so i don't really talk about what i dub as Da Babby Ships(tm) in this fandom because 1)the older i get the less i focus on romantic ships between teens and 2) frankly all of yall(on both sides) scare me
but i wanna talk abt this constant belief that Kairi never wants Sora to change or is clinging to a past Sora. and i can see why ppl believe that when there's lines like this
she's also said her famous/infamous "never change" thing. but hold on! let's look at the context for this line.
in this scene she is not talking to Sora like the aforementioned famous line. she's using letters to Sora as a journal of sorts.
now it'd be great if we could have a conversation that this kid finds it easier to sort out her feelings on paper to a friend she won't send the letter to. (like it's a normal thing to do. i mean it is, a lot of people find it easier to journal this way, but it also isn't lol even Lea was like 'uh, ok kid') but Kairi literally has said this kinda thing to Sora's face. if this is something she truly believes she'd just say so. however the next time she sees the guy she says
that's...not the lines i'd expect from a character that doesn't want the other to change at all from the trials they are about to face. it sounds like to me that even if he does change, she still wants to be there for him. she doesn't say she wants to marry him, have kids with a white picket fence. she doesn't say 'stay babby Sora forever'. she just wants to keep him literally (not just figuratively) safe in battle. (and she technically does the second time around anyways)
there are many ways to interpret these scenes, but what frustrates me is that very few wanna focus more on the individual characters and instead use them as talking points against ~certain~ ships/shippers. let's go old school reading comp here: why is she using letters to sort out her feelings to an imaginary Sora? what does she expect from their relationship/friendship? what could have happened to make her want to write this stuff down in the first place? *coughit was COMcough* why didn't she just tell him not to change again when she had the chance?
sometimes these made-up people have a better grasp of what is fiction vs what is reality than us fans do because ofc she wouldn't say that 'never change' stuff to Sora again. she's matured! she went to school for an entire year without her closest buds :( so she had the chance to learn history!! ofc battle changes people especially when you're up against one of the most manipulative assholes ever!!!
but she still wants to be there for him. the real him, not some letter-version or past version. no matter what. i think that matters more than her supposed clinging to nostalgia
40 notes
·
View notes
yknow AI art has ruined an entire genre of painting to me, i saw one of those smooth anime-realism pieces and immidiately thought ''ugh, AI art'' until i noticed it was posted by an established deviantart user 6 years ago. like ive never been a huge fan of that genre but it looks like a pretty difficult style to master and i feel bad for the artists who specialized in anime-realism only to have their entire market jacked by people typing keywords into midjourney.
81K notes
·
View notes
I hate that the "Gen Alpha can't read." conversation so much because people are taking this as a chance to call children stupid and their parents monsters instead of having a very real discussion about how the education system is flawed by design, covid fucked up everything socialization wise, these parents having little access to child care and more work hours leads them to lean on things like tablets and phones to watch their kids more and more, teachers are more overworked and underpaid than ever leading to them leaving the profession in droves and that's only like the surface level issues.
There's a myriad of factors at play here, not just that "The kids are spoiled screen-addicted brats with no imagination and their parents are childish spoiled millennials who just let coco melon handle everything."
43K notes
·
View notes
History of Step
What is Stepping?
What is Step?
Stepping or step dancing is “a percussive dance in which the participant’s body is used to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word, and hand-claps,” writes the African American Registry.
Step has its origins in Africa, as dancing has been a large part of traditional African culture for centuries.
Calling Step a "bizarre silent dance without music" has to be one of the wilder antiblack racist descriptions I've ever heard of stepping lmao. Anyway if you see the video, it's step!!! They're stepping!! It's a Black American form of dance!!
21K notes
·
View notes
if I've learned anything from grad school it's to check your sources, and this has proven invaluable in the dozens of instances when I've had an MBA-type try to tell me something about finances or leadership. Case in point:
Firefox serves me clickbaity articles through Pocket, which is fine because I like Firefox. But sometimes an article makes me curious. I'm pretty anal about my finances, and I wondered if this article was, as I suspected, total horseshit, or could potentially benefit me and help me get my spending under control. So let's check the article in question.
It mostly seems like common sense. "...track expenses and income for at least a month before setting a budget...How much money do I have or earn? How much do I want to save?" Basic shit like that. But then I get to this section:
This sounds fucking made up to me. And thankfully, they've provided a source to their claim that "research has repeatedly shown" that writing things down changes behavior. First mistake. What research is this?
Forbes, naturally, my #1 source for absolute dogshit fart-sniffing financial schlock. Forbes is the type of website that guy from high school who constantly posts on linkedin trawls daily for little articles like this that make him feel better about refusing to pay for a decent package for his employees' healthcare (I'm from the United States, a barbaric, conflict-ridden country in the throes of civil unrest, so obsessed with violence that its warlords prioritize weapons over universal medical coverage. I digress). Forbes constantly posts shit like this, and I constantly spend my time at leadership seminars debunking poor consultants who get paid to read these claims credulously. Look at this highlighted text. Does it make sense to you that simply writing your financial goals down would result in a 10x increase in your income? Because if it does, let me make you an offer on this sick ass bridge.
Thankfully, Forbes also makes the mistake of citing their sources. Let's check to see where this hyperlink goes:
SidSavara. I've never heard of this site, but the About section tells me that Sid is "a technology leader who empowers teams to grow into their best selves. He is a life-long learner enjoys developing software, leading teams in delivering mission critical projects, playing guitar and watching football and basketball."
That doesn't mean anything. What are his LinkedIn credentials? With the caveat that anyone can lie on Linkedin, Mr. Savara appears to be a Software Engineer. Which is fine! I'm glad software engineers exist! But Sid's got nothing in his professional history which suggests he knows shit about finance. So I'm already pretty skeptical of his website, which is increasingly looking like a personal fart-huffing blog.
The article itself repeats the credulous claim made in the Forbes story earlier, but this time, provides no link for the 3% story. Mr. Savara is smarter than his colleages at Forbes, it's much wiser to just make shit up.
HOWEVER. I am not the first person to have followed this rabbit hole. Because at the very top of this article, there is a disclaimer.
Uh oh!
Sid's been called out before, and in the follow up to this article, he reveals the truth.
You can guess where this is going.
So to go back to the VERY beginning of this post, both Pocket/Good Housekeeping and Forbes failed to do even the most basic of research, taking the wild claim that writing down your budget may increase your income by 10x on good faith and the word of a(n admittedly honest about his shortcomings) software engineer.
Why did I spend 30 minutes to make a tumblr post about this? Mostly to show off how smart I am, but also to remind folks of just how flimsy any claim on the internet can be. Click those links, follow those sources, and when the sources stop linking, ask why.
15K notes
·
View notes