I really just have to summarize Thomas's entire life:
He was in a committed relationship with a male swan named Henry for 18-24 years before a female swan named Henrietta showed up and mated with Henry.
Thomas was initially jealous of the pair and attacked them, breaking 2 of the 5 eggs Henrietta had laid. However, once the remaining eggs hatched, Thomas warmed up to them and helped raise them.
Henry couldn't fly because of an injured wing, so Thomas taught the cygnets how to fly.
When they needed to reduce the goose population in the pond where Thomas and the swans lived, they dyed Thomas's feathers red so he wouldn't be separated from Henry.
Henry, Henrietta, and Thomas remained in their happy throuple for years and raised 68 cygnets before Henry died in 2009. After Henry's death, Henrietta found another swan and flew away, leaving Thomas alone.
Thomas finally met and mated with a female goose in 2011 and had his own babies. However, another goose named George stole them and raised them himself.
As Thomas grew elderly and blind, he was relocated to a wildlife center where he raised orphaned cygnets.
His caretaker at the center described him as "pretty high maintenance."
Thomas died in 2018 at the age of around 40. He had a funeral that included a small coffin and a procession that was led by a bagpiper. He was buried under the stone where Henry was buried, the two finally reunited in death.
Before and after his death, Thomas has been celebrated as an icon of the LGBTQ+ community for obvious reasons.
actually Iâm not done talking about Cora and Lawâs last scene together. We enter Lawâs backstory already knowing Cora is going to die. By the time we get to Minion Island and the Ope-Ope and the treasure chest, we know this can only end in tragedy. But the fact that Cora pulls that goofy face and then we see young Law, the dying child full of rage and anger and grief who hasnât had a single reason to be happy in the past three years since the deaths of his family and the genocide of his entire homeland, actually genuinely smile and laugh in that moment is so fucking heartbreaking. The ending to this story has already happened, but Law, of course, is not aware of this. and that makes his brief, bright joy in that moment all the more devastating to the viewer
functionally suicidal character saying âI would die for youâ to their significant other and its like. I get the sentiment, honey, but if a hot dog vendor told me heâd sell hot dogs for me, I wouldnât feel very moved now would I
Made this post about 15 minutes after the repair guy who fixed the pump on my dishwasher packed up his tools and left, as the dishwasher was whirring along doing my dishes from that morning.
He said the exact same thing, which I did not know before that, so spreading this knowledge.
listen to me, this is so so important: you've gotta get used to really giving it your 60% as a default. like don't half-ass it necessarily but try not to go over 70% or so of an ass. you'll feel better and live a happier more fulfilled life, and on the rare occasions where you do need to lock the fuck in you'll be able to pull off bullshit that the sad miserable wretches giving it their 100% can never dream of, because they're busy draining themselves dry and you have energy reserves to spare.
so i keep the notifications on this blog turned off but apparently this post got reblogged a lot while i wasn't looking and there are upsettingly many people in the notes saying things like "oh but my maximum is only 40%" so let me be incredibly fucking clear: this is a post about not working yourself to exhaustion and the importance of keeping some energy in reserve. if your maximum is """40%""" then that's not your fucking 40% then is it. that's your 100%. do 60% of that. if 40% is your 100% then you've gotta get used to really giving it your 24% as a default, or whatever.
don't work yourself to exhaustion! keep energy in reserve!! maybe unionise or something, i don't know!!! i'm not some magic wizard of knowing how to solve capitalism, i just made a post when i was kinda drunk and not thinking very hard and now people keep reblogging it and saying depressing things in the notes.
I'm just saying, if you're going to worldbuild magic being a "raw, primal force, akin to and interweaving with nature itself" you gotta explain to me why animals don't use it
I know the normal answer is "they just aren't smart enough for it" but idk I've seen enough media where a character uses a spell in a moment of brain-off panic ilI feel like animals could probably stumble into a spell or two like, accidentally
group of wizards who ask this in-universe, and after extensive study learn to their surprise that animals are casting spells all the time, just that their magic is so fundamental as to be unrecognizable to humans. turns out the only reason acorns grow on trees is because squirrels keep wishing for them.
Personally, we are underselling how weird, beautiful, and inspiring the world already is.
Pretend we didn't have the science that explain how octopi controlled camouflage, how the electric eel delivers shocks, how owls fly silently, how intelligent corvids can be. It becomes the basis of many supernatural tales and folklore.
Look at the entire mindfuck that's the fungi kingdom and, oh, parasites.
Go even further with plants, too, since it's all life.
So two things:
One, animals are capable of doing magic that doesn't match the current human framework (i.e., blood/primal magic, like how animals can track their stole kin from poachers and animal rescuers, regardless of how far they must travel, war horses praying to their great deity to be swifter and fiercer with blood and bone staining their hooves as the sacrifice to their private altar, wolves using bone carvings to weave protection spells on their dens, trees/forests developed a whole ass magic system based on their symbiotic relationships with other animals, pets who love their human so very much that they will tie their inherent skills over, like a rabbit who gifts their owner a superb talent at finding the tastiest greens or a catowner gains better night vision over time, or even sacrifice lifespan to boost their critically/terminally sick human)
Two, supernatural creatures are actually the magical-user equivalents. And yes, these animal witches and wizards can have their own familiars, too, which can include plants. Like a church grim is a sanctioned canine paladin, unicorns are top-tier alchemy scholars among wild horses, and a Selkie is master seal artificer.
On Chapter 767: An (over)reading of the confrontation scene between the Donquixote brothers.
Disclaimer/notes:Â
Absolutely stunned by the confrontation between the Donquixote brothers in Chapter 767. Here I want to discuss some of the details and design choices that I think leave a lot of room for interpretation.Â
My personal speculation, guesswork & overanalysis will be regular text. For completeness, plot summaries and quoted/paraphrased dialogue will be italicized and indented. Â
I only have access to a Chinese translation of the manga. So captions, also italicized, will provide my (potentially biased) translation/summary of the bubbles in the figures.Â
Before the confrontation actually begins, a quick note on Lawâs reaction when he heard that Doflamingo was coming. He looked terrified, which is how normal human beings should look at Doflamingoâs approach. Half a year earlier, Law was still like, âI want to be just like him!â and âIâm not your underling! Doflamingo is my boss!â Clearly, Coraâs six-month course of therapy had been working incredibly well.Â
(Caption: Right: basically just Doflamingoâs people saying Doflamingo is coming and addressing him. Middle: Cora breathing heavily and lighting his cigarette.)
The Donquixote brothers now faced each other. Doflamingo began with a greetingââItâs been half a year, hasnât it... Corazon...!ââwhich sounded almost like an accusation. Cora was sitting on the ground, leaning against the treasure chest in which Law was hiding. He recalled the moment he had met Sengoku as a boy. Then he raised his gun, identified himself as a Marine, and declared his purpose, which was to stop the âdisaster Doflamingo was about to cause.â Cora bumped his head against the chest behind him and continued: âSorry for having lied to you before...! But I really didnât want you to hate me...!â
(Law: âWhat are you apologizing for?! I knew that already...!â)
Doflamingo: ......?
(Caption: Left panels, 1-3, from Chapter 780. Doflamingo: âWhat is that âCorazonâ on your back supposed to mean...?! And those âHeart Piratesâ of yoursâwhat are they supposed to mean?!â)
I find Doflamingoâs â......?â particularly amusing. First, because of how dead serious he looks (right, panel 1). Second, it almost seems like Cora and Law shared a secret language, in which Cora first spoke to Law, and Law spoke back for the next thirteen yearsâa language Doflamingo never had a clue existed. Until the final battle in Dressrosa, when it finally dawned on him and he promptly blew up (left, panels 1â3). On that note, Iâm not even sure Doflamingo would have caught on upon seeing the âCorazonâ on Lawâs back, had Law not retold their backstory to him and kept invoking Cora-sanâs name.Â
Doflamingo, none the wiser and impatient, pressed Cora about the Op-Op Fruit and Lawâs whereabouts. Cora told him that Law had already eaten the fruit and was probably âunder Marine protection by nowââat which point Baby 5 and Buffalo reported that they had indeed heard over Marine communications that âa boy has been secured.â Doflamingo immediately ordered his crew to prepare to set sail, intending to take Law back. At this point, Cora, still stunned by the coincidence, delivered what I consider an extraordinarily well-judged line: âHold it...! What are you going to do with Law if you get hold of him?â
As I read it, Coraâs question served a dual purpose. On the one hand, it reinforced Doflamingoâs belief that Law was already under Marine protection. On the other hand, it was meant to bait Doflamingo into revealing his âtrue colorsâ as someone who exploited his own peopleâright in front of Law. Cora certainly didnât underestimate Doflamingoâs ruthlessness; if anything, he might have overestimated it. For instance, after Doflamingo called him about the Op-Op Fruit, Cora immediately told Law, âDoffy probably already suspects me of betrayal.â He also believed that Doflamingo was âplanning to sacrifice me, his obedient little brother, in exchange for âeternal life,ââ and that going back to the gang meant âdeath for sure.â Therefore, upon hearing Doflamingo say he was going to take Law back, Cora would naturally have thought that he planned to trade Lawâs life someday for his own immortality. But Cora asked the question despite already knowing the answer, because that answer needed to be said out loudâand it would be most effective coming from Doflamingoâs own mouth.
ââYou want to know what Iâm going to do with Law...? Why, now that heâs eaten the Op-Op Fruit... what else but make him into a good boy whoâll gladly die for me!â
Of course, Doflamingo had no idea that Law was listening. But he didnât have to answer Coraâs question eitherâCora âhad nothing to say toâ Doflamingoâs people and hadnât bothered to answer their questions. Doflamingo probably did intend to have Law perform the operation that would grant him immortality at some point in the future. But his words here were likely meant largely to spite Cora. The wording seems charged with emotion: he sneers at the sincerity and sacrifice of others, boasts of his ability to manipulate othersâ feelings, and presents his own selfishness as the most natural thing in the worldâas though deliberately showing off just how evil and cruel he was.
The malice seems partly directed toward Cora, whose deception and betrayal might have severely hurt Doflamingoâs feelings. Furthermore, Cora had achieved almost every goal in this struggle over the Op-Op Fruit and Law, while Doflamingo had achieved none. It is entirely characteristic of Doflamingoâwith his inflated ego and inviolable self-imageâto want to regain the upper hand and make Cora (who was supposed to be his obedient little brother) feel the despair of knowing that all his efforts had been, and would be, futile.
The malice also seems partly directed toward Law. In the preceding chapters, Doflamingo had treated Lawâwho at the time strongly identified with himâwith a great deal of care and an almost uncharacteristic level of respect. Now he spoke as though Law deserved to be manipulated and exploited this way. Where does this hostilityâwhich, from a readerâs perspective, seems almost suddenâcome from? Was Doflamingo jealous of Law for receiving Coraâs genuine affection, when, according to Doflamingo, he himself was the one who deserved itâas the brother who had protected Cora and treated him so sincerely? Was he upset with Law, who should still have identified with himâas he once hadâbut now seemed to listen to Cora instead?
The following three pages strike me as particularly interesting. Depending on whether we include the panels from Lawâs point of view, there seem to be two different ways of interpreting whatâs going on. Hereâs the first reading, which follows the mangaâs original panel sequence and includes Lawâs perspective:
Doflamingo, pointing his gun at Cora, roared: âWhy do you have to cause all this trouble?! Why do you go out of your way to stand in my way?! Corazon! Why are you making me kill another member of my own familyâand with my own hands?!â
(Law: panicking.)
Doflamingo continued: âYou could never pull the trigger...! You are just like Father...!â
Law remembered what Cora had told him when Cora hid him inside the treasure chest: Doflamingo would never kill his own brother; at worst, he would cut ties with Cora. Cora would meet Law later in the nearby town. AndââI love you.â Beside himself with panic, Law silently pounded against the inside of the chest. Cora rose to his feet and answered Doflamingoâs threat:Â
â...Law won't listen to you anymore, Doffy. âHe has overcome the âfateâ that was supposed to have killed him by now...! He is no longer the lost child who wandered into your gang of maniacs... He has nothing to gain from a devil like you! Leave him alone! He is free!â
Read this way, Coraâs final words declaring Lawâs freedom sound perfectly natural, because they come immediately after the panels of Law remembering him. The firmness with which Cora delivers these words, together with his rising to his feetâthus facing Doflamingo on equal footingâreinforces Coraâs image as Lawâs protector. Even the words themselves seem, much like the Calm-Calm Fruitâs power, to offer protection, hope and a blessing to Law in his panic, grief, and helplessness. Unable to make Coraâby this point almost Lawâs guardian angelâyield through fear or despair, Doflamingo could only kill him before attempting to get his hands on Law again.Â
Hereâs the second reading, which removes Lawâs perspective and brings us closer to Doflamingoâs point of view:
Furious, Doflamingo finally raised his gun and roared: âWhy do you have to cause all this trouble?! Why do you go out of your way to stand in my way?! Corazon! Why are you making me kill another member of my own familyâand with my own hands?!âÂ
His tone seemed to calm somewhat: âYou could never pull the trigger...! Youâre just like Father...!â
Cora, who had remained slumped on the ground, rose to his feet, with his gun still pointed at Doflamingo. He made no response to what Doflamingo had said about family. Instead, he told him that his fantasy of making Law into âa good boy who would gladly die for [him]â was nothing more than thatâa fantasy:
â...Law wonât listen to you anymore, Doffy.â
(Doflamingo has a â!?â speech bubble here, which one may read as him being surprised by the subject Cora has chosen to pursueâalthough, under the first reading, he might simply be surprised that Cora has managed to stand up.)
âHe has overcome the âfateâ that was supposed to have killed him by now...! He is no longer the lost child who wandered into your gang of maniacs... He has nothing to gain from a devil like you! Leave him alone! He is free!â
(Caption: what it might feel like with Lawâs POV removed. Left panel: Doflamingoâs roar. Middle panel: Doflamingo: âYou could never pull the triggerâŚâ etc. Right panel: Cora: â...Law wonât listen to you anymoreâŚâ etc., alongside Doflamingoâs â!?â speech bubble.)
Here the progression of emotion might be as follows: after the yelling, Doflamingo had already vented much of his rage. He was still pointing his gun at Cora, but his tone became relatively calm as he began talking about their family. Perhaps he really was hesitating over whether to kill Cora or not. But then Cora stood up and confronted Doflamingo as though they were equals. This gesture alone could be (over)read as a challenge toâor rejection ofâDoflamingoâs position as the âolder brother.â Whatâs more, Cora refused to engage with Doflamingoâs attempt to talk about family. Instead, he declared Doflamingoâs utter defeat in the struggle over both Law and the Op-Op Fruit, which was a direct blow to Doflamingoâs pride. In a burst of anger, Doflamingo shot Cora dead.
It is even possible that Cora was intentionally provoking Doflamingo into killing him in the heat of the moment. Had Cora been taken back alive, he could have become a convenient hostage through whom Doflamingo could regain control over Law, which, for Cora, would have been the worst possible outcome.Â
itâs wild to me how there is literally ZERO correlation between what a piece of media is like and what its fanworks are like. 2014 captain america fans were out there writing poetry and full-on academic papers inside of their fics. sonic the hedgehog and my little pony fandoms are both famous for drawing fetishes youâve never even heard of. les miserables fans spent most of their energy on college aus. there is literally no consistency or observable pattern and itâs incredible
#my theory is that fanworks reflect what people found missing in the canon#so like. sonic and mlp. obviously#les miz want les amis to be happy and alive and goofing around#and uh. mcu fans want the mcu to be well-written (via dicaeopolis)
you may be familiar with disney twisted wonderland, the gacha game in which various disney villains are used as direct inspiration for handsome anime boys. well that game was so successful that disney is trying to do it again but this time they're just animeboyifying whatever
here's mickey, goofy, donald, and chip & dale. yeah they turned mickey & friends into anime boys. they're an idol unit or something. they're technically not anime boy versions of the source characters, they have different names. mickey's guy is "Neo Michel". not michael, michel, like he's french. chip & dale are "Ruska Moncrief" and "Ranka Monk", they have different last names, they're not brothers anymore so that they can be yaoibait instead, anyways this post isn't actually about these guys I'm just setting the stage for the actual humanizations I wanted to show you
They also did monsters inc. And. Well it's obvious from the designs who mike and sully are. but you will also notice. the blonde one on the left. with glasses. monsters inc is kind of famously about just the two guys so they didn't really have a lot of other non-villain characters to take anime boys inspiration from, I guess, so, well,
Yeah it's her. they made an anime boy version of the mean receptionist slug. her name is roz btw, as all of boygachagame twitter has become extremely aware of in the past 3 days as we speculated prior to the release of the full image who tf the third guy was. the anime boy's name is "noah slugger". at this point no parody of the types of things gacha games will make gijinkas of will ever be able to live up to what disney is officially spending their own real money on designing
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