#there is no thesis to this EXCEPT!

[daz4i]

ik a common pet peeve ppl have with media is that trope of a villain having a really good point about society then immediately killing a baby to achieve it or smth and how it's used by people in power to demonize these criticisms of them. but i do think in bsd when antagonists make a good point it still stands and it's still a good point regardless of what they do about it, and the narrative does not want you to perceive them entirely negatively. like, there's a reason atsushi spends a few chapters in a conflict bc he agrees with fukuchi's ideas, just thinks his methods are harmful. the story lingers on it bc it wants you to stop and think and see the good in them, i think, and not to be mean and turn it around like a "gotcha! you are just as bad for agreeing!" or smth.

i think it all stems from how every character in bsd is morally grey in order to humanize them. every antagonist is presented in a positive light at some point (only exception i can think of is fyodor, who so far hasn't been presented in a really grey way either), their motives or ideals are laid out so you can understand WHY they're doing the things they're doing, and eventually they end up working with the protagonists because well. they're all humans at the end of the day.

the thing driving all protagonists in bsd is simply to keep living (each have their own asterisk next to that, but i won't get into details) and usually keep others safe. they beat the forces that stand in their way of achieving this, but for a moment, these forces' own goals get reflected back onto them, and they become a vehicle for them as well, at times.

it's less of a "villain makes a good point then kills a baby to make you disagree with them", more like "villain makes a good point but the story lingers on it so both you and the in-universe characters think about it and consider it. they also kill a baby but that's more like a personal character flaw that might get ironed out of them with the power of friendship"

that's also why wildly loved characters that are generally considered positive start out trying to kill the protags (akutagawa, chuuya, lucy, poe, sigma, the hunting dogs etc). you know WHY they do this. you know what led them here. you also saw other sides to them - silly moments, helping their comrades or innocent bystanders, positive interactions with the main cast - which help make them feel more human, thus making them easier to understand for us as readers.

idk man i think it's p cool

EDIT: i will also add!!!! that imo fyodor seeming purely evil despite bsd's attempt at humanizing its characters!!!! is less of a fault in writing but rather showing how he dehumanizes HIMSELF. he views himself as more than human. characters like sigma view him as more than human. and so, for now, the narrative will treat him as such too - not bc he's right. but bc it serves his current story, and hopefully a future arc will have him unlearning that, or more layers will be peeled from him so at least we as an audience can see his humanity (i have a feeling the information sigma got from him + the injury dazai gave him + him being bested in general + whatever the fuck "that man" comment was, will all play a part in that)

[wishchip106]

i’ve been using my brain more than its used to

gonna think about gay mutant road trip hope my brain doesn’t explode

[pygmypouter]

This place is a message... and part of a system of messages... pay attention to it!

[blueskittlesart]

marketability is the killer of creativity i know but i really don’t know how to get an advisor on board with a lesbian rabbit knight comic

[kbsd]

you're gonna dance with me before this night is through

[andy-clutterbuck]

The Ones Who Live | 1x04 - What We

[parisoonic]

sunday shitpost

[danothan]

Just reading some comics and saw a panel I thought you might like. :)

ah fuck, characters reminiscing always get to me ;__;

but i will never ever get over that fond way these two talk to and abt each other. especially when they’re poking fun, you can just hear the love in their voice it’s SICK.

the halbarry love language is annoying each other, but even more than that, it’s being each other’s exceptions

[batsplat]

It's a thing I already knew but all your beautiful analysis really made obvious (to me) how much of a grudge holder vale is. That man is never letting it go he's gonna hold his grudges into his grave

you know, I do think this is an interesting issue, because I'm not sure this is true of all his grudges. just sticking here with the grudges he accumulated in his capacity as a competitor, rather than just his general approach to life or whatever... how you judge this will kinda depend on how you feel about the 'reconciliation' he's experienced with some of his rivals - and whether you read the whole thing as sincere or not. now, personally I reckon he still dislikes biaggi, but also you are allowed to just dislike people so I'll give him a pass for that. some of the others, I'm a little more convinced by the whole reconciliation schtick

let's get valentino's take:

interesting that he mentions those three together, isn't it? and like, he's still not messaging biaggi or inviting him to his home - "even with max" kind of tells you all you need to know - but the other two? they said some proper nasty things to each other over the years!! I mean, the casey rivalry, there's some remarks from both sides where quite frankly I think I would struggle just a touch to get over it

I don't know, obviously this could all be pr stuff, but I kind of feel like... y'know, why bother? it's 2022, you're retired, who gives a fuck? sure it's a good look to be all magnanimous, sure it can be a bit of a way of twisting in the knife to the guys left in the cold, but also, who would care if you don't play nice? I think especially with jorge, you surely don't need to do all that, inviting him to your home and dancing with him... (which, again, some of the spats those two had...) and with the casey rivalry, if there's one guy who's still hung up about what happened between the pair of them, it's obviously casey (speaking of blokes who can hold a grudge). maybe this is giving valentino too much credit, but personally I buy it's more or less sincere. there's nothing to really indicate he's still particularly bothered by any of their past disagreements - he's basically going for the 'all's fair in love and motorcycle racing' approach. he knows he was an asshole, he accepts they were assholes too, whatever, that's how these things work. he's generally a fan of drama in rivalries, unsurprisingly, and he was happy enough to contribute his fair share - but he does see it as fundamentally being part of the game

to point out the obvious, check out who he's left out: sete and marc. that's where he can't let go of the grudges... because it's not about the offence itself as much as it is about the betrayal. this is the thing with valentino, right, it's about what kind of bond you had with him. if you weren't his friend in the first place and then piss him off as a rival then, y'know, whatever. obviously he's going to be vicious in trying to get back at you, but also he's really not going to waste his time feeling too aggrieved by it. I mean, think about how all the bullshit between him and casey dropped off sharply post-2012... from valentino's end anyway. think about how jorge and valentino pretty quickly got on again whenever they weren't fighting for supremacy within yamaha. they weren't friends in the first place, then they were enemies for competitive reasons for a while there, then it's over and valentino is basically happy enough to call it bygones

but... if it's a certain kind of bond you had with him and then you wrong him... that little mental list of all his past grievances, all your past transgressions, that's where it comes in. that's where he ices you out. denies you any emotional warmth. ensures that any interaction going forward is conducted entirely on his terms. where even any public 'reconciliation' won't truly be sincere.... or, certainly he's not going to forget what happened. if something else happens... it's like you've always got the potential of triggering this lingering resentment, in a way, where all that past stuff is still primed and ready to be called upon. he certainly doesn't just let it go

or, as he puts it in his autobiography:

Biaggi and I never talk to each other. I mean, we've never had a real conversation, anything that's lasted more than the requisite time to insult each other or put each other down, in the nastiest way possible. In any case, I don't hate him. It's true, we've never been friends, but hatred is something different, and that's too serious a word to describe our relationship. Far too serious. No, we have a reciprocal antipathy. No doubt this is a result of what we do for a living and the fact that we both want to win every single time. And perhaps it's also a function of the fact that we have very different personalities and very different ways of seeing things. Still, I don't think this means we hate each other, as some journalists have written. I think I could feel hatred for someone, but only for someone far worse than anything Biaggi has done. For example, if I were betrayed by a friend, then, yes, I could hate him. But Biaggi will never betray my friendship for the simple reason that we are not, and never have been, friends. Our relationship is very clear: we compete on the track - outside the track, each goes his own way. You could say we detest each other cordially.

... I mean. he said it, not me. and given this book was first published in '05... biaggi can't betray his friendship because they were never friends... I'm not saying he's thinking about sete, but it has to at least be a possibility, right? he's talking about one rivalry here and refusing to even mention the other... and the one he's refusing to mention is the one where he was friends with the other bloke. I don't know, maybe that's reading too much into it! and anyway, even if this passage wasn't really about sete, it's obviously still revealing. "detest each other cordially" is essentially what he was doing with casey and jorge (or from his point of view in any case, not entirely sure they'd agree with that). the grudge comes when he feels let down by you... and then, yes, he'll never let it go

of course, he's willing to set aside his grievances for a while if there's sufficient motivation for him to do so. in 2009, when he had so definitively won that rivalry with sete, why bother kicking up a fuss? in 2016, quite frankly it was just too much, and it was getting to the point where it was obviously hurting him too. on the one hand there was the media furore that had been going on non-stop since sepang, on the other hand it was also hurting his own approach to racing. there's reports from the time how visibly aggrieved he still was in the first few races of the season, and it took until they got back to europe for him to... y'know, have fun again. it's not sustainable to be walking around with a constant dark cloud over your head and broadcasting burning resentment towards your two main rivals. certainly not for someone like valentino - he needs to be having fun! the slight rapprochement needed to happen, in a way, because otherwise those years would have been even worse for everyone involved. but that doesn't actually translate to forgetting any of those grudges. this is about convenience more than anything else

goes to show, really... most of the time he doesn't take these things personally. I talked about it a bit in this post, how maybe it's also something that changed over time for him: the question of whether he was willing to develop these kinds of bonds in the first place with competitors... because he does possess a certain level of self-awareness in terms of what these kinds of rivalries are like and what they do to interpersonal relationships. ideally, you don't want to be hurt by a friend like that, right? better not to have that kind of emotional attachment with your competitors in the first place. how unfortunate it'd be if all those years after sete the circumstances aligned for him to see a competitor as something like a friend again... because, after all, those are the only people who could betray him. those are the only people where he thinks he could truly hate them

[whenalltheeyesopen]

Someone enjoyed Ford's talent show.

This is my oc Vikki, an autistic therian who has been resisting their parents urgings to go to college because they felt isolated in school and at home and could never see themselves fitting into "adult life." They are about to launch themselves face-first into an entomological career because that talent show entry was the most beautiful thing they've ever heard. They'll be sending Ford regular fan mail for the next decade at least.

Whether they become a full-blown cipher cultist is yet to be determined.

@Jellyskink's Domesticated Ford AU.

Because I don't mind contributing to the steady feed of angst, but apparently my constitution can't stand the thought o of a man not being properly appreciated for his contributions to a show.

[yugonostalgia2019]

i’m going to blow you up if you keep hating on ward

Lol, maybe Ward should've been good then

[milkweedman]

...so im writing up a little guide for how to learn to spin on a drop spindle, bc my friend wants to learn and physical distance means i can’t teach it in person -_-

my little guide has somehow already gone over 4000 words and has 5 mspaint diagrams, most of them quite detailed

[littlebigplanet]

hello shadowgale nation

[kimtaegis]

🌧️

[noisytenant]

Being reminded once again that a lot of people have fucking sleeper cell agent triggers that make them instantly fail to see the human being in front of them, regardless of any personal history they have or any rapport. instantly, that person is an Enemy that cannot be reasoned with. Permanent fight or flight.

And that instead of this being seen as, you know, a rather maladaptive attitude to bring to your relationships that will permanently strip you of the capacity to experience full love and companionship, there is a dominant strain of thinking that this is a reasonable, righteous, moral good.

That a "boundary" looks like building an impenetrable wall that nobody can see but you; That conversation, negotiation, and collaboration aren't just avoided--They're treated with contempt. The very notion of trying to understand why another human being that you care about may suddenly act in an unpleasant or even monstrous way is spat upon and trampled underfoot. Complete abandonment is considered a first line of defense rather than a last resort.

I think we all need to do our best to get over this kind of thinking. And I don't mean that we should be push-overs; In actuality, moving away from this kind of rigid "boundary" often means advocating for yourself and fighting for what you think is right. I think we all deserve friends and allies who can compassionately challenge us when we adopt ways of thinking and behaving that hurt others without immediately assuming the worst.

[why-the-heck-not]

insomnia? do u mean my true crime podcast time