Time to rest 🌿✨
haikyuu is soooooo…… everything. it’s so good it makes you want to do stuff and motivates you enough to realize that you have to begin somewhere and that everything is worth a try and maybe you’re lonely now but something better is coming, or maybe you’re not the best at that one thing you’re doing but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy it, or maybe you feel like you’re behind everyone else but your path is yours to walk and it’s different from the path of those you compare yourself to, and maybe you think you’re never going to make it but you’re going to bloom after trials and tribulations, and maybe you won’t shine the way you expected to but shining isn’t limited to grand gestures and grand jobs and grand dreams and
The first couple of pages of Episode Nagi parallel Nagi's journey and hint at Nagi understanding his originality after death
Episode Nagi chapter 1 page 3
Nagi wakes up and gets pricked, causing him to awaken- just like how experiencing frustration for the first time in the team Z match "awakened" him.
Despite being awake, Nagi doesn't get out of bed bc "getting up is such a pain..." so instead he focuses on "beating the daily challenge" This may refer to Nagi wanting to/succeeding at beating Isagi, though I think it more so parallels Nagi’s decision to start “making an effort” in blue lock, given that he dies.
So then Nagi dies, which forces him to get up and go to school. At the same time, he realizes he's hungry
This is a pain, because to be hungry is to want things and be human. Being hungry makes you do things to sate that hunger. It forces you to live. And to Nagi, living is a pain.
After chapter 298, we have reached the part where Nagi “dies”, which will forces him to get out of bed. Right about now is when Nagi should be getting "hungry" too, which can be understood as understanding his “originality” as Ego describes. This is whatever deep intrinsic desire he feels he wants to fulfill.
Maybe the reason why Nagi’s death kickstarts this understanding is because it denies him of what he wants, causing hunger. Maybe it’s because it’s only at rock botttom, having lost everything, that Nagi can face what he wanted in the first place. After all, if he’d faced it earlier, he’d have to face the possibility of losing it. Now, that’s moot point, as he’s dead and lost it all.
What is this originality? It may be related to his fear of losing Reo, which he expressed in his dying moments. But what he hungers for shouldn't just be being by Reo's side. That's settling. Settling in a place like Blue Lock is no good.
Nagi got mad at the implication that he was Reo's toy. What he should aim for isn't just Reo letting him tag along by his side, but being Reo's true and real partner. He needs to find the bravery to chase that instead.
What Nagi's been doing through his lack of communication with Reo (and, what Reo has been doing by assuming certain things are impossible) has been settling. They need to stop settling for a situationship and get together. They need to get to a point where they have a mutual understanding of their partnership that isn’t functioning to keep them together, but rather only exists because they decided to be together and understand each others feelings.
For an example of settling, take Reo’s 300 mil proposition and Nagi’s unenthusiastic agreement. Nagi clearly doesn’t care about that, but he wants to be with Reo, so he doesn’t object or correct him. He settles for being a passive participant in the relationship despite getting mad at Barou for calling him Reo’s servant, and later gets to the point of begging Reo to let him stay by his side by 298.
For another example of settling, take Reo’s assumption that without soccer they could never be together, and that they will separate once the World Cup is won (in the extra chapter). This is part of what leads him to react the way he does in 2nd selection.
By the time of 298, Nagi clearly thinks the same- though this wasn’t a given to him like it was to Reo. He’d asked Reo in the harujuku extra chapter what they would be if Nagi had no soccer talent, and Reo had told him Nagi’d be abandoned- though there was no way Nagi didn’t have talent in Reo’s mind.
Even if Nagi had gotten past that idea by the time they entered blue lock, it would have been reinforced when Reo accused him of forgetting their promise/not caring about him anymore by choosing to play with Isagi, demanding Nagi to throw him away. Being rejected because of not playing soccer with Reo despite working toward their dream would send the message that their partnership is reliant on soccer. At least, to someone as passive as Nagi. Thus, “I am not your toy”. But it seems like he’d settle for that.
After that moment he uses kanji instead of katakana to refer to Reo which has been confirmed to mean he feels more distant from him.
The fact of the matter is that playing together doesn’t necessarily make one play better. Your motive cannot be being helpful or useful to someone else, out of transaction for their company. Partnerships only work when mutual interests align instead.
That may beg the question- doesn’t that mean relationships of convenience are the way to go? Ie the Karasu Otoya route, for instance?
Well, no. Relationships of convenience are for when two different/opposing mutual interests align. What we haven’t seen (yet) is when mutual interests align because they are so similar- because two people want to win together at the end of the day. They understand this shared desire, and trust each other to do their best to carry it out- resulting in an ideal partnership.
The nagireo endgame… potentially.
I do not have the energy to make this look nicer but i felt i needed to get this out or it would consume me.
I have been feeling an immense amount of rage and grief lately and this only encapsulates some of my thoughts
My favorite chapters of Dr. Stone have been animated!
I'm so glad anime-onlys finally get to see these chapters.
I'll talk a little more about why these chapters matter a lot to me under the cut, specifically more about Xeno's character. I've been able to digest these chapters for almost 5 years, so I would say I am a certified Xeno expert. I'd read it if you want to understand Xeno's character more, it'll make his future actions make more sense to y'all.
Don't worry, there's no spoilers.
The most important aspect of Xeno's character is who he was before, who he was when he first met Senku. Xeno wasn't born a bad person, he became one over time, as he grew up he felt like his dreams were taken from him. He always had some authoritarian tendencies, but those tendencies were brought forth the more he became shackled by authority.
His true passion is science, all of his wants are motivated by his selfish drive to do as much science as possible, no matter the financial and ethical barriers.
Xeno first met Senku when he was 10, Xeno being 20-21. They were online friends for 9 years, so they both got to see each other grow up.
Senku's drive to save humanity was instilled in him because he rejected Xeno's crumbling ethics. His trip to Africa, his studying biology and topics far beyond rocket science, was because he knew people like Xeno posed a threat to humanity. He knew he would have to counter mad scientists from a very young age.
Xeno and Senku are meant to be mirrors of each other, this shows in Xeno's design. I will say I am very proud because I figured this out years ago before Boichi (the manga artist of Dr. Stone) confirmed it several days ago.
Both Xeno and Senku represent the quest for knowledge by oneself because they feel like nobody will be as passionate while carrying the torch. Xeno decided to become a dictator because he felt like he could be the only one willing to sacrifice morality for the sake of human scientific progress, while Senku felt like he could be the only one willing to do everything possible to save every human on Earth.
(Notice the difference in their eyes, Xeno's don't shine. This becomes more important symbolically later. This theme is brought up again and again.)
In summary, Xeno is a passionate person who lost all hope in humanity because of the barriers that were placed in front of him. He is arrogant, controlling, and has sinister motivations.
Senku is the scientist of light, while Xeno is the scientist of the dark. Senku is selfless, Xeno is selfish. Senku studied science in the hopes of progressing science at the benefit of everyone, while Xeno studied science in the hopes of progressing science at the benefit of himself - his curiosity.
As I've grown up alongside Dr. Stone, I've noticed the shift in my own character. I love Dr. Stone because it is all about wanting to learn as much as possible. I find that very relatable. Like Senku, I loved reading books on quantum theory and chemical biology when I was little - although I was like Taiju, I rarely understood it. But I continued to read regardless because I just wanted to know everything, I was and am endlessly curious.
I found myself relating to Senku after I first caught up to Dr. Stone in January 2020, but over time I have begun to understand Xeno further - most people are not curious. They feel no passion for learning more and the importance of building upon existing human knowledge, even if it could help many. Sometimes we need great, powerful people, to drive humanity forward even at the cost of one's moral character.
It's time for a new Project. This time i wanna be witch from Witch Hat Atelier. I started with the white dress they wear under the iconic big cape. For that i used the pattern 120 from the 08/2011 burda style magazine as a base for the top part and the sleeves.
I added the button placket first to the front part and marked where the 7 buttons are gonna sit. Then i decided a point at the armhole and connected that point to the top and the bottom of the button placket. After that i measured the space and divided that by 7 and marked each line with that result. To each line i added 0,7 cm for the pintucks later. For the back part i did it similar. For the sleeves i split off the bottom part and added space for another button placket. To the top sleeve part i added more space to the middle so the sleeve will be fuller and puffy. In the end my pattern looked like this: (all the dark gray parts got thrown away)
I also constructed a collar for the dress from scratch and for the bottom part of the white dress i used a simple rectangle as big as all the fabric that i had left after i cutted all the parts for the top part. Now to the fun part: sewing! The first thing i made was all the pintucks in the front and the back. That took more time than i thought because i sewed really slow to make them as accurate and neat as possible. After that i pieced the two front parts together and added the button plackets in the front and in the back. Next was the shoulder seam - I hid that one under another pintuck so it's barely visible! Because the embroidered fabric i chose is pretty thin and see-through i sewed in a lining. After that i sewed on the collar.
Then i prepared the bottom part of the dress by sewing on the lining. I made sure the scalloped edge from the fabric is still visible. I also made this for the bottom part of the sleeves. After that i pinned the skirt part onto the dress. Thought it would be good to use my dress form for that but in the end i just measured the distance between the highest and the lowest point of the V-shaped front part and the A-shaped back part. With that i could mark these points on the side and the middle of the skirt and could connected the points. Then i could cut off the excess fabric. Next i gathered the skirt fabric at the top, sewed it on the top part. Lastly i also gathered the fabric for the top part of the sleeves into a puffy sleeve and sewed that on the dress - then the dress was done~
I am Amina, a graphic designer and I know how to draw too, but the war has destroyed my dreams, my work and my ambitions, and I have nothing left. A good friend helped me draw these drawings for my campaign, and I hope that all humanitarian artists will help me because we are now going through an unprecedented famine. I hope that everyone who can help in my campaign will help, and anyone who can support me financially will help in my campaign. Any amount helps, even if it is small.
I hope that everyone who sees the post and can help and point out known artists who can help, I hope that they do so because hunger is starting to destroy my children and my daughter needs urgent treatment. Thank you all.
https://gofund.me/1187cba0
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Crammed together like heaps of flesh in tents that feel like scorching ovens, our days have regressed to a more degraded version of those of the earliest humans. From morning till night, we search for the same things Abel and Cain sought to survive: water, food, and fire. We endure long hours in queues to get a meager amount of water, and the food consists of old, low-quality canned goods. We sleep and wake to the sounds of savage airplanes, unsure of where they will strike next or who among us will be turned into scattered remains. Here in Gaza, we are living the worst existence humanity has known since its very beginning, You are our only hope for escaping Gaza and its oppression. Please help my siblings and me find a safe place to live💔🇵🇸