#the point is progress not perfection
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a while back I had lunch with a couple of coworkers, one of whom asked me why I like public transit and public libraries—in a genuinely, sincerely interested fashion. it was not the first time I've been asked—or had people express bemusement about this—and so, despite being caught totally off-guard the first time, I did actually have an answer this time, which was I try to support things I want to see in the world.
and i felt (and feel) like this is extremely obvious. if we all assume that someone else is going to make sure the things we care about exist and exist well, so that we don't have to do anything—chances are good they're not going to get the support they need and they, in fact, won't exist or improve. So, the counter to that is to take the steps you can to provide that support. (duh)
but I feel like there is this mindset (that is heavily class [and likely race and gender] influenced) of like....someone else will take care of it. And it's about public transit or libraries and independent bookstores and it's about voting and advocacy and community. All these important things that require maintenance and perpetual engagement—the same way that you can't just wash your dishes once in your life and never have to do them again (unless you switch to disposal dishes, but then you still have to take out the trash).
I get that there are a lot of reasons why people feel disenfranchised and fatigued but...at the end of the day, life is composed of an endless series of actions that influence what options are available to you in the future. whether it's voting or going to the library instead of amazon or taking the bus instead of an uber....like. yeah you're gonna have to keep doing it if you want to have an impact. there's no silver bullet that's going to magically land us in utopia with only perfect choices, so you're just going to have to keep choosing the best option you've got to get you that next step closer.
if there isn't a bus that takes you from doorstep to doorstep, you still take the bus that gets you closest. if the dishes are dirty, you wash them. if you want the benefits of society, you show up.
#and like yeah sometimes i still take an uber or i order something online because it's faster or cheaper or easier#this isn't meant to be like. idk self-aggrandizing or whatever#but i guess i'm just.....tired?#of people wanting change wanting things to get better#and then balking at the idea of showing up in even the most minimally low-effort ways or the most important#fucking vote#and then protest and advocate and bother the fuck out of your representatives#and some days you're going to be too tired or busy or just not want to give them a call and that's okay#the point is progress not perfection#we will never ever ever live in a perfect world because that doesn't exist#we can work to make the world better through conscious action#blech okay getting off the soapbox#this has just been bothering me for weeks lol#i had this conversation in like. march orz#personal
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I have a lot of leftover drawings in my gallery. [Blank Scripts AU]
[Content Warning: Images below contain Gore, Death, and Disturbing/Uncomfortable Imagery]
I find it a bit cute knowing they start out as crazy and then slowly settle into something calmer and relatively healthier after learning to adapt to each other's lust-turned-love. [Stanley did it first but hey :3]
#tsp blank scripts au#they love each other [genuinely] theyd rather die if theyre to go without each other by this point#hhmmm I hope the last few images arent too damning#These two go through a lot during the progression of their relationship#and I wanted to showcase that yknow?#theyre demented but theyre just perfect for each other kind of way#lovingly tearing each other apart and rebuilding each other to do it over and over again#repeating this dull process of endings over and over and finding ways to keep themselves entertained#this place was never even meant to be fun#but now that theyve gotten entangled with each other#they cant help but want to play around#even if its just for a little bit?#work can continue later right?#they love each other a little bit too much they actually need to be put in a separate cage#like a spider and a praying mantis#is it painful? yes. is it fun? also yes. do they like doing it only to each other and nobody else? YES.#their psych is genuinely so fun to explore and dissect#I had a lot of fun making these despite how deranged they look#something about them.... it drives both to do things they would never even consider doing to anybody else... but towards each other#you know what i mean? or am i just yapping nonsense again.#horror#the stanley parable#the stanley parable ultra deluxe#tsp#tspud#tsp au#tsp narrator#narrator tsp#stanley tsp#tsp stanley
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I'm just going to say it. the attitude I'm seeing in the Silmarillion fandom from those who have never watched the ROP show, but are enjoying gifsets of the Annatar/Brimb scenes and expressing that it has them interested in those portrayals, while continuing to loudly assert that the Celebrimbor casting is atrocious because he's 'old and blond' fucking disgusts me.
#literally so what that he's over the age of 30 and blond#charles edwards LOVED this role and he poured his whole heart into it#and he loves Tolkien#and his portrayal was amazing and I'm so grateful that this was the celebrimbor we got#and at this point the rejection of him out of hand on his looks is so disgustingly shallow and ageist#especially after s2#i'm so fucking done#he was PERFECT casting#literally PERFECT#and the interplay between him and charlie and the framing of that relationship as the progression of abuse#was amazing#it was everything the characters deserved#rings of power#tired of the ageism in this fandom fr#i'm tired of elves having to look like 30something twinks to be acceptable#anyway sorry i'm choosing violence over this one#i really am
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My jewish community, friends, rabbi, and educators: We are very invested in helping you be jewish. Do you want to help read the haftarah? Here's a chanukiah! You can have it!! Borrow these books! Here's some books! You need more books... Come to pesach! Come to the chanukah party! When are your classes done? We need a minyan for once!
Me and my 50000 IQ: What if I am Secretly Appropriating judaism? What if I am doing a Cultural Appropriation........
#jumblr#jew by choice#jewish conversion#personal thoughts tag#there comes a point where your concerns about if you are an Appropriative Cultural Appropriator hinders your jewish journey#i think a comforting thing is knowing that my incessant fear about this is confirmation that i love judaism#i love it with my heart and soul and (i feel) i'd be a less realized person without it#and i think people who genuinely engage in cultural appropriation just Do Not Care about the cultures they appropriate from#they don't love the culture enough to respect it and that is a big reason that it even IS appropriation#especially when jewish people are INVITING you to do things... it's not appropriation#i dunno last night i was feeling very anxious about lighting the chanukiah candles because i'm alone#but i've also lit shabbos candles. and it's just like... why would i choose not to engage in this when one day i will have to?#this time next year i will have to light candles. as a jew. and if i have no clue how to do it myself then i'll just avoid it#plus... i love my chanukiah and i want to use it. it is currently decorating my room because i love it#i hope they'll let me take pictures of all the chanukiah that'll be at the party#i'm sure they will because they're very open and they are very accommodating. in fact i'm bringing my clarinet too#i haven't touched that thing in well over four years 😭#but jewish music without a clarinet is like a body with no soul. it's impossible. it is not what g-d wants i think.#i just hope my ability to play by ear hasn't been affected by my lack of playing. i don't have perfect pitch tbc#but i fully believe you can know your instrument so well that you develop an ear for perfect pitch#in fact... i refused to memorize my marching band music because i DID develop that 'perfect pitch' ear. that's my dirty secret#i didn't practice in part because i can't have a space where noone could hear me practice and it's embarrassing and private to me#literally EVERY jew in my life has been almost TOO ecstatic about my jewish journey. i'm very thankful for it#i guess i just didn't think i deserved to have people as happy about me being in judaism as i am#so to be clear this is my brain being rude and dumb. this anxiety has NEVER been reinforced by anyone but myself#so i take full responsibility for it. but i think that anxiety is something many/most converts/jews-in-progress feel
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20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?
!!!! def the mars house by natasha pulley! it did meet my expectations and in a lot of ways vaulted over them, because the pre-release reviews were...... rough. thankfully i found a lot of the reasons for the bad reviews (not all of the reasons, but a lot of them) to be nonissues for me. i really liked that way pulley played with gender, the pluses and minuses of living in a non-gendered world. the mammoths thing was kind of silly but in a cute way. and gale really is the most compelling love interest of the year to me. gale themarshouse call me if it doesn't work out with january.
#thank you!!! ^^#there are always Issues with pulley's books that are worth pointing out and not accepting#but overall i just appreciate the way she treats serious societal problems because she doesn't act like she's on the debate team#and she's arguing Her Side against The Other Side#instead she gets in the minds of people who actually live in that society and presents a lot of different reactions#wherein yeah the MCs tend to be the ones with more loving/'progressive' ideals#but they're never perfect. they're never Only good guys. there is in fact a lot of murder in pulleyverse MCs/LIs. and that's okay#like the society in tmh has problems!! and no one has perfect opinions or reactions because it's impossible to be 100% Right#it really does respect both the author's characters and the readers' intelligence. expects you to be able to draw your own conclusions#but also in the end these books are (imho) first and foremost romances. like they're not paperback avon romances or whatever#but they are always Love Stories to whatever degree#but yeah anyway. thx again <3
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"we'll fix it together. okay?" and then the only time we see el fixing the diorama, she's doing it by herself while will sits at the kitchen table nudging at his breakfast
#and then MIKE goes to talk to her but NOT will. and i'm supposed to assume that he loves his sister unconditionally? sure#sorry im on a fucking tear with this rn lmao i'm just#so frustrated by this desire to make will this perfect little boy who can never do any wrong#like. i'm sorry. but if he says nice things and then doesnt follow through on them. it means he's kinda not actually nice#a lot of his shit is performative or self-serving#not all of it. bc jfc i have to 'not all men' will byers when i talk about him#but he is nowhere near on the level of kindhearted and selfless that people make him out to be#especially when compared to the way the rest of the party sticks out their necks to be kind and help people#ie. mike speaking up on el's behalf in st3. lucas constantly checking on max in st4. dustin insisting on helping eddie#like. wtf was WILL doing that makes me go 'wow he's so kind' that's right. fuckall.#like. there is a kind heart inside him. we see it early on in the show. but people are stupid to not notice how it's gotten less and less#as the show has progressed. to the point that i watch st4 and go. wait. where is that kid#like. he doesn't act on his word. he just says nice things without meaning them. or he says nice things just to get sympathy#even if he did actually screw up and needs to own up to it#god. anyway. i love canon will byers i hate fanon will byers#make him interesting and nuanced for the love of god. it's more interesting if he makes mistakes and learns from them#i say things#stranger things //
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I'm also eagerly awaiting the day that we don't start off the semester with a publication by Boas or Malinowski. Sure, read their stuff in a theory class, get a basis for how anthropology theory developed, but in every other class? For fucks sake, there has certainly been better introductory writings on these topics since 1926, you know?
#Maybe! We can even find works by authors who don't casually use the word 'primitive' every few pages!#And hear me out. What if we found some works by authors who are not white or men?!?!? Wild concept I know#Don't get me wrong I LIKE Boas. He was incredibly progressive for his time even if his approach was flawed#(cause he was literally pioneering the field you can't expect him to be perfect in his first go of it)#but it's been a hundred years! There's no excuse! It's just lazy syllabus making at this point#Sword speaks
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I've just started watching The Queen's Gambit and it got me wondering: does Iceman play chess? Cause I can totally see it happening
yeah
this section of my wips got preemptively deleted for being boring and “who cares” and not well written
but yes
#where did you think all the chess metaphors in my fics come from#mav comes home several times to ice and Bradley halfway through The Most Intense Game of Chess you’ve ever seen#he turns around and gets back on his bike and goes somewhere else. not worth it.#those two are crazy.#the point of this one was: mav is the only person ice lets see ‘not perfect’ or ‘perfect but in progress’#Mav gets to see icemanification#everyone else just sees iceman#+ money handling and logistics#+ ice having fun with his subordinates before he outranks the possibility of doing so :)#boring; who cares; not well written#tom iceman kazansky#pete maverick mitchell#icemav#dragged out of the Dark Google Doc of deleted shit just for you#every time i enter that Google doc i get seasick
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wonderful news: im crafting things
#dug out the needlepoint box yesterday we're so back#i think my dad is mildly :/ bc needlepoint used to be His Thing but for him to be only mildly :/ is an achievement#but who care. anyway im working on a lil lobster needlepoint design#at some point id like to try my hand at other kinds of needlework and embroidery#considering that ive ordered a copy of ernest thesigers embroidery book but that was partly just for old actor collector reasons#but it was also for wanting to learn needlework reasons. however id need embroidery materials n things#and right now all ive got is needlepoint stuff#fortunately this is something else i can spend money on (theres lots of listings online of vintage needlepoint kits n things)#what i want is like someones huge ass craft box with a bunch of supplies but i dont actually have the room for that oops#i might start bringing needlepoint stuff with me to either do on my commute or at work bc it is soothing. calming#nothing like repetitive work for a brain that lovessssssss repetitive work#its the perfect therapy for me honestly. repetitive yet simple enough work. and i can see the progress made on it! wondrous#and as you all know i always need something to calm me down. plus im making things. yay
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One of the worst things they did to Richter was giving him a generic backstory where a woman is fridged. There has been many animes where the main character's mother dies. They literally created an oc for the sole purpose of killing her off.
What's worse is that Richter's arc in the games doesn't involve fridging! But sure, what a progressive show.
#castlevania#richter belmont#cw netflixvania#the games have an issue with fridging... you guys didn't have to add more#oh and this might be a hot take on cvblr but julia is just sotn richter but girl in terms of design#i hate how the show is seen as progressive... guys there are issues in the show worth addressing#please be critical about your favorite media#I love the games but i'm critical of it as well they aren't perfect#i haven't really seen any fans of nocturne who point out issues with the show#side note: i hate how the loudest critics of the show are conservative gamerbros#we don't claim those people they are rotten
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On progress, styles and magic
Every damn time I draw lineart, I think it's finished.
Finished, just ugly af.
But noooooooo....
Approximately at 4am a couple of days later ma arse dramatically lits up a cigarette and whips out a metaphorical bottle of Vanish outta thin air.
Like, "Aight, lemme look at this nonsense."
And there we go again. Biting the bullet.
"His nose is too flat. Let's add some blush and use shadows to show the form. Yep, just like animators do, no need in thick lineart strokes here. Nahuuh... Sharper. And a cute cheek coz he looked older last time. Mm-hmm... The colour is kinda dull, no? A better reference would be nice... Let's add some pink here. I know it's monochrome! Just for fun, like a reflection of something. Humans have blood, duh. And chins. And-a... Focus on the eyes for a moment."
Sometimes it even takes 1 mug of coffee and a good music playlist to push forward:
....and a couple of extra hours. Yep, I had to add a new canvas 'cause that one was already laggy.
...and a complete change of brushes/style mid-drawing.
No matter how hard I tried to opt for a sharper comic-book look I have on paper, some hatching, "The style chooses the artist, Mr. Potter."
Oh f#ck...
I had to redo it from scratch and it's still not good enough.
Hits hard, aye? Still, it's progress.
At least this is worth it.
Or so I hope.
#immadramaqueen
#my art#art#digital art#art process#art progress#taurice lemming#dr henry jekyll#henry jekyll#scp#scp fandom#scp foundation#artists on tumblr#scp oc#scp oc art#art problems#art style#inner monologue#digital vs traditional#drawing motivation#last braincell#at this point im trying to convince myself#art meme#monologue#talking to myself#art isnt perfect
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Reviews (summaries) of a few of the drama adaptations for [Legend of the Condor Heroes]/ 「射鵰英雄傳」 from the last three decades:
*Drama posters are from oldest to latest (from left to right, top to bottom)
1983 version (starring Barbara Yung and Felix Wong):
Too young to remember and never rewatched. A feted classic from Hong Kong TVB’s heyday. The only thing I will unequivocally say I love about this version is the iconic theme songs, which are the only musical tracks I can easily recall and identify when it comes to the numerous adaptations.
1994 version (starring Athena Chu and Julian Cheung):
First love. Good performances. Beautiful and ultra-cute JingRong. Favourite balance of visuals for JingRong. Solid production (HK TVB). Newish classic. Faithful to the main storylines. The version which made me fall for Guo Jing and the saga. Sometimes, however, first love only goes so far.
2003 version (starring Zhou Xun and Li Ya Peng):
Gritty. Jiang Hu. Sweeping epic. Mature vibes. Tragic and heartbreak-tinged. Faithful to the main storylines. Brilliant JingRong. Elegantly cultured Huang Rong. Earnestly chivalrous Guo Jing. Love both the portrayals of Guo Jing and Huang Rong (despite the many criticisms received). Loved the veteran gravitas of many of the supporting casts. Performances were fabulous. My only gripe is with Yang Kang (and his actor, Zhou Jie, whose performance I was not especially partial to, but he did okay though). The best Mongolian segment(s) out of all adaptations. Favourite drama adaptation (to date). The main and ending theme songs are fantastic, and the opening track has quite an epic saga feel.
(Some audience disliked ZX’s portrayal, and criticisms abound about her using her own voice during the show - which is a bit husky - but I had absolutely no issues with it. I thought the criticisms weirdly petty, actually. As someone who does not find dubs at all nice, I appreciated her using her own voice/dub for the series. LYP also received his fair share of criticisms for his portrayal. Personally, I enjoyed both tremendously).
2008 version (starring Ariel Lin and Hu Ge):
An adaptation I skipped as neither mains appealed to me, and Liu Shi Shi as Mu Nian Ci was not enough of a draw to make me trudge through an adaption I read was not particularly faithful to the novels. Visuals and vibes wise, I just could not see Hu Ge as Guo Jing - which is simply a personal preference - but I do not doubt that his performance/portrayal would have been fine. That goes for the rest of the cast and their performances.
2017 version (starring Li Yi Tong and Yang Xu Wen):
Pretty. Vibrant aesthetics. Wuxia vibes. Relatively youthful. Commendable production. Sweet, lovey-dovey and affectionate JingRong. Cutie - and handsome - Guo Jing. Excellent Huang Rong. Faithful to the main storylines. Highly enjoyable. Main instrumental track a clever nolstagic callback to the classic Hong Kong songs/themes. Good production. Superb performances overall.
(I found this version’s GJ a bit too prettily handsome, which is lovely but also felt a bit not-GJ. Still enjoyed his portrayal a lot though).
2024 version (starring Bao Shang En and Ci Sha):
Strong Wuxia vibes. Solid aesthetics and production. Youthful. Squee-worthy JingRong. Adorably devious Huang Rong. Favourite Guo Jing and JingRong (to date). Wonderful performances all around. Faithful to the main storylines. Some distinct emotional beats.
Especially noteworthy was the beautifully shot and conveyed scenes from near the end during GJ’s mental and spiritual struggles with his grief and martial abilities. Superbly done and went to the heart of the novel’s themes.
Flaws included pacing and issues with storylines length. Uneven focus. Lack of epic-ness.
(Ci Sha is not really my cup-of-tea visuals wise but he looked and felt like what Guo Jing *should* be and his performance was compelling and layered. His portrayal embodied the 靖 of 郭靖, and I think that meant something significant. He truly came into his own by the last third when the confidence and composure GJ cultivated throughout the series made his nuanced portrayal fangirl-scream worthy. *fainting away* Love his steady, gentle and devoted GJ to bits. The focus and complexity they afforded Yang Kang in this version made him a much more complex and conflicted antagonist, which was fascinating. This Wanyan Hong Lie inspired major feelings for a character I already found especially interesting and tragi-complex since the 2003 adaptation. The soft-spot I have for him is too real).
#legend of the condor heroes#legend of heroes#favourite Jin Yong (aka Louis Cha) story/novel#射雕英雄傳#射雕英雄传#金庸武俠世界#郭靖#黃蓉#personal reviews of the few drama adaptations around#Guo Jing#Huang Rong#all time favourite#ramblings#Guo Jing is my all-time favourite fictional male character#my IDEAL man#JingRong is the forever evergreen OTP#a literally PERFECT canon pairing/OTP#personal notes on the few drama adaptations around#as a fan of LOCH I am still quite amazed by the fact that although the story was written by a man (mostly) for boys/men#it has elements of the female gaze#within the framework of conservative (but also humanist and relatively progressive) values#looking at the story and characters even from a contemporary and feminist POV there are many praiseworthy points#while mostly a men-fest and the FCs roles revolved around their love interests the characters stand on their own regardless#and the impact of even the background female characters permeated the whole series#vis-a-vis the roles of Guo Jing’s and Yang Kang’s mothers#although in many ways Li Ping was a mouthpiece for GJ’s late father her role was significant#she was the quintessential survivor and influential nurturer#she was GJ’s most important role model#and despite YK’s final fate Bao Xi Ruo did not fail in her role as a mother#I always found BXR ‘strong’ in her own ways
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holding pokemon bw/bw2 in my arms shaking and crying im sorry i didn't know how to appreciate everything you did when i was younger i promise to cherish the risks you took the gameplay elements you brought the story you told now that i know better
#soda offers you a can#ugh. gen5 is peak in so many ways#perfect blend of 3d and 2d. new battle styles. brand new pokedex that forces you to try new things#(more or less) justified definitive editions that progressed The Plot because these guys dared to have it#like im a gen4 (and to lesser degree gen3) stan because my formative pokemon experiences happened there#but gen5 did so much right#i might wanna replay it at some point... i'll have to get a rom for that tho#because despite everything there are no multiple save files on one cart#even to this day. no switch profiles don't count as multiple save files for one game
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pisses me off so much much that i’m not immune to people arguing about steven universe
#what is it about that g-dforsaken cartoon that makes my bones weep for blood#its like. the perfect combination of well intentioned progressive storytelling bungled themes antiblackness fandom culture and shipping bul#bullshit queer community physiology kids show and actually-good-except-all-the-bad-parts#anyways any defense of the show that starts with ‘lily orchard is full of shit huh’ immedialy into the trash you fucking go#not all criticism of the fucking thing stemmed from one annoying youtube skank. people have been hypercritical of SU since before that vide#was a glimmer in orchard’s eye - people have been making great and godawful points about it since steven fucking two#STEVEN TWO?!?#SEASON#like some points made against it ARE bullshit! but not all of them! and when real life seems to have spat out a few strawmen for yall to ar#argue against you’ll never make actual progress on the genuine fucking issues people have on it! its useless!#also it really irritates me that bc some people escalated criticisms of the diamonds to ‘su condones nazi redemption’ all responses to the#shows approach to justice just get countered with ‘but RS is jewish’.#like YEAH and actually her jewishness does inform the shows approach to justice abd punishment but that doesn’t make the end result GOOD#also judaism isn’t. spiritually speaking. 100% about reform and self-reflection rather than christian damnation barbarity or whatever#there is in fact harder edges to our shit its just unlikely steven universe would include WD getting hanged along with all her sons orchang#changing her mind at the last second because she hasn’t earned an uncomplicated admittance of fault and she sends and army after the#escaping stevenites only for said army to get drowned alive as the sea closes around them#lol#(or that it SHOULD have#imo while the diamonds did escape proper justice from just a tonal and like. thematic cohesion standpoint a violent execution of the#dictatorial class really would NOOOOT fit the show in any sense)
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Hey crazy thought but maybe Kairi wouldn’t seem like such a ‘wasted character’ if this fandom would quit taking everything of narrative and thematic significance about her and assigning it to Riku constantly all the time.
(The evaluation of the ways in which Kairi and Riku are important and vital foils for each other got kind of long so it’s under a read more; to be clear, I love Riku so much, and it makes me super mad to see his narrative also being undermined by this trend, this is not a hate post.)
Kairi and Riku serve opposing but complementary purposes in the narrative. Kairi represents light, but she also represents the stagnation of the light. Many characters who are associated with just light are also associated with stagnation and a resistance to change. Hoder and Eraqus are particularly extreme examples, but Aqua exemplifies this as well. They want a predictable world where things stay as they ‘should’ be and they are threatened by changes to the status quo. Eraqus in particular refuses to change anything about himself for 60 years, only taking on students at the last minute because he’s running out of time. Kairi, like Eraqus and Hoder and Aqua, stands as the bold, sharp light that casts others into shadow.
However, the other side of “resistance to change” means that Kairi represents restoration. She is able to restore Sora in KH1, pull them home in KH2, and hold Sora back from death itself in KH3, because her power is one of restoration. She holds so tightly to their old way of being that she can stop death itself in the interest of not changing too drastically. But she is unable to move forward on her own, because she fears change too much. She wants to chase after the boys when they keep leaving her behind…but she isn’t able to keep up, because what she actually wants is for them not to run at all.
She wants to go home, and restore their previous status quo. This desire is consistent in her for the entire series; this is also why she is unable to let go of her childhood crush for Sora, even though he’s obviously not the person she wants him to be anymore. For Sora, Kairi is the rock, she is the home that will always be there, he feels that she is the secure dock he can always return to after the storm. He relies on her not changing, which reinforces her fear of change. Lea is similar, and they can bond in KH3 over both their mutual desires to restore a prior, idealized status quo where their friends were reliably there and not at risk of disappearing on them or running away from them or changing.
Riku on the other hand embodies transformation. He represents change to the status quo, growth and development and a new way to be. Too much change is as much of a problem as too little; Kairi in KH1 sees Riku wants change, and it scares her, and he does in fact go too far. At the same time, she’s the catalyst for Riku’s desire to change their circumstances. Kairi’s arrival at the islands in the meteor shower incites Riku to dream of going to the outside world. This too is a tension that creates an anxiety in Kairi - in a way, she can see herself as to blame for Riku’s desire to change. But Riku was always going to change, because that’s who he is. He is radical change, the change that cuts away restrictive dogma so that the world can advance. Riku drives Sora to also want to grow and change, to excel and challenge himself. Sora wants to be like Riku, whose strength and internal drive he admires.
Ultimately Kairi and Riku are in BALANCE with each other. Ironically, while Kairi is themed as ‘the sea,’ her narrative purpose is to be steady as the earth. Riku’s name is ‘the earth,’ but he is changing and dangerous as the sea. They are one another’s reflections in the narrative. Kairi’s arc is about learning to let go and move forward, even though it scares her. Riku’s entire arc is about finding balance, not throwing away the comfort of the past, that inoculates him from falling too far the way Baldr and Xehanort do. Riku can drive Kairi to join them by giving her a Keyblade too. Kairi can pull Riku back from fleeing from them by seeing him even under Ansem’s face. He is able to be in contrast with Kairi in a healthy way, in a way that honors her fears while also refusing stagnation. They have to work TOGETHER to find Sora, because they are one another’s narrative and thematic opposites. Kairi is too stagnant on her own, and Riku too volatile. Sora is the healthy middle between them, the center-point that can bind the light and the dark TOGETHER for one purpose.
Kairi is narratively and thematically important to Kingdom Hearts. She represents something, and trying to take the things that reinforce her narrative importance to the story (her representation of the light, her narrative purpose of ‘disruption’ in her arrival via the meteor shower, her position as the one who grounds Sora in opposition to Riku’s position as the one who drives Sora to push himself and achieve more) not only undermines her story, it undermines Riku’s.
#Time to swing the bat at the hornet's nest I guess#God forbid women do anything smh#This thing of writing Kairi off as 'wasted potential' while assigning her importance to Riku is honestly just the same shit as like#the 2002 habit of making her evil in fanfic so she's not a threat with a progressive little hat on it but it's literally just the same shit#Kairi is important to the themes!! She and Riku share an equal and opposite narrative importance!!#It's undermining RIKU ALSO to give Kairi's shit to him!! Riku worked hard on his arc can you fucking let him just be who he is#He doesn't want to be the perfect guy better than everybody else that was the whole point of his story!!#He had to take a level in humility!#PLEASE for the love of god look at a story holistically and not just 'everything here must be about my ship'#Which I also like that ship!! Kairi is too stagnant for Sora#There is already plenty in the narrative for Riku to be a good match for Sora#You don't need to take Kairi's shit too!! Goddamn.
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i have been learning taekwondo for ALMOST A YEAR ALREADY so how come it wasn’t until LITERALLY TODAY it dawned on me I can now use my newly acquired fighting knowledge to WRITE COOL AND BETTER FIGHT SCENES FOR MARIBAT OH MY GOOOODDDD IVE LITERALLY BEEN TOO AFRAID TO REALLY WRITE FIGHT SCENES BUT THIS IS LIKE SO PERFECT
anyways catch me daydreaming abt writing maribat stuff again, hopefully we can turn the daydreaming into daydoing (or maybe nightdoing)
#kiwi shares their thoughts#master jason said “taekwondo is a striking sport; we REACH we don’t grapple” and my brain (that was reminded#about marinette earlier in the day) went oh she could totally use taekwondo techniques to try and stay out of grappling distance with#heavier bigger strong and or slower enemies#and then i haven’t stopped thinking about it since#also my kicks were on 👏 point 👏! 👏 today so it put me in a good mood and that helped#like it just dawned on me how much progress i’ve made with my coordination and balance and strength and form and technique#like my kicks r so much cleaner and sharper and less awkward now#not to say they’re like amazing or perfect or anything#but it’s feels way more natural and instinctual now#my round kicks are consistently good now hallelujah 🙏#also back hoofkick is fun#so is idk what it’s called but the one where you roundkick#then 360 then raise the knees you DIDNT kick with and then front kick with the other leg#fun#watch out guys i’m a blue belt now#only *does mental math* 6 more belt tests before i’m 1st degree black belt yall#man that’s actually a lot#ok but i’m basically halfway#i’ve already done 5
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