#I’m kinder to others

[vampirepunks]

I love that Death Stranding’s core message is essentially, “life is worth living and people are worth loving.” It’s easy to get lost in the details of its universe + characters and thus lose sight of that.

Death Stranding argues that life is worthwhile to fight for even if the world will inevitably end, because we’re still here. That people are worthy of empathy even if they’ve done horrible things, because it was their own suffering and moral efforts that led them there.

Die-Hardman was complicit in the murder of Cliff Unger and the causes of the Last Stranding. He can be forgiven because he loved Cliff and Bridget, never forgave himself, and dedicated his life to trying to make the world better, the only ways he knew how.

Higgs killed thousands and tried to end the world. He can be forgiven because he wasn’t of sound mind and is an abuse victim who never had a real opportunity to be better than he was.

Amelie sacrificed mothers and children for her own ends, and abused the two men who loved her the most. She can be forgiven because she can’t connect with human experience and made the selfless choice to be the sacrifice so humanity could have another chance.

Coffin was a terrorist that abandoned her daughter and radicalized a desperate, lonely young man into a life of violence. She can be forgiven because she believed it was necessary for the greater good, she took accountability for the harm she caused, and she loved those two kids more than anything else in the world.

The game doesn’t require you to forgive its characters, but it invites you to. It provides you with the reasons every given character became the way they are, and leaves it open to the player’s judgment. It asks, “maybe it wasn’t right, but can you understand?” It says, yes, this character did some very bad things, but can you love them anyway? Will you try?

DS argues that disconnection and isolation comes from a shortage of fellow empathy. That’s probably why Kojima went out of his way to retcon Higgs’ story and make his tragedy even more empathetic than it originally was. DS’s answer to social problems isn’t “be better,” it’s “learn how to forgive.”

Hell is other people. Heaven is each other.

[caesurah-tblr]

Team Bolas knows they’ve put the largest target on their backs. They know they’re not a weak as they used to be, that they need to get ready to fight like hell. They know the other teams aren’t going to show them kindness anymore, and they’ll be ready as much as a dysfunctional family like them can. And if they’re not ready at all?

That’s the amazing thing about Bolas. You can take everything from them- burn their gear, destroy their base, but it won’t stop them. As long as they have each other, they can come back from anything.

[http-byler]

☆ SMILE! ☆

[unnaturalceilings]

Happy supercorp Easter 🐣🐰🪺

Yes I am implying Kara illegally imports kinder eggs for Lena

[impossible-rat-babies]

me grabbing eyrie and shaking them is it not enough to have gone through four ships by now. is it not enough for you funny man

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

Sure there’s the inherent tragedy of ‘in a kinder universe they would have been okay’

But what about ‘in a kinder universe they would have been strangers’

[fluffypotatey]

Sorry for making my first question about Júhua about shadowpeach, but I'm obsessed. She knows about macaques entire codependent mess towards wukong cause of shadowplay (enjoyed the fic where she read him filth). But does she know about wukong's side? She known him a long time, but wukong doesn't really talk about himself or his failed relationships

no yeah, i know i mention it very briefly in the series but swk is pretty tight lipped when it came to discussing past relationships with her. mostly because a lot of their time together was during his 500 year punishment and he was coping horribly :) like all she would get is vague stories that swk could never finish and always had this bittersweet expression

also, literally the day they met was right after swk and Macky’s fight (such a fun introduction to the monkey king her mother was previously hyping up before lmao) so he was even more reticent in sharing that can of worms. especially when Júhua and her mother overheard the tail end of the fight

so Júhua knows that Macky meant something to swk but the specifics are still vague to her. is she able to read between the lines? yes, but she would still like to hear it from swk whenever he’s comfortable

[knowlesian]

quick indulging in some stede angst while i procrastinate on finishing my piece on e5

i’m consistently fucked up over the blacked out form that used to be stede in the family portrait, and the metaphor it provides about the way stede handled his life and trauma: everything’s pretend. he’s not truly there, he’s living a story in his head in ways both lovely and inadvertently cruel.

lovely: looking at the world and demanding it bend to his delusional belief things could ever be other than they are. that it could be better.

inadvertently cruel: leaving mary and the kids (leaving ed) to wonder: was it me? if i was better, if i had been kinder or a more supportive wife, a better behaved child or a co-captain with less baggage or a better man, would he have stayed? would i have been worth staying for?

stede’s got a whole basketful of reasons he leaves without explaining why in both cases. but he does leave, and he doesn’t explain: those actions ripple out and hurt the people he leaves.

but also, we know stede’s general self-worth is under the fucking ground!!! less than zero!!! he has absolutely no inkling that his absence might affect someone just as much as his presence. he thinks: i am a burden people suffer. when i remove myself from their lives, i am ultimately making those lives easier, in heartbreaking part because he cannot imagine a world in which somebody actually wants him around.

i know i’m a big old hippie and a reconciliation will come faster than we might think truther, but goddamn i just want ed and stede to have the mutual validation moment! because ed needs to hear “it was never about not wanting you or not wanting to be with you, it was a gross cocktail of trauma and old fears and chauncey being a walking nightmare in so, so many ways” from stede and stede needs to hear “you leaving me? fucked me up real good in ways we may need to do some work to overcome, but only because you are somebody i always want to be around, even when things are not pleasant and conflict-free, all forever-like” from ed asa-fucking-p.

[starlooove]

Atp I don’t even think Barbie is feminism 101

[fawndlyvenus]

Maybe acting very spiteful, mean, and nasty about a person’s headcanons and/or metas that tackle things like sexuality, gender, and neurodivergent identity (as well as so many other things) isn’t a good look because it can be tiptoeing very close to invalidating said things, as well as forcing people to hide away parts of themselves that they finally feel comfortable with sharing, as well as represented.

You can disagree or feel differently without being rude, mean, and/or insulting. Multiple opinions and/or ideas can and do exist. There is plenty of room at the table and in the sandbox.

[kavehater]

Okay after freaking out about alhaitham it’s time to be neurotic again that girl is freaking me out sm :D

[gestippeldedieseltreinworm]

I’m just so tired of being insulted for what I like

My music taste? Sucks

How I dress? Ugly

My haircut? Ugly

My body hair? Gross

I see all those positivity posts for butches on tumblr but nobody I know irl actually feels that way

Even if people try to be nice all they do is deny what I am

Oh you’re not masculine you’re beautiful? Like fuck off I am masculine. Why does that mean I’m automatically ugly?

[fair-dinkum-mechanic]

Well how do I move on from this

[celamoon]

Guys I can’t do this how am I supposed to go back to the states and never be able to have kinder bueno ever again 💔

[marshmellowtea]

“minorities should not be expected to coddle their oppressors”, “people often get angry and exhausted from having to answer the same questions over and over again”, and “minorities are allowed to be angry about their oppression” AND “you shouldn’t be overly nasty to people who are genuinely trying to ask questions about things they don’t understand”, “privilege can blind people to experiences that may seem obvious to you so sometimes well meaning people are going to ask questions you think are stupid or obvious”, and “people tend not to want to listen to people who they feel are shouting at them for no reason” are all true statements and yet trying to take all of them into account feels like an impossible balancing act most of the time

[0uroboring]

.