#problems that arent really problems

[thephilosophyofsuns]

I desperately wish I could leave comments on specific songs on Spotify.

I have several fandom-specific playlists, but I wanna be able to explain why each individual song made me think of that fandom.

I also have several songs that are personally significant to me, and I wish I could explain what the song means to me.

[unnecessaryyandere]

When I wanna post one piece stuff but alot of new people are into it right now so I dont want to spoil it but at the same time its been out over a decade so like what do i do D:

[loriache]

"I've been waiting for ages for somebody to unmask them."

This moment tends to elicit negative reactions in a first read through, and I've got some opinions about why where Kabru is coming from here actually makes a lot of logical sense. So I thought I'd elaborate on that.

I think people hear this and go, "He thinks they must be hiding something because they gave money to someone? What a cynic." Or "he dislikes them because they did charity?? What's wrong with this guy!". And obviously, a lot, a lot is wrong with him. But I think this makes more sense than it seems at first glance! What people evaluating this judgement miss is why Kabru is paying attention to Laios and co to begin with.

Kabru knows of the Touden siblings because (he's a little bit of a stalker-) he is keeping an eye on all the relevant parties in events developing on the island, in order to be able to guide them to his preferred outcome. This includes adventurers because they are the ones actually exploring the dungeon! He's well aware that something as minor as internal tensions between party members could be key to the historical events that are developing. (He would love the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.)

His desired outcome is that whatever the rewards are of breaking the dungeon's curse, whether that's kingship or the ancient elven secrets of dungeons, are claimed by:

A) a short lived person

B) Someone who will be a good, effective leader and/or use those secrets and the power they carry wisely, with foresight, and to establish a political bloc for short lived people.

The person he can best trust to do this is, of course, himself. But due to his PTSD regarding dungeons and monsters, he's not able to develop the necessary skills to conquer the dungeon. Once he realises this, he starts looking for someone else who he can support to that end.

But most of the adventurers don't have any intentions of conquering the dungeon, don't have the skills, or are unsuitable in other ways. In fact, it seems like some potentially suitable people are the Toudens. There are a lot of good rumours about them going around - they actually seem to have a very positive reputation! That's what Kabru means when he says "unmask".

So when Kabru is observing something like them giving money to an old comrade from their gold-peeling days, he doesn't consider it a problem because "they're giving money to this person who doesn't actually need it" or because they must have some dark secret if they act superficially nice. I think he actually understands this situation and what it implies about Laios (in particular) perfectly well.

Laios and Falin gave money to an old comrade who got injured and couldn't work. That person then healed up but kept taking their money. Then he used the money to start smuggling illicit goods to the island.

The key is that for Kabru, the problem here is the same as with the corpse retrievers - people using the dungeon's resources to fuel dangerous, selfish, or violent pursuits cause problems for the island, attract more criminals and people with motives other than breaking the curse, and increase the chances of the whole situation ending in tragedy.

Kabru is willing to work with the Shadow Lord of the island if it gets him to his goal - he isn't scrupulous - but the criminal element of the island increasing is something he sees as a major issue.

Also, when you're evaluating someone as a candidate for power, riches, secrets, potentially kingship - then being curious about how the money you give to people is going to be used is kind of a relevant trait!

Interpersonally, Kabru's actually very easygoing - I mean, Mickbell isn't exactly an upstanding guy, is he! But Kabru likes him and they get along well. These traits wouldn't be a problem at all in a friend, or a comrade, or someone Kabru was confident he could use. But he can't get a handle on Laios, and Laios is someone who has the potential to be a major player!

On Laios' end, this is the same as with the marriage seeker who joined their party. She kept asking for things and he gave them to her, because he tries to be nice to others. He even gives her money! It's the exact same thing.

That's fine, but it became a problem because he basically wasn't interested in her motives, didn't notice she was trying to manipulate him, and it also didn't occur to him that the other party members would notice or be affected. We can assume the situation with the gold peeler is the same. When Kabru says that "It's not that they're bad people, they just aren't interested in humans," he isn't wrong.

The extent to which this is true of Laios is linked to his autism imo, (because it isn't just disinterest - he genuinely isn't able to notice nonverbal cues that people are lying to him or have ulterior motives) but to a greater or lesser extent I think it's a very common trait. Most people aren't actually that interested in other people who aren't close to them. Kabru is the weird one here. It isn't an issue except as a leader - which is why we see an immediate comparison to the Island's Lord, because that's how Kabru is evaluating them.

And disinterest in/lack of ability with people to the extent Laios exhibits it, it does, actually, make him a worse leader... it's just that as we see in the story, people can help him out. The rest of the party tell him the marriage seeker is taking advantage of him so he tells her he can't give her special treatment anymore. They're pissed and it's a crisis point - he couldn't have recovered their trust without Marcille and Falin - but that's exactly the point. With Marcille and Falin, he was able to recover their trust.

And he has other good traits that make up for it, such as his intelligence, strategic knowledge, open-mindedness and sense of fairplay.

Kabru doesn't disqualify Laios as a candidate based on what he sees about him from afar, though - he still tries very hard to get close to him, obviously hoping that if he manages he can steer Laios to defeat the dungeon and make up for his lack of people-skills in the aftermath. (Which... he does eventually achieve that goal!) He completely fails until the events of the story, so... definitely I think "They just aren't interested in humans" could also partially be a stung reaction to Laios' complete disinterest in him.

Anyway, that's my read on what exactly Kabru's "issue" with Laios is. Obviously, once he does find out what Laios' true nature is like - about his love for monsters - he develops an entirely new set of fears about Laios' priorities. But since Laios kept that a secret until the start of the story, he has no idea of that yet.

Given all that, I think it's interesting that he says that he doesn't think that the Toudens are suitable to defeat the dungeon, and that he's hoping they'll turn out to be the thieves. As some of his few potential candidates, people who he thinks may play a big role in the island's future, you'd think he'd hope they would be good people!

I suppose it's better, in his eyes, because it means that he's involved in something "interesting". They haven't just had their stuff stolen by regular criminals (boring, puts them further away from his goal) - they've been caught up in the beginning stages of "a historic event". The desperate and dwindling group forgetting morals in their quest to retrieve their lost comrade probably appeals to his sense of melodrama. Because he also just... loves drama.

Despite it being "uglier than anything he was expecting", he still pursues Laios as the person he wants to conquer the dungeon pretty much as soon as it becomes clear that he won't be able to do it himself and they are out of time. That's because... well, to be fair, there aren't any other options. And he fits standard A: he's short-lived!

and Kabru still hopes he can fit standard B, too, and be persuaded to use the power he wins for good. No matter how many nightmares he has about Laios, or whether he thinks about killing him. He doubts him, but ultimately he puts his faith in him and seems happy after the manga's ending that he made the right decision.

[handweavers]

i remember growing up they were ripping out kids tonsils left and right for a while like half the kids i knew were getting their tonsils removed and then they realized they're a part of the immune system and actually do something so now they don't really do that anymore. which is so crazy btw

[kelocitta]

You're not glossing over the suffering and trauma the Scavengers have been put through at the hands of Artificer or having them all be ok with it just because they felt sorry about it like so many AUs like to do right?

Who said anything about them feeling sorry about it 🤔Artificer has a lot of issues but if they were justified is not one of them they're grade A hater

On a more serious note: It depends. I don't like the 'genocidal maniac' style of characterization so they're pretty far from that, so if you consider anything less than that sympathetic you're not gonna find it here. They have a brain and a goal so their destruction is/was a little more targeted and less of a wildfire. They harm a lot of people in the process, and they don't particularly have any qualms with that ('Sometimes you get caught in the crossfire, get over it or punch back' mindset) but they aren't a killer for fun or a sadist or anything like that. As for what others think of them... What they did was still pretty awful, but I imagine its not something a lot of people know about. Or at least don't know that Artificer specifically did it. Not exactly something they're advertising and they also pretty much live in a toxic swamp away from the people who would be most suspicious.

[sanchoyoscribbles]

march’s moon- worm moon! 🪱

I'm gonna be so honest, I stared at the name of this month's moon name for a While just trying to figure out HOW I could design a...magical girl worm outfit.. of all things. I went with classic inch worms, gummy worms, and earth worms... and tried very hard to make the theme cute and not go a nightmarish heidi klum 2022 worm costume route would you love Usagi if she was a worm? 🤨 (bonus- worm on a string usagi)

[January moon- wolf moon] [February moon- snow moon]

[April moon- pink moon] [May moon- flower moon]

[valtsv]

Do you think humans are more good or more bad? Or do you feel it is a gray area?

guards! fetch the nice dichotomy idiot screenshot

[beatcroc]

sonic scribbles of varying ages and intents. surge from mid 2022 when i was first catchin' up on idw, silver from a few months ago when i was trying to figure him out, the rest from late 2022 from memory with stylization and redesigning where i couldn't be assed to try and stay on-model

[just-your-average-tangerine]

Was forced to watch a truly incredible (derogatory) thing recently.

A young person on twitter, adamant that transandrophobia doesn't exist on the grounds that 'no one is killing/raping/assaulting trans men'.

Several people responded, including some linking articles about murders and assaults on trans men and a couple op-ed style pieces of trans men talking about their own experiences.

Said young person responded with "I'm not reading those its triggering and I'm a minor"

So let me see if I've got this correct, you are knowingly refuse to acknowledge reality because it's upsetting to you and then you're going to turn around and deny that very reality because you refuse to acknowledge it because it's upsetting?

[reachhforthestars]

Sonic 3 spoilers!!! Talking about the mid credits scene/what people have been saying about it under the cut

feeling like the only one who doesnt want reverse sonamy for the movies </3

or more accurately, fine sonic can have an obvious crush on her but i dont want ‘reverse sonamy’ to mean ‘amy doesnt have a crush on sonic.’ she can be lowkey about it or whatever (like sonic is sometimes in the games/other media) but to me part of Who She Is is that shes this super cool, super strong, intelligent fighter but shes also still a young girl who has crushes and believes in fate and is guided by her compassion, not by her strength or her mission or her love of adventure.

shes such a good character because while she is physically strong and possibly slightly magic, those are equally as important as her love and compassion and care for the world and people around her. preserving amys girlhood is important to me like loving sonic isnt her single defining character trait bc she ‘has to have a crush on a guy’ but it is a main character trait because thats just who she is. a loving person who sees the good in the world and wants to protect it and loves sonic because she sees him as the embodiment of that

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Do you think if the trolls all came back, like everything in the main comic did happen and they were alive again. Do you think Feferi would actually forgive Eridan? Or want to even be his friend after everything? I don't personally like the erisol and fefertasprite interaction…felt rushed…..so I just wanted to know your opinion if things were different! :)

Yeah, I think they would be! Feferi is one of the trolls who takes dying the least badly (relentless optimism) and Eridan does genuinely feel bad, which means a lot when it's Eridan. I think she really is genuine when she says she wants them to be friends and also that she's really not the type of person to hold a grudge, and like... death is SUPER cheap in Homestuck, it's really not the horrific, irredeemable, irreperable damage that it is IRL - and if you're talking about (Feferi) and (Eridan), then they're both dead (and irrelevent) now, so the score is kind of even.

In general, the fandom - I mean, people in general, really - tend to have difficulty divorcing themselves from other people. We tend to assume that the people and characters they like will hold similar opinions to themselves. This is how people who like Karkat and don't like Eridan can mentally gloss over or even block out their clear, close friendship, or how people who dislike Cronus can end up overlooking that Meenah actually takes his opinion seriously and unironically defends his wizard thing. Feferi really isn't mad at Eridan or upset about dying the way we probably would be, because she's friends with the horrorterrors, relentlessly cheerful, comfortable with death in general, and death is also just not really that big of a deal in this setting. "I'm really sorry about that, that was shitty of me" is honestly probably all the apology she needs, especially if they came back to life anyway.

[mochiiniko]

nicole. nicole watch out. the baseball is coming. oh god she has airpods on she cant hear us oh my go

[qoldenskies]

how do you think their rivals like repo and big mama and etc would react seeing post-cc!donnie for the first time

i think the reaction would depend on who it is and the circumstances around it, like with big mama i dont think she would seriously react at all, even if she noticed the difference. im sure her behavior would shift but only in ways that are convenient to her if they spoke one-on-one cause yk... she's manipulative. although if you wanted to have something more sympathetic with her there's options, id say she has some versatility

with the others i think itd kinda depend. like some would not gaf at all, some would point it out or exploit it, and some would likely genuinely be concerned for his safety especially if he freaks out around them (hypno comes to mind). the behavioral change is definitely drastic but most of their rivals kind of group them in so donnie isn't singled out as quickly, outside of the fact that he's physically a lot weaker now. i mean i guess he would be if the others flipped their shit because of him getting hurt, but they'll be learning about that the hard way

i have always fancied the idea that there's a difference in his dynamic with the purple dragons though, kendra especially. she'd quickly pick up on the fact that he's not himself and he cant really take the same snarking around that he used to, and she would change the way she talks to him because banter was a cornerstone of their rivalry and he's not like that at all anymore-- even if he tries, its pretty obvious he's shaking and trembling and terrified. i think she'd go lighter on the words even if she wouldnt on everything else, and i could see a stronger reluctant friendship forming there. i like more kind portrayals of kendra what can i say

[chocoloom]

Alright, the hyperfixation’s still kicking, so fuck it. Here’s the pokemon I think the Project Eden’s Garden characters would have or would turn into if they were Mystery Dungeon’d

Damon - Servine, Applin, Noibat

Kai - Togetic, Ribombee, Vivillon

Eloise - Swanna, Honedge, Farfetch’d (Galarian) or Sirfetch’d

Grace - Buneary, Jigglypuff, Spheal (golf ball lmao)

Wolfgang - Flaaffy, Wooloo, Herdier, Prinplup

Ingrid - Pyroar, Armarouge, Tinkaton

Toshiko - Spritzee, Fomantis, Flamigo, Roselia

Jett - Poochyena, Scrafty, Revavroom

Mark - Treecko, Whismur, Deino

Eva - Corvisquire, Mawile, Sneasel (normal or Hisuian)

Ulysses - Hoothoot, Elgyem, Claydol

Wenona - Teddiursa, Stufful, Pancham, Pawmo

Desmond - Wartortle, Poliwhirl, Dewott, Clauncher

Cassidy - Sizzlipede, Joltik, Dewpider, Scolipede

Jean - Dragonite, Druddigon, Charizard

Diana - Audino, (shiny) Furret, Galarian Ponyta, Minccino

[sleepyblr-heart]

this'll hurt you more than it'll hurt me

[pocketramblr]

head in my hands why do these people keep trusting cadmus