Latest Posts by bibliophiliac-bisexual-disaster - Page 2

Thanks for answering my ask....if you don't mind me asking (again), can I ask your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from The Hunger Games? And why you loved them?

- And your top 5 favorite moments from the series? Also, why do you really love The Hunger Games (series)? Thanks if you want to answer....

I don't mind answering!

I don't really have favorite characters. Like I find each character intriguing in their own way and I love talking about them, but I've never really been able to pick favorites if that makes sense?

As for favorite moments, in no particular order:

- When Finnick reveals what the Capitol did to him and everyone sees just how soulless the Capitol is and it proves that the games are never really over

- The mockingjay dress reveal and Katniss' horror when she sees Cinna has basically just declared an open act of rebellion basically

- When Katniss brings a bunch different twigs of different trees together to create a bundle that would smell like the forest to remind Johanna of home

- When Peeta first asks Katniss "Real or not real"?

- When Katniss volunteers and everyone gives her the three finger salute

Hi....If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

Heyyy!

Well....funny thing actually. Jujutsu Kaisen is my first ever anime/ manga that I've explored. I did not know what I expected but it was NOT this. It's been a roller-coaster ride and I'm looking forward to watching more anime and reading more manga.

But outside of anime and manga, I'm actually a huge bookworm. I've posted a bit about the hunger games series, which I love from the depths of my heart. I'm technically a part of quite a few book fandoms but the hunger games has to be my favorite to discuss. I'm also a literature student, because I love analyzing and dissecting books and movies.

All of that being said, a top ten would be super hard to decide. But I'm going to go off the top of my head based on how I'm currently feeling and I'm going to stick to pop culture media (mostly). In no particular order

Avatar the Last Airbender series

Jujutsu Kaisen

Hunger Games series

The Book Thief

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Hamilton (musical)

Love, Death and Robots

Gifted (movie, probably all time fav)

Percy Jackson books

The Mortal Instruments series

I'd be happy to get suggestions from people (also happy to give recommendations if you want!)

You know what's really ironic when it comes to Coriolanus Snow? It's the fact that according to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, he garners attention and approval and finally mentorship under Dr. Gaul by pushing the idea of balancing humanity and spectacle in the hunger games. Make the tributes human enough to get attention and get people invested in the games. But make them spectacle enough that people don't look deep enough to question the games themselves. Make the competition human enough that people will pick sides and pour money. But make it spectacle enough that they don't protest their side losing.

It's the idea that paves his rise to power. But it's also the same thing that brings about his downfall. The spectacle of the hunger games gave a front and center platform to a naive but defiant girl from District Twelve to become the face of a revolution and the ultimate weapon against him. The measured humanity that he urged into the games got people to trust her word, trust her very image in ways that Snow had never anticipated. The balanced wielding of humanity and spectacle that Lucy Gray used to win her games is what Katniss used to end them, both enabled by Snow.

And here's the final kicker- the reason his brutally brilliant plan failed him in the end was because of the one thing Snow never took seriously enough to consider. The Districts. Snow had keen insight into how the people of the Capitol worked and thought. It allowed him to manipulate many of them. But he dismissed the role of the districts as inconsequential in the larger play of things. As long as they were kept suppressed, it didn't matter. And that's where his oversight cost him. He didn't consider the effects of the same humanity and spectacle when perceived by the districts. He didn't see how he was giving them the spark they were always looking for until the match had already been lit. The girl was already on fire. The Capitol was already burning. The snow was already melting.

For some reason I’m still seeing people being racist about the Disney+ PJO show, so if you’re out there hating on Leah for being a black Annabeth, here’s what you need to realize:

A big part of Annabeth’s character is how she felt she was never taken seriously because of the way she looked. In the books, it was specifically because she was blonde, and blondes were seen as dumb.

Well, that stereotype is much less common today, and most blondes aren’t really looked down upon. But you know who is? People of color. Especially young black girls. Leah’s Annabeth will still have to deal with prejudice because of how she looks.

Annabeth’s key trait wasn’t her hair color, it was how she proved to be the best despite how others judged her. It just so happens that her skin color is now what causes her to be judged.

I think Leah is perfect to play Annabeth in today’s world. Just how young blonde girls used to be empowered by book Annabeth, I know Leah’s Annabeth will teach young black girls that they can be everything she is.

#LeahIsOurAnnabeth

Do you ever think about how poetic the scene of Gojo being sealed in Shibuya is? I'm not just talking in terms of the love of his life being his downfall and the utter tragedy of their story. I'm talking about how poetic it was for Gojo himself, for the "honored one" who was basically considered a mortal god and treated as such, to be defeated in the most human of ways.

Let me explain. Again, this isn't just about the Gojo's love for Geto being his Achilles heel. Something that Jujutsu Kaisen encapsulates time and time again through various characters is the juxtaposition of power in humanity- infinitely capable in some ways and still tragically helpless in others. It's why the idea of "Sorcerers die alone and with many regrets" is such a recurring thing brought. Many of them are considerably powerful and have done almost miraculous things, but in the face of their own death or the loss of their friends or the regrets that pile up in their lives, they are powerless. In a lot of ways, that is what it means to be human, powerful and powerless all at once.

And that is what Gojo demonstrates at Shibuya. He truly proved he was, inarguably, the strongest sorcerer in centuries as he took on three special grade curses and a death painting, fought two of them hand to hand, and killed one of them by crushing it to a wall. He then demonstrated immense control and strategism by holding a domain for 0.2 seconds and then wiping out more than a thousand curses in under five minutes. He single-handedly prevented a complete massacre of humans in the area. It feels like he's proven, shown us, that he is the god everyone thinks of him as.

And then he sees the only man who didn't treat him like a god. The only one who had seen him as human and, in some ways, made him human. The one he thought he'd killed a year ago. He sees him and he freezes. At the site of his greatest demonstration of power, his Achilles heel stands exposed.

And in that minute of shock, guilt, memory, horror, and longing, he falls. So powerful he seemed invincible, yet rendered powerless in that moment. Gojo Satoru, the honored one, the mortal god, the strongest sorcerer, creates the deepest truest representation of humanity in that moment. Not just in our vulnerability to love, but in how we are, within ourselves, both the indestructible and the defeated.

Part of why I dragged my feet on ever checking out JJK was the reputation I heard was that it's a BRUTAL grimdark story where ANYONE can DIE in a snap and the author says FUCK you. And after finally catching up with the anime that just... Isn't the tone at all?? Like, Game of Thrones, Gantz, Attack on Titan, etc other cornerstone grimdark reference points, I think one of their defining hallmarks is not just that characters die suddenly and violently, but that human life is nasty, brutish, and meaningless, and it's your own fault for being stupid enough to get attached.

Jujutsu Kaisen on the other hand, I don't know how you can look at one of the most recent casualties circa S2Ep20 of the anime where that character gets a full entire episode reminiscing about their childhood, and the moments and people that meant most to them, and come away thinking the author's intent was to treat life as meaningless. The amount of screen time devoted to the following character who gets badly maimed, the audience gets enthusiastically shoved neck deep into their insane kaleidoscopic passion that is never once undercut or subverted. Both of these characters, far from being callously snuffed out and dumped in the trash, were shown immense love. What we got was not a statement of their life being disposable, but a celebration of life, a reminder of who they are, what they cared about, what made them special, who they loved and who loved them and will remember them in turn.

This is a story about curses born of misery, hatred, and malice. It is also a story deeply concerned with dualism, especially when it comes to attachment and desire. Misery stems from worldly attachments, but it is not weak or foolish to become attached to things in this world. To love something is to set yourself up for the pain or anger of losing it, or sadness of having it denied. But that love is what makes life worth living anyway, and what makes it worth it to keep fighting. We as the audience are sad because we are attached to these characters who have met terrible fates. We see enough of them to be able to clearly picture the whole rich life they could have lived surrounded by friends and feel the sting of that path cut short. It is a story about how it was worthwhile knowing them well enough to be attached anyway, even if it meant unavoidable heartbreak.

This is true of both the human protagonists as well as the curses! Volcano Man and Mahito are ruthless killers who cruelly take lives without a thought. They also have hopes and dreams that they earnestly try to protect and follow through on, and face heartbreaking despair upon defeat. They feel pain just like we do, but must nevertheless be killed. Humans face pain through the very act of living, but nevertheless must live.

In true grimdark fiction there is rarely anything good in life for characters to return to once the battle is over. In Jujutsu Kaisen, on the contrary, there is enough good in life that we see it even amidst the battle. I can see that no other way than an expression of genuine affection. Truly bleak fiction leaves me wondering why everyone involved doesn't just put a gun in their mouth and be done with it. JJK provides an answer--because you'll get to laugh about ruining an expensive shirt, because you'll meet an acquaintance's hot mom, because the next human earthworm movie is coming out, because your favorite idol is doing a meet and greet this weekend, because maybe someday you'll finally go to Malaysia. There are many answers, and none of them are stupid.

Chiron and Mr D: now that you've trained at camp for one (1) week it's time for you to embark on a quest to retrieve Zeus' lightning bolt and stop all out war from breaking out amongst the Gods.

Percy: are you aware that i am twelve years old

Chiron and Mr D: this is your dad's will

Percy: is he aware that i am twelve years old

people often use snow’s experiences with lucy gray as an explanation for how he engages with katniss, but i think that the true story of his downfall lies not in how lucy gray and katniss are similar, but rather in how they are different.

snow knew that it was never him that made the games what they are. it was lucy gray, with her scrappy, passionate artistry, that put on the show that kept people watching. more importantly, it was lucy gray that put on the show that kept HIM watching. all he ever did was give her the stage.

ergo, snow recognizes that the person with the power to usurp him is his natural counterpart, someone like lucy gray, who possessed both the charisma and humanity that he sorely lacks. however, in his mind, those traits are not real; they’re performed in order to obtain power. how could he know better, when he’s never experienced them himself, and the only person he ever truly believed possessed them betrayed him?

so snow keeps his eye out for performers, people with gravitas who could capture the heart of the nation, and squashes their spark as soon as he can. people like haymitch. people like finnick.

and that’s where snow goes wrong. he doesn’t see katniss’ similarities to lucy gray from the start, because while they both demonstrate astonishing, intriguing bravery at their reapings, their actions and motivations are completely different. lucy gray is motivated to perform by anger for herself, and katniss is motivated to sacrifice herself by fear for her sister.

but then katniss starts to put on a show for the audience, kissing peeta and being willing to die with the berries at the end of the 74th games. snow starts to see an entirely different side of katniss that resembles lucy gray to a concerning degree. he sees how, with peeta at her side, she could beguile the nation the same way lucy gray had. and, even worse, she was using the poor, helpless boy who had the misfortune of falling in love with her to survive. the moment katniss started performing, he finally sees lucy gray within her. but it’s already too late.

by catching fire, katniss is the spark fanning the flames of the resistance, but snow fails to understand why. as far as he’s concerned, katniss’ star power comes from her connection to peeta. he tries to weaponize their “love” for his own gain, but it doesn’t work, not because people don’t believe that she loves peeta, but because, for the first time, a victor offers her winnings to the family of a fallen tribute.

snow is caught in a catch 22 of seneca crane’s making—if he kills katniss, she becomes a martyr. but if he lets her live, she’ll be a revolutionary icon. either way, she’s the spark. so he has no choice but to allow the spark to flicker, just for a little while. enter the 75th games. snow knows he needs katniss to die a tragic death in the games. more specifically, he needs it to be a brutal death at the hands of a tribute, not the gamemakers, because he understands that as long as the districts see the capital as the one who ended the life of katniss everdeen, she’ll still be a martyr.

but snow still doesn’t get it. in the quarter quell, the prey does not become predator. katniss’ allies protect her, ensuring she survives until district 13 rescues her. why would they protect this girl, assuming such a steep personal risk? why would they put everything on the line for a revolution they personally stand to benefit little from? he doesn’t know. but he does know that lucy gray katniss is at the center of it all, so he tries to eliminate what makes her look best: peeta.

and that is snow’s fatal mistake. what he, coin, and everyone but haymitch fail to understand is that it was never peeta that made katniss look good—it was katniss, who befriended and put faith in rue. katniss, who recruited mags, wiress, and beetee as allies. she is the source of revolutionary inspiration. it isn’t her charisma or even her compassion, and it certainly isn’t how well she performed those virtues.

katniss becomes the mockingjay because of her solidarity.

lucy gray was charismatic, like peeta, and compassionate, like both peeta and katniss, but she did not demonstrate solidarity. she was never truly “district” in the way katniss is. she showed kindness to jessup, not because he was from 12, but because he showed kindness to her. lucy gray left behind everything and everyone she loved when she left coriolanus, because she was first and foremost a survivor.

katniss was a survivor her whole life, but she survives exclusively to ensure the people she loves are protected. she always does what she can for people more vulnerable than herself. lucy gray couldn’t have sparked a revolution on her own because she lacked the solidarity that makes a hope for a better future authentic to others. katniss is the human manifestation of solidarity, and to a people divided by a common enemy, that’s the most inspiring thing a person can be.

only in the end, when katniss shoots coin, does snow realize none of it was a performance. choking on the blood of his countless adversaries, snow’s final moments are consumed by what he got wrong. what made lucy gray and katniss different ends his reign, but ironically, the final nail in his coffin is an act that both lucy gray and katniss share in their last moments with snow. they both prove, unequivocally, that he is not the center of their worlds like they are his. lucy gray put her own survival before her love for him, and katniss puts the future of her nation before her hate for him. in the end, he simply doesn’t matter. and that’s greater justice than could have ever been achieved if katniss had fired her arrow into his heart.

the greatest enemy to coriolanus snow could only be the person who reignited the embers of a dying revolutionary fire, who demonstrated to a broken people that while one spark alone might not be enough, thousands of sparks uniting in solidarity is an unbeatable force.

and really, he should have known better. after all, fire melts snow.

“Sejanus is like Katniss!” “he’s just like peeta!”

What if I said he was like Gale?

Their blind loyalty their districts. Their rash nature, fuelled by their anger at the injustice the people of their home face. Their strong sense of morality, their eagerness to save the people of their district. Their hatred for the games, and their trust in their friend counterparts.

I’ve seen posts comparing Katniss to Snow, and Peeta to Lucy. In this case, Gale representing Sejanus makes so much sense.

Gale is Katniss’ friend from home. Katniss partakes in the games, but Gale doesn’t get the chance to- like how Sejanus’ tribute Marcus died from default. Katniss feels as though she owes Gale her love, and the way Snow treated Sejanus was all from pity. Artificial love, although Snow and Katniss are set so far apart that Katniss still loved Gale, but as a brother.

Something sets all of the characters apart from their counter character. For Katniss, she was forced to become a hunter when Snow was one at heart. For Peeta, he was forced to put his true feelings forward to perform, when it was Lucy Gray’s passion.

For Gale and Sejanus, I think it’s their sense of morality. Gale is who Sejanus would’ve been if he had no room to act out, had no trust fund to protect his outbursts. Gale is Sejanus after years of oppression, the pride and protection for his home becoming almost toxic. Sejanus is Gale with a chance to change the things around him - a boy with hope, refusing to play by the Capitols games.

If Sejanus had lived, he could’ve become a version of Gale, who in war would risk the lives of hundreds of innocent people from the Capitol. Perhaps Sejanus is the version of Gale who would’ve run away with Katniss before her reaping. Hung and punished, before their urge to help people turned fatal for others. Still morally good.

there was a moment when the people in the movie theatre and the capitol audience in the stands were laughing at the same things, having the same reactions to the games, to the deaths, to flickermans jokes, to the doctor's announcement...i wonder aren't we watching it for entertainment too

suzanne collins' books may exist in popular culture as "dystopian", but they have always been a meticulous and startlingly close social critique of our world. at what point does our own idolization of the movies and the books repeat that story? we watch just as the capitol audience does.

all dystopia eventually crosses a line from realistic futurism to current relevancy. how long will it take us to realize we've already crossed that line with these books? and the very people who need to realize this are the ones in that audience...real or fake, we're the same: consuming and consuming.

you can click on this button once daily to help palestine and support other causes in the middle east for free. it takes literally 5 seconds and could help save lives so please take the time to click and share this link.

Yellow Flowers

Yellow is associate with hope in The Hunger Games. In the upcoming chapter 4, Katniss will remember eating dandelions and it giving her hope. The dandelions are linked to Peeta in Katniss' mind. He was looking at her when she saw them. (This will come up again in Mockingjay, if we get there.)

The yellow flowers come up again later. "Rue is a small yellow flower that grows in the Meadow. Rue. Primrose," Katniss thinks, explicitly linking Rue and Prim together.

Rue is a yellow shrub that can be decorative or used as an herb. There is "common" primrose and "evening" primrose. I believe Prim was named after evening primrose. It is also yellow and has some medicinal uses which is apt for Prim who wants to be a healer.

It's worth noting that katniss is white but has a yellow center. It's a flower but also edible, making it a bit more functional than rue or primrose (although rue can be used as an herb) to someone like our Katniss who is looking for food always. (Aren't we all?)

There is also one other character who is a yellow flower that Katniss will never explicitly link with hope but has a symbolic function in the novels: buttercup.

Buttercup the Cat is Prim's guardian. He and Katniss never get along but I always thought it was because they were too similar, both prickly and overprotective of Prim. He also prefers the Everdeen's old house in the Seam, like Katniss does, over the house in Victor's Village.

Buttercup is also a survivor. He doesn't die when Katniss attempts to drown him. He makes it through the firebombing of District 12. He somehow makes it back from District 13 to appear in 12 at the end of Mockingjay. Compare this to what Katniss goes through in the novels, how often she escapes death and her own difficult, winding road back to the house in the Victor's Village.

Anyway. TLDR, there are a lot of flower names in THG. I haven't even gotten to Posy (a "posy" is a bouquet of flowers) or Snow's unnatural, genetically engineered roses that are in opposition to the wildflowers like rue and evening primrose.

The first real conversation Katniss has with Peeta is when he tells her that he wants to die as himself, that he doesn't want the games to change him into something he's not, and that he wants to keep his identity and prove he's more than just a piece in their games because that's the only thing he has left to care about.

The first time we see Lucy Gray she sings a song that basically says that nothing they could take from her was worth keeping. "Can't take my past. Can't take my history... You can't take my charm. You can't take my health."

The capitol has taken everything from them both, but at the same time, they could never take away who they are.

They are both likeable charismatic and funny, with the kindest hearts, and incredibly loyal to the people they care about.

At the same time, everything they do before the games, and during is calculated. Lucy Gray singing a love song and winning the hearts of the capitol. Peeta confesses he's in love with his district partner, therefore cementing her identity as desirable. Both of them know how to sway people with words, how to charm people, and how to manipulate crowds. Neither of them has any problem doing so to keep themselves, and the people they love safe.

Lucy Gray's song The Old Therebefore, about learning how to love and live her life to the fullest before death, a final and calculated stroke in a last-ditch effort to save herself from the arena. This evokes enough emotion in the watchers to get them to rise to their feet and plead for her life alongside Snow.

Snow, watching the 74th and preparing for the 75th Hunger Games sees Lucy Gray in Katniss. A young girl, from the 12th district. Unafraid at the reaping. Selling a false love story, manipulating a boy who loves her in order to get out and supporting the revolution with the mockingjay as her symbol.

He threatens her family to get her to sell that she and Peeta are in love, to prevent the revolution, because obviously, she's pretending. He's had experience with a girl just like her before. He has no doubt that she has the acting ability to sell this story because clearly, she manipulated the first Hunger Games in her favor, the same way Lucy Gray manipulated him.

Watching the interviews for the 75th Hunger Games he realizes-

Katniss is just an impulsive girl, in a Mockingjay dress she didn't know about, made by someone who supports the revolution.

Peeta is a boy who has the ability to move people with just his words. He made Katniss desirable, he was the one who sold the love story, and he was the one to make their romance seem real. Katniss only started the revolution because she would rather risk dying with him than live without him. A concept President Snow was completely unfamiliar with. And it is with all these realizations crashing around him Peeta drops the baby bomb. He knows the baby's not real, and so does Snow. But it evokes enough emotion in the watchers to get them to rise to their feet and plead for the lives of the tributes.

Is it Lucy Gray or Peeta?

By the time Snow realizes he's made a mistake, it's too late.

Peeta is still charming and manipulating the capitol. Katniss is in love.

He goes up against a kindhearted boy expecting to beat Sejanus again, only to find out that it's Lucy Gray he's fighting; knowing he will never be able to escape their ghosts.

-from a conversation i had with @grandtyphoonpoetry breaking down every character in the hunger games.

I think @runabout-river makes some really excellent fucking points and I wholeheartedly agree. Particularly,It is 100% accurate that JJK is more plot driven than character driven. I want to talk about the characterization a little bit though.

Now I'd like to preface this by saying, I'm actually new to anime and manga on the whole. This is the first time I've gotten into either (I am enjoying myself thoroughly). So maybe this approach to characterization is fairly typical in the genre. Or maybe its a Shonen thing, idk.

From what I've seen, characterization is a really really interesting thing in this series and it's Fandom. If I were to go on canon material alone, I would say there's not much actually characterization so much as an employment of tropes. Characterization often involves creating complex layers for your characters that aren't just generic nobility/villainy or expected set of traits for a certain archetype. I would like to clarify here that archetypes are not a bad thing. Used right, they're awesome. But creating tropes is different from creating characters. Characterization needs to go beyond the trope.

Some might confuse giving a character a backstory with characterization. And that's not necessarily the case. You could give the longest backstory but still have your character be rather predictable and typical for their trope, often the backstory is in order to play right into a certain trope. Now, this isn't an absolute throughout the series, it is relative. Some characters definitely have slightly better characterization than others.

I am NOT saying that the series has bad characterization. Because firstly, it's largely plot driven. And secondly, bad characterization is a whole different ball game. Bad characterization is if you could make a certain character do pretty much anything and it works because there isn't an established sense of "that person would never do that" (example- Black widow from Marvel). Good characterization would be where when you see a characters course of action and in hindsight you have no doubt in your mind that that is exactly what that character would do, no other way of acting would have seemed as right. Exercising tropes instead of in-depth characterization falls somewhere in the middle of the two.

Now here's where things get interesting. There is actually really cool characterization for jjk, but it's not what happens in the series, it's what happens in the fandom. The fandom consumes this content and then read and interpret these characters and often create content and/or discussions surrounding these representations. I think the best example of this is often when people in the fandom read into and create content about Gojo and his grief and trauma and how he chooses to process by suppression. The series does not do this at all because they need to keep Gojo within his trope- the cool, suave, overpowered mentor/man-child. And so we in the fandom often rely on these characterization and think of the series as one that has really good characterization when in reality, it's we the fandom who brought out that aspect.

One thing that bothers me about jujutsu is that the author doesn't know how to develop some characters. 1 Shoko Ieri is an interesting character but I find her apathetic without a cold and superficial personality. 2 itadori yuji doesn't seem to be a protagonist he seems more like a tool than the protagonist of the work. 3 nobara had no development dry and emotionless death. and many other characters. There were only 2 characters that really had development, which was gojo and geto, for me, they were the only ones that had it. Why do you think the author did this, is it because he didn't want to develop the characters that's why he killed many important characters? I would appreciate it if you respond.

This is a lot to answer so sorry if it gets confusing a little.

1.) and you really have to keep this in mind, is that the manga isn't finished yet. It's also not about to finish. We have just reached the beginning of the end and we have at least another 6 months to go if not more. Without the last panel drawn, we can't really talk about the stuff Gege hasn't put into the story yet.

Still, many of your points can be addressed.

Shoko: In both the present and the past storylines, she is a side character without her side of the story being shown too much. Her being cold and apathetic can be a fitting description of her in the present but in the past she was more open and easy-going.

When you say she has a superficial personality that's where your interpretation is a little off. For one, her personality changes and for two, her current personality reflects the cost that living as a sorcerer has on people. We are also shown her inner thoughts on occasion but interestingly, one of those thoughts kind of comments her role in the story.

(This thought also establishes that she has trouble understanding Gojo's point of view on his godlike status)

The thing with Shoko is that we're never shown what she does: heal and save people. That's an aspect of her character that has been completely, and deliberately I say, missing until this point. But she has saved the lives of: Geto, Ino and Angel (plus some others) and she has therefore shaped the entire plot of the manga extremely.

But this I think will change in the most impactful way possible: with her saving Gojo's life by showing us for the first time what her CT is and how she heals people.

On Nobara, you're right. She had little character development and no reflection on her thoughts and beliefs. To this I say, read my post about her coming back because I believe that she will get that character develepoment and reflection when she re-enters the manga.

The same thing goes for Tsumiki. I was really disappointed when Yorozu died and Tsumiki basically disappeared from the story with her role never being more than that of a prop. But it was pointed out to me, that Tsumiki actually had been shown in an active role in the manga 70 chapters ago and that role will definitely be revisited when Megumi gets the spotlight again.

Now to Yuji. Did you realize that you contradicted yourself? You said that Yuji doesn't feel like a protagonist but you also said that Geto and Gojo had the best character developement. You're definitely talking about Hidden Inventory here but HI is and arc where Yuji is removed as the protagonist.

So the main protagonist being removed from the story temporarily has a purpose. You could say that that was a flashback and doesn't really count and that you mostly mean the 4 mini-arcs in Culling Games where Yuji wasn't present + the Sukuna/Yorozu fight + the Gojo/Sukuna fight.

Gojo/Suku we don't even count in this, that's a given, Sukuna/Yorozu is character showing plus setup for the future and Yuki/Choso/Tengen vs Kenjaku we don't count either, because that's a plot progression plus villain fight.

In my experience when people talk about Yuji not being a good protagonist because he isn't present often enough, they mean the arcs where Yuta, Maki and Hakari take centre stage. (The three other mini-arcs add to this)

Why would a mangaka do their story like this?

For world building. To be more precise: for plot building. Yuta, Maki and Hakari have important roles for the endfights and for that they needed character development (Maki), a show of their powers (all) and setups for the future (eg alliances with Kashimo and Uro).

Right from the beginning, JJK always moved the plot forward first. That's why the pace is so fast. The story is plot driven and not character driven, but that doesn't mean that the characters aren't given their time, just that that time isn't an entire chapter.

You can critizese this of course, I too would've liked small character scenes to have been expended on. That Yuji is taken off the picture for world building isn't sth I would critizise though. That's what happened in parts of Attack on Titan, and it also happens constantly in One Piece with Luffy albeit in Flashbacks.

It simply adds to the story when we can see other characters act on their own and while Yuji is back in the centre now, he will most likely take small steps back again to let other characters shine like Megumi eg. It also adds to his personality, but for the end of the manga he will be the centre of attention.

there is something significant that suzanne begins thg with an interaction between gale, katniss, and madge. and in that interaction, gale specifically calls out madge for having only five entries, implying that her chances of going to the capitol are nonexistent (thg, 12). or at least less than him, who has forty-two entries (thg, 13).

suzanne integrates this scene with madge in the novel to show (1) the class division throughout the district that creates animosity. and although gale knows that it is not her fault, that doesn't stop him from digging into her (thg, 13). and it also emphasizes (2) the illusion that some people are safe, or benefit in this system.

yet, you know who had also only five entries? just like madge? peeta. and prim only had one entry. the two people whose names were called that year. so when the reaping happens, it proves just one thing. no one is safe. not a merchant's son. not even a girl with only one slip in the bowl.

and it just goes to emphasize the theme that follows katniss's throughout the novel: who does this system benefit? one that she finally reaches her conclusion at the end: that "it benefits no one to live in a world where these things happen" (mj, 321). because no one is safe in a world where people murder children in order to solve their differences. and that means no one. not a capitolite. not a mayor's daughter. and not even a young medic whose sister has done everything in her power to keep her safe.

Yeah Katniss Is Lucy Gray’s greatest revenge on snow

But Peeta is how she haunts him. 

Katniss is Lucy’s anger. She’s the retribution. 

Katniss is fire. Katniss used her songs as a warcry. As a call to arms. 

Katniss is the fight. 

Katniss is the revenge. 

Peeta is Lucy’s kindness.  He’s the reminder. 

A boy in love with a songbird. A boy obsessed with with a victor from twelve. 

Peeta is the good that Lucy was. Peeta believes in that fundamental kindness Lucy gray did. Peeta is her memory. The reminder that Snow crossed that line into evil. 

Even after being high jacked, peeta warns people. He tells them to flee the danger. Run like Lucy did. 

Peeta knows how to hide. He can disappear in the woods. 

Just like Lucy did. 

Peeta is charismatic, someone the capitol fell in love with, like they did with Lucy. 

Peeta is the memory. 

Katniss was there to end Snow, to stop him to make sure everything he built was burned. 

Peeta was there to torment him. Be the ghost of Lucy. Make sure Snow was in pain over the woman he lost. 

As far as book-to-movie adaptations go, The Hunger Games does a pretty good job. But one thing I will never be able to forgive is how dirty they did Finnick.

If you've read the books and watched the movies, you know exactly what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't know, I'll explain. Remember how the District 13 soldiers infiltrate the Capitol to rescue Peeta (and Johanna)? In order to create a distraction for this operation to take this place, the rebels take this opportunity to hack all the Capitol channels. But they need something with sufficient shock factor to capture the Capitol's attention. This is when Finnick steps up and spills some MAJOR TEA in front of the camera. Now, in the books, Finnick's speech is the main focus with the infiltration happening in the background, but the movie does the OPPOSITE (for reasons I will never understand).

People who've only watched the movies don't even know what Finnick said and how important it is because of how the movie overshadows his part there and let's it become fucking background music for the most part.

Finnick talks about how, as a victor, the Capitol sold him (his body that is) to the elite. Basically, they sex trafficked their victors. Keep in mind that Finnick won the games when he was 14. All the victors were minors when they won. And in order to assuage their guilt, to pretend like this was somehow not a really fucking messed up transaction, his "buyers" would offer him gifts- money, jewels, clothes etc. But Finnick figured out a much more valuable thing to exchange. He asked them to tell him their secrets. And because he was dealing the Capitol powerful elite, he learned just how rotten the Capitol was at its core. And the best secret he learned was of how Snow came to power- by poisoning his enemies. And it was from that poison (he also probably had to consume it to prevent his enemies from suspecting something) that he had bleeding sores in his mouth that he tried to disguise with the scent of roses.

Apart from exposing Snow's corruption, Finnick's confession exposes another truth - that the games are never truly over. The victors may leave the arena, but they remain the Capitol's pawns. And if not pawns, they become examples. Johanna and Haymitch were the latter. Johanna was also expected to do what Finnick did. But she basically told the Capitol to go fuck itself and so they killed her whole family. Haymitch had played smart in the arena by using the Capitol's own force field to win. And so they had already killed his whole family (and girlfriend) for that. So they had no one to blackmail him with.

Now think back to what Finnick said to Katniss when they first met. He tells her, "You could have made out like a bandit, jewels, money, whatever you wanted." Katniss ribs at his popularity in the Capitol by talking bout people,"paying for the pleasure of his company, " not realizing just how true that statement was. (He replies "secrets" is you recall). Finnick was alluding to a fate Katniss would have also had to face like other victors if she hadn't been reaped again.

The games were never fucking over. The victors would always be the Capitol's pawns for as long as it suited the Capitol. And I will never be over the fact that the movies quite literally drowned out Finnick's story like that.

I don't know how many of you have paid attention to the JJK 0 opening song "Greatest Strength" but if you haven't, you're missing out. The song itself is beautiful and it becomes even more emotional if you think of the song from not just Yuta's but Gojo's perspective and interpretation. In my interpretation of this song, the first half that is slower and more intimate is about Gojo and Geto and the second part where the rock elements kick in is Gojo addressing his students (listen to the song that way, you're never going to unhear it).

But what I really wanna focus on is this line from it:

"Your weakness if your greatest strength"

I think this line is incredibly interesting (read: heartbreaking) when interpreted in Gojo's context. Gojo's weakness, proven beyond a shadow of doubt by the series, is Geto. Well, less of a weakness, more of a vulnerability, but for the man expected to bear the weight of the jujutsu world and the title of The Strongest, those two are virtually the same thing.

So how is Geto both his weakness and his greatest strength? Well, if I were a cornier, less character focused person, I'd say "love is the greatest strength" or some shit like that. But anyone with the least bit of familiarity with Gojo's character knows that that's not something he would say. He's not one for sentiment. That being said, what I think is meant by "greatest strength" is the effect that Geto had on Gojo. Geto was Gojo's only friend. His influence brought out a softer, more humane side of Gojo. It was Geto slipping through the cracks that inspired Gojo to take on the herculean task that is changing the jujutsu society from the ground up by becoming a teacher. Making sure what happened to Geto never repeats with another kid and building a world that is kinder and better than the ones Geto and Gojo had to face becomes Gojo's purpose. And in that way, Geto is both his source of vulnerability and the foundation of his ideals.

But let's take this even further. I mentioned earlier that I think the first part of this song is for Geto and the second for his students? Well, this line falls in a place kind of toward the end of that first part. So I believe "greatest strength" refers to more than just Satoru - it refers to his students. Gojo wants his students to be on par with him, to dismantle the hierarchical notion of power and strength in jujutsu society. And he's kind of succeeding. Not only are they extremely powerful, but they also stand united and understand the problems of the system. They are Gojo's trump cards. To sum it up, he forged the trauma he and Geto (his weakness) went through into a will to affect change, and his students became his greatest strength in that pursuit.

In modern Japanese, camera is just called 'camera' = カメラ - the same as English, it is a borrowed word.

But Sukuna is old af. He calls it 写真機 (shashinki) - literally 'photography device' - an outdated word from Meiji period I don't think anybody uses anymore.

Aw, A++ writing, my inner linguist nerd is purring

Satoru was not one to put much faith behind the unknowable. Maybe there was a God, or some universal power or creator. But did it matter? Humanity is still left to wander through the world fending for themselves, spinning endless cycles of survival and destruction. But he did like to think about multiverses.

It's not that he believed it, okay? It's a scientifically implausible theory. It's just an intriguing hypothesis, that he likes to wonder about sometimes. Because if there were that many worlds out there, then maybe there was one where the only person who ever felt like home didn't leave him.

That Satoru probably had the courage to ask him to stay when he felt him slipping away. That Satoru probably let his heart spill out of his mouth and gave it to him to hold. That Satoru probably knew what it felt like to be held by him. That Satoru probably knew what his lips felt like against his own, what his hair felt like between his fingers, what his love felt like when it wasn't quiet.

That Satoru could never even imagine looking down at the love of his life slumped in an alley, bleeding out, and delivering the final blow. That Satoru wasn't sitting alone on the school steps with every piece of family lost to time.

He hated that Satoru so much. He really did.

(No he didn't.)

Slow down, time is not our friend

They knew what he was the moment he opened his eyes. Or rather, what he would become. What they would make him.

When the word spread, they called him different things. A sign from above. A savior. The strongest sorcerer this world has seen in centuries. The pride of the Gojo clan. The wielder of the Six Eyes.

The titles were pretty, but they all meant the same thing. From the moment Gojo Satoru opened his eyes, he was a weapon.

A weapon does not need to love or be loved. Love is vulnerability. A weapon cannot be vulnerable.

A weapon does not need to care, only kill. When they tell you to. Whatever (or whoever) they tell you to. A good weapon asks no questions. A weapon does not care.

A weapon does not need to be happy. Happiness is having friends and laughing at stupid things and playing in the sun. Happiness us for children. A weapon is not a child.

Gojo Satoru was a weapon. The best one in centuries.

Until he wasn't.

Until Geto Suguru looked at his eyes like they were beautiful. Like he was beautiful. Weapons are not beautiful. But he looked at him like he was not a weapon. And he made him want to believe it.

And then they gave him the order to execute him. But the weapon was no longer a weapon. Weapons did not have hearts. Suguru may have left it bleeding and broken in the wake of his departure, but it was still the greatest gift he had given Satoru. A weapon did not know love or care or happiness. Satoru was not a weapon.

"It's a story about devouring and love just happens to look similar"

now I just rolled into this establishment but it seems to me that jujutsu kaisen is in fact entirely about cannibalism. eating fingers, eating curses, eating your twin inside of the womb, eating your twin outside of the womb. archaic power structures that needlessly burn out their own young. ancient spirits assimilating little girls. prison realms full of bones that slorp you up. the envelopment of a domain, like being in something’s stomach sloshing around inside it. this is not a story about love! it’s a story about devouring and love just happens to look similar.

the hidden inventory

I know the story of Icarus is supposed to be a cautionary tale about the dangers of getting ahead of yourself...

But has anyone thought about whether Icarus intended to fall? What if when he flew high above, out of the awful labyrinth that had entrapped him and his father all this time, he finally felt free in the endless sky with the ocean under him? What if he looked beyond and saw a city on the horizon and while his father flying beside him shouts that it is safe haven, that they have found a place to land, all Icarus could see was another maze, with its walls and paths and crossroads. Only this one seemed to have more people caught in it. What if he looked at it all and refused to be one of them, refused to live the rest of his life in another labyrinth after just escaping one. What if the sun wasn't his doom but the bright burning possibility of freedom.

You must understand, I'm not saying he definitely wanted to fall. But maybe he never wanted to stop flying. Maybe he never wanted to be parted from the sky and sea. Maybe he just wanted to be free.

Am I the only one who just figured out that Disney's Lion King is basically a kiddie version of Shakespeare's Hamlet? How late am I to the party?

To anyone who was born in one country and grew up in another,

Does it feel weird to you too when you recite the national anthem of a country that you know will never consider you their own even though they're all you've ever known? Did you also have to force a different accent onto your tongue so people would stop looking at you when you spoke with that face that meant they weren't listening to what you said, only the way you said it? Did you dread bringing a copy of your birth certificate to school and try to slip it onto the teachers desk before anyone noticed or saw as if you were passing confidential information? Did you try to be more of this or less of that so you would look like something that belonged? Have you also been a guest that overstayed your whole life in a country you call home?

Finally, an explanation