#negative cycle

[bojackson54]

Stuck on a Negative Cycle? Well, Try Getting on a NEW One!

Life hits us sometimes with a cycle of suffering. (I know I’ve heard it said that “everything comes in threes”, so maybe that’s it.) But there are times when something goes wrong, or little things mount up, and circumstances seem to come at us in waves. We feel beat up, and what had felt like a smooth journey is suddenly a rocky road. It’s sometimes all we can do to hang on when we experience…

[changesmadeeasy]

Feeling persistently stuck in a negative cycle of some kind? Burdened by what feels like repetitive bad luck, hard times, or difficult relationships? Karmic debt might be playing a role.

[plumingpoetree]

Fanatic’s Pendulations

[feyres-divorce-lawyer]

i love how miss tracy never tries to be subtle with the order’s eugenicist, misogynistic and racist values and beliefs. from culling female scions to moriaen not being allowed a seat at the Table, to their reaction when nick chose bree as his page to the regents’ refusal to reconcile with vera’s rape, to the colonialist history they avoid, to even arthur himself taking advantage of bree’s medium abilities. it’s very in your face and you can never forget it throughout the whole series, which i don’t understand why that’s a negative trait in some people’s eyes especially considering the context of the year (2020) lb was published. but anyways, miss tracy did her big one

[lyculuscaelus]

So lately I’ve been seeing a lot of posts asking people to stop trying to make Odysseus look nice in their works cuz he’s a “messed-up person in the mythology”. Your opinion is valid however I have but one thing to point out:

You want to know who started all this? Who started to “make Odysseus look nice” in the first place?

It’s Homer. It’s nobody else but Homer himself.

A non-Homeric Odysseus would try to murder people out of his own interests. He’d murder Palamedes without remorse (and we’d be cheering over this but it’s a murder after all), he’d attempt to murder Diomedes just to get the Palladium himself, he’d volunteer to kill Astyanax…meanwhile you wouldn’t find any mention of either Palamedes or Nauplius in Homer’s poems, neither did he mention anything abt the Palladium heist (and Diomedes necessity did not happen until Conon’s version), the death of Astyanax, the distribution of war prizes, etc. And all the details in the Odyssey seemed to deny the existence of Nauplius’s vengeance at all, so Odysseus would not take any of the blame.

A non-Homeric Odysseus would be depicted as “cruel, treacherous”, meanwhile in book 10 of the Iliad Odysseus was not mentioned to have killed anyone during the marauding, neither did he promise Dolan anything at all. The negative interpretations are denied by these details subtly put by Homer.

A non-Homeric Odysseus would be widely known as a “coward” for only shooting arrows from afar. But Homer gave him a spear and had him absolutely slaying in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. That part of Ajax’s speech was invalid already.

Most importantly—a non-Homeric Odysseus would be having kids everywhere else, and the loyalty to his own wife as seen in the Odyssey is no where to be found. Meanwhile his lineage was a single-son line made by Zeus in the Odyssey, and his love for Penelope was one of his main drives, especially seen in book 5 of the Odyssey. He loved his family as a loving parent—something you don’t get to see in most of the non-Homeric writings—for most of the time they followed a different tradition indeed, in which Odysseus wasn’t half as nice as in the Odyssey.

TL;DR: in case you haven’t noticed, the characterization of the Homeric Odysseus was quite different from a non-Homeric version of Odysseus. It’s not that Homer didn’t know of the existence of other versions—he knew them too well, which is why in his version of the story, you don’t get to see any mention of them.

[byersandhighers]

Fairly certain Mike did see Will crying, he just didn't say anything. Like I don't think he realized it was because of Will feeling sad over him specifically but I thought it was obvious he did see Will crying but didn't draw attention to it. I also think it is very important for both of their characters and their relationship, as well as very telling of how deeply Mike cares for Will to not say anything when he is crying, to just act normal and move on without addressing it.

Every time in the show that Mike notices Will's emotions and behaviors, especially his negative emotions, Mike never brings it up until after (unless he thinks Will actively needs help like when Will looks scared). This is the same Mike Wheeler who noticed every eyeroll and time Will was moping at Rink-o-Mania when he was literally there hanging out with his girlfriend, but he didn't bring it up until later when the two of them were fighting. The same Mike who, in season 2, said he knew something was off with Will because ‘he was quiet today’ when his friends just wrote it off because he’s always quiet. Mike always notices Will acting up but doesn't usually say anything in the moment unless he thinks Will is in trouble, he just lets him feel things and if it’s relevant later he'll bring it up.

It’s implied he’s very perceptive when it comes to Will's emotions and behaviors and he is always watching, especially when Will doesn’t seem like he is doing well, so it would be so bizarre if he didn’t notice Will crying beside him. It's likely he just didn’t see a reason to bring it up, so he didn't. For all Mike knows, it may have just been that talking about El makes Will think about his sister who is currently missing and in potential danger, which is a justified reason for someone to cry. Or even that the painting reminds Will of the time in his youth he missed out on due to the mind-flayer and upside down and that his childhood of campaigns in Mike's basement is over, or Will could be grieving the party he is no longer near and his friends he is so far from. Or he could be so overwhelmed by many emotions over many different things that he doesn't know how to articulate.

Mike usually just registers what Will is feeling and not why Will is feeling that way. Mike never needed to know why because him and Will are a team and, before this season, Will was, to Mike's knowledge, always open and honest with him (hence where Mike got the 'friends don't lie' thing he told El in the beginning) and Will would come to Mike when he wanted to talk about things, so Mike probably figures even if their relationship feels strained right now, that wouldn't change and if Will wants to talk about it, he will come to him, much like how Jonathan doesn't push Will to come out.

I think it's important to draw parallels between Jonathan and Mike's behaviors, how both act towards Will: both are overprotective of Will, both very adamant early on in the show about how being 'weird' does not equate to being bad, and also about how Will doesn't have to feel negative about being different because they are weirdos as well (making it a shared experience so he doesn't feel alone). Both are also careful when it comes to making sure Will feels safe and comfortable which includes not forcing him to talk about things unless he wants to (while still reassuring him they are there for him should he want to).

This is probably why Mike doesn't bring up that Will is lying (he knew El's letter well enough to know she missed the flowers and brought her some he handpicked so they would be Hawkins flowers, so he would also know about the painting and how El had no idea what is was or who it was for, because Will wouldn't even let her see it), but he doesn't bring that up because he thinks Will probably has a reason for lying, and he trusts Will, so he is happy to let Will share in his own time. This is another parallel to Jonathan and Will when Jonathan hints he knows Will is not straight but doesn't force Will to talk about it, instead letting Will come to him at his own time when he feels ready. I don't think it's a coincidence both Jonathan and Mike act the same way towards Will because both probably witnessed first-hand how Lonnie treated Will.

When Will came back, we know Mike was protective, which we don’t know if it was him trying to cope with the trauma of not only losing Will for a long time but also the recent loss of El, or if he was always that protective over Will, but it is implied in season 1 this was a status quo of sorts from before Will went missing. Mike would feel protective over Will and he would fight back with no self-preservation in mind, especially when people would act in similar ways towards Will that Lonnie did (like the bullies making fun of Will for being gay just like what Joyce brings up Lonnie would make fun of Will for, which prompted Mike to shove them before getting saved by El), which is most likely due to Mike being around during the abuse Will faced from his father which caused him to be protective of Will, and to a lesser extent all his friends (not lesser in extremes, I mean season 1 he jumped off a cliff about to kill himself for Dustin and from Dustin immediately screaming for him not to do it, fully convinced Mike would, and to be fair he does without even knowing El is there to save him, we can infer it is a common thing that Mike is willing to go to great lengths, even risk his own safety, in order to protect. But in terms of frequency instead of amplitude, he is chronically protective of Will while only really protective of his other friends when he feels they need particular protection he can provide).

Mike said he became friends with Will on the first day of kindergarten which means they were likely around 5 and Lonnie was still in the picture. This was before Lucas and Dustin, as Mike says Will was his first friend, so Mike probably knows more about it than either of the two of them, and like Jonathan, was there helping Will through it and supporting him/protecting him to some extent, for longer, which is why he is likely so perceptive of Will's emotions and what Will is feeling, even if he can't pinpoint why.

We are told this whole time that Will is a ‘sensitive boy’, and Lonnie would abuse him and try to change him for that as well as his perceived sexuality, so actually I think it’s important Mike didn’t say anything and let Will cry because it shows Mike provides space for Will to feel, space that others didn't and sometimes still don’t. He lets Will be sensitive and cry even though both of them have had people trying to teach them to suppress their emotions, especially their fathers (Mike's parents, especially Ted, did not respect Mike's grief over Will when he was missing and was not taking him seriously because Mike was not following those same ideals of toxic masculinity Ted and Lonnie were both trying to enforce, to different degrees, in their sons).

Mike is actively trying to stop the cycles Will, and himself, endured. He is trying to be conscious but accepting of all Will's emotions so Will doesn't have to go through what he did with Lonnie. He refuses to give up on or abandon Will when he went missing because Will had a dead-beat dad who stopped caring and abandoned him. And Mike not only praised his art but kept every piece given to him, with binders of it in his room and hanging it on his walls, keeping and displaying it proudly when we know Lonnie didn’t like Will making art because it fueled the ‘sensitive kid’ who was queer narrative he tried to force out of Will.

That's also why Mike immediately looks so guilty in the rain scene when he said what he said about Will's sexuality, because he realizes it is something Lonnie would say. That is also why he immediately goes to apologize despite the same rain he was telling Will not to leave because of. Why he prioritizes making amends and admitting wrong-doing when it comes to Will in a way he doesn't even do with his girlfriend. He is trying to break the cycles and not enforce the toxic masculinity Will painfully had to endure with Lonnie for years and he is trying to, despite feeling the effects of toxic masculinity himself that he is trying to overcome in his own 5-season arc, make sure it is not in his relationship with Will, especially not by his own hands.

Overall, I guess I think it’s not that Mike didn’t notice, but that Mike lets Will feel whatever he feels without judgement or trying to change or 'fix' it. He just sits beside Will and acts normal because he doesn’t want Will to feel like it’s bad to cry; he wants to normalize emotions between the two of them because he wants Will to have a safe place to express emotions, which is important for someone who’s dad abused him and enforced toxic masculinity before abandoning him because he saw him as ‘too sensitive’. It shows Will he is not 'too sensitive' for others and that people won't try to change him or abandon him for being himself, or even for being 'too much' or 'emotional', like his father did and probably convinced Will everyone would do. I don't think Mike realized the crying was because of him, but I think he did notice that Will was crying. He noticed the what and trusted that Will will tell him the why when he is ready.

[robby-bobby-tommy]

The parallels that hurt so much

They both jinxed the most important event in their lives trying to help...

They both lost their closest friends to this....

And both were abandoned and hurt in the worst way possible by the sibling they've looked up to....

They had good intentions, they were so young......

And they're the monsters others have created.

[flowers-of-io]

Savathûn, Insidious, combs her fingers through the river of stars drifting across the ceiling of the freshly completed Dreadnaught. The chitin on the walls still smells of newness, and various servant Acolytes and minor courtiers scuttle around with hands full of relics and banners dragging behind them, hanging up lanterns, lifting statues onto pedestals. Oryx stands presiding over this whole commotion with his head held up proudly and hand resting on the Willbreaker’s hilt.

“Why have you called this place the Mausoleum?” she asks, chasing a constellation with her hand and watching it dissipate between her claws.

Oryx rolls his shoulders, all regal, and the stars look like a diadem around his temples now—small flickering things at the crown of his vastness.

“Because it is the tomb of all the worlds we have liberated from existence, enshrined here as a map of our celestial crusade.”

“Eight hundred thousand fifty-two planetary systems. I’m impressed you’re still keeping count.”

“If we don’t know where we came from, how will we know where to go?”

She snorts at his tone, scholarly and formal like he is reciting prayers during the Feast of Swords. There is pride on his face, watching her watch the stars glimmer above them like precious stones.

“Then I expect dear old Fundament is hanging as the centrepiece over your throne.”

Oryx looks at her with his eyes the colour of nebulas and gestures, almost carelessly, to a tiny bright dot in a cluster of identical bright dots suspended on a distant part of the ceiling, above the ravine. From her spot at the edge of the balcony Savathûn can barely make out the largest moons.

This is a conversation about what is a crown jewel and what is a pebble, and, from Oryx’s perspective, an older brother’s lesson for an obstinate sister. And maybe if she were younger, less hardened by power and hunger, she would have picked up this gauntlet thrown in her face and they would fight, splattering gore across the polished floors. But wisdom comes with age—or maybe she is just too weary or too unbothered, or doesn’t want to make a scene in front of the Court—and Savathûn only scoffs, and turns away to admire the carvings on a nearby column.

(She does not remember this conversation anyway, untold millennia and heresies later—only the outline of their silhouettes against the cosmic river, and the weight on her left shoulder where Oryx’s hand rested—and it is one of the first memories she tells Immaru about.)

—the negative spaces

[stewyhosseini-bf]

4x7 / 3x7 / 1x7

[zakuryoishi]

happy early pride month to them

[cabeswaterdrowned]

Adam and Ronan both hating chatgpt/use of ai academically Adam because of professional overachiever and intellect/effort based snob reasons, Ronan for professional underachiever who looks down on underachievers who aren’t as committed to the bit as him and also hates technology reasons.

[radioclashh]

not even to be a hater but like days like these perfectly exemplify the difference between pogi and vingegaard in my opinion like pogi has that massive crash in strade but immediately gets up and continues racing (and wins) meanwhile vingegaard calls for cancellation when the weather sucks and rides like ass after taking a little tumble. idk man they're literally worlds apart.

[saphira-approves]

I’d love to know Rhünon’s thoughts on how Riders name their swords. Does she have a no-judgement policy? Did Vrael have to sit her down for a chat when her bluntness reduced twelve new Riders into tears because of their terrible name choices? I mean, just look at Brom and Morzan:

Morzan: I name this blade Misery, for misery it shall bring to all my enemies!

Brom: And I’ll name mine Void-biter, for its edge carries the bite of death!

Rhünon, bribed copiously by Vrael to keep her thoughts to herself: Who let these edgelords have dragons—

[murtagh-thorn]

Can’t help thinking about what it would be like to struggle with mental illness or neurodivergence or developmental trauma that maybe causes some negative schemas/thought patterns while having a dragon also privy to all that. What would happen to the dragon? What would they think of all that and how would they handle it? Especially if, like in my previous post about being unable to sus out your own true name, they had a pretty firm grasp on who they were and had an overall positive view of themselves? What if the rider felt really bad about their dragon being subjected to how loud/“negative” their head is and just kept feeling guilty and apologizing? Would this eventually create problems between dragon and rider where they’re sort of stuck with this mental bond, but starting not to like each other, or would they try and support and heal them as much as they could?

[bklily]

Aah, dear miraculous fandom, once again on fire with screams and cries and violently opposing opinions over a new piece of canon content. Feels like home 💜

[buildoblivion]

also bit of a choice to imply that klaus’ powers were also his personality????