#she's okay with the dogs too

[clamorybus]

i got a babysitting job set up for tuesday!

( ﾉ^ω^)ﾉ☆°`~

[crowatyourwindow]

Kenji and his cow Hanako II were the best duo from wan change my mind

[rottengurlz]

try to be gentle when you are ripping me apart 🔪

w/ @kashisun

[mother-of-houseplants-2]

fiona gallagher // "i bet on losing dogs" by mistki

[sidetongue]

HAPPY HOWLOWEEN FRIENDS

[ray935sworld]

MOST ITALIAN REACTION TO DOMI'S ABS

[kyouka-supremacy]

(˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

[fumifooms]

Makima, devils and self-fulfillment

Dumping some Makima and CSM thoughts after a part 1 binge bc I think about her forever and ever. I’m sure I’m forgetting some devil lore, feel free to correct what i get wrong/what’s been confirmed. On the table of contents there’s why & how Makima got fixated on Chainsaw, her revealing liking for the country mouse and discussion of her nature & emotions & desires. Was the scorpion doomed to be a scorpion?

The most of this post was thought of during a conversation with @saccharineomens and I don’t think it makes sense to jump into the spiral it sent me on without first laying down the interesting groundwork theorizing she did:

"Thinking about how makima herself wants to be deified. I wonder whether she recognizes the difference between Love As Worship and the love that Aki, Power, and Denji had. She says she wants to help humanity by having Chainsawman eat the “bad” devils, but why does she want to help humans? Because she was ordered to by the Prime Minister? No, her drive seems much more personal than that, it seems like she teamed up with the PM for contractual reasons. (In the most recent chapters we see governmental members wanting certain devils to be eaten, too. What was Makima’s relationship with them? She’s too independent to just follow THEIR orders, she’s Control.)

So is she wanting to better humanity for the accolades, or out of the goodness of her heart? She sees the big picture. She sees any small sacrifice as worth it for the end result, and she’s ruthless. Perhaps she thinks that a more sedate human race would be easier to control? But Makima doesn’t loathe humanity. She never acts like she sees all humans as lesser. She loves humanity’s creations, like good food and movies. She just wants Good Things all the time

She says she prefers the country mouse BUT adds a story where she helps exterminate country mice like vermin. She likes the simplicity yet rejects the idea of being simple. Makima the complex individual you are"

~

The story itself seems to prefr the country mouse. Well- it strikes a balance, shows that a risk to live good & fully can be very worth it, but still that stability over ambition is preferable, proning having a simple happy life over fame, a simple job instead of a dangerous one, etc etc. And I do find Makima’s answer on this so so interesting, she prefers the country mouse, but this preference isn’t out of affection or sympathy but because of how relaxing it feels to exterminate them when they cause problems.

Order satisfies her. Her order satisfies her. She likes the action of rooting out disorder. Maybe this is the devil part, like how Power especially wants blood and drinking it, I feel there’s an itch to every devil, and for Makima it’s a very rigid world view/morality/standards & making things follow her rules and submit to her order.

And maybe this is why she’s attached to humans too, why she felt it was worth it to stick with the government- because devils are chaotic by nature (it’s a whole plot point that hell is essentially a free-for-all battleground for example), meanwhile humans are the species that universally rule Earth with systems they invented and instilled. They made then enforced rules, complex and intricate webs of them. She feels alienated amongst devils but she understands the humans’ need for an orderly organised society, and now she wants to be part of it. Control and conquest require social dynamics after all, requires civilizations or groups. War is chaotic while peace is, well, peaceful— Makima resents her sisters for being death, famine and war, things that throw the world in such chaos. She wants a world of perfect order, no matter how much collateral damage there will be if the end result is control.

This is even more interesting if you consider that yes, Makima is untouchable of her own design, she deifies herself with her omnipresent amount of control and the sway over others that she seeks and encourages— There is this urge to dehumanize her for it, that yes, she is the devil of control and that means she was never going to be any different, have any more feeling be any less uncanny. And I love part 2 so much for this, because it shows us the war devil and the famine devil and we see how frankly uncharismatic with poor self-discipline they are, Nayuta too, and it helps us realize just how much Makima’s success was self-made.

She admires Chainsaw Devil, the Hero of Hell, because he had his own code and his own rules and he made Hell, the chaos pit, submit to them unfailingly. Wherever he goes he decides what he does and what happens to the people he encounters but does so consistently, he has his mechanism and his rules that he always obeys, and he fulfills them every time. It’s still a mystery the why of Chainsaw Devil’s behavior back then and how it works exactly, maybe Pochita left hell because he was tired of these rules he lived by like chains, but still, he was a servant to his code. Makima would have been glad being killed and eaten by Chainsaw Devil because it’d have been becoming part of his design, his conquest, his domination, she’d have been part of that —his— order. Through her death she would be shaping his world and be part of a conqueror’s making history. Like how she appreciates the country mice that die for the sake of order. Like how sacrifices must be made to herself, like listing the name of every person whose life was lost to the Gun Devil— All for the ~greater good~, for her vision for the world. Conquest always thinks its reasons are justified.

And she does mention with the country mice thing that she goes out to a friend’s farm every year! She has a human friend?? That she visits yearly and she genuinely likes it?? Ultimately she lives a busy city life because of her goal and drive and her urge & satisfaction with overseeing shaping the world herself, but part of her, like so many characters including Angel and Aki and Reze, wishes she could live a slow peaceful country life. Moviegoing and dogs and mice in a farm- Wouldn’t it be so much simpler if Makima could find fulfillment and happiness in being a farmer, in keeping control of her own farm, getting satisfaction from exterminating vermin and expertly getting everything right, the right crops grown at the right time on the right soil? Here, too, in a way it’s trying to have full control of an ecosystem, but her goals would be easier to achieve and better, without ceaseless sacrifice or much pressure. But Makima wants grandiosity and her goal does matter to her on a fundamental and moral level, she does think she knows what’s best for the world, and with the power to change it why wouldn’t she strive to? Visiting the farm is just a break, just something she does in fall to help out and just in time to see the vermin extermination. It calms her, then it’s back to actual work.

In capitalism, even the one at the very top of the ladder is ultimately alienated from others and often unsatisfied by their lifestyle, always wanting more and more power because surely that’s the extra edge they must be missing to be content— like how Makima thinks she wants to dominate Chainsaw Devil instead of being his equal. And she says it herself too, she likes humans the way humans like dogs…….. And she keeps so many dogs :( Makima prefers the country mice because they’re calming to root out, maybe because she usually mainly deals with city mice. It’s very easy to equate humans to the mice in this allegory because it’s pretty direct and she’s already likened humans to lesser animals compared to her. She’s self-isolating by design for her design but she still craves relationships and contentment, and the dogs are the embodiment or her want for bonds and occasional simplicity because there is no possible ulterior motive, no way they tie back into her wider plan. They’re her personal life— something that feels so alien when speaking about Makima. Personality and individuality and likes and preferences and friends they visit every year. She likes how easily she can train a dog and how they become putty in her hands, at her beck and call, how much they love her and how much she enjoys their love. How simple and straightforward and easy it is. She keeps them because she likes being loved by them and loving them, and she’s gotten and raised so many. A conqueror always wants more and more and more, is never satisfied.

Devils and agency

Like Power the blood devil wanting blood and having a fixation on drinking it like with Denji’s, or how it was shocking that the violence devil was pretty tame and nice and how he himself theorized it was because he was a fiend and possessing a human body… There’s something to be said about nature vs nurture with the devils. The way they reincarnate and always embody their fear makes it seem categorically like nature, that they always always end up fulfilling the role they were named after and born to fill… Outside influence they’re helpless but to conform with. Like the humans accepting their spot in the social ladder and the shittiness of their living conditions and job under capitalism. Makima craved being equals with someone despite being the control/conquest devil, Angel Devil despite claiming to be a devil who likes to see humans dying was haunted by their deaths and wanted to avoid ones like Aki’s. The Ghost Devil being ironically haunted by Himeno, seemingly helping Aki in her memory out of… Lasting affection? Or maybe it was less about being haunted itself and more about it recognizing how Himeno haunted Aki, and acknowledging that, with the memento, paying her respect to the ghost of her. It’s Angel Devil’s devil nature that makes him like human suffering, so then is it his angel nature too to still care about their deaths? Is there truth to this or is that just personality, just our confirmation bias haunting every part of their identity like it might in their own view of themselves too? We do know different reincarnations of devils do have different personalities after all.

Yoru, war devil, is the most interesting one when talking about the nature vs nurture debate with devils. There is how through her we see the perhaps the most the consequences of a devil stopping being feared— we see a horseman for a concept as universal and horrifying as war be reduced to some bird who needs a contract with a human to have any power even just on the situation when meeting Asa. And through the story we get to know her better, and it becomes clear that her goal is fueled in good part by simply wanting to be remembered and respected through fear. Liked, validated, seen a powerful. But what is more isolating than war? Or control? We also see Nayuta accepting others’ house rules. If part 1 shows perhaps the futility of running away from the truth, with Denji’s memory, with escapist coping mechanisms, with passivity and denial under a corrupt system and with abusive relationships- running away from your own feelings and from the reality of things and from all that you are, more complex than simply human or devil or both or neither— part 2 builds upon the theme of cult of personalities, the chainsaw church, etc. The apocalypse is coming, but this celebrity superhero might save us all, or doom us all uh, dunno. The hero of hell reliving the cycle of pressure from responsibilities and expectations, maybe the part will end with Denji running away like Pochita did~

But yes, on the reverse, I think Famine is a very interesting example of how a devil’s namesake may be more innate than coerced by circumstances. One would think that a famine devil would only like inflicting famine upon others, not being famished itself, but Famine has a bottomless stomach that can never, ever be satisfied, sated. I struggle to find a psychological explanation for this, except that maybe instead of her being hungry it’s her feeling empty when she’s not eating, tasting and having that high sensory experience that releases serotonin in humans, sort of like drugs? But I do take this as a step towards the compulsion theory overall, feels like a reach in the consistency otherwise. And compulsion does not mean it’s something that they like nor that it’s something that they fight against, pretty neutral, just a nature that nudges you towards one path. Maybe it’s even just their go-to for entertainment. Maybe it’s the only thing that makes them feel right and whole. But still the debate remains, what is it, a compulsion or an urge or an itch or an active desire or a conscious chosen want? Does it change anything in practice?

And because of all of this earlier, devils being self-fulfilling prophecies with their role is not in unsignificant part nurture, because doing their atrocities is how they stay remembered— feared, powerful, known— hell and devils are a very isolating place and breed after all, and we do see devils can want companionship. Existentially, it’s their purpose and how they justify their place in the world, in the terrifyingly vast and unknowable cosmos.

We still know so little of what makes Chainsaw Devil so special, why his carnage is so self-controlled. Despite a chainsaw maybe being possibly one of the most "nature" thing you can be— a tool to cut things, a human tool that can be helpful for many things, something to be wielding by another at their judgement on what they decide, but mainly something to cut, a tool suited for carnage, to hurt and to destroy. A blade with a toothed chain, spinning around and around and around endlessly on the same road at the same pace. Such a…. Innately circular concept. And yet the Chainsaw Devil is his own, not driven by an urge or by chaos but his very own brand of order, his own unique assigned purpose, a "if you call i’ll come running to help" policy equalizing everyone. He chooses to withhold his destruction and interference otherwise, and then he chooses to be used. If it’s a choice, of course.

Maybe this is what inspired Makima so much, that Chainsaw Devil could decide what to make of himself despite expectations or innate role. Because even Hell he decided & managed to subjugate under his will and whim, with a precise vision and process. When Chainsaw Devil acts like Denji or is defeated, Makima clicks her tongue and loses her admiration and respect. Makima admired and liked Chainsaw Devil, but only as long as he matched her great image of him in her mind, as long as he followed he rules for what she thinks he should be like. She admired him for his unrivaled self-made success, but once he stepped out of that to truly embody self-fulfillment and agency, disappearing from hell to live on his own road at the beat of his own drum… Well. Surely that was a mistake she has to correct. However their second battle ends, the better conqueror will have prevailed and she’s happy about that, all in the spirit of domination and subjugation.

Imo Makima’s biggest tool, similarly capitalism’s most helpful effect for its own purposes, is complacency. Resignation and passivity helps uphold the system and go along the flow of the will of the people in power. Aki and Reze go along with orders even when knowing their job is trash, etc. In Angel Devil especially we see him go along with the flow uncaring about anyhing, and we discover it was in part due to Makima taking away memories that motivated him. If every devil decides this is just how things are and how things should be that’s what they’ll continue to be and do mindlessly, not pursuing a better life like Chainsaw Devil and Denj and not seeking to change the world like Makima. I think even Makima veils herself to a lot of things, she doesn’t like to think deeply about some things, like her desire for connection, or how making bad movies disappear is strenuous and unsustainable and requiring sacrifices at best— how her judgement is as subjective as anyone else. How liking the country mouse and her friend back at the farm and her dogs could be not devoid of sentimality. Wanting bad movies erased is her one biggest show of selfishness, of pettiness and individuality, it’s about her tastes, simple as. About how she can have tastes, and cry seeing a scene of people hug, and want things that aren’t logical, her ideology and mind twisted into a pretzel to avoid acknowledging that she doesn’t live and breathe purely for the mission she’s made a single-minded robot out of herself to accomplish. Nayuta is assertive and selfish and loud, Makima is manipulative and strategically both for her goals and for coping hollow.

Everything in her plans and goals she says is for the greater good, necessary evil, manufactured happiness the way she’ll have decided for people— and that’s the thing isn’t it, like with War, it’s the crack that shows it was all truly about herself after all. Her self-made deification still had the flaw that a self made it. Makima is not omniscient, and it’s not Chainsaw Devil the not-so-fellow-kindred-soul conqueror who gets the best of her, but a city mouse, a dog, someone she would have never thought to respect, Denji.

[anadorablekiwi]

The sad, bittersweet nostalgia of getting a second pet in your sdv farm, choosing the dog that looks like your childhood dog that passed a year ago give or take, and naming it said dog’s name

[galionne-vibin]

The Jupiter Family one was so here's another

[tariah23]

It’s crazy because I can count on my fingers the amount of times I’d been in that girls car, man. 4 times. The first time was when we first hung out and met each other back in February. We met on tumblr but she lived in Chicago so we just decided to meet in person. We went to the movies, saw Paprika, and she took me home. Second time was a while later back when I was still working as a concierge at my last job. This was probably in June since before we went him, she stopped somewhere to eat and then she took me home and stayed for a while. She was trying to teach me bout to drive and stuff and helped me set up my snap online and all that. She heavily insisted on picking me up from work even though I’d told her that it was fine multiple times because the train station was literally 4 minutes or so away from me in walking distance. It was raining and she was getting all frantic and freaking out like she usually does and I just gave in and said told her “sure.” The third time I was in her car was months later, which was at least 2 weeks ago? She took my sister and I grocery shopping (helped us out with grocery’s since it was taking forever for my snap to come) and my mom even tried to giver her almost 80 back but she ended up taking the $25 offered to her after my mom insisted. Last time I was in her car was last Friday when all of that shit went down lmfao. It’s funny since throughout all this time of knowing her, she’s always ask to hang out/pick me up and I’d always tell her that I was busy, too lazy, or tired since I was and she’d be super PUSHY about it but I know that she just wanted to be friendly and hang out and would always say stuff like “I’m good at breaking ppl down! I’m gonna get you one of these days,” but I really just never felt like it. I’m a homebody at heart 🚶🏾‍♀️. And I’m LAZY. Even hanging out one day takes a lot of energy out of me and it takes me days to recover from that, I’m not used to hanging out and seeing ppl everyday. I don’t even like talking to ppl over the phone everyday fr. But she’d always call because she knew that 9 times out of 10, I’d usually pick up anyway (that’s usually the only way to get me to respond immediately if you’re reaching out to me since I might read your texts or messages but I probably won’t respond right away since I be lazy or not charged up mentally 😭. But if I’m called, l’ll most likely pick up tbh) but the whole “well, you’re gonna have to send me some gas money or meet me somewhere-“ shit was funny since her ass never had a problem coming all this way because she was lonely or whatever tf on her own. Why should I give you gave money to pick up your own shit that you kept on forgetting to take back home with you? On Friday, my mom had even tried to get her to take her bag back with her but she was all like “no, we’re coming back anyway!” So girl, this is on your dumbass. Before I’d even had the chance to fully respond back to her, she blocked me on everything and threatened to take me to small claims court over her bag that she could’ve been picked up 😭. No one wants tour shit, trust me. It’s safe and sound here.

[kanos]

left to right: me, nellie kennedy, theo ward, and jamie voss

tagged by my lovely @crownrots to do this creator vs oc meme with this picrew and tbh i love this one so much

tagging: @imogenkol @strangefable @anoramactir @firstaidspray @pitchmoss @pavus @florbelles @thedeadthree @roberthouse69 @carlosoliveiraa @shellibisshe @statichvm @tommyarashikage @risingsh0t @g0dspeeed @hollytanaka @confidentandgood @leviiackrman @bigbywlf but only if you want i'm sorry if you've already done this

[absolutelyzoned]

i NEED to yap about personal shit i gotta get it out there somewhere

[spicyicymeloncat]

Idk if this is a hot take but why is it always “Kai slaved away and worked his ass off to raise his sister” and never the other way round or them working hard together?

Like, I know he’s older but in the show, does he really… act older? Like if you think about Kai and Nya’s dynamic yknow? Because from my understanding:

When Kai and Nya are introduced we see Kai fail at making a sword and Nya being the one to chide him for it. Kai makes an overconfident statement about wanting to be a better blacksmith than his father. This suggests that one, Kai is rather rash as well as inexperienced (something that lines up with the rest of his character arc in the pots and also generally), with Nya being the more mature figure in contrast

Also just a note but in the shorts: “I can handle it!” “No you can’t, stupid”

Kai frequently being very good at neglecting people or things: leaving Lloyd at an arcade whilst being focused on finding samurai x, not even knowing samurai x was Nya or that she only did it because she felt left out by him, completely abandoning both Nya and Lloyd in s3 (and Ik he was going through it at the time, but in line with the fandom’s characterisation of him)

Kai in season 5: “After I lost my dad, I lost my way. But I was lucky to have my sister watch over me”

Generally, their dynamic isn’t one where Kai really provides for Nya at all. In fact, judging by the fact that Nya can make entire mechs and Kai struggled to make a sword, Nya was probably busting her ass to provide for Kai. And judging by the s5 quote, that’s probably true. I’m not saying Nya raised Kai, it just rubs me the wrong way when she’s treated like a decorative flourish to a narrative that paints Kai as a burnt out child who was forced to grow up too soon especially since that is such a mischaracterisation of him in the first place.

[coldlikethestars]

.

[beanghostprincess]

this is in response to the anon who said pudding should join the buggy pirates. This is a really cute idea and I love both of them so ofc they should be allies.

maybe after she's saved by sanji from BB pirates she's too overwhelmed/embarrassed to stay so she runs away and runs into crossguild who give her sanctuary after she tells them she can read poneglyphs? Because why would she go back to her family after they didnt even come for her? If mama is dead this a perfect chance to be free.

Croc would for sure be interested and Buggy would be one again awestruck at his luck for failing upwards bcus now an extremely useful ally falls into his lap?? Plus her 3rd eye is really flashy and if he just gave her a makeover she could be a main attraction in his circus hehehe

So real and true. In fact, you know why would she be a main attraction in his circus? Not because she has a third eye and people demonize her about it, but because everybody would find her extremely gorgeous. I would love something like that. Buggy seeing her third eye and loving it but also realizing she looks like the prettiest princess he's ever seen. She wouldn't like the idea of being exposed like that after hiding for so long. She's always been marginalized and laughed at for her third eye... Of course, she is rightfully scared of doing what Buggy says. But he keeps saying the circus is exactly for that. For outcasts that amaze people with their beauty and extraordinary traits. She could cook for them and also show up with him, not as an attraction, really, but as his star. She could even host the whole thing some nights if he's busy with Cross Guild stuff. And everyone finds her beautiful. Gorgeous. Perfect. Everybody loves her there and they're captivated by her. It's the first time people see her this way (second time. She kind of misses Sanji, but every time she mentions the strawhats Buggy gets irrationally emotional so she doesn't say anything). She isn't really a part of the Cross Guild, at least not officially. But she goes to most meetings and she's the one helping them out when it comes to history and poneglyphs. She ends up joining them more often because Mihawk and Crocodile grow fond of her. She's cute, but feral. She doesn't hesitate to make cruel plans and smart moves. She is actually really helpful and has good taste in music and wine, so those two end up taking care of her too. Imagine Pudding as their princess. She's like their daughter, more or less. They protect her to a worrisome extent. A lot of men come in there to ask her for her hand, and they, uh, never usually go back home in one piece. Buggy and her talk shit about Shanks and Sanji, but it's obvious they're still in love and never really over them. It's a sweet bond, really, the one she has with these three. Buggy makes people build her a whole, giant kitchen on the island only for her and she always makes the sweetest and most perfect of dishes ever. They adore her and she actually ends up loving them back a lot!