#just came on the radio and like

[shadowtraveled]

"mithrun is the only real monsterfucker in dungeon meshi" is objectively the funniest bit you can get out of his everything, but in all seriousness i think his attraction to his love interest is deliberately overstated—and that makes sense, because romantic jealousy is a classic and digestible motive, which is explicitly what kabru was aiming for in condensing mithrun's backstory, and also because until chapter 94, mithrun wasn't willing to admit to the true nature of his desires.

but because romantic envy is both classic and digestible, it probably isn’t a unique enough or complicated enough desire to tempt a demon’s appetite. mithrun’s wish, as far as we can figure from kabru’s reduced retelling, was to have a life in which he had never become one of the canaries, and that carries like 3857 implications and desires within it. that’s delicious. his love interest acts as sort of a red herring to his motivation for making it, though. (side note: i'm saying "love interest" here because, keeping in mind that i barely speak japanese on a good day anymore, "想い人" is something i'd usually take as just kind of an old-fashioned and romantic way to refer to a lover, but in context i wonder if both the connotation of yearning and the vagueness are intentional, and i think this phrasing gets those aspects of it more effectively. anyway.)

mithrun considered his love interest to be untrustworthy. there was a minute where i thought that comment might be about a similar-looking elf (yugin, one of his squad members), but comparing the two…

the "sketchy" arrow is definitely referring to the elf we know as his love interest—the bangs go toward her right, she only has the one forehead ornament, and, most notably, her ears aren't notched.

every time she’s given a full-body depiction in his dungeon, she’s drawn as a chimera, with the body of a snake from the waist down. (side note: the “what if a dungeon has chimeras before reaching level 4?”/“then the dungeon lord is unstable” exchange just being mithrun grilling his past self alive is so funny. he’s so. but anyway) there are a couple things about this.

first, the snake part of the chimera appears to be modeled after some species of coral snake mimic

which, in the biology-for-fun manga, i… doubt is a coincidence, especially with the added context of the “untrustworthy” comment. the dungeon’s conjured illusion of mithrun’s love interest was a harmless copycat of a venomous original. for whatever reason, he felt this person was a threat and made up a "safe" version of her to be in a relationship with, and while it’s definitely possible to be attracted to or even love someone you find to be toxic and/or intimidating, when you take that into consideration alongside the configuration of her body, you get some interesting implications.

which brings us to our second point: if we assume that mithrun was not in fact fucking a snake, then sexual attraction, at least, was so far removed from his idea of a relationship with this person that he did not even bother to keep her dungeon copy human enough to maintain the illusion of the option of a sexual relationship. this is somewhat echoed in the depictions of their interactions, which also imply a frankly unexpected romantic distance. she kisses his cheek and he doesn't seem to react; she's at the edge of a narrow bed with only one set of pillows, on top of his blankets while he's underneath them.

the kiss is particularly interesting because it seems to contrast the text. kabru's narration tells us this was everything mithrun could have asked for, but mithrun is there looking unreadable to pensive, likely because this is right before the panel that makes it clear things in the dungeon are beginning to go wrong.

walking through this backwards for a minute, we have the physical barrier of his bedding and the spatial separation inherent in a bed made for one person, the emotional barrier of his mounting anxiety getting in the way of his ability to enjoy the affection he sought, and... the snake, which historically carries the connotation of temptation, yes, but also mistrust, barring physical intimacy. okay. ok. if a dungeon reflects the mentality of its lord, all of this might suggest that mithrun was not able to have any real desire for a relationship with this person. his unwillingness to be vulnerable or let another person in was insurmountable. but in that case, why was she such a focal point that she remained to the end, after his dungeon had stopped creating iterations of his friends to come and visit him? why would he get so upset over her meeting with his brother that he became lord of a dungeon about it?

well. mithrun's brother was also interested in her, probably genuinely. and mithrun had to win.

you have an older brother who your parents completely ignore, probably in part because he is chronically ill/disabled and almost definitely in part because he received a ton of recessive traits that resulted in rumors that he was an illegitimate child. you are aware, most likely because those same parents fucking told you, that you actually are an illegitimate child. but they keep you around because you had the good fortune of looking just like your mother. what can that possibly teach you but that you, like your brother, are disposable?

it's utterly unsurprising that mithrun, under these circumstances, developed a pathological need to be better than everyone around him. people don't keep you otherwise. i'd argue this is also why he says he looked down on everyone he knew while milsiril claims his dungeon reeked of feelings of inferiority—he sought out people's worst traits and prioritized them in his mind to protect his already extremely fragile sense of self-worth, and all the while he tried to be as likable and high-performing as he possibly could be. his parents disposed of him anyway, but even then he tried to keep up the performance. he was kind to everyone. he never once lost to a dungeon.

when he saw his "love interest" meeting up with his brother, what he saw was himself being replaced by a person his parents had always treated as worthless, and if that was what they thought of the child they'd kept, what value could anyone possibly see in the bastard they'd given away to die? mithrun and kabru tell the story like he wanted to win this unnamed elf's heart, but it was never about being with her. it was about cementing his worth, proving that he didn't deserve to be thrown away.

and so it's particularly cruel that his demon discarded him, too. but maybe it's also particularly gentle that, in the end, there was someone who refused to even consider giving up on him.

kui laid it out in three panels better than i could hope to.

yeah. it's love. you wanted to be loved, even when the only way you were able to understand it was through the desire to be wanted, and you wanted that so badly that the idea of being consumed felt like the promise of finally mattering to someone.

[dollarstoreartsupplies]

okay so steph is definitely a music purist?

we can all agree on that right? like she's a 'said she was born in the wrong generation in middle school' fleetwood mac, david bowie, the mamas & the papas, niche modern indie artists and also chappell roan kind of music listener. obviously. but.... i dont think we've really considered pete's music taste?

pete, who is a science, left-brained kind of kid, so he probably does not actively go out to look for music and is instead just provided music by the people around him?

pete whose older brother is theodore spankoffski and so his earliest and most fond and nostalgic music influences from his childhood would have come directly from ted's cd collection???

basically what im saying is peter spankoffski has the most trashy, early 00's ke$ha, black eyed peas my humps era, all american rejects ass music taste in the world

that boy had bowling for soup's 1985 memorized at age four, his guilty pleasure music is hollywood undead's everywhere i go, ted did his first decent person move in years when pete came out as trans as a kid and stopped listening to grow a pear by ke$ha and pete forcibly made him play it because it's a bop

and then his only friends are a weeb and a theatre kid.

steph gives him the aux cord on a date to be nice, as a sign of trust, and is blasted in the face with the most uncurated mess of j-pop, sondheim, weezer, and like... owl city's fireflies and that's just a fact

[creekfiend]

The song American Pie is such a fascinating phenomenon to me like.

I was born in 1988 and had no cultural like knowledge or feelings about Buddy Holly or The Big Bopper or anything obviously because they had not been... Alive when I was alive! I did not experiencewhat it was like to live through the plane crash they died in in real time! I have no experiential reference for that at all! And I also had no knowledge of what American Pie was ABOUT before my dad explained it to me when I was about 10. And even then it's like... okay, so these musicians died in a plane crash. That's sad. But like. There is no way to read the wiki article about this event and feel the way that this song feels about it! There just isn't

But American Pie is just it's such a masterfully crafted song musically and in terms of sheer EMOTION and the way all the metaphors somehow come together to make you be like "SO true Don Mclean" even though you have no idea what the jester stealing the kings thornéd crown Represents at all

Like I used to hear that song on the radio and BAWL. I don't know anyone who doesn't sing along passionately when it comes on the radio. Somehow the sheer feeling that he manages to put into the song itself just FORCEFULLY POSSESSES YOU even though you do not really care or may not even KNOW what the fuck event he is singing about! Like it's A CLASSIC and younger ppl with absolutely noooooo like, touchstone to what it Means are and will continue to be obsessed with it because it somehow just. (Gestures)

I feel really emotional about this when I think about it because I am not a musician but I am a storyteller and an artist and I feel like this is such THE goal of creating art to communicate some deep wrenching feeling about an experience you have had that somehow is so skilled at hacking into the feelings core of almost every human who consumes it in spite of them not relating to that experience AT ALL

I just think that's a really magical thing about the way humans can communicate through art you know? Makes me feel SUCH FEELINGS

[eggcats]

Radioapple fic, where idk Catlastor exists (or maybe it's just KeeKee or Fat Nuggets) and does something bad and so like Angel or whoever picks him up and is like "I'm putting you in Air Jail for that one mista'!"

The next time Lucifer annoys Alastor, he picks up Lucifer and goes "Air Jail."

It becomes a thing where sometimes you just see a grumpy Lucifer being held aloft by Alastor (or his shadow tentacles) as he goes about his day. Even Lucifer himself doesn't know why he lets this happen.

[weedle-testaburger]

when you hear a fucking terrible song sample a way better one

[stickmenyaoi]

about absence; presence. Lover; Warrior

Inspired by.

[pinkmoondoll9shihtzu]

bros do NOT watch the latest episod e of dandadan if you saw your dead parent in a dream last night and felt kinda somber about it all day and are also moments away from getting your period you will HAVE to do somatic exercises to recover from it

[transvampireboyfriend]

"I hate Chappell Roan's music I think she's insufferable but-", "The worst thing about this situation is I'm having to defend someone whose music I think is trash-" so don't?????????????? thousands of people are her fans i don't think she needs you. moreover, i think she'd rather you didn't defend her if you're going to literally insult her art, her personality and her work. y'know since she's such a bitch and all

[skitskatdacat63]

2009 Brazilian Grand Prix - Jenson Button

[skylertheghost]

When your in that weird age group where your too young to remember more classic internet era memes and old YouTubers like Smosh or whatever, but your also old enough were you weren’t an iPad baby obsessed with skibidi toilet and rainbow friends

Anyway I grew up (sorta? Is grew up the right term?) with Dantdm, game theory, fnaf, undertale, BATIM, little nightmares, cuphead, baldi’s basic, slenderman Roblox games like survive the natural disasters, royale high, bake a cake, epic mini games, minecraft, animal jam, subway surfers, diary of a wimpy kid, Tom gates, 13th story tree house, captain underpants, that dog comic that was made by the same guy as captain underpants, Gacha life, animation memes, vine, ASDFmovie, nyancat, epic face, tattletail, Annoying orange, ALL of the story time animators and a lot more I’m forgetting. Anyway I’m glad I wasn’t a iPad baby lmfao.

[mc-i-r]

Steve would totally dance around his kitchen to 50s and 60s classics like Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys while cooking

and if he drags Eddie along to dance with him and twirls him around then it's okay because they laugh until their stomachs hurt and kiss and sway to the sounds of plucky guitars while the food grows cold but it's okay bc as long as they're together there's no place they'd rather be

[darcyolsson]

thinking about radio silence again…. that book is so viscerally 2014 and thats what makes me love it so much like its literally FLAWLESS in its portrayal of 2014-2016 teen culture and bc of that its accidentally become a time capsule for that era of the internet almost. i genuinely wonder how new readers look at it now bc i remember connecting with it specifically bc it was so on point for the way my life was as a Tumblr Teen at the time but internet culture moves so incredibly fast. i wonder if to new readers it feels dated even thought it's literally only been a few years since its release

[tibialtybalt]

He's so embarrassing

[arnie-cunningham-official]

do you think the IHNMAIMS characters new the can opener was invented years after the cans and that, you can actually open a can by smashing it?

[tommygotwrittenoff]

i need them to put eddie in a coma so he can have his own little coma dream realization

[aeolianblues]

pop stars aren't born in the 70s anymore like they used to be. These days they're born in a year uncomfortably close to my own which makes me clutch my chest and cry out