#anyway its an interesting bit of possible foreshadowing

[coraniaid]

Would anyone be interested in taking part in a weekly group Buffy rewatch starting sometime soon?

I haven't completely thought through all the details yet, but basically the idea would be to try to recapture some sense of watching the show the way it originally aired (although it wouldn't be a spoiler-free rewatch, obviously we do know what happens next and it would be silly to pretend we didn't).

We'd agree on some fixed schedule (say, 8pm Eastern Time on a Tuesday) when each episode would 'air'. Not everyone would have to rewatch the scheduled episode exactly then, but we'd all agree not to rewatch it any sooner than that (or at least not to post about it if we did). After the scheduled 'air date', and for the rest of the week, anyone taking part in the rewatch could post their thoughts on the most recent episode -- things they'd forgotten about before rewatching, things they liked or didn't like about the episode, possible foreshadowing for the future or bits of lore that clearly hadn't been fleshed out yet, whatever they wanted -- and tag them with some rewatch specific tag. There wouldn't be any obligation to watch or post about every episode, but you'd be expected to have recently rewatched an episode if you did post about it. Then a week later the next episode would 'air' and we'd all move on to discussing that.

We could take slightly longer breaks between seasons (to recapture the season-finale cliffhanger feel) and/or take occasional weeks off during each seasons (maybe a week off after episode 6 of Season 1, and a week off after episode 7 and episode 14 of each subsequent season?). That would give people a bit of time to 'catch up' on any recent episodes they missed but still wanted to talk about. Or we could have breaks more regularly (one week 'off' every month, say); as I said, I haven't really thought through all the details.

The only exception to the one-episode-per-week rules I'd want to have are when two episodes originally aired less than a week apart. That means Welcome To The Hellmouth / The Harvest (which both aired on March 10, 1997), Surprise / Innocence (which aired on consecutive nights when the network moved the show from its original Monday night slot to its new Tuesday night slot: January 19, 1998 and January 20, 1998) Bargaining Parts 1 and 2 (which originally aired as one double-length episode on October 2, 2001) and Two To Go / Grave (both aired back to back on May 21, 2002) would all each be treated as effectively one episode for that week.

I mean I personally will probably be rewatching Season 1 at least fairly soon anyway, but it would be fun if a group of us was all doing the same thing (and posting our thoughts about the episodes somewhere visible to everyone as we went).

[krismoss-dreemurr]

SO DELTARUNE

I'm so incredibly excited that Deltarune finally has a release date! June 5th!!!!! Only [63] days! So with that in mind I wanted to share some pictures for the new content & a few thoughts

First, some new stuff from the trailer...

We start off with a really cute animation of Kris helping Susie up! I think this shows just how close the two have gotten in the last two chapters.

The "knock your socks off" act we saw teased during the Spamton Sweepstakes... we have a little more info about it now, apparently we have a limited amount of hearts we can use for this act. I can see this meaning you can only use the act a few times, or you have to do another act to get more hearts. This could also have to do with the amount of TP you have given that its at max in the teaser.

Here's our first look at a totally new mini game! It looks like something is coming for the soul and we have to use these shields to stop ourselves from getting hurt. Pretty simple. It makes me think of Undyne's green soul mechanic from Undertale! This time, however, it looks like our shields are... cats? That's what they look like to me, anyway. Considering who we see later in the teasers, it's possible this may have to do with Catti, although I find it more likely that it's either foreshadowing or for fun (since this is chapter 3).

I'm really excited about this mini game. Not because I'm any good at rhythm games (lol) but I just love the gang's new outfits! Kris is making me think of a rockstar with a popped out collar. Maybe something like Elvis...? (not exactly but similar!)

Anyway! While it's not visible in the trailer, it seems like this song with guitar hero-esque mechanics has lyrics being sung by Ralsei!! I wonder if it'll be similar to Don't Forget?

It seems like Chapter 3 is all about fun and unique mini games, which makes sense given what Toby said about chapter 3 being experimental and different from other chapters, more focused on gameplay. It goes well with the TV theme. You could imagine each mini game is like a skit on television.

Next we have this section of the trailer where Susie appears to be hanging onto something, then throwing Kris upward so they can hang on to a different something. Both Kris and Susie seem to be hue shifted. My first thought is that this likely has to do with the lighting, but it's definitely not clear.

You can also see that there's something falling in the first two images, which to me looks like glass or something, but this is also unclear.

At the end of the trailer we get glimpses of each of the chapters, and the ones from chapters 3 and 4 are interesting!

We see the antagonist from chapter 3, Mike or Tenna or whoever, and a hall in chapter 3 that has a similar hue-shifted effect like the screenshots above.

It seems obvious to me at this point that chapter 4, the one we've known less about, has a church-themed Dark World! We've seen Rudy mention that "tomorrow" he'll try to go to church, and we've also seen concept of art of Susie at a punch bowl (presumably getting that "sick fruit juice" Kris likes), as well as a red cup-themed Darkner.

In these newest teasers for chapter 4 we see angel imagery on the path Susie and Kris are running down and stained glass windows.

We also have two other teasers from the Deltarune steam page and a gothic style building on Deltarune's website.

If Jockington is part of this Dark World, it's very likely that Catti also is, which fits with her interest in the occult!

The two new characters we see remind me of a Japanese ghost a bishop chess piece (also a little bit like a communion wafer, but much less so). I could be wrong though, of course!

One last teaser we get on Deltarune's website is an image that presumably takes place between chapters 3 and 4, the same time period we think Susie mentions Kris's family in an earlier teaser.

It seems like this might be Sans's reaction to you snooping behind his house trying to get to his secret lab we see in Undertale. Especially with the way that Susie is positioned (looking down and in the grass). Seems very rude to do right in front of him!

That's all my thoughts for the time being! I'm disappointed we have to wait until June but I'm incredibly excited for the new release, especially now that we also have a price (25 for the whole game???? Oh my god Toby). I'll definitely be drawing rockstar Kris soon!

[yuriskies]

An Exorcism of Expectations

Otherside Picnic's "Pontaniak Hotel" chapter is one of the funnier chapters in the series, dealing with the absurd lengths Sorawo goes to so she can avoid a hard and awkward conversation about sex with Toriko. While it's mostly presented as a cringe comedy—inviting as many people as possible to third wheel a date, playing detective on her own blackout drunkeness with completely unrelated third parties—it lands an emotional punch from the pathos of mismatched expectations within a relationship. What interests me most about it is its setting in a Bali-themed love hotel, which serves as thematic foreshadowing for later volumes of the story.

Otherside Picnic grapples with the topic of allonormativity (the expectation that everyone experiences romantic and sexual attraction) and amatonormativity (the expectation that happiness is found in a romantic, sexual relationship). These ideas are central to the plot of "Pontaniak Hotel": Toriko wants to have sex with Sorawo, seeing it as the next step of their increasingly close relationship; Sorawo, having never felt sexual attraction, feels childish and a bit peevish about how others' openness with the topic. Toriko's gets pushy to force their relationship into the shape it's 'supposed' to take, and Sorawo's evasive discomfort with that lead her to wonder if she's anything more than a convenient exploration partner. That this all takes place in a Bali-themed love hotel allows Miyazawa to develop an analogy between community ritual and amatonormativity.

The themed love hotel is subtly shadowed in a chapter from the previous novel, "Pandora in the Next Room".

It was a homework assignment for Outline of Sociology II, summarizing how the “traditional” dances of Bali had been remade as performance arts for the tourism industry. I got distracted as I remembered the constant chak-chak-chak chanting in the kecak dance video we watched during the lecture.

This foreshadowing creates some symbolic connections that "Pontaniac Hotel" runs with. Traditional Balinese dances have a ritualistic aspect and serve a set of community functions that are implicitly understood by those participating. Tourist performance divorces those dances from that context—it has become a performance disconnected from its embedded meaning.

So, if traditional dances performed in Bali is an empty pleasure for tourists, then by analogy, sex in a Bali-themed love hotel is an empty pleasure for visitors. This analogy applies to Toriko's behavior in the relationship. To Toriko, embedded in amatonormativity, sex has an implicit meaning of closeness. To Sorawo, an outsider to amatonormativity, the meaning of sex simply doesn't parse. Toriko's attempt to have sex in the love hotel, then, is much like an insider performing for a tourist: it may be an act that carries meaning to her, but completely flies over the head of an outsider.

The vol 8 chapter "Accomplices No More" makes this more explicit.

Toriko shook her head, smiling. “No, I don’t think that was it. I had been pushing towards us becoming lovers without ever questioning it, and I was shocked to find that at some point that had stopped being what I wanted.” [...] “Anyway, for a moment there, I didn’t know what I wanted my relationship with you to be. It came back to me gradually, but in some corner of my heart there’s been a sense that something is off ever since then. So, when I say I want to go out, or that I want us to be lovers, it’s more…I’m trying to put it in a way that comes across easily, I guess?”

“You wanted to do that kind of stuff with me, right…?” Though I’m sure she didn’t expect it to get that bizarre. “Yeah,” Toriko said, hugging my head tight as she nodded repeatedly. “Yeah. It made me so...so happy.” “Uh-huh.” For Toriko, having sex was probably proof of something between us. I wasn’t that particular about it myself, but I was glad she seemed happy.

As a quick aside, traditional dance performed for tourists is also a transactional relationship. This resonates nicely with the connection to love hotels, since they have an association with sex work. So it's probably not a surprise that the Pontaniak appears here, since in several versions of the story she is the vengeful spirit of a murdered sex worker. The apparition appearing to Natsumi is interesting, but I'm not quite sure we have enough information to pull much on that thread.

However, the Pontaniak's appearance nicely leads into the next part with the Lion Dancer. The specific dance that occurs in this chapter is, as best I can tell, a variation on the Barong and Kris dance. Sorawo provides some helpful context in the following chapter, "Looking at the Past in the Diagonal Mirror".

That’s right—it occurred to me later, but the dance I was performing was probably the Barong dance. It’s a traditional dance from Bali, said to represent the eternal battle between good and evil. That meant the “lion dancer” who had barged in on us was the holy beast Barong, and as the one dancing with him, that made me the embodiment of evil—the witch named Rangda. What the heck? How was I the embodiment of evil? How was traveling to check on my friend, who I was worried about because I couldn’t get in contact with her, anything other than an act of good? Give me a break, okay?

Rangda is associated with the story of Calon Arang, a powerful sorceress who embarked on a spree of destruction after rumors of her deeds prevented her daughter from finding a marriage partner. To do so, she summons destructive spirits, leyak, to raise the dead and spread plague to those who wronged her. She is eventually defeated and ritually purified of her karmic crimes by the holy man Mpu Bharada. This purification is interpreted as a transformative act, funneling her power for destruction into one of creation, which through future events may again be transformed to destructiveness.

The traditional performance of the Barong and Kris dance relies on Ranga's power to command leyak. Leyak are believed to inhabit members of the community, and their influence responsible for unfortunate events within a community. The dance uses gamelan to induce a trance state, at which point a person dressed as Rangda appears to taunt the leyak, demanding they reveal themselves. The trance state allows the leyak to emerge, and angered by the taunting, come forward to attack Rangda with kris swords. Frustrated by their inability to harm her, the leyak turn the kris on their bodies, only to find that they are unable to harm themselves either. Rangda departs, and Barong appears to banish the spirits that have revealed themselves.

In this sense, Rangda acts less as an embodiment of evil than the negative aspect of a balancing force*. Her presence is one that summons existing issues to the surface, after which they can be dealt with. And so, getting back to the established analogy to amatonormativity, Sorawo's performance can be interpreted as a form of release from the relationship pains that the visit to the love hotel dredges up—Toriko, her desire for a 'normal' relationship with Sorawo; Kozakura, her past with Satsuki; Natsumi, her inability to step outside of 'childhood friend'; Akari, her, uuhhhh I actually am not sure what her deal is but she might actually be an Otherside fanatic like Sorawo.

So, while the use of Balinese imagery in "Pontaniak Hotel" seems like an odd outlier in relation to the rest of the story, it is essentially a preview of the more anthropology-themed storytelling in later volumes. The accidental use of ritual here serves as both the inspiration and template for more intentional uses later on, and amatonormativity evolves into a central plot point. The introduction here is subtle, but does a fantastic job of laying the groundwork for all of that.

*I suspect Sorawo's understanding here is some really clever and subtle character work on Miyazawa's part given the more nuanced approach of her professor in vol 7; her knowledge is what you might expect from an entry-level sociology textbook.

[I also need to drop a citation here... I did a lot of digging around articles about Balinese dance but I think the most helpful one was Sarah Weiss's "Rangda and the Goddess Durga in Bali", which was printed in Fieldwork in Religion in 2017]

[intuitive-revelations]

Semi-live/retrospective analysis of Lucky Day!

As usual, have provided my live reactions, while also going back and analysing in roughly chronological order. Spoilers below the read more.

Ah yes, the long past year of 2007.

Oh so Conrad is the guy.

And he's been following the TARDIS. I wonder if we're going to get a LINDA, Clive Finch, or Redacted reference?

All these mannequins, felt like we were going to get an Auton appearance for a second.

Oh, so this is a missing Ruby and Fifteen adventure, cool!

Future edit: Looking up this episode on the wiki, turns out this was actually foreshadowed in one of the NSA books, which is really cool! In that story (Caged), Ruby mentions having "outrun a Shreek". I love this, as I don't think we've had such a strong connection between the NSAs and the series since Series 1, when Justicia was mentioned in Boom Town, referencing The Monsters Inside?

"Aliens are real, we all know that." So are we stepping back to the RTD1-era status quo? I guess it does make sense with UNIT tower in the middle of London.

This imaginary storytelling is a bit out of nowhere, but cool.

I wonder how Ruby got the extra vial of antidote? I guess this is prior to Season 2 and she met with the Doctor?

"If he was here, he'd be flirting with you." Ah, another moment to add to my long-planned pride month queer Doctor gifset.

Interesting to see Louise here with Cherry and Carla. Very domestic and friendly, which is nice.

"She's not mentioned the Doctor in weeks" After that post on here, I can't stop seeing Paul McGann in Conrad's face.

Kate! Oh, so is the antidote from UNIT?

"Mel's on her way to Sydney" Tegan-Nyssa-Mel meetup?

Shame they're still going the love interest route with Kate and Ibrahim. Honestly, I was hoping he'd end up more of a rival, providing some internal conflict at UNIT in balancing its military and scientific missions (which would be a good driving storyline for a spin-off appearance).

I assume that's not it... but interesting to touch on the PTSD associated with companion life.

Oh, and Ruby said as such explicitly!

Conrad you idiot. I expected as such, but of course he didn't take the antidote.

Shirley's back!

The cut to UNIT arriving was a little sudden. I notice they're using the music from the 60th, which I guess is being setup as a new theme for them? A bit odd using it here though, without the Doctor present, since it seems to have a small quote of The Shepherd's Boy in it? I guess it could just be coincidence.

OH DAMN. Wasn't expecting it to be a setup. A little silly how recognisable and accurate the costumes and sound were, but I guess Conrad did witness the real Shreek. Having the aliens be costumes is pretty fun and meta (and I must admit, another possible point for the TV meta theory/interpretation) - wasn't there a post on here suggesting something like that earlier this week?

I noticed the electrician hat earlier, know it's all a set-up, which he presumably did the wiring on, puts a whole new spin on this.

I was going to call Conrad a podcast bro earlier, but held back. I wasn't expecting it to be so accurate. Kinda feels weird that Ruby wouldn't have picked up on this stuff before going on his podcast? I guess it could have been a recent, secretive turn.

Damn, so Think Tank aren't alien conspiracy theorists. They're anti-alien conspiracy theorists?! "There are no Shreek, no Cybermen, no Sycorax, no Yetis in the underground." No wonder he didn't take the antidote.

"They're stooges and actors" I mean... holding up that mask kinda goes against that point, no? Think Tank were responsible for the costumed Shreek, yet they showed up anyway. This feels just as stupid reasoning as real conspiracies.

"This one's collecting benefits, stealing our taxes while she lies to us." Jesus. Also topical...

This does make the "storytelling" scene earlier feel a bit misleading now, mind you, if Conrad never thought any of this was real.

TRINITY WELLS!

The live TV presence is so RTD feeling, despite this episode being written by Pete McTighe. The misinformation is kinda infuriating (of course, reporting a fake emergency is not "harmless") but hardly unrealistic.

And now he's literally doxxing everyone.

Kinda wish they'd mention the Chibnall era UNIT defunding as they're talking about the political consequences of all this.

So Conrad applied 8 years ago. So around 2016 or 2017? Honestly, he might've not gotten the job BECAUSE of the Brexit-related defunding?

Oh, this dude. I knew there was something suspicious with the focus on him.

I feel like this is all a bit overly dramatic for one episode? Honestly, if we were to get a UNIT spin-off, as suggested, I feel like this "uprising" could have been another great arc to use over a series?

"Subscription to Albion TV, revisionist podcasts... it's an echo chamber of disinformation." Wait, is Albion TV where ap Gwilliam's Albion Party comes from? I guess it's the DW equivalent of something like NewsMax or GB News.

The politics are so heavy here, I honestly wonder if McTighe is trying to make up for Kerblam? The infiltration and attack on UNIT headquarters even feels quite Jan 6-y, although it being Conrad only in the building with a gun feels closer to a mass-shooting / assassination scenario.

A little tired of it always coming back to the Brigadier with Kate. I love him, sure, but it does feel like we have to do this every single story with her.

HOLY SHIT KATE. (kinda deserved though)

Love the emphasis that Conrad doesn't even really believe what he's spreading.

"At least your special effects are improving." And of course he tries to flip-flop onces he's (seemingly) safe. Kinda meta too.

Wasn't expecting the Doctor to actually show up here. When is this, I wonder?

"You've had plenty of... friends. Have you met MIss Belinda Chandra yet?" OH?! So that explains that. So much for the Master connection, though.

I wonder if these "spoilers" are going to bite the Doctor in the arse, and Conrad is going to succeed in rewriting his future / "rejecting [this] reality".

Yep, and it seems to be by Mrs Flood's hand? But what need does she have for Conrad, of all people? "The Governor", while I don't think it's her actual name, feels like it's hinting at a Time Lord title for her?

Overall Thoughts

Great episode - with a LOT to talk about.

Another politics-heavy episode from Pete McTighe. I definitely feel this is his strongest yet, and the best handled, though there's still a lot to debate regarding UNIT. While I was a lot more critical of Kerblam, I think I will defend him here TBF, since of course that's going to happen when you go at a big discussion topic like this. While the episode is clearly swinging at disinformation and right-wing podcast types (the actual political views of Conrad etc., while not a big focus, are pretty clear from things like the benefits dig at Shirley and Jordan's Albion TV subscription, plus the subtext of course), it does end up forcing us into a position of sort-of defending UNIT's recent militaristic, "government spook" depiction (which has long been a little bit of a shame, given the Moffat era was clearly swinging us towards a more scientific UNIT, though admittedly that did dampen in later episodes). Though the arrest of Conrad et al. was arguably justified, behaviour like that in The Star Beast is much less so. I guess this is a moment to remember that characters don't need to be perfect, which the ending with Kate was definitely leaning on, and not everything is intended as part of a political message. Honestly, this is just more of the reason why I am in support of a UNIT spin-off: not to glorify them, but so we can dive deeper into this debate with more nuance than can be packed into a 45-minute episode.

In any case, UNIT continues to be divisive. Interesting having them being such a public face of alien defence now - again, it feels very much like a step back to the RTD1 status quo. Also nice to confront the politics and funding situation of the organisation, after the Brexit stuff in the Chibnall era, though again it's a shame that didn't come up at all. I would assume obtaining funding again is related to UNIT's recent public transformation? I do wonder if the long-term fallout of Conrad's actions is putting us back on course for the evolution into UNISYC, as we were speculating during the last era?

As sudden and dramatic as it was, I did really like the public response to the livestream, which did feel very real, especially AMNN and Trinity Wells's opinion program (what a sadly realistic evolution of that character) immediately leaping on it as persecution against right wing voices - especially given the reaction just today by US Republicans to things like the AFD ruling in Germany. See also whenever Elon Musk starts going off about the Labour Party and other ruling parties in Europe.

Conrad is fascinating. It seems as if he must have been a sceptic for some time, even with his own experiences - I wonder if he had it beaten into him, after seeing the TARDIS materialise in 2007? On the other hand, how much of that belief is genuine and how much is him playing it up to make a buck? Feels very reminiscent of all the right-wing personalities going publicly against vaccines and such, despite being fine with them in private. Speaking of which, there's clearly a right-wing / libertarian bend to his views - is that how he's always been, or is he another person whose been radicalised, or who saw the disinformation space as a good grift?

By the end of the episode, his beliefs seem quite incoherent, what with him being positioned against the Doctor, even knowing that he's real. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, as it's hardly an unrealistic development, but I do wonder where his thinking is going to go next? Is he going to stay a denialist, or swing around and become more anti-alien - if so, what will his perspective on UNIT evolve into? That they're not aggressive enough? Or maybe that they're the wrong people for the job, and alien-fighting should be less secretive / a more open government action? With Mrs Flood seemingly intending to let him out, I suspect we'll see more of him.

Very happy to see Ruby and all her family. As mentioned, I do love that things are so cordial between Louise and Carla, so hopefully things have settled a bit from her "real mum" stuff last series, which I know was intentionally meant to be a bit messy, despite being pretty disrespectful to adopted parents like Carla. The examination of her PTSD from travelling with the Doctor was awesome to have, it all felt very Steven Universe Future. For a moment, I thought that might have been the direction we were going with the episode: a Listen-like scenario, where there isn't anything actually there, which made the twist really stand out to me. Being betrayed and exposed as she was is hardly going to help with that.

Kinda disappointed that it seems Conrad is how the Doctor found out about Belinda? I guess the This is Gallifrey motif really wasn't important, unless this is a misdirect and we're still missing something (after all, it didn't feel like Conrad really set the Doctor on course to find her, unlike what he implied in The Robot Revolution).

[stillness-in-green]

Hi, are you still working on the AFO Retcon Essay? You mentioned a few times you are not sure if Horikoshi retconned AFO's original plan or if he always intended for AFO to take over Tomura, but made AFO act somewhat contradictory from the start regardless. Did this ever make you feel like there are too many possibilities in regards to Horikoshi's original intentions to take into account and could therefore make it harder to write the essay?

Hi there, and thanks for your interest! I did actually talk about this a good while back, towards the beginning of the year; you can find that post here. It says pretty much exactly what you did and goes a bit further--that I'm so distrustful of Horikoshi as a writer that I have no idea anymore what might have been retconned and what was his intention from the start, and further, that even if something was his intention from the start, I don't trust him to have laid the groundwork for those intentions with honesty or good faith.

Instead of the AFO Retcon Essay, what I've been poking at instead is some sort of massive retrospective of all the problems with BNHA's endgame. That's going to require a reread on my part, and some decisions about formatting--namely, do I want to do the reread privately, on my end, and then write the Mega Chonky Essay and post it when I'm finished, or do I do it publically, read-along liveblog style, documenting the problems as I go?

At the moment, I'm leaning towards the second. I have some tentative ideas about keeping a running list of (to use a witticism from the Twitter fen) Themes & Such, ideas and ideology the series sets out and how well it lives up to those ideas--or how it fails to. I'd also like to keep track of things like character arcs and foreshadowing, documenting things with an eye to where those arcs go, what the foreshadowing amounts to, whether the series keeps its implicit promises, and so on. I suspect it would wind up looking something like a cross between the heteromorphobia essay and my chapter thoughts posts.

On the other hand, a format that deals with one group of problems at a time could feel more focused, discussing all the evidence at once of any particular topic rather than having to keep many (many) plates spinning across a retrospective of the entire series. I also already have the broad outline for that, since it was my plan last time I was seriously poking at the idea. It would probably still end up being posted in multiple parts; the parts would just cover different groups of characters or aspects of the series per installment, rather than e.g. each installment covering an arc and everything in it.

I suppose there's nothing stopping me from doing first the former and then the latter? I'm planning to reread the whole series anyway, after all.

In any case, I like that kind of installment-based format not least because I'm also in the early stages of getting a Patreon set up aimed at supporting my meatier chunks of fandom writing and potentially giving people some ability to point me at this or that topic. A multi-part analysis of BNHA--something in a similar style as my documentations of heteromorphobia, the problems with the anime's adaptation of My Villain Academia, or even, to reach back to an older fandom, my episode-by-episode write-ups on Human Debris in Gundam IBO!--strikes me as a good way to get that off the ground.

I've got one or two things to finish getting off my plate before then, and I'd want to wait until the last volume of BNHA officially comes out (12/4) just in case of any thirteenth-hour surprises, but keep an eye out! I'm not inclined to paywall my writing, but maybe an early access sort of model? I'm also going to want to find a blogging site that's more aimed at hosting long-form writing than Tumblr is. We'll see!

In the meantime, to give everyone an example of the kinds of things I'm looking at tracking through the story, one of the things that most vexes me about the ending is how it not only fails to resolve its contradictory ideas of saving and heroism, it feels to even recognize those contradictions. Here's a chunk of my notes on that topic from the outline of The Mega Chonky Essay in its current form.

• Nana says saving isn’t just saving someone’s life, but also making sure they’re smiling in the end. But that means that saving their life is the prerequisite. If Eri died smiling, her smiling would not prevent everyone from recognizing her death as a tragedy.         • “Perfect Victory” is defined as both “winning” and “saving” flawlessly—that is, every fight is won, and no one is left unsaved. This is introduced first as an ideal for Deku and Bakugou to strive for, with both of them needing to work on different parts of the equation, and continues to be an aspect of Bakugou’s characterization, as it comes up again in Joint Training. But it doesn’t stay locked to them, as All Might says directly to the American pilots that they can’t be allowed to die because the kids are aiming for a Perfect Victory.         • A pivotal question for Toga and the larger series is, given that Heroes are supposed to save people, how do Heroes justify killing Villains? Do they not think of Villains as people?         With all three of these ideas in place, the challenge becomes how to navigate the endgame to a place where all three concepts are honored/resolved. The ending must demonstrate that Heroes do see Villains as people while also being able to achieve their desired Perfect Victory—they must win against the Villains while also saving them, where “saving” means that the Villains’ lives are saved and they’re smiling in the end.         Or must they? After the first war, the series introduces another concept of how to save people, albeit one that runs directly counter to Nana's definition of a saved person as someone both alive and smiling: Gran Torino says that killing someone can be a way of saving them. He and Nana can’t both be right, so to confront and resolve that discrepancy, the story will have to acknowledge one of them as wrong. (Spoilers: It does not.)         In the end, Toga dies, and Deku kills Shigaraki, and if both of them die smiling, well, you sure as hell can’t say the same for e.g. Gigantomachia or All For One or Dabi or any of the thousands of unhappy Villains who wound up in prison (many of them likely bound for the gallows!), alive but decidedly not smiling. Heck, All Might, in trying to console Deku, moves the goalposts even more by suggesting that all Deku needed to do to get the credit on “saving” Shigaraki was make sure his inner child wasn’t crying anymore. Not only does he not have to live, he doesn’t even have to be smiling! An absence of obvious grief is enough!         Thus, you wind up in this place where you have an unsolvable problem: somewhere along the line, either someone failed or someone was wrong, and the story, in being unwilling to confront that disharmony, winds up undermining other established themes and goals. Did the kids “lose” because they failed to meet the criteria for the Perfect Victory? Was the definition of “saving” wrong? Was Gran Torino wrong or was Nana? Was the definition of Perfect Victory wrong? Was Toga correct in her fear that Heroes don’t see Villains as people?         No matter what the answer is, it runs afoul of some previously established Theme in the story. Even if the idea is that the ending is downbeat and bittersweet because the kids failed (and the story is using All Might’s goalpost-moving to resolve the dissonant definitions of “saving” in Gran Torino’s favor), that still means yet another theme is violated: that of BNHA being a story of how Deku+his classmates become “the greatest Heroes.” After all, the story also defined “greatest Heroes” for us! The greatest Heroes are those who can achieve Perfect Victory.

Whatever form this essay winds up taking, these are the sorts of concepts I want to discuss in terms of how the series sets them up compared to how it winds up following them through.

Thanks for the ask!

[cannotgiveafuck]

Sorry not sorry youre all getting PNat spam but this is what happens when I dive back into old fandoms. ANYWAY I'm not done with my Jones family theories hold on.

SO

I am very into the theory that Cody is part werewolf along with vampire. But also, I don't think the family dynamic is what it seems. Especially from Cody's perspective, for as smart as he is, he's still a middle schooler and missing a number of pieces. And it's a theme of these kids not really knowing the adults in their lives.

Consider: this little foreshadow

Also the mention that Cody had a "sleepwalking episode" and awoke to Davy being wounded by presumably a werewolf. But this all hinges on the theory that lycanthropy can be given via bite AND passed down.

But also. In regards to Shrike - presumably bit by young Jean, her hunting apprentice, but following him around and kept track of him in her journal. Not approaching bc it was either too dangerous or she wanted to keep note of the curse, maybe find its cure (there's the running theme of adults doings things themselves without including the kids bc they want to protect them).

It's also noted that she recorded all of baby Cody's milestones in her journal as well, right along her monster notes. While Cody's perspective paints this as a nice if sloppy thing his mother did, I think it was deliberate. Shrike recorded everything on Cody bc she got first hand information on a young and growing monster - a vampire and werewolf hybrid.

I think she searched for the cure of lycanthropy within her own son. For Cody? Jean? Herself? In general bc she's so anti-monster? Hard to say.

However there is one bit of important journal entry:

Now. As her last entry, I'm like, 70% sure she's talking about Cody at first before switching to Jean. Bc her notes are about full moon changes, but we know that Spender is with Jean every full moon to block its effects. And also the word 'evolution' implies generational changes.

We know that Cody heals faster than a regular vampire, can go out in the sun, and in a brief instance we see that he can become much stronger than his father. Such concepts of being better can also apply to his werewolf half - a wolf that's bigger, stronger, more vicious than his mother.

Thus far in the narrative, it's been shown how character expectations act as red herrings. And I think that could be applied to Shrike and Cody's version of who she is.

I don't wanna 100% say she used Cody and didn't care for him. When wolf!Shrike showed up before Spender and Isabel, I think she was more drawn to a child's cry than anything. But was that bc of her own inclinations as a mother? Or something else?

Then there's the theory that Davy Jones used Cryptide to cut her wolf and human sides apart, which has definitely piqued my interest. It would explain why the wolf Shrike is always around.

But why?

I don't see Davy abiding this bc of a monster hunter kid or bc he believes in the cure of lycanthropy (he seems very pro-monsters existing, and being proud of being a monster). I think he used Cryptide on Shrike bc he found out she was searching for a cure, and believed whatever she was doing with it was something that would jeopardize or hurt Cody. Perhaps he thought she would give it to the Cousinhood? Or that curing Cody would hurt him?

Either way, the splitting of Shrike could possibly explain her entries getting more frantic, if she was in a hurry to do something but then got found out. And the wolf always being around. But then... where's human Shrike? And. If Davy believed Shrike to be a threat to Cody, what else would he have split from her? Do her memories of Cody reside in the wolf, an animal that cannot communicate or perform as a monster hunter? Is her personality split, where the human part is now a non issue or someone so removed from who she once was, she's no longer a threat?

Then why go throw in a Moonless Night to his big real estate ritual?

Maybe bc while he's pro monster, he's very aware of Cody's strength and how much a threat he is as a werewolf, so the next option is blocking out the moon. Something to be said about loving someone so much you'd catch the moon for them, or block out its existence. And when Cody says he wants to push Davy's boundaries, that he wants to be hard to love - I think that's already true. Cody is literally the thing that could hurt Davy the most, that could kill him. But is also the thing Davy fears most to lose.

Davy having Cody's heart is not only to protect him from being staked by his enemies, but also maybe so Davy knows exactly when Cody looks at the full moon and begins to change. Bc as a werewolf, Cody isn't under vampire rules. Davy can't control or stop him. The silver hook could also be used to snap Cody out of losing his wolf mind (we're not entirely certain how the damage of silver works with werewolves yet.)

There's also the theories about PJ and Lefty, and I'm squinting at those, but it's pretty obvious that Lefty is Davy's that he purposefully cut off using Cryptide. Either PJ is Davy's other son or Cody split from himself - but I don't think that works out timeline wise?

Not sure, would need, like a physical timeline scale to stare at to figure that out between the great wight fight and the Clayview incident and when monster shenanigans happened.

[paul-the-delivery-guy]

Paul's Penultimate Prediction: The Hamster & Gretel Season 2 Finale Prediction

I use the word "penultimate" in the title, both because I will most likely modify my projection shortly before the finale, and because I absolutely adore artful alliteration. Anyways, I promised you guys a season 2 finale prediction. Here I am to deliver. I'm actually rather sad knowing that this may well be my last theory for the show. I spent a very long time putting all this together. I'd like to see your thoughts below.

So, has anybody noticed a little trend here? Each of the mid-season finales and the season 1 finale has something in common: Gretel loses her powers. In “U. F. Uh Oh,” Gretel has her powers drained by being next to that purple rock. In “Exclamation Strikes Back,” both Gretel and Hamster have their powers stolen by Exclamation via the same mysterious rock. In “The New Adventures of Super Kevin,” Gretel's powers are transferred over to Kevin via a pendant (that just happened to be in Exclamation's house). If we continue the trend, It may stand to reason that we'll see a powerless Gretel once more in “Who's Afraid of Mordros the Annihilator.” I've been considering this possibility for some time now, but I didn't think this was enough basis for my theory. However, the title and synopsis for the next episode was recently revealed.

“No Powers Day” “Kevin's plan to teach Gretel not to rely on her powers is interrupted when he's taken captive by hill people.”

At first, I was a bit disappointed by the title. Not only was I expecting something more interesting, but as I just pointed out, we've already had episodes where Gretel has had to go with no superpowers. Gretel’s already proven adept without her powers, so what is the point of this… unless the episode is foreshadowing and she, for some reason, will not have her powers in the final battle.

Let me also talk about something in the episode “Hamster Ex Machina.” In this episode, Mordros the Annihilator has created robotic replicas of Hamster, Gretel and Kevin. Mordros, at first glance, struck me as a very smart and analytical villain. He's done his homework and has learned exactly how his enemy fights. HOWEVER, while he seems to have studied Kevin enough to make a replica of him, Mordros disregards him almost entirely. “We could not determine the random teenage boy's function, so we assumed that he was a trash receptacle.” -Robot Gretel.

Hold on… Wasn’t disregarding and underestimating Kevin Professor Exclamation's big mistake in the pilot episode?

Circling back to the mysterious rock from season 1, what was its purpose? Why did the aliens have a rock that could nullify Gretel’s powers? My friends, it's the same purpose the aliens had for creating all the villains. They were testing Gretel. They were testing to see how she performed without superpowers. But why was this necessary?

I'd also like to discuss the little pendant from the Super Kevin episode, the one that transfers powers to another person. The pendant clearly came from the power-granting aliens. Why did Professor Exclamation, who seemingly had no connection to the aliens, have this in his possession. I think that Exclamation found and swiped the pendant from the wreckage of the UFO when he secured the power draining rock. It may have been a backup plan for him to take Gretel’s powers. Now, if the aliens meant for the rock to be found and exploited, they probably meant for the pendant to be found as well. I believe that we will be seeing the return of Super Guy.

I think that Mordros can actually steal superpowers and take them for himself. This is how he became so powerful. Some time in the past, the power-granting aliens granted people on another world superpowers for whatever reason, and Mordros came and stole them.

In fact, I think the aliens meant for Super Kevin to happen, but he needed to be out of the limelight, out of Mordros's crosshairs, only ready to emerge when the time was right. He's somebody that Mordros won't see coming and will be unprepared to face.

Okay, maybe that's a bit convoluted. It's entirely possible that Kevin truly never was meant to have powers at all and the whole power-switch was never their intention. Maybe I'm totally off about Mordros being able to steal powers. Bottom-line of this prediction is that I truly believe that Super Guy is making his big comeback.

Here's how I think the final battle will go down: Hamster and Gretel try to fight Mordros (I'd like to see them team up with Lauren and Lyle). Mordros is able to steal most of the characters’ powers. Just before Mordros can steal Gretel’s powers, she is able to give them to Kevin. Super Guy makes his big comeback. Mordros, having never considered Kevin a threat and having never bothered to study him, is unprepared to fight Super Guy. Kevin ultimately saves the day. Who knows, when all is said and done, the aliens may finally grant Kevin his own powers.

Obviously, there are a lot of gaps to fill in, such as how and why Gretel ends up giving Kevin her powers again. I'm not sure of all the details. I feel like we'll get a bit more information in the next few episodes. If so, I may adjust my theory.

Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a few miscellaneous things I'd really like to see before the show ends:

1. Lauren learns of H&G's identity and becomes a member of the group. Even if she doesn't become a full-time superhero, it'll be great seeing her fighting alongside H&G.

2. Lauren and Lyle reconcile (that little scene in “Awkwardly Ever After” was hardly a reconciliation).

3. Kevin and Hiromi become a couple. I say this as someone who shipped Kevin and Lauren. This will require Hiromi learning about Hamster and Gretel, something I believe will happen either in "Art of Deception," or in the season 2 finale.

4. The aliens offer to give Kevin powers permanently. This is something I only want to see if this really is the end of the series. Otherwise, I'd prefer to keep a non-powered Kevin. Kevin’s main role is the man in the chair.

[bestworstcase]

Okay- Salem throwing in during the Great War especially with Grimm would belatedly justify that card game from Volume 2 because of how it was over control of Remnant besides as an in show ad. Especially with the whole bit of the Nevermore card.

Salem as supporter of revolutionaries fighting for their freedom... One that fits extremely well. Two it puts additional layers to Cinder approaching the White Fang and also just ... Cinder being taken in.

I also would find such a reveal in show to likely be extremely hilarious as the implications hit the audience and cast.

my god i wrote that entire fucking post without remembering the great war Board Game existed

you’re right though, it would be a sly piece of foreshadowing if that’s the intention, esp bc the nevermore bit is between ruby (playing atlas) and yang (playing mistral) and a dice roll which of their forces it attacks.

in terms of the worldbuilding that game has always kind of interested me for what it says about how grimm are viewed in military contexts by the general public; qrow in WOR suggests that grimm on the battlefield was an automatic ceasefire until they were driven off again, but also that “grimm came in droves” while ozma laid waste to his enemies with the sword. and then there’s this grimm card in a war game where the mechanic is “flip a coin to see whose soldiers get mauled”—implying that opportunistic “let the grimm attack your enemies” tactics are not unheard of.

and… then. there’s arrowfell. the grimm lures the antagonists use were developed by the atlesian military, and… the only practical use case for a device that summons swarms of grimm is to weaponize grimm against human targets, ideally a safe distance away from your own forces. like, they’re grimm bombs. and these were developed post-war! in a time of peace! the great powers during the tense period before the great war must have been thinking about how to point the grimm at their enemies, too.

but unless you’re salem, or have salem on your side, weaponizing the grimm will always be a double-edged sword—as yang says, that’s just a risk you have to be willing to take.

anyway yeah if i’m right, the reveal would be so punchy. and i do for sure think were due for some sort of revelation about the great war—it’s been set up and referenced over and over, and they made a deliberate choice to convey this information through a heavily biased perspective, and the great war ended in vacuo, and everything the narrative is building up to the last stand in vacuo. something about history coming due, and the truth coming out.

it’s also be a neat counterpoint to the Team Oz narrative, which is very black-and-white (mantle and mistral were the bad guys, vale and vacuo were the good guys, don’t ask too many questions about valean expansion into the likeliest origin point for those desperate crazy founders of mantle or vale’s involvement in the complete destruction of its next-door neighbor centuries ago or the part where ozma magic nuked everyone so hard that allies and enemies alike bent the knee.) whereas the truth seems to be more complicated with vale also having imperial ambitions prior to ozma assuming the throne, and then at best prioritizing the status quo.

an interesting possibility that i think about sometimes is that ozma may have been the one to withdraw vale from vacuo; less out of anti-imperialist principle than because the vacuan people were increasingly unhappy with valean rule and he recognized that the only way to avoid a war for independence in the long term would be to give vacuo independence first. and then mistral swooped in like a vulture because ozma neglected to do anything but formally recognize vacuan sovereignty, rather than make reparations and provide support needed to allow vacuo to emerge from centuries of valean occupation as a functional country—the same conflict-avoidant, shortsighted approach on display in his choice to “share the land” with mistrali colonists in eastern vale.

[karan-koron]

This question has been floating around in my brain but do you think gegero’s opinion of humans has changed by the end of the movie or just in general?? I thought it would be nice if mizuki was like a starting point but personally I need to know other people’s opinions,,,

Hi! Yes, I think you're right that Gegero's opinion of humans change throughout the movie. As for the starting point I believe it's a bit more complicated...

The movie is mostly from Mizuki's point of view, so his character development is the most noticeable, but Gegero also grows as a character during the course of the movie. In the past he hated humans, and admired his wife's capability to love them despite everything, but he never says she was able to make him love humans himself. Not that he's hateful either ; I don't want to call him prejudiced given his position (humans actively engaging in genocide against his people and all), but he really shows no interest in socializing with humans beyond what is needed to achieve his goals. The exception being of course children, him showing kindness and empathy to Tokiya and Sayo, showing that Gegero wants to stay hopeful for the future and is not closed to the idea of humans growing for the better. IMO it's important to keep in mind because while Mizuki IS an important influence on Gegero, the overall theme of legacy, with children carrying the future and adults having a responsibility towards them is AS important.

In his initial interactions with Mizuki, Gegero tolerates him in order to get what he wants, but isn't particularly friendly to him. (all he feels is "pity" at this point, in his own words)

This scene illustrates it well I think : at this point their relationship is like, business partners working towards a similar goal but there's no particular affection here. Mizuki has eased up a little bit around Gegero but is still pretty much in corporate mode.

It's in the graveyard scene that they open up and manage to see heart to heart for the first time. Mizuki discloses he has only ever known hurt and oppression in his relationships ; and Gegero offers empathy and advice sharing his own experiences and how love saved him, foreshadowing what will happen to Mizuki. (and Kitaro!)

This line contrasts with Mizuki's earlier "oh your wife ran away? sore loser" remark. It's the first time they truly sympathize with each other, as symbolically shown through Mizuki sharing his last cigarette with Gegero, who shows surprise before accepting it. He wondered just before if he will ever have his own fateful encounter, but this scene seals the moment his fate becomes intertwined with Gegero's. (and as such, Kitaro's...)

And while they had mutual sympathy at this point, trust on Gegero's side came much later, when Mizuki came to save him in the basement.

Anyways, all this to say that while the movie is from Mizuki's point of view, the growth, esteem and affection is not one sided at all. It's because Gegero grew to consider him his equal that he could entrust him with his most important treasures at the end of the movie.

IMO Mizuki and Gegero's relationship is so well written and ties so nicely with the original "birth of Kitaro" story, recontextualizing it while not betraying its key events. And specifically for Mizuki and Gegero, it's shown through promises made to each other and their respective duty to fulfill them.

Literally every element of the movie culminates to, well, the birth of Kitaro, framed as a miracle due to the love and efforts of his parents (Gegero, his wife, and Mizuki) who made it possible. Gegero's driving force is love, something he inherited from his wife and passes on to Mizuki : in the epilogue, Kitaro's fate is different from his Hakaba counterpart because Mizuki is able to (vaguely) remember Gegero.

I mentioned Kitaro multiple times because while not physically present for most of the movie literally everything Mizuki and Gegero do and experience will be inherited in turn by Kitaro. Legacy and cycles are core themes of the movie, with Kitaro's family perpetuating a cycle of nurtured love (Gegero's wife > Gegero > Mizuki > Kitaro) which contrasts with the Ryuga's, all doomed by Tokisada's legacy.

Of course Kitaro's decision to help humans is his own, and it being motivated by Mizuki is something specific to 2018 Kitaro ; but Gegero, or, well, Medama Oyaji, has always supported him. His characterization in Genazo was made with the TV anime in mind, with scenes such as Medama showing affection to Mana and such, and gives these context by showing that his support comes from his own experiences with Mizuki, which could only happen in the first place because of his wife ...

That's kind of a disjointed post sorry I'm thought vomiting at this point lol. But yeah. Mizuki changed Gegero's opinion on humans, but Gegero gave Mizuki a chance in the first place and didn't fall into prejudice because of what is wife had taught him in the past...

[positivelybeastly]

X-Men #4

On time for once!

Let's do this.

Hmm. Not quite sure how I feel about this? Admittedly, Illyana is a character about whom I know relatively little in the grand scheme of things, but given that she's been fighting for control of Limbo for a while, been a protege of Scott Summers, and was a War Captain on Krakoa, I would think her tactical skills would be up to snuff enough that she could be half decent at chess?

That being said, the trope that tactical ability can be measured by chess ability isn't one that I think has to be followed. It's as much a test of logic as it is of tactical planning and forethought, and between Illyana's more chaotic nature and her lack of formal schooling, maybe it's just the case that she would rather show you how good she is in the field than go on about chess ability. And I can think of a good reason why she would choose to play chess with the person she has blocked, rather than any other game.

Anyway!

Trevor Fitzroy isn't allowed his weird little gremlin bro-pal possible love interest guy Bantam anymore, because of woke. (I know fuckin' nothing about Fitzroy, incidentally, this is based off of their weird relationship in that one X-Men: TAS episode I watched.)

And yeah, what WAS Krakoa all about, huh? Where DID all those babies that got abandoned go?

. . . Well, anyway!

Hank, chairs are for sitting on, not perching on . . .

It's interesting that we're doing split team issues - clearly, this run is taking cues from New X-Men not just in terms of some of its plot points, but also some of its structure; there were multiple arcs that focused exclusively on Charles and Jean, or Logan, Scott and Fantomex, with the rest of the team in the ether. It's not a bad way to tackle a team of this size, and given the news that both Magik and Psylocke are getting ongoing solo series, I'm less worried about them getting focus in a team book now.

Where is the Marauder, incidentally? I can't imagine you need that for a psychic rescue? Unless Max is using it, I suppose. Something that'll come up in #5, I imagine.

It's a sign of just how poisoned the discourse about Hank McCoy is that I saw multiple comments on Reddit saying that this scene heralded a return to evil Beast, because he also didn't like to go out on field missions and would regard his work as more important.

That being said, this reaction was weird to me, given that this Hank comes from an era where he was at his most pro-active, heroic, and willing to fight for people he didn't know - until I read the Infinity Comics, which made it all make a good degree more sense.

Hank isn't being cowardly or showing a case of poor priorities; no, instead, he appears not to trust himself, and he'd rather not place what he perceives to be a volatile, potentially morally untrustworthy element (himself) into a live situation. Working on Magneto's illness is a cut and dry net good with no downsides, so it makes sense he'd want to keep working on that, especially if Hank has reason to believe a similar condition could affect any one of them at any time.

Not sure I love Illyana's antagonism towards Rogue here? Feels kinda like it came out of nowhere and is just being done to foreshadow the upcoming 4 part crossover where these two teams come to a head. Scott's frustration with Rogue's attack on Graymalkin in #3 felt a bit more naturalistic than this.

Idie icesliding like that really does make me wonder if MacKay also wanted Iceman for this team but he was earmarked for Eve Ewing's Exceptional book. I doubt it, just because MacKay's done some really good, pointed work with Idie, which continues in this issue, but the visual parallel is just hard to get out of my brain.

I missed this Hank, a lot.

Also, good time to note that we do have a different artist here! Netho Diaz's style isn't a million miles away from Ryan Stegman's, so it's not a very jarring shift, and I do like how Diaz renders a lot of these characters - less heavily stylised, but heavily styilised isn't always to everyone's taste, so I feel like this was a good pick of fill-in artist.

Man. Have I mentioned I missed this Hank, a LOT? That happy little smile on his face in the bottom right panel really does delight me.

Still not quite the bouncing effervescence of Defenders Hank, but this is still very solidly 90s Hank, who I do rather enjoy, especially when he's in the hands of a writer who knows when to really let his loquacious qualities out to play, and when to let brevity be the soul of wit.

Idie's really come a long way since Wolverine & the X-Men, and I'm really, honestly, very happy to see it. She's coming from a place of real experience and wisdom and the struggle of loving yourself in what can feel like a loveless world, and I hope MacKay continues to showcase her maturation and development. Considering how worried I was that she'd be wallpaper in this series, this is encouraging stuff.

If you had asked me which member of this team of X-Men I expected to give what amounts to a really popping Batman speech, I would not have picked Cain Marko, but this feels real and earned in light of his genuine Krakoan redemption. The elevation from avatar of destruction to protector, to bodyguard, to living target, is fucking awesome.

Yeah, work that pole, Hank.

That being said, this dialogue does still sound kinda weird for Hank. This feels a little more like X-Force Beast than anything else, so I'm wondering if this is a seed of something, or if Hank is just kinda frustrated that what feels like a side quest popped up just as he was about to progress the main quest and enter act 2. God knows that if I woke up in the morning and found out I had to tangle with Trevor Fitzroy and the Upstarts, I would also be a little annoyed - this feels a little bottom of the barrel for the X-Men.

The X-Men fandom at large just heaved a great sigh and said, in unison, "Oh, this fucker."

Not the AoA geneticist I would have wanted to see in this book, but I'll take it, I suppose. Hopefully we get an explanation about where this guy came from, because I was fairly certain he was dead? Not that that's ever stopped anyone before, but just, you know, so we can put it on the Wiki and all.

Laksa! Apparently a spicy noodle dish, usually made with thick rice noodles, with toppings such as chicken, straw, or fish - that being said, given we were told that Glob is a vegetarian and that he therefore only cooks vegetarian, I have to imagine this might be a coconut soup laksa that might include eggs, deep-fried tofu, beansprouts, and herbs, or some variation thereof.

Hank definitely seems to approve. :)

God, please tell me that Colossus is going to join the team, I would absolutely love for Jed MacKay to get to work on our beefy Russian lad, he deserves some TLC after the trauma conga line that was Krakoa and the years before that.

Interesting that he's a blocked number and yet they're still interacting, but then again, I have a browser extension that blocks Reddit on my computer, and I still go on Reddit, so maybe that rings truer than I'd like to admit.

This leads me to my guess as to the reason of why chess - it's playable long distance, and doesn't require any elaboration on moves. You just say the piece and where you're moving them to. Something easy to play with someone who doesn't feel communicative. A way of talking without really talking.

All in all, a decent issue, but it definitely feels more in line with #2 than #1 or #3 - I almost have to wonder if the edict to double ship issues came down, and MacKay felt more able to decompress things and spread them out across multiple issues as a result, especially since I think that, if this were paced more tightly, we'd be progressing through the plot fairly quickly.

If we're taking New X-Men as the blueprint, Morrison would absolutely have squished the last four issues into two - but they weren't double shipping, so.

If we're looking at odd numbers being the plot heavy, characterisation heavy issues, and the evens being action and a bit more 'filler' issues, then I don't think that's an awful structure - I just think that, in a world where single issues cost $3-4 a pop, people might start skipping the even numbered issues in an effort to save money. This might read better in trades, which feels A) bad to say, and also B) increasingly common about modern comics. Not sure how I feel about it.

[tonydaddingham]

alright next up on the list of ideas to dredge up from the drafts and talk about in more detail is the focus on books in this season, because its driving me around the bend

but because i literally have no answers whatsoever to this, im just going to do a crowley-core #justgirlythings and just ask questions:

ep2 goob (rip) lines: "books are key!" which ok yeah obvious but:

"and see, the big ones can be used as fly swats - and i know what you're thinking, but it's okay, because the beauty part is, it never works!"... hmmmm

but also earlier on, goob asks aziraphale "what [letter] comes after 'K'?", which is 'L', but goob then immediately refers back to his book that he's alphabetising, which is A Tale of Two Cities, and that starts with 'it'...? so why highlight the letter 'L'? (this might be something of nothing but given Book of Life idk could literally have been ANY other letter)

but then we have the rest of the episodes that cascaded from the two things above; first, the book blueprint of the universe in ep1, which AWCW was referring to, but only from page 11 onwards (so what was on pages 1-11?):

ep2: crowley discovering that jane austen wrote books (like, other than it being a comedic point of their conflicting remembrance of her as a person, and gives the "you think you know someone!" foreshadowing, it felt very pointed that crowley learns that she was a writer as well)

ep2 also sees aziraphale looking at a huge tome which, given everything that's going on, seems weird that he'd be randomly consulting? idk what the book is so not doubling down on this... anyone know if ive just missed something obvious?

but also makes a point of consulting the bible after goob recites what god said to job in the bookshop. which, given that he and crowley readily recognise what god says (he even says to crowley, "I most certainly do [remember]"), seems weird that they'd need to consult a book to remind them who job was and his story... could be exposition and for the cool fall-through effect, but possibly felt a bit unneeded. plus, it got aziraphale so absorbed that he totally conked out and missed crowley leaving the shop:

aziraphale writing in his diary at his desk on his bed, lying in his tummy, feet kicking in the air, in ep3:

the magician's pamphlet that not only follows aziraphale's epiphany of realising he's in love with crowley but also literally sets up the opportunity for aziraphale to demonstrate how much he trusts him, and is ultimately used against them in being discovered as (at least) being traitors to their respective sides:

plus the Hoffman book, and the angel field-guide:

like, oversimplifying, but literally all of ep5 being based on jane austen works

emphasis on muriel wanting to read books in the background of the Showdown going on in ep6, being chucked The Crow Road by crowley, and metatron being weirdly interested in the fact that they're reading it... like, how would he not know what a book is? why is it "excellent", and a "perfectly splendid thing to do"? odd choice of words even if you want them to take over the bookshop:

now this one i can believe is literally just about goob in the shop and that's fine, but again the emphasis on books anyway (and also michael's weirdly strong but conflicting memory? might write a different post about that bc i think michael got got by metatron somewhere along the line):

back to ep2 but fitting to bookend on:

so okay yeah sure, im certain the book of life comes into all of this somewhere (ive posted about it here but im fairly certain it's not what heaven/hell seems to claim it is, and i think only the metatron truly knows that). there's been a lot of emphasis on memory too in this season, but taking that out of the equation a minute, the main things giving me heebie-jeebies is goob's line about using big books as fly swats, and obviously metty-babes' weird reaction to the crow road...

idk where im going with this and ill probably look at this again but all of this was floating around my noggin and i couldn't take it anymore

[eldritch-elrics]

today (in sh2r) i was just running around between the park & the hospital, because... wow! there is so much to see! most of all, i really loved hearing the idle banter between james and maria. not to mention all the new cutscenes, oh man???

as far as the larger story goes, i think it's really really good to put all this development of james and maria's relationship in here. not just because i love them. also because... she's gonna stop being a companion after the next dungeon, so they've gotta frontload this shit to make sure her (first) death hurts as much as possible!

pacing-wise... very odd that there's still no mention of the hotel. not a fan of that. as i detailed in my last liveblogging post, i really think we should know by now that the hotel is the final destination!

anyway... plenty of good stuff here. some fun references, like maria not-quite-remembering baldwin mansion, or james assuming (seemingly for no reason) that maria doesn't want to go into the bowling alley. i also enjoy james shutting down maria's attempts to ask about mary - "i don't think you're that much alike"... ouch. it's not anything new, but this bit just kind of underscores the fact that his dream babe (sorry) is Not Mary and he probably subconsciously hates himself for this.

i like how the pipe is now required. i missed it in the og so i'm excited about this!

also! oh my god! heaven's night!!!!! i loved everything about this part, holy shit. the way maria turns on the lights & music for him and pretends to give him a little performance?? her mini breakdown about how scared she is? the two of them just sitting and chatting, her telling him that he sounds hopeful rather than crazy? james being obviously uncomfortable with being offered alcohol? (i wonder if they'll make his alcoholism problems as explicit in this version as they are in the og... i hope so.) and then so many other details, like: the posters! ("is that.. you?" "would you like it to be?" - foreshadowing!) the photo implying that the "mysterious photographs" are taken by maria! the ring in the lost and found! the sexy nurse outfit?? what the fuck is this implying????

also, maria's flirtations just keep getting better. like james, she's definitely a different character than she was in the original game, but i'm loving her characterization regardless. even if she is ultimately manipulating james to some extent, i love how genuine and approachable she feels. she's relatably scared and tired! she wants the two of them to have a good relationship! i feel like... even though i love the evil seductress vibe of og maria, and i think it's fascinating in its own right, it was probably a good decision for the remake to lean a little less into that trope? yes, the original game is aware of & playing with the misogyny of the "evil seductress" thing, but it's also cool to see an alternate take building an equally interesting character out from a slightly different angle you know?

anyway. i already knew about this line but it still killed me:

i don't have a strong opinion on the new garden area (moonlight grove), but it does set up a few cool things, such as affirming that maria is In The Know about the general culture of silent hill, plus giving us context about the island where the rebirth ending takes place. so that's neat!

also, uh... foreshadowing. haha.

this is a tiny and petty complaint, but the reason maria gives for staying outside the theater while james goes to meet eddie and laura is way too natural imo. this is not an actual problem, it just (unlike the weird awkward "i hate bowling" line from the og) doesn't add any fuel to my "maria avoids running into other npcs because she doesn't want james to know he's the only one who can see her" headcanon...

i continue to have no strong opinions about eddie or laura either. kinda sad to see eddie's still a bit of a fatphobic stereotype...? we'll see how his later cutscenes go. anyway, movie theater setting was great!

i forget if i mentioned this in the last post but i love how maria reacts to you smashing windows. sorry maria, i love items.

finally: love how sh2r has its own wacky advertisements

[ratcandy]

hi hello hi!! i just finished bingereading cogr and i hope you don't mind if i yell into your inbox about your fic lol

SO FIRST OF ALL. i never expected i would get so attached to zote. but now i am! i will never get the neglect achievement after reading this. but i can't even be mad it's so good

i have to say that it's a really, REALLY good example of how to add depth to a normally unlikable character! like by the end zote is still at least a bit of a bastard, but after knowing how horribly literally everything in his life has gone you can't help but feel bad for him and hope things start looking up.

plus, it provides an explanation for why he's Like That. genuinely if he got therapy to work through his multitude of issues he'd probably be, like, 10x nicer about everything.

also while i did read the tags, i can't say i expected it to be THAT dark, mostly because i was thinking "it's a fic about zote being a nosk it can't be THAT bad." but nope! this man is suicidally depressed and by the end he's barely even trying to hide it. i don't mind though, it's DELICIOUS angst

OH and the format of the fic, where it's presented as zote talking to Someone Else, is absolutely GENIUS for this fic. genuinely this choice makes the fic so much better. i mean ok to start off i normally hate first-person pov in fanfiction but this sort of format i like. HOWEVER that's not my main point here

this structure lets zote's personality really shine through. if it wasn't filtered like this, first of all everything would be revealed way too quickly but also the writing would lose all of its character and emotion. plus the tangents and mid-sentences corrections, the way he corrects and interrupts himself...it's all BECAUSE of how this fic is framed. i just...aaah!! i don't know how to FULLY express how much i love the way cogr is framed. just know that i think it was a perfect choice on every possible level

OH I JUST REMEMBERED!! it makes the ending possible, and holy shit the ending. it's SUCH a gutpunch to realize he's all alone, talking to nobody, and then he just...keeps on talking. i am still reeling from it as i type this ask. bravo i think this is one of the best endings to a fic i've seen, especially for a sad ending

other things i've noticed!! first of all, there is excellent use of zote's unreliable narrating for foreshadowing, as well as wonderful callbacks and parallels!! i don't remember everything 100% since i was admittedly reading pretty quickly but from what i DO remember, i'm pretty sure i could go through cogr and find a TON of good stuff like this.

one thing i noticed in particular, the way he based himself off of vessels...DELICIOUS parallels there. i don't remember everything like i said but i'm pretty sure zote says some stuff about how it was dangerous to express emotions in the nosk den? stuff like that makes the way zote chose to disguise himself as a vessel just...augh. perfection 10/10

i also LIVE for your nosk lore and worldbuilding. i don't have much to say about this i just really like worldbuilding and this is quality

i also decided to read the trivia doc and first of all. the yikes ending would have been...i want to say cruel but honestly i'm more inclined to say tragic? although cogr is already a tragedy...ooh that would be interesting analysis, although i don't really have fully formed thoughts on it yet

ON A LIGHTER NOTE, the au in the trivia doc with zote AND two siblings?? it's one of the only ways that this whole mess could go happily (although that's to be expected of a hollow knight thing tbh), and i am rotating it in my mind.

ANYWAY that's all i have to say!! or well it isn't but it's all i can think of and actually communicate understandably lol. anyway cogr is a 10/10 fic and i will be thinking about it for the rest of my life

I'M SO NORMAL ABOUT THIS ASK <-- SHE'S LYING SHE MIMED PUNCHING A WALL AND YELLED OUT LOUD "YEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!" WHILE SHE READ

I am deVOURING this I . HOUGH. Big long ask about my big long fic I must consume it so vigorously. my TTEEETH are ripping INTO THIS

OK !! 1: GOOD That you're attached to Zote now!!!!! I love hearing that I've dragged people into Hell unimaginable!!!! Fuck yeaH!!!

AND 2: hhoughHHHhhgouh ;s;;;;; hhhhg;sh. This ask is so nice I am smiling so much and giggling and kicking my feet. also the hdgKJH "It can't be THAT dark!" hdgkJH YEAH. IT. Tends to blindside people from what I've heard!!!!!!

Hhoguhhh ;;; I wish I could respond in a more cohesive manner but I am jus. Gushing . Thank youuu thank you so much I'm so normal about getting complimented

ALSO YOU DRAWING THE PARALLEL BETWEEN HIS DIGUISE BEING A VESSEL .... I kid you not I Out Loud just went YES!!! and started clapping and hooting and hollering because i"m so normal especially when my Funny Symbolism gets noticed dhKSHDGKLHG

AS for whether CoGR counts as an honest Tragedy ... obviously I would DEVOUR any analysis on it BUT From My perspective. I go with a Maaaybe ? Since tragedies are like. The downfall is brought about by the protagonist's own actions. And like. Yes! But also ? but also Sort of! I'm not sure!!!!!!

AND SIBLINGS AU YES!!!!!! That one has been developed a bit more since that trivia doc thing!!!!! I'll tag the siblings au tag in the. Tags, an u can go through what we had for it!!!!! It is indeed the only happy version of the story (with some inevitable angst still sprinkled in of course) but!! YEA!! Bronze (Zote's brother) and Silva (Zote's sister) are my beloveds for all time

OK I'm normal now. I'm so normal.Yep. Thumbsup emoji THANK YOU SO much for this ask I .will be returning to it frequently I'm sure. just so I can go EEE and flail my arms around and rip my teeth into it <33333333

[kradogsrats]

Hoi! 🙂 Any theories about why Kpp’Ar was able to move in his coin when Rayla looked at it, and what that is supposed to foreshadow?

We do see Runaan moving in his coin early on, which I think a lot of people forgot about when they saw Kpp'Ar do it:

and that is a different pose from where he has settled when the coins come into Rayla's possession:

It's actually very important from a storytelling communication standpoint that Runaan move when we first see him in the coin, because the audience needs that cue that he's alive and trapped. I bring this up because there are quite a few places where the "rules" of magic are bent or inconsistent in order to preserve storytelling impact or theme. This is particularly true of Viren's corrupted face appearing, but I'm sure there are others. Maybe we'll eventually get some piece of info that ties all of that together, but maybe we won't! Sometimes the answer is "what the story is trying to say is more important than the rules."

Anyway, there are kind of two questions at hand, here: 1) how is Kpp'Ar able to move in his coin? and 2) how is Kpp'Ar even able to perceive Rayla in order to move and look at her? I find the second question more interesting so I'll start there.

Possible scenarios:

Everyone in the coins has full perception of the world around them. Now, fifteen days of solitary confinement can be enough to do psychological damage. Add sensory deprivation on top of that, say being kept in a fucking pouch? Possibly for years? The same person is not coming out of that coin as went into it.

I mean, heck, maybe that's the answer: maybe everyone can move in the coins at any time, but once you've suffered enough psychological damage from the situation to go catatonic, you just kinda... don't.

Everyone in the coins has no perception of the world around them, being either in a state of stasis with no perception of time, to eventually wake up as if they are still at the moment of being trapped, or existing in some kind of weird dreamscape.

Some fudged option where they have full perception of the outside world but somehow this doesn't cause massive, irreversible trauma to Rayla's family. Realistically, I think this is the one we should probably expect.

So if we assume that you can't perceive the outside world with normal senses from inside the coin, how does Kpp'Ar know to turn and "look" when his coin is picked up? WELL, here is my theory: dark mages, as their corruption builds, become sensitive to both dark and primal magic. The coins themselves are at least partially inherently linked with dark magic, so sensing that isn't going to help much... but who picks up Kpp'Ar? Rayla, who has a natural connection to the magic of the Moon primal.

That is absolutely not going to be the actual answer and I'm just insane, but shut up let me have this.

As for why he is capable of moving... well, the easiest plausible explanation is that it's because he's also a dark mage and having the right kind of knowledge or strength lets you struggle a bit better. I assume since we see Runaan moving early on but not later, the magic kind of slowly solidifies.

Alternately, if we want to get just a little bit wild: in his dream, Viren asks Kpp'Ar what's wrong with his arm. Now, Viren reacts with surprise to Kpp'Ar's presence in what I will remind everyone is Viren's own secret study, right where his coin is stashed. How is he there? Did he somehow get out? But the implication is that Kpp'Ar wasn't like that when Viren put him in the coin. So if we theorize that actually, the people in the coins occupy a weird little personal prison Aaravos-style... well, someone's been busy.

Relevant:

There's also the fact that the symbol on the back of the coins is very reminiscent of the deep magic symbol (which might be worth its own post at some point, because they are not the same but also too similar to be unrelated), and given the provenance of the staff, there may be something deeper going on there, magic-wise.

[fountainpenguin]

Hi! How are you?

Anyway... I hope it's okay to ask this (if not then please ignore this) but I wanted to ask why is "This is Halloween" (prompt 128) isn't on Ao3.

I went through the list there a couple of times, and I noticed it was missing (I noticed it a while ago but double-checked today). I know you said in the original AN for that fic, that it's skippable and if we didn't read it it's like nothing happened, so maybe that's why but I still think it's worth asking.

Thank you for your time and have a great day and a great week.

Thanks for taking an interest! I'm a bit ill and tired, but all right. "Only an Idea" and "This Is Halloween" are only available on FFN at this time, though the other 130 Prompts thus far are cross-posted.

I'll post "Only an Idea" to AO3 at the appropriate time for its appearance in Reedfilter Rules AU [+ FFN Link] because I thought it made more sense to post its content in chronological order (which is why RR updates slowly, as the pieces are vague and scattered in my drafts). I'm excited to post more for this AU, but I'm handling it as carefully as I can so I don't have regrets in my posting order down the line.

At the moment, it'll probably be posted after Chapter 11. I'm still waffling over whether I should post it as both Chapter 11 and a separate piece or just one of those things.

Likewise, I plan to post "This Is Halloween" at the time I deem appropriate, and preferably around Halloween. I don't regret writing it; it was a fun piece for a year Halloween fell on my update day. It's intentionally vague, misleading, and dripping with foreshadowing. I think it's fun and there's nothing wrong with reading it now.

It's up on FFN for readers to find and enjoy if they wish, but it's a complex piece that I do think is more impactful if read with certain context (Like nature spirits and the members Anti-Cosmo selected for his camarilla court).

Ex: Anti-Cosmo is Sunnie's medium in "This Is Halloween" (and in all 130 Prompts that take place after he becomes High Count). Notably, in "Halloween," Sunnie leaves Anti-Cosmo's body and they have a fight over whether to stay and defend the Anti-Fairies (what A.C. wants to do) and Sunnie's preference (Fleeing as far across the universe as possible).

The Anti-Cosmo-Sunnie relationship is very messy. Them figuring out how to, y'know, share the same body (particularly as H.P. and Anti-Wanda watch from the sidelines with increasing anxiety because A.C. has a bad habit of idealizing his abusers and now he's sharing a mind with someone his friends can't hear) is the main arc in Act 4 of Frayed Knots. So, y'know... That's gonna be a party!

We're currently 6 chapters into Knots' Act 3; we still have to get through the war before we meet Sunnie

I'm sure not all my AO3 readers follow me on Tumblr, so I thought it would be more effective to post "This Is Halloween" at a relevant time than it would be to make a Tumblr post saying "Hey, go check out this piece I wrote in 2017." Once the story is up on AO3, there's not much I can do to point people towards it, so that's the main reason.

I enjoy "This Is Halloween" and I'd love to discuss it with readers someday, but the chances that people will be willing to chat about The Implications™ and the many complicated layers involved in this piece seem higher if it's posted at a better time than now /shrug

That said, if anyone has read "This Is Halloween" (or any other piece of mine) and wants to send Asks about their theories or tag me in posts, I'd love to respond :) There are a lot of secrets and details in that one.

[roaldseth]

6-8 for the tri strat ask game! :)

6. Favorite Chapter?

This question was answered in the previous ask, however I'm going to use this opportunity to talk about the Falkes battle (Chapter 7 Utility) because it qualifies for point 2, "which chapter I keep returning to again and again." Though I don't have any particularly strong feelings towards this chapter on a base level, however there is stuff to unpack underneath it and much potential here in my silly little brain, all of which in what this marks for the Wolfforts.

Regardless of path, Falkes's fall marks the beginning of the greater clan's fall, possibly its "end" depending on how you want to look at it. And this point or foreshadowing or whatever, Falkes is vocal about it. Utility side, he addresses Erador like what the fuck man? He had fought with Benedict and Erador, and this kind of direct confrontation between these two parties, I'm----I'm chomping at the bit. I want more of this charged tension. I want to look at it, be provoked. I want Benedict especially to get called the fuck out as the steward, as Symon's representative prior to Serenoa's lordship. It is so thematically chef's kiss.

From my experience, I know Falkes gets a lot of flack for "being stupid," "not a good lord," and "being too loyal [to the crown]," and I disagree mostly with that because that comes from a modern perspective and also Symon exists up to the north. Yes, Landroi, don't burn your fields if you don't have to, Serenoa also says that, but even then I can at least understand why he does that. It's not relevant somewhat relevant, but Silvio's approach in general is also a topic that I also can understand because he also gets flack for caution and cowardice, but his father was Gorde. We know one thing about Gorde, he was the advisor, and I think we see bits of him though Silvio, but Silvio also was raised in a different time under different circumstances so that's why it's only bits.

TL;DR I have a lot of feeling for Landroi. This is a sizable chunk of the feelings, but there's still more. There is the flip-side, Chapter 7 Morality and its Chapter 8, but I said I'd talk about the Utility side specifically, so it ends here. Also Julio as a Falkes angst lives in my mind ready to strike at any moment.

7. Favorite Battle?

This is being judged largely in terms more mechanically--map, units, etc--instead of the ramifications on story. That being said: I have little clue. The naval battle, Chapter 14 Morality, sticks out the most. Fueled by my feelings about Norzelia's river warships, it was an interesting, unexpected choice, and for that, it's kinda neat. I really liked the detail that they made the signature metal plating of Aesfrosti warships conductible. I struggle to recall if there are other maps with metal, except the mine. We also don't really get ship maps for obvious reasons, the closest thing is probably the Wolffort harbor map.

Close runner up for maps is Twins Gate though. I won't elaborate. That one's strictly vibes only.

8. Favorite Ending?

I regret to inform I am a Liberty End fan. Though anything to make Benedict Pascal "happy" is the surface level reason why I like Liberty End, but the subterranean level is how much he shoots himself in the foot with his stubborn blindness. No longer to make Benedict Pascal happy. Anything to make him go through more bullshit, especially if it's his own fault.

But not only does he shoot himself in the foot, but he also puts that last nail in the coffin and then buried Wolffort in it. Landroi is dead (head Falkes representative), Silvio is dead (head Telliore representative), Serenoa (Wolffort's head) is put on the throne--and for the sake of not trying to stammer out an alternative explanation--is then Glenbrook-ified. Sure, he retains Wolffort in name, and this probably drastically changes things for future generations of the royal line down the road, I don't have my local history expert at the moment, but anyway there's abandonment in morality, ethics, land (subjective Serenoa still technically owns it), heritage, and such. It's the Liberty end, Morality is forsaken to achieve it, and the triangle topples. Worse case, you also let Benedict Pascal do what he wants, and the land that was entrusted to the clan also underwent some damage. Don't worry captain we'll buff out those scratches.

HOWEVER, all in all, regardless of this, this is all still done while achieving at least face value of Benny Boy's catchphrase goal--for the future of House Wolffort--because the House in title is still raise to imperial household, but it's at such a steep cost to what it means to be a Wolffort. That meaning of No Matter the Cost is so delicate and fine in the Liberty End. Poetic cinema.

And with that I think at this point I am tying too many red strings between dots, so I will end there. But, if provoked I could run deeper.