#just be mindful of the fact that its an interpretation and dont go preaching in the comment section about how theyre biological siblings

[senkamikakushi]

yeah. this. people can take the relationship any way they want, but stubbornly insisting to others that they're siblings is just spreading misinformation

I also think haku's relationship with chihiro transcends romantic and platonic titles as quite a few ghibli pairings tend to do, but it's undeniable that the love is there (they literally beat us over the head with it in the dialogue lmao). im just sick of the theory that it's purely familial/sibling love because what. where did they even get that. I can understand all the reasons as to why people would steer away from chihiro and haku in a more romantic context (mainly the awkwardness of the whole age thing or preferring to see them platonically) but I find just the notion of the sibling theory absurd. because siblings where?? they don't even look remotely alike. he is literally stated to be a river spirit. there's also the spirited away Q&A where miyazaki himself described chihiro's relationship with haku as "falling in love with a manager" (noteworthy to mention that this is in response to the haku age question specifically). I can respect people wanting to see their relationship in a non-romantic way out of personal preference, but my issues are with the people that push the sibling misinfo as if it's canon and use it as a "gotcha" against others. it's just not true, like, at all.

I'd be less annoyed by the theory if it hadn't kept spreading everywhere... now it's so popular that a bunch of people have genuinely fallen for it.

I’ve ranted about this before but that stupid sibling “theory” (if u could even call it a theory. all the “evidence” is made up conjecture) about chihiro and haku is legitimately insane when this line is literally in the movie. You think they’d put in this line and not any sort of hint or line of dialogue saying they’re siblings if that “theory” was true??

Not only did she say this but she said it in english so there would be zero confusion and yet people still get it wrong. Granted it’s not in the english dub but both kamaji and zeniba use the word love when referring to chihiro and haku and say it in sort of a cheeky elbow nudge teasing way that you wouldn’t say about a pair of siblings.

[edge-lorde]

the religion of the galactic horde

“You seem reluctant to help me. But I only wish to use your weapon to bring peace to the darkest corners of the universe. (Glimmer: Peace? If you activate the Heart of Etheria, there will be no one left.) Yes. No war, no pain. Old worlds swept aside, a new beginning for the universe.” --Horde Prime explaining his motivations to Glimmer

the horde in shera was definitely inspired by Christianity and uses a lot of its imagery, the most iconic being the baptism scene. it certainly gives off the vibes of a christian or christian adjacent cult, but what is its actual doctrine? i have some thoughts about that. 

first here are what i consider to be the 3 main differences between real christianity and the horde: 

Their jesus didn't ascend to heaven. He's still with them.

They don't have a larger creator god. They worship horde prime like he is a living god but they don't believe that he created the universe.

They have no focus on the afterlife

this is going to be long.

before i begin heres the sparknotes version of christianity for anyone not familiar. I am not evangelizing this, just think of it as LORE. 

Once upon a time there was a guy named Jesus. He was the son of the one true god, who both created everything in the universe, is everywhere and knows everything, and controls the afterlife. Jesus is god born as a mortal person, sent by god to teach all of humanity the errors of their evil ways so they can repent and go to the good afterlife when they die. There're two afterlives, a good one and a bad one, heaven is the good one and its run by god and his army of angels, which are divine beings that god can send to earth to do things. The bad one is called hell. 

Anyway, in his time on earth jesus was the only person ever to never do anything bad ever (called sin). He tried to teach people how to be good but was Too Good for this Cruel World and was killed. 3 days later he came back from the dead, proving his divinity. Some time after that however, he ascended into heaven without dying, telling his followers to spread the word because hes going to be coming back. Christians today are still awaiting his return. In the meantime, christians follow his teachings left behind in holy texts. 

The crux of christianity is to get to heaven when you die, and this can only be done by following the teachings of jesus christ, believing in god, and believing that jesus was the son of god. Its a given that everyone will do bad things at some point in their lives so you're supposed to pray to god and ask for forgiveness regularly and if you really mean it then god will forgive you. 

thats the basics. 

to my first main point from above, if we posit that horde prime is the jesus equivalent of the horde religion, because hes treated as a living god, his goal is to spread his philosophy throughout the universe, then in the horde religions jesus never ascended into heaven. this would be like if jesus in our world rose from the dead and just picked up where he left off, and never died after that and was alive today. that would be pretty good proof of divinity. 

to my 2nd point, theres nothing in the show that suggests that horde prime thinks that he created the universe. this means that he did not get his divinity from anywhere but inside himself, hes not claiming that hes the rightful ruler of the known universe for any other reason besides his ideas are the best. 

the 3rd point is that the show does show horde prime or the horde caring one bit about the afterlife, save for one line from wrong hordak.

"Brother, I hope you, too, are full of only love for Horde Prime and have no crippling doubt eating at your soul."

meaning that they have the concept of the soul. which is very interesting and ill get to it, but on the whole the hordes focus seems to be on the here and now. this is a huge departure from christianity because chrisitanity is all about getting to the afterlife. that is the reason that christians are supposed to follow christ and recruit as many people as possible to do the same, because if they dont, they or other people will supposedly go to hell when they die. i say supposedly because at funerals, even if the person who died wasnt a believer, in my experience no christian would ever ever ever insinuate that someone went to hell. 

but the difference still stands. following real christian ideology is supposed to have benefits for the individual in the afterlife, while in the horde religion salvation seems to only be found by submitting to prime in this life and being either a tool that he can use to further his goal of purifying the universe or by letting him remove you from it. 

on top of all that, horde prime has the hive mind, which he uses to control the thoughts of all his followers. this means that theres no room for a bible study, no need of a holy text at all in fact, and no room for interpretation. horde prime delivers orders to your brain directly and can tell if you think anything out of line. real Christianity does have the idea that a sin that you just think about doing is as bad as actually doing it, but in the horde these thoughts can be easily discovered and punished. 

the horde religion seems to me to be a strangely secular version of christianity with only the bad parts remaining; the control, the blind faith, the certainty that you are right and everyone else is wrong, the not questioning authority. with none of the good aspects like community, and good deeds. it is a cult in the truest sense of the word, a religion that begins and ends with one person only, that person being horde prime.

so, if you take horde prime out of the equation, what, if anything, would be left? 

i find the plight of the horde clones here to be the most interesting. we know that they do have thoughts about their religion, as it was hordaks belief that he could earn his way back into horde primes god graces that kept him going all those years in despondos, and wrong hordak is distraught when he discovers that horde prime lied about krytis. 

unlike both the chipped people we see in the show and real religious converts, the clones were born into this cult that values blind obedience only, and have no prior ideology or cultural identity to fall back on when they are taken out of it. 

so to answer this question, i must add some conjecture to horde primes backstory and how the clones see themselves in horde primes universe. I already wrote up a brief backstory idea for horde prime/the clones and have it posted on here somewhere. I'm not going to dig it up but you could probably find it in the #horde prime tag on my blog if you dig hard enough. 

To summarize it though, I have it as horde prime was once a regular (bad) dude who became a cult leader under the premise of preaching peace --> he becomes disillusioned with people and even his own followers because he doesn't actually like people, he likes manipulating them. --> this and the power of being a cult leader go to his head and he starts to think that he is the only person in existence capable of living a moral life and everyone else needs to be saved from themselves, the world would be a better place if he could just make everyone's decisions for them. --> he somehow gets a hold of the technology needed to set up the hive mind, be it by inventing it himself, stealing it, finding it, or being gifted it. 

I'll pause here to address the theory that horde prime was originally an eldritch being that simply possessed a dude who would become the template for the clones. I think there's enough stuff in the show that this is a valid read and might even be canon but i don't really care for it. For me, what makes horde prime a compelling villain is that he's a very human evil, so having him actually be an evil demon thing instead of a really bad but believable dude who got near ultimate power weakens his character. BUT, i’m not going to address it in my comic so i'll leave it open as to whether he's got that going on or not. If he is, the clones don’t know about it and neither they nor the other characters have any way of discovering it. IF he is though, it would happen here. I could see it being a cool idea for him to get the hive mind from the eldritch being that would then possess him and haunt his lineage for time immemorial as a deal with the devil sort of thing, but he has to be a bad person before that.

Anyway he gets the hive mind--> he gets all of his followers to chip themselves --> gets those people to chip everyone else on his home planet --> use his planet wide army to harvest all resources on the planet and build his first space fleet and take to the skies and start his conquest--> realize that if he is to succeed hes going to need to both become immortal and find a steady source of new followers because chipped people die eventually and he doesnt care about people enough to figure out a way to keep a self sufficient population of followers alive, he just wants people around to adore him and do his bidding--> invents his cloning system-->

and heres the big one,

his original body has to die so he can upload his consciousness into a new clone.  

and THAT, to the clones, would be the moment that horde prime becomes a god.

his reliance on the hive mind and vast network of followers are what give him his godly abilities, but just as the horde clones could not exist without being cloned from horde prime, so too could horde prime not exist as he does in the show without them. 

i see it as both a christlike sacrifice and a cyclical system of debt and sacrifice. horde prime dies for our sins, so that he might continue to purify the universe so that there will be no more death and more clones will be born, while the clone hes possessing has to essentially die by giving himself up entirely to become the new prime so all this can happen too, and to repay primes death. not all clones can become the next prime however, but all must be ready to die for him, hence horde prime having clone infantries despite also having robots he could send instead. 

i dont have clear thoughts about what the green goo is, but horde primes words about his brothers lending him their life force go along with this idea. the clones give him theyre life force, so he can give it back to them.

another interesting aspect of this is that prime always portrays himself as a brother to his followers, never a father as christ is portrayed as in christianity. i know this is from hordak and horde prime being actual brothers in the 80s show but ive seen this trope come up a few times in media before, where a man raises a kid but has them call him their brother instead of dad. it seems so deliberate. because a parents job is to take care of you, but a sibling, might take care of you sure, but thats not their job. its like hes deliberately trying to place himself on the same level as his ‘sibling’ so he can demand the same amount of respect you would give to a parent without taking on the responsibility to not... ya know... screw them over in the head? idk it seems very slimy to me. but that says more about prime as a character than how the clones see him.

and we still have the concept of the soul to fit in here somehow, and do they have an afterlife? im going to say no to the afterlife. theres just not enough in the show to go off of and everything that we do know about horde prime points to him only caring about himself in life. HOWEVER, there is nothing more quintessentially christian than the concept of hell and i think that will be of use here. 

since the creation of the clones is tied with the creation of their religion, this would put the clones themselves less as allegories of people who need to be saved and more as the horde version of angels. in my telling here, horde prime views all people who do not submit to his will as net negatives to the universe who have to be removed for peace to exist, so by this view the chipped people are the saved, the people that horde prime kills are the sinners, and his military campaign is one long apocalypse slowly working its way through the universe, with the clones carrying out his righteous judgement. but the afterlife isnt involved in this, so even if some chipped people are left alive, eventually they will all die out, and then it will be just horde prime and is clones in a perfect, peaceful starless sky, and thats what heaven is. 

getting to heaven is the main goal of real christianity and it is the same in horde religion, but heaven isnt a place in the horde cosmology, its a physical goal that has to be created. not all clones will make it to heaven of course, because most will die before they reach total destruction of the universe but the clones arent supposed to think of themselves as individuals anyway. they have to be willing to die for horde prime and die for the cause or be cast out and thats hell. 

i dont see prime as someone who would kill his own followers outright too often even though he could. plus they arent supposed to value their individual lives the same way normal people do anyway it doesnt seem like a real punishment, they need something worse than simple death to fear. so by my view hell for the clones is separation from prime. it can be in life or death. no matter how bad it is in the horde being on the outside of it has to seem worse, and thats where the concept of the soul comes in. when one is a part of the hive mine, their soul is with prime. they are not supposed to have a will or any thoughts beyond love for prime, its essentially the same as not having a soul but they think of it as being at peace. being cast out is to be never at peace and would be told to them as being the worst possible thing that could ever happen to someone because it corrupts the soul. 

“a lot of unpleasant things happen in the horde so just imagine how terrible it must be outside of it! you cant because i protect you from that. now get in the goo, this is for your own good” - horde prime probably 

this is why outsiders are so resistant to submitting to primes light and also why its ok to kill them, in the hordes view. 

so, to start wrapping thigs up, there is no horde without horde prime. the religion starts and ends with him. because he is supposed to be the only person ever to be able to make true moral and just decisions, without him is followers cant take any actions without worrying that they are going against primes will. since they have no holy text they cant extrapolate and try to figure it out either. its up in the air whether or not they are going to find a way to get the horde to make the jump from cult to regular religion.

its late i got to go to bed now

[revelation19]

How come that you still believe in the heresies of calvinism? It goes against everything the early church taught, it has no connection to the historical church and has been rehashing old heresies ad infinitum. I have myself been a calvinist until I bothered reading all the church fathers. Nothing even remotely like it has ever been taught by the early church. To be deep in history truly means to cease to be a protestant.

The very fact that your page is full of those reformed clowns is proof enough that you know nothing about the early church apart from the brain washing you might have undergone in the seminary. you quote John Calvin instead of people like Clement of Rome, St. Athanasius etc Your theology is a joke at best, and damnable heresy at worst. You dont believe ANYTHING the early church believed. That level of ignorance is mind blowing.

They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect, that they also might rise again. - sounds an awful a lot like your heretical group.

Notice how you didn’t mention anything about how Calvinism goes against Scripture? Strange huh?

I’ll start off by simply quoting Calvin’s own response to this claim. 

“They [Catholics, i.e. you] unjustly set the ancient father against us (I mean the ancient writers of a better age of the Church) as if in them they had supporters of their own impiety. If the contest were to be determined by patristic authority, the tide of victory--to put it very modestly--would turn to our side. Now, these fathers have written many wise and excellent things. Still, what commonly happens to men has befallen them too, in some instances. For these so-called pious children of theirs, with all their sharpness of wit and judgment and spirit, worship only the faults and errors of the fathers. The good things that these fathers have written they either do not notice, or misrepresent or pervert. You might say that their only care is to gather dung amid gold. Then, with a frightful to-do, they overwhelm us as despisers and adversaries of the fathers! But we do not despise them; in fact, if it were to our present purpose, I could with no trouble at all prove that the greater part of what we are saying today meets their approval... 

He who does not observe this distinction will have nothing certain in religion, inasmuch as these holy men were ignorant of many things, often disagreed among themselves, and sometimes even contradicted themselves. It is not without cause, they say that Solomon bids us not to transgress the limits set by our fathers (Prov. 22:28). But the same rule does not apply to boundaries of fields, and to obedience of faith, which must be so disposed that “it forgets its people and its father’s house” (Ps. 45:10). But if they love to allegorize so much, why do they not accept the apostles (rather than anyone else) as the “fathers” who have set the landmarks that it is unlawful to remove (Prov. 22:28)? Thus has Jerome interpreted this verse, and they have written his words in to their canons. But if our opponents want to preserve the limits set by the fathers according to their understanding of them, why do they themselves transgress them so willfully as often as it suits them?” -John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion

He goes on to list several occasions where the fathers explicitly disagree with official Catholic Dogma. 

I’ll list some of those quotations from the fathers here and elaborate on how they contradict the Roman Catholic Church.

“Sozomen tells a remarkable story of Spyridion, bishop of Trimythus, in Cyprus, ‘That a stranger once happening to call upon him, in his travels in Lent, he having nothing in his house but a piece of pork, ordered that to be dressed and set before him: but the stranger refusing to eat flesh, saying, ‘He was a Christian,’ Spyridion replied,  ‘For that very reason thou oughtest not to refuse it; for the word of God has pronounced all things clean to them that are clean.’” -Origines Ecclesiasticæ: Or, The Antiquities of the Christian Church

Here Spyridion says that it is unchristian to mandate fasting from meat during Lent as Christ has made all foods clean.

“For our Lord Jesus Christ, dwelling in your inner part, and inspiring into you a solicitude of fatherly and brotherly charity, whether our sons and brothers the monks, who neglect to obey blessed Paul the Apostle, when he says, “If any will not work, neither let him eat,” are to have that license permitted unto them; He, assuming unto His work your will and tongue, has commanded me out of you, that I should hereof write somewhat unto you. May He therefore Himself be present with me also, that I may obey in such sort that from His gift, in the very usefulness of fruitful labor, I may understand that I am indeed obeying Him.” -Augustine, On the Work of Monks

Here Augustine calls into question the entire monastic system and shows that it is contrary to Scripture.

“When I accompanied you to the holy place called Bethel, there to join you in celebrating the Collect, after the use of the Church, I came to a villa called Anablatha and, as I was passing, saw a lamp burning there. Asking what place it was, and learning it to be a church, I went in to pray, and found there a curtain hanging on the doors of the said church, dyed and embroidered. It bore an image either of Christ or of one of the saints; I do not rightly remember whose the image was. Seeing this, and being loth that an image of a man should be hung up in Christ's church contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures, I tore it asunder and advised the custodians of the place to use it as a winding sheet for some poor person.” -Epistle of Epiphanius to John of Jerusalem

Here Epiphanius shows that the use of images in Worship is not to be permitted. This position was reinforced by the 36th canon of the Council of Elvira which said “That there ought not to be images in a church, that what is worshipped and adored should not be depicted on the walls.”

"The sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, which we receive, is a divine thing, because by it we are made partakers of the divine-nature. Yet the substance or nature of the bread and wine does not cease. And assuredly the image and the similitude of the body and blood of Christ are celebrated in the performance of the mysteries.” - Galasius I, On the Dual Natures of Christ.

In this quote Galatius I rejects transubstantiation and points out that the elements represent a similitude of the body and blood. This is not to be confused with Zwinglian memorialism nor Lutheran Consubstantiation. 

“In obscure matters where the Scriptures do not give guidance, rash judgment is to be avoided.” -Augustine, The Guilt and Remission of Sin; and Infant Baptism.

Augustine says that Scripture is to be the norming norm for all knowledge and that anywhere the Scriptures are silent we are to proceed with caution. 

“Zealous of reforming the life of those who were engaged about the churches, the Synod enacted laws which were called canons. While they were deliberating about this, some thought that a law ought to be passed enacting that bishops and presbyters, deacons and subdeacons, should hold no intercourse with the wife they had espoused before they entered the priesthood; but Paphnutius, the confessor, stood up and testified against this proposition; he said that marriage was honorable and chaste, and that cohabitation with their own wives was chastity, and advised the Synod not to frame such a law, for it would be difficult to bear.” -Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History.

Here is a passage which describes Paphnutius arguing against celibacy of the pastorate at the council of Nicea. Paphnutius won and pastoral celibacy was not included in the Canons of the Council of Nicea.

Some of these are a bit dated and obscure, so I’ll include a couple quotes from people that you mentioned...

“And we, too, being called by His will to Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” -Clement of Rome, The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

Clement of Rome is affirming the justification by faith in no uncertain terms here.

“The Holy and inspired Scriptures are sufficient of themselves for the preaching of the Truth.” - Athanasius, Contra Gentiles

Athanasius is saying that the Scriptures alone are sufficient, that there is no need to appeal to the Fathers or councils or popes or anything else... just the Word of God. 

Now, you quote Cardinal Newman to say to be deep in Church history is to cease to be protestant... but I’m not even going to get into the history of Roman Catholic Church because this post is already way too long... and that would make it probably 3 times longer. I’ll just bring up this one anecdote from 1378 in which there were 3 popes simultaneously and they had to call a council to resolve the issue, forever dissolving any appeal to papal succession/authority.

[zeravmeta]

Ok so, my thoughts on the VR ending and VR overall as the 6th entry.

Also because most of my thoughts aren't...complimentary im editing the names so they dont appear in the general tag. This also got LONG so readmore.

The Good:

- A//i's character still managed to be the one thing that saves VR as a show for me. Even with all the weird...contradictory plot issues, A//i still manages to be a compelling character who brings up the question of the right to live. I actually do like how he made it so itd be an ultimatum that he loses in either way, even if the ending kinda ruins the weight behind the action (which I will get to in a bit).

The meh:

-the ending was left somewhat open to interpretation which for a show as...empty as this was works out but honestly it was so vague as to A//is fate is that it may as well not exist.

The Bad:

-The main conflict behind the entire show is...simulations. No joke. Every conflict in the show can be traced back to someone doing a simulation and deciding to lose it. Even if they gave the (rather stupid) explanation that AI experience simulations like actual life (which btw the first villain wasnt an AI so this reason doesnt work), the fact that Yu//sa//ku took a bullet for one of A//is robot bodies that he literally has millions of is...just stupid and there solely for the "uwu drama".

-They actually killed A//i off but wait hes actually alive, so like the final duel literally had no purpose aside from...drama??? The episode is called Compromise and yet A//i had to lose just to keep Yu//sa///kus win streak and theres no compromise whatsoever. Yu//sa//ku litetally destroys the CompromA.I.se card so its just, no comrpomise in any way.

-This....wasn't a happy ending??? I have no idea why both the show and the fanbase frame this as a happy ending bc think about it in context: A//i pretty much loses everything, so does Yu//sa//ku who just isolated himself from everyone else for 3 months in order to comb the network for whatever remnants of A//i exist.

- So many of the supporting characters are just...there. Like, there is no side/supporting character who actually has a character arc in this show. Lets go through the list: Ao//i is pretty much the same character as when she started and goes through 2 unnecessary costume changes for a character growth that isnt there because she has literally ONE victory against an opponent that was stated multiple times to be weak and faulty and have her lose and tortured multiple times for no reason whatsoever, G//o had this weird deterioration that may have lead to something but ultimately didn't, Ak//ira is pretty much the same, J//in has ALL HIS TRAUMA ERASED SO THERES THAT, literally the only side characters who have some sembalnce of an arc are Sho//ichi (the best one anyways) from his "betrayal" in S2, and E//ma with her reconciliation with her brother. Outside of that, nothing. Yu//sa//ku, Re//volv//er and Ho//mu//ra are pretty much the only characters with an arc and even then they're not too solid? Which brings me to-

- Yu//sa//ku has been so wildly ooc since the end of S1. Ive seen so many say that his enphasis on bonds and friendship are character growth but actually looking at the sequence of events he suddenly just like. changes completely around his first duel with Ea//rth. Plus, the message of "revenge is good" was always so weird? Like, he got his revenge so all his trauma is ok now and never brought up or explored again aside from within the first 20 episodes. Theres nothing about it after that and its never built upon. The whole point of a revenge arc is to show that its BAD and yet he starts preaching that revenge is wrong AFTER he successfully gets revenge??? And even then its not exactly a revenge as it is more lashing out since it was Ko//ga//mi who was behind it all. Yu//sa/ku was definitely at his strongest characterization in S1 where we see how badly the Lo//st Incid//ent hurt him but S1 had its own share of problems that led into S2 and so many random plot threads that never went anywhere (such as the Anot//her Incid//ents, the Cy//berse deck being irl despite that A//i didnt have a physical body before then, The Bl//ue Mai//den meetup that was repeated by Nao//ki like 10 times in S2 which seemed to be leading up to something but never did, and the fact that theres 4 recap episodes in S1 already spelled some early problems). So much of the supporting cast function to just say "he turned this whole situation around...with ONE card..." i kid you not watch back every Yu//sa//ku duel I GUARANTEE you'll see someone saying hes a great duelist and serve only that purpose. ALSO THE END OF THE SHOW IS JUST MORE DRAMA?? They make him suffer for no reason other than that they can??? What purpose does his suffering at the end serve aside from just "uwu...poor baby..."???

-Re//volv//er is not a good rival. At all. He's so incredibly bland because much like Yu//sa//ku he was at his strongest characterization in S1 where he actually had some solid motivation in continuing his fathers work and being unable to accept that his dad was evil, yet most of that just flies out the window with all the collateral he's willing to inflict with the K//O//H?? All his character amounts too post S1 is "yeah i told you robots are evil and YOU didnt believe me". The most we got of him growing out of this mindset was calling A//i by his name exactly one time and nothing ever again. Also the fact that in the end we see him and his crew working for S//O//L despite the fact that they were gonna turn themselves in for their crimes just. leaves a rotten taste in my mouth. hes not a good rival at all. All he proves to me is that a good design can get anyone to like a character.

- Ho//mu//ra is...there. I literally cant say anything about him because he absolutely has the strongest motivations of the three but then the show jumps through hoops to push him to the back of the other two. He also has a bunch of early victories I do feel are undeserved (ESPECIALLY the A//oi duel that one pissed me off so much). Also the fact that the show just made him Yu//sa//kus friend immediately whereas it took Sho//ichi several months to get Yu//sa//ku to warm up to him just had me :/.

-The speed duels were a cool concept but they just became these huge cheat fests? Seriously Play//Maker uses StAccess literally every speed duel to pull out a new monster from whatever plot holes the writers need to patch up. I am not kidding. You can go back to every single speed duel Yu//sa//ku was in and youll see this. Skills just werent a good mechanic because when a protag pulls a new card its supposed to be representative of some growth/characterization but he stays the same pretty much throughout the entire show up until S2 where he wildly just switches personality. Plus the fact that Que//en could literally use a skill whenever just shows that it was cheating???

- The villains were overall lackluster. Boh//man was the best because Re//volv//er is just flat whereas A//i struck me more as an anti hero. And again: simulations are the enemy. Light//ning ran one and decided to go ham. Kog//ami ran one and decided to go ham. A//i ran one and decided to go ham. The conflicts are all the same and it just makes things happen rather than following a consistent plot thread? I will say that Boh//mans characterization of a hive mind to become perfect does strike my tastes but thats more my personal preference in villains rather than any merit he has.

- This is a bit of a personal pet peeve but I've seen some of the praise to this show about being the "darkest Y//G//O to date so therefore its good" and im just...no? Edge does not make a good show and just because they lightly focused on the tragedy in Yu//sa//kus life (and it IS lightly because its barely touched upon after mid S1) most of the stuff that happens in this show is pretty tame in comparison? The most that happened here was an attempted global hack of everyones minds from S2 and destroying the internet in S1, with a few references to the torture that happened during the Lo//st incid//ent. To compare: the previous series had this huge interdimensional war that, even if they could reverse the carding of people (which makes Den//nis' attempted suicide even more tragic), ended with an entire dimensions full of brainwashed soldier children, a dimension with huge class inequality that was still being heavily worked upon since there were canonically slaves, and a dimension that was savaged by a genocide and total global destruction. Hell, the series before that had a huge war where the arc actually did focus on the tragedys the characters faced and held consequence (even if they pulled a dbz revive everyone at the end). And as far back into the very first series there were even more graphic depictions of war and death? Idk i feel like people are overplaying the edge here just to find a way to complement this show.

Overall:

I'm...genuinely dissappointed. VR really had so many strong starting points but it all just fell apart at execution. Really the only reason I even bothered to watch it as kong as I did was because Im a longtime fan of the series and wanted to give it a chance rather than jump on whatever love/hate train the show has. Its been rated poorly on the JP side and most of the approval is a vocal minority. Just to be clear: this isnt me bashing the show, my opinions are mine and you can agree or disagree to any capacity, and even if a show isnt well written you can still find a reason to enjoy it despite the flaws.

But if Im being perfectly honest? I do not like this show. It's rushed, choppy, has no consistent or clear plot threads, most of the genuinely interesting characters are wasted for the protagonist to look better and he never really does because he ALSO has an interesting idea behind him but it never goes anywhere. It started strong but ended so poorly. Id be angry but im more dissappointed because Ive watched this show from day 1 and wanted to see the good things it has rather than focus on the negatibes but. yeah. This show really had potential and yet it just fell flat.

[mochifufu]

i feel embarrassed to have had the slightest thought that you might be different from the other guys that had shown me interest in college. i will not personally confront you with how you made me feel, because you apparently like to call confrontational girls “crazy,” and also because me telling you anything will mean nothing if you are not in the right mindset to accept and change how you are. i also might be wrong and maybe i just happened to view every single thing in a distorted way.

thank you for having the courage to consistently ask me to hang out, whether it be for cooking a meal or to study — i truly did enjoy the moments we spent together. but i hope you learn someday that by doing so, you are setting an expectation for yourself. to whomever it is, if you act a certain way consistently for a while, that act will be associated as your norm, and people will expect you to act in such way continuously. so when you break that consistency all of the sudden, it is easily identifiable. especiallt in cases where feelings are involved, there also comes the emotional burden of having to understand the reason behind such sudden change. in this case, your consistent act of hitting me up every day changed all of the sudden, and I had a hard time wrapping my head around the cause of the change, usually end up questioning my own actions as the catalyst of the change.

of course, you have no obligation to live up to such expectation, even if it is an expectation that you set for yourself. but it was just personally a lot for me to handle emotionally, on-top of the personal problems that i was having at the time. i am not trying to blame you or make you feel bad about what you did; me being overwhelmed by my emotions is not your fault. i was the one who let myself get emotionally attached to you, and my own pre-existing problems were the ones that amplified the pain from the emotional consequences that resulted from your change of action. but i hope it is not too selfish of me to wish that you would understand why i felt such a way.

the day after your friend told me that you had feelings for me, preaching to me for good thirty mjnutes about how you would make the perfect boyfriend, your actions started to change. i of course have no clue what caused the change, or if that change really did happen right after that conversation i had with your friend for a matter of fact. but i dont think i am crazy to the extent where i would feel like you are different for no reason. ever since that day your friend had a talk with me, although we still spent a lot of time together, those long hours of hanging out became very stressful for me and the hours to follow after the hangouts were even more stressful, for the feeling i got was that you were less interested in me at the least. you started making uncertain plans, putting me and my time on hold for plans that mostly did not happen. you would set ambiguous plans for “tonight,” only to not contact me the detailed time and place of the plan that was supposed to happen “tonight” until i reached out multiple times to confirm whether it was happening or not (and most of the time, it did not happen and therefore i ended up wasting my time being embarrassingly excited to see you and spend time with you for plans that you were not that keen on making happen to begin with).

as embarrassing as it is to admit, yes, you were a big reason why i took 40 ibuprofen pills and went to the ER. your irresponsible words and sudden increasingly indifferent actions towards me after the day your best friend told me how you supposedly felt made me question my worth, even as a friend and a human being, and wonder for hours on what i could have possibly done wrong to cause this sudden shift in your action. again, my apologies if i sound like i’m blaming you for my actions — i am not. i would like to take full responsibility for feeling such way, thinking such way, and committing such actions. i was just disappointed and upset by your actions and it was just overwhelmingly burdensome for me to keep on thinking and stressing about your irresponsibility. already having been in a bad head space to begin with, the extreme stress from you was the one last factor i needed to pull the impulsive act of overdosing. during the couple days that you started to act differently, i could barely focus on anything else — even things as basic as studying, spending quality time with other people, or eating. i was unable to sleep properly for many nights as well, unable to fall asleep until the morning, which is even later than my already-late sleeping hours due to my insomnia, because i could not get my mind off of many things, with you being one of the more overpowering thoughts. i felt as though my brain was going to explode from all these thoughts and problems in life floating in my head, and decided to take the ibuprofen impulsively because it was nearby and i desperately was seeking for there to be peace in my mind at that moment. i just wanted to stop thinking for a while but i felt as though these thoughts were out of my control. i was not planning to kill myself, but i was ready for the worst. next time, even if its not regarding me, please do not tell your friend to tell your love interest that you like them if you are not certain about your feelings. others’ feelings are not objects that you can toy with and trash when you lose amusement in them. i might sound dramatic for saying all of this and committing such acts, but some people are more sensitive to emotions and get affected by them more easily and heavily than others like yourself. if its a feeling that goes away after 3 days of you telling your friend to go wingman you, then it is probably safe to assume thag it is a fleeting interest, not anything serious. your feelings are your responsibility. you are free to feel however way you want at any time, but once it starts affecting others involved in the situation, you have to know that you are responsible for that and actually be prepared to be responsible for it. your uncertain feelings can be torturous to others in ways that cause immense pain. if you cannot do anything about the pain the other person is going to be put through because of the resulting actions that seep out from your feelings, then it is probably not a good idea to let those feelings out in the first place. 

even when i was at the hospital, you did not care much. even when i got out of hospital, you did not care much. you yet again made the empty promise to pick me up from the hospital, and an hour before my discharge you told me that you actually have class from 12 - 4 followed by a call at 4:30, and told me that we should just eat dinner together. you were so busy retracting your words and rescheduling me to fit your schedule that you did not even bother asking me on my wellbeing or anything regarding my trip to the hospital. you also continued to be inconsiderate with my time for rest of the day of my discharge, not letting me know when to come over for the very dinner that you set, and the very dinner that i asked you to let me know when i should come over for. keeping up with the recent trend that you have newly established, you did not respond to me when i literally asked you to let me know when to come over and continued to remain silent until i called you around normal dinner time asking if it was happening or not. you also had the audacity to call me “late” three minutes after the time you established only when i called to check if the dinner was happening. no, i did not flake on you for that dinner unintentionally because i fell asleep. i really was convinced on going over to cook dinner with you despite just coming out of hospital and despite you not even letting me know when to come for dinner. i ended up not going on purpose because my friend helped me come to my senses by letting me know that you told the same friend that was preaching you to me just couple days prior to this that you no longer had feelings for me.

i dont know what to think of you. i am still hurt. am i just boring? so boring that you lost interest just couple days, not even a week, after telling your friend to preach you to me? if your feelings faded that quickly, then that probably means you never really actually liked me that much and it hurts to think that as well. another thing that i could not get out of my mind, and still am having a hard time getting rid of, was the thought that maybe i am just not meant to be liked and/or loved by anyone. as i have told you before, i had gone through similar situations where boys would act as if they are very interested in me and then suddenly seemingly change their minds and act differently just when i decide to be more open and vulnerable to let them in. with all of this repetition, along with other factors of my life, i am continuing to feel as though maybe i am just not worthy of being loved and cared for by anybody, and it is quite unfortunate that you, who I thought genuinely cared about be, ended up participating in further developing and solidifying such a horrible feeling. please be very carefully about your emotions and confirm that you actually feel something significant about the other person before acting upon your so-called feelings. as i’ve numerously reiterated throughout, your actions could have a bigger impact than you imagine on the other person.

i get that in a two-person relationship, there are always two stories to be considered, and that it is important to hear your side of the story to properly interpret the situation. nonetheless, regardless of your side of the story and what possibly led you to make such decisions that output such actions, yes, you did hurt me in many different ways, and i am still hurt. i’m not sure if hearing your side of the story will ever change the emotions i was put through because of your actions. what you did is not a move to pull after telling someone to tell me that you like me, but it is also not something you should do to a friend. i am not asking you to take responsibility for all that has happened due to your emotional irresponsibility and disrespect for me and my time, but it would be nice if you could someday come to a realization that you really did fuck me up badly and empathize with what i had to go through due to your irresponsibility.

[lifeisonebeautifulpieceofart]

Words

I had the feeling that we can biologically trust people more, who talk less, and sometimes say hard things to us.

Why did i feel that this might be true? When we talk to someone, the things that mock us are kept the longest in memory, because we dont agree with them and try to fit our mind to it. So, statistically, the longer someone talks, the more points you find, where you dont agree. Even in this text right now, this might be the case. So if someone doesnt really talk much, there are statistically less points which we subconciosly associate with that person, where we dont agree with them. So we concentrate and put more attention on the people who talk less, because our brain registers that information as important, because (again statistically) considers the information as „clean“. Also it is clearly easier to concentrate on small seldom bits of information, rather than an endless stream of attentionwhoring messages. The second point about saying harsh things is derived from following observation: sometimes we just feel ugly, even if we are not. So when someone starts to compliment us in this moments, we ignore that statement for ourselves and (again subconcoiusly) interpret this as a lie, which again reduces our felt trust for the words of that person. So again it might be favourable for the trust, to lets say at least in rare cases, mock such a person with statements which you usually dont tell people. This really doesnt mean you should go out there an hurt people, but if you are close to someone, consider stopping to tell them how beatiful they are, when they clearly do not feel this way. They usually know, how beautiful you find them, but if they feel ugly despite this fact, what do you think is going to change, if you underline it. if you tell them ugly things like: „you really should take a shower“ or „you look like a mess, fix youself“ or „you definitly need some sleep“ they might at first respond agressively, but when they really feel like that, they are much more likely to anticipate your statemts opposed to the „tellstories“ of how beautiful they are. Also note that none of these statements are hurtful, rather they imply a problem included in a suggention for improvement, which is known under the term of constructive critisism.

And now, at this point, you might notice a discrepancy. This text is longer than any post ever written on this blog even though it contains the message to talk less. Did i just fail because sometimes, its hard to practice what you preach? Especially, when you are deeply in love and you want to share every single moment with that person and continiously tell them how beautiful they are. So is this what we want to avoid? Naturally, the logical conclusion of this blog must be to just stop being madly in love. But here comes the point, never, under any circumstances, stop loving. Because when love comes in play, these rules stop working. In all of the previous argumentation we missed out on the very important fact, that your opponent is now in love with us as well. (Considering we are in a healthy relationship) When someone is in love, they suck up every word that comes of our lips, as if it was pure molten gold. If they really love you, their trust is never gonna break from subconcious disagreements with your words. Rather they will search a discussion with you. Further, this doesnt mean that you are not allowed to leave constructive critisism while still telling them how beautiful you find them, which might come off as very contradicting, but at least you are being honest with youself, your partner and how you feel. Communication is key. Never limit yourself on words you want to share with a person. It takes time to accept that there is nothing wrong about being in love so much that you cannot stop talking. Embrace it, show it how you feel, let the words flow over the screen of your partner, tell it in person or put them in a song. They wont stop loving you, because you wont stop loving them.

A personal statement at this point: I will never stop loving you, because you will never stop loving me.

A disclosure on the possible imbalance of recepted attention or „I write / talk much more than my partner, what can I do?“ Direct answer: Keep on going! The probably most important step in this case is, to register how useless it is, to compare „your“ love with that of your partner. No one loves „more“ in an honest relationship, once you remind youself that love is something mutual. Its something you hold on together. Its not an investment fond where each of you provides different amounts of shares, its completly free and every word you share makes it grow. Also remember all the things that are true for yourself as they are true for your partner too: Sometimes its hard to find the right words, sometimes we dont have the time or the inspiration for a lot of words, sometimes we prefer silence, sometimes we’d rather speak in person, sometimes we need time for ourselves, sometimes we even need that critisism but all of that is nothing to be afraid of. Because eventually, if you both care, you will find the right words to share and once you share them, they are part of your relationship and will pull you closer, no matter whom of you said them, the only important point is, that you shared them. So, the solution to a problem with communication is communication, let that sink in. Dont be afraid of you words. If you are honest and belive in what you say, words will do wonders.

P.S. This text might come off as complete bollocks, but if the right person reads this at the right time, i am sure that it will provide enogh impulse for self reflection to understand ourselves better aswell as throwing a new light on communication, since writing this down helped me to put my mind in order again and leading me back to a path where i can enjoy writing endless texts out of pure love, no matter how busy my partner is right at the moment.

[garrettvc]

Weed is special to me. It's the first "thing" that popped the Christian bubble that I grew up in. I thought most people were Christian, like no one was racist, like it was a nice bubble. My thoughts on weed was why would anyone willingly throw their lives away, based on media I had seen and the stereotype the general public had. I always wanted to be someone who could give good advice based on experience. So I had to try smoking so that I could tell people I've done that, don't do that and after I did, I was so amazed at how happy it made me. I always said that my best conversations with God was when I was high. This was the first time in my life I felt lied to. Especially after I researched why its illegal in the 1st place (racist) and to this day (pharmaceutical money). It made me realize that even if 95% of people believe something they can all be totally wrong. The second major time I felt lied to was a Black Studies class, where we learned American history from a perspective other than the victor. EVERYTHING made sense to me after this class. It made me angry that I had to pay for a college class to learn this material when I should be mandatory for every American. It changed almost everything about me; I knew who I was after this class. Immediately I was so upset that I was taught history from such a biased perspective and then I understood why high school was so weird for me being one of the only black kids. It made sense that they all saw me as their "favorite black person" instead of just a friend. I was raised very religious and am very thankful to my church family who has always been there for me and my family. I love my church and I love the people in it. The 3rd major time I felt lied to was when I started reading the Bible for myself. I never read it when I was younger because I thought it had a whole bunch of rules in it and I thought if I never read the rules then God couldn't hold me accountable for what I didn't know. Like how can you possibly know what you don't know, ya know? After my Black Studies class, I needed to know truth at all costs. So naturally I started reading the Bible in search for answers. I would read the Bible and take notes like it was a class. I would go visit old stories I remember and just go from there. With cell phones I loved reading the Bible. I could Google stories to find the exact Bible verse and then basically read a book from its first chapter to understand context. Technology gave me 300 translations in one app. If I was reading a verse and couldn't believe what it said I would look at it in 3 or 4 different translations like damn it really says that in every version lol. Even in church when pastor started preaching I would go into my own little world intently studying the word. Ultimately, the Bible became too difficult to defend from myself. I would try to reason my way out of things like thats the old testament, we don't live under that law anymore. God works in mysterious ways arguments. No human could ever comprehend God's fairness. But the more and more I read the closer I got to doubting it's truth. There are 3 main verses/ideas in the New Testament (countless in the old testament) that I can very easily morally disagree with. And my thoughts on the Bible is either its 100% absolute truth and God's inspired word or it was made up by humans for control. So even one verse in the Bible that is "wrong" discredits the whole for me. To prove something you need to show that it works in every case, to disprove something you only need one example. My 3 main examples are: 1 Timothy 2:11-15 1 Peter 2:18-19 Revelations 12: the whole chapter 1 Timothy 2:11-15 Read it for yourself in several translations to be sure. But what it says is God doesn't allow women to teach men or to tell them what to do. I'm reading this verse basically because of a woman teacher (and preacher) who changed my life for the better. The verse also says that she must listen quietly because Adam was made first and Adam wasn't the one who initially ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Side note: From a Christian perspective all death and suffering in the world come from humans wanting knowledge. Lil peculiar to me. From God's perspective he likes us better when we are dumb and blindly follow. I guess that's why he calls us his sheep. This verse opened my eyes to how shitty women are treated in the Bible and most religions. The Bible teaches the woman to be subservient, I can't teach that shit to my daughter. It lead to questions like who's your favorite woman in the Bible not named Mary. Or why does God have a gender in the first place when that's something assigned based on physical appearance. As ab-soul says, in 66 books they didn't let a lady say one word. 1 Peter 2:18-19 These verses are simple. It says that slaves should obey their masters. Okay, cool I guess I don't agree but I don't disagree either. Then it goes on to say that slaves should obey their master even if the master is bad to them. I can pretty easily say fuck that. As I have gotten a bachelor's degree in Black Studies, these are verses that were used during slavery to convince slaves to behave. I always wondered how masters and slaves could read the same text and interpret it so drastically different. I guess perspective is realer than reality sometimes. So I guess a black woman homosexual should be the least likely Christian American, if we actually read it. Revelations 12 I gotta say that this is my favorite chapter in the Bible. The amount that happens in one chapter is mind blowing but I disagree with this from a science perspective. And I KNOW your not supposed to talk about science and religion together but hear me out. I had no problem with Jesus miracles, I can believe in the Jonah and the whale story, I can even believe most of the chapter. Brief summary: There's a woman with the sun as her clothes and the moon under her feet. She's having a baby and Satan who has shape-shifted into a red dragon with 7 heads and 10 horns is trying to eat the baby (can't make this up). What's crazy is I'm okay with all of this, it doesn't bother me scientifically but then it says that the dragon (Satan) swept it's tail and swept (1/3) or 33.3333% of all the stars out of the sky and flung them to earth. This is so scientifically illiterate its crazy. Googles estimate of stars in the observable Universe (meaning only the ones we can see with telescopes) is 100,000,000,000 or 100 billion stars. Quick math divide by 3 and that's 33.33 billion stars being flung at earth from the devils tail in the future. Also quick astronomy lesson is the sun is an average star. Meaning there are sun's much much bigger than ours. Also our sun is 109 times larger than the earth. So basically I'm saying that if 1 star was flung at earth let alone 33 billion, then the earth would be completely engulfed not hit. The chapter makes it sound like a bunch of asteroids will hit earth. This is like the Bible saying the earth is the center of the universe, it's just wrong. I can let stuff slide all day that can't be proven like miracles but when it talks about something we know for fact, it feels like Kelly Anne Conway trying to convince me there is alternative facts, like bitch I got eyes fuck you talking bout. To put it simply the Bible is translated in English. Read it, it's not that hard. We are the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and kills over religion. In whatever way God talks to you whether it's the still small voice, that feeling of feeling led to do something or even if He appeared burning bush style. If God asked you to kill your child would you? And before you say he would never do that, think about Abraham and just try it. It's a thought experiment that made me realize morals were more important to me than "god". I dont care what anybeing says I'm not going to kill my child because something bigger than me told me to. To conclude, I'm not an atheist and I never say never but I believe I never will be. I think someone who says that they know God doesn't exist for a fact is just as crazy as someone who says that they know for a fact that God exist. I admit that I don't know and I believe it is something that can't be known. I don't really even know why I started writing this or if there's a point but it feels good to express myself in words. Weird.

The Path To Truth