#it's not taken into account much in psychology here

[boyruggeroii]

i wish usamericans would stop with the bullshit gen [letter of the alphabet] and I wish people outside the us would stop taking it seriously especially people in the psychology field. Are you stupid?

[lunas-side-anime-blog]

Modern College Student/Gf Mikasa Ackerman Headcanons

Armin Version: Here Eren Version: Here

scary goth girl that everyone is too scared to talk to but secretly crushes on

psychology major bc I think she had a tough childhood and wants to better understand trauma / help others

somwhere in the middle between Armin and Erin when it comes to academics

like I don't think she is as intense about grades as Armin is, but I also don't think she's as laidback about school as Eren

moderately studies throughout the week, but it's just basic note taking and chapter reading, i don't think she's afraid to miss a few classes though if she feels like it

only really crams and does all-nighters right before an exam if she thinks she needs it

i think she wears men cologne and deodorant and it fits her soo well, idk how to describe it but she smells powerful but comforting at the same time?

maybe like woodsy with strong notes of vanilla and cashmere

loves a black cold brew: no creamer, foam or sugar like she's so intense that way

i think she's that one cool girl who always walks into class like a few minutes late with a hot resting bitch face, AirPods in and a cold brew in hand

tall girl and I think her height is prob her fave feature about herself, like I can see her wearing more heeled boots or platforms to exaggerate it

wears lots of black and hardly any makeup besides some light eyeliner most days

doesn't talk alot unless she fr knows you, i think most people would just hear her say "here" for attendenace and that's it

doesn't go to parties unless she has to

I think think she'll only go to watch eren and armin. she knows eren loves to go overboard and armin will most likely get distracted so she takes it upon herself to be the sober one watching everyone's drinks

def a girls girl like if she sees another female in an uncomfortable situation shes jumping in, no questions asked

i can see her working out with eren so in my mind shes ripped too and yeah...most guys don't fuck with her

has a cute lil skincare routine, only has like a three step process tho since I think she has naturally good skin

she secretly loves facemasks tho and doing her nails with armin as rewards for studying lol

I think out of the main three mikasa would have the most instagram followers, which is so funny bc she doesn't know why she's so popular?

I just think her aesthetic and vibe is very cool, if her account is set to public she would quickly get a lil following

lots of secret admires with this one, men and woman alike

I can see her being BI or Pan too so like that's very conveient

other than armin and eren, I think Mikasa would be besties with Yimir and Sasha

i can see them going to concerts together, shopping, late night drives, getting food (at sasha's demand lol) like i think they'd be a chill lil trio

views eren and armin as brother figures btw, gets grossed out when people ask if shes dating them

obviously a very protective friend

the type of freind whose like "what's their name" when you tell her you're seeing someone new and within an hour Mikasa will have an entire report on where they went to school, all their exes, hobbies, pets, address, ect.

I can see her getting a masters tbh, I def think armin would talk her into it so I think they would be grad school buddies while eren finishes his BA (he'll lag behind them a year or two since he changed his major so much anyway)

Loves cats and I think she'd have one or two if armin and eren are cool with it

I think she would have a few tatooes and piercings, but very subtle ones she can hide since I think as a psychologist she'd want to be taken seriously

music taste is kinda stuck in middle school tbh, still loves my chemical romance with a passion

I don't think she'd smoke weed or drink

^^ not that she has anything against it but i think she just hates the feeling of not being in complete control of herself so she stays away from things like that

never gets sick? it's actually medically fascinating

Overall she's that one quiet girl in class who looks scary but is a sweethear and everyon'es dying to be friends with

As your GF

omg I think she'd be the best significant other tbh

I think you would meet her in a meet-cute way since it's always the people who you least expect to be cheesy

I think maybe like you accidentally tripped and made her spill her coffee in class. you look up an see this tall, ripped, emo looking chick and you rush to apologise and give her your drink in hopes she doesn't flip

shes like "...ok." and takes it. but then the next class she randomly sits next to you and passes you a drink and is like ... "i hope i got your order right?"

the dork memorized your drink akjglalg

after that she kinda keeps sitting next to you and attempts small talk, so you realize she's actually v sweet and exchange socials

which is great bc I think mikasa is way better at flirting over text than in person and you'd quickly understand that she likes you

First date would probably be a show, i think she'd take you to a local band she likes and would get a quick bite after it

I think for second date she'd like you to choose what you guys do and then third she chooses, you guys switch bc she's all about that equal effort

once you agree to be her s/o she'd gonna be so annoying on social media like she's def gonna loose some followers as she only posts you now

type of partner to notice the smallest changes in you right away

you give her a peck and shes like "why aren't you wearing your usual lip balm? do you not like strawberries anymore?"

in bed she's a dom, is that even a queston?

I think she's actually a brat tamer, in my head rn she gets a lil smirk when you act up and i think she just mentally notes what to punish you for later

mikasa views sex toys as allies not enemies, and yeah i think she has an impressive collection so buckle tf up

okay so she's kinda yandere (tbh i think most ppl from the aot universe are but esp mikasa) I think shes very protective and a touch paranoid?

like i think her past is kinda messed up and I can see her mind running wild with ideas if not reassured

so you can just oversleep for a bit and you'll wake up to mikasa practically breaking into your apartment to make sure you're okay bc you suddenly went silent on her

some trust issues too, would def be really upset if you didn't give her the passcode to your phone

doesn't like your friends or anyone else you talk to tbh, she just doesn't think anyone else has your back like she does and will always remind you

i also know her manipulation skill is cray being a psych major, I don't think she's as good as Armin but ik she can weaponize some therapy speak and make you feel a lil stupid (only does it for your own good she says)

doesn't get jealous but does get even

I can see the little shit putting thumbtacks in pockets or laxitives in drinks if someone dares flirt with you, she can be so evil sometimes i just know it

she isn't even scared of the aftermath bc she knows eren and armin have her back so she wants the smoke tbh

the type of partner to death stare someone from behind your back but when you turn around she's suddenly all :)

would love matching tattoos with you if you're down

think she'll be the quickest to bring up marriage too, porbably only a few months of dating and she's like "so when we get married-" and you're like "!?"

big spoon gf, you can be bigger than her and she don't gaf she's still holding you not the other way around

Overall a really sweet girlfriend who just wants to protect you and keep you all to herself

Can be a lil crazy at times, but she means well I swear !!!

Nicknames for you: love, my other half, wifey/hubbie

Songs that fit the vibe: The Perfect Girl by Mareux, Breezeblocks by Alt-J, Me and Your Mama by Childish Gambino

"You're such a strange girl, the way you look like you do."

"She's morphine, queen of my vaccine, my love, my love, love..."

"Girl you really got a hold on me, so this isn't just puppy love"

(She's so hot omg I love her, i developed a lil crush writing this! Anyway srry the moodboard didn't include couple stuff, girlfriend aesthetics are way harder to find than bf aesthetics and the ones I did find looked nothing like her :( tell me if you guys like this series, totally open to doing more characters! not even just from aot, i also kinda wanna do demon slayer or hxh, also love jjk and chainsaw man but I didn't read those mangas yet so I may not be the best at it!!)

[zvaigzdelasas]

Sorry if this is a bad question, but do you think the Palestinians can keep their gains? I know this is an important win psychologically no matter what happens next, but is there any chance for changing the borders on the map?

Sorry if this naive or not relevant to the actual events

no its very relevant! Really too early to tell I think, at the absolute minimum I think this conflict could last several weeks, wouldn't be surprised if longer though. Either way the entire regional politic has already been changed forever, and I'm sure there will be defacto territorial change one way or another

Main factors/possibilities (rougly sorted in terms of my perceived importance/likeliness) imo:

A) level of coordination that Al-Qassam & other militants taking part have (idk what comms they'd really have available at this point, particularly with the blackout) as well as how robust logistical supply chains are for deliveries of weapons, personnel, and ammo, but to start out w 5,000 missiles in 20 minutes (though israel claims 2,500) definitely indicates a major degree of planning & coordination, probably months in advance if not more - so many contingencies were probably accounted for

B) how much Hezb'ullah enters the offensive, even pinning down a couple battalions around Sheba farm or the broader Golan heights can be a pretty pivotal, but if they actually are able to take territory that changes things significantly

B-2) how much non-muslim groups in lebanon accept hezb'ullah joining the offensive - israel can escalate here & potentially fracture the offensive by staging a ground invasion/aerial attack into Lebanon, as long as non-muslim groups read that as "because hezb'ullah instigated it" instead of as israeli aggression on them. I have no read on lebanese public opinion here so idk.

C) Whether the Syrian SAF steps up strikes against israeli occupational military targets in the Golan Heights in the next couple days

C-2) amount of explicit coordination between Hezb'ullah & SAF

D) how the situation develops in the West Bank - expect a lot of retributional violence by Israeli civilians here.

D-2) Abbas & his govt have already taken quite a strong stance where they dont quite endorse hamas' operation, but put blame squarely on Israel - if West Bank escalates decisively they might take a much stronger stance.

E) How many israeli political prisoners Hamas has taken (israel has admitted to 130, hamas says "more than dozens") - PIJ also claims 30, how important they are, & how many of their own civilians Israel is willing to potentially kill in order to achieve broader military objectives.

E-2) If Israel arent willing to do that, then that also means a lot of their vaunted air force is largely useless here & combat will largely take the form of urban street battles, which tend to favor irregular insurgent combatants (esp when the regular army is used to unquestioned aerial supremacy)

E-3) what happens during the land invasion of Gaza (said to happen in about 24 hours, and something that would be surprising if wasnt expected by hamas), which is likely prompted by the large number of detained political prisoners. If this ends without something that can be spun as a clear victory for IDF, then this will be a major demotivating factor against their international perceived strength & massively increase morale among palestinian militants & civilians

F) If gazans are able to make a land bridge to the West Bank, then things are going to escalate in a significant way. Sderot is right now the frontline here, about 20 mile straight shot

G) how much more of the barrier around the Gaza strip is able to be destroyed, particularly at checkpoints

I) if the Saudis officially announce a pause in normalization talks

I-2) if other factions in the House of Saud take advantage of the mass-unpopularity of normalization with israel among saudi citizen (ie not immigrant labor) population (~2% support support among saudi youth according to Arab Youth Survey 2023 https://arabyouthsurvey.com/wp-content/uploads/whitepaper/AYS-2023-WP_123_English.pdf - seems like a fair assumption this isn't limited to the young). Even absolute monarchies have limits in terms of unpopular choices.

H) how much of a united front palestinian refugees (across the region but in Egypt & Jordan in particular) are able to mount & what political ends they're able to force pressure on - Sisi has rhetorically genuflected to Israel being the one to provoke escalation while also condemning both sides, but Jordan's Abd'allah has pretty much stuck to both sides so far

H-2) If the youth survey is a good proxy, Jordan would likely be the one where the governing regime would have most difficulty avoiding taking a stand against israel (~6% in favor of normalization)

J) if Israel officially declares military operations against Iran, then that's going to be a major escalation path.

J-2) More likely imo will just step up operations particularly in Iraq against shi'a militants, not sure they'd really want to escalate in Syria at this exact moment

K) how long the Netanyahu-centered Unity Govt takes to form, especially how much Gantz tries to push himself into the center

L) How much the US/european politicians publicly supports israel rhetorically & with guns without public pushback (that's where posting can actually help, particularly politicians). Right now the political class has basically all fallen in line in support of Israel, so normalizing discourse in support of palestine does do something, particularly if it has quantifiable achievement like BDS (particularly S)

M) Now is also when israeli civilians protesting against the corruption of their government would make the most difference. Strangely the recurring protests have been canceled. lol.

Z (wildcard)) Ansar Allah (houthis) or other non-coalition yemeni militant groups start an offensive against the Israeli-UAE occupation of Socotra. UAE alone is still militarily powerful and islands have obvious defensive advantages but scrambling to coordinate a rebuff of Israeli military positions all that way away would definitely start to strain logistics

[m1ssunderstanding]

hi! do you know anything about the whole paul-nearly-drowning-story? I never knew what actually happened. Thanks!

Hi! Thanks for asking! I don't know more than the average Beatles account on here about it, but here's what I know.

John and Brian go to Spain while Paul, George, and Ringo are sent to Tenerife (and Cynthia is left with her newborn baby and her healing body)

Paul is acting pretty pouty during this trip (imo he has a right to be but not half as much as Cynthia. Anyway)

George, Paul, Ringo, Klaus, and Astrid go to the beach

Paul goes swimming alone in the ocean and gets pulled out by I'm assuming a rip tide and can't swim back and he's terrified and yelling for help but nobody notices

He finally drags himself out and he's angry enough at the others for not trying to rescue him that he's about ready to start using his fists

Nothing happened, everyone's fine

This story i have a hard time empathizing with because this happened to me when I was eighteen and it really wasn't that scary and normally I'd be like "well I'm just not that in touch with my emotions it probably should be scary" but this is PAUL we're talking about, the literal king of not being in touch with emotions.

So here's what my theory is. I think Paul's projecting. I think Paul's feeling betrayed and abandoned by John. (It's not very good partnership to go on a romantic holiday without your partner with both of your manager, possibly with the partial intent of earning special treatment. Additionally, Paul may have felt hurt in a more personal sense the way he was with John and Stu.) I think Paul is the kind of person who so badly doesn't want to feel those things that he'll completely put them away until he's in a more concrete, physical situation he can filter those feelings into.

Do I even matter to John at all -> they aren't even noticing that I've been gone too long for safety

How could John be so selfish -> they're so busy having fun they're not thinking about me

I shouldn't have trusted either of them as much as I did -> I shouldn't have taken a stupid risk swimming so far out

I'm completely fucked now in this partnership, in this group, in this management, in my career -> I'm really going to die out here, I'm going to drown no matter what I do

Because I think Paul would rather channel all those negative emotions into this one incident than actually sit with them and figure out what they mean.

So there's my armchair psychology for the day, obviously it's just my theory. Thanks again for asking!

[detrahere-se]

-VENS RESPONSE

jesus christ i need a hobby but GOD this response was full of shit.

(depending on what time people see this post without seeing the original, i have copied all of the text from the doc is anyone wants it.)

i’m gonna talk about this briefly because i don’t wanna put so much time into this, but Ven EVER SO clearly admits to being manipulative, even if their wording doesn’t make it seem like that, they don’t apologize for BEING manipulative to the other ‘victims’. if anything, Ven made other people by making some of them go into an episode or similar and purposefully twisting people’s ideology and perception of their interactions with alex.

and which that is quite literally PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIPULATION. which was not apologized for! all was said about that was how they wanted to take accountability for it. uhh ven! apologies are the second stage of accountability!! “If my actions are construed as manipulative and sociopathic, then they should not be blamed for speaking out when I influenced them by starting this entire discussion in the first place. I want to be the one responsible for this.” (paragraph 16) this!! this does not seem like real accountability!!

ven does apologize for being trans misogynistic, but it seems so un-genuine that it’s crazy and my only, but best, reason for thinking this way is that when ven crumpled up the excuse as outing alex for being trans because alex groomed them, but then TOOK IT AND RAN. baby was a WHOLE ASS track star with how far they drove this idea into the ground. as a transgender individual myself, i do not forgive ven, but its not my place to give either way. it’s alexs’.

“Again, as hard as it is to believe, I was fearful that you could’ve taken your life during any of this. And I know that doesn’t make any sense because I made your worst fears come true.” (paragraph 21) god, do i really need to explain how bullshit and ignorant this is? or do we all have enough common sense and iq above the average 7th grader to understand how this is bad?

so, i’m gonna leave this off at here. i really hope alex is getting better and will continue to make content and understand their misdoings. i’ll try to answer some questions if anyone has any about the document.

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

i think Helaena can be autistic but also a happy and joyful girl , autism ≠ depression. the way the portrayed the only neurodivergent character on screen as unstable, shunned depressed, and with no importance to the plot feel very ableist and weird , but then they're the ones who made the guy with a foot disability a feet fetishist 🫠

Hi OP, finally answering this because the trailer dropped and still the only Helaena shots we have are from her Jaehaerys' funeral. There is also one still photo of her. If you haven't seen it, here she is, apparently sewing the funeral shroud for her little boy:

So it seems like season 2 is going to continue on this trajectory for Helaena as a character who exists in order to suffer beautifully.

Don't get me wrong. I am glad that the show is going to wring the full emotional effect from Blood and Cheese, not just shock value. The audience will feel the real horror of a six year old child brutally murdered in his own home and the psychological torment of Helaena. It should be terrible, it should be devastating, and I hope they do not pull any punches.

What's disappointing about how the show has handled Helaena is that they didn't really put any effort into building up her character before her tragedy. It's all well and good that she likes bugs and she's touch averse, but what are her opinions? Who is she closest to? How did she react to becoming a mother so young? To what extent does she understand her visions? What does she value? She can be happy and cheerful, or she can be frustrated and angry, and hell, she can be depressed too, but I need to know why. It's telling that I can describe the basic internal motivations for each of the male children, including Luke who was a glorified plot device, but I cannot for Helaena. Aegon wants to feel loved, Jace wants to prove he's as worthy as any trueborn heir, Aemond wants what his brother has, Luke wants to be free from his family's expectations. Helaena? Fuck if I know. I guess she wants not to die horribly.

The ableism is an issue. F&B is full of women who were deemed "simple" -- Gael, Daella, Jaehaera-- without being given much else to define them, and HotD adds another (there's something, I think, to the way the "simple" Targaryens are always women and how disability kind of used as a way to remove them from the narrative and shunt them aside, often tragically). And while it's great to see an autistic person represented on screen, the show consistently has an issue with treating representation as characterization. "Autistic girl who likes bugs" is not a personality. Autistic people, (even those with horrifying prophesies I assume), do have hopes and dreams and feelings about things. The one peek we get into Helaena's life is at the in episode 8 when she roasts Aegon and even that scene is open to interpretation (and gets taken wildly out of context). Now, I can read a lot into the actor performances, but ultimately, lines that could have given a glimpse Helaena personality were cut. It's as if they're afraid that if they give her an opinion on anything she would lose that (frankly kind of infantilizing) "pure cinnamon roll too good for this world" "i would die for her" sympathy from people who are not inclined to be sympathetic for her family as a whole.

(And anon, you're right about Larys. And let me say, turning Larys' clubfoot into the punchline of an OnlyFeet joke also does not inspire confidence that they'll handle Aegon II's eventual disability with any sensitivity either, especially when Mushroom's accounts of his last few months are incredibly mean spirited. We need to start that discourse now so they get the memo).

Sadly, I don't think the show really has any intention of course correcting with Helaena in season 2. I imagine at most we'll have her try to warn Aegon and/or Aemond about Blood & Cheese but they won't understand her warning, and then this will be a vehicle to further their guilt and grief. And while we do need to see Aegon's guilt and his grief, I also want to know if Helaena blames herself, if she wishes they'd run away when they had the chance, if she thinks Aegon could have done something, if she is angry at Aemond for killing Luke, if she wants revenge. I do think, with the public funeral for Jaehaerys, they are going to show that the smallfolk are fond of Helaena, and hopefully that will be expanded upon this season and in season 3 because her death is the catalyst for the revolt that sees Rhaenyra driven from the city, and we should understand why her death has such an impact before she actually dies.

[sundasystems]

1. The Letter That Started It All

On a sunny day in late May, I received a letter from someone whom I'd corresponded with on a story years earlier. The letter was confusing and fairly alarming. I will attach it here:

Something is going on here. I'm missing time. I can't seem to remember what my job is, but I know I've been doing it. And I get all warm inside when I think about work. A little voice in my head is saying I'm doing a good job. But at WHAT? I wake up at night from dreams that… I can't remember. Or won't remember. Or don't want to remember. My clothes don't fit anymore. When I ask the people here who used to be my friends they all tell me not to worry. That it just means I'm settling in to the job. I don't think I want to settle in. But I also can't seem to leave. Please help me. Emily Voss

Emily had recently taken a job at Sunda Systems, a global conglomerate with it's research headquarters in a North Carolina town known as Eden Springs. Her position was that of an Administrative Assistant in the Optical Research Division.

According to a phone call I'd had with her just after her hiring, she took this position in early April after having been recruited by another employee. I believe his last name was Varas, though I am admittedly basing that on an unremarkable memory from months ago.

That phone call was the last I spoke with Emily until this letter arrived. That was not uncommon. We were not very close friends, just acquaintances and occasional collaborators. She wasn't one to kid around very much, but I couldn't shake the idea that this was all just a practical joke.

Something in the back of my head was convinced that nothing bad could be happening at Sunda. After all their motto is "Connected in Harmony." I have a Sunda modem and router combo here in my apartment, though I'd never given it a second thought until I began this project.

It is for this reason, and a deep regret, that I ignored her letter for days. But it kept nagging at me and so I decided to do some cursory digging. After the glowing reviews from top brass in various governments and corporations, I found a small post on a forum devoted to conspiracy theories. I will post it's contents here:

Does anyone think it's strange that S*nda S*st*ms has a positions listed on their job boards seeking psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists? Any company that big has got to be up to no good.

The post is still visible in it's archived form, however the user, who went by w3bofli3s_222 made no posts after that one, and their account has been deactivated. No contact information was available for them.

For their part, that did appear to be true. The job listing website "Karear" contained the above listing for a Behavioral Psychologist who would be making six figures.

What would an internet infrastructure company need with a behavioral psychologist? And what work would they be doing that would allow them a bonus?

Out of curiosity, I inquired. Two hours later, I received a phone call from an unlisted North Carolina area code. The following is a transcript of the relevant parts of that call:

R: Hello there! My name is Reggie. I'm so happy you're interested in the psych position. How can I be of assistance. I: Hello Reggie. It's nice to hear from you. My name is Helen, which I'm sure you know from the form I filled out. I've been job hunting and I was wondering what exactly the job entails. R: Of course I'd be glad to explain everything. Have you heard of our company before? Perhaps you've used one of our devices? I: Yes, my internet provider uses your routers. R: Wonderful. Then you know that our mission is to make the world Connected in Harmony! To that end, we employ several psychological experts to act in concert with human resources. We have some of them monitoring employee morale and productivity. Some act as advisors to help us maintain healthy work cultures. And some act as councilors that are available to our staff. I: That is quite impressive... R: The position we are currently seeking to fill would be one of the advisory roles. We want our employees to be as relaxed and comfortable as possible while on the job. It's very important to us that our employees feel at home here; that they can breath easy and lose all their stress. Would you agree that's important. I: Yes... I would... R: That's good. It's important that prospective employees share our values, the first of course being Connected in Harmony. When people are together, they are understood. When people are understood, they fear less. And when people fear less, they relax more. I: ... R: Helen are you there? I: What? Oh sorry yes! I was just looking at my notes. Now the website mentioned a bonus structure? R: Yes, that's something that we could talk about that more in-depth during a formal interview. We like to reward our advisors when things are running smoothly. If employees are happy, then the psych team is doing it's job well. I: Okay well I think I have what I need for know. Thank you for taking the time to talk. R: Of course. I look forward to seeing your application soon.

It was an odd call. I found myself almost nodding off as he spoke, though I was sure I'd gotten a full night's sleep. I came away from it believing that things couldn't be as bad as Emily made them seem. Sunda was a good company determined to do good in the world.

Right?

But as I logged into my computer, I noticed the little light was on that signals the webcam was active. I checked through all my open windows and nothing should have been accessing the camera. And as I stared at it, confused, it blinked off.

I guess it could have been a glitch, but just in case, I got a small piece of electrical tape and covered the webcam. I left the light exposed, though. Better to know than to blind myself, too.

It was such a little thing, but it was enough. Emily's letter. The weird job listing. The call that made me feel so strange. And now the mysterious webcam activation. It was too many oddities to write off.

It was time to start investigating in earnest.

[siffrin-enthusiast]

// intro post

[Image ID: A monochrome GIF of the main characters from the video game In Stars and Time, created by insertdisc5. End ID.]

hello and welcome to my little corner of the internet!!

more information (including about the music) is below the cut but. the tldr is that i'm a happily taken bodily white 19 year old, auDHD disabled transmasc traumagenic DID system currently fixated on in stars and time, ultrakill, and nbc’s hannibal. word salad i know /silly. i go by kuiper and he/they pronouns :)

my asks & dms are always open! feel free to draw me an anon picture (currently unavailable..rip computer) or check out the submissions thread!

while you're here, consider donating to palestine to request a commission from a lovely talented in stars and time artist!! check it out at @isatforpalestine!

can't choose a campaign to donate to? gazafunds.com can choose a vetted campaign for you!!

if you're trying to get the playlist to work, you need to go to your site settings, allow audio, refresh the page, and then play it. It will update itself as you navigate through the entire blog so there aren't any pauses/cutoffs! the good news is once you figure out how to do it, it'll work until you clear all of your site cookies!

interests

there's..a lot!! i'm currently VERY fixated on nbc's hannibal, but there's also in stars and time, web design, room of swords, coding, rain world, deltarune, slay the princess, pokemon, just roll with it, hollow knight, psychology (my college major!), fnaf, inscryption, generation loss, hades, celeste, ultrakill, warrior cats, oneshot, hunger games, moon knight (show + comics), night in the woods, john constantine and a good thirty more that i'm forgetting.

if you want to talk about any of these please feel free to send an ask/dm!!

tagging system

i do my best to keep it simple because i'm too lazy to do a cool one for convenience! interests are tagged with the name of said interest (#in stars and time), and if they're somewhat newly-out, they get a "spoilers" thrown on the end of it (#in stars and time spoilers). if there's something i post about that you don't want to see, i highly encourage you to block its tag! i won't know or be offended! :)

i’ll tag anything that i think is a common thing to be tagged like death/blood, and i do it in the format of #tw death. if this isn’t the right format or anyone wants me to tag other things that i didn’t think of, just let me know! i do NOT post or reblog 18+ content at all (personal reasons).

there's also a few special tags of my own! asks are tagged with #kuiper important posts for the important stuff (like this intro post), #kuiper favorite posts for my favorites/things i return to frequently, #kuiper asks, posts where i ramble about whatever is #kuiper rambling, posts about my dissociation/system are tagged #kuiper system posting though i don’t post about it much, things about my disabilities are occasionally tagged with #kuiper disability moment! i also write fic and while i tag them with #kuiper fics, i post most of them over at my fic sideblog! (..well i DID before i burnt out.)

if there's ever anything that you need tagged, please let me know!!

requests

i'm getting pretty into making stuff so..if anyone ever wants me to try my hand at something, please feel free to ask! this is pretty informal until i set more things up! edits, pfps, icons, stimboards, userboxes, ask games, fic/drabbles, coding, i'm willing to give it an honest shot!! feel free to ask!

any and all requests will be tagged with #kuiper requests!

contact

the best way to contact me here is my dms/asks because my notifications are a. little overrun!!

don't like tumblr? don't worry! i have too many other sites! ranked from most to least used:

neocities

cohost

spacehey

dni

i use the block button liberally, as should you! it's freeing!

basic DNI criteria. you know the drill. bigots will just be blocked

people who don't believe in freeing palestine/zionists

entirely nsfw or untagged nsfw accounts.

entirely ed/sh or untagged ed/sh accounts. i understand if you're struggling with it, but if it is your entire blog, no.

syscourse. post whatever you want on your blog, just don't bring it to mine (asking my opinion, tagging me in things).

blank blogs. i will think you're a bot.

people who are still giving j.k. rowling money. shoo!!!

radfems, terfs, radqueers, transableds, proshippers, stuff like that.

anyone not on that list is more than welcome here!!

credits

theme and the lil cat popup by glenthemes

music player, playlist

the lovely dividers

in stars and time & gif by insertdisc5

siffrin looping gif

[babyjakes]

on the @sarah-writes-stucky situation.

(tw for this post: discussions of pedophilia/sexual depictions of minors, mentions of trauma.)

hey everyone. the discourse that unfolded regarding this interaction i had was very upsetting and anxiety-inducing for me, so i took the past few days to step away from tumblr and take care of myself. i'm returning now with a clearer head and feel i'm in a better place to speak on what's important to me. thanks for your patience, and here are my (sort of) abbreviated thoughts.

i feel obligated to start by saying that i understand and support anti-censorship and its basic principles. i get why outlawing forms of written speech is dangerous within a democracy. i recognize the need for spaces like ao3, and the important role they play in preserving free speech.

with all that being said, i don’t condone sexual depictions of minors and neither does tumblr. the point of this conflict (for me) has been that my work was taken and used to inspire conversations involving sexual depictions of minors, in a space/on a site where those themes are prohibited. tumblr is not ao3. tumblr has explicit rules prohibiting content involving "harm to minors":

"Don't post or solicit content that features the abuse of a minor, that includes suggestive or sexual content involving a minor or anyone that appears to be a minor, or that facilitates or promotes child sexual abuse. "Content" may include photos of real individuals, illustrations, animation, or text." [source]

this incident has not been a case of me being "very sensitive" about "mature themes." it's reasonable for me as a writer on tumblr to expect that my works won't be used to inspire depictions of harm to minors. any creator who wants to write themes as dark and controversial as smut involving minors should be aware of what spaces they're speaking in and the rules that apply to that space.

i want to say the biggest thank you to everyone who has spread awareness of the issue, spoken out about it, gone over to her page to hold her accountable, supported and been there for me, etc. it's been very upsetting to see the way she's been speaking to those confronting her. to anyone she has insulted, belittled, or hurt: i'm so sorry. you did not deserve that.

my takeaway has been that this person seriously lacks the social awareness and maturity needed to navigate complicated topics like this. it was interesting to watch her speak from an incredibly high horse about many different things, like her volunteer work (when my real-life job is in crisis response), her superior knowledge of psychology (when i just got accepted for a ba+ma program for psych), and her takes on trauma as apparently the only trauma survivor in the world (when... well... anyone who knows me knows what i could say here.) as far as i know, she's still going. and there's nothing i can do but let her.

i just wanted to thank some people i saw in real-time voicing their concerns and calling her out. i have so much gratitude and respect for you all. i'm so sorry for the way you were treated through all of this. (and apologies if i miss anyone, she has deleted replies on some posts and collecting names has been hard.)

@vellicore and @slvttyfied (i'm so sorry she made that post about you) @sgt-seabass @evansbby @brandycranby @boxofbonefics @ttyls @vase-of-lilies @buckets-and-trees @ladyobscurus @the-iceni-bitch @targaryenvampireslayer @fushic0re

[yourdeepestfathoms]

I was staking your ur yaelokre tag and I swa you were a published author and???????????? Would you mind me asking what exactly you published? (Infodumping encouraged!)

i’ve only got one published book out right now, which was done through self-publishing on Amazon, but i’ve sent two of my three manuscripts off to two different publishing companies to hopefully get them picked up and published! fingers crossed!!

my current book out is called Servant of Evil! it’s a historical fiction tragedy about the Salem Witch Trials, told from the perspective of one of the afflicted girls, Mary Warren. it details her involvement in the trials and how it rapidly tore the town of Salem apart, as well as detailing her slow descent into despair as the overwhelming guilt of her actions rips at her mental state.

the story is very grim and had me crying on several occasions, and i’m the author!

i wrote the book because i was hyperfixated on the Salem Witch Trials, which started when i was a junior in high school when we read The Crucible. however, it wasn’t until a year later that i actually started to do something with said fixation, as my mom took me to Salem for a graduation and 18th birthday gift, which reignited my passion for the event and got me writing! SoE was finished within two months, but it wasn’t actually published until January 2023.

here she is!

if you wanna buy the book, you can get it here!

do be warned, though, as the book is very heavy and covers a lot of serious subjects such as: self harm, suicide, sexual assault, abuse, and torture.

my other three finished manuscripts are:

Medusa’s Child, a three-part historical fiction series about Medusa raising a human child named Theodora (Teddi for short), who goes on to avenge her when she’s killed by Perseus. i have another account sharing details about the books: @mommy-medusa! (this is the one i sent to a publisher!)

Fog Makes People, a psychological horror-thriller duology about a fictional town called Lochmere that is haunted by a strange fog that causes people to go missing. sixteen-year-old Beatrice “Bee” Lamb is returning to Lochmere after spending some time away with cousins due to constant harassment from the community. she was the sole survivor of a fire at school that killed nine other kids, eight of which didn’t die from the fire itself but rather from being taken by whatever is in the fog. however, the night of her return, she begins to get texts from one of the fire victims, and she starts to realize that maybe the people who go missing in the fog aren’t actually dead. this send her down a rabbit hole where she desperately tries to save her friends, which is difficult in and of itself, but things get even more complicated when she officially discovers and subsequently meets the mastermind behind it all: an enigmatic, horrific creature known as the Rorschach. (this is the other one that’s been sent to a publishing company!) (this one is my favorite, i’ve spent so long developing it.)

and Hell or High Water, a survival horror-splatter punk set on a cruise ship called The Grey Palace, following a teenage girl named Violet Nicotero. this cruise ship gets hijacked by some maniacs and stranded out in the middle of the ocean, where the passengers are slowly picked off by these mask-wearing freaks. (i hate this one so much. it was my first ever book written, and it was supposed to be my debut novel, but i started to resent the whole thing after editing it so many times. i got too frustrated with it, so i put it aside to work on SoE instead, and it’s been in timeout for about two years now ever since.)

they’re all my babies, and i hope to get them all out in the world one day, including all my works currently in development hell!

[haggishlyhagging]

“In the Chinese myth of the great flood, the Moon Goddess sent her representative to earth, after the waters had subsided, to repeople the world. In the Babylonian account, Ishtar, the Moon Goddess, is reported to have both caused the great flood and to have saved a remnant of her people. Here her dual character is clearly seen, for she herself sent the flood and then lamented over the havoc she had wrought. On the Eleventh Tablet of Creation is told the story of the flood. It is called "The Lamentation of Ishtar at the Great Deluge." According to this ancient record the goddess Ishtar prophesied evil which immediately came to pass. If a person endowed with magic power prophesies, according to the "magic" way of thinking, she evokes that which she has prophesied, whether it be good or evil. We are still swayed by this old attitude when we feel it to be unlucky to suggest that something may go wrong, or that there may be an accident, or other misfortune, and we can still "feel" a hint of the dread which was caused by a witch's curse. For the curse was by no means only a wish that evil might be fall, it was believed actually to bring to pass the evil that had been "wished on" the cursed one. This colloquial expression gives the nearest modern equivalent to the old concept of a witch's prophecy or curse. So Ishtar, who was a noted prophetess, as were all the moon goddesses in whom the dark side of the moon was represented, prophesied evil, thus bringing the flood upon the earth. Then when mankind and all the animals were threatened by the rising waters, she pitied their plight and saved them.

Spake Ishtar like a child uttered the great goddess her speech, “All to corruption are turned and then I in the presence of the gods prophesied and

As I prophesied in the presence of the gods evil, to evil were devoted all my people and I prophesied

I the mother have begotten my people and like the young of the fishes they fill the sea

The gods concerning the spirits were weeping with me

The gods in seats seated in lamentation covered with their lips for the coming evil

Six days and nights passed

The wind, the deluge, storm overwhelmed.

On the seventh day in its course, was calmed the storm and all the deluge

Which had destroyed like an earth quake,

Quieted.”

As the poem proceeds, Ishtar is depicted in the boat which she has made and from which, like Noah from the Ark:

“On the seventh day in the course of it I sent forth a dove and it left”

. . .

"I sent the animals forth to the four winds"

There was probably an earlier version of this myth which makes the Moon God the central figure. Noah, in the Old Testament story, is probably a form of Nuah, a Babylonian moon goddess, and like Ishtar, he saved a remnant of the world from destruction in an ark which he built. Then when the waters subsided, Noah, taught by a dove, the bird which is invariably associated with moon deities, came out onto the land. The depopulated earth was repeopled from him and his family alone. He was thus the father of all who were born subsequently. As he had taken with him in the ark one pair of each animal species he was thus the generator or creator of all animal life on the renewed or redeemed earth.

The word ark is cognate with the Hindu word argha, which means crescent, and also with the arc of a circle. The ark in which Father Noah carried the animals over the flood was thus a moon boat. This story is put into the form of history, in the Old Testament, as is so much of religious myth. Even today, controversy still centers around the problem of the factual basis for the almost generally accepted legend of a great flood. Whatever may be the truth in regard to the deluge, it is clear that the story of the moon boat refers to psychological events. In the Chaldean story the whole happening is concretized. It is living men and animals who are transported over the floods to the "New World." In the Egyptian story Osiris, the Moon God, ferried the dead man who had been initiated into his rites, over the waters to the Isle of the Blest, and so gave him immortality. This also was a concretization. It was thought of as having an actual physical reality. But the Hindus, who were more psychologically minded than either the Chaldeans or the Egyptians, speak of the moon as carrying the souls of the dead over the waters to the sun where they live a redeemed life. This transition is represented in the Tantric diagrams of the Seven Stages of Consciousness. There the crescent moon is seen in the watery region, above which comes the fiery region of the sun. But already this is realized as symbol. The psychical is no longer projected into a concrete semihistorical happening, but the myth is recognized as representing stages of consciousness or of psychological development.

The moon boat of the Hindus carries the souls to the new world, the new incarnation, it is the boat of immortality. The Chinese moon goddess after the flood gives birth to all living things. It is a renewed world and a new creation. Men, women, and all animals arise from the different parts of her person. The moon goddess of Western Asia and of Europe similarly gave birth to all living creatures. The statues of Diana and those of the Asiatic moon goddesses in their hieratic form show animals and plants springing from heads, limbs, and breasts. For the Moon Goddess is the Many Breasted Mother of All, creator of all life on the earth.

The Moon Goddess is, in literal fact, the mother of all living things and yet, strange though it may seem, not only is she the life-giver but also the destroyer. She creates all life on the earth, and then comes the flood, which overwhelms it. And this flood is her doing, for she is cause of rain and storm and tide and also of the flood. But like Ishtar of Babylon, she laments at its consequences and does her best to save her children, who have all become ‘like the fishes of the sea.’ Similarly, though she stands passively by when her son is killed, the Moon Goddess mourns, as Aphrodite did, at the defeat and death of Adonis, an event that was commemorated annually, in the festival of the ‘weeping for Adonis.’”

-M. Esther Harding, Woman’s Mysteries: Ancient and Modern

[humming-pokemon-helpers]

It's been a while since I did some Poké-psychology posting, so I want to tackle one of the biggest concepts I see going around in the field of pop psychology:

🍐🍒🌰🍑🍓Natures! 🍓🍑🌰🍒🍐

Now, battlers classify Nature into one of 25 categories. I'm not going to list them all, so here's a giant chart, courtesy of Bulbapedia!

Now, let's touch on one big question:

How the heck are a Pokémon's personality, favored means of battling, and flavor preferences all tied together?

We're still not really sure, to be honest. Our best guess is that it's related to genes and inheritance, given Pokémon can pass down their natures in human-bred environments (though they don't in the wild, curiously).

Another theory suggests that certain flavors might indicate nutritional value that would support a certain style of battling... but recent evidence on Mints has sort of forced that theory to the side, as well as placed into question how genetic battle style really is. Mints have been found to affect a Pokémon's battle style (i.e., what skills they're greatest at) without any marked change in personality, across several observational and experimental studies. Moreover, the change in battling style had no influence on berry preferences!

Despite this, it's clear that battle ability and personality do seem to be related, at least without external interference. Pokémon who tend to overthink things or hatch lots of plots are great at attacking with special moves, whereas Pokémon that take things easy tend to be better at taking all sorts of hits. These definitions are quite vague, so there's a lot of scientific debate about how valid they are, but time and time again, objective measures of Pokémon power relative to their species seem to bear out these trends.

What can we take from that? Firstly, it's quite clear that battling is something that holds quite high relevance on Pokémon's daily lives, for it to influence personality outside of battles as well. However, the inflexibility of Pokémon nature (as in, personality) from birth also suggests a much higher influence of nature (as in, genetics) over nurture for Pokémon personality, as compared to humans! However, this nature only being inherited under specific circumstances leads to a lot of questions about where those genes are coming from!

Of course, as a trainer, your Pokémon's nature and characteristics should be taken into account when caring for them. But know that, thanks to mints and the recent rise of Hyper Training, any Pokémon, regardless of their traits, can be a successful battler! Your modest Litten will turn out alright. A Mareanie who's trying to fight things rather than show off their study body can learn to defend just fine.

Finally... there's a lot of questioning about whether humans experience natures in the same way their Pokémon partners do. To this, I always like to reply: nature isn't the end-all-be-all of personality for most Pokémon, often interacting with species and circumstances. In that sense, it's quite possible humans have natures... though I believe these traits all apply to humans at some level at some point in their lives! As for my nature... that's a secret!

[starlightbooklove]

Hiii, so, today Let's talk about ACOTAR again, why? Because Why not

And today I want to talk about the representation of abuse of men in this SJM series and how many 'fans' decide to ignore the importance of this issue.

We are already clear about the very very good representation of Feyre's trauma and growth, and since it is something we already know I want to talk about someone else: Rhysand's trauma.

Rhys is a man who went through abuse for 50 years, 50 years in which he was vulnerable, humiliated and completely relegated to a position of 'power' that he only had access to through Letting himself go through abuse, something that is made clear when he explains how he put Amarantha's emotions over the edge just so she will stay with him, this, with the intention to keep his people safe.

He assumed that role and then went through the consequences of this decision, and something that many forget is that Feyre is not that the only one traumatized, (AND WITH THIS I DON'T WANT TO GIVE AWAY PLACE TO DISMISS THE TRAUMA OF FEYRE DARLING) And just because Rhys is much older does not mean that he has not suffered, obviously we cannot see it perfectly because Acomaf is told from her point of view, but it is clear that he also suffers the psychological consequences of the abuse he suffered for a long time: The nightmares, isolating himself from his family, not feeling worthy of Feyre's love, feeling like the monster of the magnitude everyone said he was.

And how this actually has a lot of importance in the relationship, Because Rhys was not the only one who helped Feyre, she helped him too, because she was the only one who understood more precisely everything they had gone through under the mountain. She valued and gave real weight to everything that happened and gave him something that is not given much to male abuse, compassion, she gave a sense of importance to his trauma. At the same level that he gave hers, they both gave each other that acceptance of their pain and loss when they were super to not being taken into account in that aspect (outside the IC in Rhys case).

And something that bothers me is that there are people who love to give value to Tamlin's trauma but when it comes to Rhys, his trauma doesn't count because he was bad, because he is a perverse monster. And is like????? Did we read the same book??? And also how you can fall into the same stone that the same author showed many people fall into when it came to criticizing and hating Rhys and calling him a whore, And (in the book) many had reasons to hate him for this, since at first glance he seemed to only receive benefits from this, and give hell to them, but as a reader it is impossible to just think that, there is no excuse to dismiss the Abuse that someone experienced, when You know what happen, whether is fictional or real, and this is something that happens a lot with male characters in series, movies and books. Where their abuse is overlooked by the same story or the viewers and I think that here Sjm did justice to his case, Because she gave them equal value to what they went through, just like many fans that I have seen talk about this, as well as I have seen people who completely forget it.

Lastly, I think that the representation of this kind of trauma and abuse is something that has to be shown with tact and respect and see it in Feysand's writting and their story and That's why it bothers me that people only see it in Feyre (which is also absolutely valid) but ignore it and pull it aside when it comes to him, it's not fair, giving value to another does not take away weight or value from the previous one.

[1yyyyyy1]

blocked the radfem tag dropped feminism as an interest and became unbelievably free and unchained from the ramblings of idiots with big mouths and no drive to commit to what they claim to believe!

I went through the tag recently and it struck me how much of a biased cesspool of negativity it was. Aside from the inconsistencies I talk about, the issue I take with it is that it poses itself as the forefront of liberation while offering very little outside of complaints and bare theory. I really do not want to see posts like these being passed around and taken at face value when they greatly downplay women's ability to distance themselves from objectification and essentially discourage women from ever attempting it. Another thing to note is the amount of femicide being reported under the guise of raising class consciousness; laypeople subjecting themselves to the materials even trained professionals require psychological assistance with and believing it is an adjusted thing to do is genuinely concerning. I understand why women are drawn to this content — to build up awareness after years of denial, among other things — and why they choose to continuously shift accountability to men (I spoke about it here); it is a decent tool if you are in that kind of predicament. It does, however, not make the environment any more productive to be in because a lot of the time the conversations outside of this framework get dismissed, even if they lead to empowerment through personal accountability. It really is not that effective at cultivating encouragement or solutions, so there is no reason to be there past a certain point and risk retraumatization.

[thousand-winters]

I really don't understand this fandom. You want grace to go through more pain? We know from chain of iron that Tatiana beat her repeatedly, that she was pimped out to young and old men, and she was used as a mere doll by Belial, besides all the grooming and psychological abuse she suffered from Tatiana. She goes through a horrible interrogation, gets her power taken out in the most painful and horrific way, her brother completely forgets about her and her only friend dies. And you people want her to get her marks stripped? She explicitly says she didn't want to do what she did to James, that it was wrong, that she didn't enjoyed any of it. And as soon as she's free from Tatiana's grasp she takes the bracelet off him, bc Tatiana wouldn't be able to hurt her anymore (are we forgetting Tatiana hit her when her power didn't work on James?).

What she did was wrong, period. But it seems to me all the pain and abuse she's a suffered, plus all the things she did to help should free her from any extra punishment. Like, people act as if her life with Tatiana was fun when she actually says: the only thing that gave my life some meaning was Jesse.

People are so quick to forgive male characters, who do some shitty horrible things (obviously different from this particular situation) but then you have a girl, with one of the saddest back stories from tsc, who was used and actually regrets her actions and is changing for the better, and you treat her like a monster? Why is it so difficult to offer her the same sympathy you do to the white men from these books?

She's all alone, her mind is completely fucked up, and it's gonna take years for her to be in a good place mentally. Isn't that enough? After all of this, shouldn't they offer her some kindness? The books make it very clear that if she wouldn't have been under Tatiana's roof she would have never done something like this, she would have lived a normal life, been a normal person.

This fandom always complains about the Clave's treatment towards children and their lack of accountability and understanding, but then go and act the same way towards Grace. Why can't you understand that this is a complex situation? Not something you can reduce to black and white (like the book does). I've seen people have more sympathy towards Sebastian (you know the biggest villain of these books) than to Grace.

If you hate her so much just stop talking about her. Please.

Oh, the callout about the white men 🤭

It is truly heinous how people act towards Grace, isn't it? I don't have much to add to this because you have summed it up really nicely and I agree with everything you have pointed out here.

Frankly? Half of the people I saw hating on her pre-COT did so because of her "interfering with Jordelia" which was very ridiculous already, because if you're gonna dislike her, better be it for something that actually makes sense instead of shippy reasons, but oh, well. Fandoms are like that sometimes.

Would love if they didn't talk about her in worse ways than how actual evil characters are talked about, but it is what it is.

There are people with some sense at least, like you, dear anon 🙏

[hereforthefunnyguys]

Hey bro, if you don't mind me asking... What's the worst Yu-Gi-Oh take you've ever seen? I like seeing you rant.

God... I'm blanking right now but there are a Lot. There are just so many </3.

Later addendum: This went... all over the place. I have no clue what happened here but I stand by my opinions.

I realize I rant about Marik problems a lot (tis the tism) but I think the ones that actually tend to genuinely anger me the most in like a "oh, you genuinely did not read the same series as me" are the ones that attempt to villainize Atem over the whole series or make it seem like he only really cared about Yugi. That is just like. Blatantly incorrect.

First of all, I realize everyone really likes s0 "ooooOOO eDgY yAmI", but early manga Yami Yugi was only terribly violent for a few chapters. After that, he pretty firmly chillaxes, especially post-Death-T and definitely post-Monster World. And we are given a... pretty good reason for why he was like that originally! I would also be a little mad if I woke with no memories after being tormented in a labyrinth full of shadow demons for so long i literally could not remember being born and my first sight was someone trying to beat the shit out of the guy who was kind enough to release me from my Gay and Stupid Maze!

Literally guys, he's like a recently adopted stray kitten. He's just lashing out because he's scared. He's not evil you idiot he's 15 and incredibly incredibly confused and freaked out. Yes he still committed murder no I don't care we've excused other people for worse (take note of how these will often be the same people that uwuify marik or yb (but marik especially -> about to have a sub-rant its related i promise.))

ps. i don't get the marik thing he may be pretty but he is not a sniffling little kitten like people write him as (especially in comparison to his Big Bad Evil Personality and dangerous-bad-boy Yami Bakura who certainly never admitted to himself considering Marik slimy and weird and a dangerous asshole in canon no sir never). The man literally tried to drown Joey and (admittedly accidentally) got his own big brother fried like a fork in a toaster engineered by Elon Musk (and, I want to mention, he didn't seem to consider Rishid a genuine brother until much later after the psychological equivalent of multiple slaps upside the head). I think people just don't know how to write mental illness and/or emotions other than Horny or Sad and morals more complex than black and white.

This is actually part of I think a larger problem in the fandom with not tending to remember the whole storyline/point of yugioh was proving that people are not naturally evil and in fact often prove to be quite noble when they get taken out of a bad situation and worked on a little. Ppl don't quite get this outside of redeeming their favorite evil pretty boy so he can date around, so they either make everyone a sad little angel thats never done anything wrong in their life or a terrible demon whose surprisingly abusive qualities are only matched by his shockingly canon-inaccurate height and muscle mass increase. This is, imo, why people tend to do That to Atem. Either they interpret him as a perfect Good King that can do no wrong or, sadly more commonly, an evil serial killer that only cares about [EXPLETIVE REMOVED]ing Yugi and then pretty much nothing else.

Also, he was like... not a bad Pharoah from the exactly (checks notes) 72 hours he got to be one before dying a horrible torturous undeath. For the good of his kingdom, I want to mention. That was something he willingly undertook for the sake of his people. As far as autocratic dictators went, he was by all accounts a pretty nice one! Didn't even torture anyone to death! In fact he was so against the idea of torturing people to death we had to Specifically keep the bit where we were actually doing that secret from him!

also section B of this take then usually comes around to trying to prove he never cared about his friends other than yugi. And if I may be so spicy in the chat tonight. This is usually ooc puzzleshipping brain rot influencing critical thinking. Yes yes I get that your yami yugi 20k yandere fanfic (with a yugi that cries all the time for some reason and apparently refuses to just Take The Damn Thing Off) is hot but brother of mine that is not what Atem was like in canon. Like. At all.

First of all, even before Memory World he showed off caring about his friends. There was the whole "deadly yo yos" incident with Joey and then there was the not one but two Anzu hostage situations that he dealt with, one of which when there was literally no benefit to him or yugi to go and rescue her! In fact it put them in Active Danger to do so! And from what I remember, that was before even Death-T! So he has very much cared about his friends from the very beginning, individual of his aspect as an extension of Yugi's survival instinct.

Also. The whole point of Yu-Gi-Oh is the whole friendship is magic stuff. That absolutely applies to Atem as well. In fact it probably applies to him more so. The guy really depends on all of his friends for his sanity in a way that not even Yugi does. He likes Joey and he likes Anzu and he likes Honda (even with as little time as he got to shine RIP spiky haired king) and he likes Ryou! In fact one of the original conflicts in Battle City was that he cared about Ryou so much he wouldn't get rid of his age old archenemy because it would have hurt Ryou! But anyways. Anyways.

It feels like part of that can be blamed on the Orichalchos arc in the anime (which was certainly. An Arc. Not good not bad but a secret 3rd thing.) where they had him get incredibly depressed and ever so slightly unstable when Yugi went away. Which makes sense for him, but then people tend to overstate it to "Atem is inconsolable when Yugi isn't there to make it all better for him" and not "Atem feels incredibly guilty for falling under the spell of a literal magically evil-inducing rock and would likely feel similar if he lost really any of his friends in a similar manner."

"But steve. how are those last two things at all related to each other" WELL. YOU SEE. It always feels like people tend to make Atem evil and hate everyone else in order to justify a fantasy scenario where "Yugi" (read: writer's self-insert) gets to come along and redeem him and he gets to be their loyal attack dog. And you know what? I'm fine with that as a fanfic scenario! Let people have fun! Is probably very hot to people who are not stickily uptight bastards like me! But it annoys me like Hell when people try to canonize that particular bit of oocness.

Atem isn't evil. The poor boy is having his own problems. He's hanging out. He's doing his best. Leave him alone. He literally is just a teenage boy that likes to play games. Let him chill. Let him chill.