An insanity known as sanity

I'm still not quite over these animation sketches by Studio LAN🥲💔

I have a friend who works in education and he told me about how he was working with a small group of HS students to develop a new school sports chant. This was a very daunting task for the group, in large part because many had learning disabilities related to reading and writing, so coming up with a catchy, hard-hitting, probably rhyming, poetry-esque piece of collaborative writing felt like something outside of their skill range. But it wasn't! I knew that, he knew that, and he worked damn hard to convince the kids of that too. Even if the end result was terrible (by someone else's standards), we knew they had it in them to complete the piece and feel super proud of their creation.

Fast-forward a few days and he reports back that yes they have a chant now... but it's 99% AI. It was made by Chat-GPT. Once the kids realized they could just ask the bot to do the hard thing for them - and do it "better" than they (supposedly) ever could - that's the only route they were willing to take. It was either use Chat-GPT or don't do it at all. And I was just so devastated to hear this because Jesus Christ, struggling is important. Of course most 14-18 year olds aren't going to see the merit of that, let alone understand why that process (attempting something new and challenging) is more valuable than the end result (a "good" chant), but as adults we all have a responsibility to coach them through that messy process. Except that's become damn near impossible with an Instantly Do The Thing app in everyone's pocket. Yes, AI is fucking awful because of plagiarism and misinformation and the environmental impact, but it's also keeping people - particularly young people - from developing perseverance. It's not just important that you learn to write your own stuff because of intellectual agency, but because writing is hard and it's crucial that you learn how to persevere through doing hard things.

Write a shitty poem. Write an essay where half the textual 'evidence' doesn't track. Write an awkward as fuck email with an equally embarrassing typo. Every time you do you're not just developing that particular skill, you're also learning that you did something badly and the world didn't end. You can get through things! You can get through challenging things! Not everything in life has to be perfect but you know what? You'll only improve at the challenging stuff if you do a whole lot of it badly first. The ability to say, "I didn't think I could do that but I did it anyway. It's not great, but I did it," is SO IMPORTANT for developing confidence across the board, not just in these specific tasks.

Struggling is part of the process, and I've had a lot of people argue with me that it shouldn't be who fail to see the point. When you replace an composer with an AI music generator, an artist with an AI-generated image, or an author with an AI-generated fanfic, you are missing out on the critical, fundamental experiences humans need to learn and grow. You are robbing yourself of essential skills you need as a person.

Up until now even Hiryuu coming down to earth seems to be a selfish, self-righteous quest with bad consequences for so many people...

And Yona?

Finally after a couple of chapters the coin has finally dropped on her. It was responsibility...the dragon warriors...!

What an unbelievable naive thing to think...happiness? Why does she think they have suffered? Why did she think have countless dragon warriors suffered before the actual generation?

happiness? I am baffled due to this much stupidity!

Yes, but wasn´t that the purpose of your journey? To change their fate? Or was this a nice holiday for you?

In a way, this might be even Zeno´s truest desire. Finally peace.

Finally, she does try to talk to the dragon gods and negotiate...however is this no real negotiation...it is a plea...and the dragon gods should just give up on their greatest desire?

Of course they do not let Yona go...

THE TRAGEDY in this

by one stupid talk yona made the dragon warriors stay on earth for 2000 years?

literally one little conversation, one short decision, and how much did she even know at that moment, she was still just a kid

the one short moment caused so much suffering

and yona is still only 16 years old

that's like

That means that 48 whole generations lived a destiny they didn't choose... 48 White Dragons who lived waiting to complete a destiny that never came, who knows how many Blue Dragons forced to live in the dark, how many Green Dragons tied to the ground.

I can understand the idea in concept, because let's not kid ourselves, humans (and Hiryuu became one) sometimes think in an individualistic way. When Yona promised Hiryuu to save the dragon warriors, Hiryuu wasn't thinking of the warriors individually but of extensions of HIS warriors. And in the same way Yona, facing Hiryuu, empathizes with the Crimson Dragon's situation and thinks of her own warriors (but not the others).

To me, Belos has always been an example of a well-crafted, complex villain, marked by internal conflicts, fears masked by a stern façade, regrets, and a flawed worldview. His delusional belief that his monstrous actions serve a noble purpose sets him apart from the typical villain, whose sole motivation is an insatiable desire for power and chaos.

Even the smallest glimpses into Belos' backstory reveal his complexity, making him… painfully human despite his desperate attempts to project an image of divinity and power. While his actions are undeniably inhumane — marked by obsession and unwarranted hatred toward witches — his backstory exposes a vulnerable, sobbing child, and a young man consumed by envy and fear of abandonment by his brother. This perspective shifts him from a mere cruel Emperor driven by a thirst for power, to a mere human full of insecurities.

While Belos’ past doesn't excuse his horrific actions, it sheds light on his motivations and twisted worldview, which would remain opaque without this context. Exploring more of his backstory would allow us to uncover vital details about the way his past influenced his future life, his mission to spread the “Titan’s Will” across the Boiling Isles, and so much more.

If only Belos’ vulnerable, human side had been explored more deeply, we could have seen the stark contrast between his imposing exterior and his inner loneliness and misery in more detail. This exploration would suggest that his public persona wasn’t just manipulation to gain the witches’ trust, but also the act of self-deception in an attempt to convince himself that his actions were for the greater good, while also trying to fill the void within him.

creation - chapter 3 "perfection"

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 (27th September)

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It's an apple 🍎

creation - chapter 3 "perfection"

Part 1 | Part 2 > 5th July

Back to the overview!

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