#this turned into another rant.... fuck

[bluberimufim]

Bestie... YOU ALSO COOKED!!!

Booktok has multiple "sections"! The erotica-centered one is just a part of the whole! (not saying this as a "booktok isn't all bad" argument but just to say that there is a Nuance to it all)

Also, I wanna highlight this as a non-american (bc the internet is very America-centered):

BOOKTOK GETS BOOKS TRANSLATED!!!!

Since "No Longer Human" got popular, a bunch of japanese books have been getting translated too! Me and an irl friend of mine have been buddy-reading some japanese classics (for now it's just Dazai's works but I'm trying to get her to read "Hell Screen" and she's trying to get me to read "Hard-boiled Wonderland", not important rn) and the only reason we got those books is because they got translated!! Bc otherwise they wouldn’t even be in bookstores. Literally last year, walking into a bookstore and buying a japanese work that wasn't by Murakami was practically unthinkable! And now, not only do we have writers like Dazai, Akutagawa, and Soseki, but they're in our language.

Booktok also "revived" other books, obviously. The one I remember the most is "Cain's Jawbone", a book with an inventive format that flopped when it was published almost 100 years ago, but I know there are others.

But mostly, to reiterate my point: booktok gets books translated, and it gets them translated in a fast and accessible way. We waited 5 years for "A Darker Shade of Magic", which is a really popular fantasy series, and almost 2 for "A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes". Books like "Powerless" and "Lightlark" got picked up so fast I hadn't even heard of them online.

Not saying this isn't a symptom of publishing becoming fast fashion-like these days, but reading too many books in english in a row starts frying by brain after a bit and I want my friends who don't speak english as well (you don't walk out of highschool after 7 years of english fully fluent, it sucks) to have access to more literature, whatever it may be!!

There's something so silly and funny about the sex positive social media platform having a deep hatred for erotica and the people who read it.

[imminent-danger-came]

Lady Bone Demon: "Do not lament your fate child, you can rest knowing you served your purpose—destiny has found you."

(2x10 This is the End!)

-

Lady Bone Demon: "A reminder: it seems you can not be trusted to willingly follow the path of destiny. But know this: If you betray me again—one misstep, one failure in any way—I will erase the very memory of you."

(3x04 The Winning Side)

-

Tang: "You're wrong. I know I'm not a strong as they are. I may still be searching for my purpose—but what I do know, is that doing it alone is not the path I'm destined to take. Deep in my heart, I know my place is alongside my friends."

(3x08 Benched)

-

Lady Bone Demon: "I sent you a task—you were to retrieve the Monkie King and his protégé, yet you refused the path of destiny and so there will be pain."

(3x08 Benched)

-

Tang: "STOP! It was me! I mean, yeah, Macaque forced me to do it and I am definitely starting to have second thoughts on the whole thing now but- I don't know how and I don't know why, I just felt like I had to. Like it was...destiny!" Lady Bone Demon Voice Over: "Destiny can not be undone Sun Wukong."

(3x10 The Samadhi Fire)

-

Lady Bone Demon: "No matter what you do, you cannot change the path of destiny." MK: "I don't know if this all happened because it was destined to, but I have to believe that I found the staff so I could use it for good." [...] "If you really believed that destiny can't be changed, you wouldn't be using every ounce of power you have to keep him contained!"

(3x14 Destiny Fulfilled)

-

Lady Bone Demon: “Know this, monkey, you and I are not so different. We both fight for what we think is right—that pursuit only leads to one thing." MK: "Hmmhm. To destiny, right?" Lady Bone Demon: "No. To pain."  

(3x14 Destiny Fulfilled)

-

MK: "I can't believe that worked!" Tang: "Eh, if that was destined to go wrong, then it would have!"

(4x03 The Great Tang Man)

-

Tang: "If your bonds of friendships our strong, then you will always find your way back to one another!"

(4x04 Pig Napped!)

-

Macaque: "Wukong was on a path of self-destruction, we all were. But when he met the monk, it set him on a different path." MK: "Ah! The path of the good guy! Making those good life choices?"

(4x11 A Lifetime of Mistakes)

-

Purpose, Pain, and the Path of Destiny

[st4zia]

Marina, where are you?

[honeyconez]

guys hear me out would painis cupcake pay taxes? Because he’s not like mega insane like ass pancakes I think he’d pay his taxes in my professional opinion.

[kaidabakugou]

the new girl at one of my favorite bakeries called me pretty this morning and it literally melted all my stress away 🥺

[il-predestinato]

the car is shit because it doesn’t have a strong front (like the f1-75 did @ the start of 2022), and they can’t change the chassis because of the cost cap. it’s too expensive. so we’re stuck with the chassis binotto & co. designed to suit carlos’ driving style (re: understeer). i know they’ve tried to add some aero-related pieces to strengthen the front in their development (e.g., new diffuser, front flap, etc.). which is why charles was feeling a little more like his old self yesterday and carlos fell off a bit. i’m so ready for the 2024 car since they’ve said they’re designing it toward charles’ driving style (oversteer, fast). hope they can deliver for him. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 he deserves a great car!

I truly have no words...

Charles did a great Q3 lap. Drove on the edge a few times in sector 2, and then the rear just... doesn't respond in sector 3. And his lap time is nowhere as a result. He really could have done nothing more. The SF-23 truly belongs in the trash. Absolutely disgrace of a car.

What's worse is this disgrace of a team, who developed the fast pointy F1-75 into an understeer tractor AND stopped development early to focus on the SF-23 (LMAO), an even worse understeer tractor that they now can't develop out of a wet paper bag. They need to bin their organizational philosophy, bin a perpetually feckless strategy team (notice how this season Merc always finishes where they deserve by just ... you know, behaving normally?), bin their useless second driver who at best gives bad data (Silverstone tire wear) and at worst does everything to undermine their fastest driver (Silverstone quali, Austria race, Monaco quali, Australia quali, Saudi race - weaving, Silverstone 2021 race - shoving off the track, etc. I can't even keep tabs anymore, it's actually getting comical) while politicking car development into the midfield.

I'm constantly mind blown this team cannot do simple math. To win WDC/WCC, you don't need both drivers to be comfortable, you don't need your drivers to finish 1-2, YOU NEED YOUR FASTEST DRIVER TO FINISH P1. The points difference between P1 and P2 is fucking enormous. As long as you make a car that CHARLES can win in, it doesn't matter if his teammate is P3, P4, etc. (or if you're special like Perez, DNF in FP1 and then P9).

There's talent in the team. Charles is generational. I think Vasseur is trying to do right, but dear god - there's a reason Schumacher was so successful. He had the political sway and brought in his own people to absolutely GUT Ferrari over several years and turned it into something unrecognizable. To win with Ferrari, you must first disrespect and destroy Ferrari.

[cowboyskeletons]

and sparrow's son loves the world so much and loves everyone around him and how can sparrow tell him that the world is cruel? how can he tell him that love will be punished and that cruelty is the only way to survive? normal's love scares him, he loves his son so much but that love scares him. he would do and has done anything for his son but he knows that it has led to his own ruin. and he loves his son but too much love has only ever harmed him and maybe he can take a model from his own dad and multitask.

maybe he can love his son but he hates him too, hates that normal can love and hates that normal can be loved and hates that normal can be so oblivious to the cruelty around him in a way that he himself lost when the world ended. he wants his son to have everything but loathes that fact that normal'll never try. that he just accepts life as it is. the way his dad did, when sparrow saluted henry and went along with the world's end and turned a blind eye to his wife's infidelity.

he sees himself in normal, maybe. maybe he hates that. because he lost himself, that day he lost his father's care and his mother's respect, and he can't bear to see himself lost again. normal needs to be cruel because otherwise he will be crushed and sparrow can't do that again. can't let himself be crushed again.

[sealer-of-wenkamui]

A couple of things about Limbo and Danzou, because I am constantly thinking about those two:

First of all, a possible hint at why Limbo is so fixated on her. Kashin Koji of course is her creator, and their dialogue mentions that they have a deep respect for Seimei, and not only that, their Valentine's scene brings up that Seimei was involved in the precursors to Kashin's own karakuri, and are made from the same craft. Given Douman's obsession with Seimei and need to surpass him is the whole reason he became so twisted in the first place, I doubt its a mere coincidence that the creator of the doll he's fixated on would bring up Seimei. Combined with how he found her in a helpless state where he could easily toy with her as much as he pleased, its no wonder he was quickly drawn to her and went to great lengths to hurt her so much.

The second thing I found interesting is Danzou's line for things she hates. There's no prerequisite for this line, so she's bringing it up before her interlude and heian-kyo (and apparently people were initially confused what she was referring to by the dark sun, though of course now its obvious she's talking about Limbo, that said, it IS mentioned at the very end of Shimousa, so the connection was always there- specifically the lines "He has taken in the dark god as his own personal sun, and transformed the wicked god into his own magical energy." and "Fear the curtain of night. Tremble before the dark sun.")

Anyway, I think this was an excellent way of conveying how deeply intertwined the two of them are, her story is in part about her breaking from from Limbo who continues to haunt her. This is Servant Danzou, who is based on PHH Danzou, not Shimousa's, so there's no way she would remember him, and yet he's hurt her so deeply that she has this innate fear of his symbol, the dark sun. (I wonder if the virus he implanted in her also plays a role in that...?)

Which is also why I'm disappointed Heian-kyo kinda half-assed the end of her and Limbo's entwined arc, it has a perfect lead up between Shimousa, her interlude, and the beginning of the chapter, but falls off and forgets about her for most of the middle/end. Honestly, it should have been a Danzou-centric chapter precisely because she's the one with the deepest connection (other than Seimei obviously)/most harmed by him and while she thankfully DOES get to be the one to finish him off, she didn't really do much during most of the chapter and it feels like they barely talked.

[dangerous-disposition]

so i was watching some of my dashcam footage that i deliberately saved bc of Calgary Driver Shenanigans taking place in proximity to me and i straight up hate people who brake-check so much

pulling that shit is so dangerous, even at "low" speeds. and even if someone is riding your asshole hard, you don't brake-check them. as soon as you do a brake-check, you have now made yourself the more reckless driver in that equation.

you should never, ever do something to deliberately cause a collision when operating heavy machinery.

like, i cannot even fathom the kind of self-absorbed loser you have to be to play chicken like that in a way that could get someone fucking killed.

just... like... i keep thinking back to this accident that happened here one or two years ago, where a pick-up truck brake-checked a minivan on the highway in less than ideal driving conditions and the van spun out, and then rolled multiple times into the ditch, and one of the children in the van was ejected. the pick-up truck didn't even stop and as far as i'm aware was never even found. like that driver fucking killed a kid.... and for what? the driver of the van maybe pissed them off? was driving a bit too close? like please, if you are someone who brake-checks because you assume you'll be just fine if you get hit bc "lol i'm insured" you should always assume that the worse possible outcome could happen. when operating heavy machinery going more than 20mph around other people also operating heavy machinery going the same or higher speeds, you should always be thinking about the worst case scenario of pulling a dumbass move that affects multiple ppl.

like when you brake-check someone, you think this is a tussle that's just between you and that person, yeah? and you feel justified because maybe this person is driving too close, or they seem distracted, or maybe they pissed you off earlier, right? Oh, but I bet you looked all around, considered all of the variables, and determined that should an accident occur, it's only the two of you that's gonna have your day ruined, right? I'm sure you're cocky enough to think that. Like I'm positive (sarcastic) you've thought about all of these things before brake-checking:

the other vehicles in the road other than you and the person behind you

is there a big truck behind the person behind you that is going to have a fucking heart attack trying to stop?

the road conditions in general

what if the driver behind you doesn't have new tires? what if one of their tires blows out trying to brake and they spin out?

are their pedestrians you might be endangering if your stupid move causes an accident?

what if the other driver has kids in the car? passengers in general? your beef is with the driver, but causing an accident would be punishing their innocent passengers too

what if the accident you cause totals your car? are you able to be without a car?

what if the accident totals the other person's car? what if their livelihood depends on them having a car?

what if the other person doesn't have insurance? yeah, that's illegal, but it does you no good. if you think your insurance is going to pick up the tab in that case with no fight at all, you're naive as fuck. like unless you have complete car insurance and not just liability insurance, your insurance company will fucking fight any claim you make. even with complete car insurance, they fight claims. remember, car insurance companies are in the business of hoarding the money you pay them. they do not actually want to pay out.

what if the other driver has a dashcam and can definitively prove that you braked for no reason other than to endanger literally everyone else on the road?

like that's just some of the things to fucking consider re: brake-checking. and when the list of risks is that long while incomplete, what do you even gain by brake-checking?

brake-checking is petty, stupid, and fucking reckless. it can seriously injure people that aren't even involved in your beef, and it can even kill people. brake-checking is some of the most self-absorbed behaviour to have behind the wheel, and people who do it are fucking losers.

period.

even if the other driver is following too close, or driving aggressively. you don't make an already dangerous situation even more dangerous oh my fucking god like why isn't that common fucking sense.

[themyscirah]

Suffering more than Jesus atm (being a fan of 80s/90s Suicide squad in 2024)

[chibi-scone]

Remember when the whole ordeal with s2 was that Ed was so heartbroken that Stede left him that he tried to get himself and the whole crew killed and then they got reunited within like 2 episodes and never spoke about anything of interest together and then that same Ed decided to ditch Stede after a couple of days because he wanted to catch fishes and that lasted half an episode before they got reunited again and the show ended on them leaving everyone to live in a simultaneously doomed to fail/happy ending inn and everyone was like wow good writing I can’t believe this could get canceled $10k billboard in times square

[tardis--dreams]

Me panicking because i have 9 missed calls and 5 emails talking about my absence and how "a colleague could take over for me" vs. Me knowing it's really not that important no matter how pushy a client is and that on top of it I'm underpaid and have way to much overtime so i shouldn't even care

[defiantcurse]

tee hee i love hinting at my polyam relationship over on tiktok bc it confuses the fuck out of people

so many are like “you’re dating this dude right bc you kiss him for videos?” and it’s like no actually i’m engaged to this other person i don’t usually make videos with but they are happily dating that first dude but also my fiancé and i do have our canadian boyfriend we share and adore and cherish and he lives with his own partner up there who is just the biggest ball of sunshine

like my fiancé was at work the other day and his coworker said his wife referred to my fiancé, me and the first dude as a throuple and my fiancé was like “actually there is a throuple occurring but it’s between Me, our canadian boyfriend and Curse. Not the first dude, that guy is only my (the fiancé’s) boyfriend but there’s technically five of us in this polycule we’ve got going here” and they were so shocked!! (i’ve never been sure if metamours count towards the total number of people in the polycule but i count it bc they’re also people that i love even if it’s just platonic i still think it should count towards the total number of people involved in the whole polycule)

And I would also like to stress that while there are sexual aspects to this polycule between other members of it, I am grey-asexual so I very rarely take part in sexual activities. I am a part of this polycule because I’ve met all of these fantastic people and I can no longer imagine a world where I don’t keep special spaces in my heart for each of them. Even the platonic ones have room there because they make someone I love happy and that makes me happy. I’ve been a huge fan of love for so long and it brings me so much joy to have so many people in my life who love me the same way I love them<3

[zaddyazula]

i just want to fucking leave man

[rmorde]

It's fucking wild to see someone defend Mei Mei and demand people to blame Gege instead for her pedophilia and grooming.

WTF?

If you love a dark character, then accept everything that they are in the story. Mei Mei is one. She is a side character that is dark despite being on the heroes' side of the fight.

I appreciate what Gege had done to her character. I like it because thru her we see how rotten the modern jujutsu society is - that the heroes' side is not exactly great especially with the likes of Gojo and Nanami being gone.

A lot of people already pointed out that Mei is used as a foil for Nanami. I agree. She is everything he is not: - Nanami left stock trading. Mei is doing insider trading. - Nanami fights for the greater good. Mei is only in it for the paycheck. - Nanami protects children. Mei exploits children. - Nanami continues to fight even if he is half-dead. Mei retreats even if she is still perfectly fine. - Nanami has morals. Mei is immoral.

But why did someone good (Nanami) die a horrible death while someone bad (Mei Mei) got rewarded (practically highlighted with her escaping to Malaysia -which was Nanami's dream retirement place)? It's to highlight how broken and bleak jujutsu society is - bad people benefit but good people suffer. It also shows how the only difference between the sorcerers (sans our "heroes") and the curse users are just rule compliance and pay checks.

Speaking of which:

What Mei Mei is doing to Ui Ui is exactly like what that Granny Seance did to her Tojified Grandson. Both women are grooming boys younger than they into perfect tools to complement their CTs. They don't see them as brother or grandson respectively. Those words are mere "titles". It's like how you would call an giant axe "Axe" and straw dolls "Dolls."

Mei is the perfect example of what a peak sorcerer is in modern jujutsu society - strong and smart but selfish, self-absorbed, exploitative, and immoral.

I like Mei for what she delivers in the story: 1) A very dark character that represents the rotten core of the jujutsu society. 2) A complex female character - she is on your side but she is definitely not an ally you'd want. However, you need all the help you can get so you are forced to accept her but deep down you want her to get some comeuppance for all she's been doing. 3) Despite her... Mei-ness, she still has a really cool character design and powers as well as really badass scenes. 4) An excellent foil to Nanami (and maybe even Gojo if I stretch it a bit). 5) A great reminder that with the exception of the sorcerers within Gojo's close circle (Tokyo Tech staff/alumni + Utahime & her students), sorcerers are absolute scumbags. Mei's principle is pretty similar to Sukuna's! They're all about: Me, Myself, and I living it up and having fun at everyone's expense.

6) She is the closest I could get to a "villainess" in JJK. The villains in JJK is male-dominated with 2 gender-neutrals (Hanami + Uraume). Geto's family has very little screen time for me to get something out of them (Lady Secretary, Nanako & Mimiko). Yeah it's shonen but still... Gege is starving me with good villainesses 😭.

So TLDR: Mei Mei is not defensible but feel free to like/love her anyway. Being a fan of villains or dark characters is not a representation of a person's morals after all. Do not blame Gege for using her as a narrative tool to remind people again ( because we have to admit that we always kinda forget): the world of JJK is unfair and it really fucking sucks being a nice person there. Not that Gege is a perfect writer at all. There are plenty of other stuff to be angry about in his work like the pacing for example or the underutilization of interesting side characters or the story being so "scattered" into various mediums.

[foreignobjecticus]

I know it hasn't literally been non-stop work because I've had time away from the computer, but I've still been working 8hrs+ every single damned day for like... fuck man, the whole month now, and I'm so fucking done.