#robin rambles

[thisrobinisred]

I know I said this about Narumitsu when I was like three quarters through the first ace attorney game, however-

I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited about a ship as I have been with Klapollo. And the funny thing is- I couldn’t possibly give a proper reason as to why I like it so much. Like it could just be some of the iconic pieces of dialogue between them and their reactions and such- but I can’t even say that that’s the reason why.

They don’t even have history together, they barely had any proper connections prior to the second case in Apollo Justice. Hell- Apollo hadn’t even heard of Klavier despite him being apart of a famous rock band! Sure they insult each other and stuff (and Apollo finds him annoying at times-) but other than that they’re usually quite friendly towards eachother. Something about it just feels natural.

Plus do I even need to mention all the fluff and angst potential this ships gives-? Of course, the whole dynamic gets joked about a lot (which I 100% agree with lmao) but even that just makes it better in my opinion.

I think Klapollo will always give me warm/cosy feelings because of how nice it is. Whenever people ship them, it never feels forced.

I start rambling and then continue for longer than I had meant to-

I’m going back into my hole to continue my Klapollo playlist now-

[melonlthawne]

Give me things to draw. I’m gonna make myself like my art through force

[tiredrobin]

the best part about polls is that by now most poll takers are on some level aware of the... the meta of polls. i'm aware that the fourth option out of five or six is most commonly chosen; i know that the final selection of polls with options that are all the same word are most likely to be chosen; i know that people like to be goofy, and will choose the silliest option. no one's voting blindly anymore because the prevalence of these polls is manipulating how we approach them. we're all playing a game together, trying to guess public consensus, trying to contribute. its just another aspect of this website thats defined by collaboration and its fascinating and so so so cool

[tearsofperseides]

My Roman Empire

[running-out-of-spoons]

pain=no sleep

no sleep=pain

how do I win here, this is exhausting

[pinkeoni]

S1 and s2 (but especially s1) feel so intimate and grounded and personal. I am watching these character’s lives.

But s3 and s4 (ESPECIALLY s3) feels fake and removed. I’m watching a tv show.

[pleasantlycrazyworld]

Summary: Y/N is Eddie Munson's twin sister, no one from the gang has met her since she's been in college. One day Robin meets her only to find out so has Steve...and both of them fell in love....fuck.

Robin came into work with a skip in her step. She just met the most beautiful woman she ever met...well she just saw the most beautiful woman she's ever saw, before she could work up the courage to talk to her she was already gone. Clocking in she sighs dreamingly thinking of those brown eyes and curls. She needs to find out your name.

Steve watched his friend walk into work like she was walking on a cloud, "What got you all smiling and giddy?" he asks with a smirk, complete prepared to tease her on her newest crush. Steve has seen this look before, he has had this look before. Hell the day before he came into work with that look! He knew it had to be a girl.

Robin blushed and decided that there was no point in trying to hide this from Steve. "There's a girl...but god Steve! She was beautiful, a fucking goddess I'm telling you! You should've seen her, the curls, the eyes...Oh my god those eyes! They were a beautiful deep brown" Robin continued to ramble, making Steve's smirk drop. "Wait wait wait was she wearing like a leather jacket? A-A pair of like really beat up red converse?" Steve asked timidly, scared to finding the answers out. Robin shakes her head "I think she was, I mean I wasn't exactly looking at her feet Steve" she says rolling her eyes. "She was far too beautiful to look anywhere else" She shrugs before focusing her attention more on Steve's features before her own smile drop.

"No....no you're not telling me that was Y/N..." Steve nods pitifully.

"Fuck." They both mumble after a few minutes of silently staring at one another. Before either could say anything else the bell chimes signalling a customer. They both turn to greet whoever just walked in and as they do they freeze again seeing Y/N and Eddie Munson walking in and going to the horror section.

"Fuck!" They both say once again.

[elevator-to-mars]

erm hi

im doing that rhing

20 notes and i’ll try doing basic self care

40 notes and i’ll stop ignoring personal issues

60 notes and i’ll try to start eating three meals a day (my avg is 1 meal a day)

80 notes and i’ll start doing my hw

100 notes and i’ll stand up for myself when people i’m out to deadname/misgender me (CHARLIE P.)

pls don’t spam in repl

[robinwinged]

escapism in "the boy and the heron"

Interrupting my regularly scheduled programming of Good Omens brainrot for this attempt to process the wonderful, fantastical, and distinctly discombobulating experience of watching Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron.” 

Miyazaki’s films, at least to me, have never been straightforward to follow. Spirited Away, for example, is a beautiful masterpiece whose meaning is difficult to decipher on a first watch, and is only fully unveiled when you dive headfirst into research of Japan’s context and the movie’s many symbolic themes. The Boy and the Heron takes this typical Miyazaki complexity and ineffability and turns it up to eleven. There are so many elements that seem random, so many narrative arcs and characters all warring for attention (what is the tower? why are the parakeets so goddamn bloodthirsty? why is the blue heron such a creepy old man?), that combine to create a whimsical but overall also very strange landscape. 

I know that art in general does not have to have “meaning” or “a message” to be deserving of our love and attention. Art can be touching, affecting, disturbing, provoking - any number of things that would give it credit - and damn it if The Boy and the Heron isn’t all of these combined. But. 

But.

This is also a Miyazaki movie, and he has proven once and time again why he is the master of hidden meaning, and so here, in no particular order, are my half-formed rambles on what I have personally think each movie detail that I struggled to puzzle out initially is about. 

(spoilers below, so proceed with caution!)

The tower, time, and escapism 

The tower is the central mystery point of the movie - a literal mystical rock that crashed down from the heavens and later lured Mahito’s grand-grand uncle (let’s call him the Tower Master for convenience’s sake) into its depths. Within the tower is a mirage world filled with magic but no real living beings, controlled by the whims of the Tower Master and nothing else that remotely resembles logic or reality. The tower also contains a series of doors that seem to lead to different points in time, if the ending is to go by and how the 13 blocks are meant to be pieces of worlds the Tower Master has visited. So what is this strange and fantastic realm, and what role does it play in the overarching narrative? 

My hypothesis is that the Tower is a pocket free from the influence of time (think like the TVA in Loki) - a separate island running parallel to the fabric of the universe that contains portals to different points of past, present, and future. By itself, the pocket has no life or substance; it must be filled by the imagination - pure imagination, untethered to reality - of its main (human) inhabitant. This is why most of the ships are illusions rather than real objects, why the parakeets are so ridiculously odd and behave nothing like real

birds, why the fish is the size of Kiriko’s damn ship. Anything that is real, has to be brought in from the real world (see: the pelicans, Himi, and Kiriko). This is also why the parakeet king immediately topples the tower: yes, he is not the Tower Master’s descendant, but he is also not inherently a real sentient being, and an imaginary object cannot in itself sustain a further imagination. 

So why does the Tower Master choose to sequester himself in this alternate space, where he can only exist alone with his own mysterious creations? I think the Tower Master represents those of us who wish to escape from reality, to inhabit worlds which we can control, where pain doesn’t have to touch us if we don’t wish for it (whether I’m projecting reallyyyyy hard at this point does not matter ok). He is an insanely avid reader, with books literally piled in small mountains throughout his living quarters, and don’t we readers (i.e me, again) always wish for escapism? The Tower Master, then, is an example of those who would rather become entrapped in our own minds rather than deal with the world beyond us - maybe, even in a way, a little like Miyazaki himself, whose imagination is so powerful but is also extremely singular and all-consuming, anchoring him to his creative work without reprieve of retirement until his reserves run dry (not to imply that the man is a hermit or that I want him to retire, quite the opposite in fact, but parallels, no matter how shaky, can still be drawn). 

This, too, explains why the Tower Master needs Mahito to control the world for him. It is not because he’s grown old, since he cannot be affected by time in the Tower, but it is because his imagination is stagnating - he is no longer capable of finding new ways to balance the tower, he cannot sustain the fantasy any longer. In itself, this can already serve as a message from Miyazaki - we cannot hope to live only within the confines of our minds if we do not interact at all with the real world, because then at some point we will run out of material, of lived experiences to build on top of, and threaten to crumble the fragile imaginary world we have created. 

Himi and her fire powers

Himi is a strange hiccup in the system - a rare occurrence of a living person in this fantasy playland that wasn’t brought into it during Mahito’s own entrance, like Kiriko. This theory is a little bit out there, I can totally appreciate that myself, but remember that one year in which Mahiko disappeared from the real world and then came back completely unchanged? I think she chose to stay there for much longer than a year, knowing that time didn’t work the same in this pocket world and she always had the chance to return to her original timeline through the handy door-portals. I think Himi has stayed there essentially until she met Mahito - so long that she actually grew into a part of the fantasy, developing impossible pyrokinetic powers and becoming a set part of the landscape in exchange for extended youth. But this stay didn’t come without consequences. In the real world, Mahiko passes away in a fire, at a younger age than would be expected. Perhaps this, in itself, is a punishment for cheating time - the universe reclaiming the years that Himi spent in the Tower. It’s also definitely not a coincidence that Himi can control fire in the Tower, and dies by fire in the real world; a form of lethal poetic justice, if you will. Seeing Mahito was the trigger for Himi to leave, to embrace her own destiny, because she could now see and be proud of the outcomes of her life and not have regrets about missing out on the life passing her by. (This interpretation would then necessarily imply a deterministic version of life and time, so it’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it makes sense in this version because you see doors way farther down than the present which Mahito steps into.) 

The starving pelicans 

The pelicans are another anomaly because they, too, are not figments of the Tower Master’s imagination, but instead have been brought into this fantasy world, for one reason or another, likely against their will. And this is where the Tower Master’s escape from reality cracks and burns at the foundation - he creates harm rather than good when he brings in the pelicans, because he does not account for the fact that they cannot exist without a source of food, and they then are forced to eat the Warawara to survive. The movie states that the Warawara are like baby souls, who ascend to become new lives, but I think it’s a little more metaphorical than literal rebirth. For me the Warawara are metaphorical ideas or seedlings of inspiration, the only parts of the Tower Master’s creations which aren’t fully formed, but allowed to grow by themselves and escape into the world - like passing the spark of creation to others outside the Tower. And the pelicans, involuntary prisoners of the Tower Master’s fantasy world, must prey on the Warawara before they have the chance to become real. This can be seen (if you squint real hard and do some violent spins so your vision is hella blurry) as the beginning of the end of the Tower Master’s reign - the forceful inclusion of other sentient beings inside his imagination doesn’t help him enrich his internal realm, but rather snuffs out the genuine inspiration that he could be passing onto others, creating pain where the Tower Master hoped to be spared from it. 

Mahito’s rejection of the Tower

So with this central “Tower as escapism” theory, what does Mahito’s rejection to take over for the Tower Master mean? There is a moment that was so subtly powerful in that final exchange between the two, when Mahito stops denying the truth by telling everyone that he got his scar from falling, and instead admits that self-harm was the actual cause. At the beginning of the movie, I viewed that moment of very painful self-harm as Mahito’s wish to withdraw from the challenges of life - to live in isolation away from the grief over losing his mother, the challenges of being the rich new kid in town, the overwhelming discomfort of seeing his father shack up with his aunt. His reality is agonizing for him, and the fantasy land is so beautiful in its strange way that it could become a safe haven away from his trauma. But when Mahito says “no”, he is choosing reality; he is choosing to do the hard work, to face all the hardships life can throw at him, because he feels finally strong enough to not need to use imagination as an escapist crutch. In those final moments, Mahito is choosing to live in a world that he cannot control, because no matter how tough things get, he doesn’t have to do it alone - and that’s what I think Miyazaki is telling us too. 

Of course, the movie also deals with themes of class conflict and war profiteering; grief and acceptance; continuing your ancestors’ legacies versus paving your own path, which many have already discussed and I don’t particularly have anything new to add to. Regardless, these themes are masterfully woven into the plot, as per usual, and serve to elevate the movie’s emotional impact into something heart-twisting and truly unforgettable. 

Alright, ramble over - back to fandom lurking! 

[confused-wanderer]

Okay I love the “bat family always pays attention and knows when the other person is going through something” for angst and fluff BUT:

I raise you : Alfred.

The man who always knows when the children are going through something because fuck you he raised every single one of them - some even literally - but knows he can’t be the only one that has to do everything. If this family needs to stick together and show love they can’t just do it when the other person is in threat of dying.

All I’m saying is: Alfred casually mentioning how the house has been quiet and Dicks just been watching Damian’s pets and that’s enough for Jason to furrow his eyebrows and after a few seconds quickly excuse himself with some bullshit reason cuz he knows sometimes Dick misses the circus.

Alfred making an offhand comment about Jason still not leaving exercise floor and constantly playing audiobooks is enough to perk a few ears and everyone goes checking on him cuz sometimes the Lazarus pit burning inside needs to be let out and it only happens in distressing emotions.

Alfred asking Damian to clean the house only for him to find the untouched food plates that Tim has pushed outside his room for days and suddenly the electricity is cut off and oh look Tim’s been forced to take care of himself. Damian still swears it was a burglar attempt but no one believes him.

For batman though, it takes Bruce all of two seconds to know Alfred’s been watching him. Bruce and Alfred always had this routine of Bruce listing down how each kid is doing and deductions cuz in the earlier times too many things kept piling up and led to him not noticing when Dick was seriously ill. Alfred won’t tell him what’s wrong cuz “by god this are your kids I shouldn’t have to tell you how they are!”. So Bruce lists off what he finds and figures who is is doing good and whose not.

m

[thisrobinisred]

Dear Capcom,

I and many others firmly believe that two of your characters, Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth, should kiss. Not only because it’s essential to the plot, but because I just think it would be neat.

Thanks,

Robin

[melonlthawne]

Horrible stupid but funny plot idea I have in my brain : Bart decides to try edibles for once so him and Tim and kon are just chilling and Bart doesn’t realize eating a whole packet of weed gummies will fuck you up so he does that and proceeds to transcend into the next plane of existence while he is laying in kons lap on the floor, eyes dilated to the fucking sun. He’s in another dimension. Tim and kon don’t want to leave his side because they’re pretty sure he’ll start seizing or something if they do. Or he’ll like clip through the floor like a CGI character.

[tiredrobin]

actually i think one of my favorite things about murderbot is how it is CONSTANTLY like "i lie so much i'm such a liar all i do is lie to everyone" and then the moment it's confronted with a situation where it has the choice between lying and telling the truth, it usually either (a) panics and tells the truth or (b) tells the truth because it doesn't know a lie good enough to assist in the situation.

at some point in one of the books it's like "so i told the truth. (i know, that surprised me too)" and i was just sitting there like murderbot, love, you're the only one surprised by this. you are a proven and chronic truth-teller. the only reason why it's convinced that it lies more than it tells the truth is because it spent 35k hours pretending its governor module was still active, and that was a survival tactic for a person who had no idea what to do after a lifetime of being told what to do, and with a high likelihood of being killed if it isn't smart about what it does. when it's for survival, does it actually count as lying??? that's a discussion for another day. what i'm saying is that murderbot is bad at lying and i think that's really funny.

[cherry-flavored-sigh]

as someone who never watched glee, it's absolutely jarring to look at old pics of curt as a warbler. he was BABY BOY. LOOK AT THAT INFANT

so i decided to fuck up my brain by putting these together for comparison. look at this man. absolutely wonderful. he's like a pokemon. look at that evolution.

[kazuko-stuff]

Deciding to write a head cannon about watching ghibli movies with the batboys. Give me ideas in the comments

[pinkeoni]

I’ve talked about this before, but whenever people talk about heartstopper in regards to byler, and I can’t speak for everyone, but I think it has much less to do with the show itself and more to do with the attitudes surrounding heartstopper and how they view it in relation to other queer media.

I like heartstopper! I think it’s a cute show and I’m gonna watch season 2. But after the first season came out, I remember seeing tweets praising the show for creating a “wholesome” depiction of gay love that didn’t rely on sex and was very sweet, and thus placing it above it’s contemporaries which may be seen as more “gritty” and “depraved.”

And yes, a show about teenagers with very young actors doesn’t have to have sex in it and probably shouldn’t, and I don’t think it’s wierd for tweenage queers to find comfort in a show that isn’t centered around sex, but the problems with claiming that a show like heartstopper is better than other queer media because it is “wholesome” becomes a slippery slope of demonizing queer representation and media that does not fit into the happy and clean box that heartstopper does.

Sometimes when discussing byler, there seems to be a dissonance between how people want byler to be represented and what the show actually is. There seems to be a failure to consider that A) ST and heartstopper take place in different time periods and in different parts of the world and B) ST is a sci-fi/horror genre show while heartstopper is written as a romantic comedy with the romance plot being the central plot.

Which isn’t to say that romance and relationships isn’t still important to the show, but I’ve sometimes seen it expressed that there would be dissapointment if byler didn’t get together right away without much drama and/or didn’t get to have happy established couple moments that they are used to seeing with Nick and Charlie. They don’t seem open to the idea of a smoldering slow-burn with romance and sexuality interlinked with dark supernatural elements because they don’t see that as adequate of a portrayal of queerness as what heartstopper presents.

On top of and relating to that, there also seems to be a general lack of understanding that being gay in the 80s is different than being gay in the 2020s. There’s some overlap in experiences, but there is also seems to be a demand from fans that both Mike and Will be out and proud and express themselves openly and that the entire town know about their relationship in order to find byler satisfactory, which is not only unrealistic but also unsympathetic to the queer experience at that point in time.

Which isn’t to say that heartstopper doesn’t and shouldn’t have a place among contemporary queer media, but instead queer media should be diversified and shouldn’t have to worry about appealing to the exact same audience as heartstopper. There should be queer rep existing across different genres being presented in different ways without any one of them being considered the “correct” way.

So, all in all, I’m glad that heartstopper exists and it has it’s place in queer media. But byler has its own place too without having to be just like it.