#i kinda interpret it as him being fed up with that person? it's not like he can say anything to them

[castleinthemist]

caim has the worst habit of kicking people. rude as hell. not the worst thing he does but he does it often enough in cutscenes it's like one of his main mode of interactions to his allies

[nenoname]

Parallels and contrasts between Stan and Bill in the new book and website

Aka miscellaneous thoughts that I'm too lazy to condense into something comprehensible– what you see is what you get folks! (Book stuff, DVD commentaries! The website that came out when I was trying to write this out and is now making me pull my hair out! But in like a good way? That god damn poem!)

not necessarily same coin stuff but I sure am thinking about it.

It’s been said that a large part of Ford’s relationships with Bill, Fiddleford and Dipper was him trying to fill a hole that his estrangement with Stan had left, with none of them clicking in that same way. Dipper was directly compared to Fiddleford as someone who was completely charmed by Ford but is ultimately too anxious of a person to properly deal with the life he's offering nor pull him back when he starts going too far. Meanwhile, Bill is more analogous to Stan but to the extreme with all the doubts that Ford had been fed about Stan (that he was using him, he never grew up, he betrayed him, sabotaged the machine on purpose) turning out to be exactly true with Bill.

The book has Bill saying flat out that Ford wanted the charisma Bill had and then shows that at the peak of Ford's loneliness he was being envious of Stan's charisma, social skills and hands.

[STANLEY COULD HAVE MADE HER LAUGH]

(There’s an irony that Stan always thought that Ford was the popular twin even after doing embarrassing stuff like the kissing machine – if you haven’t seen the Swine Before Time Stan commentary get going, it’s great)

Then Bill swoops in with jokes and endless encouragement and the nickname only Stan used for him, all this in a way tailored for Ford to immediately like him while also reminding him of Stan but "better."

(The show rarely used it but Bill’s use of Sixer is extremely frequent in Journal 3 alone but the comics solidify it as being a pretty personal childhood nickname that kid!Stan used as his default way to call Ford.)

And then you see all of this working because Ford straight up writes Bill’s words using Stan's handwriting (and it turns out that Ford’s capital letter ‘for emphasis/angry’ font in general is the same as Stan’s handwriting too)

(It’s important to note that this is different from all the fonts that Bill uses for himself!)

All of this leads to the deja vu of Ford getting stabbed in the back by someone he was codependent on over a machine he thought was going to change his life for the better

Other things in the book that I’ve seen others point out and noticed myself:

Bill trying to reinforce that Ford would be alone without him, and threatening to tell Stan that Ford never loved him but the first thing Stan does in his letter is tell Ford that he loves him with their childhood code

Stan also only uses ‘Sixer’ in his letter when he normally tends to use a mix of nicknames post-Weirdmaggedon (sure it’s only twice but idk I find it noticeable)

Stan ripped a dollar in half when Bill taunted the reader earlier about how they wouldn’t do that

The promo photo vs the one in the book, Ford’s face being untouched vs Stan’s. While I initially interpreted this as “Bill’s book being a way to torment Ford” and then “him ending up having a meltdown at the thought of Stan”, the new poem kinda gives off an ominous vibe of "him moving on to focus on Stan instead whether he wants to or not"

Ford writing “miss you” in the bro code soon after arriving at Backupsmore which is shown in the Fiddleford photo, then Bill taunting Ford that he misses him

Bill and Stan now have another parallel of losing everything because of a genuine mistake but only Stan was willing to work to make up for it while Bill doubled down and became far far worse

The utter hatred Bill has for Stan being able to win in the end and get back his family

Both of them being institutionalized, with Stan’s mentioned in Guide to Mystery and Nonstop Fun (which has references to Bill liking Mabel for her chaos, silly straws, etc. Also Dipper basically came up with the Author theory but slightly wrong from theorising about the ink blot like a year before the Ford reveal)

(saturn devouring his son perfectly depicts my emotions when reaching this part of the book)

(EDIT: I was thinking about how Bill giving Ford three days to open the portal striked me as odd for some reason... and then I remembered;

Stan gave Mabel 3 days for their bet as well. Both of them specifically say 72 hours too.)

And now for the stuff we know from the website:

Bill having severe family issues with daddy issues implied since only his mum is mentioned directly with her trying to comfort him as a kid vs Stan having severe family issues with a definite focus on his dad while his mum was the only one to ask about Stan during that meeting with the principal and her being the only one to show up to his funeral

Both of them wear their dad’s hat despite of all of this

Bill starting a billion cults and has a lawyer called Multilevel Mark, Stan having his Scientology-esque cult being shot down by irl Disney and as a kid having his “technically a pyramid scheme” comic being shot down by a publisher

(I doubt that Stanentology would’ve gotten far but also you can see that a trend that the main way Bill gathers followers is by reading minds and revealing secrets only the victim would know, so let's hope that Disney-let-him-start-a-cult AU Stan never gets mind reading abilities)

Despite how we know how Stan is traumatised as hell from losing Ford, it’s noticeably isn’t referred directly in the Wheel of Shame (like you can’t tell me that the time between pushing Ford into the portal and starting the Shack isn’t as rock bottom as it gets, Bill literally recognises Stan in the first place by thinking about his brand). This probably is because Bill knows that they managed to repair their relationship and he’s fucking pissed about it.

There's further parallels between Stanley and Bill in poem; with lies and redemption and home, and further association with fire for the both of them

“Saw his own dimension burn.

Misses home and can't return.”

“Always dragged his family down.

One mistake, disowned, denied,

Only thing to do was hide.”

“One way out: the open road.

Reinvent, retry, reload.

A girdle, eyepatch, fathers fez,

"I'm a new man!" so he says”

“One way to absolve his crime.

A different form, a different time”

“His big break, it finally came,

Redemption from a life of shame.”

“Says he's happy. He's a liar.”

“Truth is just whatever sells.

When you've lost track of your lies,”

“Lie until you aren’t lying anymore”

Bill in a rotting corpse of a snake oil salesman

This triangle can fit so much self-loathing projection while being a hater

(Also it's funny that Bill is so insistent that Ford had to be the one who came up with the plan

Like look at this

See ‘em cogs turning in Stan’s head while Ford has clearly given up hope)

“How dare he dress up fancy when his jokes suck!!”

There's a parallel of Ford projecting onto Dipper in a way that makes him feel like kindred spirits with his nephew but Stan projects on Dipper in a way that causes him to be more harsh even if he has good intentions. Meanwhile Bill projects onto Ford in a more positive light in comparison to Stan, who in this case Bill wants to rip him and himself into shreds whenever he thinks of the guy. Bill’s shared love for fun/chaos with Mabel (despite them being so different at their core) is why he likes her the most out of all the Pines but that doesn’t stop him from trying to murder her (although I think most folks don’t know about that interview where Alex was like “yeah, I think Bill would’ve burnt Ford alive the moment he got the equation, he’s done playing with his toys at that point”)

Other tidbits:

I find it interesting that the full version of the Wheel of Shame has blue sparks and fades to grey scale (which automatically reminded me of his mindscape)

Stan signing off as Stanley in the book – this ain’t anything huge to chew on I'm just very over emotional about this… but also there’s Bill being called Billy by his family/in the codes

Ford thinking of Stan as childish/someone who never grew up and then we get hit by “yeah Ford always had some part of himself stuck at 18” oof

Ford underestimating Stan’s control over the mindscape, not knowing that he’s able to hide memories in Dreamscaperers, manipulate the layout of his mindscape enough to trick Bill and memory!Stan telling Dipper how to use the mindscape which Bill was genuinely surprised by

I'm headcanoning that Stan doing so bad at that history test is due to some latent bs from what Bill knows which is all crazy conspiracy level stuff

I think it's also intensely funny that all of the Pines promise that they'll murder Bill if they ever see him again and then they immediately turn to Stan and go “now it's your turn to write a letter! :D!!”

(I feel like the main requirement that the Theraprism has for Bill before he can reincarnate is mainly acknowledging his family idk which honestly would fit even better if his soul becomes Stan’s)

EDIT: I FORGOT TO MENTION THE OUROBOROS PASSWORD (or... uh oroborous which is a typo when theres a suspicious amount on the site which may mean somethng but i digress) anyway that leads to the Shack Axolotl lore where it bluntly states that Ford released it despite it showing up 30 years later anyway

and theres....

[differentnerddiplomatopera]

My Thoughts on The Vengeance Saga/Where my mind went.

So um, I actually despised the Vengeance Saga, I thought it was extremely corny and dumb and-

You thought. BITCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YOU GOTTA BE DANGEROUS HAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHH

Ok no seriously.

I’m Not Sorry for Loving You

This song, shockingly, made me hate Calypso more than I did. She is disgustingly selfish, (And I know she is a goddess, they are expected to be selfish, but goddamn)

It’s just memememememememe, and it is grating, he owes you nothing. I am actually glad she didn’t let him talk. Odysseus should not waste energy on her. Period. The song though I loved, just not her. Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera need to mollywhop her ass. Tehee

Dangerous 

No Notes. Just yes. The Foolishness line made me happy, mans is fed up. I also love how genuinely greatful Odysseus is to Hermes, not to pacify him in any way. He actually means it, which is so “chef’s kiss.”

In my head, I see Hermes hiding his concern for his grandson. Like trying not to be a downer. I believe the silly goofy personality he portrays, besides just being the Diva of all Greek divas, is an attempt to calm Odysseus, get his nerves to rest. Like relax, my boy. I adore their relationship.

I loved the Caduceus turned into Hermes necklace. I believe the actual accurate sirens were animated, but I could be wrong. I wonder if it is implied that Odysseus knows Athena rooted for him.

Now for the real question people are asking? Who did the reference for Hermes dance? Cause my man was popping ass. I like to believe both TROY and Jorge did it together.

Bonding moments. IT’S GONNA BE DANG-

Charybdis

I really like this song. It seems more of an interpretation of what the evasion of Charybdis looks like for animators. HINT HINT HINT HINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNT, YA’LL HOPE THE HINT WAS GOTTEN. OK? WE ARE GOOD? WE UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER?  OKAY!  

NEAL? 

GIGI? 

WOLFY?

 DUVETBOX? 

ANNIFLAMMA ( I know you did it, I want more. It’s delicious)  

ALL YOU AMAZING ANIMATORS? PLEASEEEEE I BEG😭

Also the “NO!” scream, I kinda wish Jorge did a cut off “Goddammit” or a “Come on.” I laughed at the thought of Odysseus just like, “Penelope, what..No, Goddam-“

just a thought.

I will post 4 and 5, I need to scream

[mountainscouts]

I think Gary shouldn't be just a perfect overachiever gentleman that soothes Stan's depression. I don't dislike it but I also want to see Gary not have everything in his life in order, allow him to get angry, question Mormonism (racism, homophobia), pressure him with familial expectations (don't set bad example for his siblings, must marry a woman, etc), let him cut loose and party. Conversely, Stan isn't 24/7 doom+gloom. He can be stable, proactive and self-reflecting even before dating Gary.

WHEW. OKAY THIS ASK HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY ASK BOX FOR A WHILE NOW BECAUSE ITS JUST SO. SO PERFECT. where do i even begin?

okay, i have such a specific view of gary that is essentially this, seriously. when it comes to stary, people tend to gloss over gary as a character and while i can't really blame them for doing that, considering that gary is just a guy who has in total less than 3 minutes of speaking roles in his only episode, it's something i've noticed. while i wish that more people would explore him as a character with as much depth as stan, i've kinda just accepted that it won't ever be the case. BUT because of that, i've sort of hyper focused on these types of details about gary and built on his character more in that regard, going that exact direction you went in your ask.

gary, to me, is a well-polished & put together mess when he gets older. the church is such a fascinating and important facet of his life, and the fact that his character is so inherently & quintessentially mormon is a very accurate portrayal of a lot of mormons from SLC. with that, any type of interpretation of him that deviates from typical norms and values in the church is actually asking for a lot of character dissection. i understand that a lot of people would rather not, but i WOULD. and HAVE BEEN...

gary to me is gay, and i can't really see him otherwise. he finds this out– or at least has a feeling that he might be at a younger age, so already his sexuality giving him leeway in questioning the church and its beliefs. this starts leading him to be more self-aware of his societal and familial role, juggling his own beliefs, the church's, and by extension his family's. with this baggage, i guess, i'm sure it'll extend beyond that to his sense of self. what does he want to be? what does he want to make of himself? how can he feel so trapped, but by the loving arms of his family? so much to build and unpack here!!

speaking of his family, i truly believe they're ignorant folk, conservative, and traditional (inadvertently confirmed by how many children they have and how they all interact with eachother- even if that's just a joke, it proves my point that the harrisons are a decent portrayal of mormon families yet again). gary, being the middle child and if one wanted to write him as "the special one", makes for these dilemmas even more interesting honestly. from setting a good precedent for his siblings, following the path of his older ones, cramming extra-curricular activities as a means to both please his parents and even distract himself from his issues, to having to attend church meetings— it all piles up, all while his own contractions are fed more and more at the incessant exposure of daily life.

the reason why he's considered a polished mess is because he's your typical "looks like he has everything under control, actually under insane amounts of stress" character. i firmly believe that the harrisons have no ill-will, but i think the way that they raised their children falls strongly on the line of emotional neglect. their children were never taught any life lessons that'd help actually help them like- you know, regulating emotions. i've mentioned this in a previous post (and also elaborated on gary showing anger specifically) but i personally believe that while gary is a kind, and generous person to his core, there is an incredible amount of repression deep within him— a product of being raised with many, "boys dont cry"s, "love thy neighbor"s, and "forgive and forget"s. kindness specifically is actually an incredibly important aspect to mormonism, as it's a key part of the lifelong and ever present journey to celestial afterlife. but that's the thing: objectively speaking– this is just a way of control.

so when one wants to break free from this way of thinking, to lose this control, to break away from all they've known— their very livelihood— it's not going to come in the form of an overnight epiphany. in gary's case, considering how tight he is with his family versus his budding progressive views and drive to have more free reign over his self, it's going to be one hell of a struggle.

to touch on your point of him not getting everything he wants, i think that's another fundamental reason why he would question his standing in the church as well— depending on What he doesn't get. perhaps he doesn't want to serve his mission, but does so anyways. or maybe he simply had a bad day, but he can't allow himself to get upset, convincing himself that "things could be worse" as a way to make himself feel better, barring himself from healthily expressing his feelings. repeatedly saying "its okay" is going to be his downfall lol

and, i too would love to see him cut loose and party eventually- without a second thought that he'd be disappointing anyone.

okay now for stan. oh yeah that guy— no i'm just kidding, i'm also actually very picky about stan as well. :P most of your points about him align perfectly with mine. i don't like it when people woobify him to a point where his only/a major part of his character is his pessimism and depression, and while they are a part of him, it seems to be a big theme when people talk about stary. i definitely love the whole "i can fix him" thing gary has with him (because of gary's primordial urge to "fix" things and be persistent until he can't anymore) but that's definitely not all that they are!! (also gary's initial thought of "fixing" stan would already be faulty from the get-go anyways- but he will learn)

with stan, i think people tend to make him already pretty "helpless" in general fandom, and while he has shown to be more vulnerable than his peers, hes still pretty resilient. i do think that he would need a little bit of a push when it comes to his mental health, but that's only because he's found a way to cope with these issues- none of which are truly healthy. he's moreso content with being in a stalemate with himself and while he does wish he could do more, it takes a lot out of him to get out his more personal comfort zones.

kinda gives him another reason as to why him and gary are narrative foils, i just realized :P!!

but yeah!! i really loved this ask, and i probably really should indulge more in this aspect of gary >_<. its something i truly think about, and those who are close to me DEFINITELY know this! thank you for the ask and sorry it took so dang long haha. also thank you to those who read this behemoth, genuinely didnt expect to yap this much

[sergeantsporks]

Hi!

Until this day, I'm still confused: At what age did the Wittebane brothers go to the boiling isles? Teenagers/Child as seen in the portraits or Adults since Gravesfield has statues of them as adults? What do you think?

Great question! [leaves]

I think every single interpretation of what happened with the Wittebane Brothers/the WB timeline has SOME kind of hole poked in it by SOME aspect of canon.

I believe the most solid answer we have is when Phillip got to the Isles. He's a liar with a penchant for revisionist history, so his journal can't be trusted for... most things... but I think one thing he had no reason to lie about is the fact that when he started the journal, he'd only recently arrived in the Isles. So, we can somewhat safely assume that Phillip got to the Isles (or, at least, got stuck there) in his early adulthood. From there, we know he ate a palisman at some point, found Caleb and Evelyn, killed Caleb, ran off. Done and done.

When Caleb jetted for the Isles is a bit more up for debate. The pictures in Hollow Mind seem to imply that he hadn't seen Phillip for some time, so if they DID go to the Isles at the same time, they were quickly separated. The more popular interpretation is that Caleb left Phillip when he was younger, Phillip spent some time in the human realm alone, he finally worked up the courage to follow/a portal finally opened up, he entered as a young adult, timeline proceeds from there. However, like you said, the statues are of them as ADULTS, and the two of them TOGETHER, which makes this theory a little shakey. But hey, maybe the statues were made way later by people who didn't really know them. At the very least, by the time the story gets to modern day, it's been distorted into a cautionary ghost tale, so who knows what the tale was when the statue was carved?

The question of "when did Caleb leave" is also deeply tied to the question of "WHY did he leave." Was it simply that he finally got fed up with witch-hunter society? Did Phillip hit some arbitrary age that he considered as no longer needing him, so he felt safe leaving? Was there a catalyst that FORCED him out? Did Evelyn get pregnant at that point, and Caleb left to be a father to his kid? We know he and Evelyn passed notes and titan's blood back and forth to each other, so SOMETHING must have happened to escalate the situation and get Caleb to leave instead of continuing that way.

A personal favorite theory of mine is that Caleb was going back and forth, a dumb teen, as one does with one's illicit girlfriend, Phillip caught him going into the portal (the image from hollow mind of Caleb going in while Phillip trails behind), and Phillip, thinking his brother was bewitched, rounded up the witch-hunters. However, instead of them catching Evelyn, they caught Caleb, and put him on trial. They planned to hang him, but Evelyn came to his rescue, burning down the town hall in the process (since Jacob mentioned the fire, I imagine it’s a LITTLE significant). With it no longer being safe to stay in Gravesfield, Caleb went with her to the demon realm, happily unaware that Phillip was the one who (accidentally) got him arrested. However, the statue pokes holes in this theory AGAIN. Again, it's them as adults, and why would the town have such a positive view of CALEB if they viewed him as a probable witch or witch accomplice?

I do like the thought that the fire was a catalyst for Caleb to leave though, so another theory is that Caleb was going back and forth, as previously stated. He is incredibly successful in pretending that he is still a gung-ho witch hunter. Phillip is kinda sorta aware of what Caleb's up to, but he's also a kid, and as he gets older, he dismisses memories as fantasy as Caleb gets better at hiding it, OR he actually, contrary to popular fanon belief, really really really doesn't want his brother to get hung for witchcraft, so he's willing to keep the secret until he can figure out how to "break Evelyn's hold on Caleb" (because he absolutely believes Caleb is bewitched; especially if he successfully acts like a normal witch hunter most of the time. Obviously, when Evelyn's there, he's bewitched, and the witch hunting facade is what he'd be without that. Surely the witch-hunting isn't an act).

The town hall burns down. Maybe it was an accident, maybe not, but either way, Gravesfield goes on the hunt for the Witch, and they are 100% gunning for Evelyn. Caleb finally comes to the conclusion that it is no longer safe for their relationship to continue the way it is, so he has to make a snap decision to either break off his relationship with Evelyn and stay in the human realm with Phillip, or he has to leave Phillip and go with Evelyn to the demon realm. He picks the latter, and Phillip sees. Still intending to "save" his brother from Evelyn and get everything to go back to the way it was, Phillip spins a story about how Caleb heroically chased after the witch that burned down their town hall, but the door to her home closed behind them.

Timeline then goes to what we know: Phillip enters the Isles, finds Caleb, finally admits to himself that Caleb is a "lost cause," and the witch-hunting was an act, not Caleb's true self, the stabbening, etc, etc. This would account for the fire, for the overall positive feelings the townsfolk must have for Caleb and Phillip in order to build a statue, Phillip's memories of Evelyn and the portal in his early childhood coinciding with the statue of them as adults (that one definitely still is a little wonky, but we'll put it up to artistic license. After Phillip disappeared as a young adult, someone carved a representation of Phillip finding his lost brother [who would also be an adult at that time.] Yeah, we'll say that).

Masha implies that the rebuses are a more recent find, so I think it's safe to say that from those rebuses, they extrapolated a more true version of the legend, like the secret codes, and the undertone of Caleb being "dazzled" rather than a heroic guy chasing down a witch, although the idea that Phillip went to "save" Caleb remained. Since Masha seems to be a practicing witch themself, it makes sense that they'd spin the tale with the information they have from the original legend and the new information from the rebuses to make it a little more witch-friendly while still sort of "respecting" the original tale of witchcraft spiriting away two boys. They have a more modern take, even going so far as the "sounds like big bro got a hot witch girlfriend" statement at the end. The statue is reminiscent of an older take possibly based on lies Phillip told to protect Caleb. Neither are a complete story, but if you take the common ground between them, account for the agendas of both parties, and fill in the gaps from Phillip's memories, we can sort of see a full picture.

[eye-motive]

MAG 118: The Masquerade ~ an essay (sorta)

I just relistened to episode 118 of The Magnus Archives because I remembered that the first time I listened to it it had such a strong emotional impact on me. Now I fucking remember why.

In this essay (sorta an essay) I will be taking apart the sections of the episode and do some explaining why it's so important for Martin's character. Or at least my interpretation of at least. I also acknowledge that there is also some sections with The Crew (Basira, Tim, Daisy and, John) in the wax museum. I don't have *as* much to say about those parts but I will have a bit at the end. Also, some MASSIVE spoilers for the episode and the following episode so...you know...read at your own discretion. This is also reeeaaalllyyy long. Just a warning. And probably reads more like an episode recap more than anything.

First off, let me say that the start of the episode had a strange humor to it. Martin first making sure that the tape recorder is recording then reading the title of the statement, lighting it on fire without reading anymore and then literally going: 'statement ends. Next one' and the tone in his voice too just adds to it all as well. He sounds so nervous, there are so many things to be worried about at the moment of time, and most of all I think he was worried about John. Then Elias is banging on the door to get in and Martin straight up says 'Sorry, Elias, I can’t hear you. There’s a door in the way' is the most witty thing that could possibly be said at that possible moment. I'm not sure why but it feels like there is an air of humor in that section. Like, you don't know what's about to happen next (I will also get to that) so it's kinda funny for some reason. I don't know, it may just be a me thing though.

After a small The Crew section, there is another Elias and Martin bit. This section loses all humor that was possibly there from the first of three sections. This is the first part of the face to face confrontation between Martin and Elias. Martin makes some eye related puns and uses witty humor, and Elias says that Martin is 'acting out' by burning the statements and then Martin says:

And then Elias just BRUSHES HIM OFF and is kinda like 'yeah, and?'. Not only does it make me want to punch Elias square in the jaw but also, I don't know why but it feels like a turning point in Martin's character. It's the first time it brings this kind of thing up in regards to Martin (unless I forgot one time) and how Martin, up until now, is always seen as the softy and that he'll be okay and isn't as 'scary' in comparison to the other staff. You can tell how fed up he is by his tone as well. He also says at some point says:

This is said after Elias blames the reason Martin is burning the statements because of John's plan. Martin's tone, again, is so fucking nervous. You can tell how on edge he is. You can tell also how fed up he is and that now he gets to finally say how he feels, even in Elias' impatience, he has some relief almost. I don't know how to fully describe it but it's like the listener finally gets to have what their thinking said allowed. Like, what Martin is saying is what I had been thinking up until that point since the first time he was introduced. I had always felt so bad for him because I never felt like he was able to express his emotions and not be brushed off. Like, at this part I felt it in my soul because I have experienced that feeling of feeling like your ignored and that you'll be fine after a cry which is never fully true. Being expected to be fine all the time is taxing and erasing the persons feelings, which is clearly shown. Section Summery: Martin starts to express his feelings.

Now, the last installment of the Elias and Martin face off. This is the part were I start to cry so fucking much and urge to punch Elias is unbearable. This the the part were the brave mask Martin had on through all of this gets shattered. This is when Martin breaks. Through out the whole episode Martin had been very very brave. He was facing Elias as a distraction, a man with a very punchable face and his boss who can read his mind kinda, while Melaine was doing something else, forgot what exactly but I know it was very important, and The Crew was at the museum and he knew the entire time that Elias was going to hurt him. Not physically but mentally and emotionally because Elias can do his weird mind thing (I've listened to the whole thing. I should be able to describe it better then 'mind thing'. I apologize about that) which can sometimes hurt even more. He knew and yet he did it anyway. They have an exchange:

after Martin talks about his feels and experiences again, and demanding answers from Elias for things that he never got the answer for (I'm not including those parts because they are really long and one spans over a page gap). He allowed himself to get hurt so the others could have more time. He put on a brave face so that the others could have more time. The most hurtful words were said to him that were said in the whole podcast (in my opinion) so that the others could have more time. He endured so much and then finally snaps, like a rubber band stretched too far and Elias doesn't even seem to care. Elias doesn't seem to care that he sent one of his employs into frantic sobs over a very touchy subject. He doesn't seem to care that his employ got hurt. He is just impatient and has 'better things to do'. The only reason why he was there confronting Martin was to stop the statement burning which means that Martin's mission was a success in a way, to distract him even for a bit. Now, what was brought up exactly? Martin mom. Martin's background breaks my heart in actual half. It's so much worse though how Elias is saying it. How Martin is a spinning image of his dad and that's why his mom 'hates' Martin. There's more to it, obviously, but that's the gist. We get depth to Martin's character. I feel like this is were his kindness for people comes from, taking care of his heartbroken mom. We find out more about him, even though it s from a source who is saying it all in a way that is meant to hurt Martin. The listener is learning more. Then, Martin falls on the ground and weeps because it hurts and after that, I would too. I also fall on the ground and weep at that part actually because it fucking hurts so much. If that was said about my mom in the way it was said I wouldn't just fall on the floor, I would topple over on all fours and just like curl up in a tiny ball and stay in the archives forever that way. BUT Elias leaves and then Martin stops his crying. Bro was just told his mom hates him and he somehow for the most part shuts off the waterworks and meets up with Melaine and I think it's so sweet how Melaine's first thought was that they had to kill Elias. Like, yes, they should've, Elias just hurt Martin so much Martin was weeping on the floor of the archives, but he then was like:

This is proof that he knew this was going to happen. He knew that he was going to get hurt and and breaks my heart that he is seemingly okay with it. Like, he kinda just accepts it which is fucked but also shows his character in a way? But no, Martin choose to spare Elias. At that point, he had the right to kill him but he didn't want to. For many reason's, I'm sure, but like they really should've killed him. I would've.

To The Crew. Not much to say except:

This was after they found alive people among all the wax (at least I think they are real people) and I think the reason that Tim is acting like this, so ready to save them, because of his little Brother, Danny. The episode Tim gives his statement I listened to like once a month (may or may not be one of my favorite episodes and Tim is kinda my favorite character) Where his brother thought dead and Tim goes to try and find him in his last known location but sees a clown, the Stranger, who rips of their own skin and the clown Tim thought looked like Danny (I think) I don't know, I feel like there is a connection there. It could also just be how Tim is as a character and always wanting to protect and save people. Which brings me to the final part that needs to be said. There is a lot of foreshadowing to Tim's death. Him saying 'You knew I might not come back' and John saying 'I'm not losing you as well'. For John, he said that because of Sasha and her death. When Tim died that meant that 2 of the 3 original archive assistants had died which is really grim to think about and I'm sure weights on John quite a bit. This episode also hurts so much because it is Tim's last full episode. Tim is my favorite character in The Magnus Archives. When he died I was blubbering mess. The foreshadowing goes crazy and the fear in John's voice when he says the line as well hurts soooo much.

All in all, the voice actors for that episode absolutely POPPED OFF. Holy CRAP. It was fantastic. The raw emotion was stunning and how all the lines were delivered was *chef's kiss* Also, of course, I wouldn't be able to yap so much if not for the writing of the episode. The writing was brilliant. I love all the small details. I love everything about this episode (except crying on the floor)

Now, I probably got some of it wrong. Feel free to correct me, but also this is my interpretation of the episode. Maybe you read it differently and that's okay. That's the nice thing about it, it can be taken in different ways. Now, after 2 hours of listening to the episode twice and reading the episode transcript twice and writing this whole thing and reading it over twice I'm regretting writing this now. I have to function tomorrow and it's midnight. Oops.

[guileheroine]

arcane s2 act 1 thoughts

getting my impressions down before act 2 so i can remember how things felt at this point in time before everything gets blasted open :)

aughghhhhjjjjjjjjhhhhj

above all: it’s exciting to watch a show that’s technically incredible also be so tight in terms of writing, where you trust it enough to really immerse yourself w/o reservation. and moreso it’s so nice to be trusted to do some work as a viewer, interpret the ambiguities instead of being force-fed all the beats. and to have something so detail rich, dense and deftly constructed that you can mine it endlessly (as someone who’s seen s1 10-ish times lol)

they are packing so much story into these episodes compared to s1 act 1 and i won't be able to imagine all this tied up in 6 more eps until i see it - i wonder how it would feel as a slower paced show

the loungewear and rose petals really give the new opening a boudoir vibe. grateful!

no scene scratched my id like viktor leaving jayce — his open acknowledgement of their divergence (in those words no less) and the fact of their partnership being dead from the beginning

^for me the core of the story has long been what i call the two JV divergence arcs

relatedly, viktor in the black hood has there ever been a lük more instantly iconic. he has a STAGGERING face card. i look forward to further jayvik divorce proceedings but want him to meet the other undercity protags so bad, he seems poised to take on a similar role in the Cause as jinx

i really loved the opening scene between mel and jayce. it seems mel shielded him. i got tingly at her drawing the line at weaponising hextech and reaffirming her commitment to jayce and viktor's vision. their hextech dream, #ot3, # heres how meljayvik can still win!!!

the fight choreo, music, stylistic choices and just the marriage of form and content still feel thrilling. fortiche i am once again kissing your feet, vive la france

i dig this caitlyn arc. in s1 she didn’t quite pass muster against the rest of the cast bc it felt like the degree of naïveté needed to keep her as pure as it seemed they wanted her, was a hard sell in an ostensibly smart and capable character, in an ensemble where everyone else felt like much more textured products of their circumstances. i always thought that instead of the noble oblivious thing it would’ve been more seamless and meaningful if she’d been conscious but ambivalent about all the gross injustice, only digging deeper once it became personal via vi

and now!! feeling gratified bc i think they’re doing that arc, just in reverse: as soon as it becomes personal in the other direction, you see that her grip on the bigger picture is conditional and easily blinkered. it emphasises her previous passion about justice for zaun as deriving partly from the self-righteousness that's also an underacknowledged effect of privilege, instead of simple empathy. (plus the fairweather allyship is… a very resonant theme lmao and quite cool to see it depicted how the correct nudge, a taste of what the system deals out to others, will make the most earnest of listeners-and-learners retreat to their worst biases about the 'other'. the protofascist seed in every member of a cozy ruling class. honestly one of their most excellent writing choices)

i think cait hit vi on that stab wound from sevika which surely cannot have fully healed yet. ouch

absolutely loving jinx and sevika in the post-silco world, they are getting to come into their own in terms of motivations. absolutely obsessed with the smeech fight heheee

i can’t tell if jinx is doing better or worse. something soothing about the suicidal clarity though i don’t think her passivity is new—in s1 she was incredibly perceptive about what she was to silco but sort of resigned to it, so it's kinda exciting where she could go without his tether even though i miss silco sooooo much. i wonder if being in her Older Sibling Era (and vi being in her Abandoned Era) will help jinx and vi connect (🚨wishful thinking🚨, but somebody should write it)

“im glad it’s you / had to be you” has made me ILL since hearing it in that one teaser and now that it’s in context i might just throw up i cannot believeee we get a sister dynamic like this

vi rock bottom🤗 i couldn’t decide if she legit felt jinx was beyond the pale or did a hard swerve putting all her eggs in cait's basket, trying to bifurcate powder and jinx for the sake of, i guess, emotional self-preservation, with the notion of powder that had sustained her fully extinguished. love a protag so earthy and intense while being an unmitigated flop before the fateful tide of the story, and in that way she’s still very dean winchester-coded. also in that i want to see her bloody and crying, though at this point one win might be a relief

ambessa fox mode let’s goooo! i am curious if/when she’ll slip which i think could come down to something explosive with mel (🤞) or caitlyn realising she manipulated her in her griefblind state

idk if it just needs time or if it’s the unfillable silco-shaped hole, but so far the dialogue this season isn’t as sticky ?? (compared with s1 where they didn’t waste a word). but at least everyone’s hotter

i like heimerdinger more now that he’s ekko’s pet. i like jayce and ekko meeting lifetimes after “he didn’t even haggle”: they are just drinking tea and investigating the arcane not even realising their semi-interaction precipitated the instigating tragedy of Arcane. the world would never be the same. i hope they survive what may or may not be the time warp intact D:

the “it’s not supposed to be like that” with sevika and jinx and the bombs what is going on??? 👀👀

i'm glad theyre releasing this right in time to carry me through the winter. seasonal depression out, seasonal hyperfixation in

[lesbixch]

i was reading someones post on sayaka here and i generally agreed w it but i wanted to write my own thoughts on sayaka, reading her as a young girl who... fundamentally hates herself. like i think ppl dont notice that she doesnt like herself in the beginning of the story and they think it comes out of nowhere. but her self hate motivates literally everything she does in pmmm. i think people miss that the cause effect structure here, thinking that sayaka does things and that makes her hate herself. to me it is more that sayaka hates herself, therefore she does things to punish herself, to self harm, to self sabotage, and occasionally scrambles to do something for other people to try to drown out that self hate - which of course rarely works. not very coherent, but heres 5 points under the cut

discussion of suicide self harm and depression tw

1. in the background of pmmm, sayaka has known kyosuke since they were little. presumably she started liking him bc he was good at violin and she.... probably wasnt. she was kinda sorta friends w him but not really, and pmmm (and hitomi) make it very clear that she has struggled w confessing to him. this already hints at her not having high self esteem. when she tries to make him feel better after his accident, she brings him CDs to listen to in the hospital. im reading into it but i genuinely dont think sayaka thinks of herself as interesting enough to just TALK to kyousuke while hes there. she NEEDS another thing to take the attention off her - music - to even interact w him. she doesnt think that her presence, her being there as a FRIEND is going to cheer him up all that much. like she brings up music as a conversational topic and physically brings CDs for kyousuke to listen to enough times that HE starts interpreting it as some kind of cruel joke shes playing on him. this to me is a sign that she does not like herself, and she doesnt understand why other ppl would like her as a person either, unless she was doing something for them.

(theres also smth to be said abt how much of her crush on kyosuke is bc she likes HIM as a person, rather than his talent, or after his accident, the idea that she can help him and feel useful herself. in some sense she tries to use him to feel valued and not hate herself. it doesnt work)

the important part here is that theres already signs that sayaka doesnt like herself, she doesnt have much self esteem, and she attempts to boost her self esteem by doing things for other people.

2. so sayaka doesnt really like herself. in the early eps, she talks about how unfair it is that people like her have a safe life and are offered a wish while many others struggle without having the same opportunity. extrapolating here, you can make the argument that sayaka doesnt like herself and doesnt think herself deserving of the happy safe life that others want so much. to be offered a wish on top of it feels like yet another thing to hate abt herself. she doesnt deserve a wish! she has not suffered enough to get a wish! shes guilty over it! shes safe, shes well fed, she has a roof over her head, and her self hate warps her mindset in such a way that she thinks of being offered a wish not as a happy fortunate event, but as something that reveals that she is stupid. she quite literally frames her caution around making a wish as being stupid and naive.....

there isnt really the language about 'deserving' in this scene, thats me reading into this a lot, but i do think later eps fit the same general theme. sayaka is a hero of justice fighting witches to save other people, but do other people deserve to be saved? (cough cough ep8 train scene). does she deserve to be saved? does she deserve to have a happy life? does she deserve to try a relationship with kyousuke? does she deserve to have madoka as a friend? does she deserve to be treated with kindness/pity by kyoko? i'd argue that the wish conversation in ep2 sets up these series of questions about what sayaka deserves pretty well. this scene, this early on, tells us that sayaka already feels guilt at being safe and okay. why should she be happy or safe when other people suffer. it just takes a little more self hate to push her into "i dont actually deserve to be happy or safe", which drives her self harm self hate spiral later.

3. sayakas attempts desperately to feel better abt herself by doing things for other people. early on she takes on the role of madokas protector, driving homura away with the fire extinguisher and promising to beat homura up - mami laughs and is like Anyway if something happens ill be there to protect you, which sayaka gets upset at. its played for laughs, and yet, if we take seriously the way that sayaka builds her self esteem up as a protector (of madoka, of kyosuke, of the people, of justice), it does smart a little. of course sayaka would be inclined to become a magical girl if it means she can protect others, which mami implies she cannot quite do as a regular girl. later sayaka wants to help mami - she brings a bat to a witch fight - and fails to help mami in any way in ep3. her helplessness, her guilt, her self hate all factor into her decision to become a magical girl. only then can she truly protect people right? only then will she be actually worth something, will she deserve to be alive?

now that ive argued my point that theres seeds planted early on that sayaka doesnt like herself, doesnt have self esteem, thinks of herself as worthless if she doesnt do things for others - it casts all her later actions as self sabotaging and self harming, and purposefully so, even if sayaka may not call it that. she takes the actions she takes bc she doesnt like herself, and it fuels her self hate, and she spirals into more and more self destructive actions in turn.

4. sayaka is weak as a magical girl - kyoko shows her that - and she is no longer needed by kyousuke, so her attempts at helping and protecting people fail to make her feel better. if shes weak, she cant protect people, and thus shes worthless. if she wishes for kyousuke to be healed, and he doesnt know, he wont thank her, and he wont like her, and he wont need her since the healing is already done. because sayaka fundamentally hates herself and thinks herself worthless, one act done to help someone isnt nearly enough to make her love or even value herself. especially when she can never be recognized for it.

(hitomi fits in here too - she will never know sayaka outright saved her in ep4, and sayaka will never get recognition or gratitude for it. instead, from sayakas POV, hitomi will basically betray her for it)

and heres where the spiraling/cyclical hate kicks in. she hates herself, so she thinks it selfish and horrible to ask for recognition/gratitude/being liked back in turn. but because she hates herself, she needs external recognition, gratitude, being liked back in turn to feel better about herself, to not feel worthless. she hates herself, so she doesnt talk to kyousuke at all (she doesnt deserve it), but not getting his attention, recognition, gratitude, kindness etc also makes her hate herself. she cant win, bc she cannot let herself win.

when hitomi brings up kyousuke, sayaka feels a burst of regret for saving her, and it fuels her self hate yet again - magical girls cant wish death on people!! she cant accept hitomis compromise to allow sayaka to confess first, bc she is ashamed of being a soulless husk. but she cant just accept that hitomi and kyousuke might get together bc... she wants to be needed and liked by them, especially kyousuke. she doesnt want to be a burden, a third wheel, a forgotten worthless friend. she wants to be special to someone, namely kyousuke. she wants to be needed and liked this desperately bc... she hates herself. huh! everything seems to come down to sayaka hating herself at the root of it !! she sabotages herself bc she hates fundamentally herself!!! if there is an option for sayaka to be better, she refuses it because she doesnt deserve to feel better, even if she wants to be better on some level - bc she hates herself !!!!!!!

relatedly, at any point in time, sayaka can ask for help from homura or madoka (or at least try), but she refuses to, bc she thinks she doesnt deserve it. she hates that she is weak enough to need help, it makes her hate herself more. kyubey plays on this by talking abt how much more powerful madoka would be as a magical girl than sayaka, and sayaka starts feeling resentful and jealous, and that fuels her self hate even more. i interpret the scene in ep8 where she lashes out at madoka as partially her resentment boiling up, but also partially a cry for help. she cannot ask for help the regular way, she can only do so in this indirect "well if ur so powerful why dont u take my place and suffer for me huh???" way, and it still fuels more self hate - this time not bc shes weak enough to be asking madoka to bail her out, but bc she purposefully hurts madoka. we can also interpret this scene as sayaka purposefully lashing out to drive madoka off bc she doesnt deserve to be with madoka anymore - a hollow husk, weak, worthless, and now feeling jealousy and resentment and not just self hate but hate towards hitomi, kyousuke, madoka. she could never deserve madokas kindness.

5. sayaka kind of knows shes self harming. shes def aware of it even if she wont admit it to other ppl. like i think she very purposefully does things that will hurt her bc, at her very core, she believes she deserves to hurt. she fundamentally hates herself and so will hurt herself and sabotage her relationships. she doesnt deserve to be safe, she doesnt deserve to not hurt, she doesnt deserve happiness, she doesnt deserve other peoples kindness. ive seen people frame it more as her blundering into yet another thing that spikes her self hate, and i just disagree with that. ive used the word purposefully in this post a bajillion times bc i think to a large extent sayaka is very cognizant of the actions shes taking. she knows being w madoka and asking for help would be better in the long run, but she purposefully doesnt do it. its self punishment, its self harm, its self sabotage so she gets even worse. its penance, and her wrongdoing is existing in the first place.

she actively and purposefully destroys her relationships, and refuses help. its an active choice, and she knows she will feel worse bc of it, but bc she hates herself and thinks herself undeserving, she carries out all these choices and actions. i think when people dont think deeply on this, they feel like sayaka is acting stupid bc "why doesnt she just do X, shes acting so stupidly" etc. but in sayakas mindset everything shes doing is crystal clear. there is no way other than to make herself suffer more and more.

its bc its framed as a willful, purposeful descent into suicidal depression that i see sayakas depression as one of the most meaningful arcs to me. i think when you are mentally ill and severely depressed, all her actions make intuitive sense. she starts out not liking herself, and everything onward is just her fueling her own self hate. thats how depression functions. it feels irrational on the outside and completely rational and sensical to the person carrying out these actions. her mindset is severely warped ofc - im not even gonna get into how her blackwhite thinking abt justice and fairness factors into this - but it makes sense to her. she doesnt see this as "i am depressed and i hate myself and i am getting more and more suicidal", but more so as "oh. im a worthless shell of a person who has never deserved anything! i cannot let myself strive for happiness in life". sayaka is not bumbling into this as a hapless victim, shes charging into suicide bc she cannot see a way out, and she cannot let herself see a way out. shes wallowing, shes punishing herself, shes sabotaging herself to the point where she wants to die more than she wants to live, and where she curses the world as a witch more than she wishes for something as a magical girl.

so much of madoka is abt agency to me, and that includes sayaka. im not saying depression is a choice, but self destruction IS - this is reflected in madokas own apotheosis/deification/enlightenment, whatever u call it. its again a question abt whether u would make a choice (or a wish) without knowing fully it entails. would you commit suicide if you knew things would get better? if you knew that you werent worthless, if you could believe it? i (maybe wishfully?) like to believe that sayaka gets to know this in rebellion - that there is a way for her to exist without constant pain and self hate, that living isnt something that is deserved but something that everyone should have, that she has people who care for her - and it makes her much less self destructive in turn.

[animehusbandharem]

✨The Many Faces of Gilbert Von Obsidian✨

These are my personal favorite faces we have seen of the beloved Gilbert so far, and my thoughts on what each of them could mean. 💕🖤 I also included emojis that i think correspond to the faces just because i think it’s fun 😆

Emoji(s): 😈😏🤭🤫

I love this one, it’s so versatile. It could be mischievous, an “Ah-ha!” Moment, it could arguably be a seductive or even a flirty face (i mean i think literally any face he makes is seductive, but that’s just me), it could be a face that says “gotcha bitch, can’t fool me”, or “you fell right in my trap little rabbit” . This one is a classic and i love it 🖤

Emoji(s): 😒😐😡🤨👿

Another versatile one, but i think it can be more narrowed down: it gives fed-up vibes, “you fool, you really thought you could get away with that lie?”, and it’s sister-vibe of “i know you’re lying and I’m not in the mood for your bs”, it’s a look that says “I will take away everything you love and make you suffer”, it could also be “I’m not in the mood, don’t breathe in my direction”, and my personal favorite “you fucked around, now you ‘bout to find out”

In the event, he says it’s a declaration of war if anyone hurts the “little rabbit” 🤭

Emoji(s): ☺️😊😌

I interpret this face as more gentle; it is an “at peace” face (which, with Gil, could also be very bad), it could be satisfaction, it signals he is happy - but it could also mean he is sarcastically happy as well, or enjoying someone else’s pain. I personally like to imagine this face as the one we would see when he’s napping or sleeping like the one event we saw 🥺(especially after certain acts 😉)

Emoji(s): 😳😧🤯

This one literally always makes me giggle. It will never not be funny. This man has seen almost everything there is to see, he is known as one of the worst disasters to happen to all the neighboring kingdoms, and acts all big and bad like a hard-ass. So when i see this face right here, i cackle for a good minute 🤣. This is the face that says “bitch… you did WHAT??” Like this is genuine shock. Do you know how hard it is to shock this man?? Istg i would make it my life mission to see Gilbert make this face as many times as i could. This looks like a face he would make at someone giving him a taste of his own medicine 😏. Someone who caught him off guard, and made him speechless at either the stupidity of someone/something, or the 0.001% chance that someone did something he didn’t plan for while he was scheming 100 steps ahead. It’s a rare face, and it’s my 2nd favorite of all his faces so far.

Emoji(s): 😟😣😓😮‍💨

And now for my all-time favorite. This is my favorite for many reasons, and i think if i could sum it all up in one word, it would be: vulnerable. Idk if I’m the only one, but this face is what makes him seem more human to me? This is not a face we have seen often at all so far. It could mean he is upset, worried, stressed, tired, or even sad. But… it also could mean relief in a weird way? I could see this face being used in a case where he was worried about MC and he finally realized she’s okay. I honestly could see this also being his actual real “sleeping” face, (cuz we all know he doesn’t actually get to sleep 🥺), but when he does sleep, it’s total relaxation. Instead of the fake smile he’s so used to wearing, we see him in a more human state - it feels like genuine emotion. Now… because I’m me, i have to go here. I also can see this being the face he makes during sex 🤭😈. Like i can imagine when you are on your knees giving him the best head of his life, he is kinda shook and you look up, dick in mouth and all, and you see his beautiful face just like that😩😮‍💨.

My poor baby finally has a chance to forget who he is just for a few moments, and actually feel good. I imagine MC being his safe place, and when the doors close, he gets to breathe and allow himself to be a human being, not the monster everyone knows him as for once. I honestly can’t get enough of this face, it is by far my favorite out of all the other ones we’ve seen.

[dr-tonytonychopper]

BATFAMILY AS FOLKLORE SONGS

i’m honestly shocked i’ve haven’t done this one. this one is a little different tbh, usually i just do characters and maybe lyrics but this time i did actually did explanations and i was watching the long pond sessions so i could get accurate notes on each song. DISCLAIMER there’s a lot of run on sentences and i hope it all makes sense, peace and love-ssb✌️🫶

the 1: steph and tim, i see this as being from both of their povs. i think a relationship between them wouldn’t work long term it would’ve been fun if you would’ve been the one

cardigan: dick/babs, i know that all writers have their own opinions on who is the “other woman” but timeline wise it’s kori so i see this as being from babs pov bc she goes back to him no matter what

the last great american dynasty: The Wayne’s, i feel that after Bruce adopts his kids and starts collecting others he starts kinda shifting what the wayne’s are where as when he grew up it was about image, poise and galas he starts to change and all he cares abt is if his kids are comfortable i had a marvelous time ruining everything

exile: jason and bruce, even though this song is like two lovers fighting i think it can be interpreted as jason being upset after tim becomes robin and it took you five whole minutes to pack us up and leave me with it and i can see bruce’s pov of being fed up with giving jason the chance to do the right thing but him not doing it like you’d get your knuckles bloody for me second, third and hundredth chances balancing on breaking bridges, i couldn’t turn things around you never turned things around

my tears ricochet: damian and talia, “it’s a song about greed. it’s a song about how somebody could be your best friend and your companion and your most trusted person in your life and then they could go and become your worst enemy who knows how to hurt you because they were once your most trusted person.” Taylor Swift long pond sessions you had to kill me but it killed you just the same this whole song and specifically this part and the quote reminds me of when talia made and had a clone of damian kill him i didn’t have it in me to go with grace and you’re the hero flying around saving face you hear my stolen lullabies

mirrorball: Stephanie, i’ve never been a natural all i do is try i know everyone is like this is dicks songs it’s not he’s the natural however i feel stephanie is put on this pedestal for being independent but she’s not and i feel like she morphs herself into a different version of herself depending on who she’s with “we have mirror balls in the middle of a dance floor because they reflect light they are broken a million times and that’s what makes them so shiny. we have people like that in society. they hang there and everytime they break it entertains us” Taylor Swift long pond sessions

seven: damian and jon, it’s a song abt besties idk 🤷🏻‍♀️ past down like folk songs the love lasts so long

august: kori/dick, IM SORRY DICKORI/ KORI STANS! to me when writers write this love triangle they write babs as the one, she’s smart and sensible and someone to settle down with while kori is written as a fling and something that is just someone who’s there in the moment and that’s what august is about it’s about this girl who was seen by this guy as a fling while she is truly falling for him and from everybody’s pov she’s this bad girl and temptress while all she wants is to love and to be loved

this is me trying: tim, they told me all my cages were mental so i got wasted like all my potential, tim is often now written as this happy go lucky character and i think that in red robin he’s fighting some real demons but in the newer runs he’s fighting to make it through the day or insecurities about his position in the family or as a superhero or even as bernard’s boyfriend and i feel like it’s just so real like no other character is going to compare to me when it comes to that and when it comes to his position in everyday life he is the definition as wasted potential he is crazy smart and charismatic but he just hates school and hates studying i was so ahead the curve that the curve became a sphere

illicit affairs: bruce/ talia, bruce and talias relationship is not healthy but i do believe that they both or at least bruce loved the other person and i feel like it shouldn’t even be described as an relationship because it seems like a means to an end

invisible string: the entire batfamily, definition of right place at the right time

mad woman: cass, in the comics and fics cass is often written to be a crazy, feral woman and i think that it’s a narrative constantly written about women and i feel like men are written as traumatized while women are not written or perceived with that tone they are written as vindictive or crazy

epiphany: babs and jim gordon, epiphany is written paralleling WWII to the pandemic and i think the perfect parallel in comic book history is babs and commissioner gordon fighting the same fight but taking different paths or routes and aaron dessner describes the song as comparing taylor’s family history and hero’s of today and i feel like that’s the perfect way to describe it

betty: babs/dick/kori, i already described my thoughts twice but i feel like dick would maybe take more accountability

peace: bruce/selina, imma be honest i don’t know if it’s canon that bruce doesn’t do relationships bc of batman but it’s fitting and i feel like it’s probably that even in relationships with other heroes is a conversation to be had bruce truly can’t give selina peace, he cannot promise stability or a promise of staying alive or not being over tabloids as he’s the richest man alive all these people think loves for show but i would die for you in secret

hoax: duke, duke is the one character that i can’t really get a read on but as the newest member of the batfamily i feel like there’s still this feeling in him that’s like i have this new family and i love them but at the end of the day i want my parents my parents that raised me at the end of the day he’s a boy who wants his parents. i also feel like he’s still trusting of people and he reaps what he sowed everytime

the lakes: tim/bernard: tim always has an exit plan and it’s always escaping by himself to be by himself and i feel like it’s the same no matter who he’s with but when he met and started dating bernard he finally found someone to escape with and exit the hero world for im setting off, but not without my muse

batfam (taylor’s version) is coming so lmk what albums you guys want next🤭🤭

[xerith-42]

It's kinda interesting that you make mcd Ein a really good person.

Meanwhile I have the hc that mcd Kacey isn't as good of a person as his mystreet counterpart. Not bad by any means, but like- inspired by Lapis Lazuli from Steven universe. More bitter and jaded than his mystreet counterpart, emotional and traumatized.

He is going through it.

He might be misguided and get in the way of (someone in) the main cast at some point, idk yet. (Maybe Vylad and him are bitter exes)

I mean I have a lot to work with; he has a shitty mother and he is from oh'khasis so has been spoon fed propaganda throughout his life.

Idk I like Kacey but in mystreet he is just sweet and shy and not very athletic, I'm trying to have some more stuff going on for him.

I cannot put into words how happy this made me but I'm gonna try to anyway!

1) So happy other people enjoy soft idiot Ein for MCD. He's still very traumatized because he's a member of the Jury of Nine, it came free with the armor, but he's just a way nicer person instead of being bitter about it because Zane literally just leaves and he gets to do his own thing.

2) MCD Kacey is someone I haven't thought about, but considering how much time I've spent thinking about Katelyn it's surprising I haven't played around with him yet. Obviously being raised in propaganda and having your sister that you look up to climb the ranks to the highest position she could have, it put a lot of weight on his shoulders and kinda just. Fucked him up. A bit.

I love your interpretation of him as just. Not okay. There's a lot to work with in terms of who he could run into and how they respond to each other. I will certainly be thinking about him a lot now.

3) As for MyStreet Kacey, I find there is a lot to work with as long as you're willing to make any one of your friends into a MyStreet character. Or make yourself into them. In that vein I think Kacey is honestly the most chill guy ever. Like. He's just so calm and not pressed about anything literally ever. It's the perfect contrast to his hot headed pothead sister who likes to get mad for him, or because he won't get mad at something he should be mad about.

I write Kacey as a very much "Don't give a fuck character." He generally only has nice things to say but on the rare occasion he makes his opinions on people he's not fond of known, it's a little terrifying. Katelyn isn't phased by it but anyone else who knows Kacey could hear him talk about someone he really doesn't like and just say the most out of pocket shit about them. He doesn't give a fuck if he thinks it he's gonna say it.

I think he and Travis would get along really well, and he totally teases Katelyn about dating him because he thinks his sister getting embarrassed is funny. Travis also eventually joins in on this, making dumb jokes about how he has her "family's blessing" despite meeting one of her like 3 brothers.

There's always something there with MyStreet characters and I truly wish I could describe the process as to how I make them like this, but at this point I'm convinced I'm literally just magic because I don't know how I pull decent characters out of these blocks half the time

[midnightactual]

Thanks for responding to my question so promptly. Yeah, I completely agree with your comment. When we look at the material, they're not friends. They're loosely aligned individuals forced to remain in each other's orbit by factors outside their control (High school, Aizen and Urahara's 5D chess match, etc etc), and would've gone their separate ways come graduation.

I mean, high school friendships can grow into life-long relations, but in my lived experience, those tend to be the exception, not the rule.

ESPECIALLY Ichigo. I'm not saying Ichigo should've drop everything and moved to the Soul Society (despite everything in the narrative telling us his presence alone would literally break reality if he returned to the human world post-royal guard training), but after all the shit he's been through, with all the lies he's been fed his entire life and everything in the narrative pointed to Karakura being symbolic of his complete misery, compounded by all the horrible traumatic memories he has there - I'd sooner believe he'd get the hell out of dodge and never speak to these people again.

Sure, he might send a genetic FaceBook message once-a-blue-moon to congratulate a particular life milestone, but by and large, that's basically how I expected them all to go. They keep each other on their Social media friends list because they sorta-kinda knew each other once upon a time but without crazy circumstances forcing them together, they just... drift apart, go about their lives in separate parts of the world.

(And I won't even get started on Rukia's side of the story)

If Kubo wanted me to believe these people grew into such legit great friends, he did a damn poor job of it.

[ re: this ask ]

Many other people (strongly) disagree with me about it, and it is open to interpretation, and in transformative work people can do whatever they want, but in canon I am personally absolutely convinced both Chad and Uryū are permanently done with Ichigo's ass.

We know from the map of Karakura that Ryūken's hospital is maybe at most a 3-5 minute walk from the Kurosaki household, so if Uryū had the time to go on an "extended lunch break" (per the nurses) up on the roof to watch Chad's match, then he had the time to walk to the party. He didn't need the whole day off and that's nonsense. Now maybe he's not at Ryūken's hospital! But that would mean he moved away and left Karakura behind, and that seems unlikely given he's in Karakura to support Keigo opening a ramen shop, which is frankly far less important than Chad's boxing match. (I think this goes without saying. Uryū is not close to Keigo, and only Ichigo and Mizuiro are there, not everyone.)

The fact he doesn't interact at the ramen shop, is only identified by Kubo pointing out it's him in Klub Outside, and takes no part in dealing with the Hell Hollow situation (despite Szayelaporro showing up!) tells me that the 686 color spread of him facing the other way means he's over it and has come to agree with his dad. Accordingly, I choose to believe he deliberately didn't go to the party in 686, because he absolutely could've if he was still in Karakura, which he seems to be.

Likewise, we know that Chad is doing the WBO Heavyweight Title Match, as sponsored by Y. Hans Enterprises. Riruka makes a big point about how all the Fullbringers owe Ichigo:

It's not like Yukio wouldn't know this. And Yukio's whole thing is making himself feel useful to others no matter how much he acts otherwise, as he more or less directly tells Jackie (though it's obvious with him financing Xcution's various headquarters amenities):

So, what, Yukio couldn't have flown Ichigo and everyone else out to see Chad's match, if that's what Chad had wanted? Come on. It'd have been nothing to him, because his entire character is that money is meaningless to him. What does that tell you?

It tells you that Chad didn't want that.

Now add that on top of Chad not telling Ichigo about Xcution in the first place, not using the coin Ichigo saved as his Fullbring, and questioning Ichigo's resolve in TYBW. What does that constellation say? He's over dealing with Ichigo and has known they aren't really friends for the last two arcs.

So, as far as I'm concerned, Kubo did write that they all went "their separate ways come graduation". That's what these things tell me, anyway. I believe it is actually canon that they are not really friends as of the epilogue.

(And I carry this onward to other characters as well. I do not see Yoruichi and Kisuke playing some shared Mr. Miyagi role toward Ichigo, because they didn't do that even when he was obliged to interact with them. Why would they keep it up when it was no longer necessary? They wouldn't. It's simply not the vibe of canon thematically, nor of them as characters.)

[EDIT] Also, this phenomena gets directly called out right before the earlier panel of Yukio. Jackie admits she has realized Xcution weren't friends, just associates by circumstance. Yukio absorbs that, and moves on from it by choosing to make their connection real in its own right. Ichigo and company never had this talk and settled for believing in an illusion, even when they knew it was a mirage. This is literally Chad's entire character arc from Xcution Arc, through TYBW: just like Jackie, he knows it's fake, he just never says it.

[transfemininomenon]

i've gone on record a few times as not being a fan of vaatividya (and honestly Lore Analysis makers im general tbh but he's the most egregious) but i think my absolutely biggest complaint about him is more the Culture that developed from him within the soils community when it comes to lore discussion where like. i've heard So Many Times from different people whether it be other content creators on youtube or just scattered comments throughout the net or even from friends where they'll have some kind of question/confusion over lore and they'll just go "i'll just wait for the vaati video"

and like maybe it isn't that deep but i know a lot of the times people say that they mean it! they're not going to attempt to come up with their own interpretations or examine things! they're just going to wait to get spoon fed takes by vaati (which he'll present as Fact and then just reference himself as proof, sorry had to throw SOME kinda other dig at him) and it just. I hate it. so much of the fun & joy of those games i think is the world and the lore and finding your own meanings in things and i hate how stagnant the discussion can become when people talking about it just becomes "well vaati said-"

again it's truly Not That Deep but it just always annoys me. and i know that some people aren't really about finding stuff out themselves or have trouble really understanding things sometimes and that's Fine. just. man. hate how one person has become The Authority on lore especially when i really simply do Not agree with so many of his takes

[lazyvase]

TMNT (2036): Heroes

TMNT 2036 is my own iteration. I chose the year 2036 because the time span between 2012 and 2036 is about the same as the time span between 1987 and 2012.

Let's start with the heroes.

Splinter

Now, one of my least favorite interpretations of Splinter is when he used to be a rat instead of Hamato Yoshi. This is for two main reasons: 1. It removes the personal connection to Shredder. At best, Splinter hates Shredder for killing his master, with Shredder not really caring. At worst, the two don't give a shit about each other. Shredder is often at his best when his main goal is specifically to kill Splinter and the turtles. He best serves as the turtles' personal enemy. (Though that may be my 2012 bias). 2. A regular, normal rat learning martial arts is too ridiculous. It's literally the fairy vs. walrus situation, where the normal creature doing something unexpected is less believable than the mystical, magic creature existing.

All that being said, I made Splinter originally a rat. WITH ONE KEY DIFFERENCE. His owner was not Hamato Yoshi, it was Oroku Saki. (In fact, I'm not sure if Hamato Yoshi even exists in this iteration). This change in ownership allows Splinter and Shredder to still have a direct connection, though this one will be significantly different than everything that's come before. Splinter was a gift to Saki by his mother, Oroku Miyoko (1987 reference). The two were inseparable, with Saki even taking Splinter to his training with the Foot Clan. While there, Splinter saw all sorts of training and warriors. While he couldn't practice as a rat, he still retained the memories of his best friend training and practicing. Now, I'm not sure exactly how things go down but tragedy strikes Saki. His mother dies. Both Saki and Splinter (who Miyoko had always been kind to) were both devastated. Whether through grief, or anger, or accident. Saki loses Splinter.

The rest goes relatively the same. Splinter stumbles across 4 turtles. Goop attack. They all become mutants. Splinter has a new family, but the pain of losing his old family still haunts him. His memory enhanced by the ooze, Splinter is able to teach himself to fight like the masters Saki studied under. Soon, he begins to teach his sons the same.

After about 15 years, the turtles want to go to the surface. Despite his fear, he agrees and takes them up. Things play out like how @cnwolf-brainrot said, as Splinter (being afraid to lose his family again) accompanies/leads them on missions. This allows me to have the turtles go against much more dangerous and powerful foes in the earlier seasons, while still making it be believable that they can survive. For Splinter is nearly as powerful as his 2012 counterpart.

When he runs back into Saki, Splinter is heartbroken. His best friend is now a cruel criminal. While he despises Saki for how far he's fallen, Splinter still hopes that Saki will change, and become the good man he once was.

Leonardo

As usual, Leo is the most responsible of the turtles. He follows Master Splinter to the letter and never questions him. However, there is a reason for this. Without his loyalty, Leo is unremarkable. And he knows this. He's not as strong as Raph. He's not as smart as Donatello. And he's not as stealthy as Mikey. He has a real middle-child syndrome. He thinks that the best way to stand out is to be the most faithful to his father's wishes and guidance, unlike his brothers. One aspect I want to play with is the turtles' masks. They'll still be all their iconic colors, but I want to add a few little details to each of them. For instance, Leo has the cleanest mask. He takes good care of it and washes it whenever he can.

Donatello

Donatello is sort of a merge between his 2012 and Rise versions. He's anxious to the point of being kinda cold and distant. He's kinda burnt out. There's 1000% going to be an arc of him getting fed up with always being the solution. Often indulges in TV and gaming as a distraction.

Raphael

Raph is going to portrayed as both the "youngest" and the comedic relief in my incarnation. I'm going for that gremlin child energy. He's the shortest of the brothers. Always ready for a fight and hyperviolent, Raph has been known to bite his opponents, constantly. He's what's making me consider having the turtles be different species, though not to the same extreme as Rise. His mask has stitches in it.

Michelangelo

Mikey has the most changes. He's portrayed as the "oldest". He's the tallest. He not super energetic. He's much more chilled and relax. Stoned older brother vibes. Rodrick Heffley if he wasn't a jerk. Still the party dude, he plans on just coasting through life. Mikey is the one who buts heads with Leo the most. Leo takes everything super seriously and Mikey doesn't take anything seriously. Still, Mikey is devoted to his brothers, and would do anything for them. His mask has plenty of stains on it.

April O'Neil

April O'Neil is a highschooler at Eastman-Laird High (since its apparently required to namedrop them). She's an outcast (Mutant Mayhem). Her friend Irma, a massive nerd, has better social skills than her. April is often seen as a nosy and gossipy. However, it would be more accurate to say she's investigative. She currently runs a YouTube channel exposing corruption and crime. Currently, she's hot on the trail of the many, many, many, many unethical and illegal practices of Stockman Industries. She first meets the turtles when they're all captured by Stockman Industries. They work together to escape, and the turtles gain their first human friend. She has dyed red hair in a pony tail, but you can often see her naturally brown roots. I'm continuing the pattern of making April black (Rise, Mutant Mayhem). Suspicious yet curious, April is the perfect in-between for the pedestrian and strange features of New York.

Casey Jones

Casey Jones is the star hockey player of Eastman-Laird High. She's the pride of the school. She's the most popular girl in her class. A real jock. And jerk. She's April's bully. For the first season she's more of an obstacle for April and occasionally the turtles. But by season 2, after seeing all the mutant and criminal danger out in the city, she becomes the vigilante "Skullcrusher". She wears a hockey-mask with a skull painted on, and a crack painted over the skull. Brash and reckless as ever, it's no wonder why her and Raph get along so well. Her appearance resembles more of the earlier Casey Joneses (1987 and 2003). Muscular with long messy black hair. (As much as I love 2012, he's way too skinny). While not the best influence (Splinter is not a big fan of her at first), she's exactly what the turtles need to come out of their shells.

[dertlort]

TL;DR, Spoilers for ALL of Mouthwashing. this is a thought experiment and not at all a criticism of the game, but Curly definitely died and there’s no way he would have survived even the events of the game given his injuries and lack of access to proper life saving treatment, if you choose to think about it realistically. Also I love this game with my life.

Realistically, Curly would have absolutely died shortly after the crash due to his injuries. Even if Anya was somehow able to sustain him for a while after, there is almost no way he would have made it the entire 5 months that pass in the game post-crash. But even if we do suspend our disbelief and assume this severe burn victim who lost ALL of his skin, all of his limbs, and is so injured he cannot even speak, somehow made it 5 months in dirty bandages, little to no medical care, no skin grafting (which would require a donor of said skin, and anti-rejection medication, seeing as he HAS NO SKIN), no antibiotics, surviving entirely just off pain killers.. and then Jimmy cutting off MORE of his leg, somehow not dying from blood loss or infection at any point, subsisting off only his own flesh he was force fed (which would not really do much for him irl, auto cannibalism isn’t a practical method of survival when you’re starving, any calories he might get would be negated from, you know, it being extracted from his own body, plus the body already kinda starts eating itself when you’re starving) but again, we are choosing to believe all this is possible, and then we’re also going to assume the cryostasis pods ARE in fact functional and do exactly what they’re supposed to… They were almost certainly not intended to be used for someone in Curly’s condition. Jimmy putting him in that pod likely just killed him. But even then, EVEN THEN, if we want to believe it didn’t, that the pod didn’t just kill him, and we also believe that someone found the ship still intact within those 20 years of backup power the cryo pods supposedly have, then what? They find this gruesomely disfigured man in his dirty, infectious bandages covering the entirety of his exposed, untreated, burt flesh, he is malnourished and starving, entirely unable to communicate, his one remaining eye is almost certainly oozing puss, blind, and shriveled up from lack of moisture (he has no eyelid) covered in his own piss and shit, and actively about to die, in fact it’s nothing short of a miracle he didn’t die LONG before any of this could happen.. what do they do? Who knows how far they are away from any qualified person who could help? Hell, even a team of highly skilled medical professionals might not save him. Some random ship stumbling across the wreckage certainly won’t be able to do much for him. And in the state that he’s in, it’s likely most people would already consider it unethical to continue to keep him alive.

All this to say, no. I really don’t think Curly is the sole survivor of the Tulpar who gets miraculously saved at the end. To clarify, this isn’t some Cinema Sins criticism of the game. This aspect of the story being unrealistic really doesn’t matter to me, it doesn’t effect my enjoyment of the story at all or detract from it’s overall quality. Furthermore, I actually REALLY enjoy fan interpretations of the aftermath, be it Curly being rescued and receiving restorative medical treatment, the ship simply never being found, or the ship being found and Curly being dead or beyond saving. I also love the “good ending” AUs. It’s just interesting to think about this stuff outside of all that sometimes.

[rainbowsky]

Hello, rainbow! hope you’re doing well!

i feel really silly asking this, but how do you view dd’s relationship with his fans? what do you think about it?

i’m new to the fandom so i’m kinda confused, and really don’t know if this has been addressed already.

i feel like every time i see him interacting with fans he looks really annoyed? maybe fed up?

i know lately there has been a lot of instances where he got his privacy invaded by “fans”, and that strains the relationship. but i don’t really know how it was before.

i really really like and support him in everything he does, and i know my thoughts might be misplaced. but i wanted to know your thoughts, if you’re willing to share.

Hi Anon, hope you're well too! 😊

Sorry that I'm so late in answering some of these asks. I've been very busy IRL and haven't had much time lately for Tumblr. I'm trying to get to the ones that are still somewhat relevant.

I got a few asks along the same lines of this one, after DD's recent Chunzhen live (more on that event here).

Disclaimer: This response is for all the anons who asked me this question, not just the Anon above. In fact, the above ask is the least judgmental/critical version of this ask I could find, which is why I'm answering it and not some of the others.

This question comes up a LOT whenever new fans see DD in interviews or at fan events, and especially at live endorsement event fan meets, which I believe he mostly hates (because they're boring and contrived and call upon him to be fake, and he's not fake).

Here is the Chunzhen event with Eng Subs.

People seemed to have an especially big reaction to his response (at 50:15) when he was asked if there's anything he wanted to do with his fans and he said, "Nothing." Which is just a very honest answer, quite typical of the DD we know and love.

And let's face it, what a STUPID question. What on earth would DD want to do with his fans? They don't treat him like a human being. What does he even have in common with most of them? As a star, what's he supposed to want to go camping with them or something? They'd spend the whole time screaming and fawning over him.

Anyway, this sort of response always gets negatively interpreted, and fans read a lot into it and often he gets painted as harsh, ungrateful and mean.

I think a lot of it comes from the toxic positivity that is rampant in most cultures - the idea that we have to come across as exuberantly pleasant or else we're being negative or bad.

DD is a very honest, straightforward person who tells it like it is. That means that sometimes he comes across as harsh to some people, but that's just the cultural judgments/assumptions talking - it's not an accurate assessment of who DD is or what he's really like.

There are expectations around how people should look and behave, and when those expectations aren't met, their behavior is interpreted as negative.

As an autistic person I get this a LOT in my life, and I absolutely hate it. It's one of the things I most loathe about interacting with neurotypical and mixed groups of random people who I'm not familiar with and don't have a trust bond with.

Because I don't have a lot of facial expressions, because I don't deal in subtext and I am forthright and honest, I very frequently get interpreted in negative ways - as 'harsh', 'cold', 'rude', 'blunt' or 'intimidating' - when in fact I'm just talking normally, and when in reality I'm actually happy or cheerful about what I'm talking about. People misread me entirely and take everything I say as having a negative tone, and project all these negative ideas, motives and subtext onto me about what they think I really mean or what they think I'm thinking about them. (More on all that here).

It even happens here on my blog.

It's a big part of why I identify with Lan Zhan so much. In fact, that's how I first learned about GG and DD - because my sister saw The Untamed and thought Lan Zhan was just like me, and urged me to watch the show.

We can hopefully all agree that Lan Zhan isn't a hateful, mean, harsh person. We can agree that he's actually a kind, loving, noble person with a lot of deep emotions and a compassionate heart. It's just that his way of expressing that is different from most other people's way of expressing it. Wei Ying is one of the few people who can see and accept Lan Zhan for who he is, and in return he gets the gift of seeing how funny Lan Zhan really is, how soft-hearted and kind.

DD is like this. He's sweet, charming, funny, kind. And he's also very unique, not like everyone else. He has his own way of expressing himself, and he has never been one to put on a fake face for fans - at least, not in his solo career where he's been at liberty to be himself.

We shouldn't read anything negative or judgmental into this.

Whenever DD has a live fanmeet for an endorsement brand my inbox fills with asks about his supposedly being 'off' or 'upset' or even 'angry', and I think if he is any of those things, it's not about what fans seem to assume. It's not some personal thing or some beef he has with fans. It's quite simply discomfort about being put into an event he doesn't enjoy and feels bored by.

DD isn't a salesman. He's not that kind of guy. And these events, they really call upon those kinds of skills and behaviors. They call upon the star to be a cheerful, up-beat shill for whatever ware is being hawked, and that's not something DD seems to feel comfortable with.

If it was a cool Lego set or some skateboard parts and accessories or a motorcycle helmet he'd probably light right up and knock it out of the park. He'd probably sell the shit out of those things. But drinkable yogurt or massage equipment or facial masques - not really something he's going to get fired up about.

DD isn't fake and isn't really capable of pretending to be interested in something he's not interested in. That's a feature, not a bug. That's a good thing, not a bad thing. HE'S SINCERE.

Once you've become more familiar with DD as a person you'll start to see that it's just his personality. And his fans - the ones who've been with him for a while and know him well - they see him for who he is and they love him for it. They know that he's not going to blow smoke up their ass or give them a bunch of fake sweetness. They appreciate his honesty and accept him for who he is.

Someone is likely to ask me if maybe he was upset about the way Chunzhen was handling the event/the situation with turtles, or if he was sticking it to solo fans after the fucked up demands they've been making and the way they've been abusing his team, so I'll address that here as well:

I doubt it, but it's possible.

Whether solos accept it or not, DD does care about turtles. At the very least, turtles are an important part of DD's fan base (and are not involved with the demands and other BS), and I doubt he would appreciate seeing them mistreated by one of his brands.

Turtles aside, I doubt he enjoys dealing with controversies, or with fan demands or with the way they've been slandering his team online. It's possible either one of those issues - or even both - impacted his demeanour in the event.

But like I said, I really doubt it. He was behaving how he usually does at these things - bored and eager to get it all over with. I didn't see anything unusual to suggest he was particularly upset or angry. He was just doing his job, earning his pay. Nothing more.