#meta personal

[antigonewinchester]

Part 1 - Shiguma's Art, or the Art of Living

As of chapter 140, the audience has finally gotten a look into the backstory of Shiguma the 6th, Issho, and their teacher, Kiroku, aka Shiguma the 5th. But still lingering are the questions of the what and why of the tension between Shiguma and Issho, why Kiroku passed down his art only to Shiguma, and the actual story within Shiguma's Art.

While we'll likely learn more plot-wise about this conflict, I want to speculate on why Kiroku had Shiguma inherit his art / didn't pass it along to Issho thru an emotional lens, and why Akane may succeed in bringing Shiguma's Art to life again. It comes back to the question in the panel above: "Does a rakugoka have to be strong?"

In the present day, Issho is a strong, stubborn man, and he was the same as a young adult. But despite Issho's devotion to Kiroku's rakugo, he takes a different attitude towards his art than Kiroku does.

When Issho asks the yakuza boss about "Captain Rakugo," he explains about meeting Kiroku during WW2:

Amidst destruction and death, Kiroku was able to stay calm, and when the yakuza asked him how he could do that, Kiroku described his job as:

"...a trade about describing the nature of humanity. Laugh when you're happy!! Cry when you're sad!! If a rakugoka gives up his humanity, he's got nothing left."

Hilarious and comedic, horrible and tragic, boring and uncomfortable, sensual and exciting, nerve-wracking and spine-tingling: all of these and more make up the human experience. For Kiroku, his art emerges out of the depths of his heart; life comes before the art, not art before life. And we see him choose his humanity above his art when he refuses to expel Shiguma and Issho at his teacher's request, instead letting them perform, and then being expelled himself for that act.

Which Issho can't understand.

ISSHO: "What are you thinking? You could've been Miroku. We... we all wanted to see that happen. You're not supposed to get side-tracked here!! And yet you...!!" KIROKU: "You want me to cut my own apprentices loose... so I can bask in greater glory for myself? I'd never get a good night's sleep again." ISSHO: "But that's not... Dammit...! How?! How you just give it all up like that?!"

[And of course we see Issho sleeping uneasily in Chapter 128, dreaming of his past and Kiroku. Issho may say he has no regrets about expelling Shinta and the other apprentices, but is that truly what he feels...?]

Issho loves Kiroku and his rakugo, wanted to see him as a venerable miyoseki, and was willing to pay the price in him and Shiguma being expelled—but Kiroku wasn't. For Kiroku, his life comes before his art. But for Issho, his art comes before his life.

We can see Issho's attitude reflected in his first performance of Soba Time, the same story he saw during Kiroku's first performance.

ISSHO: "Overlapping. Connecting. There was a time in my life when I thought I had nothing. But through the filter of rakugo... it is elevated into art!!"

Issho faced some awful situations in his young adulthood: rejected by his family and almost dying before being taken in by Kiyoe, with little money, education, or prospects. But rakugo transforms that painful experience into art. It justifies that time for Issho; it makes it bearable. But what Issho doesn't see is that this time, as painful as it was, has a worth all of its own. Issho uses his rakugo to feel strong. But it's a strength he uses to avoid his own painful feelings, and isn't pain -- isn't weakness -- also a key part of one's humanity?

Looking back, Issho at first disregarded Kiroku because Issho projected his own disgust at his own weakness onto Kiroku (before being taken in by the humanity of Kiroku's performance):

ISSHO: "Why did he stop the fight? Idiot. Does he think he's the hero, saving the weakling? Screw you."

There’s again a disconnect between Kiroku and Issho’s values after their expulsion:

SHIGUMA: “Aniki, I swear to you that no matter what happens, I’m not keeping secrets. We share one mind and spirit. [KIROKU PREVIOUS DIALOGUE: When you’ve got a stain on your honor, a rakugoka spins that story into comedy gold.] Let’s buckle down and strive for greatness together!! So that we can turn this moment into a funny story too!!” ISSHO: “You don’t have to tell me. I need to atone for this… for my entire life.”

What would Kiroku think? Should Issho craft his career around his desire to atone for Kiroku’s expulsion? Or should Issho strive to move beyond the past, enjoy his art, and learn to turn this tale in something he can laugh about?

Which of these options, do you think, demonstrates proper kibataraki?

Which of the options would be the foundation for Shiguma’s Art?

[chaichai-draws]

Personally I think that Telemachus permanently and irreversibly changed Athena for the better, more on that at twelve

[aficionadoenthusiast]

jason's 13 years at the super disciplined camp and several years as a leader of said camp mean it is very unlikely that he is any shade of feral, except for maybe a few minor idiosyncracies that all camp jupiter kids have because they all spent time at the wolf house, but since they all have these traits, they might be considered cultural rather than feral. however, annabeth chase, who was famously left alone until she was seven and was raised by an ancient greek horse man that used to live alone on a mountain, a barely sober god of mental illness, several other mythical beings based on animals, and approximately 37 different traumatized, exhausted, and desperate teenagers at an unregulated summer camp where she learned how to be scary by studying greek monsters, would definitely be somewhere near feral.

[curlymangue]

10 pasos, para establecer una rutina de vida saludable. Sin gastarte ni un euro.

Foto de rishikesh yogpeeth en Unsplash 10 Pasos para transformar tu estilo de vida y alcanzar una salud óptima Hola, Cualquier día de la semana es bueno para comenzar un cambio o meta personal. Sin embargo, el domingo para mí, es el mejor día. Ya que la mayoría de las veces uno lo tiene libre y dispone de tiempo para poder descansar, reflexionar, sobre sí misma, el momento que está viviendo,…

[descendant-of-truth]

Shipping is fun and all but I swear every single time someone makes a comment, whether as a joke or in a legitimate analysis, about there being "no other explanation" for a pair's interactions, I lose just a bit more of my sanity

Like, no, you guys don't get it. Romance is not about the Amount of devotion, it's about the COLOR. the FLAVOR of it all. a character can be just as devoted to their platonic friend as they are to their romantic partner, and they don't love either of them more, just differently.

But because the majority of people still have it stuck in their minds that romance exists on the highest tier of love, I'm stuck seeing endless takes that boil down to "these two care about each other too much for it to NOT be romantic" as if that's the core determining factor to how literally any of this works

In conclusion: stop telling me that I don't understand the story if I don't interpret the leads as romantic, I am TIRED

[bruciemilf]

“Bruce is emotionally incompetent and can’t step outside his own morality” yeah it’s a character flaw.

“Dick is extremely stubborn and thinks he’s right all the time” yeah it’s a character flaw.

“Jason has hypocritical tendencies” yeah it’s a character flaw.

“ Tim is entitled and doesn’t think about people when seeking results, and often acts uncaring” yeah it’s a character flaw.

“Damian is rude and bratty” yeah, it’s a character flaw.

Also, some people may not even regard everything listed above as flaws.

Having negative traits allows incredible flexibility within your characters, what makes them intriguing, what makes them easy to relate to. If you want to write people, then write people. But they can’t be good and clean all the time.

[thegeminisage]

i'm just going to go ahead and make this its own post. when kirk teases spock he is SO GENTLE. "why mister spock are you feeling emotion?" and he lets spock do the vulcan equivalent of giggling and kicking his feet and going "haha nooo silly i'm a VULCAN i don't do that!!" and kirk's like "oh my apologies mister spock of COURSE not" and then they make consensual loving eyecontact with one another while smiling. when BONES senses blood in the water (spock having an emotion) he will grab spock by the scruff of his fucking neck and shake until dead. like a dog with a squirrel.

[swamp-chicken]

mountain man etho confirmed

[dclovesdanny]

DcxDp prompts

Dan/Danny/Dani additions 1/5

Danny is adoption bait to the Gotham rogues.

Danny only went to Gotham university because it had a lot of ambient ectoplasm and he could fast track to the arrow space department in Wayne enterprises if he worked hard enough. He didn’t need adopting, he was already 19 years old and had a (strained, very distant) relationship with his parents. When he moved to Gotham, he expected to have to deal with people wanting to make him a new Wayne, not with all of the Gotham rogues immediately trying to adopt him.

So what if he defended Killer Croc from some asshole cops, accidentally exposing his fangs and had a conversation about being dehumanized with him that led to them having dinner on Wednesdays?

So what if he got into a serious conversation about the green gas effect and pollution (Sam had taught him well) with Poison Ivy that result in him coming over for dinner and Harley Quinn declaring him a ‘sweetheart’?

So what if he directed Frostbitw to help Mr. Freeze and now Nora invited him over for brunch on Sundays?

So what if he had a wonderful conversation with the Riddler in which they traded space themed riddles which lead to Riddler seeking him out sometimes for a game?

So what if he helped Mr. cobble pot by making him intangible when some people were driving by in about splash mud on him and he now had a part time job there as a bouncer?

So what if Grundy played tag with him every other Thursday and called him Little Death and offered to eat his chemical engineering teacher who gave him a low grade because he didn’t follow safety precautions?

This didn’t mean he was adoption bait. Shut up Sam.

[pocketseizure]

Twilight Princess isn’t technically a horror game, and there’s a certain schmaltziness to its mid-2000s mall goth aesthetic. Still, Twilight Princess was the first video game I encountered that implied the hero is a murderer, and its strange and unsettling cutscenes serve as puzzle pieces that form a fragmented picture of Hyrule’s hidden history of prejudice, war, and genocide.

When Link confronts Ganondorf at the end of the game, Ganondorf meets his challenge with bitter irony and issues a warning – the cycle of bloodshed cannot be ended with violence. Link kills him anyway, and the cruelty of this act convinces Midna that it’s impossible for her to remain in Hyrule as an ethnic minority. 

All of this went over my head when I first played Twilight Princess as a kid, but it really messed me up when I returned to the game as an adult. I’m still haunted by the dread that came from the realization that the fun desert dungeon where Link gets the cool spinner item is a mass graveyard.

[antigonewinchester]

Part 2 - Shiguma's Art, or the Art of Living

In Chapter 121, Akane reflects on how much she admires Shiguma as her teacher:

AKANE: “If I’d so much as put a single button on wrong, I might’ve gone down the path of rakugo out of obligation and revenge. But the reason that didn’t happen is thanks to master. He never does anything halfway, even dancing and having fun and cavorting. What master taught me is how to enjoy the world of rakugo!!”

Then in Chapter 122, we see Shiguma comment on Akane’s similarity to Kiroku:

GAKUMON: “It’s quite impressive. Performing at an event patronized by many of your long-term fans, and leaping freely about from moment to moment.” SHIGUMA: “Well, that’s because she’s inherited, more than anyone else, the essence of Shiguma.”

Unlike Issho, Akane didn't end up going down the path of rakugo out of revenge, obligation, or atonement—although her father’s expulsion drove her to learn rakugo (paralleling Issho’s horror at seeing his own teacher expelled and his reaction to it), Akane stays with rakugo because she loves and enjoys it. It would be easy to say Kiroku was joyful, Akane is joyful, and Issho is not, and that being the reason Akane can inherit Shiguma’s Art. And while that’s certainly a part of it, I want to return to the question of strength to look at how Akane dealt with the question of weakness, in contrast to Issho.

Akane’s enjoyment of rakugo is visualized on the page by a child version of Akane, and there’s another key moment when a child version of Akane appears: during her performance of Changing Time in Chapter 70 of Ikken’s selection event.

During this event, Akane sees many other rakugokas-in-training, each with their own reasons for pursuing rakugo. And when she looks back at her father’s art, she now can see… a weak rakugoka. Yet her child self asks:

CHILD AKANE: “But wait… Rakugo stories are your friends. Does that mean weak people can’t have friends? Does a rakugoka have to be strong?”

Akane ultimately acknowledges her father’s weakness:

AKANE: “Up until now, I thought dad’s art was incredible. It was a dream I chased after. But because of that, I lost sight of the true nature of his art. My dad isn’t strong like them. But that’s exactly why the people in my dad’s stories feel so kind and warm. That’s it. I realize now that it was dad’s weakness I loved.”

Akane doesn’t just accept her father’s weakness—his weakness is why she loves him and his art.

Shiguma and Maikeru, watching her perform, praise her for this acceptance:

SHIGUMA: “Rakugo stories are not tales of heroism. They’re full of proud men, drunks, lechers, and fools. They tales of ordinary people who are far from perfect, failing in various ways. And in stories like that, even weakness can be a weapon. It’s fine to be weak. It’s just another flavor of the human experience.” MAIKERU: “You’ve figured it out, Akaneru.”

It’s fine to be weak—now that sentiment is one that Issho completely rejects. Issho’s contempt for weakness and lionization of strength is particularly highlighted in his expulsion of Shinta. In Chapter 27 and 28, when Akane asks him why he expelled Shinta and the other apprentices, he explains it so:

ISSHO: “...is it the audience’s applause that makes it a ‘performance worthy of a Shin’uchi’? When the listener senses your nerves and lends you their support out of sympathy and compassion, is that the performance of a true master? You can say this of acting or music or any other performing art—not just rakugo. Applause comes in response to the art. When applause precedes your art, it is a sign of weakness. And what a Shin’uchi needs to rock solid strength. Anyone whose weakness is visible onstage does not deserve to be an Arakawa Shin’uchi.... Rakugoka are not just entertainers—we are the keepers of a traditional art. We preserve and protect the arts we inherited from our forebears, and pass them down to the next generation. That is the calling of every rakugoka today. Arakawa does not need anyone who would weaken rakugo."

In Chapter 126, we learn Issho’s didn't just reject Shinta for his weakness, but also because he saw Kiroku within Shinta’s performance:

SHIGUMA: “What if [Shinta] was expelled because he chose ‘Shibahama’?” AKANE: “Huh? What…?” SHIGUMA: “Or maybe not because it was ‘Shibahama,’ but because it was the previous Shiguma’s ‘Shibahama.’ [Issho] says he’s mourning the state of a rakugo world… and I believe him. But that’s not all it was. He sensed the former Shiguma in it. [ISSHO FLASHBACK: Sounds like I did you a favor, then. Whatever that was, it was not ‘Shibahama.’]” AKANE: “Wha…? But… that doesn’t make any sense! You told me yourself!! You don’t know why he expelled him! Besides, why is this coming up now…?!” SHIGUMA: “I wasn’t lying about that. But there are things that need no words to understand… Ani-san and I swore an oath that we would protect Master’s art. Shinta was motivated by the same desire. You heard him way he would inherit Shiguma’s Art, didn’t you?”

Issho saw the echo of Kiroku in Shinta’s rakugo—but how could such a weak rakugoka be worthy of Shiguma’s Art? He never could be, and so Issho expelled Shinta to protect his Master’s art from being degraded through weakness. But the question remains: does a rakugoka have to be strong?

During Kiroku’s performance, Issho was turned upside down by his revelation that everything can emerge from nothing:

ISSHO: “I thought having nothing was a dead end. But there’s nothing here, and yet… there is everything…”

Issho believes an Arakawa Shin’uchi needs to always be strong and can never be weak. But as Shiguma says, being weak is OK, just “another flavor of the human experience.” As Kiroku said, “Laugh when you're happy!! Cry when you're sad!!,” and perhaps we could also include, “Falter when you’re nervous!!” And as Akane comes to appreciate, it was her father’s weakness that gave his art a special flavor, making his characters feel warm and kind and real. Everything encompasses everything; nobody can be strong all of the time.

A major reason for the break between Issho and Shiguma, I think, is because Shiguma was never able to master Shiguma’s Art. Issho despises Shiguma’s failure to do so, and then rejects Shinta as another possible inheritor because of his weakness. But what if Shiguma's hesitation and Shinta’s weakness were what allowed them to echo the humanity of Kiroku’s rakugo in the first place? What if a rakugoka could be both strong and weak, cruel and kind, foolish and wise? What if a rakugoka could be, and could reflect, the everything within the human heart?

To “win” against Issho, I think Akane will have to portray the everything of life: Issho’s arrogance and Shiguma’s humility, Maikeru’s individuality and Shinta’s weakness, Koguma’s thoroughness and Kyoji’s strictness, Guriko’s sincerity and Kaisei’s terror, Kiroku’s cheerfulness and goodwill. Life, just as it is.

I also don't think it's a coincidence that the two people besides Akane who were taught Shiguma's Art either lost, or likely will lose, their place as a rakugoka. Shinta was expelled by Issho, and instead of finding another teacher to continue his rakugo training, he chose to quit rakugo rather than learn from another teacher besides Shiguma. After Shiguma's heart attack, the doctors discovered throat cancer, with the possibility that treatment would cause Shiguma to lose his ability to speak and therefore to perform, and to fully teach, rakugo.

While we haven't yet seen how Shiguma will deal with his loss, we saw Shinta make his choice—his humanity over his art—and move on with his life. While many characters (Shiguma, Chocho, Taizen, Akane) still feel upset and guilty by his expulsion, Shinta has left that part of his life behind, and that's okay. As he says in Chapter 96:

SHINTA: "I hear you think that my expulsion was your fault? You're taking this too seriously. And so is my daughter. It's just rakugo. Do I have regrets? Sure... But I can't just dwell on the past. It didn't ruin my life... Uh-oh, look at the time! C'mon, let's go to the hall. TAIZEN: "I..." SHINTA: "What more can you ask for? When your troubles are heavy, putting on a smile is the best thing you can do improve your mood." TAIZEN: "You haven't changed..." SHINTA: "I guess not. Whether I'm a rakugoka or a company salesman... I'm still me."

Although Shinta wasn’t able to carry on Shiguma’s Art, there is a case to be made that he, more than any other character we've seen so far, does carry on Kiroku’s art of living. In defying his teacher, Kiroku chose his relationships with Shiguma and Issho over the Miroku myoseki. He had to start over with no name, no career, and no lineage, and moved on with his life to found another rakugo school and become a beloved performer once again. Similarly, Shinta does the same: losing his name as a rakugoka and then finding stability in another career and happiness in the love of his family and friends.

Issho is so focused on rakugo and the form of Shiguma's Art, he is blind to Kiroku's ethos of humanity within his rakugo. When he was young, Kiroku's performance of Soba Time inspired Issho to utterly change his life by devoting himself to rakugo; for the rest of the audience, it inspired them to enjoy some delicious soba. Shiguma's Art, and Kiroku's art, inspires others to go out into the world and live! Poignantly, Issho's dedication to his art restricts him from this idea, and so perhaps Akane can reach Issho in the same way that Kiroku did: by gently reflecting Issho’s weakness back towards him to provide catharsis and give him a way forward.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i have suddenly become obsessed with a theme that HoO established but never proceeded to extrapolate on, which is:

You are Percy Jackson, and you have been swapped with a boy who was allegedly everyone's favorite person, but they have decided to replace him with you. They just met you. You stand next to his best friend and the people he's known his entire life. In his home. In his cloak. In his place. They stopped looking for him.

You are Jason Grace, and you have just found out you have a long lost sister who completely replaced you in her life with this girl you just met. Your lives and personalities are mirrors. She is you, living the life you were robbed of.

You are Annabeth Chase, and you have just become starkly aware that you have been inhabiting the void left behind by your best friend's long lost brother. You and Luke were just replacements for him. Now you have to look him in the eyes when he has nothing and know you took that life from him.

You are Piper McLean, and you have just found out your relationship is fake and built entirely on the memories of Annabeth Chase. You have been given a boyfriend when hers has been taken away. You have no idea how much of it is real or not but regardless you feel like if your relationship isn't exactly in their image that you have failed.

You are Leo Valdez, and you have just learned that you are the echo of your great-grandfather. You are not your own person. You just exist to be a mirror of him. A doppelganger. An actor and stunt double facing all the danger he never had to but wearing his face. To be there for his best friend decades later simply because he couldn't. You are playing a role. A seventh wheel and a pawn for a goddess who carefully sculpted your entire life for her own purposes.

You are Hazel Levesque, and the only reason you are alive is because your brother couldn't save your his sister. You are a consolation prize. An apology. Your existence here is misplaced in every way but you inhabit it anyways.

You are Frank Zhang, and you are a shapeshifter. Inhabiting your own body feels strange and clumsy when you could be literally anything at any time. You are anything and everything and live your life with the simple certainty of knowing exactly how you will die.

[kaijuyuri]

[incorrectbatfam]

Back when I worked at a restaurant, we would have this one DoorDash guy who had honest to God the worst timing ever. I never learned his name but he looked like a Mark and he had a special talent for showing up as something was happening. One time he came to pick up an order as the police were escorting someone from the bar for trying to assault the bartender and Mark was just standing in the middle of the entryway like🧍‍♂️asking about a burger that hadn't been started yet. Another time, he showed up as the kitchen was on fire and didn't understand why he couldn't pick up his order anyway even after my boss explained it to him three times. There was also the time he showed up and twenty seconds later, our POS system spontaneously imploded and our boss—the only person who could fix it—was out that day. Mark was an omen. Every time we saw his car pull up, there would be a collective sense of exhaustion mixed with dread.

Anyway, I think every piece of superhero media needs a civilian background character like Mark whose sole purpose is to get in the way and Fuck Shit Up by simply existing.

[kropotkindersurprise]

May 27, 2024 - Heads up if you are like me and still have a Facebook account you use infrequently: They're rolling out "AI features" for which they want to use all of your photographs, posts, likes and whatever. There's an opt out possibility at the "Right To Object" link. I don't know if this will work for Americans because you have no consumer protections, but I just filled in my EU country, said the processing impacts me because i'm an artist and my posts are my copyright and I'll sue them under EU law if they use them, and told them to go fuck themselves in the space for additional notes. After verifying my email I almost immediately got the response that my objection will be honored:

Now, this is Meta, so they are almost certainly lying about this, but for the future class action lawsuits against the company it's good to have officially opted out.

[contactlessdrivethru]

there is something unique and deeply special about monkey d luffy as a protagonist. he’s overwhelmingly ADORED by the fandom. he’s consistently the most or at least top 3 most popular characters in the whole series. peoples takes about him are gushingly positive. and that’s… really uncommon.

a LOT of fandoms i’ve witnessed or been in have a tendency to favor characters other than the main character. especially in anime. the main characters are often written as a blank slate for readers/watchers to project onto, but that makes them not as interesting and so they don’t get the fan attention.

but luffy is so far from that. and he’s ALWAYS been this way. we love him so much. he’s the heart of the story and the heart of the fandom in every single way. and i think that speaks to how well-written he is as a character. he’s fun and charming and complex and interesting and he makes us laugh and cry and cheer and hope and love. he’s able to inspire so much joy in people, both in his world but also in this one. and i think that’s really special. i feel so grateful to have found this story that means so much to me, and i’m so grateful that luffy exists.