What Can I Do For You, Collector?

I'm dying and honestly I think this rather confirms the test's quality more than anything

guess who made a horror-themed uquiz!!! How Easy Would You Be To Kill?

gofundme.com

Help Wes (Transmasc NB POC) Move Out of Toxic Home, organized by Wes Mok

Hello, I'm Wes, a 23 year old transmasc nonbinary Cantonese-American that n… Wes Mok needs your support for Help Wes (Transmasc NB POC) Move

Hi everyone, it's not easy for me to do this but I really need help moving out of my current toxic home. I'm Wes, a transmasc nonbinary canto-american artist and writer that wants to find a home where I can feel safe and happy. Please read, donate, and share.

Thank you ❤

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ARE THEY WRONG THOUGH

what do you think the boys are talkin about way back there

Here's a sketch i made quite a while back for the concept of the Oz Squad coming back to life and all having distinct personalities

I'm not entirely sure about my characterisation now because i don't think i was taking that entirely seriously while making this (as evidenced by all the jokes) but it's worth posting

Maybe I'll make more defined sketches for the idea

Fruits Basket is not about “the power of unconditional love” 

People say a lot of things about Fruits Basket and its themes and Tohru as a character. They say it’s about “the power of love” or the importance of “unconditional love” or “love and forgiveness”. Then they say that Tohru as the main character exemplifies these themes.  

But let’s really think about this. 

Fruits Basket is not about the power of love, or unconditional love, or forgiveness. 

Now Fruits Basket does have a lot to say about empathy, but it says both positive and negative things about it, and at most it is one subtheme of the larger themes of the narrative. 

People will say Furuba is about “love and forgiveness” and even just the positive side of “empathy” because they see this as what Tohru displays. Particularly they feel this is what Tohru displays as her “saving power” in the first climatic moment of the story’s end where she talks to Akito and offers her a hand in friendship. 

But “unconditional love” or “forgiveness” isn’t what Tohru has going for her in this scene that allows for such a powerful start of a resolution with Akito’s character. Nor is it ultimately empathy. Yes, Tohru has a lot of empathy for Akito in this scene, but as stated above, this is at best a subtheme of something larger going on that is the much more powerful play in the story. 

The true crux of this moment in the story is that Tohru relates to Akito. That of course leads to understanding, which leads to empathy, but it’s what Tohru relates to Akito about which is the main driving theme and purpose of the scene and the overall narrative of Furuba. 

Firstly, let’s acknowledge that Tohru isn’t empathizing with Akito in this scene simply because she has some otherworldly power that makes her “unconditionally love” even the most awful of villains. She relates to Akito because she isn’t relating to her as a “villain”, she’s relating to her as herself. Tohru is seeing herself as a villain and understanding her own flaws through Akito. Tohru is having a moment of personal development and growth as she faces down Akito with a knife - Tohru’s focus is as much on herself as it is on Akito. This is even more clear in the manga where these scenes between the two of them have tons of internal dialog from Tohru, where the bulk of it is about her own issues currently going on (with Kyo and her mother) and very little about Akito in front of her. She is talking to herself as she talks to Akito. Tohru is only able to understand where Akito is coming from at this moment because she recognizes that she has been coming from the same place - the untenable desire to hold onto unconditional and everlasting bonds. 

Now let’s talk about that theme. “The untenable desire to hold onto unconditional and everlasting bonds”. Note the word “unconditional”. Now there are a lot of dimensions to the Bond, but one key piece is that the Bond in Fruits Basket is an “unconditional love”. The Zodiac are bonded to (and love) God no matter what God does. There is also bitterness and hatred there after years and years and being bound by this feeling. But that “unconditional love” is supposed to overpower all other conditions - bitterness, oppression, abuse, desire, freedom, individuality. And it does. That’s why the Bond works, because it demands “unconditional love” from it’s members, and is set up to enforce it as the primary feeling they experience. 

So saying that Fruits Basket is about the “(positive) power of unconditional love” could not be further from the truth. Saying that this what Tohru “saves” Akito with could not be further from the truth. The story recognizes that which is unconditional and everlasting as something negative - love included - and, ultimately, impossible. The love between God and the Zodiac. The love Tohru tried to create between herself and her deceased mother. Tohru doesn’t reach Akito through a display of “unconditional love”. She reaches Akito through a recognition and a mutual acknowledgement that “unconditional love” does not exist. 

“It is terrifying to exist in this world, with no guarantee that I’ll be loved”. 

When Tohru offers Akito her hand in friendship, she is showing her that relationships (love) do not have to be unconditional in order to exist. At first, Akito rejects Tohru, saying that the first time she does anything undesirable, Tohru will reject her. Tohru doesn’t say anything and she doesn’t object to what Akito has said. She simply offers her hand again. She is not telling Akito that “I will accept you no matter what” - she is telling Akito that even without a guarantee, it is worth a try. That things don’t have to be unconditional and everlasting and frozen in time in order to exist or be worthwhile. Akito is terrified that if she leaves one absolute (the Bond and the love it guarantees her) then she can only possibly be met with the opposite absolute (no bond, no relationships, and no love ever in her life). Tohru is showing her that this isn’t true. Right here, now, she is offering Akito a chance to form a new relationship - one that may be imperfect, conditional, and limited in scope and time, but nevertheless real. 

This is what Fruits Basket is about. It is about ambiguity and change. It is about the lack of guarantees. The existence of both light and dark. The fallacy of absolutes. The false dichotomies we let rule our lives. 

So there is no absolute love. There is no absolute forgiveness. There is no absolute empathy. Tohru is not a character who, in the end, embodies any of those things. Tohru embodies hope in impermanence and the importance of change - and only after she’s learned to embrace those things herself when her character has been fighting against them for so long, just like Akito. - Mod Red (Christa) 

Winter : Truth or dare ?

Ironwood : Truth

Winter : How many hours have you slept this week ?

Ironwood :

Ironwood : Dare

Winter : Go to sleep.

Ironwood : I don't like this game.

Oscar has the only braincell and he barely shares it, it is true

and finally

(source)

Send me a character and I’ll give you some of my thoughts on them!

Qrow becoming a father figure to Mercury is such an underrated scenario it hurts me. Besides Qrow's personal villain being Tyrian who is tormenting Mercury as we speak, their individual narratives, albeit on opposite sides of the war, complement each-other so well.

Qrow saw no value in his life because of his semblance bringing harm to those he loved so he isolated himself in addiction and pledged unconditional loyalty to someone who lied and (to an extent) used him. Mercury had his semblance taken away from him for being "weak", which led him to reduce his personal value to strength, latching onto anyone to whom his skillset as an assassin can be useful in exchange for safety.

At least an interaction over their self hatred leading them to unhealthily follow people who gave them value and purpose, even if treated as a means to an end.

Aaah that makes sense :0 I'm not a big fan of Ironwood as this ireedeemable evil as of the end of V8, but I agree that both him and Raven make for very interesting antagonists and they have (or had since one is dead) a lot of potential <3 Raven still having room to grow is true, I hope we'll see more of her eventually ! Thanks for answering my question !

Can I ask why/how you parallel Ironwood and Raven ? (based on the ask about your favs). I'm struggling to find the equivalence, outside of the idea "Fear" that plays a significant part in both their character (mainly through PTSD for Ironwood and self-preservation/survival for Raven). Is there something else ? Have a good day ! (PS : I love your AMVs <3 )

Aw thanks!

Both Raven and Ironwood had a sort of tragic slide into sympathetic villainy. I wouldn’t forgive anything Ironwood does in Volume 8, as I wouldn’t forgive anything Raven’s done since she left her team. But their mindsets are written with such complexity and depth that you understand their compulsions to act in this way better than most other antagonists (which is why Ironwood and Raven are my favorite antagonists from a writing perspective -- Roman just takes the cake for likeability). However, Raven is superior to Ironwood in my opinion because all of this development happened before we met her; it enriches her present character and leaves room to grow, rather than her arc being about becoming the way she is.

Thanks for the ask!