#the quality just keeps going down | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

markiafc · 6 months

Text

to fulfill my promises to @ananeiah and to expound on @seventh-fantasy's post, there are many conceptions of enlightenment. because buddhism is a massive and old religion with a very robust canon, enlightenment goes by many names, it's articulated and imagined in many different ways. let's play the game of how many of them are adopted by the show...

popular metaphors that embody enlightenment include a refuge, a flame going out, or a firm island - because this world is often described as an ocean. all human beings are floating in the 生死苦海 sea of rebirth and suffering. to escape it, one must make their way to the island or to get on a boat. mahayana buddhism (aka. chinese buddhism) is literally named 大乘 the great vehicle, the primary idea being that enlightenment = to board a vehicle of transport, it will take you away. however, buddhism doesn't just envision this as an ambiguous vehicle. 乘 the vehicle specifically refers to a 船 boat.

the mortal world and the cycle of suffering is a sea and the way out is enlightenment, envisioned as a boat.

an extension of this is the concept of 彼岸 the faraway shore (alt tl: the further shore, the distant shore, the other shore, or at times the opposing shore). it draws on the same notion of 苦海 the ocean of suffering. to achieve enlightenment is to swim to shore, where there is finally safety and stability, free from suffering. this is why the euphemism for enlightenment is to 度到彼岸 reach the faraway shore.

此岸 this shore, is this ever-changing world full of agonies. you wade across the 苦海 sea of suffering, and reach 彼岸 the faraway shore. this is enlightenment.

as @seventh-fantasy depicts in this post, the final shot of ep 40, and as seen in the bonus ep 40.5, this is where llh is. ep 40 ends with the camera moving further into the distance, moving further into the sea. and the bonus ep 40.5 makes it clear again that lxy/llh has found his way to a different beach. llh has crossed the sea to another beach. he is on another shore, the 彼岸 faraway shore, far from 东海 the east sea where everyone else is.

let's look even closer at this.

enlightenment is also conceived as a place: 淨土 the pure lands, 极乐世界 the realm of greatest bliss, and so on. one of the geographical markers of this idea is 西 the west. this "land" accessible only to the enlightened (佛 buddhas, 菩萨 bodhisattvas, and 阿罗汉 arhats) is also dubbed 西方淨土 the western pure lands and 西天 the western heavens, etc.

enlightenment is imagined to be westwards. the opposite direction and away from 东海 dong hai = the east sea. where the story began and lxy famously plunged into; he fell into the 苦海 sea of suffering located in the 东 east. from this starting point, llh makes a meandering journey to his final location in the show. he makes his way 西 west, towards enlightenment, and reaches a 彼岸 faraway shore, the enlightened "after" and what is beyond.

now that we're on the topic of the pure lands, it's worth mentioning that this concept is furnished with a lot of descriptions in buddhist sutras. it is a beautiful, glorious land brimming with lotuses. because, of course, the lotus is yet another ubiquitous image that represents enlightenment.

the lotus position is crucial to the buddhist practice of prayer cultivation, especially in 禅宗 zen buddhism that is built around the central practice of prayer. lotuses are motifs in buddhist art, and buddhist myths (the legend goes that lotus flowers bloomed under the buddha's feet when he took his first steps as a child). people practicing buddhism are referred to as 莲友 lotus friends, 芬陀利花 the white lotus is a synonym for the buddha. lotuses are also integral to buddhist canon; the pure lands are detailed to have seven 宝莲池 treasure lotus ponds. every buddhist has their own lotus waiting for them in the pure lands; it is believed the more you cultivate, the more your bud in the pure lands grows/blooms.

of note, every living thing residing in the pure lands are made from lotuses. in fact, buddhist canon states that the enlightened are reborn inside a lotus bud, similar to an incubation. their new body is reconstituted from lotuses and they emerge anew when the bud blooms. crucially, it is also stated that every enlightened in the pure lands will have 莲花座 a lotus seat. this is a vehicle of transport, usually likened to the magic carpet from one thousand and one nights. it is described as 随心所欲、飞翔自在 something that acts after your heart's desire, something that flies free. the lotus seat is about boundless, freeing travel.

this isn't comprehensive at all, there are tons of other ways lotuses come up throughout buddhism. but the connection to the show is straightforward and self-explanatory. the primary motif in 莲花楼 mysterious lotus casebook is the lotus - a famous marker for buddhism itself. one of the dominant illustrations of enlightenment, the cultivation process to achieve it, and enlightened entities themselves.

the buddhist notions of rebirth are similarly heavily intertwined with the lotus. it is your body; you become it, it becomes you. from then on, you are surrounded by its image and its presence. you even have a lotus vehicle that becomes your main method of travel, a mode of travel defined by carefree contentment. sound familiar? llh's identity and his living carries major markers of enlightenment. it is one of the primary concerns of his character arc.

quick detour. a prominent moniker for enlightenment is the setting of the sun, as yet another epithet utilized by the drama.

detour over. crazy connections time.

discussions of death and suicide is, to my knowledge, particularly prominent in japanese buddhism. but as a whole, a significant portion of buddhist canon and a good number of buddhist media deals with this too. dying as a means to get closer to enlightenment, equating death and enlightenment, the subject of suicide itself. characters seemingly pass away and become enlightened, or characters strive for death with this express purpose as death is connected to enlightenment. this is true. one does not necessarily cause the other, but the concepts are interconnected in buddhism. it comes hand in hand, dissecting one means dissecting the other and vice versa.

most buddhist texts and masters do not condone a direct correlation, suicide is not the way to enlightenment. there is no buddhist value to killing yourself. but the key exception lies in one of the most important buddhist texts: the lotus sutra.

"These include several themes dealing explicitly with death, such as how suicide was committed to speed up rebirth in the Pure Land based on the sanctioning of voluntary death as a superior form of sacrifice in Chapter 23 of the Lotus Sutra ..." [1]

the chapter 23 in question talks about a bodhisattva who turns himself into a human candle and burns himself up, in offering to the buddha. there is more to the story, but it mainly functions as a lesson about cultivation and enlightenment.

in the canon about buddhist suffering, there lies a subset dedicated to physical pain and torment. there is a heavy focus on our 5 senses, specifically (that's a whole separate topic i won't go into here). very briefly, to suffer is to experience the world through our 5 senses. to live as a human being is to suffer in a sensory way.

buddhism aspires to transcend this flesh and blood suffering. so annihilation of one's body is an essential step to achieve enlightenment. usually, this theory centers natural death and decay. you accept that you are always aging, your senses will lose their edge, your body is always subject to illness, injury and other failings. let the body waste away, it will do so regardless.

hence, the human body is set on a course of gradual deterioration. this suffering is processed through our 5 senses and is defined by them. in the face of this, the lotus sutra is the only notable buddhist text that looks kindly upon "voluntary death" to transcend it.

similarly, llh accepts the effects of bicha on his body. it mimics the natural decline of the human body, accelerating the degradation of his senses, his immune system, and his physical capabilities in general. his experience of this form of suffering is also emphasized through a period losing his sense of sight. it is a very buddhist torment. but at the end of the day, it is still a man-made, unnatural cause generating this effect. accepting this is not the same as accepting 生老病死 death via age, sickness and other natural processes.

llh embodies the sentiments and themes in the lotus sutra when he consciously chooses to let bicha run its course. he chooses to die, it is a "voluntary death". let this destroy his body. let this suicidal choice (though its more nuanced than simply suicide imo) free him from buddhist physical suffering. thus bringing him closer to peace, a version of himself that will be happier.

finally, enlightenment is about ambiguity.

凡人 the common people are incapable of comprehending enlightenment. it is understood that the human senses and the human mind is too inept and unrefined, too clouded by illusions, to grasp it. there are a million ways to express it, depict it, and name it. but there is a consensus across buddhism that these are simply aids for the common student of buddhism, and they are not accurate to the truth. at the core of enlightenment is an abstraction, an inherent unknowing.

it is, by definition, a departure and a continuation. it is a removal from this world and a transition into another place, another realm. all at once, the phenomenon straddles a greyness between an ending and a beginning. it is unclear whether the enlightened has left, or is it the common man who is so lacking he cannot recognize or even perceive the enlightened? in the theory of enlightenment, buddhism accounts for both factors. but we will never know for sure.

where do the enlightened go? where are they, where have they gone? these are questions buddhists often ask and explore, and it is also the question that the remaining cast engages with. what is enlightenment, exactly? there is a suspicion, some notion of what must have happened. it might be death, it might not be. only the enlightened can answer this, everyone else is left without clarity.

in the end, the seekers get close to the answer but there is no real fruition. and so the search lasts indefinitely.

that, too, is part and parcel to enlightenment.

as for how enlightenment narratives function, i leave you with this.

"Nirvana provides the full stop (period) in the religious story; it gives what one might call, to use Frank Kermode's well-known phrase, "the sense of an ending" - that is, a real ending and not a mere breaking off. Such an ending is only possible within a narrative.

[...]

Nirvana, I want to suggest, is a moment within a discursive or practical dynamic, a formal element of closure in structure of Buddhist imagination, texts, and rituals. One might say that nirvana has primarily a syntactic rather than semantic value: it is the moment of ending which gives structure to the whole. The fact of narrative structure and closure provides a meaningful and satisfying resolution, although in itself nirvana has merely the formal value of a closure marker.

[...]

Earlier I called nirvana the full stop (period) in the Buddhist religious story; now I can add that it is a full stop in an eternal story, a full stop which brings closure to individual lives in a master text which itself can have no final ending." [2]

Sources:

Tragedy and Salvation in the Floating World: Chikamatsu's Double Suicide Drama as Millenarian Discourse by Steven Heine ↩︎

Nirvāna, Time, and Narrative by Steven Collins ↩︎

#莲花楼 #im exhausted and busy #but got caught up in doing this post anyway #deciding to look into what english buddhist canon has going on has led me down a rabbit hole #anyway...... lxy/llh's buddhist arc is very profound and meaningful to me #there's a lot of other buddhist theory i couldn't and didn't really want to get into #but i want to keep this post as just a list of enlightenment themes in llh's story #i wish i could get into like......#eg. enlightenment is a very very varied & diverse concept actually and there are different definitions of it #eg. nirvana isn't a place or something you “enter” or a stage you break through into #even though that's how it's often expressed #it's just a very tricky thing to convey #which is why there's like a 238912839 different names and allegories and euphemisms and metaphors for enlightenment #ambiguity generates people throughout history trying to bridge this gap in knowledge #and i'm so glad that quality was taken into account in the show #some might even say it is enlightenment's defining trait.... that it's a mystery #stressed that i didnt talk about 清净 purity that the buddhist plaque he got llh the name from is about #i think about it so muchhh a prayer quiets and cleanses the heart / lotuses will bloom everywhere.....#maybe some other time #me is mark

20 notes · View notes

akemiluvr · 8 months

Text

I think I'm actually addicted to reading fanfiction. In an unhealthy way. I have withdrawal from reading fanfiction, when I don't read it I get depressed and anxious. When something bad happens I pull out my phone to read fanfiction and it makes me feel better. I actively use it to avoid my own emotions. My phone died one time and I almost had a panic attack trying to get it to open again and calmed myself down by reading fanfic on my computer. I'm reading fanfic for like 6 hours a day average. In order to live my life I have to make the decision to stop reading fanfiction and live in the real world. I can't watch movies or shows hardly unless I'm reading fanfiction, I have to be reading on my phone and watching the show on another device. I forget to eat/sleep/go to the bathroom because of it. It hardly even gives me joy anymore but I need to keep reading it to function. Like I don't know how to live without it.... 💀💀

#fanfic #addiction #drarry #good omens #wwdits s5 #merthur #hannigram #reading #fanfiction #yall this is becoming unexcusable #my quality of life is going down #but i lowkey dont care and just want to keep consuming fanfiction #like...it cant be THAT bad #you cant ACTUALLY get addicted to fanfiction guys...hahaha

21 notes · View notes

aroaceleovaldez · 1 year

Text

I really dislike the inherent main plots of TSATS and Chalice of the Gods as they’re being explained to us currently, mostly just cause I feel like they take away from already established lore of the series and other plot points.

There is no way TSATS can go that doesn’t make either Tartarus feel cheap and/or the entire book just feel like Percabeth In Mark Of Athena: 2 Electric Boogaloo. Unless the twist is that they don’t go to Tartarus it is physically impossible. Because either they go to Tartarus and breeze through it, which makes Tartarus as a setting feel cheap and ruins all prior instances of it being used as a landscape of suffering, or they suffer Lots and Lots and it just feels like we’re rehashing the same exact plot over again purely for the sake of treating solangelo the same as percabeth, which doesn’t work because they’re vastly different character dynamics and putting them in the same situation has nowhere near the same emotional weights. Also it makes Nico’s original foray into Tartarus feel null because it makes it feel like his trauma doesn’t have any actual meaning, because why would he jump right back into it? Even with Nico’s character being extremely self-sacrificial, we’re at a point where we’re being told he’s improving on that and this is possibly the one circumstance he would think twice about. AND it makes Tartarus feel overused - Nico surviving Tartarus once? Okay, makes sense, he’s the son of Hades, and it’s cool that he’s the first mortal to ever survive it. Percabeth too? Getting iffy (especially since we see their trip in detail and that inherently means it’s lost a lot of potential oomph, because when you’re going for horrifying a lot of the time less is more) but okay, sure, Nico probably gave Percy some Tartarus Tips after being rescued and they had a literal dues ex machina or two helping them out, and they fell in accidentally so it’s not like how Nico waltzed in there. Third time? And it being Nico AGAIN and Will Solace (who as far as we know has little to no quest experience and most of his experience is being a battlefield medic) and then purposefully going there? Nope. It’s just a poor set-up. Plus “the major gay couple goes on vacation to superhell” is a... questionable plot set-up to begin with, especially when it’s been heavily implied it will be traumatizing for them, and we have already been told explicitly that references are being made to things like Call Me By Your Name so there is a self-awareness about the themes there (also that alone raises questions about how we’re going to be taking the tone of things - again, there’s two ways it can go and both would be extremely difficult to get right). If Mark Oshiro were not co-authoring this I’d be a little horrified. I’m very glad Mark Oshiro is co-authoring this. I don’t believe it can’t be done tastefully, and yeah it’s a situation ripe for symbolism, but it is definitely the kind of subject that would be difficult for a non-queer author to handle appropriately.

As for Chalice of the Gods, we know two things: A.) It takes place prior to TOA, and B.) The chalice Percy has to retrieve has the power to make anyone who drinks from it immortal. ..... so basically, without the book even being out, we are told “If Percy had waited like 20 minutes, all of TOA would be null.” Admittedly, this does give justification for Percy specifically to be doing this quest outside of “college” reasons, and in my opinion, “The gods asked Percy specifically because they have verified he adamantly does NOT want to be immortal” is hilarious. However, adding yet another universe mechanic to the repertoire that nullifies death is annoying as hell, because death as a consequence in the series has been completely ruined since HoO. The more avoiding death options there are, the more every death scene feels completely pointless and avoidable.

#pjo #riordanverse #tsats #the sun and the star #chalice of the gods #forgive me for complaining this was in my drafts and i figured since i was talking about plot changes i'd make yesterday #might as well post this then yknow #while we're on the topic #i'll find something lighter/sillier in my drafts to post later #also my hesitancy about the overarching plot does not say anything regarding my expectations for the actual quality of the book(s)#just putting that as a footnote #could the plots be total shit but the books themselves end up lovely? sure. totally.#i am just personally grumbly about Tartarus' use as a narrative device and how it keeps getting overused #and also the growing lack of consequence in the riordanverse which tends to make any stakes feel automatically low and cheap #mind you i would LOVE if the twist in TSATS is that they end up not going to Tartarus at all #im currently 50/50 on reading it but if it turns out they dont go to Tartarus at all i'd be sold immediately #and i do think Percy being saddled with a quest because he's the only one who wouldn't be tempted with immortality is hilarious #tbh if we had a third plot concept rolling here and we condensed all three ideas down we could just do another 3-short-story book #like Demigod Files and Demigod Diaries #we have options #heck. yknow. if we're talking particularly long short-stories here we could probably roll with two #if demigod files is for the first series and demigod diaries is for HoO we need a TOA one anyways #cause CHB:C and CJ:C and those ones are their own category they're different

53 notes · View notes

mirrortouchedsea · 4 months

Text

Day 5

Madara is running, mind trying to keep up with everything that just happened. Take a left and then a right, there’s a contact there that can help. He feels blood dripping down his arm but he has to keep going. The shouts behind him are getting louder so he takes a left instead of a right, hoping to find a place to hide for a moment and catch his breath.

He has to make it to the meeting point and get his arm checked out before his date with Leo later. If he has to cancel again over this… He’ll make it. He has to.

Madara must have bled more than he thought at first. He’s stumbling and it’s harder to breathe and he almost doesn’t notice when he runs into someone else until that familiar voice cuts through the fog.

“Mama? Mama are you okay?” Why is he here? Did he have something going on? Madara tries to turn around, find a different place to hide. He can’t talk about this right now, not with Leo. Leo grabs his hand and Madara is too weak to pull away.

“I’m fine, Leo-san.” The shouts that were following him seem to be getting quieter. They must have taken the bait. He relaxes just a little bit. “I have somewhere I need to--” He collapses before he can finish, everything goes blurry and he has to force himself to focus on Leo’s voice. He can tell that someone’s speaking but he can’t tell if it's himself or Leo. Stay awake stay awake stay awake.

He feels his lips moving and he’s trying to say something while Leo is on the phone and applying pressure to Madara’s arm. Please don’t leave. I love you I love you I love you. Leo places a hand on his face and forces Madara to look up at him. Leo is saying something but Madara can’t hear it. I’m sorry you had to see me like this. Leo looks stressed. Madara caused this. He needs to leave before he makes it worse but Leo pushes him down when he tries to stand. His arm is throbbing.

Someone hands Leo a bottle which Leo then puts to Madara’s lips, cool water quenching a thirst he didn’t realize he had. His head clears just a little bit and he can hear Leo finally. Stay with me Mama, please stay awake. I love you too.

There’s more talking and Leo is pulled away while the emergency responders put Madara on a stretcher and put him in the ambulance. He tries to grab Leo, get them to let him into the ambulance as well, but they just strap his arm to his side and begin to assess the damage.

Madara wakes up in the hospital, Leo sitting in the chair next to his bed. Leo tackles him in a hug before he can say anything and the nurses are running in to check on his vitals. He’ll be okay but he won’t be released until tomorrow.

“I’m sorry, Leo-san. I really wanted--”

“What’s going on? Don’t lie to me.” Leo’s voice cracks.

“I was… trying to protect you. There are a lot of people who want to hurt you and I can’t…”

“I can make my own decisions, Mama.”

Madara doesn’t speak. He opens his mouth but any words he could say die on his lips.

“I know you want to protect me but I don’t want you to get hurt because of me either.”

“I know.”

There’s silence and Madara is afraid Leo might finally break things off. His cheeks are wet and he refuses to look at Leo. Instead, Leo grabs his hand and squeezes it.

“I love you. I don’t want to see you hurting.”

He was much more serious than the Leo Madara knew and loved. He couldn’t bear to see Leo hurting either, especially if he was the cause.

Madara squeezed Leo’s hand and made a silent promise that he’d be more careful from now on. Something had to change and continuing to get hurt like this wasn’t helping anyone. Maybe someday they could be happy together with nothing to worry about, but he would have to work to make that happen.

#shay writes #january writing challenge #madaleo #cw for blood/injury and violence (though the violence is just mentioned)#I'LL DO SOMETHING CUTE WITH THEM ON THE 8TH I PROMMY #HOLD ME TO IT #i just had such a bad day at work today oh my fucking god #it was so busy and we had two people who had to leave early #(they carpool and one of them got a call that their kid got hurt at school and he's already sick so. they went to go pick him up)#and then we just. got slammed from like 1-1:45 i didnt actually get a break or anything #i took 10 minutes to eat some food and that was my break #we were kinda slow from 2-3 but at 3 we got busy again #died down for 15 minutes and then another 10 cars in the drive thru and 5 people in the dining room #at least one guy gave us a little tip so that was sweet of him #i'm just so out of it but i had to write. i had to i'm determined to keep up with this #if i skip a day i'm going to lose steam so on we go #no guarantees for quality i'm falling asleep as we speak snork mimimimi

7 notes · View notes

huccimermaidshirts · 7 days

Text

#had to listen to ttpd out of plain curiosity because everyone was saying how much it didn't deliver and well they weren't lying #they weren't lying about the lana comparisons either! who's afraid of little old me sounds like born to die in the verses #it's very flat tbh like you're listening to the same songs over and over #it's very hollow like the album was just made just to be made in order to keep her name afloat and relevant #not because she had something to actually say and express. her song delivery is very flat and unemotional idek how to properly express what #i mean. like she sings with no actual emotion behind the words no nerve no nothing. like she can't actually convince me that she's feeling #all that she's singing. also like the music is all the same and the way she sings them. there's no fluctuations no diversity. it's the same #song over and over. also sometimes i feel like the lyrics and the delivery don't really go together with the music #like they don't compliment each other #But Daddy I Love Him is supposedly over her fans trying to dictate her life (i have all sorts of opinions on that but it's a diff convo) an #it had 0 nerve and anger in it. i needed a little more intense a little more angry. i liked down bad and Florida (thank god for Florence 😭)#and all the breathy low vocals are not it either. it kind of makes the album flatter. there's no tension no passion in the album #definitely feels like she's trying to recreate 1989 and maybe folklore/evermore and it's not working #also people comparing this album to midnights are not wrong either #it feels like her last few releases all sound the same with no creativity or bringing something new and amazing #she really needs a break and to take a step back re-evaluate and try to create something more inspiring and fun instead of trying to #recreate the same sound over and over again. releasing album after album in such a short period of time is bound to hinder creativity and #the quality of someone's work. and maybe she does need new people to work with that will push her creatively #also i feel like she doesn't need to create such long albums. especially if you're using the same sound in every song. like one song morpths #into the other and it gets boring! especially if there's little to no build up and tension holding the song and having breathy vocals that #lead to nowhere during each song! anyway it could've been a whole lot better and she has better songs than this

6 notes · View notes

gildedmuse · 1 year

Text

So, I just know all of Tumblr was wondering, "hey, you remember that really weird ZoLaw fan with the annoyingly overly stylized post? I wonder if she's seen this and if she has any theories or thoughts, an observation or two?"

Well, allow me to set your wandering mind at ease, fictional Tumblr fan. The answer is: No. No, I really don't.

I have like three hundred.

[I also spent time just trying to track down as many translations as possible. Is Tera A Criminal's Daughter or The Daughter Of Thieving Bandits! These are CLEARLY separate things and can ENTIRELY change how her utter nonpresence in Zoro's life shaped him! Though I can take comfort in knowing that, regardless of what kind of crimes her father was committing they were more important than anything his daughter ever did in her entire life.]

And, hey, as might as well jump right into that whole mess.

1. Wait, Zoro's mom is dead? Thank goodness, I was worried Oda forgot one!

(AKA: Stop. Murdering. Moms.)

I'll go first, I don't mind saying when I was wrong. True, in the past I may have suggested that the vast majority of female characters in One Piece come off as ever so slightly, "leaning into sexist tropes with unadulterated joy; it's the misogynistic tropes equivalent of a child running naked through a grocery store. It's right there, everyone sees it, yet people shut up and continue shopping in part because, well, these days you just expect most people to cover that junk! What would you even say? And if you DO speak up and call out the inappropriate, be prepared for blank stares and tantrums; but THEY don't mind! THEY don't think it's wrong! You're just being mean!"

More or less a direct quote.

However, I see now that I rushed to judgement and the reality of the situation is far more nuanced. With that in mind, I was just wondering if someone could help answer some of the questions I have.

Like: Why does Oda believe that it's illegal for (maternal) female characters to survive other character's backstories?

More importantly, why hasn't someone just reached out to explain the misconception!? It can't be that difficult. If nothing else, just have a lawyer or judge or other expert in censorship on hand. Or is the one of those cases where back in highschool his friends made something up and then kept pretending it was real to see if he'd believe you and not only did he fall for it, it took over 20 years before he learned that, what, no that's not illegal. That would be crazy if it were an actual law. Cause you know, after the first 10 years I think yeah you have to just lean into it. Pretend it's a creative decision on your part and definitely not because you were terrified of being sentenced to a slow and humiliating public death.

Just to be clear that's definitely what's up, right? I mean, I'm struggling to think of another reason....able excuse why a story that I really enjoy keeps playing the same old sexist tropes cards again and again to the point of absurdity. It would just help if I had a valid excus- explanation. I almost mistyped the word explanation.

....

So I imagine it went like.

"That's the third mangaka they've had to Publically Execute this week!"

"They've started taking this law way more serious lately."

"This one really deserved it though! I heard his main character has a mother in her late forties!"

"That does seem old to have your first child."

"No, he's the middle of three and 22 years old. The story even has flashbacks of defining moments in his childhood and never once did she try to sacrifice herself for him, get murdered by his enemies, or die in meaningless unrelated accidents."

"Damn, that's cold to be there for all the protagonist core moments and not die and help him develop and grow a character? They must have a very antagonistic relationship. Is she actually the villain."

"Not that we know, and when they asked about this being a possible plot twist since - obviously if she's evil no laws are being broken."

"Well, of course, that's the whole reason Statue 2-dash-57 exists; if creators can show they have consistently been building up to a surprise twist then the female character in question can continue to live so long as she continues to be unrepentant and unlikable until the resolution of her arch by the protagonist."

"That's the thing! Under oath not only did man present no evidence to support her identity as a secret villain, he went on the record stating he wanted to depict their relationship as one of a normal modern 20 year old and his mother."

"That can't be true! What publishing company would even print that!?"

"It gets worse. I told you he was a middle child? Well, according to those who've read the actual manga, his younger sister was really sick as a child."

"Oh, well, at least-"

"It was just a fish allergy. She's perfectly fine."

"Sometimes I feel this law is unnecessarily harsh but.... Then you hear stories like that, and you realize that some people really are monsters."

#So this was going to be one post three parts (because obviously) then I remembered even people who have purposefully followed me hate that #I took into consideration that not everyone wants a unmountable wall of Zoro meta analysis on their dash so now its gonna be 3 post style #keeping in mind I've already written it all up and will just be posting them one after the other so effectively the same result #only with the illusion of my empathetic nature #I do have a lot of thoughts on what amounts to a very small amount of scribbled lines and a couple doodles #he literally didn't even bother giving Kuina's mom or grandmothers a name like they didn't even have a identity #In fairness there wasn't a need for them to have any kind of identities or individuality or identifiable features #everyone knows only one trait really matters when it comes to adult females: they go down #into the ground....as a corpse. After ensuring that their death would be the best way to help their children grow. As characters.#I'm joking cuz its funny. It's obvious why Zoro's mom got a name & description: she gave birth to a protagonist and not a human sacrifice #But have considered why those specific qualities are what he chose to define her by - she's fictional he could have made up anything!#I'll have to talk about it in the other posts I'm wasting precious tag room #one piece #roronoa zoro #one piece meta #one piece sexism #this post is not for everyone; actually its pretty much just for me #conversations with fictional people #more opinions than anyone asked for about subjects they don't even care about #Oh! I found the blogs new subtitle!#author gets sassy then preachy then sassy again and then swerves sharply to the weird #oh these tags are way too much #Zoro's backstory #Zoro family history #amusing musings #why am i the way that i am #three post style: part one!

49 notes · View notes

thebiggestfuckgiven · 2 months

Text

on third season of daredevil and honest to fuck i would literally make an altar to the director(s) and cinematographers of that show holy shit. AND THE EDITORS. The shots they take, the emotion and feeling it embodies, the hint of gothic in their episodes, it’s all so artistic and full-bodied and i could make a five page fucking essay on just how amazing that show is

#probably a whole damn thesis #you’d think the quality would go down after the first or maybe second season #as is wont -want?- to happen with most series #but this shit just kept getting better #i loathe to see disney do a remake or continuation of it just because i KNOW they’ll mess it up somehow #it’s just- the show is— and the sjwjdjAHGAH #daredevil #and dont even get me started on the characters and the development #i have never seen such well-written characters in live action media #matt murdock himself is so hateable but in the most likeable loveable way #AND LAUREN PAGE #pls i can’t keep talking about them cuz i’ll just write the goddamn essay in the tags

4 notes · View notes

musical-chick-13 · 10 months

Text

Oh not me avoiding a wildly popular piece of media that I’d probably actually like out of sheer spite.

#maybe this is my True Toxic Trait but I just get really annoyed when all I hear is 'this thing is PERFECT it's EVERYTHING it's the only #TRULY high-quality media to EVER exist it is OBJECTIVELY better than literally EVERYTHING else it's the MOST IMPORTANT thing of ALL TIME'#like...again. not that you have to issue a disclaimer for media discussion of every single one of it's flaws before you earn the right to #talk about it. but if people keep holding something up as The Best Ever No Exceptions with literally no other commentary I just kind of...#get irritated to the point where I don't want to engage with the thing #I think in this case it's really...Objectively This Is The Best. I think that's what bothers me. because there IS no objective measurement #of art. it doesn't exist!! and that's okay!!!! just be honest!!!!!!!#'but mc13 what about your relationship to cxgf' well if you go back through my episode reviews you will see that I very much #acknowledged that some things could be done better and that it is not a perfect show because perfect media ALSO doesn't exist #and I've never said that it's the ONLY '''right''' way to present the themes it explores. there are a million different ways to do that #and it is the Greatest of All Time in MY OPINION. that's not going to be true of everyone!! and you can think something is the Best™#WITHOUT PUTTING DOWN OTHER PIECES OF MEDIA /ESPECIALLY/ ONES THAT ARE NOT EVEN IN THE SAME GENRE OR HAVE THE SAME FUNCTION??????#I'm also so tired of people saying 'it's good because it's gay™' like that tells me NOTHING #and like. the ideas/themes/concepts presented in this thing (from what I can tell) ARE present in other types of media and y'all REFUSE to #engage in those other things??? like you write them off and disparage them and basically unconditionally hate the things in them but #THIS time it's okay THIS is the exception and there is just NO awareness or critical thought there at all. it's the hypocrisy for me #In the Vents

8 notes · View notes

birindale · 1 year

Text

the designer of She-Ra

youtube

Another of the Power-Con 2016 panels, by Justine Dantzer, the designer of She-Ra, featuring her history with the line & some pretty delightful preliminary art. I'll be posting some still images soon (have to crack a few urls first) but I’d like to get the full presentation up here, because it’s actually like. pretty cool.

Below, I’ve transcribed a bit from right after the 24 minute mark where she discusses the emotional origins of She-Ra: Her childhood as a victim of abuse. so. viewer/reader discretion is advised below the cut

I was a little girl in Toledo, Ohio, and I was severely abused. I had a mother who tried to kill me twice. And um, she was schizophrenic, narcissist, borderline, un-cared for, un-doctored, un-medicated. And I grew up never knowing if--never knowing what would happen next. And she didn't just abuse me, she abused my siblings, too. And so as a kid then, what do I do? I read comics. I went to comics. I bought the--every time I had some money, I bought comics. And I read the comics and I was uh, you know, kinda criticized for reading all of my Superman comics, my Batman comics, like, and all the comics I collected--and I collected them--and um, so what I did, is I was trying to understand what was happening in my life. And I wanted a hero. And I didn't have one.

And uh, Bow has a heart, because my dad couldn't own his. He never, ever stopped my mother, not once. And Bow is wounded with his hand, because my father never lifted a finger. So when I sat down to do a male action character, Bow was there. He was there and he was waiting. And that’s how he came out. And when I sat down to do She-Ra? She was there. Because I realized... the hero was me. And She-Ra was waiting, in me. So you know, what's so interesting is here we are, 32 years later, and you guys still love her. And there was power, apparently! I didn't create that name, but that was a good name, because there was power that came down all these years. And these characters--I don't care what form, it's fantastic it exists at all. So thank you guys. Thank you guys. For understanding that somewhere in this character, you were owning yourselves. So, power to you!

#motu #she ra #justine dantzer #i can't lie y'all i cried a bit #couple notes on this. he-man.org has some high quality stills but it's still down so i'm going in and editing individual numbers in urls #which worked for most of them but bow kowl and pegasus are fighting me a bit. just gotta keep trying #found an okay version she sent to an interviewer but it's not as big/crisp #i expect i'll be doing individual uploads for different characters anyway so maybe i'll just save bow for last #think i saw 'em in the power of grayskull anyway... might be able to grab a screenshot instead #anyway Yeah Haha it's really just like this all the way down huh. the toy itself is a healing from abuse narrative. i need to go lay down #unsolicited commentary

27 notes · View notes