#i can explore this concept further if people aren't interest

[digitalagepulao]

My sincere Black Myth: Wukong review

Full disclosure! This is from a recent but earnest fan of JTTW as the original novel, as well as all the social, cultural and religious layers of it. I've seen my fair share of adaptations and derivative media, from shlocky to silly to grimdark to cutesy. I'm a bachelor in visual arts, with an interest in the field of game development since high school. I am also, white and brazillian, and have talked with other jttw fans, both Chinese and not, on this game. If any of these are for some reason motive to not read further, then fair enough. Hope you have fun and continue to enjoy the game, do not let me or my opinion stop you!

Now to the review proper <3

First things first, let the obvious not remain unsaid. This game, is supremely gorgeous. In every sense of the word, and I mean this fully, it's a work of art. The sound design, the character concepts and execution, the animations, the voice acting, the visual effects, the UI design, the cinematography, the 3D scanning of actual historical artofacts and heritage sites throughout China, and everything beyond and between, are phenomenal, full stop.

This was never a debate, I'm sure, but I don't think I can in good conscience not praise them for their work. It's no news that Asian talent, not just in China either, have been often hired to supplement projects on the West, and we can all agree it's about time they got to shine in their own AAA project. My issues with the international game industry notwithstanding, I hope this brings some much needed acknowledgment and appreciation for Chinese culture and arts, both traditional and modern!

Now, from this point on, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS, so proceed with caution!

(word count: +1.8k)

I also deeply enjoy their choices in arcs to revisit. Some like the Flaming Mountain arc are classic picks to adapt but still a very good match to the whole Six Senses throughline. I don't think you can do a JTTW 2 electric bogaloo without bringing up Niumowang and his family in some way (um, put a pin on that), but the other arcs like Yellowbrow or Black Wind Mountain aren't as explored imo, so it's nice to see them being given a bit of a spotlight.

(speaking of the Yellow Ridge arc, whoever made the executive decision of Lingji Bodhisattva being a Xaanxi singer is, genius!!)

I'm also kind of in love?? with Bajie's design and role in the story overall?? Gameplay wise he sticks around just enough to not feel lonely, but not too long to be a nuisance or overstay his welcome. He's no Atreus (GoW) or Ellie (TLoU) of course, but he doesn't need to be, and most importantly, he isn't trying to be, which I feel is admirable of the devs. Given the visible inspirations from the recent God of War games, it would have been easy to lean a bit too hard on it, but I'm glad they didn't overreach.

Him having a more complex love life is also a nice touch imo. It explores more his womanizer ways in an interesting way, and I appreciate it. I love when people complicate the pig! Also, the way he treats Xiaosheng (Destined One) like a nephew?? The scene on the Huaguoshan throne??? I'M GONNA CRY!!!

I think, I've run out of positive things to say.... time for the spicy takes.

I, kind of detest the premise by default. I'm not a big fan of "Superman is Dead" plots, cus it's usually either done for shock value, or taken so lightly that the weight is totally lost. I have such a love-hate situationship with the introduction cutscene because of this. On one hand, it's phenomenal cinema, and seeing Wukong stand up to the Heavenly armies in glorious 4K high fidelity graphics is delicious. On the other hand, the whole debate they are having has me going "?????", not because I don't get it but just, why?? Why did this have to be the premise?? (put another pin on that)

Also the set up and call to adventure is kind of blergh.

Now is as good a time as any to talk about the gameplay. It's, okay. If you enjoy trying to figure out the most stylish combos, or to mash buttons, then you'll definitely have fun. I was sorely disappointed that I pretty much have been going through the bosses rather easily. Chapter 1 it was mostly the struggle of learning the controls, but I never stuck to a boss for longer than seven tries (Whiteclad Noble, the snakeman that you are). Chapter 2 I only struggled on Tiger Vanguard, because I was sorely underleveled and had missed a pathway to explore before him. After that I second tried him. Chapter 3, I have and I'm not joking, gotten halfway through first or second trying every boss.

Mind you, this is not being some godtier gamer or whatever, I'm pretty average and only a recent player of soulslike games too (maybe playing Lies of P made too OP, but I sincerely doubt it lol). No, this is me saying that if you do explore the game and not rush through it, you won't struggle nearly as much as some people have and still are. Most of the final chapter bosses can be trivialized with the chapter's Obsession Realm gimmick artifact, which isn't in itself a bad thing, just feels like an odd choice personally.

Which leads me to, the level design. So far? Preeeeetty lame! It's very pretty and fancy, but so chockful of invisible walls that it feels stiffling and discourages exploration. I can never tell what is meant to be a path or just fancy scenery, and I never know when a jump will get walled or send me to my death by fall damage. When it's not being confusing, the level design is either a bunch of looping circles, or straight lines. And so far, besides a few interactables and loot, there is not much else to look at. That is, bad level design, plain and simple.

Also, the animations are glorious, but what is the point if I can't see the enemy?? That camera is my true nemesis, and I mean that. the fact that a boss can be beyond my field of vision at ANY POINT when I'm locked on and it strifes sideways, is dreadful. GameScience, FIX IT. It is also, very hard to tell what parts of a boss will damage me if I collide with them or not. The Kang-Jin Long fight was baffling on a design point of view, same for Captain Lotus-Vision. Some clearer hitboxes would be swell.

This is the point where I say my main issue with the game lies: it's very pretty, and adoringly crafted, but it lacks substance design wise. I feel like it needed to cook more, the level design polished more so I wouldn't get lost every five minutes, and clearer.... well, everything. Mechanic explanations, level progression, gimmicks, etc. It all needed to be less murky and convoluted to understand.

It also needed more meat in between bosses. I have yet to run into common enemies that give me actual trouble, so it ends up being just a jolly waltz from boss to boss. Boss rushes are fun and great, but not as the base game experience (for me at least). I had to stop one boss away from completing Chapter 1 cus I was just so exhausted. And I had been playing for like, an hour and a half?? That left a sour taste in my mouth, I'll be honest.

Okay, I'm gonna pick open those pins now.

#1 the Flaming Mountain Arc. I'm gonna be very real here chat, that was so cringe. What do you MEAN, Red Son wasn't Demon Bull King's biological son, and Princess Iron Fan was forced to drink from the Childbearing River??? And Red Son hates him????When I watched that cutscene, I had to pause and walk away for a moment, legitimately. This plotbeat is SO WILD to me, I got nothing to say. Just, why??Soooo bizarre. And that the Flaming Mountain Keeper has such a presence in Iron Fan's life is also, weird?? Not bad weird, just Weird, but that's like a nitpick more than an actual criticism. Ping Ping is fine though, I like that Bull has a daughter with Princess Fair Fox, that's cute and interesting. Wish she was in a better plot and adaptation but lol

And #2, the premise. Now we are getting to the meat of it all.

The underlying premise of the whole plot, including the true ending, is flawed by default. The premise runs on what is sometimes called as a "conspiracy theory plot", as in, "what if the gods were bad actually??". It's reddit movie theory content in very short terms, and while it had a place during the 00s grimdark years pre-Marvel, it's become quite a jaded and boring take nowadays. Now you may say that it comes from a genuine desire to show distrust and critique to insitutions and the powers than be, and I can see that.

There is a hiccup in that though.

In JTTW, Wukong is the Mind Monkey because of the religious text and subtext of the stories. Its interwoven in the whole thing, and makes it cohesive. It still offer critique and mockery to institutions, without entirely invalidating their foundations. Not only for genuine fear of prosecution, but because, shockingly, religion and belief is a major component of human society in general. But going back to my point, JTTW is *already* a critique of institutions and the power that be. Adding further layers into it feel like angst and edginess just for the sake of it, and that feels hollow to me.

To go further, this intent also clashes with their own plot. See, they bring up that Wukong's Mind, his Sixth Sense, died. Thus they need another Mind to guide his other senses and reform him, so that he may be reborn.

For one, that is such a convoluted way to do a reincarnation plot, it feels complicated just for novelty sake. Secondly, Wukong being the Mind Monkey, as I said, implies a tie to the underlying themes of the Journey as a person's path to enlightenment. If enlightenment itself is flawed because the gods are flawed/evil, then both themes are clashing. By making a "what if the gods were evil all along" plot while also going by the laws and order of said gods, then what are we even fighting against? What is the point of this whole rebellion between Erlang and Wukong??

my friend @ryin-silverfish said it best a while back, and I'm paraphrasing here (do pitch in or correct me if needed! <3), but the issue with these conspiracy narratives is the inherent anti-religion of them. They don't believe in anything, and thus they cannot properly retell the story of JTTW through a postmodern lense, because they refuse to engage with the religiosity that runs throughout the story.

It also leaves a sour taste in my mouth, because this game will likely be many people's first genuine experience with the JTTW mythos and story, and I tend to be concerned for how much this will "sour the pot" in the conversation. The novels are sadly innacessible enough as it is; the sheer size of them scare many people away, not even to mention the amount of underlying cultural context you'll miss out without proper footnotes and commentary. Most people will not engage with them directly, and certainly not most gamers.

While the narrative of someone embodying Wukong's spirit is not new in itself, I do find that it coexisting with such a poor premise and spin on it will be a sore first experience for new fans, and I can only hope that them meeting fans of the OG novels won't cause much friction in the fandom (we have enough as it is imo).

It also concerns me that, sadly, people and gamers in particular, get too swept up in the ooh-aah beauty of flashy sfx and highly detailed graphics, and fail to notice some of the underlying issues in game design. As I said, this game is a work of art, but it has flaws, and I don't think people are speaking of them enough. No, the issue is not "lack of diversity" or whatever the hell.

It runs deeper than that, and it's an issue I've come to see in recent movies as well. I'm aware it might just be different cultural expectations of the pacing and span of a story, and it may as well be! But I think if there was more care given to the bones of a media, it would bring much needed longevity and weight to these wonderful artworks.

All this said, I wanna see what acolades this game gets and see what the devs are cooking up with the DLCs (they said at one point the game was supposed to have 12 chapters and my god, that game would be TOO LONG. So glad it didn't get like that!), and further more see how this ripples in the eastern game dev scene. While this is a flawed game with a flawed story, it can be the first on a genuinely wonderful wave of new creations, not just by GameScience, and overall I'm hopeful for what might come next!

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

It's been way too long since I've talked about books in here, I recently finished one of the best books I've read this year and I obviously can't keep my mouth shut about it, so this is a review of The left hand of darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin.

I' m going to start by saying that I didn't think I was going to like this book that much (I even foud it a bit slow at the begining) but boy was I wrong. So if you start it and think it's boring I can assure you you'll probably like it if you keep on reading.

So what's this book really about? It's a science fiction novel in which the main character, Genly Ai, a man from Terra (our Earth), is sent to the planet of Gethen to try to convince its people to join an spacial human alliance. What's really interesting about Gethen (appart from it being super cold) is that all of its people are ambisexual. They usually only present sexual characteristics once a month, in some kind of heat called kemmer that lasts about a week. During this time they can present either female ol male characteristics, but these rols can vary, one month you may have male genitalia and on the next one you might present as sexually female. The rest of the month, when they're in sommer they don't present any sexual characteristics whatsoever and look kind of androgynous. Gender isn't a thing in Gethen. And Genly Ai, who isn't used to that, will have to adapt to Gethen's culture.

I think I must also mention Estraven, my favourite character (I'm sorry, you know I had to), who guides Genly in this new world and shows him how things work there. I think he's a remarkable character, his relationship with Genly evolves into a pure and strong bond, not necessarily romantic, but described by both of them as love.

The left hand of darkness has heavy feminist topics that are treated in a really interesting point of view. It doesn't talk about women (there aren't any female characters in it), but it shows a society without gender norms or differences because gender does simply not exist. It shows that humans, at the end, are all humans, at that's what really is important. When Genly indentifies some steriotipically feminine behaviours in other characters and treats them as inferior you'll probably get mad at him, because he doesn't seem to really want to understand the people arround him. That's a strong message itself.

This book's exploration of gender is fascinating. It might be because I've always felt something for the concept for androgyny, but Gethen's people and culture go further and make you question your own. A book published in 1969 happens to have more feminist values than most books of the same genre nowadays. And that's what I love about this book, and specially about Le Guin. Oh, and it also critizices extreme nationalism!

So yeah, I think that's it. If anyone read this post completely I want to thank them because this got really long (I'm sorry). But I really loved this book and I can't stop thinking about it, so I needed to write something. Anyway, I really recommend this book, and I'll probably be reading more of Le Guin's novels because this woman's amazing. (And if you've read it please talk to me about it because it's now my new hyperfixation).

[uniquepeanutcreatorfire]

Hazbin Hotel vs. The Purge

Today, I'm going to examine and analyze HH's annual extermination by comparing it to another fictional event that I feel is similar in terms of ethical dilemma or morality, the annual purge in The Purge movie franchise. For those who haven't seen the movies, the purge is a 12-hour annual event where all crimes are legal.

Let's start with the purge and what's known about it:

Cause(s): Multiple wars led to an economic collapse and rising social unrest.

Rules: Here's a screenshot-

Outcome(s):  As a result, crime and unemployment rates plummeted to 1% and there's a strong economy. It's seen as a way for people to release their violent tendencies and aggression.

Implication(s): Lower, working classes are specifically targeted as they don't have the protection that upper classes can afford during the purges.

Sounds simple enough (there's more to it, if you don't want to watch all the movies, here's a link to the trilogy explained).

Now moving on to the annual extermination in HH.

Cause(s): This is confusing. The pilot initially presented that the exterminations were due to overpopulation in Hell. However, the actual show doesn't show any hints that the population is rapidly increasing, or overpopulation is causing any issues in Hell. The first episode stated that Heaven started exterminations to ensure sinners never rise against them. I don't see how that's possible since there aren't accessible ways to Heaven from Hell. Lucifer, a former angel, had to get permission from Heaven to get a temporary portal for Charlie so how do you think sinners are going to get up there to be a threat in the first place? Also, I wanted to point out that Charlie's plan to send sinners to Heaven only makes sense if overpopulation was actually a problem. Since there isn't anywhere else to place sinners other than the Pride ring. However, the narrative suggest otherwise.

Rules: It's not clear what the rules are for annual exterminations other than the exorcists can't kill the royal family or hellborns. Is it on a set date and time? Do exorcists go inside buildings? We see that the exterminations take place outside. This begs the question why don't sinners just hide and barricade themselves to avoid getting killed? There could be news broadcast reminding sinners of an upcoming extermination so they can be prepared.

Outcome(s): It's not clear how the exterminations affect Hell's society since the show never gives a glimpse of that. If overpopulation is an issue, it doesn't seem to help at all. Sinners don't seem to care and go on about their business. Let's not explore those who may have lost friends or loved ones. There are also the overlords who lose souls.... poor them, I guess. We can't forget the most important thing...... it's makes Charlie sad.

Implication(s): Heaven apparently never thought this would build hatred towards them, very smart. This is why Adam ended up dead. I want to bring up Lilith being the one who empowered sinners. Since she's been removed from the equation for seven years, what's the point in Heaven doing exterminations anymore? The only message I get from it is "genocide bad". But why is genocide bad in the context of the Hellaverse? There have been killings in HB/HH that are considered no big deals (including humans the imps kill on Earth that contribute to HH's problem further). There's also the black market for angelic weapons that's never brought up. I'm just not invested in the sinners as a whole to care.

Conclusion: The extermination is an interesting concept that can be explore in many aspects like The Purge. It's just not much thought went into it which makes it less compelling.

[soekmatthew]

Proposing a reform on Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics!

An essay on why we should reformulate the often misguided interpretations on each secondary gender.

In this essay I will debate the absence of personality often assigned to Beta's secondary gender, the inherent nature of violence that shouldn't exclusively be attributed to Alphas, and how deeply we can explore the aspects of Omega's biology in fiction, furthering its visions from the deep rotted misogyny implicated in these matters.

(remember this is a joke, you can create your ficverse and works however you'd like)

1.0 THE BETA ISSUE

The beta role in an a/b/o society is pushed towards the sense of "normality", betas normally aren't that phased by their nature. This is fitting, although the lack of complexity deposited onto its concepts led a creator to create variations of betas that aren't really necessary.

I propose that betas have pheromones that emit a scent genetically structured to be smelled by a specific type of group, regardless of their secondary gender, people who are able to scent betas pheromones have a variation in their olfactory-receptor genes and allow them to strongly perceive their scents. (this happens irl, with cilantro tasting like soap or some people being able to smell cockroaches)

It would solve the beta complex and wouldn't necessarily affect the whole structural alpha/omega naturally based relationship.

2.0 THE ALPHA MATTER

It is easy to antagonize alphas, and I do believe it is crucial for it to be antagonized, given how the discourse towards alpha aggression can create well built debates approximated to human reality. But it also can spice up some debates on a lot of more interesting matters other than hierarchy and dominance.

"Soft-alphas" was a term designed to fit in the alphas that are able to somehow "contain" their inner wolf, on contrary to "normal alphas" that are aggressive and excessively dominant.

Of course, as fun as it is to explore this concept, it's not necessary to give them this title, it thins the discussions that can be made upon this type of characteristics on alphas.

It is easy to explore the topics around an alpha considered "defective", and give them the capacity to have more and more deepness, an alpha who doesn't feel protective despite their love towards their omegas and needs to learn how to stimulate its natural instincts, an alpha who was forced to submit and therefore had their alpha contained to a point it needs healing and an exercise in dominance!! Fun aspects of an inverted container of the morality based alpha corrections often seen around the fic community.

I propose more and more diversity and complexity around alphas, seeing them fight their instincts is fun, but it would also be fun to see them fight for their need to have the same instincts that antagonizes them.

3.0 THE OMEGA DEBATE

There is a lot of discourse around omegas, especially when people simplify them as "the woman of a/b/o society".

Although understandably fitting for the time it was developed, it is still a conception most people have and has grown outdated.

It also created a movement to fight against this idea, that has empowered omegas, but the lack of consistency fails to impress. For example, in this case, it doesn't matter how much of a rebel omega the character is, they will still "fail" their morals and submit to an alpha.

I know you guys can do better!

What is better than an inner monologue on why your nature is failing your mundane conceptions? Better than that what's more revolutionary than being able to mend your instincts and ideas?

The nature of an omega is vast and instinctually more prone to aggression than most alphas! Omegas protect and go feral over their offsprings! Explore it more!

And make omegas also be proud of their nature, instead of simply making them disgusted by it without backgrounding their stories! (i mean, if they have traumas associated with their secondary genders it is obvious and expected for them to hate it).

Omegas can be hard creatures to deal with, omegas can reject their offsprings scent for example, give them hardships dudes! It will be fun!

A/B/O is fun, and I LOVE TRADITIONAL A/B/O SO MUCH! but we can do more justice at least to betas :3

(this is literally a joke in case someone hates me for it)

[system-of-a-feather]

I honestly really like testing out #sysconversation and trying to contribute to the baseline norms of the tag, but on the topic of tulpacourse and talking about it in a much less "we need to push to get a bare minimum fundamental respect and acknowledgement to the damage done" area and really just trying to get more into the nuance and intricacies of it - I really don't think pushing for the "no one is allowed to say or use the word tulpa" is anything helpful or really productive to the complexity of the issue.

(And for those that don't know, I'm a practicing eclectic Buddhist - Zen and Tibetan being particular focuses, diagnosed DID system in late stage recovery, and am Chinese/Indonesian and honestly the topic of tulpacourse is something I find to be a really interesting discussion; additionally we played a pretty notable role in the "tulpa terminology is cultural appropriation)

I very very much do appreciate all the non-Buddhist non-AAPI individuals who have been pushing for our voices to be heard and spreading information on the appropriation surrounding the term because honestly, especially in the syscourse community, there was a lot of dismissiveness of our voices and honestly just outright racism and stereotyping. If I had to choose between what the environment around the topic was before and people over correcting and stating "you can't use the term tulpa or you are racist" or similar things; I MUCH prefer and love the latter and its largely why I've been relatively limited in talking about it cause honestly, in large, I don't expect people - at least those in the syscourse community - to have the attention, care, or really discussion skills to explore any further nuance between the black and white dichotomy of "racist vs anti-racist" behavior and I'd find myself incredibly annoyed if me bringing nuance to the table ended up being used by people who literally don't care about AAPI or Buddhist cultures to justify their behavior.

That said, I have some more faith in the #sysconversation tag and community so maybe I'll talk about it more under the assumption yall aren't here to prove one thing or the other and more so to talk and share perspectives on complex experiences.

I think when we talk about tulpacourse, there are a few realms and perspectives to take on it that have an important value and consideration when going into making a more developed and clear stance on tulpacourse related things.

The practice / concept of Tulpamancy / Willogenic and, more specifically AND generally, the Intentional Creation of Parts and the debate on if that is "valid" or "okay" or "racist" or whatever

The term "tulpa" and the origins as it relates to white / western orientalism, stereotypes, asian mysticism, and overall colonialist / appropriation nature of how white / western people interact with AAPI cultures

The perception and present impact of the term "tulpa" as it has on and is perceived by AAPI cultures and individuals

The term "tulpa" and the origins as it relates to Buddhism - particularly Tibetian Buddhism - in terms of the history (and oppression) of Buddhist cultures across countries and cultures

The term "tulpa" and the origins as it related to Buddhism - particularly Tibetian Buddhism - in terms of the philosophy and practices that Buddhists / Tibetian Buddhists

The perception and present impact of the term "tulpa" as it has on and is perceived by Buddhist / Tibetian Buddhist cultures

The present attitudes, practices, and values that are found within the tulpamancy community and how those have changed and developed over time in relation to it's origins and history - for better or worse

The present and practical actions and values held by the current online tulpa community in relation to system environments, CDD environments, Buddhist / Tibetian Buddhist environments and culture, and AAPI individuals and culture.

The current status of the tulpamancy community and what practical and realistic approaches can be done to improve the community in a way that respects an existing subculture that does benefit a non-negligible amount of individuals while ALSO respecting potentially harmed or hurt historically marginalized communities

I find that a lot of individuals focus on one, maybe two of these perspectives and sub-discussions to the debate and call it the "most important" one that should determine how people "should" act and speak and exist, but imo that takes a largely results in a perspective, approach, and future plan that does not address a lot of the issues that go into it.

Our system unironically spends a lot of time internally debating each other (for fun, we trade roles and perspectives a lot since we are in a position to talk and have developed opinions of the first seven) about this topic and if you individually only hold one of the topics in mind, you can end up with really conflicting directions to go.

It's complicated but at least of the first six, the general understanding and perspective / insight we've come to are

Literally this shouldn't really be a topic of consideration in #sysconversation because questioning validity is such a pointless and stupid argument that I would is not really a humored one; yes the practice / action / development and presentation of parts through intentional means is fine and OK; many cultures don't align with the Standard Singular Self narrative, people know themselves and are free to express themselves as is most helpful and natural to them, I'd like to assume people are being genuine and honest rather than stating they are "faking" or "quirkifying" things and honestly that type of verbage tends to be more common in conservative environments than I like to be affiliated with

From an AAPI lens, the term "tulpa" is just another aggression in a LONG and honestly violent history of racism, appropriation, objectification and fetishism of AAPI culture and it is absolutely something that should not be brushed off as ok; it can be incredibly retraumatizing in terms of cultural / generational trauma for such things to be completely ignored and neglected; its a responsibility as someone who is AAPI and as allies of it to stand against it

Presently, a lot of AAPI individuals have stated harm from it and presently, anti-AAPI and AAPI-hate have been openly seen in tulpamancy communities; that said, the consensus is not a monolith and there is inevitably a diversity of opinions

The term comes from appropriative cultures and ADN is "a racist white bitch" as I've seen it stated in tumblr tulpacourse. There is a large disagreement within the tulpamancy community whether it "is related to / comes from Buddhist ideas" or "has nothing to do with Buddhism whatsoever" and I say that just as an outsider who have had people push both at me, leaving me very confused. Overall, from what I've seen, a lot of indiviudals who use the tulpa term can range from anywhere between "respectable individuals who are open to discussion and acknowledge the history to where the history is less harmful" to The MLP Brony Saga TM of generally turning the concept into so far divorced and bastardized from the original concept.

This one I could honestly write a 400 page essay on and I can't really say I have a firm consensus on because I actually have not learned enough about the actual practices within the tulpamancy community to be certain on my perspectives; but as I get further into my practices and studies of Buddhism - especially Tibetian Buddhism - I've had a lot more complex perspectives and opinions. On a very generally Buddhist lens, I actually love to see people exploring themselves within their parts and dismantling some of the concept of the solidity and absoluteness of the concept of "self" and really learning to interact and engage with parts of themselves in manners like this through meditation. I think there is a lot of a realm for it to become unhealthy, harmful, and increase the clinging to "self" but overall, I think it has the potential to also be incredibly helpful and beautiful. From what I've understood of the principles of Tibetian Buddhism that I believe the ADN pulled from, I don't necessarily think it is inherently all that bad on a theoretical level. Additionally, from a general Buddhist lens, the whole idea of saying what people can and can't do, or sweating and trying to direct people's behaviors according to a "good" or "bad" behavior is incredibly non-important and honestly a means of adding suffering to both yourself and other's. So from a Buddhist lens, the response is "its interesting" - nothing more, nothing less.

Once again Buddhist / Tibetian Buddhists are not a monolith and honestly I don't know enough to have a clean take on it. I do believe there is a lot of individuals that come from heavily persecuted histories (particularly Tibetian Buddhists) that are likely a lot more charged on it per the nature of cultural / generational trauma. That being said, I have only really heard of one person with that history and that is from someone online talking to said person and reporting that they found it hurtful and sad that a practice they were persecuted against was turned into something it was not. It isn't the most credible voice if ONLY because its a game of telephone, but its a reasonable, realistic, and understandable sentiment to have and I think its worth acknowledging when discussing these sorts of things.

I'm honestly getting a bit tired of typing on this so I'll likely call it quits for Part 1 on me rambling about this, but I've honestly come to find that as a whole, our system really finds that there is a lot more to this topic than "one side good one side bad" especially if we are intending to address the topic in a way that can promote education, awareness, and an overall better community for all individuals.

Our AAPI lens and our Buddhist lens have historically clashed a lot, as it has with just a number of our other backgrounds and our values in allying with individuals with trauma histories (cultural or not) AND our value for the complex diversity of human experiences, self expression and phenomenon.

I don't really have a closing statement or anything for this, but I wanted to share it some as food for thought; anyone is welcome to engage in good faith conversation and discussion.

[stormblessed95]

I have a question

Like Crazy is probably the most queercoded in Jimins songs, right after Filter.

But the song also begins with the pronoun "She's saying Baby come and follow me"

Some fans on Twitter are saying this is a reference to a gf or something.

Whats your take on this?

Hi! Thanks for your ask. Sorry for the delay in replying! And to start, I think it's fairly clear that I don't think Jimin is straight, in my opinion, based off my views. But in that same vein, I think he also likes women. I mean, he has shared previous school crushes on a girl with us. So a "she" in the lyrics of a love song, wouldn't ever really throw me off personally. But that's just me. On top of that, Jimin did share his notes of his lyric writing process for his songs on FACE. And we can see for Like Crazy, his original planned lyrics said "baby" in place of "she." So that probably got changed for a better flow, either he did that himself, or it was suggested to him by RM, Pdogg or one of the other people who helped and gave input to the song. Either way, I don't think it's indicative of a girlfriend or an ex girlfriend in anything factual. But everyone can think what they will and have their own opinions of it for sure.

Now, for me, honestly there is a lot of queer coding through this whole MV and through subsequent performances/choreo/promotions for this song as well. Lyric breakdown can be found here before we go further:

Music Video:

And my first post about Like Crazy, where I talk about the song as a whole, what I think it's about AND touch on the queerness of Jimins gender expression throughout the MV:

To expand upon that, the choreo is a huge part of that and this person did a pretty good job breaking that down and sharing their theory over the dance too.

On top of in the extra content for FACE, similar references get lowkey pointed out in the FACE Playlist video, both in the LC MV and the Playlist video. Which you can watch here

During the Set Me Free portion, things line up very similarly to Freddie's "I want to break free" video, where he cross dresses. And for those who don't know, he fairly openly queer as an artist. He was involved with both men and women regardless of never openly stating or confirming his sexuality (that I know of). In the video, we also see Jimin looking through vinyls, including Queen and Nirvana. AND in the LC MV set, we see on the wall writing that says "Set Me Free" "Moon" "Wake" among others AND a Queen sticker too.

I want to break free video:

He talks and makes references to accepting both sides of himself a lot. It's in his stylistic choices, his art, how he expresses himself. And it's been a repeated theme for AWHILE now and if you aren't seeing it... it's because you don't want to

To get deeper into it, some of the historic queer imagery and iconography Jimin used in this MV specifically and just in FACE promotions in general... would include Philip Johnson, the architect of the Glass House, openly gay and where the term "the glass closet" was coined from. A photo of his is once again in the FACE Playlist video.

Robert Mapplethorpe, his portrait on the jeans Jimin wore through the MV and several images in his photobook I believe too. A photographer specializing in male and female nude works, among other things. Including his most controversial work being his documentation of the gay male BDSM subculture scene.

In the photobook, he is pictured several times in an outfit where he is wearing Jean Paul Gaultier y/series Bodymorph jeans. Specifically he is wearing the "woman" set. The designer Specifically described this series as exploring and playing with the concepts of gender, he liked the idea of there being a mens set, and a womens set and them being able to overlap each other. The bodymorph clothing sets have naked human body prints on them. So!Yoon who recently worked with and is friends with RM (if not friendly with the other members too) also recently wore these in her album release as well. You can interpret him wearing these as you choose of course. I personally think it's speaks fairly clearly to the same things I was talking about above, with him referencing all things gender and how he is leaning into the more typical feminine iconography here with these pants for his softer side of the photoshoot for his album.

I think looking at the designs for both sets also makes it more clear which ahem, set, Jimin is wearing too. Lol and how some of the models are mixing the sets (including So!Yoon wearing the women's set as well in a diff color)

And lastly, while it might not have to do with the album directly, it does involve Jimin and is worth mentioning here as it was lowkey part of album promotions. During the first ever performance aired of Like Crazy on the Jimin Fallon show, Jimin worked with 8 backup dancers and one of them was nonbinary and shared their experience and how comfortable, welcoming, non judged and appreciated Jimin and staff made them feel the whole time. How they got to just be who they were the whole time. It speaks the type of environment Jimin cultivates around himself all the time.

Performance video:

And during the teaser that was shared of Jimin working on his album with Pdogg and others. They talked about how for 10 months, Jimin basically lived in Pdoggs house. They all just lived together and ate, slept, breathed this album. Lol and in the hallway of Pdogg's house, we see that he has a Stonewall rainbow art piece. Which if that is what that is, is very special to have the education over Stonewall and the support of for that in your home in Korea. I won't speak to it either way, if that is what it is, great. If it's not. I'm just going to enjoy a rainbow in the same shot as Jimin regardless. Lol

Teaser video:

At this point, there is deep references to historic queer iconography in so much of Jimins art, it's fair to say we aren't guessing anymore. He is as out as he can be without explicitly saying anything. For me personally at least. And no one is owed an explicit coming out from anyone for any reason. If you listen to what he says, what he sings about, what he photographs, what he dances, what he shares with us? It's all right there too see. So plainly. Queer people have always had to talk and listen between the lines. It's there if you want to see it. And it's fair for queer armys and queer people to react and talk about the continuous use of queer icons and imagery Jimin has used over the years. It's not assuming anything. It's just listening to what he is telling us and sharing.

Thank you for the ask. And thanks to anyone who read the whole thing. 💜

[sweettjrose]

Nobody asked me to do this and yet I'm doing it anyways...

I'm gonna explain why I ship Blotis...

Now before you say anything I am 100% aware that this is a crack ship and honestly doesn't have much evidence for it even less than usual for a gay Disney ship. Tbh I was introduced to it because so people made some art for it and I thought it was interesting and then as I played around with the idea more in my head, I started to like it and eventually form a story around it.

I think one of the big appeals for the relationship is just how unique of an idea it is. It's definitely not the first ship you think of when reading the comics which is probably why most people don't think of it at all. But even just the concept is kind of out there. I mean you have a costumed phantom thief paired with a mad scientist? That doesn't really happen with the closest ship I can think of being Voxman (From OK KO) but even that's still a bit different.

But while it is out there it's not like it makes zero sense at all. I mean while I'm not aware of any comic interactions that could hint to any possible feelings, I could still see it happening with some version of themselves. I mean they do have similar interests. The most obvious being the fact that they are criminals who scheme ways to obtain massive amounts of money and power.

But even beyond that both of them have an interest in science and technology and using it to devise all sorts of inventions. Both of them are pretty intelligent and have devised all sorts of weird scientific contraptions. But what's cool about that is while they go about it in different ways. Portis is more of a scientist, interested in the process and theory behind it, while Blot is more of an engineer, more interested in the application.

Together they form sort of a symbiotic relationship as they both can help build on each other's knowledge and skills to both get what the other needs and further build on their own plans. But even the fact that they excel in different areas kind of gives an opposite attracts vibes. As one is associated more with refinement and wealth, and the other feels more associated with "grunginess" in my interpretation sorry Portis and doing the best with what he has. I can see them both introducing eachother to a completely different way of living, but also connect in some areas like both being somewhat introverts.

But what I think is also cool about this relationship is also how it affects their relationships with other people. The Phantom Blot works quite a bit with Pete, but he alternates between seeing him as a decent partner or not really respecting him and betraying him the first chance he gets. However that starts to change if he has feelings for Pete's cousin, as now that will affect how he is able to treat Pete. He can't just betray him anymore. It ties him about closer to groups they tend to be a part of and affects how he has to interact with them.

Plus I think it would be interesting to see how the Blot's reputation would affect Portis and his relationship with other characters. There's are quite a few who aren't a bit fan of the Blot and it would be interesting for them to explore how to get around that.

But on another note, I actually think that their relationship is one of the few ones that they would be comfortable with having. I feel like one of the biggest reasons why both would avoid romance is because it could give someone a way to threaten and blackmail them. And it becomes worse if the partner isn't really part of the criminal underworld or capable of defending themselves. However they both are very familiar with the criminal underworld and can protect themselves rather well. So even if someone were to try to "kidnap" the other for blackmail, it wouldn't be easy and likely not worth it. Therefore allowing them to have a relationship without the typical fear and drawbacks. Though personally I think they would still keep their relationship on the down low so they have control over how it's percieved and just because they don't think everyone needs to know.

I could see some issues with their relationship. They both have pretty big egos and would have a hard time compromising in arguments. But that would make it more interesting imo.

But yeah that's my thoughts.

So there you have it.

Hopefully you can see the vision too.

This is long.

[lavender-wiitch]

If honura is a wiling avatar of the web then she coerced madoka into unknowingly becoming an avatar of the extinction, in this essay you already have

DAMN THAT'S SO INTERESTING WAIT A SEC

(for those who aren't aware this is further exploration on something i wrote based on a @wouldtheybecomeafearavatar poll where some people are categorically incorrect in labeling homura as an extinction avatar rather than a web one)

i began thinking further on what you said, and 1) the nature of madoka's powers, 2) her goals and 3) what would feed an entity through her — makes it particularly tricky to pintpoint which fear she'd serve. i was making an entire essay here exploring the possibilities (mainly through an extinction, end, eye and desolation lens) and my brain hurt.

we know that one of homura's main goals is for madoka to NOT engage with the horrors™ much less become a part of them, but her rewinds inadvertently make madoka more and more powerful each loop, which could translate into madoka being marked by a fear more intensely each time. a fear strongly characterized by inevitability, which is what homura is trying to prevent.

madoka's powers as a god are very intrinsically related to the dichotomies of death and rebirth, hope and despair. the way she finds to prevent magical girls from becoming witches is to welcome them to their end before they get the chance to transform. she absorbs their despair, which could mean feeding off of fear and torment, even if it means taking it away from others and placing the burden on her. paradoxically, since she is also a magical girl, that means she'd have to absorb her own misery, which is what prompts the reinvention of reality. magical girls themselves aren't erased, but witches are technically replaced by wraiths as the beings magical girls must fight. they are distortions of madoka's cause and effect of her wish.

what we also know is that fear entities do not give a rat's ass about bringing the peace madoka wishes for humanity. in one way or another, her wish could be warped for the sake of spreading fear. perhaps, in a TMA world, no matter what entity she'd serve, the implications of madoka's wish are even more tragic (as if PMMM wasn't tragic enough!). her unwilling transformation into an avatar inplies the loss/corruption of her humanity and of the very compassion that she feels for the world and its denizens. her hope, which is something so embedded in her core, could get corrupted into something worse (perhaps an extinction interpretation would imply worse consequences for her actions and what magical girls could end up becoming; and a desolation interpretation would reinforce the law of cycles — creating more hope means creating greater grief to absorb and feed on). maybe it would prompt her to seek out more misery, despair and grief to feed on, even if she doesn't want to be an agent of pain, at least not initially. jon didn't want to become someone who takes pleasure and nourishment from violating people's privacy. maybe becoming a concept means a near total loss of what used to make her human, and her motivations would merely become twisted echoes of what they used to be.

imagine the guilt and pain homura would feel. damn all of this would make an awesome AU.

from this point on we can ask a few questions: what her motivations and struggles are (i.e. granting people hope, comfort and release from further eternal misery in life / feeling powerless to stop the horrors™ from dooming the magical girls' fate) and which fear would she cause or feed off of through her motivation and powers, which would have to be warped in some way for them to work for the main purpose of an entity: spreading fear.

an extinction approach would lean more on the rebirth themes and the aspect of replacing witches with wraiths, whether their creation was intentional or not from madoka's part. a terminus route would touch on her new role as this cosmic magical girl grim reaper/psychopomp of sorts, the comfort she offers being twisted somehow into something horrible. a desolation approach would have plenty of dramatic irony, as it highlights how madokami absorbs despair and grief and would feed on the exact feelings of devastation and loss that magical girls are doomed to feel as a consequence of the hope deposited in their wishes. her self-sacrificial nature becomes her downfall as she carries this burden, burns for the sake of others and becomes the most powerful witch (source of despair and torment) of all.

all of these aspects of her powers could be warped into something in favor of these fears and that could corrupt or destroy her as we know her. the thing would be knowing which one would claim her against her will.

what i'm certain of is that the story that would come out of TMA madohomu would be absolutely DEVASTATING and i am HERE for it.

[brandwhorestarscream]

Courtesan Skywarp

I love the elite trine all inspiring each other to pursue their interests even though their in a position that makes it tough.

And Starscream as a botanist? Fabulous. I love it. Please continue.

Wow Thundercracker and Starscream are really gonna start appreciating Skywarp's presence in they're life. After all, besides each other, who else has really put that much effort into listening to them and trying to make them happy?

Yeah, they're thoroughly charmed by Skywarp. It's hard not to be, honestly. Sky is honestly just glad to see them happy--he can't help but wonder if they've ever been happy before. They certainly don't give that impression. But now Thundercracker is always eagerly tearing through his books and making notes in the margins about ideas he wants to explore further or little inspiring pieces, meanwhile Starscream is always neck deep in his experiments. The two of them have become quite the power couple in Vos: their joy radiates off of them and more people are gravitating to them than ever, but they aren't paying attention. They're so preoccupied with their new pursuits everything else is kind of fading away.

Even better, their relationship is improving: they've been engaged since they were just tiny sparklings that hadn't yet developed self awareness, and though they spend every day together they were never particularly close. Always holding each other at arms length and never making personal conversation, seeing each other as an inevitability that they had to be courteous with. Through the discovery of things they love they start talking--Thundercracker gets an idea for a new story he wants to try out while watching Starscream vigorously tending his crystal flowers. He thought it impossible, blooms in Vos, but somehow the crown prince is making head way. And isn't that a romantic thought?! The prince of a nation toiling ceaselessly to bring flowers and light to his people, what a dreamy concept!

The story kinda runs away from him, and before he knows it he's concocted an entire outline about someone doing the impossible, growing flowers in the sky, just to bring joy to the person he loves most. He shyly asks his fiance about the actual process, what he had to do to get them to grow, and Starscream is delighted. No one's asked about his experiments yet! Granted, no one else knows, but still. He goes off on a long winded infodump about adjusting the atmospheric pressures and giving them a more concentrated acid to perk them up, taking pulverized mulch made directly from ancient crystal trees down on Cybertron. How he had to adjust the temperature 12 times to get it just so, and up here, the plants actually prefer purple light as opposed to Cybertron's natural red sun!

Thundercracker has never heard Starscream speak with such passion, and can't help but reciprocate it in turn. He mentions, in his research for this story he's writing, he discovered that in the Crystal City of old, there was an actually an entire secret code and language conveyed solely through flowers and their various arrangements. In all his digging through old archives Starscream had never found that, and it gives them both something to be excited about.

And just like that, the walls crumble between them. They never dared hope for anything more than civility and distant acquaintenceship with their forced fiance, but that's finally a hurdle they can overcome. As soon as they take an interest in each other and find common ground, they're fast friends. They've known each other for so long and once they let themselves, they become close in almost an instant 💖 they start spending all of their time in Starscream's indoor garden, talking about this and that and everything in between. Skywarp is there too, watching over them both, pushing then further and further into that which will make them happy and fulfilled

[burningvelvet]

You have mentioned that you read a lot of academic writing, so I was wondering how you annotate your reading? Or any tips on reading academic writing. Thank you!

Tips on Reading Academic Writing, & My Explanations & Experiences (pure tips are highlighted in bold)

Thank you for the ask! I'm not a professional, but I will share what I've found useful as a student/soon-to-be grad. Besides the few times that my professors have required us submit formally annotated bibliographies, I usually do not take them in any neat, organized way. When I read an academic text, I often underline/highlight if possible (if I have an ebook version or paper version to do so) while focusing on key words/key concepts and inserting any associated words/concepts that come to mind. I also copy/paste (or use iPhone's text scanner in the photo app) specific terms or phrases that I want to remember or that stick out to me. I primarily use my Notes app bc it syncs from my laptop to my phone. If I'm doing a close-reading and wish to take my time, I read over each paragraph (or in rare cases when I really wish to do an even closer reading, each sentence) and I attempt to then summarize it to myself in as few words as possible. This last part appeals to my own personal learning style though, which I'll discuss further on below.*

I scan every text for the most important parts, keeping in mind that each paragraph contains its own sub-topic. A paragraph is like a scene in a film or a play, and each one has its own beginning, middle, and ending. By reading the first or last sentence of a paragraph, you can usually glean what the whole paragraph is about. The first and last sentences of a paragraph are the most important. Likewise, the opening and closing paragraphs of an essay exist to summarize the most important parts of the entire essay. The thesis statement (the main idea of an essay, or the "TLDR summary" to put it into Reddit terms) is usually located at the end of the first paragraph of an essay. Also, this all applies to formal academic writing; not so with casual or creative writing. If I am desperately trying to absorb information and don't have the time/energy to fully study something, what I do is allocate the work's thesis statement, and try to summarize in my own terms the "main point(s)" of the work.

Another invaluable piece of advice is to build your vocabulary and keep vocabulary lists for heavy reading (a list of terms and their definitions). Some academic papers or textbooks will include these in their works. For years, I have kept a sacred list called "Words" which is simply a list of terms that I either struggle to remember or that I've had to look up the definition of. But specific topics get their own vocabulary list, especially if it's something niche or a list of terms only used by a specifer writer or in a specific theory or sub-field. A lot of academics/writers/philosophers invent terms to more easily explain or describe their concepts. Heideigger, considered one of the most interesting but difficult philosophers to understand, is especially difficult with this. It feels like learning a new language sometimes to read his work. But academic reading is often a matter of the writer putting forth new ideas and/or explaining complex things, and so it is often slow, heavy reading, which requires patience.

My biggest piece of advice is to look up lists of learning styles and try to experiment with each of them until you find which one(s) work best for you. Maybe review your earliest memories from school or past memories where you felt like you were excited to learn. Try to implement these while reading information to see what method is most beneficial & comfortable. Everyone learns differently and no two people are exactly the same. Don't feel bad if methods working for others aren't working for you; this is an opportunity for further exploration.

*My individual learning style is "learning by teaching," which means that in order to retain information, I recapitulate it to myself, or make up imaginary scenarios where I have to teach or explain the information to others, or occasionally I do so in real life by info-dumping the information to interested people (or here on my blog). By explaining a subject, it deepens my own understanding of the subject, because you have to understand something well in order to be able to regurgitate it in your own words. If I get stuck and find myself unable to explain something, then this allows me to see where I'm lacking knowledge, and what I need to review. I recall implementing this learning style in some of my earliest memories. Around ages 3/4, I would pretend to be a teacher in an imaginary classroom while practicing my letters and numbers.

[starlithumanity]

So Our Flag Means Death often functions as a metaphor where piracy represents the film industry. Ed is the burnt-out superstar actor/director, Stede is the wealthy but fumbling newcomer full of creative ideas, and Izzy is the power-hungry manager who fails to find success on his own. The crew represents the various support people in filmmaking, while the colonial powers represent the capitalistic system that does so much damage in so many parts of the modern world.

The traumatic nature of fame is explored in-depth throughout the show, including commentary on how people coming into places like Hollywood have often been inspired by family-related trauma, are running from more "typical" lives that they couldn't have survived, and continue reliving their past traumas in their current situations. There's a strong indication that Ed has had to mask his true self to fit the image expected of him as a celebrity. The inclusion of queerness/neurodivergence, I think, both reflects how many "atypical" people work in the arts and indicates how Stede's methods are more welcoming.

What I find interesting is how this topic is addressed with a further layer of metaphor through the curse of the red suit in season two episode five. The suit represents fame and the trauma that surrounds it, specifically following Ed's violent breakdown. The crew has seen the repurcussions of working in this industry too long firsthand now, and they are having A Response to it.

(GIF Source: skulandcrossbones)

Stede still wants to be the celebrity. He's waltzing around in that suit with massive queer flamboyance, and he's loving it. He doesn't think the trauma is going to be a problem for him. Izzy doesn't seem to believe the trauma should put people off of working to become successful/famous in this industry, but he also recognizes that things need to change for the crew to keep functioning.

Jim was the character who seemed the most clearsighted about what was happening during Ed's breakdown, probably because they've had similar experiences with trauma and masking and its mental health impacts thanks to Nana pushing them to "succeed", and they are also the first one to hear about and react to the cursed suit. Archie and Oluwande side with Jim. Frenchie, Roach, and Wee John take longer to recognize the problem, but they do get there.

Meanwhile, Fang, Ed, Lucius, and Pete are having more direct reckonings with fame-triggered trauma. Fang and Ed discuss Fang's choice to move on from both their actions, and Lucius has already expressed that "some people are just broken," which I think may be a reference to himself now too. They cope through sitting quietly with their feelings, connecting and celebrating with loved ones, making different kinds of art, and seeking a bit of retributive justice. (Though that last one is somewhat satisfying, it doesn't fix the trauma or the relationships.)

Stede finally comes around to the idea that he needs to let go of the suit for the crew's sake, which is foreshadowing for this season! He does keep a more muted version of the outfit, though: his delightful red-and-black ruffly shirt. Ed later compliments that shirt (he thinks Stede wears his own work/fame-seeking well 🥺), leading to their romantic moment on deck. So maybe the culture Stede is building for his metaphorical filmmaking work is okay, since it differs from the trauma-steeped fame full of abuse that Ed has been through as Blackbeard.

Now, I know the show does generally present the curse of the suit as a silly concept--except. Except magical things do happen on this show, like with Buttons. Except the Spaniards who first had the suit did look like they'd been through hell. Except demonic, haunting whispers do accompany the suit on its first and last appearances. I think the writers thus indicate that the curse (Hollywood fame being traumatic in our modern culture) is real--maybe only for people who aren't Stede, or maybe for everyone. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Who can say? Stede didn't stick with the typical way of doing things long enough to find out.

[soul-wanderer]

okay, but here's a thought/headcanon I've been considering in regard to life on the Ark:

Since their main goal was survival in space over an extended period of time (namely 100+ years, considering they were probably planning on staying longer than the amount of time they ended up staying in the end), this also means they had strict rules/regulations regarding "reproduction" on the Ark - as implicated by the one child policy.

Now, I am terrible at the logical parts of math, but we know there's roughly 2,400 people on the Ark during season one. I won't do the exact math now, but if each generation on the Ark is only allowed to have one child, that means their population is bound to shrink with time. Which is why it is essential that people DO have said one child, to make sure there's people left by the time they can go back to earth. On top of that, it is essential that two people have one child, not that two people have multiple children, because that would inevitably narrow down the genetic pool even further and would eventually lead to incest.

So, it is safe to assume that heterosexuality would low-key be enforced, if not through laws, then through social pressure. Because with limited resources, chances are they wouldn't just settle on "wasting" medical resources on IVF, when there's a, for a lack of a better term, "more natural" method available.

Which means that there's little wiggle room in regard to being anything but heterosexual on the Ark, and while the environment might not be openly homophobic, it's not hard to imagine that a) people just aren't openly queer and b) even if they were or tried to be, it would be at the very least frowned upon.

And when they finally come back to earth and things start to settle down and relax, it's also the first time they are able to be openly queer, after a bit of an adjustment period and realizing it's the norm among other communities on earth.

Either way, this concept would make for some interesting plots for some characters, and it would explain why a lot of them are canonically acting very queer without openly being queer, because after all this time on the Ark it would take time to unlearn and get used to the freedom they now have on earth in regard to exploring their own sexuality

[ofthenoseclan]

merry and renko go

OUGHHHHMY GOD OKAY. OKAY YOUVBE MADE A GRAVE MISTAKE IM NOT WELL ABOUT THESE GIRLS. these are my second favourite characters in the entire touhou franchise as a unit and i have LOADS to talk about with them

renko and merry are the main characters of the "zun's music collection" concept records (not counting vol.1 which is standalone). these albums are compilations of rearranged music from the franchise, featured along with original compositions unique to the records. alongside them is a story booklet, and the tracks in the album are composed to convey its narrative through their melody. the stories themselves are written a lot like the script of a radio play, consisting primarily of dialogue between the duo.

set in a near-future setting suffering hard from the impacts of late-stage capitalism, the narrative of the concept records follows these two chuunibyou university students as they muse on daily life in their current society. the albums' stories are pretty much entirely self-contained from the rest of the franchise, making them a great entry point.

the blonde-haired girl is merry hearn (her real given name is maeriberii, which is just a keyboard-smash of katakana zun came up with to sound like an unpronounceable european name, but is ironically pretty hard to actually transliterate), a well-mannered girl who's outspoken, but often anxious and unsure of herself. she has the unique ability to see unexplainable phenomena, travel to other worlds in her dreams, and even bring objects in and out of them. a good chunk of the narrative is spent detailing how these two explore the extent of merry's talents.

to her left is her girlfriend, renko usami, a hyperactive, analytical, and curious woman interested in all things occult. she's extremely precise and accurate at measurements—enough that she can tell the time just from the way the stars are placed in the sky. she encourages merry to delve deeper into testing her abilities partly because she wants to see merry succeed, but partly because she's hopelessly fascinated with her and her powers.

the most enjoyable part to me isn't their dynamic itself though, but how it's used as a catalyst to touch on political satire and discussion of capitalism and consumerism. as i explained above, the future they live in is on the verge of collapse. the details are never explained, as most of our insight into it comes from the duo, who are both probably at least middle class if they're in college, so our information about the state of the world is tinted from the lens of people who aren't as affected as some people might be. but we do know quite a lot—climate collapse has already occurred, and many parts of land are underwater. science has progressed to the point that it's considered "solved", and anything unexplainable by science is swept under the rug by society at large because it's not beneficial for humanity to spend money to research it further. world hunger is paraded around as having been eliminated, but in reality it was likely only fixed because those unable to be fed have passed on. despite the state of the earth, the wage gap continues to increase, and society marches on like usual.

the duo is unsatisfied by the way the education system is built, with science being pitched as a cut-and-dry academic study with no further discovery to be made, so as a form of escapism they set up a two-person school club, the hifuu (sealed secrets) club, and explore paranormal happenings, which often leads to commentary on the state of the world in comparison to the wonderful occurrences they explore.

one of my favourite moments is in the fourth volume, bouyuu toukaidou ~ retrospective 53 minutes, where the pair take a train trip to meet renko's parents. the train runs underground since the ground level it used to travel was flooded, so there's a fake screen projecting what the surroundings used to look like built into the tunnel. at the end of their trip, merry notices a credits sequence displayed and remarks about how ironic it is to replicate a scene of nature that humans wiped out, then take credit for the image. there's all sorts of moments just like this throughout the series that i adore for their message.

another thing about these two is how prominent they are in yuri culture. their relationship is left very much out of the picture in canon, but the fanbase goes absolutely wild for it. it has left its mark on so many yuri authors, with a huge number of them producing doujins for the pairing before breaking out into professional work—some even continuing to release hifuu content after making a name for themselves outside the fandom as well! notable examples being nio nakatani, famous for bloom into you, and iori miyazawa, author of otherside picnic (which even started life as a fanfic starring the hifuu duo, before having their names changed to sorawo and toriko to stay legally distinct). even azuma aya, who illustrated one of the official touhou manga that zun wrote, did a very sweet oneshot featuring the pair which i recommend as a quick read :]

im gonna cut myself off now before i type about them for the rest of the night, but in conclusion: my GOD these bitches gay. good for them! good for them. they will bounce around in my mind until the end of time and they are the driving force of my favourite part of the entire franchise. i owe them my life savings

[puckish-rogue-archive-deux]

Lore Dump: Regarding the Supernatural

Note: This is gonna be a bit of a short one as it's more of a clarification for people who have Muses that are tied to the supernatural.

So, let me just get this out of the way and say that yes, there are elements of the supernatural present within the original SR games (although more so the first two, and that expansion I don't even consider canon). And while they aren't exactly anything that substantial, I've always seen that as an invitation to explore the concept further. Cause really, how the hell do you not love the idea of mashing organized crime and stuff that's far beyond the realm of comprehension together? It's definitely had a hold of me ever since a particular boss fight in the second game, but that's something I'll get to in a second.

Anyway, let me just lay it out like this; in the first SR, after the death of an important character (no spoilers on the off chance one of you actually wants to check out the series), you are given the chance to call up a number you might have seen around the map for a business known as Eye for an Eye. They are run by voodoo practitioners who can revive the aforementioned character, and have them come back as a zombie homie. This can also be done in the second game after the death of another major character.

Now, in addition to Eye for an Eye, we have a character introduced in SR2 who goes by the name of Mr. Sunshine. He is the second-in-command of the Sons of Samedi, a Haitian drug cartel led by a man who goes by the moniker of The General. Mr. Sunshine is important to our discussion because he is the first instance of The Boss encountering someone tied to the supernatural in the main plot, and not have it be just some silly little easter egg.

This is mainly shown during the fight you have with him (the mission is fairly graphic by the end), where Mr. Sunshine pulls out a voodoo doll that's able to both knock The Boss around, and keep himself invincible until the doll is shot out of his hands. Yet even on the brink of death, Mr. Sunshine is seemingly capable of reviving himself over and over again, right until The Boss decides to just decapitate him.

With all that said, you're probably wondering just what in the hell does any of that mean. Well, I think it's pretty simple; if the game is going to go out of its way to depict something as abnormal and clearly supernatural as that was, in a main mission no less, then what does that tell you about the rest of the world? What else might be lurking around that people might not be fully aware of? And yeah, I know it's kinda silly to go that buckwild over tiny little hints of shit being a little weird in this universe. But like hell am I keep myself or anyone else from taking the opportunity to explore that further.

And let me be clear, I'm not looking to do anything totally out there. There is a way to depict something regarding magic, the supernatural, and anything else that may fall under that category in a way that's both very interesting, and acknowledges that in a modern setting such as this, it's not commonplace. So I would absolutely love to do that with y'all. I love those kinds of settings, I love throwing Django into these situations where he has to deal with things that are soooo out of his league. It's a lot of fun! And I hope you can see that vision as well.

[evenmoreofadisaster]

Idk why but one and two (more so one but also two) very much give me indoraptor vibes…just the cunning and wickedly smart than people gave them credit for, scary and dangerous, a “failed” experiment that is only labeled that by it’s more…human-esque narcotic like tendencies. Idk there’s something there.

Would books/novels like Jurassic park fascinate two? Would those be thing that make him connect better with the human world? Realizing humans also have his urge to create things despite its destruction?

How would one feel watching/reading (by eating I mean probs listening to two read aloud) Jurassic park? Would he feel more connected and sympathetic to the dinosaurs?

Like how your writing them I can see both loving the movies/books but from the opposite end like for two he loves the very human side of it the science leading to creation, playing god but also trying to bring something positive from creation, connecting with the humans more at the realization that despite best intentions creations can turn on you or horrifically back fire (like two reading/watching Jurassic park might weirdly make him empathize or connect with humans better) but for one he connects with the dinosaurs, he’s the terrifying and violent creation to others but he’s also to himself just what he is. The dinosaurs are scary and powerful and disturbingly violent but they’re also just living beings that are just being alive. Like I think he’d connect more with the dinosaurs being justified, they’re just being what they are and these humans they created them and then villainized them when they could be controlled are the problem. Like Jurassic park would push one further away from understanding humanity.

I think how you’re writing them two would understand and related to the creator and one would understand and relate to the creation,

But I’d love to hear your thoughts

I have never considered this parallel. It's interesting!

I'd like to start off mentioning that One and Two aren't very versed in human pop-culture. Even though they occasionally go to the surface, it's usually just for missions and finding materials, so they don't have much time to explore and/or enjoy human culture (they probably wouldn't really WANT to anyways, since their whole reason for existing is to destroy the humans-- the twins probably have a biased opinion that human culture sucks because humans suck because Draxum says they suck and One and Two don't even try to enjoy it).

However, when the twins spend more time in New York, with Raph and Mikey (and April), they would probably introduce the twins to different media and stuff, which could very well include Jurassic Park.

I like how you compared Two with the scientists at the park and One with the dinosaurs. I can definitely see the similarities.

I do think Two could respect what the scientists were trying to do, as a scientist himself-- I literally just had a thought about Jurassic Park inspiring Two to do something similar and it ending in a complete and total disaster-- like Two watching the movie from beginning to end and thinking he can do better, but ultimately failing-- going off of that, Two would probably criticize the scientists and say stuff like 'well OBVIOUSLY that didnt work, they did THIS wrong' and go on a rant about genetics and how he could do it better-- how he could improve the dinosaurs and how to keep them under control (and totally not projecting his desires to improve himself and One to appease Draxum).

As Two goes into depth, it'd start to take a personal and emotional toll on One and I can totally see him sympathizing more with the dinosaurs since he knows firsthand what it's like to be controlled and villainized. He probably wouldn't like Two entertaining the concept because he'd start to notice the parallels between the film and their own life. It'd make him uncomfortable. As Two explains what he would do differently, One sees that Two has the same level of confidence he did when he performed the experiment on One that cost him his heart-- he'd be upset that Two still hasn't learned this lesson. You can't fix what's broken. The scientists in movie thought they could bring back the dinosaurs WITHOUT some kind of consequence. How did that turn out? I agree with you that the franchise would make One reluctant to give humans a chance, since it highlights their flaws and mistakes. He'd definitely see more into Draxum's pov and why he wants to get rid of the humans.

Conclusion, Two likes Jurassic Park. One hates it. They probably have a heated argument about it. Raph and Mikey learned to never watch that movie with them again.

Thank you so much for this. Very interesting.

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

Everybody complaining about phase 4 having no direction cause 'the MCU is always building up to something bigger' i personally don't think the problem is that it doesn't do well to build up for the future phases but it's that it is actively built on retconning the old ones and this is not a production like star wars that was over in 2005 (the movies specifically) so you can just 'let the past die' no you literally just had your grand event in endgame for that entire story that you had a lot of people following over the course of 10 years and then some month later you just smack us with that multiverse shit that basically makes everything that happened meaningless and in the absolute worse way possible and in the hands of a very incompetent writer like waldron I don't care if some people like his style or not he still remains highly inexperienced as a write to just depend on and just the fact that he borrowed an old script for the show should have been a red flag that he is not up for it.

I was honestly so excited for the concept of varients and so far the only good representation for varients was in spiderman , we know so little about the Wanda varients and i personally refuse waldron's idea about Stephan's varients it always seems to boil down to 'what if i gave stephen the same motivation i gave wanda to go crazy✨A BOOK✨' the loki varients were ok and way more interesting than whatever timeline loki the series was supposedly about (the blonde one can choke on marble tho)

It's such a lost opportunity, really. Their ideas aren't that bad, they're just executing them very, very poorly.

It's like instead of using the variants to explore different traits of the OG character to make them more complex, they only use them to reduce those characters to their most basic trait: Stephen is arrogant, Loki wants to rule. All the nuance, the complexity, their context and background are completely disregarded.

It's the same with the multiverse: in MoM we have a 40-second sequence and in the Loki series we have 3 minutes in Pompeii, a Walmart and Lamentis.

I just can't understand for the life of me this death of creativity, this absolute lack of interest in world-building, it seems the further they go into the multiverse the most basic, ordinary and bland it all becomes. Even in What If, a lot of the stories there are so simplistic.

I don't get it. Oh, and that excuse that it's "building up to something bigger"... sure, it is. But they have to make sure we care about what happens next, and in order to do that they have to work on the movies and the characters right now. They have to make the audience care about them now so we will follow the story so we'll be hooked for future movies and series. That's all we ask! But they're refusing to put in the effort now and telling us to forget about the lack of quality and focus on Kang and what's coming in 2025? I don't think so. Work for it if you want our attention.