"i need to clean my room / do the dishes / do the laundry" = boring, horrific, makes it seem like a burden.
"i'm tending to my realm / the magic tower needs maintenance / i'm restoring the kingdom to what it was" = beautiful, amazing, spetacular, joyful, full of childlike wonder, actually describes what the task feels like as opposed to what it is
Libracollector is a term for anyone who hoards/collects terms like books in a private library.
Day 24 of @knightlyte coining event. Prompt: collecting
DNI: ableist, racist, bigot, truscum, transmed, TERF, anti-mogai/neopronouns/xenogender, anti-mspec gay/lesbian/etc., anti-endo, queerphobe, REG, gatekeeper, anti-decolonization, anti-abortion, prolife, anti-anti, NSFW/kink/BDSM
š«š° (a lie. he loves being mean)
ACT UP and Gran Fury aids posters
1987
someone commented on my fic and I couldnāt get this image outta my head
Can't wait for next episode
iām obsessed with theseā¦
(From DepthOfWikipedia on Instagram)
Can a cause be worth dying for? Or is it the sacrifice for the sake of something that proves the thing valuable?
Thereās two ways to look at the members of the Phantom Troupe, by looking at the things they do to other people,and at the things they do to themselves and each other.
Seeing how much they identify with the Spider,we can throw the theory of them just being selfish psychopaths out of the windows. Neither do they seem manic or crazy,and yet..in a way they remind us of a cult. Besides that,Iāve also found them to have qualities or the following: rebels,revolutionaries,soldiers,robinhoods,martyrs.
Despite committing so much undeniable evil,and despite them never really saying it,thereās clearly a greater good involved. This idea of something bigger is exactly what the story is subverting,and seemingly critiquing. Or is it?
It might be what makes those characters so captivating and interesting-their unquestioning devotion to the entity that is more than just the sum of themselves,what they live trough and die for - The Spider. Why would the proof of criminals like them having principles and loyalty to something be a problem? In a weird way, the Spider has an almost redeeming function - after all itās a reason and a potential excuse for all their horrible actions. At the same time,isnāt that what makes it a bad thing? If all those people are killing because of that one cause,isnāt it what turned them into who they are now? Isnāt it what makes them do all this evil? āI wouldnāt kill for something that requires murder.ā typa issue is what we got here.
The Spider as The Cause
Whether the Spiderās existence itself is whatās most important or if it is still fulfilling a purpose like it did when it was created is up for debate,in fact itās implied that this is exactly what causes Chrollo to feel lost and unable to understand his own motives. Another reason is that rather than standing for A cause,it merely stands for THE CAUSE,much like how āgodā can stand for whatever a person cares about most.
We might wonder endlessly for what reasons exactly the Spiders are doing all of that,and while there are tangible reasons given in their backstory,they work just as well to represent people who are dedicating themselves to whatever,emphasis on dedication. Regardless of specific goals,there will be sacrifices,suffering and pain following whoever cares about anything too much.
The Spider as A Team
Besides loyalty to an idea or principle,thereās also one towards oneās group,regardless of that groupās purpose or function. Without knowing anything at all about motives,backstories,aims,etc we can still see how seriously the members take it. Itās definitely a friend group,one that canāt afford to be a found family,even if thatās what they might be naturally gravitating towards.
The group or team as the greater good is even more fundamental than any additional purpose of said group,as it stays even when the purpose changes. In that regard the Spider is like any other gang,itās in- vs outrgoup,a small team of partners in crime vs the world.
This āone for all,all for oneā dynamic could exist outside of any broader context,even if since the start the Spider was meant as an opportunity for personal fulfilment (as we know now,it was quite the opposite)
The issue comes up when seeing how much the Spider setup hurts its members (as I discussed in the post about their utilitarian approach)
Since the Spider is a villain group,itās no wonder itās damaging to the people involved - why would it even be good for their mental health to kill that many people? Of course theyād make enemies and eventually die because of their dangerous lifestyle. But what would really change if they never walked down the path of darkness?
Beyond Morality
Had the Troupe managed to end up as not villains but heroes,would they risk their lives any less? Could they make a bigger change? Would the dynamics within the Spider even change,if it was a more benevolent organisation? Probably not,as there would still be a goal to achieve at any cost and a collective thatās worth more than the individual. Given that itās taken seriously enough,none of the members would avoid āgiving up their livesā anyway. No,they have to give everything up for something,and there we go again.
Itās tragic that Chrollo deemed it necessary to become a villain of all things,but had he decided to protect Meter City in a less brutal way,he wouldāve still lost himself in this mission and Pakunoda wouldāve followed him,all while vowing to never touch him and never see inside his soulšš„
The other side of the coin
^from the 1999 version yorknew opening
Of course itās the people closest to one that are meant here(I think the song is talking both to Kurapika and Chrollo telling them to value their friends over their cause)
This theme runs all through hxh,itās present from the very start as characters on a dangerous journey have to constantly chose between reaching their goal or prioritising the safety of themselves and the people around them.
Gon and Killuaās friendship and the fun they have together >> finding Ging
Meruem spending time with Komugi >> grand plans of world domination
Bonds between individual Spiders >> The entity that is the Spider
Itās as if the series is saying āpurpose and happiness lies in the here and now,not in what is grand and unreachableā
Another thing supporting this interpretation is this panel from the chimera ant arc:
The tragedy stems from human inability to ājust liveā,instead we require a greater narrative. Itās neither virtuous nor selfish to devote oneās life to some unreachable goal or mission, but itās shown as irresistible,as the only way to cope with extreme circumstances.
I wouldnāt say that Togashi is outright condemning hunters,Spiders and assassins in their pursuit of meaning through extreme means, but there is shown to be great harm resulting from that.
Everyone is chasing something,and thereās really no other choice. As much as we want to determine whether the cause is worthy or not (yes because outsiders shouldnāt get away with kidnapping Meteor Cityās children,no because itās no longer about that) the actual reason the Troupe exists is because none of those kids could continue their normal life as voice actors,instead starting a life of a way different format.
Thereās technically nothing stopping anyone from just āretiringā in favour of peace and quiet, but in the case of the Spiders especially thatās not even an option,it will never be enough for them.
Chrollo and his friends couldnāt have continued to live normally back then,let alone do that now,but wouldnāt it be nice?
Velician
A gender related to libraries, bookstores, books, and the aesthetics of them.
Bookgender
it may be felt as a connection to certain genres of books or with the aesthetics of books in general.
Livrestormgender
A gender related to reading, libraries, the night, and storms.
Genregender
related to certain genre(s) of writing in some way
Biblioique
the feeling you get when you first open a book, the smell of old books mixed with the new, the feeling of being sucked into a new world as a way to escape, and the feeling of being at home in the pages. coined by @pupyzuĀ (i would check them out)
Fitcivelic
a gender related to fiction books. coined by @pupyzuĀ
Nonfictivelic
a gender related to nonfiction books. coined by @pupyzuĀ
Comicvelic
a gender related to comic books. coined by @pupyzuĀ (i would check them out, they have a lot more of these book related themed ones and a lot of others xenos)
> Page/page/pages/pages/pageself
> Word/word/words/words/wordself
> Book/shelf/bookshelf/books/bookself
> Wri/write/writes/writes/writeself
> Book/book/books/books/bookself
> Novel/novel/novels/novels/novelself
> Ink/ink/inks/inks/inkself
> Pen/pen/pens/pens/penself
> Fic/fiction/fictions/fictions/fictionself
> Wri/write/writes/writes/writeself
> Script/script/scripts/scripts/scriptself
> š/š/šs/šs/šself
> š/š/šs/šs/šself
> š/š/šs/šs/šself
> š/š/šs/šs/šself
> āļø/āļø/āļøs/āļøs/āļøself
> š/š/šs/šs/šself
> š/š/šs/šs/šself
I turned Stanley Snyder into a marketable plushie.
Holds
hualian to me is like the only tolerable example of "he's mean to everyone except for me" bc what it reveals is not that against his better nature, some deeply buried part of xie lian guiltily finds hua cheng's difference in treatment attractive, but rather the much funnier alternative of xie lian literally does not care that hua cheng is mean bc he himself is also kinda mean and just doesn't consider any of that super wrong to say