something I’ve been thinking abt is how many people think Makoto is immune to despair. I don’t think he is. I think becoming the ultimate Hope was BECAUSE he felt despair. He wouldn’t have fully reached that point without Junko. Makoto becoming such a beacon was his last attempt to avoid completely falling and it wasn’t because he didn’t feel despair, it was because he was too damn stubborn to allow everything to go to waste and he refused to sacrifice his beliefs for someone else’s. His inner monologue tells me he DID experience the same new low the other suvivors did in the final trial, but at the point where he had the choice to give up and die, he looked at the others and he looked at Junko and he couldn’t allow it to happen, not out of self preservation, but because the idea that Junko would have control over their lives made him FURIOUS. and that utter refusal to die kicked in, wether luck or otherwise, and he made the concious effort for one last push while something in him was breaking. He had to be broken in order for the Ultimate Hope to come through so aggressively, bc it could only exist in the face of the Ultimate Despair. He snapped the same way she did, but in the other direction. In what could have been his final moments he chose to embody everything Junko wasn’t, and every single optimistic and luck fueled ideal in him suddenly charged forward and pushed him. It was a combination of the final straw and a choice. Makoto isn’t immune to feeling despair, he’s just too stubborn to fall into it of his own volition. I think that’s why I like that scene in DR3 so much. People were SO SHOCKED Makoto actually fell for the tape, that he actually became despair for a moment. I saw people getting mad or disappointed, saying it was pathetic and Makoto seemed to fall from some sort of pedestal for them. Honestly part of me wonders if that sort of mentality, which clearly people had in universe, affected Makoto a bit. Like he started to see himself as less of a person, subconsciously. Prompting him to take more risks, less self preservation, act way more bold. It seems he has to be reminded a lot not to put himself in danger by his friends, to not do something too reckless. All over the place I would see in regards to that scene either this frivolous ‘oh this was just angst drama with no meaning behind it’ or ‘he can do better than that. he’s so weak’ or ‘come on, there’s no way he’d fall into despair, he’s the Ultimate Hope!’ This kind of mentality, which was kind of ironic considering Ryota was there the entire time saying the same thing and treating Makoto the same way. Like Makoto was superhuman. Like Makoto didn’t feel despair the same way ‘normal people’ did. In a way that was also how Munakata saw Makoto. Makoto stopped being a PERSON to the world when he became Ultimate Hope, he became a concept, a belief system, much the same way Junko ascended beyond herself. But the difference is that treating Makoto that way is the opposite of the reason Makoto became such a representative for hope. He wasn’t doing something no one else could. He was doing something everyone had the chance to, he just… was a little more optimistic, a little more stubborn, a little more ‘gung-ho’ about things. He just took the lead where no one else did, where no one else knew they even COULD in the face of Junko’s unstoppable force. She had overcome the biggest threats and obstacles in the world, what could one person do? And the answer Makoto found was, anything. Everything. It doesn’t all rest on Makoto, he’s just the one that was inspired to try to do what seemed like the impossible. But as evidenced by the change in his friends after that trial, it’s clearly not something only Makoto is capable of. The others pulled out of despair thanks to Makoto, but it was their choice to do so.
“But… this world is so huge, and we’re so small. What can we do…? No, we can probably do anything. Yeah! We can do anything!”
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alexithymia’s a bitch i wonder how things would’ve unfolded with this guy if i properly told him we couldn’t date because my boundaries were sort of being violated instead of saying “i don’t know, i just feel kinda gross at the idea of us being together. im gross.” because it created such a massive misunderstanding
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Ooooo I’m seething.
One of my coworkers yesterday was joking that I should “say that [you’re] racist to get out of jury duty”, which, fine, it’s an extreme and someone who’s older (like she is) would maybe find that acceptable.
Well today, we somehow got on the topic of them taking down old confederate (racist) statues, and she starts up about how we’re “erasing history” and all that. And then she pulls out the bomb: “I wouldn’t ever wear a BLM shirt in public, because that’s racist! If I wore a white lives matter shirt, I’d be on the news!”
…okay. Tell me you don’t understand the cultural and social impact racism has had on the overall “view” of black lives without telling me. Tell me you don’t understand nuance or subtlety without so many words.
“I mean, they’re basically saying all other lives don’t matter.”
No, they’re saying HISTORICALLY black lives have been treated as lesser, and therefore the movement is to shed light on that uncomfortable truth, and force us to reconsider our view of black lives. Force us to approach our biases, conscious or unconscious.
If the phrase Black Lives Matter makes you so uncomfortable and defensive, you’re the one who has something to work on. If you think it implies that all other lives matter less, if you think it’s saying ONLY Black Lives Matter, or Black Lives Matter More, then you have some biases you need to address.
It’s a simple phrase. Black lives do matter. Just like all lives matter. But all lives don’t have centuries long history of abuse, of neglect and mistreatment and vile, awful shit that is inexcusable and will never be made up for, that still continues on to this day. And that’s why it’s important to emphasize that, yes, while all lives matter, Black lives have historically been treated as lesser than, and that’s fucked up. So Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter just as much.
Fuck you, coworker. You’re a coward for not even looking me in the eye when I explained how your view was wrong. You’re a coward for bringing this up and then immediately changing the subject when you realized you wouldn’t get away with it.
Anyway does anyone know where I can buy a BLM hoodie that directly supports the movement so I can wear it around the office.
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Ren is generally portrayed as the weakest of team JNPR, as a matter of fact, he might be the weakest of all the main characters aside from Oscar. And yet, in Volume One, we saw him take on a King Taijitu with his bare hands
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