lightly salted chip

pau/24 dont mind me, im just here :)

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smoch

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my issue is that i keep expecting that she'll pull through for me the same way i pull through for her 😔

[teathattast]

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oh god i just found the 2003 taiwanese drama Westside Story on bilibili with english subs this changes everything...

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Free onions ♫

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gonna have to start donating 50 philippine pesos to a choice non profit whenever i draw kenji in pink clothes

[maid-of-the-golden-deer]

something i like about wdyey, life in smokey blue, and tsukutabe is they all have subtle moments of going "gay marriage would be a reaaaaaaaal nice right to have, wouldn't it, audience- i mean, person i am talking to in universe" lol

[maid-of-the-golden-deer]

like the fact that the culmination of the "he's not my type" joke is (in S2 EP4) shiro realizing his "type" is men who treat him like shit because he didn't have any self respect at that point in his life and kenji "isnt his type" because he treats him like a Human Being worth Respecting makes me want to bawl my fucking eyes out

[maid-of-the-golden-deer]

i love you so much, shiro kakei, you literally shot up to one of my fave characters ever the moment i saw you, but as an italian american your lasagna is an affront to every sensibility i have

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huge subscriber to the idea that shiro and kenji would've eventually broken up if shiro didn't fix his relationship with his folks 🚬️

[maid-of-the-golden-deer]

i found the most succinct way to summarize kakei shiro's relationship with his mother

he's her perfect daughter and she kind of hates him for that

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this is so accurate! hisae's definitely thought about it a lot too, and shiro probably knew it on some level until hisae offhand mentions it.

it must've been so difficult for shiro during that period. his mother could attend all the gender identity support groups she wants, could encourage him to come out at work, could even tell him to be proud of his sexuality. it wouldn't change the fact of how they thought of shiro's sexuality as a phase, something that he could overcome. he couldn't live up to their expectations, and to top it all off, he's 'burdening' them with the false notion that he needs help finding the right woman in order for him to live a happy life.

hisae probably resents him too for leading her to worship cults and making her lose ties with her immediate family, her in-laws, probably her neighbors, as well as putting the family into debt (or at least in poor financial standing). but she can't cut ties with him because that's her only son, and she's isolated. same goes for shiro who's already a minority in his side of the world. the most he can do now is have this sense of solidarity with his outcast 'cultist' family. it's so difficult and it could've been so easy and happy if shiro had been a girl.

[maid-of-the-golden-deer]

i hope you dont mind further additions, but another aspect that adds flavor to this read is the "old fashioned" nature of their family- no matter HOW much hisae resents him, no matter what she feels, she has to Respect/Be Deferent to him as a Son, like she calls him "shiro-san", because in traditional conservative families like that, the son becomes "head of household" when hes an adult. that's why she makes the token, obviously insincere effort to be supportive we see at the start of the series before they do any of the work we later see. she could try to fight it when he was a kid/teen, but he's an adult now so she has to respect his """choices""". this breeds her resentment and makes it even harder to her to see his perspective

so not only can shiro not meet their gendered expectations, his mother is trapped in a set of her own, and it contributes what makes them both miserable for a very long time. this is amplified by his father not contributing much emotionally due to this same set of standards- all a Father needs to do it be Stern, emotional issues are to resolved by Mother

so they wish shiro was a girl so all the Gender Expectations would fall into place. though who is to say they wouldn't make her feel lesser for being a daughter than a son if that were true....

[maid-of-the-golden-deer]

i found the most succinct way to summarize kakei shiro's relationship with his mother

he's her perfect daughter and she kind of hates him for that

[lightlysaltedchip]

this is so accurate! hisae's definitely thought about it a lot too, and shiro probably knew it on some level until hisae offhand mentions it.

it must've been so difficult for shiro during that period. his mother could attend all the gender identity support groups she wants, could encourage him to come out at work, could even tell him to be proud of his sexuality. it wouldn't change the fact of how they thought of shiro's sexuality as a phase, something that he could overcome. he couldn't live up to their expectations, and to top it all off, he's 'burdening' them with the false notion that he needs help finding the right woman in order for him to live a happy life.

hisae probably resents him too for leading her to worship cults and making her lose ties with her immediate family, her in-laws, probably her neighbors, as well as putting the family into debt (or at least in poor financial standing). but she can't cut ties with him because that's her only son, and she's isolated. same goes for shiro who's already a minority in his side of the world. the most he can do now is have this sense of solidarity with his outcast 'cultist' family. it's so difficult and it could've been so easy and happy if shiro had been a girl.

[charlybird]

More Gus and Wally! Episode 13 is one of my favourites of the series and just in general.

[charlybird]

I very recently discovered Mission Hill! I love these two so much. I can't believe they came out of 1999 and that we still rarely see something this good they were very difficult to draw though especially with me not being able to decide if I'm going to copy the show's art style or not. Don't really know what happened in the end but it's something drawn at least. I also find it funny how much they make me think of Bill and Alden haha.

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