#“we make each other human” this is what its all about

[ryanthel0ser]

Alien Stage is about love. Wiege solidifies that.

It's about the importance of that human connection of love. There tends to be a focus on the romantic love but when you step back and look at the series, Vivinos and Qmeng look beyond just romance. There is a spotlight on companionship. On how love manifests itself in other just as beautiful and just as important ways.

Weige shows us Luka gaining his first human connections with Hyuna and Hyunwoo, it shows us Hyuna gaining a family with the resistance, it shows us the Anakt Garden kids working and playing together, it shows us that mother feeding her children, it shows us those kids drawing on the glass between them, it shows us Mizi, Sua, Till, and Ivan spending time with each other. These are all examples of human connection, the love shared between each other that we take for granted.

What we seek out inherently, something displayed through the way Luka is alone after Hyuna escapes. The way his room has posters of her everywhere, how he stares at one and kisses it, he craves that connection to come back. And when he does see her again, he's the most human we've ever seen him be. His smile is genuine, there's color in his face, his heart monitor is red. He walks towards her completely ignoring the gun to his head because that connection is right there.

Because to love is to be human.

We're shown another world. One where the characters aren't in the Alien Stage, where they're free and happy. While they aren't with each other, except Luka and Hyuna, in these scenes they aren't alone either. Sua is laughing with a friend, a picture of someone on her phone case. You can see someone in the background as Mizi is smiling like she's doing an activity with others. Someone is in the foreground as Till draws, implying he's in an art class with others. Someone walks up to Ivan as he's reading a love note. Hyunwoo is riding a bike with another kid. Someone is taking pictures of two little figures together. Because even if you're not in a situation where a human connection is all you have, we still need it. We still want it. Its importance does not lessen.

And we carry those connections, that love with us even after someone is gone. Hyuna cries for Hyunwoo, she thinks about him and Luka even as she's with her family in the resistance because she still carries that love for them with her. Mizi weeps as she holds Till and remembers Sua because she still carries that love for them with her. It's something so deeply ingrained within us, so natural that we can never part with it. Because it makes us human.

The song itself is composed like a waltz, but the lyrics and the name tell you what it really is. It's a lullaby. In a story reliant on music to add even more detail to what it's presenting to its audience, the video most centered on love and human connection has a lullaby. One of the first pieces of music you hear after you're born. A piece of music often associated with the first human connection anyone has. One of the first times music is an expression of love. A mother singing to her child.

[oneirophasia]

I like thinking about how The Murderbot Diaries could be adapted. I enjoy the conceit that much or all of the footage/animation is technically in first-person - but, true to character, Murderbot frequently prefers to hijack drones and other environmental cameras as an emotional distancing mechanism, allowing changes in POV to communicate its emotions without forcing Murderbot to explicitly comment on them. :D Visual media obviously want less narration than literature (sometimes to its detriment), but fortunately Murderbot has the excuse of lacking a Watson or anyone else it's willing to talk to, especially for half the first book, so there's plenty of justification for a minimal level of snarky cyber-noir commentary. The tonal contrast between its internal monologue and everything it actually says is important!

Treating the "camera" as an explicit extension of Murderbot's perspective also slightly simplifies the problem that a lot of the action and dialogue happens in a way that's tricky to convey passively in only two senses. For one, people talk to each other regularly not just vocally, but over the feed. How can that distinction be made clear to the audience without constantly having to say so? Audio is the most obvious choice; maybe the dialogue has processing effects that give it a subtle electronic tint. Earlier scenes could establish the convention by showing augmented humans continuing to talk by closing their mouths and using subvocal jaw movements, accompanied by the processing change, setting up that association to use without the visual cue later. It'd be important that the effect be distinctive without making the dialogue incomprehensible, since music and sound effects would also still be part of the mix. But "the feed" isn't just one feed, either - not everyone uses the same public channel, and sometimes that's plot-relevant. I remember in Rogue Protocol there was a moment where Murderbot has a brief conversation with someone - I think it was Abene? - which starts vocally, then moves to the feed, then to a private channel. The same people are speaking, or else you could use that to imply the change, but it's important to the audience that other people in the group who aren't currently speaking can only hear some of it. How do you communicate that efficiently? "Sounds digital" is one thing, "sounds digital but in two or more distinct and consistent ways" is another level and outside my limited AV knowledge. (If Murderbot is narrating when other people are around we might also need tone for "asides no one heard but the audience", but that isn't anything new at least.)

That's relatively trivial compared to the broader problem that Murderbot, specifically, is constantly talking to and hacking computer systems. That's at least half of its job and plot participation, but it's also a core part of its characterisation as an insubordinate non-human that makes it a compelling protagonist, so "just write it out of the script" would clearly betray the spirit of an adaptation. I don't know if you've thought about how much effort directors went to until someone (possibly on Sherlock) figured out how to just present text messages on-screen in a dynamic and legible way? This is worse. Viewers don't necessarily need as much information as readers get, but I just finished Exit Strategy and was paying attention to what I was actually imagining visually while Murderbot:

Remotely contacts a gunship using false authentication so it won't notify its human crew

Casually disables security devices and erases itself from recordings

Distinguishes systems by which organisation they belong to, how much access it has to them, and whether they have an active human operator

Sorts personal memories to edit into a highlights reel

Briefly redirects a secure call at a critical moment

Fakes a glitch in decorative holography

Exploits the perimeters of security systems that don't directly communicate with each other to evade pursuit

Monitors transit traffic to deduce enemy movement and change plans accordingly

Hijacks all the drones in a large room and blocks attempts to regain control

Reclassifies enemy combatants mid-engagement

Secures a pilot bot in the middle of being destroyed by killware

Creates bait to lure said killware into a subsystem that can be physically disconnected

Good thing I was imagining a broadly POV camera framing anyway, because none of this is happening physically, and Murderbot isn't experiencing it through human-analogous senses. The challenge is to communicate all of that without impeding the story it's meant to support, without the advantage of being able to control pacing through text. The usual trope for creating visual interest in the visually-unexciting activity of "using a computer" is to portray it as happening physically anyway in a metaphorical cyberspace, but I don't think that actually works in this case, because remember: a lot of this happens during climactic action scenes, and blocking fight choreography can be disorienting enough as it is without also constantly flickering into virtual reality just long enough to flip an imaginary switch. It makes more sense to me to represent it as more of an augmented reality overlay, which... the problem there isn't really that that sounds like creating an entire imaginary UI, which isn't different in principle from set design making sure all the buttons are labelled consistently on the spaceship console, the problem is that usually the audience isn't watching through the console. You'd need to treat the HUD elements as normal and use them at least often enough that when they become important the audience will be ready to follow along without exposition, but cluttering the screen can be distracting enough when you're playing an game and is probably even worse in a non-interactive medium.

[blissfulbluee]

457 theory

gi-hun and in-ho have very different views of each other. gi-hun simply sees in-ho as an alliance, and a potential friend, if he isn’t one already.

with in-ho, things are way more complex. i’ll point out the obvious first; he’s obsessed with gi-hun. this obsession is mainly rooted in jealousy, confusion, and hurt. “why does he still have hope for society, and faith in humanity?” is a question he’s ruminated more than once. it’s painful to see someone endure the same trauma and become a better person because of it when you can’t do the same.

in-ho is drawn to gi-hun out of a desire to put an internal conflict to rest. he knows gi-hun’s mere existence represents the fact truly good people exist, and always have, and always will. he’s been aware of this since before gi-hun was a player. in his eyes, however, those people are either weak and taken advantage of, or there aren’t enough of them to make real change. he felt this was confirmed when the strategy he used in the games led him to victory- one i imagine was similar to sang-woo’s.

seeing someone with a different approach win made him wonder if his callousness was in vain. he justified his actions by telling himself gi-hun got lucky, and hoped he’d build a future around that luck. now, years later, he’s back to play the hero? he feels bad that his attempt is in vain, but at least he’ll learn his lesson; the system and those who play by its rules prevail.

a part of him hopes gi-hun will prove him wrong. he sees his past self in him; a man without his current philosophy. anyway, it’s definitely possible that there’s a homoerotic element to this fixation, as many people fall in love with people who remind them of themselves, but it will never be reciprocated after what he’s done. sad because in another universe they’d be a cute couple 😔

Hi! Thanks for the ask. Sorry for the delayed response. I think this is a good way to look at the ship, and is closer to canon than other things I have seen about them.

Yes, I agree that Gi-hun sees in-ho as a friend when he is Young-il.

I like how you bring up the jealousy and everything being the cause of the obsession (which is undeniable to me. he is absolutely obsessed with him in canon just not in the shipping way) I haven't thought a lot about how envious it would be for him to see how different they turned out.

I do also agree that In ho sees Gi-hun as weak for his morals. I think he wants to essentially teach him his ways, to maybe get him to be like him so that all of that envy goes away. he just has some very cruel and very homosexual methods. LMAO

I SO wish we could somehow get a universe where Gi-hun and past In-ho interact. That way we can have old man yaoi without the toxic nature for a change, even though that is what makes them so interesting.

People clown on shippers for shipping such a toxic ship that is essentially one sided as you mention, but thats the beauty of it. We don't necessarily find it pretty if they end up together. Sometimes we enjoy the one sided things because that's different from a typical romance. AND you can still enjoy it without getting as toxic/dark as possible.

You're right about everything anon. I wish I could say more but I am currently being hit with random exhaustion and you're really saying everything I am thinking lol.

[f-imaginings]

It’s Valentine’s Day! Please can you share something cute like a headcanon or something with billford? Like did bill and ford celebrate Valentine’s Day sometime in kmky? Just anything! We need something for this romantic holiday!

Just for you I wrote a little scene in my notes app in my phone that got a bit out of hand and ended up being its own short story haha. I hope you enjoy a pre-betrayal KMKY Billford scene that may have happened on February 14th 🤷 who can say (certainly not the author lmao)

Enjoy! 🥳🥳🥳❤️❤️❤️❤️

In Fiddleford's absence, the engineer having taken yet more of Stanford's egregiously given "annual leave" to go celebrate February 14th with his wife in Palo Alto, Bill was left with two options.

Annoy Sixer into making him a lavish late breakfast or capitulate and join the scientist at the Diner for the travesty known as "brunch".

"You see it's a portmanteau of breakfast and lunch, which deserves its own separate menu for some reason." Stanford explained in the car, his six fingered hands wrapped tightly around the steering wheel as he drove.

Arms crossed sullenly in the passenger seat, Bill turned his nose up at the concept as a whole. "That's not creating something new, that's just smashing two words together. Anyone can do that. Watch. Deflammestrate."

Stanford blinked and tilted his head as he pulled into the parking lot, mulling that one over. An amused smile tugged at the edges of his lips as he cast an indulgent look at his muse.

"Deflammestrate."

Putting on a stuffy academic voice, Bill postured. "You see, it's a portmanteau of defenestrate and flammable. Comes in handy for throwing people out of windows as they spontaneously combust."

Scoffing a brief laugh, Ford parked and undid his seatbelt. "Well. Let's hope it catches on."

"I'm sure it will." Bill insisted pettily, undoing his own seatbelt. "Like wildfire."

"I'm sure." Ford laughed indulgently as he got out of the car, only to pause, his expression souring rapidly as he observed the onslaught of pink decor that covered Greasy's exterior. "This holiday makes me want to deflammestrate myself. Dear god, could it be any more garish?"

Bill got out of the car and slammed the door shut, surveying the pink hearts and paper cherubs glued onto the windows of the diner curiously, then back to Stanford as if to measure his response.

"Well, the hearts are hardly anatomically accurate if that's your issue. Missing a few key ventricles there. What's the big deal? Isn't this just more inane human pageantry?"

Rubbing his hand over his stubble, Ford debated getting back in the car and going somewhere else. Somewhere less 'in your face' obnoxious about the holiday season.

Was 'brunch' worth this?

"Alright, fine. I suppose I'll just have to grit my teeth and bear it." Ford shook his head, muttering to himself. "Not like there's any other diners in this town. Come on, let's find a booth."

The bell above the door clanged as they entered and received a perfunctory greeting from old Mrs Wentworth behind the counter, making their way to their customary seats at the end booth.

This booth, and indeed all the booths were covered in an excess of pink heart shaped confetti and glitter, and someone had suspended paper cherub decorations from the ceiling above each booth with string, adding to the holiday spirit.

Sliding into the booth, Bill continued to watch curiously as Ford scowled at the cartoonish eyes of the cherub hung above their booth, snatching it down and folding it in half to avert its judgemental stare.

Reaching for the brunch menu, Ford grumbled to himself as he scanned through the page, his bizarre reaction piquing Bill's interest.

"What are you having?" Ford asked bluntly as he swept confetti off the table derisively, his sour mood delighting his partner.

"Oh, gee, I guess I'll have whatever it is that crawled up your butt and died today." Bill teased giddily.

"What?" Ford blinked at him, jarred from his humbug behaviour.

Flicking a handful of confetti at Stanford, Bill laughed when he flinched, the paper hearts stuck in his fluffy brown hair. "Boo!"

"Bill, stop it!" Ford complained, immediately moving to brush the confetti off him, casting an irritable look his way. "Can't I order a meal without being accosted by this holiday?"

"Not until you tell me why you hate it so much." Bill pried. "Unless you were a gang member shot dead in Chicago in 1929, miraculously reincarnated as a pocket protector wearing nerd you should have no reason to act this grumpy."

Stanford winced, before waving his hand, explaining. "Valentine's day isn't - well you could say it's not my favourite holiday."

Ripping the paper top off one of the sugar packets, Bill tipped the sugar in his mouth, gesturing with his hand as he prompted. "And you could say more on that."

"Why do you want to know?" Ford's shoulders hunched defensively.

"I thought this was a thing we're doing now, where you ask me invasive questions and I get to do the same." Bill shrugged, chewing on the sugar as he spoke. "Like that question you asked me this morning?"

"When I asked your favourite colour?" Ford squinted, trying to piece together Bill's logic.

"Yeah! That one! Super invasive! That's like me asking you what your favourite letter of the alphabet is! Totally redundant."

"My favourite letter is S." Ford replied cageily. "And you didn't even answer that question this morning."

"And now you're not answering mine." Bill crossed his arms, feigning disappointment. "You see. We're not getting anywhere at this rate. May as well just give up now."

Tensing his jaw stubbornly, Stanford raised his eyebrow. "Fine, I'll tell you why I hate Valentine's day so much if you tell me something about yourself."

Bill opened his mouth to say something blatantly obvious but Ford cut him off, too familiar with him to allow that.

"Something genuine. Something I don't already know."

Bill's mouth snapped shut and pressed into a thin line as he pondered that ultimatum before he rested his elbows on the table, leaning forward in the booth.

"Fine. But you go first."

"Fine." Ford agreed, but his disclosure was interrupted by Stacey's sudden arrival.

"Happy Valentine's day y'all, can I take your order?"

"Oh, right, yes. Do I have to order off the brunch menu or can I just get the big breakfast?" Ford asked, peering at the menus on the table.

"Brunch menu is Suzie's idea. You're so lucky she's not here, else you'd be gettin' your meal with a side of a dozen roses, Mr Mystery." Stacey scoffed as she jotted down Ford's order. "And is that the chilli fries, steak sandwich and an unhealthy amount of mustard on the side for you as well."

"You don't know me food wench. Don't pretend that you do." Bill narrowed his yellow slitted eyes at Stacey contrarily.

Stacey then looked to Stanford, her dry expression speaking to her years of customer service experience, able to weather any storm.

"Also two teas, if you could." Ford added with a meek smile.

"AND seven milkshakes!" Bill added imperiously.

"No." Ford countered, reaching across the table to lower Bill's hand.

"Six milkshakes!" Bill haggled.

"One milkshake max." Stanford insisted.

"You drive a hard bargain IQ." Bill shook his head scornfully. "Too cruel."

"You guys are cute." Stacey observed, popping her pink bubblegum before jotting the order down with flourish. "I'll be right out with that milkshake."

As Stacey walked away, Bill turned his attention back to Stanford, blinking expectantly at him.

"You were saying."

Shaking off Stacey's comment Ford clenched his jaw and resigned himself to telling his story.

"It's not that I didn't get attention on Valentine's Day. That wasn't the issue. I mean, the girls at the chess club tried their luck with anyone and they weren't exactly subtle." Ford winced, rubbing the back of his neck. "Between Stanley's loud boasting about his conquests and the general scrutiny from family members that comes along with the holiday, it felt like there wasn't an option to go about your day unaccosted if you didn't want to partake in all this frivolity. It's not a holiday for scientists. It's a day where people throw all logic out the window and give in to their baser instincts."

"Uhuh." Bill nodded, tilting his head to the side as he swiped his tongue over his teeth, licking sugar from his gums. "Sure. What's the real reason?"

Stanford blanched and leaned back in his chair, his chin rearing back into his neck.

"I don't know what you -"

"Don't try to kid me Sixer. I like to think I know you better than that. If it were just the principle of the thing ticking you off you wouldn't be acting like cupid here murdered your firstborn." Bill pointed out, lidding his eyes at Ford. "This holiday doesn't just offend your sensibilities, it's hurt you somehow."

Crossing his arms, Ford sat with his shoulders bunched up around his ears contentiously, stubbornly silent until Stacey returned with their order.

"Here you go, your milkshake, two teas, the big breakfast and the usual monstrosity. I'll come back with a dessert menu when you're done."

Bill watched her retreat and shook his head, before turning back to face Ford, watching him push his food around on his plate.

Reaching forward to snag his hash brown, Bill made it clear through his continued silent eye contact that he wanted an answer.

Pursing his lips, Ford sucked in a deep breath before exhaling loudly and reaching for his cutlery.

"Cathy Crenshaw." Cutting into his sausage and stacking scrambled egg and mushrooms onto his fork, Stanford took a bite, continuing to speak as he chewed. "She ruined the holiday for me. She was the most popular girl in my high school. Blonde, head of the cheer squad, vivacious. I should have been more suspicious when she started being nice to me but I thought she just wanted homework help, or a study partner. I thought she was being sincere."

"It was a set up?" Bill asked, piling chilli onto his steak sandwich and lifting the dripping concoction to his mouth.

"For public humiliation." Ford nodded, making another carefully curated forkful of food, slicing into the grilled tomato and crispy bacon. "She sent me a Valentine's card, instructing me to meet her under the bleachers. I didn't tell Stanley. I thought he'd make fun of me, although in hindsight I probably should have told him. He always could spot a con from a mile away."

"What did she do?" Bill asked, chewing on his chilli steak sandwich messily.

"Her friends were in the bleachers above us. They weren't the most inventive bullies. Jocks and cheerleaders mostly so given their respective IQ their humour catered to the lowest common denominator." Ford recounted, chewing his food and hardly tasting it. "They couldn't touch my academic prowess because the school valued that, and since Stanley brought knuckle dusters to school one time, physical bullying was out, so they took aim at the obvious."

Bill's brow furrowed, confused at what the obvious could be if the bullies weren't just jealous of Sixer's IQ.

Ford looked up at Bill's expression then back to his plate, his hands clenching around his knife and fork.

"They poured hot dogs down on me from the bleachers. Hot dogs and hot dog water. The smell didn't wash out of my hair properly for a week."

When Bill continued to appear perplexed, Ford set his cutlery down and flexed his hands in the air in front of him.

"Hot dogs look like fingers. I did say they weren't the most inventive."

The outrage that crossed Bill's features then was a true sight to behold. It was beautiful (despite the chilli on Bill's chin), Ford thought, suddenly wistful for someone who would have been outraged on his behalf in the past, wishing he met Bill sooner.

"To this day I can't stomach the smell of hot dogs." Ford remarked with a shrug, as if this memory hadn't coloured his opinion of February 14th. "That's why I'm not fond of the holiday."

"Well, did you ever get back at them?" Bill asked indignantly, wiping his face with a napkin.

"They say success is the best revenge."

"What, have they never heard of anthrax before? What about a pipe bomb? A good old fashioned Molotov cocktail? What about napalm?" Bill gesticulated wildly as he spoke. "Nothing says successful like immolating your enemies. How 'bout a little deflammestration, huh?"

"While I've definitely thought of it -" Ford laughed, and tipped his head forward. "And now I have this wonderful new portmanteau to describe that grisly outcome, thank you for that, I just think - what's the point? They've moved on with their lives. I certainly have, and there's no point dwelling on it any more than I already have to. I just want to pretend it never happened."

Bill stared at Ford, as if judging his sincerity here, before scowling and pushing aside his empty plate.

"Fine, but they don't get to take this day away from you. If anything you should enjoy this day twice as much, just to spite them!" Bill declared, shaking his fist in the air for emphasis.

"A novel idea." Ford raised one eyebrow skeptically. "Maybe I would if I ever had someone inclined to celebrate it with me, assuming the saccharine nature of the holiday doesn't give us some sort of congenital heart disease merely by partaking."

Bill pondered this, before he reached across the table grabbing Ford's hand. "I'll celebrate it with you. I'm great at spiting things. You're not due for a heart attack until you're 92 and I'm not even sure if this body processes sugar the same way you meatsacks do. It can't be that hard, right?"

Ford blinked at Bill then looked around the Diner cautiously, flexing his six fingers around Bill's hand.

"Really?"

"Sure. What does being a Valentine entail? What do I have to do?" Bill asked expectantly, sitting upright in his chair.

"Well, usually two people would share a meal together somewhere out in public." Ford explained, looking around the diner now, noticing all the other couples boothed up just like they were.

"Well my meal's already gone, but it looks like Stink Eye put two straws in my milkshake. I'm willing to share but it's gotta be a 60/40 split. Maybe 70/30 since you cheated me out of the other six milkshakes." Bill haggled.

"I'm honestly surprised you've never had a stomach ache." Ford laughed, sliding the milkshake between them and fiddling with the straw. "I don't think a human appetite could stomach that much dairy without consequences."

"I haven't had a stomach ache YET but if someone let me get the other six milkshakes maybe we'd get somewhere."

"Just drink your milkshake." Ford laughed, taking a sip, only for Bill to grasp the other straw and start furiously sucking, unwilling to give up his 70/30 split.

Over by the counter, Stacey shook her head at the two of them and popped her bubblegum, rolling her eyes.

Typical Valentine's Day nonsense. Next year she's taking the day off. Valentine's day in customer service is the worst.

✨💛✨

[sebadztian]

So, I saw a couple of posts about a topic that's so common in Kuro, it's starting to get old: How antis despise Sbcl (and its shippers) and what's wrong with this pairing (and Yana too somehow??).

Those who've been following me for a while know that I kind of ship Sebaciel. I might even have written a fanfic or two about them.

In most of my works, they're often decipted as this lovey-dovey romantic couple who are so attached to each other. They're this 'perfect' couple that everyone envied because they're just so sweet. A lovely story about a boy and his domesticated demon butler-slash-boyfriend.

But here's the thing...

If they started to hug and kiss and says 'I love you's in the manga, I'm probably going to drop it real quick. Why? Because that's not what Kuro is about.

Kuro is a dark story about a boy who has lost everything, who has had his world taken away from him and the length that he's willing to go to achieve his goals.

It's a story about humanity and its ugliness, about what being human is like, about how manipulative, greedy, deceiving, revolting, and ignorant humans could be. But at the same time, it also talks about humanity's strength, resilience, empathy, and forgiving nature.

Even the way 'love' is decipted in the story is not the kind of 'love' that would make you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

In the Kuroverse, the word 'love' has different meanings for different characters.

For Lizzy, love means being Ciel's 'perfect' wife, even if she has to sacrifice a part of herself.

For Madam Red, she had loved - and lost - two of the most important people in her life and her conflicted feelings were what led her down that path.

For Sieglinde's mother, her love for her country and her husband has pushed her to sacrifice her own daughter.

For Agni, his love and devotion to Soma has led him to a path of redemption and in the end, it has cost him his own life.

For Joker and the rest of the circus troupe, they love each other so much, they chose to turn a blind eye towards the error of their way, choosing to sacrifice their own humanity for each other's sake.

And for our Ciel, he loved his brother so much that he chose to 'kill' himself to keep his brother 'alive'. (Of course there's also the whole thing about the low self-esteem stuff, but we're not going to talk about that here).

And for Sebastian, well, love means cats. He's simple like that.

So, if you're here screamig at us Sebaciel shippers about a pedo demon, about how Ciel & Sebas hate each other, about how wrong it is to ship them, and how Yana has never meant for them to be a couple...

My friend, you're wasting your time, breath, and energy because WE KNOW.

We know Kuro is not about some romantic couple who lived in a nice neighbourhood and they're friends with their neighbours whom they say 'Good morning' to whenever they leave the house in the morning.

We know that Kuro is not a story about love and romance and all things awesome. In fact, Kuro is very, very ugly. And yet, it's exactly why it's also so fascinating and beautiful.

This is a story where the protagonist is a demon who sees humans as grasshoppers. But at the same time, he also finds them fascinating. It's like this whole Kuroverse is Sebastian's own personal research lab and the other characters are his lab rats, with Ciel being his favourite hamster.

If you're looking for sweet romance, you're not going to find it in Kuro. That's what fanfics and AUs and all those headcanons are for.

And if you still don't get it... Well, then you probably should read something more lighthearted...

[homestuckreplay]

take me down to the pesterlog city where jade’s text is green and john gets all petty

(page 1394-1406)

It’s pesterlog time!!!! In a 12 page spread (1391-1402) there are seven pesterlog pages representing five characters. I feel like I am a medieval peasant attending my first palace banquet. The rich offerings of character moments and variety of colors on display is blowing my gruel-fed brain.

The art also kicks ass this update! Tbh I am going to make a post about the art more generally as I’ve noticed some big changes recently (and some slow changes that are very apparent when jumping back) so for today I’ll just say: look at this super cool art of John exploring LOWAS on page 1395. He’s so clearly questing in a way that the sprite just can’t represent. I would get this framed for my wall.

I’m delighted to get a longer conversation with CG, who I’ve named Reggie. They’re actually fun and creative with their trolling techniques here, and knowing what they look like means I get to imagine this little grey kid grinding their fangs as they tap away on their keyboard furious at a comparatively sweet and clueless guy. They look like a goofy nerd whose bark is way worse than their bite.

‘IT WOULD MAKE ME SICK TO MY HUMAN STOMACH IF I HAD ONE OF YOUR HUMAN STOMACHS’ is VERY funny. Reggie feels similar to the Felt and Midnight Crew in being so over-the-top in their violence that it loops back around to being funny. And John’s reactions are good too – he’s not upset at the trolling like Jade is, he’s hilarious and willing to turn Reggie’s snark back on them. Their willingness to play off each other definitely increases the ‘enemies to lovers’ feeling of this Valentine’s Day conversation.

It is interesting that Rose accepted GA’s offer to be friends (p.1093), and now Reggie is telling John that they’re friends in the future (p.1394). So suddenly the trolls, who act and look textbook malicious at first, are trying to play nice. Are the trolls setting this up in order to double cross the kids in the future? Or are the trolls trying to incorporate the kids into their group and get them to follow some sort of dark trolling agenda? Or are they also just outcast alien kids who troll people because they’re lonely and want some attention? Hard to say when we have only heard from three of them.

There is something amazing about PM’s sword previously being used for vengeance (p.844, 870) and this time when she tries to do similar, she’s interrupted by WV who convinces her to use it to open cans and share food instead. WV may be from the dark kingdom but he feels like a peacemaker between the light and dark sides, refusing to fight against either PM or AR. I mean he is literally followed around by the light of serenity. And now he sits between PM and AR and shares his food and Tab and they all become friends, which honestly, is amazing mayoral work. Solving disputes in the town already. I really think he could build a town just like Spades Slick did.

This view of Dave’s city is cool too, I love the color of the sky! He straight up lies by saying ‘i always keep birds in here its sort of my thing’ (p.1400) and calling it sincere, considering his earlier bird-free room (p.312). He is on way too many layers of irony to decode (i.e. he just says whatever bullshit comes to mind that might be funny with no regard for whether it’s true or false). Which is soooo great for getting to know his character (also he should stop saying slurs).

However, I can see why Dave is annoyed by Rose here. Like he does kind of bring this all on himself by being so ironic all the time and talking about how ‘cool’ his brother apparently is, but, it’s gotta be hard when he’s been telling Rose about fighting his brother on the roof and she’s dismissing that he went through a lot to get the beta to save her, when Jade had it literally handed to her. Rose doesn’t know the details so I’m not mad at her, but it still can’t be easy for Dave to hear that dismissal from a friend.

I do feel like Rose and Jade have this alliance in seeing themselves as the two who know what’s going on, with the combined power of Jade’s visions and Rose’s perceived high intelligence. This whole update is very gender roles but this does evoke page 838, where Rose is far more aware of Jade’s powers and the type of information she has access to than John or Dave are.

Meanwhile in Dave and John land...

TG: i should probably text him soon TG: see whats up TG: because TG: i love him

Straight up adorable. Don’t even pretend to me that there’s a shred of irony in this. I love how close these guys are. This is sort of the first declaration of love in Homestuck unless you count John’s telling Liv Tyler on his Armageddon poster that he loves her (p.223).

We specifically don’t get to see Rose’s conversation with a troll (yet), but I think we can assume she’s talking to GA, probably the only troll she respects enough to prioritize over Dave. We also don’t see where in the Medium Rose is; John assumes that she’s also in the Land of Wind and Shade, but according to Rose, ‘It’s hard to say for certain. But I think I like it here.’ (p.1402). If the Medium has four planets in between the light and dark (p.703) (holy shit half the story ago) then it makes sense for the players to all start on different planets and have to find each other, so we could be getting ANOTHER super aesthetically cool land within the next few weeks. Or teased repeatedly until the end of the act, who knows.

The puppets (including a wizard puppet) clinging to the totem lathe on page 1403 is a very good gag. Also, ‘eggy loking thign’ (p.240) spotted here in the menu?? Implying a limited set of Sburb entry items?? Also 2,000 starting build grist for Jade to use compared to 20 for Rose, and a bunch more gizmos and gadgets available to deploy, including a disc with a piece of green grist (?) and two devices shaped like captchalogue/strife cards; a further tease of what’s to come.

Finally, I’m so glad Hussie agrees with me that there’s no fucking way Jade knows how to clean a house. Even if she has absorbed gender roles and sees cleaning as a woman’s activity (p.1405) she definitely was not taught to do that and designed some kind of robot to do it for her.

[atamascolily]

The other fascinating thing about the "Prologue in Heaven" shot, which I forgot to mention in my earlier post, is that if the triangular shadow is in fact Kriemhild Gretchen, it's the only time we've ever seen the two of them together in the anime. All of Gretchen's on-screen appearances (twice in episode 10 and once in episode 12) occur only after Walpurgisnacht has been defeated.

Or to put it a different way, whenever Walpurgisnacht is there, Gretchen isn't, and vice versa. The two witches don't seem to be able to co-exist in the same time and space with each other... which makes their juxtaposition in "Heaven", where the normal rules don't apply, all the more striking.

And this is all the more true if Walpurgisnacht ends up being to Homura what Gretchen is to Madoka, because it means these two witches are finally together as equals, which is something that has never happened before to them or their respective human counterparts before (that we've seen on screen, anyway).

Well. Not quite. There is one moment in Episode 10 where Homura and Madoka are presented as equals and they defeat Walpurgisnacht together. That's the timeline where Homura makes this speech to Madoka as the two of them lie dying in the rain:

I've got an idea. How about we both become witches, and we can tear up this rotten world together? Until there's no more evil, no more sadness, until there's nothing left. We'll break and smash and pound it into dust.

Of course, Madoka ends up rejecting this proposition and uses a grief seed to heal Homura instead, and where she asks Homura both to go back in time and save her AND kill her in the current timeline to keep from becoming a witch, thus traumatizing Homura and setting her on her current path. But the offer and its implications haunt me, and like Chekhov's boomerang, I think we may end up seeing it again before the end.

It may seem weird that my idea of a "happy ending" for the series seemingly involves Homura and Madoka becoming witches together, but I think it's likely given a) the foreshadowing implied in this particular speech, and b) the thematic emphasis on adulthood and growing up, as epitomized by Madoka's mother Junko. As witches are the "adult" form of magical girls, I think that for Homura and Madoka to truly grow up, they will have to fully accept and acknowledge the darkness in themselves and each other... which is what will allow them to transcend it and become something we haven't yet seen before because it could have only come about as a result of everything that has come thus far.

After all, Madoka's biggest problem as the Law of Cycles is that she can no longer participate in ordinary life, and she's lonely. (This is strongly implied in conversations during Rebellion and directly stated in the concept movie trailer speech.) Having a companion who is her equal, and living vicariously through the stories they create would resolve both of those issues. Likewise, Homura has made it very clear that she doesn't care what happens as long as she can be with Madoka, so I think she'd probably be fine with this outcome.

Creating worlds and/or smashing them is exactly what witches, especially Walpurgisnacht, do. And how meta would it be if the world they end up making together, the story Walpurgisnacht is telling, is the story of Madoka Magica itself--a story that isn't just about bad or sad things, but also about good and happy things, too, just like Madoka reminded Homura in the scene I quoted above?

It's also possible the kind of thematic resolution I'm envisioning could manifest as a "splitting" where Homura and Madoka separate from their cosmic aspects so they can live normal human lives, while said cosmic aspects continue to exist independently. One thing I'm absolutely certain of it that there will continue to be magical girls in some capacity, which means that there will also be witches in some capacity, which means an alternative to erasing them from existence or allowing them to run rampant--the only question is how exactly Madoka Magica's creators choose to resolve it. Something something thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

That said, if something like what I've laid out here does happen, I don't think that it was necessarily planned out that way from the beginning; I think it's something that evolved over time as the story progressed, even though the initial groundwork for it was laid very early on. (This is especially true given that the script and much of the visual design work were done by different people with different ideas and visions.) But given the thematic focus on cycles and repetition, I'd be surprised if the creators didn't take advantage of the opportunity to bring everything "full circle" at the end, especially since it looks like we're already going to revisit Walpurgisnacht in the next installment.

Goethe's Faust Part One has two prologues - the first is more "meta" in that three people ostensibly involved in the theatrical production itself--an actor, director, and poet--discuss the nature of their art. Depending on the production, these roles are sometimes played by God, Faust, and Mephistopheles for an extra layer of meta. The second prologue, set in Heaven, is a conversation between God and Mephistopheles where they wager for the soul of Faust.

In the context of the original series, "God" would be Madokami, Mephistopheles is Kyubey, and Homura is Faust. However, given that Homura has declared herself the devil at the end of Rebellion and appears to have taken on Kyubey's role in Walpurgis no Kaiten, she has become Mephistopheles as well. (This may or may not be what is meant by the twin Homuras in the WnK key visual, but it sure doesn't hurt.) If Homura and Walpurgisnacht are confirmed to be related to each other, it would retroactively explain why the "devil" role from the original Faust is "played" in this scene by Walpurgisnacht instead of Kyubey and also resolve the answer to the question "Did Madokami know about the events of Rebellion and willingly allowed them to happen?" (another element I think will be resolved one way or the other by the time the story ends).

Although only the second prologue is explicitly cited in the opening of Madoka Magica, the meta elements that emphasize the theatricality and artificial setting remind me of the first prologue, and I think both are present here. Not bad for a scene that is approximately ten seconds long with no dialogue!

I found Inu Curry's commentary on the "Prologue in Heaven" shot that haunts me, and it only raised more questions. I don't know what I expected.

Here is what it says as best as I can make out with my fledgling Japanese and a bunch of online references:

逆 さまにった街と穴があいた空。 The upside-down city and the hole in the opened[?] sky.

"Upside-down city" seemingly refers to Walpurgisnacht's goal of turning Mitakihara upside-down both literally and metaphorically by ripping the buildings off their foundations and making them hover in mid-air. It's a little difficult to see in the above sketch, but the finished film version is a little brighter so you can see the buildings in the upper corners.

However, what is "upside-down" depends on our perspective. Is the city upside down because Walpurgisnacht has made it that way, or because we, the audience, are viewing an upside-down image? This is another way in which Walpurgisnacht messes with our heads and confuses our ideas of what constitutes reality.

As for the second part of the sentence, there are a couple of different past tense constructions that are pronounced "aita" (あいた), and I'm not sure which is applicable in this situation because this phrase is written in hiragana. In this context, I'm guessing 開いた ("opened", "emptied") which has considerable overlap with 空いた, with the latter using the same kanji for 空 ("sky") and therefore creating a pun.

空 is a complex character with a lot of meanings, and I think it is doing a lot of load-bearing here, but for now I'll also note the contrast with 穴, which means "hole" in the sense of "cave" or "being underground". Earth and sky might seem like total opposites but given that 空 can also mean "emptiness" or "void", they simultaneously have a lot in common, to the point where 空 even includes the 穴 radical in it.

All this is to say, it feels like there's a lot going on in this line, and I still have a lot of questions. Still, it seems like we have a distinct contrast between the inverted (solid, material) city and the (intangible) "hole in the sky", which might refer to the black circular void at the center of Walpurgisnacht's mandala, which appears to be drawing everything up towards it.

逆 さまの山の頂にワルプルギスの後光。 Walpurgisnacht's halo on the upside-down mountain's peak

Once again we have a juxtaposition between two things, one of which is inverted, but this one is a little more straightforward straightforward, in that the halo is right there and the original Walpurgisnacht celebration was said to take place on Mount Brocken in Germany. And indeed, if you flip the image upside-down, it's much easier to see the "mountain" in this image--the pyramidal shadow upon which the witch's mandala now appears to be resting.

From this perspective, it looks very much like another drawing in the production note of Madoka's witch Kriemhild Gretchen reaching up to the heavens with Walpurgisnacht hovering overhead for scale [as explained in the two boxes immediately above the drawing].

This page is also the source of the famous Inu Curry quote that Walpurgisnacht and Gretchen are like two halves of an hourglass (bottom text), another statement that makes me want to gnaw on the furniture every time I think about it. Why would you do this if there wasn't supposed to be some connection between them??! And why an hourglass, given its associations with one character (Homura) in particular?

This is why I have always interpreted this shot as Walpurgisnacht and Gretchen together in "Heaven", which raises all kinds of fascinating metatexual questions like, "Why did Inu Curry et al. decide to open with this particular image?" and "Is this a frame narrative implying that the entire story is a performance by Walpurgisnacht?" and "If so, why would Walpurgisnacht be its narrator?", etc, etc.

Of course one very obvious answer to all of these questions is "Walpurgisnacht is somehow Homura and the story she is retelling is the story of how she and Madoka came to be united as super-witches in 'heaven' and everything we take as 'real' in-universe is actually inside her labyrinth and has been a staged production from the beginning", but at this point, that's all heavily speculative at best. (It doesn't hurt that the white glare resembles a vinyl record in motion, records are a recurring motif that go round and round, hourglasses are associated with Homura, etc, etc-- but I digress.)

Another is, "Inu Curry thought it looked cool and it's something that may never be fully explained, just like the anime's ending with Homura in the desert and the black wings isn't really explained in Rebellion", which may be correct but would be disappointing in a series where every other detail means something. Also, after a close study of Rebellion, it's clear that Inu Curry doesn't generally do random details--anything that's there has a meaning, even if only to Inu Curry, even if it's not fully elaborated or expanded upon in the finished film or in the production notes. So that seems like it might have happened here as well with this scene--that it's meant to represent something that wasn't ultimately developed in the final version.

It could also be that Inu Curry believes that Homura and Walpurgisnacht are connected, but that doesn't necessarily translate to the script that Gen Urobuchi wrote and so remains ambiguous and unspoken visual subtext. Or this could be something from an earlier draft that stayed in while other things got changed, so its original meaning is no longer relevant.

However, given that in the Rebellion Production Note, Inu Curry associates Homulilly, the "Witch of the Mortal World/Near Shore" with "color" (used in a Buddhist sense to mean form/matter) and Madokami with its opposite, emptiness (which also uses the same character for sky, 空) then it's possible that Walpurgisnacht is the upside-down city and Gretchen is the hole in the sky. This is admittedly a convoluted chain of logic that only works if you assume Homura is Walpurgisnacht, but given that Inu Curry created both of these juxtapositions in the first place, I can't immediately rule it out. Symbols and motifs evolve and change over time (or could mean two different things at once) and Walpurgisnacht is certainly "upside down"; if her labyrinth does contain Mitakihara, well, that's an upside-down city right there. But like I said, this is all purely speculative at this point.

That said, Inu Curry was clearly thinking along similar lines at one point, because an early draft for Walpurgisnacht in the anime production note shows Walpurgisnacht as a "stage" with buildings on it:

(If you're wondering why it's a bubble, it's because in Inu Curry's first drafts, the labyrinths were all spheres with fixed dimensions, which did not carry over to the final version.)

In Walpurgisnacht's final design in the anime, the stage became a giant cog, while the original gears at the base were replaced by the doll body, but at one point, the witch was indeed a city, or a facsimile of one. Her labyrinth disappeared because she is ostensibly too strong to "need" one, but her official goal is to turn the entire world into a drama nonetheless--which, as I read it, means making the entire world her labyrinth and erasing the distinctions between "reality" and "fantasy" entirely.

And given that Rebellion features Homulilly, a witch whose labyrinth takes the form of a city, and that city is initially indistinguishable from the "real" thing--and ends with said labyrinth seemingly encompassing the entire universe--the stage is now set for more reality-bending revelations in Walpurgis no Kaiten from one or both entities with overlapping thematic motifs.

Of course, how much of any of this will end up carrying over to subsequent installments is an open question, but I'm definitely watching closely to see where this ends up going. Since the title and at least the first trailer for Walpurgis no Kaiten suggest that Walpurgisnacht will return and her mysteries will be revealed, I'm hoping we'll finally learn what this cryptic "shot "Prologue in Heaven" shot and its description actually mean--even though I'm also bracing myself in case it ultimately remains unexplained.

[lambmotifz]

thinking about how dean’s monstrosity is about enjoying violence and torturing people (mostly men) & sam’s monstrosity is about being inherently unclean and his body being used as a tool for use and abuse by others

[xxplastic-cubexx]

sequel to this ramble cause the way james talks bout the reduced cherik scenes throughout the xmen films in this video is making me want to kill people. 'we'll always have paris darling' what if we all blew up.

[da-janela-lateral]

And You and I

[spacedlexi]

the way the ericson group were at the outbreak just a bunch of troubled kids who made various mistakes or committed crimes and were judged by a system that punished and abandoned them instead of giving them the support and love they needed, are then nearly a decade later put into a situation where now they must judge a troubled child for the mistakes and crimes hes committed against them. and 5 to 3 vote them out 😭

[in-fair-verona-we-set-our-scene]

I do think Withers has a really subtle background character arc in bg3. Because at the start it is really clear he doesn't want to be here and he's being forced to clean up his mess by Helm and probably Ao. He doesn't really care either. Everything ends so nothing really matters, he'd like to go back to his paperwork now please.

Except he's stuck babysitting a bunch of traumatized dumbasses as they stumble into dealing with the most recent bad idea of his three fuck-up disappointments. So he brings them back when they die for a pittance, lets them pay for some vengeful ghosts to come back as flesh and blood to wreak bloody vengeance on the Absolute, and starts to... comment, on what's going on, as he follows them on their adventure.

Next thing you know Withers is like, doing things unprompted. He refuses to bring back Alfira (or Quil) but that's an act of compassion, keeping the poor girl from the Urge and letting her rest, his actual duty as a god of death. He tells Arabella to follow her destiny and does that thing to make her grief go away which honestly freaks me out but seems to be him trying to help her. He shows up at Moonrise and prompts us to consider why the Dead Three would want a bunch of soulless illithids that would give them no power, getting us to think of the big picture.

And by the end (especially if you do a resist!Durge playthrough) Withers is actively interfering and seems genuinely invested! He brings Durge back from the dead, free of their father! He encourages us before the final fight with the Netherbrain! He's real fucking smug that the Dead Three lost when he never seemed to care about the destruction they caused before! He throws a reunion party and many of his lines are genuinely touching or kind! Especially if a companion died permanently! He has tea with Gale's mom and Tara! He's like, socializing and shit! Yes, everything is temporary and we all die, but there's great beauty in fighting for that precious time and living it to the fullest!

Basically Wither's character arc is this meme, all because Helm made him go outside and touch grass.

[skrunksthatwunk]

yuri (ime)'s allergy to butches is kind of funny to me. the two genders of sapphic are long hair and bob

[m0e-ru]

who wants to talk about why the izanamis for some reason are just like the izanagis

[sleepyagent]

I want someone to love me quietly and loudly at the same time because Im an idiot

[lacking-hydration]

that postal movie is so inconsistently ok