#idk if any of this makes sense LOL

[infriga]

Tumblr: check out this cool new thing everyone is into!

Me, still obsessed with the 5-10+ year old thing that I've been obsessed with for the past few years:

[crazyness-overpowers]

Haymitch's love for Katniss was quick, nearly automatic. A volunteer couldn't not be loved by the volunteered. And she was his best friend's child, for all that he had stopped having a best friend when the man laid on his chest to stop him from dying with his family because attachments would hurt him more than they would help him, so he had to. His heart had always been open to her. She just had to walk in.

But with Peeta? Peeta was a surprise. For a minute there, this merchant boy was just another casualty in his long list, was someone would soon join the legion of ghosts haunting his dreams and fended off by liquor. But then the glass got smacked out of his hand. Then he was kind. Then he had an aggressive and effective interview strategy. A flash of someone he had tried his damnedest to forget. And suddenly there was a place for Peeta not just in his mind but in his heart, as well.

Haymitch knew that he would have to be so so lucky and even then he'd only get one of them to survive. And he voice of Wyatt in the back of his head said it would be Katniss. But damn if he didn't adore both of them.

Damn if he wasn't very suddenly ready to add two more posters to his wall.

[bellesdiaries]

Love Between Fairy and Devil 苍兰诀 even more random text posts (part iii)

[stealerofthe2ndbraincell]

There's an aspect of Original!Elias Bouchard that makes me so sad to think about in a weird kind of "meta" way.

And that's the fact that he has to be labelled as the "OG" not as Elias.

Technically speaking Elias has been dead for years. It's Jonah that's taken over - literally having his eyes removed and replacing them with his own and living as him (he even seemingly keeps his "old fashioned haircut" on Elias' hair).

And yet we as the audience don't often call that form of Jonah "JONAH". Instead it's Elias, cause he's been Elias for 4 series at this point.

"Elias started the apocalypse", "Elias beat that old man to death with a metal pipe" when it was never really Elias in the first place.

He's been so robbed of his own identity that not even death can spare him; all of Jonah's actions in his body are recognised as him.

(Btw this isn't me saying you can't call Jonah!Elias straight up Elias, I do that regularly ofc. I'm just being emo rn lol)

[beeqisch]

*hagarens ur timkon*

no text under cut

[sanasanakun]

People try too hard to make Curly an active participant in Jimmy's abuse. Isn't the whole point that he's passive in everything Jimmy does? Abuse occurs because he actively doesn't do anything? Not to call someone out or be mean, but I saw a post saying Anya's ID being in Curly's locker at the beginning shows that he intended to prevent Anya from filing an HR report and I disagree. I get where that interpretation is coming from, but I think it's a little uncharitable. I don't like being too kind to Curly because he's like...a morally mid dude at best lol But if we're going by the HR report interpretation, I would say it's more likely he requested Anya's ID in order to file an HR report on her behalf. After all, the only way to contact Pony (that we see) is in the cockpit, he's the Captain, and Pony Express sucks bad so I wouldn't put it past them to only allow the Captain to use the communication device thing. As we see before, Curly is the only one able to use tools around the ship that you would think other employees could use (ex. Swansea should be able to use the axe if he's the repair guy. Idk why they'd need an ax but that falls under manual labor which Swansea is designated for as the mechanic/fixer dude. But it has to go through Curly). I never got the vibe that Curly moved to actively protect Jimmy. He just lets things happen without say a word; Jimmy walks all over him, and by extension, the whole crew. I get why people would think that because he gives the whole "Hey Jimmy, we can get through this together, bud" spiel right before the crash. This part interests me a lot because there's so many ways to interpret Curly's intentions there. My interpretation is that Curly is on autopilot mode. The responses seem so stilted in comparison to Jimmy's. Like it's the kind of thing Curly's said before again and again and again when Jimmy's gotten in trouble. However, as others previously pointed out, I don't think Curly ever dealt with Jimmy doing something this irredeemable. He doesn't know how to respond, so he just goes for the default "You've gotten through tough situations before. Work through it one step at a time." Like the response is lame af lol I think he was in shock; he was scared (and just so I can say it one more time: he's super lame).

Anyway, this is way longer than I intended and I've said things a billion people have already stated. But uhhh tldr the whole point of Curly's character is he's passive; he never acts. He just watches. Making him an active participant in the abuse by taking actions to cover for Jimmy (like preventing Anya from filing an HR report) defeats the purpose of his character. He's a bystander.

[purpleshadow-star]

It's kind of funny (heartbreaking) that there were multiple Ravens who wanted a number, to the point where some tried to manipulate Jean into helping them one way or another, but none of them would have been next in line. No matter what they did, there was always someone ahead of them on the list. Someone who wasn't even on the team. That someone wasn't Neil. Neil was a surprise to everyone, including Riko. That someone was Andrew.

Kevin might have had to beg Riko to go visit Andrew, and Riko might have laughed at Kevin and dismissed Andrew when Andrew turned him down, but make no mistake, if Andrew had accepted and had become a Raven, he would have taken that #4 spot within his first year.

If we're being real, Andrew had more of a chance at becoming part of the perfect Court than any of those Ravens ever had. Even Jean thinks of Andrew as one of them.

The other Ravens never stood a chance.

[gen4grl]

a nap in the sun

[fokrons-art-hell]

My iterator 9 Promises and their scav family (+ a new (YELLOW) addition to family...)

Naming suggestions for the baby r welcome :-)

[ketchup-chup]

What if I made a post about how Reborn is actually super observant and a really great communicator? What if I made a post about how Reborn's closed off nature and attitude is a deliberate choice on his part and not because he's emotionally stunted or unable to communicate his feelings? What if I said he's incredible at reading people, and providing guidance to his students and to the others outside of his "spartan training" or being a strict tutor? What if I said he's very capable of being a comforting and kind person (look at how he treats Yuni at anytime or the girls, especially during the future arc), and if he doesn't act this way it's for a reason (either because he doesn't want to comfort them (lambo) or it wouldn't be beneficial to their growth to coddle them (Tsuna)) What if I made a post about how Reborn isn't as simpleminded or one note as people write him?

[ladykyriaa]

I think one thing I'm gonna say to the people who are, in a way conflicted and/or waiting to watch the series is that you're honestly gonna have to be okay with grey areas. That's literally it.

KnH isn't going to explicitly show nor tell you how good/bad things are. it's an incredibly realistic story set in ancient China tackling its many issues; starting from societal problems, political, norms, gender roles, and so on. What might be problematic now isn't necessarily something the characters are going to think about more than twice.

I think a slightly controversial example would have to be abt the pedo emperor. YES, an incredibly horrible person and deserves to die in the most painful way possible. But KnH also tackled the issue that he had been human, all too pathetic and pitiful to rightfully rule the empire-never had the spine to talk to proper women thus resulting in him only talking and being attracted to (gag) little girls. You're not gonna see the characters talk ill of him more than necessary, they know its fucked up and frankly weird, but there's nothing to be done but to live with the consequences of his actions.

(Why I set this as a grey example is because I've seen people expecting the pedo to be this horrid-abusive person-and he is of course- but they certainly weren't expecting him to be depicted so pitifully and hurt, like he himself was a literal child still in need of protecting.)

don't also expect the characters to do one good thing after another just because you expect them to. Under different situations, different feelings, different place, their choices vary from one another depending on what's necessary. Don't even expect their relationship to be one linear from start to finish, thinking you can guess which way its gonna go.

in fact this is what maomao says when Jinshi questions her explicitly about their relationship

and i just think this genuinely applies to the series as a whole. Natsu Hyuuga isn't going to outrightly spell it out for y'all what Maomao nor Jinshi feels for each other, what the empress dowager feels for the pedo, what Ah-duo feels for the emperor and vice versa. She expects people to understand and come to their own conclusion.

She pieces together puzzles and expects you to fit them together, if you somehow got a different result from the way she intended then, well, that's on you I guess.

don't expect a "yes" or "no" answer to whatever questions you're about to ask. There's always gonna be a "but" and "however" to it, I think. At least from my experience of reading the novel and questioning the choices they've made.

People in this fandom throw away the word SA so easily, TOO easily I'd say. from here on out you're gonna read a lot more "problematic" things that other characters have done that they think are more or less for the good-whether that be their own good or other characters' sake.

The anime honestly does paint the series in a lighthearted way, and compared to other series it's certainly not as "dark". However I do think the strength of this series lay in its realistic choices and stories, how the characters feel so utterly human, not just driven by plot.

[silveranchor]

I do get a little annoyed at people who say they can't understand why people ship Mel and Langdon, or that those who do don't understand friendship or are delusional.

I understand those who don't see them as romantic. I saw them as platonic while watching the show, and even when I started reading fics; it took me a bit to start shipping them, but I never questioned those who did.

It's easy to understand, really, and if you don't, I'm afraid you simply haven't quite gotten the grasp on shipping as a whole.

The thing is, human relationships are dynamic, and the line between platonic and romantic is less static and defined than what some might think. That line can be different for everyone, AND while a relationship could fall on one side of the line at one time, it could develop in a way that crosses it. That's how things work in real life.

When talking about media, what one person can perceive as platonic can be interpreted differently by another, and while you look at canon interactions and interpret them as platonic and leave it at that, someone else can see the potential evolution into a relationship they would interpret as romantic and run with that.

In Mel and Langdon, you have two people who in less than 15 hours developed a connection, and who clearly respect and value each other. You might see them and think "those two are friends". Someone else might think "that's a great mentor-mentee relationship". Some others might think of how the connection they've established could develop into a romantic one and say "those two are meant to fall in love". Given the limited information we have, all of those are valid conclusions based on individual perspectives.

That's the fun of shipping. Different people can have different interpretations of a relationship based on their personal perspective, and unless you based your perspective on hateful attitudes (hmm hmm ableism, acephobia and prejudice related to substance use disorders are very relevant ones in this case) your interpretation is valid.

(That said, I hope they become besties, and fall in love slowly, and take a long time to actually accept their feelings and are absolutely pathetic about each other to the point that everyone else absolutely can't stand it... And THEN get together and be happy and disgustingly in love. In MY head, they do, anyway)

[yoosung-ah]

So nobody ever saved V...

[valtsv]

the way the mysterious men in black dealt with the "volunteers" in today's magprotocol episode reminded me of how avatars would sometimes sabotage each other's rituals, as well as how hunt avatars often operated, and it makes me wonder whether, in the universe of protocol, those who would have likely become servants of the dread powers in tma are more likely to be drawn to those kinds of professions and positions of authority where they can exert a similar kind of effect on others through fear and violence. and whether they might feel inexplicably challenged by these new monsters and compelled to seek them out and put them down.

[ahappyphjl]

the thing is, we all see and are aware of the love dnp have for each other. the unbreakable bond that transcends romance and friendship. but for them to acknowledge it head on… truly a new era. it’s them saying they accept that we’re all going to perceive them in our own ways, and it’s okay. they trust us. they know who they are, how they feel about each other, and that’s what’s most important. but that they would love to share a big part of their lives with us, a part that brings them happiness, knowing how much happiness that brings us. like whether or not they hard launch, i feel like this is where we’re at and im just so incredibly happy for them

[pigswithwings]

anyways speaking of like. femininity affecting mirages behavior i want 2 talk abt her conformity to the norm

so here i find a really interesting relationship between the way mirage presents herself and the way she navigates the world. like its always been fascinating to me how mirage's identity as a woman, as the prettiest girl in town, is entirely performance. look here for a second:

in these two bits, mirage plays up her femininity to to the player's perception of her. mirage knows that the player doesn't know her well enough to have a strong opinion and quickly jumps to playing into one of two things when you first meet her. if you're generally nice to her, she leans into self-aggrandizement and almost uses her title/reputation as "the prettiest girl" like a tool to feel better about herself. if you're rude, she ramps up her aggression and leans Hard into the insults.

but all of these are just very exaggerated performance of what mirage believes she should be. it's pretty easy to tell that most of mirage's insults aren't really rooted in actual anger towards you - she's just pissed at you but she'll forgive easily. like you can choose to aggrieve her (refusing to help her up) and then immediately step back (admit you're lost too) and her mood fluctuates with yours. also she quite directly says that "Blowing off steam is just how [she] cope[s]"

so we know that mirage's anger is mostly her way of avoiding the despair and internal pain that comes with her nihilism. BUT what about her femininity? how does her presentation affect or indicate her character? ok see here

mirage says she doesn't care about school. she cares about nothing and nothing matters, she's gotten to the point where she doesn't give a damn what others think of her. basically, mirage is at a point in her life where she doesn't care about herself. her aggressive attitude probably pushes people away, her academics certainly aren't a priority. maybe she's the prettiest girl in town, but this only references what she looks like and never what she Feels like. her whole persona is the true mirage.

therefore i interpret mirage being in a schoolgirl outfit, her title as the prettiest girl, her referral to herself as a fair maiden, and her entire presentation of femininity as a representation of her being stuck in her ways. (in the story, at least. of course mirages physical appearance is a riff on dating sim tropes, but i think that the schoolgirl outfit is too interesting to be forgotten when it comes to her personality and character)

it's clear that mirage is unhappy. it's clear that her nihilistic perspective has made her devalue herself. so i think she continues to wear the schoolgirl outfit and go to school and use her title because she's unable to break free of what's been set out for her.

i think personally that mirage's character is all about being stuck. stuck in your view of the world, stuck in your lifestyle, stuck in a town you hate surrounded by people you hate going to a school you hate. mirage is about needing to be pulled out of the haze that is total despair, and you (as the player character) are meant to do exactly that.

so to me, mirage's outfit and reliance on the classic version of femininity just emphasizes how she is stuck. mirage doesn't know how to get out of her societal role as the prettiest girl. she continues to act as this specific version of what a girl is, she continues to dress as a schoolgirl and go to school because she believes she has to. she enjoys none of it, but it's okay if she rationalizes it as "all of life is supposed to be painful anyways". with mirage's acceptance of the world's meaninglessness, she also accepts the idea that she has to be a girl in this specific way. and it sucks for her