#reading comprehension challenge

[sigmas-split-hair]

I see a lot of people in the Bungou Stray Dogs fandom having a lack of interest in Kunikida because of his unexplained backstory and I think it highlights a problem within the fanbase.

Now, Bungou Stray dogs is a show about people finding their “light” in many ways, moving on from the past and finding a reason to live. With Kunikida, the handling of this subject is a bit more subtle than with the other characters.

It’s obvious that something happened in his past, either by the Azure King or with his students making him obsessed with his ideals.

But we don’t need to know what in order for him to be well written.

Trauma doesn’t inherently make a character great. Using trauma as a way to “improve a character” is cheap and bad writing, outside of being kinda problematic.

Bungou Stray Dogs is great at avoiding this. Characters like for an instance Atsushi, Dazai and Kyouka are interesting not directly because of their trauma, but because of their healing journey and the show’s exploration of how they were affected by their trauma.

We see Kunikida value his ideals over his own life, saying that they die if his comrades die but live on when he dies. This is an interesting characterisation, and is also detached from his trauma, in the sense that it explores his character without outright mentioning his backstory.

This is not me saying that I don’t want Kunikida’s backstory. Hell I think it would be super interesting: but the interesting part would be connecting his behaviour to his past, and while it would explain him it wouldn’t improve him.

Look at Dazai’s time in the pm. Was it interesting and characterising? Yes. Did we need to know why he was in the pm in the first place for this? No. The fandom can be curious all they want, but that doesn’t make his backstory obligatory. We know that he was in a dark place and caught Mori’s interest. We don’t need more information in order to understand his character unless it’s relevant for the plot.

I’m tired of seeing people outright saying “they need to give him a backstory”, or that there’s nothing more to him than the surface (ideals, hitting Dazai, next Armed Detective Agency boss). Of course, there’s no problem with being curious about Kunikida or disliking him. Hate any character you want, but have reasoning a notch deeper than “he doesn’t have trauma”.

TLDR; stop treating character as if they’re “dull” because of lack of visible trauma. That is looking at characters from surface level, neglecting the other, very current and very present traits harboured than them. A character is more than their past, which we don’t need to know in order to try and understand them and in order for them to be interesting

[chilopodacrudus]

Me drawing Piers in this in every page of the comic so people know my stance on murder.

[gece-misin-nesin]

girl help someone just said jason had little reason to turn against bruce and did so anyways 💀

[erbiumspectrum]

20 April 2024

It's raining outside and I'm lying in bed sipping coffee and reading after studying for a couple of hours <333

[vonclosen]

vent. sorry i’m honesty hangry and upset

actually i’m still annoyed. has anyone in this damn fandom heard of filtering tags. for shit. they don’t like

also like not to be ‘what about’ but seriously if your biggest problems are fucking shipping wars on tumblr dot com i envy you. truly.

[carriesthewind]

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[my-pjo-stuff]

Just saw someone on TikTok saying that Luke "destroyed Silena's honor". Which is a take so braindead I'm not even gonna get into it omfg.

TikTok is officially the worst of the PJO fandom 💀🙏

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

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[calypsolemon]

i know I've spoken on this extensively before but it's still so funny to me when ppl point out harumi blaming lloyd illogically for her parents death instead of pythor or whatever as if it's like an actual plothole of her character. If she was "logical" she wouldn't be a crazy evil bitch ok <3

[akechi-if-he-slayed]

drarry was my original toxic yaoi…thirteen year old me in the tiktok / twt trenches with echelons of hate because “draco tried to kill harry !!! drarry is a toxic ship !!!”

[qifrei]

Not to sound like I'm gatekeeping but media i like getting popular is the worst thing that can happen to me

[rigelmejo]

Language Study Challenges I've been contemplating, but I just do not have the time to do it all. ToT I think some of these could result in some good progress over a few months, as a period to see how much the challenge is helping you improve in your specific goals.

Glossika: attempt to study 2000 new sentences in the course in a month, doing reviews only if you have spare time. May require 1-2 hours of study time a day, but the studying can be done as just listening, so you can do it while also doing other things. Getting through 2000 new sentences in glossika will take around 40-60 hours (I think it took me 40 hours). If the method is working well for making progress on your improvement goals, then keep doing for 3 months and you will cover 6000 sentences, then the 4th month study the last 400 sentences in the course and finally start prioritizing reviews. Spend end of 4th month reviewing, and do a final 5th month of reviews if desired. (Do reviews more than me if you prefer that, do speaking practice with course if desired for your particular goals, do reading practice with course sentences of desired for your particular goal). This can be completed in ~3 to 5 months, so you can make some significant progress and see how well (or not) it worked for your goals in a somewhat shorter amount of time. (I'm doing this challenge now).

Listen to an audiobook: find an audiobook you like (I'm using SCI), attempt to listen to it in as short a time period as possible (that's possible for you), aiming for at least 1-2 hours of listening a day (on average). Since its just listening, it can be done while doing some other activities. If you pick an audiobook shorter than 60 hours long, pick a few audiobooks so that listening 2 hours a day would result in eventually listening to 60 hours in a month. If desired, the next month you can pick to re-listen to the same audiobooks again (for repetition and to see if you understand more the next time around). For me, the goal with this is to INCREASE practice listening to a LOT of dense speaking. So for me, perfectionism will try to kick in and I'll try to re-listen to the same chapter over and over. So for me, this goal is to FINISH listening to an audiobook. The SCI audiobook I'm listening to is around 60 hours. Guardian by priest is around 50 hours. A lot of Chinese webnovels will easily be 40 hours or much longer, if you want something long to keep listening to the same word choices and grammar patterns and plot of one author. If you pick shorter audiobooks, picking the same author may help keep the vocabulary and grammar more familiar to you over time. (I'm doing this challenge).

Comprehensible Input Challenge (for total beginners): Dreaming Spanish gives an estimate of 50 hours to learn 300 words, and 150 more hours (so 200 hours total) to learn 1,500 words. 1,500 words is a great foundation to starting to try shows if you are okay looking key words up every few minutes, novels for kids if you're willing to look key words up, graded readers, simple conversations, videos for learners which don't have as many visual aids for understanding, and the broader world of being able to learn more new words with SURROUNDING words as your context for guessing, instead of only or often primarily visual clues. Dreaming Spanish labels that as Level 3, 1,500 words learned, can watch Intermediate Dreaming Spanish videos. (From their site "Now you can listen to videos or classes in which the teacher doesn't use as much visual input, and may even be able to take advantage of really easy audios and podcasts that are catered to learners at your level. Crosstalk is still the best way to spend your time. At this level it becomes easier than before to do crosstalk over the internet using video call software, so you won't need to find native speakers where you live anymore. Reading is still not recommended if you care about your final achievement in pronunciation, but it starts becoming possible to understand lower level graded readers"). So for a total beginner the challenge would be to get through 50 hours of Comprehensible Input lessons for Superbeginners/Absolute Beginners/B0 (depends on the youtube account for what the first beginner videos are labelled). Just plan 1-2 hours of video lessons per day. Then for months 2, 3, 4, keep doing 50 hours a month and you'll hit that approximate 1,500 words known level. At that point, you should find non-comprehensible input made lessons such as beginner learner podcasts and graded readers become somewhat understandable, and media in the target language may in some cases be understandable if you're willing to look up key words and feel the initial "very tired/drained from focusing hard" part that always happens at first.

Comprehensible Input Challenge (for upper beginners): Assuming you know 1,500 to 2,000 words - or skill wise, you can handle understanding beginner graded readers and some beginner dialogues in learner materials, and can handle some content in the target language for native speakers IF it's on the easier side and you can look a key word up for meaning every few minutes (so for example: you can follow a Peppa Pig episode, or a Spongebob episode, aka a cartoon for kids, if you look up key words every few minutes - alternatively, if you can watch a simple romance daily life show and follow the main plot if you look up key words). Your goal as an intermediate learner: watch 300 hours of Comprehensible Input Lessons labelled "Intermediate." 300 hours will take you from that upper beginner area you're at (1,500 words learned) to 3,000 words learned. That will get you to the point of (from Dreaming Spanish site): being able to talk to patient native speakers and may be able to make friends and lamguage exchange partners, get through daily life stuff like shopping with words although it may be a struggle, can learn new words mainly from surrounding word context now (so picking up new words from things you engage with is going to start picking up more so listening to stuff and watching stuff outside of lessons will result in learning more words - shows, podcasts, entertainment), graded readers will still be more comfortable but you can wade into more books for native speakers (especially if you're willing to look up key words for main idea). At 3,000 words, media for native speakers will still feel difficult but it should feel significantly LESS difficult than it did when you knew 1,500 words. When I knew 1500 words I could start watching cdramas with no english subtitles, but I looked up key words every 1-3 minutes and felt exhausted within 5-20 minutes. Once I had studied 3000 words, I could watch simpler romance slice of life cdramas for 40 minutes (episode length) without feeling drained, and look up key words once every 5 minutes. (Although keep in mind: the first time you watch shows or read novels, it will feel Exhausting until you get used to it, even if you know many thousands of words... you have to practice reading/listening stamina, even if you have a bigger vocabulary). So a 300 hour study of intermediate level lessons, should give you a significant boost in your language skills. You could do 50 hours a month, 1-2 hours a day, and finish in 6 months. You could do 60 hours a month (2 hours a day) and finish in 5 months. You could do 90 hours a month (3 hours a day - probably more than the average person has time for but this is a challenge after all lol!) and finish in 3.3 months. A huge jump like that in 3 months would be awesome! (I did that kind of jump in 6 months... when I started chinese I cram studied 2000 words and 1500 hanzi in 6 months, then reviewed for 2 months by watching shows and graded readers, then for 4 months I read a TON of webnovel chapters and picked up another 1000 words and ~500 hanzi). So yeah, 1.6 hours to 3 hours a day of study for a few months, aiming for 50-90 hours of Comprehensible Input Lessons for Intermediate Learners on youtube per month for 3.3-6 months.

Comprehensible Input Challenge (for intermediate learners) : This is where I am (for Japanese). 600 hours to go from the last level to this, to learn 5,000 words total. (As you know... I'm attempting to use Glossika japanese to learn 5000 words instead, so I'll report how that goes). 600 hours unfortunately cannot be done in 3 months with a comfortable study plan - I think, for me at least, a comfortable study plan I know I can commit to is going to need to be 2 hours a day or less (on average). 600 hours would take ~10 months to go through at 2 hours a day. Now granted, 10 months isn't so long in the grand scheme. But if you, like me, can motivate yourself to read novels or watch shows at this point, then 600 hours of youtube lessons sounds so boring. Although... I guess for my japanese level, watching shows still feels exhausting (podcasts for learners feel okay though, like Nihongo Con Teppei, so maybe I should listen to hundreds of hours of that?). Find the intermediate/advanced video comprehensible input lessons on youtube for the language you're studying, and go wild. It should take 10 months unless you study more hours per day then I can. (I think this is a sobering realization, right as I type, that it probably is going to take 600ish hours of SOME form of Japanese study to get me to the level I want to be at... maybe I'll try to just slog through a japanese novel ebook... I can sometimes motivate myself to read for 4 hours a day, I like reading...). Note: if I do this challenge later, it'll be with Comprehensible Japanese youtube videos for Intermediate and Advanced. Significant progress you should see once you've learned around 5,000 words (from Dreaming Spanish): You'll be able to understand more advanced materials for learners. Listen to audios and podcasts daily if you want to learn fast. Crosstalk is still as good as always. You may start feeling you are not getting much out of getting input about daily life topics. Try getting input about new topics. Easier TV programs and cartoons should be accessible too. The purists who want to get really close to a native speaker and get a really good accent may still want to hold off on speaking and reading for a little more, but if you do start speaking and reading it's not a big deal by this point. You'll still end up with better pronunciation and fluency than the vast majority of learners. If you want to start reading, by this point you'll be able to understand books targeted at children of lower grade levels, and you can skip over graded readers. From me: if you're looking key words up for the main idea when watching shows, you should now be able to watch many shows in familiar genres and just look up 1 word every 5 minutes or so. If you've got a decent ability to guess, and practiced getting used to media for native speakers already, then like I was in Chinese - you will probably feel comfortable watching MANY shows in genres you're familiar with, without looking up anything. You will feel especially comfortable with easier shows like cartoons and romance daily life stuff, and things you've watched before. If you've been practicing reading before this, then once you know 5000 words you will find you need to look key words up less often and can focus more on enjoying stories, and looking words up because you desire their specific meaning/to fully understand details, not necessarily because you need the words meaning to grasp the main idea (I did a LOT of intensive reading around this period in Chinese because I could finally extensively read for plot, so I'd look up every unknown word I saw to grasp the other details and increase my vocabulary... and because the amount of unknown words to look up was now manageable).

[phantaemon]

yo okay i got a new oc a few days ago please look at him I love him so much I have attached the toyhou.se link so that u can access the creator's account directly if u wanna see more from them :3

keep in mind Gig's toyhouse profile won't be updated much since my Toyhouse only serves as an archive, for toyhouse specific actions and credibility on the adopt market. You'll find him on Unvale and Characterhub soon. as well as here. obviously.

[vulturevanity]

When the all-powerful Police State finds someone guilty of murder and immediately, without trial, condemns them to the worst fate possible even though they were framed by their neighbours. But actually they'd tried to report said neighbours for conspiracy and treason against The Government to get social perks, and also they were jerks, kind of, so really they had it coming and this act of tyrannical violence was really a cathartic moment of karmic justice

[bottombaron]

while doing research for another theory I came across a completely mundane detail that I can’t imagine holding any actual significance but at the same time I couldn’t pass up sharing it

so, during the scene that I am calling the Pepsi Challenge, we have this moment:

Nandor gives Guillermo, as he says, a “flat Pepsi”

except Guillermo doesn’t drink Pepsi…

my boy is a Coke-Cola drinker as the lord intended.

normally this isn’t even worth mentioning. maybe the line was ad-libed or read wrong, or it’s just a joke that wasn’t thought about very long and that’s all good! i’m cool with all that. what would this inconsistency even mean in the long run anyway right? how would Nandor even know the difference between Coke and Pepsi???

really what gets me is that in the scene the bottle is set and reset two or more times, almost always keeping the label visible.

now, it’s been a while since i’ve been thru this issue on a set, but my understanding was that no labels could be used without paying a licensing fee. which is why you usually see fake labels on products in tv and film or more likely, they just turn a product at an angle so the label can’t be read and nobody has to pay anything to use it. but here the label is not only clearly visible but it maintains visibility at almost all cuts. which means the bottle was purposefully realigned in order for audiences to see that Guillermo is undoubtably drinking Coke-Cola. wwdits paying a licensing fee for this seems a little odd considering it’s not like Guillermo drinking Coke is important in anyway. it doesn't give significant product-placement either. but then Nandor brings up the flat Pepsi and i’m like ??? and if anyone says that Guillermo drinks both, shut your goddamn mouth and jump in a lake and when you climb out find the nearest convenience store and drink one or both of them because obviously you never had before and have no idea what you’re talking about. the two drinks are notorious for, if one is liked, the person would find the other absolutely disgusting.

also, yes, Guillermo didn’t just have it for show. he actually drunk it.

again, i’m not saying this means anything. i just think it’s interesting. 🤷‍♂️

[sabrinasfeather]

You’re argument is that Gale is a bad friend because he ‘blamed’ Katniss for what she did to survive the games. I’ve read Catching Fire the most in the series, and there are a whopping 0 quotes of Gale doing this. Here’s what the text actually says: “He (Gale) only has his Sundays off, and I think he likes saving for you (Katniss)” and Katniss says “Hunting with Gale is still the best part of my week”. If Gale was blaming Katniss for the games, I don’t think he’d be trying his hardest to spend time for her, and I also doubt Katniss would be happy with him constantly blaming her. But wait! Hunting with Gale is still her best part of her week.

actually he does blame her and here's the proof

(He stands in the doorway as if considering whether or not to enter. He holds the unopened leather bag of food, the flask, Cinna's gloves. Gifts he will not accept because of his anger at me. I know exactly how he feels. Didn't I do the same thing to my mother? i look in his eyes. His temper can't quite mask the hurt, the sense of betrayal he feels at my engagement to Peeta.) this is a prime example of him blaming her he's mad at her for being engaged even though he is a very least somewhat aware that she doesn't want it. here's another example.("It's the way he hates you. It's so...familiar. I used to feel like that," he admits. "When I'd watch you kissing him on the screen. Only I knew I wasn't being entirely fair. He can't see that.") mockying chapter 17. so yes he was he may never have said it out loud but it's very obvious in his actions that he did blame her and the reason Gail still hung out with her it's probably because they still were trying to feed his family and yes it was still the best part of her week but she said is not the same because of the strain between them and that has a lot to do with him being upset about her being in a fake relationship with Peeta and Peeta at one point blamed her too but the difference is he takes accountability and apologizes for his actions wow gale never does deal doesn't oh and it's not just a blaming he also guilt trips her and manipulate her .

("I knew you'd kiss me.""How?" I say. Because I didn't know myself."Because I'm in pain," he says. "That's the only way I get your attention." He picks up the box. "Don't worry, Katniss. It'll pass.") this is what I'm talking about he literally admitted to making katniss to feel guilty and to kiss him oh and then he complains about her kissing him it's one of my most hated Gale moments because this it's just pure manipulation there's no buts about it he knew how she was going to react feeling to him rejected and feeling like he doesn't have a chance with her romantically and he did it anyway and that to me is gross. here's another example of him being manipulative and blaming katniss.

("I thought...I'll never compete with that. No matter how much pain I'm in." He spins the feather between his thumb and forefinger. "I don't stand a chance if he doesn't get better. You'll never be able to let him go. You'll always feel wrong about being with me.")

This is blame. Straight up, Grade A premium blame being put on Katniss because OMG she has strong feelings for someone NOT Gale. This isn’t about her feelings. This is all about him and how he’s been ‘mistreated’ by her. He’s laying all this guilt on her because he can’t handle. I hate that he was making someone else’s pain all about himself. Seriously, your “rival” has been tortured and brainwashed and all you can think about is how this affects you? While your supposed best friend is clearly miserable about this, and all you can do is just add to her emotional turmoil instead of making any kind of attempt at being a supportive friend? I never liked G/K as a ship, but Mockingjay really showed me why I didn’t like them as friends, either. there are other examples of him just being s*****t but I think you get my point.

Alright well no offense but you’re proofs don’t really change my views on shipping Everthorne.

For starters, you stated that Gale blamed Katniss for the games, not the marriage proposal. While the games were a means for survival and Gale knew that, it’s one thing to act like you’re in love with someone for survival than to getting married to someone else. Gale did not know the marriage was staged, so he was literally losing the girl he loved, to the same guy who blew her off for 6 MONTHS. I would be jealous about that too, but you’re also leaving out the crucial details, that Gale still showed up and listened to her talk. When Peeta (who knew the love act was for survival) realized she didn’t actually love him, he refused to even interact with her. For Mockingjay, yeah if would make sense for Gale to be jealous that the girl he loved was kissing someone else. But did he hold it against her? Did he stop taking care of her family because of it? Did he ghost her like Peeta did? No, because he knew that wouldn’t be fair.

For the kiss, the only way you can get that Gale was manipulating her is if you assume Gale cried so Katniss would kiss him. Which if you read the text (Gale, who I have never seen cry before) he was not cried so Katniss would kiss him. He also told Katniss not to worry about him! He wasn’t being an asshole, he was telling her she didn’t have to worry about him.

Lastly, the last quote is legit Gale admitting he knew Katniss had a special relationship with Peeta. Which is true! Best friends are supposed to be honest with each other, I wouldn’t hate a character for speaking his thoughts. And did you forget that Gale risked his life to save Peeta?? Without Gale, he’d still be in the Capital. Also, does Katniss show any signs that she felt guilted? No, no she did not. She kissed him because she wanted a distraction, and Gale stopped her because she wasn’t in the right state of mind. Wow! Such harassment! Letting ur friend go because she’s confused and not pressuring her. You’re right, Gale is such a bad person.

I’m not gonna tag this post, feel free to respond if you want, but you’re gonna have to find more proof to make me change my mind