I see a lot of posts about how Percy isn't the point of the story in pjo and the story is about the Thalia-Luke-Annabeth narrative and I do agree to a great extent but I do also think it needs to be said the reason why percy is the narrator and not one of them is because he is the cycle-breaker - without him it would have stayed a tragedy but because of him it changed. This is most obvious in how he rejects immortality and instead demands greater support for half-bloods, obviously, but also he trusted annabeth enough to give Luke the knife! he disliked the gods enough to understand Luke even if he didn't agree with his methods and I think that empathy is so so crucial actually! The T-L-A story is built like a mythological tragedy, Percy exists to break the cycle of the story, he's the hero that ends happily.
okay yeah i see where you're coming from with the hinata + oikawa hooked up in brazil but you know what else is fun? the idea that they didn't, but everyone thinks they did, and they cannot convince anyone otherwise.
kageyama: pfft. like i need you're opinion. you got one second alone with the great king and became one of his fangirls!
hinata, losing his mind: FOR THE LAST TIME-
iwaizumi: What, none of the brazilian girls were biting?
oikawa: I DID. NOT. HOOK UP. WITH HINATA.
---
three days later, Hinata gets a text from yachi that just reads: OIKAWA???!!!?!?!?
they just. cannot convince their friends that this did not happen. it haunts them. all they wanted was to play beach volleyball. they cant even figure out who started this rumour or where it came from
it calms down for a bit until the allstar match when someone makes a joke about their reunion and Ushiwaka casually goes "Oh, because of their sexual history?" and Oikawa goes absolutely rabid.
so throughout Dungeon Meshi Thistle is trying to find Delgal. that's explicitly why the red dragon exists
but Thistle isn't just looking for Delgal, afterwards they're going to do something together. by this point Thistle is too far gone to remember what exactly that is, but it's important enough to him that the desire hasn't fully been devoured
in Thistle's house he has everyone's bodies set up around the family dining table. this is very likely the exact same table from his flashback since just behind Delgal you can see an identical hearth, log stacks, and tree painting in the present day home. Thistle is very into keeping things preserved after all
in fact the dining table is so important to Thistle it's one of the last things he remembers as the Winged Lion eats the last of his desires
after the Winged Lion eats him Thistle is left alive but fully catatonic. though the closing chapters Yaad is taking care of Thistle and trying to get him to wake up. when he finally rouses it's in response to hearing the Golden Kingdom kids calling for "his majesty" (Laios) to come eat with them
CONCLUSION: Delgal was late for dinner. after Thistle found him they were going to have a nice family dinner, just like they had been doing for decades
I think one of the kindest things you can do for people with various mental health struggles is just... let people back into your life after they've been absent for a while.
Making friends as an adult is so fucking hard already and isolating yourself from other people is a very common symptom of depression, anxiety, burnout, ocd, trauma, grief, etc. Which means that someone will do the hard work of recovery/healing and resurface back into a world where their previous friends have written them off because they stopped showing up.
So if you know someone where you're like "yeah we could have been better friends but they fell off the map a bit" and that person suddenly reaches out, or starts showing up to events even though you kind of forgot they were still in the group chat... well they may have been Going Through It and you don't actually have to punish them for their absence you can just be glad that they're back.
Do you ever think about kagehina's jersey numbers and throw up.
once is an accident
twice is a coincidence
three times is deliberate
what do you mean house canonically says the line "Nothing that your body language isn't telling me right now." to wilson. what do you mean he says this when they're alone in wilson's office with dim lighting. what do you mean the opening chords of john mayer's "gravity" begin to play right after it cuts to wilson's flustered reaction. what do you mean
TW discussion of SA and detailed breakdown of aesthetics evoking SA. The way I discuss this is vivid in a way that may be triggering, though there is no discussion of actual sexual assault. Just survivor's responses to it.
People relate to Mithrun and see his condition as an analogue for a few different things, like brain injury or depression. And I think all of them are there. But I also see Mithrun's story as an SA analogue, and Ryoko Kui intentionally evokes those aesthetics. I think it's a part of Mithrun's character that a lot of people miss, but I very much consider it text. This is partially inspired by @heird99's post on what makes this scene so disturbing; so check out their post, too :)
So to start off with, the demon invades Mithrun's bed, specifically. There's even a canopy around it, which specifically evokes this idea of personal intrusion; the barrier is being pulled apart without consent or warning. The way the hand reaches towards Mithrun's body from outside of the panel division makes it almost look like the goat stroking over his body. It's an especially creepy visual detail; similarly, the goat's right hand parts into the side of the panel as well. It's literally like it's tearing the page apart; but gently. So gently.
Mithrun is in bed. It is his bed that the demon is intruding on. He's in a position of intimacy. The woman behind him is a facsimile of his "beloved" that he left behind; the woman who, in reality, chose Mithrun's brother. He is in bed with his fantasy lover, who is leaning over him. While this scene isn't explicitly sexual, it is intimate. And it is being invaded. The goat lifts Mithrun gently, who is confused, but not yet struggling.
The erotics of consumption and violence in Ryoko Kui's work(remember that the word 'erotic' can have many different meanings, please) are a... notable part of some of her illustrations. I would say she blurs the lines between all forms of desire: personal, sexual, gustatory and carnal, in her illustrations in order to emphasize the pure desire she wants to work with and evoke to serve her themes. Kui deploys sexual imagery in a lot of places in Dungeon Meshi, and this is one of them.
In this case, horrifically. The goat's assault begins with drooling, licking, and nuzzling. The goat could be enjoying and "playing with" its food. But it can also be interpreted as it "preparing" Mithrun with its tongue as it begins to literally breach Mithrun's body. The goat also invades directly through his clothing; that adds another level of disturbing to me. There's nothing Mithrun can do in this moment of violation. Mithrun is fighting, but he is fighting weakly, trying to grip on and push away when he has no ability or option to. All he can do is beg the goat to stop. And it doesn't care. This all evokes sexual assault.
The sixth panel demonstrates a somewhat sexual position, with Mithrun's thighs spread around the goat's hunched over body. In the next, the goat pulls and holds apart Mithrun's thighs as he nuzzles into him. The way the clothing bunches up looks a bit as if it has been pushed up. It has pinned Mithrun down onto the bed, into Mithrun's soft furs and pillows. It takes a place made to be supernaturally warm and comfortable, and violates it. It's utterly and intimately horrifying. To me, this sequence of positions directly evokes a rape scene. I think Kui did this very explicitly. These references to sexual invasion are part of what makes this scene so disturbing; albeit, to many viewers, subconsciously.
This is also the moment the goat takes Mithrun's eye. Other than this, the goat seems exceptionally strong, but also... gentle. It holds Mithrun's body tightly, but moves it around slowly. It doesn't need to hurt Mithrun physically. But in that moment, it takes Mithrun's eye. Blood seeps from a wound while an orifice that should not be pierced is penetrated. This moment, the ooze of blood in one place specifically, also evokes rape. That single bit of physical gore is a very powerful bit of imagery to me.
Finally; it is Mithrun's desire that is eaten. After his assault, Mithrun can find no pleasure in things that he once did. He is fully disassociated from his emotions. This is a common response to trauma, especially in the case of SA. It's not uncommon for people to never, or take a long time to, enjoy sex in the same way again; or at all. They might feel like their rapist has robbed them of a desire and pleasure they once had. I think this makes Mithrun's lack of desire a partial analogue for the trauma of sexual assault.
Mithrun's desire for revenge was, supposedly, all that remained. Anger at his assaulter, anger at every being that was like it; though, perhaps not anger. Devotion, in a way. To his cause. I don't know. But the immediate desire to seek revenge is another response to SA. But on to Mithrun's true feelings on the matter.
This is... So incredibly tragic. Mithrun feels used up. Like his best parts have been taken away. Like he's being... tossed aside. This certainly parallels the way assault victims can feel after being left by an abuser. Or the way assault victims feel they might be "ruined" forever for other partners. These are common sentiments for survivors to carry, and need to overcome. In the text, it's almost like Mithrun feels the only being who can desire him is a demon who might "finish devouring" him. That that's his only use. It's worth noting that Mithrun trusted the demon. Mithrun's world was built by the demon, and Mithrun, in that way, was cared for by the demon. I think this reinforces Mithrun's place as a victim.
There's also something to be said about Mithrun as a victim of his own possessive romantic and sexual desire. The mirror shows him his beloved just dining with his brother, and it infuriates him. He doesn't know if the vision is real, nor if she has really chosen his brother as a romantic partner. The goat then creates a whole fantasy world where she loves him. As Mithrun's dungeon deteriorates, she is the only person that continues to exist. Mithrun continues to have control over her. And that is the strongest desire the demon is eating, isn't it? There's something interesting there, but I don't know what to say about it.
In conclusion, I think Mithrun's story is an explicit analogue for sexual assault-- though, certainly, among other things! The way the scene plays out and is composed explicitly references sexual violation and invasion of the body. His condition mirrors common trauma responses to sexual violence. And, at the end, he finally realizes he can recover.
Let's end on a happy Mithrun, after taking the first step on his journey to recovery :) You aren't vegetable scraps Mithrun. But even if you were-- every single thing in this world has value. Even vegetable scraps.
from one of the tweets in this post by @kilometresrufflefuck that I just HAD to draw because it got stuck in my brain :) when the Dark Age of the Law is over, the defence and prosecution are supposedly meant to be working together to find the truth, right? so why can't Pheonix "phone a friend (husband)" mid trial if he gets stuck???
I found this on Pinterest and another thing I would like to point out is that Kageyama is the youngest first year in karasuno while Hinata is the Oldest. Also with Hinata having a younger sister, he already has practice "teaching" someone how to interact with people.
For me, that reason makes this so much more cute
i headcanon that gabe and emilie would want to create a sentibaby that's a mix of their own DNA--which, why can't they do that? Dusuu's got to use some sort of genetic material
but what if they wanted to test the possible combinations of their DNA before deciding on their perfect designer baby? what if you're adrien agreste model 1.0? it's a little weird when you come into the world, fully grown, and the first thing you're asked to do is turn around slowly on the spot. there's some lady in a mask and a peacock dress, smiling as you stand there, awaiting judgement. her counterpart, standing behind her, seems uncertain. but you don't think much of that. there's no time to think much of that--not when all of a sudden you're sitting at a desk, with pages of equations written on them. problems you're meant to solve.
somehow, you know you've learned this math somewhere--even if you don't remember when or how. but they keep watching you--scrutinizing every line of your pencil. you finally dare to ask them about it--because it's weird, right? and god, if they could just leave you alone for ten minutes, you could probably finish this easily. but your examiners' lips turn down at your outburst. and you're snapped away before you even manage to look back down at the page
what if you're adrien agreste model 13.6, and everything you do elicits little whoops of joy from the peacock lady? in your several hours of existence, you've spoken five different languages and carried out a slew of endurance, agility, and cognitive tests. and most importantly--although you don't know why your examiners seem to praise you for this--you never talked back once
the peacock lady claps her hands together, and even the man behind her--who you've come to realize isn't nearly as easy to crack--can't seem to stop smiling. and you don't understand why something about that fills you with dread, but it does. it's a sort of all-consuming, impossible to shake dread. but you smile through it anyways
you don't know that once you disappear, a smaller version of you will come forth into the world. or that, years later, you'll feel that same sort of sick feeling in your gut
you're adrien agreste model 13.7, and you don't know there's anything weird about the way you came into this world. you don't realize your mother sometimes misses 6.8's dimples, or that your father often wishes they'd gone with 11.2--who would have had a real head for business
and you never do figure out why something always feels just a little bit wrong