#which is precisely what the tories are doing here

[moremaybank]

-͟͟͞☆ pining best friend!jj headcanons...

warnings mentions of menstrual pads/tampons, mentions of being drunk/high (barely)

jj masterlist

❥ he keeps hair ties around his wrist, strategically mixed in with his bracelets, and stashes a few scrunchies in the pocket of his backpack because he knows how much you hate it when your hair is flying around in your face (especially when it's getting stuck in your lip gloss). bonus points if you have textured hair and wear a bonnet while you sleep because he'll totally buy (steal) you one and keep that on him, too (for impromptu sleepovers)

❥ he practically lives in your room/house

❥ he can measure precisely how sad you are depending on what song you're listening to

❥ stargazing and having conversations about everything and nothing

❥ tucks you in when you fall asleep without a blanket or on top of the covers

❥ (for those who have/experience periods) he's too embarrassed to go out and buy you pads/tampons (only because he doesn't know what he's doing and is so adorably nervous about it), so when you aren't looking, he'll steal a few of yours and keep them at the chateau for you. he even keeps some at his house on the off chance that you come over

❥ i've talked about this in the past, but he'll take your makeup off and do your skincare for you if you're too drunk, high or just plain exhausted

❥ he's clingy as fuck when he's tired and will make you his personal body pillow

❥ will deny it to the group's faces but he loves to sing/dance to taylor swift with you, especially in the car (#carpoolkaraoke)

❥ when you're baking/cooking, he'll dip his fingers into everything and give it a taste test because he loves the look on your face when you 'scold' him

❥ always has a hoodie on/with him because he knows you're too stubborn and will deny that you'll get cold (even though you definitely will)

❥ dragging you out of bed at 3am for slurpees

❥ constantly finding ways to touch you

❥ asks you to teach him how to braid hair

❥ he'd steal one of your rings and loop it onto his shark tooth necklace so you're always with him

❥ if you have a dog, cat, etc., he'll carry them around your face like they're his baby (which they are)

❥ hogs the covers and yanks them off of you so you have to move closer to him/cuddle with him

❥ takes you for night swims at the beach/at the chateau

❥ picks random flowers for you, sometimes he'll put them in your hair

❥ he always carries your bags for you

❥ opens every single door for you (he's such a gentleman, i love him)

❥ if he's close with your parent(s)/guardian(s), he'll come over solely to hang out with them (and revel in the pout on your face when you realize he isn't there to chill with you)

❥ the type to binge-watch your shows with you and ask a million questions about the characters/plots but refuses to watch it on his own

❥ plays with your stuffed animals and gives them all different voices (and definitely steals one when you aren't looking)

jj tag list (join here!): @maybankslover @kittyqrt @v-velvetykisscs @hobiibobii @rafesdior @fool4him @hemogloban @pankhoeforlife @rafesmuse @lyn07 @houseofperfecttaste @qualitybelieverflower-blog @dudenhaaa27 @princessbetsy123-blog @tori-loves1 @alexxavicry @kenzi-woycehoski @elijahssuit @skydisneylover @adoreyouusugar @obxjjpouge @conniesanchor @baby-maybank @angel037 @wotfasked @rafelover @penny4yourthoughts @nerd505 @xngelsau @maybank-archives @p4nkowrld @spideybrina @pankowperfection @demiioxox @adr1an4 @lov3r0fr0ck @ellesalazar @buckyisveryhot @hoeforstarkey24 @aliyahsomerhalder @thelastgreatamericandynasty1989 @1spiderman1 @tell-me-when-you’re-ready @rosie-anne @slytherhoes @taintedxkisses

[littleeyesofpallas]

So, Shutara in the anime, huh?

okay okay yeah i got around to e13 this morning and I see what everyone was excited about. Some of the new lore i'm a little iffy on, but ooo the visual designs are more than enough for me to chew on.

So the obvious highlight is Shutatsu Karagara Shigaraminotsuji[娑闥迦羅骸刺絡辻]

Shutatsu[娑闥]: Oldwoman* gate

*weirdly this kanji does not appear to be commonly used in Japanese at all, but does have the Japanese specific(as in Chinese and Korean don't use it this way) meaning of "old woman" but I have no idea in what context it would be used or if there is some other usage of it that could be evoked here other than to mean "old woman."

The "Gate" in question though seems to be a more obviously superficial reference to the shape of the bankai itself using the bits of sewing machine to make a tori gate.

Karagara[迦羅骸]: "Kala" Husk

So it appears that the Kara[迦羅] here is from the Chinese writing[摩訶迦羅] of the Sanskrit Mahakala[महाकाल] which is alternatively named Daikokuten[大黑天] in Japanese, and is a Buddhist god of wealth. (it is also the way the Japanese write the name of a 6th century Korean kingdom? but that doesn't feel relevant here...)

But of note, the Japanese name itself made up of ka[迦] which has no meaning(?) and is just used phonetically? and ra[羅]: referring to "Silk" or "gauze" or other similar lightweight fabric. The -ra at least seems to have more literal applications here, but honestly it feels less pertinent next to the extremely conspicuous word choice...

And gara[骸] is "shell"/"husk" and other similar things that get left behind when you remove the innards. The character itself can also mean a "corpse"/"cadaver" but not generally when it's pronounced as "gara." (The image it evokes to me is letting a robe or gown slide off your shoulders and drop to the ground, the robe being the "husk.")

(but apparently some people think this could be a play on the sanskrit karagara[कारागार], meaning a "prison"/"jail" or otherwise "place of confinement"? But i have no idea why anyone would have chosen the kanji in question to approximate that... I'll be honest, I don't buy it; it gives me very "I'll send you to the netherlands!" translation flub vibes. The techniques themselves do feel reminicent of the Buddhist naraka in theme and aesthetic, but the leap from "prison" to "naraka" seems unsubstantiated by the wordplay here.)

Shigarami-no-tsuji[刺絡辻]: Bloodletting crossroads

shiraku[刺絡] is the bloodletting technique used in old Chinese medicine. It's sometimes thrown under the umbrella of "acupuncture" but the methods are different. Where as the needles in acupuncture are meant to be precise and release pressure, the blood letting involves a few semi-random pricks in a localized area and then the use of a heat cup to create a vacuum that draws the blood out.(better than leeches at least...) The thing with the heat cups is what's being referred to here.

But broken down it's, shi[絡] "thorn"/"prick"/"splinter" + kara[絡]: "entangled"/"entwined"/"enmeshed"/"wrapped up in" etc... literally describing being "in the middle of (many) needles"

tsuji[辻]: a "crossroad." Nice and straight forward.

my issue however is that I'm not entirely sure where the "mino" phonetics here came from, or what that very deliberate choice of alternate reading might mean in this context... (see comments section)

(also, sorry if anyone's squeemish about cups full of blood, but I tried to find an image that at least obscured the actual needle wounds)

and then there is...

Shideno Rokushiki Ukimonnohata[死出六色浮文機]

Shideno[死出], lit."death+exit" a more specific term for "Death" from shide-no-yama[死出の山]: "mountain of death" that refers to a mountain the dead cross to get into the afterlife. Appropriately evoked by forcing the Sternritter each through their own illusory ordeal.

Rokushiki[六色]: "Six Colors" appears to just refer to the fact that there were 6 of them.

Ukimonno Hata[浮文機]: "Brocade Loom." "Brocade" being made up of the words [浮文]: "Floating+Character" referring to the raised patterning. and [機] being a kanji for "machine" but when pronounced "hata" it specifically refers to a loom or other textile machine.

Much easier to pick apart by comparison at least...

[terrence-silver]

Oh, I so agree with you about the lack of Terry in promos being... unsatisfying. So many things they're playing with this season were set in motion by Terry. Terry mentioned Kim Sung Young first, who they now have cast. Terry wanted to go to the Sekai Taikai. Terry introduced Kim Da Eun. If they can get Kreese out of prison with a box of Jell-o, no way can they keep Terry in jail for more than three hours. If he can spin heading Dynatox into being a green philantropist, he can doctor this. If Kenny still has a major part to play, well who mentored him?

I could have understood it if they wanted to shift away from the Terry storyline and focus on what the show started as, reclaiming your life through karate. But then, it would have made much more sense to keep Kreese in prison, send Chozen and Da Eun home, and not focus so much on Tang Soo Do. But if they're setting that legacy up as the überthreat, it makes no sense for Terry not to be involved. The Sekai Taikai was his baby, moreso than Cobra Kai, even. Maybe the CK brand has been compromised, but so what? Hearsay. Simply rebrand.

Terry completely revitalised a show that had milked everything out of Johnny-Kreese there was to milk, keeps shying away from consequences with Robby and Miguel and would never give Sam and Tory the gay awakening that drives them. To dump him and keep Chozen and Da Eun around makes no damn sense!

Exactly. Precisely.

Terry Silver is the lifeblood that keeps this show running.

Because what else is there to do with this plot?

A lot of storylines got tragically milked to completion seasons ago.

And I don't think for the life of me Da Eun, who quite literally got flown into the plot during the penultimate mid-season is a strong enough character to be the end all-be all final boss villain. She doesn't have the charisma to pull what Thomas Ian Griffith pulled in TKK3. She was just introduced pretty much last minute and our attachment to her is at best nonexistent to miniscule with her only connection to anything going on in the plot at all is through Kreese, Silver and their mutual history with the sport. In the plot itself, girl even seemed like she was begrudgingly in the States in the first place and had to be talked into staying by Terry. To carry the whole endgame conclusion of this show and well over forty years of lore between the characters as the ultimate bad guy? Yeah, nope. Don't see it. There's just no development there. No meat.

As you said. It makes no damn sense.

And I will be in the minority here, which is entirely alright for me, but I really have an abject allergy for fan concoctions like brining back Julie Pierce in Season 6 or having Chozen and Da Eun have a showdown to fill in plot gaps. Shoehorning in Julie Pierce for a random, out of nowhere cameo when the one attachment she had to the plot was vaguely through a character dead for well over forty years just so she could tutor female character x and y for a short period of time is unnecessary at this late stage and I don't think Chozen and Da Eun warrant enough stakes to suddenly become mortal foes that take up space like that in the last season, but hey, that's just me; like, where are these rivalries even coming from? They met like yesterday. Do you two even know each other's full names!? Like!?

Terry Silver, John Kreese and the Sekai Tekai are sole the points of interest left.

After all, show's called Cobra Kai and they are Cobra Kai.

[mariacallous]

The US right has this week been staging a clown show that has had liberals in that country and beyond pulling up a chair and breaking out the popcorn. There has been a karmic pleasure in watching the Republicans who won control of the House of Representatives struggle to complete the most basic piece of business – the election of a speaker – but it’s also been instructive, and not only to Americans. For it has confirmed the dirty little secret of that strain of rightwing populist politics that revels in what it calls disruption: it always ends in bitter factional fighting, chaos and paralysis. We in Britain should know, because Brexit has gone the exact same way.

Start with the karma that saw House Republicans gather two years to the day since they sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from one party to another: often overlooked in the anniversary recollections of 6 January 2021 is that, mere hours after rioters had stormed the US Capitol, a majority of Republican House members voted to do precisely as the rioters had demanded and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Yet here were those same House Republicans on 6 January 2023, having prevented the smooth transfer of power from one party to another – except this time, the party they were thwarting was their own.

It should have been straightforward. Republicans won a narrow majority in the House in November, which gave them the right to put one of their number in the speaker’s chair. The trouble was, while most backed Kevin McCarthy, about 20 rebels did not. By Thursday night, they had gone through 11 rounds of voting – the most since the civil war era– without McCarthy or anyone else winning a majority. The result: deadlock.

It was a study in incompetence. A party asks the electorate to give them power; they get it and then freeze, unable to take even the first step towards using it. There’s no clear political logic to the stalemate. The rebels are devotees of Donald Trump, but McCarthy himself is a tireless Trump sycophant – patronised by the former president as “my Kevin” – who begged for and won the backing of the orange one. The pro-Trump rebels are divided among themselves: one rebuked Trump for sticking with McCarthy, while another voted to make Trump himself speaker.

It’s telling that the rebels’ demands are not on policy but on procedure, seeking rule changes or committee seats that would give them more power. Otherwise, they can’t really say what they want. They succeeded in getting metal detectors removed from the entrance to the chamber, so now people can walk on to the floor of the House carrying a gun, but apart from that, and their hunger to start investigating Democrats, including Joe Biden’s son Hunter, nothing.

All this has significance for the year ahead in US politics. For one thing, it’s yet more evidence of the diminishing strength of Trump among Republican leaders, if not yet among the party faithful. For another, if Republicans cannot make a relatively easy decision like this one, how are they going to make the tough but necessary choices that are coming – such as authorising the spending, and debt, required to keep the US government functioning?

But its meaning goes far wider. For what’s been on display this week, in especially florid form, is a strain of politics that has infected many democracies, including our own. Its key feature is its delight in disruption, in promising to upend the system. That was the thrust of the twin movements of 2016, Trump and Brexit. Both promised to sweep away the elites, the experts, the orthodoxy – whether in Washington DC or Brussels. They were new movements, but they were drawing on deep roots. Four decades ago both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher cast themselves as radicals daring to shake off the dead hand of the government.

So we can hardly be surprised that those who railed against government should be so bad at it. They promised disruption, and that’s what they’ve delivered. In the US it was the chaos of Trump himself, and now a House of mini-Trumps that can’t tie its own shoelaces. In the UK, it looks different: we have a prime minister in Rishi Sunak whose pitch is technocratic competence. But that should not conceal two things.

First, the post-2016 Tory party delivered just as much parliamentary turmoil and intra-party division as McCarthy and co served up this week. Whether it was the Commons gridlock of the two years preceding the 2019 election or the psychodrama of the three years after it, Brexit-era Conservatism has proved every bit as unhinged as Trump-era Republicanism. When it comes to burn-it-all-down politics, the Republicans’ craziest wing are mere novices compared with a master arsonist such as Liz Truss. The US and UK are simply at different points in the cycle.

Second, even with Sunak in charge, and though painted in less vivid colours, Brexit-era Toryism is just as paralysed as its sister movement in the US. The five-point plan unveiled in the PM’s new year address consisted mostly of the basics of state administration – growing the economy, managing inflation – rather than anything amounting to a political programme.

And that’s chiefly because his party, like the Republicans, cannot agree among themselves. Consider how much Sunak has had to drop, under pressure from assorted rebels. Whether it was reform of the planning system, the manifesto commitment to build 300,000 new houses a year or the perennial pledge to grasp the nettle of social care, Sunak has had to back away from tasks that are essential for the wellbeing of the country. True, he has avoided the farcical scenes that played out this week on Capitol Hill, but that’s only because he has preferred to preserve the veneer of unity than to force a whole slew of issues. The result is a prime minister who cannot propose much more than extra maths lessons lest he lose the fractious, restive coalition that keeps him in office.

None of this is coincidence. It’s in the nature of the rightwing populist project, in Britain, the US and across the globe. Brexit is the exemplar, a mission that worked with great potency as a campaign, as a slogan, but which could never translate into governing, because it was never about governing. It was about disrupting life, not organising it – or even acknowledging the trade-offs required to organise it. It offered the poetry of destruction, not the prose of competence.

The Conservatives are several stages further down this road than the Republicans, perhaps because their power has been uninterrupted throughout. But in both cases, and others, the shift is unmistakable. Once parties of the right saw themselves as the obvious custodians of state authority: the natural party of government. Now they are happier shaking their fists at those they insist are really in charge. They are becoming the natural party of opposition.

[nephriteknight]

Okay time for Actual Coherent Thoughts about 23: Pre-posting edit: this is still fairly coherent but BOY is it longer than i intended. when will my husband (dear friend wyv) come back from war (get caught up so i can do this in his dms like i used to)

jesus christ. tldr: Helen will probably be a Human Tory and not my beloved Helen!Distortion, I am BEYOND EXCITED TO SEE BASIRA AGAIN, and I'm holding out hope for Daisy also showing up because Celia may well just not know her as Alice Tonner so she's having trouble finding her. Also Sam's being compelled. Yikes. Also Jmart dying around the same time is very suspicious but I couldn't find any reason it would happen.

Helen will presumably be Tory Helen and not Distortion Helen, which is. Devastating. I miss my not-a-girl every single goddamn day.

It's interesting that Celia found Basira but not Daisy. Did Melanie just not mention her? Are they not together? Then again, it's very possible that Celia's heard of Daisy but not Alice Tonner

BASIRA BASIRA BASIRA BASIRA

[deep breath] this was meant to be Actual Coherent Thoughts

I wonder if Celia's already found Melanie? It would make sense for her and Georgie to still be friends

More to the point, what is Celia's angle here? Is she just looking for anyone who might have also come through from tma!universe? When it was just Jon and Martin (and probably Georgie depending on how that relationship came to be) it made sense for Mystery Solving but Helen doesn't really line up with that

Jon and Martin died "nearly 20 years ago" (this is for actual coherent thoughts--), putting them at around 18 years old (Sam's main reason to think they're the right people was that their ages matched TMA -- interestingly, though, both Jon and Martin lied about their ages, and Jon is known to look much older than he is. Still, Georgie would know Jon's age, and by the time Melanie came around Martin wasn't lying about his CV, so it's probably still the right ones). It's suspicious as all hell that they both died young at around the same time. "Nearly 20 years ago" doesn't line up with any important dates I can think of -- the Institute bruned down 25 years ago, and if they timing was close I think Sam would've flagged it; FR3-D1 talking and Jack's birth are both one year ago; Celia implies she came to the tmagp universe "a couple of years" ago, although it's possible she was referring to something else since I feel like it makes more sense for that to line up with the computers starting to talk; and there are no incidents in that time frame except for 23's itself, which was 18 years ago but seems unrelated. Maybe it really is just a coincidence. I highly doubt it. (Thought the causality could be the other way around -- maybe Jon and Martin (and Jonah, if Augustus is him) being dead already is why they got stuck in the computers or something)

Sam is definitely being compelled to fill out that paperwork. Which is very concerning! I don't believe Lena glitched at all when she said it was probably Alice hazing him or that it was useless and the response department doesn't exist, but she also doesn't speak in precise statements much so it could be getting past the glitch filter thing ("probably"/"i suspect"/"you are aware that...?"). I'm curious what's going on there. Lena did mention ages ago that some of the forces are benevolent (in her opinion, which im taking with so many grains of 🜔) so it could be that force, whichever the OIAR belongs to (which would line up with the OIAR being Web-aligned as some have theorized -- even though it seems very likely that Smirke's 14 no longer applies, if any of the fears were going to hold themselves together it would be the Web, and there are similarities)

I'm still so curious what the deal with Error and the tape recorders is. It was locked beneath the Institute in what I assume are the tunnels (which could mean it was still built on the panopticon?? but that seems unlikely), it has more than two eyes, and it has a tape recorder that bites. In TMA (spoilers lol) the tapes belonged primarily to the Web, and the biting doesn't seem very eye-like, but who can say? I still don't think this is Jon. Not just because he's dead lol, the abilities and timing just don't line up. My bet is that this is some other kid from the program, someone Alice and Gerry (and Sam, maybe) might have met before, who I guess got turned into this? But what does this have to do with their big turn of the century thing? Who knows. We know they were collecting artefacts, though, so

Is Error an archivist? Maybe! I recently watched a video about the arg so I know about that shit now, and the tmagp Institute had a digital archive, which is interesting. So far, we've seen that written transcripts of Error's victim's statements can be digitized--at least by FR3-D1, which could be an exception to the rule (whether because it's special or just because it Feels Old, like the tapes did). so far we've only heard them spoken on tape recorders, but that's more because of the situations its happened in

Also because Alice brought up the first time she encountered Error, I'm still suspicious of her brother suddenly being unexpectedly successful with two bands called "Penny in the Well" and "Dredgerman" but I have nothing to go off of

Oh boy. This is what happens when I'm suddenly further ahead than the person who got me into TMA in the first place. Y'all are dealing with this now.

[evchen]

Reflections after Owen Jones' This Land: The Struggle for the Left (2021)

The land where I live is odd. It’s land, and then it’s sea, and then – down in the marshes – it’s kind of both. Across those marshes, there are (disused) oil refineries, and then there is the Thames Gateway, the London Array: all bracketed by “seaside” towns hastily re-painting their facades. In short, the Thames Estuary is defined by its struggle.

And struggle it does: my quaint hometown Leigh-on-sea walks the cobbled path of nostalgia, seemingly in circles. Against the murky expanse of mud and industry, it is jarring. Sometimes I feel like it doesn’t know what to do with itself, and then that visual rhetoric extends to its politics.

In 2023, local Tories undemocratically seized Leigh Community Centre. Grassroots organisation “Looking After Leigh-on-sea” was established in response. Their slogan: “people not politics”. Whilst I dislike the immediate sentiment, if you look a little closer, this statement recognises the party machine’s failure to protect community facilities, prompting the people’s responsibility for their preservation. In response to the Tory councillors’ undemocratic behaviour, this tracks. “Politics” is the enemy of community organisation; if “politics” won’t look after Leigh-on-sea, then the people will. And I doubt Starmer’s spending cuts would look after us, either.

So, the slogan then reveals – almost paradoxically – that people govern communities, and so people are politics. It’s easy to tell people why things will fail or work or why they’re bad in politics, but what of how? Because of, well, people: in response to a monolith of manifestos and policies and podiums, Owen Jones’ This Land: The Struggle for the Left expertly re-implicates the human energy inherent to the party machine, and – crucially – that which can undermine or defy it.

Jones walks the Corbyn campaign trail and talks to an astounding number of people along the way. He celebrates its direction whilst accounting for the pitfalls. People diverge, return, kick up the mud. In accounting for smaller details of Corbyn’s disorganisation – as in, Corbyn sometimes not answering his phone, and so on – the account grows almost intimate, not least because it’s structured around a series of conversations.

Having established their human underpinnings, Jones navigates party crises: I was particularly impressed by the chapter ‘The Antisemitism Crisis,’ and its nuanced handling of bigotry within Labour. Nuance is a given in any political writing; I praise Jones so highly because his approach is bolstered by his immersion with staff, observers, all the whos. This approach structures Jones’ online presence – I seriously recommend his YouTube street interviews – so it’s quite special that his candid approach translates near seamlessly to writing.  

From discussions, things change. Taking a simple (and potentially bastardised) understanding of dialectical materialism, material change results from contradiction and conflict. The word “material” is important here: enacting change from theory requires a precise understanding of one’s surroundings. So, through contextualising all these conversations with Labour characters – flats, cafes, Parliament itself – Jones charts specific changes to the campaign output, then the resulting shifts in public perception. It's a much-needed grounding of parliamentary decision-making in reality, albeit with the gift of hindsight: still, I think this account could help people grow more observant to policies and rhetorical moves being made on the ground, as it were.

Better yet, he implicates this conflict within wider networks of named people, successfully resisting the abstraction created by a barrage of manifestos and policies. You’re constantly being dropped right in the room. Whilst the account can be tricky to follow (I won’t judge you if you can’t remember all the names – me neither), the good thing about books is that they’re permanent, and this one is organised well enough that you can return to specific points on the timeline. It’s a useful resource for tracing how policies “struggle” against the land when they’re poorly communicated: see, Brexit. In any case, it tends to come back to people. This Land questions what it is to be a leader, then explains in detail how Corbyn’s being-a-leader was reflected in reality.

As loathe as I am to admit it, things get messy. Jones tackles Corbyn’s shortcomings in leadership, and the book’s final part is bluntly named “The Fall.” Let me be honest with you: I’m a huge Corbyn fan. I abide by the “critical support” philosophy always, but watching his confidence erode up close was rough. Sentimental though I may be – again, Jones doesn’t shy away from the problems with Corbyn’s labour – I appreciate how Jones’ meticulous detail reveals the fallibility of the party "machine", which is made up of people who, together, can cock up on behalf of the whole country.

 A “fall” is no disappearance, though. Whilst it’s tough to read people relishing in Corbyn’s promises, then to reflect upon Keir Starmer abandoning them, the flip side of This Land is hope. This Land is the people inextricable from it. Jones ends with testimonies from people inspired by Corbyn, themselves engaged in the struggle towards socialism. Like many others, I can’t vote for Labour because of its continued careening towards the Right: nevertheless, Jones’ optimistic epilogue cements that if there are people, there will always be alternatives.

Don’t get me wrong: I’ll always plug the “core” revolutionary texts: whilst heavy on the theory, they can be charismatic, even enjoyable. Reading the plans of revolutionary forefathers can be enlightening, but, as July 4th approaches, we should engage with commentary that localises politics, grounding it in the material. This Land does precisely that, providing theoretical context wherever needed. It’s a fantastic entry point if you’re beginning to keep up with politics as the election approaches, and it’s generally a solid account.

In ways, I’m very grateful for my local grassroots group: after all, struggle beats stasis, and these are people realising that there exists an alternative to being choked by the Only Two Parties You Could Possibly Vote For, end sarcasm please. Right now, that understanding is vital. Community should not be a contingency, not ever.

Leigh-on-sea is an odd place to live. I adore it, it’s mine! But it so is. If the Estuary is this hodgepodge of industry and wetlands and seafront arcades, all existing in contradiction, then there cannot be a singular vision for addressing the inequalities within its ecosystem. I interpret “struggle” is a positive movement towards change that sometimes involves a bit of wrestling.

To Marxist-Leninists (don’t worry, we’re not getting into that here), “struggle” and contradiction is always inherent to a view of socialist change. Reading This Land lead me to ask these questions about my Estuary, and about the world in general: if we are inextricable from the land, then how are we at odds with it? How are we at odds with our own communities, our neighbouring communities, and which are the conditions that facilitate this othering? There is a common Capitalist denominator here, and challenging it means you start challenging the whole equation, everything. But, as Jones puts it:

“With so much injustice coexisting with limitless human potential, building a new world isn’t a utopian dream, a self-indulgent fantasy. It is the only hope for humanity”.

A fantastic book!

Buy here.

[sanityshorror]

Commemoration of the time Mama Devil non ironically rewrote and sent me Navy Seal 2: copypasta boogaloo 🙏 I framed it 🙏

👋👋👋👋If you did a drive by I'd wave 👋👋👋👋

"What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo."

🤝

"Quit lying sweety, you've already been caught lying and for spreading this message into other serves where they said YOU told them this. And i will fucking warn you again, going after MY bestfriend and accuse her for pedophilia, gaslight ivy, ben and tori, not once but MULTIPLE TIMES and bow do we have a BIIIG BIG PROBLEM. Goodluck, you'll need it. You've been called out everywhere for being a jelous, lying, greedy little asshole. :) you're caught leave us alone and stay on tumblr, k? bYE //👹❤" [...] "You really think you're tough huh? Uou're trying to be funny? You know you fucked up, outed yourself fucking multiple times and now you can stand for it? You sure are a thirsty fucker arent ya? If someone is hyperfixated and hyper sexualixung shit here and is bring more of a pedo is it you witg your fucking julius? Hyper sexualising anorexia??? Femenine men??? Fanhirlung so hard over your own oc you sure ass hell wank of with your big boner?"

[taughtcruelty]

belatedly, tory thinks she shouldn’t be here. there’s still time to back away, to go home—let nova pick her up, grab breakfast, & pretend this pathetic attempt at peace never happened. but even as the thought crosses her mind, she knows it’s already too late.

ethan stiffens the moment she steps onto the deck, turning sharply. from where he stands next to sam, his eyes narrow, pinning her in place like he’s ready to fight—or worse, defend her.

how the hell did he even notice her from the gate?

the wind chimes clatter violently as a gust rushes through the dojo, sweeping tory’s hair off her shoulders & stinging her eyes. she watches as ethan’s hand clenches into a fist, & a flicker of fear—something she hates feeling—sparks deep in her gut.

it isn’t the first time she’s seen that stance. it won’t be the last, & she knows that. she remembers the street fights vividly, especially the most recent one. the brutal, almost feral way ethan had torn through kyler, big red, kenny, & saran like they were nothing. no hesitation. no mercy. he’d been so fast, every hit so precise. she’d always thought ethan was too soft, too “nice” to be a real threat. but after seeing him take down some of cobra kai’s best with a calculated anger & a viciousness that far exceeds her own, it’s like a switch flipped in her head.

he isn’t soft. he’s dangerous.

& now that intensity is directed at her.

as ethan moves, gently pushing sam behind him while he steps in front of her like a shield, tory feels his stare boring into her, like every mistake she’s made is on full display for him to judge. she grimaces. robby’s probably somewhere nearby—he’s always around ethan now—but that doesn’t make her feel any less exposed under ethan’s gaze.

trying to kill @taughtmercy over a stupid kiss, check. disliking ethan for something she knows wasn’t his fault—miguel kissing him—check, & even before then, disliking him for being associated with sam. starting that brawl at west valley, which left sam scarred & ethan, from what she’s heard, traumatized—god, those screams… nolan stepping on his earplugs, & ethan losing it, clutching his head for whatever reason as he spit out blood onto the floor—check, check, check, check.

miguel’s accident. robby on the run. the arcade fight where hawk snapped his friend’s arm. breaking into larusso’s house and attacking sam. goading savannah into simply walking downstairs to join the fight against the miyagi-dos & eagle fangs—not that sav needed much convincing to face off against their rival dojo, to fight against her own twin sister.

check, check, check, check.

❝ tory? ❞ ethan’s voice is sharp, cold. ❝ what the hell are you doing here? ❞

there’s no pretense of niceties, no sympathy. just the weight of everything between them. she winces but forces herself to hold his gaze, then her eyes slide towards sam’s behind ethan.

tory raises her hands in an i’m innocent position, taking a deep breath. ❝ i’m not here to fight. either of you. alright?” she hopes they believe her, but she notices that ethan’s expression doesn’t waver. ❝ i’m… i’m trying to be better, okay? i just…” an alarm bell goes off in her head, & she quickly pivots. no. she can’t tell them about sam actually winning the all valley, that the ref was paid. it’s too early—kreese says they need more time. ❝ i don’t expect you to believe me or whatever, but… i just want to try & fix things. ❞

[the-real-zhora-salome]

Rishi Sunak’s big speech on reforming disability benefits was intended to show that the government had a grip on the economic and health challenges of the UK’s rising levels of long-term sickness. Instead, it came over as an administration running out of ideas, high on strident rhetoric, and desperate to cut welfare bills at all costs.

It was a “moral mission”, Sunak declared, to overhaul the current welfare system, which was “unfit for purpose”. Disability benefits were too easy to cheat, too cushy, too easily claimed. The speech was a clear appeal to the notion, in vogue on the right, that “mental health culture” has “gone too far”.

“Sicknote culture” – the idea that millions of lazy Britons are taking sickies with the connivance of GPs – was also in his sights, although there was little evidence to backup his assertion, or explanation as to how the changes would work. The underlying message was clear: claimants are lazy and the system too generous.

The most significant announcement was the proposed redesign of the main disability benefit personal independence payment (Pip). Ministers are convinced that far too many people – especially those with mental illness – are able to claim Pip, a non-means-tested payment designed to help claimants with the extra costs of daily living.

It is likely to focus on narrowing eligibility to drive down the Pip bill so that fewer awards are made, and at lower rates. Sceptics will point out that his was tried a decade ago, when Pip was introduced in place of disability living allowance. That reform – at the time brutally controversial, and incompetently managed – has clearly failed, even on its own terms.

Sunak sugared the pill of cuts with pious platitudes. He was “giving back hope” to people who had lost all “dignity and meaning” when they became entrapped in the vortex of the welfare state, he said. It was a familiar Tory tune – the idea that millions of people are not so much ill as spiritually lost.

Sunak floated other under-explained ideas: long-term unemployed claimants who refuse to take any job offered to them would have their benefits withdrawn; mentally ill claimants would be offered medical treatment as an alternative to cash benefits. But these felt like fodder for culture warfare rather than serious proposals.

The reaction was fierce. The disability charity Scope called it a “full-on assault on disabled people”. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation described the speech as “an irresponsible war of words on people who already aren’t getting enough support”. The Resolution Foundation said it was “a problem statement, not a plan”.

Labour’s acting shadow welfare minister, Alison McGovern, promised to reduce NHS waiting lists, reform social security and make work pay, but she was not clear precisely how Labour would do this. What is certain is that the challenge of long-term sickness – and the impact on the labour market – will be a priority for the next government.

A Labour government would need to balance restraining the benefits bill while addressing wider reasons behind mental illness such as poverty, insecure work, ineffectual job support and inadequate NHS care. It does not help – as the IFS said – that no one can yet fully explain what is driving the recent explosion in the takeup of health and disability benefits.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimates that one in 10 working-age Britons are receiving health-related benefits, and this is expected to increase. New monthly claims have doubled since the pandemic, especially among young people: a 20-year-old today is about as likely to claim a health-related benefit as a 39-year-old was in 2019.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunak here with crystal clear fascist rethoric.

But I have to say this here

It does not help – as the IFS said – that no one can yet fully explain what is driving the recent explosion in the takeup of health and disability benefits.

is a remarkably dumb thing to say by the IFS, and even worse is the Guardian just repeating it.

The reason starts with C and ends with -ovid. Jesus Christ on a cracker.

[rhyssands]

oct 30 - to understand

prompt: seance rating: m wordcount: 1,040 characters: Sans, Flowey warnings: past character death prompt from this post, read it on ao3 here

——

Once a monster is dead, that's it: they're gone, and there's no coming back from that.

Hell, honestly, from the moment a monster starts Falling Down, there's no coming back. There's no bringing back a dusted monster. Plain and simple.

... Except that that's not necessarily true, is it?

Flowey came back.

Despite all his insistence that he's no longer Asriel, Flowey is definitely what's left of the prince of all monsters. All his memories, at least, and buried somewhere under his self-denial there is still Asriel's vulnerable emotional core.

Sans wasn't alive yet when Asriel and Chara died — honestly, that was way before his time —, but he knows Asgore and Tori and both of them have, at some point or another, talked about their kids. Listening to and watching people is his thing, it's what he does, even if everyone kind of assumes all he does is take naps and crack bad jokes.

That's fine, he wants people to think that.

Point is, though, that Flowey came back.

Asriel's dust getting on those stupid golden flowers, among other things, brought him back.

Sans wishes he understood how it happened, wishes he could repeat the experiment, hopefully with better results.

But even if he could, it'd all require he have the dust of the monster he'd be trying to bring back, and that's just not possible. Gaster's dust, for better or worse, got mixed in with all the other sediment in the CORE. There's nothing left of him at all.

There's a bitter sort of poetic irony in the fact that Gaster's dust didn't just get spread across his beloved creation: it became part of it.

Sans would prefer that he'd never died at all, but hey. He'll take what he can get.

Still, all the parading around of dead stuff in the autumn on the surface makes him wonder.

What's life without a little scientific curiosity?

He doesn't make a lot of trips back to the Underground, these days. Five years on the Surface mean he has increasingly less reasons to venture on down that way — pretty much everyone lives topside now, so he has nobody to visit regularly, and he's all but given up on the Machine.

But there is one monster for sure left in the Underground.

As he steps out of the Ruins and into the cavern the human children fell into to get down here, he sees precisely the plant he was thinking of. There, among the other (inanimate) flowers, sits Flowey.

Sans and Flowey, as a general rule, don't get along all that well. It has more to do with Flowey taking advantage of Papyrus than the fact that Flowey is a genocidal maniac and Sans is a Judge. Sans tries not to do too much Judging outside of the Hall, and if being occasionally genocidal exempted someone from his affection then Frisk would be screwed. Meanwhile, he imagines Flowey just doesn't like that Sans can see right through his bullshit and doesn't tend to take any of the bait he lays down.

"What do you want?" Asks the flower, giving him an annoyed look. It's considerably less acidic than the last time they talked, which was about a year and a half ago. "You don't normally bother to come visit."

That's true. Sans only saw Flowey the last time because Frisk practically dragged him here.

"Eh, don't get your roots in a twist, pal." Sans says, "Ain't exactly a social call. Just got a few uncomfortable questions for you if you can be-leaf that."

"Ugh." Flowey says, definitely in response to the word-play, "Fine. Whatever gets you to leave faster."

"Cool. I'm just gonna cut the bullshit and skip right to the most important question, then." Sans tells him, seeing a flicker of surprise on the flower's face before he asks, point blank, "How did this happen, exactly? If every monster whose dust got scattered on some plants came back, we'd have a way bigger problem than just you."

Flowey stares at him.

Stares some more.

Says, lowly, "Why the fuck do you want to know?"

There's nothing but thinly veiled anger and suspicion in his face, and Sans gets it — a guy who historically doesn't like you all that much asking how you came back to life probably does set off some alarm claxons, especially when you know that particular guy used to work for the Royal Scientist and has a little more awareness of the timeline and how to manipulate it than your average joe.

He shrugs, puts his hands up in a placating gesture. Answers, "Look, kid, I'm not gonna do anything. That's not how I operate. But... Call it scientific curiosity — I don't understand how you're possible, and I want to."

"So you can stop it from ever happening again?" Flowey guesses, taking him at his word with surprising ease.

"Again, not how I operate." He says, "Doing stuff isn't my style, Flowey, you know that."

"Then why?"

"So I can understand." He says, then, deciding to show his hand a little more, sighs. "... I've been thinkin' about somebody I lost a long time ago. Nothing anybody can do would ever bring him back. But it makes me feel better to examine every possible method to reassure myself it isn't possible."

Flowey stares at him for another long moment. Sentimentality usually isn't the way to get a proper reaction from him. Even five years out from the Barrier breaking, he insists he doesn't have emotions, that he isn't Asriel. Trying to appeal to his softer sentiments does nothing but make him double down and shut himself off emotionally from the conversation.

Only Frisk usually manages to get any measure of emotional reaction from him.

Sans isn't really trying to get anything emotional out of him.

... But the flower stares at him in silence, and something crosses his face too quickly for even the judge to catch. Then, he sighs, sort of half-wilting. Sans sees too many emotions in his face, totally open and not hiding at all, to parse them out properly. He thinks he catches some kind of mournfulness, some bitterness as well.

"Right." Flowey says, straightening, "Then listen up. I'm only gonna explain once."

Sans listens up.

[taughtdefense]

you remain laser-focused as you land a variety of different punches & kicks at the training dummy, each hit perfectly in-sync with the loud music that’s playing in your ears thanks to your airpods. you’re alone in the dojo right now, so your defenses are down. not completely, but enough to throw caution to the wind. your duffle bag is on the edge of the mat, which holds a towel, your water bottle, your car keys, phone & a copy of the dojo keys kreese gave you on the second day of his takeover, & of course your earplugs. you’d swapped those for your airpods, put on a playlist, & got to training. you'd picked up on kreese's training style like it was nothing, & he's told you that he's impressed with your fearlessness & ferocity, & your ability to think five steps ahead of your current opponent. kyler's become a frequent punching bag opponent during sparring, & you take him down with a few precisely-placed moves, in less than five minutes, every single time. he's not the best student in the dojo, & you usurping that title from him ( not that he ever had that title to begin with ) has seriously fucked with his head. in your opinion, he needed to be humbled, to be knocked down a peg.

he's been getting more & more frustrated by your clear superiority in strength & knowledge in karate, & his emotions makes him stupid. you don't have that issue; by that, you mean you don't have to deal with your emotions getting the better of you during fights. you'd flipped your humanity switch off a long time ago, the second you created this universe. only miguel, tory, cosima, ciro & scarlett have an idea of what you're actually like... but with the rest of the valley, you're closed off. robby is included in that second list, because you're determined not to repeat history with him. it's why you've kept him at arms length & have barely looked his way since he joined cobra kai. you're not pissed at him like tory & scarlett are, you're just... frustratingly uninterested, like you want nothing to do with him.

it’s been two hours since today’s evening lesson wrapped up for the day, & everyone — including sensei kreese — have packed up & left the dojo. it's dark outside. the dojo is nice & quiet, which is honestly how you prefer it. there's not any distractions nearby that could pull you out of training, & you'd even silenced your notifications. you don’t tend to train this extensively, or this intensely. but, you knew you’d be bored at home, stuck inside with the rainstorm that's blowing through the valley, & had some extra energy to work off. so, here you are. you're barely even sweating, & you're not even feeling the slightest bit of exhaustion. ( your nonhuman stamina comes in handy. )

when the dojo's doors open & quickly shut, you don't cast a glance backwards, although you can tell it's only @taughtpain. you could lie to yourself & say you're happy to see him, but you're not. you land another three kicks to the dummy's head in rapid succession, using a little more strength on the third & final kick. the force causes the dummy to rattle violently in place for a handful of seconds, which you ignore. you simply switch your stance, aiming a quick punch at its chest. finally, you turn around, holding his gaze for a split second before pulling an airpod out of your ear, walking over to your phone to pause your music. there's a handful texts from tory & scarlett, which you'd ignored in favor of training. you begin replying, barely even glancing up at robby, like he's not right in front of you. after you hit send on the reply in the group chat, you toss your phone back onto your duffle bag, rolling your shoulders.

❝ if you're looking for sensei kreese, you're shit out of luck. they left a while ago. unless you're here to train, you can leave. ❞ dismission, boredom, & disinterest line your words, & your face conveys this perfectly. ❝ or, you can stay here & wait out the rainstorm with me, since you're already here. i don't fucking care. ❞

[vordemtodgefeit]

*eye twitch*

[mariacallous]

The final moments of a convoluted and chaotic 24 hours of political drama that culminated in Liz Truss’s downfall began at about 11.40am on Thursday, when Sir Graham Brady slipped into Downing Street via a back entrance.

The official No 10 narrative was that Truss had instigated the meeting with Brady, the shop steward for backbench Conservative MPs. Few believe that, and even if it was the case, the power balance was much like a bankrupt calling in the administrator as the inevitable loomed.

While the precise details of what Brady told Truss remain opaque, the message was obvious: you have lost the confidence of too many MPs, the chair of the 1922 Committee told her, and if you do not go voluntarily you will be removed.

From that moment on, events travelled at speed, with every development increasing the expectation that the UK was heading towards a fifth Conservative prime minister since 2016.

Shortly before 12.30pm, Thérèse Coffey – Truss’s health secretary, deputy prime minister and close friend – was photographed arriving at No 10. Minutes later, Jake Berry, the Tory party chair, was seen walking, grim-faced and with a phone clamped to his ear, into Downing Street.

Less than an hour later black-uniformed staff carried a lectern outside No 10, and the game was up. Dressed in a royal blue suit, the gloomy expression of recent days supplanted by an uncomfortable half-smile, Truss delivered a statement of just 200 words. She had spoken to the King. A successor would be chosen within a week. She was gone.

Even in the context of the almost absurdly accelerated timescale of Truss’s premiership, how did she and the Conservative party get here given that, just the day before, the main challenge was initially seen as coping with prime minister’s questions?

As with much of the last 45 days, the answer comes down to a small amount of bad luck which is grossly magnified thanks to a toxic combination of cloth-eared party management, ideological tunnel vision and an often astounding tendency towards sheer ineptitude.

The condensed endgame had begun at 4am on Wednesday when Suella Braverman, still then the home secretary, joined the National Crime Agency on a raid in Oxfordshire connected to illicit Channel crossings.

As she returned from the raid in the back of a ministerial car, a presumably sleep-deprived Braverman used her personal email to send a government document about immigration to a supportive Tory backbencher, accidentally copying in the aide of another MP, who informed the whips about what was a serious, if not necessarily career-ending, rule breach.

The result is well documented. Truss called in her home secretary, and after what some reports later described as a standup row, Braverman agreed to resign, albeit with a departure letter dripping with barely coded contempt for the prime minister.

One of the many paradoxes of a truly extraordinary day was that Truss could, even then, probably have survived the loss of a second top minister in five days, at least in the short term.

Yes, many MPs on the right of the Tory party assumed Braverman had been toppled by Jeremy Hunt, who replaced Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor on Friday, but the swift installation of Grant Shapps as home secretary signalled an intent to steady the ship.

Similarly, such had been the endless news wattage of Truss’s administration that the suspension earlier on Wednesday of one of her senior aides, Jason Stein, for alleged negative briefings had passed with relatively little notice.

What proved Truss’s final undoing was, instead, a sequence of events which underlined perhaps her most serious flaw as PM: the tendency to appoint loyalists, cronies and friends to top jobs, irrespective of their apparent abilities.

The challenge facing Wendy Morton, appointed chief whip after enthusiastically backing Truss’s leadership bid, had been dealing with a Labour motion in the Commons which sought to split Tory MPs by offering them the chance of a vote to effectively outlaw fracking.

The first clear error by Morton and her team was to declare on Wednesday morning that this would be a confidence issue, with MPs who failed to back the government at risk of losing the whip.

From this point events rapidly deteriorated, passing through confusion, then chaos and into outright farce. After a string of Tories pledged to rebel nonetheless, a minister stood up in the Commons to say it was not a confidence vote. As MPs lined up to vote, many simply did not know. At least one was in tears.

At various points in the ensuing melee, Morton and her allies badgered or shouted at confused would-be rebels, or according to some reports, physically shoved them into the government lobby.

Morton and her deputy, Craig Whittaker, were widely assumed to have resigned amid the bedlam, until a seven-word No 10 statement at 9.50pm said they had not. At precisely 1.33am, another Downing Street missive said the vote was a confidence issue after all, leading some rebel MPs to publicly question whether they remained Conservative MPs or not.

And all this, it must be remembered, was for a fairly routine if procedurally knotty opposition day motion, one the government ended up winning by a significant margin.

Drinking and gossiping in Strangers’ Bar on Wednesday evening, and by WhatsApp the next day, Tory MPs were in despair at the extent of unforced errors.

One cabinet minister openly blamed Morton for causing the PM’s downfall, albeit with the full complicity of No 10. “Yesterday was appalling mismanagement,” they lamented. “It was a victory with a majority of 96. If the chief whip had not lost the plot over it we would not be in this situation. Confident leaders would have just ignored games by the opposition.”

Another MP was more blunt still: “The whips lied and misled MPs to achieve an outcome on house business. The public deserves answers.”

Hours later, Truss was gone, but there was a sense among many Conservatives that the party’s troubles are only just beginning as it embarks on what could well be an utterly brutal rapid-fire race to discover who will inherit Truss’s policy poison chalice of spooked markets, spending cuts and endless broken promises.

“There is no way the party will be able to agree on one candidate,” one MP said. “We are too far gone.”

For some Tories, worse still was to come: the news that Boris Johnson might join the race. One MP was clear: “If he came back I would immediately defect to the Labour party.” There is, it would seem, much more still to come.

[psychewritesbs]

Jujutsu Kaisen 157: Megumi needs and Yuji is needed + the power of friendship trope

I decided that, while I cannot avoid sharing manga spoilers (mostly because I don’t want to since I am keeping up with the manga), I would avoid sharing leaks. So I’ve been holding back on posting about chapter 157 until today wondering what I wanted to say about the subject. 

First, chapter 157 has got to be one of the saddest chapters in JJK so far and it hit me in the gut almost as hard as the chapter when Mechamaru says goodbye to Miwa (I honestly didn't know I was a Mechamaru x Miwa fan until that chapter).

Second, as a Megumi fan, my favorite panel in chapter 157 was, of course, when he bows down and asks Kirara to listen to what they have to say. It felt so earnest and painful at the same time.

The reason Megumi doing a dogeza bow is a big deal is because this level of bowing is loaded with symbolism.

From what I understand, dogeza is equated to “begging”, thus denoting a certain level of desperation. 

But dogeza also sends the message that the person bowing is both ashamed to ask for help, AND, being aware of that shame, are still choosing to bow as a way to tell the other person that they do not care about their self-image as long as the act of bowing accomplishes the bower’s intention.

Truly an act out of desperation.

Now, I could be missing some cultural nuances here, but that’s my understanding of dogeza. Please don’t hesitate to let me know if I’m missing some important detail about dogeza.

Looking back, this panel actually reminded me of Yashiro from Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai doing dogeza on behalf of his love interest, Kageyama.

Yoneda Kou, like Gege Akutami, is a very talented artist in their ability to portray emotion through their art. 

But back to JJK.

This whole interaction between Kirara and Megumi struck me because it clearly depicts both Megumi’s desperation and conviction to save Tsumiki.

Let’s not forget that Megumi wasn’t one to ask for help just prior to the Shibuya arc and would always choose to rely on himself for the most part. Which makes his emotional and psychological growth all the more impressive. 

Despite the growth he achieved in terms of his power up, how incredibly smart he is, and manifesting a Domain Expansion, by bowing, he is basically telling Kirara “even though I easily defeated you, I am not strong without you. I need your strength.”

Megumi’s true growth is thus his ability to put aside his trust issues in favor of his greater goal: Saving Tsumiki. 

In other words, he needs others to save his beloved sister.

WHICH brings us to Yuji’s growth. 

Third, Yuji went from typical Shonen Protagonist's larger than life aspirations, to a humbling down as a result of everything that took place during the Shibuya Arc. 

But what I loved most about this change in Yuji is that he sees himself as part of something bigger. He is now needed as opposed to him fulfilling his own needs by saving others.

It’s like before he had a grandiose idea of what saving others would do for him, instead of taking into consideration what saving others would do for them. 

Now that he has done quite the opposite of saving people thanks to Sukuna’s rampage, he’s come back down to the real world and realized that saving other people has nothing to do with him. To put it in “spiritual” terms, Yuji recognized he’s a “channel” for the greater good, not the executioner of the greater good.

Seriously, Gege Akutami loves breaking down Yuji’s ego through really cruel and painful experiences. But it is precisely because Yuji is so naive that he needs this kind of Psychological growth.

Yes, it’s heartbreaking Yuji sees himself only as a “cog” (it feels as though he only sees his worth as utilitarian), and yet, this change in perspective shows just how much he’s matured. 

So where Megumi desperately needs help and is not ashamed to admit it, Yuji is desperately needed and is proud of the fact-to the point that he would challenge Hakari by asking him about his place in the machinery.

This is, quite arguably, the best play on the “power of friendship” trope that I’ve seen and I’m here for it. Although not a pairing I personally ship, I can see why the fandom loves Megumi x Yuji x Megumi. 

Megumi and Yuji have an incredible bond bordering on bromance that many of us wish we had in our lives. Relationships like that are not easy to come by and are always to be cherished, especially if you are a victim of trauma the way many of the characters in JJK are.

Other honorable mentions: 

This chapter really cemented the fact that I like Kirara as a character. Gege Akutami is very good at bringing characters to life, even seemingly minor ones

As with everything JJK, it’s all about the character dynamics, and I am really loving Kirara and Hakari’s dynamic

Ah! Feels good to get all of this off my chest.

So what did YOU think?!!!! 

I love chatting with others about JJK, so don’t hesitate to share your thoughts.

[damnesdelamer]

So the rail company I may or may not have quit working for last year, due to extensive corruption concerns, is being seized by the government and investigated for pocketing 25 million pounds in public funds.

I will neither confirm nor deny whether this ABSOLUTELY IS the selfsame company during my time at which I saw constant disregard and suppression of government regulations (mostly, though not exclusively, surrounding covid and wider health and safety for both staff and passengers), and in which I experienced a toxic environment rife with casual misogyny, xenophobia, transphobia, ableism, and antisemitism.

Here's my favourite part from the Guardian article:

And here's my letter of resignation, since I'm kind of proud of it, and I doubt anyone with the company ever actually read beyond the first sentence:

Dear [managers],

Please see this as my 4 weeks notice of formal resignation from the role of [overqualified Jewish immigrant], effective [late last year], which will be my final day working with [an undisclosed southerly and easterly rail company]. I will not be returning to the Training Centre due to concern for the safety of myself and others. As such, please let me know how you will arrange for my company laptop and mobile to be collected.

In addition to my practical concerns with how inefficiently the Training Centre is run, and all suggestions I have offered being effectively ignored, more importantly, my concerns around covid have not been taken seriously enough given the scale of threat. I have encountered more resistance to progress or simple practical improvement in this role than any position I have ever been in, and this is during a global pandemic when the risk of death threatens our inaction with extreme consequences. I have observed a marked lack of respect for my professional experience and expertise, but more troubling still is the disregard for human life, and the prioritising of our services getting ‘back to normal’ during an unprecedented global health crisis which is anything but normal. I have also frequently reiterated my ethical qualms with facilitating certain tasks or activities which I believe put others at risk, though again this has been largely disregarded.

It is readily apparent that [an undisclosed rail company which may or may not be under investigation for defrauding taxpayers of £25m] has got a vested interest in normalising commuting to office environments, in flagrant disregard for current Government Guidelines, as this is their source of profit, and I implore you to recognise that the claim of safety in either rail transport or office spaces, while the rate of covid infection is higher than during lockdown and still rising dramatically, is motivated by profit over safety. That is to say, I believe [an undisclosed rail company that even the fucking Tory government sees as requiring seizure due to abuse of public funding, potentially, but I can neither confirm nor deny] is prioritising their revenue stream over the safety of both their customers and their employees. Further, I believe the repetition of these company lines that things ‘are safe’ in black and white terms, ignoring or disregarding the nuances of how to improve relative safety, amounts to complicity in that harmful and irresponsible business model.

One example of this is that the Worksafe Procedure which I invoked has not been adequately carried out on the part of management. Following my invocation of the Worksafe Procedure, in keeping with company policy, my concerns were to be investigated. Rather than any investigation of my myriad concerns, I have been assured that my concerns are not concerns worth being concerned about. This is tautological nonsense; my valid concerns, based on empirical observation while working in the Training Centre, have been dismissed rather than followed up practically.

A related example is the Risk Assessment which has repeatedly been asserted as evidence that the Training Centre is ‘safe’; this was obviously forced through, as it lists several risks at level 5, which is impossible given that in all instances related to covid, the risk is of multiple fatalities rather than individual or isolated fatalities. According to the Risk Assessment framework, the absolute minimum threat level possible to achieve would therefore be 6, exposing the Risk Assessment as dangerously misrepresentative, artificially forced through in order to re-open, and effectively fraudulent. Additionally, I find it deeply troubling that said Risk Assessment was listed as due for review only in 2023, while covid and the need for adaptation is on the rise and ever changing. This Risk Assessment was carried out very poorly, with flagrant disregard for actual safety and the impact of the deadly virus.

The treatment of covid cases as occurring in a vacuum is dangerously irresponsible, and this is in relation to both the Training Centre, which has had a confirmed case of the deadly virus, and the reality of commuting thereto via trains, thus risking exposure to y/our passengers. This is in contrast with y/our professed values [stated Company values are frequently reiterated in training and correspondence: 'we care about people'; we do what's best for passengers'; 'we foster mutual trust' etc. and the following are all direct inversions thereof]: I do not see the Company as caring about people, doing what’s best for passengers, supporting colleagues to do or feel their best, moving with pace or learning from new situations, holding one another answerable to rising concerns, fostering an environment of mutual trust, or sharing responsibility. Rather, I see an expectation of accountability at an individual level, which amounts to scapegoating, and does nothing to confront systemic issues raised. I must say, given the sheer mass of unnecessary printing expected, I do not see the Company as very concerned with environmental impact either.

I believe it is also worth pointing out that, given the excessive disrespect toward my predecessor to which I have been privy, you have a responsibility to examine this, likewise, as not an isolated situation. The work environment into which I have been invited is more than a little toxic, non-inclusive, dysfunctional, uncommunicative, and unaccommodating to variability. I sincerely pity my predecessor, as I indeed pity my successor, and I believe it falls to you to address how to improve this situation.

That said, I have also become increasingly aware that I am pronouncedly overqualified for this role, and it leaves me to question why I was offered the position in the first place, as my resignation herefrom seems like precisely what to avoid when recruiting someone overqualified. I would also like to point out that this is the only position from which I have ever resigned, save when I relocated here from [my birth country]. This, and how poorly my predecessor was allegedly able to carry out the role, clearly presents all issues as belonging solely to [the undisclosed rail company which may or may not have been revealed in an article linked above as being rife with corruption] and the Training Centre. I urge you to reconsider how people therein are treated, handled, communicated with, and above all respected.

I also urge you to close all office spaces (including the Training Centres) in keeping with [then current] Government Guidelines, but I do not trust that this will be given due respect and even considered, let alone carried out. At the very least, I believe you are morally and professionally obliged to complete a new Risk Assessment for the Training Centre, as the one in place was either completed with incompetence, or knowingly falsified.

We are facing a life and death situation with covid. Every instance in which I have pointed this out has been literally laughed off. Please address this. Please take this seriously. Our highest priority as professionals and as humans must be to preserve human life.

Best wishes and stay safe.

[My professional signature]

[variousqueerthings]

was reading this article about cobra kai having a problem with female characters (true) but the way it described sam and tory was very not-how-i-read-their-dynamic-at-all?

first mistake actually was describing jessica andrews under the header of "all girls in the OG karate kid franchise are love interests and/or damsels" which dilutes their point a bit, because someone can go in and "well akshully...!" While she is a good character to bring back and give depth, because there isn't that much to her in tkk3 (but there is a lot to potentially play with), she's refreshingly not a love interest or a damsel (due to ralph)

I also can't speak much to how the writer described the next karate kid, I still need to watch it (the time, I think, has come), but there is something weirdly... backhanded about it... yes, I know it was kind of a cashgrab and pat morita wanted it to end and it's not good, but the description of julie pierce makes me 🤔 your focus on her role within it feels sexist

with tory and sam it claims that they're not going anywhere/just rehashing the same fight over boys over and over without any depth at all in season 4 and I strongly disagree on that front too

I was so into the tory and sam narrative in season 4, precisely because I see it constantly moving away from boys and into more complicated spaces of class and trauma and "guess we're obsessed with each other forever" vibes a la the OG karate rivals daniel and johnny

I actually think their dynamic is the most direct successor to that (with the obvious stumbles) - the boys barely factor into their emotional narrative anymore (sam a bit more with miguel, but her intensity is reserved for tory lbr), the same way ali faded into the background of the rivalry in tkk1

also the article claimed that tory's background has grown boring, and again I'm... hmmmm, because that's what draws kreese to her, that's the core of her problems, that could be a hold that silver has over her, why she bonded with robby and miguel, why both sam and amanda have more work to do on themselves in how they interact with her, 95% of amanda's narrative in s4, and I'd argue not given enough depth in previous seasons? it's good that it's given more focus in s4!

the real problem is allowing other female characters the same depth (named in the background now we have amanda, carmen, rosa, devon, piper, moon, yasmin, (aisha kind of), lucille, shannon, EDIT: forgot lynn and vanessa in my earlier post - also laura, kumiko, yuna, ali in their own way -- it's not like the characters aren't there) + bringing back characters from the past with the same fervour as the writing for terry and kreese (and maybe chozen, we'll see in s5!!)

anyway, I feel like there's some sexism inherent in the writing of that article, because it refuses to see sam and tory (and julie and jessica) on the terms they were actually written, warts and all, and itself claims them to be simply either girls who are "too love interesty" or girls who are trying too hard to "take on boys stories" or both

the "girls can't win narratively" is strong here...