#vote blue like your lives depend on it

[thatsheetyghost]

As The New York Times previously reported, Trump's proposed deportations would be unprecedented in scale, requiring the building of "huge camps to detain people" and the creation of a deportation squad composed of "local police officers and National Guard soldiers voluntarily contributed by Republican-run states."

You fuckers really really REALLY do not have any excuses to not vote for Kamala this year. At. Fucking. All.

[hiscrimsonangel]

Elections in the USA are tomorrow. Human rights, freedoms and democracy are all on the line. They can not make you leave if you are in line to vote when polls close! Get out there and vote for Kamala! Our very existence depends on it!

[ronehmke]

[pocketsizedquasar-3]

hillary won the popular vote and still was not president lmao. idk why y’all keep forgetting this.

kamala is presently repeating the dems’ 2016 ‘strategy’ of catering to right wingers and ‘never trump’ republicans while completely abandoning progressives. she is priding herself on being further right on issues like immigration than trump. don’t be shocked pikachu face when it doesn’t work for dems this time just like it didn’t work for them last time.

the choice is not between “a Black woman and a white supremacist.” the choice is between a white supremacist and a while supremacist. stop saying “Black woman” about kamala as if that’s any meaningful distinction when she is just as much an active, gleeful agent of white supremacy as any white person in her position. the fact that you can agree that yes, having a white supremacist president is “the worst possible outcome” and then happily vote for a white supremacist just because she happens to not herself be white is ridiculous. you don’t actually care about white supremacy.

you all tried the “push biden/dems left”thing four years ago (and for the past several elections). this has Not worked out.

people aren’t voting for Kamala because SHE IS COMMITTING GENOCIDE. she is actively, happily committing genocide. she has over and over again shown how happy she is to continue committing genocide. she has over and over again shown she has no intentions to stop continuing to commit genocide. and why should she, when you all have gladly and readily (since the start of the genocide over a year ago) been yelling about how you’ll vote for any dem no matter what? no matter how many people they gleefully slaughter?

kamala and the democrats would rather lose the election than stop committing genocide. multiple polls have shown that calling for an arms embargo and a ceasefire would be enough to guarantee their win in necessary swing states. they would rather continue to burn palestinian children alive and carpet bomb hospitals than win the election. they have very clearly and unequivocally decided that losing the election is not as important to them as continuing to commit genocide. if they do not care enough about winning to do the single thing that the majority of their party voters (hell, the majority of all voters in the US) want (you know, the responsibility of a democratically elected entity — to respond to the wishes of the majority they represent), then why should i care about them winning? what makes you think that a party which actively refuses to listen to the majority of its constituents in order to continue slaughtering civilians is going to listen to you on Anything? on climate, COVID, immigration, anything? why do you trust the people committing genocide to ‘defend’ any sorts of rights?

this party cares more about slaughtering brown people than it does about any responsibilities it has to you as the people who vote for it. why the fuck should i care about them?

vote for whoever the fuck you want, but stop pretending you’re doing anyone, especially palestinians, any favors.

white liberals are a poison.

due to systemic oppression, usamerican leftists don't currently have the political power to instate a leftist president. we do, however, have enough power to make one of two candidates lose the election. we could use this power to make the white supremacist lose to the black woman, or we could use it to make the black woman lose to the white supremacist. the obvious choice for leftists would be to prioritize making the white supremacist lose, but tumblr users have devised a loop hole, where they agitate primarily for making the black woman lose, but omit the detail about who she would be losing to. this makes their stance more palatable to people who correctly believe that having a white supremacist president would be the worst possible outcome.

[ginnyrules27]

Ya'll in light of what happened at the Trump rally today (why he's allowed to travel across state lines when he still needs to be sentenced for the 34 felonies he was found guilty for in New York is beyond me but I digress), I beg you to please read what Project 2025 has in store for us if Trump steps back into the White House

Here's just a few bits:

-They want to eliminate overtime (so if you work over 40 hours, no more time and a half. They wouldn't have to pay you for that time. Hell, we'd likely be lucky if they didn't institute a six day work week again, with just Sundays off for church)

-Remove the FDIC (the organization that protects your money. If you have it in a bank account and that bank fails? The FDIC requires they pay back up to 10k. If you have over that, you're out that rest but let's be honest, how many of us on this site have over 10k to our names?)

-Deregulate the banks (show of hands, who remembers the shitshow that was 2008 with the subprime mortgages?)

Please, I am begging you to vote. Vote like your future depends on it because it does.

And if you live in VA and you're a Dem on this site, Ken Cuccinelli is one of the brains behind Project 2025. You may know him by his other works such as being the VA Attorney General who implemented the transvaginal ultrasound before you could get an abortion. If you can't stomach voting for either candidate but you hate the idea of The Cooch being able to implement his policies on a federal level, be petty and vote blue!

[sprites4ever]

Since I'm A Solution-Oriented Person, Instead Of Crying, Here's What I'll I Advise Every American And Everyone Else, Who Wants To Hear It

GET TOGETHER AND STAY TOGETHER

The Right and Fascists thrive on division of their opposition. Don't preocuppy yourself with infighting.

You never wanted politics to be a fight, but they've made it one. So remember who your enemies are, and what people can achieve when they have a common threat.

If you're in a red state and are fearing for the life and well-being of you and/or people you know, GET OUT NOW. You have a month until inauguration, so, if you can't leave the country, move to a blue state.

While it is, of course, no guarantee for safety against the MAGA cult, the comparatively limited power of the US federal government over citizens and state governments should buy you some time to prepare for a Trump Nazi Regime and/or WWIII or a second US Civil War.

DON'T DENY THE ELECTION RESULT

I know it's comfortable to think that most Americans wouldn't be so insane to re-elect Trump, but that's not true. The race was pretty much 50/50 and winning over the battleground states put Trump over the edge. There's also the fact that, while a ~65% voter turnout is pretty good for a democratic country, that still means that half of eligible American voters did not vote. So, whatever their ideals are, they did not participate in the choice that impacts them, every other American and, due to the US' status, the rest of the world.

Remember, Hitler too was democratically elected. None of the reasons with which Hitler and Trump convinced voters are real things, but still, those voters believed them and made their choice. May they shamefully rot in the worst pages of future history books, but they made their choice.

This is the inherent risk of democracy: That people can always choose to ruin it.

I'M NOT GOING TO MINCE WORDS:

CORRECTION: I previously claimed that the voter turnout was ~50%, when, in reality, it was around 65%. This is strong for a genuine democracy (fake democracies can obviously force people to vote at gunpoint, or just make up voter statistics), but this still means that a third of the country did not vote and that Trump was elected by a third of the country, not even 50% of the population. By that logic, any election with a voter turnout below 100% would not represent the genuine majority, but you get my point. The reality is that both a lot of American non-voters and Trump voters live in rural areas where the rest of the world, outside their community, might as well not exist. So, of course, they can, for example, take Trump's word on the LGBTQ+ community, because they know so little about the world that they can be told anything and also won't vote responsibly, as, if, for example, there's no LGBTQ+ person in their community, they have no way of knowing what these people, their issues and the threats they face actually are like. A lot of voters also don't care about politics and just vote for the guy everyone else is voting for, or the guy who's face they like better. (I'm not making this up, people from multiple countries have legitimately stated that they vote based on politician hotness.) It's strange, because this type of rural unknowingness is usually typical for countries that are undeveloped and autocratic, so one wouldn't expect it from the richest country where the elections define so much. I guess it's the US' federal system and libertarian economy that have led to this extreme compartmentalization of society, where communities are essentially as different from each other as Stone Age-villages.

WITH TRUMP RE-ELECTED, DEPENDING ON HIS CHOICES, THERE WILL BE WORLD WAR III OR A SECOND AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

I'm not paranoid for saying this, as former US Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Mark Milley, who served two years under Trump and Biden, has stated in an interview with The Atlantic that he and others had to stop Trump from launching nuclear missiles at North Korea multiple times in 2018.

ON A POTENTIAL WORLD WAR III

WWIII means a nuclear holocaust, meaning hundreds of millions of deaths around the entire world within half an hour of the war turning nuclear and billions of deaths in the years following, no way around it.

Cities and areas near government and military instalations in nuclear-armed countries (USA, russia, China, Israel, Iran, India, Pakistan, North Korea, United Kingdom and France) will be most affected, but that doesn't mean those will be the only places to be nuked or affected.

Decades of many nations' strategists' deliberations during the Cold War, the period of tension between the US-led NATO and Soviet russian-led Warsaw Pact after the end of WWII in 1945, which in and for itself ended with the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1991, came to the same conclusion - If another World War occurs, it will be nuclear and it will be global. It can't even really be called a war, as the world's nuclear powers have had the capacity to annihilate each other's militaries and economies within half an hour ever since 1950.

Since then, WWIII hasn't happened due to powerful people being aware of this and due to multiple courageous individuals who chose right in close calls. For example, President Kennedy maintained a cool head during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, during which, for the uninitiated, NATO and the USSR got extremely close to a nuclear war, as they both deployed nuclear missiles right at each others' doorsteps. In that crisis, too, Soviet Naval Officer Vasili Arkhipov prevented his submarine from launching nuclear weapons at the US when the submarine lost contact with Moscow and other officers thought a nuclear war had started and Moscow had been destroyed. In 1983, when the Soviet Politburo had become so paranoid that they believed their own propaganda about an impending attack by NATO, their nuclear forces were on such high alert that a malfunctioning Soviet spy satellite sending a false alarm about an American nuclear launch nearly caused them to launch in what they thought would be retaliation. At that time, the Soviet Command Officer Stanislav Petrov however figured that the computer at his base, which displayed the warning and which had been installed just the day before, was malfunctioning and chose not to relay the alarm to the rest of Soviet command.

Now, much misinformation has been spread around atomic energy and nuclear weapons. Here's the reality about nukes:

Almost all of the aforementioned nuclear powers have the capacity to launch a nuke at any target in the world within minutes, as nuclear missiles, especially Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) can reach insane hypersonic speeds, faster than anything that could shoot them down before the nuclear warheads start the detonation sequence.

While we're talking about the US, the aforementioned decades of deliberation have concluded that is impossible for any country to fire a nuke without it soon turning into a war between all nuclear powers with their nukes. Nukes are just too destructive for decision-makers to not panic in that event.

The currently existing nukes are spread as follows:

USA: ~5500 nuclear warheads total, how many of those are ready-to-launch is classified, launch means are silo-launched Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles with Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicle (MIRV) warheads (meaning one missile can drop nukes on multiple targets), Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs), Short-Range Ballistic Missiles (SRBMs), Ground-, Air- and Sea-launched Cruise Missiles, Air-dropped bombs, Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) with MIRV warheads

russia: ~6000 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are silo- and truck-launched ICBMs with MIRV warheads, IRBMs, SRBMs, Ground-, Air- and Sea-launched Cruise Missiles, Air-dropped bombs, SLBMs with MIRV warheads

China: ~250 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are ICBMs, cruise missiles and SLBMs

Israel: ~100 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are cruise missiles and SLBMs

India: ~100 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are ICBMs, cruise missiles and SLBMs

Pakistan: ~100 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means unknown

United Kingdom: ~200 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are cruise missiles and SLBMs

France: ~100 nuclear warheads total, readiness same as above, launch means are cruise missiles and SLBMs

Iran: Does officially not have nuclear weapons, can factually assemble some nuclear warheads within weeks, launch means unknown

North Korea: Official number of nuclear warheads classified, most likely ~30, readiness unknown, launch means are ICBMs, IRBMs, SRBMs and cruise missiles

Nukes cause unrivaled destruction over tens of kilometers with their explosion, emit a flash of Gamma radiation in the moment of their explosion, cause massive shockwaves and fires, can blind people with the brightness of the flash of Gamma radiation and cause long-lasting contamination with dangerous radiation via fallout.

Gamma radiation caused by the initial nuclear fission of a nuke last extremely short. This radiation is quickly lethal, but so fast that is gone within milliseconds. Anyone too close to the source will, however, be hit by so much of said radiation, that they will get extreme Accute Radiation Syndrome (ARS), also known as radiation poisoning, and die within hours, as Gamma radiation is so strong that, in high enough concentration, it passes through the human body and rips out the electrons from the atoms which cellular tissue is made of, degrading them to Ions. (Hence the term 'Ionizing Radiation')

Ions, unlike atoms, are way less stable, meaning that cellular tissue that has been ionized can't uphold itself and falls apart.

The other type of ionizing radiation from nuclear bombs, Neutron radiation, works the same way, but lasts much longer than Gamma radiation. Unlike Gamma radiation, it sticks to most materials, causing them to give off Neutron radiation for years. This is the radiation hazard that comes from fallout. Fallout is the soot kicked up by the explosion, which originates from everything it pulverized. The immense heat causes it to first be carried upwards, forming the characteristic mushroom cloud, before the air cools and allows the now irradiated soot to fall out (hence the name) and back onto the ground. It is affected by wind and weather.

To avoid both types of radiation, the first factor is distance. Any amount of radiation still consists of individual particles that race through the cosmos, so the further away you are from the source, the less likely for its rays to hit you, as they travel in a straight line.

The second factor is cover. Like everything else, ionizing rays can get through certain things and can't get through others. Gamma rays get through everything with a lower density than multiple centimeters of lead and Neutron rays get through anything with a lower density than multiple meters of concrete. So, being underground or in the center of extremely thick buildings, as well as having resources necessary for survival, is key to surviving radiation after a nuke explodes.

The third factor is time. The human body can withstand different levels of radiation for different amounts of time. The easiest way to figure out how long you can stay exposed to how much, is with a dosimeter.

SO, YES, I AM TELLING YOU TO START DOOMSDAY PREPPING

The essentials, of which you should amass a stock that will last you multiple years in a secure location:

Non-perishable canned food

ABSURD amounts of drinking water

Distilled water for hygiene

Nonperishable Grain-based food

Long-lasting milk

Dried fruit and nuts

Eggs

Flour

Sugar

Honey

Salt

Black pepper (hurts like hell, but can be used as a coagulant to stop wounds from bleeding)

Paper towels

Trash bags

Hygiene gloves

Breathing masks

As much replacement clothing, especially outdoors and warm clothing, as you can get

Water treatment tools

Camping cooking equipment

Easily useable heat sources

Tools (Wrench, File, Screwdriver, Crowbar, Fire extinguisher, Knives, Compass, Hammer, Shovel, Pickaxe)

Physical maps

Hand crank-powered radio

Many spare batteries

Many spare rechargeable batteries

Battery charger

Means of power generation (hand crank, solar)

Flashlight

Radio phone

Backpacks

All the medicines you need

Bandages

Hygiene products

Antibiotics

Medicines against cold

Medicines against diarrhea

Disinfectant

Pastes against insect bites

Pastes against sunburn

Soap

Dosimeter

Geiger counter

Hazardous enviroments clothing

Helmets

Gloves

Cups

Buckets

Canisters for water

History books

Important works

A laptop

A smartphone

A camera (don't need it if you have a smartphone)

Print out important documents on put them in a folder

Analog data storage

Physical data storage (hard drives, flash drives, CDs, SD cards)

Devices to read data storage

Means for self-defense

Emergency plans with people you know

Similarly, a second American Civil War would also need Americans to prepare, in order to survive.

IF YOU LIVE ANYWHERE THAT'S NOT THE US, YOU WILL BE AFFECTED, TOO

Don't think the US are far enough away. Of course, the aforementioned nuclear war would affect you, but a second American Civil War and just Trump being re-elected will, too.

Even without WWIII or a second American Civil War, it's pretty clear that:

In Europe, this will invigorate the similar far-Right movements to bring about similar destructive changes as those Trump wants.

Trump will most likely abandon Ukraine like Afghanistan, meaning russia taking it over and attacking Western European countries afterward. Trump is completely on Putin's side and will also destroy NATO, meaning all of the US' allies, including those in Europe, will be abandoned. I live in Germany, which is seeing a rise in popularity by the far-Right AfD party, and which does not have the military means to defend itself against russian expansionism without the US.

With russia's war against Ukraine, China will feel invigorated to annex Taiwan, and just like with Ukraine, nationalist and authoritarian Trump will not do anything to stop it.

South Korea could be abandoned in the face of North Korea.

Trump will continue to support Israel in the Western Right's extremely hypocritical manner, most likely ordering more US military action in the Middle East.

ULTIMATELY, GIVE THEM THE FIGHT THEY WANT

I know that we liberals, progressives, people who don't care about politics and just want to build their own life and even former conservatives who deemed far-Righters like Trump too radical, never wanted a fight. We never wanted to fight for our values in Western society, against the values of those who demonize us. We were always ready to coexist with them, if only each side kept to themselves with living out its values and didn't impair the other.

But the far-Right fascists and religious zealots, with their leaders who don't mean a word of what they say and say anything they want to get power, have made this a fight. By electing a US President who promised to destroy democracy, eliminate women's and LGBTQ+ rights, oppress non-white ethnicities, censor media, give churches and capitalists unprecedented power and abandon all allied nations, the far-Right has declared war on everyone and everything that's true, moral or even just acceptable. Let's remember that they hate diversity, and that we are from many more groups and walks of life than them. Let's use this to our advantage and show to the fascists what happens when you give different people a common enemy.

[bestanimal]

Round 2.5 - Cnidaria - Hexacorallia

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

The anthozoan class Hexacorallia contains five extant (living) orders: Actiniaria (“sea anemones”), Antipatharia (“black corals” or “thorn corals”), Corallimorpharia (“false corals”), Scleractinia (“stony corals” or “hard corals”), and Zoantharia (“zoanthids”). This class contains many of the most important reef builders: the stony corals, sea anemones, and zoanthids.

Like all anthozoans, these organisms are formed of individual soft polyps which in some species live in colonies and can secrete a calcite skeleton. Some species live as solitary polyps. Hexacorals are distinguished from Octocorals by having six or fewer axes of symmetry in their body structure, and tentacles which are simple and unbranched and normally number more than eight. Reef-building or hermatypic corals are mostly colonial, building a communal skeleton around their colony. Corallimorphs are similar to the stony corals, except for the stony skeleton, and have a tendency to overgrow reefs in a carpet formation. Most sea anemones are solitary, single polyps attached to a hard surface by their base but some species float near the surface, or can deatach to escape predators.

Hexacorals are filter-feeding carnivores, using their tentacles armed with stinging cells, called cnidocytes, to catch and neutralize plankton and draw it into their mouth. Larger polyps are able to take correspondingly larger prey, including various invertebrates and even fish. Many species have separate sexes, the whole colony being either male or female, but others are hermaphroditic, with individual polyps having both male and female gonads. Most species release gametes into the sea where fertilisation takes place, and the planula larvae drift as plankton, but a few species brood their eggs. Once the larvae settle in an area, they will metamorphize into a polyp. In colonial species, this initial polyp will repeatedly divide to give rise to an entire colony. Hexacorals can also reproduce by fragmentation, where part of a colony becomes detached and reattaches elsewhere, cloning polyps to grow the colony in the new area.

Hexacorals have existed since the Fortunian. Mackenzia, from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of Canada, is the oldest fossil identified as a sea anemone. Nonetheless, many hexacorals have been declining in numbers and are expected to continue declining due to poaching, ocean acidification and climate change.

Propaganda under the cut:

Hexacorals provide housing, shelter, food, and protection for so many other animals. They are The Givers of the Animal Kingdom.

The largest coral ever recorded, a Pavona clavus colony dubbed the “mega coral” lives off the Solomon Islands. It is 34m (112 ft )wide, 32m (105 ft) long and 4.9m (16 ft) high, larger than a Blue Whale, composed of nearly one billion polyps, and more than 300 years old!

Coral is loud. It can hear and it communicates with each other via sound. We’re only beginning to discover this information and understand the implications of it, and more research needs to be done, but the amount of noise-making humans do in the ocean tends to disrupt the communication corals have with each other and other reef life.

Black Corals have historically been used by Pacific Islanders for medical treatment and in rituals, and are used in modern day for making jewelry.

Sea anemones and zoanthids are popular in the aquarium trade, however, their popularity threatens some populations as the trade depends on collection from the wild.

In southwestern Spain and Sardinia, the Snakelocks Anemone (Anemonia viridis) is consumed as a delicacy. The whole animal is marinated in vinegar, then coated in a batter similar to that used to make calamari, and deep-fried in olive oil.

Most sea anemones are harmless to humans, but a few highly toxic species (notably Actinodendron arboreum, Phyllodiscus semoni and Stichodactyla spp.) have caused severe injuries and are potentially lethal.

Clownfish and Anemonefish (Subfamily Amphiprioninae) are most famous for having a mutualistic relationship with sea anemones, receiving protection from predators by hiding in the anemone's stinging tentacles, and providing the anemone nutrients in the form of faeces. Some other animals have been recorded utilizing sea anemones in a similar way, including cardinalfish, juvenile threespot dascyllus, incognito (or anemone) gobies, juvenile painted greenlings, various crabs (such as Inachus phalangium, Mithraculus cinctimanus and Neopetrolisthes), shrimp (such as certain Alpheus, Lebbeus, Periclimenes and Thor), opossum shrimp (such as Heteromysis and Leptomysis), and various marine snails. One of the more unusual relationships are those between certain anemones (such as Adamsia, Calliactis and Neoaiptasia) and hermit crabs or snails, where the anemones live on the shell of the hermit crab or snail, providing protection from predators while being provided with transportation. Another unusual relationship is between Bundeopsis or Triactis anemones and Lybia boxing crabs, where the small anemones are actually carried around in the claws of the boxing crab as little weapons.

Look at this anemone eating an entire Mola:

(source)

[thecolorblockcurator]

Hey US followers

Please vote democrat- all the way down the ballot

Personally I recommend dropping off a ballot early in a drop box- which is what I did.

But depending on where you live you can drop it off in person at your polling place, which I’ve done in the past & was equally as easy.

Even voting in person isn’t so difficult. You can bring your choices with you. So you don’t have to memorize everything or try to figure it all out in the voting booth.

You can look at your ballot a head of time. Also- your state likely has a progressive voter guide which you can find online- which made it so easy. Everything was on it even the local stuff. Even the non-partisan offices.

So read up - Because a lot of the initiatives & propositions are intentionally misleading.

Don’t vote third party. The vote will split

Don’t think your voice doesn’t matter. It does - no matter where you live. No matter how red or blue your state or town is.

Vote like your life depends on it, like your community depends on it. Like the planet & climate depends on it. Vote for all the marginalized folks who have had their voice taken away. Vote for your relatives & ancestors who didn’t have the rights to vote. Don’t let that fucking orange idiot (who is a convicted criminal btw if you forgot) win this.

[11queensupreme11]

About the humans, how misoginistic would they be since they are from ancient periods (especially Adam) ? If Percy was raped by one of the gods, what would the humans do (especially Adam) ?

so for this question, it all stems down on not only what they believed back when they were alive, but how willing they were to change their beliefs after their deaths as times went on and stuff became more progressive

adam was the first ever human and since he got booted outta valhalla along with eve, he never got influenced by the gods' misogyny THANK GOD plus he's just too good to ever think of such a thing especially since his own wife was nearly sexually assaulted by that snake bitch. ALSO, since he was the first ever human, the concept of misogyny (at least for humans) didn't exist for him. misogyny only ever became a thing when more and more humans started popping out

unfortunately, all of the human fighters came from a time where misogyny was extremely rampant and in some cases (depending on countries maybe) before women even had voting rights 💀 the youngest is simo hayha (1905-2002) 💀💀💀💀

confucianism was already a thing before qin shi huang's reign, but thankfully he hated it so much that he had confucian scholars buried alive and their books burned LMAO (he was known as a tyrant just like a certain daddy we know) but it definitely wasn't because of how misogynist confucianism was. i'm trying to google some more stuff about him rn, but all i could find rn is that women still had shitty lives under his rule, and he had no wife, just concubines. not much info on how he treated women, but then again, in ror we know he loved and respected his mother figure, chun yan. but just because he treated one woman right doesn't mean he's like that with all women unfortunately, but lets hope chun yan can keep him under control 💀💀

then there's also leonidas. i can't find any excepts of him being particularly cruel towards women or saying anything crass, but he's from ancient fucking greece 💀💀

i don't have time to search up more about the others, but i feel like tesla's probably decent. he was alive between 1856-1943 which was also a very bad time for women, but i found stuff about how he has praised some women for their intelligence (though sometimes it could come off as patronizing but again, 1856-1943). for arsenic blues, i'm planning on writing him off as a very progressive and caring more about intelligence rather than gender. so he definitely won't be sexist.

SO ANYWAY, realistically, more than half of these people were probably sexist to various degrees in real life 💀💀 but i most likely won't write all of them like that in arsenic blues. the more ancient characters would probably be pretty bull-headed in their sexist views, but i'll just have them be more patronizing (especially since percy's not just a girl, but a CHILD in their eyes), rather than full-on spitting vitriol at her for her gender.

(they're basically picking favorites, like ppl in real life would do 💀 "yeah [insert marginalized group] are kinda inferior, but not you though, you're different!" 💀💀💀💀)

also, as for your question, ALL of them would be pissed. yes, even the sexist ones. percy is someone close to them, a child they all care about. so ofc they'd be pissed, and it doesn't help that they already HATE the gods for all the shit they've put humanity through over the millions of years 💀💀

[icaruspendragon]

Hi! A while ago I saw one of your tiktoks about how northern democrats typically view people from Appalachia, and it really made me re-examine some biases I had and I deeply appreciated that. I'm from New Hampshire, and basically this primary season we were completely ignored by democratic candidates because of some issues with the DNC and our primary being labeled "unsanctioned". It was weird to not feel supported or valued by my party for the first time ever, (especially when NH tends to get a lot of attention) and it reminded me of your tiktok and how you mentioned that republicans tend to reach out to people in the south while democrats tend to ignore them as a lost cause. Because I saw that happening here with an insanly disproportionate republican presence in my state leading to the primaries. I know the comparisons aren't equal, but it helped drive home the message for me and gave me just a taste of what you explained so clearly in your tiktok. I understand if you choose not to post this, but I really wanted to thank you for opening my eyes and helping me face some biases I didn't know I had.

hello and thank you (for re-examining your biases and for writing me this message). i'm gonna use this as a chance to restate some of the things i mentioned in the video you're talking about.

i'd like to start this by saying i know appalachia and the south aren't perfect. there's racism and homophobia and bigotry. being someone who is marginalized or minoritized in appalachia/the south isn't always easy. but appalachia/the south doesn't have the monopoly on bigotry. america is rife with it. it's something marginalized folks all over the country have to face. and when northern dems act like racism and homophobia and bigotry are things that don't occur in their state simply because it's a blue state, they're doing an incredible disservice to the marginalized people that live in their communities who are facing the results of bigotry.

the folks living in appalachia/the south are heavily stereotyped as nothing more than ignorant backwood cousin fucking hillbillies, and while there are people that live here that fit that bill, appalachia/the south is not a monolith.

appalachia is region that spans from mississippi all the way to new york. the south (depending on who you ask) consists of 17 different states. and here's a little fun fact about the south for ya: according to the 2020 census, out of the 41.6 million black people that live in america, 38.9% of them live in the south.

so when that entire region is written off, forgotten about, and treated as a lost cause it's not the bigots that are being left behind; it's the marginalized people that live here that are being written off. the very same folks democrats and liberals love claiming they care about are the ones being left behind.

one of the reasons republicans have such a strong hold on appalachia/the south is because they put in the work to earn the trust of the voter. work that democrats just don't do. so of course republicans are gonna get the vote, they earned it.

other reasons for the stronghold existing (that people never wanna talk about for some reason) are: gerrymandering, voter suppression, lack of state funding that leads to lack of education, general lack of education, high poverty rates, lack of internet access. i could go on and on.

there are so many marginalized people that live in this region that are working themselves to the bone and trying their damndest to make appalachia/the south a better place for EVERYONE to live and when high falutin yankees act like every single person that lives here is the racist uncle you have to ignore at christmas, they are discrediting the work being done to try and change the region for the better.

allow me to say this again: when appalachia/the south is written off as nothing more than a home to bigots, it's not the bigots being written off, it's the people affected by bigotry.

there are people fighting to make these areas better. we are trying. so please, please stop writing us off.

we are not a lost cause.

[notquite09thereyet]

The FASCISM is THE POINT.

[pensbitchbiome]

i dont understand how trump has any kind of lead in this election just from an outsiders perspective. apart from his bigotry and tax cuts for his billionaire pals he has no real policies and the fact women and men with daughters and some minority communities are all voting for him happily like what kind of self loathing cult nonsense is that? what is making these people vote this way??

i know voter suppression and gerrymandering exists and southern states being demonised isn’t the move given the vulnerable populations that live there still and will end up suffering the most, like the way florida voted 58% to protect abortion but didn’t get 60% so they failed despite having a majority. but ted cruz winning texas when the man left yall for dead multiple times to chill on a beach is wild.

its been heartbreaking to watch how the biden admin has bankrolled a genocide and sending bill clinton to michigan to tell people there “sorry we helped exterminate half your family sucks to be you but vote blue 🙂‍↔️” and using liz cheney to appeal to a demographic that doesn’t seem to exist is whack. but its almost comical to see how many people voted jill stein only for her to get endorsed by trump, her running mate be transphobic and pro-life and then dropping out of the race. it is being stuck between a rock and a hard place but unless yall do something like take up rank choice voting nationally, third party will never be an option and its just wasted votes.

seeing women talk about kamala not being qualified enough is crazy cuz a convicted felon who’s chummy with diddy and epstein and said he’d grab yall by the pussy is who you want representing you?

is it the illegal migrants and transgender surgeries at schools? was that what swayed a good chunk of people? republicans dont even earn enough to qualify for trumps tax cuts why the fuck are you people going off about the economy? i hate that the whole worlds situation depends upon how yalls fuck ass country votes.

[fairuzfan]

I don’t want to misunderstand and make things worse for people. When you (and others) say don’t vote, do you mean don’t vote for biden or don’t vote at all?

Hey thanks for sending this in. No worries I understand the confusion.

I said in the tags in the previous post that I think people should vote for the reps in that list because they can be bullied into doing things based on the traditional means of opinion sharing (calling, writing letters, etc) and plus it's a nice little "we meant it when we said we would not be voting for you when we called" to the other dems. Basicially, using your vote strategically as a threat and sending a message instead of just blindly voting blue because red is "worse" and not because you actually like any of Democrats policies.

When I personally say I'm not going to vote, I am still voting in local elections and school boards and things like that. I definitely think you should always vote on the school board, especially, if nothing else. But I don't think I will be voting for major politicians like presidency — at least next election. I don't live in any of the districts of the ceasefire reps either.

Not voting and seeing people not voting would make people change their strategies. They know they can't rely on votes naturally anymore — they actually have to earn them based on material change. That's my personal intention, at least, with not voting. That and... like hell am I going to vote for the party and people that called for the blood of Palestinians. I do genuinely think they're bad people that no one should ever support under any circumstances, and I'll stick by that.

People mention voting for third party and I've recieved asks about it but.... I'm not sure. I think being president of the most powerful country in the world changes you fundamentally. We (palestinians) were hopeful for Obama when he went into office, and he did nothing, largely abandoning us, and he was taught by Edward Said himself. He was friends with Khalidi. He knew what was happening and still he made the decisions that he did.

Now I don't think you should just blindly follow whatever anyone says on the matter. I'm only giving you my opinion on this based on personal experience and past circumstances. You should genuinely, honestly, think about how your vote impacts others, especially around the world. Voting "blue" just because it might be easier for you here, then largely ignoring the entire world that's affected by the US, is, in my opinion, a pretty selfish decision. Besides, as someone who is disabled, Biden has already abandoned a large swath of people and basically left them to die with how he's dealt with covid. The migrant concentration camps are still there. He can't do anything about the Supreme Court and their messed up decisions. He won't do anything meaningful to protect any type of person in the states either, so what are we voting for exactly?

Voting is not a chore you have to do to keep your rights. Voting is a participation in your political system depending on the circumstances surrounding the things you care about. When that political system largely ignores you, I don't see a purpose in participating and showing support — because that's what Voting is, support — to people you fundamentally disagree with and those that don't really care about you.

[benjjedi]

Bringing this back in light of the election.

Susan B Anthony: Fought for women's rights in the 1800s

Martin Luther King, Jr: Fought for African Americans' rights in the 1960s

LGBTQ: Fought for respect, rights and marriage equality

Donald Trump: could easily take those away if he wanted to

[hystericalanarchy]

My family doesn’t know that if they vote for Trump and he wins I’m cutting them off, every single one of them. No thanksgiving, Christmas, new years. Nothing, no holidays, no weekend trips and visits. I’m done.

My rights should not be on the line yet they are. My friends and some of my siblings livelihoods are on the line in this election. Vote with your Trans family and friends in mind, vote with the women you love in mind, vote with every single person of color you know in mind. Even if you live in a “safe blue state” vote! Please please please vote like lives depend on it, they do!

Women, POC (especially Black and Hispanic people), any person in the LGBTQA+, all of these people are at stake in this election. I understand Palestiniens need our help too but what will we even be able to do if our country becomes a dictatorship under the “mighty rule” of Trump! Please! This isn’t the election to prove a point to the Dems this is the most important election of our lives so far considering there’s a chance people will die if that orange pos gets re-elected.

Please Vote blue! 💙💙💙💙

[hestzhyen]

Hakuri Propaganda

The second fan-made popularity poll is open! This means it's time to hype up the Best Boy out of all Best Boys, Sazanami Hakuri!

Overview

I'll be completely honest here. Hakuri is my favourite character from anything, ever. And I read a LOT of manga and fiction. Like, a lot a lot. So I am here today to convince you to cast your vote for him in the only way I know how to communicate: a long yapfest broken up by relevant manga panels.

I'll be covering his appeal from various viewpoints, starting with a basic overview and the gist and appeal of his character and design, his major moments, his powerscaling and theorycrafting potential, his main ship options, and ending with a final plea to vote for him because he deserves it, dammit.

If that sounds like a lot... it kind of is! But I'll be as succinct as I can be with links to some more in-depth explanations I've done for those who want more yapping for some reason.

So now, without further rambling... HAKURI!

Character Profile

"Will you listen to my story?"

Name: Sazanami Hakuri

Age: 17

Birthday: March 27th (Sakura Day)

First Appearance: Volume 3, Chapter 19: "Knight of Darkness"

Colour Scheme(s): White/Blue, Black/White/Tan

Abilities: Isou, Storehouse

Status: Alive

A passionate and strong-willed young man who was disowned from his family for being too weak to live up to their ideals. He forces himself into Chihiro's life after witnessing his courage as one of the innocents spared from Sojo's attempted massacre. Has a strong desire to save anyone and everyone he can, no matter the cost to himself.

Who Is Hakuri, Really?

Someone's gotta make all the expressions Chihiro never will.

In essence, Hakuri is the ultimate counterweight to Chihiro. Whatever Chihiro's got going on, Hakuri's the opposite- stoic vs. emotive, black/red vs white/blue, etc. I've rambled at great length about how Hakuri exists to be the perfect compliment to everyone's favourite sad goldfish boi down to to the last detail.

But of course he also exists as an incredibly compelling character in his own right or I wouldn't be here to yap about him for the millionth time. Hakuri's deeply intertwined with Chihiro, but not in a co-dependent way. He's his own person with separate motivations, goals, and appeal points that are unique to him. In fact, he's one of the most relatable characters in the manga thanks to the quality of the writing for his backstory and the author's care in depicting how what he experienced affects him in the present.

Most importantly of all: he's vital to the story not only as a narrative device, but as a true friend and companion to Chihiro.

So Hakuri is a very solid option to invest in as a character that will remain relevant and continue to grow as the story goes on- he will never be written out or left behind as he only exists a tier down from Chihiro in terms of importance. He's also going to keep providing valuable parallels to Chihiro's story so that arc themes can be explored from a separate yet deeply connected perspective. All while being one of the most ridiculous and impressive guys in the whole series!

But No, Really, Who is He?

Honestly, in any other manga he'd probably be the protagonist.

Always trying his best.

Hakuri's a really expressive guy who wears his heart on his sleeve (for the most part). He's loud, passionate, even borderline rude in his enthusiasm sometimes. There's also not all that much to guess about him since he's always saying exactly what he's thinking. Hakuri pulls double duty as exposition device and comic relief a lot of the time when he's around too, since he's not exactly worldly in most respects. He's got a lot to learn about the outside world and he approaches everything head-on with no restraint.

He's even got the standard shounen glow-up from down-on-his-luck kid to potential hero thing going on. Hakuri starts at rock bottom as a helpless weakling before he's saved by Chihiro and forces himself into the guy's life. With just a little genuine care and encouragement he's able to bloom into the genius he was always meant to be, ending his own family's cruel legacy at Chihiro's side.

In terms of his motivations: for Hakuri, saving lives is everything. He cares deeply for others and has the best of intentions, willingly throwing himself in danger to protect people even if they don't really him to. "I'll never let another life slip through my hands again!" is something like a mantra to him, spurring him to act no matter what it will cost him. The mindset has allowed him to come up huge in a crisis several times now but it's also one of his biggest flaws.

Because for all the good vibes and hope Hakuri brings to Kagurabachi, he's also got some rather relatable deep-seated issues.

The face of a guy willing to bomb the shit out of an audience of low-life scumbags without feeling even a shred of remorse.

The best way to describe Hakuri is probably just a short phrase: "despite it all, for better or worse".

Hakuri is a deeply layered character who asks the reader to read between the lines of what he says and does to get the full picture of his personality and who he is. He's more than just Chihiro's goofy sidekick and main foil- he's also a traumatized guy with a savior complex and a heaping helping of guilt that compels him to save other people. Throw in a realistically written abusive past that he's had no time to process and you've got a character who really, really needs some time to sit down and cry for a while if he gets the chance- if he'd even let himself.

He's not just another guy who only needed a chance to prove his worth. In fact, he has no concept of how to value himself at all and that's why he's able to be borderline suicidal in his heroism.

He's so tragic under the goofy exterior that we see most of the time, despite most people writing him off as The Funny Guy that comes in clutch from time to time. The way he thinks about the abuse he endured, the way he internalized his family's view on "love", the way he blames himself and tries to make the world a better place because of it... he's so much more than the first impression of a silly guy spilling soda out his mouth that people cling to.

Hakuri's only just starting out on a journey of learning how to love himself despite the mistakes he's made and how he was raised to view the value of life. There's so much more to say about him for as long as the story goes on while he's deprogrammed from thinking of himself as a worthless tool to serve a cause, someone who needs to atone no matter the cost. He's a fascinating character that deserves all the genuine love he's never gotten to experience.

So... What's the Appeal?

Hope: restored

Hakuri is well-loved for being the underdog who could- a guy who was considered worthless but turned out to be a complete genius not just in the context of his family's history, but to the world at large too. He's a truly unique talent that was misunderstood and not given the right environment to succeed in until he found Chihiro and Shiba at his lowest. That's a pretty tried-and-true character hook, and Hakuri certainly earned his moments of triumph during the Rakuzaichi arc. He's got a great feel-good story for anyone to enjoy.

Hakuri's also the most emotive character in the manga and is almost guaranteed to get a few laughs when there's not a life-or-death situation happening. His effusive enthusiasm coupled with a hilarious lack of self-awareness bounces off of Chihiro extremely well to get great dead-pan reactions! Other characters interact with him well too, especially in the rare moments when someone can match his manic energy. He brings a lot of sorely-needed levity in a manga that can (and does) get pretty damn dark on the regular.

There are a few less-talked about points to his character that deserve just as much attention.

For one, Hakuri's a rare example of an abuse victim that's written extremely well. He doesn't exist just for the good vibes and catharsis of overcoming his past- what he endured still affects him a great deal even now that he's totally free to find his own happiness. He's just at the starting line of learning how to overcome serious, realistic issues like learning how to love himself and being able to admit that he didn't deserve what happened to him in the first place.

Second, he's got some appeal for folks who enjoy characters with lots of cohesive contradictions. Hakuri is pretty relatable in how he struggles to apply things to himself, like how he can sob over Chihiro's backstory but minimizes his own. He's also got an ice-cold core that allows him to be absolutely ruthless. Not to mention his super cool aspects like being the most determined determinator there ever was clashing with his cute appearance. He's a character of extremes, always 0 or 100 in everything he does.

Oh, did I also mention that he's cute as heck?

Design Appeal

Yeah, Hakuri was intentionally designed to add cuteness, per the Word of God himself. That's a bonkers thing to say about the male deuteragonist in a gritty action series aimed at presumed cishet male teens, but what do I know?

Boy howdy did the author make good on that, though. Whenever Hakuri's not looking cool or tragic, he's cute. Ridiculously, intensely, overwhelmingly cute.

Kagurabachi characters: Cool Woman, Cool MC, Cute Guy

Hakuri being the "cute" character is absolutely insane to me, and not just because I'm a fudanshi. There are plenty of guys in shounen who have cute aspects to their characters, like Kiyoshi's awkward friendliness and Yuuji's excited country bumpkin moments. But for a major male character to be designed with cuteness as part of their core appeal is pretty unusual, I think. Especially since it looks like that's one of Hakuri's "jobs" in a narrative sense when Char's not around- he's the only one who can pull some softness out of Chihiro other than her so far. No soft "feminine touch" needed in the story when Hakuri's on the job.

But it's not like Hakuri's one of those "trap" characters that exists for not-so-great reasons and jokes. He's clearly masculine, it's just that his cuteness comes from his boyish looks and silly mannerisms. If anything he's "soft" and "cute" only relative to the rest of the hard-edged cast. He's still a guy who didn't hesitate to toss grenades into an audience or kill his brother, y'know? It's all relative.

The best part about Hakuri being the "cute" one in the cast is that it doesn't at all affect how strong he is or what he can do. He's still a tragic badass that gets shit done no matter what. If anything, it gets kind of annoying that some parts of the fanbase only focus on his cuteness to the point of excluding almost everything else! He's not meant to be a soft marshmallow of a character- the cuteness is just a huge part of his design that further accentuates some of that gap appeal between how he looks, thinks, and acts.

Major Moments

With that out of the way, let's highlight his most iconic moments as of chapter 59. He's got it all- silly, tragic, heroic, badass, everything you could want from a character in a cool action series!

RAKUZAICHI ARC

Ch. 19: Hello and Meeting a Samurai

Our very first impression!

Way to make a good first impression, Hakuri. Honourable mention from the same chapter: "That day, a samurai lit my helpless existence on fire".

Ch. 21: Freaky But Meaning Well

Giving encouragement after putting himself in unnecessary danger- that's Hakuri, alright.

Ch. 24: Suicidal Leap

The first time we learn the nature of what's going on beneath his goofy exterior, and that's not even the worst of it.

Ch. 25: Hope Rekindled

Hakuri hears he's been useful for the first time in years, and from someone he deeply admires at that. It's the start of his turnaround from zero-to-hero despite being the lowest point we've seen him at (so far)

Ch. 32: Using Isou for the First Time

He finally starts to awaken to his true potential when he's backed into a corner. The difference this time was having people who believed in him and treated him kindly despite his "uselessness".

Chapter 35: Ice Lady

Hakuri finally opens up about the root of his issues in this flashback, then has the trajectory of his life changed forever.

Ch. 36: Genius Awakened

Hakuri finally understands his true potential...

... and puts his biggest abuser down for good.

Ch. 38: Crowd Killer

Many low-life Yakuza scum were harmed and killed in cold blood.

Ch. 43: Breaking the Cycle at Last

Finally got the acknowledgement he wanted (and deserved all along) from Kyora during his final moments.

Ch. 44: First Steps

Hakuri decides to stay with Chihiro and do as much good in the world as he can.

SWORD BEARER ASSASSINATION ARC Ch. 56: Resonating with the Desire to Save

Hakuri pushing himself well beyond his limits to summon Tobimune for Samura to save the day (not knowing that Samura was a traitor, of course).

There's an image limit to be minded, unfortunately! It'll be hard not to hit the cap for next year's poll propaganda post for sure. But I hope this showcase is a good reminder of everything he's been through and done already- and all the potential he still has to keep being incredible as the story progresses.

Powerscaling & Theorycrafting

Hakuri's the Special Boy!

It's difficult to powerscale in a series that relies mostly on soft power like Kagurabachi does- it's safest to assume that Rule of Cool will take precedence whenever possible. That said, there are enough rules in place to roughly gauge the relative strength of most characters in-universe.

In canon, the Bearers of the Enchanted Blades and a select few singularities like Hiyuki are at the apex of power. Underneath them are elite sorcerers like Shiba and Azami, then regular sorcerers, then regular folks. The categories are very broad and have a lot of room for differences in power within the same tiers. Shiba, for example, did well for himself in a 3-v-1 scenario against the Sazanami Tou, who would be in the same "Elite" class as him.

Where does Hakuri fit in? Well, for one, he's another in-universe anomaly: he has two sorcery techniques available to use instead of the one that most people are limited to. It's quite rare and is one of the unique selling points of his character. This means his potential is quite high as well in terms of placement in the charts! If he can get there, that is.

Abilities

The first of his abilities, Isou [威葬, Majestic Funeral], allows the user to command and create shockwaves. It's not so impressive in terms of visuals but his brother Soya demonstrated how strong it could be by destroying the side of a building while also using it to move in mid-air. The experienced user can also use it in a utility sense to enhance their momentum or slow others down, implying there's some degree of control over the power output.

In terms of downsides, it seems the user can only project the shockwaves in one direction at a time and using the power takes a toll on the body. Isou users are thus expected to be in excellent physical shape in order to use this sorcery to it's maximum potential. Hakuri's build and fitness has never been remarked upon directly, but he's had some of the same training as his siblings and is quite sturdy thanks to being a punching bag for a few years, so he's at least got a solid foundation to work from.

The second of his abilities, ownership of an inter-dimensional storehouse, is the one that gets the most attention. The raw utility of this ability makes Hakuri one of the most useful characters in the cast even though it doesn't provide any direct combat power on it's own. He can transport people and objects he registers to and from a personal subspace only he has access to, move them from wherever they are to somewhere else in the real world, create projections of them, and manipulate the storehouse's configuration at will. He can also register objects that are bound to the owners in certain ways without needing to touch them, which made him an MVP in the current arc. This power is so convenient that many corners of the fandom regard his current status of being KO'd as necessary to prevent him from becoming OP.

The biggest downside to this ability is the huge amount of power it takes to transport things in and out of the subspace, which we've seen lead to severe head pain, nosebleeds, and passing out when overused. Transporting objects also isn't quite instant so an alert enemy can probably react in time if they see or hear the tell-tale bubbles preceding something being summoned. Also, the registration portion of the sorcery falls under the groundwork category, so any sorcerer can resist being registered. Registered sorcerers can also resist being transported after the fact as well. This means that Hakuri can't just tap most of the enemies he'll be facing and shunt them into his storehouse to win a fight.

Where's Hakuri at Right Now?

As a neophyte sorcerer, Hakuri's still pretty limited in what he can do. He woke up to his powers yesterday in-universe and has already overtaxed himself to the point of full-body paralysis and probable burnout. However, since his powers are one of the most unique hooks to his character, there's good reason to believe that he'll only be temporarily side-lined before he can recover and start to train. So there's a lot of potential for him to grow into a true powerhouse that can sit at or near the top of the rankings! Having someone with the raw power of Soya and the insane utility of Kyora sounds awesome, doesn't it?

While he's recovering, though, he's basically no better off than a regular person. He has little to no fighting experience outside of a single day with Chihiro before knocking himself out. He's not proficient with any weapons either. So Hakuri's kind of a wildcard in terms of where he'll ultimately end up in the series' power rankings. He's constantly underestimated in-universe and in the fan community despite how many times he's come in clutch. If you like dark horses and potentially risky bets, he's a great choice!

For the Theorycrafters

There's plenty to chew on for the theorycrafters too. Hakuri's only just awakened to his potential, and we don't know the finer details of how he needs to allocate his spirit energy, so there's wiggle room for interpretations and headcanons for those who like to imagine various what-if scenarios. And if he doesn't recover his sorcery, there's always the option for him to become a Bearer himself- a corner of the fandom has fun theorizing which blade would suit him and how it would happen, where it would place him in the rankings, etc. There's a variation on this where he might give up Isou or the storehouse to bond to a blade, but as we don't know how the mechanics would interact with his special status as someone who has two abilities yet, that's an endless point of debate.

Ships

What is a shounen fandom without a strong shipping element? A pretty boring one, probably. Anyway, Hakuri's actually kind of lacking in ship options based on canon events- he hasn't interacted with many characters other than the three listed below in a significant way yet. But at least they all provide very distinct vibes that have unique appeal. He's got options that will hit some major areas of interest for a wide range of shippers!

Warning: the last one is Dead Dove incarnate. I'm not going to sell it because there's nothing good that can be said about it, but it is included in this list as it's (sadly) his second-most popular ship.

Chihiro - HakuHiro/ChihiHaku (伯チヒ/チヒ伯)

Main Appeal: Soulmates

HakuHiro is a quintessential shounen ship between the protagonist and his best friend/deuteragonist guy and more.

I've written a novel's worth of material about these two already, including why I went all-in on them less than 40 chapters into the series despite not being much of a shipper myself, the romantic tropes they've invoked to varying extents in canon, even actual-factual 13k words worth of fan fiction after over a decade of not being inspired to write much of anything at all. I am quite literally here yammering away about this manga every week in large part because of the HakuHiro ship, it's that incredible to me.

IN CANON, Hakuri and Chihiro are designed from the ground up to be perfect partners on a spiritual level. They've only known each other for a week but they're already fighting as a team like they've been doing it all their lives thanks to the harmony inherent in their relationship. Even now that both of them are down and out, there's no doubt that they'll eventually be at it again. Their souls even call out to each other and resonate when they're in distress! These guys are A and Un: a perfect pair, the beginning and end of all things. IN CANON.

I want to give equal billing to the next ship so I'll leave it at that. But seriously, HakuHiro is the m/m shounen ship to beat in terms of wholesomeness and crazy level of material present in canon to work from already (they even have a few ship tease moments just for the lols! I'm not kidding!).

Ice Lady - Hakuri/Ice Lady (伯氷)

Main Appeal: Tragedy

A sad ship, to be sure. It's also Hakuri's only het option that gets sustained attention.

Ice Lady will probably never have a name reveal but she's a major influence on Hakuri and the reason why he's out in the world to meet Chihiro in the first place. He's also constantly flashing back to her to emphasize the impact she had on his life and philosophy. She's the person who set him on the path to do good in the world instead of continuing to try and earn his family's love through abusing others.

This ship has a strong appeal for people who like thinking about "what if" scenarios- what could have been if things had gone a bit better between them, or if they had met under different circumstances, or if the world was less cruel... it's the ultimate Kagurabachi "what if we all lived?!" pairing this side of BanUru.

Her disingenuous attempt to seduce him failed, but that's no reason to not let the ship set sail- maybe in a different timeline where they did escape together it could have become mutual affection. Or you can believe that Hakuri not only mourns the damage he did to her, but also what could have been between them if he had done things differently. Whatever works best for your tragic shipping senses!

Soya - SoHaku (宗伯)

Main Appeal: Dead Dove

It exists.

Vote for Hakuri!

You're far more loved than you think you are!

Hakuri's been through a lot and still has a ton more to experience. He's had great emotional highs and some deep, deep lows but he's always back on the upswing before long. He's worth the one precious vote given to us for all his charms and relatable traits, amazing moments, and the enhancements he brings to Chihiro's character and the story at large. The manga would be seriously a lot worse off without this tragically heroic goofball!

If you already voted for someone else, it's not too late to change it! The poll will be open until December 21st, so there's still plenty of time to go back in and vote for the Best Boy in Kagurabachi. I think. It's a Google Form so if you leave the page it might be set forever. But anyway, please vote for Hakuri and show him some love! He deserves it all and more!