#splendid work op

[giddlygoat]

@bootychomper my son after a long day of exploding

I’m being absolutely swamped with classwork rn so all I have to offer is a Zane I painted in gay club enjoy

[incorrectbatfam]

Batfam having tumblr.

🔥 Sponsored with Blaze

official-batman

I don't care what the media has told us about antiheroes, but there is absolutely ZERO excuse for taking another human life and if you do then you're no better than the thing you're trying to stop.

redrobin ⇌ official-batman

op is a furry

official-batman ⇌ redrobin

Firstly, I don't fit the definition of a furry since I do not wear the suit for recreational purposes nor is the design remotely in vein. Secondly, you shouldn't be ridiculing people's interests. As I was saying, there's a plethora of scientific evidence showing that while humans have killed in certain instances, we are biologically wired to be altruistic people and shouldn't give into moments of anger.

thatpurplething ⇌ official-batman

"Just don't murder" wow way to oversimplify a broader systemic issue AND minimize the trauma murdered people experience

notmysecretanimeblog ⇌ thatpurplething

Not to derail because it's a good point but user @/thatpurplething endorses unethical consumption by having chicken nuggets in her profile picture.

i-am-darkness-i-am-the-light ⇌ notmysecretanimeblog

Actually those are bofa

dickwings ⇌ i-am-darkness-i-am-the-light

bofa deez updogs

your-tired-librarian ⇌ dickwings

Going back to OP's point, there is a lot of debate around the biological killing instinct. As an example, some animal species cannibalize themselves, even within the same families. Sometimes it's out of desperation or an attempt at protection, but other times it's overt hostility. Even at the cellular level, microorganisms can absorb and break down their own kind. There's a great book from some Ivy University professors talking about the self-destructive programming found in nature. #op being a furry is still a massive oof

orphanized ⇌ your-tired-librarian

the cain instinct

bluebirdz ⇌ orphanized

Me when my brother falls down the stairs and tells me he's been Destiel Superhelled

local-zombie ⇌ bluebirdz

Me when my brother

kitty-central ⇌ local-zombie

What is happening?

pennyworthy ⇌ kitty-central

Batblr's splendid work as usual.

lesbian-premium ⇌ pennyworthy

why was i blazed this post

[kalifornia1025]

The Resident Patient Pt. 1 (SPOILERS)

Pt. 1 notes for Resident Patient, let’s go!!!

“I need a catchphrase”- sir you already have a bunch, just take your pick

Gross, weird, and spooky? SAY LESS!

He’s getting the mic fixed…not replaced…I can’t even be mad about his dedication to the mic 

“You ever dropped it?” “About 16 times, yeah”- HOW DID IT NOT BREAK SOONER?!

John you seriously share your Dad Jokes with anyone, huh?

Murder case already? Splendid

Ooh, John and Sherlock alternating clever deductions between each other, love it LOVE IT!

“Hips don’t lie, mate” SHAKIRA SHAKIRA (…sorry)

…there’s a what on his WHAT?

Oh wow, love affair turned murder? Nice

“Well observed Doctor” “Thank you Detective” YOU TWO STOP BEING SO CUTE

THE HIGH FIVES ARE BACK!!

Sherlock is so real about not wanting cold butter for his toast, because I’ve lost so many good toasts when trying to spread cold butter on them…I’d rather have a plain toast than a massacred one

“To the dead condom man” - now John why did you have to say that?

“We are [magnetic] aren’t we? Opposites attract and all that sort of thing” - sir you can’t just say that and be surprised we ship you two (don’t even get me STARTED on the mailbag episodes…)!

Hehe more canon acknowledgment of Sherlock’s neurodiversity

“Just…a little bored” “You just solved a murder” - no joke this immediately make me think of that one scene from BBC Sherlock 

“Ugh” - why were so SASSY with that, Sherlock????

Aww John already knows to calm Sherlock down from getting worked up without cases, he knows him so well!

“Christ sake you sound like the bloody listeners” - ope, I feel called out (not a shoutout, but close enough)

“Fill a brother in” - oh…oh no John why

I like how Sherlock isn’t always right, like sometimes he’ll be SO CLOSE but get it wrong and go “bugger”, it reminds us that he’s not too perfect (which I prefer)

Oh nice, I like when John brings up his educational background!

I REALLY like Percy’s voice <3 <3

“Little prick, but enough of me!” - John if want the short jokes to stop THIS ISN’T HELPING

‘Chugging along’, ‘Deduction Junction’, ‘little observations may leave the carriage’…Sherlock you REALLY do like trains and it’s the cutest thing 

Okay, NOW we’re getting into the main case!

Oooh spooky element! That’s a little different from the main story, but in a good way

Sleepy John is so cute to me!

Mariana!!

“Heysville, ugh God I’m starting to sound like you [John], yuck” - rude but you’re not wrong

Mic shenanigans seem to be an ongoing theme right now, first it was the audio distortions in Red Circle and now the mic is magnetic

Oh hello…random nurse lady?

Well that interaction was certainly rushed, and TOTALLY not suspicious (she says sarcastically)

‘Johnny boy’? Wow, that’s a first

Oh God this is reminding me of Creeping Man pt. 2 cliffhanger…

OMG OMG JOHN WHY ARE YOU STRESSING ME??!!

So…that was part 1…and the case already sounds promising! I didn’t think we’d get such a dramatic cliffhanger in the first part, yet here we are. I’m REALLY liking the dynamic of John and Sherlock in this episode. They seem more in-tuned with each other! Unfortunately not a lot of Mariana but at least we got a heads that she wasn’t gonna be in this case much (plus she mentioned she was glad not to be ‘dealing with this case’…so that’s foreboding). Anyway STRONG start to the case, and we’ve still got two more parts so stay tuned (and hang tight John, Sherlock will be there soon)!

[shaanks]

Random but do you have any Eustass Kid fics that you like? I struggle to find ones where he's not written like an asshole (nsfw is okay too btw!) I also like kidkiller/kidlaw or character study/coming of age type ones or modern au...just anything please<3

Oh man, okay!!! :"D I know tryin to find stories where he's not written as like some kind of abusive shithead is like. hard as fuck. I feel very lucky to have stumbled on the little Kid Enjoyers community that I have, and I'll try to give you some good recs. Just as a disclaimer, a lot of what I read and engage with tends to be like nsft stuff, so that's going to be a lot of what's on the list. Also there is the possibility for spoilers for the current arc, I'm not sure where you are in your one piece journey alsedkjfasld

Okay, so:

@quinloki : Has pretty much my favorite characterization set for Kid of all time. They write mostly smut and op x reader stuff in both shortform and longform formats, and have a variety of faves, so if you like their style and have faves other than Kid there's more stuff in there too. c:

Some of my fave pieces of theirs are shorter ones, so they're good starters, I'll link em here, here and here . (the links are gonna open to punks-never-die205, that's one of their sideblogs)

@swampstew : Writes STUNNING work both short and longform, absolutely loves Kid, and if you like her writing she has a huge backlog of stories both on her blog and on her wattpad. A++++ 10/10, she also runs a blog and is writing a longer series for Killer, KillerCook, which is SO splendid.

She also does headcanon lists, a TON of events, and x reader things, I'll link some starter ones here, here, and here. (the last one is to an anthology of short stories and drabbles on her wattpad that is a ton of fun)

@standfucker : good GRACIOUS me, okay listen. Standfucker does it all. A+++ Kid characterization. Hot, well-balanced, well-written stories. They write for a bunch of characters and also do like, multiple people in a pairing/scenario stuff, and it's all phenomenal.

First one is one of my personal favorites, which involves all the Kid Pirate officers here. This is also one of my fave pieces, you get Kid all to yourself in this one here.

@wyvernslovecake : If you'd like something a little more crew-oriented and a little less x reader smut oriented, PLEASE I am begging you look into their Kid Pirates and Cross Guild little drabble posts with their character Shriek (who is the cutest little bat mink on the Grand Line), and the named characters Gabriel and Gryphon who are [spoiler characters for current arc] and adopted by the Cross Guild. Everything they write (and draw!!) is so delightful and fun, it will brighten up your day by AT LEAST tenfold.

Here, here, and here are some good examples <3.

@eustasssimp : She has a lot of like shorter form x reader and headcanon posts, and write Kid like the gruff secret softie he is. <3

Some examples here, here, and here.

@cyborg-franky : Again, he has a truly prodigious backlog of writing, so if you enjoy his Kid stuff and have other faves, you could truly spend hours and days enjoying some excellently written fun stuff here.

here, here, and here are some examples.

**

I am absolutely certain I'm forgetting people lmfao, my working memory is very bad and I'm nursing a concussion, but hopefully this gives you at least a bit of a start!! Everyone listed, and really everyone in this little section of the community, is lovely, sweet, and wildly talented. There's a lot of friendly open sharing 'round these parts, and I hope you find somewhere to land and enjoy the big guy too. If none of these does it for you, or if you'd like additional recs, just let me know and we'll figure something out.

Thank you so much for your lovely ask!!

[kozakk]

Oh. My. GOD. I feel like I'm dreaming, like this Art is too splendid to be real and actually before my eyes!! What a wonderful, masterful, EXCELLENT work. 💙 And beautiful homage to the unforgettable portrayal by Bohdan Stupka! His expression is depicted so skillfully, it's like He's really looking at us through this magnificent artwork, His face coming alive under our eyes. It's a privilege and an honour to be able to admire the Art as excellent as this masterpiece. 💙

Here’s to you, fascinating and unfathomable old trickster hetman!

[sgiandubh]

Sunday sounds: a change of heart

When Haendel wrote his Organ Concerto in B-flat, Op. 4, No. 6, around 1738, little did he know its posterity would likely be a bit different, and for the better. What was originally planned as a simple interlude to more serious works, turned into pure magic, with the help of a clever change of heart and solo instrument.

From organ to harp and tailored for the Welsh virtuoso William Powell. Here, in a splendid rendition by the Spanish TV and Radio Orchestra. Featuring the Basque Nicanor Zabaleta, perhaps the best harpist who ever graced this Earth:

[trailofstardust]

Debunking the claims about Nur Masalha

@autistic-ben-tennyson

@jewishvitya

Hi, I saw a post made by a zionist which states:

"Nur Masalha is a poor quality source, and not worth invoking on the issue of "what was the spectrum of early Zionist thought, how did they envision living with Arabs?"

As evidence they linked two sources which I want to take a crack at debunking. The OP made some claims about Nur Masalha, including that he "relies on many unsupported or blatantly false assertions all aimed to whitewash Jewish history and deny an indigenous Jewish identity" including:

Jews learned monotheism from the Koran

Ashkenazim are all European converts (Khazar theory)

Herod was not Jewish and he ruled from Aelia Capitolina a century before the Romans named it such, with "Jerusalem" never having been a significant part of Jewish culture anyway (no, really)

"Palestine" was the indigenous name of the land, according to entirely imperialist sources: Greeks, Assyrians, Romans, etc.

The Arab conquest of the land was "glorious," "spectacular," etc.

Chaim Weizmann called Arabs the n-word"

Right now I havent read through any of his books to check for the veracity of these claims, but I can explain why the articles the OP linked aren't reliable sources.

The first one is "The Distortion of Palestine" by Tel Aviv of Books. The author claims that Palestinians "clearly have their origin in 7th century Arabia" which is completely bull. Oh boy, where to begin?

The idea that "jewish people have been in Palestine before muslims and arabs" is prevalent among zionists who want to deny the Palestinian connection to the land and their claim to indigeneity, but its far from accurate.

The argument is simple to follow: Palestinians today are mostly Arabs. The Arabs came to the Levant with the Muslim conquest of the region. Therefore, Arabs -and as an extension Palestinians- have only been in Palestine and the Levant since the seventh century AD.

However, researchers have known that Palestinians share a significant amount of their DNA from ancient Canaanite populations that lived in the region which is now Palestine:

"A 2021 study by the New York Genome Center found that the predominant component of the DNA of modern Palestinians matches that of Bronze Age Palestinian Canaanites who lived around 2500–1700 BCE."

Nathaniel Pearson: The splendid tapestry: How DNA reveals truths, ancient & lasting | TED Talk

Before the islamic conquests the population in Palestine was mostly Christian, having converted from Judaism, and afterwards the people slowly converted to islam, and it took a couple of centuries before the majority became muslim.

Also, dismissing Palestinians as "just arabs" has additional problematic implications: this is not just denying the existence of Palestinians as a distinct people, but the logical conclusion of this stance is that the entirety of the arab population across MENA are one homogenous, interchangeable mass who aren't really native to their homelands, which is probably the most ignorant and bigoted garbage I can't believe "liberals" really believe in.

The author also has this to say about Mexicans:

"But this is like writing that the Mexicans are the indigenous people of Mexico" using the author's logic, the entire Spanish-speaking populations across latin america are really from Spain and have no ties to indigenous culture, which is far from true. I'm not particularly knowledgeable about how indigeneity works in Mexico, but that hardly seems accurate.

A lot of the statements are made in bad faith and contradict themselves.

It is laying on a bunch of unspoken premises and beliefs that are of course natural and unquestionable from the Zionist perspective- such as the idea that Jews and only Jews are allowed to claim nativeness to the region

Rather than the point that the Kingdom of Judea (and the Kingdom of Israel) were just some of many different groups living in that part of the world and the issue isn’t whether or not Jews have historic origins in the region (they do) but rather that those origins gives them the right to carve out a Jewish ethnostate in the region involving the exclusion of a non-Jewish presence.

Basically what I’m saying is, is that the article is sitting on the false premise (being argued in what I consider to be bad faith) that only one specific group gets to claim “indigenousness” and that the proof of Palestinian existence doesn’t matter because the writer feels there is more proof that Hebrews were there “first.” Frankly, my reading of the historical record pretty comfortably suggests to me that there were multiple groups there because that’s simply how history of time and place works.

This is what I have to say right now, I might write about the second article later, but so far this is what I have.

[real-life-senshi]

Sailor Moon was always by my side. Mitsuishi Kotono and Kitagawa Keiko's special conversation on Sailor Moon Cosmos

(OP: This was from July 15th, 2023. Somehow I missed this article when it was first released... Whoops. Here's the belated translation.)

In 2014, when the new anime Sailor Moon Crystal began, fans of the 90s anime were gushing. We get to see Sailor Moon again...! And now, with the movie version of Sailor Moon Cosmos (both the first and second parts are in theatres), the series has finally come to its conclusion. This time, exclusive to MOVIE WALKER PRESS, Mitsuishi Kotono, who plays Eternal Sailor Moon/Usagi Tsukino, and Kitagawa Keiko, who plays Sailor Cosmos, got their dream to share a conversation come true! They reminisced on their experience during production, how they portrayed their roles, and what the existence of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon mean for both of them.

「 What I worked hard for in the '90s has actually come to fruition… I really felt that. 」 (Mitsuishi)

― This movie is the culmination of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal series that started in 2014. From the initial Crystal series to this movie, people who grew up watching the 90's anime became the chosen cast… How was it for you, Mitsuishi-san, to work with the viewers of those days?

Mitsuishi 「 That's true. At first, I was the only confirmed voice casting for the film, and then the other Sailor Senshi auditioned and one by one, we finally came together. 」

― It is just like at the very beginning of the work, isn't it? At first, Usagi was alone, but then Sailor Mercury's Ami Mizuno, then Sailor Mars' Rei Hino, and so on, gathered together.

Mitsuishi 「 In the beginning I felt very lonely recording on my own, so I was glad when one by one the Sailor Senshi gathered together. Many of the cast and staff had told me “I’ve watched it back then”! “What I worked hard for in the 90s has actually come to fruition”, “the children who would proclaim ‘I want to be like Sailor Moon’ have become such splendid adults, all of them really flourished as a lady and just like a Senshi” was the impression I received firsthand. Of course, the girls are all professionals, so they were able to put aside their feelings as a fan and tackled their voicing roles seriously, and I felt that they supported me more than I did for them. We also get together in private, and I sincerely feel that I have made it this far because I had their support. 」

― Kitagawa-san, who plays Sailor Cosmos, is also a member of the so-called "Sailor Moon generation," right?

Kitagawa 「 Mitsuishi-san is a goddess to me. When I was a child, the first manga I picked up was Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, which I followed the serialization in Nakayoshi, and was part of the generation that also participated in Sailor Moon’s ``Great Service For All Applicants''. 」

― You can send stamps to the Nakayoshi editorial office and get cute goodies.  So nostalgic!

Kitagawa 「 Yes, that's right. When I first worked with Mitsuishi-san on the JDrama Rikokatsu, the first thing we talked about was Sailor Moon. I also loved Evangelion, so I recall we talked about that as well (Editor's note: Mitsuishi played Katsuragi Misato in the series Neon Genesis Evangelion.). I think it is probably the same for everyone from my generation, that I grew up listening to Mitsuishi-san’s voice, so during Rikokatsu it felt natural and comfortable for me to co-portray the roles of mother and daughter with Mitsuishi-san. Though we hadn’t worked together since the drama, we kept in touch from time to time, so it didn't feel like it had actually been that long of a time. 」

Mitsuishi 「 For me, because I often see you on TV.  When watching TV, I’d go “Ah, it's Keiko-chan! She's so beautiful!” (lol). So I also didn't feel like it had been a long time since I last saw you. 」

― When thinking about Kitagawa-san in this context, we’d easily think of the image of Sailor Mars from the live-action drama, but this time you will be playing a different role, Sailor Cosmos.

Kitagawa 「 I was happy when I initially received the offer, but I was also puzzled. In the live-action, Sawai Miyuu-san, who played Sailor Moon, was truly the center of our group, being supported by the 4 Senshi, but this time Sailor Cosmos’s role gives the impression of being " the root of the Sailor Senshi". Instead of being on the “supporting side”, that this role was so close to Usagi-chan's position, it felt like a sanctuary in a sense... a place that I felt I couldn’t jump into. So while I was very happy to be offered the role, and I was very eager to be a part of this new production, simultaneously I’d wonder “Am I the right person for this role?”… causing me conflicting feelings. I ended up seeking consult with all the members of what is referred to as the “Senshi-kai” (戦士会, Senshi Reunion) nowadays, the Senshi cast members of the live-action series. But, "This is the last production of the Crystal series, I’m so happy you get to play such a role in that, I definitely want you to do it!” was what everyone told me, and so they gave me the push I needed to accept the offer.」

― How was it for you when actually voicing the role?

Kitagawa 「 Before I recorded my part, I was provided a [voice] sample called a guide, and this time Mitsuishi-san was the one who dubbed the guide for me. It was already the perfect Sailor Cosmos. When I read the script, it was difficult to grasp the nuances of Sailor Cosmos' and Guardian Cosmos’s character, but Mitsuishi-san helped me realize it would be fine if I did it like this.  “Mitsuishi-san is amazing...”, I thought again in that moment. I feel that Usagi-chan's voice has also become deeper and deeper with each successive series. 」

Mitsuishi 「 About that, it's because the days have piled up...! (lol) 」

Kitagawa 「 Not at all, to have overcome many hardships, to be able to feel the image of “Usagi-chan of the present” really moved me. On the day of recording, Mitsuishi-san come to visit, as well as Takeuchi Naoko-sensei, so I was very nervous. (lol) 」

― For Mitsuishi-san, what were some things you were specifically mindful of when portraying Usagi-chan in this work?

Mitsuishi 「 This time around, her friends and Mamo-chan that she love all disappeared right in front of her, and in the second part, her friends appear as her enemies. Even though the scenario where everyone had become an enemy had also happened earlier in the series, this time was the toughest of them. Even though I felt fine when I was reading the script, it still became really tough when I actually heard the voices. Even when battered and bruised, I am determined to get back the people who are important to me, with a power that does not spring from hatred, it's with these thoughts I portrayed the role with a positive and great sense of power. 」

「 Having taught me many things, Sailor Moon is a series that is impossible for me to separate myself from. 」 (Kitagawa)

― Once again, what kind of existence does the work "Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon" mean for the two of you?

Mitsuishi 「 The reason I have made it this far as a voice actress is large because of this series, so it's a work that's very important to me. Since working on the Crystal series, I feel as if I'm giving back the energy everyone has given me when I was working in the 90s. Even in my daily life, I have the feeling that Sailor Moon is just around the corner in my mind. For example, sometimes the crescent moon is right above the Sky Tree, and whenever I see a picture of it on social media, my first thought is it looks like a big Moon Stick (lol). "If we had such a big Moon Stick, we could cleanse the entire Earth and bring peace to the world!" I sometimes think of outlandish things like that. 」

― That's an idea that only Mitsuishi-san, who has been playing Sailor Moon for a long time, could come up with... as expected!

Kitagawa 「 It really is! It's wonderful… 」

― And Kitagawa-san, what kind of influence did Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon have on your life?

Kitagawa 「 No matter with the series or with Mitsuishi-san, I've felt a sense of a destined connection with them. It was Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon that led me to make my debut as an actress, and when I worked as a lead actress on a drama series, or when I try my hand at voice acting, Mitsuishi-san often become part of such key moments of my experience. Moreover, this year marks the 20th anniversary of both the live-action series, and my career in the entertainment industry, I feel that Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon had been part of many significant turning points in my life. This is a series that is impossible for me to separate myself from. 」

Mitsuishi 「 In all honesty, I had originally been worried if I should bring up an old tokusatsu work with you given you are a major actress in the industry. 」

Kitagawa 「 I'm someone who prefers to speak openly and face things with dignity. I've always loved Sailor Moon, so much so I was like, "I'm going to audition and receive a role in the live-action version of Sailor Moon and work in Tokyo!" From the filming experience, I was taught filming methods, how to behave on set, how to act, how to dance, etc., and I really learned a lot. 」

Mitsuishi 「 Tokusatsu is a very difficult field. I've always felt that any actors or actresses who had overcome working in Tokusatsu would have the strength and spirit to survive in any field of the acting industry. 」

Kitagawa 「 It's the type of workspace and shooting site where you are required to do any and every sort of thing. Especially for the Sailor Moon series, even after transformation it would still be us actresses who are in costume, so that made it even more challenging. 」

Mitsuishi 「 Behind you it goes BOOM! And you'd still have to walk cooly in front of the explosion. 」

Kitagawa 「 At first I was shocked by the explosions, but I gradually got used to them, even napalm (explosions commonly used in Tokusatsu) I ended up not thinking anything of it (lol). I think the reason I've been able to do this for 20 years without faltering is that I have developed a great bond with everyone I have performed with the drama series. All members of the “Senshi-kai” (戦士会, Senshi Reunion) haven't left the entertainment industry, and we are all working hard in the same world. Even now would go to see and support each other's works, I am sure they will see this film as well. It's because of each other's presence that we have been able to continuously move forward, it's a sentiment that I hold deeply and feel very encouraged by. 」

― Lastly, for the Sailor Moon fans who have all grown up now, what are some of the highlights you'd like to share about this movie?

Mitsuishi 「 I think that as we grow older, with all the talks about 'love' and 'justice' that Sailor Moon does, more and more often we may feel embarrassed thinking about it. But for those who have loved Sailor Moon since the '90s", Usagi-chan's 'love' and 'justice' taken root somewhere in their hearts. So, I hope that this film will help them remember those things that they may have forgotten, and empower them to move forward with their lives with positivity. 」

Kitagawa 「 It's as if I was given the strength of 'positivity' and 'dedication' from this film. As I got older, there was a part of me that became afraid of failure... Because I'm in my 30s now and have been doing this job for 20 years, more and more I began to think 'I mustn't make mistakes'. In this film, Usagi-chan has to face and admit her past mistakes and works to correct her course, the part where she stands back up again to face her challenges, I was touched by that part of the story. I thought to myself, rather than shutting myself away in fear of failure or making mistakes, "I want to live my life with dignity" and was inspired to face live my life with positivity. It gave me the courage to not hold myself back and to take things easier. I am certain many people of my generation are at that point in their lives, too, and I think through watching this film Sailor Moon would give them a push to face their challenges and reassure them "It's okay". 」

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

Manhwa Rec: Concubine Walkthrough

Remember when I made a whole post recommending a manhwa because no one else I knew read it so I could find someone to talk to about it? Well, we're back at it again a whole year later for me to tell y'all to go read Concubine Walkthrough. It's 128 chapters (with some bonus content) of pure excellence.

While on the surface looking like a typical otome isekai read of 'MC transmigrates into the body of a story's villainess', Concubine Walkthrough turns the genre on its head with its implementation of sci-fi, philosophy and political battles in addition to beautiful artwork and heart-wrenching storytelling. If you're a fan of The Apothecary Diaries and The Matrix, you will enjoy this ride thoroughly.

Concubine Walkthrough follows the journey of protagonist Yona Lee who in 2030, three years before the start of the story, played a game called Concubine Walkthrough. A popular and innovative otome game falling the protagonist Lili who has been forced to go to the imperial palace to become a concubine.

Max out the various stats Lili has to embark on one of many paths from marrying the emperor to royal imperial consort. Of course the one who stands as the pinnacle of obstructing your progress is villainess, Ranhee Seo, the royal imperial consort the terror of the imperial court.

Yona was only able to play this game to completion once in her life although the desire to complete other endings always remained. Three years later, that chance comes again when, for its upcoming anniversary, Concubine Walkthrough is having a special VR rerelease. That's all fine and dandy, what isn't fine and dandy though is the fact that Yona has woken up in the game without any memory of ever logging on. Furthermore, she's playing as the game's villainess, Ranhee.

Nothing she does will summon the game's menu and nothing she does let's her log out. The game master only gives her one requirement to exit the game, Marry the emperor and make Ranhee Seo the empress.

It's only then that Yona remembers that for the special VR release of the game, one of the promoted features of the rerelease was a co-op mode and she might not be the only player stuck in the game as she is forced to strategize and partake in deadly games within the world of concubines.

Through its storytelling, Concubine Walkthrough encourages both the readers and characters alike to contemplate:

If you woke up one day and realized your entire life was a simulation, does that make your life any less meaningful? Simulated it may have been, the pains and joys your heart experienced was still real to you. It's still your life.

What is reality and what does that mean to you? Is reality something you choose for yourself or is that choice made for you?

All wrapped in unique artwork, comedy gold and riveting political plots as you watch Yona survive plots on her life and has to strategize her get backs.

1) Beautiful Artwork

Concubine Walkthrough is one of the most splendid manhwas in terms of artwork. It's drawn intentionally to look reminiscent of traditional Korean artwork and is incredibly intricate from the hanbooks to the headpieces the various characters wear.

These are just a few of my favorite shots from the series but they are far from the only ones. From the very first chapter, you're getting hit with bangers in terms of the quality. Bongbong never misses.

2) The comedy is immaculate

From Yona getting stuck with shitty items like a hairclip that gives her the sense of smell of a dog but compels her to bark uncontrollably to getting a jar that's literally only full of candy.

Yona's luck with items is absolute dog water and because of that, she can find herself in some hilarious situations. She can't get anything good to save her own life and seeing how she has to make these items work is a treasure in its own right.

Even without that, Yona's dynamic with characters like Lili is quite hilarious as the story progresses.

3) The mystery & philosophy

Even Yona's eyes are representative of red and blue pills given to Neo in The Matrix.

If you're a fan of sci-fi, romance and want to read an otome isekai romp that subverts your expectations? Please read this manhwa. It's The Matrix mixed with historical Korean fiction (and of course, otome isekai at its finest).

I loved loved LOVED the philosophy behind the story, the themes. The discussion of what reality is and choosing what reality means/is to you.

Just because your entire life is a simulation, does that make your entire life up until that point irrelevant? Simulated it may be, your joy, your pain, your love, all of that still felt real, right? There were so many things I never considered about that very topic until I read this series.

4) The Characters

There is not enough time in the day to delve into the characters of Concubine Walkthrough. They're all layered, complex and you won't be able to get enough of them as the story progresses. Even now after finishing the story months later, I still want more content concerning the cast. From protagonists to side characters.

Yona is a very compelling protagonist from start to finish. She's active, rather than letting things just happen she gets the jump on what she can. Her intelligence and her empathy as well as her comedic genius is so fun to watch along the beautifully illustrated pages. Not to mention her chemistry with characters Lili and Youngjung is a sight to behold.

Sadly, despite how key Lili and Youngjung are to the plot, I cannot delve too deeply about them due to spoilers. What I can say, however, is that Lili is a breath of fresh air on the trope of having the original protagonist of the source material interact with the story's female lead.

And Youngjung? In a lot of ways he represents the themes I was discussing in my previous point.

And of course, I cannot mention Concubine Walkthrough without bringing up Sunshine in any capacity. The mysterious eunuch who has become Yona's ally in this game. Like Lili and Youngjung, I cannot delve too deeply into this character without major spoilers but just know that even when you think you finally have the grasp on this character, Bongbong will still manage to flip the script on its head and surprise you. Multiple times even.

ー

And I think that's enough singing praises for this manhwa (not really). Like I said, this manhwa is The Apothecary Diaries meets The Matrix wrapped up in the bow of the otome isekai genre. Not only do you get beautiful artwork but a vibrant cast and deep story along with it.

A violent yet captivating world of concubines with a strong splash of sci-fi sounds like such a strange mixture, but Bongbong blends them beautifully into one of the best stories I've ever read.

Please, and I cannot stress this enough, give Concubine Walkthrough a read.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Monday, 11-25-24, 7pm Pacific

Welp, it has definitely been a Monday, hasn't it? Mr. Baggins here with some music to soothe your achin' nerves and help ease us all into a good night. Let's start the evening off with the music of Debussy, his "Nocturnes", L.91. No. 1 Nuages ("Clouds"), No. 2 Fêtes ("Festivals"), and No. 3 Sirènes ("Sirens") , performed by The Montreal Symphony, led by Charles Dutoit.

Now let's hear our Brazilian friend Guiomar Novaes, with her wonderful 1957 recording of the Op. 9 and Op. 15 Nocturnes from Book 1 of Chopin's Nocturnes.

Now we turn from Chopin to Haydn; we hear his Symphony No. 102, from a live recording made in 1971. Here is Lenny with The Vienna.

Let's hear them do Brahms' fourth and final Symphony, the Symphony No. 4, in E-minor, Op. 98, from a recording made ten years later, live, in 1981.

Next we hear the Beaux Arts Trio, with another of the Piano Trios of Beethoven. From a live performance, we hear them play The "Ghost" Trio in D Major, Op 70, No. 1. Splendid performance!

Next let's hear a unique performance of Schubert's String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, the "Death and the Maiden" quartet, in a version for string orchestra, performed by Seiji Ozawa, leading the Mito String Orchestra.

Next we have a real treat: the legendary Fritz Kreisler playing seven of his own works with orchestral accompaniment led by Donald Voorhees, recorded live for a radio broadcast in 1945! Here is Fritz Kreisler playing his own most popular works on The Bell Telephone Hour, the Complete Program from April 16, 1945. We hear his Concerto in the style of Vivaldi, Old Refrain, Liebesfreud, Liebesleid, Schon Rosmarin, Rondino on a Theme By Beethoven, Tambourin Chinois, and Caprice Viennois.

Now let's hear Fritz Kreisler, this time with Sergei Rachmaninoff at the piano, in their landmark 1928 recording of Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 3, in C minor, Op. 45., from a truly HISTORIC series of recordings the two made together on RCA Victor.

To wind things up this evening, I thought we might hear Elly Ameling, Soprano, Hans Deinzer, Clarinet, and Jörg Demus, Piano (made by Franz Rausch, Wien 1835), performing that glorious bit of Schubert known as "Der Hirt Auf Dem Felsen", or "The Shepherd on the Rock", Op.129, D.965., from their legendary recording made in 1965.

And with the dulcet tones of a young Miss Ameling, we bring this evening's program to a close. I do hope you've enjoyed the selections this evening, and maybe heard something new to your ear. This is Mr. Baggins signing off for this evening. I'll return at 8am Pacific with Morning Coffee Music.

Until then, dream sweet dreams, babies, dream sweet dreams.

Baggins out.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

What comes after neoliberalism?

In his American Prospect editorial, “What Comes After Neoliberalism?”, Robert Kuttner declares “we’ve just about won the battle of ideas. Reality has been a helpful ally…Neoliberalism has been a splendid success for the top 1 percent, and an abject failure for everyone else”:

https://prospect.org/economy/2023-03-28-what-comes-after-neoliberalism/

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/28/imagine-a-horse/#perfectly-spherical-cows-of-uniform-density-on-a-frictionless-plane

Kuttner’s op-ed is a report on the Hewlett Foundation’s recent “New Common Sense” event, where Kuttner was relieved to learn that the idea that “the economy would thrive if government just got out of the way has been demolished by the events of the past three decades.”

We can call this neoliberalism, but another word for it is economism: the belief that politics are a messy, irrational business that should be sidelined in favor of a technocratic management by a certain kind of economist — the kind of economist who uses mathematical models to demonstrate the best way to do anything:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/27/economism/#what-would-i-do-if-i-were-a-horse

These are the economists whose process Ely Devons famously described thus: “If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They’d sit in their studies and say to themselves, ‘What would I do if I were a horse?’”

Those economists — or, if you prefer, economismists — are still around, of course, pronouncing that the “new common sense” is nonsense, and they have the models to prove it. For example, if you’re cheering on the idea of “reshoring” key industries like semiconductors and solar panels, these economismists want you to know that you’ve been sadly misled:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/03/24/economy-trade-united-states-china-industry-manufacturing-supply-chains-biden/

Indeed, you’re “doomed to fail”:

https://www.piie.com/blogs/trade-and-investment-policy-watch/high-taxpayer-cost-saving-us-jobs-through-made-america

Why? Because onshoring is “inefficient.” Other countries, you see, have cheaper labor, weaker environmental controls, lower taxes, and the other necessities of “innovation,” and so onshored goods will be more expensive and thus worse.

Parts of this position are indeed inarguable. If you define “efficiency” as “lower prices,” then it doesn’t make sense to produce anything in America, or, indeed, any country where there are taxes, environmental regulations or labor protections. Greater efficiencies are to be had in places where children can be maimed in heavy machinery and the water and land poisoned for a millions years.

In economism, this line of reasoning is a cardinal sin — the sin of caring about distributional outcomes. According to economism, the most important factor isn’t how much of the pie you’re getting, but how big the pie is.

That’s the kind of reasoning that allows economismists to declare the entertainment industry of the past 40 years to be a success. We increased the individual property rights of creators by expanding copyright law so it lasts longer, covers more works, has higher statutory damages and requires less evidence to get a payout:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

At the same time, we weakened antitrust law and stripped away limits on abusive contractual clauses, which let (for example) three companies acquire 70% of all the sound recording copyrights in existence, whose duration is effectively infinite (the market for sound recordings older than 90 is immeasurably small).

This allowed the Big Three labels to force Spotify to take them on as co-owners, whereupon they demanded lower royalties for the artists in their catalog, to reduce Spotify’s costs and make it more valuable, which meant more billions when it IPOed:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/12/streaming-doesnt-pay/#stunt-publishing

Monopoly also means that all those expanded copyrights we gave to creators are immediately bargained away as a condition of passing through Big Content’s chokepoints — giving artists the right to control sampling is just a slightly delayed way of giving labels the right to control sampling, and charge artists for the samples they use:

https://doctorow.medium.com/united-we-stand-61e16ec707e2

(In the same way that giving creators the right to decide who can train a “Generative AI” with their work will simply transfer that right to the oligopolists who have the means, motive and opportunity to stop paying artists by training models on their output:)

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/09/ai-monkeys-paw/#bullied-schoolkids

After 40 years of deregulation, union busting, and consolidation, the entertainment industry as a whole is larger and more profitable than ever — and the share of those profits accruing to creative workers is smaller, both in real terms and proportionally, and it’s continuing to fall.

Economismists think that you’re stupid if you care about this, though. If you’re keeping score on “free markets” based on who gets how much money, or how much inequality they produce, you’re committing the sin of caring about “distributional effects.”

Smart economismists care about the size of the pie, not who gets which slice. Unsurprisingly, the greatest advocates for economism are the people to whom this philosophy allocates the biggest slices. It’s easy not to care about distributional effects when your slice of the pie is growing.

Economism is a philosophy grounded in “efficiency” — and in the philosophical sleight-of-hand that pretends that there is an objective metric called “efficiency” that everyone can agree with. If you disagree with economismists about their definition of “efficiency” then you’re doing “politics” and can be safely ignored.

The “efficiency” of economism is defined by very simple metrics, like whether prices are going down. If Walmart can force wage-cuts on its suppliers to bring you cheaper food, that’s “efficient.” It works well.

But it fails very, very badly. The high cost of low prices includes the political dislocation of downwardly mobile farmers and ag workers, which is a classic precursor to fascist uprisings. More prosaically, if your wages fall faster than prices, then you are experiencing a net price increase.

The failure modes of this efficiency are endless, and we keep smashing into them in ghastly and brutal ways, which goes a long way to explaining the “new commons sense” Kuttner mentions (“Reality has been a helpful ally.”) For example, offshoring high-tech manufacturing to distant lands works well, but fails in the face of covid lockdowns:

https://locusmag.com/2020/07/cory-doctorow-full-employment/

Allowing all the world’s shipping to be gathered into the hands of three cartels is “efficient” right up to the point where they self-regulate their way into “efficient” ships that get stuck in the Suez canal:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/29/efficient-markets-hypothesis/#too-big-to-sail

It’s easy to improve efficiency if you don’t care about how a system fails. I can improve the fuel-efficiency of every airplane in the sky right now: just have them drop their landing gear. It’ll work brilliantly, but you don’t want to be around when it starts to fail, brother.

The most glaring failure of “efficiency” is the climate emergency, where the relative ease of extracting and burning hydrocarbons was pursued irrespective of the incredible costs this imposes on the world and our species. For years, economism’s position was that we shouldn’t worry about the fact that we were all trapped in a bus barreling full speed for a cliff, because technology would inevitably figure out how to build wings for the bus before we reached the cliff’s edge:

https://locusmag.com/2022/07/cory-doctorow-the-swerve/

Today, many economismists will grudgingly admit that putting wings on the bus isn’t quite a solved problem, but they still firmly reject the idea of directly regulating the bus, because a swerve might cause it to roll and someone (in the first class seats) might break a leg.

Instead, they insist that the problem is that markets “mispriced” carbon. But as Kuttner points out: “It wasn’t just impersonal markets that priced carbon wrong. It was politically powerful executives who further enriched themselves by blocking a green transition decades ago when climate risks and self-reinforcing negative externalities were already well known.”

If you do economics without doing politics, you’re just imagining a perfectly spherical cow on a frictionless plane — it’s a cute way to model things, but it’s got limited real-world applicability. Yes, politics are squishy and hard to model, but that doesn’t mean you can just incinerate them and do math on the dubious quantitative residue:

https://locusmag.com/2021/05/cory-doctorow-qualia/

As Kuttner writes, the problem of ignoring “distributional” questions in the fossil fuel market is how “financial executives who further enriched themselves by creating toxic securities [used] political allies in both parties to block salutary regulation.”

Deep down, economismists know that “neoliberalism is not about impersonal market forces. It’s about power.” That’s why they’re so invested in the idea that — as Margaret Thatcher endlessly repeated — “there is no alternative”:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/08/tina-v-tapas/#its-pronounced-tape-ass

Inevitabilism is a cheap rhetorical trick. “There is no alternative” is a demand disguised as a truth. It really means “Stop trying to think of an alternative.”

But the human race is blessed with a boundless imagination, one that can escape the prison of economism and its insistence that we only care about how things work and ignore how they fail. Today, the world is turning towards electrification, a project of unimaginable ambition and scale that, nevertheless, we are actively imagining.

As Robin Sloan put it, “Skeptics of solar feasi­bility pantomime a kind of technical realism, but I think the really technical people are like, oh, we’re going to rip out and replace the plumbing of human life on this planet? Right, I remember that from last time. Let’s gooo!”

https://www.robinsloan.com/newsletters/room-for-everybody/

Sloan is citing Deb Chachra, “Every place in the world has sun, wind, waves, flowing water, and warmth or coolness below ground, in some combination. Renewable energy sources are a step up, not a step down; instead of scarce, expensive, and polluting, they have the potential to be abundant, cheap, and globally distributed”:

https://tinyletter.com/metafoundry/letters/metafoundry-75-resilience-abundance-decentralization

The new common sense is, at core, a profound liberation of the imagination. It rejects the dogma that says that building public goods is a mystic art lost along with the secrets of the pyramids. We built national parks, Medicare, Medicaid, the public education system, public libraries — bold and ambitious national infrastructure programs.

We did that through democratically accountable, muscular states that weren’t afraid to act. These states understood that the more national capacity the state produced, the more things it could do, by directing that national capacity in times of great urgency. Self-sufficiency isn’t a mere fearful retreat from the world stage — it’s an insurance policy for an uncertain future.

Kuttner closes his editorial by asking what we call whatever we do next. “Post-neoliberalism” is pretty thin gruel. Personally, I like “pluralism” (but I’m biased).

Have you ever wanted to say thank you for these posts? Here's how you can do that: I'm kickstarting the audiobook for my next novel, a post-cyberpunk anti-finance finance thriller about Silicon Valley scams called Red Team Blues. Amazon's Audible refuses to carry my audiobooks because they're DRM free, but crowdfunding makes them possible.

http://redteamblues.com

[Image ID: Air Force One in flight; dropping away from it are a parachute and its landing gear.]

[beevean]

Ouch. I just realized something. The equipment that you start SOTN with, that Alucard inherited from his mother? Those are probably the only things he has left of hers. They probably have sentimental value to him. Which makes it all the more painful that Death takes them away.

And then he can potentially use them to fight Dracula in his mother’s name…

And the fact that you have to connect those dots yourself somehow makes the concept of the armor even more poignant…

Ah :) nice :) splendid :)

There are different layers to Death stealing Alucard's equipment. One, the classic "giving you a taste of your max power that you'll have to work to reach again". Two, reminding you that Richter's fight is not the end of the game, because if you kill him and get the bad ending, Death and the initial equipment is a loose end. Three, it rewards exploration in the Inverted Castle, especially to find the OP sword because it's in an optional area (a bit past Death, actually). And fourth... well, what you said. Interesting that the three antagonists want to separate Alucard from his human side (Shaft and Dracula want to kill it, Death takes away what belonged to Lisa), but he tries his hardest to cling to it.

[storiesbymay]

«Greetings. I am the Chief Justice, or 'Iudex' of Fontaine, but you can address me simply by using my surname, 'Neuvillette'. Not because I want to keep my distance from you.... No, I am simply aware that excessive familiarity might call into question the impartiality in the eyes of some people. I am here as a school headmaster and teacher-in-charge of the Hydro class, and I pledge my seriousness and professionalism in exercising both roles in order to ensure the welfare of students and faculty. If you have any requests or concerns, then - at least to the extent permitted by law - we can sit down and discuss them together. I would prefer that you address your teacher first, if possible, if you have an impending difficulty. My intervention will be limited to matters of utmost urgency. I see the value of my work, but I also see the significance of all my colleagues' efforts. I do not doubt their competence and friendliness. I believe I will continue to take pride in carrying out my duties. I must congratulate you on the splendid work you did in the initial entrance test. Many already knew their fates, some dreamed of joining another family, no doubt encouraged by the idea of doing good. Well, all of you have shown great awareness of your abilities and the desire to improve, which I assure everyone present once this useful experience is over. A first task was entrusted to you: to elect the elementary representative, the bearer of your voice. I officially open the election week and leave you with the wish for a great first academic year!»

I am so excited to present this work, which has been planned for months. I am not sure how much visibility it will enjoy because it is a bit challenging, long, complex. I hope it will be worth it. In the meantime, I would like to thank my teapot companion, @𝐓𝐄𝐖𝐒𝐃𝐀𝐘, who during a fun co-op motivated me to continue.

This is for you, bruh. *muah*

This is just a taste, an introduction to the real project, but the fact that I managed to publish it already makes me very satisfied.

The tags will be updated as we go along. The rating will probably reach the adult audience, but there will be warnings.

If you will indulge with me in this adventure, then welcome! I hope you will enjoy it!

If you have a special request, please ask me in the comments here or in pm. I will include it here or in a separate spinoff!

LINK: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56881615/chapters/144631591

[madraleen]

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Koyoharu Gotouge Volumes 16-23: Commentary Part 2/2 An unnecessarily long commentary with all the screams, all the musings, and ALL THE SPOILERS

-Ah, the Tokito twins met their parents too. Happy sigh I guess

-Now Tanjiro’s crying and he set me off again, great.

-A crow?! You dared kill a crow?! I freakin’ gasped!!

-Aaah, and Genya met the Shinazugawa fam. He was done dirty tho, he doesn’t get the full afterlife treatment (I see why, but still it’s notable).

-That Ubuyashiki sister slap tho, she drew blood.

-Ay ay ay, Giyu and Tanjiro met Muzan, I feel this has become a death roulette at this point. I genuinely don’t have it in me to be all “Please don’t die” anymore.

-Oh oh, one eye down for Tanjiro, that’s too soon babe no

-Yushiro, slay man, slay!

-“If it’ll help you defeat Muzan, then eat me!!” I laughed. What a good egg.

-Remember when Giyu thought he wasn’t a true Hashira, lol what nonsense.

-Man, this in anime, hearing the voices, will be torture. Like, I’m playing the voices in my head, but ofc it’s not the same.

-The hell happened to Tanjiro?!?!??!??! Side note, how fitting that after this, the next panel is Giyu, considering “he has always cared about Tanjiro.”

-Well, he can’t be dead, it’s too soon.

-Poor little master, I feel sorry for him.

-Himejima. I instantly feel better.

-GodDAMN, Sanemi, you’d think Muzan is made of jelly the way he slashed him!

-This is so freaking interesting, I never thought I’d be so engrossed in action manga stuff.

-Oh, Giyu and Murata in the same Final Selection? Cool! Murata’s been a Demon Slayer that long?

-Yes! Yes yes yes, ancient memories, yes!!

-What’s amazing is, this is a huge cast, but not once have I thought “Ugh, not this person’s backstory” or “Ugh, not this person in the spotlight.” I’m always like, YES, GIMME MORE, FEED ME, I WANNA KNOW EVERYTHING!

-Heh, the Rengoku Slayer clan goes waaaay back.

-Ooh, so Demon Slayers predated Yoriichi, but he started the breathing techniques.

-A second ago I was screaming mid-battle and now we’re in the memory and it’s all so gentle because Yoriichi is gentle and the narration feels like a caress.

-I love how Tanjiro is still not magically OP, he’s still not as skilled as the Hashira. He has Hashira moments, but the Hashira can still do more and maintain their strength and stamina for longer.

-Idk, as I read, I feel like the author really cares about these characters and their stories, I feel affection coming through, like they are loved. I hope it was true.

-Seven hearts and five brains. That’s a lot of hearts and brains.

-Imagine banishing Yoriichi from Demon Slaying, what nonsense.

-You have every right, Iguro, go get your girl - and freakin’ yes, Iguro backstory, let’s goooooo

-The Flame Hashira as in? Rengoku Senior?

-Babe, they were fifty not very good people.

-That’s a cat with a MISSION.

-THE CAT SAVED US! SPLENDID!

-NOT THE CAT TOO, FREAKIN’ MUZAN, WTH

-The kids! The kids are here!

-The Kamado ancestors thought process: See house; get house. It’s a very tender connection they have with Yoriichi though.

-Eh? Eh? Eh? What’s happened to the Hashira? WHAT’S HAPPENED T-

-Ugh, my little baby Tanjiro, what has this awful demon man done to you :’(

-Ooh, Sumiyoshi saw the Sun Breathing forms and passed them down through the kagura dance, nice, makes sense.

-I love Sumiyoshi. I love Yoriichi. Help.

-We have a lil bit of best-antagonists-forever situation here, Yoriichi and Muzan.

-Tanjiro’s literally dancing the kagura, I cannot.

-No cats were fatally wounded in this manga.

-Iguroooo!! Tanjiro’s lil smile when he sees Iguro, help me

-Holy shit, Iguro jumping in for the kill, justice for Iguro

-We have to reach volume 22 to finally clarify how demons are made???

-What would we do without Yushiro

-When they end sentences with double exclamation marks, I feel it. One is not enough.

-I wish we’d seen a snippet of Zenitsu learning his forms before this.

-Look at the kids working so well together, I cry.

-NOT IGURO! JUSTICE FOR IGURO!

-Oh. Tanjiro lost an arm.

-Oh my heart, Giyu and Tanjiro holding the blade together.

-What victory, there’s so much story left!

-Rest in peace, Himejima :((

-Can’t... Can’t Iguro and Kanroji just get married in this life, do they have to die first, dammit? Haven’t we lost enough?

-Not Sanemi too??? What is happening! Phew!! PHEW!

-I understand that Tanjiro is dead, but also I don’t believe that Tanjiro is dead, bc there’s still too many pages, so I feel sadder for those that mourn for him rather than for HIM, because he’s simply not dead.

-Oooh! Ooooh mannnn ohooo is Muzan turning Tanjiro into a demonnnn. Kinda messed up in the greatest way that he did it because of Ubuyashiki’s speech on what lives on forever.

-I don’t know what will happen next, but thank you Giyu for not letting Tanjiro have his first kill, he wouldn’t like that if he turns back into human.

-I am laughing nervously because... because I’m oddly delighted at this turn of events. It’s just! It’s different! I like it! Just be thankful Tanjiro’s not demon-headbutting anyone yet, you gonna lose heads. Anyway, that’s one for Nezuko and Yushiro, right? Nezuko to calm him down and Yushiro to give him the drug?

-“This is the guy with the half-and-half haori! He’s our ally!!” Hahahaha, I don’t know if I’m hysterical right now or if it’s that funny, but I laughed.

-What is happening, why am I loving this so much

-Hooolly shitttt, he didn’t even listen to Nezuko??

-I’m 98% certain that Tanjiro won’t kill anyone, so I’m chillin’ and enjoying this feral Tanjiro. Love this feral Tanjiro.

-Go, Kanao, go!

-Oh no, ~Romeo and Juliet did actually die :(. Show their rebirth and reunion at least!

-Such bullshit, Muzan. “The dead” would give their life twice over for Tanjiro to live, smh.

-Tag yourself, I’m Inosuke crying over Tanjiro’s head through my boar mask.

-Oh my Kamado babies, they are smile-crying.

-Now I’m happy.

-Three months later.

-Asdfjdgkj, I love getting to know Nezuko in her human form, omg.

-I wonder what Yushiro will do with his life.

-Jesus, someone adopt the Ubuyashiki children. Giyu? Sanemi? Anyone?

-Giyu and Sanemi smiling at each other, help, why is this so soft

-Nezuko sitting on Uzui’s shoulder, HELP

-Kanao has some of her vision, and Kaburamaru, good good.

-The panel of Tanjiro and Nezuko smiling as they run to Giyu and Urokodaki. My heart is so full. I’m not crying, you’re crying.

-Can’t we leave it here at home, laughing together, with everyone else smiling peacefully where they wanted to be, why are there more pages, stop with the pages

-“He’s a pleasant but strong-willed boy” haha, yeah, that’s our Tanjiro.

-Eee, future Kamados, I cry. Great-great-grandparents omg Kanao and Tanjiro! <3

-That kick!! That’s definitely Nezuko’s descendant/reincarnation.

-That person in the twins’ background looks like Yoriichi’s reincarnation, good for him.

-Aw, the Tokitos are babies.

-I mean, Gotouge-sensei did always dabble in their AUs.

-Eyyy, Iguro and Kanroji, yessss, they’re married, THANK YOU!!!

-Shut up, I love how their reincarnations are all linked somehow.

-Baby Giyu with baby Sabito and baby Makomo, stop, this is too cute

-Centenarian Kiriya, help <3

-A RENGOKU DESCENDANT

-Aww, Inosuke and Aoi.

-Everyone that survived has descendants, I cry (they’re sort of reincarnations too though, no? The Rengoku descendant really channels Kyojuro, Sumihiko is channeling Tanjiro etc).

-Sanemi and Giyu sharing a post-war meal, help.

-Yushiro was only 35?!?!

-Well. I SURE hope Kanata doesn’t have a girlfriend! *side-eyes Toko*

-I’m very happy with the manga. When I was looking up reviews to see whether I should take up the task, one said, “I laughed and cried so much” and I remember thinking, “But I don’t want to cry...” but. But it’s so heartwarming. So heartwarming.

-A thought in retrospect: I mean, yeah, technically Yoriichi ~failed to kill Muzan, but he was also fighting alone. We have a full army AND poisons AND sunlight AND a strategy.

-Another thought in retrospect: As much as I hate the fact of it, as much as I’m never over it, narratively Rengoku’s death was one of the best decisions. The most kind-hearted, the most genuine, friendliest, the purest and one of the strongest Hashira at the time dying so early genuinely set a tone. It did not let you relax at any moment in any fight, because any moment could be The Moment. The stakes were perpetually high, and it’s hard to pull that off in a series with so many long battles over so many volumes.

-A third thought in retrospect: Even though Mitsuri is visually the most sexualized character, narratively -apart from that one pervert tailor- she’s not sexualized at all, to my recollection. No one comments or stares, Tanjiro panics, Iguro gifts her socks to make her feel better and, as far as I remember, it’s her personality that he compliments. Like, no one cares. I appreciate that.

-LMFAO WHAT THE HECK! I’d noticed that the boxed set had a few Hashira on one side, and always wondered “hm why only these Hashira,” but left it at that. NOW I’m like, “Oh Tanjiro and Nezuko are holding the death flowers,” and I REALLY LOOKED WHO was in the art AND IT’S THE DEAD! THEY’RE HOLDING FLOWERS FOR THE DEAD, HOLY SPOILER! WHAT! THANK GOD I AM OBLIVIOUS, geez!!!

[gingerlee-holds]

thank you so so much for the tag, cobra!!! i needed a break from writing this STUpid paper lmao

T- "These Foolish Things" by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong H-"Hey There Delilah" by Plain White T's E- "Electric Love" by Børns G- "Groceries" by Mallrat I- "I Hear a Symphony" by Cody Fry N- "No. 13, Dance of the Knights" by Sergei Prokofiev G- "God Must Hate Me" by Catie Turner E- "Enderman Rap" by Dan Bull R- "Rasputin" by Boney M. B- "Bezos I" by Bo Burnham R- "Rêverie" by Claude Debussy E- "Étude Op. 10, No. 6" by Frédéric Chopin A- "(The) Amazing Digital Circus Theme" by Gooseworx D- "Down Under" by Men at Work L- "Life Could Be A Dream" by Street Corner Renaissance E- "Evil Morty" by Lucas King E- "Escapism" by Steven Universe

fUCK WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY E'S IN MY NAME JESUS-

alright, you know the drill, tagging random people from my 'Getting to Know You' survey: @joker-anon, @xavitron883, @fluffomatic, @nox-in-a-box-1316, @lee-lucius, @jinleebelee, @totallynotbat, @skylolasaysstuffsblog, @kasey-writes-stuff, @hexalianrebel-blackfeathers, @rand0m-s1nner, @cantsaythetword, @altheadajoysoul, @sarcasticgiggles, @snugglyfluffle, @switchydogboy, @kais3a

i hope you all have a splendid rest of your day!!

Rules: pick a song for each letter of your URL and tag that many people.

Tagged by @sailforvalinor, and thank you this looks like fun!

Remember and Proclaim (Andrew Peterson)

All I Ask of You (Jackie Evancho)

Innocence (Nathan Wagner)

Níl Sé'n Lá (Celtic Woman)

I Still Need a Savior (Billy Sprague)

No Strings (Ed Sheeran)

Take Me Back Road (Tim & the Glory Boys)

How Great is Our God (Chris Tomlin)

Everything Sad is Coming Untrue (Jason Grey)

El-Shaddai (Amy Grant)

Voice of Truth (Casting Crowns)

Endlessly (Amaranthe)

Not Alone (Red)

I'm an Open Road (Paul Brandt)

Never Leave Your Side (Sam Tinnesz)

Good to Be Alive (Skillet)

Hoo boy, can I think of sixteen people?

@griseldabanks @kraytwriter @kingofattolia @catkin-morgs @clawedandcute @nerdychristianfanboy @steampunk-archer @sergeanttomycaptain @smhalltheurlsaretaken @scribblermerlin @authortobenamedlater @stainedleather @mrtobenamedlater @mrgartist @get-loved-nerd @a-fount-of-blessings (Ignore if this is a repeat tag. Unless you want to do it again. Up to you. :)

[sstory]

Review of the manga "Ranking of Kings"!

Once, in the era of my nearly forgotten youth, my grandmother used to tell me: ‘A person’s sorrow stems first and foremost from their own mind!’ For a very long time, I found this statement absurd and failed to comprehend its meaning. However, the more useful information I acquire with age, the more challenging life becomes for me! Whenever I begin reading a new book, open a beloved comic, leaf through a manga series, or immerse myself in the enchantment of the film industry, I always attempt to read too deeply into the chosen work. In other words, I search for a hidden spark or a deeper significance where, unfortunately, none truly exists.

How does this relate to the manga “Ranking of Kings” (Jap. 王様ランキング, Ōsama Rankingu) and my review of it? As you are likely aware, in Christianity, despondency is considered a sin. Why is that? Because it reflects a lack of trust in God, intertwined with doubts regarding His mercy. Previously, for some reason, I believed that Buddhism, too, offered a certain teaching that made the majority of characters in, say, a manga so good-natured. Naive, even.

What conclusions have I drawn in the end? “Ranking of Kings” is indeed a truly splendid fairy-tale centered on the hardships of an exceptional child’s coming-of-age, crafted by the mangaka Sōsuke Tōka. The protagonist, Prince Bojji, has been deaf since birth and is physically weak, provoking mockery and underestimation from those around him. In spite of this, he aspires to become a great king, much like his father. As he progresses toward his cherished goal, he faces injustice, betrayal, and malice—challenges to which he consistently responds with kindness. His encounter with Kage, a member of the shadow clan who becomes his very first true friend, stands as solid proof of this.

In Japanese culture, where Buddhism is closely interwoven with Shintoism, the importance of maintaining inner harmony and patience is emphasized. Bojji’s chosen path in life is not merely a decision, but a pursuit of preserving internal equilibrium, aligning with the core values of Japanese tradition. Essentially, we are presented with a perpetually benevolent and courteous child, one whose large and compassionate heart makes room for each and every one of us!

Are there any drawbacks or shortcomings in this work? Regrettably, the “Ranking of Kings” manga does not convey the full spectrum of emotions that emerge from the depths of our souls when we watch the anime adaptation. I strongly recommend becoming acquainted with this masterpiece by beginning exclusively with the anime produced by Wit Studio, and only thereafter delving into the manga.

For instance, in March 2019, a dear friend from Japan sent me the first volume of this manga, published by Enterbrain, a division of Kadokawa. After that came the second, then the third, and then the fourth. The first thing that caught my eye was Bojji’s family bonds. His stepmother, for example, persistently attempted to replace his own mother, yet she could never understand why he resisted, continually distancing himself from her. The anime, however, opened my eyes to his anguish—the pain of losing his biological father and mother, which tore his heart into tiny fragments. Bojji needed a friend who would accept him just as he was, without expectations or pressures, rather than a replacement mother.

To put it simply: in the manga, it is demonstrated that family relationships are not always determined by blood ties or traditional roles. In the anime, however, special attention is devoted to the profound feelings that augment the original story.

Do I recommend reading Bojji’s memoirs? YES! You will not regret it.