#it trivializes the punishment for the most extreme things

[vbs-kaitos-big-naturals]

hate the word problematic so much it used to be so fun like oh yeah this guy just being killed in this gas explosion is pretty problematic to our great plan but now i cant say it without getting flashbacks to awful twitter threads calling out some famous charity worker who marches for the rights of many for saying the word faggot in a non offensive manner in 1995 when they were 12 years old. please just say its wrong or it upsets you and move on with your life youre associating a perfectly good word with something so petty and hateful it disgusts me

[theprismyyy]

Honestly, I read on several different platforms, both here on Tumblr, and on Wattpad, ao3 and others... and so, in general, they are all great apps with great stories to read, but there is one thing that bothers me about all of them, mainly and especially on Ao3, and the amount of disgusting content involving serious subjects like incest, rape and others that I won't bother mentioning here; What irritates me most about this is the lack of filter in the app.I'm only saying all this because the following happened, I was simply reading some stories about Gwen Stacy on the said app (ao3) when I came across atrocities like a fanfic whose plot was literally an incestuous relationship between Gwen and her father....man , I just wanted to read some fluffy fluff and not come across unnecessary and unsolicited material, I didn't bother opening this (obviously) and I didn't even want to, I was honestly disgusted... Also, I came across another whose plot idea was even more horrible... I don't know, it all just made me think that maybe these apps need more serious and firm rules and punishments in the face of these things; such serious and criminal topics being written in a sick manner to normalize and entertain more disgusting and sick people is still dark, it's even darker how little we talk about it and how little the developers seem to care, I imagine dealing with demands so big ones must be extremely difficult but we don't even see a movement to deal with these things...IT DOESN'T MATTER IF IT'S JUST A CHARACTER, IT DOESN'T MATTER HE OR SHE DOESN'T EXIST, FUCK YOU AND YOUR SICK SHIT THAT USES THIS AS AN "ARGUMENT" TO WRITE CRIMINAL THINGS AND FEED YOUR FANTASIES DISGUSTING!!!! WHAT WE WRITE AND CONSUME SAYS A LOT ABOUT THE TYPE OF PEOPLE WE ARE AND IF YOU CONSUME IT AND DON'T SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS TYPE OF CONTENT THEN PLEASE FUCK YOU

Anyway, this was just me venting because honestly I was extremely uncomfortable, I just wanted to read some nonsense and I had to come across something so sickening.

Edit: Apparently this is necessary as I may not have been as specific on some points and some people don't seem to understand (or don't want to understand)

It wasn't a personal "attack" on the Ao3 platform, I just used it as an example because that's usually where this type of work ends up appearing more.

2. Yes, I know and use the filtering system, Still, I think they are very often very flawed... besides, many of the people who write this type of content use tags that have nothing to do with the plot of the story to achieve greater visibility.

3. Yes... teenagers have sex 😱 wow what an incredible discovery!!! I know a lot of movies, shows, etc. portray this openly, I personally don't feel comfortable writing smut in general and everyone has their own opinion about it, but I understand there are a lot of writers who do this normalization and trivialization of a CRIME!

4. I know that many people use writing as a coping mechanism, but I think it is very unlikely that a person who has been through a situation, such as rape, for example, You'll write about it like it's something sexy or the best experience you've ever had in your life, like a lot of these types of writers do.

5. Yes, one of the joys of writing is that we can explore the deepest, most complex aspects of humanity without directly hurting anyone, and I love that, but we need to take responsibility for that.

6. There was a guy here who literally said that it's because of people like me that you can't have porn on Tumblr anymore...but why would there need to be porn here? Why just not open on an adult site like pornhub or xvideos?

7. I was indirectly called a facist through a Hashtag.... not supporting the normalization of rape, incest, etc. apparently makes me a facist😍

(I really am completely willing to hear opinions and comments, but I will not tolerate disrespect in the comments. That's it and thank you)

[animefeminist]

The Consequence of No Consequences: Mushoku Tensei and excusing sexual violence

Content warning: discussions of sexual assault, sexual abuse, and pedophilia

Spoilers for Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 1 and 2

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson, a novel series published from 1977 to 2013, is one of my favorite works of fantasy ever. It’s also infamous for having one of the most loathsome protagonists in modern fiction. The titular character, a misanthropic shut-in who gets transported to another world, sexually assaults a teenage girl in the story’s opening act. It’s a truly horrific moment, and while Covenant never does anything nearly that monstrous again, the weight of his sin hangs over his neck for the rest of the series.

I bring this all up to say that I see the value in stories where the protagonist is a horrible person. Handled well, a story with a main character like this can explore ideas and comment on parts of the human condition that more aspirational protagonists can’t. But there’s an important factor to that equation: consequences.

I don’t mean a moralistic “this character did a bad thing and should be punished by the author for it” mindset. I mean that when a character does something extreme, for good or ill, it should leave an impact on those caught in its wake. Thomas Covenant assaulting a teenager, for example, has far-reaching effects on her, on her family, and on himself, aftershocks that would naturally stem from such a terrible act. Any story that wants to explore this darker side of humanity must be willing to explore how doing horrible things affects the world and people around you, or it risks trivializing the true horrors of the darkness it depicts. 

Mushoku Tensei, funnily enough, starts from much the same place as Thomas Covenant. A misanthropic shut-in transported to another world, Rudeus “Rudy” Greyrat is a pedophile given a chance to live a better life and repair his toxic patterns. Mushoku Tensei purports to be a story of redemption, exploring how even the most reprehensible person imaginable can grow into a respectable human being. But it undercuts Rudeus’ growth by constantly shielding him from the consequences of his actions even in his new life, twisting its world and characters however it wants to justify and excuse the horrible things he does.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[taoofshigeru]

Finished the True Vide fight!

I'm going to just talk about how it went for me below the jump.

Short version: This was so hard. I died so much. I had so much fun and am basking in the glow of octopathic euphoria right now.

---

My party: [Phase 1] Armsmaster Castti (level 82) Cleric Agnea (level 80) Merchant Throné (level 80) Thief Ochette (level 82)

[Phase 2] Inventor Partitio (level 80) Merchant Hikari (level 76) Dancer Osvald (level 80) Dancer Temenos (level 80)

---

There were lots of fun tricks to this fight, but by far the most glaring was the punishing power of the Hellbound each time a tentacle dies. Four of them each for 3-4000 on most characters even at level 80. You can't start attacking the core until all tentacles are dead, and if you spread out the tentacle kills by even a bit, one will respawn while you're busy finishing the others and the loop will never end. And, by the way, Vide can do 4000 damage flat, ignoring defense, if there's only one tentacle left, so you better get that break right after the tentacles die.

Divine Protection (which Hikari gets from the one 10-star difficulty nun in Canalbrine), which can be stacked 4 at a time on the entire party, can effectively block this for one phase. But there are two, and you have to use an entirely different party for the second one. I was hoping to use Temenos' Prayer for Plenty to heal for 9999 on the second phase and tough it out.

I tried this. The quad Hellbounds did 12k for a total party wipe.

Welp.

That and the end-of-everything spam attack (3 hits for 9999) that the second phase does about 4 turns in convinced me it was a significantly better idea to try and carry Hikari to the second phase so he could stack that buff on everyone. Getting there without burning it on the first phase would essentially trivialize the fight.

However, doing so meant I needed to figure out another way to tough it out in phase 1.

It ended up coming down to Castti, who I had fed all of my nuts throughout gameplay because she was my starter and I love love love her. Plus some luck with turn sequencing. I had Agnea cast Aelfric's Blessing on both Castti and Throné, and got the tentacles down to where one final Hired Help would finish them off. I also buffed elemental defense in one of the preceding concoctions, since that does seem to reduce damage taken from Hellbound.* Then I waited for a turn where Throné went first and Castti second. Throné used Foreign Assassin to heal from the Vide Wave (tm), then Castti was able to stay standing after the last one with like 600HP.

The doctor doesn't care if you're a wicked deity

She then did extreme doctor things (used an Almighty Olive to fully revive the party). Then I had a full turn to break Vide before the waves of darkness started coming.

When Ochette gets a full turn, Ochette breaks the enemy. It's what she does.

The rest of the fight was a walk in the park. Ochette's Peek-a-Boo summon plus Castti's Drastic Measures shredded through the phase 1 core, Osvald's One True Magic (II) plus assorted Almighty Soulstone usage from the rest of the boys helped break the second round of tentacles with the sidestep mixed in. Hired Help did the rest of the damage, and quad-stacked Divine Protections rendered the party essentially untouchable even in the face of that 9999 x3 barrage.

I loved this fight, and I'm saying that from the perspective of having fought Galdera. It really drew on all the disparate elements of vaguely and blatantly broken tools the game gave you, and I get the feeling it could've been solved in a half-dozen more ways depending on how one had built up their party. It was everything I loved about Octopath II.

…Next up. True Vide, the Wicked.**

------

*A point regarding the elemental defense buff and Hellbound. Information I found online has been sketchy but I set the above strategy up twice, once with the buff and once without. It does seem to have made the difference between Castti surviving to use the Olive.

**I have already died twice, but I've also made some decent progress and am interested to try some new combinations.

[toujokaname]

Game master / Episode 7

Author: Akira

Characters: Rinne, Hiiro, HiMERU, Tatsumi, Aira, Takashi, Mayoi, Kohaku

"So, what I'm saying is, don't just settle for surface-level thinking. Keep questioning things over and over."

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[ Read on my site for a better viewing experience using Ois~su ♪ ]

Season: Winter

Location: Secluded Village

Later that night. The start time of the Matrix fourth match, in a corner of Amagi Village.

Rinne: —It's the Matrix fourth match, a test of courage showdown!

Hiiro: ......

Rinne: Heeey, ain't your reactions too dull?

Don't you get it? In this showdown, we'll be competing in "reaction performance," so to speak.

Idols and comedians are technically different jobs, but they're expected to pull off similar tricks, especially on variety shows.

And that's a must-have skill for idols.

No matter how good you are at singing or dancing, if you suck at banter or cracking jokes, you won't be seen as a first-class idol.

That's why we compete in this. I've said it many times, Matrix is a competition between Crazy:B and ALKALOID, to see which are the superior idols.

HiMERU: —HiMERU understands the logic. However, that's a weak point of his.

Tatsumi: It's one of mine as well. But you don't need to worry, HiMERU-san is an amusing person to look at.

HiMERU: Are you mocking HiMERU?

Aira: Hey! Instead of brushing it off like it's no big deal, I think we need to talk about "this problem" more!

Hiiro: Umu. Since we came to this village for work, it's inevitable that work progress takes priority in some aspects.

But, if you leave questions unanswered, we won't be able to perform at our best.

To ensure Matrix progresses smoothly, I believe issues should be addressed promptly.

Rinne: Gyahaha, you've gotten real good at making excuses, Otouto-kun.

Nah, you've been like that since you were a kid.

Always spouting these clever-sounding arguments you didn't even get.

"Adults are always right. The law is always right. What's right is right, so Nii-san should obey it, too," right?

Hiiro: Rather than dealing with the consequences of breaking the rules, I think it's easier to just follow them.

Rinne: It depends on the kind of rule. For example, suppose me, Ai-chan, or someone you love commits a crime punishable by death, right?

In that case, would you be able to follow the rules and execute us? Because that's the law? Because what's right is right?

Hiiro: That's such an extreme example, Nii-san...

Rinne: That it is. But even the most trivial argument, when you dig deep into it, becomes a crucial issue that affects our lives and the world.

So, what I'm saying is, don't just settle for surface-level thinking. Keep questioning things over and over.

Rinne: Besides. Otouto-kun and the others seem to think it's a problem, but wasn't "that person" properly explained to them?

Takashi: ......

Mayoi: Hawawa... Truly, this is a big problem. Tiny Hiiro-san is just far too adorable...☆

Tatsumi: That's true, but is that really the problem here...?

Rinne: Then what's the problem? Like I said, this boy's name is Takashi Amagi—

The child born between me and Anzu-chan.

Kohaku: T-That's why we ain't buyin' that explanation, y'know?!

HiMERU: Indeed. It's an utterly implausible story.

Rinne: Huuh? How can you be so sure it's impossible? You guys don't know, right? How close Anzu-chan and I are—

HiMERU: HiMERU was under the impression that you were merely colleagues, hence his confusion?

Kohaku: Yeah... Let's say, for the sake of argument, that this kid really is the child between Rinne-han and Anzu-han. It's a stretch to think they're total strangers, right?

Mayoi: In that case, the Amagi family's blood, or rather, genes, are too overpowering...

Kohaku: But even then, it's still a problem. Surely you haven't forgotten. We're still idols even if we're a tad rotten, y'know?

Did ya reckon we'd just shrug and be like, "Oh, he's got a kid? Sure, whatever," and let it slide?

Tatsumi: In fact, if it is true, it would be a major controversy.

Poor Niki-san was so shocked he ended up bedridden. Perhaps he can't move because he ate too much dinner.

HiMERU: Even that amount wouldn't satisfy him, in Shiina's case.

However, it is understandable that Shiina was upset. For Amag—Rinne, Shiina is his longest-standing companion here, aside from his younger brother.

Even Shiina, whom one could call his dear wife of many years, was caught off guard, so it's difficult to fathom such an improbable story.

[ ☆ ]

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[gae-blog]

I haven't beaten every boss in Shadow of the Erdtree yet, but I'm at the end and my thoughts on the game have solidified (no spoilers on bosses or story content, just general gameplay and design)

SotE feels like one step forward and one step back compared to the base game. The dlc improves upon many of the good elements of the original while failing to address, and compounding upon, the issues that ruined the last third of the base game for me.

From an aesthetic and "exploration" point of view, the dlc is a noticeable improvement. The environments feel more varied and memorable, the bosses' designs are some of the best Fromsoft has put out, and, even though you'll still be spending a lot of time exploring caves and catacombs, much more effort has clearly gone into making those environments distinct and fun.

I have plenty of complaints with the dlc, such as the copy and paste field bosses (which I will rant about if prompted), but most of my problems center around the fact that I do not the boss fights very much. They feel difficult for the sake of being difficult, like Fromsoft bought into their reputation for hard games and so felt the need to "up the ante" with every single fight. They suffer from all the flaws that I disliked about Elden Ring's later bosses, but where those was limited to the last couple fights, ever major boss in the dlc seems to suffer from them now. To list some of the things I do not like about SotE's bosses:

The camera is the worst it's ever been in any souls game. This is (hopefully) not intentional difficulty, but it means that a lot of bosses are as much a fight to see what's going on as it is to dodge attacks, which isn't helped by:

Attacks that favour flashiness and spectacle over visual clarity, making them extremely difficult to parse

Bosses do incredibly high damage, meaning you'll often get two-shot even with 60 vigor and appropriate Scadutree Blessings (which are their own can of worms)

All bosses have extremely high poise. Malenia was... Malenia, but at least once you learned her moveset, you could create openings by being aggressive and staggering her. That is not the case in the dlc

Very small punish windows, even after (extremely) long combos, with only enough time to heal or do 1-2 attack before the start of another combo

Sometimes bosses will end their combos on the other side of the arena, so by the time you run into range they've already started their next attack

50/50 fast-slow mixups and optional combo follow-ups

Every boss seems to be wearing heelys and have perfect tracking without corresponding animations, meaning that they will skate forward to hit you no matter where you stand, trivializing positioning

It feels like every boss was designed with hit trading in mind if you want to beat them in any reasonable amount of time

All of this culminates to make bosses feel like an ordeal (and not in the good way). When I beat a boss, I didn't feel like it was because I had mastered their moveset, I felt like I just got lucky. If you made me fight Genichiro, or any Sekiro boss, I'm confident I could beat them first try, because I know those fights and I have them figured out. If you asked me to do the same for any SotE boss, I don't think I could.

I don't feel qualified to call this objectively bad boss design, and a lot of people seem to be enjoying the bosses, but I can say that I do not like the direction that Fromsoft is going in. Comparing any fight in the dlc to something like Gael's fight feels like a night and day difference in boss philosophy. I think that Fromsoft is running up against the limitations of their own fight design, and they need to either take a step back and return to their roots, or they need to give the player more defensive options in order to keep up with the bosses (AKA make Sekiro 2 you cowards).

I did ultimately enjoy the dlc despite how much I've complained, but it's only reaffirmed the opinion I had when I finished the base game: I really hope Fromsoft's next game isn't another open world souls, because if it's going to have all the same flaws as Elden Ring and SotE then I can't really bring myself to be excited about it.

[rf-interactive]

Since the ROs aren't expecting jealousy from the MC, how about the opposite? The ROs do something expecting MC to get jealous, and the MC has no reaction whatsoever.

Roman is more relieved than anything else. He hates it when you get jealous, especially the punishment that sometimes comes with it if it’s his fault, because you have his full devotion. He wants you and only you, and he’ll do anything to make sure you know that.

-

Now Nadia’s really confused. There seems to be no real pattern to what makes you jealous and what doesn’t, but she’s even more determined to figure it out. She turns it into a game, trying out different things and making notes of how you react. You definitely don’t make things easy for her but that’s what she likes most about you.

-

C is pleasantly surprised because they know you to be all over the place with your emotions. There’s no real consistency with the way you react to things so it’s a guessing game with you. Not that they really mind; you make each moment spent together new and exciting, and they couldn’t ask for a better partner.

-

Ailbhe is extremely disappointed. Failure is not something they’re familiar with, even with something so trivial as making you jealous. So they go out of their way to make you jealous, simply to prove that they can do it, and they won’t stop until they do.

[blessed1neha]

Mahabharata or Ramayana- which epic is greater and why?

Ramayana is about man. Mahabharata is about mankind.

Ramayana stresses on the micro. Mahabharata stresses on the macro. Ramayana is about love. Mahabharata is about justice. Ramayana warms the heart. Mahabharata lights up the brain.

Ramayana and Mahabharata are two brilliant epics and it would be unproductive to rate them as one better than other.

The Dilemma

At the core of both epics are two very honest kings who go to the extremes to keep their family, spouse and citizens happy. However, as with any leadership story, there is a moral dilemma when these different pieces start falling in conflict with each other. Both men find it hard to pick the sides and eventually end up taking the tradeoffs for protecting their citizens that make their personal life miserable.

The people who trivialize their moral dilemmas and pass quick judgment are usually folks who have never been posed such challenges in a leadership role. Let's take a very simple case - if your mother and wife fight, do you know which side you would pick? Would you place heart over the brain? Multiply that by 1000 times and that is the dilemma of Rama and Yudhisthira. If you think their choices are easy, how many such hair-splitting feuds have you helped resolve?

Love vs. Justice

Ramayana's emphasis is on the individual. It is a story of love and separation. Rama's love for his wife Sita, respect for his father Dasaratha, affection for his brothers and later the longing yearning for his lost sons are the key parts of Ramayana. In the middle, we see the unflinching loyalty of Hanuman & Guha, the devotion of little creatures that pave the bridge of Rama in search for his wife and the sacrifice of Jadayu. Extraordinarily brilliant. There is a reason why Ramayana is among the most revered epics of Asia - in more than a dozen countries. The epic is human. Rama is lovable.

Love, affection and sacrifice are the key elements of Ramayana.

While Valmiki [Ramayana's author] handles some of the leadership dilemma [like in the case of Rama breaking the rule to attack an enemy - Vali - from behind or in the case of Rama letting his wife Sita leave the city after the citizens of Ayodhya were not fully convinced of her innocence], he stresses more on the individual. King Rama had to make a choice - should he be partial to his wife by not questioning her [even if man Rama's heart knows she is innocent], should he punish her without evidence or should he just resign from the throne and put his subjects to peril. No easy answer. Even today, leaders are forced to choose between personal life and public life and often their personal life takes the brunt [even Mahatma Gandhi faced this conundrum]

Yudhisthira's Desperate Actions to Prevent a War

In case of Vyasa's Mahabharata, the author makes these moral dilemma as a central element. It is less about the individual and more about justice. Its characters are more controversial and emphasis is on the strategic elements of leadership. Given its complexity it is also much harder to represent. Artists depicting Mahabharata usually take shortcuts and make it as though Arjuna and Bheema are the key characters of the epic. Neither of them are as important as their older brother whose wisdom is hard to represent.

Yudhisthira had to walk a thin line in making sure his brothers and his subjects get the things they deserve, while not angering his cousins who are on the other side. He tried hard to avoid a war; he did everything to please and by accepting everything his cousins wanted - including the invitation to play a game of dice, fully knowing his weakness of not being able to pull back his temptations when he is in the middle of the game. That game changes his whole life and the life of near & dear. This complex dance of trying to please both sides eventually fall apart and his worse fears come true - war.

the war of epic proportions

This war becomes a key element of Mahabharata. During this time, Lord Krishna gives an extraordinary treatise of wisdom - Bhagvad Gita. It deals with how leaders should manage complex decision making. It offers very practical prescriptions on keeping a cool head when you are leading a side. Gita prescribes everything from the right diet to managing emotions and prayer.

Finally, guys let us try more to understand these two brilliant epics. It is not without reason that leaders in all walks of life fell in love with these epics. It is not without reason that legendary men and women spent their lives enjoying these books. Stop trivializing them.

In summary, Mahabharata is about the strategic elements of leadership, while Ramayana is about the human element of leadership. One talks about the prescriptions and other is about the pains. You take Ramayana's characters to heart and Mahabharata's concepts to the brain. Both are India's national treasures with unfathomable beauty.

[rotationalsymmetry]

Matter of taste. Personally I find most recovery/self improvement posts maximally annoying already. Not literally all of them. But an awful lot seem to overemphasize the value of self care/a positive attitude, conflate mental illness with having negative feelings (!), and/or express everything as commands (ie use the word “you”, in contrast to eg “when I am experiencing x and do y I feel better” or “many people with x condition find y helpful according to z.”) Like I get what the shower one is trying to say I think, but one, “makes mental illness go away” is a terrible simplification of “makes symptoms of mental illness go away for a bit” and that’s the most charitable interpretation I can think of. Taken literally it’s phenomenally insulting and trivializing of mental illness. I think most people on this site get that you can’t positive attitude yourself out of vision impairment and you can’t meditate yourself out of idk cancer and whatnot, so why the FUCK does everyone suddenly go “yeah mental illness is exactly the same thing as feeling distressed some of the time and can absolutely be cured with extremely minor life hacks, taking mental illness seriously as a form of disability who?”

Self care is awesome. Promoting self care is good. Promoting self care with overblown promises and trivializing assumptions about what mental illness IS is insulting and bad. It’s like when people say “oh I’m so OCD” when they just like their desk organized or whatever, like (long string of expletives) I’m in favor of self diagnosis but if what you’re doing is self diagnosing, noticing a shower makes you feel better, and then literally telling people showers are effective treatment for all forms of mental illness and then getting annoyed when people don’t take it lying down then maybe you, specifically, shouldn’t be self diagnosing, or more relevantly, should not be providing medical advice.

And if you’re mentally ill you don’t have to take that shit from other people either. Someone being mentally healthier than you doesn’t mean they understand what you need to be mentally healthy better than you do; mental illness is a freaking disease category, it’s not a character failing. It is not, I swear to fuck, divine punishment for not maintaining an adequate personal hygiene routine.

the most annoying people are the ones who just reply "no 💖" to recovery/self-improvement posts

[lxffy]

Hi! This might be too specific but can I request Kid seeking reader out on an island or something because reader has a really huge bounty so he thinks they're super strong, and it turns out reader got their bounty from the most ridiculous thing ever and isn't actually all that strong?? Like, kicking a few marines in the balls or sneaking into a marine base to clog up all their toilets so it'd be unusable or something

❦ unprecedented reality ?!

pairing: kidd x gn!reader

note: fluff, crack, cussing, not proofread; was looking through florida man headlines for ideas and came up with something

your wanted poster was plastered on every flat surface there was on the island the kidd pirates just made landfall on. you, in the other hand, just barely escaped the hundreds of marines that were after you by stealing a small manageable boat and sailed your way out.

— the wanted poster

there was a major marine base near the island kidd and his crew landed on, but they needed to restock their supplies has soon as possible and had no choice but to stop at the nearest island. it was supposed to be quick, but when kidd saw 155,000,000 berries on the bottom of a wanted poster out the corner of his eye, there was no way he could turn a blind eye.

for a bounty so high, kidd was confused as to why he hadn’t heard your name before. he should’ve heard your name being broadcasted at least a couple of times before the price on your head soared. you must’ve been new, strong, and had done something heinous.

“killer, we have got to find this fiend.”

there was no way he was going to let this chance pass by— the chance of recruiting a strong crew member. it wasn’t long before killer got hold of information that you’ve only recently left the island and it was possible that you were hiding out somewhere nearby.

— unexpected outcome ?!

there were multiple islands to choose from, but something in kidd’s guts told him to go to an island in the opposite direction of the marines that may be following you. he knew he was right when he noticed a small boat on the shore of the quiet island that was recently deserted.

it made him question you a bit; we’re really able to shake off those marines that easily or did you have some kind of twisted luck? although the marines were fooled, he found your boat sitting on the shore with footsteps to follow. it was like you weren’t even trying to hide your location! or were you just that confident in your abilities that you didn’t care who followed?

the latter kept his hopes up, so he chose that one.

but was quickly proven wrong when you saw you falling from a tree trying to pick some bananas off a branch.

“you’re fucking kidding, right?”

“are you really y/n/n?”

embarrassed, you quickly stood up from the ground and it didn’t take you long to recognize the two pirates in front of you. there was no way kidd and killer were going to turn you in, right? or maybe there were here to kill you, or maybe even—

by the looks of it, you didn’t look strong whatsoever. you had no weapons near you and looked completely unguarded when they approached. never judge a book by it’s cover, yes, but there was no way you were actually strong enough to get a bounty that high… right?

“yes, i’m y/n/n…”

you were immediately bombarded with questions, the most common one being:

“how’d your bounty get so high?”

“have you ever accidentally dumped a shit ton of the worlds hottest hot sauce and laxatives into a marine based kitchen upon their next meal and heard them suffer throughout the night?”

kidd looked at you absolutely flabbergasted. he couldn’t even begin to imagine how horrendous that would feel. and then he heard that it wasn’t the first time you’ve “accidentally” hundreds, if not thousands of marine soldiers.

you confessed that you didn’t know where to go from here and kidd honestly thought it was none of his business, but he didn’t feel right knowing that you could get an extremely terrible punishment for something so trivial (not)

the way you got your bounty was crazy enough, and he couldn’t tell if you’re joking when you said it was an “accident” or if you wanted to be a menace to society. either way, he couldn’t lie and say he wasn’t the tiniest bit interested in learning about who you are…

🏷: @underscar + @thatsprettycoolbro + @blackweebtrash + @levistiddies

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[elancholia]

Reading the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West (it's sort of like if the Odyssey was extremely Buddhist), I've actually been struck by how common shapeshifting is, to the point that almost anyone or anything can be anybody. Demons and powerful Daoist cultivators take on other people's forms perfectly and at will, as do gods and Bodhisattvas. Multiple locations the protagonists visit turn out to be completely illusory. While people do sometimes *get turned into* things in the way they do in Greek myths (generally through the device of forced reincarnation) there's a more general sense that forms are potentially illusory and fluid.

The Monkey King can impersonate not only individual people and animals but whole groups by tearing off his hairs and commanding them to take on form. He assumes animal shapes to catch his lazy companion napping, infiltrates a fortress of monster-spirits by killing and impersonating their old dame and her attendants, and so on. So far, so trickster-demigod.

But it's also one of the most common strategies for demons trying to bypass the group's raw martial power and dine on Xuanzang's delicious flesh (due to his extreme holiness, eating him makes you immortal—obvious cultural Christianity). These can play on Zhu Bajie's worldly appetites, but also Xuanzang's naive compassion. One demoness creates a series of sympathetic illusory forms (a girl and her elderly parents) which Monkey sees through and pulverizes one by one—killing the form doesn't mean killing the foe—but his softie master, unbelieving, banishes him as a murderer.

Many of these paradigms are familiar to Western readers—sike! The despicable, sore-covered beggar is actually a powerful divine being! The shelter you thought you'd found is a supernatural mirage meant to tempt you! But it seems to be more routine and to extend further down the "Great Chain of Being". Iphis and Orion require divine intervention, but a perfect disguise is trivial for about half of the serious antagonists. (Though acquiring that sort of power generally requires a tremendous amount of off-screen practice.)

It's not exactly like the kind of metamorphosis found in Greek myths—it's volitional, a kind of magic power, not just something gods visit on mortals as a mercy or a punishment. They do that as well, though--other main cast members are heavenly beings who have been punished for their transgressions by being forcibly reincarnated in monstrous forms, and even the group's horse is really a penitent dragon.

In this light, it's the Greek trope of preservation through transfiguration, a god saving someone by turning them into a constellation or a laurel-bush, which seems like the odd one out. There has been one catasterism so far, but it's that of an errant constellation recalled to the heavens after having snuck out to wreak havoc for a few decades. (Though, looking into it, the comparable novel Investiture of the Gods features the same figure being immortalized as a constellation after dying in battle, so maybe that sort of thing is just relatively less prominent in this rendition.)

I took this to be something to do with Buddhism — the treachery of the senses, the plasticity of forms, the fickleness of desire. The text seems to encourage this with episodes like that of a mansion whose female inhabitants tempt the pilgrims before vanishing, but it's clearly also part of the Daoist cultural milieu much of the mythology is drawn from.

hmm. thinking about how in myths metamorphosis is like. extremely common. like its gotta be in a significant percentage of all mythical tales. 20%? that doesnt seem like an insanely high estimate. which is kind of weird. something about the mythological mindset includes a fluidity of form. like obviously the greeks were very into it but i dont even know if they were unusually into it? except for the plants, turning into plants seems relatively uncommon. people/god turning into animals and back is very common in all sorts of north american mythology. in both egyptian and mesoamerican mythology the god's human and animal forms arent even like, clearly distinguished, sometimes theyre one sometimes theyre the other sometimes its a mix. i guess its less common in asia? doesnt seem to be big in hinduism or shinto or chinese folk religion. which is weird. cuz i think its also a thing in the little bit of african mythology ive read. whats up with that. culture....

[wri0thesley]

can you rate the bnha villains on what kind of yanderes theyd be/ yandere behaviour theyd take part in?

ooh anon. interesting concept i'm not sure i can do justice for but let me try. i only write for four characters at once so please have beneath the cut: shigaraki, dabi, overhaul and compress bc he deserves it.

warnings: yandere, kidnapping, dub-con, non-con, marking, medical play, manipulation. 

Shigaraki is an extremely dangerous guy to have captured the attention of. He’s one of the most predisposed to yandere tendencies anyway; he’s used to getting things he wants, and he’ll see any concerns that you have about this as trivial, because it’s more important that he’s pleased than that you’re happy. You’ll be happy eventually, if you know what’s good for you. He develops dangerous obsessions; when he’s interested in something, he’s interested. There’s a reason that he likes to 100% all of the games he plays. He doesn’t like not being good at things, and you’re yet another game that he just has to find the right combinations to master. 

He stalks his darling first. He wants to know everything about them and have no nasty surprises when they’re finally under his thumb. He hacks into their devices (he’s very capable of it); he knows their schedule like the back of his hand, and he often finds himself with a hoodie up leaning against a wall as he watches darling go about their business. The idea that they’re so close and don’t even know that he’s there at once excited and frustrates him; you should know when the love of your life is moments away, surely?

He’s . . . obsessive. Delusional. He convinces himself that you want this and you’ll learn to love him in time and that the safest place to be is with him. He wants you to depend on him and love him and only care about him, nobody else, just him. You don’t need anyone but him. He’s going to give you everything. He’s not worried about punishing you if you don’t abide by his rules at first, either; he tells you he doesn’t want to hurt you, but that won’t stop him, because sometimes you just need to learn. The kind of man who chains you up in his room and would keep you in a cage if he could, who works to break you down and deny you everything until you sniffle and beg him to be allowed to perhaps sleep in his bed, even if it means putting up with him rutting against you. 

If you do acquiesce to him and tell him you love him and convince him it’s true, though, he would quite literally burn cities to the ground for you because his love is not easily given and when you have it you have it forever.

Overall rating for danger: 9/10. 

Overhaul isn’t that dangerous, to begin with. He tries very hard to keep himself separate from other people; if you’re a darling who captures his attention on the street or in a store that he’s forced to go into, you might even escape entirely unscathed because sometimes he doesn’t even want to risk getting his hands dirty with all the filth that must be covering you. If you’re someone he comes into more regular contact with, though . . . that’s when things get dangerous for you. Overhaul is a man of routine. 

If you’re the person who delivers the post, a subordinate beneath him, the child of a Shie Hassaikai member, the maid hired to take care of the upper floors of the compound . . . Overhaul grows used to seeing you. Notices little things about you. Begins to look forward to seeing your face. His breaking point is when he notices you cough into the mask and his brain flashes that you are not taking care of yourself properly. 

If you’ve garnered his interest, he decides, you deserve to be as untainted as possible. He’ll kidnap you, too. You will not get the luxury of being sequestered in his room yet - you’ll get the luxury of one of the many sterile hospital style rooms that line the underground base. You’ll get a thin medical gown and needles and drugs and Overhaul’s invasive examinations to make sure that you’re perfect.

He’s protective over all else; insisting to you he’s making you well. If you have a quirk, you get to test out the new drug he’s working on. If you don’t, you must be kept pure and perfect away from anyone who does. Overhaul is an interesting case because he’s disgusted by how much he wants you; he drugs you so you don’t remember the fleeting kisses and the fingers pressing inside of you. He takes photographs of you. He gaslights you into thinking you are sick, and the moment you take trembling steps outside of the room he keeps so perfect for you, you’re at risk of death. 

He doesn’t genuinely believe that he’s helping you and making you better - but he does genuinely believe that you’re too valuable for the outside filth. He genuinely believes that you are some kind of reward for all of his hard work. And once everything is perfect, he’ll break you properly . . . but for now, swallow this pill for him.

Overall rating for danger: 7/10. 

Dabi isn’t that dangerous. He doesn’t often get fixations for long; he’s got some kind of magnetism that means he’s never without someone pretty or handsome hanging off of his arm. But . . . there are a couple of things that can pique his interest in someone. Dabi’s most likely to fall for one of three types; the studious, quiet, assured type, who’d normally never look twice at someone like him. The innocent type he could break into pieces until they’re shattered and crying and could rebuild into his perfect image. And . . . the ones who think they have everything. Cute new pro-heroes working as sidekicks. Cute secretary. Someone who stands at Endeavor’s side and scurries along with wide eyes and hero-worship--

Yeah, one of the things that drives Dabi’s yandere tendencies is bitterness. He’s capable of cruelties. He likes to make those types of darlings regret ever having met him; and once they’re properly broken, he likes to make them rely on him until they come crawling and begging for him. He’s possessive, but his possession is not ‘nobody but me can ever have you’ so much as it’s ‘nobody but me will ever make you feel this good’. If you’re Dabi’s darling, chances are you think it’s a real relationship before you realise just how screwed you are.

And now he likes you so much, and you’re his . . . he’s never letting you go. Even when you’re allowed to go back to your place, or your job . . . there are burn marks from Dabi’s cigarettes on your thighs, and you know that if you tried to run you’d regret it. 

He marks you up. He claims you in front of people; takes you out beside him with an arm draped about your shoulders. He’s cruel to you because he doesn’t see you as an equal or even a lover; he sees you as a toy. He gets a pleasure from making you rely on him. 

And sometimes, he loses interest and leaves you broken with the memory of his tongue in your mouth and his hands burning fire on your hips. Sometimes he doesn’t. You’ll never know which is worse. 

Overall rating for danger: 6/10. 

Atsuhiro gets carried away in his own fantasies. These are fantasies where he’s the dashing leading man and you’re the star, and love conquers all, and he dramatically saves your life; and sometimes, he gets a little devious about it all and says that he’s going to make his fantasies come true. 

He’s the delusional kind of yandere; he thinks that everything is a performance, and that includes his love of you. He wants you to look at him all of the time, he wants a romantic all-consuming cosmic love for the ages - and he’ll make you do the same thing over and over again until you do it perfectly, his eyes sparking as he insists you tell him you love him again.

He’ll kidnap you - his quirk is perfect for that. You’ll wake up with your hands tied and Atsuhiro reassuring you that you’ll love him in time. He’s even a fairly indulgent captor; he fully expects you to adore him eventually, so he spends money (steals) expensive clothes he knows are your size. He knows everything about you; he knows your life story better than you.

He wants to mould you into his perfect starlet, but that doesn’t mean that he wants you to change completely; his mood can shift in an instant, if you don’t react the way he thinks you will. He speaks like a gentleman in a soft, soothing voice and eloquent words - but he’s very capable of snapping. Have you ever been around a stage manager or director during the week of technical rehearsals? Dial it up to five thousand. If you fuck up the lines he’s never told you, you’ll pay for it.

He prefers genteel punishments, rather than lay a hand on you - but he has a metal hand and a cane, and why have them if you don’t intend to use them?

Overall rating for danger: 8/10. 

[atashinokaishaku]

Trial AU: Shouto’s Side

Part 1 | AO3 (PLEASE ADOPT)

Shouto’s Psychologist testifying (maybe a psych evaluation requested for the case or him asking Aizawa for a recommendation before all this) "Due to being objectified since an early age he has developed a tendency to not consider himself as a priority or even a factor. It's not that he thinks he didn't or doesn't deserve help, or that he feels he deserves a punishment over being unable to save his mother since he is aware that was his father responsibility"  "His reaction isn't breaking down and mindlessly taking a beating but to push forward by resenting and rightfully blaming his father" "That's the reason he doesn't intrinsically respects adults or authority figures (coughpolicechiefdogcough), due to the possibility, however small, of them being another Todoroki Enji, another Pro Hero, who do their job, but aren't truly heroes" "His attitude after being made aware of the consequences of long term overtraining since a frightening young age is worrying but not unexpected, in his mind his training hadn't been considered as "extreme" until he entered UA, so now, under Aizawa-sensei's supervision he's been adapted to a more adequate routine supervised by doctors." "In my opinion, Todoroki Shouto doesn't regard himself as a victim despite being one, he's used to the extremely demanding training; and his priority, his family, are out of danger, were his mother still at risk the probability of Shouto having reached out for help is visibly high" "He was betrayed by the only protection he had, the only human connection he had, her memory was his last hope on people" Shouto Also we're talking about the teen who got attacked at USJ and didn't hesitate to subdue all villains instantly and reprimand them for being sad excuses of adults, if a sudden villain attack isn't a risk, then his "not in danger" means "not in mortal danger" "He isn't afraid of Endeavour not because he isn't dangerous, but because there's nothing he can do to those Shouto loves, his mother is in the hospital, his siblings are invisible to him, Touya is already dead, the beating are the training he's subjected to daily, so yes, I believe he'd be beaten to the ground and still glare at his father and morse code "fuck you" on the floor" His father presence is integrated in every choice he makes, his only connection to people was him, and it's hate and anger "I hate liking Japanese style food, it feels like I'm him, like I was born to be like him, that there's nothing of me that's solely mine "  "I used to avoid Japanese sweets, since I knew he liked them, tried to convince myself that I wasn't like him even on the most trivial things. I was desperate to not see him when I looked in the mirror, I was oddly thankful to my scar for that. Now I'm able to realise I'm not less myself even if I like similar things, it doesn't invalidate my likes as my own just because we share the same interests" "When you want someone out of your life you detest everything that reminds you of them, even if they are a part of you. It's like trying to continuously tear off a part of yourself, you lose one of those pieces that makes you who you are" Reclaiming my tastes as my own, to freely allow myself to enjoy food with my friends without that oppressing feeling... is something I need more of. I like discovering my taste in music, in manga, teas, and sharing them with important people.  Why don't you blame your mother? "...her memory was my only comfort, and I clinged to it" "I can't sleep without a tatami floor, I can't calm down, it brings me to those times when he was out the house and I got to watch TV with her" "After... the more I thought about her the angrier I got, it was his fault she wasn't there anymore, but I wouldn't leave because she's still at that hospital, her care was in his hands, I wouldn't visit either, because... because my biggest fear is she seeing me and in her eyes all there'd be was Endeavour" "Her fearing me haunts me, she would heal as long as nothing reminded her of him, and I wouldn't take the risk of her relapsing" Why now? "Before UA I was running on determination, hate, resentment, anger, focused on refusing him completely... I didn't realise how exhausted I was until UA gave me time, a break, after my fight with Midoriya I was out of it, I needed to think, I'm the type who needs to ponder on a subject before setting on an answer. Besides, he isn't ignorant that after All Might's sudden retirement people needed hope, and as an established Pro Hero with an efficient and hard-working image, even with his harsh and serious exterior Endeshit is an extremely capable Pro Hero. Shouto's also sure he wouldn't suffer any lasting injury from Endeavour, since he needs his Masterpiece. "I knew this coming out would break people's trust in Pro Heroes" Shouto asking every Pro Hero/sidekick he meets a question "Do you think a bad person can be a good hero?" Everyone considered it a joke "You need to be a good person to be a Hero boy!" Aizawa is the first hero who answers differently, with a weary and serious look "I've seen villains saving people, and I know there's heroes who can destroy lives"  Shouto feels his teacher searching eyes, expecting him to tell him something, something they both know he won't be able to take back. A bad person can do good things, after all not all Pro Heroes are heroes. Shouto saying stuff like "I trust vigilantes more than Pro Heroes, they don't care for money, fame, influence or power" in national TV "Nro2 Pro Hero's son is a vigilante supporter" "I've never hid my scar, I've photographed, gone to class, appeared in TV, with a burn scar on my face; maids, neighbours, teachers, sidekicks, Japan, the world knows I have a scar on my face and that I'm the son of Flame Hero Endeavour" 

"If no one even bothered to ask about something so visible, despite always looking at me, then there's simply no one I'd trust to get help from" "I'm used to being seen, not as myself but as "his", "his masterpiece", "his son" "his legacy" "something Endeavour graciously will leave to the society once he retires" "I'm used to the looks, the hired people, the paparazzi, the invasion of privacy." "But my mom isn't. Maybe she was at some point, or maybe she just held it in along with everything else, but she needs more, and I want her to have more. Since meeting new people, I've realised there's more than just this oppressive lifestyle, and the more hope of getting to know them and my siblings the more unbearable the weight becomes, it's not as easy as when I had nothing." Rei "He was such a shy boy, I'd like to say I was able to imagine him turning into a bright and happy child when he grew up but.. I'd only seen him flinching and wary of everyone. I was wrong of course, I didn't consider what my breakdown would trigger, the anger tired him, he's so strong, even more than he was when he tried to protect me, not because of his training, but because, despite everything, he's still that kind little boy whose eyes would light up when he saw someone being rescued, turn to me and say 

"Mom you are next right?" 

[ninetailedfoxmanchi]

Mafia! BTS! Yandere - Their Rules

1. Do not try to escape or leave .

This is universal for all the members. It is the absolute worst thing Y/N can do because in their eyes it is a betrayal. I think that some of the members would get so violent if Y/N did this, they might bring her close to death in their anger.

2. Do not talk to other people and do not touch other people - especially men.

All of the members are extremely possessive and obsessive towards their Y/N so if you'd touch another person, especially a man, they would go crazy - firstly, towards the other person, then a punishment would follow for you as well (god forbit the touch or conversation happened at your initiative). If this happened with another girl or a woman, they would not get as angry, however, it would depend on the situation. For example, if you had to visit the doctor, they would stay with you during the check-up no questions asked, but they would allow the female doctor to inspect you because it concerns your health. However, if you run into a friend on the street and hug them, greet them, the members would instantly show their jealous, possessive side. Your attention is for them only, much more, your body.

3. Obey what they say.

I think this goes without saying almost. But depending on what you would disobey, the punishment would fit according to that. If it was something trivial like you forgot to make dinner when they asked you, I don't think most of the members would even react other than tease you. But if they told you to hold their hand in public or never leave their side when you're with other people and you disobeyed that, you're in such big trouble.

I think this is all. Three main rules that all the members share, but any other things are mostly preferences of individual members, not so much rules. They like it when you do those things, but would not (normally) punish you if you did otherwise.

[furryprovocateur]

@finalfantasy37 so to start out i'm going to define fairness as i see it most colloquially used. when people say a game is "fair", what they mean is that the game presents obstacles that have clear solutions, punishments that can either be predicted or prevented, and generally have a good sense of conveyance and agency to them where the player feels like they are usually reasonably informed and in control of their experience. to me, those elements aren't necessarily "fair" game design, but instead it is game design that has relatively high transparency and self-determination. still, it tends to be what most people mean when they say things like "[game] is tough but fair" or "[game] has fair mechanics and systems".

the distinction sounds trivial, but it is meaningful imo. a game where four people roll a die at the same time and the winner is the first one to get a specific number is a "fair" game but most people would consider it unengaging, uninteresting, and lacking in the ability for the player to meaningfully explore or alter their experience. this can be seen with those minigames in mario party that essentially have the game make each player pick a choice and punish one of the four at random (with varying levels of fairness based on turn order). in that same way, assuming that both players reveal their choices at the exact same time, rock-paper-scissors is the ultimate "fair" game but, again, most people would say lacks the depth that a lot of people who throw out the "fair" game compliment/praise actually want. i get that some of these examples aren't exactly video games, but their mechanics can translate into games fairly 1:1 and are analogous to plenty of mechanics or games themselves that already exist.

as far as the "overvalued" part comes into play, fairness can be important, but i think it's more important to give the player memorable experiences and challenges. it's not impossible to design them around fairness, but, often, you do have to stack the table against the player in some way, major or minor, to create that memorable experience. i'll list some examples rn and do a brief explanation of how they're memorable because of their unfairness.

lodestone cavern in FFIV: the restriction on your equipment creates a dungeon that, while maybe tedious at first, creates a memorable experience the helps show the value of party members like yang and cid while also weakening cecil, a character the player is likely to have become reliant on for their strategizing by this point. the enemy experiences no such restriction or anything similar, and it can feel genuinely weakening to have less offensive strength than you're used to in this dungeon. positive or negative, the player is undeniably going to feel relief on a first playthrough once the restriction lifts.

ornstein and smough in dark souls: invariably dark souls would come up in this topic, but this is genuinely a good example of what i mean. the fight is objectively unfair even if you bring in a summon because no matter how much you damage x, if you kill y, x gets all their health back and transforms into a new, more powerful form. the player gets no such advantage, and, if playing by themselves, the fight can be extremely difficult to manage. this fight is arguably one of the most memorable in the game and, love it or hate it, many would agree the game peaks in difficulty here. it's a good test of the player's ability to not only manage multiple aggressive enemies at once (a skill that has been cultivated up to this point by the level design and enemy layout) but also tests the player's adaptability to having essentially a surprise change to the boss fight once they're halfway through it.

pokemon red and blue: your rival always picks the starter you're weak to. this isn't quite as meaningful early on, but in later fights, it does require that you have type balance and coverage. you could argue that this is dampened by pokemon having a dominant strategy of "only use the starter and get it overleveled so it can bulldoze everything", and i would agree, but i think it's fair to say most players would likely use at least one other pokemon and divvy up the experience, weakening their starter and making it more susceptible to type counters. i think this is a great way to encourage the player to diversify the pokemon they use and build teams around a combination of strategy and power. if nothing else, it usually guarantees that you're going to have to acknowledge the type matchups in the game, which is an integral part of pokemon's formula.

bouldergeist daredevil fight in super mario galaxy: bouldergeist is a fun fight when you can take hits, but when you suddenly have to do it without taking any damage, it becomes a much more challenging endurance race. the player has to hit bouldergeist with at least 6 of those exploding boos, not including any boo that accidentally blows up on his hands or spikes. moreover, bouldergeist has such a large command of its arena that it demands that the player manage their space in spite of its limitations. it's not demonically unfair, but it is stilted against the player.

i could probably come up with a lot more examples, but i think the idea is conveyed. i don't think a game benefits from being nothing but unfair challenges and experiences, but, by that same token, i don't think a game benefits from being nothing but fair challenges and experiences. sometimes fairness can be helpful in teaching the player things, and sometimes it can be a hindrance in letting the player truly feel competent with the games mechanics.

genuinely fairness in video games is misunderstood and overvalued

[flickeringart]

Neptune in aspect with Mars

(Read my post about Sun and Moon aspecting Neptune and Mercury and Venus aspecting Neptune)

These planets aspecting each other makes for a curious connection, because in a sense, they represent opposing principles; Mars represents the personal drive and the ability to spring to action, the force that works to impose one’s independent will on the world – Neptune represents the inner urge for emotional unity and the religious/spiritual experience of being merged with the source of life. When these planets are in aspect in the natal chart, the personal ability to carry out one’s will is inextricably linked to redemptive longings. Simply put, Mars-Neptune individuals will put their energy into fulfilling the ego ideal, the perfection of potential that existed before the personality began to form. The personality cannot assert itself in a way that would crush the dream of perfection. Neptune is the dream of purity, the undifferentiated beauty of never having left the garden of Eden. Mars on the other hand is the agent of independence and self-motivated action – he has the purpose of fighting for the individual self which is antithetical to the Neptunian principle of surrender. While the Moon and Venus are quite social; the Moon represents nurturing and care-taking of needs, Venus represents the ability to be loving, affectionate and gracious; Mars is selfish and to a certain extent anti-social – most definitely anti-Eden and its eternal bliss. Subsequently, Neptune paired with Venus or the Moon is a little less of an obvious conflict than Neptune paired with Mars.

The conjunction of Neptune-Mars might cause considerable frustration and unconscious manipulation, because one cannot assert oneself, which is to declare separation, without feeling a deep sense of guilt and shame. It’s a little bit like the Bible story of Adam and Eve eating of the forbidden fruit and immediately becomes aware of sin. This is certainly not an easy phenomenon to deal with. The impulse to avoid accountability for one’s actions can be overwhelming, even if the consequences are perceived to be good. There can be a tremendously inflated sense of righteousness accompanying every move the individual takes because deep down there’s the feeling that one has committed a terrible trespass, that one will be unable to atone for. While the softer aspects, the trine and the sextile, more easily lend themselves to genuine selfless acts and natural inclination to fight on behalf of every bleeding heart and soul in the world through acts of sympathy and kindness, the conjunction usually brings more troubles. There can be an overwhelming feeling of having to do certain things because one cannot stand the idea of being separate from other people. One finds it easy to identify as the martyr or victim, unwilling to take radical responsibility for one’s actions – or if one does it’s in order to self-sacrifice. Often the individual will adopt any ideology that promotes the mass before the individual – often socialism or marxism fits the bill. Neptune is symbolic of undifferentiated reality, blurred edges and passive surrender. It’s not a planet that promotes autonomy and individuation. Not uncommonly, decisions and actions are referred to as byproducts of societal or larger-scale units that have little to do with the poor self. These individuals are usually profoundly dissatisfied with the ways of society because on some level they believe that individual autonomy and agency is a sin – and that the only way to redeem oneself and humanity is through some kind of chaotic dissolution of difference. This urge is seldom conscious, but it is there none the less. Vladimir Lenin had this conjunction and he wanted to revolutionize society to fit the marxist ideology, but really what this means is to overthrow the upper class – to punish those that seem to revel in the delights of Eden, to get rid of the internal shame of being excluded from paradise.

It seems like Neptune-Mars shows up in individuals with the capacity to move a crowd, perhaps most importantly, with the capacity to be the front figure and leader of the masses. Vladimir Lenin certainly affected the masses and so did Napoleon I with the same conjunction. Hassan II of Morocco, known to be one of the most severe rulers widely accused of authoritarian practices and abuses of civil rights had this conjunction as well. These examples are far removed from Neptune’s reputation for denoting empathy, soft-heartedness and sensitivity. However, it might be precisely because of the refusal to abandon the hope of the sweet sweet nectar of paradise that can only truly be accessed in a state of pre-birth if even then, that the outrage is so total. Most children scream when they are born, and this is probably the kind of terrible rage caused by separation that lingers in these people. The sign the conjunction falls in will certainly affect the expression the energies filter through – Lenin had the conjunction in Aries, Hassan had it in Leo and Napoleon had it in Virgo. Virgo is a much more analytical and practical sign than the prideful fire signs of Aries and Leo – consequently Napoleon is famous for his fine skill for method and strategy in war. On his Wikipedia page, it states that Napoleon had a hypnotic effect on people and could bend the strongest leaders to his will in one-on-one conversations. Hypnosis is a marked Neptunian phenomenon. What happens is that the person is able to gently infiltrate the other person’s will – which is quite extraordinary. If someone is receptive and open enough to suggestion, the opportunity and the invitation is there to mold the other through unconscious communion. Since there’s no obvious forcing taking place under hypnosis, the hypnotized person must cooperate on some level – yet it’s not a conscious cooperation which is why the whole phenomena of hypnosis is so unnerving. In general, people would like to think that they are in complete control of themselves, but it’s more of a fancy fantasy rather than an actual reality. We don’t know what we are receptive to and Neptune reminds us of this. He seeps through the most tightly shut doors.

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My own family is quite Neptune dominated and what often happens is that I feel subtly manipulated, yet the manipulation is never fully conscious on the part of the individuals so it becomes difficult to confront them. The times I have, they either take offense or seem genuinely perplexed. It is impossible to confront Neptune, because he works underneath the surface, below the threshold of consciousness. When confronted these types are deeply disturbed that they could’ve imposed something on someone – they either go into a introspective mood, become appalled or proclaim their love and sympathy in an attempt to restore union. My mother has Mars in the 12th house and although it’s not aspecting Neptune, Mars is placed in the house pertaining to this planet and she has Neptune in her 1st house. She never gets angry but people around her certainly do. She is eternally understanding of everyone else’s anger and has acceptance for it, yet she doesn’t respond to any of it on a personal level. She apologizes every time something upsets her. She is never aggressive, yet she does instill subtle guilt through little cues and hints every now and then because it is a sin to have a will that does not align with the crowd that one finds oneself in. Sometimes, when things aren’t the way she wants to see them she doesn’t see them. She presumes that on the most basic level, all people want the same thing, which is probably true on a “soul level”, but sometimes it doesn’t translate to everyday matters. People’s personalities contradict each other and this is no trivial matter – people can and do clash because of individual differences and it can be detrimental to one or all of the individuals involved. However, Neptune doesn’t like to see a clash as a clash – that would be to treat it as a definite fact, which would contradict the fluidity of oceanic union. The frustratingly passive statement “It’s everyone’s fault” or “It’s everyone’s responsibility” is the attempt to not deal with cause and effect while establishing the fact that some abstract common force is always at work. This is neither true nor false but this attitude conveniently keeps everyone “unified” and dependent upon each other.

Admittedly I went with the most gruesome examples when writing about the conjunction, but it goes without saying that not all people with this aspect is going to be a Lenin type – Ryan Gosling, Avril Lavinge and Timothé Chalamet all have this conjunction and they’re all quite popular entertainers in their own ways – they move the masses on some level. Ryan Gosling has a Pisces Rising so his chart ruler is Neptune which makes it particularly strong. He gives off that pure hearted watery eyed look that is extremely mesmerizing to the public – he portrays himself as sweet and compassionate, he seems to have a marked innocence and purity to his outward projected identity. Avril Lavinge has her Sun-Mercury in the 12th house squaring her Neptune-Mars conjunction in the 3rd. She has more of an edge to her personality with a lot of planets in Scorpio but she certainly comes off as a chaotic, intense and absent-minded creative which I would attribute more to Neptune. Her strong rebellious “I don’t care” statements through her music resonates with a lot of people, but so does her more sentimental songs. Timothe´ Chalamet has his Moon in Pisces sextile Mars-Mercury-Neptune and he is quite the stereotypical Neptunian boy – he looks delicate, introspective, dreamy and androgynous, more like an ethereal creature than an earth-bound human. With the conjunction in the 5th house there’s no wonder that he can act and express himself in a very fluid way. Acting and performing musically are the specialities of the Neptune, and if enough components in the chart support the endeavor one might just become famous. The trine and sextile aspect also lend themselves well to these kind of occupations. These people can effectively gain the sympathy of the public because people recognize something of themselves – something pure and unborn, a mutual feeling.

A good example of someone with the trine aspect between Neptune and Mars is Russel Brand. He is quite the Neptunian with an angular 10th house Neptune opposing his Sun and trining his Jupiter-Mars-Moon planets in Aries. Even though he certainly has the fire and energy of an Aries Mars that can sometimes be a bit too much for people he is not only fighting for himself he is fighting for all people. In many ways he’s embodying  universal hope and rage. He is fiery but also very receptive and deeply concerned with not causing any damage or hurt despite his characteristic blunt and direct approach. He has a marked religious/spiritual inclination, which is usually the case with a strong Neptune in the chart. In his early years the longing for Eden was sought through drugs, alcohol and fame, while it has now shifted to a more healthy inner exploration and focus on being of service to people. The soft aspects between Neptune and Mars-Moon-Jupiter planets in his chart helps him to cope with the disturbing Sun-Neptune opposition. In recent interviews, he admits that he still feels the pull of fame and success, yet he knows that if he goes down that path he will lose himself (his Sun) and will ultimately end up disillusioned and dissatisfied. I have the trine in my own chart, and I float aimlessly through life with the notion that things will work out and my actions will come to me, because I can’t plan or control anything. I have learnt that I have to trust the way things unfold, because I have a clear sense that my forced actions won’t lead me anywhere except to frustration and a sense of isolation. The sextile aspect seems to function a little bit more as an asset and a skill for the person to use. Politicians like Hillary Clinton, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande all have this aspect and they can effectively use their receptivity to the masses and people in general to inform their actions.

Now to the harder aspects. Britney Spears is a good example of the dilemmas created by the Neptune-Mars square. Her Neptune squares Mars in the 12th house, the house belonging to Neptune and Pisces. Because of mental instability in her twenties she was put under a conservatorship which is essentially the equivalent of giving up personal control of one’s personal matters in order for an outside source to manage them until one gains some foothold. Mars is one of the prime factors of personal ambition and autonomy, but when it’s in the 12th it is given up – it is essentially a slave to the undifferentiated realm and subjected all the forces of the unconscious. A 12th house Mars in itself doesn’t have to produce the mess that Britney found herself in, but with it squaring Neptune, Mars is going to get swamped, mislead, confused, manipulated and subtly coerced because of the need for fusion, into doing things that will pull her further away from independent action. Another good example is Kylie Jenner. She has Neptune in her 1st house squaring Mars on the MC. She is publicly known for being part of the Kardashian-Jenner family, but she’s also gained attention because she skillfully created her own brand Kylie Cosmetics and became very “successful” (as in earning a lot of money) due to her own independent action and initiative. However, Neptune is anti-independence – and curiously enough there’s always some dishonesty involved when Neptune makes any hard aspects in the chart. She was declared the youngest self-made billionaire by Forbes in 2019, but, she has later been accused of forging tax documents to appear to be a billionaire. Neptune simply can’t let her be all that her Mars wants to be – a successful business woman with a clean record. Self-sabotage is almost always the case, however minor with this aspect, because Neptune refuses Mars’ need to be potent in the world.

The opposition creates a different dynamic although the dilemma is similar to the square. The person can be called to completely abandon an independent will to take action in favor of the glamour and blissful archetypal experience, not unlike the example of Russel Brand and his indulgence in fame and crowd-pleasing at the expense of his sense of self. The difference between having Sun opposing Neptune and Mars opposing Neptune is that in the first instance one is prone to give up a sense of self in favor of Neptune’s waters, while in the second, one feels the urge to give up the ability to direct one’s own life in order to merge with life around oneself. The opposition usually lends itself to extremism because the two polarities, in this case Mars and Neptune, can’t coexist. Queen Elizabeth II has this aspect, Mars-Jupiter in the 1st opposing Neptune in the 7th. She is on the one hand seen as an archetypal figure, immortal and divine and blissfully kept out of the real world in order to serve as a symbol and a fairytale for people to feel spiritually connected to. She’s non-aggressive, forgiving and compassionate, transcendent of the fuss of the world yet overseeing it all with care. She is essentially functioning to satisfy the religious/spiritual instinct of the masses, although it’s certainly done at the expense of her own selfish wants and needs. Luckily for her, her Mars drive is quite global and collective in nature considering that it falls in Aquarius and is conjunct Jupiter – it keeps her objective and less personal in her martial assertion. However, I’m sure she struggles with the contradiction between her own will and her role as an immortal unreality that would seem to activate itself in the interaction with other people (Neptune in the 7th). Edward Snowden also has this opposition falling in the same houses. His Mars-Sun conjunction opposes Neptune, and he famously leaked information about mass surveillance programs to the press. Neptune has everything to do with leaks and the dissolution of boundaries. He’s both been called a hero a traitor – which perfectly fits with the contradiction that the opposition represents. He certainly made a personal sacrifice by revealing the things he did so he is perfectly shouldering the martyr cape. In any case he did what he did for the public with the concern of other people in mind (Neptune 7th house) he took a non-selfish stance for the sake of a higher ideal and ethical conviction. Both Queen Elizabeth and Edward Snowden are quite extreme in their Neptunian capacity and has taken on fates of mythic magnitude.