Arin’s Nexus

So, yes, I do need actual advice and motivation because I wanna write it so bad and I hate that I can’t write it at all and I need some encouragement because I did vow to finish the first two seasons before the year ended yet I’ve only been publishing a chapter per month and that’s just not gonna work 😭

But the real moment it solidified was when I looked back Sailor Moon, because it’s a childhood show of mine, and realizing that the mf voices TUXEDO MASK.

I love the take in this video because he’s essentially right, because I always figured hate Megumi gets here in America compared to how beloved he is in Japan had something to do with cultural values, especially with America’s capitalistic infrastructure essentially breeding toxic hustle culture and the “go big or go home” mentality thing when it comes to work, where the working classes is exploited and practically exploited by those in the upper classes and having to constantly devote themselves to a life of underpaid work just to make ends meet while the wealthy make twice as much money off of their work.

For me, that’s arguably how I’d interpret the sorcerers in JJK, being expected to live a life preparing to die in battle one of these days, for the sake of the Higher Ups exploiting them for the service they provide for them with gifts, or rather, curses they didn’t even ask for, using them as nothing but weapons rather than individuals with morals and feelings and emotions. And oddly enough, that horrific dehumanization the story denounces is so heavily mirrored by its Western fanbase, and because they’d refuse to acknowledge the cultural influences in JJK in terms of themes and character writing, relating to the themes of Buddhism specifically, and instead, judge the writing based on their idea of what they expected it to be and how it didn’t meet certain expectations of theirs to a point they’d not only say it was poorly written, demean and constantly disrespect the author with the audacity of saying they’d write their story better (guarantee you there’s rarely ever been a fan who said this where it was actually the case), sending death threats towards said author while demanding more content from them anyways, and going out their way to talk about the writer’s project and their characters in such reductive ways that it actually harms the story’s reputation in terms of quality is actually an even greater reflection of that.

It’s simply just men knowing they can’t imagine a liking a female character if she’s unattractive in some way, so they’d project that same superficiality onto women to feel better about themselves.

Like, sure, when I say I’m a weird girl because I grew up liking all the now mainstream horror games, and I loved things like superheroes and anime, and magical girl stuff and liked collecting Lalaloopsy dolls, and I liked all the typical “cringey” stuff while I grew up in a family that typically doesn’t like that stuff and finds it strange so it kind of sets me apart from then when I try to connect. Because for me, to the people I was surrounded by, that mainstream stuff was, and still is considered weird. I’m a Black girl with interests that aren’t seen as Black in my family so of course I’d see myself as a weird girl, because that’s what I was.

It’s not because it’s so underground or something, it’s simply the feeling of being out of place or unconventional in your surrounding environment, so growing up being the “weird kid” is a different thing for some people.