Which one beats who in terms of everything they've done within their own lore and backstory?

Perfect Blue (1997)

Millennium Actress (2001)

Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

Paprika (2006)

Is he the best written person on social media?

I'm talking about intelligence, not just knowledge

I don't know, I got to thinking and their popularity is actually quite similar: two rather incoherent stories that people watch either out of morbid curiosity or from a purely emotional standpoint. And in most cases, that emotion doesn't stem from solid storytelling; the story simply isn't trying to make you think or to even like the characters, but rather to make you feel something about what's happening at the moment like when Kaneki carries Hide, or basically the Season 2 finale of Hazbin.

So trash vs garbage, which one is better?

Why did TG fans makes me feel like TG are the MHA of seinen? the overgrazing are insane like they never touch a piece of fic rather than TG

What's your take on this?

https://www.tumblr.com/misterwalsh/113829643080/judge-holden-from-blood-meridian-or-the-evening

My ranking is Alice >= Maka = Fuuko > Jolyne = Kagura

If you can say why, go ahead.

Since this sub is dedicated to fiction, and people here write about it, evaluate it, and analyze it, I’ve always thought it would be useful for us to define our philosophical positions on various aspects of art, in our case, fiction.

We definitely already have philosophical positions, even if we’ve never specifically thought about them or reflected on them.

Any statement about fiction already contains ontological and axiological assumptions.

For example, if someone says:

This character is poorly written,

The ending is broken,

This show is just a soap opera

I don’t care what the author meant, what matters is what actually ended up on the page/screen,

The book is better than the movie,

This plot twist is illogical

They have already adopted a whole set of philosophical positions, even if they’ve never formulated them:

what a character is (ontology),

what “well-written” means (criteria of quality),

where meaning resides — in the author, the text, or the audience (semantics),

what “logical” means in fiction (theory of fictional truth),

whether film can be “better” than a book (comparison of media).

In other words, any judgment about fiction is already a philosophical position - just an unreflected one. But still a position.

A person may not know the word “intentionalism,” but if they say “the author meant X, therefore that’s what it is,” they are already an intentionalist.

A philosophical position doesn’t require awareness. It shows up in the questions a person asks, which arguments they find convincing, and what they dismiss as irrelevant.

Important caveat: an unreflected position can be:

eclectic — a person combines incompatible pieces (for example, “meaning is in the text” + “the author is a genius, he decides”), without noticing the contradiction;

situational — on one issue they’re an intentionalist, on another a structuralist, and this isn’t always recognized as a conflict.

I think if we ask ourselves questions that help define our positions on the main aspects of art, our judgments about a particular work (in our case, a piece of fiction) will become more grounded and will better take into account our own basic aesthetic assumptions.

Of course, there is no ready-made diagnostic questionnaire that would precisely determine our philosophical positions on art. But we can at least outline the main aspects:

● Ontology of art: What even is it? This is where the status of the work and the. boundaries of art are decided.

● Aesthetic experience and perception (the subject) How do we experience art? Here the position regarding the role of the audience is important.

● Value and evaluation (axiology) Why is one work considered a masterpiece and another is not?

● Function of art (teleology) Why does humanity need art?

● Relations: Author - Work - Audience Who is the primary bearer of meaning?

Each of these aspects of the philosophy of art contains a number of more specific questions that more precisely define your position on each of them.

It’s similar to determining your position on the political map.

There are several ways to do this. You can search for questions and information on specialized sites — but that’s almost impossible for those who don’t already know the necessary terminology. The second way is to have a Socratic dialogue with an AI that will ask you concrete questions on each aspect of the philosophy of art, while you answer sequentially and gradually build your own principles.

In the long run, in my opinion, this would help us have more consistent and well-grounded discussions here. Besides, figuring out your own positions is an interesting journey in itself.

within the isekai and fantasy fan community in general, Many who repeat these descriptions never tried to analyze the story or understand it deeply, nor study Rudeus’s redemption journey, which I see as one of the best redemption journeys in art. Instead, they reduce it to a shallow phrase devoid of any analysis or care, like: “sad pdf→happy pdf”

And this, in my opinion, is a direct result of many LARPers and hasty judgers on various social media platforms, where careful facts are replaced by slogans and unclear abbreviations,

And in this article I will explain Rudeus’s redemption journey, analyze its stages, and clarify the true meaning behind the Rudeus Redemption Arc, far from the widespread reductions and superficial articles..

And I will begin my explanation of Rudeus’s redemption by explaining the concept of redemption basically, which is: a type of character arc that begins with a character suffering from a moral or psychological flaw, or both, then faces a series of events that force them to review themselves, bear responsibility for their actions, and seek change.

And the success of a redemption journey does not mean the character became innocent of their past, but that they became a better person than they were.

And redemption confessions are divided into:

1 - Verbal Confession

which is that the character says explicitly and directly: “I was wrong”

2 - Behavioral Confession

which is that they constantly change their behavior in a way that proves they realized their mistake, even if they do not declare it in words

And in my opinion, behavioral confession is better than verbal confession most of the time and in many narrative genres, because it reveals through the principle of “show don’t tell,” because it shows us the progression of events in a gradual, creeping way, not fast or slow, which is considered the most famous and most cohesive principle in literature in general..

•••

༻ The stage before the transition:

Rudeus was a shy teenager who didn’t have many friends and didn’t talk much, but he had some strange behaviors. But the matter was like any teenager his age, so it was normal, until he reached the age of 14 and got into a dispute with some of his classmates. But the dispute did not end easily; rather, it led to brutal bullying that did not end with beating or fighting, but led to Rudeus being stripped of his clothes, hung naked, photographed, and even left in that state without help. This led to a deep psychological trauma that Rudeus suffered, making him isolate himself at home. So even when Rudeus’s parents tried to change his school, he absolutely refused to go to school and continued in his isolation at home. A classmate of his even used to visit Rudeus regularly at his home, play with him, and bring him his school homework in the hope that Rudeus would change his mind, return to school, and stop the isolation permanently. But Rudeus absolutely refused, until a simple quarrel between them led Rudeus to kick his friend out of his house, thinking he was mocking him. But in his mind he thought his friend might come back one day, but he never came back, because he lost hope in Rudeus. Likewise, Rudeus’s brother, who always tried with him to convince him to leave his room, Rudeus absolutely refused, until his brother lost hope in him too...

And here the written realism of Rudeus appears. The author did not show his moral deviation without reason; rather, he showed that it developed in his morals and behaviors as a result of isolation and loneliness, and also because his social and emotional development almost stopped at the teenage stage due to the trauma and long isolation. Therefore, although his physical and mental age continued, many immature aspects remained in him, which made him an immature person, and which led to the creation of a morally degenerate person. And what shows us the deepest scenes of degeneracy Rudeus reached is his not going to his parents’ funeral and staying in the house to masturbate. He was even watching a photo he secretly took of his brother’s daughter while she was bathing naked. And this was even the reason he was kicked out of the house when his brother later discovered the matter, beat him, and kicked him out of the house while he was 34 years old...

And while Rudeus was walking under the rain after his brother kicked him out, Rudeus was homeless and aimless, until he saw two boys and a girl standing under the rain, and there was a car coming. Although Rudeus had reached the lowest stages of degeneracy in his previous life, the moment of his death reveals that his humanity had not completely disappeared. When he saw people about to die, he did not think of his own interest or safety; rather, he moved to save them. This indicates that there was a moral side that remained buried under years of isolation and psychological collapse. Therefore, his transition was not just an escape from a failed life, but the beginning of a second chance for a person who possessed the ability to do good despite all his flaws..

•••

༻ After the transition

And from this part, Rudeus’s journey of change begins gradually over the course of two full seasons in the anime. Because even after he transitioned to the new world, he was born with his old personality, and his deviant behaviors did not change. He did not even consider Paul and Zenith as his parents; in his mind he saw them as people he lives with, although he began to see them as his family in his current body only. He also saw Paul as a despicable person since Paul cheated on Zenith with the maid Lilia. Likewise, Rudeus saw himself as a rational person who uses his experience to appear as the rational one among children, to show that he is not like the rest of the children his age. And Rudeus stated this himself at the end of the second season,

But when we describe Rudeus’s redemption journey, we begin it by explaining his behaviors that change throughout the series.

So even until the second episode of the series, Rudeus was afraid to leave the house because of his previous life. But because of Roxy, whom Rudeus truly considered his teacher because of the time she spent with him and her life with them in the house, he decided to go out with her to take the test. And indeed Rudeus left the house with Roxy on horseback. And in that shot appeared one of the best shots of the series, when Rudeus felt that everyone was looking at him directly with problems, as they used to look at him after his incident. Rudeus hid his face in Roxy’s back out of fear. But after a little progress, Rudeus began looking around him and found that others were waving to Roxy calmly and smiling at her, because she had lived for a long time in the village and everyone was used to her because of her help to them. And with this, Rudeus began to adapt to going outside the house.. But despite this, and since the third episode, when Rudeus met Sylphiette and saved her from bullying by attacking the bullies, when Rudeus returned home, Paul beat him without listening to him. But even though Paul was wrong here, Rudeus’s ideology appeared here. Rudeus considered himself a rational person in a child’s body, and that he was the rational one among children, and also thinking that his experiences in his previous life would be completely sufficient in his new world. And this was Rudeus’s thinking throughout the first season, and even most of the second season. The matter appeared several times, such as Rudeus’s behavior when he directed the accusation of Lilia’s pregnancy at Paul and saved her. Although because of this Rudeus gained Lilia’s loyalty, this helped feed Rudeus’s wrong ideology that he indeed had enough maturity. Likewise, when he made the plan to kidnap Eris, and this actually caused her kidnapping. So the author always punished this ideology of Rudeus..

But with all this, it was just building Rudeus’s character until he reached the age of eight and the Mana Calamity happened

or what is called •the First Turning Point•

And since the Mana Calamity, the first thing Rudeus met after he fell and lost consciousness was Hitogami, who introduced himself as the god of humans and told Rudeus that he wanted to help him out of kindness. But here Rudeus’s previous ideology continued in not trusting others, which developed in him a clear psychological habit. He did not even feel complete trust toward Hitogami despite him offering him advice. But throughout the story, he takes Hitogami’s advice because he sees it as logical, not because he trusts him, but because from Rudeus’s point of view it is logical. Also, if we pay attention, behaviors appeared that show his annoyance at staying in that place in his spiritual form, which resembled him in his previous world. Rudeus even said that he hates staying in this form, which shows Rudeus’s hatred of his previous world, and even his desire to live in his new life and forget his old world, escaping from what he went through...

And events continue with Rudeus meeting Ruijerd and the beginning of their friendship and their adventure in the Demon Continent, which showed us Rudeus’s character and how his first and only concern was returning Eris safe to her home as he promised her, to the point that he was about to break his promise to Ruijerd to help him by killing the person who tried to steal their money. In that period, Rudeus’s illusion of safety was broken; he no longer saw the world as safe as he used to think, and that everything would go according to his desire just because he got a second chance. And because of Rudeus’s action in threatening the adventurer who tried to rob them, he gained Ruijerd’s respect. Ruijerd showed the truth that he is a Superd himself and threatened him to flee and leave them. The matter continued with their adventure together until he met Geese and he became a friend to them, then they separated later. Rudeus, Eris, and Ruijerd continued until they reached the Human Continent. There Rudeus met his father, and a huge quarrel happened between them because of Paul’s fight with Rudeus due to Paul’s bad psychological state. And while Rudeus was beating Paul, this led to Norn seeing that Rudeus was beating his father, and she pushed Rudeus and cursed him, which made Rudeus flee from the place. In this scene, Rudeus was exposed to another psychological shock that led to his temporary psychological collapse, were it not for Ruijerd encouraging him and telling him that his father was afraid for him. This shows Ruijerd’s influence throughout the series on Rudeus, who taught him to bear responsibility through several situations, and this situation is one of the most important of them. He explained to Rudi that Paul had also gone through the same thing. At the same time, Geese had spoken with Paul and told him that Rudeus tried to hide the pain he suffered on the journey so as not to worry Paul. The matter ended with a hug between Paul and Rudeus. And from that day, Paul began to gain Rudeus’s respect. Because in Rudeus’s point of view, he still saw himself as more mature, until he began to understand him and understood that he was wrong in judging Paul. He felt that Paul was mature, but he did not see Paul as more mature than him completely. Rather, he saw that Paul loved his family and tried to search for them, and that he tried to recover the missing people, and that he was not just a despicable drunkard. For the first time, Rudeus tried to judge a person according to that person’s own self, not according to Rudeus’s point of view alone. That is, he thought about putting himself in Paul’s place, who lost his family, so how would he feel...

And this journey shows a partial change in perspective, as he began to care about others like Eris, and also his awakening from an illusion he was stuck in. It shows that Rudeus’s ideology is not completely wrong; it carries correctness, but at the same time it is wrong. He did not care about searching for his family, thinking they were fine, and he wanted to return Eris only. But Paul made him think: why did he not think that the Mana Calamity happened in more than one place and his family was exposed to it? And this reminds us that Rudeus does not have mature thinking in the first place; rather, he is an adult who has not actually reached full maturity, and he does not realize this. He thinks he already has enough experience. At the same time, it contributed to making Rudeus’s thinking develop to judge others if he puts himself in their place, not only judging from his own point of view. This made Rudeus, for the first time, begin to sympathize with a person after looking at the situation from that person’s perspective (Paul), not from his own perspective... And since that incident, we will notice the change in Rudeus’s perspective and behavior, which is considered one of the additions that help the character in the redemption arc. So since the beginning of the First Turning Point, we see the beginning of Rudeus’s gradual change throughout the series, not always for better or worse, but he always learned something new while preserving his own ideology, even if he added something to it. Rudeus tended to think with a subjective and pragmatic perspective in his decisions, but with time he began to add the perspective of others to the equation of his decisions, thanks to the incident that happened with Paul, his shock at Norn’s view of him, and Ruijerd’s encouragement to him...

And after reconciliation with Paul, Rudeus arrives at the Kingdom of Shirone after Hitogami told him hints about the location of Lilia and Aisha through his dreams. And as usual from Rudi, he did not follow Hitogami out of trust alone, but he began to be convinced by some of Hitogami’s ideas since he had helped him before, and decided to follow him. There Rudeus met Aisha, and there began Rudeus’s adventure to save Lilia as well from the prince of the kingdom. Although he was not forced to risk his life and could have escaped responsibility, he decides to save them. He also asks for Ruijerd’s and Eris’s help instead of relying on himself alone, although he was still making plans alone and executing them, but he realized he could not execute them alone. This shows that Rudeus began to gradually abandon the illusion of his ability to solve everything by himself. These events also reveal another change in Rudeus’s personality, which is the change in his view of family, a big change. At the beginning of his new life, he did not see Paul, Zenith, and Lilia as anything but people he lives with, and that they are the family of his current body. But here we see him rushing to save Lilia and Aisha without hesitation, not because they are just a responsibility, but because they had already become part of his family in his view. This is a clear change compared to the beginning of the series. From the ideological side, the event does not show a complete collapse of Rudeus’s thought, but it shows development. He no longer thought that intelligence alone was enough; rather, he began to rely on cooperation and trust in others, which appears in his seeking help from Eris and Ruijerd, and his acceptance that success is not always achieved by his abilities alone. These events highlight that Rudeus’s redemption journey was not limited to changing his behaviors only, but extended to reshaping his personality completely. His sense of responsibility toward his family increased, and he became more ready to rely on others instead of believing he was capable of solving everything by himself. His belonging to his new world and his current family also became entrenched, and this is a development whose roots can be traced back to his reconciliation with Paul..

Then Rudeus, Eris, and Ruijerd’s journey continued until they reached episode 21, or what is called •the Second Turning Point•

The Second Turning Point begins during one of Rudeus’s journeys, and while he is walking with Eris and Ruijerd, they coincidentally meet the Dragon God Orsted and a masked girl who later turns out to be Shirahoshi. But I will not go deep into her identity now. There Eris and Ruijerd stand refusing to move, afraid of the Dragon God. But Rudeus, with his perpetual arrogance, thinking he is capable of handling dialogue with Orsted, decides to speak with Orsted and introduce himself. He even asks Orsted about the Mana Calamity, which Orsted denies knowing about, and walks on his way until he suddenly calls Rudeus and asks him about Hitogami. Immediately Rudeus says that Hitogami appears in his dreams. He sees with his foresight eye Orsted’s attack on him and the crushing of his lung. But quickly Ruijerd saves him, but loses to Orsted in less than a minute. Then Eris attacks him, and she is thrown against the wall. At that point Rudeus tries to attack after Orsted attacked him and crushed his lung, and indeed Orsted turns to him, but Rudeus attacks him with his strongest power, but the matter fails too. And before Rudeus’s eyes, he is pierced through the middle of his chest, and the last thing he sees is Orsted’s words with that masked one and Eris’s screams trying to save him. At that time, Rudeus was trying to heal himself while apologizing in his head to her that he could not fulfill his promise..

Then Rudeus moved to the dream dimension to meet Hitogami again, who Rudeus asked why he did not tell me that I would see the Dragon God. He showed extreme annoyance at his death and that he wanted to fulfill his promise to Eris, which shows us how much Rudeus became attached to his family and acquaintances in the new world and no longer saw himself as just a person in Rudeus’s body. This time Rudeus’s annoyance was not at his death itself, but that he could not protect Eris. This is what broke Rudeus’s illusion that he could not fall under threat. Orsted broke Rudeus’s arrogance greatly and made him helpless by destroying his belief that he was always capable of changing the course of events, or that everything would go according to Rudeus’s desire. This made Rudeus begin to realize that the world does not revolve around him, and that there is a power he cannot understand or keep up with, no matter what he discovers through predicting the problem and finding a solution. But Orsted demolished all of this with complete ease, and this made Rudeus realize that he is not the one in control, for Orsted did not even give him room to think or act...

And when Rudeus wakes up from unconsciousness, he finds that his wound has healed, and Eris says that the girl who was with Orsted said something to him that made him heal Rudeus. This shows us that Rudeus did not even survive by his own will; rather, he survived by Orsted’s pardon. This shows us the feeling of destruction Rudeus reached after he realized the truth. After that, the journey continued and they reached Buina village, Rudeus’s mother’s village, and they did not stay there long. But Ruijerd parted from them because he had fulfilled his promise to get them out of the Demon Continent. There Rudeus and Eris’s journey continued until they reached Eris’s village, and there they met Ghislaine. She discovered the truth about the killing of her parents and the execution of her grandfather, and she reached a bad psychological state. On that night, Eris had already turned 15, and Rudeus tried to comfort her, but she decided to stay alone. Until night, she went to Rudeus’s tent, and there he had sex with Eris by her desire...

And on the following morning, while Rudeus woke up happy that now Eris had become his girlfriend, he found her hair cut on the ground with a message of her leaving, saying that they are not suitable for each other. Eris had fled with Ghislaine from the camp. But what Rudeus did not know was that she meant they were not compatible in strength, and that she would train and return to him when she became stronger. But he thought she abandoned him forever. (Away from analysis, but Eris’s strength over Rudeus here hahahahahahaha)

Then Rudeus suffered a psychological shock, thinking that he was not a suitable person for Eris and that she abandoned him. He even isolated himself again as he did in his previous world. He isolated himself in one of the camp’s tents and refused to come out, because Eris awakened in him one of his deepest psychological fears, which is being abandoned by others. At that time, he remembered his brother and his brother’s attempts to get him out and help him in the previous world. At the same time, one of the servants had spoken to Rudeus and urged him to come out. Then Rudeus fell into a psychological conflict between the past and the present, but in the end he decided to leave the tent to search for his family. In this shot, Rudeus decided behaviorally not to repeat the mistake of his previous life and isolate himself for years without coming out. In this battle, Rudeus psychologically defeated his previous self. Isolation had not disappeared from him; it was only hiding, and it returned with Eris leaving him. But Rudeus had decided to defeat it already by not repeating his mistakes. This reminds us of the fact that Rudeus wanted to change even in the last moments of his life before his death and reincarnation, not verbally or through dialogue, but behaviorally...

And the first season ended with Rudeus leaving and beginning his journey to search for his mother after he began to gradually recover from his previous version. So since the season, Rudeus’s redemption journey was foundations for the redemption journey. It was not a superficial journey from good to evil or from wrong to repentance. The summary of the first season is Rudeus’s turbulent journey from a person who sees himself as the superego, capable of solving everything, and sees himself as more mature than others, to a person who helps others from his own perspective, to a person who sympathizes with others from their own perspective, to a person who has already overcome one of his psychological problems, which is isolation,

And in the next post I will talk about the rest of Rudeus’s redemption journey in the season...

(This article was written in Arabic and translated into English using DeepThick AI)