#and chui the foil to both of them | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

himehikoshrine · 1 year ago

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This post will also have spoilers for all the things. Oops should I have been warning about that.... I tried to @ you in a post i made on like 2 hours of sleep about the Seagull because you got me thinking about it again, but I haven't been on tumblr in years so I don't know how to make it work right, so I'll just do it here! (Here) People say that Chekov wrote himself into many of the characters in the Seagull, not just Trigorin, but not NOT Trigorin. Both Treplev and Trigorin are Chekov and both of them are Neji. Even more so on his route.

I have so many thoughts on why Neji left Amber, and I imagine he has even more, and none of them alone are the full picture. But reading it through that specific line in the Seagull -- I wonder if Neji was headed even more down that route, and would have if he'd stayed. Chui will literally just walk away from a performance everyone has been destroying themselves to perfect the day before because he sees no value in it. Neji, even a year and a half in Quartz, is still saying rather mean things without explaining himself.

(Bless Kai and Fumi at the end of Neji's route who are just trying to explain to Kisa that Neji is kind of a disaster actually, when it comes to communicating and being a person in general. He's been running from being a person for so long, maybe it worked, just not in the ways he meant. Kai saying something like "He's actually terrible at knowing what he needs to actually say out loud and what he absolutely should not say out loud, but if I told him that he'd just go 'if it's you saying it its really all over' or something")

Neji when he's being mean is my favorite, I love it when he's mean but -- he's for sure got a bit of a mean streak -- (that foiling web of Neji and Fumi and Chui -- genius and art and wings and expectations and family history in performance and --)

I wonder if Neji in Winter Arc is in fact a toned down, more connected, more -- as the game uses -- grounded version of where he was and where he would have been had he stayed in Amber. Quartz is about connection -- it's about how actually its better if people from different places support each other and each bring their own strength and point of view together -- as messy and dramatic as it may be -- as many clashes and upheavals as it may cause.

Like I'm a big time Chuza hater for plenty of reasons, but the fact that he's got this secret little plan that makes no sense to save a class whose merits he can't even articulate just. Ew. There is power in Quartz but its not one Chuza seems to even understand or care about. Or really even believe in. But that's a post for another time and this reblog chain has gotten so long. Ahaha... If you want me to talk more about anything, please drop an ask I'm happy to riff -- But yes!! I'm so glad you also see it as Kisa basically showing him things he's been otherwise looking away from but that he knows -- Kisa's unique skill -- the game tells us -- is that she can reflect the true form of someone back at them. It's actually extremely similar to Chui's unique ability. The game doesn't say specifically that anything supernatural is involved in either of these per se, even if Chui speaks as if he's talking more about magic ritual than theater (though all theater is born from ritual, if you go back far enough) -- but regardless of how you read it. Both Chui and Kisa seem able to do something similar. Neji does it too, actually, but in a different form. He pulls things into his scripts, consciously and unconsciously.

Mitsuki has him nailed down EXACTLY at the end of Neji's first Affection Event. People get ~vibes~ off Chui and Momonashi and actually Kisa quite a bit, but Mitsuki gets them (correctly) off Neji and his little dragon's den of an office. I love Mitsuki for that.

Mitsuki also says outright what it is Neji is chasing. Someone who can sate him. Someone who can keep up (someone who puts up with honestly far more than she should, Kisa, not everything Neji does is reasonable you should just say no sometimes, baby. I bet Chui would just wander off mid conversation when Neji got too far into the antics.)

There's no set route order, but you absolutely need to play Neji's first Affection event in full again if not for the first time AFTER the ending of Soshiro's route so you get the comparison on which vibes it is that Mitsuki is picking up. That Amber Class, man... Something about that Amber Class and Vibes. It is not by accident there is shared metaphor being used there, I imagine.

It's very important to me that Neji gets what he gets from a line HE wrote into his little one man show. Kisa is literally saying his own words back at him. He's already written the truth -- if Kisa's mirroring is in her acting, and Chui does it via dance and performance, Neji's is in his writing. Like you said, Neji is working through STUFF in Oh Rama Havenna - It's the first time the game pins him down on that and it's the biggest "Neji declared winter a poorly run group therapy session with no-ones permission because he's a menace, but at least he doesn't spare himself either" - but as Sou points out. The water motif is in a lot more than one play. He's writing himself into everything. Like Chekov and the Seagull, if you believe those bits of literary analysis.

He wrote it down, but he won't LOOK at it, not really, until Mitsuki yells at him for it. His line about not playing his female characters with interiority is another obvious lie -- Neji's most famous role, and the last actual complex role he'd played before Domina is Takihime. No one, not even Chui when he's explaining that Neji couldn't complete the role, says Takihime was lacking interiority. Like sure, Employee A doesn't seem to have much interior life, but neither does the fortune teller or Ushinoko (though, speaking of themes Neji writes into his own characters, Mr. "I'm always planning the next play even when I'm working on this one"....). I'm just glad the game didn't try to say he can't WRITE the interiority, which was a spoiler I read and I was gonna scream. Because most of his most compelling, complex, deep characters are women. If the game had tried to pull that after Chichi and Rukiora.... Well maybe it would have called attention to the lie more, and that would have been nice in its own way. Ugh I could rant forever about every part of this...

Chui and Kisa together is a terrible combination for both of them -- Neji knows this, and eventually, on his route, even puts it into normal person language instead of making 20 jokes per minute about telling Kisa to get good at running or telling Chui he's not sharing. (The two of them I swear). Both Chui and Neji are chasing a reflection of themselves, and its something they had in each other.

Maybe one day I'll finish this fic but its a line Neji DOESN'T read right after the one he asks Kisa to read. "Maybe she'll be able to understand me." Like. Sir, the mirror you are chasing? It's in your hand. You wrote it. Look. Look with your eyes.

Chui outright says that Kisa will be able to reflect his talent and pull him even higher -- as I said, Kisa and Chui's abilities are similar. If they're fixed on one another, maybe they really could reach escape velocity together. They'd never look at anything else, though, and they'd end up somewhere so far from everything else, it'd basically destroy them. Not to mention what it'd do to the actual art -- something that Neji is trying to get Chui to understand -- Chui can bring to life anything that Neji can imagine, and Neji can imagine things that work perfectly to bring out Chui's abilities, but-- Like I said in the post I linked -- that experimental script at the start of The Seagull? That feels exactly like the sort of thing Neji would write and Chui would pull off spectacularly, actually (and now I really wanna see it ngl). In Puppet, he takes the accusation of "too experimental" as a high compliment. But when he comes to Quartz, he's as much grounding himself as he asks Fumi to do to make things work. That line about "it must have felt like ripping his wings off" which Chui literally echoes when talking about Neji in his route..... that.... foiling...... ugh. This is so long again oops. Like I said, feel free to drop an ask on anything specific if you want me to rant even more. I didn't even get to religion. Ririya and I actually went back and forth on specifically what Towada might be getting at -- I really should try to make that into a post one of these days. Because in terms of Neji writing himself into things, in terms of that imagine with wings -- Ishida dropped Towada's comment "like a kid in the cabbage patch" and then Towada is like "I'll clarify" and I was like that... that is not a very clear clarification...

Mary Jane and Frankenstein

In honor of Spooky Month and the imminent arrival of Mary Jane Day, I have done the scariest thing imaginable, returned to tumblr dot com to write a meta/analysis post.

[image description: images side by side of the top of the Mary Jane poster, showing Mary looking down sewing Jacob, next to the 1831 edition front panel illustration of Frankenstein, showing Victor looking down on his creature in horror]

This is a mostly informal attempt to collect my thoughts on the fact that Neji’s little spooktacular, in addition to being a very pointed exploration, as all of his plays are, of art and theater, the school, himself and his classmates (without their permission, the menace) and just, a lot of fun, is perhaps one of the best piece of Frankenstein related media I have EVER seen in relation to the original novel.

This is pulling a lot of things from the Stage Script rather than the in game version, which summarizes a lot of the things I'm mentioning specifically. You can find the full Stage Script in the game menu, or

[ here ]

because I love this play so much that I needed a searchable version.

Caveat Emptor here is that it’s been a long time since I’ve read the novel in its entirety. If this game gets me to read it again, I may have to revamp things. But again, largely informal. But very long, somehow.

Oooops.

If you're curious about anything in here and want to expand on it more, or hear my thoughts on it, please feel free to reblog, send an ask, or message. Or ask me elsewhere if we're already connected there. There's a lot I glossed over, especially at the end of this. I have a lot to say, and if we're back to writing metas on tumblr dot com the chances of stopping at one are slim.

Mary as Frankenstein, Mary as Mother

Mary’s name is acting as several allusions at once. I mean, there are at least 3 Mary’s in the bible one could point to - Mary, Mother of Jesus is absolutely at play. But Lazarus’s sister is also a Mary. And while technically Mary Magdalene is often misrepresented and amalgamated with other characters in retellings, the idea of “purifying” her has canon precedent - having had seven demons driven out of her.

Of course, Neji’s twisting all of it, in his Neji way.

(Interestingly enough, these are the Three Marys of the Quem Quaeritis - widely considered a point of "rebirth" of theatre in Europe during the middle ages.)

But Mary is also the name of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of Frankenstein. And this, this is a Frankenstein story. It is, in fact, a beautiful inversion of so much about the book that gets left out in most far more serious attempts at a Frankenstein story.

The original book is about motherhood and its inversion. Much could be said about when during her life she wrote it, or her own mother’s death shortly after she was born, or any number of things that have been hashed and rehashed a thousand times from AP English to the ivoriest of towers. But, fan of Death of the Author that I am, I posit you don’t need any of that to see in the text.

Victor creates a person with science, rather than by ‘nature’. It is an unnatural birth. And Victor is just about the shittiest possible parent. The Creature spends a good deal of time explaining to him, when they meet up again, that Victor is his father, and that he was literally abandoned as a newborn, and maybe that was kind of the worst possible thing he could have done. It’s not a mantle Victor has any desire to take up, the role of a parent. He wanted to create life, but he didn’t want to be a parent. But that’s what it means to create life.

By gender swapping the role, you’re already inverting the inversion - but Mary’s creation is no more “natural” than Victors. But it is different. Neji, ever witch-coded himself, has Mary put one of her own hairs into every doll. It’s returning the shared body to the act of bringing these creations into being.

But even without that. Mary considers herself a mother. She considers herself a mother despite having no memory of one herself - Mary knows lots of things she shouldn’t, and doesn’t know many things she should. But she calls herself a mother. Even before any of the dolls move, she is their mother. A motherhood she wants to desperately share with others. She considers the act of selling a doll a kind of ‘adoption’. These are her children. And they know it. It’s stitched into every stitch in their doll bodies. They know Mary is their mother. And they know she loves them.

[image description: screenshot of Mary in her workshop. The text shows Mary's line saying "I'm back, dear dolls. Mommy's home."]

The Creature comes to think of Victor as a father - an absentee one at that, and craves that love, a love he is never shown. Mary averts this spectacularly. She creates out of love.

Names

Mary takes great care in naming Jacob, and ends up doing so, though she doesn’t say it, after a biblical pun (Jacob, in the bible, is explicitly named such as a pun on the word “Heel”). But names are important to Mary, and she is sure to give one to Jacob as soon as he’s fully formed, even before she sees him wake up. Victor very particularly does not name his creature. Instead, he tends to throw around insults, many of which are demonic or satanic. When they finally meet again, the Creature says to him “I should have been thy Adam.” Mary averts this mistake, among so many others, spectacularly. Being called by her name is important to her, and she extends that offer to Jacob even before he’s fully “born.” Like a good mother.

[image description: a screenshot showing Fumi and Kai dressed as Mary and Jacob, as seen from the stage with the audience in the background. Kai is saying Jacob's line "I did, Mary. You are Mary Jane. My mother."]

Not only does she give him a nice biblical pun of a first name, she shares her last name with him, again before he’s even more than a doll. That’s her boy, that’s her best friend. That’s her family.

The song here, which is only sung and dance AFTER Mary has given him a name is called "A Friend Without A Name" Almost as if specifically calling attention to this fact. Mary is as much the friend without a name as Jacob, if not more. She is the one that has never heard another voice say her name, where as Jacob is called his before he's even awakened by the Island's magic and Mary's love.

[image description: the screen from just before A Friend Without A Name showing Mary and Jacob's CG of Mary Stitching Jacob.]

Mary as a Good Mother

Some of the weirder moments in the play actually make a lot more sense when you look at them through this light. Jacob randomly saying he hates Mary in a fit of jealousy? It’s because he’s a child. He’s a baby. That’s a baby boy. Mary, herself quite childish, forgetting so much of what’s important, as the Island is known for, reacts incorrectly, but understandably. This is her first friend - and far more of one than the others she thinks she’s made, in terms of mutual respect, compassion, and small acts of kindness. But this level of connection and emotional reciprocation is still new to her. She’s hurt. She runs.

And The Order of Shadow’s duo is quick to tell her that that’s just the nature of ghosts, telling themselves a little joke about how they have been lying to her from the start, and fully intend to stab her in the back, far more than any ghost. Victor’s instinct is to consider his creature a monster, a fiend, a demon. Mary is told by characters positioned as far more knowledgeable about the world than her that he must be exactly that.

And how does Mary react? She refuses to believe it. Even hurt as she was, even with someone who just said this is their entire expertise telling her it’s in his nature to be cruel, Mary refuses to accept it. She still loves him. She makes the right choice. That’s her best friend. That’s her family. That’s a (un)life she brought into this world, and she stands by him. No matter what. She would risk her life to rescue him. She will fight for him.

This is why that scene has to be there. Because she has to be given that temptation, that trial. And she passes spectacularly in a way Victor will not, to the end.

It’s also a thematic explanation for the garbage scene, which is probably there as much to be silly as anything. I mean, it’s also there to show many other things — Mary’s eccentricity is ingenious in its own quirky way — the islanders who hated her, who she didn’t understand, give her the tools to save Jacob and the others — Mary not even considering the same level of violence — it being a moment of empathy between Mary and the islanders who never showed her even a shred of it back — she understands that they couldn’t tell which food was rotten. She sees things from their point of view. And many more besides.

But, from the point of view of Mary as a Mother, Mary succeeding brilliantly where Victor failed… Mary is literally willing to coat herself in filth to rescue Jacob. Parenthood is messy. It involves a lot of gross things. Even Victor's, sanitized of the normal processes and cloaked in science, was made of corpse parts. But the play actually brings back a part of parenthood that Mary had been able to avoid thus far - the mess. Mary, once again, doesn’t hesitate. For Jacob? She’ll do anything.

Jacob is shown love and kindness, and he responds with the same. He has the same unnatural strength as Victor’s creature, but he’s only ever shown using it to rescue himself and others. When Mary asks for a handshake, he replies that he can’t, because such would be an invitation for a duel. And that they should hug, instead. Mary didn’t even know what that was. Far from disgusted by the lack of warmth she feels from his skin, she looks beyond that, to the emotional warmth and connection.

Frankenstein’s creature, famously, lashes out in violence. While Victor views this as his responsibility only in so far as he brought a demon into the world, he doesn’t understand, even when the Creature eloquently explains it, that the Creature was a being who had only known cruelty.

Jacob knows love. He knows kindness. He knows sadness and loneliness and pain. And refuses to engage in any form of touch that could even be considered violence. They hug.

Which is not to say Mary’s creatures can’t kill. But they do only to protect their mother, and only after Mary has risked everything to protect Jacob. They are Mary’s children, not Victor’s. Even their violence is an act of love. And in another inversion - they are the ones telling Mary to run. Something she does not want to do. She doesn't want to leave them behind. After all, they are her children. She departs from them only at Jacob's literal tug away, and with an apology and a thanks.

[Image description: screenshot of Fumi, dressed as Mary Jane, shown from stage view, with the audience behind, while a Doll's lines "Protect Mommy, let mommy run away." are shown below.]

Boats and Framing

But the parallels are not only in the most famous part of the novel - consider this - Frankenstein, the novel, is written as a series of nesting framing narratives. The bookend narrative, the one we open and close on, is a boat. Most Frankenstein adaptations cut the boat trip frame, but Mary Jane very specifically opens and closes on a boat at sea, and its ending is EXACTLY the reverse of Frankenstein’s. If for some reason you’re this far in and don’t want more spoilers for a 200 year old book, now’s the time to click away, I guess.

The boat is on a course to the Arctic. Victor is on board, telling his story, because his creature has fled there, away from humanity. Victor intends to pursue him endlessly, to kill him, fully aware that he is almost certainly going to die, frozen and alone, in the process. We don’t get to see this happen - the story ends merely with the certainty that this is what is coming. Victor, on a boat, intending to go to the ends of the earth alone to kill the Creature he brought into the world, treating it like some burden and punishment.

[image description: a screenshot from Mary Jane, with the CG of Mary and the Ghosts on the ship, with the summary text overlayed on it reading "Friends together, fun forever."]

How does Mary Jane end? With Mary, and Jacob, and a cast of playful characters — her friends — sailing off for the ends of the world, together, in pursuit of life and happiness - even in death.

Ghost Party ends the play because its a triumph. Neji throwing out Horace’s Ode to Cleopatra in there because he can’t not do silly things like that — but Frankenstein famously contains many references to classics — many made by the Creature himself, who was forced to educate himself via books, lacking a parent to help him.

Mary Jane takes a section of sheer joy out of a poem of complex mixed emotions, and says them repeatedly. This is a party. This is a triumph. Mary leaves on a boat for the ends of the world a success, a good mother, a friend. And a human.

Humanity, Connection, Isolation

The play deconstructs so wonderfully this question of humanity. Mary doesn’t find any joy in it, despite barely understanding it herself - until she is able to use it to help others. The first time in her life she’s been glad to be human - something she only really understands as “needing to eat food” - is when it gives her the ability to save her ghost friends. If that’s what humanity is, the ability to care for others, the ghosts of the chapel, the play is telling us, are far more human.

One of my favorite exchanges in the play is after Charles and Figaro explain to Mary that the corpse parts used to make Jacob were their friends. Mary is not malicious in the least. She has no concept of this act as sacrilege or desecration. She is genuinely childishly innocent in most of what she does. And she can’t understand it.

Mary says “If you can love unmoving corpses so much… How can you not feel for living ghosts...?"

[image description: Mary in front of the burning town. She's saying "How can you not feel for living ghosts...?"]

Charles responds that she must be completely off her rocker. But she’s correct. Mary sees life in front of her, even undead life, and wants to protect it. Even the Islanders, who only ever treated her with distain, who only ever made her miserable — she doesn’t want them to die, even knowing they are already dead.

Outside of Mary, her oddball eccentric self, in this play, the more human someone is, the crueler they are. Figaro and Charles are only ever here to mess with her before dragging her off to be killed. They have no willingness to even try to understand anything outside their world view. The Islanders, who think themselves human, revile Mary, and make up terrible rumors about her.

Both of these groups do so, in part, for similar reasons. Because to have empathy would force a realization on them they cannot bear. The last thing Figaro realizes, before he’s dragged into the most poetic of justices, is that the dolls have SOULS. They are ALIVE. It’s a moment of anger and madness, but it’s a last minute realization that he’s been wrong now that it’s too late. Of course it’s not a revelation he’ll remember. You tend to forget what’s important on Kakuriyo Island.

If Mary averts all of Victor’s mistakes, Charles and Figaro make many of them. Seeing the Creature as a collection of corpses, as demonic, as an abomination against God. Reacting only in anger, in cruelty, in violence. Chasing something they view, wrongly, as an abomination to the ends of the earth, until it kills them. Mary has Victor’s role, but Victor’s actions and outlook are given to the antagonists.

It’s fascinating to me, then, that there are two of them. In the version of the play that gets performed, they’re twins - doubles. Two halves of one whole, who egg each other along in their cruelty. But they also exist to show that even these two are capable of empathy and connection. They do in fact understand the thing they tease Mary with. They have the ability and understanding to extend that to Ghosts, or to Mary. They simply refuse to. Figaro really does love his brother - his grief at his death is genuine. It’s a clever way to show that.

In the book, Victor is extremely isolated, by his own choice. He withdraws from everyone in order to work on his creature, and after he runs from it, he keeps to himself just as much, now blaming the idea that he can tell no one what he’s done. Even when he’s surrounded by family, he is utterly alone. By choice. The Creature eventually lashes out and kills the woman Victor intended to marry. In Victor’s mind, he cares about this girl, but it is not in his actions. Like much else, she exists more as a creation of Victors mind than something in the world for him to interact with and care about. Until she dies. Then he’s furious. And decides to spend the rest of his life chasing down the Creature to kill him for it.

This contradiction in Victor has always read as intentional to me. The book is calling out his hypocrisy here. He doesn’t actually desire connection - the connection his Creature eloquently explains his longing for. But if it is denied him, he acts like he’s been affronted, painted with a shallow layer of sanctimoniousness or justice. Murder is bad, of course, and the Creature shouldn’t have killed an innocent young woman to get at Victor, of course. But the discrepancy between the way Victor reacts to her in death and the way he does when she’s alive is intentional.

Victor has every chance for human connection. Time and time and time again he’s given that chance and refuses it. Even to the very end, on that boat. He could stay with the crew. Sail back home. Let it go. The Creature has run away from humanity which it has come to despise as much as its absentee father disdained it. There is no need to keep chasing. But Victor cannot let it go.

The Creature longs for connection and is denied it. Victor disdains and refuses it, even when it’s available to him.

Mary as The Creature

Contrast this with Mary — It is Mary, rather than Jacob, that is in the Creature’s situation here. Mary is constantly chasing connection. Constantly trying to find something to reflect humanity (compassion, life, emotions — rather than the matter of blood and flesh that Figaro and Charles always talk about it as) back at her. And she can’t get it. She, like the Creature, hides in the bushes and watches it from afar. She, like the Creature, chases after it only for people to run away, to treat her with cruelty. Mary is Frankenstein, but she is also a reflection of the Creature. She is both in one, in this sense.

[image description: screenshot of summary text over the church and figures of the church ghosts. it reads "The friendless Mary dreamily watched the ghosts as they sang a happy song.]

Her costume specifically makes her look nearly as much the doll as the ones she makes - in the world of the story, because she's sewing both - but thematically, it ties her to them not only as their mother, but as a reflection of the Creature, herself.

Like the Creature, Mary is an odd mix of naivety and childishness, with startling gaps in her knowledge, and extreme skill and adult abilities. She knows what she knows well. Like the Creature, Mary has no memory of kindness, of family, of parents. She has only ever seen it in the way the Islanders interact with each other. She is the Creature here - raising herself, learning of the world through watching it, being reviled for every attempt she makes to reach out.

One thing the Creature explains to Victor is that he didn’t even understand, at the time, why he was being treated this way. He had no awareness of his own nature and what he looked like in the eyes of others. Only that they ran in fear and chased him away, and reacted with violence.

Mary Jane inverts this. Mary is human, but the humans around her are something she cannot understand. Like the Creature, Mary doesn’t understand why people react this way. The book expects you to come to the same conclusion as the play - the fault lies not with the Creature anymore more than it does with Mary, at this point. It is those around him, those around her, that are at fault, that are a thing neither can understand. Human’s are cruel. Ghosts who think they’re humans are cruel. It is a disconnect between themselves and the world around them they don’t understand, and desperately try to bridge over and over.

Even Mary, as quirky and childlike as she is, is on the verge of giving up, of being consumed by the Lonely Darkness. We don't know what her fate would have been if the Order of Shadows had not come. Victor's Creature, far more morose than Mary, gives up on connection, as well. He is denied the most basic of needs, and eventually, he learns the violence and hatred being directed at him, and, newborn that he is, lashes out.

But, ultimately, companionship and connection are the Creature’s goals, and it is that that he requests of Victor, who refuses to provide it himself. Make for me a mate. Mary is the Creature, and she is Frankenstein. She makes a friend for herself. Her motivation in creating Jacob is not science, it is not in defiance of death or God — very pointedly — it is out of loneliness - the same motivation that the Creature gives for his desire that Victor make him another like him. And when Mary does so, she’s a good mother, and a good friend.

Religion

Frankenstein’s full title is Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus - it is about forming people, but it is also about stealing fire from the Gods. The question of if creating life out of death the way Victor does is an affront to God is something that Victor himself thinks about, but the book is much more interested in exploring it as the way characters view it. Victor punishes himself, it is not the Divine that punishes him. The Divine acts not as a force, but as an idea. One that both Victor and the Creature end up grappling with and trying to find their place within.

So that Mary herself seemingly has no concept of it, is fascinating. She goes to watch a chapel every night, but I don’t know she knows what a chapel even is. She mentions God once herself, saying that the smell of the garbage would be enough to affect even God, but she also talks to the Moon as a companion and a friend. Her worldview is uniquely hers, in relation to all things. As I said, the idea that making the dolls the way she does, or using corpse parts to do it might be sacrilege does not even occur to her.

Rather than go the route of the novel, Mary Jane twists this around too. In the world of Mary Jane, religious objects hold not only the power of an idea but an actual force. And it is a force that is completely, within the world of the show, amoral and nonsensical. The blessed weapons and fire the Order of the Shadows use are “holy” as a property, but that gives it no moral weight within the world of the play. And the play is messing with it the whole time. Holy wood or water can destroy a ghost, but they live in a church. Something that Charles and Figaro comment on, but cannot interrogate in terms of what it means for their conviction. But they’re split on how to proceed - the fact that ghosts can live in it doesn’t shake their faith, though. Sister Ghost is there largely for this joke. A nun who is constantly evoking the divine, who would be killed by a consecrated item.

[image description: the summary text over the chapel backdrop with the text of "the chapel where Jacob and the others were left behind was being filled with the scent of holy water.]

If I could add something to Mary Jane, I would have loved for Mary or Jacob to ask Sister Ghost what “God” means (this is a conversation that happens in bonus material for Tokyo Ghoul once, actually). I would have loved to have that brought up more explicitly. But it’s also very funny that it never is.

The first definitions for a God we get are them being applied to Mary herself, with plenty of ambiguity on if the Order’s faith itself has a mother figure at its center or not. And either way it’s a fascinating play on the idea, and the themes of the novel.

Closing Thoughts, Other Connections and Ideas "Beyond the Scope of this Essay"

Anyway, all of this while playing around with everything else going on in this play, Neji’s totally, without permission, commentary on Fumi, on Tsuki’s legacy (please read the stage script, somehow the game thought it was a good idea to cut that whole specific reference even when making Kisa pick between an “erase Tsuki” option) and on Kai. On himself as an artist. ("I am the one who is strange. With my changing moods, with my hobbies. That is why everyone thinks I'm strange and avoids me.”). As with several other plays, a commentary on authority, and on creation, and on isolation and friendship and connection.

And, of course, what I’ve been holding back this whole little essay is that Mary Jane is, thematically, at its core, playing off the exact same situation as I Am Death. Like — both of these plays center around a woman pouring her emotions into an undead creature. I see you Neji. You can’t hide from me. Reading I Am Death as a Frankenstein Story remixed into an old Japanese mytho-history is a LOT of fun to do, but is, as the academics say, beyond the scope of this essay.

(and, I Am Death itself is about Neji and Chui, and the twisted, messy love-hate revenge drama they are acting out across all the routes in the game. Neji writes the plays that introduce Chui to the world. Then he runs. And spends the whole game trying to beat him (affectionate.). “Make me another like me” you say…

Literally the only thing I’ve come up with to make the “bad end” CG more compelling to me, is that this is what it’s riffing on. I like my I Am Death costumes way weirder.)

Mary Jane is a Frankenstein Story, I Am Death is a Frankenstein Story, Jack Jeanne is a Frankenstein Story. The other, other thing I’m leaving out here is that the Order of the Shadows are OBVIOUSLY pulled from Tokyo Grand Guignol, aesthetically. And the most famous TGG play is Litchi Hikari Club, which is, say it with me, a Frankenstein Story. Also one that takes the themes of the novel (gender, love and sexuality, childhood, genius, violence, blind pursuit to the point of madness, god complexes) harder than most, but runs with it in nearly the exact opposite direction. But again, very much beyond the scope of this essay.

Also also also leaving out the fact that Tokyo Ghoul is... kind of ... not not a Frankenstein story. It certainly riffs on the motif quite a bit. Even if you've never read it, you've seen the mask design (an in universe riff on the joke.).

Even just one dimension of this play, and look how many words you've made me write Neji-senpai.

[image description: image from the bottom of the Mary Jane poster, with the cast list, showing the chapel ghosts with a focus on Ushinoko, Neji's character, looking towards the 'camera'.] Some little Halloween Spooktacular you’ve got there. Bravo.

#incoherent ramblings #the seagull spoilers #meta #yes i can rant about this forever #all of this #let! chui! play! The world soul! As! Al Jeanne!#this is a mean neji stan account and a chuza shuri hate account lol #neji #chui #i will remember how tumblr tags work one day #probably

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one-of-us-blog · 6 years ago

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The Chicken and the Egg (TGP, Episode 24)

Today Eli is forced to watch and recap The Chicken and the Egg, the final episode of The Golden Palace. In this installment, Blanche entertains the idea of having another child with a random boyfriend, while Roland uses his martial arts mastery to teach the local elderly community to lay down some street justice. Will the final chapter of the show serve as a fitting conclusion to this epic saga? Keep reading to find out…

Well, here we are! I don’t quite know what to say before I dive into one last recap, as I want to save my thoughts on the project in general for my very last post. With that in mind, let’s do this.

Buttocks tight!

Episode written by Mitchell Hurwitz, directed by Lex Passaris

Sophia enters the hotel lobby declaring that “It’s gone.” Chuy guesses that she is referring to her short-term memory, but Sophia ignores him and wonders aloud who the Mexican is. She says that her purse was stolen by some thug and blames the Bush economy. With a few more questions, she reluctantly reveals that the purse was stolen while within Rose’s now also-stolen car, which Sophia “borrowed” without asking. Additionally, the thief might have gotten pretty far since Sophia had just filled up the gas tank using Rose’s credit card. Roland considers teaching a self-defense seminar at the hotel to deal with these situations, and casually mentions that he has a blue belt in Tae Kwon Do. Blanche is all dressed up and demanding compliments as she has a hot date with Bobby Lee, a cattle baron from Austin. Her daughter Rebecca is also coming to visit Blanche’s (shudder) birthday, so we have all the pieces in place for our final outing!

We cut to Blanche and Bobby Lee in the hotel lobby, and he wastes very little time in sitting Blanche down to propose. He wants Blanche to agree to be his wife! Oh, and he also wants her to agree to have his children. Say what now? She attempts to pump the brakes, but he says that he knows she is older than she claims. Still, breeding is his business and Bobby suggests letting the doctors worry about the details. She simply has to say “yes,” and caught up in the moment, she does just that.

Blanche soon makes an announcement to her friends about her engagement and receives congratulations. She then announces her plan to have a baby and receives mockery. Sophia calls her a fossil, and Rose suggests that perhaps that ship has already sailed. Like, way back in End of the Curse. Rose also speculates that this is all a result of Blanche’s hatred of birthdays, but Blanche says that this is something that Bobby Lee wants and she “owes” it to him to try. Gross. Blanche also points out that medical science has come a long way, and she could potentially have another woman’s fertilized egg implanted. Roland reminds Blanche that she should really consider adoption, and then probably laughs and laughs in his head as he remembers that he is totally off the hook with Oliver, or whatever that little burden’s name was.

Roland dons his Tae Kwon Do garb and prepares to instruct a class of elderly women on the finer points of kicking a man in the balls. Someone hurls a bottle of estrogen at his head and he shames a masculine-looking lady, so things are really off to a great start. Roland attempts to bond with a student names Sylvia, who mentions that she enrolled because she wants to put her bastard husband through a window for calling her frail. To get down to business, Roland reveals that Chuy will be playing the part of the “attacker” in class, and he enters in a padded suit, snarling like a bear. It takes the old ladies approximately 2.5 seconds to swarm and beat the shit out of him.

Blanche has checked in with Bobby Lee about the possibility of adoption and says that he (predictably) has no interest in caring for someone he didn’t help to create. Rose wonders where Blanche will find someone with a compatible medical history to give her an egg, and at just that moment her daughter Rebecca shows up. They hug, and Rebecca says that Blanche can have anything she wants for her birthday. Blanche only has her sights on an egg.

After having a presumably uncomfortable conversation with her daughter, Blanche tells Rose that Rebecca didn’t agree to her request right away and will have to think things over. Blanche insists that she isn’t as old as everyone seems to think she is, and Rebecca shows up again to mildly rain on her parade. Blanche doesn’t want to be lectured, but Rebecca says that although she doesn’t think any of this is a good idea, she is willing to give her mother what she wants despite her objections.

Blanche seems to be having a rough night, tossing and turning in bed. Unable to sleep, she goes downstairs and discovers that she is super pregnant with a huge belly! Actually, Rose says that she went to the clinic with Blanche, and she got pregnant too! The two show off their enormous midsections and Rose complains about all of the morning sickness, varicose veins, cravings, and back pain that come along with pregnancy, and that they had both forgotten about. The surprises keep coming as Sophia is pregnant too, maneuvering her own belly around on a wheeled contraption. The trio somehow manages to gather at the kitchen table, where Sophia gives Blanche a good kicking for talking them all into this mess. Blanche says that she didn’t mean that “anyone” can get pregnant, but it’s too late, this scene has already gone off the rails; Roland is pregnant too and experiencing some major mood swings. We aren’t done yet, folks, Chuy has a bun in the oven as well! More specifically, he is carrying his bun in his backside for the sake of a dumb joke. Blanche apologizes profusely to everyone…

…and then a worried Rose wakes her up from her dream! Can you believe it?

The parking attendant from the neighboring hotel shows up with Sophia’s purse, and everyone realizes that Sophia actually just accidentally valet parked Rose’s car. Unfortunately for the attendant, Sophia and her gang of newly-trained Tae Kwon Do grannies choose this moment to wander in, and they all swarm Sophia’s “assailant.” Blanche needs to talk to Bobby Lee, who arrives at the hotel at just this moment. She is about to tell him that she doesn’t want to have a baby after all when he breaks down and admits that he is sterile. Both parties continue to insist that they are not old, but Blanche says that perhaps they can accept that they are “approaching middle age” and still have some fun together. Bobby Lee throws out a parting reference to his freezer full of bull semen, and leaves. Rebecca then comes downstairs, and Blanche tells her that she was right. Rebecca says that she just wants Blanche to be proud of the person she is, and they hug it out in the show’s final embrace.

For one closing scene, we find Chuy fleeing into the hotel elevator to escape the gang of violent older women that Roland has unleashed on the world. He almost makes it to safety, until Rose foils his plan. The very last image we are ever to see in the Golden Universe is that of Chuy being descended upon by the angry mob.

The End.

I have to say, while this is the final episode of the series and I’d like to go out on a high note, I kind of wish that this episode and the previous one had been swapped. I know I enjoyed the wacky antics of Roland policing vacationing young adults and Chuy building a giant burrito, but the pregnancy dream sequence in this episode just seemed silly without actually bothering to be funny. That, plus I feel like the whole angle of one of the girls (specifically Blanche) lamenting her lost youth and reproductive capability was already done by The Golden Girls, and done better. Bobby Lee seemed like kind of a creep to me, and it also seemed weird that Blanche was ready to marry a character in the very first scene in which he was introduced. It wasn’t a total loss, as I kind of enjoyed the idea of a gang of pissed-off grannies wandering the streets of Miami and stirring up trouble, and I liked that the show’s final message was that you should love yourself just the way you are, so I’ll leave things with that very positive thought in mind. Still, I’m giving The Chicken and the Egg a rating of 3 poofy hairdos out of 5.

I can’t believe that I have written my final recap for this big, crazy project, but I’ll still return one more time to share some final thoughts on the series and what One of Us! has meant to me. But before then, you can still treat yourself to one more recap from the real powerhouse of this duo, as Drew will soon be sharing his thoughts on the most recent Bond film, SPECTRE. Until then, as always, thank you for being a friend, and for being One of Us!

#golden palace #golden girls #one of us

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eatbcstx-blog · 6 years ago

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iPhone Repair College Station

Bryan-College Station Restaurant Guide : Mexican Restaurants

Here’s our guide to some of the best Mexican Food in the Brazos Valley. Several excerpts from complete articles on our favorite places are included below, click on the links for the whole story on each featured Mexican eatery.

Take Our Poll

Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant 840 University Dr. E., College Station, TX • 979-260-3400

Abuelo’s does catering too. Custom fajita spreads are a popular option.

Abuelo’s Mexican Restaurant combines homemade cooking with rich flavors of coastal and interior Mexican cuisine.

Casa Rodriguez Mexican Restaurant 300 N. Bryan Ave., Bryan, TX • 979-779-0916

Taco Loco at Casa Rodriguez.

Casa Rodriguez has been a family tradition in Bryan since 1978.

Cilantro Mexican Grill 106 N. Parker Ave., Downtown Bryan, TX • 979-704-6751

Concha ice cream sandwich at Cilantro Mexican Grill.

Cilantro Mexican Grill serves authentic Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes in Downtown Bryan.

Chimy’s – College Station 203 University Dr., College Station, TX • 979-703-6106

Chimy’s College Station.

Chimy’s – College Station serves up great Tex Mex and American favorites right across from the Texas A&M Campus.

Chuy’s (College Station, TX) Hwy. 6 & Harvey • 979-329-6022

Burrito En Fuego at Chuy’s College Station. Image by Chuy’s.

Chuy’s serves authentic Tex-Mex food in an eclectic atmosphere full of color and personality. The menu offers family recipes from South Texas, New Mexico and Mexican border towns, all made to order from the freshest ingredients.

El Sol De Mexico 705 N. Texas Avenue, Bryan, TX • 979-821-2400

Menudo at El Sol De Mexico. Image by customer Maria Porcayo.

El Sol De Mexico is situated just North of Downtown on Texas Avenue in Bryan. Well known for their Menudo.

Fuego Tortilla Grill 108 Poplar St., College Station, TX • 979-703-1804

Faves at Fuego Tortilla Grill. Image by Blonde Creative.

Fuego Tortilla Grill : Fresh, Hand Made Mexican Food… Fast! I got a little adventurous on this visit and tried the Dr. Pepper Cowboy ($3.79) taco with brisket, grilled onions, Dr. Pepper BBQ sauce, chipotle Cream corn and jack cheese on a hot, thick, hand made flour tortilla. The brisket was impressively prepared, tender and flavorful enough to be the pride of a small town barbecue joint. The chipotle cream corn and barbecue sauce were a perfect compliment to the brisket. I like a lot of sauce and flavor and the Dr. Pepper Cowboy did not disappoint. While eating this saucy taco had the potential to be a messy affair if the tortilla were to break, that didn’t happen and is unlikely to because the tortillas are so darned thick.

Jesse’s Taqueria & Bakery 3310 East 29th St., Bryan, TX • 979-485-9841

Jesse’s Taqueria is situated near Blinn College in Bryan.

Jesse’s Taqueria & Bakery is well known for fresh tacos, lunch plates, Mexican sweet breads, flan, fresh baked cookies, and friendly “know you by name” service.

La Carreta Mexican Grill 1605 San Jacinto Ln., Bryan, TX • 979-823-5929

Authentic Mexican food at La Carreta in Bryan. Image by La Carreta.

Established in 2011, La Carreta Mexican Grill is family-owned and strives to offer great quality service and delicious authentic Mexican food.

La Espiga Dorada 210 W. MLK in Bryan • 979-779-9594

Empanadas by La Espiga Dorada.

After a night of good times and great music at Revolution on Carnegie Alley in Downtown Bryan, local burger legend Charles Stover introduced me to his favorite local taco stand, El Nopalito on MLK. He also pointed out La Espiga Dorada, the bakery right behind El Nopalito and raved about the breads and sweets. Read more.

Los Cucos Mexican Restaurant 1521 S. Texas Avenue, College Station, TX • 979-689-8896 Los Cucos Bryan 920 N. Earl Rudder Fwy. Bryan, TX • 979-776-7800

Los Cucos is a popular Houston-based chain with two Brazos Valley locations. They are well known for great Mexican Food and an innovative drinks menu. One in Bryan and one in College Station. Image by Los Cucos.

Los Cucos Mexican Restaurant strives to delight you every visit with Always Fresh food, awesome drink specials, and the best possible “wow” service.

Lupe Tortilla 813 Texas Avenue South, College Station, TX • 979-693-6761

Dining room at Lupe Tortilla College Station. Image by Lupe Tortilla.

Lupe Tortilla makes it their business to serve the best tasting, most creative, colorful, and consistent Mexican food possible. Casual dining. Kids are welcomed.

Mad Taco 404 Jane Street @ University Dr., College Station, TX • 979-704-6266

Chiles en Nogada Specialty Taco by Mad Taco. Image by Mad Taco.

Mad Taco Stands Out For Its Tortillas… & Lack Thereof The Chile Rubbed Salmon Taco featured seared salmon with cheese, avocado, marinated red onion, chile oil and cilantro aioli. It was all wrapped up in one of the best tortillas I had ever tasted. About the thickness of a Gordita shell, warm, soft, slightly sweet, heavenly!

Michoacana Taqueria 1322 S. Texas Ave., Bryan, TX • 979-823-1177

Michoacana Taqueria. Photo by Greg Deeter.

Michoacana Taqueria Is “Mind Blowing” Good The tacos were served from hot holds and then you add your own toppings from the bar like onions, cilantro, marinated purple onions, pico, limes or cucumbers. Cucumbers? Yes. There are also four types of sauce that you ladle on, two red and two green.

Papa Perez Mexican Cuisine 200 S. Main St., Downtown Bryan

Shrimp ceviche at Papa Perez in Downtown Bryan.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but even the succulent photo accompanying this review cannot do the Shrimp Ceviche at Papa Perez Mexican Cuisine in Downtown Bryan justice. Marinated shrimp, tomatoes, onions and avocados in their famous ceviche sauce. Heaven on a fork…or cracker. The salsa and chips were good, and the sour cream enchiladas were well prepared. They offer charro or refried beans, so I got beans and rice. Both sides were flavorful and fresh. Nothing compared to the ceviche though. Papa Perez nailed it! Best in town.

Pepe’s Mexican Cafe 3312 S College Ave Bryan, TX • 979-779-2457

Pepe’s Mexican Cafe in Bryan, Texas

Pepe’s Mexican Cafe has been located in the same Bryan, TX spot since 1969. They serve delicious Tex Mex food including tacos, burritos, fajitas, specialty queso, and more.

Polly’s Cocina 12675 Wellborn Rd., Bryan, TX • 979-695-7500

Tacos at Polly’s Cocina. Image by Greg “Taco Monster” Deeter.

Polly’s Cocina is one of the most excellent Mexican restaurants in College Station. Great prices, just fantastic food and service and once you walk inside and see all of the walls covered with full 8×12 photos of all of the people that have eaten here, you will get it. One of the most popular Mexican restaurants for A&M staff at lunch. Lunch for three today was under $20 for nice big full plates and they have some of the best queso cheese on the face of the planet. (Words by Greg Deeter)

Raspas El Payasito 1005 S. Coulter St., Bryan, TX

Raspas El Payasito tacos. Image by Raspas taco afficionado Rhonda Holley.

Raspas El Payasito is one of our favorite places to go the morning (to us…like 11am-ish) after a night of revelry on Northgate. Authentic Mexican deliciousness!

The Tacobar 1411 Wellborn Rd., College Station, TX • 979-704-6636

El Carnal Taco by Tacobar.

Tacobar On Wellborn: Marinated Meats Make The Menu That’s the simple formula The Tacobar is executing to earn rave reviews for their newly opened Taqueria, specializing in authentic, border-style Mex fare.

Taco Crave B/CS 308 N. Main St., Bryan, TX • 979-485-5460

Street tacos by Taco Crave in Downtown Bryan. Image by Taco Crave.

Taco Crave B/CS specializes in simple, homemade, authentic Street Tacos, Burritos, Quesadillas, Tortas, Bowls, Desserts, Kids Meals. Street Food. Mom & Pop vibe. Small business. Friendly, kind service.

Taqueria El Nopalito 216 Martin Luther King St., Bryan, TX • 979-402-2414

Brisket tacos at Taqueria El Nopalito.

Taqueria El Nopalito: Authentic Mex, Fast & Fresh That 1am taco run from Revs became the start of a regular love affair between me and El Nopalito. My favorite is the Brisket Taco. They make the tacos street style, wrapping them all up together in foil so they keep each other nice and warm. Cilantro, onions and meat on your chioce of tortilla…simple goodness!

Taqueria El Tio 911 N. Bryan Ave., Bryan, TX • 979-775-8054

Taqueria El Tio offers outdoor dining, carry-out and drive-thru.

Taqueria El Tio : Hidden Gem In Bryan Offers Fresh, No Frills Mexican Fare If you weren’t looking for it, you’d likely drive right by this humble looking Mexican eatery without even noticing it’s there. Luckily for them, and local Mexican food afficionados, lots of people know right where to go for their El Tio fix, as they more than make up for what they lack in location and signage with excellent, fresh-made food at very fair prices.

Taqueria La Perla 111 N. Brazos Ave., Bryan, TX • 979-775-7116

Taco Perfection! by Taqueria La Perla in Bryan.

Taqueria La Perla is an authentic Tex-Mex taqueria in Bryan, just east of Downtown. Open until 3am on weekends.

Torchy’s Tacos (College Station) 1037 Texas Ave. S., College Station, TX • 979-329-6900

Torchy’s is situated on Texas Avenue between Cane’s and Layne’s.

Torchy’s keeps it simple: Damn good tacos.

Yole’s La Familia 14725 Fm 2154 Rd., College Station, TX • 979-690-5760 Yole’s La Familia 300 N. Texas Ave., Bryan, TX • 979-822-9192

Mexican buffet at Yole’s La Familia.

Yole’s La Familia Taqueria previously known as “La Familia” was established in 1990 by Yolanda and Otilio Agguire in Bryan, Texas. Today, 25 years later the legacy of “La Familia Taqueria” continues to strive strong in the Bryan-College Station area. The late Yolanda Aguirre passed in August of 2013, but her husband (Otilio), daughter (Melissa Serna), and son-in-law (Fidel Serna) are still keeping the business alive in booming today. The restaurant was recently featured in the Texas Monthly (December 2015 Edition) for The 120 Best Tacos You Must Eat Before You Die.

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Vote for the best #BCSTX Mexican Restaurant iPhone Repair College Station Bryan-College Station Restaurant Guide : Mexican Restaurants Here's our guide to some of the best Mexican Food in the Brazos Valley.

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