#-with the ability to do what she wants. as that's kind of her motif from the start isn't it

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

ouh... mm unicorn fabby?? ouh... and um? earth pony solaris? 🥺? and erm um maybe even dragon zor? hello can anyone hear me hello

[sitp-recs]

i bet you've seen this one plenty of times before, but:

can you rec some drarry fics where jealousy is an important motif? it can be infidelity if they're an established couple, or just getting with someone else while the two of them are dancing around one another. would be great to see recs both where harry is jealous and where draco is jealous. i prefer a happy ending, but i'll be grateful either way.

since i'm here let me also say i admire what you do, your incredible ability to recall and sort through so many stories. this fandom is lucky to have you! <3

Hello friend! Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate it ❤️ here are some fics centered on jealousy. I did a few other lists for this trope over the years, you can find them here, here and here.

Jealous Harry:

Hourglass Heart by @bixgirl1 (E, 5k)

It only happened once — depending on how Harry counted.

Utterly Yours by @lazywonderlvnd (E, 6.5k)

Draco gets back at Harry for his late nights as an Auror by flirting with the new Arithmancy professor. Harry's not usually the jealous type, but he has his moments.

Intention by @the-sinking-ship (E, 7k)

Harry really ought to listen to whatever Ron is saying, but it becomes impossible to focus when a familiar figure across the pub curls his fingers around another man’s tie. And when that man leans in with a wolfish smile, Harry sees red, and all he can think is mine.

on the divine agony of longing by @flimsi (E, 25k)

Speaking to Draco is like poking a beehive - and Harry is a glutton for punishment. In which Harry makes some serious blunders and then tries to fix it. Somehow.

Around You Moves by ignatiustrout (E, 29k)

Harry knew Draco was gay when he invited him to move in. He’s never had a problem with this. So why does he feel so weird about Draco bringing men home all of a sudden?

Two to Lie and One to Listen by @fluxweeed (E, 84k)

It’s weird when Hermione announces that she and Ron have broken up. It’s weirder when this is followed by the revelation that she’s already moved on—and the new object of her affections is Draco Malfoy.

this heaven of mud by @garagepaperback (E, 94k)

A love story told in two somewhat unreliable parts, over six years. Featuring secret shagging, to friends, to the 'how is it fair for someone to say your name like that' sort of friends, to, finally, someone you could call a home.

Grounds for Divorce by Tepre (E, 122k)

Malfoy finds a coin. Harry finds a letter.

Jealous Draco:

Packing the Flat by marguerite_26 (E, 6k)

Months after their explosive break-up, Draco insists Harry return to their flat to remove his belongings.

Don't Stop It Before It Begins by mischieviolet (E, 19k)

“I don’t understand how this is of any concern to you, Malfoy,” Harry said, crossing his arms over his chest. Draco blinked at the use of his last name, something that Harry only used with him in jest these days. “I’m merely spending time with my Auror partner, who is from another country, and has no one here. I would do the same if it were you.” “It’s not me though, is it?” Draco all but shouted, unable to stop himself.

The Partner, The Rival and The Very Big Case by oceaxe (E, 24k)

When Harry and Nott are paired up to go undercover as fake boyfriends, Draco is disappointed not to get the assignment. It's just professional jealousy that's making him feel so upset. Obviously. He's engaged to be married to Astoria, after all.

(The Piece) I was Missing All Along by lauren3210 (E, 30k)

Draco and Harry have been flatmates and best friends for years, and Draco thinks life is just perfect that way. But when something comes along and threatens to take all that away, Draco has to decide what it is he really wants, and just how hard he's going to work to get it.

Make Me a Headline (I Want to Be That Bold) by @dictacontrion (E, 31k)

Draco never expected to see Harry doing that again. Especially with someone else, in a grainy photograph that's landed on his desk one Monday morning.

Nights With You by @the-sinking-ship (E, 58k)

Draco is mortified when moments prior to departing for the most anticipated destination wedding of the year, he is cruelly dumped. But when he learns that Harry Potter has, at long last, split with his horrible boyfriend, Draco is certain his luck has changed.

[rbvcdeluxe]

it has been mentioned quite some times by starkid and the langs themselves that cc could easily and may become part of a musical series, and, honestly, it fucking should be. There are many details in cc that are yet needed to be explained.

Each scene in cc felt smooth, but even with that, you could feel how there are more stories behind everything, behind each character and word. We need to know more about the house Ashmore. It's part of their name but, how is fire that much related to them? Is it a coincidence? is it part of the ashmore's story? Why are they ashmores? Why is ash and fire important? Ash to ash, talking about ella's mother death, danced, lady ashmore burned, “A story so old”, how old exactly?

An idea I have is that, if Ella didnt have any of that power or magic, she would have been also burned since she was considered to be mad and crazy. So I wonder, how old is the story of lady ashmore burned? was it only because of her mother? Because I wouldnt think so, if it was only of that it wouldnt be that old. But heres the catch, it could even be a generational thing or something that has happened multiple times, I'm not saying that always, but various times by women of the house ashmore.

We need to know about the fairy queen of sweet dreams, which did only appear once. And, the nine good gods? “Gods rise and fall, all of them false.” ???? Who are these Gods exactly? or the ones who the fairy saw? Are the one who have risen part of the nine? If false, how did they happen to be called Gods? In another note, what are the fairy's powers and how do they work? Why did she care about Ella specifically? why did she wanted to help on her desires of revenge? how did she know that kindness was not Ella's exact desire?

And questions just keep coming. Who is sir Preston? How close was Preston to Ella's father? Close enough to easily recognize and remember Ella? Why are pigs so recurring when it comes about the trolls? There are many things that are teased to us once or are tiny motifs in the show that are not explained barely or at all.

Besides, the narrator seems to be someone of his own, not just someone in a fourth dimension who is there just to do a story-tell. WHO is the narrator? what is he telling exactly for the audience and for the story? old stories? created stories in universe? Is the show narrated in the way where they put us inside of the story and he tells from in universe or is he speaking between the story and the fourth wall? If fourth dimension, does he have the ability to be part of the scene and talk to the audience?

We know that the songs are like, canonically happening in universe thanks to “I really like that song!” / “the sings over.”, so, the whippoorwills (talking about the animals themselves) seem to do have a small mention in the show, which could lowkey indicate or imply that the band is in fact important, i mean, theyre the band. The band is playing the songs happening IN universe. The whippoorwills are birds known for their singing, but mostly because their sing is considered to be omen of bad luck and even death. These birds are told that they sing when they feel the bad luck, when they know the terrible will happen soon.

I made a post about this before cc even came out bc I saw that the band was called whippoorwills, and thinking about it, it COULD be that the band do, in fact, have a connection with the narrator, the band and him are part of the same whatever it is they are, likely along Ragweed too.

And let's not forget about the map Starkid gave us. The gave us a damn map of the Lands that Are ans with that they could bring us even more about this story or different stories. Everything could be connected, happening at the same or different times.

Oh, the ballads it must hide.

[waffowo]

While Donna Noble will always be my favourite companion in NuWho, Clara will always be the most multi-faceted and complex (as of now). I think that a lot of divisiveness surrounding Clara stems from 5 common criticisms:

1. Clara’s characterisation in 7B and how Moffat treats her mostly as a mystery box first and character second.

2. The length of Clara’s tenure and how some may have been fatigued due to the many times “she should have left.”

3. The emphasis on Clara’s flaws in Series 8 and how it kind of paints her as unlikable over her Series 7B depiction as at least kind.

4. Clara’s departure in Hell Bent as something that ruins her ending in Face The Raven.

5. The belief of Clara as the most important character in the Doctors life inherently devaluing other companions.

I think while I can understand the reasons leading up to these criticisms, I also think that it does help to look back throughout the Moffat and RTD era as it does help explain a lot of these points imo.

Actually, the character Clara most prominently echoes is Rose. Rose, like Clara, helped the Doctor through a time of extreme emotional vulnerability (for 9th, Time War trauma) and developed a relationship of co-dependency with him (as 10th) which never really went away even after Doomsday. Clara had the luxury of time however, and has undergone more events with the Doctor (Impossible Girl, Trenzalore, 50th Anniversary etc) but also how 12th was undergoing an extreme identity crisis of figuring out whether he’s a good man post-Trenzalore and saving Gallifrey. Clara was the one who facilitated his character growth through the turbulence of the arc in instances like Dark Water, Death In Heaven, Mummy on The Orient Express, Kill The Moon, Last Christmas etc and would naturally result in the Doctor developing an extremely unhealthy reliance on Clara as being his “carer,” his anchor to being The Doctor (refer to her whole “Be A Doctor” spiel in the 50th Anniversary). Series 9 already heavily implied the Doctor’s willingness to engage with destructive measures by choosing to separate Clara and The Doctor almost every episode (Magicians Apprentice/Witch’s Familiar) as the stakes rose and cumulated in Face The Raven.

RTD has also once said when paying tribute to Moffat:

“And nestling at the heart of the show is Doctor Who's very own problem category, the Companion, a title inherently subordinate to the Man. Until Clara comes along!”

Imo, while poorly phrased, I think does also hit another nail on the head to explain how Clara can be so compelling to someone like me but also extremely polarising. RTD is talking less about the companion being “weaker” or “submissive” but how Clara is the NuWho companion that wishes to obliterate the boundaries between the power dynamic of companion/doctor. Series 8 for instances plays on the recurring motif of, “Do as you are told” which the Doctor firstly uses to threaten Clara to keep her safe. However, Clara actively retaliates by parroting the phrase back in an attempt to attain parity. This escalates to the events of Dark Water where she attempts to maintain control of her circumstances by forcing the Doctor to be on equal ground with her. What is so fascinating is that Clara while changing and emulating more of the Doctor’s heroism, she equally begins to absorb his flaws which intensify throughout Series 8-9. Clara becomes more deceitful, egotistical, reckless and cunning as she begins to become more and more like him. The means she lies to Danny, her ability to think more and more like him.

However, what people (fans and haters) also ignore is how nuanced the circumstances are. While Clara’s flaws become more heightened, it is also a fact that she wants to be like the Doctor because of his kindness and heroism. Episodes like Robots of Sherwood, Last Christmas or even Rings of Akhten reveal a lot about how Clara reveres the Doctor as a mythic and heroic figure. Clara’s attitudes towards the children in Forest Of The Night, Name Of The Doctor and Into The Dalek reveal that in spite of her ego and selfishness, she is someone who desires to help people. Thus, her desire to become the Doctor becomes more explainable. What a lot of people can’t really accept is that she can be both egotistical, reckless and kind at once. Her actions in Face The Raven were driven out of the fact that it came from a place of ignorance and impulsiveness (not stupidity, the Doctor would do something similar, it’s just that Clara did not have all the clues) in what she believed would be what the Doctor would do and that she was confident she could match the trickery of the Doctor, and yet it was also driven by her compassion towards Rigsby and her while impulsive, sincere desire to save her friend.

Clara is punished because of this, she forgets that she’s far too human. The Doctor is less breakable. She pays for it and as Ashildr says in Hell Bent:

“She died for who she was and who she loved. She fell where she stood. It was sad. And it was beautiful.”

She died due to her physical fragility, her ego, her ignorance, her impulsiveness/recklessness and yet she also died because she was too brave, she died like the Doctor, who she loved (literally look at how her arms were outstretched as though she was mid-regeneration and how the black smoke parallels the orange glow of regeneration). However, this leads to the fourth main criticism I prior stated, so how does one answer that in relation to her character?

The answer is what Clara does and what the Doctor says towards the end of Hell Bent. Clara after being extracted and is with the Doctor in the TARDIS, spies on him because she is instantly suspicious of his erratic behaviour. Again, Clara shows how much she has become like him, she immediately picks up that he is hiding something because she has begun to think like him. Of course, the Doctor was planning on wiping Clara’s memories similar to what he did to Donna. But what does Clara do? She immediately reverse the polarity of the device that the Doctor was going to use on her and challenges the Doctors actions. Clara states:

“Tomorrow’s promised to no one, Doctor. But I insist upon my past. I am entitled to that. It’s mine.”

Clara’s language indicates her assertiveness and also a kind of last hurrah in her game of parity. She is refusing to submit to the narrative of being reduced to merely a companion that the Doctor moves away from. But more importantly, the Doctor after pressing the device and is losing his memory, states:

“Run like hell because you always need to. Laugh at everything, because it’s always funny (…) Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends (…) Never eat pears. They’re too squishy. And they always make your chin wet. That one’s quite important. Write it down.”

I think on initial viewing when the show was airing, this wouldn’t make much sense but this really shows the crux of how Hell Bent completes Clara’s arc and the necessity of her resurrection. In Face The Raven, the Doctor tells Clara that she’s more breakable as she questions why she can’t be as reckless as him. However, now the Doctor is instead telling her what would later be repeated in Twice Upon A Time, his regeneration speech. In his eyes, Clara has succeeded in graduating from the Magicians Apprentice and into becoming the Magician herself. He’s instructing her how to properly be The Doctor. As I said, Clara was also motivated by her desire to be kind when she engaged in her reckless gambit but what is so wrong about the desire to be kind? And why should Clara be punished for it? Thus, while Clara MUST die, her final act of kindness at the end of her arc enables the Universe to allow for Clara’s final transformation into the Doctor.

Clara is still dead, it is an unchanged historical event. However, to challenge the status quo and allow for Clara’s ascension, Clara becomes a fairy tale herself. Her body is caught in a permanent form of stasis, signalling her departure from the limits of her physicality (subverting her physical fragility) but also as seen through her last words to the Doctor:

“You said memories become stories when we forget them. Maybe some of them become songs.”

Clara has successfully become what she admired, a myth, a fable. She has become a symbol in a story, a story that would go on to have an infinite number of other stories. She has become the leaf she raises to the monster in the Rings of Akhten, she sails off into narrative ambiguity but also infinity. Clara is so polarising because she challenges the definition of what it means to be The Doctor on a pure metatextual level. It’s a logical progression from the introspection of the question from the Doctor himself in Series 8. To want to resist, I argue, is natural.

I could explore further about her adrenaline addiction in Mummy On The Orient Express or these traits I raised explored in Flatline which I may do another day, but I hope I have provided a new perspective on Clara Oswald.

[lakesbian]

🎭 Taylor

🎭 A headcanon about what they lie about

oh man there are so many good Taylor Liar Moments. my favorite is without doubt when theo is like heeey whatcha got there and she's like [standing next to tarp covering a Fate Worth Than Death Body Horrored guy screaming in eternal agony] "a recording :)." she lies about a lot of shit obviously but i particularly love this nasty habit she has where it's like. she's capable of doing and witnessing terribly violent things for her Greater Good, and she's aware that many other people are not, so she drags them into doing those violent things by lying to or manipulating them. & the thing is that she genuinely views this as a kindness--she decides that the shit needs to get done no matter what, and then takes the stance that (and i'm paraphrasing something she says as weaver here) it's kinder to manipulate people into doing it instead of arguing them into being on-board so they can still have a cleaner conscience after. or she decides that it's kinder + more effective to hide aspects of the violence from them (e.g sundancer not knowing there were ppl still in echidna and never having to find out she committed a few more murders, theo not knowing that a gray boy victim was under the tarp and being spared the demoralizing horror) to reduce some of the trauma of the event & enable them to complete their part of it more competently.

as the book goes on she gains increasing reputation and respect as someone you want to put in charge if you want to get everyone out of a situation alive--not out clean, or out without some incredibly ethically questionable shit happening--but out alive. the undersiders immediately put her in charge during the s9k chase, the wards immediately put her in charge during behemoth, she's requested by the prt for her "administrative abilities" (wildbow is NOT subtle with the QA motifs towards the end it rocks) during khonsu, etc. and it's very textual that the reason she's such a capable leader--often a miserable one to be around, but someone who will drag you all through the muck and blood to crawl home alive--is because she's manipulative as shit! she lies about So Much! she's explicitly acknowledged as being useful in this really fucked up driven way, with this uncanny ability to want something So Bad that she finds a way to drag everyone else into cooperating for it whether they want to or not. forgot the exact context but at one point she's literally compared to having some cult leader ass capabilities for shoving people into doing shit. it rocks. the PRT keeps pointing her at problems and then being utterly unnerved about how she solves them. she's like if cauldron was a weird girl that everyone acknowledges is super fucked up but keeps around anyway because Someone has got to be fucked up enough to do what needs doing.

[androxys]

Androxys Reviews... "I Know What You Did Last Crisis"

Okay, I don’t normally do reviews for these sorts of specials, but I love Halloween so I thought I’d give it a go. I think my two favorite stories were “Dearly Departed” and “God’s Chosen Man,” and my two least favorite were “A Constant State of Healing” and “Crisis Obscura.” I think that as a Halloween special, some of these stories did a better job of playing with the theme–there were a lot of good horror movie homages and trope acknowledgement! And then there were stories that didn’t really engage with that. Full spoilers for "I Know What You Did Last Crisis" below the cut.

Batgirl in “What Kind of Hero?”

Set during Crisis on Infinite Earths #4, featuring Barbara Gordon as Batgirl! As the wall of antimatter progresses, Barbara goes to save a family from Killer Croc. Over the course of the chase, however, it comes out that Croc is lashing out because of his fear, and Barbara comforts him. 

If DC is so deadset on putting Barbara in a Batgirl outfit, I have to admit, this is a good way of doing it. It's Barbara, and it's appropriate. She was a good Batgirl! I just hate how much of the desire to see her as Batgirl comes from a place of wanting to move past or erase Oracle. Seeing the old costume is fun too. I love the blue and grey and yellow. In terms of other contextual calls, Barbara wonders about the sewers being a job for Supergirl, but comments “Linda’s busy,” referencing the fact that 1) this Supergirl is Linda Lee, and 2) they’re friends! If this is set during the events of COIE #4, that means Babs and Linda were talking not too long ago. I think it's a sweet callback to their friendship.

Ultimately, it’s a nice notion to suggest that Batgirl is about not being alone, but I’m not sure that’s what Batgirl is specifically. I wish this story had one more page, but so it goes.

Dr. Light in “A Constant State of Healing”

I’ll confess, I don’t know the Millennium event as well as the other Crises represented here. Mahunters came down, pretended to be humans, etc. I certainly don’t remember them being so gory and… evil.

One of the Manhunters has taken an interest in what’s inside humans, in a spiritual sense, and tries to find it by taking them apart in a literal way. Dr. Light defends STAR Labs by powering through her own pain (and fear of the dark) to defeat the Manhunter. This story is much more interested in the horror motif of the anthology, with the Manhunter being a ripped-from-the-slashers killer taking the skin of his victims. I don’t feel this one required being set during Millennium, but it’s ultimately a decent horror story.

BoP in “Dearly Departed”

The Final Night! The Birds of Prey! This is an era with which I am very familiar, and it is delightful to see Dinah in her mid-90s costume. Black Canary is tracking missing people as Oracle is coordinating things during the Final Night, and she comes across Scarecrow and Silver Banshee. Canary gets doused with some souped up fear gas hallucinates Ollie’s corpse chasing her, begging her for help. She ends up working through her fear and takes down the Banshee, sending her to hell or something. That part wasn’t totally clear.

Okay, I really liked this one. And it’s tooooootally definitely biased. Whereas I didn’t think the previous Dr. Light story had to be set during Millenium (and to an extend, the Batgirl Crisis story didn’t have to be Crisis, but rather any general big threat during Barbara’s career) I think this story takes good advantage of the timing. Ollie had only been dead for 13 real-life months when Final Night first came out, so it’s very recent for Dinah! He’s a reasonable thing for her to hallucinate. It’s not incredibly Halloween-ish, but there is a bit of a horror thread there. Pairing her up against Silver Banshee is a good matchup as two “sonic screamers” but Dinah’s fighting ability and situational awareness are the way she wins. This one was really solid. 

JSA in “At the Point of Vanishing”

This is a JSA story about Zero Hour, so some of us already know where we’re headed. The JSA heads to the Vanishing Point, the place where time ends, to try to help. Extant is there and does what he does, giving his Zero Hour fight with the JSA a Halloween inspired flair. Extant is the monster that can’t be stopped, has the fakeout death, all the tropes of the scary movie monster.

This one is sweet for how it features Sandman’s internal monologue–he’s reflecting on whether the JSA still has a place, or whether they’ve still got what it takes, and they ultimately do! But this one lands somewhere between bottom of the barrel or cream of the crop. This one didn’t do anything for me, I don’t know.

Nightwing in “Crisis Obscura”

Ugh. I saw the author and felt the bad attitude seep into my body instantly. I got way too heated from a single story in an anthology by a man who would kick his heels to know he made a hater mad. Anyway. TL;DR, this story is Dan DiDio being petty, It isn’t even scary for the Halloween theme of the book.

Here’s the gist: Nightwing is tracking someone who doesn’t exist. He sees shards of reality depicting the events of Infinite Crisis. It’s revealed that Superboy–Conner Kent–lured Dick here because Dick was supposed to die during Infinite Crisis, subsequently uniting all the heroes and putting an end to every future Crisis. The problem is, Dick didn’t die. So the universe keeps having Crises to try to kill Dick and set things right. Conner throws Dick into the shards of reality (the ones Superboy-Prime punched) to die an infinite series of deaths and make everything perfect. The story ends with reality having changed–Superboy is now in a relationship with Cassandra Sandsmark again, they’re in domestic bliss, and Batman!Tim has dropped by for a visit. Conner regrets what he did, but ultimately feels it was necessary.

Okay. So. For those who don’t know, Dan DiDio wanted Nightwing to be the one to die during Infinite Crisis instead of Conner Kent. This is him getting his way, two decades later, and I found this whole story incredibly petty. Narratively, how is Superboy moving without Oracle seeing him on any of her monitors? Maybe it’s super speed or vibrating, who knows. How does she not see him tear the warehouse open? Maybe it’s the reality shards, who knows. How does Conner know it was “ordained that [Nightwing’s] death would unite all heroes,” make the Trinity step aside, and end all future Crises? Also, since when does Conner talk like that? And, my big question, DOES DAN DIDIO HONESTLY THINK THAT CONNER KENT WOULD KILL DICK GRAYSON? The answer may surprise you. Meta-narratively, DiDio seems to be relishing in reminding everyone that he wanted to kill Dick and finally gets to do it. Cassie gets to say “None of this is your fault. You were never meant to die.” Conner ends the story by saying that we should all just move on. Neither of these strike me as particularly subtle, but they sure are passive aggressive! 

I take issue with the idea that killing Dick makes a perfect world. It sure wouldn’t be perfect for Bruce! Or Barbara! Or Tim! Or Donna! Or, or, or… the list goes on. If the argument is hinging on the idea that Dick dying makes the Trinity step aside and new heroes step up… that’s not exactly in line with DiDio’s feelings towards legacy characters. That’s why he wanted to kill Dick in the first place. And if Dick dying is necessary to end all future Crises… that’s pre-emptively setting up Dick’s death to be undermined and cheapened when the next Crisis inevitably rolls around. This story, so smug in its meta-commentary, handily ignores that there will always be another Crisis. Those events sell comics! DiDio was a DC exec, so it’s not like this fact is exactly lost on him. Of course, all of this is in the bottle of this single story, so it’s not like it matters, but. God. I hate this story.

And besides. We all know that any world with Batman!Tim is decidedly not a perfect one.

Scarecrow in “Jump Scare”

Okay. My pulse is back down. I’m normal again. I’m back to reviewing. This was a good Scarecrow story! It’s set during Blackest Night, but it’s just about Scarecrow terrorizing a couple who saw a horror movie together. He reflects on the nature of fear (as he is wont to do) and is chosen by a Yellow Lantern ring for his ability to instill great fear.

I don’t think this one ties into Blackest Night all that well, if I’m being honest, but it is a solid Crane story. He’s doing his thing, it follows the formula, bing bang boom. I liked the artistic depiction of showing the guy hallucinating as being in black and white while the rest of the world was still in color–it led from the classic horror movie motif well.

Lex Luthor in “God’s Chosen Man”

Okay. I’m writing this now before I’ve read it: I have high hopes for this one just by looking at the art of the opening page. I want this to be good.

This one is set during Final Crisis, and is reflecting on Lex Luthor’s doubts about Libra as he tries to get the Secret Society to swear allegiance to him and his power. As Lex ruminates, talking with the other villains, a hallucinated Superman follows behind, serving as Lex’s inner voice. Of doubt? Of conscience? As Libra and his masters conquer the earth with Anti-Life, Lex has the realization that Libra serves Darkseid, putting the pieces together that his Superman has been trying to spell out for him. Lex decides that he will be the one to defeat Darkseid, and Superman begins to laugh at him, wearing Lex’s face and mocking him for his arrogance. Lex admits that he needs Superman’s help to defeat Darkseid, and begins to work with Sivanna to plan their betrayal.

Okay, there’s a lot I love here. I love the art. I love that in his mind, Lex is dressed like the Silver Age. I love Lex stating “I don’t believe in gods. But I know plenty about aliens pretending to be divine.” But mostly, I love that this is good character work! It gets into the way Lex thinks, and it plays off his obsession with Superman, his intellect, and the fact that he’s smart enough to reflect on his obsessions with Superman. It provides greater context for what was happening in Final Crisis (which is always appreciated) and sets the stage for his heroic turn against Libra. It’s not especially Halloween-y, so far as these go, but I think it’s good comic work.

Midnighter in “Violent Tendencies”

During Flashpoint, in the world of Flashpoint, Lucas Trent is watching as the Amazonian/Atlantean war continues to devastate the world. Rather than stew on politics, Midnighter goes out to a Halloween party! There, he overhears talk of a serial killer with a victims list including some of DC’s best fighters (at least in the real world) and ignores it. At the party, Pyg roofies Midnighter and takes his home, ostensibly to help him. Of course, it’s Pyg, and he starts trying to kill Trent to turn him into a doll. However, Midnighter reveals he was faking inebriation, having actually been hunting Pyg himself. He kills Pyg, declaring that people can make the world a little better with blood on their hands.

This was a good Halloween spin. It had Midnighter hiding from the knife wielding serial killer, and it even had the classic connection between sex and death that these sorts of slashers trade in. Of course, Midnighter subverts it, but so it goes. I think it’s interesting that they set this during the Flashpoint event–Flashpoint #5 was the first time we saw Midnighter in a main DC comic, having previously been in the Wildstorm universe/Earth-50. I think this is a case of wanting to use Midnighter as a character but not wanting to play off any Crises outside of the New Earth era (1986-2011). Which, this accomplishes, but raises my bigger question… why are all the Crises in this era? I personally, as a fan, am served by this decision. I love New Earth! DC seems to recognize that fans like New Earth, given how much of Rebirth and Infinite Frontier were about bringing some NE stuff back. 

I think it must have been a conscious decision to limit the scope like this–I’m sure there are horror opportunities in events like Convergence or Forever Evil or Dark Crisis. Didn’t we have like one million evil Batmen ripe for horror? Maybe DC thinks we’re too close to these, or burned out (or just burned) from those events. Who’s to say.

[pterobat]

A few Hellaverse things, Helluva Boss version:

**It might be a hard sell for your adult cartoon to star two single gay nomhuman dads, and I’m glad Helluva Boss went for it.

**But while I enjoy Helluva Boss becoming the Stolitz Show, I don’t like the slide towards making Stolas virtually innocent; it’s just not necessary for making a character sympathetic. I’m still keeping the faith that Stolas is also meant to be at fault for how rocky things became between him and Blitz but the show’s execution has made me paranoid that it will take the path of least resistance, as it did with Stella.

**I knew Stella would be a shallow antagonist from her first speaking scene, but I expected her to be enjoyably bitchy. I didn’t know how hard they’d go, where not only is she evil, but she’s also incredibly stupid, not at all fun, and has her brother pulling the strings—even Mammon is at least fun.

I really hope that the intention is not what that the fandom has latched onto: that Stella’s relationship to Stolas is a powerful expression of the way men can be abused and that everything between them must be viewed with utter seriousness.

**In fact, a major problem I have with Helluva Boss is that you can never tell when a one-off comical moment is going to be retroactively taken seriously despite the initial comedic framing. Like, just with “Ghostfuckers”, Blitz’s visions of trauma included the nutkick from Loona in “Seeing Stars” which it was framed for comedy initially. The fire in “Loo Loo Land” was played for laughs but now a vision of toasty Millie haunts Blitz.

With all that happening it’s no wonder people have, say, the interpretation of Stella mentioned above, or, say, Stolas’s butler getting tossed around as weighty evidence of Stella’s abuse instead of a Looney Tunes gag. Who knows, it might be.

It also kills a lot of the momentum in Octavia’s anguish, if all she has to do to improve her life is to understand Stella is irredeemable and Stolas was 100% justified. Not all of the momentum, but most. I’m still holding onto the faith that Stolas won’t be a creator’s pet, but my interest in Octavia’s story is tanking.

It still works in the Hellaverse sometimes—the foreshadowing with RoboFizz was a good example, and in general it’s a good beat to strive for. Comedic moments should often derive from characterization and perspectives should shift with the telling. But again, when it’s done badly it feels overindulgent.

**So do the many instances of comical Hellaverse characters having secret angst, witj all their quirks being tied to their tragic backstory. While this is delicious when done right, it’s difficult to *get* right and often feels like wanting to tell every kind of story with only one character. Blitz is the most successful example. Not 100%, but in the lead.

**I’m still against the fan theory that Blitz is part incubus—because Tilla was tall and he banged Verosika and has Stolas pining—because not everything in a story needs to have a detailed explanation and boy do I hate fantasy bio-essentialism.

Especially when the show is trying to push back against that, sort of. If Blitz has a "special" genetic background then his ability to run his own business from Hell’s lowest tier turns bleak.

Besides, only “Apology Tour” shows Blitz had a lot of bedpost notches (and it doesn’t prove his heritage and if it offers insight should have been mentioned before).

But then again, I didn’t think Striker was a hybrid because imp appearances are so varied that I expected the artists had just further bent the rules and stylized one of them to fit a western motif/make a Rango reference. I still think it might undermine Striker’s issues with class and superiority but maybe they’ll surprise me.

(And Striker wasn’t nerfed, because it’s not a surprise that the guy who sang "Sweet Victory” has a statue of himself with a boner. And pretty much no Hellaverse character is played entirely straight.)

…and I also didn't want Moxxie to secretly “not” be from Wrath because not fitting in where you’re born is a solid story beat, but look how that turned out. Thanks for keeping the clarification confined to tweets by the way, love that.

**Also, much as I love Richard Horvitz, he doesn’t make for a threatening mob boss.

**And I have to say that evil dads bother me less than sainted, dead mothers.

**Though I think his mom enjoyed Moxxie learning to shoot--and *I* enjoy it when Moxxie shows he has ego to spare instead of being a woobie. I stick to my interpretation that he’s fine with the shooting and killing as long as it’s the right people, and the contrasting parts of his character make him more appealing.

**Shame about the Millie problem. I’m glad she's finally getting focus, and I hope it’s not because the fandom had to point it out, though production time makes that unlikely

**I wish we could have directly seen Blitz and Verosika’s dating life and breakup. You can infer all of it, but if it’s such a big thing, well…

**”Succubi” becoming a gender-neutral term in the fandom is very odd, unless it’s the inverse of “mankind” and refers to the collective species as well as the women alone, but then you have people saying “male succubus” and uh.

**I love Asmodeus' design, and how it translates the artwork from the Lesser Key of Solomon into the series’ style.

But it’s hypocritical of Ozzie to say lust isn’t about force when he’s got succubi and incubi around, and because Helluva Boss often takes the path of least resistance he probably isn't intended as hypocritical, or even a Screwtape Letters bit where things are still sinful even if there’s no immediate or overt damage.

HOWEVER, I’m reluctant to come down too hard on the issue because of my Being genuinely upset at Ozzie's line and that the Hellaverse demons aren’t “demonic” enough brings out my inner contrarian because of the moralistic dimension to their feelings: that the concept of demons and the danger must be treated with respect and fear or it’s somehow immoral. If Ozzie’s words make those sorts of people mad, then I can't be too put out at the softening of demons.

Yet, it was oddly satisfying for “Ghostfuckers” to include a demon who was actually torturing humanity when it couldn’t be written off as "fun" (like Verosika's crew) or adult cartoon shenanigans (like IMP).

(Though it was kinda goofy to theorize that Leviathan, leader of the Envy ring, would suddenly be the antagonist of one sleazy hotel just because said antagonist was aquatic.)

(Stolas in “Truth Seekers” perfectly represents how satisfying it is to show these goofy abrasive characters can be actually scary hellspawn, but the other full-demon forms are a bit of a letdown.)

**Meanwhile, Beelzebub is great. The unapologetic self-indulgence of making her both a sparkledog and a homage to the creator's own Die Young video is just incredible. I don't think there's meta-commentary involved in choosing Gluttony to do this with, but it's a pleasant coincidence.

**And yeah, Mammon is a hate sink and the most sinful Sin in a way that sticks out, but he’s _fun_, and way more effective at being both a comedic character and also a personal threat to the characters/ representative of a societal ill than Stella is or might be.

However, “Two Minutes Notice” would be more satisfying with a few more episodes making clear how shitty he is to work for and how insecure Fizz is. Introducing and then solving the problem in the same episode is too rushed.

In general, the newer sinner designs of HB, following the generic Ohio sinner and Ms. Mayberry, are better at communicating the idea that a sinner’s form suggests their past life and death. Rita is a particular favorite.

**Each Ring having a color theme and themed species is also great stuff, and so is the choice to have so many hybrids and make Hellhounds resemble all domestic dog breeds.

**The imp variation and trans imps are also neat, though I still am confused why viewers think AFAB imp horns have "thin white stripes" rather than those "stripes" suggesting goat-like horn grooves as they do in every other cartoon.

**I realize the Hellaverse is a place where all nonhumans act like 21st century Americans, but I love it when it flirts with xenofiction, like the redneck imps of Wrath looking down on the use of guns.

[drmobiusvanch]

shadows of the erdtree spoiler meta

I think fundamentally Shadow of the Erdtree-as one could guess from it focusing on Miquella-is about love. Specifically, the Remembrance bosses.

Miquella is a truly altruistic person. He really wants to help the downtrodden, to atone for the Golden Order's wrongs, and is deeply empathetic-on a societal scale. On a personal scale, he does love Radahn and very possibly Malenia as well, but he uses people, violates their wills to make them do what he wants, and cares absolutely nothing for Radahn's consent or what happens to people after he's done with them.

Miquella, IMO, is set up very pointedly as a foil to Messmer in his relationships. Messmer doesn't have as much focus as Miquella, but what we do know appears to put him in direct opposition. He's a sadistic, bigoted war criminal-admittedly, doing the war crimes as a literal order to do his mother's dirty work so it wouldn't be associated with her-who also genuinely mourns the loss of his comrades in arms who turned on him and cared for Radahn and Gaius as friends to the point that it's mentioned Radahn saw him as an elder brother. His relationship with Rellana is also something of a foil to Miquella/Radahn-while Miquella forced Radahn into the relationship, Rellana was the one who chose to join Messmer even though there was no gain in it and her blades and the description puts them on a paired, equal level as opposed to Miquella riding a zombified Radahn.

But again-while these themes of relationships and love are key, doomed relationships are an ongoing motif. Obviously, there's the Mohg->Miquella->Radahn doomed triangle, where someone with the ability to compel love never really knew what it was, but loved as best as he could the man who treated him with kindness-but there's also Rellana knowing that Messmer is a terrible person and doomed to eternal suffering and choosing to throw away her birthright to follow him even knowing that she can never give him succor, Midra forcing himself to continue living in absolute agony solely because it's the last thing that the woman he loved asked of him, even Onze and Labirith, two minor bosses who give on defeat the spirit ashes of the people who loved them-in Onze's case, the apprentice who refused to leave him in solitary confinement even when Onze ordered him to; in Labirith's, the fellow warrior whose loss drove her into despair.

Very fitting for a DLC where Miquella is the main character.

[masterqwertster]

Okay, last little list here:

Bells Hells Legendary Pokémon

I already gave everyone a minimum of one Legendary in the original team post, so here's the list of all the Legendaries I think fit each member of Bells Hells (the Legendaries from the set teams will be included)

Chetney

Zacian- look, it's a wolf that's set to shank a bitch. Tell me that doesn't vibe with Chetney

Zeraora (Shiny)- kind of were-beast in shape. Shiny to match Chetney's own white fur

Kubfu/Urshifu (Single Strike Style)- more were-fuzzies for Chet. Single Strike Style because Chetney's the type to one-and-done it if he can

Okidogi- werewolf-ish Pokémon for Chet!

Orym

Shaymin- more friendly flowers for Orym, and the Sky Form is a little fighter like him

Virizion- grass blade Pokémon who protects others

Keldeo (Resolute form, Shiny)- it's a little sword guy (pony) like Orym. And shiny makes it green and Resolute Form because Orym knows what he wants

Kartana- a little blade guy for a little swordsman

Zacian- noble sword Pokémon for a noble little swordsman

Zamazenta- noble shield Pokémon for a protective little guy with a treasured shield

Fearne

Moltres- a burning phoenix Pokémon that Fearne worries will take on the Galarian Form that her Bad Future Self had

Entei- fluffy fire dog Pokémon

Celebi- little onion fairy and that travels through time for a fey that lived in wonky time

Cresselia- Fearne is lightly Ruidusborn and this is a gentler moon Pokémon

Reshiram- fiery semi-wolf Pokémon for our fire faun

Xerneas- it's a Fairy-type, deer are kind of close to goats, and Xerneas has a minor moon motif

Zarude- grass monkey for the druid with a monkey

Munkidori- another monkey to mother for Fearne

Imogen

Spectrier- Legendary horse that comes in Imogen's two colors: purple and red

Raikou- it's a thunderstorm Pokémon for a gal who claims she is the storm

Deoxys- an alien Pokémon for a girl connected to alien moon people

Cresselia (Shiny)- Imogen gets moon Pokémon. Shiny for purple coloration

Thundurus (Shiny)- another lightning Pokémon for our electric sorceress. Shiny for purple coloration

Keldeo (Ordinary Form)- little unicorn for the horse girl

Lunala (Shiny)- literal red moon Pokémon when shiny

Regieleki- more eletrical Pokémon for Imogen

Glastrier- another horse Pokémon for the horse girl

Laudna

Marshadow- it's shadow theme matches Laudna's Shadow Sorcerery. And Laudna does spend time trying to copy the Ladies of Whitestone…

Giratina- considering Delilah took her soul to a reverse/shadow realm, and that's the kind of place Giratina is from, it seems a good fit

Darkrai- a nightmare Pokémon for a woman who loves nightmares

Yveltal- a Pokémon that absorbs life essences, much like Hunger of the Shadows does the same for Laudna and Delilah

Calyrex- because it's the Pokémon that can bring Glastrier and Spectrier under control, much like how Laudna is a great deal of Imogen's control

FCG

Magearna- a man-made clockwork Legendary for the Aeormaton

Genesect- it's ancient and modified by people to be a killing machine, just like FCG

Miraidon- robot-like Legendary for the robit

Ashton

Cosmog- suddenly appeared after Ashton got galaxy-brained because it's a little galaxy guy from another (higher?) dimension. It's Ashton's innocent baby who doesn't know how to stay in the damn pokéball and not reveal his soft side

Regigigas- this is the big titan Pokémon, hauling continents and shit. Not to mention that the Slow Start ability reflects how Ashton had a titan shard for twenty years before they really got it to do anything spectacular

Regirock- if Ashton gets one Regi, it's Regigigas for titan shit. But Regirock is definitely Earth Elemental vibes and so also goes to Ashton

Dialga- one of Ashton's dunamancy domains is time and this is a Pokémon lord of time

Palkia- one of Ashton's dunamancy domains it space and this is a Pokémon lord of space

Terrakion (Shiny)- it's tough and it doesn't like bullies, sounds pretty Ashton to me. Shiny because I think Ashton would like the pop of the shiny palette

Zygarde- Ashton is sort of split into a million pieces by the half-beacon brain, and Zygarde's 100% Form is kind of titan-ish

Diancie- another crystal and rock Pokémon. Also goes a little bit with the Empress of Earth vibes, or rather the Empress's heir

Hoopa- a Pokémon that switches between a Confined and Unbound Form, kind of like Ashton's normal and demi-titan modes. And it messes around with space like Ashton. Also, normal genasi are sometimes/often sired by elemental genies and this Pokémon is based on genies

Koraidon- ancient earth splitter for the earth titan's blood (also mirrors FCG having Miraidon)

[orionsangel86]

Subtext Glorious Subtext! A Dreamling on Netflix analysis in The Sandman - Part 6

1889

What love story is complete without a dramatic break up in the rain?

In the Sandman comic (and therefore also the Audible audiobook) this century starts the same way as the show, with Dream being accosted by Lushing Lou and that hilariously historically accurate yet mildly disturbing line “give us a hard ride on your cream stick”.

In the show, Hob overhears this and comes to meet Dream and to “save” him from Lou by giving her money to buy herself a drink. He apologises to Dream for her behaviour towards him.

This doesn’t happen in the comic. Dream simply walks past Lou and meets Hob where he is already sat in the tavern.

A minor change, but one that adds to the scene in a few ways:

It indicates that Hob was paying greater attention to the door waiting for Dream - in the show, he was more eager to meet him again.

It shows a level of care on Hob’s part to ensure that Dream has a comfortable visit. He overhears the run-in in the comic, but makes no effort to get involved. In the show, he takes a greater interest in ensuring Dream is not insulted or met with aggression - a follow on from his clear concern and care for Dream that was first implied in 1789. Basically, he has once again come to Dream’s defence.

He apologises for Lou’s behaviour. Which indicates that he feels a level of responsibility towards Dream and anything that may happen to him whilst he is visiting Hob.

All these minor elements add up to indicate that show!Hob at this point already sees Dream as someone to care for, defend, and feel responsible for on their visits. He has placed himself in the position of protector and companion to Dream. This is an easy interpretation to get from their dynamic in the show, as evidenced by the thousands of fanfictions on AO3 in which Hob is portrayed as rescuer, liberator, saviour, knight, or simply carer of Dream (all roles that I find difficult picturing comic!Hob taking on, because he is such a selfish hedonistic character in the comic).

The conversation in the show takes an interesting diversion from the comic, in which Dream defends Lou from Hob's joking insults about her. It shows a level of care for people that comic!Dream doesn't have (at least at this point). It also indicates an ability which I can't recall comic!Dream ever using. He reveals the tragedies of her past prompting Hob to once again ask about Dream. Where Comic!Hob is too self absorbed to even bother to ask more about Dream at this point, instead going off on tangents about other immortals he has met, Show!Hob is entirely focused on Dream. Show!Hob is persistent here, he doesn't let Dream change the subject, we can tell that by this century, he is getting fed up of being kept in the dark about the identity of his mysterious stranger, someone it is clear he is growing feelings for even without knowing his name.

When Dream once again changes the subject to talk about Lady Johanna and the task she did for him, unlike his comic counterpart, Hob is wistful and sad when he says "That might be the only thing I've learned after 500 years."

The show uses Hob's desire to know more about Dream as a repeating motif throughout their meetings, in a way the comics never did. It makes us as the audience root for Hob and want Dream to reveal who he is. This is another clever way the show is encouraging the audience to invest in their relationship. The show is telling us this is important. Watch how Dream holds back, how he refuses to reveal anything. There is a subtextual message here which encourages the audience to expect an eventual reveal, even if we do not see it. As I mentioned in part 5, Dream revealling his name to Hob has become a Chekov's gun of a kind, and Hob will get his name in the show, even if we as the audience don't see it on screen.

Hob comments that "people are always better than you think they are." and then jokes that he's not like that, that he is still the same as ever. and he winks at Dream as he says it, causing Dream to smile and state that he thinks Hob has changed. It's subtle, but the exchange shows how they have grown at ease with one another, and arguably this could be considered flirting, depending on whose watching. I quite like the change here not to bring up the slave trade again. I think the way Hob lets out that shuddered breath and talks about the mistakes he has made is enough in this version of the story. We aren't forgiving him for this. But the tone isn't right in this particular scene, which instead keeps the focus on the building buds of friendship that are clearly growing between these two extremely flawed people, before it all comes crumbling down.

There is a brilliant meta with full gifsets from @mimisempai here which breaks down all of the subtle expressions as Dream and Hob have this conversation, where for a tiny moment Dream appears to relax and look almost proud of Hob for growing into a better man. They exchange gorgeous shy smiles and for a moment the scene becomes intense, as if the characters are standing on a precipice waiting for something to happen.

But then it all goes wrong. The preceding scene, and the preceding centuries, have clearly had an impact on Hob, and he views Dream as someone important, someone special to him. It is on the foolish hopes of an overt optimist that he pushes Dream beyond his comfort levels. He proposes that they are friends, he dares to make an assumption about Dream, he calls him lonely.

He is, of course, totally correct.

But Dream is not at a point yet where he is ready to hear such things. In the comic, this plays out slightly differently. Hob rambles as follows:

But in the show, the conversation goes like this:

Dream: I think perhaps you've changed.

Hob: Well, I may have learnt a bit from my mistakes, but it doesn't seem to stop me from making them.

Dream: *Smiles proudly giving Hob some extra confidence*

Hob: I think its you that's changed.

Dream *smile immediately drops because the thought of changing is something he is soooo not ready to accept* How so?

Hob: *Leaning in, going for it* I think I know why we still meet here century after century. It's not because you want to know if I'm ready to seek death, I don't think I'll ever seek death. By now you know that about me. So I think you're here for something else.

Dream: And what might that be?

Hob: Friendship? I think you're lonely.

Dream: You dare...

Hob: No, look, I'm not saying-

Dream: You DARE suggest one such as I might need your companionship?

Hob: *with shakey breath because this clearly means so much to him* Yes. Yes I do.

Dream: Then I shall take my leave of you and prove you wrong.

Sorry for writing out the whole transcript here but its important to see how the conversation was changed to be much more intimate and personal. In particular I find it veeeery interesting how instead of Hob saying "I've seen people, and they don't change, not in the important things." we get both Dream AND Hob stating that they believe the other HAS changed.

I know its only a minor line, but given the grander changes to the netflix show and the tone of the show in particular, this particular line change feels very intentional.

I love that as Dream goes to leave, Hob tried to move closer, to reach out to him, it indicates just how much he wants to build a connection with Dream and how much he cares, and it makes it all so much more intense than the comic.

In the comic, its interesting that Dream focuses on the "you called me lonely" part as the main insult here. It is the show that gives bigger weight to "you dared to suggest we may be friends, therefore I am going to PROVE YOU WRONG." Which at least on a subtextual level, can be read to indicate a fear of developing feelings and forming relationships. It's also worth noting that the show removed any indication that Dream considers Hob to be "mortal" now.

Then we get to the most dramatic moment in the entire MoGF sequence. A classic romantic trope that we have all seen done countless times before in countless love stories between countless couples, and yet here it is again between Dream and Hob.

As Dream storms off, of course Hob runs out to follow him (I particularly love how in the show, Dream doesn't grab his coat or hat when he leaves like he does in the comic, which leaves it open as to what happened to them - and I love how in fanfiction its revealled that Hob kept hold of them over the years as the only items of Dream's he had along with the picture from 1689). In the show, the rain falls heavily over both of them further emphasising the heightened emotions and dramatic situation - we all love a dramatic rain soaked break up after all! :P

I brought this scene in 1889 up in this meta which is a collaborative analysis of Hob and Dream's relationship, and it is also emphasised in this meta by @academicblorbo, but it is worth mentioning again because of how much of an impact this particular change has:

There's a big difference between a fairly nonchalant lean against the door in the comic and the visually upset, rainsoaked Hob from the show shouting out "FUCK" as he watches Dream storm off.

That final "FUCK" isn't in either comic or Audible book, because Hob in the comic/Audible book isn't nearly as bothered by Dream's leaving.

The way show!Hob is so very different from comic!Hob blows my mind once you break it down, but it is his interest, care, and concern for Dream that really speaks volumes and makes it so easy to interpret his feelings for Dream as more than just platonic.

Next up, the heartbreaking missed 1989 meeting and how the timeline change has given Dream and Hob's relationship far more romantic implications in part 7.

[hopefull-mindset]

Labeling it as Abuse Doesn’t Make Sense, Sorry

(Had to unfortunately repost because Tumblr was broken)

In my huge overview of the abuse in BSD, I went over the relationships between the director and Atsushi in both Beast and the main story, as well as Dazai and Akutagawa. Then I went over the Port Mafia’s environment and Kyouka’s abuse being more than just Akutagawa’s doing, fundamentally being structural abuse within a community that condones abuse as a way to teach their subordinates. I went into that frustrated and fed up with how people view abuse, trying my best to go over things people misunderstood the most about how the narrative handled them.

There was one outlier in this discussion, one I was absolutely prepared to have more to speak about, but went out of it confused and underwhelmed because it ended up not being an abusive dynamic. You noticed, right? I didn't mention Mori and Dazai because there was barely anything there to say it was abusive. I still, of course, went over it in my post because still, the point was to go over the misunderstandings. Looking back at that section though, I think I did a poor job really explaining why abuse as a label here doesn't work.

I kept saying that I “didn’t understand why people thought this” and that it “didn't make logical sense for Mori to do certain things” because I thought it was incredibly obvious as someone who has went back and read their scenes together again. I thought that my explanation was enough after all my points I made before that section, but maybe I've underestimated how much this fandom conflated how much evidence they have to say this after reading posts about it.

Do not conflate me saying “its not abusive” to “it didn't have any psychological effect on Dazai”. You can have a messed up relationship with an adult and is not fit to be labeled abusive. I don't regret how I talked about it, I regret not going over how fanon this actually is and expressing my confusion deeper. It's been eating at me and I don't want to overuse the talking point of abuse, but I felt like it. I needed a break from the Oda Sakunosuke research exhaustion.

I don’t want to be a pity party, but as a victim myself, I’m a little aggravated at how loosely “abuse” has been used. I already went over what abuse is in the original post, and I just don’t get what people are seeing when they claim Mori abused him. I'm curious as to why fans are so quick to the take. Is it because they want some unconscious reason as to why Dazai chose to abuse Akutagawa? Is it because since they see the narrative parallels between them and Kyouka, then that must mean Mori had abused Dazai? Strange.

It's popular to compare Yosano’s past circumstances to Dazai’s, and you can see why at a glance. Both are brought into circumstances that are not ideal for a child by Mori, the opposite Demon/Angel motif, have some similarities to Mori himself, and… that's kind of it? Because Mori doesn't treat them the same way and that changes way more than you think it really does about how you label this. Circumstantially, she has more in common with Kyouka and Chuuya, back when he was in the clutches of N.

Yosano was drafted by Mori to utilize her ability in the great war. He dehumanizes her by reducing her to a tool and disregards her feelings for the greater cause he's trying to contribute to. Mori forces her to keep using her ability by shooting Tachihara’s brother and intimidating her to keep doing her job. He installs fear into what could happen if she doesn't heal them, but is further damaged by what happens when she does. While we don't see a lot of what happened during then, we can assume this kept happening until the war ended.

You can pinpoint what makes this situation abusive quite easily:

Disregarding the autonomy of the victim

Uses fear and intimidation tactics

Psychological power dynamic that weighs on the victim

(Assuming so) is repeatedly forced to keep repeating something that causes psychological harm

Though I can absolutely say Yosano is just as much of a victim to the structural abuse of Ability users being targets of the country, like Chuuya, there is primarily one person we can pin her abuse on: Mori, because he was in charge of her and was his primary target. Mori resorts to using abuse because Yosano had too much of a will of her own and was not doing what he needed of her.

That’s Yosano’s situation, now what about Dazai?

As recounted in the Fifteen LN, they met by chance. Someone brought Dazai in after a suicide attempt into his clinic and, for an unknown reason since we don’t actually know anything about the plan itself, Mori asked him to be apart of his new plan to assassinate the old boss that took about maybe a year or so. He was a witness and accomplice to his death, a death that was necessary to the safety of Yokohama. He hadn’t became an official member until he had teamed up with Chuuya and was convinced that maybe he could find a reason to live by joining because of this experience.

As Dazai is pretty much a blank slate with potential in Mori’s eyes, Mori had decided to teach him tactical theory to put his mind to use and had him team up with Chuuya to develop him further with a good influence as Fukuzawa was to him (“A diamond can only polish a diamond”). Mori sees himself in Dazai and wants him to become someone who will be a great right-hand man, but ultimately lets him loose in Dark Era because of his irrational human fears of Dazai killing him one day like he did to the old boss. There could be more reasons to why he did it (Dazai not being a good potential future leader or maybe having to do with the revelation that he did care about Dazai in Beast), but this is what canon has offered us currently.

Already, do you see how differently I summarize their dynamic with Mori? Not because I have any bias views, but because he treats them differently. If I can’t apply even one of the points I brought up that made Yosano’s situation abusive, then I can’t call it that. I’m already struggling to think of a way as to how it could be abusive because that’s all the information we have. It’s not great that Mori taught a child to think like he does, but he’s never conditioned him in a way I’d call abusive like he did to Yosano.

There was no way for him to use fear and intimidation on Dazai without being seen through. It’s not like Dazai had anything he gave worth except Oda and Ango, and he’s never used them as a threat on Dazai. He does not treat Dazai like a tool or ignore his feelings consistently, Dazai has no feelings to any terrible actions he does. He’s Amoral and could care less. He has no psychological control on Dazai, on the contrary, he’s treated as an equal and has not made any attempt to exact any power on him except a professional role as his boss.

Again, listen to me when I say this is not me saying that Dazai isn’t effected by his time in the PM or that Mori treated him like an equal suddenly means that being treated like an adult for the majority of your teenage years is not that bad. It’s incredibly fucked up, but you can’t use abuse to describe it. I didn’t add manipulation or “brought into an endangering environment” to the list because they are points emphasized way too often in the conversation of Dazai being abused. That’s not because I don’t think abuser can’t also do that, but they are tactics that can be used in various situations that aren’t abuse.

Don’t you think it’d be silly for me to say that Dazai is abusing the ADA because he manipulates them into playing their roles or that Kenji is being abused because he’s a kid in an agency that deals with murders and government jobs? Or even apply that logic to most other animes. That’s why I don’t take it seriously when all of a sudden, people are saying Kouyou and Chuuya are victims of Mori. They are absolutely victims of abuse, but Mori?? Just because he’s casually manipulative while also being someone who will use abuse if he thinks it’s necessary? Way to ignore he has genuine bonds with his 2 executives.

The point of what makes what he did to Yosano abusive is that it installed distress into her repetitively. Individually the actions he took weren't abusive by itself, it was the accumulation of what it made her feel. That's why Mori killing the boss in front of Dazai wasn't abusive, it's just fucked. If you were to claim that maybe Mori did something off-screen, then I would have to ask why because the only reason Mori resorted to using abuse was because he needed to snuff out her will and make her into a good tool.

That's the thing, Dazai has no will and is not the way he is because he dislikes the mafia or that Mori tore him down, he's always been that way before meeting him. Unfortunately, he's perfect for the mafia and Mori didn’t need to do crap in this situation. That’s why I genuinely could not say Mori was abusing Chuuya either in my last post.

And before it’s said, It is not a gotcha to say “well he’s a child in a violent environment, so by proxy he’s being abused”. I hope you realize that’s a totally different statement from mori abusing him and claims he’s also a victim of structural abuse Iike Kyouka was, because again, he was like this before the mafia and there would be no need to take action.

Anyway, I just needed to get this off of my chest. Anything I didn’t say was in the original overview. This was not that short, but I felt like ranting a bit. I just really had nothing to talk about regarding any potential abuse happening to Dazai by Mori and I hope this expresses this better? I think their relationship is pretty interesting if you don’t only focus on fan inflated angst that doesn’t exist. The next time I post, I hope it to be an actual analysis and not me ranting in disguise of an analytical breakdown.

There are much more interesting things people can say about the clear development Mori has went through in where he used Yosano like this to how he treats people in the Mafia, and that’s absolutely because of the partnership he had with Fukuzawa. Just, read my original overview okay? I like it better than this one.

[spindle-girl]

Daybreak 1.5

One villain down. Five more to go

One of the issues of being a parahuman was that there wasn’t a history to build on or a peerage to draw from.  We had powers, yes.  Some of those powers were similar to the powers others had, but there were almost always tricks and caveats, strengths one person had that another didn’t.  I couldn’t copy Alexandria’s old tactics and style because my invincibility worked differently.  Timing was so much more important to me.

this is probably one of my favorite aspects of parahuman powers. even the second gen capes don't get the same power, even if the theme is there

I caught a glimpse of one by the gun he was holding, and moved around the corner.  They all moved the same way when they moved, pistols held up, gripped in two hands that were dotted in drops of drying blood, pointed at the ceiling.  I saw the gun before I saw the rest of him.

really great power to do a zombie movie with, especially since a halfway moral person wouldn't be able to do the typical zombie movie style of mowing them down

i'm getting reminded of Bloodwork from DC. i'm pretty sure he had the whole blood motif and taking over people with his, though it was never done in an explosion of viscera that got rid of Bloodwork as a punchable foe, so that's already cooler

No, wait, that had been a few days after Dean had reminded me of the brute rule.  I’d been studying it with more interest because Dean was turning eighteen before long, and we were worried he’d get moved to another city, even with his family situation being what it was.  I’d seriously been considering joining the Wards and then the Protectorate, so I could follow him.

do Protectorate members lose the Wards thing of it being difficult to move them? that was a Wards thing, right? also, i can't imagine Piggot being willing to lose the one kind-of-thinker cape they have unless she really wanted to be able to keep fining the Wards their entire yearly paycheck without Gallant offering to pay it

I heard wet sounds.  Throughout the hazy altered space, the meaty squelching started to overtake the background hums. I stopped in my tracks. Things moved beneath the blankets.  She still hadn’t budged. I turned around and ran. Fuck this.

fair enough

As someone with the ability to control emotions, I was supposed to be harder to read and affect.  It was why I’d deflected Crystalclear earlier. <...> Maybe that resistance came into play. Maybe it turned Snag’s power from an emotional uppercut to a mere slap. Negative emotions poured into me like liquid from a syringe. But a slap on an open wound could be enough to bring someone to their knees.  The walls came tumbling down, the memories flooding in, and my last coherent, present thought was that I hoped I wouldn’t maim or kill anyone in the meantime.

i'm sorry Victoria, but that sounds like cope. this may just be affecting you because it can affect you. even if her power grants her some immunity, it could just be to specific powers

End Notes: guess we're getting the Wretch already. funny thing, i got reminded of Sveta in that moment. i'm hoping we'll get her and the others at the end after all the fighting, or as the calvary

[waitmyturtles]

More, more, more Moonlight Chicken episode 8/finale meta. Continuing my numbered list from my first meta post on the episode. God, there’s so much. Non-chronological to the episode, and bigger thoughts at the end.

8) The movie that Li Ming and Heart caught at the mall?

It’s a little plug for My Precious, which is coming out later this month, and stars, like, everyone -- Nanon and Film are paired up again, with Ohm, Chimon, Neo (Neo and Nanon and Ohm, CUTE!), View, etc. Looks cute! And directed by Fon Kanittha of 10 Years Ticket, which I just enjoyed very much. I don’t know if GMMTV movies come out on YouTube? I guess we’ll see. 

9) I want to meditate on Jam for a bit longer from my first meta, because I realized that I think there was something really smart happening between episode 7 and episode 8. I caught this but didn’t analyze it in episode 7: I saw in Jam a commonality between Thai culture and my Indian culture, and I wonder if this is common to other Asian cultures as well. To me, what happened here with this commonality, and how it was dealt with by Jim and Jam in episode 8, to me, demonstrated the movement between old and new values that I think all of episode 8 was totally centered on.

In episode 7, Jam tries to play the blame game.

You know that saying -- “everything happens for a reason”? It’s such bullshit (I’d rather work on transcendence, considering what I went through as a kid).

The blame game was CORE to my childhood. EVERYTHING that happened in the life of my childhood nuclear family HAD to be attached to a kind of reason that would lend itself to be “blamed” on another person. If my brother got bad grades -- it was the teacher’s fault. If there was a fight between sibs -- it was the youngest/weakest sib that would “get blamed” for starting a fight. If my folks had work issues -- they ALWAYS had to be blamed on someone else. I RARELY saw my parents take accountability or responsibility for their own actions.

I am sure there were times when I saw the adults of my childhood life take personal or professional accountability for their actions, but I seriously can’t remember any of them. The blame game removes the need for adults to be transparent and take accountability for their actions, and instead allows them to interpret their perspective of the world by assigning blame to outside forces -- which, in my view, leaves these people flailing in a life that’s ultimately out of their control. To me, that’s horseshit. Why the hell would you want to live a life in which you remove yourself from the ability to leverage your own power -- your own RESPONSIBILITY -- and be more in control of your own fate? And it happens to be an extremely common perspective at least in my circle of Indian family and friends. 

What was SO INCREDIBLE ABOUT YOUNG LI MING (and Heart) during episodes 7 and 8 is that HIS GROWTH, HIS CONFIDENCE, HIS ABILITY TO BE TRANSPARENT AND COMMUNICATIVE (as in the night scene outside of the diner with Jim in episode 7) SERVED as a model for revelation that Jim leaned on and leveraged. 

The change happens quickly for Jim, but in episode 8, he holds himself accountable.

And it happened for Jam, too, as I mentioned in my first meta. She sees what’s happening, she tries her best to build a family table (as Jim also does in episode 8), and she tries to do something as a mom that she couldn’t have accomplished earlier in her life. In her own halting way, she tries to hold herself accountable.

As I wrote in my last meta, that Li Ming (LI MING!!!) served as the catalyst for this -- it’s Aof’s motif, right, to leverage the brilliance of YOUTH, of fresh and youthful BRAVERY AND COURAGE, unweighed by the burden of years of regret and bad experiences, to help lift adults out of the bullshit that holds them back from moving forward. 

It was gorgeous to me. This entire episode’s macro theme was moving forward AND looking back, and leveraging all of the looking back TO MOVE FOWARD, and these analyses allowed Aof to set everything in beautiful context for our understanding. Utterly brilliant.

10) I really liked that the finale started with a focus on all the homes that the series has featured -- Jim’s home, the diner, and then moving to Wen’s new condo, one of their new homes. (I LOVED the outdoors, airy feel of Jam’s fiancé’s house -- that house, to me, so reminded me of the kampung houses we used to visit family at when I was a kid in Malaysia.) Then we leave the diner, and the food truck becomes a new home. And the second-to-last scene is the beautiful community gathering outside the food truck, complete with a new baby. And the very last scene is back on the couch (oh, how i love that old-school couch) at Jim’s home. Respecting your old homes, creating new homes. Back and forth, old and new. Homes can look different in your life, but the core of the meaning of home will never change, as long as you are with people that you are creating a home with. 

11) I also happen to appreciate that the diner had to close. I like that Aof didn’t create a fairy tale about the Marina development. The Marina development was going to move forward, no matter what. That the project featured a food truck park (as we saw on the screen during the business meeting when Wen was offered the promotion) was, I think, Aof’s way of saying -- even with this new development that our country is facing, we can still compromise and accommodate for the values that our culture, our food and community culture, still hold dear. They won’t take us down.

I fucking love that Aof does not shy away from reality. Boss. 

12) Speaking of the blame game and cultural nuances, I noted that twice in the finale, Li Ming mentions paying Jim back for the money Jim spent to raise Li Ming. I really liked this harkening back to a old cultural value. It’s still something that’s very expected in many Asian cultures (now that I’m older and established, even with kids, my parents heavily hint on this. Way to tell me that I was a retirement plan with no communication, Mom and Dad.) 

That Li Ming brings this up to Jim unprompted, to me, indicates how much of a parent Li Ming sees Jim as. Li Ming doesn’t say this to his mom. He takes what his mom gives him at the mall -- because it’s kind of ALL that she’s ever given him. Whereas, his devotion to Jim for Jim’s support is that Li Ming wants Jim to know how much he feels in debt to his uncle. We don’t know if Li Ming will ever actually pay Jim back, but the message is there -- I appreciate you, Uncle, and I want you to know that I’m communicating this through this value exchange.

13) Besides building homes, there were messages of building new family together. Of course, that’s Li Ming and Heart, and Jim and Wen, and Jam and Tong (AND ALAN AND GAIPA) confirming their relationships, and Leng and Praew bringing their baby to the truck. One sparkling note about children -- I loved that Heart was playing with Gam. Gam will be Li Ming’s new step-sister. They won’t get to know each other right away, as Li Ming will go to America with Heart. But they’re still going to be new family together. And Heart was already making that connection. 

14) Finally, finally (at least for now, maybe over the weekend, but I so need to start watching new shows, ha), how Jim always creates community and family around him. When Li Ming offers to pay Jim back. When we see Jim set up at the food truck, how he continues to gather people together. The farewell party at the diner. 

God, how I loved that we moved FROM the last food truck scene, with EVERYONE THERE, to the living room with Wen. That last food truck scene really broke me, because even while I love open-air stalls like Jim’s old diner, the way I really remember eating in SE Asia as a kid was out-out, really outdoors, with no roof, like outside a food truck. It seemed to me SO modern and fresh, AND ALSO SO REMINISCENT of my old times as a kid.

And how Jim and his food always, always brings everyone together. And how Wen is his partner, his employee, his boyfriend. I don’t know -- just visually, meaningfully, in that one scene, Aof GOT IT FOR ME -- that VALUE SYSTEM of everything that vending/hawker culture does for someone of that region, how the BRINGING TOGETHER of people is so VISUALLY DEFINITIVE. And it was all because of Jim and his hard work that these people were together like that. 

Jim’s a home-builder, in the end, despite the hardships he’s had as a gay man. We need the conservative dinosaurs to move on, as Wen says, so that a man like Jim can continue to build family, community, and homes for everyone, unfettered. Anyone can do it, as long as you let them, if they’re brave and responsible enough, as Jim has long demonstrated himself to me. 

Y’all, I don’t know how I’m gonna move on from this show. My Jim x Wen sweat candle is in the mail, so maybe that’ll help. 

[mashithamel]

Episode 3 spoilery thoughts below (lots of spoilers for the books).

I really love how, even though the show is so changed from the book in many ways, it also feels so true to the books.

- I am really looking forward to the soundtrack release. Amazon will take all my money.

- I didn’t mind “be steadfast” not being included? I noted it, but didn’t really care?

- Nynaeve’s parents!

- Crinsomthorn again, huh. Gonna be a repeated motif this year?

- This has shades of Aginor and is a horribe touch (affectionate)

- Elnore is awesome! As I would expect!

- How on earth would she manage to memorize that long Old Tongue passage after hearing it once?

- Elnore watching her daughter as she is brutally stabbed to death is really overkill. My sister is invested in watching now but can’t handle, like, any violence, so I have to tell her when to turn away. I’m going to have to mute this bit—even I have a hard time with it, and I’ve enjoyed GoT and a couple seasons of Vikings.

- I kind of like how shocking the water dumped over her head is everytime they use it. It seems as much a violantion as the arches themselves. And “washed clean” just seems like wishful thinking.

- Tam!

- Nice to see Natti sober. She’s speaking all of Nynaeve’s worst fears right now.

- I forgot Nynaeve had seen Healing and that it’s been established she can copy any weave after seeing it once. Of course, she isn’t upset enough right now to channel, but it was also spelled out she wouldn’t be able to channel anyway in the arches. I am so ready to see Nynaeve the Healer.

- “How is Rand?” Knife straight to the heart. Invited to stay with Tam until he dies. “I can’t tell you how good it is to see your face.” Wisdom Nynaeve was pretty cool too.

- The fact that she sees the arches as a means to get her people a cure—she isn’t choosing the Tower over them, just what they can do. But Tam calling after her to not leave is even more poignant than Marin in the books, imo.

- Zoe going into the third arch 😭

- This is very a very trippy scene. Rosamund says they are filming something really psychadelic for S3. That’s gotta be Snakes and Foxes, right?

- The lines from Lan here are my absolute favorite from that passage. The “I will hate the man you choose…” is fine. But telling someone she’s as beautiful as a sunrise, as fierce as a warrior? I am fully swooning.

- Red is just not Nynaeve’s color, I think. (Zoe can rock anything, but Nynaeve is not going to wear much red ever)

- Just how empty “you are washed clean of your sins” sounds. “It’s alright, the blood isn’t yours” is not exactly what she needed to hear. It’s properly horrifying.

- A bloody hadori

- I don’t blame her for walking out at this point, and I would have been disappointed if she hadn’t.

- “You’re going to be a woman who’s actually worthy of that title.” Not a fan of book Egwene (actually, she’s my least favorite character—the fact that we share many traits in common has nothing to do with it, I’m sure!), but I look forward to seeing show Egwene come into her own.

- How hard must it be for her to return to the Two Rivers, without any of the kids, and no ability to use Healing?

- I love that Daniel likes filming Lanaeve as much as i enjoy watching this.

- I’ve watched this scene obsessively through gifs as soon as they were available

- “I could come with you.” Taken right from TSR, with the response we’d all like to see in an AU

- They way he holds her, and she just relaxes into him, and he rests his cheek on her head. Swooning some more.

- The pitchers are white, black, and swirl

- See, Darkfriends aren’t entirely evil. They feel bad about things too.

- Aww, Liandrin is legitimately upset. I think she sees a lot of herself in Nynaeve and wanted a mentee.

- They named the girl who gets dragged away by the Seanchan. So we’ll see her in the future?

- The Southern accent is amazingly good. Also some of the soliders have baseball bats as weapons. Will they do anything else to drive home the colonizing invaders are American?

- I wonder who this Seanchan guard is who selects Uno? Egeanin, maybe? I mean, they didn’t have to show her face. Maybe she is a named character?

- UNO!!!!!!!!!!

- The side shot of Uno impaled is deeply disturbing. They split the skin from his lips almost to his ear, and both his mandible and maxilla are fractures. It’s accurate, but holy cow that’s intense.

- I didn’t remember Logain had the Talent to see ta’veren, so it doesn’t bother me at all that he can tell men can channel. Quite frankly, it’s a good excuse for him to be out of the Black Tower later, recruiting.

- Again, I like Rand seeking out help wherever he can find it (Errol with the sword, Logain with the OP). I mean, what else is he going to do?

- Gleeman in a cloak! Branding! Hunt for the Horn!

- Lanfear is remakably up to date on the local lore for someone who was asleep for the last 3000 years. Does Ishy have a crash seminar for them on waking?

- “Your grief is your own.” Too bad the only psychiatrist in the series is evil.

- “Someone I respected.” Liandrin does feel guilty.

- I look forward to Mat rising up and proving Liandrin wrong about every word.

- “It’s not always the most powerful women who write history, it’s the ones who survive.” Ooo, chills. This show is actually going to make me care about Egwene isn’t it?

- The Cairheinin party! I love they included this, and the invitations, and him burning it! And, of course, the red coat.

- This hunt for the horn lie is a great way to showcasse just how horrible upper Cairheinin society is. “One less poor mouth for the rich to feed.” I remember the Tairan Lords are terrible toward poor people, but geez, these guys too!

- Naturally, Selene finds this plot amusing. At what point do you think he’ll catch on that she’s evil?

- Asmodean is going to teach Rand, that’s my prediction. But that doesn’t mean Rand has nothing to learn from Logain. He’s willing to learn from anyone who can teach him, no matter how unconventional.

- Ishy kept trying to get the boys to drink in TAR, right? Is this referrencing that?

- Ishamael making Perrin afraid of the wolf side is genius. A much better reason to be reluctant than in the books. “The more wolf you are the more you’re mine.” Chills.

- Hopper!

- I don’t have a problem with Min being made to work for Liandrin. She’s clearly reluctant. She also has no reason to care about Mat, really, and at least show Min comes across as someone who does what she needs to do to survive. I assume the EF5/Rand will eventually show her something worth staying and fighting for.

- Oh, she is crazy crazy.

- I like how they show the taint on the male weaves.

- And the inn gets set on fire too. They did read the books! Guess that’s the end of the red coat, huh?

- I am in love with Elayne. Seriously, how did that happen??

- I note Nynaeve is wearing mostly blue and green. Lan’s favorite colors on women.

- Fancy Mat and happy Perrin!

- Also nice that it seems Lan may do most of the cooking? Wise choice.

- That hair is…um…a look.

- Mat’s left eye!

- I love that Nynaeve saves herself.

- What more can be said about that ending? Definitely more devastating than in the books. Zoe is amazing. All excellent changes to make sense with the show story/character and move her along, give her the “why” she needs to be at the Tower. Amazing and such great storytelling.

[newar]

notes on episode 2 of netflix three body problem spoilers for the books as well

• da shi is perfect. no notes

• MORE BUG MOTIF… i really like that they added more. hopefully it doesn’t get too on the nose

• don’t like how they made the sophons manipulate the camera footage… i don’t doubt that they had the ability to do that in the books, my issue is that it’s not SUBTLE… the trisolarans didn’t want people to think something supernatural or alien was going on, or that there’s some saboteur working against humanity. they wanted them to think that their understanding of physics was incorrect... they really missed the mark with this

• the VR game scenes are pretty good! and the Sophon cameo… <3

• having da shi’s wife be dead was a good choice i think. considering he was kind of not really an involved father in the books iirc. a good talk on the fragility of the human race

• also this random woman they added in to move the plot along is so unecessary. like idk why it couldn’t have been wenjie doing all this

• oh sorry i was wrong. will downing is supposed to be tianming!! that actually works out better. i think they’re doing the staircase project this season as well

• oh they made wade the one who says “there’s someone behind everything”…. i feel like it worked better in the books coming from da shi… it’s his practical mindset against the academics and “intellectuals”

• still annoyed they didn’t include wenjie’s sister, HOWEVER the confrontation btwn wenjie and her father’s killer was good, it shows how wenjie views humanity now, how she humans as unable to come to a “moral awakening” on their own since the girl didn’t repent for what she did. i believe this happened in the books as well, just not with the girl that dealt the final blow

• also. small detail. but the button wenjie pressed should have been red like in the books. like the way they talk about the “red sun” and the cultural revolution etc in the books makes the colour seem meaningful to me. beyond just being a red button

• OVERALL: things are getting interesting! not too invested in the characters aside from wenjie and da shi just yet, but i don’t actively dislike them

[somekindofsentience]

katya and dmitry (my beloveds), or discussing mutation motifs in texts from a biological and psychological standpoint

CONTENT WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF MENTAL ILLNESS AND HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION.

READING-THIS WARNING: I MISINTERPRET STUFF A LOT, THIS IS PURELY MY INTERPRETATION OF THE SERIES. SORRY IF I'M WRONG. :(

When I first watched through Parties are for Losers and its respective songs, my brain was already whirring. Come on. I'm a Vocaloid nerd, obviously I have to look into it, and I know something is up, which means the analysis brain begins. I really enjoyed the Evillous Chronicles, and it seemed as though this was similar. Unlike it, this was actually in English (being set in Russia), and the narrative felt inherently more understandable, although that may just be because it's only 13 songs, compared to Evillous' 82.

AND it covers topics of biology and its affects on psychology. it's perfect. why have i never heard of this before??!?!?!?

There's a lot of aspects to explore within PafL, but I want to specifically focus on Katya (KT) and Dmitry, and their mutations, taking a biological and social approach to their current mental state. I will refer to Katya by her full "name" because it feels a little more humanising, and our baby girl deserves that.

Human experimentation/mutation is a fascinating topic to explore, because it questions the essence of humanity itself - how could you do that to another human being, a child, no less? End and Save is one of my favourite webtoon comics because of this. The abilities that these children gain typically have significant disadvantages, due to the inherently unethical nature of the creation. In some ways, the mutation itself explores corruption.

Biologically, genetic mutations are a natural occurrence, resultant from selection. We are nowhere near the current level needed to cause significant mutation like that of Katya and Dmitry's, and despite what most people think, there's actually no real intention to head in that direction. Therapeutic gene editing (LITERALLY MY SPECIALISED INTEREST. LIKE I WANT TO GO INTO THIS IN THE FUTURE. THIS IS PERFECT.) strays away from eugenics, and focuses on curing genetic disease. It's a fascinating topic of research, and one I hold dear to me. CRISPR my beloved

Katya's mutant ability is directly related to stress. It causes the extensive growth of tissue when she's in a stressful situation, and she has limited control over the flesh. This then has to be cut off, leaving serious wounds to heal on her skin.

art by Ferry

Taking this biologically, it would have to be mutation related to extreme cell division in tissue - in more simple terms, it's not unlike cancer, where a cell does not consider the required markers for division, and instead rapidly divides. Katya's seems far more controlled than cancer, sticking only to particular sites, and also significantly more extreme. Considering the stress required, it may actually be related to an influx of hormonal changes during stress sequences.

As a result of this, Katya is hypersensitive to the emotion of others and can tolerate a high amount of stress, with inherent optimism. She's relatively simple, and tries her best not to let her abilities weigh her down. In the end, she resigns herself to undeserving of true kindness, suggesting she has some well-hidden low self-esteem.

Dmitry's mutant ability seems more controllable, and therefore powerful, than Katya's. He has the ability to pick up anything, with vague limitations on weight, provided he knows specific location and it is within a 15 metre radius.

art by Ferry

Telekinesis from a biological standpoint? I'm not opening that can of worms. I'm not even gonna try. Make it up yourself. I'm pretty sure A Certain Scientific Railgun couldn't even really explain Kuroko's powers, and I'm one small scrawny rat.

Dmitry suffers severe physical consequences as a result of this ability, even using it regularly - severe headaches, loss of consciousness, and dizziness, which can been seen when he attempts to save Anya. Dmitry is significantly more cautious of the outside world than Katya is, and he's somewhat more hostile, threatening Yura and Sanya when he is blackmailed. However, he's practical, likely from the skills taught to him through use of telekinesis.

Dmitry and Katya were set out to have a negative relationship, due to the power dynamics between the two of them making them inherently different people. Dmitry was used for several years as an "assistant" to test Katya's abilities, and seems to hold a grudge with her over that. They have differing opinions on the outside world, particularly due to the way Dmitry's inhumanity was repeated to him often, as the lab researchers began to fear his power. He's not so pessimistic that he acts as contrast to Katya, but the clashing elements still causes them to go their separate ways in KT's Guide.

I couldn't find any specific links between the use of GUMI as KT and Fukase as Dmitry, but I'm sure there is some when considering the different Vocaloids used as a whole. I just wish I could understand what it was, but I don't quite know enough about Vocaloid as a whole for that. Alternatively, it could just be because of gender and the fact that both sound good with the style of the song.

song i wrote this listening to (after PafL, of course): sleep thru ur alarms by Lontalius

it's been a rough night, okay? i needed this as a distraction.

thanks so much to powercoreact for the suggestion! i genuinely really enjoyed this, and you hit my secret hidden love for vocaloid right in the feels. can you believe i watched this like an hour ago??? i feel like i've known it for years.