#parallel projects

[prestonshamblen]

What if the best way to learn something… was to learn 10 things at once? This is Cross-Iterative Learning — a mindset that mirrors how real life works. I built the framework. And I live it.

[pulsingvoid]

an ever-growing collection

[zorangezest]

(part 5) happy father's day :)

me when characters are so doomed by their love but they love again anyway they love again anyway

if you're wondering what frenzy's listening to, i tried to find the angriest screamiest song to have a crashout to :D

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[friendsinsolitude]

mizuki lying to rui compilation:

from mizuki’s initial 1 star, side story 2. while we don’t know exactly what was on her mind, “um, nothing? everything’s fine” isn’t exactly convincing. she lies to him in her 1 star.

mizuki’s secret distance 4 star, side story 2. mizuki plays completely dumb here, responding to absolutely none of what rui’s saying except the literal words. she DID want to talk to him at lunch, on the roof, like old times, but seeing him happy with wxs as contrasted to her memories of him miserable on the roof with her, she resigned herself to sleeping through lunch instead.

picnic episode 1. mizuki then physically leaves this conversation the second she has the slightest excuse. this is self explanatory, but i do just wanna say rui materializing the second she thinks about the rooftop is really funny. especially after the above.

rui’s picnic 3 star, side story 1. mizuki manages to lie to rui before saying a single word. rui regarding her like a skittish prey animal and himself a hunter who missed his shot. “alarm bells” insane framing for wanting your friend( in solitude) to open up to you if she’s suffering. i mean it’s mizuki so it’s apt but still. a little later here, without being able to truly grasp what if anything is wrong, the conclusion he seems to come to about the smile she puts on is that she didn’t want him to feel bad by worrying about her. there’s no way of knowing if this is true, but it seems mizuki-like enough (the line between not wanting to worry her friends because she doesn’t want them to feel sad unnecessarily and not wanting to be worried about because she doesn’t want to think about things and get hurt is blurry, if distinguishable at all.)

picnic episode 8. the second rui tries to probe for more information, on how she’s doing, on how her relationship to ena and her circle is going as compared to “i don’t know if i could call them friends just yet, but i have met some people” as said in kamifes, mizuki shuts down the conversation entirely. she gives him a non-answer and all but hangs up on him.

path of thorns, episode 5. this time, rui doesn’t play along with the charade that she’s fine. this time, mizuki doesn’t run away and drops the charade entirely. even when rui offers her an out later, “of course, if you don’t want to talk about it—” she doesn’t take it “—no… i want you to hear me out, or something.” cue monologues!!! emotional sincerity!!!! FRIENDSHIP!!!!! this shit’s crazy. i wept.

[stargirldotcom]

- are there still beautiful things?

seven- taylor swift/ the florida project/ @fairycosmos/ pen15/ @stargirldotcom/ half return- adrianne lenker/ alice hoffman/ innocent- taylor swift/ @stargirldotcom

[failyaoi]

I don't remember who I am | you are the universe looking back at itself

[himediana]

fem kaimon doodle tonight

[submersero]

[soapydoll]

Bestowing a character with the highest honor I can (some sort of sexual perversion)

[the-overanalyst]

there's this one post i love about how kanade and mafuyu suffer from being too perfect while ena and mizuki suffer from being imperfect, and i wanted to add to that with another parallel.

kanade and mafuyu suffer from being trapped. what they need is to let go of the things that hurt them (kanade with her savior complex, mafuyu with her mom)

ena and mizuki, meanwhile, suffer from being untethered. what they need is to hold on to the things that matter to them (ena with art, mizuki with friendship)

[firestorm09890]

The light leaves their eyes

[ask-n25]

Tsukasa Tenma. thats it thats the ask

They're influencing each other

[carnationnrecollection]

proposal for a kanade event that will never happen: kanade starts to reflect on her relationship with her father but not in the endearing way like in the past. instead she reflects on who he was a person and that while at his core he's a good person/father, he wasn't a good role model either. she thinks back to time period in which his condition started to get worse up until the day he fell ill to which she realizes that all the bad habits he exhibited during that time period are the same ones she's exhibiting right now. kanade spent half her middle school years watching her father's health decline as he gets worse both mentally and physically but she didn't realize that she was following in his footsteps in the exact same way, she always wanted to be like him but not like this. have scenes that callback to kanade's backstory from the main story and have those serve as a showcase of the parallels kanade has with her dad. finally she realizes that maybe her lifestyle isn't actually all that good for her but she doesn't know how to stop it because for years it's all she's ever known and the idea of shifting away from that is overwhelming and now she feels lost. this doesn't mean kanade stops loving her father because she always will but now she doesn't have the rose colored glasses view of him that she used to which causes her world to shift because he's the reason she fell in love with music in the first place. this is callback to kana4 where she now has to figure out what kind of life she wants for herself, she was already considering that composing to save people isn't actually what she wants and in this event she realizes as to why that is. obviously she can't get her shit together in this one event but this will serve as the basis as to what the rest of her arc will be about and have it end on a cliffhanger to keep the audience engaged.

[friendsinsolitude]

Is Rui woke? I’ve been chewing on Rui’s (and for comparison, Tsukasa’s) role in the gendered dynamics of Smile of a Dreamer episode 3, the Shosuke and Keisuke v. Emu conflict, for what’s surely been forever, I think I’m starting to get my thoughts together now:

Tsukasa takes issue with the Wonder Stage being slighted instead of Emu being told she should’ve given up, reacting before Shousuke even finishes his sentence about her, because the Wonder Stage and all of Wonderlands x Showtime are Tsukasa’s dependants as troupe leader. It’s his job to look after and protect them. You slight them, you slight him, you slight his authority. Which he absolutely will not tolerate. On his honour and pride and duty as a patriarch. I don’t mean to imply he doesn’t care about Emu here, but the way that he cares about her and WxS and of course Saki more generally is fundamentally tied up in his deep commitment to his patriarchal role (beyond what is actually expected of that and sometimes somewhat subversive to, but still framed as, to Tsukasa). As leader, as a big brother, as a man, he will not stand for the disrespect of his troupe(‘s stage).

Rui then stops Tsukasa, cause trying to assert his authority over their literal fucking bosses is not helpful, and he’s not saying anything that will change up the conversation enough to be worth having it here like this, for the sake of their job security especially. A pissing contest of authority is a contest they will lose; fall back.

Shosuke takes this to view Rui as a Smart Young Man Who Knows His Place, absolutely unlike Emu, respecting him as such and feeling comfortable enough to then insult Emu to the face of someone reasonable. Obviously and explicitly positioning Emu as a Stupid Girl Who Doesn’t Know Her Place. Shosuke props Rui up at Emu’s expense.

Of course, Rui and Emu are alike in their deep commitment to dreams, to whimsy, to making the impossible possible. Rui knows intimately what it’s like to get other people hurt while chasing your dreams. Emu’s intelligence and creativity, her unique way of seeing the world for what it could be instead of what is is, is what makes her so amazing. Rui has seen and respected and admired her for that since day fucking one, and Shosuke is portraying Emu as stupid for it, is saying that if Rui is smart like Shosuke thinks he is, he’ll agree and leave her out to dry for his own sake.

Rui’s arguments are this:

1: You’re pathetic. Someone else believing in their dreams in the face of a reality that can be oppressive reminds you of what you gave up, and you feel the need to crush Emu like you got crushed, because you can’t see that she’s stronger than you. Loser behaviour, I pity you.

2: I am also someone like Emu. She is my equal and peer. In calling Emu stupid you have been insulting both of us. I don’t want your respect at her expense.

3: Emu is a truly incredible person that I’m honoured to know. I’m not involved with her in spite or in ignorance of her dreams, she is not a burden in any sense. Her ability to dream in the face of a world and people like you who can’t see what she sees is what I admire about her, even if you can’t recognize that as the wonder it is. It’s difficult, it’s perilous, and she does it with ease.

4: Stop insulting Emu. You’re entirely out of line. I don’t want the bullshit you call “courtesy” and we will stay by Emu’s side regardless of how you try to demean her.

All of course coated in utterly polite form especially exasperated in the original Japanese, despite the confrontational content. For this entire interaction Rui uses an especially polite form, he speaks the way that you should be addressing your superiors (unlike Tsukasa who’s rude as hell). And then iconically, in the above line, Rui switches up his first-person pronoun from boku (僕) to ore (俺) which is more masculine, largely cause it’s ruder, and implies a sort of haughtiness even. To my understanding, you wouldn’t say ore in a formal context in real life, but these characters don’t switch up their personal pronoun depending on who they’re talking to like speakers do in real life anyway, so for Rui to switch it up for something ruder in this situation is really fun. Especially while he keeps the ultra formal sentence structure. It’s kinda like “I (<- fucking awesome) must insist that you cut that shit out. /humble” okay well I don’t believe you. The contrast makes it feel like Rui doesn’t actually respect who he’s speaking to, but is keeping the politeness perfunctorily, and is letting you know. More than anything else it’s very steely, very serious, you will listen to his point if it kills you /polite.

Honestly, largely cause of Rui dropping the ore, I’ve never quite known what to make of the nuances of this line. By switching up his first-person pronoun to something even more masculine, is Rui drawing attention to himself specifically, pulling status as a man? Like, if it’s “stop insulting my (/masc) friends like this” is it “stop insulting my [someone you should respect’s] friends [WxS or the concept of Rui’s friends at large as contrasted to the specifity of talking about Emu in previous lines] like this” and therefore a sort of patriarchal claim on WxS and Emu like “fuck with my troupe and you fuck with me”? In the Japanese line though, Rui says oretachi (俺達), -tachi (達) being a suffix that turns a term of address into a plural, referring to a group, like “and everyone” pretty much. So here, Rui’s saying our, instead of my. Basically the original line is something like “I humbly urge you to stop insulting our friend” which is mostly relevant for how the subjects of the sentence have changed from presumably [Rui] and [Rui’s friends, including Emu and probably WxS at large], into [Rui, Tsukasa, and Nene, as WxS] and [Emu, a part of WxS, a friend and colleague].

So I think the emphasis in this sentence is not on Rui, but on WxS, as Emu’s friends, as a rejection of the premise of Shosuke’s barrage being reasons to cut Emu loose, given out of courtesy, for any sensible person would be through with her dreaming. They will stand by her as her equals, as people chasing the same dream. Shosuke does not have an ally in any of them. And I think the point of Rui’s use of ore here, as something forceful and somewhat disrespectful to say, is to be the nail in the coffin for Rui rejecting Shosuke’s premise of him being a Smart Young Man Who Knows His Place that will be reasonable and agree with the unreasonable disrespect he’s aiming at Emu. Shut the fuck up, basically.

Also, addition from the future, I realized that Rui’s final line here directly echoes Shosuke’s “We’re through dealing with you!” above, and Rui’s use of oretachi here is him almost explicitly throwing Shosuke’s own words back in his face. This is Shosuke’s line, with the original Japanese text, romaji, literal word by word meaning, and my own rough translation:

これ以上俺達を巻きこむな!

Koreijou oretachi o makikomu na!

[any more] [I and everyone] [involve] [negation]!

“Don’t involve us anymore!”

And for comparison, this is Rui’s line:

これ以上俺達の仲間を侮辱するのは、やめて頂きたい

Koreijou oretachi no nakama o bujokusuru no wa, yamete itadakitai

[any more] [I and everyone] [‘s friend] [insult], [stop] [I want you to /humble]

“I must insist that you stop insulting our friend any further.”

Rui is throwing Shosuke’s own words back in his face, getting on his level, using the exact same opening and sentence structure, only politer. Earlier, in “We’re in their employ. This isn’t the right time or place to discuss this,” the very sentence that made Shosuke think Rui “had his head on straight,” Rui had used bokutachi. Mirroring Shosuke’s use of ore here is a fucking insult for which Shosuke absolutely has the context for. “We are not the same, none of us will tolerate you demeaning Emu, and to illustrate this, I’ll use your own goddamn words.” Rui was cooking for real.

Rui’s whole argument is a really good response, insicive, all-encompassing, and leaving no room for further argument. I also think it’s notable how Rui doesn’t cede any of Emu’s ground here, something really quite incredibly rare for men arguing on behalf of women. I think most any other guy *cough* would’ve agreed with Shosuke’s premise to some extent, that Emu does have her head in the clouds too much sometimes, or that there’s any context or blood relation or gender dynamic that would make anyone saying that to her okay to any extent.

In Tsukasa’s 2☆ side story 1, Tsukasa’s ire is directed at Emu’s brothers on the basis of them failing their roles as brothers. He cedes ground to the idea that for matter of being family and all families being different, if there was a good reason for it, slighting Emu to some extent could have been okay, this was just too far. Tsukasa places the emphasis of why this behaviour was wrong on being “disgraceful for an older brother”, immediately preceded by Saki placing the emphasis on Emu “not deserving being treated like that.” This is discharitable to an extent, but like, hmmmmmm 🤨 ? Obviously, the idea of what a “good big brother” is is incredibly important to Tsukasa, and this, which grates at that so fundamentally is gonna piss him off and lead his thoughts to that angle specifically. And his takeway is gonna be that Shosuke and Keisuke are doing “brother” Wrong, and not that for matter of having bought into the patriarchy they believe themselves better and smarter and more Serious than Emu, entirely refusing to see her intelligence on the basis of her being Pink even though Emu’s fucking incredible. If Tsukasa were the one to engage Shosuke in the moment instead of Rui, he would’ve done a shit job.

And think also of Akito arguing with Shin-ei about Ena in Insatiable Pale Colour. A similar situation of a patriarch disparaging a younger girl for being less strong, intelligent, and serious than he, on what amounts to the basis of her being a woman. Give up before you get hurt (said while hurting you). While arguing that Shin-ei maybe shouldn’t have called Ena’s art worthless and that she should give up, that Ena doesn’t want him to protect her from suffering by hurting her preemptively, Akito says (paraphrasing) “Yeah Ena’s not as good as you, she’s hysteric and prone to overreacting so she would have it rough, but even I think you went too far.” Like. Even while arguing on her behalf, Akito is incapable of not throwing her under the bus.

The examples above to illustrate a negative, Rui’s argument on Emu’s behalf is refreshing. He cedes no ground to the idea that she’s anything other than amazing on her own talent, nor that he’s better or smarter or more serious than her in any way despite Shosuke’s presumptive implication, nor that insulting her is acceptable behaviour in any context, nor that it’s unacceptable because of her relation to a man responsible for her. Put some respect on her name, because her name deserves respect. It’s nice.

[applestorms]

naomi certainly isn’t a moron, if anything she probably doubts her own intelligence/reasoning more than is really justified, but— well. that’s just it, isn’t it? she’s just so goddamn insecure. in almost every scene that we see her in she is Constantly deferring to the authority of whatever man happens to be pushing his ego around the most, coming to her own conclusions quickly but keeping her mouth shut until someone gives her permission.

she’s gruff, and harsh, and brutal; she wears leather jackets and hates skirts. she suffers from Death Note Woman Disease, but also seems to genuinely care about kids. she can’t bring herself to shoot at 13 year old. she quits her job to marry a man, and then takes it back up again the minute he mysteriously dies. really i think it’s the contrast between those two sides, the fact that she can get a nickname like massacre vs. her overwhelming, underlying anxiety, that really makes her compelling to me.

[razables]

creation/destruction

echoes | corruption