#shimon-boss

[zoroara]

Thinking about Squalo, thinking about how one of his greatest achievements, a two day straight fight of skill against another master, is only ever said as a quick thing, not even mentioned by him, not brought up again. How his next greatest ones, the 100 fights are only glossed over, only mentioned in the smallest bits. We never get to see much of these fights. We only see the match that was thrown really. He fought against vindice members lasting as well as Xanxus did in the fight despite his exhaustion, though it's only a short before and after we get to see this.

I think about the fact that whenever he does get the spotlight when he does go against someone strong, in a pivotal battle. He loses.

Vs Yamamoto, loses his first sword fight in who knows how long, then eaten by a shark.

Vs Zakuro, loses even more of the arm he had lost his hand on and is caught in an explosion.

Vs Jaegar, doesn't even manage to last more than a page before he's punched through the chest.

I think about the fact that even when it isn't as bad as nearly killing him, it's still a loss.

Vs the kids in the first time, does seem like a win, but then you remember he was fooled and returned with fake rings.

Vs shimon, he and the rest of the Varia are stopped in a single move by Adelheid.

Vs Enma he failed to command his squad to seize victory when he could have by taking a boss watch.

Vs Hibari and Fon, the moment Fon comes out he's soon out, much sooner than Xanxus or Mammon.

I think about the fact that whenever Xanxus needed him, Squalo was unable to do anything. That he had to watch it happen. Or at least hear it.

In the coup, he had to listen while half conscious as Xanxus fought the ninth, and eventually, as he got frozen.

In the sky battle, he had to watch again from a wheelchair while the same thing as 8 years ago, when they had just gotten Xanxus back, happened again.

In the final fight against the wreaths and ghost, he wasn't able to do anything but be held up by Dino.

But in the fight against Jaegar, he had to watch Xanxus' arm get cut off, but there, he finally had his chance to do something before it got worse. Only to buy mere seconds before it did.

Then I think, about the fact, that despite it all. His determination and pride still shine brightly. He never gave up despite all of this, and he continues forward unshaken. Even though he keeps failing, even though his roster of fights doesn't seem impressive by the lens we're given, he knows what he's worth, what he's capable of. Even in these pivotal fights being failures, it's just something to make up for later. He's filled with spite and vengeance but he never thinks poorly of himself. He doesn't need reassurance after the fight. He is focused and simply picks back up where he was once he can.

I think, this is admirable. The unshakable confidence he has in himself. I'd say it's a curiosity that his flame output isn't higher, but at the same time it isn't. His ring can only handle so much in it after all, and despite that, he still did negate Zakuro's flame output to protect the kids long enough to escape. Zakuro's Millefiore ring that was limitless much like the Vongola.

It's a shame that we never got an important fight with him where he won since his introduction. But honestly, even with this, where some see futility(and admittedly I do too at time) It's impressive that he continued to fight and argue that he was still going to stand as close to the top as he could be. No matter what the world threw at him.

[witchy-writer-lady]

I'm a day late, but here is something I wrote for Gojo's birthday. Happy birthday, Satoru!

Tsuna looks at the results and gives Shoko a disbelieving, happy look. "So I was right?"

Shoko nods. Her usually indifferent face is tinged with a tentative smile." You sure were, honey. Congrats. You are pregnant."

Tsuna glances down at her stomach and caresses it gently. "Guess I have a gift for Satoru now."

Shoko snorts in amusement. "Oh, please. That guy is so in love with you that even if you gave him a pair of socks he would have been over the moon."

Tsuna laughs. "You have a point. " She looks back at the other brunette. "By the way, will you be at the party?"

"Of course," Shoko confirms with a smirk. "I want to see Satoru's face when you announce that you bear mini-him."

"Why are you sure the baby will take after Satoru?" Tsuna teases. "It's too early to tell."

"True," the jujutsu doctor shrugs carelessly. "Personally, I hope the kid takes after you, one Satoru is enough. Either way, it will be a show."

"Whatever you say, Zombie Girl," Tsuna shakes her head in amusement before enveloping her friend in a hug. "Thank you, Shoko."

Shoko returns the hug, hugging just as strongly. "You are welcome, honey. If anything, we should be thanking you. You make that idiot happy and help us improve Jujutsu Society even though you have a bunch of crazies to lead."

"It's nothing, Shoko," "Tsuna brushes off. "Satoru is my husband whom I love very much. As his friend, you are part of the family as well. Kento-san, Yaga-san, even Mei-san and Utahime-san."

The answer makes Shoko chuckle. 'You're too good for this bullshit world, honey."

"So I was told," Tsuna says with a chuckle of her own.

The tender moment between two friends is interrupted when the ground shakes and the sound of of explosion is heard. Tsuna sighs in exasperation.

"I better stop them or Satoru won't have a birthday party to come to," she says as she breaks the hug.

"Sure, good luck with that," Shoko wishes. "See you at the party."

"See you at the party," Tsuna says in turn before leaving to rein in the typical chaos of her family which is mixed with Jujutsu for tonight as today is December 7th, Satoru's birthday, and the preparations are in full swing.

Hopefully, they make everything in time without murder and dead bodies.

***

Winter and summer are the most busy for the Jujutsu Sorceres no matter the country Satoru understands as he finishes a pesky Special Grade Curse. He and Tsuna decided to spend some time in Italy (their family and friends included), but even here, he isn't spared from his title. It's a bit annoying, but no matter.

Finished with the Curse, he bids farewell to the local shamans and teleports to the Vongola Manor, ignoring their protests. Tsuna hasn't been feeling good lately and despite knowing Reborn and others won't let anything happen to her, he wants to be by her side as soon as possible.

Therefore, he's in the Manor's main hall in a blink of an eye.

"Welcome back, Satoru-sama," Lorenzo, the main butler of the manor, greets him with a bow. "I trust the mission was a success?"

"Sucessful of course. Were you expecting any other result?" Satoru looks around. Come to think of it why it was so quiet? Usually, the place was full of chaos. "Where's Tsuna and everyone? It's suspiciously quiet."

"Of course, I don't doubt you, Satoru-sama," The butler smiles in his beard. "As for the boss, please follow me."

Intrigued, Satoru follows after the man. The butler leads him to one of the ballrooms and pushes the double doors open.

"And here is the man of the hour!" Dino greets him jovially.

He raises an eyebrow at the Cavallone Don and looks around. It's not just Dino. Their Vongola family, the kids, Arcobaleno, Varia, Shimon, Giglio Nero, his co-workers from Jujutsu High, and even Nana-san was here with his annoying father-in-law. Gesso was present as well as his mother, the latter of which was most surprising of all. "What's this?"

"Your birthday party, silly!" his wife laughs, giving him a peck on the lips as he approaches him. "Welcome back."

He chuckles, wrapping his arms around her. "Should have known," he murmurs, taking notice of the food and decorations. "You feeling better then?"

"Yes!" Tsuna assures him with a smile. She takes his arm. "C'mon, the party can't start without you, birthday boy."

Satoru laughs and allows her to lead him to the center of the room and the party starts.

It goes on in their typical fashion: loud and chaotic. Everyone gives him gifts. Some make him amused, happy, make him laugh, or make him plan revenge in relatiation. In good fun, of course.

But as the evening went on, there was one gift that kept being missing.

"Not to complain," he announces, "But there is your gift, love of my life?"

Tsuna chuckles softly. "In a minute, Satoru, I'm just about to give it," she says, whispering to Shoko. So whatever it is, his former classmate is on it because she passes some envelope to his wife who gives it to him in turn. "Open it."

He does. Inside is the text and the photo. The text says: "Congrats, you are getting a lifetime gift! The gift of being a daddy! (Again) :)

Stunned, he raises his eyes at his wife. Suddenly, her recent sickness makes perfect sense. How he couldn't have seen it? "You are p-pregnant?"

Tsuna nods. Their friends erupt into shocked whispers, but he ignores them. He takes her into his arms and twirls around, making her laugh.

"I take it you like my gift. Worth the wait?" She asks, eyes glinting with happiness and love.

Satoru presses their foreheads together as he puts her back on her feet."Very much so "

Tsuna kisses him on the forehead. "Happy birthday, snowflake."

He closes his eyes in bliss, feeling like he's on cloud nine from all the love he feels for her.

Best birthday ever. He can't wait for his blessed gift to be born.

[vongola-renaissance]

If Tsuna ever moves to Italy, I'm convinced that he would accidentally adopt a bunch of kids and then maybe do it again, but on purpose this time.

I think he has some level of trauma because he had to take care of kids (Lambo, I-Pin, etc) while he was still a teenager himself. Worse even 'cause they forced those kids to fight and get in danger many many times. There's also the fact he knows about what happened to Mukuro and the Kokuyo gang, the whole Timoteo-Xanxus and the Shimon family issues.

As soon as he arrives and if he ever accepts to be the Vongola boss, the first rule is that there are and will never be again kids in his mafia. I mean, they can be part of the family, but they won't take on an active role in it. Teenagers also have to go to school and graduate, play sports or whatever they want to do. But not mafia duty for them.

The past Vongola bosses have a blood debt to every kid's life they ruined. Tsuna hated their guts for forcing him and his friends to fight, for forcing kids into dangerous situations. What would be the use of being the strongest Vongola guardians of the last generations if they can't protect the kids and teens???

So yeah, I imagine he starts taking kids out of the streets by being kind. Then he accidentally ends up in babysitter duty and no one knows how he's constantly in that situation. It grows to the point where a couple of teens want to fight in his name because they want to prove they're useful, so he has to teach them some self worth until they can see their lives are valuable beyond what they can do for a mafia.

At some point I see him officially adopting maybe a couple of kids. He'd probably plan to be the last of the Vongolas or reject the idea of the legacy being one passed down by blood.

[randomvarious]

Today's mix:

99.2 by Timecode / Aquasky 1999 Drum n Bass

Man, I legitimately have no idea why some of these releases from UK dnb juggernaut label Moving Shadow's 'year-decimal' series are rated so poorly on Discogs. Usually when something has an average rating that's below 4 out of 5, it has noticeable flaws, but this sampler mix from MS head honcho Rob Playford—operating here under his DJ-mixing alias of Timecode—is an excellently steady clinic in fun, turn-of-the-millennium dnb bounciness. And the release that preceded this one, 99.1, which also has a sub-4 rating, is one of the greatest dnb mixes that I've ever heard in my life! So, like, what the hell is wrong with you people?!

And you couldn't beat this deal when this thing dropped, either. £1.99 for this disc, a bonus disc with an exclusive 20-plus minute mix of Omni Trio tunes done by the great trio of Aquasky, and CD-ROM freebies that included snippets of Aquasky remixes in WAV format, promotional videos for some Rockstar Games titles, and a playable demo of Grand Theft Auto 2 as well! They were practically giving this shit away for free!

So we've got a full, chugging, 65-minute workout here with a slate of bangers delivered by Moving Shadow's top talents: Dom & Roland, Calyx, E-Z Rollers, TeeBee, Aquasky, Omni Trio, Technical Itch, and more. But nothing here seems to hit as nicely as the moment when Playford transitions between E-Z Rollers' "RS2000" and 60 Minute Man's "Brand Nu Day." "Brand Nu Day" as a standalone track opens up with this terrific sax line, and to then hear it uniquely played alongside the fuzzy bass groove of "RS2000" just really unlocks something special 🥹.

So don't listen to all the haters and overlook this one. If you want a trip back to those lovely y2k days when music CDs also came with bonus CD-ROM content, this promo mix from Moving Shadow boss Rob Playford is terrific. And I dunno how long the GTA2 demo is on here, but I'm willing to bet that if you fired up the bonus CD in your PC, and then put the main one in your stereo, you were probably in for a good time, because the type of drum n bass that's on here really does feel like the perfect, adrenaline-fueled soundtrack for boosting some cars and wreaking havoc 😎.

Listen to CD1 here. Listen to CD2 here.

Highlights:

CD1:

Renegade - "Terrorist (Dom & Roland Remix)" Calyx - "Diablo" nCode - "Spasm" Kudos - "Boiling Point" E-Z Rollers - "Cops Don't Like Us" Tekniq - "Shark Food" Kudos - "In the Dark" E-Z Rollers - "RS 2000" 60 Minute Man - "Brand Nu Day" Calyx - "Fortune Cookie" Decoder & Substance - "Heat" TB & K - "Arctix" Aquasky - "Bodyshock (Aquasky Remix)" Omni Trio - "Byte Size Life (Shimon Remix)" Calyx - "Code Red" Dom & Roland - "Can't Punish Me" Technical Itch - "Generation" AK1200 & Danny Breaks - "Deep Porn (VIP Mix)"

CD2:

Aquasky - 25 Minute Exclusive Mix of Omni Trio Tracks

[ciaossu-imagines]

OMGOMGOMG, an active blog who writes for khr?!? dream come true. anyway—could i rq tsuna meeting the boss of a family that's supposed to rival the vongola but the reader ends up wanting be a chill boss and wants to "mend ancient wounds"? (could it be gn!reader? its ok if its not tho)

Well, I don’t know how active I’ve exactly been lately…well, I do and it’s not very, unfortunately, due to life getting stressful and busy. Oh well, I still do my best and hope you’ve stuck around to be able to see this request answered! Thank you so much for sending it in and I hope you’ll enjoy the headcanons I came up with, though they be meager.

So, when you say rival the Vongola, I am assuming that you mean that not only is this particular Family of the same size and scope as the Vongola are, with just as much power and history as the Vongola has, but that they’re also a Family that has history with the Vongola. Not very pleasant history either, with decades of bloody battles and power struggles. They’re a well-known name and have always fiercely opposed the Vongola being as powerful as they are.

Well, at least that’s all true until the current next generation of both Family’s arrive on the scene. We know Tsuna. We see that, like Primo, he really is willing to accept just about anyone into his life and to at least be pleasant and friendly with them, even when they weird him out, like rival Family Boss Naito Longchamp. He’s willing to accept and ally himself with rival Families like the Shimon without second thought. He’s willing to take into his family former enemies like Mukuro and his gang, and to ally himself with people who had formerly tried very hard to kill him and his friends, like Xanxus and Byakuran.

We also see in Tsuna an almost complete disregard for Vongola tradition. He doesn’t really care about the history of the Vongola either…no, that’s not quite right. It’s more like he abhors the very violent, bloody past of the Vongola and he’s even pretty much stated that he’ll rewrite that history and lead the Vongola in a completely different manner than it was in the past.

Of course, this is when he isn’t still steadfastly refusing to take the role of a Mafia Boss. Even though he’s technically accepted the role in canon, we see that he’s still refusing ‘the call’ even after doing so and I think he never really considers himself a Mafia Boss, even when he’s called upon to keep his friends, acquaintances, family, and Family members safe under the mantle of Vongola Decimo.

Because of this, he really does try his best to avoid doing the political or proper things that come with being a Boss, like having meetings with the heads of other Mafia Families. He’s trying his best to sneak away from this arranged meeting with the rival Family, playing hooky if you will and it’s just a fun scene I have in my head that the rival Family’s Boss is doing the same thing, just because that isn’t really their scene either. And it’s while they’re both trying to hide away from Reborn and whoever corrals the rival Boss that the two of them meet. They both kind of help each other avoid being caught and just end up talking.

It’s easy chattering. Tsuna finds this person very relaxed, not too fussy and very down to earth. They’re easy to make conversation with – it’s one of those situations where it almost feels like you’ve known what is, essentially, a complete stranger for years and years.

They sneak off and end up hanging out together. Tsuna’s stomach had started growling during the conversation and the rival Boss offered to take him to their favourite restaurant. Tsuna’s having a lot of fun with his new friend and he’s doing everything he can, while talking to this person, to hide any and all affiliation Tsuna has with the Mafia. It’s something he’s found himself doing for so long now that it’s just natural. He doesn’t want to ruin what could be a nice friendship with someone normal with all that Mafia junk, after all.

So Tsuna is completely and utterly shocked, absolutely floored, when his new friend just casually brings up the Mafia, talking about the Vongola and about their own Family.

He chokes on water at first, splutters, tries to deny at first, fumbles and messes up his words. When his new friend mentions that bit about mending ancient wounds, Tsuna genuinely has no clue what they’re talking about, because again, he’s not really someone who cares about learning every in and out of the Vongola’s history.

His reply is pretty much just ‘it’s cool, dude, I promise…this is all getting really serious all of a sudden and I don’t know how to handle it, can we please just change the subject’.

Honestly, Tsuna is going to hold nothing against his new friend or any of their Family members. He doesn’t really care that the Vongola and this Family have bad history in the past. That was the past. His new friend seems like a genuinely good person, Tsuna has always trusted his intuition when it comes to people, and he doesn’t think they hold any ill will towards him or any of his friends and Family members. Why bring ancient history into the present when they could just enjoy each other’s company and live happily alongside each other instead?

[rebo-chan]

Continuing the lambo and tsuna discussion:

Oh yeah tsuna absolutely would be a hypocrite and it would be so intersting to see them having a serious fight over it.

Especially bc, tsuna ALREADY as a 13/14 year old doesnt wanna be involved in fights and the like, he just wants to be a fucking teen please leave me alone, but when he's older hes probably even MORE terrified of what they've been through as kids. As a teen when he saw 15 yo lambo he was like "oh yeah he can handle this... Maybe... Probably... Perhaps???"

But the older you get the more you realise what a fucking dystopian nightmare it is to believe fucking teenagers could be in a war, no matter how powerful they end up being or how successful! Most of the shounen protags are AT LEAST in Highschool, Tsuna is a FIRST YEAR IN MIDDLESCHOOL, BABY GOT BARELY OUT OF HIS TWEENS

So while yeah its hypocritical tsuna also has the experience and hindsight now to realize NAH UH NO NO NO NOT HAPPENING NOPE THAT IS A FETUS

Not that Lambo would ever accept that bc yeah its his big brother and (idk how common this is i am an only child and never had friends with siblings) its (maybe) common for kids to look up to their older siblings in a way especially when they are far older and tsuna has done some really amazing stuff. He just doesnt get the whole "too young" for the fight thing, especially bc his background is already mafia related and the Bovino let this 5 YEAR OLD run around with GRANADES AND ROCKET LAUNCHERS.

Child safety? Dont know her - Old Bovino motto

No but srsly i just think tsuna is the very first person that actually brings up this concept in lambos life. Even Nana never sees whats going on around her as any kind of dangerous, even kids his age are nonchalant about it, fucking yamamoto may see a kid in him but he rolls with almost anything, gokudera just shows him disdain which is not exactly concern (in the beginning)

So its JUST Tsuna that looks at this five year old and says "Absolutely fucking not"

I mean technically also Haru but i dont think he registers that bc she just generally coddles the babies.

So Tsuna, his big brother, the one he looks up to the most, does not acknowledge him as a fighter. And while lambo doesnt see Tsuna as his boss, I do think when he grows older it WILL become more and more of an issue between both of them.

I know i basically just rephrased and repeated a lot of what you said in your post but also I HAVE SO MANY EMOTIONS

OMG NO DONT EVEN WORRY I AM MORE THAN HAPPY TO TALK ABOUT LAMBO AND TSUNA <3 <3 <3

A real fight about this topic between Lambo and Tsuna would actually be so interesting though, you're so right. In this case, Tsuna cannot be reasoned with. As you mentioned, the older he gets the more he will look at being 15 years old as being a FETUS. His stress already just skyrockets whenever Lambo is ANYWHERE near the battlefield, he becomes absolutely belligerent (Shimon arc, future, and letting himself get disqualified in Varia) Tsuna is definitely the one most protective of Lambo, though Gokudera is a good second place even Gokudera doesn't realize that is a child though tbf in a world where the strongest are infants I do not blame Gokudera for not blinking an eye.

Child safety, don't know her ksJNGKJNSGE NO FR THOUGH. TSUNA IS THE ONLY ONE LIKE "please for gods sake stay at home my god please please" Its even funnier when you consider the only reason he trusts TYL I-Pin to protect anyone is bc she becomes 1 year older than him through the bazooka. SKJNG this is why TYL Lambo is also called Adult Lambo in his head. But yes, this idea would ABSOLUTELY disintegrate the moment my boy tsuna leaves his teen ages. I think the idea that this will be an area of tension for Lambo and Tsuna is so cool, because oh my god!! Lambo wants to be there. Despite his age, he is rightfully Vongola's Guardian of Lightning and he wants to hurry up and catch up!! Especially when you take into account of what I said about 20yl, like that's a Lambo that loses everyone!!!! Imagine the absolute stress on Lambo's brain when these thoughts flourish in his mind, and then he's got his big brother who would see him in a training room and go "WHAT ARE U DOING HERE. GET OUT?????? DO NOT TOUCH THE POINTY SPEAR THAT IS CHROMES" It's such absolute tasty content and I am more than happy to oblige with the Tsuna/Lambo thoughts. They're so important to me <3

[toxaquepex]

I was thinking of making a Tonbo Tobitake maybe with Shimon in a bit Roleplay blog but anyways I was thinking maybe we could have a Tonbo week for fun like march 30th a Sunday to April 5 a Saturday simce his birthday is the 4th of April I think it would be funny

Now that there is ✨ a community of secondary shinobi✨, I can totally see a Tonbo week happening. Just make sure to remind the members at least a month in advance so they have time to prepare. (I can barely remember my favorites, Aoba and Ebisu, but I'm sure I'll participate!) Regarding the RP account, if you get Tonbo and Shimon that would be great, I already have Aoba. So you already have a boss. And there's an Ibiki out there, the department is more complete than ever.

[nogoodvongoladecimo]

@whiskeysmulti

Continue from here [x]

Tsuna was glad that all the misunderstanding between Shimon and Vongola was resolved. He felt himself getting to know Enma even more and becoming closer with the Shimon boss

"You are welcome Enma. We are friends. I couldn't possibly leave you alone then." Tsuna smiled.

He was surprised when Natsu move up to Enma snuggling against him.

"Natsu seems to really like you a lot too Enma." Tsuna watched "Enma. Do you think you would go somewhere with me?" Tsuna feel like Enma would be the best person he could confide in now aside from Yamamoto

[mariacallous]

It’s election season in Europe, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has decided that George Soros can again win him votes. “The Soros network is embedded in the European institutions. They are so embedded that the European institutions give them money to operate,” Orban said in late March on his near-weekly interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Radio. “They’re in the Commission, in the Parliament, and quite a few prime ministers are clearly Soros holdouts.”

Between June 6 and 9, citizens in all 27 European Union member states will choose a new Parliament, and Orban kicked off his campaign in Hungary with a fresh dose of attack politics. Brussels, he said in his March interview, was “increasingly becoming a prisoner of the international network of activists that George Soros has built up over the last 30 years with great effort.”

This isn’t the first time Orban has used Soros, the Hungarian Jewish financier and philanthropist, as a punching bag in an election campaign. He has done so before to win elections in Hungary. What is new this time, however, is that Orban’s spokesperson immediately translated his boss’s stinging attack on Soros from Hungarian into English and posted the translation on X (formerly Twitter). Clearly, the attack is being taken to a new, European level.

How attack politics works, and why the Hungarian prime minister has used it often during the last 10 years, is described in a 2019 BuzzFeed News article, “The Unbelievable Story of the Plot Against George Soros.” (An earlier version appeared in the Swiss magazine Das Magazin.) It tells the story of two American spin doctors who designed Orban’s first hate campaign against Soros back in 2013, managing to turn Soros—who got rich in the United States and poured billions of dollars of his fortune into organizations supporting democratic governance and freedom of speech all over the world—into Hungary’s most hated man within weeks. In fact, their anti-Soros smear campaign was such a success that Orban, who himself worked at the Soros-funded Central European Research Group and studied briefly on a Soros scholarship at the University of Oxford, won the election.

These two spin doctors, Arthur Finkelstein and George Birnbaum—Jewish themselves—worked with a simple idea: If you want to win elections, make sure you go on the attack. The underlying assumption is that many voters know whom they will vote for. Consequently, it is difficult to motivate them to vote for another candidate. Demoralizing them, however, is easier. You discredit your political opponent with a volley of accusations, mostly false, so your opponent’s supporters will start having doubts. As a result, some will not vote. Others will defect to you. Finkelstein and Birnbaum called this “rejectionist voting.”

The duo used this technique first in Israel in 1995, just after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. New elections were scheduled, with the social democrat Shimon Peres as the designated winner. Very few observers gave the young conservative Likud candidate Benjamin Netanyahu, who was polling 20 percentage points behind, any chance. Netanyahu contracted Finkelstein and Birnbaum to help him get out of the underdog position. They told him the only way he would have a chance of winning would be if his campaign focused on spreading the rumor that Peres intended to give half of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Peres did not want to do that; it was a complete fabrication. But the more the line spread, the more journalists asked him about it. Instead of pushing and discussing his own political agenda, Peres was forced to defend himself against Netanyahu’s lie. Netanyahu completely trapped Peres and, to the surprise of many, won the 1996 election, with more than 50 percent of the vote. This is how Netanyahu’s spectacular rise in politics began.

In the early 2000s, Finkelstein and Birnbaum helped Bulgarian and Romanian politicians gain power with similar campaigns. Then Netanyahu introduced them to another ambitious politician in Europe: Viktor Orban. He had been prime minister between 1998 and 2002 before losing power. Orban felt so humiliated that he swore he would never lose again. In 2010, the spin doctors advised him to conduct a tough, polarizing campaign against bureaucrats and foreign investors. It worked: Orban’s alliance won a comfortable two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, and the social democrats suffered a stinging defeat that they still have not recovered from today.

During the next election, in 2014, the opposition hardly managed to get a word in. Still, Orban took no chances and again consulted the advisors who had helped him win earlier. They told him he needed a scapegoat with a familiar face. They suggested he use Soros and depict him as a Jewish financier with a secret political agenda: to weaken Hungary and then dominate it. According to some reports, this campaign fueled antisemitism in the country; however, since Hungary keeps no official data on antisemitism, the EU’s rights watchdog, the Vienna-based Agency for Fundamental Rights, found it hard to substantiate this claim.

During this campaign, Orban blamed all his problems on Soros and his “tentacles”—from the financial and economic crises that had hit the country to the arrival of refugees from war-torn Syria and other countries. In 2014 and again in 2018, Orban won elections, consolidating his grip on power in Hungary. In the run-up to the 2018 vote, posters appeared all over Hungary depicting Soros with the text: “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.” That year, the Hungarian government also forced Central European University (CEU), founded and partially funded by Soros, out of the country. CEU eventually found refuge in Vienna, from where it still operates.

As Birnbaum once said, “It’s good to have an enemy,” calling Soros a “good target.” Soros was defenseless. If he fought back, he would only crank up the rumor machine. If he entered the Hungarian political fray, Orban could accuse him of being power-hungry. So he did not say anything, and the rumor spread anyway.

Birnbaum’s father survived Auschwitz. (Finkelstein, who was much older, died in 2017.) That their campaigns featured racist tropes and fueled antisemitism does not seem to bother Birnbaum in the least. Once he asked an interviewer: “Can I not attack someone because he is a Jew?”

While Orban successfully won two Hungarian elections deploying the “Soros monster,” the first time he used this strategy to win a European election was in 2019. Posters went up picturing then-Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Soros, with the words: “You have the right to know what Brussels is cooking up!” Orban’s campaign then focused on migration: Brussels’s “secret” plan to use migrant visas to flood Europe with immigrants and Europe’s so-called attempts to prevent Hungary from guarding its external borders.

Soros largely kept quiet, but Juncker—who had once called the Hungarian prime minister a “dictator”—immediately began to refute the charges. He strongly denied Brussels was working on secret migrant visas or was hindering border guards. In short, Orban’s strategy went according to plan. His alliance won 53 percent of the vote.

That the Hungarian prime minister is having his attacks on Soros translated into English this time is telling. A Hungarian diplomat once told me, “Viktor Orban thinks Europe will either be his Europe or Emmanuel Macron’s Europe.” In countries such as France, where far-right politician Jordan Bardella from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is clearly the front-runner, the election campaign is dominated by a similar binary choice: Europe will be shaped by the likes of Macron or the National Rally.

Now that several far-right parties in different countries do not want to leave the EU anymore because of what Swedish politician Carl Bildt has called the “BTP effect”—meaning, Brexit, Trump, Putin—they seem to want to instead enter European politics for the first time and attempt to change it from the inside. Consequently, they are trying to form coalitions to maximize their influence. Orban told a party congress last year that Europe needs to be changed, not ditched.

Herbert Kickl of the Freedom Party of Austria, Geert Wilders of the Dutch Party for Freedom, and several other far-right politicians are starting to talk more and more about what they want with Europe: ditching climate legislation, changing the existing migration policy, and blocking aid for Ukraine. In the run-up to this year’s elections, the European center-right is already moving somewhat in this direction, just as it does in member states when it tries to prevent voters from fleeing to the far right. Several polls, while showing that the center will hold after the elections in June, have predicted substantial gains for the far right in several member states.

According to Paul Lendvai, a Hungarian journalist in Vienna who has written a critical biography of the Hungarian prime minister, Orban has Hungary “in his pocket, and Europe will be his next step.” He seems intent on using—or rather abusing—Soros to this end once more. Europe had better be prepared.

[chibishortdeath]

So uh, first actual post I guess. This is all random dumps (taken from my instagram stories, so they’re formatted weird lol) of symbols and things associated with Simon. I’ve never seen anyone do this for him before so mwahaha I guess I’m the first >:3c. Sorry if this is kinda just a random stream of words, I’m just getting a bunch of thoughts down and anyone can use this information for theories, art, story analysis, and etc later d(^^ ).

The first one is a bunch of possibility important references, primarily things from HoD, but also a couple from OoE and the Hanged Man Skeletons, which are explained a bit more in the second and third image. There’s a couple details I didn’t have the space for oof (T_T ). If I remember correctly, the Smiling Statue is found in the area where the Hellmont enemies are. I’m not exactly sure if there’s any significance to any of the statue placements, but they’re definitely supposed to be a Carmilla and Simon reference, not sure on who the Sage statue is supposed to be tho. My best guess is maybe Death since he’s the other Simon’s Quest boss lol, but the statue really doesn’t look like him. It’s interesting. The Hero statue is very obvious, Juste gets the little flavor text that “that’ll be me someday” kinda referencing how Simon looked up to Christoper in a similar way (yes, Christopher, he is mentioned in the first manual in Japan I believe, I should talk about him eventually). The whole Hellmont/Shimon thing is nuts and idk why it’s just never mentioned again. Like the name Simon has the ability to be a pun in Japanese on “Death Gate/Gates of Death” which is 1. Badass and 2. Ominous as heck! I also didn’t get to fit in the random family heirloom clock that’s in ghost Dracula’s castle for some reason in HoD, the one that has the nice description of having been “bought on the day your grandfather was born” (not an exact quote word for word but yeah). It feels significant to me idk, why would family heirlooms end up in there? Also didn’t mention the Bullet Tip (called “Christopher’s Soul” in Japan), but that one’s interesting too.

Also I wasn’t able to fit the OoE and Simon’s Quest maps on there so I might make a post about comparing them later :3. That Anna girl could be talking about someone else, but considering the similarities and references to Simon and his games in the rest of OoE (which I also should explain if I can manage to get it all together) it’s safe to assume she’s having nightmares of one of Simon’s fights against Dracula. Which is also interesting in the context that her whole side quests revolve around helping her cat protect her from dark spirits.

I know this wiki isn’t the most reliable source, but I’ve seen other sources that claim the skeletons on the outer wall of SotN and DoS (I believe) are supposed to be a reference to the whip swinging in CV4. It’s really interesting that they’d make a reference to Simon by having the skeletons be hung by one foot like the hanged man is commonly depicted considering the meanings behind that card, but since the position of the skeleton is pretty much the same in both, it’s probably intentional.

The last Chronicles one is kinda based on the assumption that these are rose thorns, but when looking up thorn symbolism a looooot of the specific red rose symbolism kinda started to line up really well. Roses also have a lot of religious significance too so I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a stretch to say they were rose thorns. Chronicles is not the first time flowers have been mentioned with Simon in mind however, I couldn’t fit it anywhere, but the Japanese text for the fastest Simon’s Quest ending mentions he “brought full blown flowers in next spring”, just a fun fact tho, idk how to add it into anything here tbh (-w-; ).

What was the most interesting about this dive into random symbols and other details was how often things ended up symbolizing “self sacrifice” and/or “martyrdom”! Usually twice or thrice wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but considering the vague nature of all the Simon’s Quest endings in all versions of the game and the general lack of focus on Simon’s story aspect, it’s pretty cool to see some things that line up like that :O! Also I am thoroughly aware that I might just be looking to deep into things and connecting things and aren’t there, but I don’t really care cause I had fun!!! :3 Anyway, do with this knowledge what you will, hope you guys like it.

[johannepetereric]

We're back on the Shimon island, kids splashing around in the water. And then a woman carrying a baby says "This really is a nice island. Boss..."

"Yes."

"HEY, BOS!!" one kid yells. "MAGI WANTS MORE FRIE~NDS!!"

"Sorry, Magi. Can you just endure that?"

(are tank tops 400 years old?)

"What, once the excitement dies down, people from the outside will be allowed to enter here. And when that happens, Vongola Primo will be able to bring his Family to play. Right, Cozart?"

"No..." Cozart says.

"!!"

"There won't be any more meetings with the Vongola. With Giotto."

"...Boss." The woman says.

"Giotto means to do the same."

...

"But we believe..."

("Up you go.")

"Magi's children and their children, or somewhere even farther in the future."

Shots of Giotto's bag, staring out the window in the next panel, the back to us.

"That a true successor bearing our wills will appear and...

One panel half the page, Giotto on the left, Kozart on the right:

"The day where we can meet smiling will come..."

The last panel is a picture of Tsuna (left) and Enma (right), laughing together even if they're hung upside down by nets.

The side of the panel reads: "The First Generation's preciosu memories, the unforgettable memories of their friendship, they have certainly received it!!"

[steamworksfairy]

Verde Rambles That May or May Not Make Sense

Okay so remember in the Rainbow Arc how when Verde and Mukuo are first revealed to be working together as a team, that Verde gives Tsuna the sound advice of "You need to realize that close friend's you'd never expect can turn into your opponents." ?

That right there is the pinicle of who Verde is as a character! He is so neutral, and I don't think Reborn or any of the other Arcobaleno get that.

I haven't watched the anime in a long while, and my memory is spotty on the manga, but I do remember Reborn not considering Verde a comrade.

But here's the thing! Verde isn't affiliated with any of the mafia families in the manga/anime. He mostly seems to be a free agent doing as he pleases. He isn’t even like Colonnello, who works at a place like Mafia World that is supposed to be a more lawful-netrual zone. (I mean that families aren't supposed to fight since it's a secret resort for the mafia.) Verde is his own boss! While the Arcobaleno ALL work for someone else. Or at least they all seem to have clear affliations with groups. For example, Reborn seems very staunchly rooted in the Vongola. Lal works at CEDEF. Skull works for the Carcassa and later seems to transition into the Shimon family. Colonnello works at Mafia Land. Fon works as an enforcer for the Triads, I believe. Viper became Mammon and is now a part of the Varia.

They all have clear affliations, except Verde. All we're told is that he's a mad scientist who performs amoral experiments. Except we only see that in anime filler.

Of course, there is there is also the frog assassins part in the manga. (It seemed more like Verde was hired to do an assassination job than an experiment, though.) Which, somehow, those guys don't strike me as competent. Reborn doesn't appear to be taking them seriously, which I feel like really sets that tone for me. The manga points out when Reborn’s upset by something usually. In that chapter, he just seemed amused, and even like Verde might have talked to him about it. Which gets my headcanon/theory brain going.

Also, where was I going with this again? I honestly forgot.

In conclusion, Verde is the outcast of the Arcobaleno because of how neutral he is. I personally categorize him as a chaotic neutral character. But like, I don't know, I feel like the Arcobaleno forget that about him and just expect him to have their same 'loyal to the group/family' mentality. But Verde probably has never been a part of a mafia family. He actually appears to be his own boss/the boss of others. Which, lightbulb, might also be the issue. He's a leader, and they are all subordinates. (And there goes my headcanon/theorizer brain gears at work again XD)

[khr-guilded-cage]

In his first year attending Namimori Middle School, Reborn, the Greatest Hitman alive, also known as the Sun Guardian of the cursed Arcobalenos, would have arrived at their little suburban home under the ruse of tutoring him with the intention to pick up his grades and prepare him for the future while in reality he had the mission to make him into a respectable Mafioso. But not any ordinary Mafioso, oh no, Tsuna would have the more than dubious and ungrateful honour of being trained as a Mafia Don, trained to become Vongola Decimo, the Tenth Boss of the prestigious Vongola Famiglia, the Mafia World's strongest Famiglia, effectively underworld royalty, to be exact.

None cared for the fictional wishes, dreams or hopes of a civilian child. He was a tool to achieve their objectives. The boy himself didn't matter.

… he never mattered.

Tsuna would have quite disturbingly found out that the three eldest sons of Nono, the Ninth Vongola Boss and a man he recalled only vague memories of meeting and calling grandpa, had been mercilessly murdered, and he himself, thanks to his absentee father's high position within the Famiglia and his thrice-damned paternal bloodline, was now the last eligible and living heir to the position of Mafia Boss. The last option. The hidden spare. The truly desperate means of an old man and a careless father to keep their Famiglia on top of the game, no matter who they destroyed on their way to that goal. What did it matter if they annihilated the innocence and future of a young boy that was family? In that future, a Tsuna burdened with terrible purpose would have quickly if reluctantly gained true friends and strong, partially unwilling guardians along the way, while proving himself in ways no one ever imagined him capable of, living through the bloodying Ring Battles against the murderous Varia arguably victoriously, stopping the perilous fate of devastation the Millefoire Famiglia would have unleashed upon the world; drowning in tears of relief, his resolve unbreakable and the revulsion he felt for himself and the acts he was forced to accomplish suffocating him in a cruel life that had in just a few months became a hellish nightmare of guilt and despair, the blood and suffering of others staining his shaking hands red. He would have summarily cleaned the sin of Vongola's name in the damned Daemon Spade Debacle while befriending the tricked Shimon's and finally ingeniously breaking the Arcobaleno curse in the last moments of the feared Rainbow Representative Battles after completely defeating Bermuda von Veckenstein, the immortal head of the Vindice.

At age 24 Tsuna would have resentfully succeeded Nono as Decimo, moving to Italy and marrying his school crush and girlfriend of three years, Sasagawa Kyoko. He would have been known throughout the underworld as a benevolent, kind and protective Don. He would have become 'Il Saint di Cielo.'

He would have been an empty sacrifice.

One more child lost.

[blacktvnews]

Africa-Israel: in Cameroon, Eran Moas, a very special “consultant”

“Israel Connection” (2/4). He does not appear on any official organization chart, but in Cameroon, everyone knows that he is the cornerstone of an Israeli system that he helped to establish, from Etoudi hill to the Kribi marina. Portrait of a man with sprawling networks. The alcohol is flowing freely. Behind the bar which runs alongside the restaurant, a cocktail professional handles his shakers with virtuosity, attracting attention. A few bottles of stronger alcohol await their new owner in a bucket filled with ice cubes which will soon melt. This evening, for the privileged (and wealthy) customers of Famous, the trendiest restaurant-cabaret in Yaoundé, the Cameroonian night keeps its promises. It has the amber color of whiskey and the sparkling flavor of champagne. In the heart of the Bastos district, the address has become essential. Samuel Eto'o recently spent the evening there with Fifa boss Gianni Infantino. The artists Charlotte Dipanda and Lady Ponce performed there, like Maître Gims and Wes Madiko.

Among the African and international stars, one man also has his habits: Eran Moas. The face of the advisor of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR, Cameroonian special forces) is well known to the most diligent. On November 3 this year, it is even very possible that the Israeli will come to celebrate his 45th birthday there, surrounded by his closest friends. His 23rd celebrated on Cameroonian lands. In the festive atmosphere, the shadow man of Paul Biya's elite troops  does not seem to cultivate secrecy. He feels at home. And for good reason: it is. Described as “the club of Israelis” in the upper echelons of Yaoundé, Famous is managed by the company Danaet. Its owner is not listed in the commercial register, but Moas is one of the main financiers.

From Kinshasa to Yaoundé

According to several of his contacts, the BIR advisor manages (or has managed) the participation of the Israeli community in Cameroon in numerous other companies, such as MegaHertz and Ringo (two communications companies), the Espresso House café-restaurant, or the Safari Club, which became the Trust Club less than a year ago.How did he acquire this central role? Flashback. Freshly released from compulsory military service in Israel, Eran Moas arrived in Cameroon in 1998. He was barely 22 years old. A communications technician, he was then employed by the Tadiran company, one of the Israeli flagships of surveillance and radar technologies. At the time, relations between Yaoundé and Tel Aviv were already in good shape. Since 1984 and the coup d'état that almost overthrew him, Paul Biya has trusted the Israelis to reform his security system. He wants to free himself from the French, who, according to him, are too close to his predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo. His Congolese neighbor, Mobutu Sese Seko, introduced him to a man, Meir Meyuhas. This Egyptian Jew knows Central Africa perfectly. A former spy in the service of the Israeli army (infiltrated into Egypt in the 1950s, he was arrested and imprisoned there), he already frequented Mobutist power circles in Kinshasa in the early 1970s. When Zaire broke off its relations with Israel following the Yom Kippur War in 1973, it was he who first informed the ambassador of the Hebrew State in Egypt, one of his close friends. And, in 1982, while he contributed to the training of the Zairian leader's bodyguard, it was still he who was in charge of promoting the reestablishment of relations between the two countries, serving as an intermediary between Mobutu, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shimon Peres.

[lunaprincipessa]

ENTRY SEVENTY-SEVEN (CONTINUED FROM: ENTRY SIXTY-EIGHT)

Part Two: Episodes 6-10

Episode Six: "Going Out"

Zohar's day starts out with meeting Mali, who didn't allow Asher to sneak out of the house without introducing them. Mali and Zohar were happy to meet one another, but it put Asher on edge. They were going to just drop Zohar off at work, but when her boss confronts Asher about how he spoke to the other baristas, he becomes upset and forces Zohar to quit working at the café. When Zohar and Asher begin to argue, Mali intervenes and takes Zohar out to her favorite mall for breakfast. She tried to ask Zohar if Asher had other girlfriends. Zohar changes the subject and convinces Mali to drive her to see Alex, the speech therapist she didn't have an appointment with. When Zohar arrives, she sees Alex and Yaeli kissing and she runs off depressed and upset without letting Mali know. Zohar starts to call the men she met at the club. One of the men gave her number away to another man that ended up picking Zohar up, and talked her into taking shirtless pictures for him. Just when the audience assumes he might not let Zohar go, Asher suddenly shows up after tracking her location on his phone, beats the man senseless, then forces Zohar to move in with him. Mali tries to plead with Asher, telling him she was waiting for Zohar and wasn't sure how she slipped away, but Asher blows off every word, walking off in anger.

Naava confronts Ron about not going outside to try products for work. She learns not only has he been concerned about her weight, but he's upset that she uses prescription drugs and alcohol to treat her depression. Ron then confessed going outside scares him because there's a possibility of him either getting lost or bullied. Even Ron's own parents struggle to show him any patience or kindness. But Naava comes up with a solution. She decides to stay on the phone with Ron while he's outside, guiding him through his commute with encouragement and giving direction. She also suggests he wear sunglasses if eye contact continues to be a problem. That way, people won't see him looking away from them.

Amit and Erez attend a speed-dating event held by former counselors. Erez meets his future girlfriend Rita. Amit spends his time befriending a man named Shimon, since he's unable to find a date due to excessive talk about Lior. After Erez has a meltdown, the three men return to the apartment and decide to hang a mezuzah in the doorway to Ron's dismay and disapproval.

Episode Seven: "What Do I Feel" - This One is My Favorite Episode of the Series!

This episode begins with Ron going for a walk outside with Naava on the phone for comfort. He does well at first. He talks to her, describing his surroundings as he's traveling down the street, which seems to help with regulating himself.

Ron then starts experiencing difficulty going any further because he feels nervous about crossing a busy street. Naava tries to comfort him but shortly after, Ron can't hear her voice anymore.

He rushes back to the apartment after losing contact with Naava, only to find her dead on the couch from a heart attack. He stares blankly at her for a moment, trying to process what he was seeing. Naava was his best friend.

In the next scene, we see the character of Ron who has been so scared and hesitant about going outside, completely immersing himself in the public.

He walks far away from home, finding himself in an appliance store downtown. Because of his knowledge and experience with buying and reviewing products, he's able to identify everything the store carries. As a result, the character of Ron who was feared to be unemployable, helps a fellow customer who mistook him for an employee, find what she needed with ease answering all her questions like a pro.

He leaves quickly after that and eventually lands himself in a bar that was just opening. This was unintentional as he picked the closest door to him in order to avoid a crowd of people. The bartender asks him for a few minutes but Ron immediately asks for "Amaretto, almond liquor," what Naava used to always drink.

He drinks a half glass, too socially awkward to notice the bartender lifting his drink for a quick cheer. He drinks a second and a third. As the night continues on, he ends up socializing more with the bartender and a visiting comedian named Rami. Rami has been performing for a long time but his crowds have gotten smaller over the years. Seems both men are grieving. One over his friend, the other over his career.

Ron joins Rami to go sit at the shore after his show. They discuss random topics like women, human nature, and a friend Ron had in elementary school. Ron then gets the pleasure of watching the older Rami fail at flirting with a younger woman who was rolling her own cigarettes.

In a desperate attempt to change the subject, Rami brings up that Ron is mourning a friend who passed away. They ask when it happened. "Today," Ron says. They both assume he is in shock due to the lack of emotion and tears. Ron becomes irritated with having to explain he's not in shock and walks away from them both.

Ron then goes into a busy arcade and sits down with something to eat as he watches the people around him play games. Afterward, he steps into a photo booth and takes multiple pictures of himself to analyze his facial expressions.

After ignoring her all day, he decides to accept a call from Yaeli, who is relieved to know he's safe. Ron hardly ever left the house. His friend dies, and he's been gone all day. She was worried. She offers to pick him up but he declines. When she asks him what he's doing, he says, "trying to see how I feel."

Episode Eight: "Don't Want to be An Egg"

There is a group counseling session at the apartment. Yaeli still invited Zohar even though she was forced to move in with Asher. This session doesn't go very well. Ron is uncooperative, Amit is clueless, and Zohar is being hateful toward Yaeli because she saw her kissing Alex, but Yaeli doesn't know she saw them yet.

After the session, Zohar returns home and discusses her new job with Asher. Initially, they argue. Zohar doesn't like cleaning in general, let alone cleaning up after herself. After the argument, she tells him the new job is very boring and very lonely. Asher encourages her to go to work, and promises to visit her during her shift.

After the session, Ron goes to Naava's apartment to watch TV and to sit where she always sat. The door opens. Ron meets Paz, Naava's daughter, who came to take it over. They have an alcohol-fueled discussion about Paz and Naava's mother-daughter dynamic, which eventually leads to Ron and Paz kissing and having sex. After they were done, Paz attempted to connect with Ron but he yelled at her for drinking out of his cup. She then shatters the cup and kicks him out.

After the session, Amit hangs out at home and eventually Erez comes over to introduce his new girlfriend Rita. Rita brought her roommate Shlomit, and they begin to socialize. The conversation was interrupted the split second Amit recognized Lior on TV. She had an audition, now she's acting! And Amit is smitten all over again.

Episode Nine: "Neurotypical"

This episode begins with a cute guy walking into Zohar's new job. She notices him and he notices her too. He walks in and out of the store multiple times within a 5-minute period. He looks at a new book every time he comes back in. Eventually, they smile at each other. Zohar then calls Yaeli and urges her to come to the mall. When Yaeli arrives, Zohar asks her for help with setting up a date with him. Yaeli helps Zohar, apologizes for kissing Alex, and goes on her way to give the young about-to-be couple some privacy. They have lunch then they go back to his place where he teaches Zohar about the term "neurotypical," and why it doesn't apply to them. Later that evening, Asher visits Zohar and they have an uncomfortable conversation about contraceptives. But her evening ends with an affectionate call from her boyfriend Ron, who she calls "the other Ron" since one of her roommates is named Ron too. He even sends an "I love you" text before her bedtime which had her smiling from ear to ear.

Later on, Yaeli is attempting to talk to Ron about mourning the death of Naava, but they are interrupted when a very angry Paz is suddenly storming through the door. She was not happy about Ron's post on her Facebook page, asking her for more sex which was visible to all her contacts. Yaeli nearly calls the police because Paz was yelling so loud but Ron tells Yaeli to go away. Paz tells Ron to never post on her page ever. A few minutes later, Paz offers sex then changes her mind, telling Ron to never contact her again. Not before long, Paz calls Ron on the phone and asks him to come to the apartment to help her with all the products, resulting in them fooling around. Once again, Paz tries to connect with Ron afterward but she's met with resistance when he reveals he doesn't want her moving in her mother's apartment, which she said she would definitely do now out of spite. Yaeli tries to discuss the situation with Ron when she notices he's upset. They go out to a cafe, discuss Paz, and buy her something to eat. Ron goes to drop the meal off and talk to Paz but Amit interrupts them. Paz is taken aback by how mean Ron acts toward him. She ends up offering him the meal Ron bought and a ride to the mall, making Ron upset all over again.

Amit finds out Lior will be back in town for a meet-and-greet at the mall to promote the show she stars in. He's trying everything he can to get a ride there, ignoring the restraining order. After getting dropped off by Paz, he finds himself in a serious situation. He had to use the restroom but doesn't know how to undo his belt. Two school age boys come out of their stalls and Amit asks them for help with the belt. It looks as bad as it sounds but Amit actually meant no harm. Still, the boys were terrified and ran away. They return less than a minute later with an angry father who beats Amit up, thinking he's a predator.

Episode Ten: "So Many Trees"

This episode begins with a news segment about what happened to Amit. As he and Ron are watching the footage after police intervention, Amit takes notice to Yaeli comforting him as he was crying. In this moment, Amit forgets about Lior and a new crush begins to develop.

Then, Yaeli calls a group meeting with Zohar, Amit, and Ron. They are all there, along with Erez, to discuss him moving in with the trio. He agrees to the house rules and reads a letter he wrote out loud. All was going well until Yaeli mentioned the repairman that Ron doesn't like. He's coming to prepare Erez's room and now they need an hour-long escape plan.

Zohar and her boyfriend Ron go out on a date involving a movie and meeting Asher for coffee. Zohar introduces them, asking Asher to leave immediately after instead of hanging out. Zohar wanted to go back to Ron's place. Ron wrote a song for her and sang it to her when they got there. Zohar tells him she wants him but he isn't interested in sex at all, ever. Zohar becomes upset but quickly calms down and asks Ron if he's willing to make out with her until she finds a boyfriend she can sleep with. He agrees. After a make-out sesh, Zohar heads over to Asher's place to ask him for a favor but he's at his wits end with her. He yells at her saying he's cared for and helped her his entire life but she never does anything when he needs something. He eventually just walks away from Zohar without saying anything else to her.

Amit received a special invitation from the cafe he loved following the incident at the meet-and-greet. There he finds Lior and the old crew waiting for him. They give him free treats, she gives him an autographed DVD copy of the series, but his only response is asking them if they know Yaeli. He returns home for his final session with Yaeli, as she reveals she won't be staying for another year, and he just gives her flirty eyes the whole time.

Ron is under the impression that he's going up to Paz's apartment to train her in writing product reviews, but she already has a review waiting. It's for the product "Ron," and she gives it only one star, citing his insensitivity as the reason. Yaeli goes to say her goodbyes to Ron but tries to tell him the review is actually a gift, but he doesn't understand. He just tells Yaeli he'd prefer an Apple watch for a gift instead.

The episode ends with the three of them sitting on a park bench, waiting for the repairman to leave.

Like I said in Part One, maybe the way I describe it may not sound as entertaining but it really was a cute show. I was hoping Yaeli would eventually return and maybe even date Asher since he seemed to be just as heartbroken when he found out she kissed Alex. Speaking of return, since it seemed that Asher was about to walk out on Zohar, it would be nice to see him return as well after taking some time off for himself. I was hoping Amit and Zohar both would make more friends. I was hoping Amit would have friends to a point where he forgets the crushes and that Zohar finds women she can relate to and a suitable boyfriend... Which I actually think should be her roommate Ron. Speaking of which, his quick visit to the appliance store proved he's employable. I would've loved to see him at a retail job selling the products he knows inside and out. Oh well. It's done now.

More thoughts later.

[squalodinoappreciationsquad]

You actually did show me that the Vongola was more progressive than the Cavallone, Giotto set the precedent of accepting anyone into the family no matter where they came from. Which explains why Gokudera a bastard child was able to join the Vongola and some day be the number 2 to the Vongola boss. Though I feel the Vongola is more ruthless compared to the Cavallone family, while Vongola is more progressive they’re the mafia and after Giotto its been said they’ve had many battles the ruined people’s lives.

Indeed.

Sometimes being progressive does not equal to being kind.

See what happened to the Shimon family at the hand of Sawada Iemitsu.

Or the whole Cradle ordeal.

Only Amano knows what battles that ruined people's lives Giotto did at the end of the day.