yes i'm rooting for m*leven breakup because byler is neat but mostly? i'm rooting for m*leven breakup for the sake of el and mike.
to me, their romance was always a puppy love born out of a combination of social pressures, naïve curiosity, and a lack of true understanding regarding intimacy and romantic love and what it really is. it was real in that they do truly, deeply care about each other and they are close friends, maybe even shared an attraction, but a maturing romance is so much more than that. they've grown up and out of being boyfriend/girlfriend, and that's okay! i think television/film needs to show more often that most of us don't have definite "soulmates" or first childhood loves that we spend our whole lives with. it doesn't mean these relationships meant nothing and didn't impact us, it just means they've run their course and that something else is in the cards, and this is part of life!
i've always felt el was at her best and most confident self when broken up with mike, discovering who she was and what she liked alongside another girl her age instead of just relying on mike for mentorship on how to live in the real world. she deserves more of an opportunity to find herself, her autonomy, and her independence, and to love who she is, and she's made it clear she's felt insecure in the relationship with mike because she isn't being loved and understood the way she wants, needs, and deserves from someone who is her partner.
also, it's okay if mike doesn't love her in "the way he should". he is not obligated to love her romantically and stay in a relationship with her just because she's a girl, because she "needed someone", or because he cares about her a lot. he shouldn't be pressured into a romance if it's not truly coming from his heart. he deserves freedom to find out and honour who he is, too, instead of just staying in his non-functional first relationship — one he got into as a child, essentially — and defining himself that way because it's what's expected when a boy and a girl are close. he loves her in some way, yes, but it's okay if he doesn't feel comfortable or secure being her boyfriend anymore, for whatever reason that is. he's felt insecure too, and that's valid and it matters.
they are their own people and are steadily growing and changing every day. they need time to figure out who those people are, and it's become clear (at least in my opinion) that those people aren't meant to be a couple at this stage.
they deserve freedom. they deserve to grow up and be authentic to themselves and not feel like they need to lie for the sake of a relationship. they deserve to move on from this version of their relationship that isn't making them happy and rekindle the best part of their bond: their strong, beautiful friendship. they don't have to be a couple if it doesn't make them stronger and better and happier people.
i think it would be healthy and wonderful for a show, especially one consumed frequently by young adults, to show a relationship starting, progressing, and ending on good terms in this way. sometimes things don't work out, and that is okay.
!! crucial !! piece of hilson lore confirmed - they're fucking LOSERS
honestly? so affirming to me. this isn't news i know but to get this explicit piece of interaction about being a lonely child and now being weird adults who don't know how to make friends or have "normal" conversations or connections like this is the shit i eat for breakfast, especially accompanied with the complete and utter sense of surrender to this fact that wilson displays. there's absolutely no reason whatsoever for him to defend himself or act as if what house is saying isn't true bc it is and they both know it and knows the other knows it even if they've never actually talked about this once which is very likely but they know cause they're the same and they only have each other and and and
i love how everyone close to "jiang li" at some point or another has their moment of "girl i KNOW you're cooking up some shit and you are not going to tell me anything about what it is but that's okay. do what you gotta do, i gotchu." like everyone goes dang this girl is up to something...no idea what it is but it doesn't matter. this 18yo who spent the last 10 years in a convent knows what she's doing and i am just gonna follow her lead on this. i am yours to command, recently former teen nun. no questions asked. you got this.
There's a LOT of things people do wrong when constructing fantasy beliefs in pantheons of gods, but one of the more specific is having only one god related to fertility and it kind of being just a horny sex thing.
Like you'll have one in the entire bunch whose sphere is listed as fertility and it's basically like Yeah this is the sex one. She's always depicted naked (but not TOO naked because censorship and/or the writer's own skittishness). She's going to have the exact body type epitomized in contemporary western beauty standards and there's usually no chance in hell that she's gonna be fat (unless MAYBE they're referencing 'venus' figurines). Her thing is fertility, which means having sex and making babies. Might be a goddess of beauty or love or marriage too, because these are kinda sex things, but that's probably it. And yeah that sort of thing is virtually nonexistent in real life.
Like the concept of fertility is so fundamentally important to the function of most societies in human history in ways that it is just Not in industrialized imperial core countries. Most people are getting food from stores, and not having to worry about harvesting crops or breeding livestock or foraging for food or having enough animals to hunt, so fertility only really comes up as a concern if you're trying to have kids (and there is certainly societal pressure to have children, but your wellbeing and survival is rarely going to Depend on it). And I think writing only from that perspective and not even trying to learn about WHY fertility is so conceptually important is why you see this trend.
There's no absolute universal statement about how people believe in gods but it's broadly accurate that systems with many deities will Usually have more than one deity associated with fertility, and these associations will certainly include human reproduction but also the fertility of livestock/hunted animals, plants, the land itself.
Some fertility deities may also be heavily associated with seasonal changes or environmental factors that agriculture or foraging is dependent on (spring/summer/fall, seasonal rains, seasonal flooding, rain itself, sunlight, good soil, rivers, wetlands, etc). Some certainly might be related to love, marriage, sex, and beauty, but that's VERY RARELY going to be the sole way the concept of fertility is embodied. And they'll often will have other associations not directly about fertility, or related to fertility in culturally specific ways.
When you think about it the stage of Sanuso not standing each other was very short because when the strawhats entered the grand line they were already pretty clingy to each other. So imo they pretty much started enjoying each other's company after the Arlong park arc
Yeah!!! I mean. I believe Sanji and Usopp didn't like each other at all at first because. Well. It's for obvious reasons. They might have similar experiences with their insecurities and trauma and way of coping, but that's hidden deep, deep down and they don't find out about that bit and their strengths until later. Without that, they're extremely different. Like, extremely.
And if the first thing a waiter in a restaurant does is flirt with the girl and treat all the others like shit, well, of course Usopp isn't going to like him. And if Sanji is trying to be polite and flirty to a gorgeous girl but some guy gets in between, of course he's not going to like Usopp. It's sort of that their personalities do not match at all at first, but then they see how they truly are and they start to get along.
The thing is-- They don't ever leave that dynamic fully, and I adore that. Despite getting along and being protective of each other, Sanji and Usopp still argue a lot over the stupidest things and they keep yelling at each other for stuff that doesn't matter because they're both morons and stubborn and I swear we don't talk enough about them constantly getting irritated by the other's shenanigans while also sacrificing their life for each other constantly. It makes their relationship so human, realistic, and genuine... It's one of the things I adore the most about this ship!
Some part of me likes to think that Romeo and Taiga were a lot like Sho and Leo a few years ago
Romeo was the ~helpless pretty boy~ who used his wiles deceptively, and Taiga was his muscle who helped and protected him throughout their activities. Their schemes were more equal, but Romeo selfishly relied on and used Taiga until living together in Sinostra drew a rift between them. Suddenly Taiga was too much, because he got to see how Taiga really was and he didn't understand it and couldn't control it.
But Taiga still made a casino for him to profit off of.
Taiga still asked if he wanted him to kill someone to get them money.
Taiga shrugs off his disagreements and smiles and laughs and says "you're right, Lulu, you're always right" even if he doesn't intend to follow his instruction to the letter--because he knows he can do it his way and get the end result, he just damns the consequences.
Taiga still does Romeo's bidding and praises him when he's around and gets comfortable with him even though they don't connect anymore.
Romeo knows they're estranged. Everybody knows they're estranged. People are relieved to see them back together even if it's by force of probation.
I think Romeo secretly is too. Because I think he does care about Taiga, and wants to understand him, but he can't. And what he does understand, he doesn't like.
And I think Romeo sees Leo and Sho and wants to keep Leo from going the same way he did. Yes, be selfish and proud, you've earned that right through beauty and intellect but
You have to be careful not to let go of that person who's been by you this whole time. Don't only reach out when you need him to do something. Try and understand him and reconcile when you fight. Try and work together. There's a reason he's been your protector for so long.
Don't lose the only person who really cares just because you were too busy looking in the mirror to see that they weren't by your side anymore.
He just doesn't want Leo to end up like him--all followers and no real friends.