#Low context spoilers

[cairafea]

i think the fast travel in this game is very cool 👍

[queen-boudicca]

Okay it's two am here (happy pride everyone lol) but I just finished rewatching the new doctor who episode and I'm still blown away by how well done the "his last name is coombs" scene is. Like before that it was a kind of generic episode where there's a bad situation and people are escaping it and the main character seems kind of dickish and incompetent but presumably their arc is to grow and improve over the course of the episode and there might be a moment where this more capable person who's helping them sacrifices themselves to save them and—

And then we get the first big subversion and when I tell you that hit me like a fucking truck and the whole perspective shifts and you realize that this is not the story you thought it was

[peaches2217]

I don’t think I’ve ever felt Bowser on such a spiritual level like I feel him now.

[nilesmoon]

this shot of sawashiro is simply breathtaking to me!!!

like. seeing him crash and burn after hearing that his son has never trusted him, realizing that the chance he took by sending a tip geomijul didn't pay off, that the "miracle" he asked for is too late (just like he is). It truly is something to watch!!

to me, this really is the scene to show how incredibly miserable this asshole is and the cherry on top is how the way he sits is the exact same pose the corpse next to him has got.

[cozymochi]

never wrong 💃

[sn0wbat]

....

[arolesbianism]

Eternal gales isat au except Bloom is the one looping and she never fucking escapes due to the curse of being 9 years old. Oh and also the middle aged woman actively sabotaging her at every step of the way ig

[thecrenellations]

appreciation post for the ways David Monteath reads Lymond saying "No" in Game of Kings

"No" audiences: Will, Will, Molly, Christian, Will, Gideon, Kate

quotes:

"No," said Lymond. "The popinjays, they kill."

"I am thy master, wilt thou fight? No."

"I never bring you trouble, do I?" "No," he said thoughtfully. "No, and, by God, and I think you're the only living person who doesn't."

"Don't you think that if you didn't clutch them to your evil chest like Epaminondas and his javelin, your affairs might be less ruinous?" "No."

"From here?" asked Lymond sardonically. "No, Mr. Scott, I have no proof now, nor am I likely to have."

"Someone like ... Margaret Lennox?" Lymond replied, "Very like," and didn't add to it. After a moment, Gideon probed, "You wouldn't care to--?" "No."

"As you did," said Kate shrewdly, "committing the ultimate crime?" "No," said Francis Crawford, watching his own fingers slipping down the keys. "Man's ultimate crimes are always against his brother."

[chaosintheavenue]

Essential Fallout 4 lore question: Can the Sole Survivor (or the faction they're working with, if applicable) end up using nukes during any of the possible endgame quests?

If you could please answer as spoiler-free-ly as possible (literally just yes or no, unless it's more Complex than that somehow) it'd be appreciated, cheers!

[regallibellbright]

(2017 Valentine's Page)

This is just a delight.

[scatterpatter]

What a wonderful word for a wonderful experience.

[noctilionoidea]

the Barbie movie is magical because my mother saw her own struggles of being a woman trying to pursue her career while putting so much effort to get half as far and it’s conflict with her desperation to be a mother and homemaker for me and my sister, and she cried. And it can also lead to a conversation about how she drew nipples on her Barbies because she thought it was weird they didn’t have nipples.

[magpieinthemorning]

Wow, The Last Of Us ep. 8 was just ... incredible! So terrifying, but cathartic and satisfying.

Exactly what I need and want in fictional stories T^T - the girl kills the abuser(s) all on her own and is welcomed in the safe arms of her found father figure.

I liked the depiction of a terrifying person like David as someone who believes/claims (not much difference!) to be a chosen leader who has to make tough choices because his people rely on him and expect him to take care of them. So he lies to them about what they are eating (their own family members), believing/claiming that he's looking out for them. (All the while he's getting much bigger food rations than anyone else, etc. ...)

And then it becomes clear what an abusive predator he really is. It's ambivalent how much of it is him already having abusive and predatory tendencies, and how much of it escalated because of the pressure of being a leader in impossible times. (In the end it's all the same!) Of course the latter doesn't excuse abuse in any way, but there are mechanisms in hierarchies that encourage abuse (I've seen it happen somehow especially clearly in "anti-authoritarian" organisations where people in "leadership positions" acted abusive partly because they thought they had to ...).

I saw people discuss that David sucked as a leader, because his settlement was starving while other groups in the area were doing fine. In a way yes, obviously, and I think it's a lot to do with the other groups being equal and not really having a fixed "leader" to decide everything, so everyone is able to do their best and contribute. While David wanted to control everything and dismissed other people's efforts, so everyone was just scared and waiting for him to tell them what to do.

Anyway, I kind of wished they'd have included a shot of David's mashed up head after Ellie was done with him ^^

And David's line that "everything happens for a reason" became really funny in the end :3

[chasm-connected]

ive been joking about how i was going to get myself a custom true/good ending by giving niiue a burger since i found the burgers in the game and ive finally given him burgers. it doesnt matter what happens now. i won.

[tritoch]

the other thing I find very funny about trying to write a canon compliant wol is taking all the wolship hints extremely seriously.

I don't really wolship because I'm just fundamentally not that kind of fan. But I know for those who are, the sheer number of romance hints FFXIV throws at you can be overwhelming to parse in a context where you have a preferred/intended wolship, particularly if you're not attracted to the gender the hints are coming from in the first place (a particular tip of the hat to wlw fans navigating the g'raha of it all). I've seen plenty of people write around them or write them out or be like "no aymeric was for real inviting my wol to a nice platonic zero-subtext dinner," and God bless all of you.

But it's really funny to imagine them all as all-too-real but unreciprocated or perhaps unreciprocatable. The sheer scale of it is comedy. Spoilers for all of FFXIV follow.

Oh God, the Lord Speaker wants to have dinner, just the two of us, at his family estate and not a government building. I hope he doesn't bring up his crush on me. Thal's balls he's about to bring it up—oh thank God there's an emergency. Oh no someone got hurt! Oh no it's the teenage girl with a crush on me.

Your life is a cosmic joke. You watch the Sultana get poisoned and all your friends probably die to save your life and it's kind of all your fault in some ways, I mean at the very least you should've spoken up when they gave the teenager a private army, and then the teenage boy speaks up and is like, "hey, I guess we have at least one ally. What about if we go visit that guy who is really obviously down unbelievably bad for you and wants to lick the sweat off of you." and you have to be like, yeah, Alphinaud. Great idea. Let's do it. I'll call him.

(brief interlude: also haurchefant's DEATH hits so good if you don't reciprocate. It's okay. He gets it. You're going through a lot and even if you had time to sort through your feelings maybe you're just not into him. That would be okay! You can love someone, or the idea of someone, without needing it to be romantically reciprocated. That's chivalric, even. Knightly. So he won't ask you to lie to him and say you love him as he lies dying in your arms. He's not so low as all that. But could you smile for him as you used to? That true hero's smile of yours. And you do, and he dies. And you both know he died for a lie, in a way, or a flight of fancy. And he's okay with that. Are you? Should you be? Should he?)

Then you're into Stormblood and it's like wow, okay. That last part was all high fantasy, of course there were loyal knights and elegant princes. But this is war. Imperialism. Grim business, surely there's no way—oh no BOTH handsome young revolutionary leaders seem to have a special interest in you?! And so does the Crown Prince of the Empire? Come on, man. I should get to do the whole horrors of war thing without having to also deal with this. Gaius sucked and it was weird that he let his foster daughter run around being openly obsessed with him but at least he never made it my problem.

You can't even get away from it across dimensions. Shadowbringers is a horror story about going on a teambuilding camping trip with your work colleagues for some reason except they all suddenly got really hot and they keep touching you affectionately on the shoulder and being like "I care for you and your happiness. Truly." And also you're being stalked for the whole camping trip by two old men who are obsessed with you. The false climax of the story is that the one old man tries to betray you and give a dramatic monologue about how he loves you but the two of you are doomed by the narrative and then the other old man shoots him in the back like "no actually its MY turn to betray them and give a dramatic monologue about how our love is doomed by the narrative." Then the real climax is old man #1 backstabbing old man #2 in the middle of said monologue before old man #2 dies and gives ANOTHER wistful monologue about his doomed love. Then for the patches they're like okay so we have this even CRAZIER old man who's gonna strike when you're weak and give a dramatic monolo—

and that's without even getting into the literal soulmate ghost only you can see

my warrior of light never felt more betrayed than in that scene where Y'shtola is like "haha Alisaie and G'raha have crushes on the warrior of light." Like I thought we were COOL, Y'shtola! I work here! This situation is already in such a delicate balance! Right when I got here I met Alisaie's "friend from work" who was like oh haha so YOU'RE the one she can't stop talking about and we never followed up on that because the woman died horrifically like five minutes later right in front of us! Then when Vauthry got away and we had to do all that shit with the dwarves, G'raha kept pausing every ten minutes to be like oooooh I'm so old I'm gonna die soon...at least I got to spend some time with some people who are really important to me...in fact here's what I'd tell the person who's most important to me...actually u know them really well haha. And I just had to sit there and be like wow, dude, crazy.

even in the face of apocalypse you still gotta go back in time like 12,000 years and there's somewhere there who makes you sit and listen to his story which is that the purpose of his whole godlike immortal life was to be in a throuple with you and old man #2 from the camping trip. and you just gotta sit there the whole time knowing you/your past life is the one who broke up the throuple over politics. He's like come help me harangue the old man into streaking in public, he'll do it if you ask.

then you meet and fight and kill God and you gotta turn to the team and be like hey sorry guys can you give me a sec. I'm gonna call God by her real name because we met one time for like four days and after that the promise of meeting me again was one of the things that sustained her through her millennia of suffering. Not like that but like. Idk. Just gimme a sec!

It's a relief when you finally get to Lahabrea and he's like actually I still don't fuck with your vibe. Like thank GOD.

And my WoL is very obviously dad-shaped so Dawntrail had a very specific energy for me but I understand that for plenty of people your deepening rapport with Wuk Lamat had a romantic subtext (same for Koana depending on how you read a few of his lines). And personally I think it's the height of comedy to be like, noooo, babe, your highness, I know you and your brother the king are in love with me and want me to stick around and support you emotionally through this governmental transition haha. But it's just...the cursed wineglass, babe. I GOTTA go figure out what's up with this cursed wineglass.

It's a running gag in some of the more optional content that people are like "you have an unreasonable number of hobbies and side gigs" to the WoL from time to time. But if every time you tried picking up a new hobby some new elf started baring their soul to you, you too would be like Hey Jessie (or sometimes Krile or Tataru), my good friend who is one of the only people in my life who knows what professional ethics and work-life boundaries are, any chance you need muscle on a gig on the other side of the world? Ideally with only Cid and his ex so all libidinal energy in the room is directed towards machinery or someone who isn't me?

ironically one of the only places you get a break from psychosexual obsession is the nier content

[princess-of-purple-prose]

[ID: A collection of Trigun panels.

1. A shot of Wolfwood carrying the Punisher.

2. Chapel says, “If killing is a sin... it is also the path to redemption. Did you not understand that?” Wolfwood, through black panels of narration, thinks: “I understand. I understand, but... He is foolish. His words are no more than the nonsense of a child. Idiot. I understand that.”

3 and 4 show young Wolfwood being given the Punisher and being told it’s the Eye of Michael’s highest honor. Its skull-shaped handle is shown.

5. Legato saying, “That cross... I’ve been waiting for you. You’re ‘Chapel,’ correct?” He and Wolfwood look at each other.

6. Wolfwood’s grave is prominently in the foreground of the last page of volume 10, chapter 8 while Vash and Livio discuss where Vash will go next.

7. Wolfwood is starkly shaded as he sits unconscious in the desert with the Punisher behind him, almost like a grave marker.

8. The bus driver comments, “Whew... That’s one well-prepared dead guy.”

9. Chapel berating Wolfwood for not shooting to kill Livio. End ID]

Wolfwood, the Symbolism of the Punisher and Tragic Narratives

MAJOR MANGA SPOILERS

Considering that my post on Wolfwood being a tragic character is doing the rounds and people seem to adore it in the most horrified manner, I thought it might be fun to point out some of Wolfwood's 'dead-since-the-beginning' motifs, specifically through what the Punisher signifies.

Symbolism of the Punisher

There are five (from what I've pulled out) things the cross-machine gun of the Punisher symbolizes. First and foremost, I'm going to talk about how the Punisher, in it's shape of a cross, represents Christianity and Christian morals. This is something that is highly ironic, as while it shape symbolizes the morality and salvation of Christianity, of forgiveness and unconditional love--and such missives as 'thou shalt not kill'--it is also clearly a specialized weapon created specifically to kill people, violating the assumptions of Christian morality.

In a way, this irony or contradiction reflects Wolfwood's own irony; outwardly looking like and pretending to be a priest with Christian morals while at any closer inspection is clearly an assassin. However, the inverted is also true; although Wolfwood is an assassin and kills people, it is shown through his moral quandaries, that these Christian ethics are ones that Wolfwood subconsciously believes in, but has rejected to survive in the world. As a result, the Punisher symbolizes the irony and contradiction of Christian ethics that Wolfwood carries.

Interesting side note, Chapel directly says that their actions as assassins--executing people with their machine gun crosses--is mercy and leads them to save themselves and others to redemption, much in the same way humanity was redeemed through the cross in Christianity, which is the excuse that Wolfwood carries with him for killing others; but that's a digression from what I want to talk about.

The second thing I wanted to talk about, was that in a way, the Punisher in a cross shape is apt, as the cross previous to Christianity was a literal torturous execution device. To be sentenced to crucifixion meant hours of pain until one finally died from asphyxiation. The Punisher in that manner, stays true to the execution part of the original symbolism of the cross, as it is being used to kill and hurt others; as well as in a way, it applies to Wolfwood himself, which we will get to later.

The third thing I want to talk about the Punisher, is how contextually it symbolizes Wolfwood's profession, and his connection to the Eye of Micheal (EOM), which causes him guilt (the fourth thing). The cross is literally given to him by Chapel, the man who inducted him into EOM; Chapel giving Wolfwood the Punisher, a prestigious weapon used by those from the EOM, can be considered the physical signifier of Chapel giving Wolfwood the brutal lifestyle that he lives under and his connections to them. Hell, specifically because of his weapon, Wolfwood is mistaken for being Chapel, it is so tied to EOM and Chapel himself. As well, by both being the weapon that shows his correlation to the EOM and the weapon that he uses to kill people with, the Punisher (and it's weight) also represents his guilt from the lifestyle, becoming literally the 'cross he has to bear' as a result of trying to protect the orphanage.

A quick, bullet point recap, of what the Punisher signifies:

Christian morality: unconditional love, absolution and forgiveness, and 'thou shalt not kill' and Wolfwood's irony around this concept

a literal historic torturous execution device

signifies his profession and connection to the eye of Micheal

signifies his guilt over his profession

Narrative doom and Wolfwood

The fifth thing I want to talk about, is how the Punisher and it's symbolism is related to Wolfwood being a narratively doomed character. I choose this specifically as the Punisher literally becomes Wolfwood's grave marker (or one of them, at least). Thus, the fifth thing the Punisher symbolizes as Wolfwood's grave marker is his death-- and how he's been dead since the beginning.

Hell--our first introduction to Wolfwood is him slumped under the Punisher in the desert, and assumed to be dead by the bus driver. The bus driver even comments that he's a really well-prepared dead guy, referring specifically to the cross of the Punisher, which in the first-ever panel we see Wolfwood, looks like a grave marker for him-- and ultimately ends up being his grave marker. Since the beginning, our introduction to Wolfwood is him as a dead character, and in a way, he remains so as he literally carries his grave marker throughout the story, only waiting until the right moment when he can truly die.

As well, not only is the Punisher literally his grave marker and is a symbol of his death, but the other symbolism that it carries can be considered to cause Wolfwood's death; Wolfwood's connection to the EOM, his guilt, and Christian morals. For Wolfwood's connection to the EOM and Chapel, it is Chapel whose actions cause Wolfwood's death. In fact, as Chapel is the one who gave Wolfwood the Punisher, Chapel is the one to give Wolfwood his grave marker--and was the one to ensure that it became his gravemarker. Since the beginning of Chapel taking him under his tutelage, he was condemned to die.

Not only does it symbolize Wolfwood's death as a result of Chapel, but it also symbolizes Wolfwood's guilt over killing as a result of working for EOM, which also contributes to Wolfwood's death. Wolfwood's guilt come into play in his choice to defend the orphanage alone, as he believed that due to his guilt he wasn't worthy or important enough to ask Vash to help him; even if he knows Vash has proved over and over again that he would put aside everything to help anyone. Ultimately, he is proved wrong when Vash shows up anyways, but by this time, it is already too late. Adding to this is Wolfwood's staunch refusal to kill Livio as he declares his belief in Vash--and Vash's principles, ie, Christian principles-- which also causes Wolfwood to die, which Chapel himself notes. As a result, it is his guilt, his connection to Chapel, and to a smaller degree, his acceptance of Christian ethics, that kills him--all things the Punisher, his grave marker, signifies.

As well, tying into the historical interpretation of a cross as a torturous execution device, one can take the symbolism of the Punisher, specifically of Wolfwood's profession and deep self-loathing guilt as a result of his ethics he's had to forsake, and interpret the Punisher as metaphorically torturing Wolfwood. And, as it's symbolism is tied to the reasons for his death, one can also metaphorically claim that it is also what causes Wolfwoods own death, or execution; fully fulfilling its historic significance.

Summary

TLDR/To summarize: The Punisher, in its cross shape, ironically symbolizes Christian values which both the punisher itself and Wolfwood contradict, although may aptly symbolize it's historic use of a torturous execution device. Contextually, the Punisher also symbolizes Wolfwood's connection to Chapel and the Eye of Micheal, as well as his guilt over killing people.

The final thing the Punisher represents, is Wolfwood's death, as it literally becomes his grave marker. This is connected to how he is narratively doomed as that he has since the beginning been carrying his grave marker, and even in our first interaction it is foreshadowed to be his gravemarker. The other things the punishers signifies is directly correlated to his death as well, such as Chapel being to one to give Wolfwood his gravemarker, and being the one to cause Wolfwoods death.

All in all, Wolfwood as a character was never, since the very moment we met him, meant to survive the series; he's been literally carrying his grave marker the whole time. There was never any chance of him being able to escape his life the way he so desperately wanted to. He's been dead since the beginning.

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ANYWAYS Uhm if u enjoyed reading my meta, here's a master post of some other trigun meta I've done :D