#it's about child poverty?

[hauntingofhouses]

(concept art of young taigen - source ; art credit: @abigaillarson)

i cannot get over this concept art of young taigen. god.

just look at this angry bratty boy, too many feelings that he doesnt know what to do with! an abused 9 year old kid in poverty always playing with sticks in the dirt, obsessed with greatness and dreaming to escape his decrepit village—and he does!

he does escape. he runs away. this angry little boy, all claws and teeth and biting words uttered with a lisp, going on the run into a world he's never seen before until he makes his way to kyoto. and knowing him he probably forced his way in to be accepted by the dojo, growling and kicking even as he's thrown out, back into the streets, too stubborn to take no for an answer and never knowing when to give up.

taigen calls mizu a dog, weak, an orphan, a scrawny street urchin. but i can't help but think that he feels so bold to use those words because he had them spat at him too.

because taigen had the idea of "this is how the world is" beat into him from birth. he learned quickly that if you couldn't beat the world you could join it. but that meant losing your way, your values, your principles. and isn't that what true honour is? not just titles and status and glory?

we don't get to see what taigen, as a child surrounded by peers encouraging and goading him on, would've actually done if that meteor hadn't fallen right in front of them at that very moment. would he have really tried to throw that stone on mizu, killing her? we don't know.

but we do see what taigen (his true self, with no one around) does, when presented with the same opportunity. when mizu passes out in front of him, unconscious and near death, vulnerable, the path to restoring his honour lays itself out for him on a silver platter. and he wants to take it, wants to kill mizu, to claim what is his and return to kyoto and get back everything he'd worked tooth and nail for. he feels like it's what he should do. but he doesn't.

and later, again he is presented with the chance to betray mizu, likely offered by heiji shindo to get his rank reinstated within the shindo dojo. and again, taigen doesn't take it. he refuses. "stupidly loyal," fowler calls him later. loyal, like a dog.

because now, pulled away from the sneering looks and jeering words of people around him, telling him that this is what the world is, taigen had met ringo and mizu, two outcasts who refuse to follow a predetermined path to greatness. and so inside something blooms in him. something like hope. a chance to live in a world that doesn't kick you down every chance it gets, to live in a world where genuine kindness and and love and friendship and even weakness is possible, allowed to simply exist without fear.

because he'd been running away from the very idea of it the whole time. when he ran from kohama, he never looked back, never wanted to remember what it was like to be a child, afraid and hungry and angry and hurting, without the words to make sense of it, desperately wishing for something. something more. he doesn't know what. but he hears stories of great swordsmen and decides, yes, this must be it. this is what i want: glory, greatness. the twisted seed gets planted and thrives in this barren land.

and when he returns to kohama with mizu and ringo, he at last is forced to stop running. he must face the child within him again, and he tells that child to put down the stones in his hand, tells him to stop barking at anything that moves or looks at him wrong.

the child drops the stone, and taigen buys dumplings instead, gives them to mizu. the child within him, wide-eyed at the prospect of friendship, moves him to pick up a hammer and toss it to mizu. he's smiling inside even as he does it; giggling like a kid hiding a silly prank. as soon as mizu drops the hammer after him, he leaps at her, tackling her to the ground and they wrestle and laugh unbridled like two children playing while the adults aren't around to barge in and yell at them.

and then his gaze catches on mizu's lips, he stares into mizu's eyes, a sparkling blue, inviting like the open sea in good weather.

it's a man's desire that takes hold then, the child in him sinking away again, and he curses himself for it, because it ruins the moment.

everything goes to shit from there, and then it's back to being a man, back to putting on his grown-up's armour to play hero.

it fails. the shogun dies. fowler's beatings reopen all the wounds left by heiji shindo's torture. "honour is meaningless," mizu tells him. "nothing comes from being a samurai but death."

the words follow him, and he follows the words.

as everything burns down, he runs, leaving the fire behind him, and sees akemi, as well as the verdure of spring behind her, calling him. he does not hesitate then to hold his hand out to her, inviting her to come with him. "i don't want to be great," he says. "i just want to be happy."

what is happiness to him? perhaps he doesn't know it yet, or perhaps he does. but really, i believe happiness is what the child in him always wanted but never received. happiness is a home.

[paganminiskirt]

And since I haven’t talked about it yet I want to stress how proud I am of Ryan, how brave Ryan is as a child, how clearly he picked up on his mom’s firm belief in bodily autonomy and how he’s carrying it on for her though she’s dead and gone. I love how right after the series emphasized just how obscenely cruel and gruelingly invasive Homelander’s upbringing was, it gave us a scene where Ryan safeguards himself from the prospect of an adult isolating him to better exploit him - and doing so by using Homelander as an example. Just like Becca did. Just like Homelander’s disenfranchised underage mother, who was taken advantage of and ultimately lost her life for it, never got the chance to do for him. I love how Becca never wanted it to happen again and I love that Ryan’s not gonna let it happen again. Even when he isn’t acting like a “good kid,” even if he hasn’t yet purchased the right to not be abused by demonstrating sufficient “goodness.” Fuck it up Ryan. Fuck it up so so much.

[languagendersex]

lately i've been having this theory that the Great Depression is more responsible for life today than most of us realize. i had an idea to look up the history of hoarding, and it only goes back to 1938. Although the concept existed in literature and mythology, there was no case until this past century. Which led me to think that it's really a product of profound epidemic poverty, passed on to future generations via genetic and actual memory. Not really helped by capitalism and consumerism - really just bandaids to fix our broken economy.

The bigger picture is, we're living in a traumatic society, still in recovery. And progress isn't linear, not even for society.

And hoarding is really just a form of bottomless greed caused by such profound poverty as in the Great Depression. Attachment problems, such that they really think their hoard is part of themselves.

Maybe it caused our rampant consumerism too, trying to fill that hole left by the Depression. And maybe even the baby boomers by proxy. WWII was caused by Germany's poverty after WWI, to my knowledge. It made Germany angry for revenge.

And lately I'm learnng, anxiety is just anger directed at yourself. And constantly being at war with yourself isn't good for your body or mind.

I know these thoughts seem random, but I really do believe, everything is connected. Everything matters. And it's important to recognize that.

[crimeronan]

the 38% of people saying they'd go back and redo their lives if they could are making me Desperately sad. cannot express enough how important it is to realize what opportunities you've missed out on n what things have disappointed you & then try to go for those opportunities in your adult life. make the choices that your future self will look back on fondly n gratefully.

[femmefitz]

This post is weird as fuck, I thought it was known that "poor people shouldn't have children" was a bad take.

[lalalychee]

people responding to that one poll like "being 14 is the worst time in your life" lmao bro i wish that were me and my experience. i swear every year is so much worse than the last. 14 was a joke compared to what i have to endure now.

[lilacerull0]

this is so poignant to me i can't even. + the fact that nino isn't wearing his glasses in the scene on the right as if to say that he is completely blind to the mechanisms of the world he will never be able to escape simply because he exists, but will be labelled equally incapable of ever truly comprehending its scale — in spite of endlessly discussing its impact. talking about the shop owners of naples suddenly proven to be entirely different from encountering them face to face, huh. something incredibly relevant about that.

[lilylived]

Someone mircoagressed me last week by saying that islam doesn't let women get educated "based on what he's seen." unlike judaism and modern chirstianity, where education is led by women.

Maybe if you stop doing silly little things like decimating every single university in a muslim state that had high rates of female literacy and education ❤️

This guy is an athiest traumatized by church, but somehow it all translated to a hatred of islam over anything.

These people really don't see what huge white supremacists they are. The new norm for white people is to let go of all religion. You aren't unique or special for choosing that. It's your current norm.

And they get so mad when you refuse to drop your personal beliefs and bend to their current mainstream ideology as well. What does that sound liKKKe?

[sixofravens-reads]

Decided my next read will be A Handful of Time by Kit Pearson. I last read this when I was....8? 10? Elementary school for sure. Pearson is one of my favourite childhood authors and yet somehow I haven't reread very many of her books.

[glfry]

I was thinking about the whole thing about the HMDS cast all being descendants from the fomt/awl cast and then I realized there’s a very good chance that Skye is Huangs/Wons descendant and I just had to take a minute to process that.

[thursdaysbagman]

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[tariah23]

The fact the Denji is just so used to being stuck in shit to the point where he barely has any strong reactions to things ever outside of being a bit thrown off at times and that one time a couple of chapters ago when Yoshida had both he and his sister held as captives where he was pretty much forced to stop being csm or else- Denji isn’t allowed any agency as a character and he cannot have what he wants regardless of how insignificantly small that thing might be. He’s always forced into making discussions that he doesn’t want to, even if they’re painful and scary. And it is always through him being guilted into making them.

[horneboy]

"omg time to sit down and watch some lighthearted comedy videos on youtube" my entire fucking feed for some reason:

cool thanks

[whimsycore]

When my mother complained to me today about my half sibling needing heart surgery, I reminded her my father KNEW he had the condition and asked her if she screened him with anything before having kids with him and she was gagged. If your husband has 6 kids we know of; and all of them suffer from mental health issues and most of them (5/6) have a chronic illness you’re going to tell me it just???? Never occurred to you that you’re a terrible parent.

[crazy-god-bunker-jughead]

It's FASCINATING how many conservatives in the US (especially the survivalist types) recognize that there's something deeply flawed in capitalist society and see how fragile everything is. Yet instead of realizing that hey, maybe we should change this system, they double down on protecting it and blame individuals (especially minorities) for its flaws.

[poltergeistpanda]

The lines are still on his face, an elegant pattern in blue, illuminating his face, his eyes, his hair a mess from the fabric shoved haphazardly over his head. Wolfwood wants to laugh at him, but Vash looks frantic now, when he sees his reflection in the undertaker‘s glasses, he keeps grabbing at his cheeks, trying to hide himself behind his hands and Wolfwood catches a glimpse of glowing skin on his wrist when his sleeves ride up on his arms. They are all over his body, fuck. „Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck…“ Vash topples onto the bed and just… folds into himself, hands clasped over his face and voice miserable, the cussing a continuous stream falling from his lips. There is panic in his voice, a trembling sound, too close to tears, powerfully overwhelming, breathless. He keeps making these tiny little hiccups, gasps that leave the other man in the room helpless.

Or: The aftermath of the Sandsteamer incident leaves all of them in a state, most of all Vash and in the end, it's up to Wolfwood to pick up the pieces.