#re-evaluating

[timeless-clarity]

Anyone Else Feeling Worn Out by Instagram?

Instagram feels like more of a challenge these days, with algorithms becoming unpredictable and lacking the intuitive energy that aligns with being a human user.

Gone are the days of it being an authentic space to truly create, connect, and be seen. The pressure to curate the perfect feed, follow trends, or even pay for visibility has become draining—especially for small business owners. I miss the days when we could share what we loved and build community authentically, without constantly thinking about numbers or staying relevant in the fast tides of the algorithm.

Is anyone else feeling the same? It seems like Instagram has lost its original vibe, and I’m craving spaces where creativity can flow naturally again. Tumblr feels refreshing—no pressure, just a place to be authentic.

It makes me feel so warm inside. My teen self gets to return to the place where her love of photography and emotional intelligence developed many moons ago in my lonely rural hometown, where Tumblr was my refuge and a place to connect with others like me.

What I love about Tumblr today is the peacefulness that comes after posting. It feels like you’re part of something, rather than having visibility anxiety.

There’s a real sense of authenticity and connection, none of the pressure that leaves you second-guessing every move. It’s a platform where creativity feels free, and I’m glad to be back again!

How are you all finding it? Are you exploring other platforms and moving away from the stress of Instagram?

[nibbelraz]

Do you think this awoken anything in Mobei-Jun

[ezkel]

twitter au where James and Regulus are large fan accounts in a toxic fandom and have MAJOR beef with each other.

they get in massive twitter fights daily. the rest of the fandom actually realises how toxic they are because of jegulus and work on getting along because they don't want to be like them.

at some point Regulus is bitching about twitter user "prongs" to Barty. Barty obviously decides the best course of action is to dox the guy.

but before they can post the information they've uncovered. Regulus realises that his "arch nemesis" is the guy he's been pining over. he doesn't dox him.

because his fun was ruined, Barty decides to bring up twitter user "leoStar" around James. which results in an equally as passionate rant as the one Barty heard from Regulus, before James realises Barty has no reason to know about this.

Barty tells James that Regulus is "leoStar"

James goes to talk to Regulus, they get in an in-person bitch fight about who's opinion is correct. somehow it ends in one of them pulling the other in for a rather heated kiss.

for the next month the fandom is in fear because the two accounts are much less violently arguing and are instead just mildly hating.

at the end of the month someone asks about the change and the whole fandom finds out they're dating now.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i am once again thinking about Percy and Annabeth and their respective relationships with their step-parents, particularly how the other views the other's dynamic with their step-parents.

Because there's a really interesting subtle thing that we see which is when Annabeth talks about her step-mom to Percy, Percy's assumption is that Annabeth's step-mom is like Gabe. He just presumes that because that's what's familiar with him and based on his own experiences he assumes their situations are similar.

But then when Percy actually meets Annabeth's step-mom (and her dad) he realizes their situations aren't at all the same. He was expecting another Gabe, but instead he just found a genuinely caring family that was just struggling to find their footing with one another.

The interesting thing is that this implies an inverse - especially with what we know about how Percy and Annabeth describe their experiences. Percy doesn't really talk about Gabe ever. To anyone. Grover knows the whole picture there but he's basically the only one of Percy's friends who does. As far as we know, unless Grover told her at some point, Annabeth doesn't know about Gabe. She knows he was a jerk, but Percy out loud doesn't ever really get into details about it. She knows they didn't get along and eventually Gabe disappeared and Percy basically never spoke of it again. Presumably, Annabeth thinks Percy's dynamic with Gabe was like her dynamic with her step-mom, like how Percy had thought their situations were the same. Especially given we know Percy assumed their situations were the same and likely spoke about it as such if it ever came up.

Like. That's such an interesting tiny aspect of their dynamic that never gets touched upon. Annabeth likely doesn't know about this very core traumatic experience Percy endured before they met because she's operating under the assumption that their family just was a little rocky like hers was.

[scroofy-was-here]

today my friend told me that she hated will byers (and mike!!!) and that the show would be better without him + he was so annoying

i am re-evaluating our friendship

how could you hate him??? how???

[gophergal]

You get wrecked by a Heavy+Medic duo and see one of these taunts before you respawn. How do you react?

(aka: @cursed--alien and I were bullshitting about potential taunts that would kill homophobic gamer boys on sight and these shitty doodles are the result)

[wisteriasymphony]

ok but imagine if she really had been akumatized though. and it was actually because of misplaced jealousy and internalized misogyny. wouldn't that be a fun time

[helaenathequeenmaker]

Inviting people to read and buy Fire and Blood after butchering the source material, not understanding the true focus and themes on which the Dance is based, and giving the characters ridiculous story arcs where they contradict themselves after two episodes is the biggest joke these two buffoons can claim. The real custodian of this world is George Martin, not you two megalomaniacs. Take a bath in humility you are becoming worse than D&D

[cozymochi]

Would Nyoka be friends with Jamil?

Oh boy, Probably not. [Yapping under cut]

I think… starting from Jamil’s perspective that wouldn’t be something he would want to do. Nyoka’s family has a business relationship with the Asims, so that slots Nyoka in an entirely different point of hierarchy. And to Jamil, despite it all, hierarchy is important to him.

It would probably be a situation similar to how Jamil treats princes like Leona (Book 6) or Malleus (Firelit Sky). Despite either of their personalities, Jamil just falls into habits thanks to years of conditioning and Kalim experience. He goes back to “attendant mode” so to speak and would spend more time worrying about what could go wrong nor want to be part of causing any worse-case scenario incident that could potentially compromise those “more important” relationships and blah blah somehow it goes back to him, he has to fix it, and if he cant next thing u know — on THE STREETS (Exaggerated, hyperbolic, but should give an idea on how overly paranoid he can be)

At most if left to his own devices already knowing the Wadjet’s relationship to the Asims and Nyoka’s status as an heir himself, he probably wouldn’t cross that line. Even if Jamil making a connection like that could be beneficial for him if he played his cards right, he’s just a bit too paranoid and unwilling to be that shameless. It’s all just more work to him at the end of the day. This isn’t a normal school peer he can casually snark at, this is an heir to prominent family who has a business relationship with the Asim family— if something happens to that heir under his watch then he will be at the center of it and it will be more work, consequences, and—

Yeah.

SO BACK TO NYOKA. I don’t think Nyoka would be interested in befriending him either. Mostly because Nyoka really isn’t into befriending anybody to begin with at Night Raven College. He’s at NRC to study and get an education, not much more than that. Not to say that he can’t be on decent terms with people, he just keeps to himself. He doesn’t really know Jamil beyond being aware that he’s Kalim’s personal attendant, poison tester, bodyguard etc etc etc. (But does notice that Jamil is treated with a level of favoritism)

Nyoka kinda just… lets people stay in their lane if they insist on it. He wouldn’t stop Jamil from going full attendant mode exactly if they were left alone. Not because of lack of awareness (quite the opposite), but because he understands that that’s just Jamil’s job and he’s just doing what is expected of himself in that position. If anything, he would be able to tell that Jamil probably would feel more in-control and at ease if he was just able to do what he’s been conditioned to do rather than stray from that.

As rigid as that set up may be, Nyoka can respect that since he can relate to treating one’s own position with a level of almost uncompromising seriousness. Upholding a specific image on behalf of others to prevent possible conflict involves a lot of discipline and sacrifice (something Nyoka can personally understand). There would definitely be more explicit “thank yous” in response to even little acts of service. Nyoka probably would see it as disrespectful to Jamil’s efforts to keep things in line, even if there is no trouble if he were to impose further.

So this is just a combination of scenarios where “friendship” in an earnest way might be off the table due to neither wanting to impose for different reasons.

They could probably get shit DONE if they were friends, but at this time that doesn’t seem too likely.

[toxomedic]

ahhh finally updated my collection with the valentines stuff and putting up my thai lobby cards... id have gotten them sleeves but they already arrived to me quite beat up (which i expected!) so theyre just raw on my wall... whoops.! so happy i love u re-animator.. more to come soon(ish) with the new boxset and whatever other 40th goodies they might release, and i fear im very much running out of room here haha.... sweats...

[kenzan-brainrot-mp4]

Hello! The twist ending of PYIH kind of shocked me. 'Twas really foolish of me for thinking that for the entirety of Kiryu's saga, Majima has just that twisted obsession with Kiryu, being a "Mad Dog" and all. I came across your PYIH analysis the other day and it really brought home what they were conveying with the ending.

I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the premise of PYIH. Is the sole purpose of Majima's "filming/documentary(?)" is to rehearse telling it to Kiryu? Because if it had been, that would be even crazier.

Oh, and at this point, is it even reasonable right now to interpret their relationship as platonic or brotherly? What do you think?

YEAHHHHH imo I think yakuza kenzan yakuza 3 (rooftop scene) is where we first truly starting seeing a glimpse of a deeper dynamic between Majima and Kiryu that goes beyond the "weird twisted obsession" reading, and we see more examples of it later as the series goes on (gestures at yakuza 5 and IW) but moments like those were decently subtle/blink-and-you'll-miss-it (not to mention they lessen in frequency also probably in part to Majima's lessening screentime throughout the series), but pyih's ending really goes out of its way to ensure that you actually Know how deep and genuine Majima's feelings are, which I am both extremely appreciative of and Kinda Crazy about

I think the whole documentary thing is interesting. Given the fact that they went out of their way to get the equipment/crew/etc. for the "film version", I would say that the Majima's retelling of his story at the studio and at Kiryu's bedside serve different purposes, and that him telling the story on set was not specifically for Kiryu (what Majima plans to do with the "film version" I'm not completely sure, but I guess for now we can assume it's just a project Majima wanted to do while getting Majima Construction back off the ground?) I'd say the premise of pyih is both to retell Majima's story as he presents it to the "general audience" And Kiryu, hence why the game starts with one and ends with the other. It's the same story to everyone, for the mostpart, and the main difference between the two 'versions' is How he presents it (to the cameras/the players/main audience he puts on the fuckass pirate costume and the theatrics, to Kiryu he tells it to him straight, without the extra show stuff for the cameras. We can Assume the story he tells to each audience is practically identical, considering that the cutscene of him telling it to us in the beginning of the game and him telling it to KIryu at the end of the game use identical lines (cough cough in the Japanese audio), but his tone of voice between the two are notably very different)

Uhhhh shoot I don't know if any of that made sense 💀 Point is I think Majima telling the story of pyih is, in fact, meant for Everyone, it's just that Kiryu gets a sort of special, more authentically told version of it if you will (After all, Majima could've just shown Kiryu the film when it was finally done, but instead he went out of his way to tell it to him personally)

As for the question of "is kazumaji canon now", WOO boy. First of all I actually lowkey want to thank you for asking that question, I've been wanting to post about it for a while now but kept putting it off lol. I mulled over this exact question quite a bit during the week-or-so long time period that I was writing most of my analysis after finishing the game, and, despite the fact that I myself am very vocal about liking kazumaji in a romantic scenario/context, I would not personally call it canon, and I say it is still absolutely reasonable to interpret them as platonic.

While many of the aspects we see in their relationship (especially on Majima's end) such as obsession, devotion, etc. etc. are often associated with romantic interest (Especially in fandom spaces), I don't think they have to be considered specifically romantic. People who have read through my posts may remember a while back that I did an analysis of The Sun at 36.5 wondering if the song was written with the intent to represent Majima's feelings towards Kiryu (for the record this was incorrect and the meaning behind it goes past the scope of the game) and I was going pretty insane about it lol. That's because, had the song been written with that in mind, it would've meant with almost 100% certainly that they would be, in fact, canon, and that would've been Insane. However, this is not the case, and other than that theory I had there's nothing else in the games that would specifically state that either one has Explicitly Romantic feelings towards the other. Do they have a very deep and complex relationship, the likes of which they don't share with many other characters? Definitely. Is it explicitly romantic? I wouldn't say so

The main example I would like to bring up to argue against it would be minedai (*cough* my second favorite yakuza ship I fucking Love Mine Yoshitaka so much he's one of my favorites). I'll link this amazing post with all the examples but essentially, while minedai and kazumaji share many of the same themes in their relationship/dynamic (again, obsession, devotion, you get the drill (can you tell Majima and Mine are two of my favorite characters yet LOL)) the main difference between them is that, with minedai, it is basically outright said Multiple Times in Multiple Sources outside of even Yakuza 3 itself that Mine loved Daigo, with words used Specifically to convey strong romantic connotations, a choice rgg went out of their way to make every single time they wrote about them together. Kazumaji, on the other hand, does not use these kinds of words to describe each other, whether it be in words coming from Kiryu and Majima themselves, or official relationship charts, descriptions, etc.

Can feelings including romance be heavily implied without needing to be explicitly stated? Absolutely, but with the way rgg tends to Very Obviously and Explicitly state when characters Are romantically interested in each other, and also simply because there is still (imo) plenty of room to read kazumaji as Not romantic, I wouldn't say it's canon. And for the record, I wanna reiterate that this is coming from someone who is personally very enthusiastic about kazumaji as a ship, so I'm trying to be purely objective here, and that is my verdict (Also this is just a random aside, but I really don't agree with the people who are (unironically) labelling Kiryu and Majima's relationship as "queerbaiting". but that's a whole other discussion entirely)

Thank you for shooting an ask !!

[gstring-theorist]

im so fucking mad i was watching gravity falls with my boyfriend and we got to the bit with stan's fake identities and he went 'he looks exactly like that guy youre obsessed with'

he meant fucking harry du bois and he was RIGHT ON THE FUCKING MONEY IM SO PISSED. THATS THE SAME FUCKING GUY ARE YOU KIDDING ME

[hatosaur]

it's pretty implied that ellie never came out to joel in the proper sense. she lets him assume that she's into men, gives him the false satisfaction of "seeing" her "crush" on jesse, does not correct him. she's fairly confident in being gay in public for others to see and having others close to her know; so why not correct him? why dodge the topic?

was it out of fear? could it be that she never broached the topic despite being close to him in the early years because of the possibility of his reaction being negative? that she was afraid that out of all things that could force them apart (further apart after they split), him reacting badly to her being gay would be the worst?

what about at the dance? would she have been as wound up as she was if the moment hadn't been an encounter with a vicious homophobe? maybe she would've still snapped without this context, but why is she immediately on the defensive against joel after he sticks up for her?

what about the porch scene? why did she refute his question of dina being her girlfriend so insecurely, looking away, nervously and quietly stumbling over words? why isn't she mean about it? why doesn't she get defensive at the question? why did she lash out again when he expressed acceptance?

i think these scenes revolving around her queerness indicate it as such; that ellie never told joel for fear of a response, that she lets him think what he wants because that's the easiest way for it to be. then, when she's ready to face off against a homophobe, because that's the way things are, that's what she can expect, and joel defends her, she lashes out.

it's such a clear juxtaposition of support and hatred between joel and seth, and being faced with joel's acceptance is too much, makes her turn to the anger she'd been holding onto and reinforce what she thinks is true -- that she doesn't need him. and in the fallout, as her regret dawns on her, so too does the realization; he was protecting her, like always, without hesitation, over this thing she was always afraid he wouldn't accept her for.

in the porch scene, joel chooses his words wisely, and asks if dina is her girlfriend -- not "so you're gay?" or "why did you never tell me?" or "how long has this been a thing?" -- with such a casuality that it seems to throw her off. it's like ellie can hardly get the words out. she refutes the idea, fumbles for each following part of her response, is tense. she wasn't prepared for the question.

and when he finally asserts his support for her, in as explicit terms as he can, you can see ellie become emotional, touched for a moment but overcome, before she launches into the defensive again, exactly like at the dance scene -- meeting his kindness with hostility as a way to cope with her emotions.

and then, in response to her basically saying her life doesn't matter, he affirms that it does.

so he's now affirmed two things that ellie has doubted: that he accepts her being a lesbian, and that her life matters. a conflation of the two, in ellie's mind, may have come after; and after that, her olive branch.

and yeah, him affirming these things for her is fully in the context of his overwhelming parental love for her and her complex feelings about being the cure, but within a queer subtext, it means more. it's such a familiar thing to slink around loved ones and hide being gay/queer for fear of any type of response, and lying by omission in conversation just to keep that state of peace, of normalcy. ellie, with all her brutishness and bravery, falls into it like anyone else, because even while mad at him, she valued that response from him.

a lot of people seem to think that the approach to ellie's queerness is nonchalant, that it's just some unrelated thing about her, but i think that it holds more weight in the narrative that what is explicitly spelled out. it's subtle but it was a deliberate choice to place her queerness at the center of the confrontation. i think that's why ellie's relationship with dina took center stage in the story, and why so much time is devoted to just them -- because her being queer matters to her character, but in a way that perhaps only a queer person can see, analyze, and appreciate (without being blatant enough to anger certain other fans).

[fannedandflawless]

Lily Evans: Golden Girl or Something Sharper?

📌 A soft disclaimer for Snily and Marauders fans: this isn’t about bashing anyone’s favourite. It’s a perspective—a way of holding the light at a different angle. I say this as someone who once stood firmly on the Snily side, and now simply asks harder questions with quieter hands.

Lily Evans is often portrayed as a paragon of virtue: brilliant, kind, and principled. But beneath the immaculate sheen of this seemingly flawless figure lies a quiet arsenal of emotional precision, silences sharpened to a blade, and decisions that suggest something colder than mere goodness. Was she truly the golden girl of the wizarding world—or someone who curated her own narrative, and cut clean anyone who threatened the edges?

Darling, it’s not a fall from grace if she never planned to descend.

1. The Severus Snape Fallout: More Than a Single Word

The moment Lily walks away from Severus Snape is typically framed as a principled boundary after a grievous insult. And yet, the truth has more layers than a well-enchanted onion.

Snape and Lily were inseparable for years, bound long before Hogwarts sorted them into separate destinies. He was, for a time, her only true confidant.

Her final words to him—"You’ve chosen your way, I’ve chosen mine"—are less a boundary and more a guillotine. No door left ajar. No room for return.

And let’s be clear: this wasn’t after he became a Death Eater. It was before. The slur wasn’t the crime—it was the confirmation.

So no, she didn’t just end a friendship over a word. She ended it because Severus became—publicly—a version of himself she had no desire to explain away. And once her trust cracked, the rest of him fell. Gracefully, but irreversibly.

2. The Petunia Problem: Sisterhood in Ruins

People love to reduce Petunia to just bitter and jealous—but that’s such a convenient myth. She was a child too. And her sister got plucked into a magical destiny while she was left behind in a perfectly ordinary world with no map and no warning.

In a letter to Sirius, Lily notes that Petunia was “being a bit more pleasant than usual, though she still won’t talk to me directly.” Which reads not as care but condescension—with just a splash of smug.

Lily may have loved her sister, but did she ever truly see her? Validate her? Or was Petunia just part of a life Lily was perfectly happy to outgrow?

And to make matters more theatrical, Lily later brought James into that same household—a man who clashed gloriously with Vernon. Did Lily intervene? Attempt peacekeeping? No record of it. The silence says enough. And silence, in her hands, is never neutral.

The tragedy wasn’t just that Petunia was left behind. It was that Lily didn’t look back—not really. She didn’t throw a rope. She didn’t offer a bridge. She simply kept walking, robes pressed, spine unbent.

3. So Who Is Lily Evans?

To understand Lily is to accept a paradox:

A principled, brilliant, but emotionally exacting woman. Someone praised for her elegance and ethics—yet rarely questioned for her lack of softness once crossed.

She picked the "right path"—and if you didn’t match it, you were cut from the frame.

She loved fiercely, but you had to meet her at the level she deemed acceptable.

For her, forgiveness was not a kindness. It was a credential you had to earn.

Nowhere is this clearer than in her final chapter with Severus. He apologised—honestly, humiliatingly. He waited outside Gryffindor Tower, pleaded, laid bare his regret. And still, Lily never opened the door. Not even a crack. And if that door ever squeaked on its hinges, rest assured she hexed it shut.

Regret, for her, was not a passport. Once crossed, you were disqualified. Permanently.

She saw pain—but unless it matched her internal rubric of morality, she left it untouched. She wasn’t cold, exactly. But she kept her warmth tightly rationed. And heaven help you if you failed her. Because that sort of fall from Lily’s favour? Darling, it’s irreversible—with no parting gift but poise.

Was it grace? Was it pride? Or simply the comfort of always being right?

⸻

Lily Evans isn’t a saint. She’s not a villain either. But oh, she is a masterclass in controlled distance and curated silence. The kind of woman whose restraint stings more than most people’s rage.

She didn’t just live by a code—she monogrammed it, framed it, and ensured no emotion would dare smudge the edges. Not because she was heartless—no, never that—but because she refused to be made messy by someone else’s chaos.

And maybe that’s the truth none of us want to sit with: that the boy who lived owes his life to a woman who loved on principle, but lost on tenderness. That her silence? It wasn’t passive. It was precise.

And it cut deeper than she’ll ever be blamed for.

[canisalbus]

I love the idea of Machete healing some unresolved stuff about himself because he realizes the things he resented about himself when he was younger are traits that Ear has but because he loves Ear it helps him to realize those traits aren't inherently unlovable. Do you think Machete or Vasco would be helicopter parents?

.

[broncoburro]

HEY GIRL, it's been a minute.

Preparing for Art Fight. An old face who needed a drawing more recent than the Pleistocene.