#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.

[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.

[femmefitz]

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

[gyrovagi]

is it crazier if viago doesn't know about yazmin's dad problems because she's never told him or. if he does know but she's not the one who told him (they have never talked about it). leaning towards the latter because i think it's more fucked up and i like the idea specifically that yazmin never told him about meeting with owain but he knew. and had the baseline ability to put two puzzle pieces together when shortly after meeting with her dad for the first time she fucked up an operation like she never should have . And still didn't actually talk to her about it

[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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[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.

[melpcmene-arch]

I do not know if this was eventually mentioned—— as I have so much to go through in the campaign. ( Though I've re-watched Vox Machina three times ) But the idea of Percival just spending nights working and tinkering; manufacturing something of use. To work rather than dream is a luxury that he could technically afford if it costs him a nights worth of sleep. And I think Percival would prefer to work and sweat. ( With him working with metal - you got to have that fire going. ) Than to dream and allow the nightmares to begin again. Plus I think after the mention of the Briarwoods. Percy's nightmares just reignited. Like repressed memories rushing to the surface. So he'll probably work more to avoid screaming in his own bed.

[match-your-steps]

why does kagamine len get chosen for the WEIRDEST songs. literally anytime I see anyone saying something like "this [vocaloid] song is incredibly weird" it's either miku (bc duh of course it is she's the most popular one) or len. like literally what the heck. butterfly on your right shoulder. chilledren. maid factor. this one where a bunch of the girl vocaloids are super horny for len I'm pretty sure it's by giga but I'm not going to look for it rn. um i think the one where he's that one song where he and rin sing about getting married but they're star-crossed or something I think idk I haven't heard that one since middle school. I can't remember any other ones rn and sometimes rin is there and sometimes not but I swear this is a phenomenon

[peoplesing]

on this fine sunday i would just like to say that éponine has a below average singing voice and the only person who knows this is gavroche when she sings him lullabies

[loremonster]

I'd say the children of people who shouldn't have had kids.

Still, fully agreed.

we are the daughters of parents who should not have had kids

[cathymee]

we're all wasting our time the earth should just explode soon <3

[great-and-small]

When I was in vet school I went to this one lecture that I will never forget. Various clubs would have different guest lecturers come in to talk about relevant topics and since I was in the Wildlife Disease Association club I naturally attended all the wildlife and conservation discussions. Well on this particular occasion, the speakers started off telling us they had been working on a project involving the conservation of lemurs in Madagascar. Lemurs exist only in Madagascar, and they are in real trouble; they’re considered the most endangered group of mammals on Earth. This team of veterinarians was initially assembled to address threats to lemur health and work on conservation solutions to try and save as many lemur species from extinction as possible. As they explored the most present dangers to lemurs they found that although habitat loss was the primary problem for these vulnerable animals, predation by humans was a significant cause of losses as well. The vets realized it was crucial for the hunting of lemurs by native people to stop, but of course this is not so simple a problem.

The local Malagasy people are dealing with extreme poverty and food insecurity, with nearly half of children under five years old suffering from chronic malnutrition. The local people have always subsisted on hunting wildlife for food, and as Madagascar’s wildlife population declines, the people who rely on so-called bushmeat to survive are struggling more and more. People are literally starving.

Our conservation team thought about this a lot. They had initially intended to focus efforts on education but came to understand that this is not an issue arising from a lack of knowledge. For these people it is a question of survival. It doesn’t matter how many times a foreigner tells you not to eat an animal you’ve hunted your entire life, if your child is starving you are going to do everything in your power to keep your family alive.

So the vets changed course. Rather than focus efforts on simply teaching people about lemurs, they decided to try and use veterinary medicine to reduce the underlying issue of food insecurity. They supposed that if a reliable protein source could be introduced for the people who needed it, the dependence on meat from wildlife would greatly decrease. So they got to work establishing new flocks of chickens in the most at-risk communities, and also initiated an aggressive vaccination program for Newcastle disease (an infectious illness of poultry that is of particular concern in this area). They worked with over 600 households to ensure appropriate husbandry and vaccination for every flock, and soon found these communities were being transformed by the introduction of a steady protein source. Families with a healthy flock of chickens were far less likely to hunt wild animals like lemurs, and fewer kids went hungry. Thats what we call a win-win situation.

This chicken vaccine program became just one small part of an amazing conservation outreach initiative in Madagascar that puts local people at the center of everything they do. Helping these vulnerable communities of people helps similarly vulnerable wildlife, always. If we go into a country guns-blazing with that fire for conservation in our hearts and a plan to save native animals, we simply cannot ignore the humans who live around them. Doing so is counterintuitive to creating an effective plan because whether we recognize it or not, humans and animals are inextricably linked in many ways. A true conservation success story is one that doesn’t leave needy humans in its wake, and that is why I think this particular story has stuck with me for so long.

(Source 1)

(Source 2- cool video exploring this initiative from some folks involved)

(Source 3)