#no coherent thoughts just. man

[starpros-sunshine]

It's getting emotional over Eichi hours again

[tightjeansjavi]

I genuinely forgot how to breathe

[fallen-goldfishcracker]

Still on my Ulder & Wyll bullshit but like

I keep thinking of Ulder Ravenguard, sending away his only son at seventeen, and years later hearing of a hero with a fine rapier and mismatched, kind eyes and manners from a storybook, and thinking, demanding surely not. that cannot be my son. my son is a devil's servant. it cannot be. i have no son.

and then after seven long years meeting Wyll again, at Wrym's Rock through a mindflayer's thrall, and feeling something like relief, not at seeing him but at this cold surety that this boy, this man, this hero of the frontiers could not be his son, because his son was not this tall and old and sure-footed, and did not have curling horns and a devil red eye, and the rumors must be wrong, and this Blade must be a stranger.

And then Wyll looks at him, with such kind eyes- his mother's eyes still, even devil-tainted- and calls him "father", and he knows, he knows, and his son is here, so much older and wearier and stronger, too, and he's a hero and a man and by gods he's a monster and by gods he's his son.

[paintalyx]

explaining chainsaw man part 1: "you know, when you're 16 and also a boy it really does feel like every girl you try to talk to wants to murder you and like there are chainsaws shattering your body to bits every single day"

explaining chainsaw man part 2: "you know, when you're 16 and also a girl it really does feel like you can't take two steps without tripping and like the only person who wants to talk to you is the bloodthirsty demon possessing your body"

[becauseplot]

It’s been days but I can’t stop thinking about qPhil’s silent rage when he gets the photos of his eggs from the black concrete chests. Everyone here has already said every possible thing to describe how incredible it is and yeah it just,,, MAN. The way Phil is so slow to anger. Like, and I mean TRUE anger. I don’t mean frustration or exasperation, coated with eyerolls and sarcasm.

So when he does get really, truthfully, genuinely mad he goes quiet. Eerily silent. None of his usual chuckles or groans. Stripped of his usual joking, jovial undertone, his words come out clipped. Harsh. Short. Flat. Little bowshots flying from his mouth. Least amount of syllables possible.

“I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier,” he says to Bad. And him snapping at Bad is a ‘mild reaction’ all things considered, and Bad forgives him immediately, but to Phil, he is teetering on a precipice of absolutely losing it.

You can see the way he's trying to hold it all in by his jerky, sharp movements, overly efficient, deliberate. Message Cellbit. Warp to the Favela. Take the elevator down to the Ordo. March across the hall. Enter the meeting room. All but slam the door behind him. All but collapse into the nearest chair. I don’t think his hands shake when he passes the new photos over to Cellbit, not quite, but if you were to put your palm to his arm you would probably be able to feel the wire-taut muscles underneath, tense. A cord ready to snap at any moment

But it won’t snap. He can't afford to snap, there's too much to do. I can only think of two other times he's actually lost it: (1) fight against the impersonator codes at the election dinner, where his rage was one of his best allies in that fight, and (2) the birdhouse, clawing at Cucurucho and begging for anything, anything that tells him his kids are safe; and he didn't have to worry about breaking down then because there was literally nothing else he could have done in that situation. He had nothing else to do but cry.

So here he is, at the Ordo, with photos of his missing kids scared and alone and separated and they still don't know anything, not really, they just have more evidence that creates even more questions, spider-webbing out and out and out and never, ever giving them what they so desperately need: answers. Something solid. Steady ground to put their feet on. Any sort of guarantee, no matter how small, that they'll ever see their kids alive and well again.

And, "I'm furious," he says, casual, simple, unassuming. Fucking hell.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Well despite the Horrors™, at least we saw Ms. Beagle! The Mama herself. (The fact we saw or heard both Barnaby's and Howdy's family for the special??)

SOOOOOOOO TRUE!

[dan-whoell]

idk im just thinking about the phrase we know you know and the more... interactive they've been with us recently. like they keep giving us chances to say things on the channel even though they know exactly what we're going to do.

also the way some people think they don't like us (feeling pressure to come out bc of shipping etc) or the 'you cant say that it makes them uncomfortable' kind of thing- and yet they keep giving us the mic, telling us how funny we are, how much they love us. they know we know and they are quite literally giving us a platform to say it.

[moongothic]

You know we all meme about how Luffy doesn't give a shit about his parents/Dragon, how he seemingly has no interest in learning about the man or meeting him at all, and like yeah that is a Luffyism

And for a long time I figured Baby Luffy would be the same too; that Luffy in his naïvete just accepted he must've spawned from the ocean itself into Garp's care or something, not realizing he should in fact have parents, thus Luffy's seeming disinterest in them

But you know what

Luffy did spend most of his early childhood alone

Sure, he had Garp, but it seems like Garp wasn't always there to look after him every day, he had his duties as a Marine too. Had Garp been there 24/7 all year then Garp would never have allowed Luffy to interact with Shanks (a filthy pirate) to begin with. So yes, Luffy had his grandpa, but not all the time. And sure, Luffy also had Shanks, but Shanks didn't spend all his time in Fuusha Village either, he came and went whenever he pleased too until his final departure when Luffy was just six years old. And yes, there was everyone else in the village too, people who cared about Luffy and were helping look after him. But Luffy's early childhood was one without a stable family.

It wasn't until Garp yeeted the child into Dadan's care that Luffy actually gained a proper family, where after months and months of trying Luffy managed to win Ace's trust and gained Sabo as a brother too. But as we know, by that point Luffy already hated being alone

All of this to say; Luffy growing up essentially orphaned would explain why he's so afraid to be alone, the way he clings onto people

In some ways Luffy's POV is meant to be the reader's POV, to some degree Luffy's feelings and thoughts are meant to be how we the readers feel and think about whaveter is happening in the story. Not a 100% by any means, but somewhat at the very least.

Perhaps Luffy's lack of interest in Dragon isn't just "Luffy not giving a damn about blood family because chosen families are better" nor "Luffy is too stupid to understand where babies come from". Perhaps Luffy, who may have assumed he didn't have parents at all (as in "might've assumed they were dead or had intentionally abandoned him"), doesn't know what to think about the fact that he does have a father out there, one whom he has never as much as met. Because yeah, Luffy doesn't know why Dragon left him with Garp, why he never got to be with his dad. Should he be angry at Dragon, hate him for being left alone? Or did Dragon have a good reason for it, does Dragon wish things could've been different?

Perhaps Luffy's seeming disinterest in Dragon isn't because he doesn't care about blood family, but because much like us the readers, Luffy doesn't quite know what to make of Dragon, and figuring those feelings out hasn't been relevant to the plot yet.

[magicaldreamfox1]

so i'm just thinking abt the reputation pete must have post-canon among main family bodyguards.

like as we know from pete himself, word travels fast amongst main family bodyguards and there must be a few who survived the ep 14, confrontation. obviously people would've known pete at least in passing, he's tankhun's head bodyguard that must mean something. and suddenly he's missing for a few days, rumour has it he went to the minor family's house (with the fit tankhun threw (rightfully so) surely people would've heard abt it right? right) and everyone knows what happens to bodyguards who are sent to the minor family's house. except pete returns and word spreads fast about that too. pete returned, covered in blood and injured but alive. then the family showdown happens, a lot of people die but surely a few main family bodyguards would survive. and they would hear abt it. pete left. he resigned. and they let him. which i'm sure not many bodyguards can say for themselves. rumour has it he went after vegas. and then shot a bodyguard of the main family dead for him. and that he's with vegas now.

vegas who has A Reputation, everyone knows that. so pete not only made it out of the minor family's house alive, he also managed to resign and then went to be with vegas.

and maybe they'd even see him sometime, pete coming to visit porsche or tankhun and he looks fine like he's doing well.

and like. they must be terrified of him. and like even when they get new bodyguards word would spread just as quickly. u don't fuck with pete bc pete has seen the worst of the worst of this world and not only come out alive the other end, he also willingly walked back right into it.

[nin-deer]

Ch 143

i mean i think we all knew deep down the kiss was gonna happen based on the flow of the story but i think this chap reveals a lot about gorou and sarina

(uh warning this got a little out of hand so its pretty long lmao)

so.

i dont think anyone's completely in the wrong, but i definitely don't think they're in the right either. (not that i condone incest; its just that their motivations led them to this specific point. would the story have been fine without it? hell yeah. please i actually prefer it that way. but this is the direction the author decided to take it, so we have to take it as it is as a point of learning more about the character's motivations)

Let's first analyze sarina and gorou's relationship pre-reincarnation. I think I covered this in my last post where I rambled about onk, but gorou is doing a doctor thing where he "accepts" sarina's proposal just to make her happy. We learn in this new chapter that he basically catered to her every request, and that's what started that infatuation. we know from previous chapters that her bio family's shitty, so the only place she would get this love is from gorou. we also learn in this chapter that it's not actually a romantic love but a fanatic love, for lack of better terms. she sees him as her idol. does sarina even know what it feels to be romantically in love with someone? she spent her whole first life in a hospital, isolated from others her age. she spent her second life very curated and protected because of her mom and her future career; she couldn't really live a normal life. (we'll get back to this point later) all she knows about love is through her idols, so she's channeling it into (what she thinks is) romantic love for gorou.

gorou, on the other side of this, is an actual adult who had an actual life before all this, so he knows what a normal life is like. assuming sarina is one of his first patients, its obvious to see that he got attached, which is a very risky situation for scenarios like this. we see this attachment made her death worse, as he threw himself into following Ai to cope for her death. not gonna go too in depth about this here because, again, i made another post for this that i'll probably link at the end bc im referencing it more than i thought... continuing! he knows sarina doesnt have long left so he wants to do what he can for her, thus creating that "idol" persona sarina has for him.

we see in his regret in this new chap that he actually knows what he's doing and is aware of the consequences of his actions. ruby doesn't. she doesn't regret anything. as someone who reads a lot of isekai/reincarnation stories, its easy to joke that ruby and aqua are their old age + their new age, but that isn't necessarily true for ruby. sure, aqua is old and this could apply to him. but ruby? she didn't make it past 18 before she died. she's like,,, 13 times 2. double 13. she never fully developed in her first life, and she's developing in this current life. it's like a continue from where she left off. aqua actually was an adult, so he has all the knowledge and wisdom of an adult. why does this matter? shift your attention back to the concept of love for a bit. aqua knows what she's doing is bad and is trying to stop her, but the knowledge that she's sarina is making him automatically succumb to her wishes. a part of his brain, because of the trauma, still sees ruby as the sickly sarina he was caring for.

ruby is naïve. she doesnt know what love is. all the love she's ever been exposed to is whatever she saw online: idols. i dont even think she fully knows what the concept of family is. aqua is her brother? nope. aqua is the doctor she proposed to and now she has a chance to follow through like all the shows she's seen. she's closer than ever to him, so why give up the chance? even as ruby, she wasn't exposed to a lot of normalcy because of idol culture. she isn't able to learn about the difference between platonic love and fanatic love. we even see this with ai, who she sees more as an idol than her mom. the joy is in her idol being her mom, someone who's supposed to care for her. it's like shes living a fantasy made just for her. because aqua was so obsessed w revenge, he didn't have the chance to teach her anything, and it's not like he needed to learn bc he already knows. ruby doesn't.

aqua, as the one who understands these nuances, should have sat her down and explained things, but he didn't because of the trauma of sarina. ruby is ignorant and is treating things like a tv drama, now that her dreams as sarina can finally become true. aqua doesn't realize how serious ruby is about this because in his mind this is just a child playing house. ruby is like,,,, imagine you die and you wake up actually being sold to one direction. or whatever happens to you in your fav self-insert scenario/fanfic. idk a better analogy lmao but its like finally being able to play out your fantasies irl. she doesn't realize the real world impacts of her actions because, frankly, she doesn't care. she gets to live out her life as she wants. aqua was shocked after the first kiss with ruby because he realized then she was being serious, but he didn't speak out about it because, again, the trauma™. (we see him again uncomfy with the whole situation in the next page, but his lack of objection could be bc it's a scene in the documentary and he finds it more important to get revenge rn) ruby kissed him then because she purposefully created the mood like that so it would fit in the story she was writing in her mind.

so what does this mean? because of their shared pasts, aqua and ruby are put in this situation where ruby can do what she wants and aqua goes along with it. even if he knows its morally wrong, he can't bring himself to break ruby's immersion in all of this. BUT. big but. aqua shouldn't act like this. they're both capable of living out their lives as normal (barring the revenge and the whole idol stuff). he doesn't need to act like this anymore; ruby's not terminally ill. he's not a doctor. what he should have done was firmly deny her stuff he knows is wrong because then he can educate her about the reason why. as much as their personalities are inspired by their past lives, sarina and gorou are dead. they need to move on and live a aqua and ruby. (Harsh, I know, but because of this scenes like *gestures vaguely to the newest two chapters* happens. if aqua stood his ground and taught ruby about familial love and that what she's feeling is probably not romantic, i think this could have been avoided. but alas, we need it for the ~drama~)

-

sorry that went on way longer than i thought lmao. i think i covered everything i wanted to say but im too lazy to read back so fingers crossed

if you made it this far and are curious about the other post i mentioned in the beginning, its here. i just think its some context to my thought process but not necessary to understand this post

[cognitosclowns]

I couldn’t choose which hand position looked cutest so. have all of em I guess :o

[niinnyu]

Gege's payoff followed by setup problem, and why Shibuya Arc is still their finest writing.

Gege's writing structure has become so reliant on catching the readers by surprise that they just won't tell anything to the reader. Going into Gojo vs sukuna and the fight fest it's been since, readers have no clue of if there was any strategic/tactical planning happening (outside of Yuuji training with Kusakabe which is sloowwly coming back to the limelight).

The current buildup by adding emphasis to Sukuna and Yuuji and their dynamic, Yuuji's rage and loneliness and loss, only to bring in a Gojo-Yuuta vs Sukuna part 2 electric boogaloo. Which imo is another fight that has no interesting overarching commentary/themes outside of being the promised shounen strong vs strong fight, in a power system already criticised by both sides for being flawed.

It feels like Gege uses shock value and people eating absolutely anything up if it's about their fav, to bypass any meaningful setup.

The reason why Shibuya had the effect of absolute gutwrenching loss and defeat, is because it was setup so deliciously done. We'd seen the villains literally experiment their ideas with the veils on our heroes with the sister-school event, we've seen them talk about their plan with a lot of details, and how eventually they tweaked it to work better with their new knowledge.

We've seen that the mastermind might be someone from Gojo's past since they talk about how they cant be seen by Gojo, then you have jjk0 which shows the rift and the death of that someone (intrugue! Theyre still alive?? They're still on the bad side with that ending??) , following which you have Hidden Inventory where you see the bond and what caused the rift.

And ONLY THEN do you have everything fall into place when Kenjaku appears and Gojo is tricked because you were tricked alongside Gojo even tho as the reader almost everything was right in plain sight with just the lack of some context. Even the inconsistencies between Suguru's and now revealed Kenjaku's behaviour makes sense.

Althought the setup happened rather non-linearly, all of it was still always before the payoff. And boy, does it pay off.

And when things didn't go according to the villains' well thought out plans, it was still just such a seen yet unforeseen turn of events. We didn't know Yuuji would be fed so many of Sukuna's fingers that Sukuna would take over, but Sukuna taking over was an underlying threat that has been constant throughout the story and it just so happened to take place then).

Everything since the culling games has felt like things just happening one after the other. Short term goals that our protagonists had to complete since no one knew what was even happening. An entire year's worth of chapters of not seeing our protagonists and following new people who didn't/haven't yet done anything to truly warrant that much undivided paneltime. Anyone remember the US gov subplot? Did i dream that?

The last genuinely set up but still pretty shocking event was Sukuna using their binding vow and taking over Yuuji's body only to then take over Megumi's. We knew he wanted Megumi's power and the binding vow was another underlying threat since Yuuji's first death that was waiting to happen. Abrupt? Yes. But it was something hinted happening.

By no means am I saying that the reader should be told everything, that's not how writing works, but have enough at least fall into place when things are revealed instead of showing the puzzle completed then picking out puzzle pieces to show it individually and putting them back. A couple of panels where a character says something vague where you as the reader don't even know if it's something to take into account is NOT good set up.

[redheadedfailgirl]

I just had a riveting discussion with a self proclaimed anarcho-capitalist at work, whose opinions included:

Tipping is bad because 'contracts with your employer are voluntary and they can leave if they're not paid enough.' He will still tip if he thinks his wife is watching

If you're stuck inside a torture chamber with an apple you can bite every ten seconds that sends you to paradise for a year, it is illogical to bite the apple and humanity is broken for thinking so

The ending to the good place was bad because the characters weren't being logical and there was so much shit you can do with the afterlife.

The marxist labor theory of value 'isn't true' because paintings have arbitrary value

Heidegger was an idiot

Kant was an idiot

Nietzche was an idiot

He is an anarcho-capitalist

If I don't have 100% certainty for something than I can't truly say that I know something is true, and isn't it illogical that people do that?

I have to see this man every Monday from now until I quit. We work one on one.

[yea-baiyi]

hi i rly like fengqing and i want to Yell

do you think they planned the nan feng and fu yao thing together, or both just separately showed up and were like "........"

hi yes it is Yelling About Fengqing Hours

the funniest version of events is them showing up completely separate—that feng xin and mu qing both independently thought of the exact same idea, and show up literally within a few minutes of each other. and obviously they see through each other immediately because the plan was nonsense to begin with. so they are are dying to call each other out. except they can’t because they would reveal themselves so they are just seething. half of them yelling is out of frustration because they can’t acknowledge the massive elephant in the room

can u imagine. u haven’t had a civil conversation with your best friend in 700 years and turns out you guys still think the same way. and you can’t even acknowledge it out loud or you’ll ruin the plan (the same plan. the exact same, identical, shitty plan.)

[ambrosykim]

i don't write down a lot of my thoughts on bg3 characters bc i think some of them are just,, really obvious but??

astarion disapproving of moral acts in the beginning of the story is a feature not a bug. he's just escaped slavery and is immediately lumped in with a band of heroic idiots who want to help everyone? of course he's at least hesitant and at most hates your guts (or just gut instincts) bc he's been conditioned to only think about himself or risk being tortured (and still. if u want to romance him u don't need to get every single approval w him and do immoral things bc he will like tav if they act kindly towards him)

and in the two endings??? if he ascends (or tav lets him ascend) that not only reinforces his ideas on him having to only look out for himself by basically becoming a new cazador but it also confirms all his worst fears of only being seen as a sex object (which,, judging by people's reaction to "hot evil vampire lord" um. checks out)

[where-i-overanalyze]

showing one of the wildest panels w/ foreshadowing i remembered while looking through the manga for one of my long posts

this happens during Medusa's fight with Justin (and then Tezca comes in) and this is right after Justin's like "oh, Tzeca, is that you?" and Tezca spouts this line about how a person's death is up to them and that he's just reflecting their lives up until now.

and Medusa just . . . SEES Crona when talking about how a person's death is a product of what they've done??? and all she says is, "Damn . . ."

like maybe i'm getting way too into it, but it is crazy to me that Medusa seemingly sees that because of her treatment of Crona she is going to die by them, and is just kinda like "fuck it, gotta go all the way i guess." there's no acknowledgement of this moment afterwards, Tezca and Justin fight and the next time we hear from Medusa she's telling Crona they did a good job during their fight with Black☆Star and Tsubaki. Medusa is just so casual about the fact that she's pushed a person so far that it will inevitably lead to her own death. she doesn't even try to amend anything or figure something else out after this. what's the point in amending your wrongs since there's no going back, i suppose.