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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
dxmedstudent venerabledreadnought
fandomsandfeminism

Is there anything sadder than the little chunk of Kikis Delivery Service when Kiki says "I used to really like flying before it was my job" and then gets so burned out that her magic stops working and she cant talk to Jiji anymore and she tries so hard to FORCE the magic that she breaks her mothers broom and stays up all night, alone, trying to make a new one and crying?


And I know it is all ok in the end- Kiki has friends who look out for her and she takes care of herself and finds her place.

But fuck, those 20 minutes just hurt my heart so much.

shybi-n-ready2cry

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anartchism

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kurwaii

We didn’t watch the same movie

fandomsandfeminism

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I'm sorry for the long reply that is coming. I really like this movie, and explaining how to analyze media to others is like...literally my job.

Kiki...does make friends. Before the "I used to really like flying before it was my job" and the subsequent burn out, she is friends with Tombo and Ursula, and has a good relationship with Osono and the old lady. Really the only 2 people we see Kiki fail to connect with are the older witch at the beginning and the old lady's grand daughter.

What we see a lot of is Kiki turning her passion, and only talent as a witch, into her job. We see her try *really hard* at this job, including letting it interfere with her new friendships and making herself sick (She misses Tombos party because she gets caught in the rain delivering the Herring Pie.)

Kiki is able to use her magic again after 1. Resting and hanging out with someone who is already her friend, Ursula, and 2. Having a reason to use her magic that ISNT for work (to save Tombo, who is also already her friend)

In the epilogue montage, we see Kiki using her magic more casually, not just for work (hanging out with Tombo and his other friends)

So the movie really isnt about "making friends." She made friends easily, and the resolution wasnt connected to making additional friends or befriending the characters who werent kind to her. The movie is about entering adulthood and striking a balance between using your talents for work and for pleasure. If it relates to friendship at all, its that Kikis over-dedication to her job made her miss Tombos party. (Which he wasnt angry about, but Kiki was very upset at missing)

It's also worth noting that the entire plot of Kiki losing her magic wasnt in the book- it is Miyazakis invention, and it tells us a lot about what themes he felt were important.

A lot of Miyazakis movies are blatantly about capitalism, greed and profit, and the relationship that people have with labor. (Also industrialization and environmentalism) Before the fall of the USSR (1991), Miyazaki was a pretty vocal Marxist (Kikis came out in 1989.) After this, while Miyazaki moved away from Marxism specifically, his movies still focus heavily on the dangers of industrialization and profit seeking. (Spirited Away springs to mind for this.)

So, is it a jokey exaggeration to suggest that Kikis Delivery Servive is itself a Marxist Text? Yes, ofcourse. They are funny memes. Is the movie still very much about burn out and the dangers of committing too much of yourself to your job at the expense of your own happiness and sense of self (hence the joking comparison to the idea of Labor Alienation as described by Marx) ? Also yes. Is it about "making friends" ....no. The book is. But the book and the movie are pretty different in that regard.

morallydiseased tolkienblackgirl
gatheringbones

that whole "make your characters want things" does so much work for you in a story, even if what your characters want is stupid and irrelevant, because how people go about pursuing their desires tells you about them as a person.

do they actually move toward what they desire? how far are they willing to go for it? do they pursue their desires directly or indirectly? do they acquire what they desire through force, trickery, or negotiation? do they tell themselves they aren't supposed to feel desire and suppress it? does the suppressed desire wither away and die, or does it mutate and grow even stronger? is the initially expressed desire actually an inadequate and poorly translated different desire that they lack language for? does the desire change once the language has been updated, or when new experiences outline the desire more clearly? do they want something else once they have better words for it, or once they know that they definitely don't want something they thought they wanted before?

how does the world accommodate those desires? what does the world present to your character and in what order to update and clarify their desires? how does your magic system or sci-fi device correspond to those desires and the pursuit of them?

there's so much good story meat on those bones; you just have to be brave and decisive enough to let characters want specific things instead of letting them float in the current of the plot.

gatheringbones

and I loved the responses of “Well, my character is very passive and doesn’t know how to want things, the story is about their process of learning to do that exactly”, because that’s fine, that’s all well and good, but passive people still want things. passive human beings who have been so thoroughly neglected that the articulation of a single desire is beyond them want what their internal sphere of control tells them they are allowed to want. they desire constancy and a lack of conflict. they desire nostalgic artifacts that remind them of prior constancy and lack of conflict. the desire to float is an engineered desire that runs in conflict with the development of a happy healthy human being. Who engineered it? How do you begin to chip away at something like that? How do small, passive desires lead up to that?

morallydiseased biggest-gaudiest-patronuses
biggest-gaudiest-patronuses

you know what is such a nice word? sepulchral. it is just such a pleasing word to pronounce. very soft and smooth. 

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses

it’s just super soothing to say

a-very-large-pile-of-hats

fine i’ll bite. what does selpulchral mean?

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses

of or relating to the tomb; gloomy, dismal. 

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses

but it SOUNDS so soothing

morallydiseased thebibliosphere
thebibliosphere

Thoughts and prayers for @mothman-etd. He’s replacing the extractor fan in the bathroom and I just heard “oh jesus god” followed by maniacal laughter.

thebibliosphere

The backdoor just opened and slammed, and the old fan just went flying past my window like a frisbee.

thebibliosphere

He went outside to get the ladder; I think he’s going into the attic.

thebibliosphere

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🙏 bets on him falling through the ceiling into an alternate dimension start now.

thebibliosphere

He stood on top the ladder staring for about 10 minutes then proclaimed, “nah fuck that” and now we’re on our way to Home Depot to buy something else.

boss-of-armadildos

I love how all this context implies he has still given you zero word of explanations for what’s in there.

thebibliosphere

He hasn’t. And I’m not sure I want to know, so I haven’t asked. This is where we’re at in our house renovation stage.

thebibliosphere

Made it home. We couldn't buy just a motor so we bought a whole new unit and we’re taking it apart to use the parts.

Why do this instead of just installing the new unit? The old unit was wedged into the drywall at a weird spot, and we can’t get it out without compromising the structural integrity of the ceiling. ETD also can’t get to it without buying slats of wood and India Jones-ing his way across what appears to be nothing but insulation because uh, the beams just seem to end at a certain point. So that’s... A problem for future us when we remodel the bathroom.

And for those asking, this is what our attic looks like:

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It is probably the most uncursed thing about this entire house. And yes that appears to be the original insulation from the 40’s so fuck messing with any of that.

morallydiseased grumpierbilbo
ewan-mcgregor

MANNY JACINTO 
Flaunt Magazine | 2021

“Thank you for saying that… It’s so interesting, this shift. Previously, there was this idea of masculinity being only one type of way… Not that it’s not there anymore—you have The Rock, Dave Bautista, these superheroes like Thor, Chris Hemsworth, these massive dudes. But we also have a shift in everyday people appreciating those that look like the guy next door, the crush in high school. Not like the football jock, but the nerdy kid, who has the cool appeal, the mysterious appeal about him.”