#anthurak

Now I wonder if anyone will point out that about half of it is basically Bluie’s fault? lol XD

as Edo mentions in the last ep, a good duelist is one who believes in their deck and in themselves without the need for outside validation, and is one who would fight tooth and nail to be strong

but Misawa does not want to be strong, he wants to be acknowledged; and in their first meeting that is exactly what Judai gave him

without knowing Misawa's skill level, Judai calls him #2, whether it is due to audacity or confidence on Judai's part is secondary to the fact that Judai was the first person to directly speak to him.

but Misawa does not take Judai's claim lying down either. it is only when he sees Judai's enterance exam does he acknowledge Judai as #1

i feel that that the situation is a lot more nuanced and and complex than just the running gag of Misawa being ignored

Misawa is a person that thrives on attention and interaction, we can especially see that when he drags Judai, Hayato and Bluie for early morning duel practice

and while that relationship with Judai and the gang hasn't changed since season 1, Benkei's addition and Hayato leaving the group did change the group dynamics significantly.

both Bluie and Benkei are loud people that command a lot of attention and before season 2 Hayato was there to balance Bluie's attention and give Judai more space for other people.

Hayato's absence and the addition of Benkei, who requires just as much atttention as Bluie if not more, has taken up all of Judai's attention and social battery.

that is not to say that the interactions between Misawa and Bluie are always dismissive:

(as for bluie rejecting misawa in the second situation, that was more about missing judai than disliking misawa, something that misawa empathises with bluie on)

but for the most part, Misawa's interactions with the gang are mostly through Judai, which brings me to how Misawa and Judai's relationship has changed.

in the begining of season 2, Judai had Asuka to balance both Bluie and Benkei attention, but with Asuka now a part of the SOL, Judai is bearing the brunt of their attentions and so does not have eother the time nor the social battery to deal with anyone else.

since Asuka left, the only time Misawa was able to have an uniterrupted interachtion with Judai was when Bluie and Benkei got kidnapped in Domino City

Judai himself is not a very social person, and seems to be the kind os person who enjoys company in small doses. this idea is further supplemeneted by the fact that in Judai's prolonged interactions with Bluie and Benkei, there is a significant amount of silence involved with Bluie and Benkei waiting for Judai to break said silence (altho this could also just be scene breaks but i like my idea better)

the new dynamic has Bluie, Benkei and Misawa all wanting Judai's attention, with Judai not having enough spoons to deal with all of them, thus making the amicable relations between the other three more heated and antagonistic in nature; especially without a balancing force in the group like Asuka and Hayato

Judai is also not the kind of person to interfere with other people's problems unless it is bought to his attention first. Misawa is the kind of guy who speaks of his problems in a vague manner

here Misawa expresses his insecurities about the implications of not joining the SOL. the feeling of alienation brings uncertainity into Misawa's mind and makes him question his worth

but for Judai, who has constantly had his place in the academy being questioned (the slifer dorm situation just got settled a miniarc ago), this is nothing new for him and he could care less about how he is perceived by other people who are not his friends

i feel like if Misawa was more direct and forthcoming about his feelings, Judai would have been able to give his support and help more faster. but as both Misawa and Judai are private people, the doubt was able to fester without any interferance

Misawa's ongoing uneasiness about feeling alienated from the majority make Bluie's dismissive comments hurt far more than Bluie would have wanted.

Misawa is not the only person that Bluie has been very snarky towards, (see Benkei and Jun) and it seems that being snarky is Bluie's way of interacting with people that are not Judai, Ryo and Asuka. but in this case they are more like insults than simple banter

what i mean to say is that Misawa self-destructive need to join the SOL has been a long time coming and not something that could have been stopped in a single ep

WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S KNOWN WHERE SUMMER WENT THIS WHOLE TIME????

But seriously, she's great. A horrible, complex mess of a woman that needs to pay her child support and go see a therapist. I desperately hope she's a central character in vol 10 so we can see some aftermath to how she left Yang in the Vault back in vol 5. AND so that Ruby can ask her some goddamn questions.

send me a year and i'll tell you my favourite movie of that year

This is the year I've dreading someone asking. My top two favourite movies are from this year.

But before we begin, I've had a lot of movies I don't like to start these lists, and this year also has a movie I have a grudge against despite never seeing, so I'm gonna air that for a moment:

Fuck Grown Ups 2. You know what you did. You know what you did.

On to better things that Adam Sandler's vacation videos.

Not a lot of kid's movies this year, as I was seventeen and desired to be oh so very grown up. It was the year I started dipping my toes into anime instead.

I've always held a fondness for Warm Bodies. It's a cute little romzomcom, a very small genre. I also personally like White House Down, and consider it the better of the year's two "White House is attacked by terrorists" movies. Iron Man 3 was okay, but I was ultimately disappointed in the lack of Rhodey. Also my sister broke her ankle on the way into the theatre.

I've only ever seen Man of Steel on a Christmas Eve when all my relatives were paying flying visits, so it's a good movie if you can't hear half the dialogue. Can't vouch for it beyond that. I also saw Gravity that same night, thankfully I do think I caught most of the dialogue there.

The World's End is perhaps the weakest of the Cornetto Trilogy, but it's still a damn good film. Similarly, The Wolverine is obviously not the best Wolverine movie, but solid enough. Better than the first.

Machete Kills is a dumb fun action movie, only slightly marred by it's Elon Musk cameo. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a nice solid film too.

Philomena is fantastic movie, delving into the life of a survivor the Magdelene Laundries, one of Ireland's greatest shames. I definitely would recommend it.

But on to my two favourites. And I cannot choose, I really fucking can't. So I'll call it both: Pacific Rim is fucking amazing. Everyone calls it dumb, but it really isn't. Del Toro put as much work into it as he's put into his Oscar-nominated work, you only have to scratch the surface to view the depth.

oh that'd be good. like, even just streaks of white/grey would be *chef's kiss* if changing color schemes completely is off-table.

Hmm, I honestly don't know. Until we get confirmation on what exactly the nature of her fate was, I think the odds of her coming back are still very much up in the air.

Idk, the thing with Defiant Optimism is that there's a lot of ways you can go with it. Like. It's not "blind optimism". Defiant Optimism doesn't go out there promising that if you keep a positive outlook no matter what, everything is going to be okay. That's just not how the world works, you know? No matter how good your outlook, there are some things that are going to be bad or going to go wrong or can never be changed. A blind optimist focuses on denying this truth.

In contrast, Defiant Optimism focuses on embracing this truth. It's involves accepting that no matter what, bad things happen. That sometimes things can't be fixed or undone. But that's okay. That's part of life and even though the world can never be perfect we can still move on and work to make it better.

So, with that being said, depending on the message they're trying send within that theme, I could see it going either way? Like is she exploring the idea of how you may not get exactly what you want, you can still get something like it? (Summer is back. They can form a relationship with her, but that doesn't change that she was gone or that she underwent a lot of trauma during that time) Or perhaps a commentary on how even though something is gone/wasn't perfect it can live on in spirit? (Ruby/Yang accepting her loss/fate and resolving that even though she isn't coming back they can still carry her spirit as a source of inspiration). Or, you know, (most likely) something else entirely, lol. 😅

Glimmer is BABY, she went through TOO MUCH PAIN and I have an urge to protect her specifically that I don’t feel with many of the other characters, she had to grow and adapt to so much change in her life at such a young age and I would die for her tbh

I so loved her relationships with Adora, Bow and Catra, each of those relationships got such good development and ended up being so healthy and good for everyone involved, despite all the issues they had to work through. her implied romance with Bow was also so sweet and wholesome. my soul became somewhat crushed when she lost her mom, but I am SO GLAD she got her dad back, that was honestly such a kind thing for the writers to do for her character. it felt like she was finally truly safe for the first time in her life by the end of the story, and that was such a good place to leave her after everything she lost getting there.