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chrkrose · 5 months

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I know Team Green hates Daemon, and I agree there are 172838 reasons for him to be hated. But Nettles is one of the only things that make him somewhat likable because even though the green side keeps going on and on about the grooming, let’s be real: the public wouldn’t care as long as Matt Smith had chemistry with the other actress. People didn’t care even when his scenes with young rhaneyra were framed as grooming.

And I’m sorry, a lot of y’all takes is always framed through the lenses of “how can I make Daemon look even worse than the scumbag he is” which fair, but then don’t pretend Nettles is in the center of those thoughts because she’s not. If she was, the first point in any meta would be to determine that Rhaenyra is the true villain of Nettles story and just because Rhaenyra was a victim of Daemon, that doesn’t make her worthy of being “sisters in pain” with Nettles when 1) Rhaenyra was racist against her and 2) Daemon was the one to actually save nettles; if it was up to Rhaenyra, Nettles would be another head decorating the gates of the red keep. It’s hard to take any of those metas seriously when y’all weaponize Nettles arc against Daemon and use her just the same as Team Black does, just for a different purpose. It’s still all about victimizing Rhaenyra, and Nettles is just an means to an end. So in the end, are y’all that much different from Team Black or Rhaenyra stans when it comes to Nettles?

George loves daemon; he never wrote his arc with nettles as a commentary on his pedo tendencies. He wrote that arc in spite of his pedo tendencies. He wrote that arc as a way to show “look, Daemon killed a bunch of people, groomed a few others, did terrible things his entire life and is cheating on his queen with a way too young girl, but look how cool and badass she is and how much she suffered in her life, and this time around Daemon really likes this girl and is willing to do selfless acts for her and protect her, a lowborn girl nobody else cares about, so here, he’s light too, see how gray and complex he is?”. And the truth is that public would eat that up because even with Daemon choking Rhaenyra, killing his ex wife, laughing at his second wife’s funeral and ignoring his third wife screams while she gives birth to a demon baby, he still has tons of people who think he’s awesome. That’s just the reality of it. Now, we can argue about the problematics of the storyline, we can argue about how George wants Daemon to get away scot-free, all of this are valid points and tbh I agree with many. But it doesn’t change the story.

I can’t actually engage with team green discourse when it comes to Nettles because y’all don’t see her as a character of her own. If y’all did, y’all would see she’s way more interesting than Rhaenyra and Daemon combined. That her arc is so much more than her relationship with either of them. That she disrupts the status quo, she comes bringing with her a pletora of questions about what it means to be a dragon rider, what it means to have dragon blood. She brings the perspective of the small folk, of the ones forgotten and not cared about when the royals are destroying each other. She survives. She becomes a legend. She is sooo much more than all of this.

The reason why I want Nettles in the show has nothing to do with Daemon, Rhaenyra and whatever takes y’all have on that relationship when it comes to them both. Nettles is not the “new Rhaenyra”, she has nothing to with that character. She’s not a folder to her story, she’s doesn’t exist solely to prove a point or to be used as a weapon to help in her victimhood. Rhaenyra is not the “new Rhea Royce”. Rhaenyra is Rhaenyra, a victim of Daemon as much as a villain in Nettles story. Nettles character doesn’t exist solely to villainize or whitewash Daemon, or to play a role in his story as a folder of his previous relationships. She’s her own character, with her own arc, with her own importance, with her own role, with her own message. Her romance is her own. Her importance is her own. The sacrifices made in her name were made because she was worthy of them. Stop using her just to make your point when the point you want to make is not about her, you are not sounding any better than the ones who dismiss her as just Daemon’s bastard or want her cut off entirely from the show. Your noise is sounding very similar to theirs if I’m being honest.

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jessaerys · 1 day

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not to start discourse but when the sun goes down (its night-a-night-a-hey) y'can hear her body howl (in the moon-a-light-hey) i feel her eyein me like owls (giddy up giddy up)(it's on sight hey) hide your man when the hangman come in town (ooh yes) she's a tyrant every time i ride every time i ride it make it look so good (so gooooood) try to justify it boy i know they lookin for me how we gonna hide it ride it like hydraulics i am such a tyrant every time i ride it every time i ride it i don't like to sit up in the saddle boy i got it just relax i got this i got that exotic hips are so hypnotic i am such a tyrant send me some shots (throw back) are you with me or not throw it back shoot up (shoot up!) the bar tell the law we don't remember nothin after that scot-free (scot-freee) whole city after me have you seen her five-nine thick and fine what a tragedy hey hey ridin you while we tryna get away ridin you while we tryna catch a wave that's so sexy and i know it and i ain't afraid to show it baby i'm goated baby i'm glowin hey hey on the run run ̬t͖a̜͓ͭ̏p m̗̬̿̄e̠̜̗̽̍͊ on ṯ̯̫̎ͥ̊he͖ s̬͚̋́ͩͅḥ̦̟͋ͤ̿o̓u͈͚̇̌l̰̗ͥ̚der͙͛ ͔̦̥w͕̳̺ḣ͉ȇͮ͋n̪͊ ͖͓̩͂̓ͪẏ͑ͯo͕̾u͕̅ ̙̝͋̽r̗̈́eͩ̅͆lͮ̌́o̙̦͑̿ad̪̳͇͑̉ͮ ̭̼̈̆t̟̔h͋͌ͥe gͫ͐ͧu̐̿ͭṋ̪̫ ͔ͤ

#beyonce #cowboy carter #can this song stop haunting the circus inside my brain

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transmutationisms · 5 months

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Far more threatening to the West’s traditional order were the arrival in the early twelfth century of Arabic astrology, which many saw as a threat to Christian ideals of free will, and the Muslims’ rendering of Aristotelian physics and cosmology that accompanied it. It had been one thing for the Western elite to marvel at the practical uses of the Muslims’ astrolabe, algorism, and related technologies, for none of them required a radical rethinking of Christendom’s dominant worldview—at least not at the relatively low level at which Europe’s early adopters first approached them. And church authorities had already adopted Aristotle’s methods of logical argumentation, the dialectic, because they were keen to use it to establish the truth of Christian revelation in their battle against heresy.5 But all that began to change with the introduction of the Arab Aristotelians’ natural philosophy. Here was an underlying metaphysics, a science of “being as being,” that addressed many of the same questions, albeit in a very different way, as the traditional readings of revelation. It presented medieval Christendom with a competing “theory of everything” that could not be either digested and assimilated painlessly, on the one hand, or ignored outright, on the other. Albumazar’s ninth-century Introduction to Astrology, the full text of which appeared in Latin in 1133 and again in 1140, provided the West with the first major pathway into the Aristotelian tradition in natural science. Adelard of Bath had some two decades earlier translated Albumazar’s own abridged version, the Lesser Introduction to Astrology. This early translation, essentially a practical handbook, helped ignite an appetite in the West for Arabic astrology and other occult practices, but it omitted the Aristotelian framework that made the full Introduction to Astrology such a powerful text. And it was this Arab-influenced apprehension of Aristotle rather than any immediate direct access to his natural philosophy that prompted the church to ban his teachings at the university of Paris, then the premier center of Christian theology, in 1210 to 1215 (Lemay 1958:xxvii). The initial crisis at Paris induced by the Aristotle of the Muslim astrologers was soon followed by the appearance around 1230 of Michael Scot’s translations of the great commentaries on Aristotle’s metaphysics and natural science by the Muslim philosopher and jurist Ibn Rushd, known to the Latins as Averroës. Averroës’s works provided Europe with some of its first access to an authentic Aristotle, freed of earlier entanglements with the occult. Yet this presentation posed an even greater challenge to the West, for it forced Christendom to reexamine critically many of its most closely held beliefs—on creation, on the nature of God, and on humanity’s place in the universe. Here, then, lie the origins and driving forces of the second phase—after the initial flurry of translations in Spain, Sicily, and the near East—of the Western encounter with the Islamic intellectual tradition, that of assimilation and, more accurately, of expropriation of Arabic science and philosophy. This phase required an intensive effort to “Christianize” Aristotle, already champion of the church’s dialectic, and to make his powerful natural philosophy and metaphysics safe for Western consumption (Lemay 1958:xxiii; Bullough 1996:46–47). And this effort meant, in effect, a campaign of intellectual “ethnic cleansing” that would attempt to strip out any traces of Muslim influence—now seen as a corruption of the original text—and to bequeath an acceptable version of Aristotle to his legitimate heirs in the Latin West. Over time, the vital contributions of the Muslim philosophers were pushed so far to the margins of Western intellectual history as to become almost invisible. A similar pattern would soon be repeated in other fields, including mathematics, medicine, and even literature. Each time, the anti-Islam discourse would provide the rules of procedure and the intellectual mechanism for this willful act of forgetting.

Jonathan Lyons, Islam Through Western Eyes (2014)

#hps

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sophiamcdougall · 2 years

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English scum

lol

#I mean I wouldn't be 'English Scum' without the English seizing my ancestors' lands #but personally I don't insert that into conversations about actual racism #or use it to absolve myself of colonialist guilt #or rejoice when a white American man playing a Scot rather badly takes the place logically owed to a Black woman #I mean is English oppression of Scotland relevant or not #if it is it's part of my family history and I get to talk about it #if it's too long ago to matter then HI IT ALSO DOES NOT BELONG ALONGSIDE DISCUSSIONS OF A SHOW MADE AT A TIME WHEN #BLACK PEOPLE HAD HAD THE VOTE FOR ONE ENTIRE YEAR #scots stop appropriating anti racism discourse challenge #colonialist amnesia

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beeben · 1 month

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hi, i was a previous victim of ultimatehater/realultimatehater, i can go message you off anon if you wish

i have a gif aesthetic side blog and in my main blog i post media edits. i posted a gifset from each hh on my main, and reblogged some of them to my aes blog bc i have more followers there.

anyways RUH sent my over 50 death threats that i decided not to acknowledge at all. i did delete them so i have no evidence. many of them felt ai generated, just generic 'your edits are ugly, no one likes you, kill yourself' messages. nothing really outside that, i didnt receive any doxxing/rape threats

anyways i DID answer one ask, and then she proceeded to claim i somehow edited the ask???? that is literally not possible, and more concerning people believed it???

BUT ALSO before ultimatehater was deleted, if you went back enough to her blog, you can see her original url was a bunch of numbers. before getting to hazbin discourse she baited scott vs the world fans, calling them pedophiles. it seems she just wants drama and rn she's making some bold statements in her new blog, that i'll be completely honest and also is just my opinion, i think she is lying.

I feel the same thing ngl.. i don't like to discredit someone's trauma but shes been copy pasting the things she's said to me and then sending them to other people unedited. I genuinely think shes a troll, and attacking random people with fandom blogs hoping to lure in and harm a child. It seems that way from the types of media she obsesses over (hazbin hotel/helluva boss, she ra) ive never heard of scot vs the world but id guess it's probably in that same category tbh. Im really not worried about her claiming to doxx people, claiming to add people to a hit list, i dont believe it. What i do worry about is children interacting with her and thinking she is legitimate. Thats what i mean by luring children. Shes goading people into responding to her and hoping they take her seriously. Children online who watch shows like hazbin hotel (most likely with unrestricted access to the Internet) are EXACTLY the type of "im more emotionally mature than my peers" type of kid that gets pushed into these harmful and frankly predatory groomer esque situations. Even if she's a troll and this is all fake, traumatizing children isnt. She's trying to perform a power play on these kids who are just beginning to understand themes like rape or abuse or racism or brutality and care about them so emotionally as children do, and trying to use it against them. Trying to hurt them

#thanks for reaching out #id love to see ur aesthetic blog if you feel comfortable messaging privately my dms are always open

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lemonadesun · 8 months

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Can just sweep in and add on the whole "Ironwood is a fascist" discourse?

In all honesty, the idea V7 Ironwood is a fascist sounds ridicilous to me. In fact if that's what crwby wanted to build up Ironwood as then they didn't too great job at that. V7 Ironwood came off as a person with flaws who was put in a tough situation, trying to keep the world safe...and then he shot Oscar...because reasons.

But back on the topic. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but even I'm aware that during the time, speaking out against the government, showing a hint of dislike towards the government could get you in the biggest trouble.

Remember the guy who was arrested in the second episode of volume 7? The one who praised Robyn to the team and Qrow? By all logic, if Ironwood had always been this evil, fascist who will hurt you if you get in his way or speak against him, shouldn't the whole scene with him have dreadful atmosphere? He was caught by the police, protesting against Ironwood, after all. There's no knowing what will happen to him.

But no, the whole scene is comedic. Haha, look how obnoxious he sounds, using these big words when in reality he only threw a brick at a ship. Haha, isn't funny how he bounces, while praising the Happy Hunteresses? Hahaha, look how done the soldiers are with him, hahaha

Let me remind you - getting caught saying something against the goverment could get you in serious trouble. You could get imprisoned for a long time, murdered, get deported, put your family and friends in danger. It's no laughing matter.

And on top of that, we're shown him getting dropped off by the military and he's...fine. He sees no problem being rude to them, despite having gotten arrested by them minutes. Maybe it's just me, but can't have characters show a middle finger to Ironwood/the military, with zero worry of putting their lives in danger, get scot free, have Ironwood be understandable for others hating him and expect me to believe he's a fascist.

Yes, people in real life fought against their opressors and weren't willing to stay quiet, but jesus christ, people were still afraid!! I wasn't born when my home was occupied by USSR, but my parents and grandparents were and even if they lived their lives and had happy moments, there was still this anxiety that something bad might happen that could put you in danger. And guess what? Bad stuff happened! People got murdered and deported for speaking out or being deemed as the "enemies of the country" for as simple as having piece of land/home be "too big" for USSR's liking.

Others are shown disliking Ironwood and his choices. It's not even a secret, he's aware people are not huge of fan of him, but Ironwood doesn't do anything ~evil~ to change that. Jaune straight up tells to his face that if he hadn't done the embargo, others wouln't blame him and guess what? Ironwood agrees with him. He doesn't warn Jaune to hold his tongue, to think what he's saying - doesn't do anything that indicates Jaune being on a thin ice for speaking out. He agrees with Jaune and moves on with the conversation.

For God's sake, there literally is a plot point where all the people who spoke against Ironwood were found dead, but actually Ironwood has nothing to do with those deaths and actually has been framed. Are you kidding me??? A character who's supposed to be fascist is being framed for murdering those who speak against him??? What the f-

Seriously, if Ironwood is supposed to be a fascist then why not have us led to believe it was Tyrian who did, while sprinkling hints that Ironwood is hiding something, later revealing he was in fact responsible for the murders with him justifying it those people deserved it for causing worry amongst others and was using Tyrian as a scapegoat. I swear, the writers had the characters not like the military and called it a day, because thats enough to convince others that he's a fascist🙄

And then there's the Happy Hunteresses. My God the more I think, the more I lose my mind. I know there is more to fascism than speaking against government getting you could get killed, so sorry for sticking to only this point, but those women should be on the thinest of ices!! They're walking out, with their faces and real names out, being deemed as the heros of Mantle, being vocal of their dislike of Ironwood and the evil, evil, always has been evil fascist Ironwood...has done nothing all this time to get rid of them, especially Robyn???

In all honestly the more I think about everything involving Ironwood - him being part of Ozpin's crew, him and Ozpin, him and Glynda, him and Qrow, his and Qrow's hug, him and Ruby, him and team Rwby, him and Winter, him and the Ace-Ops, the Ace-Ops's and Winter's loyalty towards him, Pietro working with Ironwood, Robyn working together with him in the end etc. - and put him being a fascist next to it, I become uncomfortable, that everything ends up getting ruined in the story.

If Ironwood has always been a fascist like the fandom loves to claim...then that means Ozpin was fine with welcoming a fascist in his circle. Glynda showed a concern to a fascist. Glynda called a fascist a good person. Qrow saved a fascist from getting attacked by Grimm. Qrow nicknames the fascist "Jimmy". Qrow hugged a fascist with a smile. Winter chose to follow a fascist. Ace-Ops chose to follow a fascist. Team Rwby were fine with working alongside with a fascist. Yang got a prosthetic arm from a fascist. Weiss got defended at the party by a fascist. The Headmaster of Atlas Academy is a fascist-

Do you realize how messed up everything becomes? How it makes others look terrible? Don't give me the excuses that others didn't know. I'm willing to accept it with the kids, since they don't know him well, but Ozpin, Glynda, Qrow, Winter, Pietro and the Ace-Ops? People close to him didn't know? Didn't see signs he's a fascist? Ozma lived for many centuries and couldn't pick up that he's letting a fascist in his group?

Jesus Christ

Yeah yeah, I can confirm that you'll get into trouble if you speak up/fight against the government in some one-party state countries or new countries just got out of the war(because their political system is just formed, they need to secure their power before developing the country in economic and social aspects, even that makes their political system turn into the dictatorship). But Atlas and Ironwood arent' like that, people can protest/fight/speak up against the government or Ironwood without any harm, the guy (from the begin of v7) got arrested and the military didn't do anything bad to him. Where's my fascist references, M&K?

And yup, if Ironwood was a fascist dictator, he just could get rid of Robyn. :) But he didn't. In fact, Ironwood had no problem in Robyn being a candidate for the position of the council, he even deployed Penny to protect the HH's election speech. In Atlas Academy, Ironwood let his students watch the election between Jacques and Robyn with free drinks and foods, he wanted his students to have the most comprehensive and unbiased view of politics, he didn't force them to follow a particular political faction. If he was a fascist, he could force them to follow his ideals without being allowed to have other political thoughts. Again, where's my fascist refs, K&M?

To me, "Ironwood was planned to be a villain from the start" is bullshit, they made this up to justify their bad writing. If Ironwood was actually planned to be a bad guy from the start, why would they let him show his loyalty and understanding to his allies?Why do they imply that he is willing to help his ally without return?He even wants the robots to replace human in battlefields to reduce casualties. A man who wants to save human beings is evil????What the fuck K&M?

One more reason why I don’t believe Ironwood was planned to be a villain from the start: THEY SHOWED THAT HE WAS ALWAYS A RELIABLE ALLY. In Before the Dawn, Velvet’s dad admited that he knew Ironwood as a friend, even he was just working for Ironwood. And Taiyang showed that he knew Ironwood so well that he could write a letter for him to ask for help, as a friend. Remember, Ironwood’s position is the commander of the strongest military in the world, he’s also a congressman, he’s the one always busy with his job being a General and a Headmaster and a congressman. And some random persons without any power in their hand can be his friends???A man like that is evil???If I were that busy man, I wouldn’t waste my time for “friendship” ngl.

(I stole this from OddlyHale ♥️)

Btw, Ironwood lets his students call him "James" aka his first name instead of his titles like General or Headmaster and he lets his students to have a 15 minutes in his office to talk to him every month. Idk but I feel like his students really love their Headmaster. And a man like that is evil??? 💀💀💀

I...just can't understand K&M&E's logic 💀what the fuck...And sorry for my bad English skill haha, English isn't my mother tongue and I'm very bad at it.

#rwby #rwde #james ironwood #general ironwood

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cynicalundead · 5 months

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I don't usually do politics but I feel like some people are too stupid to realize.

if you "don't take a side", you are complacent in genocide. you are the bystander effect. you are the privileged first worlder turning a blind eye to bombed families and torture-ridden childhoods and mothers wailing, crying, praying, covered in the blood of their children, for somebody, anybody, to give a single fuck about the hell they're surviving. you're Just Not Worried About genocide, and that's repulsive.

if you stand with Israel for any reason, whether you're "anti terrorism", "fighting anti semitism", or with any other poorly concealed propaganda bred opinion on the weight of your actions, you are the problem. you are the Germans during WWII blindly agreeing with who they've been told was the bad guy, and who they've been told was suffering. you are the civilian backers keeping funds flowing into these lying, deceitful, greedy and murderous people. you are the racist scum of the earth, cheering on the side who have, many many times already, declared the civilian casualties of Gaza to be "animal people". you have decided that the massive amount of civilian death, intentional or not in your eyes, is worth getting rid of these "terrorists" you've been told to fear.

in a matter of years, you'll be the monster. you'll look back on yourselves and think wow. I could've done something. I could've held my tongue. I could've cared a little bit, spread the message, signed a petition, reblogged a post, anything, just the littlest thing, to stop this. people will look back on this and see a genocide. a genocide of innocent people ethnically and racially deemed by propaganda to be Animal People, and terrorists. you will be partly responsible for the murder and torture of children.

and you'll hate yourself.

and in the name of all that is holy in this world, I hope you do.

I hope you people can't stand yourselves and the association with genocide that you've built for yourselves.

you don't get off scot-free just because all you've done is discourse online. You Are Killing People.

#politics #free palestine #israel #palestine #i/p conflict #free gaza #gaza #israel hamas war #genocide #fuck israel #fuck zionists #antisemitism has nothing to do with this #tw politics #tw political #tw genocide #tw murder #tw child death

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scotianostra · 2 months

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Charles Darwin, was born on 12th February 1809 in Shrewsbury, England.

Yes he is English, but he attended Edinburgh University and he liked us Scots in general, going by this quote from the man:

“Scotchmen are so civil and attentive, It is enough to make an Englishman ashamed of himself.”

As a medical student in Edinburgh, It was on the shores of the Forth, at Prestonpans and elsewhere, that he carried out some of his early scientific work. Long before he became famous for what he discovered in distant southern seas and lands and then used in development of the Theory of Evolution,

Darwin became an expert in the marine life, especially barnacles, of the Lothian coast. He also learnt how to stuff birds (a skill that would be invaluable when collecting scientific specimens during his southern voyage on the ship Beagle, years later). His teacher was a freed black slave, John Edmonstone, who lived in the same Edinburgh street as Darwin. Edmonstone had told him about the South American rainforest in his native Guiana. It’s fascinating to think that this man, John Edmonstone, whose name is all-but forgotten, taught a key skill to Darwin, taxidermy, one of the most influential figures in science. He also gave young Charles an early taste, in his imagination, of one of the globally important natural habitats whose pleasures he would later experience at first hand. Darwin wrote of him:

“By the way, a negro lived in Edinburgh … and gained his livelihood by stuffing birds, which he did excellently: he gave me lessons for payment, and I used often to sit with him, for he was a very pleasant and intelligent man.”

As well as being complimentary of us Scots, Darwin was also a fan of our capital city, he arrived in Edinburgh in October 1825. He and his brother lodged at 11 Lothian Street. He described his lodgings in a letter to his father:

“We got into our lodgings yesterday evening, which are very comfortable and near the College. Our Landlady, by name Mrs Mackay, is a nice clean old body, and exceedingly civil and attentive. She lives in 11 Lothian Street, Edinburgh and only four flights of steps from the ground floor which is very moderate to some other lodgings that we were nearly taking. The terms are 1£-6s for two very nice and light bedrooms and a nice sitting room; by the way, light bedrooms are very scare articles in Edinburgh, since most of them are little holes in which there is neither air not light.

“We set out and walked all about the town; which we admire excessively; indeed Bridge Street is the most extraordinary thing I ever saw, and when we first looked over the sides we could hardly believe our eyes, when instead of a fine river we saw a stream of people.

“We have just been to church and heard a sermon of only 20 minutes. I expected from Sir Walter Scott’s account a soul-cutting discourse of 2 hours and a half.”

Not all was good though, Darwin had no time for Alexander Monro tertius, who had followed his grandfather and father as professor of anatomy, as he describes in a letter to his sister Caroline:

Monro “made his lectures on human anatomy as dull as he was himself.” “I dislike his lectures so much that I cannot speak with decency about them. He is so dirty in person and actions.”

Some years later Darwin visited Edinburgh again, in 1838, on his way to study the geology of Glen Roy. He spent some time on Salisbury Crags, studying the geology described by Hutton.

#scotland #scottish #history #english #geologist #natura #ist #biologist

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ultraericthered · 4 months

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Why am I encountering Akito Sohma discourse in 2024, soon to be exactly 5 years since the premiere of the second anime adaptation?

Not naming names, only commenting on the garbage takes here.

No duh on "being abused doesn't justify abusing others", but you might want to tell that to all the stans and simps for (usually male) villains who were abused and took their inexcusable actions towards others even further than Akito would've ever dared to yet they get their crimes downplayed or even defended and rationalized with "the abuse they suffered made them into people who act this way, don't judge the way any abuse victim internalizes and externalizes their trauma from the abuse they experienced, there is no 'perfect victim' y'know?", and are said to "deserve better" or "deserve" redemption.

The idea that Akito "got away with everything Scot-free" seems like a really poor reading of the story based on only the notion that if Akito is not dead, locked up in a penitentiary or asylum, or left completely alone and miserable forever by the end of the story, she faced zero consequences for her actions. Totally disregarding how almost the entirety of what the 2019 anime has as its final season was reality coming in to smack Akito around repeatedly and make her face all the natural consequences of her actions, of how she'd lived her life and ruled over her family as an abusive tyrant. See this? All of this?:

This is all Akito's karma. It's from the punishment she wrought for herself. The misery she passed around through her family came back around in full, and she had to watch her entire world, the world of the "eternal banquet" she was promised and believed herself entitled to, gradually unravel along with her own mental and emotional state.

In the anime at least, it hits a crescendo that's regretably so brief and silent that it's easy to miss, but when Akito has mentally shut down and is just sitting there moping beside Shigure, we're shown a bit where she suddenly gets up, like she just hit a breaking point and without any thought, just on pure instinct and emotional impulse, she walks to the screen door and hits her head against it. Given her frail, shaky body language, and the mix of alarm and pity that lurks beneath Shigure's still calm facade, I'm to assume that Akito is wailing and screaming. She's having a full psychotic breakdown.

"She never apologized, never made amends, never did anything to deserve anyone's love and forgiveness". ...I'm sorry, this person really stopped watching after Tohru got put in the hospital, huh? In the last couple of episodes, Akito did nothing BUT be apologetic and set out to make whatever amends she could, including undoing all remaining bonds and breaking the Zodiac curse! She did nothing to "deserve" anyone's love and forgiveness even at this point because now she at last understood she was undeserving of such things and was entitled to nothing, especially nothing from her victims, after the way she'd behaved and the many sins she'd committed. Forgiveness is earned and granted, never "deserved", and it's always a choice whether or not to grant it, so anyone who'd never forgive Akito for as long as they lived would be entirely within their right to do so, and so would be those who did make the choice to forgive her. Neither is invalid. And love is never a matter of "earned", "deserved", or "owed", and to think that it IS is ironically adopting a very Akito mentality.

Also have to go back to that "she never apologized" thing. Really?

Really?

And if "that Tohru, of all people, befriended her despite the horrific things she did to her (not yet and in fact he'd just rejected her) husband" disgusts anyone, than Fruits Basket was never the story for them and Tohru was never a character they were going to love. That moment, and that gesture from Tohru, was one of THE core pillars of the entire narrative, something everything had been building up to from the very beginning. Tohru looked deep inside the cruel, childish, deranged, abusive, controlling, possessive, selfish, cowardly, downright evil pseudo-god that she, and the entire Sohma family, knew as Akito Sohma and she found who Akito Sohma truly was: a sad, abused, broken, twisted, pathetic, wretched, needy and terrified child who'd suffered through an upbringing in which she'd never been allowed to forge a single human connection with anyone else that was not dependent upon her status as the family head and the bonds with the Zodiacs that was her promised birthright, and was thus left with so much vulnerability, so much mental and emotional instability, such fear of living her life in the world as the woman she should be, as the human being she should be, that she kept concealed beneath the armor of a wrathful god who she felt could be comfortably in control of everything in her life and keep it all from slipping away from her and leaving her all alone with all her internal anguish and misery. It's that Akito Sohma who Tohru reached out to and extended the offer of friendship, to become her first ever true human friend in her life, no string attached and no bonds or godhood required. Because that's what Fruits Basket was always all about: the existence and value of love. family, and friendships as forged, mutual, equally consensual connections between humans rather than as some divine mandate upon animals or some commodity to be horded by a god.

Already took shots at "she gets away with everying and does nothing to deserve anyone's love or forgiveness". On the belief that Akito needed to be jailed for her crimes, that is actually something I can agree with and see as a weakness in the series' ending. Once the Zodiac curse was broken and Akito was no longer "God", there'd now be nothing standing in the way of some of the Sohmas, the family members and servants alike, pushing charges against Akito for all the worst things she'd committed against them. We should've been told that such legal action was taken and that Akito knew it was coming and accepted it, being fully ready to accept accountability and justice for her crimes. When last we'd see her and Shigure, they could be doing a round of community service together! That would've been perfect! But Takaya didn't go that route, and I think what we did got was also satisfactory: Akito had lived her life with power, privileges, and freedom with which to do whatever she wanted but was also a prisoner of her own damaged psyche and of the broken family system she was born into and had to play such a large role in perpetuating, so by the end, it's now flipped so that Akito has been internally set free, is healing and finding inner peace, but without the Zodiac curse, the family headship in a lonelier, harder, constraining position but she voluntarily endures with it so that she may live the rest of her life atoning for the sins she'd committed when she was "God", all at a distance from family members who mostly will never forgive her, never think any better of her, and are glad to be free of her. So the idea that Akito's fate not being punitive enough being akin to a slap on the wrist is misguided. It's a lifelong committment to restorative justice and not getting all she desired that Akito's made, and she has to endure it while being romantically involved with Shigure, which honestly feels like a punishment worse than prison!

Piss the fuck off with the "blatant abuse apologist" claim, too. This is the same bullcrap spewed towards Kohei Horikoshi when he gave Endeavor a self improvement/atonement arc. WIth both Endeavor and Akito, the narrative is never at any point remotely pretending that their actions are anything but monstrously abusive, toxic, cruel, harmful and wrong. They're bad and so the abuser is made to feel bad about having ever done them and must face up to all the natural karmic consequences that will inconvenience their lives. An anti-abuse narrative that does not keep it as simple and black-and-white as "the abuser is 100% Bad Person, it's a problem that they exist and hurt people, the solution is to remove them from life entirely" yet still condemns the abuser for their actions and champions their victims ability to move beyond them, find healing, peace, love, and happiness in lives better than what the abuser could ever hope for, is not in the slightest bit "abuse apologism": no apologies or excuses for the abuse are being made.

Not Akito-related, just showing how this same person truly feels about Fruits Basket on the whole due to how "problematic" it is. If it's not for you, fine, and this is actually 100% correct regarding Katsuya Honda being a sociopathic predator who fucked a child student of his yet it get beyond inappropriately framed as a beautiful, romantic, loving thing within the narrative. But when it reaches this hyperbolic "the entire series has no value, it's irredeemable media and deserves to be trashed" level of vitriol for the work...nah. That's not agreeable.

And then there's this anon who called in to say:

Seeing you rightfully call out the utter bullshit of Akito's "redemption" has me heated. The story becomes irredeemably bad the moment the forgiveness shit is pushed.

Let me say this much: there was no "redemption" or "redemption arc" for Akito. She had her big epiphany and recieved personal salvation from Tohru's approach to her, and from then on she turned herself towards self-improvement and atonement for her many sins while finally living a true human life of her own. Atonement /=/ redemption, as all avenues for her to redeem herself for her abusive acts directly to those effected by said abusive acts got closed off a long time ago.

And forgiveness is entirely another matter from redemption and atonement. Tohru, Kureno, Shigure, Momiji, Arisa, and Saki chose to forgive Akito. Literally no one else was shown to do so. Rin even said outright she could never forgive Akito after everything she did, and in the anime at least, she was positioned as not in the wrong for that.

Takaya is on my shit list for life for how she handled Tohru's character, she is my favourite I love her compassion for people and her determination to never give up despite how difficult things can be plus her learning to move on from her crippling grief resonates with me. The ending Takaya gives her is fucking vile Tohru forgiving and befriending Akito is bullshit and my mind is never going to change on that.

"I love her compassion for people." "Tohru forgiving and befriending Akito is bullshit!" Do...you not see how these are conflicting ideas? "Tohru is wonderful for how much empathy and compassion she has for people...wait no, not THAT people!" How do you miss that big?

The sole reason Tohru wants to break the curse is because she sees how much her friends are suffering under Akito's abuse both mentally and physically. She would never be so inconsiderate of their feelings as to befriend the person who hurt them so much.

And she also saw how much Akito herself was suffering under the curse and the role that was forced upon her from birth. Also, how is choosing to befriend her friends abuser inconsiderate when they don't need to factor into it at all? Tohru doesn't try to force Yuki, Kyo, Rin, Momiji, Hiro, Kisa and the rest to also be friends with Akito. She at no point even considers that possibility. What's between Tohru and Akito is kept purely between them, away from Akito's victims. Tohru understands that they'd never be comfortable around Akito due to having a history with her that Tohru herself does not have, and while she wants to help Akito move past her pain and put in the good work to make reparations for her sins, she's not going to ever downplay how vile those sins were and how badly they hurt people, nor would she put up even the pretense of giving absolution of them to Akito.

That's not even getting to my other major problem with this storyline Tohru never even learns about half of the horrific shit Akito does to her friends, Takaya intentionally has her character be left in the dark. Not to mention how abusive akito is to HER!

Why does it need to be Tohru's business to know absolutely every horrible deed Akito ever did to every person she was ever horrible to? Akito did that shit, it happened, there's nothing Tohru can do that could possibly change that or make any of it better. And oh dear, are we getting into the "antagonistic behavior = abuse" bullshit again?

She manipulates her the first time they meet and then at the beach house she threatens her and scratches up her face. Tohru outright admits she is scared of her. Then towards the end of the story akito then has the audacity to blame her for the zodiacs not loving her despite that being the consequences of her own disgusting actions. She shows up at the house to hurt and potentially kill Tohru, she slaps her multiple times, stabs her and pushes her close to the cliffs end directly putting her in danger. Akito almost gets the poor girl killed. Akito spends the entire story being an abusive monster to Tohru and the people she loves. And nearly leads to multiple characters dying, Takaya really wants us to think a friendship Between the two of them is cute because they both relate to being lonely????

Ah yes. Yes we are. Most of what's described above is Akito being a cruel villain and acting as a threatening adversary to Tohru, with actions that are clearly reprehensible and uncalled for but are not inherently "abusive", as Akito is treating a stranger badly and making enemies with her rather than being in any relationship in which she can treat her abusively. The hardest into abuse it ever swings is when Akito is holding a knife to Tohru and physically strikes her, and that's when Akito is in the midst of a full-blown psychotic episode.

And that the characters apparently aren't that different to each other??? When they clearly are. Tohru is a kind and compassionate person who helps those around her while Akito is a manipulative snake who treats those around her like they are her possessions. Tohru grows up being bullied and alone. Akito is a child abuser and commits multiple attempted murders. Trust me Takaya these characters aside from them having tragic backstories and fears of abandonment are as far away from each other as you can get.

Tohru was brought up to be kind and selfless, to the point of seeing her own self as lesser in value than others. Akito's upbringing shaped her into becoming cruel and selfish, to the point of seeing others as possessions for her to keep hold of, to pleasure her with a sense of superiorty as a cover for her own poor self image and lack of self-worth. Tohru was left alone without her mother and was ostracized by her peers. Akito was left alone without her father (as her own mother would never give her the time of day) and was "othered" by literally every person around her. They're foils. Akito is a broken reflection of what Tohru might've become if Kyoko had not put in that effort to be such a kind, loving, nurturing parent, and Akito always envied Tohru because she reflects the girl she might've been had she been allowed to be, and not internalized everything wrong with the Sohma family nor adopted her mother's own internalized misogyny.

The friendship is disgusting, Akito is an evil bitch period she is not Tohru's problem or her responsibility. Also Uo and Hana being friends with her after they find out she nearly killed their best friend and Kureno was also so gross. The characters do some of the most OOC shit in order to give Akito one of the least deserving redemption arcs i have ever seen. It is truly some of the most atrocious, insulting writing, Takaya should be embarrassed for thinking this was an acceptable way to end the story.

If you want to get technical, none of the Sohmas are Tohru's problem or responsibility. It's not on her to "fix" them or be their therapist and savior, she doesn't owe them anything. She chooses to help them out of compassion, empathy, and a desire to do right by others, to see true justice done and freedom, peace, and happiness assured for the people she cares about in their lives going forward, With Akito too, she did not impose or make her into her responsibility; she extended her hand. She offered Akito a choice. The friendship would not happen if Akito decided she was unwilling to put in the effort to do her part and accept the care, help, comfort and understanding offered to her by Tohru. So yeah, you can blame Akito for that too, even though it's not a wrong thing of her to do whatsoever! Uotani also did not become Akito's friend, more like a friendly acquaintance. Hanajima did follow Tohru's lead and befriend her, and considering she knows how it feels to internally tear yourself apart with self-loathing over guilt from having hurt people to the point of cursing your very identity and existence, I'd say her decision makes sense.

I haven't read the spin off but Akito having a child just reinforces that she is still the same selfish person she has always been. Her wanting to have children but deciding not to because of how they would suffer due to her terrible actions would actually mean she has to live with the consequences of what she has done. but of course we can't have that.

Meh. Not much a fan of that spin off and I'm kind of hoping we don't get it adapted into an anime. Some things are best left open-ended.

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