#look I’m topical

[deathnguts]

Guys I did the thing

[saggitary]

TBB Season 3 Ep 6 & 7 spoilers

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I realized something last night while rewatching Ep 6

Howzer’s helmet only has the two strips now opposed to his original helmet that was covered in teal:

In the episodes he asks Crosshair if he remembers him and his squad from Ryloth, that the empire killed them or took them to Tantis and he was obviously super pissed about it (rightfully so). The two strips has traditionally been a way for Mandalorians and later clone troopers to honor their fallen vode. Gree has his hair shaved in the two strips and Echo had two stripes on his helmet for domino squad before the Citadel.

I think this is Howzer’s way of remembering and honoring those in his squad that have fallen or been lost.

[sableeira]

there is something about magic systems that borrow from a specific craft that makes them so special. Maybe it’s because they feel more tangible and it’s very easy to get swept away by the passion for the craft that is clearly written on every page.

Whether it’s the art based magic system in Witch Hat Atelier. Or the translation based magic system in Babel. Or the alchemy/chemistry based magic system in Fullmetal Alchemist.

The relation to a specific craft makes the characters passion for their magic feel so personal and relatable. Because there is magic in art, in translation, in chemistry and any other craft that people partake in. The magic system becomes a love letter towards creation and everyone who creates and there is nothing world building wise that could be more charming.

[fumifooms]

Canines

The hand that feeds

Mickbell Tomas & Kuro Dungeon Meshi

^ 1: Ink-the-artist, I will remove my teeth / 2: Margaret Atwood / 3: C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy / 4: Mitski, I’m your man / 5: Ojibwa, I love you like a rotten dog / 6: KotOR II / 7: Stardrop, Everything that’s ever been mine is covered in teeth marks / 8: Sodikken, People Eater / 9: Mitski, I’m your man / 10: maxime., The life and death of a dog / 11: Mitski, I bet on losing dogs / 12: maxime., The life and death of a dog / 13: hun, I did not bite with Malice / 14: C. Michael Davis, Don't Pet the Dragon / 15: Mitski, I’m your man

v 1: Early versions of the myth as in aeschylus orestes / 2: Ink-the-artist, I will not remove my teeth

[skitterjitter]

Ratio/Aventurine can go two ways:

1. Ratio viewing Aventurine as…not a science experiment, but something interesting pull apart and study, enabling his worst behaviors just to see the consequences, whatever they may be

2. Ratio refusing to let Aventurine burn himself out, treating him with care because no one else will (including himself and excluded Topaz)

In either case, Ratio’s attention is firmly fixed on Aventurine because he’s smart and can actually hold an intelligent conversation with Ratio. He may not be able to explain in minute detail how something works like Ratio can, but he knows how to get the results he wants and practical knowledge is still knowledge. A gambling fool Aventurine might be, but never an idiot or stupid

Also, Ratio realizing he likes Aventurine and being Mad about it is so funny. Aventurine may realize he cares about Ratio, but it would be hard for him to accept and admit his own feelings because he feels guilty for any comfort he finds and doesn’t think he deserves it unless there’s an edge to it

I like to think they had a…relationship of sorts going into Penacony, because it makes things a whole lot more painful. It balances out afterwards though, because we don’t know if he’s entirely free of the IPC, but the less Aventurine is attached to the IPC, the less he has to keep up his facade and the more Ratio gets to see the man underneath, whether he goes by Aventurine, Kakavasha or a different name entirely

[welcome-to-green-hills]

Shadow's electricity looks more yellow than red, which is interesting. Could also be a color grading issue, to be fair.

Ooh! Good eye! I think it might be yellow with a light orange and white tint to the effect. Either way, I dig it! I think it looks great!😎

[i-hear-a-sound]

BABE WAKE UP WE FOUND DRAKENGARD LOST MEDIA

DRAKENGARD 1 AT E3 2003

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

YOU SAID YOU’D COME AND GET ME BUT YOU WERE 25 AND THE SHELF LIFE OF THOSE FANTASIES HAS EXPIRED

[bongmedb]

might finally be getting my hands on the estrogen onis garage kit and I’m absolutely foaming at the mouth about it

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

Remembering how Game of Thrones tried and failed to make a convincing argument that Jon Snow was “the true king all along !1!1”, mostly because they removed all the myth and wonder that makes this trope land in the books. Because, don’t get it twisted, I absolutely believe the books are getting to this in some way. But it works because GRRM is intentionally recreating King Arthur’s origin story, with all its magic and whimsy front and center. GRRM knows and intends for Jon to be the clichéd fantasy protagonist: he’s got a magic pet, a magic sword (that’s about to be even more magic soon), magic powers, a magic lineage, and an obvious magic destiny. Book!Jon is the very idea of fantasy, the quintessential fantasy character - and like, THAT’S THE POINT! It’s why he’s literally every classic fantasy trope mixed into one. But none of this is present in the show. He’s got no magic, neither does his very normal pet, his magic lineage means nothing, and his magic destiny is laughably pushed to the side because the writers need to subvert expectations. Show!Jon is just some guy whereas book!Jon is meant to be THE guy. All signs in the narrative point to this.

And I think one of the biggest indicators of the show runners just not getting itᵀᴹ is the Tower of Joy sequence, which is meant to serve as a masterclass for fantasy protag myth building 101. The book version has: the most legendary sword known to man, the most legendary knight of all time, the leader of a legendary band of white knights, a powerful noble, a princess queen of love and beauty in a tower, a newly risen king, the shadow of a dead prince who was heir to the throne, obvious messianic imagery (e.g., three wise men witnessing the birth of a promised king), several metaphorical falling stars (Arthur, Ashara, Dawn disappearing for years afterward), etc, etc. So when the narrative beats it over our heads that Jon is “le true king”, it makes sense because the imagery and symbolism has been injected into the story to back this claim up. From a genre perspective, it’s not so much avoiding a trope but reinforcing it (though with several twists). The show version of Jon’s birth is some random dudes (names not provided) fighting for vague reasons (they cut out all the meaningful, character building dialogue). Show!Jon’s birth is not a mythological event heralding a king. But the show runners want to cheat and claim Jon to be the true king without doing any of the legwork. It just doesn’t land at all, and this pattern bleeds into them trying to claim Jon as tptwp…except show!Jon has no magic powers to back up that claim, unlike book!Jon who is a walking power plant. So even if they did come to a (mostly) correct assumption - that Jon is the king - how it’s written is so mind-numbingly bad that it doesn’t even matter anyway.

[why-the-heck-not]

computer science was a hoax from the universe to get me to study math in the pretense of ”hehe coding’s cool look at all these things u can do” *some mf vectors looming just around the corner* ”noNO dont look there; look here!! It’s ’hello world’ but in green heheh wOoOoo now it’s blue !! u are a god of this website” *matrices sharpening their knives somewhere*

[nerdetiquette]

Idk if this is a hot take or anything but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Jon didn’t have any friends (besides Martin) basically the entire series.

Sasha was nice enough but she was strictly professional. Tim was reasonable in the beginning and I like to believe they were friends but honestly he’s pretty wary of Jon s1. Melanie hated Jon the whole way through. Georgie was there for a bit before things got too messy, but the way she treats him s5 is like a time bomb. Basira treated Jon like a stove with a broken gas release, and Daisy, my god Daisy. I could go on and on about their relationship but it was really clear after the trauma she inflicted on Jon he could never truly trust her.

They all feed into the theme of Jon’s inhumanity, but I remember listening and being confused because I always saw ppl treating this like a found family when they never were.

[sapphosdickandballs]

Ok so, I used to NEVER want to use he/him pronouns. I didn't know my gender but I knew I didn't want to be associated with masculinity

However, when you started using he/him for me, idk it just fucked. Like maybe because Ive been trying to come off as more butch, or bc no one in real life would default to he/him pronouns for me, but whenever you use he/him pronouns for me I get giddy. I feel like a little gender gremlin fucking everything up

(I am not a trans man though, just to make that clear, I'm just genderqueer LMAO)

Good! It just makes sense for you in my brain tbh. I try to spice it up and not just use he/him but that just. Feels right in my brain (side bar I have such a tumblr accent. Random periods and capitalizations. It’s terrible.) so yeah. Be a gender gremlin that’s what we should all aspire to be tbh

[fumifooms]

Ok maybe kinda of a weird question you don't have to answer if you don't want to but I've seen some people saying that Chilchuck is canonically misogynistic so, as the Chilchuck especialist, do you have an opinion about that?

Anon you are brave and I love you. Listen if you, person reading this, get peeved or upset when people say Chilchuck might have had not insignificant flaws as a father and husband then probably stop reading here, we will be looking at Chilchuck like a petri dish and defile his pristine allure. Tldr: yes but actually no but really both at the same time aka people & social dynamics are complex and please let your blorbos be flawed. With that said I will be pretty casual and playful if that wasn’t clear already, sorry.

"Aren’t you happy to be in a harem party" "No it’s soul-crushing save me". Toshiro has been drinking his fear women juice since he was young, surrounded by an assassin nanny and her fellow assassin girlies, meanwhile Chilchuck having flashbacks of getting wrung out by his 4 women household…

Waiting on people is something we see he hates doing a couple times throughout canon and extras, here and how he says "it’s not a date" -bless his summer child heart- he frames being slow to get ready as a gendered trait to have? But I can forgive him for this one because honestly the framing of the whole page leans into that, it’s kinda questionable if we’re being highly critical of anything misogynistic or regressive. But it itself is the classic subversive "Women are desirable wallflowers— Wrong! They are a monstrous ruthless force that wears on the mind, body and soul" trope. I don’t fault Kui though I got giggles from it, it makes sense for everyone’s characters, and Kui has never shied from gendered dynamics in her worldbuilding & characters so it’s not like she’ll write as if sex changes nothing and no one has opinions about it.

Alright alright let’s step back from analyzing this page specifically and get back to the question, is Chilchuck canonically misogynistic? It’s a complex question not because we don’t have hints but because it’s a very black and white answer to give and because misogynistic can be very wide or pretty narrow depending on how the term is applied.

What I would say? Yes, he is, in a realistic way that doesn’t automatically make him a piece of shit, though that doesn’t mean it isn’t uncomfortable or harmful. On the spectrum of misogyny he classifies to me as "It’s in the normalized lighthearted way of being a horny uncle who’s a little too loose about it around the dinner table", he’s a solid "He wants to treat women as pieces of meat and jokes about it but in actuality he’s a gentleman and a family careerman who has a job so he don’t really care about that rn".

Going back to Toshiro’s party, Chilchuck being weird about it being full of women doesn’t even happen only once but TWICE. I made a compilation of every time he’s crass, happens less than you might expect but the overall picture it gives throughout reading the manga is pretty straightforward. Repeatedly he’s shown to be dirty-minded and objectify & sexualize women lightheartedly unprompted. They’re a punchline and they’re eye candy and it’s "of COURSE my succubus would be young women, of COURSE women would desire a muscled statue’s [redacted], of COURSE women are sexual beings and of course I am attracted to them".

Dungeon Meshi doesn’t bring up sexuality much and gendered dynamics tend to be more subtle than you’d expect from media in general, so there’s that, but I honestly struggle to think of any character that acts less normal about women existing than him. Like yeah he’s joking but Hien, Benichidori, Inutade and Maizuru were just breathing and doing their jobs. Who else’s misogynistic uhh, that guy working for the shadow governor that licks Cithis’ ear when she’s bound in ropes? The sheer jump from ‘makes demeaning jokes about women’ to ‘assaulter’ between these two, god.

Honestly it does feel odd to me that he’d be kinda demeaning like that about women even in a workplace setting —Chilchuck the union man out of everyone?— but Kui has spoken man idk, think what you will don’t shoot the messenger. It’s not like he’s weird about Namari? I guess he respects her too much- Wait that sounded wrong. Maybe it’s literally just because she and the other women party members are his direct coworkers, in line with his rule and all? But yeah, even if he canonically had a thing for blondes and pretty young women he has managed to only tease Marcille ceaselessly for fun & entertainment and make her hair extra shiny as his shapeshifter, you get a good behavior star there Chilchuck. He complains on waiting for Marcille to get ready in the barometz chapter but he also does with Laios when he’s late to meet up the party in extras. He constantly pulls on Marcille to get her to safety as if she can’t protect herself but she’s referred to as clumsy a lot so he has that justified reasoning. He constantly berates everyone so no point to make there. He undermines Marcille’s opinions often but it’s because he dislikes mages and elves and idealism. Clearly Chilchuck knows women can be capable and clearly he can have women coworkers (and friends! Again, Namari) without belittling or sexualizing them, clearly he can be normal about women and knows that some of his attitude can be inappropriate. It’s just harmless fun to him, that he keeps for occasional playful banter and taverns and the ‘right’ moods.

And as I mentioned earlier! Chilchuck is also pretty gentlemanly and protective. As always desires vs wants and instinct vs rationality show up as themes. Yes his succubus aka his ideal, the deepest allure he can imagine, is beautiful naked women, but a chapter just before that was the bicorn, all about how faithful and virtuous he is, how his heart’s in the right place. His brain is virtuous but his heart is monkey. My point is that when it counts, aka 90% of the time and when things are serious, we don’t see signs of sexist bias and he treats women well. Often takes on a protector role or at the least takes them seriously, even Benichidori. He doesn’t want to hurt women or thinks they’re insignificant or anything. He’ll give a handkerchief to a woman in need with a slimy face.

Okay okay this is really entering speculation territory but in my own tally, the way he dismissed his wife’s ‘bad mood’ as some meaningless tantrum that he shouldn’t think any more deeply about, him starting out not reaching out to her as a resentful silent treatment, and her getting dissatisfied in the first place enough to leave makes me think he took her for granted and was kinda dismissive of her in general. Marcille’s theorical scenario is hypothetical and factually untrue at least in parts, but if we do follow it, him forgetting he’s out with his wife for once (in the precious counted time he’s home spending time with her) and not paying attention to her all outing, resulting in her being left out of conversations and just an ornament beside him the way she might have felt for a long time as his housewife waiting home for him to come back………

Half-foots seem to be patriarchal. The last section of this essay’s chapter (not by me!) + combing through the half-foot chapter should give you insight on that if you want. It’s in their patronymic, it’s in the way marriage seems very important especially for women, and it’s in the implied gender roles, being a housewife whose life revolves around raising her husband’s kids and taling care of the family home waiting for her husband who’s out working to come back. I think Chilchuck is a bit a result of his environment and upbringing in that way, that most of the misogyny is internalized and subconscious and passive, it’s taking his wife for granted because not only does she trust her, his most precious person he’s known since he was a kid, but because she’s his wife, his woman, conceptually something that’s unwaveringly devoted, something that is very valued and enforced in half-foot communities. Here’s a short post on half-foot family bonds culturally + here’s a post on marriage and half-foots for more. The community aspect of half-foots is very strong, which makes sense especially for how empoverished and discriminated against they are, which does come at the expense of not unlike dwarves (dwarves which half-foots idolize) having more pressure to fit in and have a good reputation to not be cast out and have no support lines. By being scared and needing stability people will often be more conservative, etc etc, though the reverse is also often true, like Chilchuck with his union. But yes Chilchuck seems to have many biases he clings onto, harsh on especially Marcille and Laios, Marcille for her idealism, race and magic meanwhile Laios for his lack of social skills and ‘reckless’ behavior.

He also does the classic "Don’t you dare date my daughter!!", though it’s a bit up in the air because he only gets agitated about coworkers being suitors, not nearly as hostile to the idea when it’s some nameless dwarf. But y’know when a guy assumes every men is as horny and sleazy as they are so they’re like "never trust men"… Chilchuck does embody a lot the tropes of just, the everyday flawed middle aged man. The absentee father and careerman husband who does care despite it all. Disillusioned grumpy old man. Old divorced drunkard joe with a thing for cute young blonde women, as a friend put it.

We know Kui subverses tropes a lot, I definitely think Kui leans into these if nothing else for the bit. He’s tropes of the strict family Father, man doing inappropriate jokes around a beer with his drinking buddies, working man exhausted and frustrated by his job, midlife crisis. Also because of how he acts with Marcille, I always say he’s the boy on the playground pulling on the pigtails of his girl friend bc he thinks it’s funny. Because he thinks she’s pretty.

So point blank, Chilchuck respects women as individuals but he can get a little lost in the sauce when thinking about women in general and jumps to sexualizing them in ways that can be objectifying and dismissive. Casual lowkey misogyny for the bit that may or may not slip into non-jokes as well sometimes when it comes to seeing women as something inherently to defend or take for granted, though he’s well-meaning. He engages in gender roles of "men should be strong and burly" and "daughters should listen to their fathers’ opinion before dating a guy". A guy engaging in patriarchy without thinking much of it y’know, more or less passive and unaware. He’s good in economic and human rights issues but would not win the political correctness medal (though he does care about optics and is very conscious of appearing as upstanding and innocent with the elves or Toshiro’s and Kabru’s parties to avoid getting thrown in jail. Overcompensating for half-foot criminal reputations etc etc. Post on that here).

Do I believe Chilchuck would march for women’s rights? Yes. Do I believe he would make ‘ye old ball and chain’ and ‘my wife’ and ‘ah women’ jokes? Yes. Do I believe he would punch anyone making one such jokes about his wife or daughters? Yes.

I was pretty flippant bc honestly Chilchuck the Sleazy Horny Old Man is hilarious to me but yes hopefully the post was decent. "How could I be sexist? I love bitches"

[mana-sama-cult]

My friend hosted a PowerPoint night and I did mine on “Why Malice Mizer is the Best Band” and used it as an opportunity to make 5 people I barely knew watch 4 pvs and look at pics od my Mana Sama shrine

[welcome-to-green-hills]

Oh! Okay! That looks like a scrunkly. Shadow looks like a scrunkly.

Scrunkly.