#talking about people's problem with a meme

[korrasera]

Wow. Everything said above is so incredibly wrong that I just have to talk about it. I'm going to try to keep this brief, but I am who I am.

---

First, that's how how the right works. They care about how cool it looked and how much violence there was.

The entire concept of the red pill is a completely surface level take on the story. If they digested what's actually going on in the film, they'd be able to tell that they're actively rooting for bad guys and the story is telling them that they'd be on the side of the agents. It has nothing to do with the substance of the story.

And V for Vendetta just didn't take off with the right. You can't find persistent right wing memes for it because it's a lot more on the nose about criticising fascism and white supremacy. I'd be surprised to ever hear about a right-wing meme for it coming from anywhere other than the most actually anti-state conservative authoritarians, and they're a tiny part of that population.

---

Second, the Matrix wasn't a story about a white passing who learns it's okay to kill people. V for Vendetta wasn't justifying killing police officers. Both films are asking you to engage with the idea of violent resistance against authoritarianism.

There is no symmetry here. The bad guys are not being dehumanized, they are literally the force that's dehumanizing people. That's why the opponents in these films are uniformed defenders of the state like the cops, police, or military.

Neo's final act is to free people from this dehumanization, that's why everyone gets turned back into just a normal person when he defeats Smith. Even the Oracle, and she was the body Smith was using for their final fight. He literally defeated the concept of authoritarianism without killing his opponent's hostage.

V doesn't kill anyone indiscriminately, he's always fighting literal violent fascists. He even appeals to the humanity of the regular police characters in the story in an attempt to get them to understand the crimes of power.

Both films radically overturn the status quo, they do nothing to defend it.

Both films emphasize the importance of universal empathy while also asking you to understand that power is going to resist so violently that you will have to fight them because otherwise they will kill you.

To interpret either story as supporting a right-wing interpretation, even superficially, requires a reading that runs directly counter to the text itself. It's like saying that Batman just likes punching crazy people. It requires you to ignore what's actually written about the character.

Example: Neo isn't the chosen one, despite being the chosen one in the first movie, because part of the story is that the idea of the chosen one is part of the system of control. The entire trilogy, and to an extent even Resurrections, is about the idea of choosing to fight, not being chosen. Neo only becomes the most important person in the plot by rejecting the idea that he's the most important person in the plot and accepting the truth of why he's there and what he has to do.

His entire character comes down to someone being handed a great deal of power and choosing to expend literally all of that power in service to the rest of humanity instead of holding any for himself.

---

Finally, there's what n0isemaker said above, which is just completely wrong and kinda prejudiced too. There is no incel to trans woman pipeline, this is just stereotyping.

Pipelines are easy to demonstrate because they describe a process of radicalization and that makes them easy to document. You can see people documenting how TERFs recruit, how the tradwife pipeline works, and there's been so much written about the He-Man woman haters of the redpills. There's no such example to be found here.

n0isemaker's proof is 'dude, trust me' and nothing else, specifically citing personal experience.

Saying that it's white women is an attempt to launder the stereotype by implicitly connecting it to a real systemic problem, racism.

Saying that a stereotype is false is not the same thing as saying that no trans women deal with internalized misogyny. The claim is that a sizeable number of trans women are incels that support the status quo because they're dealing with internalized misogyny. That's what has to be proven and can't be.

Yes, there are trans women with internalized misogyny. That does not mean that there are a sizeable number of trans women that were incels who deal with internalized misogyny and act as status quo warriors.

The pipeline is not a real thing.

Okay, so I know that The Matrix is written by two trans women and intended at least in part as a metaphor for transition, but like...it is also, on a textual level, about a white (or white passing) guy who learns that he's the most important person in the universe and that it's morally acceptable to kill huge numbers of people who haven't been awakened to the reality of their situation as a means of achieving his goals, so like...I'm sorry, but its appropriation by the Far Right really shouldn't surprise anyone.

[ineffablecabbage]

Robby/Langdon #46 for the fanfic memes

(lolololol it's here eventually. Final word count: 2983 words)

"Life goes on, even when it's not fair," Alan, Frank's detox partner, tells Frank on his first day of rehab. "That might be advice from my stint of rehab. Or it might be from a country song. But whichever one it is, it is fucking accurate."

Frank, who is in the middle of some pretty gross withdrawals of his own, can only agree.

When it comes time to start work again, Frank is pretty sure that he is never going to forget Alan's little saying, no matter where it came from. Because nothing seems fair.

It's only one more year he reminds himself. Then his residency will be finished and he can leave. He can go somewhere fresh and be an attending somewhere that nobody knows him. The PHP requirements will still be there, which means meetings and drug tests and all of that happy bullshit in order to keep his license, but it won't have a whole hospital full of people who clearly know all of his mistakes.

They shouldn't; he wonders who told them. But in the end, he supposes it doesn't matter.

It's only a year. He can suffer that long and consider it atonement.

So he goes back to work, and life does indeed go on, even when it's not fair.

~*~

In general, Frank's rule for work is to talk to his coworkers when they talk to him and then mind his own business and go the fuck home.

This works pretty well. Mel talks to him often, as does Cassie. Collins, newly promoted to attending, is friendly in the professional kind of way that makes him think that he will definitely miss her after the year is up. Dana definitely makes it clear that she is rooting for him. She asks the kind of personal information that he doesn't volunteer anymore, about home.

He makes it vague enough; does everyone need to know that he's getting divorced? No, this place has enough gossip on him. If she notices his reluctance, she doesn't say so.

The other residents and med students report to him or they don't; since Collins became an attending, she's put a new system into place about dividing up the junior residents so that they now have assigned permanent senior residents. Santos is assigned to Samira, so that's one less thing he has to worry about, and since she isn't his problem, he doesn't have to talk to her. So he doesn't.

It's just a year, after all.

Then there's Robby.

Robby is chief attending. Sometimes he asks questions. Frank answers them. Sometimes, Frank has to make a report to him, so he does. But that is the extent of their interactions.

Unlike with everyone else, Frank misses all of the stupid bullshit he used to have with Robby. But he remembers back to that day in the ambulance bay, and if it is possible for there to be phantom pain in your chest, Frank definitely feels it.

He doesn't know how to fix it. They told him in rehab that some relationships simply never recover, and he has to accept that.

He doesn't know how to do that, either.

~*~

Frank keeps up his Instagram mostly to keep up with his old marathon buddies. Thanks to the back injury, more marathons are likely out forever. His therapist suggests that maybe he should delete the Instagram if it causes him too much distress, but Katie in his NA meeting suggests that he should look at staying sober as his new marathons.

So he starts posting dumb inspirational quotes and following NA pages, and all the other stereotypical addict shit that you do when you're first in recovery.

It's cheesey, but he smiles and feels some sweet, sweet validation when Cassie, Abby, Samira, Dana, and even fucking Abbot likes his posts. Since when is Abbot on Instagram? Is it that old? Maybe he should delete it.

But then he notices a like from Jake, and something in his chest seizes up. That seems like forbidden territory.

It feels even worse when Jake comments. good job, buddy. keep it up! ;)

Frank doesn't talk to people, except for when he has to, but people still talk. He's heard about the big blow out that Robby and Jake had. He knows they aren't on good terms.

Frank very hesitantly writes, ty! and tries to move on with his life without feeling like combination of Brutus and Benedict Arnold.

Except, the likes keep coming, and so do the comments, and Frank starts to think that perhaps Judas is a more appropriate metaphor.

~*~

"So what am I supposed to do?" Frank asks his therapist.

His therapist hums. "What do you want to do?" he asks, and not for the first time, Frank thinks that therapy is a fucking scam.

So he asks Katie, in his NA meeting. "Well," she said. "Boundaries are good. But are you upset that Jake is contacting you, that he is a memory of your relationship with Robby, or that Robby isn't contacting you?"

"I'm not sure we ever had a relationship," Frank says.

"That's avoidance," Katie tells him. "That won't solve your problem or keep you sober."

Frank thinks back to the day in that ambulance day. "I only apologized to my family, you know. They are the only ones I think I owed anything to, for step nine. Do you think that's avoidance?"

"You know that we can't make those decisions for each other," Kate says. "You're in the medical field. Harm reduction vs. healing, Dr. Langdon."

If he was any good at that, he wouldn't be here now, would he? ~*~

So, he starts small.

He corners Dana in the lounge, like he did that day in September, takes a deep breath, and says, "You know about Step nine?"

She smiles, her knowing smile and pats his arm. "Of course I do, kid. You need to get it out of your system?" He nods. "Well, then go ahead."

"I'm sorry for being so selfish. I'm sorry for prioritizing myself on a day that was already shitty for you. I'm sorry for harassing you all day. I'm sorry for constantly putting more on your plate when you didn't need it."

"I already forgave you, kid," she says, and god, he wishes all of his amends were going to be this simple.

~*~

He plans to apologize to Mel next. Because he likes to keep the simple streak going, and in fact, he knows that is very simple.

He seeks her out in the lounge, and she is there, but she's also there with Whitaker, who has apparently decided to pursue Emergency Medicine.

Well, what the hell. Frank probably owes him an apology, too.

"So. Mel. Whitaker. There's something I need to say," Frank says.

"Oh. Go ahead," Mel says, and she looks very pleased to hear from him, because she's a good person.

"What is it, Dr. Langdon?" Whitaker looks confused, which is fair, because he's Samira's responsibility.

He takes a deep breath. "I owe both of you an apology for my behavior last year. I'm sure you already heard through the grapevine that I was struggling with substance abuse, and I won't bore you with details. But part of my recovery requires me to apologize to those that I fucked up with. And I fucked up as a teacher to both of you. I was fucked up, either high or managing withdrawals the whole first day you were here. I was not the teacher you deserved, and for that I'm sorry. And Mel, I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye." He pauses. "Uh. I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye to you, either, Whitaker."

"Oh, that's okay," Whitaker says.

Mel does something unexpected. She gets up, and she hugs him. That's weird. She doesn't hug.

However, he doesn't let go. "Least problematic trainee," he murmurs.

"Do we have to hug?" Whitaker asks.

"Absolutely fucking not," Frank says.

~*~

They are slammed for the next four hours, but he finally manages to find Cassie and Victoria searching for some extra gauze.

"Hey!" he says. "Something I need to say."

"I heard," Cassie says. "Rumor has it you're doing your steps today."

"Oh. Whitaker tell you? I think I freaked him out."

"You definitely did," Victoria tells him.

"Right, so anyway!" Frank says.

"You don't owe me an apology," Cassie interrupts him. "You can say something if you think you need to, but I promise you, I've seen worse. You were never not there for me as a senior resident when I needed you, so I'm just glad you're getting the help you need. Keep it up, and be kind to yourself."

"Thanks, Cassie. And I'm sorry for letting down the team, anyway."

She pats him on the shoulder with the gauze packet.

He turns to Victoria and gives the same speech he gave to Mel and Whitaker, more or less, minus the part about saying goodbye. It's a little less sincere, truth be told, because he doesn't know her as well as Mel, but he didn't know Whitaker that well either, and regardless - he fucked up.

When it's done, she shrugs. "Um, you don't owe me an apology. I made a major fuck up that day, too. Like, probably ruined a woman's life and her kids, too. So… I … uh… forgive you, or whatever."

"We all fuck up with patients," he tells her sympathetically. "Learn from it, and do better. That's all you can do."

"Same for you, right?" she says.

~*~

He tries to apologize to Yolanda. She tells him to not fuck up again, and that it will all be forgiven.

~*~

By 5 p.m, Frank figures he has three people left: Heather, Samira, Trinity, and Robby.

He sits in the lounge, for a rare break, and wishes that his appendix would explode or literally anything else would happen to keep him from reasonably being expected to talk to these people.

Samira comes in the lounge just as he is crumbling up his bag of hot Cheetos. Well, so much for his appendix being remotely useful.

"Hey, Samira," he greets.

"Oh, Frank Langdon, back to small talk," she says in surprise. "What's the special occasion?"

"You haven't heard?"

She shrugs. "You hear a lot of things in this department. I don't always pay attention. It can make you extra slow to pay attention to gossip, you know?"

He smiles softly at that. "Part of my recovery is doing direct amends. I owe you an apology for my behavior, especially during - uh, you know, that trauma with Santos. That was full fledged benzos at their worst, and you never should have been subjected to that."

"Neither should have Dr. Santos."

"I'm aware of that," Frank says with a sigh. "But they are direct amends, and she isn't here right now. So. I'm apologizing to the person who is. I'm sorry."

Samira nods. "Apology accepted. We're rooting for you, you know."

"Thanks," he says.

~*~

"I owe you an apology," he tells Heather, and she laughs at him.

"I know this is Step Nine, but stop it," she says. "We've all fucked up. The only person you need to kiss and make-up to is currently in the locker room. Maybe go give this speech to him."

"There's fucking up, and there's benzos," he tells her.

"Fifteen percent of doctors, and even an greater amount of EM doctors, will struggle with substance abuse. Now stop making me nice to you, Langdon," she says. "And go make up with Robby so he can quit pouting."

But he's not ready for that.

~*~

They're in the middle of a crike, and Ellis is already there; it's time to change over to nightshift. He's almost out of time, and he wants to be done for the day.

He glances over at Santos and sighs.

"I'm sorry I was such a drugged out fucking mess, and thank you for saving my life," he says.

She blinks at him. "What the fuck?"

"Fucking step nine," he answers.

"Oh."

Ellis looks back and forth to both of them, then shrugs, because night shift rarely gives a fuck about anything.

~*~

His finished all his charts and he's almost ready to go home, but he has one more thing he has to do in this hell day, no matter how much he doesn't want to do it.

But when he goes to look, Robby has already left.

"You missed the checkout meeting with your little NA meeting with Santos," Ellis tells him. "Don't worry, I'll put in a good word about what a good, contributing team member you were."

"I appreciate that," he says dryly.

"Don't I get an apology?" she teases.

"Do you want one?"

She laughs at him, and for a moment, he thinks he might miss this terrible place when he leaves next year.

~*~

The problem is, he wants to be done with these stupid amends tonight.

The other problem is, he is never going to make amends with Robby at work.

The third problem is that his phone buzzes to let him know that his Instagram is getting yet another comment.

It's fucking Jake, again.

Well, that makes his decision for him.

He decides to go to Robby's apartment.

~*~

He's only been there once, actually. He hopes Robby hasn't moved in the meantime. He should move, because chief attendings shouldn't live in apartments. They should live in real houses.

But Robby likes walking to work, and he has commitment issues, so he lives in an apartment instead.

And that is unnecessarily judgy, and not something he should think as he rings the doorbell.

Robby opens the door and stares at him for a few minutes. "Frank," he says slowly. "What are you doing here?"

"I was helping with the crike. And … talking with Dr. Santos. I missed the meeting," he says lamely.

Robby frowns. "Is that why you're here? It's fine. Don't worry about it. You're not in any trouble. Abbot said you were helping out."

"That's not why I'm here." Frank closes his eyes and opens them again to see Robby giving him a look that is not nearly as annoyed as he imagined it would be. "I'm here because there is something I need to say to you."

"Oh." Robby shakes his head. "Your step nine stuff. Well, it's fine. You don't have to do that."

"Yes, I do. Look, will you just. Christ, are you going to make me stay out here in the hallway?"

Robby looks startled, like maybe he had forgotten that Frank was standing out in the hallway. At the question, he steps back and gestures into the apartment.

Frank steps in, and he tries not to look around. But he wants to. He wants to take in everything in the apartment that is part of Robby, because the last time he was at Robby's apartment, he was sharing it with Jake's mom.

"Thanks," he says. "Look. Just let me finish, okay? This is - really hard to do, but it's important."

"Okay," Robby says, and he pushes his hands down the front of his pants, and it looks so familiar. Frank hates it.

But he doesn't hate it, and that is the whole fucking problem, isn't it?

"I owe you an apology. For a lot of things, actually. I'm sorry for not coming to you when I was struggling in the first place. I'm sorry for breaking your trust over and over again every time I stole from a patient. I'm sorry for being a shitty teacher and making the worst anniversary of your life worse. I'm sorry for coming back and putting you in a shitty position. I'm sorry for - "he falters here, because fuck that ambulance bay, actually. "I'm sorry for the long list of shitty things I said to you in the ambulance bay. I'm sorry Jake keeps liking my Instagram posts on purpose to hurt you."

Robby nods. "You done?"

"Yeah," Frank says, expecting that Robby will kick him out now.

"Most of that you don't owe me an apology for, because it was your addiction at work, not you. Jake's actions aren't yours, so you aren't responsible for them. You saved a lot of people when you came back. As for the rest… well. You're not the only one who was a dick in that ambulance bay, were you?"

No, Frank thinks, but he has spent so long feeling guilty for thinking it that he doesn't have an answer for it.

"I'm sorry too, Frank," Robby says.

Well, what is he supposed to do with that?

Frank kind of figures he's on a roll, and he might as well keep going. "I missed you."

Robby ducks his head the way he does when he's having an emotional beat that he wants to pretend he isn't having. "I missed you, too. I was trying to give you the space you needed. I didn't … want to push."

"I appreciate that," Frank says. "Well. I didn't come here to keep you up all night. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, Abby will have my ass for keeping you out this late," Robby says.

Oh, ha, ha, that's right, you have been unsubscribed to updates in my life for a while. "Actually, we're getting divorced," Frank says. "And I don't have the kids or the dog til this weekend, so nobody's waiting to be pissed at you at home."

Why did he say that? That sounds weird

Maybe Robby thinks so too, because he says "Oh, really?" followed by "I'm sorry" followed quickly by "You want to stay, then?"

Frank doesn't, exactly, have time to consider exactly what "stay" means, before he says "Yes."

~*~

As it turns out, maybe he won't leave after this year is up - that's what "stay" means.

[mieczyhale]

the destiel news delivery meme format isn't supposed to make light of anything. it's literally just a news delivery format. it has been used for all kind of things.

i fully agree there are some things that should be delivered Not Like That, but i also don't think people (at least most people) are doing it to make light or be disrespectful. not intentionally anyway.

and i think it's very bad faith to assume they are - to see a news delivery meme being used to deliver news and jump to the worst opinion, to immediately get so angry. there are all sorts of people on here and not all of them are going to see things the way you do

also, "read the room"?? not everyone can read a room and you'd think this site of all places would get that. imagine. neurodivergency on the neurodivergency website.

look. try approaching the person if you really have a problem with it. no one is going to see your post and just stop. things don't work like that here, outside of a blogger turning out to be a unicorn of a person

vent on your tumblr all you want but if you have a problem with something someone specific has done you could try being an adult about it, depending on your age i guess, or at least be mature and say "hey so this thing you did was kinda fucked up, here's why" (not exactly like that, please don't word anything exactly like that. try politeness first. if that doesnt work then you do what you want)

i am too old and have been here too long and it's been a wild ride where i have learned A Lot. in that is How To Deal With Certain Things.

take my stupid free wisdom and change the world. or your dash. same thing i guess

[writer-room]

Its so funny that Arin and Sora have shown to have significantly better emotional intelligence than any of the ninja from all of the old seasons combined. "You should be taking care of your mental health" and "yeah saving the world is upsetting! no wonder you're having stress dreams" oh my precious children. You are surrounded by a teen dad with massive self-worth issues, the only one of two people who remembers the genie incident and also turned into the sea once, guy who's died like 3+ times and committed genocide under mind control, and a child soldier who's been living the hard knock life since age 2.

I hope to god you two are prepared to witness the most mentally unwell behavior you've seen in your entire teenage lives. You think you've already seen how bad it can get now? Fools. Just wait until you get a mission involving the Departed Realm

[polyglot-sock]

it's ironic that, for someone who is able to speak several languages, my ability to verbally communicate disappears really often

[myfairkatiecat]

Okay I’m going to say it, some of y’all treat the KOTLC tag like it’s a tumblr community instead of an organization system that gathers together everything people post and tag as KOTLC

[quizzesandthings]

The thing that kills me is that all of it really didn't matter. The impeachment, the bigotry, the national security risk, the tearing down regulations resulting in recalls and outbreaks, January fucking 6th. None of it mattered because "well the democrats are gonna raise taxes"

[adhdandcomics]

adding to my tags because i’ve been thinkin a lot about the post i just reblogged and have more thoughts:

i’ll be real, the more i saw ‘hey adhd influencers are so annoying’ the more i worried that i was unconsciously contributing to the spreading reputation of adhd folks as annoying and over-pathologizing every symptom they experience

and then i realized. i am not a goddam influencer or life coach or representative. obviously i have some obligation as someone who cares about myself and the people that like my comics to not spread harmful ideology or blatant misinformation but i never intended myself to be a “’increase your productivity!!’ blog OR a ‘if you have XYZ you have adhd!’ blog. and i do this for fun, and originally started this blog bc i had a lot of internalized shame and self loathing about my adhd and thought if i could make it funny i might have less of that. let’s get real! and it worked!

i’ve obviously done this kind of thing— (hey these symptoms might be adhd!) a lot before in my life & on this blog, but there’s more to it than trying to be an “influencer” or whatever. a term that didn’t even exist when i started this blog!

i felt very isolated trying to find out if i had any mental problems & what have you originally because of large advice (etc) blogs with staunchly anti self Dx views at the time

so i overcorrected when i DID get dxed and tried to validate everyone who was like me. and of course. not the best course of action always for the ol mental health. tried to be the source of positivity and jokes that i didn’t see because the online adhd presence was near non-existent.

and anyway. i make a lot of fun of myself & the way m brain works in my comics obviously but it is not my obligation to... how do you say.... not be annoying online.

because if folks interpret MY little jokes as a strict guide to diagnosis. that’s on them, really, not me. i also believe “making adhd your entire personality” is a non-issue. so what if people find out they have it and get over excited with identifying as adhd. saying this as someone who DID do it. criticism of this gives the same vibes as people being annoyed that young queers make “being queer” their whole personality. im very obviously more than a guy with adhd, and id reckon other adhd comic artists are too. (im friends with a lot of them!) it’s fine to post about it online.

anyway. i just don’t take myself too seriously and i’m a comic artist for myself first! and you know what, i’ve been considered annoying my entire life. what do i care if a few more folks think i’m annoying. neurotypical or not

[cloversdreams]

i call this one the "getting no interaction on fics" dance

[twinsoftriumph]

so if we're seeing the king's corruption and destruction in the series then surely this means elder content RIGHT TGC?

[ninjasmudge]

real question is why has tumblr started opening posts in a separate browser when i click 'view' on a post with blocked tags. i mean, it often does that with links to posts, but straight up taking you out of the app to view a post on your own dash? thats new

[choco-court]

so Choco and purr dad just got done with our last gift shopping trip and while we were out we saw a taylor swift calander so we chatted about it a bit and Choco's dad said "so you're not a swiftie, you're one of these" and then pointed at this

[thegreatimpersonator]

word of mouth isnt facts babes, especially when it's from a blog that literally got caught being wrong about me before

[problemswithbooks]

God can hori be any more heavy handed with the "DONT YOU WANT TO BE NORMAL NORMAL NORMAL" bestie, shes drinking other kids blood, thats not just "not normal". This weird retcon thing is annoying, Idk why hed bother putting her backstory in when he didnt give much of a shit about it 😭

The thing is, I actually don't think trying to say Toga's blood drinking is normal is necessarily bad or something that can't be done well. Quirks are a major part of the world and the story overall--it's not that far fetched that blood drinking might be a normal thing a person with a Quirk would want to do. If people can accept people that can make explosions which could also be dangerous to kids and people (and very much was for Izuku) then it's not a huge stretch to accept that blood drinking for Toga is normal and she should be accepted as such.

The issue is that Hori didn't really make that the issue. I don't think he really sees it himself given how he wrote Mineta, but Toga's main problem and why shes not accepted is a matter of consent not because she's seen as a creep.

This is why her backstory doesn't work very well, besides the fact it's way to late and very short. Yes, her parents freak out about her Quirk and obsession with blood. The problem is that they don't freak out for zero reason and are the only ones who reject her.

No child should be drinking the blood of birds. Whether she killed it or not, birds carry many diseases and parasites harmful to people. Her father shouldn't have hit her (because, I guess he did even though it's poorly conveyed), but the shock given what she's doing is understandable. Especially if they think she killed it (which is weird, and suggests she might have done something they found disturbing before this or were bad parents regardless of her Quirk).

Then they yell at her because she's biting her finger bloody. That's self harm and something you would want to send a child to therapy for. Sure, the counselor didn't help, but it's not like they can give Toga what she wants.

That's hammered home when they yell at her again when she drinks another kids blood. Hori messes up and doesn't show us what happens so we don't know if she hurt this other kid, or if they were scared of her or if they were fine with it.

Just giving us a look at her parents reaction doesn't give us any idea how she was seen by her peers. Because of that it's hard to make the case that she was only rejected for her Quirk alone, rather then her actions. In fact the only time we see other students they say she was popular and well liked until she attacked a boy in the class.

Given how young she looks when her parents yell at her for sucking another kids blood, and the fact she fled school after she attacked her crush, it appears these were separate events. If that was the case people in her school might have already heard about her sucking a kids blood earlier, and clearly not cared. In the very least we have to assume they knew her Quirk involved blood because Hori doesn't make any suggestion that it was hidden.

And that's why the theme of acceptance and Toga being normal because blood drinking is a part of her falls flat. No one ever said shit about her Quirk ever, except for her parents in sparse flashbacks. Ochako never thinks her blood drinking is gross nor do any of the the other Heroes or class 1A students. Hell, Tenya doesn't even bad mouth Stain for drinking blood even though he hated the guy so much he wanted him dead. This doesn't make it seem like the world rejected her for her Quirk.

No, the entire problem is that Toga doesn't understand consent or boundaries. We never see her ever ask anyone, even as a kid if she can drink their blood (that would have been a better scene then her drinking birds blood imho) and get rejected and told off and bullied/ostracized for her desire. Which if that did happen would explain why she never asks again and feels no one will accept her.

And, you could blame her parents and the therapist for this, but I'd just wager Hori doesn't really grasp that consent is the issue here. Mainly because Ochako never addresses it in anyway, even though she does bring up Toga's crimes. She offers her blood to Toga for life, but does not say that difference between Toga drinking her blood as opposed to anyone else's is because she is giving permission.

In the end Toga doesn't learn anything and just gets what she wanted given to her. Maybe Hori will address this next chapter but it really should have been brought up sooner. That or he should have had Toga actually not be accepted what-so-ever and shunned by all her peers for her Quirk even before she attacked her crush.

And this is part of the reason I really don't like the queer reading of the chapter is because by doing so it is suggesting that queer people are dangerous. If we read Toga's blood drinking as the same as kissing--which she seems to say (though her expression while drinking blood suggests something more...problematic) then she has been going around kissing people against their will to fulfill her own needs. If we read this as queer, is the story not saying that repressed gay people will sexually harass people because they can't understand consent when they inevitably snap?

I'm not saying this was or is Hori's intent. I think it's pretty clear he just didn't see how big an issue of consent there was with Toga and her Quirk. He wanted it to be all about how she wasn't accepted as normal, but didn't put in the work of showcasing that well. He has a lousy track record with female characters getting way less attention and with his rush to finish on top of that, Ochako and Toga got screwed with a half baked climax. Unfortunately that's also left it with less then great implications if you think about it for a coupe of minutes.

[scientologyblows]

after watching ryans apology, all i can say is i really wish ryan had a exit strategy. i wish he would’ve actually started streaming or something so he doesn’t feel like he has to leave the internet or anything and leave his online presence. i think if anyone could get better in this situation, its him, but he would need guidance outside of matt to do so.

[mechahero]

@outofthiisworld asked-❌ - A piece of information that could be considered blackmail material :3c data leak! (accepting)

Probably the fact that he can be killed off permanently... if his head is destroyed beyond repair. Not cut in half, sideways, lengthways, or diagonal. We are talking about it being crushed into teeny tiny pieces with no chance of regenerating.

And the reason why is because the tech responsible for that function is housed somewhere in his brain. You break that, and he can be dealt with for good. He doesn't like to talk about it and he keeps it buried deep like with all the other things he really doesn't like to talk about.

Now what I want to know is.... how'd you get into this database? You don't seem to have the password and you shouldn't be able to get past the walls we set up. Hackerrrrr....