suhmingo

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Justice - Edelgard Von Hresvelg

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a writing competition i was going to participate in again this year has announced that they now allow AI generated content to be submitted

their reasoning being that "we couldn't ban it even if we wanted to, every writer already uses it anyway"

"Every writer"?

come on

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I think part of the reason CSM discourse focuses more on shallow shores than the depth in between is how digestible his paneling and storytelling is. It’s so cut and dry at times that items get conducive to passive reading. A lot of times characters will announce or even do exact opposite of how they feel, but it’s very easy to take things at face value at a first glance, and use that first glance to paint a broad strokes caricature of the chapters

Just because a chapter clearly makes something explicit doesn't mean there's nothing implicit to interpret.

I even think it bodes well for the treatment of Asa's character later on (yes, while this chapter is a disaster for her, this disaster is a good sign, yes).

I'll make a small interpretation tomorrow but you're focusing on the dialogues as if you were reading a novel, it's a scene, nothing is said about the rubbing, the choice of verbalization, the cries

Or the crying is just seen as crying.

And then the background on fire is just badass.

As if Fujimoto didn't have two themes: water (Asa) and fire (Yoru).

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hey chat did you guys know there's a whole website with informational videos on the rights you hold when interacting with ICE or witnessing interactions with ICE. all written by immigrants and for immigrants. idk man it'd be a shame if people watched these informational videos y'know.

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Zenless Zone Zero Qingyi transparent renders from her official wallpapers

> Please don’t repost > Credit appreciated but not required when using in edits/gfx. > Reblogs greatly appreciated ❤️

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Truer words have never been spoken through a mouthful of Sushi.

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Chainsaw man manga spoilers ahead! Chapter 168

The reaction of both Denji and Asa to what happened in 167 were so honest and real that I honestly didn't see it coming. It was such a raw and normal response, it wasn't on my CSM Bingo Card. No semen swords, no freak outs, no exuberant celebration, and frankly I'm relieved. It was just the way a heavy topic like what was covered in 167 needed.

Denji felt rejected and exhausted and confused. Maybe even embarrassed and shy and used. He still looks depressed and empty. He doesn't know why, because he's a kid and he doesn't understand.

Asa turned to "beating herself up". She is traumatized by the scenario and is slut shaming herself. Even though her words are directed at Yuro, it's clear in her expression and body language that she's internalizing some of this shame. As a woman who grew up in a purity culture scenario, where girls were supposed to be "sex repulsed", this panel resonated with me.

She's yelling at Yuro, that she's a slut. But that's the face of a girl who is broken. Who can't put a name on the brokenness. Because she's a kid.

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Me when I’m right

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forgot to post this here lmao, this shit did numbers on twitter it's at like 130k likes at the moment, anyway enjoy the 4 horsemen of autism

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Hold on I have a better edit

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God damn it! Denji being in the Childhood Trauma drip has come full fucking circle!

I'm writing a longer thingie I DEFINITELY need to sit with this one a little while just

Maybe no one else cared abt this, but one of the most striking panels from this chapter to me was the first one

It's always rain

And alleys

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What is up with manga this week

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I, uh, don’t know how to actually preface this. It’s really just a mini rant/pseudo-analysis of chapter 167. Which was pretty crazy. But, I loved this chapter, and yes I’m typing this with two hands.

But first let me try and do some housekeeping.

It’s perfectly fine to have an emotional, even visceral reaction to 167. That’s the point

If you feel grossed out, betrayed, unnerved, dumbstruck, or any form of bamboozled by today’s chapter then good! That means the emotional weight of the scene is working, and that you are a proper, feeling human. The

The whole point of fiction is to explore themes that would be difficult, even dangerous to experience from a place of safety. To me that’s, like the entire reason I ever wanted to become a writer, one of the most unsung broke boy jobs in the history of the world. My desire for Denji to get better in a world that is dead set on making him fail is the entire reason I have an emotional investment in the first place. Stories are inherently about conflict and the struggle with resolving conflict, that should make you uncomfortable.

Say what you want about Chainsaw Man. I can take it, I’m a big boy. But one thing that it has always had since Chapter one is a well-defined through line about the complexity of our innate desire to find some type of love fighting against the pain-wrought pathway that it leads us down. In a good story, every chapter should have some way of showing the highs and lows of that theme, and I’m pretty confident when I say that 167 perfectly shows us that.

It’s bad. Don’t let people who brag about their trauma tolerance tell you otherwise. You are well within your right to feel. But I think it would behoove people to 1. Realize that this is fiction, and its effects, though evocatory, are ultimately abstract, and 2. Realize that exploring dark themes allows people, especially a 16-25 (Or whatever the target audience for CSM is) to grapple with and think on human concepts as all encompassing as love.

From a writing standpoint, one chapter has escalated the tension of the entire story more than anything that has happened in Part 2 so far. It’s admittedly a bit early to call it peak. But looking at it as a simple story beat, that’s a fantastic chapter as far as the medium goes.

Listen, the whole point of stories since, like, Mesopotamian times was the tension between wanting a character to achieve happiness vs the hardships and trauma that life happens in life. They’re supposed to put you in a sensitive state emulative of a tense environment. I’d argue that the prevalence of escapist fiction and fandom has changed how we emotionally digest fiction. But that’s a whole nother essay.

The events of 167 aren’t some horny non-sequitur. Everything that happened is entirely a logical, if graven, extension of how we know characters.

Denji is at the lowest point we have ever seen him at. He was literally dismembered and put back together less than 10 chapters ago. The last chapter literally had him groveling on his knees at a cauldron’s brew of his own weakness, immaturity, stupidity, and horniness. I think we can all understand why he would not be in a good mental state to just lose himself in the moment. You can’t even blame Denji in this situation. He was in an entirely vulnerable state that was exploited entirely by

Yoru. Who is the literal embodiment of war. If you think that someone who represents the human fear of war is going to play fair. Turn on the news for five minutes. Yoru is a character we are not supposed to like. She’s fun, because she’s a work of fiction, but she’s arguably less trustworthy than Fami. She’s a violent, exploitative being who possesses a dead teenager. There is no “too far” for her if it’s the fastest way on the road to conquest. Reminder that before she caught feelings, her plan was literally just to castrate Denji because she thought that would further her goals. The fact that it turned into kissing was actually sparing a worse fate. IMO that savior was all in the actions of Asa.

Asa. I genuinely believe that, subconsciously, Asa wanted to kiss Chainsaw Man. Not like how it happened. Never like how it happened, but her desire for Denji/Chainsaw Man's affection has always been evident. She gets irreparably upset when she’s stood up, she makes cringe poetry for Chainsaw Man, and her entire goal as of now is in some misguided desire to make him happy. I also don’t think Asa is actually demisexual, or averse to sex. She is afraid of intimacy, which stops her from ever acting on her urges. Notice that both times Yoru has kissed Denji, it was after the idea of sex and intimacy was explicitly brought to the conversation. To me that screams that Yoru is spurred on by her host’s innate desires. Hell, it’s been shown that in the same way that Yoru has made Asa more proactive of a human being, Asa has made her feel emotions. I don’t think it's a coincidence that Yoru is blushing while kissing Denji. None of that was part of her plan. That’s Asa’s emotional influence getting the better of her in what I predict to be a fantastic role reversal of their initial contract.

This is thematically in line with how Chainsaw Man presents love and sets up deeper themes.



Remember way back in Part One when Denji was just an initial horndog and everybody kinda hated him? I hated Denji back then! When I first heard of Chainsaw Man I genuinely thought it was going to be a mommy-kink fuelled power fantasy. But I was wrong. Wonderfully wrong. Fujimoto used the allure of that idea in Makima to present a story about how dangerous and manipulative the very idea of grooming is, and how damaging that can be to a person. The same way Denji’s desire to get the approval of Makima was poisonous to him is mirrored in his desire for vapid, instantly gratifying sex is being portrayed here. I genuinely think this chapter is going to age like fine wine, and I am absolutely willing to take egg on my face if I’m wrong.

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“CSM Part two is so anticlimactic 😩”

Fuji: “AYE YO DOT I GOTCHU!”

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