#i just think the parallels are interesting

[andrew-dramaqueen-minyard]

the difference between Neil and Jean to me is that (for the most part) Neil is confident in himself and knows he deserves a better life (even if he thinks it’s not attainable) but he doubts that him and his exy skills are worthy of the court — whereas Jean is so confident in his exy skills and his worth on the court (he knows he’s great) but he does not think he deserves anything off it.

they truly are two sides of the same coin.

[dailysiffrin]

What are your thoughts about the king.

I think the King is a REALLY interesting character. I've always been a fan of the antagonists that are essentially "the protagonist if things were just a little different."

At first, it's easy to peg him as just the archetypal villain, the "guy who just wants to destroy everything", but as you strip things away and find that him and Siffrin aren't that different-- their main differences being how likely they are to feel guilt, basic empathy, and restraint-- he really starts to evolve into something really fun and cool thematically.

I'm very glad he can simultaneously be sympathetic and unforgivable. It's pretty rare that I see a media not lean heavily into one or the other; the King is kind of "simple" in execution in my opinion, but this is mostly only on the surface, and that's what I think makes him so cool as a character. Don't get me wrong, I still hate him, but that's the point, you know? You're not supposed to like him, even after you learn more about him and figure out his rationale.

Not to mention the narrative idea behind everything sort of circling back to the lost island. Something about an entire ISLAND haunting the narrative... the most important thing to this whole incident being something intangible, ungraspable in a way that gives it no true closure at the end of the day. It's really great, and the King ends up being a really important vessel in delivering knowledge about it to you, the player.

Sometimes, even, he does his job too well!

There's something to be said about how you, as the player, sometimes end up following the same path as the King does, yearning to know more than you are allowed.

I dunno. I just think it's very interesting how a lot of the very information-hungry players post-game wind up paralleling some of the ideas the King has. Not all of them, obviously, but. It's in there. And it's really really really cool.

Anyways yeah I like him as a character and narrative device. I have lots of thoughts about this. :)

[crunchyapple33]

has anyone else seen the reddit post from the person who shifted here from a much worse parallel reality? cuz ive been thinking abt it for days

(trigger warning for some slight ableism in the 4th pic, but i just thought it was interesting)

[starberriemilk]

Quick Analysis of New Sinclair EGO

I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS EGO AND I REALLY NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT!

First of all: This EGO MUCH more hopeful in comparison to Hong Lu's, it's clearly about Sinclair breaking out of his egg.

Sinclair is hopeful, Hong Lu is hopeless.

Sinclair spreads his wings and the whole animation is so cinematic and it focuses on that part, making it really clear to me that it's about Sinclair hatching out of his egg.

With the addition of his wings being similar in shape to a cain mark, it makes it even more clear.

There's also the thing with antlers I said before: someone pointed out that they're young dragon's antlers which shows Sinclair's immaturity. They have blood on them, which makes me think about how they grew out forcefully - a sign of Sinclair being forced to grow up faster when he wasn't ready yet, because ones that took care of him died.

The blades which, in my eyes, represent burden, representing Sinclair carrying that burden of his trauma, but he uses them as his wings to let himself soar and let go of his past.

It's a big contrast to Hong Lu, who's being dragged by the lance that he's impaled with. Like I said, these EGOs are opposites of each other and parallels a lot. With Sinclair soaring and letting go off his trauma, and Hong Lu sinking down and looking totally out of control in his EGO. It makes me think of how their toad EGOs parallels, with Sinclair wanting to take everyone's pain away, sacrificing himself in the process, while Hong Lu is bottling up his own pain until he explodes… I just think the contrast is VERY interesting, and the parallels are very visible, especially in this EGO.

Another thing I wanted to talk about Sinclair's eye in contrast to Hong Lu's. While the area around Hong Lu's eye looks like a wound or scar, the are around Sinclair's eye looks like it's covered in feathers/fur(?), and instead of an eye, he has a flower there. People have said he has a missing eye but to me it looks like a flower- unfortunately we won't know for sure until we get better quality of the sprites in a few weeks, but with assumption of it being a flower, I think it's a reference to Lin Daiyu, Hong Lu's love interest in The Dream Of Red Chamber, who is very heavily associated with flowers (I am theorizing that Sinclair will get her identity but that's a topic for another post). It could also be a reference to Sinclair being the Rose from Little Prince.

This might be a stretch but with the way Hong Lu and Sinclair are presented in the EGO, Sinclair's eye is visible in a lot of the sprites meanwhile Hong Lu's eye is very hidden, which in my eyes represents their trauma and how visible it is. Sinclair's eye is visible, just like his trauma - he literally started having a visible panic attack and threw up when K corp was merely mentioned in his canto. Meanwhile Hong Lu? A lot of people in the fandom assume he doesn't even have trauma, that's how good he is at hiding it. The sweepers event was probably the first time he talked about his trauma in a more serious manner - just how his eye in the whole animation is very obscured.

Lastly, I want to talk about Sinclair's line.

This line is clearly a reference to Daiyu's line in the beginning of Dream of Red Chamber, when she is still Crimson Pearl Flower:

"The only way in which I could perhaps repay him would be with the tears shed during the whole of mortal lifetime if he and I were to be reborn as humans in world below"

Now, compare this to parts of Sinclair's line, particularly this part: "Earthbound have I become" is referencing how for Daiyu to repay her debt of tears, she had to descend to the mortal realm and thus she became bound to Earth because she is reborn as a human. And then there's "To embrace you, I endure this endless descend", because Daiyu's whole purpose of descending and thus enduring all the pain and sadness that came with being reborn as a human and being earthbound, is to one day reunite and embrace her true love, Baoyu, which Hong Lu is based on. The descend felt endless because the debt of tears is not something that can be repaid in a single night. It would have taklen her the whole lifetime of a mortal, but she would endure it just like Sinclair, to embrace her love and repay the debt.

But besides that, I think the line has other meaning, connecting it to Sinclair's own story, let me break it down:

"Earthbound I have become" - reference to how Sinclair fell from the world of light, descending to the world of darkness. The wording also, "earthbound", references how he's like a bird that can't fly, because he's still in an egg.

"But to embrace you" - the "you" i think he's talking about might be Demian, I'll explain later why. What he means by the wording "to embrace", i think is "to accept (a belief, theory, or change) willingly and enthusiastically." (from dictionary)

"I endure this endless descent" - the descent into the world of darkness feeling endless, because he lost everything. His parents, his sister, even Demian. He was completely alone and it feels like it will never end, but he endures it, because he knows that it will be worth it.

So to put it all together, this whole sentence means that Sinclair had fallen into the world of darkness, which feels endless, because of everything he lost and all the pain he goes through. However, he endures it all and doesn't give up, because he knows that if he wants to embrace Demian again, he has to go through all this, and all this pain is necessary to let him break out of his egg.

That's all I have for now, if anyone has any other ideas and theories recarding this I'd love to discuss!!

[orphiclovers]

okay I will eventually write the meta clawing at my brain about the Gourmet Association arc and what it means for kim dokja’s development but this is me rambling incoherently about something else weird in this arc that i can't pin down. bear with me here

we all remember when Yoo Joonghyuk transforms into a girl and wins the martial arts competition by using a special sword technique only women can use, right, classic orv moment, but I feel like we all forget that at the exact same time, maybe 3 minutes earlier, somehwere far away....kim dokja is possesing a female incarnation and ALSO using a special sword that only women can use to win a fight??? how did I forget this??

even if you're in denial about the Gender in orv atp there's CLEARLY something there. a writer just doesn't 'accidentally' do this super niche specific parallel for their main characters LITERALLY at the same time for no reason, this is trying to tell us...something.

I don't know, the whole btsss arc has jang hayoung, who self identifies as a woman but gets doubted by others, ALSO using breaking the sky, at which point yoo joonghyuk mysteriously says its obvious that she is a woman like he didn't doubt it 4 chapters ago. even the damn dog gets misgendered by kdjs assumptions and then turns out to be a girl after all, also uses btss, yjh gets turned into a girl which makes him paradoxically stronger, kim dokja posseses a girl to also get around the gender limitations on skills...

it seems like every time a gender rule exists on a skill we ONLY see how people break the rule/get around it on technicalities etc and not ever actually follow it which is funny but also interesting... AND this all happens in the span of a couple of chapters...it  includes the same variation on a theme in this arc specifically for a REASON I haven't figured out yet but will have to think on

[guildling]

when i am indulging in isat content i feel like people always forget the mirabelle is also a represser of her feelings too…. i know we’re distracted by the guy with 54 mental illness and who the game focuses on, but theres a small little nod to it in act 1 (a parallel to how sif didnt talk abt their worries during the timeloop hell, mira didn’t talk about her worries during her chosen one jrpg adventure) and they also acknowledge it at the end too.

she has a very happy disposition and the anxiety she holds is not covered up by 50 different masks and we do not get access to the negative internal monologue so i get Why people aren’t as interested in trying to dissect her, but i don’t know… i think they’d both struggle opening up to each other even after their agreement at the end. though i think a part of this is bc we see mira have meds for her anxiety so we know she doesn’t have that Insane fear of asking for help sif does, she just prefers not bothering & worrying people. Anyway all this to say i think the sif and mira dynamic should be explored with all of its nuance more. Please

[wanderingapathy]

Headcanon that before the group got together, each ninja had a fear of each other’s element.

This is some old stuff I found in my notes app, but here’s the list of their fears

Kai: Water

Cole: The Incomprehensible (Lloyd’s power)

Zane: Lightning

Jay: Earth

Nya: Fire

Lloyd: Ice

I also found the reasoning for each one too, I altered a few things form the original version though

Kai: His fear of water is shown in the show as he doesn’t know have to swim. Self explanatory, but let’s also just say that as a kid he had the same fear and when he used to see Nya swimming he’d get super anxious for her. Perhaps also the innate uncontrollability of water made him uncomfortable because he could always put a fire out but how quickly could he drain water? I think also the difficulty tied to swimming also makes him feel like he had less control and therefore enhances the fear.

Cole: Fear of the incomprehensible is primarily because I don’t think he’d have very many feats of physical things. He was shown to free-climb mountains without any gear and honestly a lot of the fears at he develops in the show are based primarily on issues with himself (especially when he was a ghost). The fear of being forgotten is also pretty major at some point too. All of these are more so concepts, and I think it’s fitting if he’s afraid of something he can’t understand, such as Lloyd’s strange and seemingly ever-growing powers.

Zane: His fear of Lightning wasn’t due to any event he had experienced, but rather just some instinct that made him cautious of electricity. Since he didn’t know about being a robot before joining the team, he’d have no clue that lightning could potentially mess with him on a degree very different to a human. So he never knew why he had this fear, but it was still prevalent.

Jay: I feel like Jay was almost much more interested in the air and sky. He grew up in a junkyard in the middle of an empty desert so I really doubt he had anything other to look at. Plus lightning being is the sky during storms. Also he has so many themes tied to the sky (his makeshift wings, his vehicles tending to be jets/planes, etc). The reason why I bring this up his because I don’t think he ever saw how big mountains could get—or when he did it was briefly—so perhaps he has some form of fear in regards to how towering they are and how they’re so different from the consistency of the sky and desert.

Nya: Now originally I had Lloyd being afraid of fire, but I switched it around for specific reasons. Nya was afraid of ice because it was so much more rigid and intimidating than the flowiness of water. Now that I have her afraid of fire, I think it’d be more based that lack of control. It parallels with Kai’s fear, both of them finding that the opposing element is difficult and impossible to control in some way or another. For Nya, fire scared her because one ember or spark was enough to burn down homes or villages, that an uncontrolled fire is almost impossible to put out even with plenty of water.

Lloyd: Now his fear of ice is mainly tied to the Cole. Ice meant cold, snow, blizzards, winter, etc. I don’t think that he actually stayed in Darkleys the entire time he was schooled there. I feel like Lloyd would’ve ran away multiple times, only to come back when harsh conditions struck. And when it came to him being kicked out, he didn’t actual have somewhere to come back to. He was left out in the cold, subjected to whatever weather was currently happening. Not to mention the first interaction he had with Serpentine was in a cold, icy environment.

Of course, I don’t think they’d show their fears around each other or perhaps they had already outgrow their fears before the team was created, but it does offer for some interesting headcanons and story material. It can also be a nice thing to, with them overcoming their fears because they grew fond of the person who has control of the element.

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

Framing/Costume Design in Dead Boy Detectives (Part 2 of God Knows What?): Edwin, Crystal, Brown Coats, and Emotional Intimacy

(And yes, I changed the title. Sorry, I realized that as many of my thoughts about framing/cinematography also have to do with costuming. Oops?)

Okay, so I was thinking things about Edwin and Crystal and Charles and the costuming in the forest scenes and wanted to put them out here on the interwebs. (With assists from @mellxncollie, who provided answers as to shots in episode 8!)

I'm thinking about how in both the Edwin/Charles forest scenes in episode 2 and Crystal/Charles forest scene in episode 6, both Edwin and Crystal are wearing brown jackets/coats. This is typical for Edwin, yes, but the coat is often used as a stand-in for a type of emotional armor, with him wearing the coat in situations where he tends to be hiding something either from himself or from others- especially in scenes in episode 6, where he is more open at the neck, yes, signaling his desire to confess, but also with a double layer of the armored brown, connoting that he is still holding things back from everyone regarding his feelings, as happens when talking with both the Cat King and Monty in the forest.

Or rather, he also wears that coat in scenes when he is putting an emotional barrier between himself and others- which is why I find it so fascinating that Crystal gets put in a brown jacket during her forest scene when she's hiding things from Charles as well, a very deliberate parallel in colors. In both scenes you get Charles physically defending both of them from a threat, whether that be the dandelion sprite skeletons or David, and both the dandelion sprites and David are manifestations of Greater psychological threats to the characters in question.

However, Edwin still has much of the season to go when it comes to his emotional Journey so must maintain the coat for longer, while Crystal really kick starts her emotional arc in this episode and is able to tell Charles what is happening with her and connect with her ancestors, so she is able to discard the brown coat by the end of the episode.

Now, this last bit is up to interpretation, but when it comes to the final episode of the show (and the scenes post-hell and thus post-confession), Edwin doesn't wear the coat with Crystal post-Niko death in the scene where he welcomes her to the agency, but he does with the Cat King. This could just be given to simple environmental storytelling from a doylist pov (Edwin is outside with the Cat King, but inside with Crystal), but from a Watsonian pov, the decision speaks to an interesting implication: Edwin has finally lowered his emotional walls with Crystal, but there is still a layer of emotional walls up with the Cat King.

@uhhhhhwhatthefuck @starnightsstuff @whatthehorsedoicallthisblog

@gh0st-ratt @tipsyscone @anonymouscheeseball

@great-exhibition-of-1851 @dont-know-how-this-works @mirellapryce

@goddessofliteratureandsarcasm @superdemon552 @fan-a-tink

@arrow-jsy

[kivaember]

yes!! i really do like the idea that Kullervo is Drifter's version of Umbra. Like, if we actually busted him out of Duviri, he would likely be sentient like Umbra (but for gameplay reasons, obvs, only Umbra will be the sentient Warframe I think bc that seems to be his unique identifier gameplay wise) and be able to act independently.

The problem is busting Kullervo out of Duviri. I genuinely think that if he really wanted, he could leave his prison on his island. He just chooses not to, and after reading the plaques and listening to the kids' songs about him, it's possible that Kullervo feels like his imprisonment in Duviri being repeatedly killed by Drifter is a suitable punishment for him. Like, he doesn't make it easy for Drifter mind, they have to work for their victory, but he likely still views it as all part of this purgatory he's been tossed into and forgotten about.

There's all kinds of implications about Kullervo, as well as parallels between him and the Tenno - he actively encouraged the Tenno to betray the Orokin (which they were going to do anyways, as the Warden states that he isn't solely to blame for the Tenno's defection), after Kullervo had suffered under their hands being treated like a tool. You gotta wonder: did Kullervo do that because he wanted to use the Tenno as a means to get his revenge on the Orokin, or did he not want the Tenno - who were children, a fact he may've known or guessed at - to suffer the same fate as him, being reduced to a weapon that gets its spirit completely broken until its just a shade of a human being?

There's a lot of ambiguitiy with Kullervo. Was he a terrible person who always made the wrong decision? Was he just a broken man who wanted any sort of acknowledgement from those he looked up to, no matter what he had to do? Was he someone who wanted to do the right thing but lacked the experience or tools to know what the right thing was, and so flailed around causing chaos and damage to those around him?

ITS INTERESTING bc like I can see why Drifter would empathise with Kullervo. Drifter's pretty good at empathising in general (they empathise with Thrax of all people going by Quincy's KIM convo, where Drifter says they understand that Thrax lashes out at them because he is just a scared little kid who's been abandoned by the person that made him to be their forever best friend), and with Kullervo I think they would definitely be able to draw connecting dots between them that Kullervo has been kicked down the endless flight of stairs called miserable luck by those above him and has been falling ever since. Much like Drifter lmao

But what saved Drifter? A helping hand. Well, two, technically. Teshin and Lotus basically dragged Drifter kicking and screaming out of Duviri and their apathy, and well... honestly, I can see Drifter getting it in their head to do the same with Kullervo. As we know with the events of 1999, Drifter's pretty stubborn when they want to be...

ok so. i really do like arthur/drifter but. listen. hear me out. drifter/kullervo.

drifter always gravitating to kullervo's hold during the darker spirals. always fighting kullervo. sometimes drifter dies in the fight and usually kullervo does. kullervo always kneels to them no matter the outcome.

rattling bars. their interaction is usually when they're fighting each other to the death but sometimes drifter just swings by kullervo's cage before the fight. sometimes they talk about the outside world. sometimes they don't say anything at all. they tell kullervo that almost all of the orokin are dead. after new war, they tell them about ballas.

kullervo never says a thing in response. but they listen. and they kneel after their fights, no matter the outcome, and for drifter, that's enough for them.

idkkkk i feel like there could be such a unique and understated relationship there. why does kullervo stay in his cage if drifter has the power to free him? because kullervo doesnt want to leave and drifter kind of gets it. why does kullervo kneel even if they succeed in killing drifter? bc they're the only bitch they respect in this messed up spiral.

anyway kullervo/drifter. many brainworms. may write a oneshot at some point.

[young-waverer]

i think that the parallels between this fight and the ones in 8x09 are really interesting. both times, eddie accuses buck of making everything about himself, but that's only true in 8x09.

when buck was being a dick in 8x09, it wasn't that he wanted eddie not to leave; he wanted to know eddie didn't want to leave him, that eddie cared enough for this to hurt, even if it was something he felt he had to do. and although it manifests differently tonally in eddie, the fight in 8x17 is rooted in the exact same feeling. eddie wants to know buck needs him, and he wants to know buck is in the trenches of grief right there with him.

i think we're meant to understand eddie is in the wrong and lashing out in 8x17, just like buck was in 8x09. we needed to see both buck and eddie be irrational and messy and sad during this season, because we needed to see that both of them are equally invested in their relationship. when they're in conflict, it's not that buck is an immature asshole and it's not that eddie is angry and withdrawn. it's that they both need and love each other so much that they feel hurt when they think the other doesn't also need and love them as much.

[goomyloid]

do you think anything will happen when we get to the festival in the game? since it seems like an important thing to kris and noelle's past?

I DONT KNOW THATS SCARY... (shivering)

i think its a common theory that the festival is chapter 5 right? (thinking of the balloon gif) ohhhh... i honestly have no idea what will happen, but i really wonder how things will be changed for the weird route... main route wise, i think the festival chapter might end up being more susie centric, because they had already talked about going together... but man, weird route festival will probably have that insane indescribable tension between noelle and kris... we already kind of 'cut off' kris emotionally from susie in the weird route so far so i think the chapter would be an interesting opportunity to put lots more emphasis on their (kris's and noelle's) past...

hoping praying crossing my fingers we get a ferris wheel scene. since it didnt(?) happen(?) in the chapter 2 weird route, i think it'd be a fucked up romantic parallel how we've 1. grounded noelle to reality + her past by making her go on the real ferris wheel over the dark world one, and 2. making her go with kris, but i think they'll be too... Whatever to shake the carrier this time around... maybe they can just talk... (salivating over potential insane kriselle moment)

speaking of chapter 5, i'm really wondering when it will be released... since it's been making good progress, i wonder if it will be released standalone in the next year or two? since it was originally supposed to release with 3&4. (which is scary. i know each chapter is more or less self-contained but the fact that we were originally supposed to play chapter 5 right after finishing chapter 4, but that's no longer possible.... scary.... hope nothing bad happens in chapter 4 lol....) im unsure of what the schedule may look like tho... ive been wondering if toby will share any future plans in the upcoming newsletter or not

ANYWAY. tldr i hope we get a ferris wheel scene and i think festival chapter will kill us all

[icedragonlizard]

I've recently been growing some sort of fascination for a reversal trope as far as certain Kirby villains are concerned, as in imagining hypothetical scenarios where they get tastes of their own medicines aka becoming victimized by the same types of villainies they were a part of.

In my opinion, it introduces some really interesting parallels.

Imagine if Magolor were to be duped and betrayed by a new twist villain after they gained his trust, like what he himself was guilty of in Return to Dream Land.

Imagine if Taranza were to get kidnapped, have his free-will stolen, and possessed by a new villain complicit in the subjugation of somewhere (either Floralia or somewhere else), just like what he himself was guilty of doing in Triple Deluxe.

And imagine if Susie were to also get kidnapped, have some terrifying body horror happen to her and be used like a weapon by a new villain on top of having her home be colonized by a new invasive force that her kidnapper is a part of, just like what she herself was guilty of doing in Planet Robobot.

Man, it's like Wave 3 are my favorite targets for this trope. What is it about them that makes me want to do this sort of stuff to them?

I already created an AU a while back where Susie and Taranza get tastes of their own medicines in this exact manner, but honestly I've came up with new ideas since and thus I'm considering updating that AU at some point, and it'll include Magolor getting put under the wringer as well as them, so stay tuned for that whenever I get around to it!

In what's been established in that AU, Susie and Taranza get kidnapped by the same group of new villains, but I'm now thinking of changing it where they get victimized by different villain groups as two different incidents, and Magolor getting his own victimization incident too.

And imagine Kirby going out to save all three of them in each of their incidents, despite the massive irony.

[utilitycaster]

I think what gets me is the following set of things:

most defenses I've seen of Bells Hells boil down to "I find them personally relatable" which means a handful of things. Firstly, I don't and I've covered this - being indecisive and being conflict avoidant are attributes I personally do not like in others, strive not to be myself, and therefore don't find relatable so like, this argument does not serve as a means to make me like them. It also is kind of...self-perpetuating isn't the right word. Self-referential? One of the things about conflict avoidance is that it means you do not do the work to consider other perspectives because you just say "oh ok never mind I'll back down" and whoever is loudest wins, rather than coming to a deeper understanding and a compromise. Like, Molly and Beau have a very antagonistic relationship, and it's a fascinating one to me and perhaps the biggest thing that makes me wish I could see into the parallel universe in which Molly lives and they flesh that out more, and this is in part because they are starting to see a little more eye to eye right before he dies after spending a lot of time sharing small aspects of themselves and considering each other's perspectives! If you never bother to uncover why someone's behaving the way they are and dig into it and get messy, you do not expand your own understanding of people! [This is what could have been more interesting about Imogen, incidentally - the ability to read minds means she can skip the work and just get the information...and the work is a big part of the process, and having to deal with confrontation could have been an incredible arc for her]. And finally, I think that if your only way to enjoy characters is through personal relatability, that's a problem. I certainly like characters I find relatable, but like...Yasha isn't terribly relatable to me other than "broad exploration of grief" reasons and I still love her for that! You don't have to like every character - obviously I don't - but I don't think "I don't personally connect with this character" is a good way to approach fiction, which, again, should be a means of teaching you to find connection through new and different means.

I remember that the Mighty Nein and Vox Machina were compared at some point during C2, and how the Mighty Nein, despite being very cagey and antagonistic towards each other early on, are incredibly welcoming to many of their allies and guest characters to the point of inviting them to join (most notably Essek, but they also essentially adopt Kiri for a time); and Vox Machina are much more exclusive. I think that's true but I do think Vox Machina, while being a more closed group, still have very strong alliances with Allura, Kima, Gilmore, Zahra, and Kash throughout the story, and rely on them heavily - they're more reserved and standoffish, but still friendly and extremely good at, for lack of a less business-y term, networking. And Bells Hells are kind of...bad at both of these. Their allies are mostly just Assigned By Keyleth/the Accord or (earlier) Eshteross or pre-existing blood ties or other connections (of which Keyleth is the main one); they betray a good deal of the people who help them through the story and while this isn't the fault of Bells Hells, what alliances they actually do form via the solstice split don't end up mattering that much to the story...whereas Vox Machina's and the Mighty Nein's actually continue to matter deeply within Campaign 3.

Just in terms of placement, I think coming after Campaign 2, of which a core theme that emerged is seeing things from the other perspective (this is not remotely subtle, one of the episodes shortly after the Nein turn the beacon over to the Bright Queen is straight up named "Perspective"); after EXU Prime, which does have some interesting party conflict and the reveal of a civilization with a very different attitude than any of the characters are used to; and of course Calamity and Downfall, which give us a new view into what had previously been static lore; the, and I keep using this phrase because it is the best description, utter lack of curiosity Bells Hells has towards that which is outside at most their group (and there's not much curiosity towards each other; What the Fuck Is Up With That hilariously is just more of the papering over by turning an organic process into an artifical one) stands out. They end the campaign perhaps even more solipsistic than they began, and it's just like. could you have picked ONE expansive option. literally anywhere.

I haven't started this weekend's Nein Again episode but I am just thinking about how both the Mighty Nein and Vox Machina had some fascinating relatively long-term disagreements or conflicts and even some blow-ups that ultimately provided so much space for character development. The scene with Caleb telling Fjord that some degree of risk is good only hits the way it does because Fjord had previously held him at swordpoint and Molly and Beau had laid into Nott (and that conversation in turn is how we found out about Nott's feelings about Caleb as someone to protect). Imagine if Scanlan yelled at Vox Machina like that and you didn't get Percy yelling back at him to actually treat his daughter like a person rather than some idealized concept he had to be perfect for! Like, Bells Hells' refusal to ever let arguments actually happen feels like...well, like you're playing an RPG and keep picking the most dead end option for the conversation every single time, and I still wish they like...didn't plaster over every negative feeling almost immediately because it's genuinely wild how like...every single little thing that could have transformed this campaign into something better didn't happen.

[bladedweaponsandswishycoats]

Justice in the Dark and the Art of Translating Vibes (or: Why the drama's kabedon (ep. 18) is actually the novel's car kiss (ch. 75-76))

I've been mostly burying myself in the material rather than reading what anyone is saying on social media but @lunarriviera said I should share this, so here goes.

I really like the way the creators of Justice in the Dark worked really hard to translate emotional beats and preemptively plan for censorship, and I think it does something interesting because it moves parallel moments around to where they need to be given the exercise in translation that an adaptation must perform.

Spoilers for both Modu and Justice in the Dark versions below!

The main one I want to talk about here is the kabedon/wall slam that takes place when they go to investigate the crime scene where Feng Bin was killed.

Obviously, the scene as it appears in the book at that moment in the plot would not have made it into the drama in a million years, even if censorship wasn't the way it is:

So it is a given that there was not going to be an interrupted wallfuck in the drama, and the creators were well aware of that. In many dramas, the usual thing to do would be to say "well, we'll try and do as much as we can, perhaps a generous shove would be allowed."

But JitD didn't do this. Instead they looked into the origin of the interaction and considered where the characters stand at this point.

Previously, a similar divergence already occurred at the point of the car kiss/Fei Du passing out at the front door that happens in episode 13 after having gotten dehydrated and low blood sugar from being sick in the aftermath of Zhou Huaixin's stabbing. The kiss, likewise, could never have been shown in this particular reality. To compensate, the creators of the drama made Fei Du's state during the car ride worse, and likewise heightened the severity of the reaction when it happens.

First with the car ride, in which Fei Du is arguably worse off in the drama. (And I really recommend rewatching this bit, both for the filming and the incredible music they gave this little mini-montage):

Then when Fei Du collapses, in the drama they make him actually fully fall unconscious:

The novel version, Fei Du IS out of sorts, and the general progression is the same, but they do also make out in the car before Fei Du gets out and I think it is reasonable to say on that basis that he's not quite as obviously out of it as in the drama. Likewise, he never fully passes out:

So what happened here is that the creators turned it to their advantage; recognizing they can't have the kiss, they decided to crank up the angst/whump and make Fei Du even more messed up (which, let's be honest, is almost as good). What's more, it is an option that was not available if they had been able to do the kiss. So, in a sense, they have adapted to their constraints and provided us with a "two cakes" option.

This is a good example of what I mean by the translation/substitution. Another one is the way they substitute the flashback childhood fever scene since they cannot do the forehead kiss in the very next set of scenes. But I think folks have probably talked about that already, and it's not the one I really wanted to get to.

So now for that: the kabedon at the start of case 4 (or Verhovensky/Doestoevsky/the Yufen School case, whatever we're calling it). This was the passage I quoted at the start of this post, and it, like the car kiss, could never have appeared in the drama.

And here the drama team again did a translation, but in this case it takes into account not just the novel parallel at this moment in the case/plot, but also the relationship progression for each the novel and drama.

Specifically, in the drama, as stated, there was no car kiss. In addition, the novel sequence puts two other important and relevant sequences between the car kiss and this scene: Fei Du's first and second nights out of the hospital. The first night is the one that involves blanket-burrito Fei Du being handcuffed to the bed and the non-consensual hairdrying (glorious moment), the second involves their first fuck, which takes place the next night, after Fei Du has gotten up for water and interrupted Luo Wenzhou reading Lao Yang's testament, and Luo Wenzhou telling Fei Du that he can't explain everything to him yet, so please give him a few days. I won't go into the excellent translations that do occur in the drama condensed single night of that sequence, but suffice to say, when drama Luo Wenzhou wakes up covered in photographs from Luo Guosheng's crimes 20 years ago and Tao Ran's urgent call, in the novel he's waking up in Fei Du's arms. And so later when Zhoudu are going to the Lovers' Mirror on the crime scene date, this is the first date after the first fuck—in the novel.

Meanwhile, in the drama, there has instead been much yearning and a sleepless night where I am certain they were both horribly desperately wishing they were in bed with the other—but they weren't. (Aside: yes I do also love the other interpretation that the filmmakers were gesturing towards them being together with overlapping cinematic effects, but I'm setting that aside for now, what can I say, I like multiple interpretations, I contain multitudes etc.) Thus this moment is not the same moment as it is when it happens in the novel.

What moment is it?

It's the car kiss.

As far as the relationship beats, Zhoudu are still at the heightened point of tension without much physical contact that their novel versions were at during the car kiss.

And that—that kiss was initiated by Fei Du.

(Aside: yes, I also agree with the perspective that Fei Du was trying to get rid of him so he could go have some quality basement time, and he knew that kissing him would make Luo Wenzhou aroused and flustered and furious—and probably he'd storm off. But people can have multiple motivations and he DID want to kiss him too.)

Anyway it is here (apologies for the long screencap):

What does that sound like?

Yep. This is actually the car kiss.

Tbh I don't care at all who tops and I think it is a boring thing to argue about, but I started thinking about this because I was wondering what the writers in the drama were doing and at first glance this was a surprising scene if watched with the novel equivalent in mind. I was convinced that there's no intentional choice made to invert/reverse anything, because in all other matters the creators have been paying an incredible amount of attention to trying to follow the novel in spirit and vibes even when they cannot do so literally. So why would this suddenly be an outlier?

And thus my proposed answer: It's not. It's absolutely in line with the translation strategy they've been pursuing in other scenes previously, but it is complicated by the divergence in relationship progression between drama and novel, the consequence of which its equivalent emotional/horny moment falls at a different plot moment.

The drama kabedon is the novel car kiss, not the novel kabedon.

[unstableverse-headcanons]

Hii, Ik this isn't headcanon but theres the urge to yap abt it im gonna EXPLODE. I might be gripping on straws here or smth but like- this theory just makes more sense in my head.

“Because this chapter is coming to an end…” — The Director to Parrot.

Doesn’t this give “When one story ends, another begins” vibes??? (or its prolly the MCSM brainworms talking)

Here’s a thought: what if Wemmbu, Spoke and Parrot (OG!UU Trio) are built up to be the next big bad for this season or for a season 3? Like you’d think the series would end after defeating the Invis Mafia... so who'd be the next big threat of the server in S2?

Spoke is LITERALLY Ashwag in the making with his own Mafia. The other two will follow suit. They both want to have peace but they unintentionally bring chaos wherever they go – and also like Spoke, they’re getting more and more isolated from their friends/allies.

Rejoice is dead. Loppezz isn’t with Tax Duo even after escaping the Islands together, and Egg seems like he won’t be on the server again anytime soon.

Wifies and Nufuli are dead, Jumper left. Parrot only has Leo and Derap left. They’ll be killed off soon when the Director is done with them, or maybe – they’ll leave Parrot, or would be terrified of him even, when they finally know the truth of everything.

Then, Wemmbu and Parrot will have no one left as their moral compass… and that’s when they will snap. Oh and imagine, the trio is deeply traumatized by the events of S1 that they’ll know better. That’s what’ll make them more dangerous villains than their predecessors. (Bonus if Wemmbu’s the next Clown/Zam and Parrot’s the next Director)

I haven’t watched Flame yet, but besides that… I like to think they added a 4th protag to Unstable for this very reason. It’s interesting we’re getting a POV from someone who’s a former enemy in the series. If they wanted to, they could've had someone like Jumper or Rek. But instead, it was Flame.

What if S2 Flame will parallel S1/S2 Wemmbu? And if that’s the case, who’ll be a foil to Spoke and Parrot? (Imagine Leo parallels Parrot cuz “You killed my best friend”. oh im gonna be so sick <///3).

Then they'd be the 5th and 6th protags alongside Flame (New!UU Trio)

They could use the roleswap trope for this. LIKE– redeemed enemy vs. the former hero-turned-villain. Which is why I bring up the potential OG!UU Trio and New!UU Trio parallels.

thats all thanks for listening to my 2 am ramble,, i dont think im sleeping after this 🫡

– 🌼🍀

Wow! Really interesting thoughts!

[danmei-hot-takes]

“I’d love to know if he’s shipped with anyone else in the fandom and how that elevates his character.“ my favorite lwj ship and only one (as idc for wangxian) is zhancheng 🫠

i think jiang cheng would help lan wangji to see a world outside of gusu lan and its insane rules while at the same time respecting it (something wwx never really did) and show him that nothing is as simple as just "good" or "bad", as for lan wangji, since he basically have zero development within the story (unfortunately) i feel like with jiang cheng, we would be able to see his actual personality and be his own person

they already have some parallels within the story, with the whole whipping and wwx thing going on, plus they were raising children at the same time, so yknow, play dates!!!

Jiang Cheng is honestly one of the most interesting characters in the series. Also Jin Guangyao. Honestly I would love a re-write where the whole thing is from Jin Guangyao’s perspective. Sorry I digressed.

Back to shipping! I’ve read ZhanCheng fics where they basically start sleeping together because Wei Wuxian is dead and that was definitely a vibe. But at the same time I kind of feel like the narrative makes it out that they hate each other so… seeing him interact with Jiang Cheng would definitely make Lan Wangji a more well rounded character. I definitely see where you’re going with that.

There’s a lot of potentially for fluffy kid fics too for people who are into that.