#its a 1000 word essay

[key-lime-soda]

goodbye :3 *leaves to do my hw cuz it's due in 5 hours*

[milkbreadtoast]

(random) ngl before i started learning korean i felt like the worst failure of a korean but now i feel like the best failure of a korean (/j) HAHA

like im struggling to speak but least im speaking..!! I feel like I've restored an essential piece of myself that was missing...

[vitamin-zeeth]

horrible that I can't just play ace attorney and watch my silly shows all day that would be amazing unfortunately. the essay

[inkybinkyboink]

oh fellas it's essay writing time you know what that means

[goingferalapparently]

sometimes i forget what fandoms i've been in until they smash me in the head like a steel beam in the most incomprehensible combination of letters like "QSMP but in VLD" and then it just makes perfect sense in my head and i spend 2 hours of my life sketching rough designs like

etoiles doesn't know how he got caught up in all this, but he most definitely did. etoiles is not related to the garrison, but he's visiting his friend baghera where she's got a job there as a communications specialist.

it's not his fault at all that there's a very suspicious "meteor crash" while he's there. it's not his fault at all that baghera goes investigating. it's not his fault at all that he follows her (okay, maybe it kind of is, but it feels like something he has to do okay?) it's not his fault at all that former junior officer forever is snooping around too. it's not his fault at all that the "meteor crash" was actually just a star pilot cellbit in an alien spacecraft - star pilot cellbit who notoriously piloted a mission to the outskirts of the solar system with junior officer felps and lead scientists pac and mike, star pilot cellbit who crashed the ship onto the moon kerberos. anyway...

it's still definitely not etoiles' fault that they commit some form of crime/felony/something- he's not even sure what they just committed but now they have half the garrison on their tails and an unconscious should-be-dead star pilot, so they run. forever apparently knows how to hotwire a car and baghera apparently knows how to disable all the tracking devices and they're apparently good friends too, and etoiles is just standing there with someone's unconscious body in his hands and he's already this implicated, definitely an accomplice, and he's doomed anyway so he follows.

star pilot cellbit wakes up and apparently he and former junior officer forever are even better friends, and it's just etoiles who's. here. for some reason. apparently, etoiles is also the only person here with a shred of rationality, because star pilot cellbit starts talking about aliens, former junior officer forever talks about telepathic conversations, and even baghera starts talking about government level conspiracy cover-ups. and, again, etoiles is just. etoiles. baghera's friend that somehow got caught up in all of this.

former junior officer forever tries to show them the traces of alien civilisation and traces of telepathy but etoiles wanders off (something calls at him, traces his steps out for him), and lo and behold, he stumbles upon the alien spaceship that has been sending out telepathic brainwaves or something to former junior officer forever for the past 2 years that star pilot cellbit has been declared missing

the alien spaceship is a giant yellow lion and there's a giant yellow forcefield (????) around it that doesn't lower itself no matter how much the others try, until etoiles walks up and says hi to it. it's another thing, with the controls not reacting to, you know, star pilot cellbit, former junior officer who was a pilot forever, or even just communications specialist baghera who at least has an idea of what all these controls are.

etoiles, who is still just etoiles and has no clue what all these stuff is, accidentally touches a control, which lights up under his hand, which sends the alien spaceship careening into the sky and out of the atmosphere, out to the fringes of the solar system, and there's a giant alien spaceship out there and he fights it somehow, and apparently that's the giant alien spaceship that star pilot cellbit escaped from. somehow, he opens up a wormhole and the yellow alien lion spaceship zooms through it and now they're half the known universe away from home.

they exit the spaceship - star pilot shiro first with the most confidence, then everyone else when they see that they're not going to die of suffocation due to lack of oxygen or improper atmospheric pressure or something. there's a giant castle, which the alien lion spaceship roars at and it opens up???? and then they walk in and baghera pokes around something and two cryopods rise up from the ground and open up.

cue the alteans. altean prince roier mourns the loss of everything he's ever known as he wakes up 10000 decaphoebs into the future with nothing but the castleship and one other person. this one other person is his closest friend jaiden, who was made royal advisor just 5 vargas before the destruction of their world. both cling to the castleship because it's all they have left and all that truly belongs to them.

obviously, since these new people have arrived in the yellow lion, the alteans decide that this must be about reforming voltron, and now must be the time to strike back against the galran empire. there's uh, only one issue.

there's four people and five lions. they do not have enough people to form voltron.

there's another issue, actually, where they don't even know who matches up with which lion. there's only really one person who they can match a lion to, and that's the yellow lion with etoiles - who, is still the only person here to not actually be caught up in any of this space business. he's still here somehow. he does actually have some sort of fighting experience, though? he was in the fencing club when he was in university! altean prince roier probably should actually know how to match them, but he was never really that interested in that aspect of his studies.

because they only have the yellow lion and the black lion, they also need to collect the other three. and because they don't know which lion matches up with which person, they can't just send one person in to pilot the lion out, they have to send the yellow lion in to physically pick up the other lions. thank the stars that the yellow lion is one of the more sturdy lions.

these issues are only apparent to the alteans because, well, the humans have no clue what's going on. there's 5 spaceships to be piloted? well, there's 6 people here, that's not a problem to them. just get one of the alteans to pilot the last spaceship.

the alteans do not want to pilot the last lion, too attached to the castleship to abandon it.

it's a fundamental difference in their point of views.

it gets worse from here.

[istherewifiinhell]

Following is an analysis of how Koisenu Futari writes it aro characters, aro narrative and what it intends to convey, and is also my own personal thoughts and feelings in regards to that. I refer to the characters by some stero- and archetypal categories because they are fictional, and how they are is a choice made by writers. I wouldn't say these things about real people, and you don't have to agree with me. Also of course its plot and character important that Takahashi and Sakuko are AroAce. But I will just be saying aro, because that's what was so revolutionary in the show for me and what I'm focusing on in this. Cool? Great, awesome. Let's go.

Koisenu Futari is a show that doesn't seem real to me. Part of my brain assumes, no they didn't actually make an aro show that actually cares about aros. A show that knows and shows aros of all kinds, all-be-it, some just briefly in the meet up group. But as I'll posit, ideologically this show has the space for loveless aros and all of us that really defy the more easier to digest notions of aro-ness.

Because, the thing that stuck me most about this show is that our point of view character Sakuko, is the newly discovered aro. She's a kind person with a sweet disposition and friendly to most. She doesn't relate to all the romance around her (including when someone is being insulting to her about the nature of her lack of relationships), but she is eager to please people, and doesn't like to make any trouble. She's younger and career focused that leaves people do assume any time she doesn't mesh with romance society is simply a matter of late blooming.

And enter Takahashi, the person who's words help her understand herself, help save herself. A person she meets and can finally feel a comfortable, understanding, connection with. Takahashi, an old aro, a bitter aro, he's someone who is knowledgeable about the societal construction and history of romance. He feels deeply the effects of, and understands structurally, amatonormativity. He has couple speeches about such things ready to go and bubbling under the surface, and given with an orator's tilt, compared to the rest of his conversations. And, he is epitome of your repulsed aro, your touch adverse aro and non neurotypical passing aro.

But of course, that's not the totality of what anybody is, and that's not all these characters are. Takahashi is a thoughtful and sentimental man, he's closeted even a bit shy. And through that we see his bravery when working against his reserved nature. He feels lonely, but not devoid of meaning or purpose because of it.

Takahashi's live does certainly seem much happier, and fulfilled. He maintains a blog, his garden, he keeps traditions the contented mundane rituals of life. And to me it brings to mind statistics about masking, being closeted, transition, and their relation to wellness. There is often an inverse relationship to the joy or peace of being yourself, and access to certain parts of society, or safety within it. Which of course, Sakuko, due to being younger and her general disposition, does pass mostly unnoticed in these spaces, but at great cost, some she didn't even realise, or really admit to herself.

Sakuko is, of the two, someone who comes across as more palatable to normative society. The kind of people and structures that might prefer to see aros in QPs specifically so they more closes resemble allo (& hetero) monogamous relationships. Kazu's plot line brings home that the expectations of a man and a women living together supersede the need for actually romance. So they aren't in romantic love, but shouldn't they still have the aesthetic patina of it. If you're a family should the woman not be a caretaker and the man a protector? And, obviously, no. Amantonormativity as a word, as a lens to view society, didn't even originate in aro subculture, and shares a lot of overlap with hetero- and cis- normativity for a reason. And the show's deftly handles how far that norm is from the reality.

Takahashi isn't, we learn, living his perfect life, for a mixture of reasons. Many that I would qualify under a flinch response. If you live your life in defiance of something, against others insistence. It makes sense to be resistant to change, headstrong and immutable. So he'll wholeheartedly commit to his own life, and respect others' choices and feelings. He doesn't talk as much as he simply acts, he wouldn't question someone even if he should. And he won't change his life if it may imply his current way of life is wrong, even if the change could be for the better.

So it is in this these two characters differences that their affect can be seen on each other. Sakuko learns to live a committed and more defiant life. She learns to do things that make her happy, to reach out and grab things by the throat, instead of settle. And from Sakuko who had to change just to keep being herself. Takahashi learns that he doesn't have to live just one way. He can change, if he isn't as happy as he could be he can take a risk, and if that doesn't work, it doesn't have to be permanent. And at no point do they have to change the immutable parts of themselves.

Obviously, there is no trick romance snuck in. But more importantly and, perhaps insightfully, what might be considered secondary character traits are equally respected. Sakuko doesn't have to endure more peoples romantic feelings for her, she doesn't have to stop being career oriented, or fun loving. And she doesn't have to be closer to her family before they can respect her. Takahashi, and this truly blew me away to realise. Doesn't ever have to welcome people touching him, or even being too close. He doesn't have change his affect or his demeanor in emotional conversations. The biggest changes our characters go through come from their increased happiness and increased desire to work towards happiness.

And if it wasn't clear enough yet, the end state of the show knocks it out of the fucking park, and directly into my, and I hope others brains. To be forever lodged in our subconsciouses. The prescribed ideals aren't what give us meaning. Straight couples aren't all perfect, sometimes romantic feelings cause you pain, and structuring your life so it seems familiar is never more important that if it brings you satisfaction and joy. Their lives, their family, their connection to each other doesn't end or stop having meaning when it no longer approximates the very things they were trying to live away from.

[anonymousfandommurmurs]

Please compare the smile when Paul in a pictures with other persons (last one was when he hang out with Oliver & Russell) & when Paul in a pictures with Andrew

[themyscirah]

Going to try and finally get this essay rough draft finished (due 13hrs from now) and beat writers block through the power of comics blorbo. Will update on success when done

[arowrath]

i need to finish my essays like . today . but the problem is ummm . they are not one day from finished i think .

[bonestrouslingbones]

kicking my feet giggling while i draw 5 naked skeletons and write multiple labels for the different ways they're insecure about their bodies

[steelycunt]

is this political editorial ive written for my unit a masterpiece or a disastrous piece of shit. i dont like the fact that i cant tell

[possiblytracker]

for as long as i've been on meds ive had a problem with being really really understimulated in the first few hours after i get up, like it feels like there is NOTHING to do and nobody to talk to and i will literally explode into particles if i dont find something interesting to latch onto and slip into a hyperfocused fugue state about immediately. its only been worse since i started having morning classes this semester. anyway interesting that the one thing so far ive found thats actually helped alleviate it is pulling up a tumblr draft and infodumping to a completely fucking unhinged degree

[lonely-night]

me, waiting for sis to get off work this evening: I should start doing my resume since submission is this sunday

also me: how about I procrastinate this simple assignment till the very last minute

[greeds]

oh girl in my grief i forgot to read this massive graphic novel for class

[kuragesoda]

gendice for shop bingo!!

OOH a classic fr !! hmm i do have to admit tho that im nooot ..... really 100% into them as a solo pairing . im personally more interested in their dynamic within the context of fling poly :DD

i DO appreciate the dynamic they both have as a solo pairing tho . they can be silly and strange together <333

[divorcemotif]

"oh hey a real person followed me, I should look at their blog"

soon

"...perhaps I should listen to Eskew."

oh boy you caught my blog after an exciting weekend lmao

I absolutely recommend eskew! I don't have a lot of coherent thoughts, since I got into it over a very physically and mentally draining summer job and have yet to relisten, but it left an impression for sure. I will say what there is of an overarching narrative felt a bit jolty to me in places, for lack of a better term— I think you get the vibe of a show that’s figuring itself out somewhat as it goes, however the ideas are very interesting and I could make a long list of moments that really really affected me. my recent posts probably give a good sense of what I liked most abt it; david ward is just. endlessly interesting as a character imo. the writing’s good— there's a kind of.. ironically humorous edge to a lot of my favourite episodes, something I’d have to relisten to properly articulate. there's a tic of referring to one-off characters by a title instead of a name— the correspondence editor, the architect, the witness— that scratches something in my brain. in contrast with the slimy fleshiness of much of the horror, the sound design is just nice, actually— the rain never stops in eskew and the tone of the narration stays pretty level no matter what’s being described. there are only two narrators and I found both of their voices pleasant enough to close my eyes to on the subway after a long day. very solid show