I Just Don’t Get It. How Can Our Society Act So Goddamned Normal About Seahorses. How Can Anybody So

Pt. 2 of Mass Effect things that are so fucking funny, imagine you're a Krogan chillin on Tuchanka feelin' good about yourself when a sentient bag of water walks in with the Krogan equivalent of a living Barbie doll, high fives the president, bitch slaps a foreign dignitary, kills a demigod, and then leaves without any further explanation

I was not made for….*gestures broadly at the world*

I like the show version of Chishiya, and here’s why.

I love manga!Chishiya, but he always felt pretty one-dimensional to me. His backstory is one of parental neglect, similar to Arisu. Chishiya basically fails to develop a sense of empathy (unlike Arisu, who just has ye olde Main Character Syndrome). He decides to enter med school because he thinks that a profession where he saves lives might actually help him grow a Give-a-Shitter. Spoiler: it doesn’t.

Manga!Chishiya is an emotional flat line. He doesn’t care about other characters because he can’t. I remember thinking that he had a lot of the same traits as a serial killer. He viewed the world through nothing but intellect, and other people were either nonexistent or pawns to be used to further his own ends. Even the idea that maybe being responsible for the lives of others will help him grow some empathy is a chilling one.

That’s cool. I actually really like those kinds of characters. I also think there are enough characters like that in the story. Characters who you look at and think, “Okay, yes, you are terrible.” The big problem is that it makes his weird self-sacrifice with Usagi absolutely senseless. Like, it came out of nowhere. There wasn’t any sort of satisfying build-up where I felt like, “Okay, yeah, this makes sense.”

His updated backstory adds a dimension that wasn’t present in the manga version. Rather than simply lacking empathy for other people, you can actually see the moment in which he makes the conscious decision to turn it off. He has this light bulb moment where he realizes that the world is a cruel and unfair place. He realizes that allowing himself to feel for other people is only going to hurt him in the end because he’s powerless to change the systems that are actively harming them. It’s better to protect himself and survive.

Chishiya is a selfish character, but the idea that his selfishness stems out of a desire to protect himself from pain gives his character some actual depth that was always missing for me. It also makes the King of Diamonds game a lot more meaningful. Kuzuryu went through the same exact thing, but instead of turning off his feelings, he paralyzed himself with a moral dilemma. Where Chishiya chose to treat all human life as equally worthless, Kuzuryu couldn’t stop looking for some value to assign, whether that was to ease his conscience or to inform a sense of justice he was desperately trying to find.

I really, really like how that dichotomy played out.

I also think it’s interesting that Chishiya feels a lot more psychological in the show. He’s clearly highly intelligent in both the manga and the show, and maybe it’s just Murakami’s performance, but there’s something more sinister to him. He’s clearly developed some sort of friendly relationship with Kuina. He displays an ability to be playful and seems to genuinely be extending an offer of friendship to Arisu (up until he sells him out for one corn chip). Seeing how he can make these connections that feel genuine to the people involved (unlike his manga self who is pretty universally despised) and still be willing to fuck those people over for his own survival makes him feel a lot more menacing to me.

This ability to flawlessly manipulate and betray also means he has a deep understanding of human emotion, which is illogical by nature. In the manga, Chishiya says outright that he isn’t suited for Hearts games, but show!Chishiya feels tailor-made for them.

It’s also interesting that in the manga, he seems to get harsher and more isolated. By contrast, in the show, he feels to me like he softens episode by episode. It really struck me in the Jack of Hearts game when he said something about his partner dying because he was too kind. On the surface, you could take it as a typical judgy Chishiya comment, but there actually appeared to be a glimmer of sadness, or envy, or regret. Or all of the above. Or maybe it’s just Murakami Nijiro’s face that made me think that. Either way, I think it was smart of the showrunners to throw him in that game.

In the end, the King of Diamonds game pushes him to the realization that he really is envious of people who have the ability to be kind. He’s envious of people who can make the selfless choice. And it’s not because he can’t be. It’s because he’s closed himself off to the vulnerability that allows a person to make that kind of decision. You can’t truly save others if you’re always protecting yourself.

So, he saves Usagi to try to become that person. And I don’t feel it was out of character at all.

Cultural Anatomy: Sokka’s Choker

From what I’ve researched, chokers were traditionally worn by some Native American tribes rather than by the Inuit, who traditionally preferred looser fitting necklaces. But Sokka’s particular choker is identical to traditional Alaskan Inuit bracelets, which are made from walrus or whale ivory.

Which means that Sokka might just be wearing a bracelet as a choker. And I can’t think of anything more perfectly Sokka than using an item for something beyond its intended purpose. I can totally imagine how the whole thing started:

Mother Kya: “One day, when Katara gets married, I’ll give her this necklace that Gran-Gran gave to me.”

Lil Sokka: “No fair! Why don’t I get anything?”

Hakoda: “Sokka, this necklace is for girls only.”

Lil Sokka: “Fine, I’ll just make my own necklace.” *ties his bracelet around his neck and immediately starts choking*

Gran-Gran: *sighs* I’ll get more string…

Hirotsu is one of the best and most effective dad figure in the series and it's not talked about enough.

Chuuya drunk dialing Dazai to bitch about how Mori wants him back in the mafia, Dazai, the clown that he is PICKS UP the damn phone. Hirotsu being skk's unofficial handler rips the phone from Chuuya's hand, reprimands Dazai for not discarding the phone, and then LIES to Kaji to protect skk from any allegations regarding fraternizing with the enemy.

Source

What's a bitch gotta do to find floor plans for REAL historical palaces and mansions and not fake ones people made up for Minecraft or to sell to Americans

replaying mass effect 3, more specifically citadel dlc atm, so here's what it's inspired ✨️ - part one

(part two)

Doing more than one? Choose whichever you found the most helpful. ❤️

my favorite cheshire cat