#psyko speaks

[thepsykoshipper]

Moon Lovers Scarlet Heart Ryeo has given me serious PTSD when it comes to period kdramas. I always get anxious towards the end of a series in fear that I will experience another ending like that again 😅

[otiksimr]

Been rereading One Punch Man.

Still peak manga.

[phobos-labs]

Down to 1.37 now!

Working on an Androgen Assault default weapons run tonight. Went from a 1.53 down to this, pretty good progress but fuck me does it feel like good luck only. I'm aiming for a 1.30 time.

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Update 233 Review: Evaluation

I had initially postponed writing this until the next chapter, but I've come to realise I have so much meta to write that it's best I do each chapter individually.

Summary because it's been a moment

The first part of the chapter is set in the mountains above City G where the Council of Swordmasters is based. At their building, the three disciples are reviewing what they've been able to unearth about Sweet Mask. It's precious little, with nothing available before his signing up as a hero. Iaian surmises that this fits in with the information that Bushidrill has been able to uncover on Amai's shifting appearance. They consider that the shape-shifting could be a special power, but in light of his behaviour towards Do-S's hostages, was much more likely a sign of progressive monsterization. Iaian expands on it by recounting what he'd seen of Sweet Mask at the surface when he'd seen a monster struggling to keep its humanity. With surprising empathy, Iaian states that it's often those who've lost something who know its true value. They decide to keep a careful eye on Sweet Mask but say nothing to Atomic for now. Okamaitachi hopes that they end up glad to have kept Sweet Mask's hands clean.

Elsewhere, we see Kamikaze (it is not right to call him Atomic Samurai in this context) and Nichirin paying their respects at a shrine dedicated to successive generations of the Swordmasters. They are accompanied by two young people, here to take the places of the slain Swordmasters. We are treated to Yuta's thoughts of hunting down whatever remains of the Monster Association. Nichirin apologises to the pair to say that if he'd been stronger -- but Shido cuts him short. His father lived by the sword, after all, and falling in battle was an honourable death. Besides, as a bodyguard, seeing Nichirin alive would have pleased him.

Speaking of that, given how gravely Nichirin had been injured, it naturally leads to Kamikaze asking after the old man's health. Nichirin sits on the ground and hitches his robes up to show a pair of cybernetic legs. His entire lower half is now mechanical and he's apparently no worse off for it [Aside: I guess the doctors who butchered Air back in Chapter 182 weren't joking about Metal Knight's skill in cyborg medicine].

He stands up, and, declaring that circulating one's chi through body and weapons made them part of a whole -- artificial bodies included -- unsheathes his sword and slices at an apple that he tossed into the air. The apple is apparently unharmed, but the cliff face in the background is cleaved. The apple falls to the ground, and Shido and Yuta marvel at the accuracy of the old man's cutting the cliff but sparing the apple. Nichirin states that he did cut the apple as well. Kamikaze picks up the apple and explains that this is Nichirin's special technique: it's so fast and finally that the Apple rejoined itself, apparently unharmed. He is relieved the old man is his usual self.

It's now Nichirin's turn to ask him a question. Now that his rival Bang has retired, will Kamikaze stay at the Hero Association? Kamikaze looks wistful for a moment as he recalls himself leading the charge to take down Psykos-Orochi. He says that, indeed, he'd initially gone only to challenge himself, but now he had experienced something that he couldn't get anywhere else. Besides, he still had one more person whose strength he needed to fathom -- we are shown that it is King. He'd decide after then.

As he takes his leave, Nichirin thinks that Kamikaze has changed. Being thrown among a variety of strong fighters with vastly different strengths had broadened his mind. Maybe being a hero wasn't so bad after all. He says that last part out loud to Yuta's puzzlement.

We cut to the hero Association and to Saitama and Genos approaching it. Inside, Forte is putting the finishing touches to a dog house Black Sperm is disgusted, but shelter and food, even if it is only dog food, are what he needs right now, at least until he rebuilds his cell count. Saitama and Genos heave into view and Forte greets them. Black Sperm rushes behind the dog house in well-justified fear. His life wouldn't be worth a scrap of cigarette ash if Genos caught sight of him. Fortunately, Genos is a bit distracted, first by the dog's name, then by the news that Forte lives next door to Saitama. He wastes no time in evicting Forte.

I have a feeling the dog is going to be trouble

Finally, we're in the M-City branch of Mouse Sushi, the cheap rotating sushi place with the infamous nasty t-shirts Saitama loves. Atomic Samurai is there with his disciples, having paid a futile visit to King's residence. There's only one problem with this place: someone keeps taking every plate they have their eye on. After the fatty tuna plate is taken, Atomic stands up to confront the person only to find that is King. The chapter ends with Atomic standing over an anxious King and asking if he could talk to him for a few minutes.

Whew, if you think this is meaty, wait until we get to the meta. Grab a drink!

Meta

I really struggled with thinking where to even begin with this one. Well, let's take it like a hot bowl of soup, start on the outside and work our way in.

The Real Kaijin Shows Up

Small things first. It's hilarious that Genos invokes more fear than the actual monsters do at Saitama's residence. Surprising that he's been visiting Saitama for a while but has never run across Saitama's neighbours or pets until now. You'd think that Saitama had brought home a tiger. As if he were extolling how the beast is still barely half-grown and tame, and all everyone else could see is how it's already the size of a large fridge with cruelly-curved claws longer than one's fingers and fangs sturdy enough to bite through one's skull. Forte may know not to mess with Saitama but he's so aware of Genos's capacity to do actual violence to him that the latter doesn't even need to breathe a word of threat to commandeer his house.

the really big dogs don't need to growl

Don't Panic, It's Just A Monster

I love thus story: people are not blind or stupid. It's hard to keep secrets when someone takes an interest. The disciples are on Amai Mask's trail, and while they're fairly certain that they've uncovered a monster hiding as a human being, the circumspection and nuance they're showing is remarkable.

Despite their misgivings, they're prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt and see him more as a person struggling to retain his humanity than as a monster biding its time to strike. In this, Iaian leans towards the former interpretation, while Bushidrill would rather err on the side of caution. Okamaitacchi is in the middle but is of the mind that this is a fluid situation that could go either way.

It's really neat that what was once a one-off gag, with Iaian telling Meltzegard that he could read the latter's murderous intent, has been repeatedly revisited ad deepened in the course of the story to create what is a wise and sympathetic response to a potentially dangerous situation. The disciples aren't blind to the danger of a monstrous hero, but because they can read intentions, they're willing to be heroes to the core and risk reaching out a helping hand to a struggling person.

Iaian's taking a risk in hoping there's a person in Amai who can be saved. But what else is a hero about?

Decisions and Inspirations

So, what will you do, Kamikaze? Had Nichirin died, what he'd have had to do would have been simple. As the new head of the Council of Swordmasters, Atomic would have had to resign as a hero and raise up a new generation. Thankfully, he's been spared that.

It's refreshing to get more insight into Atomic's character and find that he's been looking for both a source of challenge and inspiration in his life. Bang had certainly provided both while he'd been a fellow pro-hero. However, Atomic deciding to lead a charge to the very skies rather than stand on his pride and be an old man shouting impotently at the battle raging overhead had been a revelation. Terrible as the Monster Association showdown had been, it had also been a peak experience unlike any he could have imagined. He's hooked. [Since this is so late, Child Emperor's suggestions of a specialist dragon-slaying team would have found in Atomic an enthusiastic sponsor]. But he still wants a rival, so off he is to challenge King.

a new fire has been lit in this guy who thought he understood everything

Coming to Nichirin, I have three things to say:

A: Words Are Best Eaten Cold, With Salt

Despite having a disciple working as a hero (Spring Mustachio), Nichirin hasn't thought too highly of heroes. Depending on the translation, he'd called them hunters... or pest controllers. It's nice to see that he's had to eat his words.

I hope those words are tasty

B: The Old Lie

'Dolce et decorum est pro patria mori' . I don't blame Shido for clinging onto a view of his father bravely laying down his life. He needs all the comfort he can get.

We know the truth. Zambai was not felled by a superior foe but by a sentient barf bag spitting in his face.

Amahare's desecrated remains were so fragmentary that his coffin needed only a single pallbearer. A cruel duty indeed for Yuta to perform.

Nor can we forget Spring Mustachio fighting desperately to stop Nichirin's transected body from being burned, then Fubuki frantically keeping him alive, his guts kept from spilling out by what had been Genos's precious designer jacket.

a tableau of horror

This had been an actual conflict, not a carefully-managed test of skill vulgarly called a 'fight', and there was nothing sweet, fitting, nor fair about it.

C: Sword and Spirit

AND NOW FOR THE PART I'VE BEEN WAITING FOREVER FOR! Forever being from December 2017. It also ties into more recent chapters. The border between living and non-living has always been a bit porous in One-Punch Man and it's amazing to watch Nichirin make no distinction between his biological body, his sword, and his prostheses to forge a whole that is much greater than the sum of its parts. Once again, it comes down to spirit and willpower.

Had Genos witnessed this, he'd have asked Saitama for a leave of absence to study under Nichirin. This is the missing part that has been nagging at him, the question he'd asked Saitama about whether his parts truly made him stronger, to which Saitama had had no answer. Heck, just being able to observe Nichirin would have been profoundly inspirational for Genos.

ONE, however, is not in the business of giving Genos anything cheaply. No, on current headings, he's going to have to work it out for himself. Indeed, he accidentally and instinctively touched on the answer when he seamlessly rejoined himself after being bitten in two by Elder Centipede. He didn't think about what he was doing then: he was just totally determined not to be dismissed by that miserable worm. [It goes without saying that Kuseno did not get a distress call, nor brave monsters to see what the fuck was going on for himself because of a mere broken leg and some loosened plates of armour.]

Before and after: plates laid on a bias rejoining so perfectly there's no damage to see. And all the internals are fine too. Black magic shit that got the old engineer out of bed to do a field inspection.

Come to that, Saitama does know about the importance of will but does not know it consciously. Yet another gag that has become very much not a gag is that any object Saitama holds that he does not want to break becomes unbreakable. Cheap store-bought chopsticks catch a falling man -- and his clothes, in turn, don't give way. They become an extension of Saitama, like Nichirin's sword does of himself. Speaking of swords, it's notable that when Atomic Samurai managed to draw the sun blade, it was impossible to tell where the man ended and the sword began. Saitama just has no idea that that's what he's doing, so he can't teach it to his increasingly frustrated disciple.

the same principle, played very differently, but each in a life-or-death situation

And like that, another piece of the puzzle of the power scheme of OPM has been shown to us. No one character has the whole picture. We will hopefully get to piece it together by the end, and we hope that the right characters understand it well enough at the right time to make for good outcomes.

Next chapter review will be much shorter!

[the-nysh]

I think Gearsper is a bit suspicious for saying that Tsukuyomi is just an urban legend considering that his powers also seem to be artificial given the scars on his head (similar to Apollo and the other Tsukuyomi member) and the weird headgear he wears...

Oh yes, that was odd, considering he's likely one of their enhanced esper experiments victims himself (same brain surgery scars underneath the mask) - he had to have known of them. :O Despite all this bullshit he's spouting about rumors and urban legends - that's suspiciously not adding up.

Unless he's truly in on it (part of their group; covering things up for damage control), or perhaps he was brainwashed to not speak anything ill of their organization, orrrr all his memories are still intact and he's deliberately deflecting/playing ignorant to help Fubuki make her safe escape with Psykos. :O (As an esper/hero helping out his fellow endangered espers.) It could be any of the above.

[thepsykomonbebe]

Hey whoever’s running the Monsta x text service.......I just wanna talk

[thepsykoelf]

Now I was a Hani x Heechul shipper but above all I am a Heechul x Happiness shipper so let me tell you I am THRILLED that the man who is always talking about wanted to get married and raise a family is in a relationship

[thepsykonctzen]

If you would’ve told me a year ago I would get to see kpop LEGENDS in real life, I would not have believed you. But here I am, now a Kai stan. And I actually got to hear my all time favorite Taemin song “Danger” irl

[thepsykoarmy]

Dude I dont fuk with maknae line stans

them girls are crazy

[greyskies2002]

OHHHHHHH

[thepsykoshipper]

Psyko’s Top 10 Kpop Songs Released in 2022

I took the top 10 songs released this year and put them in a numerical list. This list is only including songs released by a k-pop artist or group and is in korean.

10. WA DA DA by Kep1er

I didn’t watch Girls Planet 999 but I followed the drama extensively on twitter (mainly because I love Bora from Cherry Bullet), and so I was excited for the debut of the group. I was expecting a debut to rival IZ*ONE and I think we got it with WA DA DA. It’s high energy and the dance is fun. But theres a reason no other Kep1er songs are on this list. #JusticeForBora

9. Super Yuppers! by WJSN Chocome

WJSN released my most listened to song of 2021, so of course another WJSN song would be on my list. This song was the Kpop we needed in a genre saturated with noise music (which I do not hate). Dayoung’s rap(?) in the bridge solidified this as a regular on my Kpop playlist. These girls are bringing back the Orange Caramel aesthetic.

8. Maison by Dreamcatcher

It would’ve been a crime if this song did not get Dreamcatcher their first win. The chorus is so hype, and Dami’s raps never fail to serve. Their first win was a long time coming, and I’m glad they’ve finally clawed their way out of nugu-dom.

7. Love Dive by IVE

You think I could make a best of kpop list and not put the SOTY on it? (Actually I haven’t put the SOTY on my list many times XD). But this time I actually agree with the decision for SOTY. IVE had everyone by the throat this year, release hit after hit. And even though I hate Starship Ent. for what they did to Monsta X, it is nice to see a company outside of the Big 3 getting some recognition. I’m excited to see the big things IVE does in the future.

6. Step Back by GOT the Beat

I was a huge SuperM stan when they debuted and so I new it was a matter of time before SM released the female version. And they did not disappoint. This song is damn near perfect, and getting to hear Taeyeon, Wendy, and Karina on the same track is something I could’ve only dreamed of. This song is amazing, and anyone who says otherwise is in denial.

5. SMILEY by Yena feat. BBIBBI

Now I’ll be honestly, I didn’t love IZ*ONE, and I think all the girls have put out better music since they disbanded. And Choi Yena has had the best debut of all the ladies of IZ*ONE. It actually shocked me to discover that she was a rapper in IZ*ONE because her voice is so wonderful. I actually held out on listening to this song all the way through, because I didn’t care for IZ*ONE, but once I gave in I could not stop listening to it.

4. FOREVER 1 by Girl’s Generation

I made the mistake of stanning Girl’s Generation after the release of “Holiday”, so I fully expected to never receive new songs as a SONE and was content to just enjoy the classics. Well I tell you, I cried when I first watched the stage for this song! Eight queens taking their rightful spot back on the throne with an absolutely incredible song.

3. Scream by SF9

At this point, SF9 are one of my ults so of course they’d be the first boy group to appear on my list. When Youngbin and Inseong enlisted, I expected no new releases from the boys as a group for a while. So when this dropped I was so excited. The song overall I think is just alright, and the reason it’s ranked so high is purely because of Zuho’s rap, which are always my favorite parts in SF9 songs.

2. HOT by Seventeen

This was the song that got me to truly stan Seventeen. I had been an on and off fan after listening to Aju Nice, but this song was what made me commit to listening to this group. The dance is simplistic and sexy, and I love everything about the concept.

1. WooAh HIP by MAMADOL

If you had told me that the best song of the year would be released by a group composed of a bunch of former idols who were also mothers, I wouldn’t believe you. But WooAh HIP was the best debut/disbandment song of the year. These women can move, and they showed the world that just because you have children, doesn’t mean you can’t pop and drop it. I’ll never stop wishing for another comeback for this group, but most of all I hope that this paves the way for all idols with families and encourages them to continue doing what they love.

[no1monstersimp]

14 and 15

WARNING THIS WILL BE VERY RANTY

Sorry this took a bit to answer haha, I was thinking about these ones for a little bit and I wanted to be able to type it out on my laptop because this may be long(and my laptop is slow). This will be a pretty heavy one.

So lets start with 14 -sigh-

TW rac*sm, h*m*phobia, ped*philia, r*pe, inc*st.

I'm sure this isn't unpopular, but my opinion about the fandom is it's pretty bad. Of course I love most of the users on here and have overall been very pleasant to interact with, but the issues are very overwhelming and become more apparent on the Reddit. You can say, it's just the Reddit, but I've seen these issues on Instagram, Twitter, and pretty much everywhere else. Some of the major issues are homophobia, racism, and the very concerning amount of pedophilia jokes/normalization.

So let's start with the homophobia portion.

As I'm sure everyone has experienced sometime in the fandom, there is an overwhelming amount of homophobia within the fandom. Let's take GenoSai for an instant. Whether like the ship or not, there is definitely a double standard among the fandom. Art where the ship is Genoko(Genos genderbend) x Saitama, it is perfectly fine and little heads are turned, but as soon as you mention Genos x Saitama, everyone goes batshit. They like to say it's because "ships don't belong in the fandom" but then turn around and ship Saitama and Tatsumaki or Saitama and Fubuki. They even go as far as to say "making them gay is disrespectful to the character or it ruins them". I'm sorry but if you're that delusional, I don't even know what to say honestly. Certain users got up and arms about the Batarou ship as of late after the reveal of Kiro in 170. Many users were sent unprovoked abhorrent asks or comments all because they ship them. Some have also downplayed the fact that bisexuality exists as well because of this, just stating "Garou isn't gay" or "Garou doesn't like men". There have been some that have written amazing essays on it so I won't go too deep into it here. Another thing is the downplay of LGBT voices in the fandom. They constantly harass LGBT users for having gay ships or other LGBT ships, when all we literally want is representation. It angers me when they say "well you have Puri Prisoner" and I'm sorry, but fuck that. I literally hate the character. They have no right to speak over us and preach what an acceptable character to represent the community is. No right at all...

Anyways... back to double standards, lesbian ships are more accepted because they are fetishizing them. Some of the most popular are Psykos x Fubuki, Fubuki x Do-S, and...ugh...Fubuki x Lily. So they ignore a literal 14 year old and 23 year old and think it's okay but somehow two consenting male adults in a relationship is worse??? Same thing with incestual relationships such as Fubuki x Tatsumaki.

A smaller section is the way they excuse Darkshine. I understand the intention may not have meant to be racist, but at the end of the day we can't keep excusing it. I feel awful when I remember his backstory because he's not a bad character, in the sense that he's a good guy.

Ah the pedophilia jokes and the normalization. I can't tell you how many times I've seen really disgusting jokes about the child characters in sexual situations. The thing is, they aren't even funny. As mentioned before, they already normalize the relationship between a 14 year old and someone she looks up to, who is 23. Well, let's dive into their favorite thing, One Hurricane. There is a volume of this lovely series , I say sarcastically, in which Child Emperor( a 10 year old) is raped by Fubuki (yet again, a 23 year old) and I sadly laid my eyes on a panel. Fubuki is sexually assaulted by Saitama multiple times throughout the series as well as Do-s in one volume. They still celebrate the series as "so good" when it literally excuses rape ad pedophilia. It pisses me off so bad. There are many users who draw or post incest, pedophilia, rape and are celebrated. It's sad I can think of so many off the top of my head, BY NAME.

I have some other things I want to talk about but the post is getting long...

I'll do a briefing of things I don't like about the manga itself. I don't like the way Kama is treated, she's way too beautiful to be presented the way she is. Especially in the webcomic when her name was "Slicing Shemale". I understand that there is apparently some translation issues, but sometimes I wonder.

I already talked about Darkshine and Puri.

[theomnicode]

Burden of prophetic sight

I'm checking out our national hymns and shit because it's our national day in 3 days and all of a fucking sudden, I'm punched in the gut about the knowledge of what could have scared Psykos so fucking badly that she refused to talk about and she wanted to stop remembering it and she looked like death warmed over in webcomic.

What would be the worst thing you could see in the future? To you personally and not distantly enough to just ignore if it's too impersonal and wanting to forget it?

What would evoke your survival instincts down to the core in effort to prevent it from happening?

Your own inevitable death and your worst fears.

That is the burden of possessing the ability to see to the future. To see not just your own death, but also the death of everyone else and your loved ones.

She probably saw her own death at Tatsumaki's hands here or Fubuki's death. Or both.

And in the manga...I wonder if it's the same but this time, false memory that were implanted to her head. Or she saw her own demise in the hands of the Tsukuyomi group.

Lady shibabawa died after she had looked into the crystal ball and predicted Earth was in danger, because she took on a cough drop after that and then choked on it, but was still able to write down the prophecy.

Somehow. Not likely.

I think...she made her own prophecy to come true. Or that she wanted to avoid a far worse fate because the prophecy scared her so and she wanted to go out on her own terms because she was already old. She even had assistants around who would've made sure that she'd get help upon seeing she was choking. But that did not apparently happen and they just...let her choke and write her message.

So what is the timeline when she made that prophecy again?

The moment when Saitama realized that he had started caring about potential casualties again. That he would do anything in his power to prevent it from happening.

(haha ominous moon haha)

When the sky was still dark with clouds during daytime.

(Saitama does not consciously even remember Satoru, because he never sees his full face I bet. And Satoru does not remember Saitama back from school because Saitama does not have hair. But the subconscious does.)

(Inb4 Saitama and Satoru used to date too, like Psykos and Fubuki have implied relationship.)

(Purple colour scheme is often used to depict evil in japanese anime, like sasuke's curse mark had evil purple aura on it, but also: "As in the West, purple stands for royalty in Japanese culture. It is also considered the color of warriors, symbolizing strength. Purple flowers are very popular too" So you could say that Saitama gets strenght to protect in that scene from his conviction to care.)

--

I thought of this because my SO shared with me his thoughts about:

Michael Hartnett's poem of Sibelius in Silence.

Irish drunk and disorderly writer writes from Finland and about himself and sibelius at the same time hartnett is Irish but grew up in England, speaks English and never felt welcome among the Irish irish was not his mother tongue Sibelius was a Finn but grew up in Sweden, spoke Swedish, never felt welcome among Finns… both were alcoholics who drank themselves to death and hartnett foresaw his own death and equated it with the death of Sibelius in that poem there's nothing left but hands shaking with drunkenness, no swans of hell, no sketches (luonnotar, virgin of air, this is a wordplay), no compositions

(The black swan of tuonela reference and Saivo-lake, tuonela as concept meaning both heaven/hell, the afterlife)

"vodka ebbs in tremors from my hand" is fucking brilliant that part of yourself that hasn't disappeared yet, no matter how ethereal, you still feel it when it's still there despite everything. OR ether (aether) no matter how puffed up you are, yeah, I'm still there, yeah, hic wakes up at night at odd hours because genius is a burden and inspiration comes at any moment and voila, finlandian magic is just out of thin air OR can't sleep because drunken insanity ruins your sleep completely and solves the problem by pulling out a bottle of Finlandia

Me: or did he get his strength from the concept of finlandia that hasn't left him yet? SO: or the fact that it listens to finlandia, if you think from hartnet's point of view yeah me: what did he want the anthem to represent SO: you can think of it that way but that whole last verse is a double-meaning at the same time that it hasn't lost itself and is still creating art which was true for both of them. and at the same time that he has completely lost himself to alcoholism and is nothing more than that which was also true for both of them fucking brilliant and rough as fuck ;_;

SO: I suppose that being undead there's not much to life, a soul is needed for loving, feeling

Funnily enough, my SO also pointed out that Saitama's dream being a forewarning of Saitama losing himself, things that are important to him and his being when I said that he prolly foresaw the loss of his self and people who were important to him like Genos, is akin to conspiracy theory and ahaha...this personality type has a tendency to get caught up in conspiracy theories.

I mean, I can pull out outrageous meta which sound like conspiracy theories (like this one) out of thin air. Woosh.

Because cognitive bias is seeking out patterns even when there is none. xd

(I swear I'm just doing this for fun and not seeking out if there is a hidden conspiracy theory. I am making up shit though)

--

Unfortunately, how does this relates to Saitama?

Chances are, he has already intuitively foreseen his own death, at some subconscious level. Because he started to care again. Since he knows himself well enough that he would know that if he started to care about people again to the degree that he now cares for Genos, he would sacrifice himself for them, because of his caring nature and not having any self-worth.

(Thanks Murata-sensei, I can now see the tired, dark bottom eyelids that are only more pronounced in versus Garou.)

(Ugh now I'm crying again)

(The wounded healer archetype is to be self-sacrificial.)

Or that he will come to consciously see his own demise/fears at some point, when his third eye that is referenced to exist in the Orochi fight opens.

(I bet we will revisit the demise of Orochi as well....thanks Murata-sensei for the hint...)

Saitama is willfull. But what he is susceptible to doing is chasing dopamine highs and addictions. Adrenaline. Gambling. Spontaneously buying some weird shit. Indulging himself with his favourite foods. Because depressed people often are susceptible to doing that stuff because of dopamine deficiency to get dopamine fix.

Including binge drinking alchohol.

Fate can be changed though, due to intervention. Just like Saitama is intervening on Psykos' fate.

But yea, turning to alchoholism would probably be the way for Saitama to try and forget if say, he somehow accidentally managed to kill Genos, if Genos happened to be say, not in complete control of his faculties. Saitama is motivated to forget all sorts of bad stuff even at the cognitive level.

Or hell, feeling guilt over pushing Genos into being a bloody hero, like how Genos decided to confront Awakened Garou while only being a torso. Or worse, compelling him to be self-sacrificial and heroic because of his divine power.

--

One thing for sure though, Saitama seems to be a person who has the capacity of changing the fate of people around him.

Because conveniently, prophecies can't be trusted. But they sure can become self-fulfilling.

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Update 228 Review: Horse-Trading

Introduction

HUZZAH! The Psychic Sisters Arc is over at last! It started well, it ended well, but there's only so long I can give a shit about Tatsumaki throwing a tantrum and throwing Saitama through things.

Story

Eh, let's make it short and sweet. The chapter deals with the immediate aftermath of Tatsumaki's tantrum through to the next day or two as the fallout looks set to begin in earnest. Along the way, a few sharp deals are struck.

Meta: Ho ho ho

Blackmailers Anonymous

Something I was very glad to see changed for the Blizzard Group in this arc was them being largely hapless. Earlier, we saw Eyelashes, Mountain Ape, Lily, and a few others valiantly try fighting to prevent Apollo from leaving with Fubuki and Tatsumaki. Amidst the air of general discouragement, Eyelashes leads the surviving group to follow Fubuki with purpose, and they don't back down even faced with Tatsumaki. This chapter, we see yet another Blizzard Group member, an as-yet unnamed guy with a distinctive mohawk, show another talent: hacking. Neither he nor Fubuki are slow on the uptake as to what

Thanks to a little negotiating, Fubuki is able to persuade McCoy to concoct a monster attack to explain away the damage to the Hero Association building, Tatsumaki obliges by scattering the monster parts outside -- and coincidentally smuggles Psykos out in the process.

Tatsumaki brazenly insists on being the one to apprehend the escaped Psykos, leveraging her knowledge that the executives didn't want their cover up blown.

However...

If McCoy is smiling, that's because as far as he's concerned, what Tatsumaki and Fubuki have been up to are amateur hours in the damaging information game. He's happy for them to run their hustle for now.

If the Psychic sisters were more astute, they'd be worrying about the operations chief being more amused than annoyed, but they're amateurs.

Speaking of amateurs, let's spare a moment to look at Gearsper. Lots of people have been giving him the side eye for insisting that Tsukoyomi couldn't possibly be real. We do think the gentleman protests too strenously, but what his angle is remains to be seen.

Enlightented Self-Interest Is Next To Altruism

It's official -- I am never getting over how bottle-blonde baby Forte is. No wonder he goes around with hat and sunglasses: he looks too young to be out unsupervised.

He wisely apologises to Saitama and tells the others that it's in their best interests to ensure that they stay on Saitama's good side. Oh, and feed his pets already. Good -- that's the third day of no food, water, or shelter that Rover and Black Sperm were looking forward to.

That said, there is a very strange translation choice in what Forte says, at least as translated by the fan group. Google Translate and individuals insist that what Forte offers to Saitama (other than his old clothes) is a visit to a restaurant that does delicious food and Saitama crying off sick. It has been translated as Forte offering to go clothes shopping with Saitama and Saitama being creeped out.

I'm waiting for Viz to translate, and if it doesn't agree, believe me, I'm asking questions.

Also acting with enlightened self-interest is Saitama, who asks Genos not to report Tatsumaki on the basis that she deserves her time in the limelight. Of course, we're aware that behind his apparent generosity of spirit is the awareness that shared credit means shared blame.

And a billion yen's worth of blame is really too much for one poor-ass hero.

The Chickenheads Come Home to Roost

Despite everything, the good ship Titanic (um, I mean the Hero Association) seems to have weathered the storm. The public, and their rich donors, are back onside having been reassured that the disturbance was just terrible monsters and all is well.

Well.

With that terrible security of the Hero Association's, it's not been hard for Child Emperor to find out the truth of what was actually going on. To say that he's not impressed is an understatement. All is forgiven, Phoenixman!

The only questions are: 1) How far has he dug? 2) How much damage will he cause?

Speaking of callbacks, remember way back when an inoffensive monster pangolin was systematically skinned alive for its scales until it bloomed into a highly-dangerous demon-level monster? Metal Knight looked cynically on the whole affair.

It looks like selling monsters on the black market is much more widespread than we initially thought. Fubuki having evidence of McCoy personally looking to enrich himself was very unedifying. And he's not the only one. However, that's not the worst of it.

Never mind the personal profit motive -- if they're lucky, the monsters are just going to wealthy individuals keen to have the most exotic pets ever.

If they're unlucky, there's outfits who have plans to use monsters to make weapons. I don't need the webcomic to point that out:

Maybe Drive Knight is ethical and above board (cynical laugh), but some of the outfits developing those weapons could be intending to use them against the Hero Association.

[scary-senpai]

Woof.

Hear that sound? That is me, vigorously shaking my head above my Tumblr dash like a wet dog, trying to get all the hyperfixations out before my lunch break is done.

This looks to me like a Momento Mori, which (as per Wikipedia) can be defined as:

an artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death.

In context (particularly during the Victorian era, when morbidity was all the rage), it typically refers to the physical death, but it doesn’t have to -- the notion of metaphorical death --ego death, death of the author, deaths for all ages and occasions-- is a commonplace concept too.

Oh, speaking of Ego Death... (from https://www.mindbodygreen.com although I’m sure I’ve got this in a handout somewhere...)

Ego death is the (often instantaneous) realization that you are not truly the things you've identified with, and the "ego" or sense of self you've created in your mind is a fabrication.

Ego death is (according to Freud and others) part of the hero’s journey, after all. Achieving ego death is generally a positive thing, a feeling of transcendence -- like you’ve left behind the shallow concepts and false identities that bind you, and the sensation of unity and ONE-ness, if you will excuse my dad joke. (do not start watching OPM as you are going through your yoga teacher training, you will wonder why everybody is fighting if they are all part of the ONE).

Anyway, I digress. Let’s chat about symbolism and psychoanalysis, shall we?

A Momento Mori can look... a bit more obviously death like, like the skull in Psykos’ lair:

However, it is not uncommon to leverage optical illusions like the one below, perhaps to further emphasize the idea that death is always one step away.

The cover image is more like the image above, where we see two things at once. From one perspective, we see a skull -- something all humans have, but at the same time, are naturally averse to. (”Check out these neat bones I found” is right up there with “I eated the purple berries!” as far as evolutionary helpful behaviors go -- we’re inclined to avoid dead things for a reason). From another perspective, though, we see Garou’s very human and notably bandaged body. That, in itself, as a lot.

But, as I mentioned before, we’re probably looking at a metaphorical sort of death. ::rubs hands together excitedly:: so let’s have some fun with psychoanalysis, shall we?

There’s so, so much I could say about Garou’s character, but I’m most poignantly reminded of a book that my primary teacher often quotes, which is The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and Grief.

I joke about Garou splitting things into half as a metaphor for his cognitive dissonance and inability to reconcile his identity. Yes, he does bifurcate the giant centipede and fantasizes about cutting HA Headquarters in half, but he also divides the world itself into binary categories -- and this is why he spends his arc embroiled in an identity crisis. Whether he acknowledges it or not is debatable, but overall Garou seems largely disconnected from his feelings, desires, and even his memories. Garou acts like a hero but he feels like the monster, he’s physically strong but still identifies as weak, and so on. I think we’ve all felt that way at some point, though -- for whatever reason, we’ve had to split ourselves into pieces, and our identity becomes a puzzle that we cannot reconcile.

In the Wild Edge of Sorrow, author Francis Weller, posits that this fragmented dichotomy of self literally splits your spirit. When we’re attempting to cut off aspects of self that we consider unworthy, undeserving, or unfit, we feel we have no right to grieve them. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to heal from those things.

If we can’t fully grieve an experience, we can’t move on. So we carry these experiences with us, haunted and held back by all the pain we can’t leave behind.

Garou isn’t always the most rational actor, but to me his actions have always made sense if you view him as a traumatized kid. (Seriously, the guy fights in his sleep! How can you not see that and immediately think “shit, kiddo, your Autonomic Nervous System never lets up, not even when you are unconscious! you’re telling me you never feel safe enough to rest??”) Trauma robs us of our ability to imagine that life could be anything otherwise, ensnaring us in whatever horrible life-altering moment we managed to live through.

It’s common to see trauma survivors demonstrating this trapped mindset, often deliberately seeking out and repeating the same cycle, because they implicitly understand the importance of closure, something that signals to their minds and bodies “it’s over now. you’re finally safe.” They usually can’t do it without help. (For more on this, I recommend The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk). In Garou’s case, tragically, this is not only a cycle but a self-fulfilling prophesy. He’s decided he can’t be anything other than the monster, therefore, he acts like one and gets deemed as such. It likely makes him feel as if he has some modicum of control over what he mistakenly takes as an inevitability.

Getting back to the pseudo-science, though... I’m thinking back to something my aunt told me once, when I was in a particularly bad headspace. IIRC, she was referencing famed psychoanalyst Carl Jung, but it’s all heresay at this point. Anyway, at that point in my mortal coil I was not taking particularly good care of myself, to put it mildly. My aunt explained that sometimes self-destructive behaviors (in Garou’s case, picking fights all the time, including ones likely to end in your physical death) are a way of recognizing that “yes, there’s a part of me that has to be culled in order for something better to grow in its place. I need to leave behind my identity as somebody that doesn’t deserve acceptance or success.” The trick is to apply this instinct in a healthy way, and not like, go recklessly biking through midtown without a helmet until your ex returns your phone calls. Again, though, I’d take that one with a grain of salt -- especially if you’re applying it to anything other than a fictional character. There’s a reason that mental health treatment has moved away from speculating on symbolism and towards neuroscience and evidence-based practice -- although I’ve held on to this image as a healing metaphor because it personally resonates with me.

I feel like I could go on and on... in alchemy literal death and rot are something that eventually yields to purification and perfection, then there’s the apparent nod to re-incarnation when it comes to monstrification (recovering from near-death experiences causes humans to evolve and become stronger), of course there’s the Death card in Tarot which speaks to new beginnings... but I have to go back to work. Happy reading, thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

[beileil]

OPPAI Calling Card - Final

So it occurs to me that I never actually posted a calling card for OPM Bingo once the Monster Arc was officially over...which was what, two months ago? Whatever, here it is now.

The bingo cards came out on June 20th, so this covers everything from Chapter 165 on. That's not a lot of chapters to work with, so we're going to be uh...a little liberal on some of these so that you can cross off more spaces. I'd still be kinda surprised if anyone got a bingo. (But please let me know if you did! And please post your final cards if you like!)

Thanks again to @scary-senpai and everyone who submitted suggestions! This was a ton of fun!

Canon

Yet another character ends up naked

Tsundere Garou

A Really Gay Moment™ (a couple SaiGenos and one of Tanktop Al Dente looking respectfully at Zombieman, as pointed out by @no1monstersimp)

Something BAD™ happens to Genos' core or skull (WHO SUGGESTED THIS ONE. I'm not mad. I just want to know.)

Garou's physical body collapses because he's exceeded the Recommended Daily Amount of Enlightenment (gotta be honest, wasn't expecting to be able to cross this one off!)

Metal Bat vouches for Garou

God takes Garou's power away and Garou fucking DIES

Blast and the Interdimensional Justice League show up

Zombiedad being protective of Isamu

Black Sperm is up to no good. Again. *

Pig God uses a Special Attack *

Rover lends an unexpected assist * (Rover also lends an unexpected assist to my mental health with these panels)

*Happened in the aftermath of the MA Arc in Chapter 171 or 172, not in the arc itself, but screw it, we need a win.

Arguably Canon

BDSM if you squint (I didn't know which panel to link here. I just feel in my heart of hearts that a lot of the Saitama and Garou fight gave off vibes. But if you prefer, here's a shot of Strange Binding Shell hiding out by Bomb. Surely his entire existence counts as BDSM!)

Saitama does/says something controversial yet again (Take your pick.)

Tank Toppers band together to do a special Tank Top Attack

Metal Knight shows up, takes some data, leaves. (Didn't say he couldn't take everyone with him!)

Someone shows up with a magic radiation cure (bonus: it’s bananas) (Science is magic, right?)

Amai Mask tries to kill Manako again (It's not a proper attempt, but he would have if Flashy hadn't stepped in)

It's a stretch, but whatever

Amai Mask spotted in Monster Mode (same panel as the last. do the neck veins count as "Monster Mode"?)

“Are you there, God? It’s me, [Blorbo].” (Probably not the original intention of whoever suggested this one, but here's Bang screaming at God to give Garou back.)

King says/does something clever that buys the heroes some time

???

God rage quits the arc

God takes Garou's power away and Garou survives because he's just That Cool (God did take Garou's power away, and Garou did survive, but it certainly was not because he was cool!)

Psykos shows back up and everyone admits they completely forgot about her

Look, you can't prove it's not canon

King has the power of God (no ID) and anime on his side

Jossed

Yet another character loses an arm (Zombieman doesn't count)

Iaian gets his face stomped on

A single panel of Watchdog Man minding his own business in City Q

BDSM if you *don't* squint

Murata breaks the fourth wall to explain the re-draws

Sonic comes out of the bathroom

Garou kicks Genos (just because)

Psykos tries to take a hostage

God (no ID) takes something Psykos can't afford to lose

Metal Bat and Tareo have a moment

Mizuki pole vaults over something

Flashy Flash uses the Sun Blade

Saitama offers Garou a banana

Bang advertises his dojo

Garou gets a hug

Somebody speaks to God's manager

Garou copies The King Engine

Mumen Rider attacks Garou…with forgiveness! (And definitely not his bike.)

Sekingar calls his wife and/or she shows up to the battlefield

Kama and Bushidrill flirt again, Iaian deadpans in the corner

Tank Top Master and Mumen Rider pine for one another

Badd tells Zenko that it was just a really long bathroom break and she hits him again

The Blizzard Group protects Tatsumaki

Atomic Samurai's disciples protect him

Someone uses an impractical household object as a weapon

Fubuki + Psykos = Lesbians

Charanko shows up late