#if mori is actually revealed to be 100% one or the other | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

daz4i · 2 years ago

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the new op is making me insane so i’m gonna try to overanalyze its visuals, what i think the symbolism means, how it connects to this season and the manga arcs coming after it. all of it is my interpretation ofc, feel free to disagree and i encourage you to add your own takes!

i’m not gonna go over every single detail, either because i have nothing to say about it or i’m not sure what it could mean, which is another reason i encourage you to add your own analysis in a reblog if you want to :3

warning for major spoilers for the manga under the cut, as well as unholy amounts of reaching lol

first thing i wanna look at is uh. that one fyodor shot, and specifically the second before it

the number of hands is a little odd to me. at first i noticed 4 sets of hand so my immediate thought was “oh, one set for every doa member, minus bram since he doesn’t have any” but noticing that 9th one coming alongside his face threw a wrench in that. so, assuming this number is purposeful, i have a few ideas:

1. it’s not just the doa involved, but the rats as well. both organizations have 5 members we know of. fyodor is in both organizations, meaning that combined, we have 9 people, and a hand for each one

2. it IS just the doa, and 2 hands for each member (bram included), except for fyodor who is both a hand and a head. he is the strategist and planner, thus he is the head, while the others are more like the ones who execute his plans, so they merely get to be hands (not sure how much i love this theory considering at the end of the day he is not their leader, but if you stretch it you could say that in this season we have no reason to assume he isn’t the doa leader so there’s no reason to imply otherwise? or a future implication that he’s letting fukuchi think he’s the leader but is actually manipulating him? yeah i dunno)

3. another one i don’t particularly love, but: it’s less about the number of hands, and rather about the finger highlighting the number 5, since this is going to be a key thing this season

okay, on to a more obvious one:

tachihara has his back to us, as to not reveal his identity yet

he is looking upon a purple background, a color we see in some mafia members’ abilities, hinting at him belonging in the mafia

once again, tachihara has his back to us. aside from him, all of the hunting dogs are revealed to the audience and looking forward (even if not 100%), except for fukuchi who is looking to the side, and is behind the pillar, making him visually separated from the rest of the group, since he belongs in the doa rather than the hunting dogs

couple of things you might be able to get from this:

1. sigma looking to the side, his back to nikolai and bram. he is not willingly in the doa or supports their goals, more dragged along for the ride. he is a part of the group, but has his eyes shut and his back turned to them, some sort of buffer to imply his separation from them

2. the main thing we see of nikolai is his overcoat. ngl i’m not sure what the symbolism in this could mean but it feels important so i wanna point it out for maybe other people to connect the dots i can’t. possibly, this shot is to highlight the tools at the doa’s disposal, aka sigma and bram as themselves, but nikolai mainly used for his ability...?

so. first of all. they’re and red and blue, opposites of each other in color and in direction as well

but the interesting thing to me is that they’re each others’ colors - with the ada usually presented in blue and the mafia in red, here we have it backwards. possibly to imply their (partial) role reversal in the eyes of the public, the ada now being demonized and hunted by the law while the mafia gets to lay low and offer assistance

possibly, you could stretch it to say their role reversal is in part about how fukuzawa would have to sacrifice a member for his organization in order to get what he needs, a thing that’s mori-like to do

speaking of blue to symbolize the ada, ango is clad in a blue light, implying his upcoming alliance with the ada

we see fukuchi using shintō amenogozen in his battle with atsushi and akutagawa

i’ve seen people say this part of the op implies their battle will be in this season and i’m ngl, i don’t think there’s any chance of that. it’s way too much story to cram into this season. i think this part is, for now, just to imply the ada and pm working together against the hunting dogs, and him using this sword and fighting them at the same time is just a nod to sharp eyed manga readers (same with the bram cameos)

that being said. i want you to pay attention to the color of his ability in this frame (it’s a surprise tool that’ll help us later!)

yosano and the butterfly, and we specifically see her from the side, with her butterfly hairpin shining, putting emphasis on her upcoming backstory

okay, now we’re getting into the character face closeups, and here i’m gonna use these handy posts from @/dazaistabletop for reference, bless your soul for getting all of them fr 🙏

the main thing i want to get from it is the colors. tldr: the ada is a teal-ish blue, the mafia is red and purple (depending on their abilities), the guild is yellow, the hunting dogs is white, the special division is brownish-orange, the doa are the same dark blue from fukuchi’s ability earlier. this does match the general color of the members’ abilities through every group as well.

when it comes to the order of the frames, i think it’s mostly random (tho, with key characters coming early, and more minor characters we barely even really see this season if at all showing up near the end) except for a few pairs:

dazai and fyodor are the first 2 frames, the key foils of this season

fukuchi and fukuzawa are one after the other because they are divorcing each other

akutagawa and atsushi are the ones to close this section and the opening as a whole, as they often do as the key foils of the entire series

a few frames i want to highlight in particular:

tachihara’s purple is lighter than the other mafia members’ purple (added gin for comparison), implying his belonging to the hunting dogs

mushi is brown too?? not sure what that implies ngl. mostly pointing it out as a request for anyone to chip in with their own take on that

despite not working for the guild anymore (and given that he’s without his glasses we have to assume this is him working for fyodor), nathaniel is still in yellow. like with mushi, i’m not sure what that could mean. maybe they just didn’t want to figure out a color for the rats for 2 frames i dunno. again if you have your own take, hit me

poe is fully colored the same color as the ada 🥺 he’s fully part of the team by now (ok now do lucy next.)

the text appears for just two frames, nikolai and akutagawa. for akutagawa, it blends with his red background, but for nikolai it actively stands out and covers his already covered eye. unfortunately i can’t read japanese, so i would love that if someone who does sees this could tell me what the text says to see if that means something as well 🙏

edit: according to my friend @/almightyrozenidiot apparently it says rashomon! and i’d guess it’s in red because this is the color of this ability, after all. i still think its placement on nikolai’s covered eye is interesting, esp given how much it stands out (the other ability names flashing on screen in that sequence are written in white, i barely even noticed they were there), and i wonder if this might imply some future thing asagiri’s planning between them.

okay, so you were probably wondering why i skipped the fyodor flowers moment, and this is why

so. i tried figuring out what at least some of the flowers are to maybe see if there’s meaning there and either couldn’t, or the ones i did recognize did not align with anything meaning wise, so i figured the colors stand more for the colors of abilities we’ve seen so far, and mainly the ada and port mafia

the faces frames in the end of the op establish the special division’s color as orange, hence the two small orange flowers (and their yellow center could be for the guild). they definitely stand out less, as for now they are a smaller pawn in the plan. the ada - marked with the blue flowers and green leaves - are the biggest target of the current phase of the plan, and that’s why they’re closest to his face and make the most of the flowers, size wise

the only purely white ability we’ve seen so far is natsume’s. as the mediator between the three main organizations in yokohama, it makes sense for him to be in the middle of all these colors. the same white flowers are also on the outside (as seen below), since he is mainly watching things unfold from the side.

will also add that at times, no longer human appears as white or grey as well (tho usually - but not always - with a slight blue tint). this also makes sense given that dazai was in both the mafia and ada, and serves as a mediator or communicator between them at times, hence put in the middle as well.

unfortunately, i can’t tell what the pink flowers are meant to be. the only ability i can think of that’s pink is lucy’s (i don’t recall ever seeing the colored circles when she activates it, but given what anne’s room looks like it seems like a fair assumption), but it’s weird she’d get such a big part of this frame just for herself. maybe it’s because of how big her role is in helping the ada this season? again, if you have your own take please go ahead and share it!!

the flowers then stop growing and start withering as the white flowers take over

could not for the life of me find what these flowers are unfortunately, but, white flowers in general usually mean some form of purity and innocence. this does align with fyodor’s ultimate plan - to purify the world of abilities. white flowers often symbolize holiness as well, since his plan is, to him, the will of god

notice that the flowers have 5 petals as well, a repeating number of this arc and in many of the doa’s plans

edit 2: @/larathia pointed out in the comments that these flowers are japanese snake gourds! and apparently, in hanakotoba they mean “hatred of men”. yeah that checks out with fyodor lol

and... i think that’s all i have for you today! i hope you liked it! once again encouraging you to reblog with your own additions on things i might’ve missed or your own take on things, and i hope you all have a lovely day 🙏🖤

#bungou stray dogs #bsd analysis #bungo stray dogs season 4 #bsd s4 #bsd spoilers #bsd fyodor #bsd fukuchi #bsd fukuzawa #bsd tachihara #bc those 4 are the main repeating characters here hehe #this took like 3 hours to write so i'd really appreciate reblogs if possible 🥺#apologizing for any typos or english errors btw heh. i did type most of this out in a slight frenzy bc this op makes me very excited :P #dan rambles #edit: added some stuff!! hope this doesn't make the post be hidden in search results omg

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kitkatnerds3 · 1 year ago

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BSD SEASON 5 EP 11 + GENERAL OVERVIEW

HOLY FUCK!

THAT WAS SO COOL!

So many things! So much information! So much angst! So many beautiful visuals! I am going to just be describing so much stuff so be warned.

Ok, let's start from the beginning, you've got Aya throwing herself off the roof, and as I assumed it would, the plan works! The sword is out! And Bram has A FUCKING BODY???!!! WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT PART FOR SOME REASON! HE LOOKS SO LONG! And Aya is safe! Asagiri decided to put his hatred of children to the side for once and let her live!

But while he may have let Aya live he didn't let certain other people live. And so with that flawless segway let's go over to Meursault!

Yeah so FYODOR IS FUCKING DEAD. I am willing to believe he'll come back and will talk about how i think that'll happen on a different post but for right now HOLY SHIT HE'S DEAD!

So the scene starts with him walking outta prison with a gay little walk to meet Nikolai and they do their gay little thing, truly there is nothing more romantic then telling someone you'll kill them. And as Fyodor walks to the helicopter he drops a bit of lore that NO ONE ELSE HAS TALKED ABOUT! he said that Dazai was his first challenge since "him". WHO THE FUCK IS HIM???? The only person i can think of that coupd possibly fit the ridiculous genius role is Shibusawa, and it cant be him! Bones has visuals of Shibu they would've flashed a shot of him if it was him, and also that doesn't make sense character wise. This is Fyodor backstory information!

And speaking of, or at least slightly mentioning Dazai. THE BOI AIN'T DEAD! FYODOR CANT KILL HIM HE'S GONNA BE HERE AT THE END OF THE WORLD ALONG WITH COCKROACHES AND TWINKIES! And guess what else? CHUUYA ISNT A VAMPIRE! AND HE NEVER WAS ONE! BRO WAS ACTING! Tachihara is gonna have to relinquish his medal as best actor because Chuuya was spot on! Chuuya also has the vampire fangs still glued to his teeth from when Mori apparently put them there. Lol.

But back to seriousness, Dazai did a little speech about how Fyodor lost because he doesn't trust anyone and then they kill Fyodor by having the helicopter fly into the wall! Fyodor's last words were also from the Bible and according to what others have said they mean something along the lines of "oh god, oh god, why have you forsaken me", I don't think this line has much to do with lore besides like, religious Bible symbolism, but I have seen people theorize that Fyodor's gonna pull a Jesus and rise from the dead in three days! And seeing as I do think that this isn't the last we'll see of him, that could be true!

But now for the most important part of this section, at the cost of Fyodor's life Fyolai is now 100% canon! Some of the most delicious diversity wins are the ones that feel like losses at the same time. To elaborate more, after Fyodor dies the only part left of him is his arm and so Dazai picks it up and gives it to Nikolai say "Aren't you happy you killed him?" Which... technically he didn't kill him but I guess it sorta counts since it was part of the game, anyways, so Nikolai takes the arm and just cradles it to his chest,, so gently,, and says that Fyodor was the only person to ever understand him and that he is actually very sad now that he's dead, it's said much better in the episode I'm not good at dialog, and he just goes over to the wreckage and holds the severed arm of his one and only friend to his face and it's so sad, so gruesome yet so sweet, how tragic, how them.

Oh, and also Sigma is fucking dead apparently. I don't believe this because a good half of my theories are formed on a 'that wouldn't narratively make sense' basis, and by God would that not make sense narratively! And so I'm certain that Sigma is fine, we'll probably find out more about what actually happens in the manga, maybe he'll be in a coma until they need him to reveal the Fyodor back story, because they WILL be giving a Fyodor back story, he's done too much for his affect on the plot to just end now. I have a theory on how he might come back that I'll write later.

Onto a different topic, it's time for OLD MAN YAOI!

Holy shit the old man yaoi was so genuinely devastating. They cared about eachother so much! They CARE about eachother so much! The flower petals! The LITERALLY INSANE AMOUNT OF FLOWER PETALS!

Ok so, Fukuzawa reveals that he's not dead and was just waiting for the right opportunity to strike, and so he finds it and he goes at Fukuchi, they do a fight Fukuzawa gets the One Order and the nukes are deactivated! But wait, Fukuchi runs at him again, Fukuzawa slashes his sword-! But wait! Fukuchi is... smiling? Fukuzawa is now regretting his swing but it's too late to pull back now and so it slashes through his old friends throat, after he does this Poe's book falls out and they both get sucked in, leading me to be kinda confused because I thought you had to actually read it in order to be sucked in? But whatever it's not important.

So in the book Poe has written a couple scenes from Fukufuku's childhood, I assume Ranpo must have told him about the memories, or maybe him and Fukuzawa did some son and father in law bonding where Fukuzawa told him the stuff. Anyways, now the old Fukufuku are having a conversation as the young Fukufuku are just sword fighting, goofing around and being FRIENDS! AUGH! They used to be such close friends! And just, watching them being happy in the past was truly so sweet and devastating, why oh why did it have to end this way!

Now, along with the sad shit that's happening we're also getting some big lore! It turns out that the reason why Fukuchi was doing all of this was because he had gotten a message from the future that there would be a huge war that kills thousands of people, and that he did this as a sort of sacrifice a few for the many thing. And, another big gay and big lore thing, Fukuchi never actually intended to be the commander of the Army of Mankind, he wanted Fukuzawa to command it because he thought that Fukuzawa was so good he couldn't be corrupted by that amount of power. Holy fuck that was so gay! He is so in love! He cares about and thinks so much of Fukuzawa I wish things could turn out different so badly! Like, Fukuchi still kinda sucks (<- just remembered the whole Jouno situation), but he didn't use to suck and if the situation was different he might not have sucked now! The old man yaoi is so tragic! Fuck!

And so Fukuchi asks Fukuzawa to kill him, and Fukuzawa agrees, but when it finally comes down to it, he can't. Fukuzawa has always cared for the one more then he's cared for the many, and even if it would be for the best he just can't bring himself to kill his best friend. And then comes Teruko with a steel chair stabbing Fukuchi in the back! OK seriously now, Teruko comes in and stabs Fukuchi, it seems that its because he asked her to do so as she is quite upset about it, she hands the sword to Fukuzawa and proceeds to turn away,not wanting to look at them anymore, and Fukuchi crumples into Fukuzawa's arms and he holds him as be takes his final breaths, and as Fukuchi takes his final breath Fukuzawa starts Crying! Like full on screaming ans sobbing! Out of every duo I was not expecting Fukufuku to be the one to get the 'crying as you hold your dead partner in you arms' troup, but I'm not complaining! This was devastating.

One final bit about Fukufuku, it is honestly kinda funny how much Bones clearly adores their relationship. They get all the best animation and a whole new artstyle/coloring pallet just fir their scenes! As we've said before, Bones really like their old man yaoi.

And now we get to everyone else, such as SSKK! The neck bite was fine, it wasn't slow and sensual but I think it made up for it by being kinky as heck! Like, look me in the eyes and tell me that wasn't kinky. Atsushi sure seemed to think it was! Other characters include, Juni and Kunikida! They're awake now! They're alright! And so is Ranpo! Kenji and Tecchou are up! My boys! We unfortunately will not get an angsty Suegiku vampire reunion it seems, but its fine, i guess. (<- it's not fine but whatever, it is what it is, I just hope there is some angst when they do meet up again, didnt Asagiri say he wantedto further exoand their relationship?) And of course the most important characters to show up in the outro, LUCY AND KYOUKA! THE GIRLS ARE HERE! WHERE THE FUCK HAVE THEY BEEN! and where's Yosano??? They just, didn't include her at all where is she????

And finally, the two hour time skip.

WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!!!!!!!!!!??!

The airport is on fire?! A floaty gid-lookin guy that looks like Fukuchi is fighting sskk?! AKUTAGAWA HAS A NEW OUTFIT!? My boy got rid of his coat and his Victorian vampire aesthetic and decide to go even further back in time by doing a knights outfit! He has a little eye guard thingy! It's both very stupid and very cool looking and the most important thing is that he's PRETTY! BONES DID IT! THEY FINALLY LET AKU SMILE AND BE PRETTY! THANK FUCK! And when I say they made him pretty I mean they made him Pretty! Bro looked majestic! And Atsushi too! I mean he was wearing the same outfit as always but he looked very nice and!! He smiled at Akutagawa!! He fondly and softly smiled at Akutagawa!!!! Holy shit sskk canon! But also still what the fuck is happening.

Anyways, I have written a lot of stuff and I still have some thought left over, so I might make a second post later, when I'm not supposed to be asleep perhaps.

TLDR; that was a great episode and a very fun end to the series, all of our ships are canon, and i am super excited to see how this will be in manga form! Wow it's weird to be thinking about being excited to see the manga adaptation of the anime instead of the other way around.

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meanya · 4 years ago

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If you missed any or all of the Unus Annus livestream, here's a summary of every hour:

~11 hours out: The channel name could've been Annus Singulos (they decided on Unus Annus at a Buffalo Wildwing)

They always planned on it ending on Friday the 13th NOT the 15th (@ MatPat)

The dude who interrupted the sex toys video was not a mailman, he was just some guy. He did not comment on the sex toy stuff.

~10 hours out: They look at memes. Mark "hook car batteries up to my nipples and I'll say yes every time" Fischbach is NOT a masochist, he just wants to know what it feels like to be hit by a car

Frank!!! Frank!!!!!!!

Ethan is going to marry the microphone clip on his shirt

Dollar Shave Club never got back to them about a sponsorship

The workers including the actress in the escape room actually enjoyed having Mark and Ethan doing their shtick there

~9 hours out: Vincent the editor made a best of his edits throughout the videos, it was beautiful, it was mostly just clips of dying

He also wrote them a WHOLE DAMN ORIGINAL SONG!!! IN A WEEK!! About stopping the clock!!! He rapped!

Marcus the editor did a funny edits-roll as well, it was brilliant

~8 hours out: Rachel shows her edits roll! Some of the funniest clips in the whole series!

A comment they read: Mark can do any of his edgy project ideas now and that's terrifying.

Mark: Just wait til you see my next project.

Their merch manager had to buy a 4th warehouse to produce all the merch that had been ordered

If anyone sees Unus Annus pictures or any reminiscence of it in the future and are asked where it's from we are supposed to respond with "You wouldn't get it 🙄"

~7 hours out: they complain more about enema water gun

They re-watch the Pepper spray video. Mark talked about how he thinks about the pain whenever he sees videos of riotors/protestors getting sprayed. Everyone in chat chanted “BLM” and “ACAB” for a few minutes.

Lixian the editor had his edit reel played (”They make em (the people) pretty in Portugal”)

Mark was salty at Youtube because they claimed they didn’t make billboards for YouTube shows and hence, wouldn’t make a billboard for A Heist With Markiplier, but then later made one for James Charles’ show

Mark presented Amy with a BRAND NEW BUG WATCH 😭

Amy: No nothing on their (Youtube’s) Twitter, they’re not talking about it (Unus Annus)

Mark: Guess it’s not important enough...

Amy: They’re too busy tweeting about “World Kindness Day”

Mark: Oh yeah Friday the 13th 2020 wOrLd KiNdNeSs DaY

~6 hours out: Ethan compares the channel dying to putting down a dog. Things get serious for a beat, people in chat start crying.

They look at fanart for a while, Mark criticizes it like an asshole

They watch Pink Trombone again.

Mark and Ethan guarantee that after the channel is gone they will not forget about it. Mark also permits people to make creations / art after Unus Annus is deleted.

~5 hours out: They re-watch Pee Sauna, dying inside all the way.

DJ Burt Blackarach surprises them with a cake and champagne.

Chat is flooded with “❤🧡💛💚💙💜” messages for a while

Looking at memes again, Mark confirms that the noises that the radio made in SCP Amy were 100% just the radios, not them, making the sounds. They still don’t know why they made those sounds.

Mark and Ethan beg for 1mil like in order to see what’s actually in the Unus Annus casket. They might even lay down in it.

~4 hours out: We find out that in the Children’s Games in Total Darkness video, the weird shot of them both in a trance staring into the phone screen was actually just them trying to adjust their eyes back to normal light and it wound up looking super cool.

Vincent’s highlight reel is played again while everyone takes a break, supposedly there is a “surprise” to be revealed soon.

A tattoo artist named Danielle comes on the set, Ethan says he’s going to get an Unus Annus tattoo live.

~3 hours out: More fanart. Mark admits that after this ends, he’s probably never going to wear his suit ever again, he might bury it. (There’s not much room left in his backyard)

Mark talks Danielle the tattoo artist’s ear off about how wholesome and educational and not cursed the channel was.

Mark and Ethan then do a full 180 and confess to Danielle all their sins; cooking with sex toys, pee sauna, pee life straws, the pee soda idea, drilldo, etc.

Amy: (while Eef’s getting tattooed) “Mark, he’s choosing to spend his last day in pain. And you’re not!”

Mark: (looking at a picture of a tattoo) How long do you think that tattoo would take?

Danielle: Probably 3 hours.

Mark: 3 HOURS?!?! That’s more time than we have to live!!

Alex, Mark’s trainer, made them a euology video. It was like a LORE-filled poem made of secret callbacks to the titles of past videos.

Ethan’s tattoo is done, it is a “ 00:00:00 “ on his left arm.

Stevie who runs the merch shop makes a guest appearance. He self descirbes as “tired and sad and a little tipsy.” He seems both grateful and dead inside. He says he’s going to do a matching tattoo with Ethan.

Mark admits he was planning on not doing merch originally, but he’s glad he changed his mind.

~2 hours out: They talk about behind the scenes of Hee hoo. The reason Mark’s still wearing high socks during this video is because of all the burs so he doesn’t scrape up his legs. Amy wrote the whole end credits story about Ethan meeting Michelle Obama and dying a tyrant.

Mark never got to watch Ethan kidnaps Mark, so they watch it.

They watch The Truth about Unus Annus, Amy surprises Mark with a white tophat. #Mark’sNewHat (it’s an extra large)

Mark and Eef make their last tweets as Unus and Annus

Mark got cool Unus Annus custom pocket watches for Ethan and Amy

~1 hour out: Things get serious. Mark and Ethan private the Unus Annus Instagram (so that no one else can take the Unus Annus handle) and delete all the posts.

Mark proposes that Amy be the one to hit the delete button at the end of the channel. They agree to do it together.

They hit 1 million likes. They open the coffin. There’s nothing in the coffin, but the inside is very pretty, split-colors silk. They take turns laying in it for the first time with the door shut. It’s comfy. Even Amy tries laying in it.

Mark says a short eulogy for Eef as Eef does for Mark. They both say a eulogy for Amy. They all get choked up. The coffin is now called the Cry Box.

They delete the Unus Annus Twitter. They set the Subreddit to private. Apparently there were no mods on that subreddit except Mark.

Mark finally confessed to Amy that he punched a hole in the wall. Amy was there when it was being patched up, but she forgives him anyway.

They play The Barrel and sing along. They thank their team. They thank the audience.

Amy comes down. They all put their hands on the computer. “Unus Annus."

Mark: "See you on the other side."

Ethan: "See you on the other side."

they click delete. The channel is gone forever. Memento mori.

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moririki · 4 years ago

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⤷ PUSHING THE LIMITS

TSUKISHIMA KEI X READER -> 2.7K you decide to see how far you can push your boyfriend before he snaps

REQUEST -> ✰ CONTAINS -> SMUT!!!!!, bratty reader i GUESS, uhm my second smut ever so quality won't be amazing, fingering, oral (giving), unprotected sex, , tsukki teasing you <3, but hes also soft at the end brrr MORI'S THOUGHTS -> WOOOWOOOO 100 FOLLOWERS EVENT IS A GO!!! sry about the quality dipping halfway through i did not write this in one sitting ✌️

YOU KNEW THAT YOU WERE COMING OVER TO YOUR BOYFRIEND'S DORM TO STUDY, but when he greeted you with a searing kiss that was enough to have you trying to catch your breath, you realised that he may or may not be wanting to play dirty. he had a history project, you had an essay to finish, the two of you were fairly busy. luckily working together in a comfortable silence worked surprisingly well for the both of you. most of the time, anyway.

but you were still reeling from his kiss and your thoughts were straying far from the subject material needed to finish your paper. only ten minutes in to your study session, you were ready to call it a night and spend some quality time with tsukishima. currently, the two of you were lying side by side on his bed, trying not to slip off the edge due to how narrow it was. while your pen had stilled on its page, tsukishima was rapidly typing away on his laptop with slightly furrowed brows.

even with his facial features scrunched up, you still found yourself admiring your boyfriend's face as he concentrated on his project. the reflection of the laptop on his glasses only added to the look, and you almost found yourself sighing dreamily at how handsome he looked.

"quit staring, idiot," tsukishima mumbled without glancing up from his work. when you didn't make a single movement to follow his suggestion, his eyes flicked towards you with an unimpressed expression adorning his face. he raised a hand from the jeyboard to flick your forehead lightly, just enough to make you huff and return to your notebook. though yiu already had gotten the structure and general points already planned out, the actual construction of your essay was yet to happen. instead, you twirled your pen before raising it to your lips. you bit your lip in mock thought on just how to start writing your essay, though a more satisfying result occured when you heard a sharp intake of breath from beside you.

you tried not to look too smug as you turned to look at your boyfriend in amusement.

"look who's staring now, kei," you smiled up at him and he glowered at you.

"bite your lip once more, i dare you." you only giggled at his threat, seeing as he was playing directly into your hand.

but now you had to play a waiting game, so you went back to your essay. you even managed to complete an opening paragraph before deciding to ramp things up a notch.

you faked a yawn, arching your back as you stretched before rolling over, closer to tsukishima. you ended up on your back, practically underneath him, with his golden eyes watching you carefully. they remained trained on your face as you batted your eyelashes at him, before trailing down to your mouth again as you oh-so-carefully tugged your bottom lip between your teeth.

you barely had time to blink before you found yourself really lying underneath him, one of his hands resting against your face, his thumb coaxing your bottom lip back out from your teeth. the other had collected your hands, pinning them above your head by the wrist with ease.

"i thought i told you not to do that again, hm?" despite his tone, kei's eyes had some glint of mischief in them, enough to make you squirm under his grasp.

"oops." the way the smile never dropped from your face did little to convince kei that you were sincere, but he knew you were looking for some sort of reaction when you held his gaze as you parted your lips, softly biting the tip of his thumb.

you watched the way his eyes darkened from above and his grip on your wrists tightened. kei surged forwards, pressing his lips to yours roughly and you grinned as you kissed him back with as much vigour. the hand that had been on your jaw now travelled downwards before reaching your bare thigh.

kei gripped it harshly, hiking it up roughly to latch around his waist. you hummed into the kiss at the sensation, digging your heel into his back to feel some friction from his crotch rubbing against your thigh. kei groaned at the sensation, breaking the kiss to glare at you.

"you're such a brat."

"yeah, but you love me." you grinned up at him, face flushed and body practically buzzing from his touch.

kei muttered a "whatever" before kissing you again, harder than before. his hips rolled against yours, making your breath hitch in your throat. you tried to free your wrists to wrap your arms around his shoulders, anything to get him closer to you, but it was futile. kei snickered at your attempt to overpower him, though he had some mercy when he pulled away again to slip off your shorts with his free hand. you clamped your thighs together when you were left in just your underwear and under the scrutiny of your boyfriend.

"don't go shy on me now, pretty," kei teased you, rubbing soft circles into the plush of your thighs with his thumb. you flustered at the pet name, but let him part your legs and hook a finger along the waistband of your panties and drag them down your legs ever so slowly.

the cold air of the room made you clench slightly, but kei blowing on your pussy made you gasp and squirm in his hold. kei smirked at your reaction, trailing a single pretty finger of his around your entrance, humming at how wet you already were.

"you're really making my job a lot easier, pretty," he muttered, pressing a quick kiss to your lips as he slowly slipped a single finger inside you. you sucked in a shaky breath as he curled it inside you, feeling him reach the spongy spot which had you tensing and moaning softly.

his palm rested against your clit, the slight roughness of it proving to be enough stimulation. you found your hips raising, desperate for more friction, but kei's hand stilled as you whined from underneath him.

"come on, what happened to being patient?" he teased. you managed to glare back at him, before kei dipped his head again and decorated the column of your neck with deliberate kisses that had your head tilted back with pleasure. kei's finger started moving again, leaving your body blistering with sensations that were quickly building up to your release.

kei soon added another finger, with you moaning at the additional stretch. he scissored them inside you, stretching your walls out and leaving your toes curling. with his lips never stopping from administering hickeys all across your collarbones, you felt the heady buzz of an orgasm start to wash over you. you felt your lower stomach tighten in anticipation, only for it all to be ripped away from you at the last minute as kei removed his fingers from your hole, now sopping wet with your slick.

"what do you say that we put your mouth to good use, huh?" you could only nod at tsukishima's suggestion as your chest rose and fell rapidly, head still spinning from being taken so close to the edge. you just about registered tsukishima raising his hand and bringing his souled fingers to your mouth.

without a single word from him, your lips parted and you welcomed his two fingers into your mouth, sucking on them softly to clean them and tasting yourself on him. kei groaned at how compliant you were, pulling his fingers free before connecting your lips with his once again. he could taste the faintest trace of you on your tongue, and this dragged a soft moan from him that went through you like a shock if electricity.

with that, tsukishima finally released your wrists, leaning back before getting off of the bed. he grabbed hold of your ankles, dragging you until you were seated at the edge of the bed right in front of him, staring up at him expectantly with your heartbeat running wild. kei almost cooed at the lovestruck expression in your eyes, but he chose to lean back, eyes appraising your figure in a leisurely manner.

"strip for me." you almost took a double take at his words, though the tone showed just hiw serious he was being. his eyes were hungry as they zeroed in on your fingers curling around the hem of your shirt, pulling it over your head fluidly so that your top half matched your bottom. "aww, aren't you eager," kei crooned, his hand cradling your face. if you weren't blushing profusely from his remark you might have asked him about his own flushed cheeks.

instead, you diverted your attention to his own shirt, tugging at it softly to prompt him to do the same as you had seconds ago. kei caught on quickly, tugging the material over his head along with your help, your hands smoothing over his toned skin as soon as it was revealed. with your wrists finally freed, you could touch him just as much as you wanted, and you did. your fingers trailed down his sides and back up again, tracing patterns into his skin. you decoded to be brave, hooking your fingers into his waistband and pulling his body closer to you, to which kei gladly complied.

then your mouth was on him, leaving open mouthed kisses that trailed dangerously lower down his v-line. you came back up, making sure to suck a hickey into the skin just above his hip where a rare mole rested. you heard another shaky intake of breath from your lover, and felt a small jab of satisfaction at the sound. you felt fingers thread theough your hair, before pulling on it and forcing your head back until you were locking eyes with tsukishima.

"i think your mouth can do something else now, hm?" you nodded as best as you could, pulling your lip between your teeth as you focused on the rather visible bulge under your boyfriend's sweatpants. you curled fingers underneath his waistband once more, pulling both his sweats and boxers down in one go.

kei's dick, now freed, slapped against his stomach, already leaking precum that had inevitably soaked the material of his boxers. you pumped his length with your hand a few times, able to slide it up and down easily due to his precum, before taking him into your mouth.

no matter how many times you've done this, you still struggled to fully swallow his length. you still managed a great amount, and the rest was handled with your hand. you bobbed your head, setting your own pace and resisting the urge to gag when you felt his tip hit the back of your throat.

you settled into a rhythm, relaxing your jaw and placing a hand on his thigh to brace yourself. you coukd hear his groans from above you and it spurred you on, even thiugh your lungs were starting to burn from a lack of breathing.

before the sensation got unbearable, kei laced his fingers in your hair and pulled you away from his dick. when you looked up at his face you couldn't help but admire how pretty your boyfriend was all over again. while last time he had been focusing on a history project, his cheeks were flushed and he was out of breath, even going ahead and biting his own lip now. you thought the urge to be sarcastic about it.

"fuck, pretty, i can't wait," kei groaned, his fingers finding purchase on your hips and helping you lift them. in one swift motions, you hd been turned so that now you were on your hands and knees, feet hanging off the edge of the bed. you felt a hand smooth over the small of your back before kei leaned over you, his body radiating warmth as he pressed a quick kiss to your shoulder- a nonverbal question as to whether you were ok. when you looked back at his face and nodded, your boyfriend grinned before turning his attention to his dick.

he used a hand to position it, just barely parting your folds. you whined at the contact and how kei was teasing you, running the tip between your folds as you squirmed.

"kei, please," you pleaded breathily, and the hand that he rested on your back stilled.

"that's all you had to say, pretty," he mumbled, before pushing into you.

you moaned at the sensation, enjoying the stretch of him filling you up as he bottomed out. after a few moments of him staying still, you reached behind you to squeeze his hand and remind him that yes, he could in fact move.

at your confirmation kei placed his hands on your hips, keeping them still as he pulled out then thrusted back in, eliciting a soft moan from you. kei groaned in unison, the timbre of his voice making you clench around him. his hips never stilled, picking up a pace that had you moaning unashamedly and fisting kei's bedsheets as his dick hit the spot inside you which had you seeing stars.

a particularly hard thrust had you falling to your elbows as your arms gave out. the new angle only helped kei hit deeper and you practically screamed into the sheets at the stimulation.

"kei, fuck!" you barely sounded coherent, and the sound of your fucked-out voice just spurred kei on with his brutal pace. his thrusts were starting to lose their rhythm, though, and kei could tell that you were close too from the erratic spasms of your walls.

you couldn't even warn him that you were going to cum when kei brought a hand down to your clit, providing just that extra amount of friction to send you over the edge with a cry. that didn't stop kei from thrusting into you, helping you ride out your high as he let out a groan from the feeling of you clamping down around him.

he indulged in a few more thrusts before pulling out, pumping his length to finish before cumming on the shallow dip of your lower back. he then rather unceremoniously flopped down onto the bed next to you, joining you in the breathless afterglow of both of your orgasms.

after a few minutes, he rolled over to pepper kisses along your shoulderblade and run a hand down your back, careful to avoid the mess that he made.

"you feel like finishing that essay now, brat?" you giggled at his question, curling your hand around his as your spent body regained still regained strength.

"mm, maybe tomorrow," you hummed. kei kissed your shoulder one last time before getting up, padding off to the bathroom to clean himself up. you heard the distant sound of a tap running for a few seconds before kei came back to you, wet towel in hand. you felt the warmth of it against your back as kei cleaned you up, before handing it to you to clean the rest of yourself as he pulled on his sweatpants.

after you finished, he then handed you his sweatshirt, helping your tired arms to pull it over your head so that you were swaddled in the cloth.

the two of you lay down in tsukishima's bed, your back to his chest as you shared the same pillow. with the average hours of sleep that you both got as university students, this rest was needed. one of kei's hands came up

to tilt your face to look at his before he captured your lips in a kiss, albeit softer than the others he had given you earlier.

"goodnight, brat," he whispered to you.

"love you too, tsukki," you mumbled, already feeling the embrace of sleep tugging you towards unconsciousness. your boyfriend tugged you closer as well, pressing his face into your shoulder and making you grin in the dark.

that smile only widened when you heard the quietest love you too escape his lips minutes later, when he thought you had fallen asleep.

"i heard that, you know." kei only grumbled, squeezing you tighter.

"no you didn't, go to sleep."

take a look at the menu - ,, 📕 ·˚ ༘ ꒱

#moririki‧₊˚✩彡.🧺#100 followers event!‧₊˚✩彡.📦#x reader #haikyuu #tsukishima x reader #tsukishima kei x reader #tsukishima #tsukishima kei #tsukishima imagine #tsukishima smut #haikyuu smut #haikyuu imagine #request‧₊˚✩彡.🐇#smut‧₊˚✩彡.🤎#event‧₊˚✩彡.📦

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gmatlarge · 3 years ago

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The Eternals, a Spoiler-Free Review AKA, It's better than you thought, and this is why.

So, it's going to be hard to thread the needle of why this movie is better than you thought without revealing spoilers - I'll do my best, but I'll tell you now, where I fail, it's about something they reveal early on and... well... okay, fine. Here we go. The movie breaks a bunch of "this makes a movie bad" rules and it not only gets away with it, it breaks those rules in a way that makes the movie better and stronger. It takes risks with the audience and, I think they really pay off. Let's start with the characters: 10 individuals of different gender, age, ethnicity. superheroes who are already fully aware of their unique powers and abilities, no, "oh dang, there are laser beams coming out of my eyes!" or "oh dang, I can lift a boulder, wtf lol". This is a massive risk because introducing 10 characters in 2.5 hours is *hard*. I admit that we don't get a deep dive into all of their personalities, and writer/director Chloé Zhao does lean on a few well-established tropes to help you identify the different character archetypes and roles. -but it *fits* (for reasons later revealed that I won't 100% get into). Considering the Eternals have been with humanity for a *very* long time, it makes sense that our tropes have been influenced by these characters (an interesting way to use tropes against itself). Next, the story structure. The story relies *heavily* on flashbacks. More than one or two in a movie is considered bad because it takes the audience out of the immediate moment and throws them back in time and can confuse them, or bore them if its something they've already seen. This film relies on a LOT of flashbacks. I'd actually guess (without any basis in reality or science, i.e. a stopwatch), somewhere around 20% of the run time was dedicated to the (generally distant) past. This would normally be a death sentence, because if all that back story is that important, why aren't you just making a movie about *that*? In this story, again, it just works. It's a little disorienting as there are no visual cues that say, "HEY! We're looking back in time now", (at least until they show a title card for the date and location). But I think it's better that way. These characters are "Eternals". For them, the past is just as accessible to them as the present. Also of note is the exposition title crawl at the very beginning. No other MCU movie does it, and again, very few movies use it successfully to set up their film. This one works, I think, because it builds on a universe you're already aware of, and it explains the basic critical information without bogging you down with a bunch of stupid over-specific detail. Also, trying to show that exposition would be the worse choice. Back to the cast. Representation is important. Two asian characters, two black characters, a latina, and 4 white folks and an Indian guy (and his valet). BUT. There's also the first deaf super hero, the leaders are strongly written women (but not the "I'm the badass warrior queen who can beat down the white male strongmen"), kind of strength. The black gay dad who simply exists comfortably in the story. The character that effectively has space dementia, who is not just sidelined and pitied, but is still valued and included. It passes the Bechdel test, the Mako Mori test, and the Sexy Lamp test. Look, I get it, I just threw a whole lot of reasons why this movie kind of checks off boxes as to whether it's "progressive" or whatever. I didn't talk about the movie itself. I'm sure some of you are saying something like, "great, but idealism doesn't make for great movies". And sure, you're right. But we need more movies that break The Rules. We don't need another muscle-bound white dude Mary Sue-ing his way through a story and stumbling into victory against his racist tropey stereotyped villain. This movie builds a consistent mythology within itself, that connects to the greater MCU. It presents an exciting story where these characters are in danger, and believably struggle to protect themselves, each other, and the world. They're presented with complex moral

questions. They wrestle with their own demons. They love and support each other, not necessarily romantically but as a family. They disagree with each other and choose their own paths. They discuss what, where and why they were not involved in the previous events of the MCU. It presents a technology and visual effects style that has not yet been seen in the MCU, and appropriately so. It leaves a treasure trove of offshoots, side stories, and additional narrative opportunities. The movie is daring. It's risky. And while I will admit it struggles a little bit here and there with pacing, it's not boring IMO. Audiences are rating it 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, and critics are crapping on it at 49%. In this case (okay, this isn't surprising), I'll go with the audiences on this. It's worth seeing. If you're a storyteller and want to see a narrative that dares to break "The Rules", or you fall into a group that is underserved in the realm of storytelling, it's worth seeing twice. We need more stories like this.

#spoiler free #movie review #film review #marvel mcu #eternals

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cureicy · 4 years ago

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so with the kind of sad reveal that dazai lived in a storage unit with only basics, my brain has been cooking up roommate scenarios. could be of the “and they were roommates oh my god they were roommates” variation, or just plain living together shenanigans

Chuuya: would probably either get forced to live together by mori and hate it, or force dazai to move in with him in the most tsundere way possible. both of them are young and stupid, and have boundary issues, to put it lightly. chuuya is a street rat discovering hedonism with the power of incredible violence, and dazai is a depressed piece of shit (affectionate) discovering life with the power of homoerotic tension (exasperated). this....probably won’t end well. would be amusing though, and might lead to some tender moments between the two when they actually admit they care.

Kunikida: so, this man is a dad. he may only be 22, but he has dad energy because he constantly looks disappointed in you and has no idea how to process his trauma other than pushing unrealistic expectations onto himself and those around him. And while I like portrayals that show him with self awareness and at least attempting to understand those around him, i think living with dazai might be something of a culture shock to him. Because even if he’s trying, there’s a difference between researching PTSD to support the new recruit and understanding/accommodating the deep seated trauma of your annoying roommate and partner, who actively hides shit about himself and orchestrated a murder right in front of you. Kunikida brushes his teeth every day, conditions his hair, does 100 strokes to keep it shiny, and folds his clothes when they come out of the dryer. Meanwhile, Dazai will lay on his futon surrounded by cheap alcohol, paralyzed by executive dysfunction, hair unwashed because the thought of standing in the shower for 15 minutes is preemptively exhausting, and also he’s dissociating extremely hard and has decided he Simply Does Not Vibe With This Human Form That Resides Within The Mortal Plane. Kunikida asks him what’s wrong. Dazai, with his communication skills honed by years of trauma, shoots him a pair of finger guns and says “literally everything in my fucking life lmao”.

Atsushi: this one would probably happen if Kyouka got her own room. Weirdly enough, I think Atsushi would be the most beneficial roommate, because he doesn’t passively put up with dazai, but he doesn’t actively yell at him either. He’s pragmatic to a fault, and accepts that while life kinda sucks, the best thing you can do is keep moving for the little things: things like sunshine, and fresh air, and a bowl of comfort food. his attitude would start to rub off, i think, and living with someone else who’s eager to make a home would make dazai feel more settled.

#bungou stray dogs #bsd #and they were roommates

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drangues · 4 years ago

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Dammit Tumblr, back at it again eating posts! For the purpose of Headmistress au, I gonna call her Ami, 'cause the name means friendship and later on that's gonna be VERY funny. So, the idea is that for whatever reason, Ami ends up in Yokahoma at the same time as Younger Adult!Mori and Fukuzawa. Yes, they do meet, and it is glorious, for everyone except Mori, who Ami drop-kicks him into a river. Fukuzawa is howling with laughter. 1/

And so begin the adventures of Ami, Mori, and Fukuzawa! Ami and Mori eventually become the kind of friends who are 100% happy to beat each other bloody, but anyone else who tries would catch hell. Ami and Fukuzawa bond over cute cats, and the humiliation of baby-talking to Natsume-sensei in cat form. Our intrepid trio (of hellspawn) continue on to have lots of (near death) adventures, and Natsume-sensei maintains that they're the cause for all of his grey hairs 2/

They eventually split up when Ami gets sent out to take over the job of an abusive headmaster of an orphanage (wink wink nudge nudge). The split happens before Mori reveals himself as a colossal jackass, so Atsushi spends his formative years raised on the stories of their exploits, inadvertently collecting more blackmail on Mori and Fukuzawa than most information brokers combined. 3/

So canon continues as normal (minus Atsushi hating his ability bc no Shibusawa or Headmaster), except Atsushi always has the nagging feeling that he knows Mori and Fukuzawa better than he thinks (a horrifying concept, in relation to Mori). Ironically, the straw that breaks the camels back is actually Natsume-sensei, bc Atsushi remembers being SUPER EXCITED there was someone with an ability similar to his 4/

Atsushi realizes who Mori and Fukuzawa are shortly after, and proceeds to have a small breakdown over the idea of Ami and Mori being friends, before doing the maths and realizing she left for the orphanage before Mori became mafia-boss. 4/ (I may have repeated a number, sorry)

He decides not to do anything at first, but this Atsushi is one raised on stories that advocated that 'the best revenge is living well, and destroying your enemies' (to say Ami, Mori and Fukuzawa were troublemakers is putting it lightly). This ends with the decision to invite Ami into Yokahoma with the excuse of showing her his apartment/new little sister (Kyouka)/workplace, coincidently on the same day Mori also visits the agency 5/

So Mori and Fukuzawa are in the agency, sniping at each-other like usual (and stubbornly pretending it's not any different from when Ami was with them (OT3! OT3!)), when Ami walks through the door, their eyes connect, and all three freeze. 5/

''Oh God no" says Mori, his face turning paper white (and secretly kinda happy). "Oh my God" says Ami, who only came to visit her not-really-but-totally-is-son Atsushi, and did not expect to ever see her weird friends again. "*wheeze*" says Fukuzawa who was not expecting Ami to have become even prettier, or for both his crushes to be in the same room together. "Who the fuck are you, and what the fuck is happening" says everyone else in the room. 6/

*John Mulaney voice* so the party was going great! Ami's shocked and kinda happy, Fukuzawa's shocked and kinda happy, Mori is feeling an Emotion(tm) and he Does Not Like (he does), everyone else is so, so confused, and Atushi is wondering how much he'll have to bribe Ranpo with to drop hints about Mori's crime empire. The answer is a ringpop, bc Ranpo was also raised on stories about them, and really wants to see Ami tear Mori a new one. 7/

That's all for now, but i can write more if you want :) 8/

sorry for responding later than the others you just wrote so much and i barely had time to write but NOW I DO

FUKUZAWA CRUSHING ON MORI AND AMI IM AHHEJKEHTAYUIEODS also atsushi knowing the weirdest dirt on them is so funny like he'll suddenly go "didnt you vomit after drinking one glass of alcohol and then cried" to fukuzawa and he just stands there like. How Did U Know That

#ranpo being bribed so easily is me #anon #ask #ask anon #anon ask #bsd

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recentanimenews · 4 years ago

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IN-DEPTH: How The God of High School Revealed the True, Weird History of Taekwondo

If, like me, you found yourself yearning for some physical activity and breaks from the tedium of schoolwork as a kid, you might have found yourself wanting to learn some martial arts. Watching action stars like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, as well as anime, playing fighting games and more, left me with an interest in learning a martial art myself. I found myself at the door of a local Taekwondo school and was instantly hooked. Sadly, like many things, time and obligations got in the way and I had to give up my pursuit of martial arts, but I always found the subject interesting. When I started reading The God of High School, I was instantly hooked by the idea that Jin Mori used Taekwondo, but suddenly, I found myself questioning things: What did they mean, that there were multiple types of Taekwondo? Wasn’t all Taekwondo the same? What was “Renewal Taekwondo” and was it a real thing? The answer to that question is... sort of. Also: There are some light spoilers here! Be warned!

In The God of High School, the revelation that Jin practices “Renewal Taekwondo” serves as a shock to the cast, particularly the Judges and Park Mujin, as it reveals the fact that Jin’s grandfather, Jin Taejin, was not only still alive, but that he had passed on the incredibly powerful skills of Renewal Taekwondo to someone else. At this point in the anime, the reveal has played out far differently, although there’s no telling whether this might change as the anime progresses. We do know that Jin uses Renewal Taekwondo, but we don’t get the same backstory and discussion revolving around Jin’s grandfather, and the past regarding Taekwondo itself. In the WEBTOON series, Park Mujin reveals that “Renewal Taekwondo” was created by South Korean leaders following a defeat at the hands of North Korean “ITF” Taekwondo. And, suddenly, my childhood came back to me: I had learned “WT” Taekwondo, so what was “ITF?” Was it just something the web comic made up, like “Renewal Taekwondo?” As it turns out, this particular rabbit hole went a whole lot deeper, and weirder, than I ever imagined.

Perhaps the first, and most shocking, fact regarding Taekwondo is that it is less than 100 years old. Many historians agree there is some fluidity to a solid date, but as 4th Dan David Lo notes, Taekwondo likely began formally in 1955, when General Choi Hong-Hi named it after developing the first basic forms of the martial art. While many other popular martial arts, such as Karate, Tai Chi, or Kung-Fu often discuss their proud, long lineages, Taekwondo is often mistakenly assumed to be ancient; in fact, it is only perhaps somewhat related to Taekkyeon, which was nearly wiped out during Japanese occupation. After World War II, the Japanese occupation of Korea came to an end. During the occupation, Japan was particularly cruel to Koreans, suppressing their language, culture, and identity — extending this treatment to martial arts practitioners were forced to quit or go into hiding while Japanese Karate was taught instead. Taekwondo would come from the confluence of various martial arts, having more in common with Karate, mostly due to the violent banning of Korean culture.

Combining their knowledge with new techniques in Shotokan karate, Kung-Fu, and others, would begin to create schools, or “Kwans,” which would give rise to what we today recognize as Taekwondo. Scott Shaw, one of the eminent English authors and students of Taekwondo, explains the genealogy of the first 5, and subsequent 4, Kwans; these Kwans were fairly diverse, with nine divergent approaches and teachers developing their own takes on martial arts. In many cases, historians consider Song Moo Kwan the Kwan most responsible for eventual Taekwondo, with Byung Jik Ro called by some as the “father” of “modern” Taekwondo (more on that later) the original five Kwans — Song Moo Kwan, Chung Do Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Ji Do Kwan, and Chang Moo Kwan — were the birthplace of Taekwondo, but it would take another war, and social and cultural upheaval for Taekwondo to really emerge.

Song Moo Kwan and Chung Do Kwan were founded in 1944, with the other 5 founding Kwans appearing in the following 2 years. If we start Taekwondo’s timeline there, that means Taekwondo is only 76 years old (meaning there’s a good chance your grandparents might actually be older than Taekwondo!), but the “real” birth of Taekwondo would come a fair bit after these Kwans were founded. For that to happen, Korea would be forced into another protracted battle that would decide the course of its modern fate, and the dispersal of Taekwondo to the rest of the world: The Korean War.

Separating the country along the 38th parallel into what are today known as North Korea and South Korea, this civil war shaped Korea’s modern history in cataclysmic ways, separating family members, friends, and cultural identity. Like many aspects of Korean life, Taekwondo found itself straddling an uncomfortable and unclear line: The original Kwans were spread out across the Korean peninsula, with Song Moo Kwan being in what would now be North Korea. Following the Korean war, this would lead perhaps the most controversial figure in Taekwondo history to emerge: General Choi Hong Hi, the true “father” of Taekwondo.

Alex Gillis' A Killing Art reveals the life, warts and all, of General Choi. Born in 1918 in Hwa Dae (located in now North Korea), General Choi Hong Hi was sent to Japan by his father to study, ending up in the tutelage of Han Il Dong, a master of Taekkyeon, one of Korea’s oldest martial arts. Forced into military service by the Japanese, Choi would eventually find himself continuing to serve in the Korean military following the end of World War II and Japanese occupation, earning the title of major general in 1954 (and thus earning him both his title and nickname, “The general”).

Choi’s mastery of Taekkyeon and Shotokan karate led him to develop what he titled “Taekwon-Do,” or “foot, fist, art.” Choi is, as far as historians can tell, the first person to use the word “Taekwondo,” and rightfully seems to deserve the title. The controversy, however, comes from the disagreements between Choi (who, some authors note, was somewhat disagreeable and even deceptive) and other Kwan leaders and Taekwondo practitioners. This would lead to the eventual creation, and split, of Taekwondo into ITF and WT schools, among many other offshoots.

Whether Choi was or wasn’t a deceptive and deceitful person seems to be based on who you ask, and the most common perception of him was that he was complicated (as are we all). What authors and historians such as Lo, Gillis, Shaw, and others agree on is that without General Choi, there would be no Taekwondo, and the subsequent power struggle nearly destroyed, as Lo calls it, the “family” of Taekwondo. While it is perhaps more palatable to consider martial arts as monastic and scholarly, the reality is that they are practiced, created, and influenced by people, and Taekwondo’s somewhat ugly and public schism is a great reminder of this. Choi originally founded the ITF, or International Taekwon-Do Federation, in 1966; however, Choi’s attempts to control all aspects of Taekwon-Do, and the South Korean government’s insistence on “owning” Taekwondo, would create the split that saw Choi flee from Korea to Canada and South Korea creating the KTA (Korean Taekwondo Association), which would eventually give way to the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF, now known as WT), under the governing body of the Kukkiwon.

In the ITF version of this story, Choi simply decided to go “on tour” in 1959, before eventually creating the ITF in 1966. The WT version of the story is just as revisionist, claiming that Taekwondo has roots that supposedly go back 2000 years and that the WT was created in 1973 as the first governing body of Taekwondo. No mention of Choi or the ITF exists in the WT version of Taekwondo. Udo Moening, author of numerous papers about Taekwondo’s cultural and social significance, helps explain the disparity between these two stories by noting that Taekwondo is as much an object of political importance to the identity of Korea as it is a form of martial skill and discipline. Simply put, Moening argues, Taekwondo became a piece of the struggle for identity between South Korea and North Korea, and the eventual race to Olympic recognition would become a major victory in this battle for the WT and South Korea.

The schism in Taekwondo (or Taekwon-Do, in ITF’s usage) is perhaps even more interesting in the sense that one did not immediately replace the other; instead of the WT supplanting the ITF, the two schools of Taekwondo went about their own paths. Yet, Kukkiwon managed to obtain a significant victory over Choi and ITF Taekwondo: inclusion in the Olympics. In 1982, Kukkiwon was able to arrange a demonstration of Taekwondo for the IOC in 1988 and became an official event during the Asian Games in 1986. In 1994, Kukkiwon “won” the competition for Taekwondo legitimacy by being selected by the IOC as an official sport of the Olympics, joining Judo as the only other Asian martial art in the Olympic games, and debuting in the 2000 games in Australia.

Choi, however, had won in another way: his ITF Taekwondo spread across the world, and his somewhat ingenious method of sending Taekwondo “acolytes” to various places to form their own schools helped make Taekwondo popular and profitable. There are other forms of Taekwondo out there, including ATA (American Taekwondo Association), Jhoon Rhee Style, and the GTF (Global Taekwondo Federation), a split from ITF. Chuck Norris, during the height of his popularity in the '90s, even formed his own school that blended Tang Soo Do and Taekwondo called Chun Kuk Do!

While Choi was successful in spreading Taekwondo around the globe, and South Korea was able to claim “ownership” of the sport through political engineering and historical revision, Taekwondo in the United States would owe much of its growth and popularity to a different individual: Jhoon Rhee. Rhee, learning Taekwondo at the Chung Do Kwan in his childhood, came to America in the '60s to study engineering. Needing some extra money, Rhee began teaching Taekwondo, and through luck and hard work, launched the popularity of the martial art in the United States via television and Hollywood. Like all good and weird success stories, Rhee gained fame from his “viral” '70s commercial jingle, written by Nils Lofgren, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band!

Rhee’s unconventional approach to success worked, taking his Taekwondo to both of America’s hearts: Hollywood and Washington DC. Rhee would go on to teach and demonstrate Taekwondo to various celebrities including Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee — even writing a book, Bruce Lee and I, in 2011. He also met with President Reagan and famously demonstrated Taekwondo to the United States Congress in 1965. There was even a sparring match between Republicans and Democrats!

But what do all of these different types of Taekwondo actually mean? When I was practicing, did I learn “the wrong” type? Well, the answer is… no! The major difference in schools seems to come down to forms, ranks, and some other small administrative differences — such as who can spar, and why, or what types of focus there is in learning Taekwondo in general. Perhaps due to the odd nature of Taekwondo’s spread outside of Korea, the sport is also highly “commercial;” the ATA and Jhoon Rhee schools, for example, were founded on the idea of both teaching the sport and also establishing chain schools that would funnel profits back to the original founders, essentially creating a business instead of the somewhat monastic idea of a martial art like the Kung-Fu or Karate that appear in movies and media.

As noted by Doug Cook, the forms, of Poomsae, are constantly changing, due in part to the various types and hybrids of Taekwondo, but also due to the somewhat infant nature of the sport compared to other forms. It would be hard, as many authors point out, to find a “true” strain of Taekwondo these days. Instead, the various approaches, forms, and inherent teachings all help create different, unique ideas of the original created by Choi in the '50s — itself a hybrid of various types of martial arts.

It's fairly common in martial arts stories to hear epic tales of the history and longevity of a martial art, but Taekwondo provides us with the unique and interesting experience of seeing that historical mythology evolve in real time. From the controversial Choi to the roots of the Korean search for identity following Japanese occupation and later civil war, Taekwondo serves as a mirror for Korea’s own evolution. While Taekwondo may not be an “ancient” form of martial arts, it is a uniquely Korean one, and one that has a complex history and personality, and thanks to The God of High School, I found myself falling into the rabbit hole of its story. “Reclamation” Taekwondo may not actually exist, but in many ways, Taekwondo was a form of reclamation for Korea: an attempt to create something new and unique in the face of years of brutal occupational rule and civil strife.

Did you know about the history of Taekwondo? What's your favorite style to practice? Let us know, and while you're at it, tell us your current fave WEBTOON series in the comments!

➡️ Watch The God of High School today! ⬅️

Nicole is a frequent wordsmith for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries. Here's that serotonin you ordered.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

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gaphic · 5 years ago

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Hi! 💛 Do you have any headcanons for the Specialists in your au?

HELLO YES I DO sorry this post took so long :(

here we have the specialists + nabu! these designs and backgrounds might change a bit going forward (I’m still not 100% on whether Helia should be a tree or a manlet, for example) but this is the gist

Obviously the first thing, design-wise, was getting everybody a distinct style lol. I’m still working on their personalities and backgrounds, but my goal in general is just to make them more unique + have more fleshed-out relationships with eachother and the winx girls. long mess under the cut!

Brandon: Sky’s BFF4LYFE. He’s a prettyboy and he cares a lot about his appearance, which makes him a little bit of an outlier in Eraklyon high society, since it’s a relatively conservative planet. Growing up he often had to act as Sky’s common sense, because 11-year-old princes dont really understand limits or consequences, so now he’s kind of the brain cell of the group. At first that gives him some friction with Stella, but they eventually bond over being a beautiful bi power couple who think they’re not good enough for eachother

(Brandon still switches places with Sky for his protection, and I think it would be really sweet/funny if he thought Stella didn’t know and there was a confession moment where he was like ‘Stella,,,,, I am,,,,,,,,, A Commoner,,,,,,,,,,,,’ and she’s like ‘I know dude Sky’s my cousin,’ but because Sky Is Her Cousin I don’t think I can make the logic work)

Sky: Coming up as a sheltered, privileged prince in a conservative social space gave Sky a low regard for the rules but also a really weird conception of what ‘the rules’ are. Attending Red Fountain is the first time he’s mingled with people outside his planets nobility in any meaningful capacity, so he spends a lot of time just feeling out what the social norms are and learning that some rules are actually there for a reason and not just cause your parents suck. Bloom gets comfortable with him pretty much immediately because of that shared culture shock

Riven: Also from Eraklyon, but Riven grew up in a poor backwater with a pretty crappy family situation and a lot of internalized self-hatred, among other things. I’m toying with the idea that maybe Riven hasn’t figured out he’s gay, and his rivalry with Sky is the manifestation of the attraction he doesn’t know how to deal with. Also he dresses like someone gave life to a pinterest board of angry Pat!D bisexual fashion

Helia: This one hails from Magix. He’s still Saladin’s grandson, still an artist, still a prodigy who dropped out of Red Fountain because he’s a pacifist. I’m thinking he kind of romanticizes nature as being this pinnacle of peace and harmony, and he dreams of someday moving to Linphea to become a leaf hermit or something. Flora gently liberates him of the idea that pacifism has any place in a garden, lmao. He’s a total mori boy and his hair is insured for 50 million MXD (magix dollars)

Timmy: Also from Magix. This version of Timmy is less of a computer guy and more of an engineer. He does get into coding now and then, but his focus is on mechanical stuff, which he finds more elegant. He gets 30 minutes of sleep a night and watches a LOT of trashy tv, and although he usually puts on a good display of level-headedness he has an easily exploitable glitch where he can be made to do literally anything if Tecna calls him a pussy. I’m thinking he was raised by a single mom with not a lot of money or free time, which is the main reason his clothes all look like they come from the dumpster behind walmart

Nabu: Either from Andros or an original planet, I haven’t decided yet. What I have decided is that Nabu is a trans girl who DOES NOT DIE- although there is some angsty magic damage that results in her being out of commission for a while. She’s the heir to a noble family, and I’m thinking she spent a lot of her teen years at a snobby boys-only school, and they’re really pissed a nasty girl is doing unorthodox things with their Top Secret Tricks lol. Either that or she joined a special magical order of some kind of her own volition, perhaps as an act of rebellion because she was angry about her arranged marriage? (she does look so good in monk chic) idk, I really need to put more thought into her. I’m going to keep her meeting Aisha without revealing her identity, because the whole ‘I wanted to meet the horrible girl my parents forced on me, but it turned out she wasn’t so horrible’ thing is SO delicious imo, but I’m dispensing with the sliiightly stalkery undertones of the original. She goes out of her way to MEET Aisha, but not to follow her around or anything. She just teams up with the winx for unrelated reasons

thanks SO much for this ask!!! it’s so amazing and encouraging to see interest in my au, i really hope i can impress you guys

#winx #winx club #winx au #fanart #art #my art #Anonymous

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truthbeetoldmedia · 6 years ago

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The 100 6x07 "Nevermind" Review

Hello fellow watchers! Did y’all breathe a sigh of relief as I did at the end of this episode? And while I’m at it, I'd like to take this moment to say: I LOVE when TV shows address mental and emotional traumas in a physical way in the characters heads. Give me Sherlock mind palace games all freaking day! That said, let's dive into the episode:

Dad, I had the strangest dream...

We pick up exactly where we left off in “Memento Mori”: Jaux!Clarke going to sleep in the real world and real Clarke waking up in her old Ark cell inside her own mind, surrounded by all of her most impactful memories decorating the walls like hipster graffiti art in an Asheville alleyway. She “hears” her memories as she touches them and walks through the exit door, only to stumble into her “sanctuary” (aka the real church she raised Madi in for 6 years) and be greeted by her dead father. Or rather, her memories of her father being animated by her subconscious. He’s all kindness and warmth when he asks her, “What's the last thing you remember?” She realizes with a start “I died” but, as her father points out, she still has a beating heart. As her BFF Bellamy Blake asked once: “Are we still breathing?” as a response to “Is there still hope?” And that beating heart is all Clarke needs to get her survival spark back.

She enters the next door in her mind and is face to face with none other than A.L.I.E. (Welcome back, Erica Cerra! We’ve all missed you...mostly.) A.L.I.E. gives Clarke the 4-1-1 on how she is still able to have her memories and a foothold in her own mind. Of course A.L.I.E. is all like “I tried to save you from this pain” but Clarke still has zero patience for even her memory version of this show’s “Woman in Red”, telling A.L.I.E. “there is no joy without pain.” She does however follow A.L.I.E.’s advice and takes her memory of saving Raven from the chip and hides it. A.L.I.E. also mentions Clarke’s darkest memories, her ‘traumas’ if you will, and how she can’t “let them go”, still being things she just buries rather than face or make peace with. She tells A.L.I.E., her voice littered with confusion, “You say these are my memories but there’s something here I’ve never seen.”

Josephine enters stage left

That something is a rather jolly door, decorated for Christmas, with a mix of music, screaming, and gunshots coming from behind it. Clarke opens the door only to be startled by Ms. Josephine herself, in her original body (I’m assuming in her mind that is how she sees herself) walking through from her memories right into Clarke’s...

She takes a minute to give some fake science facts about how both their minds can share a body, but not forever, so somebody’s gotta vacate Clarke Griffin town...and Josephine doesn’t have a body to return to, talk about an awkward roommate situation. Clarke has suffered and survived too much to just give her body over to Josephine willingly. So a battle of the wits it is.

Josephine gives us some unsettling deeper looks into perfecting the mind wipes — she was “jacked” into people with active minds before, including a six-month-old. Lovely girl. But they weren’t tech-advanced minds like Clarke’s so Josephine needs to know what makes Clarke’s mind so special. I love this kind of expositional dialogue when you are getting much needed information, and the headspace of the speaker, and Josephine is the perfect mix of this. She is ruthless, a sociopath as Clarke calls her, or psychopath — take your pick. She gets Clarke thinking so she can infiltrate her thoughts. Upon seeing Clarke’s ‘cell’ covered in all of her memory sketches, Josephine’s “I rescind my compliment” was a great line. I am a big fan of using Josephine as an audience insert into Clarke’s mind, as well as a way to callback and maybe even “fix” issues from last season’s jumble of plot. Like when she’s inspecting the sketches and reaches the Madi in a shock collar moment from Season 5 her comment of “child abuse dressed up as protection. Cool” made me actually say “ Yasss! Point out that issue from Season 5, queen!”

“Are you hiding a memory from me, Clarke?” She is one crafty B and I am into a Moriarty/Holmes kind of showdown with these two brilliant and dangerous ladies.

Of course it manifests as a physical fight, too. As they are fighting for control over Clarke’s body Clarke goes straight gang fight and slams Josephine’s head in the door jamb over and over until she is “dead” — but this being a mind fight she easily manifests in Clarke’s mind again, ready to fight. Clarke, brave but never dumb, decides running and hiding in her own mind might buy her some time.

The ghosts of choices: past, present, and future

Clarke’s first stop in her memory maze is her most recent bad decision that haunts her daily: leaving Bellamy to die in the fighting pit. But weirdly it’s a projection of Octavia there to guilt and shame her: “I really thought you cared about Bellamy.” The explanation that Octavia gives for Bellamy not being in the memory himself (because Clarke can’t stand the idea of facing him) is both a great idea, and a weak one? Because the deep trauma they’ve been through

TOGETHER would have made Clarke’s memories and reactions so much more emotional and visceral had Bellamy been there talking to her at some point. (If they don’t give Clarke a mind/memory moment with Bellamy this season, they will be wasting the opportunity for cathartic angst between main characters most writers DREAM about.)

Still, Clarke’s desperate tearful pleas of “he forgave me, he understands” was a great moment to reiterate the importance of Bellamy’s forgiveness and what he thinks about Clarke. Josephine’s comment “even your projections hate you Clarke” really hit me in the feels. Clarke hates herself so much that she injects it into how she thinks other people in her life perceive her. (With Octavia, she’s probably not wrong.)

Clarke runs from her ‘leaving Bellamy’ memory right into the cold arms of her decisions at ‘Mt. Weather’ and the horribly disfigured mind ghost of Maya Vie, one of the shows most true and noble heroes. It was so great to see her back! Though if Jasper or Bellamy had been in Mt. Weather along with her I think the emotional impact would’ve been greater. Still Maya’s snarky yet cutting “too bad I wasn’t in that group, huh?” when Clarke pulls out her classic “my people” line was perfect.

Clarke’s choices have left a lot of dead bodies behind and she has never had the proper time and headspace to deal with the impact those choices have had on her own mind, body, and soul. I’m hoping one good thing that can come out of her being a hostage in her own body is that she will come back having worked through a lot of her issues in her mind and emotions. I mean I can at least dream about this possibility, okay?

Creepy Maya making Clarke realize she’s in control of her thoughts and memories was great. Josephine falling for her trap because she is so used to being in control of the situation was such a nice way to reveal she has weaknesses just like Clarke, hers being extreme hubris.

Clarke saying “Me? I’ll find a way to survive. I always do” was such a “yassss! That’s my Clarke Griffin!” moment for me.

Also Josephine letting herself get shocked to “death” because she’s bored was such a nice touch to show her level of crazy town.

Finally we get to “that place”, the dark traumatic place Clarke hides her darkest, most hurtful memories: through the airlock she watched her dad get sucked out of and into the woods where the memories of the deaths of her only (so far) romantic partners are hiding. The first one being Finn, literally dying at her own hand because of Lexa! That should’ve been conveyed more, because it makes the fact that she loved and mourned Lexa even more traumatic and dark. But they seem to want to erase all the bad things Lexa did...which makes no sense to me but I digress. And in the lockbox two other deep loves are represented in the video of her dad and Jasper’s goggles. Also I teared up when Josephine tried to get the box open and Clarke finally gives in because she thinks Bellamy has given up the fight, so why shouldn’t she? And she puts in the code 0102 and tells her “you forgot Bellamy and Raven.” Ouch! My delinquent loving heart felt that pain deep. (I miss Season 1 so much sometimes guys!)

“Tell Madi I love her. Tell them all.” Bless her heart she was finally starting to live again and then they stole her and basically forced her to kill herself at gunpoint. But this brings us to my personal favorite cameo and part of the episode:

Hello to my son Monty Green! I love that Monty is the only version of a friend in Clarke’s memory that isn’t hostile towards her? Or mad at her? Clarke knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Monty Green loved her dearly and trusted her and Bellamy to take care of his only child. I love that Monty is the manifestation of Clarke’s moral center but also of her self love and problem solving. He’s the motivation to do better for her. And his comment “you call this doing better?” is both sad and satisfying! Leave it to the person who literally saved part of the human race to imprint his way of thinking on to her.

Of course his chat gets her motivated to not go down without a fight. When he offered her his hand...I got a little misty eyed. I miss him so much. Money suggesting entering Josephine’s mind was a great way to get to know what makes her tick. And YIKE! Her mind is a dark place. Seeing her best friend end up being her killer because Josephine killed her lover, and then seeing WHY she killed said lover: he was against oblation, aka literally leaving newborns to be slowly eaten by the forest. One of the darkest things this show has revealed (and that’s saying something) to try and keep the bloodlines “pure” for Primes. That’s some serious post apocalyptic Nazi thinking to be sure.

I love the fact that Josephine’s memories are categorized chronologically basically using the dewey decimal system because she is extra af, and of course the idea that if they can access her traumas they can control her body because our deep-seated traumas are the key to who we are as people is something you could unpack for days. Monty’s quip “I like your drawings better”, which is really Clarke saying that to herself, was a nice nod to Clarke at heart being a creative more than an analyst, if people would just let her live. LITERALLY.

So they break in to Josephine’s first trauma I’m assuming? And boy howdy it’s a doozy. College age Josephine is working away at homework (judging by the Christmas decor in the Riverdale-ish diner cramming for finals.) It’s neat to see the world before the bombs. The newspaper with Diyoza’s capture story, the magazine with Becca gracing the cover like a Fortune 500 queen. I love world building. Anyway back to the scene:

Josephine and her friend’s studying is interrupted by a very uncomfortably realistic “nice guy” taking over their space and demanding Josephine’s attention and time. Only when she says no he turns threatening and violent, tapping the handgun he places on the table — only to use the weapon on himself as he lays the blame of his own choices at Josephine’s feet, his warm blood misting her face. All of us women have had a moment where we’ve prayed this person in front of us didn’t do something like this, or worse, to us. It triggers Josephine’s mind to the point that she comes after Clarke in a fury, tossing her out of her mind and not noticing she left her clever side (Monty) in the diner. Bravo Clarke! Also I would like to mention I know what happened to Josephine would be traumatic, but I feel Clarke has endured way worse? So kudos to Clarke Griffin for always being stronger than her darkest moment.

“I win” are Josephine’s first words upon waking up still in control of Clarke’s body (or so she thinks), with just a little nosebleed but she’s back among the living! And she knows how to permanently erase Clarke’s mind. Josephine’s day is starting much better than her previous night...or is it?

Because as she enters the room with her father and Bellamy negotiating for team space pops! to have a home. Bellamy “if we pretend you didn’t murder Clarke” Blake (as always his dramatic self) notices a “new” tic Jaux!Clarke has picked up, finger tapping...and upon further study he notices a pattern:

She’s tapping out a message! In Morse code!! (Shoutout to Earth Skills teacher Charles Pike! You legend!) Clarke Griffin is pulling a Will from Stranger Things and calling Bellamy through blinking the Christmas lights of the diner into Morse code. And he’s finally “ in range” for her 2200th message! He knows within two seconds it’s her trying to tell him she’s alive. There is no doubt, all bets are off, Clarke Griffin is ALIVE. “We’re gonna get her back” he says to Miller, smiling. Screw peace. It’s not worth it if she isn’t in this world to share it. Heart Bellamy is back, benches! AND I AM HERE FOR IT.

Final thoughts and tidbits:

I really wish they would’ve shown an old scene of Wells since they couldn’t get it worked out to have Eli Goree back.

I loved the tight dialogue scenes and limited character focus again in this episode. There’s just too many characters to focus on all at once. On that note: my kingdom for a Bellamy-centric episode where we get to hear his innermost fears, hopes, thoughts. Give it to me.

I really loved the concept of this episode and how it reminded me that this is the same Clarke Griffin from the pilot, and the Mt. Weather. Sometimes this show feels it’s grown too far from its roots.

Eliza has become so good at micro expressions.

I love Josephine as the “Anti-Clarke”: she’s smart, artistic, cute, blonde, and deadly. Just like Clarke, but where Clarke wants everyone to have a chance at life,only using her power when she feels cornered, Josephine enjoys being privileged and judging who’s fit to live from her seat of power. She likes playing God. Clarke loathes it. Josephine and Sanctum are a physical manifestation of all the “big bads” this show has ever had: there’s some A.L.I.E, Lexa, Dante, Cage, Pike, Diyoza, Octavia,McCreary, Nia AND Clarke at her most ruthless wrapped up and baked into Josephine and the people of Sanctum. Echoing all the lessons learned, and not, throughout the seasons. It’s working really well for this season.

Check back next week for our thoughts on “operation get Clarke back” here at TBT!

Gina’s episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝

The 100 airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on the CW.

#The 100 #Nevermind

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travllingbunny · 6 years ago

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The 100 6x06 Memento Mori

Another late review from me, putting in one place all my thoughts about episode 6x06, from things that everyone has talked and posted gifs about a lot (like Bellamy’s emotional state) and had different stances on (such as, how you feel about Murphy and his character arc), to things that haven’t been discussed much (like some of my thoughts on the Flame and the Sheidheda plotline).

In the end, I talk a bit about my expectations and predictions for episode 6x07, Nevermind, which many will see tonight, and that I’ll get to watch tomorrow, and the following episodes.

I have huge expectations for Nevermind, but Memento Mori was a great set-up. I have to say, much as I loved other things in the episode (particularly grieving, emotional Bellamy and the hardest decision he ever had to make), my enjoyment of the episode rose by about 100% because of the last scene. Sometimes you don’t need to be surprised by a TV show: sometimes a reveal is something you expect and enjoy all the more when it finally happens. And oh, did it deliver. The scene was amazing, with the dreamy atmosphere, cinematography, the introduction to Clarke’s mind-wall (the prop department really outdid themselves with this one!), and the wonderful music. The 100 always has great, on-point musical choices, and this season has been one of the best in that regard.

Eliza Taylor continued to be amazing – maybe even better this episode than in 6x05, as Josephine was openly Josephine in front of some characters, continued to pretend to be Clarke in several others, with varying degrees of effort and success, and intentionally put on a pseudo-Clarke persona in front of someone who already knew she wasn’t Clarke, just to mess with his mind (the last one was reserved for Bellamy). While Josephine’s Clarke-act was absolutely terrible in 6x05 – because she didn’t even know almost anything about Clarke, so she was making blunders left and right – this time (after learning a lot about her from Murphy) she was, at times, a little more convincing and almost approached some version of Clarkeness, but this only produced the Uncanny Valley effect: it was like a skewed, caricatured version of Clarke and felt really, really creepy.

One such moment of Josephine playing a skewed version of Clarke was when she was fooling Raven, Emori and Echo. She was putting on Clarke’s serious, concerned look and tone of voice (Murphy must have coached her on all of that), but her phrasing at times still should have alerted them to her flippant attitude – as when she said that the whole murder and bodysnatching thing really lit a fire in Bellamy. Maybe that hint was too subtle - it was similar to her line “the Kane problem”, which Abby noticed, but Abby is Clarke’s mother after all and knows her better. Echo was surprised that Bellamy supposedly left by himself, not just that he didn’t ask her, but also that “Clarke” let Bellamy go by himself with the foraging party – but she was more concerned with Bellamy’s safety than she stopped to think much of Clarke’s behavior (and after all, she doesn’t know her that well compared to most others).

Josephine also used the same argument she tried to sell Bellamy in 6x04 and that served as more confirmation to him that she was not really Clarke – the whole “we have all done bad things, what right do we have to judge them, so let’s just do nothing and let the bodysnatchers continue doing their awful thing”. Real Clarke feels guilty and is critical of her own actions, but doesn’t start criticizing all of her friends unprompted and talking about how they’ve all done awful things, and certainly not in order to justify tolerating evil actions of someone else! But JosephineClarke’s argument is actually one that I have seen in the fandom – this idea that “there are no good guys”, that everyone is a villain, that Clarke and Bellamy and the rest of them are just as bad as the Mountain Men or the Primes (with some BS equations between completely different things such as “well, they all murdered innocent people” – so, apparently, defending yourself and your loved ones, the only way you can, from an evil overlord society in the process of horribly killing you to use your body parts, is exactly the same as brainwashing people into worshiping you as gods and stealing their bodies because you think you’re superior and should live forever!)… so therefore, they don’t have the right to fight against evil. After all, fighting evil also makes you do things like kill people, so why do anything? Just keep your head down and don’t do anything. But the show has (in the Abby/Jackson conversation in 6x05) addressed the fact that doing nothing and letting evil happen is as bad as doing evil. And there is something incredibly meta about Josephine, the show’s villain masquerading as the show’s hero Clarke, cynically uttering these lines to deceive our protagonists and make them complacent about the horrible things she and her family are dong, just as the same morally bankrupt argument is used by some fans to defend the show’s villains.

(In this episode, we learned even more (directly and through Xavier) about how awful the Sanctum society is – in addition to the fact they bodysnatch the hosts, they call people without the Nightblood gene (who therefore cannot happen to have Nightblood children) “nulls”. Nulls are not allowed to have children and get to do the lowest jobs, and there is also the sacrifice to the trees in the Offering Grove – which is apparently also “voluntary”, in the sense of people being brainwashed by a cult to sacrifice themselves.)

Bellamy never bought that this was really Clarke, and that Clarke would argue in favor of tolerating murder and bodysnatching, but Raven and the others swallowed it. It seemed to play right into Raven’s recent conviction that Clarke is not feeling guilty over anything and is just putting on an act, and into her self-righteous streak, which was in full force, even worse than before. Do I even have to point out the ridiculousness of Raven’s line that, unlike Clarke, she never did anything she regrets? I could start listing (as many of us have over the past week) facts such as: Raven tortured Lincoln with electroshocks, Raven tried to turn Murphy over to the Grounders to be murdered by prolonged torture for a crime that Finn had committed, Raven tried to get Clarke to kill Lexa and start a war over Finn even though that would have gotten many people killed including Clarke, Raven withheld medication from dying children because of rationing (and felt horrible about it), Raven made Clarke make a list of 100 people who would get to survive in Arkadia – while simultaneously bashing Clarke over it (“choosing who lives or dies is your specialty”), Raven gave Echo an OK to kill Shaw at one point, Raven participated in many of the hard and problematic things Clarke and the others had to do – blowing up Grounders on the bridge, burning 300 Grounders who had attacked them, etc., Raven was OK with potentially killing Raven left Clarke behind to die (and Clarke ended up alone on the deserted planet for 6 years as a result) and was ready to leave Bellamy, Monty, Emori and Murphy to die in the season 5 finale… Some of these things I don’t consider wrong under the circumstances, some of these were just one of the two bad choices – but that’s also true of most of the things Clarke has done. Being angry at Clarke for her recent betrayal is something I expected and was perfectly fine with, but being as hypocritical as Raven is now, that is really annoying. So what is going on with Raven now? Like many others, I haven’t enjoyed her characterization in season 6. It’s one of the few things I didn’t like this season. Murphy has also had his annoying moments, but he also has a real storyline, one that’s not just about being mean to Clarke. Raven currently does not. But maybe, as I’ve been hoping, this is all building up to a real character development and some sort of soul-searching. We have had many indications that Raven actually feels guilty and unworthy deep inside �� Sinclair’s remarks to her in season 3, Shaw’s message “Tell Raven that she deserves happiness” – and that her high horse attitude is just a cover. I hope this is something that season 6 gets to really explore and resolve.

On the other hand, it was much more enjoyable to see Raven turning her anger and moral outrage at someone who really does deserve it – one of the Primes. And since Ryker is not a sociopath or narcissist, and does have the capacity for compassion and remorse, Raven’s words are, hopefully, going to make him rethink everything and realize he can’t go on like that. He’s been raised since teenage years and surrounded by people telling him that it’s OK to move from body to body and see others sacrifice themselves for you, but he’s over 200 years old and responsible for his own choices. And feeling sorry about hurting people is really meaningless if you go on and do the same thing again, without any intention to change. That makes you a hypocrite like Russell and Simone with their “thank you for your sacrifice” mantra said while murdering people who definitely didn’t make a choice to sacrifice themselves.

Speaking of which – Josephine really is devoid of any deeper feeling for pretty much anyone other than herself. We already saw it when she killed her “best friend” Kaylee Lee, but that was supposed to be a permanent death. Now she managed to convince her mother to wipe the entire Lee family. (Interesting that she referred to Russell as being led by the heart. The show is again going with the pseudo-parallel between Russell and Simone and Bellamy and Clarke, as in the parallel Power Couple shots in 6x03). Bye bye, four of the Primes, including one we got to know a bit better. I can’t say I feel sorry, since I think all the mind drives will have to be destroyed by the end of this season, so a definite end would be put to bodysnatching. Now there are 8 more Primes who are “alive”, but two of them are still just on the mind-drives and out of commission (the two members of Miranda’s family, whom we haven’t seen in the present), and Josephine got 4 empty mind-drives. She gave two as payment to Murphy for his part in coaching her to fool Abby and getting the others (mostly Bellamy) to decide not to take revenge for Clarke, she promised Abby one for Kane, and it still leaves one. But the other Primes would certainly not be happy if they found out about all these things – now it’s not just the fact that Russell and Simone skipped the line for their daughter, when Miranda’s loved one was next, but also that they permanently killed four of the Primes. A good way to defeat the Primes would be to start by turning them against each other. Just saying.

Abby and Murphy are two characters whose current role and actions are pretty controversial at the moment and that fans disagree on. Both of them are the most convenient target for Josephine to corrupt and get on her side due to their current issues. With Abby, the debates are mostly about whether she has realized that Josephine is not really Clarke, and is just playing along and planning to wake the people on the ship, or if she really has been fooled, which many hold against her. I’m really not completely sure, even after watching the episode twice and replaying the last shot of the scene between Abby and JC. Abby did indeed notice several weird things about “Clarke” and seemed on the brink of realizing the truth, but that time, Josephine really went for the jugular and used all the cards Murphy has taught her to play: guilt over her addiction, over cannibalism and the Dark Year, turning Jake over, failing Kane due to her addiction and indirectly causing his injury/death by indulging Vinson because of her addiction, her idealization of Kane which is a result of both love and guilt, and even her relationship with Clarke – the last card JC used was telling “her mom” that she cannot lose her. But during the hug, as we saw their faces, Josephine was not the only one who didn’t look like a loving family member: Abby’s weird, blank look could be read in different ways. And I’m sure this is exactly what the show is going for, ambiguity. We’ll probably only be sure in two episodes. Abby’s face almost made me believe the theory that she’s just pretending, but at the same time, it would be too easy if she simply goes to the ship to wake an army to come to Sanctum. Or maybe she almost knows it, but doesn’t want to admit it to herself? At the same time, Raven definitely still doesn’t know that Clarke is dead, and if Abby hasn’t figured it out, she still won’t learn it for some time.

On the other hand, it’s pretty clear where Murphy stands and what he wants, but fans seem divided over whether it makes him a bad guy, whether they hate him, and whether it is in character. I think it definitely is, and shouldn’t be surprising. Murphy certainly genuinely wants immortality – he straight up told Bellamy in 6x05 that he finds the idea appealing. While he’s always been motivated by his own survival, it used to be all about trying not to die any time soon. I don’t think it would have extended to wanting to live forever – until he died this season and saw what he thinks is “hell”. I don’t know if we’ll ever learn what he saw, or if it will remain a mystery, and just used to motivate him. His fear of going to hell is driving him, and, of course, he wants Emori as his eternal companion. (That sounded like something from vampire fiction, which is weird.) Now, that doesn’t mean that Murphy doesn’t also care about Bellamy, Raven and the others, including Clarke. I do think he was sad to learn of her ‘death’, but, of course, his reaction was never going to be as strong as Bellamy’s or Madi’s. He would only feel that way if Emori died. But keep in mind that Murphy doesn’t know that Clarke is still alive and can be brought back. From his point of view, there is no use in antagonizing the Sanctum people, and risking the lives of Bellamy, Raven, Echo, Jordan etc. and of course, Emori and himself, just to avenge someone who’s already dead. And he’s never been a person with deep ethical convictions who would care deeply about the morality of bodysnatching in general, or the lives of unknown people who mean nothing to him. I do think he cares about his friends, and that he wasn’t just doing what he needed to do for immortality, but what he thought he had to do to protect them, even from themselves –as I’m sure he thought while he was trying to manipulate Bellamy. Now, when he finds out that Clarke can be brought back, it’s only then that he will really be put into a dilemma to choose between friends and immortality/fear of death.

What can I say about Bellamy in this episode that hasn’t been said by so many other people already, both in reviews and meta and in hundreds of gifsets and videos? Even the released script pages confirmed what was so obvious. This was a great Bellamy episode, and Bob Morley’s best performance this season. While I have enjoyed most of Bellamy’s arc over seasons 5 and 6 (just as every other season), and while I disagree with fans who claim that we haven’t seen Bellamy be emotional since season 4 (he had a lot of emotional, angry, hurt, passionate, happy moments over the course of the second half of season 5), we haven’t seen this kind of outbreak of emotion in a very long time. We can only imagine how Bellamy grieved for Clarke after Praimfaya, but I think this was even worse for him – because it wasn’t her choice and her heroic act this time – she was murdered (as far as he knows), and because, after learning to love on, he got Clarke back and lost her again, just as they had finally fully emotionally reunited. And to make things so much worse, he has to look at this person who is nothing like Clarke, mocking him by walking around in Clarke’s body. Bellamy’s arc in this episode was all about his pain, grief and despair, and the way he had to be strong and reign in his anger and desire for revenge, for justice, for something other than having to be there among people responsible for these her death. I love the fact that, even shackled and tied, he managed to tear Josephine’s self-portrait. On top of it, he had to endure Josephine messing by propos(ison)ing him to “help each other get through it” (hmm) while putting on a pseudo-Clarke soft, caring face and voice (which felt so fake, like a caricature) – which made him turn around because he couldn’t even look at her. She could have almost killed him there, and I don’t even know what he would have done if she had tried, but Murphy saved him through his and JC’s manipulation of both him and Russell.

Was JC’s lack of concern over her daddy’s life just because she expected Bellamy to back down from killing him, or did she expect him to kill Russell? I tend to think she thought he wouldn’t kill him, but wasn’t too worried if he did. In any case, I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for Bellamy to decide to spare Russell and also agree to not take any actions against him and the Primes. And just like after Praimfaya, he decided to do “What Clarke would do” and what she would want him to do after her death – survive and try to keep all of their people alive.

Now, was their decision the right one? I think that deciding not to act out of revenge, prioritize that over survival and protecting people who are still alive, and especially, deciding not to get a lot of other people killed, was absolutely the right decision, and what Clarke would also do. Clarke could do all sorts of crazy and extreme things to protect her loved ones, but she never killed anyone out of revenge. However, that doesn’t mean that going along with the Primes is the right thing. Standing by and letting evil happen is not “being a good guy”. The Primes will keep killing and oppressing people and treating them like cattle if they are not stopped. And I don’t think Bellamy being for that in the long run. But right now, I think he feels defeated and has lost the will to live, rather than just survive and ensure his people’s survival. But everything will change when he finds out that Clarke is alive and can be brought back.

In the meantime, I really want to see Jordan’s reaction. He was MIA in this episode, but I don’t think he will be happy to play nice with the Primes, not just because of Delilah but also because he does have a strong moral compass and was horrified about bodysnatching.

Is anyone still pretending that Bellamy and Clarke are just BFFs? That’s a question I keep asking throughout the show. I’m sure that, if someone were to see just this episode out of the show, they would definitely conclude that Clarke was Bellamy’s girlfriend (wife?) that he is really in love with, while Echo is his good friend who works for him and may have a crush on him. Come to think of it, 90% of the show makes it look like that. He never seemed to think of his actual girlfriend while being broken up over Clarke, and Murphy never brought her up as a motivation for Bellamy to forego revenge and focus on his own survival and the reasons he has to live. Echo gave him a brief hug to try to comfort him, but Bellamy still left to grieve all by himself, away from all of them. He also once again rejected Echo’s suggestion (she assumed they would go and fight the Sanctum people) and instead chose the “What would Clarke do?” course of action.

At this point, I’m sure that the show is intentionally portraying their relationship like that, since it’s done that consistently, especially comparing Bellamy’s relationships with Clarke and Echo all season 6 – and the scenes where Echo gets some long-overdue character development have all been when she’s away from Bellamy. Echo figuring out that Clarke has been bodysnatched – not through JC’s behavior, as Bellamy, but based on other evidence, such as how Jade behaved – didn’t end up contributing to the plot, as everyone else already knew about Clarke, so it was there probably just 1) to confirm that Echo is indeed smart and perceptive enough not to be duped, as a spy is supposed to be, and, I think 2) to develop her relationship with Jade. These two could have an interesting dynamic, as both are soldiers/spies who define themselves by following orders. Echo threatened to kill Jade’s “master”, and during the eclipse, Emori taunted her that she was still just following another master’s orders (Bellamy now being her ‘master’) and this seemed to resonate with her. At the same time, this time, Echo showed that she does have a compassionate streak when she mercy-killed the guard who was being slowly eaten by the trees in the Offering Grove, in spite of Jade’s protests. It puts her in a completely new kind of dynamic – Jade is like an even more single-minded version of her old self. The fact that Echo didn’t kill Jade and instead promised to come back (she has to do it soon, though, before the trees get too deep into Jade!) suggests we’ll see more of that dynamic.

Bellamy had the hard task to tell Madi the news of her mother’s death. But Madi is the one person who is definitely not going to play nice and who doesn’t want to restrain her desire to “burn the whole place down” for revenge. The question I’ve seen brought up is, is the Sheidheda arc even necessary to motivate her? Isn’t an angry teenage girl with a head full of dead Commanders, most of whom believed in the “Blood must have blood” mantra, already enough? I think that Madi is going to take some extreme actions, or we are supposed to be afraid of what extreme actions she must take, and that this is why they wanted to give her an extra push – and another plot about “facing your demons”, with Sheidheda as a “devil on her shoulder” character.

The existence of Sheidheda also poses the question, why is it that the Grounders think that having the Flame in your head is a good thing for the next Commander, when at least one of the voices inside is one they fear and consider evil? When Titus said that the Flame makes the good and the bad in a person stronger – it is because Commanders literally have different voices, good and bad, inside their head. But really, how beneficial has the Flame “wisdom” proven to be, even without Sheidheda? Almost every time we learned about advice of past Commanders (with the exception of Lexa's in 5x12), and that wasn't often, it didn't seem to be good or useful advice. In 3x06, Lexa said that the past Commanders were upset with her new path of choosing to forego war and revenge. (Was it really all of them? Including Becca?) In 5x13, Clarke thought for a moment that Madi got the wise advice to not kill the prisoners of war from the Flame - but she didn't, she got it from Bellamy. And there's something about the Flame that never made sense and still hasn't been explained. It was created by Becca to help humanity by passing on knowledge and wisdom... and Becca was the first Commander. So how come Grounders managed to forget all about technology and history before the apocalypse? That never made sense even without the Flame. With it, and Becca's memories, they should have known even more about science and technology than the Mountain Men, and that could have helped defeat them. Mount Weather people were descendants of the US government employees, and some of them may have been great scientists, but Becca was a genius scientist. How did they instead turn into a medieval-level technology warrior society that worships violence and revenge? Something must have gone horribly wrong. And the only explanation seems to be Second Dawn, which seems to be behind the Grounder religion, and probably their world view as well. (That reveal really explained a lot.)

After we found out about Sheidheda from the trailer, there was some speculation to the effect of "since Grounder culture favors violence, war and revenge, what could have set this one guy apart, to the point that he is considered the Dark Commander?" From what we learned in this episode, Sheidheda was Chaotic Evil, whereas most Commanders were trying to stick to the tradition and were being either Lawful Neutral or Lawful Evil or somewhere in between. This guy apparently said, Screw tradition, killed his mentor, and actually did whatever the hell he wanted. And, well, killing your Flamekeepers, no doubt, the exact thing that would make the Flamekeepers talk of you as a dark, terrifying presence. Flamekeepers are mentors to the Commanders who want to maintain control and influence over the charges, even if they are technically supposed to be their subjects. And what Sheidheda said about killing your mentor before they kill you.... he may have had a point? Not about Gaia, of course, but we've seen that with Titus and Lexa. He did try to control her, taught her toxic views like "Love is weakness", which are apparently generally a part of Flamekeeper teachings. He got upset when someone else - Clarke - started influencing Lexa with ideas contrary to his traditionalist Grounder ideas such as “Blood msut have blood”… and, well, he did kill his Commander, not intentionally, but it happened as an almost direct result of his desire to maintain his control over her and her views and political actions.

The B-plot with Octavia, Diyoza and Xavier had some big revelations in this episode, with the healing power of the sap from the withered trees, the temporal flare from last episode that has apparently withered Octavia’s arm and made it look like she is 150 years old (which, come to think of it, is roughly her chronological age) and the mysterious spirals that are signs of the Anomaly calling to her and Diyoza, as it apparently once called to Xavier. Now, some people speculate that Xavier is Gabriel, but I don’t believe that. His personality is nothing like Gabriel’s, from what we’ve seen of Gabriel so far, and I imagine Gabriel is even more guilty and sad these days – nothing like Xavier’s lively, snarky personality. I don’t think we’ll see these characters in 6x07, but (spoiler – if you consider titles of future episodes spoilers) we should learn what the Anomaly is in 6x08. I expect the bodysnatching story to be wrapped up in season 6, but I think this plot with the anomaly offers a lot of different possibilities, with its time-warping theme, and may continue to be addressed in season 7, kind of like the City of Light was set up in season 2 but fully developed in season 3.

The last scene was a perfect intro into the upcoming episode 6x07. I have huge expectations, because I have been wishing for a Clarke-centric, character-based episode like that for a long time. I love psychological SciFi stories, and Clarke fighting Josephine in her mind, while dealing with her own demons and her own past, seems like a dream. I must say, while it’s been fun analyzing and identifying various scenes and characters from the drawings from the walls of Clarke’s mind-space and various lines that were heard on top of each other and half-drowned in music, most of these are just Easter Eggs for hardcore fans. What matters most is what the show focuses on. In this episode (ignoring the sneak peeks), the scene focused on the drawing of Abby (as we heard lines from the very first scene of the show), then Lexa, and then Bellamy, which was an interesting choice. But I hope people don’t get too distracted by questions such as “which characters will be referenced and how many times”, “which past actors will have cameos”, etc. I don’t want the episode to be a clip show – I would love references to everything that has impacted Clarke, but what’s important is that it is all for the purpose of Clarke’s character development, her emotional state, her ability to fight her own demons and decide that she really wants to live and deserves happiness. And for her to be able to fight Josephine and signal Bellamy others that she is still there.

Rating: 9/10

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#the 100 #the 100 6x06 #the 100 season 6 #memento mori #bellamy blake #clarke griffin #josephine Lightbourne #john murphy #raven reyes #abby griffin #madi #madi griffin #sheidheda #the flame #echo #echo kom azgeda #xavier #the primes #sanctum

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tamalam11 · 6 years ago

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S6 Episode Titles

So the rest of The 100 S6 episode titles were revealed today. (In the past these haven’t always been accurate titles.) Lets pretend we know anything about anything and see what we can deduce from them, shall we?? Wild Unfounded Speculation Time Commencing!!!

6x06 Memento Mori (confirmed title) : “Diyoza learns more about the mysterious Children of Gabriel while Abby continues to search for a way to save Kane.”

a quick google search tells me 2 things- this phrase is Latin for “remember (that) you will die” and that the dictionary defines it as “ an object serving as a warning or reminder of death, such as a skull.” I don’t think its much of a stretch to guess that this episode its going to be dealing with death/mortality. Either Gabriel's himself, or Murphy struggling with whether or not to actually take Josephine up on her offer, or maybe even Murphy & Bellamy dealing with the fact that Clarke is “dead.” And obviously, as the episode description says, Abby dealing with Kane’s dwindling mortality.

6x07 Nevermind (confirmed title): “Clarke's past catches up to her.”

I don’t need to google this one. It’s written by returning Writers Room Alum, Kim Shumway, who divides the fandom in Love/Hate for her. Personally, I have no problem with her. She wrote one of my all time favorite episodes, S3′s Nevermore. Which this episode’s title is clearly a play off of. Nevermore is a character driven bottle episode that deep dives into character relationships and histories (and had quality Bellarke content). If Nevermind isn’t the episode where we see Clarke in Mount Weather (ie: when she Faces Her Demons), I’ll eat my hat, as they say. The fact that IMBD credits Jake Griffin as among the characters in this episode helps me feel even more certain.

6x08 The Old Man and The Anomaly

Gabriel. Obviously. We’re either going to learn about him in the anomaly, or go into it with him. OR we’re already in it with Clarke and she comes into contact with him. Thought I do admit, there doesn't seem like enough time to get Clarke to the Anomaly and my previous theory is looking less and less likely.

6x09 What You Take With You

Is someone literally going somewhere? What you take with you when you leave a place? Probs not. More like...what you take with you when you leave a relationship, a person, a non-physical space of being. What you take with you is what you learn, or what you’re given by another person- forgiveness, love, growth. Someone is dying, breaking up, or coming back. (It’s interesting to note that IMDB lists Kane as in this episode. I know its not a credibly source, but still.)

6x10 Matryoshka

this was another google search. and hole-lee fuuuuuuuuuck. Matryoshka is the name for Russian Nesting Dolls. If you aren’t familiar with those, they are hollow wooden dolls that open up to contain another smaller hollow wooden doll until you get down to the smallest, solid, wooden doll. The original. The Origin. The First. Gee, I wonder what this could be a metaphor for? Honestly though, I wonder-- which Russian Nesting Doll are we revealing? Josephine The First? Or Becca Pram Heda??????

6x11 Ashes to Ashes

A Bellamy heavy episode, rumored to be just characters sitting around talking and having sex, directed by Bob Morely...... and named after something related to death???? The phrase Ashes to Ashes references “ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” which is often said at funerals over grave sites. Though it could be literal, as this show does like to burn things down AND we see Murphy holding a torch in the trailer. But none of that jives with what we know about the episode. Or think we do, anyway. Unless we lose someone in the previous episode, and this is a quiet episode that actually takes a beat and allows everyone to reflect and mourn. Wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace? This is also the episode that IMDB lists Azgeda Warrior and Young E/cho. So its also the E/cho backstory ep. I would be down if Ashes to Ashes references her death. But more likely it’s Be/cho talking and having sex because I never get nice things.

6x12 Adjustment Protocol

This sounds like a military phrase. Maybe it’s a Diyoza heavy episode?? IDK why, but this one seems the most likely candidate to be a fake title. It just sounds off. Like, it doesn't fit with the flow of the other titles. But then, maybe that’s the point. Maybe the whole episode will be that way. According to IMDB, this is directed by Olicity Fandom fave Antonio Negret. And the only main players are Bellamy and Clarke. Consider me baited.

6x13 The Blood Of Sanctum

Season Finale. Literally, we’re going to spill the blood of Sanctum?? That’d be pretty On Brand. Or, like, metaphorically, we’re going to like be the blood of Sanctum? Like, it’s gonna be ours?? Who the hell knows.

#the 100 season 6 #the 100 spoilers #the 100 speculation

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drlaurynlax · 6 years ago

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5 Easy Ways to Heal Anxiety Naturally

Natural Remedies To Heal Anxiety

There are many all-natural remedies to heal anxiety. Mental health illnesses are one of the leading diseases in the U.S.—affecting 1 in 5 adults every year. Read on to find out more

Mental health illnesses don’t necessarily mean text book cases like schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder either. Common (often unspoken) mental health illnesses also include chronic anxiety, eating disorders, OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder), depression and “serious psychological distress (SPD)”—a term to describe feelings of sadness, worthlessness, and restlessness that are hazardous enough to impair physical well being.

Typical treatment solutions routinely include a prescription for therapy/counseling, meditation or yoga and SSRI medications.

However, despite our nation’s efforts to reverse these disorders, the numbers are not getting any better.

Why?!

One word: The gut-brain connection.

THE GUT-BRAIN CONNECTION

Your gut health influences your brain health, and vice versa, your brain health influences your gut health.

Unfortunately, statistics reveal that approximately 3 in 4 Americans have some sort of GI distress or dysfunction. With such high statistics, NO WONDER mental health is on the rise.

How does the gut-brain connection work?

Considering that the gut is the “gateway” to your health (ALL nutrients and toxins MUST filter through your gut), if you gut is unhealthy, then your brain will feel the effects as well—unable to receive the nutrients it needs to fuel healthy brain cells, give you energy and help you think CLEARLY.

Beyond just nourishing your brain cells too, your gut and your brain are highly connected. So before you jump to any conclusion on how to heal anxiety, consider this.

In fact, your vagus nerve—the nerve that controls digestion—is connected directly from the frontal lobe of your brain to the top of your stomach.

NO WONDER you get “butterflies in your stomach” when your brain gets nervous! And NO WONDER when you feel constipated or bloated, your discomfort is all you can THINK about in your head!

In addition, more than 90% of your serotonin (your “feel good” brain chemicals) is produced in your gut, and your serotonin not only responsible for helping you feel calm, peaceful, happy and enthusiastic, but your serotonin ALSO assists in digestion and gut motility (helping you fully digest and go #2).

Hence if your gut health is poor and unable to produce serotonin, then say hello to feelings of anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and bloating or constipation.

The Bottom Line:

Your gut is like your brain’s heart beat. If it’s healthy and strong, so is your brain.

So how do you get a “healthy” gut? Current treatments may NOT be the solution and finding the right solution to heal anxiety can be a challenge.

THE LITTLE KNOWN TRUTH ABOUT SSRI MEDICATIONS

SSRI medications can be beneficial for many, especially as a short-term solution for helping a person navigate a difficult time in their life, however, like many other drugs—(from Advil for headaches, to birth control for PMS, to PPI’s like Nexium for heartburn), SSRI’s are not a long-term healing solution or cure for reversing mental illness.

They are more part of treatment and management.

In fact, a little known truth about SSRI’s is that they may actually perpetuate mental health issues more by killing off or disrupting healthy gut bacteria.

While a large percentage of pharmaceutical research has highlighted the devastating effects of antibiotics on the gut microbiome, and what impact that has on human health, a landmark March 2018 study (Maier et al, 2018) was the first to systematically profile interactions between non-antibiotics and human gut bacteria—SSRI’s included.

Researchers found that SSRI drugs may be just as detrimental to the human microbiome—if not more—as they inhibited MORE (healthy) gut bacteria than many antibiotics, PPI’s (proton pump inhibitors that treat reflux) and anti-diabetic drugs used in the study. On the flip side, researchers ALSO speculated that SSRI’s strong effects on gut bacteria could be a reason WHY many people experience a “therapeutic” effect on SSRI’s—at least initially as bacteria is .

If pathogenic (bad) bacteria is contributing to a person’s mental health condition, then SSRI’s may actually also disrupt unhealthy bacteria. However, similar to antibiotics, SSRI’s also disrupt the “healthy” gut bacteria, contributing to the dog-chasing-its-tail cycle of an unhealthy microbiome over the long term and continued gut-brain disruption.

The Bottom Line

SSRI medications don’t heal. They manage. If you want to truly “heal” your brain from the inside out, address and heal your gut first, while not discounting your total health and lifestyle as a whole (Read: You are not a diagnosis, an ICD-10 code for insurance, a disease or symptoms. You are a person).

Here are some natural cures to heal anxiety and other mental health solutions for natural (gut) healing.

NATURAL ANXIETY & MENTAL HEALTH GUT HEALING SOLUTIONS

A number of remedies have been studied to heal anxiety. If you dealing with it today, medication doesn’t have to be your only treatment. Try the 5 natural ways to heal anxiety.

1. Assess Your Current Gut Health

Fungal overgrowth, parasites (Nyundo et al, 2017), bacterial overgrowth and gut infections are all leading causes of “gut issues” and many people go for years—if not their lifetime—not realizing their gut was unhealthy. A thorough gut assessment can help shed light on what, if any, underlying pathogens may be wreaking havoc on your gut.

A good baseline assessment would include: comprehensive blood panel, comprehensive 3-part stool and parasitology test, and possibly a SIBO breath test (assesses for bacterial overgrowth). Working with a skilled nutritionist or functional medicine practitioner can help make this step easier. Once results are back, a specific (short-term) supplement and nutrition protocol may be prescribed for you, based on your results, in order to heal (no longer just manage) gut symptoms (and brain symptoms).

2. Support Healthy Digestion

Incorporate a daily baseline gut health routine (just like brushing your teeth) that includes:

Take a Daily Soil-Based Probiotic & Eat 1-2 Fermented Foods/Daily (sauerkraut, grass-fed full-fat plain yogurt or kefir, low-sugar kombucha).

Prebiotic Fiber (1/2-1 tsp/daily).

Drink 1-2 tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar in 2-4 oz. water.

Breathe deeply before or after meals for 1-2 minutes, chew your food well, and rest and digest (i.e. don’t eat in a rush or on the go).

3. Detox Your Lifestyle

Beyond juice cleanses, several lifestyle stressors and toxins wreak havoc on your health—especially your gut health—as your liver becomes overburdened with filtering these toxins in and out, and toxins promote bacterial overgrowth. We are exposed to over 85,000 “approved” chemicals and toxins in our cleaning and hygiene products, food sources and environments—many of which are banned in other countries. No, you can’t live in a bubble, but by mindfully reducing your toxic exposure, you CAN detox your gut health (positively). Consider detoxing one of the following:

-Replace plastics with glassware and stainless steel

-Choose hygiene products that rank 1 or “A” on EWG’s “Skin Deep” database (paraben, sulfate and toxin free)

-Use white vinegar and baking soda as natural cleaning agents

-Gradually replace makeup with more natural solutions as you run out

-Buy the “dirty dozen” in organic versions and opt for grass-fed, organic meats and fish as much as possible

4. Eat REAL Food & Clean (Filtered) Water

It may sound oversimplistic, but food is like medicine for your gut and brain, and if you haven’t given real food a “shot” to see how it affects your brain health…I dare you. Cut out the non-real food products for 7 days and see how you feel, including:

NOT RIGHT NOW FOODS

Gluten and grains (cereals, bread, rice, pasta)

Dairy

Non-soaked nuts

Conventional meat and eggs

Packaged, processed foods

Artificial sweeteners and sugar

Sodas, juices and alcohol

Instant coffee

It doesn’t mean forever, but sometimes a brief time away from common gut-brain irritating trigger foods (inflammatory) can help your brain “come to life.” Build your daily meals and snacks upon:

EAT THESE FOODS

Sustainable proteins (wild caught, grass-fed, pasture raised).

Dark leafy greens (cooked and/or raw).

Starchy tubers (yams, potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squashes, plantains).

Fibrous veggies

Some fresh fruit

Healthy fats (avocado, olives, olive oil, coconut oil, coconut butter, ghee, grass-fed butter, etc.).

Clean filtered water (70-80% of people drink carcinogenic water with over 100 cancer cross contaminants).

5. Continue Your Healing Work

Though gut healing and physical well-being greatly impacts your total body health—brain included, none of this is to discount the heart and head work that continued “healing” in counseling, therapy, coaching and connecting to your personal passions and purpose can give you in your healing process. In fact, “gut love” goes much deeper than taking probiotics alone. (i.e. learning to love yourself, tapping in to your unique personal hobbies and passions, and connecting to community and spiritual connection).

The Bottom Line:

Gut assessment and healing

Real food +

Gut Love (Heart & head “work” in therapy/counseling, and connecting to your passions, purpose and other people)

Healing!

Resources

Maier, Lisa & Pruteanu, Mihaela & Kuhn, Michael & Zeller, Georg & Telzerow, Anja & Erin Anderson, Exene & Brochado, Ana & Conrad Fernandez, Keith & Dose, Hitomi & Mori, Hirotada & Patil, Kiran & Bork, Peer & Typas, Athanasios. (2018). Extensive impact of non-antibiotic drugs on human gut bacteria. Nature. 555. 10.1038/nature25979.

Nyundo, A. A., Munisi, D. Z., & Gesase, A. P. (2017). Prevalence and Correlates of Intestinal Parasites among Patients Admitted to Mirembe National Mental Health Hospital, Dodoma, Tanzania. Journal of Parasitology Research, 2017, 5651717.

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