he says i hate everyone except you and that is addictive and that is kind of romantic and beautiful because you're young and you're kind of a sarcastic asshole too and you don't like bad boys, per say, but you don't really like good ones either. and you like that you were the exception, it felt like winning.

except life is not a romance book, and he was kind of being honest. he doesn't learn to be nice to your friends. he only tolerates your family. you have to beg him to come with you to birthday parties, he complains the whole time. you want to go on a date but - people are often there, wherever you're going. he's just so angry. about everything, is the thing. in the romance book, doesn't he eventually soften? can't you teach him, through your own sense of whimsy and comfort?

at first - you know introverts often need smaller friend groups, and honestly, you're fine staying at home too. you like the small, tidy life you occupy. you're not going to punish him for his personality type.

except: he really does hate everyone but you. which means he doesn't get along with his therapist. which means he has no one to talk to except for you. which means you take care of him constantly, since he otherwise has no one. which means you sometimes have to apologize for him. which means he keeps you home from seeing your friends because he hates them. you're the single exception.

about a decade from this experience, you'll type into google: how to know if a relationship is codependent.

he wraps an arm around you. i hate everyone except you. these days, you're learning what he's actually confessing is i have very little practice being kind.

Also during the precious temporary ceasefire the IOF didnt actually stop killing people so

Exactly!! People were celebrating that first call for a ceasefire… and then reports kept coming out about Israeli terrorists abducting and killing people, just at a lower volume (which, compared to the absolutely atrocious scale they’re operating on now, does not mean much). Even when there’s a ruling in place it’s not even enforceable

I saw a post talking about how there’s a deep mischaracterization of Mk in the fandom specifically about his monkey form and I’m here to dissect it. (WIth doodles!)

Tldr: Will Mk end up hurting his family in season 5 due to his new Monkey form? Most likely no, but it is possible that he indirectly hurts them by not understanding the limits of his power.

First things first let’s collect a list of attributes that we know Mk has from past seasons. This will serve as a spine or checklist to see if certain actions are possible. A thing to keep in mind though is the ranking of each attribute as the writers of LMK wrote there are characters as complex and sometimes abandon certain character values if their center value is threatened. 

Mk’s character value list (in my opinion) is as follows: 

-Family 

-Strength 

-Freedom 

-Dependability 

with family and strength being so close to each other, so sometimes strength ends up as Mk’s main concern. Of course, all of these end up mixing at times and in the first seasons we see the mixing of these values gets him in trouble 

Desiring the freedom of choice over listening to Wukong (Pig Pong Panic). Wanting to be dependable but overestimating his strength (Duplication). Wanting to be strong but forgets his family in the process (shadow play). Eventually, he gets his priorities in check and has ended up sticking to this list for most of seasons 3 and 4. 

Now his flaws (in no particular order): 

Impulsivity 

Forgetfulness 

Stubbornness 

Blind devotion 

He’s overcome a lot of these when he was forced to learn them in season 3. His stubbornness to not tell anyone what was happening with the LBD got people hurt. His impulsivity with his actions ended up crashing the ship, and almost sold his family to a goldfish demon.

(Text: Mk's Fault, Good Intentions, Trying mentor)

So he’s had to come up with methods of working around that. Mk’s blind devotion to Wukong almost got Mei killed, and we see how he changes because of it. At the end of season 3, Mk doesn’t explicitly say that he sees Wukong in a new light but he heavily implies it with the metaphor of a bowl of noodles. 

So… Will Mk go crazy and end up hurting his friends? 

I highly doubt it. While I toyed with the idea, Mk is a lot smarter than the fandom usually gives him credit for. He knows Wukong is flawed, and he still trusts in him because he knows Wukong is trying. Mk has faith in Wukong’s strength and the fact that Wukong also heavily values family, even if his isolation makes it a lot harder for him to do so. Just rewatch the ending of season 3 where Wukong apologizes to Mk and watch as Mk comes to the realization that Wukong is trying so hard to make up for his past. (They also drive this point home in season 4 with how disappointed Wukong sounds at himself for not finding Mk in the scroll in the season finale.) 

(Text: He's flawed and trying, Has to accept harsh reality, Dissociating Coping mechanism)

So what about Mk’s impulsivity? I doubt that’d be something that directly harms his friends. He’s worked on his impulsivity by working with others (Redson in season 3 and Mei’s planning in season 4) to help fill in the gaps in his plans. In order for his impulsivity to harm others, you’d have to break that family value first or raise that value of strength and freedom. Most likely this flaw can manifest in Mk overdoing his Monkey form ™  and sending a shockwave that accidentally hurts the people around him.  Probably manifesting either in training or while having fun with Mei (think about how Mk was in the Bad Weather episode). 

Okay, what if Mk is tricked into it like he was in Season 4 (back to the flaw of blind devotion)? Mk has spent every season backstabbed by someone he trusted. We see him snap at Azure after he finds out that he was going to keep Wukong in the scroll. He snaps at Macaque in season 4. It’s safe to say that he’s learned, at least partially, to not trust others so blindly. Mk is also supposed to have gotten the “skill of self-reflection” in “Revenge of the Spider Queen” but his reflecting has mostly just impacted the other flaws. 

(Text: Side note, Monkey Mk doesn't have a nose)

But there is one possibility I toy with, bottled up emotions. Mk has extremely big emotions but hates showing any emotion that can be seen as negative. He loves being happy and he’s not afraid to show it, but as soon as those emotions turn to doubt, anger, or sadness he bottles them up fast. He knows he can rely on his family, but he’s stubborn and thinks that his emotions aren’t worth that hassle. Take the ending of season 3 where Mk states that “he tries not to think too hard” about his own place in the universe, which could be due to a fear of losing the value of freedom if he has a specific role to play in the universe.

(Text: Guys He's so avoidant, forced to think about his identity, 18-early 20's and Identity crisis)

It’s worsened by the fact that every. other. character. avoids. their. emotions. No other characters in this series are open about their emotions except Tang and Sandy. And from season 3 (and a bit of season 4) we know that Mk doesn’t view Tang in an extremely positive light.

Not exactly negative, but his admiration lies more on the rest of the team. Macaque points this out in season 2 stating in “Shadow Play” that Mk should talk out his insecurities, but no one else does that. 

That being said Mk isn’t entirely forgetful either. Macaque was a season 1 villain with his betrayal going through season 3. Mk’s high value of family, and flaw of blind devotion, make him want to give him a chance as Macaque’s past is connected with Wukong’s. HOWEVER, Mk is also stubborn and hasn’t forgiven Macaque’s actions. That’s why he snaps, plus the fact that Macaque is terrible at direct communication. Like I said before, Mk won’t directly hurt anyone he cares about, but if his monkey form is highly connected with his emotions (as most magic tends to be) having those bottled-up insecurities might accidentally cause Mk to unleash more power than he means to.

(Text: Normal, Fed up Meter, rage (on jar))

I have no idea where season 5 is going to go, but I’m so excited about the possibilities. 

(Text: Terrified of his actions hurting his family. UNSTABLE!!!)

love how s3 Jamie is like on a mission to fix Colin’s self-esteem. “smart choice for a smart boy” the hugs. being one of the first members of the team to reassure Colin they love him after he came out. grabbing him to tell him what a great job he did at multiple points in the season. long way from “jaundiced worm”

Yours is a life worth living.

I think Lucy Maclean might be a blorbo

she's my silly rabbit

The way some of you did not learn anything even at all.

The jason dead for 20 years au would be so funny because the only person who would hate bruce’s retirement more than bruce would be jason because his plan just goes out the window because he accounted to the batman he’s fighting to be bruce not whoever’s wearing it now

The more I think about this au the funnier it gets bc you have Jason's wee pit moment being the same he gets to the hotel and sees the newspaper with the picture of batman on it and still gets mad bc wtf thats not Bruce and what does this paper mean it's 2040 how dare time goes on with out him he's gonna go beat up Bruce bc fuck that old man

congratulations to Mme. Pascale Leclerc, who has surely just experienced both the funniest and most unhinged weekend a mother could ever have. Dear fucking christ, I hope your middlest son brought you a bottle of champagne for yourself, ma'am.

Beast Wars Rattrap

him.

(click for better quality)

Minor spoilers below for those who haven't watched it yet

Tell me this isn't how it went rn/j

Dying in the theaters when Floyd's attempt for sympathy/persuasion immediately backfired on him. I wanted his reaction to it so bad

I think the bi-generation is genuinely such a good way of ushering in the NuNuWho era tbh. When RTD started the 2005 reboot, he gave The Doctor all this trauma and backstory with Gallifrey being destroyed. It was a very slow process to get him to open up about it to anyone, and even then, The Doctor hasn't stopped to process anything since. Bookending the era with the earliest post-time war Doctor (that would come back to the show. I miss you Eccleston) getting to slow down, spend the rest of his regeneration finally dealing with everything that's happened, and heal? Gorgeous. After 13 bottling up all her emotions, The Doctor needs this to be able to move on and grow, but therapy sessions and grocery shopping aren't exactly great sci-fi. This bit needs to happen off-screen because it can't be fixed with just a couple of conversations. And having 14 do it instead of 15 lets us jump straight into 15 with the personality we see in the special.

Now, Ncuti and RTD can start the next era with a new chapter of the story with a cleaner slate, letting The Doctor evolve in ways we haven't seen before. Fleshing out the timeless child / flux and exploring what repercussions the salt had are the new backstory, just like the time war started the last era. (Ik a lot of people hate tc but I think it's an unfinished story that I'm willing to see through to the end) I think it will be refreshing and exactly what we need to reinvigorate the character and the show as a whole.

Hello Dragon Age people

I’m not going to post a lot about DA probably, at least not until I play, but I may comment on any news.

While I’m never a negative person, I can’t guarantee I’ll be excited and upbeat, my main mood for da4 is still skeptical and I’ll give my thoughts, good or bad, on the news.

So consider this a heads up, if you only want 100% positivity you’re always free to unfollow (I do not check my followers, it’s not weird)

Honestly, I am so, deeply, utterly uninterested in cynicism. Armchair commentators leaning back languidly with a smug look on their faces to tell you ‘that will never work’. People who roll their eyes when you explain what you’re trying, because it’s not a perfect effort so why bother? You know what, I don’t care if I’m naïve. I don’t care if I’m gullible or unrealistic or earnest. The world wants every day to grind you down with work and adverts and bad news and needless, casual cruelty. It’s powerful and worthwhile to keep choosing kindness, to keep choosing optimism, to maintain your principles and do what you can. If you can’t dismantle the system alone (and newsflash, none of us can), then you do what small acts of resistance are possible for you, and you network with others to form community. Like I know there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism, but I can still buy from small businesses and B Corps, because it’s better than not trying, even if only for my own psyche. I know my individual actions won’t make a difference, but I can still seedbomb and sign petitions and go to protests, and upcycle and cook for my neighbours. Everything you do is ultimately too small to change things and will probably even fall short of your own ideals. Heck, we’re all going to die one day, and nothing can prevent that - there’s no magic fix or salvation. But I am baffled and enraged by the idea that the best response to that is just to give up. This is the work of our entire lives, and those who came before and those who will come after. Despair is a luxury and it’s not a good look. So I guess if you like being cynical and providing critique without prefiguration, or complaining about the state of the world without ever getting off your arse and doing something about it, then don’t follow me! We live in different realities.

i think men should be banned from creating magical girl series. especially """""dark and subversive"""" magical girl series. just fundamentally i don't think they respect the genre enough to be subverting it or really going anywhere near it

something I’ve been thinking abt is how many people think Makoto is immune to despair. I don’t think he is. I think becoming the ultimate Hope was BECAUSE he felt despair. He wouldn’t have fully reached that point without Junko. Makoto becoming such a beacon was his last attempt to avoid completely falling and it wasn’t because he didn’t feel despair, it was because he was too damn stubborn to allow everything to go to waste and he refused to sacrifice his beliefs for someone else’s. His inner monologue tells me he DID experience the same new low the other suvivors did in the final trial, but at the point where he had the choice to give up and die, he looked at the others and he looked at Junko and he couldn’t allow it to happen, not out of self preservation, but because the idea that Junko would have control over their lives made him FURIOUS. and that utter refusal to die kicked in, wether luck or otherwise, and he made the concious effort for one last push while something in him was breaking. He had to be broken in order for the Ultimate Hope to come through so aggressively, bc it could only exist in the face of the Ultimate Despair. He snapped the same way she did, but in the other direction. In what could have been his final moments he chose to embody everything Junko wasn’t, and every single optimistic and luck fueled ideal in him suddenly charged forward and pushed him. It was a combination of the final straw and a choice. Makoto isn’t immune to feeling despair, he’s just too stubborn to fall into it of his own volition. I think that’s why I like that scene in DR3 so much. People were SO SHOCKED Makoto actually fell for the tape, that he actually became despair for a moment. I saw people getting mad or disappointed, saying it was pathetic and Makoto seemed to fall from some sort of pedestal for them. Honestly part of me wonders if that sort of mentality, which clearly people had in universe, affected Makoto a bit. Like he started to see himself as less of a person, subconsciously. Prompting him to take more risks, less self preservation, act way more bold. It seems he has to be reminded a lot not to put himself in danger by his friends, to not do something too reckless. All over the place I would see in regards to that scene either this frivolous ‘oh this was just angst drama with no meaning behind it’ or ‘he can do better than that. he’s so weak’ or ‘come on, there’s no way he’d fall into despair, he’s the Ultimate Hope!’ This kind of mentality, which was kind of ironic considering Ryota was there the entire time saying the same thing and treating Makoto the same way. Like Makoto was superhuman. Like Makoto didn’t feel despair the same way ‘normal people’ did. In a way that was also how Munakata saw Makoto. Makoto stopped being a PERSON to the world when he became Ultimate Hope, he became a concept, a belief system, much the same way Junko ascended beyond herself. But the difference is that treating Makoto that way is the opposite of the reason Makoto became such a representative for hope. He wasn’t doing something no one else could. He was doing something everyone had the chance to, he just… was a little more optimistic, a little more stubborn, a little more ‘gung-ho’ about things. He just took the lead where no one else did, where no one else knew they even COULD in the face of Junko’s unstoppable force. She had overcome the biggest threats and obstacles in the world, what could one person do? And the answer Makoto found was, anything. Everything. It doesn’t all rest on Makoto, he’s just the one that was inspired to try to do what seemed like the impossible. But as evidenced by the change in his friends after that trial, it’s clearly not something only Makoto is capable of. The others pulled out of despair thanks to Makoto, but it was their choice to do so.

“But… this world is so huge, and we’re so small. What can we do…? No, we can probably do anything. Yeah! We can do anything!”