love him so much i could talk about any of the mercs for ages especially jane’s arc in this film surrounding authority it’s so cool i love this film so much
that scene in season 1 where teruki hanazawa exorcises ekubo mid-sentence... and shigeo's eyes widen in shock?
i really want to talk about it, specifically the explosion meter accompanying it.
normally, when the teenager's emotions aren't obvious to the audience, that meter relays to us a sense of what he is actually feeling. but we cannot trust the meter here. we see it jump up a few points at teru's 'psycho wave' sending the sleazy ghost to the shadow realms, and remain steady at 50% upon shigeo's recollections of the spirit's unsavory nature. the boy outright tells teru that he isn't bothered. and it's funny!
but shigeo isn't being honest with himself here either.
his face briefly gives his feelings away before resettling into its normal flat affect. (to be fair, what he's really feeling isn't teru's business. this kid is trying to provoke a fight out of him, after all.) after he's basically tortured into exploding, shigeo spends three hours in the pouring rain, searching everywhere for ekubo.
three. hours.
these are not the actions of someone who isn't bothered. letting himself get drenched to the point of sickness,
even though he literally holds the power to shield himself from it,
reads to me like unconscious self-punishment for allowing all this to happen.
after a large chunk of his short life spent denying and fearing them for good reason, shigeo's first impulse is often not to use his psychic powers -- even after his integration at the story's end. i wish this was discussed more, because many watchers cannot fathom why this boy with world-breaking psychic abilities would ever refuse to use them.
also: the explosion meter lying to us / representing shigeo's detachment from his own emotions alexithymia may occur elsewhere in the series as well, especially when he's not close to an explosion; i'm reminded of the tiny dent ritsu's provocation of him makes in it a few episodes later.
After rewatching ROTTMNT (shorts and movie included), I realized something about Donnie's character that I've hardly seen anyone mention, and I'm going to talk about it in depth here.
I'll assume you've already watched the series and dive right in, but spoiler warning under the cut in case you care about that.
Let me start with something seemingly off topic. Raph is the oldest of the four brothers, which landed him the responsibility of keeping his younger siblings safe when their father was unavailable. (Not trying to bash Splinter. He's gradually grown to be a better parent later on, but you can't deny he was fairly neglectful in the beginning of the series)
The constant pressure Raph went through was brought up in the episode "Anatawa Hitorijanai", and then the movie showed he still struggles with it now.
He's constantly shouldering the burden of being their family's sole protector, but is this the truth? What if I told you there are actually two protectors in the family? And that the other one was Donnie all along?
When you look closely, Donnie is surprisingly protective of his loved ones. I did a tally of how often each brother exhibits what could be protective behavior, and Donnie was in second place (29) after Raph (35). Some of these choices are debatable, but here's a bunch of examples as pictures.
Would you believe me if I told you I still have a couple smaller examples I had to leave out due to the picture limit? And that's not even including the few moments where Donnie and Raph ever-so-subtly parallel each other.
All things considered, Donnie and Raph aren't so different. Raph is the primary protector who faces the threats head-on with his physical strength, while Donnie is the secondary protector who tends to use more distant methods with his tech and wit. However, when push comes to shove, Donnie will also step up to take direct action when he deems it necessary.
They may be the brains and the brawn, but they both use their respective skills to defend and support their family.
What do you want to do, Shadowheart?
I want to see my parents. And I don't care what happens to this one. She's been in my head long enough already. Do what you like. I know you'll choose well.
I love how the beginning of S2 shows that Ehwa’s complex over her powers is how she can’t control it and is scared of hurting people and that makes sense and then she grows from it but then during the Dallar Show goes “oh yeah she also accidentally burned one of her servants to death when she was just four years old and everyone praised her for it, while in the background her servant is screaming in her death throes for Ehwa to help her”
Like…fucking damn
Ehwa was outwardly proud of her family in early S2, but even then we can see subconsciously she saw them in a negative light. She left to the inner tower when she was only 14, refused to use her family benefits up until the 20th floor, and mournfully states that her family would kick her out if she teamed up with Viole and disown her if she failed again.
When the audience thinks of victimized characters of the 10 Families, they’ll usually think of Khun, Elaine, or White, but we seem to forget that Ehwa is also one of those poor children who was failed by the adults around her to the point where it negatively affected her own powers.
Anyway, that’s just the first of my Ehwa rants this week. I want more people to appreciate what a gem she is and why she’s best girl
i just want to emphasise how crazy it is that samdean don’t need or even really want (at times) any external relationship outside of each other. developing different kinds of human relationships with different people is a huge part of growing as a person. and they just-don’t. even when they have the choice and chance to do so-they just choose not to. they really fulfill each other’s every need and that is so. it’s so sick how insular they are and even more so, in some ways, how content they are in that.
corruption kink men who make you come and then make fun of you for being so so sensitive afterwards, even pressing your thighs together makes you sigh and shiver, aren’t you just the cutest most precious little thing? how can they resist touching you more when you whine so sweetly and squirm so adorably?
lucifer acts like he's the type of guy who'd be into dark comedy or high-brow satire, and he is to some extent, but he in fact prefers to watch michael mcintyre walk around on stage going "wooo wooo" pretending he's hoovering
ever since someone — and unfortunately i cannot remember who — reblogged one of my posts about haymitch and katniss’ relationship with the tags “they don’t have a father/daughter relationship, they have a mother/daughter relationship” i’ve never viewed their dynamic the same way.
he has maimed someone (many someones) for using glue/snap traps. whenever he sees a trap he destroys it, leaving a warning that they better replace it with a human trap, or they'll be having further issues. when he sees an animal stuck in one, he takes it home and will try for hours on end to get them out safely, tearing up the whole time. there have obviously been a few times where it was more merciful to put them down, and it breaks his heart every. damn. time very apologetic, he does promise they will be avenged. susscful rescues do mean he takes care of them until they can go back out on their own. Rio can't say she loves it, but, she supports her son regardless and will do rodent first aid if its needed (tired mum who would do anything for her son is so real of her)
he sits with cats in alleyways and on top of buildings, he attracts them like a damn magnet, they always wanna sit on him and are rubbing on his leg, purring, the whole nine. gets cats out of trees and off of poles and light posts.
will stop and pet dogs no matter what he's doing. he may be more of a cat person, but he still loves dogs.
feeds pigeons while talking to the older folk in his area. he names them all too.
he is a bit of a scaredy cat about bugs, but they have to be put outside, no matter what they are, or he will sob. he would cry as a kid if his parents squished a bug after he asked them to get it out of his room, and genuinely held a grudge with them for a long time, while feeling so guilty cause he felt like it was his fault. forms pacts with the spiders in his room that if they stay in their corner, he'll stay in his.
he does not support the killing of animals for simply being small (he hear that poem and literally almost died of heartbreak)
man, there really is something kind of healing about seeing fat people being dressed with love and joy and skill and looking incredible.
you grow up your whole life hearing that people like you will look like trash in anything you wear so why bother designing for you, and that you should just try to wear something that hides your curves as much as possible. and then you see someone wearing something that takes every curve into account and looks great and you're like!
wait, I'm not ugly, fashion designers are just lazy and never learned to dress people like me!
this bit from baghs’ lore is haunting me . a blackboard with all the francophones’ initals . were all of them originally island experiments that managed to escape like qbaghs?