#had to post another ‘safer’ panel

[persnickety-doodles]

Wip 🥲🥲 round 2!

[eueuphoriaz]

Levi's heart (Part 1)

I have been hesitating on this analysis because there are so many layers to Levi's character, and so many people have analysed Levi down to his molecular cells. It has taken me weeks to organise the information and trying to make sense of them and I think I am now much clearer about the doubts that I have.

So, I have read many Levihan analysis about how the word "heart" lies above Hange in Chapt 139, which is parallel to the chapter title "Hearts", which is the first time Levi and Hange were introduced to each other.

Now, my cynical and critical mind started to question, what is the link there? Could it be just the placement and coincidence? This thought led me to think very deeply about Levi's heart. And this is going to be at least a 3 part post because Levi is such a layered and deep and mysterious character that I have gotten lost in trying to understand him based on the manga and anime.

I intend to organise this into 3 separate posts:

1) No regrets OVA

2) The transition between post-Erwin and monologue when he is looking for Zeke at the final battle

3) Last speech to the vets in Chapt 139.

Of course, I wear heavy Levihan goggles because the "hearts" parallel is what got me curious to do some investigation into this area. I may have missed out other important analysis or snippets of information, so if I do, please kindly point out to me. Once again, these are all my own points of view and let's agree to disagree, if that ever happen.

Along the way, I may digress because there are some other Levihan crumbs that I picked up, but I will mention them in other posts.

Let's start

-----------------------------------

So, I started to look back at the very first time when Levi is introduced to the idea of "hearts". It was in the No Regrets OVA and it should be noted that Levi, when he was first recruited into the Survey Corps, he had not intention of enlisting at all.

Now, there are a lot of influences that he received. Most of the scenes have been cut out from the anime but if you look at the manga, there are a lot of his inner thoughts which gives an insight about the changes in his thought process.

-----------------------------

Erwin and Levi's interaction on his first titan kill

So first up, the very first mention of "Dedicating hearts" to Levi was from Erwin, and it happened when Levi is watching guard while Furlan and Isabel went to search for the document.

We see Erwin complimenting Levi's skills.

"....you are a natural.... others feel safer...."

Levi then looked shocked and downplay his skills, mentioning that his success was built upon another soldier's death.

Then Erwin took this chance to talk about the bigger picture of sacrifice and "dedicating heart"

This interaction ended with Isabel coming along and taking Levi away. But the seed of the "hearts" have been planted.

-------------------------

Hange appears

Now, this is the part I tried to link "hearts" and what it means to Levi. Of course Levihan alert!

So, we know that after the interaction with Erwin, Levi, Furlan and Isabel were discussing about their plans when Hange intrudes.

I wont mention more about her excitement and kindness when she approached him. So, while Levi was still digesting what Erwin told him about "hearts" and "sacrifices", Hange came over and complimented on his strength.

Now, Erwin also complimented Levi's success. Erwin then planted the seed of "dedication" and "sacrifices" in Levi. Hange, on the other hand, wanted to know Levi's strength so that the soldiers can fight better. I find Levi's responses to both Erwin and Hange here very interesting.

- When Erwin mentioned that Levi is a natural, Levi attributed it to him learning from how other people fight.

- When Hange told Levi that he had given other hope that they can fight better, Levi basically accepted her compliment and did not know how to engage further.

Now, going back to this panel when they first saw a titan, Levi also had thought that the soldiers are using lousy skills to engage the titan. So I am guessing that there already is a connection when Hange mention the soldiers could learn to fight better from him. However, the Ackerman strength is instinctual so I am thinking that while Levi recognised a certain connection/ agreement with Hange, he really cannot explain how he had done it.

This is where I think thats why he said he didnt want to be responsible for anyone else's lives. After digesting what Erwin said, that the Survey Corps is built upon selfless sacrifices, and that no one will regret dedicating their hearts, he encountered Hange, who wanted to know how to fight better from him (and likely increasing her chances to dedicate her heart). I am guessing that he is putting 2 and 2 together and did not want to be the reason for more sacrifices because he knows that Hange, and probably the other soldiers, are ready to die, based on what Erwin said about "dedicating hearts".

Now, probably at this point in time, Levi did not understand the why. But I am guessing that he felt something strong enough to want to avoid it. And I am guessing it could be some form of emotional attachment. At this point in time, the 3 of them are still thinking about getting the document and completing their job, so my guess here is that Hange opened out something within him, after Erwin told him about the Survey Corps and their grand view of the world.

I mean, he could have told Furlan that he is indeed tired, or that he had feigned tiredness to chase Hange away but Levi had to mention about being responsible to other lives to Furlan after Hange left. 🤔

---------------------------

Isabel's heart

So, the next chapter, we see a snippet of Isabel doing the salute and hinting her dedication to the cause of the Survey Corps. Now look at her reactions and Levi's and Furlan's expressions. I am guessing all 3 of then are shocked at the possibility that they could be emotionally attached to the Survey Corps.

Furlan's analysis

Furlan is such a clever and perspective character. I swear all the blonds must have gotten some good IQ genes from Isayama.

Anyway, the scene then cuts to Levi doing some internal thinking while the 3 of them rested. In his internal reflection, he reviewed his and Furlan's and Isabel's experiences with the Survey Corps. It is interesting to note that he recalled Erwin's words at the Underground when he was captured, instead of the compliment Erwin gave him. He, however, remembered what Hange said to him.

I am guessing that to Levi, Erwin is still the mission he has to fulfil. Hange has that personal connection with him. See how Hange is grouped together with Furlan/ Isabel (his connection to his past in the Underground), Flagon and his man (his negative experiences and adjustment to the surface) and Hange (his positive experience and connection to the surface).

I am guessing that emotionally, he is still trying to decide on what he wanted. He is still thinking about the bigger purpose in life: What does it mean to stay on the surface, outside the Walls? Why? What is the purpose of fighting and lending his strength?

To sidetrack a little: I am thinking that Levi is trying to read into Erwin's motives. Because Levi knows that Erwin knows he wants to kill him. To continue this fascade of "lending his strength to the Survey Corps" would mean that they have a chance to stay aboveground. I think Levi struggles here because that would mean that he will be "responsible" for the "hearts" which he will built on upon moving forward because of his strength. Now, I think this is also why Levi recognise Erwin as his liege because he cannot see further than what Erwin had allowed him to. He choose to follow Erwin and trust his decisions because that is the only way for him to commit his strength to the sacrifices of Furlan and Isabel (to be free of the Underground and the Walls)

Back to Furlan.

So while Levi is thinking about all these, Furlan and Isabel talked about whether or not to continue their mission.

Now, take a look at what Furlan said about someone noticing if the 3 of them get close to Erwin.

Who could that someone be? We know that Hange already noticed Levi and Furlan had to emphasized one someone noticing them.

Of course it could just be Furlan being cautious and careful. Now, the next scene where Isabel started to express her attachment to the Survey Corps, he directly referenced to the candy which Hange gifted.

And lastly, even though Levi did not share anything about his own internal thoughts, Furlan successfully guessed that Levi is also having some emotional attachment to the Survey Corp with the "dedication of hearts" thing.

Now, Furlan would not have known what Erwin had told Levi, because he was not present. He was, however, present when he saw Levi reaction to Hange, when Levi said he did not want to be responsible for others (and these are, presumably, based in Levi's introspection of what Erwin told him). Furlan was also there when Hange gave Isabel the candy. Also to sidetrack to Levi's reflection above, Furlan had also looked to Levi's strength to "raise hell" while Isabel talked about "causes worth dying". So while Levi is trying to put all these together and see a purpose in life (what is worth to stay above ground and out of the Walls?), Furlan had already saw that going on with Levi.

The only reason why Furlan was able to see that is because Levi wavered in his interactions with Hange- he did not want her to dedicate her heart but he knows that all the Survey Corps members have dedicated their hearts. And as I mentioned earlier, Levi had struggled because to maintain above ground, he had to lend his strength to the Survey Corps, which means he have to see all the hearts being dedicated, even if he didnt want to.

--------------------------

Yes, I know it is everywhere, but this "hearts" thing with Levi, and especially his "dedicate your heart" to Hange in 132 has too many unknowns. I will try to clean up if I can, but it really shows me how deep deep Levi is.

I am planning Part 2 on post Erwin and his monologue when he is trying to find Zeke in final battle. I am also very intrigued by that monologue because that is the second time, or rather first in the main manga, that Levi talked about "hearts" (excluding the heartbreaking farewell in 132). 💔

Levi's Heart [Part 1][Part 1.5][Part 2][Part 2.5][Part 3]

[apoptoses]

Omg reverse roleplay part 3????? I LOVE it reverse roleplay stuff

okay so you're gonna be disappointed because my naming conventions mean if a fic is connected to a previous fic, i use the same wip title on it to keep them organized. so while technically this DOES originate from the very first reverse roleplay fic, it has nothing to do with that activity 😂 it's just daniel in charge.

but i got stuck on it 5k in and now i think i know why (they need some breathing space between returning to night island post akasha -> fooling around to let some tension build). maybe i'll get back to it and give it another try!!

“So this is where you’ve been during the day for all these years,” Daniel said as he stepped into the room.

It was like something that had been cut from some renaissance manor and transported straight to Miami. Hell, knowing Armand it probably had. Daniel ran his fingers along the dark, linenfold paneling as he walked the periphery of the room. The elaborately carved and painted ceiling glittered in the dim light of the electric candelabra installed by the door.

Daniel felt as though he were enclosed in an old jewelry box, the ceiling so low he could almost reach up and touch it. He stepped onto an antique rug and wiggled his toes in its wool fibers. With his immortal eyes he could see the thinnest crack in the paneling, suggesting another hidden door. A closet, probably. Surely there was nowhere in this small room to keep Armand’s great collection of clothes. There was just enough space for the desk and bookshelf, and a silk covered chaise lounge. And the coffin-

Daniel had no idea one could find a coffin made so large. The black lacquered lid was shut but even without it being open he could tell the inside of it would be wide enough for two.

He turned his attention to Armand, who stood with his hands behind his back, expression smooth and placid as it had ever been. Daniel’s heart drummed in his chest.

“That’s an awful lot of coffin for someone your size,” he joked, and then cringed when his voice wavered with his nerves.

How childish, being nervous about whether Armand would invite him to sleep in here with him. Daniel felt like a teenager, desperate to be invited into the room of the first boy he’d ever liked.

They’d slept together, of course. But out of necessity, when it was easier to acquire one coffin a the last minute than two. Armand, exhausted and wan from his turning, had climbed in on top of him fully clothed and collapsed into the death sleep before Daniel had even had a chance to kiss him. And then in compound- well it hadn’t felt right, flaunting his status as Armand’s fledgling in front of all of his former loves. Besides, it was safer sleeping alone, Marius had insisted.

Daniel tilted his head and watched his reflection in the shining black surface of the coffin lid. Without meaning to, he lifted his hand and traced the lines around his mouth, forever etched into his skin by immortality.

“Yes. I thought perhaps it would be more comfortable,” Armand said. “You’ve always preferred to fall asleep lying on your side.”

The hinges on the coffin made no sound as Armand lifted the lid. It wasn’t brand new. The divot in the padded interior was just the width of Armand’s narrow shoulders, the wrinkles in the pillow sham spoke of his tossing and turning in the early hours of the evening. Daniel toyed with the pleated satin that lined the lid and wondered when Armand had purchased it. How long he’d deliberated over whether Daniel would ever sleep there at all.

“So you want me here with you after all,” Daniel said quietly.

“Yes,” Armand shifted his weight from foot to foot. Beneath him the floor boards creaked. “Why would you think I wouldn’t?”

[commander-krios]

Safe Haven

Fandom: Andromeda Six Pairing: Juniper "June" Nyux/f!Traveler Rating: General Summary: Maris never felt at home in Goldis, but with June, she's never felt safer. Words: 953 Additional Tags: Love, Feelings, Friendship/Love, Post-Orion

Read on AO3

The hallways of the Andromeda Six were deserted, a depression falling over the entire ship after the events of Orion. Chrono was in their solar dust, Tilaarin on the radar as their next stop. But Maris couldn’t stop thinking about the experiments, the agony on June’s face, and how easy it was for him to destroy the Orionite tainted soldiers. She’d been honest when she told him that he didn’t scare her, he never had, but her heart hurt every time she remembered the tortured expression on his face when he’d apologized to her for it all.

As if he had to apologize for simply existing.

Maris somehow managed to resist seeking him out after his visit to her cabin a few days before, knowing there were preparations to be made for Tilaarin, that the guns were still in need of repairs, and that the crew was busy with all of their normal tasks. But after three more days of silence, she found herself standing in front of June’s door, the access panel glowing a dreadful red that did little to ease her nerves.

After a moment’s hesitation, did she really think she was important enough to bother him for no reason, she lifted her fist to knock, the echo loud in the quiet. The door opened barely a few seconds later, June’s confusion immediately turning to delight at the sight of her, a smile brighter than any sun she’d seen on his handsome face. Any doubt she had vanished as he reached forward, rough fingers closing around her hand.

“Maris? I wasn’t expecting you-”

“Oh… I’m sorry. I just… haven’t seen you for more than a couple minutes here or there in the last few days and I wanted to… I should have asked.” She flushed, feeling like a complete idiot, and took a step back. “I’ll leave you be.”

“Please, don’t ever apologize.” June shook his head and pulled her closer before she could sprint down the hallway, the door hissing closed behind her, leaving them alone in his room. His fingers trailed down her arm, a softness to his grey eyes that left her weak in the knees. “I’ve missed you.”

“You did?” She responded with a flirty grin, running a hand over his vest, the smooth fabric soft against her fingertips. 

June chuckled, stilling her hand before she could go farther. Lifting it to his mouth, he pressed a kiss to her knuckles, soft and slow, eyes burning as he watched her duck her head, unable to stop the blush on her cheeks. His lips trailed down her hand until they reached her wrist. Then he pressed another kiss there. When he spoke, his mouth was still against her skin and she felt every word. “I always miss you when you’re not here.”

Clearing her throat, she turned away, trying to hide the flush beneath her choppy teal hair, but failing miserably. June tugged on her hand, stopping her before she tried to run for it again, guiding her closer to him. She glanced up as he wrapped an arm around her waist, soft lips brushing against her forehead.

With a sigh, she wrapped her arms around him, her face pressed into the white shirt he wore. He smelled so much like the sandalwood and lavender soap he bathed with and fresh air and life. He was solid and warm, his arms holding her gently against his body, and for the first time in months, she felt safe. Like she was finally home. And that terrified her more than the thought of returning to Goldis, of facing down the man who orchestrated her entire family’s massacre.

“June? I need to tell you something.” 

“You can tell me anything.” His hand trailed down her back in gentle strokes, his heat soaking into her with each touch.

Maris felt the flutter of butterflies in her stomach and she turned her face so he wouldn’t see the terror in her eyes. The last thing she needed was for him to misinterpret it as fear of him. Her fingers toyed with a button on his shirt, trying to focus on the words so she didn’t jam them together into some incoherent nonsense. Like usual. “You… make me feel safe. You make me feel like I can be whatever, whoever, I want to be and that’s not something I’ve ever felt before.”

There were more things she wished she could express this early in their relationship but her tongue grew heavy and she paused, closing her eyes as the horror of being so open and vulnerable hit her full force. June inhaled deeply, his chest expanding against her cheek and she closed her eyes tighter, hands trembling as her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt.

“Maris?”

June hooked a finger beneath her chin, tilting her head towards his, but she kept her eyes shut, terrified to see the look on his face. He shifted closer, pressing a single kiss to each eyelid before waiting for them to flutter open, green eyes meeting grey.

Running a hand across her hair and curling the teal strands around his fingers, the corner of his mouth turned up into a smirk. “You don’t have to be afraid to admit what you feel to me. Because with you, I feel the same. You make me feel normal… more of a real person than I’ve ever had.”

Maris felt all fear, all worry, all doubt melt away at his words and she sighed, hugging him tighter. June let out a chuckle before laying his head atop hers, chest rumbling against her cheek. A happy sound that she vowed to hear every day of the rest of her life.

[rosemary-crane]

Pt. 1 of my (very belated) chaotic corset making process

so way back when in August 2023, I finally got the motivation to make a corset for historical costume purposes, which I’ve been wanting to do for several years now. Most(and not just more) specifically, I wanted a corset that would have been considered fashionable in ~1875-80, especially in 1879, had an elegant silhouette, and was historically accurate.

There’s this one person on Etsy- ateliersylph- and they’ve got a ton of patterns taken from extant antique corsets they own, as well as some other fun sewing things like corset hooks, so I scrawled through their antique pattern offerings to find something that got as close to my specifications as possible. Unfortunately, there isn’t a corset that they dated to specifically the years I was looking for, but Ref P looked close to what I wanted: it had the curvy silhouette, wasn’t too curvy for my liking but still wasn’t too small proportionally for my hips, extended to ~just below the hip, spoon front-opening busk, was versatile enough to be used for more than just one decade in the Victorian era, and didn't support to only under the nipple. The spoon busk meant that it had to have been made in/after 1873, as that was when that style of busk was invented, and it fell out of fashion by the Edwardian era, so it should probably have been made between 1873- around 1900, and more likely closer to 1873 than 1900. It also didn’t have garters tabs attached to it, which became a thing closer to the Edwardian era. Thus, this was the closest pattern they had for what I was looking for, even without them having a date for Ref P’s original corset. I chose the pdf file option instead of a paper pattern to save money.

I also decided to go with a white-greige-light blue color scheme, so I got some white lace and bias binding and coutil, greige lace and cotton sateen(because silk would be even more expensive), and blue silk thread and ribbons for the back lacing, flossing, and decoration. I won’t lie, Bernadette banner’s adventures in ✨the joys of corset making✨ /s definitely inspired my choice of velvet ribbon threaded through lace as trim. Between the 3 commercially available options for boning nowadays, I (1) didn’t want to use plastic so synthetic whalebone was off the table, and (2) getting a smooth edge on the cut ends of steel boning was much simpler and cheaper than spiral steel boning, which needs caps and a cap-setting tool. However, Like A Fool, I didn’t remember that maybe, just MAYBE, I should have waited until I was able to print out the properly-sized pattern and measure to see what size bones I needed(because there are two different widths used, Apparently) before just purchasing a size that I thought was right, but. ://// so that was fun and not something I realized until I had gotten to the point of actually sewing the bone channels on all the panels, but I’ll come back to that later in another post. I also decided that because I couldn’t see the spoon busks in comparison to my body irl, it would be safer to buy a straight busk and just bend it for the curve, and that I was also going to use small-ass floral metal stamps on the busk loops because busks with decorative patterns on the loops were all sold out online to my knowledge :| this all happened over the course of a week where I was looking up materials online and debating whether spending all that money was worth it, until I said fuck it, I’m gonna make it, and bought everything, which took until ~late August/early September to all arrive. So, to pass the time, I searched up all the YouTube tutorials I had watched before of historical costubers making their own corsets for tips and watched them all again, and also went through ateliersylph’s blog posts for instructions and other resources, most of which are in French so get a google translator if u can’t read it like me lol. I finally got the pattern printed out after like, a week or 2, so after that, I was cutting and pasting it together irl, making mockups, etc. until everything else arrived. :D

[tj-dragonblade]

WIP Word Search Game

Ooh, a newer iteration of WIP wordsearch! Tagged by: @wordsinhaled with breath, rest, head, once, far, only (and hello) @landwriter with pale, hope, lips, ache, laugh, morning Thank you both!

Knocking this out in one post, hang on you your hats. Cut for length and because some of them are spicy.

breath From the academic conference AU:

Dream's breath is warm at the base of his neck. "I am. Consumed, with the need to learn your body, as I have been learning the rest of you." His hand moves lightly on Hob's back, skates down and around his ribs, lower.

rest From the pwp where Dream is Very In To all of Hob's wonderfully human scents and textures:

Dream leans up, mouth open, tongue out, inviting; Hob lays just his tip against Dream's tongue while Dream holds his eyes, unblinking. His hands come to rest on Hob's thighs; he smooths them gently through the thick hair, scratches softly and Hob whimpers, slaps his dick very lightly against Dream's tongue, whimpers again at the eager sound that Dream makes.

head From the academic conference AU:

"Perfect. Well?" Hob turns to Dr. Murphy. "Better than trying to find a room elsewhere? I'll even take the rollaway; you can have the room bed."

Dr. Murphy inclines his head like some kind of old-school royalty. "Very well."

once From the academic conference AU:

Day two is almost enough to make Hob reconsider his 'wait and see' approach. Dream gets him talking over breakfast, elaborating on the paper he's been writing on Marlowe; he is passionate about this project, animated as he carries on about it, and more than once he glances back to Dream only to find his colleague-turned-friend watching him intently over the rim of his coffee with an expression best described as hungry. Like he'd devour Hob in all the best ways if given the chance, and Hob is thrilled, smiles brightly and maybe flirts just a little in return.

far From the Victorian AU:

'Fond' was perhaps not strong enough a word, to encompass his regard for Morpheus, but it was a far sight safer than the words he would wish to use instead.

only From the pwp where Dream is Very In To all of Hob's wonderfully human scents and textures:

Hob whimpers, arousal kindling in his gut, but his dick only manages an interested twitch. "The spirit is willing, love, but the flesh is of the waking world and needs just a little more time?"

hello I have in fact used a 'Hello, Hob' in fic but it's one that already got posted.

pale From the Victorian AU:

His captain made a soft, languid sound at the change and shifted, slim legs hitching higher around Hob's hips one after the other, interlocking behind him, one pale heel pressing firmly into his buttocks.

hope From the academic conference AU:

But now, thanks to a fortuitous glitch in the hotel's booking process, Hob has Dream rooming with him for the week; this has serendipitously led to them sharing breakfast, attending panels together, conversation over lunch, meeting up again for dinner—in short, they've spent more time together on day one than he could have dared to hope for and he's on cloud nine.

lips From the PWP centered on panties and piercings and makeup and jewelry:

"Oh?" Hob murmurs, absolutely delighted, and tongues the piercing again, pushing it gently back and forth beneath the fabric; Dream's cock twitches against the lace and he makes that sound again, hand still tight in Hob's hair. "Good?" Hob asks, kissing over the tip as he looks up, and Dream is staring down at him, sable lips parted in surprise, smoke-shadowed eyes wide.

ache From the Victorian AU:

Morpheus had gone still, caught fast in the gentle curve of Hob's palm; a tear overflowed at last, tracing a silvery path down his cheek, and Hob ached to wipe it away.

laugh From the academic conference AU:

It's more of the same all day, sitting close together in panels and quietly murmuring commentary to one another, Dream's acerbic sense of humor having Hob struggling not to laugh aloud more than once; arms brushing comfortably in close proximity, the occasional bump of one leg against the other, low-voiced words spoken close to each other's ears beneath the drone of the presenter in the front of the room.

morning From the academic conference AU:

"Shall we turn in?" Dream says, eventually. "My presentation is first thing in the morning, and you promised to be in attendance." His tone is just barely over the line into flirtatious and he's casting a glance up through his eyelashes, the corners of his mouth tucked into a barely-there smile that would be smug if it curled up any further.

It looks like the rules are tag six people and give them six words to search for, so! Tagging, no obligation but I'd love a peek at what you're working on: @staroftheendless, @seiya-starsniper, @galacticstingray, @chaosheadspace, @quillingwords, @lenreli

Your words are: soft, brush, burn, smile, red, warm

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

Welcome to this Special Sunday Edition of Saturday Morning Coffee. What makes it special you ask? Nothing! 😆

Kim, my lovely bride, let me sleep in yesterday. It was glorious! And since we had plans to be out of the house by around 10AM, well, that meant I couldn’t put things together yesterday. Now you know why you’re seeing this on Sunday.

Grab some coffee and enjoy the links!

Adele Peters • Fast Company

Last Saturday, as 39 million Californians went about their daily lives—taking showers, doing laundry, or charging their electric cars—the whole state ran on 100% clean electricity for more than nine hours.

I find this very encouraging and I believe it’s only going to get better.

Down the hill from where we live one of our power providers is installing a large field of solar panels. I don’t know how large it is or how much power it’ll generate, but I’m here for it.

Naomi Hartono • blogs.nasa.gov

For the first time since November, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is returning usable data about the health and status of its onboard engineering systems.

Engineers this smart blow my mind.

“Oh, the thing I need to repair is millions of miles away? No problem.” 😳

Rick Perlstein • The American Prospect

And that’s when the man in the castle with the seven fireplaces said it.

“I’m glad there’s OxyContin and video games to keep those people quiet.”

Andreessen is another piece of Silicon Valley garbage. Even if he said he was joking there’s always a nugget of truth in there. I’d say he really believes what he said.

Jesse Wegman • New York Times 🎁

Trump’s Immunity Case Was Settled More Than 200 Years Ago

That seems about right. We’ve managed to have 240+ years of Presidencies without one committing crimes against the nation that I doubt our founding fathers expected it to happen like this.

Trump is a rapist and a mob boss looking to use the Presidency as his own personal piggy bank.

I hope the Supremes do the right thing and declare the President isn’t above the law.

Wojciech Kulik

In my previous post, I just scratched the surface of iOS development in Neovim. Since then I discovered many new things that allowed me to move my development almost completely to Neovim.

If you’re really good with keyboard commands this could be the editor for you. I’ll stick with Xcode and BBEdit. 😄

AJ Willingham

I just don’t get Taylor Swift. There, I said it. (DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT DISLIKE HER. I WISH HER ALL OF THE HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS IN THE WORLD. PLEASE, I HAVE A FAMILY.)

Better be careful! The Swifties won’t be happy!

Remember the hubbub caused by Tool releasing their first album in 13 years keeping Ms. Swift’s new album out of the top spot? I do. It was kind of funny.

She’s a cultural phenomenon and apparently a very kind, caring, human being. What’s not to like?

John Viega

A few weeks ago, I got a bit miffed reading yet another article that was too dismissive about memory safety, basically being mostly dismissive about the need for change. The following weekend, I started seeing flippant responses from security luminaries, saying essentially that you’re irresponsible and dangerous unless you drop C and C++ faster than I dropped my 8 am classes my first year in college.

I’m an old curmudgeon and I still love C++ as a development language, especially if you’re doing something that needs to be cross platform. But, I certainly understand the trend and the desire to move to memory safe languages. Swift and Rust are both great choices. Swift has made development on Apple OS’es easier and safer. I love it! Rust is on my to learn list but given my latest project is React Native it makes more sense for me to learn JavaScript. Rust will have to wait.

Jonathan M. Gitlin • Ars Technica

Honda announced today that it will spend $11 billion to expand its electric vehicle manufacturing presence in North America. The Japanese automaker already has a number of factories in the US, Mexico, and Canada, and it’s this last one that will benefit from the expansion, with four EV-related plants planned for Ontario.

That’s a lot of money and it’s interesting it’s happening in Canada instead of the US.

Here’s to Honda building better, more affordable, EV’s than Tesla.

Gary Bernhard • Destroy All Software

This science fiction / comedy / completely serious talk traces the history of JavaScript, and programming in general, from 1995 until 2035. It’s not pro- or anti-JavaScript; the language’s flaws are discussed frankly, but its ultimate impact on the industry is tremendously positive. For Gary’s more serious (and less futuristic) thoughts on programming, try some Destroy All Software screencasts.

It’s easy to poke fun a JavaScript but equally as important to understand how important it’s become to our industry.

Dick Uliano • wtop.com

Archeologists have made a remarkable find at George Washington’s Mount Vernon in the ground beneath the cellar — two sealed bottles containing plump cherries.

Very cool! Now what? Who wants to open a jar and eat one? I kind of do, but there’s no way that’s gonna happen. 🤣

Did you know that while George Washington was away fighting the American Revolutionary War he was also writing home to instruct his brother how he wanted his home renovation to proceed. Then he’d go off and fight some redcoats.

Alex Franchuk • Mozilla

Porting a cross-platform GUI application to Rust

This is something my cross platform loving brain could get behind. The Mozilla team rewrote — not something I recommend — their crash reporting tool in 100% Rust. Nifty!

That included writing four abstractions for different UI toolkits; Mac, Windows, Linux, and one for testing. So three plus. 😄 Love it!

Digiday

The possibility of a TikTok ban is inching closer to becoming a reality at this point. On Tuesday, the Senate passed the bill that would bar the social media platform from operating in the U.S. unless ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, sells its stake.

So this was earlier in the week. The President signed it. Now ByteDance has nine months to get the deal done or pull out of the United States.

I still feel like this could’ve been handled differently but I have no idea what that would entail.

Jordan Rose

So let me re-iterate: the three-and-a-half features listed at the top are the only forms of run-time polymorphism in Swift. Now when someone asks “how can I allow arbitrary different argument types to result in different behavior”, you know the answer: make a protocol.

You heard the man! Make a protocol! That will cause the compiler to enforce the contract between your implementation and the definition. You’re obliged to implement it.

If you only need to know an object “is-a” thing that protocol doesn’t actually need to define any properties or methods. Yes, it can be that simple.

Manton Reece

Ghost has announced they are working on ActivityPub support

Manton has been on the open standards software train for years and years. That’s why Micro.blog implements ActivityPub, BlueSky’s AT Protocol, and Micropub.

Micro.blog is a great blogging tool for $5/month. I use it to post here.

Seth Godin

Don’t ignore AI because it’s dumb. Figure out how to create patterns and processes where you can use it as the useful tool it’s becoming.

Keep in mind that AI is just another tool, created by humans, full of flaws. Yes, it’s extremely useful, yes it can get things wrong. But, it’s still growing and changing. Hopefully it’ll will get better over time.

[dankusner]

coulter + thiel

NEWS DIGEST

Man sets himself on fire near Trump trial

A Florida man is in critical condition after setting himself on fire outside a courthouse in downtown Manhattan where Donald Trump’s criminal trial is underway, according to police officials.

The man, identified as Maxwell Azzarello, was transported to a hospital after he self-immolated in the Collect Pond Park, police said.

Azzarello was in “very critical” condition in a burn unit, officials said in a news conference Friday.

His actions didn’t appear to have anything to do with Trump, and he had thrown pamphlets into the air that discussed various conspiracy theories, police said.

Man sets self on fire near Trump trial courthouse

NEW YORK – A man set himself on fire Friday outside the New York courthouse where former President Donald Trump attended his hush money trial, critically injuring himself and horrifying onlookers.

The victim, Max Azzarello, had posted a conspiracy theory-laden manifesto in an online newsletter taking aim at Trump, President Joe Biden, cryptocurrency and the federal government. He wrote that he burned himself alive to draw attention to the U.S. political and economic system, and apologized for inflicting pain on family and witnesses.

Bystanders saw Azzarello douse himself with liquid at around 1:35 p.m.

He carried a sign saying, 'Trump is with Biden and they’re about to fascist coup us,' and threw papers into the air before pulling out a lighter.

One person blasted the burning man with a fire extinguisher as a New York emergency medical technician joined the fray. 'His face was completely black,' witness Julie Berman told reporters.

The bizarre event happened just after a full panel of 12 jurors and six alternates was seated for the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels that was designed to unlawfully interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

The final alternate jurors swore to try the case 'in a fair and impartial manner.' Judge Juan Merchan told the jurors he expects to begin the trial proceedings on Monday.

The alternates included an audio professional who said he believed Trump is being treated fairly, a woman who is active in a school parents’ association and a woman who said she doesn’t watch the news.

The hours of jury selection had proceeded in a somewhat sleepy fashion, and Trump appeared to doze off several times.

He perked up as several prospective jurors were dismissed over concerns about whether they could be impartial.

The big question has been how to find jurors and alternates who can be evenhanded about such a deeply polarizing figure, and who are comfortable serving in the high-profile trial: One woman was dismissed after she said she felt anxious.

Merchan on Thursday asked the media not to report potentially identifying details of jurors.

All the people questioned Friday had said they thought they could be fair.

However, again and again, defense lawyers brought up past social media posts that they said showed that was impossible.

One man who was not empaneled evidently posted descriptions of Trump as 'egomaniacal' and 'the devil.'

Merchan appeared to lean toward striking potential jurors. Responding to concerns about one man, he said that too many people had worked too hard to get the case this far: 'I’m going to grant the challenge for cause.'

Another woman attended the Women’s March protests after Trump’s election but said she could be impartial.

'I don’t believe she’s being disingenuous. I do believe that she’s credible,' Merchan said.

However, leaning on the side of caution and 'looking at her answers as a whole,' he said he thought the safer course was to grant the defense’s challenge.

A Life Overtaken by Conspiracy Theories Explodes in Flames as the Public Looks On

Friends of Max Azzarello, who set himself on fire outside Donald J. Trump’s trial, said he was a caring person whose paranoia had led him down a dark path.

Leaflets are scattered on the ground or fluttering in the air on a plaza that it partially closed off with metal barriers and yellow caution tape. Max Azzarello’s actions on Friday at a Lower Manhattan park did not appear to be directed at any particular political party.Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times

The journey that ended with a man setting himself on fire on Friday outside the Manhattan courthouse where Donald J. Trump was being tried seemed to have begun in Florida, with a series of increasingly bizarre outbursts.

Standing in the afternoon chill, the man, Max Azzarello, 37, of St. Augustine, Fla., threw pamphlets into the air before dousing himself with an accelerant and setting his body ablaze.

The police hurried to extinguish the flames, and he was taken to a hospital burn unit, gravely injured. He died on Friday night.

The fire just a block or two from the courthouse appeared calculated to draw widespread attention, horrifying bystanders and temporarily overshadowing the momentous trial of a former president.

But a closer look at the path the man had traveled to this moment of self-destruction revealed a recent spiral into volatility, one marked by a worldview that had become increasingly confusing and disjointed — and appeared to be unattached to any political party.

His social media postings and arrest records suggest the immolation stemmed instead from a place of conspiracy theories and paranoia.

Until last summer, Mr. Azzarello seemed to have lived a relatively quiet life.

After high school, where he was a member of a bowling team, he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009, with degrees in anthropology and public policy.

As a student at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., where he received a master’s degree in city and regional planning in 2012, he was known for leaving supportive Post-it notes for classmates in the hallways and for his karaoke performances of Frank Sinatra and Disney tunes, said a former classmate, Katie Brennan.

Man who set himself on fire outside of Trump trial dies

A Florida man has died after setting himself on fire Friday outside the downtown Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump is on trial for 34 counts of falsifying business records, according to officials.

Officials said Maxwell Azzarello, of St. Augustine, Florida, walked into the park across from the courthouse, threw some pamphlets and lit himself on fire.

Police and the fire department were called to the scene shortly after 1:30p.m.

Bystanders tried to help put out the fire with their coats and a fire extinguisher.

Azzarello was transported to the NY Presbyterian-Cornell hospital burn unit.

Shortly before 11p.m., hospital staff pronounced him dead, police detective Sophia Mason told USA TODAY.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph E. Kenny said police believe Azzarello came to New York from Florida sometime after April13, but his family did not know he was there.

Kenny also called the man a conspiracy theorist based on the pamphlets he dropped and something posted online in relation to the incident.

'The pamphlets seem to be propaganda based, almost like a conspiracy theory type of pamphlet, some information in regards to Ponzi schemes, and the fact that some of our local educational institutes are fronts for the mob so a little bit of conspiracy theory going on there,' Kenny said.

In a Substack post reportedly written by Azzarello, he said the incident was 'an extreme act of protest.'

He said he is an investigative researcher, and delves into theories on cryptocurrency, the Silicon Valley Bank failure and various educational institutions.

'To my friends and family, witnesses and first responders, I deeply apologize for inflicting this pain upon you,' the post reads. 'But I assure you it is a drop in the bucket compared to what our government intends to inflict.'

An Upper West Side resident, who asked to be identified only by his first name Dave, told USA TODAY he was walking by when he heard pamphlets fall to the ground.

'He had a can, and he poured fluid all over himself, at which point I said, ‘Oh I think I’m gonna see something bad here,’' Dave said. 'And sure enough, he pulled out a lighter, I think a lighter, and set himself on fire.'

Footage from the scene posted by a Politico reporter shows a person engulfed in flames near where multiple camera crews were set up.

CNN reporters said they saw the incident live on air.

Deputy Police Commissioner Tarik Sheppard told reporters that Azzarello did not cross the security perimeter outside the courthouse where Trump’s trial is being held.

'There was no security breach here,' Sheppard said.

Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said three police officers and one court officer suffered minor injuries.

Authorities are determining whether to ramp up security around the courthouse, but have not made a firm decision yet.

Trial participants are aware of the events that occurred outside the courthouse.

Conspiracy theorist who self-immolated outside Trump trial once worked for NY Democrat

Maxwell Azzarello, the man who lit himself on fire in front of the courthouse where former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial is underway, once worked for Rep. Tom Suozzi.

Souzzi (D-NY) is the representative who won former Rep. George Santos’ (R-NY) seat after the latter was booted from the House.

Azzarello worked on Souzzi’s campaign for Nassau County executive in 2013, as reported by Fox News. Azzarello died Friday night, several hours after he self-immolated.

The New York City Police Department does not believe Azzarello was motivated by his presumed political party affiliation.

Azzarello had recently posted messages on social media about conspiracy theories and was photographed on April 18 in New York carrying a sign that read, “Trump is with Biden and they’re about to fascist coup us.”

Souzzi said he remembers Azzarello working on his 2013 campaign.

“Even though I haven’t seen or talked to Max since then, I recall him being very kind, smart, and hardworking. It is tragic that he has succumbed to his injuries, and I am keeping Max and his family in my prayers,” Souzzi said, per Fox News.

Friends who spoke with The New York Times said that Azzarello began to change after the death of his mother in 2022.

He had several run-ins with Fort Augustine police in Florida in August 2023 after a brief stay in a mental health facility.

According to NYT, Azzarello threw a glass of wine at a wall autograph by former President Bill Clinton at an area hotel.

Two days later, he stood in front of the hotel in his underwear, shouting through a bullhorn.

“An extremely nice person,” said Larry Altman, the property manager at Azzarello’s Florida apartment building, per NYT. “He had political views that I would not consider mainstream. He called our government and the world government a Ponzi scheme.”

Altman said that Azzarello was a respectful man who would shake hands when he met people.

His beliefs in conspiracies appear to have developed over the last few years and led to posts on social media espousing unconventional ideas.

“Like frogs in water coming to a boil, the public didn’t notice the rotten truth behind the illusion of freedom,” Azzarello wrote on Facebook, according to NYT. He reportedly feared fascism and cryptocurrency.

Azzarello entered a public space at Collect Pond Park, where protesters had previously gathered ahead of the seating of jurors in the Trump trial. At about 12:30 p.m. CT, Azzarello threw a handful of pamphlets into the air, then doused himself in an alcohol-based accelerant before lighting himself on fire. The act of self-immolation was unintentionally caught on live television by Fox News and CNN.

Within minutes, emergency personnel were on site and attempted to render aid. He was quickly taken to a local hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 294: A Half-Assed Escape

Previously on BnHA: Mirio was all “SURPRISE I’M BACK THANKS TO OUR RESIDENT SEVEN-YEAR-OLD WHO RECENTLY EARNED HER BACHELOR’S OF BEING A TOTAL BADASS.” Kacchan was all, “you know what, Dabi’s been trending long enough, time to remind the fandom what a real G looks like,” and he blasted his little bleeding body back into the fray and was all “FROM HERE ON OUT CALL ME DYNAMIGHT!!” Mirio was all, “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... oh, you’re serious,” and Kacchan was all “!!”, and so that’s the story of how my son got murdered twice in one day. Meanwhile in the Todoroki Drama Zone, Deku was all “STOP MURDERING MY FRIEND” and Dabi was all “THAT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS” and fandom had a whole big debate about Whether Or Not Dabi Trying To Murder Deku’s Friends And Mentors Is Any Of Deku’s Business, which went exactly how you think it went. Anyway, so then Deku yelled at Dabi, and Endeavor was all moved by his manly words and randomly went to go uppercut Machia in the chin. And, seeing as how the Momoserum finally chose that exact moment to kick in, Machia is now down for the count.

Today on BnHA: The Miriosquad handles the Nearly High End Noumus, freeing up Jeanist to jasphyxiate (okay that one doesn’t really work so well) the rest of the League. Compress is all “TIME FOR THIS MILD-MANNERED SIDE CHARACTER VILLAIN TO SHINE”, except that by “shine” what he actually means is “use his quirk to punch a literal hole right through his own ass to free himself.” The rest of the chapter is basically just a back and forth between him and Jeanist, with Jeanist trying to recapture him, and Compress repeatedly thwarting him by chopping more holes out of himself because HE’S FRESH OUT OF FUCKS, AND THE ONES AT THE STORE ARE ALL SOLD OUT, MOTHERFUCKERS. Anyway, so with Compress basically dying and all, Horikoshi is all “you know what that means”, and delivers a freshly-baked villain flashback revealing that Compress is a descendant of Harima Ouji, a.k.a. the Peerless Thief, a.k.a. some famous guy whom Gentle mentioned this one time for like two seconds back in the day. The chapter ends with Compress finally demasking himself and dumping Tomura back onto the ground, a.k.a. The Worst Possible Place For Tomura To Be. ( •﹏•)

WHY IS CRUST HERE YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD

-- OH WAIT, SHIT. OH

AIZAWAAAA you’re alive and receiving medical help thank GOD. HOW MANY EYES DO YOU HAVE. AND MIRKO!! HOW MANY LIMBS DO YOU HAVE, OMG

so is this Aizawa dreaming about Crust’s final moments, then?? jesus. with All Due Respect to Crust’s memory, does Aizawa not already have enough misplaced guilt on his conscience as it is?? “nope, we’re gonna keep piling it on. that’s all he is now. three limbs, an indeterminate number of eyes, sexy hair, and Guilt” well shit

motherfucker y’all really out here placing an oxygen mask on Gran Torino’s corpse. fucking shounen characters. each one comes with a lifetime warranty

DAMN YOU HORIKOSHI WHY DO YOU KEEP SHOWING THESE CLOSE-UPS OF HAWKS’S UNCONSCIOUS FACE ALL WHUMPED OUT AND EXHAUSTED. HOW MUCH MORE OF THIS ARE WE GOING TO GET. ARE YOU PLANNING ON KILLING ME WITH THE UPCOMING CONVALESCENCE ARC, BECAUSE IF SO, AT LEAST HAVE THE DECENCY TO TELL ME AHEAD OF TIME SO I CAN MAKE A WILL

for a moment I considered going back and checking my previous recaps to count how many times I’ve already made a joke about Dabi’s fire incinerating Hawks’s wings but not touching so much as a hair on his five o’clock shadow, so that I could calculate whether or not I could possibly get away with making that same joke one more time. but then I realized I could just do it in this kind of roundabout way I’m doing right now instead. so there you have it

FFFFFFFMT LADY AND MIDNIGHT NOOOOO

PLEASE BE ALIVE. PLEASE RESPECT THE SIGN ON THE FRONT OF THE BUILDING. THE ONE THAT SAYS “NO LADY CHARACTERS ALLOWED TO DIE”, WITH THE FINE PRINT AT THE BOTTOM “AT LEAST NOT UNTIL HORIKOSHI GIVES US LIKE TWENTY-SIX MORE OF THEM FIRST IF THAT’S THE WAY HE WANTS TO PLAY IT.” IT’S A GOOD SIGN, PLEASE RESPECT ITS WISHES!!

so anyway though, Jeanist is giving a speech about how god knows how many people all worked together to bring Machia down. and now RHA is getting in on those fabric puns too, I see. “A SINGLE STRAND MAY BE THIN BUT TOGETHER THEY FORM A STRONG ROPE” oh so you think you guys are funny eh? I’m a frayed knot

MEANWHILE EXCUSE ME BUT WHY ARE YOU FUCKING CRYING BLOOD, HOLY SHIT

fffffff. so much for him taking over as the Number One once all this is over. so let’s just recap real quick, because Horikoshi has long since made it clear that one of his plot goals for this arc is to wipe out every single member of the Billboard Top Ten. so how we doin?

Endeavor - was just figuratively eviscerated in front of the entire nation by his homicidal zombiepunk son. also burnt half to death and possibly down a lung. will almost certainly be forced to retire after this one way or the other

Hawks - lying prettily in a medical tent. wings status: gone. hair status: still perfect

Jeanist - WELL I THOUGHT HE WAS FINE BUT APPARENTLY HE’S OUT HERE DYING, JESUS CHRIST

Edgeshot - MIA, last seen fighting Re-Destro. I really want him to have kicked RD’s ass because fuck that guy, but realistically they probably fought to a draw at best

Mirko - alive but in critical condition and missing something like 1.5 limbs

Crust - dead, currently haunting Aizawa’s traumatized dreams. now he’s gonna be triggered the rest of his life by people giving him the thumbs up, THANKS A LOT

Kamui Woods - was set on fire which is His Weakness. thoughts and prayers

Wash - last seen floating hospital patients to safety as Tomura’s wave of decay descended towards him. probably dead ffff

Old Man Samurai - haven’t seen this fucker in a hot minute, who even knows where he’s wandered off to

Ryuukyuu - currently being treated for her wounds, looked pretty bad off. but it’s hard to tell how hurt she is since most of the injuries were acquired in her transformed state. SHE BETTER GET WELL SOON

anyways, so yeah. so much for the top ten. guess that’s another reason Horikoshi brought Mirio back now, huh

so there’s a big panel of everyone fighting the Noumu while Machia lies there all “blurgh.” good riddance my dude. it took like twenty chapters and a hundred people to stop this guy so I really fucking hope he stays down. you’ve had your fun

anyway so Jeanist is sending another steel thread towards Dabi! and he’s all “just a bit more!!” fklklj this is gonna go real well isn’t it

meanwhile Mirio’s fighting a Nearly High End with all of these weird rock formations jutting out of its skin. go on and kick his ass then, Mirio

“each of these guys is probably just as strong as the Noumu from Kyuushuu” hold on I thought Ujiko or Tomura or someone said that wasn’t the case? not that Mirio would know I suppose. anyways let’s just hope he’s wrong cuz if not these kids are probably screwed

kLSDKFHLSKHGLKLK OH MY GODDDD

IIDA FUCKING TENYA YOU’RE A PEACH. THINKS THE NAME IS OUTRAGEOUS, CHECK. USES IT ANYWAY, CHECK. “JUST BECAUSE I DON’T UNDERSTAND DOESN’T MEAN I CAN’T BE SUPPORTIVE.” WHAT A CLASS ACT

AND KACCHAN IS RESPONDING WITH AS MUCH DIGNITY AS HE CAN MUSTER

WOW, SON. IT’S ALMOST AS THOUGH YOU HAVE A HOLE IN YOUR TORSO, OR SOMETHING!! although listen up, real talk, the fact that Kacchan of all people can’t muster the energy to yell at someone questioning his ability to kick ass is HIGHKEY troubling and we may be in need of an intervention here soon :/

now Jeanist is finally turning his attention to the League! was... was it not already on the League. omg

ACTUAL SCREAMING AHHHHHH FUCK FUCKLK LK AHHLKHKFFFF

hey so um. what the actual fucked up hell. my soul left my body. imagine if you saw the reflection of this panel on your bedroom window. you would never sleep again

OKAY RHA TRANSLATORS ARE YOU HAVING YOURSELF A LAUGH AGAIN

THIS CANNOT BE WHAT HE’S ACTUALLY SAYING RIGHT. BUT IT’S RIGHT IN THAT UNCANNY VALLEY OF NOT BEING QUITE SURE, THOUGH... (　ﾟдﾟ)

(ETA: just a next-day clarification here, apparently my sleep-deprived ADHD word-skipping brain completely skipped right over the “a” in that last panel, so what I read was, “and Shigaraki’s limp noodle.” so yeah, the moral of this story is always read the speech bubble carefully before you start making running jokes throughout the rest of your post, folks.)

oh wow he’s really freaking out lmao

to be fair though, I’d argue that Dabi has gotten pre-tty close at this point :’) thrilled for him, really I am

but anyway, well then figure something out you big dramatic robot-armed fiend. didn’t you just say you could touch your own ass? can you not just Compress yourself to break free?? does it not work on you? or would you be stuck afterwards lol

(ETA: I was picturing him compressing his entire body at once, not just chunks of it. ghhhlkh.)

um

holy shit Jeanist. are you stupidly trying to cut off their air, or are you going for more of a sleeper hold (jleeper hold??) thing instead. the latter would be way smarter and faster and probably safer as well just saying

but unless Spinner is just being super dramatic, it sure looks like he’s fucking strangling them djslkjlk. this will certainly cement his popularity among the villain stans. good thing you’re not running for office any time soon bud

anyway so I have no idea what these guys are trying to do now. what is this

do you even have till the count of 5 at this rate. I mean

OH MY GOODNESS

HE’S REALLY FUCKING DOING IT!! HE’S COMPRESSING HIS BUTT!! OMFG. TOMURA HIDE YOUR NOODLE!!!

WHAT THE FUCK

DID YOU COMPRESS A PIECE OF YOUR OWN ASS. FUCKING WHAT. PUT THIS MAN’S PICTURE IN THE DICTIONARY NEXT TO THE WORD “LOYALTY”, HOLY CRAP

HOLY SHIT COMPRESS

“HOLY SHIT DID THAT GUY JUST PUNCH A HOLE THROUGH HIS OWN ASS IN ORDER TO SAVE HIS VILLAIN PALS. FUCK IT, HE DESERVES TO ESCAPE”

jeez, talk about... A HALF-ASSED ESCAPE ATTEMPT :D :D :D hahaha. but real talk though, Horikoshi has clearly never tried to leap twelve feet straight up in the air multiple times in succession with only half his glutes though. everyone, I regret to inform you that this panel right here on the left may be slightly unrealistic

also where the hell is he going to go?? did you pack a jetpack away in one of those little marbles sir. and what about Dabi?? and Skeptic too, I guess, but we don’t really care about Skeptic

(ETA: at this point I had to stop reading for about two hours because I had to go out and take care of something; that’s also why this is being posted later than usual lol. anyways so where were we.)

oh my lord

the existence of a translator’s note here implies that the earlier line about Compress being able to reach Tomura’s junk was not, in fact, ad-libbed. hmm. hmmmmmmmm

anyway so now he’s grabbing Compress again because OF COURSE HE IS, so now we’re right back to square one! except now Tomura and Spinner are secured inside of little marbles, and presumably Compress is the only one who can release them

oh nevermind he’s just maiming himself again instead, SHEESH

Skeptic a man is dying please have some goddamn respect

so, uh. is he gonna die, though??

I really can’t tell wtf is going on here, this is the most confusing the art has been in a while. Horikoshi put all of his spoons into that creepyass close-up panel earlier, that bastard

OMG WHAT ARE YOU SERIOUS

DON’T FUCKING TELL ME THE “COMPRESS IS RELATED TO THIS THIEF GUY FROM OLDEN TIMES” THEORY IS ACTUALLY TRUE WHAAAAAAT. OH SHIT

so apparently Harima was a Robin Hood type guy who stole from... heroes?? wtf. are heroes the 1% in this scenario. y’all didn’t have any Fortune 500 CEOs to steal from?

THAT’S THE BLOOD THAT FLOWS THROUGH YOU, OH SHIT. and in a related oh shit, the fact that we are getting a Compress flashback now of all times doesn’t bode super well for him. ffff

MEANWHILE THE TODOROKIS ARE STILL TODOROKI-ING

listen here boy if you touch one freaking hair on Shouto’s candy cane head I swear to god --

WHAT DID I FUCKING SAY!!!

SHOUTO NOOOOOO. WTF YOU’RE LITERALLY THE ONE GUY WHOSE WEAKNESS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FIRE. DABI YOU SHIT, YOU BETTER WATCH YOURSELF!! I’M PRINTING OUT A COPY OF THAT COMPRESS PANEL!!! KEEP AN EYE OUT ON THAT BEDROOM WINDOW YOU PUNK!!!

SO NOW POOR SHOUTO IS UNCONSCIOUS AND FALLING!! SOMEONE SAVE HIM!! WHO CATCHES THE CATCHER

COMPRESS LITERALLY HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE RIGHT NOW, WHAT IS HAPPENING

PLEASE DON’T CALL TOMURA LEADER OF THE “PLF” YOU KNOW I CAN’T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY WHEN YOU DO THAT. ARE YOU DYING. ARE YOU JUST A FUCKING HEAD NOW WTF

(ETA: “masks are removable, makeste” you know what it’s been a long day okay lmao. or I suppose Compress is really the one who is lmao.)

GASPPPPPP

okay. okay. looooool okay then

WHY WERE YOU COVERING THIS SEXY MOP OF HAIR UNDER THAT HOOD YOU TOOL. IT WOULD HAVE LOOKED SO GOOD WITH THE TOP HAT. I’M SO MAD AT YOU RIGHT NOW

as if it wasn’t enough for him to demask himself, he also had to get all shirtless and then do this weird attempt at a sexypose too huh

hard to say exactly how much of his torso is currently missing, but safe to say that’s proooooooobably not good. :///// fuck

on the other hand, Kacchan also has a torso hole and he’s still flying around like he just drank a dozen red bulls, so

this man lost his ass and he’s still out here monologuing like it’s the last two minutes of The Prestige. one might say he is monologuing his ass off

so he let Spinner and Tomura free, but is Dabi still trapped in his marble?? wasn’t he all on fire and stuff?? hopefully he can still turn off his quirk in there because if not that’s a pretty fucked up way to die. somewhere out there Snatch’s ghost is all “YEAH I’LL SAY.” oh how the turntables

last but not least, sooooooo. Tomura. back on the ground. that’s. um. ...shiiiiiiiit

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket Manga Review , ch 111

sigh~~~ I feel that my recent posts are a bit negative towards the anime, but thats cuz the chapters I’ve read so far are either unbelievably important character depth content cut for no valid reason or content in the anime but packed with million other things that it lost its purpose or importance. Basically tohu’s ep 6 which consists of 4 chapters & now ep 5 which is a momiji ep & yup, packed with 4 chapters as well... so, I apologize for any negativity, my intention is just analyzing artistic & story-telling aspects, I love se03, but yeah it screwed up lots of important characters due to its not so thorough plot decisions & harmful character insight choices.

today.. we explore Momiji... but only before his curse breaks.

Furuba anime struggling to know how to design an episode based on various plot-heavy chapters?

so, they decided 13 eps, & decided one ep for momiji cuz motoko’s graduation & the fanclub is the core of the furuba & have already cut tons of tohru, cuz who cares? she’s kind. be like her. end of lesson. No. really, jokes aside, how to do this?

How to combine several chapters in one ep? collect small snippets from chosen chapters/content like a bee does flowers? you gotta skip some content, you gotta highlight others. The ep is only 20 min after all & you got an op & Ed that you cant always skip.... so.. furuba team decide that momoji’s ep should be true to his zodiac animal, this is the rabbits last appearance in spirit. so, they went with quick hopping from one chapter to the other like a rabbit?

No really, ep 5 is really like a rabbit in its flow, you can’t savior a moment enough before jumping to the other: we learned momiji grew up!! loves toheu romantically, challenged kyo, really meant it, wanted a fair love game, got freed, lost tohru romantically & faced momiji! but that’s not all? we still have space!! quick add akito’s moodiness & love triangle with her dog & her submissive bed partner, add a happy comedy for no reason whatever & make shigue kiss tohru & wish shes 'was his lover instead!!!!!!!!! Mind you all this happened in the anime before shigure hurt tohru with his “the truth of the zodiacs talk & them accepting & feeling consolance that kyo is doomed”talk. 

-Gets whats my biggest surprise after reading this chapter ?????????

Shigure is consistent!! He isnt a rabbit hopping here & there. The dog is loyal & is tired for good reason! Him being depressed & his weird talk with thoru makes so much sense given the manga’s order.

Kyo is consistent!! In the anime, momiji surprise him with confession he loves tohru & challenge him, then kyo la~la~la~joins them downstairs for curry. Not a single expression on his face, where is the expression? it will appear when the plot is forced to address it: by the end of the ep when momiji face hin again. Then we get kyo’s reaction.

I need someone to tell the anime that actions require a reaction. You can refrain from showing a certain reaction if you can’t address it now, but you can’t erase it, negate it, then make it appear when have to!!!! couldn’t they make kyo refuse to join them & eat together? the     other characters wont be surprised they think he’s needlessly moody. The audience will know that kyo is troubled with momiji’s challenged & it will excite them!!! having kyo just go eat & watch the momiji/hiro/haru/yuki comedy skit is weird.

The manga’s author wanted kyo to join the dinner, like the anime did. but huge difference. the author actually cares for logic reaction & understands that the audience aren’t dumb little kids that will sit & wait for kyo’s turn to...react! nope! she did this: (a) & (b) below.

-Lost Small Bits/ Panels from the chapter.. But Sadly Big Huge Chunks for Characters buildup & Growth:

(a) addressed the fact the hiro noticed kyoru is in love & dressed that shigure was right!! the cat being in love is a weird concept to the zodiacs! hiro reacted naturally & the author used hiro to flesh yuki’s (the rat), momiji’s (the rabbit) & haru’s (the cow) decision to silently watch the kyo (the cat) makes his own decisions to live!!! They won’t interfere or tell akito or remind him of his state as the doomed caged cat. So sad this moment is cut from yuki. Why must yuki only interact with kyo to beat him (all seasons)? why must yuki only think of kyo to envy him (all seasons) ? Here, yuki’s growth towards kyo as a person & his relationship with tohru is 1000 times better than all tohru is my mom’s sh!t & I envy kyo’s Sh!t we saw in the anime over & over till we memorized it.

(b) kyo didnt just go la~la~eat with momiji after knowing he loves tohru. Nope, there’s small bits missing: called logical emotional reaction. He was surprised he’s caught pining over tohru! cuz yuki, the audience representative, has told us in the previous chapter that ppl in love dont notice anything around them. Kyo thinks him being cold hid his feelings. the dummy’s feelings are as bright as the sun in the Sahara, tohru too. a child read her! such small thing that wont take much space from the ep but was cut cuz kyo only needs to be responsive at the ep’s end. & this scene of kyo & tohru looking awkwardly at each other is minor in space but so important cuz kyo is determined to let go but his decision is challenged by not only momiji, but his natural attraction to tohru. Here he knows he’s caught & exposed... here he knows momiji is a better choice for tohru cuz he wont didn’t hurt her mom... here he knows that even yuki is better cuz never had to pretend to be cold to her... here he knows the world is better than him... & here he just cant help by smile & walks towards her... T_T ... another lesson in writing slow burns by Takaya-san.

-Why would the anime team pass on this?? drawing kyoru closer after the epic tear in Cinderella ep, cuz they want empty suspense~! The anime team thinks that if kyo & tohru stand next to each other, then it means all their issues are solved & the audience are so stupid as to forget tohru’s mom, kyo’s imprisonment, kyo not confessing his sins to tohru & tohru’s need to make a choice wether to fogive hom or not.. nope! you see, they think, ppl who read mangas are smart, so the author can give this epic symbolism & pp would still be not sure kyoru is end game & tohru will forgive him or kyo even fogive himself, but ppl who watch, oh no, gotta cut all the plot worthy content, produce a graduation song for a minor character, cut all kyo/tohru interaction cuz it only means romance & not at all character depth & oh if we show yuki actually formulating deep thoughts that aren’t centered around him, the audience might forget his se02 struggles! or that might ruin yuki’s upcoming growth moment in the finale where he .. you guessed it hits kyo.. as he always do & sulk &  think abt himself cuz yuki can only do monologues when he’s directly involved.... man~it is so sad how the anime is dumped down.. Who is the target audience again? not kids as young as hiro cuz even hiro is smart!

-just look:

 Momiji talks abt kyo shouldn't give up loving tohru & the authr shows this this ghost!!! his mom! The author reminds us that kyo isnt da~~~~ forgetting anything. He’s a deeply troubled soul & hos mom wants him locked cuz she too was locked in a cage & thinks that’s safer...why oh why you dump ur own story! sh!t~

Side Notes:

I like the closeups on Kisa’s face as she interacted with kyo. It’s very rare for kisa to have a world beside the endearing parental/big protective bro/big doting sister love she has with tohru & haru & off course the romantic love with hiro which was perhaps since their birth or sth. lol.  Kisa & kyo arent much on the brotherly side as they rarely interact, but its one of those  refreshing  interactions she has that helps cast a new light on her as tiny as it is,  but its sth out of the norm around her. She sees him  around tohru & gets to perceive his true unprovoked character. “He is  nice guy”.

I really wanted to punch kureno this chapter.. like Shigure is a jerk shitty dog for sleeping with akito’s mom but kureno... dude.. you submissively sleep with the guy’s eternal love interest & still walks in on him talking to her!!! lol. you’re mentally, emotionally & physically weaker than him & yet, she puts you on her bed, not him & you, tho not wanting her at all, dont walk away. No wonder shigure is defeated & wishing for someone like tohru, lol! Even if shigure met an older tohru-like person, it wont work. shigure deserve someone like him mean, schemer & loves playing power games. Tohru is someone who values honesty & commutation, not saying she’s an angel on earth, but tohru knows who suits her.. except fate is saying: NO. .... currently. lol.

I know kureno’s weakness is part of his character & I love that such characters exits. There are ppl ike that in real life. It’s just this chapter, I felt shigure’s frustration. XD

Yuki in this ep is the best yuki. no exaggeration here, I love when yuki is calmly thoughtful of others & here its kyo of all ppl !!!! cutting this scene is sad.. without it, kyo & yuki remain a cat & rat in the anime. Only ever thinking abt each other thro envious binoculars or hateful words or yuki giving kyo comedic hitting or life’s problem-solving hitting. Why can’t anime yuki be interactive outside his self-centered issues is beyond me.

Momiji & kyo’s interactions are always the best! whether comedy or drama.

I hated the curry cooking scene in the anime... so weirdly out of the ep’s flow.. very forced comedy... in the manga it had a purpose! not just quick add comedy cuz next shot momiji curse breaks & drama & we’ll close the ep with tears & sadness & glimpses of hope...

I love haru’s answer to hiro... so him.. “a guy can’t fall in love?”so chill.. so..simple.

[brawltogethernow]

So, I don't think I've ever asked you this... what IS the whole point of the Spider-Sense? It really seems like something that only exists for writers to ignore or work around when they want to inject Legit Tension into a story.

I’ve thought about this power so much, but never with an eye to defend its right to exist, so I needed to think about this. The results could be more concise.

Ironically, given the question, I have to say its main purpose is to ramp up tension. But it’s also a highly variable multitool that a skilled creative team can use for...pretty much anything. It does everything the writer wants it to, while for its wielder always falls just short of doing enough.

I went looking through my photos for a really generic, classic-looking example to use as an image to head this topic, but then I ran into the time Peter absolutely did not reimburse this man for his stolen McDonald’s, so have that instead.

A Scare Chord, But You Can Draw It

That one post that says the spider-sense is just super-anxiety isn’t, like, wrong. It’s a very anxious, dramatic storytelling tool originally designed for a very anxious, dramatic protagonist. I find it speaks to the overall tone of the franchise that some characters are functionally psychics, but with a psychic ability that only points out problems.

Spidey sense pinging? There’s danger, be stressed! Broken? Now the lead won’t even KNOW when there’s a problem, scary! Single character is immune to it? That’s an invisible knife in the dark oh my god what the fuck what the fU--

Like its counterpart in garden variety anxiety, the only time the spider-sense reduces tension is in the middle of a crisis. But in the wish fulfillmenty way that you want in an adventure story to justify exaggerated action sequences, the same way enhanced strength or durability does. Also like those, it would theoretically make someone much safer to have it, but it exists in the story to let your character navigate into and weather more dangerous situations.

For its basic role in a story, a danger sense is a snappy way to rile up both the reader and the protagonist that doesn’t offer much information beyond that it’s time to sit smart because shit is about to go down.

Spidey comic canon is all over the board in quality and genre, and it started needing to subvert its formulas before the creators got a handle on what those formulas even were, and basically no one has read anything approaching most of it at this point, so for consistent examples of a really bare bones use of this power in storytelling, I’d point to the property that’s done the best job yet of boiling down the mechanics of Spider-Man to their absolute most basic essentials for adaptation to a compelling monster of the week TV series.

Or as you probably know it, Danny Phantom. DON’T BOO, I’M RIGHT.

DP is Spider-Man with about 2/3 of the serial numbers filed off and no death (ironically), and Danny’s ghost sense is the most proof in the formula example of what the spidey sense is for: It’s a big sign held up for the viewer that says, “Something is wrong! Pay attention!” Effectively a visual scare chord. It’s about That Drama. And it works, which won it a consistent place in the show’s formula. We’re talking several times an episode here.

So why does it work?

It’s a little counterintuitive, but it’s strong storytelling to tell your audience that something bad is going to happen before it does. A vague, punchy spoiler transforms the ignorant calm before a conflict into a tense moment of anticipation. ...And it makes sure people don’t fail to absorb the beginning of said conflict because they weren’t prepared to shift gears when the scene did. Shock is a valuable tool, too, but treating it like a staple is how you burn out your audience instead of keeping them engaged. Not to go after an easy target, but you need to know how to manage your audience’s alarm if you don’t want to end up like Game of Thrones.

The limits of the spider-sense also keep you on your toes when handled by a smart writer. It tells Peter (everyone’s is a little different, so I’m going to cite the og) about threats to his person, but it doesn’t elaborate with any details when it’s not already obvious why, what kind, and from what. And it doesn’t warn him about anything else-- Which is a pretty critical gap when you zoom out and look at his hero career’s successes and failures and conclude that it’s definitely why he’s lived as long as he has acting the way he does, but was useless as he failed to save a string of people he’d have much rather had live on than him.

(Any long-running superhero mythos has these incidents, but with Peter they’re important to the core themes.)

And since this power is by plot for plot (or because it’s roughly agreed it only really blares about threats that check at least two boxes of being major, immediate, or physical), it always kicks in enough to register when the danger is bearing down...when it’s too late to actually do anything about it if “anything” is a more complex action than “dodge”.

Really? Not until the elevator doors started to open?

That Distinctive, Crunchy Spider Flavor

The spider-sense and its little pen squiggles go hand in hand with wallcrawling (and its unique and instantly identifiable associated body language) to make the Spider-Person powerset enduringly iconic and elevate characters with it from being generic mid-level super-bricks. Visually, but also in how it shapes the story.

I said it can share a narrative role with super strength. But when you end a fight and go home, super strength continues to make your character feel powerful, probably safer than they’d be otherwise, maybe dangerous.

The spider-sense just keeps blaring, “Something’s wrong! Something’s wrong! God, why aren’t you doing something about this!?”

Pretty morose thing to live with, for a safety net! Kind of a double edged sword you have there! Could be constantly being hyperattuned to problems would prime you for a negative outlook on life. Kind of seems like a power that would make it impossible for a moral person to take a day off, leading them into a beleaguered and resentful yet dutiful attitude about the whole superhero gig! Might build up to some of the core traits of this mythos, maybe! Might lead to a lot of fifteen minute retirement stories, or something. Might even be a built in ‘great responsibility’ alarm that gets you a main character who as a rule is not going to stop fighting until he physically cannot fight anymore.

Certainly not apropos of anything, just throwing this short lived barely-a-joke tagline up for fun.

One of my personal favorite things about stories with superpowers is keeping in mind how they cause the people who have them to act in unusual ways outside of fights, so when you tell me that these people have an entire extra sense that tells them when the gas in their house is leaking through a barely useful hot/cold warning system that never turns off, I’m like, eyes emojis, popcorn out, notebook open, listening intently, spectacles on, the whole deal.

It also contributes to Peter Parker’s personality in a way I really enjoy: It allows him to act like an irrational maniac. When you know exactly when a situation becomes dangerous and how much, normal levels of caution go out the window and absolutely nothing you do makes sense from an exterior standpoint anymore. That’s the good shit. I would like to see more exploration of how the non-Parker characters experiencing the world in this incredibly altered way bounce in response.

It’s also one of many tools in this franchise hauling the reader into relating more closely with the main character. The backbone of classic Spidey is probably being in on secrets only Peter and the reader know which completely reframe how one views the situation on the page. It’s just a big irony mine for the whole first decade. A convenient way to inform the reader and the lead that something is bad news that’s not perceivable to any other characters is youth-with-a-big-exciting-secret catnip.

Another point for tension, there, in that being aware of danger is not synonymous with being able to act on it. If there’s no visible reason for you to be acting strange, well...you’re just going to have to sit tight and sweat, aren’t you? Some gratuitous head wiggles never hurt when setting up that type of conflict.

Have I mentioned that they look cool? Simultaneously punchy and distinctive, with a respectable amount of leeway for artists to get creative with and still coming up with something easily recognizable? And pretty easy to intuit the meaning of even without the long-winded explanations common in the days when people wrote comics with the intent that someone could come in cold on any random issue and follow along okay, I think, although the mechanic has been deeply ingrained in popular culture for so long that I can’t really say for sure.

It was also useful back in the day when no artists drew the eyes on the Spider-Man mask as emoting and were conveying the lead’s expressions entirely through body language and panel composition. If you wiggle enough squiggles, you don’t need eyebrows.

Take This Handwave and Never Ask Me a Logistical Question Again

This ability patches plot holes faster than people can pick them open AND it can act as an excuse to get any plot rolling you can think of if paired with one meddling protagonist who doesn’t know how to mind their own business. Buy it now for only $19.99 (in four installments; that’s four installments of $19.99).

Why can a teenager win a six on one fight against other superhumans? Well, the spider-sense is the ultimate edge in combat, duh.

Why can Peter websling? Why doesn’t everyone websling? Well, the spider-sense is keeping him from eating flagpole when he violently flings himself across New York in a way neither man nor spider was ever meant to move.

How are we supposed to get him involved with the plot this week???? Well, that crate FELT dangerous, so he’s going to investigate it. Oh, dip, it was full of guns and radioactive snakes! Probably shouldn’t have opened that!

Yeah, okay, but why isn’t it fixing everything, then? Isn’t it supposed to be why Peter has never accidentally unmasked in front of somebody? ('Nother entry for this section, take a shot.) That’s crazy sensitive! How does he still have any problems!? Is everything bad that’s ever happened to characters with this powerset bad writing!? --Listen, I think as people with uncanny senses that can tell us whether we are in danger with accuracy that varies from incredible to approximate (I am talking about the five senses that most people have), we should all know better than to underestimate our ability to tune them out or interpret them wrong and fuck ourselves up anyway. I honestly find this part completely realistic.

*SLAPS ROOF OF SPIDER-SENSE* YOU CAN FIT SO MANY STORIES IN THIS THING

The spider-sense is a clean branch into...whatever. There is the exact right balance of structure and wishy-washiness to build off of. A sample selection of whatevers that have been built:

It’s sci-fi and spy gadgets when Peter builds technology that can interface with it.

It’s quasi-mystical when Kaine and Annie-May get stronger versions of it that give them literal psychic visions, or when you want to get mythological and start talking about all the spider-characters being part of a grand web of fate.

Kaine loses his and it becomes symbolic of a future newly unbound by constraints, entangled thematically with the improved physical health he picked up at the same time -- a loss presented as a gain.

Peter loses his and almost dies 782 times in one afternoon because that didn’t make the people he provoked when he had it stop trying to kill him, and also because he isn’t about to start “””taking the subway’’””’ “‘’“”to work”””’’” like some kind of loser who doesn’t get a heads up when he’s about to hit a pigeon at 50mph.

Peter’s starts tuning into his wife’s anxiety and it’s a tool in a relationship study.

It starts pinging whenever Peter’s near his boss who’s secretly been replaced by a shapeshifter and he IGNORES IT because his boss is enough of an asshole that that doesn’t strike him as weird; now it’s a comedy/irony tool.

Into the Spider-Verse made it this beautiful poetic thing connecting all the spider-heroes in the multiverse and stacked up a story on it about instant connection, loss, and incredibly unlikely strangers becoming a found family. It was also aesthetic as FUCK. Remember the scene where Miles just hears barely intelligible whispering that’s all lines people say later in the film and then his own voice very clearly says “look out” and then the room explodes?? Fuck!!!!

Venom becomes immune to it after hitchhiking to Earth in Peter’s bone juice and it makes him a unique threat while telling a more-homoerotic-than-I-assume-was-originally-intended story about violation and how close relationships can be dangerous when they go sour.

It doesn’t work on people you trust for maximum soap opera energy. Love the innate tragedy of this feature coming up.

IN CONCLUSION I don’t have much patience for writers who don’t take advantage of it, never mind feel they need to write around it.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 16, part two

(Masterpost of All the Rewatches) (Previous Post) (Canary’s Pinboard of Stuff)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes

Just A Box of Rain

The brothers find Jiang Yanli and tell her what happened. Pro Tip: a good way to deliver bad news is like this. 1. say "I have bad news" so the person can be prepared for a shock 2. clearly state the bad news. 

Standing in front of the person with tears streaming down your face and looking away when they try to meet your eyes is not, actually, a super effective method for delivering bad news. 

This episode continues to be punctuated by closeups of characters' hands as they respond to events. 

Yanli clutches her broken lotus pendant, cutting her palm and bleeding as she weeps.

Not-at-all symbolic rain drenches the three of them while they cry, standing apart and not comforting each other.

Sometimes a hurt is so deep deep deep You think that you're gonna drown Sometimes all I can do is weep weep weep With all this rain falling down

(more after the cut)

They upgrade their boat with repaired seats and a real oar, and move along toward a hopefully-safer location. 

The scenery continues to be gorgeous, and it appears to be actually really raining on this river or lake. We see Wei Wuxian's hand on the boat's oar as he takes his siblings to what he hopes will be safety.

Maybe you're tired and broken Your tongue is twisted with words half spoken

OP is valiantly resisting dropping a chunk of "Don't Pay the Ferryman" lyrics in here, because projecting European symbolism onto Chinese media is not my bag. This scene does carry a lot of weight, though, showing Wei Wuxian’s sadness and isolation, his ever-growing distance from his siblings and reminding us of his servant status. While his siblings sit under shelter with tears falling down their faces, Wei Wuxian stands in the rain, laboring to protect them and not letting his own tears fall.

It's totally reasonable that Wei Wuxian is the one to man the oar, right? I'm sure Jiang Cheng is the more exhausted of the two of them even though Wei Wuxian started off his day yesterday getting whipped FIVE times by the Zidian and ended it by being choked for 45 seconds.  

Self-Isolation

They reach an inn, where Yanli has a fever, maybe from being left outside all night while her brothers failed to work out any of their interpersonal shit, followed by getting extremely rained on for hours and hours. 

Wei Wuxian carefully puts on a bright, optimistic face for her, practicing for his future fake happiness after the Burial Mounds.

Jiang Cheng sits and has a lot of feelings, totally not helping while Wei Wuxian tends to Yanli. This is not typical of him and just shows how deeply shocked he is by what's happened; usually he is extremely attentive to Yanli and careful with her health.

Wei Wuxian tries to get Jiang Cheng's attention, so that Jiang Cheng can take over caring for Yanli while Wei Wuxian gets medicine. Jiang Cheng is busy staring into the middle distance, and won't respond.

This is Wei Wuxian realizing that absolutely nobody is going to help him.  

Wei Wuxian goes out in his distinctive robes with no hood or anything, to buy some fever medicine, and is quickly surrounded by guards.  They hear "we caught him" and run off, leaving him be.  

What Wei Wuxian doesn't know, that we learn in Episode 50, is that Jiang Cheng and his death wish decided to take a stroll, and seeing the Wen soldiers approach Wei Wuxian finally snapped him out of his reverie.  So he let himself be caught in order to draw them away from Wei Wuxian. 

Let's talk about this choice. In terms of clan roles, Wei Wuxian is absolutely the expendable one. Jiang Cheng became the clan leader when his father died, and knew it from the moment he saw his father's body. 

So far he's 1. Tried to go back to fight and die, against his parents' express instructions 2. left his sister alone in an inn with a fever 3. given himself up to be killed in place of his chief disciple, when it's his disciples' job to die for him, if it comes to that. All but two of Clan Yao's disciples died to protect fucking Captain Blowhard, for goodness sake.  

All of these actions are emotionally super understandable; he's young, he's had a terrible shock, and he's an emotional guy who's never heard of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. And I'm not here to defend feudal power structures. But perhaps Jiang Cheng shouldn't ring the "YOU PROMISED" bell quite so loud in the future, considering his own relationship to his obligations. 

Wei Wuxian begs Yanli to stay put and stay safe while he goes to find Jiang Cheng, and he promises to take Jiang Cheng back from the Wens. Yanli clutches his hands and asks him to promise again that he will rescue their brother, and that they will all go to Meishan together. But for once Wei Wuxian is completely honest, and disentangles his hands and sets off without another word.  

More running ensues, this time in the rain. To quote Adam in Season 7 Episode 1 of Spooks, "all this traumatized running is starting to really annoy me." (Spooks is the shit. Don't watch it if you like characters to have a lifespan longer than a mayfly's)

Camera Operator: Finally, a little appreciation

Wei Wuxian arrives in Lotus Pier, and can we just take a second to appreciate the decor of this place? Look at that tile floor with the cobblestone border, and the bamboo wall panel behind him.

He grabs the first Wen he finds, who turns out to be a much-needed friend.

Rescue Me

The Untamed is the tale of a man’s devotion; devotion so strong it transcends clan allegiance and even death. And that man’s name is Wen Ning.

Initially Wei Wuxian chokes him, like bros do, until he recognizes him and lets him go...

...only to immediately grab him and demand to know if he had a part in the massacre. Wen Ning stays pretty calm, seeing the angry side of Wei Wuxian for the first time, and explains that he heard about what happened, and is there to help.

Wei Wuxian absorbs this and lets him go, giving us a closeup of their hands together, with Wen Ning not so much resisting Wei Wuxian's grip as giving a steadying grip of his own to his best friend.

Wen Ning, who Wei Wuxian saved from one water demon, has already saved Wei Wuxian from one horrifying animatronic dog, and does not actually owe him a life debt at this point. Wen Ning has defied his sister and his entire clan and flown to Lotus Pier with a team of minions, with the specific intent of fucking things up for Wen Chao to the best of his abilities, simply because "Wei Wuxian is a nice person." 

Wei Wuxian isn't feeling like a nice person just now, however, thinking that he can use Wen Ning as a hostage to...what, trade for his brother? Wen Chao would probably be happy to kill Wen Ning himself, but his dad needs Wen Ning as a way to control Wen Qing, so maybe that plan would work.

Then Wei Wuxian sees this small pouch hanging from Wen Ning's belt, and it stops him in his tracks.

For once we are not given a flashback to explain his thinking, so I’ll provide one

The talisman he gave Wen Ning to protect him, now protects him from Wei Wuxian himself. He lets Wen Ning's arm go, and tries to think of another plan. 

Wen Ning already has another plan, and has come to Lotus Pier prepared to enact it. 

Wei Wuxian can't believe he's found someone to help him. In a moment of wrenching vulnerability, he asks Wen Ning to save Jiang Cheng and to retrieve the bodies of Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan. Wen Ning immediately agrees. 

Wen Ning then embarks upon the least sneaky sabotage campaign of all time, chatting to the guards while messing with the wine, and generally acting like a person who is up to something. 

Nobody respects him enough to worry about it, though, and the party proceeds as planned.

The banquet is set up in the cleaned-up courtyard of Lotus Pier The Yunmeng Supervisory Office, and features dancing girls performing in the center of the beautiful carved paving, and corpses hanging in the doorway. 

I bet Jin Guangyao hires this same dance troupe for his future parties.

Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao sit at the main table, snuggling and being gross, but mercifully not necking on-camera because this is a 100% no-necking show. The drinks are sent around and Wen Chao tells Wen Zhuliu to drink up. 

Wen Zhuliu is busy gazing wistfully at Yu Ziyuan's corpse.

Let's face it, Wen Zhuliu is the only dangerous person in this place at the moment, so what he does next is the make-or-break for Wen Ning’s plan. 

Wen Zhuliu smells his wine and immediately can tell something is wrong. He takes a long moment to consider the situation, eyes on Yu Ziyuan, and then downs it, letting his emotions--perhaps something in the neighborhood of remorse, perhaps simple disgust at his craven supervisor--get the better of him.  

In the morning he will be able to tell Wen Chao with 100% precision exactly what the drug is, probably from smelling it right here. This is the only miscalculation Wen Zhuliu makes in the whole show, and it eventually costs him his life.

Wen Zhuliu has no reason to think this decision will hurt him. It's definitely impossible for Jiang Cheng, whipped and crushed, to avenge himself and his parents. But Jiang Cheng, with Wei Wuxian’s help, is going to achieve the impossible. 

We end with Wei Wuxian hiding while he waits for Wen Ning, as strung out as we have seen him so far, although he's got worse mental states ahead of him on his journey.  He doesn't know yet if he was right to trust Wen Ning, and the episode ends with him, cold, wet, and miserable, waiting to find out. 

Next Episode: Still miserable, but with a cape! Soundtrack: 1. Patty Griffin, Rain  2. Grateful Dead, Box of Rain

[zekidork]

Why you think ren started dressing like a boy?

Hey there! Thank you for this question, I really appreciate it.

What’s funny is that it’s actually quite a mystery up until now as to why Ren goes from extremely feminine clothing to tomboy clothing in the sense that it’s never explicitly stated or mentioned by any of the characters (like Ai for example). So it really comes down to the reader’s understanding of Ren’s character up until now. There are a few factors that can explain this change, and I’m sure that many of us in the fandom have deducted at least one of these already, but here’s a list of options anyways. Keep in mind that the actual reason could be a mixture of this.

Ren was traumatized by her father’s death and tries mimicking him out of honour

Ren is doing this for Ai

Ren has fully integrated the hunter lifestyle

-Ren was traumatized by her father’s death-

We haven’t yet seen Ren and Ai’s reaction to Zero’s death, but it must’ve surely shocked them, or at least hurt them in some way. It is possible that Ren changes her appearance to look more like her father just out of pure nostalgia and to honour him. We see her wearing a very similar coat that Zero litterally always wears when doing his hunter duties. So she might’ve done it out of pure nostalgia and respect—sort of like a homage to her father. I’ve heard some people say that it actually is Zero’s coat, which would sort of prove the point that she dresses that way to remind her of her father. It would also explain why it looks so big on her in the first chapters of Vkm (it made her shoulders look more broad).But it could also just be a very similar one. Here’a a comparison:

-Ren is doing this for Ai-

To be honest, I think this is the least likely of reasons, but it’s still interesting to think about, so I’m sharing it here.

It’s possible that the reason Ren cuts her hair, wears a very similar jacket to Zero’s, and dresses overall in a tomboy-ish fashion is related to Ai in some way. We already know that Ren has this very weird and vampire-like attachment to Ai, and we know that she desperately wants to protect her (and that it’s one of her main motivations to become a huntress). We also know that Ren doesn’t know who Ai’s first love was, but even so, she already has bad, hateful feelings towards them (see panel below).

A possible explanation would be that Ren eventually finds out that her father was actually Ai’s first love. Of course, Ren won’t hate her father (and I have a suspicion that this sort of knowledge would come about when Ai grieves for Zero’s death, so Ren would definitely not hate her dead father), and she’d most likely use this information as a motivation to resemble more like her father in order to remind Ai of her first love—or! to make Ai feel safer and protected by resembling her first love.

I know it’s weird (at least I find it to be a little disturbing if this is actually a legitimate reason), but I’m including this since Hino portrays Ren and Ai’s relationship in such a manner where I actually wouldn’t be surprised if she goes down this sort of route. We’ve seen a lot of Ren’s possessiveness and desire to protect Ai, so it’s possible that she’s trying to “channel” (so-to-speak) her father’s best traits in order to “please” Ai—or maybe even help her deal with grieving? Again, I personally really doubt that this option is 100% true—maybe the aspect of wanting to protect Ai is a factor, but I think that’s more related to her motivation to become a huntress. But once again, I’m saying this because Hino portrays them in such an ambiguous manner that it gets me thinking.

(^*this is the only photo that doesn’t come from my own mangas in this post, I found it on Pinterest, but there was no source—sorry, I really wanted a clean version of this pic*)

-Ren has fully integrated the hunter lifestyle-

I find that this option is the most plausible out of the three, considering all the factors that play into it. As a child, and even during her adolescent years, Ren would wear very girly clothing. This, of course, would begin to change when she begins to take seriously her hunter training. We see her first wear a coat that’s similar to Zero’ s hunter coat right when she starts her hunter training:

It’s not the exact same coat as the one we see when she’s with human Kaname—it has a little more style than Zero’s, showing that Ren isn’t fully done with being feminine in her clothing choices. Even after the chapters where she had this clothing she goes back to wearing ‘aristocratic’ and feminine attire.

Now, it’s possible that after her father’s death, Ren was inspired to fully embrace the hunter lifestyle and go through a complete makeover—or maybe it was something else that pushed her to go this route. But what’s evident is that Ren’s fashion choices in human Kaname’s time isn’t unusual for female hunters in general. Universally speaking, all women that we’ve seen who are hunters either have short hair, or tie their hair (like Zero’s mom did) in order to be more efficient in their performance. They also wear pants and jackets, and don’t seem to care about looking fashionable—they just want to get the job done. One example would be the huntress who gets manipulated by Sara in volume 12; her fashion choices are similar to Ren’s:

Another example of how hunter culture influences one’s fashion choices would be Seiren, who was Kaname’s servant for the longest time and wore elegant clothing (however, I must say that she was already pretty used to wearing pants, but the change is still visible). After she meets Toga Yagari and decides to stick by his side as her ‘new’ master, her fashion changes slightly; it looks more “hunter-like”:

Both Ren and Seiren are wearing jackets, pants, and they have short hair. While Seiren always had short hair, one could argue that that was because she always needed it in order to be efficient in her ‘missions’ (or whatever Kaname sent her off to do).

So really, this option would be that Ren decides to finally act like a full-fledged huntress, which I find is the more likely reason of why she changes her appearance. However, the loss of her father might have pushed her to become this way, and she might’ve decided to do specific things (like cut her hair instead of tying it up/braiding it, or wearing a coat that’s very similar to Zero’s) because of her relationship with Ai.

I hope this answers your question. It’d be great to hear others’ thoughts on this subject (since there hasn’t been a clear reason stated as of now in the manga). Thank you again for asking!

[chidoroki]

Norman - 22194

March 21st is here and it’s time for yet another birthday post. I already rambled on about Emma and Ray on their special days, so now it’s finally time to complete this full-score tradition with Norman. It might not be as detailed or long as the other two, since he was absent for a good chunk of the story, but it doesn’t make him any less important! I’ll be honest now, the boy isn’t my favorite character (he doesn’t place anywhere in my top ten for this series either) so I probably missed some moments worth mentioning but I did my best to praise this child anyway!

(spoilers for the entirety of The Promised Neverland, so if you haven’t read/completed the manga yet, consider this your first warning, because I’m once again going from start to finish with this.)

Since I want to stay consistent with the other two posts, this will focus on the manga timeline, as season 2 is, well.. it’s own thing. I’ll mention some things but don’t count on much. With that, let’s go.

- He achieves a perfect score on Grace Field’s daily tests, alongside Emma and Ray.

- He is, without a doubt, the smartest kid the house has ever seen, as he passes each test flawlessly and has maintained a 300 average.

- He’s a complete strategist who is capable of achieving victory (even in something simple as tag) by observing his opponents moves and analyzing their weaknesses in order to counter.

- Knows how to pick locks. The scene from ch1 was left out but we see him doing so later on in ep02.

- Stays relatively positive and calm after learning about the truth of the farm.

- Even going as far as giving Emma a reassuring smile, which I think is impressive given the literal nightmare fuel they’ve just witnessed. 

- I’m giving him half credit for suggesting the idea of there being tracking devices, since anime has him reveal this possibility while in manga it’s Emma.

- Both of them realize what determines the shipping order and that the demons favor their brains.

- This silly panel that I love dearly.

- Made sure to do a sweep of the entire house beforehand to make sure their escape planning doesn’t get pick up on.

- Figures out that Isabella only knows the children’s locations when she checks the tracker and that it can’t identify who is who.

- Has the nerve to lie right to Isabella’s face.. not that she believes it, but still gutsy nonetheless.

- Knowing the house probably wouldn’t have any rope, it was his idea to use the spare tablecloths.

- Had a feeling that Ray would reveal the harsh reality of how dangerous it would be to escape with all the children, which turns out to be correct.

- His laugh in ep02 is so precious.

- This statement being 100% accurate.

- Manages to convince the logical Ray, who we know now has spent many years coming up with a solid, safer escape plan, to join in and assist with their crazy and reckless plan instead. Having Ray on their side also grants them many advantages.

- Absolutely hates to lose, which is a good mentality to have in a world where your life is a stake and your time is limited, which eventually leads him to consider every possible opportunity to stay ahead of his enemies throughout the remainder of the story.

- Realizes that the trackers must only send out a signal upon being broken, which we found out to be true in Ray’s one-shot chapter.

- - Him looking completely terrified in this panel.

- He managed to catch all the Grace Field kids in a game of tag even after they received advice from Ray about how to survive longer.

- The goddamn intimidating energy he gives off here is fantastic.

- Despite his body being physically weak, he manages to survive and win against Krone during their game of tag.

- Just like Ray some couple chapters ago, Norman is completely serious about this idea.

- Suspects there’s a traitor among the kids and swiftly comes up with a plan to lure them out.

- This panel of him “dead” from the first side story.

- He has a feeling the spy is Ray, so he moves up the day of the escape to catch him off guard and send him into a panic.

- Even though the anime didn’t include it, he managed to throw off Krone as well with some fake footprints to keep her off their backs.

- Was honestly considering on leaving the spy behind while the rest of them escaped, though he doesn’t seem real happy about the idea, considering the traitor is Ray.

- His plan on fishing out the spy was flawless as he finally calls Ray out by revealing that the information he gave about the ropes and where he hid them were fake locations.

- Not only was Ray the first one Norman suspected, but he caught onto him way back when Krone first came to the house. All the information Ray was feeding them helped Norman come to this conclusion as well.

- Along with Emma’s words about believing that no one in their family is truly bad, Norman refrains from cutting Ray off to allow him to become their trump card. This was a risky move itself, knowing Ray could sell both him & Emma out at any time. Norman tends to prioritize victory, so while staying alive is absolutely necessary and that could’ve been achieved without Ray (as he could’ve just used Ray then ditch him later), he still decides to make the offer as realizes that in order defeat Isabella, Ray’s full cooperation is essential.

- Realizes that it was Ray who hid Little Bunny in the first place and lead Norman and Emma to investigate the gate that night, which leads him to believe that Ray isn’t really an enemy.

- He’s also left handed. Yes, that’s important. Not only for later in the story but because we’re superior. I’m sorry y’all had to find out this way. 

- This stupid, little face he makes.

- Suspects that Ray doesn’t actually plan on escaping at all and intends to kill himself.

- Just like Emma and Ray, Norman also recognizes and understands morse code.

- Look at this precious child, not even angry after getting punched and knocked over. (because i certainly would be)

- Finds Ray’s hidden supply of oil which confirms the method for his future suicide. This also helps Norman later on when he comes up with a refined escape plan by using the fire Ray plans to start.

- Figures out Krone’s true intention about why she wants to join forces with the kids in the first place. 

- He ends up accepting Krone’s offer anyway, because despite the large risk, any information that can snag out of her would benefit them.

- You mad lad, look at you, taunting the bringer of death yet again while a smile on your face.

- And he still manages to find some strength to smile while upon death’s door.

- Not for long though, as once he’s given the chance to be alone, he finally breaks down. Having the cup overflow with water really helps demonstrate how impactful the thought of dying hit him as Norman was overcome with so many emotions that he didn’t even have the strength to hold onto the cup or his facade. It’s then he starts to feel scared and sorry for himself but away from Emma and Ray’s eyes as to not worry them.

- His entire internal monologue as he comes to terms with his unfortunate situation and flips back to his determined “I can’t lose” attitude to help everyone else escape. Also, his theme ‘22194’ hits especially hard.

- For someone with weak, physical abilities, he manages to climb the wall on his own.

- Though the cliff stopped his escape, he used that opportunity to survey the surrounding area of the entire farm to rely his findings to the duo and provide them a safer escape route.

- Completely adamant about his decision to accept his shipment in order to give the rest of his family a chance to escape. (hell, id’ be terrified right now)

- This hug that is sure to break everyone’s hearts.

- Quick to react to Emma’s last ditch effort and prevented her from slamming her already busted up leg into the ground.

- Not only did he predict that Ray would start a fire to distract Isabella and on which day, he also left behind the pen and key he received from Krone along with a new, detailed plan (which he managed to come up with in only a few hours by the way) that would allow the kids to cross over the cliff.

(post season one spoilers below. again, focusing on the manga timeline, so any new season 2 events will be mentioned sparingly.)

- Like Ray, Norman was able to figure out how the pen worked well enough to see Minerva’s message regarding B06-32.

- Since he doesn’t show up again for quite some time post-escape, there isn’t much to talk about.. but at least I can make fun of him thanks to extra pages, like how he wouldn’t have enough strength to use a bow.

- But hey, props to s2ep10 for actually giving us Norman shooting an arrow. He was pretty decent with it too, as he hit his target on the first try behind a darn smokescreen. The manga did show him holding a bow in ch161, but that’s it.

- Not relevant to the actual story at all, but his smarts certainly make anything possible.

- I’m sorry but these tiny failures of his bring me great joy.

- Though the tests at Lambda are harder than those at Grace Field, Norman still managed to get every question correct. Every single day he was there. Even when the facility manages to increase the difficulty of the tests, he continues to pass each one with flying colors.

- Since he noticed someone who’s right handed also takes the same tests he does, he makes an attempt to communicate with them via a Rubik’s cube. He waits patiently for five months until he finally gets a response from Vincent around Christmas 2046. 

- Dealt with the experiments/drugs that were forced onto him and the seizures that resulted from them.

- Even with the tight security and surveillance, he somehow acquired explosives and successfully blow up Lambda and escapes with the survivors.

- Again, not significant to the story, but seriously dude? You just fainted and yet you still get this crazy question right effortlessly?

(post time-skip)

- Contacts Lucas moments before the B06-32 shelter gets blown up and gives him the numeric code that eventually leads Emma’s group to the “Jaw of Lion.”

- Destroyed numerous mass production farms since his escape from Lambda.

- As well as save countless children from other farms and used the Paradise shelter found by Smee’s network to give them a sense of safety and taste of a normal life.

- The darn glow-up he receives, like sweet lord child, are you sure you’re still 13??

- - His cute, squishy cheeks though!

- He may look like he’s in his thirties, but still has the strength of a child. (see anime? this is how strong ray’s slap should have been!)

- Learned a great deal of demon history and gave that lengthy lesson about the demon’s genetics and how they inherit the characteristics of whatever they eat and evolve accordingly. 

- With Emma’s wish about saving everyone and lively happily still on his mind, he thought of a safe and certain method in order to create such a future for all the children raised as food.. which ends up being complete extermination of all the demons caused by a civil war. His plan also includes ending the Ratri clan as well. How cheerful.

- Are you surprised to learn that Norman getting tackled by the younger kids is my favorite panel of him?

- You weak, little bean, I’m sorry I enjoy making fun of you so much.

- Successfully forms an alliance with Lord Geelan and his clan by offering revenge on the royal family, the five regent houses, as well as the Ratri clan, thus putting Geelan in full control. In return, it would grant Norman the full release of farm children, permission to self-govern and some much needed power in terms of demon strength.

- He knows full well that the entire alliance is a lie and both parties are only using each other, though in works in his favor, as it will send the demons to destroy each other without the lose of any human lives.

- This absolute powerful panel that the anime decided “nah, we’re gonna change this too” because they’re cowards.

- Narrowed down possible locations on where to find Sonju and Mujika. Sure it was with the intention of killing our demon friends but his map was accurate.

- Survived who knows long with his seizures at level 4, and because of his severe condition, he’s completely set on following through his plan and succeeding before his time runs out.

- Seems to enjoy blowing stuff up, such as the imperial city’s bridges to send the place into a panic and trap all the citizens.

- Advised the Lambda crew on how to effectively fight against the queen by attacking relentlessly.

- Let loose a poison that causes not only normal demons to degenerate, but the royal family as well, such as the five regent heads and the queen who’s name is too long and complicated for me to ever remember, who all have the cursed blood. (at least that’s how effective it was in manga, in anime it did absolutely nothing to vylk)

- He somehow managed to learn, speak and understand the demon language, which, according to Shirai (vol16 author notes), is actually an uncommon language nowadays. (and we’ll unfortunately never know how this language actually sounds, thank anime..)

- Do I even praise him for killing a demon and well.. all this? Sure in the anime he tried killing Vylk, but old demon was fair more innocent compared to the royal family, so I have no idea.

- I will give season 2 some credit and say I prefer their take on the “right now you look like a small child, shaking with fear” panel.

- But not too much credit, as they didn’t give us the full trio hug as the manga did!

- Then again the anime did have him about to apologize to Vylk and Demon Emma for his actions, which is something, I suppose? since in ch154 he says he didn’t regret killing the queen and royals, which I guess is justified because they were the bigger problem, but oh well.

- Might have apologized to Ayshe for killing her father? Can’t be sure but that’s the unanimous consensus in the fandom right?

- Instantly comes up with counter moves and directions for the entire group upon hearing the enemies locations from Vincent during the GF raid.

- I honestly can’t look at this panel anymore and not laugh about it.. because reasons.

- He just keeps on winning. (also he looks real good here, i’ll give him that.)

- He and everyone else are skeptical about there being no “reward,” and for rightfully so.

- Upon learning that Emma is missing after everyone crossed over to the human world, they all adopt her optimistic attitude and swear to find her no matter where she might be.

- After a stressful two year search, the kids finally find Emma and Norman is so overcome with emotion that he busts out into tears of joy, despite finding out that she lost her memories due to the reward. All that matters to him is that Emma was safe and happy and he accepts her just the way she is.

And I guess.. that’s it. I’m sorry again, I know this is truly the weakest post out of the trio and I have no doubt I glanced over a whole bunch of great moments but it still had to be done! Making fun of him probably wasn’t the best thing to do on his special day either, but I assure you this child is very powerful. Who else do you know that is capable of sending an entire fandom into a panic and rage furiously by just simply showing up?

Ah ha okay, now I’m done. In all seriousness though, this lad is great and through everything he has endured, he definitely deserves to be celebrated today, so happy birthday to our boy Norman!

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Angry and frustrated at the lack of female representation in various forums, Sood Singh launched the Women of the Wild – India account in May last year, followed by accounts for Pakistan and Malaysia. “It’s not at all easy for women in Pakistan,” says Sood Singh. “You have to have very open-minded parents to allow you to study science.”

Before launching the platform in India, Sood Singh emailed the 20 to 30 women that she knew working in these areas and asked them to respond to four simple questions about why they had chosen their careers, what challenges they faced when starting out, what was the one event that strengthened their resolve to continue, and what would their message be for anyone reading the post.

Environment reporter Aditi Rajagopal was the first to be featured on the Women of the Wild – India account. “When Akanksha spoke to me about her idea, I loved it! By being the first to be featured, I hoped it would make other women comfortable to put their names and faces out there,” she says. Since then, more than 400 scientists, researchers, film-makers, journalists, photographers, artists, animal rescuers and others in a wide range of professions have been profiled on the account.

They include an environmental lawyer, a youth climate leader, a member of a village forest protection squad, the founder of a plastic upcycling service and the leader of India’s largest youth movement to conserve water. Rajagopal says: “It’s heartwarming to see so many women doing incredibly important work in fields and positions I didn’t even know existed.”

Sood Singh says: “I see in the comments and DMs [direct messages] how one woman’s journey becomes a plan for another to work through her challenges.”

Followers of the account can review the institutions they work for anonymously if they prefer. A post inviting reviews of the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) received more than 100 comments, many of which alleged experiences of various forms of harassment, lack of advancement opportunities and a toxic work environment.

A few days after the CWS review, Krithi Karanth, chief conservation scientist at the organisation, shared a post on the CWS Instagram account titled Working towards a safer and inclusive work environment at CWS. Karanth, who took up her role in November 2018, wrote: “This is a wake-up call for me, CWS and many others”, adding that the organisation would “address all legitimate issues raised by those who work with us”.

A review of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) also received nearly 100 comments, with accounts of gender-based discrimination in the workplace. Bittu Sahgal, the BNHS president, responded directly to the comments, acknowledging: “It’s a systemic change that we need. It will happen.” Sahgal set out steps being taken at the BNHS to address complaints, including internal one-on-one conversations.

To date, more than 20 organisations have been reviewed on Women of the Wild – India and Sood Singh is hopeful that women coming into these organisations will experience a better environment.

“In the feedback that I receive, I see that a sense of ownership has set in with the women who follow the account,” she says. “They take this to be a very safe space. They consider it ‘their’ space.”

Women of the Wild is constantly evolving and Sood Singh hopes to set up a mentorship programme. “We still have a lot to figure out. The conversations have just started. I want to make these conversations mainstream.”

In the meantime, she says: “No one can say that they couldn’t find a woman to be on a panel of experts.”

[sailordiavolo]

I'm curious, how do you think nero would react to meeting Alice, if she is his mom?

(very long post)

well, i may have to take a few liberties in answering this, so i shall establish some assumptions. 1) we assume alice is his mom (obvi) 2) we assume she is alive 3) we assume that she left him in fortuna as a way to protect him and 4) we assume that alice became a devil hunter. oh and 5) they meet post-canon, aka after the events of dmc5.

also, conclusions i draw from this will be somewhat based on how i would react, if put in these circumstances, i.e. if i were in nero’s shoes. i don’t know if that might make it strange or not, because sometimes i think i have abnormal reactions to emotional things happening.

another thing i would like to point out, is that as someone who hasn’t actually read the manga, my understanding of alice comes from second-hand accounts, and information i could glean from the wiki, and of a few panels i’ve seen. that being said, let’s get into this, shall we?

before covering nero’s reaction, i’ll touch on how i think alice might be as a person, or at least her feelings towards being a mother, and possibly towards nero himself. i’ll also talk about nero’s thoughts towards what he thinks his mother might be like, prior to finding out.

alice

from what little i know about alice, she was a little girl who was used by arkham as a tool to lure out the sons of sparda. (i think if lady/mary hadn’t turned against him, that role would’ve went to her tbh). i think it’s safe to say she was groomed by arkham, who probably also put her up to seducing dante (and vergil too). it just gets worse the more you think about it, really. i think she was forced to (or made to feel like she needed to) grow up prematurely. the powers she has were probably given to her via some weird demonic ritual, (assuming she’s human). what i’m getting at here, is that she definitely has a lot of trauma from all this, all of which would affect how she’d react to having a baby.

i won’t go so far as to diagnose her, but some things i thought she might struggle with include intense self-hatred and very low self esteem, very quickly going from feelings of independence to codependency, intense trust issues especially with authority figures, nightmares or night terrors, vivid daydreaming as a coping mechanism, being prone to delusion, going from feeling emotionless to having too much emotions, and not wanting to be perceived versus wanting to be the centre of attention.

that’s a lot actually, but basically i imagine alice as an adult to be someone who has a lot of trauma to sift through and unpack, and not really knowing how to handle it most of the time, especially since she’s doing it all on her own. barely keeping it together, but powering through it simply because she has just enough reasons to keep living.

alice as a mother

i don’t think there’s any question that alice, had she been nero’s mother, would’ve loved him dearly. in fact, i think he would remain a strong reason for her to keep going. however, she keeps herself away from him. this is because she wants him to have something better, something safer than what she can give him. she doesn’t know how to be a mother really, especially given how young she was when she had him.

i think alice would actually feel unworthy of being in nero’s life, feeling guilty for abandoning him, despite these reasons. she has considered many times going to see him, especially when she’s older and a little more stable, but she can’t bring herself to do it. and then she mulls over all the things she struggles to do for herself, and uses that as a reason to justify in her mind why she shouldn’t be seeing him. it continues like that for a long time.

nero

nero, on the other hand, has always longed for a mother. i don’t think this is any secret. when he was being bullied or was suffering as a child, he would fantasise about his mother, and how she would come to whisk him away. although it never happened, nero probably has a set image that he hopes his mother would be like. this may have been more specific when he was a child, but by the time he’s a more well-rounded adult with foster children of his own, he gains more perspective. i think the most important thing to him is that he had a mother who had loved him. a mother who would’ve taken him home, had she the resources. the idea of his mother discarding him really wounds him deep down, and i still don’t think he’s over it, even up to dmc5. that’s why the deadweight comment hit him so hard.

meeting each other

the first thing nero is going to be is overwhelmed, feeling all-too many emotions at once. if he ever met her, it would take him a long time to process it all completely. and it would be somewhat odd and awkward, too. alice doesn’t strike me as the most socially eloquent person. that and, alice doesn’t really come off as a mother. she certainly doesn’t dress like one. she doesn’t even seem that much older than nero, or so nero thinks. he just expected her to be older than that.

the first thing alice would feel the need to do is apologise. of course, she feels very emotionally raw & vulnerable in this situation, but she feels like she owes nero that much.

nero would start crying actually. like a baby. they both might. it would be very emotional for both of them and anyone else present. he would definitely warm up to alice a lot quicker than he did vergil.

nero of course, has so many questions for alice, who is at a point where she’s ready to answer them, i’d think. nero would ask all sorts of questions, like how she’s been living, etc. but he’d really wanna know about how she met vergil and how the hell that happened. alice sits with nero and tells him her story, maybe the first time she’s ever told it aloud to anyone in full. she asks about nero as well, sitting and catching up on all the years lost between them. being a foster father, nero is able to empathise with alice more as he listens.

i think they would bond very quickly after that. alice had been terrified that nero would spurn her, but he didn’t. alice has difficulty expressing emotions normally, and probably has her own way of expressing affection. but after meeting nero, she tries hard to make time to visit him.

if she were to become a devil hunter based in fortuna or something, i think she’d be very proud of nero, and nero would be totally amazed by alice’s strange powers.

also, i think nero wouldn’t know whether to call her mom or not. alice doesn’t know which she prefers either, but if nero does decide to call her mom, it secretly makes her happy.