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originalaccountname · 9 months

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Mori Ougai’s belief as the boss is [...] “The boss stands on top of the organization, and at the same time, be the slave of all.” For the sake of the organization, the boss must always take the “logical optimal solution.” That is the duty of the boss. [...] “Therefore, no matter how much your heart aches, you have to ignore your personal feelings.”

Kafka Asagiri, for the BSD exhibition

On Mori and regret.

This man acts based on his perceived "optimal solution". It means relying on cold logic, detached from (his own and others') emotions. In that way, he fits right in as one of the smart characters of BSD, contrasting for example Dazai's way of working with/around people's feelings, and Fyodor's way of manipulating and twisting those feelings into monsters.

Mori remains cold, logical, distant, efficient. It meant disregarding Yosano's and the soldiers' deteriorating mental health during the war because the concept of an army that cannot be wiped out was too good. It meant following Natsume's plan and taking the old boss' place himself to fix Yokohama's underground and protect the city and its people. It also meant disposing of Mimic by sacrificing Oda in order to get the special ability business permit, despite (and perhaps because of) Dazai's attachment to the man.

The thing is, humans are not logical creatures, and will inevitably encounter conflicting emotions.

(does this look like the face of a man without regrets to you?)

Mori in Dark Era tried to pass on to Dazai his practice of putting aside his own feelings for the sake of choosing the most efficient solution that will benefit the group. It backfired spectacularly, so much so even, that Mori regrets it to this day.

For the BSD exhibition, Asagiri wrote some individual character commentaries, all very interesting insights into their characters and the writing intentions. For Mori, here's what he wrote:

“He who fell out of the optimal solution” Mori Ougai’s belief as the boss is described in the novel “Dark Era” and “Dazai, Chuuya, Fifteen”. That is “The boss stands on top of the organization, and at the same time, be the slave of all.” For the sake of the organization, the boss must always take the “logical optimal solution.” That is the duty of the boss. There is an unspoken additional point to it. “Therefore, no matter how much your heart aches, you have to ignore your personal feelings.” We can catch a glimpse of that in this scene. [the ADA-PM alliance meeting] Mori’s expressions after “Burnt it.” and “Like what you did to your predecessor”, gave us a glimpse of his true feelings that were made sacrifices for the sake of the “logical optimal solution”. (By the way, it goes without saying that Dazai is inducing Mori’s thoughts by words that will make him regret the past. It is to make him decide to form an “alliance”.) source and translation: Popopretty

(notice the inclusion of Hirotsu in this scene. Remember that later, Hirotsu suggests that Dazai knows why Mori did what he did to overthrow the old boss, which, in my opinion, is both a proof of Dazai's support in Mori's goal, and a reminder to uphold it.)

One of my favourite parts of the Dark Era light novel is a small scene during the epilogue that was not adapted into the anime. This is two weeks after Dazai defected:

To quote Asagiri again, "Therefore, no matter how much your heart aches, you have to ignore your personal feelings." Mori is conflicted about the outcome of the Mimic incident. He holds in his hands the Silver Oracle he himself gave to Oda, and reflects on its purpose: to "help the man mentioned above without hesitation in the face of any and all trials". Didn't he fail to do just that with Oda? Didn't he set him up and sent him to his doom? Didn't he abandon him to his trial?

But he rationalizes the events by saying he got the permit they so badly needed. No matter if he sacrificed one of his men. No matter if he drove Dazai away. He accomplished his priceless goal. It was a total success.

And yet, he poorly folds a paper airplane with the very Silver Oracle he gave Oda, throws it, watches it crash immediately, and mourns the loss of his right-hand man, without ever moving on.

But we have a direct example of Mori expressing regret.

The perception that Mori in BEAST is a completely different character than Mori is in canon, when that perception doesn't extend to any other character from that universe, rubs me the wrong way. The characters in BEAST are very similar to their canon selves, with some core traits getting a new twist. They are all one or two major life changes away from becoming these versions of themselves. As far as we know, Mori's only life-altering event was being forcefully removed from the Port Mafia by Dazai, and secretly put in charge of Atsushi's old orphanage.

Mori unambiguously made that orphanage a better place, as stated by Atsushi himself. BEAST!Mori is a lot softer, vulnerable and honest. That Mori offers to be a father to Atsushi while he heals. He also expresses regret in not being able to help Dazai when he was in his care.

I think it's very interesting, especially when knowing that Asagiri wrote both BEAST and Fifteen at the same time for the Dead Apple movie, because in Fifteen we have this:

The beginning of the first chapter of Fifteen is a gold mine. It is narrated from Mori's point of view, the man of logic and calculations, and yet it is full of doubt. He is alone and struggling to fix everything with so many people against him. But, throughout this scene about grasping at the Port Mafia's power, there is also this secondary thought being woven in, of Mori having started to actually care for Dazai.

The teenager is scary to him, smart enough to be a threat should he decide to be done with all this and turn against him, and yet, he immediately (and with a hint of sadness) finds that Dazai reminds him of himself. This lonely, lonely man found a kindred spirit, bright enough to grasp any situation in seconds and prone to using an uncomfortable obsession to divert and keep you guessing his true intentions. Mori entered Mentor Mode™ then. He taught Dazai his ways, he shared his struggles and thought process, he fought tooth and nail to keep him alive.

So when he asked Dazai why he wanted to die, it was with the concern of someone who has started to care. It was with the mind of someone who is trying to prevent the worst by fixing the problem at its source.

(translation: Reneray)

But it's also that self-projection/ability to relate that made him drive Dazai away, when he pushed too hard and forced Dazai to adhere to his optimal solution philosophy. Because Dazai cannot separate himself from his attachments, could not ignore his emotions like Mori does, and chose Oda over Mori's logic. From Dazai's point of view, that was betrayal. Mori and him were accomplices!

Dazai planted the idea that Mori was afraid of him taking over as boss, and Mori seems to agree with that thought (would it be because he feared for his life, or for Dazai's ability to replace him?) Yet, for a man afraid of his closest subordinate backstabbing him, he seems to be hanging on quite hard to the possibility of Dazai coming back, leaving his seat open to this day, inviting him back twice in the same arc, and...

(yeah I used this picture at the start too. "I hAvE nO rEgReTs" he says)

Mori may try to convince himself he feels no regrets and no guilt over his own actions by weighting gains and losses objectively, but he still hurts and has a very hard time moving on. He's human despite his best efforts, prone to mistakes and doubts. He's lonely and wishes to impart his knowledge onto others. His cold logic has both helped him in fixing the city, and alienated him from some of the people he most cared about.

In a similar vein, should the ADA employee transfer be of topic again, and should Mori clash with Yosano again, I wish we get to see some similar conflicting emotions in Mori between the usefulness of Yosano's ability, and Yosano herself as a person. The war was 14 years ago, that's a long time, and I want to believe that counts for something.

#there carrot i finished it 4 u #i can't be normal about mori and i've been having Many Thoughts about him #i needed that out of my system and lost the plot twice so uh. I hope this reads somewhat fine.#i could have started on twelve different tangents i have SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT MORI #i love mori i'm not even going to excuse or justify myself read the post #bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #bsd analysis #bsd meta #bsd mori #bsd mori ougai #bsd beast #bsd beast spoilers #apparently i talk sometimes #what does it mean about him trying to get yosano back all these years later now that she's a grown-up with the means to oppose him?#is it only about her ability? or did 14 years of hardships made him reflect in any way at all?#food for thought (while we wait to see if that plotline gets cancelled or goes anywhere interesting)

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sneckoil · 4 months

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i need you to know that your jonah magnus art has changed me on a fundamental level. i come back to your blog every now and then and search "jonah" and i simply Look at the most evil trans man to exist

😅 aahhhah

#i renamed his tags to just jonah to avoid tma fans #i think i art i did at the time was good #but i think it was my brain’s last hurrah in terms of ‘dedication to a piece of media’#and it was an extremely Big hurrah. and i am tired and i am ashamed #and based on what ive seen crop up on my feed my effects still echo in tma LMAO #i dont know what took over me but ive Actively taken steps to never get invested in anything that deeply again #dear lord it was so bad i couldnt even sleep more than 5 hours. and i woke up tense #anyway. obsession… (hyperfixation?) is like a sugar high #and since tma ive been riding out my sugar crash IM SO TIRED #SORRY TO GO ON A TANGENT ANON i know youre just being nice #thank u for liking my art at least #shioshpam

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westwiiind · 1 month

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“rahh they shouldn’t have sent the dragons away for their own safety! they were giving up and admitting defeat! they can easily take any threat!” first off, no they can’t, hiccup basically fell to his death like two seconds before sending the dragons away, and the year before that the fight over dragons cost him his father and berk its chief, not to mention how many homes were destroyed and how many ppl were hurt in both the second and third movies. drago’s bewilderbeast’s ice destroyed the village. grimmel burned it down a year later. that kind of perpetuity of violence is so irresponsible for a leader to allow to continue indefinitely???? just bc “we can win though probably!” ?????? things are different in the earlier movies and tv shows BC THEY SHOW THE PROGRESSION OF VIOLENCE. after the first battle, they’re not gonna give up trying. after the third battle, they’re not gonna give up trying. after six YEARS of trying to change the world for the better (and the TWENTY YEARS hiccup knows valka spent trying to do the same thing), only to find that his island of people and dragons is in just as much (or really, even more) danger than before? yeah, excuse them for maybe considering “giving up.” in the first two movies and the shows, they hadn’t lost enough for it all to amount to such a drastic decision. by the time of thw, they had lost so much, and u guys apparently can’t comprehend the toll that takes. hiccup’s goal was always to protect dragons. how is leaving them vulnerable protecting them???? how is letting them continuously battle for their lives protecting them??? do u guys think these ppl and dragons have an endless battery for war and violence?????? the point was that violence was unavoidable, and no good leader of humans or dragons would let that continue even if there’s a noble cause.

#thank u for entertaining my wild rambling everybody #and if i see one more fuckass person say that thw is just a random ass hole to stick their dragons in #bro did u listen to them in the movie it’s their ANCESTRAL HOME?????#he sent them HOME. he let them go HOME.#it’s a FANTASY MOVIE. THEY CAN HAVE AN ANCESTRAL HOME FOR ALL DRAGONS.#GOD every dumb ass anti thw think piece i see in the year of our lord 2024 makes me write yet another angry tangent #iduna.txt #httyd #httyd thw #the hidden world #u guys leave that movie ALONE

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fauxwife · 2 months

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𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐄 .

Share at least 5 songs that you associate with or remind you of your muse!

01. dark side - kelly clarkson. i chose this song because of the lyric " there's a place that i know / it's not pretty there and few have ever gone / if i show it to you now / will it make you run away ? " which i felt was fitting of a scenario that yor could be put in. she would want to explain it to anya in a way that made sense to someone so young. she would be scared of the potentials to lose her family knowing that she has this dark side. yor has never been normal though , she has never had traditional things in her life either. also , the lyrics " nobody is a picture perfect / but we're worth it / you know that we're worth it. " really helps highlight how she might want to prove her worth deeply. the song is soft too. yor is an elegant and nurturing individual. this song is a hug for those who cannot fit in.

02. better - syml. this song is very shippy. it's one i would consider fitting of the twiyor ship. " and i know / and i know it's a different love. and i know / and i know that you make me better. " their relationship started off as something that was using. they were in it for themselves. but at the same time , there is truth reflected in their eyes. they see each other and learn from one another. they are better together. the lyric " love can terrify / love can start a fire. " showcases how love is something that ultimately can change everything. attachment for so long has not been in loid's 'code' and he believed he would never have a traditional marriage or a traditional life. but he is grateful to yor. he is also surprised by her a lot just as she is him.

03. fight song - rachel platten. yor is a shy , introverted individual. she listens rather than speaks out , but loves to observe. the lyric " and all those things i didn't say / wrecking balls inside my brain. " showcases the inner desire for her to speak out. there is so much she wishes she could do better. as a person , as an assassin , as a mother. " like a small boat on the ocean / sending big waves into motion. " tells a story about how even if you feel small , you can still make waves.

04. unstoppable - sia. " i put my armor on / show you how strong i am. " could allude to how yor shoulders the burden of others. she plays the role of thorn princess and kills clients that she is assigned to. she has done this for so long without falter that it's easy for her now. yor could easily listen to sia while working out , especially when it comes to this song. " i'm unstoppable / i'm a porsche with no brakes / i'm invincible / yeah , i win every single game. " yor would feel very confident after a song like this plays. she is someone who can easily get hyped up as well. she sings this in the shower.

05. mixed nuts - official hige dandism. ( i'm translating this w/ the english lyrics ) this must be included here as anya , if given the chance , would describe everyone as mixed nuts. " behind the surface which is literally picturesque / we can’t be as we are / even when we put our hands together sitting around a table. " yor tries to be picturesque because all she ever wants is to be normal. she does not want people to stare at her like she is different that she ends up being even more strange because of it. however anya , loid , and yor have never known really the comforts of normality.

BONUS SONG : stereo love ( radio edit ) - edward maya , vika jigulina. very twiyor vibe.

tagging: @spydcddy @yorcomplex @twiloid + anyone else who is interested !!

#❀ ᵐᵃᵐᵃ ⁱˢ ᵗʰᵉ ʷⁱⁿᵈ. ( headcanon )#[ U DID NOT EXPECT ME #TO GO ON A TANGENT DID U ...#did u ...#i didnt either tbh #q.

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stinkrascal · 4 months

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ok ive read ur synoposis but could u do a short summary so im up to date cus im so stupid, love u bb

hello anon, im a little confused by this question! what do you need summarizing? standstill? bc standstill hasn't started yet, it will debut january 31st, so there's nothing to summarize aha.

and if you've never read the straud legacy before, that's totally okay. standstill is a prequel to the straud legacy, so you don't need to know anything about the straud legacy to read standstill :) actually it's kinda the opposite, i want standstill to be the thing people read first to introduce themselves to the straud legacy, so the circumstances of the straud legacy will hopefully be a little clearer with this story posted for context.

since we're on the topic, i plan on remaking generation zero, the deleted/archived generation of straud legacy, after standstill is completed. so the remake of generation zero of straud legacy will act as the segue between standstill and the straud legacy.

all this to say, if you're asking for a summary of the straud legacy, i promise it isn't that important to summarize and you're not missing out on anything lol. since i plan on remaking a major chunk of it anyways :) and all of that will be posted before i pick up where i left off in straud legacy! sooooooo yeah it will be a while before we see the straud teens again, but hopefully the journey will be a fun one okay? 😭❤

#jade answers #Anonymous #straud asks #i have sooooo many plans for the straud legacy hehehehe #it'll be fun to remake generation 0 with a stronger idea for what i'm going for this time around :3 #if i never archived generation 0 of straud i would never do this. but i did archive the whole thing :)#so i feel justified remaking generation 0 for my main account hehe it's gonna be fun!!!#i hate the archive of generation 0 bc breanna's character was sooo different. i didn't have as good a grasp on her as i do now #that alone is enough justification for me to remake that portion of the legacy hehe WOW so many tangents if u read all this ily

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sushisocks · 6 months

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so this is like two asks ig? but what is ur most unique sean headcanon, and what is ur sean headcanon that you will defend with your life (i really love ur headcanons lol)

OOOHHHHH ANON!!!!!! we're in it now lmfaoo THANK YOU first of all I'm honestly so glad people enjoy my headcanons/rants about these characters!! RDR2 is my first time really foray-ing into fandom space like this (previously having kept my writing & thoughts to closed circles of friends lol), and the reception here has overall been a lot more than I ever expected!! Especially since I've really picked my faves <;- said while sideeyeing the 28 works in the macsummers tag on AO3.

ANYWAY these are some insanely good questions, anon, and I've been thinking about them ALL DAY, so I'll do my very best to answer you here in a way which does these questions justice.

It's hard for me to know which one of my Sean HCs is the most unique, as I have a LOT of HCs, and I've been posting a LOT of them over the course of the past few months. I've been told (as a compliment!!) that my overall take on him & the connections I make regarding him is unique, which I obviously am very flattered by! But I also don't think it's too hard to be unique when you're thinking & talking about a character who generally isn't given the same amount of genuine consideration and meta as other characters from the same franchise. Like, I could be talking at length about Arthur, or Charles, or John (and I HAVE!!! Not on tumblr, but still, I love those characters too!!) but my takes would probably not generate the same kind of attention by virtue of those characters being talked about a lot by a lot of other people too!! My posts about Sean stick out because there's not a whole lot of other people writing posts about Sean in the meta/HC style I do!

(Sidenote, while I don't fault the RDR2 fandom for not giving Sean his dues - he is a side character who dies very early on, and who is easy to stereotype, after all - I AM very glad and grateful that the stuff I've said & shared seems to have impacted some people's understandings of him, at least in the circles I run in. As of late I've been seeing a lot more thoughtful takes on him, reflecting how he has the capability of being just as nuanced as several of the other characters in the game. Maybe that's because I'm right in the middle of it though; most RDR2 circles I'm in KNOW me as the Sean stan, and engage with my takes on him, after all!!)

So like, is my most unique Sean headcanon among the ones that reflect canon & actually took off, impacting some people's view of him - like how he DOES mirror a younger Arthur, and how he fulfills a role in the gang, and how his death is necessary to set the tone for the rest of the game? Or is my most unique headcanon him being a gnc bi poly king in the messiest possible queerplatonic triad with Karen and Lenny? Is it that I think he prefers licorice to chocolate? That I think his favorite color is burgundy(not that he'd call it that)? I don't know! I both have so many HCs that picking one is extremely hard for my Libra-ass-self, and I don't have many others writing similar stuff to compare myself with, at all! I'd love to hear from others, though, if anyone else who's been reading my Sean posts have any takes regarding what of my stuff has stuck with them!!!

OKAY sorry for the rant mkjhbjj It's probably not what you were looking for asking me that but it's something that's on my mind, given that I think a fair amount of the uptick in my following over the past few months, if not from AO3, is very much from my RDR2 meta posts - which are in majority about Sean.

ANYYYWAYYY as for a Sean HC I will defend with my life - DEFINITELY the Sean learning disabilities ones - he is INCREDIBLY ADHD & dyslexia coded to me, it MASSIVELY influences how I write him in my fics, and I don't think anyone will ever argue me away from that one. Also, Sean siding with Arthur & John in the end, IS a hill I will die on - to the point that I've written several posts about/referring to it mjnhbnjbh Honestly though, I am a petty bitch who will die on most hills available to me, and I'm not afraid of confrontation, so I am a little bit of a menace when it comes to my Sean HCs and defending them lolol I'm overall very pleased they've gone over well with the rest of the Sean stan community here on tumblr though!! Yall are the best fr <3<3<3

#i went on a tangental RAAANNNTTT here im sorry #ive just. been having this on my mind and tumblr is where i go for talking abt things on my mind lolol #i hope it doesn't seem like im bragging OR complaining btw!! i greatly appreciate everyone who contributes to sean's tag!!!#but i don't think it's unfair to say there's not a whole lot of people writing several thousand words of sean meta like i do lol #and the word unique has been in my like. in my WORLD if you will. a LOT lately so it just unlocked something in my brain #that i needed to write out here. nothing against u anon i loved these questions and i did genuinely think on them all day while at work #which is why this got so long </3 #teki talks #rdr thoughts #sean macguire #rdr2 #rdr2 sean #red dead redemption 2 #asks #meta asks #rdr asks

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stardustdiiving · 7 months

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My friend today was like you know fern I think your genshin favs are really funny because to me they’re all very tame green flags that have good vibes and then there’s zhongxiao which everyone hates. And I was like. WELL…..YES….SNUCHFJFJCNC

#fern.txt #xiao nahida chongyun as favs…also like xinyan yun jin and Liyue in general….and then it’s just like. anyways…….zx codependent yuri. and #there is such a split on who gets it!! see I just think it’s fun as sort of a framing to do tragic character study through #bc of the way xiaos dynamic w zhongli is very relevant to #exploring how xiao dehumanizes himself a lot and would actively encourage zl having power over him bc he wants to just serve a purpose #and trusts zl to use him for said purpose. meanwhile zl is very smart n responsible abt how he #handles having power over ppl. which is very interesting to me #and I think it’s fun pairing xiao wiht someone who is very aware how much power he has over him and navigates around #trying to help him while not intervening too much directly bc that #could do more harm than good n isn’t how zl operates #but no everyone just has to be like. really passive aggressive and pushy Abt pushing it as parental all the time #AHHHH #fascinating case where u can draw them kissing and ppl will be weirdly pushy Abt insisting it’s father son #despite it being tagged as ship and think ur the weird one for it? dude!!#i did not mean to go on a whole tangent I just enjoy them a lot haha

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britneyshakespeare · 2 months

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i was hanging out today w a friend i hadn't seen in awhile and kaily and i were catching up on all the drama involving him (my controlling manipulative and abusive ex-friend) and how he keeps going out of his way to ask ppl about where we are and find us and how the only reason i think i get out of it is bc i don't go to the same college as him anymore, i hardly ever leave the house socially and the few ppl i do see all have no connection w him anymore, and i don't work at some place where he can just show up. i work in pre-k-to-12 public schools. my schedule in terms of days/location is irregular anyway, but if some strange adult man shows up for no particular reason and seeks out a female employee, you do not just get let in. that is how you have the cops called on you. but he does know where i live and i have been paranoid about him finding some excuse to show up at my house. i've had legitimate nightmares about that. i never stopped having nightmares about him i'd say at least once every other week and i haven't talked to him in almost six months.

i don't like at all how i don't feel safe in a way that means i have faith that the issue is over; the person is out of my life; our communication will not be renewed against my will once again. bc all of those things have been attempted. i feel safe in a way that means he happens, by circumstance, not to be able to access me in any convenient way to him. any way he could find me (the only way to feasibly do that would be work/home) would be a justification for calling the police. but i don't have any faith that he wouldn't try, because he has shown himself as being capable of being that low. and if i switch jobs or transfer schools finally and he finds out about it, he can just make it an issue there if he so feels like it, and i'm sure he will. he's a monster. he gets some sort of thrill out of making other ppl feel unsafe and having all the control in the situation

#tales from diana #it was very validating to talk to her bc she never really liked him #in fact i used to be so humiliated when i'd bring him to hang out w my older friends #bc he'd go oooon and on and on about how nobody listens to him nobody understands him nobody cares about or appreciates him #and then i'd be like 'oh my friends are good ppl! ill introduce u' and i did. i made the effort to bring him to them a LOT #(and he would make me feel like he envied me for my oh-so-superior life which i most definitely do not have)#but then he would not listen to her not understand her not care about her and not appreciate her #nor any of my friends for that matter. but he was SO disinterested in her in particular in a way that was just sooo disrespectful #he wouldnt let me hold a conversation w her. or let me bring her into a conversation w him. he'd DOMINATE #in general he didn't like me talking to anybody else or anyone talking to anyone else or anyone else talking #ive never seen a man who cared so little about somebody else getting to finish a sentence.#and like there's a lot of adhd in our friend group. we all (myself especially) have our spirited interjections #and occasionally interrupt but we realize when we're doing it and then pull back & let the other person finish #we try to keep other ppl on track w what they were saying when they go on a tangent #you know. we try and communicate effectively #even tho we r not naturally perfect at it lol.#we're adults who respect each other it's almost like!#but yeah. he was only interested in impressing the couple of men in my friend group essentially #he'd talk abt how my two guy friends r cool & how he wants to be closer to them #and i'd stick up for this woman i hung out w today & he had just absolutely no interest in her #she never liked him anyway which was so baller of her. good on her. she detected his rudeness #and that rudeness used to vex me so much. i suppose bc i couldnt bear to see him treat other ppl how he treated me #altho to a much lesser extent w the overt lovebombing he did to me and the traumadumping and intense reliance upon me #he seriously needed my attention 24/7 it didn't matter if i was studying or working or in bed sick for two weeks #literally he and his vapid fucking needs came before everything in my life according to him. always. crazy #the entitlement of that man is ridiculous. so of course he thinks there's nothing wrong w seeking me out #of course.#i wouldnt care if he died

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hexados-on-a-string · 8 months

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coming out of hibernation to say how did mira actually figure out spectra was keith. like. i know How. but also look at keith when he was younger. and then look at spectra. these are not the same people.

#comparing them its just like. literally the eyes. but u know. spectra wears a mask.#im gonna assume that mira is aware shes a main character and was like. if i were a main character. who would my missing brother be.#and obvsies its spectra #on an unrelated note when did keith get helios #did helios show up like. ur vibes are awful. so are mine. wanna be besties?#like mira would immediately know spectra was keith if he had helios before he became spectra #so im gonna assume helios showed up out of nowhere like hey let me be ur bakugan pls pls pls pls pls pls pls pls pls pls #these are the thoughts that keep me up at night btw #u know what they probably explained it in the show i just dont remember it. i think my version is funnier tho.#im so good at going on tangents

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estellaestella · 1 year

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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was totally different in tone from any other MCU film before: it was kind, soft, and in touch with feelings? They dont replace Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther/T'Challa and carry on: the whole film deals with loss, grief, memories, and legacy. A superhero film depicting mourning in a healthy way actually felt fresh and quite wholesome.

If you've wanted to see more MCU films pass the Bechdel test, or teared up at the women-coming-together scene in Endgame, or criticised it as a token gesture - this is the movie is for you.

#Black Panther: Wakanda Forever #Black Panther #Wakanda Forever #chadwick boseman #t'challa #women in film #ludwig goransson #mcu #marvel #women of marvel #bechdel test #passes it with flying colours #If u do go let me know if u hear Okoye being criticised for not visiting her husband in jail coz I missed that line #a female general married to a man who commited treason getting criticised for being a bad wife? woman? partner? is interesting!#did i mention the aesthetics are cool? coz the aesthetics are #and i want that bracelet #those pearls looked imperfect and genuine: if u hv a choice always choose natural or cultured pearls over synthetic pearls #weird timmy tangent but what else is new...

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rollercoasterwords · 2 years

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#do not even get me STARTED on the overlap w zombie media godddds

I for one am very here to get you started on the overlap with zombie media if you’d like 👀 I love your meta and I think you’d have some really interesting thoughts!

omg omg omg ok kissing u on the mouth first of all second of all i don't even think this is going to be coherent it's just gonna be me rambling but it'll probably get way too fucking long so i'm gonna put it under a cut

okay so the thing about zombies is that they are the perennial "other," right, even more so than most other types of monsters, because the defining feature of the zombie is ego death. like--werewolves, vampires, frankenstein's monster...even creature features like alien or the thing, all these horror movie monsters still have some form of subjective identity, some sense of self, and usually the conflict comes because these monsters live in ways that cannot coexist with human life.

zombies have no identity beyond consumption. like, i would argue that the core feature of a zombie even moreso than just "reanimated corpses" is this violent need to consume--and, in that consumption, to reproduce, to create more zombies. (this gets played around with in a lot of more recent films but i'll get into that later). so, in a way zombies are the antithesis to humanity, because humanity requires coherent identity, and zombies do not have that. in a way, it's almost utopic; zombies are genderless, sexless, without race or capital or religion or politics or any of the things that creates conflict between humans. zombies typically have no issues with each other; theoretically, in a world with no humans and only zombies, there would be absolute peace.

but, ok. hang on. let me back up a bit. because the thing about trends in horror is that they reflect societal fears of the time, and zombies have changed quite a bit throughout history. like, most people agree that the original zombie movie was White Zombie in 1932, which i haven't personally watched but i have read about and like. my interpretation is that a lot of the fear the movie speaks to is fear of the foreign, particularly foreign men/the masculinized foreigner, and as much as i want to go on a rant about like the historical context surrounding that and the gendered dynamics that arise from the movie and how it can be read onto a war story (particularly since we're dealing with the lost generation here, like all these young people who are traumatized from wwi), i am going to reign myself in. and just say: in the original zombie movie the core focus of the zombie was not consumption--in fact, as far as i'm aware (again, haven't actually watched the movie), eating people wasn't even part of it. instead, the zombie was just a mindless puppet being controlled by somebody else, and this is because the zombie mythology that White Zombie was drawing from originated in Haiti, where the zombi was a reanimated dead body that was used as a slave (which really illustrates like. the colonial overtones of White Zombie, where a cultural figure representing the fear and pain of slavery was essentially taken and pasted into a story where the primary monster is the foreign threat to white americans).

SO it's not until 1968, Night of the Living Dead, that romero introduces cannibalism to zombies, and also introduces like...the concept of The Horde. like, in White Zombie, the focus is really just on a single zombie (although there are a few more), but i don't think it's until romero that we get this like cultural image of a horde of cannibalistic ghouls crowding in and attacking.

and so like--this is 1968, right? fear of the Other looks a bit different but is still very much swirling in U.S. politics--like, we've got the cold war, the civil rights movement, the vietnam war, the space race. and the monsters in Night of the Living Dead are actually tied to both fears about aliens and nuclear radiation--supposedly they were created by the radiation from an exploding space probe or something. so in a lot of ways, these mindless hungry monsters are standing in for any number of broad, "evil" forces that the American public is being constantly warned about. but at the same time, there is an argument to be made that romero critiques that fear in the survivor dynamics he portrays and especially in the way he ends the film with Ben's character (again, refraining from another sub-rant within my rant).

okay so THEN after Night of the Living Dead we see the rise in this cultural figure of the zombie, and in the later half of the twentieth century the zombie is normally portrayed as these hordes of reanimated, cannibalistic corpses. but we don't really get this boom in zombie media until the late 90s/early 21st century, particularly post 9/11 with the rise of the war on terror. once again, a lot of these nebulous fears about the "Other" are in the foreground--we've got the advent of the internet, which begins to globalize and connect the world in unprecedented ways; we've got the AIDs crisis and fear of disease and contagion; we've got the war on terror and fear of the cultural Other who takes the form of violent, mindless hordes in the american imagination. and we get not just movies like the 28 Days Later franchise but also other media like The Walking Dead comics (debuted in 2003) which will eventually become staples of the zombie genre.

and so by the early 2000s we've got the zombie established as a horror monster + cultural figure, which opens things up to start pushing the borders of what makes a zombie a zombie and sort of exploring with new forms of zombiism. and we start to see this more in a few different ways--one is the simple physical conventions, which i'm less concerned with, but i think 28 Days Later is the best example of this--suddenly, you not only have fast zombies, but also zombies that haven't died and come back to life at all, but rather have a monstrosity rooted in disease. but then you also have movies like I Am Legend, where we're starting to explore not only different physical forms of zombiism, but also the possibility of sentient zombies.

(sidenote--i know that we saw sentient zombiism explored somewhat before the 21st century, with movies like Day of the Dead, but i feel like it wasn't really until the 21st century that the concept started to take root. just let me have this one lmao)

and now the thing is--remember what i said earlier? a core feature of zombiism is ego death, and it's that ego death that is key to making a zombie a zombie and separating them from humans. so what does it mean when zombies suddenly become sentient--when they can communicate and form their own societies? where is the new line between human and zombie?

we start to see the sentient zombie really take root in the 2010s--2013 is a big year, with both the release of Warm Bodies and the initial air date of In The Flesh (an AMAZING show if you haven't watched it you should. i will forever be bitter that it was canceled). and we start to get a lot of movies that really, really blur this boundary between zombie and non-zombie. a non-comprehensive list of just ones i've seen that come to mind: All Cheerleaders Die (2013), Raw (2016), The Girl With All the Gifts (2016), Zombie For Sale (2019), and now, most recently, if you think about Netflix's Army of the Dead (2021), we see this growing trend of zombie media blurring the boundaries between human and zombie. and i've limited myself to movies for the most part here--this trend can also be found in zombie TV shows (think Santa Clarita Diet or even Z Nation--one of the most atrocious shows ever made which i think absolutely everyone should watch), books, probably even video games (although that's one area of zombie media i really haven't consumed, so honestly i'm not sure). like, at this point we've got zombies that can fall in love (I Am Legend, Warm Bodies, In the Flesh, All Cheerleaders Die, Zombie for Sale, Santa Clarita Diet), zombies that can build their own societies that mirror human ones (The Girl With All The Gifts, Army of the Dead), zombies that literally live and function alongside humans (Santa Clarita Diet, In the Flesh, The Girl With All the Gifts), even zombies that sire or give birth to children (Z Nation, Army of the Dead).

of course, there's still an abundance of zombie media making use of more "traditional" zombie monsters, too. but i think this steady increase in zombie media eroding the boundary between zombie and human has ultimately left zombies with only one uniting feature that holds true across almost every distinct form of zombie media from the latter half of the 20th century onwards (at least, i can't think of any exceptions): their cannibalistic hunger.

and so like this is where we start to hit the sweet spot of crossover with cannibal movies and zombie movies, because not all cannibals are zombies, but all zombies seem to be cannibals. and what does it mean that zombies, over the past fifteen years or so, have become monstrous less for their mindlessness and ego death and more for their violent consumption?

like, at the end of the day i feel like what's happening with the zombie genre and also the growing popularity of cannibalism as a horror trope (and the changing form it's taken--oh i could write a whole 'nother essay about the sexification of cannibalism. like, remember when cannibalism was very much "the hills have eyes" grossness? and now it's timothee chalamet in a romance movie?) are both spinning around this centerpoint of our own growing horror with the culture of consumption that late-stage capitalism has trapped us all in, where we are no longer individuals but instead only consumers. and, simultaneously, products to be consumed. and we are beginning to see more and more that the only forms of connection available to us are through consumption, and just like sentient zombies, we might be horrified of what we're becoming, but we cannot rid ourselves of this hunger for connection, even if the only avenues left to seek it are by consuming or being consumed.

so like, to summarize, i sort of see the evolution of the zombie as: monster representing fear of slavery -> monster representing fear of the proverbial Other -> monster representing fear of ourselves

like i think we are beginning to see a cultural shift in zombie media where it's less blatantly nationalist propaganda (or propaganda against whatever x group is being Othered in the cultural consciousness of the moment) and starting to turn towards these questions about the blurry lines of humanity as late-stage capitalism looms larger as like the Monster of Cultural Consciousness. which is!!!! so interesting to me!!!!

#there are like 3000 tangents i had to stop myself from going down #and this is still so fucking long lmao i did warn u guys tho #there is just SO MUCH to talk about with zombies #like i feel like they get written off as like a jokey monster in a lot of ways but i genuinely think they offer insight into like #the pulse point of the cultural zeitgest at given historical moments #because they are unique in many ways from other monsters in their ego death #except now that's changing!!! ahhhhhhh!!!!!#ask

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