one of the things about being an educator is that you hear what parents want their kids to be able to do a lot. they want their kid to be an astronaut or a ballerina or a politician. they want them to get off that damn phone. be better about socializing. stop spending so much time indoors. learn to control their own temper. to just "fucking listen", which means to be obedient.
one of the things i learned in my pedagogy classes is that it's almost always easier to roleplay how you want someone to act. it's almost always easier to explain why a rule exists, rather than simply setting the rule and demanding adherence.
i want my kids to be kind. i want them to ask me what book they should read next, and i want to read that book with them so we can discuss it. i want my kid to be able to tell me hey that hurt my feelings without worrying i'll punish them. i want my kid to be proud of small things and come running up to me to tell me about them. i want them to say "nah, i get why this rule exists, but i get to hate it" and know that i don't need them to be grateful-for-the-roof-overhead while washing the dishes. i want them to teach me things. i want them to say - this isn't safe. i'm calling my mom and getting out of this. i want them to hear me apologize when i do fuck up; and i want them to want to come home.
the other day a parent was telling me she didn't understand why her kid "just got so angry." this woman had flown off the handle at me.
my dad - traditional catholic that he is - resents my sentiment of "gentle parenting". he says they'll grow up spoiled, horrible, pretentious. granola, he spits.
i am going to be kind to them. i am going to set the example, i think. and whatever they choose become in the meantime - i'm going to love them for it.
I find it highly amusing how in situations where the ninja are separated/it's just the OG four, Kai and Zane immediately assume control/start spearheading the team because apparently no one else is sane enough or in the right mind to do so.
Your honour, they literally have one of the best dynamics in the show, with how they're probably the most protective people in the team. And it makes me mad how this is overlooked by the fandom and the show.
Dean falls in love first, but never realises. You need something to compare your love to, to know it's not the usual familial love. He showers Sam with attention from his very first childhood. He fills the role of the brother, the father, the mother, the best friend and the lover, yet it's the only love he knows, so he never feels strange doing it — never knows himself exposed, his heart raw in the open, never has to hate the only good thing he has. And if he ever does, his instinct is to joke about it, so whatever vulnerability trembled into the world can vanish like a mirage.
Sam would maybe have been normal had Dean not rewired his brain from the start to love him the same way. There is a difference, though; he knows something's off. He studies the outside people, trying to understand how they think, how they feel, to emulate how they act. He studies and sees, the way you never see yourself until the mirror is broken or the water in that lake rumbles and disrupts your image. The outside people — they don't love like a scream in the night, desperate and animal — they don't bleed their fear all over one another — their need, their sweat, their devotion. They are —and just are— because of themselves, no self-worth lying on how useful they are to their father, their brother. They can only say "I love you" because they don't mean it, they really don't.
Sam never tells Dean how he feels, not really. Dean only tells Sam when he's not in control of himself, drunk in blood and adrenaline and thinking he's lost the one he couldn't live without. They fight when they're good because it's the closest thing to these words they can say out loud: I'm mad, because I care for you, because you're the only one that matters. I hate you, because I'm a shadow of myself around your light — because I'd kill for you and I'd hate myself for it, yet I would do it again, time and time again. They fight when the world falls to pieces because it's the only way to hold onto the body they need by their side. They punch the skin that should have been their skin, cut the throat that breathes life into them. They eat, cannibalize each other because it's the only thing they can do, the only way they are allowed to love, as brothers.
Has anyone ever thought of the possibility of people in hisui getting a magazine from AFTER ingo and akari go home with either or both of them on it. Like they've already left and lo and behold in the tail end of the entire mess a magazine appears with one of them on the cover looking fresh stunning and most importantly happy. If it were Ingo i feel like he'd be all dressed up goth on the cover of like Vogue or something lmao (i don't think he wouldn't get famous if he wasn't already after coming home. Theyd want the publicity+cool extint Pokémon on the cover). If it were akari shed probably be like posing all badass like the badass teenager she is, scars in full view (she's a survivor!!!!!!). Inside is a little tidibit of their life after coming home. It would be both funny as hell to see them react to how they are in their element and like connect the dots for their strange behaviors AND bring closure to the people they left in hisui. They may never know this but the people in the past do
If anyone uses this idea tag me i may or may not read it but i want to know if you liked it enough to do something with it. I'll probably just keep daydreaming to myself about it lol
Edit: btw there's a whole section talking about everyone's battle prowess and the battle subway for the funnies. Just so you know