#i don't care for the merch drop but this image being the cover of the ''contact us'' page is absolutely hilarious

[hotdyke-hardstyle]

[mindrole]

so, in the databook, in shinano's entry, the detail that yellow is dita's image color was dropped, right? shinano's favorite color is yellow for this reason, that's why in the dlc he's wearing a yellow shirt, because of its association with dita. but he is not the only one who is observing this i think.

look at this...

the color yellow i think is strongly associated with miwa as it is. he uses it everywhere in his apartment, and he wears yellow in the magazine cover in his room (our only representation of him outside of "dita"). even in the bedding! yellow! of course this is a connection to dita as well, something more subtle that all the merch he's displaying, which could still be dismissed as stuff he was given as the lead. i'm sure actors are given merch of shows/movies they star in all the time, and some might come to the conclusion that even if it's displayed so neatly, that could just be his personality, etc. (even though i think the way it's displayed, he clearly cares on a deep level)

i think one of the reasons it was ryuu's segment in the interlude that had the investigating bits was because miwa is a character important to com, but he's not present in the interlude in person because he's already in rosemaria. this is a way to learn about him without him being on screen and talking to the camera. since ryuu is approaching with about more or less as much information as we have, he's a good audience surrogate. there's not much we need to know about ryuu, but we do end up learning about him a little while he's snooping around miwa's apartment.

so... the conclusion... miwa actually does love ditasword...

"you've already made this clear in other posts", is what you're thinking, probably but...

yes, it validated what i thought further! that's not what i realized!!

what i realized was this: miwa doesn't seperate between himself and dita that much. it would be apt to say he wants to be as close to dita as possible. not in an identity crisis sort of way, in real life he never thought of himself as dita iliner at any point. that's not it. but rather he has an unhealthy attachment and obsession with dita. is dita a state of being? i don't know, but what i do know is that when he's playing dita, he can be... well not himself, because frankly dita is a (2.5D/3DPD) anime character and miwa is a grown man in his 60s, but he can present the part of himself he can't show the world.

remember the report? to miwa the end of ditasword, is the end of him, too. (what the fuck is wrong with him?) so he can't picture a world he can exist in once he can't play dita anymore. even though he's famous? even though most idols in this situation either transition into serious roles, or retire and get married? he doesn't want to play anyone but dita, a role likely conceptualized with his status as a fragment in mind. he can't just randomly have pink hair for any old regular decular drama role, it's weird. especially when the public perception is usually to try and get away from your most well known kiddie role. and it looks like dita and eigha are getting killed off in the movie, so...

i have no doubt in my mind anymore that at some point, he wanted rosemaria to last forever for himself. it was something he wanted because without ditasword, he had nowhere to exist anymore. whether or not he changed his mind in the space between february and july no one knows yet. does this mean he's the mastermind this entire time? ...i don't know. coe had a big unreliable narrator element to it, but i still think we do not know enough. at the very least, he clearly has some guilt about it if the email on his computer is anything to go by. not to mention he went to the detective agency for a reason (we don't know why. was he offering tips on the mirage incident so someone could solve it? did he think his life was in danger? who knows..). here are the possibilities:

this is something he fully had a hand in. (i think this has a bit of evidence backing it up)

he's in on it, but is only an accessory, and agreed to it because his dream would come true. so he doesn't have a lot of autonomy if at all. (this has probably the most evidence)

it was against his will from the start (this is highly unlikely)

whether or not "this is something miwa thought he wanted", like i said, there's just not enough information. obviously we will find out in com itself, but i can't think tossing away your entire self to embody a fictional character you used to cope with being a (to be frank) freak of nature is a good thing, especially now that it seems like the relationship is a deeply codependent one. doubly so that there were ulterior motives from almost everyone high up in the operation... (kadou and azuma, and even miwa, they all have ulterior motives when it comes to ditasword)

in february, he was counting down the days to the movie coming out. but there was a lot happening, and things did not go as planned, i think factors that messed with everything can be narrowed down to these two:

the mirage incidents and subsequent disappearances

harada shiyo.

in the beginning of the post i said that miwa's apartment being the debut of the investigation mechanics is a way to learn about miwa in a way that's more profound than one would realize on their first playthrough. there's a lot of details that seem mundane until you link them together. for the mirage incidents, they're represented by the email on miwa's computer. for shiyo, it's the bathroom poster (this is more information in shiyo himself though) and the hydrangea photo (miwa's obsession with shiyo). they're important aspects that will end up influencing miwa's decisions leading up to com. i don't want to elaborate because i go into shiyo and my thoughts on him in the other post that's rotting in my drafts right now. there's already a bunch of overlap between this and that. though tbh i might end up scrapping it and rewriting it entirely, so if you wanna know about this specific thing, just ask~

honestly, it is really unfortunate. because miwa can never be dita. and dita could never be him. one part is always going to end up neglected. and both "dita" and "miwa (idol)" aren't particularly real, yeah, perfect blue, blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda. they can't exist independently of each other. it's a fool's errand.

but yeah, i have a lot of thoughts re:com in general, shiyo+eigha etc, since i'm scrapping the one post i'm leaving it to whoever would like to hear about it. it's kind of unsalvageable rn because i had too many new thoughts and also there's an increasing overlap... (and i ran out of motivation...)

[akwardlyuncool]

Black and Akward In The Scene #2: Happy 20th Anniversary In Love and Death, Let's Celebrate With Some Offensive Merch.

TW: Talk of racist imagery.

So 2024 is the 20th Anniversary of my 2nd favorite album of all time, In Love And Death by The Used and when they announced yesterday that they were doing special merch for the occasion I got really excited. To be honest though I spent quite a bit of money in September and figured I wouldn't get anything, but still wanted to check it out anyway just in case I could be tempted out of my dollars. Fast forward to today when the drop is officially released and I'm no longer excited.

If you're unaware The Used have had a noose as part of their artwork and band imagery for 20 years and said noose is always tied around a heart or heart shaped image. (Go look up the In Love and Death album cover if you need to.) When I became aware that it was in fact a noose, cause I didn't always know that, I became iffy about it, but not enough to toss it away. Today though is different, today isn't it. As part of the merch drop the band released a hoodie with the regular heart on a noose image on it (no issue) however they also did something wild and made the drawstring a noose as well.

I immediately clocked this as not okay and something I wasn't cool with. I commented on the IG post saying "I know nooses are part of the artwork, but I'm not sure how comfortable I'd feel wearing it basically 'around my neck'." The reactions were mixed with people who saw where I was coming from, and agreed and others who were like "well don't buy it then," or "it's not that deep."

Although I do take issue with the fans who are acting like I'm just being sensitive about something that's been around forever, my main issue is with the band for making this supper offensive choice. One of the band members even replied to my comment and said "totally understand, which is why I made sure you can easily remove it if you don't want it 🎈"

Now it's great that it can be removed, like any other drawstring, but I questioned why it was put there in the first place. Again I'm aware of the symbol being apart of the album's artwork, I'm not questioning it's existence and I think they and other fans who "answered" my question, know that. How can you say you understand and still make that choice? This is where I truly am disappointed at as a fan. This is why you can't have edgy things.

Now for the fans with this trash take, there are many reasons as to why this imagery isn't okay in the context of where it is placed, but for me specifically this is simply another reason why it's frustrating to be a Black person in this scene. I shouldn't have to tell you that black people are still being lynched in America in 2024, for there to be something wrong with this ish. It's wild to me that some fans know why off the cuff this is weird, but are still so quick to explain 20 year old art work to me! Honestly this particular fan reaction, cause to be clear it's not all fans, isn't surprising, I'm just tired of it.

It's heartbreaking and saddening to see ish like this. This is bigger than just them, but to be hyper specific, I want The Used to do better. I'm not asking them to change the original artwork or stop using it, however they cannot play ignorant to the fact that this a country built on things like racism and not everyone who wears this particular hoodie is going to be a "nice fan." This is obviously offensive to a lot of people, especially Black fans, but it also seems hella unsafe as well. As shown by the responses I saw today, this does not harbor a safe environment for me as fan. The Used can show folks how to be better, especially as a band who says they care about liberation, but that might be an adjacent conversation for another day.

Just make better choices, evaluate your actions and if you truly care about ALL your fans, show it.

Anyway I'm just sad and tired and feel weird about being a fan today. Happy 20th Anniversary.

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A link to the hoodie for those who want to see what I'm talking about. It's also across all of their social media accounts as well.