Hi? Gosh how do I even start with this :'D
I know it's been ages since I've last popped up on here. I've been debating when to post this for a while, but I kept adding to my draft more and more and now it's the end of JULY omgg I felt so guilty disappearing with zero updates but then thought my birthday would be the best day to finally address this considering it'll feel less random? idk but Ive always celebrated my bday with you guys and I'd feel so bad answering your kind asks without me at least explaining why I was gone for months.
Truth be told, I was dealing with a lot of stuff irl. health issues and sudden declining grades that left me stumped and drained for months now- along with technical issues like having to replace some parts of my computer that took a while for me to find to even draw digitally, which I didn't have the time for anyway with how tired and weary I felt every day.
I'm frankly shaken up by a lot of shit rn and I don't know how to be active online with this burden on my chest- Especially as it's been a while since I've even looked at utmv related content and my motivation dwindled. I swear I'd hype myself up to post or reblog something- but I'd see just how much I've missed or the overwhelming amount of posts I'd need to go through and I'd feel so swamped with exhaustion and most importantly guilt, for not clearing the air up sooner to reassure you guys that I'm, y'know, alive, and not dead in a ditch somewhere. And I'd procrastinate cause typing it all out is hard and I'd give up halfway every time and it's just not fair to you all!
I thought I was handling it well when I started going out and socializing more, instead of staying cooped up at home on my computer all day. and in the first draft of this post I made months ago I was gonna detail some of the fun plans I had, for my life and for this blog :D but relaxing my strict study schedule and letting go a bit of my tight routine, thinking it was better than wringing myself dry to keep it up, backfired horribly, to say the least.
I know right?? so silly to be hung up on stupid shit like studies of all things! but this is a very important thing for me considering my career plans and the competitivity encouraged by everyone I'm surrounded by, the pressure of keeping up adding to my already stressful days. I had to fix myself up first and I couldn't handle the strain nor interact with people and thinking of jobs and exams sapped my energy so much it's frankly embarrassing. writing this feels so cheesy too and it frustrates me to know I could've come back a month earlier if it weren't for that, but I also know putting all of this into words then would just sound like incoherent venting (not that this is very different tbf) and I wasn't in the right headspace to address my absence, or anything really- I didn't want everyone to see me return when I couldn't muster up a genuinely positive message, let alone talk to anyone with a shadow of my usual cheer
I feel like a complete mess and It drives me up the wall how depressed I've gotten. I debated deleting this blog so many times 'cause the fear of disappointing my audience and my friends, for lack of a more fitting sentiment, made me feel even shittier. I'm constantly thinking if this wall of text is worth posting, or if it's better not to burden you all with all my sappy troubles as if it's the end of the world. Trust me, I'll be fine. I'm not trying to dramatize this situation, but I don't think I'm up to pretending I'm all sunshine and enthusiasm you're all accustomed to.
So sorry for worrying you all! I'll try to catch up, deliver some missed birthday gifts, and answer some asks while I'm at it! Again, I can't state how much I appreciate your support throughout the years. It's frankly a miracle I kept any of you around with how much I keep popping and leaving at random with no warning. I definitely can't promise for my stay to be without a hitch, and if you don't mind an inconsistent schedule you're free to stay of course, but I'm afraid I can't sustain the pace I had when I first started this blog. I'll keep posting art, but lower my activity in the fandom sphere to reduce the strain on my mental health. so fewer rants and walls of text, more art, and less stress overall. Love you all and thanks for waiting for this long <3
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the new op is making me insane so i’m gonna try to overanalyze its visuals, what i think the symbolism means, how it connects to this season and the manga arcs coming after it. all of it is my interpretation ofc, feel free to disagree and i encourage you to add your own takes!
i’m not gonna go over every single detail, either because i have nothing to say about it or i’m not sure what it could mean, which is another reason i encourage you to add your own analysis in a reblog if you want to :3
warning for major spoilers for the manga under the cut, as well as unholy amounts of reaching lol
first thing i wanna look at is uh. that one fyodor shot, and specifically the second before it
the number of hands is a little odd to me. at first i noticed 4 sets of hand so my immediate thought was “oh, one set for every doa member, minus bram since he doesn’t have any” but noticing that 9th one coming alongside his face threw a wrench in that. so, assuming this number is purposeful, i have a few ideas:
1. it’s not just the doa involved, but the rats as well. both organizations have 5 members we know of. fyodor is in both organizations, meaning that combined, we have 9 people, and a hand for each one
2. it IS just the doa, and 2 hands for each member (bram included), except for fyodor who is both a hand and a head. he is the strategist and planner, thus he is the head, while the others are more like the ones who execute his plans, so they merely get to be hands (not sure how much i love this theory considering at the end of the day he is not their leader, but if you stretch it you could say that in this season we have no reason to assume he isn’t the doa leader so there’s no reason to imply otherwise? or a future implication that he’s letting fukuchi think he’s the leader but is actually manipulating him? yeah i dunno)
3. another one i don’t particularly love, but: it’s less about the number of hands, and rather about the finger highlighting the number 5, since this is going to be a key thing this season
okay, on to a more obvious one:
tachihara has his back to us, as to not reveal his identity yet
he is looking upon a purple background, a color we see in some mafia members’ abilities, hinting at him belonging in the mafia
once again, tachihara has his back to us. aside from him, all of the hunting dogs are revealed to the audience and looking forward (even if not 100%), except for fukuchi who is looking to the side, and is behind the pillar, making him visually separated from the rest of the group, since he belongs in the doa rather than the hunting dogs
couple of things you might be able to get from this:
1. sigma looking to the side, his back to nikolai and bram. he is not willingly in the doa or supports their goals, more dragged along for the ride. he is a part of the group, but has his eyes shut and his back turned to them, some sort of buffer to imply his separation from them
2. the main thing we see of nikolai is his overcoat. ngl i’m not sure what the symbolism in this could mean but it feels important so i wanna point it out for maybe other people to connect the dots i can’t. possibly, this shot is to highlight the tools at the doa’s disposal, aka sigma and bram as themselves, but nikolai mainly used for his ability...?
so. first of all. they’re and red and blue, opposites of each other in color and in direction as well
but the interesting thing to me is that they’re each others’ colors - with the ada usually presented in blue and the mafia in red, here we have it backwards. possibly to imply their (partial) role reversal in the eyes of the public, the ada now being demonized and hunted by the law while the mafia gets to lay low and offer assistance
possibly, you could stretch it to say their role reversal is in part about how fukuzawa would have to sacrifice a member for his organization in order to get what he needs, a thing that’s mori-like to do
speaking of blue to symbolize the ada, ango is clad in a blue light, implying his upcoming alliance with the ada
we see fukuchi using shintō amenogozen in his battle with atsushi and akutagawa
i’ve seen people say this part of the op implies their battle will be in this season and i’m ngl, i don’t think there’s any chance of that. it’s way too much story to cram into this season. i think this part is, for now, just to imply the ada and pm working together against the hunting dogs, and him using this sword and fighting them at the same time is just a nod to sharp eyed manga readers (same with the bram cameos)
that being said. i want you to pay attention to the color of his ability in this frame (it’s a surprise tool that’ll help us later!)
yosano and the butterfly, and we specifically see her from the side, with her butterfly hairpin shining, putting emphasis on her upcoming backstory
okay, now we’re getting into the character face closeups, and here i’m gonna use these handy posts from @/dazaistabletop for reference, bless your soul for getting all of them fr 🙏
the main thing i want to get from it is the colors. tldr: the ada is a teal-ish blue, the mafia is red and purple (depending on their abilities), the guild is yellow, the hunting dogs is white, the special division is brownish-orange, the doa are the same dark blue from fukuchi’s ability earlier. this does match the general color of the members’ abilities through every group as well.
when it comes to the order of the frames, i think it’s mostly random (tho, with key characters coming early, and more minor characters we barely even really see this season if at all showing up near the end) except for a few pairs:
dazai and fyodor are the first 2 frames, the key foils of this season
fukuchi and fukuzawa are one after the other because they are divorcing each other
akutagawa and atsushi are the ones to close this section and the opening as a whole, as they often do as the key foils of the entire series
a few frames i want to highlight in particular:
tachihara’s purple is lighter than the other mafia members’ purple (added gin for comparison), implying his belonging to the hunting dogs
mushi is brown too?? not sure what that implies ngl. mostly pointing it out as a request for anyone to chip in with their own take on that
despite not working for the guild anymore (and given that he’s without his glasses we have to assume this is him working for fyodor), nathaniel is still in yellow. like with mushi, i’m not sure what that could mean. maybe they just didn’t want to figure out a color for the rats for 2 frames i dunno. again if you have your own take, hit me
poe is fully colored the same color as the ada 🥺 he’s fully part of the team by now (ok now do lucy next.)
the text appears for just two frames, nikolai and akutagawa. for akutagawa, it blends with his red background, but for nikolai it actively stands out and covers his already covered eye. unfortunately i can’t read japanese, so i would love that if someone who does sees this could tell me what the text says to see if that means something as well 🙏
edit: according to my friend @/almightyrozenidiot apparently it says rashomon! and i’d guess it’s in red because this is the color of this ability, after all. i still think its placement on nikolai’s covered eye is interesting, esp given how much it stands out (the other ability names flashing on screen in that sequence are written in white, i barely even noticed they were there), and i wonder if this might imply some future thing asagiri’s planning between them.
okay, so you were probably wondering why i skipped the fyodor flowers moment, and this is why
so. i tried figuring out what at least some of the flowers are to maybe see if there’s meaning there and either couldn’t, or the ones i did recognize did not align with anything meaning wise, so i figured the colors stand more for the colors of abilities we’ve seen so far, and mainly the ada and port mafia
the faces frames in the end of the op establish the special division’s color as orange, hence the two small orange flowers (and their yellow center could be for the guild). they definitely stand out less, as for now they are a smaller pawn in the plan. the ada - marked with the blue flowers and green leaves - are the biggest target of the current phase of the plan, and that’s why they’re closest to his face and make the most of the flowers, size wise
the only purely white ability we’ve seen so far is natsume’s. as the mediator between the three main organizations in yokohama, it makes sense for him to be in the middle of all these colors. the same white flowers are also on the outside (as seen below), since he is mainly watching things unfold from the side.
will also add that at times, no longer human appears as white or grey as well (tho usually - but not always - with a slight blue tint). this also makes sense given that dazai was in both the mafia and ada, and serves as a mediator or communicator between them at times, hence put in the middle as well.
unfortunately, i can’t tell what the pink flowers are meant to be. the only ability i can think of that’s pink is lucy’s (i don’t recall ever seeing the colored circles when she activates it, but given what anne’s room looks like it seems like a fair assumption), but it’s weird she’d get such a big part of this frame just for herself. maybe it’s because of how big her role is in helping the ada this season? again, if you have your own take please go ahead and share it!!
the flowers then stop growing and start withering as the white flowers take over
could not for the life of me find what these flowers are unfortunately, but, white flowers in general usually mean some form of purity and innocence. this does align with fyodor’s ultimate plan - to purify the world of abilities. white flowers often symbolize holiness as well, since his plan is, to him, the will of god
notice that the flowers have 5 petals as well, a repeating number of this arc and in many of the doa’s plans
edit 2: @/larathia pointed out in the comments that these flowers are japanese snake gourds! and apparently, in hanakotoba they mean “hatred of men”. yeah that checks out with fyodor lol
and... i think that’s all i have for you today! i hope you liked it! once again encouraging you to reblog with your own additions on things i might’ve missed or your own take on things, and i hope you all have a lovely day 🙏🖤
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350 followers tickle match-up event
So... the event will start IN THE SECOND WEEK OF JULY (I chose this period because I'll be busy and it'll be hard for me to write full fics but I also don't wanna leave you empty-handed) BUT YOU CAN START SENDING YOUR ASKS STARTING FROM NOW 😸 I'll accept your asks UNTIL I SAY THAT THE EVENT IS CLOSED
HERE you have my fandom list and HERE you have the list of characters I won't write for. As always, NO NSFW
So, how to participate...
You'll have to send me an ask with:
A brief description of yourself (your hobbies, your interests, your likes and dislikes, the people you like to surround yourself with, etc)
Your role in the tickle community (lee, ler or switch)
A fandom
The kind of relationship you want (romantic or platonic)
The gender of the character you wanna be matched with (if you have a preference)
You'll get:
A match with a character from the fandom you chose (either who I see you in a relationship with or who I see you as best friends with, depending on the kind of relationship you chose)
A brief explanation of the match I gave you
A short drabble with the dynamic of the match I'll give you (it will vary depending on you being a lee/ler/switch)
IF you add your name in your description (or a nickname), I'll use that name in the drabble. If not, I'll just use "y/n"
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Support the BBC for having a trans character in recent episodes of 'Doctor Who'
Apparently the BBC (UK) has had 144 complaints about a recent episode of Doctor Who because it contained an openly trans character.
I've made a complaint to the BBC that there weren't enough transgender characters in Doctor Who. I would love if 144 other people did the same thing. Here's the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints/make-a-complaint/#/Complaint
(For your easy reference: "The Star Beast" aired on 25/11/2023 on BBC One, and the trans character is called Rose.)
Please note that the complaint form asks for your UK postcode, so only UK folks can join in with this - but if you suspect you might have any UK-based followers, maybe give us a reblog to boost the signal?
Edit: I'm told that you can fill in the form even if you're outside of the UK, because the BBC provide service to many countries other than the UK, including the USA! Go for it. :D
Reply to confirm that you've done it, so I can keep a count!
Here's my complaint:
I recommend:
Avoid sarcasm or irony. Assume your post will be taken literally. If you are clearly joking or being mean you will be ignored or misunderstood.
Include some gratitude/appreciation. It's pretty great that they included a trans woman in a positive way, and they should know that they have explicit support for that.
~
Edit again: I'm seeing some concerns in the replies/reblogs that the BBC might not distinguish between "less trans people, please" complaints and "more trans people, please" complaints. Rest assured, this is nothing to worry about - the BBC publish fortnightly complaint reports, and they do pay enough attention to know when a complaint is in favour of or against trans inclusion. In fact, their 20 November – 3 December 2023 report is where the various news articles are getting the 144 complaints figure; that report says there were precisely 144 complaints that they have categorised as "Anti-male / inappropriate inclusion of transgender character".
That means the next complaints fortnight window is 4 December - 17 December. We have 8 more days to beat 144. By my count, over Tumblr, WhatsApp, the Fediverse and Telegram, we have 85 so far, which is well over halfway there.
Also, when you've done it, please reply to confirm you have done it, so that I can count us!
Thank you, everyone!
~
Edit, 2023-12-11, 1am UK time:
We did it! I've just been counting up responses, and it looks like sometime yesterday evening we hit 144 complaints/comments in favour of Rose Noble and more excellent trans characters in Doctor Who! (We're actually up to 157 now, fantastic.)
So, my next plan is to submit a Freedom of Information Act request to the BBC sometime in the next few days, asking for complaints and compliments figures. Then I'd ideally (energy and time permitting) like to put together a press release that I can send out to the publications that promoted the tiny "144 anti-trans complaints" figure, showing them that there has been far more feedback in favour of trans representation than against.
I'll keep you posted.
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