Latest Posts by taro-rat - Page 16

Finally got around to playing pathologic (classic first, against the recommendations of pretty much everyone) and i'm just on day four but... DANIIL IS SO NICE WITH THE TOWN KIDS?? He talks to them really sweetly and, while he has the option to be a bit of an ass (and end the conversation mostly out of what seems to be impatience and not intentional assholery), he is perfectly capable of going along with them and their games. Like one really has to notice the difference after reading daniil's lines with a drunk just after talking to the little shmowder girl, his tone is completely different. Like, he calls her pumpkin and all. I was genuinely baffled by this, quite a few characterizations of Daniil i have seen portray him as either bad with kids or at loss of what to do with them?? it's not that it doesnt make sense, one would expect such an attitude from him considering everything else about his personality, but the fact that he *is* good with kids is such a nice little subversion of his "trope" and it sucks that it gets overlooked so often

lil late night doodle because he is so. He's just really, ok?????

Big fan of this ship because of Calchexxis, fabulous writer, check their work on ao3 https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calchexxis/works

my infos :ylve.carrd.co

JUJUTSU KAISEN + CHAINSAW MAN

Megumi uses passive aggressive disappointment to train his divine dogs.

It goes poorly.

i forgot that i’ve been collecting recent low-quality megumis but it’s his bday so here 🤲

[id: a collection of low-quality screenshots of megumi from the jjk manga //end id]

How jjk men would realistically react to you telling them that you love them

GOJO

would make fun of you for the rest of your life or he would be respectful about it bcs he doesn’t feel the same way. (LMAO)

(whatever u do. DO NOT. confess to him in front of kfc….) 

SUKUNA

doesnt give a fuck, as soon as you get in contact w him he’d probably chop your head off like bffr /or he’d probably take your feelings to his advantage and use you

MEGUMI

im sure as the mannered kid he is, he’d be honest with you and tell you the way it is. or worse case scenario he’d just stare at you and say nothing.

YUJI

he’d probably think you meant it in a friendly way, in other words you’d get friendzoned.

NANAMI

would either take it really seriously or not care. would apologize for not feeling the same way 

TOJI

would also probably take advantage of ur feelings and ask if you wanted a one nightstand in exchange for money because hes a rat who lives in the sewers. 

GETO

would actually tease you about it (as long as ur not a monkey) whatever he calls it. If you were a sorcerer he would probably let you in his circle of group and who knows he might even warm up to you but on the other hand if you were to be a non sorcerer he’d kill you off and the last thing you would hear would be “i don’t like monkeys”  

MAHITO

would make fun of you before disforming you into an ugly curse.

Here’s a realistic one because all of those head canons fly over yall head. 

jjk doodles

My fav tiny itafushi of all time

megumi and gojo, 10 years apart

Megumi…. The sweetest boy!!! 🥺🥺🥺

🌻Twitter🌻

someone very kind and wonderful in my comments for EE asked to read the full version of the chapter 3 end notes, which were too long for ao3 character count, so here it is 💕

link to chapter 3

end notes:

The structure of Sukuna’s shrine is inspired by his domain, which takes the form of a Buddhist temple. However, here it also includes many Shinto architecture elements, such as the sanctuary hall and torii, because during the Heian era (and until the Meiji Restoration in 1868), Buddhism and Shinto were syncretized. When Buddhism appeared in Japan from China and Korea in the mid-6th century, it integrated with the indigenous Shinto, so traditions, religious practices, and shrines and temples often combined elements of both. In JJK, it is stated that Tengen was helping spread Buddhism during the Nara period (710-784 AD). As Sukuna has been alive for longer, his shrine contains both Shinto and Buddhist elements.

The torii is the entrance arch to a shrine. Shinto shrines contain a honden, or main hall, is the building that houses the enshrined deity. The haiden, which Sukuna’s shrine lacks in this work, is the main worship/oratory hall, where visitors can pray. They are sometimes connected, with the haiden in front of the honden. Burning incense is a purifying practice that was introduced with Buddhism. Offerings of food are present in both religions.

The main lighting sources in the Heian period were charcoal braziers, candles, and paper lanterns. Chouchin are hanging lanterns made by covering a bamboo frame with silk or paper. Although the earliest record of a chouchin is in 1085, paper lantern technology has been common in China since the Tang Dynasty (690–705 AD).

As mentioned in Chapter 1, the Fujiwara clan was an incredibly powerful political family during the Heian era. In JJK, they are shown to have employed sorcerers like Uro Takako.

Sukuna’s shrine is in the province of Hida, or the modern-day Gifu prefecture, within the Japanese Alps. Hida’s capital was the modern-day city of Takayama, which also contained its provincial temple, or kokubun-ji, established in 757 after a smallpox epidemic. Hida’s carpentry was so well-known that during the Nara period, an official court position for Hida craftsmen was created. The province provided timber and metals from its forests to other regions.

Hida province had a relatively small population and was categorized as an inferior to mid-level country in terms of importance during the early Heian era. However, during the later Edo period, its importance rose because the Gifu region contained the Nakasendō, one of the five main routes of the time and one of two that connected Kyoto and the new capital Edo (modern-day Tokyo).

Aoi Matsuri is one of the three main annual festivals held in Kyoto, Japan. It is the festival of the two Kamo shrines in the north of the city, Shimogamo Shrine and Kamigamo Shrine. Both these shrines have been established since the 6th-7th century and are both historical “National Treasures” of Japan today. They are named both for the Kamo river and the Kamo clan, early inhabitants of the area who helped establish it as sacred. The festival originated during the reign of Emperor Kinmei (539-571 AD) according to the Nihon Shoki. When the capital was moved to Heian-Kyo in the 9th century, Aoi Matsuri became an annual imperial event. As such, at the height of its grandeur, it’s plausible that celebrations would reach the Hida province. In JJK (in the official fanbook), the Kamo clan rose to prominence after inheriting the lineage of a man named Onmyouji, a powerful sorcerer during the Heian era, though there is nothing to suggest the clan itself did not exist prior to this.

The Nihon Shoki, completed in 720 AD, is the second-oldest book of Japanese chronicles and contains both historical and folk/mythological records. In the Nihon Shoki, Ryoumen Sukuna is described as an inhumanly strong man with two faces and eight limbs. During the reign of Emperor Nintoku (c. 313-399 AD), he terrorized and plundered towns until he was defeated by a military leader from the Imperial Court named Takefurukuma no Mikoto in 377 AD.

However, folklore in Hida regards Sukuna as a protector. He was the patron deity of the Senko-ji, Zenkyu-ji, and Nichiryubu-ji temples for feats such as defeating a dragon and praying for a good harvest, though none of these are recorded in the Nihon Shoki, outside of folktales. One of the stories expands on Sukuna’s last fight; he was ambushed first, then after a long battle, retreated to Mount Norikura, east of Takayama. He fought again there but eventually succumbed. Takefurukuma, impressed by his valor, offered him mercy if he surrendered, but Sukuna refused and was killed. In this work, Sukuna lived, and the man possessing Takefurukuma is implied to be Kenjaku.

In JJK, Kenjaku contracted Dhruv Lakdawalla, a sorcerer originally from the late Yayoi period (2nd century AD). Dhruv already lived a second life in some undetermined era before incarnating into the Culling Game, so Kenjaku might have contracted him at that point and not been alive during the Yayoi period. However, he is likely older than Sukuna due to his knowledge of Tengen, and his age here is increased like Sukuna’s.

In 675 AD, Emperor Tenmu prohibited the consumption of cattle, dogs, horses, monkeys, and chicken during the farming months (4th-9th months of the year). Eventually, due to the influence of Buddhism and the scarcity of such domesticated animals, the ban expanded to be year-round. Deer, boar, rabbits, and wild fowl remained part of the Japanese diet, though meat was never an important staple in the first place. This ban on meat lasted until close to the Meiji era in the 1800s.

Narezushi is fermented fish, likely stemming from the paddy fields of ancient southern China. Sources conflict on when exactly it migrated to Japan, but it was pre-Heian; the earliest extant written reference to sushi is the Yōrō Code, a compiled code of governing rules, in 718 AD. It was during the Muromachi period (1336-1573 AD) that namanare, which is partially-raw fish consumed fresh with rice, became popular.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, Sugawara no Michizane was a scholar and politician during the Heian era who was banished by his political enemies in the Fujiwara clan. After his death in exile, disaster struck the Imperial family and palace, leading them to believe he had returned in wrath. He was known as one of Japan’s (and JJK’s) most infamous vengeful spirits. Kitano Tenmangū, a shrine in Heian-Kyo, was built in 947 to appease his angry spirit. He was later deified as Tenjin, the Shinto god of learning.

In JJK, Tengen is the strongest barrier user in Japan. His barriers are extremely skilled at hiding the presence of the school and cursed storehouse, as well as himself. Reggie calls him a shut-in, and Yuki says he does not interfere with the world. Humans usually cannot see curses due to their lack of cursed energy, so humans in the Heian era perhaps couldn’t either. However, it’s likely that more sorcery-capable humans existed in the golden age than in the present day.

Usually, sorcerers can only turn into cursed spirits through death, but Tengen evolved into a curse-like being by the accumulation of time (and likely cursed energy), enough so that he could be controlled by curse manipulation. This evolution is the basis of Sukuna’s body evolving into cursed flesh in this work. In JJK, Sukuna’s fingers are written as having grown in power until the seals on them became ineffective. The paradox referenced in regard to Gojo’s technique is the Achilles and the tortoise paradox of motion.

Jujutsu Kaisen, Chapter 212 Thoughts

Guess who’s back? Back again? Sukuna’s back. Tell a friend. Sukuna’s plans for Megumi were a long running plot thread, with a lot of foreshadowing in the story that’s finally being chased in. Sukuna’s plan seemed to have gone up without a hitch. What exactly does this mean for both Yuji and Megumi, and how exactly could they both have let this happen? Thoughts underneath the cut. 

Keep reading

What do you think of Ray's character arc so far in TPN?

So, if Emma’s main strength and her flaw is her boundless optimism then Ray’s in contrast is his fatalism. This is a well balanced trio after all. As Ray never really had a chance to be an innocent child and was aware he was livestock from the beginning, this produces two unique effects to Ray. The first being that Ray is constantly in survival mode and only thinking in terms of survival and not necessarily what to do next, and second that Ray thinks his own self is worthless.

When Ray does what he does to survive, he doesn’t think he’s in the right though which is where his second flaw primarily comes from. Having not only to act as if everything was fine the whole time, but also to deal with the guilt that he was helping sell some of the children down the river in order to guarantee his future safety eroded away at his sense of self worth. 

In The Promised Neverland evil does not just take the form of demons who simply eat and hunt children farmed for them without questioning it. It also takes the form of grown up children like the Mamas who have entirely given up on trying to find anything better from the system and instead resign themselves to only caring about their own survival.

Ray is similar to those Mamas, but he is also different because there was never a point where he was a child. He is instead somebody who gave up from the beginning, however because he is still a child at this time there’s still a chance to save him. 

Emma’s boudnless optimism is of course, the counter to this fatalism that damns all of the adults. Even when she learns that Ray btrayed them, and worse knew that people like Connie were dying but purposefully sold them down the line in order to buy them time, her response is not “What you’ve done is unforgiveable” but rather “Never do that again.” Which is where the shoneny part comes in in this manga. 

The ultimate good is Emma’s unwillingness to never stop seeking for something better for not only her, but everyone around her. She genuinely wants to save every kid, even when she sees obvious setbacks or dangers to that ideal. The ultimate evil is just resigning to the world the way it is and instead deciding to save only yourself. 

Ray tries to deal with this contradiction by landing firmly in the middle. His plan from the beginning was always to save a few people by sacrificing himself. This is however, him succumbing to his second flaw, his own self loathing over what he’s done to survive in order to get to this point. As Emma already pointed out Ray had a path in front of him, he just had to stop trying to sell people out in order to benefit the many. However. if Emma was willing to forgive him and look on, Ray couldn’t forgive himself which is where his attitude of sacrificing himself came from.

He’s trying to die a heroic death to make up for what he’s done so far to survive, but in reality he’s committing the same mistake of the adults. He’s giving up, he’s deciding “that’s enough, this is all I can do.” Rather than trying to live on with the mistakes he’s made so far he’s just trying to make one final sacrifice as if that can make up for it.

But Ray himself even says so, that even born into the worst life possible that he was only cattle, aware of it the whole time, and selling out his beloved siblings, he still saw something in his life. Which is exactly why Emma saves him.

However, when Ray gets outgambitted this introduces us to his third flaw. His inferiority to Norman, a flaw which Emma shares as well. Remember as I mentioned in Norman’s post, Norman is the most well balanced of the trio, Emma is emotional and too optmistic, Ray is logical and too pragmatic. Norman being the balancing factor of the trio had all of Emma’s optimism and all of Ray’s pragmatism so to both of them he looks like a better version of themselves. 

So Ray’s intention is to sacrifice himself, but he’s entirely outgambitted by Norman. Not only does Norman get the heroic sacrifice, and plan something even better than the plan Ray has been working all his life on, but he also saves Ray and forces Ray to live in a world without Norman. Which clearly affects Ray a little bit, he full on hallucinates a conversation with Norman who as far as he knows is dead.

So, the next two arcs after this are mostly Emma’s development forcus rather than Ray’s (to be fair basically the entire first 36 chapters was Ray’s time to develop and not Emma’s, Emma starts wanting to save everybody and her only real test of character is losing Norman.) However, Ray has two important points of development and it’s good to look at them from the angle of Ray is forced to live on in Norman’s place beside Emma instead, and he feels vastly inferior to Norman. Number one is ray’s tendency to sacrifice himself and use himself as a diversion has not gone away even though Ray himself is self aware of this quality of his at this point.

The scond is that Ray has met his shadow in adult form. Oddly enough it’s not actually his literal mother, but rather it’s nameless.

Nameless is another adult who has given up and only cares for surviving the world, and not improving it. Not only that but he shows the same cynicism that early Ray shows, that they can only save a select few and everything else gets in the way. 

It’s also Ray’s specific trauma, having to sell out others in order to survive that made Nameless this way. Not only that, but the more charismatic leader of the group, the more hopeful one Lucas sacrificed himself in order to make sure Nameless would live, and not only does Nameless feel vastly inferior but he can’t keep hoping the same way that Lucas did. 

So while Ray’s development isn’t the focus of this arc, he still has a shadow in the form of Nameless who not only reflects his relationship to his past trauma, but also to the inferiority he feels for putting Norman on a pedestal and measuring himself up against that.

Both of these are things that erode away Ray’s identity, which is why Nameless is Nameless in the first place because trauma overwrote who he was to begin with. However, Nameless shares the exact same message that Emma imparted Ray with, that even if he’s done terrible things up until this point he can still live. 

Ray and Nameless’ response to the world is “I can’t live on with this.” and their greatest temptation is to just give into their fatalism and fall to everything they’ve done so far, but it comes from a place of survivor’s guilt. They genuinely believe they’re not deserving of living on, as opposed to people like Mama who were able to sell out everyone for their own survival. However, Emma’s message is different, she tells them it was a good thing that they lived, that it’s a net positive to live, and keep living on. 

Nameless believes his comrades sacrificed themselves for someone worthless like him, and Emma’s response is to say it wasn’t worthless, because his comrades wouldn’t wish death on him, they would want him to live. 

That too is probably what the message is going to be for Ray in his own arc. That he’s not inferior to Norman, that there is a reason he himself has lived to this point and he just needs to look for it the same way Emma does. 

Here's a Bleach ask for you, what do you make of the relationship between Ichigo and Grimmjow during the arrancar arc and the narrative value of their dynamic?

Grimmjow's relationship with Ichigo is one of the best written character rivalries in the series, because much like Uluiorra he's a near perfectly crafted foil and jungian shadow of Ichigo. The only difference really between his foiling between Grimmjow, and his foiling between Ulquiorra is that the confrontation between Grimmjow helps Ichigo grow, while his relationship with Ulquiorra is entirely destructive and stunts his growth for a long time after the fact.

1. Hail to the king, baby.

Grimmjow isn't just Ichigo's enemy, he practically is Ichigo under different circumstances, the similarities betwen them run so deep. My greatest evidence for this of course is how much Grimmjow's motivations and actions resemble that of Hichigo / Zangetsu, the literal mirror to Ichigo's soul made up of his repressed desires.

Grimmjow's words, reflect Hichigo's words, which reflect Ichigo's words as well. Hichigo tries to assume control of Ichigo's body, because he believes Ichigo lacks both the desire and resolve to win because he is too afraid of internal desires like Zangetsu and has suppressed them.

Grimmjow's desire to become king, reflects Hichigo's speech about the horse and the king, that if he doesn't rule over his own emotions, that if he doesn't use his power to win then he won't be king anymore and will be ruled by someone else. As much as it seems to be deviating away from Ichigo's true goal of protecting his friends to care more about winning fights then the action of protection, Ichigo also can't help or protect anyone if he is too insecure or too unwilling to fight with everything he has.

Grimmjow also much like HIchigo, only exists in the first place because he is a strong enough Gillian that he retained his personality by consuming all of the other Gillian around him, and was able to maintain himself. He is similiar to Hichigo, and the hollow part of Ichigo's soul in general, suddenly born in emptiness given intelligence and the only way to maintain that intelligence is to fight. A smaller part of a greater whole, threatening to consume Ichigo from the inside out if he does not rule him. If Grimmjow does not fight and eat other hollows, he'll just stop existing. If Ichigo is too weak and dies, then HIchigo will stop existing as well, which is why he will hijack the body in crisis situations and soemtimes even believes he could do a better job fighting than Ichigo could.

Grimmjow and Hichigo both desire to become king, to dominate others through their power, and it's not just a selfish desire for power that fuels this, they need to fight and win in order to survive. This is also not an entirely selfish desire on Grimmjow's part, because for instance Ichigo also wants to win. The only way he can protect his friends is to gain strength and win, otherwise he's useless. Hollows are apparently empty creatures without emotions and yet Grimmjow was the king over subordinates and apparently a good enough leader that they were all willing to sacrifice their lives for him.

Which is the precise moment that Grimmjow becomes a darker reflection for Ichigo's character, because Ichigo may desire to win, he may desire to be king, but that selfish desire is also balanced by the selflessness that he mainly uses that power for the others around him. Contrast this to Grimmjow who having lost those subjects by having consumed everything around him, he has no real reason to be king.

Having no connection to the world around him, Grimmjow seeks to die by Ichigo's blade rather than just suffer the humiliation of the loss to him, because fighting is literally the only thing he has to give his life worth and meaning.

Each Hollow represents an aspect / means of death, and Grimmjow's death is by destruction. Despite his desire to be king and ruler, he has effectively lived his life (Unlife?) by destroying everything around him until there is nothing left, and there is no end to that path except self-destuction.

When Ichigo stops him despite the fact they are mortal enemies, despite the fact Soul Reapers live to fight Hollows (though, they don't kill them, quincies do but killing hollows and eradiacting their existence has always been bad, Soul Reapers have a duty to cleanse them so they can return to the cycle of souls), it's a healthy move on Ichigo's part because he's telling both Grimmjow and himself that there's more to life than just battle, and that living to fight another day is more important than dying out of shame for the loss.

2. Howling

Grimmjow functions as a jungian shadow to Ichigo as much as Zagnetsu does, he is just externalized rather than internalized. There's a rich dirge of symbolism to how Grimmjow represents the primal, repressed part of Ichigo's mind that he does not see.

To explain what a Jungian Shadow is briefly.

Jung regarded the shadow as unconscious—id and biography—suppressed under the superego's ego-ideal.[12] The shadow is projected onto one's social environment as cognitive distortions. Contrary to a Freudian definition of shadow, the idea can include everything outside the light of consciousness and may be positive or negative. Because a subject can repress awareness or conceal self-threatening aspects of the self, consensus of the idea of the shadow that it is a negative function in the self, despite the extent of the repression failing to prohibit these aspects.[16] There are positive aspects that can remain hidden in one's shadow—especially in people with low self-esteem, anxieties, and false beliefs—with these aspects being brought to the conscious mind and exercised through analysis and therapy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology)

Ichigo is incredibly repressed, his struggle throughout the series is to try to make sense and find balance within the several different parts of his soul, his quincy self, his soul reaper self, his human self, his hollow self. Zangetsu similiarly not simply Ichigo's evil side, but rather a mix of the traits he has repressed both good and bad. For example, as much as Zangetsu sometimes threatens to hijack Ichigo's body, he also does so out of love because Ichigo cares more about protecting others whereas the one Zangetsu wants to protect most of all is Ichigo.

The shadow isn't just repressed desires though, it's also theorized by Jung to be constructed of our instincts.

 Jung construed [...] the personal shadow, [as] a biological and biographical shadow unique to each person, consisting of whatever innate instincts and transpersonal potentials we have suppressed in the course of adapting to society, along with archaic and traumatic memories [of the unconscious]. [...] The personal shadow is rooted in the shadow of our social group, which has moulded our ego-ideal and world view[.]  Humphrey, Caroline (2015). "Shadows Along the Spiritual Pathway". 

Instinct, is not only what Zangetsu says that Ichigo is lacking and why he can't master his hollow self or be the king.

Grimmjow is also, literally an animal. He's a big kitty. Hollows rip off their masks to take more human forms, and then when they release their swords return to the shape of the animals they began as. Grimmjow's motivations are almost pure animal instinct, fight, kill, eat, survive.

There is so much jungian symbolism in bleach it isn't even funny, Tarot is made up of Jungian ideas, and the tarot card that has the most in common with a jungian shadow is the moon.

One of the biggest symbols of the moon card is the dual image of the dog and the wolf, howling up at the moon. The dog is the domesticated animal, the wolf the undomesticated primal instinct. The dog the disciplined part of our conscious mind we are in controll of, the wolf the unconscious mind made up of what we cannot see and cannot control.

The Moon represents your fears and illusions and often comes out when you are projecting fear into your present and your future, based on your past experiences. You may have a painful memory that caused emotional distress, and rather than dealing with the emotions you pushed them down deep into your subconscious. Now, these emotions are making a reappearance, and you may find yourself under their influence on a conscious or subconscious level. 

And, what does Zangetsu translate to?

Zangetsu (斬月, Slaying Moon) is the manifested spirit of Ichigo Kurosaki's Zanpakutō as well as his inner Hollow. Getsuga Tenshō (月牙天衝, Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer; Viz "Moon-Fang Piercer of the Heavens") is a Zanpakutō technique of Ichigo Kurosaki's Zangetsu and Isshin Kurosaki's Engetsu.

Ichigo's zanpakuto is literally named after the fact that he uses his literal repressed shadow in order to fight against his opponent, and Zangetsu takes the form more often than not, of Ichigo's reflection. Ichigo's internal world is literally an empty city over an ocean where half the city is above the ocean and half is bellow it. It's not subtle, ya'll.

Grimmjow represents how those internal fears and anxieties are a part of Ichigo. They are one in the same the domesticated dog, and the wolf. Ichigo is the king as a man, Grimmjow is the king of beasts. As I said they even have the same desire, Ichigo's desire to win is for the sake of bringing his comrades home, whereas Grimmjow's desire to win is inspired by the fact his comrades believed in him so much they were literally willing to lay down their lives and let him eat them.

Grimmjow reflects all those aspects positive and negative, he is also just in general, an ID character.

The id is the animal part of the personality, an unconscious drive to have lots of sex, survive, and thrive. It urges you to push in and eat your weight in cake. The ego is where the conscious mind lives. It's lumbered with the tricky job of satisfying the id's wild desires in a realistic and socially acceptable way.

Hunger is the word for Grimmjow, his hollow hole is literally in his stomach, his tragic backstory is he had to kill and eat his own allies, he's modeled after a panther which is a predator at the top of the food chain. However, these are also all things Ichigo needs to survive. Hichigo says as much, he needs an insatiable hunger, a ravenous bloodlust... and the id may seem selfish but if we don't eat we can't live. Just like how Ichigo's way of defeating Zangetsu is to admit to those desires that both Zangetsu and Grimmjow represents. He is once again, stabbed straight through the stomach, the same place where Grimmjow's hole is.

The only thing that gives him the strength is his desire to have his sword back and not have it get taken away from him, Zaraki of all people appears in his mind and tells him that he has a very selfish desire to keep on getting into fights and getting stronger (much like Grimmjow) however it's not entirely negative because once again Ichigo needs this killer instinct withint himself in order to win, because winning is living.

Ichigo's greatest moment of character grwoth in the fight comes when he uses his strength not only to protect Orihime, but to proect himself, the same way Hichigo does not want him to die, Orihime does not want to see him hurt, and that moment strikes Ichigo's growth.

Which is once again just how positive Ichigo and Grimmjow's relationship is, that it's only by facing Grimmjow Ichigo is pushed to learn these things about himself, only by accepting someone like Grimmjow can he accept the more negative aspects of his own self and grow past them rather than succumbing to him.

The final arc has largely done away with all subtleties and pretense, with focus shifting to repeatedly hammering the core message of BNHA home. But not even blunt force trauma is enough to deter some of the more frustrating takes on what Tomura’s eventual fate should be–  with a large portion of the fandom seeming to feel that “death” (either through redemption or as a punishment) or “locking him up and throwing away the key”  would serve as a satisfying end to Tomura’s character arc.

Straight to the point: This series cannot end with Tomura dying or locked away from society and still live up to its core message. As a story that has been intimately grappling about what it means to be a true hero, what it means to truly save someone, and what a the role of a true hero is when it comes to protecting the future of others… taking Tomura’s future away after the dust settles is a narrative failure rather than a triumph. Because Tomura’s future was already taken away from him when he was just five years old, and it has continuously been taken from him at every turn ever since then. By MHA’s own definition of true heroism, Izuku cannot become a true hero if he continues to perpetuate that cycle.

So in this post, we’ll be discussing:

How MHA’s heroism is defined in terms of “safeguarding the future” while villainy is defined in terms of “taking the future away” (how hero society took Tomura and the LOV’s futures away, how Tomura now lashes out by taking the futures of everyone else away, and the role of a true hero in breaking this cycle instead of enforcing it, etc etc).

How imprisonment is ultimately depicted as completely ineffective in the context of MHA, and how the Shimura family’s choice to repeatedly isolate Tenko as punishment for his “misbehavior” is meant to represent that failure on a smaller scale. 

How all this relates to Tomura’s eventual fate (obvs). 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I. “Since when did we ever need a future?” (Or: what “the future” means to tomura and how this ties to mha’s definition of heroism)

Tomura is someone who has fallen into such a deep despair that he no longer sees a future for himself– and he is gripped by such overwhelming anger that he does not want a future for anyone else, either. He longs to find the same relief he found in the destruction of his abusive home through the destruction of hero society, and he doesn’t particularly care what comes after that. This is an aspect of him that I feel should not be misunderstood, sugarcoated, or twisted into some sort of loftier goal– Because I feel understanding Tomura’s antipathy towards his own future (and the futures of almost everyone else) is fairly integral to understanding him as a both as a “person” and as a “character within a story who serves to both challenge and solidify that story’s themes.”

As readers, we are supposed to understand that Tomura’s destructive “dream” where there is no longer a future for anyone is a tragic one that’s based on A) his extremely distorted self-perception, B) his tenuous grasp on his feelings surrounding the death of his family, and C) him lacking any sort of hope for his own future and legitimately believing that things will never, ever, ever get better – therefore, we should also understand that total destruction won’t actually bring him the slightest bit of relief. And as flawed as hero society is, we really aren’t supposed to be rooting for Tomura as he tears it all down because he’s also tearing himself apart over and over and over again and becoming less and less “himself” in the process (metaphorically, but like, also literally). 

Tomura’s current path is one self-annihilation, not of self-realization or self-actualization.  Just as his family continues to haunt him long after he convinces himself that he felt ‘unburdened’ by their deaths and “wanted” them to all die, we also see Tomura being haunted by his desire to be saved by the same society he is attempting to destroy multiple times within the story proper.

“hrrrNNH I HATE YOU GRANDMA” (y-yeah, sure buddy, whatever you say)

Speaking of hauntings…! It can also be said that finding Nana’s photo was the last time Tomura had any hope for his future– and we see that this feeling is something else he can’t quite get rid of, no matter how many times he claims to have left his past behind, no matter how many times he attempts to destroy his ties to the Shimura family. When Tomura is asked to “never forget,” the elation he felt upon discovering that Nana was a hero and the hope it gave him is the first thing he flashes back to. (Something else I want to note, even if it’s going off topic: Nana foils Tomura in the sense that she completely cut her ties with her remaining family to focus on her role as a hero, while Tomura is desperately attempting to cut his familial ties to fully focus on being a villain– but in their heart of hearts, they’re both incredibly sentimental, incredibly family driven wrecks who ultimately can’t resist feeling drawn to each other in spite of their attempts to commit to their respective roles.)

Tomura resents Nana, this is true– Nana’s decision to leave Kotaro, regardless of her intentions, is a source of immense pain for the Shimura family and the series does not shy away from depicting the consequences of her decision. But in spite of this, Nana still represents a dream that permanently ties Tomura to his identity as Shimura Tenko. Her photo and all the feelings it inspired within him is his true origin– the part of himself he can’t forget, no matter how much he might want to. Nana being the last bit of hope that Tomura ever had for his future is set up to play a large part in what saves him.

So, that brings us to the role of a “true” hero in MHA’s narrative.

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Being fully honest Dabi coming to Endv after being ignored yet again doesn't change the fact that he has been ignored yet again. Even now endv has his eyes on afo and I can't see it changing

Nah, I get that. I feel the same. To be honest I see this as another set up for failure. So far the heroes have consistently been making the wrong choices and letting things escalate instead of trying better ways of facing their opponents.

I didn’t wanna say it in case I jinxed it with my prediction, but if we are to take Hawks and Mic’s reactions as the standard for how the old gen will continue to act moving forward, then I’m expecting Enji to be much the same. He’s gonna fight Touya like a villain who’s too far gone. Possibly he’ll even echo his colleagues and try to protect Touya’s idealized memory by killing the man his son has become.

I might be wrong about this of course… But looking back at Enji’s internal narration during the Central Hospital chapters and his thoughts as he fought AFO… He’s still nowhere near recognizing that Dabi and Touya are the same person.

Remember this line?

Well, here’s some translation trivia. In japanese he’s only calling him a mass murderer (大量殺人者). The only reason why we know that he’s even talking about Touya and not any other PLF villain is because the furigana (the little reading on the right of the aforementioned kanji string above) tells us he’s referring to his son (むすこ). Stuff like this is hard to translate because English doesn’t have an organic way to do the same kind of word play, so the only way to get across both definitions is to include them both in the line itself, like the character is uttering them at once. The famous “a dance with your son, here in hell” was another example of Hori using furigana that doesn’t match with the kanji they’re paired with, to get across a double meaning. But for the sake of understanding Enji’s mentality, I’d like to stress that he sees Dabi first and foremost as a “mass murderer”. Only incidentally, like an afterthought, as his son. You’ll also notice how in that same scene he’s thinking about “fighting him”. Not reuniting, not seeing how he’s doing. Fighting. Like he would any other villain, because to him this is still a matter to be tackled as a hero and not a father.

Point is, Enji still doesn’t fully recognize Touya in Dabi.

This is how he pictures him in his mind’s eye. This is not by far a flattering image. For all that Enji says that he recognizes the wrongs he did to Touya, the image he conjures when he thinks of him is not that of a man falling apart from the weight of unaddressed trauma and desperation. He sees a monster, grinning maniacally, reveling in Enji’s anguish with sadistic glee. This is not the son he abused, over and over, until he had an emotional breakdown and lost himself. This is Enji picturing an enemy, someone not to feel any sympathy for. Someone whose most prominent feature is his creepy grinning mouth, open wide as if ready to devour everything Enji’s been working for all these years.

Even in his thoughts, he keeps referring to Dabi as an abstract evil rather than a person:

He’s the physical manifestation of Enji’s “mistakes”, not his son. Not the boy he said he missed so dearly he hoped he could get a second chance with.

Touya is Othered as an abstract being, the sum of every flaw Enji possesses but never wanted to acknowledge.

Now compare that to how he saw Touya as an idealized martyr:

Here Touya is remembered as a good kid, not through the distorted lenses above, because up until this moment he’s still a “good victim”. Someone who died before he could become an obstacle, and as such still someone who Enji treats with humanity. He brings offer to his altar and manifests “regret” over his premature death, because this Touya is easy to mourn. After all, with Touya gone, who’s gonna complain about Enji using his memory as a justification for the continued abuse of Shouto and the rest of the family?

Certainly not Touya. The dead are the perfect people to idealize because they can no longer fight for their rights as a living person would. And Enji clearly knows this. He obviously ignores how training Shouto and punching him so hard he pukes goes directly against everything Touya ever wanted because Touya’s wishes are simply no longer part of the equation. Touya is no longer a person but just a a cause that Enji needs to honor (arbitrarily, and with even more abuse than before).

But when Touya comes back, and suddenly he’s a person with agency once again and not just an idealized memory anymore…

Suddenly, he becomes “a mass murderer”.

So… No, I’m not really expecting Enji to turn around and act like a good dad just because Dabi showed up. As you said, Dabi chasing him down doesn’t make Enji any less neglectful or any less at fault, and if Horikoshi knows what he’s doing, he’s probably about to make him do something extremely uncalled for and totally catered to himself, as Enji’s actions so far have only been shielding his own ego from any genuine remorse

You once mentioned that Dabi's symbol of rebirth is the Phoenix. Ever since I read that post of yours a long time ago, I haven't stopped thinking about it. The imagery hit me profoundly! Do you mind elaborating? Thanks!

Is Hawks more like Icarus or like a Phoenix? I'm not sure if it makes a difference or not...

It’s my theory the actual rebirth / phoenix imagery is associated with Dabi rather than Hawks. If only because death and rebirth symbolizes a change in a character. In Tarot the Major Arcana “13″ symbolizes Death as the idea of a great change being brought, and a symbolic death of the old previous life or old self, rather than just straightforward dying. 

This rebirth imagery is connected to Dabi rather than Hawks, because not only has Dabi already experienced a death and rebirth by fire - Toya burning to death, and ressurrecting from the ashes somehow as Dabi. His new name literally meaning “cremation” a death by fire. The way Dabi is written now is also meant to be a “change” from who Toya used to be, Toya was someone who at some point was eager to become a hero, Dabi is a villain dedicated to bringing his father down. All of these ideas of change are associated with Dabi, not Hawks. 

1. The Phoenix

Dabi has already committed a lot of symbolic steps that would make him a phoenix. As stated above, he already experienced a death and rebirth once, Todoroki Toya dying and coming back as Dabi. The first time we see him named in the manga, comes from his father staring at his funeral portrait wishing for him to come back. 

Hawks has wings, and Dabi does not. However, I would make the argument that Dabi is the phoenix because he’s the one whose entire character is written around change. Dabi has even done a few phoenix related things already. We’ve seen him fly. 

The phoenix is also a bird that famously burns itself. The fires it’s reborn out of are, flames of self immolation. Hawks quirk is vulnerable to fire yes, but using his quirk doesn’t actively harm him. Dabi is the one so committed to burning himself over and over again, and burning in his own flames, in the hope that he can make a positive change on society. 

Say whatever you want about Dabi (you won’t hurt his feelings, he doesn’t have any), but at least ideologically Dabi follows Stain’s ideals, he believes you have to commit a purge or in other words, burn the previous society so that a new society can be reborn from the ashes. This is also once again, phoenix imagery, rebirth from ashes. 

Dabi is a character written around the concept of change, and being a bringer of change. 

2. The Light

Okay, before I start let me say I believe both Hawks and Dabi have the potential to learn healthier behaviors and grow as people. Seeing Hawks deteriorate mentally, and fall back on worse and worse behaviors isn’t I want to happen, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s what is being shown in the writing. 

Hawks and Dabi both have the potential for great change, but we are shown Hawks being given the oppurtunity continually and not taking it. Dabi is set up for redemption, and Hawks is set up to take a fall. By redemption literally all I mean is that Dabi looks like he’s going to have a character arc where he improves in some way and unlearns his unhealthy, self-destructive behaviors. Hawks also has an oppurtunity to unlearn these behaviors, but he can’t really do it if he refuses to change himself or his beliefs in any way. 

Hawks moves towards the shadows, Dabi moves towards the light. The writing around Dabi also suggests several times that rather than putting down Dabi, there is going to be reintegration of both the Dabi and Touya personalities. 

If Dabi and Enji are truly foils, then if Enji is given the chance to learn to be both Endeavor the Hero, and also Enji Todorokit the father, then why wouldn’t the same chance be extended to Dabi? If the message of Enji’s arc is that you can at any point, turn around, and that the smallest things can chance people. If fire you thought once only existed to burn can be redefined in a much more healthier lens, then why would not that same idea be extended to his son? Enji even reflects on this, what about the future I cut short? 

The future he cut short, sounds like he’s referring to Toya. Natsuo also brings up Toya for the first time shortly before this reflection. Endeavor accepts the idea that like Natsuo said, Toya’s death was his fault. Enji expresses twice, first that he wanted Toya to return to the dinner table, and second that he never truly believed Toya was dead even after they discovered in jaw bone in the fire. 

Shoto’s words to his father as well, you can become a better person from here on out, even if you’re not forgiven from what you did in the past because small words, can change a person. 

The path forward is not destruction, but reintegration. In a jungian sense that means accepting both sides of yourself, both the conscious mind (the light) and the unconsious mind / repressed self (the shadow). In terms of character, it would be Enji being able to view himself both as Enji Todoroki the man who failed his family and Endeavor the hero. It would be Shoto being able to accept both his fire and ice sides. It would be Dabi being able to accept both Toya the hero-hopeful, and then Dabi the villain. You notice how all three of them are split down the middle in this way, all three of them experience a split self that they need to reintegrate. 

Self destruction doesn’t work. Enji tries to burn his past self when he kills the High End and what does everyone in his family say to him. None of us forgive you just because you beat up a hero on the television. You haven’t done anything yet to change yourself. 

Enji attempts to just kill the past and move forward and that doesn’t work for him, as Dabi himself says so, the past never dies. If Dabi insists that the past never dies, he has the same immortality as the phoenix. 

Hawks is someone when given the oppurunity to change his mind, just doesn’t do it. He has someone who sympathized with him and trusted him and offered him a path forward that he didn’t take. Let me put it simply. If Hawks is Twice. If Hawks wants to be like Twice. If Twice is Hawks path forward, and then Hawks kills twice what does that say? 

If Hawks kills the guy he wants to be like - if he sees himself in Twice then murders him then, what does that say about the way Hawks views himself? I’m not reacting to whether or not Hawks is a good or bad person, but the framing. Hawks is framed tragically, Twice even says this out loud, it’s sad, pitiable that Hawks can’t make friends or trust people. That he’s so committed to doing everything all alone. 

Destruction isn’t the path forward, but reintregration. If Shoto’s ultimate desire is to learn to love himself, and be at peace with himself, then why would he hunt down and kill the person he views as the same as himself?

“I was also burning”. I agree that Dabi does not have an arc. Rather, his arc hasn’t begun yet. That’s because we’ve only been introduced to Dabi as a character when the Touya reveal happened, before that he literally was just a mystery lingering in the background. 

However, the set-up with Dabi points to this arc of change and rebirth. All of the foreshadowing around Toya is “we want Toya to come home” and “Dabi reflects the part of myself I needed Midoriya to save me from”. Dabi and Hawks both have the potential to change, however, if you look at the framing Dabi is framed with the chance for redemption because the idea of change is written into the center of his character, whereas Hawks is someone who tragically stays the same. It’s been brought up several times, Hawks is the bird who stays in his change, who does the same things over and over. 

The bird stays in his cage because he can’t survive out of it. Dabi is the phoenix because he symbolizes both this change to society, a change in endeavor that has to take place in order for him to be there for his family, and a change in himself he needs to make in order to continue living. Hawks is icarus, because he’s set to take a fall. His inability to change in time, his desire to keep flying towards the same sun will only lead to his fall. 

...And they were brothers.

From the start, Endeavor has pitted his own children against each other. Now we’re seeing the complex dynamics of an abusive household, Todoroki Shoto Endeavor’s  golden child and Todoroki Toya Endeavor’s scapegoat, play out on a battlefield. At first glance, Shoto looks like the good brother fighting on the side of the heroes, and Toya the bad brother who cares more for plotting villainous revenge than anything else. However, it’s more complicated than that: a look at abusive dynamics and the character foiling between Shoto and Toya underneath the cut. 

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Tumblr's Poorest Little Meow Meow

A poor little meow meow, by definition, must have three traits: soppingly wetly pathetic, squishy scrungly cute (or a similar attribute), and morally ambiguous. YOU will be voting for characters to win the title of

Poorest Wettest Saddest Littlest Meow Meow!

Character nominations were limited to one character per fandom and were crowdsourced.* Match-ups were made on a seeded basis according to character popularity, in the hopes of preventing a popularity contest from happening. Remember, it doesn't matter if they're your blorbo, we're trying to find the SADDEST and MOST ATROCIOUS little meow meow. Please evaluate how well they fill the attributes of a PLMM when you vote!

*If your poorest little meow meow didn't make the cut, sorry! Maybe we'll hold another round.

Polls will be held daily at noon EST. Here's the bracket. It's not fancy; nothing about this will be fancy. (These polls are just as pathetic as the characters they represent.)

All posts will be tagged #tumblr's plmm contest

Check below for a list of all poll posts:

Round One (Feb 3 noon EST)

Loki Laufeyson (Marvel) vs. Jiang Cheng (The Untamed) Prince Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender) vs. L (Death Note) Izzy Hands (Our Flag Means Death) vs. Father Paul (Midnight Mass) Vriska Serket (Homestuck) vs. Kaeya Alberich (Genshin Impact) Tenth Doctor (Doctor Who) vs. Joel Miller (The Last of Us) Jesse Pinkman (Breaking Bad) vs. Harrowhark Nonagesimus (The Locked Tomb) Derek Hale (Teen Wolf) vs. Kendall Roy (Succession) Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars) vs. Lestat de Lioncourt (Interview with the Vampire) Dream of the Endless (The Sandman) vs. Emet Selch (Final Fantasy XV) Howl Jenkins (Howl's Moving Castle) vs. Daemon Targaryen (House of the Dragon) Arthur Morgan (Red Dead Redemption 2) vs. Harry du Bois (Disco Elysium) Bruce Wayne aka RBattz (The Batman) vs. Villanelle (Killing Eve) Will Graham (Hannibal) vs. Seong Gi-hun (Squid Game) Jonathan Sims (The Magnus Archives) vs. Catra (She-Ra) Yennefer of Vengerberg (The Witcher) vs. Faith Lehane (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Castiel (Supernatural) vs. Nandor the Relentless (What We Do in the Shadows)

Round Two (February 4 noon EST)

Loki Laufeyson (Marvel) vs. Prince Zuko (Avatar: The Last Airbender) Izzy Hands (Our Flag Means Death) vs. Vriska Serket (Homestuck) Tenth Doctor (Doctor Who) vs. Jesse Pinkman (Breaking Bad) Kendall Roy (Succession) vs. Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars) Dream of the Endless (The Sandman) vs. Howl Jenkins (Howl's Moving Castle) Harry du Bois (Disco Elysium) vs. Bruce Wayne (The Batman) Will Graham (Hannibal) vs. Jonathan Sims (The Magnus Archives) Yennefer of Vengerberg (The Witcher) vs. Castiel (Supernatural)

Round Three (February 5 noon EST)

TBD

Round Four (February 6 noon EST)

TBD

Final Round (February 7 noon EST)

TBD

The winner will be crowned on February 8. May the most sopping wet paper towel of a person win!

“Kayn and Rhaast are forged anew in the crucible of their clash” sounds gay

Snow Moon Kayn Concept Art - Citemer Liu

little guys here they come

Lovebirds

06.07.2022

Wheel of Fortune, The Tower, The Emperor

I’ve yet to learn how to draw animals

a sapphic take (haha) of Caitlyn and Vi for @caitvizine i did earlier this year! so glad to have been part of the team <3

leftover sales just opened i think so go grab some stuff if you haven't! come see them all in their gloryyyy

Zephyrus frames!