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*MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD*

There are already several notes in the inbox about Melinda, so let's get right to it.

We now know, without a doubt, that she actually cares a lot for Damian. The panic she shows is real, especially since this panel comes right after we find out Twilight has in fact, rushed back to Berlint, and also Yor running to the scene. Their parental concern is real, and so is Melinda's.

Which is what makes her thoughts that Anya reads later on so... interesting. Anya compares Melinda to uncle Yuri, and I think it's not so much because he's a weird little dude working secretly as a secret policeman but because of this - his mind is a wall of thoughts about his sister and how much he loves her. The feelings are genuine, just extreme and a bit overwhelming.

And so we get to the final panels, where we see Melinda's love for Damian contend with her contempt for him. She wishes he'd died in the hijacking. She thinks she is 'burdened' with her son. She calls him her 'curse'. She hopes he doesn't have to stay with her for long (the kids all got home passes after the incident.) She feels disgust for her son... And more important, she doesn't want Damian to let Donovan know she's been there. What's going on?

I have a theory.

First thing. We know from the series that there's quite a bit of an age gap between Damian and Demmy. Demmy sounds older, he's been at Eden long enough to get 8 Stellas, he's never seen in the primary school section of Eden, his handwriting isn't that of a 6 year old, his history test paper looks advanced etc.

Second thing. With Melinda's insistence that Damian not tell his father about being there to see him, it gives us a slightly different interpretation of her scenes earlier in the series with Yor. Melinda doesn't want to talk about Damian. She doesn't want people to think she cares. If others think she's hands-off, good.

Or at least, she doesn't want to talk about Damian in public. Not with people who theoretically know her well. But when she's alone with Yor, Melinda does want to talk about Damian - she's the one who brings him up. She also lets slip that she has in fact been keeping informed of her son.

Third thing. Well, as I noted at the start of this post, it can't be doubted now that Melinda loves her son, a lot. She isn't as hands-off as others think she is. Like all the other parents, she rushed to her son with worry in her eyes and panic in her voice.

My interpretation is... Melinda loves Damian, but because of that, she cannot leave Donovan, or their marriage, or the Desmond household. She is held hostage because she loves. She wants to escape, but she can't. That's why she calls Damian her curse, her burden. He is the baby who arrived (relatively) recently who his husband can use as leverage, even as Demmy is becoming old enough that the eldest son can't be used as a bargaining chip any more. She continues to be a prisoner because part of her soul is in the prison with her.

And so, like Twilight, she tries to keep herself detached from her own child. She has to convince herself she does not love him. She does not want to care. She does not want him to stay with her long because it would mean getting attached. If Damian had died, she thinks she could be free. She wants to be a bad mother, cold to her son, cruel to her own flesh and blood, because if she allows herself to be a good mother, she would never be able to leave him behind. And she wants to leave...

I think it fits in with the little clues we've gotten along the way and fits in with the series' themes about lies and love. She doesn't want to let known in public she cares about Damian, because it would get back to Donovan. She doesn't want Damian to tell his father, because it would give Desmond only more leverage. She wants to hate her child, because she loves him too much.

Anyway, just my two cents. Could be way off on this one. Maybe Melinda's just weird.

Exactly!!!

I feel like one of the best ways Spy x Family presents its anti-war sentiment is how it presents the other side, the side that any lesser media would present simply as "the enemy".

Yuri is an interesting case, because he's not the average "Ostania 4 evur!" type of supremacist - and considering the target audience for this show is very much NOT nationalists and supremacists, this is a very smart move. What we've seen (in the anime) up to now from him, he's not in it because he believes Ostania is supreme for some reason - his only reason to work so hard in its service is because his sister lives in it. Sis lives in Ostania, I shall dedicate myself to Ostania! And while it's taken to an extreme, it's still way easier to relate to wanting to protect a beloved family member than to fucking nationalism.

And yet, even though we can understand why he's protective of Yor, we're not supposed to relate to the lengths he's taking that protection - either by being possessive of her or by wanting to take down Twilight. We saw Twilight's point of view, we know why he does what he does. It's his journey we follow - but then we see the other side. A young man who believes that this Twilight wants to make the world fall into chaos. Our immediate reaction is "No, he doesn't, you're an asshole and you should stop going after him!" but then you take a step back and think, hol'up. He's twenty. He idealizes his sister and his main reason for joining the secret services is to protect her and the country she lives in. Of course he would have been exposed to propaganda about how Westalis is filth and how its spies only want to destroy the beautiful world we have established as Good Ostanian PeopleTM. He's as much of a victim of it as anyone else in the country. And because of that, he not only opposes the character whose goal we're supposed to root for - he calls him a villain and his natural enemy.

The humanization of the "other side" is presented brilliantly here, because again, no extremist will watch this show and relate to it. People who love their family will. So making the antagonist's motivation be his love for his sister (even if it's to the extreme) is how it works to make the audience understand that war is not a natural instinct of humans; that even people who love their family, people like us, can be brainwashed into supporting war.

Our "enemy" is not the "other side"; it's the dehumanization of people, the propaganda and the lies the higher-ups promote in order to keep their high positions. And when we lose sight of that, we lose part of our humanity and understanding.

(Anime only fan here, don't spoil me for the manga)

I'm NOT gonna say it again

SEASONINGS include herbs and spices, along with minerals and chemicals used to season food!!!! Salt, citric acid, and MSG, are all examples of seasonings that are NOT herbs or spices!

HERBS are flavorful leaves. Only. Leaves. Doesn't matter if its dried, fresh, whole, or ground, if it is a leaf, it is an herb

SPICES are flavorful parts of plants that are NOT LEAVES. These include seeds, berries, stems, bark, roots, flowers, buds... NOT LEAVES

THANK YOU

I honestly love Amy being a mini-boss/low-tear villain twice now in Prime. Amy's love is intrinsically tied to her rage.

Without love, she is a calculated killing machine (Rusty).

WITH love but no ability to express properly, she riots (Thorn) With love and an ability to express herself... she's the Amy we recognize.

(Also, as said by @biolizardboils, "Amy can be a menace, as a treat.")

Imho the idea of ‘cruelty free’ products or food shouldn’t mean that nothing died to create it, but rather that anything and anyone involved in the creation process hasn’t been exploited or harmed.

Leather is good actually. Veganism isn’t the end all be all to morality and consumption. The issue isn’t that a chicken died for those nuggets, but that while the chicken was alive, it’s life fucking sucked. Vegan chocolate means little if the cocoa that made it was gathered by child slave labor.

Factory farms, abuses of the people who pick the fruit and vegetables we eat, the focus profit and productivity over all else - that’s the fucking issue here. It’s capitalism folks.

"Why do you watch kid shows rather than stuff for adults?"

Because kids shows have:

Clean humor that won't make me uncomfortable

Jokes that aren't related to sex, drugs, death or politics

Almost no mention of current events and things that I would like to avoid hearing about in my leisure time

Characters that like each other and treat each other kindly

Plots that hold morals, determination, teamwork and love in high regard, rather than being nihilistic about everything

Interesting and emotional plots that aren't slice of life or sitcom-based

Or drama that relies on real emotion and arcs rather than overdone melodrama and 'who's sleeping with who'

And creative settings and concepts that adult shows would be afraid to use for fear of seeming juvenile.

i’m sad for the kids but this arc has so much potential

-Uncle yuri caring about his niece (even if he doesn’t admit that)

- Anya will save the day (and probably win stellas for that)

- Loid starting to realize his feelings and that Anya is not just a mission for him

- Anya's relationships with classmates can significantly improve if she saves them. (especially with Damian)

i very much appreciate how Yor, the strongest character, is so feminine

she’s obviously the physically strongest, and arguably the most mentally and/or emotionally strong. what i really appreciate is that this strength and her femininity are complements, instead of the two being treated as mutually exclusive like in many other media.

Keep reading

*MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD*

The thing to remember about Yuri is that he's right now in the narrative about the same age as [redacted] was when the latter finally saw the light, after he has that conversation about human nature with Franky, after he saw his friends sent into the battlefield as fodder. Before that, [redacted] was arguably not unlike Yuri - following orders because he believed what he was told, because he believed Westalis was Right.

Maybe a similar arc awaits Yuri.

Grandmas were so right about puzzles and knitting and crocheting and solitaire and reading slow and slippers and baking and watching deer in the backyard send post

Don’t assume malice. Assume ignorance. Life is easier, the world is kinder, and you can educate. Actual malice is pretty rare, I find. 

It's called learned helplessness

When people ask why Izuku didn't fight back, the reason is because he was mentally primed not to.

To train an elephant, you get one when it's a baby and you tie it to the biggest, thickest tree you can find. The baby elephant will attempt to pull itself free and get exhausted in the escape attempt, only to learn that it cannot do it. You repeat this experience as many times as needed. The elephant tries, and it learns that its strength is not enough. The end result is that regardless of how big and strong the elephant gets, it will always have this mental framework of what is and isn't possible. So when it's fully grown, you can tie it to a very little tree and it won't even attempt to escape. It knows it can't break trees, so it won't even try. What does elephant training have to do with bullying? They work the same way. This state is called learned helplessness. Most living beings are susceptible to it. The scenario has obviously changed on the outside, but the elephant will still follow the old pattern. To put it succinctly, the elephant has beliefs about themselves that prevents them from performing actions that they're capable of. They do not see escape as an option, despite being able to just walk away. The elephant can uproot a tree but they won't. They cannot see it because of this mental block. Humans function the same way and often need someone from the outside to help break the cycle, via educating them of what's happening or intervening. In canon, All Might telling Izuku he could be a hero is what broke him out of that mindset and got him to train.

But when people ask why wouldn't he, the question is, why would he? What in his life would empower him to make decisions like these? He had no support structure, he had no one believing in him. He had zero friends and clung to a childhood friendship that ended when he was 5. We're talking about a decade of almost total social isolation and bullying, while the only person who isn't a prick to him is his mother. Who pities him. He's been treated this way longer than he hasn't. The strength and motivation to act has to come from somewhere. It's really not surprising that he'd behave this way in such a toxic environment. Nothing about Izuku's life before the start of the series is structured in a way that's conducive to his success.

I couldn’t say it any better myself. This is fantastically written and structured and I feel it’s something everyone should read regarding how Izuku feels.

What I like about this week's episode is how it shows that romantically, Twilight's acting skills aren't the way to get through to Yor — but being himself, something he doesn't even realize he's doing, is.

Both times he's attempted to approach her in a romantic sense with an act, it's backfired on him (she gets flustered, shoves him away) but just expressing his natural personality brings her closer to him. She doesn't love him for the act he puts on, but for HIM. your honor I love them

touya saying 'i wanted to make you happy' in a mocking, sarcastic way, but the pause and the crack in his voice betraying that impression. please end me.

I feel like Sasuke is super proud of Sakura. Like so many people are like “Sakura, you’re married to THE Sasuke Uchiha??” When it’s actually Sasuke who feels undeserving of her most times. She’s a doctor at countless facilities helping those who are sick and suffering with mental health.

I imagine he thinks, “How can I be married to someone so GOOD?” I’m sure Sakura reassures him often that he is deserving of her love, and that he’s redeemed himself for his past.

Plus, he’s seen what she was at the beginning and now she’s so strong. Sasuke feels like he hit the jackpot 🥲

The fact that so much of Into the Spiderverse was Miles learning to achieve his father's expectations while remaining true to himself and Across the Spiderverse is going to be him fulfilling a promise to his mother to do the same

y'all ever reach the end of google

*MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD*

We all know about 'Twilight Eyes' in the manga - it's when his Spy Mode (TM) kicks in and you can see the wheels in his head turning, trying to calculate the next best move.

Well, there are instances when 'Twilight Eyes' is not 'Twilight Eyes' - they are rare, but they occur every now and then. Like when Twilight saw the Briar siblings supporting each other, and he felt a pang of jealousy. Or when he realized he just thought of Anya as 'family'.

The Twilight Eyes are not Twilight Eyes because that's not Twilight. It is not the spy being envious of familial bonds, it is not the spy who recognizes (deep deeeeep down) that he loves his daughter. It is [redacted], the man who wants to be loved.

HE SMILED!! WE ACTUALLY GOT TO SEE HIM SMILE FOR ONCE!!!

Went into Sonic Prime - binged through all 8 episodes so now I'm dying of hype again XD - excited to see the characters...and Shadow's the one that's gotten my attention so much!!!!

JUST LOOK AT THIS LAD! LOOK AT THEM!

THEY FINALLY FOUND THE DAMN FOURTH CHAOS EMERALD!

I’m so glad that you loved it!❤️✨

Y'know the way they introduced each spider-men in the first movie? The whole comic thing?? Yea they better have that in the second

I can’t believe Sunflower is really a song about Miles and Gwen relationship. Gwen is literally a Sunflower (note her hair) and Miles is the sunshine in her life that helps her grow and become stronger. Her intro highlights that she is very lonely after the death of her Peter Parker. She’s walking alone, her body language is closed off, her expression is miserable, and the desolate blue background that conveniently has no sun within it. Then we see her back in her universe after meeting Miles. She is shown alone again however her body language is relaxed and open, her expression is joyful, and the background is beautiful and vibrant with a sun in it. She looks at a picture of her and Miles then looks towards the sunset (which is referring that Miles is a literal ball of sunshine) and her smile grows even more. Everytime I think Into The Spider-verse doesn’t get any better I find new things to love about it. Time to go listen to Sunflower a million and one more times and find new things to be enamored by. Sony really hit out the park with a multilayered story and an awesome soundtrack that relates to characters and story as well.

damn adrien and marinette are canon. like, they're actually canon. there's no reset, no memory loss, no alternate universe they're actually canon they confessed to each other and they are going to start dating like. we did it. it took seven - SEVEN - fucking yEARS (let me just repeat it cause i find it so incredibly hilarious: SEVEN !! YEARS) but we did it. god.