#and then not actually addressing or resolving the emotional impacts

[obstinaterixatrix]

out of boredom/curiosity I read 60 eps of a webtoon. it was not good.

[arodrwho]

hey uh y'all

u know ppl can read ur bookmark notes on ao3 right? u know those arent automatically private?

[ddarker-dreams]

Lock, what DO you love and like so much about Dostoevsky's work? I don't think you've ever talked about that. Please, I want to know !!!

^o^

(christianity mention jump scare below proceed with caution)

i thought this would be an easy to answer but figuring out how to put my feelings into words proved difficult .

the beginning is always a good place to start, so let's go with that. by chance, i happened upon this video on youtube and gave it a watch. about halfway in i decided i had to read notes from underground for myself. i struggled to understand what the narrator was trying to get across. the unique writing style, where the reader is addressed directly, as if in challenge, helped me preserve.

i think part of what makes his work special to me is his depiction of people. and they really do feel like people more than characters, even if some of their characteristics are unique to the era dostoevsky wrote in. everything else about them transcends time. i can see myself in some of them. whether it be the titular idiot, prince myshkin in his naivety; alyosha, who goes from devout to doubting; and ivan, whose bitterness toward religion masks his disappointment at the state of the world. 

that's why the brothers karamazov touched me in particular. for some context, i grew up in a christian household and was heavily involved in the church (american northeast white baptist strand of church). around when i was 11 or so, the introduction of left-wing politics through social media had me undergo a looooong identity crisis. these new ideas felt at odds with what i'd spent my entire life believing. what i grappled with the most relates to ivan's anecdote, the grand inquisitor, where the goodness of god is called into question. the bitterness, the disappointment from crushed expectations, all those sensations resonated strongly with me. reading it as an adult who (supposedly) 'healed' from that time period in my life was like opening pandora's box. i'd never seen my thoughts and struggles so accurately described, or treated with more than a 'his ways are higher than our ways' type platitude. i stuffed these concerns of mine away because they only ever served to make me feel worse.

i won't delve deep into the Depressing Lore. the only reason i mention it is to stress how profound an impact the work had on me. throughout the remainder of TBK (and in most of dostoevsky's discography), the best and worst of humanity is shown. our hypocritical nature, capacity for evil; nothing is shied away from or made more palatable. and yet, throughout it all, our potential for good is shown too. whether it be in the little acts or monumental self-sacrifice. sometimes those acts are honored, or ‘worth it,’ sometimes they aren’t. it’s cheesy but whatever i’ll say it — choosing to love and serve others is my greatest joy. i don’t really need a definitive answer to those problems i struggled with. that’s the takeaway i’ve had from his work. it might not seem like a big deal, but not feeling guilty for having certain doubts or anxious over those doubts never fully being resolved was. very significant for me. and healing (for real this time). 

so that’s the sentimental perspective GJSDLKFJS from my writer’s perspective, i can only describe him as brilliant. his grasp on the human psyche is incredible. he can accurately describe so many emotions, worldviews, and give the context necessary for each one to feel organic and real. it’s vivid, too, in a way i can’t properly get across. everyone’s unfiltered and messy. characters contradict themselves in the same sentence. they’ll murmur, go off on tangents, tell stories, misquote the bible (or many other significant works), and just be overall disasters. aka how people actually are. 

the man’s also funny as hell. the protagonist from crime and punishment has a mental breakdown spanning multiple pages over a sock. yes, there’s context, but that’s still the gist of things. then there’s the issue of the hedgehog in the idiot. hedgehog drama. 

ultimately, his work is so very human. there’s commentary on issues that are prevalent to this day, multiple centuries later. the topics he touches on tend to align with what i care about most. whether i agree or disagree with what i’m reading, there’s always something i glean from it. something meaningful that sits with me long after i close the book. i’ll mull over it and bother people in my vicinity until they mull over it too. no one is safe. whether it be a co-worker or my dad who drives noticeably faster to reach our destination and be free of my many questions.

i could keep going but this ended up being long enough GJSKDF i hope at least something here makes sense?>?? i apologize for the incoherent ramblings. it's what the dude does to me.

[autisticlifelessons]

Tips from an autistic teacher about communicating with education professionals

So, some context: I taught Primary for 1 year, and had lots of interactions with parents with all kinds of concerns about their kids. I also remember being in high school and college/university and being too nervous to approach my teachers/tutors with any problems I had until the situation was dire.

For those who don't work in education, I can appreciate how needing to speak to your child's teacher about something can be intimidating, especially if your and/or your child are neurodivergent. And if you are a student, it can be equally as scary.

It's true many teachers are overworked and underpaid, but the vast VAST majority would move heaven and earth to help you. However, there are lots of things you can do to help them to help you, so here are my top tips.

Tell them ASAP if there is a problem - alerting the teacher to a problem or concern as soon as it arises gives them the chance to nip it in the bud before it becomes a big deal. If there is a bullying concern or something you don't understand, they would much rather you told them straight away so they can do something about it than have you or your child suffering in silence for weeks or months. We are generally an observant bunch and are looking out for issues, but some things do fly under the radar. Even if it's not something they can do anything about straight away - like if you think your child is showing signs of autism or adhd but they mask heavily at school - they can bear this in mind and pass it onto other relevant members of staff so it is 'flagged' up for the future.

If your issue is complicated, be sure to put it in writing - chances are you have access to a messaging service or at least an email address. Even if you have raised your concern with the teacher face to face, having it in writing is helpful for both parties. It provides a record that the issue has been raised and passed along as appropriate, and it helps remind the teacher about what has been discussed so they don't end up forgetting about it among the million other things they have to do.

Be specific - it may seem obvious, but there is no point in having a casual chat and then throwing in a bombshell at the end. Make sure to give as much relevant detail as you can about what your issue is, and if you want to raise multiple concerns then it is doubly beneficial to put them in writing.

Think about what your desired outcome is and come with a proposed solution - this is a psychological thing, apparently, but people are more likely to be sympathetic to your concerns if you can demonstrate you have thought about how you would like it resolved. If you want your child put forward for an autism assessment, make sure you actually say this. If you know you are going to be late handing in an assignment but can give your teacher an alternative date you will hand it in, tell them this. I can't guarantee they will always be able to fulfil it, but knowing what you would like to change or happen makes it much easier to sort things out rather than just guessing.

IF THERE'S SOMETHING GOING ON OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL THAT'S HAVING A NEGATIVE IMPACT, TELL THEM!!! - I CANNOT stress this enough, especially when it comes to little ones or neurodivergent children who may have limited means of both communication and emotional regulation. Being hungry, tired, stressed etc can have an enormous impact on behaviour/ability to learn. Even a simple message or email giving the heads up your child has had a poor night's sleep because the house flooded or whatever and might be a bit grumpy that day can be a huge help to the teacher, who as a result of having this information will be in a better position to be patient with a child who is struggling. For bigger life changes such as divorce, birth of a new sibling etc, this is even more important so that your child's teacher and the school can, if necessary, put measures in place to support your child through this transition. Communication really is key.

Remember to be kind and considerate - teachers are humans and make mistakes like everyone else. Equally, there are many circumstances they have to deal with that are totally out of their control and frustrate them just as much as they do you. As I said at the beginning, the vast majority want to help you and/or your child in any way they can, and being kind can make what is a very stressful job just that little bit less.

So, there you have it! I hope these tips gave you an idea for how to communicate with teachers effectively.

Oh, here's 1 more bonus tip - if you have anything to ask that is more than just a quick question, be sure to schedule a meeting with the teacher to ensure they can devote enough time to deal with your issue. Catching them at the beginning or end of the school day generally isn't a good idea as they're very chaotic times and they likely have other meetings/appointments/deadlines they will be thinking about.

Your support is much appreciated xx

[whitleyschn33]

Actually hi, no, can we talk about how the Punderstorm is the physical manifestation of a mental or emotional problem, it singles out Blake and Yang specifically, putting them in a situation where they're far apart with a gaping chasm before them, and the only way for them to be able to truly come together is to "say things they've never said to each other before" and bridge the gap between them -

-and instead of addressing any of the actual problems that should be keeping them from reaching an understanding with each other, instead of exploring the idea that maybe these problems going unaddressed is the reason that they aren't already officially dating even though they've been acting like they are for the last two volumes, instead of finally coming back to the arguments, hurt feelings, and trauma from the Mistral arc that were never properly resolved, instead of finally talking through those problems and coming together now having a new understanding of each other and able to move forward, not with a massive chasm of misunderstanding and disconnect that drives them apart emotionally, but finally together again, instead of any of that -

They just have the two compliment each other and reassure each other about things that were never an issue in the past. Like, Yang's big line is "I like that you've never been intimidated by me. Even when you didn't like me all that much," - since when has Yang had an issue with intimidating people? And she's never brought up anything about liking Blake for not being afraid of her (which is ironic, giving how much more subdued Blake has become in later volumes). And then after Blake says that she was wary of people, she says "But you never gave up on them. Even when they hurt you. You never give up. You know what matters to you."

LIKE??

Yang, she left you, remember? That was the entire issue back in Volume 5, that you felt like she did give up on you, just abandoned you without a reason or goodbye - why are you now reassuring her that she doesn't give up on people? It's literally only Ilia that fits this idea of "you don't give up on people even when they hurt you", and she did leave Ilia initially when she left the White Fang. This doesn't feel like "something Yang never told Blake before", something Yang never actually told Blake would be "I was hurt when you left, I felt like you abandoned me, like I was nothing to you. I understand now why you did that, but it still hurt that you didn't even say goodbye" and then they can take a step forward and continue on with their heart to heart -

But nope. The things they never said to each other before, the problem that are said to be more mentally or emotionally impactful than the crossroads RWJ are in, is being able to call each other smart and brave and be all fluffy even though they've had absolutely no trouble being affectionate with each other for the past two and a half volumes.

And it kills me because there's something in here that could be so compelling, a few different somethings actually.

Having Yang and Blake act like everything is resolved between them, trying to act on those budding feelings for each other throughout V7/V8 but one or both of them awkwardly pull back each time, not quite able to cross that divide because those issues weren't ever actually resolved, and now it's time to finally be able to address the problems so they can finally have what they both want.

During V7 and 8 they try to let it go after the fight with Adam but tempers are still short, with the two awkwardly clashing and arguing with each other all the time - over Mantle, Ironwood, Salem, etc. They're both feeling hurt and unsure what to do - they don't want to fight, but they keep falling into arguments that make it difficult to work together, even having a fight during the Punderstorm, so the Ever After puts them in timeout to clear the air and stop this wound from festering any longer so they can work as a team.

Yang grappling with her love for Blake and her hurt at being left behind, trying so hard to just be friends again because Adam's gone now and Blake's here and she's happy with Sun, it's fine right? She never actually told Blake about any of the things she felt after she left, but it's over now, so no need to bring up the past, yeah? Trying to put both love and hurt behind her but still overwhelmed by both, culminating with an argument in V8 that's left unresolved until this point in v9 where Yang finally gets to talk about everything she feels towards Blake and so they can finally be on the same page again and start to actually heal.

But no. We get fluff. Instead of any resolution to any of the problems that should have been resolved years ago, we get a confession built on issues that weren't issues and was literally forced onto the characters by a plot contrivance. Okay.

[ultfreakme]

The age-up and the reason for the split opinions

I think a big reason why people are so split about Jon's age-up comes from how Jon fans view his character; side character or protagonist?

A large argument for why Jon should be de-aged is that it'd allow him to experience a good childhood, with many people emphasizing how this would allow for Lois and Clark to truly experience being his parents again, and give Damian back the lost years of friendship.

This is, honestly a valid feeling to have. His introduction and two years of his comic-existence was him as a child, with content largely focused on Clois raising him and his adventures with Damian. All of this contributes to Jon being a really good side character.

Conversations surrounding Jon being aged down, as far I've seen are rarely about Jon alone. It's always about the effects it will have on others. This is...not the greatest thing but since Jon's initial role on his introduction was being Clois's kid to showcase their parenting and them moving forward in their life, he works well for that.

But you can't make a main character from this.

A main character needs conflict, internal and external. Kid!Jon does not have that. Worse, he cannot have that. As a side character to Clois, if Jon exhibits any sign of conflict, Superman and Lois are gonna deal with it and if they don't, they are failing at parenting which the narrative will never allow. Superman and Lois are the best parents they can be, and they will help Jon however they can.

If all of a character's problems can be solved with calling Superman, what story can you tell? Even in Super Sons, Jon has the safety net of Damian, Superman and Batman to fall back on. There emerges a lot of external conflict through villains, but next to no genuine internal conflict because it will be dealt with by everyone else around Jon. Savior arc ends with Damian saying "I'll help you", we don't delve into Jon's perception of himself thereafter. Being in a duo book or with Clois will always take away the conflict from kid!Jon. He isn't allowed to be independent of them. You could not have told a Jon Kent solo story when he was a child because you, the reader, will constantly be wondering where Lois, Clark, Damian, Batman, and a dozen other heroes are to help him.

The age-up though? It happens out of an accident, an inevitable not even Superman could have predicted to stop. The reason why Jon leaves is to learn more about himself. Bendis directly addresses the internal conflicts Jon has been given, but went unresolved or unexplored in the two-years prior. Eg: Manchester Black and Eradicator- they put Jon in a crisis but who actually solved the problem? Clark. The emotional consequences of that on Jon were not dealt with, nor did they have long-lasting consequences until Bendis brought it back up.

Now you have an emotional conflict to get invested in. He puts Jon in a place of peril that incites action and independence. Jon is alone, he has to deal with this without the help he's always had for all his life. It's clear that Jon thought he could get out of trouble because he has never really had a mission as Superboy that didn't involve a safety net.

What will Jon Kent do, when left alone?

And that's what the age-up does. It keeps Clois as good parents but leaves enough space to create an independent inciting event for Jon. During the space trip, Jon isn't JUST getting tortured in the volcano. He actually escapes at some point and lives in hiding on Earth-3 helping people for a while.

Superman (2018) #9

Even prior to the entrapment, he saw the impact the House of El symbol had in the universe and was mostly helping people resolve conflicts with Jor-El. This is where the start of his motive for Superboy/Superman came to be separate from Clark. It's all good to want to be like your dad but that's not enough to carry you through being a hero- look at Nia. Nia wanted to be Dreamer like her mom but she didn't tackle with what that'd mean to her as being a superhero. It's not just costume and adoration. It's horrible work where you have to make awful decisions. Superman makes it look easy. But it never is.

I am not saying trauma is necessary in the making of a main character, far from it. But what a protagonist does need is to be placed in an alien situation that tests them. All protagonists of every story are going through a situation highly unfamiliar to them. This makes for interesting story because conflict generates themes, ideas, conversations about the status quo of the character and their world. Frodo needs to travel across Middle Earth from the home he's always known. Eren needs to leave his home and his walls to give him the full push into joining the Survey Corps. Gon needs to leave his home to find his dad. Even Clark needs to leave his parents to go to Metropolis to truly become Superman. Etcetera.

Jon who aged normally would never, ever have his status quo shaken because Clark and Lois won't let it happen, ergo he would not make a good or compelling protagonist.

You could argue his bisexuality is a source of shifting the status quo and giving Jon and independent conflict- but mandating a crisis on his sexuality is odd. Not all queer people have the crisis. His parents are Clois. You think they'd raise him in a way where he'd be insecure about being bi? Not a chance. And you can't make a character's central conflict their sexuality, that's just boiling down a character to nothing but their sexuality.

I have not yet seen a single idea for a de-aged Jon Kent, which is entirely about Jon. I can come up with a million internal and external problems for current Jon, alone (his insecurities about being an 'abomination' or half-human and kryptonian, his fears of his powers, the frustration he feels from being unable to express his upset on being apart from his family, his more methodical take on hero-ing and giving everyone a chance without jumping to conclusions, being undermined by the hero community as superman, etc).

Again, this is fine if you want the de-aging to return Jon to a status quo where he is aiding someone else's plot. But if you want to make a compelling Superman out of Jon, you need a jarring shift of the norm, and that's what the age-up does.

[harleyxhoward]

The Umbrella Academy S4 (thoughts & opinions)

- HOT TAKE: The issue I had with Five and Lila getting together wasn’t the bizarre age gap or insensitivity of Five sleeping with his brother’s wife, but how they don’t resolve the tension properly before they all cease to exist. Specifically Diego and Five don’t get to hold hands the way Lila and Five did, even though it wasn’t really up to Lila to “forgive” Five, but whatever. I thought that had this affair been treated with an ounce of consideration it would reveal a lot more about both characters shared desperation for affection and emotional stimulation. Five spent decades in complete social isolation to the point where he legitimately fell in love with a mannequin and you want me to believe that, given the similar scenario that most certainly triggered the same “well I guess I’m stuck in this shit now for an indefinite amount of time” area of his brain, he wouldn’t have resorted to falling in love with the fist available person regardless of what it meant outside of the subway? Lila too seemed to get with Diego because while they did click in S2, she had never lived a life that allowed her to experience romance or starting a family like she could with Diego. She pumped out three kids to seemingly force herself to enjoy what she knows could be taken away from her at the throwing of a time traveling briefcase, but her behavior this season is baffling because what do you mean after seven years of searching for a way home she never once brings up missing those three children until the opportunity to return home presents itself? She tries to wipe her hands of the situation, but then the show just kind of ends without meaningful conclusion, so…

- The ending was sloppy. I know you know that, but my issue wasn’t the actual end. The Hargreeves having to sacrifice themselves in a way indicative of the S1 finale makes perfect sense, especially with the painfully shallow Five Diner down in that unexplained subway station where they all indirectly allude to the fact that there’s never a condition where at least one of the family doesn’t end the world. Had the Fives took time to explain that each Hargreeve possesses earth shattering abilities that eventually snowball out of control regardless of the condition, and all resistance is futile, I would accept that the ending makes more sense than just blaming the marigold despite the fact that Victor can/has been able to syphon marigold out of people, and could’ve just taken it all himself but you know, whatever.

- I also deeply resent that a show about familial trauma and bonding despite the shared adversity ultimately concluded on everyone giving up. No. You don’t get to say that they “didn’t just give up” because yes, them saying “oh no, well, there’s ten minutes left of the episode, guess we should cease to exist now” is the definition of not even trying to venture down into the subway as a family and fix the other timelines one at a time, using their newfound familial unity to solve every timeline until they converge into one. I’m not saying that needed to happen at all, or that they should have succeeded even if they tried, but AT LEAST THEN THEY WOULD HAVE TRIED. The writers gave up, the characters gave up, and the metaphor of grief and family issues the show spent so long to cultivate were just abandoned.

- Klaus regressed with no substantial reason or impact other than to provide slapstick humor and comedic relief antics that didn’t amount to any of what he had spent the last few seasons building and working towards. Ben shouldn’t have been brought back after his noble and meaningful sacrifice of S2 only to be made into the most obnoxious version of himself. Allison didn’t even get to say “I heard a rumor” this season nor did she address attempting to sexually assault Luther, and Diego’s relationship with Lila was the absolute worst case scenario for both characters. Viktor was the only one with an arc worth watching this season, which is why I thought him having a solo sacrifice would have been even more gut wrenching but whatever.

- There is an insurmountable amount of plot holes that prove this show just got lazy. There should be a kugelblitz in the finale’s timeline. If Lila/Allison were never born then there could never be Grace/Lila’s children. You don’t get to say “well what about the subway” because that doesn’t protect them from the grandfather paradox, unless outright stated which the writers didn’t even bother to do.

- Why didn’t they just kill Jennifer? Who put her in the squid? If it was Reggie’s wife then why didn’t she just kill her? Why didn’t Reggie kill her when he built the town to “protect” her? Why did she react with pure terror when shown the squid? How did Jean and Gene get their hands on it? Was it a normal giant squid or an alien? Was it her mother? No, because then how did she speak English when she emerged from its stomach? Why did she say “the cleanse” like she knew what it meant when she didn’t? Ben should’ve been able to remember in the OG timeline how he died because absolutely every other spirit does and the show can’t just rewrite its own lore to cater to a last minute subplot that went nowhere. I don’t want to be mean but Jennifer never should have existed as a S4 add in because she did absolutely nothing for the plot other than confusing the audience with the persistent question of why didn’t they just kill her to prevent the cleanse from happening. Reginald said one of them had to die, but in the OG timeline he killed both just to be…cruel? What’s the point of writing that it just had to be one of them if you’re just going to act like it’s a package deal? This entire plot line made me truly believe this season was written by AI, I’m sorry.

[hikaaa-bi]

(rant ahead, proceed at your own risk)

honestly though, i do not like it when a show has no problem putting characters through trauma but doesn't want to address it afterwards. especially worse when they keep dogpiling trauma onto one specific character and then just forgets all about it. oh yay, the world is saved and this character is alright now, i guess.

exhibit A: Marcy from Amphibia. she was already having issues with leaving her friends and trying to combat that with escapism. she got reasonably rejected by her friends when they realized she tricked them. she got backstabbed by the king, both metaphorically and literally. the stab scene literally needed a content warning. she gets put on life support for a while and then gets turned into a weapon. the VA did a really good job with the screaming that it really made us think Marcy was going to at least have scars later. if they went all out, she'd probably be paralyzed or disabled for a while. if not, the least they could do is have her being weak and unable to move too much or fight.

but guess what? her friends rescue her from the core and after a little bit of crying and apologizing, girlie is a-okay. no visible scars, no physical injuries, not even a little bodyache. she jumps up immediately and is fighting the enemy in her super saiyan form moments after.

and do we even have to talk about the emotional and psychological trauma? nope. Marcy is saved now, that's all that matters. apart from a little bit of character growth, this girl is not affected by what she went through one bit.

don't forget that right after seeing Marcy get stabbed and presumably killed, Anne goes back to earth, has exactly 1 second of crisis and then completely forgets about her friend. a lot of the viewers argued that Anne was just repressing her feelings and trying to act happy. if this is true, the writers should show it. just having her act happy and have fun at grocery stores and museums doesn't really send the point across. you start to wonder whether the character got amnesia or if the writers have it.

The Owl House temporarily succeeded in showing a happy-go-lucky character repressing their feelings a.k.a Luz in s2b. we clearly see Luz looking anxious or sad when she's alone or when no one is looking. you see her panicking and trying to overcompensate with jokes, when she's actually not feeling okay. it's done really well in both animation and voice acting.

exhibit B: Hunter from The Owl House. now TOH wasn't overall as bad at showing emotional impact and trauma as Amphibia was. it had its fair share of tears and panic attacks. we see multiple characters very clearly experiencing the aftereffects of traumatic events they went through - King, Eda, Luz, Amity, Hunter. the only problem is that these arcs aren't really resolved well.

Hunter being the most popular example. like Marcy, Hunter was someone who was just given trauma after trauma to deal with. he was a child soldier, raised by his abusive "uncle" who was also the emperor. he was brainwashed into doing whatever his uncle wants him to, with the golden child complex tacked onto him. he is already in a very fragile position at this point, accepting his death and digging his grave when he fears that he's about to disappoint his uncle. he later finds out that he was a clone of said uncle's brother and that there were thousands before him, disposed of easily when they turned against the emperor. he has to fight his uncle in the finale, where said uncle tries to manipulate him again. after getting stranded in the human realm, his uncle later possesses his body, almost killing him in the process. oh, and his best friend actually gets killed.

and the aftereffects? TOH wasn't as avoidant as Amphibia. they did show Hunter having multiple panic attacks, identity crises after leaving the emperor's coven and very obvious fear and negative impacts of abuse.

but the whole grimwalker thing seems to be not taken as seriously as it should have been. Hunter is worried about his friends knowing that he is a clone, rather than about being a clone. i mean, in a world where grimwalkers aren't implied to be a common thing, surely it must be very existentially shocking and confusing to suddenly learn that you're not you, right? i mean, if i learned that i was a clone of someone else, i know the first thing i would think of wouldn't be about how my friends would take it. because i havent had the time to process it myself.

like i get it, these are Hunter's first friends and he doesn't want to lose them, yada yada. but it's still a bit strange to address it this way.

the main problem i have with Hunter's arc is that he never gets his closure with Belos. after Belos possesses his body and kills Flapjack, Hunter tells the others that they have to find and defeat Belos in order to avenge Flapjack. he is clearly distressed and angry. but then the story suddenly seems to forget about his trauma and focuses on Willow's issues instead and just handwaves the whole revenge thing aside.

Hunter did not have to be part of the final fight against Belos. but he needed some closure after everything that had happened. i mentioned this in a previous post but remember when Zuko was able to confront his dad, call Ozai out on all the shit he did and loudly reclaim his destiny? Zuko was allowed to face Ozai and say "I'm not going to be who you want me to be. you are a horrible person who abused me all my life and I'm finally cutting myself free from your influence, and I'm going to right all the wrongs that you made." this was such a powerful moment and Hunter deserved something akin to it too.

but in the end, Hunter isn't even at the scene where Belos dies. Luz, King, Eda and Raine are. and sure, all of these characters were affected by Belos's actions one way or another, but Hunter was the one who was most deeply impacted by Belos. and he never got his closure, he just.. had to move on. it was just such a disappointing end to his arc because he was a character that had so much potential, but they pushed his entire arc and development aside, so that huntlow can happen. yes, i dislike huntlow, it's a very forced and poorly written ship that sabotages the personality of both these characters.

anyway, yeah. either take time to address your character's trauma or don't give them trauma at all. believe it or not, not everyone goes through absolute life-shattering trauma and pain. people deal with problems, sure, but if you can't write about trauma well, please don't.

[gotjacobian]

I saw a post a few weeks ago about why people consume “sad” art, that I can’t find again - but iirc it claimed that sad art was useful because fictional sadness is escapism. It distracts us from our real problems. Which doesn’t really ring true to me, and I’ve been trying to articulate what I actually feel like I get out of angst in art.

My brain sometimes produces an irrational and disproportionate emotional response to real-life situations. I think everyone’s does, to some extent or another. It’s possible to learn to recognize those moments, but knowing they don’t reflect the real-life situation doesn’t actually do anything about the feeling itself. (This is my beef with CBT’s dominance as a mental health approach - knowing the source of a feeling doesn’t always stop it from impacting you, dammit.) And resolving a feeling that wasn’t totally borne out of real, treatable circumstances is often messy. I think people overuse that “anxiety is your brain’s ‘getting stalked by a lion’ response to receiving an email” comparison, but I do think it hits on how hard it is to do anything about that feeling when there’s not an actual lion to drive away.

I think this happens with all kinds of feelings, all the time. We don’t like to advertise it, because it feels melodramatic to say outright that being in a tough work situation feels like being stranded on an alien planet or whatever, but we clearly make that connection. And maybe it’s uncontroversial to say that that helps, but I don’t think it helps because it’s escapism. I legitimately believe that sometimes we feel emotions that analogize better to impossible situations than they do to our real circumstances. I think it’s possible to develop emotional needs that can’t be fulfilled by the set of things that can happen in the real world. I think developing emotional needs that can’t be fulfilled by one’s current circumstances, at the very least, happens *all the fucking time*. And I see addressing that as being an important role of art and fiction in our lives. We need metaphor. We need the impossible. I keep coming back to an analogy to input cable adapters - a special converter from what we can make with our hands and our eyes to an experience we need, that we can feel at least a little in our own hearts and brains and bodies when we need to feel it. That’s not a substitute for better circumstances and addressing real harm. But I think it’s more than the patch job or pressure valve its so often described as.

[the-awful-falafel]

Finally actually watched all of s6e9. Incredibly mixed feelings overall, so here’s some noticeable pros and cons I jotted down:

Pros:

The sheer relief of a Morty focused episode after him getting sidelined this whole season is palpable, I missed this kid

Morty casually insulting and being suspicious of Rick, at least in the beginning, good for him

Morty running the show for much of the episode, making decisions, and being bold shows not all his development was trashed, at least?

There are a lot of depressing implications about Morty being initially willing to ditch his family for the sun knights, or at least considering it not a dealbreaker if he never has to see them again. Poor kid definitely has a repressed desire to escape his family environment if given a strong enough alternative... wonder if they’re going to ever explore that further?

On paper, an episode that finally addresses the lasting impact of the Vat of Acid incident is a good one, and Morty briefly snapping at Rick in the garage was cathartic, even if the execution leaves... much to be desired

Rick and Morty hugging near the climax was.... kinda sweet, I guess?

Animation was good, especially in the sun kingdom

Cons:

Once again another “Morty fucks up and causes a massive catastrophe and Rick needs to save him” episode, except this time Rick is nice and emphasizing just how much nicer he’s gotten by saying sorry, being constantly supportive, and asking to be trusted in dialogue so Morty’s continued reliance + dependency on Rick is clearly fine and not disappointing /s

Rick is delivering the most unnatural, heavy-handed "therapy textbook” style apologies + support + emotional communication with Morty, in such a flat voice too. Like, I’m sorry, but this does not register as something Rick as a character would say at all, much less what an actual real person would say to someone else even when working on their self-improvement, and the fact I know this is supposedly sincere character development just makes me more disappointed in how incredibly forced it’s being delivered tbh

Morty’s resentment was drastically overstated to me in summaries. He’s in this weirdly calm and sympathetic state when Rick is monologuing his aforementioned info-dumpy apologies to him-- he only really gets that one good scene where he lashes out at Rick in the garage, but it passes by really quickly, and by the end of the episode what little distrust there is is basically all forgiven and forgotten because good news, Rick is truly kind and able to be trusted now! And while Morty’s rightfully suspicious of the rug getting pulled out from under him the whole episode (which is like, realistic and better than nothing) that distrust is weirdly minimized and framed as something irrational to maintain in the face of Rick’s newfound goodness

(Not particularly surprising considering the bullshit of how Morty’s character was handled in the crow break-up two-parter and how forgiving he’s written to better facilitate Rick’s near-saccharine character growth spurt, but uuuuuuugggh)

This episode just feels like the writers addressing one of the most fucked up and abusive things Rick ever did to Morty, but only out of obligation, ticking "take responsibility for the vat of acid incident” off the Rick redemption checklist and then resolving the consequences of that incident as quickly as possible (aka, the trauma this sort of abuse is implied to have left on Morty to the point where Rick getting forgiven by him so fast and cleanly would be uncomfortable no matter how sincere Rick’s turnaround is) so they can reclaim the whole vat-death gambit a display of how much Rick and Morty love and trust each other now. I’d be genuinely shocked if there are any actual consequences for Rick’s past abuse of Morty after this episode, because it just feels like they rapidly papered over it in this episode with “your feelings are valid Morty, but it’s okay he’s nice now just trust him”

R&M’s reconciliation feels just as shallow and uncomfortable to me now as it did back in the S5 finale (even though there were admittedly a few good moments in this episode, they only feel like they work without any context of what led to this point) and they just keep digging themselves deeper into the same problems the more they twist the narrative to revolve around Rick’s hyper-idealized healing process

Controversial opinion time, but I kinda hope there’s some sort of fakeout/reveal/incident in the finale that makes Rick regress to an extent, makes his self-improvement arc fall back to be more grueling and realistic and gives his victims more of a right to not immediately (or ever) forgive him. Because tbh, I’ve been watching Bojack Horseman recently, and it just makes the sheer unsatisfying nature of Rick’s character growth since the S5 finale even more apparent, and I’d hate for this to just be the unquestioned status quo from here on out.

[corruptedplaylist]

looking out for you: act ii behind the scenes

just pretending like im on a talk show i am both the interviewer and the host <3

motivation for writing the lance and keith solo chapters

i've been raring to write the solo winter break chapters (i just called them the winter break interlude in my head for a bit) since september/october actually. i viewed it as my reward for finishing act ii 💀 not just because i love angst but also i love a good character study/character development heavy chapter and i really got to dig into each character and their home lives.

the foundation of this fic is entirely based on my dissatisfaction with how the show progressed and ended and subsequent self-indulgence— i've just been addressing a lot of the issues i had with vld. one such issue for me was the lack of in-depth character development. i enjoy a good romance as much as the next person but i really wanted to understand keith and lance as individuals who functioned outside of each other and the context of the group, and the solo chapters were a great writing exercise for me in terms of characterization and character-driven storytelling. so let's get into it baby!

lance's section (chapter 11) first.

we never got to see lance's growth as a character beyond "the dumb one" or the guy who cracks jokes for the sake of the team. the smaller vulnerable moments lance had, where he broke down and felt like he was useless and tried to leave the team or when he admitted he missed his family and Earth— they never got properly resolved. i think lance's identity as a 1.5 generation immigrant (immigrating to the States as a little kid) as well as his status as the youngest in a large family impacted his thought process and self-perception and i wanted to showcase that.

for children especially, immigration can be traumatic. i know "trauma" is an oversaturated buzzword used in pop psychology these days but i refer its definition as something established in one of my classes: "an event or series of events that is perceived as frightening, distressing, or life-threatening and has long-lasting effects on the survivor's emotional, social, mental, and physical processes." i imagine that for a 5-year-old lance, who has always been family-oriented and prone to bouts of homesickness, he experienced his immigration as traumatic when he had to leave behind everything he knew in cuba (his house, his friends, his neighbors, most of his family members) and start his life over in america. like, that's a LOT for anyone, let alone a little kid, to have to deal with. and that's where i extrapolated the notion that lance is afraid of being left behind— he didn't really have a choice in whether or not he got to leave cuba and so he's carried this fear that everyone in cuba will move on without him.

on top of that, i think lance acted as a sponge for his family's negative emotions related to immigration (stress, anxiety, sadness). that's partially where he developed the conception that he had to perform, to always be on and distract them from their negative feelings. ofc, it also doesn't help that as the youngest, he really has to jockey with his siblings for a Thing (i.e. Luis is the family man, Marco is the athlete, Veronica and Rachel are the career-driven women).

i knew from the get-go i was gonna make this bitch have daddy issues lol. first and foremost, i do not want to dismiss the very real fact that there are tons of immigrant parents who hold homophobic notions and ideals because that is 100% real. however, the way that it's portrayed in media can sometimes flatten a lot of the potential for a nuanced relationship. i'm not excusing homophobia by any means but i am coming from a place of engaged empathy. our parents are a product of a society and culture that has ingrained in them homophobic ideals and fucked notions of gender expression. it's difficult to break a way of thinking and acting when you've had that logic shoved down your throat since birth. i think there's a lot to be said on the concept of masculinity and the "strong silent immigrant parent," which i haven't seen much in the voltron fanfiction i've consumed. i wanted to craft a relationship between lance and his dad where it can be boiled down to: "your love hurts." their conversation at the end of chapter 11 is by no means fixing everything, but it's a step in the right direction.

i also just really love lance's relationship with his siblings. i'm the oldest so it was a fun exercise to just see how lance interacts with his siblings as the youngest. also that's not the last you'll be seeing of the McClan in this fic......

let's talk about the keith section:

ok first, we've been able to view shiro from keith, lance, and adam's pov thus far. the thing is, though, is that lance still kind of views shiro as his idol/someone he's looked up to, and i wrote adam's pov primarily so the audience could view klance as a unit. shiro's character felt a little flat, and that was kind of on purpose thus far. keith and shiro are obviously incredibly close since they're brothers in this universe, but there's been an underlying tension so far because keith feels distant from shiro and i wanted to address that finally.

i think it's a natural thing for relationships to change once people hit college/move out. keith's mom left when he was a kid and his dad died and he bounced from foster home to foster home so ofc he's going to develop a huge complex about forming attachments to other people. i think it makes sense that one of keith's biggest fears is that shiro will leave him or grow tired of him, which obvi isn't true, but when you get in your head about something, after years of trauma and reinforcement of a spiral of bad thoughts, it's hard to get out of it. so keith's chapter was kind of confronting this idea that he deserves good, and that he might be good, and maybe he should stop running and learn to accept that he is loved.

i'm sure y'all have picked up on the whole thing i have for keith about showing the evolution of his willingness to be vulnerable and open up through cooking. at the end of keith's chapter, he is making kimchi fried rice with akemi which holds a lot of nuance.

1) keith is slowly but surely exploring his own heritage. (i know i haven't touched on keith's korean identity in a bit but dw that's coming in later chapters). fried rice isn't an entirely new concept to him bc he was raised in a japanese household (and also just exists in the world) but he's embracing positive change within himself and even initiating it himself by trying out a korean recipe, using kimchi, a korean food

2) not only is he trying out a korean recipe, he felt safe enough to attempt it for the first time at college, in a shared house with all his friends, and even served it to them, which is a HUGE step in his willingness to be perceived.

3) he is sharing this recipe with akemi, his japanese kind-of mom. it's the fact that cooking is kind of a love language for keith and akemi, and he wants to share something he's found for himself, away from the texas house, and integrated it into his old life, mixing what he knew with what he knows now.

akemi, who has shared her own recipes she learned from her family with keith and took on the role of teacher, is now the student. she's learning a recipe from keith and engaging in his explorations of his koreanness through cooking. and keith is sharing his culture with her because he tried it on his own with his own little found family, like "hey look at this thing i tried out for myself can i share it with you?"

tl;dr for chapters 11 and 12

i wanted to use the solo chapters as ways to show how lance and keith react to change— the ways they view it and the reasons they fear it. it can be boiled down to this:

lance: i am afraid of being left behind and i wish things would stay the same so i do not have to address the fear of being left behind because that implies i am not good enough for someone to stay for. keith: nothing has ever stayed the same for me and i am afraid of getting comfortable in the love that my community has for me because that could all be ripped away at a moment's notice. i will leave first as an act of self preservation.

allura 💖🧚🏿‍♀️🥰

i love you allura!!!! i got to have keith and lance each have a little moment with our fave princess because 1) keith and allura didn't interact a lot in this supposed found family in the canon other than when allura found out keith was galra and 2) i really liked the friendship between lance and allura in seasons 3-4 and i wish there were more moments like that. i think keith and allura could both connect more on grief and heritage since they both lost their parents, bridges to their respective cultures (keith korean, and allura jamaican). that little moment in ch 6 between both of them was very special for me as well— as an adoptee, i felt disconnected from a lot of traditions and holidays and foods that were a part of my birth culture but i didn't have anyone to celebrate it with. having keith and allura kind of discuss that together was not only a great character development moment but also was me projecting a lil 😗

side note: allura saying goodnight to keith in chapter 8 after halloweekend shenanigans parallels chapter 2, when they're outside the bathroom and she goes to touch his shoulder but he ducks away. i thought it'd be a nice little easter egg to show the progression of their friendship— in chapter 8, keith lets allura touch him and affirm their status as friends who have fun together.

i like lotor as a character but i had to nerf him a bit in this fic in regards to his relationship with allura. i think allura's relationship with lotor adds to her depth as a character— she's seen as the strong girlboss who doesn't take shit but hinting at her toxic relationship and portraying its affects was important to me. yes, allura is a badass but also she is not immune to shitty stuff, and even the most badass of people can get into bad situations. it doesn't make them weak, it just makes them human. i wanted lance, who def has this image of allura that's different from reality, to kind of find allura in this vulnerable moment and 1) realize that she's a person first and foremost, not an infallible goddess and 2) comfort her wholeheartedly because lance, to his core, is a very kind person and even when drunk, he's going to try and find the right words to say.

allura is a side character in all of this but i wanted to give her some complexity as well, since lance hangs out a lot with hunk and pidge and keith is closer with shiro and adam.

ch 9 klance development

ok look everything everywhere all at once left a fucking imprint on my brain when i saw it. "in another life i would have liked just doing laundry and taxes with you" ok stab me in the gut. that being said, i know i really wanted to give klance a moment to just be friends who run domestic errands together, to start nudging them in a direction where they're both like, "hey i kinda enjoy hanging out with this person one-on-one, and im comfortable enough to feel like i dont have to perform in front of them." klance just being domestic and folding laundry together at a laundromat and sharing airpods askgjakdjghlkadjfhgadf.

i also wanted to include the little adam and lance moment toward the end, because let's face it, adam would have absolutely adored lance (i say from the 2 minutes of screentime canon adam w got). lance has hunk and pidge and he's friends with allura but i wanted to give him someone to look up to and rely on the way keith has shiro. esp since lance is the youngest and away from home— adam probably reminds him more of his siblings initially, because lance has a more grounded perspective of adam than shiro, who's a microniche celebrity.

about the beach episode

i love beach filler episodes so fucking much. it's just a great time to get the ensemble out of the typical college setting and see how they function as a unit in a different environment. from the car rides, to stopping for food at some dingy ass fast food chain, to fucking around on the beach and chasing birds and sharing lunch ugh i love it so much it was lovely to write. mirroring adashi's relationship development with klance's was fun, i've had that idea in my head for awhile now so it was gratifying to see it come to fruition. i knew that i would have lance realize he liked keith first simply because keith takes a bit to process his emotions. dw this isn't gonna be some one-sided, drawn out pining for too long.

this beach chapter was a way for me to simultaneously reflect on how things have progressed with klance's relationships. not just with each other, but the rest of the group as well. i wanted them to have gotten a natural dynamic where they're all close enough to go on a beach trip and just fuck around and be normal college kids taking a break for finals. it also allowed me to plant the seeds for further klance development, as well as hint at the central conflict that would follow lance in chapter 11. chapter 10 was a great wrap up for the overall dynamic of the group and a way to end the fall semester.

what was it like to write in adam's pov?

that was so much fucking fun ahhhhh. for one reason, klance aren't together yet and i wanted. to write. domestic bliss. second, it's a great narrative tool to kind of zoom out a bit when viewing klance. we can see how the boys interact in a group setting from an outsider's perspective, without all the gay panic or inner monologues, as fun as they are to write. they just exist as they are, and adam takes note of it. third, i love adam and the potential of adashi and i am so so so sad that adam got killed off after less than 90 seconds of screentime. nothing against curtis, but i've just been more attached to adam since his character was revealed in the show (even if it wasn't for long). shiro deserves a loving partner and healthy relationship and i think adashi are so fucking cute. and yeah, i'm paralleling adashi's relationship development with klance, i just couldn't fucking resist.

when tf are lance and keith gonna get together?

LMAO yeah i knew this was gonna be a slowburn but damn i really am drawing it out. i do want to follow a somewhat logical progression and pacing, though. act i was building klance up as people who could find some common ground and humanize each other instead of just butting heads. act ii has been following the development of their friendship and planting the seeds for romantic attraction, as you might have seen from chapter 10. dw, there is a spike in the klance development in act iii as i focus on their navigation as a couple, and as y'all know, i already wrote the confession scene. it's coming!!!! soon!!!!!!!

multilingualism as a plot device

i've talked about it before but i love!!!! using language as a plot device to demonstrate a character's personality/development/interpersonal relationship!!!

i'm not a fluent speaker in any of the languages that have appeared or been mentioned in this fic (spanish, japanese, korean, jamaican creole, tagalog). i've studied most of them lackadaisically and i'm sort of fuzzy on grammar and cultural nuance. i've been consulting with actual native speakers of these languages to try and make it as authentic as possible but ofc, if you do speak those languages and something sticks out with the translations, please let me know!

i studied spanish in high school, but it was a mix of mexican and castillian spanish because i had different teachers between the years. diving into cuban spanish, which is an entirely different dialect because of its history in the caribbean, has been really fun (and also a lot of work my god i haven't had to bust out my spanish in years). learning all the different curses has been sooooo cool, i love profanity in other languages.

that being said, i think it's really interesting when writing from keith's pov and incorporating language. i have this idea that when keith first moved in with the shiroganes, akemi and shiro tried to encourage him to go to korean school but he probably got embarrassed because he was put with a bunch of little kids due to his speaking ability and stopped going.

the linguistic and cultural barrier was fun to craft between keith and akemi because when they first met each other, keith probably spoke 0 japanese and akemi was more comfortable in japanese and less in english. from the flashback in chapter 12, we see that keith has already been studying hard to work to a conversational level of japanese, and he can understand basic phrases (akemi tries to accommodate him as well). even so, keith still uses 丁寧語 or teneigo, the standard level of politeness for japanese, when he's speaking with akemi. it shows that even though he's progressed in his japanese, he still puts some distance between him and akemi, like he sees himself as a long-term houseguest. ofc there's layers of respect that are interlaced with teneigo, but close family units don't use teneigo when they speak to each other.

this has been a disorganized and rambling behind the scenes of looking out for you act ii. thanks for tuning in and see y'all next time <3

[winns-stuff]

LO CONFESSION:

I won’t lie, about the reveal of the fastpass with Hermes and Persephone with Apollo coming back I really had a hard time feeling anything about it. I hate to even admit this because I understand about why this should’ve been a bigger moment and why I should at least be excited that Apollo is finally being dealt with I find myself lacking in all emotion about it.

Now before I say anything I wanna clarify that in no way am I saying “I don’t care that Persephone is confronting her abuser”, that’s not what I’m trying to say at all. I am glad that he is being dealt with and hopefully this time it will be by Persephone’s hands and Persephone’s hands only because I feel like since her trauma is so overlooked by the comic this could really be her chance to literally take it back and be in full control of it. I’m happy that he’s finally being addressed and I hope that the comic actually punishes him and not just let him off so easy like they’ve genuinely been doing this entire time. And what I mean by that is that Apollo literally has no consequences for anything, every time we’ve seen Apollo he’s gotten away with things and I can understand if the narrative writes it like that on purpose so that it’ll be realistic but at the same time it doesn’t feel like the narrative itself even wants to deal with him. His character gets slaps on his wrists not because it’s intended to but because they want to move onto something else, for the trauma he’s caused to be this great it doesn’t actually feel like it’s important and I hate that.

But back to my main point about Persephone and the red eyes. First off I just want to say that they should’ve just kept the red eyes for wrath and anger, I really do think it would’ve been more impactful since we know that that’s the only emotion that comes with it and this would be an amazing time to be furious. Second, I wish Persephone would actually look pissed off when the red eyes come on I hate that she’s always smiling and in a way yeah it could be creepy and unsettling but I just wish to see more range with it but that’s just a personal nitpick. Third off is I have a hard time taking them serious now, the comic has used Persephone’s red eyes and her anger in general as a joke so many times it’s hard to convince myself that this is actually something that won’t be taken as a joke. As much as I have hope that there won’t be any jokes made or implied both during this confrontation and after it I already know that LO has a very hard time taking itself seriously so I wouldn’t be surprised if jokes would be made even when it’s nowhere near necessary. Fourth is I feel like there was little to no build up to this whole thing, I don’t feel like this is what I’ve been waiting for and I don’t believe that this is even a big moment. There’s nothing satisfying for me about this confrontation and it genuinely upsets and disappoints me entirely, I feel like they’ll be no resolve or the resolve will just be very rushed and underwhelming which is annoying to me because I would like to see this situation finally have importance and be acknowledged as important by this comic.

I know how serious this conversation is and everyone else in the fandom does as well but I hate that the comic acts as if they have no clue why this whole thing is important. I don’t want jokes being made, I don’t want light atmosphere, I don’t want “funny faces”, I don’t want anything that would take away from the scene. I want this scene to be powerful and I want them to deliver true justice to Persephone not half ass it like they always fucking do. Which is why I’m writing this confession, I want all of these things to happen but I know more than anyone that I’ll be disappointed yet again by this comic. I know that they won’t give this situation any integrity or respect at all and I know they’ll treat it like it’s one big fucked up joke because they always do, and I’ll be the one left angry and upset because once again LO has failed to deliver what it’s promised to fans for the 1000th time.

[solhwellness]

Different Types of Psychotherapies: Exploring Your Options | Solh Wellness

Several psychological therapies provide useful strategies for overcoming life's problems when it comes to improving your mental health. These treatments, often known as talk therapies or psychotherapies, offer a framework for comprehending and controlling your ideas, feelings, and behaviors.

Let's look at the various forms of psychological therapy available:

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

A well-known treatment method called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) aims to recognize and alter unfavorable thought patterns. By recognizing and addressing these ideas, people can manage disorders like anxiety, melancholy, and stress efficiently. Through CBT, you acquire practical abilities to change your negative thinking.

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) 

DBT combines techniques that encourage mindfulness with cognitive behavioral treatment. Those who struggle with strong emotions, risky behavior, and interpersonal problems benefit the most from it. DBT teaches individuals how to control their feelings, strengthen interpersonal bonds, and encourage self-acceptance.

Psychodynamic Therapy 

This therapy focuses mostly on the unsolved problems and unconscious mechanisms that influence your ideas and behaviour. To uncover ingrained patterns and advance consciousness and personal development, psychodynamic therapy digs into past interactions and experiences.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)   

ACT places a strong focus on accepting one's ideas and feelings as opposed to trying to repress them. It helps people define their values and make a commitment to upholding them. This therapy effectively treats anxiety while enhancing general wellbeing.

Mindfulness-Based Therapies  

Self-awareness and present-moment awareness are encouraged in therapies that place a strong emphasis on mindfulness. These therapies include:

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR):Through the practice of moderate yoga and mindfulness meditation, MBSR aims to reduce stress and promote emotional control.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT): Since the MBCT program combines cognitive therapy techniques with mindfulness training, it can benefit people who have recurrent depression.

Humanistic Therapies  

The goals of humanistic therapies are the pursuit of self-actualization, self-growth, and self-discovery. These consist of:

Person-Centred Therapy: In the encouraging, nonjudgmental environment of this treatment, people can examine their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

Gestalt Therapy: The value of fully experiencing the present moment is emphasized by gestalt therapy. It promotes self-awareness and accountability.

Family Systems Therapy

Understanding how a person's ties with their family impact their mental health is the aim of family systems therapy. It tries to promote harmony within the family and communication.

Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)  

In IPT, emphasis is placed on interpersonal and communication skills. Both treating depression and resolving interpersonal conflicts can be done using it.

Narrative Therapy  

Examining the narratives we tell about our lives is an essential component of narrative therapy. Retelling and recreating these tales can offer people fresh perspective and a sense of empowerment.

Behavioural Therapy  

Behavioral therapy seeks to alter a behavior by identifying the reinforcers of that behavior. For phobias, OCD, and other conditions, there are two methods of treatment: behavior modification and exposure therapy.

Last but not least, each therapy has its unique technique and benefits. A licensed therapist can help you discuss your options and help you discover the option that best suits your needs. Remember that choosing the ideal approach could need some trial and error because therapy is a collaborative process. By incorporating psychological treatment into your regular routine for maintaining your mental health, you may offer yourself the resources you require to live a more balanced and fulfilling life.

At Solh Wellness, we take great care to fully understand the range of mental health issues and offer treatment that is uniquely tailored to each potential client. Our therapists are skilled at adapting the course of treatment to meet the demands of the patients. In order to assist you practice mindfulness and self-care, we also provide resources and techniques.

[qualityrain]

ive heard of honkai impact but i never really got a look at the actual game itself whats your favorite guy like??? how do they work with the plot?? love you bye<3

there is sO much to say and absolutely nothing at the same time

this isnt going to be coherent at all

whats your favorite guy like???

this is going to be very inaccurate because at this point i cant tell what is canon or not + rlly disorganised

tbh. like a generic emo guy. a family guy. ride or die. his love language is dying for you. actually really chill??? and like kind of straightforward (at least to one of the main characters in the game. whether it is for plot or an actual character trait nobody knows) shows no emotion whatsoever(never explained). will kind of crack jokes. highly efficient, won’t do more things than necessary(this is definitely canon). hasnt slept well in like 10 years (vibe). takes promises really seriously. the i owe you and i WILL pay you back guy. he’s an older brother. has STRONG annoying little brother energy with another character that is literally my favourite dynamic in this entire game with 5mins of screentime together. a piece of shit. will talk stupid shit to lighten up the situation. he will do anything for his goals(probably). this guy definitely has trauma and mhy wont ever address it and he’s repressing it like crazy. like has this dude ever processed the whole i almost fucking died and everybody i love is dead thing properly yet. i could tell you his height but not his birthday. its 173cm. i refuse to believe he’s taller than 170cm. there’s probably more but i don’t know what else to say. this guy’s barely a character in the game, there’s absolutely no depth at all. all i have are vibes and my brain ran with it and now this guy has been in my head for 2 years now.

how do they work with the plot??

short answer: they don’t.

long answer: his role in the plot is to parallel another main character(mei) and it is done so so so soooooooo poorly. he appears in one (1) arc in the game and appears in 2 chapters and its imo the worst arc in the entire game and its almost irrelevant and every new chapter that gets added makes me wish more and more that this arc doesn’t exist. I genuinely do not know why this parallel needed to exist like. why? why do we need this parallel to see the main characters with an outside perspective?? there’s probably a reason its just this arc is terrible. they couldnt even get meis arc right in this arc like its sO BAD.

mei has this whole ass scene where she just accepts having to kill this guy!! my fave!! the blorbo!! shes like oh i cant hesitate anymore i have to do this for my girlfriend(basically)!!! AND THEN SHE HESITATES AGAIN AND DOESNT KILL HIM AND IM SO SO UPSET AND ANGRY BECAUSE WHATS THE POINT. she has this whole moral dilemma of ohh noo if i kill this guy its like im a hypocrite or smth cos im doing the same as this guy but i gotta to protect somebody i care about!! for this arc and then SHE DOESNT KILL HIM. he dies another way!!! resolving to kill somebody is not the same as actually doing it!! im so upset abt this because its so. whats the point of the whole scene where mei literally collects herself to strengthen her resolve to not hesitate and kill this guy and shes like oop i guess i wont!

im going to be real i try to forget as much as i can from this arc because i hate it and its probably all wrong and inaccurate but i still hate it to bits and i wish mhy wasnt scared to make mei commit murder

this isnt proof read at all this is a word vomit ive spent over half an hour on this and 3 days thinking abt this. there are definitely things i wanted to add and forgot almost immediately.

thanks for the ask!! 🫶🫶🫶

[vitalitylivingcollege6]

Unlocking the Power of EFT Tapping with Vitality Living College: A Comprehensive Guide

Stress and passionate difficulties are permeating in today's fast-paced society, and they have an impact on our general welfare. Sensitive Independence Techniques (EFT) Tapping is a trailblazing attitude that has grown in popularity for resolving these problems. Our area at Vitality Living College is to assistance you in using EFT Tapping to change your life. This manual will go over the advantages of EFT Tapping as well as how Vitality Living College can help you on your path to emotional freedom.

What is EFT Tapping?

EFT Tapping, also known as just EFT, is a type of psychological acupressure that blends contemporary psychology and acupuncture principles. This method is focusing on a specific problem or emotion while tapping on particular highpoint points on the body. In order to help people manage stress, anxiety, and other emotive difficulties, the goal is to remove destructive energy and return balance.

Understanding EFT Tapping Meridian Points

According to Outmoded Chinese Medicine, meridian points are energy flight path in the body. EFT Tapping is tapping on precise meridian points. The locations of these apex points are along individual energy lines that flow through our bodies. Among the main zenith points that are consumed in EFT tapping are:

1. The Karate Chop Point: This point, which is on the hand's edge, is used to start the tapping pattern. 2. The Top of the Head: This point, which is sited at the top of the head, is compulsory for overall equipoise. 3. Brow Point: Located at the beginning of the eyebrow, this point is linked to letting go of emotions. 4. Side of the Eye: This point, which is situated there, aids in the processing and resolution of sensitive problems. 5. Beneath the Eye: This point, which is located lower the eye, works well for undertaking negative feelings. 6. Under the Nose: This point, which is located just below the nose, helps discharge emotional blockages. By tapping on these meridian points while centring on specific issues, personages can relief choked energy and stimulate emotional healing.

The Benefits of EFT Tapping

EFT Tapping offers copious benefits, making it a valuable tool for personal development and responsive well-being. Here are some of the key benefits:

Stress Reduction: EFT Tapping is highly effective in tumbling stress levels. By tapping on the apex points, individuals can activate the body's reasonableness response and decline cortisol levels, leading to a sense of calm and relaxation.

Emotional Healing: EFT Tapping helps individuals address and release deep-seated emotional issues. Whether it’s past trauma, anxiety, or negative beliefs, EFT Tapping can assistance in dealing out and healing these passions.

Improved Mental Clarity: Regular practice of EFT Tapping can enhance mental clarity and focus. By clearing emotional blockages, personages may experience improved cognitive function and concentration.

Enhanced Physical Well-being: Stress and negative emotions can contribute to physical ailments. EFT Tapping can help alleviate physical indicators associated with stress, such as nuisances, muscle tension, and digestive issues.

Boosted Self-Esteem: By addressing and releasing limiting beliefs, EFT Tapping can boost self-esteem and confidence. Individuals may find themselves more sanctioned to pursue their goals and stunned obstacles.

Better Relationships: EFT Tapping can improve interpersonal associations by resolving responsive issues and enhancing communication. By addressing past conflicts and emotional triggers, individuals can build restored and more fulfilling relationships.

How Vitality Living College Can Help

We at Vitality Living College are dedicated to provide thorough instruction and assistance in EFT Tapping. Our developments are made to give people the information and talents they need to apply EFT Tapping in both their actual and skilled life. Vitality Living College can help you in the following ways:

Expert Guidance: To guarantee that you obtain precise and efficient coaching, our knowledgeable instructors offer expert control on EFT Tapping techniques. Our team, who has years of proficiency in the sector, is unswerving to assisting you in reaching your points.

Customized Training: We provide customized training plans made to meet your unique goals and wants. Our classes are tailor-made to match your specific needs, heedlessly of your level of experience.

Extensive materials: To assist you in your EFT Tapping journey, Vitality Living College offers a variety of materials, such as webinars, online courses, and conferences. Our materials are made to improve your education and assist you in combining EFT Tapping into your everyday activities.

Friendly Community: Enrolling in Vitality Living College entails joining a friendly group of people who share comparable values. Openings for networking, experience sharing, and enduring support are provided by our community.

Ongoing Education: We are proponents of lifelong learning and provide advanced workshops and courses to help you gain a deeper conception of EFT Tapping. We make sure you stay up to date on the most recent improvements in the industry with our continuing education programs.

Getting Started with EFT Tapping at Vitality Living College

If you’re ready to scrutinise the transformative power of EFT Tapping, Vitality Living College is here to guide you all step of the way. Here’s how you can get started:

1. Browse Our Courses: Take a look at the variety of EFT Tapping courses and programs we provide by visiting our website. There is a course to fit your needs, whether you're looking for cutting-edge education or a beginner's workshop. 2. Sign up for a Program: After deciding on a course, signing up online is simple. Our simple registration practise agreements a hassle-free and easy experience. 3. Attend Training programs: Get practical skill and master EFT Tapping techniques by taking part in our training programs. Our hands-on workshops aim to impart useful knowledge and abilities. 4. Practice Frequently: It's critical to practice intermittently if you want to reap the complete benefits of EFT tapping. To rally your mental health, make time each day for EFT Tapping.

Conclusion

EFT Tapping is an effective technique for personal development and sensitive healing. People can enhance their wide-ranging well-being, relieve stress, and discharge bad energy by tapping on actual highpoint points. Our goal at Vitality Living College is to assist you in realizing the full potential of EFT Tapping Meridian points and bringing about long-lasting, constructive change in your life. Probe our assistances, become a part of our community, and begin your path to emotional liberation right now. With Vitality Living College, embrace the life-changing impending of EFT Tapping and find your way to a more pleasant, important existence.

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The Impact of a Haunted Past on Present-Day Relationships

Our past has shaped our views, actions, and relationships, and it is an essential component of who we are. However, unresolved trauma or traumatic events from the past can have a big impact on our relationships now. Oftentimes, without our even realizing it, the emotional scars from these experiences can make it difficult to establish and sustain good bonds.

This article explores the ways in which a troubled past can affect relationships in the present and provides strategies for resolving these issues.

Echoes of Trauma: How Past Experiences Shape Our Emotional Responses

Our emotional reactions in relationships have a lot to do with our past. In the event that we have undergone severe emotional distress or trauma, these experiences may remain with us and slightly affect how we behave in our present relationships.

Emotions such as fear, rage, or grief that don’t seem appropriate for the circumstances could be remnants of unresolved trauma. Our partner might not comprehend the depth of our reactions or the reasoning behind them, which can lead to misunderstandings. The first step to mending is realizing that your emotions from the past are still affecting you now.

Trust Issues and Insecurity: The Hidden Barriers to Intimacy

Any healthy relationship must be built on trust, but it can be particularly difficult for those with troubled pasts to cultivate. Insecurities and deep-seated trust issues can arise from past betrayals or disappointments and manifest themselves in current relationships.

We can start to question our partner’s motives even in the absence of evidence, or we might start to feel uneasy about our role in their lives. These trust problems can show up in a variety of behaviors, including excessive desire for reassurance, possessiveness, and jealousy.

Breaking the Cycle: Recognizing and Addressing Unhealthy Relationship Patterns

Unhealthy relationship patterns may recur as a result of unresolved trauma. We may discover that we are drawn to companions who are similar to us or that we frequently run into the same problems. Without self-reflection or other input, it can be challenging to identify these tendencies, which are frequently unconscious.

 Finding the tendencies that are preventing us from moving forward is crucial to ending the cycle. This could entail looking back at our previous relationships to see recurring themes or patterns of behavior that have caused problems.

Healing Together: Strategies for Overcoming the Impact of a Haunted Past

Recovering from a troubled background doesn’t have to be done by one person. In actuality, overcoming these obstacles along with our spouse can deepen our connection and enrich our relationship. Being open with our partners might help them understand our behavior and provide us with the support we need.

Establishing a connection based on mutual trust, understanding, and support is the aim. Even though a troubled past could bring difficulties, it doesn’t have to dictate your present or future. It is possible to build happy, lasting relationships free from the baggage of the past if you put in the necessary time, effort, and commitment to heal.

If you are looking for a compelling read, ‘Fey Impulses: A Story of Obsession and Madness’ by Penny Fairland is a treat for you. Penny Fairland’s latest novel is your gateway to an enthralling tale of identity, family secrets, and the consequences of self-serving morality.

Step into Kiera’s Life, a woman who has convinced herself that her extreme actions are justified by a self-serving sense of morality, believes she is protecting her family, yet her rash actions only lead to harm. As secrets from her criminal past emerge, her relationships with her grown children hang by a thread. Confronted by her past, Kiera embarks on a journey where every step is shadowed by mysterious omens and the influence of a Gaelic goddess. Are you ready to dive into a world where reality blurs with the supernatural? Lose yourself in a world where the supernatural intertwines with reality.