Covered In Nature

In which I ramble about a movie

The reason "A Silent Voice" works so well is that at no point does the story try to justfiy the fact that Ishida Shouya bullied Nishimiya Shouko.

No excuse about him having a hard home life.

No trying to say that he bullied her as a child because he had a crush on her at the time.

When he himself is bullied later on, the story doesn't use this as a way to nullify the fact that he bullied his classmate in the past.

His remorse is realistic and he starts to feel regret soon after Nishimiya has to switch schools. He feels responsible even though he wasn't the only student who bullied her, even though the teacher was probably the most responsible of all, as he purposefully turned a blind eye to his students' behavior.

Ishida goes out of his way to learn sign language in order to make amends. The story doesn't tell us how long he had spent on learning the language before he found her again. It could have been months, maybe years.

He doesn't feel deserving of Nishimiya's friendship, but she's the one who decides to forgive him, no one pressures her into doing so. And you agree with her decision because of how well Ishida and his redemption is written.

He focuses on making her life better, probably out of a mixture of gratitude and a desire to assuage his guilt.

Nishimiya also feels guilty despite being innocent. She thinks Ishida would be better off without her friendship, believing he's being stigmatized because of her disability. All the while Ishida wants to spend more time with her to make up for his past, and to make her realize she's not at fault.

The story also treats the characters' depression with respect and doesn't really romanticize it. You want these characters to be at peace with themselves, with each other, and with the other people in their lives.

TL;DR

"A Silent Voice" works because it doesn't try to justify the former bully's actions, shows that he feels genuine remorse and is willing to change his behavior of his own accord in order to make ammends, thus making his redemption and his friendship with Nishimiya all the more believable.

my mood

soon as she unblocks me the wedding is back on

“unbinding” spell jar

sort of like an “unbinding” jar, i made a spell jar to release the hold my favorite person has on me.

a favorite person in the context of borderline personality disorder is a person who you have an unhealthily strong bond with. you base your self worth on how this person treats you.

INGREDIENTS:

a jar

a picture of the person you are unbinding

two scrolls of paper with your names on each one

string

red chili flakes (used for banishing negativity)

table salt (to cleanse and purify)

black candle (to banish bad energy)

white candle (to purify)

optional: an artifact that symbolizes your friendship

STEPS:

gather your ingrediants. write your name on one slip of paper, and the other person’s name on the other. connect the two pieces of paper with a piece of string.

light a black candle. with your intent in mind (severing the connection between the two of you), burn the string connecting the papers.

tear up the picture of the person. doing so carefully, burn the picture and the slips of paper.

add the ashes to your jar.

add red chili flakes and salt to your jar.

optional: in my jar, i added a ring that she handmade for me.

light the white candle. keeping your intent in mind (sealing off the jar and thereby banishing and severing your bond), seal the jar with the white candlewax.

intent is very important. your purpose for this jar is to channel that bond into it, cleansing your life and banishing that negative energy and unhealthy bond.

I want more friends, is that possible??

I have to try this:

I keep using my girlfriend with unusual work hours to get out of coworker interactions and happy hours and hanging out.

But now the company holiday party is upon us.

And I’ve been lying about the girlfriend.

I suddenly really empathise with the characters in Hallmark Christmas movies.