#it's about Ambition
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i want to hear the sports anime manifesto
Okay short version:
My life was a sports anime for a bit, and watching sports anime makes me nostalgic for those days.
Medium version:
The typical shonen sports anime deals with themes of camaraderie, ambition, and the intersections of camaraderie and ambition, which ALWAYS hits me right in the chest.
I'm not an ambitious person by nature, but--you know that one poem floating around on here, the one about the moth that wants nothing more than to fly into the flame, and how it would be nice to feel that kind of all consuming passion? Yeah, that's the feeling I get from sports anime.
And often, for the Team Sports anime, you'll get characters who have nothing in common except that they Love the Same Thing--a friendship/rivalry/(romance) formed on the basis of a shared interest. That's sweet as hell!
And they're super predictable and low stress for me. Very easy to watch! Total popcorn shows. Also I like listening to people infodump about their passions. Someone loved their Sport so much they wrote a whole-ass story about it, so yeah, eat that shit up.
Long version:
The Socioeconomic Inequalities of High School Sports
In high school, I was on a crappy underfunded soccer team (with a healthy dose of sexism) and due to [sports league division reasons] the schools we played against were almost exclusively private schools.
I cannot describe how existential it is to be wearing a hand-me-down formerly white-turned-disgusting-gray uniform that's at least five years old when playing against a team that gets brand new windbreakers every season.
(If you've read AAB, YES this is where my obsession with the windbreakers comes from.)
(Hilariously, the guys team got windbreakers but we didn't.)
(I am not over the fucking windbreakers.)
But anyway, when you're constantly losing to private schools you get this fucking complex about it.
This should come as no surprise but like. People with the time and resources to practice their Thing get good at their Thing.
Playing pick up soccer at the park is practice. Playing rec league soccer is organized, repeated practice.
Playing competitive club soccer is all of that, plus a coach who knows How To Coach and What The Sport Is, plus you get morale-boosting uniforms and the chance to play with and against other skilled players. So you're exposed to a lot more, and thus, you learn a lot more.
Competitive club soccer is also Expensive. Rich kids get good.
There's a reason why the "Powerhouse School" is a thing in sports anime, because it's a thing in real life. People with leisure time and money get to invest in their sports development, and everyone else gets left behind in the dust. It's basically a microcosm of capitalism.
The underdog sports story is (quite tragically) bootstraps propaganda. All you have to do is be really good and work really hard and have A LOT OF PASSION to get good at your sport! The cream rises to the top! This is a meritocracy! Let's ignore all the other factors that go into an individual's development as an athlete!
(My brother got scouted for club soccer as a kid. He actually went to tryouts and got offered a spot and a scholarship and everything, but there's SO many hidden fees after the initial registration. Uniforms, equipment, travel and accommodation, tournaments, plus like, the time sink, so we never signed him up. And equipment-wise, soccer is one of the cheapest sports you can play--just imagine the price for something like baseball or hockey.)
In sports anime, there is no reform. There is no revolution.
But sports anime isn't really about that. It's about the narratives we create when we convince ourselves that we deserve to win.
(You know what I mean. Every billionaire is convinced they're some sort of heroic underdog. The same exact kind of 'working your way up' narrative.)
Sports anime is like, the uncomplicated power fantasy of playing the game. It's a world where you are rewarded for your hard work, because it's narratively satisfying. It's a world where it's safe to want things, because you have the exact same chances as the private school kids.
I used to be an obnoxiously competitive child. Then I got all my competition beaten out of me by 3 straight years of constant losing in my clownagerie of a high school soccer team (affectionate). I am going to admit that experience made me a better person and I would not trade it for anything, but I also had to like, relearn how to want things. And maybe real life is not as equal opportunity as the world of sports anime, but I think it's good to want things.
Of course, the winner-loser dichotomy makes sense in sports because of the inherent nature of competition, but it doesn't make sense in stuff like society and economics because that's like, competing over the right to live. That's where the capitalism metaphor ends,
Does sports anime actually go into the socioeconomic inequalities of sports? No. Of course not. Giant Killing never got a season 2.
But it is something I think about when I write sports anime fic. Even if it's not the point, it influences my characterization. The ego of a prodigy character in a shitty sports program is different from the ego of a prodigy character in a rich kid sports program. I am obligated to my amateur attempts to capture the complexities of the high school sports environment in my fanfiction because I am fucking insane I had a specific high school sports experience and they do say to write what you know.
#MEG I SWEAR TO YOU I WILL READ TANGERINE AT SOME POINT#I have so many thoughts about sports anime which is tragic because sports anime is not that deep#it is never that deep#part of the reason why I got so sucked into Daiya is because of the powerhouse school setting#and the fact that Eijun was so obviously lost because he never had that kind of organized system before#people give Seidou a lot of shit for 'not helping Eijun' enough but genuinely it's because he has NO CLUE how to reach out#I poured so much brainpower into Eijun's backstory in my brain it's embarrassing as hell#*shaking fanfic authors by the shoulders* YEAH THE CUTTHROAT COMPETION SUCKS BUT YOU DONT FIX IT BY SENDING HIM TO A DIFFERENT SCHOOL#I also am the only person who understands Miyuki Kazuya (exaggeration)#everyone gives him shit for the Nabe thing and look. yes he was wrong.#but I was once in that same exact situation and responded exactly the same way#Daiya no Ace is not about friendship#it's about Ambition#and people tend to make Eijun the sweet sentimental sunshine friendship guy#but he has JUST as much cutthroat ambition as Miyuki#that's why they work. that's why they understand each other#there's a whole essay I could write about Misawa but it's basically just chapter 18 of AAB#anyway if you want to watch a sports anime that does the Healthy Ambition and the Friendship Thing in the most wholesome way possible#watch Haikyuu. it really is the perfect sports anime.#shame the fanfic is 99% ship because the sports aspect of it is SUPER sweet#asks#jumpstrike#I'm answering jumpstrike but Tav I hope you see this too#lazuli talks#sports anime
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Thinking about Edward Elric as the Amestrian Military's specialest little unfireable boy
State alchemists can be fired for underperforming. We know this up front from the likes of Shou Tucker. And this makes a ton of sense from the homunculi's standpoint since the state alchemists are sacrifice candidates, and the homunculi would want to cull the weakest candidates and focus only on cultivating the strongest ones who stand the best chance of opening the portal.
........Then there's Edward. Who's already opened the portal.
There's no need to cultivate him. No gamble taken on whether he's good enough to open the portal. He passed the final test already. Graduated 4 semesters early.
And as such, has a free pass to do Absolute Fuck All.
And I'm imagining how funny this is from like an outside perspective.
Some newish state alchemist who'd only ever read up on the stories of Edward Elric, ready and excited to start their career of being paid handsomely with endless freedom to research and travel and do anything they want in the pursuit of science... surprised and confused to find themselves put on probation their first month for things like "ignoring orders." Which is, as best they had thought, a famous Edward Elric pastime.
Roy showing a slight bit of stress about his yearly state alchemist report, and Ed just snorting and rolling his eyes at Roy because every year HE just hastily does his on the train ride over (canon in the manga, a travesty it was left out of the anime) and it gets rubber stamped. Ed not realizing that other alchemists' reports get genuinely scrutinized and torn apart while Ed is free to turn in whatever absolute bullshit he thinks of 36 hours ahead of time. One year his report was about whether alchemy could be done via dance (conclusion: no it can't) and no one cared. Roy WANTS to tell Ed there's some kind of unknown favoritism around Ed making him literally bullet-proof but Roy has no way to phrase this that doesn't sound like he's just in denial and mad at how good Ed's train-reports are.
Guy from the Internal Amestrian Affairs sector who's responsible for auditing other internal military personel for any suspicious activity hitting about 1 million red flags for Edward Elric, issuing a STRONG and URGENT recommendation to suspend the alchemist pending further investigation into things like "literal bunk-buddies with two members of the Xingese royalty (enemy nation)" and "spent $10,000,000 of his stipend on a librarian to make her re-copy (what he seemed to interpret as?) military records in some extremely transparent effort to unearth state secrets (it was a recipe book but he was literally asking her about state secrets)" and "literally has never once obeyed an order, ever, not even once in his career, and is on public record having said 'I do not care about the goals and protections of the Amestrian Military. I am in fact only pursuing my own interests several of which are diametrically opposed to the safety and well-being of the governing body of Amestris'"
The issued recommendation is intercepted before it even reaches its intended desk. President Bradley himself has taken issue with it and denies it before a single set of eyes has seen it. The President's veto stamp is a terrifying hammer, used rarely, and it is now sitting on the auditor's desk.
The auditor sleeps with one eye open from then on out.
#fma#fullmetal alchemist#fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood#fma:b#literally anything about the dynamic between edward and the amestrian government is so so so funny to me#im begging you to come pick up your alchemist he keeps committing treason#Roy: absolute perfect ass-kisser and career-man playing the part 24/7 to disguise his treasonous ambitions and still#not flying under the radar#Edward on his public Twitter: bored. might tear down the Amestrian government for fun.
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There's something about how in Act 3 after Gale has visited the Stormshore Tabernacle, he tells the player (if romanced);
“I would much rather gaze into your eyes than hers. Yours are capable of tenderness, and feeling. No god could ever compare.”
It's worth noting that throughout the game one of Gale's most prominent characteristics is his very expressive eyes, we see it in almost all of his scenes when he looks at the player, in particular his Act 2 and Act 3 romance scene, as well other instances throughout.
But compare that to Gale after he becomes a god, his eyes are no longer the same soulful, emotional eyes as before, but glowing with ambition even if he's trying to express his emotions. He'll never truly look at the player like he once did, even if he still loves them.
#the discussion how gale loses himself to becoming a god has already been talked about#but on a physical level he also loses one of the things that has been a part of him for his whole mortal life#his eyes were once filled with tenderness and feeling too#something gale the god of ambition loses#you know what they say#eyes are the windows into ones soul#bg3#baldur's gate 3#bg3 gale#gale of waterdeep#gale dekarios#god!gale#bg3 meta
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enough stories about how someone learns to truely be happy through love.
i want a story where someone is desperately seeking out love thinking it's the only way to be happy only for them to learn by the end that happiness is what they make of it and they don't need love at all to make it.
#aro#aromantic#ace#asexual#aroace#loveless aro#loveless#non-partnering#nonpartnering#non partnering#nonamorous#aplatonic#enough of amatonormative tropes in media!!! enough 'you're miserable without love' stories!!!#less “you're too focused on ambitions to make you happy that you dont let yourself fall in love”#more “you're too focused on finding love to make you happy that you wont let yourself live”#more “there is so much more to life than love and so much more that can bring your happiness if you just let yourself experience it.”#maybe I should write this story#and when i say love i mean all love. not just romantic love.#which is why i tagged aplatonic too#while i mostly see this trope in terms of romantic love i think there's something to be said about#telling stories where people are perfectly content alone too#it doesn't have to be sad or pathetic to not have friends by choice. they dont have to be a miserable person to not have friends#i think we need more variety in stories where it shows people just content in their lack of love or relationships in all shapes#not everyone wants a family not everyone wants friends not everyone wants a partner not everyone wants love#some of us are content without. that should be explored without the need to fix it.
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I want you whipped into shape!
[First] Prev <–-> Next
#poorly drawn mdzs#better drawn mdzs#mdzs#wei wuxian#yu ziyuan#wang lingjiao#wen zhuliu#'When I say jump - say “how high'”? You know you're doing it right when you start to cry!“#Of course I can't resist the Legally blonde reference. This is the Elle Woods is canon in PD-MDZS blog#I love this scene so much. There are a lot of things to say about it and I would go over the limit if I indulged.#Suffice it to say the main takeaway *here* is that I think YZY is milfboss of the millennia.#I intended for this to be posted on international women's day but my ambition led me to keep trying to make it better.#And by better I mean I spent several days (re)drawing this one and that is **not** what poorly-drawn-mdzs is supposed to be about.#I will be making the next few comics worse to compensate <3 At the very least I will honour my time and tag it as 'better drawn'#('my time' spent hunched over my desk while I chant 'this concept is *not* above my skill level!' over and over again)#Funny story about PD!Wen Zhuliu; he was supposed to show up sooner but I kept accidently cutting the comics he would have been in.#So I like to think he just went on a long coffee run. 'Go get me an (insert coffee chain) pink drink' said Wen Chao.#'He never said from which location' said Wen Zhuliu as he proceeded to walk 100km to the farthest cafe he could find.
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a little divine appreciation
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God Gale is endgame for Mayhew, and Mayhew couldn't be more pleased 😌
their mutual wizard disease brought them to some pretty low lows, but hey, ignore the tragedy, they're gods now! first order of business is a little worshiping at the altar 😏
Here's the sketch, which I also like:
Got majorly inspired by these lovely photos, one of which I used as a pose reference.
#mayhew#will have a different godly form once i settle on some details. and finish writing the fic about this#but may i just say i adore god gale? he's the worst version of himself and he'll never see it and i love that for him#plus i really love gods of volatile neutral traits like ambition that could amplify good and bad acts by turn#mayhew's portfolio is similar - curiosity. no way that could go wrong when paired with ambition! they're the questionable judgement duo#but mayhew's got an enormous heart so on the whole more good is put into the world than bad. ...usually.#can't take the wizard out of a wizard#anyway hi hello to all the god gale fans out there. there will be more fanart for sure#also can you tell I adore drawing body hair? i hope you can#my art#gale dekarios#gale of waterdeep#bg3#baldur's gate 3#gale x tav#gnome tav#gnomeposting#galehew
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[ID: A series of GIFs showing the parallels between Azula introducing herself to King Keui in Kyoshi Warrior disguise and Ozai asking Fire Lord Azulon to make him the crown prince over Iroh. The last GIF shows Azula and Zuko peeking through curtains watching Ozai speak to Azulon.]
“I am your humble servant, here to serve you and our nation. Use me.” // "We are the Earth King's humble servants."
#i learned how to make gifs for this. that's how crazy it made me#the line is all azula BECAUSE it's all ozai#ozai's scene with azulon is a performance for ozai (one that is explicitly called out as such by azulon)#but for azula. a child. watching it from the shadows. well.#ozai killed azulon for his selfish ambitions & azula kills people for ozai#she's aware that ozai had no real loyalty to azulon - that ozai is performing - but rationalizes it as ozai being most worthy of the throne#rather than unquestioning loyalty to the father/nation itself being detrimental to the world at large & herself personally#....#I've been feeling so ill about azula lately. god.#azula#ozai#r.post
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it doesn't feel real to me fellas. but I don't have time to sit by and chat and unload unfortunately so I'll just drop this and be on my way, cya kind folks very soon ✌️
not professional but I liked how his eye looked goddang it. I knew I was screwing myself but I did it anyway
#don't worry ill actually be screaming in my reblogs now and again if I dont get to make a post soon with my tremendous mound of m#messy words#guyz😫 i watched it 3 days ago and i still cant believe it happened#it's definetly cause i dropped out of the anticipation train for the last like what 5 months? just slapped me like a truck with a hand#bb jeezez christ im so happy fellas it's so goofy and best of all it feels safe(I COULD BE VERY WRONG)#ya know me tho. things in life be pretty tough so i keep my hoping and optimisim for the escapism spaces 🙏😌#anyway i can't stick around and tag ramble im afriad. if i don't come back soon#at the very least count on me during the summer!#.... but also no way im not atleast watching what everyone will be saying about this season#i have an ambition to draw something small after every episode release. so we'll see!#kuroshitsuji#black butler#kuroshitsuji fanart#fanart#sebastian michaelis#ciel phantomhive#digital art#weston college arc#black butler anime#kuroshitsuji anime#kuroshitsuji: kishuku gakkou hen
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brutal
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This has absolutely nothing to do with this scene but is at least tangentially related to the Thriller Bark arc so I'm gonna share it anyway. The word galvanize is an eponym derived from Luigi Galvani, who was a scientist and physician in the 18th century who helped pioneer the field of bioelectricity when he discovered that he could make dead frog legs move when ran through with an electric current, with later proponents of his work going so far as to shock human corpses attempting to bring them to life. This breakthrough would in part inspire the creation of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, which, some two hundred or so years later would in part inspire Thriller Bark.
So in a way I guess you could say Hogback has galvanized these corpses, albeit with shadows instead of electricity, forcing them to move without recreating true life.
#opbackgrounds#one piece#c468#forgive me sometimes I just need an excuse to talk about fun facts#pretend it's robin giving a lecture on the difference between true life and whatever the hell hogback's doing#art imitates life#the key to good horror is examining the deepest fears of man and society#and 200 years ago that fear was not knowing how the hell electricity worked#as well as the danger of unbridled ambition and the pursuit of knowledge at all costs but that's besides the point
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"There is no one closer—" Oh, don't lie to me, Father.
#it's an interesting parallel because rodrigo really made them believe that they're the light of his life#but deep down both of them know it's not true because he still prioritizes his own ambitions over them#juan; he's insecure about rodrigo's love and wants to prove himself worthy since rodrigo always threatens him with cesare's hypercompetence#lucrezia; she's still being forced to marry people she doesn't want to for his political bs#in the finale; rodrigo and cesare plotted to kill alfonso while leaving her in the dark...not caring about her feelings#they all know their father uses them more than he loves them or care for their concerns#lucrezia borgia#juan borgia#the borgias#perioddramaedit#tvedit#cinemapix#tvarchive#holliday grainger#david oakes#dailytvfilmgifs#davinciae#theborgiasedit#filmgifs#by jen
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Usopp obtaining Conqueror's haki makes so much sense to me and I genuinely think he deserves it on Elbaf please please please
#gotta be honest i am SO tired of people saying sanji should have it because i don't think it fits his his story. or personality. or him.#haki is quite literally the force of will and ambition and people keep forgetting usopp is ??? there??? and his whole story is about that#and it's not even about powerscaling bc i hate it. it's about usopp finally having a moment of owning himself and his dream and his ambitio#i don't want him to use conqueror's haki to have a power-up out of nowhere i want him to show strength by himself#and also i want him to scare the shit out of everyone for a second there it'd be epic and also funny#i swear to god i could write an essay about this but this guy deserves this more than anybody else#also i adore sanji but people keep talking about him as if he hadn't just have two arcs about him??? hello???#and egghead is also focusing on him now???#sanji move it's usopp's time#also hopefully nami will have an important scene. someday. i guess. i hope so.#one piece#usopp
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Proud to say I’m at a place where I’m very ambitious w my goals, but still very content w where I currently am. No matter my financial or academic or just any personal aspirations at all, I’m so in love w my life as it is and realize that it will be no objectively better when I do attain all the tangible things I want to attain. Legitimately so happy to just be here, surrounded by love and books and privileged to be studying and gaining knowledge. At the end of the day this really is all that matters to me. And this is a feeling no amount of money can buy
#I’ve always had a very healthy balance of ambition and contentment I think#I’ve only ever been competitive when it comes to academia bc that’s just hard wired into me#I’ve never felt much about somebody else owning more material things or having more opportunities than me#i do understand why some people feel that way but I’m also happy to be working hard for what I have#while also having a very solid family unit / being privileged enough to go after hobbies / living comfortably#and most importantly — having a strong home base to go back to if things go wrong#i owe my mom SO many things ok sorry I’m done. i just love her sm and am so grateful#p
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Part of what charms and compels me in Jeyne Poole's arc is her reaction to her predicament. All the female POVs in this book are dealing with a lot of gendered violence, and they all deal in different but dignified forms... Jeyne is not a POV character and she is absolutely not dignified lol. She cries and begs, she is utterly helpless. But unlike most women in this book who are utterly helpless, she survives. It's frustrating how fans refuse to celebrate that, simply because there is no glory in it.
#Sometimes I wonder if that's part of why fandom is so uncharitable towards her#like if she had some self-sacrificing sense of dignity maybe people would like her more... if she were resourceful or proud#boo!#she's perfect#i also think the absurd notion of arya 'mercy killing' her stems from this too? tbh#like - you think this woman is too pathetic to live? that even if she escaped bluebeard's castle her life is better over?#people will call grrm a grimdark author but this shit you see in fandom is 100000% more cruel than anything this man wrote#her pain is too real to her for games of honor to hold any meaning! she tears the veil she ruins the veneer#she has no noble bearing no honor no ambition no wolf no lover no knight she will not rise from this taller and wiser#none of the ways in which she'll change will be for the better and her pain will only reward her with more pain - the pain is worthless!#here is a child-bride suffering and nothing about that suffering can be made beautiful or meaningful- besides her escape#which theon instantly romanticizes.... what a moment#we flew!#i can't wait to read about her again#jeyne poole
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Doomed by the narrative.
#Shen Jiu#svsss#10thmusemoon art#muse are you sad about SJ’s ambition and struggles being ultimately futile in the face of the desires of an anonymous audience in another#world again? why yes I am#the moment the forums preferred a one dimensional villain SJ’s fate was sealed!!! it didn’t matter! he doesn’t matter!#I am shaking airplane desperately
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"weight of his mother's ambitions" oh my god i can't take this seriously. i thought we were over this. they have one fucking conflict for this character and it involves dragging sparkpelt through the mud for some reason
#deer reads thunder#asc spoilers#im trying not to complain about nightheart#but i had a lizardstripe that's so raven flashback#are we really pulling the “ambition makes you a bad mom” card again? ESPECIALLY with the reveal of curlfeather??
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