#war depiction

[kagoutiss]

i like sidious & boba fett’s banter in BF2…… [has never played BF2]

[wintvies]

“why can’t ukraine just give some land to russia?” 20 days in mariupol is on youtube! hope this helps. 😊

[depiche]

head empty

[fusionsprunt]

Non-canon instance where Beatrix accidentally falls into another dimension in which Holloway's Comet didn't make it to planet Zona.

[cenvast]

Laios, Monsters, & Toshiro: On Racialized Desire and Identification with the Other

Arguably, the most significant part of Laios' character is the societal ostracization he faces because of his non-normative interests and behavior. For the majority of his life, Laios struggles socially, and other humans mistreat him. When he rescues Marcille from the Nightmares, his nightmare dredges up his inability to fit into school and the army. During his early dungeoneering days, he's lied to and exploited by his fellow party members.

One of his earliest and most formative negative experiences with people is his village's abuse of Falin as a magic user. He shares that after the villagers discovered that she can use magic, "adults who were just kind yesterday, all began to bully [her]." Instead of protecting Falin, his parent tell her to leave the village. The prejudice Falin faces and his parents' response to it upsets Laios to the point that he leaves home.

While Laios cares about his friends, the Demon points out that Laios understandably does not care for people in general. Laios doesn't disagree with the Demon's assessment and suspects that the Demon "can sense all [his] thoughts." The Demon goes on to say that Laios actually "despise[s] all humans." Laios denies this assessment, but given the Demon's uncanny ability to sniff out people's desires and Laios' ashamed expression, at least part of Laios likely agrees with the Demon. It's not a stretch to assume that he's held onto some hurt and resentment towards humans due to their mistreatment of him and Falin in their youth.

In response to how human society has othered him, Laios distances himself from humans and invests his time and energy into monsters and demi-humans instead. In the DunMeshi world, monsters and demi-humans are the ultimate societal Other. People fear them, exploit them, and even hunt and kill them. As someone who's similarly been mistreated by human society, Laios resonates deeply with monsters.

His desire to become a monster and/or beastman reflects his desire to reclaim agency over how society has ostracized him. If he chooses to become a monster, he gets to place value on what society has deemed despicable. He gets to choose why society hates him and be different on his own terms.

Both textually and thematically, Laios' identification with the Other bleeds into the erotic. More blatantly, he says that he'd have sex with orc women, and his succubus is a monstrous version of Marcille.

The entire story is also steeped in the theme of consumption as carnality. Laios and his party spend the entire manga eating monsters — a taboo physical act which they reap pleasure from; the underlying eroticism isn't difficult to see.

The story also presents consumption as a form of extreme identification. Eating a monster makes the monster part of you through digestion. The line between consuming the monster and becoming the monster — between erotic desire for the monster, demonstrated by eating their flesh, and identifying with the monster — is very blurred. Note that digesting a monster is an act of absorption; it destroys the original creature. Senshi states that consuming a monster erases "its individual identity," and major manga spoilers, but Laios defeats and pacifies the Demon by consuming its desire to eat. We'll come back to this concept later.

As previously mentioned, Laios is disinterested in most humans. The notable exception to this rule is Toshiro and by extension, the Eastern Archipelago. Laios doesn't seem to know much about the Archipelago before speaking to Toshiro, so he isn't drawn to Toshiro because he's an Easterner. Instead, he's drawn to his "odd appearance."

Just like Laios views monsters and demi-humans as a visible Other, Laios views Toshiro as another visible Other. On the Island, Toshiro stands out as a foreigner at first glance. While Laios as a white tallman doesn't appear visibly strange to other people, he's drawn again and again to people and creatures who are immediately visibly "odd." He sees them as understanding what it's like to be different and be mistreated for it, and since he relates to that experience, he wants to learn about them and be closer to them.

Essentially, Laios behaves towards Toshiro and his culture the same way he behaves towards monsters; he wants to know everything about Toshiro's foreign culture — the thing which makes him different. Unintentionally, Laios unintentionally reduces Toshiro to being Japanese; if he wasn't Japanese, Laios would never have approached him.

While Laios doesn't have bad intentions, as Toshiro himself acknowledges during their fight, his behavior towards Toshiro still has negative consequences. Laios' harmless interest in monsters translates to fetishization in the context of Japanese culture. He enacts multiple microaggressions against Toshiro and crossing his boundaries.

Laios goes beyond merely learning about Japanese culture. He takes parts of it for himself when he names his sword a Japanese name. Akin to his consumption of monsters, Laios attempts to participate in Toshiro's culture while failing to respect Toshiro himself. Just as eating monsters destroys them, Laios consuming Toshiro's culture while enacting racism against him causes real harm.

Many people have already written about Laios' microaggressions towards Toshiro, but a couple include Laios telling Toshiro that he looks "odd" and asking where he's from, mispronouncing his name as "Shuro," and assuming his favorite food is rice. Laios' treatment and fetishization of Toshiro is racist and harmful. However, I'd like to dive beyond the surface of Laios' micro-aggressive remarks and examine how his obsession with Toshiro becomes a racialized mode of desire, paralleling real world phenomena.

Though no concrete canonical evidence of Laios' feelings towards Toshiro being romantic and/or sexual exists, his interactions with Toshiro have erotic undertones. Their fight dialogue, in particular, revolves around eating, an act the story consistently shows as carnal. During this fight, Laios places his thumb in Toshiro's mouth and asks him, "What's the point of even having a mouth?" Laios' penetration of Toshiro's body via his mouth and his question's potential as an innuendo lend themselves to an erotic reading of the scene's more obvious conflict. Considering the overlap between consumption and carnality throughout the story, it's not a large jump to read eroticism into Laios demanding Toshiro meet his body's physical needs.

Furthermore, Laios is more enthusiastic about Toshiro than any other human in the series. While he cares deeply about his sister and his friends, Laios repeatedly expresses how much he admires Toshiro. He retains and brings up things like Toshiro's (perceived) favorite food. He wants to go to the East in Falin's place after she rejects Toshiro's marriage proposal, and in the "What-If" extra material, he's adamant about setting up a scenario where Toshiro travels with him through the Dungeon.

Undoubtedly, Laios is drawn to Toshiro. Since he sees non-white-ness and monstrosity as equivalent markers of societal othering, Toshiro's identity as a foreigner is what cultivates and maintains Laios' interest in him. Even if Laios learns to care for Toshiro as a person, his desire for Toshiro, platonically or otherwise, is still filtered heavily through race within the narrative.

Laios' relationship with his masculinity is also fraught. He broke off his engagement with a girl from his village and doesn't express normative interest in female tallmen. Seeing how the nightmare versions of his parents ask him when he's going to give them grandchildren, Laios experiences societal pressure to conform to a normative performance of masculinity through being attracted to and marrying a tallman woman and creating a family with her.

Laios frequently talks about how cool and admirable Toshiro is when he performs masculinity through combat, etc. He might find Toshiro's Asian masculinity more appealing and more accessible to him than the masculinity that's been forced onto him, precisely because Toshiro's Asian masculinity appears non-normative in a Western lens. But co-opting the masculinities of men of color as a white man would only further feed into the white consumption of cultures of color.

Overall, Laios' entitlement to and consumption of Toshiro's culture mirrors the real-life way white people co-opt and fetishize non-white cultures. Laios' fetishistic treatment of Japanese culture, because of his attraction (platonic or otherwise) to Toshiro, parallels white people's treatment of Asian people in the Western diaspora. I can only speak on the Asian American experience, but Laios immediately being drawn to Toshiro's "odd appearance," obsessing over his culture, and primarily treating Toshiro as a conduit for his said culture feels eerily close to how some white anime and/or K-pop fans act towards Japanese and Korean people.

Similarly to Laios, real queer, neurodivergent, and/or otherwise non-normative white people are marginalized by white Western society. They relate to how society others non-white cultures and/or people of color and latch onto them. While forming human connections based on curiosity and shared experiences is wonderful, white people are often unaware of the racial dynamics at play when they engage with non-white cultures and people of color and unintentionally, end up consuming and fetishizing non-white cultures in detrimental ways.

None of this negates the reality that Laios and Toshiro canonically care for each other. For instance, Toshiro's willingness to hug Laios reveals his genuine familiarity with and affection for him. The racial dynamics of their friendship complicate their relationship in fascinating ways and open up a potential path for Laios' growth. With time and effort, Laios could absolutely unlearn his racism and become a much better friend to Toshiro.

In conclusion, Laios' behavior towards Toshiro is a study in a marginalized white person's identification with and racialized desire for a non-white Other and how even a well-intentioned attempt at connection can replicate harmful racist dynamics. Toshiro's experience with Laios closely parallels real Asian people's struggles with racism and fetishization in our world today.

[thou-babbling-brook]

Smth smth endless cycle of war for a purpose that exceeds your understanding smth smth

[niobiumao3]

[knightsiscrabs]

made a quick little comic of a mentioned event in the upcoming chapter 5 of Folie à Deux while brainstorming for the next chapter's art :3 for such a quiet guy, din's massiff call echos like crazy. that cannot be pleasant to have happen right next to you

[theheartmold]

SO EXCITED!!! These are the sneak peek images we got about the War of the Rohirrim!!! This animation style is gorgeous and I’m really looking forward to this movie.

Check out the article here!

[luguangs]

We are alive. And we will continue living. So long as you remain by my side.

[glitter-stained]

Look, I'll say it: Zurr isn't a magical demon that took over Bruce's body, it's a vilifying, demonizing take on induced DID. I can't keep seeing people fight to defend Bruce's honour in Gotham War by saying "it wasn't actually him so it's not his fault", reject the Lazarus Pit Madness headcanon because "Jason and he alone did his crimes and he has no excuse", and then we're talking about how Bruce's or Dick's trauma is what made him a hero, one post later on my board it's "the lazarus pit madness headcanon is unnecessary because Jason's behaviour is completely explainable and logical if you just take in account that he has cptsd" (or bpd depending on the post) and then that fanfic I had to stop reading because a character literally was screaming at Jason "so what you died get over yourself but you weren't magically controlled by the pit so you have zero excuse and justification for being angry" and then a post about "wow why is Batman punching down on all these mentally ill people", and then in the replies "are you dumb it's because those crazies are bombing orphanages..."

I'm still thinking about that moment in "dumpster slasher" where Batman is like "the killer is still free while poor Elmore [a homeless guy with substance use disorder and major neurocognitive disorder] is being shipped off to Arkham... This doesn't sit right" yeah buddy I'm sure if you ponder that for a while, the reason why the fact the only mental health facility in your city is also a prison for dangerous criminals with no apparent mental illness doesn't sit right with you will appear to you eventually.

Maybe it's time to confront the fact that the difference between a hero and villain in dc is often whether their mental illness is demonized, glorified or minimized. Or the fact that attenuated circumstances and responsibility exists on a gradient and there is such thing as "altered responsibility due to mental illness" in a trial. Maybe it's not "oh it was this evil Zurr/Batman entity, not Bruce/Batman, so there is no responsibility to be taken and anyone condemning those actions as abuse is talking in bad faith" maybe it's "this is a terrible representation of something that exists and should be treated respectfully" and "I don't have to accept this terribly harmful rethoric and fucked up depiction into my conception of my fav's characterization in such a dislocated, often incoherent canon if I don't want to."

And also maybe it's "if we accept this event/depiction as canon it doesn't mean that we have to either bash the character completely or erase his mental illness into something vaguer/mystical that would somehow absolve him of his place in this situation".

And maybe it's "what does accountability for your harmful actions looks like when your judgement was heavily impaired by mental illness, and what judgement can be placed upon you and who decides where people are placed on that continuum of responsibility and how do we acknowledge and go forward into repairing things when severe harm/abuse was done under impaired judgement and also how do you reconcile all of this with your sense of self, (especially in conditions like bpd/cptsd and especially did where the sense of self is already so altered/complicated) with what your values are, what you want to be, what you are capable of doing and what you thought about yourself before the bad thing happened." I don't know any simple, correct, good answer, especially not a one size fits all. All I know is: the desire to be a good person, and be able to distinctively separate people between bad and good, is profoundly human and, at times when lines of responsibility get blurry, profoundly unhelpful. Most people who are going to hurt you aren't mentally ill. Most people who do terrible things aren't mentally ill, and sometimes people are mentally ill and hurt people and the two have nothing to do with eachother. But it is also a reality that sometimes judgement is impaired and behaviour is altered due to mental illness, and then you need to figure out where to go from there. Acknowledging this while also fighting stigmatisation is a complicated business. It's messy. Mental illness often is. I'm weary of any rethoric that pretends it's simple.

[literallys-illiteracy]

So i've been playing through Hades 2 recently and, unless i'm just going insane, I'm fairly sure that in the later game (or in Hades 3) that we're going to fight against the gods in some capacity?

We have Nemesis, saying that the gods might deserve all of this happening to them, and that Prometheus didn't deserve his punishment; We have Moros talking about how he has ended the lives of mortals in interesting ways for entertainment; We have Heracles, who freed Prometheus, and who has been very screwed over by the gods in the past; In the previous game we had Sisyphus, happy; We have Arachne, whose story (and the amount she deserved her punishment) varies but still got fucked over; (Pan)Dora, where the last remaining item in her jar (box) was hope, sometimes seen too as a curse, the gods giving meaningless mortals hope in their lives; We have Athena talking about how compromise is failure and will only start more conflict; other olympians talking about flooding the earth or punishing mortals for siding with Chronos;

and finally, we have Prometheus, who is the most interesting character in the entire game;

Prometheus, the titan, is best known for three things:

He created the first humans out of clay (sometimes Hephaestus is credited with this)

He stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind (which is why he is often considered the god of fire)

Liver. Bird. Liver. Bird. Liver. Bird [...]

Prometheus in Hades 2 is the god (titans and gods are virtually the same don't worry about it) of Foresight (due to his name being typically understood as to mean "Foresight" in contrast to his brother's meaning "Hindsight" or "Afterthought"), freed from the mountain by someone and who now fights against Olympus. Note that it was Heracles who freed him in the legends, and Heracles is a character who appears in game.

Prometheus clearly cares for humanity over all else, being their creator, and thus the source of their suffering.

The most interesting lines from Prometheus in the game are those regarding the future, after all he is the titan of foresight, specifically to do with mortals and the gods. Most notably, the recurring line:

Agent of Change.

Come then, Agent of Change, and show me what I know you can do!"

If you could see what i've forseen, you'd not believe it anyhow

(on death):

All... according... to plan...

Prometheus :  "I could only... do my part..." [Melinoë : "Silence. Save your troubles for your master Chronos."] "It's not my troubles that I mean to save... Agent of Change..."

If suffering today brings a better tomorrow, so be it

and the most important line, the one that explains his persistence (in my eyes):

Gods could learn something from mortals, you know. For all their many failings, they have an admirable tendency to cling to hope; a certain quality we deathless often lack [Melinoë: Hope can be the salve for the naive. So many mortals hope they'll never die; a feeling born of delusion and fear] Yes! Mortals live short, painful lives. And even still they strive for something greater than they mostly can achieve. I fight for them! You gods only fight for yourselves

While there is all likelihood that my own foresight is flawed in this regard; all of this being simply a reference to the last curse of hope that remains in Pandora's Jar, I choose to see it that this is what Prometheus has learned through his years:

He fights for mortals, he suffers and dies as they do time and time again to strive for what is greater than himself, he clings to the hope that Melinoë will finally break this cycle and free humanity.

[depiche]

When your Padawan's drink gets spiked and you're on Master-sitter duty now.

[backjustforberena]

Then we must press what advantage we do have. And what is that? Dragons. 

[daydreamerwonderkid]

You know ... I did already make a joke post about how DC should give us an event dedicated to the Batkids beating Bruce's ass.

But with the way things are going so far ... maybe DC will actually deliver????

Cause the sheer amount of fucking rage Dick showed while pounding Bruce's face in for what he did to Jason ... ngl, that was hella delicious.

Crossing my fingers DC isn't gonna pussy out and have Bruce defeat all the Batkids again iswtfg

[tideswept]

I think it’s vitally important that we hear more of your thots (and anakin’s 😏) on THICC obi-wan. Man is muscley and padded and Anakin is weak for it 😳

i said what i said and stand by it! 😤

#we need more of this tbh #man's a monk warrior#+4 years of war during TCW? #strong and built as hell #not shrinkwrapped #but s t r o n g

I do think his level of fitness vastly depends on what era we're talking about and this doesn't apply to AUs (unless the AU has a specific reason for him to be fit) but my guy. My guy. He is a warrior monk dude! He fights! He trains! He probably indulges in [1] terrible (and by that I mean GRAND and greasy and wonderful) meal at Dex's diner once a month and then eats almost fastidiously healthy the rest of the time.

But particularly once the war starts? There's rationing (probably with a focus on high protein) There's shortages. There's supply blockades. Stress and a highly active fighting style, training, drills, years upon years of sieges and combat. Running after Anakin. Running after Ahsoka. Doing his own feral gremlin shit. Man pulls stunts. He will jump out a window with no regard as to where he's going to land.

C A L V E S ✔️

T H I G H S ✔️

C H E S T ✔️

S H O U L D E R S ✔️

A R M S ✔️

He has them all, and Anakin is a scrawny kid when the war starts, and he's probably side-eyeing Obi-Wan suddenly filling out in ways he never did before, walking differently, distributing his weight and center of balance differently, and Anakin's not sure if he's envious or... something else.

(It's ok, Anakin. Your time will come. Your six-pack by the end of the war will be the stuff of holonet legend)