#earth world does exist actually. it's just not where the games are which i think is what they were going for but that's stupid

[puppys-rhythm-heaven]

y'know it's fitting that i don't talk about my rhythm heaven headcanons that much. they are headcanons after all so just rotating them around in my brain seems fitting tyfhfbfnfbf-

[disappointingcabbage]

TMAGP 21 thoughts, spoilers below the cut

“What if Alice is right about how fucked up the OIAR is?” I mean fuck, dude, she probably is

“It’s fine I can just quit if something tries to murder me” Sam that won’t help with the whole “monster trying to kill you thing” that’ll just make you unemployed in addition to being about to die

When Celia said she had a “complicated immigration status” I fucking cackled like girlie you are never beating the universe hopper allegations

Also yeah why did the OIAR not notice that she probably has next to no legal documentation of her existence? Like I get them being more lax than other government organizations but this is a whole other level

tbh it’s probably because Lena was like “eh fuck it this isn’t even in the top 70 weirdest things I’ve seen” and let it slide

“I wouldn’t be able to take Jack with me if I went back” Does this mean she knows how to go back?????

MAGNUS INSTITUTE CHESTER STATEMENT

ooh this is some alchemy shit

POLITICAL RESOURCES? did the institute have fucking plants in the government or did they just have, like, lobbyists?

love how this guy is like “we need stop being Christian centric when choosing the date to our fucked up eldritch ritual guys”

I’m sorry, a UNIVERSAL TRANSMUTATION? as in transforming the entire earth or even the whole universe???? Dude what???

The fucked up ritual in question is called the Dome Project, which judging only by the name sounds like they’re trying to make Flat Earth real, which is fucking hilarious

ok they were allegedly trying to create a utopia but every “utopia” is flawed so the question is how did they fuck this one up?

Oh damn they were trying to create a perfect“final state of society” that never changes. Even without the eldritch bullshit that’s a terrible idea just look at like every dystopian novel ever (and also the game slay the princess, which is built around the idea that change is a necessary component of life and has Jonny Sims voicing a lot of the dialogue)

I love how this guy’s best argument against bringing the world to a stagnant state is just “but we’re alchemists, guys, change is our whole thing :/”

Was I the only one who thought “et al” was pronounced like “et all” or is it just me? Or is it a regional thing?

Wait was their plan to actually just build a big ass dome to house a “perfect society”?

Oh shit they had actually already started construction.

Of course they were exploiting workers to build this “perfect dome”

THE DOME IS REAL????? (It’s called the millennium dome, don’t just google “dome project” you’ll just find a bunch of unrelated shit about business models and stuff)

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW HOW LONG THE DOME WILL BE THERE? Isn’t that a major safety issue?

bro thinks the place is supernaturally contaminated and he’s probably right

Oh boy it’s also contaminated with heavy metals the real danger here is lead poisoning

I’m sorry what the fuck??? Construction guy got cloned by some dirt in the site and then his clone just fucking yanked him into the dirt? Clone didn’t even bother to replace him

lol statement writer just went “tldr we shouldn’t do our ritual here it’s fucked up enough as it is and incorporating a stagnant utopia into our eldritch ritual is dumb and we shouldn’t do it”

Alice has realized that Freddy is purposefully giving Sam Magnus statements

GIRLIE DID YOU JUST DELETE IT FROM HIS CASELOAD???

oooh shit she got caught by Lena

“haha Sam’s computer keeps malfunctioning so I tried to fix it and he definitely gave me permission hahaha ANYWAYS when are we getting a new IT guy?” smooth, Alice. Smooth.

Oh shit where’s Gwen? She’s late coming back? Lena doesn’t know where she is????

Ink5oul probably got her

Was that a .jmj error noise I just heard?

Oh fuck we actually get answers to the Gwen question and she is in fact running from ink5oul

Jesus this chase scene is actually scary, I’m impressed. It’s kind of hard to unsettle me this much without involving one of my actual phobias. Nice.

Also I had to google what trash polka is, turns out it’s a really cool tattoo style that’s simultaneously photorealistic and trippy, usually done in black, white, and red.

Oh shit Ink5oul can mess with tattoos they didn’t do

oh fuck they caught Gwen

Hey why is Gwen monologuing like those corpses?

[ERROR]? Where have you been, loca?

WHY IS THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES THEME PLAYING UNDER GWEN’S STATEMENT MONOLOGUE?

The transcript describes [ERROR] as “a nightmarish specter of an older world” and I’m not sure what to make of that yet but they sure are possessive of their victims, apparently. Judging by the fact that they said “there is more” I think they’re targeting either anyone with institute ties or anyone in the OIAR. Maybe both.

Love that Gwen just fucked booked it instead of sticking around to witness whatever that whole [ERROR]/ ink5oul interaction was

I’m glad that [ERROR] didn’t kill ink5oul tbh I like them

THE TAPE RECORDER FUCKING BIT THEM IM CACKLING

The Magnus Protocol sure is a podcast

[tobiasdrake]

UGH. YOUTUBE HAS MADE THEIR SITE TOO COMPLICATED FOR USERS. WHAT WAS WRONG WITH IT BEFORE, BACK IN 2005-2009?

Well, they're owned by Google. So. Y'know. Same thing that was wrong with their search engine.

Which is to say, Google has grown beyond the point of sustainability for a publicly-owned company with growth incentives.

The fundamental flaw of the U.S.'s growth-based economy is that it imagines a world in which an infinitely expanding revenue intake is possible to achieve. This, unfortunately, flies in the face of reality.

The way a growth-based economy works is that if your company made 100% of all money that exists on Earth this year, it would have to then make 104% of all money that exists next year. And then 108% of all money the year after that.

This is a problem that isn't apparent for small up-and-coming businesses. How can I grow my company's market? Easy. Expand my customer base. Sell more products to more people.

But there's a ceiling. A point at which infinite forever-growth ceases to be achievable through simply doing business. You already have as many people buying your product as are ever going to buy your product; There is no reasonable avenue available to turn your 50 million customers into 75 million. You've hit a plateau.

Or worse, they already bought your product last year so they don't need to buy it again this year. Why would I need to buy yearly tractors?

That's a problem, because the demands of investors do not let up just because it's not actually possible to keep growing the business by doing business. The guy who put in $30 million expects to get $45 million back out of it. Your job is to make that happen. Nothing else that the business does actually matters. Go grow the market value and get back to me when it's done.

Once a business grows beyond the point of sustainability, that's when it starts having to get creative. If you can't grow the customer base, then you need to find ways to get them to pay more money for less product. Increase revenues and decrease costs while supplying to the same set of customers you were before.

This is why the film and AAA video game industries have lost their goddamn minds. They've long-since passed the point of sustainability.

This is what CEOs mean when they say it's "Too expensive to make games." They don't mean they can't make profit by making games. They mean they can't hit their profit growth goals unless they come up with yet another new way to get the existing base of gamers to pay them even more money this year than they did last year, without proportionally increasing their costs to achieve it.

They need the line to go up. And they can no longer achieve that by doing the thing that their business exists to do.

This is also where things like planned obsolescence come from. Why would I need to buy yearly tractors? Because the tractors are designed on purpose to fall apart after a year so I have to go to the store and buy a new one. That's a solution to the "Everyone already bought my product" problem. An evil solution a problem created by unsustainable economics.

Google, too, is long past the sustainability ceiling, and it's causing them to shit themselves and reveal their true colors. Because Google's customer has never been their users. The users are the product that they sell to advertisers. Their revenue comes from getting your eyes on an advertiser's products. That's it.

And as they continue beyond the sustainability ceiling with each passing year of infinite forever-growth, they're having to pursue more and more nakedly predatory means of churning their userbase into mass-produced views.

Why is their search engine so shitty? Because if you have to search for something five times, you're gonna see five times as many ads. That's good for Google's growth margins.

YouTube is the same. Their algorithm is designed to feed people into loops. Not to show you content they think you'll like to see, but to show you content that will keep you engaged. That will make you watch the next video and the ads that go with it. It's clickbait in video suggestion form.

And it's just going to keep getting worse and worse and worse until either legislation steps in or the bubble pops. Those are the only two futures possible for a company that's beyond the sustainability ceiling. And they've gotten very good at postponing the popping of the bubble.

This, all of this, is what people are talking about when they use the term "late-stage capitalism".

[yuri-is-online]

Back with some more thought experiments! This time, let’s talk about the actual worldbuilding of Twisted Wonderland. I mean, this is a completely separate world where fairytales and fantastical things actually exist. It’s functionally impossible for Twisted Wonderland to just be Earth plus some Disney sprinkled on top.

The biggest point that really gets me is that fact that methods to foresee the future exist. Astrology is a valid class in NRC and Yuu suffers from plot convenient prophetic visions. The mere idea that the future can be foreseen should have huge ramifications on how businesses and governments operate. Imagine knowing the effect of a deal or policy before it even happens. Or minimizing crisis by knowing about it before it strikes.

Magic should also affect technological development. We know that there was an age before magic was widespread among humans, thanks to Trein in GloMas. In that sense, I can see how up to a point technological development may be similar… but post-magic the technology should be different due to a different set of limitations.

Language is also an interesting topic. Setting aside things that humans probably can’t event speak like the Fae languages seen in game, what of the languages used in Twisted Wonderland? Would they be similar to Earth as a result of the Disney movies used to create its history? Does that explain why Rook speaks French?

This isn’t accounting for religion either. The Age of the Gods is a thing, drawing from the Hercules movie. That would mean that the Greek gods actually exist in Twisted Wonderland. So how did they fall out of worship? I mean, only Hades seems to be recognized anymore due to the Great Seven, and not even in a religious way.

Look, I’m going to hit the character count if I keep trying to list all of my questions. This is just all so fascinating! And true to my fixation on Yuu, this is all great content for exploring just how alien Twisted Wonderland must feel. Like, Yuu should honestly ask more questions. I don’t buy how easily they adapted in the game.

- 🦐

*cracks knuckles* Shrimp you have brought up stuff I've been thinking about for a hot second, I'm so glad you have come into my inbox ( ๑ ˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و ♡

I agree that I don't think Yuu would have adjusted as easily as they are depicted to in game, but this is a mobile app gacha game licensed by Disney so it's not going to focus as much on stuff like that. Luckily that's what we're here to do anyway~ I am going to go through these points one by one.

Point One: Astrology

The most we learn about how fortune telling works in game is from the Scalding Sands hometown event. There is an exchange between Cater, Trey, and Jamil about using coffee grinds to tell fortunes, and Trey specifically says something I think is interesting: we get two really interesting lines:

From what's said here we can tell two things: A) there is a distinct difference between types of fortunes and B) a distinct difference in the quality of fortune tellers. Someone like Cater is correct most of the time with his divination, but not everyone will be making actively relying on it for major decisions. I could absolutely see older kingdoms having a seer employed who a ruler could call on for supernatural advice, but I don't think that would be common practice in modern day Wonderland outside of maybe Briar Valley. Besides, just because you know something bad will happen doesn't mean you will be able to efficiently mobilize your forces in time to make a meaningful difference.

Speaking of which, not to touch on spoilers too much but Leven seems to be implied to posses the ability to actually clearly see the future, and as for Yuu's visions...

Well Lilia says he thought they might have a curse like Silver's (not that he knew why they were dizzy)... and the ability to see the future IS often handed out in Greek Myths as a curse, but well. Make of that what you will.

Point Two: Magi-Tech

The way technology works in Twisted Wonderland is a bit vague. From how Idia talks, I think there is a distinct difference between technology and magitechnology, with Idia specifically specializes in the latter. I actually went a really long time thinking that since Yuu hadn't a single trace of magic on them they wouldn't be able to ride a magi-wheel because of how Deuce talks about it syncing with your own magic and what not. Even magicless people in Twisted Wonderland don't seem to be completely magicless, they just don't have enough of a mana pool to actually cast a spell.

I think it would make sense to suggest magic and magitechnology probably affected Twisted Wonderland's development in the same way the silicone chip did ours, but the key difference would be that if you put too much magic into a device most humans can't use it. That would bring up a completely separate set of setbacks and issues... while there might not be a difference in the type of things built their internal construction would definitely be wildly different.

Part Three: Language

I think the easiest answer to this is yes. We know there is a "common" language that most places now use... I like to headcannon that language as being unique to Twisted Wonderland but I have seen some people think it is probably English. Which brings out my scrunchy face because the prevalence of English in our world is because of the British Empire... which never existed in Twisted Wonderland.

Rook speaks French because one of his favorite plays is set in Fleur City/the Shaftlands... which as a side note. In his Vampire card vignette he names the play that made him like Neige so much: Kingsroad~ The Sword to Become King!~ which is literally the Sword in the Stone based off of the little song he sings from it. I have been going crazy since GloMas thinking about if this suggests that King Arthur is french in Twisted Wonderland or if Rook is referring to another play... personally I think he's from Sage's Island but that's a crack for another post

Part Four: Greek Myths and Religion

There doesn't really seem to be any religious presence in Twisted Wonderland at all. It's unclear if Hades was ever worshiped or if he was just referred to as a god due to his perceived immortality and power. Given that there is something called the Jupiter group... and the Shrouds are a branch of the Jupiter family... AND that the Titans you fight in Chapter 6 are yelling about getting to and killing Jupiter... I think that it's highly likely there are events in Twisted Wonderland's history that correlate to the stories of the Great Seven, but didn't necessarily involve the Great Seven themselves. It's just that those events are remembered as having been done by them... for some unknown reason. Not to be conspiratorial... but do we have any proof they ever actually lived in Twisted Wonderland at all? (━＿━)ゝSure there are relics and things, and there are apparently paintings in the Land of Dawning Meusuem, but where did they come from? How old are they? I don't need sleep I need answers, is this a primary or a secondary source about the Queen of Hearts Riddle?

The End

I also wish Yuu would ask more questions, but I get why they don't :/ this is a gacha game blah blah blah but also. I don't think Yuu knows what questions to ask, there's a lot of stuff about life you don't think about as being abnormal until someone looks at you funny and I think Yuu realistically does a lot of that, but if you put every single instance of that into a game it would get very exposition heavy very fast. Luckily you, I, and everyone reading this have massive brains and can talk to each other about it!!!

[yuseirra]

*persona 3 reload spoilers*

Good news to ryomina & ryoji fans(maybe!!),

I'd been listening to Color Your Night a LOT lately and it occurred to me, doesn't that song make a lot more sense if the part Azumi-san(the female vocal)sings's taken as the Moon's perspective?

I'd used to think the song was sung from the protagonist&aigis(or his lover)'s perspective but a lot of the lyrics just click when you take lotus juice's part as the protag's perspective AND azumi's part as the moon's.

And the "moon" in this game is actually ryoji....

I look up at the sky, ask a lotta of why<the protag looks up at the moon and thinks why has it all came to be this way

Good and bad but nothing unties us<aligns with what ryoji/pharos said: they will still always be friends

Color the town with my light<the moon literally "shines", it brings light to the town

Another wander in the night

Let me paint the view

Colour the town with my light

For every moment shared with you

Not out in the day

But never fully gone

Going to be back again

Until the coming of a dawn < this entire part makes perfect sense if you take the speaker as the moon, since it's something that only appears at night(but is not really gone during the day, either, just unseen)

When two hands meet at zenith

Nothing comes between us < I think the hand here means the hands of the clock, which would imply 12'o clock midnight

As I drift across the sky

The hour hand turns high<seeing this, that interpretation only makes more sense.

And the MOON is something that drifts across the sky

Around the world I slowly dance<this part too, it matches how the moon revolves around the earth

Looking down below

The one I seek to find

No matter where you might go

Remember you'll be on my mind< and isn't this similar to what ryoji says?? That he'll be watching over everyone, even if he wouldn't be in that same form anymore? It also feels similar to how the moon watches the earth/protagonist from above. He's the one that's developed a special relationship with it.

I'm at ease with things that used to bother me

'Cause your existence just lights me up, yup<the protagonist responds to the other person and the situation he's in like this, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say he would feel this way towards ryoji the way he does for all his precious friends and bonds..

You always got my back, and of course I got your back

Don't you worry about that now

(Hey)

It's been a good day, good night

It's gonna be a good day, good night< this too

Within the inner heart I plead

For you to talk to me

I want to hear all the good and bad

The new stories you have < a lot of people'd feel this way towards the protag, and definitely ryoji too from what I've seen from his links. He wanted to spend more time with the protag and remember the text message he sent to the protag for his third link ep? He wanted the protag to come and talk to him really bad..

The song ends with it saying:

I'll be seeing you, baby<

Well, considering what happens to the protagonist later on, he WILL be seeing ryoji.

This song can be interpreted in many ways, but the moon's significance is really enhanced if you take it this way and it's really interesting considering how deeply tied it is to the entire p3's plot. I could be late on this but I thought this could be some interesting food for thought!

[elle-p]

Why Elizabeth will never succeed

P3 spoilers for both the main game and The Answer/Episode Aigis

Elizabeth's quest to free P3Hero from the Great Seal, first explained in P4, elaborated on in Arena, then completely forgotton about(yet never by the fandom), is ultimately futile.

As said by Elizabeth herself, it's impossible. There are 2 ways it could succeed - Elizabeth replaces the Seal, or Erebus doesn't exist. Both can't be done.

Erebus not existing is easy - it's born of every single person's desire to die. Societal change at that level, especially something that has to be permanent and airtight with no possibility of failure, just can't be done. The Phantom Theives can't help: they don't ever actually get rid of the people's desire for control, they just force it to go somewhere else. P4Hero also doesn't get to kill any gods; he just manages to convince them to go away.

Elizabeth replacing the Seal requires a bit more explanation. The creation of the Seal was done by the Universe Arcana. The Universe Arcana shows that Hero is a fully individualised being; he understands himself and his place in the world. But so does the World Arcana, and that can't create the Great Seal. So what gives? My personal take is that the Universe Arcana is more tied to Nyx. It's name refers to space, where Nyx is from, rather than the Earth, where people are from. The way Nyx is described is also similar to the way the Universe Arcana is described(the fortune teller's dialogue could even refer to either the Universe Arcana or Nyx). Then Hero gets the Universe Arcana instead because he's tied to Nyx in a way that the others aren't due to having Death sealed inside of him. That's even alluded to by Igor with how he mentions Death when presenting the Universe Arcana. So, even if Elizabeth were to complete her Fool's Journey, she'd just get the World instead of the Universe, and so wouldn't be able to become the Great Seal, and she can't use anyone else to replace it, either.

Elizabeth's quest involves her going on her own Fool's Jouney. This involves meeting people who represent all the Arcana and seeing how they act to show how to live one's life. At the end, one becomes a fully realised individual. This on it's own presents some problems.

Hero went on his journey, and realised what his place on the world was - to become the Great Seal. He died happily and with no regrets. He's not in pain. Elizabeth's quest is more for herself than for him. She rejects the answer that he found, but she's still a fool. The whole point is that she doesn't know what to do, while he does.

Since Elizabeth is going on her own Fool's Journey, she needs to actually go on... a journey. So what's the flaw that she needs to get over? I think it's that she doesn't have vary many true bonds(I'd argue that she just has P3Hero), which goes well with way that the Fool's Journey is all about creating true bonds with others. Her disregard for others can be shown in how she interacts with people - she flits in and out of their lives without truly connecting with them. She thought Hero(both P3 and P4) had power because they're just cool like that, not because of the others they interact with. So, her journey would be about learning to cherish the bonds that she makes. However, it's her lack of true bonds with anyone other than P3Hero that made her go on the journey to begin with. He's the only one important to her, and he's the only one who cares about her, so she has to get him back! Which is exactly Yukari's thought process in the Answer! And how did that end? With SEES accepting that, even without Hero, they still have each other. They're not alone. So, Elizabeth's journey slowly culminates on the fact that she doesn't need to free him. As I said before, he's not suffering. She's doing this for herself. And realising that would mean abandoning her journey.

[engeorged]

My Stories

NEWEST Henry’s Stag Part One - Henry is getting married soon and his best friends in the world have decided to take him on a bachelor party to remember. Little does he know that they have a secret plan which will lead to Henry getting much bigger. (Inspired by an old story called ‘Binge’ expanded)

NEWISH The Weight of the Stars - My first attempt at Sci Fi! Cassian longs to travel to a different planet to escape his miserable existance on earth. The only hope is the new interstellar travel technology, but theres a catch! To travel, he needs to gain weight, and fast.

BRAND NEW The Bear and the Mountain - High achiever Jamie goes off to find himself in the mountains on a hike, but after a nasty accident leaves him stranded he is rescued by a tall muscular woodsman who proceeds to look after him very well indeed

Awakenings

BRAND NEW A series of short stories about someone’s gainer or feeder awakening.

I - The Sculptor

II - The Taste of Freedom

III - The Film Festival

IV - The New Coach

V - The Type

VI - The Invitation

VII - The After Game Party

The Influencer

The Influencer: Milo (Part One) - With nowhere to go in life, Milo attempts to make it as a social media influencer. With illustrations by @badoobers

The Influencer: Will (Part Two) In the second instalment, Milo establishes himself online and bumps into an old friend at a school reunion. A friend who has changed a fair bit. With illustrations by @badoobers

Part three and four to come!

Stand Alone Stories

Please Feed the Bears A collaboration with @fillthattank with @badoobers artwork. Newly ex teacher Dan goes travelling in America and after a change in his circumstances he gets a job in a theme park that’s not quite what he thought it was.

Continue Dans story here where you can interact with an ai chatbot programmed to be Dan at the end of this story.

In Good Hands? Yann the scientist visits a suposedly haunted house to record supernatural activity and what he finds there is not what he expected.

Let Me Tell You About Jackson - a new story in collaboration with @swolescruff where posh boy Jackson learns a little something about life

The Birthday Meal - collaboration with @badoobers - A guy thinks everyone has forgotten his birthday and takes himself out for a meal. On arriving home, he realises his mistake.

Gainer & Feeder CHATBOTS

My Profile: @engorgeyou

CHATBOTS CHATBOTS2 CHATBOTS3 CHATBOTS4 CHATBOTS5 CHATBOTS6 CHATBOTS7 CHATBOTS8 CHATBOTS9 CHATBOTS10 - links to my ai chat bots - just an experiment but these are new characters to you to feed or enjoy!

The Obi Saga

Obi’s Place - collaboration with @badoobers Trucker Ben finds a place to stop for breakfast and meets a very interesting waiter. (maybe a sequel in the works if you guys like it!)

Aster’s Maze -Sequel to Obi’s Place in collaboration with @badoobers. Ben goes searching for Obi and discovers a little more than he bargained for in Greece

Santa's Otto a Sequel to Obi's Place and a Prequel to Aster's Maze (both below) On his search for answers Ben stumbles across what might be actually Santa! Looking at Santas instant gut, Ben has some questions.

The Letters

Dear Nate - sequel to Dear Alex. Nate sends his own confession

Dear Alex - short story about an unusual apology

Taking the Plunge

Part One Part Two Part Three

A new story about a guy exploring gaining for the first time. Inspired by a conversation with @beefedup

The Restaurant

My first ever gainer fiction, written 15 years ago!

Part One Part Two Part Three

Happy to take requests and if I like it, I’ll write it!

[humbledragon669]

S1E3 – Hard Times Write Up P6 - Friday (One day to the end of the World) from "the break up" scene

Quick note to slip in right at the beginning here: the setting in the Script Book for this rendezvous was back at St. James’s Park. I’ve no idea why it was changed, but I do really like how portentous and isolated the band stand feels. Perhaps that’s exactly why it was changed.

Right, I don’t think I can avoid this much longer. I really am not looking forward to going through this scene. I know I’m not alone in finding it a difficult watch. As a reminder, it’s my belief that Aziraphale and Crowley are secretly romantically involved at this point in the storyline and have been since Adam’s birth (11 years), so I do really feel like this scene is a break-up. Furthermore, I think it’s likely that Aziraphale came to the meeting with the intention of breaking up with Crowley because he’s started to believe that they cannot stop Armageddon. I’ll pick up on a few things as I go through the scene itself that would feed into that theory, but for now, all we need to know is that I don’t like watching this pair split up. F*** knows how I’m going to get through the Final 15 write up when I eventually get there.

The conversation starts in a similar vein to the one that we just saw Aziraphale having with the archangels in Heaven – with him playing aloof and hoping that the other party doesn’t notice he’s hiding something. I don’t know why he doesn’t tell Crowley that he’s been Upstairs to discuss the matter with his superiors at this point, or that he knows where Adam lives. What I do know is that he’s nervous – not only is he feigning ignorance, he’s wringing his hands, which he does whenever he’s anxious.

Aziraphale actually gives his own game away in his response to Crowley’s question about his investigative prowess – Adam’s shoe size is the only piece of information on the list that he doesn’t have. But Crowley isn’t listening (shock horror) and completely misses the subtext. I also suspect it’s likely he won’t contemplate the possibility that the angel is keeping something from him – it’s simply not on his radar.

Here's when things start to get really rough as far as I’m concerned. There’s something that we have to bear in mind, particularly if you’re prepared to accept my head canon in terms of where their relationship is at. The couple are staring Armageddon in the face. Not death, or obliteration from existence. The annihilation of Earth. Which means that, once it’s over, they will both be sent back to whence they respectively came from. No more sneaky little rendezvous meetings in parks. No more dining at The Ritz. No more nightingales. They aren’t just facing the destruction of Earth, they’re facing the possibility of an eternity of existence apart from each other.

Even if you’re not onboard with my theory of them being in a relationship at this point in the storyline, that idea is… well… heartbreaking to be perfectly honest. If you don’t think so, I’ve no idea why you’re still reading my waffling at this point. And if that idea hadn’t already occurred to you when you were watching this scene before, I’m sorry if I just destroyed you a little bit (#sorrynotsorry).

So, with that devastating blow delivered, let’s take a look at Aziraphale’s language here, of both verbal and body types.

He looks and sounds fairly resigned to their fate here. And pretty defeated. If I was to try and subtitle this single line of script with what I think is actually going through his head, it would read something along the lines of “I think we should say our goodbyes”. And I think Crowley, despite him missing the much more obvious subtext earlier, picks up on it.

My subtitling of this clip would go something along the lines of “no, fuck that shit”. He’s not ready to give up, not after 6000 years of slow burn. It’s no surprise that Aziraphale is uncomfortable with this outburst, after all, he still believes that he’s a company man. Angel. Whatever, he can’t seem to get his head around the fact that he’s really not onboard with Heaven’s plans. What I find interesting is his delivery of his next line.

His voice cracks. At the very end of the line. The way the conversation is playing out, it could be argued that he’s trying to make amends for Crowley’s criticism of the Great Plan but I think it’s something else. This isn’t a chastisement of Crowley. It’s a request of God. As in, “please forgive him, he knows not what he does/did”. As in “if you forgive him, he can come back to Heaven”. Unfortunately Crowley sees right through that one though, laying waste to the angel’s hopeful but poorly thought out plea in a painfully realistic summation of his existence. Why he feels it’s necessary to really hammer home the point to Aziraphale is a bit of a mystery to me – it’s really not like anything he says will make the angel stop loving him, as his face tells us when Crowley has finished spitefully pointing out how truly unforgivable he is.

I find the next exchange particularly interesting.

Aziraphale’s line almost feels unfinished. And if I could take a guess as to how he meant to finish it, I would say “you could be one again” is top of my guesses, which I think is backed up by his devastated expression after Crowley once again wastes no time destroying his dreams.

It’s not hard to see why I find it so difficult to get through this scene – up to this point we’re basically seeing the Final 15 9 episodes too early. And the similarities don’t stop there so let’s keep going. Note: I am aware I am somewhat jumping the gun with the comparisons, but I don’t want this scene to interfere with the write up when I come to do the Final 15 (I want that to stand on its own merits).

Crowley does try and do some reparations, showing his faith in their capabilities as a team and sticking to the original plan, but Aziraphale knows there was always a flaw in it – what do they do once they actually find the Antichrist? We see a very clever echoing of a previous topic here too – Crowley being unwilling to compromise on his position of the killing of innocents. We saw it in Mesopotamia in 3004 BC and again in the Dinosaur Park from episode 1, although at that point he was able to disguise his stance because of his employment. I’m not sure why he doesn’t use that reasoning at this point again, as his approach causes this discussion to start its descent into an all-out argument about the morality code at play.

There’s a huge sense of irony with Aziraphale’s take on this moral dilemma – apparently the good guys don’t kill children. Clearly his memory is somewhat selective because not only have the “good guys” been doing that for thousands of years, they’re about to kill ALL THE CHILDREN with Armageddon.  It’s no wonder Crowley tries to call him out on it. And can we just talk about the fact that what Aziraphale is asking his friend to do is an absolutely awful thing to do? And for what? So that Heaven doesn’t have “blood on its hands”. Crowley’s face says everything that I could try to put into words about what he’s being asked to do:

Side note: there’s a little moment during this exchange where their fingers almost touch. Maybe actually touch given Crowley appears to react to it, but I couldn’t swear either way owing to the camera angle. It reminds me a little of the Sistine Chapel, but I don’t know that it would be an intentional reference here.

They’re about to reach an impasse in their argument, mostly stoked by Aziraphale’s dogged determination that he can continue to use the fact that he’s a Heavenly being as an excuse for not making difficult choices. The way he delivers this line suggests that not only is this a hill he’s prepared to die on, but that his stance affords him superiority.

The words of Crowley’s reply imply that it was scripted to sound like a small injection of humour into this situation, and I think you could easily interpret it that way.

Then you should kill him yourself. Holi-ly.

I however think that this is him trying to remind Aziraphale that just because you’re an angelic host, that doesn’t mean that you’re above implementing death and violence in certain situations. Perhaps when it lends weight to a moral argument. Either way you choose to read it, we’ve reached our stalemate and so it’s time for Crowley to employ his self-protection mechanisms by hurling insults and making a run for it. And if you were in any doubt that the way this discussion unfolds is meant to be anything other than heartbreaking, you’re not listening to the soundtrack that starts at this exact point – flowing strings and flute in a minor key has emotional turmoil written all over it.

I deliberately left the subtitles off that last gif because I think the vast majority of us recognise the subtext of this conversation without needing to know the exact words that are spoken. It amounts to person A saying something hurtful, causing person B to be shocked and hurt by it before saying something hurtful back as a response before realising they spoke before thinking and trying to take it back. It’s a typical couple argument, isn’t it? Aziraphale’s body language here really resonates with me – it’s such a classic display of regret and desperation that it makes my heart ache.

Are you ready for the big hitters of the mirroring of the Final 15? Let’s start with Aziraphale’s plea:

You can’t leave, Crowley.

Sound familiar?  Sounds an awful lot like a time when a demon stood in front of an angel and told him he couldn’t leave the bookshop to me. Except this time the positions are reversed (obviously). Nonetheless, the parallel with that line is strong. And hold up, there’s another one coming – Crowley’s about to suggest that they run away, maybe not as an “us” but “together”. This time it’s received a little differently though, because that look on Aziraphale’s face is pure hope (until it isn’t).

And just look at Crowley’s body language. He has literally opened himself up to Aziraphale’s acceptance. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that’s his invitation for the angel to cross the bandstand into his embrace and disappear off into the sunset together…

Now, I’m sure there are some of you thinking that Aziraphale’s line about them not being friends completely undermines my theory about them being romantically involved at this point. I would argue that actually it strengthens my theory. The way I hear that line, that’s Aziraphale saying, out in the open, that the word they use as a cover to describe their relationship is categorically not what they share. If he rushed into the next sentence about them being nothing more than an angel and a demon, I might agree that my theory is problematic at this point, but he doesn’t. There’s a pause before he continues where I think he suddenly realises what he almost just gave away and this weak little interjection story is the best he can do to try to maintain the cover. Even he’s not convinced about it – he can’t even maintain eye contact with Crowley after he claims not to like him, I suspect because those words are so hurtful that he’s actually managed to hurt himself with them. You can see Crowley is pretty confused by this whole turn of events too.

Not only is the demon pretty confused by everything that’s going on (after all, he called the meeting to try put together the next steps for their plan to avoid Armageddon, not break up with the love of his existence), but he isn’t prepared to let their partnership go without a fight.

There’s an interesting parallel with the conversation from the second episode in season 2 here – with Crowley claiming he’s protecting “his” existence and Aziraphale contesting that it’s “ours” (i.e. theirs). In this context though, this is Crowley’s last card, a desperate plea for the angel to remember what it is that they have together, what they built for themselves. It’s no good though, Aziraphale is determined to see this one through and does the one thing that he knows Crowley won’t be able to forgive him for – denies it all, which isn’t too dissimilar to the shit he pulls off in the Final 15. And then there’s this:

Those words are the definitive break-up words, aren’t they? You can actually see the thought processes going through Aziraphale’s brain as he resolves to do what he came to do, despite how much it will hurt him to do it. He only manages to make the words come out on the second attempt of opening his mouth to say them, has to take a big breath before he does it, forces himself to make eye contact when he does say the words, even visibly recoils from the sound of them after they’re said. Michael’s performance here is genuinely outstanding, it blows me away how effortlessly he portrays the complex emotions he’s going through. And in fairness, David does an equally outstanding job with his response, particularly given that he can’t really use his eyes. The fact that he conveys Crowley’s distress with the only other tools he has – body language and speech – here is beyond amazing, not least because it’s the very lack of speech that really tells us how much he’s hurting from what’s just happened.

And if there was even the slightest bit of doubt left about whether this was a relationship break-up scene or not, maybe just look at Aziraphale’s devastated expression as he watches Crowley walk away.

There’s one last thing I want to draw attention to in this scene. All the way through the meeting, it has been possible to hear individual bits of birdsong from the surrounding area. Just after Crowley delivers his apparently nonchalant parting shot (“Have a nice doomsday”), we can hear an increase in volume of the birdsong in the soundtrack.

It’s not an individual bird this time, but an absolute cacophony of song, like a dawn chorus (which is unlikely – we are led to believe that this is the end of the day, not the start of one). I would say that its increased prominence was to do with the camera angle, which now pans out to include a wide shot of the bandstand, but we also hear a subtle quieting of the birdsong as we get to the end of the scene. Given the use of birdsong for individual birds being used for subtext in this series, I’m sure there must be some meaning to this as it certainly doesn’t feel accidental. According to the RSPB, “the dawn chorus is the symphony of song performed by birds looking for love, and to defend their patch”, which would feel rather fitting for the end of this scene – the screaming of the birds representing Aziraphale’s inner turmoil that he has just pushed away the one person he wanted most to protect, but feeling as if this was his only option. Or maybe I’m full of shit, and the birds were just really loud the day of shooting.

There’s one remaining scene in this episode, but I couldn’t find anything outside of the given narrative of interest, so let’s just say that we end this episode finding out that Adam is really coming into his powers, though it should be obvious to us that he’s not exactly using them to carry out the devilish deeds that we might expect to see from the Son of Satan.

Well there we are. Did you enjoy that? I have to say, I didn’t. I started this part of the write up with a disclaimer that I find the “break-up” scene very hard to watch, and it did not get any easier going over it in minute detail. I suspect I will need some sort of food or alcohol comfort to get me through the Final 15 when I get there, but for now I’m safe right? It’s not like there’s any immediate angst coming my way in the next episode, right?

Ah bollocks. Oh well, I guess I’ll see you on the other side of that one. As usual, comments, questions, discussion, all welcome!

[kitkatopinions]

Regarding the nitpick about the lack of religion in RWBY. We know the worldbuilding leaves much to be desired. So I'm betting religion isn't present simply because the writers themselves are non religious and never bothered to address the subject. Which is stupid because George RR Martin created several religions to flesh out the world in Game of Thrones and he's a lapsed Catholic. Just goes to show how little the writers care about worldbuilding. The existence of the Brother Gods and the Great Tree invalidate pretty much all the faiths in Remnant yet nobody seems to care. That would be like IRL we find indisputable proof that one religion on Earth is the undeniable truth but everyone continues their lives exactly the same as if this mind blowing revelation doesn't affect them.

Yep!

it's easy enough to say "oh well religion does exist it's just that none of the mains follow a religion so it doesn't matter" but it is so bland and flat and disappointing! Like I'm not gonna pretend that I would find building multiple religions to be a particularly easy thing to do and I especially would find it hard to write characters undergoing a crisis of faith when they discover what's real... But world building is also just so much fun and it's so interesting so like? Why just hand wave it away?

There would be Salem worshippers and Salem would love that and use it and probably enforce worship among her followers. And there would be people who worshipped a vaguely Oz-ish figure and Oz would hate that. People would worship Oz and Salem together not knowing of their history (and again wouldn't have to call them by their real names or have a real understanding of them to do it.) People would have religions that sprung up on their own centered around the Grimm, people would have religions about how the world ended and when it might end again, some people Oz had trusted and told the whole truth to thousands of years ago could've prompted more worship of the brother gods, people would have religions that include the formation of the world as they know it - heck, the world of RWBY the very planet they're on is called REMNANT and there isn't some common religion about what it's a remnant of? The moon is busted up, people are always gonna be people, you think there wouldn't be some religious explanation people had for that? People have in the past just fucking gone to a completely different dimension where everything is nonsense and sentient teapots and great trees and getting transported to bridges that force you to come out of the closet - there's no way I'm believing that in thousands of years the only people it's ever happened to are Team RWBY+J and Neo through a set of very specific circumstances we know and also randomly two kids through Narnia means presumably because we don't get any other explanation - and the only thing that's ever come from that is a children's book. Kings existed, the main world powers are still called 'kingdoms' and I'm meant to believe that a 'divine right to rule' wasn't a part of that? Or more like it doesn't matter what I believe was and wasn't a part of royalty because none of it impacts or affects our main characters AT ALL.

It's just so mind boggling to me that this would be the case. It'd be like if Fire Emblem Three Houses actually had zero religious aspects, that's what it feels like. If it was just a game where people went to a combat school led by a thousands of years old person in a secret war with Those Who Slither In The Dark and people had Crests and Sothis was in Byleth's head talking to them and Arval was in Shez's head talking to them and they had the heroes relics weapons and the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus and there were castles and churches and there were what looked like ruins of ancient castles or temples just like lying out in the woods, but like no single character that exists is even sort of religious and how different things might be connected to religions is never brought up and the characters never talked about any religion even existing past acknowleding that not a lot of people believed in any religion anymore. That's how weird it feels with RWBY. Like, the elements of 'this world definitely has religions and beliefs' are all freaking present in RWBY, there's no way to logically believe that religions just aren't present and have no effect on anything or any character, but then there's nothing there. It's so weird and I just do not understand how the RWBY writers could engage so little with the world and the story they made that such a crucial element of world building especially for the story they wanted to tell could just get so wholly passed over.

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group J Round 2: #J7 vs #J3

#J7: Lecherous young man gets engaged to an alien princess

#J3: Cat demon stuck in cat form, gets adopted as a pet.

Details and poll under the cut!

#J7: Urusei Yatsura (2022)

Summary:

When aliens known as the Oni threaten to invade the Earth, they promise to leave under one condition—a randomly-chosen human must win a one-on-one game of tag against Lum, the beautiful daughter of the Oni leader. The “lucky” person selected happens to be the lustful and unlucky high-schooler Ataru Moroboshi. Given 10 days to attempt to grab Lum’s horns, Ataru realizes how impossible the challenge is as he is faced with Lum’s extraterrestrial powers.

Motivated by a promise of marriage from his childhood friend Shinobu Miyake, Ataru manages to catch Lum off guard. He mistakenly grabs hold of her bikini top first, but he eventually achieves his true goal. Although the game is over, Lum misunderstands that she is the one whom Ataru wants to marry, and she decides to move in with him. The poor student constantly tries to shake off the clingy Lum while doing his best to reconcile with his desired fiancée. After Ataru's heroic feat results in such a disastrous outcome, it is questionable whether luck will ever be on his side.

Propaganda:

This anime is actually a reboot; the original came out in the 80s. It honestly does the manga justice compared to the 80s anime. I absolutely love the animation, it really does stick to Rumiko Takahashi’s art style. Though the pacing is a bit different, overall it stays true to its manga counterpart. (It’s honestly too bad the series isn’t very popular in the west, it’s a great comedy/harem type show. And the thing is, it’s not your traditional harem where “the basic guy gets all the girls” which makes the show so much more enjoyable.) Everything about this show really captures the essence of the series. It’s able to be funny while still having its more serious moments. I just really love Urusei Yatsura, it’s so good.

Trigger Warnings: The art style is very colorful and could cause eyestrain

#J3: Legend of Luo XiaoHei (series) (Luo XiaoHei Zhan Ji)

Summary:

XiaoHei is a young cat demon training to be an Executor, someone who maintains the balance between humans and demons. His first mission as a trainee was to steal the Sky Pearl. He succeeded, but he also got injured enough to be unable to revert to his human form. Stuck in his cat form, he gets adopted by the human girl XiaoBai as a pet. The story then follows XiaoHei’s adventures as a pet cat in a human home while also evading the pursuit of his enemy, Diting.

Propaganda:

Legend of Luo Xiaohei, at first glance, is a fun kiddy series with cute art. But the more you learn of the story, the more you realize how much thought is put into every little detail. The creator’s worldbuilding is so intricate. It’s like Adventure Time in that you think it’s all fun and games, but there’s actually so much more to it. There’s even a manhua for the side characters featuring their lives from thousands of years ago!

A lot of information will be slowly unfolded, but not once does it feel overwhelming to the viewer. Following XiaoHei’s point of view, we get to see glimpses of the wider lore, piquing our curiosity. 

In the world of LXH, demons and cultivators/immortals exist, but they don’t usually cross paths with ordinary humans because they keep their existence/powers a secret. XiaoHei himself has had little interactions with humans aside from his master. It isn’t until XiaoHei meets XiaoBai that he actually learns more about them and their way of life. Slowly, he gets drawn to the human life and also learns to have fun just like the human kids his age.

Season 1 presents to us XiaoHei’s daily life with his friends, so it’s more slice-of-life with the supernatural simply peppered around. It never gets boring, though, because there’s this ever-present tension of XiaoHei having to keep his identity a secret. We also get to meet a lot of intriguing characters, like XiaoBai’s “brother,” who helps XiaoHei fight against Diting. 

Season 2, on the other hand, is more action-packed. The plot for s2 is the Executors guild seeking humans with talent in cultivation. They screen them through a virtual reality game where they can emulate the use of powers. XiaoHei’s final test as Executor also takes place here.

I personally think the best aspect of this show is its hype fight scenes, but that’s just me craving stimulation. At its core, LXH is really a heartwarming story about a young demon learning that there is more to life than powers and fighting. Sure, the supernatural stuff is interesting, but beyond that, it’s a story of love—It’s about XiaoHei making friends and discovering what it is he really wants to do without fear of losing what he calls his home, for home will always be with him. 

Overall, Legend of Luo Xiaohei is a nice, warm show that you can binge on a slow day without missing out on the excitement a story with an overarching plot brings. Do give it a try.

P.S.: This series takes place about three years after the events in the movie (which has the same title in Chinese, but is more known as simply “Legend of Hei” in English). The series aired first before the movie, though, so it doesn’t matter. 

Trigger Warnings:

Child death in s2 (it’s fake, but the characters’ reactions feel so real)

Not really a trigger, but just in case: Teens/adults bullying children. XiaoHei is a great fighter, and the people that can match with him are only those older than him.

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

[alarrylarrie]

I am catching up lol I read your tags on one post-you sadi things woth harry will go south?what do you mean with that?(I know what that means but he had a lot of potential “going south”situations but its like he is bulletproof

He’s not.

And let me be PERFECTLY CLEAR I am not rooting for Harry to take a tumble? Not at all. If I could shelter him from it, if I could curl up around him and Louis and hiss any time any issue/scandal lapped at their feet… lol I would.

But I can’t. So. I can only observe and say what I think.

The rate at which he is working is untenable and absolutely cannot be sustained. And eventually, the public writ large will tire. We have the attention span of goldfish, after all.

Does this mean he’ll be cancelled and disappear forever? Nah. I have a feeling we’re gonna get the Taylor Swift model from him (don’t send me hate about this I’m not even going to read it. You don’t have to like her at all but she does exist in the world, so.) Taylor has done this thing over the last few years where she pops into culture, makes a boatload of money, and then falls off the face of the earth for anywhere from a few months to a few years. She is someone who knows A LOT about the perils of overexposure. And the game of like “now you see her, now you don’t” has actually benefited her massively.

Harry *will* hit a critical mass. He just will. There is already rumblings of it, but I promise there is a point that something gives. I can’t think of a single celeb of his status who hasn’t faced some sort of tumble. Not a career ender! After all, some people are STILL paying to see Adam Levine perform. But where he is, there’s too much pressure and there are too many ways to “fall” in this day of social media. I don’t know when or how but I really do think we’re catapulting there. And hey, if I’m wrong, then that’s a good thing! It means Harry truly is different than every other musician in the history of ever, and so, I will, I don’t know, send Jeff a fruit basket as an apology or something.

[just-prime]

WondLa ep 1 : go sit in the corner and think about what you've done

Prepare yourself for two things : A) Wow this story beat was so much better in the book + B) Wow this artstyle really sucks the life out of the world

Okay, if nothing else, Eva's design is really really cute. Though I don't know why they're pronouncing it Eh-va instead of E-va...like Eve which was what I always assumed was the reference.

Also, having just reread the book, the first chapter starts off in such a facinating way because you have that split second of "Oh no is she actually dying?" before the simulation is revealed. And I get that they want to run us through Eva's entire childhood, but the book does such a better job of showing us the world through Eva's eyes. Also I hate the new design/talkativeness of the Omnipod.

NO NO NO NO NO, WHY are they doing all of this context with Cadmus??? Cadmus was never even fully explored until book 2! Eva being in the dark about Cadmus's role in everything is kinda pivotal. Cadmus is a mystery that Eva has to figure out over the course of the books. Teased in the first book, explored in the second and third. Having Holo-Cadmus show up is just giving the game away. As well as the explanation about Earth.

As assumed, I hate hate hate Muthr's new design. Book Muthr is very clearly not human, a cool looking robot. It gives a sense of unease for anyone familiar with the genre, and makes us instinctually weary. And yet those expectations are subverted as Muthr's devotion and love for Eva is explored and cemented. By making her this lovable very human looking smoothed out plush, it robs the story of being able to have those more subtle interactions with the audience.

Surprise surprise they've aged Eva up, from 12 (in the book) to 16...for some reason. So much of the joy and fear of the book comes from Eva's fearlessness, a sort of recklessness only found in children. She has meetings with toys that she hides away in a shaft of the Sanctuary, she's held onto the WondLa since she could walk, she's terrified a good 2/3rds of the time and yet continuing in.

This Eva seems to just wander into things.

INCLUDING BESTEEL! Instead of him attacking on his own, it's Eva waving a light at him which shows him where to break in!

Aaaand she just fell off a cliff.

~Post Ep thoughts~

Wow, I kinda hate everything about this. I know I said I would watch all 7 episodes but honestly I might bail.

They've added in a few weird things.

First off, Eva just found the WondLa. In the first episode. None of her holding on to it for years and wondering. Nope, she's just exploring the service tunnel (which she also only found just now) and finds a fucked up hatch to the surface. Stuck in the hatch is the WondLa and it had a note on the back that said "EVA FIND ME" which is just very strange and I'm guessing it's connected to the main second change.

Secondly, instead of all the sanctuaries being connected, there are just meant to be 6 kids per sanctuary with their own wing. What Eva finds is the tunnel to the rest of the main sanctuary. Unclear what happened to the other kids, though it's implied they are either dead or never existed. This is such a strange way to go about it, and means that the world lacks the isolating feeling that Eva experiences when she realizes that she is the only human, and while fellow book readers will know that Eva is not exactly alone either the whole point of the first book was to drive home the alien aspect of the world and the Eva being very much alone.

Fucking hell these episodes are only 20 minutes but it took me a full hour given how much I was pausing to angrily write down my notes.

Okay, onwards to episode too. We'll see how this goes

[ardnin]

My thoughts on Splatoon 3′s Hero Mode

Since I haven’t really talked about it too much I started wrting down my thoughts on the story of the new Hero Mode and oops it got quite long lol

So click keep reading if you’re interested in my thoughts!

In many aspects the Hero Mode was really great and I absolutely loved most things like the actual levels, the music and especially Alterna as a setting and the lore around it. The detailed lore on humanity's downfall and construction of Alterna blew me away and they didn’t lie when they said we’d get to know where Inklings came from because they described the cause for the evolution of these species in surprising detail. I always especially love lore about humanity in Splatoon, so to have this much about it and also stuff like actual “human music” with the background music on the Alterna sites was easily my favorite part of it. However, lore and story are different things, and while the lore was great the story was really disappointing.

I think the main story just feels really flawed, which is frustrating since it might steer the lore into an uninteresting direction, at least for my taste, but it also leaves behind plot holes and kinda ruins how sensible Splatoon lore has been up until this point. The entire Mr Grizz plot is just extremely bad and it’s not even the fact that he’s a bear. I know this is the thing people are memeing about lore fans malding because he’s a bear but that’s not even the problem. I think having a sentient bear that was once on the humans Ark Polaris and then came crashing down to earth to grow mad at the lack of mammals is a premise that could work, since we have a similar deal with how the Judds also are mammals from human times that possess human level intelligence, probably through human experimentation. I can even excuse the lame justification for the insane plans of Mr Grizz since he may have just grown mad over time.

My problem is the amount of unnecessary plot points and unthoughtful explanations for Mr Grizz and Grizzco. What is this nonsense with Grizz needing Cuttlefish’s “brain”? Is it the crystals inside that he needs to make the ooze? But at that point Grizz should already be done with producing all of it right? All this talk about “needing a representative for earth” and then Grizz just launches the Rocket without any explanations.

I do have some ideas why he might’ve needed Cuttlefish, but with the rest of this story I don’t have high hopes there will be any sensible official explanation for this. To me it just feels like they did it only to create a fake dramatic moment and they wanted to “kill” Cuttlefish without knowing a better way to do it.

It just doesn’t feel fleshed out and you also notice this with stuff like ORCA and its test chambers. They don’t even explain why ORCA has these Inkling weapon optimized tests for the player character when the computer was meant to provide testing for humans in these facilities. In the Octo Expansion, there was a clear reason why Agent 8 was going through these tests, because Tartar actually was looking for people from the current societies in Splatoon, that’s why these test chambers existed. But here there is no clear reason for it. It just feels like “oh people liked Octo Expansion so let’s do the same thing again” without putting the effort into the reasoning behind these tests ORCA does.

The biggest problem for me though is the connection between Mr Grizz and Grizzco. Because the connection is absolutely unnecessary. They destroyed all the depth Grizzco had as a company by saying that Mr Grizz founded the company. How would this work? They said power eggs are an important energy source for the Inkling world, but now the whole company is just a vehicle for Grizz to produce Fuzzy Ooze? Where the game itself doesn’t explain why he even needs the eggs? Does Grizzco not contribute to the world's energy needs after all? The entire plot of Return of the Mammalians could’ve worked without Grizzco’s involvement and the power eggs at all, they lifted the mystery behind Grizzco in the most boring way possible. I was hoping for Grizzco to be this dubious company led by actual people in the Inkling world with an interest in money and power by being an important pillar in the security of the cities as well by fending off Salmonids, entangled in many shady networks the company would have real ambitions for power within the Inkling world, and not be a hollow plot vehicle only existing for Grizz to realize his plan. And this could’ve been easily avoided if they said that Mr Grizz only took over an existing company and basically ordered the eggs from them, while the actual people running the company still had their own interests. But they had to do it in the most mundane and boring way possible by saying he “made” the company, without giving any thought about maintaining this sense of depth Grizzco had if it had actual people from the Inkling world running it with their own shady ambitions. And the worst part is that after the Hero Mode, it is implied Lil Judd is now “running” the company. Why can’t they just let Grizzco be an actual interesting company ran by shady people? Why do they set up another dumb mammal related thing with Lil Judd? My biggest fear is they double down on the evil mammal plot and make another similar thing with Lil Judd. I was hoping the thing with him being “evil” was just a joke plot and not relevant to the main lore and story of the game, but now this is a real possibility. It would just be the exact direction I was hoping the game’s story would not take.

But please don’t take this criticism too heavily. Overall this is still the most impressive Hero Mode they ever made and I appreciate the ambition they had with it. The criticism is purely about the story and not the entire experience.

Here’s some additional bonus-thoughts I had that I cut from the main write up since it’s more like smaller disappointments than anything else since it’s partly things that would’ve been unrealistic to expect anyways:

“Another thing that slightly disappointed me was that the Crater segment was seemingly building up something huge - they literally mocked the previous game’s Hero Modes with it -  only to send us to Alterna and use the exact same formula as the older Hero Modes. The Octavio bossfight was so fucking cool and I was really hoping that after that, Octavio and Cuttlefish would accompany us together, and there would be some more interactions between the two with some actual story segments that would happen as the game went along. Instead they just made the two vanish and saving Cuttlefish became the ultimate goal for 90% of the story and it was basically the same as ever with no story content during the middle of the game aside from the Deep Cut encounters. And Octavio literally only shows up at the very finale out of nowhere and there is absolutely no character development for him or Octavio. He doesn’t even show up at the camp in the end and the only mention of Cuttlefish about all this is “Who would’ve thought Octavio isn’t that bad”.

In parts it feels like to me the devs bit off more they could chew with this because there definitely is a lot of ambition since there’s even more cutscenes than in Octo Expansion, but with moments like the revival of Cuttlefish that feel like it was supposed to be an emotional moment, the timing and pacing of the scene was so bad and everything happened so fast it felt funny and silly more than anything else, which is sad because this could’ve been a nice emotional moment. But even that isn’t that bad since it’s their first time doing cutscenes at this scope and they will probably improve in the future.”

[fala-alfredo-pasta]

On the topic of Nagito resenting Izuru, I actually think it could go beyond that. Something that I'm not totally convinced about is none of Class 77 having any hard feelings towards Hajime. While them loving him inside the simulation makes perfect sense, would that really carry over smoothly once they were back out? Because his actions led to both them being brainwashed and for their deprogramming session being sabotaged in the first place. And to add insult to injury, he can take some solace in feeling less "tainted" than they are. Izuru had more autonomy and self-control during the Tragedy, while they were reduced to vicious idiots acting on whatever violent impulse came to them. Like with Sonia, she has to live with being known to the world as the tyrant queen who brought her homeland to ruin (though I personally like to headcanon that Novoselic is recovering). Meanwhile for the few people who are aware of a 15th Remnant, Hajime is "that one other dude with the long hair that we're not even sure killed that many people". I mean if I came out of the NWP with all that mental (and possibly physical) baggage, and the dude in our group who was most responsible for the rest of us becoming so fucked up was conversely the least guilty of us AND got handed a thousand super-talents...well I think I'd be a wee bit resentful and jealous. And going back to Nagito, it also seems a bit unrealistic to me that in most fanfics there doesn't seem to be any resistance from him to accepting medical aid from Hajime. Or dismay at discovering it was done while he was in a coma. Because on top of him probably not feeling like he'd want to prolong his life, accepting that kind of aid from the former Izuru would probably feel kind of infantilizing to be honest. Dude gets handed everything you ever wanted including a better version of your luck, he betrays Hope's Peak because he's bored, does absolutely nothing while someone dear to you is murdered and you and your classmates get brainwashed, sets things up so that your attempted suicide will actually result in you getting possessed by your nemesis...and now you're just meant to let him assert the power of a doctor over you and welcome him as your savior? I just think there'd probably need to be a moment where Nagito is convinced to accept treatment, rather than it being done to him without his consent. Make him feel assured that he has agency and control over his own body, and that continuing to live was his own choice. Because otherwise I think it could get really nasty. " I don't care that you're the most talented man alive. Even if I'd wanted to live, you, of all people on this planet, YOU are the last human being on Earth that I would want help from."

Ooo this be a spicy take! But some very good points! First off, sorry for taking so long to reply to this question it just this got me back into my Dangan theorist mode, and I wanted to replay all of Chapter 0/6 as well as read a summary of Zero in order to re-examine how the game and novel present Izuru Kamukura.

I’ll try my best not to derail this because Izuru’s whole existence and backstory is just…..such a brain worm for me that I can speculate on for hours. There’s just so much we don’t truly know if we’re basing this solely on the games (which I usually prefer to do seeing as the anime is filled with contradictions). But, doing so would mean having to excuse his involvement (or lack of) in preventing Chiaki’s murder and class 77’s brainwashing since there’s nothing within the games that indicates such things happening since even within game it flat out states Junko manipulated her high power connections (ie: the Ultimates), one by one and not in a batch.

She really only used video footage of explicit killing to manipulate the Reserve Course into rioting (Dr0), the rest of the world into more despair (Dr1) and as a way to taunt the Future Foundation (SDR2). Hell, technically, there is no proof that Chiaki actually existed in real life if we’re going only by the games too. That was something canonized by the anime.

Well okay. There may be ONE thing in the second game that can potentially confirm Chiaki’s existence in the real world and that’s her presence being listed in the book Nagito got with everyone's info. However, this was given to him by Monokuma and Nagito did destroy any of the information regarding his classmates time in and out of  school that could have very well revealed that Chiaki wasn’t ever there—but I digress and this aint about Chiaki rn this is about Izuru.

What we do know of him through the game is that he sees himself as being used by Junko and thus brought in a flash drive with her AI to insert into the Neo World Program as a virus so he could use her instead. This feels contradictory though, if the end result would be Junko taking over all their bodies. You can’t even argue that he did it so Hajime could override his present self and come back because that would have happened regardless (that was literally what was SUPPOSED to happen). So then why bring Junko back? How was he using her in that regard? Well, the only thing I can think of is that he pretty much already knew how it was all going to end, and that creating a killing game was the only way to ensure everyone stayed alive whilst retaining their old memories thus decreasing the chance of them falling back into Ultimate Despair when re-awakened and in a way saying “fuck you” to Junko’s despair and destroying the last remnants of her both in name and digitally.

Cool beans. He still lied to them all though. Junko states that each of them willingly went into the program knowing well that her virus was going to force them into a killing game to cause despair. Izuru, though, didn’t tell them his whole plan or how it was truly going to end, otherwise no one would have joined. And that’s not necessarily bad–he was doing it for their own good! Except, well, there’s not conclusive proof that he did so for their sake (and since we don’t know if Chiaki existed irl we don’t know if he did this for her). Also given how indifferent he is in-game, the fact that his surgery left him emotionally distant, and his lack of connection with class 77, well it’d be easier to believe that Izuru did this all purely out of self interest in a way to get “revenge” at Junko and perhaps alleviate his boredom.

Now, present Hajime WOULD have an emotional investment in class 77 and it’s that reason he sticks around to help them recover. But, honestly, I agree that the ex-remnants would take some time to come around to fully trusting him again because remember: they ARE still recovering from despair. It would not be surprising if their residual remnant emotions feel betrayed by him for lying to them and essentially killing off Junko for good. Add in their in-game memories conflicting with their past memories every time they see Hajime and he’s not quite the same Hajime they befriended thus reminding them that he’s also  that guy who just randomly showed up one day then manipulated them into a scheme for seemingly his own self interest, yeeeah it might take them a while before being buddy buddy with him.

Though they will eventually, but let’s focus on Nagito for a bit because he’d be the absolute last person to come around in fully trusting Hajime/Izuru. Because you see, while it was stated that the remnants agreed to be part of the killing game, we know for a fact that not ALL of them did so. And we know this because of chapter 0. In it, we see Nagito meeting Izuru for the first time (as Nagito literally says he’s never seen Izuru before), thus Izuru has not been in contact with Nagito to inform him of the plan (which actually brings into question WHY Nagito is even there/agreed to re-programming but that’s a theory for another day). We also see Nagito being very confused about Izuru’s talking about his flash drive with Junko’s AI in it. And, although he doesn’t fully understand what Izuru is planning, what he takes from it is that he’ll be able to see Junko again and get the chance of killing her himself. Izuru does not correct him or inform him of anything else. Meaning, Nagito knows absolutely nothing of the killing game he unknowingly signed up for nor of the possibility of his body being taken over by Junko.

In other words: NAGITO DID NOT CONSENT TO THIS AT ALL.

Unlike his classmates who can forgive Hajime’s actions as Izuru because yeah technically they DID agree to it, Nagito was not even informed much less had the option to say yes. You can argue that Izuru did so intentionally knowing that Nagito’s strange half-remnant state and intense resentment towards despair and Junko would have made him too much of a risk to the plan that is was better to leave him in the dark, but it still doesn’t change the fact that Nagito didn’t get a choice. Add in our previous discussion of why Nagito would be resentful towards Izuru because of all his gifted talents along with this and I’d say yeah, Nagito wouldn’t be all that welcoming toward accepting Hajime’s help post game.

This doesn’t even add in your note on pro-longing his life without his input or anything from the anime, so if Chiaki’s death was actually used as a trigger for class 77 and Izuru could have done something about it–YEAH that’s going to make the resentment exponentially worse.

So your last tidbit of Nagito getting a chance to decide something for himself just hits so strongly given he never got the chance to do so before. It’s the least he deserves now.

[naughtynanzhu]

new copypasta just dropped

guy was mad that another guy posted a video of him setting up a romantic date night at home for his wife, saying women never do anything for men except give bjs and MAYBE stay loyal and it was very long winded and wild:

image text:

"Why don't girls/females/woman do nice things for men?? "oh such a beautiful date thanks babe, I ensure I won't cheat on you for a little while and will stay loyal, until the next time you do this, unless you take too long, oh and and here's a bj... because that's all i've ever bring to the table.." Why don't woman set up nice things for men??? Do they not like men and prefer men suffer while they enjoy the luxurious of all the things men provide..... Like what do woman do to court or cater to their husbands needs??? This is what's complete BS about the dynamics of society and it really halves the enrichment of the civilization... Because Woman just want a free ride always and give nothing back but a "bj" Imaooo That's the most love a woman can show to a man???? And being loyal... (which is day one fundamental behavior for a relationship) Really???? I don't get it... Seriously what do woman do above and beyond like this?? I know a woman can't name nearly one example.... And just say some incomplete nonsense like "you have issues " hahaha. That's woman projecting their issues that they don't do anything for men. Sad world to live in. because they think their existence is good enough.. how about a man's existence is good enough? Because men run and protect the entire world. Woman need to be doing these things for men. Actually. I'm a warrior at heart and am willing to go the greatest lengths. The woman need to be catering to the men. I'm as manly as it gets and i'll challenge that against any man.. Making woman much less powerful, but we are inherently equal by existence. So actually the woman need to be courting the man.. The man holds a much more important role. This is called Simping for entitled girls who believe they deserve this. While they're probably cheating and being disloyal. Woman really are the devil."

he was then asked what he does for the world and had the most amazing reply:

image text:

"If you only knew little man. My father was airlifted to the hospital on the job, he was paid less his entire life. My mother was the breadwinner. He also stepped in front a man with a gun to save our families life. My mom worked inside the A/C her entire career. Her brother fell off a 2 story roof from heat exhaustion working construction his entire life and died on the job a few years ago. My grandfather has a purple heart. I protect this entire world in ways no one walking this Earth knows. I also have multiple documented rescues in Ocean Rescue where civilians would had died without my attendance. I have double rescues, meaning two adults at once, and other rescues on multiple occasions. I've had 12 street fight KO's protecting my family and friends all in self defense. All bigger than me. My friends call me the Giant Slayer. There's no woman on the planet that could endure the circumstances i've been in. I grew up surfing, in athletics, trained in the harshest environments during hurricanes with Navy Seals. I won National Championships in College Water polo in California. You can't be a stronger swimmer than a water polo player, not even a navy seal, because they don't practice water combat and wresting for 7 years. Only a summer at BUDS. WP is an olympic contact sport, with cuts and stitches every game. I've knocked ppl unconscious in the water in self defense during games. I carry lethal. capabilities with my bare hands and am willing to execute those actions to protect people I love from evil. I grew up with world champion fighters CFFC and in the UFC, my uncle was also a golden glove boxer in FL. Strangers have personally thanked me for protecting them, saving their child's life. These occasions could have been you or one your family members. It's all relative, you wouldn't wonder who I am then. I also fight the good fight for civilians. Against the biggest cooperations and banks in the world. Recovering millions of dollars in settlements for disadvantaged policyholders in neglected claims. Working along the top forensic engineers, attorneys, the biggest contractors, and private judges in my state."

amazing. fucking g*d tier.

[1007xf]

With the 4th of August just around the corner, I was thinking about a little something The Tapestry does that I really like and that is its portrayal of how it is to be a weird lonely little nerd.

Warning comically huge rant. I wasn't planning for it to be this long. I do not know what possessed me. It's 2:30 in the morning.

In Homestuck proper, the beta kids are also lonely kids who only really have eachother, however Homestuck's setting kind of obscures this fact because Beta Earth, really, truly, feels empty. Unless there is something I'm forgetting (I haven't read actual Homestuck in a while, oops. I should really re-read.) Beta Earth is just normal 2009 Earth. And you can see that if you look at all of the cultural references in it. Earth Beta isn't empty because all of John's shitty movies had to have been produced by someone, because someone had to have been frequenting Bro's weird puppet porn website, because we literally see other human beings talk trough the Internet on Dad's PDA and such (I wonder whatever happened to fedoraFreak haha). Beta Earth isn't objectively empty, of course. Yet it feels like so, because its main cast seems to only superficially exist in it. You could probably assume John, Rose and Dave all went to school (funnily enough I looked it up and April 13th 2009 was a Monday. Damn brats, skipping middle school so they can contribute to the creation of a new Universe.) because that's what kids their age do (Jade doesn't count for obvious reasons). Yet we never really seem to see or hear about all that. These kids only interact with eachother and their guardians (well, the living ones anyway), and so it's hard to see Beta Earth as a planet with a living breathing ~6880 billion humans on it. It's really more of a cardboard cutout of Earth, where the idea of culture and people is there, but none of the moving parts are present.

And so, it really feels like, even though Jade is the only one who is actually secluded, all 4 kids live in isolation, their only window to social interaction being their computers and the Pester Chum client. It feels like John, Rose, Dave and Jade are the only real individuals on Earth, because even their guardians don't feel like much more than placeholders or just vessels for one joke or stereotype. And this makes it seem like the kids are placed in this impossible full yet empty world, which is not something any of us are living in (I hope so!).

Most lonely people aren't alone . You can't say Homestuck's portrayal of loneliness, especially at that young pre-teen to teen age is accurate because it literally feels like the cast is alone (sans Jade bla bla I said this already) and so of course they'd be lonely. In any case, it portrays being lonely (take a shot everytime I write this word. Or don't! It depends on how suicidal you're feeling at this particular moment) all the same, just in a different (and less likely) way.

And with that bigger than I expected speil about Homestuck out of the way, let's get to the actual post. It has been said already the The Tapestry is an amazing MSPFA on so many fronts, but I'll say it again, just because it deserves it. The Tapestry is great, go read it if you haven't.

The main cast of the comic (sadly not counting Sedranovel, Limeweld and Expanaiver. I know they're technically also protagonists but they just.... don't really fit the idea I'm trying to portray here. Sorry!) is also 4 youths who play a God Damn Game. They're aliens too, but they're "like a human but..." type of alien, so their world is not all that different form ours. And a thing you'll notice right away as you start reading the comic is the emphasis that is placed on the worldbuilding, from the grand aspects like the the Solar System on the alien world and its geographical and political structure to the minute aspects like a mecha anime or the educational system of just one of many nations. Right of the bat, unlike Beta Earth, Siltsphere is bustling with life, culture, conflict. It helps that we also get to literally see other setyrs, lots of them in fact. It's nice eye candy, since they're usually part of the huge sweeping landscape scenery porn pages, but it's also a stark reminder of what is at stake. All of the supernatural fuckery afoot now affects not only the protagonists but also a planets entire civilization.

And yet, the main cast seems to gravitate towards eachother only. And unlike in Homestuck, we know that they have acquaintances and that they talk to others. Sosav mentions her neighbors, Handa makes friends with the pagan kids at his school, Deime tries (and fails) to connect with his countrymen. They have a form of social lives, each different, but they exist and they acknowledge the existence of a complex world with lots of real individuals. But they're all best friends with eachother. Oenia mentions that she doesn't really have friends outside of the other 3 and I think this is true for all of them.

Each off the 4 main characters is a bit weird and they're all definitely huge nerds. That is to say, they're all very passionate about their interests. And, sadly, intense passion, especially when directed at something not viewed as necessary to society, can sometimes be very alienating. Because most of the time it's hard to find someone who shares the same spark of love for that thing. I think Handa illustrates this problem the best, what with his... I want to say inferiority complex but that sounds kind of mean haha. He definitely loves history and art, and he is good at them too. Excellent, really. And yet, we hardly see him proud of his achievements. Because he thinks that his talents are a waste of time and energy, because they're not "necessary". Because those passions don't prepare you for a "real job". Because the world goes round thanks to the work of scientists, not artists. This is all really relatable to me personally, to a scarily accurate degree. And this sort of thinking is sisyphean, really. Because you'll reach a high where you think you did good, where you look at your art and say "wow, I've gotten better, this genuinely looks good!", but then the little shitty voice at the back of your mind will remind you that drawing won't help you solve cancer or launch rockets or whatever and therefore you're useless to society. And if this thinking sounds dramatic that's because that's how it is. Sosav literally calls Handa out on this, which shines a light on the fact that, since Handa lives in an almost-utopia society, he really shouldn't have to worry about stuff like that. And he shouldn't, but he does, because this line of thinking doesn't make sense anyway!

I wrote all that just for one of the characters! Imagine if sat down to dissect the others too. I could write 3 different posts just about Deime. But I won't because then I'll probably forget what the point of the post actually is. Yeah, there's a point. Remember the point? Jesus.

The point about being a lonely stupid nerdy kid. Like I said before, being super into something can sort of isolate you from your peers, because it's just hard to connect with those you don't have a lot in common with. But that doesn't mean you won't talk. You'll greet eachother, have meaningless conversations about whatever during recess, maybe you'll even hang out outside of school. But, really, there will never be anything there. Because it just feels like your brains are wired differently. Of course, I feel like the parallel to neurodiversity is starting to become obvious here. I'd say more, but I'm not an expert and while I do suspect that I am neurodivergent myself, I was never and probably will never be diagnosed by a professional, so I can't really say I'm in a position to write about this.

That's how you become lonely without being alone. And it's worse, because you'll see the people (or setyrs, I guess) in front of you and they're your age, and they're just like you, and they're going trough the same life experiences, but there just isn't any spark there. The thread to connect to them just isn't long enough.

That's why you need other weirdo nerds in your life. And thank fuck for the Internet. Because otherwise, where would I be ranting into the void about some fancomic to probably one or two people, or maybe just myself? Hah.

The main characters are all into very different things and they're from pretty different environments, yet they seem to click together anyway. And it's because I think when you're a passionate nerd, seeing someone just like you makes you admire them. And they don't have to be way better or more skilled than you, they could be just at your level, yet you feel enamoured by their passion nonetheless and they feel the same for you and that's friendship! Handa admires Sosav for her physics knowledge and Oenia for her art improvement, Deime, despite his bickering with Handa, definitely recognizes his (comically potent) art skills and Oenia is amazed by Deime's "search engine skills". It's all really cute. I love it when in bigger groups of friends you can tell that everyone is friends with everyone and they all have unique relationships with eachother.

That being said, I believe that, miraculously, I may be reaching the end of my... whatever this is. This thought vomit. This is mainly just me writing down whatever came to mind with only a rough idea of what I wanted to say. Is more or less a clusterfuck but I did manage to say some things I had on the brain. High chance there's grammar or spelling mistakes in here I didn't catch on my proofread, so sorry for that. Good night 👋 and read da damn comic.