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loriache · 12 days

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"I've been waiting for ages for somebody to unmask them."

This moment tends to elicit negative reactions in a first read through, and I've got some opinions about why where Kabru is coming from here actually makes a lot of logical sense. So I thought I'd elaborate on that.

I think people hear this and go, "He thinks they must be hiding something because they gave money to someone? What a cynic." Or "he dislikes them because they did charity?? What's wrong with this guy!". And obviously, a lot, a lot is wrong with him. But I think this makes more sense than it seems at first glance! What people evaluating this judgement miss is why Kabru is paying attention to Laios and co to begin with.

Kabru knows of the Touden siblings because (he's a little bit of a stalker-) he is keeping an eye on all the relevant parties in events developing on the island, in order to be able to guide them to his preferred outcome. This includes adventurers because they are the ones actually exploring the dungeon! He's well aware that something as minor as internal tensions between party members could be key to the historical events that are developing. (He would love the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.)

His desired outcome is that whatever the rewards are of breaking the dungeon's curse, whether that's kingship or the ancient elven secrets of dungeons, are claimed by:

A) a short lived person

B) Someone who will be a good, effective leader and/or use those secrets and the power they carry wisely, with foresight, and to establish a political bloc for short lived people.

The person he can best trust to do this is, of course, himself. But due to his PTSD regarding dungeons and monsters, he's not able to develop the necessary skills to conquer the dungeon. Once he realises this, he starts looking for someone else who he can support to that end.

But most of the adventurers don't have any intentions of conquering the dungeon, don't have the skills, or are unsuitable in other ways. In fact, it seems like some potentially suitable people are the Toudens. There are a lot of good rumours about them going around - they actually seem to have a very positive reputation! That's what Kabru means when he says "unmask".

So when Kabru is observing something like them giving money to an old comrade from their gold-peeling days, he doesn't consider it a problem because "they're giving money to this person who doesn't actually need it" or because they must have some dark secret if they act superficially nice. I think he actually understands this situation and what it implies about Laios (in particular) perfectly well.

Laios and Falin gave money to an old comrade who got injured and couldn't work. That person then healed up but kept taking their money. Then he used the money to start smuggling illicit goods to the island.

The key is that for Kabru, the problem here is the same as with the corpse retrievers - people using the dungeon's resources to fuel dangerous, selfish, or violent pursuits cause problems for the island, attract more criminals and people with motives other than breaking the curse, and increase the chances of the whole situation ending in tragedy.

Kabru is willing to work with the Shadow Lord of the island if it gets him to his goal - he isn't scrupulous - but the criminal element of the island increasing is something he sees as a major issue.

Also, when you're evaluating someone as a candidate for power, riches, secrets, potentially kingship - then being curious about how the money you give to people is going to be used is kind of a relevant trait!

Interpersonally, Kabru's actually very easygoing - I mean, Mickbell isn't exactly an upstanding guy, is he! But Kabru likes him and they get along well. These traits wouldn't be a problem at all in a friend, or a comrade, or someone Kabru was confident he could use. But he can't get a handle on Laios, and Laios is someone who has the potential to be a major player!

On Laios' end, this is the same as with the marriage seeker who joined their party. She kept asking for things and he gave them to her, because he tries to be nice to others. He even gives her money! It's the exact same thing.

That's fine, but it became a problem because he basically wasn't interested in her motives, didn't notice she was trying to manipulate him, and it also didn't occur to him that the other party members would notice or be affected. We can assume the situation with the gold peeler is the same. When Kabru says that "It's not that they're bad people, they just aren't interested in humans," he isn't wrong.

The extent to which this is true of Laios is linked to his autism imo, (because it isn't just disinterest - he genuinely isn't able to notice nonverbal cues that people are lying to him or have ulterior motives) but to a greater or lesser extent I think it's a very common trait. Most people aren't actually that interested in other people who aren't close to them. Kabru is the weird one here. It isn't an issue except as a leader - which is why we see an immediate comparison to the Island's Lord, because that's how Kabru is evaluating them.

And disinterest in/lack of ability with people to the extent Laios exhibits it, it does, actually, make him a worse leader... it's just that as we see in the story, people can help him out. The rest of the party tell him the marriage seeker is taking advantage of him so he tells her he can't give her special treatment anymore. They're pissed and it's a crisis point - he couldn't have recovered their trust without Marcille and Falin - but that's exactly the point. With Marcille and Falin, he was able to recover their trust.

And he has other good traits that make up for it, such as his intelligence, strategic knowledge, open-mindedness and sense of fairplay.

Kabru doesn't disqualify Laios as a candidate based on what he sees about him from afar, though - he still tries very hard to get close to him, obviously hoping that if he manages he can steer Laios to defeat the dungeon and make up for his lack of people-skills in the aftermath. (Which... he does eventually achieve that goal!) He completely fails until the events of the story, so... definitely I think "They just aren't interested in humans" could also partially be a stung reaction to Laios' complete disinterest in him.

Anyway, that's my read on what exactly Kabru's "issue" with Laios is. Obviously, once he does find out what Laios' true nature is like - about his love for monsters - he develops an entirely new set of fears about Laios' priorities. But since Laios kept that a secret until the start of the story, he has no idea of that yet.

Given all that, I think it's interesting that he says that he doesn't think that the Toudens are suitable to defeat the dungeon, and that he's hoping they'll turn out to be the thieves. As some of his few potential candidates, people who he thinks may play a big role in the island's future, you'd think he'd hope they would be good people!

I suppose it's better, in his eyes, because it means that he's involved in something "interesting". They haven't just had their stuff stolen by regular criminals (boring, puts them further away from his goal) - they've been caught up in the beginning stages of "a historic event". The desperate and dwindling group forgetting morals in their quest to retrieve their lost comrade probably appeals to his sense of melodrama. Because he also just... loves drama.

Despite it being "uglier than anything he was expecting", he still pursues Laios as the person he wants to conquer the dungeon pretty much as soon as it becomes clear that he won't be able to do it himself and they are out of time. That's because... well, to be fair, there aren't any other options. And he fits standard A: he's short-lived!

and Kabru still hopes he can fit standard B, too, and be persuaded to use the power he wins for good. No matter how many nightmares he has about Laios, or whether he thinks about killing him. He doubts him, but ultimately he puts his faith in him and seems happy after the manga's ending that he made the right decision.

#dungeon meshi #dungeon meshi manga spoilers #dungeon meshi meta #kabru of utaya #laios touden #labru #laios x kabru #dunmeshi #og post #kabru is such a big picture thinker. and he evaluates people more than he judges them imo #the hater jokes are funny but the people he judges most harshly arent laios and co. they're people like the island's lord.#but you don't see that as clearly because he isn't interested in the island's lord. he understands him. finds him contemptible but useful.#whereas laios lives in his brain rent free because he WANTS to understand him but doesnt quite.#even though he sees the elves as a major threat to his ultimate goals and dislikes the way they treat short lived races #he still understands and evaluates mithrun as an individual based on his own merits #he's one of the characters who is least judgemental in that sense because while he's always making judgements and evaluations #he's also constantly revising them whenever he gets more information #my beautiful machiavellian prince <3 #it's genuinely a really laudable way of understanding others imo.#the only problem is that because he's driven towards his goals by his PTSD and survivors guilt #he pushes himself into situations (the dungeon and also interpersonally) that trigger him or even just upset him #without regard for what he authentically wants or his own wellbeing.

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housecow · 1 month

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i love when a feedee is obviously a little dumb… like, awww you really couldn’t stop, could you?? no wonder you’re so big. did the thought to stop eating ever cross your mind, or did you just finish everything on your plate because that’s what you were always told to do? did you even realize your portion sizes were getting bigger, too? i bet you get a little mad when people point out how much you’re eating. of course it’s not your fault, you didn’t know any better..

stupid feedees that have to be told they’re out of control. they think they’re not even that big yet

#i understand if this is too much . pls lmk and i will delete #i am also not a feeder but sometimes i read thru a profile and am like. awwww #i don’t like the obvious fake bimbo feedee stuff #i like the ppl that are obviously a little dim #it’s cute when they don’t know anything besides being a fatass #goals fr #how fat do i need to be to get that empty mind vibe

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frodo-a-gogo · 2 months

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Let us be brutally honest with ourselves and with eachother for a moment. If he weren't obese you motherfuckers would be capable of percieving evrart claires sexy sexy moral ambiguity and complex charms

#i am (lesbian) sipping him like a fine DESSERT WINE #my evidence by the way is very simple and very damning. joyce messier. there i said it.#if you guys can appreciate the fact that Joyce is a complex figure worthy of disgust yes but also worthy of empathy #despite being a venal coward facilitating acts of violence and slaughter of the organized working poor of martinaise in the name of capital #if you can understand that she is a dimensional figure while also being an embodiment of the moral apathy and cruelty if capital owners #but you cant look at evrart and see that he is (while deeply flawed and morally suspect) also a dimensional figure #on top of the fact that his motivations are eminently relatable and dare i say it baser #and his greatest failing imho is in failing to advocate for the interests of *all* the poor of martinaise #opting instead to marginalize the inhabitants of the fishing village in favor of a power grab in the interests of himself and his union #though this is imo a bit of a grey area morally. undeniably a wrong and bad thing to do but done in service of clairs political goals #to gather power to advocate for the working class against ultraliberal monoliths like wild pines and fascistic orgs like krenel #still super wrong but i can follow the moral arithmetic there tho i don't like it #but like my point is if u can see that joyce is evil and pathetic but still cool and sexy but you consider clair flatly distasteful #thats cus hes not conventionally attractive #cus he is *every bit* as dimensional and interesting as joyce and he is not nearly as politically shite even if hes interpersonally a jerk

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voistly · 2 years

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do you think the obsession with ‘style consistency’ in online art communities is mostly caused by this idea that your art style needs to be easily marketable & recognizable as a brand (especially when you’re working as a freelancer). i see the /least/ amount of progress in my art whenever i try to aim for style consistency. i don’t know exactly where i’m going with this but i think there’s some sort of connection between trying to monetize/market your art & limiting your growth as an artist. and i think it’s very sad.

#in theory i don't really want to monetize my art i just want to make things. but if i was going to make money out of anything #i'd at least want it to be something i like doing. you understand my problem.#i don't know if i posted this before & deleted it. i have a tendency of deleting my thoughts as soon as i post them. but #this is something i think about a lot. especially when i think about my goals for the future. like opening up a patreon. or making a website #i don't know what makes my art 'my art' other than the fact i made it. i don't know how to theme my future patreon or my website #and it stresses me out thinking that i'll do better if i can market it in a specific linear way #that isn't really natural to how i think about art in general

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uncanny-tranny · 7 months

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I think a lot of discussions would be made better by recognizing that masculinity and femininity aren't inherently preferred, but adherence to cishet standards is, which is slightly different.

This is why a masculine trans man* or a feminine trans woman* often still face stigma - it isn't that they aren't gender conforming to the gender they are. It is that cishetero standards do not want trans people to exist at all, in any capacity.

#trans #transgender #lgbt #lgbtq #ftm #mtf #nonbinary #transphobia #transphobia tw #it's just frustrating when the conversation is 'oh well [x] is ALWAYS rewarded!'#because in certain contexts it won't be #the sweeping generalization and assumptions will only alienate others who may have similar interests and goals #whenever i see these conversations it does feel pretty antagonistic toward people percieved as 'rewarded' for the way they're treated...#...and it's odd to me because it's not challenging any systems in any way. challenging the systems itself is a very momentous task...#...so while i do understand if somebody isn't ready or able to challenge those systems that doesn't mean the answer is going after...#...individuals. basically this is a branch off the tree of 'is this punching up or just attacking somebody?'

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beatcroc · 1 year

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pest control.

bonus:

*UPDATE: i made a sequel

#the pizzeria is closed forever bc a clone threw up. just kidding. but seriously whos gonna clean that up #pizza tower #peppino spaghetti #fake peppino #gustavo and brick #gustavo and not brick rather but that's probably the tag that people use as catchall so whatever #hey have yuo guys LOOKED at the unused sprite for gustavo's pizza place.... my man has ONE wall to his name #ANYWAY as i have said my goal is to make fp as harmless and cute as i can but also just constantly really disturbing #you ever had your pet throw up in front of you and it just gives you the most guilty and pathetic look in the world #and you just gotta be like. ohhh noooo buddy it's ok ur good...#i think we subconsciously tolerate a lot of weird things like that from pets #things that would be much harder to pass if done by something the approximate shape of a human man. is what im saying.#fake pep isn't a pet but he Is a beast so yknow. also no bricks were harmed in the making of this post i prommy #he probably understands brick's off limits its fine. its fine. noise however....#on god peppino is going to weaponize this guy #arting #pizzaposting #Popular post #also this is Not the next installment of fake pep adventures this is an unrelated aside. just goofin.

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maxsix · 26 days

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#I just randomly re watched this today #choi san #san #ateez #ateez gif #san gif #maxsixgif #seonghwa #park seonghwa #i see you psh......and i understand #sanhwa supremacy #listen tho: i appreciate san in any form he comes in #i loved him before and i love him now #i'm glad he's happy with his body #this man identifies goals and manifests #the definition of smart hard work

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meenah · 1 year

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im so sad the guy making the 6+ language minecraft server sucks so bad because that is a perfect study for a linguistic anthropology person like me but knowing the person running it it will be a mess and people will be bummed with it in like 20 seconds

#grace post #like if the goal was to study. how people try to communicate across languages and cannot understand each other. that is a genuinely #very interesting concept. but thats much better studied in a less serious joking environment and not the... lore stuff the guy running it #seems to prefer.#this is also why i find the spanish-english smp where most but not all people are bilingual to be great to study. aurgh

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whitesunlars · 6 months

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targeting civilians. murdering them, raping them, torturing them, and then desecrating their bodies. annihilating entire families. kidnapping babies as young as 6 months and Holocaust survivors as old as 100. shooting down attendees at a rave that was for peace. this is not freedom fighting. this is not liberation. and this will certainly not free palestine.

all this does is cause more suffering for both israelis and palestinians. all this causes is war and death and atrocities.

it is terrorism. if you try to justify it, you are supporting terrorism.

#jumblr #jewish #israel #peace #what's heart breaking is most in gaza have been polled in favor of increasing ties with israel #what's heart breaking is how many people are showing how deeply seeded their antisemitism is #and i'm sure i'll get hate for this but what's really heart breaking is how little people seem to understand #israel is not a colonial construct #the jewish people are indigenous to israel #israel is SUCCESSFUL decolonialization #there is no occupation in gaza #that has not been any israelis or jews in gaza since 2005 #the blockade only went up in 2007 when Hamas took over and began terrorizing israeli citizens #if this was about the blockage there would be the same thing happening in egypt #it's not about the blockage #Hamas's charter declares that their goal is not to ~free palestine~ but to murder all jews #this is antisemitism #this is what the nazis did #if you think for a second you would have stood up to the nazis #but justified what is happening right now #you're wrong and you're an antisemite

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theminecraftbee · 4 months

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incidentally, for anyone wondering about the current state of me playing vault hunters: I’ve been playing on a server with some friends for a few months and am level 89, have several absurdly expensive endgame items unlocked, and am going “I mean I technically don’t NEED a fission reactor, but I feel like there’s a point in every bee’s life where really, why not harness the unlimited power of nuclear energy?”

#vh talk #it seems this playthrough my self-imposed endgame goal is ‘make an obscene power grid’ so THAT’S WHAT I’M DOING #I can ALREADY generate way more power than even with my mek factories going I really NEED #but I’ve heard the digital miner is expensive and that’s my next long grind target #besides. it’s not about practicality. It’s about HARNESSING THE POWER OF THE ATOM #you understand.

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kaltacore · 10 months

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the way cole makes varric conflicted is so delicious i think. most of the characters are uncomfortable around him because they're genuinely terrified of demons and the fade and magic in general but varric is a completely different case. the thing is, he doesn't see cole as a demon at all because he doesn't want to.

he acts like he doesn't care about this stuff. that's a little weird kiddo around here and he wants to befriend him. teach him something even. why not. that's a little guy who's a little too good with knives and can't pick up a single social clue at the same time.

but there it is. the "he could have been a person" line if cole is made more spirit. varric is so upset about it because it's not like he saw cole as, well, a spirit who got a little too human. for varric, he was a human first, a weird kid second. the spirit part didn't even come into consideration because. well. it would make him question things. you know where it goes.

every time he starts bitching about anders he brings up justice. justice drove him mad. justice took over him. justice this, justice that. justice is a scapegoat because the thought that someone varric was friends with was actually willing to blow up the chantry and it wasn't just some evil demon's wish is a very unsettling one. varric's friends may be crazy but they're cool and make no irreversible life decisions of that extent, don't they? blondie turned out this way because he let a demon possess him and make him do terrible things. completely out of the blue.

it's either varric's ex-friend has never been driven crazy by some inherently evil entity and there was a whole other person around him all along and that anger he used to mock was coming from the same place as compassion's urge to become a killer or that little weird but kind kid he started to care about has never been and will never be a real kid. he can't have both. a bitter pill to swallow for someone who has never picked a side in his life

#got a lot of cole thoughts yesterday. can't help myself #anyway. varric really must have not just apostate issues but also spirit issues now. a whole existential crisis #i mean. yeah. he was backstabbed (from his perspective) by his apostate buddies twice #but he also almost adopted a spirit guy. and before that he never took another one seriously for 6 years up until he and his host teamed up #and set varric's favourite city on fire. well i guess he has some mental gymnastics to do from time to time now #because cole is nice. he also kills people but who doesn't these days. also these people are bad so it's fine.#he wouldn't blow up a building for a greater goal or something. or would he if he becomes a spirit again #or maybe it's not about spirits and humans at all. i guess varric would rather not. find this out.#ofc his problem with anders is understandable on a character level and it's not only about justice. but he brings him up. well. a lot #and he never was interested in justice as a separate person. he was like. an evil unhinged anders for him. and then cole happened. and. yk #cole #varric tethras #dragon age

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volitioncheck · 8 months

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does near every single post-canon DE fic out there need to be tagged ‘Sober Harry Du Bois’? i’m getting so tired of it.

do i expect every single piece of fan content to have to fully delve into the often-depressing always-complex topic of addiction? not really. sometimes you just want to write/read a silly fluffy romance one-shot, whatever. i get it. but i think my issue is specifically with the fact that for nearly every sillyfluffy au out there, there almost must be a ‘sober harry du bois’ tag. and it does feel very slapped-on more often than not.

i think to me it is an unconscious statement that nothing *good* can ever happen to harry du bois until he is completely and permanently sober. before solving the next big case, he has to be sober. before quitting the force, he has to be sober. before falling in love with kim, he has to be sober. before accomplishing anything, starting any sort of recovery, making any life improvement, he must first be sober.

sobriety as a goal, as a journey, and honestly as a concept in of itself is not as cut and dry as so many people think it is. and i think it would serve a lot of people well if they did some introspection on the implications of how nearly every single post-canon fic that isn’t dealing directly with harry’s addiction have him as completely sober instead.

if the plot of the fic isn’t going to touch directly on harry’s substance use (and again, i’m not demanding that every single fic should), why does that mean that sober!harry must be the default?

i think i am just tired of reading a casefic, a smutty one-shot, a fantasy au, whatever, where it almost seems that before getting on with the plot, the author feels obligated to first assure us that the harry we’re reading about is a Sober Harry. it’s established with a couple lines in the exposition, probably about his improved appearance, a tag up top, and then never brought up again; a checkmarked box. like the societal image of An Addict has completely prevented people from being able to imagine a person just, continuing to live life, while still struggling with addiction.

life happens, with all of its backslides and achievements, mundanity and changes, to people with drug addictions just as much as people who don’t. is a post-canon harry who isn’t sober not worth writing about?

i think so. i think the game we all played thinks so too. in fact i think that sentiment is woven into the game’s very core. i just wish i saw that reflected in our fan content more.

#i really hope my point is understandable in that it isn’t that i think that stories where harry *does* become sober aren’t also valuable.#or that i want every post-canon harry to *not* be sober.#but rather questioning why there seems to be a subconcious necessity for harry to be sober to have kind things happen to him.#disco elysium #harry du bois #also obligatory because i am putting this in the main tag:#this isn’t a callout or vague on any one person/creator/group of people in particular #it’s more of a prompt to discussion on a very broad trend #one informed by insidious biases that live in all of us because we live in a society etc #that none of us are immune to but all of us have a responsibility to acknowledge #if there is goal to this post it’s to provoke introspection. not individual attacks #anyways i love quietly consuming fan content until something annoys me enough to make my own post about it #i do wish i Participated in fan communities more tbh especially this one i’m just shy lol #most of the time.#me talking

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