18thC Dog Collars

Tusk is so frustrating as a movie bc like it has such a great concept but its really not living up to its potential. Mainly ofc half of the movie is just not about whats going on with him (which i mean, why not if it were interesting but its really not, the characters of his girlfriend and friend dont have anything going on and the dialogues are way too long for nothing), Then the way that we're being shown that he mentally became a walrus somehow bc of the traumas and all but we never really see the shift happens, i feel like it would take quite a lot of time to firstly become accustomed to it and then for your brain to actually start believing you're a walrus and thats such a shame because it would have been so interesting to see the transition in his mindset and the relationship between him and Howard. Talking about Howard im sorry, i dont enjoy his character too much, but thats just personnal taste. I also have a few problems with the walrus cotsume, i feel like the way its cut doesnt make too much sense especially when we know that Wallace has made a few of those + i wish they had altered it a bit when we see Wallace at the zoo bc the scars wouldnt be bloody anymore (i get its maybe bc of the budget but yknow)

Anyway i still enjoyed the movie but yeah

Honestly thinking about Fugo drives me up the goddamn wall sometimes like-- Like--

The gang were his family. He was with Buccellati the longest out of anyone, and he loved and admired him, and he helped bring the rest of the gang together, and he was such close friends with Mista and Narancia and they goofed off and did stupid teenage shit and choreographed little dances

And he'd grown so used to A. His boss being generally very sensible and caring for them all and B. His boss coming to him for advice

And then one day someone shows up and just... Takes over leadership basically entirely. Just. Has so much influence over the man who practically raised Fugo. And immediately starts directing him towards what is basically guaranteed death for at least some of them

When Fugo stays behind, digs his heels in and says "No, this is a bad idea, someone's going to get killed" don't you think he thinks, deep down, that Buccellati will listen to him? Will snap out of whatever rose-tinted glasses he's put on and take the advice of the person he's been relying on this whole time?

Because Fugo is smart, Fugo is rational, Fugo advises Buccellati and helps keep everyone safe, just as Buccellati helps Fugo not do anything impulsive out of anger. They know each-other and balance each-other and they TRUST each-other. And Fugo was looking for that trust. In that moment don't you think he expected that Buccellati would trust him?

And instead he gets left behind on the shore basically without a second thought. Just. "Okay. We won't force you. Bye." From his best friends. From the man that has been with him since he was a lost, scared little kid in need of a home. Even the boy he rescued from the goddamn streets leaves him behind, not for a noble cause, but for the sake of a girl they just met.

And Fugo was RIGHT, he was correct, they did die, his best friend died, his father figure died. Only One Of his actual friends survived.

There's no triumph in that though. No I-Told-You-So. It's just guilt because he could've saved them. If he hadn't assumed that they'd listen to him, and cared for his input. If he'd somehow known that he was that dispensable and could be left behind without a second thought. He could've gone with and literally just stood in the same room as Diavolo and killed him. Everyone else could stay outside.

Only one of them really had to die for everything to resolve, and that one was Fugo.

Why do you think he was so eager to go rushing to his death for the sake of what little remains of his family in Purple Haze Feedback.

post-dr2 is always wonderful as a rule, but i do wish we played around with the fact they were batshit insane for years a little more. like, a lot happened. their entire families died. there were some messy relationship dynamics. writers tend to gloss over the recovery phases on the island and that's honestly fine, but i wish there would at least be some... remnants of their despair days still around that they don't even think about just cuz it was so normalized to them.

like maybe akane's appetite is back, but it's different. she's pickier, more sensitive, maybe there are some foods she used to love that turn her stomach now. nekomaru is way bossier and no one bats an eye about it. fuyuhiko and peko have an entire nonverbal language that no one else understands (except imposter for some reason). soda builds normal, helpful things now, but they're styled black and red and sinister still out of thoughtless habit. both sonia and gundam and all their animals act like royalty. everyone still behaves deferentially to hajime even though they're bros now and no one even notices that they do this, not even hajime. nagito especially greets hajime by bowing deep and kissing his hand like he's a fucking princess. makato nearly spits when he sees this for the first time.

the makato hope squad try to bring it up sometimes to be like "hey, maybe work on this as a group," but they genuinely have no idea wtf he's talking about. soda's chewing on some toast that just popped out of a flashing red bazooka-looking thing, gundam's hamsters are staring imposingly down at them in tiny flowing robes and making ''off with their head'' hand motions, and nagito is sitting in hajime's lap with a dog collar during meetings and absolutely none of this is registering as fucked up to any of them.

I literally can't stop thinking abt how liz and patty are full on hardened criminals like they have probably murdered someone but they still agree to do kid's silly little poses and dance the can can with him

Mello isn't well liked but if Matt grew up at Wammy's and Ohba said he was Mello's friends, does that mean Mello had at least someone, Matt, to be with him and play with him so he wasn't alone most of the time, cause generally speaking if they really are friends and Mello had called Matt and Matt accepted they had to have been friends before the phone call otherwise Matt probably would've been more reluctant to help, sorry i just need to know that Mello had someone when he was that small.

I’m sorry Nonny, but buckle up, this is going to be hella long!

I think the thing to take away isn’t that Ohba said that Matt and Mello are friends. It’s that Matt despite having anything to do with the Kira case, despite being uninterested did what he did for Mello.

You have to understand that Ohba saying it isn’t the only, or even the biggest, proof of Mello and Matt’s closeness. As a matter of fact it’s a tiny unnoticeable footnote that doesn’t require a lot of consideration because there’s a million and 1 other things that prove that Matt and Mello were close. Even if you don’t ship them. They’re closeness is pretty obvious.

I’ve talked about it so much that I feel like it’s a waste if i do it all again. But most of my points are pooled into a meta about Matt. So let me explain them again in a separate post:

In this post I talked about how Mello is alone and doesn’t seem to be well-liked and all of this weighs on his self esteem.

I also mentioned Mello’s attitude during the mafia arc being different from his attitude before and after it. This is probably because Mello feels accomplished, on top of things.

But the thing to note about his interaction with the mafia is that Mello often distrusts them [for good reason….i mean?]

This is from volume 8. We as readers at this point ddon’t know what Mello’s real motives are. Is it Kira? Is it Near? Is he really a criminal. But after realizing that he was going after Kira to prove that he was worthy of being L, in volume 9, we can conclude that here Mello was speaking in riddles. He’s talking about Kira, the second L [which at that point he thought was a different person from Kira] and Near. They’re all in his way. But this is how Rod interprets his words:

Mello doesn’t correct him. Why would he? He can’t tell the big boss man that he’s actually using them.

Another thing of note is that every conversation Mello has with Soichiro happens in front of the rest of the mafia. It should be noted Mello is playing a character in front of the mafia so he’s not free to say everything he feels. He has to play his cards right and not let the mafia suspect him.

This conversation however happened without the rest of the mafia:

and it’s only in this conversation that Mello touched upon the topic of L. All this shows that Mello wasn’t honest with his mafia buddies and also that he didn’t trust them very much.

Also note that Mello had an elaborate system of explosives at his HQ planted for the mafia.

—-

Knowing that Mello didn’t have very many friends at Wammy’s House and didn’t have friends among the mafia, Mello is pretty much established as a one man show. Until Matt shows up.

What was really interesting to me all along was the way Matt behaved around Mello and how Mello behaved around Matt.

Look at the way Mello is treated in the mafia. Look at how he treats his subordinates. He’s not just some guy in the mafia. He’s feared, perhaps more so than Rod. Rod is literally his only equal in this gang. And people all seem to be more comfortable with Rod than with Mello. They’d rather speak to him than Mello.

Look at how Mello treats them. He acts superior. He acts better than he feels about himself. It’s a classic thing. If you want people to feel like they’re beneath you, pretend that you’re above them and prove that you’re capable of living up to the threats you make. Fake it till you make it. It doesn’t matter if Mello is actually scary or not. He needs to pretend to be scary to keep his team under his control.

——

Now I’ve already talked about the dynamic of the relationship between other kids at wammy’s and Mello. [x]

We’ve talked about the dynamic of the relationship between the mafia and Mello.

If bearing all that in mind we look at Mello’s relationship dynamics with Matt. It’s totally a whole other story. It’s a complete anomaly.

Firstly, Matt was called “Mello’s friend” when the NPA and Light found out about his existence …not accomplice…..friend.

Then there’s the part where Matt calls Mello to report about Misa.

There’s a little moment where Mello thinks Matt is joking [tho he’s really not amused] but perhaps Matt jokes with Mello a lot?

Another thing is everyone in the mafia is cautious around Mello. Matt isn’t. Matt tells Mello exactly what he feels.

Another thing to note is Matt whining about work. Think any of the mafia guys would get away with talking to Mello like that?

Moreover Mello says “it’s the same here” when Matt says “it’s boring.” Mello could mean…there is no movement and hence it’s boring. But Mello is admitting to his work being boring too. Can anyone imagine Mello the workaholic with his mind only on Kira and Near admitting it’s boring? I conclude that Mello is more honest and straight forward with Matt.

He let’s Matt whine, doesn’t get mad at Matt for whining.

Also notice how easily Mello let’s Matt get away with making mistakes. He doesn’t even look angry.

And we have another “are you serious?!” moment, this time with Matt thinking that Mello is joking.

——

Like I said there’s a very big difference between how Mello treats anyone and how Mello treats Matt. Moreover, notice that Matt is the only one Mello trusted with his plans, didn’t seem to threaten him to do his bidding, and even gave him wiggle room, LOTS of wiggle room.

I’m not going to shove my ship down your throat, but it’s at least clear that Mello and Matt were on good terms and had a lot of trust between them. And you’re absolutely right, there is no way Matt would’ve put himself in that kind of danger if there was no trust between them.

This level of trust, cannot have just happened over night. I think therefore we can conclude Mello had Matt even when he was at Wammy’s….

According to the DN wiki Matt was at Wammy’s in his early teens to his late teens. I dunno if that’s a trustworthy source but if it is, that gives them about 2 to 3 years to have developed this kind of trust. Even if Mello didn’t always have Matt, after Matt came around we can be sure that Mello’s [social] life might’ve gone through some kind of dramatic change.

Still, as a kid, not as a teenager, Mello probably relied entirely on himself. But that’s only if the DNwiki can be believed. If not, then we can be sure Mello had Matt on his side for most of his life. Either way Mello had Matt on his side.

——

So y’see “Ohba says” is really the smallest most insignificant part of the argument. There’s canonical proof that Mello and Matt were close. So there. I hope that gives you some peace.

join me in my ramblings and talk about akane ! for the analysis thingy

Akane's openess is what always strikes me about her character. Truly nothing is off limits and she just tells it like it is. I find that really admirable and also reflected in everything about her, from her design to her expressions to the way she speaks, she's just very open and like. Objective? I also find it cool how akane's backstory informs her character. It doesn't come out of nowhere and you can really see why she does the things she does. ALSO it's FASCINATING to me that she doesn't like actually give any single damn about her talent? Like not in a Leon way where she actively hates it and wants to be something else it's just like not that important to her. That's something that i think is really necessary for balance in a dr cast (and it's also another reason shes foils with nagito 👀) and for that matter i think that element allows her to compare and contrast well with the other characters and particularly the survivors. Akane cares about what she finds important, and what she finds important is a lot more practical and straightforward than the other characters because of her life. Her down to Earthness really stands out and is pretty critical for such a colorful cast. I think it's notable that akane's color scheme and design is a lot more similar to something you'd see in thh, a game that's overall aesthetic is more like. Based in reality? (As based in reality as dr gets anyways) and i think that describes her well. She's more connected to reality than the other characters in a really visceral way even with her intense strength and heightened senses she still has limits and that really frustrates her, she's not all knowing or superhuman. She's just a person who uses her skills to help her get by in whatever way she can.

✴ unlikely (or very likely) duo ✴

And they used to call Blues, Jazz and Rock'n'Roll "The Devils" music so "good god fearing Christians" would be shamed into not listing/loving music created by Black Folk. Little Richard, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Lead Belly, Bo Diddley and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

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