#category-five-autism-event

[viscerast]

I got the lil kawaii'fied Gnarpy plush. May I name it Gnarpy Number Two?

YESSS !!! SHARE :3

[unsettlingcreature]

(Incoming Autism Infodump Alert)

Okay, so, idk if you're into The Magnus Archives or not, but there is a character named Jonah Magnus, and his symbol is The Eye, or The Beholding. Usually associated with forbidden knowledge and the feeling of being watched.

Playing Skyrim as a young adult (Now with being able to absorb the story) The Beholding from The Magnus Archives reminds me of Hermaeus Mora from Skyrim. Like bruh.

Also there is a staff gotten through the College of Winterhold storyline called "The Eye of Magnus" and I am frothing at the mouth wtf.

Just had to rant to someone about it.

I also have a horror series of my own with three otherworldly beings, and I realized that one of the beings I created kinda fits in with Hermaeus Mora. Both "gods" of forbidden knowledge/eyes/being watched, have tentacles, have eyes, live in alternate dimensions.

And then I found another Daedric Prince that fuckin- acts like another one of my three otherworldly beings. Namira acts like one of my characters. Both otherworldly "gods" of Survival at any cost, prey becoming predator, cannibalism, etc. This is just getting hilarious at this point.

yes!! I think there's a lot of parallels that could be made between various Daedric princes and the entities. I think a lot of it is down to common associations with certain concepts - knowledge, secrets and eyes are very often grouped together in fiction.

Where with Hermaeus Mora, they put the eldritch in "eldritch knowledge" (with tentacled creatures, likely pulling inspiration from stuff like Cthulhu), I feel like TMA took those similar concepts and expanded on them in a way that allowed them to stay largely abstract, allowing for a wider sphere of influence (which is why there's some overlap between certain fears) and to play further into mysteries and the fear of the unknown.

But yes, there is also a Magnus in the Elder Scrolls! If you're curious about him, I'd definitely recommend checking out the UESP page for him.

Also, I love playing games or reading stories and finding out that it mirrors something of my own making :3 I'd be interested in hearing if you find any further parallels between your characters and those within Skyrim!

@category-five-autism-event

[roger-paladino]

I just finished listening to the Princeton Tapes from EMH and I heard Roger speak to Vinny and I was like-

*Buffering* "TIM SUTTON?!?!?!"

YESSSS YESSSSS YEAH >:)

It's so funny because after the inital shock of it being Tim Sutton I completely forget that he also acts in MH like Roger and Tim are so iconic to me that the same voice doesn't even register as being the same guy. shout out to Tim Sutton always.

[fournets]

My Music Headcanons!!!

I feel like Jay would listen to Lofi music. Also kinda feel like he'd like Mitski. He is okay with listening to anything, though, and he also likes listening to his friends when they sing along to music in the car. Alex would show him Will Wood and Jay would fall in love.

Brian's vibe gives off Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, Queen, and The Beetles. I feel like Jay would show him AURORA and Brian would look like he just got the holy grail. Perhaps Brian may also like Neon Trees.

Alex kinda seems like a INXS dude. Perhaps also the most out of pocket weirdass music he can find, like Peaches by The Presidents of the United States of America. Also My Chemical Romance and Mystery Skulls.

Tim probably likes Indie/Alt/Rock. I'm thinking when he's more calm he likes things like Mother Mother, The Crane Wives, and Arctic Monkeys (Projecting Projecting Projecting). But when he's more emotional, I imagine he listens to Scorpions and Shinedown.

tooo tired to respond properly but yaaa i like these :33 i think some of them would like the black keys (proojection)

[everymlmhybrid]

Idk if I count in regards to this post, but I want some affection for the holidays. Because I have none of that.

But if we are talking physical objects, I have really wanted a Jirachi plushie for a wee while now.

Awww haha you definitely count for it !!! Also I started playing with jpegs like dolls and made this artistic rendition of me giving you a Jirachi plush even though I can't irl lol

[page-2-ids]

Apologies, I did look at the list of open submissions/requests, but this is more of an ask than anything..

Do you have a term similar to Musicagender, but for snippets of movie scripts? I did not know if someone had already coined a gender term for such things.

I mostly thought of it because there is a line from one of my comfort movies, The Shape of Water (The movie is +18, please do not watch it if you are underage or are triggered by 50s-typical homophobia, racism, and ableism) where the main character says (In ASL) "When he looks at me, he does not think that I am incomplete. He sees me as I am."

I’ve never seen anything for movies specifically, but there is -quoteic (Daydreamgender-Archive) for a suffix and Quotegender (Grove-Sky) for an umbrella term, plus Fictigender and Moviegender are both used as umbrellas for fiction and movie related terms respectively! I’ve also seen quotic and quotec used a couple times, but they were never coined.

Also, Neopornouns (an 18+ blog) does have requests open. I’m not sure if it would be a perfect fit, but since this is from an 18+ movie, it might be worth a shot if you wanna request this somewhere!

[degloved]

hannibal. god. hannibal. every last one of his actions throughout the show thrums with the undercurrent of desperation. every manipulation, every lie told, it's steeped in this ugly desperation he tries to cover up so badly, but he can't. it bleeds into everything he touches. he needs to get will to like him, to trust him. he needs will's trust more than he needs air to breathe. he talks to god but the sky is empty for the first time in years, because will walks the earth. he wants to drop to his knees and beg for love and understanding, but his legs won't bend and his mouth will only spout vaguities and half-truths. none of his approaches work, he's lost his footing for the first time in decades, it's making him lash out. the lashing out is, too, layered in desperation. he's unraveling

and more than anything he wants to grab will's face and Show Him. and it's a delicate dance, because will is so easily spooked. not spooked, maybe, but pushed away. he doesn't tick like a normal person, and maybe that's what hannibal needs, but it's tricky. and it all culminates on that goddamn cliff and as they're going over, will is drenched in blood and red is his color and there's gore in his mouth laced between his teeth where he'd bitten out a chunk from a man's neck and he's telling hannibal It's Beautiful and he's holding on for dear life and he Sees, the way hannibal's wanted him to See ever since that day he'd shot garrett jacob hobbs in his own kitchen, and maybe it's over and maybe it's just begun but it doesn't even matter because he's finally got what he's been after for the past three fucking seasons and no one can take it away from him DO YOU HEAR WHAT IM TELLING YOU

[gayraccoonthing]

Is he my favorite character? Yes. Do I love him? Also, yes. Do I need him sobbing on the floor in emotional and physical pain? Absolutely.

[leo-probably]

[drzone]

vroom vroom

[buds-and-baubles]

thinking about the parallels between kon, apollo and midnighter regarding their creation/origins.

kon's origins where he at first was a fully human clone of a cadmus scientist named paul westfield, who was then genetically engineered and modified to be as close to superman as possible, utilizing his ttk metagene to emulate superman's powers. his later iterations simplified his origins by making him an actual clone of superman, fully kryptonian with a small amount of human dna to stabilize the kryptonian dna, utilizing his ttk metagene. (wanna thank @mamawasatesttube for giving kon facts that i am absorbing like a sponge).

apollo and midnighter were bioengineered/built as superhuman by henry bendix. these post-human 'prometheans' (my species classification of them) have three running rumors on their creation; they were young adult former u.s soldiers who were conscripted, they were kidnapped children, or they were modified cloned human dna from petri-dishes grown to adulthood. regardless of creation, they were experimented on where they underwent time on medical tables and or in cloning stasis/stasis tanks, as well as intense combat training to make them who they are. however, they maintain retrograde amnesia regarding their life before their first mission and all records were destroyed so there is no way to confirm their origins.

kon was aged to a teenager so he didn't experience early years as a child. apollo and midnighter either don't remember their childhood, or never had one.

kon has helped out other clones of CADMUS gain autonomy as well as the clones on new krypton. apollo and midnighter had no choice but to kill the clones of their long dead teammates, and clones of themselves as they were too far gone to be saved.

i like to think reasonably they all have a phobia of medical things like needles (i know it's canon for kon but i haven't read it yet for apollo and midnighter).

they have all died and been brought back by some seemingly otherwordly means.

they all had to learn what having family is like. kon with clark and the whole superfam, and apollo and midnighter in raising jenny quantum.

two out of three are queer sun-powered superhumans who deserve the world in my opinion.

kon and apollo have both been through two traumatic events that i literally cannot talk about and it makes me sad that they have this in common. fuck you millar i hope your ice cubes melt.

got their very own warm calculating (midnighter is only warm calculating to his husband and daughter) partner who vibes with nighttime.

had interesting ways they got their names. apollo and midnighter reclaimed their aliases as their names to gain a shred of autonomy from what bendix did. kon got his name from clark giving it to him.

though kon and apollo have many power similarities with clark, they've got ones that make them stand out! yes, the ttk and energy projection. three cheers for ttk!

all have their own classification on what they are because of their unique origins.

apollo and kon are both smart AND pretty unlike what some may write or say.

kon knows his origins but apollo and midnighter will never know their true origin.

are/were on a team with a speedster and amazon. kon has his two besties bart aka impulse and cassie aka wondergirl. apollo and midnighter had impetus and amaze, rip them.

apollo can fight to protect kon when there's kryptonite or only red sunlight present cause it doesn't bother him and kon can keep him away from extreme cold stuff like liquid nitrogen. teamwork!

secret identities! kon didn't originally have one because he was first just superboy, and got his secret identity later. apollo and midnighter have no secret identity.

if i got any kon tidbits wrong please forgive me i'm literally shaking with excitement at posting this and have been working on stuff regarding apollo that is still a work in progress for like a day and a half with only 3 hours sleep. i needed to post this or i was going to knaw through drywall.

this is what i meant that apollo and kon have so much in common. it makes me wanna scream and cry and roll on the floor to cope.

slightly unrelated but please invite apollo to sun-powered supers meet-ups, he can show off all his cool hobbies like origami and card stacking to name a few of them. if jenny q goes with him, she can share stuff about herself, both her dads, and the rest of the authority of silly things they do and be held in apollo's arms as he flies if they're all flying.

[viscerast]

Imperial?

oh youre Playing to my film nerd today /lh

imperial: what film, in your opinion, has the best cinematography and/or special effects?

okay. do i dare say saw 2004. does this surprise or appease anyone. the gore is so good. the lighting. i even love the spinning camera. its not impressive but it works so well in such a subtle way . the last scene with the GAME OVAL!!! you dont understand what this has Done to me. im insane. i have brainworms

okay what about something more pretentious i Also really loved the cinematography in skinnamarink its so unique and Cool give me one movie thats told an entire story and put you on edge like that through nonsequitorial shots like that . hot take but i loved the movie . im tempted to record it onto cassette just for the vibe

[inbarfink]

I do think it’s kinda fun the way the DHSAB prequel Comics play around with the idea of POV. Like, the Captain Hammer, Moist, Penny and Dr. Horrible Comics all include one shared event - a confrontation between Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible during a CH autograph signing event in the park. But the way each of the characters seem to remember the event is… very different.

Captain Hammer’s version of events is extremely dramatic and dynamic. Constantly portraying the Captain himself in Cool Action Poses, while Dr. Horrible look as pathetic as possible

And the whole sequence ends with Captain Hammer throwing Dr. Horrible into space (or at least, like, halfway across the park). 

It’s also drawn in a very stylized art-style (courtesy of Dave Canete and Dave Stewart) that exaggerate and cartoonify the features of the characters in a way that is very complimentary to the Captain and very much not so to poor Billy. 

Plus, this is the only one of these comics that seem to be, like, an in-universe diegetic work. Like, this is a PSA Captain Hammer is making to the audience that exists in the Horribleverse. So that’s another layer of Fiction put between the comic and what really happened. And all in all, it’s very much promoting the audience to doubt this version of events (especially considering, you know, Dr. Horrible probably couldn’t survive in the vacuum of space). 

So when one reads through the Moist comic, and see how that old’ familiar scene plays, but with a more realistic artstyle (by Farel Darlymple and Dan Jackson), and a considerably more understated tone that allows the not-so-good Doctor to retain some of his dignity 

And even the ‘power-neutralizing ray’ being a better match to Horrible's usual tech aesthetic compared to the Captain Hammer Version’s Dinky Raygun-Gothic Thingy…

It might be easy to think this is a simple matter of Captain Hammer, being the full-of-himself antagonist of the whole DHSAB narrative, overexaggerating and aggrandizing the events, while Moist’s version shows us what really happened. But, well… let’s look at how our protagonist, Dr. Horrible recalls the events…

On the one hand we do get the added context that the ‘evil scheme’ Captain Hammer supposedly foiled that day was - in fact - all part of Dr. Horrible’s actual plan. 

But also… Dr. Horrible’s version of events has him sent blasting off again, much like the Captain Hammer version of events.

I mean, there's no 'thrown into outer-space' stuff, but it still resembles Captain Hammer’s recollections much more than Moist’s. And Dr. Horrible version also doesn't include his first meeting with Moist. Perhaps implying Dr. Horrible doesn't consider this encounter as important to his personal narrative as Moist obviously does? Plus, the art style (by Joelle Jones and Dan Jackson) is not as exaggerated as CH’s story, but still kinda cartoony. 

So… where does it leave us? Is Moist underplaying the confrontation in his version of events due to his own kinda laid-back personality or because the matter of how Captain Hammer knocked-out Dr. Horrible is just not as important to him as the fact that Doc even stood up to him in the first place? Or are Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible both overdramatizing what happened back there, because obviously it’s good for Captain Hammer’s ego to see himself as so effortlessly thwarting and humiliating his enemies but also it’s actually good for Dr. Horrible’s ego to focus on Captain Hammer’s strength because then it feels even more impressive that he is able to match him as an arch-enemy? Or is it a bit of both? 

And what about Penny? How does she recall the event?

Well, Penny was in the park that day, but as far as she was concerned that epic confrontation of Good vs Evil was just in the background. Only slightly more notable than a guy losing a grip on his dog’s leash.

Because this is really what defines Penny in her POV comic, as the opening panel summarizes in a wonderfully succinct visual manner (as drawn by Jim Rugg and Dan Jackson). 

Until the event of DHSAB, for Penny, all of these superhero vs. supervillain business was just background noise, the really important stuff is the suffering and inequality she sees vividly around her on the ground level, in all of it’s grim detail - and despite it all she tries to remain bright and optimistic. That panel is really just... Penny in a nutshell.

And that’s a really important throughline with how this comic characterize Penny, she is out of lockstep with the mainstream because she doesn’t worship superheroes, maybe even resents them just a bit, because she kinda sees their super-escapades and fights against supervillains as… fun little distractions from the real problems of the world. The ones that she’s trying to correct little-by-little in that unglamorous non-super way of hers. 

And this is… I think the reason why the Fridging of Penny can feel so infuriating sometimes, is, well, leaving aside one’s feeling about the behind-the-scenes crew, it really feels like there was a really compelling character with her own story that was kinda tossed aside just for the sake of Billy getting ‘punished’ with her death.

Because when you read the Penny Comic, and you see, not just her general lack of worship for superheroes, but also the way she’s running herself rugged with different charitable activities

(It is probably not just a stylistic flare that Penny has bags under her eyes in almost every panel of this comic)

And the way she tends to bury down her own grief and negative emotions, to the point of lying to her fellow volunteers about her parents being alive.

And the way that as selfless and kind as she is, that kindness doesn’t always come easy to her. Sometimes she will grit her teeth and sigh in regret even as she keeps giving away all of herself.

And the way that she’s struggling, really really struggling to, as the title says, keep her head up. 

Like, ‘hope’ is the Big Obvious Motif of Penny’s character. But this comic really really drives home the fact that Penny is not some incorruptible platonic concept of Hope, and she’s not some storybook character living in a fantasy world. She’s just a person, trying her best to keep up a positive outlook in a world she knows is cruel and unfair. 

Like I said earlier, the different art styles of the comics can be seen as a reflection to how these characters see the world. Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible both have an outlook of the world that’s maybe kinda exaggerated or cartoony. Even if the Doc is still considerably more tethered to the live-action reality. 

Meanwhile, Moist’s art style is more realistic, but also detailed in a way that makes it feel… kinda icky in a way that’s very Moist-appropriate.

And Penny’s artstyle shares the grounded feel of Moist’s and also the same kinda over-detail, but what distinguishes it is… this element of contrast. The contrast between the way the poverty and suffering around Penny is portrayed in a way that emphasizes grimness and grime (compared to the other art styles here at least) while you can also see how Penny is trying to see the brightness and beauty in the world, and preserve her own brightness and kindness as well - while still being fully aware of what kind of world she lives in. 

It seems like the default position in the Horribleverse is to just…buy into the spectacle and distraction of the Superheroes. Admire and flock around them, while ignoring the Real Issues around them. 

(note how the robot is described as 'disgruntled', so this is probably another Dr. Horrible-like situation of supervillain or super-menace being motivated by the inequalities of society and a superhero who does nothing about it but punch them into submission)

And Penny is specifically not that kind of Oblivious Happiness. Her brand of Hope confronts all the uncomfortable things Captain Hammer and Wingspan and their ilk would usually ignore, while still preserving a positive attitude. That’s, like, what all the imagery in ‘Penny’s Song’ is about.

Even in the darkness Every color can be found And every day of rain Brings water flowing To things growing in the ground

But also, this is hard, and she still struggles sometimes with keeping that balance between reality and optimism. With how the casual cruelty around her is so frustrating. With how much this takes away from her ability to have a ‘normal life’. With how isolated she feels caring about stuff so few around her seem to care about. 

And with all of this context now retroactively added to Penny in the actual Sing-Along Blog, there is actually so much going on with her character. Like, the entire events of the plot revolve around her worldview getting totally turned around again and again all in a row. 

Like, her falling in love with Captain Hammer after he supposedly ‘saved her life’ isn’t just ‘augh, typical Horribleverse Civilian obliviously fawning over their stupid superheroes’, or ‘well, Penny basically just met her idol'. Penny would not usually care about Captain Hammer, but then he (as far as she could tell) saved her life and, well… maybe it’s easier for Penny to read about Captain Hammer stopping a rampaging van some supervillain tried to hijack and go “Oh, that’s nice, but what about the people starving on the streets?” but to actually be in a life-threatening situation and get saved by a superhero… Maybe that was the first time in a long while that Penny actually understood why everyone thinks Captain Hammer is so great.

And then he started putting his charm on her at just the right time and then he agreed to go with her on a date at one of the homeless shelters she volunteers at. We the viewers understand that Captain Hammer only agreed for the sake of scoring with her, but Penny doesn’t come into it with the preconceived desire dislike CH cause he's the antagonist or has the time to watch out for the microexpressions of disgust on Captain Hammer’s face…

For her this is just… a wonderful turnaround on her previous opinion on superheroes. Here is an actual big name superhero taking an actual interest in the life of the poor and unhoused. Finally, after all of these years of not believing they’re going to do anything to really help people, here is a superhero actively taking interest in Penny’s most important issues. Because of the inherent goodness in his heart, and because of… love.

Like, the whole thing about “My Eyes” is that it’s about a change in perspective. (You know, “I cannot believe my eyes!”). It's about both Billy and Penny’s perspectives… intensifying. Billy is growing more cynical and more misanthropic and more resentful due to jealousy over Penny and Hammer's relationship, meanwhile Penny is shifting to be more optimistic and hopeful than she was before. 

I cannot believe my eyes How the world's Filled with filth and lies / finally growing wise But it's plain to see / And it's plain to see Evil inside of me / Rapture inside of me Is on the rise

If anything, I’d say her part of the song is even more overtly about a change in worldview than Billy’s are…

You know, the world is ‘finally growing wise’, because… a lot like Billy, she was also frustrated with the stupidity and shallowness that surrounded her, but unlike Billy who has fallen totally into self-important misanthropy, she was actually trying to keep her head up despite all of that and have some faith in humanity and the general public - and now, with Captain Hammer learning to care about homeless people… that probably validated all of her hopes for the whole world... well, at least in her eyes... 

But then a few days pass, the rush of that Heroic Rescue is starting to subside, and obviously the longer she keeps interacting with Captain Hammer the more chances there are for her to see the cracks in his facade. So she is starting to have some second thoughts…

Billy: How are things with "cheesy on the outside"? Penny:... Good. They're good. He's... nice.

Especially since at the same time she is starting to get closer to that cute guy from the laundromat.

Okay, so the fact that Billy’s crush on Penny was never a purely one-sided affair was another thing explicitly confirmed by the Penny Comic. Specifically in the very final panel.

But I think a lot of the previous interactions in the comic also help with that as well, both with the terrible awkward date that shows how Penny behaves around someone she has no ill will towards but also no affection or attraction towards… and also just in general how she seems to keep even her fellow volunteers at emotional-arm's-length by just repressing all of her emotional anguish away from them. Like, not just not opening up to them about her problems, she is actively lying to them about her parents not being dead.

And meanwhile, like… she is finding Billy to be someone she can open up too, that she can commiserate with about her own problems and like… okay, so ‘Penny’s Song’ doesn’t have her directly say ‘you know, I’ve had it pretty rough cause my parents are DEEEEAAAAAAD’ - but it does allude to it repeatedly. 

Here's a story of a girl Who grew up lost and lonely Thinking love was fairytale And trouble was made only for me

Grief replaced with pity For a city barely coping Dreams are easy to achieve If hope is all I'm hoping to be

In contrast to ‘directly flat-out lying to friends about her parents being alive’ I still think this must be a huge step for emotional intimacy from her, and she feels comfortable doing that with Billy. 

Also just like her verses in ‘My Eyes’, this song is about how perspective shifted from despair into hope. And I think this is as much about her initially going into charity work to cope with the grief of her parents’ death, it’s also about going from kind of the low-point of isolation in the comic and feeling ignored in ‘Caring Hands’ to now making new connections and feeling like the world is finally paying attention to her causes. 

But even with the ‘high’ of having her superhero boyfriend literally just easily gifting her the building her charity was working so hard to acquire - literally the manifestation of all the hopes she had for getting Captain Hammer involved in her causes… she is still noticing the red flags about Captain Hammer…

So they say we'll have blankets and beds We can open by Monday Thanks to you Thanks to me

And she’s still having her doubts. On one hand she’s out of the honeymoon phase with Captain Hammer and is getting more and more ambivalent with him and the cult of personality around him…

This is perfect for me So they say I guess he's pretty okay After years of stormy Sailing have I finally found the bay

But as always, the need to balance an acknowledgment of reality and the need to hold on to hope is the defining internal struggle of Penny’s life. Does she acknowledge the red flags, or… does she just allow herself to believe that this is a world where she can have love and happiness and make some real positive changes and the world is in general heading in a better direction? 

There's no happy ending So they say Should I stop pretending Or is this a brand new day

“Should I stop pretending or is this a brand new day?”

Stop pretending to herself that she’s still in love with Captain Hammer (note that she’s literally waiting for Billy for a Laundromat Frozen Yogurt Hangout as she sings this)

And also… stop pretending that a better world, a brand new day, is coming. Again, keeping her head up is as much a struggle for Penny as it is for anyone else. And in her darker, loneliest moments, drifting away from her boyfriend, her new friend and crush disappeared to Plan a Murder, hearing how shallow the media storm around Captain Hammer and Caring Hands is - she thinks about it not as hope, but as ‘pretending’. But she keeps on going, because… maybe this is a brand new day for her? Is this a chance she can afford to miss?

And then the opening ceremony comes and… turns out all the fears she’s been suppressing over the last montage have been confirmed. Captain Hammer talks about her in a way she clearly finds uncomfortable and his speech makes it clear that he hasn’t been actually listening to anything she’s been actually trying to teach him about homeless people and their problems. 

Everyone's a hero in their own way Everyone's got something they can do Get up, go out and fly Especially that guy – he smells like poo

And worst of all, everyone else is eating it up. The entire crowd is just 100% buying whatever comes out of this superhero’s mouth and most of them probably don’t care at all about homeless shelters and will probably stop caring once the big shiny superhero isn’t there. Not only all of the suspicions she’s been having about Captain Hammer validated, but all of the negativity she used to have about superheroes but pushed away once she started dating him has been validated as well. 

If superheroes can really help the impoverished and unhoused, Captain Hammer sure isn’t really interested in it.

In a way, it also kinda reminds me of the moment in Dr. Horrible’s comic, where Billy first gets disillusioned with superheroes.

But this is a lot more personal.

Really, the only way this moment can be any more of an emotional low-point for a character who always tried to hold on to hope in the goodness of humanity is if it turns out that the other person she’s been getting kinda emotionally intimate with recently is actually a murderous supervillain!

But what are the odds of that?

No sign of Penny - good I would give anything not to have her see It's gonna be bloody, head up, Billy buddy There's no time for mercy Here goes no mercy...

Yeah, she’s clearly mouthing ‘Billy?’ in this shot, she does know what’s going on now.

And okay, leaving aside the criticisms of Penny’s death from a thematic standpoint, I’ve also heard some complaints about it from a purely Wastonian perspective. Of, like, how the hell was she even hurt by that explosion happening on the other side of the room and basically no one else? But… I do think it’s notable that the general crowd is seen dodging the Death Ray Explosion Shrapnel by ducking down

And the last time we got a look at Penny she had just decided to stand up. 

Right after recognizing Dr. Horrible as Billy and then seeing him hesitate to pull the trigger. Maybe... She was considering confronting Billy directly? That despite him running around gloating with a death-ray, she still believed she could talk him out of it somehow? Was it just pure instinct to do something as she saw Captain Hammer in mortal danger?

And if she was still standing as Captain Hammer turned the tables around, was she just frozen in shock, or was she still considering if she should run ahead and intervene as Captain Hammer pulled the trigger.

Well, whatever was going on in her head, it seems like this instinct to try and get involved in that situation while still being too unsure to actually go ahead and try and do it - is what did her in. 

So now Penny has been disgusted by her boyfriend and disillusioned by the general public and emotionally betrayed by her best-friend-slash-crush and now she’s dying and it’s all the fault of these two aforementioned dudes and also maybe the fault of her trying to believe there’s something worth saving about both of them and I dunno how lucid she is to realize all of this but… I think the emotions of these events have made their impact regardless.

And like, Penny has spent her entire life running herself rugged trying to do the right thing, the actual right thing. And she’s been playing this balancing game of choosing both to not ignore all of the societal problems and not just focusing on ‘wow!! Cool superheroes!!’ and also keeping some amount of optimism and hope in humanity all this time. And sometimes it makes her just so isolated and depressed. And sometimes it gives her false hope that is just yanked from under her in the most cruel way.

So… why bother? When her life is so obviously over? Why bother keeping that balance of realism and hope? Billy decided to give up on hope and gave into self-important misanthropy. Penny couldn’t give up on hope, so she decided to give up on reality. Decided at that last moment to try and just be one of those civilians fawning over superheroes and hanging all their faith on them and ignoring everything else. She shouldn't have 'stopped pretending', so should start pretending harder.

Penny: Captain Hammer will save us...

This isn’t Penny holding on to her optimism and ideals despite it all, this is Penny giving up, for the last time. 

Well, this is my read of Penny's last line with the added context of her prequel comics. There are other places you can take this of course. You can connect it to that 'pie' motif that's also present with Dr. Horrible and Captain Hammer's characters - You might think that Penny's hopeful attitude is naive and overly-idyllic and fawning at superheroes. But actually she's a lot more world-weary and savvy than that and she's actually the only civilian around to recognize Captain Hammer's bullshit when the time comes. But also deep down she is maybe overly naive and would want to believe in that fantasy of the clear-cut hero who will make it all better, and that's the feelings she retreats too when it's all over.

That's just one off the top of my head, there's probably other readings as well. But the main point is that regardless of what reading you take, Penny's prequel comic really contextualizes a lot about the character. The confirmation of her parents being dead explains the lyrics of her song, the reveal she was always kinda into Billy help shed light on her perspective of their interactions and seeing her pre-DHSAB feelings on superheroes really recontextualize how one can look at her last words. Cause it can't just be like "oh, Penny is always holding on to hope and faith in superheroes until her last moments", because we now know this is explicitly ISN'T something she would always do. Something has changed within Penny.

But also… you really can’t avoid the fact that the main narrative focus DHSAB gives to her death scene is not as a culmination of an arc about realism and hope and the failure of superheroes… It is mostly as This is the Most Emotionally Devastating Thing for Billy to hear Penny say. And that the narrative prioritizes how Penny’s death’s effects Billy’s arc. Where she mostly plays the role of a Symbol of Hope and Optimism and Goodness. Rather than a person who struggled with what it means to be Hopeful. 

And that’s just… really frustrating sometimes. 

[roger-paladino]

(In response to the TT post, I used to be a fan.) I loved the eyeballs. All of the eyeballs, the symbolism of the eyeballs, yis.

I also hadn't seen a darker skinned person (or at least not many) in a ARG, especially of those of the Slenderverse. so I appreciated the variety.

(I think I would have also absolutely enjoyed it if more Nonbinary characters were introduced into the Slenderverse..)

The alternate reality boardwalk being an infinite loop was also quite a lovely concept.

Yes! I completely agree with the eyes symbolism, it was actually one of the things that initally made me interested in it :o the fanart I saw that use those themes were so good

That's very true! It's kind of dissapointing seeing the lack of diversity in the ARG's that are out there, both with POC and LGBT people. I'd hope if we ever get a renaissance of some sort for people making these kinds of horror series, that we'd be able to see more like that.

:O I actually didn't know about the boardwalk being an infinate loop, that seems like it would have been really cool

[insectichor]

help i accidentally told my mom “hey lets go see that saw musical” before realizing how blatantly gay it is. like thank god shes chill cause that could go very wrong very fast

can’t wait to tell my other gay film nerd buddies about this though

[willowcrowned]