#grad school politics ranting

[s00nyoungie]

pissed!!!!!

this girl (i never liked her) who's top in our class just failed her community pharmacy rotation because she thought she was too good for retail pharmacy and would just not show up and be so fking rude n snobby to the technicians and patients, but then she appealed the failure to student affairs and they just ... gave her a passing grade!!!!!!! because she's top of the class and they can't afford to have a failing student impact the school's graduation statistics!

so now the regional manager of that pharmacy chain refuses to have connections with our school, so no future students can rotate at this chain and none of us graduating this year will be able to get a job at this chain in this district... and its one of the best compensating chain pharmacies in the usa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ITS ONE OF MY BACKUP PLANS IF HOSPITAL PHARMACY DOESNT WORK OUT!!! AND SHE STILL GETS TO SPEAK AT GRADUATION im gonna throw a fucking tomato at her

[tazzy-zooming]

I've heard from friends who are doctors that when someone learns they're a doctor, they like to show them weird sores or rashes and ask them about it.

I think being a political scientist is similar. Except instead of a disgusting sore they show me their political opinions and want me to validate them.

[siriuslysatorusimping]

You mentioning Game of Thrones season 8 is other undisclosed trauma.

I don't think I cried this much when Sirius Black and Dumbledore died.

Game of Thrones was other disappointed. I just hate how the writers build up the hype from the beginning and they just let it ruin without any legit context.

Gege did one thing I never liked about writer that is to take away key character from the plot. Whose importance to whole story is indisputable.

My mind is numb at this point, I just don't wanna think about it. So I'm avoiding it.

Thanks for Another level, at this point that is my canon and I have a good cry after re-reading it since yesterday. To be honest I'm re-reading all of my favorite Gojo Satoru's fanfic.

I can't wait for Professor au, being in academic myself it's very exciting to see an au of the same field❤️

OKAY.

So here's the thing. Kiko is about to fucking RANT.

So it's below the cut 🙃

I didn't ever watch GoT. But I saw what happened and absolutely hated that it felt like reverse character development for the sake of time.

My best friend and I have had conversations about character deaths and the impact they have a lot. Here's the thing that I feel JKR did very well: death. She covered death so well in Harry Potter. None of the deaths felt meaningless or like they didn't fit. Sirius had to die in order for Harry to become the man he became. His death was something that was devastating and we felt the pain with Harry. But it drove the story forward, genuinely. Dumbledore had to die in order for the climax to happen. Because the entire fucking point was that Voldemort was afraid of Dumbledore. His death, the way it happened, how powerless Harry felt, was so well done. People can hate on JKR as a person all they want, but she is an incredibly skilled and talented storyteller. She shaped an entire generation of book lovers. And she did a very good job.

The Harry Potter series was well-paced and just well-written. And I had many friends in grad school who were getting their MAs and PhDs in literature because Harry Potter put them on that path to loving reading.

It's also not just Harry Potter. Not to be a JKR stan, but her detective series is actually very good. It's tense and it's got a will-they/won't-they romantic undertone. For every single book of that series, I actually haven't been able to figure out who the killer is before it's revealed in the end, but it always makes sense. That is such good writing.

Gojo's death felt sudden and like it will stunt the plot instead of help it grow. None of the kids are ready to fight Sukuna. Not a single person there could beat Gojo in a fight, so why are we supposed to believe that they'll be able to beat Sukuna? As much as I adore Yuuta, he's not ready to face Sukuna. Yuuji sure as hell isn't ready, but I can see them pulling some dumbass protag bullshit to make him ready. Hakari and Yuuta together might be able to kill Sukuna. But Gojo had the best odds and looked like he was beating the shit outta him.

But what do I know? I'm not a sadistic asshole who enjoys breaking fans hearts 🙃

As for academia in Physical Paradox: I will say that it isn't going to be as dramatic as real academia 😂 I spent a few years in it, and while I enjoyed aspects of it, academic politics made me want to burn the entire campus down. There will be some dramatics, but they won't be as extreme because this is a fluffy AU where everything works out in the end because I say so 😬🥹

[painterofhorizons]

Not so random academia work rant under the cut

I've been so relieved when I had that talk with my boss about not finishing my PhD a couple of months ago. It's okay to not finish a PhD. It literally doesn't matter. I'm dropping out for a shitload of reasons, both personal and structural, and I'm good with it. My boss is okay with it even though she really wants to see me with the title because she thinks I deserve it which is really sweet of her. But we're fine, and we're still working together as long as they let us and we're still doing our very cool 3 year project we got funding for and it literally doesn't matter if I have the title or not. In the end it doesn't matter for her wether or not I'm having that title, we're a really good team anyways. So it was really good to have that "listen it just won't happen anymore" talk a while ago, get that off my chest and stop struggling with that stupid dissertation. I've been struggling with trying to do my PhD in two tries since 2015.it's time to move on.

Now another prof I had worked with recently was asking about how I'm doing with my PhD because one does a PhD at university of course. We're meeting for coffee next week to talk about other stuff but today she was already like "but why haven't you finished your PhD by now" and stuff, and I'm dreading having to explain myself to her.

If you look at the numbers, more people drop out of grad school than finish it. Even more so if you look at social background. There really are so many reasons why I didn't finish this, and every single one is valid, and I still feel like a failure and I'm still embarrassed to bring it up in academic context.

Like, I shouldn't feel this way! There shouldn't be shame attached to it! A person's worth is not attached to things like titles or accomplishments. And I'm doing a damn good job besides this stupid PhD. I'm good I'm my field even if I'm not good in doing a PhD. And most of the reasons why I'm not doing it anymore are structural and not even personal failures - and dropping out of grad school ain't goddamn failing either.

It should be enough and normal to just say "oh yeah I was working on a PhD but I'm not finishing it" and then go on with whatever you're doing. If I'm fine and my boss is fine it shouldn't be anybody else's business. I shouldn't have to explain myself, and it shouldn't be a bad thing. My reasons shouldn't matter to anybody else but me (and a bit to my advisor). I shouldn't have to tell my reasons to anyone. And yet oh gosh I don't want to have that talk with that prof next week. I just want to be like "yeah I'm not doing that anymore" and she nods and we go on with discussing the other work stuff where we want to work together.

I'm so tired about not fitting in at work. I'm so tired about all the ways academia is wrong or unjust or broken. I'm so tired of the struggles one faces in academia as neurodivergent and from working class and specific social and political upbringings that just damn, make things like finishing a PhD hard sometimes. It should be okay. It shouldn't be failure or a flaw.

I was so relieved I had cleared that with my boss and we're both okay with it, I don't want someone else to have an opinion on it.

People drop out of grad school, so what? Life goes on!

[fangirleaconmigo]

You are a joy to have on tumblr! I’m so glad to you found you. You’re ability to analyze the Witcher books is amazing (and I’m jealous of it!)

a;lkdjf THANK YOU. You are so sweet to me.

I'm basically taking the skills I learned studying political philosophy in college and grad school and going WEEEEEE USE THEM FOR FUN SHIT.

It's so much more fun doing this for fandom than for academia. It's like brain candy. And the fact that anyone else will read it, brings me so much joy you have no idea.

I feel like the biggest challenge of the obsessive nerd is just finding people who want to listen to them rant so I am always in disbelief and gratefulness for you guys,

[ratjay]

I may be trying to laugh off what's going on but I am legit worried about my job. Like. I am a fucking grad TA who needs this job to pay for my degree!! And if I get in trouble due to some shapiro peterson business school fucker deciding to make my classroom a fucking soap box for his rant about CRT Woke leftist bullshit I'm going to lose my mind!

Like. The reading he's ranting about in the discussion board isn't even one of the ones directly related to race! It's about anti-immigration and the red scare of the 1920s!!! THE QUESTION HE'S RANTING ABOUT IS ABOUT IDENTIFYING SOMEONE'S POLITICAL VIEWS BASED ON WHAT THEY SAID!!!! IT'S A FUCKING QUESTION FROM OUR GOD DAMN TEXTBOOK!!

But because he asked 'is this a critical race theory class?' at the end of his response my boss's boss is now getting CC'ed on emails between me and the prof because we live/work in a state where there are laws on the books about how EVIL it is

[dr-whoopsie-daisy]

Just had the most exhausting and entitled patient so far. She took 1 hour and 32 minutes to finish up with bc she wouldn't stop talking.

THEN said "dont you just hate when people get all political? There's no reason to rant about things when people don't want to hear it." 👀

And I'm like ma'am pls have a thimble of self-awareness.

[savrenim]

OKAY. SO. I rarely go on "I deeply love this book, everyone should read it" rants because like. aaaah it's hard to write reviews, aaah it feels weird to rec things to people in general I barely rec things to my closest friends, and also aaah, let's be real, grad school has meant I was barely reading any books out of lack of time and can't rec what you haven't read, but Hands of the Emperor (aaah it's great everyone should read it does the fact that I’ve broken my ‘no more fanfic til my original work goes up’ rule for it not rec it enough) seems to have spurred me on a "guess I'm reading books now again" kick and, uh. By FAR, no question, the best book I have read on this kick (and there have been Many. double digits many.) has been A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland. 

The blurb of A Conspiracy of Truths seemed perfectly nice and valid and a book that I would eventually get around to reading: 

In a bleak, far-northern land, a wandering storyteller is arrested on charges of witchcraft. Though Chant protests his innocence, he is condemned not only as a witch, but a spy. His only chance to save himself rests with the skills he has honed for decades – tell a good story, catch and hold their attention, or die.

But the attention he catches is that of the five elected rulers of the country, and Chant finds himself caught in a tangled, corrupt political game which began long before he ever arrived here. As he’s snatched from one Queen’s grasp to another’s, he realizes that he could either be a pawn for one of them… or a player in his own right. After all, he knows better than anyone how powerful the right story can be: Powerful enough to save a life, certainly. Perhaps even powerful enough to bring a nation to its knees.

which, like. Is good! And true! And accurate! And gave me the entirely wrong impression, which the first six sentences of the book will probably immediately clear up:

The whole mess began in a courtroom in Vsila, the capital of Nuryevet, where I was being put on trial for something stupid. 

"What's all this about?" I said, not for the first time. 

"Charges of witchcraft," they said; at least, that was what it boiled down to.

"Utterly ridiculous," I said.

"We got some witnesses," they said. 

"Your witnesses can go fuck themselves," says I, although not in so many words. 

This book is narrated by a horrible gremlin whom I deeply love as much as I want to shake the shoulders of, it has some of the most fascinating, human, likable, dislikable (affectionate), flawed, and deeply wonderful characters. There is casual and deeply satisfying queerness baked into the world setting. There is an incredibly rich and varied world background that while not in the "hard sci fi rubs it in your face" way whatsoever has things like the author tracked how moons+orbital mechanics would effect the tides, the narration is this utterly delicious Schrodinger's maybe-unreliable-maybe-totally-reliable setup, and it's just a good story. I started out the book casually enjoying it. I got a third of the way through, and I literally could not put it down. (It was very inconvenient. I had other things to do that afternoon that did not get done.) 

So. Yeah. The once in a blue moon book rec from me: I could not recommend A Conspiracy Of Truths highly enough, and, uh, come back in a week probably to hear me scream similar about the sequel A Choir Of Lies, which I am already crying over having just read the blurb description. 

[likeastarstar]

The House Call

Summary: As a full time grad student and part time drug dealer, you have a lot on your plate and Namjoon being a shitty school project partner is NOT helping, ok?!

masterlist.

Okay, so you were a drug dealer.

Nothing major! It was just weed, which would be legalized quickly, given the way the rest of the world was going. It was just to get you through grad school, you only sold to friends. You kept your circle tight, not many people even knew you dealt. You were very selective, which is why when Seokjin asked to share your number with his friend, you were unsure. But he was your most reliable customer, so his friends must be too.

What made it even worse was that he apparently was too busy to meet up at your usual drop spot- insisting to pay extra if you did a house call instead. You agreed, obviously, but still. It was annoying.

You had things to do, there was a huge project due the next morning and your partner hadn't done his part of it. He looked smart enough when you were paired up- he had glasses and everything. How were you supposed to know he was lazy as shit.

A buzzing in your pocket interrupted your internal rant- who the hell was calling you this late at night?

"Hello?" You snapped, letting your bad mood seep through your tone.

"Uh, hi- I had a question about the project."

Namjoon- your project partner. Of course. You groaned, walking up the steps to the apartment complex to where you were meant to drop off the weed. All of your conversations with this new customer had been through Jin, a fact that you regretted deeply.

"Get it over with, you know you really should've done this sooner," You sighed, checking the apartment numbers twice before knocking on the door.

"I normally would've but I've been really stressed, ok?" He apologized, a shuffling sound coming through the line.

You rolled your eyes as the door in front of you opened, revealing-

"Namjoon," You gasped, taken aback. He was Jin's friend? What are the odds. You hung up quickly, raising your eyebrows dramatically, "What are you doing buying weed instead of working on our project?"

He looked shocked himself, towering over you with his phone still pressed to his ear. He was dressed more casually than you were used to seeing, his hair disheveled in a way that oddly looked better than when he tried to tame it.

"I told you I was stressed," He mumbled, "Come in. I didn't know you were a dealer."

"I didn't know you smoked," You bit back, rolling your eyes.

You pursed your lips but stepped into his place, looking around curiously. It was nice, decorated in a way you wouldn't have expected from a 20 something year old boy. His place was relatively clean, other than the multiple empty cup noodles placed in random areas and the insane amount of paper laying around, "is this all schoolwork?"

"I'm taking a lot of classes," He shrugged, "How much is it?"

"Uh- thirty," You answered, picking up the nearest piece of paper. It was for micronutrients in the human body. the human, a class you had taken two semesters ago on a whim. "No wonder you're stressed out."

He handed you the money wordlessly, trading you for the paper in your hand. You looked at him for the first time since you walked in, only now noticing the dark circles under his eye and the way he had seemingly bitten his lower lip raw. You groaned, feeling all of the annoyance you had minutes ago turn into sympathy.

You shoved the money in your pocket and handed him his weed, pulling your backpack off your back, "Get high, take a break."

"I can't take a break right now, I'm so fucking behind on all of my classes-"

"Chill, I'll help you. Light up, we'll work on the project together and then I'll help you on micro. I got an A in it, I'll tutor you."

So that's what you did, working through the mountain of shit he had piled up in his living room side by side. You never really noticed how funny he was before, both unintentionally and intentionally. He offered your own weed to you and you accepted, feeling nice and relaxed by the time you had gotten around to tutoring Namjoon on other subjects.

"Do you understand it a little more now?" You asked, looking up at him. He was sat beside you on the couch, thighs touching yours with an arm stretched behind your head on the couch. He nodded and frowned, correcting his work and leaning towards you to show you. "Y-yeah, that's right."

He smelt really good- like sandalwood and honey. You couldn't help but stare at the way he was sucking his cheeks in in concentration. Why the hell was this guy a environmental science major? He could be a model.

"You're a really fast learner," You noted, your voice soft and hazy, the way it always was when you were high.

"You're a good teacher," He mumbled, smiling sleepily at you.

He looked so cute you couldn't help it, leaning forwards to kiss him. Namjoon was caught off guard, freezing for a moment but his lips were soft and his skin was warm, drawing you in before you snapped back to reality, pulling away sharply.

"I shouldn't have done that," You gasped, leaning away from him awkwardly. You had to get out of here- eyes already searching for your belongings. Embarrassment crept up on your skin, heating your cheeks. Maybe you could blame it on being reallt fucking blazed, which you were.

"No," He said suddenly, catching your arm with a hand around your wrist, "I should've done it."

What?

"Why do you think I wanted to be your partner for this project?" He smiled, eyes lighting up in a cute way you hadn't noticed before.

"Um, because I'm the smartest person in class?" You guessed, playing with his large hand idly. His fingers felt good between yours, tingling shocks sparking in the places where his skin touched yours.

He laughed softly, nodding sheepishly, "That too- but more than a good grade, what I wanted was you. Part of the reason I'm so behind in class is because all I do during lecture is stare at you- you're not very good at controlling your facial expressions, did you know that?"

You pulled your mouth into a tight line, smiling awkwardly. It was true, you had been known to show every thought passing through your mind on your face. "Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"You're really scary," He shrugged plainly, as if it were just an obvious fact. "You yell at me a lot which makes me nervous and horny at the same time and I've been trying to figure out whether that means I'm a freak or not."

"It's a good thing I enjoy yelling at you," You noted, more to yourself than him.

"You can yell at me whenever you want, baby," He said jokingly, grinning down at you. Holy shit, he had really nice teeth.

You barely had time to process his words before his lips were on yours, leading the kiss this time. His hand cradled the side of your face, thumb stroking your still flushed cheeks delicately as his other arm wrapped around your waist. You placed your hands on his shoulders, squeezing the muscle under your palms and pulling him closer to you. Namjoon guided you onto his lap, holding you closer him. God- he was warm and strong and so, so soft.

His hands stayed in their polite place at your waist, kneading into the flesh of your sides with a purpose. Namjoon was a good kisser- an easy balance of dominant and soft. He knew where to push and pull, reading your body like it was second nature to him. First kisses could be awkward, but this one was perfect.

His tongue licked a tentative swipe along the edges of your mouth and you reached up to sink your hands in his hair, pushing his head to the side slightly as you parted your lips and allowed him to deepen the kiss. His tongue was soft against yours and he tasted like smoke and something sweet, your favorite strain of weed invading your senses.

"We should do this more often- maybe not the tutoring thing, but this- the kissing thing," He said, parting from you for a moment.

You nodded eagerly, pulling him back towards you, "Yeah, definitely- the kissing thing. Maybe if I give you enough time to stare at me outside of class, you'll do better too. I really can't date anyone below a 3.5 GPA you know."

"Okay, calm down," He pouted, narrowing his eyebrows at you, "I have a 3.8."

"I have a 3.84," You bragged, "Don't worry, I'll tutor you."

He stifled a laugh and began kissing you again. You smiled and reminded yourself to thank Kim Seokjin for asking you to make a house call.

(A/N: giiirrrl what the hell? I don't have a 3.84 in my program...maybe I should've gone into a creative writing grad program instead....LMAO)

[chicago-geniza]

finally identified an emotion from interaction with [redacted] at the function & it was, predictably, "feeling wounded by the experiential & ~epistemological gulf revealed by innocent, casual assumptions of good faith re: bad actors & bad initiatives even among people who nominally share your politics & your concerns, because they simply haven't had cause to encounter those things firsthand, they've only read about it in the newspaper & formed opinions from words abstracted into the air, & your family, for all their faults, works one-on-one doing direct action with unhoused populations in oregon including fully refurbishing their garage into a transitional apartment with a woodstove, a fridge, cozy decor, & a bathroom, where anyone can stay for free as long as they need to, no questions asked, & the library fulfills the functions local orgs are supposed to, & downtown is so heavily policed--it's a college town in a temperate climate, split between evangelicals & hippies, overwhelming homeless population w/ mental health issues, next to no infrastructure & what's available is often run thru christian orgs that demand sobriety, certain codes of conduct, exclude queer & trans ppl, discriminate against those w/ violent or erratic behavior, etc.--tl;dr what is the name for the wound when you share the same goals & the same political aims with someone in theory, & you admire them tremendously, but every so often you are reminded that--although you grew up middle class--your material conditions have diverged so drastically sometimes it feels like you are living on different planets, & what for you is life--if not yours, then one degree of separation, something you've witnessed, something you've been involved in--for her is an imagined scenario you read about in the news & think 'oh, those poor people', & it makes you feel alienated from yourself & your relationships, & want to die a little bit, but mostly it makes you rant about policies re: criminalizing homelessness in three US cities, how the tiny home villages are functionally NIMBY internment camps, & how you went to grad school because you were technically homeless if not street homeless, & then it makes everyone in the conversation uncomfortable, because they're Grad School"

[midasinc]

modern era jehan hcs:

-jehan is the only member of les amis still in university. they're in their senior year atm and they're majoring in theatre! courfeyrac is already planning an extravagant grad party

-(from pet hcs) they're really handy and creative with diy projects and work around the apartment, so jehan has created an entire play area for their rats. it's very big, very elaborate so that they don't get bored when jehan is at class

-speaking of being handy, bahorel/feuilly/jehan are practically a maintenance crew for the rest of their friends. jehan in particular is weirdly good at sorting out plumbing problems and issues with showers, so they'll always take on a job for something small in return (typically just lunch)

-for the past year and a half, jehan has had a podcast with enjolras. they do three episodes a week (when possible): two that are about whatever jehan wants to blabber on about and one where enjolras can rant and rave about politics, politicians, companies, and whatever else is bothering him atm. jehan's youtube channel has gotten suspended before due to enjolras's "inflammatory language", so now they have a printed out list of words/phrases enjolras isn't allowed to use when they're on-air. there's also an episode where one of jehan's rats crawls into enjolras's lap when he isn't paying attention and when he notices, he shrieks so loud that it momentarily blows out his mic.

-the podcast only has 38 listeners, but to jehan that is a HUGE number

-jehan is really big into nail care. whether that means taking care of their cuticles or painting their nails, they are very particular about how they treat their hands and their nails. their hands are always moisturized and their nails are always clipped evenly and filed into uniform shapes. when other people are over, jehan will do their nails and let them go off about their life

-they also belong to a slam poetry organization and they love slam poetry, but they haven't ever won a competition. their excuse is that their poetry is too deep for everyone else (in reality, their delivery is so corny but they don't know that yet)

-(from tween era hcs) eponine is actually a really good friend of jehan's! they were in that creative writing club together in middle school and to this day, jehan will send her poems they wrote and will receive short stories that eponine wrote herself. jehan brought her to the slam poetry club one time, but eponine accidentally started laughing during someone else's act and got the both of them kicked out for the night. they really like having her over for sleepovers and movies

-i believe in chub jehan supremacy. jehan is perfect for being a big spoon and they have ass for days goodbye and goodnight

-THEIR HAIR IS NOT NATURALLY GINGER !!!!! jehan dyes their hair, like, every other month. their natural hair is very very dark. they get it from their mom, who's from tahiti and immigrated from french polynesia before marrying jehan's dad and jehan really resembles their mom. they tan super easily and have a naturally dark complexion, but they saw a ginger model one time on instagram and started vibrating because they decided in that instant that they were going to dye their hair. at the moment, their roots are very grown out; they havent had time to hit the hair salon

-they have this one gucci shirt that- oh my god. everyone hates it. jehan thinks it's so awesome but oh my god it's awful. nowhere near worth the price. courfeyrac wants to steal it in the middle of the night and throw it away but jehan would beat the shit out of him. they think it's the best purchase they ever made (asides from their rats <3) and they flaunt it like they're at the met gala. they essentially ARE at the met gala- but they're the celebrity that everyone roasts for three years afterwards because it's THAT ugly

[misanthropicshenanigans]

Hey ya know what's dumb?

Archaeologist's educational pedigree. Like, I don't give a fuck if you learned archaeology from Binford or Schiffer, or if you were trained by people who did. Fuck off with your archaeology pedigree. No one cares.

[comradekatara]

you said sokka/mai and now i'm very intrigued to hear your thoughts

saved this ask for months cause I knew one of these days I’d wanna talk about mai and sokka again and the people who actually engage with me on this content are sparse (probably bc I am too much of a genius to relate to the #masses on this one. alas). if y’all can ship two random nothing characters who never interact and never will, you should care about the inevitable, glorious friendship between mai and sokka, who do interact, will only further continue to interact, and are destined to become best friends for all time!!! now I’m not gonna explain why I think this, because I already have plenty of posts on the matter already in the tag (and also because it should be obvious), but I am going to make a list of scenarios in which I think this dynamic duo would best be allowed to Shine like the stars they are:

academic peers. undergrad, grad school, professors in the same department, research partners, all of the above. in both my ideal canon future for them and in every possible au, they go to college together, take all the same classes completely by accident bc they just happen to share all of the same eclectic interests, and then depending on whether or not they think grad school is a scam, end up being colleagues at the same college. they are Nerds ok!

senior advisors to the firelord. zuko is their puppet and he likes it that way. they’re both way savvier than he is when it comes to making tough political decisions, bc zuko thinks it’s fucked up that making decisions means making sacrifices on other people’s behalves. and sokka and mai both recognize that yes, it is fucked up, but someone has to make those decisions, and all three of them are perfectly content with who makes those decisions. (the one time sokka and mai were both indisposed, zuko made the mistake of asking katara for advice, at which point she seemed confused by the claim that “giving every single citizen exactly what they personally need” was apparently “impossible.” impossible for zuko, maybe. not for her!)

ironic poetry workshop that sometimes devolves (evolves?) into sincere poetry workshop because try as they might sarcastic detachment can only get you so far. they tell no one about this.

getting drunk and playing pai sho and talking shit about all the dumb idiots in the world deadset on ruining their lives by being obnoxious and stupid and uninformed. sometimes sokka crosses a line when he rants about tomtom though. sokka that’s her baby brother!!!!

and of course, my newfound obsession: sokka and mai suburban teen detectives au. sokka loves solving mysteries (and also he’s bored), mai is bored (and also she loves solving mysteries). they’re both straight A (model minority) students in a boring yet insidious american small town. together they unravel the secrets lurking beneath their dull suburbia, and possibly find more than they bargained for...

[missmentelle]

Hope its alright to share a cringey situation! i knew a woman once that was constantly wondering why people stopped talking to her and it confused me at first cuz i had just met her and only just started becoming friends but it started to be all she talked about so i kept my distance and then asked her outright to give me some space with specific instructions, that she violated immediately! After repeating myself many times what i needed and her ignoring my boundaries i had to start blocking her. A YEAR later she still finds a new social media platform to reach out and ask why i stopped talking to her. I struggle with boundaries and this was the worst feeling ever. And recently it happened again where a person got way too close way too quick and wouldnt take a hint when i wouldnt answer their calls. They singled me out in a zoom graduation telling me to answer my phone. How do you deal with people that wont listen? Its just so embarrassing and it feels awful to say no so many times.... like my boundaries dont matter to them... which is why i stay running and the cycle continues! Hope you dont mind the rant you reblogged something similar and i dont know what the words are for this situation

I actually don’t think this is cringey at all - I think this is an important life skill. 

Sooner or later, everyone has to deal with someone who comes on way too strong, doesn’t take hints, and generally makes it clear that they’re way more interested in you than you are in them. This can happen with friends, coworkers, romantic prospects, neighbours - pretty much anyone in your life. Sometimes, you can manage the situation by keeping the person at arm’s length and giving gentle reminders about boundaries whenever they start to push it. But sometimes, people push and push and push no matter how firm you are and how many reminders you give - and sometimes, this person’s refusal to back down can start to negatively affect your mental health or other relationships in your life. 

The first thing you need to remember is that someone else’s refusal to take a hint is not your fault. Having someone disrupt a big event like a graduation to ask why you aren’t taking their calls is definitely embarrassing, but you aren’t the one who should feel embarrassed by that - they are the ones who crossed a line by confronting you in public to try to bully you into answering their calls, and they are the one who should feel embarrassed about that happening. 

For what it’s worth, I have also been in this situation before, several times in my life. In high school, one of my classmates decided that we were “best friends”, even though I had no real interest in being more than just high school acquaintances. She religiously tracked when I was online to see if I was “ignoring her” (I was), she called my house so much that my parents got annoyed, and she had a tendency to show up at my house unannounced to “hang out”, even at 7am on a Saturday. In grad school, I matched with someone on a dating app who quickly became obsessed with me and couldn’t take a hint that I wasn’t interested - he created multiple social media accounts to harass me and sent messages saying he was going to show up at my campus to try to find me. Those were deeply unpleasant experiences for me; I felt like the “bad guy” for not returning their affection, and trying to explain to other people that “someone is completely obsessed with me” made me feel kind of self-centered, even though it was objectively true. It sucks. 

I know that saying “no” to someone over and over again feels awful. I hate saying no to people, even at my own detriment - but sometimes, that’s what you need to do. You are not a bad person for putting your foot down when someone else is refusing to listen to you and is intruding on your life. You’ve already done everything that I would recommend you do in this situation - you started out nice, you reminded this person of your boundaries, you politely asked for space, you gave specific instructions for future interactions - and this person is not responding. You have done what you could, and it’s time to take a firmer stance here. You aren’t a bad person for having boundaries and wanting them to be respected - this person has had several chances to correct their behaviour, and they have chosen not to take them. That’s on them. 

At this point, I think it’s okay for you to be frank with this person. Tell them straight up that you don’t want any kind of relationship with them and that you would like them to leave you alone. If that’s too direct for you, tell them that their behaviour is rude and that you are starting to feel harassed. I know that it’s hard to be that firm with someone, but sometimes this is what another person needs to hear - they need to be told, straight-up, that you’ve had enough of this and you’re done. Is it possible that the other person will see you as an asshole? Yes, in all likelihood, they probably will. But it’s important that you not take that personally - it is not your fault that this person’s repeated actions ended in predictable consequences for them. You are not a bad person because someone else is upset that they were called on their bad behaviour. 

And if the person still isn’t taking the hint, sometimes the only option you have left is to cut them off entirely. Block their number, delete them from social media, and don’t respond to their attempts to get in contact with you. Being able to get in touch with someone is a privilege, not an absolute right, and when someone abuses that privilege, sometimes they lose it entirely. You aren’t ghosting the person - ghosting is when you duck out of someone’s life without even telling them what they’ve done wrong. You’ve told this person what they’re doing wrong, repeatedly, and it’s okay to take away their opportunity to keep doing it.

Having to get stern with an eager person who can’t take a hint is tough. Rejecting people is hard, and most of us hate doing it. But sometimes... you just have to. You aren’t obligated to give someone an 18th or 19th chance to respect your boundaries, and you don’t have to have a relationship with someone just because they really, really, really want you to. You have a right to decide who you want to be close to, and you should never feel bad about having to be frank with someone who is otherwise completely unwilling to respect your wishes.  Best of luck to you, MM

[vermillioncrown]

okay im very curious about yunxun in sqq’s body with pidw knowledge

oh boy there’s a lot, i hope this is satisfying.

Pre-transmigration:

Is ZYX the type to hate-read? no, bc her ninja code is “bitch i have two working feet, i can just walk away”

except, pIDW is such... it’s an emergent phenomena. it’s chaos theory, exemplified. she can’t help but to read it as a way to practice her chinese in between her TAing hours and lab hours, and her actual chinese suffers all the mroe for it

(setting here is that zyx, as american trash, would only hate-read a cnovel if she was forced to enjoy only cmedia bc she chose to go to grad school in HK/china instead of currently like yours truly)

(i never hid the fact that zyx is a self-insert so)

baby cousin recommends this to her. she goes “wtf did i do to offend you”

But holy shit, this train wreck. and the shitty english that airplane occasionally writes out for his notes and blogs, she just... maybe some lonely nights, she’s drunk enough to rant in his comments under an appropriate pseud.

nokdao420′s (sounds like ‘suck dick’ in her canto dialect lmao) in-depth lambasting of airplane-bro’s lack of continuity, character development, ppp stallion fantasy trash gets meme’d like the navy seal copypasta

and bc she usually never puts herself out there, even anonymously, she immediately dumps the nokdao420 pseud and just tries to move on.

But she CAN’T, bc there was SO MUCH FUCKING POTENTIAL WITH THE SETTING, THE POLITICAL INTRIGUE, LBH, awto;io;hjaserghio;aweeeeee

Basic truck isekai, nbd, but she did die bc she was so mad she dropped her phone and picked it up without paying attention (all her shit is there, and she’s in a foreign country - that’s her whole life haha... literally)

Waking up:

She’s a nerd but not that nerdy; she’s never ‘one day im gonna transmigrate and i’m going to play my part!’

it’s ‘what serial killer got me, and how many minutes do i have left before he comes back to harvest my organs’

YQY and MQF are worried, but not as ‘is SQQ possessed?’ bc let’s face it, SY!SQQ tried his best but gave his worst. ZYX!SQQ is much more curt, snappy, and cold.

She Realizes. “Excuse this shidi for a moment.” goes outside, sticks head into pond, and screams

much better at playing transition from real SQQ to nicer SQQ, much more manipulative than SY

But in the end, besides the System being a piece of shit and making her do things, she’s not really a bad person. in fact, she likes being a good person.

(perhaps the tsuntsun nature of her SQQ performance is like a milkshake for all the boys in the yard. they swarm)

uhh...

oh. right, the penis. at least it’s easier to diddle and clear the pipes? “wait, if i pee in the woods, are there really fish that can swim up and bite -”

On LBH:

“Play cool play cool - NO I’M SUCH A MARSHMALLOW BITCH”

LBH breaks her fucking heart. She... she can’t

There are conspiracy theory-level charts in the bamboo house on the morality of how to treat LBH. to be good, and to need to push him anyways? (she interrogates the system relentlessly) (the system is pushed too far and she gets her first punishment protocol there)

(she learns that her mind isn’t safe. this system isn’t here to help; it’s here for its own entertainment.)

But... she figures, over the years, if he needs to go down, she can at least prepare him. and then she can run, or fake her own death.

actually, that sounds kinda fun (she says, trying not to cry every day)

LBH, receiving these scraps of care from his cold-hearted shizun, starts to believe that something he did is slowly warming him up! He’s finally doing something right!!

so ZYX!SQQ (ugh, i’m just Z!SQQ) is a stern teacher. not affectionate. short-tempered. intolerant of ignorance and stupidity.

but always willing to teach if you’re willing to learn. will respect your mistakes more if you admit to them and correct them. if you show guile and intelligence, but not turn your talents against your fellow disciples.

Praise is always given when merited.

LBH’s inner M comes out so quick, he’s basically dying all day every day

(ZYX!SQQ has no fucking idea, the concept of self and others’ perception of them as beyond a blank mannequin person is so alien, it doesn’t even pass their mind.)

LBH’s crush/fixation is further cemented (when LBH ends up lving with Z!SQQ bc there really wasn’t any room in the dorms due to logistics mishap) when he gets to spy on Z!SQQ when they think no one’s around (they think that LBH is sleeping bc who the fuck has that kind of energy? GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP YOU’RE TWELVE)

(”begging the pardon of shizun, this luo binghe is fourteen”) (’UGH no, you are BABY’)

but Z!SQQ doesn’t understand that while it’s ‘real’, this world operates like a novel. like, they know, but knowing is not understanding. Protag halo is the most blatant and obvious example, but protag ‘do too much’ energy is more subtle.

basically LBH has all the time int he world to do everything and spy on his master. at his master dropping his facade and grumbling. actual smiles or pouts. at his master humming and cooking little snacks at night, that somehow find their way into LBH’s lunches. at his... at his master, caressing his body and gentle sighs deep into the night.

And beyond that, Z!SQQ doesn’t let LBH do all the chores. they enjoy cooking, and despite LBH’s protag halo he’s still a child and doesn’t know every recipe in the world. she pretneds that she cant see him watching her cook and she purposefully talks to herself on her process and ingredients, while vein popping trying not to swear

LBH is just gone. 1000% gone.

On LQG:

“NO, THIS ASSHOLE’S MY TYPE!” Z!SQQ screams internally even as Qi Deviation LQG is about to nuke them from orbit

As they’re trying to stablize LQG, Z!SQQ has no control over their mouth and it’s the foulest string of curses in all languages at this shit ass world, shit ass system, shit ass luck, sei bei nei tai nei zek lan cut hai (watch me just fucking die here you stink ass dick cunt)

LQG tries to lob accusations, and Z!SQQ: stfu i just saved your pretty boy ass and you tried to kill me, your payment is your eternal silence.

the paradigm shift that LQG experiences isn’t as jarring as SY!SQQ, but it’s more a ‘did i misunderstand this guy?! was... I, me, wrong?!?’

Z!SQQ would never want to use someone as a meat shield. that’s not how they think. they were raised as the meat shield (poc older sisters, where y’all at)

So it’s a cat-mouse of LQG “LET ME REPAY MY DEBT” and Z!SQQ “FUCK OFF YOU’RE TOO HOT AND I MIGHT GET CURSED TO FUCK”

and LQG’s debt just keeps wracking up

but Z!SQQ can’t help but to make fun of LQG whenever they’re in public and LQG can’t (i mean, he can, but he ... huh.) make a scene. They can’t help it, it’s their crush reflex - either they screams a confession out so that they can get rejected and move on with their life, or they are mean af to their crush so that they can kill their own heart and die bc feelings are itchy

EVERYONE IS A FUCKING M IN THIS NOVEL, LQG CAN’T HELP IT TOO

Z!SQQ’s jokes at his expense aren’t nearly as mean as SJ!SQQ. and he can’t take his eyes off his wayward shixiong or that flighty asshole is going to run off and not let him do as his honor calls for.

(if he takes his eyes off his shixiong, he won’t see the satisfied little smirk that curls up on the corner of those lips; a delicate mouth and elegant eyes hiding a vocabulary more disgusting and crass than the grimiest street rat out there)

On YQY:

wary of YQY bc she has more emotional intelligence than a garden snail and can smell the unresolved guilt off that guy like stink waves. the face she makes at his presence is so SJ!SQQ that YQY never questions it

that guy’s an M himself, so he can’t help but keep trying

catches Z!SQQ throwing a tantrum and getting frustrated, bitter lashing out (he thinks it’s like SJ)

really, it’s them freaking out that they were supposed to teach shit they don’t know (body know, but not mind, and they values their mind over anything) and it just got overwhelming and they were midway destroying a guqin with their bare hands

YQY understands. the Qi deviation took away some memories, some vital, some trivial. Xiao-jiu’s skill in the arts, something that he prided for having clawed his way up to with the hands of a street rat, now lost.

YQ offers to teach them again, and suggests to have the hall masters take over for the classes as ‘SQQ needs to recover from their deviation’ and Z!SQQ snarls, hating that they have to depend on others and having their responsibility taken from them

(because if people think she’s useless, then they’ll never care again. she’ll mean nothing. if she loses a chance to prove herself, and it’s not like it’s false, she can feel the skill in the body, it just won’t connect in the head, she- she-)

so begins the cold war-esque private lessons from YQY that always end with Z!SQQ stomping away (what fucks do they give about composure if YQY didn’t? don’t you know how tiring it is to play a role 24/7? the dick’s gonna chafe if they tries to stress relief any more!!), or the destruction of another instrument, or ink upended on YQY when he’s being too grossly patronizing

YQY just feels hope that he can still bridge the gap between him and xiao-jiu. bc xiao-jiu needs him again

My FAVE, AIRPLANE-BRO:

Caught. Caught way before the Immortal Alliance Conference.

Caught whomst? Airplane caught Z!SQQ

Why? bc they actually respect service workers, thus they respect an ding.

being that they did study some logistic/supply chain-type problems before, the inner nosy bitch and addict to optimality can’t help but maybe nudge some improvements towards an ding’s way

SQH catches them being nice tot he an ding disciples “Who the fuck are you”

Z!SQQ reaches out and grabs him by the lapels and yoinks him into a cupboard: “You first, motherfucker”

“holy shit are you a transmigrator?”

“do you even have to ask?!”

“bro, chill - no need to bite my head off”

“i am a paper’s thickness proximity to mcfucking losing it. i am going to die. my limbs will be torn off. people will die. everyone keeps bothering me. I have a dick and it’s weird to run with. I’m not happy with this fucking tire fire novel that i’ve been yote into”

“a. ahahaa,... sounds like... you have some problems going on... a hahah”

Z!SQQ just does a ‘beep beep beep calculating body language’ on SQH

“Bitch. It’s you.”

“No... me? Who?”

“You are Airplane.”

“ah... i see you’re a fan-”

it takes a hoard of children to pin Z!SQQ from strangling SQH with his own belt

After Z!SQQ calms down a bit (a bit bc as author, SQH knows where to get coffee) (”Ok i will admit, i’m a hoeng ziu (a banana: yellow on the outside, white on inside, can listen and speak but can’t read), so correct me if i’m wrong... how coffee if ancient china????”) (”ah, you are wrong, isekai-bro; it’s fantasy and i do what i want”) (”fair”) they start to chat

And airplane-bro really isn’t that bad. he’s actually really fucking funny. and the kind of person that Z!SQQ would totally have been friends with.

Z!SQQ commiserates being college poor and doing anything to survive

“but it still sucks dick” “okay, also fair”

“btw what was your username?”

“I lurked.”

“oh c’mon, with a reaction like that, you had to have commented at least once. I read all my comments. which anti-fan?”

“you... are so nasty. you’re really a glutton for punishment, arent’ you?”

“who just got you coffee, you rotten banana?” (”btw can you teach me better english?”)

(”yeah sure only bc your blog posts made me want to commit homicide”) “... i. commented once. as. ‘nokdao420′”

“Holy shit. the legendary copypasta nokdao420. that’s you???”

“what.”

“your post was meme’d to hell. it was the hot meme for 30 chs in a row to copypasta it into the comments”

“what.”

“i mean, i guess you wouldn’t know, being a banana and all - but y’know, i did like what you had to say. under all the insults. you actually saw a lot of the ... the stuff i wanted to write. earlier.”

“the infuriating thing was because that trash pile had potential. and to anyone with real eyes and working social skills, it’s clear that you’ve never fucked in your entire life”

“aol;wehoh Well, have you?! nokdao420 pullin’ pussy?! Hah?”

“no. i don’t like pussy enough to put that much effort into finding it”

“... why did you read my novel, again?”

“filial duty”

They actually get along great, because memers have to stick together.

To Z!SQQ’s reluctance, they did memorize a lot of the novel (skipped nothing bc they read like they inhale, esp once the language barrier was lowered) and thus it’s the Banana-bro (”you will not call me by -” “what, Nokdao420? huh? whatcha gonna do about it?” “i’ll make sure your airplane never takes off. personally, permanently.”) and Airplane-bro adventures to save their skins

(airplane legit has an ugly cry when he finds out that Z!SQQ used to be a woman. “get up you pathetic freak” “banana-sis, you gotta let me mourn.” it’s the closest that he’s been near real pussy that isn’t grossed out by him, and it’s no longer extant. Z!SQQ delights in taunting him “oh yeah, i had double d’s. an ass with a shelf. bazongas, as they called them in the states.” “banana-sis please you’re kicking a poor man while they’re in the dirt”)

okay that’s enough, so much stuff and i didn’t mean to

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep 35 S4: Raphael Joins the Pile of Dead Bodies

Ah 2020, thankfully we have one trashfire somewhat behind us, but I’m still avoiding social media for so many obvious reasons because of all the other trashfires that just never seem to stop burning, so lets talk about Yugioh with all of this newfound time.

Ah, card games. Card games that go on for 6-7 episodes. Lets see how they pad it out:

In a lot of ways, Roland really is just padding for the show, and that’s OK. He’s doing his best, by doing literally nothing but stand outside and check the time.

Inside the dusty soul chamber, Tristan has decided to do us the favor of recapping what happened last episode, which included the return of our four dead friends, so that they could die...again.

Seto’s reaction to seeing these dead people suddenly alive again was very “guys...I went nuts like years ago, I’m just going with it at this point.” and he’s still 100% positive that this is all a hologram and that no one will ever die.

Whatever it takes for Seto to get out of bed in the morning, I guess.

(read more under the cut)

One of the big mechanics the game is that you need to stay level headed, or the Orichalcos just kind of slurps you up. This explains a little why Dartz is so freakin chill basically all of the time, just the Bob Ross of evil over there. It also is sort of funny because Pharaoh and Seto are the least chill people to have ever lived so he’s just kind of waiting it out to see whom between Seto and Kaiba gets the most angry first and completely botches it.

Yugi has to do literally nothing and for the first time in his life this is the right choice.

I’m so glad he gets to use his big brain move of “If I don’t play, no one dies!” from S1. Glad it came back to serve him for once instead of just make everyone else really annoyed.

Yugi just...not moving means it’s now Seto’s turn to put down some cards, and he kinda looks over at Pegasus and goes...well you know what’s gonna happen next.

I have no idea why he didn’t attack Pegasus. Like this episode is kind of weird because we got these flashbacks of Pegasus being like “you’re my only hope, Yugi!” and it’s like wtf, Pegasus trapped you on a murder island and tried to kill you multiple times. He abducted Mokuba and turned both the Kaiba brothers into cards.

yo did Seto and Pegasus get back together in between seasons or something? Was there a whole character development where these two have fun brunches in San Fransisco now? Because I would watch that anime. I would watch the anime where Seto and Pegasus are co-hosting Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, and just destroying every unsuspecting local restaurant they brunch in.

But are we just assuming that the eyeball did all that evil stuff from S1 and that otherwise Pegasus is a good person? Because like...he was a mess before he got possessed. He’s kind of a Yugi, he’s kind of a Bakura, he’s kind of a Marik...in that there’s a mess in that bean, and getting possesed just only amplified what was already there.

So, with his smug as hell grin, Seto surprises Dartz by only barely getting affected by this inescapable moral dilemma and Seto just very quickly deciding to do a murder. And then we get a little blimp throwback to S2 (S3? I don’t even remember at this point, since we’ve been stuck in S4 for an entire year. Thanks 2020.)

If blocking the shot when Marik did it in S3 or S2 or whenever that was, didn’t get Mai to like Joey, then it shouldn’t work if you do it a second time.

But hey, I guess it’s better than letting her perma-die. Although this show desperately needs to figure out how to use Mai if they’re gonna keep her around, youknow?

Like all ships are fine and valid here, ship whatever you want to your hearts content: I don’t ship at all, as you know, but I hope one day they give Mai a personality that is consistently likeable. I do want to like her because she’s like...good at what she does when she plays cards and can be that can be a fun “hey I’m a girl but I’m not a freakin ‘gamer girl’ you male chauvinist assholes” type of character. But, the show just...the show doesn’t know what they want outside of a little romantic tension that they legally can’t follow through because of a 5-6 year age gap with a teenager.

This show actively tries to destroy this ship, and then turns around and is like “oh shoot this ship is all we have.” This show tries to lift up Mai as a feminist icon one season, and then tears her down for being “too” feminist the next season when she decides to--youknow--kill Joey Wheeler because he made her feel weak or something when he saved her life. 

Like the show does a lot to explore weakness and strength, and how what we see as weakness is actually strength, and how what we tend to attribute as strengths is actually weakness, and how our modern career/school/success expectations set us up for failure, but I think they explored that way better with Seto than they ever did with Mai.

Could’ve been cool Mai, you could’ve been cool.

Anyhoo, that was my spicy commentary on a 10+ year old anime, good to get it off my chest.

Seto and Yami have the typical problem they have whenever they play cards together, where one goes completely rogue. Except this time, the one going rogue isn’t Seto, it’s Yami. He’s just like...I’ll make life for Seto very difficult and I will lose this game and I don’t even mind because I’m already dead, deal with it.

So honestly this is an episode where it’s just Seto demanding we kill a bastard, and Yami being like “but not THAT bastard” and Seto just shrugging and saying “I have to kill A bastard, Yugi! Just CHOOSE one!”

That actual line in the show (I forget what it was exactly) does infer that Seto thinks Joey holds him back, and that implication speaks miles about Seto’s insecurities.

HOW THOUGH..........what are you jealous of, Seto?

You’re better at cards than he is, he’s never beat you at anything. It’s not about who’s best friends with Yugi because...Yugi’s possessed so Yami is always going to take first place...

......so what could it possibly BE?

Seto doesn’t attend school anymore, is it about that? Is it because Joey is likeable? Is it because Joey pretends he has a much older girlfriend? I mean hypothetically, Blue Eyes White Dragon is WAY older than Mai so...that can’t be it.

.....what IS it???

Does the “friendship” he have with Joey make Seto too soft? Is that what’s holding him back? Because Seto doesn’t actually think he’s friends with these people and says that Yugi and co are “Mokuba’s friends” so like....

.....what are you talking about, Seto???

Is it because you’re addicted to cards again? Because that’s...sort of Joey’s fault because he was the one who told you he needed a ride to Jacksonville, and then let slip that the “King of Games” title was up for grabs, is that it?

Are you just tired of Joey asking you for a ride?

Not like it matters, because Joey survives, and Seto gets to feel like a complete asshole about it.

As Raphael (who is this purple blur here) motorcycles into the dome of souls, Rolands last words were

“You can’t go in there!”

which was the weirdest thing to say to a guy you just saw fall down a 50 story building a few hours ago. Raphael not being dead should be the thing Roland fixates on, but instead he’s seen so many people die and come back to life, that he’s only concerned that Raphael will get in trouble for trespassing.

Again, Roland is the only Kaiba that hasn’t died yet, and it’s because he’s the only Kaiba that hasn’t broken the law.

Dude. What if the reason Roland is standing outside is because he’s been politely looking for the doorbell to be let in?

...the players asking for death...like clockwork...and me asking for the end of this freakin game...we played...1 turn this episode...

This episode was 1 turn!

And you may ask...well what else could possibly happen to stretch this out and well...

Raphael dives in on a motorcycle to save the day. Which is an aesthetic, by the way, this huge man covered in like a dozen belts, doing a wheelie jump into a chasm of 1 million souls. that’s an aesthetic.

So he shows up, gets off his bike and I was like “Oh good, someone to maybe save Yugi saving Joey saving Mai?” And instead, I was...not given that.

Mostly Raphael is here because he ALSO wants to kill Dartz, and is like “can I join? I know you’ve only played like 1 round, just deal me a new hand, it’ll be fine.” and it’s like...we already played the Orichalcos Raphael, this is not a game of Uno, you cannot just jump in.

Dartz is sort of obsessed with how everyone around him has potential for evil except for him, the chillest human to ever be born, and I gotta say...when he’s in this room...Dartz has a point.

+++++++++++++RANT ABOUT BEING PERFECT FEEL FREE TO SKIP++++++++++++++

It is sort of nice to have the concept of an older generation (in this case 10,000 years older) fighting with a younger generation. To have the older, more typically wiser generation say “Listen, I kinda screwed the planet and the war economy and the prison system...and I’m gonna keep doing that...and you can’t stop me because you’re a bunch of hypocritical dumbasses.” and then the younger generation say. “We don’t care if we’re a mess, dude. We aren’t the problem here.”

I may be putting some recent topical STUFF into this mold here, but it is a nice little analogy that they made even someone who is such a human disaster as Yami and Seto “morally good” enough to fight Dartz. You don’t have to be a perfect Harvard Grad to fight the system, you don’t have to be an entirely problematic-free savior, you can be even as problematic as Seto Kaiba--just get rid of the dumb assholes trying to destroy the world. That’s all.

Like this concept is strangely prescient because in 2020 we’re in a weird time period where if you aren’t perfect, you’re not allowed to have opinions. You’re not allowed to make content. You’re not allowed to make change. This is mostly an online problem in places like twitter, but it’s a real problem--because in the end what you’re left with is no one that wants to step up to the plate because they know that they, too, are flawed.

And like not even just as a political thing, even as a creator, as an artist, I see this problem more and more with kids. Kids who are like “I am afraid to draw because what if I do it wrong and I get dragged on twitter years later?” or “I want to make a story, but I’m afraid to get cancelled because my fantasy story has problematic stuff in it? Am a bad person for wanting to write it?” And it’s like...what are we doing to young creators right now? Did we all fail humanities? How have we failed art and literature SO badly that we’ve come to this point that people are too afraid to even learn how to do it right?

Anyway that was a tangent, but like...you see the similarities, right? That if you really were as perfect as Dartz either politically or creatively, you’d be a freakin monster and would probably just tear down everyone else around you on twitter rather than lift other people up. It’s a stretch but eh, it’s been a while since I went on a good Yugioh tangent and like

---it’s not like I can say this on twitter---

+++++++++++++++END OF THAT RANT+++++++++++++++++++

So it’s at this point that Dartz turns to Raphael is like “I mean...we weren’t really doing anything else, and Yugi and Yami are playing so slowly...I guess I have time to bust your nuts” and decides to bust his nuts.

Oh hey, I was right.

And yeah, that’s still effed up. Dartz killed his Raphael’s family, left him on an island, and then adopted him later after forcing him to dig up their graves. Like...Raphael, that’s effed up.

He also did the same thing to everyone else (and for Valon he just kinda glazed over that really fast because we had to edit his backstory out of the English version)

PS at this part Mokuba started sweating bullets and Tea leaned over and was like “Is this true, Mokuba?”

And Mokuba was like “...yes.”

Because, I don’t think Mokuba can keep any secret from Tea. Like for reals, Tea may be the most dangerous thing to all of KaibaCorp if she wasn’t so distracted by Yami’s endless string of problems. Mokuba is constantly telling them all of Seto’s deepest darkest secrets and there is like nothing Seto can do about it.

The animation of Gozaburo turning into a beautiful Dartz was just a simple fade to white, but man--imagine if they had dome some crazy effed up animation where Gozaburo just whips back his head and he has ass length blue hair and long, luscious lashes?

Imagine.

Anyway, this was enough for Raphael, who was already our most gullible and unstable person on this show, to just flip that switch and go lime green like all those other minibosses before him.

Really glad we built up Raphael for him to just die at the door hahaha.

That was so freakin random.

OK then. Thanks for nothing, Raphael.

I guess we go to the next episode to see if we finally play another turn? We can hope for good things. But if we don’t play a full turn I will NOT be surprised.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono