idk if this is accurate but iāve felt like in previous seasons riz & gorgug have been one of the inter-bad kids dynamics weāve seen the least of & this season has been so great in that aspect. gorgug having helped make some of rizās magic gear. riz helping gorgug with his studies. the shared birthday party. gorgugās gift to riz being something he himself made to protect riz. rizās gift to gorgug being something he illegally grabbed to protect gorgug. gorgug who utilizes rage to put his body on the line for his friends & riz who will take deep levels of mental stress for his friends. even though it was within the context of a joke, riz calling gorgug an āabsolute sweetie.ā like yea they might not be in a band together or both part of a presidential campaign team or owlbears teammates, but theyād go to war for each other, because theyāre best friends.
People who really like shuake also seem to write themselves into a corner wrt Akechi and his relationship to Akiras team. Contrary to popular belief, the team, including Haru, does not hate Akechi. At worst, they tolerate him and deal with his attitude. Hes a good teammate and respectable fighter and the team recognizes that at the end of the day, he was a teenager who was manipulated and abused by a man who saw him as disposable. Just about every thief understands this intimately. They have the same mindset wrt adults who take advantage of the people beneath them. Under different circumstances they wouldve been friends. And if u approach it from that angle, it becomes less about Akechi being the sole person who āgetsā Akira, and more about the thieves being the only people in the world who āgetā Akechi.
When you expand your thoughts to include the thieves as members of his Team and not roadblocks that get in the way of your ideal shipping dynamic, you allow urself to give Akechi and Akira more depth and nuance to their own relationship.
Akira and Akechi are wildcards; both of them struggle with the face they choose to display to the world. Its the first time Akira interacts with someone who is, at a literal, technical level, his āequalā. But Akechi is one of many firsts for Akira yeah? Every thief has their bond with Akira thats completely unique and personal. Akechi will never be the person who witnesses Akiras Awakening, hes never the person who watches Akira have his restless nights alone in the attic, and hes never the person who realizes in real time that the teenager hes housing is just Some Kid, not the delinquent hes been warned about. Hes not Ann or Yusuke, or any of the thieves; he doesnt have the time or experience that they have with Akira, and I think its interesting to explore that part of their relationship, shippy or not.
Akechi is someone who is incredibly lonely and self depreciating despite his cockiness and attitude. He has no positive bonds to speak of save for his connection with Sae. To have him see a team that works together and cares for each other, how do you think he would feel? Out of place? Inferior in some way? Angry about how hes been alone for so long in this single minded quest for revenge? Wouldnt that be a point of struggle between the two of them? I think what makes shuake good for me is knowing that Akechi needs alot of time to heal, and the thieves would want to help with that process. They do it bc they care, bc Akira cares, and bc they trust Akiras opinion (and he trusts theirs in return); if Akira feels like Akechi is someone who can be trusted Now after everything thats happened, then the thieves would do their best to help. And how would Akechi feel about that? Angry about the show of pity? That even now, he has no real say in what happens to him? Or begrudgingly grateful that they are cordial with him? Because they do care, he KNOWS they care, they care TOO MUCH actually; but the one thing he values over brawn and wits is honesty- fighting for what you believe in without having to use soft words to justify it.
You know Bakugou has an entire collection of All Might figures, but imagine the first time as a Pro-Hero that he sees one of himself. Maybe itās in an arcade or a shop window, and he just knows he has to have it.
So he ends up bringing it home and placing it beside his favourite hero on his All Might shelf, because itās a sign heās finally achieving his dreams.
Mina and Jack would love the radio, which was very soon widely ditributed after the events of 1897
so this led me down a rabbit hole on the history of radio and it turns out the first commercial radios became a thing around 1920! at which point they'd all be in their 50s, which is NOT too old to be Down With The Kids
Fun fact I used to consume a lot of Land of the Lustrous stuff.
Anyways this is one of my many Land of the Lustrous OCs, Vivianite. Mohs hardness of 1.5, dark green/blue in colour, and very old. Due to the nature of his weak composition, Vivianite can't actually do much of anything, and has had to live under very specific conditions.
Vivianite wears a tight full body uniform to hold any chipped pieces in place, and is kept in a box stuffed with loose cloth to ensure minimal damage. If he comes into contact with light, he begins to oxidize and darken, so he's kept in a windowless room with curtains over the entrance.
That's all to say he's isolated and bored. He spends much of his time inactive, but he'll jump at the opportunity for conversation if there's someone around. Certain gems visit him to chat, get guidance, or give him the recent news. A task given to some gems is to clear his room of dust, and maybe bring him some books if he's up for it.
Vivian sees himself as an older sibling/friend to many of the other gems, and as such he's very keen on providing a listening ear and giving advice where possible to those who need it. He's essentially emotional support in a can.
Other notes/details:
not all gems know Vivian exists! He's hidden away so most gems wouldn't see him unless they were actively looking for him. A lot of the older ones know about him, but the younger ones don't
Rutile is endlessly tired of having to glue him back together so often due to his softness, which is part of why he has a tighter uniform to keep all his broken pieces in place
Vivian struggles with walking, he tends to be slow and stumbly
the tanks in Vivian's room are for jellyfish. Gems who are sent to clean his room have to switch out the jellyfish too. They're there to provide a faint light source so he doesn't go completely inactive
Vivian, despite living in a box in the dark, has a lot of technical knowledge about things as a result of millennia of going through the library collection. He' a living encyclopedia and can usually offer some answers if a gem has questions on a particular subject
his internal structure is basically a lot of shards stuck together like fibers, so he does minor repairs on himself by affixing strands of his hair into empty spots. He's had his fingers repaired and replaced this way often
In the few instances where Vivian has gone outside, he has an abnormally high amount of energy as a result of his inclusions being able to work at full capacity in the light
If I remember anything else I'll add it, anyways have a good day!
Does this imply that Kim Dokja also tried to write a questionnaire for her to fill in since she wouldnāt speak to him, that either he 1) never gave her in the end (especially if he couldnāt find her after she was released) or 2) gave it to her and she STILL refused to answer?
Because that is so so so so awful. It was already bad but if he tried so many ways to get her to speak and she still gave him no response, regardless of her reasoningā¦ isnāt that still directly choosing to cut herself fully out of his life? Why in the hell did she lie for his sake and allow him to visit her if she wanted to never speak to him again?
I know everyone claims Kim Dokja is just like her in sacrificing himself for loved ones, but at least he tries his best to stay with them and to keep them in his life. He still chooses sacrifice, but itās not because he intends to never return. He always returns (even if much later than planned).
The only time this differs is with 51%, when he STILL tried his best to stay with them - at least as much as he could.
I sometimes like Lee Sookyung, but I am mostly still SO mad at her for completely ignoring her child since he was 8 years old. Especially when he must have looked like shit any number of times from being mistreated and bullied by family, friends, army, employers.
But maybe thatās just the fragment in me being eternally pissed with her. She DOES love him, but like he says in the webtoon in this chapter - maybe such truths are painful enough to be false anyways, because theyāre just SUCH bullshit. Thatās not how affection should work, if you actually care about someone and want them to be happy.
thinking about todd and his resolve towardā¦ not quite isolation, but being alone in a room full of people again. he goes along to the study room to sit on his own and do his homework, he sits at the poets table and follows along with whatās being said while keeping quiet, he goes to the meetings at all but doesnāt necessarily contribute (in fact, if you watch him when cameron is telling the story āfrom camp in sixth gradeā, you can see that he recognizes it before any of the other poets but doesnāt voice it until they all have). heās not alone, necessarily, if you want to get technical about it, heās just lonely, and heās generally okay with that. he doesnāt have friends and thatās fine, he doesnāt participate in class and thatās fine, he doesnāt have a relationship with his family and thatās fineāhe could live without any real connection and heād have been, more or less, fine.
the thing about when he says āi can take care of myself just fine!ā is that he isnāt really wrong, you can infer that heās been doing it his entire life anyway, itās that ātaking care of yourselfā isnāt the same thing as really living or being happy. toddās an introvert, certainly, and even as he gets closer to the group he defaults to sitting quietly in the background, but heās also denying himself community out of fear not introversion. todd isnāt friendless because heās an introvert, although that definitely plays a part, heās friendless because he pushes anyone that might want his company away. if anyone has every wanted for his attention in the first place. (neilās unwavering interest in him is unique (even when it comes to the rest of the poets, who are fine with todd coming along and joining the group, but arenāt really hellbent on him being there in the beginning) and his refusal to accept it is a direct result of being so lonely growing up.)
thereās obviously something to be said about the implications of his parents neglect, and the more than likely fact that he grew up friendless, and how those both play a part in in him being so skilled at dodging social interaction/being so avoidant of it, but by the time we see him in the movie heās all but accepted his fate as being alone his entire life. heās already accepted being the family disappointment, and heās already accepted heāll never amount to anything, and he obviously doesnāt like it, but heād have managed living with that knowledge without the confirmation that it was all wrong. would he have been miserable? almost certainly. but heād have managed. heād done it for that long already, anyhow.