#just a really sweet sentiment

[tamedgod]

“New Years Kiss” for Haru from Zephyr. Maybe a nice smooch on the cheek?

new years kiss! // @starvingtongue

it's midnight on a most beautiful eve to the new year, light snow slowly falling around them. xiao, who was much less of a night owl, had passed out before they could make it this late. this left herself and zephyr side by side, the pair huddled up around the fire when haru felt the other's lips brush her cheek. a traditional new year gesture, one that made the cat smile softly. stormy grey eyes search the woman's warm brown ones for a moment, before she leans over to press a gentle kiss of her own to zephyr's cheek in return.

"happy new year, zeph."

her words were sweet, spoken softly as to not disturb the big man beside them. her gaze lingers on zephyr's own for a moment, before haru leans over to rest her head on the woman's shoulder. her eyes close in thought, the cat heaving a great breath as she relaxed alongside the other. they'd been traveling together for a while now, taking everything one step at a time. this slower life was still an adjustment to haru, and she was sure it was for xiao as well.

but she was glad to have made a friend to spend it with.

"what do you hope for for yourself this year? i think i... want to learn something new. maybe... magic. or archery? i had a... a good friend who was amazing with a bow. i know it took him a long time to get good, but everyone starts somewhere, right?"

[mayasdeluca]

MAYA BISHOP AND ANDY HERRERA STATION 19: 7x09 'How Am I Supposed To Live Without You'

[postaldouche]

mama bear and the cubs are very particularly cute in this shot.. also notice how brock and hank sleep in the exact SAME position.

and ignore shorty-mc-handsomeface in the foreground but check out the boys and brock in the back. real cute stuff we're working with in the earlier seasons. i forget the episode name but my guess is that this is season 2 maybe? idk.

[fairyroses]

requested by @lexkent: the scene in "Shattered" where Lana sees Lex on the ground in the stable sitting curled into himself, and she looks anguished to see him in such a state, and she's so kind and compassionate to him

+ bonus Lana, after literally almost dying:

[orange-dreamzer]

I personally think that it's nice that they (probably) kept Moana and Maui as just friends, like from what I see there's nothing confirmed romantic going on and that's really sweet to me

[tricitymonsters]

Hi Cloud I’m wildly hormonal rn and thinking about an Amirmancing MC having his baby and suggesting they name it after Matias (or some variant of it in honor of him) and crying about it. Hope you’re doing better than me 😭

Oough you went right for the Pain Sauce tonight. It's okay, Amir would be ugly crying about it too and you can be High Emotional together while hysterically blubbering.

[teenagefeeling]

honestly kind of endearing how badly my parents think i should be famous for something. they don't even care what for they literally just want me to get applause

[lazuliquetzal]

i want to hear the sports anime manifesto

Okay short version:

My life was a sports anime for a bit, and watching sports anime makes me nostalgic for those days.

Medium version:

The typical shonen sports anime deals with themes of camaraderie, ambition, and the intersections of camaraderie and ambition, which ALWAYS hits me right in the chest.

I'm not an ambitious person by nature, but--you know that one poem floating around on here, the one about the moth that wants nothing more than to fly into the flame, and how it would be nice to feel that kind of all consuming passion? Yeah, that's the feeling I get from sports anime.

And often, for the Team Sports anime, you'll get characters who have nothing in common except that they Love the Same Thing--a friendship/rivalry/(romance) formed on the basis of a shared interest. That's sweet as hell!

And they're super predictable and low stress for me. Very easy to watch! Total popcorn shows. Also I like listening to people infodump about their passions. Someone loved their Sport so much they wrote a whole-ass story about it, so yeah, eat that shit up.

Long version:

The Socioeconomic Inequalities of High School Sports

In high school, I was on a crappy underfunded soccer team (with a healthy dose of sexism) and due to [sports league division reasons] the schools we played against were almost exclusively private schools.

I cannot describe how existential it is to be wearing a hand-me-down formerly white-turned-disgusting-gray uniform that's at least five years old when playing against a team that gets brand new windbreakers every season.

(If you've read AAB, YES this is where my obsession with the windbreakers comes from.)

(Hilariously, the guys team got windbreakers but we didn't.)

(I am not over the fucking windbreakers.)

But anyway, when you're constantly losing to private schools you get this fucking complex about it.

This should come as no surprise but like. People with the time and resources to practice their Thing get good at their Thing.

Playing pick up soccer at the park is practice. Playing rec league soccer is organized, repeated practice.

Playing competitive club soccer is all of that, plus a coach who knows How To Coach and What The Sport Is, plus you get morale-boosting uniforms and the chance to play with and against other skilled players. So you're exposed to a lot more, and thus, you learn a lot more.

Competitive club soccer is also Expensive. Rich kids get good.

There's a reason why the "Powerhouse School" is a thing in sports anime, because it's a thing in real life. People with leisure time and money get to invest in their sports development, and everyone else gets left behind in the dust. It's basically a microcosm of capitalism.

The underdog sports story is (quite tragically) bootstraps propaganda. All you have to do is be really good and work really hard and have A LOT OF PASSION to get good at your sport! The cream rises to the top! This is a meritocracy! Let's ignore all the other factors that go into an individual's development as an athlete!

(My brother got scouted for club soccer as a kid. He actually went to tryouts and got offered a spot and a scholarship and everything, but there's SO many hidden fees after the initial registration. Uniforms, equipment, travel and accommodation, tournaments, plus like, the time sink, so we never signed him up. And equipment-wise, soccer is one of the cheapest sports you can play--just imagine the price for something like baseball or hockey.)

In sports anime, there is no reform. There is no revolution.

But sports anime isn't really about that. It's about the narratives we create when we convince ourselves that we deserve to win.

(You know what I mean. Every billionaire is convinced they're some sort of heroic underdog. The same exact kind of 'working your way up' narrative.)

Sports anime is like, the uncomplicated power fantasy of playing the game. It's a world where you are rewarded for your hard work, because it's narratively satisfying. It's a world where it's safe to want things, because you have the exact same chances as the private school kids.

I used to be an obnoxiously competitive child. Then I got all my competition beaten out of me by 3 straight years of constant losing in my clownagerie of a high school soccer team (affectionate). I am going to admit that experience made me a better person and I would not trade it for anything, but I also had to like, relearn how to want things. And maybe real life is not as equal opportunity as the world of sports anime, but I think it's good to want things.

Of course, the winner-loser dichotomy makes sense in sports because of the inherent nature of competition, but it doesn't make sense in stuff like society and economics because that's like, competing over the right to live. That's where the capitalism metaphor ends,

Does sports anime actually go into the socioeconomic inequalities of sports? No. Of course not. Giant Killing never got a season 2.

But it is something I think about when I write sports anime fic. Even if it's not the point, it influences my characterization. The ego of a prodigy character in a shitty sports program is different from the ego of a prodigy character in a rich kid sports program. I am obligated to my amateur attempts to capture the complexities of the high school sports environment in my fanfiction because I am fucking insane I had a specific high school sports experience and they do say to write what you know.

[crossedwiress]

happy birthday jess @daydadahlias!💙

[firstroseofspring]

thinking pondering to me john torres is like. what if u met a woman. with confidence and dignity and a strong moral backbone. you meet and she makes a distinct impression with her honesty and her frankness and she seems like she's always sure of what she wants and what she needs and she's so different from anyone else you know and thats exciting and she's exciting and she likes you specifically you. and you don't think much of you but it feels good to be liked by someone like that. you love her of course. you marry her. of course!

[todayisafridaynight]

What’s a genuinely sweet moment with Jo?

LOL

[bmpmp3]

the really beautiful landscape/skyscape animation in makoto shinkai's works tends to be the big thing i see focused on and that is understandable and deserved like the weather and lighting effects are unREAL but i do think we should also appreciate how absolute insane the plotlines of his original movies get. at least two movies with in universe catastrophes with major ecological implications. the guns and explosions. theres that one movie i havent seen yet with the guy who turns into a chair (?)

[digitaldollsworld]

When have I ever given my mom the impression that I’m a Christian. Seriously. In what about the way that I talk about things and the way that I live my life ever gave her that impression of me

[designernishiki]

im at the haruka + akiyama duo section of 5 now and i love it <3 both for the uncle/niece sort of dynamic they have and because i fucking love me a murder mystery baby

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

I’m absolutely not a proponent whatsoever of the take that a certain someone kept Taylor locked away for years in London, but I do have to think that one of the added bonuses of her now being back to being based full-time in the US is that she gets to see her extended family more often, especially when she now spends most weekends in the Midwest near them (loooool thanks killatrav)

[britneyshakespeare]

i will never stop thinking about the winter's tale i will always be thinking about the winter's tale i will always be loving the winter's tale