[RELEASE] D.Gray-man Chapter 253

20th Century Marriage Discussion…

PH 15th anniversary cleanings (1/?)

I scanned the new arts in the anniversary book so I thought I’d clean them up a little 💕

One day I’ll post the full thing with translations, if I manage to clean it all up

A lot of fantasy goes with Tolkien explanation of fantasy racism being the result of ancestral grudge.

Then you got Dungeon Meshi which is like:

"Elves and Dwarves hate each other because their respective empires make up 2/3 of the imperial core and are stuck in a cold war as the planet runs out of uncolonized land to grab. Elves are able to live in pastoral paradise because they've horded most of the settings farm-able land and natural capital, displacing and mass murdering any natives in the process. Orcs and goblins are hostile to other races because there the primary targets of an ongoing slavery and genocide campaign. The dividing line between human and inhuman is arbitrarily assigned via a phrenological pseudo-science that quickly falls apart when questioned by anyone who wasn't indoctrinated into it since birth."

my toxic trait is that i genuinely believe that the side effects of immortality won't affect me. i have so much stuff i want to learn i won't even notice the centuries go by. also i'm nosey as hell so the decades-deep gossip would keep myself from isolating from human society because i want to know what's going on. i would make such a good vampire i stand by this

i do find it very interesting how different the foxes and the trojans go about caring for and supporting each other. well, actually, i mostly find it interesting how differently people seem to feel about it, especially in regards to kevin's drinking problem.

the way kevin's clearly unhealthy relationship with alcohol doesn't get condemned or fixed in the original trilogy for example is something that many people in the fandom have been pretty upset and critical about for many years and jean's reaction to it seemed to have really moved people (though that in particular, imo, had at least as much to do with jean's very restricted and in itself unhealthy relationship to food and drinks as with him uniquely seeing and caring about kevin's substance abuse issues. like, yeah, he really, really cares about him, but i don't think he'd have been thaaat much less upset if kevin was coping by eating chips or something. but well, whatever).

but to me, that never really read as no one caring about kevin or thinking alcohol is the ideal way for him to regulate his emotions.

the whole premise of how wymack runs the foxes and how they treat each other is just very built around the idea that all these people have been through awful things and that the way they'll cope with that won't always be pretty. but as long as they cope at all, they'll be around for another day, and another, which'll buy them to actually get better.

which is how you get stuff like wymack, in good conscience, not only tolerating but at times even soliciting underage drinking. and looking past the harder drugs some of the team are doing. and it's how him and the team all accept that neil is definitely lying about pretty much everything but mostly just leave him be. and how they all agreed to let andrew get off his legally mandated medication during games even though that could have terrible consequences for all of them. and how matt's mom said "sure random eighteen year old calling me on the phone, do give my addict son speedballs, you seem to have a higher success rate at getting teenagers clean than me 👍" because they all view life less as you're either doing good or you doing bad, and more as you're either surviving whatever it takes to do so, or you don't, so who cares if you aren't coping in healthy or acceptable ways, as long as you are coping. (and then once they're ready to work on getting better, they do have a support system in place to help them get there)

meanwhile the trojans are mostly pretty normal and well adjusted, so they have a pretty clear idea of what a healthy person who's doing well looks like, and that's what they generally want for other people, especially those they care about. so when they see someone who's not doing well and not dealing with it in healthy ways they are very direct about it, sort of a "your behaviour is not healthy, stop doing it" thing. your eating habits are really restrictive? try eating different food anyways, it's really good, i prommy. you hurt yourself when you're upset? here's how to physically stop this from hurting. you get incredibly startled when you're touched unexpectedly? well, just let me try hugging you again. you drink to deal with your feelings? please don't, it's not good for you.

and obviously that's a lot more normal and straight forward than what the foxes are doing, and it's done with love and support. and a lot of fans find it very moving and beautiful and sweet. but i also know that i'm not the only person who was really put off by this and still finds it kinda disconcerting. to me it feels, especially in contrast to the foxes, who would largely find this sooo overbearing and rude and uncomfortable, kinda like strongarming someone into doing well, with (at least in the context of these specific books) shockingly little regard for personal boundaries.

my point isn't that one's better than the other or anything, i think both approaches are going to work differently well for different people and within the books it makes perfect sense why the different teams would act this way, and it's also perfectly understandable why some people really resonate with one approach and find the other irritating or unkind. it's simply some thoughts that have been rattling around in my head. building up to: nothing really. oh well

Why did no one tell me Monster was hilarious?

There's got to be some variety. So here you go, Rina.

God the range of conflicts in Blue Lock is so funny. They get increasingly more personal and intense and comparing some of them to others is hilarious.

Isagi and majority of the cast's main conflict is just wanting to become the best in the world. Normal soccer dreams. This doesn't really change for most of them. Their arcs are not really about soccer but about finding the happy medium between shooting for the spotlight but also remembering soccer is a sport played by 11 people. In a metaphorical sense, asserting yourself and living your life how you want without going too far and being a selfish/self-serving asshole.

Then Bachira has an actual internal crisis over being complacent depending on Isagi, but then solves his problems pretty quickly. Like a legit personal issue he has to navigate through, and successfully does so. He's so happy just being able to play soccer all the time. He's also in love with Isagi. This isn't a problem for him though.

Then there's Reo and Nagi going through the messiest divorce ever (well, Ness and Kaiser might take the cake on that one atp) because Nagi realized that having feelings is cool actually and didn't realize that he basically dumped Reo. They have a complicated ex arc and a backslide arc that is doomed to implode. They're both crazy about each other but also unwell. They are a mess and everyone in canon atp just looks away from this trainwreck. Nagi's arc is decently heavy with emotional conflict due to the fact that Nagi himself experiences very little emotional conflict (as far as he's aware of). Lmao.

Then there's Rin who has like actual problems that were inflicted on him. He really has every reason to be miserable and devastated and angry. He is miserable and devastated and angry. He is not handling this well. He is having actual psychological turmoil he can't escape, he is misplacing his anger on other people (one person), he is spiraling further literally every chapter every week. He has ten times as much emotional conflict in his arc as everybody else. His arc is not about soccer, it's about relationships and his role in them and how he needs to find his own ego and motivation. It's about letting people in and lifting him up even when he's hurting, especially because he's hurting. He is not handling this teamwork thing very well. He is the saddest meow meow in blue lock. He needs help, he has issues. Isagi help him.

(There is Kunigami and whatever the fuck is going on with him, but we know not too much so I will not rope him in yet).

Majority of the cast is trying to find their ego and play soccer and be the best. Then there's Nagi and Rin who are so lost on what to do with their lives and they are clearly massive trainwrecks amidst what I personally would consider a mostly normal group of people fighting for normal personal goals. I love when everyone is normal and then a very small amount of people among this normal group of people are absolutely not fucking normal and everyone in the story actually sees it.

I'm gonna be honest half of these are just what i want to happen but oh well. i also spent way too long on this. I spelled kunigami's name wrong i apologize im too lazy to fix it

NEW SHOTS OF XIE LIAN DOING HIS TAIZI YUESHEN PERFORMANCE!!!