#Marx is still right

[thelostgirl21]

One thing I really want to see happen in Season 4...

Valdo Marx: Nice to see you again, Joseph!

Jaskier: *Heavy sigh* That's -

Yarpen: *Stepping in front of him protectively.* Julian Alfred Pankratz to you, you dying sounding beached whale! Only his friends call him Joseph!

Jaskier: Ah, actually, that's Jaskier.

Yarpen: *Dismissively.* Yeah, I KNOW.

Jaskier: *Getting all teary eyed.* I know you do.

[dagrapesody]

I like the beetlejuice musical so this spawned on my canvas Idk

[startistdoodles]

I like the idea of him having a pocket dimension in his hat that has everything in it. He reaches in and can pull out just about anything.

[clownhavoc]

I am incredibly proud of this cover I made for a project so you guys have to look at it :3

[desultory-novice]

I should be in bed but talking about Clockwork Mechalor made it only feel right to draw some Crowned Marx as well. Especially since I only mentioned his experiences softened him up some.

Crowned Marx doesn't have the ability to split his body that regular Marx displays. The damage the Master Crown did to him via slicing his body this way and that with its thorned blades left permanent scars on his body. Again, unlike regular Marx, who seems immune to pain or at least brushes it off fast, these scars actually hurt him.

On the upside, he is able to exercise a little bit of power over the inert crown gold left in his body to form claw like hands and little tiny thorned wings he can use to glide... but not fly.

[rebelrevolutionary]

Are you the person who made antifa/anarchist modern AU Anders art like 5 years ago? Something about the way you used to draw noses seems familiar. If you are I just want you to know that those were my favorite pieces of Anders art. It was just so self indulgent for me and I'd kill to see them again :D

FGHNGFHHJFHFGHD YEAH IT WAS ME. i posted them on my main cause i didnt have this sideblog yet, but p soon afterwards i created this blog so thats why theyre not on here fghfhgfhg i was just a little baby DA fan back then 😭

you know what? ill just add them all here in this post for you, my fellow self-indulgent anarchist anders enjoyer

[loosesodamarble]

The Truth About Marx's Magic

Tagging @luminouslion because Melissa is the resident Marx lover.

Memory Magic or Communication Magic? That is the question.

Now because Marx is a character that's pretty far into the background most of the time, he doesn't get many chances to appearance use his magic. Let's review what we know of Marx's Magic.

Marx can read/project the memories of others as well as force them to speak truthfully.

Marx's memory reading is infallible. (Do take the statement with a grain of salt since we've only seen this spell used to its fullest twice[-ish]. And the spell was only used on people who had their memories protected/sealed and not altered in some way.)

One of Marx's spell can erase the most recent memories of an individual (although the spell never successfully landed on the intended target [Yami] so we never actually saw it used).

Marx's magic can be used to project his visual image and his voice to others (primarily Julius!) in order to perform long distance communication without the use of a magic tool.

The image and sound projection isn't limited to one-on-one either. In episode 151 of the anime, it's called out that it's thanks to Marx's magic specifically that allows the whole kingdom to view the captains' battle. (Note: this is an anime original event and will be coming up later.)

So Marx's magic deals both with memories and communicating with others. It's been referred to as Memory and Communication (to most people's recollection from what I've gathered). But which is it exactly?

The answer?

NEITHER! It's neither Memory nor Communication Magic.

Let me explain.

The first place to look for information about Marx's magic attribute was the original manga. Luckily for me, I have both the original Japanese volumes as well as the English translations of the manga (up to volume 35 in JPN and up to 32 in ENG as of the writing of this post).

However... Looking through both the Japanese and English, I found out that while explanations and references to the powers of Marx's magic were made, there was never any instance of Marx calling out a spell name and with it his magic attribute (as is customary when a spell is written in the manga).

But then I remembered an ace I had.

Volume 16.5: Marque-page de Grimoire. It's essentially a databook for the series up to volume 16 (thus being 16.5). And in this volume we get profiles and information about various characters in Black Clover, which includes their place of origin, their likes, their ability parameters, and of course their magic attribute. And what is Marx's attribute listed as in his profile?

記憶交信。(pronounced ki-oku kou-shin)

Okay, I know most people on my blog don't understand Japanese so this means nothing to you.

記憶交信 isn't a singular word unto itself but two words put together. 記憶 means "memory, recollection, remembrance." 交信 means "telecommunication, correspondence." So essentially it's "memory correspondence" magic. And that tracks with what Marx's magic is capable of: it effects and interacts with memories as well as allows for long distance correspondence.

Or perhaps a better way to put it is that Marx's magic allows memories to be communicated. Memories are communicated when he uses the spell that reads them. So when Marx projects image and sound, it's as though he's sharing his immediate, in-the-making memories. If that makes sense...

Anyways.

I can further back this up with content from the anime. Specifically the movie. Remember how Conrad stole Marx's magic? Well look at what Conrad says about it.

記憶交信。

But that's in Japanese. So what's the actual English translation?

In the English subtitles, Marx's magic is referred to as Memory Exchange Magic.

See again the movie.

Or we can look to episode 38 of the anime.

As for why it's called "Memory Exchange" and not "Memory Correspondence" or "Memory Communication" Magic, it's simply a matter of some translation liberties. "Exchange" is a synonym for "conversation." You have an exchange when you talk with someone. And when you have a conversation, you communicate your thoughts with that other person. Thus the use of "exchange" rather than "correspondence/communication" in Marx's magic attribute to convey what it does.

But if it was always Memory Exchange Magic, why do people recall Marx's magic being just "Memory" or "Communication" Magic?

Is it a case of the subtitles saying "Memory Exchange" but the dub saying only "Memory"? No actually. If you listen to the dub of episode 38 and the movie, they will say "Memory Exchange" directly. (I'd share the sound clip myself but I have zero idea how to isolate a snippet of video and all that so anyone reading this will have to go see for themselves that I'm not making this up.) I think the "just Memory" recollection of the fandom is a result of the human mind making things easy on itself. Why remember two words when you could remember one and still get the same idea essentially? Thus, the fandom remembers only "Memory Magic" rather than "Memory Exchange Magic."

As for "Communication Magic"... Remember episode 151? Well within that episode, Julius refers to Marx's magic as 通信 (tsuu-shin) magic. Which is translated as "Communication Magic."

What created this discrepancy in the anime though?

The timing of releases.

Where was Marx's magic first named? In the 16.5 volume. Which was released on May 2 of 2018.

The next thing to be released was episode 38 of the anime. And when did it originally air? June 26 of 2018.

Episode 151 didn't air until November 10, 2020.

Now I don't know how far in advance Studio Piero was making episode 38 to the original air date. And since I'm not doing an in-depth research paper on this topic, I only took a cursory glance online to see that a general estimate is 2 months minimum. Could’ve been a longer period, can’t say for certain.

So... It's possible that Tabata was in the process of putting together the information for volume 16.5 while Studio Piero was in the midst of working on episode 38 and when it came to scripting the episode, they wanted to use proper names for Marx’s Magic rather than silently skipping over it like the manga. While Tabata isn't normally involved in the anime's production, the production team might've consulted him on the matter since they had nothing to go off of in the manga. And that's when Tabata could've shared the intended name for Marx's magic.

Then, later on, when episode 151 was being made, the content was an anime original. Tabata wasn't directly involved and the production team might not have consulted with Tabata during that time. Leading to the name of Marx's magic attribute being called the wrong thing.

And earlier this year, we got the Black Clover movie. And the movie does correctly call Marx's magic Memory Exchange. See, unlike the TV anime where Tabata wasn't really involved, he was the chief supervisor of the film. So while not directly in charge of the script, he likely would've been able to review it and make sure that Marx's magic was referred to by the right name.

With that, the post is over. I've officially explained the truth about Marx Francois' magic!

Sorry to make this so long and rambly. I just had a bit of fun solving this kinda sorta fandom mystery. But now we all know the truth.

Marx has Memory Exchange Magic~!

[khizuo]

as a non-Black marxist i have zero qualms about saying to the other non-Black marxists on here — get over yourselves. it's not "idpol" or "fed behavior" to call out anti-Blackness and chauvinism in leftist spaces and yes, marxist spaces. in fact it's incredibly common for Black people who raises points about anti-Blackness in leftist spaces to be fedjacketed.

you guys forget about the contradiction of colonialism in favor of class reductionism almost everywhere except Palestine it seems. also maybe read about New Afrikan revolutionary nationalism and 4th world theory before spouting shit about how Black people in the american settler-colony are part of the Global North or whatever. if marxism is a science then we should be consistently reading Black theorists.

you are not "advancing marxism" by refusing to recognize these contradictions, and you definitely aren't doing it by fedjacketing Black leftists. you're just being incredibly anti-Black.

[shoezuki]

ooo true would you want to talk about the games Utpoia and Sunday's reasoning?

ok disclaimer i havent finished penacony and also i am exceptionally inebriated. like to a phenomenal degree. so maybe this isnt coherent but also perhaps this is and i follow in the footsteps of thomas de quincey and micheal mcclure? idk.

anyways i have obviously been thinkin of the concept of utopia a lot in terms of penacony especially. because im currently taking my stupid utopia course rn. but penacony is very much a Modern idea/perspective of the concept of 'utopia'

in a lot of the older/foundational portrayals of utopia (at least that ive read so far) the concept is very much devoid of individuality, built on the idea of a utopic upper class being predominant, and that all the people 'that matter' being perfectly happy (i.e. thomas more literally coined the term 'utopia' and his concept of utopia was an island wherein slavery persisted when people acted outside of the utopic norms, and non-christians were tolerated; francis bacon's new atlantis was similar but moreso focused on the idea of technological advancements, but still very christian) OR were somewhat satirical and depicted the gluttonous nature of upper classes, depicting such in unsavoury ways (i.e. the myth of cockaigne, a legendary island of abundant food, and some the most notable depictions of it showed people being lazy and over indulgent such as pieter bruegel the elder's land of cockaigne painting. also technically jonathan swift's modest proposal is a satirical utopia)

honkai star rail's penacony is very much a modern idea of utopia. this wont ever be covered in my course because my prof's a coward but a lot of modern 'utopias' are very much satirical and/or commentary about the concept of utopia being built on suffering. older concepts of utopia are very collective, in that whats best for 'everyone' is decided by the higher peoples. but when looking at modern media the concept of utopia and dystopia is often synonymous.

the best example i can thing of rn is the hunger games. from the capital's perspective, it's a utopia. but anyone in the outer districts? fuck no its dystopian. in similar cases (divergent, basically any hunger games copy cat, some the stuff by ursula de le guin i.e. earthsea, etcetecetc) the concept of 'utopia' is largely whether it's truly utopia when it's formed on the suffering of others.

imo penacony questions this in a similar way, but moreso in whether a utopian society is Truly a utopia if it's built on ignorance (the matrix is a similar thing i just thought of). say, if reality continues to be shit and house suffering, whether our own suffering or that of others, but we could enter a false society that was free of such suffering, would it truly be utopia? is ignorance of suffering the same as a lack of suffering? Additionally i think penacony, specifically sunday's ideals, deal with the concept of collective vs. individual utopia. as before, an overall utopia where everyone ascribes to one ideology and belief is a utopia, but at an individual scale, is it still utopian? If someone has individual and contradictory beliefs, or doesn't Want to be within this utopia, is it still a utopia for them?

okay i need to stop writing. but yeah penacony is a very modern idea of utopia that i fuck with severely because it draws into question whether a utopia can be true when it is forced, when it is hegemonic, when it ignores the suffering within reality without actually solving such suffering. imo it's a coward's utopia, a faux-utopia, and hsr especially challenges a utopia that lacks any ability to choose

[mobiused]

Hey, I remember a while back you posted about how JJs entire business strategy with loona was sabotaging them, and I do remember hearing somewhere that he sabotaged them on purpose... Do you remember where he said that? It just seems especially relevant what with these teasers coming out

JJ has never on paper talked about wanting to specifically keep LOONA underground - it was a common belief that orbits held that turned into "it came out of jaden's mouth directly" and people just assumed he said it somewhere amidst the hundreds of blogposts hes made. So that was espoused as fact, and then the JJ dicksuckers said it was a complete lie made up by orbits to make him look bad because there was no direct quote. But thats a whole other thing. Originally, the idea was that JJ intentionally restricted their promotion because the promotions were so small, and there was one blog post that *alluded* to him liking the notion of a mystery group;

"I was going to make a mystery filled girl group. In the age of information excess. In age of knowing too much too easily and information overflowing, I realised I wanted to make the greatest group that couldn't be known." <- this was back in 2012, arguably about lovelyz but vague enough to be about his general attitude to girl groups. To be honest it doesn't fit in well with the work he did with Lovelyz but does fit way more with LOONA & his ambitions of making unknowable lore, so shrug.

[red-dragon-archfiend]

Kirby Star Allies is one of, if not my absolute favorite Kirby games, and I recognize while it's on paper one of the weaker entries in the core series, it appeals to me personally on multiple levels and I think I should revisit it more

[maiteo]

eye….wasn’t thinking of my summer classes when leaving the country teehee

[panco-1812]

Old art of Marx for KSS 26th anniversary last year

[giantkillerjack]

Junji Ito makeup test #1

OR

Figuring out what I need in order to create a music video parody of the song "Gloria" by Laura Branigan, but make it about Tomie. I will be playing the part of a 1980s pop disco singer in the style of Junji Ito. This is high art in progress, people! 😘😂😅

photos of first test:

additional digital notes made using Clip Studio:

main takeaways:

So first off, where the fuck did my stage makeup go??? I had no idea it was missing until today!! I ended up using the makeup from when I used to perform as a mime. (Not a joke, but in a larger, cosmic sense, kind of a joke. 😆 I'll probably do it again sometime. I was adorable as a little soft butch gay mime!)

I now remember why I stopped using the dry cake face paint and switched to wet paint in a tube BUT I CANNOT FIND THE TUBESSS

I'm out of eyeliner in general, but for this, I need some kind of extra thin/fine eyeliner and preferably more than a thimble-full of paint for it.

Maybe I can thin out some matte black face paint and also get like a really nice fine brush? I guess it depends on if the paint is water-soluble.

I should probably check to see if I already have these materials, which would be SO MUCH EASIER IF I COULD FIND MY FUCKING STAGE MAKEUP--

Either way the lines need to be super thin, straight, clean, and parallel to each other. Or I could look at the rougher cross-hatching Ito sometimes uses, but I suspect tidier lines will look best with makeup.

Luckily, I already have an entire burlesque/drag act where I make myself look like a character from a black and white film. Between that and the mime thing, I theoretically have all the white gloves I will ever need lol. I guess I'm going to need white leggings, since the light gray ones won't work for this. Junji Ito is not generally greyscale as much as literally black and white.

Do I own makeup primer? I feel like yes. It definitely sounds like a good idea.

I KNOW FOR A FACT I DIDN'T THROW OUT MY STAGE MAKEUP because I had quality skin-safe glitter in basically every color, and only a FOOL would throw that out!!!!

Gloria is a song from 1983 with disco balls in the music video. Do I want to incorporate more style choices from 1983? Should I buy a wig? Something with shoulder pads maybe?? I guess that means I can keep the thick eyebrows...

Actually upon further research, I do need a sequinned shirt for this. Possibly a sequin leotard with a shiny belt. And leg warmers. OH! And a jacket with just the biggest shoulder pads I can find! Or at least the closest thing I can find to this outfit in one trip to a thrift store

Every 1980s music videos seems to have a person with their hair and clothing flowing in the wind. Now, I could buy a fan. But much funnier and cheaper would be a shot of my hair blowing in the wind that then pans to a friend furiously fanning me with a piece of cardboard or something. (Which means I'd need either two people helping with this shot, or I just have to accept that the shot's going to look kind of blurry by doing the zoom-out in post. Oh gods, I would have to write a proper shot list ahhhhhh--)

Honestly, blurry footage seems fine in some parts. I'm probably going to add some dreamy soft filters anyway to make it look like pre-digital 35mm film from an 80s vid.

I'm going to need some fake blood to splatter at me in the middle of the video. Obviously. So I guess that bit will need to be filmed outside.

The good news is the fact that the nearest easiest filming location for me is a alley full of dumpsters is actually really appropriate for this video. XD

Should I do the distressed eyebrows that a lot of Junji Ito characters have? Note to try that in the next test along with a The Crow-like smile. (My go-to high school Halloween costume. Damn, I have been painting my already pasty-pale face even whiter for a while now! 😅)

Other progress made on this project today:

I recorded myself singing a voice memo along to the rhythm of the karaoke version of Gloria that's on YouTube, but in it, I'm singing in the key that is appropriate to my voice. (A couple half-steps down, I think.)

Next step will be to load that clip onto my computer and adjust the karaoke version to match its pitch. And then like, practice the song with my new personalized backing track.

If i actually finish this, I'll have to re-record the backup vocals to say the right name.

Also the next step will be to see if my interest in this lasts long enough to at least get me to find my frickin' stage makeup.

Additional notes:

The original music video for Holding Out for a Hero is exactly the right energy for this, and now I absolutely need shots of me in front of (badly green-screened) flames, on my knees while singing passionately and directly at the camera and presumably wearing kneepads tbh

Omg what if I included a little "photoshoot" sequence and really fucked with the photos to make them all blurry-body-horror nasty as they flash by real quick?? Get like, a glitch effect in the mix hell yeah 😎😎😎

Edit: Omg i just remembered I have these short-shorts with a reanimator quote on the ass! ("Blasphemy? Before what god?") i know what shorts to wear for this now!!

Oh! Another idea! What if the video starts with me reading Tomie and then closing the book and picking up the nearest microphone-shaped thing and using that to start singing - and every 30 seconds or so of footage, it quietly changes to a different item (one of which is absolute the black wand vibrator that I have XD)

Note: I can easily shorten the song if I only have funny shots planned for like 2/3 of the song length. No need to get too repetitive.

[nostalgia-tblr]

Tagged by @chocolatepot Rules: pick any 10 of your fics, scroll somewhere to the mid point, pick a line (or three), and share it! then tag 10 people. 

I have 404(!) works on AO3 and was not sure which to pick so I went with a selection of fandoms/pairings for a bit of variety.

Like Soldiers Do (M*A*S*H) "I happen to come from a long and proud line of perverts, sir. When the Mayflower docked there were Pierces in the hold worrying the sheep. My forefathers fought perversely against the British, and also for the British, depending on popular opinion at the time. And I could always lie about it. I could practice on the plane home."

Architectural Anomalies (Doctor Who (2005)) Martha put her hands on her hips, annoyed by his pretence of innocence. “Doctor, I know what an alien sex dungeon looks like when I see one!”

The Myth Of Kissing Princes Loki (TV 2021) Now comes the coaxing tone, the seductive suggestion. “You’re not tempted to find out what it’s like with yourself?” And here’s the smile she’s turned on others countless times, finally deployed against her as though she doesn’t know exactly what it means.

One Plus One Is More Than Two (Elementary) It is Sherlock who hesitates, because he has the most to lose: retaining Watson’s love is more important to him than winning the love of Joan.

Bring Something Back (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) Miles takes his place at the line, waits for Julian to hand him the darts, and when their fingers touch in the process he almost drops the darts to the floor in his haste to break the contact. He is overwhelmed by skin and heat and memory. He almost panics.

Flowers For Romana (Doctor Who (1963)) She did look rather upset about the whole thing. That would teach him not to try being nice to people. He kicked K-9 simply because he could, and because he couldn't think of any way to blame the dog for his own stupidity.

And Watch How You Play (Doctor Who (2005)) Missy can be very generous when she wants to be. She invites him along to destroy a nice big chunk of the Cyberfleet, which provides an enjoyable day out for the two of them. She’s read that sharing hobbies is important for a couple and she is nothing if not committed to their relationship. She enjoys killing and he enjoys winning, and the reverse is also true even if he’ll never admit it.

The Worst Days (Star Trek: Voyager) He waits for her to move first. That he might move first when she’s the captain is unthinkable. He is loyal and obedient, after all, up to and well past the point of those being faults. (She has asked him to mutiny when the very worst day finally comes, and he has promised that he will and knows that he won’t.)

The text of a recently discovered document, purporting to be Friedrich Engels’ discarded first draft of the Preface to the 1885 edition of Das Kapital by Karl Marx (Historical RPF) He wrote a lot. I think that’s fairly evident from the size of this book, but it’s an important enough facet of his existence that it bears stating. The man wrote a huge amount of polemic, rhetoric and discourse. Huge amount. Ridiculous amount. And so much of it means something. So much of it is right.

Mother's Day (Doctor Who) It is 1968, a year of revolutions. She sits quietly, hands in her lap, as her husband explains the benefits of an otherworldly eduction. It would be best to take the boy now, he says, before others notice the coldness of his skin, the weird beating of his hearts. She can come with them, to make a new life.

I am gonna tag… ummm… anyone who wants to do this meme. Anyone. It's a fun meme. Share the fun, yes!

[desultory-novice]

"...Anybody there?"

I really liked this thought that crossed my feed a little bit ago...

It can be a hard to characterize Marx because we don't see him on screen doing all that much. But if you stop and consider what he's like during the Marx Soul battle (vicious, crazy, frightening...given the graphical limitations of the times) and realize what we're seeing there is the WORST Marx can ever be and work backwards from that...

...you realize maybe he really IS just a little guy. Just a funny little fellow who likes his japes and jests. Quite possibly he never was a threat to anyone before he got on that idea of summoning a Nova.

This whole train of thought stemmed from the Christmas pic where he is dutifully (dizzyingly) making cakes on Christmas to make up for the prank he and Magolor attempted. Like, Marx, paying for his actions? Without trying to fight his way out of it?

You know me: I believe evidence suggests that all Ancient Artifacts have some kind of powerful mental sway on everyone that isn't implied to be a member of Kirby's species and I'm just wondering if Marx's true nature is and always was to be a harmless prankster when he's not under the corruptive sway of the power cosmic.

The reason we never heard of him before Milky Way Wishes is he'd never done anything that bad or noteworthy to gain a negative reputation for himself. As to why he's much more of a gremlin after the fact? Well, I'd argue that if you look at Magolor, that kind of experience seems to have lingering mental effects on you. Unless Magolor wanted to uh, take over the world with Deadly Needles even before he came in contact with the Master Crown?

(Who am I to judge?!)

[The Japanese is phrased less like he wants to use it for terraforming for his park and more like he just really wants to fill the land with spikes. Again, not judging!]

...But yes, in addition to being able to imagine all the wonderful, long-lasting psychological damage contact with an Ancient Artifact did to Marx, you could also use this potential characterization avenue to make Mark Soul something really, truly frightening!

(Again, I'm very fond of the interpretation of Marx Soul's birth - and stop worrying about "canon," we have canon alternate timelines now!! - having a lasting affect on Marx in the form of becoming his negative intrusive thoughts made manifest; whispering in his ear, a voice that no one can hear, a face that no one can see...)