#rambles from the dungeon

[dungeons-are-too-cold]

i wanna be cosmo when i grow up, my gender is now cosmo from sing street

he's so gender

[dungeonegg]

So with it being Father's day today I wanted to share a little about my grandfathers, both of whom were incredible men. My own father, well let's just leave it at he did a lot of damage to my mom and my sister, which has always been more important to me than the damage he did to me. This will probably be a bit long so I'll do it under a cut just in case

Starting off, both my grandpas were very mellow, sweet men. On my dad's side was Alan Berrey. I didn't even know that Berrey was his middle name until the last year or so. He would always take us out to the garden and let us pick whatever we wanted. I used to play card games with him and can still remember him jokingly saying girls couldn't win, to which my grandma would always tell him "don't tell her that Al, she always beats you". He was the one who started what is possibly my most beloved tradition: grilled cheese and turkey sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving. It was a rite of passage for him to take one of his grandkids to the kitchen and teach them the proper way to make a grilled cheese and turkey.

On my mom's side was John Francis, who went by Danny. I never really got to meet him since he passed away when I was little and lived in another country. He actually was preparing to come visit so I could meet him in person when he passed. But I adored talking to him on the phone for ages. Some of my favorite family stories come from him. For example there's a story about him driving a couple of ladies from the village around once and when they were at the top of the hill, one of the tires came off. Of course the ladies were freaking out because the tire was off. My grandpa's response? "Oh, don't worry, we'll catch up to it at the bottom." Honestly one of the greatest compliments I've received from family was saying that I'm like him in a way.

Sorry, I know this was a bit long. I just wanted to say even if you do have a complicated or not so great relationship or even no relationship with your dad, there are people who you can honor on days like this instead. And if you do have a good relationship with your dad, take the time to enjoy it with them or in honor of them.

[pollyanna-nana]

So. It’s no secret that the dunmeshi manga gradually changed art style as it went on (thereby twinkifying a few characters…) but I like to think that, in Thistle’s case specifically, it was also a change in perception by the party. I mean…

Early in the story, when all they knew about him was that he was the creepy, all-powerful mad sorcerer? Probably were much more intimidated by him. Same with the reader. BUT….

By the end? Oh, he’s just a little jester twink who writes poetry and can be picked up and slung around like a bag of potatoes. No way they could take him seriously anymore. Literally this meme but in reverse

Little guyification…

[tumatawa]

I wish she had more scenes... Whateva

[stressedjester]

very important!!! Mithrun carrying a walking mushroom in a baby sling

[dungeons-are-too-cold]

i feel like its maybe an unconcious (or concious who knows) acknowledgement that the women do not 'own' their last names because surnames are passed down paternally its the name that belongs to their fathers until its the name that belonged to their husbands.

also there's also the idea that referring to someone by their last name is a sign of formality and respect, especially for someone in a position of power, and society does not respect women or their power.

also also its most likely linked to the familiarity and comfort people have with women in the public eye, demanding more from them, acting as if they are their friend, their mom, etc. where men are generally seen less so to that extent and are seen as professionals in the public eye instead of influencers/taste-makers/friendly faces/ etc.

just a spitballing here feel free to add/correct

Here's a fun one

It hasn't been "Joe" versus "Donald"

But in 2016 it was "Hillary" versus "Trump"

Now in 2024 why are we letting people call her "Kamala" instead of "Harris"?

Are women not addressed by their last names in formal settings? If so why is that?

[kewpiekills]

I think “pots n picks” would make a cuter ship name than chilshi. I think all ships deserve a name mashup title and a fun title

[fumifooms]

I don’t like minimizing the importance and gravity of Laios and Toshiro’s fight into just being a childish squabble, even if to a degree it is framed that way, because to both of them it has a lot of personal significance and emotional weight and runs very deep to their characters… The fight isn’t nothing it’s a LOT, they made up but it’s not something easy to express and to get over for either of them which makes it all the more meaningful! I’m on both sides but there very much are sides, there’s no "they’re both having a ball, Toshiro and Laios hand in hand yay" side to the fight, that comes after

The fight with Toshiro WAS very scary to Laios, almost existentially so, but it’s moreso the "I thought I’d made a friend!!" bit and my god. My god actually

Like it’s not "just" about oh his friend liking him less than he thought, THAT IS SO MUCH. It’s a bond he thought he had being a lie it’s all the time and moments spent together either being a lie from his perspective or marred now looking back. It’s not only being upset at Toshiro for lying but upset at himself that he’s so easy to fool, it’s being upset that there’s something so wrong with you that you can’t even tell if your "close buddy" even actually likes you or not, it’s like. Holding my head. He can’t trust his own vision of events that happened do you see. There’s always this film of distrust that it could be a lie that should be there when he interacts with people there’s always this sense of cloak and dagger to expect backstabs out of nowhere because you CAN’T see it coming you CAN’T you CAN’T there’s something about you which makes it impossible so you CAN’T-

He’s so scared of not being able to read people. He knows it’s a weak spot he has, he’s always known. All of these bits are centered around social expectations and betrayals, the assumption that he doesn’t belong either in society or with other humans.

And Laios’ level of awareness is actually sort of complex to analyze, but it’s there, there’s how out of him and Falin he was the one sensitive to the ~aura of hatred~ he felt from the townspeople, there’s of course his nightmares whispering to him about the mocking looks, and how yeah actually he realizes that his gold stripper coworker was taking advantage of him. There’s of course the Winged Lion speech about his trauma and how he fundamentally mistrusts/dislikes humans to some deep seated degree, this distrust that he still keeps under control always. There’s how pre-canon he often wanted to suggest eating monsters but never worked up the courage to bring it up with the others. There’s how he gets across as stoic when he isn’t being enthusiastic…… We don’t know how aware and wary he is exactly in the moment but we do know he has some anxiety around social stuff, and looking back he does notice and aughh augh, the sense you have to hide yourself to not get hurt and be on your guard and shit and.

When you don’t know what to look out for and when to look out for it, the general ‘common sense’ of not always trusting people or noticing when someone’s messing with you becomes hypervigilance in social settings

"Man they really know what you hate huh". Being socially unaware literally plagues him, he knows, he knows it so well.

It’s so quick that it’s almost hard to digest how literal and blatant Laios summoning his monster to crush all the people who’ve hurt him is. His literal go-to coping mechanism for comfort in his literal monster-induced emotionally intense nightmares, saving him by taking away the upsetting element (the humans)

"Monsters are his coping fantasy, where they can whisk him away from humanity, all the hurt it’s caused him and its arbitrary rules" with the subtlety of a brick. Monsters are his comfort safe zone "because they kill humans" yes but no it’s because he pits them as the guardians against humans who to him are in the role of the agressors. To him they represent freedom from the shackles of what it means to be part of humanity, a fundamentally social species

[dungeons-are-too-cold]

me: *opens a bunch of youtube tabs full of video essays and hobby videos when i finally have time to watch them*

also me: *proceeds to watch bluey instead*

[dungeons-are-too-cold]

Something that has always bugged me is when some man is being gross or misogynistic or manipulative online, everyone is so quick to jump on the bandwagon of making fun of his appearance like "oh he's bald? or fat? or has missing teeth? lets make fun of it. lets make comments about how he probably couldn't get women to date him cuz hes so ugly" and it fucking pisses me off

there are good and bad people alike who share similar physical appearances. There is no morality or goodness or kindness held in people's physical appearance. When you make fun of a bad person for being bald, there's going to be a whole host of good people who are also bald who will see that and feel like shit. It also perpetuates these stereotypes of equating physical appearance with sexist, misogynistic, or predatory behavior.

if a man is a piece of shit, it has nothing to do with how he looks. Dont attack him for looking a certain way because it not only weakens your argument against their behavior, but its also going to make good people feel like shit about things they cant control

between reddit and twitter a huge portion of the internet- including people who self identify as leftist/ woke/ whatever the fuck else- seem to think that anything goes as soon as they dislike the person being talked about

if you do misogyny about a woman you dislike, i regret to inform you that you are Still Doing A Misogyny. it doesn't start being okay because you've decided the woman in question deserves it. don't even get me started on body shaming/ the way fat people get talked about as soon as they're viewed as Acceptably Bad.

either you hold values against bigotry or you don't. there's no invisible line at which point you get granted a Say One Slur card. jesus christ

[malaierba]

i always thought that the pose Toshiro strikes falling down the hole was funny in a, idk, retro anime way, guys posing in ways you only see in anime etc

Looking at it closer today I noticed that he's actually raising his hands here, probably to avoid touching Rin in a way that may parse as rude

stupid observation but i find it sweet since its consistent with something stablished about his character (Ryoko Kui pays a lot of attention to body language and mannerisms, makes it fun to pay attention to them) and also just. justifies a stupid little pose. lol.

Unrelated but I really like this scene where he's just resigned himself to being a wall between Flamela arguing directly with Rin lol.

I wonder if he did it because he felt it was The Right Thing To Do, or if it's more of a thing he's USED to doing? Maybe when there's a disagreement between his teammates in the Nakamoto household he's the designated person who tries to put some distance between everyone? Maybe he took up this role himself, in true "I hate conflict so much please stop fighting" fashion?

Or maybe he sensed that Rin feels more uneasy around Flamela than the other way around (Rin looked quite panicked when she bumped into her, shout out to that one meta post that points out how in her backstory it seems that its Flamela who takes her away), so he's instinctively taking her side.

[risetherivermoon]

idk how we got here from that but im sure glad we did

[honeyspotpie]

Hey thinking about how in both timelines all Nick ever wanted was to make his father proud. Adapting and modeling his personality after his father, be it Glenn or Jodie. Because the only thing he ever wanted was his father's love. Thinking about how we can assume that Glenn did the same thing to appease Bill. Thinking about the fact that Taylor also wanted his father's love but never changed or remodeled his own personality and interests to receive said love. Thinking about the fact that he realized that his own sense of self is far more important than receiving artificial feelings of pride from a man who didn't even bother to get to know him. He finally broke the cycle. Yeah

[skyward-floored]

One of my many many favorite parts of the update was Legend jumping in front of Wild and yelling at him

He’s so concerned (and annoyed lol) that Wild has no clue what he’s doing— he doesn’t want him to step foot in another room and get spike trapped or separated off from the others by sudden bars or anything.

And while Wild seems willing to learn what to do, he doesn’t want to be coddled. He looks to me like he thinks Legend is taking this a little too seriously.

...Which is making Wind think of how everybody kept coddling him and treating him like a kid instead of a hero.

(also shout out to Sky’s little hehe and elbow, I love him)

Everyone is still a little on edge.... and Legend is rather aware of how one misstep in a dungeon can cost you. He just wants Wild to treat this seriously!!

Which Wild may be doing, but it certainly doesn’t come across that way.

And I could also see Wild getting a bit cocky because he thinks dungeons are going to be exactly like the shrines, even when they’re not... but we shall see.

Wild you better listen to what Warriors was saying and pay attention to Legend’s advice, or... this might not end well.

[lazylittledragon]

about to start my yearly critrole campaign 2 rewatch so prepare for me to be absolutely insufferable

[requinum]

kikimari pt 2