#so take from this what you will

[swimmingwolf59]

I finished reading dungeon meshi a while back and I wanted to ramble about Laois and monsters and autism

HUGE END GAME MANGA SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT!!

Though it's never explicitly stated in canon as far as I'm aware, Laois is very autistic-coded. (I think that's pretty established in fandom but I will continue anyway lol.) There are a lot of moments throughout the story that demonstrate this, but the biggest one for me was this one with Shuro (this scene was actually pretty painful for me to watch as someone who is also probably on the spectrum and has experienced this lol):

Laois completely misreads Shuro's feelings and actions, missing cues that Shuro at least assumes most people would understand. I think this is a pretty clear tell that Laois is somewhere on the autism spectrum, or at the very least it shows that social interactions are not in any way easy for him.

I think this ties into his fascination with monsters. He's definitely hyper-fixated on them, and if you've ever met an autistic person with a hyper-fixation, you can bet your ass that person knows everything there is to know about that hyper-fixation lol. But I think part of why he's so drawn to them is also because he can easily understand them. He grew up around animals (and monsters in this series are essentially wild animals), which makes them familiar, and monsters have much more defined behavior patterns that he can study and learn and use to interact with them successfully. Laois talks about this often - and a great example of this I think is the living armor fight. Laois analyzes the monster's behavior, figures out its weak points, and fights and defeats it successfully, something that I don't think he could've done easily against a human opponent.

So let's look at the chapter where Laois decides to try and defeat the winged lion by becoming the lord of the dungeon.

I think this is a key part of this whole arc. Laois doesn't think he has any desires because all previous dungeon lords that the story goes into detail about were focused on humans. Thistle's whole motivation was to keep the golden kingdom and Delgal safe - his main desires were that no harm would ever come to them. Mithrun's desire was to live happily with the person he loved, something he couldn't do in real life. And Marcille too wanted to eliminate life span differences between the races so that she wouldn't be alone, so that her friends would live and stay by her side for her whole life.

Laois on the other hand doesn't really care about society (to Kabru's continued horror lol). I think a lot of that is because he has trouble understanding and connecting with people in general, which has to be frustrating for someone who absorbs knowledge so readily, and because people have hurt him in the past. Therefore, since everyone around him is constantly telling him he shouldn't care about monsters and people are what matter, he can't fall for the winged lion's tricks, right? Because he doesn't have any desires when it comes to people (I do think it's funny that he seems to have forgotten about Falin in this part lol, but I digress).

But Laois DOES have desires about monsters.

So when he's driven to a choice between the monster world and the human world, of course he's going to pick monsters.

But I think this is also why he was able to win against the winged lion, and why literally no one else could have.

I'm fairly certain that Laois didn't actually plan the whole "I'll trick the winged lion into stealing my body and letting me become a monster so I can eat his desires" thing, at least based on his reaction when Kabru asks him this LOL.

But I do think that Laois's understanding of monsters and passion for monsters led perfectly to that situation. With how hyper-fixated Laois is on monsters, I think he saw the winged lion's ability to eat desires, and the effects that had on his victims, and thought, "Wow, that's super cool! That's definitely something the strongest monster would be able to do!" Because of that, he added it to his sketch of the strongest monster. All that was left to do was poof that strongest monster into existence, and we've seen from the shapeshifter fight that Laois is not above getting on his enemy's level.

Laois is always thinking about the world from a monster's perspective. What is a particular monster's role in the ecosystem? How do its adaptations drive its survival and the type of prey it consumes and how it consumes them? And what else could kill a monster at the top of the food chain but another monster with similar abilities that's also at the top of the food chain (like how wolves are mostly only killed by other wolves, if we take humans out of the equation)? Because Laois understands all of this, he was able to analyze the winged lion, understand what put him at the top of the food chain, and meet him on his own field. (Which makes it even more beautiful story-telling wise imo that Laois is a literal monster in the final fight.)

And I think that's why he was able to win, and why I don't think anyone else in the story could've. Only an autistic person hyper-fixated on monsters could defeat a demon at its own game, and I love that so fucking much lol.

[tawnysoup]

Found my fav Slay the Princess route recently. Dragon my beloved. Your horrifying beak mouth was an impossible-to-refuse lip syncing challenge 💖

Shoutouts to @blacktabbygames for making such a cool game!

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[perrieedwards]

i feel like people are skimming over the uk riots in a way that makes me want to tear my hair out. muslims in the uk are in active danger. immigrants in the uk are in active danger. refugees in the uk are in active danger. people of colour in the uk are in active danger. asian communities in the uk are in active danger. black communities in the uk are in active danger.

there are massive far right riots throughout the country right now and people like fucking elon musk and nigel farage are inciting it and still have a platform to speak. people have used three young girls deaths, people's genuine grief in southport, to try and gain traction for their own racist bullshit and it's working.

a lot of refugee charities have been forced to close leaving many people without support, homes, funding, food, etc. if you aren't able to donate please consider sending a message via the conversation over borders campaign! it will send a hopeful, welcoming letter to a refugee in the uk. there is also a guide to staying safe here.

please do your own research and donate to refugee charities, anti-islamophobia charities, mosques who are trying to rebuild after being destroyed, counter protesters, here are some i've heard positive things about but the list is extensive; southport strong together (support for the southport victims and their families), southport mosque rebuilding, riot repair fund, middlesbrough vulnerable residents, nasir mosque rebuilding, hull help for refugees, bristol welcomes migrants,

[limbcom]

"Holding your hand doesn't have to mean that I accept your friendship," the liar said to the truthful, trying to lie in front of the only person who understands his intentions.

He knows, of course, that the liar did not lie. For the liar is also the truthful.

[blaqcats-fics]

been thinking about jason being petty towards bruce. like, oh, you spend time with your other kids, but not me? tire privileges revoked! it would be over stupid shit too.

like there’s one time bruce decides to take damien to the movies, and jason is just beside himself.

like the conversation would be like:

JASON: So, let me get this straight—you took Damian to a movie.

BRUCE: He asked.

JASON: Oh, and I wouldn’t have wanted to see Kung Fu Panda 4 with you?!

BRUCE: You were busy.

JASON: Busy taking down a cartel. Which, by the way, I learned from you. I deserve quality time!

BRUCE: Jason—

JASON: No. No excuses. You’ll learn.

Jason storms off. Five minutes later, an alert pops up on the Batcomputer.

BATCOMPUTER: Warning: Batmobile rear tires have been removed.

BRUCE: …Jason.

Cut to Jason outside, rolling two Batmobile tires away, cackling.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Don't worry, they're into that.

(Want to know if this ancient sea god of destruction gets more belly paps? Or perhaps...a kiss? Find out in Tiger Tiger!)

[theoldkyokodied]

Fresh from the oven: two kcd hansry mini comics (ft. Zizka and Hynek), one (1) portrait of Samuel (need to draw him more) and a bunch of Kettle Hat Henry doodles again, except this time we got more variety (And yeah, I did draw these because of tunes. again. Everybody say 'thank you Tunes!' >:) she says she is warming up to them but it is still funny to torment her with my henry's fashion choices)

[keferon]

More Portal AU angst and moral dilemmas~

The concept was slowly eating through my brain for quite some time now:) Just think about it. Prowl loves Jazz but he also recognises that making Jazz into an immortal machine would involve killing Jazz and replacing him with authentic copy.

While the absence of morality core deprives Prowl of the concept of actually caring for people and replaces it with the “How the person makes me feel and what they do for me”. Usual Prowl wants to have Jazz with him while Evil Prowl wants to keep “experiencing” having Jazz with him.

[lotus-pear]

he's so crazy we can't take him anywhere 😭🤣

[stil-lindigo]

Bisan is calling for another global strike!

I saw some posts just outlining Jan 21st, and wanted to clarify that Bisan has called for a full seven days of action.

What a global strike would look like is:

calling in sick to work

purchasing bare essentials ahead of the week so you can observe the general boycott of goods / buying as little as you genuinely can

putting in a concerted effort to elevate Palestinian voices and make it clear that this strike is in support of a permanent ceasefire!

For those who will have to purchase necessary goods during this time, please observe the brands that the BDS movement is asking us to boycott!

♢♢♢

Right now is also a good time to mention some better uses for your money during this week.

Available e-sims in Gaza are running low!!

Mirna El Helbawi and her team are working round the clock to continue to connect Palestinians as Israel does its best to cut them off from the rest of the world.

You can learn how to purchase and send e-sims here, and below you’ll find a list of what is currently needed (the areas in brackets indicate what region you should select to buy e-sims in).

--

CareforGaza is an organisation that does verifiably good work, distributing supplies directly to Palestinian families.

They have a Gofundme set up at the moment, but because of Gofundme’s poor track record regarding refusing to transfer funds to Palestinians, I’d recommend continuing to donate directly to their PayPal here.

Good luck to all of you. Don't turn away from Palestine!

[lgbtlunaverse]

There's a version of the "don't go grocery shopping while hungry" rule specifically for writers where you should never under any circumstances be allowed to touch your draft within 3 hours of reading a really good story. Because sometimes when you read something great your head goes "fuck this is so much better than my stuff I should make that more like THIS instead!" Look at me. That's the devil talking and you should close the document NOW.

[clumsypuppy]

wait for me

[westwardwanderer]

Sun Wukong

Finally finished drawing my own lil take on Sun Wukong. Took some inspiration from several different iterations but I'm quiet happy with how he looks drawing monkey feet is a nightmare I've learned.

Now I just gotta figure out how to draw the other deciples along with my JttW OC, Wren lol

[thepandalion]

ok no I need to talk about this

the reason ralsei is changing is because of susie

the way he said it, darkners that are based on memories of loved ones can "only appear in specific darkness". meaning, originally, ralsei was kris' memory

and, similarly, gerson was presumably Alvin's?

except. gerson came back. it's the third sanctuary. a different dark world. but he's still here. and why?

because SUSIE remembers him. she wrote alvin the letter from him. she fought him and won and came back to look for him. because now he's in her memories, too.

following that logic, of course ralsei is in her memories too. more prominently, too, each time she returns to an adventure. he strays further from the blurry memories kris has, into something that's both theirs and hers

and, while we're at it, maybe ours, too. we shape him with our choices because we're part of this team too

[tariah23]

The manga industry, especially JUMP, needs to hurry up and do away with weekly scheduling for mangaka. There needs to better regulations put into place for their health and safety because this is pitiful. Two weeks - monthly updates should’ve already been the standard for the manga industry at this point. These money grabbers will only continue to put the lives of these artists at stake for the sake of capitalism unless some serious changes are implemented.