#Given how much Clown's putting into symbolism

[coffeegnomee]

gnome save me gnome save me gnome save me gnomesavw me,,,, 4c revealed a bit more abt prism by showing a secret room and its prismS now. new s!!! i immediately thought of u bc u are smart and u love these sort of things :D

- mcytegg 🥹

Ahhhhhh Veni Tegg Mcytegg I've been so busy with life I totally missed 4c updates until just now. ty ty ty for pointing it out.

I agree with the posts I just looked up about what people (and you) were saying about the flowers and colors and letters. I think the general consensus of it being the first letters of the names of people that 4c is doing this trust thing with is accurate. Colors and flower colors symbolizing mc skins. Princezam, Rekrap (sooooorry. It would be so cool if it was Ro. but ro is too purple looking and 4c has a better connection with Rek. and Rek's hoodie has bright blue), Itzsubz, Squiddo, Manepear, Spoke are my vote for the people.

My thoughts besides that:

The room was split in the middle with grass on one side and dead bushes on the other.

That puts Zam, Rek, and Subz on the growing side and Squiddo, Mane, and Spoke on the dead side. Plausibly the people who create vs the people who destroy. (shoutout Jay marshmarrows for that distinction)

Given the timeline of when 4c likely designed this room, subz was not making wardens and destroying spawn. But it was after Mane destroyed spawn even though imo he added Mane to this list from his very early season actions of protecting the chunguses of the server. Clown called him "mr. morality" in the early weeks of the server bc he would only kill people who killed defenseless players.

Which brings me to how spoke was seemingly added only after this room was made, the original signs being prism, not prismS. like you said.

I was a fan of spoke being on the original list bc of the clues squiddo dropped of spoke giving them the bugbombs and spoke alluding to making someone else into the server villains, ie FOCUS. But with the black S being last, that does feel like he was added last.

OR he added Squiddo last so that the room was even on both sides, but potentially wanted to de-emphasize them and emphasize spoke, since you see the Spoke and Zam flowers first and it's quite a nice dramatic look, the white oxyeye daisies and jet black wither roses. And it's so poetic for season 3.

I didn't like squiddo on the original list bc they're already on FOCUS and cube doesn't seem to be on this list at all and I dont like that cause of how 4c so specifically keeps saying he's loyal to FOCUS over everything else. So if one is on this list why are both not on this list ESP since this list was created after the start of the server. But Cube isn't involved as much and Squiddo has some devious sounding possible plans that keep cropping up, that possibly lead to destruction, so it makes sense for them to be on this list over Cube, esp with how this room is designed to be. (also squiddo's ign is TheRealSquiddo. not Squiddo. and the rest are ign first letters, Itzsubz and princezam. so that's also why I think they were added in for this new room rather than being included in the first)

So we have Zam and Rek being the main contenders for people who would save the season (and subz before his wardens) vs the three people who are the main contenders that would end the season.

But it is Fascinating to note how my original thought of the I in prism being i, me, like 4c is now thrown totally out because it's not in the middle anymore now that there's a second S.

Now 4c himself stands in the middle, and the "altruistim" sign stands in the middle, tearing the room in half between grass and dead bushes. "the practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others." Not interested in if they deserve it or not. Not worried about himself. Only concerned with the well-being of them, but tearing himself apart in the process, leaving him wondering "who am I", thrown across the grown in colorful refractions.

And to do that he had to add an S. it's interesting to watch this concept develop in real time, while still sticking to the original idea.

Which brings me to the design of the room.

Behind each letter is a massive red pillar that waves in and out, and I jokingly described them as umbilical cords until that descriptor made more sense than it didn't. As red pillars they immediately look evil, but I would be surprised if this arc had any evil ideas behind it. The pillars attach to the ceiling, and the whole room is shaped like a cave.. or womb.

Umbilical cords give nutrients and life to the in-utero baby, all while the baby doesn't have any idea what's happening. One could say, in a weird way, 4c is giving life and aid to these players like a mother gives life and her body to the growing child in her womb.

Or they just look cool. idk.

But connecting all the 6 supposed members together with the same umbilical cord-like structures is an odd visual for how 4c views how these players are connected. Even despite which side of the room they're on.

They're not just connected to him through the giant Prism in middle of the room, made, for instance, out of a light blue stained glass (for him). If anything he IS the prism in the center, the blue object that refracts the light into different colors, revealing the hearts of those he helps.

No. They're connected to each other through the same red pillars. Or he could have easily designed each pillar with the blocks he used for the letters: each block chosen has both slabs and blocks so the detailing would have been possible. Or just not used red.

There's also this theme of redstone ores and using red dye for the "nothing is ever as it seems" sign. idk why but the redstone ores in the walls of the daisy room have always stuck out to me.

And now there's a red sign. In stark contrast to the blue-ink and white-ink signs of the daisy room.

And there's red pillars.

"nothing is ever as it seems"

Is that 4c's actions are never as it seems: that nobody on the server understands his pov.

Or that these clues are all red herrings. (RED. waiiiit)

but if Nothing is as it seems, what's the point of any of this clue giving. And yet if you just look at the letter/flower/color clues Everything seems to be Exactly As It Seems. There are literally no other lifestealers these colors could symbolize. (ok, by technicality, Ro could be the R by a very very weird turn of fate. but the tunnel rats are too close to being exactly what 4c means when he says "if they ask me for anything I'll do it")

Which just leaves me a bit flabbergasted as to what could be the Nothing that seems to be something that it is not.

Which does make me wonder (and now we're really going into conspiracy theory) if 4c wants to do an Explode Everything arc and pit the "good" side of the server against the "evil", show them they're connected and need each other for the livelihood of the sever. Maybe explode everything is too dramatic. more like mash them together and make them see how they're connected.

These are the people 4c said, "A few months ago i thought up a few people who i liked what they were doing and i thought it would be interesting to be loyal to them as well. And they don't know it.”

"liked what they were doing" not, "thought they were doing good."

and another time: “Cause if i support someones wrongs, everything they do, even if i don't agree with it, if i support it, if i do something wrong in the future i can trust that they will support me in the same way.”

And here they are, connected together, the good and the evil.

What kind of pull the strings from behind the curtain arc could this become. A make all sides have equal aide from a disinterested source that selflessly gives everything for another's benefit. All the while accidentally drawing the server into more and more conflict.

But hey, i love a good villain. And I have always thought 4c would make a fascinating world ender.

The only final thing I don't have any crack pot ideas about are why the heck are the signs around "altruism" like that. It's oak, spruce and dark oak. it's so extra. And the top line is different than the bottom.

it's just weird. 4c is so strange. But it seems significant. Some kind of continuation of the light and dark, grass and dead theme going on.

and the glass floor is prismatic rays except, and im being perfectionistic about it, prism refracting is a perfect rainbow, not a hodge-podge of rainbow colors.

but that's okay.

it's kind of interesting that it's like a river 4c walks through, that doesn't enter any of the letter's spaces. and it isn't lit up like prismatic refraction would be. But I think it is just supposed to be the prism effect.

He wades through seeing exactly how people are, what they think. Overhearing all conversations. He is the prism receiving the light from the players and understanding them completely.

Maybe that's simply what "nothing is as it seems" means. It's a continuation of the thoughts 4c has about when you see everything it hurts to choose, when you know everything how do you know what to do.

[homestuckreplay]

radiation poisoning from my libertarian grandpa :(

(page 779-791)

A few days of updates here! I was kinda mad about the Fruit Update on the 18th. I like captchalogue mechanics, it’s fun to see how all the different modi work and the different situations characters can get into when the modi go wrong. But a five page update of just picking up fruit was too much for me. I simply could not find an interesting thing to say about that.

But now we’ve seen more of Jade’s house, and it’s… a lot. Her atrium having four wings might be relevant later, but doesn’t mean much yet – same with the beautiful pink and yellow clouds outside. Her real instrument looks like a bass guitar (due to its four strings). A trend I noticed before of the kids’ rooms getting messier and houses and lives getting weirder with each successive introduction definitely peaks here. Jade’s room is littered with plushies, plants, guns and uranium, and her grandfather might be the strangest of the four guardians, stranger than a business clown, a ventriloquist rapper, or a woman who builds a cat mausoleum with a secret passage.

Jade’s grandfather is a ‘WORLD RENOWNED EXPLORER-NATURALIST-TREASURE HUNTER-ARCHEOLOGIST-SCIENTIST-ADVENTURER-BIG GAME HUNTER-BILLIONAIRE EXTRAORDINAIRE’ (p.790) which doesn’t paint a great picture to me. That description suggests a man whose quest for personal glory eclipses any regard for other cultures, the environment, health and safety guidelines, or anyone ‘weaker’ than he is. He probably ‘discovered’ the frog statue island we see in WV: Ascend and took it as a trophy, raising his family there even if that’s not the best thing for the island ecosystem or his granddaughter’s life and health.

Jade’s bed and her two closets (below and inside her room) are all topped with strange reddish orbs on spires. It could be coincidence – there’s only so many shapes – but they remind me of the orb spires the kernelsprites land in after hatching (p.424), and as such, could have some connection to her strange powers. Jade’s other contraptions, gadgets and gizmos are a mystery to me – I know the window is a Problem Sleuth reference, but for the photoshopped in devices, I can barely begin to speculate. I do think that given the sciences of appearification, transportalization, alchemy, sylladices and strife specibi, these probably don’t have the same in-universe applications as their real world references. Physics simply works differently in the world of Homestuck, and I’m trying to make fewer assumptions about the world’s fundamentals (beyond gravity, which we’ve witnessed often).

Jade has been so associated with prognostication and esoteric knowledge that finding out she is also a nuclear physicist, a very different type of knowledge, was such a moment of characterization whiplash that puts her at both extremes of the science-religion dichotomy.

The uranium nuggets in Jade’s room, and recurring atomic symbol on her contraptions matching the bunker’s fuel gauge, are more connections between her and WV. But her room contains nods to all her friends, too. Her Slimer poster and magic chest are obvious John references. Her Squiddles poster and plushes are something Rose likes enough to put on a shirt, really hurting her dark eldritch aesthetic, and the anthropomorphic Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff art is signed TO: GG FROM: TG (he even drew his stupid record symbol). Worse, the Manthro Chaps Jade collects are definitely part of the Smuppets line of products; their design is so similar.

A becquerel is the standard unit of radioactive decay per second, and luckily for Jade, one becquerel is not harmful to human health – in fact, human bodies are constantly undergoing several thousand Bq of radioactive decay (even the skeleton has its own radioactive isotopes). I wonder if this is Jade’s cute name for her pet because she loves science, or if this creature has been mutated by Jade or her grandfather’s experimentation, and got the name that way. It could explain why Dave calls Bec a ‘devilbeast’ (p.382) and thinks he should be shot. (Seeing Jade’s gun collection also makes this line feel way too real).

JADE SHIRT DESIGNS TALLY: Atom, Leaf, Pumpkin, Slimer, Spirograph, Squiddle, Creature

> Jade: Engineer a glass case for your URANIUM and store it outside.

[sabaldax]

happy holidays & merry christmas! now that they're a year old, i've been revisiting the christmas chapters of my batjokes fic this week, editing back over them & just generally giving them a bit of a makeover - here's a couple paragraphs, more under the cut

Finding Joker on Christmas Eve isn’t exactly difficult. Bruce just has to seek out the brightest, happiest place in Gotham. Tonight, that’s the towering light-up tree in the middle of the Diamond District. Families are out in droves, wrapped in winter coats and scarves to see the sound and light show running twice an hour on the artificial tree. It’s almost midnight, and it’s the perfect picture of Christmas cheer. Then there’s Joker. He’s in peak form tonight, his usual purple pinstripes swapped out for a forest green vest and swooping crimson cloak. His spats are buttoned neatly around his ankles, white with green felt soles right to the toe. There’s a sprig of mistletoe peeping out of his bouncy green hair.

He’s gorgeous, in a word—even next to the pure magic of the Christmas tree—even rigging illegal fireworks on the highest rooftop around the square. Bruce has no goddamn hope of looking anywhere else. Joker’s smile stretches right to his molars the instant Bruce flutters down to the rooftop. ‘Now, there’s a sight for sore eyes.’ The clown doesn’t try to hide his delight, meeting Batman without an ounce of fear or hesitation. He tucks his fingernails against the glowing Bat symbol when he curls his hands up on the suit’s chest. It would be an embrace, if Bruce only lifted his arms. ‘What took you so long?’ Joker demands, pouting up at him. ‘You nearly missed the countdown.’ Bruce steals another glance at the fireworks. They’re aimed into the sky and not at the crowd, so he’s happy enough to look the other way, returning his attention to the peppermint jester practically purring into his chest. Somewhere in the quiet, lazy part of Bruce’s consciousness, he’s noticing how right this all feels. There’s no malice to it. There’s no pressure of justice or revenge. Joker hasn’t done anything wrong, and the only reason Bruce could even consider fighting him is just for the excuse to catch Joker in his arms. He’d rather have this tonight, though: Joker aglow in the light from the Christmas tree, running his hands along the Batsuit like it’s his God-given right. Bruce can’t help his smile. ‘I thought that was a New Year’s Eve thing.’ ‘Don’t you fret,’ Joker grins. ‘I’ll have one for you then, too. Mm! Speaking of.’ The clown takes half a step back so he can pull open his long crimson cloak, feeling around the white fur lining until he finds the hidden pocket there. He’s pulling out a sleek obsidian box a moment later, complete with a yellow star-shaped bow. ‘I have a present for you.’ Of course he does. Bruce should have seen it coming a mile away. It makes it a little bit easier to surrender his own gift, he supposes. He’s not putting himself on the line now so much as he’s just matching Joker’s energy, anticipating his greatest enemy’s next move. ‘Should I be worried?’ Bruce wonders aloud. ‘Should stars shine?’ Joker’s smile is sharp, cheeky and altogether beautiful. He makes a little gesture toward the neatly wrapped box. ‘Go ahead, baby. Open it.’

you can read the full thing at my ao3 if you want!! it's chapter three and chapter four of waste of confetti

[merakiui]

For that ask game, i'll be answering it genuinely and with how i truly feel when it comes to your writings. Forgive if it's long-- Here goes:

👀👀👀👀👀 putting you on notif even; always a joy to see your new thoughts everyday

⏰⏰⏰ Sometimes you drop two or more bangers on such a sort span like, ma'am-- how do you do it??

💀💀💀💀💀 few examples that haunt me till today is DRU and promising young man; the fear i got from reading them are so delicious

💌💌💌 always nice to read extra tidbits and extra headcanon, or just seeing your ask posts in general <3

🤡🤡🤡 and boy, there are times when i feel like i have a clown nose ready to plaster onto their faces; clownery and irony are sisters in some ways

💖💖💖 your writings are so delicious i'm actually tempted to read the ones outside of twst, specifically the ones abt scaramouche (thank u for introducing mouchey to me <3)

🥵🥵🥵🥵 literally horny gripping my thighs for dear life--

💔💔💔💔 i remember having to douse my head in cold water after HBE; anyway, yes, your angst gutted me more times than i could count--

🍓🍓🍓 When you write fluff they always got me soooo >_< they're downright diabetic!!!

🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸THIS. THIS BE THE MAIN REASON I"M DRAWN TO YOUR BLOG LIKE SHARK TO BLOOD

🎀🎀🎀the same with the fluff, the way you write these scenes always give me butterflies and got me sooo 🥺🥺 <33

🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠 methinks your brain should be studied and put on display in a museum <3

🌺🌺🌺 even when all the death/bad end flags are there, i still hope the otherwise because i want them to survive so badd

🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄 i'm insane about how you write them actually, loving the mental gymnastics i go thru whenever i read them <3 you really bring the freaky out of these freaks uwu

🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰 not exaggerating, but the first time i found your blog i felt like finding a hidden gem and has been in love with your writings until today (and i suspect for an even longer time <3)

🌞🌞🌞 and sometimes they turn me into an emotional mess and make me insane (affectionate)

⭐⭐⭐ not only they draw me in immediately, they refuses to leave my head; they're living rent free as we speak--

🎨🎨🎨 plenty times i have to look up meanings and symbolism from your writings and it's so much fun gaining new knowledge!

💡💡💡some of your fics really do got me thinking "How did you come up with this???" and i am always INTRIGUED

🧸🧸🧸 how can i not when they're THAT good?? They's comfort fics! (and said comfort fics have not given the characters comfort AT ALL)

🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀 the emotional rollercoaster you put me thru everytime i read your stories is real; i don't think i'll be getting off soon.

📗📗📗 THEY SHOULD BE BOOKS IN MY OPINION ACTUALLY

🧩🧩🧩 oouughh it's got me acting like that one meme of a guy with his whiteboard

💐💐💐i ADORE how you write your MCs, each one of them has such a distinct personality and a refreshing point of view!

🧶🧶🧶 they flow so nicely and smoothly >_< especially love it when you write bickerings like old-married couples

🧊🧊🧊 even when said character may not act like this in canon, the way you write them actually feels like they might??? Somewhere in the multiverse of this specific character, there's this character acting just like how you write them--

💎💎💎 and i especially love it when they're unreliable narrators and/or slowly descending into madness <3 but yes, i just love you write thought processes of each characters in general

💧💧💧both tears of agony and joy, definitely. The butchered got me bawling actually, getting so attached to Marisa even though knowing she won't survived... OTL OTL

🌌🌌🌌🌌 some i wish you'd elaborate more, like that aein in ant hill fic with floyb because i'm honestly curious with worldbuilding of that one

😱😱😱 and you make an amazing build-up towards it too! They're not so sudden and you can even pick the crumbs as the stories go. love it when my suspicions are proven to be correct

🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵 like a moment of epiphany; and i have to say, "Good Luck, Babe" would make a good fem!rido song--

🍇🍇🍇 very very great taste i must say, they're like *chef's kiss* ✨✨✨

🍆🍆🍆 considering they make up the majority of your writings, AAAAAA yes i do love how you write them >_< (they're very much canon in my heart)

🪀🪀🪀 they're definitely not a quick read to me, but they're highly enjoyable!!

🔮🔮🔮 i can't say how many times your plot twists make me feel like getting hit by a baseball bat-- (in a good way) and sometimes (many times) i have to put down my phone and go "....hUH? WUH???"

💣💣💣💣 countless times you've put me on the edge of my seat and got me bouncing me leg in anticipation >_<

🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬 they way you write your stories are so vivid that it's so easy seeing them portrayed scene by scene in my mind (sometimes i like to even imagine them in a visual novel game format)

🎱🎱🎱 and they blew my mind every time <33

🎩🎩🎩 everytime you update new chapters, i like to re-read the previous chapters in order to refresh my mind and see the current plot in its wholeness

🧛🧛🧛 so much that i'm dropping everything i'm doing every time you posted a new fic <3

In short, i bow before your throne of godly writing skills and rejoice for the feast you kindly bestowed upon us <333 again, i'm sorry of it's long >_<

(ask game)

KHEYY, YOU ABSOLUTE MADLAD!!!! YOU DID ALL OF THEM AND PROVIDED EXTRA THOUGHTS????? Sending you lots of kisses and happy vibes in a package because WAAAAAA THIS IS SO SWEET AND KIND OMG?!??!?!?!?! ｡°(°.◜ᯅ◝°)°｡ thank you so very much!!!!! I am cradling this message in my heart forever and always,,, 🥺💖 please don't apologize for the length!!! These positive vibes added so many years to my life!! (〃´𓎟`〃) I am incredibly honored to be a blog worth putting notifs on for,,, and to say my works should be books, that they can be imagined in VN format, that many aspects and more can be enjoyed so thoroughly....... AAAAA OMG YOU'LL MAKE ME CRYYYYYY!!! T^T

These pictures illustrate how I felt reading every one of your lovely words. I'm so flattered,,, orz orz uuuwaaaa I will continue to cook up the most delicious of feasts!!!!!! ᕙ( •̀ ᗜ •́ )ᕗ

[evieaxx]

Tbh I would also go crazy if the games I invented had ties to my ex and the friend I betrayed.

Suzanne Collins is a genius or I am going insane. I spent to much time researching these books. Anyways I digress

In MockingJay, Plutarch says this to Katniss to describe the capital and by association Snow himself.

"Thirteen was used to hardship, whereas in the Capitol, all they've known is Panem et Circenses."

"What's that?" | recognize Panem, of course, but the rest is nonsense.

"It's a saying from thousands of years ago, written in a language called Latin about a place called Rome," he explains. "Panem et Circenses translates into 'Bread and Circuses.' The writer was saying that in return for full bellies and entertainment, his people had given up their political responsibilities and therefore their power.""

Snow sacrifices two people in his rush for power. Those two people are Sejanus Plinth and Lucy gray Baird.

One of Lucy grey Baird's first descriptions in the books is clearly linked to the circus.

“She’s like a circus performer,” one of the girls remarked. The other mentors made sounds of agreement.

That was it. Coriolanus reached back into his memory to the circuses of his early childhood. Jugglers and acrobats, clowns and dancing girls in puffy dresses twirling around while his brain grew giddy with spun sugar."

One of the more interesting aspects of Sejanus character is the customs he brings back from living in district 2.

“He’s putting bread crumbs on the body,” said Ma. “So Marcus has food on his journey.”

“His journey where?” asked the Grandma’am. “He’s dead!”

“Back to wherever he came from,” said Ma. “It’s what we do, back home. When someone dies.”

Lucy Gray Baird and Sejanus fate's are not forgotten within the games themselves. Cornelius snow's empire is built on the death of Sejanus along with his customs and respect of the dead. Lucy grey Baird is a temporary sweetness that turns to poison in his grasp. They are the bread and circus respectively and are both consumed by the capitals ideals.

This symbolism goes even deeper when you read the original source material which is Juvenal's Satire X. The fact that it is satire is very prevalent in the hunger games series.

"What indeed do we wish for or fear that is Rational? How often is what we conceive so far from wrong-headed. That we don’t regret both the effort, and the fulfilment of our desire?"

Cornelius's fatal flaw is seen in the first part of the satire. His fear of love led to his desire for money, both destroying him in the end.

"Would you like to be greeted as Sejanus, possess all that he Possessed, be the one to grant highest office to some, appoint Others to military posts, be seen as the Emperor’s guardian,"

The second part is about Sejanus who at the very least inspired the book. It is about a death caused by a letter written because of the underlying envy of his wealth. Then the eventual climb to power is definitely comparable to snow using his death to climb up the social ladder.

"Yet both orators died for their eloquence, a rich overflowing Stream of talent was what sent both of them to their deaths."

This part can be viewed as Lucy Grey's fate. her words and spectacle are only viewed as good when snow controls them. her leaving him and the sound of her music haunting him is her revenge.

This phrase exemplifies Snow's downfall and eventual death

"Few kings go down to Ceres’ son-in-law, Dis, free from

Blood and carnage, few tyrants achieve a tranquil death.  "

[sophiepatztone]

Week 2: September 11th

I started this week with these subtopics:

intentionality in art

social responsibilities of artists

public perception of Contemporary art

and

commodification

circulation of images

spectacle

With these I found some interesting common ground. Please see links for complete documentation of research and sources.

The Role of the Artist in Society

Last week I determined that public perception of Contemporary art is fairly negative. Why do people clown on contemporary art?

There is a big disconnect between our language and the language the art world use to describe work. Think of a movie synopsis written like an art synopsis

Other art forms don't have their own 'dialect' or language to describe it. Art is literally put on a pedestal in museums and galleries, acting like it’s some sort of object that requires a certain status to understand or interpret

Someone stated, “I do feel like nowadays, artists speak much more for their paintings and not the other way around anymore.” But isn't that the point? Why don't people understand that?

A lot of people confuse Contemporary art for Modern art

"Introduction of the readymade presents a cultural change: the increasing interaction between artistic skills and social relations and material forms of technology"

Complaints about price and meaning of projects are prevalent. There is a lack of understanding and a lack of willingness of understand. The root of the issue is the Commodification of art. It's become a status symbol instead of a object for the people... this is where my research begins to overlap.

I explored other types of art forms. What is the role of the performer, writer, architect, and what parallels can I find between their work and studio artists' work?

I was drawn to poetry. I looked at a few Robert Frost poems and researched its intentions and interpretations. Poetry was more of a tangent, but I am interested in how people interpret his work and the personal connections people can find within it. Like any piece of art, anyone can derive their own specific meaning from it.

Edgar Allen Poe wrote a paper on the Philosophy of Composition (of a written work, specifically poetry). "Poe's conviction that a work of fiction should be written only after the author has decided how it is to end and which emotional response, or "effect", he wishes to create, commonly known as the "unity of effect." Interesting seeing how this relates to the process of making art... starting with a defined intention.

Photography

First made me think of Hito Steyerl, In Defense of the Poor Image. Widely circulated images have become “the people’s images.” This gets into copyright, ownership, etc.

"The poor image is no longer about the real thing – the originary original. Instead, it is about its own real conditions of existence: about swarm circulation, digital dispersion, fractured and flexible temporalities. It is about defiance and appropriation just as it is about conformism and exploitation."

The Society of the Spectacle... when social relations are mediated by images and noise that we consume, so much so that it becomes a false reality.

“The image and the market are intrinsically linked. It’s not random that the history of consumer culture and the democratization of photography coincide. Historically, photography supported capitalism’s development.”

"Materiality, an examination of the “thingness” of photographs, has the potential to move photography and photographic thinking into the center of social and cultural analysis."

“It seems well understood now, that all our activities on earth linked to the pursuit of the consumer satisfaction, are damageable for the planet and could make a final point to human existence.”

"the history of photography has, of necessity—given photography's embeddedness in relations of production and relations of power and truth—had to be thoroughly aestheticized."

The spectacle is capital accumulated to the point that it becomes images

Of course I looked at art that was a response to post-war commodification in the 50s and 60s. Warhol, Hamilton, Rosenquist.

What I made:

I made these two photomontages/ collages to represent the decontextualization of images that we consume, and how we bring new meaning to an image when its context changes. My research on the Spectacle had me thinking about the ways images dominate our social relationships. An obvious example of that today is social media, which closely relates into Steyerl's poor image theories. I like to think that we don't succumb to the false realities that the internet perpetuates, but they have become so engrained in our lives that it is hard to differentiate what reality we actually live in vs. what reality we think we are living in.

Feedback/ things to consider for next week:

"Language of a generation -- always work with ppl of your own generation -- same cultural and image references"

GET THE PICTURE by Bianca Bosker

Art that's impenetrable? Absolute statement of wealth and power. You can only afford to understand/ buy the art

Journey of recontextualization through the internet

Reply All, Yes, Yes, No podcast segment

How fast internet culture works, flipping of contexts

Other things I thought of:

Celebrity #6

Post Internet Art

The New Aesthetic

Goals for next week:

Get out into the world!

Look at art

Eavesdrop on people looking at art

Trace an image through the internet back to its origin, news or memes etc.

From here, I want to keep looking at the overlap between my two topics, commodification, and to explore more about how it prevails in different forms.

[lets-talk-spirituality]

Thanks for linking the daylight stuff!

Your takes were SO interesting, especially connecting the sad clown to his Halloween costume and spotting the tarot reader in the back. I think he had a tarot station at his Halloween show!

The video has a weird energy to me because it somehow feels like he’s in the middle of the late night talking and as it was narrative, as you said, but also like he’s turning a new page. It was also made in the middle of this era but only came out now.

do you think maybe he’s looking for a way out of the circus or has given up and accepted it? The horse imagery feels really final from your analysis tho I believe the death card represents change?

Brooooo 🤯

So we discussed here somewhere (probably deleted) about the bird and the fish right? How in the first album the bird is looking down at him in water (the album cover) and then the second album is fish eye and the last album is upside down. Holy shit. The sky and the sea mirror each other and look the same upside down. The reason the ocean looks blue is because it reflects the sky.

Anyway, so I’m on instagram and I come across this quote from Ever After “a bird may love a fish, but where would they live” “then I shall have to make you wings” and it all fucking clicks. Guys, the bird and the fish—daylight and golden/adore you. In MFASR he is a fish. Did he try to become a fish and a bird only to still be Harry?

Ever After is a retelling of Cinderella, the fairytale where a prince meets a low status woman who is kind and falls in love and then searches for her throughout the kingdom… are you all seeing the parallels now?

Anywho, just made that connection, kinda curious it connects to Cinderella, but he is Prince Charming/God of Love. God it’s so mythic isn’t it?

So back to responding to your ask… yes he did have tarot, the moon and the fool card at Harryween.

Yeah there is a feeling of chaos in all the music videos, like fast moving, lots going on. I feel like the energy of the Daylight mv seems to me to be a continuation of LNT. If we were to put the videos from this album in chronological order (sorta) I’d think it’d be MFASR, LNT, Daylight, As it Was. At the end of LNT he’s falling and in the beginning of Daylight he’s coming down into the circus. It’s a circus in his dreams and reality, you could see Daylight as showing he’s gotten deeper into the circus.

The death card is a card of transformation yes. The ending of something, an era. To me it’s Pluto vibes, you lose so you gain. You sacrifice something now for a better thing later on. Very much those vibes. For him, he’s accepted he’s lost something, sacrificed something for this career he wants. At least that’s how I read it.

I didn’t really see the death card in the horse shot. But if so than we’ve had three tarot card instances— 0 the fool (beginning of a journey, naïveté), 13 Death (end of a journey), 18 the moon (emotions, dreams, illusions). Kinda interesting he put the fool and the moon together. It symbolizes to me what we’ve been discussing about him evolving.

Anyway! There’s my thoughts.

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

finally put together my answers for ficwip’s 2024 in review questions! idk why i took so long, did i think i was gonna get another fic posted in 2024? well, maybe.

How many fics have you worked on since January? now that is hard to answer. do we count two sentence snippets that have yet to meaningfully go anywhere? just stories that got titles, or placeholder titles? ehhh, i’m gonna split the difference. fourteen 911 fics (one posted), twenty-three one piece fics (ten posted), one mob psycho 100 fic.

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? i’ve joked about this too many times to count, but it’s only funny because it’s true: actually writing a make out scene instead of fading to black.

What piece of media inspired you the most? (This can be the fandom you wrote the most for, the one that spawned the most ideas, the one you thought about the most, etc.) *looks up at #1* uh, yeah, one piece and the clown pirate-adjacent parts of that series in particular.

How many fandoms did you write for this year? three; i poked at some wips from past years, but the mp100 one is the only one i made real progress on. everything else was new this year.

What ships captured your heart? 🤡🍶 and 🚒🚁

What characters captured your heart? 🤡 and 🚁, though their partners were never far from my mind.

Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year? yeah, i had paid absolutely zero attention to 911 fandom before i caught wind of the bisexual realization storyline in april.

What fic meant the most to you to write? i know i’ve kissed you before, but i didn’t do it right—the second-longest thing i’ve ever written, and in writing it i wrote the story i’d been wanting to read (more or less) since my interest in shuggy first hit. it was a ton of fun to write and got me talking to a lot of fantastic, enthusiastic buggy fans here on tumblr.

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on? something blue. very easy to write, fast to write, fun to write, and also fun to edit to the word count i wanted. (four parts exactly 500 words, one part 25 words, and one part 1,000 words.)

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing? i know i’ve kissed you before. it took forever and a day to get that last part done, but those last few paragraphs were so satisfying to get down on paper.

What fic was the most difficult to write? home (the gilded lily remix). the fic it was a remix of had so much visual symbolism built in that i wanted to parallel, but including it without being obvious about it was a struggle. that final visual was a last minute addition to the fic that i think really made it, and before i figured that out i was stressed about how incomplete things felt.

What fic was the easiest to write? [angry clown noises], no question. ask box fic gets written when the fic is easier to write than the equivalent meta, and this one just rolled out of me.

What were your shortest and longest fics posted this year? well, longest is obviously i know i’ve kissed you before, at a bit under 35,000 words. shortest turns out to be inferiority “complex?” i find it quite simple at about 350 words, a silly little bit of young celestial dragon!shanks ask box fic.

What were your go-to writing songs? i don’t really listen to music while writing—lyrics tend to distract me—but as far as inspiration goes, i gotta go with mitski’s pink in the night. title inspo for two or three fics this year!

What was the hardest fic to title? i went back and forth on half a dozen options for the parenthetical part of home—i’m a traditionalist when it comes to titling remixes, i gotta have a “the x remix” parenthetical in there. i knew i was switching the title from “house” to “home,” but i could not decide how best to indicate what this fic was focusing on. something about gender? suppressed rage? suppressed despair? eventually i decided to go with the concept of a gilded lily: a beautiful living thing given excessive adornment that will ultimately kill it.

What's your favorite title of the year? i think charm/offensive is a pretty decent piece of wordplay titling (my favorite kind). there’s the concept of a charm offensive (using your charm to get what you want), and the fact that shanks is both charming and offensive to buggy over the course of this short fic.

Share your favorite opening line this is more a favorite opening/ending pair, because i think very neatly sums up the whole point of something blue in two sentences: “You should come with me.” “I never was any good at saying no to you and meaning it.”

Share your favorite ending line not particularly fancy writing, but as a conclusion to the arc buggy went through during i know i’ve kissed you before i think this line is very effective: Over his shoulder, he promised, “Until next time, Red-Hair!”

Share your favorite piece of dialogue ooh, hard to pick! i think i have to go with this bit from the end of something blue: “I’m pretty sure I’d remember if I asked you to marry me before.” Buggy rolled his eyes more emphatically. “Not literally the same question, dumbass. But you’ve always been asking me to be with you, ever since that first day.”

Share your funniest line ugh, what is humor? have i ever written anything funny? suddenly i don’t know. i guess the end of [angry clown noises]: Shanks gives Beckman an intent look, a bright flush high in his cheeks. “Yes literally.” After a moment, Beckman puts it together. He buries his head in his hands. “Oh my god.”

What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story? i didn’t know if i know i’ve kissed you before!buggy was actually going to sleep with shanks until i got to the scene where he talked it through with galdino. that didn’t meaningfully change the ending of the fic, but it made it a lot easier for them to have the sad topics conversation that i had vaguely intended to get to before buggy left the ship.

What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand? scrivener my beloved!! it’s so nice to be able to write without wifi and have confidence that what i’ve written is safe. i have so many blank notebooks in my life, i really should write more by hand, but my thoughts move so much faster than i can handwrite that i lose track of where i am in the scene and my motivation gets snuffed out. once, my phone died while i was waiting to meet with my aunt for lunch, and i was bored enough that i went into a barnes & nobles, bought a tiny notebook and a tiny pen, and wrote five or ten pages of fluff set sometime in the future of clash of the four emperors, but that’s all i handwrote this year iirc.

If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year? finishing i know i’ve kissed you before, no question.

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic? i feel like i must have, but i can’t remember the specifics. :/ i think i might’ve treated myself to a nice dinner after i know i’ve kissed you before was done?

How did you recharge between fics? with great difficulty, lmao. seriously, though? reading well-regarded published fiction. highlights from this year include sabriel, leguin’s earthsea trilogy, and clive barker’s short stories. reading short stories in particular is a great way to get me thinking about style, in a way that feels less mean than reading mediocre fic and thinking, “oh, i wouldn’t have done that, i’d’ve worded that sentence this way to get this effect.” when i catch myself reading fic like that, i know it’s time to get some original fiction in me.

Did you create fanworks other than fic? mm, technically yes? i record myself reading fics on occasion, a very unpolished kind of podfic, but i haven’t published podfic in a decade, i wouldn’t know how to do it anymore.

How many events did you take part in? (bangs, exchanges, ship weeks, zines, prompt memes, they all count!) two, if i remember correctly. the @op-fanwork-exchange and their summer remix. both a fun time!

If this were an awards show, who would you thank? my sister for her occasional occupation as my beta reader and/or vent receptacle alpha reader and @midydoof, my constant collaborator and inspiration. 💜

What's left on your to-do list for 2024? *blows raspberry*

What would you like to write next year? where do i start? shuggy bodyswap, [redacted] for mids, this bucktommy angstfest, at least one other thing teased during my birthday countdown back in july… and, of course, the fic tentatively titled guess i’m a coward (i just want to feel alright). shanks pov has to stop feeling like pulling teeth eventually, right?

[nenekobasu]

yo I just wanted to say I've been reading your BL theories and so far I was pretty certain that Isagi was going to come out a winner out of PxG (because he said he wants to become BL's #1 and shounen protags become what they said they'll become) even tho I thought it was going to take masterpiece S-class writing from Kaneshiro to be satisfying bc how was Isagi getting over Rin and beating Kaiser for real, bc the "how does it feel to be the clown of my story" part, Isagi said so himself that it wasn't a total win, and now I didn't fully notice that I'd noticed it before you pointed it out, but the Isagi who called Kaiser his clown looking back doesn't seem to be the same Isagi who's happy to be #1 rn. Like, past Isagi would have celebrated becoming real #1 over Kaiser with a different heat and differently. Here Isagi doesn't even think abt Kaiser anymore? Like wow reader me noticed but I took your posts for it to enter my conciousness. So I think you've convinced me that yeah, Isagi won't be happy (after?) next game. Also, I think you had a post abt how everything rested on PxG game, and I agree. PxG has to be the best part of the manga so far, or the manga will be over. Like the amount of stakes???? This is a very ambitious knot Kaneshiro tyed. (end of my ramble... for now I hope this wasn't a bother ;_;)

hello and np anon. my opinion is that what blue lock did with isagi is incredibly ambitious which would indicate it has every confidence it can stick the landing, so while i think greatness is a minimum requirement for pxg i also think it will be and i’m prepared to love whatever form it takes. while pxg is the end of nel arc it’s probably the midpoint of the series; thematically egojin promised nel would be “a big bang” in its inception and with egojin–>rin and hiori–>isagi both want to see “the birth of a hero” so if isagi is the hero and pxg is his ‘birthplace’ i think he’s given a lot of freedom in how much he can afford to fail before his supposed ‘birth’. every match is its own rollercoaster so maybe there is an emotionally satisfying way to put isagi at the top in the end even though i think his current success can’t and won’t be sustained

part of why the pressure is on for pxg to be great is that it needs to do like twelve contradictory things at once you know it needs to renew a trust it shattered while revealing the full extent of its betrayal it needs to be the reaffirming anchor that condones freeform chaos it needs to be itself to such an extent it reinvents itself into a new form. ubers was great because it was this shifty unmoored scramble of the same recycled images within a principled 3-act structure that didn’t ever let solid ground form (turning kaiser into the loner protagonist, isagi becoming non-isagi, defacing the meaning of key terms and symbols, etc.), i think ubers is a masterpiece that hides a lot in plain sight so it depends on what follows to be a masterpiece too. the stakes are high here because blue lock’s identity and message are on the line which is just super neat as an experience since blue lock is most definitely doing it on purpose to fuck with people, in any case i’m flattered to hear you got something out of these posts

[myfriendlungleg]

okay the thing about supernatural is that it so immediately drops its premise. and that sucks cause the premise is cool. the whole roadtrip monster hunt americana thing? that was cool. s1, it has some over-arching plot and some emotional arcs, sure, but its main pull is the individual episodes: they're scary (middling, but im easy to frighten), there's some good mystery to them, they've got a really clearly defined aesthetic, some good action, they're so earnest, and the symbolism is actually pretty coherent.

The whole over-arching thing with John and the demon and their mom is good because its actually really consistent: the yellow eyed demon has a plan for sam, john has a plan for sam; free-will vs destiny is just going to college or sticking around to do what ur violent ex-marine dad tells you to do forever. the big mysterious purpose the demon has for sam, its not so different to that. (later seasons really double down on the whole god is just your abusive dad thing, but i think s1 did it first and elegantly). The finale, where john's possessed and the demon is telling sam about his fate, that symbolism is heavy handed but its great - its still just his father. And importantly, that plot never really distracts from the monster-of-the-week - its always the same consistent theme, making careful progress, around some pretty great monster eps.

Then s2 immediately is trying to do too much. It ditches the so-carefully built arc dean had in the first season (where he's finally acknowledging his resentment for john) in favour of unclearly defined manpain about being brought back from the dead, and then about how he's too ruthless (which wasn't really a s1 trait?), and then about how his brother's a 'monster' and he might have to put him down, and none of these problems are ever really given any hope of resolving. Sam's free-will vs destiny thing ditches the abusive dad symbolism that made it great and becomes a little exhausting. and because of that increased focus on the characters' (kindof ambiguous) emotional problems, the individual episodes suffer so much for quality. clowns episode where it isnt even a real clown, its just a guy. its like theres this clear pivot, which lasts the rest of the show, away from that initial monster-hunter roadtrip americana premise into this kind of forever plot, this sinkhole, where things don't get resolved and just escalate indefinitely. its kind of disappointing.

i will say though, the minor-character work gets a lot better s2 onwards. i mean we get bobby, ash, jo, ellen, plus a lot of really interesting one-offs (like andy) and they're all great and charming. i suppose that expansion of the cast is part of the pivot towards something more plot heavy. anyway. the other problem with season 2 is that they have one of the most beautiful actors in the world and they give him a crew-cut, like some kind of soldier. come on.

[accio-victuuri]

CPN : Candies from Sunshine By My Side ( filming wrap ) ☀️

I may miss some minor candies but that’s just how it is cause people may interpret things differently. It’s just so nice to see new content from and XZ, and the fact that Sheng Yang is so cute! can’t wait to meet him!

some things already discussed previously:

night light fake rumor

same sun emoji used

disclaimer : everything below is cpn, speculation and interpretation that is very bjyx bias. if you’re not into that then please leave.

━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━

I wanna start with ZZ’s general aura and disposition during the wrap, and how happy he was. It’s really nice to see him be among a group of people that seems to dote on him and that he can be comfortable with. You can probably see some double standard talk going around, that yes, during CQL wrap, he was also happy — however, in the last day, there were moments that they both looked sad. Also the airport photos of GG next day where his eyes were swollen — from crying probably. Add one of the CPNs that they both cried when the filming ended inside their car. So yeah. As much as I see him happy, it brings me back to the bittersweet ending of CQL. I won’t add any video/photo evidence of this anymore because it’s a well-known fandom CPN.

I also just remembered how much of a jiejie collector XZ is. LOL. If WYB collects geges, then XZ collects jiejies. That’s what I noticed with his interactions towards his co-star. I think she’s another jiejie who is now doting on XZ. 😂😂😂😂

Moving on to the other CPN clues, starting with some usual fandom symbols that we see. I love adding those to every post because it shows how consistent they are. for example the logo animation of XZS where GG talks about the Moon. like how many times did we make a CPN between them connected to the 🌙? these might be hard to spot for new turtles or those who aren’t into cpns.

sunflower, the legendary fan given by wyb, red heart, apple watch — need i say more? for the drawing, i’m not sure if ZZ made it but the wink did it for me cause he usually does that. i mean, even WYB’s black panther was winking. sooooo… The 10:05 is a given, but the 10:23 is a nice one cause we’ve been associating him to 23 ( Ai Zhan / Love Zhan ). I have also been thinking about this number because for XZS lantern festival game, they are giving away 23 desk calendars. so specific.

this imagery from the vlog compared to WYB’s single video is just so similar. the sunshine allowing plants to grown. whether that me be literal or metaphorical. how they view the world is so hopeful 🤍🤍🤍 and this is why they get along so well. there is really no way they wouldn’t be close, even if they didn’t end up playing WWX / LWJ. I believe that somehow, they would find their way to each other and still have the relationship we think they have. 🌱

and yes, we know that this was part of the filming process. at the start, XZ planted it and during the course of the shoot cared for it and watched it grow. but the similarity in their message to people and to the world. I can’t. this is some next level coincidence and connection.

The use of words that are same/similar to the captions of Hidden Blade’s weibo account is next. It’s one of those things that I think XZ is purposely fucking with us. It’s not like you can claim that he copies HB, because they do not own those captions on their posts. it’s just words. However clowns will know — what are the chances that he is using the same/similar? Mister eloquent himself who also has a team that does his videos. It all seems intentional.

• “plant your own sun” / and then HB is always putting suns on every 100 million they get in the box office. the intention in XZ’s words is like, do it yourself. like a person works hard to get their success. similar to what happened to HB, they have very little backing and it’s because the movie is actually good that it’s getting the recognition.

• 春回大地 the return of spring. It’s from a chinese idiom which means that spring returns to the earth. It is described that the severe cold has passed, and warmth and vitality have come to the world again.

• 逐光而行 follow the light / 与光同行 walk with the light.

there is also a cpn going around about the sound you can hear from the radio. I am the last person to verify things like this but can you hear wuming? 💀💀💀

but I think the correct explanation is, what it’s actually saying is “how do you rate it?” ( or something like that ) and because of the sound manipulation, you can sort of hear wuming. this is not the first time XZ puts things that he purposely wants us to mishear. lol.

that’s all for now. i am still waiting for an actual trailer from this drama + one & only so we can have proper FMVs of Sheng Yang and Chen Suo. The AU / Parallel world Yizhan pairing to rule them all 😂😂😂

-END.

[ladyluscinia]

I've made my opinion on the whole "Edward's true self is a soft marshmallow center" / "Izzy is in love with a fake persona and hates the real Ed" take pretty clear (put simply: Absolutely Not) but it's still pretty popular and I tend to read meta even when I disagree. Which means I've noticed a very specific argument that I want to comment on.

So, generally, the process of justifying woobie Ed going Kraken places blame firmly on Izzy due to the whole cabin confrontation. Some people weave this into an elaborate manipulative scheme / straight up forcing him via threats, while others are more generous (?) and just classify Izzy's explosion as Ed buckling under an atmosphere of social pressure. (I disagree pretty firmly with both.) Either way, there is one detail / accusation that I see repeated a lot:

Apparently, Izzy makes his opinion of who he really wants clear by shoving the horrible caricature picture from episode 4 - the picture that Edward was clearly distressed by - in Edward's face in an act of intimidation / deliberate re-traumatizing.

Except.... he doesn't?

This is the picture from 1x04 and accompanying quote:

"God... Is this what they think I look like? Hm? Fucking viking vampire clown with - Look at that. There's one, two, three, four... nine guns all over him. Nine guns?! I have - I, I have one gun, and one knife. Just like everyone else."

And here is the image that Izzy confronts Edward with in 1x10 (and Edward pins to the wall during his makeover):

That's no Mad Devil Pyrate with nine guns and a head of demonic smoke. That's a guy with one gun and one knife.

Self-indulgent meta-ish thoughts under the cut

Honestly, I noticed the difference in images immediately on my first watch, which meant I did not draw this (questionably) implied connection at all. When Izzy was spitting about how "This is Blackbeard!" I was pretty much shrugging and conceding his point. Because, like, he's not wrong. That is a picture of Blackbeard pretty much as we met him in 1x04, symbolic skull aside symbolic skull included because the man keeps one on his office desk for kicks that I forgot about briefly.

There's something very interesting about the fact that Izzy goes for such a plain image. There's no fancy title. No horror. Hell, on inspection I think that image shows Edward's tattoos and single sleeve outfit??? I was wondering if the show made that art themselves and now I think they must have.

(I think they made both images, because the first one is harder to tell but might also have the sleeve / tattoos thing - just less accurate. However it's also clearly based on the A General History of the Pyrates illustrations from the 1700s where he has like six guns on his chest, while the second one is more show specific.)

And what does that say about Izzy??? A whole library of books on pirate legends and he gravitates to the image of Edward that seems to have been drawn by someone who actually met him? That's based on the guy he actually served under / loves, not the myth they spread around the ocean together???

Like holy fuck, when Izzy says "This is Blackbeard" he means it wholly literally. The guy in that image is the man he knew for years, while the guy standing in front of him is a complete fucking stranger in a pink robe, and he's been waiting for however many days for the depression fog to clear enough to see if there's even a trace of his boss / friend / love left post-Stede. Instead "Ed" makes his first appearance on the deck after the breakup and sings a song about his feelings and then earnestly asks why they are being pirates.

I still think Izzy started that conversation with intent to resign. He'd completely given up - not on the "Blackbeard" persona, but on the Edward he knew that had earned the title (and his respect and devotion alongside it). Not for being some kind of horrible devil, but for being brilliant, and the greatest sailor he'd ever known, and the Captain he was loyal to above all else. Izzy is lost at sea, and there's sure as fuck nothing keeping him on this particular boat anymore.

And then, pretty much purely by accident, he pisses Edward off just enough that his "Ed" mask slips and...

"There he is."

[yangxiaolongprotectionsquad]

Some stand out things to me that were DEFINITELY overshadowed by the most tender, soul-restoring, gorgeous, stunning confession to ever be conceived and executed, in no particular order:

1. I know some ppl are unhappy abt Weiss being down bad for Jaune now but I personally think it’s fucking HILARIOUS and the way RBY were all 🤨 was amazing. Jaune fr looks good…. “MATURE” LMFAOOO Weiss really put on her clown shoes and I love her for that

2. I don’t think anyone thought Alyx’s story was going to be totally accurate but DAMN. Writing her kind brother out of the story entirely, sacrificing him to return to Remnant, poisoning Jaune? What a twist.

It shines an entirely new light on her interactions with those in the Ever After. The Crimson King ascended into a colossal shithead because of how she beat him—no wonder he resents humans so much. I think it’s likely that she cheated to win, so when he came back it was with a vengeance. I wonder at how she and Louis were raised to become opposites?

3. The Curious Cat is basically Ozpin. A helpful if eccentric guide at first, that eventually is forced to confront a painful reality. What really makes the connection stand out is how the Cat deflects by saying things like, “You never asked,” regarding the brother. They both technically don’t lie outright but they do withhold crucial information that would change how the others would perceive them and the world.

I fucking LOVE the parallels man. The nail in the coffin was when the Curious Cat left after admitting Alyx played them. I’m certain the cat will return in some way or another, like Ozpin.

4. Ruby. Oh dear, Ruby. She’s been lost ever since she fell. Literally of course, but mentally, too. She doesn’t know her purpose, her role, her reason to keep going when Salem is out there with two relics and the situation appears hopeless. Volume 8 was a massive pill to swallow, and her plan failing has had horrible consequences. She’s at a crossroad, (lol), because she needs to be a leader.

She can’t doubt herself, she can’t fail, she has everyone relying on her and that burden has never been heavier than it is right now. It’s crushing her, so she’s trying to lighten that load by erasing pieces of herself. Ruby gave away her emblem. Penny’s sword.

Her beloved Crescent Rose, a PART of her, at least symbolically, being given back to her by Jaune, offers ZERO reassurance. Worse still, just looking at it fills her with dread. It’s a symbol of every burden she’s shouldered and every battle she’s fought.

Jaune returning Crescent Rose is akin to him saying, “We need to keep going, to keep fighting.”

And Ruby Rose, the optimistic hero and legend straight out of a fairy tale, wishes she could just disappear.

SO YEAH. That’s my incoherent analysis. I think volume 9 has already become my favourite, and EDDY RIVAS. It cannot be said enough how amazing the script was. Truly. The animators went ballistic. The concept and background designers? They served us a 5 star meal. Miles is SLAYING as an older Jaune, who is both familiar and yet distinctly different. Lindsey, Kara, Arryn, and Barb continue to give us incredible performances.

HOW COULD I NOT MENTION CASEY AND MARTIN??? Banger after certified banger. Give me the album.

Thank you, CRWBY. For everything. I knew you’d deliver but you’ve outdone yourselves. That’s all I can say for now, but I’ve deadass had a smile glued on my face since I watched the ep, and you should know that.

[beepboop358]

Whilst I’ve lost faith in the writing after this mess of a season and I’m not so sure about byler anymore let’s say I’m still making connections and clowning and something else struck me as super interesting that I don’t think you’ve put it on the slides yet I mean it could be symbolism or it’s irrelevant and I’m clowning but here goes.

In the pizza shop, right before Mike is supposed to tell El that he loves her, Argyle interrupts them with pineapple pizza and Mike is absolutely disgusted by the prospect of putting “fruit on pizza”.

We all know that the word fruit has gay connotations and has been used in the show before for byler coding - examples being the rainbow apple logo in s2 and the supermarket scene in s3 with Mike and Will sitting near fruits.

He’s literally like “That’s insane. It’s blasphemous. Putting fruit on pizza.”

The choice of wording here is a bit weird. Like blasphemous? They could’ve used any other word. But they chose that one. It’s so odd how it’s something that fits perfectly if you view it through a queer lens.

Because homosexuality and being gay has been viewed as blasphemous from a religious perspective, a Christian perspective, and there are some people who still view it that way and it’s definitely a view that was even stronger in the 80s.

Mike saying that line could also be inferred as what he’s been told/what he’s heard about being gay considering his conservative family background too it would make sense. It would be something that’s perceived as blasphemous.

Then, we have El, who’s tried the pizza and thinks it’s good (not sure what to make of that lol but that’s interesting), saying that he shouldn’t deny it before trying and her and Argyle basically trying to get him to try it. And in that moment they change perspectives and they transition to WILL when El and Argyle are getting him to try it which is so convenient. Mike refusing to even try fruit pizza and as he’s being convinced to do so boom focus switches to his fruity best friend in love with him ahem.

And as we focus on Will and Jonathan, the focus is completely off El, Argyle and Mike, you can still hear their voices in the background for quite awhile actually that’s interesting and they’re still struggling to have Mike eat the pizza as he seems very stubborn not to. You do have to wait awhile before they finally finally succeed and have Mike finally say “no you’re right it’s actually good” and that’s when you can’t hear them anymore. They went off camera and dragged on the conversation until Mike tried the fruit pizza and he admitted it was good.

The queer reading here is that Mike is stubborn about performing heterosexuality and refusing to explore his own queerness refusing to even try shutting out every possibility of it because it’s insane it’s blasphemous the internalised homophobia is strong. However, it may be quite struggle and take some time, he will try the fruit pizza aka acknowledge his own queerness/feelings for Will and it’s definitely a good thing at the end of the day.

Like I said I don’t want to have to much hope because this season has literally ruined my hopes for the writing I’m not sure where the show is even going but I couldn’t ignore this piece of symbolism of how it fit with all the other byler coding in previous seasons and I really needed to point that out even if it feels like everything’s gone to the ground right now 😭

Hi!!

You could definitely be right about this!!! Great observations!!! If that's really how they meant it, that's pretty clever!

Everything does really feel like it went straight into the ground :( Everyone deserved so much better than what they were given in season 4. I'm still holding out hope, but currently feeling like I'm in a hole of shock and despair and nobody will tell me when they are going to let me out! LOL, maybe that was a bad metaphor. But anyways, you get the idea.

hope you're well! xx (i loved reading this so much btw)

[stxleslyds]

MY TOUGHTS ON THE END OF RED HOOD BY CHIP ZDARSKY.

Dishonour! Dishonour on you, dishonour on your cow! 

Well Jason Nation, it happened again, fanon wins over canon. The amount of bullshit that DC made Zdarsky write in this issue is insane, I have never seen this many fanfiction tropes shoved in a single issue in my life.

This book has been a constant insult to Jason’s character and his Red Hood “persona” since the very first issue but I never thought it would end this badly. It’s incredibly sad.

I will go ahead and say it, this tumblr and this post is not “Batfamily” friendly and it definitely isn’t fanon friendly when it comes to Jason Todd.

Fanon is destroying canon for Jason Todd. I am sorry but that’s how I see it, fanon doesn’t belong in canon, I would never get tired of saying that. But here is the thing, DC latches on to Jason’s fanon version because it fits their narrative of “the Batman is all that is right and all must follow his rules or they shall disappear”.

DC has been dying to make Jason bland and flavourless just like Batman. And now here it finally is.

Let’s be honest the story in this book, the new drug, Cheer, Tyler and his mom, none of that shaped this story, none of those things were the support beams for it. It was all about this never ending “daddy issues” thing that DC pretends is going on between Jason and Bruce.

It was all about those two fighting because they “think differently” so in the end they can push Jason towards the “no killing rule” being also the Red Hood’s modus operandi.

Its utter bullshit.

From the moment that Jason had to put a bat suit on I knew that this was going to be a mess. Luckily like I predicted they didn’t make a big deal out of him wearing it but the “Jason admires Batman” feeling was very present in the issue.

I will not talk about how easy it was for that one thug to land a punch on Jason while he was distracted and I will also not talk about Jason being a dumbass for not securing his dumb mask better when he knew the fight will involve gases. I will not talk about it.

Anyway, let’s talk about the Cheer Gas induced illusion, shall we?

In Jason’s illusion he finds Bruce at the manor looking at the picture of Joker’s death (?) and even though that is strange what Bruce says next is even weirder, he says this: “I did it. He was the last one, but I did it…Joker is dead. I am done.”

Now what the hell was that? This is Jason’s illusion, and by the looks of it in his illusion Bruce has killed every baddie in Gotham and left the Joker for last? Am I reading that right? Is this this a joke?

I understand that this is an illusion so the gas is making “real” things that Jason probably doesn’t know he wants, like wanting Bruce to go on a killing spree, which Jason never wanted because he said it himself, do you guys remember the iconic “I’m not talking about killing Cobblepot and Scarecrow or Clayface. Not Riddler or Dent…I’m talking about HIM. Just him.” Because I remember and it’s so important to Jason’s character, Jason never wanted Bruce to go on a killing spree, he wanted Bruce to kill the clown who had killed him when he was only fifteen. Is that so hard to remember DC?

And then it gets worse! Since WHEN has Jason wanted a perfect family life with the people that he has tried to kill, harm or looked down to? Why is “being with a bunch of people who NEVER get together for anything other than “help” the Bat in a fight against a fucking clown” the idea of happiness to Jason? Has this man ever interacted with any of these people in a positive way without the intrusion of a Batman/Robin event in the way? I will give you the answer, it’s no, the answer is no.

Jason Todd doesn’t care for your “Batfamily” bullshit DC, why would it matter to him? Because he was Robin? He was killed by the Joker when he was Robin, and he was killed because the man in charge of him didn’t pay enough attention! Jason Todd who was written as Dick Grayson’s number one hater for so long (and fandom loves that) is now having an illusion where he enjoys happy times with him along the others? Cass and Stephanie? What? Am I missing something, is this actually AO3, is this fanfiction?

I think Zdarsky got confused, this illusion is what would happen if Jason were dosed with fear gas. That must be it, I solved it everyone! Zdarsky just got confused by his own writing!

I wish.

Let’s go back to the sad reality, Jason has a moment in which he actually puts all his training in motion and shakes of the gas’s grasp on him. He does that but he is grabbed by so many people (who are this people?) and he is unarmed and I believe that’s the only reason why Cheer is still alive after saying that he has someone in Tyler’s mom’s hospital room ready to kill her if he doesn’t join him.

(If this were the real Jason, Cheer would have dropped dead instantly.)

But this is not the real Jason and this is not a *real* comic, it’s fanfiction! So just like that time in Batman #100 when Dick was fighting alone as Nightwing (for the first time since his “family” left him alone after losing his memories) the rest of the “family” shows up to fight Cheer and four random thugs.

Yep, its like the MCU had considered having Cap say “Avengers Assemble” when they were fighting a couple of robots instead of Thanos.

What a mess.

Also having Jason say, in real life (not illusion world), “You know what happiness is? It’s knowing that others have your back.” about this group of people is the perfect recipe for a big OOC moment for absolutely everyone. I cannot believe they have dragged Jason back to this awful concept and that they have sank him so low. It’s quite honestly, disgusting.

But the horrors don’t end there, we have a wonderful moment after Jason gives Batman the antidote, Jason stops Batman from punching the living shit out of Cheer. Because I am not stupid. There is no way in the world that you can convince me that Jason just stopped Batman from killing Cheer.

How incredibly delusional do you have to be to write Batman finally killing someone and that someone being Cheer, a guy that was introduced to comics two months ago?

Yes, later its said that between the gas and the antidote Bruce was a little too crazy and couldn’t help himself BUT I call bullshit once more, because Bruce has gone completely bat-shit-crazy on people before! I remember two recent instances in which that happened. Batman #57 in which Bruce beats the living shit out of KGBeast after he shot Dick. And the other one is Batman beating up Jason more brutally than he ever beat up Joker in RHatO #25.

DC cannot fuck with me. I might has bought this digital comic for 8 dollars but I am not buying that bullshit.

ALSO, there was no need for Zdarsky to do Jason as dirty as he did him when he made him say: “If you are going to come down from mount judgement to MY level for once… he’s not the guy to do it for.”

Zdarsky, why did you write a Red Hood story when you hate Red Hood? Couldn’t you have just told DC that you wanted to write a love letter to Batman? Once again, I am reading a Red Hood story for RED HOOD content not Batman content. Is it really that hard? I bet that if Zdarsky had asked DC to let him write a Batman story they would have said yes, there are like 20 Batman stories, they wouldn’t say no to one more!

Can you tell I am mad? And salty?

This post is so long and so full of anger, I am truly sorry for that but I have to write these feelings down or I would explode. And I am not even done, our suffering, Jason Nation, continues.

But first a little break from the pain, Tyler. Thank you after all the pain this book has given me Tyler is back and just like I predicted his mom is fine and he will stay with her, they both have been given a place and money to rebuild their life (not given by Jason nor Dick but I was close enough). The only happy ending that Tyler could have, he had and I am thankful for that, we even got a little adorable moment between the Red Hood and the Blue Hood.

I am weak for these little glimpses of a good Jason take in the middle of an incredibly awful/OOC story. And just to live in my own fantasy world I will headcanon that Jason promised himself to keep an eye out for Tyler and his mom. He would have wanted to know about their life and that they are still out of trouble.

Jason is a good man, don’t you forget that DC, I don’t care how much you twist it. Jason killing Tyler’s dad wasn’t a horrible act, it was fair game. That man was a horrible person, he drugged his child and made his wife (?) almost overdose. You never gave context as to why that man was working as a drug dealer but you told us those things so Jason should never feel like he did something wrong. As far as we know, Tyler and his mom are better off without him.

Having said that, lets go back to the pain of what is reading a Red Hood story.

“I’m giving up the guns.”

You know what, fine, as long as DC doesn’t pull another “I will stop being Red Hood for you Barbara” I will be fine. He can kill people with other things, he used to have the all-blades, he had normal swords and he had crowbars.

I will sacrifice Jason looking hot as hell when he pulls out his guns just to keep him as the Red Hood, all DC has to do is not give him that stupid… bat… symbol… oh no…. oh my god I can feel it… that thing, that horrible thing is making a comeback! NO!

Jason and Bruce’s talk is basic and it doesn’t do anything for anyone, in the end saying that Jason isn’t changing his ways for Bruce but that he is doing it for himself is more of the same. We know he is doing it for Bruce and we know DC is doing it because they cannot handle good, complex and interesting characters. We know that and sadly we have to live with it.

About Bruce’s illusion, well, Bruce has said that he wanted to kill the clown for a very long time and in the King run it was basically said that if Bruce were to be happy then the idea of Batman would die.

Listen, between me and you, sometimes I think that the Joker isn’t that big of a problem for Gotham as a whole, that clown has beef with the Bat and no one else. If Bruce has killed the Joker Jason would have been happy with Bruce all those years ago but killing the Joker wouldn’t make Gotham a safe place and any of his kids happier.

Bruce needs to care for his children, but he won’t do that, he has Dick for that. Taking care and raising Damian? No, thank you, I will not do that. Giving a shit about my son who lost all his memories and is alone? No thank you, I won’t do that and then I will lie about having watched him over. Tim? Oh, never heard of him, sorry.

The last page of this story is the one of Jason arriving home and finding a new suit that Bruce gave him with the bat symbol on it. That symbol that he had ripped off of Jason’s beat up body back in RHatO #25 (nope, I am not letting that one go).

Oh, and Bruce leaving that suit in Jason’s home gives me the same exact vibes as the time that Bruce was like “Long overdue. This is where you belong. As one of us. One of the family” in Nightwing #74 a second after Dick had regained his memories.

I don’t know why but they make him sound incredibly cold and like these people are just his pawns that he needs to rope back in every time they get away from him. It’s very disturbing.

Anyway, that’s all from me, I obviously LOVED this book, best Jason Todd/Red Hood characterisation ever! 11/10 would recommend to everyone including my enemies!

🙃

[renardtrickster]

Previous anon here (about the anti-capitalist/communist ask). I guess what I mean by "anti-communist" is the authoritarian kinds (Marxism/Stalinism/Leninism) that have gotten people killed. And while there are some parts of socialism that I find iffy (such as the debate of personal vs public property; I do believe people have the right to own what they earn), I guess it's much more preferable to its extreme counterpart. And as for capitalism, my main gripes with it are corporate greed and the exploitation of workers, but I do like the free market aspect of it. Idk, I guess part of the reason why I dislike both capitalism and communism is because I've seen some pretty bad takes from both sides. Not to mention that in these people's eyes, everything is either capitalism's fault or communism's fault, nothing in between. Not to mention all the atrocities committed by these systems. I kind of feel icky supporting either system.

I keep forgetting tumblr increased the size of asks but it’s a pleasant surprise every time. Also this is months if not years late and I am sorry.

Also this is going to be long.

On the opposition to authoritarian strains of communism, I totally agree. I'm not that familiar with Lenin's politics (other than he missed the part where capitalism is a prerequisite for socialism and then communism, and he basically led to Stalin despite saying on his deathbed "don't let Stalin take over"), but Vanguard Parties are pretty cringe conceptually. Stalin, however, was a monster and tankies are subhuman (I'm referring to morality here but TBH I have also never witnessed an intelligent Stalinist/Maoist/Insert Murder Stan Here). Not to mention, it also seems like authoritarianism defeats the entire point of a communist society. "No money, no private property, no hierarchy, also here's some jackbooted thugs to beat you up for misspelling my name, long live the state".

(That’s not a joke by the way. Stalin was named in a such a way that he’s prime for misspelling. "Ssalin" means "pisser", "Sralin" means "shitter", changing "Stalingrad" to "Stalin gad" reads “Stalin is a reptile/bastard”. He was born to be clowned on but if you actually did it, even if accidentally, you’d get gulag’d.)

On Marxist Communism being authoritarian, I'm actually unsure about this. On revolution, Marx did originally say "democracy won't work, the bourgeoisie will appease the proletariat with symbolic gestures every now and then while still keeping them chained, we need revolution", but that made sense given his time. Women couldn't vote, most men couldn't vote, in this circumstance, the people really had no chance of getting their way through democracy because democracy was for the rich. But later on in his life, after traveling (because he got exiled from Germany), he saw how democracy was accessible and effective in other countries (like America, England, and maybe Holland) and said "actually it could work" and put it on the table. Violent revolution was still on the table (for violently reactionary countries and ones lacking in pre-existing liberal infrastructures, AKA where democracy either can’t exist or can’t exist without you getting shot), but democracy is now officially Marx Approved™. But back to revolution, the idea was "the proletariat rise up, seize the means of production, ending the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and beginning the dictatorship of the proletariat". And using the D-word does sound authoritarian, except it's not. "Dictatorship of the proletariat" means "a society run by and for the interests of the proletariat", the same way “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie” means “a society run by and for the interests of the bourgeoisie”. So America is a Representative Democracy, but you could also call it a Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie because the system favors the interests of the bourgeoisie.

The stupid name was half something about "dictatorship" meaning "Athenian Dictatorship", AKA "direct democracy", which is based, and half because Marx believed that all forms of government, even democracy, were authoritarian, just to different extents. And I can see the reasoning, but I don't like it. It's a bit reductive, I feel like it opens up the gate for one to do authoritarian shit and then excuse oneself with "well technically everything is authoritarianism comrade", and it also leads to dumb takes like Engels' "anarchy is authoritarian actually and everything is exactly the same". I also feel like it falls right into "the paradox of tolerance" or similar because it would paint a fascist autocracy, a peaceful movement to introduce democracy and democratically vote society away from fascism, and a revolution to overthrow said autocracy as all being authoritarian (even though I know it comes with the caveat of “but that doesn’t mean the latter two aren’t still good”, while I’m of the opinion that authoritarian = bad in any circumstance). EITHER WAY, authoritarian communism worst communism, authoritarian isn’t any more synonymous with communism than it is with capitalism, authoritarianism should be avoided in any implementation of anything ever, and Engels is dumb.

On "private property vs. public property", this is one of those moments where the misconceptions come in. The "private/public property" thing is about the means of production, so factories, mines, farms, etc. Not houses, or your clothes, or your computer, for they are not means by which things are produced. Those are examples of personal property, which socialism nor communism have any issue with (or at least the kind I’m lookin’ for don't). Public ownership means that, instead of the means of production being owned privately, by one dude or small group of dudes on top, they're controlled by public entities. And public entities can mean two things. The government, and the workers. And government ownership is cringe (and also something closer to state capitalism, which I'm 90% sure Stalin described his own system as, tankies stat seething), but once again, public ownership can also mean that the workers own the means of production, which is based, and what I and most sane socialists want. The workplaces would be managed democratically, and the workers would not only be treated better, but they would in fact own what they earn, as opposed to the excess being siphoned by bosses and them gaining more from owning than by working.

On capitalism, I don't have much to add for corporate greed and exploitation, other than that it's honestly on the lower end of the scale and if you wanted to play hardball you could condemn the entire system for being autocratic and inherently unequal in a way that screws over the workers. As for the Free Market, I also like that (at least in some respects, even Father of Capitalism Adam Smith argued for regulation), and from all angles Market Economies seem infinitely better than Command Economies. But funny enough, markets aren't exclusive to capitalism! If you've ever heard of Market Socialism, it would decommodify inelastic needs (food, water, housing, medicine, etc.) while keeping the commodity form for less essential needs. Some people argue for it as a transitional phase

On bad takes from both sides, I kind of agree and disagree at the same time. I've seen a lot of debates on the subject, but I think you can divide the bad communism takes into “explained a good position very poorly” or “no you see Stalin was forced to genocide gay people because of western imperialism” tankie nonsense. Meanwhile I’ve been steeped in capitalist arguments like a cucumber in pickle juice for most of my entire life and it seems like the majority of them range from “bad faith” to “fundamentally doesn’t understand/misunderstands what they’re talking about” to “buttfuck insanity”. Vuvuzela, “that’s not capitalism that’s corporatism”, any take that boils down to “socialism is when the government does stuff”, socialism is when no iPhone, “Marx was [personal failing, real or made up] checkmate socialism”, it goes on like that. AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON OBJECTIVISTS. I’m not in a position where I can see them as equivalent.

Similarly, I take issue with the “it’s either capitalism’s fault or communism’s fault” thing. From an American perspective (because I know that my buddies from the East will see it differently, I got criticized for this in my first response and I acknowledge it), communism/socialism doesn’t exist to the same extent that capitalism does, and doesn’t occupy the same roles. When one looks towards America and begins to criticize capitalism, there’s a lot of fair shakes to be made. The innate fact that capitalism props up a hierarchy (and IIRC was an attempt to preserve the power structure of the aristocracy during the Enlightenment when the nobility was being phased out), that if it’s unregulated enough it just becomes extra-steps monarchy (this is why anarcho-capitalism is both a joke ideology and not actually anarchism), the fact that “profit motive is the only motive” has lead to businesses and corporations ravaging the environment (until people forced them not to), paying no mind to workplace safety (until people forced them to), and pursuing the interests of bigotry (until people forced them not to, and then times shifted so now it’s profitable to pursue the interests of social progressives*), and weird stuff that interlocks with capitalism like homo economicus, inherent coercion (Coconut Island), etc. Meanwhile, communism exists in a much more limited manner, so legitimate usage of “this is communism’s fault” is similarly limited. Once again, I don’t see these as being equivalent.

*Their reason for doing so is wholly pragmatic, amoral in the definitional sense (lacking moral conviction), and hollow, which is still a bad thing, but I’d much rather they pander to progressives and people like me than pander to reactionaries, bigots, and right-wingers).

On “both committed atrocities”, yeah, fair shake. Personally, I don’t think that a group or people used X System to excuse atrocities, or committed atrocities under X System, or cited X System for their atrocities, OR WHATEVER VARIATION YOU WANNA USE, discounts X System unless X System would have intrinsically lead to said atrocities. An ideology like Fascism could have only lead to genocide and the Nazis, because bigotry, war, and extermination are core tenets, hence Fascism is an inherently invalid system. Meanwhile nothing about workers owning the means of production necessitates that we build a lot of gulags (I don’t like gulags very much, you can quote me on that), so that’s where I stand. But this is a personal reason for where you stand, so I won’t bully you much, I’m just providing my take on the matter.

My pre-final thought is that I think it’s weird to divide this into “capitalism vs. communism” considering that communism describes a specific end-point, a classless, moneyless society where the work is automated, whereas “capitalism vs. socialism” would be more appropriate for a lot of reasons. It directly pits the dividing points against each other (private ownership or public ownership?), “socialism” is a bit more broad than “communism” is (communism is a specific form of socialism, the same way ancap is a specific form of capitalism), and socialism is a lot more of “a reality” than communism is (we can do socialism right now, but communism has a lot of set-up to it). But to bring it back to our main, final final thought. While I still think the “socialism” side has some good stuff to offer, and that's where I stand, there’s nothing wrong with rejecting capitalism and socialism (or communism or however you want to put it) in favor of a mixed economy. I've mentioned it before, but while it's still fundamentally a form of capitalism, Social Democracy is a good third position. As well as just throwing a lot of social programs, unions, and worker cooperatives at things.