#she isnt well folks

[myowndesertplaces]

Laudna's kidnapping reaction wasn't a joke or her "not trusting Ashton," it's an irrational sense-of-threat response. With Delilah officially back, she's likely hyper-vigilant and hyper-fixated on betrayal because that is a major trigger for her. Ashton being the target of her hyper-vigilance is irrelevant. Laudna doesn't feel safe in her own mind and body right now, so regardless of the situation, she's going to feel threatened. Throw in the fact that protecting Imogen is what gives her purpose and is her primary coping strategy, this kind of irrational response is bound to happen when she's unstable.

[abluescarfonwaston]

If you don't think Mia recognized Dahlia in the courtroom, when did she? Because I think by 3-5 Mia knows the twins and Morgan are working together.

Did she bring down a scrap book to show Diego her family and when flipping around realize all at once and then hurry to distract him before he could see? Afraid he might think her dedication wavering for the sake of family? That he might think worse of her if her dedication didn't?

Was it in those long lonely months after Diego was gone and while Dahlia still wandered free? When she was scrolling though Dahlias photo journal online in an attempt at investigation but was really just hate scrolling? Did she see an innocuous photo of a Japanese garden taken from the gate from the spring when the light hit the flowers just right and remember standing there. Taking it in. Before the Shrine maiden, an old woman, hurried her along for the twins test of power.

Was it as they hauled Dahlia away. Did she hiss under her breath how she was just like her mother. Ruining everything. Did she curse the Feys. The people who abandoned her. Her and her sister. Doesn't she know, this is all Her fault?

And Mia knows it's not. Isn't the reason for someone else's choices. But maybe she remembers, from behind the prison glass. Two little girls packing up their bag with not very many things. One collapsing into the other. Sobbing. The other, rounding on her to scream; This is all your fault. This is all Your fault.

Or maybe it's even later. A backhanded comment from Morgan. I heard you caught that little murderer. Congratulations, Mystic Mia. You may make a fine attorney yet. (As you don't a chief, Mia hears clear as day.) What a disgraceful girl. She hears Morgan sneer as she hurries to leave. You must not grow up like them. Morgan sweetly reminds her young daughter. Listen to mother.

And when the door slides closed Mia remembers the other girls Morgan used to sweetly remind. How it ended for one of them.

[telesodalite]

This is a bit random, but I've been thinking about Misfire a lot lately, and it struck me, that with his adhd, the whole implied/hc'd substance use is only sometimes considered as a form of self-medicating? And, idk, I find the concept interesting.

Like, yeah sure, within the canon implications it's just stereotypical stuff, so it can be interpreted as wholly recreational, and whatever one might call accidentally catching a high from blood you've taken from a corpse.

But like, his adhd is emphasized as an important aspect of his character, so surely it's impacted his millions of years worth of life with its symptoms? Both good and bad?

The Decepticons in idw1 are weird, in many ways lol, but in the sense that they're the faction defined by their oddballs and rejects. They're the unwanted, the belittled, the different, the oppressed, the strange, the mad. But at the same time, any deviance from their impossible and ever-changing standards is punishable and looked down upon.

It's a classic, almost frustratingly stereotypical case of a system built against oppression becoming the oppressors. But that's not the point here.

The point is that they opened their arms and offered the idea of freedom to those who felt different from the pre-war standards, who felt belittled by it, or betrayed by it, and promptly went and turned around on these people to make them feel belittled and betrayed and made different from their own new standards.

Abuse, in many forms, runs rampant within Decepticon ranks. From the very top, to the very bottom. Any deviation or perceived weakness is an open invitation for such actions. Throw in the DJD, and there's no escape from it. No way to get out, only fit in and keep your head low, or become the very thing you originally wanted to fight against and be free from.

Substance abuse is mentioned in canon enough to assume that certain amounts of it were almost expected across both Decepticon and Autobot ranks and contingents. But considering the condition of Decepticon standards and communities, it can be assumed to be a bit more rampant in their case.

So, Misfire. We don't have much context for his background and what all he's seen and done.

It's implied he did some spywork, or at least made some cross faction connections during the war with Brainstorm, which might've been a big enough deal that it caught the attention of Skids, because he's aware of Misfire of all people, knows he changed his name right at the end of the war, and considers Misfire somewhat as a nemesis, which, might I remind thee that Skids was part of a secret special operations unit, a secret special operations unit under fucking Prowl!? So uh, possible big interesting stuff that never got explained there.

(The possible spy bit keeps me up at night I swear to god, bcs wtf were all those tiny implications supposed to mean?!? I need to know all the details of that possible spy drama so bad, omg)

Then, we know he "accidentally" killed "a dozen" other cons towards the end of the war, and that he was going to be jailed for it.

So Misfire's life obviously went down the drain before the murdering a dozen fellow soldiers bit, but considering every awful and challenging factor of being a sub-par soldier in the Decepticon army/air force, what kept him from doing something like that earlier on?

More important, what got someone like him through the war? What kept him going? What kept him alive? Well uh... the same thing that kept a lot of Decepticons going I guess. Substance abuse.

Ok so where does the self-medication angle of this whole thing come in Teles?? My answer to that would be, uh, inherently ig.

Because think about it, you're just some kinda weird guy, caught in the middle of one long ass war. You're never good enough, can't achieve the one thing you've been gunning(lol) for, and are just sorta flying by the seat of your metaphorical pants through life. You're a solider, and a victim of systematic abuse because of that, and at some point, you're possibly a perpetrator of that abuse*. On top of all that, you've also got raging adhd during all this stress and trauma, and man, quieting those racing thoughts and numbing that constant buzzing itch in your body probably feels really good when you're escaping your extremely stressful situation for just a bit.

It feels better to be more detached, to be "calmer", less caught up in a hundred thoughts at once, more focused, more in control. Eventually this becomes the subconscious focus of his using to ease the stress. It "fixes" something. Makes things "right". So casual escapist substance use tumbles into substance abuse and addiction.

How this factors into his post-war life, idk, you decide ig.

I figure the scavs being broke and cut-off from others could play a part in Misfire having to wean himself off of whatever substances were most common among his ranks, but he's also probably creative enough to make stuff from whatever they pick up. Anything considered to be "hard stuff" would likely be frowned upon or policed by Krok tho, because of the whole traumatic experience with Roadbuster and his extreme brutality due to perceived Syk abuse.

But then again, the scavs are all still very much cons with vices, and 100% constant sobriety is apprently a challenge or punishment for cons and bots alike post war.

-

*(Expanding on that bit via another ramble I had lying around that i thought i'd include)

When considering Misfire's adhd, most things emphasize the hyperactivity and impulsiveness in general without also emphasizing the negative sides.

That moment where he almost punches Grimlock comes to mind a lot.

It could be viewed as just a side-effect of perpetuated Decepticon abuse, a knee-jerk reaction that may have been turned on him during the war for his mistakes, that he in turn expresses towards others "mistakes".

Something to also consider here though, is how the impulsivity of adhd can make violent reactions worse, anger and/or frustration harder to control, and harder to hold back from expressing outwardly or physically, especially if left unchecked or untreated for a long time.

But Misfire stops and takes a second to collect himself before becoming somber as he considers Grimlock's perspective.

This instinctually violent reaction is not something he wants, or likes, and judging by how much time has passed by that point in the comic, this has been something he's been working on and is still working on.

But what about while he was still an active solider? When holding back was seen as a weak or foolish response? How did the impulsivity play into it? After being treated like that himself, struck or beaten for mistakes, at what point did it snap and he found himself standing over another solider as they stared up at him with that same fear and shock and hurt he had felt. How did that affect him to know he was capable of doing that without thought?

Because, ya know, he's done bad things too...

[bell-swamp-fitzjames]

i did miss the creation of fiction where i go "wow what if this happened next" like yeah make this guy(s) [gender neutral] more miserable yippee <3

[imabiscuitinthousandworlds]

okay but. success! all of my grandparents now know i'm trans and my preferred name!! they all took it well, if occasionally confused!! only six people left to go then i'm out to all of my family and can finally rest!!

[aftonenterprise-moved]

i want to care about the new arcs of fnaf so bad especially while being a vanessa stan but oh my goodness i cannot get into it and i want to say its because michael isn't there but honestly michael wasnt there before. but i hadn't had it broken down to me exactly HOW intertwined security breach was to the novels until very recently with the explanation of where glitchtrap came from and its sooooo ohhhh my goddddd oh my goddddddd (plugging my ears) LAAALALALALALLALA

[milfygerard]

im sorry and it was a post from a mutual no hate but every post i see comparing taylor swift to mitski makes me want to pull my hair out. the reason their music is so different is because they ARENT IN THE SAME GENRE!!!!!!!! TAYLOR SWIFT IS A COUNTRY SONGWRITER WHO MAKES MULTIGENRE POP MUSIC!!!!!! at LEAST compare her to someone closer to her genre like a kelsea ballerini or a kacey musgraves like its just bad song analysis

[thesearchforbluejello]

With the popularity of Ted Lasso, I'm genuinely just so glad that we got such a phenomenal show that has made an impact on so many people, and of course now we've also gotten the first season of Shrinking, which also knocked it out of the park.

But I still mourn Whiskey Cavalier every time I watch an episode of either of those.

There hasn't been a whole lot of tv I've actually enjoyed in the past several years, and these three feel like an absolute trifecta, but WC feels like the holy ghost at this point because there is SO MUCH of it in Ted Lasso and Shrinking-- it's so many of the same writers/directors/producers, but they're also just so similar right to their foundations. All three interrogate tv tropes and relationships (of all kinds!!!!!) and mental health through comedy, and Ted Lasso and Whiskey Cavalier actually interrogate an entire genre. I'd say that WC is more on that side than Ted Lasso even is, because although they definitely interrogate some of the tropes of sports fiction (toxic masculinity, anyone?), WC actually parodies spy fiction while playing itself as straight.

It just makes me absolutely feral to think about what more of Whiskey Cav would have looked like. A second season? A third? The development of the show from the original(-ish, one of the drafts) pilot to what was actually filmed shows so much growth and an acknowledgement that they could really work with what they had-- it turned from a show about a guy (hence the name) to a show about an entire team. Frankie took the spot as the second main character with Will once they cast Lauren Cohan (I don't think that happened before she was cast but I may be wrong) and another character was completely rewritten into Jai when Vir Das was cast. They had an entire plan for how to flip the TV trope of the will-they-won't-they relationship to a how-will-they-make-it-work relationship!!!!!! It would have been so good!!!!!! The amount of character development we got in just one season was far above and beyond anything else I've seen besides Ted Lasso and Shrinking, and honestly I think more actually happened specifically because they didn't have the assurance of more seasons (good thing they didn't assume, I guess) to build on things like the Ted Lasso Method™ but they still managed to do it without rushing it.

Honestly I feel like I could make a venn diagram of how all three of these shows all overlap and it would be hilarious. Excellent theme songs by well known artists without it feeling cheap? ✅✅✅ Excellent episodic music by well known artists also without it feeling cheap? ✅✅✅ Really well executed character development for ALL of the characters? ✅✅✅ Interrogation of tv tropes? ✅✅✅ More specifically, hilariously camp villains who still manage to take advantage of tropes to work? ✅✅ Incredibly well developed character relationships OF ALL KINDS that don't all hinge on only one romantic relationship as the centerpoint of everything? ✅✅✅ Queer characters who don't exist for the butt of a joke or solely as token queer characters? ✅✅✅ Every line is delivered with perfect comedic (or dramatic) delivery and timing? ✅✅✅

Anyway, this has been a barely coherent and very meandering way of saying that the fact that ABC put the episodes out of order really screwed things up, but Whiskey Cav really hit its stride there with the second half of season one and absolutely nailed the vibe they'd been working towards with the foundational episodes that came before them, and I just get SO ANGRY when I watch Ted Lasso and Shrinking despite the fact that they're both so good and I enjoy them so much because it makes me think about just how good a second (and third, damn it) season of Whiskey Cavalier would have been.

[ikilledamanforthisurl]

Minami Anon x3 but so real………. Yeah idk how old he's meant to be but he very much gives me like 21-30 35 at oldest age range vibes. Which I think/agree is a factor in Why He Is Like That. I know its technically noncanon but i also think a lot about the implications of Minami once never drinking but then when he discovered fire breathing he started drinking 24/7 from this one scene w Majima in dead souls like hmmmmmmm….. wonder what’s going on there buddy…….. something you'd like to share with the class Minami about how you perceive yourself/any potential wants for attention. Anyways it’s okay if the you sound untranslatable I understand and also relate to that feeling of 24/7 thinking i come across as incomprehensible 💖 no pressure to do so but I would personally love to read that Saejima teacher ramble and how it affects Minami etc etc also

ohhh man it's canon. if we're taking rggo's scraps as having some relevancy then dead souls absolutely is canon. and more importantly, its canon TO ME (takes consecutive puffs of my copium inhaler)

yeah i had this at the ready. yeah. i tear my shirt open and it has "the line from dead souls where Majima outs Minami as a fucking square" tattooed across my chest. not the line itself but those exact words. i cannot describe how his charm shot thru the fucking roof to me when i heard he used to be completely straight edge!! what a fucking dork!! come here i'm giving you a wedgie boy

and then the ehhhh half-subjective half-objective tragedy of him succumbing to a vice to the point of functional alcoholism (or currently functional aud as some folks call it, which is unfortunate naming conventions for those who use australian currency) implying he's been a "pretty good drinker" for an extended amount of time. and the kicker is majima totally could not care less. there's no evidence to Him Specifically being the one who got Minami to drink but it's absolutely regular Family practice, if the boy wants to fit in with the Majimagumi he needs to top up!

hc shit-i-made-up territory but i LIKE to believe that Majima personally influenced him this way during whatever limited time they had in direct contact with each other (cause while you COULD have their dynamic between a twat who signed up + the twat who runs the business and nothing more its not as fun. a little too parasocial methinks) but this is 99% due to me finding a song that makes me imagine the perfect sequence for this (dont get me.started on Majimagumi songs. i like to delude myself into thinking i'll animate to one of them eventually). also considering the kind of man Majima was during Shimano-servant-era i feel like it wouldnt be too out of character. he's not a malicious person but by god he does stupid shit and hurts people so much in so many horrific ways he could not care less about putting some highschool level peer-pressure shit on the new recruit just because he's Bored. what's one more hurt person in the grand scheme of things.

Alllso... getting back on track..? WHY was Minami straight edge in the first place. it could be any reason under the sun but the way it's worded here really sounds like it took a lot of willpower to break his resolve to just have a sip, just tryyyyyyy it, yadda yadda. if Minami is as punk as i totally project unto him to be, then he'd be no stranger to lives lived in excess..... i could not tell you for certain that Straight-Edge was a Punk Thing in pre-2010 Japan whatsoever. an attitude, sure, but i'm talking music scene shit........ however, gigs involve lots of booze at the bare minimum regardless of country. 'tis just the way of life. and 'tis a plausible outlet for WHY he seemed to have such a strong unwillingness to drink....

you know, outside of other stuff like experiences with friends and family. those can work too. those are considerably more sad and personal... those can work alongside gig culture shit. i dont have anything explicitly outlined but its definitely something i'd like to write for him... make up a little backstory so i can maybe explore some themes that RGG wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, like addiction. it interests me a lot and getting it somewhat RIGHT interests me a lot. i know for sure RGG would fuck it up LMAO

[dellinah]

Thats interesting that they named Brer Fox, Honest John, in one dub? Was the intention to make Brer Fox the same as the Fox in Pinocchio?

THAT'S EXACTLY WHY IT BOTHERS ME SO MUCH AHSJAGS !! Bc I honestly hate the fox from Pinocchio and hate that they were given the same name. Esp when Br'er Fox is already way less known than him >.>

But no, in the dubs he's never refered to as Honest John. His name was adapted to Comrade Fox / Fox / Brother Fox / Mister Fox in the movies. It was only in the comics and further material that he was renamed Honest John. Br'er Rabbit's name also changed to Quincas Rabbit and Br'er Bear's name was Big John in the comics.

Idt they tried to imply they were the same character, I think it was either a coincidence or homage of some sort, who knows. I highly doubt the people translating the comics even knew who Br'er Fox or what Song of the south was, tbh. That movie was never big here (even less so, i mean)

This is smth that most english speakers will never really see in their media, since english is usually the default. Adapting and dubbing over material to a different language is a hella MESSY process, and sometimes we as the public end up confused. Sometimes you end up with bad translations, bad adaptations, or several different studios that dub/adapt the same characters in different ways. Which is why he doesn't even have a canon name in Brazil, the way you call him will depend on which dub you used to watch.

He doesn't even have a canon gender in some places. Latin languages are gendered, and most animals are male. However, Fox (Raposa) is a female word by default. So in a few dubs in Italy he's actually changed to a female to make the translation easier.

So, yep, it was just a messy process and dumb decisions. Im still mad about it tho. I usually just call him Br'er Fox anyway, but if you ask me then his 'canon' name here is just Raposa (Fox) bc thats the dub i gew up with

[arolesbianism]

Hi gamers guess who's thinking abt unit swap stuff again. Shiho and Saki discussing who would be best fit to play the cast in their musicals knowing full well they're going to assign Honami to the main character like they always do and the Saki will insist on playing the main villain like she always does and then Ichika gets stuck playing every other character while also playing the trumpet like he always does

[bluinary]

Imo it's the desire to experience a fantasy that motivates these comments. In these people's eyes, The Nice Guy At Work should either be perfect and emotionally mature with no character development needed, or he should crash and burn and prove himself an incel for the audience's satisfaction, while Retsuko learns to be happy alone. But you're right; folks forget that Aggretsuko's main thesis is teaching us how to *accept reality*.

If you're looking for love in your 20s-- which Retsuko is-- no man within a healthy age range of you is going to be fully formed and as emotionally healthy as, say, Kristoff in Frozen II. You're supposed to grow together, which Retsuko and Haida do.

Also, examining the "nice guys" trope Retsuko and Haida may fall into, people fail to examine Retsuko's reasons for saying "no" to Haida, or Haida's reasons for "pursuing", which he never really did after he got what felt like a clear "no". He's not just some dude from work-- he was in Retsuko's inner circle for quite some time. Maybe she felt like she "didn't know him that well," which she said a lot, but in actuality, she spent more time with him than everyone except Fenneko. The context seemed more leaning toward the feeling that Haida was her work friend, and nothing more, which was a boundary Retsuko placed.....for what? (Bear with me here.)

Because she knew that giving someone from her department a try would maybe be more difficult and risky, yet simultaneously boring, than dating, say, a mysterious dude from her Driver's Ed class. It would also be less exciting, because she *already* knew a lot about Haida. And let's be real; Retsuko's big character arc, in addition to gaining her confidence and her voice without exploding, is mainly about her losing her taste for whirlwind hijinks. Remember that her plan in S1 was to "get cute", find a rich guy, get married ASAP, and then leave her boring, crappy accounting job for good. But she grew to realize that her boss, while an asshole, wasn't the Devil himself. Tsunoda wasn't the workplace Succubus she imagined her to be, just predictably shallow in some areas of her personality. Kabae was more than a nuisance; Tsubone held a lot of wisdom to offer. Even Anai had a chill button. A steady job wasn't a bad thing. And throughout her development, Retsuko had to also reasses her relationship with Haida. Because while her "no" meant "no", and Haida took it as such without cutting her off as a friend, Retsuko had to change how she saw him as she did with all of her coworkers (save Fenneko) in order to grow as a person. And, while frustrated with some of his flaws, she saw that Haida was fundamentally kind, mostly easy-going, and extremely dependable when she needed a friend. Maybe not as exciting as Tadano, or seemingly mysterious as the Space Cadet, but Haida was an ideal long-term partner. Retsuko just had to grow up a bit to see it.

And that message isn't for Nice Guys. Remember that the Aggretsuko brand was made specifically for us-- young, disillusioned women in our 20s who needed something a bit more relatable than, though just as cute as, Hello Kitty. And as someone who's been with a *lot* of dudes, the message rings true: compatibility doesn't lie in excitement. And while we should make our voices heard, the world will also feel like a much kinder place when we see everyone around us as human beings instead of caricatures or tropes. This also explains the lack of focus on Retsuko for the last few penultimate seasons; she had a HUGE arc accomplishment when she finally gave Haida a chance. Not for him, but for *her*. Being someone actively looking for a long-term partner, Retsuko's mental state and worldview was almost always reflected in one way or another by the man/ men she was dating in each season. Including the Otome men who made her broke. When she was finally able to cut through her own excuses for not giving a perfectly great potential partner an honest try, knowing that he could provide everything she truly wanted and needed, Retsuko broke through the last hang-up on her main character arc of the show: accepting reality. And these last few seasons, while she isn't perfect, she still maintains that development as she's slower to rage at little things, is still vocal about her wants and needs, and sees almost everyone around her as a necessary piece to the life she enjoys. She's found an amazing balance.

And as for Haida-- we're seeing a mostly static, already seemingly well-rounded character have his own arc. The important thing, I think, is that Retsuko isn't *responsible* for Haida's growth and development, even if she sometimes feels like she is bc she cares so much. Haida ultimately comes to his own conclusions, fosters his own growth, and works hard with the motivation of being a worthy partner for Retsuko. It's not the fantasy of him being the Perfect Man for their entire relationship, or somehow rescuing Retsuko from the issues she began the show with, but their relationship is mutually supportive and insanely healthy. And ykw...healthy is boring 😂 I saw someone saying "they don't do couple stuff", like what did they expect? Good relationships are boring and functional, and that is what Retsuko and Haida are. We can write fluffy, spicy, or angsty fanfic to fill in the gaps. But making their relationship more "interesting" would serve no purpose to the story. Though ofc, I wouldn't complain over a tag-team karaoke rage at Haida's dad, lol. (But even that didn't happen bc of great character development, bc being healthy and well-adjusted is.....say it with me.....boring 😂😂😂).

All of this to say: OP you're right and you should say it!!!

SO Ive seen several people say that Haida and Retsuko's relationship dident work this season due to their poor relationship skills and miscommunication. But I would argue that their relationship does work.

It works in that even after the two-way lying and miscomunication and tax fraud, their relationship still stands.

You guys have to remember that being in a relationship -- a true relationship -- is a big fucking hurdle to jump through. Yes, Retsuko had been in other relationships before, but this the first true relationship that has had any weight to it.

Throughout the 4 seasons we saw Retsuko's other relationships crumble to dust over the tiniest things.

Retsuke was a unmotivated wet napkin of a person and when he didn't commit to the relationship that Retsuko wanted, Retsuko told him and broke it off.

Tadano was a good egg, but Retsuko ultimately discovered that both Tadano and herself had conflicting future relationship goals --Retsuko wanted to get married and start a family, but Tadano wasn't interested in getting tied down (he said so himself, he though that marriage was a waste of time, and that hurt retsuko because one of her dreams through the entire series was to get married and settledown to have a family)

and the same thing happens with Haida and Inui. Like, they were a very cute couple and possibly would have gone somewhere, but Haida's feelings for Retsuko would have (for lack of a better word) stained the relationship. Inui saw how much he loved Retsuko, and very maturely, decided that she couldn't compete for his affections. So like, she cuts it off before it begins. Like, knowing that your relationship would have gone down hill due to uncontrolable outside influences and then cutting it off before it could get worse is a mature thing to do.

Also I've seen someone say that Retsuko was passive about the entire tax fraud and I'm like???? she wasn't???? She knew very well that her boyfriend was keeping secrets from her, and when those secrets were confirmed that her boyfriend was doing company-wide tax fraud for the CEO, instead of taking it to the Japanese national news, she formulated a mission impossible heist plan with all of her co-workers in order to get the information needed to confirm that they were infact commiting tax fraud in order to get the CEo fired and then had a talk with her boyfriend about how what he was doing was wrong. Like, she took the step and called him out and that untimely gave Haida the confidence to step up to the CEO and call him out on his bullshit????

Like how is that passivity????

And everyone needs to know that Haida in the thick of it as well. Like his paranoia and fear wasn't something that came out of no where. Hadia said so himself that anyone else in the company had a fair chance of getting fired due to budget cuts and low profits, and so the pressure to succeed was growing. People were getting pressured to quiet left and right thanks to the new CEO. Mr. Tone was demoted then forced to quiet a job he really loved; Kabai was forced to quit as well from a job she really liked because everyone was making her feel worthless for having a family to take care of instead of being at work.

and when Haida showed that he had a good chance with his new accounting software to succeed and NOT get fired, he took that chance to rub elbows with the new CEO. And not only that, but thanks to the new CEO, the company was falling behind and had to commit tax fraud in order to stay afloat, and again DUE TO NOT WANTING TO BE FIRED AND DEEMED WORTHLESS TO THOSE AROUND HIM, Haida took up tax fraud in order to survive. On top of wanting the praise that he so badly needed. There were multiple times where Haida laments that Retsuko is on a whole new other level than him, and that he feels like he just one of the fanboys in the crowd. In the season, when he sees that Retsuko has restarted her screaming channel and has started growing back her following, that feeling comes back. He really does love Retsuko so much and wants to be where Retsuko is so badly but he feels as if none of what he's done in life fits with Retsuko's life.

Like, for christ sake, Retsuko is the ex-girlfriend to the aggretsuko version of Mark Zuckerberg who also one-hit-wonder pop idle star who nearly got murdered by an incel and Haida is a wanna-be British rock band bass guitar player who does accounting by day who still lives in his parents' apartment complex rent free (lucky bastard)

and on top of all that, there was Retsuko's lies. Like, his suspicion and jealousy was not unjustified??? Like, wouldn't you feel the same way if you saw your significant other lied in front of your face about what you were doing, arrive home in the fancy-ass limo of their ex-boyfriend and then notice that said ex-boyfriend FLIRTED BACK AT HER????? on top of using the pet nickname that he gave her when they were dating???? Like him calling Tadano out on his not-really-flirting-but-kind-of-is-flirting-flirting was no unjustified????

AND EVEN AFTER ALL OF THAT MESS OF DRAMA, THE END OF SEASON 4 CONFIRMS (though some would argue that its very ambiguous) THAT THEY'RE STILL IN A RELATIONSHIP. EVEN AFTER THE TAX FRAUD AND MISCOMUNICATION AND NEARLY THROWING YOUR SIGNIFICANT OUT THE WINDOW, THEY'RE STILL GOING OUT.

this is what Gori's soulmate app said about Haida and Retsuko. Even after so much shit, they're able to keep going to work on each other.

Aggrettsuko has stated that multiple times that romance is not a fairy tale, and that it takes work and that you may not get it right on the first time or the third time, but its good to keep working at it.

And Haida and Retsuko are working on it 🥺

[superkirbylover]

saw a post talking about ableism in cartoons. overall i agree with the message of the post, but the points made and said feel really infantilizing.

for context, i am disabled and many members of my family are as well. this is all drawn from experiences.

there is something to be said about exclusively designing characters who are insane and crazy with a form of lazy eye. there is something to be said about portraying disabled characters as incapable and stupid. there is something to be said about how these tropes continue to push the idea that disabled folk are "other" and are treated poorly. however, the post and OP made a few comparisons i really didn't sit well with.

they claimed the design of old man mcgucket from gravity falls is ableist for giving him wall-eyes as a way to portray how crazy he is. however, the post failed to mention that he's also a mechanic. he's a genuinely smart character with real accomplishments that happens to be crazy and disabled via his eye condition. he has depth. i don't associate his craziness with his disability, and it feels ableist to me to exclusively focus on the eyes and ignore how he isn't just "the crazy guy." i understand wanting to avoid stereotypes, especially harmful ones. however there are real people who sometimes fall under these stereotypes. as a kid, i fell under the stereotype of flapping my hands when i was happy or excited. and yes, there are people who condemn and discourage autistic folk from doing this because it's "stereotypical." that feels insanely ableist to me.

there is something to be said about trying to avoid harmful stereotypes of disabled folk, but i feel like people tend to overcorrect. derpy hooves is an excellent example; rainbow dash gets very frustrated with her in season 2 and is a bit rude. her voice was silly and she was oblivious. because some parents called and found this offensive, there was a redub and re-animated version of the scene featuring her. however, this version is infinitely more ableist to me. it's no secret derpy is disabled, and i personally resonate with her. to me, she is autistic. on top of missing social queues and having a hard time understanding things occasionally, her lazy eye can impare her visually. it is an undeniable fact that sometimes, disabilities will frustrate other people. my autism frustrates my friends and family sometimes. this isnt rooted in ableism. to me, its much like how non-disabled folk will get frustrated with each other. people should treat others, including disabled folk well and avoid getting mad at things they cannot control. however, erasing the fact people do get frustrated with autistic folk feels infantilizing. people will get frustrated with me. sometimes i do things that are objectively irritating. i don't want this erased. it's a part of being human. what i don't want is the irritation being used as a justification to treat disabled folk as sub-human. this isn't what happens at all in the scene. now, in a later season with derpy and rarity, i have many issues with the scene and how derpy and rarity are portrayed, so i do think there is something to be said there.

as long as the character has depth and is portrayed with respect, much like a person, then personally i don't find issues. i am personally tired of people overcorrecting for ableism in media. there is some correcting to do, don't get me wrong. but i don't want my disabilities washed down to the point where negative experiences with my disabilities are erased. they are important to my and many other folks identities as disabled folk. i don't want my experiences to be sanitized.

[leedoodlesstuff]

.. I have . mo ocs

lore drop?

I wish ppl with moral Orel OC's just come to me and tell me the entire lore of the character

Getting excited with every OC

[ohwolfling]

i don’t think ive seen this in any of your analysis posts so i have a question that is commonly used to defend mystra and state that she didn’t groom him

gale admits mystra set clear boundaries to him and he sought to cross them. mystra had reason to set those boundaries, Right? like isnt it fair that she didnt want gale to access magic that had almost killed jer once and he did it in the end anyways?

i personally dont agree with this argument and think its not set up very well but i wanna see how you respond to it

I’m happy to answer this! However, this piece of meta I wrote - Gale, Mystra, and Abuse as Mentorship- is a prerequisite. It does the important work of defining context in their relationship (the power imbalance, the grooming/coercion) as well as defining how “boundaries” work (or rather don’t) in a relationship that is abusive. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: if you are not at the conclusion that that relationship is inherently abusive and you are unwilling to process that piece and the rest of this and reconsider, you should go away. I am happy to have discussions but I will not trigger myself or entertain folks who trigger the many people with religious trauma/history of general abuse/neglect to dunk on you or entertain you in any way. 

Firstly, let’s look at Gale’s statement, “I sought to cross her boundaries,” in the context in which he says it. Not plucked up and out of it to be chewed up and spit out by someone who has never used the word boundary outside of pop psychology / therapy speak. 

If you want the full scene, here is one I found on youtube (I am not going that deep in my harddrive tbqh), but I’m going to share captures of that chunk of convo.

Here are the important pieces that are discarded to support a variety of arguments that Gale crossing Mystra’s boundaries is anything from mutual “mistakes,”  Gale is the real abuser and Mystra is absolved, even the implication that Gale SA’d Mystra. I'm going to babystep it as best as I can.

A line by line breakdown/analysis below the cut.

A. He states teacher, muse, lover. Even if you remove her status as his deity and the controller/embodiment of the uncorrupted Weave, the acknowledgement that she was first his teacher is a power imbalance. That being said, don’t feel you can argue that she was teaching him night classes in the adult learning program and so they were equals everywhere else. Like… in any situation where a teacher might end up dating a student and it not be weird and imbalanced, psychosexual religious magic ain’t it.

B. They enjoyed each other’s company- body, mind, and soul. Gale is an unreliable narrator here. Mystra doesn’t have a physical form for him. She is not corporeal when they are together. Whatever “body” they shared did not have the risk for Mystra of physical connection, vulnerability, harm, and Mystra DOES NOT AGE, which becomes important in a moment…

C. “Mystra keeps us in check. There are boundaries she doesn’t let us cross.” This is not about a boundary in sex, which I’ve seen people get… so weird about in implying Gale is some secret deviant. Gale says “he stood on the precipice, gazing into the wonders that lay beyond.” The other time in this game that Gale says he stood on a precipice is after the Act II romance scene and the precipice he refers to is accepting that he has no choice but to kill himself. For Gale, the precipice is literal and metaphorical. The precipice is always about leaving his humanity behind. When he is WITH Mystra, he gazes into her world, the world of his lover who he thinks has given him body, mind, and soul, but will not let him leave the formal living room and enter the den. This is the magical equivalent of being married to someone who has an open relationship but only for them and also they won’t let you stay over. Gale’s drive, anguish, ambition is all stained by feeling he’s not truly Mystra’s equal (he’s right, he’s fucking right, that gnawing feeling is actually correct, y’all).

D. THIS is what “I sought to cross her boundaries” is referring to directly. He isn’t pushing her in regards to sexual acts, he isn’t trying to dominate her, he isn’t trying to control her, he is trying to be equal to a god that handpicked him not only to serve her but to have interplanar psychospiritual magic sex with.

E. Gale admits that he couldn’t let it go. He begs- “pouted” “pleaded” “swore my ambition was only to serve her better”- so Mystra knows this is a great pain for him. Be it an insecurity, a grievance, whatever, MYSTRA KNOWS. She tells Gale to be “contented.” Later, when Gale speaks to her in Act III, she tells him he was already “worthy” but that he lacked “patience.” When Gale is meaner with her, she calls him self-pitying. When Gale explains he researched the Crown of Karsus because he doesn’t want to die, she brushes that off. Mystra knows that Gale is not only mortal, but human, holding one of the shortest life spans in this world. She knows Gale could be trusted to be more equal to her, not in an ascension to Godhood way, but as a partner who could be trusted with the Weave and so herself. Mystra simply DOES NOT CARE. Going back to point B, when I said “which becomes important in a moment…” Gale is aging. Gale is an adult man. His frontal lobe is done. He was an archmage. He had done essentially everything a wizard can do to be a Good WizardTM. He’s at the age where where all of his peers might already be married or otherwise settled. If Gale has a child right now, he might be one of the older dads at school pick up. If Mystra won’t offer him partnership now, the path left to him will soon be… well, Elminster. Becoming old as balls and being endlessly a sexual servant and errand runner for Mystra.

F. He states his motivation plainly - he wanted to do something big enough that Mystra would believe him. That Mystra would choose him not just to be a servant, but would acknowledge his personhood and treat him like a person and a partner. Gale is in that space where you beg your groomer/abuser/generally toxic partner to give you a reason to stay because your body, your mind, are all having a very big response to the feeling that this is a fucking dead end for you.

Now rounding all of this out...

Gale is, of course, a red herring. When he first appears to you, he’s suspicious. He needs to be pulled out of some unstable magic. He’s overly charming and meets anything from general suspicion to a threat to kill him with cheerful acquiescence. He has what looks to be the world’s most suspicious tattoo sending seemingly smoky tendrils from his heart to his eye. He has that slutty little earring. It’s fine narratively to still be a little suspicious of Gale at this moment...

But the context of the entire rest of the game proves that these are all just coping mechanisms for Gale and that the corrupted orb inside of him is not corrupted because of him but is in fact an echo of another person trying desperately to not be entirely controlled by Mystra, for better or worse. Gale is not doomed to be Karsus. His bad ending is in thinking he could be more than Karsus and that that would empower him. It is a direct narrative echo of Shadowheart and Lae’zel thinking they can serve their leader/god good enough that they will no longer be abused. It is even more directly a parallel pathway to Astarion ascending and losing his humanity, his soul, because of the false idea that claiming your abuser’s power means you are safe, whole, and that you’ve “won” the abuse in some way. 

If you don’t engage with Gale, which I imagine Team Twitter Psychology Degree don’t because they decided Gale was an irredeemable sex pest or something, you might miss these things. Gale is unpacking his abuse far better than anyone of the other origin characters throughout the bigger narrative moments of the game. These sentiments can turn to bitterness and corrupted ambition, yes, but for me, they were not. 

He sees the parallels, watches as varying degrees of godhood hurt people.

The Big Bad Three are Chosens. They’re an echo of himself, too. What devotion, ambition, wanting to prove yourself worthy can lead you to. Even so, Gale has this strange sort of empathy for Orin. 

And throughout the game, Gale is sensitive to these ideas of childhood, as above with Orin, but also in protecting them from manipulative adults. A large part of why it’s “easy” to get Gale’s approval in act one is because so much of act one is about choosing to protect those tiefling kids. Gale’s little fatherhood joke, that he isn’t father material, that he’s not in a place to have kids… to me that is a level of awareness that I see reflected in myself and many of my friends who survived childhoods of neglect, abuse, grooming, etc. Gale resonates with many people who have experienced religious trauma or the trauma of worship in a more generalized sense for a reason. 

You have to throw ALL OF THIS AWAY to paint Gale as someone vile and selfish who doesn’t respect his partner’s boundaries. It doesn’t make sense. There’s no way to make it make sense because you can’t pull any evidence because pulling literally any other thing about Gale in the entirety of the narrative immediately destroys that argument. 

I could pull more from Gale romance scenes, but as I said, the people holding these ideas about him I sincerely doubt engaged with Gale's story on that level since they took one surface level thing they could twist and ran with it.

I hope this is helpful, re-assuring to anyone who has seen weird takes and felt like maybe they accidentally enjoyed someone sinister (you did not). And if you were on the fence, confused, overwhelmed, etc, hey, I hope it helped you, too! Even if we don't agree 100% on interpretation, I hope it gave you a lot to think about and enriches the game for you.

As always, if you found this valuable, please consider supporting me on ko-fi with a one-off latte or monthly support. The less I'm terrified of losing housing and scavenging for groceries, the more I can write great big meta pieces, god-tier shitposts, and just generally vibe. <3

[evilminji]

*Distant sound of frantic running growing closer*

*I throw open the door with manic eyes, breathing heavily*

Hatsume Mei! The Fenton's! Oh DEAR LORD. The Couple, the Doctors Fenton... would think she's A Lovely Young Lady ™! Normal even! Charming! I bet the Hatsume Adults would find to be a Charming And Upstanding Young Lad!

JAPAN ISNT READY.

If the GIW got out of hand? And Amity, as a town? Said "fuck ya'll we taken our ball and going home"? All they'd NEED to do? Is shut down the portal, get the skilled portal makers stationed at side A of town to open it up, rip the whole thing up, have the mover ghosts push it IN, aaaaaand? Everyone in? Good! We close it from the inside!

Fuck those guys.

Okay, so, I'm Jerry. You're real estate officer, we got some GREAT options for you this season! How do feel about ninjas? No? Pirates? Not feeling it? Superheroes? Seeing some interest! We got a- *continues their pitch as Amity is moved*

Amity get phased into the Japanese countryside.

What do you MEAN "there wasn't a town here?" Of course there way! We have roads and everything! Why are we all Americans? What're you a cop? Mind your business, spandex man.

.....yeah, they're gonna call this one a "Quirk accident".

Pay your taxes, folks, and we promise not to care!

Fenton's? Back in business, baby! Well, never STOPPED being in business. But details! They're now a "support company"! And yes! The quotation marks ARE on all their documents AND signs! They think it's stupid!

But you want lazers?

Oh ho hoooo~ DO WE HAVE LAZERS!!!

Maddie n Jack start hitting the scene. Conventions. Conferences. Fancy parties. Weirdly? They "unnerve" people. Cowards.

Until? Gasp? They meet just the LOVELIEST couple! Who are so FUN! Who ALSO has a daughter? Danny's age no less! Oh she is just PRECIOUS? Is that her first bomb? Aaaaaw~♡.

Danny feels a disturbance in the force.

Like... like his folks are... are about to try and introduce him to a Nice Young Girl again. The last time this happened was at mom's fighting competitions. She ended up being some sort of assassin royalty. Thankfully, she accepted he could commit to a life of murder, since he wanted to be an astronaut, but it was like this whole THING and- you know what? Not important!

Where are his parents!?

(Planning his wedding! Gotta incorporate BOTH the family's completely batshit Family Traditions!)