#i project onto you way too much

[critter-wizard]

ep 43 had me tearing up in a fucking shopping centre ‼️‼️

b+w alt version that I truly couldn't decide if I liked it more . Also I included a lot of thoughts in the tags but they're somewhat incoherent<3

[casualavocados]

We are brothers. It's my job to take care of you— I don't need it. If you are that free, go find Zhang Teng. Or you can go back to the headquarters and take care of our boss.

KISEKI: DEAR TO ME Ep. 04

[cream-and-tea]

yeah i’m thinking about parallels in my own book. yeah it’s gonna be all day sorry.

[foggyfanfic]

Mirabel Thoughts

Writing from the perspective of a villager and trying to decide how the different Madrigals look from the outside, and Mirabel is the one I’m having a hard time pinning. As usual, putting the thoughts to screen helps.

So obviously Mirabel doesn’t receive the same level of admiration as Isabela or Abuela, and she doesn’t seem to be relied upon as heavily as Luisa and Julieta. The warm color branch of the family seems to be high charisma, so they’re probably popular in the more traditional sense. And of course we know that Bruno is the least liked Madrigal. So what social niche is Mirabel fulfilling?

She doesn’t seem to be disliked, although she is shown to be pitied by the villagers (the “not special” special), she’s probably looked down upon just a little. She probably had to deal with some bullying from other kids, but not Complete Social Pariah levels. The threat of being the next Bruno is looming over her head but she’s not quite there yet.

I think, since she must fall somewhere on the middle of Popular to Pariah scale, she’s the sort of person who gets voted Everybody’s Best Friend in school. Idk if you had any one like this at your school, but when I was fifteen I had a few people who I didn’t think of as popular because they weren’t endlessly charismatic, constantly the center of attention, or noticeably cooler than the rest of us. But looking back, everyone liked them because they were just so nice. I’m picturing the girl who eventually ended up being voted Homecoming Queen for my grade specifically. I’ll name drop because it wasn’t her legal name and it’s a very common one.

So, Mary had a lot in common with Mirabel. She was intelligent, easy to talk to, and always happy to help. I didn’t think of her as being glamorously beautiful the same way Mirabel isn’t designed to be the next Disney Princess, but she was pretty and Mirabel is too. I didn’t think of her as being cool or an A-list kid or anything because she sometimes said things in an awkward way, or embarrassed herself, like Mirabel falling over stuff in the movie. While there were people that felt “cool” and who I therefore wanted to impress, Mary was just plain old pleasant to be around, I wanted to talk to her because I felt comfortable around her and enjoyed our conversations. And I thought of her as a friend because she treated me like a friend, she treated everybody like a friend, even people I thought sucked. She was very much down to earth and probably a lot more mature than I was at the time. I remember being pleasantly surprised to see her name on the ballot for homecoming queen, and even more so when she beat out the girl who fell more in line with what TV told me popular looks like. It really reframed the way I saw people. While it’s true that snobs and bullies sometimes gain social currency by convincing people they’re at the top of the ladder, being a genuine friend gets you farther than you realize.

I doubt Mirabel is a one to one comparison to this real world person I knew in high school, but I figure she probably has similar social standing. She has the social currency of being a Madrigal, then add in the fact that she would seem so much more down to earth than the other Madrigals while still being friendly and helpful, and you end up with a Mary. People probably don’t flock to her, but if I were fifteen and in the Encanto you could bet your ass I’d be happy to sit with her at lunch or see her at a party. I’m sure impressionable young me would be just as star struck as the rest of the villagers when it comes to Camilo and Isabela, and wiser adult me would of course want to hang out with Bruno, but I would be pleasantly surprised to see Mirabel’s name on the ballot for Harvest Festival Queen or whatever, and I would vote for her because “that’s my friend”.

Furthermore, Mirabel reminds me of somebody who has some sorta neurodivergence but flies under the radar with it. Considering the Madrigals seem to have a family history of anxiety disorders, Mirabel could too, autism is also in the running since Bruno and Antonio both show signs of it. She does remind me of a guy I knew at college #2 who had an anxiety disorder that bordered on being a physical disability rather than straight neurodivergence. For the most part his anxiety didn’t bother him, then every once in a while his body would decide “Ok! It’s panic attack time!” and he would start experiencing all the physical symptoms of a panic attack with no warning. The first time it happened to him he straight up thought he was having a heart attack because it was so out of no where. He was also not cool, but very kind and friendly, so I’m going to choose to believe that’s what Mirabel has going on. This figures into the equation because I’ve noticed that neurodivergent folks that fly under the radar usually get labeled as “quirky” and it’s considered a good trait, a relatable trait, but not necessarily a cool trait.

Conclusion: I am now convinced that Mirabel is considered the least “popular” Madrigal, but everybody sees her as their friend. She probably has the most genuine connections with the other residents of Encanto, followed by Félix and Agustín, then Luisa and Pepa (who work with the villagers doing odd jobs or watering the crops), then Alma and Dolores (Alma having real friends from before she was A Big Deal, and Dolores having earned a few very loyal friends by keeping their secrets), then Camilo and Julieta each have one or two friends outside the family but are much beloved/admired in a more superficial way, then Isabela is the most popular but also technically the most lonely since not even her family gets hints at her real self until after the movie. Bruno is, of course, in a league of his own because he’s in the walls, so yeah. And Antonio is five, so it’s a little too soon to judge.

[good-beanswrites]

I JUST REALIZEd. Lcsys as the Truman show (if you haven't watched that, it's about this guy who gets his life entirely broadcasted as a TV show but he doesn't know about it)

OOHHH yes >:O It's been a while since I've seen the movie so I wasn't able to remember many specific details, but like a lot of people that last scene really stuck with me

There's an added level of weirdness that Es has to come to terms with when the reveal finally happens -- the fact that this audience actually knows more about them than themself. (I think if it were real, Milgram's dedicated fanbase could have tracked down Es' true identity by the end.) These people see Es' every move, hear their every word, scrutinize their every decision, and knew their real name long before they did...

On a sillier note, I remember the scene with the advertisements and I'm laughing picturing the prisoners trying to hype up their own mv release dates. Es posts the interrogation schedule and every five seconds someone is like, "Oh Wow! I Can't Believe My Song Will Be Extracted On Wednesday March Fifth At Six O'Clock PM Japan Standard Time! I'm So Nervous For Wednesday March Fifth At Six O'Clock PM Japan Standard Time!"

[commsroom]

eiffel's problem is that he sees every injustice as an interpersonal issue. he doesn't understand how his flippancy or apparent leniency towards hilbert might look to hera; in his mind, it doesn't contradict his support for her. to eiffel, it seems obvious - he is also one of hilbert's victims, hera is his friend, of course he's completely on her side - but he fails to fully grasp how the stakes are different for her.

ep 19: "you need to stop treating this like a joke, officer eiffel." / "hey, i'm the person for whom the joke tolls." / "i get you're scared he put something inside you. but i hope you haven't forgotten emergency code alpha victor. he put that in me." and ep 51: "they're just jokes! they don't really mean anything." / "see, eiffel, you get to have that. they can be 'just jokes' for you because you're... well, you. but we don't get that."

the issue in shut up and listen is eiffel's repeated, if unintentional, microaggressions, but it's also his general use of dark humor as a coping mechanism - jokes he feels justified in making because of how the subjects of those jokes have impacted him. eiffel sincerely believes in treating people equally, but his idea of 'equal treatment' can be idealistic and naive. he has an awareness of interpersonal harm, but he's lived most of his life without ever being confronted with the reality of structural harm - being pre-judged and othered and having his life devalued on the basis of outside categorization.

but the thing about that is that it has happened to him, too. eiffel is an addict, and a convict, and marked as from a lower socioeconomic class than minkowski or lovelace, and those things are the reasons goddard futuristics was able to buy him as prison labor and - without his consent - consider him expendable for medical experimentation. none of that is a coincidence, but he doesn't see the systems at work, only his own actions and regrets. which he then equivocates to the worst actions of people who don't share his sense of morality or guilt.

eiffel's ability to recognize and bring out the humanity in the people around him is one of his best qualities, but... on the basis of his identity, he's been able to live a life where he conceptualizes himself as the default person, and that's been reinforced by the pop culture he loves so much. that's a massive blind spot. he assumes everyone navigates the world in a similar way, and so, on some level, he sees everyone around him as an extension of or a reflection of himself. if evil is always personal, then it can always be reasoned with.

[flamemons]

sketches from like, july, until recently, ordered loosely by the date i drew it

[maple-keenes]

people hear "jojo is for the queers" and think it's because of the outfits and the queer undertones (and overtones, i refuse to believe it's all unintentional, abbacchio and bucciarati i'm looking at you two specifically) but it's actually because the "stand users attract other stand users" thing is a really good metaphor for how queer friend groups form and the idea of only certain people being able to see a part of yourself speaks to the queer experience like crazy

[gwensy]

gonna be annoying in the tags

[thelambthatkilledthewolf]

Thinking about the inherent abusive relationship between an avatar and their fear entity

[endlessfuckup]

saw your post about no longer wanting to be a phan blog and i just wanted to say i get you especially the reaction to this tour has been very uncomfortable and i could never figure out exactly why it felt... overbearing ig??? but it has been building and the tour leak and announcement just seemed to put a spotlight on people seem to have learned nothing from the previous years and seem to think that now that they're back it's okay to push their boundaries because they're engaging with us again. and tbh i appreciate you for helping put into words the discomfort ive been feeling and it sucks that it turned out like this that the enjoyment of the thing gets harder because of others

I was so so hoping it wouldn't get like this again

The first 5-6 months of the gaming channel being back were mostly wonderful

Everyone was behaving and respectfully enjoying dnp being back as a duo

I've seen/felt it building up over the past few months but I kept ignoring it because I figured it was just newer phans who didn't know about any of "the lore"

But every time I'd check their page out it would almost always be someone in their mid-late 20s who has been around for 10+ years

I was dumbfounded

I genuinely cannot believe people still treat Dan and Phil like tv characters who exist purely for entertaining the masses

Its really sad

[everythingisround]

not vagueposting about anyone in particular (i like yall dont worry) but i get a teensy bit annoyed when newer raggedy fans interpret andy as this soft uwu baby boy who secretly loves everyone and will protect them at all costs. im sorry but if i dont see andy carrying a fistful of explosives ready to blow up a nearby orphanage at any moment and then immediately after go vent to some kid on roblox about his life problems then it’s not worth my time lolz

[frankensteinmutual]

one of my housemates is so fucking sensitive it turns me into a person I do not like

[13eyond13]

Can't stress enough how much I appreciate that many fans of this series are fine with pointing out and acknowledging the flaws in their faves and seeing those flaws as part of the essential flavoring rather than something to erase or constantly get offended about people noticing

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

oughh......

[darkartistyt]

Yeah I have three older siblings. Gestures. Arguing over random shit. “No you can’t do that I’m telling” the Cain instinct and shoving. Yeahhh

Damb how did you survive with three siblings, me and my brother could barely handle just each other when we were little