As of July 4th 2018, the Internet as we know it might be dead for good.
The European Parliament is passing a new Copyright Directive. Article 13 #CensorshipMachine will impose widespread censorship of all the content we share online. Art, fanfiction, parodies, remixes, mashups, memes, etc.. Anything that you do not hold the rights over will be taken down.
Article 13 would force all online platforms to police and prevent the uploading of copyrighted content, or make people seek the correct licenses to post that content. Internet platforms hosting large amounts of user-uploaded content must monitor user behaviour and filter their contributions to identify and prevent copyright infringement.
Such filters will be mandatory for platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit and Instagram, but also much smaller websites.
Last Tuesday (19th June 2018) a group of more than 70 people who have played important roles in building the internet and developing it (Tim Berners-Lee, Vincent Cerf,
Jimmy Wales, Mitchell Baker…) into what it is today addressed an open letter to the members of the European Parliament:
“As creators ourselves, we share the concern that there should be a fair distribution of revenues from the online use of copyright works, that benefits creators, publishers, and platforms alike.
But Article 13 is not the right way to achieve this. By requiring Internet platforms to perform automatic filtering all of the content that their users upload, Article 13 takes an unprecedented step towards the transformation of the Internet from an open platform for sharing and innovation, into a tool for the automated surveillance and control of its users. […] The damage that this may do to the free and open Internet as we know it is hard to predict, but in our opinions could be substantial.”
Because artists don’t draw great art of characters with flowers without having it mean something
I noticed that nobody’s talked about these breathtakingly beautiful artworks done by Adachitoka (or maybe someone’s written a similar post about this which got swallowed up by tumblr in the passage of time, in which case please forgive me), so I’ve done some research to find out why these flowers are drawn with their respective characters!
1. Yato and the Queen of the Night
The Queen of the Night is a special flower that blooms very rarely (it’s said to only bloom once a year) and only ever blooms at night for a few hours before withering away.
In Japanese flower language, the flower is associated with fleeting love (and beauty), joy, delicateness, seeing someone only once, and a strong will.
(In the context of Chapter 75′s ending, these aren’t exactly comforting implications .-.)
Bonus: the Japanese name for the flower (as written on the artwork) is called Gekka Bijin, which means the Beautiful One under the Moon. Probably Adachitoka hinting at something (cough* Tsukuyomi theory)?
2. Ebisu and Yudzuriha
(I would have used a better English alternative but unfortunately, there is no accurate common name for this plant apart from its scientific name Daphniphyllum macropodum, which is kind of a mouthful so)
The Yudzuriha in Japanese literally means ‘the plant which gives way’, referring to the fact that the plant is effectively kept evergreen by its older leaves withering away to make way for new leaves, without interrupting its foliage.
While the meaning of the flower itself symbolises the good relationship between old and new generations, I’d interpret Adachitoka’s use of this to be most likely a reference to Ebisu’s constant reincarnation.
3. Bishamon and Pomegranates
In Japanese (originating from Buddhist) mythology, pomegranates are a symbol of fertility, often depicted with the goddess Kariteimo (訶梨帝母) or Kishibojin (鬼子母神), who is the protector of children.
As an extra nugget of information, Kariteimo hadn’t always been a benign goddess. In fact, she was said to start off as an evil deity who captured children and fed them to her own. Her name Kishibojin means ‘Mother of Demon Children’ because she symbolizes the selfish nature of mothers whose love for their children is so extreme they become devils. Wanting to punish her for her cruelty, the Buddha hid away one of her children. Even though she had hundreds (some retellings say thousands) of them, she loved all her children the same and noticed when one was missing. Eventually, her child was returned to her after her anxious search for them, and Kariteimo reformed to become a more benevolent deity, having understood the pain of a parent who has lost a child.
To me, at least, Kariteimo’s story does give off vibes similar to that of Bishamon’s arc, though this is probably just my own thoughts running wild. The pomegranate could just as well be a simple reference to Bishamon having a lot of shinki, whom she see as her own children.
An afternote
So here’s the end of my contribution now to the fandom. Hope you all enjoy!
“Yato did… what?” Yukine’s knees buckled underneath him before he even finished the question. Hiyori continued speaking, but the words weren’t reaching his ears anymore. His vision blurred and his lips trembled, “…Why?”
im so fucking pissed right now because when internet in america was in danger everyone helped, but when we need help with article 13 no one really cares? What the fuck? Guys it will affect you too!
once a lady told me that if my plants are dying even when I’m caring for them correctly, it means they’re absorbing the curses my enemies are casting upon me. so now when my plants randomly die, I wonder if they died protecting me.
Makoto’s classmate. They were in the same class during their third year in elementary school. Soccer club.
Director’s comment: Though Haruka got a very bad impression of him at the beginning of the movie, I think he’s actually a good guy. In any case he’s one of Makoto’s friends.
Yeah? Remember him?
Apparently he
gave Haru
a Very
Bad
impression. Yeah we can definitely tell X’D
I’m remembering what happened with our best friend Kisumi here…
An article from some time ago:
Kisumi who was in the same class as Haruka and Makoto in middle school. Fed Haruka side dish from his bentou, put his arm around Makoto, stuck his tongue out at Haruka and got between the two of them. Makoto might not have minded but Haruka remembers it even now, and directed an unfriendly attitude towards Kisumi whom they met for a first time in a long time.
Kisumi tried to steal Makoto and Haru remembers up till this day XDD
So basically Haru doesn’t like anyone who tries to take Makoto away from him I’M LAUGHING THIS IS SO CUTE JEALOUS HARU IS REALLLL
Anyway, presenting to you Kisumi-kun and Mochizuki-kun
…who happen to have the common misfortune of being disliked by Haruka because they had gotten between him and Makoto, but are actually very nice people.
a small lesser-known team pulls itself together with some promising new athletes and lots of spirit and unexpectedly start rising through the ranks to make a name for itself
you barely ever see any of their parents because who needs actual family when you have the team
everything is very important, like life or death important. It doesn’t matter if this is a little high school team at a local tournament that literally no-one gives a fuck about, there will undoubtedly be lots of crying and fighting and inspirational speeches like they’re about to go to battle
the team is all guys but there is always a cute female manager/coach
one game/match/race or whatever takes about 8 episodes, because of all the slow motion shots and the fact that apparently we need to see the exact reactions of literally every person in the room
lots of gay
no like really, lots of gay
every team has a mom
every team has a smol baby who needs to be protected
there is at least one hotshot athlete on an opposing team who’s cocky and arrogant and all the girls love him but in reality he’s just a dorky little shit
they mUST MAKE IT TO NATIONALS
two main characters who fight a lot or have lots of tension but we all know they love each other
Hands down the best fact from Death Note is that Light refuses to take the Shinigami eye deal because he wants to live a long life but still fails to outlive Misa, who took the eye deal twice.
i hate when people write out jessie and james’ wedding because it’s never in character. like ok. first of all, james would not be in a fucking tux. james would be in a dress, and jessie would get PISSED that his dress is nicer than hers, and it would be this fucking clusterfuck of them dress shopping and trying to find the perfect dress chemistry where they both look flawless and james is only a notch below jessie in excellence because duh she has to be the star.
their vows would be a variation of the motto, absolutely no question
meowth would be so happy that he accidentally starts evolving and jessie and james break their fucking kiss to B-button him like BUDDY, BUDDY, GROUND YOURSELF CMON YOU DONT WANT THAT before hes like SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK
giovanni would show up at the wedding and shake their hands. “good evening james. you’re fired.” “yes, i know, boss.” “well, enjoy the rest of your night.”
meowth and wobbuffet would drink WAY too much at the reception, obviously the best man and maid of honor, meowth would drunkenly break into tears while he’s giving his speech about how ‘jimmy’s da best, i really owe my life ta that goiy!’ wobbuffet also crying, agreeing with everything he says, so nansu so nansu so nansu.
how do people fuck up the rocket wedding when it’s the easiest thing to imagine
ash and every fucking twerp shows up to it, completely in disbelief but feeling an obligation. every single fucking one of them gifts the trio a different pikachu plushie or other pikachu merch. eventually they have a kid and she runs around in a pikachu onesie that misty bought for jessie years ago.
There was a brief but intense period in my misspent youth in which I read a lot of Pokemon fanfiction, and it was always so weird to me that there was a lot of Manly Man James and Delicate Flower Jessie having Serious Romance Novel Adventures with Traditional Gender Roles. This is much better.
“To protect our hearts from devastation To unite our lives with this celebration To recite long vows about truth and love To fling confetti to the stars above
Team Rocket, get married at the speed of light! Leave presents and cash on the table to the right.”
“Me - me - meow - WAAAAAAAHI’MSOHAPPYFORYOUSEGUYS”
When you attend school you are technically in story mode but once you graduate your life turns into an open world game with just side quests here and there.
a stray cat showed up in my garden earlier and i named him todd howard as a joke but now i have to live with this because my stepfather just said “todd howard didnt eat the cat food i left out for him”
