#Themes of isolation

[imminent-danger-came]

Unhinged Anon again, and thank you for the meme! I love that you went through the extra effort to add Macaque's jacked-up eye lol.  

But also, your response has me straying ever closer to the brink of insanity, because now I can’t stop thinking about how MK and Macaque in S2E7 kind of parallel Azure and MK in S4E13-14.

It’s not a perfect parallel, of course, but… 

A character who really, really wants to be a hero and help others ends up isolating themself from the people who care about them most and hurting/endangering those dearest to them, as well as the world in general, as they pursue more power (MK in S2E6-7, Azure in S4E12-14). A ‘hero’ who doesn’t realize their slowly becoming someone that, if they were to look at themselves from the outside, they would never call a hero. 

Another character, who is technically their enemy but doesn't really want the ‘hero’ to go down a self-destructive path and sees their genuine desire to do good, throwing every ounce of flawed reasoning and self reassurance the ‘hero’ has ever tried to use right back in their face. Pointing out every hypocrisy, every step taken towards becoming something, everything, the ‘hero’ doesn’t want to be. 

A ‘hero’ getting a reality check in the form of an ass beating from someone significantly stronger than them while said stronger being points out the mistakes the ‘hero’ doesn't realize they’re making. And this ass beating happens while the ‘hero’ is completely separated from their friends, alone with nobody but their enemy. *slowly rotates “It’s scary being alone” around in my head*

“In the darkness, the Warrior was forgotten by the Hero''. All of the isolating MK does in S2E6-7, unintentionally leaving his friends alone and vulnerable to the kidnapping vs S4E13 Azure nearly hitting Yellowtusk with the scroll while attacking MK and SWK. Bonus points for the snack area MK goes to having much better lighting and being above the theater where he leaves his friends, and Azure being well lit from his place high in the sky while Yellowtusk is on the ground and shaded by the forest. Bonus bonus points for an ‘enemy’ being the one to save the ‘hero’s friends, not the ‘hero’ himself. Macaque’s the one that broke the lamp and Tang had to shield Yellowtusk from Azure’s barrage. 

And don't even get me started on how Wukong fits into all this.

Anyways, something something “The second the hero got real power, he couldn’t care less about his friends. That’s you bud” something something “Come on, Unkie Lion. You’re the big hero, right? Then prove it” something something the parallels between MK and Macaque are driving me insane, and I’m starting to realize that Shadow Play might be my favorite S2 episode. Anyways, hope you’re having a wonderful day! *waves from the precipice of madness*

DELICIOUS ANALYSIS THANK YOU UNHINGED ANON. Always a pleasure to see you here in my ask box!

So with Tang being the one to save Yellowtusk in 4x13 and Macaque being the one to save Mei, Pigsy, and Tang in 2x07, there's also the Lady Bone Demon being the one to save Macaque from death—rather than Wukong, whose whole motivation for power was to protect the people he cares about. The delicious irony.

We can even take this another step further and point to the Embrace Your Destiny special, where Wukong leaves MK and then gets possessed. Possessed Wukong then hurts MK and Macaque is the one who has to save him. Look at this parallel here for more fun!

[escapistcatontheinternet]

i love the extras of dungeon meshi in how it fleshes out the world because they make it so much more evident how race affects every part of the story while avoiding the zootopia racism problem. like obv a main theme of the story is like, humanity and desire, 'to eat is to live', etc, but since the majority of it takes place in the dungeon isolated from society and thru the lens of laios, the racial aspects play out more like shadows on a wall for most of the story.

then in the extras we get comics like this

which at a glance fleshes out the racial aspects via a character explaining the racial rules of universe - humans have x amount of bones, while orcs and kobolds have more. however, if u take it less straightforwardly, it points out how the concept of 'human' is a constructed concept in the world. the fact that there are different categories of human in different parts of the world based off of what types of humanoids occur there is already a demonstration of this. in response, the bones explanation seems to kabru and the characters as an objective way of measuring humans vs nonhumans.

but obv, when the culture was deciding what humanoids were humans and nonhumans, they weren't blindly analyzing skeletons and then deciding. just visually, one can glean that orcs and kobolds look less like the ingroup of tallmen, elves, dwarves, gnomes, etc. the bones explanation appears as a justification for that immediate prejudice under a scientific guise - I'm sure that one could come up with the same number of physical differences between a gnome and an elf that they would find between a tallman and an orc. it sounds a lot better to say 'well, an orc has 230 bones while a human has 206' then 'well, an orc looks ewwww yucky yucky to me while a human looks normal'.

and what i like abt the comic is that the characters take the explanation at face value for the most part. when a contradiction is brought up in the oni, kabru can neatly slot them into the predetermined number of bones framework. bc that's kinda how it works irl - there r cultural prejudices that we can posthumously justify, and if we find something outside of it, we can twist it to fit into our predetermined binary. however, since the reader does not live in a world where there are orcs and kobolds to be prejudiced against, we can see that flaw in the cultural logic. when the party encounters the orcs, the number of bones has no bearing on their humanity. They r shown to be cliquish and distrusting of outsiders, but not any more than the elves are later in the story.

tldr dungeon meshi worldbuilding is so good

[the-nothing-maker]

"Her mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation      Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of her name:           Her ineffable effable           Effanineffable Deep and inscrutable singular name."

My piece for the free Curse of Strahd zine, Memento Mori, depicting Stella Wachter! Do not hesitate to check out the zine over at @mementomoristrahdzine for more wonderful CoS art, you will not regret it!

[absolutechaosss]

Do you ever go insane thinking about how every member of Laios' party is extremely atypical for their species, but a lack of exposure and understanding smoothes out these differences and makes everyone think they're the "typical" representation.

Senshi is terrible with other dwarves since he has no practical interest in mining or weapons craft. We cannot know this until Namari and later, Senshi's backstory are introduced. When we see him interact with dwarves, it's awkward and clear there's a fundamental disconnect.

Chilchuck is incredibly tall for a half foot and as such has to manage his weight more than other half foot dungeoneers so he doesnt set off traps. The first detail takes the changlings to properly understand, the second is referenced in text but is fully explained in additional materials. It is plot relevant that people who don't have the exposure to half foots might not even realize they're their own species.

Marcille as a half elf is kind of obvious to many of the elves who encounter her and they're deeply cruel and assume she's driven by a desire to be able to have children but the party never notices and Senshi especially thinks of her as a typical elf even though in truth she's so outcast she could never dine with her mother at the queens table.

Laios and Falin are a bit more complicated, since we as the audience do have context for most of tallman culture, since it mirrors our own mostly, but both of them have magical aptitude that both people like Marcille, who has a lot of access to mana and people like Chilchuck, who has very little and no magical training, fail to understand how isolating it is to have that much potential and aptitude.

Arguably Toshiro and Namari fall into this as well. Toshiro looks like the embodiment of the silent but noble warrior, but his own party and extra material confirm that he's abnormally shy and introverted, something that makes it hard for him even in his own family. Meanwhile Namari is able to stand on her own as a weapons expert and "typical" dwarf, but total dwarves who are total strangers like Dya know who she is and resent her.

Arguably a lot of dungeon meshi is about peeling back layers and assumptions not working out, but it's so great that every member of the core party gets interpreted by others (and maybe the reader) as "typical", especially with the skills line up, as a human fighter, halfling rogue, and an elven mage are so basic a stereotype. But none of are able to achieve that standard. These assumptions and misunderstandings only thrive because each party member is so inexperienced with both the biology and culture of the others. The only way they gain context is either interacting with a wider pool of people or experiencing it for themself. Everything in this story is so layered and I love it.

[sualne]

carnis au or also 'one meat', have some lore!

[raayllum]

The way Soren was once told he had to do things alone and that whole experience wounded him so deeply

he never wants his friends to feel that way again

[ilkkawhat]

[izel-scribbles]

cool title or something

(closeups + oc lore under the cut)

this is eve, short for eversor (destroyer in latin) - she/they (angels dont really have gender but she's transfem yay)

eve is an angel that used to be god's right hand. her duty was to destroy sinners, as her name would suggest, but her bloodlust eventually caused her to fall from grace. the scar on her arm is from a battle with a demon. they have another burn scar on her other arm from hellfire from that same design.

their relevance to the story is that she "corrupts" beatrice (see below) craving the power she used to have, and essentially possesses her to carry out eve's orders. beatrice is still conscious during this, and the possession is manifested as the wound around her eye.

back in ancient times, eve fell in love with a priestess, but it didn't end well, and the priestess erased all mentions of eve's name from every bible she could find, and therefore effectively rendered eve nonexistent. eve sulked for a couple hundred years and then resumed her duties, but god didn't forgive her for falling in love with a mortal. thus begins eve's descent into almost becoming a demon.

also, random but her animal is the barn owl, which inspired her physical appearance, and she can see from any barn owl's eyes

also random, if she was human she'd be east asian

this is beatrice, star of our show! she is 17 at the start of the story, and almost 18 at the end. (she/her, lesbian)

beatrice grows up in a small town in upstate new york, that is almost completely isolated. this town is very religious, and beatrice is raised catholic. (i also call her betty sometimes, which is her grandma's nickname for her)

her mother died in childbirth, leaving her father to raise her. Unfortunately, he is not the best father, since betty's mom was in a marriage arranged by her parents and her father is the strict religious type. Pretty sure he's a pastor or something, idk

eve first starts speaking to her on evenings when she would want to avoid her father, and would spend time in church alone.

beatrice loves nature and animals and being outside. her garden is her most prized possession. her grandma taught her a lot about plants and biology, which her father disapproved of. beatrice also knows how to play piano, and her favorite composer is Chopin.

about halfway through the story, she murders her father under eve's guidance, after he catches her with jenna and starts yelling and threatening jenna

he's an abusive pos tho, we don't miss him <3 also, betty's theme song is "wine and wheat" by madds buckley

and now, jenna! she/they, 17-almost-18, bisexual

Jenna is your typical 80s girl. she lives in NYC i think, and every summer, her parents send her to stay with her aunt (who may be a little on the occultist side). the town her aunt lives in is the same one where beatrice lives.

over 9 years, jenna and beatrice become friends, writing letters to each other in the spring and fall and winter and spending summers together. Jenna finds herself wondering if she thinks of Beatrice as a friend or something else when she's about 15, but she doesn't mention it because she knows how it would go over given betty's upbringing. beatrice is 100% in love with her, but she doesn't know it :D

throughout the story, we get little flashbacks of jenna and beatrice's childhood summers spent together, showing how they got close.

Jenna loves queen, the smiths, etc (im projecting here), and plays their music for beatrice. beatrice commits it to memory and learns to play "somebody to love" on her piano, and plays it for jenna (GAY)

at the end of the story, after beatrice has gone on a murdering spree under eve's influence, jenna has to kill beatrice to stop her from hurting anyone else. jenna is the one person eve cannot convince beatrice to hurt. they have the big gay love confession, after which jenna stabs beatrice in the chest. obviously beatrice dies in her arms.

this entire story is taking place in 1985 i think, im not really sure yet lol

feel free to ask any questions! i've had this story brewing since about september

[krispykreeme]

thinking about fitz who grew up surrounded by people praising him and admiring him but never really connecting with him.

thinking about sophie who was ostracised and othered by her peers and never fit in with her family, feeling lonely even when hearing everyone’s thoughts.

thinking about fitz who craved and desperately held onto the idea of cognates because finally someone was like him. someone was put on a pedestal and could relate to feeling smaller than your reputation.

thinking about sophie who latched onto fitz because she found someone like her. and then she found one, then two, then a whole community of people like her. she was in a place where she was valued.

thinking about sophie finding those people in her life who make her feel normal. despite all her exceptions, she’s accepted and unconditionally loved.

thinking about fitz slowly losing his sense of normalcy as façades fall and secrets are withheld from him.

thinking about sophie building her confidence up as she’s integrated into a world of support and guidance, even if from the shadows before her conception even started. how despite all the pain and fear, she has a support system.

thinking about fitz’ tall legacy and history of status quo to uphold. the heavy sword that dangles from the hands of the vacker patriarchy looms over his sense of identity. how his emotions are left alone in a family so large and revered.

[art-is-kayos]

Resident of Metropolaris Ayin

I also like this version

[lunarharp]

witch sketchbook

[therandomartmaker]

ngl throwing danny phantom, a facsimile of the hero genre and practically a mockery of a coming of age story, at dc, one of the paragons of superhero stories that, while admittedly could be better written at times and is constantly retconning due to it’s dated past, is still a highly complex and admirable story, is goddamn hilarious. I’ll be the first to admit that i haven’t seen canon for either of them, but may the Fool help me, it is fucking hilarious that these two sides of the same coin are actually just a coin mint error where both sides are actually just the same person different portrait.

[wannabe-minion-of-chaos]

How did it just hit me that when butters acts as Prof Chaos, he often monologues about being an outcast and being shunned and alone and stuff, and in Post Covid he literally DOES live in solitude and isolation for a long time and takes on that identity permanently

[captainjonnitkessler]

I'm listening to a literary criticism podcast that I've been going back and forth on - sometimes the hosts have really good insights, and sometimes they're trying way too hard to force a square peg into a round hole to fit a particular tumblr-social-justice narrative.

But then they said Nimona was a dogshit movie about a kid with "friendship problems" and accused ND Stevenson of being a capitalist sellout who "let" Netflix ruin his comic so I think I'm good to stop listening to anything they say about media actually

[arthur-lesters-tummy]

i love that when they're sitting in the crowd in the dreamlands (part 12), John says "everyone is staring at you" in that ominous voice and Arthur says "me?" in a tone that is just surprise without a trace of horror behind it. "everyone's looking at lil ol' me? gosh. guess i better give them something worth looking at" and walks onto the stage with no prompting. social anxiety fears this man.

[mayhemspreadingguy]

“I need a father. I need a mother. I need some older, wiser being to cry to. I talk to God, but the sky is empty.” ― Sylvia Plath