#I'd love to know y'alls thoughts!

[waateeystein]

Okay y'all I'm doing it, I'm once again analyzing an out-of-context picture from Guillermo De Toro's Frankenstein movie! I am now donning on my "grad student studying scenography" hat lets fucking go!

First off, What are the giant green vats? Is there a significance to having two of them, what step of the creation process are they related to, what's the deal here??? Everything else I can kind of see what the inspiration or reference is, but these green vats are running a big blank for me. I don't immediately hate them, I'm just mostly curious. They are certainly a vibe!

The next thing that is immediately striking is the massive window, and I'm kind of obsessed with it! From the Vanity Fair article we get this very relevant quote from Del Toro, "Gothic romance was born partially out of the fascination with ruins - Sometimes they’re more beautiful than the building complete because it’s the clash of creation and destruction." We have this beautiful gothic-style window contrasting the massive abandoned structure it seems to be inside of. The architecture of it all reminds me of gothic cathedrals, and I don't want to make a call yet on whether or not Victor has set up shop in an abandoned cathedral or church, but I do think that would be funny if it was the case. A bit of extra research taught me that they did use the Glasgow Cathedral as a filming location, I'm unsure if it was specifically for this scene, but it definitely gives us a sense of direction as far as inspirations for the production design.

What is confusing me about the architecture is the metal grates on the ground. It makes me think sewer grate or basement drainage, but the massive window directly next to it says very high above ground, so I don't know what going on with where exactly in the building we are. It makes sense to have it here from a practical "I have a bunch of oozy body parts on ice in here and those juices need somewhere to go" perspective. Idk, it looks neat and it might just be a suspense of disbelief moment.

Speaking of those oozy bodies, holy shit body parts! I honestly didn't fully process the giant piles of flesh on my first viewing of this picture, but damn those are fucking great! It really puts into perspective the sheer amount of matter that Victor would need to make his creation (I mean look at the blood on those sleeves), and how messy that process is. I feel like a lot of adaptations I've seen don't lean into that gorey aspect of the story, so I really appreciate that they are doing that here. I'm especially a fan of the giant ice block cooling what seems to be a head and torso, I don't know who got that big ass hunk of ice on that table but I'm impressed. The set dressing overall is really fucking impressive and is super effective, I really could dive into the details forever!

There are also a lot of big mechanical things happening here, like the massive wheels by the windows for instance. I'm not sure what these are or what they say about the original usage of the space, I was trying to search for what these might be, but because my personal knowledge on this is very limited, I have no clue what to even search to find more information on them. If anyone has any hints for me I'd appreciate some direction! The other mechanical thing we see is the table that the creature is laying on. Looking at the way it's attached to the ground, and the block at the creature's feet, I'm guessing this table tilts upwards to bring the creature to a full standing position.

On the creature himself, I think this was our first look at the creature design! I am cautiously optimistic about this design, but really I think I need to see his face to make a final call on how positive or negative I personally feel about it. This movie, from all evidence I've seen, seems to have a lot of influence from the 1931 James Whale film, in addition to Mary Shelley's original story. This creature seems to be more closely aligned to the book description, but again I don't think we see enough of him here to make a full judgement call on that. At least he's not green!

Overall, this first look is really cool, I'm really excited to see what production designer Tamara Deverell, set decorator Shane Vieau and costume designer Kate Hawley do with Del Toro's direction! This wasn't the deepest analysis ever, it's hard to do it justice when we know so little and everything we do have is out of context. But I'm excited to get more production photos eventually!

[crypticvirago]

Architect Society thoughts

(This is gonna be a pretty thick info dump so I'll put it below a break so I'm not clogging up anyone's feed).

All this mostly started with my attempt at trying to figure out some odd aspects of how Architects are represented in the game, and it spiraled into me imagining hypotheticals and putting way too much thought into things that don't need it/will probably never be explained.

I know that Architect society is presented as this whole, cohesive unit in the game, but I've always wondered if it's more than that. And while we have no idea how Architect society is divided up, or if it even is, we do know that Al-An is in a position of high importance. He states as much, and considering he was given the very important task of finding a cure for the bacterium outbreak, it's likely he was pretty high up.

Which makes me start thinking about how status is represented in Architect society. If it's something physically represented (like how royalty wears crowns, or military wears uniforms) or if it's something built into the 'code' that uniquely identifies each individual 'component' or Architect in the Network

I think both, and like to imagine they use their horns as symbols of status and add adornments to them - it's almost archaic tradition but since metals like gold, silver and platinum are rare in space because of their density, having more of them symbolized importance and longevity of "usefulness", i.e., how long you've been alive and contributing to the Network

(Idk I just want to see Al-An wearing platinum jewelry with pearls or amber, because cosmically they're far rarer than emeralds or diamonds, reflecting his incredibly important status.)

Which brings me to some things never explained in game. There are statues that get made of Architects you can find in the Koppa mining site, as well as a whole ass garden that gets made as a "place to reflect". Why? What purpose does it serve, unless Architect's value art in some way? I keep thinking about that one Architect that died there. Why did they go there, and choose to die there, if they didn't find comfort in the place?

People, myself included, characterize Architect's as being solely invested in scientific study alone, but they have to value art somehow. Otherwise, why would those statues be made on 4546b? Why would all of those objects, some with purely subjective value, be displayed in the primary containment facility and the quarantine enforcement platform? Maybe not valuing it to the extent of study, but still regarding it as serving some sort of purpose.

And now, what if there's an almost outlier section of society that, rather than studying the sciences, are more interested in studying the humanities? Valuing philosophy, art and even their language, placing it in high regard? What if the number that study those has been dwindling for hundreds of years, largely looked down upon by the majority of Architect society for their study into what might not be considered important to progress? Sort of like nowadays - where people consider getting a degree in the arts secondary to a degree in the sciences. But they value that study regardless, and have their own complex of buildings atop a mountain like we see at the end of the game, in some separate location.

And even further - what if there were even Architects that found themselves discontent with being in the Network and left? Regarded with disappointment and shamed by the society they left behind, deemed crazy and defective, but finding individualism more valuable. Forming a sect somewhere either among the mountains, or below the cloud layer, away from 99% of all other Architects.

What if they alone survived the outbreak? Not deliberately, but just because the infection never had the opportunity to spread to them. They might not even know what happened to the rest, to those that remained in Network. They were told to never come back to the mountain peaks, so they never did. Never cared to. They just know that at one point the progress stopped, and the ships stopped flying overhead.

What if, when Al-An comes home, Architects he once deemed lesser, flawed and defective, are all that's left of the people he loves? Robin not understanding the differences, and is relieved and happy that there are some of his people left. But Al-An's just conflicted because they aren't his people. Not really. It'll leave Al-An with his race still technically alive, but his people are well and truly gone. There's no place for him among them, unless he can accept that sole individualism as his new reality. Having to come to terms with the fact that the society he was searching to restore can never come back to be, but the Architect's are not truly gone.

I'll likely have many more thoughts to add, but I found myself caught up thinking about the evolution of the Architect's as a species - from their birth of sentience to the cybernetically enhanced, interstellar traveling people we know in the game. About the scraped beta dialogue between Robin and Al-An about how they had to work hard to survive the threats of evolutionary and technological advancement, and all that meant for them and their society.

I could probably go on forever about what those evolutionary hurdles must have looked like and the sacrifices needed to be made to continue on, since that's just my cup of overthinking biologist tea. But I think I'll leave it here, for now.

[naamah-beherit]

Welcome to episode 458762288626871 of "A sudden flood of kudos on a fic and not a single bloody comment".

[jonathanbyersphd]

How much do u guys think Lonnie owes Joyce in past due child support?

[finisnihil]

Somebody has probably already proposed this but I have this theory that Kaeya's father abandoned him to save him.

Starting off, I want to lay down some ground stuff revealed in 4.7.

Clothar established the Abyss Order and the ilk obviously. In his bid to save Caribert and Khaenri'ah, the Loom of Fate was started and an eight year old Caribert was used to construct the Loom. We also know constructing the Loom involves creating an artificial god, which is why they have the body of Osial. This fits in a lot with this underlying theme of child sacrifice to divinity in a bid to preserve or restore civilization (think The Sun Children and Ruu alongside Caribert as examples).

Next, let's look at the significance of the curse. Kaeya somehow seem unaffected by the curse in a way that differs from everyone else. He is not a hilichurl/other abyssal entity and from what we see of him, his body is not taken by the curse the way Dainsleif's is. He also grows and develops normally, unaffected by concepts of immortality. This is weird because even children that aren't fully Khaenri'ahn (like Caribert) were affected in some manner so why does Kaeya fall outside most aspects of the curse? The only thing that could be affected is his right eye which was hidden even when Crepus found him. We'll come back to the eye thing so put a pin in it for now.

One of the hardest parts of this theory is proving Kaeya's father didn't want to leave him, but I think I can do that. In the note we find squirreled away in the Knights of Favonius HQ, there's a somewhat burned note. It was originally written in a child's handwriting and rewritten in an adults. It's implied this was Kaeya's father aiding him. What's interesting is that in the written

This itself shows a deviance from the Abyss Order. The Abyss Order seeks to restore Khaenri'ah but this aligns with Dainsleif's mindset, the idea that Khaenri'ah is embers and to chase its restoration is to be unable to move on from your past.

Kaeya notes the paper was discreetly saved because there was a policy of leaving no physical remains of their existence, as though he was stopping them from being tracked. Kaeya also adds this:

Kaeya's father was grieving in a way Kaeya couldn't understand having grown up in Mondstadt. There's many things that could be grieved, Khaenri'ah as one, but I think it's the leaving of Kaeya based on his words from 3.1:

It's obvious he knows this hurt's Kaeya but he begs for his forgiveness. This aligns with the idea of grief, him grieving writing with his son and burning the evidence because it will truly leave him with nothing to remember his son, especially with the erosion aspect of the immortality.

This also emphasizes the Ragnvindrs as where Kaeya's father meant him to go. Kaeya's father left him in the homeland of Caribert's mother, the city of freedom, when it's implied Venti was slumbering. He intentionally left him where the Ragnivindrs would take him in. He made this move during a severe storm, one so severe Kaeya could've died, when it would be hardest to follow or see them. This aligns with the spy part but let's put a pin in that too.

The next part of this theory to tackle is why Kaeya's father did this in the first place. My proposal is that he was to be used as the body of the artificial god before Osial.

Removing the pin in the eye topic, there's a big theme of Khaenri'ahn characters having an eye covered. Dainsleif, Pierro, King Irmin, and Kaeya... It's not weird. It stands out with Kaeya however because we don't know what's wrong with the eye. It's injured now but only after his fight with Diluc. He's not blind in it either.

We also know the eye of the first field tiller was vital to the Loom.

Kaeya isn't just the least cursed, he's also the closest to divinity. He gained a Vision, which completely contradicts his Khaenri'ahn heritage in a way that even the game questions. It's also a Cryo vision, one that highlights ambition related to feeling isolated from or stuck between two aspects of one's identity (ex. Shenhe being raised by adeptus yet not fitting in fully because she's human while also not fitting in with humans due to being raised by adepti).

I think Kaeya's father left Kaeya in Mondstadt with the Ragnivindrs to protect him from the Order. The Ragnivindrs are one of the biggest families with power in Mondstadt and being part of their family would put Kaeya in the public eye. Not only that, but he's now under Venti's protection, who obviously holds no grudge against the Khaenri'ahns.

Circling back to the spy point now, why would he tell him that? To keep him there. Kaeya could take his chances and cut and run. Giving him a reason to stay would ensure he didnt throw himself to the wolves after his father left. A spy has to check in periodically to gather the intel, but nobody came to get information from Kaeya. The spy aspect was obviously a cover that further shows that Kaeya's father was not really affiliated with the Order.

Well... What about the line of being their last hope?

I don't think his father actually meant the last hope for Khaenri'ah's return. I think he meant the last hope for Khaenri'ah to move on and heal. In the same way Dainsleif believes the remnants still lucid should find a way to live on in spite of what happened, Kaeya's father wanted Kaeya to do the same. Khaenri'ah will live on in his son living a happy life, safe from the Abyss Order, a Khaenri'ah that isn't corrupted by the Five Sinners and the Cataclysm.

Kaeya's father left him in Mondstadt because it was the City of Freedom, and from what I extrapolated from the above evidence, that was because he wanted his child and the remnants of Khaenri'ah to be free from the Abyss. Kaeya himself says it in his annotations, he cannot fully understand his father's grief because the life he has in Mondstadt freed him mostly of those burdens. He doesn't really hold a grudge against his father because of it.

In the same way that Caribert is half Khaenri'ah and half Mondstadt, so is Kaeya, and ultimately Kaeya ended up living the life Caribert ached for within the Loom. The parallels between Caribert and Kaeya and their fathers are intentional. Caribert holds a resentment for his father because he sacrificed his son for Khaenri'ah; Kaeya doesn't seem to resent his father because Kaeya's father seems to have sacrificed Khaenri'ah for his son.

Thank you for reading, I know there's probably holes in this somwhere but this is just a theory based on my interpretation of Kaeya's father over several events. I hope you enjoyed this, have a great day, mwah!

[crossbackpoke-check]

Why I Am Not Coming In To Work Today [abridged], Jess Zimmerman

part one | part two

[thebirdandhersong]

Do you guys have any tips or resources for students with ADHD? There's a girl in my dorm who is dear to me and who's seriously struggling in her studies and really needs to pass this semester. It's taken a bit of a toll on her heart and her mind, not being able to focus and finish tasks and do well in her studies, so if you guys know of anything that's been particularly helpful, I would appreciate it so, so much.

[ineffable-romantics]

Who I'd Be

[Part 1/6]

Once upon a time, after a long night of rich, dark wine and untouched cupperties, the angel Muriel asks Mr. Crowley what he thinks he might have liked to be, if he weren't a demon. And no, dear readers, the answer is neither angel nor aardvark.

Inspired by the song Who I'd Be

(P.S. Special thanks to @gleafer and @anotherwellkeptsecret for giving me some much-needed advice on how to upload these as high quality as possible. I'm working with crayons and Microsoft Word though, so I fear it may be a lost cause lol)

[shreksstepfather]

Watch as a character's internalized loneliness devolves into violent hatred in real time!

Full comic on Webtoon

[nobodybetterlookatme]

You know sometimes I'm like 🙄 whenever my follow healthcare worker friends try to study me under a microscope when something vaguely medical happens to me, but rn I'm just like 🥰 lmao

[arrow-tied-messages]

Shining Nikki players, if you had to give your playersona/oc a theme, what song(s) would you choose? And why?

feel free to comment and link the song! or type it in the tags! whichever u feel like

[littlehouseoftrinkets]

🕷🕸 SPIDER-MAN NOIR PLAYLIST 🕸🕷

Side A

May These Noises Startle You in Your Sleep / Hell Above by Pierce the Veil

Today I Saw the Whole World by Pierce the Veil

Break Stuff by Limp Bizkit

Coming Undone by Korn

Cops and Robbers by The Hoosiers

You're Gonna Go Far, Kid by The Offspring

Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace

Bones Exposed by Of Mice & Men

Keep Myself Alive by Get Scared

Devastation and Reform by Relient K

Viper's Drag by Allen Toussaint

Side B

What the Water Gave Me by Birdeatsbaby

The Kids Aren't Alright by Fall Out Boy

Shared Trauma by Pierce the Veil

I Blame Myself by Sky Ferreria

Leash by Sir Chloe

Resilience by Pierce the Veil

Goldfinch Nocturne by Roar

I Am The Dog by Sir Chloe

Thick Skull by Paramore

Golden by Fall Out Boy

[that-was-anticlimactic]

like a ghost that won't wash off your skin

Now, though, there was no one left to heal.

Other than the few people left guarding Tengen, Shoko was alone on the grounds.

But Shoko wasn’t alone, not really. She had Kugisaki’s comatose body, the severed limbs that once were Inumaki’s left arm and Todo’s left hand.

Besides, she was never actually alone, not when she was constantly haunted by the ghosts of every body that’s laid on her table.

[or, shoko was one of the only ones who came back from shibuya, and she hates it]

✧3,091 words | shoko-centric✧

dedicated to @urostakako & @wlwjujutsu <3

[creativesplat]

I'm so excited for MiphLink week 2023, but like, the general theme of the stuff I've done is: "Who's motivation, I don't know her" and "Welp... it's good enough..." because this splat ran out of time and she's sorry ✌️

[ourceliumnetwork]

oh shit y'all.

i've done gotten invested in Gurren Lagann. we're like 19 episodes deep in this paint and i have been emotionally compromised by the silly mechs.

believe in the me.

[bri-does-art]

Hi, just popping in to say I'm alive, still working on the next chapter and those ask responses, everything's good. |'D In case anyone was worried!