#but recontextualizing it into new forms

[captainkingsley]

gay dads in dumb cosplay and their teenaged son who makes fun of them

[theonescreencap]

thanks to the power of secondhand bookstores i got my hands on volumes 103-105, so i decided i'd just read through egghead! not even done yet but good god.............................

[cryptotheism]

what is it about gnoticism that seems to grab people in the modern day, as opposed to any other number of heresies/cults/theologies of the era?

I've just revisited Gnosticism and I've been having that thought as well. There's basically two prongs to it, mythological and structural:

On the mythological end, think of how nuts people go for star wars. Imagine if for the last couple thousand years, people were generally aware that there was a lost beta version of star wars that was different. But the only way we knew about these beta cuts was one interview with George Lucas about how much they sucked.

And then, in like 1940, people actually discovered a bunch of the beta tapes, and not only are they evocative, they completely recontextualize a lot of star wars tropes. Maybe in one version, Leia is a very different character who is both a scathing commentary on the Clinton administration, and portrayed as a secretive puppet master who has been subtly manipulating things to her own ends. In another beta tape, shes actually some kind of goddess disguised in human form.

Like, the changes aren't just small differences in the timeline or characterization. They are changes that beg several radical new interpretations of the text. Its literary and evocative! I found it enticing and I wasn't even raised religious. I can't imagine what it would be like to have say, grown up in catholic school only to discover the Apocryphon of John later in life.

On the structural end, it "expands the mythos" so to speak. Yk how even American protestants will sometimes reference the book of Enoch because it has all the fun mystical shit? Gnostic literature is like that cranked up to eleven. It is theology for theology perverts. Its full of complex hierarchies of divine beings and explanations of their relationships to each other, all while reframing several A-list biblical characters as teachers of secret ineffable wisdom that YOU, dear reader, get to learn. It's practically catnip for the occult-curious.

[f1-unpopularopinions]

drop those papers on the ethics of rpf bestie

Thank you this is my favorite thing! Not nearly a comprehensive list but a decent starting point. Let me know if access is a problem

References:

The Intimate Fandoms of Men’s Hockey Real Person Fanfiction by Mari Elise Vist

The Affective Power of Intimacy: A Case Study of a Men’s Hockey Real Person Fan Fiction’s Literary and Social Contexts by Lina Vermeer

The Real K-pop idols of fanfiction: reclaiming "real person" fanfiction as K-pop industry practice by Sooyun Hong - a thesis

Real body, fake person: Recontextualizing celebrity bodies in fandom and film by Melanie Piper

How real are people? : sports-centric real person fiction between mainstream and fanfiction by Judith Louise Tuffentsammer

Reading real person fiction as digital fiction: An argument for new perspectives by Judith Fathallah

Finding the Path Through the Ethics of Fanfiction by Victoria Fidler

Chapter 8: ​​”In the End Its All Made Up The Ethics of Real Person Fanfiction” by Jennifer McGee in Communication Ethics, Media & Popular Culture (Vol. 9). Peter Lang

Fanfiction, not just RPF

“Write the story you want to read”: world-queering through slash fanfiction creation by Diana Floegel

The Alienation of Gaze — the Construction and Gender Practice in the Fanfiction by Xuan Yu & Yu Han

"Slight dub-con but they both wanted it hardcore": Erotic fanfiction as a form of cultural activism around sexual consent by Milena Popova

An Inexhaustible Source of Magic: How Fanfiction Turned One World Into A Thousand by Taylor Pernini

Culture and Community Online - How Fanfiction Creates a Sense of Social Identity by Reshaping Popular Media by Kellye Ann Guinan (this is a longer thesis but really interesting!)

Television and Fanfiction Online: Finding Identity, Meaning, and Community by Erin B. Waggoner

Loving Fanfiction: Exploring the Role of Emotion in Online Fandoms by Brit Kelley - this is a fascinating book, got access through the public library

The Erotics of Fanfiction: Queering Fans, Works, and Communities in Modern Internet Fandom by Alexandra Garner

Writing Oneself into Someone Else’s Story – Experiments With Identity And Speculative Life Writing in Twilight Fan Fiction by Sanna Lehtonen

[ifishouldvanish]

The idea of Olrox being from Cholula specifically makes me so insane. Like would he have identified more as Mexica? Or as Tlaxcaltec? Would he have been loyal to the Tlaxcaltec and allied with the Spanish only to get screwed over like his Mohican lover did in the colonies? Would he have done so thinking he could get the upper hand in the end just like Mizrak/Emmanuel thought the Order could with Erzsebet?

"He thinks the devils he manufactures will be enough to destroy her when the time comes. What do you think? Do you think he's right?" - S1E4

Even after the fall of Tenochtitlan, nobility from all over the region would have been sent to Cholula to get the blessing of Cholulan priests for their legitimacy. How might this have fueled his disdain for nobility?

Olrox: "I prefer my blood blue."

Drolta: "Maybe you do things differently in the new world, but over here we don't feed off the wealthy. The locals will start to grumble." - S1E5

As a Mexica citizen, this disdain could come from resentment toward sumptuary laws, the increasing lack of socioeconomic mobility during Moctezuma's rule, and frustration with how he handled the Spanish... But as a Cholulan sympathetic to Tlaxcala, there's so much more???

It could come from frustration with leadership that defected from the very people who helped them elude Mexica rule in the years before the Spanish conquest. Anger at a decision that economically obliterated the Tlaxcaltec, who became completely surrounded by Mexica member-states? Regret at how much it cost them to 'overthrow' the Mexica? Grief at how this kind of political/military opportunism helped lead the wider indigenous population to its demise?? Like the latter is so much more thematically ripe for a show tackling colonialism and imperialism imo???

"This one? He was just an opportunist, following the Messiah because she's powerful." - S1E4

I mean!!?? Think about how the implications of all of this... *gestures wildly* stuff would lead him to adopt such a cynical, morally ambiguous worldview? This sense that it's all doomed, that he's not strong enough to fight it? Resist and fall to your enemies, or work with them only to lose parts of your identity in the process? Think about how the brutality of the Cholula massacre recontextualizes eurocentric perceptions of the brutality of flower wars and ritual sacrifice??? How it would leave you with anger and pain and an unyielding need for justice?

"Little boy Belmont. I know that feeling. That pain, that hate, that burning, unendurable need for retribution." - S1E1

Think about how the Mexica Empire had adopted Huitzilopochtli (war, sacrifice) as their primary patron deity, and the Tlaxcaltec Mixcoatl/Camaxtli (the hunt, fire)... Yet Olrox's form seems to be based on Quetzalcoatl (wind, knowledge, rebirth, among other things)–the deity the great temple at Cholula was dedicated to.

A handful of mesoamerican deities are associated with serpents/have names ending in '-coatl', but Olrox's serpent form clearly has a feathered crest—the 'quetzal-' in Quetzalcoatl.

But Olrox's abilities also seem to include lightning/thunder, which are associated with Tlaloc, who the Cholulans seemed to have adopted as their central deity some time before the Spanish conquest.

Quetzalcoatl is only associated with storms sort of tangentially, through his aspect as the wind god, Ehecatl. The Florentine Codex refers to Quetzalcoatl-Ehecatl as sweeping the roads to make way for the rain and the thunder.

Think about how in Tlaxcaltec accounts, Cholula–being a sacred city–had no real military to speak of and depended on their gods to protect them???

Mizrak: "There's only one God. Just one. That's the only thing I'm sure of. And I've spent my whole life serving him, fighting for him. That hasn't changed, and it never will." Olrox: "One god... And you think he can protect you?" - S1E4

Like... What does it all mean???? 🫠🫠🫠

Agshsjdkdkfll *screams into a pillow* I am so excited for season 2 but whatever happens Cholulan Olrox is canon in my heart y'all

[chongoblog]

just wanted to say i really like and appreciate the mashups you’ve put out recently and sharing some of the meaning behind them because it’s honestly made me really appreciate and have a new perspective on mashups as a whole. like i’d always liked and respected mashups as a form of music but my view on them was a lot more… lighthearted i guess? like i never really considered the intention behind the songs chosen besides when there were obvious connections, and i never really thought of them as something that could be used for self expression until recently. its very cool how you’re able to take all these bits of songs and recontextualize them into an entirely new meaning, like a collage in audio form. idk i guess just thanks for making art so good it made me gain new appreciation for the medium as a whole :]

Literally? This message means everything to me. This has been The Goal for years.

Honestly, I felt the same way you did when I was first starting out. Mashups do feel a lot more lighthearted, since a lot of the novelty of mashups comes from "now hold on just a second...this is a song that I recognize...but the lyrics are from a different song??? That's so crazy!!!". But as I've honed my skills further and further, I've found that you CAN tell stories and express yourself through this medium.

I know for a long time I've found new ways to make mashups fun and interesting, but I think 2021 marked the point where I realized this medium can be used to do so much more. Specifically with Windows 7 Startup (Slowed Down). I've given a speech about this one multiple times in the past, but in case you did not know or could not tell, this mashup is essentially about being caught in the cycle of addiction and self-loathing. It was vent art, but in the form of a mashup, which is something that fascinated me. It's been one of my favorite mashups I've ever made for that reason (enough that I had to make sure it was included in Polka For Another Purgatory), even if it was made when I was in a terrible place.

All that to say, thank you so much for this! I personally really like the term "audio collage".

[willosword]

hmmm. morbid comic spoilers for s4 ahead. and gore

the recontextualization of conquest being lonely as hell + using fighting as a way to feel physically close to people gives this scene a whole new twisted and slightly sad layer to it. literally clutching mark's guts as close as possible even in death bc it's the only form of intimacy he knows. hwat the hell

[muchanmocha]

Hi! This is the same anon that asked you about Mizizua love-hate. As the new comic dropped... This adds a whole new layer to that doesn't it? Just... Gwaaaah! I can now see what aspect of Sua that Mizi might hate. I can relate to that resentment where it feels like they're on a suffering Olympics. The one who has a better home life, having no right to complain as your friend is suffering more than you and so you bottle it all in while feeling like they don't care about your suffering. And then she says stuff that cuts deep, Mizi might know Sua doesn't mean it the same way as the jerk who said it first but Mizi can't help but feel hurt anyway since it's from the girl she loves.

This also recontextualizes a lot of her other relationships, like why she's so fond of Ivan and has high intimacy towards him but he only goes up to 30% towards her - to her it may be just the right amount, she can be free to be affectionate around him while he will never take it the wrong way.

Or crack theory time: Luka looking like the creepo in the comics and how he behaved around Mizi in RomH may be triggering to Mizi and she beat him up in part because of her trauma with men.

Heck, Mizitil is a dynamic that deserves to be observed under a microscope. It's far more complex than I initially thought. Admiration is reciprocated to some degree but romance poisons it. Yet she wants to give Till a chance to be friends cause even when she rejected him point blank he was never violent with her?

I love Mizi. The girl of all time. Just gotta find a place to gush about her.

Hello again! Oh yeah for sure, it definitely adds more layers to Mizisua love-hate.

I do think it's important to note that Mizi didn't slap Sua as a conscious action — it was entirely reflex due to hurt. Though whether it draws from existing hate (no matter how small) is up to the individual's interpretation.

Still I don't blame either of them here.

No matter how much we care about someone, we can hurt them without meaning to. Whether it be a bitter comment, a careless response, a moment of anger, or just the wrong words at the wrong time. No matter how good your relationship is, those moments will exist because we're inherently human.

The world of Alnst only exacerbates it all. There's been a continual theme of "what you receive is what you're capable of giving." (ex. Till being able to love so genuinely bc of his mother, all Luka received was pain so that's all he knows/can inflict on others) The environment of Alnst has put all the pet humans through more than they ever should've endured and it resonates through their relationships in the form of hurting each other.

This is more of a personal belief but I think Mizi was only able to slap Sua there and then because it's now been introduced to her system as a way to react to hurt via what happened to her earlier.

Mizi's pain and the way she needs Sua (of all people, the only one) to see it and acknowledge it really parallels Ivan. She even inherits this specific line of his in Cure:

"Notice my pain, and mend me right now"

I don't think Mizi's bright smile and bubbly persona are faked. It's her most authentic self, and that's what makes it so powerful.

I just don't think she's allowed to drop it.

Even the most cheerful person we know in our lives isn't cheerful all the time. But she's internalized that she can't drop it, whether that be to better protect herself from a world she won't be able to bear, or for the sake of others and continuing to provide the same solace for them.

In this, her situation differs a little from Ivan, who wears a carefully constructed mask to hide a self he doesn't believe anyone can accept.

But they're the same in that they can't show the wounds they've accumulated inside, and suffer from the loneliness that comes with their pain not being acknowledged or seen. The natural reaction to that is to seek out the one person they trust to see, the one person they need to see them as they are.

"Notice my pain."

—

I've seen the "he resembles Luka to draw parallels for Mizi's trauma" theory a lot in the last 24 hours, and I mean, I think it's one of those it's up to you whether that's canon or not things.

I personally think it's just a coincidence because it's happened a lot in the past (ex. Ivan's resemblance to Acorn esp as a child) and the resemblance is almost entirely due to the quirks of the artstyle rather than intentional design choice (wherein it's only "wavy hair".)

—

Oh god Mizi and Till.

My hot take is that Till is actually the most important character in The True Face because his death is the one Mizi feels the most responsibility for and therefore the one for which her survivor's guilt manifests the strongest.

I'm working on a post about it 💪hopefully can finish in the next day or so.

[bombshellsandbluebells]

Look, I think the "s2 was just objectively bad/pointless" takes are silly because I enjoyed every part of it and the "nothing happened" takes even sillier because it ignores the way s2 developed so many new characters (Helena, oIrving, oDylan, and Gemma were basically concepts in s1) or added new context to existing characters or several intersting character arcs or, hell, the entire Rescue Gemma plot, something that both starts AND comes to fruition entirely in s2...

My point is I think s2 did a lot but even ignoring those other things, one of the most important things s2 did was recontextualize the entire premise of this show.

It was never just about creating perfect worker bees for the sake of easy labor, although that is a byproduct - it was always about trying to remove all pain and discomfort from life by placing it on a version of yourself you don't consider human. You get to live a pain-free life by forcing someone else to carry it for you.

Thematically, this ties everything together, because the big question the show is asking is what makes us human? What constitutes a life and an identity? How do our experiences shape us? Can you truly escape the effects of pain and discomfort? Who do you hurt in the process?

And is it worth it to?

Everything goes back to this: Lumon's theology of Kier as a god-like figure who will "take away all pain", the privileged using Severance to avoid painful things like pregnancy, Mark getting Severed to avoid his grief, Petey getting Severed to avoid his messy divorce and hurting his family more, the fact that Cobel never got to grieve her mother but that pain never went away, the fact that severance was inspired in the first place to avoid the pain of child labour, the fact that Gemma's teeth and hands still hurt even if she doesn't know WHY, the differences between the innies and outies because experiences make us who we we are.

Even things like showing the hard times in Mark and Gemma's relationships tie back to this - the flashbacks to Mark and Gemma's life feel like the most real/grounded thing in this show so far and it showed us a relationship and life built on both good experiences AND painful ones.

Most importantly, the innies choosing to LIVE, to keep going, even though most of their existence is painful or uncomfortable. They learned to fight for their existence because of pain and grief. They form close bonds because they go through pain together.

And at the end, both Helly and iMark choose to stay in a place that hurt them, that will likely KEEP hurting them, rather than choosing non-existence, because the pain is worth it for a little more time alive and together with the people they love.

[directdogman]

Dogman, how do you write SO WELL!?!? I love all your characters and I need to know what/where you find inspo from...

Ha. Every writer is just someone who apes the creative processes of their inspirations. For video game writing specifically, there's two answers for me.

Toby Fox is always gonna be a huge inspiration for me. I've written plots and characters before and had to abandon ideas after realizing I'd accidentally written part of UT again. Even some of the ideas I used were undeniably inspired by UT in a subconscious way and ofc, I included several explicit references to UT in my last series. Toby's a very clever guy who likely pays very close attention to the art he consumes and tries to figure out how to maximize how much his work connects with his audience. Whatever his process is, it works.

The other answer is a lil funnier: Scott Cawthon, but specifically the legend, not the man. For context: Back in the earlier days of the FNaF fandom, people had a hyper-inflated view of Scott Cawthon's writing skills that largely came from how little of a presence he had back in those days. In the vacuum of Scott actually explaining his own process in detail, people got caught up in his genuinely creative way of hiding exposition in his games using cryptid and (then) unexpected methods, and a narrative formed (one that he's since refuted.)

While he never implied it tmk, fans broadly believed that he constructed these sweeping and complex narratives with tons of cohesive moving parts, with the games essentially acting like the mere tip of his lore iceberg. People even thought he wrote so much that he had whole games worth of lore outlined from the beginning! In the first Dawko interview he gave, he clarified that this wasn't the case and explained roughly what his process was (basically just outlining rough theme ideas + aesthetics for future titles.)

However, that legend made younger-me's mind run wild and any time I wrote a story, it became very difficult for me to not keep writing down ideas while completing the grunt work that followed me finishing my scripts. When I finished DSaF 1, I already had DSaF 2's draft written and by the time 2 was done, I had enough lore for a 3rd game on paper (and a lot more stuff that I didn't use.) By the time three was out, I had pages upon pages of unused concepts/story ideas and more or less just had to decide to call it quits or else I'd be pumping out entries forever!

That's why if you go back to those older games, there's references that directly refer to future plot-points in pretty casual/easy to miss ways. (Like Henry's mention in DSaF 1, Dave being heartless in DSaF 2, Jack being soulless in 1, and even Blackjack being Jack's soul in 2. Most of 3's major plotpoints are implied somewhere in 2 and some of 2's in 1.)

DT is much the same. By the time I finished writing it, I had fairly detailed drafts for arcs for each of the characters, some early material ended up getting completely recontextualized (and even modified in small ways to not conflict with the wider ideas I came up with.)

I get really into writing my stories/characters and I always wonder exactly how things ended up where they are, what characters think about but don't say, etc etc. This is why I have an obscene amount of Crown lore that I have very little to do with rn (since he impacted the whole world so deeply.)

This extra stuff also includes plenty of sequel material ideas, though I didn't think I'd even get a chance to use them since DT performed pretty meagerly before the big release and I was expecting to have to move onto something new. Though it turned out that Scott didn't actually write his games this way (by his own admission), it's the correct answer for what my core writing inspiration for writing game narratives is.

Hope this helps!

[monjustmontemp]

I think there's an aspect to which Spirit Away is a story about the struggle of dependence and independence, the value of transactions vs. emotional connections.

Chihiro is a child, is dependent on her parents, and thus cannot control much about her life. She is leaving her previous life behind through no choice of her own. If her parents go down the creepy entrance, she cannot go anywhere else except with them, or stay lonely in the car. Staying is, of course, a choice, but for a girl so young and scared, it does not feel like it.

Chihiro is then dependent in the system of the Bathhouse, she must work to survive, which is very much simply capitalism with an extra layer of supernatural threat, and a criticism. Chihiro is immediately insulted, loses her name, and her sense of identity, but also gains a new level of confidence. Living in this hostile environment makes her surer of her capabilities, even if she would be unable to use those capabilities for herself without the connections (Haku) that remind her of herself.

She then uses those capabilities to free herself, her friend, and her family from this system.

So she goes from being dependent on her family, to being dependent on a system, to being reliant on her friends, to then her friends and her family depending on her. At the end, she even calls her boss, Yubaba, granny. She recontextualizes her whole relationship with her, with this being who harmed her spiritually, who would not have let her free, who turned her parents into pigs, but gave her the means she needed to survive in this spirit world. This makes Chihiro view the whole experience, perhaps, somewhat nostalgically, like a learning experience more than a tribulation. Chihiro leaves with a new wealth in emotional connections.

The movie presents a problem, and then a solution. Capitalism will commodify you, objectify you, but you can remain human by building up your community, through which you will find and protect your identity. You can imbue non-monetary value into the world that surrounds you. Very much a No Man Is An Island message.

In there, I think, also a warning about consumerism. Chihiro's parents are changed by consuming carelessly, made entirely dependent and beholden to Yubaba, made into animals, into property (because capitalism turns living beings into objects.) No Face sees other people seek things, and so he seeks things, he consumes and consumes, but this does not make him feel fulfilled. If anything, he is sickened by it, and can only heal once he receives emotional care, in the form of Chihiro sacrificing something for his well-being (which literally makes him vomit away that which he consumed.) The workers of the bathhouse are made into meals, sell themselves out, when they take No Face's gold. The take-away there, if I had to define it, is that this attachment to things rather than people... makes you more dependent, more vulnerable, and more isolated.

I think it is easy to relate to Chihiro's fear, at both being alone and being presented with unfamiliar challenges. I find it especially easy to understand the disconnect to oneself when one is doing that which is not for oneself but due to obligation, and that finding that balance where work can be meaningful, where you can help others with it, like with the River Spirit, is the key to a self-fulfillment that also means being in harmony with society.

Like all of Studio Ghibli's movies that I've seen so far, this movie seeks to help maintain emotional health in our materialistic and hectic world. It tells us how to survive intense work cultures (like Japan's is often described as) but also tells us to escape them, which is truly universally relevant.

[orangeearlgrey]

A Story Made True: A Mini Essay on Reading and Storytelling in Black Butler

Black Butler is, in itself, a story about people who are telling stories about themselves, either to keep up a charade in public or to get themselves through the day. However, an interesting idea that Black Butler constantly works through is whether you can make the stories about yourself true. All of the residents of Phantomhive manor are, sure, playing at being an Earl and an Earl's servants, but through both sheer force of will and action they kind of are, at the end of the day, what they claim to be. One way that Black Butler explores this idea is through the lens of Ciel being a massive fan of reading and stories.

Historical Context of "Bad Reading" and Literacy in the Victorian Era

The Victorian Era saw a massive rise in both the literacy rate and in the rate of publishing both newspapers and serialized novels. The former is important to Black Butler because it cracked open the possibility of more tabloid leaning newspapers to sensationalize and build up their own narratives to what we'd now refer to as true crime, the best example of this and the one, again, most relevant to Black Butler being the way the newspapers heightened the Jack the Ripper murders. (An excellent source on this is Lucy Worsley's episode of Lucy Worsley investigates on Jack the Ripper- it gives a really interesting account of the newspaper industry at the time.)

Novel reading is important to this exploration of Black Butler too in that while novels were being read and printed more than had ever been seen previously, there were still lingering attitudes from the early 19th century's conception of novel reading. When the novel was a new form of literature around the turn of the century, it was viewed by many as a dangerous and sensationalized form of literature that would lead its readers- especially female ones- to believe the stories in novels were true and try to emulate them in their real lives. (Many good nonfiction sources on this I don't feel like linking bc this is a summary of a lot a lot of graduate work I did on this subject and I'm just writing this for some fun consideration, but a fictional source that handles this I'm sure a lot of you are at least familiar with is Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey.) So in many cases, while the types of published novels in the Victorian Era started to expand out of the purely educational sort of fiction, there was still kind of the prevailing attitude that at the end of the day reading should be improving you socially and morally and that "good" readers weren't taking sensationalized ideas from fiction and trying to unrealistically trying to apply them to their socially regimented lives.

How This (Kind of) Applies to Ciel as a Reader:

Ciel is an interesting case because he kind of counts as one of those "bad" readers. Which isn't to say that *all* of Ciel's issues and/or characterization stem from his reading habits but there is a certain fairy tale quality to the life he has chosen for himself.

He does what he wants, he gets from Sebastian everything he wants, he names his baby after a book character and imagines him in the character's likeness, effectively making Finny feel like he can be whoever he wants too if he emulates and draws inspiration from that character.

In another vein, Ciel is supposed to like mysteries and he's fashioned himself into a detective of sorts like The fictional detective originated in the Victorian Era- Sherlock Holmes. (Although per the Book of Murder arc, in this universe Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hadn't made the full leap into detective fiction yet, but more on that in a bit.)

Why the Anime's Old 'Book of-' Titles Matter and How Ciel in Wonderland Recontextualizes Ciel as a Character

When the Black Butler anime returned in 2014, this time with the intention of following the manga more closely than before, the Circus arc was accompanied with the title Book of Circus. This title format was applied to the next two arcs, respectively Book of Murder and Book of the Atlantic. Putting this specification on the title specifically orients the viewer to the idea that this is just a story we are being told. (And not in a duh this is fictional kind of way.) See also the way the most recent anime season framed Sebastian's words here as a 'dull end to our story'.

Going back in time a little bit, the season 2 OVA Ciel in Wonderland is perfectly representative of several of the points I am attempting here. Not only does this three episode arc place Ciel explicitly as a well known book character, it also very interestingly and indicatively shows that when Ciel has lost his way here (per the death and memory loss) his first unconscious instinct is to place himself in the shoes of a familiar character. Through following Alice's (almost) exact footsteps, Ciel is able to find his way back to himself again which circles back to my point about emulating novels and using them as a form of self identification. Reading here, for Ciel, represents not only finding solace in stories (Sebastian is literally reading the book to him like a bedtime story in the end, like it's something that's a part of their everyday life.) but also, pretty significantly, represents Ciel making himself Ciel Phantomhive through fiction.

Also interestingly this edition of Alice from around the time Black Butler takes place depicts Alice explicitly as a reader. (And one of the books I did for my graduate research had such an interesting chapter on Alice being an example of a "bad" overimaginative reader and I am currently having trouble finding it without access to my old school account so if I find it I will drop the title here eventually even if this post is more for fandom fun anyways and not necessarily I am publishing this thing without citing that person etc.) (Something else I would like to link here too when I find it again is one of the radio interviews Daisuke Ono and Maaya Sakamoto did for the Public School Arc last summer where Maaya said that during the filming of the first few Black Butler seasons she'd always be off by herself reading a book and that's so Ciel of her that I know that was somewhere in her portrayal of him.)

Conclusion

I don't know if this is something a lot of the fandom on here would care to read especially since it's so niche to my own extensive research but I did feel like writing something like this for a while now and it was fun to write an essay kind of thing I wouldn't be getting graded on regardless of how many notes it gets dhdjf. I am planning on revisiting the Blue Memory arc and writing a post like this about how the stuff I wrote about here kind of portends to Ciel's version of events, the fact that the Undertaker is literally producing people with false stories about themselves in their heads, and what this all may mean for the end of the story. But this will take a little bit- I have even had this in my drafts for weeks.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

One to One: John & Yoko Thoughts

Overall I really enjoyed this documentary! The style was very engaging and it did a good job of painting a picture of the various political causes John and Yoko threw themselves behind during their first two years of living in NYC. Plus, I'm pretty sure there's some genuinely new footage in it? If not, at least I had never come across it, so it's not widely shared.

The documentary is mostly sympathetic towards them as activist figures, but I like the nuance the framing device of television brings with it: through presenting the various issues of the world as snippets one might zip through while changing channels (often cut-off before you can fully take in what's going on and sandwiched between daytime television fluff and relentless advertisements) there's a subtle question being posed concerning how much John and Yoko really understood the causes they were advocating for, without resorting to pure hindsight-steeped condescencion. Conversely, the stylistic choice also helps the viewer understand the unbridled distress they must have felt about the state of the world they were in. I also enjoyed the more lighthearted moments that made them both more personable and let them exist outside these activist roles.

I'm also compelled by the time spent dwelling on the loss of Kyoko. It's a short sequence but distinctly highlighted, and a part of me wonders if the doc in some form is suggesting that John and Yoko threw themselves behind these causes to fill the void of the family they tried and failed to have. There is also a mention of Yoko's miscarriages and Sean's birth is given a lot of prominence in the final sequences as well as Yoko's 1994 reunion with Kyoko. This would to some extent recontextualize the specific motivation for the One To One concert, as an act of solidarity with more or less abandoned children. I'm not sure to what extent I agree with that notion, and it's definitely only one of many factors (for one, as the footage itself shows, John and Yoko's activism predates the loss of Kyoko), but I had never thought of it that way before and will continue pondering it. I was also, while watching, a bit confused what the point of the primal and "Mother" sequence was, because I didn't see what retreading John's childhood trauma really added to this particular documentary, but this lens of (failed) parenthood actually gives a lot of dimension to that slightly worn-out story.

Even if this framing isn't all that accurate, it might be revealing of Sean's influence on the documentary that his parents are framed this way.

The whole thing sometimes heavily leans on the Ballad narrative, especially in the way it completely side-steps the Lost Weekend that follows directly after the period covered, but it doesn't stoop to falsehoods to paint that picture and spends minimal time on the Beatles (and their break-up).

I'd recommend this documentary for its execution alone, but I also think most people will come away from it having learned something new!

[ghostlythinglady]

Something I haven't seen a lot of people talk about is how a lot of Chainsaw Man can be read as a critique of nationalism as an ideology.

When we are first introduced to the boss of the Yakuza, he couches his motivations in prototypical nationalist ideals. Using a demonized outsider in the form of foreign gangs as a boogeyman and trying to recontextualize his actions as being for the well being of other Japanese citizens.

Katana also gets in on this as well, trying to posthumously (and unsuccessfully) paint his father as a model citizen

and yet...

It's all just nothing but talk, there actual actions make it clear that they just view non-Yakuza as an exploitable resource at best and disposable cannon fodder at worse. During the Control devil arc, we get this scene with the president. He opens by elevating the US as the last nation standing against Makima and begins by apologizing in advance for taking a year of the lifespan of every American, which aligns with the worldview espoused in a lot of propaganda.

And what does the Gun Devil end up doing as it tries to kill Makima?

He'll apologize for taking a year off the lives of every American, but he doesn't give a shit about instigating a mass murder as long as foreigners are dying.

In part 2, the Aging Devil makes an offer with the Japanese government.

And who is the first person to accept the offer?

He tries to justify his decision with nationalistic language, seeing an aging population as a threat to Japan as a nation.

But as time goes on, it becomes clear the contract is more about saving himself, symbolized by giving authority to aging and becoming their new throne

Through out all of this series, it's a reoccurring theme that characters who try to justify their actions through nationalism are ultimately revealed to have selfish motivations.

[curvydave]

Can I get Frost with a fellow tabaxi, maybe a house cat type, or you can just leave it open!! Anything’s fine.

Absolutely!! Cute Frost stuff below! <3 <3 <3

Tabaxi are a rare sight in Agwe -- those who choose to wander beyond their homeland, as so many tend to do, often become more permanent travelers. Exploring comes naturally, and of course, that means few cities are inhabited for long. There's always some new sight to see, and towns like Agwe aren't great at holding the attention of a natural knowledge-seeker. He's seen a few others here and there, and he's always enjoyed those brief moments of connection; but ultimately, its a fleeting experience.

He's found that he rather enjoys the presence of another Tabaxi like himself. He loves his friends more than anything in the world, but there is a certain feeling you get, talking to someone who understands those little cultural nuances. You two are very different people, even beyond the uniqueness in your respective feline traits; and yet, there's just those little things that you both just understand about each other. You read him very easily right out of the gate: His friends get him, of course, but it did take them a little while to learn how to read him.

He very much enjoys the tales of the lands you've visited up until now. Despite his short time outside of Yulong, he's keen on growing his knowledge about the world around him, and always has something to contribute to the conversation. Perhaps he's never seen the traveler's cairns of Mamut himself, but he knows of their purpose, their reasons for construction, items that would be commonly left. Sometimes he'll surprise you with new facts about sights you've already seen in your conversations that recontextualize what you had thought you'd already known. He's also fantastic at asking questions, and its through these discussions that you often find your own questions about the world answered.

He finds the differences between you two incredibly endearing, too. The height difference is obvious, of course, but he also loves the subtlety in your fur patterns, and the unique way your ears come to a point. When the moon is high in the sky he'll trace your markings with his eyes, big paws smoothing gently down their length just after. He gets flustered if you do the same, but he loves it.

You've formed a habit of swiping little trinkets of his -- never to keep, just to look at for a few. Whenever he catches you, you always claim its because you'd like to learn about the new thing… but really, you just like fucking with him. Yes, you both love to learn, but you're also both dumbasses with a penchant for messing with each other. You're deft enough to where he hardly ever notices your pickpocketing, and so its become a bit of a game between you two. He's liable to do the same, although it's a lot easier to spot this hulking tiger… he still manages to get you, sometimes.

Yes, you two play with the fabled yarn ball together. Yes, its as cute as it sounds. Usually you'll just lay together and bat it back and forth, watching it slowly unravel -- only winding it back up once it gets too loose to roll. And then you'll do it again. Its the simple things in life.

He's also much less shy about doing more of his tabaxi-typical displays of affection. Head bumps, grooming together, all the cute stuff. He'd yearn to do it no matter your species, but it definitely comes about a lot sooner when you share that physical language.

He's dedicated to morning meditation, and despite the allure of a morning nap with you, he always stays strong. You do make it very, very tempting though… so perhaps, come afternoon, he'll take a break and bask in the sun with you.

[markrosewater]

Hi Mark! In the planeswalker's guide, there is a really cool description for the "Glitch Ghosts" that explains why they appear they way they do and it makes no mention of tech at all. In my opinion, that snippet of world-building is in-line with some of my favorites of other planes you've made. It gives a reason why the ghosts have the same aesthetic as modern horror tropes, but recontextualizes it as a form of magical phenomena. It's really really stellar. I love it. Please give a high five to whoever came up with that.

But, when I see that Duskmourn also contains random TVs and computer screens, it cheapens that explanation. Why come up with a magical explanation for the Glitch Ghosts at all, if you were then just going to include the other technology anyway? Why not just have the description of the Glitch Ghosts be something derivative like "these are ghosts made by corrupted/possessed tech"? It's way more boring, but now that's all I'm going to be able to associate with them.

I guess my complaint is that by including more mundane objects and technology in Duskmourn, it makes the actual magic and worldbuilding of the plane feel less magical to me.

Magic started square in the heart of high fantasy. Over the last thirty plus years, we've tested where we can extend the feeling of the game, and the feeling of worlds where magic plays a role. I don't think magic has to be tied to the past and there are a lot of cool properties that combine modern day elements with magic.

Any time we try something new, perhaps this is the change that's a bit too far (we do know we're pushing boundaries here), but what we've learned this many years in is that Magic is at its best when it embraces all different kinds of aesthetics. When it shows people that magic can encompass a whole slew of different types of worlds.

Yes, Duskmourn is different, but different is kind of where Magic excels.