#also the ominous last line in this screenshot

[chibishortdeath]

I cannot explain how often I think about this part of the Simon’s Quest story. Ough I wanna try to explain every tiny line of this in detail, but I can’t think of words rn aaa, so I’m gonna dump random disjointed thoughts in the tags for now.

I’m putting the links to the English translations of the first two games’ Japanese manuals because their stories are so much cooler than what the western releases got. The second I get everything I can or have thought about this guy together I’m doing in depth story and character analysis for some silly whip man NES games tho—

[beaniegaebie]

i don't really have any solid conclusions about this yet but i noticed A Thing in a rewatch and i haven't found it mentioned elsewhere yet so here we go

(apologies for the appalling image quality you're about to see, i can't screenshot easily rn pls bear with)

OKAY so in the scene where crowley confronts gabriel about "shut up and die", something about the arrangement of book stacks caught my eye a little

the majority of the books are angled so that we mostly just see the page edges and not the spines clearly, EXCEPT for a particularly shiny and familiar colour combo right here-

but nothing too weird going on there, i thought, crowley coloured books in a bookshop so what? right up until i registered crowley's line when we get a closer look-

hhhhmmmmMMmmmm yes yes "everything just the way you wanted" huh, very interesting considering that we know how much thought goes into props huh

and for most of the shots we get of crowley in this position those freaking books are just quietly nestled right there in the corner-

look at that god damn framing i fuckin see you, you glorious bastards

so i paused to see if i could figure out what the hell was up with those fuckers and this is when i absolutely lost my mind, your honour

A and C you say?? in crowley colours???? framed like this?????? localised entirely within your kitchen???

anyway long story short they're two books from an Agatha Christie Crime Collection set (24 volumes, three stories per volume) and guess whats on the mfing front covers I'm-

(its a rant for another post but when paired with this other set of initials spotted in s2 i want to scream actually)

ANYWAY back to the books, through an absolutely unhinged comparison of the formatting of gold text blobs i reckon the two we have here are:

(on top) The Pale Horse; The Big Four, The Secret Adversary

(on bottom) 4:50 From Paddington, Lord Edgeware Dies, Murder in Mesopotamia

(I'm fairly confident but if anyone has a better image to confirm/correct this pls do)

now here is where I'll need a bunch of help from some Christie-heads out there bc I haven't read any of these and I've only seen the tv adaptation of one of them, so i dont know for sure if these are like A Clue, or A Cool Thing, or if I've just fully brainrotted myself into a fun lil corner here? wa-hoo

but here's some initial stuff that jumped out at me after skimming the basics:

(some of) the titles: Pale Horse/Big Four - death's horse ofc, the four horsemen mayb? the them+adam?? ; Mesopotamia is a very biblical choice bbz ; 4:50 From Paddington- azi likes trains i guess? idk that one's tenuous lmao ; honestly no idea with the other two but Secret Adversary feels a tad ominous

iirc Big Four just has kind of an unusual history, it was initially twelve short stories that she later compiled into one, and it was published fairly soon after christie's mysterious disappearance/reappearance

in Big Four, poirot fakes his death at one point and doesnt even let hastings in on it and I'm hoping sure its totally irrelevant to the ineffable bois

part of the Pale Horse story is a group of assassins that basically try to pass off all their murders as being actually caused by like ✨satanic powers✨ which is interesting

christie knew a fUCkton about poisonings thats why she wrote so many into her work and, while i don't believe the poison coffee theory myself, it sure is an interesting link with how cyanide is associated with almond smell/flavour and that metatron chooses almond syrup in particular

(ALSO random side note that is mostly meaningless but I've worked in a good few uk coffee shops and have never worked anywhere that stocks almond syrup; almond milk yes, hazelnut syrup yes, but never almond syrup...? prob just the places i worked though lmao)

EDIT forgotten point: I've seen some speculation that the bently's plate reading "CURTAIN" could be a reference to poirot's last story, along side that alternate scene of crowley ordering the sherry for "miss marple", its just one too many agatha christie references for my melted brain to handle and I'm SUS

so this is where i run out of idea steam and hand it over to you lot because i have no clue what this could mean, if it even means anything other than a cool set feature

is there something here actually or am i yelling into the void just for fun?

who knows, who cares!

[autisticlalna]

The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Establishing Contact With R.C.

im being exploded from all angles but i bring news from the skyblock kingdoms discord. which is also news from fool's chat last night. WE HAVE MADE CONTACT WITH R.C.

"leo. leontids mathonwys what does that mean" IM GLAD YOU ASKED <- unhinged

after Rubyco's episode dropped yesterday, someone was curious about what was going on with the weird galactic messages. Solar and I gave an overview of what we know, which dovetailed into talking about V.P., and because im incredibly predictable i also started talking about Navigator.

normal behavior.

and then...

He is definitely someone to keep in mind.

im gonna just post some screenshots going over this part, because it got very chaotic very fast.

or, to summarize: SBKCD attempts to figure out who to yell at for being ominous.

things somehow get even more chaotic, with several others chiming in Galactic, Enderian, letter substitution ciphers, and fucking hexadecimal at one point. im gonna skip over most of it and zero in on the other message we got from R.C. during this:

leo: i was supposed to be clipping something. aces: Team L.O.R.E. Suffering continues R.C.: :) R.C.: [Suffering is not the intention]

okay! cool! awesome. R.C. making the discord explode was not part of their plan, whatever it is. more importantly hi hello what the fuck do you mean nav is someone to keep in mind

this is, somehow, not the end of it. later that night, during Fool's stream, Ruby-- or the Rubyco clone, to be more specific-- was lurking around being threatening and all-around very suspicious. Solar was in Fool's chat and feeling very stabby (which Fool shot down), and when it became clear that Ruby was stream-sniping, decided to cause a distraction.

solar: also -- fool, ignore me for a second -- R.C., pal of all ours. [i don't suppose you're listening in?]

unexpectedly, there was a response from Rubyco in Fool's chat:

R.C.: [I am always watching]

Solar and R.C. then proceeded to have a conversation, still in Galactic.

solar: oh, awesome! great to see you! [out of curiosity, do you take up capacity for this line of sight? which is to say, can that other ruby see right now?] R.C.: [I am not a parasite] solar: would never accuse you of that! quite the opposite, [i wonder if your presence protects us from the prying eyes of that impostor.] R.C.: [I do not influence the worlds- i am not him, i should not communicate- but this is different.] R.C.: [You are an ear that will listen]

a couple other chat members chimed in in Galactic, and im assuming Fool noticed what was going on (i had his stream at near-zero volume unfortunately) because R.C. ended communication with this:

R.C.: [Do not tell about my existence] R.C.: [Please tell him this too]

incidentally, the distraction didn't work. after all, they outright told Solar "I am not a parasite"-- this isn't a Sapphire situation.

what's interesting is that, in other instances of R.C. speaking to the viewers so far, they've referred to themselves as plural-- "we". this includes in the most recent video that started all this: the hidden messages include "This was the only one we could save", and the description says "We are not sure of their location".

however, here we're speaking to an individual, or at least someone speaking on behalf of themself and not as representative of the assumed greater whole. "I am always watching". "Do not tell about my existence".

hey guys what the fuck

[plague-of-insomnia]

Ch 197 : Send in the Clones

This is a short chapter. Finny and Snake are led from the outside by Susan, one of the young staff members, who teases/flirts with Snake about his relationship with Doll before introducing them to the Collie class. They made bath salts the day before and today are making pound cake with orange marmalade, instructed by an older woman staff member.

While we’re here, we meet a few more of the children at the orphanage, and more parallels begin to emerge.

We’ve already met Theo, the “Ciel” clone, and Jenny, one of the kids from the outdoorsy Corgi class in chapter 196, so now we get to meet three more, who parallel the other servants: Sebastian, Mey Rin, and Bard.

Oliver (オリバー), Mey Rin’s Doppleganger, Collie Class

It’s possible Oliver is a boy, but it isn’t explained. (Oliver does use 僕, boku, the same first-person pronoun Our Ciel does, and a common one for young boys.) Oliver is also very shy and tends to stutter when they speak, like Mey. Oliver has a strong aptitude for domestic tasks like embroidery, and seems very close/clingy with Daniel, the Bard clone, and always seems to be apologizing.

Artie (アーティ), Sebastian’s Doppleganger, Mastiff Class

Artie is the oldest in his class and impresses Finny and Snake with elegant manners and speech, just like a high-ranking servant like a butler. He keeps some of the other kids in line (like the Bard clone Daniel), and also seems to know more than he initially lets on about “fledgling day” (the day that the kids leave the orphanage, supposedly). He also uses the same pronoun as Sebastian, 私, Watashi.

Daniel (ダニエル), Bard’s Doppleganger, Collie Class

Daniel is definitely a boy (or he sees himself as one, anyway), as he complains about having to dress like a girl and do “woman’s work,” in much the same way that Bard complained to Seb when he first joined the servants. And like then, he’s given a stern talking to about cooking and other domestic tasks not being the sole domain of women. (He even uses the same pronoun, オレ/俺, ore, as Bard.)

I can’t say yet what the significance of these parallels are yet, but they’re definitely one of the most important aspects of this chapter. The other one has to do with a term that’s repeated over and over this arc—

「巣立ちの日」, literally “leaving the nest day,” or what I’m calling “Fledgling Day.”

It’s the day that the eldest in each class “ages out” of the orphanage and presumably goes on to the world to work as a servant in their area of expertise, and is a day of celebration. When Artie first talks about it in this chapter, it’s while lecturing Daniel about needing to be prepared with skills when he leaves the orphanage one day.

However, only a few pages later, Susan, one of the staff, announces that Jenny, the girl we met last chapter who was afraid of horses, is having her “Fledgling Day.”

This is sudden and surprising news that almost everyone seems excited about—except for Artie and Oliver. The latter is so shocked that they forget to tend the marmalade they’re making and it begins to boil and burn—and I wonder if that juxtaposition is intentionally ominous as to why they’re so concerned about this news.

On the last page of the chapter, Artie murmurs about how this can’t be, it’s too sudden, genuinely horrified. Does he know that “failures” are disposed of? It’s giving me even stronger Promised Neverland vibes now…

Another interesting element is that Snake seems oblivious to their different reaction, but not Finny. Could it be because of his own experience as a test subject that he can recognize what it means to have failures “disposed of”?

I wonder if Oliver and Artie may become allies to Finny and Snake, and if we may be horrorfied (ala the bone prosthesis in the circus arc) once we learn more about what Undertaker is doing with all these kids…

~#~

As always please be respectful of the work I’ve put into my translations and don’t use my translations or screenshots without credit.

I’m also human and I make mistakes, so apologies in advance if there are any.

[caputgeratlupinum]

In which I (re) watch Robin of Sherwood

In the dim and distant past (of a few years ago) I started watching Robin of Sherwood. I dropped out after the end of season 2, when *events* happened (if you know, you know).

Anyway, this to say that I started watching it again, and I thought it would be fun to record my reactions to it. I remember it as being a good if slightly silly show, so... we'll see how it holds up.

EPISODE ONE - ROBIN HOOD AND THE SORCERER (PART 1)

We are starting off strong with the Ominous Bad Guy theme that sent me back to the last time I watched this with the force of a hammer (this show has about five soundtracks and they all come up like once an episode).

Our introduction to adult Robin is him running to the top of a... something, I'm not sure if it's a hill or a ledge or what. Anyway he runs there, stops, and screams 'MUCH!'. Which must be wildly confusing if you're not familiar with Robin Hood.

ITVX doesn't let me take screenshots (tragically) but I need you all to know that Guy of Gisborne looks about twelve and speaks like he went to fancy boarding school.

Hi Will Scarlet I have fond memories of you from last time! And I think this might be the first time he's 'scarlet' as in 'bloody' rather than named for his hair or clothes. Also the second Will tells them his name another man steps out of the shadows to introduce himself like he's desperate to get in on the action.

ROBERT! ROBERT! BY CHRIST ROBERT I WILL NOT LOSE MY FISHPOND! 10/10 introduction no notes. Genius move to give the Sheriff an annoying brother in the form of Abbot (??) Hugo.

Sheriff duties: keep on top of the poachers in the forest, and meet with the evil sorcerer baron and his... possessed slave? I'm vague on what position Little John holds here.

Sorry, Sir Evil Baron (yes I know his name is Simon de Bellame. I'm ignoring that), but I don't believe for a second that your wife taking her own life was nothing to do with you.

Did I mention Marian and Tuck are here? They are! I love them both very much.

I can't believe they that they just leave Rat Man and Arthur behind. I demand a spin-off about what happened to them.

'You're like a May morning.' *climbs out the window without another word* I mean to be fair to Robin if I tried that line I'd probably also flee immediately afterwards.

I really wish I could do screenshots because Herne the Hunter's vision of various events with Evil Baron's face over it all, slowly getter bigger and bigger, is truly a sight to behold. Robin honestly took that pretty well.

The classic bridge fight is very enjoyable but I am haunted by the knowledge of the blooper reel where Michael Praed gets hit in the balls. And Robin's dramatic scream as he falls off the bridge is sending me.

Last time I wasn't really sure how to feel about the Herne the Hunter stuff, and right now I'm in the same place. uhh... stag-man. With vague prophecies. I dunno... 'when the horned one possesses me' ok but who are you when he's not possessing you? How does one become possessed by the horned one in the first place (I know none of this is the point. I just have questions!)

If I were one of the merry men, I would find it easier to agree with Robin's Heroic Inspiring SpeechTM if it hadn't started with him explaining how he's been 'awakened' by a deer-headed man.

I feel like Will saying, 'You should have killed him. You'll have to someday.' is setting up for a conflict down the line where Robin has to make a Choice about Gisborne some day, but I don't remember any such plot.

aaand that's it! I didn't mention every single thing that happened, there's a lot happening in this episode. Genuinely had a good time though! Despite my poking fun at stuff, I do actually like this show.

[buck-up-buck]

HMMMMMM

Ya'll can blame @theredrenard for this because I was told specifically to stop manifesting this, so guess. what.

HERE IS ME CONTINUING TO MANIFEST IT.

So, as per my post HERE I talked about the potential to burn Buck's loft down. Now, again, you don't have to tell me twice about how AO3 this theory is, I have been in this fandom since day one and I have read an unhealthy amount of fanfictions with this plot line, but, indulge me a second, will you?

So, at the beginning of the season I know that SOMEWHERE, there was a scene where there was a housing market crisis headline on the TV in the background, but I cannot for the life of me find it, so here is a screenshot of a post I saw talking about it!

We also have the scene where Buck is touring Harbour with Tommy at the start of 7x04 and Tommy mentions that he sometimes responds to "high-rise fires."... interesting Tommy; do you sense a high-rise fire in your near future to save you boyfriend, huh, HUH?!?

AND THEN, we have Buck at the end of 7x04 before Tommy knocks on the door seemingly going through paperwork, bills maybe? This, accompanied with the housing market crisis SCREAMS that Buck is maybe having issues with paying rent, or with living in the loft in general and is potentially looking for an out?

Now. all of these combined alone are enough to see a potential storyline to do with the loft (and it burning down, cough cough), but what really sealed the deal was Eddie's comment in the last episode (7x07).

Eddie walking in and commenting that he could smell smoke, with Buck telling him the new recipe he is working on is cracking him, rubbed me the wrong way. What a STRANGE way to word that scene. AND THEN, Buck looking up at the ceiling, where I assume the smoke detector is, all confused as if it should have been going off, but wasn't, is potentially foreshadowing issues with the building.

NOW, all of this together, SCREAMS a storyline to do with Buck's loft, the scene in 7x07 just solidifying a potential fire even moreso.

I will admit, I have changed my mind on Amir's involvement in the fire. I now highly doubt this man would go through all this effort to burn down an apartment complex, after suffering such a loss in one himself, and would not go out of his way to injure innocent people. BUT, what I do think however, is that his conflict with Bobby is going to potentially do some more foreshadowing for the loft potentially burning down.

I doubt Amir would use the words as direct as "karma is a bitch", but I do think sentences like...

"The universe has a wicked sense of payback." "Life has a way of serving up its own brand of justice." "In the end, karma is a flame that burns with the heat of our actions."

that all basically SCREAM, fire. And this makes Bobby super anxious but Amir is gone, he is either over it and has moved on with his lil ominous departure, or he's been arrested for his conflict with Bobby, and Athena is like, "he is gone, that man is gone from our lives." and Bobby settles because she is right, it's fine. everything is fine.

Until it isn't.

Until something happens that causes Buck's loft to go up in flames and all Bobby can think about is, fuck, this is my karma, and he is like, no, I will save my son, and he goes all badass and he gets Buck outta there.

Below are my messages in my beloved 9-1-1 server that I sent literally as that scene in 7x07 was playing out in front of me, including a 46-second-long VN about why that comment from Eddie just, didn't sit right with me.

ANYWAY, hope you enjoyed. As always, let me know what you think. Am I crazy? Am I onto something? At this point, I don't even know anymore but I am having so much fun terrorising the Clown Car that now I just do it for the bants.

Whenever anyone sees me type "I HAVE A THEORY" they all immediately log off, it's so weird.

[shinygemstone]

This is my toh trailer analysis. I am making this WITHOUT watching for the future. Please don't post spoilers under this.

So, first of all- Luz's palisman. It doesn't show up in this specific trailer, but I want to cover it very briefly. It's gonna be a snake. Judging by the color of the egg, it'll be somewhere between green and blue.

ANYWAYS, the trailer: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZIurNjdV-X0&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE

The trailer starts with The Collector asking King to read them a bedtime story from a very tall book. It seems that King knocks it over and just starts reading.

It then cuts to a Lilith with short, curly hair, worrying about Hooty.

This does not paint a pretty picture. The moon sigil between Hooty's eyes implies that it is The Collector who did this to him, and his body looks like one of those puppets you'd put your hand through. Lilith lets a tear fall on him- I hope Hooty isn't dead, but it implies that for the time being, he functionally is.

Cut to the coven heads seeming to attack Eda. Eda also has short hair now, fun. King is just... watching. He's probably unable to help. But he has Hooty, which isn't very reassuring considering he's already been got.

At first glance, they look normal. Then you look a bit closer, realize that the sun on the healing coven head's, uh, horns, is a sun, that all of their jaws look strangely puppetlike, and realize that clearly the collector did something to them. Also the collector has no sense of style, just look at Eberwolf and Raine's hair 💀

The glowing eyes, at this point, to me, seem to symbolize that The Collector is actively using his puppets. There's clearly a puppet/doll motif here, which makes sense. The coven heads then proceed to raise spell circles against Eda, showing that even as puppets, they can still use their magic.

Enter Bump, who is actively casting a spell when he gets got. The other hexside teachers are around him, and the expected colorful magic moon, flicked by The Collector, his him. He gets turned into a cutesy puppet, too. Rest in peace, Bump. You're the greatest principal ever.

But yeah, there's a definite puppet/doll motif. Bump just stands there, implying that he is unable to move. This kinda contrasts the last clip, where Raine's movements seem very in character for them.

It's also very interesting that this clip corresponds with the line "seal them up, so that they never fade."

Perhaps that's an insight to the Collector's motivations?

The next clip is one I couldn't get a good screenshot of, but there's graffiti on the Owl House. Camila is (rightfully) worried, and the Owl House is empty.

It's followed up by Amity being surprised, and likely horrified by what's happening, and Belos triggering a glyph. Fun. It opens a secret door.

Hunter pulls Willow out of the way of an explosion, Luz and Amity are using their respective magic against something, and then there's this.

Good news- Scara, Barcus and Matthomule are okay!! We don't know what they're showing our protagonists, but judging from the smug look on Matt's face, it's something good. Perhaps the hideout of the people the Collector hasn't gotten yet?

There's more of Amity chosing violence, and then a surprised look on the faces of Luz and Matt. Maybe this is the point where the Collector finds the hideout?

They look scared. Also, I have a bad feeling about the spider behind Matt. Glowy, ominous, in the middle of the screen? And it might have the Collector's moon symbol on it. Not good. I don't like that spider.

Then there's this. I'll let it speak for itself.

King and the Collector look somewhere between surprised and angry. The puppets around them look scared. I don't really have any major theories on this one, maybe they found out about the hideaway?

There's another clip I can't catch of Camila throwing the baseball bat. Good on Camila. Nail that fucker.

And in this unhinged clip, the Collector says "You look fun. Want to play?"

I think he's talking to the viewer. Yes. Yes I do want to play. I want to play Minecraft. C'mon iPad kid, let's get you a less destructive hobby.

Except it's immediately followed by a clip of Harpy Eda with the Owl Beast taking control and hissing. Oh, Owl Beast is pissed. It lunges for the Collector. Get them. He needs an ego check.

So, yeah. I think that the main cast will only reunite with Eda at the end of the episode, if she isn't a puppet. I think Camila will be having regrets. I suspect that the Collector either keeps all of their puppets close to them or he just makes sure they're inanimate when he's not around/when he doesn't want them "on".

This is a freaky fucking turn of events and I love it.

[dirtyoldmanhole]

before we hit ch25, the last few lines of this one are pretty nutty in an emotional implications way.

corrin's fam is a bit fucked up, y'all.

(that's a roundabout way of saying mikoto's growing on me in a big way this playthrough.)

if you successfully run through this stealth level, possessed!mikoto tries to trick you with the last door. I'm pointing this out to show the increasingly more blurry line of possession as these last few levels go on. corrin's starting to get the idea, thankfully.

don't always take them at their word, basically. watch the actions.

(ignore the different corrin/player character, i had to snag a screengrab off of a let's play.)

... geez. that's chilling.

when you add in all of the more autonomous(ish) possessed characters together (mikoto, takumi, gunter), you start to see common patterns with how anankos presses on their psychic wounds.

mikotos, as you could take a gander with the last post, craves more time with corrin. her mother's instinct gets warped in a way that anankos can bend in a way that (nearly) guarantees corrin's destruction.

i find it interesting that her psychic wound here mirrors her magical barrier with how she drains nohrian troops of their will to fight. 'surrender/stop resisting/in the name of (twisted) love'

(I can't talk much to takumi's possession/his psychic wounds as much other than a 'yeap looks like anankos really whacked hard on that competitive/insecurity nerve there. but it does look quite consistent with the other two.)

mikoto's boss fight is up.

.... the massive spoiler that (one of) mikoto's lovers was human!anankos (aka corrin's bio!dad) just hit me, actually.

this whole exchange is exceptionally twisted with that in mind.

corrin defeats her. before we hit her actual death scene, you get the items, if you had completed the stealth level successfully.

(gunter's line here is a throw-away in the great scheme of things, I'm pretty sure it's nintendo throwing one last hail mary of sorts to the denser players of 'hey remember this guy, he's about to be very important wink wonk')

(also, imo, it's not a coincidence he keeps randomly showing up whenever corrin's parents are involved.)

corrin's starting to get it.

mikoto's hoshidan children get a chance to huddle around and say their good-byes before she dissolves into the water bubbles that signifies complete "body is dead" anankos' possession. (water being the element he and the other vallites are heavily linked to).

speaking of, we get a revelation ba dum tishh here....

in terms of plot twists, this one's actually not that surprising. nintendo's kind of wearing a little thin of 'oops actually royal of x country' twists but this one makes more sense with how mysterious corrin's past is.

no shit sher-

........ uh

w-w-what are you doing here sir

i am pretty sure i did not see you in the screenshot .02 seconds before when mikoto got vaporized

(why are you all alone there too that's kinda really ominous)

uh

uhhhh

you're standing kind of close man

(seriously though, analyze all the other screenshots and he's always a respectful body-length distance away from everyone, especially corrin. the difference is an immediate big fat "!!!" subconciously even if it doesn't read as well in the screnshots)

..........

..........NOT OMINOUS AT ALL NOPE

whyisthiskindofhot

corrin babe

you might want to talk things out with your hubby there justsayin'...

BECAUSE

this is the brilliant bit about the complete and fucking total shift into 'camera's weirdly all the sudden treating your psuedo daddy gunter like a villain what the fuck' (the visual equivalent to 'why do i hear boss music all the sudden')

we find out in about two chapters that gunter has a burning decades long nursed hatred of royalty (for not unjustified reasons) (but)

combine that with the 'gunter lowkey always holding some kind of romantic/??? unresolved pining for corrin' (especially if you're coming from conquest headcanons)

with

the knowledge of anankos hating corrin's guts and willing to twist anyone dear to her in some pretty depraved ways

.....

if your reaction is 'oh geez. that suddenly got some real fucky undertones real quick'

YUP

OHO YUP IT SURE DID

gunterfuckers know what's coming up next >:)

[tonydaddingham]

coercion/choice middle ground anon again! your response and also that other inspired meta have given me so many thoughts. i couldn't get them into a sort of unified statement so i'm just going to go through with a line-by-line approach:

well, what about the miracle blocker? how did i forget about this. oh shit. add that to the loooong list of Stuff That's Going To Come Back To Haunt us. chekhov's everything. someone ought to make a list.

so much so that he was potentially taken in by it too possibly not just him but crowley as well. yes they lived through austen times. they could have theoretically learned to dance like that. based off the season 1 head of a pin segment i don't think so though. aziraphale knows the gavotte and crowley knows the horrible disco dance and that seems like it's it.

why would he be sat there waiting for a call? could he have known a call would be coming? in a surveillance state way not a collabing with demons way. would fit with the way he just shows up apparently fully informed about everything the next morning. speaking of surveillance state i know a lot of people compare heaven to a cult and i agree but my first thought back in season 1 was actually dictatorship.

the explanation for that can only be, in my book, that metatron has been watching... and possibly has been since the first time the portal opened. well that's not at all ominous. but again it would fit with what he seems to know. did he actually go back over their exploits or has he just spent the last four years eavesdropping and put together the pieces?

i think he knows that metatron might have eyes and ears everywhere. hmmm. yeah. ominous. especially if he makes the connection to the bookshop portal because that would mean it's targeted. i do think he clocks the metatron as potential threat regardless of how kindly he's presenting himself. he's as you said not stupid and he's just too nervous around him not to have.

but because if aziraphale walks away, without crowley, crowley has nowhere safe to go. ohhhh shit. his decision's not at all only about crowley's safety but it is the only decision where crowley's safe.

(1/?)

oh hello 🦭 anon!!!✨ first of all, of course you can offload braindumps and thoughts and suggestions and whatever you like to my inbox!!! i love interacting with people like this so please do so whenever the inclination arises, you are very welcome here!!!✨

further screenshots below the cut:

for you to have gone through that meta practically line by line is... alarming!!! but moreso in that i cant believe you took the time to do so and reflect on each point, im very appreciative of that - thank you!!! and i love seeing your own responsive thoughts, they certainly kicked off a couple of my own!!!✨

why would he be sat there waiting for a call? could he have known a call would be coming? in a surveillance state way not a collabing with demons way. would fit with the way he just shows up apparently fully informed about everything the next morning. speaking of surveillance state i know a lot of people compare heaven to a cult and i agree but my first thought back in season 1 was actually dictatorship.

funnily enough this is nearer to how i see heaven, too; i completely understand the different analogies that others have drawn, including a cult or an abusive family (and all are absolutely true, none are wrong!!!), but i personally see heaven as a police state, or at the very least a totalitarian state with similar power/capabilities. it strikes me as being rather orwellian, to say the least.

as for collaboration with demons, i do think that there may be an element of this involved (for anyone else, context on this discussion is here), but maybe not in this exact instance of the portal opening in s2. i think there's perhaps been some high-level orchestration going on that could involve using the demons and the whole gabriel situation to an advantage, but in this specific scene, yeah i think its a case of metratron having an eye on the whole thing.

the explanation for that can only be, in my book, that metatron has been watching... and possibly has been since the first time the portal opened. well that's not at all ominous. but again it would fit with what he seems to know. did he actually go back over their exploits or has he just spent the last four years eavesdropping and put together the pieces?

oooookay so basically, i think its a combination of the two. i think the last four years - definitely possible he's been looking through the portal. we don't have any narrative confirmation that aziraphale has actually opened the portal before s1, and he doesn't recognise metatron's head. that being said, im of the mind that despite what is shown to us as the human audience, in heaven all the angels are in true form... so metatron (Inc his stupid floating head) may have looked very different pre-fall to aziraphale - hence why he doesn't recognise him.

anyway! i think yes; he's been steadily watching ever since aziraphale piqued his interest in s1 (calls metatron, ignores him, sucked up to heaven, yeets himself back to earth, and then stops the ordained apocalypse? man's practically a heavenly terrorist)... but then i think metatron has potentially used the surveillance system to basically back-research, and had a particular angel to help him do it (or perhaps he was watching all along? who knows).

i think he realises that metratron is potentially dangerous. he's smarter than metatron has given him credit for the metatron thinks he's reindoctrinated aziraphale into heaven's way of thinking when really aziraphale's planning to form heaven according to his way of thinking. crowley gets it wrong too. as so many people have said he hears i can fix you instead of i can fix heaven and i'd like your help. and look he's got issues and i don't blame him but i do think it's why a lot of people got mad at aziraphale and i have a lot to say about all of that. like a lot a lot and potentially somewhat ranty so while i'd love to share i shall appropriate vampire culture and wait for permission (also have quite a few thoughts about the fall that i'd love to vent if you don't mind being on the listening end) before i turn this endless.

listen. 🦭 anon, my love, my darling one. first of all - unreliable narrators? it's my girl dinner; both of them are unreliable to frankly incredible extents. idk how familiar you might be with my ramblings, but where you want to peruse, take a look at my masterpost tags, specifically the #crowley meta and #aziraphale meta ones, because whilst i am frankly an aziraphale defender (mainly in reaction to everyone shitting on him immediately after the premiere - me too, for about like 30 minutes and then i had a Realisation), i wax fairly lyrical about how much of a Problem these characters both are. i try to be balanced (but will fully admit im more biased towards being critical more frequently of crowley), but they are both very problematic.

the LWA responses (also linked in my masterpost) get very much into narrator critique too.

consider this absolute blanket permission to drop anything in my inbox, especially concerning the fall! it's the main speculation that i love thinking about (however much it hurts me in equal measure), but i'll chat about, and parse out, anything really!!!💕

and not until possibly clocking this dirty look thrown at crowley, just for good measure ooh good catch. i had not yet considered the possibility that he picked up on the weird tension there. (seriously do they have history?) there's something to be said about that i just don't know what.

my #the fall/the great war spec explores this a bit more across various posts and asks, but i absolutely do think this. not only because of the dialogue where metatron references crowley ("always did want to go his own way... always asking damn-fool questions too!"), but also from the way that crowley speaks about god in both s1 and s2, and - what appears to be - gaps in AWCW's recollection about the fall itself.

AWCW - Angel Who Crowley Was

come scream at me about this. seriously.

will leave it there for now, but again - do feel free to come back at any time!!! i rarely have one set opinion or interpretation of any given scene/line/etc., and love to consider alternative points of view - yours was a case in point!!!

i was originally vehemently against aziraphale having been overtly threatened or coerced, because a) it felt so superfluous to what was otherwise a subtle and masterful manipulation, one that seems to lead to aziraphale making the decision for himself, not metatron forcing his hand, and b) i think being threatened/blackmailed into ascending would potentially shit on a number of aspects about aziraphale's character, and reduce him to only "i'll go against my own character development just to protect crowley uwu", which is also... well, it's possible, but i hate it. aziraphale however suspecting that something else is happening, and being scared as a result - that feels a lot more in line with his character, imo!!!

anyway, hope to see you again soon 🦭 anon!!! you're welcome anytime!!!✨💕

[wheelercore]

Holly and Henry both being "explorers" aka the intentionally cut scene of Henry on moving day and Holly following the lights and almost seeing the Demogorgon may be paralleled and possibly both are inspired by Danny scene with his father + going into Room 237 in The Shining.

We get these jumbled up mixture of events from Nancy's Vecna vision:

Initially I thought Henry had walked into the bathroom, but he actually walked through an open door way next to the bathroom. Not sure where that leads to, possibly the bed rooms. Regardless, when Henry walks through the door way we see the lights flicker in the bathroom, then we get a cut to future Henry finding the black widows in the vent, then it cuts back away to moving in day Henry, seeming running out of where ever he went into with jump scare music playing for a moment. We don't see what frightened Henry saw.

The mirror with the lights on either side in the Creel bathroom (see: screenshot of future Henry) is an interesting detail because The Shining does this repeatedly, particularly in the woman in the bathtub scene in Room 237.

Personally I believe it symbolizes someone's true self being revealed. Its always there in moments where Jack sees a reflection of himself.

Anyways, in s1 we got Holly venturing into Will's (?) bedroom- following the flickering lights- similar to the scenes with Henry:

Except with this scene we're actually shown Holly venture into the bedroom and seeing the Demogorgon, unlike Henry who possibility could have been frightened by something he saw in a bedroom, but we don't know yet.

Notice the line of lights on front of Danny as he walks towards the room (which are pretty intentional you realize when you watch the movie- for example as Hallorann makes his way into the hotel before he is killed, the line of chandeliers above him are off up until the very last moment before Jack jumps out and kills him). Its later revealed that the ghost of the woman (but might have actually been Jack) had choked Danny and he had bruises to show for it. The scene abruptly cute off after Danny enters, but we see later when Jack ventures into it how it looks before he gets to the bathroom:

Looks a bit similar to Holly entering Will's room except from the opposite perspective. Mind you, the scene with Danny venturing into Room 237 is right after this scene where Danny walks into the family room and find his father sitting on the bed:

^ This scene from the images looks to be a cute scene, however if you actually watched it you would notice the ominous scary music played over it. You're supposed to get the sense that Danny is in danger. In both of these scenes there are also intentionally placed mirrors in the bedrooms- both angled towards the beds. There's also a similar set up, while the beds are arranged against different walls, both bathrooms are to the right on the back wall and both entry ways into the rooms have double doors. Notice however, in the scene where Jack is venturing into Room 237, the mirror is covered by a potted plant and the restroom door is closed, unlike in the father-son scene where the mirror is reflecting Jack and the bathroom door is open. Jack only truly sees his reflection in Room 237 when he kiss the ghost.

Also in the entry way of the father-son scene there is another curved entry way into the bedroom itself- with curtains on it, reminiscent of the Room 237 bathroom with its curved entrance into the bathtub with the white shower curtain.

In the scene with Holly, there are no mirrors however if the Demogorgon coming out of the wall is meant to take the place of the Woman in the Bathtub, and that ghost serves as a mirror itself, then there's an interesting logic to follow there. Both Holly and Danny are wearing shirts with flying objects pointing upwards- Holly with her little firefly (?) and Danny with the Apollo rocket ship.

Both Holly and Henry are described as explorers, Henry in the context of both seeing his parents (Victor was reflected in the bathtub where the spiders were and his whole thing is that he killed a family- Jack Torrancecore much?) for who they truly are and also exploring the UD (which is a very interesting repetition):

Danny spends a good portion of the movie exploring the Overlook Hotel on his little tricycle.

I don't know what Henry saw on moving in day but. I might have an idea.

[monoxidecahedron]

When u listen to screenshot tell me what u think !!!

ominous and solid start!! delicious deep sounds

its kind of lulling me but also really. rhythmy. im intrigued

OOOH DELICIOUS

WHOA IT JUST WENT ALL CRUNCHY

(removes headphones dazed like someone walking out of a good movie) ummmmm that was like. delicious. like dark chocolate crunchy layered waffles. hoooly shit . insane experience

reminded me of two things: harder better faster stronger by daft punk, because of the lyrics kind of, although its much more dance electronic than screenshot

and also the poem "Will you ask to live?" by astolat (which is one of my favorites ever although it may require some context) because of its last line which is my favorite part of the poem

Will you ask to live? You will. You know you will. When the hand closes on your throat, when the ash thickens your breath, you will ask, and ask again—

What promises will you make, when your shining dome comes down, that you withheld to see it rise? Will you still value its bright curve, steel and stone, higher than a breath in freedom? What will you then want more than the unbound hand and the open mouth? Make ready your offers and your bargains. Breathe. Breathe now.

BUT YEAH IT WAS SUPER COOL

[onewingedsparrow]

8, 10, 12, 17, and 19 for the ask game!

(They’re all amazing; it was hard to narrow it down. 😂)

Thanks for the ask, Nova! <3 Lol yeah I loved all the questions too :D

From this ask game!

8. Which tf character has the most different personality from you? Uhhhhh that’s a good question. Maybe RiD’15 Drift? He’s very rigid and not likely to have fun for the sake of having fun. Also most iterations of Shockwave are far more logical than I like to be. Sure, logic is important, but Shockwave seems to go overboard in my book. 10. Which tf character do you think you’d get along with really badly? Probably Starscream, any continuity. He's such a backstabber and I value loyalty; he's super narcissistic and people like that are quite annoying to me. Plus he's generally not very fond of humans and talks down to them, and I'm very feisty so our interactions would probably go much like Miko's and his in TFP. Many insults, mutual disgust. I can appreciate his character in a show but I know I could not stand him in real life haha. 12. List a piece of art not from transformers that you think fits a tf character! Hmm this took me a bit of digging...there wasn't one that came to mind instantly, but it was interesting to consider! Reposting is BAD kids(TM) so here's direct links to artists’ works instead! ;)

First off: this beautiful ocean art by Kazami is really inspiring to me. Most people probably don’t think of the ocean when they think Transformers, but...put simply, it reminds me of the ’Waves ;) I have AU versions of Shockwave and Soundwave occupying my mind, their designs inspired by the sea. And the depth in this particular piece is absolutely gorgeous. The brighter colors are reminiscent of neon, which also makes me think Wavebros, and the darker colors add to the ominous, frightening feel of the deep ocean, ever fitting for those two Decepticons.  Oh! You’d probably like this as well! There’s a Fire Emblem character whose design I am absolutely in love with. He’s so spooky!!! His name is Líf and I haven’t reached his chapter in the story yet, but I’m so looking forward to that day because his design alone intrigues me. 💜 What does this have to do with Transformers? Well, he reminds me of Soundwave the most, but his “lightning antennae,” lol, remind me of both Soundwave and Optimus, which is a very interesting combination. Líf’s design gets me thinking about the uncanny ways Soundwave and Optimus are similar, something I hadn’t really considered in depth before. It’s quite fun. Here are some cool Líf fanarts so you can see his vibe! - By Lynarc (my absolute favorite that I’ve found so far) - By Bhai Kun - By Kalkkopf - Screenshots from a trailer (?)

- Bonus: Official art from the wiki because they’re all just so cool

I really like this dude in case it wasn’t obvious by how many of these I’m sharing 17. Which piece of music from a tf media is your favorite? I'm so glad you asked this question!!! I was hoping someone would 😊 This would have to be, hands down, "Did You Forget Who I Am" from The Last Knight. The Bayverse is full of terrible, terrible elements, but Steve Jablonsky’s score is not one of those. All the soundtracks are incredible. And this scene from TLK is so iconic that, every time I listen to the music, I can hear Optimus' voice fill in that beat of silence with the mighty, chilling line that Peter Cullen delivered so well. 💙 It also has a special place in my heart because...I can’t help but see a connection to my faith :) This scene and therefore this song are good reminders for me when I’m having a bad day. Side note: The fact that this song surpassed the TFP theme to become my favorite Transformers piece of music really says a lot about its impact. 19. Which depiction of cybertron in a tf media do you most want to live in? Does the answer vary depending on if you’re human or cybertronian? Lol okay so gut reaction would say "G1 Cybertron" because 1) humans can apparently breathe up there without issue (and not be harmed by acid rain, so that's a huge plus), and 2) while the Autobots and Decepticons were bickering on earth I could just go hang out with Shockwave, who's all alone just chilling 😂 But if oxygen wasn't an issue? Definitely post-Predacons-Rising Cybertron. I would love to rebuild the planet along with Team Prime and listen to their stories as they began to heal emotionally from the long conflict. I would also love to see what elements of the planet they repaired true to the original design, and which elements they rebuilt completely to start off on a blank slate, and the implications of each decision. It would be cool to live in a revitalized Cybertron and watch refugees return and new sparks be forged gradually over time until the planet was bustling again. And if I could show up a bit earlier and be present for Bumblebee's Warrior knighting ceremony that would be pretty cool too. 💛

[sananaryon]

“Our way of life”

I just watched Reunion so bear with me, my head is full of froggy thoughts.

When rewatching Reunion, there was one line in particular that stood out to me.

[image description: a screenshot of Captain Grime from the Amphibia episode “Reunion”. Grime is a stocky green toad wearing bronze armor and a black cape. His right eye is glass and scarred over, while his left glows ominously. The subtitles say “Our very way of life is at stake”. End image description]

“Our very way of life is at stake”

This line is interesting for a few reasons I’ll get into, but the first is that this very much does not feel like a line that fits the narrative role Grime has.

Grime at this point in the story is very much your Evil Overlord in the Dark Ominous Tower. He’s your Palpatine, your Sauron, your Hordak. The villain that exists as a threat for the heroes to overcome, while the more complicated emotions are with his second in command. And that role usually comes with a few expectations in terms of their motivation. Usually, this kind of villain is motivated by power or similar things. You get your outliers like Hordak, but even then their immediate goal is to acquite more power for themselves.

But this line is not about that, this line is about preserving something. That something is a feudal system where toads have power over frogs, but if Grime was out for power he would have just said that. Instead, he very specifically says he wants to preserve the toad way of life, even if that way is corrupt and cruel.

And that leads us into my second point, which is that “Our way of life is at stake” is the perfect encapsulation of the motivation shared by all of Amphibia’s villains. Because this is not the last time we hear this line.

[image description: A screenshot of King Aldrich from the Amphibia episode “The Core & The King”. Aldrich is a very old newt with long, white hair, a green robe, and a crown. He’s turned away from the camera. The subtitles say “For our way of life to continue”. End of image description]

King Aldrich, the true villain of Amphibia, also talks about preserving “our way of life” in The Core & The King, referring to the ancient Amphibian way of conquering parallel worlds. Again we have a villain who wants to preserve a corrupt and cruel way of life.

Because both of these villains share the same motivation: The fear of change.

Change is one of the major themes of Amphibia, It’s why amphibians were chosen as the dominant species of the setting, because amphibians go through plenty of changes in their lifetimes.So it is only fitting that the villains are those who oppose change.

In the case of Grime and Aldrich, both face a significant change to their way of life, and seek to prevent that change at all cost.

Grime sees change coming to the valley in the form of a rebellion, which has always been a pretty significant symbol of change (Hell, a synonym for rebellion is Revolution, a word that directly means Change). He hopes to stop this change entirely by ending the thing that caused it to begin with, Hop Pop.

Aldrich has resided over a reign that stretches thousands of years back, and when faced with the revelation that they have to change, he refuses, since it’s “their way of life”. An appeal to tradition. We’ve done it like this always, so we should keep doing like this always.

Amphibia is frankly amazing at doing setup and payoff, and I think Grime and Aldrich is one of the best. We are introduced to Grime, a villain who at first seems generically evil, until you realize that what he’s actually motivated by is the fear of change. Then, two seasons later, we meet Aldrich, a man who’s fear of change is so great that he willingly gave up his soul to a horrific abomination just to prevent it.

[digital-dhampirs]

vnc episode 12 thoughts

The thrilling conclusion to the Vanitas no Carte anime’s first cour is out, and I have thoughts! I’m still considering doing a full season/ fill cour review, but I have a Lot of episode 12- specific opinions, so this review / breakdown / thing will focus around e12!

A warning before we begin— review will contain spoilers for events that take place in the vnc manga and not in the anime, and will most likely spoil some sections of the anime’s next cour. With that, let’s get started!

Episode 12 of the VnC anime covers chapters 19, 21, 22, and 23 of the manga.

To begin this review in a brutally honest way, this episode was… in my opinion as a manga reader… bad. It did have some ok moments, but generally devoted a lot of its time to a plotline that (while adorable) isn’t actually super important compared to what was left on the wayside. Vanitas and Noé’s fight over blood drinking is fine, I guess, but why’d we get that minute long flashback compilation and not Dante’s conversation with Dominique, or Roland and Olivier’s complete conversation, or Astolfo’s excitement to hunt vampires, or Mikhail?

I really truly wish the show had taken some of the money and time that went into the Vanitas and Noé fight from chapter 23 and put it into the arguably much more important and interesting parts of this episode. Ruthven drinking Noé’s blood, Roland’s threat, and Chloé and Astolfo’s introductions all had some very janky stills and animations. It truly irked me to see that time and effort went into making Noé’s mouth move while he’s mentally monologuing about wanting to drink Vanitas’s blood, while Roland’s fantastic threat from Chapter 22 got… this. click on image for worse quality

The episode also decided to continue E11’s habit of chopping scenes up and mashing them together. In E11 this was a very not great decision, but was ultimately somewhat forgiveable from a tone point of view. In E12, meanwhile, it’s just all out chaos as the anime tries to string five completely separate scenes into something coherent (Noé and Vanitas in the hotel, Ruthven and Jeanne in the street, Domi and Dante on the stairs, Roland and Olivier in the chasseur compound, and a flashback to complete the Ruthven and Noé encounter from E11). Suffice it to say the anime does not succeed in this endeavor.

What really irritates me about this is that the manga already provided a framework for the anime to work these scenes together into. A frantic Vanitas reunites with Noé, Ruthven meets Jeanne in the street, Roland and Olivier speak about the beast, we see a mysterious flashback of Chloé calling for Jeanne as they talk, cut to Jeanne in the present as Dante and Ruthven’s attendants simultaneously tell Ruthven and Vanitas about the beast’s return.

I really wish the anime could’ve just given us the conclusion to the Ruthven scene at the start of the episode, done the OP, and then followed this series of events to a T. But it didn’t, and the result is a bit of a mess.

The anime’s choice to omit half of Roland and Olivier’s conversation means Dante’s announcement about the beast being back has no meaning or weight; Vanitas running to the hotel before we know what actually happened to Noé at the cafe ruins the drama and irony of the scene; Noé’s lack of memory of what happened at the cafe is muddled by the weirdly placed cafe flashback right afterwards; the anime putting Olivier’s “what that man believes in isn’t god” line seconds before the reveal of Roland’s intelligent and scheming nature doesn’t give the line enough room to breathe and stew; and the transition scene with Domi and Dante just doesn’t fit. I can honestly say I would have preferred Dante just teleporting from the streets of Paris to Vani and Noé’s windowsill than have that scene smack dab in the middle of what’s already a confusing mishmash of way too many unconnected events.

Wow. That was a long, critical paragraph. one might even say it was just as chaotic and disorganized as the episode itself. I feel like I’m really living up to my fullest potential as a bitter manga simp. So! Let’s turn things around and talk about some of the good parts of this episode!!

First and foremost I want to compliment this episode’s music..! The soundtrack of VnC is just all round fantastic no matter what— whether it’s playing during a goofy scene or a fight, it’s is bound to be fantastic. I think my favorite pieces are the ones that play at quiet, ominous moments— the music during Vanitas and Dante’s conversation about the beast is excellent, adding something truly incredible to the atmosphere created by the illustrations of the beast and the eerie green light of the scene. The way the music lines up with Olivier’s “what that man believes in…” line during that one flashback is similarly awesome.

This episode also has very nice voice acting..! Despite all of its struggles in the visual and plot department, pretty much everything to do with the VnC anime’s audio is stellar. I’ve become a big fan of Jeanne, Roland, and Olivier’s voices (I can’t wait to see how Olivier’s VA works with all his screaming in the Gévaudan arc); Astolfo’s voice is perfect for him (I am similarly excited to see his clipped, polite tone take a turn for the insane as the Gévaudan arc moves forwards); and as always our protagonists’ voices are great.

My one singular problem with the voice acting this episode is Chloé. I don’t know why, but she sounds like a catgirl from a fantasy anime rather than a multiple- centuries- old vampire. I don’t know what I was expecting from her voice, but this wasn’t it. I really hope Chloé’s voice will grow on me like Roland’s did, but there’s just something about it that feels off to me.

However! That one detriment doesn’t detract from the fact that this episode does have some very beautiful moments, especially during that one last scene with Chloé at the end. Visually, Chloé is absolutely spot on— I only hope the show has the budget to keep giving her pretty, pretty scenes like this. The scene where Vanitas and Dante discuss the beast is also very very nice to look at. The monochromatic red section of Ruthven and Noé’s scene is excellent. And, while I’m still annoyed that this scene got so much love put into it and others did not, Noé’s spotlight-lit monologue is aesthetically pleasing as well.

With that, we’ve covered all of my main thoughts on the final episode of the vnc anime’s first cour! My feelings towards this episode’s plot and pacing are overwhelmingly critical, and the episode’s visuals are a toss up (leaning on the side of bad, @/ that Roland screenshot), b u t the episode’s music and voice acting are both fantastic. And honestly? That’s kinda how I feel about this whole cour of the anime.

Episode 12 might not have been “good”, but I believe it’s a very neat representation of the best and worst of what Vanitas no Carte as an anime has to offer.

Despite all my critiques I am still legally obligated to love this anime, and can’t wait to see the Gévaudan arc in the next cour!

Fun Fact

The weirdly technological background when Noé realizes he’s hungry makes absolutely no sense for an anime set in 1889, but for some reason that just makes this scene funnier to me

[dorka]

Garbage Day newsletter today

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Tumblr had a real big day yesterday

Ryan Broderick

Sep 9

Yesterday, Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96. To say it was a big day on the internet would be an understatement. The sheer amount of memes and shitposts generated in the last 24 hours may be more than I’ve ever seen in a single day.

I would divide those who did react to the queen’s passing into two groups: people who believed it was a serious and solemn occasion and those who, uh, did not. And I don’t think people in that first group had a very good time on social media yesterday. In fact, it turns out there were a lot of people on Twitter, in particular, that learned for the first time yesterday that the British royal family is, absolutely, a political institution and may not be as universally beloved as they had assumed.

While much of the social web was taking every chance they could to pop off a viral post, Tumblr was especially active. “Queen Elizabeth” is still the number one trending topic across the whole platform. Before we dig in here, I just want to acknowledge that today’s issue of Garbage Day is a bit dark, but I also think it’s worth pulling apart how the web has been reacting to the queen’s death because, as you’ll see, I think it says a lot about how the internet, as a whole, functions now.

To fully explain the bizarre online forces that turned the death of a 96-year-old monarch into an out of control viral frenzy on Tumblr, I think it's best to break this up into three small sections. So, first, let's talk about Tumblr's relationship to the queen.

(Tumblr)

Part 1 - Tumblr And The Queen

I was trying trace back exactly when jokes about the queen dying started on Tumblr and it’s hard to pinpoint. Though, I remember seeing memes about Tumblr users wanting to join the Irish Republican Army and create a 74-country Ireland following the Brexit vote. I know that COVID played a role, as well, with many users beginning to joke that the queen could die during the pandemic. And news reports over the last few years about her declining health only seemed to make jokes about the queen dying more frequent. Is this all super morbid? Yeah, for sure. But I can put some high level analysis on this.

There are a few things happening here. First, Tumblr is still very much an ecosystem centered on, oftentimes, extremely juvenile turf wars about social justice. The platform has mellowed out a lot since its peak in 2014, but it’s still a place where users are constantly pillorying each other over leftist and progressive issues. And I think sharing dark jokes about the death of the Queen of England was a way of keeping the peace — “yes, we may be viciously fighting with each other right now, but I think we can all agree that English colonialism is bad,” etc. Also, the Tumblr community’s relationship to news cycles is much different than what you see on Twitter. Content moves more slowly, so jokes tend to build up over time, diverging in confusing ways, and then snowballing into small cultural movements that become very sticky and immediately get mythologized into community lore. And, finally, Tumblr, since the days of Superwholock, has had a very intense anglophilic bent to it. And though it may not feel like it, I think the site collectively cheering for the death of the queen is directly tied to that.

(Paramount)

There have been a lot of variations on the general “Queen Elizabeth is going to die soon” meme across Tumblr, but I’d say the main one to be aware of was a series of screenshots from the movie Megamind. The original line reads, “There is no Easter Bunny, there is no Tooth Fairy and there is no Queen of England. This is the real world, and you need to wake up.” So users would cut off the final line as a joke and caption it, “like to charge, reblog to cast,” an illusion to using a magic spell in an RPG.

The meme got very popular after Boris Johnson resigned as prime minister of the UK in July. Now users are postin the full meme.

The site is also currently full of GIFs and uploads of the “Crab Rave” song by Noisestorm, which was first used to celebrate the death of Rush Limbaugh in 2021.

I reached out to Tumblr to see if I could get any data about exactly how big yesterday was for the platform. According to Cates Holderness, the head of editorial for the site, “Queen Elizabeth” had 403% more clicks than the second highest topic, which was Chris Pine.

“In fact, clicks to the ‘Queen Elizabeth’ tag were 518% higher than the average top-clicked tag so far in September,” Holderness told me. “As far as searches go, the top three searched topics yesterday were variations on the ‘Queen Elizabeth’ tag, and combined searches for those tags were 622% higher than the next highest searched tag, which was related to Stranger Things.”

Part 2 - The Tumblr Sexyman Bracket

Right, OK, so you’ve got all that. Let’s move to how the queen’s death is being processed among the wilder parts of the internet. To understand that you need to know about the “Tumblr Sexyman Bracket,” which wrapped up yesterday.

Twitter avatar for @sexymanOTD

Tumblr Sexyman OTD

@sexymanOTD

SEMIFINALS!!!

Image

September 7th 2022

1,052 Retweets4,985 Likes

A Twitter account called @sexymanOTD started a bracket earlier this week to decide who was the most popular Tumblr “sexyman”. This is a reference to the platform’s frequent site-wide obsession with unusual (usually) fictional men. The bracket included characters like Megamind (the site is going through a real Megamind phase right now), Loki, The Onceler, Sans from the video game Undertale, and Reigen from the anime Mob Psycho 100. Sans and Reigen ended up being the final two. And a lot of users really wanted to Reign to win because fan art of him is super popular on Tumblr right now. Sans ended up winning, unfortunately.

I say unfortunately because Sans, and the idea that people could find the cartoon skeleton “sexy,” has been a long-running joke on the site for years. Adding gasoline ot the fire, Undertale creator Toby Fox celebrated the win by writing a bunch of fan fiction about it yesterday.

(Tumblr/serslee)

What does this have to do with the queen? Well, ever since the #Destiel ship from Supernatural was made canon on the eve of the 2020 US presidential election, the Tumblr community has been obsessed with the idea of a weird fandom thing happening at the same time as a massive global news story breaks. Users now use screenshots from Supernatural to announce breaking news to each other.

Now, we need to look at how Tumblr trends began to interact with trends happening outside the platform.

Part 3 - The Conspiracy Theory That Princess Diana Was Reincarnated as Jungkook From BTS

As it became clear that queen had died yesterday, internet users also noticed that YouTuber Trish Paytas was giving birth. Immediately, folks on Twitter, TikTok, and Tumblr started joking that the queen would be reincarnated as Paytas’ baby. This is probably the least unhinged example of the memes I’ve seen about this.

Twitter avatar for @trulyrick

rick

@trulyrick

The soul of Queen Elizabeth flying across the globe to Trisha Paytas’ baby rn

Image

September 8th 2022

41,939 Retweets324,466 Likes

Interestingly enough, as pointed out by Twitter user @mitsukileaks, there was already a conspiracy theory on K-Pop Twitter from a while back that Princess Diana was reincarnated as Jeon Jung-kook from BTS.

This is where things get sort interesting from a technical standpoint and also wildly confusing. Because the queen died, Princess Diana also started trending. Which then caused “Jung Kook” to trend, as well. Similarly, because, as I said, Tumblr users make jokes about breaking news events by using screencaps from the show Supernatural, that too started to trend alongside “Queen Elizabeth” on tumblr.

So we end up with this utterly bizarre algorithmic confluence of different, but linked memes happening simultaneously around one news topic: Queen Elizabeth, Princess Diana, Trish Paytas, Jungkook from BTS, Sans from Undertale, Reigen from the anime Mob Psycho 100, the movie Megamind, the #Destiel ship from Supernatural, and, of course, crabs are all trending because of each other across Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok via their own community’s memes as well as screenshots of the other plarforms’ memes. And none of this is linear. It’s old memes combining with new memes, which all still currently evolving.

What’s even funnier is that a lot of outlets have done recaps of some of this this morning. So news organizations are trying to explain the Paytas connection or the crap rave thing, but there are a lot of outlets that can’t or don’t want to explain any of this stuff because it’s too dumb or too weird or whatever, but they still want the search traffic. Which is how you end up with the US edition of the British news outlet The Sun having a literal liveblog waiting to find out if Paytas’ baby’s name is Elizabeth or not. Which, if you weren’t on social media in the last 24 hours and didn’t know the whole joke about the queen being reincarnated would be utter gibberish.

Epilogue - This Meme Should Make Sense To You Now

(Tumblr/tiptapricot)

There are a lot of posts like this flying around right now, but I thought this one from Tumblr user tiptapricot was kind of the best example of the general state of the internet at the moment. There’s a few other references in there to just general Tumblr stuff, which, if you don’t get, you can always email me and ask about.

The point with all of these things is that because we have these centralized online feeds like Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, big cultural moments are still getting compressed down into streams of information. But we also have pretty heavily fractured experiences of those centralized platforms. So massive global news stories get filtered through really strange prisms where no one’s really in charge of them anymore.

So, 10 years ago, an event like this would have happened and chances are you would have gone to your favorite news site and read a tweet roundup about it. Or maybe you waited until the evening news or maybe even the next morning’s radio show or something. Now, there’s just simply too much to recap. And too many recaps to parse. Which makes memes the main way we express and process things now. Nothing else can really cut through. And there’s probably no way we ever go back to the way things were. So if you found yourself yesterday — on any platform — wishing for people to be a little more respectful. Or a little less chaotic. Or wanted the headlines to be a little more organized. Or just wanted things to slow down. I kind of have some bad news for

[thezolblade]

tma season 4 meta

Seems I never posted this over here, and it might be worth having a link to reference for meta from a post-canon perspective, without reviving anything on twitter. (The thread’s from back before Jonny stopped replying to fandom over there, so, y’know, don’t @ him.)

(Screenshot text under the read more cut.)

It’s... hard to even say how this aged; mid season 4, i wasn’t anticipating the tone shift of the full on apocalypse. But this still feels like it describes the impact of that season, before the end. And in retrospect it marks the point where the progress from ‘tension to cathartic resolution for better or worse’ within the canon stopped working for me, though that sort of thing’s subjective depending on listener’s expectations.

Tweet thread text:

rozzlynn @allthescribbles August 28, 2019 @jonnywaistcoat uh i've seen you say you're happy to be @ on tma discussions (and seen people say twitter's better than discord if you're not online at the time), is it okay if i ask about sthing seems ominous last eps (understanding that you might not want to spoiler anything)?

The Eponymous Jonny @jonnywaistcoat Replying to @allthescribbles you can ask, by all means, but I generally don't do much by way of clarifying the text

rozzlynn @allthescribbles Replying to @jonnywaistcoat thanks well, i saw in last week's early access you listed some topics that you'd consider too bleak so ruled out of using in canon, and this week you were saying you like to see audience reaction to judge if stuff's having the intended impact. (1/ ) so if this is something you don't want to comment on it could just be feedback, but if you do feel like commenting on the 'too bleak' line then it could be really worth asking. >.> since ep 142 i've been worrying about the direct statement givers (2/ ) which is clearly as intended, it's v effective horror. but from how v distraught jess sounded, and how the supernatural fear-heightening stalking is ongoing for her and everyone else who's still getting the nightmares, right back to naomi, and the way (3/ ) it's gotten significantly worse for them in recent months w the archivist getting more powerful, and how the best the archive team seem to be able to do for now is try to avoid adding anyone else to the list & sorta sound they've given up on figuring out an escape from (4/ ) the contracts & supernatural setup causing it all (except for melanie doing her best to opt out), it's getting me worried how much worse things will get for the innocent bystanders - it doesn't seem like a massive stretch that the trauma-reawakening constant terrorising (5/) might push one of them to suicide if things carry on along those lines, and while that could be v effective horror too and suicide has come up in previous statements so it's not an unprecedented theme, i find it's still overshadowing any worries about/for the main cast (6/) in recent episodes, and more than wondering whether jon's going to be able to stop taking statements i keep wondering whether they're also trying to research ways to undo or lessen effects on current victims, or whether they've given up on that, as defeated as they sound (7/ ) when talking about being unable to quit. and even if suicide's come up before, giving jon a body count that way would be a jump into even bleaker territory, so it seems like the sort of thing where rather than feeling stressed about each new ep in advance until it turns out (8/ ) it's about something else, it could be worth sharing feedback in case it's the sort of thing where you're happy to say whether that's a possible direction. but if you want to leave things open then of course it's a horror show and i can deal w the per ep content warnings. (9/9)

The Eponymous Jonny @jonnywaistcoat Replying to @allthescribbles It's an interesting question, and definitely one worth asking. Certainly graphic descriptions of suicide is something I steer clear of, though obviously it's come up more than once and as a show that deals with fear and trauma, there's always bleaker conclusions lurking offscreen On the wider question of the Archivist’s victims, one of the themes I've been keen to explore in this season especially is the idea of being trapped as part of systems that do harm, how people deal with it, what if any moral responsibilities do they have, etc. To my mind, one of the most acute horrors of such systems is the desensitization they lead to in terms of those that have been harmed, and that's something that I've been trying to represent, the with the team's focus drifting away from the victims. I will say that we're unlikely to be revisiting the fate of any specific victim of the Archivist, certainly not in this season. But the Archivist’s powers ARE horrific, and while I'm not interested in revelling in the trauma, But at the base level, if you're worried I'm going to suddenly drop a "turns out the statement giver from 142 killed herself because of YOU!", then don't be. At the same time, I'm not going to categorically state the Archivist doesn't have a body count.

rozzlynn @allthescribbles Replying to @jonnywaistcoat thanks for sharing your thoughts! that is quite reassuring in terms of the tone; i'd been trying to figure out whether worrying about that One Particular Thing was part of the listening experience vs getting in the way of the rest of the listening experience.

The Eponymous Jonny @jonnywaistcoat Replying to @allthescribbles I think it is part of it, but probably not to the acute degree you've been feeling, so I'm happy to offer reassurance that it's not something I'm interested in deploying as a twist or horrorific reveal.