The Burning Maze Is My Favorite TOA Book And It Brings Me So Much Pain… So Much Pain… But I LOVE

Jake's friend group + thoughts

(Okay so just to clarify I don't actually care about the morality of fictional characters because they're, well, fictional. I just wrote this because I don't really see anybody else talking about them)

Usually when I see people talk about the Daehyeon boys it's usually about how they're similar to Eunjang and that if it wasn't for the Union, Jake's crew would get along with Eunjang so well etc etc.

But I don't really believe that Eunjang and Jake's crew could be friends (hang out?? tolerate each other, maybe, but not friends) with all their differences. It's pretty obvious that SEOPASS made them similar on purpose so I'm not gonna act like that's some groundbreaking discovery I made lmao, but there are some things that make me think that the two groups are actually pretty different.

For one, when Gray and his friends are leaving to go find Big Ben after fighting Dean and the others, he tells the guys from Daehyeon that Ben wouldn't gang up on Jake with them, and that Ben wasn't "Some wannabe thug like you guys."

(Pop off Gray)

But yeah, Jake and his gang can act like they're the chill, strong, laid back good guys, but that's all it is. An act. I mean, Dean and Eunchan literally pick fights with people for no reason, and are assholes a lot of the time.

Jake doesn't start fights for no reason but he never stops his friends from doing so, and though I've never seen this happen in canon before, I can a 100% imagine him being excited when that happens so that he can get into fights for a 'justifyable' reason. (This reminds me of something @rare-and-beautiful-things in a post before about Jake beating people up for his friends in their strong abd kind Union member post)

Plus the dynamics in their group are actually pretty different. Eunchan and Dean immediately underestimate their opponents (and in a way, Jake does too, but that's more understandable since he IS the number two in the Union), making a bunch of derogratory comments about the people they're fighting.

I've never seen anybody in Eunjang do that (besides Teddy but he's a special case💀) even though most of them are unbelievably strong they always approach their opponent with caution and never look down on them.

Also,, one thing I've noticed is that Dean and Eunchan have the tendency not only to look down on their opponents, but their friends as well. Okay that sounds bad so let me explain more😭😭

I feel like Eunchan and Dean unconciously rank people? (like most people in the Union do, and I guess it kind of comes along with being a thug) and don't get me wrong, I think they geniunely think of Timothy as a friend and care for him, but when you're in the Union you tend to view people who can't fight as someone less deserving of your respect, whether you do it consciously or not.

An example of this is when Gray is about to fight Dean, Eugene warns Gray about Dean's strength, Gray pats him on the shoulder and tells him not to worry.

But when Timothy does the same to Dean, Dean tells Timothy that he "didn't give a crap about his data", and I don't think he would have responded the same way if someone like Jake (or someone he viewed as 'more powerful' than him) told him to be cautious.

And let's be honest, you'd only talk to somebody that way if you didn't respect them.

It's pretty obvious that Eunchan does the same thing too. When Eugene and Timothy start fighting, Eunchan looks over at them and says, "What a bunch of losers."

I literally did a double take at that one because 1. Calling your friend (who's trying to help you) a loser? 2. It confirms what I thought about the other guys looking down on Tim for not being able to fight. They hang out with him and love him, sure, but subconsiously to them, anybody who cannot fight is a rank below them: a loser.

(I'm pretty sure they aren't aware of this since their friendship does seem pretty geniune. It's probably from the inflated ego that comes along with being a thug.)

The Eunjang boys have never once looked down on Eugene for not being able to defend themselves and always treated him as an equal, so that's another difference.

(Also another thing that's pretty telling is Eunchan's style of fighting- he hits Eugene in the face even though Eugene was practically defenseless and not attacking him. He also got Timothy to hold Rowan down so he could beat him up which is dirty asf and also just proves that they aren't really the 'cool strong heroes' they think they are.)

Anyways thanks for reading all this rambling and like I said at the start (i'll just repeat it because some people can't read and i don't want any hate) i don't actually care about whether fictional characters are good or bad because if I did I wouldn't be reading action webtoons (or having Wolf Keum as a fav) I just wanted to talk about this.

Interested in hearing yalls thoughts</3

some of my favorite letterboxd reviews for strangers from hell

A little girl died from hunger in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, despite being in the area where aid trucks are distributed. Another family in the north in Gaza city was forced to eat a donkey, which for many in Palestine is inconceivable culturally. Bisan says there isn't even water (clean OR dirty) for them to drink or wash with.

haha that's a nice starry-eyed ambition you've got there buddy. sure hope the narrative doesn't warp it into something ruthless and all-consuming

Ohba, Death Note Manga, Canon: Yeah, L never met any of his successors or spent any time with them.

Fanon, Me: No ❤

When you ignore that it’s horrible that things like this can even happen, Elon Musk is honestly a fascinating and funny case study. Here’s a man who has built his entire reputation on:

Supposedly being highly intelligent

Never making mistakes due to point 1

If something goes wrong, it’s not his fault due to point 2

He’s coasted along on this reputation because capitalism has created an endless supply of doofuses who think anyone who has money probably did something to deserve it (he just inherited it) so all he has to do is throw money at projects that seem smart and futury and as long as they make a minor profit or produce something cool, his reputation is reinforced.

It’s not truly reinforced, obviously, because anyone with reasonable critical thinking skills can see that he’s not actually a scientist, he’s at best an investor who got lucky a couple times, and regularly takes the credit for stuff his employees make, but he’s got enough of the aforementioned doofuses that he’s gotten by so far.

He could’ve honestly kept out of the spotlight and just made infinite money if he wasn’t also an egomaniac who needs constant approval and attention. But then, for clout, he made a statement that he was going to buy Twitter. And Twitter held him to his word. And due to point 2, he can’t walk that back, because he never makes mistakes.

So now he’s lost 44 billion dollars because he couldn’t watch his mouth and cared too much about his reputation to just pay the 1 billion dollar fine to go back on his offer. So, due to point 1, he has to make it look as if he totally was going to really buy Twitter all along, and he totally has real plans for it. But Twitter is losing money, hard. So he starts looking for ways to make his money back. And somehow lands on… monetizing the system which verifies user identities…..?

No, totally a good idea, see point 2. Implementing it right away. People are misusing the new system? Not his fault, see point 3. But Twitter is largely funded by advertising, and advertisers can see what’s going on. So they start pulling out, which means Twitter just loses MORE money. Musk just dug himself a deeper hole. And now he’s just panicking while trying to convince everyone he’s got it under control. Digging deeper and deeper.

He’s fucked. He’s just totally fucked himself. And he’s taking one of the planet’s biggest social media platforms down with him. All because he can never admit making a mistake. Fucking hilarious. A cautionary tale of magnificent proportions. Tens of thousands of lives are going to be affected by this, as the platform they use to spread their work goes up in flames, and it’s horrible, but as we are suspended in the ennui, we can at least watch this moron blow up into fireworks. Amazing.

Mad that in 2021 we expect people to text us back immediately, when back in 1845 you’d just send your husband off on a ship to discover the Northwest Passage, not hear from him for 3 years, then fund an expedition to find his half-cannibalised body.

Rick KNEW what he was doing writing these interactions between Apollo and the three emperors