#i get what he was going for and this is a common motif for him but yeah I didn’t rlly like this batch of teasers 😭 styling is ugleee

[cinematheory]

not rlly expecting artistic genius from so10 and i’m okay with that 🫶

[artbyblastweave]

As a person that knows a lot more about capeshit than me, what’s the meta-textual significance of the Superpowers in The Power Fantasy abstaining from establishing secret identities?

Principally it's to signal that the characters, while informed by the traditional superhero paradigm, exist largely outside of it.

Contemporary superhero fiction has a complicated relationship with the concept of The Secret Identity. When you come at the premise fresh without years of ossified genre convention, you get hit with the double whammy that a civilian identity is increasingly difficult to keep secret and that even if you buy into the idea of doing vigilante shit in secret to avoid going to jail, it's still going to take some extra work to get to the finish line of grown men calling themselves "Batman" or "Ant Man" and expecting to be taken seriously.

So, retellings will often go out of their way justify how these characters could develop these public identities semi-organically. "Superman" is usually not Clark Kent's idea in modern retellings- the media names him that, Lois names him that, and he runs with it. The Batman has the fantastic recurring gag that Bruce appears to actually self-identify as the comically overwrought "Vengeance," but the bat motif led to everyone just calling him Batman instead. The X-Men have advanced the idea, in a couple different forms, that "Mutant names" are a sub-cultural thing brushing up against a cult thing, a ceremonial way of setting yourself above and apart from baseline humanity. And you've got military callsigns, obviously. I think that's where "Ant-Man" and "Hawkeye" come from in the MCU.

In The Power Fantasy, none of the superpowers have a dual identity because they've all got extremely specific political (or artistic) projects that don't mesh well with that. To a degree I think this is playing in the same space as X-Men, where a lot of the cast have shifted over the years from being public ciphers to being public activists whose real names are on the news alongside their code names when they blow something up. But even if they don't have dual identities, the superpowers do have identities, personas, nicknames; there's a mix of deliberate image-building and outside-designation-by-society occurring. "Heavy" Harris is a thing an activist or cult leader who controls gravity could plausibly come to be called in the course of Moving and Shaking. Masumi is mentioned, in passing, to also go by the name of "Deconstructa," which reads like either a pretentious artist thing or a common-parlance nickname she picked up after the Kaiju thing. Eliza Hellbound is clearly not that woman's real name, but also, it is- and it's descriptive, and she's certainly powerful enough that that's what she gets to be called if she wants. "Jacky Magus" is really really really obviously not what's on that guys birth certificate, but it's also the only name he has that actually matters. Ettiene gets a whole monologue about the necessity of constructing himself as a figurehead that human governments can work with. He wears bright yellow, he gives interviews, and I will eat my hat if his actual last name is Lux. These people are similar to traditional superheroes in that they are constructing larger-than-life identities, they're playing a game, they're selling the world on specific narratives about themselves. But the truth that they're covering for is never that they've got some kind of secret civilian life waiting for them when they clock out. By choice or otherwise, all six of them are simply well past that.

[cowboycannibalism]

Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Smashing Pumpkins// Saw 2004// Caged Rat, Soul Asylum// The Jig Is Up, Ice Nine Kills// Rats!Rats!Rats!, Deftones// Hatchet, Movements

I know there's heavy association of Adam with the dog motif (which I love) but I swear I've heard Bullet with Butterfly Wings on the radio way too many times during the last month while thinking about Saw for it to be a coincidence

Rats symbolize impoverishment, disease, the lowest of low.

"He's not a cop. He's a bottom feeder, just like you."

Jigsaw calls him angry and apathetic, and we'll be honest here, he is on the surface. He calls his apartment a shithole, he knows his job is shitty but it keeps him fed, and he's just dragging himself through life because he's pretty much already convinced himself this is as good as its going to get.

But here's the other thing about rats: they will do anything to try to survive. Sometimes, that means just doing what they've been conditioned to do by the world around them.

Have you ever seen a rat backed into a corner? or stuck in a trap? they will scream and thrash violently to try and free themselves.

From the moment he wakes up in the tub, Adam is moving. Throughout the movie, he has a hard time staying still, trying to escape, trying to survive. He is loud and frantic. Even though he is pessimistic about life, he wants to live.

also, to swing back around to the Smashing Pumpkins lyrics in particular, I thought a lot about how Adam mentions his ex, thinking he was "too angry." If you've dug into that song a little, it's interpreted in a lot of ways but a common one is oppression and being stuck in a situation/world where you're aware of escape but incapable of it. Adam knows he should appreciate life more, but what's the point when he lives the way that he does and nothing seems to ever get better? Anger feels like the only option and honestly sometimes it is.

(not to get too political or whatever, but if we never get angry enough to do anything, nothing will ever change. Don't let anyone tell you that emotions don't belong in politics/social issues because that's a fucking stupid take.)

[lyculuscaelus]

Just a gentle reminder that EPIC the Musical is a musical. It’s not a movie script, not a play adaptation, but a musical itself. Which means, to talk about it with anything less is inorganic, is missing an important piece of the story itself. Because it’s not just the lyrics that display the scene—music tells its own story too.

The way the soundscape for each saga (and sometimes different songs themselves) is so unique that it creates the atmosphere for this certain event almost immediately, the experience of which you cannot go through merely by reading the script. With the Cyclops Saga we have a dark and edgy theme, with the Circe Saga we have a more tropical (mostly due to the drums) and at the same time elegant one (due to the strings), with the Underworld Saga we have this very gloomy theme which is straight up Underworld feels…this is very common for music, but it’s just something you won’t get from the script.

The way the delivery of so many lines is so good that you can feel the emotions so vividly—something lyrics alone can’t display. (Which is also the reason why there’re so many lamenting paragraphs in tragic plays and why there’re pauses between spoken lines in writings where writers describe the expression and movement of characters.) The way you can hear the anguish and desperation in the delivery of so many lines from Mutiny, the way you can feel the emotional struggle of Odysseus at the end of Thunder Bringer in the way Jay sings…there’re so many moments where you just feel the raw emotions coming from those lines that you can’t experience it by reading the lyrics and interpreting with wild guesses.

The way the reoccurring motifs and riffs tell so many things that lyrics won’t is already well-known. Danger is nearby motif already gives you the alert of what is to come; storm motif depicts a harsh encounter on sea that it captures that moment so well; that specific motif from those three songs (the beginning of the second verse of The Horse and the Infant, the first and second verse of Survive, the beginning of the second half of Mutiny) is foretelling the turning point of events (and also asking someone to kill the other being)…and then we have characters’ own motifs. Odysseus’s cunning motif shows the moment where he plots the course of action; Athena’s Warrior of the Mind motif already indicates her appearance and more; Polites’s Open Arms motif just destroys your emotions cuz why not; Eurylochus’s Luck Runs Out motif shows the development of the dynamics between him and his Captain…there’re so many to rant about that I just can’t put them all in this one post. As for the riffs, the most famous one is of course the way Athena and Odysseus and Telemachus sing “miiiiind”/“fiiiiiine”/etc. as Jay has already yapped about in his video, which just shows the dynamics between these three characters so perfectly. Hey look, another thing which the script won’t tell you.

And then we have these characters’ own instruments. I don’t even think I’ll need to elaborate on this one. Most of you have known that already and understood how genius this idea is even though it’s not Jay who came up with it. This is totally something you can only experience in the music itself, but meanwhile it says a lot about the scene already. As in Done For where Odysseus’s electric guitar continues playing under Circe’s lines which indicates he has taken hold of the situation already (even though temporarily). It might be a minor thing, but still it’s very well-thought, and sometimes even foreshadowing (like how Poseidon’s trumpets have already shown up in Storm).

…

There’re so many things to rant about this musical that a single post is far from enough to discuss them all. Here I’m only pointing out that EPIC is an organic combination of lyrics and music (and action when it comes to stage production which I believe it will eventually) that it’s impossible to treat them separately while still getting the whole story right. Once again, the piece you’re talking about is not a stage play—it’s a musical that is epic.

[ma4chestier]

actually, im not surprise anymore. he tried to kill himself at fricking 9 years old, he's capable of everything at this point.

umemiya may be a well-witted person wih good intentions and a charisma that can befriend anyone but when it comes to his mental strength.... im not so sure he's as strong as others, like sakura or... or no one actually. sakura is the strongest when it comes to the state of mind in a fight, the most stable. yes, he has abandonment issues but thats outside of a fight. we could see in almost every fight that everyone somehow gets distracted or is affected by emotions they shouldnt be distracted with, they're easy to manipulate in that state of mind, and im prerty sure endo knows it and thats how he managed to bring the old umemiya back to give takiishi a good fight he could enjoy.

endo says a lot of times that he isnt capable of a good character judgement, but he was capable in the past its just that he has become more thrown to please takiishi that he makes errors he didnt use to make about people, because whether he noticed or not, meeting takiishi changed the way he used to read other's motifs and actions. the way he can talk about umemiya that way proves that he is still capable to read people so well, even noticing sakura's worries (and being worried himself). he may not be able to read takiishi like a book, but thats no reason to not understand him, also something about not knowing what he will do next is part of the beauty endo sees in him, that spontaneous personality and disinterest in everything makes endo want to see more, to keep reaching to the unknown.

i dont know where i was going with this but yeah, i love these four dynamics like no others. and i know it wont turn out this way but im really hoping for takiishi to talk with sakura, just a couple of words would satisfy me, they dont even need to be directed to sakura he just needs to say something controversal to make sakura yet again have a crisis, that would be so cool

anyway, someone give sakura a hug please

sakura's trying to understand for the first time the reason why soemone fights. he hasnt question in his entire life why someome fights, he just assumes is a very common way to act, but umemiya changed his way of thinking inside a fight, with the "you can have a conversation with punches too", and im pretty sure sakura is trying to understand what he's trying to tell takiishi with his fists. we already know what takiishi is trying to make across, with the little snippet of his mind we were allowed to see, but we dont know what umemiya is thinking at this moment.

i think that apart from seeing that piece of hell that was takiishi's mind, satoru nii is making the fight in sakura and endo perspective as a whole, not letting us know what this two monsters are even thinking about, making the feeling of anticipation even greater

i love this series so fricking much, satoru nii is really amazing with their job, i love the visuals and metaphors they put in their work.

[lu-is-not-ok]

Hey There! More of a fun question I want to ask because of my own hype. if hong lu were to distort, what do you predict it will look like?

So I don't have a specific design in mind, but I have been rotating certain possible motifs and symbols that I could see PM using.

Also, I will be approaching this from the standpoint of the Two in One/Daiyu Baoyu theory, so instead of it being a single "Hong Lu Distortion", I'll be talking about the two distortions of both Daiyu and Baoyu. M'kay? M'kay.

First of all, one of them has gotta get turned into a Dragon. Hong Lu's base E.G.O already uses several motifs of serpents and dragons, and a dragon is already associated with the Yin and Yang abnormalities in Lobcorp.

If one turns into a dragon, then the other I think would turn into a Phoenix. While not really seen in relation to Limbus Hong Lu, phoenixes are actually a fairly common motif in DOTRC. It also would add to the yin yang of it all, as a phoenix is considered to be the yin to a dragon's yang.

As for which would turn into which... I'm not entirely sure. I kind of see Daiyu as the one who turns into a Dragon while Baoyu as the one who turns into a Phoenix. Mostly just based on the vibes, and also as a neat inversion of what the Family expects of them. After all, Baoyu/Hong Lu's Yang abno themeing is very much based on what he means to the Family, so him turning into the yin-associated Phoenix instead would be a neat little Fuck You to them.

Besides that, I could see a couple other motifs being used for their Distortions:

Flowers and Jadestones. Obvious motif, it's what their DOTRC counterparts were respectively before starting their human lives, and these symbols continue to be important even in Limbus, considering the overpresence of flower motifs related to Hong Lu is what initially made me consider the fact he could also be Daiyu.

Water and Aquatic motifs. Both as a reference to Hong Lu's base E.G.O, but also because it's one of the 'Distortion Motifs' that Moses describes in detail in DD, and I think it'd be neat for us to start being able to identify them in Limbus after we've met Moses there.

Fairy motifs. Purely because I think a reference to Disenchantment would be really fucking good considering what's likely going to be the trigger for the Distortion.

[arandomnerd810]

personal TADC character analysis

uh warning this is long lol

autism time let’s go (/not in a negative way i have autism) stretches hands * I’ll go in order of the character episodes cause why not we have it (see below) i’ll put periods but it will just be to make it more readable not to be intimidating lolll

btw im completely open to interpretations of characters changing throughout the series this is just for fun

Gooseworx has said this series is mostly focused on characters rather than lore, and from what we know, i truly believe it. I don’t think any of the current characters will abstract because of this.

(I put a version of this in the glitch inn discord theory thing so if you recognize it that’s why)

Pomni: we already know her deal pretty well, as we’ve already had her episode. uuuh if anyone’s going to do something important lore wise it will probably be her as she’s the main character but can’t rlly tell what that may be. to review ep 2 though she’s an outcast who has felt like she was nothing and is a logical thinker.

(Kinger and Zooble will there their focus episode but i put it in order of who was revealed to be the ep 3 focus first)

Zooble: From their design (the entire motif is it can be changed at any time) and the fact she doesn’t know his gender, we’re dealing with some pretty clear identity issues. Friends with Gangle seems cool excited for next episode to learn more about them!

Kinger: One of the most interesting characters so far. I feel like we will get to learn more about abstraction though Queenie, the X-ed out door that looks like a female version of him. If i had to guess, since Gooseworx said they were not siblings, they were a couple. (Also judging by his age and the fact he could have been married, he may have been a father yeowch imagine that) I can see the common theory of the insect collection implying he was a coder before getting trapped, but i could also see him being some random guy who just likes bugs lol. He seems like really sweet guy behind his constant anxiety and disassociating.

 Gangle: (My faveorite human rn) Her mask design can be interpreted in a lot of ways but it’s clear that the happy mask isn’t her real personality. My take on it rn is she doesn’t wana bother people with her stuff so she pretends she’s happy? She seems easily embarrassed and def has self esteem lower than the last circle of hell. What’s interesting though is she’s willing to stand up for herself from time to time, even though she’s easily shot down after.

Ragatha: Waaaay too nice for her own good. Also probably has self esteem lower than the last circle of hell and bases her self worth of others approval.  Though she’s been here the second longest, she seems a lot more normal than Kinger. Makes me question how long apart their introductions have been. Probably copes via escapism.

Jax: I can see why everyone is very interested in him cause me too. He seems like the only fourth wall breaky guy (unless you count Caine cause of his intro at the pilot)which is rlly interesting how did he figure out more than everyone else? what’s with the keys? i have no clue lmao. He’s an asshole who makes the best of his situation by torturing everyone else. At the end of the day though, he’s a human and was sad at kaufmo’s abstraction but he probably isolates himself so it would probably be the same for anyone

but waAitTt a moment

that’s 6 humans but Gooseworx said we would look into 7 (cause of the “other” part) in her twitter post talking about the character focus timeline so we know our fav character won’t be left behind ⁉️⁉️⁉️ I hear you not asking well my dear hypothetical person, who better to fill the 7th character than Caine?

Why you did not ask? Too bad i’m info dumping. First, he’s the main antagonist and alongside Pomni, the commercial face (or lack their of haha teeth and eye joke) of the series. he’s an important character and loved by many. (and hated equally if not more aside the point lmaooo)

Yes, gooseworx can lie about stuff but I think she’s smarter than to lead this heavy into Caine depth/ angst territory if there wasn’t going to be anything On top of that, the entire purpose of the timeline post was so we know our faveorite characters weren’t getting treated poorly. It’s unlike for a character based show to suddenly drop such a major character for some random other guy were introduced to later or smth. i mean cmon there’s three episodes after all the humans at least one of them has to be focused on my boy.

Caine: I believe he really does have good intentions and wants to help but just does not understand people at all. This means he’s like an anxiety disorder; it wants to help, solves some issues but creates 500 more. Judging by the Tumblr post, loneliness may play a big part in what’s to come? I’ve always had a feeling his front was extremely fake and his VA saying “breaks keyfable” (an act that pretends it’s true) supports that theory. Episode two gives some insecurity vibes when Zooble didn’t want to go on the adventure. I find that pretty interesting cause he didn’t care at all if people went on the gloink adventure or not. Maybe he puts some adventures over others and he could have been proud of the candy adventure cause more time and care was put into it and he made a new AI. Why did he blue screen? i feel like he could have some blockages on what he can say built in though im not sure why he was blocked then if he even was. one of the biggest questions i have ab him currently tbh. what’s with him grabbing his cane like that in ep 2? if i had to guess simply be nervous = that? His VA also knows some depth to him even though his focus episode is likely going to be at least one of the last 3 episodes, which they have not gotten to recording yet. You know what this means Caine angst solidarity club? Sad Caine so more fan angst appetizers before the main cannon feast let’s friccin go‼️‼️⁉️⁉️

(try to guess my fav impossible /j)

[azumasoroshi]

suzume no tojimari spoilers ! hi guys im Insane

literature analysis brain is going haywire so here’s a bunch of incoherent ramblings some themes motifs and symbolism i love in this movie because AAAAAAA

Love and Sacrifice.

Obviously, but like the different kinds of love and devotion and how they’re never perfect and sometimes self-destructive but they’re so powerful and just waughhh. It was so important to me how after exploding at her Tamaki (suzume’s aunt, ik im not the only one who forgets names) was like “you know I don’t feel that way all the time, right?” like not denying that yes, she has felt exhausted of taking care of Suzume and sometimes wished she didn’t have to take care of her, trying to be the parental figure she needs while also trying to not encroach on her sister’s memory. It means so much to me that she didn’t deny those feelings but instead told Suzume that it’s not how she always feels, because loving someone means sacrifice and ewughghgghfgfh im not putting this into words well but htrggfhgf.

and ALSO the reciprocation of kindness with daijin - as thanks for the taste of freedom at last, and wanting to be with someone whom you love but not really comprehending that what they want (that “suzume doesn’t love me” killed me) and how by the end daijin helped her pull souta out and sacrificed himself for suzume because he really loved her ggrgfggfhfnfnch

And just. everyday love. This is kind of a mix of themes and motifs but every time we flashed back to the memories of whatever abandoned place they were in - the simple “good morning”s and “be back soon” and “it’s so hot”s made me choke up. the mundane love of Chika and Suzume in their newly found friendship, Rumi’s kindness in picking Suzume up off the street and her love for her children, Serizawa’s platonic love for Souta letting him drive these two crazy women with crazy beef for 7 hours across Japan, there’s just so much expression of love and the hardships people go through because of it and rhgrjgrjhgdhgjhb

Mourning and Closure.

Makoto Shinkai himseld said that he wanted to write a story about “mourning deserted places” (at least according to Wikipedia) so this one is all but textual but like yeah. the motif of opening/closing/locking doors and locking the bike and things like that? AaAAaAaa

To close the gates, you need to imagine the emotions of people who once lived there - i can only imagine what Souta was thinking in the abandoned bathhouse area, but hrhggejghw the school and the amusement park and the shots we got of normal life in tokyo before the worm revealed itself in the climax, it just. really speaks to the beauty of everyday life. im a sucker for that kind of stuff as both a psychology major and just a weird person who thinks “man i wonder what happened to this person for the past 22 years of their life that led them to be here with me in this moment” whenever i pass someone in the grocery store. Hodaka could let japan be flooded in weathering with you because of his love for hina, but suzume’s whole arc was learning about the common people and living their lives and embracing all the kindness they had to offer to herself and others and it really hits that like. of course she can’t just let tokyo get destroyed to save Souta, every person in all of tokyo is just like Rumi and Chika and Serizawa and they’re all people who love and are loved. She finds herself in Souta’s place as one who stretches himself thin between being a gate closer and studying to be a teacher because he loves life as well, and-

oops i forgot i was talking about mourning and closure

anyway the doors keep getting reopened because the grief never fully goes away and the worm of “calamity” is letting yourself be consumed by the grief and destroying the people around you and not being able to move on, and it comes from the Ever-after becomes ever-after is a place where time doesn’t exist and you wish you could be there forever because it’s where you can relive the events of your past, it’s where you can live in denial that time moves forward and you have to move with it, it’s where Suzume goes after her mother dies because she wants people to stop giving her condolences and just give her her mom back. “Ever-after” in itself is a “happily ever after” - a place where mortals aren’t meant to go, no matter how beautiful it looks. Souta goes there too because he is the catalyst Suzume needs to go back and face Ever-after - and it’s no longer beautiful, but it’s torn apart by grief and everything is in flames. The idea of a keystone as well, locking the memories and hurt away, is one that Suzume removes to relive her memories and puts back in place when she’s ready to move on. htrhgfhgfghfghf. she won’t let souta be the keystone because she refuses to move on without him.

Also both Souta and his grandfather tell Suzume to just forget everything she’s seen, but it’s too late for that because connections aren’t so easily forgotten. Even when Tamaki couldn’t remember telling Suzume she’d be her new mother, that doesn’t change that she cared for her for the next 12 years anyway. Suzume visits Chika and Rumi by the end, and obviously she’s never forgotten her mother, both because her chair was still in her room by the start of the movie and because she looks like her by the end. Even though relationships change, they’re never forgotten in the movie, and I think that’s beautiful, really.

(also cool detail: 12 years ago is when the tsunami that killed suzume’s mother struck. the movie came out in 2023, and the touhoku earthquake/tsunami that inspired this film was in 2011. nice)

Reality vs Fantasy

The scenes where Suzume goes out into public again following stopping the worm from destroying Tokyo were especially poignant to me. This girl’s been going on a fantastical adventure with her talking chair and talking cat, meeting nice people and making friends, excited at the idea that she’s doing something important, but after Souta’s gone she shuts down. Her feet are bloodied, her clothes are destroyed, and people keep giving her strange looks and calling her homeless because she may have stopped the worm but even without being consumed by grief, it still isn’t pretty or picturesque. Standing out in Japanese society is discouraged, as most of us are well aware, but she’s been doing nothing but that with all the running around and talking to chairs and flying through the sky she’s been doing. Without a concrete goal in mind, without Souta as company, she’s alone in the world of adulthood and has no one to tell her what she should do, no Souta to guide her through Tokyo. And without that confidence or charm, people don’t come to her aid like they did before. It’s only once she finds her resolve to save Souta, quite literally walking in his shoes/footsteps, that the next helpful stranger (Serizawa) comes in.

She could imagine those abandoned places as alive, but the truth is that they were abandoned and will stay that way - none of them miraculously revived by the end, unless something happened in the credits that I couldn’t see through all my tears. Reality will not bring those places back, but what really matters is how we carry the memories of those places with us? I think. man maybe it’d be easier to write this post if i had actually seen the end credits

this post is really fucking long so im calling it here 😭 makoto shinkai has done it again. goddammit

[corviiids]

customary sparknotes for chapter 10

nobody asked this time i just got shit to say. don't read this post unless you've read chapter 10 of my akechi palace au fic "as you like it" because it will make 0 sense forever. here we go

the code for this part took way longer than i want to admit for it being so simple because it just kept breaking in really stupid ways and then it didn't work on mobile. it's fine. it's fine now. tell me if it's broken. don't tell me

i had this dream sequence part drafted back when i posted chapter 9. the thing that took so long was the action sequence, which is ALWAYS the thing that takes so long. i finished my first draft of this chapter about a month ago sitting in a hotel bar, and i got it to where it is now a few days ago sitting in the same hotel bar, so, thanks to that hotel bar and its fantastic jalapeno cocktail and very patient staff for sponsoring this chapter. not sponsoring actually the cocktails are expensive i sponsored myself. anyway

end of dumb preamble? beginning of dumb amble

this first bit takes place in ren's mind as a dream sequence after he gets hit with the sleep effect, basically. parts of it are laid out in a sort of mockup of a stageplay script, although obviously this isn't how you'd write a real script haha. i wanted to play with, like... akechi's palace is a theatre, but he and ren have a lot in common. in his own way, ren is a performer, too.

the scenes with the phantom thieves are all in past tense, which is how the flashbacks in this fic have been written. the recurring motif is how the phantom thieves interact with ren, mostly via his glasses, generally along the theme of how they see him. i didn't really make this explicit, but in all of these scenes, none of the thieves look him directly in the eye.

in the game, ren usually has two or three dialogue options. his narration in this moments are the options he didn't choose. he always chooses the one which is the least direct and the most deflective, because in these moments he is feeling vulnerable and being honest is too overwhelming. by the way, "don't look at me like that" is text that appears in one of p5's menus:

which i just find interesting.

the scenes with akechi, by contrast, are told in present tense. they're also rife with unreality. the setting changes as though it's a dream, which of course it is. it's unclear whether these scenes are an amalgam of things that happened that ren is mixing and remembering oddly, or if he's conjured them.

ok let's look at the script scenes as well. they're basically all retellings of ren's run-in with shido.

the idea is that in tokyo, ren spends a lot of time lying in bed replaying those moments in his head, wondering how else it could have gone. no matter how many times he plays it out, no matter how he thinks about regretting what he did, walking away, making a different call,

he always makes the same choice.

do you ever think about how disproportionate that trumped up assault charge was? ren, frustrated and bitter, has to wonder - if he was just going to get pulled up on assault anyway, what difference would it have made if he'd actually just fucking done it? at least gotten to do the thing he got busted for. for catharsis, or whatever.

unlike the phantom thieves, akechi DOES look ren in the eye

he doesn't let ren get away with dodging his questions, and he repeatedly asks ren what he actually thinks

and with akechi, ren is able to say what he's really thinking.

ok now the rest of the amble

i love writing a fic which has akechi's name plastered all over it and then repeatedly going SURPRISE! this is about ren. it's about ren.

ren's been really struggling with this whole hero thing a lot. i think this battle is where it really comes to a head, because all the shit akechi was giving him in the last chapter about the ethics of stealing a heart is really getting to him. he's wondering whether he's really doing this for akechi or if it's for his own satisfaction, plus the burden of being the leader of the phantom thieves weighs heavier and heavier because if he's not doing this for akechi then that means he's doing it for himself, which means he can't play this as self-sacrificial or selfless, which means his team is putting themselves at risk for him. he's disoriented and he gets put out of commission for his trouble, which just puts his team further at risk while he spirals and tries to do right by everyone. it's a chance for the phantom thieves to step up and save him - as their friend, not their leader. i love the phantom thieves and their dorky power of friendship.

i also really liked coming up with cognitive joker. the idea of the VIP Box being inhabited solely by shido and joker was super fun to me. shido is gone from akechi's cognition, which begs the question of why the box still exists if it was allegedly only there to seat the VIP, the person at the centre of akechi's struggles - obviously it's because the distortion has grown far beyond shido, who is no longer the only person akechi performs for. joker isn't there as a guest. he broke in, and he's unkillable. by the way, his hair is based on the persona super live key art from 2019:

look at his swoopy hair. isn't he cute? i wanna squish his cheeks.

how about that awakening

okay, here's a fun fact about the fucking awakening. here's a FEW fun facts.

1. i came up with the idea of fusing robin hood and loki into a third persona before i had even published chapter 1 (way back in 2019), which means i had that idea long before persona 5 royal was ever announced.

when p5r's marketing started up and was like "we're gonna fuse everyone's first and second personae for a third persona!" i was like (throws a chair at the wall)

2. my first idea for the third persona, back at that point, was for akechi's third persona to be adraestia. she was a greek goddess who later became identified with nemesis/rhamnousia, the goddess of retribution for hubris.

then fire emblem three houses came out, and i realised adraestia was only going to call to mind the black eagles. lol. i was like ok, that's fine, it doesn't really matter, and if it bothers me a lot, i can switch to naming her rhamnousia or something.

then THIS YEAR, i decided to check whether nemesis/rhamnousia existed in smt lore as a shadow already. and as it turns OUT, i had forgotten a VERY KEY FACT ABOUT PERSONA 3.

SHE'S TAKEN. BY A DIFFERENT JUSTICE KID. so i had to change tacks again.

this really left me floundering for a second i gotta say. and then i remembered that last year, i'd written a scene in a fit of pure self-indulgence in which akechi starts telling ren all about the iliad. (this scene appears in chapter 8.) when i wrote that scene, i hadn't really been thinking that hard about how it was going to affect the plot. i just thought achilles and akechi had some interesting similarities, and also, i wanted to talk about the iliad, so i wrote the scene and figured i could cut it if it stuck out too much. anyway, i remembered that scene and was like, holy shit hang on, i have an entire thing already set up for a mythological figure who represents akechi's soul. and it actually works way better than rhamnousia, whose connection with akechi's struggle here is pretty surface-level in comparison. here's a line from my planning doc:

pretty cool how in royal he literally does have twin fates: short and blazing or long and unremarkable

so that's how akhilleus became akechi's third persona. wow! what a happy accident! i mean im a genius and it was all planned from the start obviously. it just goes to show that sometimes you go on a stupid little infodump and it ends up solving a plot problem you didn't foresee an entire year later. fixation works.

akhilleus himself is really cool to me. if i had a persona, achilles would be mine, so i hope akechi fucking appreciates that i've donated him to the goro akechi cause. idk if any artists are keen on doing character designs for personae but of the suite of art i daydream about commissioning for this fic, key art for akhilleus is definitely up there. the woman hovering behind him is his mother, obviously - and akechi's.

this other thing

i also just wanted to mention this

i usually don't outline or plan fics very well, as you can probably fucking tell from the above. im just really short sighted when it comes to outlines and i usually can't see more than a few chapters in advance except for either vague shapes or VERY SPECIFIC SCENES, so doing this kind of intricate planning is a real challenge for me.

the goho-m thing is such a small detail, but im really pleased with it just because it is one of the things i actually did very deliberately plan and set up in advance. it first appears in chapter 6 when ren and makoto go to the zoo - ren gives all his goho-ms to makoto as a show of trust, to demonstrate that he trusts her to get him and their friends home safely after they resolve his fear and resentment for her plan almost getting him killed. i did that to wrap makoto's arc, but it also served a very important plot purpose in chapter 8: ren is stranded in the courtyard with akechi's "shadow" self, and he has no easy way of getting out of the palace because he gave all of his goho-ms to queen. oh no, ren trusted his friends so much it's gonna get him killed. unless?

(this is a plot hole p5 the game just never bothers to fill or else they wouldn't get dramatic anime scenes of the phantom thieves sprinting out of the palaces as they explode and im at peace with that but i still think it's funny and also i wanted to fill the plot hole myself.)

so then it finally gets to come back in chapter 10, when ren finally falls from being their fearless heroic leader and gives his friends a chance to step up and save him for once. makoto still has the goho-ms, and when ren is occupied and out of commission, she steps up and saves them like he trusted her to do. guys! i planned something that spanned five whole chapters. wow! wow i did it.

LONG POST. VERy LONG POST. god. HEY this is it the palace is destroyed. there are still two chapters to go and a lot left to get through, but palace-wise this was the climax, which is why it took so god damn long because it's terrifying to write something so pivotal. but thank you so much for reading the fic! and this if you read it! i wrote this mostly for me again. but if you read it i love you.

[digitalagepulao]

Prodigal son terror

Li Jing in a fury grabbed his halberd, leapt on his horse and galloped out of the headquarters. He was astonished to see Nezha with his Wind-Fire Wheels and Fire-Tipped Spear. He swore loudly, "You damned beast! You caused us endless suffering before your death, and now that you've been reborn, you're troubling us again!"

"Li Jing! I've returned my flesh and bones to you, and there's no longer any relation between us. Why did you smash my golden idol with your whip and burn down my temple? Today I must take my revenge!"

since I'm on a Nezha streak, might as well do my design for him on the Expedition AU! given that i've chosen to give characters a closer likeness to their region, it's only fitting i do the same with import deities like Guanyin, Subodhi and Nezha.

he's a complicated figure to place in the timeline because he gained popularity as a deity much after, only really arriving in China by the time the Journey would have been set. FSYY was written closer to when JTTW was written down, and he was retroactively inserted on the Zhou Dynasty period.

so deciding what to even do with him is dicey. but then i said fuck it, mythological rules apply here, he was around for the events of FSYY, and it and JTTW are set in the same universe. and for the sake of having some fun, i decided to get funky with his concept.

Nezha had the likeness of his family when he was alive, as described in FSYY, but once he was reborn with a lotus body he gained Indian traits instead. this is to be a nod to his status as an import deity and his origin as Nalakubara, and as the centuries roll by he may present himself to mortals closer to the locals' appearance wise.

as for his looks, i drew inspiration from multiple sources. read more for my rambles <3

his armor is closer to reconstructions of Zhou dynasty-period armor, skipping over extra parts simply because his lotus body is so indestructible, there's no need for a full set;

there are two red Chinese knots with jade beads dangling from the armor ties. they are said to ward off evil spirits, which felt like a good fit for a guy known to banish demons. i picked a six-petal flower pattern, which represents reunion, unity and a bright future;

i included lotus petals and leaves on his outfit as they are common in Beijing Opera outfits for him, and his makeup is a call to it as well;

The pink from the cheeks and eyeshadow seeps into his ear shell, as to convey the way sometimes, you get so angry even your ears blush;

Another thing i referenced from Opera is the two red ribbons on his sidelocks, though I changed them to two bulbs of lotus roots;

Four petals drawn close to his urna as both to make it look like a lotus but also form five petals, which is an auspicious number;

His hair crown is a fancy princely [knot] with a lotus motif and a pearl in the center, as he was the Pearl Spirit before becoming Nezha;

I was going to go with elf-like ears but I thought I could do better, so I went for stretched earlobes instead. you can't see it that well but hopefully the very large golden earrings imply it well enough xvx;

His cheek dimples are common sight on religious images of him and it was a cute touch imo;

Younger Nezha wears a golden robe because of his title as General of the Central Altar in Daoist belief, and the center direction is connected to yellow or gold, and yellow robes are usually meant for emperors and their sons, which is a minor nod to his self-assureness and boldness;

The Cosmic Ring has spiralling grooves on it both to catch blades on it for defense but also as a callback to Opera props;

On his waist is the embroidered ball weapon he was attributed with in earlier myths, he was also meant to have the leopard skin bag Taiyi Zhenren gave him, bjt it was going to be obscured by the text so i omitted it;

A few depictions of him gave him a halo of fire, which was real cool so i added it as well.

[raayllum]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the framing of Ezran compared to Viren in the dungeon scenes (and how Soren is framed with the latter), regarding what we know about AtLA really framing Zuko as the one imprisoned rather than Iroh despite Iroh being the one in jail.

That's all, have a nice week (before s7 destroys us)!

I've been thinking doing a post about the show's literal framing of physical imprisonment just cause there are two shots from 3x03 and 5x08 that I think about a lot, but I wasn't thinking about Ez in the mix so time to go digging. (And yess I love that detail! I still remember watching this youtube essay about it and how exciting/illuminating it was.)

3x04 is a really interesting episode just because it sets a lot up symbolically before things reach literal standpoints (i.e. Ezran taking off one chain he's chosen — the crown, i.e. 'a child is freer than a king' — in favour of literal chains and imprisonment, sacrificing his freedom for other people's). An example is how Ezran is already shown behind bars as he prepares to give up his crown:

We see something similar with Aaravos once Viren can see him. Even though we don't Know yet that Aaravos was imprisoned (that only comes in 3x06) it shows the bars that seemingly imprison him being something he can easily pass through as he takes the next step in his plan with Viren. Viren's freedom means his freedom.

There's also some interesting things done with how Viren is presented in jail earlier on in the episode. When Aaravos is about to begin preparing his eye with little bug pal, and the eye itself, the 'bars' (the stripes in the eye's case) are prominent and total.

These emphasis on bars is shifted from as Aaravos goes to take the eye goop off, and we switch it to an emphasis on TDP's favourite light and dark motif, with Viren entirely in the dark vs Ezran in 3x05 who lies in the light. This combination of the imprisonment framing/subversion and some kind of light/dark symbolism is also frequently common. So while the chain framing for Ezran isn't really There (and he's doing the 'right' thing / isn't tethered to Freedom as a theme as much as Justice, honestly) but that sort of makes sense in its own way, favouring his light-dark symbolism contrast instead.

Case in point, in the meantime, for Ezran: Viren being in the light when Ezran comes to make the transfer, with Ezran much more in the dark in the end credits art:

We also get some nice parallels with this shot from 3x04 vs 3x01, of Viren being trapped in a circle/chain/cycle vs not (as he's being freed and simultaneously pulled deeper into Aaravos' trap as he goes).

And last but not least some framing for Viren and Ezran as they switch places, with the actual transfer having a parallel "walking in, walking out" tradeoff from 3x06:

We also get some nice set up ("sometimes a friend can help light the way!") for Bait and Soren in 3x05, and in 3x03 with Viren's visitor being just another means of control/deception through consumption rather than aid and actual sustenance (jelly tarts).

Keeping Soren shadowed, I think, isn't necessarily to make us doubt if it's him (it's not dark enough for that) but it does reaffirm us having doubts about what he's doing to do, before we see the happier turn and know we can trust him, which is Also a direct opposition to Viren's false framing with it in 3x03.

There's also Lots of great framing in the scene with Claudia, Soren, and Viren, that continually use the bars and lighting to make it look like the siblings are the ones imprisoned rather than their father and that bars symbolize the growing wedge between them. Even just the way Viren is framed with light around his head ("but we must be willing to sacrifice, even the things we love") as he portrays himself like a (false) martyr. These are the shots I always think about when watching 3x03, as referenced above.

However, Viren being placed behind bars does start to enter the framing, with the siblings being portrayed side by side (with nothing dividing them) once Claudia brings up her brother's truth:

But we go right back to the 'siblings divided by bars' symbolism once Viren is considering what to do, and then chooses the lie and gaslighting Soren. However, we never go back to Viren being portrayed without the bars to the same degree. He's trapped himself in too, which is fitting, as this is the moment he ultimately loses Soren (and Claudia) forever.

And we see this first hand in Soren's visits to the dungeon in 6x05, 6x06, and 6x08, but that might have to be a post in its own right since I'm getting close to the picture limit for this one. Part 2 to follow!

[drill-teeth-art]

I have no idea how to ask but here goes…

How do you shape your characters and your designs so good??? The shapes of them are soo good! Big, slim, sharp, round, etc! They’re all so good, how do you design them so well??

I could write an entire book on character design and how it's changed over the years and how open ended it is and what I think are good principles and what commonly shared rules are honestly a bit too overly restricted because I'm crazy about character design but! Shape work. Let's stick to that for now.

Now of course for bodies and body types my number one recommendation is: For the love of god look at real people of different body types look at actual photos of fat people and skinny people with different bodies different distributions of their weight look at disabled bodies look at trans bodies look at people of all different races and draw them and learn PLEASE.

Additionally...

Here's a little design principle I like to work with that I find very helpful for spicing up my designs. I find the common character design advice of "simplify your design to ONE major shape motif! circles for friendly characters. squares for stubborn characters. and triangles for villains." to be overly restrictive. And of course the pros giving you that advice aren't trying to say you have to do every design in that framework every time. But they're not really going into detail on how you can use more shapes to add more layers and interest to your character design. Also tbh I think that the "circles for friendly characters and etc" piece of advice is stupid actually. You can easily make a villain character that is all circles and a hero that is all triangles. Plenty exist already in media.

I see a lot of people trying to diversify their body types fall into this trap of drawing all their fat characters with the same fat body type. And even if it is an accurate way fat distributes, it's still not representative of the diversity in fat bodies. Something that helped me (along with looking at references) was introducing secondary shapes. An additional shape motif. As you can see on Toxi here, he's mainly circles and round shapes. But I also added a crescent motif! To broaden his shoulders more and give a pointy and sharp edge to him.

Your primary shape for a fat character doesn't even need to be a circle. Tempos is square heavy with roundness as the supporting shape to emphasize how unassuming and soft he deliberately tries to look. And you can apply this to characters who are slimmer too. Conductus is composed of longer rectangles supported by triangles to emphasize its speed and electrical theme.

Viperos' major rounded shapes are supported by triangles to emphasize their flexibility and power. Gaz's square shapes are pushed with round shapes to make him look stronger and more agile. Mesmeris' crescent heavy design is supported with squares to help her look sturdy and imposing. And it's all about context too.

Squares can read as sturdy and trustworthy or rigid and intimidating. Circles can be soft and friendly or flexible and slippery. Triangles can be speed and cunning but also power and mystery. It's not about saying "circles are always friendly!". You can make villains who are round and imposing. It's more about "I want my character to come across as (blank)" and picking what major and minor shapes you want to use to support that. And (blank) shouldn't be just one word. "I want my character to come across as fast and agile while also being large and round" is a much more clear goal for your design than "I want my character to come across as fast".

And again as always please use references of real people too. You can study my art, and I highly encourage you to study the art of other artists you like and how they design characters. And I highly encourage you to get a solid foundation of "what different bodies look like irl" so you can also be respectful and accurate in your depictions. And remember that creativity doesn't occur in a vacuum. Please take the time to also sit down and watch movies or look at animals or read books or look at videos of machines working or whatever. Look at tons of media. Creative designs don't just spawn from my brain. Toxi's look is partially inspired by centipedes that crawl on ceilings I saw a video of. Viperos' look was inspired by snakes and also roadrunners. I was inspired by that Virus Ghost from Scooby Doo And The Cyberchase for Conductus' look. Please remember research is ALSO part of the design process. So I appreciate you asking me how I do things because asking questions is part of good research!

Anyway! Long ramble! Hope all this helps you in your design endeavors.

[storm-driver]

hi, i have feelings about cartoon nostalgia and the audience perception of them 20 years on

this is gonna read hyper-specific, but bear with me

i refuse to credit butch hartman for the way danny phantom came out during it's first two seasons, at least outside of the initial pitch and the idea of the protagonist having white hair. i know the majority of enthusiasts for this show are more than aware of hartman's antics at this point. these anctics, i won't get into. other people are far more suited to explain that stuff vs me, a random guy on the internet. but there's very specific topics that i don't often see get brought up in detail, like the production and staff behind this show.

i'll get into it below the cut so as not to clutter your dashboard. but if you're not familiar with the actual production history of danny phantom, this might be interesting to read.

it's common knowledge these days that stephen silver is the one who developed the design for danny based on hartman's original rough sketches. the similarity between each drawing is apparent, but you can see clear as day which design was gonna be more apt for animation and overall audience allure back in 2003.

he also did character designs for hartman's other poster child, Fairly Oddparents. the trend is similar, though far from a huge concern. character design overhauls happen all the time in media production. designs might be too complicated for animation, so they get stripped down. or maybe things aren't complex enough and more nuance needs to be added. that's normal stuff, and i am not dunking on hartman for not nailing danny's design right out the gate. i'm pointing this out in case you've ever looked at butch hartman's recent work and wondered "how are these done by the same artist?"

the answer is they weren't. hartman had to adapt to stephen silver's conceptual designs in order to work on the storyboards. take from that what you will.

onto the actual writing.

butch barely wrote a single episode for this show's first two seasons.

steve marmel helped write at least 28 episodes of the original two seasons, with writers like sib ventress and marty isenberg bringing a good amount of episodes to the table, as well.

butch hartman is credited primarily for directing and storyboarding this show. the episode pitch and writing was by other people almost entirely. the ONLY episodes in the first two seasons that hartman is credited with having written are mystery meat, one of a kind and splitting images. and he's credited with co-writing these episodes alongside steve marmel and mark banker. ie, he did not write these episodes on his own. and allegedly, butch hartman had a tendency to be credited as a writer for an episode, even if he only wrote a few lines of dialogue. again, take from that what you will.

past that in season 3, he wrote infinite realms, torrent of terror, forever phantom, urban jungle, and ofc, phantom planet. which a lot of people know, these episodes in particular weren't the most enjoyable, nor was the overall direction of them very good.

a director's job is to make sure that the overall tone, feel, and message of the show is being kept consistent with intent. that means meeting with producers, who are the ones managing the, y'know, producing part of the whole project. it may sound like the director is the one heading the project if it's their job to keep things in check. which, i will not deny, hartman must've put in a good deal of work to make the show come out as well as it did.

but pile that with some of the off things per episode. the mean-spirited way that characters tend to be taught lessons, the voice direction getting a drastic change in season 3 (you can hear it explicitly with david kaufman suddenly going for higher pitches instead of the usual one he's done so far). there's really only one consistent motif in the entire show's OST. which isn't a bash against the music producer. it's a concern that the director of the show never asked him to change things up, and ONLY stuck to this one motif.

to briefly touch on the mean-spirited thing. there's multiple instances in the show where danny or someone else is seen fighting back against whatever has given them trouble, or they're taking matters into their own hands to ensure they won't be hurt ahead of time. and repeatedly, the show likes to kick these characters back down for trying to stand up. it's a trend in all of butch hartman's shows, and it's treated more like comedy than anything else. it's up to audience perception on how to view it. but for me personally, it starts to feel like an overused gag and turns into something more malevolent after seeing it overused almost every single episode.

okay besides that, i actually wanna look at specific examples of episodes that steve marmel wrote for. again, this is the guy who's more or less responsible for the show's serialization.

the complete list of episodes is as follows:

Mystery Meat, Parental Bonding, One of a Kind, Attack of the Killer Garage Sale, Splitting Images, What You Want, Bitter Reunions, Prisoners of Love, My Brother's Keeper, Shades of Gray, Fanning the Flames, Teacher of the Year, Fright Night, 13(Thirteen), Public Enemies, Memory Blank, Reign Storm, The Ultimate Enemy, The Fright Before Christmas, Secret Weapons, Flirting with Disaster, Micro Management , Kindred Spirits, and Reality Trip.

multiple episodes listed here are from the first season, which a lot of people consider the show's best. and of the handful listed for season 2, he wrote all of the hour-long specials.

i would be here for hours talking about how steve marmel tackles all of these characters and concepts significantly better than hartman does in season 3. but that's a topic best praised elsewhere. point is, if you watched any of these episodes and thought to yourself "wow, that was actually kinda clever," steve marmel is more or less the guy responsible.

butch hartman was in charge of direction, but that does not give him exclusive credit for every single line of dialogue or plot beat. there could be a LOT we just don't know because people on production staff don't want to comment. but the writing consistency taking a dive off the board by season 3, which is the same season that steve marmel departed from the project due to conflicting direction in the story? you might deduce that butch hartman was not the prized writer and artist behind this otherwise beloved cartoon.

to dredge up an easier-to-tackle target, season 3.

my criticisms are 18-year old echoes at this point, you've heard them all. from otherwise pointless episodes that don't develop the characters or world, to completely out-of-touch writing (looking at you, phantom planet) that juxtaposes the characters with everything we've been told about them so far. it became a slog of a season that didn't have any build-up to it's finale. the occasional gem of an episode like frightmare helped in some aspects. or the promise for something later with d-stabilized. but it all gets swept under the rug thanks to a rushed finale with poor build-up, bad writing direction for the characters, and most importantly, an unlasting effect on the viewer. (or a negative lasting effect, which is arguably worse)

for a season that knew it was on its last leg before inevitably needing to give up, there's seldom few episodes dedicated to advancing an overall narrative, and thus give a slimmer of hope for a satisfying conclusion. instead, the show goes all in with villain-of-the-week stories, and even the returning villains are hardly taken seriously or given more to do besides just being there.

of course, we know the reason steve marmel had left the project was because hartman wanted the show not to taken a more story-focused drive. it almost starts to feel like spite that kept the show so horribly grounded, letting it become stagnant before eventually being forgettable.

all this is in service of letting people know, it really wasn't butch hartman that made the show, not alone. death of the author and all that nonsense aside, he pitched the concept. and it takes a lot of love and dedication to make a concept something you can physically see and adore. don't let him swath in all the credit. recognize the others who made the work you can still enjoy.

[laurasimonsdaughter]

Hello lovely internet person! Folklore question: there are many stories where transformation serves an important story beat- either a character being cursed into an animal form and having to break it, the antagonist being transformed as punishment, cloaks that give the wearer the power to transform used in various ways, etcetera. I was wondering if there are any stories you know of where the character wants to/needs to transform and acquires the means to do so, but it ends up going terribly wrong?

I’m plotting a story where one of the arcs revolves around a character transforming themself both for body dysmorphia reasons and to better fit into society- but, unfortunately, it ends up going wrong in some way which I haven’t fully planned out yet. I’m trying to use a lot of folklore and fairytale themes and beats in this story, so I’d love to know if there’s any older stories that follow this kind of arc! (I know it’s a fairly common modern storytelling arc)

I think the exact motif of a story's protagonist seeking out a way to physically transform themselves at all - whether successfully or unsuccessfully - is rare in European folklore. Perhaps because magic of this kind is usually reserved for non-human or evil characters. (I can imagine there are examples from cultures who do not always treat the human body as quite so static, like the Aboriginal or First Nation traditions. But I do not know any examples off the top of my head and would not recommend drawing from those more spiritual tales for modern fantasy).

That being said, these are the stories I know that seem most closely related to what you're looking for:

● In The Story About Ciccu (Sicily) a greedy King has his servant Ciccu kidnap the beautiful princess he wants to marry, the princess says she will not marry him until he orders Ciccu to jump into a lit oven. Ciccu's magic horse (which the princess knows he has) warns Ciccu to rub himself all over with the horse's sweat before jumping into the oven. He does so and instead of burning he comes out even more handsome than he was already. The King demands to know how he did it and Ciccu tells him he rubbed himself with old grease. The King does so, and burns to death. (A similar motif shows up in the Sicilian The King Who Wanted a Beautiful Wife and the Venetian The Three Crones, in which the way to become young and beautiful is to flay one's skin off, but this is a lie not based on any magical truth, so it's not as applicable here.)

● In The Fairy Ointment (Wales, West England) a woman is fetched by a fairy (or pixie) to be midwife for his fairy wife in labour. She is given ointment to rub on the infant's eyes and slyly puts some on her own right eye as well. This gives her the power to see the fairies, even when she is returned to the human world. When she sees the fairy father and greets him, however, he finds out what she has done and makes her blind in her right eye to take the magic sight from her.

● There are various stories (eg. The Hunchback of Willow Brake, The Gifts of the Mountain Spirits, The Old Man with the Wen) about two men who have a similar physical defect (in the European versions a hunched back, in the Asian versions a skin growth). One encounters a host of fairies, dwarves, elves, goblins, etc., behaves well, and gets rewarded with the removal of the defect. When the second tries to replicate this result he behaves badly and instead gets given the defect that was taken away from the first on top of his own.

● In The Story of Caliph Stork (German literary fairy tale from 1826) an evil sorcerer makes sure the Caliph and his Grand Vizier get a scroll with a magic spell and a box of magic powder that can be used to change into animals. Once in animal form they cannot laugh, however, or they will forget how to change back. They do laugh and they become stuck in their animal forms while the sorcerer puts his son on the throne. With some help from a princess who was turned into an owl by the sorcerer they eventually manage to become human again and defeat the sorcerer.

● In Jan the Sorcerer (Belgium), The Thief and his Master (Germany) and The King of the Black Art (Scotland) the protagonist learns magic and helps his poor father by changing himself into a steer or horse to be sold at market. But the bridle/lead must not be sold with him. The father forgets this and the son is unable to change back into a human and escape, until he can trick someone into taking the bridle off him.

That's what I've got! Hope it's helpful ^^

[daymemebeliever]

What we can Learn from Dave the Octopus

Theme 2: Villains (part two lol)

I was doing a rewatch of Penguins of Madagascar (the movie lol) the other day and thought, you know, there's a lot of relevant themes in this movie that can be applied to today's social issues. (Not all of these apply to Dave's character but a good amount of them do.)

The Dangers of Scapegoating

This is a big theme in the movie. The main premise for Dave, the antagonist, is seeking revenge on penguins (especially the Penguins) for his hardships. Instead of learning to embrace himself for who he is and/or working to change the system that worked against him, Dave instead blamed and targeted penguins. When he recounts his story, it is never penguins that sent him from zoo to zoo, but humans. You can see he directed all of his frustrations with societal cuteness standards (if you will lol) onto penguins. And once he thought he had defeated the Penguins, he simply wanted more "revenge" (by finding another scapegoat "puppies, kittens, pandas").

None of this solved his actual problem: the way society perceived him. It only caused harm to another group (penguins). As we have seen in past years, it is very common for groups to be scapegoated, or blamed, for tragedies they did not directly cause or play a role in. When this happens, the actual problem isn't solved, but instead it causes more division and perpetuates more harm. Realistically, it's easier to point the finger at one group (who are in fact innocent) than to fix overall problems. Thus, scapegoating is common but does not contribute to problem-solving. His goal was never to fix the problem but make others feel his pain.

The Harm of Stereotypes/Generalizations

Perhaps the most prevalent motif throughout the film is the perception of penguins as simply "cute and cuddly". In the very first scene, the Penguins are described as "helpless baby penguins" by a documentary crew. A young Skipper aims to challenge this perception by breaking away from the status quo of ONLY being cute and cuddly by "rejecting nature" and saving baby Private.

We can see this perception of penguins being helpless when they meet the North Wind. Corporal, though well-meaning, sweeps the Penguins up in a hug, even though Private is the only one that actually seems to be enjoying a hug. Thus, he makes the assumption that all penguins would be cuddly. Classified, in anger, calls the penguins "pathetic" which immediately gets a response from Skipper.

HOWEVER, Skipper seems to internalize this stereotype about penguins as he, in turn, underestimates Private's abilities. As the movie progresses, you can see that he does this more so out of brotherly/fatherly concern for Private. Still, he ends up placing internalized stereotypes onto Private, which he himself had fought (and continued to fight throughout the movie). He also expresses these feelings of perceived inferiority through his constant challenging of Classified.

Even Dave, at the beginning of his story, tried to fight the stereotype that octopi were "unlovable". Yet after being placed into this category, after being rejected so many times, he became a self-fulfilling prophecy and became vindicative.

In real life, women often face a similar struggle of being underestimated or viewed as overall less competent than their male counterparts. It is more common for women to be taken less seriously than men simply due to stereotypes. Many women can relate to the Penguins' struggle in this movie: being seen as less competent despite being very well-equipped to solve an issue they have experience in.

Autonomy of Marginalized Communities

I'll go more into this in the next section, but a major problem with the North Wind's plan in this movie is their overstepping of the Penguins in their shared goal. Once the Penguins learn that Dave is targeting ALL penguins, not just them, they immediately are focused on finding a way to defeat Dave.

But they are "kicked off the mission" by Classified, who tries to send them to a "safe house" in Madagascar. Their autonomy in this situation is taken away, which leads the Penguins to come up with their own plan in Shangai. It also contributes to the tension and conflict between the groups.

Since this mission impacted the Penguins directly, as they are penguins, they were more passionate about this situation. Private notes this when Classified leaves to "regroup". If Private would have listened to Classified and "regrouped", the penguins (including Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico) could have been captured by the exterminators before they returned to help.

In real life, when marginalized communities' autonomy is not respected or valued, it can lead to things like gentrification (which actually causes harm by raising property taxes to where the original residents cannot afford it).

Savior Complex vs. Actual Allyship

Despite not being penguins themselves (and being all larger/omnivorous animals), the North Wind sees themselves as the "professionals" or experts when it comes to saving the penguins (and any other "animals who can't help themselves"). Instead of listening to the Penguins or collaborating with them, Classified dismisses them. This leaves the North Wind with many blind spots in their perception of penguins and the actual nature of the problem they are aiming to solve (protecting penguins/stopping Dave).

In real life, there are already many organizations run by members of marginalized communities. When people outside of these groups try to start helping, without respecting the thoughts, opinions, or needs of members of these groups, this often does not turn out to be helpful and can even be harmful in some instances (ex. Autism Speaks who have historically been known to have very few Autistic members of their board). Without actively collaborating with members of marginalized communities, there is a danger of speaking over them. This can make the situation worse, rather than helping.

Sometimes amplifying voices or simply listening is the best form of allyship.

BUT when Classified listens to Private and does things "the penguin way", they all complete the mission successfully. Even then, they do not save the penguins but work with the penguins, who are saving themselves.

What are you thoughts on the lessons from this movie?

(Should I do a video essay on this? XD)

[blackknight-100]

Desperately need to talk about how fatherhood works in the Mahabharata for Surya and Indra with their mortal sons.

Arjuna is known as Indra's child. His most common epithets (related to familial lineage) largely come from his mother, but it is openly understood that he is Indra's child. Indra helps him out so many times and it's wholesome as hell.

Then you have Karna, who is not acknowledged as Surya's son, and Surya keeps Kunti's secret either out of duty or regret (for leaving a child with a baby, that is). So his help is next to nothing for most of Karna's life. And then the event comes when his brother is about to take away his son's armour, the only protection he has been able to offer this boy, and he knows Karna will give it away but he goes to dissuade him anyway. When he comes, in most versions, he says he comes to aid an ardent devotee. In BORI he says that there is a secret he cannot reveal, but he is here to warn Karna out of love.

And it stands out to me so much, that from Karna's perspective, he meets his father through years of devotion and prayer, because you can tell he thinks of Surya as his mentor and spiritual guide, and Adhiratha as his father. He has next to no qualms in claiming Radha as his mother even after he is told the truth, and his reaction to Kunti being his mother is not dissimilar.

And then this god shows up, does not even bother to reveal that he is his father (I imagine Karna must have been pretty peeved when he found out - in a "you could've just told me when you visited" way) and asks him to let go of the one thing he takes great pride in. Even there too, there is a great deal of respect for agency: Karna is firm and Surya compromises. If they'd had a few more chances to interact, I think they would work out pretty well.

And then you have Arjun and Indra, so beautifully entwined, so beloved and so dear. Indra helping Arjuna is seen as interference (and rightly so), but there is something so paternal about how Indra desperately tries to protect his child - depending on the version he (not necessarily chronologically):

a) mitigates the Urvashi curse,

b) sends out the Gandharvas to heckle the Kauravas

c) bestows divine counsel upon his son

d) gives him a great bow after getting thrashed

e) turns into an insect and gets Karna cursed.

And most importantly, he shows up at a MORTAL'S door, CLAIMING TO BE A BRAHMAN (which is, again depending on version, one of reasons why said mortal got cursed), declines offers of land and money and girls, and shamelessly demands the armour. A KING. REDUCED TO A BEGGAR.

Because remember, technically Brahman's are given state funding for their research, education, priesthood, or simply their birth. Indra does none of these. He knows this. Karna knows this. He knows that Karna knows this. But he demands it anyway.

Obviously, Karna's devotion to the Sun God, and the fact the said god is his father is a narrative device meant to represent his arc of reaching for the sun and getting burned (in most cases, at least), while Arjuna's relation to Indra and his rain motifs is because narratively he peaks at terminal velocity and then freefalls to the earth as soon as Krishna dies.

But I love thinking of what their respective relations to their fathers must have been, and how it mirrors/contrasts Kunti's relationship with the gods. Kunti calls Indra and he does what she wants (for him to give her a baby), and is able to support their child in most cases. Surya is called and he does not do what Kunti wants (for him to leave immediately), and his relationship with their son is one of distance and endurance. But they are good fathers still, as good as god can be. (Except Surya with Shani. Idk what's going on there).

Anyway I forgot what point I was trying to make... but yeah!