#Like he has this whole idealized version of what his role is

[squeakyleftsneaker]

Colonialism Apologetics? In MY Space Mecha Kids TV Show? MORE LIKELY THAN U THINK

I will soon #discuss this but for now I'm just pissed off by it like really TV show? REALLY?

Wait also this is totally unrelated but I am still thinking about the Voltron Show episode where like I really do think they could've stumbled upon something interesting about 1: the fact that the Paladins suddenly become these like. Objects. Symbolically speaking. And then to the resistance movement there is a tension because they're not actually like. Doing shit. But then the paladins themselves feel objectified

Idk like there's so many things that you could do there that would be pretty doable to handle for the audience and keeping the tone of the show! Have Shiro feel uncomfortable with the Shiro The Hero [TM] persona because it reminds him too much of the Champion!

Have the rebels like in the Blade of Marmalade or Olkarion or other rebel outposts (which we barely even see because the show dgaf about the people fighting for freedom jfc) feeling some kinda way about it! A FUCKING MARVEL MOVIE DID THIS!!!! THAT'S HOW SIMPLE THIS IS TO DO!!! (I watched the first Captain America movie for the first time last night. It is extremely simple and very pro military. BUT IT UNDERSTANDS HOW TO DO WHAT IT NEEDS TO DO)

Like idk have Loverboy Lance be tied to Lance's own insecurities about what he brings to the team AND the war– have him feel some kind of way about being portrayed like that as MORE than just jokes!

Don't even get me started on Hunk this fucking show is so awful to Hunk

HAVE ALLURA REALLY GET TO GRIPS WITH THE FACT THAT SHE'S GOT TO PLAY A GUY WHO SHE IS BOTH VERY SIMILAR TO AND ALSO HE IS PART-GALRA, THE SAME GALRA WHO KILLED HER PEOPLE! IT'S A REASONABLE HESITANCY TO HAVE! IDK! IT JUST PISSES ME OFF MAN THERE'S SO MANY THINGS THIS SHOW COULD DO BUT DOESN'T

[djljpanda]

Lucifer Morningstar X Fallen Exorcist Reader

Ever since his split from Lilith Lucifer has been a reck feeling like no one can love him, need him, or understand him again

You have been an exorcist for a couple of thousand years now being one of the best exorcists Heaven could ever ask for

But deep down you always felt bad for those you had killed feeling like yes Hell is for those who have done wrong but what about those who did the wrong things for the right reasons

So on the next extermination day you tried to run away from it all but when Adam found out he took it upon himself to kill you

You were able to get away before Adam could finish you off but nothing could prepare you for meeting Lucifer himself

For some reason Lucifer took you in and helped you out and yes you did come out to him about you being a “fallen angel” and your ideals on heaven, earth, and hell

Lucifer just sat there and listened and for the first time since Lilith someone understood him

Now at first you two became roommates in a way, mostly helping him out with his work, giving him duck ideas, being his bodyguard and secretary, and you did try to push him into talking to Charlie more but you understood on why he couldn’t do it himself

You did face palm as when he called her all he did was tell her to have that meeting with Adam, at least it’s a start

Charlie dose know of you but saw you more as her fathers secretary or his best friend, like an aunt, she is happy how you think there is a way to get sinners in to heaven and how you told her if she ever needs help or to talk to someone you are just quick call

Lilith dose know of you and you may have never seen her face to face she is happy someone is keeping her ex happy

Now if you ever get together it would be the best for the both of you cause I’m sure you would want to confess first but with the thoughts of you killing his people and Lilith, it just made you hesitant but with a simple duck jester (making a duck quack an “I love you”) Lucifer confessed his feelings to you

Charlie I think would be happy for her dad to have found someone and yes at first she did see you as her aunt but she is happy to call you her step parent sand she isn’t afraid of telling everyone that either

That’s one of the major reason on why Lucifer likes you, his daughter loves you like a parental figure

This Lucifer is just a sad boy so if you just sit there and cuddle him he would love you forever and if add words of praise he is just melting

Definitely will vent to you cause he is that comfortable around you and he is happy that you feel the same way when you vent

You always support his duck creations and yes late nights would consist of you two role playing with the ducks, when you two started dating he made three duck versions of you, him, and Charlie all matching clothes sitting next to each other, this man had a whole collection of duck versions of you and he was embarrassed when you found out but you called it cute

When extermination day hits he could see how tense you get and when you told him on what happened before he found you he couldn’t help but hate Adam more and so every Extermination day Lucifer would hold your hand and comfort you may even play a little music and it just grew more loving when you two started dating

You do help out with Lu Lu World as it’s one of Lucifer’s passion projects and no one could believe how upset you were when Mammon created Loo Loo land, you almost put your exterminator skills to use but Lucifer stopped you and let Mammon have his way cause he didn’t want to argue with Mammon so you just had to let it go

You both do play music together as when you were both angels all you did was play music, duets and you can’t tell me you, Lucifer, and Charlie didn’t sing together once

You remember seeing Lucifer’s wings for the first time and how amazed you were as you kept complementing him and that just made his face all red and what made you stop was when he commented o how your wings could have been more pretty then his, you just smile at him

Now here you two have more of a bodyguard/ secretary and famous person kind of relationship even though he may not need it he likes keeping you around and that just help made his feelings grow for you

[rosquinn]

One of my Dorian Gray hot takes is that there was absolutely nothing in Dorian and Basil's relationship that was healthy. I keep seeing posts like "Basil's love for Dorian was so pure, that's why the portrait was so pretty and the real villain of the story is Wotton because he corrupted it"

As I see it, yes, Wotton did corrupt him, but saying Basil's feelings for Dorian were pure is simply inaccurate to the story. Basil says himself he merely sees Dorian as an artistic ideal [Dorian Gray is to me simply a motive in art. I find him in the curves of certain lines, in the loveliness and subtleties of certain colours. That is all; ch1] and admitted he (a 10 year older man, who had power over him) tried to isolate him from other people and "keep him to himself". Furthermore, Basil also plays a big role in the way Dorian sees himself and his beauty, by painting him everyday and not maintaining any conversation with him, he's indirectly reaffirming what Wotton tells him: people only care about you because you're pretty and young. There is also this scene from the second chapter:

Dorian Gray turned and looked at him. "I believe you would, Basil. You like your art better than your friends. I am no more to you than a green bronze figure. Hardly as much, I dare say.

The painter stared in amazement. It was so unlike Dorian to speak like that. What had happened? He seemed quite angry. His face was flushed and his cheeksburning.

"Yes," he continued, "I am less to you than your ivory Hermes or your silver Faun. You will like them always. How long will you like me? Till I have my first wrinkle, I suppose. I know, now, that when one loses one's good looks, whatever they may be, one loses everything. Your picture has taught me that. Lord Henry Wotton is perfectly right. Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I shall kill myself."

Hallward turned pale and caught his hand. "Dorian! Dorian!" he cried, "don't talk like that. I have never had such a friend as you, and I shall never have suchanother. You are not jealous of material things, are you?-you who are finer than any of them!"

Dorian is even dealing with a suicidal ideation over what Wotton has told him and the way Basil sees him, he needs emotional validation, he's asking to be told there's more than him than that, and Basil's reaction is just─ no. You're prettier than any other object (indirectly comparing him to one, too).

Basil's view of Dorian influences how he sees people as much as Wotton's. For example, to Dorian Sybil was only what she pretended to be, he loved her performance, her acting, how she did exactly what the public wanted (which can apply to Dorian himself), not the real her. She was only an artistic ideal to him, she meant to him exactly what Dorian meant to Basil. He ignored her desires, pain and everything not related to what he wanted to see, since that's what he's been taught he must appreciate.

I also disagree with the interpretation of the portrait as a "pure" reflection of Basil's love (I would personally rather describe it as an obsession, though) and Dorians soul because it's not. At least not entirely. Part of the point of the book is that everyone only saw the part of Dorian they wanted: the portrait represents Basil's idolized version of him, what he wanted to see and how he refused to see Dorian as a person instead of an artistic ideal. That's why he tried to make him redeem himself, because he hated seeing his version of Dorian shatter into pieces. It was never Dorian entirely, not even after aging terribly because that's the result of Basil and Wotton's influence. The portrait was not his real soul, it was a modified version of it other people played with because nobody cared about the whole thing, and the influence was so big those parts became his whole being. It was just an idolized, molded version at first but turned into his real self with the time and the sins. Dorian's soul (the portrait) was constructed upon what others appreciated about him, so when Wotton motivated him to sin, because Dorian's potential to be terrible was what mattered to him, it became ugly and terrible. There was absolutely nothing pure about that portrait since day 1.

[transmascutena]

some thoughts on photography and memory in utena:

on the wall in nemuro memorial hall, there are pictures of real people. i'm not sure who they are, but i assume they're of people involved in making the show. either way, they're obviously not real; in the close-up shots of them, they change into pictures of the black rose duelists and other imagery from the show. i imagine it's there as a fun detail by the creators, but also to show how weird and inconsistent reality itself is in the black rose arc.

as for the black rose duel images themselves, it's possible that they are literal as i've talked about in a previous post, but what i think is more likely, is that utena noticing them is a visual representation of her connecting the dots of what's really been going on in this arc.

when mikage brings up the idea of memories and eternity, we see the picture on the wall behind utena, of her at her parents funeral. and behind mikage we see one of his own defining memories.

a pretty clear line is being drawn between memory and photographs. in fact, memories are so important to mikage that photographs are his black rose duel symbol. it's the one he keeps of mamiya and tokiko, altered to look like anthy's disguise, just like his memories are. through mikage we see both how memories of the past can keep you trapped in it, as well as the malleability of these memories. let's look at everybody else:

saionji has a framed photograph of him and touga as kids on his desk. he values their friendship, or at least the memory of how it used to be. he idealizes the time touga was less cruel (or maybe just the time saionji wasn't aware of his cruelty.)

miki doesn't have any literal photographs of kozue or the sunlit garden, though his memories of them are often framed as such. he also keeps a picture of anthy amidst his sheet music. she is his idealized memory now.

juri has the locket of course, inside of which is a cutout of shiori from a picture captured in the moment that ends up defining their entire relationship. is this the version of shiori that juri idealizes? not really, but she is fixated on her resentment of shiori's percieved cruelty, just not the cruelty of taking the boy away. juri keeps this photograph closer than anybody else does with theirs, but she also keeps it hidden. this could mean she treasures her memories the most out of everyone, and is also the least open about it, although i'm not sure i believe the first part.

nanami has the photo-album of her and touga; she idealizes her relationship with him, as well as their childhood. when she makes the connection that touga is adopted, the photos are scattered all over her bed, probably to represent her emotional state.

touga doesn't keep any photographs from what we see, which makes sense with everything we know about him. unlike the rest of the council, he doesn't have any idealized memories of his childhood. but he does use akio's camera, so let's talk about that.

the camera is, much like the car, a tool that only akio is shown to own (although, wakaba does mention a photography club in episode 34.) like the car, it is used to facilitate his grooming (specifically of touga and saionji when he takes those shirtless pictures with them.) and, also like the car, he offers to lend it to touga, to make him feel more like an equal part of the whole thing. unlike the car though, touga accepts the camera.

the photoshoot scene in episode 37 has a transition where the camera shutter sound effect is played over the previous scene. over the shot of utena and anthy holding hands after confiding in each other about akio. i think it's to show that he's always watching, and that they can never truly be free of him as long as they're in ohtori.

i think it also shows the idea of akio framing the narrative of the show as a whole. he plays a sort of director role in it, in that he directs the events happening, as well as how they're portrayed. it's no coincidence that he is quite literally behind the "camera" in episode 33. like the car, a symbol of akio's power and sexual abuse (which is not-coincidentally also present in all of the photoshoot scenes,) his camera (his narrative, his biased framing of events) is ever-present.

and then there's the most important photograph in the show, the frame it all ends on. the picture utena and anthy took together is, unlike every other photograph, used as a look into their future. the reason they take it in the first place is because utena realizes she has no photos of anthy, which distresses her, presumably because she worries that their friendship might not last forever, and she wants something to remember anthy by. this obviously comes with the risk of making anthy an idealized memory, like every other person put in a photograph in this show, but instead it ends up as a symbol for their love. akio may have set up the camera, but anthy (with the help of chu-chu) manipulated their positions so her and utena could hold hands. she also cuts akio out of the frame, much like she cuts him out of her life in the last episode. she doesn't want his presence to tarnish her and utena's memory anymore (although he isn't completely gone from the photograph either, as he will never truly be forgotten.)

[arthurmorgay]

the uproar caused by the recently released synopsis for jeff lemire and dustin nguyen's sequel for robin & batman, describing jason as angry and impulsive, has left me very... eeeehhh.

"eeeehhh" as in, i don't think people are wrong for being mad and upset at jason being described like that, but i also don't get the fixation with the whole "jason was the happy and whimsical robin" fantasy.

let me break this down: pre-crisis jason was happy to be robin and volunteered himself for it, yes. but dc had no prospect for a higher role for him in batman's mythos and his backstory was a literal copy of dick's backstory; no traits that composed jason from 1987 influenced his character back then. not catherine, not willis, not sheila haywood, not an impoverished upbringing, not faye gunn, nothing.

only from the crisis on infinite earths on these traits were added as jason was reworked. and, from then on, his personality was changed: he still found enjoyment in being robin, but he was also troubled by his upbringing -- much like d¡ck became troubled by the murder of his parents -- and those troubles manifested at first with him trying to kill two-face (who was the cause of his biological father's death) and, later on jim starlin's run, an open-ending story where jason may or may not have killed a criminal, which (if he was lying) he feels no visible remorse over.

while the changes in his temper make sense with his new flawed, less-than-ideal upbringing, the classism that motivated those changes should be called out. all those changes were used to play on the population's already existing disliking of jason at the time, and after he got killed off, the "solution" to the "problem" jason was taken as was his complete antithesis: tim was marketed for being moderately wealthy, educated and highly intelligent boy. tim drake was used to "correct" all the flaws of jason.

the problem is, while the changes made on jason have dubious origins, they're the only reason he's still around. the story of jason todd (as in, his death and how affected the narrative for the time he was dead, plus his revival and everything from then on,) was only capable of existing because of the jason made by max allan collins and jim starlin. everything that is liked about jason came from that rework.

so, why the outrage when this is the version of jason that new works are based on? it's the one who formed the one who he was for a long time and is today; angry jason is the jason that makes sense to become red hood later on, because red hood jason was based on angry jason.

bringing back the first paragraph, i do find reasonable not liking angry jason because it is rooted in classism. what i don't get is insisting on acting like angry jason is "just a mischaracterization" or that it was something brought later on, and that the fantasy of a whimsical, happy jason that never existed after he got his own individual story could be a good thing.

two things can be true at the same time: angry, irrational jason was a bad change for its roots, but it did and does constitute what jason was and is.

[cherllyio]

Li Jing has trapped Nüwa - A season 5 theory

Now I know, this sounds crazy, but dont worry it will all make sense when i show you my evidence for it:

Evidence number 1: How he has the power to do

Evidence number 2: How he has the right motivation to do so

Evidence number 3: Its is shown IN THE LEGO SETS

Evidence number 1: He has the power to do

First of all, Li Jings "Pagado" is weapon used to "trap" people inside of it(sort of like the calabash). He even used this in the original mytholgy against Nezha, when Nezha tried to kill him(Dont worry, i will make an analysis about them soon).

And we even see Li Jing! trap MK in the Pagado in the trailer! (Notice how MK is the only one being pulled forward, while the other are getting pushed back) (This was metioned in a breakdown here)

Second of all, we know this Pagado, is IMPORTANT, with how it placed in the direct middle of the season 5 poster. MK and the rest are even IN A PAGADO IN THIS POSTER. (picture of real life pagoda underneath)

Evidence number 2: He has the right motivation to do so

If we want to understand how Li Jing's motivations works, we first have to look at where he got his ideals from: The Celistial Realm.

Since season 4, we have all been made aware that the whole "Celistial realm system" isnt that great. The Jade Emperor being a prime example of this, as mentioned by Azure.

Azure: "But overtime it became clear for me, that The Jade Emperors only concern was kepping his subjects under his boot"

And if we actually start analyzing it further, we realize that The Celistials realms biggest flaw is that they focus too much on "Order".

Bassicaly: Everyone has their roles and needs to follow them, like how Nezha was so intense about his whole "protect the celistial realm" role. So much indeed, that it was WORTH MORE THAN HIS OWN LIFE.

So it would make sense that in this next season, we would get a direct antagonist(or even villian) who is FROM The Celistial Realm.

Because lets be real, even though MK and the rest are heroes, they dont really follow the celistial realms whole "order system".

They are so incredebly chaotic, that of course someone like Li Jing(whom seems very happy for "intrapping the chaotic", aka putting a circlet on Wukongs head) would not like our protagonists.

And with all this in mind, how would someone like Li Jing then react to Nüwa? Someone who seems to embrace the chaotic as not "something that needs to fixed", but as something that is vital for this world (a real philosophy in dualism btw).

Yea, Li Jing would not like someone like that.

Anyway last evidence:

Evidence Number 3: It is shown in the Lego sets:

The only time we have seen Nüwa in the lego sets was something called the "Celistial Pagoda"

Notice how Li Jing is IN that Lego sets, holding his Pagoda, that looks suspingly a lot like a smaller version of the big Pagado.

With all this in mind then....This is how i imagined it went down:

How Li Jing trapped Nüwa

Li Jing one day learned that the creation godess, Nüwa, was creating something called "The Harbinger of Chaos". He didnt know what it even was, but he DEFINITELY didnt like the sound of it.

Therefore, Li Jing goes to confront Nüwa, trapping her in the process, but... what about MK you might say?

Well as RV sketch theorised in their video: "What is MK", MK is acutally Broken/ not complete yet (hence why he is glitching, and also why his stone has that crack).

Therefore they also theorised that the reason that he isnt Broken/ not complete yet, is because that something happend to Nüwa while she was making him, leaving MK alone and unfinished.

He then, somehow, got brought to live, and found his way to Pigsy.

This then meaning, that if both our theories are correct, Li Jing was the one to trap Nüwa and leaving MK all alone on that mountain.

Li Jing might even have found MK's half finished stone and tried to DESTROY IT. And thinking that he finished the job, he just left it there (not knowing that MK is now the result of that).

Conclusion:

Li Jing not only ruins his own family, but also ruins other peoples(deities) families too!

[tarre-was-right]

ROUND ONE: MATCH-UP TWO (CORRECTED VERSION)

Remember, this is NOT about who would win in a fight. This is about who makes the best leader for Mandalore as a whole.

Explanation post

Seeding

Propaganda below the cut! You can submit more on this post and I will reblog it back to here!

KORKIE KRYZE

Anon: props for Korkie! We don't know enough to say that he'd be bad at the job like some people! He probably learned some of both what to do and what not to do from his aunts which gives him a leg up in the actual ruling part of things!

@spacetime1969: The kid's got that mandokar spirit. A little more practice in leadership and he could really shape up into someone great.

Anon: Korkie Kryze would be Satine's heir (if we assume she's a monarch rather than an elected official), he was raised to have a position in government, he helped end the career of a corrupt government official, he took classes under Jedi padawan Ahsoka Tano. Additional propaganda: He's my special little guy.

Anon: Korkie has been training basically his whole life to lead Mandalore, has seen first hand the struggles that Satine’s Mandalore had, he also knows what went wrong with the more traditional rulers of Mandalore, so he is perfectly poised to compromise the pacifist ideals of the New Mandalorians and the traditional values of the other citizens of Mandalore.

Anon: For Korkie propaganda: he was literally raised for the role; he showed himself to be a good leader and concerned with his people well-being; he actively works for and fights for his people when we see him; also he's loyal and smart which is always a bonus.

SABINE WREN

Anon: Girlie is the eldest daughter of House Wren, with ties to House Viszla— and therefore has a claim to the heritage of Tarre himself. With the smarts and training her position gave her, she has always put her family and Mandalore first. She made a mistake as a child, and it has been one she has been making strides to set right since such time. She recovered the Darksaber that Maul stole, and began resistance to the imperial threat, battled and fought honorably for her people and family. Respecting both New Mandos pacificism and not discounting their efforts of resistance as well as paying homage to her warrior heritage, she was further trained by the Jedi Kanan Jarrus and Ahsoka Tano to meter her flaws. When she first had the sword, she acknowledged she was too young to lead, and gave up her sword to her elder. Now older, and hopefully wiser, the last standing heiress of clan Wren absolutely has it in her to lead Mandalore in a new era.

@spacetime1969: She's arguably one of the only two people on this list who actually won the darksaber in a proper duel (Not when she reclaimed it from Maul, but when she fought Saxon for it). Not really the point of the poll I know, but it could help her get political support. She rallied her clan and their allies into a rebellion against the Empire. She was the one who legitimized Bo-Katan's rule as Mand'alor by giving her the darksaber. She has experience leading from her time in the rebellion.

[corviiids]

i loved your answer to the ooc question... penny for your thoughts on the Core of ren and goro? 👉👈🥺

rubbing my little bug hands together i dunno that i can capture all my whole... mental Akeshu Bible... in one post... but here are some notes on what i'd consider one of the most key points for each.

basically the way this works for me is ill have like a central piece of understanding sitting at the core of how i work with a character, and then let instinct guide their dialogue/behaviour from there.

i wrote a thesis again. two in fact. jesus christ

goro - sincerity is mystifying, dangerous, and impossible, but alluring.

can i talk about light yagami for a second. are we all going to be okay with it if i do that. that's going to make this easier for me to explain

i think light yagami and goro akechi have almost nothing in common once we get past the most obvious similarities - the cynicism borne of shattered once-upon-a-time idealism, the willingness to turn to radical action, the bad hair. anyway the difference i want to point out arises from another key similarity which i think only exists on the surface - the "evil underside true self" counterpart to the "pleasant preppy perfect boy" persona. looks the same. but the difference is that light never struggles with that falsehood, and akechi clearly does.

what i mean by that is i think to light, his perfect persona is nothing more than a simple disguise, albeit one he's been wearing a while without knowing why. he doesn't really have a fractured sense of self, because it's clear that the light yagami who is kira is the True self. the light yagami who is just a nice young man is mostly a falsehood to the point light sees him as a character to be played. (ok this is also an oversimplification but go with me for now. okay. that's the basic of it. just accept this for the sake of argument. this aint about him)

goro is very different. i think in the lead-up to the interrogation room, goro understands himself in a similar way, but after the interrogation room that perception is called into question. okay, i think about the interrogation room scene a lot, because i really didn't like goro's behaviour in that scene when i first played it, i thought it was a very cheap and superficial way to reveal his identity as the traitor by making him act as cartoonishly villainous as possible. and tbh i dont want to give atlus too much credit for creating a super nuanced scene there so what im about to propose is probably unintentional. but anyway, i eventually came around to it because i decided that that cartoonish villanousness must be a choice to goro. at that point in time, goro's perception of himself is akin to light's understanding of kira: black mask/shido's assassin/evil motherfucker is "the true goro", and pleasant boy detective prince is nothing but a mask.

and here i would like to bring up a complicating factor which makes light and goro very, very different. light wants to live. he refuses the shinigami eyes because he wants to exist in his new world to rule over it indefinitely. goro's plan on the other hand has a fixed timeline. goro is aware, and tells us in the engine room, that once his public reputation is shattered, he has nothing. goro's plan involves outing shido by outing himself. ergo, goro's plan is to take shido to the top and then torpedo them together, leaving them both with nothing.

what does this mean? light yagami's mask protects kira - light's true self and a man who wants to live. goro akechi's mask serves the black-masked assassin, but the black-masked assassin serves shido, a role which is just as deceptive as the detective prince. which means goro akechi's disguise protects a self that isn't real, either. it feels disingenuous to say that the version of akechi who exists to be shido's attack dog is his true self. so that goofy villainous smile in the interrogation room is, to me, goro convincing himself that that evil face is who he really is, not realising it's another facade he's playing up - but while the prince's audience is the public, the assassin's audience is goro himself. after that whole thing goes down, i think it becomes clearer that that evil face was goro pretending to himself that he's just a straight up villain who doesn't care about anything because that's easier than conceding that you might feel some complicated way about the self-loathing and bitterness you've been nurturing since childhood.

but wait, there's definitely also truth to the black mask. there's no way to deny that the akechi who attacks them in the engine room had a ton of truth to him that the detective prince lacked. but, wait. goro doesn't perfectly keep up the facade with the detective prince, either, because there are definitely times where he's being honest even when he's being the pleasant boy.

okay, where does that leave us? light has one layer of falsehood (light protects kira), but goro has at least two (detective prince protects black mask protects ???) so what the hell is goro hiding? where's the true self? is the version of akechi who showed up in the interrogation room the black mask, or is it shido's assassin? are those two different guys who overlap? does this mean everything the detective prince said is suspect? we don't know which one is true, but we know they're both lying.

okay. why? what's wrong with him? i should get to my actual fucking point maybe?

this is the central thesis of his shadows in palacefic btw. rather than being divided into a relatively clean true/false like light, goro's true self is split between his personae. every time you talk to any version of goro akechi, you're getting some lies but you're also getting some sincerity. i think goro doesnt know who he is because he doesn't see any particular use for having a real self at the end of the day, only masks he can use to achieve his ends.

except you can't actually kill your true self. it sticks around. so the most he can do is fragment it. but the consequence is the shards get stuck in his masks. every time he tries to put on a mask, a shred of truth peeks out. i think goro wants to not exist and not be known, but inside every mask he wears is a true part of him that desperately DOES want to be known, but can't allow it, but wants it, but is scared of it, but wants it, but hates it, but will die if it happens, but wants it.

what you end up with is a really self-contradictory guy where every time he talks, the things he's saying are simultaneously true and false. it's the worst with ren, because he's really interested in ren, but allowing ren to know him is suicide. light's really good at playing the part because he has no investment in the part, it's purely fake, and all his investment is in his true self. but goro is invested in each of his masks, because each of his masks contains part of him for real and there's no unified self to return to at the end of the day. so he struggles way more with the act than light does, because there's a part of him, however small, that really wants to drop the mask. but he can't, because there's nothing behind it, so there's nothing he can do

anyway when i write goro's dialogue and behaviour, it's not just writing a guy lying and playing a part because he needs the cover, it's goro injecting himself into mould after mould after mould and trying to keep a balance of how much he can reveal vs how much he needs to keep close to his chest. this is why he talks so fucking much, it's why his speech mannerisms aren't always perfectly polished, it's why the mask slips so often, it's why he's so cartoonishly evil at times, and it's why while light yagami is a popular guy who has everyone around him perfectly fooled, goro akechi is really only able to appeal to the subset of fans who are keen on his particular celebrity style while other people find him kind of annoying and disingenuous. when im writing akechi in xyz situation, it's a process of working out which mask he's wearing, what he wants to achieve, what he's hiding, how much he can or would slip, and what that slip might look like. i think this is heightened because of his circumstances, but i also think goro would be incredibly guarded and paranoid no matter what his circumstances were (although the murder might decrease a little).

tl;dr: goro akechi tries to do away with his sense of self but only succeeds in splitting it into a hundred million pieces covered in lies, each of which is desperate to be known but shies away with equal desperation

ren - in a distant relationship with the sense of self

idk that thats the right word but basically i think in true persona protag fashion, and as alluded to by beneath the mask / the power of the wild card / etc the relationship between ren's personae and his 'true self' is more complicated and detached than most of the other characters. i dont agree that the protags are true "blank slate" protagonists in the meta sense but i do think ren is a "blank slate" person in-text in that simultaneously he has extremely strong core values and beliefs which are absolutely immovable, and traits which shine through even in his limited speech, but the manifestation of his personality is a lot more malleable than say ryuji's is. ren is very flexible and wears a different mask depending on who he's talking to. i think that requires a level of detachment which manifests as basically centering his companion's character + needs in a given interaction over his own. this doesnt just come through in his dialogue but also in the way he internally reflects on what's happening.

the way this manifests most obviously in how i write him is that my ren (in texts especially but also in dialogue) has a tendency to omit his personal pronoun (in subject position).

that gives him kind of a laid-back vibe. he has a habit of omitting the first part of a sentence entirely.

he adds it back in when he's talking about something more serious, very alert, feeling uncomfortable, etc. it happens a lot when he talks to akechi because he needs to be very switched on during those conversations to keep up.

idk i know that for some people the joy of having a protagonist character is being able to make them into whoever you want them to be - so your ren might be extra flirty for example which i think is a really popular characterisation of him because it's fun and it has some basis in his dialogue, and it's a choice i went with for a while before i started shifting away from it. recently i've been way more interested in trying to reconcile this really strong-willed guy with a clearly rich and rebellious inner life with the quiet slouched character who says like 3 words every conversation and who really never reveals anything about himself. like, imagine he's a real person and not just a blank slate protagonist i can push and pull - how do i make his little mousy 8< self work with the fact that he's an international criminal without adding something on top that isn't already there in him? i think there's a way to do it and i think the way to do that is to have him internalise as much as possible. for everything he says, there are a billion things he doesn't say. that makes it really fucking difficult to actually portray him sometimes because his rich inner life can really only come through if we have access to his inner monologue, and if he's not the pov character we don't, but you know, i love a stupid fucking self imposed challenge. ren amamiya is like laying breadcrumb clues in his dumb ass 3 word dialogue options that im crawling over like weevils with a magnifying glass

but he DOES leave clues! so many of his dialogue options are sarcastic and dry or straight up goofy. so he's funny, he's deadpan, he can be impatient. but if you take that too far in dialogue, it gets overplayed, and he loses his taciturn charm, so you have to pull it back, because he's restrained, not overt. he's quippy, he's not wordy. he's a show-off, but in a self-assured way. he will never indicate in any way that he wants you to look at him. he'll just make sure he's so impressive that you can't look away. if he winks, it's like he's keeping a secret between you, not like he's putting on a show. he delivers one-liners only, not full jokes, and the setup and knockdown has to be in the same breath. if his thoughts can't be condensed into one sentence, two or three max, he doesn't say them, he keeps it to himself. whether his emotions show on his face depend on how well you can read him, and it depends who he's with, it depends how recently he's been joker, it depends if there's some extenuating factor in there that's going to make him crack. ren's more likely to crack if he's standing up for someone else.

his inner monologue is just as interesting to grapple with because my ren is pretty repressed. the more upset he is, the more he distances himself from how he's actually feeling. he's very good at deflecting people and he's also very good at deflecting himself - focus on someone else, focus on the environment around him, focus on some physical sensation, don't get too far into his own head, or else

tl;dr: ren handles himself with a mix of internalising and externalising by swallowing down everything he might want to say out loud but outsourcing and distancing from his sense of self to keep himself steady

[nortsauce]

HERE COMES NORT, YAPPING ABOUT FANDOMS THAT I’M NOT EVEN IN!

(And i’ll be typing the rest here because there are too many slides so read bellow)

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

My LONG ASS rant on how MHA (among other things) fails to present its ab*se victims in a good way,

Starring the todoroki family

So, i know literally no one cares but i feel like it needed to be said: but MHA has a BIG issue with victims of abuse being treated kinda shittily, to making whole arcs about their abusers.

This isn’t a HUGE thing, as the lack of sympathy for Hawk’s abusers was definitely there, but they still were portrayed in a semi-sympathetic light. This is not the main focus however.

I’m sure many could go on and on about Bakugou and Midoriya’s relationship, but thats not what i’m focusing on.

I’m focusing on the most OVERLOOKED and ABHORRENTLY handled dynamic of the Todoroki family

I will be going over each of the characters and why they suck in some way, but as a whole i have to talk about this: Each one of the characters of the family are all victims of abuse in some way, and represent the different ways that trauma affects the victim, i understand that.

All in all, they do a good job of portraying the different ways in which the people handle abuse,

Endeavor being one who never dealt with his past egotistical superiority complex and threw his baggage onto his family/children to live vicariously

Rei being the one who is emotionally/physically damaged to the point of a mental break

Touya being the ex-golden child, and the one who continued the cycle of violence (and misogyny but thats another topic for another paper)

Fuyumi being the one who holds onto an idealized version of a family that possibly only existed in her dreams, being codependent and longing/working to get those “happy times” back with her family, clinging onto smth that was possibly never there

Natsuo being the one who is (justifiably) angry at his abusers, cuts his family off and goes to pursue his own life/dreams

and finally shoto

the one who realizes his role as the golden child is only for his parents to live vicariously, breaks his cycle and is trying to figure out who he is.

These are all great representations of how people cope/handle trauma, and i believe that was on purpose, considering that it also speaks on abuse of children on baselines of being in a famous family.

However, certain aspects are clearly not handled properly; allow me to explain.

Shoto, the youngest of the family, is often seen as the architect of the abuse, as the family was actually quite “fine-living” (i’ll come back to this) before shoto was born.

There were obviously cracks in their family from the beginning, Touya being the golden child despite not being able to physically handle his own power without hurting himself (an allegory i’ll discuss), the fact that Enji (endeavor) basically bought his way into marrying Rei, and of course enji’s complex of being less than All-might.

However, many characters seem to blame the birth of Shoto for breaking the camel’s back, and starting the domestic violence that had already threatened to spill through.

It’s shown through the anime that shoto has a kind heart and never liked enji, due to the fact that he would harm him, his siblings, and his mother,

but for being the tritagonist of this show, we never get to see how he really feels. In all of this, perhaps we could see him feeling guilt for being the reason his family is broken, the possible resentment yet dependency he has for his father, the thoughts on how he feels conflicted yet guilty about his mother and continues to blame himself.

Its interesting how he never stops blaming his father, but regardless we only get his apathetic views on his father and no one else. Its saddening to see the sideline of the victim of abuse while his abuser gets a whole arc. But i’m not there yet.

Moving on we have Natsuo and Fuyumi. I grouped them together because they both have opposite ways of dealing with their trauma, as Aforementioned: Natsuo tries to cut all ties while Fuyumi tries to be a “normal” family with her remaining members.

Both of them have valid ways to why they act this way, and its tragic, however, the way they deal with their youngest sibling, shoto, is disheartening to say the least.

Both of them understand how Shoto was physically abused since he was 5, and neglect to form any sort of connection with him despite his better efforts in natsuo’s case, using him as leverage against his father and nothing more, while in fuyumi’s case, basically presents him in her fantastical version of him in their fantastical “perfect” family life, causing him to have multiple meetings with his abuser and forcing him to relive the trauma so she can have peace of mind.

In hindsight, this is all interesting heavy topics to explore in a character, and i was honestly curious to see how it would be handled

however it all faltered as soon as I saw the hospital scene.

SPOILERS:

After Dabi’s Dance, the todoroki family comes to visit Shoto and Endeavor in the hospital, both of whom are heavily bandaged and bed-ridden.

Despite this all, Rei, Fuyumi, and Natsuo force todoroki, who is burnt and recovering his voice, to get up and walk over to his father’s ward to speak to him.

Shoto, despite being unable to form full sentences, makes it FULLY CLEAR he does not want to be there, by closing the door to his ward, and attempting to leave. Despite his clear efforts, his family makes him go in to talk to him.

this 16 year old boy being forced out of RECOVERING, fully bandaged and barely able to talk, forced to visit his abuser to hear him cry about not being able to fight his own son, depsite also being his son and physically harmed by him since childhood.

In my opinion that wasn’t a good move on any of the family’s part.

Rei is a difficult subject to discuss. She is clearly a victim and has been for. while. She is mentally distant after being harmed for so long and spent time in a psyche-ward to handle herself.

Saying that she was a bad mother would be too far in my opinion, as she did her best to provide a nice life for her kids as well as defend them from her husband.

Not much is said about her, but from what we can tell she loved her kids very much, until the abuse started.

I feel the blame for shoto began with her, not being able to face her own son after the “death” of her first and the fact that his face reminded her of the abuse she’s faced from endeavor.

Her character is honestly an interesting one, but she is not safe from my scrutiny of the hospital scene. She was very brave for facing her abuser like this, however, she did not have to drag her bedridden youngest into the fray.

She is the DIRECT reason shoto has a scar on her face, (indirectly endeavor’s fault)

But i will never blame her for the abuse she faced for her children, by her husband and to an extent, her own son touya, which leads me into my next point

SPOILERS

Touya, aka Dabi, is the “Late” eldest brother who was originally Endeavor’s ticket into living vicariously to defeat all-might and be the number 1 hero.

I could go into the psychology of his character but he is ultimately very interesting. In all honesty the way he is presented as being the consequences of endeavor’s actions is palpable and honestly quite raw. At a young age, he was handling the pressure of being his father’s perfect creation, and the fame and fortune that followed as he sought his father’s approval. Soon, his quirk began to burn him every time he used it, a fact that endeavor ignored to pursue his goal. Touya’s power became self-harm at some point, an allegory for his disregard for his own life and well-being for his father’s dream which ultimately (literally) exploded on itself.

Touya’s story is interesting, from his abuse causing him to act like his father craving his approval, which lead him to act put against his mother and shoto, while laying his baggage onto his younger siblings, to losing his mind and realizing that he wanted his father dead and continuing the cycle of abuse further.

This is all a deep and interesting way to look at abuse and how the abused may become an abuser, HOWEVER.

MY critique here, is how sidelined his whole arc is, as his story is more portrayed of Endeavor’s past coming to haunt him, all for the watcher to sympathize with endeavor rather than understand how the abuse endeavor put onto touya made dabi. This whole arc was framed to be sympathetic towards endeavor, and to fear Dabi. Don’t even get me started on how Shoto’s feelings meant nothing in this arc, as well as being immediately cut off by a surprise cameo of a character that possibly discredited Dabi’s expose video on his abuser.

Finally, we get to talk about the elephant in the room: Enji Todoroki, endeavor himself.

What is there not to say about this man.

I feel I should start eith the obvious:

The forgiveness/sympathy arc for endeavor was quite possibly the worst thing to ever happen in the anime, and this is not subjective.

The whole arc is based around how Endeavor is a victim of his own mind and is trying his hardest to make up for being a terrible person.

Personally, i love to see character arcs of villains becoming a better person, but thats the very thing: Endeavor is trying to ask for forgiveness from his family, who he abused for 15 YEARS. This is no exaggeration as Shoto is now 16, and his cracks started forming as soon as he was born.

Endeavor had illegally married a woman that he basically bought his way into,

was illegally “breeding” (eugh) for quirk benefits,

Treated one of his son’s like a vicarious version of himself

Physically abused his son (age 5+) his wife, and verbally abused the rest of his children

isolated his son

treated his son like a weapon

and finally felt too prideful for any sort of meaningful apology.

This all adds up to a character who only felt sorry for his actions after the consequences started hitting him in the face, as he only felt remorseful when Shoto refused to be associated with him.

Now, some of you may be thinking: “A lot of characters are forgiven for more, why would he be the exception? It’s fictional why do you care?”

There are several reasons to why I care but i’ll speak in terms of framing for now. This show is highly influential to not only kids (as it is a KIDS SHOW) but to adults as well. May i direct your attention to the man who saved a woman from a murderous ex-boyfriend by blocking his machete hits all because My Hero Academia inspired him to take action and be a hero?

Or how about a murder that took place because the accused was inspired by an invader zim episode (the dark harvest)

Whether you like it or not, fiction HAS an affect on reality. Yes, we can determine what is real and what is fake, but you cannot deny that a lot of what media we consume helps us be who we are.

If the show promotes more sympathy towards an abuser than their victims, then people may find themselves sympathizing real world abusers over the voices of victims.

I wont speak on delicate subjects but I can already see affects of this happening, as people rally to defend famous people accused of being abusers rather than listen and provide support to the alleged victims.

In conclusion, These topics are definitely not easy to write, and I, for one, am NO expert and my word should not be used as gospel truth or a guideline on how to write these characters.

This is all simply my opinion on how the bias towards abusers in the show leads for the message to be skewed and marred in action.

I understand that no one is perfect, but if we only reward and sympathize with those who only seek redemption after they face scrutiny, then we lose the meaning of what makes someone worthy of forgiveness.

These topics are deep and interesting, but the way they are handled in this show is simply bad writing.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk and again: no shade towards the writers. Just critiques!

[blood-orange-juice]

I always thought of the harbingers as opposites by merit of how extremely they cling to the nation's ideals. With Childe showing up in the nation's of contracts and justice, overly loyal to his goddess and country and using underhanded and less than honest or legal tactics; Signora trying hard to keep the flame within her from burning her alive just a little bit longer, harnessing the hope of eternal winter to delay inevitable fire; no need to elaborate on why dottore takes the whole scholarly thing way too far, sky is blue and fork found in kitchen; and arlecchino seeing a very inflexible and occassionally cruel form of justice with the strict rules of the house of the hearth... mostly because to me, Anemo has always been about growth and moving forward. That's what a lot of character themes within mondstadt are about, like Collei in the Manga, or Diluc's whole thing... Revenge masquerades as growth but is in reality just another form of stagnancy. I don't have the right words to elaborate on it, idk. The problem is I can't seem to make it work as well with Capitano, but I also haven't finished the archon quest in natlan sooo

On the surface they do seem to be that. Distorted ideals to contrast the Archons' pure ideals. But now that we know more about each Harbinger they are starting to look awfully similar and I'm not even sure their ideals are that distorted.

Zhongli is by nature a warrior/martial arts god (remember Venti calls him a blockhead) who accepted the role of god of contracts to protect people and to uphold Guizhong's ideals. He's also no stranger to trickery, the whole Liyue arc was orchestrated by him and was essentially one huge performance.

Childe prefers duels as a way of settling conflicts, is extremely straightforward by nature (we can see that lying makes him uncomfortable) and accepts the role of a diplomat to uphold the Tsaritsa's ideals and to try and avoid harming civilians if possible. He also fools us in Liyue without saying a single word of untruth (everything he does in that arc can be seen as some kind of barter/contract).

Both are good at dancing around contracts and promises while not actually breaking them. Also Zhongli planned and set up the events for which everyone blames Childe. Childe is honestly just a much younger version of Zhongli (please don't tell this to the boy).

Scaramouche is painfully similar to Ei with his black and white thinking and inability to deal with loss (I don't consider Signora the main Harbinger of Inazuma. although she also has an element of inability to deal with loss).

The kind of research Dottore does makes me think he's trying to cut through the illusory nature of Teyvat, fake sky and the world running in a cycle of some sort. Breaking out of a dream cycle (although a smaller one) was the plot of Sumeru AQ.

Both Focalors and Arlecchino strive for justice and fairness for the people they care about and are willing to play any role to achieve it.

Mavuika and Capitano are pretty much the same person with slightly different ideas on how to solve the task in front of them.

[mk-wizard]

Elita-One NEEDS to Return to Form

As she herself says early in the video, THIS is Elita-One.

The Elita-One who had the spirit of a bold warrior yet the grace and elegance of a queen. She was not an angry, shrieking girl boss. She was a mature woman leader who like her husband Optimus Prime had a kind, patient and parental figure personality that was unbreakable. As another @chaoticcreatorgardendean brought up, the fact that real Elita-One is a woman is something to be celebrated not shamed. After all, we don't shame Optimus when he has softer and boyish moments such as the time he played basketball.

Or another time when he played his planet's favourite sport which is cube and mentioned being good at it.

If it's not silly for Optimus Prime to still be fun, sweet and lovable even after the things he has been through (and I am sure he has trauma), it's not silly for Elita-One or any of the female characters to continue doing them even after going through battle.

I stand by being ok with TF One Elita-One being hardened because she's still a teenager and thinks she has to be this way, but I really yearn for the days when the strong, courageous and capable yet motherly, feminine and charming Elita-One returns. And while I agree that her role should consist of being more than just Optimus Prime's wife, that doesn't mean we should remove it. She can be more than just, but still be that too. After all, Princess Jasmine from Disney was more than just Aladdin's love because a woman can have a husband and not be defined by him. Modern marriage is an equal partnership after all. Plus, being in love is beautiful and many woman Transformer fans are married to men (like me). Plus, let us not forget that one of the most icon Transformers Blackarachnia even found love and was shamelessly feminine. In fact, she herself was aware of how useful her feminine wiles could be which makes her not only smart, but also shows how confident she is.

Heck even the adult tomboy Strongarm had a feminine side. I am absolutely convinced that the thing she sought from Bumblebee was more than just his validation. As someone who speaks from experience, I think she was seeking his affections. Moreover, it also explains why she got so jealous and resentful towards Windblade. Personally, I think her and Bumblebee's chemistry was very good, and if written better, they could have been a beautiful couples, but that's another discussion.

The point is, the real Elita-One and everything she represents needs to make a comeback in Transformers lore. We need stop portraying her as a meanie or as the woman Optimus loves, but will never have. We need to stop femininity shaming in Transformers as well as romance shaming. There is so much maturity behind a woman acting like a lady in spite of her circumstances, her hardships and others' attempts at bringing her down. Might I also remind people that one of the whole points of feminism is that a woman should be able to be herself and have what she wants without shame which includes being a lady, a wife and a mother.

With that said, we need to also bring back the version of Optimus x Elita that is a happily married couple. No "it's complicated" nonsense or needless drama that nobody wants anyway.

PS: I also want to add that Elita-One's warm, nurturing and feminine personality also makes her the ideal contrast to the emotionless, cold and solely logic driven Shockwave. Can we also talk about how back in the day, being a genderless, emotionless machine like Shockwave who has no desire for love was considered as a bad thing for a reason? I am not saying being unisex bad. I am saying that Shockwave is an unhealthy extreme. PPS: I didn't like Skybound to begin with, but the butchering of Elita-One's character made me hate it. Do not want.

[arceespinkgun]

Blaster and Bumblebee/Goldbug

After reading the entire Marvel UK G1 comics continuity, one thing I've concluded is that I really want to see Bumblebee and Blaster hang out again. Blaster is somewhat famous for being very different from his Sunbow cartoon interpretation in these comics, being hot-headed in the comics but chill in the show, but honestly he becomes more in-line with that version of himself over time and I think Bumblebee was a large part of that. Continuing to have Bumblebee and Blaster as friends in new media would be a great thing.

Look at this awkward moment lol

See their story below the cut:

Blaster was introduced as an Autobot who was part of the Cybertronian resistance, trying to liberate the planet from the Decepticons. He had a partner named Scrounge who he seemed to have a hot-and-cold dynamic with.

But when Scrounge was captured and executed by the Decepticon leader Straxus in a horrific way (being melted by acid, which Straxus did to POWs in order to turn them into ingots) and died to send the message to the other Autobots that the Ark's crew were alive on Earth, Blaster became very embittered.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Bumblebee was struggling with feeling like he wasn't a valued member of the Autobots. He was treated like someone to protect, and when he was asked to mentor Tracks, Smokescreen, and Skids, Bumblebee ended up feeling like the whole affair was a wash and that he hadn't really been the one to teach them anything.

I think it's worth noting how similar Blaster's dead partner, Scrounge, really is to Bumblebee. Obviously they're both little yellow guys, but beyond that, both felt like the load to their respective teams, even though that wasn't actually true. Scrounge even dies happy that he feels he was finally good for something. Scrounge was also a spy, which is kind of similar to Bumblebee's role in G1 as a scout.

Anyway, things happen, in an infamous moment, Optimus Prime kills himself over the deaths of video game NPCs. Blaster and the rest of his crew get to Earth via Space Bridge. Bumblebee gets blown up and then rebuilt into Goldbug. Grimlock takes control of the Autobots and immediately acts like a tyrant, culminating in his ordering Blaster and Goldbug to just start killing humans who are getting in their way during a mission. Blaster's cynicism and Goldbug's ideals actually mean they're on the same page in their disgust for their leader, so they go off alone.

Blaster is honestly an emotional wreck, channeling all this grief into hatred for the Decepticons. He's furious when Goldbug is shocked to hear that Blaster let his partner die.

These comics really tried to sell us on "Deceps" as a shortened version of "Decepticons." It did not catch on

When Goldbug has to go off alone while Blaster's battling the Decepticons, because Blaster and the Decepticons all got infected with Scraplets and Goldbug needs to find a cure, Blaster starts cursing Goldbug's name and Goldbug (IMO correctly) notes that if he tried to explain his good reasons for leaving mid-fight, Blaster wouldn't believe him.

When Goldbug does come back for him, Blaster lets his anger overwhelm him again, to the point of wanting to die via acid—the same way his old partner died—with the Decepticons rather than living.

But the Scraplets become too powerful to defeat this way, so Goldbug sticks with his ideals and chooses to rebel. He knows they need their enemies' help to defeat the Scraplets. He saves them and Blaster both.

Blaster changes his mind about the whole thing, accepting their friendship, even seeing it as the "cure" for his inability to trust.

Goldbug's kindness softens Blaster a lot, something that is important throughout the rest of the issues in which he's the main character. He even lets Grimlock capture him in order to save the lives of some human children.

Eventually, Goldbug's also imprisoned by Grimlock. Blaster, having been tortured at Grimlock's command, is again starting to doubt what the point of caring about other people even is anymore. But Goldbug knows Blaster by this point. He knows that vengeance and anger drive him, so he knows just what to say to get him to knock some sense into the tyrant!

Many other things happen after this point, like Blaster being temporarily deactivated, as is Goldbug, and Goldbug getting rebuilt back into Bumblebee by Ratchet. But I think what's especially important is that Bumblebee takes on a leadership role, even sort of becoming Grimlock's superior.

I know this post has been all summary and very little analysis, but I know a lot of people don't know this continuity's stories so I felt it was necessary. What I really want to emphasize is how Bumblebee and Blaster made each other better people, and how Blaster feels like an equal to Bumblebee when Bumblebee's so often put into the role of a mentee or mentor to others. Bumblebee wanted to be needed by someone and to move away from the "little brother" role he often serves, and he became Blaster's equal and was needed by him in Blaster's time of mourning, then later became a leader. Goldbug helped Blaster calm down and become more openly caring. And the thing is, I really feel like even divorced from this specific storyline, this relationship could easily carry over into other continuities since both characters love Earth culture.

I'm also aware that Earthspark has Bumblebee talk about how Breakdown is like a brother to him and that their interactions had similarities to this dynamic. Since that show often focuses on post-War interactions between Autobots and Decepticons, it makes sense. EDIT: Bumblebee's brotherly love for him wasn't reciprocated to the degree he thought it was. Very different from how Blaster and Goldbug chose each other over their faction! But I really do want to see Blaster and Bumblebee again because I often feel like Blaster is neglected from a characterization standpoint and these comics give him some of the most depth and such a great relationship with an ultra-prominent character.

[palmviolet]

love listening to your playlists queen. top 3 rust songs and explanation why/how?👀👀

loooove this question thank you so much and sorry it's taken me so long to answer it. had to take like a month to think about it. so here we are:

star witness - neko case

neko case is probably my favourite artist right now, and as you may have seen i have a whole playlist of her songs that fit rust. but i'm going with star witness because a) it's my favourite and b) it's concerned with being a witness, an observer, a recorder of horror and atrocity. case is acting as a scribe but also a voyeur to a shooting she witnessed, reckoning with what it means to witness and record a tragedy, the importance of doing so, and the lines that blur between onlooker and participant, victim, survivor. she inhabits the voices of those involved in the crime. in the same way, rust, as a detective, is adamant he will not avert his eyes: he will stand as witness, he has to. but his whole role in the series blurs the line between cop and perpetrator, cop and victim, and victim and perpetrator — violence as a neverending swirl of shit that ruins everybody, himself included. in this way, paradoxically kind atrocities ('tender wolves'), institutional ignorance ('the papers said '75', 'no television crew'), and personal loss ('my true love drowned') are just perfect for rust.

lungs - townes van zandt

now maybe i'm cheating with this one, since it was featured in the actual show, but i have to include it. going for the live version because it feels even more fragile, raw. there's a lot of speculation about what inspired van zandt to write this one, including his history of psychiatric treatment such as insulin shock therapy, which can impact the lungs and has since been discredited. that in itself of course applies itself to rust's troubled relationship specifically with the psychiatric institution, and institutions more generally. but regardless of the song's origin, there's a bleak loneliness to it, a casting-off of the trappings of human society ('gather up the gold you've found/you fool, it's only moonlight') that accords with rust's nihilism — but also a reaching-out for connection ('won't you lend your lungs to me?') that, y'know, as a rustmarty i can't help but project upon as well.

the ideal husband - father john misty

big thank you to @television-bodies for introducing me to father john misty, lifechanging event. anyway this is my third pick and it's giving rust as he relates to claire, to laurie, even to maggie. the first line calls on the institution and its record of things — 'julian, he's gonna take my files' — particularly bad things, the only deeds rust believes himself capable of, he's a bad man keeping other bad men from the door. these files being the files that are still sealed from his time undercover. to me, we can read this song as a reconciliation of who he's believed to be as rust vs. who he is/was as crash — and his reckless, almost haughty condescension towards the women who want to date him/marry him/fix him. 'let's put a baby in the oven' — it's 'i don't want another kid', it's 'we should all stop reproducing', it's 'i feel responsible for killing my own kid' all at once, while also invoking the old saying, 'bun in the oven', as he twists and turns within the narratives other people apply to him, the narratives they use to make sense of their lives and his own.

there are so many more but lyrically it had to be these three. thank you for asking i had a blast answering this

[toorumlk]

Harry/Ginny

AH HINNY!

oh man, i oscillate between really liking hinny one day and feeling completely indifferent towards them the next.

hinny might be the relationship i like the most for harry, and it's all because because of the family aspect. through marriage w ginny, harry officially became a weasley family member. and, of course he always was one, but he actually is a weasley on paper and i think having that in writing would mean a lot to harry. and my golden trio heart can't not mention that by hinny being married - ron and hermione are literally harry's brother and sister (in-law) now and !!!!! that just makes my heart melt (i know those two were always harry's family but bc of the aforementioned reason, etc. you get it)

so right off the bat, when i try to organize my more positive thoughts on hinny, i'm mostly focused on how the relationship best serves harry, and only harry. and this is where my frustrations with the ship begins: it's so hard to think the other way around because ginny's narrative purpose is just to be harry's ideal love interest, instead of being a fully fleshed character. i really love ginny with all her spunk and feistiness, but she's so underutilized. she had a cute crush on him in the start of the series which was adorable, but her character was inarguably just "ron's younger sister". and after she gets possessed by volde/gets saved from the CoS by harry, she still continues to have a puppy-love crush on harry until OoTP!!! GAAHHHH!!! Apparently joanne said hinny were always meant to be soulmates and i think if these two had a consistent "invisible string" motif throughout the series, it would've been so good (and almost as good as romione's slow burn). So...

here's how i'd fix hinny (lmao):

i wouldve made the ginny a much more prominent character in PoA and beyond.

we get to see hinny actually have heart-to-hearts about the incidents of CoS - for ginny to play such an IMPORTANT role in the titular plotline of the second book, then to just have her blend into the background afterwards just boggles my mind - that was the perfect oppurtunity to make ginny an invaluable character in the cast. she has this huge experience in common with harry - being personally victimized by voldemort - that harry doesn't have w ron or hermione at that point and it would've been so nice to see harry find an equal, a confidant in ginny from then on - like, dont let the readers forget that harry and ginny have this huge thing in common, have it be with us in the back of our heads the whole time!

start the hinny romance subplot fr fr in GoF

the potential of ginny being a maybe date for harry to the yule ball, harry feeling jealousy towards neville for getting to dance and spend time w ginny and harry being like "wait a minute! i'm supposed to crush on cho! im jealous of neville??" that wouldve been FUN - again, they couldve been a less insane version of romione hello

having the hinny subplot unravel in tandem with harry's crush and relationship with Cho in ootp

in ootp, you can argue that the story attempts to make a foil between cho and ginny's characters but if that were the case, it could've done a way better job of it

with harry's relationship w cho - harry likes her bc she's cool and pretty but she wants to connect with him through their connection via cedric and his death, which is off the bat a hugely touchy/traumatic topic for both of them and cho couldn't possibly fathom what it's like to be in the presence of voldemort/tom but guess which other character does ehehe...

now we're at hbp and this is where the good stuff starts bc if i'd had it my way, we'd have gotten their friendship in poa and two books of solid romantic build-up up until now

i honestly had a such a fun time with hinny in hbp, ginny in her OWL year being so cool and harry's hugeass crush on her- harry being a hormonal teenager was hilarious to read like its implied that harry is having increasingly inappropriate thoughts about her throughout the novel and theyre just intercut with "BUT RON-" that's some good shit

my one gripe w hbp's hinny is that i wish we actually got to see their dates sneaking around hogwarts, finding the perfect hideaways for makeout sessions, etc etc i know hp wasn't a romance fantasy by any means but imagine how swoony it wouldve been if we got to actually see these sunset dates instead of just being told about them - it wouldve been cathartic to actually see harry actually live the life of a normal teen boy before everything fell apart lol

if we got all these invisible string moments between them throughout the series, harry thinking about ginny and how good it felt to kiss her lips before he walks to his death in DH would've felt so much more earned

from a storytelling perspective, the case with hinny begs the question of if you can have a love interest for the jesus figure of your narrative? can you make a believable, grounded and balanced love story for the chosen one? i honestly think so but then you'd have to put equal amounts of effort and work into creating two nuanced characters and unfortunately we don't see that effort be put in ginny's character and that's why harry's endgame falls short for so many people. earlier, i said that this is the ship i like most for harry, but honestly that isn't saying a lot - i think with an almost saint-like character like harry, its hard to imagine a satisfying love and partnership for this kid. i like tomarry as a ship for when im feeling a bit insane but other than that, my main harry ship is him with a lifetime of peace and healing.

i also want to argue that hinny was never meant to be a primary romance in this story - the main romance/love story in the series is ron and hermione's and i think joanne's romance prowess all went into romione and i'm so thankful for that because i think it makes for better story (also i'm totally biased)

i also cant not mention the freudianess of it all with hinny, right? like god freud would Love hinny bc what do you mean they look identical to jily, what is going on here. that and the fact they had their first kid at 22/23 years old like my god, WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING you should be at the club!!!!! i do dig the failmarriage vibes they were serving in TCC, also.

[devonaeya]

Some of the Batkids' "roles" in the narrative

Dick is introduced as a mirror of Batman's own character. Their back stories eerily match up but Dick grows up to be very different and yet so similar to Bruce. Nightwing is what Batman could never be. Flips and showy tricks, jokes, smiles and quips. But at the same time, he has a simmering anger under his skin at the world. He took up a mask to make the world a better place, to prevent other kids from losing their parents like he did. Which was also the origin story of Batman.

Cass is an ideal version of what Batman should be. A skilled fighter who knows their limit. An unwavering moral code that refuses to kill. Cass did not lead the same life as Bruce. She was trained from a young age as a weapon and forced to take a life. After that one kill, she decides to never do it again. It's what solidifies her morals. Why she would never cross that line. Cass joined Batman's crusade because he didn't kill instead of the other way around. She is the most like Batman and imo is the one who should take up the mantle in the future.

Tim is what Bruce could have been. This section is mostly headcanons but still takes from canon. Tim's whole thing is avoiding being Bruce while the narrative (bruce himself) continues to push him towards that character. As he grows, I see him being the first to go to therapy to deal with problems. His whole thing in Red Robin was being so much like batman but younger, making Ra's so interested in him and then turning that around and being "I'm not Batman, I have friends". He is exactly like Bruce but only at the worst points of his life. After all how do you get the bitter old man from the young bright souls whose need to help doesn't come from a personal tragedy? By taking away everything he holds dear at once.

[homestuckreplay]

Suddenly, Egg.

(page 1491-1508)

Vodka Mutini is back!! It’s super cute to just see him in the background of Rose’s panels. Especially where her sprite is scaled down so his also has to be scaled down to match and he is just a tiny black smear on my screen. <3

Rose heads back to the mausoleum, making the same journey she made in early Act 2 (p.394-399) this time under completely different conditions, but still needing the umbrella. Rose ‘wonder[ing] if this rain will ever let up’ (p.307) is hitting different now I know it rains in Sburb for her too.

We also get some knowledge about who’s controlling Rose. Whoever speaks in the zalgo cursive is familiar with Rose and with the game, knowing that creating Jaspersprite was Rose’s whole reason for playing. This is really different to WV, who knew nothing about John without help from the narrator. This future person’s editorializing with ‘A mother will do whatever is best for her children’ (p.1499) is more like WV, who also puts a lot of his own opinions into commands. This also might mean that the fourth future person’s ‘society role’ is something to do with raising children, possibly a teacher?

Page 1496 is a colorswapped and flashing version of page 840 (with bonus Mutie!) – I think I highlighted this as a cool page the first time around, and it’s cool again here. I don’t fully understand how the secret passage would have been preserved, since just Rose’s house was picked up from Earth and slapped down on LOLAR, but the tunnel was originally created and sealed by Rose’s mom, who has now used it to escape on a boat(?) so likely something to do with that.

In general, seeing Rose and Dave as Sburb clients this act really advances knowledge about what’s typical for the game and what’s specific to John. The First Gate being directly above the house seems universal, for example; Rose’s first gate is on page 1497. The entry item coming being alchemized with its precursor also happens to everyone; a bird lays Dave’s egg on page 1504. But the parent getting kidnapped by imps and taken to the dark kingdom might not be universal, as it seems like Rose’s mom has voluntarily left via this passage, put down her martini and gone sailing. Does she have some kind of plan, or does she just want to run away without Rose when things start getting dangerous?

Page 1497 sits alongside 1051 and 1395 as these beautiful vertical art pieces showing off the planets in the Incipisphere. Now that we have all these stunning locations with cool designs, it is really nice to pause to take them in, and to have art that isn’t just showing a change in state for the story, but that just looks amazing. All video games should have lookout points like this.

WV makes another town, this one called ‘Exile Town’. ‘Exiles’ is honestly a great collective name for these future folks on Jade’s island so I will totally adopt that. As well as cans, Exile Town includes mailboxes, fruits, caution tape, worms, Squiddles, a letter to Dr Brinner, the pumpkin and the oil. There is a beautiful ribbon cutting ceremony which is horrifically interrupted by a military parade.

AR thinks that ‘any town without a proper militia is as good as conquered’ (p.1501) which is stupid because there’s no other towns to do any invading!! What exactly is he trying to defend the town against? In my heart I know his logic is no more flawed than WV’s, who considers Can Town to be a bastion of democracy despite not allowing other candidates for its leadership, and that WV’s ideals of order and friendliness in the town are potentially just as questionable as ideals of might and aggression. I know all of this but I still think that WV is pure of heart and it is hard to criticize him for anything, ever.

All of a sudden there is an egg. (straight up no other way to say it - there's just an egg, and it comes out of nowhere even though a fourth exile was expected). Surprisingly it doesn’t fly in, but teleports in a burst of red lightning. Presumably the exile controlling Rose is currently inside, sending her messages before activating the homing function.

Dave’s entry item gets created with lots of time to spare on his cruxtruder countdown, and we don’t see any part of the alchemy process, which happens entirely offscreen during page 1504. The most damning evidence for moving the plot forward is Jade mentioning that she ‘was going to build some stairs’ (p.1505) and nobody making a Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff stairs joke. This is serious. Hey also, I know Dave doesn’t have any food in his fridge, but what’s wrong with him that he sees an egg and immediately goes ‘I gotta hatch this thing’?

The behavior of sprites is a really interesting unknown quantity in Sburb. Obviously the NPC knowledge and game guide function of sprites is important, but Nannasprite pranking John with a bucket of water on the door (p.417) surely comes from the harlequin prototyping, Rose tells us that Jaspersprite is acting similarly to alive Jaspers (p.1492) and Dave’s crow has rambunctiously gone to make a nest to hatch an egg. So, can this be exploited somehow? Lil Cal is the obvious second sprite prototyping for Dave, but could that be subverted to make something who’d help the group on a personality level? I am looking at Dave’s room (p.312) for inspiration and I can’t stop thinking about the signed photograph of Ben Stiller and how incredible it would be if Dave used this sprite as an opportunity to meet his hero. I actually don’t know if he’d be helpful but I can still see Dave doing this.

Anyway I really love the crowsprite’s nest of swords and smuppets, I love that all these violent and/or unsettling things from Dave’s house are now being used with more positive intent. Rambunctious Crow is personally breaking the cycle of violence one shredded puppet at a time. (Hey what happens if you prototype the sprite with the entry item? do you glitch directly to skaia?)