Cooking, Love And Home(1.5)

we don’t see eye to eye

hes my oc now >:)

I've watched through all the pjeg characters currently available ftes and here are my personal highlights:

I'm choosing to interpret the like/dislike indicators as Damon canonically being a good gift giver. You can't stop me

Damon getting really autistic about debate structure with Toshiko just to mess with her. Actually, Damon being autistic in general. With everyone

Eva literally using "I left the oven on" to exit a conversation

Damon aggressively demanding Diana tell him about herself and then getting mad when she asks if it's because they're friends

Wolfgang bringing up Grace completely unprompted within a minute of Damon arriving and having, quote, "a lot to say, that's for sure"

Everything Wenona ever says. She's so amusing to me

Eloise cursing Damon out for asking her if she's fatherless (and no, he does not understand what he did wrong)

"I hope whoever has [my blackmail] can be cool about it and confess... Maybe we can talk it out," -Desmond Hall. Smash cut to me screaming into my pillow

Ulysses being employed (one of my favorite things about him). That little boy is a grown ass man

Also it's kinda funny to me how the people Damon is nicest to are the unpopular nerds of the class. Probably because he's one of them <3

Damon walking up and sniffing Jett like that's a totally normal thing to do.. animal to animal communication

why does mark say unprompted that he doesn't like his name. writers you can't do this to me you can't make me care about this loser

JEAN'S FIRST FTE PURPOSELY ENDING ON A CLIFFHANGER LIKE THE TOZU THEATER SHIP STORY

"YMCA at sea" also got me who gave this man the right to be so funny

Eva and Cassidy Art by Nifast; Posted April 8th, 2025.

Cassidy and Eva would totally love Tomodachi Life

Reply by Nifast;

A gift for @ LazuliMidna after a generous donation ^^

🩵🩵🩵

YURI? IN MY STYLE SAVVY GAME? it's more likely than you think

Something I find fascinating is the way Matakara just refuses to take off his rose colored glasses when it comes to Arajin. Matakara is a kind, sincere and thoughtful guy, ready to fight injustice, so you would think he would not stand someone with a personality like Arajin. But that's not what's happening here. He always talks about the "super cool and kind and strong Ara-chan" even though this description could not be more removed from reality. Even as "Matakara's childhood friend", Arajin didn't have the strength to defend his opinions or protect Matakara (and the bullies make fun of him for that!)

I wonder what Matakara is seeing in Arajin, that we, the viewers aren't seeing yet

mulled it over for a while and ultimately decided i'm really digging this arajin-matakara fight, because like

the whole series has set up arajin as a piece of shit fuckhead (and i LOVE that for him) but this whole lying to matakara about wanting to be a honki people thing... is like the one thing he did not actually do

i get real rambly under the cut but tl;dr the way matakara treats arajin is the way arajin treats mahoro and that is suuuch a juicy parallel to me

throughout the whole series arajin has been not at all subtly trying to get away from these fights

could he have been more direct about that with matakara? sure maybe! but matakara was really ignoring all the signs that arajin is not who he thinks he is

which is such a delicious parallel to how arajin willfully ignores all the signs that mahoro is not into him

like. matakara built this version of arajin up in his head, with all these unreasonable, unrealistic, and honestly unfair? expectations based off some past foolishness from when they were very small children. he's clinging to this version of arajin that only exists in his head and has basically shown zero evidence of existing in real life

(yes arajin shows crumbs of courage but i think the scales are tipped pretty heavily towards his I DO NOT WANT ANY PART OF THIS moments)

this fight between them was like if arajin were to blow up at mahoro like "you've been leading me on this whole time!" when obviously. lol. no she has not

she did initially! just like tiny arajin as a child had those honki people ambitions! his ambitions may have been genuine, while mahoro feigned interest in him with malicious intent, but they're same in the sense that after that initial story beat, they have consistently demonstrated that actually no what happened back then no longer applies (whether because they grew out of it, in arajin's case, or they were faking interest in the first place, in mahoro's case)

but arajin is blinded by what he wants (mahoro) and ignores the reality of mahoro snubbing him at every turn, and matakara does the same, ignoring the reality of arajin really just... being extremely reluctant to have anything at all to do with him

anyway that's the main thing i'm chewing on and loving here, but ALSO i think the story paints this parallel in such an interesting way because like

matakara is just a big sweet ouppy dog of a boy! it's so so so easy to feel sorry for him, to root for him, to think the best of him. which i still do btw, in fact this episode made me like him more than i already did

because matakara is so uwu angelboy perfect, and arajin is such a dickhead, it's easy to instinctively think oh matakara must be completely right to be hurt and arajin must have hurt him. even if that isn't the case! this doesn't make arajin any less of a dickhead, but he's a dickhead mainly for other reasons

the fact that they've been set up as the perfect epitome of the Pure Boy and the Pervy Boy tropes is just such clever framing for this parallel between them, because i imagine a lot of viewers, if told what mataakara is doing to arajin is what arajin is doing to mahoro, would be like omg wtf no my pure angel baby is nothing like that disgusting freak?

except in this case! he literally is!! which is brilliant!!! i think it adds nuance to both matakara's character and arajin's character at the same time, making it so it's not just one of them is Perfect and one of them is Wrong All The Time

what's even better is that this made sense for matakara, like his reaction breaks him out of the Pure Angel mold but doesn't feel out of character. his emotions are already running high with what happened to his brother, plus akutaro is malewife mansplain manipulating him behind the scenes, so of course he feels like he's driven towards this emotional high that leads to this blowup

the groundwork was already laid out, and it wasn't even subtle. it was right on the surface! but this episode really highlighted how matakara's way of treating arajin is so much like arajin's way of treating mahoro and how inevitable it was that things would reach this point

(there are moments, even in this episode, that are in hindsight so clearly setting up this parallel! like arajin trying to talk to mahoro during lunch, mahoro CLEARLY not interested, making viewers think ugh arajin get a clue. then matakara often IMMEDIATELY coming in to try to talk to arajin, when arajin is the one who clearly isn't interested, making viewers think boo arajin be nicer to him! like i think the show deliberately set the audience up to have those emotional reactions, and this is the moment where the rug is pulled out from under us, so to speak, where it becomes even more obvious that... wait... double standard much?)

anyway. personally my only gripe with this episode is i wished they'd done more with aniki than just pseudo-fridge him, and hope they do still do more with him in the coming eps? but kind of understandable if they don't, because it is just a one-cour show after all

the actual blowup between arajin and matakara was just. mawh, chef's kiss. perfect

CAN THEY COOK?- project: eden's garden cooking headcanons

detailed explanation for each placement, starting from "let them cook" to "do not let them in a kitchen unsupervised." everything's below the cut:

LET THEM COOK

-ingrid and eloise have big families and they have siblings, so it only makes sense they can cook well. desmond's mom and dad run a chain restaurant, so i feel like he'd be a good cook by proxy. -if there are people you trust to take you to a good restaurant, i feel like it'd be wenona, toshiko, and jean. partially vibes based but wenona would know when those ingredients are good and fresh, toshiko would appreciate expensive but also simple and affordable meals and jean has enough experience around his crew to understand how people's palates differ (as well as having tried a variety of dishes) -grace is an athlete. she will have her "cheat days" but other than that she is DEDICATED. veggies and grains before playing and protein after. i feel like she'd hate those weird health shakes though. she makes and breaks the rules as she wishes

-kai is the type of guy who strikes me as someone who is a good cook. there are a few dishes he can make off the top of his head and they're probably all specific internet dishes (i.e. pancakes, breakfast bowl, veggie pasta... myriad of drinks etc.) buttt i think if you asked him to just fry an egg he'd somehow burn it.

-damon's parents probably taught him how to cook as a life skill and also as #bondingtime. he'd probably know how to make some traditional japanese dishes but like i also feel like he gets a bit lazy with cooking sometimes (either because he's too locked in studying or he's just tired). so like, a bowl of cereal or a boiled egg and plain toast and a banana. i like to think kai and co. bring him to restaurants or cook with him so it's easier.

-diana, diana, diana. if you believe that she is italian then i do think she could cook some great italian food. but in all honesty i feel like half of her meals are things you don't have to cook (as in over a stove or in an oven). diana 100% is a baker though. she is the type of person to bring freshly baked brownies for the class. i headcanon she, ingrid, toshiko and eloise help her out.

What the hell, sure.

-i am so hard pressed to believe these guys eat enough veggies.

-all busy + don't feel like cooking + it's faster to take out food. once in a while they will cook but it is rare. their food is edible to them and that's all that matters

-cassidy is a MENACE on the grill though (proof? that one eden's island promotional art). ask her to fucking grill anything and she will DELIVER. same goes with jett but i believe cassidy is the better grill dad here

-this is a joke but why can I see jett, cassidy and mark going to restaurants guy fieri style

DO NOT LET THEM COOK

-i feel like eva is the type of person to be like "i can cook" but she ABSOLUTELY cannot. you'll be in the kitchen with her and she would be too embarrassed to admit she can't despite the fact she is continuously failing. she gets the hang of it after a while -wolfgang doesn't know how to do his own laundry so i assume he can't cook (bc he spent all his time studying as a kid) -if you asked ulysses if he could cook he'd be like "sort of?" he can follow a recipe, but if something goes wrong he panics a bit. i think he forgets to feed himself sometimes -i think tozu would make a mean shepard's pie (pun not intended). i feel like he likes french food. while he jokes about british food he finds it very unexciting and bland. he is genuinely a good cook but would absolutely troll you by putting a "secret ingredient" in his food (i.e. putting pineapple in lasagna) unfortunately, this would be ineffective on someone like kai or eva who like "weirder" food combos

I had this idea about Arajin and Matakara floating around in my head recently, so I couldn't help but go into it a little more and wanted to share it here too, it's kind of short

When they were kids Matakara sleeps over at Arajin's house and asks him "How does it feel to have a mom?" but his friend had fallen asleep…

Some time after they had reconciled, Matakara sleeps over at Arajin's house and can't help but ask him that same question again. Arajin, knowing what that means to him, answers him…

Arajin: She can be annoying at times, it seems like she's always watching every step you take, she asks you questions out of place and even behaves in an embarrassing way. But… she's also the one who welcomes you home with a smile and a plate of freshly made food, she's always happy to see you, she teaches you many things saying that it's for your own good, or she'll tell you that you look handsome even if you don't think so.

Matakara: Yes… I think that's it, actually... I'd forgotten. I should thank your mother for reminding me, it was nice.

Arajin: So that's what it was about… well, she's always been like that (She became very insistent about that after telling her about Matakara's parents).

Matakara: She's been very kind to me, I really appreciate it.

Arajin: It's not so strange if you think about it.… you're my best friend after all… in some way that makes you part of the family, doesn't it? Besides... since she raised me well, I don't need so much attention anymore.