(Responding to the Parody panel at the end)

"I mean, not at the exact same time. In the same session tho. Yuppers! :3 "

We all feel that way to an extent, friend 🙂🤝

But try to understand it from the author's POV. Look closely at what they're working with, and what they're trying to do with it.

If you really think about it, that trait is kind of mandatory. In the harem genre, anyway.

Assuming you like monogamy, once you choose a partner, everyone else is gonna back off.

The first time he picked up on what was happening, the situation would become very normal. They would just date, and the harem would disperse.

There'd be no more flirtation in an ethical form. Unethical stuff would still have an audience, but it'd be more narrow. That's generally not in the best interest of the author.

A story about a monogamous couple could be great too, obviously, but it wouldn't be harem, and that's what they wanna write.

The only plausible way someone could get this much attention from this many people and not get into a relationship is if they're oblivious.

Okay, there's other plausible ways. They could just be scummy and milk the situation for all it's worth. Just tell everyone whatever they wanna hear and play them all. But that wouldn't be a relatable MC to most readers. Narrow audience.

The underlying lesson of the harem genre that the authors want us to learn (the pill wrapped up in the bologna, as I call it 😄) is that we don't want this as much as we think we do. We all want to be desired, but having a harem wouldn't be a bless. It'd be a mess.

Look at all these beautiful likeable people, almost done with their schooling, and almost none of them have dated. They all have such a simple desire, and it's pretty much unanimous what's most important, but still, everyone is unfulfilled.

How would this really make you feel as the one person everyone wants? It'd make me feel horrible. I love all of these people. They all deserve to be happy, and I want them all to have whatever they want, but I'm only one person.

Unless they open their minds to polyamory (chance is virtually nil for teenagers) any decision I make is gonna make a maximum of two people happy, and a minimum of 6 sad. That's not a blessing. That's a curse. I don't want that.

May your roads lead to warm sands ✌️🐱

Hehe, I know this delinquent gang stuff is kinda silly from the ground up since Japan is one of the safest countries in the world and they have very little violent crime, but finding that out didn't make me enjoy these scenes any less. I enjoy them more now.

I know the Japanese are xenophobic in a sense that they don't want me to physically go there, but I doubt very much that many of them genuinely hate me. I can see it in their fiction, all of these healthy lessons embedded... Japan is the Itachi of the countries.

They might not wanna have a beer with me, but they're looking out for me. Just because they know I'm part of the world, and my behavior affects others. To protect me is to protect everyone, including themselves.

They may not have much street fighting, but they know it's not only Japanese people who read their stuff. Nobody would be caught off-guard by seeing a martial arts technique in THAT setting. That stuff is as normal there as football everywhere else.

You probably wouldn't be able to diffuse a situation that easily. If someone was being aggressive, they'd probably be pretty damn determined. They'd probably be assuming you know technique at the very least. Having the balls/ovaries to use it is another matter of course, but yeah, if they weren't ready for a fight, they wouldn't be messing with you.

But in other countries? Maybe. Depends on a lot of variables, and the author doesn't know who the reader is, so they put something in there that's gonna be more useful to foreigners than citizens, not even knowing if they'll become popular enough to attract scanlators.

God, I love authors so much, and Japanese, so Japanese authors are just... Mwah! 😘🤌

No wait, chef's kiss is pretty poggers, but I'm weeb trash and this is a good opportunity to flex my stench!

😳 (Doki doki)

Probably gonna put the words in the wrong order, but whatevs. Making someone laugh is good too, so that'd be like feeding two birds with one scone 😁

Domo tetsudatte itadaite arigatou gozaimasu! 🙇🏻‍♂️🥰

True, but they compensated for it enough, I think. I forgive 🙏😊

Butts are bae, but big warm happy smiles are other bae.

And seeing socially adept people assist socially awkward people with flirtation without making them feel patronized is like having cherry Dr. Pepper injected straight into my heart, especially when they're strangers.

We are unity 🥰

Part 6! Last one!

✌ Second - What you were commenting on was not a little thing at all. It was EXTREMELY significant. It was GINORMOUS. You saw a deeply wounded and exhausted person finally feeling relief that they never could've felt on their own.

You saw them understand for the first time what life is really about. You saw a partially empty health meter fill up, and that's what you live for. What's more, you saw someone who can't decide if they're a tank or damage dealer actually pay attention to their health meter, understand why they won their fight, and thank their healer as soon as the scoreboard popped up.

No, it wasn't real. But for you, it doesn't need to be. You absorbed that lesson secondhand. You got that wisdom without causing any of the harm the characters did, and now it's yours forever. All it cost you was some of your own time. You're already gonna know what to do if you see a situation like this IRL.

THIS is why you almost cried. THIS is your gift. Cry for those who don't have it. Cry for those who can't understand, and take care of them in the ways they can't. Give them whatever they seem to need. People only hurt each other out of discomfort. Most people don't understand that. But the two of you (and anyone else who related to this)...

YOU ARE NOT "MOST PEOPLE".

Not everyone understands it, but you are loved, and you are needed. Don't give up.

My last piece of advice to you (for meow? 🐈) is to examine your team structure closely. Fiction writers are the most powerful healers of all. They're looking out for us more diligently than anyone else. They're the ones who know how to teach. They know they can't just post a sign-up sheet for a "Let me tell you how to live your life, because I know better than you" class, because we won't listen. They embed what we need inside things they know we want. Like wrapping a pill up in bologna for a dog.

They knew the three of us would read this, so they put the wisdom where we'd find it, hoping we could get it down, knowing many of us wouldn't be able to any other way. They know it may be seen as just another person wanting a paycheck, and they may be hated for controversial themes, but they're comfortable with that. They'll always be the MVPs, but we can all get the POG once in awhile! ✊ 😸

May your roads lead to warm sands ✌️🐱
💖🤝🌎

Part 5
I don't believe what we're seeing is good people and bad people. I believe this is unity. Now dont get me wrong ☝ I'm not saying it's perfect and nothing should be changed. It can DEFINITELY be streamlined 🙏 and I'm working on it! What I'm saying is that I don't believe it's just a completely unmitigated irredeemable disaster. I believe that if intelligent design is the truth and it's not just a cruel game, that's probably what we're supposed to be doing. Cultivating more inclusive and less conditional unity on a wider scale.

If that's true, both of you, your roles (and mine) are healers. We are able see through other people's eyes instead of just our own. Like being able to see teammates through walls. We are able to suffer by proxy, and gather data on things we've never been near, so we can help people figure out problems more efficiently, without the need for firsthand experience.

We cannot fairly expect help from the tanks or the damage dealers, because this is not their job. It's not even on their skill bar. They are fighting. IRL has friendly fire, and it's gonna hit us. A lot. That's okay! Retreat for awhile if you need to, because you have less HP, but try not to die. You are Team Humanity's throat, but not all teammates understand anatomy. They're not all gonna protect you. Save the noobs so they can keep practicing and not rage quit. We can all win.

Remember I said there were this many big factors in play here?
👉✌
Well that was only this many 👉☝

Here's the other one, in my last comment 🙏 Almost done!

Part 4
This is not religion. This is science. I'm agnostic. Yes, I know that's a religion. No, I'm not contradicting myself. Just be patient. I think chaos and intelligent design are both plausible, so my lifestyle is tailored for efficiency. I wanna safely cover as many outcomes as I can, without knowing what the rules are, if there are any 👇

IF (ginormous IF) intelligent design is what's up, and there is a purpose to what's happening, I believe people are created incomplete as individuals because a person who has no needs does not reach out to others as much. I believe we are meant to unite and fight as one. I think the darkness that we all have inside us is what we're meant to be fighting against, with each other's help.

I think I know what's REALLY happening at the core of everything when a person stops giving a fuck and just starts fucking shit up. I think they didn't get enough wisdom soon enough, they were treated so badly by the people around them that they found themselves relating to their darkness more than they did to their teammates. I think out of extreme discomfort, they embraced their darkness and stood united against humanity.

Because as bad as their darkness was, it still treated them better than we did.

Part 3
They know you'll be off in the world after they meet you, interacting with their other teammates. They believe you and their team would be safer if your heart wasn't so soft, so they attack. They are comfortable with being viewed as an antagonist if they believe it will cause more good than harm for the collective in the long run.

Cold people must continue to exist, because not everyone can do that. I can't do that. Never. Sometimes they really ARE right about this. Sometimes this condition kills people. Just because it can be utilized doesn't mean it's perfect in its natural state. You don't need to turn off your feelings, but you do need to understand them, and you may need medication. You can still do good.

If your gift hadn't drawnge right kind of attention, it might've lead to your death. If you saw enough people being the polar opposite and insisting that you were the one who's inferior, you may have un-alived. Whatever chain of events causes you to reach out the way you did in this comment is what needed to happen.

The butterfly effect is the most powerful force in the world. If you had never been lead to believe this was a flaw, I never would have found you. That cold person's role in this was a lot less pleasant than mine. They knew you might hate them. But they were comfortable with that. That is their gift. They can't do what I do, but I can't do what they do either.

This is where I cross the line between knowledge and beliefs. If I don't know something's true, I'm not gonna tell you it is. I don't KNOW the rest of this. I BELIEVE this.

Part 2
There's two big factors in play here. That's this many. 👉✌

☝ First, there is NOTHING wrong with either of you. Well, there's a lot wrong with everyone, but this isn't one of your flaws. Being able to feel so deeply without even trying - compassion that transcends logic - this isn't a curse. This is a gift.

Don't misunderstand me ☝ There's nothing wrong with the people who disagree with me on this either. Well, there is, but they are just playing the hand they were dealt. Same as us. They weren't given our gift. They can't understand it.

That doesn't make them bad people. Nobody is bad. We're all on the same team, but we play different roles. When they belittle your feelings on the basis of the characters not being real, they're not trying to hurt you. They may believe they are, but deep down, they know you're their teammate. They are trying to protect you, using their own gifts.

They don't have your compassion, but they have at the very least, basic analytical skills. They don't see an opportunity to hurt a vulnerable person and get off on it. They see a teammate with low HP, but more than 1. It's not so low that you can't take another hit.

They believe that your gift is a vulnerability. Their analysis is not completely invalid. Viewed through the lens of someone without so much compassion, imagine how it must look. If their information was accurate, their conclusion would be fair.

❗❗❗ To the users "LeapedIntoAFantasy" and "resonance" ❗❗❗ and anyone who read their comments and feels similarly.

Sorry it's ginormously long, but I beg you to be patient with me. This is a canon event, and it will change your life ❤🤝 There are multiple comments to it. Character limit.

Sorry, the reply button is bugged, so I couldn't do this in a way that would give you a notification, but I've seen enough of the world to know you're probably gonna be looking at this exact same web page again someday 😉

ReLife is notorious for re-read value, for reasons you've probably already figured out. This is my second time of what I'm sure will be many.

You ask

"What is wrong with me...seriously....why do little things almost make me fucking cry.
When she said: 'I'm happy'
That alone almost got me...like wtf? Whyyyyyy???"

resonance shows similar feelings, and a similar reaction to them.

To clarify the "I must fulfill my duty as teacher and make sure she's safe! I must look at her!" bit ☝

She is 10 years old and at the top of a ladder. Ladder is taller than she is and she's still got a squishy skull. If she fell, she could've died. If the only person who could've saved her (and the reason she put herself at risk in the first place) was looking away on purpose just because her underwear was showing and he didn't wanna feel like a creep, that would not be very poggers.

I mean, I'm not a parent, so I guess technically idk. But I'm an uncle. If my nephew died because a paid protector was more worried about their own temporary mental discomfort than his physical safety, yeah that would not be very poggers at all.

Just letting your gut make all your decisions is a very dangerous thing. Don't let stuff that just feels wrong cause you to overlook things that really ARE wrong. Our facial muscles are not evil detectors, and our brain's chemical reward system is primitive.

I'm not saying ignore it. There's a reason it's still in the gene pool. Written language isn't all that old of a thing. For a long time, if you couldn't remember information on the spot unaided, you didn't know it. People used to have to think in simpler ways to function. They had to rely more on implicit understandings.

Implicit understandings take time to be develop, and they don't update as fast as the world around us changes. Many of them are outdated now, and they're working against us. We have a higher form of thinking now. We can manage our own information actively.

The chemical reward system is not obsolete, but it's not absolute either. It's not a complete rando walking into your throne room, but it's not the emperor. You're the emperor. It's your advisor. It doesn't automatically know better just because it's older. Think about everything.

People like to say "Listen to your heart" but your heart is for feeling (implicit understandngs/ chemical reward system) Your head is for thinking (active analysis). Think. Which is worse? An adult looking at your kid's underwear? Or an adult letting your kid die?

There is a right answer.


If you won't acknowledge the second one is worse, the MC is a safer adult than you are. Your kids would be safer with him than with you.

That when coupled with the humility of "I'm no match for this guy. Please intervene when necessary" (not if, but when.) instead of the standard "everyone else stay out of this!" is Soooo fuckin' peak! That's a MFin' KING right there! Mwah! 😘🤌

It's okay to be proud. It's not okay to be reckless. Badassery is awesomesauce, but alpha douches are not fit to lead. A freaking 20 year old dude who could've ruled for 50 damn years getting killed before he even made a successor just because his balls were bigger than his brains wouldn't protect anyone.

In fact, the way monarchy tends to work, even if his side won the war, if they didn't have any biological nobles among them, their people might not be cooperative. Force Theory is solid, but speaking from a purely utilitarian standpoint, even with all morality aside, it's more effective for a ruler to be respected than feared.

Wisdom is a more effective master than power. It's better to have nobody wanting to stop you than to just have nobody be able to. Long live the king! If he dies, I riot! Someone finna catch these paws 👊😼

Because those interspecies relationships need to come to light in the right contex for the good of the world. People are gonna wanna say "Bro, HELL no. Dont even ask me to explain why that's inevitably gonna lead to trouble. If it could be done harmlessly, we'd have plenty of examples."

When someone eventually sees an interspecies relationship among people who are causing trouble, they're immediately gonna say "See?? What do you expect?? It's one of them! This is why you're both so miserable. What makes you think this would be okay? You're disgusting." it'll be epic to do a casual nod toward an effective ruler who's doing the same thing.

They might say "Ok well they're definitely not doing anything. That's a famous person, so people have motivation to make them look bad even it's not legit. I haven't heard jack shit, so if they haven't even done anything questionable enough to be used for framing attempt, well whatever."

They might not be convinced. They might say "Yuck. Of course I know that. They're up to something. Cover-ups are easy when you're rich. Just wait." But if that day never comes, people will know it's not the relationships that cause harm. He's the right one for the job.

That'd be such an epic thing fo a harem genre writer to do. Omg.

Actually maybe a little too epic. Might set a harmful precedent that gets other writers judged harshly. Could discourage aspiring ones.

Hehe, indeed 👏👏👏

Yet another healthy lesson. Being nice and being good are different things.

You can spit in someone's drink when they're not looking and then hand it to them and be like "Bro you're sweating like you're in a desert. Relax. Take a break."

Or you can shove someone toward their wedding ceremony with "This is your chance to score some points with Saotome. What else? Ya dumb bitch." 🤣

I can't vibe with those people so well myself, because it just icks me, but that's my own thing. People who are able to overlook it are awesome.

"Martial King Gerard's disciple is a mage???"

The principle of digging one deep well instead of fewer shallow wells is legit, however 🧏

It is contingent on you always having access to that well. Never a guarantee 🙅

https://i.postimg.cc/Y9kk3YFB/i.png

Never could've enlisted the help of the elves if he didn't have the knowledge of magic, so he wouldn't have even gotten this far, and this is where his story would've ended if he couldn't take a hit. Epic MC growth 👏👏👏👏

This whole freakin' thing is peak, so idk how they managed to put a peak on a peak xD

The word "summit" from geology comes to mind because that's the highest peak of whichever mountain we're describing.

That makes me wanna call it summit, but based on what I've seen I'm sure we're gonna see even better.

Even if she wants to spend most of her time at home, stick with the people she knows and likes, and leave the more antagonistic social interactions to you, it can't be like that.

She has to know that you know that it's a matter of preference, not competence. You can be her king, but she has to be to your queen, not your servant. Home must be her kingdom, not her quarters.

Don't forget the lesson that chess taught us long before feminism ☝

The queen protects the king.

That apron's not a rag, it's a cape. That bandana's not a rag, it's a crown. Many people will do it. It just has to feel dignified and not degrading.

Sorry if I seemed to be making assumptions. I know all you said was "sweet" so you were probably talking only about that. But our comments will be here forever, and the topic is relevant and important. Other people will see it.

In other words, I wasn't talking only to you 🙂🤝

May your roads lead to warm sands ✌️🐱

Keep looking, friend 🤝🙂 (part 1 of 2. Character limit)

They're out there, but many don't wear it on their sleeve.

It can be seen as counterproductive toward the feminism movement for someone to be completely at peace with this kind of role, and they don't wanna be seen as betraying a good cause.

But the point of feminism is not "I don't want to do what is expected of me." It's "I don't have to do what's expected of me." It's not necessarily about making a different choice. They just want it clear that they DO have that choice.

A lot of women (and men, really, this is not a difficult thing to see the appeal of) would be extremely comfortable in traditional stay-at-home partner roles, but the relevant variable is the context.

The difference between a fortress and a prison is whether or not you have access to the keys. If she thinks you're perceiving the arrangement as a power imbalance, she's gonna push back, on principle.

If she gets a vibe like "Careers are too complicated for you. You would have to meet new people all the time. You'd just mess it up, so stay here where things are simpler." then it's already over. She's out the door.

That's not a fortress, that's a prison. In reality, she does have access to the keys, but if you won't acknowledge that, she knows she's not gonna be treated right. She's gonna end up using them later, so it's better to use them now.

A sheep in wolf's clothing 🥰
Too.
Much.
RIZZ.
O.
M.
G.
STAHP.
https://i.postimg.cc/5ydLfMZX/i.gif

Hehe 😆
"I could sue you for this!"
And what are you gonna take? She's ten. 🤣
Your lawyer gonna get 20% of her coloring books???
Idk, maybe lawsuits work differently in Japan? I don't see what could be different, though 🤔 Seems like no matter where you live, you can't take what someone doesn't have.
Lawyers are greedy af. Won't even take your case if the person you wanna sue is poor. For that to be factored out, their winnings would need to not be contingent on that. But where else would it come from in a civil suit?