#i could ramble about the thematic implications

[chongoblog]

To this day, I think my favorite film theory that I accept in my mind as canon is the theory that Shrek literally came up with his own name on the spot as he first meets Donkey

[notwhatyoucameherefor]

Girl HELP me my homestuck ass got into yugioh dm and because I am the way I am I obviously keep looking at the characters with gamer demons possessing their bodies and going "lol that's kinda cherubcore." Except I accidentally ran with that too much and it's not a joke anymore I accidentally made like a whole stupid au where everyone's a homestuck alien. Yugioh but it's earth c ig. God save me.

[thunderandsage]

books read in 2024, with notes

Problém tří těles (The Three Body Problem), Liou Cch'-sin

loved it, beautiful suspense, the video game aspect was very cool, felt that the last section where we see the trisolarans’ perspective makes it better thematically but weakens the dread that was so prevalent otherwise

Arabian Nights, transl. Haddawy

delightful, had some extremely raunchy parts that i wasn’t expecting, honestly it’s fascinating to see the convergence of so many literary impulses side by side

Červotoč (Carcoma), Layla Martínez

a shorter weird horror about cycles of trauma in three generations of women in a house with skeletons both metaphorical and literal within its walls

Kluci ze hřbitova (Cemetery Boys), Aiden Thomas

the plot was a bit predictable but the romance was sweet and yes, i did cry at the end a bit

Děti duny (Children of Dune), Frank Herbert

honestly i think herbert really struck gold with his writing of sibling relationships, the contrast of alia and paul’s dooms and leto ii and ghanima’s adventures were the highlight here

Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

for a “problematic novel” i felt that nabokov does an excellent job of reminding us of hh’s monstrosity even if it is told directly through his pov, loved the literary references from edgar allan poe to carmen—always elegant but with the edge of almost satirizing intellectualism itself

The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson

honestly a perfect book to read even when you’re feeling burnt out—the nonlinear and rambling style makes it very interesting to read without taxing you too much, and the discussions of queerness and sexuality and art were throughly enjoyable

Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake

love this chaotic mess of a man, who’ll tell you about the chemical structures and scientific methods on one page and then describe taking lsd and brazenly admitting to apple theft on the next

The Wounded Sky, Diane Duane

as a fan of duane’s young wizards series, this is a fascinating window into the transition from her star trek novels to original writing, the banter is infectious, the alien characters delightful and the scifi jargon jargoning

EDIT: the lovely Ms. Duane herself clarified that the original fiction came first, my bad!

Binti: Home, Nnedi Okorafor

as a fan of the first book who felt that more time was needed to explore binti’s trauma, this book gives that narrative its space, and also delivers an honestly heartbreaking story about returning home but it’s not home not really because you changed but you love it but did it love you or did it only tolerate you when you fit its ideas of who you should be? the line “you used to be such a beautiful girl” made me bawl

The Devourers, Indra Das

the simple version of the summary is “iwtv but werewolves in mughal (?) era india,” it does fall into the trap of trying to make things edgy by indulging in game of thrones-style “grit”, but at the same time its a dream-like exploration of legacy and queerness

Wild Seed, Octavia Butler

a reread technically, but still holds up, butler does not hold back when it comes to fucked up power dynamics and the implications of having powers tied to genetics, anyanwu and doro remain some of the most fascinating depictions of immortals

Mind of My Mind, Octavia Butler

a shorter and more transitional work, i feel there could have been more detailing of the patternist society but on the other hand we see doro get his just desserts and it is amazing after all the shit he pulled in wild seed

Clay’s Ark, Octavia Butler

butler’s attempt at writing a horror slasher?

Bluets, Maggie Nelson

dreamy and indulgent, i generally just really love how nelson mixes up intellectualism and horniness like a cocktail and makes it amazing

Vicious, V.E. Schwab

amazingly paced with wonderful asshole characters, featuring a found family that probably shouldn’t have found each other and unapologetic vengeful sentiments

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

if you can ignore the voice in your head chanting “i would have done a better job hiding the books than montag,” this is an honestly life-changing examination of the importance of literacy??? the montag and beatty argument made me start annotating like i was in ap lit again

The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer

stories so bright and vivid you’ll be mad that movies purporting to be “realistic depictions of medieval times” are always gray and misery-filled

When We Cease to Understand the World (Un Verdor Terrible), Benjamín Labatut

while the “prussian blue” chapter remains my favorite, the whole thing is a really good examination of the tangle of scientific progress and human atrocities, though the titular chapter did drag on and verge more on “melodramatic biopic” territory rather than the dry menippean satire that the rest of the book is

[mossy-green-aka-ferrythem]

Man, that recent episode of Dungeon Meshi hits hard...

Makes me think very, very deeply about the entire narrative and the meaning of it all, the very meaning of life with how the food chain functions and how fundamentally INESCAPABLE the ecosystem is... that a human being can be so easily seen as a mere nourishing bundle of fat and sinews...

This tonal shift also does make me think about ULTRAKILL as well. Now this may seem like a bit of a stretch, a jump, (especially since I am not caught up on the narrative of Dungeon Meshi), but hear me out (Violence Spoilers ahead btw)

ULTRAKILL is fundamentally thematically about Violence, and a certain kind of it. The Violence that reduces a human being to a splatter of blood, the Violence of a machine who is inherently DEFINED by Violence, how the entire Violence layer is the game's narrative way of cementing the implications that your actions have had over the course of the entire game.

Now my thoughts would be messy, trying to compile the thematic bombshell that is Layer 7, Violence, so I will focus on the part that hit me harder than anything else:

1000-THR "Earthmover"

Just the name alone is so loaded, a Machine so large it causes one's perception of their surroundings to fade away, and stand in awe of this singular, perfect pinnacle of Violence, a machine that stands at the apex of the arms race of the final wars, a perfect representation of Violence, for it is a being that is defined by Violence so completely, and so perfectly, that it really is the only way it could have ended. What hits me about it so hard is that throughout all of Violence, the game has been hitting you over and over again with the impact and implications of your actions, but with the Earthmover? That's just... everything...

1000-THR "Earthmover" has left nothing left, 7-4 "...Like Antennas to Heaven" hits so colossally hard that it's hard to get all my thoughts into words, it feels like an impossibility almost. But one thing I can say is how beautifully it paints the horrific meaning of "Blood is Fuel" when it's exhaust vents are opened up.

That moment, when the music in the background changes from a quaking, all encompassing song of Violence, to a towering, harrowing lament, as if to draw attention to what the Earthmover is... the way the smoke that comes out isn't white like steam, or black like coal or oil, but is RED. There is not a single part of this machine that is built for Violence, that is not fueled by Violence. Crushed Bone and Cut Sinew are the only things that can define it. It's not so much a travesty that it exists this way, but with how complete it is conceptually with it's Violence, with how it came into existence in the first place...

God I am saying a lot here but I really do hope what I'm saying strikes an accord. Dungeon Meshi is such an insanely fucking good narrative, and ULTRAKILL probably has one of my favorite narratives (and just about everything) that I've seen presented in a game. Ever.

Anyways yeah go forth my autistic ramblings!

[eyesmcgee]

Episode 9 ramblings and statement analysis :

I really loved the implications of “Chester” outputting this statement in relation to Jon’s journey through addiction and being an avatar. Outside of the statement being connected to the Magnus Institute and an definite wave in the face for Sam, it also serves as a really interesting character study to Jon specially with his relationship with Jonah Magnus.

Though the dice were clearly Web coded (addiction, lack of control, manipulation), I would argue that there is an aspect of the eye in the dice as well; the statement giver wanted to watch and see what transpired to those they offered the dice to. The discussions of agency here seemed especially important— did the dice make you use them, or was it all on my own? The statement giver wasn’t sure initially, but ultimately decided that the ownership of those decisions were their own (the driving force between Jon and his angst in season 4).

In terms of this statement and Jon and Jonah Magnus, what struck me is the similarities between this statement and the statement that “Augustus” output earlier in the season. In episode 9, the statement giver acknowledged the fact that they decided to pawn the bad luck rolls onto innocent bystanders, just as the statement giver given by Augustus had acknowledged (and even encouraged) that blood could be given from other people to the violin. If we are to assume that Augustus is Jonah Magnus, then I can’t help finding it interesting how many parallels the two statements have in common, yet it’s the intensity of the statements and the conflicted feelings that separate the two. One relished in their opportunity (given the violin), and the other felt both euphoric and tortured (given the dice). It’s as if we can see the effects of Jonah’s grooming of Jon from these two statements.

If there is any kind of conscious selection of these statements (and it seems like there is because of how timely this Magnus Institute statement is) I also wonder how conscious the selection of statements are in terms of how they connect to each user. Norris’s statements are grieving and lonely- which is thematically appropriate for Martin. Does Martin get a say in which statements he is drawn to? Is he choosing them himself, or are they just close enough to who he is thematically, that it happens automatically? It would make sense given that his introduction was of a grieving partner. I ask this because it would add another layer of pain with Jon outputting this specific statement as this statement giver does not seem all that guilty— is this a reflection of how Jon feels about how monstrous he had become?

Much of this analysis is built on the assumption that the voices are in fact Jon, Martin, and Augustus, but I cannot wait to look at each statement moving forward and looking at how each one might be a good reflection to see where each character fits and feels about the current circumstances that they are in.

[lovingdabeessss]

Do you think Yang had better grades than Weiss at Beacon?

My VERY PERSONAL HEAD CANNON is that Yang has a better overall grade then Weiss because they’re grades also involve their combat skills and Yang is better at that but Weiss is a very good test taker and has better grades in specific classes

NOT TO SLANDER WEISS I LOVE HER I don’t think Weiss is a bad fighter I believe she’s actually extremely gifted and from the implications of the show I read it to mean the second she got her semblance or found out she could escape her family by fighting that’s when she started training

That’s why she lost so many solo fights in the beginning she’s just been training for less time then her teammates and her semblance works incredibly with others and she’s very adaptable to the people she’s working with (talking about their individual strengths and weaknesses in fighting is a whole other long ramble) she goes through a ton of development in fighting as the series goes on

I believe Weiss is incredibly dedicated however Yang was always going to be a huntress Yang and Ruby were raised for this they know every teacher it’s like saying yang would be a better at a business negotiation then Weiss this is what she was raised for

The ONLY reason Ruby doesn’t have amazing grades is because she was moved up two years (and I personally believe she has adhd and the classes themselves are the problem area not the general knowledge of being a huntress but that’s a different ramble)

Weiss has spent most of her life with the intention of becoming the Schnee dust company she has that specific knowledge and she has it down well she’s also very dedicated in becoming a great huntress she’s just not as experienced in it as Yang is

So yes to summarize I do think she technically has better grades but it’s very close maybe it flip flops after tests

Off topic but Blake however I 100% believe has terrible grades I think she’s sooo smart but she HAS NOT BEEN TO SCHOOL in YEARRSSSSS she’s so smart just not for school

Yang is a huntress like they all are but her especially Blake and Weiss are political figures Ruby is ???Jesus?? In her own way honestly more huntsman for allusion to red riding hood reasons but that’s more thematic

I’d love to hear everyone else’s Hcs about everything (but you know be nice🔫🔫)

[yukidragon]

Wondering on the thought of jack and Joseph being twin brothers? Both being very close and protective of each other and there partners

That's really cute to imagine Jack and Joseph having a good wholesome sibling relationship. It's a strong contrast to a lot of images where Jack and Joseph are at odds, including this awesome non-canon animatic by Sauce.

Now it makes me think of everyone who has a reincarnated lovers plotline with their MC to have them be twins in this sort of AU as well to pair up with Jack and Joseph. For me, that means Alice and Mary would be twin sisters.

Of course this would have a lot of implications about the timeline. Is this an AU that takes place in the past, or the present? I lean towards the latter for simplicity's sake. I also lean towards keeping Mary and Joseph as childhood friends-to-lovers like in her backstory that might or might not become canon for Sunshine in Hell. (I'm still on the fence about the reincarnated lovers storyline. I'm weak to it, but also to Jack never finding love until he meets Alice.)

Well, I've never been one to shy away from self-indulgence. In this modern twin AU, Jack and Joseph get to be childhood friends with Mary and Alice.

Of course... Ian will be a childhood friend too, but Jack and Joseph, always having each other's backs, aren't going to let Ian or anyone else get together with Alice or Mary before they do.

Then again, with how Mary confessed first to Joseph early on, even before high school, Ian would've probably never had a chance to even crush on her, or at least have the guts to act on it.

That would be an interesting bit of drama - Mary and Alice having crushes on Joseph and Jack respectively, as well as vice-versa. Mary makes a move... and Alice feels it'd be too weird for her to do anything with Jack now. Doesn't say anything about it to even her twin, not wanting to wreck things when Mary is so happy with Joseph.

It's a funny reversal really for Joseph to find love before Jack. I mean, thematically it would be more appropriate if it was the reverse, with Jack and Alice getting together first, but this is a funny AU so let's just have fun with it!

This leads to a fun bit of a love triangle, since why not? Ian is crushing on Alice, and so is Jack. They're her friends and Joseph tries to help Jack get together with Alice as well as run interference with Ian. Wacky hijinx ensue!

Speaking of childhood friend AUs, I remember one where Shaun was a childhood friend of MC, which Sauce drew on their old twitter. That would be hilarious if he was also in the mix, adding to the chaos. Nick would have to be added too in order not to leave him out.

Hmm... maybe that's something to consider another time. I'm already making this ramble too complicated as it is.

Anyway, Jack is more sly and sneaky, though very earnest in his feelings towards Alice and wanting her to be happy. He keeps trying to set up romantic moods, wanting to nudge her into seeing him romantically since he knows from being her friend that she's not comfortable with someone just hitting on her. Subtle flirting, plus arranging them to find themselves alone... only for stuff to happen to interrupt them comedically.

It'd be hilarious that Jack is having so much trouble getting together with his sunshine, things going wrong in a wacky sitcom fashion... and meanwhile Joseph and Mary are off in their own little lovey dovey world being all cute and quietly romantic.

Jack, naturally, would both be happy for his bro, but also madly jealous until he finally gets together with Alice.

Of course, this could lead to friendly ribbing from Joseph towards Jack for his struggles, but also plenty of wholesome moments of comforting and helping him out. After all, if their parents are as awful as it's implied Joseph's are in the consultant transcript...

Oh, other twin details! Jack and Joseph could be identical twins - brown hair and all - but Jack just starts dying his hair blue. Alice and Mary would be fraternal twins, with Alice having albinism and Mary not, along with a few other smaller differences between the two girls, similar to how their different incarnations have slight physical differences. For one thing, Mary is taller than Alice, though not by much. They're both still much smaller than Jack and Joseph.

Hmm... bullying seems to be a pretty big part of the backstory of Joseph, and it's also a big part of Alice and Mary's backstories. With Jack and Joseph being a team, they probably get into trouble together, defending each other, and of course their friends.

Huh. Ian would probably be counted in that if they were all childhood friends, when I think about it. I mean, before romance factors into thing, I think Ian and Jack/Joseph could've been friends. That would make Ian crushing on Alice later more complicated if Joseph and Jack both see Ian as a friend. This would especially be difficult on them if they have very few people who care about them like Joseph did in his childhood.

This does add a bit of added spice to the mix. Jack and Joseph might have some yandere tendencies, but they're possessive and protective of those they care for. If Ian is one they care for too, even just platonically, yet he's a threat... that adds in more difficulty for Jack getting together with Alice.

Though, really, I think Jack is going to wind up getting together with Alice in the end. This is both because Jack and Alice just fit together a bit better than Alice does with Ian... and I am shamelessly biased towards my OTP. Sorry Ian, them's the breaks.

Positive side though is that Ian and Alice won't go through a toxic relationship and a messy breakup first. They can just stay good friends and not have things get so twisted between them.

Of course... that does still mean there would be moments of Jack feeling jealous since Alice is still good friends with Ian. A bit more comedic drama even after the romance begins for Alice and Jack... until it gets spicy when Jack has to mark his territory and leave kiss marks very visible on Alice so Ian and everyone else know she's with him.

Really, there's so many directions I could take this twin idea, and a lot I could build onto this sort of backstory. It's definitely a much lighter AU than most of my other ones too, but I tend to skew towards sweet and fluffy whenever possible, hahaha.

Anyway, that's about all I have for now. I hope you enjoyed my ramble that went well off the rails into shamelessly gushing about my OTP multiplied by two! If you want me to circle back to this AU or any others, feel free to drop me an ask and let me know!

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur

[lumenflowered]

OOC: Right so the readmore just entirely gave up on my new and hopefully final intro post, so. Fuck it, we ball, I'm putting my OOC info here.

Hi. I'm Hope, you may find me elsewhere at @ofstormsandfire where I am routinely not remotely normal about my favorite fictional characters. One of said faves is Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, because I am really enjoying Bloodborne and also she's just. She's just a really cool character okay. Yes I know she has four lines it's about the ~implications~ y'all.

Last summer, a lot of my friends were getting really into pokeblogging so I made one myself, but I have not gotten anywhere near as invested with any of my other ones as I have with this one. Because I had the thought, the critical thought that started all this, that was "oh hey, people are throwing their faves from other pieces of media into here, I could totally do that too."

And then, near the end of November last year, I thought for too long about how hilarious it would be to throw someone from a tonally incongruous piece of media like Bloodborne into the comparatively much kinder world of Pokémon.

And then I thought for too long about how I could throw this woman who was, in all likelihood, extremely traumatized at a world far kinder than anything she'd ever known before. About how this could be a journey about healing, about falling back in love with life.

...And then I came up with the blog url and it was really all over for me from there.

My own ramblings on how this blog came about aside, Bloodborne is a horror game, it is normally fairly dark. Canon-typical themes for Bloodborne will be present, but I'll do my best to tag for anything that isn't your usual pokeblogging fare and if you'd like anything I'm not already tagging for to be tagged, just lmk, I'm happy to.

And now, assuming my readmore works here (I have my suspicions as to why it isn't on the other post) have some navigational tags under the cut!

Story tags!

#firebird arc: I combined the Radio Tower takeover and the Ho-oh subplot, made the Kimono Girls more relevant, and ramped up the stakes. Ho-oh is a firebird and I think there's a type of rocket called the firebird. I like puns.

#from the ashes arc: Giovanni became an actual threat, there got to be an entire Rocket base in Tohjo Falls, and Silver got traumatized more. Mind the tags and also the warning OOC post at the beginning.

#kanto rocket arc: There wasn't much to do in Kanto so I had Rocket start causing problems on purpose. Silver transed her gender and Giovanni... seemed to no longer be a problem at the end of it.

#downpour arc: Starting soon! First post in the tag is an OOC post explaining a little about what I have planned, there's a few others that are foreshadowing/buildup for it, and then once we're formally starting I'll make another OOC post with more detailed warnings.

Character tags!

(...I really should think about making a character tag for Ade at some point. That would require going back and tagging so many posts and I don't actually have an idea for her yet, but maybe sometime in the future.)

#passing stranger: Dee (better known as the Plain Doll in Bloodborne canon) is here! And is now on the blog full-time because I love her and it made thematic sense! The earliest posts from her are from her 24-hour takeover back in February, before anyone knew who she was in-character and Dee was then very invested in keeping it that way.

#milf time and sonboy hours, #milf time: The first tag was specifically posts from Ethan and Reina, but Tumblr stole my yellow and I think stealing it back broke the cut on the other post so I'm not going to risk using it here. Ethan might show up again occasionally, Reina is more likely to show up on her own though. She likes birds and may or may not have had a bisexual awakening when her kid brought a Faller home.

#rainbow wings: Posts from (or sometimes relating to) Ho-oh. They don't post that often but they're a giant rainbow bird they can do what they want. What they want, when they happen to be online, is generally for injustice to Not Happen. Good luck buddy this is the internet.

#the first to fall: The Hunter from Maria's world taking on the role of the player character in Bloodborne. Her name's Mallory, she got the Childhood's Beginning ending for people that means anything to, and she was a Faller in the other direction before dragging herself and Dee into the world of Pokémon. (And, unintentionally, Maria too. She's probably the only unintentional tag-along, though. Right?)

#what's with this sassy lost child?: Posts from Silver, before she got her own blog at @cosmic-crobat. These days she mostly uses her own blog, but she'll still get blue text when she shows up in recordings.

Misc other tags!

#ask game: Reblogs of ask games and responses to said ask games. This one isn't chronological.

#hints to the future: Specifically, responses to that one ask game with the gear emojis that lets you hint at future events. I am always accepting asks for this one no matter how long it's been since I last reblogged that ask game. I like hinting toward what's to come and I like writing prose.

#glimpses of the past: That one ask game with the hourglasses that lets you see into the muse's past. Again, always open because I love writing prose and I can write out prose for things that have already happened this way.

#pelipper mail: It's open, it keeps happening, it keeps causing problems. Note that while I do not have magic anons on, if you're sufficiently creative with Pelipper Mail and it isn't too story-breaking you can probably get a similar effect to a magic anon that way.

#sword lesbian things: Silly and fairly self-explanatory. For when Maria's doing things with her sword, now that she has it back.

#the death hole: Scarvio DLC spoilers! Maria decided to Pelipper Mail herself to Paldea to help a friend. The death hole lived up to its reputation, and she will probably be Pelipper Mailing herself to try and solve other people's problems by ignoring her own more often in future.

#the vampire allegations: Silly tag for posts involving the recurring jokes about Maria being a vampire. It keeps happening, due to her entire aesthetic and also me deciding she can be allergic to garlic for coincidental and completely mundane reasons.

[thewhizzyhead]

before I sleep, here is my definitive ranking on all the NPMD songs and some rambles on why I placed them there - also the ranking is based on how much I vibe with them (music production and lyricism have different rankings)

1. Hatchet Town (aka the hatchetfield trilogy theme song like this tune perfectly encapsulates the chaos Hatchetfield has to go through with every Starkid project pos-2018 and I love it - kinda wish it was a number that is more integrated with the plot with the kids tho BUT I REALLY DID LIKE that this melody was quite prominent in the other songs too)

2. High School is Killing Me (I've watched many teen centered musicals and believe me when I say that this song is one of, if not, the best introduction numbers out there for this genre - also it's a really great opening hook for a show)

3. Nerdy Prudes Must Die (FUCKING AMAZING HONESTLY - amazing way to REALLY re-establish a villain back from the dead and to establish the main theme for the nerds here: "I'm Not A Loser" (tho i fucking wish that motif was used a bit more))

4. Just For Once (everyone cheer for Lauren Lopez flexing not just her high tier soprano skills, but also how amazing of a fucking actor she can be like the concept of this song is quite layered and to pull it off both comedically and emphatically takes great lyrical and acting prowess)

5. The Summoning (a well-anticipated onstage introduction to all 5 of the LiB that balances out befuddling neon-entertainment with genuine fucking menace)

7. Cool As I Think I Am Reprise (A FUCKING GENIUS REPRISE I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH HOW COOL I FIND THEM RECONTEXTUALIZING THE OG SONG AND IF I LOVED YOU TO FIT THE SITUATION AND BOTH OF THE CHARACTERS GROWTH. LIKE IN TERMS OF THEMATIC IMPLICATIONS WITH CHARQCTER DEVELOPMENT, THIS SONG AND ITS SCENE WOULD BE THE TOP)

6. If I Loved You (I think this song could be a bit more honestly like I know how much Starkid has explored Steph and Pete's relationship in their other projects and I was really hoping that they would have it more portrayed here - however the song is a bop nonetheless and it matches neatly with their themes and the harmonies are top tier. I placed this higher than the next just due to my personal bias like I really do like the song)

8. Dirty Dudes Must Die (A GREAT TWIST THAT MAKES ME WANT ANOTHER MUSICAL ABOUT GRACE CHASITY'S DERANGED SELF - also the new context of the song Grace is reprising here makes her a villain even scarier than MAX of all people but that's just me)

9. Literal Monster (A very catchy beat and well structured song that provides a good introduction to a jock-bully with the god complex. also kinda foreshadowing to nerdy prudes must die)

10. Cool As I Think I Am (the instrumentation reminded me of Dear Evan Hansen ngl fjsjd but it really does sound like an I-Want song from a teen-musical which is of course what they are going for - it sounds very nice and earnest though and I loved how it was utilised in the reprise. However I still fucking wish that the I'm Not A Loser motif was used more)

11. Dirty Girl (look I'm sorry for ranking this quite low on the list but like there is no fucking way I'm using this as bait to lure other people in like they'd be scared away I'm sorry fjdjs BUT I love how Will and Angela perform this though like top tier starkid performances ever - its not just what I would listen to on repeat personally jgjdjs)

12. Go Go Nighthawks! (This one gets plus points because of FUCK YOU CLIVESDALE GO GET FUCKED. otherwise its nice and cheery and perfectly shows how happy everyone is without Max but um I kinda wish it could be a bit more especially in terms of showing how happy the other nerds are now that Max is gone but that's just me)

13. Bully The Bully + Bury The Bully (Look I couldn't decide which was better like they both are the same melodies so like gjxjs these two are cute though and I liked seeing the 5 kids bonding in Bully The Bully since we don't get that many scenes with them)

14. The Best Of You (the pop-punk happy number is a staple of teen-centered musicals and it does really sound nice - just isn't that much of a standout compared to the others.)

[sm1l3b0t]

hello! 6 and 11 for the orv ask game?

hi!!!

6. i just answered this in a previous ask here so i wont repeat it and make everyone scroll through it twice lmao but long story short kim dokja CAN cook and i WILL stand by that

11. any character you wish we saw more of?

ABSOLUTELY JANG HAYOUNG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love her so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!! shes so interesting!!!!!!!!!!! i think there is a decent reason she isnt super prevalent in the novel (kim dokja feels really guilty whenever he sees her so he avoids her, fair enough buddy) but i still wish she were there more often. the thematic and moral implications of essentially having kim dokjas oc trailing around are sooooooooo fun!!!!!

plus i would have loved to see more of the wall of impossible communication!!! its kind of its own character and its an interesting one!! why did it try to keep jang hayoung isolated and prevent her from reaching her talent initially! why is it kinda fucked up and evil! why did it try to convince her to let kimcom die so she could have kim dokja to herself! all interesting questions i would love to see answered. my ideal orv has jang hayoung and the wall of impossible communication in the background of every scene going 'can i have uhhh' 'the souls of the innocent!' 'a bagel' 'no!!' two bagels'

on top of all that, shes just genuinely such a fun character. girl who has a crush on demon king of salvation but refuses to acknowledge hes also kim dokja. girl who loves to say the fuck and bitch words. girl who puts on a brave face and flirts with/insults her enemies when she's actually scared out of her mind. girl who is so fun and interesting!!!!!!!! i love her so much and she should be in every scene forever.

thank you for the ask :) <3 rambling about orv is my favourite past time in the world so these have been so fun!!!!!!!!!

[nightcolorz]

Hello, could you elaborate on your thoughts about how sex was treated in the show? If you are comfortable with it, obviously! I love your blog and your answers btw

Of course! I love answering these asks. For me this is more of a nitpick then a criticism, bcus I don’t think there’s anything technically worse about how the show handles sex over the books, but it just doesn’t appeal as much to my preferences.

In the books sex is very interesting bcus of how encoded it is into the narrative. Sexual desire is thematically extremely important in tvc, it informs basically every character dynamic. Sex isn’t something the vampires literally can do, but they are very sexual in nature, or “sensual”as Anne Rice loves to say, and their actions and dynamics r very psycho-sexually motivated. I think this makes for a very unique dynamic that the narrative has with sex. Tvc vampires can’t have sex but almost every form of pleasure they experience from killing to looking at art is felt as strongly as sexual pleasure, they have intimate relationships with each other that transcend human romance, almost every two characters have sexual impulses over each other. It’s weird and fucked up and interesting and there’s a lot going on there. Sex is symbolically the same as blood drinking and killing and hunting r sexual, and I love that bcus it gives the vampires this element of other that’s really compelling. I love the concept that their ways of feeling and experiencing human pleasures and emotions and relationships we’re familiar with r fundamentally changed in a way that r almost beyond our understanding bcus of vampirism. They r very alien but also very human, bcus at their core they just experience things the way we do but heightened to a freakish extreme. I like to think that tvc vampires experience a reality were the type of frenzied daze we experience when horny is what they experience nearly all the time. It’s so weird! And yeah, cool. The way romance works bcus of this is so interesting too, bcus an element of romance and sex comes with pretty much every vampire dynamic, and it creates these crazy fucked up dynamics that u wouldn’t get in any other book series.

and then well, there’s the show. Not much to say there is the problem. I don’t really have an issue with the vampires being able to have literal sex, but it’s the way sex and sexual subtext in general r handled that bothers me. Bcus..I mean it’s boring. Like, Louis and Lestat have crazy hate sex, but it’s not anything we haven’t seen before in television, minus how they’re an interracial couple and two men I suppose. Sex has the same implications as it does for humans, like the whole Antoinette cheating story line is just ur average cheating storyline but with blood and violence, you’d never get something that mundane and clean cut in the books. And like, I love some weird gay vampire sex scenes as much as the next guy, but how does floating vampire sex compare to the weirdness I rambled about above? There’s not that layer of complexity and strangeness I find so interesting. Like, it’s fantastical and vampire specific, they drink each others blood and float and stuff, but not in the dense way it is in the books. I believe that this has the potential to change, I think the tense scenes with Rashid, like the honey and pineapple scene, felt weird and bizarre in a way that reminded me of the books. But, I’ve been disappointed before. So for now I’m dissatisfied.

thanks for sending me the ask and thank you sm!!! You r so sweet <3 I love that u love my blog. As always feel free to send me asks guys I love them !

[ardentpoop]

What r ur thoughts on Kaia Nieves? Honestly her characters death probably affected me more than any other characters death. I think its partially bcuz her characters arc was so unabashedly racist and unnecessarily violent. But i also think that her character couldve been so much more so im curious to know what u think...

-@xyberangelzparadise

I loved her introduction, her powers, and her potential for a friendship (or enemyship) with jack who was wrestling with his own powers when they met. the “bad place” alter ego plot didn’t do much for me but it could have been interesting if the s13 writing team knew what they were doing with their characters overall. this is one of those seasons that could have been great if there weren’t far too many disparate plot threads competing for attention and a lack of any sustained focus on the characters - especially jack and his individual relationships with the members of tfw after he’d just been added to the show.

specific complaints about kaia’s writing:

that scene where dean yells at her and pulls a gun on her is absolutely horrible to watch and should have been treated with more narrative weight if they were gonna include it at all. ghastly look as usual by writers who couldn’t have seriously pondered the implications of the racial dynamics they were portraying if you paid them to do it.

I appreciate that they were trying to give the audience a tiny crumb of wlw with kaia and claire but to be frank we really didn’t get enough of them together for it to feel impactful, and on top of that it fucking stinks that they sacrificed kaia to generate angst/revenge-plot fodder for claire in “wayward sisters.” claire really is a dean mirror huh 🤪 (disclaimer for other readers who might stumble upon this post: I am not talking about d*stiel even a little bit - for all intents and purposes it doesn’t exist to me)

I remember that they briefly bring her back in s15 but truly they did not do Nearly a good enough job of integrating her into the plot in a meaningful way so by that point it feels…. tangential. as did many other characters’ appearances in the final seasons due to the extremely scattered writing.

overall I enjoyed the setup for jody taking in alex + claire + patience + kaia but I wanted more from it thematically. it was so obvious to many viewers that the writers were belatedly trying to correct the show’s notorious track record of misogyny, but that problem ran Far Far too deep for them to be able to fix it by simply adding more female side characters to the already-overflowing cast. alex’s intro episode and patience’s intro episode are two of my favorites in the late(r) seasons, but beyond their introductions we just do not see any of these characters focused on for long - besides (arguably) claire who got more screentime than any of the other girls.

and back to kaia as an individual character: I would’ve liked for the writers to have explored her as a jack foil. tbfh I wouldn’t have shunted jack off to apocalypse world so soon after his introduction; I would have kept him in the bunker with samndean and maybe cas. but if they were gonna go the AW route I think kaia should’ve been transported there with jack and it could’ve been her instead of mary who fought with him through that landscape. on top of the two of them getting to develop a relationship built on teamwork and embracing/refining their powers, this way jack could’ve used kaia’s dreamwalking abilities to try to communicate with sam, dean, AND cas if he wanted to. could’ve pulled out some interesting insights about the characters and their converging relationships that way. I would’ve mostly/entirely nixed the “dark kaia” plot tbh and focused her future appearances on her interactions with claire, alex, and patience - in a world where they were all recurring guest stars in MOTW episodes so the audience had a chance to get properly attached to them as characters.

sorry for how rambly that got lmao feel free to share your thoughts with me in the comments/tags if any of this sparked your interest :)

[ragsy]

Slightly unhinged rambles about Kenneth under the cut here 👇

I'm not against handwaving away certain character backstory details if they're not relevant to their current story or if the answer doesn't naturally arise from whatever else I've decided about them, and I think ultimately it doesn't matter what happened to Kenneth's wife (what matters is she's gone and has been gone for decades) but I'm so oc-obsessed right now that I CANNOT let myself leave it alone, lmao. Because also like!!! What happened to her COULD have implications that I can use to develop his character in other respects! Like, we've worked it out that he's Charlie's (another party member) uncle by means of marrying into the family, but the family kept him around after his wife died/divorced/disappeared/dunno because they liked him. So like. My options are more or less a) they divorced but it was chill enough that he was still invited to family holidays even though he got full custody of their child, b) they divorced and it was messy but the family still kept him around, or c) she died. And all three options come with their own very specific flavors of grief, all of which are very different from one another. I'm leaning towards dead wife because that works more thematically with his other shit i have going on, but that opens up a whole different can of worms of my own personal implications of now both of my major male ocs having dead women in their backstories, which itself is a trope I'm not excited about. So!! [Throwing my hands up in the air] I don't fucking know!!!

[quetzalpapalotl]

I wish to love and appreciate idw optimus more too. But I also don’t want to read through the entirety of IDW 1.0. Can you please recommend me any specific issues/parts?

Hi!! I see that you have already reblogged my IDW1 Optimus-focused reading guide, so I assume that you read that and still felt like it was too much. I'd do anything to spread the OP love, so I will try! But before that, please forgive me for rambling a bit.

That guide is not the entirety of IDW1, I tried to cut as much as possible, and I want to reiterate that I consider Barber's Optimus the definitive take on IDW1 Optimus. To the point that I like all other stuff with him only in because I read them through Barber's characterization which serves to give them depth in retrospective. And it does this because Barber's writes Optimus with the intention of consolidating all the other writer's takes on him (which were uh... a mess). It's a very contextual reading, a conversation, there's more to get from it if you know the background. So I would ask you to reconsider giving it a try, skip the crossovers if you want. I'll redo the reading guide with links to download/read online if you want.

That being said, I understand that sounds like "read these bad comics in the hopes you will like this one other comic" and the point is to have fun, not to do homework. So in that case I'll say to just read exrid/Optimus Prime and the JRo stuff (but we'll come back to teh later)

See, the exrid/OP is a whole story, so recommeding individual issues doesn't make much sense to me, it would be like recommending one episode of an anime or one chapter of a book, it would entirely lack context and lost much of it's meaning, especially because Optimus is a main character whose actions cannot be taken out from the rest of the plot. My favorite moments require build up, like when Optimus annexes the Earth to the council of worlds, that doesn't hit the same if you didn't read all the previous issues where Optimus was trying to remove all Cybertronian influence from Earth and the series of events that led to him changing his mind and think such a fucking move was a good idea.

And I've talked about this before, but while Mtmt/LL has its biggest strenght in character dynamics and out-of-screen build up, exRID/OP has it in thematic consistensy and narrative cohesion. All parts of it and there to make a point that feeds the whole, character's perspectives feed each other and the biggest pay-off comes at the very end. Also, Optimus Prime is a story about him as a character as much as it is about him as a symbol, so seeing the effects he has on other people is important.

I suppose you could read exRID starting from post Dark Cybertron as it basically becomes a different story and the first part doesn't feature Optimus (except in issues 6, 10, 19) I would not recommend this as there are still a lot of links between the two and you would miss a chunk of Arcee's story (who is the one other character on which the whole thing falls upon). But you could. Don't skip Combiner Wars tho.

Other than that here are some hightlights:

The Death of Optimus Prime: This is the one that works best as a single issue, as it is a one-shot. It sets up phase 2 so definitively read it.

JRo's stuff: That is Chaos Theory, Mtmte #9-11, Mtmte #36 and Spotlight: Orion Pax. Now, JRo's OP is certainly the one that is more likeable, but I don't necessarily think that it's good. JRo kinda wants to have Optimus be more morally grey but always reels back and portrays him as the ultimate good seemingly without considering the implications of a lot of the stuff he does. But still, Chaos Theory is the backbone of phase 2, they are fun reads and it introduces a lot of backstory and aspects of his personality that will be important.

Punishment: As this is a mini series, it's good to read on its own. It's still set in the broader context of exRID, but at least it's a complete story and a compelling one! Lots of Optimus brooding, but not in an annoying way.

Optimus Prime #1-6: Okay, so if you don't want to read all of exrid/OP or are testing the waters before commiting to it. This arc deals with Optimus trying to get people to accept Earth as part of the Council of Worlds and risking war for it, contrasted with events of his past. This may be the easiest arc to read on its own, but I also think it does a great job of building Optimus character. It's also a great example of the narrative not shying away from Optimus doing bad things, stupid things and having anger issues (and also the cop thing), while also retaining the core of his character as someone who genuinely wants to do good and getting into his head to make sense of his actions (not justify them). This is something that I feel only Barber gets right. Also Zeta Prime is there and he's the most important character that barely shows up.

Autocracy: Ok, ok, listen... this may or may not be the most disliked series in IDW1 and while I think it has a worse reputation than it deserves, I still wouldn't call it good. While its more honest abotu what being a cop entails than Chaos Theory and is willing to have OP be unsavory, that aspect doesn't really go anywhere and it fails to make OP an enganging character whose actions make sense. But it still has the backstory of how Orion became Optimus and a friend likes it, so hey, maybe you will too. Also the aforementioned flashbacks of OP 1-6 feel to me that they are written in direct response to Autocracy and try to explain how that is the same character than the one in Chaos Theory. I'm actually working on meta about that (anon, if you're reading this, I haven't forgotten). So for all that Barber is trying to recontextualize and reconciliate all the other takes on Optimus, this is the most obvious one and Autocracy is not that long. So it may be worth checking out.

Sorry for rambling again, I hope you find this useful!! Feel free to ask for links or any other questions!

[a-couple-of-notes]

assorted ramblings on the pasithea powder

I find it hilarious that in one of the Q&As, we learn that the creators really love this one episode of Hannibal where five people are stuck in a house, emotional bombs are dropped, and everyone is immediately in danger of dying--and then in "A Passage," three people are stuck in a spaceship, emotional bombs are dropped, and they're all pretty much in danger of dying (I mean, okay, they're not all bleeding out in a kitchen, but like--Sophie's brain is melting, the government is in pursuit, and Other!Evelyn did get shot, so it's close enough.) It's so cool when you can see pieces of what people love in their own work.

Someone else made a post about this, but learning that at least one of the creators read Animorphs makes so much sense and brings me so much joy. And also that shred of lettuce story reminds me in such a great and terrible way of that sliver of Hork-Bajir flesh in Cassie's teeth in #19.

You know, there could be a world in which these assorted ramblings devolve even further into Animorphs comparisons--for example, Yeerks and Others feeding off memories to create something that's an approximation of how the real person would act but not quite? Or, even closer, the Yeerk parasitism vs. the Eggaran mind-meld in Episode 18 (and even how that parallels Cassie and Aftran in #19, although the stakes are completely different). Or the easy parallels between Jane and Cassie and Sophie and Rachel that stick and fall apart in interesting ways once you examine them too closely--I'm gonna stop now.

Speaking of that famous mind-meld in Episode 18--it felt, in the most loving and thematically appropriate of ways, like such a fanfic trope? Like those pollen fics--you know which ones I'm talking about--except the characters are launched into another sort of intimate understanding of each other. And, you know, it feels like something that would happen to the leads of another show: this whole story has been about Jane and Sophie's struggle to communicate and be vulnerable with and trust each other--so shower them with feelings juice and make them work it out! It's why I was so glad that they didn't do that. Moreau and Jane get the mind meld shortcut; Sophie and Omikron do, too. But Sophie and Jane have to process and grow and communicate with each other all on their own. And it makes it so much more rewarding when they do.

My favorite ending narratively was Episode 11--that tightly-constructed ball of longing and trust and betrayal that makes you go, oh, of course it went like that--but Episode 33 was such a good finale, too. Getting to see them be kids again, essentially, reveling in memories when memory has been the thing that's haunted them for so long. There's peace. They're young. They'll be alright.

"A Passage" will haunt me, I can already feel it. The implications of the Evelyn interacting with Sophie being Jane's Evelyn and thus being not only a representation of what Jane thought Evelyn and Sophie's relationship was but also a fucked-up extension of Jane's own love for Sophie. All of Evelyn's snippiness toward Jane being, on some level, Jane's own self-recrimination. The fact that Jane could give Sophie both orders (to believe her and to leave) and Sophie didn't fly into the sun, and that Jane took the chance of that happening (for Evelyn? in the heat of the moment? because she knew the core of Sophie wouldn't fundamentally conflict with the idea of believing in Jane?) The tangled mess of Sophie wanting to stay with them anyway! God. This show is so good.

[fumifooms]

Magic, Desires & Funnels

So I read this fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33935719 (cool theory go read it btw) And it got me thinking… Less lore wise and more thematically though. Or a mix of both?? You can skip to the middle of this post if you don’t want to read my unhinged thesis on the in-world magic-desires dynamic as a preface to my other smaller magic-desires dynamic theory, if you can even call it one. This could just be a thematic analysis essay more than a theory on worldbuilding I have no clue at this point, we are too many layers in of intangible powers and unknowable entities that themselves embody abstract concepts, someone help

But yes I def agree that the demon is a funnel for magic from the other dimension and I quite like how consistent of a theory it is and the worldbuilding implications, but in a very different way, I think the demon is a funnel for desires. Literally and very obviously in the story but I mean, existentially as well.

If mana is in every being, is this abstract energy, then it isn’t so unlike desires in a way, and besides birds of a feather flocking together, it makes sense for an abstract concept to eat another abstract concept, for one to fuel another. It’s interesting too because in this sort of worldbuilding, usually it’s implied that magic is sort of like air, invisible but still physically present, and if it ignites into a fire then it’s not that the fire just came out of nowhere, but had the right conditions to transform as such. But what if that isn’t the case? What if, even if mana does work like that, ancient magic, magic from another dimension, doesn’t? What if magic is about materializing things that don’t, shouldn’t exist, like a force like gravity rather than an element or energy per se. Then it’s more about conjuring, than manipulating the laws of the world for the outcome that you want like any other science. It bends to the wishes of the mage. The mage desires something, and magic serves it on a silver platter out of literally nothing but itself. Magic comes to life when someone desires something and uses it to attain that thing, desires that otherwise couldn’t be materialized. This is what I mean when I call the demon a funnel for desires. But then, what I’m rambling about is that I think the Winged Lion can play with the very nature of physicality and immateriality, and thus it’s interesting to think about desires and what… Makes them. How they exist physically in the world and what makes them special. We do know that souls have a physical dimension to them due to ghosts, due to them being tangible, but what of desires? Is it truly something physically graspable or do they not operate on the same plane? I definitely think it’s the latter, I don’t think it’s truly something that you could separate of someone without incredibly powerful unknowable magic that breaks the fabric of existence and the space between dimensional planes, and I think that’s why Laios needed to become a monster with the specific ability "able to eat desires", because what that ability grants you is to be able to materialize them so you can then eat them. And coming full circle about birds of a feather, I think that you could consider desires to be a sort of magic, another type of deeply primal energy that comes from life itself rather than its contrary the void. Desires are fuel for the mind, are the driving force for self-made power rather than externally achieved one. Abstract forces will feed off of another abstract force, and vice versa like an ouroboros. Infinity fundamentally immaterial, existing only in the mind, and infinity materialized, only manifesting through physical means.

Ok I got a bit sidetracked but here’s what I’m actually getting at:

Livings beings are designed to instinctively seek out what they need, beyond normal cravings like food and water it can be more subtle and subconscious as well, like light for moths and plants, or specific food and nutriments when you have nutritional deficiencies or medical issues like high/low blood pressure (sugar, salt, vegetables, fibres), etc etc, and I think that’s true for demons as well.

Demons are very abstract beings but they too seem to have individuality and agency, like we see how the Winged Lion comes to want to eat desires through observation and curiosity, so I don’t want to say it’s 100% just an innate craving, but there’s a case to be made. A demon at the core of it is a being of magic. They are entities interlinked to magic, it’s their source of life and it is them. In the Lion’s own words, he is Power. And what does magic, what could power possibly instinctively seek out? What tries to wield power, and what can become warped by it and consumed in turn? Desires. Ambition. Goals. Power was born to be attracted to these.

Power feeds off of desire.