#last true arc

[zuzu-draws]

[ To Save your enemy (Your Family) ]

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The Dungeon Meshi crew 'leap' into action!

[bacchuschucklefuck]

soon it'll be dawn again

transcript under the cut ⏬

page 01

Fig: no way? - you're still up?

Riz: Wh– yes?

Riz: Why'd I not be.

page 02

Fig: I me~~ean - that took.

Fig: whole day.

Riz: Yeah?

Fig: 'm beat.

Riz: you should sleep.

page 03

Fig: nah. my guy's still up

Fig: I wanna hang out.

page 04

Riz: That's really nice.

Fig: Hah! - Nobody ever expects an Archdevil rockstar to be nice.

Riz: … yeah. - 's just budget work tho. (the stuff I'm working on) - I've heard it's boring.

page 05

Fig: yeah, but you do it…

Riz: It keeps things going, right? - Nothing happens if nobody sits down and - does the thing.

Fig: That's right… - though. Yeah.

page 06

Fig: sometimes it's someone else who - doesn't want the same thing to happen.

Riz: … - mm.

page 07

Riz (off screen): …It took me a long time to get that not everyone likes doing what I do. - 's probably because you guys are so nice– - or. - kind.

Riz (off screen): to anyone too, not just. - the people you /love/.

page 08

Riz: that's not how it is elsewhere. - The world's– not. hostile. - but 's not like it's kind.

Riz: So I'm doing as much as I can now… 

page 09

Fig: Hey.

Riz: ?

Fig: Go dig some dirt with me.

page 10

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - oh you meant like - actual dirt. (not incriminating information)

Fig: o yea.

Fig: there's clay in the backyard soil. - sometimes when I'm sun deficient or something I go touch dirt for a bit.

page 11

Fig: here u go

page 12

Riz: uh

Fig: now we make a thing! - 'm pretty good at freehanding a bowl.

Fig: I'll show u

page 13

Fig: just– yep, flatten that out as evenly as u can, then–! - actually ur nails'd be so good at cutting out the strip. [larger than usual space] wait. - wait. wait u can carve patterns with them! we HAVE to try

Riz: uh - What. do I carve?

Fig: anything!!!

page 14

Fig: and– yep just seal the inside uh. seam?

Fig: yep that works - okay time's up! all contestant hands up

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - okay - wh. what's next?

Fig: haha - watch this.

(sound effect text): FWOO—MP

page 15

Riz: WH– DON'T JUST DO THAT???

Fig: Now it's fired!

Riz: THAT WAS NOT SAFE

Fig: (actually it's just dry. if u add water rn it'll dissolve)

Fig: ok catch!

Riz: [blank speech bubble] - careful!!

Fig: dw no need haha

page 16

Riz (thought bubble): oh - it's warm…

Fig: now I want you to throw this.

page 17

Fig: u gotta do it - c'mon

page 18

Riz: wh– - It's like 3AM right now

Fig: oh it's not /fired/ fired it's not gonna make a loud noise

Riz: And then just? leave a pile out here?

Fig: pour water over it & it'll be gone I told u

Riz: but

page 19

Fig (off screen): RIz.

page 20

Fig: I've done all this before.

Fig: Can you trust that at least?

page 21

Riz: no, I– - I do. - I trust you.

page 23

Riz: okay what happens now

(sound effect text): glob

page 24

Fig: we do it again!

page 25

Riz: wh. [larger than usual space] What do you mean. (this clay's too wet also)

Fig: see! you're already learning

Fig: [blank speech bubble] - there are flows that are futile to fight. - The world changes.

Fig: Things change.

page 26

Fig: I've learned my lessons with "forevers". - But - as an artist

Fig: I can give you one thing: - You can always do it again.

page 27

Fig: most of everything depends on the rest of the world, - but this. - making new. - that's yours as long as you want it.

page 28

Fig: So?

page 29

Riz: Yeah. - Yeah! - let's make another one.

[welcometogrouchland]

Disgustingly messy and crusty sketch dump but I couldn't get my own terrible theory out of my head and ended up making a bunch of sketches about it. Also at the end a bonus dickbats and Damian doodle bc I was reading an issue of their Batman and Robin run (IDs in Alt)

[namisweatheria]

I feel like we don't discuss Nami's relationship with gender enough. Her entire character is so deeply informed by being a girl in a male-dominated pirate world and it's so interesting and so worth talking about.

The background creepiness of Bad pirate crews, which are most of them, how they tend to not have any female crew members at all, how they beckon any pretty young woman around to come play with them and join them. It's real bad. It's also like, a totally 2 dimensional portrayal of evil that is reserved for the most background of background characters.

However I think their ubiquity says a lot about how piracy is meant to be perceived by the public in One Piece, and is one of the strongest indicators of how prevalent misogyny is in-world.

It's very normal in One Piece for regular island inhabitants to have never met a Different class of pirate in their life. There's no reason for them to withhold judgement that maybe these pirates won't be like every crew that attacked before, and to wait and judge them by their actions. I mean frankly that would be irrationally weak self-preservation.

There are people who live peacefully under the flags of Yonkos who protect them, and feel loyalty and gratitude to them for it, but that seems to only be thing with very big name pirates. The East Blue, being the weakest and least populated, has no such plethora of powerful people and resulting turf wars.

So. Nami. Is very clearly implied to have never met any Different pirates before. I'm thinking about what that means. About how every group of pirates she stole from were creepy, dangerous men. How she started going out stealing when she was still a young child. How she didn't have a mother anymore to guide her or comfort her. How Arlong would grab her chin inappropriately, talk about her as a "human female", as property, and god knows what else.

How all the men in Arlong's crew treated her patronizingly, pretending they're all friends, teasing her and playing at respect when really not a single one of them ever stuck up for her or hesitated to accuse her of betrayal. Who were always ready to kill her if she refused to cooperate. Who grabbed her and intimidated her when they felt like it.

That's what she had to come back to after a close call with stealing from other predatory men, instead of the relief of home there was a dark, cramped room filled with endless hours of misery and isolation and blood. Where any one of her captors could barge in and demand new maps, work faster, where did you go, you took too long again this time. Endless threats and incursions.

I'm thinking about that her fight scene in Alabasta, where she tumbles and rips off her cape and uses it to catch her enemy's spikes, before leaping to her feet and running out the back door, all in one moment. How it makes her enemy reconsider her and think, "so the girl's not a total novice at fighting after all." What that implies about her experiences as a young thief. The times she wasn't fast or clever enough and had to fight and claw her way out. Why she always carried a staff and a knife. Why she was the only one before Chopper who had any medical knowledge or experience.

You know she was stitching herself up. And the weapons, how do you think she learned to use those? If any of the Arlong Pirates helped her it wasn't out of kindness and it wasn't gentle.

Then I think about Nojiko, and Bellemere's memory, and the only softness in a hard life. How easily Nami connects to every young woman experiencing hardship that she meets. How completely she dismisses the struggles of men unless they mean something to her and are going through something terrible. The way that Nami only has sympathy for women and children is easily noticeable in-text, but it's also something confirmed in those words by the author. And it's clearly because of the life she lived, the men who had all the power and only abused it, who saw her as nothing but a girl to take advantage of, without anyone aside from her sister clearly knowing and caring about any of it.

Nami clearly isn't bitter, she doesn't think the world owes her recompense, on the contrary she knows she is far from the only person in the world to suffer the things she has suffered. She is endlessly reaching out and kind, but only to those that she isn't sure would get help without her. Certainly, before Luffy, Usopp, and Zoro, no man ever reached out a hand to her without an ulterior motive.

I think when she sees a girl in trouble, a girl biting her lip to hold in a scream of grief, a girl running in the woods away from a monster, a girl captured by pirates, she sees someone who no one is coming for. Who no one will stick up for. A person without allies in a world against her. Whether it's actually true in this case or not, she runs straight for that girl anyways every single time.

[eerna]

How they did it bad?

Bridgerton s3 spoilers for the awful WLW twist. Francesca's plotline this season revolves around her falling in love with John. They are both "strange", AKA autistic coded, and their courtship revolves around kind, gentle shows of care instead of dramatic outbursts. Violet, Francesca's mother, believes this means they aren't really in love, because in her opinion, sex and lust are the only clear indicators of true love. Before Francesca's wedding Violet admits she was wrong, that love can look differently for everyone, and just because Francesca wasn't so smitten that she couldn't remember how to speak when John was nearby, it doesn't mean she doesn't love him. Yayyyy a different approach to love in Bridgerton, where sexual attraction isn't treated like the only indicator you should be with someone, what joy!!! Is what a STUPID NAIIVE BABY would say because when Francesca kisses John at the wedding she clearly dislikes the experience, and when John introduces her to his cousin, Michaela (Michael in the books), Francesca is so smitten she forgets how to speak. Which clearly shows Violet was right and Francesca's love DOES work like everyone else's, she just doesn't love John. So they used a "SHE WAS A LESBIAN ALL ALONG" plot twist to discredit love based on honest understanding and care as opposed to animalistic attraction, and autistic people interacting in ways others might not understand, all in one fell swoop. In the books Francesca has a fulfilling marriage with John, he dies, and she has a fulfilling marriage with Michael. In the show she is gonna have a disappointing marriage with John because she is CLEARLY meant to be with her One True Love Michaela. #Justice4John

[shipping-all-ships]

Azula, sheltered palace princess: And now I'm going to FUCK YOU! Zuko, sailing with sailors for 3 years: It's "fuck you up". Azula: What did I say?

[fluffs-n-stuffs]

Finally catching up on the Horizons episodes I missed 👍

[miakwat]

​A little part of me thinks they let Kai learn rising dragon first as an apology for him repeatedly losing his powers throughout seasons 11-15

[urahara-lovepage]

bleach media literacy is actually just a measure of how you read urahara as a character

[duarteegreenbriar]

I do not know the person I will turn into the day I hold Evajacks first kiss (followed by more, I hope) in my hands

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Lan Wangji Goes To Lotus Pier AU: Part 2: Indocktrination

(Part 1, Part 3)

[yarrowleef]

bruh i legit thought that "frostpaw will be the new leader of riverclan by the end of the arc" was a joke guess. im very out of the general fandom loop, but this is extremely puzzling to me as a genuine semi-popular theory lol

[sarucane]

OFMD Spiral Parallels 46: Izzy Being Wrong Part 4--Izzy's redemption (in which he learns to be right)

Intro: What I love most about how season 2 builds on season 1 of OFMD is the spiral narrative structure. Ground is repeatedly and explicitly re-trod from season 1 to season 2, but in season 2 everything goes deeper than season 1. Meanings are shuffled, emotions are stronger and truer, and transformation is showcased above everything. The first season plucks certain notes, then the second season plucks the same ones--but louder, and then it weaves them together to create a symphony.

---

This totally spirals round! I was starting to feel bad that this wouldn't really do the spiral thing and the title shouldn't apply, but it totally worked out!

Episode 10

In this episode, Izzy's wrongness reaches its peak. Izzy's operating on basic toxic masculinity lies: emotion is vulnerability, vulnerability is weakness, weakness is bad. And he's also having to face something he didn't really understand all season, which is that Ed's changes aren't actually all because of Stede. They go deeper.

Izzy's belief in his own lies are so deep that he can look at this

and say this

Izzy does his best to impose his lies on reality here, a dark reflection of Stede willing a better world into existence. Izzy walks away from this interaction with Ed feeling triumphant. And when Fang asks what happened to Izzy's foot, his response is this

But you can tell from Izzy's face that he doesn't quite believe this is "correct," even though he made this happen.

Izzy didn't understand anything that was happening to Ed in this episode, and he reacted to that lack of understanding in the worst possible way. He's finally realized that he was wrong when he believed just removing Stede would turn Ed back into Blackbeard. But he's only starting to realize that Ed being Blackbeard again isn't actually a good thing, for anyone.

Season 2

Izzy keeps being wrong at the beginning in the second season. He's wrong in thinking talking honestly to Ed will have any good effects, that he can now invite Ed to be vulnerable when he's the one who pushed Ed to be someone who reacts to vulnerability with destruction.

And Izzy's wrong again when he tells Ed that the atmosphere is fucked because of Stede.

Ed doesn't react with violence, real or threatened, when he's thinking of Stede in other contexts. His response to seeing the little figurine at the wedding (which he later directly addresses as if he's talking Stede) isn't to join in the violence.

Ed only reacts with violence to reminders of Stede when Izzy's the medium of those reminders. Because Izzy was the one who imposed the logic on Ed that experiencing any real vulnerability was something that deserved destruction.

And so Izzy remade Ed's world so that Ed would react to invocations of vulnerability like this:

Ed doesn't shoot Izzy because Izzy said "Stede Bonnet." He shoots Izzy because Izzy said "Stede Bonnet."

Izzy thought he was making Ed into "my captain," the strong Blackbeard of the illustrations. But he was just making Ed into a scared, lost man so terrified of living with himself, he couldn't imagine anything but running.

Ed doesn't try to kill himself over Stede. Stede leaving him just triggered deeper insecurities in Ed.

And Izzy made it so that Ed would have no way to deal with those insecurities except violence, turned on others or on himself

Izzy pays for all this, for all his actions in the first season. By episode 4 of season 2, he's a broken shell of a man, drinking hard liquor like it's water to try to cope with reality, screaming at a wooden figurehead that doesn't even actually have a head.

Izzy's wrong a lot in this episode. but while he had to learn he was wrong before through violence and pain, this time he learns it through kindness.

Izzy's wrong when he tells Stede decides that Ed's "a rotten leg" that has to be removed from the ship. But Ed isn't rotten. He's just messy. Not unlike Izzy just now

Later in the episode, Izzy tells the crew that he himself is "already gone."

He's pretty clearly working himself up to a suicide attempt. He shot himself last time because he thought having only one working leg (and being cast out by Ed) made him unworthy of life.

Izzy thinks he's got no place in the world anymore. The conceptions he built his internal world on were wrong, and there's nothing to replace them.

And Izzy's wrong.

He rotten leg came off because other people knew this, because the crew knew that he deserved a better ending than this, no matter how badly he'd acted in the past

And they're able to pass that on to Izzy.

Because Izzy isn't going to die alone. And he isn't gone yet.

By the end of the second season, Izzy's come to understand his wrongness better than anyone. He's come to understand that what he was driving Ed to do was about his own desires, and that those were both incorrect and morally wrong--because there's a better way to live, and to treat the people you care about.

And then Izzy's monologue spirals on through this moment from season 1

And presents it again

The first time we see this image, we listen to a monologue where Izzy expresses his fears over Ed being absorbed into this world. Izzy himself is in the back shadows of this shot, looking only at Ed, at the proof that so many things he believed to be correct (Ed was the mad devil Blackbeard, Izzy's position in Ed's life was secure, the world had a permanent hierarchy of strength and weakness) were wrong.

The second time we see this image, there's also a monologue of Izzy playing over it. But his perspective on the image has completely shifted. It's not a narrowly focused moment that endangers Izzy's sense of self. It's an inclusive image, that defines Izzy's sense of self.

Izzy knows better than anyone what's wrong, and what's right. And so he's able to move a step deeper than right/wrong, to understand something important about what it means to be good, or evil.

Izzy was wrong for most of this series. But he figured it out in time to make amends. To understand himself, the world he lived in, and the people he cared about better than he ever had before.

And to determine for himself what his life, and his death would mean: not hopelessness, but a gift of hope; not an enforcement of wrongness, of evil, but an embrace of uncertain rightness, of goodness.

Sometimes, being wrong--and having time to figure that out--amounts to an act of grace.

Previous posts:

Izzy Being Wrong 3 (S1E6-9)

Izzy Being Wrong 2 (S1E5)

Izzy Being Wrong 1 (S1E3-4)

[lipeg]

The truth about Remnant's origin: prologue

Sophia: Thank you knight for freeing me from my prison.

Rusted Knight: It was a chance event, I didn't expect to free a woman

Sophia: I am a fairy

Rusted Knight: You don't look like one

Sophia: You humans have to create this myth about fairies being small beings with wings. But for freeing me I offer you a wish but be very specific in what you ask for

The knight remained silent and with his head bowed.

The knight raised his arms and took off his helmet.

Rusted Knight Jaune: I want the truth, the truth that has never been revealed to me, about the origin of things, Grimms, humans, Faunus, relics, Salem and Ozpin

The fairy smiled.

Sophia: Well done knight, I was going to reveal the truth about your world

[smile-files]

some great bluish bakeoff stuff!

nickel later apologizes this episode; it's prompted by balloon's confrontation, but clearly nickel was in the mindset to apologize. the fact that he didn't raise the issue himself shows how he's still really afraid of how balloon would react. at the same time, though, he's acknowledging that "standing up for what [is] right" is important and good, even if it doesn't necessarily have the most beneficial outcome; notice how this not only shows how he accepts and understands balloon's anger towards him over the past few episodes (which had the consequence of losing them the challenge and getting bot eliminated), but also suitcase's anger towards him in the latter half of ii2 (which had the consequence of destroying their alliance).

in this episode, blueberry is assuming a role that has previously been taken by nickel and, more recently, silver spoon: he has placed himself at the top of the pecking order, calling all the shots, forcing everyone to roll with his punches. now everyone's in the same position balloon has been for a lot of his time in ii. silver, in throwing the chariot (:nerd emoji: actually a litter, they use the wrong word) at blueberry, is taking a stand against him -- announcing his frustration from being treated poorly.

for the longest time, balloon had "stay[ed] away from the thorns": beating around the bush, not bringing up the hard stuff, so he could maintain his positive relationship with nickel (and by extension his sense of having actually changed, which is linked with that that relationship represents) and not face his inevitable aggressive snap-back. but, though these proverbial thorns are painful, touching them helps him actually move ahead of all of that discomfort. balloon took a stand against nickel recently, which he was justified in doing, expressing his anger at nickel for both what he did and his denial of doing it -- and nickel harshly bit back about what balloon had done a while ago. balloon touched the thorn, and got the pain.

now, when nickel is yet again dancing around the problem, balloon's frustration returns. and, as silver took a stand against blueberry (which nickel supported), balloon channels his frustration and takes his own stand: technically also against blueberry, in trying to get himself and the others to the challenge before blueberry (thereby denying the domination he has imposed), but the drive itself came from nickel. he knows touching the thorns is painful, but that it's important and good. he should stand up for himself, and he does. he literally pokes himself with a thorn, and that literally sends him and the others ahead.

for the sake of this analogy/symbolic framework, it's worth noting how they are pushed forward because of the thorn, but there's still baggage: they fly through the desert only to crash, losing all of their ingredients. at this point, though, balloon's not going to let the pain of the thorn prevent him from touching it. balloon will keep standing up for himself, even if he keeps facing setbacks and pushbacks, because he knows what he deserves.

you can imagine that when balloon confronted nickel in this episode, he was expecting the same old same old: he'd say what he's mad about, and nickel would shut him down. but he doesn't. nickel listens to him. nickel lets balloon be angry at him, lets himself face the guilt he needs to feel. balloon is able to be mad at nickel without their relationship automatically going up in flames like before. and balloon is shocked! but will he forgive nickel? what'll he say? ...well, they're taken by tyler bombard before balloon could say anything...

for all this talk of the thorn, where's the blossom? well, here it is. thematic parallels indeed! recall how balloon misunderstanding "flour" as "flower" contributed to the grand slams losing the cooking challenge in ii2, which likely added fuel to the fire of nickel's hatred towards him -- now that same flower and that same misunderstanding is a representation of their friendship: it is what remains after the pain of the thorn. balloon finding value in this meager flower and presenting it to mephone at all (thereby insisting that it has value) is what wins them all the challenge. the flower and its beauty are not just a reward for the pain of the thorn, but a product of that pain.

balloon still hasn't responded to nickel's apology, because he hasn't had the chance to... but in disputing tyler's happiness about blueberry's death, balloon both recognizes his own attempt to change as well as nickel's: attempting that change is also a thorn, a very painful one (it literally killed blueberry), and both nickel and balloon have recognized the changes the other has tried to make and has succeeded in making. nickel is very reassured by this.

and as a final flower, a final reward for balloon's persistence in standing up for himself and what he believes in, balloon is chosen as the sole recipient of the immunity cookie -- silver spoon, someone with both a history of selfishness and a history of putting others below him, is the one to make this decision. balloon is finally being recognized, genuinely, for the changes he's made.

notably, balloon never accepts nickel's apology: no, he accepts that nickel is trying to make up for what he did. and, knowing from personal experience how hard it is to make that change and be acknowledged for making it, balloon is there to support him through it, and help him realize that he can be better -- and balloon is still on that "trek" himself, as we know balloon still has a lot of flaws to work through. they both know they have to touch the thorn, but they're all the more motivated to do so because they have a beautiful flower as well:

their genuine friendship.

...

balloon continues to be very charitable with blueberry, even as blueberry is critical of himself. nickel is also charitable -- telling blueberry to "just be nicer to people" implies that he believes that such a change is possible -- though of course he expresses this in his typical snarky way.

blueberry, though, doesn't believe that he can change, just like nickel used to. no matter how much balloon and nickel believe in him, he himself has to realize he has the capacity to improve before he can actually do it.