shes just like me! (jk i dont eat rocks.... maybe)

Sorry but your sexual fantasy has a plot hole in it. Orgasm denied.

So I just saw a post by a random personal blog that said “don’t follow me if we never even had a conversation before” and?????? Not to be rude but literally what the fuck??????????

I’ve had people (non-pornbots) try to strike conversation out of nowhere in my DMs recently, and now I’m wondering if they were doing that because they wanted to follow me and thought they needed to interact first. I feel compelled to say, just in case, that it’s totally okay to follow this blog (or my side blog, for that matter) even if we’ve never talked before.

Also, I’m legit confused. Is this how follow culture works right now? It was worded like it’s common sense but is that really a thing?

Saw a sharp increase in my follower count after posting this. The legitimacy of it is driving me nuts so I also feel the need to say that you can follow anyone on here regardless of whether you’ve interacted with them or not. People like the above mentioned blog are exceptions. Perhaps they themselves think they aren’t and therefore will act like they aren’t, but they are, trust me.

Just follow anyone you wanna follow. The worst thing that can happen is maybe getting soft-blocked by the other person, but if they do soft-block you, then they were never that worth following in the first place.

wow. really hope this isn't actually a norm taking hold with new users! this isn't facebook, you don't need to know people before following them

this is the '10 year mutuals you've never spoken to once' site

I was playing Stardew tonight and got jumpscared by the wizard just walking his ass through town in broad daylight to go to the bookseller. For 8 years he’s been a hermit! Isolated from the townsfolk who fear and distrust him! At most, he might be hiding at the edges of a festival where no one could notice him! That was the extent of his outings to Pelican Town! But now the bookseller is in town and he doesn’t give a fuck, he’s going to march his ass out there with his silly little hat on in front of the whole town and Yoba to get his books.

*wakes from coma* Fuck *walks to the nearest tree and starts punching it*

Minecraft respawn

I HATE THIS GAME

Chapter 176 / Episode 48: The Wrong Tragedy

It’s been a while since I posted one of these — hope the people following me are still interested in reading them. I’m not sure I’d have gone back on that just now if I hadn’t seen @screamyourpain liking a lot of them in the past few days. I also want to thank the always wonderful and insightful @shinidamachu for discussing this with me!

Chapters 173 to 176, or episode 48 (though you know me, I’m not going to discuss the anime), are arguably one of the biggest turning points in Inuyasha. It means a lot for the main characters. It’s when Kagome realizes that she’s in love with Inuyasha, which is not only big in terms of character development but also important on another level, as it shows a teenage girl understanding feelings she (most likely) experiences for the first time.

It’s a turning point in her relationship with Inuyasha. Before this, Inuyasha was the one who mostly reaffirmed his feelings for Kagome,

and now she is the one to do it.

It’s also a tragic, painful moment for both her and Inuyasha. However, the story doesn’t seem to acknowledge, or even realize, the real reasons why this is painful, and doesn’t handle it well later on either.

Let’s start by the beginning: what is tragic in this situation? Well, you might argue, this situation is tragic because Inuyasha has to help Kikyou out of duty, even though he wants to be with Kagome. It’s tragic because Kagome is in love with him, but she knows he can’t forget about Kikyou. You may even say that it’s tragic because part of Inuyasha is still in love with Kikyou and so he can’t move on, and Kagome gets hurt because of that.

This is, at least, what the story is showing, and will show to us from this point on. But I’m going to make again a point I’ve made before: this is a story. This means that there were events before this, events that provide the context. Just because they’re not mentioned again doesn’t mean they never happened; that’s not how those things work.

Because here’s the context. The context is that what Inuyasha still feels for Kikyo is guilt.

This is extremely clear, and please keep in mind that there is nothing that would show these feelings would have changed. Last time we heard about her, she’d given Naraku half the Jewel and gotten off with a bullshit “I have a plan” excuse that she didn’t bother to develop, and that we will later find out wouldn’t even have worked.

Right now, she was nearly killed by Naraku though, something that would reasonably trigger Inuyasha’s feelings — I’m in no way arguing that.

As mentioned above, the context is that he (re)affirmed his feelings to Kagome three times, one time implying that he wasn’t in love with Kikyou anymore.

Another part of the context is that Kikyou did not die following Inuyasha. There are other posts discussing that (like here and here), but what bothers me the most about this is that in my opinion, this would actually seriously undermine Kikyou’s character. Kikyou knew she was dying. She knew she could have wished on the Jewel to stay alive, but she didn’t want to taint it, so she chose to take it out of existence with her. Why would it have anything to do with Inuyasha? She was doing something genuinely selfless, or at least that’s how I’d like to interpret it.

The thing is, this context completely changes the tragedy of these chapters. Suddenly, Inuyasha isn’t making a difficult decision out of some duty he felt he had to do for Kikyou. Instead, Inuyasha was told that Kikyou had died for him/because of him, with Naraku being the one to first imply it, and apparently he started to believe it.

He also has no one to tell him that he doesn’t need to do that, and actually, that’s something that Inuyasha will never hear, ever. Kikyou will never tell him that he doesn’t need to die for her — the most she will do is tell him that it was ‘enough’ that he came for her. This is what Inuyasha gets for having decided to give up his life and possibly his shot at happiness, Kagome, for her for a false reason. I would 100% argue that you never have to die for someone else, no matter what they’ve done for you, but as Inuyasha thinks he has to (and there is probably a cultural aspect to it), he doesn’t even have a reason to do that here. Not that he can know about it, because he didn’t see what happened at Kikyou’s death.

So, the tragedy for Inuyasha is that he got manipulated into thinking that he had to sacrifice his life for a woman who has — and do note that Kikyo and her “your life is mine” is not blameless here —, since allegedly ‘dying for him’, tried to kill both him and the girl he is in love with.

Inuyasha isn’t the only one suffering here though. Kagome is probably the one who gets the worst of things in this chapter. And the sad thing is, if the situation was as is presented, I could argue it’s a very good character development. As it is, it amazes me how Kagome can still grow through something that’s so hard for her. I’ve explained it before, but this is the moment when Kagome learns to acknowledge her more ‘positive’ emotions — if we can call her love for Inuyasha this given how much it hurts her. There’s a real ‘Only Love Can Hurt Like This’ vibe here.

I happen not to particularly be of the mindset that this is when Kagome should have stopped Inuyasha for his actions and put an end to the relationship, mostly because the problem I have with Inuyasha in this situation starts later, as I developed here, however this doesn’t mean that the situation is healthy here. I don’t understand how people are not horrified at Kagome saying that she can’t compete with Kikyou because she is alive. I’m going to quote myself here but

Do you understand what this means about Kagome’s mental state in this situation? She thinks that she can’t compete with Kikyou because she’s not dead.

Also, y’know what — yes, Kagome is probably jealous of Kikyou. She’s mostly terribly insecure, but okay, maybe she’s jealous too. Because she’s fifteen and she’s falling in love for the first time and it also happens to be in a completely new setting and she almost got killed and her boyfriend’s dead-ex-girlfriend is still there and alive and even though she tried to kill him and tortured her

and tried to kill her and gave the most dangerous weapon on the planet to the guy who killed her he still worships the ground she walks on. Yeah, maybe she doesn’t fucking like it. Go figure.

So, this is it. The tragedy isn’t that Inuyasha has to give his life to Kikyou, the tragedy is that Inuyasha feels that he has to give his life to Kikyou. The tragedy isn’t that Kagome is in love with someone who can’t return his love to her because of his duty to someone else, the tragedy is that Kagome believes that said someone will always be more important for him because she’s dead. The tragedy is that Inuyasha will never be able to mourn Kikyou and that he will never realize that she has no right to ask of him the things she does. The tragedy is that Kagome never realizes how wrong the situation is — for the both of them.

I know I would have liked this to be resolved either by people fucking telling Inuyasha that no, he doesn’t have to give up happiness for anyone, or by Kagome telling Inuyasha that he has to make a decision because the situation as it is is hurting her too much. It doesn’t happen (and the tragedy we’re supposed to see is barely even resolved, as Kikyou never tells Inuyasha she won’t ask it of him to follow her to hell, nor does Inuyasha tell her that he won’t). I understand what these chapters could have been about, what they could have meant for the characters, if they’d only taken into account previous informations given by the story. But it’s not what they’re about, and in the end, that may be the real tragedy here. Those chapters mark the moment when I consider the story and the characters start bending to accommodate a certain narrative. And what narrative could that be, I wonder…

I am 100% in agreement with everything, I just want to leave one scene here that I thought made it abundantly clear Naraku was making that “she died for you” stuff up to mess with Inuyasha. Before the narrative just… decided to take it as truth for some reason.

let me preface this with: i love kagome higurashi

but. this is the most uncomfortable scene i’ve ever witnessed in the inuyasha series. and i had to rant about it. also for the record: i don’t blame kagome. I blame rumiko. but anyway without any further ado: 

Okay so I decided to rewatch this episode which btw is episode 109, and I was sickened by it…Because look. We get that there’s a “Love Triangle” and we get that Everyone is on Team Kagome, and Inuyasha is always made out to be the bad guy in regards to his feelings (which he has no control of). 

But this just grosses me out. Like you got Kikyo here, who at this point in the series and anime, is no longer the Bad Guy, she’s clearly trying to do the same thing they are trying to do, meanwhile also saving lives and being peaceful to children. And here she is. Suffering And Dying. 

And The first thing everyone thinks of (except maybe Inuyasha) is “Oh no…Kagome’s feelings…” Like can ya’ll put aside Kagome’s feelings for one minute, a priestess is DYING. Like look at Sango’s face. Sango is like 100% “Oh no…Kagome….” 

And you wanna know what Miroku is thinking?

THE SAME THING. His number one concern is making sure Kagome isn’t uncomfortable. “Would you rather I carry her off alone?” What?? Why are you blushing Inuyasha?

WHAT IS THIS WHOLE SCENE, LIKE…SHIPPO MAKING A COMMENT ABOUT THE TENSION? AND THEN SANGO AGREEING? FIRST OF ALL…S O M E O N E IS DYING... Then, it’s hard to get the tone out from Kagome’s “It should only be Inuyasha.” But if you watch the anime you’ll get the vibe that she’s saying this begrudgingly. This girl is making it a whole lot more uncomfortable cause she virtually has to give “PERMISSION” to Inuyasha to CARRY A DYING WOMAN TO SALVATION. And she does it like as if she has no other choice. Kagome…why? See this is why I feel, although Kagome is a saint-I love Kagome Higurashi. Don’t get me wrong- but is she really so amazing for ALLOWING INUYASHA TO CARRY KIKYO?? In the next scene…

“Kagome is so kind-hearted, I am in awe.” …………REALLY MIROKU? YOU ARE IN AWE..? THAT ANOTHER WOMAN…WOULD GIVE HER BOYFRIEND PERMISSION…TO CARRY A DYING WOMAN…IN AWE?? 

The fact is, I could SOMEWHAT understand Kagome’s jealousy/insecurity/sadness?? I guess?? For having to watch her boyfriend carry his dying ex?

But MIROKU AND SANGO? WHat is YOUR excuse for making this about Kagome? …I’m glad Kagome called ya’ll out.

And then look at this scene of Kagome watching Inuyasha carry Kikyo from the anime:

??????????? Girl. 

Girl.

tHANKFULLY Kikyo DOES not DIE THERE, and the next time it happens Kagome is finally more concerned with Kikyo than she is with InuKik, but anyway…

So ends my rant.

tldr: i still love kagome higurashi. and behind inuyasha she’s my favorite person. but kikyo was dying. and kagome to herself while seeing inuyasha carry kikyo: “i don’t like seeing them like this” really struck a nerve.

I mean by this logic, Kagome literally can’t win, can she? She’s upset like you want, but she’s also supposed to have a smile on her face despite it? … Huh? Kikyou wasn’t dying here. At all. She was unconscious because she got grazed by a blast and then couldn’t get up because she herself had put herself out of her collector’s reach. Inuyasha didn’t even rush to her at any point. And lest we forget she has to eat more dead women to get up? Is anyone supposed to be okay with that? Secondly, Kikyou’s already dead. Not to sound harsh but from a narrative perspective like 80% of the manga is waiting for her to die (again). We obviously don’t want Naraku to have the satisfaction but even INUYASHA has asked her point blank to rest in peace.

Thirdly, Kagome doesn’t particularly like or trust Kikyou. With good reason. Remember this?

Yeah that’s a big one. She gives Kikyou a LOT of grace. Like an insane amount, for Inuyasha’s sanity. But saying she’s supposed to be perfect and have a smile around her is ridiculous imo. (Even if this scene didn’t exist tbh.) Kagome isn’t throwing a fit here or even showing much emotion. In fact she’s often quite stoic unless prodded. The only ones making it awkward are her friends and I think it’s safe to say they’ve never had the best interpretation of her and Kikyou, let alone when it comes to Inuyasha. (It’s never been properly explained to them for one.) Kagome is upset because Inuyasha is. So she suggests the thing that will make him feel better (directly helping Kikyou.) Just because she has some resentment over having to be the bigger person all the time doesn’t mean she’s not a good person. That’s not how humans work, and that’s the entire purpose of her arc with Kikyou. (It’s okay to feel and feeling bad doesn’t make you bad.) tl;dr: This scene is such a non-issue and I apologize if I come off as harsh but I’m tired of the fandom holding Kagome to a different standard than every other character when she acts perfectly reasonable for someone in her position.

Inuyasha, for all the titular character's adventures in slaying various youkai to gain their powers or save people, is at its heart about Kagome adopting a bunch of strays into a found family. Inuyasha himself is obvious, but Shippou was literally orphaned and though it wasn't onscreen whose idea it was to take him in, he says he hung around because of Kagome.

Miroku was literally a vagabond roaming around waiting to die since he had no hope of finding (or beating) Naraku. Inuyasha was vehemently against him since he had crook-like tendencies and Inuyasha is already loath to trust people. It's Kagome's influence that brought him along in the end. She was willing to give him the chance he needed, AND was the one to show Miroku Inuyasha was trustworthy in turn.

Do I even need to get into how she helped Sango?

I'm having feels again so bear with me, but Inuyasha is not that dense. He knows exactly what Kagome feels when it comes to having to somehow be compared to or live up to Kikyou. Their friends get that she has a complex, but I'd argue they don't REALLY get it. Inuyasha REALLY gets it. He is a hanyou. A torn existence that will always be compared to either a human or a youkai depending on the prejudice. He understands the pain of being compared and coming up short in people's eyes. This is why you canonically will NEVER see him compare the two in any direct way, and especially not to Kagome's face. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Hell, I imagine if he'd been there to hear, it, Kikyou's "you are me" comments would have pissed him off. It's more than romantic drama or average teen coming of age angst. It's about identity issues. Inuyasha and Kagome are more alike than a glance would let on, and me, I love that and how it ties into some of the deeper themes. (Which ARE especially important to teenagers, don't get me wrong.)

been rewatching the ol’ comfort anime lately 💚

Inuyasha and Miroku's Dad Bonding™

rewatching again 😔... 🥺💕

Inuyasha and Kagome rubbed off on each other so much that by the end of their journey he got softer and she got tougher.