#capability manager

[goldcleaver]

what in the Yearning is this

[benevolenterrancy]

~ Extremely Unwilling Magical Protagonists Attempt To Outrun The Plot And Not Fucking Die ~

(@takofukkatsumi this tag is from a while ago but it hasn't left my brain -- L-Space got very weird all of a sudden)

[fanfiction-obsession]

Major Monogram from Phineas and Ferb is a fascinating accidental example of unjust biases stemming from ignorance and laziness instead of intentional harm in the ‘species-ism’ that is a root of injustice in the PnF universe. In this essay I will

[jezhtica]

Nothing was the same after that 11th anniversary illustration dropped...

[gromky]

-Are we still talking about racing? -We’re always talking about racing.”

Challengers x MotoGP

[formulaoneisajoke]

he may not realistically be in the battle for the drivers championship anymore, however that doesn’t at all minimise just how proud i am of all lando has achieved this season. 3 wins (including his maiden), 7 poles, 12 podiums, leading his team to first place in the constructors championship, securing the most points of any mclaren driver in history. and that’s just on track, off it i am immensely proud of his growth too, from being someone who always saw everything as glass half full and was always so hard on himself, to the way he now talks in interviews you can see his confidence and belief in his own abilities has come on so far (as it should). it’s so nice to see how far he’s come from the little boy who started out in f1 so many years ago. maybe this year wasn’t his for the championship but mark my words, his time will come.

[realrosielol]

I think it's so funny how Natsu Hyuuga has pressed so many times how "Kusuriya is not a love story. Romance is not the focus. Also fuck Jinshi" then write up the greatest slow burn ever known to man. Not only that, she's literally made Jinshi, the very character she's known to VOCALLY DESPISE, to be one of the most fleshed out characters in the entire 15 volumes of the light novel

[sunlight-shunlight]

pondering that falon'din is associated with an owl, and those are also messengers of andruil. and he's referred to as "winged death" which is also mentioned to be something that elgar'nan deploys against enemies. and both falon'din and andruil are referred to as venturing into dark places, where no one else can survive/wanted to go.

and ghilan'nain was not initially an evanuris, but was antagonistic towards them and making a bunch of weird creatures. she was given the offer to join them in return for getting rid of the creatures, and accepted. but with "pride stopping her hand" from destroying a few. and when asked about trusting people to share power, solas says "I know that mistake well enough to carve the angles of her face from memory."

solas also has nothing good at all to say about falon'din, mostly calling him a bloodthirsty tyrant who went so far in encroaching onto other evanuris territory that mythal had to besiege his temple and beat him up to stop him.

but he says nothing about dirthamen at all.

dirthamen is described as having gone missing unexpectedly, scaring all his followers, because they were now unprotected. and caught between their own high priest wanting to lock them into the temple forever like a cask of amontillado, and other forces outside that wanted to take their secrets by force. there is one note that a dirthamen follower defied the evanuris and took on a forbidden (probably a dragon) type of form, and was judged by elgar'nan harshly. he apparently also invented the varterral to protect his town from a high dragon? wack, but also could indicate that he had worked with ghilan'nain on making it, since she's the only one who's otherwise mentioned to be bioengineering stuff.

dirthamen has very very few surviving statues or depictions, and is more associated with falon'din than as his own independent figure in the dalish myths. even his own temple includes mosaics of falon'din. there's a few statues that are probably dirthamen, but the most striking is in mythal's section of the fade behind the eluvian, which is a statue of a hooded figure, doubled over with a giant sword sticking out of his back.

[elodieunderglass]

Regarding Colm's pony - every shitty parent looking to get rid of a pony I've been aware of has just sold the pony without warning the kid. If mom is financially-minded, horse body disposal costs money, and even shipping to a downmarket auction will at least pay for the petrol. HOWEVER, what I keep rotating for drama: there is a "murdered for insurance money" option, depending on the value of the pony (a little light fraud may have been involved) - this was definitely a thing around the 70s-80s in the states, but it tended to come out years later, after the statue of limitations on animal cruelty ran out and the people doing the horse wetwork came clean. In this case, maybe the vet who signed off on an accidental death for the horse insurance company admitted misgivings to one of the boys as adults, one random day they happened to see each other, but no one other than mom really knows?

(In reference to the probable fate of the childhood pony of Killie the Jockey OC and his siblings)

Oh my GOD you can’t just SAY THINGS like —

Oh that pony is DEAD-dead. Maximise the drama. Rotate that sod like a rotisserie chicken. You’re good at this.

[babynorppa]

Jere’s obsession with a waiter/bartender foreplay should be studied more

[devicecontact]

A hypothetical scenario where there’s a fancier faction meeting happening and Shitboy has to tag along. Being back in a suit type article of clothing would feel very familiar and natural due to aahw days, but that familiarity would be very unpleasant for SB. It’s like slipping into old dead skin.

tldr I wanted to play dress up and give it a reason

Bonus comic

[couriers-mile]

I enjoy the implication in Origins that Zevran isn't a very good fighter when we meet him and then after Origins he was utterly terrorizing the Crows. All the levels he gained in the Warden's party actually made him a canonically, significantly more dangerous fighter than he was when the Warden met him.

[falloutconfessions]

"The Vault-Tec Vaultsuit is a wonder of engineering and the like, and has many advantages. However having had to wear a full-body outfit on occasion in real life, has made me aware that one would have to practically remove the whole thing down to their knees just to go to the bathroom.  I'm surprised no one has made even a joke about that in-universe."

Fallout Confessions

[jackattack20writes]

So having spent a couple days thinking about it and also before I get into it I do just wanna acknowledge how it’s entirely reasonable to take issue with how Lalah was presented in the latest episode of Gquuuuuux. But I do think that with the context of Gquuuuuux Lalah staying in the brothel is incredibly important for what Gquuuuuux is trying to say. So a common thread for all the OYW/Gundam 79 vets shown in Gquuuuuux is that they’re stuck in the war. They haven’t been able to move past it, Challia’s still searching for char, Gihren and Kycilia are both still in the wartime fear of assassination and weapons development emphasised by Xavier saying they haven’t even met since the OYW and Lalah has stuck herself in the brothel waiting for char to come save her.

And topping it off the assumedly char character seems to still be trying to kill the Zabi’s and they’ve all been searching for the rose of Sharon this entire time. But all of them have made this choice and I believe that Lalah in this episode, similarly to how Zeon and the brothel have been used, is intended to emphasise this point further.

Like Kycilia and Gihren have chosen to continue on researching new weapons of war and preparing for a civil war by choice, sure it’s the prisoner’s dilemma but it’s still their choice. Similarly Challia rather than trying to actually do something to kill the Zabi’s like he and char planned has spent the last decade and a half searching for Char. Same with Lalah, rather than escaping either with Machu or any time before that she’s waiting for Char to come save her. And this is important because so much of Nyaan, Shuji and Machu’s story has been about finding a place for themselves. And just like how Anqi and Xavier and Deux are the worst possibilities for them, Anqi a jaded woman who trusts no one and is willing to sell people out once they lose their usefulness, Xavier a soldier whose sold his ideals and personhood for alleged safety, and Deux a girl who sacrificied everything in the name of experiencing the Kira Kira, the veterans are similarly advisory tales.

Challia is the man who gives up everything he cares about in the fruitless search for someone he’s centred his whole life around, Gihren and Kycilia show the downfalls of plunging into the war machine for a purpose no matter how noble you think it is, and Lalah is similarly to Challia the consequence of tying your worth to someone else. All of which are possible ends at current for really only Nyaan and Machu but still relevant to my point. These are all people showing potential end points for the protagonists and yet also advisory stories about why they shouldn’t end up like that

Like last ep Xavier basically was just making a case to Nyaan about why she doesn’t want to stay with Zeon and would rather go back to her friends just like how in this ep Lalah while also being a big exposition dump was showing Machu that she was right in taking grasp of her destiny when she did with the Gundam. Because otherwise she’d be stuck suffering waiting for someone else to save her.

This sort of thing is also why I am extremely confident Nyaan and Machu aren’t being set up to be Charmuro 2.0, the show is putting so much effort into showing how badly these people have suffered because of their inability to find good places for themselves where they truly thrive I A. Don’t see the show saying that yes the place for NyaChu is the exact same place that two other adults that suffered greatly from the same generation inhabited 40 years ago and B. I think it’s far too bleak an answer for a show that I think is at its core one of positivity. Like firstly it’s kind of insane to make a show at least partially aimed at teens and say their place in life is to die in a toxic Yuri explosion but also I think that with the subtle parts of it’s portrayals for Nyaan and Machu the show is giving a lot of grace to the idea that teenagers are smart enough to figure it out if they’re given the space to figure it out. And so I doubt the ending at its core character-wise for Nyaan and Machu at the very least will be not much more complicated than the two of them finding the space to figure out who they are and moving beyond the failings of Zeon and the Federation.

Likely together and depending on Shuji’s state at the end with or without him, as a very direct contrast to Charmuro they’ll either move past the loss without blaming each other and just accepting that he’s gone and filling the space he’s left with each other. Or they’ll, like in ep 7, show that Shuji isn’t something that’ll come between them, their bond is ultimately stronger than both of them having feelings for the same boy (likely because they have the same feelings for each tier too.)

Although I do also have to say at the end of this that with only three episodes left it’s entirely possible that they just completely fail to actually deliver on tany of this and instead it devolves into some multiverse bullshit but I do think I’m at least accurate with my read on Lalah. Because while I’m only part way through Utena from what I’ve heard and read about it the victimising inherent to certain roles that’s discussed in that anime is very similar to what’s going on with Lalah in Gquuuuuux and that by seeing the visions of char and Amuro and the OYW she’s relegated herself to this role as someone to be saved and taken away her own agency and this is supposed to be a bad thing for her to do. Similarly to how Challia has lost himself in the search for the red comet and failed to achieve anything that he and char talked about doing.

[teamsasukes]

Was Itachi's forehead poke to Sasuke a sign of distancing himself and not wanting Sasuke to get involved, rather than just a mere sign of affection? I saw a few people talk about that and how it's weird that Sasuke does that to his family considering the original meaning.

yes, you've got an accurate handle on the original meaning of the Forehead Poke. fundamentally it is an expression of distance that itachi wields at times when he cannot be with sasuke. and it seems to be a throughline of his childhood: sasuke asks itachi to do something as mundane as train together but itachi continually refuses on account of his duties as a shinobi.

it is not a gesture devoid of love -- it's not as though itachi ever delights in dismissing sasuke (on the contrary, he is always regretful). but there's a cruelty in the uncertainty of it all: the most direct translation is "maybe next time", so itachi fails to provide even an assurance that they can, like, hang out next week or something. this chasm between them is then widened by itachi promising, on the night of the massacre, that he might allow a final battle between them if sasuke ever proves competent enough to bother fighting, leaving sasuke in protracted pursuit of the looming specter of his older brother.

this distance is really only bridged (barely) in their final scene when itachi lays bare the truth of his motives, his regrets (which are lacking, to put it mildly, but for sasuke this is nonetheless momentous), and his unconditional pride in and love for his little brother. the Forehead Poke is notably absent here because textually, the enforced distance wrt sasuke is framed as itachi's greatest wrong. (seriously, itachi says something to the effect of: i shouldn't have done All That because maybe you, my 7-year-old brother, could have brought change to our clan... thereby reducing inconvenience for konoha, of course. the paucity of virtue in massacring the uchiha doesn't really register for him even during this reconciliation, and it's deliberate... because the author doesn't see it as much of an issue either!)

anyway, it might seem odd for sasuke to repeat this gesture with sakura in chapter 699, then, particularly because it seems to be invoked in a manner identical to itachi in his neglect. kind of an odd way to signify a happy ending for these characters, right...?

well, it works for me solely because it is not identical! and naruto's english dub is my worst enemy. i would grab a couple of manga panel screenshots in the original japanese to prove it, but it's easier for me to just plug these scenes from the anime. here is an itachi Forehead Poke (0:51) and here is sakura seeing sasuke off at the konoha gate (0:33). there's a subtle but meaningful distinction in the phrasing: "mata kondo da" vs. "mata kondo na". which, in effect, alter the meaning from "maybe next time" to:

(there's an excellent tumblr post from years ago which performs a substantive analysis of the japanese in both contexts, but eludes me now. pls send if any of you have a link to it!)

so personally i adore its inclusion in chapter 699 specifically. it obviously carries a great deal of weight for sasuke and it's meaningful he chooses to express it to sakura specifically despite leaving the entire team behind -- in lots of ways, and more than any other character, i think for sasuke, sakura is the anti-itachi. (that would require another post to elucidate.) so not only is it an expression of regret at unintended distance, but, more crucially, it's a promise of return. i think it's incredibly sweet that sasuke can repurpose the gesture from something soul-rending to something hopeful.

(also deserving of another post lol but this scene also achieves a neat and, crucially, subversive callback to sakura's foundational insecurities... it's like poetry it rhymes)

all that said, i understand why it reads as something different once we are then given the context of chapter 700 and gaiden... i dislike both of these installments, primarily for the implication that distance becomes a love language, so to speak, between sasuke and sakura/sarada. these relationships are ruled by distance and sasuke accepts it. it's disappointing! his journey to learn about more of the world in chapter 699 jibed with the character's arc until that point. this does not.

my unpopular take is i think this has just about nothing to do with sakura or the sasusaku relationship and everything to do with authorial outlook on sasuke's actions in part 2. and for the record, i maintain that these crimes ultimately amount to very little -- violence and death are occupational hazards if one is a shinobi. konoha is also foregrounded by a cold calculus on the worth of human lives; i'm sure sasuke's indispensable role in saving the world outweighs the killing of a few samurai. i just think kishimoto needs sasuke to atone, somehow, forever, via endless service to the village. and he also cannot sensibly write a kakashi- or naruto-headed government that would impose any meaningful punishment, so sasuke is relegated to a state of permanent rootlessness in some dumbass quest. it's a sacrifice on his part, but contrived for a number of reasons, chief among them being that the sasuke we came to know in the original series would literally never internalize konoha's ideals in this manner. so even though the Forehead Poke in gaiden and boruto retains the elements of promise and anticipation of eventual reconciliation, it feels kind of... lame and weightless. there is a superficial signal at growth but materially, for the parties on the receiving end of the Forehead Poke, very little seems to change.

frankly, i think we are meant to view sasuke's love as noble (and sasuke himself as penitent, suggested by the ascetic quality of his life). sasuke is still doing things differently than itachi, insufficient though it may be: he is honest about the reason for his travels, he does not rush to dismiss sarada when she needs emotional support, his motives are selfless rather than selfish (sasuke guards against the threat of the otsutsuki; itachi... wanted sasuke to kill him, in no small part as a desperate ploy to end his own suffering, notwithstanding the subsequent damage that would be inflicted on his thoroughly traumatized little brother). gaiden is surprisingly candid about the distance as a source of distress for sarada, sakura, and even sasuke, but by the end everyone understands why it must be as it is. the state above all! (you'll notice even itachi's apology to sasuke held this precept intact... there is a reason the series closes with sasuke accepting his old hitai-ate.) it is admittedly vexing, considering the totality of evidence here, to see sasuke's nomadic status in boruto pinned on how much he hates his dumb bitch wife and not, you know. the shockingly bad politics underpinning the narrative.

i appreciate the attempts of sasuke enjoyers to explain his distance as natural aversion to konoha, but this isn't canonically backed by any interiority (which seems to be absent in boruto-era team 7 at large) and moreover it requires miscommunication between sasuke and sakura (or even naruto) so great as to be unbelievable. i've accepted that post-pt2 sasuke is an unfortunate victim of kishomoto's nationalist views. his weird takes on how a man like sasuke would behave in a loving relationship and likely desire for a continued revenue stream don't help either. yes i will weep forever...

TLDR: i think the Forehead Poke fits in chapter 699 precisely because it diverges from itachi's. i resent its recurrence suggesting distance from loved ones is an inevitable condition of sasuke's life to which he's stoically acquiescent.

[aloboguara]

I particularly think Elrond and Galadriel live so far apart from one another due to an unspoken rule their heads are too hollow to walk together, the echo would be too much.

And as much as they care deeply for each other in a way nobody else can match they also seem incapable of spending five minutes together without butting heads.

“But they are wise!” You would think.

But the same way Batman’s true super power is dumbing down everyone else in a 10 mile radius, Galadriel is capable to clear Elrond’s head of meaningful thoughts and follow him suit every time they are together.

So they were urged to let their meetings occur in few and far away moments for the good of Lothlórien and Rivendell citizens…