#i guess? they qualify?

[3amsnek]

birth

[implalazz]

They r funny to me

[bakedbananners]

I don’t really care about “defining” Murderbot and ART’s relationship I think they’re both uniquely insane human-adjacent but Not Quite sentiences that defy total human comprehension. Murderbot is the only way ART can contextualize human experience. ART is how Murderbot allows itself to be vulnerable because it literally doesn't let it be alone in its brain where it can generate 5 trillion faulty risk assessments per second. ART gaslights Murderbot into thinking it died and then shoots missiles at the colony when it gets kidnapped. They made a kamikaze AI baby together.

[turtledotjpeg]

silly lil farming sim AU drawn for a discord server event :) i got a little too lazy to include all the characters i had wanted to, so please imagine for me:

linssen quietly surrounded by a flock of chickens on the nostrade farm. only successful chicken whisperer

canary and alluka hanging out at the flower shop/seeds shop and that killua's face looks less wonky

cheadle is the town mayor. we don't talk about the previous mayor.

[artscheese]

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good NiGHTS 🎄✨

[sugarcarnation]

thinking about how ultimately it was dazai who was too sentimental to stay in the mafia

[goingbuggy]

Looking back at these panels, it does seem like Buggy was venting his feelings about Shanks by yelling at Luffy -- even if he didn't realize it in the moment. Although the straw hat has its own meaning to Luffy, to Buggy, it was always a symbol of Shanks' potential.

Even though the straw hat was Roger's first, Buggy associates it with Shanks more than anyone else. When he reflects on Shanks' promise, we see Roger's hand on Shanks' head/hat (a move Shanks mimics when he recognizes Luffy's potential for greatness, too). But Roger isn't even fully in frame.

Buggy definitely cared about Roger's legacy, but he also believed Shanks would surpass that legacy in order to become the next generation's "king." The hat -- the crown -- was always Shanks' to wear. No one else's. (Certainly not his. He never believed in himself.)

So, once Luffy calls the straw hat his treasure, Buggy fixates on it as a target. That idea clearly pisses him off -- irrationally so. Based on what we know about Buggy, giving is not something he does; if he considers something treasure, he hoards it aggressively. He'd even go as far as to kill someone over it. Unlike Shanks, he would never give something up and then dare to call it a precious "treasure."

I think Buggy believes that Shanks would have kept the straw hat if he truly treasured it. Protected it with his life. He would have fought instead of falling back, and gone to Laughtale as soon as he could. He would have lived up to his potential. But he did none of that. So, in the end, the straw hat is worth as much as his word: nothing at all.

If Buggy truly associated the straw hat with Roger, I don't think he would have spit on it or damaged it the way he does in this chapter. He clearly still holds his former captain in high regard, after all. But when it comes to Shanks, Buggy lets his anger, hurt, and disappointment get the best of him.

I'm definitely reading a little too much into this scene, but it really sticks with me; Buggy's violent outburst speaks volumes about his subconscious. And because Luffy can be so similar to Shanks at times, I think it's easier to project his repressed feelings onto Luffy.

[polin-erospsyche]

This post was inspired by a comment from an anon in my ask box. They mentioned that if the Queen hadn’t interrupted Polin's wedding, they could have had a beautiful wedding night (if you’re the anon and you’re reading this, hi! And also, I know this isn't everything, but I'll touch on the rest. Small disclaimer: this got long and I’m sorry).

I agree, that could have happened. But honestly, I'm really glad it didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to see it, but I don’t think it would have been good for them. The intimate scenes we did get tell an overarching story and serve a purpose in the narrative. We’ve been told that these intimate moments are a way for them to communicate, so let’s unpack that.

The first intimate scene is about them discovering each other in a new, intimate way, moving from friendship (which had already started to happen in the carriage) to a lover relationship. This moment is crucial for Penelope's story and character development. From this, she grows in confidence and self-awareness. She expresses this to Colin multiple times, such as when she says, “with the confidence you’ve helped me find this year,” and later, “You’ve taught me to hold my own. You have shown me I’m capable of pleasure beyond imagination.”

From that intimate scene onward, Penelope starts to come into her own power and that includes her sexual power. Colin shows her a level of love and care beyond what she ever thought possible, breaking down the belief system she built around herself. She was ready to sacrifice her dreams of being loved and held for financial stability, a mindset ingrained by Portia. Colin helps her see that this doesn’t have to be the case, chipping away at her long-held beliefs.

Let’s now move to the scene in the alleyway, which links back to anon’s comment. Anon suggests that this is the moment they start repairing their relationship post LW reveal. That following this scene they were in a good enough place to enjoy their wedding night if the Queen hadn’t crashed the party. Yes. And no. 

And oh my god how I’ve longed to discuss this scene but I never quite knew how to approach it. At this point in the show, the narrative is like a tightly wound ball of yarn with so many threads to pull at. So, let’s attempt to pull at them. 

First of all, they’ve entered a whole new playing field. And they’ve entered this playing field while being “the oldest of friends really” so they have ammunition against each other. Pen has hurt Colin by lying (hiding the truth from him time and time again) about her identity. She has let him go on and on about his despise of Lady Whistledown. About his dreams of being an author. These were things he told her in intimacy. Those were things he told his best friend and the person he fell in love with. Not the woman who hides behind her column and has done so much wrong to his family and loved ones. 

There is a separation between the two. For Colin, in that alleyway, there is still just Pen his best friend, Penelope the woman he loves and on the other side of that there is Lady Whistledown, the woman he vowed to destroy. He expresses that when he says “so then you do not need Lady Whistledown anymore”. What he fails to realise at this point, and he cannot be blamed for that, is that Lady Whistledown is an integral part of who Penelope Featherington is as a person. That her alter ego is not just a mask she wears but a crucial aspect of her identity, giving her a sense of power and agency in a world that often limits her as a woman. Something that Pen has slowly come to terms with when she says that she no longer needs to hide behind this alter ego but that does not mean there is no value in it, something that she also explains to him after the Queen has crashed their wedding breakfast. 

Now I say that he cannot be blamed for his refusal of recognizing that they are one and the same because he is still holding onto his misbelief, which is that to be loved and to have a value he must protect what he loves and be useful. Part of that is saving and avenging the people he loves from Whistledown. He has given his word to Eloise, to Marina indirectly, to himself and I’m thinking to Pen silently after what she’s written about herself. He finds himself, due to his misbelief, between a rock and a hard place: “the person he vowed to destroy is, in fact, the person he vowed to protect, and there is no separation between the two” (not me directly quoting myself lol). To this you add all the shame over his writing and his envy of her success and you have a recipe for disaster. 

So essentially, in that alleyway you have Pen who is already well along her character arc and Colin who is still gripping onto his original, unchanged self. This represents a power imbalance. What I love throughout this season, and I might write something about this one day, is that Pen and Colin are never quite on the same level both literally and figuratively. There is always one ahead of the other. This, in the long run, is another recipe for disaster because they are never quite equal. That is UNTIL that butterfly ball when they’ve gone through their character arc respectively. That is the moment they fully come together. They become a unit. They are no longer fighting against each other but with each other and for each other. 

But to arrive to this moment they need to do it separately. They need to be able to work on themselves before they can fully be able to work on their marriage. Genevieve says it well “there is no such thing as true love without first embracing your true self”. For Penelope that is becoming Penelope Bridgerton, an amalgam of the best parts of Whistledown and Penelope Featherington. For Colin that is deconstructing his hero complex and fully believing that he is enough just by being exactly who he is. And that has not happened in that alleyway. Truthfully the surface has barely been scraped in that scene because she essentially shuts down his demons for an instant by saying that she loves him. However, the issues remain. 

So yes, we can speculate all we want. If the Queen had not interrupted their wedding, they might have had a wedding night and they might have had a talk about everything afterward. However, the lack of acceptance of their true selves would have driven them up a wall at the next problem, which was how to handle Cressida.

And I think that is why Polin season is actually so beautiful. It is not just about Polin. It is about marriage and how hard it can get, and how you have to work on yourself to fit around the person you love without sacrificing yourself in the process. It is about choosing each other every day, through the ugly as well as the beautiful, through the hard parts as well as the easy ones. It’s choosing to have faith that you’ll work and figure it out without an assurance that it actually will, but if the love is there, then it just might. That is the story they chose to tell through Penelope and Colin.

First gif made by my bestie @polinsated 💕

[theminecraftbee]

anyway you ever accidentally infect yourself with moon's big emotions again because you were trying to go back and choose a clip to reblog as propaganda and suddenly and violently are reminded of how -

the first time that joe hills flies since the season began is while the world is ending.

this is, well, sorta his decision. it started as a bit, right? iskall made a club for people to not-fly. most people gave up eventually; the truth is that the average hermit megabase isn't particularly accessible unless you have wings, not at that size. joe isn't one for giving up, though. he goes for that top medal, and he goes for it hard, but the thing is, iskall isn't around much -

maybe he'd somehow seen what was coming, honestly, so who can blame her, etho eventually leaves too and they were living together so it really makes sense, but -

joe is a stubborn bastard. joe knows iskall owes him a prize. joe will deprive himself the joy of being able to fly for as long as he needs to until iskall gets him that medal, gets him that arbitrary reward, and then joe will fly. only then. he'll rub it in everyone's faces - look at him! his score is highest on the scoreboard x put up for 'length of time without flying'! his score is the only one still ticking up! he's -

and then he stands in a swamp on halloween and thinks 'huh the full moon is awfully full' and doesn't say anything other than to think it's the wrong day for a full -

and then he's trying to figure out how to finish moving the castle walls and he's making measurements and the world is shaking and the moon is definitely growing and -

and then the ground starts to rise up beneath him and cleo's talking about running and joe doesn't want to run but joe doesn't want, he hasn't gotten his wings yet, he can measure it, if he can measure it surely they can stop it, if he can -

and then the world is ending.

sometimes i think about how the first time joe flies in season eight, he decides to still follow his arbitrary rules. he goes to steal his medal from iskall's club; no one will miss it. he puts the wings on. he walks to spawn despite having the medal.

he watches cleo leave. he doesn't try to follow her. having two of them will slow them both down, is the thing. maybe he regrets it. sometimes he regrets it. sometimes they both regret it. they care about each other too much and know each other too well to think they'd do anything different but -

then he's standing alone and he puts on the wings and he flies, and it's the first time he's flown since he landed on the world. he flies upwards, lighting rockets, trying to break free of gravity and fate and the moon that's about to kill everyone left on the ground.

the first time joe flies in season eight is the last time it would remain.

do you think it looked small, looking down?

[tls123]

THE UNTAMED  —  episode thirty-one

[tearwolfe]

Biting moments are real in the puppy detective au, cant escape those freaks

hmm yeah you might be right

[thesexiestselkie]

Good luck 🍀

[solarwreathe]

me when no boo in mario movie trailer

i liked the sketch better..

[kingofanemptyworld]

Rin, identity issues, and the complications of being an isolated, alienated teenager

It feels sort of weird to say but I generally don’t head canon characters as having particular sexualities. Whatever people go for in fics is usually fine with me - gay, lesbian, bi, pan, something more general like queer. As long as it makes sense for the story they’ve built and the character they’ve shaped to fit it, I’m good. Unless you’re ignoring a canon LGBTQ+ sexuality, in which case, yeah, I’ll take issue with that.

But anyway. Rin.

I’ve got my personal ship for him (BonRin my beloved), but regardless of the pairing I see him as bisexual. He’s so open with his infatuation with Shiemi, and okay, sure, fandom likes to ignore the love interest in shounen for the most part because we’ve got gay ships to peddle. But I don’t see the point in that unless it really reads like it’s a front, or a result of a character suppressing themselves for one reason or another. And with Rin, I think it’s pretty clear his affection for Shiemi is sincere. You technically have the in-universe evidence of the demon that brought out his true desires to back that up, but even without it, Rin likes her. It’s complicated because of Yukio and Shiemi’s own inexperience with romance, and yet I never once doubt he really likes her.

That being said… he’s very appreciative of the guys in his life, too. (Peddling my gay ship here) Bon in particular, considering he’s often admiring how cool he thinks Bon is, that his haircut suits him whether it’s the blonde rooster look or the undercut. If you don’t want to see it as romantic interest, that’s your prerogative, but to me Rin comes across as seeing cool and cute as different traits he finds attractive (in Bon and Shiemi respectively).

I also think his bisexuality would fit neatly into his narrative struggles to “pass” throughout the early parts of the series. Rin has grown up as the neighborhood problem child, ostracized for being violent, and eventually he decides he’s fine with just his brother and his father — and the rest of the monastery, presumably — for company. (Except that’s absolutely not true and clearly he’s starved for friendship and support.) People looked at him and saw a monster, even before his demonic heritage made an appearance; why would he bother giving them even more ammunition when it comes to reasons to hate him? So no matter when he figured out his attraction to guys, he’s not going to lean into it, because he also likes girls, right? (Ignoring for a moment that bisexuality is a lot more nuanced than that.)

Rin likes girls, Rin is human — that’s what’s going to get people to like him, or at the very least tolerate him. That he likes guys, that he’s half demon, he can shove that shit down and pretend it doesn’t exist. Lock up any stray thoughts and keep the sword sheathed around anyone who doesn’t already know.

(Excuse me for being amused by Rin wielding his humanity and supposed heterosexuality as a sword and shield.)

The problem, of course, is that he can’t keep up the facade forever. The narrative won’t let him. Rin has to embrace his demonic side, because it’s the only way to move forward and to continue to help his loved ones. And once he’s moved past the issue of his friends being upset over the deception, when they understand he’s still Rin despite what he’d hidden from them, Rin is finally allowed to be himself. He uses his flames, he lets his tail move freely in the open around the Cram School kids. Rin still doesn’t like this side of himself — it’s inextricably tied to every moment of pain and isolation he’s dealt with his entire life, including the death of Father Fujimoto (and, y’know, his mom). But he is moving forward, he’s trying to adapt.

And isn’t that some great fucking subtext for his bisexuality, too?

[unexpectedbrickattack]

I bet Gustavo knows how’s exactly small he is and uses his charms and adorableness to get tips , and it’d work

Peppino pays Gus very well (esp after postgame) so theres no need to have tips. He lets Gus have the jar there anyway, but at the cost of having Pep occasionally come up behind him and catch him conning these poor customers

[thegreatyin]

so i made it to berlin.