#i think people need to organize against the government tbh

[beansnpeets]

Gonna ask my boss for a raise tomorrow I think. I do not make enough money right now. Period. Like I get by okay because Jon is supporting me financially, but if I were to be on my own I'd never get by.

The way prices have been going up on everything is insane. I didn't realize how much I'd been spending on groceries. I'm spending a LOT more than I should have to on just groceries. I'm so beyond frustrated and afraid. I'm tired. I'm anxious. Everything is falling apart and there is nothing I can do.

[jewishvitya]

Tal Mitnick, an 18 years old Israeli that refused to serve in the military:

It's not just a couple of soldiers that are bad soldiers or that enact violent occupation on Palestinians, it's actually a whole system of violence. Of pulling people into the army and making them work for the occupation and for oppressing Palestinians.

Militarism in Israel is very entrenched in society. And the military is some golden goose that you're not allowed to touch. You're allowed to criticize the government, you're allowed to go out for gay rights, for women's rights. But when it comes to criticizing military action against Palestinians or other oppressed communities, this is totally out of the norm. You cannot speak against the military because it's so entrenched in society.

A lot of conversations start with the military, and because most people did serve, it's seen as this kind of thing that everyone needs to pass in order to become an Israeli.

So. Yeah. When you're older you don't feel ostracized as much because after a while it's less relevant to daily life. At least in my experience, I didn't serve and it's not really talked about much at this point.

In Jewish Israeli society, the military is trusted more than most other institutions. Tbh, more than any other institution I can think of. And it's seen as a right of passage. Some people will be okay with you if you volunteer for a social service instead - work at hospitals, schools, etc. Others think you shouldn't get the choice, and unless there's a medical issue you should be going to the military.

The narrative of self defense is absolutely believed, so by refusing to serve, those kids are seen as saying "I will enjoy the sacrifice made by others, but I will not contribute myself." It's seen as ungrateful. But that's if you don't express a moral objection to the military.

If you challenge the military itself, you're challenging Israeli society. And that's how it's taken. "I refuse to participate in the occupation" - "So you're saying I did something bad by serving. You're saying I'm a bad person." And when most of Israelis served in the military, and those that didn't serve often still support it or have loved ones that did or still do, this is challenging the moral character of pretty much all of us. Which, it should.

The military nurtures a mindset of dehumanization to a scary degree. I listened to a few interviews with stories from Breaking the Silence, an organization meant to bring to light the way the military abuses Palestinians, and there's something described by Yehuda Shaul.

He tells the story of serving in Hebron, in the West Bank, and he describes the daily stated mission of soldiers there.

While on patrol at night, they pick a random Palestinian house - explicitly one that they have no intelligence against, a civilian family - and they get in, wake the family up, separate men from women, search or something, get on the roof, jump to the next roof, get into that house, wake that family up, treat them the same way.

Again, at random. And he described two goals for this:

One, to create the feeling of being persecuted, and two, to make our presence felt.

They want Palestinians to feel beaten down and powerless, and they want them to feel that the military is everywhere, so they're too scared to resist.

This isn't random rogue soldiers, this is what the military does there on a normal day. And he said it's impossible to treat a population this way without seeing them as less human than we are.

I don't know if I can just say that the military is another tool for indoctrination in addition to everything else it does. But as a kid, I had a left-leaning friend from the Tel Aviv area, and we'd argue a lot. Because you don't need to be a full on leftist to disagree very strongly with a teenage settler. And as I was going through the process of changing my mind, I saw him going through the same process in the opposite direction - he became way more right wing during his military service. He told me the stories of why, and all those stories did was make me feel like I don't even know this person. I wonder sometimes how many young people go through the same.

[cardcaptorr]

Do you support Israel or Palestine?

the way this question is phrased just lets me know how much yall have truly lost the plot. these are real peoples LIVES youre talking about, theyre not two sports teams pitted against each other.

I've lived in Israel for the first 12 years of my life; unfortunately I know what its like to live through war, I know what its like to run to the shelter and be a terrified lil kid thinking you could really just die. you guys have been treating this topic on social media like its the next oMGgg hashtag israel is sooo cancelled!!!🤪 and you can't even be blamed for having such a privileged standpoint because you literally can't even fathom what it's like to live through war.

with that being said, what's been happening in Gaza is x10000 more horrific than what is happening in Israel. Palestinians need support right now way more than anyone else. if you can't extend your empathy to ALL the innocent people that have been affected in this war, that's okay, Palestinians do need it more right now, more empathy, and all the support we can possibly give them.

I've been using this tumblr account since I was like 14 and I've always been vocal about not supporting the IDF/the israeli government. always talked about how much I absolutely hate Israel and hated living there. all this stuff might be news to you, but I've alwayssss had this view point, I've always been aware, and I've always wanted peace. I signed papers saying I will not be joining the IDF when I was 16, as soon as I got my american citizenship. moving here and being able to legally opt out of the IDF is a HUGE privilege.

every day that I live here I'm so grateful I'm here and not over there, I'm so happy I don't live in fear anymore. just because people in Israel absolutely have it better than the people in Gaza, doesn't mean they have it as good as you do living in the US. so if this war hasn't affected your life on a personal level, if you had the privilege of not knowing about this war until the past year, if you wouldn't have known about it at all if it weren't for social media and news outlets, if you don't have any loved ones in Israel or Gaza, be very aware of your privilege and be very grateful.

Instead of blindly hating the people of Israel and ragging on Israel on social media which is entirely fucking pointless, use that energy to show Palestinians your support instead. (also very ironic that hate is whats fueling this whole thing and you guys are choosing to spread unnecessary hate at a time like this...... just makes me lose faith in humanity tbh 🫤)

Find reputable organizations you can donate to (anything that directly goes to families over in Gaza, I think operation olive branch is a good one but please do some research about it first incase new info about it came to light, I can't remember), write to congress to ceasefire now (search it up on google you will easily find it, they also have prompts already written out you can copy and paste), support Palestinian-owned businesses and artists, look up if there are any Palestinian restaurants near you thet you can eat at, support Palestinian artists!! you can find more ways to help by looking it up on google or tiktok. spread some love today and do atleast one thing to support Palestinians today 💗 thank you if you read all this with an open mind :)

[lord-squiggletits]

Thinking about IDW Optimus again and the fandom's aversion to even acknowledging he exists bc he's a cop or whatever and like. Most of the time people literally just replace him in fic with some white bread knockoff archivist/librarian, not even bothering to keep in IDW OP's personality (which just bolsters my theory that the problem isn't him being a cop the problem is that he's too multifaceted but I digress).

And it's annoying because you could totally write IDW Optimus as not a cop while still keeping his canon personality. You just have to realize that the reason IDW OP became a cop in the first place is because his formative experiences when he was young shaped him to basically have two priorities: 1. To help people and 2. To do it by being on the ground actively doing something about the bad things happening to people.

IDW OP would not be a fucking librarian or archivist because even though those are noble pursuits that can help people and change the world, and Optimus is educated/smart enough for the profession, he wouldn't be satisfied just teaching people or spreading information about activism or social-historical studies or whatever. He's a mech of action: he needs to be doing things right now, in front of him, to people he sees/interacts with in his own eyes, improving society with concrete actions rather than indirect action or abstract inspiration.

So basically the alternate job ideas I can think of for IDW Optimus are something like being a firefighter (or any first responder really) or even whatever the equivalent would be to international charity organizations, those ones that send volunteers across the world to do stuff like build housing/infrastructure or distribute food or whatnot. I mean I can't imagine that the equivalents to these things would be exactly the same in IDW Cybertron, so you'd have to get a little creative with it, but these are just some ideas of jobs that would fit IDW Optimus' personality while still filling the niche of "not a cop" for people who are just that opposed to it.

Though I think the revulsion against coptimus is annoying in general tbh because IDW is already a continuity that rejects the idea of easily defined good/evil people or groups. It feels like people really want Optimus to be a good person in a very sanitized and academically approved way, so he has to be nice and squeaky clean but also like, a perfect leftist who knows theory and holds the most progressive opinions on every single issue....

There is no room for the idea that good people join bad institutions, there's no room for the idea that the reason people think cops are good guys who help people is bc of the government propaganda everything is saturated with. Hell there's even later issues of the Optimus Prime series by John Barber where Optimus like, MULTIPLE FUCKING TIMES, is shown in flashbacks grappling with the fact that he as a cop/Zeta's regime that he works for might not actually be improving society like they say they are, and dealing with the fact that he feels more like a lesser evil compared to the Decepticons (perhaps not "lesser" at all).

It's like there's this idea in fandom of like, fictional media and opinions on media having to strictly adhere to progressive ideals at all times. So people just go "cops bad, this character is a cop, therefore they suck" without being willing to engage with the idea of like. IDW OP is born wanting to fight injustice and protect people -> a good way to protect people is to fight the people who are hurting them and committing crimes -> surely following the law is a reliable moral code to guide him in this -> becomes a cop because he's been indoctrinated into a society (much like our own) where he was told that the state/the law exist to protect the people and being a cop means you get to fight bad guys that hurt people. There's really so many interesting concepts there that could be (and CANONICALLY IS) explored about how good, well-intentioned people can be led to harmful actions simply because they have been fed the idea that the things they're doing are good/helpful/noble. Which is especially important for a character like Optimus, I think, who has a cultural icon status as The Irrefutable and Perfect Good, so it's really important actually to use IDW Optimus as an example of how even the most noble people you know have held problematic beliefs or done bad things at some point in their life. You know, because no one is born perfect and ideologically pure, and in fact society is constructed in exactly a manner to make people drink the kool-aid and believe that the systems designed to hurt them/others are just a normal, if flawed, society.

I mean the writing in IDW literally has Optimus deal directly and indirectly with the harm he's done as a cop and how people don't/didn't trust him because of that. I don't know what the fuck else this fandom wants if the source material literally saying "OP realizes that cops suck and he hurt people and earned their disdain by doing the things he did" doesn't stop them from going EW cop bastard sucks and is the worst Optimus. Like the narrative barely stops short of outright saying ACAB and Optimus himself would agree with this sentiment.

At that point, the collective fandom beef with IDW OP isn't because he's a cop and the narrative didn't do enough to condemn that. The problem is literally just that people don't read and don't care

TLDR: Consider the fact that good people can do bad things sometimes especially when living from birth in a corrupt society that thoroughly disguises its vices/oppressive structures as completely normal parts of existence

[world-of-wales]

I haven't seen the documentary (and I don't plan on it either) but from what I've read apparently Robert Jobson accused William of being jealous of Harry's success with Invictus Games, and they blamed Charles for not making enough effort to see Harry's kids yet having a close relationship with William's kids. And they played old interviews of Harry when he was promoting Spare and blaming William for everything. The documentary is supposed to be about Invictus yet they're just talking about the rift between Harry and William and blaming William for everything, even blaming William for not seeing Harry when he visited the UK after Charles cancer diagnosis. Also they were talking about how the slimmed down Monarchy is stressful for William without Harry and Meghan being there--trying to make it look like William needs Harry and Meghan. The documentary sounds like a smear campaign against William. I won't watch it.

So it is Robert jobson only. Someone mentioned this morning also that it was him, but yk, I'm not even surprised with the narrative he is going with. He's always been a master at stirring the pot, and most of these journos, including him, the so-called rr, are more Harry Fangirls than actual journalists. Like they are the ones Harry would be chatting to pre meghan when he was at the peak of 'hero harry' pr and hence was their media darling. It was quid pro quo basically, the press got their exclusive royal source. And in return Harry got shiny new articles and media for his image & pr.

Now, william, since then, has always been a press punching bag for all sorts of things. He didn't give then any access so they've always kind of took it out on him for trying to protect his own and his family's privacy. This is completely in line with the regular shit, jobson does. So not even surprised.

Also I don't think jobson would just go off script without the knowledge of Harry or his team like I mean....

Also this whole william was jelly theory is so bs like 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️😭😭 I'm sure he's crying about it rn in his place as the heir and his family around him. Also bold of jobson to assume that william who helped set these games up so that his brother had a side project to look after is surely jealous of the games. And tbh what's there to be jealous about, I hate to say it but nobody cares about these games outside of the sux stans, nowadays atleast and it all comes back partly to the fact that the world has shifted on their thinking axis a little and partly because invictus has become more of a H&M show post their engagement and them leaving rather than it being about the veterans.

One reason a lot of people don't really care that much, and it's sad that they don't is because at a time where we are forced to see the humanitarian effects of war all across the world in various conflicts, people have become apathetic towards the army personnel and the veterans. Because for the average person they have become an extension to the problem. And I'm not saying this because I want to, my maternal grandfather's whole family has been serving in the Indian army or the other defense forces post indepence and before that my great grandfather fought in the WWII in the British Indian army. So I would like to think that i atleast to some level understand the problems military personnel have to go through. And what I'm saying about the anti military attitude these days is what the reality of the world is. Because of the problems created by world governments, most of the injured veterans do end up being ignored and looked at suspiciously. So while invictus, started off as a noble project, it's not just a pr mechanism for two people.

This is what I was talking about this morning. Invictus nowadays is not about veterans, it's about 2 individuals and I as an organization would think about atleast chatting to them and being like please don't extend the family drama to this.

[papirouge]

gamergaters redpill podcast bros have moved on from brie Larson to Rachel Ziegler I noticed. while they also are making 50 min long videos dissecting how fictional female characters are actually more evil than real life male criminals who have committed rape, murder and organized crime rings

They only acknowledge organized crimes to own up the left somehow. Remember how extra they've been about The Sound of Freedom? They were more obsessed about lEftiSts MediAs shitting on this movie than its message. Their literally campaigned the film as "the movie the left doesn't want you to see". 99% of the right ideological standpoint relies on opposing everything the left does or says. Not proposing actually alternatives. That's why conservatives are so bad at creating new concepts, news ideas, new slang (they have to hijack already existing one such as #blue/alllivesmatter, #mentoo, woke, etc). They hate on liberals but lowkey LOVE liberal creativity lol

Or Balenciaga. I'll never forgive conservatives for turning the fight against pedophilia as a left/ vs right thing. To them it's like all pedophiles were from the left and that only the left protected pedophiles.... But if a conservative man is accused of rape? it's the left woke witch hunt!! Hasn't Kevin Spacey recent got invited by Tucker Carlson....? 👀 Lmao let's get real : conservatives don't care about pedophilia, they can't about "LEFTISTS" pedophiles. They are a lost cause.

Those grown men in their 30s 40s 50s being deadass seething about a DOLL MOVIE has to be the best example of the Western decadence IDC

Those idiots being whining day and night about their own extinction when their own stupidity IS the reason why they go extinct. Can you imagine if instead of spending hours in their basement making podcast seething on imaginary women they would go outside meet real ones, try to fix their awful personality, etc. The government shouldn't forbid selling mics to male between the age of 10 and 60. Deadass.

It's no coincidence the lots of them are roman empire simps. They follow the same self destructive moral & intellectual decadence. Very ironic to see them get so mad at gays and call them all pedophiles - those "LGBT groomers" are very close to the trv roman empire lifestyle & its institutional pedophilia. They should actually look up to them for that lmao

And they constantly be moaning about how people don't make babies anymore but how do they expect breeding when they endorse the most repulsive behavior that could exist in a man. Seeing a man whining about a little girls movie turns my eggs dry TBH and I know I'm not the one. Them being old fat and unattractive doesn't help too - but they for sure think they have room nitpicking the attractiveness of women half their age... If we could make energy out of delusion conservative men would be soooo useful....

That's why my theory is that the push for redpill/Andrew Tate content is a psy-op warfare against young men to make them self sabotaging themselves because those old farts cannot deal with them having better chance at dating young women. "If they can't have them, no one will". It's crazy how no one ever point out how those redpill dating coaches are all single. Do I need to remind them the fate of Kevin Samuels who died alone in a hotel room next to a Mexican prostitute? or that conservative man who got a very public (filmed) violent fallout/divorce with his wife?? Tate caught in DV?? THIS is their kings. They are unable to keep women, or they have to PAY them to have/keep them. Tragic.

[goodbyenorthernlights]

uspol thing i wrote originally in response to someone else talking about the primaries but then decided that person was probably venting, so here it is out of context if you wanna hear a canuck's thoughts on voting/not voting for biden:

Not a US resident but from what I've observed it seems like Biden has a much better domestic policy than the US has been dealing with for a While, but a foreign policy that's about the same.

At least one person I follow is firmly of the stance that the system is so broken that the only ethical thing to do is to abstain from voting entirely, because if you still vote for Biden his/the Liberal stance will be "I can continue to be complicit in genocide and people will vote for me anyway." Thus the logic is that a vote for Biden- or anyone- is a vote for colonization, genocide, etc.

I think the theory is that if Biden loses the election the Liberal party will respond by realizing that their foreign policy cost them the election and that they'll need to change their stance, although the same people against voting for Biden are also saying stuff about burning it all down, can't change a system from the inside, the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house, so the actual hope is that the glorious revolution will happen I guess? It's easy for me to accuse these people of slacktivism but I don't know their lives so they may well be out there putting money where their mouths are and organizing a coup.

Anyway, I'm getting onto a tangent but tbh while I can understand a bit of where these people are coming from, I feel like even if you want to change things in Palestine it still might be better to vote for Biden, because if you want to go to protests or firebomb a Walmart it's probably easier to do so if you're not also worried about being homeless or in debt, and it is probably also easier to get other people to care about Palestine if they're not also worried about being homeless or in debt or whatever other domestic issues they would probably be dealing with under Trump's government.

[paperstorm]

I really appreciate all of the links and information in that post you reblogged about the Israeli prison/detainment policies/abuses (not sure the best wording for all of that horror tbh)… but the OP post of that talking about the condition of hostages vs prisoners released doesn’t make sense to me at all. Are they saying the hostages released are supposed to be some kind of reflection of being treated well during captivity? cause I’ve read about a hostage who was shot multiple times and needed surgery, another on the brink of death because of lack of medication, a 12 year old boy who said he was beat by residents, another child being forced to watch footage, etc. I don’t understand why we can’t acknowledge the absolute horrors Israel is committing while also not trying to turn Hamas into angelic freedom fighters with the purest of morals. Things like this make it really hard for me to reblog or share stuff on social media cause I can agree with 95% of the information but then I’ll realize “oh that link hidden in this post actually goes to an alt right neo nazi website” or “oh snuck in the middle of this really great article is the most glaring of antisemitic rhetoric”… anyway, I’m sorry for the rant here I’m just… exhausted. By the world and also sometimes by my fellow pro Palestinian advocates.

I am also exhausted by it sometimes, and not immune to getting swept up in the emotions of all of this as much as I'm trying to stay reasonable. I agree the way OP worded the original post was not ideal, if it had been just that without the longer and well-sourced reply I don't think I would have reblogged it. Because you're right, criticism of Israel can't devolve into acting like Hamas by default is an amazing upstanding moral organization. That's kindergarten nonsense, this need to have a well defined Good Guy and Bad Guy in every situation. Adults should be capable of more nuance than that, and it's really frustrating to see that so many aren't.

I think for me - because I don't know the intentions of that other person and can't speak for them - posts like that are not about saying 'wow look how wonderful Hamas is'. They are about the more zoomed-out task of challenging the Western/Imperial narrative that Israel isn't doing anything wrong. The 'right to defend itself' narrative, that is just blatant nonsense under international law. The narrative that when Hamas does something it's terrorism but when the state of Israel does the same thing (or, usually, a far worse version of the same thing), it's not. The narrative that Israel is the moral authority who is following international law to the best of their ability, is trying to minimize civilian casualties, is only going after Hamas, has no choice but to bomb hospitals because there is no other way to protect their own citizens. It's not for me about saying that just because Israel is bad, Hamas is automatically good. It's about acknowledging that for literal decades, the broadcasters of the Western narrative (governments in America/Canada/UK, corporate owned media companies like CNN and MSNBC, etc) have been just blatantly lying, propagandizing, and selectively presenting partial or twisted information, all in service of empire and money and colonization and the enrichment of defense contractors. Joe Biden said, years ago, (paraphrasing because I can't remember the exact quote) "If Israel didn't exist, America would have to invent an Israel to protect it's interests in the region."

I don't know if that makes sense, I hope it does. For me it's about .. yes, push back against people who are trying to make this a binary situation in which Israel is Bad therefore Hamas is Good. But also seeing more value in a more zoomed out perspective that is meant to challenge extremely pervasive and genocidal Western narratives that have gone largely unchallenged for the entire history of the region. Sometimes you do get there by drawing equivalencies. By asking "wait a second, why does Israel have thousands of Palestinian hostages in the first place and why does no one in power seem to think that's a problem?"

[jayflrt]

for the last chapter theres so much to uncover i dont know who to add who to remove from my suspect list now i dont even want to be organized. lets start with why is yn mom still contacting yuna ?? im sure she is aware of what has gone down and everything like? if this is some kinda beef with her dad (yn) what the actual fuck. on the talk of that whats the tea. i hope anton tells the reason for her mom to sen the gift thru antons mom than herself. now the client, the whole drug test like thats insane what the actual fuck this is so? i have been trying to connect the way of them talking to anyone but its kinda hard. considering the fact that its all formal and shit. but i feel like i have to add hoon to my suspect list today. also that means if sunjin is already being appointed has the new hire why would he be digging dirt? i dont know a mess my head is. i would like to say yn mom. im so suspicious of her now. now yn dad..... what the fuck is wrong with him.

The first few names mentioned were from the Order. (Stay close to Song Eunseok—his parents are government officials; be on good terms with Ning Yizhuo—her dad owns a steel company; be friendly but don’t worry much about Shin Ryujin—her dad’s a casino owner.) He always gave you some rundown about their families, how they’d prove to be useful connections, and then you would have to just trust your father’s judgment. There was never room for you to go against his words.

it felt so bitter reading that line only even like what the hell is wrong with him. he sounds fun and shit but what the hell. no father should be doing that to their children.

Jay Park: Rebound from Sunghoon. Temporary fun. Won’t last past graduation. 

“I do,” your dad insisted with an earnest nod. “He has a bright future ahead of him, and we had a great game—though I think he could practice his swing—but just because I like him doesn’t mean he’s anything more than a friend to you.” You spluttered, outraged. “More than a—what?” “Y/N, I don’t want this to upset you, but guys like Jay might seem fun and exciting at first, but you and him are from completely different worlds. He’s not gonna mesh well in our world.” He spoke to you in a gentle yet firm voice, but there was a condescending undertone that made your skin crawl. “You don’t see it now, but you’re gonna do great things in the future, and you need to be with someone who can match your standard.”

im sorry what the fuck is wrong with him ? im so disgusted reading that. one intercation and you are coming to conclusion just like that ? these people have no moral or wtvi just so. frustrated over this im sorry he can go fuck himself for all i care for. yes so basically i have new people in my suspect list yn mom and hoon. and im having second thoughts on sunjin. he is still a bitch and i hope the worst for him regardless, what the hell. this is like math, i think i understood the topic and i do it. when i move to another question there is something knew, i thought i figured it out but i did not ? yeah thats all from me. have agood day or night love <3

theory anon

mc's parents definitely have a strange relationship 😵‍💫😵‍💫 and with anton's mom thrown in the mix too,, tbh very unfortunate that mc is receiving more attention from a friend's mom than her own mom :((

also yeah the dad 😞😞 a storyline that will definitely be dug into deeper !! but he's not exactly the saint he seemed to be when it was just his text messages between him and his daughter 🥲 PLSSS NOT MATH THATS SO FUNNY things probably feel a little scattered and disconnected rn but i promise it'll make sense later on !! <3 i hope you're having a wonderful day/night yourself love 🥰

[starglow-xx]

owning a bakery and being discovered by the ada and the port mafia (part 4)

platonic! mori ougai x f!reader

type of writing: head canons !!

this is part of my head canon series, flour & fluff !!

tag list is open !! go to this google form and fill it out to sign up!

series synopsis: owning a bakery at 20 is tough; even more so when you have to handle members of two opposing organizations! this is your journey to meeting those fools and creating an unlikely bond with each of them. but only at the cost of your peace and sanity.

fandom: bungou stray dogs

content: fluff & platonic stuff

previous: the doctor is in the house (quite literally)

author’s note: it’s port mafia time! ages are still one year younger than canon

also!! my 100 followers event still has 7 5 4 3  2  1 spot open for requests!! go check out this post for more info!! i’d like to get the whole prompt list done early so i have time to write them! (event is now closed as of feb. 10, 2021)

another doctor? oh wait, another doctor and his daughter

as you expected, ranpo and fukuzawa have not let you go easy after what had happened a couple days prior (3 days ago to be exact)

one of them, or more often than not, the two of them would go visit the bakery at least twice a day

once in the morning right before opening, and the second time right before closing

if they could, they would visit around lunch time, but that was usually yosano

tbh you were thankful that yosano hasn’t been as overbearing as the other two but you knew she probably wanted to give you a break because holy shit are they extremely over protective

currently, it was the fourth day of being watched by the two eldest ada members, but there were no said ada members with you at the moment

and boy were you overjoyed

turns out, the ada has an important escort job for a government official or smth, and on top of that, fukuzawa has a bunch of meetings to attend

even ranpo has his hands full with a couple of difficult murder cases across the country

you’re lowkey, no highkey, worried bc you learned literally 3 days ago that ranpo doesn’t know how to ride the train 😀😀

you were worried abt them, there’s no question, but on the inside you were a bit relieved to which ranpo called you out on it immediately 

that led to the two of you going at each other’s throats for nearly half an hour

let’s just say fukuzawa scolded the two fo you for a while

going back to the present, it was around one pm and you had just finished sending a text message to both fukuzawa and ranpo (cause they insisted) when a little blonde girl with blue eyes wearing a red dress matching with a red bow in her hair and red shoes walked in

she immediately went to the glass case to look at the desserts displayed

as she looked around, you watched her at the corner of your eyes and a with a smile as you wiped down one of the tables

after wiping down the table, you quickly went to go wash your hands and you walked over and stood next to her

you bent slightly and smiled bigger as she stared at one of the treats in the glass

“is that the one you want?”

she nodded without looking away from the glass

you giggled before going to the back and placing the one she wanted on the plate and held it out to her

the blonde was honestly so confused bc one, no adult supervision, and two, there was no tell tale way to know that she had money

to you, she was an open book so when she looked at you, her face immediately read “but i have no money, or a parent...??”

you simply patted her head and pushed along to one of the nearby tables and pulled a chair for her

you did not regret anything when you saw the look on her face when you told her that it was on the house

“name’s elise!” “i’m (y/n)!”

:D

you sat with her for a while continuing to give her sweets she reminded you of ranpo in all honestly and talking abt random things

she mostly complained abt a “rintarou” though

speaking of which, when a man in a doctor’s coat came through the door near screaming “elise-chan! elise-chan!” you figured that was probably the rintarou she was complaining abt

you smiled as you watched the two interact

“elise-chan why would just disappear like that?!”

“i wanted to see rintarou cry”

“so mean!”

...their behavior was questionable but endearing ig

“rintarou” suddenly turned to you, thanking you for “taking care of his daughter bc she’s always getting into trouble”

*cue angry noises and face from elise*

he introduced himself as a “local neighborhood doctor”

you smelled bullshit but didn’t say anything bc he has been kind to you so far

he asked you how he could repay you and you were thinking that you can actually win something bc you’re not refusing an ada member oh you poor oblivious child but you were appalled when elise answered for you

it went like this

“is there anything i can repay you with for taking care of my dear elise-chan? perhaps paying for all the sweets she has eaten?”

“oh no! don’t worry abt that, it’s nothing! it was a pleasure getting to know—”

“let’s buy out all of her food!”

h u h

you knew she enjoyed your pastries and stuff but like w h a t

you inwardly sigh in relief when the doctor agreed with you that “that’s a bit much elise-chan” and you were thanking every deity out there when suddenly

she threw a temper tantrum

you watched in confusion and slight horror at the 180 of the sweet little girl you were talking to like 10 minutes ago

her guardian panicked slightly and tried to get her to calm down but ahaha no that didn’t happen

“WAHH rintarou!! but i want it!! (y/n)’s food is the best i’ve ever had!!”

“b-but elise-chan, we can’t just buy—”

“i’ll wear all the dresses i’ve ever rejected and more if we buy it out right now and keep buying sweets here forever”

“...deal”

your eyes twitch at the “innocent” smiles the two gave you after their “talk”

fast forward literally 5 minutes and you’ve already flipped the close sign on your door with note (saying you’re sold out) and you’re all over the place running around behind the counter trying to fit everything into boxes as the two are sitting on a nearby table lightly chatting

about 20-25, nearly 30 minutes later you finishing packing everything in the glass case

it was a lot

we’re literally talking about tiered cakes and dozens of batches of cookies, cupcakes, literally everything and anything

when the two notice you’re done they get up meet you by the register

“a-ano, you really don’t have to buy all of this...the total is going to be quite large...”

“no worries!”

honestly at this point, you kind of missed the chaotic calls from ranpo that happened like every half hour

you thought you were done being surprised for the day but next thing you know men in suits come into Sakura’s and begin to load the boxes into a black car

dealing with the detectives was already starting to be a handful and now you have to deal whoever the hell these two people where

quite frankly, you were having trouble wrapping your head around all of this

like-

who buys out a whole bakery?!

and who has the money to buy out a whole bakery?!

what kind of job could you possibly have?!

was this guy really just a doctor?!

right before the two leave you call out to them

“a-ah wait! i don’t think i ever caught your name!”

the two blink at you before eyeing each other

“mori ougai” 😄😄

you started smelling bad shits again 

>:/

it was a weird feeling

you felt something off but at the same time, you weren’t really afraid 

and with that the two left

you were already tired from this whole thing but you now get the rest of the day off

so i guess something worked out in your favor

until the next fricking day

again, ranpo and fukuzawa canceled out on you

you weren’t sure if you were relieved or not

and as soon as you thought you were going to have a normal business day, guess who walked through the doors

yeah that’s right

“the local neighborhood doctor” and his daughter

you froze before eyeing them with suspicion

if mori was amused, he didn’t show it, only giving you a smile

elise immediately left his side and practically leaped onto you making you cut yourself with the knife you were holding

well shit now you’re bleeding

it was only 7:15 in the morning; you had literally just opened

you were cursing every deity out there

you quickly grab a nearby and press it against your wound and scrambled around looking for the first aid kit you had nearby

“oh? (y/n)-kun are you bleeding?”

“(y/n) i’m sorry!”

“a-ah, no worries elise-chan”

you really need to stop spacing out bc next thing you know, the sign on your door is flipped to close again (along with the same note from yesterday explaining you’re sold out taped on the door) and you’re sitting at a table with elise in your lap and mori wrapping your hand in a bandage

“tsk tsk (y/n)-kun you need to be more careful...but it is elise-chan’s fault”

“die rintarou!”

“but no worries! it’s not that deep so you don’t need stitches”

“thank you, mori-san, but can i ask why you and elise-chan are here again? not that i mind...”

whether or not you were lying is up to you

“oh we’re here to buy out your stock again!”

“wait what-”

the fuck???

did they not just buy everything yesterday???

frozen, you stare at the man in front if you with said man giving you another “innocent” smile

this little shit

wait till you meet dazai

but i guess that’s why the sign on the door is flipped to close bc you don’t even remember flipping it yourself or taping the note from yesterday to the door

you spent the next half hour trying to convince the two over some tea (your signature one of course) that “no you don’t need to or should buy everything i have, you’re going to deprive the rest of my customers”

cough cough ranpo

like the day before, you were losing this argument

can you just never win?

as you were losing the argument (obviously) you realized that you don’t even know why they want to buy everything again

“mori-san, why do the two of you even want to buy everything in the first place?”

“ah it was elise-chan’s request of course! but i do admit, after trying some of your sweets myself, i grew quite attached! so did the rest of my subordinates after my precious elise-chan made them try it, not like they could refuse her or me; i am their boss after all (y/n)-kun.”

*cue confusion*

“subordinates? wait are those the guys from yesterday?? aren’t you a doctor...?”

“ah ex-doctor actually, i’m the leader of the port mafia”

...

“ah (y/n)-kun that’s quite the coughing fit you have going on, do you need water?”

if it wasn’t obvious, you choked on your tea and had quite the coughing fit; you were wheezing and everything making elise leave you lap and settling for dangling over mori’s shoulders

“...you’re kidding”

“im afraid im not”

this man confuses the hell out of you??

like-

w h y would he just say that, to you of all people

but it explains the bad shits you were smelling/feeling yesterday

“are you afraid?”

“being completely honest with you, mori-san, not really”

“and why is that?”

you simply shrug not really knowing the answer

you aren’t lying, you just aren’t

maybe bc yesterday, he seemed more like a doting parent than the boss of the most criminal organization of yokohama

yes, you’ve heard the rumors, obviously, but just saying, if the port mafia wanted to hurt you, you’d probably be dead in a ditch by now

and they haven’t really been a bother to you, they were more like background characters in your life

well

until yesterday of course

mori simply raises an eyebrow and a smile seemingly okay with your very vague answer

“why did you tell me that mori-san?”

the man only smiles a bit wider at you and this time, you’re the one raising an eyebrow

“just a feeling” 

yeah you were starting to smell bad shits again

“and besides! elise-chan seems quite fond of you (y/n)-kun! i wasn’t planning on doing anything to you in the first place, but even if i wanted to, i don’t think i could! i wouldn’t want to upset my dearest cute elise-chan”

“die rintarou!”

“that’s mean elise-chan!”

your eyes began to twitch in slight annoyance

cause istg the duality of this man—

this strange strange man

oh dearest you haven’t even met dazai yet

after that has been said and done, somehow you found yourself in front of stores being dragged by elise

how did you end up there you ask? i don’t know either so there’s nothing we can do abt that

eventually, you found yourself holding a bunch of shopping bags full of dresses and clothes of the sort

some of it your size and the others elise’s

...

“mori-san?”

“yes (y/n)-kun?”

“why do i have bags of clothing that are fit for me rather than elise?”

“oh that’s because elise refused to go without you and if you didn’t get anything!”

yeah

that makes perfect sense, of course

you could see why elise kept on complaining abt this guy

the two of you actually bonded over making fun of him

you have n o fear

actually, maybe just a little

the three of you were out for basically the entire day and you were exhausted

cause holy shit there was a lot of money wasted, shopping bags obtained, and walking involved

it was around 5 pm when the three of you were making it back to Sakura’s

along the way you found yourself having a pleasant conversation with mori

even if he was a questionable person to be having a pleasant conversation with, you enjoyed it nonetheless

you hoped that it makes it harder to get rid of you if he ever changed his mind but we don’t talk abt that

anywho

when the three of you arrived, you immediately dumped all the bags you were holding and went straight to work packaging everything for “the local neighborhood doctor”

before they left, mori agreed to not buy out all of your stock except for some occasions but instead settled ordering massive batches of a little bit of everything every few days

how that’s not the same as buying everything you won’t ever know

you were standing outside Sakura’s watching the two get into the car that had arrived when suddenly, mori turned to you

“ah (y/n)-kun, i know that you wouldn’t tell anyone about this, it wouldn’t be like you to, but just a reminder, it would probably be in your best interest not to let anything slip to anyone okay? we wouldn’t want any enemies using you against the port mafia. so take care of yourself hm? see you next time”

and bippity boppity boo just like that, they were gone

how that man managed to get your personality down in just like 10 hours you don’t want to know

and that’s basically the story of how you started making more food/bake goods to sell

true to his word, every few days, or sometimes consecutive days, mori called you and made a large order

and i mean large

on those days, someone from the port mafia would pick it up and then you get paid

thankfully, by increasing the amount of food you made, you always had enough to put out on display and to sell even after the large order

before doing that, on those days you didn’t have a large stock, someone by the name of edogawa ranpo would weep at your feet

he will deny this; after all, great detectives don’t do weeping

or so he says

and speaking of the detective, you never did tell him what had transpired the two days he and fukuzawa were absent on checking on you

but tbh, i even think ranpo could’ve deduct this one

you didn’t tell him bc you were afraid, no of course not that’s ridiculous mori, in elise’s words, was a loser

you didn’t tell him bc you knew he and fukuzawa would flip the fuck out

and that would be a major inconvenience to you

you didn’t see the point in telling them anyway

so whatever, it’s like it’ll be important

and if ranpo and fukuzawa noticed the abundant of bags near the door leading up to the staircase when they visited you at the end of the day they didn’t say anything

jk

of course one of them said smth

“ne (n/n)-chan since when did you like to buy a bunch of things; waste of money if you could just be using that money to make more food so you wouldn’t sell out right away and have food to feed me”

your eyes twitched

he could’ve worded that a little better but whatever

it is ranpo-san after all

“i just got carried away since i closed up early; you know it isn’t often i get to go shopping”

and if he smelled your bullshit he didn’t say anything

for real this time

that slightly concerns you ngl

anyways

let’s just say quite a few heads were turned when they saw their boss leading a bunch of lower level subordinates carrying many light pink boxes of different sizes to his office for the second time

oh and just another thing

*whispers* he was lying when elise made his other subordinates eat your food; they kept it all to themselves”

was that a ruse to help lead the revelation of his real occupation who knows

“(y/n)-kun is a very interesting person don’t you think so elise-chan?”

“quiet. i’m eating cake.”

“that’s so mean elise-chan!”

<<previous // next >>

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[fotiathymos]

Okay so. As I’ve said i’ve been deep diving into historical (fashion/uniforms mostly tbh) of Edo periods firefighters. Aka Hikeshi. I am not an expert and I haven’t written in a while and haven’t slept much in a couple days so uh bare with me and please correct me if you know more.

There are of course so many similarities and influences of Hikeshi and their history in Promare. I’m mostly going to just name a few very obvious ones and possibly get too into ‘thinking too much about an anime’ mode on a couple.

Looking up Edo firefighters brings a ton of articles nicknaming it ‘The city of Fires’. “ Edo (sometimes called City of Fires), was perhaps the most fire prone city in the world; there is a saying, “Fires and quarrels are the flowers of Edo, yet the greater essence is the fireman”. There were over five hundred major fires alone in the period between 1851 and 1867. “ There was a mix of reasons for the constant fires, the hot dry weather conditions, how homes were mostly built with timber and paper, the urban population growing quickly and being confined to small places, and...arson. Arson was a factor as the city was restless with their government and many people were in poverty that burning their own houses and commiting crimes as they felt they didnt have much else to lose from doing so. I honestly recommend just quickly reading the wiki article on the arsons committed during that time as many were of the fires were considered something good or positive. All of this are easy comparisons to the Promare universe, though with a fantastical twist of the Burnish being fire alien hosts.

Hikeshi (firemen) units arose to prevent the fires from spreading. Hikeshi were seen as more of a ‘gang’ and were ‘lawless’ as they didn’t obey police authorities. “ A cross between gangsters and firefighters, these men were heroes to the urban population and feared by the authorities for their lawlessness and bravado. “ They worked for the communities safety first and foremost. And Galo sure has a lot of bravado. 

As arson was a big factor in the fires, the government created a position outside of Hikeshi that was meant to capture and persecute arsonists. The arsonists punishment was to be burned at the stake. “ As a warning to the public, arrested arsonists were paraded through the city and burned at the stake. “ All this is holds very simple comparisons to how Burning Rescue and Freeze Force operate. There is a lot of tension between Ignis and Vulcan in how each organization handles these ‘fires’. The sad scary influence of this history in Promare being that those who caused the fires were to die by fire.

Galo and his Matoi is a very obvious historical refrence and the movie even explains the pride of Hikeshi spirit in Galo’s slideshow. A very simple definition of a Matoi is a flag used to notify people of a fire and to draw attention to other firemen to help put out the fire. It’s not.. a weapon in the way Galo uses it. Each unit had there own Matoi to identify themselves. There were people who were assigned as Matoi holders of each unit and would infact do what Galo does in being loud and waving the Matoi around and were very much needed and respected in their units. 

When I was looking all this up I was mostly researching different things about their uniforms and historical fashion. Looking up Matoi’s you can see how elaborate and unique they were with each Hikeshi unit.

Understandable how Galo’s Matoi was his symbol of pride and handcrafted with such love. Lio making a Matoi for him afterwards must've meant a whole lot to Galo besides the fact of Lio just even remembering what it was. Lio actually payed attention to that slideshow of Galo’s.. he must’ve!

I could talk a bit about the historical uniforms and how intricate and unique each hand embroidered and hand dyed and layer outfit was but ... that doesnt have a connection to Promare and I really do wish Galo had his own unique hand stitched uniform inspired by the Hikeshi. I just headcannon Galo has their old great grandfathers uniform that somehow survived the family’s housefire.

Hikeshi were mostly known to put out fires by destroying and collapsing the houses that were on fire. It was the best means to prevent the fires from spreading. Yet another method was used, “ a type of wooden pump operated by manpower called ryūdosui (竜吐水, "dragon spraying water") was used, but it never became a fully viable means of firefighting due to the lack of uninterrupted water supply. “ Possibly an influence for Lio’s dragon but.. dragons were a big thing in many ways in history so it could be argued that this particular instance in of ‘dragon spraying water’ is just a coincidence and didn’t make the Promare creators go ‘oh lets have a dragon for this exact reason!’.

Sooo there is many things in Promare that was directly influenced by Edo’s history. Galo’s Matoi and passion for Hikeshi being the very obvious one pointed out by the movie itself. But also the power imbalance by the government and the poorer community and how arson and playing with fire was a way to fight back against those in power and how those in power fought back with pure cruelty by turning the arsonists into ash as a warning to others.

Pomare’s creators state how Promare’s main theme is the influence of propaganda skewing facts and causing prejudices. They were focusing and more modern day issues but of course history is very similar to the present in some unfortunate ways sometimes. They may or may not have meant these particular parts of history to be similar to Promare’s plot or storyline and maybe weren’t influenced at all by these events. I just felt like sharing and this is what felt very similar and interesting to state.

If I do have anything wrong or you have more information please add on! Like I stated before I was mostly reading and looking into historical fashion with the Hikeshi when looking them up so i am definitely missing some information.

If you read this far and all this at all.. Thank!

[him-e]

what did you think of shadow and bone? have you read the books? i only read the duology

Thoughts on Shadow and Bone, now that you've probably seen it?

I think the show is alright? It lacks a real wow factor as far as I’m concerned, but it’s enjoyable. It’s especially enjoyable in those parts I didn’t anticipate to like / didn’t even know would be there. 

Whereas the main selling points leave a lot to be desired.

The good stuff: the visuals. The aesthetic. The overall concept. Production, casting and costumes are excellent, the setting is fascinating. The worldbuilding isn’t perfect and is sometimes confusing, which is probably due to the show jumping ahead of the books and introducing elements that happen much later in the book saga, but I’m loving the vague steampunk-y vibe of it mixed with more typical fantasy stuff and slavic-inspired lore, the fact that it’s set in dystopian Russia rather than your usual ye olde England.

I find it interesting that in this ‘verse the Grisha are simultaneously superstars, privileged elite, legendary creatures and despised outcasts, according to the context and the type of magic they wield. It’s A Lot, and so far it’s all a bit underdeveloped and messy, like a patchwork of different narratives and tropes sewn together without an organic worldbuilding structure. (there are hints to a past when they were hunted, but how did they go from that to being, essentially, an institutionalized asset to the government isn’t clear yet. There’s huge narrative potential in this, and I hope future seasons will delve into those aspects)

Many of the supporting characters are surprisingly solid. I appreciated that Genya and Zoya eventually sort of traded places, subverting the audience’s assumptions about them and their own character stereotypes, despite the little screentime they were given.

Breakout characters/ships for me were Nina/Matthias, and even more so the Crows, i.e. the stuff I didn’t see coming and knew nothing about (having only read the first book). (I thought the entire Crows subplot was handled in a somewhat convoluted way, at least in the first episodes; it was hard to keep track of who wanted Alina and why, but the Crows’ chemistry is so strong it carried the whole Plot B on its shoulders).

HELNIK. As an enemies to lovers dynamic, Helnik was SUPER on the nose, I’d say bordering on clichéd with the unapologetic, straight outta fanfiction use of classic tropes like “we need to team up to survive” and “there’s only one bed and we’ll freeze to death if we don’t take our conveniently damp clothes off and keep each other warm with the heat of our naked bodies” (not that I’m complaining, but i like to pine for my ships a bit before getting to the juicy tropetown part, tyvm). And then they’re suddenly on opposite sides again because of a tragic misunderstanding - does Bardugo hate high-conflict dynamics? It certainly seems so, because between Helnik and Darklina I’m starting to see a pattern where the slow burn and blossoming mutual trust is rushed and painted in broad, stereotypical strokes to get as fast as possible to the part where they *hate each other again* and that’s... huh. Something.

^That’s probably why I’m almost more interested in Kaz x Inej, because their relationship feels a bit more nuanced, a bit more mysterious, and a bit more unpredictable. (I didn’t bother spoiling myself about them, so I really don’t know where they’re going, but it’s refreshing to see a dynamic that the narrative isn’t scrambling to define in one direction or the other as quickly as possible)

-

Now, as for Darklina VS Malina... I found exactly what I expected. 

Both are ship dynamics I’m, on principle, very much into (light heroine/dark villain, pining friends to lovers) but both are also much less interesting than they claim to be, or could have been with different narrative choices. I’ll concede that the show characters are all more fleshed out and likable than their book counterparts, and the cringe parts I vaguely remembered from the books played out differently. And, well, Ben Barnes dominates the scene, he’s hot as HELL, literally every single second he’s on screen is a fuck you to Bardugo’s attempts to make his character lame and uninteresting and I’m LOVING it, lol.

But yeah, B Barnes aside, Darklina is intrinsically, deliberately made to be unshippable. 

It makes me mad, because it’s - archetypally speaking - made of shipping dynamite: yin/yang-sun and moon, opposites attract, COMPLEMENTARY POWERS AND SO ON. And what does Bardugo do with these ingredients? A FUCKING DELIBERATE DISASTER:

^ Placing the kiss so early on (season 1, episode five) effectively kills the romantic tension that was (correctly) building up until that point, and leaves the audience very little to still hope for, in terms of emotional evolution of the dynamic. 

Bardugo lays all the good stuff down as early and quickly as possible (the bonding, the conflicted attraction, the recognizing the other as one’s equal, etc) only to turn the tables and pull the rug so y’all sick creepyshippers won’t have anything to look forward to, because THEY’VE ALREADY HOOKED UP AND THAT BELONGS TO THE PAST, IT’S OVER, THEY’RE ENEMIES. This, combined to the fact that she falls for him *without* knowing who he really is, is the opposite of what I want from a heroine/villain ship (it’s basically lovers to enemies, and while that can be valid too, I wanted to see more pining and more prolonged, tormented symbolic attraction to the Shadow/Animus on Alina’s part). 

But here’s the trick: it’s not marketed as lovers to enemies - it has all the aesthetics and trappings of an enemies to lovers (the Darkling is, from the get go, villain-presenting, starting from his name), so it genuinely feels like a trollfic, or at the very least a cautionary tale *against* shipping the heroine with the tall dark brooding young villain, and I don’t think it’s cool at all. It makes the story WAY less interesting, because it humanizes the villain early on (when it’s not yet useful or poignant to the story, because it’s unearned) but it’s a red herring. The real plot twist is that the villain shouldn’t be sympathized with, just defeated: there’s a promise of nuanced storytelling, that is quickly denied and tossed aside. So is the idea of incorporating your Shadow (a notion that Bardugo must be familiar with, otherwise she wouldn’t have structured Alina and the Darkling as polar opposites who complement each other, but that she categorically refutes)

Then we have Malina. The good ship.

Look, I’m not that biased against it. I don’t want to be biased on principle against a friends to lovers dynamic that antagonizes a heroine/villain one, because every narrative is different, and for personal reasons I can deeply relate to the idea of being (unspeakably) in love with your best friend. So there are aspects of Malina that I can definitely be into, but it troubles me that in this specific context it’s framed as a regression. It’s Alina’s comfort zone, a fading dream of happiness from an idealized childhood, to sustain which the heroine systematically stunts her growth and literally repressed her own powers, something that in the books made her sickly and weak. But the narrative weirdly romanticizes this codependency, often making her tunnel vision re: going back to Mal her primary goal and centering on him her entire backstory/motivation, to the point that when she starts acting more serious re: her powers and alleged mission to destroy the Fold, it feels inorganic and unearned. 

Mal is intrinsically extraneous to Alina’s powers, he doesn’t share them, he doesn’t understand them, he has little to offer to help her with them, and so the feeling is that he’s also extraneous to her heroine’s journey, aside from being a sort of sidekick or safe harbor to eventually come back to. People have compared him to Raoul from Phantom of the Opera, and yeah, he has the same ~magic neutralizer~ vibe, tbh.

The narrative also polarizes Mal’s normalcy and relative “safety” against Aleksander’s sexy evil, framing Alina’s quasi-platonic fixation on the former as a better and purer form of love than her (much more visible and palpable) attraction to the latter. This is exacerbated by the show almost entirely relying on scenes of them as kids to convey their bond. I’m sure there are ways to depict innocent pining for your best friend that don’t involve obsessively focusing on flashbacks of two CHILDREN running in a meadow and looking exactly like brother and sister. LIKE. I get it, they’re like soulmates in every possible way, BUT DO THEY WANT TO KISS EACH OTHER?

Which brings me to a general complain: for a young adult saga centering on a young heroine and full of so many hot people, this story is weirdly unsexy? There are a lot of shippable dynamics, but they’re done in such a careless, ineffective way that makes ZERO EFFORT to work on stuff like slow burn, pining and romantic tension, and when it does it’s so heavy handed that the viewer doesn’t feel encouraged at all to fill the blanks with their imagination and start anticipating things (which is, imo, the ESSENCE of shipping). The one dynamic that got vaguely close to this is, again, Kaz and Inej, and coincidentally it’s also the one we didn’t get confirmed as romantic YET. Other than that, where’s the slow burn? What ship am I supposed to agonize over during the hiatus to season two? Has shipping become something to feel ashamed of, like an embarrassing relative you no longer want to invite in your home?

Anyway, back to Alina/Darkling/Mal, this is how the story reads to me:

girl suspects to be special, carefully pretends to be normal so she can stay with Good Boy

the girl’s powers eventually manifest; she’s forcibly separated from Good Boy

the girl’s powers attract Bad Boy who is her equal and opposite but is also a major asshole

girl initially falls for Bad Boy; has to learn a hard lesson that nobody that sexy will ever want her for who she is, he’s just trying to exploit her

also, no, there is no such thing as a Power Couple

girl is literally given a slave collar by Bad Boy through which he harnesses her power (a parody of the Twin Scars trope)

you know how the story initially suggested that the joint powers of Darkness and Light would defeat evil? LOL NO, Darkness is actually evil itself and the way you destroy evil is using Light to destroy Darkness, forget that whole Jungian bullshit of integrating your shadow, silly!

conclusion: girl realizes being special sucks. She was right all along! Hiding and suppressing her powers was the best choice! She goes back to the start, to the same Good Boy she was meekly pining for prior to the start of the story.

... there’s an uncomfortable overall subtext that reads a lot like a cautionary tale against - look, not just against darkships and villain/heroine pairings, but also *overpowered* heroines and, well... change? Growth?

Like, it’s certainly a Choice that Alina starts the story *already* in love with Mal. That she always knew it was him. The realization could have happened later (making the dynamic much more shippable, too), but no. 

[scarletsaphire]

Canonically, his rogue's gallery is almost just as powerful as he is. Obviously the power levels and stakes ramp up as the show progresses, but generally speaking, all ghosts are ridiculously over powered and would clobber most other superheros.

(As reference, all ghosts have the super strength/agility, flight, intangibility, invisibility, possession, extra healing, along with their own special powers. A ghost named Ember has mind control music. Nocturne controls/feeds off of dreams. Johnny 13 has a magic motorcycle and a sentient shadow that attacks in tandem. The Box Ghost has control over all things rectangular and cardboard.) So in canon, it isn't as big of a disparity as you might think.

He's also being hunted by the government and his own parents in canon. They are all trying to dissect him for Mad Science Experiments and he can't really do much about it! There's also a lot of antighost technology that works against him, such as the Fenton Thermos which sucks ghosts in and stores them, or the Specter Deflector, which makes it so ghosts can't possess people, but when Danny wears it, he gets zapped any time he uses his powers. There are also Blood Blossoms which ghosts are like. Allergic to basically. There's a staff that can mind control ghosts that works on him.

And like you said, "I'm a dumb kid and I haven't figured everything out" is his biggest weakness in the show. Since it is for kids and the bad guys are on a pretty equal power level with him, in universe its not really important to give him more weaknesses. But when you put him in the DC universe you get the problem of not everyone has ghost technology and/or ghost powers, which ends up with him being Very OP. That's not really something you can avoid tbh.

A very popular noncanon (and when I say very popular, I mean most people will assume its true in any fan work unless explicitly told otherwise) is Obsessions. What it boils down to is that all of the ghosts have a thing (or several) that quite literally keeps them going after death. It is who they are; they can't go against it. Generally speaking, when people give Danny an Obsession, he gets protection (and space but thats not relevant rn). Because it isn't actually canon, how people do it is different: some people will make it just a compulsion or a driving purpose, while others will make it so that if Danny has to hurt someone for any reason not directly related to Protecting Someone he will end up physically injured.

Another kind of technically noncanon thing is cores, which is basically the ghosts one actual organ. If that gets hurt, they die for real. Most of the time core injury is written a little like brain damage, but once again, it's like. Cores are technically canon because of One Single Episode but they are so under explored that what they are now is almost incomparable.

Some people also make it so he needs to be in a place with a lot of ambient ectoplasm in order to live/thrive, so where he could go is limited.

Short DPXDC Prompts #945

Roy hired a new babysitter for Lian. He did a thorough background check on her and double checked that all her certifications were accurate. Jazz Fenton had been incredibly sweet when he met up with her over coffee so they both could ask each other questions and get clarifications before she started babysitting when he left for missions (he told her he was going on work trips. Technically true.) He expected Jazz to do a decent deal picking up after Lian and taking care of her… He didn’t expect to come back to a dozen knocked out assassins in his front lawn and Jazz carefully tending to her bleeding knuckles with the kitchen first aid kit.

[berlinbabylon]

Uhm whats going on with Volker Bruch? 👀 I dont speak German and dont trust google translate lol so if you could summarize the issue I'd appreciate it, ty 😊

Oh yeah sure! So basically him and a bunch of other actor/actresses (including some others from the show, like Meret Becker who plays Esther, the wife of the Armenian, and Trystan Pütter, who plays the lawyer Litten) were part of a campaign organized by a TV director with sympathies for the so-called “Querdenker” movement which is a kind of melting pot of different groups and people united in their protest against the Corona policies and measures (like social distancing, wearing masks) from the German government. This movement is made up of people across the political spectrum (including people voting for the Green party, esoterics, and so on) but it’s also been a breeding ground for conspiracy theories and rightwing radicalization which is why many Germans, including myself, view people who participate in that very sceptically (and to give you my totally biased take: a lot of them are total idiots, regardless of their political affiliation; the right to protest is important but if people feel the need to be a part of mass events during a pandemic while not wearing their masks properly as if that’s such a big ask, then those are people who’ve got a strange, narrow-minded, egotistical outlook on the world imo).

So anyway, that campaign of the actors/actresses was essentially a series of videos by these actors/actresses, all uploaded at the same time to coincide with a law designed to give the government more deciding power (because fun fact, most of the Corona counter-measures have not being taken on a national level at all because they’re within the responsibility of the federal German states and this has slowed down a lot of things, including our vaccination campaign). They used the hashtag #allesdichtmachen (”close everything”) and basically used irony or satire~ to criticize the government. Every actor/actress has a video where they talk nonsense (”oh please please I want to be more afraid!!!”) under the disguise of art~

Look, I’m entirely sympathetic to people wanting to shine a light on the plight of the cultural industry which has been hard-hit by the virus, with the theaters closing and people losing their livelihoods. But that’s not what the campaign is about. It’s a completely obnoxious, tone-deaf, cynical parade of ignorant people vastly overrating their intellectual acumen and artistic genius and complaining about the media and the government using the same narrative strategies that have been a gateway to conspiracy theories (pretending like our freedom of speech is threatened, when it’s not, evidenced by the thousands of people protesting throughout the pandemic and driving up the infection numbers; or pretending like criticism of the policies is not allowed, when heated debates about them have completely dominated our news for over a year; or pretending like this is some sort of plot by a nebulous elite or “the powers that be” who want to keep us enslaved by making us... wear masks... when really various complicated political processes and decentralized responses have been what’s been going on). Predictably, this kind of divisive talk has been applauded by the rightwingers and the nutters. Pretty exclusively only by them.

This “campaign” has rightly been hit with a lot of criticism but as with conspiracy theorists, the harder you critique them, the more they feel validated in their us vs. them. Some of the actors/actresses acted naive afterwards but you’d have to be pretty dumb and ignorant to be this naive. Thing is, most of them are the ones who are really well-off, who kept shooting and working throughout the pandemic, who’ve lounged in their villas and gardens all this time. It actually makes me angry to think about.

And as for Volker Bruch, apparently he and Jan Josef Liefers who’s also a famous and well-liked German actor co-organized the whole thing with that TV director. Volker Bruch has also not apologized or reflected on his participation in this campaign. On his insta in the weeks beforehand, he’s already been sowing doubts about the safety of masks for children. He follows “Querdenker” accounts. He’s evidently on a slide into conspiracy theory and rightwing nutter territory and the irony is that people like him always complain about being called out for this because they genuinely don’t understand anything about what’s going on. They’re an example of what we call Wohlstandsverwahrlosung (losing the plot due to having too much wealth and nothing real to worry about).

It’s just... a lot. People are dying and medical staff and personnel are completely overwhelmed and then they have to go home to see a video by a beloved actor going “dear government, I want to be more afraid, please make us more afraid :))”

Genuinely infuriating tbh.

[stillness-in-green]

When we get back to the escaped Advisors (should be around 14-18 still around ...which is much large than I was expecting, tbh) I kinda hope that they're taking advantage of the current state of Japan to replenish their numbers with frustrated civilians. Maybe get a large enough force for a 2nd Jailbreak to free their leaders?

My current count stands at 4 advisors who we know for a fact escaped the initial net, 6 who we saw engage in combat but didn't see captured in the aftermath, and 5 who we just never saw at all, for a total of as many as 15 advisors who may be in the wind. We were also told 132 people escaped, but that number's only from the villa.

Presumably there were other escapees from around the country, and really, how many people with trained super powers do you need to successfully assault a non-island-based prison? I'd love to see or hear about a second jailbreak to spring more of their people; I'd equally love to see their movement gathering steam via new recruits.

(Beneath the cut, some hypothesizing about what PLF recruitment might look like right now, and my one caveat about the PLF re-entering the plot.)

It's interesting, because, on the one hand, the average civilian has enough reflexive bias against "villains" that even just being labeled villains hurts the PLF's recruitment chances, and that is certainly what the news will be calling them--associates of the infamous League of Villains, the organization behind Gigantomachia's mass destruction and the obliteration of Jakku. That will absolutely poison a great many people against them, both because that's what Hero Society does and because, well, they were outed as terrorists. Big surprise people will refuse to consider their perspective when all this death and destruction is said to be their fault!

On the other hand, it strikes me as being to the PLF's benefit that the HPSC and the heroes did so little--nothing at all, really--to spread any information about the PLF before the attack. Because they were a secret organization beforehand, no one really knew anything much about them. The best any given person on the street is going to know is a) whatever they'd heard about the League on the news, and b) whatever few things they might remember from their high school history lessons about villains from the early age of Heroes.

If the PLF can seize the opportunity, they have a window to get in and really spin a narrative about the current chaos. They could talk about the way that the power and number of heroes is dwindling now, yet repressive laws still require people to sit back and let their homes and families come under attack from opportunistic criminals. They could raise a huge and entirely justified stink about the dissolution of the HMP. They could talk about how they were attacked pre-emptively, about how all this destruction is the result of them acting in self-defense, and does not at all resemble what their plans had been. (That last one would be a flagrant manipulation of the facts, but, you know, they're under no obligation to be truthful.)

It'd be hard to get the kind of platform they need under normal circumstances, particularly if the government is trying to enforce any kind of ban on positive publicity for the PLF--a significant break from laws about freedom of the press, and outside the purview of even the highly controversial Subversive Activities Prevention Act, but then, so was the aforementioned HMP dissolution, and that doesn't seem to have prevented it. Skeptic, though, has shown that he is entirely capable of putting any message he damn well pleases across the airwaves nationwide with total impunity. Until the government can capture him or somehow revoke his access to his satellite (fat chance; I'm sure he has backdoors upon backdoors built into that thing's programming, assuming there are any non-arrested members of the Feel Good Inc. board to try to cut him out to begin with) there's really nothing stopping him from pulling that stunt again.

Of course, the PLF doesn't seem to be in touch with Skeptic at the present time, presumably because All For One doesn't give a damn about Tomura's army beyond whatever use they might be in helping him secure One For All. Which is also why we're unlikely to see a repeat of that stunt so long as Skeptic is stuck under his thumb with the remainder of the League. Sigh.

Still, even without the bully pulpit, we know the MLA was reaching people before, even if only the extremist fringe, the sorts of people who were drawn to conspiracy theories or doomsday scenarios, or the people who were already on the borders of acceptable society and who are now likely struggling more than ever. Deku's lucky that the heteromorph woman he saved was a pretty clear-cut innocent--imagine if she'd had something closer to Spinner's mentality and he tried to tell her that she was probably only attacked because people were scared (unspoken: of her and her kind)! Even though the PLF is primarily at fault for the current chaos by virtue of having been planning a bunch of terrorist attacks that the heroes were very reasonably trying to avert, I think they'd still be attracting people who're inclined to ask questions like, "Okay, but whose fault is it that this group felt driven to those extremes to begin with?" or, "Are the heroes even telling the truth about this? I wonder what the Paranormal Whatever League's side of the story is?" And yeah, I'd love to see the escapees from the raid(s) catalyze that support, get their shit together, and spring RD, Geten, and Trumpet from prison.

ON THE OTHER HAND, this all comes with one big, BIG caveat.

If all that the PLF springing their leaders from prison accomplishes is freeing up those leaders to get taken down in a series of single chapter fights by Deku or the rest of Class 1-A--or, god forbid, the Pro-Heroes again--then I'd actually rather we never hear another word about them again. Then at least I could tell myself whatever I wanted about their fate in the epilogue, you know? For the loyalty of the erstwhile MLA, for Re-Destro's fervent faith in Shigaraki, to be rewarded only by getting curb-stomped without a moment's regret by a teenager? A teenager who's going to spout a bunch of idealistic drivel that attempts but wildly fails to address the real issues the MLA has with the status quo? I think I'll just stick with my fanfic, thanks.

[highladyluck]

Mat/Tuon meta: Will He/Won’t He (Stage A Military Coup)

Back on my Mat/Tuon meta horse! This is about why Tuon is absolutely convinced Mat won't mount a military coup against her, and under what circumstances he just might, actually. Obviously, ‘ware series spoilers. The personal/political dynamic Mat and Tuon have at the end of the series continues to fascinate me. Tuon is well aware that Mat’s prince-consort position, Prince of the Ravens, is a position that could lead a military coup against her leadership; she knows all about the power struggle that imperialist, expansionist government leaders face with respect to their armies and the generals that lead the armies. She also knows at this point that Mat specifically has the skillset to pull that kind of thing off; he has demonstrated political skill even if he's not used to Seanchan customs (she noted that the way he diffused tension in the hell boded well for his ability to handle Seanchan court politics), he quickly inspires personal trust and loyalty in his troops regardless of what troops he's actually leading (see: when he meets back up with the Band in the Altaran wilderness, plus how quickly her own armies took to him), and of course he is brilliant at tactics and strategy (see: the entire series starting at book 4). She is also *certain* that he won't actually use that power against her. He has shown her personal loyalty on numerous other occasions, and Tuon's entire brand and survival strategy is generating personal loyalty due to her power (or potential power), skills, and personal integrity. She knows what personal loyalty looks like and she knows how it works. She's a little appalled at herself for not being afraid of Mat staging a coup, and she even thinks that it's probably not good for her or the empire to *not* be constantly threatened by her top military commander, because she's been conditioned to believe that external threats keep her sharp and focused- but she absolutely does trust him not to be a threat to her. Which is wild!!! You have to understand how wild this is!

Tuon previously only trusted her personal safety to people she thoroughly controls- Selucia, Karede, her damane. She does have a kind of control over Mat, but it's not based on anything she's done or her position, it's based on his personality and choices, and I don't think she thinks she controls him. (I think she believes she has authority over him, and that's at least somewhat true, but that's much different from the total control she has over enslaved people, or even the political control she has over the Blood.) She does also trust people she doesn't entirely control- the people who are almost her peers- but notably she doesn't trust them not to hurt her. She trusts that they'll act in ways benefiting their own self-interest or the interest of the empire, which could mean they might hurt her.

Mat, on the other hand, she trusts not to hurt her except accidentally, by making choices that have implications for her standing. (That's what all the manners lessons are about, she's trying to protect him so he doesn't leave her exposed.) Again, THIS IS WILD. Tuon’s an autocratic empress raised under the threat of assassination from birth, she has MAJOR trust and control issues, and here is someone she does not fully control but whom she implicitly trusts not to physically or even intentionally harm her. Do you think she's ever had that experience in her life before? I can't see how she would have. I think there's room to explore this in a way that would be therapeutic for Tuon, but it's also an extremely tempting vulnerability to exploit narratively. Either way, it's fascinating. So what's Mat's motivation not to harm Tuon, and how much of it does Tuon know? It's both a character thing and a situational thing, and I think Tuon knows about some of it, but not all of it, and she also has some major blind spots about what Mat is capable of. Mat won't intentionally harm her for a couple of general character reasons: he's in love with her, which she knows about and is like 'weird flex, but ok'; I don't know if she really knows how to parse it tbh. Also, because he won't kill a woman, which she knows about and is like 'this dumbassery is going to get my himbo straight-up murdered; however, it's kinda cute'. Also, because he has a saving-people-especially-women-thing, which she may or may not know about; I forget whether it came up in any of her surreal chats with Mat's childhood friends, but even if it did she may not know enough to give it proper context in his motivations, or understand how truly generalized it is. He's also promised to protect her from harm in the past, and while that may have been a time-/situation-limited thing, she's seen that he keeps his promises, assuming he gave the promise in earnest. So while he hasn't necessarily made such a promise recently, she knows that he keeps his word and that's something she values as a mark of integrity and a reason to trust someone. The other reasons she trusts him are more down to circumstances: the Last Battle had him temporarily siding with the Seanchan against their common enemy, the Dark One. I think Tuon's aware that he's not fully committed to the Empire yet, but possibly she doesn't realize the extent to which he is ambivalent, or she thinks it's the kind of thing they can compromise on, like the uniform design, rather than a fundamental disconnect in goals. Or she thinks that once he understands what his responsibilities are, he'll absorb himself into the role the way she has, which is... uh... rather optimistic of her, but we all have our blind spots. Finally, I don't think Mat's fully realized that a military coup (which would likely look like a situation where he spares Tuon's life but gets her off the throne) is an option for him. Or, it's occurred to him, but the circumstance has not yet come up that would justify him taking that path. And I do *not* think Tuon has considered this! She might think he knows that the Prince of Ravens is traditionally a threat to the Empress, but I don't recall that she's actually said that to him. And I don't think she sees a difference between her not being Empress and her being dead- she's conflated 'being in power' with 'staying alive' literally her entire life, and she probably thinks any situation where she's not Empress but still alive, if it's even possible, would be so shameful/painful it would be better to be dead. So it wouldn't occur to her that one outcome of a coup would be to replace her as government head but still keep her alive. And Mat hasn't yet faced a situation where he might have major ethical issues with not just the structure of the army but also the goals of it. (Even his iconic ‘I am accidentally leading an army despite really not wanting to lead an army, because I can’t let these dumbasses get killed’ move was ethically consistent, since he was just trying to run away/save people.) And, as I will never shut up about, he’s done literal war crimes to achieve his goals before- he didn’t stop to give aid after he ambushed the Seanchan in the Altaran forest, even though Teslyn specifically says this is against Randland military convention. And given Mat’s early canonical history of being railroaded into leading military campaigns, I don’t think Mat’s going to balk at leading the Seanchan army just because he doesn’t like the Seanchan empire, though it will matter what specifically he’s asked to do with it and why. I think Mat's way more likely to be willing to lead the reunification of Seanchan than to deal with local Westlands slave uprisings or rebellion. You're going to hit his moral breaking point a lot sooner if there's domestic civil crises. An actual slave revolt or rebellion would get hit with military force, and Mat says as much to Beslan so he's well aware that he'd be, if not in charge, certainly culpable for the Seanchan government response to it. (They might try to prevent it from happening at all with Seekers; but Seekers are mostly focused on the Blood, I think, so I think it's possible that if there's minimal Blood involvement they might not know about it in time to nip it in the bud.) So if you wanted to force Mat to have a crisis of conscience that's one situation you could set up, and I think it's even somewhat likely. Post-TG Seanchan-Westland politics are going to be a Cold War, and many entities in the Westlands would be happy to lend plausibly deniable support to an organic citizen and/or slave uprising! The other thing is, Mat needs to be constantly occupied and he does like using his skills; if he gets an 'acceptable' target for military force he probably will go for it. So if the forces in Seanchan unified under a rando warlord, he'd probably be ok leading the Westlands Seanchan troops there, reasoning that Tuon is probably a better or at least more influenceable ruler than that other guy. (Might be complicated if it was a female unifier, but probably not that much.) He would not be keen on enslaving the free Westlands- not that that’s going to happen as long as the Dragon’s Peace is going on- but a ‘peacekeeping mission in a foreign land’? ...idk, I can see him going for it, especially if he doesn't have enough political capital yet to back up an outright refusal. Mat was conflicted about using the damane he captured in the Last Battle, but he did use her. She was a prisoner of war from the enemy side, which probably eased his conscience a little re: personally owning her, but I don't see anywhere in the text that he had issues commanding Seanchan sul'dam and damane in a less personal way. The Last Battle was an unusual situation, but we've also seen Mat willing to ally or at least put up with plenty of people he dislikes- on personal and ideological grounds- to achieve a goal (see: rescuing Joline) or just figure out his options (see: all that card-playing with nobles in the Stone of Tear while he had emotions about Rand. XD)

So if you wanted to force Mat to have a moral crisis while fighting in Seanchan, you'd make the people he's fighting in Seanchan be people he sympathizes with more than he sympathizes with imperial Seanchan; let's say it's a coalition of rebels who want a different, more equal society. Mat's got gilt by association (thank you for that amazing phrase, Terry Pratchett) and he's not pleased about it, and unlike Tuon, he can envision a situation where she's still alive but not Empress. So I think that'd be another situation that would force him to have a crisis of conscience and start planning a coup or at least using his considerable power for leverage. The key in both cases is that it's not just Mat randomly deciding to take a stand for freedom; frankly, I don't think he would, unless he thought it was the best way to 'rescue' Tuon, and even then he would wait or maneuver until the tactical/strategic landscape was as much in his favor as possible, which is where the external circumstances weakening the Empire come in.