#to give you a example of comparation

[novalizinpeace]

Is there some discrimination directed towards wilds in the cartoon? I recall you saying that a part of joining the kingdoms higher ranks, it was a requirement to kill one.

It good to see the point had come to someone with just some posts, 'cause i was hoping to explain it sooner or later.

You see, for me the Smiling Critters Cartoon was supposed to be a cartoon that celebrate diversity, both by using different kind of animals and incluying characters with disabilities (Catnap by been mute) or characters with different cultures (Crafty, Bubba and Bobby with their backstories).

But in the diversity there's always a conflict: problems between communities, racism, xenophobia, and war.

There's two kind of social conflict in the cartoon, Critters-Wild conflict and the conflict between kingdoms.

the critters-wild conflict can be explained in a fear-fear way: The critters are afraid of the wild due their look, so they react by running away or fighting. While the wilds are afraid of the critters due their magic, so they react by running away of fighting.

This kind of conflict has also happen in real life with communities that have differents cultures and languages, and we know that usually don't start good.

But there's always a start to be better: BraveHeart was the first know critter to put his foot down and try to stop the conflict, by refusing to hurt a wild (a gigant bear), 'cause he could see there was no evil in the wild eyes, but fear. they both were fighting 'cause they were afraid, but he got in said fight by choice, the wild was innocent here, so he refuse to keep fighting.

Then we see how this evolved in the present generation, and their parallel with irl situation: Sometimes you can learn about others culture and become the best of both worlds (Bobby, been a wild that got to become a critter but that still is very much involve in her wild family, and also a usually help when the conflict is related to a wild), and sometimes you can be part of a culture not related to your origins, 'cause what's important is that you feel at home there (Bubba been a adopted critter in a wild family that love his family very much). Yeah, history here started bad, but it got better with time and effort.

But... then we have the kingdom conflict, this one more close to the irl conflict between countries, coming from a only reason: Power.

This part is more long to explain, so 'm going to explain it in another post. But yeah, the critters-wild is very much present in the cartoon, but not in a bad way, but more in a educational way.

[gendertrickster]

i find very cool how you're dating the writer of the comic you were (still are) swooning over

it's literally so fucking funny. you guys cannot even comprehend all the reasons why this is the funniest shit ever

[suncaptor]

Like I think it's funny people jump to "Sam doesn't know Dean" when Sam shows shock at Dean's behavior rather than "Sam is reacting to Dean showing a different side the role he generally plays which reveals a history the show is telling us of how they interact and define each other."

[lazaruspiss]

obvi this doesnt apply to everyone but im noticing that for some the appeal of WFA is legitimately "it's a batman comic that is the opposite of batman comics". i guess i get it but shouldnt there be a line there? like. i dont wanna be gatekeep-y but if your favorite batman comic is your favorite bc it has nothing in common with the rest of batman then maybe you're less a batman fan and more just a fan of that one series. It feels weird that theres no real differentiation there.

[brazilian-whalien52]

The fact that Is Mhok that has no money always giving presents to Day

[lord-squiggletits]

Actually the funniest example of Megatron apologism (neutral) I've seen is when people call it biased and rigged for Optimus to be the judge for Megatron's trial, but have nothing to say about the fact that Optimus let Megatron on the Lost Light AS CO-CAPTAIN which is ALSO incredibly rigged and biased and no one wanted it and Optimus barely had the authority to even do that.

It just seems like a case where people will always take the angle/interpretation that favors Megatron as a victim of Autobot eeeevillll, so they harp on how unfair it was for Megatron to be put on trial, but completely skirt over exactly how and why Megatron even got to serve parole/not rot in prison in the first place. I guess because it would disrupt the ever-present fan wank about how actually Megatron is being victimized for being put on trial and those Autobots are "just as bad" (lmao).

[kareenvorbarra]

it's been so long since i've seen a silmarillion post that filled me with genuine stomach-churning rage that i kind of thought i was above such things now, but i just saw another one, so apparently not!!!!!

people really are out here trotting out the same old "these characters were justified in sacking towns and murdering civilians and setting fire to refugee camps and destroying the greatest works of entire cultures because someone stole their personal treasure" arguments and dressing them up in social justice rhetoric because they want to feel morally superior about their favorite characters even when those characters are instigating and carrying out mass-murders

at a certain point it's like. is it just poor reading comprehension? is it an unwillingness to admit that you like characters who do Bad Things? maybe it's both, i don't know

[writeouswriter]

Not enough “weird” or unique looking people in media nowadays, I’m tired of generic same face stars, give me someone I can actually pick out of a police lineup, give me someone who actually has distinguishable or unique features, give me someone whose appearance will sear into the inside of my eyelids, give me a little freak

[gibbearish]

i still have yet to see the new hbomb but for anyone who's watched it now and wants more this is not the first time he's covered this kind of thing, "here's three stories about youtube plagiarism" is from 6 years ago on the same subject and is still very good

[our-blood-is-our-ink]

Agatha is not a villain. She's not a hero, but she's not a villain. If she were a villain we would have seen her before now. She's not a nice person, she's not good by any means (that hurts to say) but she's not evil despite using the darkhold. She doesn't appear to kill unnecessarily, only those who's power she's after, which makes her more of a serial killer than anything else. But we don't walk around calling people like the Zodiac a villain. We might call em evil, morally wrong, ethically wrong, but not a villain. So. Stop calling Agatha a villain. It doesn't fit her at all, and it's a disservice to place her in the same category as Thanos and Ultron.

[roobylavender]

i mean most abusers do love the people they abuse. abuse isn’t something done with intention or malice half the time, it’s done by people thinking they’re doing the right thing. bruce’s love and need for control are constantly in conflict with each other and that’s why the robins are stuck waging a war against him. i feel like a big part of a dysfunctional parent-child dynamic is feeling trapped by your parent’s love. Even if you hate it, it’s still canon that Bruce has been historically bad with dealing with his kids. Half of them don’t even feel comfortable calling him dad cuz the relationship seems so undefined or shaky. In Dick’s case i feel like he has no grounds to oppose robin and his vigilantism because Bruce (deep down) loved having someone like dick around to fight crime with. They both refer that time as “the good old days” so it’s not like Bruce was truly opposed. It’s only when the actual reality of that negligent and naive behaviour materialises that he realises he fucked up (robin year one eg). Then he treats Dick in such a cold manner that Dick believes if he’s not robin, he’s not wanted. This has been a pattern since the golden days so no it’s not ooc for Bruce. Yes the natural conclusion to all the modern day tension should be for both parties to meet and resolve their issues but Bruce is still the abuser at the end of the day, and even though Dick’s self sacrificing nature might easily forgive him, on a textual level it should be clear that a true resolution between the two would need Dick to dig deeper, and for Bruce to be ready for rejection from his son.

i don’t disagree with that assessment of abuse like it’s absolutely true, but my problem is i don’t think the cold or controlling behavior is really a consistent enough pattern until we move into post-crisis canon. for several decades dick and bruce have a great rapport with each other bc that’s what everyone knows they’re supposed to have. like i don’t think most writers from the golden or silver age if asked that they intended to write bruce as an abuser would agree and say yes, and that distinction to me is impt, bc sure, we can take what we’re reading on a surface level and project our own experience or modern understanding of relationships onto it, but i don’t think that should happen to the extent authorial intent is superseded bc then you start to enter territory where you’re divorcing narrative from genre conventions. if we go by the assumption that bruce is an enabler and abuser for allowing dick to be a hero for so long without purported attention paid to his safety then that establishes practically every hero within the universe possessive of a sidekick as an abuser. and i do get that some people are interested in following that thread like esp in post-crisis we see that exploration a lot but ig for me personally it’s kinda like the thing that breaks the camel’s back and withholds the entire genre from actually allowing itself to explore more pertinent issues. not to say abuse isn’t a pertinent issue, it absolutely is and i do think there’s ways it can still be explored, but the primary reason the genre was established in the first place was in response to fascism. obv the engagement with that wasn’t necessarily complex early on but it’s incredibly impt to the development of the genre and as we can see in a modern context how that response to fascism or lack thereof is conveyed can be incredibly influential in terms of facilitating support or not for fascist government. so my issue is like, yes, it’s impt for bruce’s faults in these relationships to be addressed to a constructive and worthwhile extent, but i also think writers have gone so drastically far in curating those faults in the post crisis era that it’s effectively restricted the scope of the stories they’re allowed to tell, bc they’re more focused on individual instances and relationships within this world than they are on any form of commentary that reflects the operations of the world at large in relation to regulation of crime

[thelaughingmerman]

im going to miss the inclusion of lca cast in the city sets for the rest of my life

[crescentmp3]

my god. help my soul

[noxtivagus]

listening to endwalker ost outside of the game hits different fr 🥹

[ambrosiagourmet]

I want to talk about why I think this is the one of the most important Falin panels:

So, Falin is really nice, right? It's one of the first things we really learn about her. She's kind even to the monsters of the dungeon - choosing to ward the party rather than fight spirits and cause them needless harm.

In the above early flashback in chapter 11, we see Marcille fawning over Falin's kindness, calling her an angel. Namari calls her soft-hearted. We see Falin choose not to fight even when a zombie attacks - instead she resolves the confrontation with a hug. After the flashback, the first thing Senshi says is that Falin "sounds like quite the person," which Marcille strongly affirms.

At this point in the story, all we have seen of Falin are these impressions; she is a healer, an angel, a caretaker with an infinite well of kindness towards everyone she meets - both friend and foe.

And honestly, that remains most of what we have to go by to understand her. The only times we get to see Falin on the page, alive and just herself, are in the opening and closing pages of the story and in the brief period of time after she is resurrected.

Nonetheless, we do have some more details to work with. For one, there is the scene that The Panel is from - a short memory in chapter 75, when Marcille flashes back to while she's dying. In that scene, Falin prepares to teleport them all out, and says that she's sorry "if there is a person at [their] destination." And that's when we get The Panel.

If you teleport someone or something into another person, the person teleported into is likely to be, at minimum, severely injured. They could die.

We can see a lovely little horrifying example of exactly why in one of the Daydream Hour doodles:

So, hmm. That's not... that's not SUPER nice. Certainly not displaying the same "kindness to all, friend and foe included" we saw represented earlier. On a basic level, this adds some nuance to Falin's kindness. We see it break a little, when pushed to the limit. We see her chose to protect the people she loves above all else.

Which makes sense! As Laios says when the Winged Lion accuses him of similarly being motivated more by his friends' safety than everyone else in the dungeon, "...most people, aside from virtuous do-gooders, would feel the same way."

So, we can take The Panel as simply showing a moment of weakness for Falin. A time when she was pushed to her limits, and that "most people" selfish side of her shone through.

However... I think there's a little more going on with Falin than just her being an angel 99% of the time, except just that once. I love The Panel because I think it helps us understand that Falin isn't just motivated by kindness - she also has a desire to avoid seeing people in pain.

Isn't that the same thing?

No, no it very much is not.

Let's look at a short comic from the Falin section of the Adventurer's Bible, because I think it illustrates this point perfectly. The group is complaining about how much Marcille's healing hurts, and comparing it to Falin's, which "doesn't hurt a bit." Marcille retorts with the following:

Now, the punchline of this comic is that, despite Marcille's sentimental assertion that she's "thinking of [them]" by letting her healing magic hurt, they all still prefer to be healed by Falin.

But hey, this wouldn't be the first time that Dungeon Meshi hides a very real character beat or insight in a gag, so let's think about this somewhat seriously.

If Marcille is right (and she knows a fair bit about magic, so we can assume that she has at least somewhat of a point), then what Falin is doing isn't kind. I suppose if someone specifically requested to not feel the pain, it could be kind, but that's not really what happened here. She is the one who felt badly about the others being in pain, and she is the one who decided, without telling them or giving them a choice in the matter, to take away that pain.

Both Marcille and Falin are healing the party, but Marcille is doing it in a way that accomplishes the task in the most straight forward way, without any additional interference. Falin is going out of her way to perform the healing in a way she is more comfortable with. A way that avoids pain.

Going back the The Panel, I don't think its a coincidence that the only time we see Falin (well, non-chimera Falin) willing to do something that could hurt someone is when any potential pain will be far away from her. If she got someone hurt or killed by teleporting the party to the surface? Not only would it be far out of her sight, but she'd be dead before she had to deal with any consequences of that action.

Falin is not a confrontational person. She doesn't push when Marcille won't tell her the truth about the resurrection, and she comforts Laios about her own death - both of those things happening in the only full chapter she is alive and conscious in the whole story.

We also know that she considered accepting Shuro's proposal, despite not having any special feelings towards him, and that Falin never explained to Marcille that she wanted them to share a meal together. When she brought Marcille various foods at the academy, she just accepted Marcille's confused rejection and gave up.

And lastly, we know that she is still in contact with her parents, despite the neglect and abuse she suffered at their hands. Although the way someone chooses to handle contact with abusive or bad family is a complicated topic, which I don't want to overly simplify, I do I think this fact gets at the heart of how she handles conflict.

So many people that Falin loves have hurt her. There are understandable hurts, like Laios leaving the village, or Marcille not understanding the food. And there are bigger, far less justifiable hurts - like her parents neglecting her throughout her childhood, and sending her away to be alone at the magic academy.

It doesn't seem like Falin has ever confronted any of it directly.

And the unhealthy aspects of this kind of avoidance of pain and confrontation is one of the things that the story of Dungeon Meshi is all about. We see Laios grapple with it before he goes to kill Falin, and we see Marcille acknowledge it at the end of the story, when she tells Laios that she has come to terms with Falin's death:

Eating is a part of life. Consuming other living things is a part of life. It isn't really possible to avoid that pain - you can only hide from the truth of it. You have to be selfish everyday. You have to eat - to choose to live. To choose to take up space.

And this is something Falin embraces, too. She comes back to life, after all.

We see her choose to come back to life.

And how does she make that choice? She eats. She consumes, and then she is asked a question by the manifestation of hunger itself:

Do you want to eat more?

There is a double meaning in the Winged Lion's final words on the next page.

When I first read this, I took it as him saying: life is cruel. You will suffer. You will feel more pain.

But perhaps, especially for Falin, this also means: you are choosing a path where you must cause pain. Where you must consume. Where you must take, and must be selfish. Because eating is the special privilege of the living, and it is their burden, too. In order to stay alive, she will need to keep eating.

And she chooses that. Chooses to be selfish. It's why her resurrection scene is so important, and it's why The Panel is so important. Because Falin coming back isn't the ultimate reward for all of the party's hard work.

It's her choice. Just like it was her choice that started everything in the first place. But this time, she doesn't choose to accept causing pain for the sake of Marcille and Laios. She does it for her own sake.

[cassowariess]

I'm being so brave right now about a podcast I used to like swallowing the Russian propaganda kool aid.