I love my paranoid brain because I'll be feeling physically bad for a while and there will be plenty of non-serious explanations (lack of exercise, bad diet, smoking, idk a simple illness, whatever) but I'll be terrified that I'm either dying or becoming in some way physically disabled

So apparently even if I gain muscle strength from exercising, I can't actually use it because my connective tissue is fucked up -_-

I still have a lot to learn about ehlers danlos syndrome so idk what exactly this means other than I'm feeling really discouraged because I'm I'm pain and I'm doing what I was told to do to make it better and it isn't making it better, it's making me feel worse

Have had a couple of days and a rewatch and some mulling to put together my thoughts:

The good:

the writing - I've talked at length about the use of metaphor, symbolism, allegory and the like to add meat and substance to the narrative

the continuity tied in to S1 and the foreshadowing coming full circle, plus running themes continuing

the music is flawless throughout - both the soundtrack with songs and the original score and the way old motifs are used to add parallels and depth to scenes

the acting across the board has been staggeringly good. Especially for Taika, Rhys and Con. I can see why so many reviews had been raving about it.

the bits of set-up for S3 that have been planted if/when they get it

new characters who are an absolute delight

Family Trauma the TV show - intense to watch but cathartic af

Badass ladies and the soft boys who love them

Auntie.

The bad:

too much story and not enough time to tell it

sacrificing a lot of crew-related stuff - I know this is primarily the Ed and Stede story, but we're told that Olu was always talking about Zheng, but we never even got a single line of it. Buttons' disappearance gets one sus line. We gloss over the probation and why Ed is back in his leathers literally the next day. Again, I know, time constraints, but it does feel weaker for it.

speedrunning so much that it's taken several rewatches to catch everything that's going on - yes, it can work as a narrative device, but not all the time

still not over Zheng falling for Ricky's gift. Do not trust the aristocratic white dude, especially not when you've been blackmailing him. And I know there's some logical sense to her being so used to being able to manipulate desperate people on the fringes with both carrot and stick, but it feels like severe underestimation on her part about how ruthless and cruel and petty Ricky could be. He's not like the pirates - he has the power and privilege and it feels like she ignored that.

whatever that Teal Oranges pivot was so Jim could have a girlfriend, especially since they didn't have time/space to actually develop the Olu/Zheng and Jim/Archie stuff. Archie was barely a scrape of characterisation because of time constraints.

The ... Forbs Boding

Izzy - it falls under the typical archetype of Loss of a Role Model especially given all Ed's dad issues, which I thought we were beyond, but then it also fits with the running motif of the show of change, death and rebirth. We've had confirmation of the existence of a place between life and death plus a character who was beaten to death coming back from it and a seawitch turning up at the grave. I can see why it was done as it has been foreshadowed since "the only retirement we get is death" but after all his growth in S2, having Ricky be the one to get the jump on him is... hm. I feel like they had him and Ricky talking and Ricky causing his death for a reason. Feels like there's set-up for S3 planted and ready. My Forbs, they are A-Boding. ffs, they Obi-Wanned him right after he did a speech about "our spirit will last beyond your whole fucking empire". Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine vibes.

The way trauma is/isn't being dealt with - I feel like there's stuff there that is set up for S3 as well, because we've seen how Stede is still bottling all his stuff and hasn't dealt with any of it, while Ed has done some processing and started to make peace with himself over it. Stede still has his mental lockbox and while he tries to pretend it isn't there, it still informs so many of his decisions.

All the Star Wars vibes - I've always been convinced this was the Empire Strikes Back season and now, they have all the pieces in play for the Return of the Jedi arc: Stede and Ed are together and recovering but will have a role to play, Izzy is in carbonite with a seawitch control panel, their allies are out there getting pieces in place, and the Imperial figurehead villain who showed up in S2 is still out there and convinced he holds all the power. And I just realised that this means that if they use Hornigold, he's the equivalent of Boba Fett - Bounty Hunter for the Empire XD

On the whole, I am content with it and am already having thoughts about the potential for S3, but I find it incredibly frustrating knowing how much more it could have been with the budget/time they wanted and didn't get.

Do you mind elaborating on how Dave was *sexually* abused by Bro? It's been a long while since I've read Homestuck but i hear many other creators say that that's an "absurd, chronically online" thing to say. so you specifying that that's exactly what happened morbidly piqued my interest (no pushing of course, given the gross subject matter i completely understand if this is not something you're comfortable with answering)

The idea of calling that statement "Absurd" and "Chronically Online" is baffling to me, because you'd honestly need to do significantly more mental gymnastics to say that Dave hasn't been sexually abused by Bro. It's textual, and it's a major part of Dave's intro.

Putting this under a cut, because you're entirely correct- this is a really touchy, disturbing subject matter. But it still needs to get talked about. Lucky for you, I'm perfectly okay with talking about the darker aspects of Homestuck's writing... Without filtering it through a fetishistic lens. I apologize in advance if this is more rambly than my usual essays. It's an uncomfortable series of topics that's hard to tackle for any normal person.

Let's do this.

Content Warning: Heavy Discussion of CSA, Mentions of Incest and Pedophilia.

I think where people are getting tripped up is that they hear the phrase "Child Sexual Abuse" and automatically think of the worst forms of it possible. It's an easy trap to fall into, and a pretty understandable one. The word "Abuse" is loaded, and perceived as an inherently violent, extreme action- a callous, sadistic disregard for the safety of someone who is seen as weaker, something done only by an unfeeling, inhuman monster who wishes to dominate the victim. It's a violent word, so people envision it as a violent crime.

I can't fault anyone for hearing the term "Child Sexual Abuse" being applied to two brothers with a significant age gap and instantly assuming that what's being said is that the older brother is committing absolutely heinous acts on the younger brother. That is easy to digest. That's the simplest takeaway one can get from that statement. It's a fair assumption. I can't fault anyone for assuming that the phrase "Dave was a victim of CSA under Bro's care" means that the person stating it thinks that Bro sexually assaulted Dave. I can't fault them for having the assumption that what is being said is that Bro is an incestuous pedophile. I cannot fault it for a second. It's just the easiest takeaway, and the most mentally and emotionally intense one. It's easy to digest, and easy to get mad at. Because saying that would be wrong.

Most cases of abuse are more subtle and nuanced than its most extreme cases. Sometimes abuse come in the form of Neglect. Even sexual abuse can come in the form of Neglect.

For The Record: We have no reason to assume Bro Strider ever made sexual contact with Dave, nor do we have any evidence to the idea that he even had any sexual thoughts or feelings about him. To assert that idea as fact would be fucked up. But that doesn't automatically negate the presence of sexual abuse.

What I want everyone to understand is that it is sexually abusive to constantly, wittingly expose a child to sexual material, be it websites, videos, photos, or objects. It is sexually abusive to do this, and the fact that Dave is surrounded by sexual objects and pornographic material- and has been since he was a literal baby- should absolutely concern people. The comedy of it is surface level, and a quick prod quickly reveals the abject horror of the situation.

Bro's main business appears to be in the porn industry, specifically making puppet fetish content. A parent being in the porn industry and having a fetish... Isn't inherently a bad thing. Kinks and fetishes are normal, and so is being a sex worker. If that's what you want to do, go for it. But Bro leaves his Smuppets everywhere, which are, by and large, sex toys. Whether or not they are for his own personal sexual gratification is irrelevant to the debate- if you are a parent and your business is making and selling dildos, it is still your job as a parent to hide those dildos from your kid, even if they're not for your own use.

Dave knows this. He knows that Smuppets are sex toys. Dave is very aware of the fetish porn site that Bro runs. Bro knows that Dave knows this. The sexual boundary between Bro and Dave is incredibly thin- inappropriately so for one's own young child. And Dave, the child in this situation, knows this lack of boundaries is wrong... But he's genuinely not in the right place to fully acknowledge it. He's too unsafe still, so he has to keep making excuses to try and bury his trauma.

[Homestuck, page 461.]

The thing you have to keep in mind throughout reading Dave's entire introductory segment is that "Irony" is a code word. A lot of abuse victims, when they're still too unsafe to fully acknowledge their abuse, tend to make excuses for their abuser's behavior in the form of "At Least" statements. As in, "At least they don't hit me", or "At least I can still talk to my friends". Things of that nature. "Irony" is Dave's "At Least". That's him saying "At least this is a joke", "This is creepy, but at least it's not serious", "at least he doesn't mean it".

All of this Smuppet stuff is creepy, and Dave wishes Bro would stop. He wishes he'd put his puppet sex toys away, wishes he'd stop tormenting him every waking moment of his life, wishes he'd stop forcing him to fight. He wishes he wasn't trapped in an apartment that feels like hell, and he wishes he didn't have to hide any drinks and food he could get his hands on in the closet to get any chance at sustaining his own life and body. He wishes he was a normal kid in a normal home with a parent that loves him, just like his friends.

But hey, it's all ironic. At least Bro doesn't mean it, right?

It all stops being abuse when you declare it to be a prank, right?

It's fine, guys.

[Homestuck, page 467.]

Totally fine.

Trigger warning - this question contains ask about domestic abuse/ abuse by a partner. If this makes you uncomfortable, please don't read further ahead and just ignore this ask.

Do you think Remus (canon) is capable of becoming an abusive partner????

Apologize for the in the face and dark question.

But whenever I think about the things he did and didn't do and what he said and what he lied, I somehow feel scared Or uncomfortable reading a canonical version of him. (Like I get the feeling that I won't want someone like him to be my freind Or partner. But that is a personal thing. )

So bit back story....

A friend of mine recently got our of the clutches of this man, her husband, who abused her.

And i am really obsessed now in comparing what she told me about her ex husband and Lupin.

Like she said he was a different person with her alone and a different person with his friends and colleagues. She honestly thought that she was in the wrong because everyone just loved her husband this quite guy with the most sarcastic comments made at right time to make everyone laugh and admire him for.

And the funny thing was he himself kept on apologizing and then saying he didn't mean to hit her, it just happened. I dont know but I get the feel that with how much Remus is a person who holds his cards close to his heart and wishes to present himself ...

And I am talking about all sorts of abuses here. Physical, emotional, mental, verbal, sexual.

Listen, this is an interesting version. Remus actually showed that he could lose control of himself even with people who are weaker and younger than him (that case with Harry). But in his case, I don't see that he is specifically seeking power over a partner (abuse is about one having power over another). He reacts very sharply to Harry, which is naturally not good, but would this be some kind of standard scenario in his relationships, or is it a one-off explosion that he then reflected on and realised? Abusers often apologise, playing their partner on a hot-cold swing to keep the partner hooked with "I'm not really that bad, just a bit uncontrolled, but I actually love you, it's actually you who provoked me, it's all because I LOVE YOU, I didn't want this, I feel very bad, BUT IT'S YOUR FAULT, I can't do anything with my love, forgive me, I love you so much that this love destroys me, WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME, why do you make me hit you" etc.

Does Remus use his reactions as a way to assert his dominance and control over another? Honestly, Remus doesn't really seem like someone who seeks to control and dominate a partner. His reaction is more likely triggered by not being allowed to run away again, i.e., activating his typical avoidance pattern. This is also not the healthiest mechanism, but it all doesn't seem like asserting dominance and control.

Hi, have you played Dot Kareshi III game? The "villager" is really sweet (and a yandere) I think

Phew man, I remember hearing about this game a long time ago back when finding yanderes was like finding a unicorn (now a days sometimes you just run into a unicorn in the middle of the street before it tries to impale you), but I never got to play it, even until now! And even then... well, I mean it really does remind me of when we weren't nearly as blessed with yanderes because... there's not really a lot of yandere content going on, at least in this third iteration.

Just going into the third game, I didn't really know what to expect and it does reference the first two games which I never played. Luckily, Cherry was there to fill me in. Basically the whole premise of Dot Kareshi is that the MC (that's you) have been grinding at this RPG game for years on end, to the point where you've basically ended up breaking the game, changing some of the character's personalities (like making the healer a sadist and the knight a masochist), oneshotting the demon lord so hard that he literally can't access his final form anymore and just basically making all of the main party super overpowered. The first two games are about the Heros in your game's party as well as side characters, while the last game is about the villains (well, mostly villians), which include, a slime enemy that turned human, the demon lord which you oneshotted a while ago thus reducing him into a weaker version, the dark knight who you ignored his side quest and shoved in a wagon so now his sister is dead and unavenged, and of course, the villager who is the stock normal NPC that you have seen throughout your journey. The story starts generally with the game starting on new game plus, and the four love interests getting a wish from a god ala golden axe story (except instead of an axe, it's a bug, like a game bug) and summoning you into their world. After which you go to the villager's house to rest, choose a route you'd like to pursue, eventually go to the demon lord's castle to party and get drunk, talk to a main, go into the hot springs with the villager and attempt to summon yourself back home. The bad ending is always the same with you stuck in the world and continuing to explore the world party, the normal ending your love interest prevents you from returning and you live life with them in the game and the good ending where you drag them into your world and force them to get a job or taxes and falling in love.

Anyways, since we'll be talking about the villager's route, I'll just summarize his. After choosing his route, the villager will end up asking everyone to help out in the village, but strangely enough, there's nobody around. During this time he pairs himself up with you, happy that the two of you can finally be together. He ends up creating a sort of pocket dimension he brings you, hoping to trap the two of you in there together. We see that he actually has the memories of all of the NPC characters in the game that we meet in previous Dot Kareshi games, but was unable to talk to them as he could only say pre programmed lines. He pretty much laments being an NPC as he basically doesn't have a role in the game and could never speak to her directly. However, because he doesn't have a role, he can basically become any role in the game and chooses to be powerful (basically the mentality of like if you are nothing, then you are everything or if nothing matters then everything matters) and gains godlike powers. The other characters come in to try to rescue you but after you accept his feelings, the portal ends and the everyone is brought back to normal. As it turns out because he was finally able to confess his feelings to you, the wish that the god gave him from the beginning was fulfilled and everything is fine now. The rest of the game plays out as above.

In his good ending, he is brought into the real world and more or less decides to become a house husband, cooking, cleaning and doing laundry for you. His plan is to make you rely on him so much that you won't be able to live without him. Then the two of you get ice cream.

In his normal ending, he ends up dragging you back to stay in this world, basically becoming a villager along side him as the two of you work together to gather food.

Like I said, this game is pretty short and it is very comedy focused. Slime and Villager serve mostly as straight men while the Dark Knight and the Demon Lord are usually doing chuuni things (though as most comedy it can be reversed). When it comes to comedy it pretty much nails it as it makes fun of a lot of tropes in RPG games and in general is a pretty fun time, in terms of that. But that being said I think I was expecting more from this game considering how much I saw it back when yanderes were much more rare. I guess I was expecting the Villager to have more (?) yandere moments than we actually got, and while yes, he is a yandere, he doesn't really have any yandere moments outside of his route. Most of the time he just plays straight man and doesn't even get jealous or have a hint of jealousy when other guys get near you, and even in his route he pretty much only uses his god powers once before he never uses it again. His yandere moments pretty much only appear for the brief time he brings you into his portal and again when he goes back into your world. It's there, but again, very short and non consequential. If I had the lens of this being a fun short game, I would probably have liked Villager's route more, but because of the expectation of it having more yandere than it already had, I feel let down about what little there was already. Still cute, just, not a lot going on. I don't think it helps that a lot of Rejet games tend to focus on more darker elements, so that was another thing that skewed my expectations.

Overall, not a bad short game. I wouldn't really say that the yandere in this one is a lot, but it is in there. Good for a small an hilarious time though I will say. I like villager's voice quite a lot since it's rather soft sounding. I also have not listened to the voice drama though I have heard that Villager also has some yandere lines there.

I was thinking about Asriel as the Royal Scientist, and I remember in one post you said in the tags, how you considered drawing him as one for your Asriel survives AU, before saying you can't imagine him holding down any job without freaking out

Now, I'm not asking you to draw him anyway, I'll be fine either way. It is just important context cuz that's what gave me my personal thoughts right now about him, and I wanted to spread them because I think they're optimistic in the end, if cliché and generic (warning, I'm really bad at sympathizing with other people, so I might be just, completely wrong about what I say next)

I have little doubt Asriel would be very lost at first about what he is going to do with his life now that The Barrier is gone. Typical confusion after exiting a time loop, compounded by the years of untouched trauma and other mental health issues. Maybe spiralling further as he may consider himself a burden for all those problems he can't handle on his own

He would try resuming being The Prince, go back to what he thinks people want of him, but it's not going to work, he distrusts himself too much after everything he has done. When he inevitably fails, he hits a new low. But eventually, perhaps with Frisk's encouragement, he finds it in himself to open up about it, talk to other people, seek help

Alphys, who in a very real sense is his creator (slightly more metaphorical in this AU, but she's still the one who woke him up from his coma), and one of the few people who know how he works, might be one of the first people that Asriel speaks to about his problems, feeling that she'd understand. They talk to each other about the regrets that they have, bonding over similar troubles, and maybe shared interests (bonding as friends. Alphys is faithful to her wife, and Asriel is on the aspec, so it doesn't go further)

At some point one of them might just naturally suggest that Asriel help out around the lab, and while he's helping, and they're talking with each other, Alphys realizes just how much knowledge about all sorts of things Asriel has, and one day she offers that he become a full-time assistant at her lab. This freaks him out, and in the moment he rejects it and runs away, which both of them later despair over, in a sense of "oh god I was to hard on him/her, now I destroyed our friendship, I'm the worst, I can't do anything right"

But eventually they talk to each other about it (encouraged by their friends) and they realize that neither is harboring any resentment towards the other, and they make amends. Asriel starts out working with her part-time, and while it's initially very scary for him, and he probably has several other freakouts along the way, I think Alphys, being prone to freakouts herself, would be more than understanding. Eventually he becomes her full-time assistant after all

Hopefully combined with therapy which he really, really should receive, he eventually starts feeling good about himself again, even if it takes years to get there. And he realizes, yes, this is the job he wants to do. He can help people without actually having to be there, with a much more manageable amount of responsibility to handle. He's finally happy, as the Assistant Royal* Scientist (* although at this point it is possible that Asgore and Toriel would abdicate, seeing as their son won't take over from them, it might just be easier to end the monarchist government right then and there)

Of course, while Asriel is immortal, Alphys is not, and as the decades pass, she will get older, weaker, less able to do her job. The day when she resigns from her post to let the (physically) younger Asriel become the next Royal Scientist will be a difficult one for both of them, and even more so when she finally turns to dust, although I hope that by this point he would be better equipped to handle the loss of those close to him. It will still hurt, but I hope with new experiences and skills he's learned over the years, he'll be able to deal with that pain, or the pain when his parents or his other friends die, better than he did with the pain of Chara's death

Frankly, not being seen as royalty anymore, especially by the younger generations who won't remember monarchist rule, he might find life easier as he's no longer so isolated as he was as a prince, no longer has to reach the same standards as before

The trauma, and other pain that follows, they will never fully leave him, but he's got a quite literal eternity to learn how to live with them and not let them control his life. And if mortals can do it, then I think he too can, over the course of several years, or even decades, figure it out. I think, as fucked up as he is, at the end of this nightmare road there is happiness waiting for him, however long it takes him to get there. I just want him to be happy goddammit. And I think that a 30-or-40-something Asriel will be happy

Thanks you for listening to my TED talk, and have a magical day

HI IVE BEEN MEANING TO ANSWER THIS FOR SO LONG CUZ ITS SO GOOD AND IN CHARACTER!!! u are so right for this i LOVE this i dont have much to add on cuz ur points are all so good. asriel has so many issues and i think he would probably feel a Bit Better if he was able to put his knowledge to use to help people and it might help him come to terms with death a little better..... anyway they are siblings and they occasionally bother each other. extremely kind mayor who took over after papyrus and local freak scientist who is seemingly some kind of sludge <3 i may draw more of this when i get the chance cuz the idea of these middle aged freaks is so funny to me i love them dearly

Gege's writing of Gojo Satoru is lazy and bad

Here, I said it.

And I'm of the opinion that "lazy" is an ableist and classicist term thrown around to shame people of their situation, so if I'm using it, I mean it and I'm pissed.

I have been angry since chapter 236 and I fell on an Instagram post, by a fan page, full of the normies fan (aka allocishet boys/men) earlier, which just made me lose it. So, I'm finally going full rant.

I'm using they/them pronouns for Gege, as they use non-gendered pronouns in Japanese. They didn't want their gender to influence the publication (which is a huge problem in the art world, in manga but also in comics and bd (the French-Belgium comics), and I can salute that.

"The Strongest" is not a bad character trait

It is totally possible to tell an interesting story with a character describes as "the strongest in the world", and the idea that Gojo is immediately boring and needed to die for the story to progress is wrong. Superman is an example of this "strongest in the world" character, and he has been thriving for decades. And in manga/anime, we have the great One, who has given us One Punch Man and Mob Psycho. In those two, TWO, stories, One tell us the tale of "the strongest in the world", and One is known to be far from the best artist. So, to sell and have people publish (One Punch Man was originally a webcomic, and the manga isn't drawn by One, but still) and read those manga, it means that One's writing is fucking good. If you have never seen/read Mob Psycho, go do it immediately, it's, imo, the best anime ever. I am still certain that if Reigen was in the jjk's world, everything would be fine, and yes, he still would be a con. One was able to write not one, but two stories about a strongest where you are still sitting at the hedge of your seat during the fights and are so invested, where the other characters still shine and develop their capacities. How? Well, one might be the strongest in a fight, but what about mentally? Emotionally? One explores his characters' flaws and feelings. And the thing is, Gojo has a LOT of flaws that could be exploited to make the story more thrilling. How about how careless he is when fighting, which lead him to be super destructive or letting someone WAY weaker than him get away (Gojo never won a fight perfectly if you look at it)? How he barely shows emotions to others or let himself affected? How he is lonely because of the pedestal the jujutsu society has put him on, and if he got off of it and opened up, he would be way less? A lot of flaws, of "weaknesses", that could be exploited to work on Gojo. That's literally what they did when Gojo got pokeballed, exploited how Gojo does not know how to deal with his emotions because of his upbringing and status, and so, is so deeply affected by the ghost of his one best friend. But it was only to get rid of Gojo, instead of dissecting him. Because, no, we can have that, because it would make him interesting, and Gege hates Gojo.

Hating your characters is an issue

Gege hating on Gojo is funny, until it impacts the writing. And it does, A LOT. Just like loving your character too much can lead you to fail to see the issue in your writings (Catra in She-Ra), hating a character as the same effect. Gege's hate for Gojo led them to be unable to develop him, and to contradict their own writing. For example: Gojo is said to not care about anyone multiple times, Gege even mentioned, outside the manga, that he didn't care about Yuuta or Yuji's lives, he just saw the potential. However, they also wrote Gojo being annoyed at the fact that a teenager was on the death row in jjk 0, Gojo mad that they killed Yuji, Gojo getting angry that civilians are getting killed, Gojo being shaken STILL 10 YEARS LATER by his best friend's betrayal (He cares sooooo much about a man that betrayed him 10 years ago, it's borderline impossible. Like, it's been 10 years, time to stop being soft about this genocidal man, dude. I'm pretty certain that people, after 10 years, either don't care anymore or are pissed at their traitor ex-friend). There's a part of Gege, who is writing an interesting story, that started to develop Gojo, and then, there's the part of Gege that hates Gojo and need to go against this development. When Gojo dies, his dead classmates affirmed he never really cared and was only doing all of this for fun, and it's the final nail in the coffin for me. Gege has a constant need to diminish Gojo's character, that was the issue with Gojo's writing. Gojo couldn't become an interesting "strongest in the world" character because Gege couldn't let him shine. Gege sees Gojo has this uncaring asshole that people only like for his looks (they said that Gojo won the popularity vote only because female readers voted for him, which is so sexist, like women and girls only like a character's looks and cannot appreciate a character's personality and values, but also really diminishing toward his own character, as it would imply nobody could see something interesting in Gojo apart from his looks, but boy, if your character is that popular, it's not just for his looks.) but they could have made it different, a part of them clearly wanted it to be different and knew it was the way to do it. But no! Gege always comes back to hating Gojo and must make him emotionless suddenly. He is never shown to care about the two children HE RAISED for more than 10 years, while still being attached to the man that was is bestie for 3 years more than 10 years ago. That doesn't make sense at all. And he lost the two children he raised while he was pokeballed, after he got distracted. Being distrated by his ex bestie ghost cost him his surrogate family, and we are supposed to believe he is heartless enough to not care??? Gege hates Gojo, and so they keep taking away anything that could make him more interesting. Damn, Gojo wanted to make his students as strong as himself and to change the jujutsu society for the better, and he FAILED. His students are dead (Megumi was at least gone when he was alive) and he never build the new society, so him being fine with his death is so annoying. The strongest actually didn't get what he wanted, he just had "fun" and that was enough, apparently. Yeah, no, fuck you.

YOU WROTE HIM

I'm scared for the futur of jjk

Gege is the creator, the writer, the artist, the mangaka behind Jujutsu Kaisen and so, Gojo Satoru. They are their god. They had the power to make Gojo's interesting, to develop him more, to make him more weak in other aspect, to use his flaws against him, but they didn't. And that's why Gege is lazy to me. Because they refused to do the work to make things better, they chose the easy way to deal with a strong character: killing them. They kept on complaining about Gojo, like they had no power over the writing. And look, they hated Gojo for being "too strong" so they killed him, but now Sukuna and Kenjiro are too strong. Gege just keeps shooting themself in the foot.

This is my personal opinion, and you can disagree completely (don't try to change my mind, tho)

Gege has also mentioned not liking my son, my sun, my boy, Yuji, so what now? Will he also hurt his character because of that? And he has already killed like half of the characters we have been following since the beginning, which is disappointing. Like, I was invested in them, and now I'm supposed to watch some new guys, I have no interested in, fight the big bad? I'm not saying they're bad characters or boring, but it's not the fucking same. It feels like it has just become a "Who is the strongest?! Fight! Fight! Fight!" story, and sorry, but I can watch sports for that little connections or interests in the personal stories or goals (fr, I feel more connection to Teddy Riner, French Judoka, and the strongest in the world. Damn, another strongest interesting guy. He actually lost at the last Olympic Games, we were shocked). I love One Piece (and this is why it is a success) because the characters are following their dreams. They have been going into fights for more than 1000 chapters, and I read them all MULTIPLE TIMES because there's a deep connection to the characters. I love watching Luffy fights because I want him to be the King of the Pirates, because I want the people who have been wronged to get justice, because I want the pos in front of him to get their ass beat. And, as he fights to become King of the Pirates, it has a butterfly effect on the whole world and the oppressive system is crumbling. It's not just a fight. And Jujutsu Kaisen is becoming "just a fight", which seem to be enough to most male reader, but I personally find it boring.

Today's translation #476

Go Yuri Go!!!, Yuri!!! on ICE official fanbook, Hosoya Yoshimasa interview

Part 2.

-- You do you think is a rival of the character that you play?

H: I don't think that Otabek thinks about others as "rivals" that much, in general. I don't think that the feels that he is competing with somebody for getting better scores, or doing better performances. Watching the scenes, when he is saying his monologue, I thought that he rather wants to overcome the clumsy and mentally weaker old version of himself.

-- Please, tell us also something about Otabek and Yurio's interactions.

H: In the show, we see a scene, where Otabek says to Yurio, that Yurio is similar to him. After that he says his declaration of friendship, but in the screenplay, there was a note saying "he likes that in Yurio, that he is similar to him", so when I was playing my role, I was keeping that in mind. But as these two were talking, I couldn't stop thinking about Otabek's undercut, for some reason. I was wondering what actor would play the role of Otabek, if they were to make a live-action movie.

[Notes: YoI live-action movie...💀💀 Only if directed by Sayochin.

@thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai mentioning MAPPA in her reblog gave me some flashbacks 💀

Actually, it's very interesting that in 2019 Avex made another anime movie, Eiga no Osomatsu-san, which flopped (~6 oku yen at box office, for comparison, JJK movie made like 130-140 oku?), and they also managed to make fools of themselves, by claiming that they want at least 666666 people to see the movie and "let's count officially", but it ended up being close to "400000"... (I bet that's another reason, why they were even more wary of IceAdo, after the trailer also flopped, and theaters were like 90% empty). Both IPs' huge popularity was based on fujoshis mainly, and you can actually see that when people were commenting on that movie flop online, they also talked that "YoI is going to be next, bc fujos just get bored and move on..." In YoI's case, it's not that they just moved on, they actively started to hate the creators, and everything that they do, if it isn't 100% about Yuuri being the center of the universe, drawn in a way that they approve of (so in a """uke""" way). Too bad YoI is not a pixiv original fujo doujinshi (I know some people kind of forgot that it isn't), so their requests were actually never met properly 😞

But what's even more interesting though, is that unlike on YoI, they didn't give up on Osomatsu IP, even though it has been already dubbed "owakon", "finished content" by fandom in 2019... And made a live-action movie in 2022 starring Johnnys Smile-upers? ((I just looked it up how it came to be and oh boy, it seems that avex had quite close ties to a child predator with hundreds of victims, as multiple bands were under their label... (It's common for a big Jp entertainment-related company to have ties to him, but still... I never thought of it 🫠...))) So they went for a rebrand for that IP, you can say - now catering mainly to fans of boy idol groups. It's quite clear that YoI is treated.... Differently.]

[ !!!MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD!!! ]

I think it’s really interesting the way the story frames Twilight “softening” because of his family as a bad, detrimental thing—when on the flip side, Yor’s “softening” actually reenforces and strengthens her desire to do what she does to protect the life she has now. It kinda leads me to wonder, what’s the difference in Twilight’s circumstances?

The more I think about it, the more I feel like Twilight has just as much reason—if not more—to be motivated by the fact that he finally has a real, tangible reason (now he has three!) to keep himself alive and safe for. He’s always worked as a spy so that he could aim to create a world where children didn’t cry anymore, but it was this very operation that took this ideal and made it an active constant in his life. He’s never had children—he’s only had the desire to never let them experience what he did. But with Anya under his care, those stakes are higher than they were before.

Which brings me to the whole idea of dispensability as a recurring theme. Nightfall mentions that it was Twilight’s mentality at one point that spies were dispensable. Up until this point, his mentality had been “if I am not ruthless and guarded at all times, I’ll be killed.” And it’s understandable why—the heavily implied reason that he’s built up to the staggering reputation he has now is because upon becoming a spy in the first place, he had no tangible reason to live anymore. Everyone that’s ever known his name is gone, and to the core he’s just a selfless man that doesn’t want anyone to experience that same kind of pain again.

If that ideal alone was enough to drive him to become Westalis’ best agent, who’s to say that giving him a personal reason won’t motivate him even further?

Both the anime and manga seem to frame it in that these extra emotions will only make him weaker, but I personally believe that once Twilight comes around to accepting and embracing the fact that he wants to live and end this cold war for his family, he’ll become even more of a powerhouse than he was before.

I like Jolyne a lot and I think she’s one of the better protags but I’ve always felt kind of bad for completely understanding why some people don’t like p6 (not talking about people complaining in bad faith who partook in the hate train it had a few years ago).

I think there’s a certain subset of fans who’re very overly-defensive as a result of said hate train who accuse any criticism or dislike of the part of coming from misogyny though and it really gets on my nerves because.. people can just not click with certain parts, it’s not uncommon for a Jojo fan to not particularly like at least one part and that’s not any different with p6. Idk it’s just not 2018 anymore, most people moved past that ‘Ugh Jolyne is a Mary Sue Jotaro with boobs, skip part 6 it’s boring as hell.’ mentality a good while ago.

yeah, as someone whose love for jojo is more rooted in the way we can see araki continue to grow and improve as an artist/writer with each part, I definitely find the defensive way some fans react to simple disinterest exhausting. I've said it a lot on here but this is pretty much how I feel about part 4 - story structure issues aside, there's just something about the setting/genre/tone that doesn't appeal to me. meanwhile it's possibly the most beloved jojo part, which is fine lol!

jumping off what you said though, I find the way some fans selectively mishear legit criticisms of araki's writing exhausting....like one of my biggest gripes with stone ocean is the way hermes is completely sidelined for a large chunk of the part. she has such an interesting setup, araki totally fumbles her story and she ends up being one of the most underwhelming jobros because of it. this is a criticism of the way araki's sexist writing makes stone ocean a weaker (and to me, a slightly less enjoyable) part, it's not about thinking hermes isn't a good deuteragonist because she's a woman lol, but that's what some people choose to hear

and of course I do think that even if a lot of the fanbase is past that overt sexism about stone ocean/jolyne, misogyny absolutely tints the way many people read and talk about the part (or neglect to talk about it), so I completely get the frustration and why some fans might have their hackles raised about certain statements....the people who you're talking about are unfortunately a loud minority 😕 which sucks because all the stocean enthusiasts I follow are actual scholars and philosophers

to be clear this is not an attack on you and i enjoy your work. you dont even have to answer this if its too rude or presumptuous in your opinion. but i think its funny seeing your "definitively, if its the source material, they would fucking say that" post while knowing how you feel about the weaker parts of homestuck and also the uh. the epilogues. again this isnt supposed to be an epic own gotcha moment i think everyone is allowed to contain multitudes and shit. im just also a bit mischievous and part of me wants to be the little wondershowzen puppet going "But can we discuss the contradiction"

ah too bad you wanted to be a silly little gotcha puppet but i was thinking about this too! hold my hair back im forming this idea in real time so im about to start just vomiting the fuck up a bunch of half-formed ideas. (this is the second time today ive used this analogy)

the thing is that while i dont like the homestuck epilogues at all, there's no denying that it is largely, in-character, in broad strokes. it's a story which relies on every character being their worst possible self, sure. it is, in a lot of ways, a very public, very messy relapse. it gets at some really ugly parts of what the characters are, and that's just not what i want from homestuck.

it's part of a larger trend of hussie trying really hard to Make Dramatic Art and Tell Stories With A Point that i think really plays against what theyre good at, like. you see this with psycholonials too, just this idea of storytelling where nothing good ever happens and every character is not just flawed, but unbearably, noxiously toxic. and yknow, that's fine too, its literally not an invalid goal for a story to have.

its just not what i really like about homestuck and to a lesser extent problem sleuth. like, as messy as my feelings are about psycholonials, i still think fondly of zhen as a character even if she is the worst person to ever exist.

its like they took "dave being abused by bro came out of nowhere, the rooftop strifes dont really feel textually different from the other guardian strifes" all the way to heart and way overcorrected.

but all that to say, the worst possible self-hood apple hasnt fallen too far from the tree. and that's not strictly an invalid thing to tell a story about. it's just not what i want out of homestuck. and the tangible difference there, imo, is that puts the onus of not liking it on me, rather than hussie, cephiedvariable and ctset. they set out to do something, i didn't like what they did, i had an extended mental breakdown about it that i am still feeling the ramifications of even now, but at some point, the world continued to turn.

i hope you can kind of sense this feeling in bdth - while they aren't really in the running to be main characters or anything, rosebot, pesterquest rose, and candy rose are all real in burning down the house. i may be taking jane in a different direction, but that different direction is still in terms of hs2 jane. hell, tavros crocker gets a cameo in the walkaround

and yeah, this is to emphasize the contrast bdth jane against post-canon jane, but in order for that contrast to mean anything, those parts of the character have to have meaning enough to be rejected, which is the real point im getting at. it sort of drives home that i'm not just *really fucking up* at writing jane, too, which is actually more important than youd think.

ignoring the textual parts of a character you dont like because it conflicts with what you want the character to be (an image that you construct and maintain on your own, unintentionally) is a great way to wind up doing bad characterization of that character.

and yknow, sometimes that's fine! if your reach never gets beyond making an incorrect quotes blog, that doesnt matter. who give a shit. besides me, historys most notorious hater, who will seethe about a bad character take for weeks on end. (but i am the exception, not the rule)

if you're really swinging for the fences as i tend to do, at all times, even when i would be best suited not to, it just doesnt sit right to me to drop bits of a character you dont like just because you dont like it. when youre writing, its there specifically to be played with. and again, "playing with it" here still encompasses rejecting it and doing something different.

and yeah, different authors are going to focus on different parts of a character, but then youre getting out of the scope of this post tbh. but i think its worth remembering that nobody ever wants to make something bad on purpose. even intentionally making something bad on purpose is something you would want to succeed at, you dont want to fail at making something bad on purpose, etc. etc. this is stupid.

tl;dr its not actually that contradictory imo

It already bugs me how nfcv turned vampires into murderous elves and like, Im already very picky with how the belmont's role in Dracula's resurrection cycle is treated, so if i have to deal with a "oh the belmonts are soooo mean and prejudiced , stuck in their violence cycles with the pwoor little vampires who only want to predate humans, so unjustified :(" i am gonna explode

I'm seeing a little too many posts making fun of the Belmonts for being stupid, pathetic, or weaker than other characters such as Alucard :)

(even making fun of the Belmonts in the show is not very. not very nice? who are you mocking? a man suffering from alcoholism who lost his family at a young age because the church hated them? a woman murdered in cold blood by a monstrous vampire to protect her son? said son who watched it all when he was a child and still suffers from ptsd? an old man who also saw his wife and best friend murdered by a vampire? i'm sorry but it reminds me too much of the people who make fun of hector for being raped and enslaved - c'mon guys try to engage a little deeper with the narrative, don't get spoonfed with your brains turned off)

Yeah, the show likes the villain vampires too much, as long as they're hot or women. Dracula's treatment is a little ambiguous, as he got painted as a stupid grieving man for a whole season, but he did get his nice happy ending and people think it was deserved because "get yourself a man who loves you to the point of committing genocide for you <3". Carmilla is a #girlboss and you should stan her as such (same with Drolta but she died very soon lmao), Lenore is a sexy mommy and you should feel bad that she sunned herself in the end because boohoo why didn't she live happily with the man she raped :< Olrox is so hot when he fucks a templar man so feel bad for him when he laments that the mean Belmont lady killed the bf he turned against his will :<

And never forget about Alucard siding with the vampires because the Belmonts are "mentally ill hoarders" who keep the skulls of vampire children, which we are meant to see as actual children and not as poor human kids turned by vampires. Imagine the real Alucard, the one who went to sleep for centuries to remove Dracula's bloodline from the world, priding himself on his vampire heritage. the absolute bruh.

aUGH you talked about bax's and babygirl's i mean. roy's bad eyesight. does anyone else have an likewise handicap or disability? also what's their weakspot for each one of them ... both physically and mentally if you want to write even moar words hehe

ofc!!

as previously mentioned bax has shit eyesight. hes also a bit mentally ill (lack of survival instincts), and while that can be beneficial when in dangerous situations where he needs to act effectively and expediently it can also be VERY DISADVANTAGEOUS. for obvious reasosn. what would the crew do without him? when hes constantly getting injured and incapacitated?

roy has her weird eyesight, and she has kind of the opposite of bax's problem. shes pretty anxious and has trouble acting and making quick decisions. she doesnt really like getting into *serious* trouble (she likes silly stuff and pranks and goofs though), anyways this makes it harder for her to step in when someone needs help.

clam *is* a runaway government android and so basically anything that isnt healing or surveillance is antithetical to what he was programmed for which is bad for everyone. he wants so badly to deviate and cultivate more of an identity but its gotta be just one step at a time, while roy and the others help him reprogram his body and brain bit by bit. which sucks. he wants physical agency Now.

tallys lack of horns and low-ppointing fin rays would land him very low in his home planets sort of caste system. not like. homestuck per se, its less ingrained and more socially enforced. on a dangerous planet where community contribution holds a lot of social weight, being physically weaker, lacking parental skills or instincts, and being kind of selfish on top of all of that made him very. not liked. this is part of the reason kip feels so responsible for him and overly protective.

anyways hes kinda internalized it. every single crumb of attention and validation sends his ego to the moon (metaphorically). he is torn between accepting a low place in life and society "everyone hates me, why should i change that" and desperately trying to prove his worth to anyone who will listen. yaaay mentla illness mwah (i kiss him on the forehead)

kip is the opposite of tally. he has horns. his fin rays point straight up. hes big and strong. he can hunt and protect. hes kind of tender and paternal. hes generally well respected. and he left all that. with his "nephew."

hes used to the expectation of taking care of everyone, protecting them, making sure nothing goes wrong. so he overcorrects. he comes off a bit controlling, though he normally channels this through his cooking. its like a healthy outlet, where he has control over everything as long as everyone stays OUT of his FUCKING kitchen.

hes also very slow to learn and a bit stubborn (though he tries very very hard to work on this)

hes honestly very stable and good at keeping himself together unless He were to be the one hurt and or in trouble ahahaha. he would not handle that. he would go crazy. the thought of being the one to need others makes him ill.

he is so fucking awkward around clam and its for two reasons. 1. dont wanna break him, unfamiliar object, not sure how the best way to proceed 2. stop trying to help me stop leave me alone you sick vermin

deep down he loves clam though cause he feels like theyre the same. "this weird animate object is just like me fr" he admires clams instinct to help others a lot eheheheh.

Thoughts on Queen Bee

It was good. I enjoyed myself. Definitely one of the weaker episodes, but it wasn’t TRYING to be anything groundbreaking, so it’s fine. I was able to adjust my expectations in just the right way after Viv tweeted about it. She reminded us that this was gonna be a style-over-substance episode, and that’s what we got! A LOTTA style, and not much substance.....(unless you count the ones Blitzo was running on all episode)

The only thing groundbreaking is Kesha, who it turns out, is a pretty good VA? And having a song actually written by her, and performed by a DARN GOOD sound-alike. The lyrics of “Cotton Candy” aren’t amazing, but it SOUNDS great, and that’s what matters for party songs. XD I’ve had it stuck in my head all day.

It’s cool to have another complete song outta Helluva. We need more of those in season 2. “House Of Asmodeus” spoiled me XD

As for Bee herself, I didn’t really like her design all that much at first, cuz she didn’t look anything like I’d imagine Beelzebub to look in Helluva (compared to Ozzie who I thought was a good interpretation of how people usually envision Asmodeus). She’s not ugly or anything, and I love her color palette, but it felt like Viv was more focused on the Die Young callback than making her look like the Sin when designing her. But apparently, there ARE some things that she’s kept in mind and played around with (such as “Lord of the Flies” becoming “Queen Bee” - even though she should technically be a princess since the other Sins are princes, it rolls off the tongue better here), and she has a more monstrous form that we get to see. I’m pretty sure I’ll like her more as I get used to her. She just wasn’t what I expected.

There’s not really a lot to talk about story-wise. Like I said, style over substance. “Visual spectacle” to cap the season off. I like that it’s a happier second half to Ozzie’s. Both have parties run by a Sin, both have big songs, but the mood is completely different, like they’re symbolizing the different parts of Helluva’s first season - the dramatic, character-driven part, and the fun, humorous part. It’s a shame that the legal issues held this episode back so long that it can’t be considered Ozzie’s second half anymore, cuz I really do like the idea of the two episodes being foils to each other.

But uh, anyway! The only real meat in this story is just a few sweet moments between Loona and Blitzo. And also Loona being SUCH a mood. Me at parties. Always. XD It was also cool to see Tex again, since I like him, and Bee gets points for actually seeming pretty chill, especially compared to Ozzie. But that’s really it. The comedy wasn’t even really that amazing. The Dennis scene was the only time I really laughed, but I’ll take what I can get.

The delays also screwed the episode over slightly. I DO still feel bad for Blitzo, but if the episode had been released in order, I would’ve been a lot more scared for his mental state. It does lose a LITTLE impact when we know he’s gonna recover (or at least, mostly recover).

A teeny bit of woldbuilding here too- It was also cool to see a bit of the Gluttony ring - yeah, just one location, but it gets me curious to see more of it someday. We also get references to Satan and Belphagor, which means that.....there’s only one left. Only one Sin we haven’t heard from. The one who’s, fittingly, from the one ring we haven’t been to yet - Envy. I wanna see the Envy ring now. What’re they gonna do with that place? It can’t even be green! Greed is green! How does a place run by envy look? I guess the ring will be.....aquatic-themed? Maybe? I’m worried that we probably won’t be meeting the man himself due to involvement in Hazbin, but I wanna see the ring at least. Surprise me, Helluva! You already did that last episode with Sloth looking actually neat and appealing, pfffff- But yeah, that’s a long-term hope. Let’s actually get to Mammon first. One thing at a time.

S-sorry for the tangent, but yeah, this episode really doesn’t have a lot to talk about. I’m done now. XD It was fun to watch, but not one of the best I’ve seen from the show!

Hashirama is often said to be stronger than Madara and it often treated as a fact by the fandom. Based on what Madara said during that confrontation on the river when they were still kids and the fact that Hashirama was the one who won fights between them.

But I think they were equal in strength and abilities because the one who wins not always the strongest one. There are a lot of factors that should be taken in the account like social/political aspects, mental state of the participants and willingness to kill.

When Madara first said to his father that Hashirama is stronger than him, he used it as an argument so they won't fight Senju. Because he didn't want to fight Hashirama. He also couldn't use his sharingan yet so back then he might have been really weaker than Hashirama.

But I don't think it was like that when they were adults. They fighting each other for years and neither won or was willing to kill the other. Yes, Madara lost the fight with Hashirama after Izuna's death. And he already had the eternal mangekyou sharingan at that point (though I don't think he had time to properly figure out how to utilize it to it's fullest). I think he was in a really bad state mentally at that point and it also affected him greatly.

But even that didn't really matter. Because he didn't had a choice of winning that fight. He was in a really bad situation and had to make the best of it. After Izuna's death the balance was broken. Madara was left alone against two Senju brothers. He basically had a choice of continuing the war with the Senju which would mean eventual death of the whole clan or accepting Hashirama's offer of peace which meant a surrender.

The Uchiha are prideful and stubborn people and I think if Madara tried to surrender without a fight he would have met with strong objections or even resistance from his own clansmen.

So the outcome of the fight and his condition of killing Tobirama ( I think Madara knew Hashirama won't do it) and then stopping Hashirama from killing himself was one of the few ways he could make it work. Like this he surrendered but also placated his clansmen and somewhat regained his equal footing with Hashirama.

On the other hand if he won that fight Tobirama wouldn't let him live after that and probably would have killed him using Madara's tiredness and that would have meant the end for Uchiha.

If we speak about their final fight at the Valley of the End... It gives me a feeling that only one of them was willing to really kill. And I think it wasn't Madara. And he was aware of this fact because he prepared the Izanagi beforehand. He actually went there prepared to die. ( I actually have a lot of thoughts about this fact as well but I'll write about it another time). I think Madara tried to use this fight as the last argument, the attempt to persuade Hashirama to see things from his point of view. Messed up as it was. But voices in the head never helped anyone with mental stability.

I truly believe that he was prepared to die but held a desperate hope that it wouldn't end like that. The shock on his face when Hashirama backstabbed him...

I hope all of this makes sense and not very difficult to read. English isn't my first language and I'm also quite rusty.