#he wasn't even part of that conversation

[dell-delta]

Chapter 2

*Dutch rambling about the future and casually doubting Arthur's loyalty*

Arthur: Guess I plan on leavin' with a hole shot in me.

Hosea, standing nearby, audibly concerned: Are you okay, Arthur?

[chuthulhu-reads]

[ID: Two panels from Dungeon Meshi. The first scows Senshi clutching his face as tears start to spill out of his eyes, saying, "I've always... always wanted to have this soup one more time." He's not wearing his helmet in this panel, so his face is unusually visible, detailed and vulnerable. The second panel shows himself as a youngster, surrounded by his old mining team, all smiling at each other, one of them rubbing Senshi's head. Modern-day Senshi continues, "Thank you. All of you. Thank you." End ID.]

Holy shit. I anticipated some tragic backstory from the "I must feed the young ones" panels, but what I'd guessed was that Senshi might have become so devoted to cooking and eating literally whatever because he'd previously survived a famine and had seen children starve to death. I did not expect him to have been the child who was the sole survivor of a doomed travel party, one of whom was determined to feed Senshi first because he was the youngest, and that Senshi has lived with the fear of having inadvertently committed cannibalism by eating stew that he'd never quite known the contents of. I'm happy for him that Laios deduced and confirmed for him that it was griffin meat, that he was able to taste the meal that saved his life once more and remember the friends he lost. Seriously, I'm crying, and also earnestly relieved that while his backstory is pretty dark, it's not the type of fucked up I'd been preparing myself mentally for.

[awesometothe3rd]

"No doubt, I'm sure you have expensive taste." "Actually, I don't."

[franstastic-ideas]

Arven is terrible at flirting if food isn't involved.

What I mean is that his response to learning Juliana doesn't have some handsome, cool boyfriend back in Galar could've been a lot more smooth than it was-

Juliana: Ugh. What boyfriend? I'm not seeing anyone right now. Guys are jerks. Arven: I know, right?! Guys are the worst.

[hella1975]

sometimes i think about the fact my grandparents literally overnight just cut us off and im like. how did u even do that. does it torment you

[gildedmuse]

So, I just know all of Tumblr was wondering, "hey, you remember that really weird ZoLaw fan with the annoyingly overly stylized post? I wonder if she's seen this and if she has any theories or thoughts, an observation or two?"

Well, allow me to set your wandering mind at ease, fictional Tumblr fan. The answer is: No. No, I really don't.

I have like three hundred.

[I also spent time just trying to track down as many translations as possible. Is Tera A Criminal's Daughter or The Daughter Of Thieving Bandits! These are CLEARLY separate things and can ENTIRELY change how her utter nonpresence in Zoro's life shaped him! Though I can take comfort in knowing that, regardless of what kind of crimes her father was committing they were more important than anything his daughter ever did in her entire life.]

And, hey, as might as well jump right into that whole mess.

1. Wait, Zoro's mom is dead? Thank goodness, I was worried Oda forgot one!

(AKA: Stop. Murdering. Moms.)

I'll go first, I don't mind saying when I was wrong. True, in the past I may have suggested that the vast majority of female characters in One Piece come off as ever so slightly, "leaning into sexist tropes with unadulterated joy; it's the misogynistic tropes equivalent of a child running naked through a grocery store. It's right there, everyone sees it, yet people shut up and continue shopping in part because, well, these days you just expect most people to cover that junk! What would you even say? And if you DO speak up and call out the inappropriate, be prepared for blank stares and tantrums; but THEY don't mind! THEY don't think it's wrong! You're just being mean!"

More or less a direct quote.

However, I see now that I rushed to judgement and the reality of the situation is far more nuanced. With that in mind, I was just wondering if someone could help answer some of the questions I have.

Like: Why does Oda believe that it's illegal for (maternal) female characters to survive other character's backstories?

More importantly, why hasn't someone just reached out to explain the misconception!? It can't be that difficult. If nothing else, just have a lawyer or judge or other expert in censorship on hand. Or is the one of those cases where back in highschool his friends made something up and then kept pretending it was real to see if he'd believe you and not only did he fall for it, it took over 20 years before he learned that, what, no that's not illegal. That would be crazy if it were an actual law. Cause you know, after the first 10 years I think yeah you have to just lean into it. Pretend it's a creative decision on your part and definitely not because you were terrified of being sentenced to a slow and humiliating public death.

Just to be clear that's definitely what's up, right? I mean, I'm struggling to think of another reason....able excuse why a story that I really enjoy keeps playing the same old sexist tropes cards again and again to the point of absurdity. It would just help if I had a valid excus- explanation. I almost mistyped the word explanation.

....

....

So I imagine it went like.

"That's the third mangaka they've had to Publically Execute this week!"

"They've started taking this law way more serious lately."

"This one really deserved it though! I heard his main character has a mother in her late forties!"

"That does seem old to have your first child."

"No, he's the middle of three and 22 years old. The story even has flashbacks of defining moments in his childhood and never once did she try to sacrifice herself for him, get murdered by his enemies, or die in meaningless unrelated accidents."

"Damn, that's cold to be there for all the protagonist core moments and not die and help him develop and grow a character? They must have a very antagonistic relationship. Is she actually the villain."

"Not that we know, and when they asked about this being a possible plot twist since - obviously if she's evil no laws are being broken."

"Well, of course, that's the whole reason Statue 2-dash-57 exists; if creators can show they have consistently been building up to a surprise twist then the female character in question can continue to live so long as she continues to be unrepentant and unlikable until the resolution of her arch by the protagonist."

"That's the thing! Under oath not only did man present no evidence to support her identity as a secret villain, he went on the record stating he wanted to depict their relationship as one of a normal modern 20 year old and his mother."

"That can't be true! What publishing company would even print that!?"

"It gets worse. I told you he was a middle child? Well, according to those who've read the actual manga, his younger sister was really sick as a child."

"Oh, well, at least-"

"It was just a fish allergy. She's perfectly fine."

"Sometimes I feel this law is unnecessarily harsh but.... Then you hear stories like that, and you realize that some people really are monsters."

[hopelesslovebug]

little pesca and fugo interaction as a treat

[imakemywings]

So Doriathrin sounded old-fashioned even in the First Age, which makes sense since Elvish language already changes very slowly and Doriath was comparatively isolated relative to other Elvish settlements (and was already known to have preserved some linguistic characteristics that had become archaic in other dialects). It was also destroyed, which largely prevented much further development of the language owing to the people being made more or less extinct.

Furthermore, since Oropher and Thranduil’s later kingdom was made up of a far larger proportion of Silvan to Iathrim, I tend to think they adapted their speech to that of the Silvan, whether speaking Silvan or adjusting their Sindarin to match with the speaking patterns and idiosyncrasies of the Silvan.

However, in the rare moment Thranduil speaks directly to another former Doriathrim without any one else present in the conversation, he will revert to what he grew up speaking and they will twitter away like they just walked out of Chaucer.

[semi-sketchy]

God damn can people learn to use their words already

[birlwrites]

could you talk about maeve and emma's relationship? maeve is a favorite oc in ttdl for me, im very fond of her chaotic short & rich person energy, and i enjoy how regulus sees them rapidly slow burning in the background and goes ah. that bears no parallels to my life whatsoever.

YEAAAAA

maeve and emma are some of the. more mentally healthy sacred 28 scions in ttdl - they've both got generally good relationships with their families (maeve has some points of tension with her parents re: future life plans, but they're points of *tension* as opposed to points of *outright aggression*), and they're doing pretty well at things like having hobbies and a social life. which is to say they're doing so much better than regulus is afjlshgsjkghsjdf BUT ANYWAY.

maeve definitely fell first - i have in my notes 'emma is quidditchsexual' at the beginning point of their arc, but like, she was Aware™ that maeve was pretty. maeve also got called out on said feelings Very quickly by lucinda (whose particular method of calling out in this case amounted to cornering maeve in their room and going 'sooooooooooooo, is there anything you want to tell me :)')

lucinda also definitely winged for maeve in this situation by frequently dragging charlotte out of their room to go study in the library or smth (which is not difficult to do) and thus Conveniently leaving maeve and emma alone

but as i said. maeve fell first. so at first emma was just a little bit. confused? at how like. suddenly she seems to be spending a lot of time with maeve one-on-one now? huh when did that happen. anyway. -> and then that progressed to Feelings

the stalagmite violet was a big turning point for them in terms of the 'oh shit maybe she likes me too???' and i think that's what incited the actual confession of feelings a short while later, initiated by emma (maeve has lowkey gotten accustomed to her pining while also Subtly Attempting To Demonstrate Interest via gifts). like, that was not *immediate*, but the stalagmite violet was a pretty big push towards actually doing it

when emma is rambling to maeve about kicking gryffindor's collective ass in chapter 48, that's only a couple of days later, so they're still in this tentative zone of 'i'm picking up on signals but i don't want to assume i'm right', but i do think the confession comes not long after

will regulus notice? no. he is preoccupied. and maeve and emma's relationship also has a bit of a slow start, if that makes sense? like, there's not much difference between how they act around each other shortly before the confession and how they act around each other shortly after the confession, except for a certain subtle degree of giddiness that, as i said, regulus is not noticing aghslghsjdkfshgjdf (he has good reasons)

i may change my mind on this later if it feels more fitting, but as of right now i don't think there will be some sort of Explicit Relationship Reveal that they do, at least not for a while. it'll be more of a progression - there's the Noticing Of Mutual Feelings, which regulus has accomplished, and then there's the Noticing Of Increasing Mutual Comfort Around Each Other, which regulus has not accomplished but in fairness to him it's Quite early for that

lucinda and evan, of course, will simply be informed of the developments and not have to put the pieces together themselves

[genderfluid-druid]

.

[plymath-a]

anyway while it's early and empty on the dash, i wanna rant about a cold take i've seen floating around for some reason: alhaitham is not arrogant. he knows exactly what he can probably do better than the average person, but he doesn't brag about it. he's distant, and he's blunt, and he's sarcastic, yes. but he knows his skillset and his limits, he's open-minded, he's aware that he's intelligent, and he knows what he wants as well as what the best way to get said thing is; he is not arrogant, he is confident.

[blujayonthewing]

sometimes I think about this twitter exchange that went around awhile back that was like "[actress] SLAM DUNKS rude guy" or whatever

but the "rude guy" was commenting some pretty normal criticism of a movie as a response to someone else's tweet about that movie, and SOME THIRD PARTY was like "Oh yeah??? well why don't you say that to @[actress]'s FACE"

like what the fuck!! why are we spreading this around like some totally deserved epic smackdown!! he wasn't TRYING to be rude to her FACE!! you should be allowed to be unimpressed with someone's acting on social media without the risk of having that person be PERSONALLY SUMMONED TO DESTROY YOU OVER IT

[hella1975]

i used to have such a romanticised idea of nottingham like my dad used to go there to work back when he was in his 'not see my family for six days of the week' grind and id be DEAD CERTAIN in my child's mind that he was like. hanging out with robin hood and shit like i genuinely just assumed nottingham was still all fields and castles. and now im like oh. yeah no that's notts. yeah someone tested the floor of one of the clubs there and it came back positive for chlamydia. yeah

[bibiana112]

Me yelling furiously in the discord call about a random subject not because I'm mad but cause I'm just Opinionated™ and can't regulate how that sounds very well and feel safe enough to do so steadily actually getting annoyed because the one person in the call who doesn't know me keeps teasing about me being mad and for me to calm down is not a fun thing except when this one guy with the Kel icon does it because mine is still Aubrey and that fits their dynamic so much it's funny

[veshialles]

"but i don't want you to do your research, I want you to listen to me" MOM OH MY GOD THAT IS EXACTLY THE PROBLEM! how am i related to someone so fucking dense???