the Cardassians, and was not prepared to face the possibility that that work might have made him complicit in Cardassian sham justice.

She also has that exchange with Winn in Rapture, where Winn says that people who were in the resistance discount the sacrifices made by other Bajorans, and she honestly does have a point, even if the situations are different. Kira’s answer to injustice is to fight it, at every turn, and that’s one of her biggest heroic qualities - but she also genuinely has trouble comprehending or sympathizing with the mindset of other Bajorans who don’t share that response, even when their passivity is something they’re coerced or railroaded into. She was running largely on survival mode while she was in the resistance, and it prevented her from fully comprehending the complex dynamics of the occupation - and she’s forced to do that quite a bit during the show, once she’s no longer running on autopilot.

And I genuinely think it’s interesting that she doesn’t forgive her mother, and that she’s even a bit victim blaming in how she talks to and about Meru. It’s in keeping with her character, but it’s also in character for her to have genuine blind spots. And given what we’re actually shown of the situation, I don’t think the episode is presenting Kira’s perspective as the final word on how we’re meant to evaluate the situation.

[w45t3-m3]

Hey- Thought I'd jump on the last Anon's train cause I like learning details of designs too.

What are your favorite parts of each characters design? and what part of drawing them all frustrated you the most?

Oh this is a good question!!!

For Bendy, I hate HATE drawing his face. Which is like his most important feature but I find it off putting that he doesn’t have a nose(it’s a bigger issue when I have to do a side profile) so most of the time you’ll see me draw two tiny lines to signal a nose. But aside from that I really love drawing his outfit cause it really gives off mechanic vibes and if u pay close attention his outfit is the same color as Boris’s bandana.

For Boris, I get so frustrated drawing his goggles because of the curls so I don’t know how to make it look natural. I’m so glad I don’t do speed paints because you’ll see me redraw it constantly. (I only kept the goggles because just like the bandana n bendy’s outfit, the goggles also have the others color on it)But just as I have drawing the goggle due to his curly hair, I love drawing his curly hair. It’s such a mess, and I just like doing random swoops.

For cuphead, I HATE DRAWING THEIR HEADS WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT HOW HARD IT IS TO DRAW THEIR HEADS WITHOUT MAKING IT LOOK WEIRD! (This goes for Mugman too) ITS SO DIFFICULT. But the plus side I love drawing his stupid silly hair. Additionally I like the matching suit he has with Mugman as it symbolize them being twins while also hinting to his connection with the devil lol

For Mugman, I also hate drawing his head, but I find his crack on his face hard to draw. Mostly because I keep forgetting to draw it n I have to make it consistent which it frustrates me to keep drawing. I do like drawing his suit, but I mainly like scarf. I like scarfs a lot, and they should be added to more character designs. (Also it has symbolic meaning in the story as the scarf is a gift from someone who’ll come up later in the story)

For Felix, I HATE HIS DUMB STUPID HAT SM. I DONT KNOW HOW TO DRAW HATS N ESPECIALLY FOR THEIR PERSPECTIVES. RAHHHH I WISH IT COULD DIE, I’m keeping it tho cause it’s cute. But what I love from his design his flesh teeth. (Idk the proper term) I just find it the cutest thing ever, and I’m never getting rid of it of it.

[kings-highway]

Okay I've seen enough AI discourse discussion today but there's one thing I absolutely have not seen anyone else talking about and I simply need to get my 2 cents in here

Writing is not about the end product. And no, I'm not going to say some philosophical nonsense about the passion or heart or humanity put into it, I'm sure most of you are already aware of the philosophical difference between AI and real writers. What I'm talking about is what, about storytelling and writing, makes a writer a writer.

If, theoretically, being a writer was JUST about conveying an idea, plot, or set of themes to the reader, AI wouldn't be that big of a deal. Because it truly would be just about the quickest way to get your idea into someone elses' head. But it's not that.

It's not that at all.

When I was 14 my father (a screenwriter) told me that his favourite part of writing was editing, and that, if I continued to be a writer, one day I'd probably feel the same way.

The amateur is enamoured with the creative process - the writer is enamoured with the craft.

Writing doesn't stop when the words are on the page.

My father was right.

Nowadays, a first draft is a tedious first step I need to climb the mountain of to get on with things. And, of course, I love this step! It's the creative heart of being a storyteller, playing with characters, exploring themes. And, yes, most of my fanfiction is a first draft, but thats because fanfiction is a different kind of craft to me. Also not something AI can replicate but that's a different story and not what this is about.

I've never let anyone read my first draft of original work. Ever. Because I hate my first drafts. I finish it, and immediately start thinking: "i need more scenes that make the twist villain sympathetic early on to increase the impact of the reveal" or "i should make sure that the main character is shown reaching for chocolate flavoured treats more often to tighten the character persona" or "i think the middle is too short, there's not enough time to build drama."

I start crafting the story. Picking apart how I want my readers to feel, adjusting minute details - or massive, large details - and playing with the rhythm of the story. Maybe a villain gets redeemed instead of killing them, maybe I switch up the order that characters meet in to change their dynamics, maybe I change their names to have greater symbolism and more cohesive identities. Editing is a difficult skill, but the process of getting my hands on each paragraph is intoxicating. Of being able to turn this story into the best version of itself.

I spent 4 minutes on one line, yesterday, changing the word "terrible" to "horrible," removing a comma and switching up the word choice in the dialogue. I played and I fiddled and I made sure that this one sentence had the exact right melody to it, the exact right feeling to it to make sure that my reader could feel it like goddamn music in their bones, the precise reading experience that I, the writer, wanted them to have. These 4 minutes are the most fun I ever have writing. These moments are my favourite part of being a writer, they're what makes me a writer. Not simply that I have put words on a page, but that I have put these words on a page, exactly as I want them.

So AI art is not art. Because art is not the end product. People who use AI to write are not writers, because writers are not merely idea generators. If you're satisfied using AI to generate your ideas, go ahead, but you were never a writer to begin with. I don't want my work to exist on the page if I don't get to enjoy the craft. If I don't get to sit and play with my words, adjust character details into oblivion, stare at the screen until the words are music, then I simply don't want it. If everything in the world becomes AI generated, I will still be sitting at my desk with my computer glowing and keyboard clicking away, writing stories, because that is what I love to do. The act of it, the physical act, not the end product.

"I'm just using AI to bring my ideas to life, I can edit and adjust it afterwards if I want!"

You've already missed the point.

I'll just be over here wasting hours upon hours deciding on the name of a fake city, because it is the most fun I could ever have.

[jjjjeonww]

joshua hong - "matching rings."

genre - fluff word count - 1202 ~~in which the heartthrob of the town, you, is in a secret relationship with the gentleman of the town, joshua. what happens when your classmates find out that you both have matching rings? a request from anonie <3 (author is going insane because she just listened to mingyu's cover of glimpse of us. author is also going insane incase this isn't what anonie rlly wanted.)

you and joshua had been the talk of the town for quite some time, with you being the heartthrob who effortlessly captured everyone's hearts and him being the ever-attentive gentleman, always going the extra mile to ensure the comfort of those he held dear. nobody knew the truth about you and joshua—you'd been dating for a year. it was difficult to keep things hidden, especially when you were around others. whenever Joshua spoke to you, his eyes would light up with affection, and you had to constantly remind him to conceal his true feelings. to ensure the secret stayed safe, you often had to give him subtle signals, like pinching his arm or gently smacking him, to bring his attention back to acting like just friends. it was difficult for him to treat you as if you were only a friend but then again, your reputations would be on the line if you revealed it. but whats so bad about revealing it? you'd have a lot of people hate on you since you already captured hearts of hundreds and he had comforted souls of hundreds. wouldn't it be weird that a girl whose known for her looks is dating a guy whose known for his personality?

obviously joshua being insecure about him dating the town's dearest could only feel more insecure whenever he saw guy after guy asking you out. to him they were all so much more handsome than he would ever be. so much more… perfect for you than he would ever be. but to you, he was just what you needed in your life. everytime you got asked out, you'd see joshua looking at you. his gaze unwavering while his heart ached in the worst way. day after day after day, boy (or girl) after boy after boy. you noticed he was slowly changing himself, becoming the joshua you didn't fall for. you confronted him about it and for the first time, you saw the gentleman cry. he felt too insecure of himself. watching you getting asked out while you were dating him by even better boys made him think he wasn't enough for you. you promised him that no matter what, he was the only boy you wanted, the only boy you needed, the only boy you loved. it made him feel better but what made him feel great was when you both had agreed to go to the library when it was lunch and if anybody asked, it would just be seen as a friend date. while he was making bracelets (most probably for his family members, he's so cute im jsjsjjsjfjsjjsj), you were reading a poetry book. you occasionally glance at him and the designs he's making. oh he's too cute. "y/n! look! does it look cute?" his voice snapped you out of your thoughts and you looked over at the bracelet he was done making. you smiled and nodded, "it looks adorable shua." he blushed and giggled at your compliment. "shua. put this on." you slipped him a ring, a ring identical to the one you were wearing. "huh?? isn't this yours?" joshua looked at you, head tilted with a confused look on his face. when he looked at your hands your ring was already on your finger and it took him a while but when he finally got the hint, his face lit up and he smiled brightly. "whats it for…?" he asked. his confused face returning as you chuckled and whispered, "for me to prove that i'm yours. and for whoever asks me out. i can just wave my hand infront of their face." and from then on, the matching rings were a symbol of your promise to him. to promise that no matter what, you were his, and he was yours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ✶.˚⟡˖ ࣪ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "hey josh," joshua's closest friend, hyunjae, who was also your younger brother, greeted, his cheerful voice catching joshua's attention as they approached for their usual secret handshake. "oh, hey," joshua replied, his gaze darting to you as you walked into class. the thought of him actually dating the town's darling made him giddy. when he saw a friend of yours putting her head on your shoulder as you wrapped an arm around her to make her feel safe and comfy made him think: 'how did I get so lucky to be with her?' he thought maybe it was his silly demeanour that drew you in. or maybe it was just all of him.

suddenly, junseo, the class clown who managed to annoy everyone, spoke loudly, saying, "ewww, look at joshua! he's wearing a ring; he's so girly! are you married or something? you got a wife?". joshua's heart nearly stopped at the words. he glanced down at his ring finger, where the matching ring was. fuck. he quickly put his hand inside his pocket as he fidgeted to get the ring off before anybody could notice and right when junseo was about to call everybody to see the ring, joshua quickly put his hand back on the table acting like nothing had happened. but lucky for junseo, he was able to describe the image of the ring perfectly. "well well well mr joshua hong. a bit confident are we? thinking you could get the ring off just like that." junseo laughed loudly in a condescending tone. "ladies and gentlemen! gather around as i reveal joshua's feminine secret. the ring he was wearing just now had a pastel pink coloured heart."

you gulped, silently praying that people won't believe junseo and that they'll take joshua's side but just then one of your friends, hyeri,(who is dating junseo) speaks, "wait a minute… y/n has the same exact ring that you just described!" your eyes widened and you tried to slip the ring off but hyeri took your wrist and lifted it, showcasing the ring. joshua put his hand in his pocket, fiddling with the ring before standing up and taking his hand out of the pocket and mistakenly letting the ring fall onto the ground. hyeri let go of your hand and sprinted towards the floor to take the ring before returning back to you. she compared the rings, the colour and the shape. junseo walked over to hyeri and took a closer look at the rings, "they're the exact same…".

just then hyunjae spoke, "so what? it's not like their dating. its just a coincidence. you guys just like to create rumours to stir up drama. thats how boring your lives are. so boring to the point that you try to make up shit just to get some attention. fucking losers. leave joshua and y/n alone." and there it was. silence. complete silence. nobody dared to say a word and everybody returned back to their seats. junseo lowered his head and gave back the ring to joshua and hyeri let go off your wrist. and joshua swore he saw hyunjae mouth to you, "found out your little secret." with a wink. for now only hyunjae knew about your secret connection with joshua. and it was comforting to know that atleast one person knew, and it was even more comforting because it was your brother.

[forgettable-au]

So, dingbat fonts.

Skeletons can understand them, and no one else.

Do you have any ideas on why that is?

Like, what is different about skeletons that makes it understandable to them?

Is it that they can see the written-out message of what’s spoken? (explanation I first saw in Handplates)

And why is font changing difficult? What kind of „tiring” is it (as in, what can this kind of effort be compared to? Speaking a language you’re only starting to learn? Something else?)

Sorry for the question avalanche but I can’t stop thinking about it

Also good lord the colors in this comic are so good, if i was less lazy and color theory-hating i would definitely study em or something

Skeletons can understand them cause their hearing works differently, that's how they can identify a font by just listening to the other skeleton! If not, how would they know how to name their babies that can't really talk or write yet? It's about how they sound

Changing font is difficult because it requires an extra effort you wouldn't normally make: Imagine speaking another lenguage while speaking in a baby voice constantly

It wouldn't bother you if you do it as a joke and you can get used to it, but it would be annoying for long periods of time!

I imagine it's like that for most skeletons, but it was probably harder for Wingdings since he had to change from symbols to letters, not from letters to other letters

Hehe also thanks! I put a lot of effort on the colors!

[gladionfan]

thinking about my favorite guy again in the whole world and why i like him so much. aother insane rant nobody will read. tumblr has a nice format where i can talk a lot. going to jump around a little bit while i explain myself.

sometimes people ask me why he’s my favorite character of all time. for 9 YEARS. and there are so so many reasons. so i’ll try.

i think gladion is a very realistic and relatable example of a traumatized character. but he’s simultaneously and ironically almost… a symbol of… hope? and goodness in the world? because he’s such a deeply kind & empathetic person.

and i know a lot of people blink at me and say - gladion?! empathetic?! because, of course, he doesn’t seem that way at first. but from the very beginning, he’s so empathetic that its a flaw. the first example at the start of the story- though you don’t find this till late game- where he leaves home in order to save silvally.

it’s in little details like this that i appreciate him more. null is the german word for “zero”, and in its creation, it’s named “type:null” instead of “type:full”. since it failed to carry the disks that change its type, type:null was the name they gave it in order to represent its failure.

they planned for it to be cryogenically frozen; much like the pokemon we see lusamine in possession of. type:null was incredibly mistreated during this process, much like animals are in the real world. its mask is a significant weight thats supposedly very painful for it. putting it plainly, silvally was abused.

so they call it type:zero because it failed them. it starts out with zero friendship, zero extra type, because it wasn’t what they wanted it to be and so it was thrown away. despite never knowing love, or friendship, or a better life.

and not only does gladion - eleven or twelve at this point- steal it and run away, he refers to it as “null”. he calls it a different name in order to make it feel more alive, more like his friend.

in the anime, he calls it “silvally” from the start. people always talk about how he gave it its name, “silver ally”, or maybe “silver buddy”, and that’s awesome.

but i love that he calls it a different name from the beginning too, in order to let in know that he is a friend- that it has a purpose in existing outside of being a tool, thrown away & mistreated once it isn’t useful anymore.

i think people overlook this. of course lusamine was abusive. but it was difficult for gladion to get out of that situation. thinking about his conversation with lillie he has in seafolk- he obviously is remorseful he couldn’t take her with him. it was the suffering of another that pushed him to run away. motivated him to free silvally from its mask and train in the battle royal to protect lillie, his family, too. more on that later.

and he puts himself in a bad situation simultaneously. yes, team skull is a bad situation. they don’t like gladion. lol.

i can go on. and i will go on. this is what i do. on the very first encounter with gladion, you see him interacting with members of team skull. in this it tells you a couple things: he snaps at you and hau, and then team skull shows up and reveals that he stopped them from stealing the totem pokemon.

it’s established here that gladion cares deeply for pokemon- enough that he runs away and can hardly take care of himself, and the traumatized creature he’s in possession of. this also tells us team skull hates him enough to mock and ridicule him. and i actually love this element. i saw someone on here saying this was bad..? but its not, not at all.

obviously team skull is a group of broken people. they’re lost in life. troubled. and this kid comes along bossing them around over what they can and can’t do. it tells us gladion has a strong sense of justice.

even though he’s ridiculed and alienated for his decisions, he chooses to do what he thinks is right. he chooses to prevent the suffering of another. he chooses to be kind. because fundamentally that’s the type of person he is.

it’s pretty implied that the reason gladion works for them in the first place is because he runs out of money.

he doesn’t want to do things he thinks are wrong- he’s the type of person that won’t. the woman at the front desk of the Route 8 motel will say he’s “not as free with money as he used to be..” and that team skull doesn’t pay enough to live off of.

gladion gets a lot of flack for being “too angsty”. makes me a little sad sometimes. i’m glad he’s more beloved these days. but i think it’s so much crazier when you think about the lens through which he sees the world.

over and over he does the kind thing. he does the right thing. i think this is because he feels things so deeply. he can’t stand to see another suffer because he knows what it’s like to be in pain.

this is getting a bit too long so i’ll get into it later but, i think he is also the type of person who internalized and blames himself for the pains of others.

this is why he’s the first person to explain to the player why his mother acts the way she does. he is the FIRST person to tell you about their father, how his mother wanted to get to him again, everything.

of course his relationship with her is complicated and deeply flawed. but he feels so deeply guilty over her circumstances he feels the need to tell you the reasoning behind her actions in order to let you see her as a person. not just a monster. and it’s this way in his other adaptations as well.

this co-exists so much with his grief and his anger. can you imagine?

he is so quick to be angry- he is poor in social situations- he claims even in the end that you and him are not friends. he’s never had a friend that wasn’t one of his his pokemon. his first exposure to the world is a gang that rejects him, bullies and steals from others.

he loses his father. he loses his mother, emotionally. he thinks that he can’t protect his sister. and he internalizes this so much. he blames himself for the pains of everyone around him.

pre-lillie kidnapping in USUM, he says at the royal that he’ll be “strong enough to protect them this time”. post lillie-napping, he has a breakdown.

like- of course he’s angry at the world. of course he sucks at talking to the player and he’s kind of unpleasant to be around. the world has not been pleasant to him at all. and his anger has to coexist with his grief and his pain, and he has no one to rely on, so it can only manifest itself in these crazy outbursts of rage where he can’t control his emotions.

but what i really appreciate about him is that even in all of his anger he can’t bring himself to be unforgiving. part of knowing what it’s like to suffer is understanding that sometimes people are in so much pain that they lash out as a result.

so he’s so so bitter and so lonely and he has every right to turn into a terrible, selfish person who turns away from other people and refuses sympathy and does things that are wrong- but he’s kind. over and over and over.

i will return someday maybe. write another insane rant nobody will read because this isn’t half my thoughts. i haven’t even finished talking about game gladion… and i still have to tell you why i also like animated gladion and manga gladion.

manga gladion is great except for the weird one-off misogyny line that didn’t even make sense & was just bad

[emmie-writes-stuff]

So the new chapter is out and GOOD GOD do I have some thoughts and a lot of them don’t make a whole lot of sense but I can’t not talk about this chapter

Firstly, Kaiser looks adorable (never thought I’d say that about him outside of my head but here I am)

Secondly, holy hell my heart hurts

He didn’t deserve this, no child deserves this

The fact that he had to “go to work” and just steal

HE HAS NO SHOES his little feet have got to hurt, or they’ve completely calloused up from not wearing shoes, but even then (speaking from experience) it still hurts to walk on hot ground and rocks and other stuff on the street

Yknow, I understood him hating milk before (because milk is disgusting) but now I get it even more

What a stupid reason to get upset, imma kick this waste of space excuse for a father in the fucking face AND balls because ITS FUCKING MILK

Eat some damn fiber or somethin if you got constipation issues

Who let this absolute scum of the earth reproduce???

HES LITERALTL TWELVE YEARS OLD

All the other shit went down before he was even double digits

But dangerous situations create smart kids, and Kaiser was very smart to start saving his own money

I used to have my own stash in case I ever had to run away (long story, we’re not getting into my family issues in this post, but yeah)

At least he has shoes now, protect those feet plz, they’re what keep you upright and moving

Soooooooo are we gonna acknowledge that he treats the soccer ball the same way he’s currently treating Ness orrrrrrrr

But like, it’s nice that he has an outlet to channel his anger into that isn’t a person (at least for now smh)

It’s really interesting seeing how each of the characters came to play soccer

(Side note: but he throws the ball at a picture of a woman, could he maybe be imagining this woman as his mother?)

His mother also deserves a kick to the face if I have anything to say bout it

I have no words for this

Just, can I steal him? Please? I’ll give him a good life

Fuck the snitches, how dare they

Also, you can clearly see his ribs defined, and that hurts me

I love that he was willing to let go of everything

He was ready to start fresh with getting money, was cooperating with the police, until the soccer ball was threatened

Because that is his most valuable possession

The money doesn’t matter, but the ball is a symbol to him of something that won’t leave him or hurt him

It’s a very small sense of independence and stability in this very unstable and controlling environment

The ball is heavily implied to be the first thing he ever bought for himself, it’s what defined a key part in his life

Taking that away is like taking away his soul, his outlet, and comfort, and Kaiser just couldn’t stand for it

There’s so many more things I’m thinkin and I have way too many incoherent thoughts for tumblr, but these are the ones I was able to clear up and make sense of

This chapter hit very deep and while my past doesn’t involve much physical abuse and struggles to this level, it was hard not to empathize and relate my own experiences with abuse with the ones in this chapter

I don’t wanna get into shit, it’s not somethin I exactly wanna put out in the public, but there’s so much here that I could understand and relate to and it just made everything so much more difficult to read (in a good way I guess)

Just, GOD, why did I have to become a fan before this chapter came out???

Okay, that’s my ramble for this, bye before I start going on even more tangents

[yuriko-44]

symbol of fear: main bnha dr !!

(WORKING ON NEW VERSION)

This is my main bnha dr!! I consider this to be a pretty personal desired reality because of the reasons I want to shift here.

This is probably the most intense reality I'm shifting to. In fact I've thought about it for literally 2 years before deciding to start scripting. This is the dr I'll talk about the most in my blog, so keep this in mind!!

The reason why I decided to start this blog, aside from helping me and hopefully others with motivation, was because I really wanted to talk about this dr. I needed a place where I could talk about it freely, but my notes app wasn't really doing it for me. So here I am!! And also who knows, maybe I'll find someone with a similar dr too!!

before reading: why do I want to shift to this dr? Where do I begin? Well, I absolutely hate this reality. Everything is going to shit and I really want out of here, plus I really don't like myself- but this could apply to my wr and other drs as well. So why this one in particular? In 2019, while I was making my first ever script, I immediately thought about a flawless world. Then, in 2020, I went on a 4 year shifting break. After two years, in 2022, I wasn't done with my break but I was trying to pick up shifting again. That's when I looked back at my script. Coming from an extremely flawed reality, the idea of shifting to that perfect world seemed…underwhelming. I'd feel like a coward, hiding away in a perfect world instead of fighting for a better life- I know there's nothing wrong with it, in fact my wr is some kind of perfect world, but it wouldn't be as gratifying as I'd like it to be. I absolutely hate the society I live in and I feel completely useless here. I want to go to a reality in which I serve a purpose and things actually get better. That would be a satisfying reality to go to.

So this is basically what this dr is about. A reality in which I serve a purpose, a reality in which actual justice will be served, a reality in which society at large will learn and grow from its mistakes, a reality where everyone will feel heard and have a chance at life. A reality in which the world will change into something beautiful and life will begin to feel like it's worth living, like it should.

But why bnha? Because not only I've been hyperfixating on it for an extremely long time and I'm really attached to it, but also because justice and society are really important topics in canon, so I was really drawn to it when I decided to script and go to a reality such as this.

summary of contents:

my dr self • plot and main events • important people • miscellaneous

last update: january 25th 2025

← previous [main wr] || next [???] →

my dr self

If you read everything until now, you're either thinking that I'm a pro-hero/hero student or you're doubting that because of the name I gave to this dr and the picture of Shigaraki at the start of this post. Well, here's the most 'controversial' part of my dr:

In this reality I'm not a hero. I'm a morally ambiguous villain.

And if you happen to have seen the post about my wr you might be wondering why I didn't put a picture of my dr self at the beginning of the post like I did in the other one.

I actually did. That's me. In this dr I'm Shigaraki Tomura.

A morally ambiguous villain that, at least in my dr, ends up actually doing something amazing.

→ “Moral ambiguity: a lack of certainty about whether something is right or wrong”

→ “Morally ambiguous refers to situations, characters, or actions that do not have clear ethical implications and can be interpreted in multiple ways.”

→ “Morally ambiguous characters can start off with good intentions and then be driven to evil by others or by society, or they can start off evil and come to redeem themselves. Alternatively, they can remain ambiguous and complex throughout the whole narrative, and leave the reader to make up their own mind about them.”

This is the most difficult part to explain about my dr, but I'm going to try my best to make it understandable:

I always find myself relating to Shigaraki in one way or another. If you knew me in real life, I'm sure you could kinda see the similarities.

When I first started to script this dr I tried countless times to basically make an original character to insert myself into the bnha universe. But it'd always, and I mean always, end up being really similar to Shigaraki, like some kind of bad rip-off- it was just uncanny, really. I'm one of those people who whenever they start hyperfixating on a series they attach themselves to one character...so this kinda explains it- but that aside, as I already said, I relate to Shigaraki, a lot. I'm genuinely not surprised I couldn't come up with something original in this case.

And then it just kinda…made sense- it made more sense for me to shift to a reality in which I'm him instead of trying to insert myself into the bnha universe being a cheap copy of him.

I really don't know how else to explain it, but it just feels right for me.

So yeah…Shigaraki Tomura from the Shigaraki Tomura series-

I don't have anything to say about my dr self, really. He's Shigaraki Tomura, that's it basically- according to my interpretation of the character, that is!!

plot and main events

When I first shift to this reality it'll be the 4th of April 2124, my 19th birthday. I'm still confused on when bnha is set canonically, I keep hearing it's in the present or an hypothetical future, so I picked future. In 2124 the class 1A students are going through their last year of middle school and in 2125 they'll be in the first year of UA and I'll turn 20. I decided to shift a year before canon events to kinda get used to a new reality- I know that once I get there it'll feel absolutely normal, because it is, but I'll do that anyway. Also because I don't want to shift and immediately be forced into utter chaos…and because I want to spend time with Kurogiri without worrying too much about being caught!! (since after the USJ Attack the public will know the LOV is a thing)- for context: he's not 100% like he is in canon, go to the "important people" section for more info!!

Everything will be like canon bnha, but there are some changes. For example the War Arc is almost completely different, consequently the Post-War is not even close to canon. The war will start like canon, but there will be no hero or villain deaths. After the war society will begin to change (in a good way) and me, the LOV and people like us will finally be able to actually have a chance at life. Does this mean there's zero criminal/villain activity? No, but it'll be significantly reduced and will be dealt with way better than it was before. There are other changes, but those aren't as important as the ones I already mentioned.

Another thing I feel like I have to mention is the fact that, as I said earlier, I'm an ambiguous villain who commits ambiguous actions. Although more than half of everything I do is not my fault (All For One), that doesn't mean that I won't be responsible for at least some of those actions. I'll be accountable for the acts that are exclusively my fault (so there's no proof of them deriving from All For One's influence- or maybe I just straight up admit it), but not for the ones that derive from All For One's manipulation and grooming. But neither me or anyone in the LOV will be given life in prison or a death sentence. We'll spend a lot of time in the hospital, unsurprisingly to absolutely no one- but not just any hospital, it'll be like a prison's hospital, so regular civilians aren't treated in the same building as us. After that we won't be immediately free, we'll probably be staying…somewhere under surveillance- I don't know- and then we'll be under probation and then finally we'll be completely free!! Is it realistic? Probably not for this reality, but that reality is different and society will undergo a massive change too, so it makes sense to me.

...also after all of this I'll be spending my life with the LOV and my s/o- me when I can find love as a ex-criminal in another reality and I can't pull anyone in the cr: 🤡

Once I shift to this dr I'll forget about what I've scripted and the plot (only when I'm in this dr- so when I'm in my wr or any other dr I'll remember everything)- EXCEPT: I shifted, I can't and won't die, I can't get traumatised in any way, it's going to end well, other safety things like that.

important people

I absolutely love everyone in the LOV, but I'm not going to talk about everyone or this would be an endless post. I'll talk about three people for now: the first is basically a family member, the second one is my future s/o (we'll be together after the war) and I can't wait for the third's slow and painful death.

Kurogiri !!

In my dr, Kurogiri isn't 100% like in canon, but he isn't too different either. In canon he basically lacks a mind of his own, bound to listen and obey All For One's commands and whatnot. He's a highly intelligent nomou, but that's just so he can better assist All For One and all. In my dr there's still a trace of that, but he's quite different.

In the early phases of 'testing', so not too long after he was created, a certain event took place that influenced his 'programming'. He began to progressively act less and less like some kind of machine and instead acted more like a normal person. But never in front of All For One (and heroes once canon events will begin in my dr). Not only because he wasn't completely independent and still couldn't disobey him, but also because there could've been consequences (he could've been 'reprogrammed', losing the progress he's made, or worse). All For One would've probably done something about it, but he noticed this once it was way too late.

Canonically Shigaraki has been staying with All For One since he was 5 and he's now 20, in my dr it's no different. And Shirakumo was killed when he was in his second year of UA, so he was probably around 17. If you consider Eraserhead's age, since they were in the same year, then this would make Kurogiri 30 years old, his age in my dr. If you do a little bit of math: when Kurogiri was killed at 17, I (and canon Shigaraki too) was 7, I was already with All For One. In my dr it didn't take too long to make Shirakumo into Kurogiri, it took around a year. We met when I was 8 and he was 18. So we've known each other for a really long time.

After the event that changed Kurogiri's programming, we began to properly bond. All For One couldn't just change or get rid of him, losing Kurogiri would have affected me greatly. That could've impacted his plans for me. So as long as Kurogiri 'doesn't do anything funny' he's free to stay the way he is. Little does All For One know that he'll continue to get more and more independent until, after the war, he'll be truly free to be himself.

We bonded especially when I was around 14, when All For One died to All Might (and then got revived by Garaki). Since All For One wasn't in the way, Kurogiri had a little bit more freedom and that was absolutely amazing!!

He's my older brother. The best older brother there is.

He took care of me, he taught me stuff, he gave me company, he listened to me, he made me feel better whenever I felt miserable and so much more. And he still does. He, alongside the LOV, is the main reason why I'm so determined to shift to this reality.

I've never shifted there before but I miss him greatly.

Spinner !!

I don't have a lot to say about Spinner actually. He'll be my best friend (I say 'will' because when I'll first shift there we won't know each other)…and my s/o after the war!! When I first started scripting this dr I wasn't thinking about having a s/o, it didn't really seem to fit. But as time passed I started feeling more attached to the people in my dr and whenever I found myself thinking about him…I don't know, scripting him as my s/o just felt right- everything in this script is based on a 'it feels right for me' feeling!!

So yeah: acquaintances to friends to lovers I guess LMAO!!

Also, a little fun fact: in the cr I have a necklace with a little gecko!! The base is silver and it's divided into 4 sections. In each one of those sections there's a (fake) flat gem. Also I got extremely lucky because on one side it's more green, on the opposite side it's more light blue and in the middle the two colours kinda mix together in a cool gradient. Me when green = Spinner and light blue = my dr self-

All For One. . .

Alright, what can I say about this man?- the term 'man' doesn't even suit him, this is a fucking monster- thank god I can script whatever I want and I scripted lots of things for safety!! Most of those safety things are related to this guy- they apply to everything, but mainly him and his actions.

I still have to register the fact that for a long time (until the war starts) I'll consider this man my ally- like- the one that saved me and shit- god damn-

Anyway-

PRAYING FOR HIS DOWNFALL🙏🏻‼️

Can't wait to kick his ass!!😘🥰😍

(I don't know what else to say actually-)

miscellaneous

...

[yallemagne]

Hey, I’m the guy who saw Nosferatu and dove into rereading Orice for the umpteenth time! I’m SO curious what it is about Van Helsing you’re reluctantly finding compelling, if you’re inclined to share 👀

(I find him so infuriating and so fascinating, and he sucks but he’s trying, but he’s also failing, etc. etc.—he’s just the worst [affectionate/derogatory])

Why won't tumblr let me have nice things. I'm gonna have to rewrite all the fucking shit I just typed bc the page reloaded. Fucking bastards.

ANYHOW HOWDY. I'm happy that Orice still resonates with you. I'm in purgatory.

It's not that I am reluctantly compelled by VH. I find all the characters in the novel to be compelling (except Mrs. Westenra but that's a rant). The reason I am baffled right now is that for the longest time, I would get on the treadmill, think about the novel, and then rant and rant and rant about everything I hated about VH (and the book in general).

But tonight? I was outside doing laps and thought of VH because I was complaining about how Seward never FUCKING summarizes a goddamn paragraph of VH's long-winded rants. None of them do, really. And a way I cope with the frustration is by playfully headcanoning that no one can hope to synthesize all the shit VH tries to get across in his lectures, so they just quote him verbatim.

(Of course, a more likely explanation is that Bram was just trying to inflate VH's importance to the story by having him wordily explain all the work the other characters were putting in to progress the plot, giving the illusion that VH is helping when he's actually just a sports commentator. Or Bram was just really proud of the fake dialect he invented for VH [notice that Bram always has his narrators quote verbatim from characters with different ways of speaking, making reading the book without some audio aid very difficult when they PURPOSEFULLY MISSPELL WORDS BC "ahha working class dialects are silly"].)

And I didn't want to pull my hair out and cuss this man to oblivion, so you could almost describe my feelings towards him in that moment as affection.

But truly, I am compelled by Van Helsing, especially over the course of writing Orice. He's kind of an enigma... even though he talks so damn much. What I mean is that no one is really close with him...

Seward was his student. No matter how much VH refers to him as “Friend John” there is nothing that can change the fact that Seward will always view VH as his superior and himself as subordinate to VH. I mean, you can write fanfiction to close that gap, but I don’t wanna fix them. 

Arthur reminds him of his dead son. But Arthur outranks him. But Arthur tells him “call me Arthur”. But there’s still that distance between them that is enforced by British society. Arthur also often relegates himself to being subordinate to Van Helsing due to trauma from Lucy's sickness and death. Boy was completely kept out of the loop and couldn't be there for his fiancée because of VH's pride.

Quincey is the first man to ever question what the fuck Van Helsing is doing, but the story doesn’t hold onto that for too long. To Van Helsing (and the prev mentioned), Quincey is a paragon of masculinity. To Quincey, Van Helsing is the kooky leader of the team. I’m interested in them developing some sort of connection but unfortunately, we know how the novel ends. Rip. Unlike those other two, Quincey doesn't worship VH, so I feel they could have a more balanced dynamic between each other. They can talk at each other about folklore.

Mina is… a symbol to VH. He very often tramples on her humanity while putting her on a pedestal. His insensitivity makes itself apparent a LOT when it comes to her suffering. He just cannot help it. He just HAD to make a joke about her being assaulted right after it happened. I'm still angry about it. He didn't apologize. Saying "forget that I said that" isn't an apology. See, this is the subject I typically rant about on the treadmill. She respects him immensely, to a self-destructive degree (the assault that he JOKED ABOUT was entirely his fault), but he could never truly respect her because she is an idol to him.

Jonathan and VH have no relationship in the novel past VH validating that all the abuse Jonathan faced was real. Which was very important for Jonathan’s recovery!! But then it’s kinda dropped.

I force a closer relationship between VH and Jonathan in Orice by having VH know that Jonathan was bitten, causing him to see Jonathan as a reflection of not only his son but also Lucy. VH is incredibly important to Jonathan’s journey to recovery and realizing that he is more than what happened to him, he is a survivor. And Jonathan is easier for VH to connect with emotionally because Jonathan has no ranking above him, and VH was not introduced to Jonathan as an authority that he must obey, so there's not really a pretence that must be kept up between them.

Extra bullet point for fun:

Van Helsing has an obvious crush on Renfield, but Renfield thinks he's stupid, and that makes Van Helsing very sad. I think they should get married.

[watermelonsloth]

Boruto Shipping Opinions

I’m gonna put a brief aside here to say two quick things to keep in mind before reading:

I am not going to go into great detail or analysis here because I’m holding off on that until the manga wraps up.

I am caught up with the manga, I am not caught up with the anime. I have watched up until the arc the new team 7 infiltrate a prison, the second chunin exams, and whatever clips/moments I’ve stumbled upon being discussed. I am not an avid fan, I do not know all the ins and outs of character dynamics, and I don’t even keep up with that part of the fandom. I have no horse in this race.

BoruSara

I don’t like this ship, and I don’t know if that’s an unpopular opinion. I’ll try to avoid saying “they have sibling vibes” or “they’re just friends” because, coming from someone who has used that excuse in the past, it is very difficult to explain/defend argument. So much so that now it just comes across as cheap to me.

I will, however, say that I don’t like it for the same reason I don’t like NejiTen. It comes across as “he was a boy, she was a girl. Can I make it anymore obvious?” It feels like it stems from the idea that boys and girls can’t just be friends. If the dynamic was introduced with an edge of romance (like how Naruto and Sakura’s dynamic was introduced with Naruto having a crush on her), maybe it would be a different story. But as of right now, it feels like the fandom reading into something that doesn‘t need to be read into.

KawaSara

I hate to say this, but I’m guessing this ship stemmed from SasuSaku fans reading them as “next gen SasuSaku”. Look, everyone can ship whatever they want or choose to refrain from shipping, but I’m sick of the fandom projecting old ships on new dynamics. I have seen BoruSara compared to SNS, NaruSaku, and SasuSaku (for some reason). I have seen BoruSumi compared to NaruHina. I have seen MitsuSara compared to SasuSaku and SuiKarin. I have seen KawaSara compared to SasuSaku. Every single time I thought to myself, “The manga starts with Boruto asserting that he’s not his dad and this isn’t his dad’s story.” I get that comparisons will naturally arise since it’s a sequel series, but these kids are not carbon copies of their parents and they don’t have the same dynamics their parents did.

Now that my rant is out of the way, I think a hypothetical child between them having black hair with pink highlights would be cute and that’s about it.

MitsuSara

I wish these two had more of a dynamic. Both characters have interactions with Boruto and clear dynamics with him, but they don’t really have much going on with each other. They both have recognizable personalities, but they mellow each other out whenever they interact and it makes them boring (I’m guessing Ikemoto isn’t interested in them together). They also only tend to talk to each other about Boruto (at least in the manga). Say what you want about them, but at least Sasuke and Sakura had a dynamic.

Anyways, funny ha ha, Orochimaru gets an Uchiha in the way they least expected.

MitsuBoru

Gayer than any of the Naruto dynamics and that is saying something. However, I struggle to like the ship because I’m just so confused.

First, why does Boruto have so many lancer/foil/rival characters. Kawaki, Sarada, and Mitsuki all act as lancers. I get that writing doesn’t have to be formulaic, but they aren’t even all lancers to each other, having dynamics that bounce off of each other, they’re just lancers to Boruto. At least for me, it’s already gotten really boring and ends in the three’s dynamics with each other falling flat.

Second, the sun and moon symbolism makes no sense to me as a writing decision. The obvious problem is that it’s redundant; it’s already been used for multiple Naruto dynamics. The less obvious problem is that it contradicts Mitsuki’s manga introduction. Mitsuki was introduced as the middle between Boruto and Sarada’s two extremes, taking up a role similar to Sakura’s in the og team 7. If he’s supposed to be the moon to Boruto’s sun, why is he introduced to us as the earth? The admittedly more minor problem that distracts me is that Orochimaru was the one that Mitsuki down this road. Why? Orochimaru wasn’t redeemed by Naruto and has never shown interest in him or this philosophy before now. My best guess is that they’re fascinated by Naruto’s affect on Sasuke, but that still leaves me with questions.

It makes me think that the writer didn’t have any ideas when they introduced these two.

BoruSumi

I don’t like how the fandom is making another love square, but I doubt there’s anything I can do to stop them.

This ship is boring because Sumire is boring. That one anime arc made her interesting, but it’s referenced and relevant so rarely that she goes back to being boring. I’d like this more if the story let Sumire be morally gray or treated her like a redeemed villain more. As of right now, I think the only leg the ship has to stand on is writing tropes and I do not care.

KawaSumi

This ship feels like the product of the same people who ship SasuHina/SasuIno/SasuKarin/KibaHina out of spite. My last post/reblog went into why this happens but the short of it is that it’s easier to ship something in peace if the biggest “threats” to it are paired together. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have a feeling most KawaSumi shippers also ship BoruSara.

KawaHima

Please… just stop. If not for yourself, then for me. I’m already barely coping with how popular NejiHina is. Why have I seen this as much as I have??? This feels like a personal attack on my sanity. They’re siblings.

Other

This is the section for all the ships I have little/no opinions on. I think MitsuCho is too boring for how popular it is, I think ChoSara should be more popular, I’m disturbed by all of the Eida x next gen ships because she looks and acts like an adult (at least how adults are portrayed in Boruto), and I’m surprised Code x Eida isn’t more popular, but I also think that Code has gotten the Kabuto treatment and isn’t very popular in the fandom.

The ships I haven’t mentioned I either have so little fucks to give or so little information on that I have ZERO thoughts about.

[trlvsn]

Please I would love to hear more umineko thoughts from you

oh my god you should NOT have asked. i'm on episode eight but i have so many. do NOT read this if you haven't read umineko, you HAVE to go through the experience completely unspoiled. tw: incest, christianity, death, but none in a positive light

my most recent thoughts have been provoked by the riddles in episode 8 and how kyrie and rudolf had just told eva they do not fault her for any harm she caused ange. it strikes you as odd at first, because they would never say that, but then you realize two things: this is very similar to the golden land and this is battler's chessboard. battler already knows about sayo and what she wanted from his as beatrice, what she wanted from everyone as beatrice: recognition. she is a girl who used to follow god's tests so blindly and has sinned so badly. she wants people to see her innocence, know of the sins that harmed her, forgive the sins that she caused herself. that is, at the end of the day, what everyone wants, and battler is treating everyone like it, in honor of beatrice. this is a very difficult topic for me to see in media. the idea that every person, no matter how horrible their actions and nature, has a heart and wants forgiveness, is something i can't accept because i, too, am human. what would i be if i forgave and understood everyone? what would i be without hate and revenge and a personal view on things? if i accepted everyone's truths, there would be nothing of myself left. but the idea is true, and i have to know it deep down, tame it carefully.

my thoughts overall, though? i could never put them in one single post. this novel is amazing in many ways - it's a love letter to an entire library of books, it's a love letter to love, but there is also no good love in this story. there is fake love, true love, great love, but there is no love that is good, normal, because the ushiromiya family didn't have it in the first place. kinzo built this family on blood-stained gold and adultery. this family is like a locked room itself in many ways (god, they even represent it with the incest), and nothing good ever happens in a locked room. while i haven't yet reached the end of episode 8, i hope they all die. i hope ange never really survived the fall from the building, actually. i hope it ends, i hope the room exploded and there is nothing left of the ushiromiya family now, not of the gold, not of the love, not of the anything. it probably won't be like that, though. bern promised there wouldn't be a happy ending.

sayo's story is the greatest story i have ever seen a character have, no joke. "greatest" as in enormous in it's tragedy and richness, an endless universe collapsing in on itself because it can't, of course, exist with just one person. of course she did everything wrong, nothing right has ever been in her nature.

i also loved the biblical symbolism, of course. how could i not. the figure of god specifically is something so subtle i almost missed it, but at the end of the day, three girls share that imaginary friend - sayo, maria and dlanor. for all three, it's their father/authority figure/commander in different ways. sayo ends up burning kinzo again and again, commiting rightful patricide, and also essentially rebels against god by giving up on his test and befriending demons. it's a nice touch. i have my own issues with the demon summoning (i dabbled in the occult long before playing umineko) but it's just a technicality.

anyways, serious stuff aside - loved the toxic yuri, loved the fuckedupedness of it all, loved the fact that the narrators are NEVER reliable and you shouldn't listen to the game, like, at all, but also you should. i was frequently theorizing about the origins of beatrice during my playthrough and talked to my friend about it, who had already finished umineko long ago. at a point of episode... 6? 5? i basically said "fuck this, i'm not even going to try. shannon is beatrice, shannon is part of beatrice, kannon is beatrice, fucking everyone is beatrice. i give up" and it was really hard for him to, like, be normal. thank you [REDACTED] for not spoiling anything. i am on my way to finish episode 8 and obsess about the music forever.

[pitperson]

Director's commentary about the Fake Woodcut Project

I guess it's pretty self-indulgent to write commentary on my own drawing because like, nobody asked? And who do I think I am, Moebius? And artists don't write commentary anyway. But I want to write down some things regardless.

There were specific sources of inspiration for it: really awesome map of Westeros by other-in-law (this is fanart), "Strange Religion" piece by The-Mirrorball-Man (not a fanart of anything specific, sort of a parody of religious imagery in general) and this whatever it is, from Midsommar.

What they have in common: all done in a primitive style, all very detailed and they tell a kind of story visually. I really liked all these pieces for a long time and wanted to do something in the same spirit. And another source of inspiration was that part from the Book of the New Sun, where characters in the unimaginably distant future retell the story of Theseus, only it becomes twisted and garbled with misunderstandings and confusion (Theseus is also a thesis another character creates, Minotaur is replaces by Monitor, the confederate submarine and so on. It makes more sense in the story). I hate Gene Wolfe, terrible author only ever read by pompous assholes, but that bit was really good. I recall it even now in its entirely thanks to my flawless photographic memory, btw.

So I wanted to take the Intercalate narrative, imagine how it would be re-told by some poor Latvian peasants in 18th century and create a kind of fake-folk-art piece they would have made, maybe. I came up with it as I was walking through an old cemetery. It was a very cold and windy morning and I wanted to snap some photos, but it was just too unbearably cold, and I was freezing. And as I was walking and photographing I kept coming up with ideas stupid ideas for this project and all the stupid jokes I'd put into this, giggling to myself all the while like a normal person.

And I also wanted to use ye olde derangede fpelling. What's that? Well, you know ye olde Englishe fpelling? Latvian also used to be goofy like that in its own way, there were no familiar modern diacritic marks and the spelling was very German-inspired. This, of course, would make it extra difficult for anybody to actually translate the damned thing, but I made sure that GPT4 can sort of do it. Our AI overlords are very smart, but not yet quite able to understand ye olde derangede Latvian with 100% success. Fun fact: I myself never knew about old Latvia orthography and only learned about it while walking though another old cemetery (not the one where I came up with the picture). The inscriptions on the gravestones were odd and it took me some time to even realize it was Latvian. So, I felt I had to do something with it.

One question I struggled with a little bit was: "do I want to put a bunch of swastikas in there?" I had decided that I'd put traditional Latvian symbols of various deities in the drawing and what not. Well, swastika is one of the more common such symbols that can possibly represent fire, or perhaps the sun, pretty fitting for the Intercalate. But I also thought: "if I put swastikas in there, this will be the only thing anyone wants to talk about. the conversation will be entirely about swastikas and nothing else. do I really want to do that to myself?" I went for half measures: one authentic, but not very noticeable swastika with fancy decorations, and that's it. This seems to have worked: it satisfied my craving for verisimilitude and I only got one question about it.

I thought my idea to give Sun-in-Rags an executioner's sword was very clever. You would think swords are edge-aligned, and you would be right, generally. But there is a type of sword not meant for a fair and glorious battle against an evenly matched opponent. Too heavy and unwieldy to do fancy fighting moves, too short for fighting, lacking the sharp point, designed for one purpose alone: to quickly, mercifully and beautifully end the life of someone already defeated and helpless. Such sword has no edge-element. Such sword is winter-aligned, and if Sun-in-Rags uses any weapon, this will be it. Also cool: one executioner's sword I found even has 3 holes on the tip, making a Winter sign. How neat is that?

There's a bunch of jokes in there nobody seemed to have got, but that's the running theme with all the stuff I draw.

[hyenaswine]

i know the obvious argument is, tom's work has ALWAYS been a tool of white supremacy & has ALWAYS glorified nazis & the nazi aesthetic. i'm not stupid, i know that. i am very aware of tom's history & that he fought shoulder to shoulder with nazis when he was conscripted into the finnish army, which was not officially allied with germany but allowed german troops to fight in the country in an effort to defeat the soviet union.

"In my drawings I have no political statements to make, no ideology. I am thinking only about the picture itself. The whole Nazi philosophy, the racism and all that, is hateful to me, but of course I drew them anyway—they had the sexiest uniforms!"

obviously disavowing nazi philosophy in your words is not as powerful as the hundreds of drawings glorifying them as sex symbols, which can be & frequently ARE interpreted as pro-nazi. but what makes this situation worse for me is, the way i reconciled tom's iffy history was THROUGH durk. he seemed genuinely committed to opening the foundation up to more artists of color & to turning tom's legacy into something positive & progressive, preserving the past while acknowledging its flaws & moving forward toward a more inclusive future. that's the whole reason durk was a bigger hero to me than tom.

but then it comes out that the person durk pretends to be in public isn't the person he is in private, a person who not only dons nazi regalia but also talks about his proud aryan heritage & bullshit like that. idk i didn't screenshot the receipts but it was gross. & while i recognize that that shit may have been in the context of fetish & kink... that doesn't make it acceptable, because you hid it, & you brought artists of color into the house WHILE hiding it, which isn't a safe situation for them. you have artists of color living IN the house. i can't imagine what they're going thru right now.

i feel like there could be a way out of this for them, but it's difficult because durk IS the organization. still, like... even if you can't remove him, have him commit to taking more of a backseat, have him commit to understanding & rectifying the harm, hire more poc to the board, ACKNOWLEDGE THE HARM & BE TRANSPARENT. but of course instead they're issuing a vague social media apology, shutting down dialogue, & putting the onus on offended parties to email them so that communication is private & not transparent. they have such a huge community of supporters who are rightfully angry, & they're throwing it away. they could've survived this & they won't. i mean maybe they will, cuz god knows there are enough gay nazis to sustain them, but it won't be the same organization, & what happens to all the artists who are members whose art is in those archives? it's such a huge betrayal & a huge fuck you. all because some little twink likes to play nazi dressup.