Latest Posts by doyoulikeslimes - Page 4

Thoughts on Dazai, Fyodor and manipulation

In the latest chapter, we get to hear Dazai & Fyodor talk about their methods from their own mouths. They both are masters of manipulation, but their ways of going about it are entirely different.

Fyodor suggested that they had a peaceful “discussion” on the current situation, but it was really just a way for both of them to assess each other’s information while keeping their own to themselves as much as possible. Fyodor acknowledged that being equals in terms of intellect, they were the only two people who were able to understand and keep up with each other, and Dazai agreed, after a moment of suspicion.

Fyodor asked Dazai for “advice” on how to make his subordinates more independent. To me, this sounds like Fyodor was trying to get information on how Dazai’s colleagues operated, and how they knew what to do. Dazai then gave a very Dazai-like response, telling Fyodor that he basically acted like a lazy ass all day, which gave his colleagues a reason to act on their own because no one wanted to rely on a “good-for-nothing”.

Dazai then asked Fyodor for a way to make the cafe waitress fall for him (again, very Dazai-like). This, to me, is Dazai’s way of asking how Fyodor won over his “allies”, such as Hawthorne and Mushitarou. Fyodor promptly replied that he basically got hold of their lifeline, found out their weaknesses, and gave them an “offer” they couldn’t refuse.

And there we have it, the two “demons” revealing how they manage to make people dance around them and do their work. Fyodor lured people in with promises of a better life, or safety of a loved one. At the end of the day, he would just be watching from a safe spot, casually sipping tea. Dazai, while pretending to do nothing, gave people room to act on their own will. Sure, his methods are questionable, and there are times when he cornered people into cooperating with him. The case of Ango, for instance, was Dazai acting selfishly to satisfy his own silent wrath, while achieving his bigger objective at the same time (he was so furious at Ango he even willingly put himself in danger. This angry child and poor Ango need a talk). But most of the time, Dazai’s deals made room for a win-win situation (Kyouka and Kouyou’s case, for instance). He also put Atsushi and Akutagawa in danger without their knowledge, but at the end of the day, they both had the chance to grow thanks to that. Dazai is also ready to step in when things get serious, the most recent example being him getting arrested on purpose to see through Fyodor’s plans.

While Dazai and Fyodor undoubtedly are similar, they differ in the way they see people. They both have people wrapped around their little fingers, but while Fyodor sees them as pawns to be moved around and thrown away once they fulfill their purpose, Dazai sees them as valuable lives, each having their own potential.

Since we got to see a glimpse of what moved Dazai to see the world the way he does, I hope we will one day get to know Fyodor’s story, as well. To me, they are both alienated individuals who chose their own ways to find meaning to their lives. It seems to me that Fyodor, in his own way, is trying to understand people, what moves them, and what causes them to become the “sinfully stupid” creatures he so looks down upon. Perhaps he wants to witness the brilliance of people’s lives at their brightest moments, the same way Dazai was trying his luck in the Mafia. Perhaps he never made any friends, and never had the chance to see himself as part of the sinful mess of human beings, the way Dazai did.

–Dazai Osamu, No Longer Human (1948). 

Dazai take the fucking antidote

Jax’s “acting normal” especially in his conversation with Pomni has about 2 explanations I’d say:

1. First and most simply- He doesn’t have the energy to torment someone in that moment. Just the easy conclusion to come to from watching the episode normally.

2. Second- That’s the “real” Jax, not the tormentor. Probably brought out by the realistic setting, and addition of consequences or “punishment.”

After Gangle asks Caine to make “punishments” and when he’s sent to his… “training” he looks genuinely disturbed and even afraid.

…Which is definitely something we haven’t seen from him yet! And then we see him act normally for the rest of the episode! This makes me think the Jax we see in the Circus, the bully, the asshole- He only acts that way because he is, or believes he is free from the consequences it would have in the real world. Having little reaction to Ragatha’s state, asking Pomni how she’s doing, and then following an order reflects how he acted in his real life, as an average or unassuming person.

Whether the jerk we usually see is a genuine expression, some kind of “mask” to hide something, or, most likely in my opinion, both. That’s not how he acted in his real life.

This episode is focused on Gangle, focused on her masks. But I think the theme of masks expands over the episode as a whole. Especially with Jax and Ragatha- Ragatha speaking her mind thanks to the “stupid sauce” (lol) and Jax being pushed into acting normal and almost even friendly. The opposite of what we’ve seen of them but undeniably realer or hidden versions of themselves.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS KINGER DOING ON HIS ADVENTURE LMAOOO

GUYS

the top right of jax’s numberplate

and “mind altering drugs”

the spudsy sauce??

“dangerous and demanding tasks”

the adventures??

“*adult things* being prohibited”

THE CENSORSHIP??

Jax's Character Gimmick

This is a theiry my brain has cultivated since watching the 4th episode, since it is a theory, don't take anything I'm saying as fact. it's purely speculation for now.

also apologies in advance, but this will be a wall of text, that is to say, a long post.

So, Each character in the Digital circus seems to have a gimmick of some kind. Ragatha gets hurt by the environment often, Gangle's got her breaking comedy mask, Zooble has their ever-changing parts, Pomni seems to have an existential crisis every episode, and Kinger has his fluctuating lucidity. But what about Jax?

well, in episodes 3 and 4, Jax either didn't get a lot of screen time, or didn't take many opportunities to cause mischief. Hell, in episode 3, Jax vacuumed up ghostly only because that's what he thought he was supposed to do for the adventure. after that Jax didn't get to do much on account of being tied up.

In episode 4, as far as mischief goes he just throws Ragatha in the deep fryer. but before that happens, I think we see the first glimpse of Jax's gimmick. it happens in the first minute of the episode, where Ragatha was helping Gangle learn to throw a baseball. Jax honestly seemed to just want to play a game in the moment, yet when Gangle threw the ball, and he hit it, the ball hit her right in the face. Jax might not have looked apologetic in the moment, but he did seem confused. and when Ragatha went to scold him about it (assuming he did it on purpose), he says "I actually didn't mean to do that".

This is interesting to me because in every other episode, Jax has done something to cause mischief. and said mischief usually involved someone getting hurt, thrown around, or having something of theirs broken.

Here's the thing, I think that Jax deliberately causes this mischief on purpose, because his character gimmick is causing harm to others. maybe when he first arrived in the digital world, he had tried to be nice, maybe even helpful, but those efforts would backfire in a wacky way, ultimately resulting in something or someone getting hurt. in other words, he'd accidentally do something that harmed someone or something important to someone.

I think at first he felt bad about it, accidentally causing harm to others. but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to go a day without hurting someone. and the harder he tried to avoid it, the more others would get hurt. So Jax, seeing the pattern, decided to embrace it. He started deliberately causing mischief, and found that if it wasn't an accident on his part, then he would have a level of control over how much pain he causes. like if he feels he has to cause chaos, at least he can control it to a degree.

over time, I think Jax started to find humor in others misfortune. and it sorta turned into a coping mechanism for the gimmick of constantly having to cause someone else misfortune.

so. yeah.

Jax's Coping Mechanism (being the first n all)

If he was the first to enter the Digital Circus, then how has he survived this long? Without abstracting, I mean.

Probably the same way he's surviving currently. BEING AN ASSHOLE. Focusing on the misery of others instead of his own. Not giving a fuck basically- or, giving way too much of a fuck, so he distracts himself.

So, does this make him a bad person? If he's prioritizing his safety (not getting abstracted) at the risk of others?

Probably. A bit selfish, too.

But, to him, this is the only thing that will keep him going.

He's breaking, though. Just a lot slower than the others. He won't be able to keep this act up forever. And I think he knows this. Personally, I'm excited to see if and when he breaks.

Anywho, this post isn't really justifying what he does. Like I said, he's an asshole. But he's also being an asshole because that's what's comfortable for him- even if it hurts sometimes. It's what keeps him sane, and only him, so that's all that matters, right?

I'd like to see if he ever truly feels bad for what he does, maybe in a future episode. I'd love to see him go too far. Maybe bring someone else in the circus close to abstraction? I think that would gnaw at him for a while, if how he acts doesn't do that to him already.

How complex. He has the capacity to be good, but he's not focused on that right now. So he doesn't care if he's a bad person. As long as he's able to keep living.

Or maybe I'm just reading a bit too much into his character. Just thought this was interesting. If he was the first, that must mean he has the strongest coping mechanism out of everyone else- if he has survived this long. But this, unfortunately, does mean becoming the worst version of yourself in the process. If you want to survive in the circus, Jax's strategy is to sacrifice other's sanities in order to save your own.

Maybe he was a good person before he joined, and became a bad person to survive. Or maybe he was always this way.

Either way, his character is really intriguing to me! Can't wait to see the horrors he goes through next!

not seeing enough posts about how jax literally was correct about how caine isn't gonna do anything even if they misbehave during the adventure

like he very much said nothings gonna happen and he was RIGHT because they all got the same score despite pomni flirting with gummygoo instead of taking the gloink queen's order, ragatha being high, and jax clocking off early and putting ragatha in the frier and saying he hates customers and... everything else he did. meanwhile zooble did their job so well and ALSO got a b+ like everyone else

tldr jax was right that they cant face consequences and the fact hes so confident in that probably makes the fact that hes an asshole make significantly more sense bc he has no reason to stop and also he's right that nothing they do in the circus matters. work hard? b+. get high and stop working to sit on the floor and make everyone elses lives harder? also b+

It makes me laugh how Moomintroll is getting bigger and bigger and Snufkin is getting smaller, it seems like everyone should soon start calling him Little Snus

dude really started wearing platforms Moomin`s height started to humiliate him lol

ok watched all of elusive samurai season 1, general thoughts

cue my latin teacher saying "they all died, it was a very long time ago" about all the characters. i have no idea how the series ends but basing it on a real guy who did not succeed is very interesting. theres a time limit of 20 yrs before tokiyuki dies so i wonder if they're going to follow through with that

the cg horses and specifically the dog hunting scene are the bane of my life but everything else is so gorgeous. going insane from the animation, and the style changes are sooooooooo cool im in love. the peacock feather ?? divine bird ?? wing effects that are drawn around tokiyuki are so gorgeous. generally any sequence with him fighting is crazy to watch

interesting eye and god themes going on (buddha, yorishige's future visions, takauji's eye, those random flashes of insight that some characters get when they see through their opponent's attacks, edit: how could i forget the emperor's laser eyes)

also a meta commentary about stories???? it's very story within a story of them ... hmmm...

very absurd and sometimes dark, the gore and moments of terror are executed well again i would give my life for the animators who draw certain decapitation sequences in this anime

overall 7/10, some of the jokes and fanservice feel out of place and put me off from enjoying it more but everything else is woah

happy holidays wasn’t this movie fucked up

Scrawny little Snufkin 🌱🌼

Maybe I'll finish this animation, maybe I won't...

Vid is also up on yt

Everything about Takauji in this episode was sooooo unsettling and creepy I was gripped in my seat. Would

New son!! <33

let him talk moomin

Artist By からすまい

I was going to write an all-caps post begging you to watch this series, but I feel like it wouldn’t give it any justice, so um, here’s a fucking essay on why you should watch this.

Fandoms react to is a popular "genre" in the Gacha fandom where people make characters from fandoms "react" to edits or scenes of a character’s story. It is very popular in the Gacha fandom.

But this series takes a turn and makes the characters wonder why the fuck they are in a room with a bunch of people watching videos of their personal lives and how the hell they’re going to get out—something that is ignored in EVERY SINGLE GACHA REACT EVER.

The world-building in this series is amazing, and the genuine amount of work put into this just makes it better. Not to mention both the characters and the design for them are incredibly accurate and are just fun to watch as the characters interact with one another in the terrifying situation they’ve been forced into.

And to put it frank, that is really all I can tell you because saying anything else will ruin the experience of really watching this ongoing series for yourself.

And if you’re still having second thoughts on if this is really as good as I said it was, please remember that I wrote an entire essay just to convince people to watch it. So yea, it's that good.

Hi, do you watch 'react to cale' gacha videos?

Actually... no, not at all. As I explained in this post, Amalia's series is the only one I actually ever watched and enjoyed. In the past, I checked out a random TCF gacha video or two out of curiosity to figure out what the fuss was about (and why there seems to be like a bajillion videos of this kind on Youtube from all different fandoms for some reason)... but I did not like them, at all. There's nothing wrong with liking them of course, judging by the view counts lots of people do. But for me, there was just no substance to it? So I don't get the hype. (Then again, I don't enjoy the TikTok format either. Might be a matter of taste.)

Amalia's TCF video series was different for me because it is more an actual fanfic than a random clipshow. I originally found it because Amalia also made some INCREDIBLE animatics. There's a lot of effort put into all of their videos. The gacha series has script, and a really good one, too! So if you ever find another series like that (...in English please, I don't know Russian lol), please let me know! I would love to see it.

my confession as a grown ass 19 year old is that im still obsessed with those "characters reacting to the show theyre in" gacha videos, idk what it is about them but i can never stop watching them

the saiki k ones are so good because its always either like conveniently avoiding clips of saikis powers and everyone is really confused, or its a power reveal

when the hyperfixation got you so bad you start watching the gacha reaction videos

what if we’ve all been in those gacha reaction things but we dont remember it bc the creator wiped our memories

im considering letting you live

Deepest Darkest secret :3

I still watch those gacha reaction videos. Every time I join a new fandom my first instinct is to look at those gacha reaction vids. I love them sm guysss.

"At your big age?" Yes

"In 2024?" Y E S... YES YES YES YES.

gacha life reaction videos are like my cocomelon. i go to my youtube reccomended tag, because after watching like two long *ss video essays my brain starts to melt. like is it just me??? i watch them when im not reading tcf, ditoeftv, orv, IM WATCHING THE REACTION VIDEOS. they have me in a chokehold and wont let go

drew a bunch of different snufkins. idk much about a few of these so if i got anything wrong, dont bother telling me just think really hard about it and maybe i’ll receive your feedback telepathically in a week or so

OKAY EDIT because multiple people have mentioned it: IM SORRY book snufkin was only depicted with a harmonica. he has an accordion in some of tove’s standalone illustrations and i chose to draw like a very specific snufkin ive seen in a few drawings from her. the accordion was only for a fun comparison and also because accordions are awesome buut that wasnt a very good representation of general book snufkin my apologies

this happened in a dream i had ages ago

Queerplatonic NaLu

Before I get into this I need to define what queerplatonic means.

It is a relationship which is more intense and intimate than is considered common or normal for a "friendship", but doesn't fit the traditional sexual-romantic couple model. It is characterized by a strong bond, love, and emotional commitment, yet is not perceived by those involved as "romantic".

In other words something that is between friendship and romance.

Do you remember that chapter/episode where Mira convinces Lucy that Natsu has a crush on her? Lucy doesn't believe her at first but slowly she started seeing everything Natsu says and does as evidence of him having feelings for her. She then freaks out and has mixed feelings about being in a romantic relationship with Natsu. However eventually she becomes more comfortable with that idea. In the end she is embarassed and disappointed but this incidents does affect their relationship in any way. In that chapter Lucy went from seeing their relationship as platonic to seeing it as romantic and back to viewing it as platonic in a matter of hours.

This is what Mashima wrote about that chapter.

A lot of anti NaLu arguments claim that Mashima has already intended NaLu to be platonic. That's however not what Mashima actually said. He said he didn't intend their relationship to be romantic. I think that's important to note.

Now this is quite old and given that Mashima is from a different culture and speaks a different language, him knowing this specific term that a lot of english speakers don't know is unlikely. So it's entirety possible that he intended NaLu to be a queerplatonic relationship without knowing the specific term for that kind of relationship.

Mashima states he has been written NaLu as more than just friends but less than lovers. Something in between friendship and romance. In other words queerplatonic.

A lot of the good faith anti NaLu arguments claim that Nalu isn't a bad relationship but a platonic one. While to NaLu shippers their relationship is very obviously romantic. Both sides are convinced that their interpretation is canon. I think this happens because their relationship exists in the area between friendship and romance. It's neither or both depends on your perspective. It's friends with benefits but the benefit is that they live together and cuddle a lot.

A relationship with a strong bond, emotional commitment and love where people in the relationship don't think of their relationship as romantic does very much perfectly describe NaLu. I think Lucy has feeling for him but she doesn't necessarily view their relationship as romantic.

While not exclusive queerplatonic relationships are more common amoung aro/ace people. A lot of people including myself have speculated about Natsu being on the ace spectrum. He shows little to no sexual attraction and what little attention he does show is directed towards Lucy. Which to me feels very much like grey/demi sexual. It's something to consider.

From the begining it felt like there was something more present in their relationship. A sort of ease and tenderness that isn't typically depicted in romantic relationships

That being said I don't think their relationship was romantically coded the way Gruvia or Jelsa were.

I do think Mashima has changed his views on NaLu and is writing them to be more romantic and that's perfectly fine. As things stands now their relationship feels more on the romantic side rather than platonic and I would very much like to see them actually get together. I just don't think that was his original intention.

But regardless of intentions fairy tail is fiction and so your interpretation of NaLu be it romantic or platonic is perfectly valid. Similarly even if I'm wrong my interpretation of them being queerplatonic is also valid.

I think viewing NaLu as a queerplatonic relationship is interesting and it's something we should consider while discussing whether NaLu is platonic or romantic.

Moomins: The Turning of the Leaves pg. 10 of 31

Snufkin is looking nervous

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