#if it brings someone joy I'm about it because no matter your moral argument

[thunderdilf]

What your MK OTP says about you

(based on ships I enjoy and/or have seen in passing)

[feel free to rebagel and add—ship hate will mean insta-blockage, for whatever that’s worth! I’m using the ship names I’ve krafted, and ballparking with others. I hope they give ye a giggle. If your ship isn’t here, PLEASE add it! I just went from memory. I love y’all.]

Caged Heat (Liu/Johnny): you’re here for a good time, not a long time—you like good tiddies and the word “angorny” means something to you. There is passion in both kombat and throwing someone’s luggage off a dock. Sparks, I tells ya.

Sonya/Johnny: you appreciate pegging and Cassie Cage (who doesn’t?). You like the story of a jerk with a heart of gold showing his true colors to a woman who is NOT easily impressed—and who also tops.

Shaolin Rowdy Boys (Liu/Lao): you’re here for a good time, not a long time… literally—you crave childhood friends to unexpected lovers and secret banging in temple broom closets! You see the value of a best friend who’ll go to bat for you, even against a 10,000 year old turboprincess, or maybe you ARE that friend.

Jadetana (Jade/Kitana): Kitana bottoms for NO man, but for Jade, she’d do anything. You love that dynamic of unswerving loyalty which secretly hides deep, abiding admiration and maybe a little lust—or a lot! Who knows what freaky shit Edenian gals can get up to in their private time? You. YOU know and may The Elder Gods™ bless you for producing kontent.

Thermodynamic Equilibrium (subscorp): old guy love is just the ticket—you crave the maturity of years, but you don’t want it boring; someone is getting speared because the love is more intense with age. Kombat to lovemaking is your kryptonite.

Warring Exes (Shang Tsung/Raiden): old guy love, but make it fashion—opulence meets chastity in a clash for the ages; you want an emotional roller coaster of “what if” and “why not”, where a mortal may teach a god to love himself, and love being loved… or perhaps not. Tragedy abounds. There’s enemies to lovers and then there’s this roller coaster. Do you really want good things for Raiden? Debatable.

Faraday Cage (Johnny/Raiden): old guy love, again, but this time it’s two dads finding comfort in a time when they need it most—you REALLY just want good things for Raiden and honestly, who doesn’t? Johnny is, decidedly, a good thing and you’ve decided that nicknames like “1.21 gigawatts” and “electric slide” are acceptable forms of foreplay. 

Cassie/Raiden: Faraday Cage 2: Electric Boogaloo—you might be a spite shipper (rock on) or you just dig visible age gap (because you know that every ship including Raiden or Fujin is EXTREME age gap) and you just want Cassie and Raiden to have nice things.

Jacqueda (Jacqui/Takeda): you watched them grow over the course of X and you were smitten. You’re convinced love really can bloom on the battlefield and kombat spouses appeal to you. The idea of Jacqui throwing down with Scorpion for Takeda’s hand appeals to you as well. Same.

Liutana (Liu Kang/Kitana): all those voice lines and character endings mean something to you—in fact, you may have cried; they’ve been fiddling about since 1995, goddammit, you just want good things for them! Is that so much to ask? I say make it happen.

Royal Pain (Shao Kahn/Sindel): the term “power couple” means something OTHERWORLDLY to you—you took one look at this terrible twosome and went “get me a freak like that” but no one was sure which one you meant and that was okay with you. You’re enamored with their grisly Gomez/Morticia aesthetic. They are awful and you LOVE it. Good on you!

Windwolf (Nightwolf/Fujin): you played Aftermath. ‘Nuff said. JK I’m never done. You love the dynamic of middle-aged person and deity falling in love, which is bizarrely specific, but you’ve found your niche goddammit and you’re going to fill it. You appreciate the koncept of the “god” not always being on top of things, or put-together and the idea of a mortal comforting such a being titillates you. The way Nightwolf stands, holding his belt buckle is, you’re convinced, what sold Fujin; it’s also what sold YOU. 

Windserpent (Shang Tsung/Fujin): you played Aftermath and while you didn’t think of it at the time, you’ve seen some REALLY nice art and batted the idea around a while and then settled on “yes this is for me”. The appeal is in the danger, from both sides—a nigh-immortal soul sorcerer and a god. Perhaps you crave a redemption arc, or a corruption arc; either way, this ship has serious potential and you intend to exploit it. How Shang Tsung of you.

Honor among thieves (Erron Black/Kung Jin): you dig age gap, unironic cowboys, and the idea of a couple of people who haven’t always been on the right side of the law finding themselves and their points of strength in the Kourt of an Outworld emperor. 

Kotal/Jade: you only needed a few cutscenes to tell you that these two are MADLY in love; what we lacked in pure kontent (after all, the game didn’t CENTER on them), they made up for in passionate exchanges. You appreciate the dynamic of respect between them and pegging is NEVER off the table.

Kano/Raiden: the aesthetic of filth-meets-purity appeals to you something fierce. The dynamic is unique and you love the potential for a redemption/corruption arc(s?). 

Shang Tsung/Kano: you saw the club scene in MK95 and you went “yes they’re boning”. Whether there is actual affection or not varies with your mood. You love the idea of disaster gay and refined gay coming together to make something dastardly. 

Bi-Hanzo (Bi-Han/Scorpion): you crave old wounds and aches and angst, drowning in memories of what never could have been, and regrets of what might have been prevented. This is an angst fest and it is YOUR cup of tea; drink that shit down, my friend, no sugar, no cream. Have at it.

Sonya/Jax: team mom and dad aesthetic appeals to you on a spiritual level. Someone’s gotta be in charge of this chicken shit outfit. AMERICA.

The Storm (Fujin/Raiden): your aesthetic includes the difficulty of a mortal’s inability to truly connect with and understand immortals and immortals finding themselves and each other in that realization. These entities who have existed since the beginning of all things understand each other better than anyone else could. Shine on.

Sindel/Raiden: this is team parents aesthetic on ‘roids. You’re probably a fan of the brainwashed Sindel theory and you’re of the opinion that only the love of a god is remotely worthy of the ultimate scream queen. Honestly, you’re probably right. Body worship is on your list of goals, right alongside worthy equals in a relationship—kinky. That being said, pegging is always a possibility.

Mileena/Scorpion: your aesthetic is danger—but alongside that is “lost souls finding love” and “shared burdens of infinite AGONY”. You dig angst and the potential for star-crossed lovers, meeting each other’s eyes across the arena of kombat. The idea of Scorpion as a consort (Kahnsort?) for Mileena might also appeal to you.

Rain/Mileena: the song “hatefuck” by the Bravery is probably your jam. You know there’s little love lost between these two, but perhaps kombat will bare their souls in such a way that they find some redeeming quality in the other—and the sex is VICIOUS. That’s what you’re looking for and by The Elder Gods™ you’ve found it.

Fanblade (Kitana/Sonya): you saw MK95 and went “I can fix this”. Kombat futch meets ancient warrior princess futch—this feels like hardcore xenabrielle vibes with a side of GORE because it’s mortal kombat, let’s be real. You feel as if Kitana would be foolish not to claim Sonya as her lover after watching her snap Kano’s neck with her thighs. You would be right.

Taleena (Tanya/Mileena): rebel, rebel—we love a good usurpation, don’t we? Power struggles are hot, both politically and in bed. Your kinks include overthrowing the bourgeoisie (even though you ARE the bourgeoisie) and seizing the means of production (meaning the flesh pits, probably). 

Shaiden (Shinnok/Raiden): your motto is fight and fuck—or enemies to lovers, for the more refined shipper. Maybe you prefer enemies AND lovers. Go hard or go home, I say.

Nightwolf/Erron Black: old guy love, but make it reformed criminal. The appeal here is that, very likely, someone has to convince someone else that he really IS out of the woods, to show him his true worth, and maybe give him some time off from the violent grind of kombat life.

Kablam (Kabal/Erron Black): black dragon buddies! In the depths of mercenary work, there isn’t time for love, not really, so you want to see these two assholes find some semblance of peace and pleasure amidst illicit activities. Whether or not Kano knows depends on what kind of quickie sex appeals most to you.

Jacquass (Cassie/Jacqui): military lesbians, friends to lovers, BFFs, this ship has it all. You’re in love with the idea of a couple of people who grew up together, suffered and fought and bled together, stumbling away from a battlefield, carrying each other and finding that perhaps they can keep carrying the other, maybe forever.

Kotal/Erron: The idea of watching someone go from bad to the bone, to actually CARING about something other than himself thrills and excites you. That kind of loyalty can’t be bought, even though you keep pretending that’s all it is. Very tsundere.

Kano/Kabal: “he’s a lowlife, piece of shit scumbag; you’re gunna love ‘im.” Nuff said.

[thenightling]

bro i agreed with your original post but i literally morally had to unlike it bc of the replies like

a) way too much ad hominem

b) jumping to conclusions— someone isn’t deliberately lying if they believe what they are saying….that’s the opposite of deliberate

c) only siths deal in absolutes….ie. you cannot make absolute statements that are objectively false as in “maladaptive day dreamers don’t believe in shifting” and reinforcing it “you’re lying” etc. etc. like that’s an absolute statement….there are literally maladaptive day dreamers and lucid dreamers saying it feels different….i’m not saying their perception of that is right but it’s a difference of what’s scientifically accurate versus what someone personally believes

d) take a breath. there is no reason to be this stressed about it. i’m concerned too because i’m worried about the social and psychological impacts of this as well (wanting to isolate, becoming dependent on doing it, hating your real life, etc.) but i also can’t deny that people can use this in a healthy way, but people in general especially with teens and children, should be very cautious about promoting it and how they do so. I don’t think it’s to a debilitating level yet though, and teens grow up too.

f) you seem to take things a bit too personally and i’m worried about the impact on your mental health. ie. thinking everyone is personally purposefully commenting in the replies to aggravate your visual impairment and then becoming increasingly agitated by it — like this is the internet, you can’t expect everyone to read every single comment/post in the thread. does that make their argument credible? no but why even waste the time reading it or bothering to reply and work yourself up about it?

i understand you are passionate about this subject but the way you approach your argument lacks logos for the above reasons and ethos for conflating others beliefs as a personal attack and your own beliefs as undoubtable (even though you do change your view on some of it — like the megalomania but refuse to acknowledge that you’ve done so or that the opposition is anything other than incorrect). finally, serenity prayer. take a breath and find peace in the things you can’t control. you are only wrecking your own mental and physical health. you can still advocate for issues you care about but it’s not sustainable with this vitriolic attitude wearing away at you from the inside. this is not a pressing issue of injustice and inequality that demands such an attitude from the oppressed. you are only one person. take a breath and use your support systems and ways of relaxing to move away from this attitude.

i’m not sure if you’ll take this well based on your replies but i think it’s been a year? since that post was made so i hope you’ve taken the time to self reflect on what really matters to you and make room for things that bring you joy. i genuinely wish the best and mean the best (other than grammar, i tried phrasing like an academic critique of an argument/speech). not sure if this is even relevant as i’m realizing it’s a year old (i think) but reading through all the replies nearly physically compelled me to sit here and write this at 5 am. hope you are doing better.

The irony is I couldn’t even tell what subject this was in regard to at first.

At first glance I could tell what post this in reply to. At first I thought it was about my The Sandman / Batman post and then I thought it was that weird French Revolution thing.  Finally I thought it was about teens and reality shifting. I have no basis for context here.

"only siths deal in absolutes" - You realize that statement is an absolute in and of itself, right? I'm often in awe at how few people catch the deliberate irony.

Is this the reality shifting post? ...That post was a year ago.

One of my first thoughts was:  Is this the stupid Guillotine the queen / Les Miserables crap again?   I shut anonymous asks off and blocked a bunch of people who deliberately tried to take what I said out of context (i.e. pretending I was using A Tale of two cities and Scarlet Pimpernel as sources when I said, upon mentioning them, that those are fiction, followed by actual sources).  And then getting that one very disturbing reply that said it would weaken the revolution to not kill the children and that if I had actually been born in poverty I’d know that, followed by creepy paraphrasing of Mein Kompf. 

I wasn’t even that passionate on the original post, I just felt the visual was misused.   Was it that? Are you coming late to the party on the French revolution stuff from a week ago?    

Serenity prayer?!   From the looks of it you dug up an ancient post and are now telling me to calm down about it.

But I do see you bring up Lucid Dreamers and Maladaptive day dreamers.  And here’s my frustration.  I replied to claims like this several times.  And I mean several.  You wrote this message without having the respect to read that I addressed this many times.

I AM a Lucid Dreamer (except when I’ve been experiencing intense emotions, then I lose control) and I have studied psychology with SCI.  In one of the many replies to this subject I even posted pictures of my diplomas.   I’m not a clinical psychologist but I have studied the subject.  

And no.  It’s not actually different. There is a Tik Tok-esque misconception that Lucid dreaming means being aware that you are in a dream.  Hence the “Lucid.”  No.   That’s a variation on it.     

Actual Lucid Dreaming (as I have explained several times now) is becoming aware in a dream.  Not necessarily defining it as a dream but having enough cognition to take control of your surroundings on some level.   Whether you believe it’s a dream or not is actually secondary to this.

 No one who has knowingly lucid dreamed would dare limit it to “But that’s not how Lucid Dreaming feels” because unlike maladative day dreaming, there is no limitation to what you can do or how it must feel when you Lucid Dream.  The moment you but a limitation on it, you are essentially proving you don’t really know what it is or the potentiality within it.

Finally, there were several replies from people who have maladative Day dreams who agreed with me, and those who Lucid dream, like myself.

[reki-of-the-valley]

I'm thinking about your "defining your happiness by another person isn't healthy". (Sorry, it just sparked something in me)

While I agree that solely relying on one person as your means to happiness isn't great, I don't think it's unhealthy for Langa to think of Reki as his happiness for many reasons.

1) he's 17. It's normal for his best friend, someone who made him feel alive again, to be his happiness. Langa's been deprived of emotions for a hot minute, so having this person who now means so much to him give him a reason to be happy, that shouldn't be taken away from him. It's not bad to rely on others, to feel things when around them. Reki gives him happiness and that's awesome because for awhile he wasn't happy.

2) Reki being Langa's happiness doesn't mean that nothing else will make him happy. It just means that Reki is someone that will bring him joy no matter what. It's Reki's presence that will lift Langa's spirits. And that isn't Reki's job, but Langa also never said it was Reki's obligation to do that. Sometimes, having someone as your happiness just means that if you're feeling down, having them around, having them care about you (because Reki does care. They're best friends and best friends care about each other. Best friends are there for each other. It's like being family) is all you need to not feel so down. Having someone as your happiness doesn't mean that your universe is them. Just like eating your favorite cookie will cheer you up after a long day, spending time with that person will make you happy

3) it's not because Reki is Langa's happiness that they won't fight and argue. Arguments are inevitable, but that doesn't mean they won't love each other any less. Langa won't jump from one person to another just because he argues with his best friend. And even if it is Reki that messes up, he's the one who ends up doing something to hurt Langa's feelings, if they do put in the effort to fix their mess (which I know they will), they'll still mean so much to each other. Reki will still be Langa's happiness because despite it all, they'll get to smile together and be happy together

Moral of this, I'm not saying relying on only one person as the only means of happiness is great, but I'm also saying it's not bad to have Reki be Langa's happiness. Langa needs someone by his side and if he can find that confort in Reki, then good for him. Best friends, true best friend like those two, they're rare to come across, but once you have them, you don't let go. You keep them close to your heart and you smile when you think of them.

And maybe in 10 years they'll drift apart. Maybe in 10 years Reki won't be Langa's happiness anymore, that he'll find something new, but that doesn't change that in the moment, when he was 17, Reki meant so much to him, enough to say "this boy is my happiness. This boy makes me happy" which is important. It's Langa's way of saying I love you (be it platonic or more) and feeling his feelings for once

As much as I like Sk8, the overall moral doesn't sit well with me. Defining your happiness by another person isn't healthy, and doing everything in life just for fun is shallow and not a philosophy that will ultimately hold up. These things are like a bandaid, and I hope that they provide a healing environment where the characters can truly explore and deal with grief, fear, and the deeper implications of the terrible & difficult things life brings - but to live your life for fun, and to have someone else be necessary for your happiness, isn't going to be enough for true processing & healing. You'll always be chasing the next high and living miserably (or at least dissatisfied) in between. That person will let you down, life might eventually take them away from you, whether through a breakup or differing priorities or tragedy. They won't always be there, and what will you have to fall back on? Will you just start searching for a new person to embody your happiness? What if you don't find one? How will you cope with the heavier things of the world if you're making decisions simply based on what is fun?

I really like what the show has to say about the lie of perfectionism and not needing to be the best and appreciating people for who they are. I just worry that it also conveys a message that things that aren't fun aren't worthwhile, and that's not always true. Of course I want people (especially teens) to know that their value is not determined by what they can do, but I also want them to see that not everything meaningful in life is fun. And relationships are important, but no one should have the power to control your emotions but yourself. That's way too much power to give another person and it isn't their responsibility. Lean on people when you need to - but cultivate your own mental space so that you are not entirely codependent on someone(s) else.

As an adjacent topic, I would really like to explore Langa's apparent cultural Catholicism and the Kyan family's traditional background to see how each framework supports the boys as they become adults and deal with everything.