Beautiful World

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モクモクれん/Mokumokuren @ mokmok-len.bsky.social Anyway, what I want to say is please stop denying the aroace element in order to protect the homosexual element. Both elements are equally important. January 18, 2025 at 7:46 AM Everybody can reply

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モクモクれん/Mokumokuren @ mokmok-len.bsky.social I'm not angry about anything! Manga is fun because many people can interpret it in their own way. However, I want to say that the elements of AROACE are not queer baiting, and that a romantic interpretation is not the only correct interpretation. January 18, 2025 at 12:00 PM

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[Do Not add undescribed images to my post.]

~🖤~

okay but can we talk about writing advice that actually made my writing worse for a second

like not in a “this is bad advice for everyone” way in a “this absolutely sabotaged me personally” way

because ??? some of this set me BACK

1. “show don’t tell” (taken too literally) this one almost ruined my prose

i got so scared of “telling” anything that every sentence turned into… over-explained action

instead of writing:

she was nervous

i’d write:

her fingers tapped against the table, her leg bouncing, her breath uneven, her gaze flickering toward the door--

and it just KEPT GOING

like yes, showing is important but at some point you’re not “immersive” you’re just exhausting

2. “cut all adverbs” this made my writing feel so stiff it hurt

i started replacing simple phrasing with weird, clunky sentences just to avoid using one single “-ly” word

like… why am i doing gymnastics to avoid “quietly”

no one is giving out medals for adverb avoidance 😭

3. “write every day no matter what” this one burned me OUT

because instead of listening to my brain when it was fried, i forced myself to produce words i knew weren’t going anywhere

and then i’d reread it later and hate everything i wrote

which made me want to avoid writing even more

consistency matters, yes but forcing it when you’re running on fumes just trains you to associate writing with dread

4. “plan everything before you start” this killed my excitement SO fast

i’d spend weeks outlining every detail and by the time i actually started writing…

the story already felt “done” in my head

no curiosity left. no momentum.

now i leave gaps on purpose so i actually want to keep going

5. “make your writing sound pretty” this is the one that made my writing feel the most fake

i was so focused on making sentences sound “good” that i stopped focusing on what was actually happening

everything turned vague. floaty. kind of… nothing

like yeah it sounded nice but nothing hit

now i care way more about clarity and impact than sounding impressive

6. “your first draft should be terrible” okay this one is half true but also messed with my head

because i took it as: “don’t even TRY”

so i’d write things i knew weren’t working and just leave them

instead of… fixing them a little? making them better?

your draft doesn’t have to be perfect but it also doesn’t have to be painful to read 😭

idk i think the biggest thing i’ve learned is:

advice isn’t universal

what helps one writer can absolutely wreck another

so if something is making your writing worse, harder, or more miserable

you are allowed to drop it. immediately.

no guilt. no “but everyone says this works”

like okay… it doesn’t work for ME.

Keep what works for you, toss the rest.

Take any bit of advice as simple suggestion, never as literal commandments.

This is why you can have so many wildly different tutorials on how to choose colour, or articles giving advice on how to write believable dialogue. Different methods work for different people, and no one is wrong for taking a different path.

this and also the only difference between fanfic writers and writers who sell their own original works as careers is that fanfics aren’t monetized. that’s all.

being a “professional” writer doesn’t mean your works are inherently better than fanfics. I’ve read so many fics that are more professionally written than some published books.

There is never any justification for someone putting their hands on you in any way without your consent short of immediate risk of harm or death.

If someone tells you that "the way I'm acting is your fault because you know that doing X thing would make me do it and you chose to do it anyway" is just fancy bullshit talk for, "I know my behaviour is wrong, but I don't want to be held responsible for it so I'm pushing it on you"

Nothing good ever, ever comes from someone who tells you, "I don't want you talking about our relationship with anyone". This person cannot handle accepting responsibility and processing criticism so they need you to never, ever question them. That's easier if they control the narrative and your friends aren't there to cut in.

Nothing constructive comes from screaming.

"It's not like that all the time" is optimistic and sweet, but the truth is, it shouldn't be like that at all. Sweet words and gifts and gestures don't erase being frightened for yourself or for your loved ones. That is not normal. Don't minimize it.

It is not healthy or normal to be genuinely afraid of saying "no" to someone, for any reason at all. Violence, outbursts, retaliation, anything. You should not have to be afraid of someone's reaction to your boundaries.

You are not responsible for saving anyone. Even if you love them. Even if they have nobody else. At the end of the day, if they want to hurt themselves in any way, they will, and you can't stop them forever. People need to want to improve before they can actually improve, and if they're threatening to harm themselves to keep you around, they're using your love to hold themselves hostage. You do not decide their choices for them, and they don't get to shunt that off on you.

-Interested aros in your area

You know what, I think I will. I didn't have anything to do for ASAW this year, but all of a sudden I do :)

Koisenu Futari Episode 1 spoilers under the cut

Sakuko is giving like, baby aro that just found out about aromanticism but hasn't unlearned amatonormativity vibes yet. Which is just. Again, how is this TV show real? How did they get things this right?

And Takahashi gives vibes of a jaded aro that's a bit withdrawn. "Keep your distance, try ignoring their calls"

Crab vs pretend dating, crab wins

XD They're drilling their cover stories

Touch-averse rep! Touch-averse rep where he decides "actually nope I can't do this" instead of forcing himself to

Oh, this is gonna be what Bojack Horseman should have done but didn't, isn't it

Yeah. They.... yeah. I don't think I've ever seen an aro character like Takahashi before, who knows how this goes, who knows how to stay calm, who knows what to say when there's a lull

"'Such people exist'". Yeah. Yeah

What is Kazu on???

New title card music

"If I say so myself, the only good thing about me is my amiability." Oh. Oh Sakuko.

Takahashi is giving mature aro who's thought about stuff for years vibes, and I. It is so, so nice to see a character like this. Like I get that aspec stuff needs to do 101 introductions, and I get that it's important, but I personally am kinda tired of consuming that over and over again so Koisenu Futari is raising the bar for me. I personally would like any media that does aspec 101 to have at least one aspec character like Takahashi

I want to be his friend and talk to him about anything and everything

Matching Sanisai pens is giving me And Another Lovely Day vibes, but obviously going in a very different direction

Okay choosing to believe a band is on haitus is providing a bit more context... I am looking forward to his character arc that I'm partly spoiled on

"All of the points are about to expire" is a bit of a silly impetus but I don't care, things can be silly sometimes : )

And I'm liking this music

Kazu, I like your apology, but I feel like there's more to it than that......

"To be together, laugh and have fun." Aspec Kazu arc? There's no way, right? There's no way???

... I don't think I've ever seen a story with an aspec person who feels/felt trapped in a relationship before.

Okay nevermind Kazu I don't understand you

Yes Takahashi!!!

Yeah, I had a feeling he was faking amnesia

Takahashi not wanting help up the stairs because he's touch-averse is. I don't think I've seen a touch-averse character before? How is this show having so many firsts???

"I will live here." Kazu, you're.......... I don't think there are words for it. You're simultaneously annoying and endearing and. I don't even know what to say

Also this is a brilliant plot decision, he moves in with them and now you have a character who's stubborn but learning and benefiting from learning aspec things along side Sakuko

Long pause as Sakuko and Takahashi stare at each other so true

"I will take responsibility as a man", "Sakuko, please cook me something" yeah okay, I see.

I believe his Sokka arc will be worth it, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy the start. (Well, the start being unenjoyable makes it so good, but. Ykwim)

And the tension between emergency contact information as friendship versus family versus couple. Like actually yeah, there's three different angles to this. I was just expecting "romance vs not romance" but this show has more depth than that!!!

"My senses are strange?" "Yes." "No, that's definitely not the case" XD it's that Simpson's meme.

"Wanting to understand someone and asking impudent questions is not same." Takahashi getting all the wisest lines my beloved

"Pushing your tastes/expectations onto me" is something Takahashi faces twice, once where he's unusual (asexual) and once where he's "normal" (doesn't want unconventional pizzas), which is a subtle but excellent way of showing that the pushing of expectations doesn't actually have anything to do with normalcy at all

"Crab. Crab? Crab? Crab? Crab."

"You people really don't understand how romance works." Well, no, but actually yes

"Doing your best" is a motif, I must track it

You know what, yeah Kazu, you earned that pep talk.

Honestly, once Kazu finishes his Kazu arc these three could make for an excellent friend group. Two aroaces and the presumably token straight

"You two are close now as well." Kazu nods. Takahashi looks around awkwardly XDDD

"The meaning of romance differs depending upon the place and era." Holy shit he's doing it!!! He's doing it!

Kazu is cooking?!

Kazu: moves to kinda put his arm around Sakuko. Takahashi: eyes widen slightly and tries to distract. The attention to detail!

Moon!

"That's why...can't it work with me?" I am 100% here for Kazu's Sokka arc. Where has this been all my life?

And now Sakuko is on the other side of a rushed family proposal! The parallels, the writing, the thought

"Or do you have a reason why it can't work with me?" "Well..." "See? There isn't any!" Kazu, you're a gem. You're in the middle of your Kazu arc, but you're a gem of a character

Takahashi is trying to say "I don't do relationship drama" without saying it explicitly

"Do you really need to be concerned about her? You would also not like if someone you want to get away from follows you around, right?" Ooh, rare miss from Takahashi. That's okay, he's allowed to make mistakes.

"What if she refuses to talk?" "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it!" "Is there any need to get hurt unnecessarily?" "If that happens, I'll console her." Hinting at Takahashi's past, and two opposing viewpoints being expressed by two characters that embody them, and it's two men wanting what's best for a woman they care about but it's not a love triangle is. Peak writing

Kazu knocked this time! Good boy.

Wait no that was Takahashi. Nevermind

Okay but Kazu does get a "good boy" for telling Takahashi to suggest a trip to Odawara

Gods, yeah. It's. Chizuru is the opposite of Kazu, she's trying to put distance and be healthy and deal with her jealousy in a responsible way because she wants to be really respectful of Sakuko's orientation. But it's also an inversion of the classic aro fear of your friends abandoning you for a partner. At the start that's what we think happened, Chizuru backed out of living with Sakuko because she got back together with her ex and dumped Sakuko without a second thought, but it's exactly the opposite. Chizuru had feelings for Sakuko and knew it wouldn't work and that's why she tried to kinda cut ties

Sakuko and Takahashi are striking in their red and blue coats, respectively. Good costuming

"Do you not wanting anything?" "Yes. If I buy anything and take it to work, they will ask who I went with, etc, etc." This feels a tiny bit hypocritical of Takahashi, here? Like, he's all for living as yourself and not feeling like you have to conform to others' expectations, but at the same time he's avoiding something he probably likes (we saw how he is with shopping and points) to avoid a conversation he doesn't want with other people

And there's green trees in the background behind the blue and red coats. Excellent eye-popping colors

What book is that? At first I thought it was The Invisible Orientation by Julie Sondra Decker, but on closer inspection I think it's probably different? Doesn't seem like Ace by Angela Chen either. Of course, I'm looking at English covers, and the Japanese version could be different

"Being a place where someone can return to." Mm.

Gods, that scene with Sakuko and Kuzo. I don't have words. ……………….. I just don't have words

Crab

Shrimp!

Flags!

And there's more aro flags than ace? I often approach media through an aro lens more than an ace lens, and this show reads to me as more aro than ace, which I quite appreciate, but the flags give me a small piece of evidence that it's not just my personal bias that's influencing that

"Then while I am causing inconvenience, can I stay over tonight?" XD she has like. She has self-awareness, but she's choosing not to use it

That's...I feel like staying at a hotel is not enough evidence to divorce? Like yeah it's circumstantial, but like. Idk

"Everyone's answers were obviously different." Yeah! Not a monolith!

"Minori-chan, everyone's 'normal' is different." Good boy Kazu

"I don't think you understand it. The fear of being single with children. The loneliness that I might feel from being alone for the rest of my life." There's so much to unpack here. There's the self-inconsistency of having-children-but-alone-forever, there's the unaware parallel to aspec concerns about loneliness and having to find a way to make peace with being alone, the fact that some aspecs do want kids and could very well end up in the same situation of being single with children. Like, wow, the writers really did their homework. Fantastic dialogue right here.

"You have it good. If you can't fall in love, this means you'll never know this pain right?" Oof. Oof.

"I wonder what it's like to live such an empty life." Oof

"I was just venting. I didn't mean it." Yeah you did. Even if you didn't mean it 100%, you meant it. You don't say amatonormative and aphobic things without meaning it at least a little

It's the piano from the opening of episode 1. I haven't been tracking the music that well, so I definitely need to do a rewatch, because this feels like a motif. Or I just want it to be

Frozen vibes

"The seed of an idea" Lol that's so good

"Do you like it?" "This person?" "No, this company." I think that's the first time Takahashi has made that sort of misunderstanding. He's usually very put together, but clearly his past relationship(?) had a big impact on him

"Sorry but could you please stop talking about that right now?" Yeah, he's never been like this. He's trying his best to be polite but he is very clearly being affected by stuff.

"Going the common way, she could be an ex-girlfriend? What if he had lingering feelings for her which just got rekindled?" My gut instinct was to say "Kazu, it's not that", but actually, his suggestion is pretty reasonable. I don't think Takahashi is grayro, but he certainly could be, and given how Kazu has grown throughout the show, I don't think this is necessarily "allo forgets how being aroace works", I think you could make the case that this is "allo who actually does have some knowledge of aspec stuff doing a reasonable job of finding an explanation"

"But Takahashi-san doesn't experience romantic feelings. So that can't be it." Ah. Nevermind. One day Kazu, you'll learn about grayros and you'll learn that you could have been right here

Also I'm noticing Sakuko is wearing more green ever since the ace meetup : )

😭 the tension in the scene with the rings 😭😭😭

That's the most upset I've ever seen him, I just want to make him some tea and put on some soothing music for him

The way the title card comes up and frames the shot, literally separating Sakuko and Takahashi.

"In other words, rather than doing a risky and fun job, he chose a life with a boring job where he can spend his days with you. That's how important living with you is to him." Kazu, that's sweet, but you're wrong : )

That was a really nice scene, Sakuko with her mom

XD wait I just realized, the conflict here could be fixed by "communicate or break up" XD

That's a nice montage of a scene from every episode. Celeste Summit vibes. (Or technically Core I guess)

Gods, I've never seen an aroace confession before, and that was so very Takahashi, they didn't compromise his character for any of it

"What you're saying is that we both will live separately." "Right." "Living separately means we'll become alone again. And our relation of 'Family (subject to change)' will vanish you know?" "It doesn't have to." Yes!!!!!!!!

Gods, the framing in this scene is Takahashi up and to the left, and Sakuko down and to the right, which is an inverse of the framing of the poster/title card, because she's helping him to grow for a change!

Gods the music in this scene is so good, and I have so much to say aaaaaaaaaa the swell under Sakuko is perfect

"Also, if I ever get tired of living here, we can think about it again together. You also try working in the Vegetable Kingdom. If it doesn't work out, you can quit. It's okay to not decide everything. We can put everything– ourselves, our family, as subject to change. When we put something in words, we get bounded by it. Just like us not wanting to get bound by the 'normal' defined by those around. The things we hold important and our ways of thinking keep changing continuously. So we can think about the best in that particular moment. If that time, our best is completely different, and things don't work out even after talking...then we don't need to force ourselves to remain as a family."

I needed to quote that without commentary because it's perfect. It's so perfect. It's. Fluidity and flexibility in how you view yourself and terms and the future, it's feelings first and labels later, it's people grow and change and we might grow apart, and if that happens we'll try to talk about it and make things work, but if we can't that's okay, we don't need to force ourselves to remain as a family.

I need to put that quote on my wall and watch this scene once a month

She's learned and grown and she's helping him to learn and grow, too. And it's not just generic growth, it's growth that's influenced by an aroace lens. It's perfect. It's perfect

Buuut I'm not sure Suzune's situation was quite the right one to teach her lesson with.

Like, don't get me wrong! It's absolutely right that these guys learn to be more careful with their words and with what they post online. They do need to know that even careless comments have consequences and that they need to be cautious before making accusations rather than reacting in the heat of the moment.

BUT from Suzune's point of view, she was making a genuine accusation. Without the full facts, the situation really does seem like it's exactly how she had experienced it! She hadn't even been told about her diagnosis for crying out loud! From her perspective, she got completely humiliated in front of her peers, kicked out from an activity she loved and all for skipping one session for a valid reason!! There are definitely students who don't like having consequences applied to them and will just rashly accuse a teacher of abuse in retaliation, but that's not what happened here.

Suzune didn't do anything wrong in the lead-up to being kicked out of the team, so that was still unfair treatment. And yes, perhaps she was a little petty in how easily she accused him of being the fake video client but, like, it was because of her actual experiences and I do kind of feel like that got completely missed. Like, in one episode you're telling a student that they need to speak up if they need help, but now saying, oh even if something happens they shouldn't say anything in case they're wrong?

And also, even though Mr Tsuboi wasn't guilty of the fake video thing in the end, that doesn't erase the fact he did harm Suzune in how he approached the situation. I mean, why on earth did he think that was the best way to go about it? Why did her mother? Why did neither of them even consider telling her about her diagnosis even if she was stubborn? There honestly had to be a better way of going about things than this. I'm not so willing to let him off the hook that easily for that because come on. There's a difference between being a strict teacher and completely tearing a student down, right?

even in just the first three minutes. when sakuko is talking to takahashi for the first time and she is asking if he is the one who made the incredibly detailed display where he refers to the cabbage as “YR haruka” and he just smiles and says that if they have a name he would like to refer to them by it, just like he would prefer not to be called “human”. and right after this, sakuko looks for his name tag and starts calling him by his name, and noticing more of the unique details he’s added to the displays.