#hypothetically it’s really not that bad it’s like less than 10 I think over a full year | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

i-literally-cant-with-this · 1 month

Note

Hi bb, just a thirst idea for you: Study fucking. Your fave has trouble being "smart" but he is a genius when it comes to pounding that ass after he gets too frustrated during a study session.

Oh, Vi, my sweet. I know you sent this a while ago. But when I read it, my heart wasn't the only thing to clench up 😈! Thank you so much for sending this to me. It was so fun to write!!

A/N ::: Nerd/Bad Boy!Keisuke Baji x F.reader, reader doesn't know he's in Toman until later (or at all, idk), he is NOT playing stupid, math is just really fucking hard!

C/W ::: Mutual pining that's super on the DL, unprotected P->V, Baji surprising us ... so nothing out of the ordinary.

WC ::: Just over 2k.

"Why though?!" Baji yelled a little louder than you thought he needed to. But it was clear he was getting more and more pissed about this. "Why the FUCK does it have to equal the fucking same area as this fucking pellaroraglam?"

You bit the insides of your cheeks and your tongue to keep from laughing at him about his pronunciation of the word 'parallelogram'. "Because that's how the Greeks intended it. Ok? Let's take a 10 minute break and come back to this again, yeah? You're not an idiot, Kei. I think you've just been staring at the book for so long that things are starting to make less and less sense. Does that make sense?" You reached over and took his glasses from his face and brushed your finger up and down the bridge of his nose. "Do you want to go for a walk or get something from the kitchen? Maybe to eat or drink? Make this 10 count because when we get back, we're hittin' it hard again, ok?"

Something about your wording made his cock twitch. But he shoved that thought down almost as quickly as it bubbled up into the forefront of his overworked brain.

"Hittin' it hard again, hah? You're mean, y/n. You're a bully. A learning bully. You're not gonna give in until I understand this shit, are ya?" He stood up from your desk and he gestured for you to follow him to your kitchen.

Your apartment was nothing special. But how you made the space your own was something that Baji always found so sweet and comforting. Of course, he'd never admit that to you. He is, after all, the first division Captain of Toman. Captains don't find things 'sweet.' They find them masculine and bloody. That's what everyone from the outside looking in thought, anyway. Though, no matter how hard he tried to ignore the pull you and your apartment had on him, he always found himself wishing he was back here, with you, in this little bubble of mild contentment you'd created.

He was relaxed when he was with you. Save for right now. But you were trying to help him study for his midterm. Any other time he's been here, he always felt safe. Maybe even small, for lack of a better descriptor, when he is anything but 'small' in any sense of the word.

"You really do have a mean streak in you, you know that?" He teased as you both walked into your kitchen. "But you're right. I need a break from that book. My eyes are crossing and it's starting to give me a headache."

"Do you want a couple of tylenol? I think I have ibuprofen, too. Anything I can do to help you with this, Keisuke. It's my job, after all. Use me however you need to to get this through that stubborn head of yours." You smiled so cute at him that he had a difficult time not telling you what he really wanted to use you for.

"Maybe I'll take you up on that. But first, can I ask you something kinda weird?" He sat down on one of the bar stools at the counter and you followed suit, sitting next to him.

"Of course! Anything, Kei." You rubbed your fingers up and down your forearm, a nervous habit. Even still, you assumed it was a question about the math you were helping him study. "What's up?"

"So, like, I know you're not into me in that way. Right? And that's fine. You've made that very clear. But, like, if you were...into me, I mean, into someone … hypothetically, I mean, what kind of person do you think you would be into? Like, are you more into the nerdy type, or the bad boy type, or, like, the artsy type?"

You didn't really understand where this was going. But you decided to humor him. "Well, I guess I've always been pretty attracted to the bad boy type. But that doesn't mean I wouldn't go for someone who was nerdy, too. It all depends on the person, you know? I have to like them first and foremost. Like, just because I see some bad boy doing bad boy stuff doesn't mean I'll fall to my knees and s-"

Baji choked on his tea, spitting it all over you in the process of trying to control the amount of liquid that was coming out of his mouth.

"Oh fuck! I'm so sorry, y/n! Gahhhd damn it. I am so sorry!" He grabbed the roll of paper towels from the counter by the sink and tore some off to frantically wipe your chest.

"K-Kei! Oh my god! Stop! It's ok! I'm at home, I can easily change my shirt. Don't worry about ... about it. You yell so much. Geez."

You hopped off of the stool and went back to your bedroom to find a shirt to change into. As you did so, Baji felt his stomach turn. He knew he shouldn't have asked you that. It was stupid and immature. But he couldn't help it. He'd had a crush on you for so long that he just needed to know if he had a chance in hell with you or not. But, as he'd guessed, you weren't interested in him that way.

He waited for you to come back to the kitchen before apologizing again. "I really am sorry, y/n. I don't know what came over me. I was just, I dunno, asking for a friend. And then you started to say that if you saw someone doing something that you’d fall to your knees and …" He waved his hand in the air as if to clear what he was going to say away before it’d even had a chance to see the light of day. “And I choked and blew my tea all over you.”

You giggled and shook your head, smiling at him. "It's ok, Kei. You're a little clumsy, but you're still really sweet. I like hanging out - I mean, you know. Helping you study. I enjoy your company, regardless of what we're doing."

"Y/n? I really wanna kih-" He blushed and looked away from you before he thought you saw his face turn a pretty shade of pink.

"You what, Kei?" You leaned around him a little to get his attention. "What do you want, Baji? You can tell me. We're friends."

FRIENDS

"Oh, y-yeah. Of course we're ... friends. Yeah. Well, let's get back to the math, then. C'mon." His heart, smile and morale sank as he headed back to your room with you.

Meanwhile, you were left to wonder what he was going to say. What did he want to 'kih'? Kiss? Oh, no. It couldn't be that. Right? Maybe he just wanted to kick your butt for making fun of his pronunciation earlier ... even though your face was the only thing giving away the fact you were getting quite a bit of entertainment from that. He wouldn't have noticed that. Right?

You followed him back to your bedroom and decided to keep quiet about the whole thing. You couldn't imagine that he would want to kiss you. You were just his tutor. And he was so cool. He had cool friends, girls practically fell at his feet when he walked by them. He couldn't possibly have feelings for you, right?

Oh, but he did. He really did. He was mad for you. He wanted nothing more than to pull you into his lap and kiss you senseless. But that couldn't happen. He couldn't ruin the time you spent together. It was precious to him, even though he knew you saw it as nothing more than a job.

The next hour of your time together was spent studying right from the book. There was no talking, no joking, just Baji finally getting to work. It was a welcome change for you. It meant you could focus on your task at hand and not worry about him trying to distract you with his unfinished sentences.

He was still so frustrated. But he was starting to make progress. He was starting to understand what you were trying to teach him. He just wished he could show you how he felt.

As you helped him work through the last of the 4 problems he had to do, he tried to come up with a way to say it. To tell you how he really felt. He was never good at words. Action was his strength. "I'm not sure about par-parallelograms? Is that how you say it? I'm so fucking sick of that long ass word. It's so stupid. Why couldn't they just say a special type of quadrilateral that has both pairs of opposite sides parallel and equal. That word is like 73 letters long. I hate it. It's so fucking annoying, y/n. Jesus."

You clapped and jumped a little where you stood, your tits bounced and his eyes went right to them. "Yes! Yes, Kei! Good! Good job!" You jumped into his arms and hugged him so tightly, burying your face in his neck, (accidentally) inhaling his scent. "I knew you could ..." you pulled your face back from him and looked into his brown eyes. "I knew you could do it ... Keisuke. Mmm ... Kei-suk-e. You ..." you breathed the words out heavily and found yourself staring at his full lips. That sly smile, his sharp teeth. Pain never looked so appealing.

Your heart stopped in your chest when he threw the math book across the room and it slammed into your wall with a loud thud. Before you had time to process what was happening, his hands were in your hair and his lips were on yours.

You'd been so stupid for someone who taught other people things. So stupid to not see how he felt. And now, here he was, kissing you like he needed you to breathe. You reached up and pulled his long black hair back from his face and returned the kiss with just as much intensity.

"I'm sorry I didn't say anything, y/n. I didn't think you'd want me that way. I'm just a dumbass with no future. You're so smart and pretty and funny and ... and I just can't believe you're actually kissing me back right now."

You shook your head and smiled. "I'm sorry! I didn't realize what was happening, Kei. You're not as good at hiding your feelings as you think. You should have just said something, though. This whole time we've been studying everything together, we could have been ..."

"... fucking like rabbits?" He laughed, but his eyes were serious.

You reached down and unbuttoned his jeans. "You know, it's not nice to talk to your tutor like that. But Baji, you've made a lot of progress tonight. I think you deserve a reward."

He picked you up and laid you down on your bed. "Oh yeah? And what kind of reward do you think I deserve, y/n?"

You reached over to your bedside table and turned on your neon pink LED lights. "The best kind, Kei. You've earned it."

"Fuck, y/n. You are so hot. I can't wait to fuck you so hard you forget everything you've ever taught me. We’ll have to have some more lessons. Is that ok with you?"

You nodded as you pulled your shirt up and over your head. "That sounds like a wonderful idea. We can even work on your pronunciation. You're a bit of a mess with your consonants."

He kissed you again and smiled. "Y/n, oh my god, shut up ... you're the worst." He pulled his pants down and straddled you, his cock rock hard and ready for you. "But you're also the best. I can't wait to make you mine."

"Kei, you're already mine." You reached up and cupped his cheek, pulling him in for another kiss. "Now ... teach me something.”

@darkstarlight82 @katshimizuu @kazutora-kurokawa @southside-otaku @arlerts-angel

346 notes · View notes

poomphuripan · 4 months

Text

10 BL Boys I Want Carnally To Love, Take Care and Cuddle With Every Night

@bunnakit awww thank you for the tag 🫶 as an asexual i can't say i spent much time thinking about fucking anyone (so coming up with this list was really hard ;_;) but if any of these characters propositioned... i would NOT say no 😉

10. Phob (Something In My Room)

if there is an award for cutest ghost of all time in a BL series, i think Phob will take home easily. Phob deserves better sex. my meow meow friendly ghost Phob, i will tuck you in bed my ghost sweetie 🥺🫶

9. Shao Fei (History 3: Trapped)

my righteous cop with a strong sense of justice, i really love Shao Fei so much. Shao Fei doesn't beat around the bush and is really straightforward with his wants, I LOVE HE!

8. Khuafah (Sky In Your Heart)

Khuafah, the HOT CHARMING doctor that you are. i would volunteer to get sick every day just to visit him 🫠

7. Gene (Lovely Writer)

if Gene ever needs to write a straight romance novel, i'm happy to make out with him for research purposes 😉

6. Pisaeng (Be My Favorite)

most patient boyfriend who tries super hard to get you plushies? yea i would bang Pisaeng in a heartbeat, no doubt. in fact, i believe Pisaeng would be considerate and wait for me to be ready (Pisaeng babe i'm always ready for you 😉)

5. Tennoji Haru (Trillion Game)

while Trillion Game is DEFINITELY not BL, but Meguro Ren was in Kieta Hatsukoi so my boy should get a PASS 😤 Haru is confident yet humble, self-proclaimed selfish yet always selfless. god i love competent men *swoons* Trillion Game is out on Netflix, please check out my boy Haru and his boy(friend) Gaku and their start-up adventure together 🥺👉👈.

4. Charn (Laws of Attraction)

while i can't guarantee that i can give Charn a good time, i believe that as a fellow lawyer i can assist Charn with any case work he got. Like i said, i am a sucker for competent men 😮‍💨.

3. Tangmo (Great Men Academy)

you don't understand how obsessed i am with the og golden retriever, nation's boyfriend, Tangmo. it's been 4? years... i have not let him go... gentle soft boi but great at judo too? i think Tangmo and i should have our wrestling sessions ending up as makeout sessions.

2. Joe (My Stand In)

this is kind of a cheat but i've read the original novel for My Stand In (Professional Body Double by Shui Qian Cheng) and i can confirm Joe/Zhou Xiang is the sweetest soul, most precious, unluckiest gay ever (Ming, you are on sight, watch it sir or imma steal Joe away). i'm super excited for My Stand In because i hope i get to fall in love with Joe once again the way i fell super hard, head over heels for him when i finished this danmei novel within less than 24 hours. (was this shameless PR for Poom Phuripan's new BL series next year? yes, yes it absolutely was 🤗)

1. Khun Yai and Jom (I Feel You Linger In The Air)

if i don't have a gentle lover like Khun Yai Kritsada Palathip or a soft boyfriend like Jom Ravit Pittayanan then what's the POINT. i want both of them so BAD. also isn't it such a crime that Yai lives his entire life the rest of his live in celibacy, having fucked only ONE person (the love of his life) in his lifetime. LET ME IN. i will love both of you equally.

+ bonus: Chef Guy (Bake Me Please)

did you REALLY think i was gonna end my list without current loml, our resident sad boi, considerate and caring Chef Guy? 😅 Guy deserves a spot on here because well i'm absolutely feral for this man. Guy is just the nicest guy and i will literally do anything for him. Guy had me at hello but my heart truly broke when he comforted Peach saying he doesn't want to see Peach who's given him so much positivity, cry 😭.

oooooh that was soooo hard ;_; i love all these characters, maybe one day i need to start listing the female characters i'd totally hypothetically bang too because WOMEN ARE HOT 🔥.

45 notes · View notes

the-plot-blog-thing · 22 days

Text

(originally published on 4/6/24)

WDAS TAGTEAM REVIEWS MOVIE #62: WISH (2023)

It's not fair, y'know? It's just not fair....

If I had seen this movie BEFORE the internet decided to already pick it apart, and BEFORE we learned about its earlier versions, I would've just said "Eh, it's cute enough" and moved on.

BUT now that we DO know, I can only see this movie and think, what if?

First, the good: all the acting and singing is all very good. They were wise to actually cast actors who can sing, so we didn't get a Beauty and the Beast (2017) problem on our hands.

The animation is also great! I liked how it looked from the first trailer. The colors are vibrant, and the characters have a great feeling of weight and movement. I really like how the backgrounds look especially.

Now then, onto the bad: The songs are too long and too similar rhythmically. None of them have a strong hook, they just repeat the same lines over and over again hoping that they'll stick in your head. Spoilers: they don't. The animal song is probably the worst.

There's a plot point where Victor Garber's character's wish was to sing a song that inspires the world. That's the main plot point of the first third of the film, and by the end, we still don't get to hear the song. They cut a song sung by Victor Garber in favor of...nothing?

You could really tell that there weren't any Broadway songwriters behind this one....

The film also has too many characters. I chalk most of this up to Asha's friends, who are all parodies of the 7 Dwarves. Only 2 of them are actually important, combine that with the queen, the goat, the star, and Asha's mother and grandfather, it's just a struggle for screentime.

The references didn't bother me all that much actually, up until that last scene where it all got a bit much. I know they were trying to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the company, but the Once Upon the Studio short did that well enough.

Every scene just repeats the same information too many times, to the point where each scene drags a minute longer than it should. And for a 90 minute film, that's saying something.

I was bothered by how Magnifico was corrupted by the dark magic. The fact that he clearly had a tragic backstory, and his wife was worried for him, showed he must have at least still had some small shred of good in him.

But then the film just says "No, once you touch dark magic, you're evil forever!" and that just bothered me. I know we've wanted an outright villain in one of these movies again, but this was not it. Was he under the influence of an evil book or not? You can't have it both ways.

Look, we've all seen the animatics and concept art, and we all heard the interviews. This movie could've been much different and potentially way better, but we can't keep dealing in hypotheticals. We can only judge the movie we got, and this one was just ok.

Emperor's New Groove famously was a totally different movie before it became the comedy we know it as today, and while it's interesting to see what could've been, nobody thinks less of Emperor's New Groove because it isn't Kingdom of the Sun.

As such, I can only look at Wish for what it is, and as of now, it's only a

5.5/10: I wish that they learn and go forward from here

But next time is Moana 2, so who knows?

#disney #WDAS #wish #why did the dumbass animals know more about having personal agency than any other human in the movie?#they only learned to talk 5 minutes ago #wdas62

8 notes · View notes

moregraceful · 7 months

Note

Soooo if I were to hypothetically go to a hockey game for the first time, would you suggest I go see the sharks or the 'cuda? Or some other league? I get terminally bored watching sports on TV so my understanding of hockey is extremely minimal. However I AM curious enough to maybe suffer having to schlepp to San Jose.

WOW this is my favorite ask of all time oh my god. I hope I don't get fired for doing literally nothing but be annoying on Tumblr all day but I had to answer this immediately.

Important questions to consider when deciding between attending a Barracuda or Sharks game:

Do you want to see a bad and frustrating NHL team get their asses kicked by a way better team but tickets are cheap?

Do you want to see chaotic but exciting Pacific Division AHL hockey played by people you have never heard of that is a couple dollars cheaper?

Do you want to experience an NHL arena (big, exciting, many food options, fans are mean sometimes and rivalries can get intense when the away team fans outnumber Sharks fans) or an AHL arena (small, no bad seats in the house, fewer food options, fans are as deeply chaotic as the team but the vibe is way less intense than Sharks games)?

Do you want to see Tomáš Hertl and Anthony Duclair smile at each other or do you want to see a bunch of guys whose development the Sharks are actively fucking up as we speak but they're trying to stay silly?

Most importantly: do you want to meet ME!!

My preference is for the Cuda for a lot for reasons but a huge one is that I get extremely stressed out around drunk cis men at sports games and there are fewer drunk cis men at Cuda games than Sharks games bc...well there are less people at Cuda games in general lol, but also games are so cheap that people tend to leave halfway through when they get bored or tired. I find the Cuda games tend to have better vibes overall from a fan perspective even though the team themselves are in hell lol. Also with the AHL, the teams mostly play only within their division, so you really see some barn burners when someone eats a second helping of wheaties that morning or if the Cuda and Roadrunners choose violence, and that can be a lot of fun. It's why I like Cuda hockey: it's usually bad and always chaotic, but it's also often unpredictable and you end up on the edge of your seat for a lot of games bc the team keeps giving you hope. Sharks hockey can be very exciting and the players are usually much better, but it's also pretty consistently frustrating to watch and often I enjoy being at the arena more than I enjoy watching the game.

If you REALLY wanted to make a day of it, you also could hit up one of the Cuda-Sharks double-headers this season (there's one this Saturday) and go see both teams! And combined tickets probably won't cost more than $55-60! Last I checked the cheapest Sharks tickets on weekdays are $20-25 and Cuda tickets are around $13 pretty consistently throughout the week. Sharks ticket prices go up on weekends but it still starts around $45 which prob one of the greatest deals you could get for watching legit NHL stars such as Connor McDavid or Nathan MacKinnon destroy my flop kings.

For other leagues I don't think the Bay Area has any NCAA hockey, but we do have a lot of ACHA hockey teams (college club hockey) all over the Bay, which I believe are free at Sharks Ice, if you want to see a bunch of young men yeehaw their way through a couple late night weekend games! And I know Cal has a team and I think they play at Oakland Sharks Ice, so you wouldn't even have to go far. I keep meaning to hit up an SJSU Spartans game at Sharks Ice this season since they've been on something of a tear, I'll keep y'all updated. There's also a FUCK TON of beer league hockey in San Jose, Fremont, and Oakland (Sharks Ice across all three rinks has I believe the largest beer league roster west of the rockies!) but imho when you can see professional hockey for literally $13, it's worth it to cough up the $13 (+$10 for parking) and go see hockey by professional athletes even if the professional athletes are flop kings in training. Or cough up $20 (+$30 for parking) and go see professional flop kings act like fools.

I don't really think there is a bad choice, imho, if you're not wildly committed to seeing either team win and having it be an experience that affirms the great sport of hockey. Like do you want to see good hockey players or do you want to experience hockey. For me, going to any sports game is really about getting out of the house, interacting with people, and just enjoying live sports to keep my brain from collapsing due to work or bad mental health. I personally find Cuda games more enjoyable bc I prefer a smaller, less aggro atmosphere where I have built in friends, cheaper drinks, and seats closer to the ice which makes it easier for me to follow the game and see everything that is going on.

It's really up to you and what you want out of the experience 🫡 I hope this helps!!

#cage replies #localapparent #east bay anon

18 notes · View notes

ifonotlnow · 5 months

Text

REVIEW NOBODY CARES ABOUT: HIP TO THE JAVABEAN EDITION

ALSO, some of this was written in the morning, and some was at night. So, if the night part is really THAT MUCH more entertaining, I'll start writing these right before I sleep again

What’s in the Toaster?: NA/10

Honestly, I don't think it needs explaining

Sunbeam Light Show Flower Seed: 8/10

Good song, It's fun, it's catchy, it says the words "necktie" and "band" in the same song, which clearly means it references Tally Hall (it hypothetically could've been). Good

Musical Chairs: 7/10

Pros: it's a really good song

cons: he uses the word "bloody" the way a filthy brit would

jokes aside, It's a really good song but I just don't LOVE it, y'know

Atomic Copper Claw: 9.5/10

ILOVETHISSONGILOVETHISSONGILOVETHISSONG IDK how to explain it but the protagonist is so me I love them so much. Also, I wonder if the antagonist actually DOES have an atomic copper coat like the singer believes.

Your Evil Shadow Has a Cup of Tea: 8.75/10

I feel like this in an unpopular opinion (outside of the lemon demon fandom) but I LOVE this song. Definitely on elf my highlights from the album, it's stupid and sounds kind of bad. It's exactly what I want in a song.

Telekinesis: 8/10

In this album, my favorite three songs in a row are easily Telekinesis, Matches and Nails, and Relativity. Sure, I do like YESHACOT and Atomic Copper Claw more, but honestly it feels weird to separate the songs. It just feels natural to put those songs together. anyways hell yeah I love this song.

Matches and Nails: 8/10

The protagonist is kinda stupid with a horrible memory. Literally me (except that spot is already taken by the atomic copper claw guy)

Relativity: 8/10

I like, love love love the outdo of this song. Also, the chorus and pre-chorus are really fun and catchy! unrelated, but this album in my head feels really white. Not in a racial way, just. Like, when I think of this album I think of specifically the Minecraft polished quartz block.

Fancy Pants Manifesto: 8/10

If you haven't before, do yourself a favor and listen to this song with headphones in. It was a month or two before I listened to this song with headphones, and I was delighted when I heard the bridge and during that one part the synth bounced from ear to ear. Also, I didn't realize until the re-mastered version came out that at the beginning of the song Neil was saying "1, 2, 3, 4" and I thought he said "fancy pants, fancy pants" also this song reminds me of that one flash game

Go to Hollywood: 7.75/10

Love this song. It's great, and a sudden though appreciated change of pace from the rest of the album (kinda like clown circus' somnolence in terms of sound). This song used to be my favorite, but became overplayed in my head and ended up losing a good 1.25 points over time. Whoopsie!

I Know Your Name: 8/10

This song is an energetic, fun, hilarious masterpiece and anybody who tries to tell you the deporitaz/trapezoid version is better is WRONG.

Consumer Whore: 8/10

Kinda like go to Hollywood, this song became a little overplayed (though less so). I really like the second verse (cause it's funny) and the bridge (cause bridges are often my favorite parts of lemon demon songs)

Between You and Me: 8.25/10

I feel like this song is a perfect example of what I mean when I say the song is white. White like polished quartz, or almost-to bright pale LEDs. This song just feels really clean, almost weirdly "cleaner" than the lemon demon songs that came before it. Not that's bad, it's one of my favorite songs on the album. "Where cosmic placement failed / Where Serendipity drags her tail" is a FANTASTIC lyric (no I do not know what serendipity means I just think it's a big fancy word that sounds cool)

I’ve Got Some Falling to Do: 8/10

no need for explanation, it's a good song.

Sick Puppy

OKAY this song is so long, that it wouldn't do it justice to give it one rating so I've decided to split up the song into three sections

Sick Puppy (first instrumental section): 8/10

I know I said I don't really like instrumentals much, but this section is probably my favorite in the song. In fact, it may be one of, if not my favorite Lemon Demon instrumental. It's fun, it's energetic, and I especially love the section where it really picks up before transitioning into the second instrumental section.

SPEAKING OF THE SECOND INSTRUMENTAL SECTION.....

Sick Puppy (second instrumental section): ZERO OUT OF TEN (actual rating like 4/10)

GRR EW I HATE THIS SECTION IT RUINS THE INSTRUMENTAL SECTIONS AND IT RUINS THE WHOLE SONG I HATE IT IT SUCKS SICK PUPPY MORE LIKE SUCK(S) PUPPY

Sick Puppy (Guitar section): 6.5/10

meh

OVERALL: 8/10

FAVORITE/LEAST FAVORITE TRACKS

Atomic Copper Claw, Sick Puppy or Musical Chairs (depends on my mood)

Bonus Tracks

Almond: 7.25/10

good.

Bad Idea: 8/10

This song's pretty good. It's a fun song about zombies (WITHOUT THE ACCENT COUGH COUGH PEPPER AND SALT COUGH COUGH) but it kinda got overplayed. I still really like it though, and it has a great ending.

Behold the FUTURE: 7.5/10

overrated

Not Applicable: 7.75/10

Good, fun instrumental. Definitely my favorite instrumental on the album.

Roman Robot Statues: 7.5/10

yeah good song

Run, Harry, Run!: 8/10

WHAT THE FUCK WAS NEIL ON WHEN HE WAS WIRITNG THE LYRICS TO THIS SONG WHAT IN THE NAME OF HARRY POTTER COMPELLED NEIL TO WRITE THIS WEIRD ASS FANFICTION JESUS CHRIST. Also, good for him killing Dumbledore. You go, girl!

Take a Picture: 7.5/10

ehh its okay. don't love it. good song though

There’s a Robot in My Head: 6/10

This song is a great alarm. I know from experience.

OVERALL BONUS TRACK RATING: 7/10

FAVORITE/LEAST FAVORITE BONUS TRACKS

Either Run, Harry, Run, Bad Idea, or Not Applicable for my favorites. Least favorite is there's a robot in my head, easily.

#lemon demon #neil cicierega #hip to the javabean #httj #lemon demon album review #ines's album review

13 notes · View notes

idololivine · 8 months

Note

karu & olivine (or garu if you cant think of anything for karu). also... morvay & olivine. and maybe (even tho they never interacted), Rin & olivine? and just food for thoughts, what about if olivine ever met huey?

Oh boy, a lotta characters! Gonna try to keep each section shorter.

Karu & Olivine

Olivine has a parental-ish sort of demeanor towards the wolves; in Forest Carnival, he says that he can't help but want to look after them. At the same time, he doesn't infantilize them - he acknowledges that Garu and Karu are very capable and can take care of themselves (also in Forest Carnival).

A quote:

Olivine (Hmm, if I remember correctly, Garu and Karu spent a long time living in the wilderness of the Dead Zone.) (As such, I'd guess... they're far more adept at outdoor activities than myself.) Olivine Sorry for fretting so much, Garu. I can't help feeling the urge to watch over you and Karu. Garu Ah? No need to watch over us. Plus, we really wanna help everyone out!

At the same time... the way Olivine interacts with Karu specifically does make me think of a preschool teacher trying to convince a toddler why they should play nice lol. It's because Olivine is very milfy big brotherly and Karu is just a real brat.

Ship-wise, I think Olivine is possibly the only person in the clan who would be happy to bottom to Karu, but I also think it's infinitely funnier if Karu is just... a really bad top. Olivine has to speedrun figuring out how to fake an orgasm. Also if Karu started calling Olivine Human Slave No. 2 I think Olivine would just roll with it the same way you nod and agree when a kid tells you they're a magical alien princess.

Garu & Olivine

More or less the same first paragraph as Karu & Olivine. Garu's much less bratty and snippy than Karu, so there's a lot less of the "humoring a cranky toddler" vibe. I think he'd respond well to Olivine lightly mother henning him, even though he's fully capable of taking care of himself.

Ship-wise, they're just too "and so they were both subs". Mutually disinterested, but a hypothetical fanartist/ficwriter could Manufacture Circumstances in which something might happen. (I say, as I continue to make agonizingly slow progress on an OliGaru fic for the Garu & Karu Fanweek.)

Morvay & Olivine

They're canonically besties who go shopping together!! They mean so much to me you don't understand. They're so opposed on the surface but so similar deep down. A demon and a priest... A man who has never been accepted by society and doesn't care to change himself to become more palatable, and a man who is perfect in the eyes of society and is learning to be true to himself even if he ceases to be perfect... Two men who are just incredibly horny and both love sucking cock.

I don't think we'll see much of it in canon because Morvay is banned from the regular event rotation, but listen, you could take all the potential they have and make an incredible yaoi manga out of it. Criminally underrated ship. My kingdom for a Halloween event with Morvay in an angel costume and Olivine in a demon costume.

Rin & Olivine

It's hard to speculate on a character we know fuckall about, and I honestly don't really give a damn about Rin. I know that a lot of people really want him to be playable but like,, I just Don't Care about him. I think unless he gets a redemption arc and/or personality overhaul he just can't fit into the clan, story-wise. There's no way Rin as-is is going to play nice at Kleinmas.

If Rin conjured a fake Eiden to target Olivine, the same way he did to Dante/Edmond/Blade in chapter 10, I imagine that the fake Eiden would insinuate that Olivine has betrayed the God of Klein and failed in his duties as a priest by giving in to his desires.

Huey & Olivine

Another character we don't know much about! All we really know is that Huey was a real asshole, and that it's implied that some (a lot?) of how Kuya behaves was also how Huey behaved.

I think it depends on where in the timeline he meets Huey and what about him Huey criticizes. Earlier on, Olivine's more unsure of himself and would be more sensitive to being insulted for his desires, both sexual and not. Later on, when he's more confident, he'd be able to shrug it off and maybe even stand up to Huey. No clue how Huey would react to being told no, but I doubt it'd be good.

#asks #zizz-asdf-re-r-o-u #mission: keep things short has failed for the Karu section #my posts

9 notes · View notes

pens-swords-stuff · 1 year

Note

hello, i've run into a sort of first-world problem and i'm not sure if you can help but you've posted about taglists before, and i don't know who else i could ask.

on my side blog (@dont-talk-back-to-heapass), i started a project (not writing, unfortunately- it's a picrew) and i made a taglist for people who want updates on it. problem is, it's a very popular fandom and my post got a lot more traction than i thought it would. i now have over 50 people who want to be on the taglist, but that's over tumblr's limit. what should i do?

Fortunately, you're asking the right person: I have experienced the same flattering first world problem. Unfortunately, there's no elegant solution.

As you know, the tag limit for a single post is 50 blogs. My taglist for Always the Bridesmaid was at 161 people (and was still growing) when I was still accepting people for it. Here is everything that I have tried.

Tag them across multiple reblogs

Hypothetically, let's say that you have 60 people on your taglist. One thing that you could do is tag 50 people when you initially post it, and then tag the remaining 10 people in a reblog.

If you have between 50-100 people on your taglist, this is probably the easiest option that I'd recommend because all it takes is one reblog.

But personally, I had to reblog it 4 times just for my ATB taglist alone — and that didn't include my other taglists, such as people who wanted to be tagged for all my writing — and I felt awful about clogging up people's dashes with the same post 4 times. So I continued experimenting.

Pros: + Effective, simple and easy. + Works best if you have between 50-100 people on your taglist. Cons: - If you have 100+ people on your taglist, it takes a lot of reblogging.

Staggering your multiple reblogs

Because I felt really bad for reblogging the same post multiple times, I tried staggering out my reblogs. For example, if I posted at 10AM, I'd reblog with the first part of my taglist at 11AM, second part at 2PM, so on and so forth.

Pros: + People are less likely to see the exact same post on their dash. + You get a guilt-free bump to reblog it for people who may not have seen it the first time.

Cons: - People might think that they're not on the taglist even if they are because you didn't include them in a particular taglist reblog. - You still have to reblog within a relatively short period of time. Not a problem if you have up to 100 people on your taglist, but it can be a problem if you have more than that.

Tag people in the comments

A frequently overlooked place to tag people is in the comments of your post. There's one catch: I believe the tag limit for a single comment is 5 people. (Or at least it was, last I checked. I could be wrong if it's been updated).

Pros: + It solves the problem of clogging up people's dashboards and your own blog. + In my personal experience, it seemed to be more effective at actually notifying people than taglists. Many of the people that I've tagged in my reblogged taglists have said they didn't receive the notification, but a lot more people seemed to have received the notification when I tagged them here.

Cons: - It is a lot more work to tag a large amount of people in the comments due to the smaller limit. Might be a good option if you have 55 people on your taglist (that's only 11 comments), but if you have more it's really tedious. - It inflates your note count by quite a bit.

Make a sideblog and have people turn on blog notifications

This might not be super applicable to your picrew taglist, but I wanted to make sure I included this because this is what I have currently settled on doing. I didn't feel good about everything that I've explained thus far because no matter what, it was either a pain or intrusive on people's dashes.

So I ended up making a sideblog for ATB at @always-the-bridesmaid-wip. When people ask me to put them on the taglist, I let them know that they can follow this sideblog and turn on the option to receive notifications whenever I post something here.

I post my important ABT posts on this blog @pens-swords-stuff, and reblog all the "official" ATB posts (i.e., snippets, excerpts, intros, lore, artwork, etc) that I would've used my taglist for onto this blog. I don't reblog any posts that I don't consider official, since that's how I use my taglists.

If people have turned on notifications for this blog, people should receive a notification that I've posted something onto my sideblog in a very similar manner to tagging them on my taglist.

As for effectiveness, I'm not sure yet! I haven't been super active on writeblr since I created my sideblog. I had intentions to run surveys and such about the experience but alas I got busy and lazy. I'll have to report back later once I post more.

Pros: + You don't have to actually tag anyone, it sends a notification for you automatically so it's less work. + It's less likely to get buried in someone's tumblr notifications because it sends it in a different way. + It's more reliable. Tags sometimes fail, but in my experience, this has yet to fail for me personally. + Solves the problem of having to make several reblogs or comments. + It's a lot more user-friendly. People don't have to ask to be put on taglists, nor do they need to say something to get taken off a taglist. They can follow/turn on notifications and unfollow/turn off notifications whenever they'd like without notifying anyone or having to speak up. + Solves the problem of clogging up dashes/comments.

Cons: - For this to work, you have to make a separate sideblog for your taglist-worthy posts. - It may only work for those using the mobile app? When someone I have notifications turned on for posts, it sends me an app notification, not the notifications that you check on Tumblr. There's an option to turn on notifications for a blog on the desktop version, but I'm not sure if you actually receive them without the app. - You can't see whether people have actually turned on notifications for your sideblog. (You can however, see how many followers you have. And if people follow, I guess it still has the desired effect to some extent). - Going to follow another blog, and then turn notifications on for them is a lot of active steps. You might be losing out on someone who would ask to be put on a taglist, but wouldn't go to a sideblog, follow them, and then turn on notifications for them. - It's easier to ignore a ton of notifications on Tumblr, not so easy to direct notifications on your phone. This method works well for me since I rarely ever post here so I can reassure people that they will hardly ever get notifications from here. However, if you are a frequent poster it will be more annoying to the people who have notifications turned on.

I hope my experimenting proves to be somewhat helpful for you! It is a very fortunate thing to have so many people interested in your work, and it's also probably not a very common issue that people run into. But it can be a logistical nightmare with no easy solution. Congrats on having an eager audience, I hope you're able to figure it out!

(And of course, I am incredibly thankful to every single person who has expressed an interest in being on ATB's taglist. I did a lot of experimentation because I was grateful for the attention (if a little overwhelmed) so that I could try to find the best possible solution for both the people on the taglist, and all my followers who do not want to be on the taglist).

Remember, all advice is subjective! So don’t take this too seriously. This is just one person’s opinion.

If you’d like to ask me for advice on writing or running a writeblr, please check out my Ask Guidelines and FAQ first.

Ask Guidelines | FAQ | Advice Masterlist

#writing #writeblr #writeblr advice #taglist #taglists #taglist advice #undine gives advice

27 notes · View notes

st5lker · 6 months

Text

the fear comes less in the fact that ai will "replace" artists and definitely not that its "stealing" from them (dall e 3's original generative abilities in particular makes an extremely good example of the fact that diffusion algorithms were never about "cutting and pasting parts from different artists" like people pretend it was and more about a statistical assumption of what should and should not be in an image) because i do believe that corporations will always exploit artists for a profit and artists will always continue to exist and thrive in spite of that thats just kind of how its worked since the beginning of time really and even if corporations have a new "tool" to do it with ai would have to get far more advanced in order for that to be a real possibility (and also, far less resource intensive - a lot of people might not realize that for a company to run these types of algorithms on their own software/servers to replace artists than just hiring an artist LOL. dall e 3 probably takes 10 times the computing power of something like stable diffusion especially since it relies on LLM integration). like, corporations want strict control over the way everything looks in terms of graphic design and art, the only ones who dont care are tiny lazy ripoff type companies that make bootleg shit like that little mermaid by the asylum LOL. so if a corporation was going to use a hypothetical future ai with extreme control in order to save time on say, a graphic design rather than spending the time in adobe illustrator making it by hand, they would still have to hire a graphic designer with graphic design sense to actually use that ai LOL. anyways jesus christ i forgot the point of the first sentence of this paragraph what i was going to say was that my fear is mostly in the fact that inevitably even if it takes a long time there's going to be an open-source competitor that either matches or exceeds the capabilities of dall-e 3 made by somebody without a lot of ethical restraint (just like the original stable diffusion was to dall-e 2) and while generally open sourceness is good i do think thats going to have a lot of fallout in terms of the lack of censorship and control considering how realistic, consistent, and easy to direct dall e 3 is. it'll also just increase the whole phenomenon of looking at something and being forced to wonder "wait is that ai or real?" a million times worse. it's not that i think the development of this ai (in general) is a bad thing, but i do think that we're going to have to prepare in advance for how much everything is going to change because of it, in the same way we never really saw coming the consequences of the shift to smartphones in the 2010s and how much that changed literally all of world culture and politics

#sorry like i was saying i do indeed have a long running ai hyperfixation

3 notes · View notes

cotarded · 1 year

Note

I got really fascinated by some tags you left on a post a few days ago-regarding female anatomy. Would you mind to elaborate a bit? You spoke about how the myth of it is hard to buy, how its all concentrated around reproduction and is a handicap in a way. I wonder what made come to those conslusions and why (just for the record i am asking because i think you put into words something i have felt since so long). Its annoying to always hear how beautiful it is because its able to carry childen to the world (among other things) which just makes me feel like i live in a specialised incubator, not a body. not for me but to sustain something…

Of course, I love to run my mouth. And I'm in the middle of studying for the obgyn part of my finals so it's very topical for me rn.

For context, I assume this is the post and tags you mean:

I’ve been thinking it over for the last few days, sorting through what I know and what I feel and why, and how to say it best and I haven't really arrived at anything brilliant or groundbreaking but here are some more of my thoughts on the topic.

Our reproductive system and reproductive organs are geared for - as the name suggests - reproduction. We evolved to successfully bear and raise offspring, and I feel it’s naive to deny that. Menstrual cycle and periods exist solely as means to reproduction - you don’t need a menstrual cycle to be a healthy woman; you need sex hormones, yes, because organisms evolve as a whole and everything has seven hundred different functions, but you do not need the cycle and periods, not unless you want to have a child.

And the menstrual cycle is fucking annoying. I’m not even particularly unlucky - my periods are average, I’m only in pain for 2 days and it’s easily manageable with OTC painkillers - but I can tell it affects me, it makes me feel bad, I’m less productive, I’m sure you know what I mean.

It’s a handicap because our bodies redirect insane efforts and energy towards making us pregnant every month. It’s a handicap because we are in pain and not doing our best 1/10 to 1/5 of our lives. It’s a handicap because we live in a male-dominated society and must keep up. As @iorvethh said, biology fucked us over pretty spectacularly, because we bear the brunt of reproduction.

I understand very well what you mean about living in a specialised incubator - I’ve always felt like woman’s position as a person is in a very tentative one, especially during pregnancy, but also throughout her whole life. I remember being a child and learning that I had to get a rubella shot because getting rubella during pregnancy can be dangerous for a baby, and I felt sick in a way I couldn’t quite express. I still do, even now that I understand the public health part of vaccines - it felt like an assumption, a violation of sorts - „you Will get pregnant and we want that child to be healthy”. Or even a threat - “you might not want to get pregnant, but it’s not like it’s impossible, is it? Better be prepared for that thing that can Always happen to you.” It was an act on my body done on behalf of another, confident that I’m okay with that. It felt like that hypothetical child, years in the future, was already more important than me.

And the worst part is that it isn’t only society - my body does not care I don’t want to get pregnant. It will keep on trucking, trying to make me so, every month. I was build around it, from the day I was born I’ve been carrying my potential children in me and it feels like everyone and everything sees just them, not me. I look down and can recite how each and every part of me is made for that singular purpose.

The mythos of the female body, of motherhood, of creation, is attractive to me as a concept, a story, and I do feel good about stuff my body can do - I find it valuable and fascinating how we are the more resilient ones, the ones who survive disasters to rebuild society, the key to human survival. When you study it, there’s really nothing in males that can compare - but then you go outside, into the real world and realise that in everyday life in our society all that cool stuff is hardly a boon.

Female biology is cooler on a conceptual level - we are the main characters of the human race - but the thing about main characters is that it’s more fun to read about one than to be one. We are cooler and more important than males and we are paying the price in blood.

#i hope it's at least Slightly what you hoped for anon sjsnhd #i'm sorry if its not

8 notes · View notes

ms-hells-bells · 2 years

Note

yeah i think it was more of a "philosophical" argument. things like: 1) humans shouldn't prioritize their lives over any species, even for survival 2) if 1 human survives thanks to crops that killed 10 mice, it's speciest because why would 1 weigh more than 10? 3) humans destroy the earth so they're actually less valuable and should sacrifice themselves for other species: if we really want to reduce suffering our survival is less important... let's all die lol. and it wasn't even in bad faith?

yes, that is a bad faith argument. because the only possible answer is 'we should all just kill ourselves'. we don't apply this rule to any other species who need to eat things, and in the process accidentally harm. with the rule of all animals have an equal right to life, that includes humans, because we are not different than animals, we ARE animals. because we have a conscience and knowledge of consequences of our actions, we can take harm reduction actions, but this 'we don't deserve to live if a single worm accidentally dies because we step on them' nonsense is essentially doomer philosophy that no actual philosopher takes seriously or engages in because there is no nuance or debate, it's just someone going 'lol humans should die', as well as claiming that 1 of something holds the same ethical currency as 10 of something. with that logic, getting into a car crash where someone dies means that you may as well commit mass genocide, it's morally worth the same. this argument just doesn't hold up when applied to various hypotheticals.

if your friend TRULY believes that, then why haven't they already ended their lives? why aim it at VEGANS? also, i'm beginning to think that this 'friend' is you considering how hard you are defending the argument despite initially indicating you were against it.

3 notes · View notes

crimsoncircle2 · 4 months

Text

Losing Sensation / Shisa / Trial 5.3

"Gia! What are you doing?!"

The moment he sees her expose her hand, Shisa practically trips over himself trying to get to her as fast as he can, paying no attention to anyone else in the room.

"You don't - you don't have to show them anything! It's not - "

But as she poses that question, the realization creeps up on him quickly - it's too late. They've seen it all. His breath quickens and he can feel the edges of his vision start to blur. If it weren't for the fact that he had heard a certain something, he would have lost his grasp on reality altogether. Ah, but he hears it so clearly…

"Little sister?"

His head slowly turns, his eyes fixating on Transgressor in sheer disbelief.

"You're trying to make this about family?"

As if he wouldn't be the first to know what that would feel like. It's almost laughable - he can't help but wonder what people think when they see him and Gia together. If they think it was just some easy little thing for him to let her into his life, as if he hadn't spent the past 10 years clawing his way out to her side. He has to wonder - do they really think she means less to him than their relationships mean to them?

"You - you're delusional, do you know that? You're the last person who should be talking about 'the right decision'. If it's so easy to admit to something and let yourself get executed, why haven't you done it yet? Tell me. You could have killed the person you hated the most here and confessed to it, then Murphy would still be alive. Right? So why didn't you?"

It's all hypothetical, of course - even now, he never would have thought this to be the correct course of action. But if they're talking morals -

"None of us should have to do that. You've been saying it yourself - the only person who's actually responsible for this is Leviathan. What happened? Does it change just because you like Murphy more than everyone else?!"

There's no good in antagonizing anyone. Maybe he could still win them over if he put on an act pitiful enough, if he cried and sobbed and begged. But as he watches the votes tally up, the pressure in his head keeps building - Why them? Why them? Why them? - and he feels every awful, nasty thought tear its way out of him.

"Was I just supposed to leave her there then? Murphy - she went down there by herself, and she did it knowing what could happen. But - but if I had let her go down herself and let Jasper kill her, it would still be my fault, wouldn't it? What did you want me to do?! If you all wanted to die for her so bad, then where WERE you?! Why does Gia have to be the one to pay for it?!"

He squeezes his eyes shut, not wanting to see the way Gia might be looking at him now.

"It's - it's not fair! MURPHY was the one who started attacking first! The SOS message was never even from her - it was from me!"

…there's a silence that follows, in that stillness, he realizes what it actually is that hurts him the most. His face pales and fades into a hollow stare.

"Ah…"

He feels every sensation leave his body.

"Gia…"

His hands reach up and grip the edge of her sleeves, his fingers trembling as they curl into the fur of her coat. If he had never sent the distress signal, if he had never asked for her help -

"Gia…what did I do? I…I'm going to get you killed…I…"

He goes quiet now, the strength visibly leaving his body as his arms go slack and his head hangs from his shoulders.

There's no more anger, or sorrow. Just the numb acceptance of knowing that he will soon lose everything, and it will be his fault.

#submission #shisa #trial #ch5

0 notes

queenofocthoughts · 1 year

Text

Whumpuary Day 1: Nightmares

Language: English Genre: whump just a little bit of hurt and a whole lot of comfort Characters: my OC Cae & @marmeltier's OC Cynthia

CN: Nightmares, disordered sleep, unhealthy relationship with sleep, mentions of hypothetical threat/danger/harm/fight, mention of character being turned into a vampire.

Author's Note: Yeah, let's not even pretend, this turned out very fluffy, not whumpy at all. No regrets tho, I got to write my precious bbys pre-relationship & broke my own heart in the process, 11/10 would do again

***

When the screaming started, Caedes had assumed the worst — and rushed over immediately. He was careful to move as quickly as possible without making a sound, his heart pounding vigorously as he was sneaking through his own house. There’s barely any distance between his bedroom and the guest room, but with Cynthia’s agonizing screams ringing in his ears, it felt like an eternity until he finally reached her.

But when he opened the door and peeked inside, there was nothing — no intruder, no attacker, no tangible danger. Just Cynthia thrashing around in the guest bed, screaming her lungs out.

It’s only now that he’s sitting on the edge of the bed, close enough to make sure she is truly unharmed, that his heartbeat is beginning to resume its usual rhythm. »Cindy?«, he asks, voice lowered, gently shaking her shoulder in an attempt to wake her from her troubled sleep. »Hey, Cyn.«

At first, she doesn’t wake, doesn’t answer, just twitches and whimpers in her sleep. Just when he’s about to raise his voice again, louder this time, she jolts awake, sitting up straight, scanning the room with eyes wide open, a look of absolute terror on her face.

»Hey. It’s okay.« He desperately wants to soothe her, but doesn’t know how, doesn’t dare to initiate any more touch, afraid of startling her even more. So he just raises his hands in a typical gesture of surrender, trying to demonstrate that he’s not here to harm her in any way. »It’s just me. You’re awake now. You’re safe.«

She’s still breathing heavily when her gaze finally fixes on him, and it takes a long moment until she seems to recognize him; until she realizes where she is. She blinks at him, lips parted slightly, no words coming out.

»You were screaming«, he explains, suddenly feeling a bit silly for showing up in her room with a sheathed knife on his belt, ready to fight who- or whatever was threatening his best friend. »I thought …« His words trail off and he shrugs, smiling apologetically.

»Nightmares«, Cynthia sighs, »just those damn nightmares again. I …« She takes a deep breath and buries her face in her hands, rubbing her eyes as if to clear the remnants of her bad dreams away. »Sorry, I forgot to warn you before staying over. Peaceful sleep is … not really a thing for me.«

»It’s okay. Now I know«, he replies, mustering a half-smile. »Sounds kind of familiar, honestly.« In fact, he barely ever sleeps anymore now that his body has much less need for rest than a regular human’s; before he got turned, his sleep was terrible most nights, too, especially the dreams, even though he often couldn’t recall them clearly enough to write them down or tell anyone about them.

Cynthia looks at him for a long moment, as if pondering what to say or do.

»Want to stay up together?«, Cae suggests, his smile widening. »Until you feel a bit better, at least. How about a cup of tea? I’ll set up a kettle and try to think of a good distraction while we’re waiting for the water to boil.«

Although her eyes still have that haunted look to them, Cynthia’s lips now curve into a soft smile, too. »Yeah, I’d like that. Tea sounds nice.« As Cynthia crawls out from under her blanket, Caedes stands up from the bed and reaches his hand out to her, helping her to her feet as soon as she takes it. Before he can turn to leave the room, though, she suddenly catches him in a tight hug. She seems to hesitate for a split second before she adds: »Not being alone sounds nice, too.«

At first, the sudden closeness catches him by surprise, and he freezes mid-motion, unable to react, unsure how to react, but finally, he manages to wrap his arms around her, too, holding her close for a moment that seems to go on for so long he begins to wonder when the appropriate time to let go would be.

Hugging her just a little bit tighter, he lets himself enjoy being this close to her for one more cycle of breathing in and out. »Come on, let’s get you some tea«, he murmurs then, forcing himself to let go and lead the way to the kitchen.

Not being alone sounds nice, too. It’s true: When it’s the right person keeping you company, it absolutely does. Even — or especially — in the most vulnerable moments.

#cae #cynthia #cae & cynthia #whumpuary #whumpuary day 1 #whumpuary 2023 #2023 #nightmares #disordered sleep #sleep disorder #unhealthy relationship with sleep #vampire turning #fluffy hurt/comfort #my writing

0 notes

captnjacksparrow · 3 years

Note

So just an idle ask. What do you think would Naruto have done if Danzo had ended up killing Sasuke? Or if the Raikage ended up hunting and capturing and killing Sasuke? How do you think Naruto would have reacted?

I thought I would include Sakura killing Sasuke successfully but even the thought of it seemed ridiculous in my mind, even hypothetically, hehe, so I can let that one go.

I was just rewatching the part where Naruto thinks Gaara is dead and pummels Deidara like a person possessed.

Aaah!!! The classic 'What if' question!!! But you asked the wrong person, Anon. I really, really suck at Headcanon. LOL. Anyways, Am just going to try and don’t blame me if I am bad.

Thanks for leaving out that Pink Trash because I don't want to do a headcanon about her.

What do you think would Naruto have done if Danzo had ended up killing Sasuke? Or if the Raikage ended up hunting and capturing and killing Sasuke? How do you think Naruto would have reacted?

There is always a pattern when it comes to Naruto’s facial expressions.

Let's start with Gaara.

As you said, Anon, yes!! He pummels Deidara like he was possessed. Before that Naruto said this,

"I'll pound you"... I couldn't understand the exact japanese term he used here... But it's definitely not 'Korosu zo' which means "I'll kill you".

But, When Sasuke died, Naruto's choice of words and emotions varies a lot from what he had for Gaara. Instead of “I won’t forgive you” or ‘I’ll pound you’, he just uses a plain, “I’ll Kill you”

So, The level of Naruto's rage varies from person to person.

Let's go to Naruto's reaction after hearing Jiraiya's Death.

Naruto was surprisingly calm here as compared to the reaction he had for Gaara. Does it means Gaara is more important to him than Jiraiya?? No...

After retrieving Gaara, Naruto fought with Orochimaru and sent Pink Trash to a fly when she foolishly approached him in his 4 Tailed State. After realizing this, Naruto decided not to seek Kyuubi's power voluntarily.

And that's why Naruto was genuinely shocked and shaken to the core but didn't resort to rage. And then he was weeping rivers.

So, Naruto was calm, shocked, shaken initially and then found determination to avenge his Master.

So far so good.

At the end of the Pain Arc, we saw a new Naruto with much more Maturity because he forgave his enemy who destroyed his home and killed his master and that’s not very easy to do.

However, after hearing the News that Danzo decided to eliminate Sasuke, we see the Devil slowly goes back to its Rampage mode.

LOL... Just when we saw a matured Naruto who could able to stop a chain of Hatred, he went back to his older self and looks furious.

When Naruto learns that Raikage decided to execute Sasuke, he plans to meet Raikage and begs him to change his decision.

We all would have viewed this scene at a surface level of 'Aww!!! Look How Naruto begs for the sake of Sasuke??!!!'...Well, Atleast, I viewed in that way.

But Naruto's choice of words looks very interesting.

"I can't sit back and watch him be killed"

"I don't want Sasuke to be the cause of War between Konoha and Kumo"

So, Naruto will not let them kill Sasuke and sit still or stop the chain of Hatred by forgiving them. Naruto indicates there will be war if Sasuke was killed.

Added to that, when Naruto learnt that everyone turned their back on Sasuke. He just went into Hypervetilation mode.

All the above panels screams anger, impatience, vulnerability and desperation for Sasuke's possible death as compared to Calm, Shocked, shaken and determination for Jiraiya's death.

So, the pattern we see here for Naruto is that, Something bad happening or happened or going to happen to Sasuke evokes extremely strong reaction in Naruto.

Even in Borutoverse, that pattern hasn’t changed one bit.

This is a grown ass man who saw Sasuke was injured with burn marks and Naruto went into ‘Kooo Kooo Crazy’ rage mode

And when he saw Sasuke was fine, Naruto was just grinning. [[ Does brothers really react this way? Gosh!!!]]

So, how would Naruto react if Danzo killed Sasuke?

Far worse than how Sasuke reacted every time when he killed Danzo. We saw Sasuke awakened his complete Susanoo, summoned Hawk and went into a controlled Rage whenever Danzo mentioned Itachi’s name. Naruto would sprout Nine-Tails on the go and mercilessly destroy him and smash him into pieces to the point of no recognition.

How would Naruto react if Raikage hunted and killed Sasuke?

For this, I can’t predict. Because Sasuke genuinely kidnapped Killer Bee and Raikage suffered for it. Unlike Danzo, Raikage is not that bad. But still Naruto told him that he doesn’t want Sasuke to be the cause of war between Konoha and Kumo. Hence, Naruto would still fight Raikage with all his might and kill him.

But in any case, Naruto would fight till the point of Self-Destructing himself and the opponents. There is no way I can see a situation where Sasuke died and Naruto paying respects to his grave and move on with his life.

That won’t happen.

How do I say this?

As we all know, ‘Sasuke is Naruto’s strength and Naruto is Sasuke’s weakness’. How can one live without their source of strength? And Naruto’s majority of his life as a ninja was built upon the presence of Sasuke. Like whenever Sasuke acknowledges him, Naruto gets powered up. Except for Senjutsu, everything he learnt to become stronger was for Sasuke.

And this ‘One doesn’t exist without the other’ theme was reinforced many times over and over throughout the series.

Moment 1:

His promise under the bridge. Naruto looks very confident when he said this.

Moment 2:

Surprisingly, they almost went to the near death situation at the same time.

Moment 3:

They get Sage powers at the same time.

Moment 4:

For every part Sasuke loses, Naruto also loses the same. No more or no less.

BONUS MOMENT:

I don’t know if you can consider this in this context, but I find it interesting anyway.

They both lose their powers in the same battle, surprisingly.

It’s funny that even in the Borutoverse, they try to keep up this dynamics which I find it to be amusing. It’s because Kishi stepped in as writer during this battle, he just set this up I guess.

In short,

Naruto would go 10 times more feral than he was during the Pain Arc if it was Danzo and fight with all his strength when it comes to Raikage.

However, I believe

Naruto would fight to the point of self-destructing himself and the opponent in the end.

#naruto #sasuke #sns #gaara #danzo #sasunaru #sasunarusasu #narusasu

543 notes · View notes

wolfstar-in-color · 3 years

Text

July Colorful Column: Remus is a Crip, and We Can Write Him Better.

There is one thing that can get me to close a fic so voraciously I don’t even make sure I’m not closing other essential tabs in the process. It doesn’t matter how much I’m loving the fic, how well written I think it is, or how desperately I want to know how it ends. Once I read this sentence, I am done.

It’s written in a variety of different ways, but it always goes something like this: “You don’t want me,” Remus said, “I am too sick/broken/poor/old/[insert chosen self-demeaning adjective here].”

You’re familiar with the trope. The trope is canonical. And if you’ve been around the wolfstar fandom for longer than a few minutes, you’ve read the trope. Maybe you love the trope! Maybe you’ve written the trope! Maybe you’re about to stop reading this column, because the trope rings true to you and you feel a little attacked!

Now, let’s get one thing out of the way right now: I am not saying the trope is wrong. I am not saying it’s bad. I am not saying we should stop writing it. We all have things we don’t like to see in our chosen fics. Maybe you can’t stand Leather Jacket Motorbike Sirius? Maybe you think Elbow Patch Remus is overdone? Or maybe your pet peeves are based in something a little deeper - maybe you think Poor Latino Remus is an irresponsible depiction, or that PWPs are too reductive? Whatever it is, we all have our things.

Let me tell you about my thing. When I first became very ill several years ago, there were various low points in which I felt I had become inherently unlovable. This is, more or less, a normal reaction. When your body stops doing things it used to be able to do - or starts doing things you were quite alright without, thank you very much - it changes the way you relate to your body. You don’t want to hear my whole disability history, so yada yada yada, most people eventually come to accept their limitations. It’s a very painful existence, one in which you constantly tell yourself your disability has transformed you into a burdensome, unworthy member of society, and if nothing else, it’s not terribly sustainable. Being disabled takes grit! It takes power! It takes a truly absurd amount of medical self-advocacy! Hating yourself? Thinking yourself unworthy of love? No one has time for that.

Of course, I’m being hyperbolic. Plenty of disabled people struggle with these feelings many years into their disabilities, and never really get over them. But here’s the thing. We experience those stories ALL THE TIME. Remember Rain Man? Or Million Dollar Baby? Or that one with the actress from Game of Thrones and that British actor who seemed like he was going to have a promising career but then didn't? Those are all stories about sad, bitter disabled people and their sad, bitter lives, two out of three of which end in the character completing suicide because they simply couldn’t imagine having to live as a disabled person. (I mean, come on media, I get that we're less likely to enjoy a leisurely Saturday hike, but our parking is SUBLIME.) When was the last time you engaged with media that depicted a happy disabled person? A complex disabled person? A disabled person who has sex? No really, these aren’t hypothetical questions, can you please drop a rec in the notes?? Because I am desperate.

There are lots of problems with this trope, and they’ve been discussed ad nauseam by people with PhDs. I’m not actually interested in talking about how this trope leads to a more prevalent societal idea that disabled people are unworthy of love, or contributes to the kind of political thought processes that keep disabled people purposefully disenfranchised. I’m just a bitch on Tumblr, and I have a bone to pick: the thing I really hate about the trope? It’s boring. I’m bored. You know how, like, halfway through Grey’s Anatomy you realized they were just recycling the same plot points over and over again and there was just no WAY anyone working at a hospital prone to THAT MANY disasters would stay on staff? It's like that. I love a recycled trope as much as the next person (There Was Only One Bed, anyone?). But I need. Something. Else.

Remus is disabled. BOLD claim. WILD speculation. Except, not really. You simply - no matter how you flip it, slice it, puree it, or deconstruct it - cannot tell me Remus Lupin is not disabled. Most of us, by this point, are probably familiar with the way that One Canonical Author intended One Dashing Werewolf to be “a metaphor for those illnesses that carry stigma, like HIV and AIDS” [I’m sorry to link you to an outside source quoting She Who Must Not Be Named, but we’re professionals here]. Which is... a thing. It’s been discussed. And, listen, there’s no denying that this parallel is a problematic interpretation of people who have HIV/AIDS and all such similar “those illnesses” (though I’ll admit that I, too, am perennially apt to turn into a raging beast liable to harm anything that crosses my path, but that’s more linked to the at-least-once-monthly recollection that One Day At A Time got cancelled). Critiques aside, Remus Lupin is a character who - due to a condition that affects him physically, mentally, emotionally, and intellectually - is repeatedly marginalized, oppressed, denied political and social power, and ostracized due to unfounded fear that he is infectious to others. Does that sound familiar?

We’re not going to argue about whether or not “Remus is canonically disabled as fuck” is a fair reading. And the reason we’re not going to argue about whether or not it’s a fair reading is because I haven’t read canon in 10-plus years and you will win the argument. Canon is only marginally relevant here. The icon of this blog is brown, curly haired Remus Lupin kissing his trans boyfriend, Sirius Black. We are obviously not too terribly invested in canon. The wolfstar fandom is now a community with over 25,000 AO3 fics, entire careers launched from drawing or writing or cosplaying this non-canonical pairing. We love to play around here with storylines and universes and races and genders and sexualities and all kinds of things, but most of the time? Remus is still disabled. He’s disabled as a werewolf in canon-compliant works, he’s disabled in the AUs where he was injured or abused or kidnapped or harmed as a child, he’s disabled in the stories that read him as chronically ill or bipolar or traumatized or blind or Deaf. I’d go so far as to say that he is one of very few characters in the Wide Wonderful World of media who is, in as close to his essence as one can be, always disabled. And that means? Don’t shoot the messenger... but we could stand to be a tiny bit more responsible with how we portray him.

Disabled people are complicated. As much as I’d like to pretend we are always level-headed, confident, and ready to assert our inherent worth, we are still just humans. We have bad days. We doubt our worth. We sometimes go out with guys who complain about our steroid-induced weight gain (it was a long time ago, Tumblr, okay??). But, we also have joy and fun and good days and sex and happiness and families and so many other things.

Remus is a disabled character, and as such, it’s only fair that he’d have those unworthy moments. But - I propose - Remus is also a crip. What is a crip? A crip - like a queer - is someone who eschews the limited boundaries placed on their bodies, who rejects a hierarchy of oppression in favor of an intersectional analysis of lived experience, who isn’t interested in being the tragic figure responsible for helping people with dominant identities realize how good they have it. Crips interpret their disabilities however they want, rethinking bodies and medicine and pleasure and pain and even time itself. Crips are political, community-minded, and in search of liberation.

Remus is a character who struggles with his disability, sure. But he’s also a character who leverages his physical condition to attempt to shift communities towards his political leanings, advocates for the rights of those who share his physical condition, and has super hot sex with his wrongfully convicted boyfriend ultimately goes on to build community and family. Having a condition that quite literally cripples you, over which you have no control, and through which you are often read as a social pariah? That’s disability. But using said condition as a means through which to build advocacy and community? Now that’s some crip shit.

Personally, I love disabled!Remus Lupin. But I love crip!Remus Lupin even more. I’d love to see more of a Remus who owns his disability, who covets what makes him unique, and who never ever again tells a potential romantic partner they are too good for him because of his disability. This trope - unlike There Was Only One Bed! - sometimes actually hurts to read. Where’s Remus who thinks a potential romantic partner isn’t good enough for him? Where’s Remus who insists his partners learn more about his condition in order to treat him properly? Where’s sexy wheelchair user Remus? Where’s Remus who uses his werewolf transformations as an excuse to travel the world? Where’s crip Remus??

We don’t have to put “you don’t want me” Remus entirely to bed. It is but one of many repeated tropes that are - in the words of The Hot Priest from Fleabag - morally a bit dubious. And let’s face it - we don’t always come to fandom for its moral superiority (as much as we sometimes like to think we do).

This is not a condemnation - it is an invitation. Able-bodied folks are all but an injury, illness, or couple decades away from being disabled. And when you get here, I sincerely hope you don’t waste your time on “you don’t want me”ing back and forth with the people you love. I’m inviting you to come to the crip side now. We have snacks, and without all the “you don’t want me” talk, we get to the juicy parts much faster.

Colorfully,

Mod Theo

#wolfstar #disability in fandom #disabled remus #crip remus #please write me some crip remus #I beg of you #fandom meta

110 notes · View notes

shihalyfie · 3 years

Text

“There is no one right way to live”

Adventure and 02 really make up an unusual series in many ways, and I think one of them is how kind it is to the human condition. One of its most consistent commitments is to portraying its kids as “real children” -- as in, messy kids with some very deep nuances to their behavior, in ways that don’t reflect what you’d usually expect from media tropes. In some ways, it ended up backfiring (tropes are not inherently a bad thing, and it’s led to miscommunication that persists to this day because the audience has to fight a tendency to read the characters through the kinds of tropes we’re all expecting to find), but it also had the effect that these kids could be intimately relatable to the audience in ways that “textbook” portrayals of kids often wouldn’t be.

Adventure had eight main characters in its human cast, which was extended to twelve in 02 -- a massive balancing act -- and yet took the stance that none of these twelve characters’ very different ways of thinking or living life are fundamentally wrong. Rather, it celebrates the differences between them, and encourages them to embrace them about themselves. But it also does not shy away from the struggles those with each line of thinking might have in terms of communicating and interacting with the world. It’s easy to say words like “be yourself”, but what does “be yourself” really mean?

“Each character’s way of thinking”

Most people tend to define “character development” by “how much the character changed over the course of the narrative”, but if you look carefully, not all of the characters change that much. In fact, Koushirou and Miyako’s character arcs are about how they shouldn’t have to change much about themselves!

What we do get to see, however, is everyone’s intimate thought processes. We’re given so much information about each kid’s background and how it shapes their ways of thinking, and how they react to given situations, that you can get six fanfiction writers who have studied the series well and give them a completely hypothetical situation with some of the characters, and most if not all of them will roughly agree, because each kid’s thought pattern is so well detailed that you can easily imagine how they’d behave even when the scenario is hypothetical.

This, despite the fact that Adventure and 02 rarely use internal monologue (this is something specific to its Japanese version; while Japanese anime generally has less of this compared to Western shows, Adventure and 02 are unusually low on this even compared to later Digimon series, and it’s a possible byproduct of the narrative being eventually revealed to be from Takeru’s perspective and not someone truly omniscient). This is something that also somewhat backfired in that characters who are difficult to read or unaware of their own feelings become very difficult for the audience to read, so you have to read their behavior patterns and put two and two together (such as Takeru outright lying about his feelings regarding his childhood in Adventure episode 12, or Sora’s testimony about her confrontation with her mother not quite tracking with what’s actually depicted in Adventure episode 26). It does, however, have a very powerful weapon that it uses to help the audience understand each character’s mentalities and what they’re thinking at a given moment...

Digimon partners! In a sense, “talking with a Digimon partner” is a replacement for internal monologue, because the kids spill their internal feelings to their partners as if they’re talking to themselves. (Protip for all of you fanfic writers out there who struggle to figure out how to integrate the Digimon smoothly into the narrative: “cutting out most of your internal monologue and replacing it with a conversation with a Digimon partner” is one of your most reliable fallbacks.) This is helpful for characters like Koushirou, who initially starts off Adventure as very isolated from the others but immediately takes well to Tentomon, and Ken, who spends a good part of 02′s third quarter still very emotionally distant from the others and not entirely willing to open up to them, but very conversely willing to open up to his own partner. Iori converses about his conflicted feelings regarding the situation with Upamon during the process of forming his Jogress relationship with Takeru, and, back in Adventure, Takeru himself was willing to show his more “less well-behaved” side in front of Patamon that he normally wouldn’t when he was constantly in the presence of elders.

On top of that, Digimon partners being reflective of the kids’ own personalities in some sense means that they are very good at asking just the right questions at the right time, or saying perfectly well-timed things that the kids needed to hear the most, to get them to reconsider their position or realize that they might be going in the wrong direction...

Moreover, we get a lot of help in 02 simply by virtue of the fact it’s about relationships -- I’ve said this a few times before, but 02 is not a series about platitudes or toxic positivity, and has a strong emphasis on “you must understand the other person’s feelings if you want to truly reach out to them.” Showering happy platitudes about friendship on them means nothing if you’re still technically dismissing their feelings and making zero attempt to figure out why they feel this way! Therefore, everyone only accepts Ken when they each come to understand his feelings on the situation, and the Jogress arcs involve the relevant parties making active attempts to “understand the other person’s feelings” and what exactly makes them behave the way they do, before addressing their problems using what they need most at that moment. Being able to push people forward in a positive direction requires having a proper understanding of all of the negativity that came with it, accepting them in spite of that, and choosing to address what they need.

And in 02 episode 49, Daisuke says something that embodies a lot of Adventure and 02′s attitude towards these things: it’s not a sin to have feelings. Your reaction or way of seeing things, based on your backgrounds and experiences that have shaped you, is not something you can be blamed for having, whether that means being worried, sad, frustrated, angry, resentful, what have you. The only question is what you do in response to your feelings.

It’s easy to say “be yourself”, but that’s obviously a problem if you “be yourself” by rampantly ignoring what other people think and trampling on other people’s feelings, and it’s also a problem if “being yourself” is causing problems for others, and it’s especially a problem if “being yourself” is also hurting yourself while you’re at it -- so what does it mean to be true to yourself?

It’s not about your inherent personality traits, it’s about what you choose to do with them

As I said earlier, Adventure and 02 all arguably celebrate the fact that everyone is so different, and has their own skills to contribute to the group. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, and everyone makes up for each other’s weaknesses when they work together. And some of these characters do change in order to become “better people”. But what does being a “better person” mean? How does that tie into still “being true to yourself”, and yet changing at the same time?

02 episode 18 has Miyako in possibly one of her worst bouts of loss of control -- she has an effective panic attack and starts yelling at everyone in all directions, resulting in Hawkmon getting hurt. However, everyone here understands that Miyako meant well and was trying her best given the situation, and nobody scorns her for it, with Hikari even arranging for Miyako and Hawkmon to have proper space to emotionally air things out. Again: it was not a sin for Miyako to have feelings of anxiety, but it was a problem once those feelings led to causing trouble for others -- as in, trampling on their feelings, not having enough regard for their welfare, and such. Well-intentioned or not, Miyako just caused problems, and for that, Miyako labels herself as a “bad” person (tying into her ongoing character arc that involved negatively comparing herself to more mature and put-together people). However, Hawkmon assures her that he likes her the way she is.

But Miyako can’t keep going on like this -- it would obviously be very bad for her to keep being inconsiderate and trample on others’ feelings! But what does happen is that Miyako simply learns to channel these traits in the correct direction -- it’s established that, on the flip side, her being over-the-top brings joy to other people by making them laugh (02 episodes 31, 36, 38), and her aggressive personality is able to reach out to those like Hikari who are too closed in and on another unhealthy extreme! And as it turns out, she is capable of channeling all of those “aggressive” qualities into “aggressively”...reaching out to others and proactively supporting them; all she needed was a bit better sense of regulation so that her energy would go to the places she wanted them to be, rather than rampantly all over the place to the point of causing trouble. She didn’t have to fundamentally change herself into someone like Mimi or Hikari; it was just about adjusting her way of going about things just enough so that she could become more considerate.

Even all the way back in Adventure episode 10, all of the “problems” caused in this episode specifically have to do with Koushirou ending up (accidentally) being inconsiderate to Mimi and Palmon and not taking their feelings enough into account. Again, Koushirou is not treated as if his feelings are wrong or malicious -- he even states that he thinks that the research he’s doing will help everyone in the long run -- but his way of handling this situation is awful, and, regardless of his intent, Mimi and Palmon are feeling abandoned and tossed aside.

For the rest of the series, Koushirou learns to hone his existing skills in analysis -- even his fixation tendencies are treated as a potentially valuable trait -- and, once we learn the details about how he started keeping distance from everyone due to the shock of learning he was adopted and his social anxiety tendencies in Adventure episode 38, Koushirou momentarily tries to force himself to use casual language, and his parents assure him that he doesn’t have to force himself to change. In the end, it’s not an inherent sin for Koushirou to have social anxiety, nor that he needs more time to adjust to becoming more casual with others -- according to Adventure episode 54, he does want to get closer to others eventually, but even Tentomon says he shouldn’t force himself. Koushirou “working past” his social issues doesn’t mean he suddenly has to turn himself into a socialite overnight, but rather, he simply needs to do enough to be able to communicate with others without (accidentally or otherwise) ignoring others’ important feelings. Thus, in 02, he’s still working on becoming less distant from everyone, but he’s managed to become someone who can communicate with and organize people, and is well-respected for it.

A recurring theme in Adventure and 02 is that there’s a good and a bad side to everything, and so if we look at the twelve kids over Adventure and 02, we can see that a lot of the “good things” and “bad things” about them really stem from the same thing:

Taichi: Being an ambitious person who can oversee people in disparate places and bring them together (good) also means that he’s not always good at checking the nuances or other potentially negative contingencies, and can be rather insensitive (bad)

Yamato: Being emotionally sensitive to others means he can be passionate and open about everything, and compassionate to others (good), but also means he can get explosively angry and lose control of himself (bad)

Sora: Being caring towards others and supportive (good) means that she can also end up developing self-destructive tendencies due to her perceived obligations to others (bad)

Koushirou: Being constantly curious and fixated on learning more means he can get to the bottom of things and answer questions that others can’t (good) but also means he can get too absorbed in it and not be able to take others into account (bad)

Mimi: Being extremely sensitive and empathetic means that she’s open-minded, compassionate, and all-loving (good) but also that she takes any kind of discomfort or emotionally draining thing extra hard, and may all too often be unable to take a stand even when she really should (bad)

Jou: Being constantly invested in everyone’s welfare and compelled to help them means he’s very honest and dutiful and otherwise reliable (good) but also means he can make very reckless decisions because he’s so stressed about everyone and everything (bad)

Takeru: Being good at maintaining an atmosphere of moderation and generally being able to handle very tough things means that he has a very strong grip on himself and doesn’t cause trouble for others easily (good) but also means he’s prone to sudden and irrational emotional outbursts because he’s suppressing so badly that he gets no catharsis and isn’t being honest about his own feelings (bad)

Hikari: Being compassionate and all-loving means that she can put her foot down easily for the sake of others and advocate for kindness (good) but also means that her desire to not be a burden on others makes her compulsively unable to vocalize any of her own personal problems to the point of self-destruction and passiveness (bad)

Daisuke: Being so deferential to others and pure-hearted means that he can focus practically on what needs to be done and be a supportive person to others (good) but also means that he’s prone to insecurity, defensiveness, and lack of assertiveness in the face of others (bad)

Miyako: Being over-the-top and full of bright energy means that she can bring joy to others and can reach out to those who have troubles (good) but also means that she has difficulty having restraint from losing control of herself (bad)

Iori: Being humble and a principled person means that he’s good at approaching things directly and driven by a constant desire to do good (good) but also can be so fixated on those principles that he clings onto them even far beyond practicality, and is constantly restraining himself more than should be necessary (bad)

Ken: Being assertive and able to have firm will means that he can get what he wants done for others and show kindness when he needs to (good) but also means that the same assertiveness can be used for uncontrolled sadism and inflicting pain on others (bad)

So, again: all of these characters are encouraged to embrace all of the good things about themselves, and to channel them in ways that are productive or healthy or help them live happily alongside others; all of those “bad” traits also being there doesn’t necessarily mean they have to blot out those personality aspects that have good sides to them as well! It’s just that those “bad” things need to be kept in check so that they don’t cause trouble, and you can read all of these character arcs in ways that involve everyone changing just enough to make sure those “bad” things don’t go rampant and cause problems everywhere -- and everyone’s an imperfect human being, so it’s unlikely that they’ve completely gotten rid of those entirely even into adulthood -- but they have better awareness of what they need to do, and how to better adjust themselves into better people.

Look at the difference between Ken and Daisuke -- Ken had to go through some massive changes because, as the Kaiser, his “bad” traits were going over the top and causing all sorts of harm to everyone, and there was a huge journey he had to go through to get that all in check, whereas Daisuke was always clearly a very pure-hearted person from the get-go and didn’t have to adjust himself as much. Yet you could say the same thing about both of them -- by Ken learning that his efforts and assertiveness were misplaced, and by Daisuke getting around his constant insecurity and need for validation in order to better lead everyone forward, they basically did the same thing, just in different ways, and they’re both better people for it.

And it’s also the philosophy Jou endorses in Adventure episode 50 -- Mimi and Jou aren’t people who are necessarily best at fighting, and this isn’t inherently a sin. It’s just that they need to find ways to productively play to their own strengths in ways that are true to themselves. If Mimi can’t bring herself to engage in direct violence, she can at least use her skills to bring together everyone else who wants to protect the Digital World and prevent more casualties, and if Jou is, by his own admission, “not strong”, he can consider a path ahead of him that involves becoming a healer who can help those who are wounded, and prevent casualties that way.

There is no one right way to live.

What it is you want to do

Here’s an interesting question about the 02 epilogue, and, while we’re at it, 02 episode 50 as a whole: Why are “careers” brought up so much? Timeskip epilogues are hardly new to 02 (and of course have popped up in media for years thereafter), but not all of them involve careers, and even fewer of them have that much focus on shoving “careers” into your face as the main centerpoint, especially since usually this kind of thing would be about family lives or romance or something (and we can say a lot about how the 02 epilogue cared so much about the career thing that it was blatantly prioritizing it over the hot-topic romance issue of Yamato and Sora).

Because, in the end, a career -- or, perhaps, a “future aspiration”, because various details about how the epilogue is presented indicate that “the career that defines your income and adult life” may not actually be the correct term here -- is the ultimate manifestation of “what it is you want to do with your life”. The point driven home by 02 episode 50 is that such a thing should be “what you want to do”, and, given that this was originally supposed to be the Adventure ending before 02 was conceived, it also ties into Adventure’s own theme of “finding your own path”. All of those “careers” listed in the 02 epilogue feel a lot more nonsensical when you think about it in terms of the material hobbies they had during the series, but make significantly more sense when you frame it in terms of what kind of personality each person had and what they would prioritize. Materially, if you think about what Taichi had as a “hobby” during Adventure and 02, it would be soccer, but when you think about him being “an ambitious, wide-reaching leader who brings people from different places together”, his career of “diplomat to bring two worlds together” makes much more sense. It wasn’t about what they’re doing to pay the bills; it’s about “what’s most important in each of their lives”.

And, as far as the series is concerned, none of these decisions are the “wrong” ones; if there’s a “wrong” decision, it’s the one 02 (and later Kizuna) warned you about, in terms of blotting your own self out and making yourself unhappy because you did it for the sake of society’s expectations instead of for yourself. There’s even a difference between the Adventure group and 02 group in their own priorities, in that the former is more individualistic and far-reaching in terms of personal ambition, and the latter prioritizes mutual support and living simpler lives as long as it makes them happy, and as far as Adventure and 02 are concerned, that’s all fine, because those are choices that suit their own dispositions and fit things that they want to do first and foremost.

Everyone is different, everyone has different priorities, and everyone has different ways to live. Everyone has different perspectives and feelings, and once the arguments are ironed out, those should be cherished and celebrated.

#digimon #digimon adventure #digimon adventure 02 #shihameta

127 notes · View notes