#the ability to respond

[always-is-always]

An idol's response-ability

This is something that cannot really be ingored per se, nor attributed to a thoughtless moment. When a person is so famous that they literally have millions following their every word and action, that person IS fully responsible for how they respond to life.

This isn't 2013, when there was a naïveté to everything that the guys did on SM. This is 2024.

An idol is responsibile for their actions and words. Their ability to respond matters.

What would people in that sub-crowd be doing had Park Jimin shared a clip on his IG story that came from a jikook-supporting account? We know the answer to that question.

Park Jimin would never do such a thing.

Who knows what is going on inside of Kim Taehyung. When we look at the events prior to his enlistment (the breakup with Jennie) and the pressures of stepping out of the limelight and into being a man serving the military, I do think he was struggling just like anyone would. He is human.

That share of topless Kook on his IG story just before enlistment was the big flag to me, that V was navigating some stress and probably even some fear about stepping into bootcamp. As I said, he is human. Most who enlist go through levels of fear and stress. That is normal. How people deal with it is a varied as the people themselves.

I just think that his coping looks different. I think that his antics on SM are a way for him to feed the ego, numbing an emptiness, even though he knows that that storyline is false. A person who needs attention/energy (especially the narcissist) will accept any form of attention/energy, be it positive or negative. Energy is energy.

If you have ever been in a relationship with a narcissist, then you understand this dynamic. Attention is attention. They have to get attention, no matter what form it is in. They don't actually know any other way to navigate their lives. The narcissist never recognizes that they are a narcissist.

As one who navigates this life with awareness of energy and the dynamics of energy, I see what is happening. Energy is the basis of everything, whether a person sees it, feels it, is aware of it, or not. Energy can be really messy and hard to understand, for those who are not aware. It is the invisible Web, that every human being is connected to. Navigated consciously, it can be a flow of ease and harmony. Navigated unconsciously, it can be a tangled mess that is really hard to move through, and it can hold people within patterns, relationships, and lives that are challenging.

A person who is in constant need for attention is a person who is not fully balanced and connected (to Source/the Divine and Earth) in a healthy way. This isn't judgement, it is simply an energetic dynamic. V is navigating as one who is not quite sure how to sustain himself energetically, through a clear connection with the Divine that is grounded, and connected to the Earth. Imagine a column of Light that flows from above the head (from Source) down through the spine entering into the earth. That's how One's basic energy is intended to flow. (Hope that made sense!)

We have 17 more months to get through. More than likely, we will witness more of these types of actions. Nothing can obviously be done to change those, yet we CAN be mindful about how we RESPOND. It is our response-ABILITY that matters. The ability to respond in a way that is either neutral energetically, or one that brings a loving and compassionate energy into the situation. Without any negativity whatsoever.

I didn't know that this was going to be written. As always, it is my sense, my opinion, and just some food for thought. After seeing some of the inflammatory words that have been put out there, I feel like it is important to also offer thoughts that might just help with maintaining a neutral energy.

Sometimes, I sort out my thoughts and senses through typing.... I think that this is what just happened, here... I hope this helps someone else sort through their thoughts, as well. 💜

[s0fter-sin]

soap's whole deal being sniper and demolitions gets me going bc on the surface they sound so different but when you get into it, you realise it's bc soap's smart

sniping is all math; calculating distances and wind interference and bullet drop. something i think people overlook is he was listed as a sniper first so it can be implied that he's better at it than demolitions. he does more sniping in both campaigns than demolitions work; in capture or kill, ghost specifically calls on him to take down the aq snipers

and demolitions is math with a hit of chemistry; knowing what mixes with what, knowing how much to use, recognising environmental factors and adjusting accordingly. it's not just about the boom; so much work goes into contained/ planned explosions. especially when having enough power for a breacher charge and not bringing down the whole building is the difference between mission success and failure

the chemical bombs he makes in alone can't just be any old cleaners, they have to have the correct reaction to each other; he just knew off the top of his head what would mix with what to create what reaction. he would also potentially have to recognise them by sight/smell bc they would’ve been written in spanish

soap would also have to know architecture; recognising structural integrity and weak points so he knows exactly where to plant a charge to bring it down and how it'll come down

he has an incredible soldier's mind people just forget that bc he's sociable which itself is a skill

we know he tends to buck against orders he doesn't agree with like when he pushes back against ghost in capture or kill and shepherd when he tells them to release hassan

he gets closer to people and sees if he can trust them and that's when he follows them without question. really think about how he talks to alejandro and rudy; he asks about their home and alejandro's family and rudy's relationship with him. those aren't questions you ask a stranger after a few hours of knowing them. that's not even touching on his relationship with ghost

he also deliberately brings people of higher ranks down to his level; talking informally with ghost and giving him a shoulder punch, addressing alejandro (a colonel!!) by his first name and rudy by his nickname despite literally just meeting them. he personalises all of them and it’s in direct opposition to the reason most characters do that; it’s not due to insubordination or lack of respect, the more he respects and trusts someone, the more casual he is with them

he digs into people; he wants to know what makes them tick and that determines if he can one, trust them and two, follow their orders. once he decides that, he's the ultimate soldier; he bleeds loyalty which makes him vicious when that loyalty is taken for granted

he isn't naive or bubbly or insecure; he's an incredibly smart and aware soldier. he's aggressive and bloodthirsty and loyal and intuitive and i love him so much

[binglepringle]

“On your back…are those…exit wounds? They’re…so big…”

[nycswebhead]

I like how you know how respond to these asks.

can i be honest, this blog hasnt even existed for a month and ive already racked up like 200 unanswered asks. you guys only see the good parts of my inbox

[thatswhatsushesaid]

i think fandom spaces would become much more enjoyable across the board if people stopped flipping their pancakes over other fans enjoying characters that they don't like. or, god forbid, like them but in 'the wrong way.'

[blooming-gwens]

Oh to dance in the wildflowers with the love of your life

[ratzhatz14]

DANDYS WORLD ARTISTS OF TUMBLA

LETS REMAKE THE TOONS BUT WITH OUR

K I N S O N A S

Oh and- *drops this, and digs a grave in the ground for myself*

[hella1975]

it's been pointed out on here before that a lot of terf arguments are actually rooted in sexist idealology that feminists fought and died to unnormalise decades ago and that's its own kettle of fish but one thing i also find very frustrating about this so called 'radical' feminism is that it's so... defeatist? like the moment you categorically label an entire section of society as Bad and Inherently Evil then there's also the implication that nothing can be done about it, and it completely takes all accountability away. saying all men are evil is just another way of saying boys will be boys. he raped her because he's a man. he hit her because he's a man. he didn't listen because he's a man - it's almost offensively oversimplified. there's no point trying to fix this issue in society because men are just Like That, okay! so now what? it's not like they're going anywhere, so you just accept that 50% of the population are evil and will forever treat you terribly and there's nothing to be done about it bc they're biologically predisposed to it? like is that fr the argument here? you're soooo radical for that

[thisgingerhasnosoul]

Something I keep thinking about is how whenever someone says: “this is wrong and inhumane,” in regards to Israel’s retaliation against Gaza, the answer, for a lot of people, is, “Well, it’s not our fault; they started it!” And like, I cannot begin to explain how juvenile and callous that is.

“Why should we provide electricity and water to Gaza? Hamas slaughtered us! They use Gazan civilians as human shields! It’s their fault if Gazans die!”

You have no control over what Hamas does or doesn’t do. You only have control over what you can do. Yes, Hamas murdered, raped, and tortured Israeli civilians in cold blood; yes, they use civilians as human shields. And yes, it sucks that they’ve all put the onus on Israel to avoid civilian casualties or provide basic supplies. But Israel can’t do anything about that. What Israel can do is mitigate the harm they’re causing. Is it fair? Perhaps not. But responding to unfairness with more unfairness when you have it in your power to act otherwise is wrong.

Whatever harm is done to you, you have a choice in how you respond to it. And Israel is responding to it in a way that is cruel and unethical.

[justheretoposttrash]

day 4 of being incredibly normal about hawks and endeavor (but mostly talking about manga spoilers in general):

mha is a story incredibly interested in exploring generational support, generational abuse, and what people pass on to each other (alongside hand motifs and showing the childhoods of different characters). you pretty much can't get through any arc without running facefirst into a plethora of examples, but ofa and afo are fun (and perhaps appropriate) places to start!

horikoshi features doomed siblings almost as much as he features terrible fathers, and these two are no exceptions. alongside those versatile hand motifs, afo literally uses his hands to take from others, while anything he has to "give" goes to those younger than him, and it's pretty much always a direct vehicle for trauma. it works well that he's lived for such a long time, literally sustaining his own life thanks to hoarding more and more power and resources for himself, while also giving him that age hegemony over all other characters we meet. he thusly kinda becomes the mustache-twirly Evil Dad² in a metaphorical sense, ruining the futures of others as he attempts to write his own narrative exactly how he wants it (storytelling is also a big theme in mha, go figure. when i consider that one definition of trauma--as something that disrupts the narrative one has of themself--and how AFO hands out trauma also as a way of commanding power and controlling the narrative, it really all comes together).

Yoichi is, of course, opposite in so many ways, centered around giving instead of taking. the inception of ofa began as a (very, uh, heterosexual i'm sure) act of granting freedom and sacrifice.

the ofa wielders don't just give their powers to the stockpiling quirk; they also give their lives, through combat or through cutting their lifespans or both. opposite to afo's Big Mean Father² lifespan, the lifespans of the ofa wielders are very short. they sacrifice their own futures to make the futures of others brighter. and of course, through the act of passing on the quirk, ofa necessitates an act of giving from one user to the next. it's a hand-off of counsel, support, and duty that helps shape each receiver into the best kind of hero they can be. afo passes down trauma, and ofa passes down tools for one's betterment. pretty standard parallels to how a bad caretaker/good caretaker can, even through a single act, shape an entire existence younger than them. relatable! trauma nation rise up!! 💪💪💪

with these themes in mind, then, it's a no-brainer as to why mha features so many godawful fathers (also i'd bet a hundred bucks horikoshi has daddy issues. a thousand. a trillion, honestly. gimme money). though relationships that fall outside the clear-cut power-dynamic of a parent to their child still carry these themes well. peer-to-peer,

sibling-to-sibling, etc., the list of other examples goes on and on!

endeavor's character certainly straddles a lot of these ideas, perpetuating a lot of column A (bad) and a bit of column B (good). he receives trauma from his father in the form of spiraling thoughts about failure and mortality (and maybe those two things are totally equivalent, right?) ((they're not)). his response to that trauma then goes far in the other direction, an obsession with herodom and invulnerability (especially avoiding or punishing emotional vulnerability) that passes the trauma right down to his family. in all his desperation to avoid the tragedy of his father's death, he ends up causing the tragedy to repeat itself, this time with touya's (apparent) death. it's even a direct result of the quirk he gave to touya. every intangible and tangible thing touya inherited from his father would only go on to hurt him, and the worst thing that could possibly have happened does indeed happen. instead of coming to terms with the fact that he gave touya the wrong things---trauma and a fire to burn himself with---he gives more of the same to shoto. surely the same tragedy won't repeat a third time. surely what he passes down to his youngest will make him come out of everything gloriously successful and *alive* (and those two things are totally, definitely equivalent) ((and again, they're not)).

what blows my mind is just how close the todoroki family was to witnessing yet another repeat of the tragedy--that they might have watched endeavor die while failing to save someone, just as endeavor had watched his own father do the same---and that they nearly had to bury touya a second time.

similarly, when it comes to the past transferring to the future, childhoods are the foundations upon which peoples's futures are built. characters are not only shown in a state of emotional vulnerability when in Baby Form, but are also responding to and trying to find answers to each others's traumas and core drives.

in a sense, they don't just inherit their worldviews from the prior generations, but from themselves. when we see endeavor confront his younger self, he isn't only killing off who he used to be, but also all the conclusions he had drawn from his own childhood--a rejection of what his trauma response got wrong. most people have to learn to stop being cruel to their inner child, whereas his inner child is the cruelest voice within.

anyway, for all the Bad Shit endeavor has passed on to the next generation, the future and hope he provides for hawks is something else. despite all white-knuckled efforts, he doesn't end up saving his family, nor himself, and certainly not touya, but he saves hawks, and that one instance contributes to the entire idea of ofa and the question of what different people can give to each other.

as invested as hawks is in the future, he initially keeps himself pretty distant when it comes to those younger than him. there isn't much explicitly given as to why, but it's pretty natural to assume that he really doesn't have the tools to pass on anything healthy--not after what he's been given by others. the one good thing he knows how to give is the one good thing he's received, which is the act of saving itself. being a pro is the only language he has for the longest time, and once his back's to the wall and he has to give tokoyami whatever he can, we see how readily he assumes that what he has to offer just isn't good enough.

(not only did his parents pass trauma onto him, but in valuing or devaluing his wings and thereby making his worth always conditional, they also affected what he could then pass on to others ((or at least, how he conceived of what he could give)).)

in my view, hawks gives tokoyami flight and endeavor support, and from tokoyami he receives the idea that he's someone worth looking up to and fighting beside despite his shortcomings, while from endeavor he not only got saved as a child but also receives a proof-of-concept of the ability to radically change, to wind up in a morally/emotionally better place than where one started. (he not only contrasts himself against shoto for the kid's ability to forgive/work with his parents, but notably contrasts himself against endeavor due to the latter's willingness to engage with his past, which he views as a vulnerability but also as something admirable.)

given keigo's middling age in the main cast of characters and the interesting space he occupies, it's fitting that he would ultimately act as a sort of channel between the generations of heroes as of the finale, retaining some of the value from what came previously while also helping guide what comes in the future.

[badkidsofficial]

gilear why do you and your ex wife both have the last name Faeth

We agreed to joint custody of the last name. Better than The alternative which was that I got weekend visitation, meaning I could only have custody of Faeth on Saturdays and Sundays.

[orcelito]

ok I don't think we as a fandom talk about the way Vash cries blood enough

we only see it once or twice from what I remember, the one definite time being here ^ when the puppet attack first begins & he's dealing with the emotional agony of seeing so many of his family turn into puppets.

so it's clearly something that comes out only when he's in severe emotional distress.

the interesting thing is that Wolfwood is fucking TERRIFIED of him bc of it.

whatever this moment is, Vash is giving off the same sort of oppressive energy that Wolfwood's experienced with Knives. it's the first time during their travels that he's really been forced to recognize What Vash Is. he knew it of course, saw him in Jeneora, but he's such a goofy guy it's easy to forget.

but whatever Vash is doing here, it makes Wolfwood Incredibly aware of what he is.

so the real question i think is What exactly is going on here? is it unintentional? is it simply a response to the emotional agony?

Vash isn't the type to indiscriminately terrify everyone in the vicinity on purpose. he wouldn't be doing this purposefully out of anger while Wolfwood's there. no, in this moment, he's not even angry at all. he's Distraught.

going from This

to this

in just a moment.

yeah. that's some fucking emotional agony. i dont think Vash is doing this entirely on purpose.

but THEN...

as both Leonof and Wolfwood stare at him in fear, Both feeling his oppressive energy, Vash then lets out some sort of blast that blows against everything between him and Leonof. it doesn't destroy anything, doesn't even injure him, but it's a physically tangible effect that scares the Shit out of Leonof & spurs him into motion.

there may be some anger involved in this moment, but it's not the hair-trigger rage you would expect from seeing his family turned into puppets. it's something Quiet, something almost cold. he's distraught, Resigned, & retaliating just because he has to.

Vash hates all of this. he doesn't want to fight him. he fucking Knows this guy too, knew him as a kid, & none of this makes sense. but he knows that he needs to fight him, & doesn't have any kind of choice.

but he's not happy about it. not in the slightest.

[holland-vosijk-antari]

I've been thinking about how white london probably has different kinds of physical affection to red and grey, I can't imagine hugging being common among people who are casual friends like it is in a lot of places here (I'm talking from the pov of someone from an area not too far away from real london so i get that this isnt the case everywhere lol) hugging requires a certain trust that the person you are hugging is doing anything nefarious with their hands - like stabbing you in the back for instance... so i like to think that in white london where trust is about as thin on the ground as magic, hugging is a massive declaration of trust in which you may as well tell the other you love them.

on an additional note it makes me wonder about what affections would be commonplace, would a kiss on the cheek be a more common greeting to someone you care for? would people give a short bow as a greeting towards an acquaintance? (both things very common in many places in this world too so not exactly strange?) or are people simply all-or-nothing with their affections, giving all their affection to one or two people who have their absolute trust and not showing any at all otherwise?

when it comes to greeting a stranger i was taught in my martial arts classes to introduce myself with both hands visible and to shake hands with both of my hands as a sign of respect within the culture so i wonder if that kind of action would be common in makt - dont hide your hands when trying to gain someones trust or they will think you are hiding something...

[awakenthebeing]

With how big they are, I wonder how strong Piepoe is, comparatively speaking to say Peppino. Much love <3

Much love back to you, anon! To answer both of your questions...!! If I were ever able to, I wanted to replace Peppino sprites and things with Piepoe! Playable...

with this in mind, I can safely say that Piepoe was intended(and does indeed) have pretty similar, if not the exact same capabilities and power of Peppino himself :3!! They'd probably just be a bit different in animations and things because Piepoe is her own creacher and such ^^

[papermonkeyism]

That's it, next time I make a character for a story, I'm gonna slap them with some kind of chronic pain condition.

If I have to live in the same body with my left foot, I might as well use it as research and make it useful!

Ow.