#the kindness and support means a whole lot

[tumblingxelian]

"Are we discussing the writers intentions with Jaune, Jaune as a general character or the audience reception to Jaune and are we singling out a specific audience or the collective?"

All three really. The collective.

To start, I'm fascinated by how Jaune seems to contrast the girls in terms of their development. His growth is very loud and in your face in specific moments like Jaundice or the prom or Volume 3's finale.

Hell, his moment in the Battle for Haven has him not getting the trauma induced power up to punch Cinder hard but rather to heal Weiss. After that, he's to the side healing those who need it. It's a big moment but his only moment aside from a small passing mention of his semblance.

It feels like peaks and valley when it comes to the times when he gets the focus.

All while the girls have each of their journeys spread across the whole show's intended run. Ruby's arc of trying to move forward too much has always been there but with weekly episode releases and hiatuses between seasons, it's causes even those who are well meaning to overlook it.

I don't know if that came out right so make of my thoughts what you will.

OK so its too hot for me to do any recording or other projects but I can answer asks, so let's get to this (Cracks bottle of cold water over my head) Let's do this!

So, Jaune is certainly a divisive character and while I have warmed up to him somewhat over the years, and while I adore RWBY I often feel he can be a disruptive element, but also one that does in fact serve a purpose. Keep that in mind for my response going forward.

So, touching on your stuff first, it is interesting, though I would argue against the idea that the girls don't also at times have very loud character development.

Weiss's shifter after talking to Port, her summons, the Atlas party, ETC. Blake running away & confronting Roman, her everything with Ilia, the final confrontation with Adam and the Bees kiss as just some examples.

Interestingly Ruby and Yang are on the more quiet end of character development scales with stuff building up slowly and quietly. Though not without their big moments, Ruby's eulogy and explosion, Yang's confrontation with Raven and the bees kiss, ETC.

Still, I think I see what you mean in how these things tend to be framed and handled in a much more varied way than media usually does.

IE, Jaune losing it at Cinder in V5 is basically him lacing the temperament of a Huntsmen that his allies have and it accomplishes nothing on his end as far as "Badass confrontation" goes and instead he only starts to grow after leaning into the role of support & healer, even defaulting more to Yang as leader in V7 during their rescue work.

Overall and I said this in my Bees essay that CRWBY like long form story telling, and that influences a lot of how RWBY is written.

In these regards Jaune does feel interesting/odd because he does have several... Archetypical moments of character growth as you say. What's interesting to me and what I think the writers are going for is that how good some of these even are for him can be questionable.

What I mean is like...

Jaune went to Beacon with a very "Idiot Shounen hero" attitude towards things. He cheated his way into an elite school and kind of just assumed it'd work out. He didn't try that hard in classes till he was being blackmailed, rejected help out of pride and even when he did seek it out it was only after he had a "win" under his belt that wasn't even wholly his but he doesn't know that.

The thing is, very little ever went Jaune's way on these things either in the short term or long term.

IE, he short term he showed up at Beacon and nearly died and or failed (Subversion of his shounen expectations.) But then he was helpedby a cool girl who ineplicably liked him and said he had a lot of Aura! (This falls in line with his Shounen expectations!)

But then it turns out he still sucks at classes and having what a girl who has a crush on you says is a lot of Aura doesn't mean much when surrounded by other people who also have a lot of Aura and have been training all their lives (Subversion again)

He then manages to retain his pride and defend his team and wins a battle "All on his own" except he ignored Glynda's advice and only won because Pyrrha guided his hand. Though after this he did swallow his pride and get help, its sort of net neutral?

Moving forward he wasn't that involved in the plot, but his stuff in V2, was very "Standard" school stuff, but then it was followed up by his love interest also being his mentor being a problem because Pyrrha fulfilled the trope of the mentor dying. Jaune was also cut out of that entire conflict (Wisely) because he's not actually the main character and he'd only get in the way. (Subversions all round! Be it for the cool girl liking the Shounen loser, him not being the MC, Pyrrha being his mentor and the tragic "Brightest of their generation" before she was his love interest and so on!)

Just within the first three volumes we see that there's this dichotomy of Jaune trying t and sometimes even getting to play much more standard story beats "Straight" that RWBY usually avoid. Only for them to then get blindsided by RWBY's more subversive elements.

But the key thing here is you only notice the latter if you pay attention to the whole, and not the individual moments. This is a problem I had with Jaune till about V6/7; because despite my insights here I do think the execution has been murky more often than not.

Still, with the above in mind, I think one can easily where how things flow out from there, with Jaune trying to play these self assigned roles and getting these moments of "Standard storytelling."

Only for something to come along later and put a spin on it.

V4 Jaune gives a nice speech to Ruby but it ultimately just serves to reinforce her burgeoning issues because he also missed her tendency to repress and when placed in a scenario like he would have been with Pyrrha he froze up and couldn't act, IE Tyrian almost getting Ruby.

He finally got his big speech and rage at Cinder, but was actively being told to chill by Qrow and Cinder gives near zero fucks and rather than getting a power up he gains a power that assigns him a support role over a "badass" role.

We also get to see something in V6 which I thin is often neglected in Jaune analysis, that boy has a fucking temper!

We've seen it with him shouting at Pyrrha, at Cinder and then outright attacking Oscar. But he always calms down afterwards and no one seems to hold it against him, but the thing is this means he never really works on it. The only thing that can shut it down is his own sense of shame rather than actual self control like say, Yang has.

But I digress, my interpretation of the writers intent but I basically think Jaune is meant to serve four purposes in the narrative:

1: Counterpart & foil to Ruby as leaders with very different skills & roles in universe. 2: Counterpart & commentary on shitty male authority figures who needs to unlearn toxic masculinity. 3: A longform subversion of the typical "idiot Shounen hero" who gets by on gumption and lots of natural talent. 4: The closest person we get to a wholly normal person in universe, as even Oscar has an ancient wizard in his head.

These are all interesting things and I can see what the creators are aiming for, or so I believe. However, I do think the execution of all this is often murky.

The short form stuff I mention above is some of the hardest to grapple with cos until you see it pay off it just seems like standardized story tropes, and even then the emphasis these ideas require to work can be disruptive to other characters narrative importance.

What's more while interesting and impossible to fully comment on until the story is wholly done, it is hard to say how strictly necessary some of these ideas are to explore given RWBY's limited run time. & the fact some of them could be divided up and given to more temporary characters who don't need as much narrative real estate.

Thus I can definitely get why people often find Jaune frustrating. Hell, I can often find him frustrating, especially because I think some of his traits are meant to evoke a degree or irritation with him. But all of this also feeds into why he can be such a divisive character.

As for people who just project onto Jaune and make him super harm big badass, ugh, idiots unworthy of consideration who frankly shouldn't be watching RWBY, I have nothing to say to them.

Anyway I hope this was coherent, thanks for the ask, sorry it took so long!

[empty-vessel-of-a-person]

Caleb's Return and Reaction to Hate Comments About His Upcoming Memories

Note: This is a personal take and observations with all the LaDS Men. This is not to compare are any of them with each other. Instead, this is a personal understanding on the Boy's Personalities. Reactions and comments are welcome but let's be respectful of each other's opinion.

PROLOGUE:

Caleb will be returning in less than 24 hours. I am very excited and nervous about his return. In my previous entry, I mentioned that Caleb was my first choice. Notice when I say "was"? It's because I am a 100% Zayne Girlie now. Some may ask why do I need to stuck my nose to Caleb's return if I am a Zayne' Girlie. It is because I love them all! Yes, I specially love Zayne, but it doesn't mean that I cannot support the other male leads as well, specifically Caleb who is becoming the target of hate since the his official return announcement and trailer drop for his memories. So I like to drop my personal take on Caleb's return.

THE ISSUE

It came to my knowledge that some of LaDS girlies, specifically Rafayel's Girlies are starting hate comments towards Caleb's Memories. Almost all his 5 star memories that will be dropping tomorrow, January 22, 2025, have skinship and intense flirting scenes. Also the visuals are really something. They are more detailed and vibrant. I truly understand where you are coming from. As a LaDS version one player, I waited a few months just to see them holding hands and 6 months for Zayne to finally kiss MC properly.

So let us go through some timeline, to understand why Caleb, seems ahead of everyone when he was just about to return.

THE TIMELINE PAST. Pre-events on Love and Deepspace Timeline.

Caleb and MC are childhood friends and they stay together until he goes to Skyhaven to train as a Pilot.

Let that sink in for a moment. Before we met Zayne again, before we partnered with Xavier, before we bump to Rafayel, and before we dance with danger with Sylus, MC spend his whole childhood with Caleb. Just this alone has given him so much upper hand and memories with MC.

I am not saying this to belittle the time we spend with the other LaDS Men, I am just saying that developers have a lot of timeline to play with about MC and Caleb. If we are able to progress, with Zayne, Xavier, Rafayel and Sylus in one year, how much more can we progress with Caleb from childhood to adulthood.

Base on the current known previews we have seen on his memories, it's easy to assume they are in a "mutual understanding" if not in a relationship.

I must stress that MC and Caleb grew up together. They are really comfortable with each other. This are very visible when he was first introduce in the current timeline of LaDS. They joke around and touch so casually. As a real person, you will never so easy to be physically familiar with anyone in your first meeting, specially with boys. That is why MC takes time to get familiar with the other male leads.

LaDS MEN and their CHARATER OVERVIEW and PERSONALITIES

ZAYNE The Childhood Friend and Domestic Type Love Interest

Zayne is the kind of love interest that portrays a slow and steady kind of love.

He was not jealous (at least not very vocal) but protective.

He lets you make friends. He wants you to enjoy yourself. He was never rude to people you know and always lets you have your space.

He is mature and see things from all direction before making any move.

He treats you fairly. He is overly protective of you but he never let his worries get in the way of you being a hunter. He is that understanding and supportive.

He was very kind of standoff-ish and sarcastic (well he is still sarcastic at times) But he earns your trust and started building a strong and dependable relationship with you.

SYLUS The Dangerous, Romantic, Sexy, and Adventurous Type Love Interest

Sylus still have the air of mystery and danger in him. Mystery and Danger are thrilling and sexy.

He always have high regards of you and your ability but will still go out his way, just to ensure you will never have to worry about anything.

Your friends cannot be so close to him because of his true identity.

Though you cannot meet freely, he make sure to compensate it with spending quality time with you in a especial place or in his home.

Though he threats you roughly at first, you both started to be special for each other.

RAFAYEL The Boy-Next-Door and Hopelessly In Love, Love Interest

Rafayel is a breath of fresh air.

Loving Rafyel in like your High Scholl relationship. Not overly sexy but you two are close.

He likes traveling and seeing the world with you. He also wanted you to see the places he's been and experience different things.

Rafayel is the Innocent and Pure kind of love. I do not mean that is a sexual term. We all know that they have already done it. Rather, Rafayel's love is enduring, patient, understanding, hopeful and loyal.

He is not the one to express love solely through physical touch. He is more to show you how vibrant and alive things are when he was with you.

XAVIER The Possessive and Jealous Love Interest.

He was never afraid to stake his claim on you. He doesn't care if he is rude or straight to the point as long as no one can get close to you. (Poor Thomas. Myth and Celestial Message)

He doesn't care about anything but you. You are the only one in his eyes. I guess this is rooted in how he has lost you so many times that we wanted you to spend all of your time with him.

He is the time of a person who will give up anything for you.

He easily gets frustrated when things don't go his way, especially when he cannot push everyone away from you.

He is also the type of guy to remind you that you belong to him in a very sexual way. (source: Misty Silhouette)

LaDS Men Personalities and their Memories.

So now that we got over with the Boys' personality, let's associate them with their memories.

Although Zayne is becoming more open to physical touch and teasing us about our bedroom rendezvous, we can never expect him to go wild every time he is with us. Although he goes to step out of line (Absolute Zeal), he is drunk, and that is basically alcohol courage fueling his actions. He even worries we will hate him because of his sudden personality change. It was adorable of him to become all shy again in the morning. He is a very reserved and rational type of guy and that was infold in showing us in his memories.

On the other hand, Sylus is a very brisque and fearless man who never shies away from intimacy. He is always ready to touch you are be physical with you in every sense of the word. He is confident in every way and is not afraid to show you a different kind of good time.

Rafayel shows signs of always needing confirmation and assurance of your affection. This is never because he doesn't trust you, but because he does wholeheartedly. He gave you his heart and you disappeared. He waits for you for 800 years and it's never been easy for him because the moment he found you, you didn't even remember him. He always wanted to know if it was okay to be close to you and/or touch you. Which is why his actions in his memories are always tamed and calculated.

When we met Xavier in the current lifetime, there are just too many secrets. There are so many things he cannot say or tell you which is why he is so distant. It was always, 1 step forward and 2 steps back with him. That is until his timeline update and secrets are revealed. Once the secret is out he becomes more close and possessive of you.

THE CONCLUSION Personalities vs. Memories

LaDS Men's memories are directly tied down to their personalities. We can never expect the same situation and reaction from all the ML's. If they all have the same personalities and take on different situations, why would Infold bother having different characters when they can save creating just one? Always remember that all the boys are here with us to cater to the different kinds of love we long for. If you want a high school type of love, go for Rafayel. If you want to go for unpredictable love, go for Xavier. If you want a very steady and domestic kind of love, go for Zayne. If you want thrilling and sexy love, go for Sylus. And if angsty childhood friends to lovers is your thing go for Caleb.

All of their memories are here to make us all feel what we long for. Don't blame Caleb or anyone if your expectations with your ML are not met. I was once so disheartened and intimidated by Sylus, but now I love him just as much as the rest.

Let your Evol, I mean your love for your ML outshines the bad side. This game is supposed to make us happy and not turn against one another. Let us Celebrate Caleb's return. We waited a year for him.

[hannahmanderr]

ALL OF THIS

Like you cannot convince me that Jack and Maddie would be anything less than enthusiastically supportive of Danny. It's like anon said: the Fenton family's fierce love binding them all together is one of the best things portrayed in the show. They may have their occasional issues with each other, but at the end of the day, you had better watch out if you come after even one of them, because the other three will be right there to tear you down for even thinking about it ("Maternal Instincts", "Million Dollar Ghost", and "Secret Weapons" are the prime examples of this, though there are plenty of other smaller instances throughout the show).

I think what happens is (some) phans end up equating a readily accepting Jack and Maddie with a perfect, can-do-no-wrong Jack and Maddie, and that's simply a false equivalency. In a fic, you can have them be fully, immediately accepting of Danny and his ghostliness and still have to work through things like their biases and misgivings. You can have there be some emotional baggage between Danny and his parents that needs to be worked through. That's all perfectly reasonable and I think scratches that itch for more realism that a lot of phans have (myself included).

And it doesn't need to be done through the lens of certain tropes, such as when they accept Danny but work to "cure" or "fix" him (whether secretly or overtly).

Kind of on the same tangent, you will also never convince me that the Fenton parents are abusive in any way. Yes, I will be the first to concede that their lab safety is certainly lacking in many areas, but it doesn't mean they take their children's safety for granted. This goes hand in hand with the idea of them being negligent too, but it's clear that they very much prioritize Jazz and Danny over ghosts. Like yes, in the very first episode, we see Jack convinced a ghost has replaced Jazz and the shenanigans that ensue from that, but the moment he realizes that he's hurt Jazz (again, not in an abusive way), he's ready to give up ghost hunting entirely. That's how much he prioritizes his family.

Time and time again, Jack and Maddie are depicted as clearly having a vested interest in their kids and their safety and personal lives. I could go on with examples, but I don't want to take up too much here. The point is, even by the cartoonish standards of canon, in which their interest in ghosts is played up for laughs, they still care about their kids more than they care about ghosts and ghosts hunting any day.

And you can bet that applies just as much when it comes to Danny's secret.

(and just to put it out there, I realize and accept that the whole point of fanfiction is that it's not perfectly going to follow canon. If you want to write a fic in which Jack and Maddie are terrible parents, then all the more power to you! I won't even deny that there's some evidence in canon of them being bad parents. What I think myself, anon, OP, and many others get frustrated with is when Bad Parents Jack and Maddie is treated as the default rather than a break from their canon characterization. I know for a fact that there are phans, especially ones who either haven't seen the show or just aren't as familiar with the actual content of the show, who think that them being abusive/negligent/unaccepting is the default, and it's frustrating to see two complex characters get all their good and/or nuanced qualities thrown aside in favor of playing up a trope. I won't even get into how it's just another symptom of the phandom's strange obsession with glorifying the angstification and trauma of a child (albeit a fictional one). Tis a rant for another day)

The fact that the Fenton parents are shown to love Danny despite being a ghost not once but TWO TIMES is more important to me as a queer adult than these people who want to turn them into inhumane monsters to project their own parental issues onto

Maybe we all just cope with stuff in different ways, but this fanon thing really goes against one of the few actually well written things in DP: Danny's ride-or-die family

THE FACT THEY DO IT TWICE IS WHAT GETS ME!!! they didn't just accept Danny once they did it again!!! In canon!!! They accept him both times! And so many people are like, "No! They're monsters! They wouldn't accept him." LIKE HONEY??? THEY DO IT TWICE IN CANON? Like AGHHHHH *scraps hands over face* I can only filter out so many "Bad parents Jack and Maddie Fenton" tags on my ao3 and still see these OOC takes on the characters. And yeah write whatever- I just wish I could fucking filter it out correctly so I don't have to see it! Tag it CORRECTLY please!

Now honestly, I do think talking about Canon Jack and Maddie they'd fall into the "cares but says dumb shit sometimes" category of accepting parents. But I do also believe that if Danny Phantom happened today's time and Danny was queer then Jack and Maddie would be the most embarrassingly pride parents at the pride parade. They would cover the fucking ghost assault vehicle in pride flags and blast how proud of their son they are at the pride parade on the things megaphone. While Danny wishes he could fucking die right there again before the embarrassment takes him.

No cops at pride, only the Fentons in the decked out assault vehicle.

[allylikethecat]

⋆˚࿔ october prompts 𝜗𝜚˚⋆

Hiiii Happy Tuesday! No chaptered fic update today because conference but I am very pleased that I once again managed to get this one written during session breaks! It's a little all over the place because I wrote it very quickly during the session breaks BUT I got it written and now I am posting it and for this little exercise that is what matters! Thank you so much to everyone who has read any of these little prompt fills or any of my other works. I greatly appreciate it!

¹⁵⁾ a lone silver earring

If it wasn’t for a lone silver earring, a small hoop, found twisted in the bedsheets, George wouldn’t have believed the night before had really happened. He would have believed it to be a wet fever dream, a drunken desperate attempt from his memory to remind him what he had lost. 

But he and Matty had stumbled through the entryway. They had giggled as Matty tripped over his own feet going up the stairs. He had pushed George into the bedroom before throwing himself down onto the bed next to him, then crawled on top of him. They had pressed their lips pressed together as Matty tried to bring them impossibly closer, acting as if he tried hard enough he could burrow into George’s skin. He bit and licked at George’s lips like he wanted to devour him, like doing so would bring him some kind of salvation. George’s fingers were fisted in his hair like he didn’t want to ever let him go. They didn’t do that anymore, but as Matty buried his face in his neck, his breath erratic and desperate, George couldn’t remember why they had stopped. 

The next morning Matty was gone, and George couldn’t even find a trace of his scent on the sheets, the clothes dumped on the floor collected as he left during the midnight hours, a thief escaping in the night with George’s heart in his rucksack. If it wasn’t for the earring, found when George had gotten up and stripped the bed, he never would have believed it had happened, again, instead believing it to be a figment of his imagination, a desperate dream for what they once had and what they could have been again. He’s not sure if he had been changing the sheets to erase what had happened, or because he was searching for proof that it had been real. George wasn’t sure which would have hurt more, Matty having been there and gone, or Matty having never been there at all. 

George knew that it had been toxic, when they had tried it for real and that any time they tumbled into bed together, it was with that same air of toxicity. They had been too young, and had burned too bright, Matty deep in the throngs of addiction and George tangled in the binds of anxiety. George picked up the earring, the small silver hoop. Matty had been wearing it for the last few years, their fans cheekily calling it his slut hoop. George wondered what the implications of him losing his slut hoop in the bed of a drunken hook up. Because as much as George hated it, that is all that he was to Matty, a drunken hookup before he went back to the home he shared with her. George hated how much he liked her, he hated how good they were for each other almost as much as he hated his inability to stay away. 

They were getting older and as George raised his fingers to touch his lips, bruised and swollen from being crushed against Matty’s own, he wondered if there would ever be a them again. He wondered if he wanted there to be, or if it would hurt less for it to be over for real. 

Day: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |

[beanghostprincess]

I need your brain to help pick apart a thought that I had in mind. What would happen if Shuggy was raised with the Whitebeard pirates? Idk what their rules are about carrying around kids in the seas but let's say they don't get docked onto the nearest island (i mean marco is in there too so)

Would Buggy be different? I think a big part of why he's insecure and why he's a "coward" is because he's standing on the shoulders of giants, he's part of the best crews of the seas and yet they expect him to be a monster like everyone else is in that ship, but in reality what if he just wants to go on adventures and get treasures without the need to sacrifice his limb and life for it? I love the Rogers pirates, and would love to believe in my heart of hearts that Buggy is as equally loved as Shanks but man, thinking about their flashback and seeing how Shanks gets the hat, and Shanks is praised by Roger and Crew, I don't think they completely understood the emotional side of how to raise children.

Which leads me to believe that Whitebeard probably knew better than Rogers and Rayleigh in that regard, he's got like so many found family kids and they're all willing to go to bat and die for their dad, and with Whitebeard wanting a family and calling his children his treasure, I think he'd be more sensitive about the feelings of his children. I think Whitebeard would help buggy understand how he differs from Shanks, but that does not make him inferior. He would probably encourage Buggy with all his inventions and bombs and slight of hand tricks.

Would Buggy also feel less alone because he sees other people in the crew who are also Whitebeard's children, and therefore he has brothers? Would he consider them family?

I haven't thought ahead with how much Shanks would change under Whitebeard, but I doubt it would change. Shanks is still star-pupil shanks, but this time instead of the crew praising him like Uncles to a nephew, it's adopted big brothers to a prodigy (also I brainrot buggy more but I think there can't be buggy without shanks and vice-versa, so they are a Do Not Separate pair)

Maybe it's just me desperately wanting buggy to have a father figure who loves him. My heart wants to believe Rogers and Rayleigh was that for him, but the manga chapters really doesn't show much about them giving him that attention, so I naturally drifted to the Dad Pirate of the Series, Whitebeard.

Thoughts?

You have a point, actually! I mean, imo, I've always thought (or liked to think) that Roger and Rayleigh loved Shanks and Buggy equally. They just treated them differently because they do have different personalities, after all. As somebody who understands Buggy's POV a lot, I think we shouldn't have to take it as the only, pure reality of all. We basically just have his POV on this situation and of course, for him, Shanks is going to be the favorite and he is going to be treated unfairly. I think most of that perception comes from his inferiority complex toward Shanks. Because yes, he was obviously the star-pupil and did get the hat and it's understandable that Buggy feels inferior. But that is not the whole truth and I don't think everything is Roger and Rayleigh's fault because of their way of raising them. I think that no matter the crew, Buggy would have still felt at least a bit of resentment and jealousy when it comes to Shanks. Shanks is just that type of person.

HOWEVER! You do have a point and it is that the Whitebeard pirates are way more family-focused and they seem to want to get the best of everybody individually. The reason why Whitebeard is so loved by his crew isn't really because of his power but because he gives them a place to belong and grow up. Roger's crew is a family too but as you said, they're giants and of course, Buggy is going to feel like a little bug in comparison if they expect him to be the same and praise Shanks for just existing when Buggy has to actually work to be seen that way.

I think these two being in that crew would've changed their personalities a bit. Buggy being more confident in himself and being raised with positive reinforcement and an environment that is actually a family would've been good for him and his self-esteem. His personality would clash with Shanks' a lot still, but you know, that's just how they are. Also, Shanks I think would be the same except that his need to please/save people would not be that strong since he doesn't have the responsibility of the world on his shoulders and no hat to deal with.

Don't get me wrong, maybe the break up would still happen. It would certainly happen, actually. Of course Roger's death wouldn't be the same for them in this context because originally he is basically their dad, and they don't have a crew to go back to and that fact adds more layers to their fight, but Buggy would still be ambitious and want to go for the One Piece, and Shanks would want to wait. And I think that no matter the context they're both stubborn and emotional and refuse to talk things out. Although maybe being with Whitebeard would help them in that context but, you know, I think Shanks and Buggy are the type of duo that NEED to break up for them to work later on in the story.

This whole AU has a lot of unsolved questions like-- Buggy's fruit and whether they'd like to leave the crew or not etc etc. But. I think the point here is more about their dynamic, right? I think they'd be more emotionally stable after all. Maybe they're more open about their issues too, and Buggy probably wouldn't have the "he made me eat the fruit and lost my map" excuse to hate Shanks. I think the big change here would be Buggy actually being dangerous and using his full potential instead of holding back. That is... Worrying. I love him.

[marsixm]

i dont rly ever acknowledge it outside of the moment but man so much of my job rly is just emotionally supporting a ton of my coworkers and im happy to be there for them but sometimes i wish it wasnt only me. idk. i dont rly have a point just reflecting

[fracturedodr]

The contact from Hogni (and silent support) had him let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd begun holding. Tension leaving his body when everyone in the room responded with support, with the desire to help. Freya Familia, he noticed, would likely have taken it as an admission of weakness and half flayed him alive for even attempting to voice his fears and worries.

"... ...I'm sorry." He started. "For - not fighting longer." They'd been so close. A few days longer and he'd have been fine, he could have gone home months ago- "A lot is a - a big tangle. If noone had said Haruhime or Mikoto's names I think I would have panicked~" Largely an attempt to help defuse the tone in the room, but honest either way.

He might've even started running away from them, for all the good that would have done over just admitting he didn't recall their names.

"...Thank you." He added. "I'll try to say when I don't remember something. Like... my room, for instance. I don't know where my odl room is. There's too many rooms, and I was too afraid to start poking around." It would have looked so much stranger than just picking a different room!

At least that way they could think he'd had some kind of logic to his decision, rather than a panicked 'oh shit where's my room in this manor'.

Aaand there was a wince. Eyes clamped shut at the memory he really, really wished he hadn't gotten back.

"I really didn't want to remember that one Miss Eina thank you..." But his voice was full of amusement, and some small amount of joy at her bringing it up at all - a tiny reassurance that it wasn't a lie. "I'm sure there are other things I don't wanna remember, though. Those ones are... gonna be hard." Like the oddly symmetrical scar on his arm that everything in him begged him never to mention. "But... thank you... I was..." Go on, be honest, they clearly care. "scared, that you'd just get mad. Or upset. I mean you probably are upset but not at me. Freya's the one that did this." Wait.

Hold on.

"Isn't... Wouldn't her doing that break a rule? She charmed the whole city, that - that sounds like a rule would be there."

WAIT.

"Is THAT why everyone in the city has been giving me weird looks this whole time!?" NO WONDER they'd all seemed to upset and mad!

Lili and Eina both made a move to comfort Bell and be by his side, but it was Hogni, who was faster, that instantly took that place. He was using his collar to hide, as he did when he knew people were staring. But Bell needed support.

As he did once before when they were alone in Bell's chosen bedroom, his hand gently patted the boy's back. Good job. Despite how bad it might make the elf look, it was something Bell needed to tell them. Keeping it hidden like that would only create more problems, and probably more hurt.

Despite Hogni being beside Bell, Lili still stepped forward, choosing to take his other side.

"Then--Li--Lili will help! If Master Bell doesn't remember something and Lili has the answer, she'll tell him!!" That...made so much sense why he was acting differently. Besides his whole ordeal in the other Familia. Because he didn't know.

"And...my Log Book for you may have been stolen, but I do have my memories, Bell. I can remember the things we've talked about, what you've inquired, even the day you came back from the Dungeon covered in Minotaur blood. That gave me a fright."

[holocene-sims]

a sneak peek for an upcoming (timeline tbd) update 😊

[contagious-watermelon]

It's interesting to me that understandings of transsexuality have been almost exclusively filtered through the lens of queerness and the social aspects of gender. In other words, that the "T" was added to "LGBT." I've thought for a while that in a lot of cases, transness — and specifically dysphoria — makes a lot more sense when analyzed through the lens of disability rather than through queerness. (Personally I see it as being at the intersection between those things.)

I think that a theory of transsexuality would be incomplete without taking into account the societal aspects of gender, yes, but it seems to be similarly incomplete in the popular understanding of it.

I've seen a lot of discussion in the stuff I've read by disabled people about the contention between being objectively harmed or, well, disabled, by your disability, but still wanting to be proud of it or finding identity in it regardless. A lot of autistic communities, I've noticed, talk a lot about the fact that being autistic is difficult; it's made worse by other people's reactions to it, but it still is hard on its own (e.g. auditory overstimulation); yet people still can say that they'd rather be autistic than not. Or they may say they wish they weren't, but that they've come to terms with it because it's not exactly changeable.

Point is, there's open discussion about the differences between inherent challenges to your disability regardless of society, the ways which ableism makes things more difficult, and the contention of finding identity and community in your disability despite that. (And I use autism as an example because I'm autistic; I don't want to speak for, say, a physically disabled community as I'm able-bodied. But I have seen similar discussions there as well.)

The trans community, as I've seen, doesn't really have that. We're polarized between the extremely self-hating people who think that being trans is a curse and that people who like being trans are just fakers co-opting transness, and the toxically positive contingent who refuse to engage with the fact that sometimes dysphoria really does just hurt. And also that transphobia exists.

There's also the fact that in many ways, dysphoria is actually disabling. It isn't for everyone, and part of the problem is that transness as a concept covers so many things that analyzing it through just one lens will always be incomplete, but for me at least it caused me a lot of depression and dissociation, and made it difficult-to-impossible to interact with other people or function at my classes. Back before I medically transitioned, I related a lot to some descriptions by disabled people about their chronic pain, because my dysphoria effectively was chronic psychological pain. I don't want to say it's the same thing, because obviously I've only experienced one of those things, and dysphoria has a treatment while many (all?) chronic illnesses don't, but nevertheless it was a comforting lens to think of my dysphoria through in the time before I got top surgery.

Also of note is the way both our communities are treated by the medical establishment. I've heard many horror stories by disabled people of how doctors simply refuse to diagnose them or give them issues with their meds. Trans people obviously also have to deal with the shit that doctors put out in order to get access to HRT and any necessary surgeries. People deride HRT, saying that we shouldn't take it because it'll "make you a medical patient for life." People act like mental pain isn't real — calling depression fake, acting like because things like fibromyalgia aren't "real pain" that it shouldn't bother you so much, etc. — and that extends too into the way they dismiss the pain of gender dysphoria.

So, I don't really understand why the trans community has taken so many pains to disavow themselves from being considered even remotely similar to disabled people. I know that the common refrain, "we're not mentally ill!" is meant to combat the idea that we're deluded into thinking that we're a "different gender" than we really are, but the effect is throwing actually mentally ill trans people under the bus. The insistence that there's no way that dysphoria should be considered a disorder because there's nothing wrong with us — I just think that we could take a hint or two from the way that disabled people theorize about this subject.

[seraphasia]

the problem with self-diagnosis that most concerns me is the risk of people, teenagers especially, pathologizing normative behavior

[jcogginsa]

I do think it's worth doing some analysis of how story's are typically structured in Dragonball.

As the series protagonists, they tend to become narratives that are very light on screentime for the protagonist, up until the end. Toriyama tends to sideline the main character, usually in a manner that increases their power, and then have them come in to save the day when the stakes are at their highest This is harder to notice in the early portions, the Pre-Z era for lack of a better term, because a lot of that material is tournament ars, where the structured format of the fights mean that Goku doesn't need to get silo'd away from the other leads in order for him to be in reserve. The kernals of the Toriyama formula start being developed in the King Piccolo arc. Goku is off doing his thing, the other characters are off doing theirs. They fail, Goku wins. The difference is that what Goku is doing in that arc is given equal narrative complexity and screen time. He's not just training, he's going around and doing stuff. The True Formula shows up in Z, wherein the Saiyan Saga starts by killing him off, so that he can have the next tier of training. Then when the action starts, he's got to get to the battlefield, which gives the other gcharacters time to do stuff.

We see something similar in the Frieza Saga. Goku is left behind on Earth, so that he can dedicate his own journey there to intense training. There is a bit of a hiccup here, as he gets to pull the "show up and save the day card" against the Ginyus before being sidelined again to build him up for Frieza. The pattern repeats in Cell. Goku is sidelined with the heart virus, and then sidelined with the Hyperbolic Time Chamber training. And then Goku dies at the end, in what was intended to be a torch passing moment. And contrary to popular belief, Gohan at the time was popular enough to pull this off. Contemporary Populairty polls have him in 1st place while Goku is in second. It could have worked.

People look at the Buu Saga, which has Gohan getting knocked out of the plot in order to get a power up, as evidence of some kind of immeadiate back lash against his charater, but it probably isn't. He's just getting the main character treatment. He doesn't gt to be part of the action until the climax. The supporting cast, which now includes Goku, are the ones who get to do things.

But Toriyama does decide that the protagonist switch wasn't working. The stated reason was that he just didn't like writing Gohan as a lead, feeling his personality wasn't suited for the role. And his lack of interest showed through to the audience, as Gohan's popularity dipped back below Goku's. The decision to make Goku the lead again probably happened after he got the traditional main character sideline, and it probably also contributed to Toriyama's decision to end the series. Goku's story was over, but Toriyama didn't think the story could go on without him, so the Story ended. and then we get the continuations, where the Z formula is discarded entirely. Goku is front and center the whole time, because tha marketing team demands it. And this is at least part of why Super's Goku feels like a regression. The plot requires that Goku be less capable because he can't beat the bad guy in the first episode. (the other part being the many ways in which Toei just isn't as good at writing him as Toriyama)

How would you write Majin Boo and Yamcha in the Tournament of Power, instead of Roshi and 17?

Honestly, Buu would be pretty game-breaking. I can't really conceive of any reason why Buu wouldn't absorb Jiren and anticlimactically waste everybody else fighting in the tournament.

As the be-all end-all final villain of Dragon Ball, Buu's ability to just eat whoever's stronger than him and gain their power for himself is completely busted. It makes it very difficult to write him into scenarios where he is a struggling underdog trying to compete with a superior foe.

Which is probably why Super snubs him so much. This is a character who has near limitless regeneration on top of the ability to turn every single fighter in the tournament into candy and he can just absorb everybody who's stronger than him whenever he runs into a brick wall. That's great for an overpowered villain that we need to find some way to beat, but terrible for a protagonist who needs to be challenged.

Like. It cannot be understated how devastating Buu's Candy Beam would be here. He can spread it over a wide area. He could literally step out onto that stage and Gobstopper every fighter from every universe simultaneously.

And sure, some of them would be able to Universe's Strongest Jawbreaker that shit. But it's still kind of purpose-defeating if like 80% of the assembled fighters are KO'd in the first three seconds. Buu just waves his antenna and erases anyone who isn't Power Levels enough to compete with Vegetto? Okay, man. There go all the fun fights for the weaker characters. Buh-bye.

Even then, if they aren't allowed to fly, like... how are they supposed to fight now? Is Gobstopper Jiren just supposed to spend the rest of the arc rolling into other gobstoppers super hard to ping them off the field?

Actually, that sounds amazing. XD

But in an AU capacity, not in a "This is seriously the plot of the show" capacity.

I don't think Toriyama would have kept Buu around if he wasn't planning on closing the book on Dragon Ball shortly after. Buu joining the supporting cast is very much a "Fuck it, we're done anyway" decision that the series is now paying for, and its solution is to just... find ways to conveniently kick him out of the cast over and over again.

Going into the Tournament of Power... Like, right from the get-go, Buu is going to be nerfed by the rules of the tournament. He can't eat people. That would probably be how you get around the "Buu just deletes half the tournament roster" problem.

He's just. He's not allowed to use his powers. Sorry. Buu has to fight with one hand behind his back. Dem's the rules.

I don't know if he would actually abide by that rule. He might just end up disqualified after eating Toppo. Buu is a selfish, impulsive hedonist who reflexively lashes out at authority. He's just gonna do whatever he wants and let the chips fall where they may.

But if Mr. Satan tells him not to eat anyone, he... probably won't eat anyone? Might still Candy Beam them though. Turning them all into marbles and rolling them off the stage would technically be within the terms of a "NO EATING PEOPLE" restriction.

Buu's crowd control options are bad for the narrative integrity of a battle royale. Even right now, I'm trying to figure out how he could be involved and still having to write around his powerset rather than being able to incorporate and challenge it to its fullest.

I don't know. It's honestly difficult to incorporate him in a way that would be respectful and utilize him in interesting ways without letting him dominate and break the plot.

I think he could work as the villain of another universe's story. Have Buu take the field as the threat that's gonna carry us to victory until fighters from another universe find a way to team up and take him down.

But for the life of me, I can't get around, "Why doesn't he just Candy Beam the entire arena?"

...

As for Yamcha, I probably wouldn't write him into the Tournament of Power. Yamcha quit during the Cell arc and I'm entirely happy to let him. If I was writing Yamcha in Super, probably the only thing I'd do with him is properly introduce his new girlfriend from the end of the Cell Games.

Put an actual name and a face to her, so the fandom can stop ignoring her existence when they complain that Bulma condemned Yamcha to die alone and unloved.

I mean, I'd pick Yamcha over Roshi, to be sure. I feel like the series has forgotten that the Muten-Roshi isn't Goku's "One True Master" or anything like that. Goku has a lot of respect for the man who set him on his path, and he wears the Kame-senryu dogi out of that respect. But he learned everything Roshi had to teach him and left him in the dust long ago, a fact that made Roshi proud.

That story is over. The Muten-Roshi is a 300-year-old man who just wants to enjoy his retirement. Stop trying to make him relevant again! And also just. In general. Stop trying to make "Goku the wide-eyed pupil" happen again. It's done. He's a master now. Let him be a master.

Lotta beefs with DBS.

But yeah, while I agree with the criticism of "Why Roshi and not Yamcha", it's only to the extent that going with Yamcha is still kicking the can down the road. I cannot conceive of a single way that Yamcha's character or the story would be enriched by the Tournament of Power, that wouldn't just feel like hollow fanservice.

"Yamcha got to WIN A FIGHT AGAINST SOMEONE. This one's for you, Yamcha stans! Okay, he's done, someone punt this dipshit off the stage."

Which. To be fair. A lot of the ToP is hollow fanservice. I... did not like that arc very much. Or DBS as a whole, for that matter. So I'm probably not the guy to figure out the best way to utilize characters in it.

But for me, I'd be more interested in a proper Yamcha epilogue that closes out his character on a satisfying note and sends him off, than in desperately trying to drag Yamcha back into the game and shackling him into a status quo he already respectfully bowed out of.

[phagodyke]

ykw actually I am angry + disappointed w them. I've been pushing how I feel aside and trying to make it my own fault so it's all contained but I think theyve just been mean. and they really should know me better ik I try to pretend I don't expect more from them so I feel less hurt when they do things that upset me but we've been friends for years by this point. like come on.

[faaun]

i want to be a machine learning engineer but some of u guys r making it embarrassing actually. long but IMO important explanation below. We have bigger issues to deal w and better things to focus on.

like our planet is dying and the commercialisation of massive AI models and training the models themselves releases like hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions. and this includes very "nonessential" models that don't tend to contribute much to society (re: new fancy image generation toy). but u have decided your new career path is "AI artist" (glorified prompt-writer?) .

and just as bad, some of you have decided the biggest issue w AI is those people, the glorified prompt writers!! you draw more attention to it instead of focusing on the real problems behind AI and the ethics of training models! about the harm it causes to the planet, about web-scraping limitations basically not existing (stolen art falls under this domain), copyright laws to do with AI, the way facial recognition deals with race, about the boundaries between letting AI learn and develop in an "unbiased" way vs preventing sociopolitical damage at the cost of (potentially) further progress.

conversely, there is nowhere NEAR enough focus about how AI can help us overcome some of our fundamental problems. i love machine learning bc i find it - specifically the maths behind it - fascinating and i believe one day it could help us make very cool advancements, as it already has. i think the mathematical architectures and processes behind creating new deep learning models are beautiful. i also know the damage capitalists will inevitably do - they always wield powerful, beautiful new tools as weapons.

AND HERE YOU ARE FALLING FOR IT! it's very frustrating to watch!! if you're angry on behalf of artists, i'm begging you to protect the rights of artists and be mad at greedy companies instead of villanising a tool that can help us immensely! learn about AI ethics, learn about how it is present in our lives, what we should try to stop, what we should promote.

if you "boycott AI" as a whole with no desire to gain more literacy on the topic other than "steals art therefore bad", you will have to be against your translate app, your search engine, your email spam filter, almost everything on your phone that categorises anything (i.e. pretty much all of your search functions), NPC enemies in games, your medical diagnostic tools, your phone's face unlock, your maps app, online banking, accessibility tools that help blind and deaf people, new advancements in genetic sequencing and protein folding and treating cancer and modelling new solutions in physics and so on and so on.

the issue isn't all AI as a whole. the issue is A) how companies are using it and B) how a lot of you guys are getting mad at the concept of AI instead of responding to A.

[nullians]

Caught up with op/m manga… I’m scared of waiting…

[serenastark-official]

Okay, here’s my take on Ross. Look, I get it. He’s not perfect, far from it. But he’s definitely not the monster people make him out to be. People love to dump on him for being jealous of Rachel, but let’s be real—it wasn’t all him. Joey and Chandler didn’t exactly give him the best advice, and we all know how that went down. That whole break-up mess was a consequence of that bad advice and his insecurities, but it doesn't define him.

And don’t even get me started on Emily. Yeah, the whole "saying Rachel’s name" thing was a stupid mistake, but it doesn’t mean Ross is some terrible human being. He tried to make things right. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things just don’t work out. Emily couldn’t get past it, and that’s her issue, not Ross's.

Now, I’ll give it to people—Ross definitely wasn’t the best at relationships, but he was an incredible friend, father, and brother. Monica and him may have been competitive at times, but at the end of the day, they loved each other fiercely. Their bond was strong, and no one can take that away from him.

As a friend, Ross was always there for the group. They all supported each other, and honestly, I don’t think there’s any argument about how great of a friend he was. And as a father? Seriously, Ross was dedicated to his kids. He put in the time and effort to make sure they felt loved and cared for.

Is he flawed? Absolutely. But doesn’t that make him more relatable? At the end of the day, he’s a good person who made mistakes and owned up to them. People should give him a break.

And regarding his jealousy—yeah, I think a lot of people forget that Carol straight-up cheated on him with Susan, like multiple times. And I get it, people tend to think it doesn’t count as cheating because it was with another woman, but the emotional impact of betrayal doesn’t change based on the gender of the person involved. Carol and Susan flaunted their relationship in front of Ross and had no understanding of why he couldn’t just be okay with it. They were inconsiderate, and frankly, kind of rude about it. Not because they’re lesbians, but because they were insensitive.

Ross had always struggled with relationships. His first major relationship ended with a betrayal, and then he finally starts dating the girl he’s been in love with forever. Is it really that shocking that he was insecure and scared of losing her? Wouldn’t anyone be?

[ourceliumnetwork]

listen. I know my family is bad at communication and acknowledgement of receipt of Thing but when the one thing that consistently happens semi-annually is that I get fussed at for not confirming I received something, it irks me a smidge.

Like if I'm expected to always confirm "Hey I got your [communication/gift]" then why aren't they doing it back? Especially considering the communication in this instance has really actually very important information they will want to know if they want to stay in contact with me.

Like????

Even if I'd just gotten a "K" in response, like. at least it would have let me know they got the damn thing. I sent this email TWO WEEKS AGO and only one person responded - and it was practically immediate too. Like... i know folks are busy, i know shit's going on. I get it. But it would help me feel so much less like I'm suddenly a pariah in the family out of nowhere if like one of the people I'd sent this to had just responded in some way shape or form.

I'd have answered a phone call - i wouldn't have liked it, but i'd have done it. A letter in the mail to my current address even. a message in a bottle probably wouldn't get to me because i'm pretty far from the beaches of the great lakes, and also they're even farther, but like. something right?

my sister at least confirmed she got it and just forgot to respond. i imagine that's what happened with everyone else because we have the same mental illnesses and look. i do it too. but also? also?? i was hounded to respond quickly to things, i was told off every time i wasn't responding within a half hour of any communication. I was asked instantly the next time they saw me if I'd gotten it, even if i hadn't had a chance to see the thing yet.

So forgive me, family, if I'm a little peeved off that all y'all are allowed to "forget to respond" for two whole fucking weeks and then a few extra days (because it's been 2 weeks, 3 days exactly) when i can't let something sit in the mailbox for 2 days because i couldn't get to my mailbox easily while living on my own without getting a phone call or text or email that there should be something waiting in there for me.

*enraged screeching*