#but the principle I'm thinking of is kind of similar...

[tsuzukerukoto]

Thinking more abt DR1. The tragedy of the DR1 characters has a unique strength to me, precisely because we know that absent of Junko's Mutual Killing, they all eventually end up getting along pretty decently! Probably one of the most relevant examples for my muse is Makoto's relationship with Maizono-- in settings without the Mutual Killing such as Development Mode and Talent Development Plan, their interactions are nothing but friendly, supportive, and even sometimes a little intimate. It's not difficult to infer that during the single regular year at Hope's Peak, they got along just as well or were moving towards that. And all of that just makes what happens during the main game to the whole cast, not just Makoto and Maizono, even more of a bitter pill to swallow since along with their memories Junko stole even intangible things like relationships. Another example of this is Oowada and Fujisaki: that picture Monokuma (Junko) "dropped" really says it all...

[shezzabee]

What are your thoughts on the idea that Inho's obsession with Gihun might do with the fact that Gihun reminds him of his dead wife?

I'm biased because I absolutely eat it up. I never been the same after seeing a post here that compared Gihun's s1 smiling photo with a photo of Inho's wife smiling.

There's also the fact that in s2 ep4, Inho called his wife stubborn, and how theres no point in arguing with her once she set her mind on something (going through her pregnancy despite her being very sick).

It made me think of Gihun's dedication of finding the Recruiter/Salesman, his insistance on being put back in the game...and him not listening to Inho when being told to get on the plane.

With this in mind, Inho's "Just get on the plane. It's for your own good." can be read more that just one man telling another man with who he shares similar trauma, to get the good life he doesn't have (but it's absolutely valid!!)

It could also be Inho (without realizing it) pleading for Gihun (his wife) to listen to him (the doctors), and (this time) survive. But just like with his wife, Gihun isn't budging with his decision. He made up his mind, go argue with a wall.

(Now it doesn't mean that Inho saw his wife in Gihun in an instance. It happens slowly as Inho gets closer to him)

Hi! Thanks for the question. I think I know the post you’re referring to—my shipper brain absolutely devoured that too, not gonna lie. XD

Even beyond the shipping lens, though, everything you’ve said really resonates. It feels like the core of their dynamic, doesn’t it? In-ho is clearly drawn to something about Gi-hun’s refusal to compromise on his principles, his unshakable belief in humanity, and his conviction that things can still turn out for the better. The only other person In-ho has explicitly mentioned as being just as stubborn as Gi-hun is his late wife, which feels like a significant parallel.

Now, of course, this is all speculation, and we won’t know In-ho’s full motivations until Season 3 (hopefully) sheds some light. But I don’t think In-ho has ever truly moved on from his wife’s death. He’s still grieving, still carrying the weight of that loss. He’s angry—angry at himself for not being there when his wife and child died, angry at the world for the circumstances that led to it, and probably angry at the Games themselves for existing. (I’ll die on the hill that In-ho hates the Games, despite being their enforcer.) He’s also angry at humanity at large for failing people in need, for letting the world get to this point.

And I think there’s a part of him that’s angry at his wife, too, (don't kill me, hear me out). She was self-sacrificing to a fault, willing to risk her own life to save their unborn child. That mirrors what we see in Gi-hun, especially at the end of Season 1. In the final game, after Sang-woo is defeated, Gi-hun refuses to abandon his morals to win, even when the easier path is right in front of him. That kind of unyielding determination, that refusal to bend—even at great personal cost—has to strike a nerve with In-ho.

Since In-ho can’t confront his late wife or tell her she was wrong to risk it all, to leave him alone, he directs all that unresolved grief and anger toward Gi-hun instead. Gi-hun becomes a constant, painful reminder of everything In-ho lost—and everything he’s come to resent about the world.

So, what does In-ho do? He sets out to break Gi-hun. To tear apart everything and everyone Gi-hun cares about until all that’s left is despair. Maybe then, In-ho can finally say: “See? There’s no point. None of it means anything. You were wrong—just like she was wrong.”

It’s a cruel and calculated move, but also deeply human. If he can prove that Gi-hun’s ideals and morals are meaningless, it would, in a twisted way, justify the choices In-ho has made and the person he’s become.

In the end, it’s not just about Gi-hun or his late wife. It’s about In-ho’s own pain, his need to make sense of the senseless, and his desperate attempt to validate the path he’s taken—even if it’s at the expense of someone who still believes in the good.

[frickfatphobes]

This might sound weird but would you say that simply not wanting to exercise it get in shape because it doesn't make you feel good is valid for a very big girl like me (like around 450lbs)?

I've honestly found that my body feels best when I limit how much I move throughout the day. Some may say that the limitations I have on my mobility are a bad thing but honestly as I've put on weight over the past decade but especially since COVID, I haven't really noticed them that much, I've found ways of adapting to my bodies needs such as having a rolling stool so I don't have to stand or walk to do most housework. Despite all that however, I've tried exercising to at least get my mobility up a little and though it did improve some it always came at the cost of making me feel stressed about continuing to exercise and the constant soreness

I guess I'm just a bit lost, I'm honestly ok with my body currently but I just feel a constant pressure from society and even my own family that it's not ok.

Thank you so much for this ask. I want to say upfront that I'm not a doctor, so please don't take what I say as gospel. I can and do make mistakes. However, I have done a lot of research about these kinds of things, so I'll try my best to formulate a response that I hope will bring you clarity.

"Not wanting to exercise to get in shape" is not a moral failing. Getting into shape or becoming thinner is not something you owe anyone. If you want to make healthy choices (many of which will very likely not make you thinner, because health is a nuanced concept that people don’t fully understand), that's completely up to you.

What many people don't know, is the majority of cardiovascular health benefits cap out at twenty minutes of exercise per day. These minutes simply need to raise your heart rate, and they don't even need to be consecutive.

THAT BEING SAID, if exercise still hurts or makes you very uncomfortable, that means there is a detriment to exercise as well. Is it worth getting daily exercise if it means enduring pain or sensory issues every day? It will depend on the person.

When it comes down to it, intentional weight loss is generally much more harmful to your health than just trying to treat your body well without changing its shape. Getting thinner will be much more detrimental in the long term than letting your body be large in the first place. (See the @bigfatscience blog for more of the medical and scientific side of this.)

When I felt pressured to lose weight, I hated exercise of any kind. It was like torture. At least for me, until I stopped treating exercise as an "I have to," I never wanted to do it. I would say, using similar principles as intuitive eating, don't feel forced to exercise or change your body shape, especially if for the most part, you're okay or happy with your body. If you heal your relationship with exercise down the road and change your mind, great. If you don’t, great. Exercise should not be used as a self-torture method for heavier people.

Your body deserves the same love and respect as any thin or "in-shape" body. Making accommodations for oneself is something I will always be happy to hear someone do. And no, you didn’t “let yourself go” because you decided it wasn’t worth being in pain. Please ignore the societal pressures. You should never ever feel like you have to change because strangers don't like something about you, especially since it isn't hurting them. And if your family is pressuring you? Ignore their pressures tenfold. I became atypically anorexic because my mom wanted a thin daughter. If you don't feel like it will make you happy, there is absolutely no reason you should feel like you have to do it.

TLDR: Ignore anyone who thinks they should be allowed to judge or pressure you, do what makes you feel safe and comfortable and happy, and know that you don't exist on this planet to feel unsatisfied with your body until you leave it.

Thank you so much for the ask. I hope you find more peace and safety in your body as it is. You deserve to feel happy without changing first. <3

[olderthannetfic]

Now I'm wondering how countries like Japan and China teach literacy.

Since kanji / hanzi don't really have that much in the way of phonetic elements, they kinda have to teach them by memorization and I don't think they have many reading comprehension problems over there.

(Although both countries do have supplementary phonetic writing systems in the form of bopomofo and pinyin for China, and the kanas for Japan)

--

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RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

It's a little closer to teaching vocabulary than spelling, but the same kinds of principles apply: You teach the building blocks, like the traditional radicals, which aren't so different from teaching Latin and Greek roots in an English class for English speakers.

And, as a matter of fact, lots of those radicals do predict pronunciation, just not in every single case. They can also be clues to meaning, but again, not absolutely consistently. Many characters have a sound-cueing radical on one side and a meaning-cueing radical on the other. It's just that only some are still useful in the modern day, while others are more like the English word 'plumbing' where knowledge of Roman lead pipes explains why this word comes from the one for lead, but the root probably wouldn't help a kid learn the word in the first place.

One similarity to teaching phonics would be teaching students to tell very complicated and similar characters apart: you want to help a student spot all the little building blocks of the character and then spot the ones that are different, not just glance at the whole character and get a general overall vibe. If you do a whole look-based approach, too many characters are too easy to mistake for one another.

Remembering a bajillion Chinese characters is hard if you're trying to memorize them in a year and not all of elementary school, but I think people who don't read them underestimate how many component parts there are and how approachable they can be if you start by learning fundamentals, not just memorizing a few individual characters as though they have no relation to anything else.

They're actually pretty systematic, just in the way that English spelling is with its overlapping systems and historical artifacts, not in the way that highly regular Spanish spelling is.

Having taken a lot of Japanese classes, I will say that Japanese as a foreign language textbooks often do a piss poor job of this and totally do teach kanji in a sight words-y way... But my Mandarin class started with important foundational concepts that served me well in Japanese later even if I bombed out of Chinese class at the time.

Can you tell how irritated I am by all the foreign language learners who think characters are sooooo hard when, really, it's just their crappy textbook? Haha.

They're moderately hard in the way that learning a full adult spectrum of vocabulary is hard, but people do that for foreign languages all the time. The countries that use characters do tend to make sets that are smaller for certain kinds of applications, same as we have things like simple English wikipedia, but a literate adult will always know lots more, whether it's from their career in engineering or their predilection for historical romance novels.

Uh... anyway, the answer is "Bit by bit in elementary school, just like in any other country".

[berylghost]

Maybe it's just my speculation, but it seems to me that AFO has a soft spot for a certain type of person.

That moment when Mineta talks AFO out of stealing Tokoyami's quirk always struck me as very strange. AFO really had no reason to pass up the opportunity to steal a powerful quirk, but he looked into Mineta's tear-stained eyes, while also remembering Jirou's tear-stained face, and suddenly changed his mind. We don't know what AFO was thinking at that moment. All we see is a meaningful "…", after which he leaves, because "every precious second counts now".

Although, to be honest, it seems to me that this whole situation looked like he was looking for an excuse for himself not to steal Tokoyami's quirk. He pretended that he just didn't have time to get a quirk, but I think that's bullshit. AFO is definitely fast enough to steal multiple people's Quirks in a matter of seconds. He had already done something similar when Eri's quirk first started affecting him.

He definitely could have taken Tokoyami's quirk, but he decided not to.

I suspect that the students reminded him of Yoichi when he was still a child: a weakling with tear-stained eyes. The reminder of his brother made him feel uncomfortable, so he hurried away.

Maybe this weakness for people who remind him of Yoichi will play a role in the near future. After all, Izuku has a lot in common with Yoichi: Izuku is small and weak/worthless (according to AFO), but more importantly, Izuku is very stubborn and he is hopelessly kind, just like Yoichi. Izuku, like Yoichi, is a gentle person, but he has strong moral principles that he will stand up for if he has to. They have similar personalities, and I think Izuku is really very similar to little Yoichi.

I don't expect AFO to get redemption or anything like that. Unlike Tomura, who was manipulated from his birth, AFO committed evil knowingly and deliberately. AFO is the real villain and after everything he's done, he doesn't deserve to be forgiven. However, I believe that until AFO accepts his brother's death and admits that he regrets the way he treated him, he will not leave Japan alone. Even now that AFO has accepted that Yoichi's death has left a hole in his soul, he still views his brother's death as a tool for achieving power. "It is tragedy that makes people stronger" is what he said.

But at the same time, AFO spent nearly a century trying to bring back his dead brother, only to lose him again, this time perhaps for good. Regardless of what AFO says, this is indeed a major blow to him. And as long as this wound bleeds, he will be a threat to heroic society. Someone needs to help him heal this wound so he can leave.

I'm guessing that Yoichi might return at some point to talk to his brother one last time, but I'm not sure how that could happen considering Eri's quirk failed to return OFA to Izuku.

Even if Yoichi doesn't end up coming back, I think Izuku will still make an attempt to talk to AFO to help him. Whether this attempt will be successful or not.

[qqueenofhades]

fwiw: a lot of people follow @roach-works who just reblogged yo ur comments on history, books, and authoritarian regimes' inability to indoctrinate entire populations.

I'm an ex classics major with a lot of history under my belt, who knows Rome sutmr under a corrupt oligarchy even when it coughed up a hairball like Nero or Commodus. (Of course, it helped that Rome worked on the pragmatic principle, "How can we keep society and infrastructure functioning, given that positions of power tend to be occupied by the rich & corrupt?" I like to joke that Western Rome never fell; it just became the mafia.)

At any rate, my tendency to see the US through the lens of Rome makes me a pessimist: I assume we'll manage even in a dystopia.

I'm working on expanding my knowledge of world history to counteract that, but it's great to check in with a sane historian who will help me resist crowdsourced panicmongering.

Look, as I have said, I 0% blame anyone for being scared. I'm scared. With no exaggeration or hyperbole, Shit Real Bad, and it's undoubtedly going to get worse, at least in some ways, before we have a chance to make it better. It was completely avoidable, but half of America decided they didn't want to avoid it, so here we are.

Nonetheless, as my last reblog also pointed out, there are still basic historical and critical-thinking skills that we can use here, and to acknowledge that even if it is obviously unprecedented to us, it is not unprecedented to others, and we can study those lessons and think about how to apply them to our own situation. Rome is the obvious model for a world empire brought down by corruption, oligarchy, imperialism, endless foreign wars, income inequality, economic upheaval, excessive militarism, etc etc, but it's not the only one, and the "fall of Rome and start of the Dark Ages" is one of those narratives that gets my premodern-historian rant especially exercised. By the time Rome "fell" in 476, the city of Rome wasn't even the capital of the Empire; the western capital was in Ravenna, northern Italy, and the eastern capital was in Constantinople, where it endured for another thousand years. Roman successor kingdoms were founded in Visigothic Spain, Merovingian Francia, etc., and often imported Roman law, religion, bureaucracy/administration, and nobility relatively unchanged, which is why Latin was the legal, ecclesiastical, and educational language of western Europe until as late as 1962 and Vatican II. The "Dark Ages" are likewise at best an extreme simplification and at worst exceedingly misleading imperial-nostalgia propaganda. Etc etc. I will restrain myself.

Rome dominated the (European/Near Eastern/north African) world in the way that the 19th-century British Empire dominated the actual world and American empire dominates now, at least for the moment, and thus we have to recognize that similar dynamics are at play here in a late-stage imperial decline. However, Rome did not just up and vanish in a puff of smoke one day and never appear again, and we also have to recognize that the end of empires is generally a good thing, historically speaking. Yes, absolutely a turbulent, dangerous, and traumatizing time, especially for those living within the imperial core, but still. There's also the blunt fact that America itself has been responsible for a lot (a LOT) of violent regime change, coups, overthrows, bombings, and other disastrous foreign policy interventions for almost the entirety of its existence, and we can't pretend that we are just the shining beacon of unproblematic truth, freedom, and faith that most conservatives, and a lot of saccharine American-exceptionalism liberals, tend to think. If that comes back to bite us and we have to experience the kind of political and social upheaval that we have arrantly and unrepentantly inflicted on other places in the name of our Superior Right... well.

As for the post about history books (here), that was another attempt to push back against the kind of broad-strokes fearmongering that is often prevalent right now. Again: for completely understandable reasons, but still. There is literally no way on earth that the practice of academic history, or the procession of human events, is going to be destroyed because an orange dumbass and his idiot followers took power in America for eight nonconsecutive years. Even if by some miracle he managed to do it in America and the only thing ever officially published was Heritage Foundation balderdash, a) historians in countries other than America would still be writing books about it, and b) again, literally impossible. To return to the history of Soviet totalitarianism that I was addressing in that post, I suggest that people look into the samizdat, the contraband news and literature widely shared in the USSR. They faced far more stringent conditions than we ever will: the KGB controlled access to all word processors and copiers, precisely because they could be used to spread non-regime-approved information, and dissidents had to write and circulate it by hand. If they were caught, they could be disappeared, sent to the gulag, confined in a psychiatric hospital, subject to intensive "state education," etc. But they still managed to pass it around and read it, and it would be literally impossible for this collection of Trumpster chucklefucks to exert even a fraction of this logistical and physical control, when every citizen already owns a laptop and a smartphone. The history books aren't going anywhere.

That all said, of course we are all hyper-alert and anxious and afraid, and we don't want to miss anything that might be important or dangerous or anything else. I get that, I completely do. But we still have to pace ourselves, we still have to apply critical thought and learn how to educate ourselves when something seems huge and scary and unstoppable, and I am attempting to do a small part of that on a niche blue hellsite that won the social media competition by literally doing nothing while its peers all fell face first into being corporate Nazis. The bar is low. But hey, I'm here, and you're here and you're reading it, and we will get through it. I promise.

Courage, etc.

[angelinthefire]

The thing with meljayvik is. Jayce really does love both Mel and Viktor.

Like the way he admires Mel and believes in her, the way he trusts her and turns to her for comfort (the way he apologizes immediately after their one fight). Mel has a very solid claim on his heart.

And obviously Viktor. They save each other's lives, their love saves the world, etc. Big cosmic love story.

The show repeatedly draws visual parallels between Mel and Viktor, but that's the thing, they're parallels -- they occupy a similar space in Jayce's mind and heart.

And they're not *really* in competition with each other either. Of course science and politics compete for Jayce's attention, principle and pragmatism, and Viktor and Mel represent those things on a grand narrative scale. But when Viktor is dying Jayce doesn't abandon Mel for him, he goes to her for companionship and comfort. And she doesn't keep Jayce to herself, she tells Jayce that the best thing he can do is spend time with Viktor. When Jayce *does* choose science over politics at the start of season 2, that doesn't change the relationship he has with Mel, they still have this very close and sweet partnership. And in the end, Jayce "dies"(?) alongside Viktor, but he never stopped loving Mel.

I don't have a source for this so take it with a grain of salt, but I saw someone say that in early drafts of the show the Mel-Jayce-Viktor relationship was a very kind of typical angel-and-devil-on-Jayce's-shoulders, which-one-is-he-going-to-choose type of thing. And there’s definite elements of that in the story. But you can also see how much the show ended up subverting that trope and giving the characters so much more depth. It's not Mel who ends up changing Jayce, he ends up bringing out a softer side in her, and rather than forcing him to reject his idealism she ends up trying to defend it ("I won't let them corrupt your dream"). It's not just that Jayce starts spending less time with Viktor (while using his political position to keep Heimerdinger from destroying the thing that might save Viktor), it's that Viktor also starts shutting himself off from Jayce as well.

What sparked this post is that I like a lot of jayvik fanart, but whenever I see fanart that builds out a broader story and world around them, I'm always like, okay but where's Mel? Or when I see a jayvik post that talks about Viktor as Jayce's one true love, it's like... nah that doesn't ring true.

Like Jayce's characterization genuinely falls apart if he's not also in love with Mel, imo. Him looking at Mel with heart-eyes, and telling her "you were always right" and "you will never be a passenger", and finally being able to relax when he rests his head in her lap, are all really important things about him. He gets into this thing with this sexy femme fatale, that's full of political intrigue, and then he’s like, I'm going to fall in love with her. And not only that, I'm going to assume that she's in this for love as well, that under her sharp exterior she's as soft and caring as I am. And then she is! And that's SUCH an important part of who Jayce is.

Because that's his approach to Viktor too. In the end, that's what it comes down to. Viktor had all this shit going on, and Jayce is like, okay, I'm just going to love you. And it works!

Jayce isn't someone who picks and chooses who he loves. For both Mel and Viktor, he loves and trusts them, and when he shows them that, it brings out the best side of them. For all of Jayce's weaknesses, that's his great redeeming quality, that he loves so genuinely, and making him choose between Mel and Viktor ruins that.

So yeah. While it's possible to just focus in on jayvik or meljay for particular purposes, I think if you zoom out and think big picture, meljayvik is the only way to go.

[vashtijoy]

Hi! I was wondering if you’ve translated the “this is no small potatoes” line from 2/2, where it later got changed to “this isn’t trivial” ? I love the scene so I’m curious if there is another layer of nuance in their discussion in the Japanese version

(Wow, this post was just hanging out in my drafts, totally written. Be free, little post. yeah, it's not little)

Hi anon! I currently have no thoughts of any kind and have forgotten most of what I ever knew, but I love this small sequence so much that I'm going to try to elaborate on it.

In short: these lines are the capstone of Joker and Akechi's arc. They run right back through the third semester to the Jazz Club, and right back to his confidant. They're the emotional heart of them.

Akechi 君は変わらず、丸喜と戦う道を選べばいい。 kimi wa kawarazu, Maruki to chigau michi o erabeba ii All you have to do is stick to your guns and challenge Maruki. [lit. if you choose a different path to Maruki without wavering, it'll be fine.]

First off, here's another instance of that "choose your own path" motif, elided from the localisation. This is not just associated with Akechi in P5, but he really does hammer it home.

now freeze: the callback to conf 7

Conf 7 is probably my favourite confidant stage, and I've discussed it before at some length. Specifically, we're looking at the phone call afterwards, where Akechi sums up what they've discussed:

Akechi 僕らにはお互い譲れないものがあって、そのためにも負けられない。 bokura ni wa otagai yuzurenai mono ga atte, sono tame ni mo makerarenai Neither of us can afford to lose, because we fight in service of our principles. It's the same for both of us. Neither of us can afford to lose, because of these principles we won't concede. ⋯だからこそ、もしも君が自分を曲げたりしたら絶対に赦さないよ。 … dakara koso, moshi mo kimi ga jibun o magetari shitara zettai ni yurusanai yo And that is precisely why… I cannot allow you to change. … And that's precisely why, if you betrayed yourself that way… I couldn't allow it. だって、僕が負けたくないのは『君』なんだから。 datte, boku ga maketakunai no wa "kimi" nan da kara As you are now, as you think now… I cannot allow you to win over me.

This phone call, which likely takes place the evening after Akechi's murder phone call, summarises how Akechi sees Joker, at the start of the Sae mission—and it's a remarkably positive vision. Conf 7 highlights the similarities between Joker and Akechi, before conf 8 casts their differences into sharp relief.

In fact, in his determination to illustrate why the two of them can never be friends, Akechi reveals something he may not quite have intended: the things he most admires about Joker are his loyalty and his devotion to his friends.

Seriously. Joker's devotion to his confidants is the thing Akechi sets alongside his own obsession that has driven him to murder. I don't have space to lay the whole thing out here, but you should check the conf 7 essay out if you have time.

january in the jazz club

This image of Joker as an impenetrable fortress with indomitable will comes up again in the jazz club, and rather indirectly:

Akechi こんな異常事態でも 君がまともで助かったよ。 konna ijou jitai demo kimi ga matomo de tasukatta yo I'm glad you're still normal, even in this bizarre situation. Even in such a bizarre situation as this, you've saved your sanity. Akechi 君まで正気を失ってたら… まあ、その時は叩き起こしてただろうけど。 kimi made shouki o ushinattetara... maa, sono toki wa tatakiokoshiteta darou kedo If even you had lost it… Well, if that happened, I would have slapped you awake.

The logic of the first line has been slightly altered in translation. It's not a huge shift, but it's changed the emphasis—rather than being glad Joker hasn't lost it like the others, Akechi is observing it. He expected it. He would have expected no less of his rival. (That matomo de, by the way, is far more often seen as matomo de nai, and it means that someone is not sane.)

This follows straight on from conf 7—from the idea Akechi has that Joker is someone dependable. And more than that—if Joker should cease to be that way, Akechi views it as his duty to set him straight.

He said so in conf 7's phone call (that "I cannot allow you to change", which is actually far more like, "if you gave way, I couldn't allow it") And he's saying the same thing here: "if you lose yourself, I'll slap you awake."

This gives us a little additional context for 2/2.

back to 2/2

Here's Akechi's next line:

Akechi それとも、君はこの程度で意志を曲げるようなやつなのか? soretomo, kimi wa kono teido de ishi o mageru you na yatsu na no ka? Or, are you really so spineless that you’d fold over some bullshit, trivial threat on my life?

There is a small linguistic callback here to that conf 7 phone call—Akechi uses the same verb 曲げる mageru, meaning to bend or distort, or to give way on a point of principle. The localisation has it as "fold", which does call back to conf 7, but to the wrong part! In conf 7, mageru referred to Joker's principles yielding under pressure, giving way under influence; here, it's in the extended form ishi o mageru—literally to bend one's will, to have it give way or crumble.

This word 意志 ishi is the "will" of Will Seeds, of the will to rebellion; this is the thing Akechi is calling Joker out on sacrificing. This is the thing he believes is so much more important than his own life. This is the callback here, through the jazz club and the phone call to that November night outside Penguin Sniper, to "You're my rival."

Literally, Akechi's line here is "or are you the sort of guy whose will crumbles for as little as this?". Compared to his image of Joker, Akechi's life is nothing. Compared to his image of Joker, the whole world is probably nothing. Again, it's the ideal and the real; 2/2 is when Akechi's image of Joker runs headlong into the reality of him, of a real, breathing, living boy who hurts and cries and bleeds and dies, rather than an icon. Even 11/20 never truly brings this home, because Joker escapes—just as conf 7 suggests Akechi expected him to. It is integral to the pedestal Akechi has Joker on that he would never throw the world aside for Akechi.

This is why it's only rank 10 promise Akechi, primed for the third awakening, who shows up to Leblanc to defend that pedestal. This is why the translation I return to for this line is "Or are you telling me you'd throw away everything you believe in for nothing at all?" Akechi's life is not the point here; he barely mentions it. The point here is supposed to be what Joker is throwing away.

And it's Joker, of course, not Akechi, who refocuses the conversation to what—to who—is really being thrown away.

joker's response

Joker 『この程度』じゃない “kono teido” ja nai This isn't "trivial"! You're not "nothing"!

There are other responses, of course, but this is the big one. This is the one that used to be "This isn't small potatoes"—and I hope I've illustrated why that translation was so bad that Atlus went back in and changed it. Because as well as gutting Akechi's lines of their context, that line gutted this whole moment, the pinnacle of Joker and Akechi's story, of its emotional impact.

Joker simply was not saying that things were a little bit serious—not small potatoes. He was saying Akechi mattered. You could easily render that kono teido ja nai as, simply, "But you matter." and that really isn't small potatoes

An overlooked response here is the third one, the only one Akechi will accept:

[Joker] 意思は曲げない ishi wa magenai I won't fold. My will won't break.

Yep. This one bypasses all Akechi's complaints about mercy, about betrayal, as he cuts to the chase:

Akechi なら、もう分かってるだろ? nara, mou wakatteru daro? Then you already know what needs to be done…

Note that the Japanese is a question—"Then you already know what needs to be done, right?". And it leads directly into Akechi's final demand: "What do you intend to do?"

revision history

Click here for the latest version.

v1.0 (22nd February 2025)—first posted.

v1.1 (22nd February 2025)—correct kanji for ishi.

[velvetvexations]

my personal take on "antigonism" is that it's entirely what you make of it. which is to say, i agreed with your post explaining why you felt such a term was necessary, and i do think this mentality of "most of us are normal about each other" and simply assuming we understand each other's experiences by virtue of being trans is reinventing artificial gender solidarity between cis people ("bros before hoes", "girl's girl") but superimposed onto trans people. which can be particularly contentious, given that we're an extremely traumatized bunch with a lot of baggage and massively diverging perspectives on all kinds of things. relating to each other outside of conventional gender relations means we have to put in that much more work to bridge the gaps between us, because we can no longer rely on the common assumptions made about men and women to carry our interactions, if that makes sense.

i do think a whole word for transfem-to-transmasc solidarity does toe a line between being unnecessarily inflammatory and conditionally useful. i'm genuinely glad for the people who felt seen and appreciated by the fact that a transfem made so explicit her stance on intracommunity issues. i'm also sympathetic to the people who feel put-off by such a word. when does allyship become chauvinistic? there is no word for a non-misogynistic man to signal to women that he is explicitly anti-antifeminist, for example. do we need one? i think a vast majority would say no, on account of simply stating he believes in feminist principles to suffice. so i'm wondering what specifically the push was for you to coin a word around tfem4tmasc solidarity, because while i do think trans people as a whole need to take significantly more initiative about rooting out transmisogyny and transandrophobia both, i'm not quite clear on what could signal more clearly a transfem's stance on intracommunity dialogue than just saying "i believe in transandrophobia and condemn all radfems". all feminism, transfeminism included, has had their malicious actors-- the existence of transradfems isn't really anything noteworthy as far as the broader feminist conversations go.

i hope this doesnt come across as confrontational because i think the people who found comfort in the fact that you are willing to go that far for them is truly heartwarming. i just don't want to see us splinter further into microfactions over something like one person coining one maybe-overenthusiastic word on the internet

Sincerely, there is a word for men who are anti-anti-feminist, though, they're feminists. Granted, self-identified "feminist" men have somewhat of a negative stereotype associated to them, but still, feminist men are feminists.

One of the biggest reasons I think a term would be useful is because so many people feel unsafe in the trans community because of trans radical feminism right now that it can help them relax a lot when they see a trans woman identifies as such. Just reminding people with assurances that most trans women are Normal doesn't really help that when they keep running into ones who aren't over and over.

TRFs are aggressive about this stuff. Seriously, every single day, post after post, their primary form of activism is crying about TMEs stealing kinks and liking a children's toy too much. I feel strongly that should be countered. Even if they aren't the majority, they sure as hell act like it and repeat how great it is that every single trans woman except velvetvexations alone agrees with them.

To be absolutely clear, I do not think I'm the only non-weird trans woman! That is just literally what they say about me! They may be the minority now but that frog is boiling.

IRL transmascs are forced out of spaces and talked over when they're let in because mascuwinity is scawy, No doubt transfems have similar problems because some spaces are TERF-y, but that problem is exacerbated when social media is filled with TRF rhetoric because it gets drilled into people's heads they need to be worried about that, and I don't think "touch grass" is a good response to that.

Hell, what if someone touches grass and then they do happen to end up having people be transandrophobic/exorsexist/intersexist/etc. to them? "Oh, well, that didn't count, try again somewhere else, I prommy that's not Normal."

It's all about volume. I feel very, very strongly that volume is necessary here, to combat the feeling that that radical feminism is around every corner and help people feel at ease and know trans women are with them.

[dingodad]

You're not the first person I've seen imply that mind control in Homestuck doesn't actually make the characters act against what they would want anyway. I don't think Tavros wanted to jump off a cliff, but he did want to fly and I guess unfetered of a sense of personal safety, he'd try it? But a character can't want anything, so maybe since they don't have minds to control, mind control is just a narrative tool to make things happen with characters that would normally not do those things?

it is pretty central to Homestuck's philosophy that characters only ever act in accordance with their intrinsic nature. I'm hesitant to even use the words "mind control" in relation to Homestuck at all, because things that we identify at a glance as mind control are almost always better described as what I have previously called "psychic stimulus". Gamzee and Dirk are not at the whims of Lil Cal; rather, Lil Cal represents a part of themselves which stimulates them to act upon urges they already feel. similarly, Gamzee's own powers can only amplify fears that a character already has, and as such we can make similar guesses as to how Kurloz does what he does. this is why I think alchemy is such an important symbol in Homestuck: the really clever alchemists of centuries pasts understood that you could never change the fundamental nature of lead to make it into gold; rather, the essence of gold already exists within lead, and alchemy is merely the process of bringing that essence out.

the same principles drive the comic's command-and-response dynamic: while the readers (slash exiles) were free to suggest what a character should do next, it was never in their power to make anyone do anything. each character would respond to a command in a way that communicated the person they already were.

Vriska is an interesting case, and in some way seems like an exception (as she often is) - but the important caveat with her powers is that she can't mind control humans. she can control chess people because carapacians have always largely been blank game pieces for the audience to project what they like unto - they're free game. and while she can control some trolls, it's worth noting that all of the more important troll characters are basically immune to her psychic manipulations. the fact that she can only control "weak wills" is almost like an acknowledgement of the fact that she can only control people who aren't really characters - the main cast will always be free to act upon their own wills.

but I think you're right that she doesn't have absolute carte blanche to control minor characters, either. someone suggested to me once that the incident with Tavros had her tapping into the death drive or "call of the void" that all people have, which is one explanation; I think what's especially important to remember, though, is that her psychic powers were not the only tool she used to engineer that accident. as Tavros' clouder, she had already engineered a situation where Tavros had no choice but to either pit himself against unbeatable enemies or flee over a cliff! her psychic powers are ultimately just one of a variety of tools she uses to engineer situations in her favour, and she uses the existence of these powers to make herself seem omnipotent. which is exactly what she learnt to do from her mentor Doc Scratch, who also proudly claims omnipotence but is still limited by the personalities of his game pieces; he could never make Vriska do bad things, but he was very good at engineering situations where she had no choice but to act on her own instincts to lash out and hurt people. from inside, the narrative webs they weave just seem inescapable.

I think you're kind of touching on something with the idea that characters "can't want", though I don't know if it's necessarily quite that straightforward. characters are slaves to their own personalities, and while we like to think that our personalities lead us to make decisions that benefit us or make us happy, it's just as easy for us to make decisions that align with our own values but still have negative consequences. so it's less a question of whether Tavros "wanted to jump off a cliff" in that exact moment, and more a matter of whether we think it's in alignment with Tavros' personality for him to risk severe injury in order to avoid a confrontation with a mob of impossible enemies. we should treat the question 'why did the character react to this psychic stimulus in that way?' the same way we treat questions like 'why did the character behave this way in this timeline but another way in that timeline?'

or maybe Vriska really is just a special girl who gets to do things to trolls that the Condesce isn't allowed to do to humans.

[dark-lord-of-awesomeness]

Had this thought earlier, I've seen plenty of art of the Pines family as ponies from my little pony, what if: portal horse Stan, ends up in talking horse world, would he be intrigued about finding a whole world of horses like him or just weirded out? Also, angst potential, he mentions it to Ford when he gets back and Ford spirals about it because, well, its a whole world! Of talking horses! Stan would fit in! What if he WANTED to stay?!

also unicorn/alicorn Stan for your consideration

Reverse portal Horse Stan gets portaled but misses the Nightmare Dimension and gets shunted into the horse dimension. Ford rescues him in like, a week, and Stan gets back decked in my little pony goodies and self help books to help him learn how to do things with his hooves and such. Ford is driven to a dilemma as Stan goes on and on about this horse dimension. Different horses! Horse accessibility! He could go around and talk and no one was weirded out! Fords thinking about risking the dimension just to put Stan back somewhere he can be accepted, even if it means he'll never see Stan again because at least Stan will be happy?

Brings it up to Stan tentatively and Stan immediately goes 'god no. I'm so happy you saved me. If I had to stay any longer I think i'd have to carve out my eyeballs.' and then Ford looks so confused Stan pulls out the one group picture he has and its this:

Stan can't live in that pastel little girl designed world Ford. He can't. Sure it was cool but at what cost, his dignity? Everyone had names like 'sparkle sunshine' or whatever. They kept giving him weird looks when he said his name was Stanley. Everyone had weird brands on their butts and it was a huge cultural thing he kept getting pitied over. Please don't ever suggest anything like this again.

As for a unicorn or alicorn Stan? Depeneds on how magical-

WAIT! The main thing here is that the Pines are a combo Centaur/Horse Minotaur mix. So the wings and horn have to come from somewhere, and I'm 100% assining the wings to Caryn because Unicorn Minotaur Filbrick is sending me into hystarics, especially if its canon GF unicorns. Can you imagine? That dainty head on Filbricks body? I'm dying. Shermie looks even more hidious. There's wings there now, but only on the human back. He can't fly with them, they're too small. His main is a rainbow of colors and he has those unicorn watery giant eyes, but human looking ones so he's just so bug eyed. No girl from Glass Shard ever had a unicorn/horse phase while the Pines boys were in school. They ruined it for them.

Sorry, back to Alicorn/unicorn Stan.

I'm thinking Fords the same here, except he got the ability to play rave music on demand and the lights get brighter around him. Where does the music come from? No one knows. He also knows where the closest rainbow is, and its a background annoyance.

Stan still gets kicked out here, but he becomes like, a show horse. Shows off his magic horn and big wings and does all kinds of tricks for money. Gets real famous but still doesn't get treated as anything than a really, really cool horse. Redeems himself by inspiring little girl unicorn/horse phases worldwide. Which means its a HUGE deal when he ditches work to go see his bro. Post Bill Portal Ford goes to court for 'stealing' Stan, then has to prove Stan's a person and therefore can't be stolen. He has rights! AND! Never signed anything! Hah! They have nothing to prove Stan has contracts or belongs to anyone, so there! Becomes famous for other poor centaur/minotaur mixed kids with similar lives. Uses all the money Stan got from all the back pay he never got over the years to make like, a horse help center. Helps provide for other mixed blood kids who don't have hands or are horrifying to look at, as well as getting parents help in raising their horror offspring.

Stan still has no hands, no magic, and refuses to fly on principle. He's still terrified of heights and it was a whole thing during his show career.

[miraculouspegasus]

i am just gonna say... i know where the writers were coming from, but ivan and adrien's situations aren't that similar.

i'm not saying adrien's situation doesn't suck, or even that he's not in danger of falling from grace, as it were, if "going full supervillain" is too excessive a term. but i find it interesting that they chose to parallel adrien with ivan, when their relationships to their fathers and to villainhood are actually very different.

ivan did not grow up with raúl. he says he loves him, and that may be true, but it still doesn't mean ivan is loyal to raúl. i think, even if ivan didn't have principles and didn't put other people's wellbeing first, he would still have hesitated to follow his plan. because like, he wants to be loved by his father, of course, but as far as we know raúl hasn't manipulated his son since he was very little and unable to think for himself into doing what raúl says even if ivan didn't like it. but adrien has. adrien loves his father as well, but he's also been primed since birth to put his own thoughts aside and do whatever he's told.

secondly, ivan is afraid he's going to become a villain because he's afraid that deep down, he's just as angry and violent as his father. whereas if adrien were afraid of being turned to the dark side, it would not be because he suspected that he is like his father, because he really isn't. i'm not just talking about having morals. adrien's never been cold and distant, afraid of his feelings, addicted to his work. it would because he's been groomed into killing every single instinct in him to fight back against orders.

again, not saying that's not a horrible thing to deal with, just a different set of cards. which kind of makes the parallels in this specific episode between the two boys fall apart, but i do think they're both very psychologically real mentalities you can end up with after dealing with abuse.

and also i'm really glad to be vindicated in my suspicion that something was up with ivan's life even before being akumatized

[ihopesocomic]

Greetings from Russia!👋🏼🇷🇺 Yes, even the readers of your wonderful comic are here:) I got to know "I hope so" after your review of "My Pride," which, despite all the flaws, still appeals to me in some ways. Even though I'm just a cisgender heterosexual girl, I understand your disappointment. Starting with the queer couple, where Hover started laughing at disability and the name Nothing, even before the review, I was uncomfortable with this moment, not realizing how bad everything was there (especially when you pointed out the actions of Tribblofdoom). That scene in the rain, showing gaslighting and the downright shitty attitude Hover was supposed to have towards her girlfriend. She never really supported Nothing or tried to protect her. And Nothing itself is written as an eternally sad disabled person who gets punched by everyone he can and cannot. Really pessimistic for a project that advertised an LGBT and disability-friendly show. Even without all that, the show is really poorly written. Characters develop without development or become assholes simply because. And they also try to justify some of them (Quickmane scolding Nothing when she left the cubs alone or the redemption of Powerstrike). Basically, my bisexual ADHD friend and I agree with you. Basically, like you, we like to talk and joke about similar topics and think through our plots. And I like your comic, it's much better than this animated series. The characters are very cute, Hope is a wonderful main character. Despite her disability, she still remains optimistic and purposeful even when the whole family has turned away from her. And Storm is a real brutal and supportive girl. Hover could only dream:) But as an inspiration for my hairstyle and appearance, she's good🤌🏼. I also wonder how the fate of Vicious, stuck in a terrible relationship with Jasper, will unfold. I really feel sorry for her, because she's stuck in a terrible relationship with Jasper, but as a mother she's terrible, no comment. But I really liked how you show the psychological pressure and abuse in the family. The consequences of the death of Quiet and Clever are shown, or how Careful leaves the Golden Grove with the cubs. It's just great✨ And also, in principle, I wonder how everything will end up in the end. I want to see more Diamond and Bright. Interesting characters🌚 We'll be waiting, of course😌 Besides the comic, I try to study your answers to other viewers' questions, it's really fascinating. I've learned a lot from you, and I've repeated some of it. In my project about the werecat clan (yes, the influence of the CW😺 was not enough here either), I want to touch on several characters as representatives of LGBT and with disabilities. It turned out that I'm interested in this topic, and I want to see how I can handle it. Although the main character remains a cisget, but she has a boyfriend, a bisexual werewolf cat, for example:) So yes, it was not a question, but rather a long review and a desire to share it with you, dear authors of "I hope so". Thanks for attention. All the best to you☺️👉🏼👈🏼

Thank you very much for your kind words regarding our comic, we truly appreciate it. <33

As for what you have to say about your own content: honestly, just write whatever you're most comfortable with. If you want to write something with a cishet main, you go ahead and do that. The only time it becomes an issue if you do what Tribble did and you shoehorn in a gay relationship at the last minute because your fans began to ship your two main same-sex characters together and you try and sell the hastily written mess as 'LGBT+ friendly' content.

With proper research and care (i.e. listening to the folks you wish to represent), it is very easy to avoid this dilemma and being aware of the issues and wishing to avoid repeating them is a good start. Literally not giving a shit and wanting to use any sort of minority group to plug your content is going to end about as well as you'd expect.

There are certainly things you can cover with one half of your couple being bisexual. Bisexual erasure due to bi individuals dating a member of the opposite sex is certainly a major issue in LGBT+ spaces and a neat topic to cover if this is what you're going for with your main couple.

Either way, best of luck to you and thank you for reading our comic. c: - RJ

[highladyluck]

Wheel of Time, Season 3, Episode 2 (second watch) Liveblog

Elayne like "This is the largest gay bar in the world, please don't take me away"

Emotionally Intelligent Lan never fails to jumpscare me lmao

I already said this but I do need to reiterate: Galad would not fuck

I like that we see Morgase's accepted ring like, first thing. Also those maid headdresses that look like approximately one-fourth of a swan has been applied directly to the entire head? They're very good. Very intimidating. Very high fashion.

I'm now watching to see if Elaida has the bracelet this early- hard to tell tho.

So. I was not a huge fan of the Lannister lean-in thing they did with Morgause on first watch. But I've seen some commentary that has reconciled me a bit more to it- one is that people were going to make the comparison between Andor's whole vibe and Game of Thrones anyway, so they called it to mind deliberately but contrasted it with Morgase's slightly more strategic/principled(?) motivation. This is the kind of thing that RJ did with the first 200 pages of EotW and The Fellowship of the Ring- deliberately echoing the more familiar property before going in a different direction with it- so it's not like that's a new-to-WoT tactic. The other bit of commentary that has influenced me is the argument that it sets up some really juicy stuff for Elayne to work with later in her succession plot.

Elayne is so cute when she lies through her teeth

Siuan waiting a very precisely calculated amount of time to let them in lmao

Siuan is WEIRDLY smiley re: Lord Gaebril considering her mood moments before…

This is obviously because of the letter Elayne sent, but I honestly don't know why Elayne told Morgase she was kidnapped if she didn't want to get hauled home. Maybe to drive home the Seanchan threat?

I forgot who I first thought the people in the ways were, but I was totally wrong. As we find out later, it's Alanna and Maksim, but yeah, wtf are they doing in the Two Rivers in this turning? Still hunting for novices?

Yeah that was a significantly long pause for Elayne before she acknowledged Gabril

Mat looks good in green :)

If only we had someone who could fix mind diseases! [thinks about Mat in Graendal's clutches] NEVERMIND NO ONE NEEDS THERAPY

The implication of 'honorary great serpent ring' is that Morgase didn't have to go through the Arch(es) but honestly since they don't require channeling and are a character/commitment test similar to [SPOILERS FOR LATER IN THE SEASON] I've always headcanoned that Daughter-Heirs of Andor who went to the Tower actually took the test. But maybe it's seen as too risky for them to actually take it? I'd certainly buy that in this universe.

Elayne like "This is the largest gay bar in the world, please don't take me away"

Emotionally Intelligent Lan never fails to jumpscare me lmao

I love the contrast between the Aiel 'save and destroy' and the WT 'save or destroy' here; it's less of a stark contrast in the books but I think it's a really interesting nuance to dwell on and fits with the overall themes of encoutering different perspectives and the subjectivity of history/prophecy. Also I love Avi talking duty with Egwene and Moiraine, just like, on principle.

These landscapes holy shit

At least we know that Marin is the kind of person who would hide people in her attic

Alanna, Perrin used to live here. What the fuck are YOU doing in the Two Rivers?

lmao once you get an Elaida infestation it's hard to get her out

ooof. I bet Siuan is thinking in terms of another Darkfriend attack on the Tower re: Min's visions.

Mat, you absolute dumbass [derogatory]. That said, Clara is super hot. "I think everyone is into this kind of thing, Mat" - excellent line delivery Nyneave

Awwwww is Nyneave wearing Lan's ring around her neck? Or her great serpent ring?

"And is the Lion Throne under threat?" damn Nyneave is killing it this episode

Rand you cheating ho

I already said this but I do need to reiterate: Galad would not fuck

I knew immediately that someone was gonna catch Elayne vamping with the crown and I was preemptively embarrassed for her I hate that Gaebril is charming I hate it I hate it (it's very good) Galad is always serious oooof not Gareth Bryne :( High-Functioning Alcoholic Elayne T_T I buy it but it hurts me

THE MAT AND SIUAN SCENE IS PERFECT. Also it sounds at the beginning like she's got him as a guest on her early morning tv show/interview podcast and that always makes me laugh. I really hope that she and Mat get to meet again because they were so fun to watch together.

And now for another scene of masterful manipulation! GO GO ELAYNE

Elayne: "My path will always lead back to Andor." Me: '-through the circus.'

Lan listens but you aren't fucking talking, Rand

Lmao I'm enjoying the barely veiled threats in this Morgase & Siuan confrontation

[derww]

DEVOTIONS WEEK DAY 3: ROYALTY/AHARCHY

CW: Corpses

When Zam finally finds him, everything is already over – Prince stands, clenching and unclenching his fists over and over again, illuminated only by a narrow moonbeam coming through the stained glass window. Around him lie people – torn, maimed, crumbled. Every one of them is dead. The Prince is covered in blood. A sword rests in his hand.

– I'm sorry, – Zam says, because he must always be there for him, and he had no right to lose him, – I-

– Imagine, – Prince says nonchalantly, wiping his sword, – they found me before I found them. They wanted to end me as they ended my father and mother. Fucking idiots, aren't they?

– Absolutely, Your Highness, – he agrees. There had never been any doubt in him about the Prince's ability to stand up for himself, but it was his responsibility to ensure safety, – they were very naive to think they could just kill you.

There is something nauseating about the number of corpses. He knew there might be double agents in the palace, but something about it left him with the impression that everyone who came to hand had been killed, guilty and innocent. Only now does he notice the horns that are peeking out from under Prince's crown.

The demonic principle. Zam is embarrassed by the fact that he is not even a bit surprised. After all, he had been at Prince's right hand since he was quite young.

– They know what you look like now, – he says...

– It's not that important, Zam, – the Prince waves almost lazily. He steps over the corpses, stepping on someone's limbs a couple of times, and turns out to be In front of Zam, – what a hassle, – he grumbles, finding that the blood is tightly embedded in his clothes now, – your cloak? – Zam carefully drapes it over Prince's shoulders, at least partially covering the ugliness.

– But what now? – Zam bows his head, – the coronation awaits you, – he recollects, – since both king and queen are dead...

Prince shakes his head. Those who had lost their rulers needed a friendly, confident and listening king. Not a half-demon who just caused a massacre. He easily came to terms with it, but he was raised as a prince, and he was always thinking about people.

– Zam, – Prince says at last.

– Yes, Your Highness? – Zam responds. He checks all the passages over and over again to be ready if someone turns up on the approaches, but when Prince calls out to him, he instantly switches over, staring at him.

– Zam, the people don't know what their heir looks like.

– It's true, – Zam shrugs, – but it won't last long now since the privacy perimeter has been violated. It'll make sense to get ahead of them and make a public statement-

– Zam. – Prince interrupts him, and he breaks off, for some reason looking at him in confusion. There is always something special in his view of him - attention, dedication, devotion.

He waits for him to continue, but instead, Prince takes off his crown. Without it, his protruding red-maroon horns are even more noticeable, making it unable to confuse them with anything.

– Zam, – he repeats, holding the crown in his hands, – kingdom needs a symbol of hope, and it's not me. Demon-maniac is an image for a pocket killer, not for the ruler of them all. Will you become the new king?

Zam looks very similar to the deceased king and queen – blond and tan, with elegant features that do not correspond to his training in any way. He was not a simple man and was barely a year older than Prince, but he had a kind face. They looked like two opposites – light and shadow, sun and moon.

And... He starts talking, but stutters and stops. Thousands of thoughts and questions swarm in his head, but as soon as he stops himself, he understands everything. This is a sophisticated puzzle that comes together in a single movement. He falls to one knee.

– Yes, Your Highness. – he answers, bowing his head, and still warm metal touches the top of his head. He looks up and notices that Mapicc is smiling.

– Welcome, my prince.

[twomiddlefingersforthehaters]

Naruto and Sasuke often uses 'Nazedaka' and 'Nandeka' in their monologue. Nazedaka= for some reason,without knowing why, somehow. nandeka = nazedaka have similar meanings.

We know that Naruto never wanted to give up. If we ask him 'why', there is always an answer for it.

He stabbed himself to open the wound, why? Because he doesn't want to run away and being afraid again.

He sympathize with Haku even though he killed his teammate Sasuke, why? Because he knows what loneliness is. He is also the one who taught him how far you will go to protect your precious person. He also understands him.

He never want to give up taking the tenth question in chunin exam, why? Because he doesn't want to run away.

He never want to give up fighting against Gaara, why? Because Sasuke acknowledged him and he wanted to protect Sasuke & Sakura.

He understand why gaara becomes a maniac, why? Because of loneliness, the hatred from others... And he is a Jinchūriki.

He never want to give up fighting against kabuto, why? Because he wanted to prove to Tsunade that he was worthy to hold the title of Hokage. By this, he can bring her back to Konoha and cure Sasuke and others.

He never wanted to give up fighting against pein, why? Because he wanted to protect the village. He wanted to end the cycle of hatred.

He never want to give up fighting against Obito, why? Because he wanted to end the fucking war.

But when it comes to Sasuke he doesn't know, why does he feel like that…? Why he didn't want to see him hurt...? why he doesn't want to give up on Sasuke? Why would he go to such lengths for him? He is unable to give a definite answer to all these. Because it's not that easy to say.

N̲a̲r̲u̲t̲o̲

1. Naruto's inner monologue (In ch. 228) vote 1

Raw: 何でか分かんねーけど...

Romaji: nande ka wakannē kedo...

Literal: I don't know why.... but...

Raw: オレは お前を... 大蛇丸なんかに 取られたくねーん だってばよ･･･

Romaji: ore wa omae o... Orochimaru nanka ni toraretakunē n datte-ba yo...

Literal: I don't want you... to be taken away by someone like Orochimaru!

[His words contain sooo much emotion.]

2. Vote2

Raw: 「それ説明しろって言われてもオレも正直よく分かんねェーよそんなの... ただお前のそーゆー背負ってゴチャゴチャしてるとこ見てっと・・なんでか・・ ・・・オレが・・・痛てーんだ」

Romaji: sore setsumei shiro tte iwarete mo ore mo shōjiki yoku wakanne yo sonna no...tada omae no so you seotte gochagocha shiteru toko mite tto... nande ka ... ore ga... Itate nda

Literal: Even if you ask me to explain it.... I honestly don't properly understand... that kind of thing...It's just that.... When I see you carrying burden on your back... getting all messed up.... for some reason... ...I'm.... hurting...

S̲a̲s̲u̲k̲e̲

(Sasuke's dialogue is much more poetic in Japanese. He sounds so incredibly vulnerable)

1. Sasuke's inner monologue (ch.698)

Raw: 「...なぜだか気になるようになった」

Romaji: ...nazedaka ki ni naru yō ni natta

Literal: For some reason/without knowing why, somehow.... I became as anxious/worried and bothered about you (when you were in my mind).

means -> { I became (in such way [that] when you were in my mind) }

Raw: それからのお前を見る度にど んどん気になるようになっていった

Romaji: sore kara no omae o miru tabi ni dondon ki ni naru yō ni natteitta

Literal: And then, steadily, every time I saw you, I became uneasy (when you were on my mind)....

• Kininaru

気 - ki exists in us. Spirit. It is the spirit principle that follows it within a person. Kininaru - that person is occupying our feeling, sensation, thoughts etc... Whatever it is that turning into our spirit.

-> Kininaru means to think about something unconsciously/subconsciously.

Kininaru means shinpaininaru 気になる -> 心配になる｡ 心配になる (shinpaininaru) means- someone is worried about something. It depends on the context how it use, it could be 1. I'm concerned about something/someone 2. I'm worried about something/someone 3. I'm interested in~ 4. I'm bothered about~ 5. I wonder~ 6. I'm curious about~ etc...

1 . Kininaru uses when you are curious about something or you want to know because you are curious about something/someone. It's like, that someone/something catching your attention and you becomes curious because you want to know so badly! 'You want to know more & more'! And using 気になっていた (kini natteitta) means "I've been curious about something/someone." It's not about 'you are curious about it now' but about 'you've been curious about it for a while.' Kininaru express about the feeling of yourself about what you feel about something.

2. I'm worried about -> "I can't help but worry about that X"- Worried about X (because X has an injury/illness or some other problems). If you say you're worried, it doesn't mean you're worried, it's that you're worried about 'that person'. Kininaru has more of a feeling of something that effects you. As like Naruto's worries become Sasuke's worries

3. Kininaru uses when you've romantic interest in someone or someone attracted you or someone catches your attention. "Oh, that person drew my attention" Or "something was interesting about this person". It often use なって- form to say 'you're interested in someone'. If you say that you're interested in someone (気になってるんだ - ki ni natteru nda), it means that you like him/her a little bit. And you want to know more about that person.

Note: Potential verb + "you ni naru" - to become/to become able to. kininaru - anxious/worried/bothered or to be on one's mind. Adding 'you ni naru' means "I couldn't do it before but I can now". So the potential verb + youninaru express or to shows the change.

So, 気になる has the meaning of 「心配になる-shinpaininaru」 (worrying/ bothering/anxious/curious/concerned...) and also the meaning of 「ちょっと好き- chotto suki」 a little liking ( in a romantic way) . It's a bit special. There are two meanings to this verb, so if you use this you need to pay attention to this.

Raw: その時思った... お前の弱さがだんだんオレに染まってきたんだと

Romaji: sono toki omotta... omae no yowasa ga dandan ore ni somatte kitanda to

Literal: At that time I thought.... your weakness gradually came to taint me.

[[The other panel 'literal' is above, you can check]]

Note: The image of どんどん (dondon) means 'something is going very fast' or 'changing speed of the progress is very fast'. Dondon means rapidly/steadily/more & more/significantly. And whereas だんだん (dandan) means little by little/gradually. So both dondon & dandan are opposite because どんどん is faster than だんだん.

And in both cases Sasuke saying something like; "Seeing Naruto being scolded by the others and him suffering... made Sasuke worry more and more about Naruto. The thought of Naruto made him worry/anxious. He's feeling uneasy or being overly concerned about him".

2.

Raw: 「そしてなぜだか安心したんだ」

Romaji: soshite nazeda ka anshin shita nda

Literal: And then... without knowing why, somehow.... I felt relieved (because of you).

Note: Anshinshita + Nda, んだ (nda) is used at the end of sentences. んだ is a casual and preferred in speaking. んだ- One way in which it often does this is by emphasizing the feelings of the speaker. 安 (AN) which means "peace" Or "ease", 心 (shin, Kokoro) which means "heart" or "mind". 安心 as "relief" or "peace of mind". 安心 has the kanji for 'safe' and 'heart'. So it means "peace of mind your heart is at ease". 安心する means " I feel relieved."　安心 is a noun, and 安心する is a verb. If you want to say ``I felt relieved'' in the past tense, you should change the verb to be in the past tense 「安心した」. It more emotionally relieved.

And, Sasuke using anshin shita which means something like - 'only when you are there, I was always at peace/safe/relieved '. It has a meaning of 'That's a load off my mind ' or 'you found your safety or security when your burden was lifted ' Or 'being pleased/happy and satisfied (feeling content)'. So, it has more deeper meaning than just 'relief'. (It is a vague concept in Japanese with a wide range of meaning).

We can also see the same word used by Naruto himself in his monologue (VOTE 1)

Raw: オレは... 最初自分と同じような 奴がいるって 分かって 安心したんだ!

Romaji: ore wa ... saisho jibun to onaji yōna yatsu ga iru tte wakatte anshin shita nda !

Literal: In the beginning... when I found out.... There was someone similar to me.... I felt relieved!

Also the same expression was shown in ch. 499 when Naruto heard his mother's word 'I love you'

なんだろ = nandaro = (I wonder) what is this?

すっげー 安心する... = sugge anshin suru... = I feel so calm/ I feel so relieved...

すっげー うれしいっ!!! = sugge ureshi !!! = I feel so happy!!!

Naruto's reaction to kushina saying i love you was so precious. He was unaware of any of these types of emotions. He have never known what a mother's love is. He doesn't even know what his mother looks like or what her voice sounds like. He doesn't know how mother's scolding and mother's love feel. When Kushina says "I love you" to Naruto, it means that she has deep affection and care for her son and wants to express those feelings. It is a way of showing him that he is valued and appreciated. His mother's love... it gave Naruto a peace of mind that he had never felt before. It makes him soooo happy. Tender and unbreakable, gentle and strong, soft and loud bond between a mother and a son. And he felt all these for the first time.

A boy who is alone in life gets comfort from another boy without even have a conversation with him. Sasuke and Kushina were the two people who soothed his heart, made him happy, and comforted him.

Kid Naruto:

それに 嬉しかった。 ホントは すぐに話しかけ たかったんだ･･･

soreni ureshikatta. honto wa sugu ni hanashikaketakatta nda...

And besides, I felt happy. To tell the truth, I really wanted to talk to you right away.

Teen Naruto:

オレだって いつもお前が 一人なのは 知ってた

ore datte itsumo omae ga hitori nano wa shitteta

I always knew you were... alone

同じような奴がいるって安心した・・・

onaji yōna yatsu ga iru tte anshinshita ・・・

There was someone similar to me.... I was relieved/I felt relieved...

すぐに話しかけたかった･･･ なんだか嬉しくてよ!

sugu ni hanashikaketakatta... nandaka ureshikuteyo!

I immediately wanted to talk to you... Somehow/somewhat I felt happy!!

When characters are nervous or shy about talking to someone, they often put their hands behind their heads as if rubbing their head or neck. Here, Naruto making the same gesture. But he never made this kind of shy gesture to anyone else. Why is he shy? Because Naruto was confessing that he always wanted to be like Sasuke and he found him strong and cool. He complimenting sasuke's look in person.

If Sasuke and Naruto felt like they were just friends or brothers... this 'I don't know why, For someone reason,without knowing why' would never exist. Sasuke is someone who actually had a brother, and he knows what it's like to have a brother. Naruto literally acted like a big brother to Konohamaru and He was someone who found many friends because of his hardwork and he knew what it feels like. And yet they can't say it out loud "why they feel a certain way for each other"

Sasuke begins to worry about Naruto way before they become friends, before having a proper conversation with Naruto. Also, they are not even connected by blood. The way they feel each other's pain and the conversation they have in KSA, Vote2 and Sasuke's monologue is not the way you would talk to your friend or brother. It's because they clearly love each other.