#it's all about the adult growth

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

I have all of these extended thoughts on my head about the amazing way themes and character relationships are handled in Iruma-kun and the inclusion of queerness and the handling of the coming of age narrative in this shonen manga/anime

And every time all that comes out when I'm reccing it is "You should watch/read it"

Do it. Go watch/read Mairimashita! Iruma-kun/Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun

Please.

[crossedwithblue]

El Higgins and Discworld comparisons

So I've seen a couple of comparisons between El and Tiffany, and to an extent I guess I agree - they're both young female YA-ish protags who are passionate about injustice. However, I'm not convinced that El really does weaponise her selfishness into a virtue the way Tiffany does - El (at least where I'm up to) is more about being crankily selfless despite her better judgement.

Which Discworld character does that remind me of a lot more than TIffany? Prickly? Aggressively practical? Expresses concern and affection via tough love? Tall, attractive in a scary way, with a death glare that could melt steel? Perhaps a tad arrogant about her own raw ability, or at least, not precisely humble? An unreliable narrator convinced that other people hang out with her only for whatuse she is to them, and continually surprised when someone wants her for who she is? Constantly battling not to take the easy path of becoming a monster, arguably despite a world determined to paint her that way? Has a himbo boyfriend she keeps trying to push away?

Am I describing El, or Granny Weatherwax?

(PLEASE no spoilers beyond the middle of book 2/Field Day, I am aware that the boyfriend situation has different outcomes in the two cases but it's still a parallel IMO.)

[xhanisai]

Fanfic writers and comic artists who keep all of Marinette's silly quirks, all of her flaws and unhingedness even with her aged up-

I LOVE YOU

Thank you for not shoving her in the "normal" box!

[july-19th-club]

"mister magic" a genuinely good book so far. a little over halfway through it and it definitely is one of those ones you want to go into completely blind but i'm really enjoying it . does a good job of laying enough breadcrumbs that the reader picks up on where it's going before some of the characters do, but the characters don't look dumb for taking so long to figure it out because they have personalities/experiences that preclude them from Noticing certain stuff, and it's not SO spelled out that the reader who gets it really early will get bored; there are still things you want answers to or elaboration on. and that is ALL i will say for now

[erisolkat]

god i hate everyone

[rowanisawriter]

strengths: knows every single oc any mutual has ever posted about, can identify them on sight in art found in the wild, knows who they’re romancing and why

growth areas: opens and closes the fridge door six times before fully absorbing what’s inside

[litrallytyrus]

watching the percy jackson series knowing everything that these kids r gonna go through and experience together makes me feel genuinely insane like mentally emotionally physically unstable i’m falling onto my knees clutching my stomach like omg

[torybrennan]

it's so bizarre to me that hi is certainly taller than tory. like, doing the math from context clues, he's reasonably tall. i don't know why that feels weird. like objectively i've known this for ages but i just always subconsciously picture him about tory's height

[absolutelyarealperson]

I think Boston got a happy ending. He's getting a fresh start, and everything in the finale just felt like it was setting him up to leave for America with no regrets or loose ends.

He apologized for the things he did wrong, and pointedly did not apologize for the things he didn't do wrong. He's a messy boy and I love him for that, but he absolutely did some things worth apologizing for, so I'm not mad at the fact that the show let him apologize. He did everything he could to repair his relationships with his friends, and for the most part, he did repair them. Cheum is happy to welcome him back into the group. Ray is still protective of Mew, and is always going to side with Mew over Boston when forced to choose, but he doesn't seem to harbor any hard feelings of his own. His friendship with Mew is irreparably broken, and that's kind of ok with me. It's true to life; some relationships you can repair, and some you can't. But Boston did what he could. He doesn't have to hold onto guilt or wonder what would have happened if he reached out.

The friend group dynamic was never going to go back to what it was before, because Boston was leaving the whole continent. There was always going to be a shift. We were always going to end up with all of the others getting close and having experiences together without Boston there. But he fixed things enough that they're staying in touch.

And he and Nick broke up a bit earlier than they would have. But they would have broken up anyway. That relationship always had an expiration date. Boston set it up that way on purpose (I feel like knowing it had an ending was the only way he could give himself permission to even try for the first time, but that's probably a whole other post I could make). And he got to learn about himself. He likes romance; he can fall in love. It's just that romance and sex are two completely separate things for him. And he's moving to NYC! You know he's going to find some like minded people and figure himself out further, and find fulfilling relationships that work for him, now that he knows more about his wants and needs.

And it's so much better that Nick didn't follow him to New York. I cannot see that ending well. Because once Boston and Nick both learned enough about themselves to have an open and honest conversation about what they wanted in a relationship, it was clear that they loved each other AND they wanted fundamentally different things. Somehow a clean break for a reason other than the move to America feels better. They're not holding on or trying to stretch out the end so it hurts more or longer. They loved each other. It meant something. And it ended. The end doesn't make the rest matter less.

And Boston, a Boston who learned and grew from the events in this series, is planning to be totally out in America, away from his dad. No more hiding. No more worry about black mail. He's the person taking the photos and choosing to make them public as art.

Everything about the finale just felt like it was setting Boston up for a fresh start in the best and cleanest way possible. Repairing the ties that could be part of his support system, even across continents. Cutting ties that were only going to hold him back or hurt him worse. Letting him get things off his chest, so he could leave without regrets or what-ifs. I think this episode was so good to Boston.

[freckleslikestars]

Genuinely don’t understand people going ‘I like this character but they’ve done a bad thing so now I don’t like them’

Like. What? You want your favourites to be perfect and unblemished? What’s interesting about that?! What’s compelling about that?!

Also just. People don’t work like that. People do bad things and they have ulterior motives and they make mistakes and 9 times out of 10 that’s okay because most people aren’t good or evil, they’re just people. They’re just existing and trying to survive and nobody’s perfect. And to see fictional characters allowed to make those same mistakes is both fascinatingly beautiful and a reminder that it’s okay to fuck up.

[eebie]

freak it. up!!

[aria0fgold]

Lil rambling bout how Alec was as a kid. One word, troublemaker. But, in a good way??? Like, he is also very precious, friendly, and kind that it cancels out how much of a troublemaker he can be until he does something to remind that: "Oh yeah this kid can be a headache sometimes."

During class he can be well behaved, can be, which is only sometimes. He's not the, I'm going to disrupt the class misbehaving type but it also lowkey disrupts the class anyway (He loves asking questions, at first his questions will be on topic but if you let him ask questions for too long it'll end up getting derailed.)

He's just a really curious and incredibly talkative kid. The moment Alec talks to you prepare listen for hours on several topics (cuz he jumps from topic to topic he can barely stay on track, he will try if you tell him but... dont count on it). Bubbly and cheerful too like, he's like a golden retriever combined with a samoyed.

At some point, Alec became their school's lil unofficial mascot cuz nearly everyone knows him. And it's a reputation split between "annoying" and "lovable." Also don't mistake his kindness as being really nice, he's kind, but he can be mean too if you're mean to him as well. (Which is not a good thing unless you're prepared to have an earful of angry ranting from a kid that won't shut up. he can practically insult you without using that many harsh words. also it may end up as a semi-rap he'll be talking so fast with barely any breaks in between).

Don't even try to get physical with him as well, he knows martial arts (if Ray's parents enrolled him in acting lessons, Alec's parents got him in martial arts training. In their defense, it can hopefully help spend some of Alec's seemingly unlimited supply of energy. And hey, Alec enjoys it too anyway!)

Basically, Alec is a very sporty kid! He loves doing physical activities a lot more than studying... You can see where that went for him (he only gets barely passing grades up until Ray started helping him out with it which thankfully improved that a bit!)

Ray on the other hand is like the complete opposite of Alec in that he's very shy, not at all good with groups and talking to practically everyone unless he's close to them. These two are a great combo where Alec helps Ray in terms of socializing and physical activities, while Ray helps Alec in terms of studies and keeping him in check (making sure he doesnt get into too much of a trouble).

[that-was-anticlimactic]

wha... whats mob psycho 100 about

the only thing i know about the window is when the ginger lost to sans

*deep inhale*

okay! so mp100 is about this fourteen year old named shigeo kageyama (aka, mob) and he is an esper and a SUPER powerful one at that!!! he works at spirits and such which is reigen's psychic business. here's the thing, tho, reigen arataka (ginger who lost to sans) is Not a psychic - he pretends to be one because he got bored one day.

mob is scared of his powers and doesn't like using them due to an incident from his childhood involving his younger brother, ritsu kageyama (aka best character baby boy my favorite my blorbo my skrunkly my silly little guy i have feeligngs). i won't spoil that tho! anyways, he has ✨trauma✨ because of it (so does ritsu) and reigen actually helped him out with it, even tho he was kind of just making stuff up, he actually really helps mob and is like a mentor to him!

along the way, mob meets dimple - an evil spirit who started a cult and then follows mob around everywhere!

teruki hanazawa (aka, teru) (today is his birthday!) - a fellow middle schooler esper except this boy is so very cocky and beats up thugs! he gets in a big fight with mob but the fight is very one-sided! they become besties <3

the plot really thickens in s1 at the bg clean up arc! ritsu is just a normal middle schooler - he's on the student council, he's *popular* (lol not really but he Is but he Isn't), he's good at sports, his grades are amazing... he's everything mob wishes he was. and yet... mob is everything ritsu wishes he was. all ritsu wants is psychic powers. he has a MAJOR inferiority complex.

luckily, he gets so stressed out about framing a middle schooler for stealing girls' recorder mouthpieces to lick them that he develops psychic powers! dimple manipulates him for a bit, ritsu has a breakdown, someone tries conning mob into giving them five million yen, ritsu starts becoming like teru was...

anyways, he ends up going to a facility that's trying to like... learn how to develop psychic powers and meets other kids with powers there (he goes under mob's name because he was mistaken for mob - he starts before he develops his powers) and that facility is how this organization called "CLAW" finds him.

CLAW is made up of *mostly* adult espers and they like... want to take over the world lol

also mob is in love with tsubomi but is a wuss (affectionate), he joins the body improvement club instead of the telepathy club because he just wants muscles and that pisses tome off (tome is the telepathy club president and she just wants to meet aliens <3), reiegn is conning people, teru gets a wig... it's a lovely show <3

[allonsybadwolf]

Sometimes I feel like I don't have the whole "clumsy" aspect of autism, because I never really have any issues at home. Where I am most of the time. Where I've lived for many years. Where my body has gained the muscle memory to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge around all the obstacles.

Then I go to my friend's house and immediately audibly bang my knee on the table, hit my head on a lamp twice, knock the same thing off the counter THREE TIMES, and drop what I'm holding just.. constantly

Yeah I have no awareness of the space around me NOR what my body is doing in it

[mejomonster]

Ok the book My Best Friends Exorcism is so good, now I'm craving more stories like this

[a-place-to-exist]

i feel like there are two different people growing in me and to be able to live they have to eat the other like twins in the womb. one will come out on top after having consumed its opposite