#i've been working on a unified theory

[royalphantompain]

Don't hang up yet

I'm not done

I'm an expert

I'm the one

The one who is right all along

Better to be laughed at than wrong

[biblicallyaccuratepigeons]

*simply counting characters, when suddenly!*

*lemon demon touch tone telephone challenges you!*

*used focus! it's not very effective...*

*lemon demon touch tone telephone used am am radio! it's supereffective!*

[99redragons]

I've been working on a unified theory / If I make through tonight, everybody's gonna hear me out

[parisoonic]

How the hell do you manage to superimpose the hilariously exagerated proportions of the tf2 mercs into a cohesive 2d style? I always struggle SO much with like, the way the mercs' models have huge hands, the way they have relatively low-poly definition on things like arms, shoulders, and legs... and Especially the way like, the models are kinda janky when you pose them for art purposes- when using movement tools, things like armpits and seams between body parts get all deformed... Which makes the study of form and silhouette rather difficult.

I assume that a lot of your ability to translate the concept of the mercs from their original mediums into your own works of art comes to you quite naturally- through experience you have with drawing and art style stuff, as well as through intuition. I was simply wondering if I could poke at your mind and get some insight into your process, any thoughts you have about the proportions and silhouettes of the mercs, any quirks you've found while drawing the mercs, or simply what you enjoy drawing about them. Like, don't be afraid to infodump about something just because you think people wouldn't find it interesting- I am here, I am sitting, and I am listening- if you so choose to speak.

I am utterly fascinated and enraptured by the more behind-the-scenes aspect of art. The mundane things that come second nature to great artists yet seem so revolutionary to less experienced artists.

I love your work, I look forward to seeing more of it, and I hope you have a nice day :]

Sorry for the late reply! I've been a little…stuck on how to answer this but that's mainly because to me, drawing is composed of SO many different little skills - you have form, anatomy, shape language, silhouette, appeal, rhythm, acting and posing…not to mention everything AFTER your raw draughtmanship like line style, rendering and colour theory. Trying to distill a multiude of small skills into some pithy advice is overwhelming to my brain. So I'll take the invitation to ramble instead :))

I don't think I have any new or revolutionary insight into the tf2 guys specifically - more I'm using them as work horses to excercise general silhouette/posing/shape-language and further my skills when it comes to drawing characters!

I do agree though the proportions are rather silly when you stop and think about them realistically…they can be kinda tricky if you follow their 'actual' proportions. what looks great individually was maybe never meant to be directly compared (ie: Heavy's hand size against Spy's lol). It would've been funny if the TV show exsisted and we had more content to review…would the animators have had rules like Spy and Heavy can never shake hands? Would they cheated the proportions for shots? Or would they have said WHATVER it's gonna look weird and embraced it? (Like Kingpin in Spiderverse lol)

Paul Lasaine for 'Into the Spiderverse' This is AWESOME. But it's also one of the silliest designs I've ever seen comitted to screen. The varied scales of the characters work because of the unifying treatment (lighting, rendering, consistant hand anatomy, consistant clothing fold treatment etc) and because they are sort of proportional within themselves. A common mantra is that hands should be about as large as a characters face....which they all are here!

Human brains are very flexible and forgiving though. It's totally fine for you to put a character with huge hands and head next to a teeny tiny character! Vanellope and Ralph from Wreck-It Ralph look grand next to each other! And in that film you even have varying levels of stylisation sitting against each other (unified by the look dev treatment of the shaders and lighting). I think as long as the chracter is proportional within themselves it sort of works out. IE: a general rule is that a hand should be as large as the face so…you can have some large arse hands as long as their placed on a body with a big arse head. Unifying characters with the same treatment (ie: lineart brush, colouring style will also help them look cohesive next to each other :) )

I don't actually reference the 3D models/animations very much at all and instead draw their proportions based on my tastes for stylisation following their general vibes/silhouette profiles. I don't stick THAT close to their in-game looks and there are artists who do that are so so so much better than me (Creedei and Flapjack come to mind). I'm not amazing at body-type differentation and TBH they're all wearing chunky clothes all the time so I usually draw the guys as one-of-three body shapes: Heavy is the uniquely wide guy; Sniper/Scout/Spy are all tall and slim and Demo/Soldier/Medic/Engie have a little more of the generic 'hero' bodytype with varying tallness and broadness of the shoulders

Something like this! You can vary all these individual elements in terms of size, thickness, taper amount etc to create different characters. If you ARE going to reference the 3d works though you'll need to apply some anatomy knowledge to overcome the weird shoulders, armpits and knees which desperately need blendshapes to correct the 3D volumes and approach it a little more like an animation supervisor. There's a reason why you see in making-ofs and art-ofs character designers, character leads or animation supes doing drawovers of the models. These are character models that have had great effort put into their 'base' silhouette but it still needs to be reinforced in every frame for maximum appeal.

Shiyoon Kim for 'Raya' This sort of thing will occur at multiple stages during the animation process. Shiyoon Kim's notes are post final model but pre-animation. Most likely for internal rig tests, exploring what blend shapes and alt shapes are needed for the rigs etc. If your production has time, this will continue all the way to final anim. IF! But it's interesting to see how he emphasises the shapes and enhances the character acting of the 3d model.

As for 'mundane things' - I wouldn't say they're second nature! (If that makes you feel better!) I have to actively really persue certain advice and try to figure out how to best apply it. This can sometimes involve redrawing and redrawing an element of the drawing until I've grasped the nettle of whatever I'm after or…..until I get frustrated and either delete the drawing or just call it done lol

Here, I'm looking for a really specific flow of the head that sells both the acting and a subtle head tilt. I'm also trying to apply the general mantra regarding faces that converging lines (set by the eyebrows and mouth) are more appealing than parallel. It's tough! I also tend to use a drawing I've already done as a template/reference on the page too. Oh! This page is an amazing example of why I'm not an animator or storyboarder…consistancy? Who is she? 💅

Converging lines (that form tapered shapes) are always more appealing than parallel. Using this logic you can loft the facial features across converging lines to create dynamic appealing espressions. Combining this with anatomy, perspective and rotation is the tough part though. I'm still learning o7

The things I probably think about MOST are always flats vs curves, simple vs complex and general line of action/flow...and then eliminting tangents. Each of these can be a dedicated visual-essay on their own - hence my stumbling as to answer your question. Anyhow, not sure if it's ever come up on this blog but I looove dinosaurs :)) so i'm using a wee piece to demostrate these ideas! (but also to demostrate these concepts apply to everything from humans characters to animals, props and background design)

Okay, I'm getting self-aware that this is getting really long :') I have a wee tutorial tag for my blog if anyone wants to comb through my garbled art-thoughts. Learning, studying, repetition and practice will always be the greatest teachers! I'm glad you like my art- thank you so much for the lovely comments - I feel like such a noob still and not qualified to give people advice but we're in it together learning! High-five! 🙌

[metamatar]

This is maybe a stupid question but do you think there's any ties between like orientalist trends in western countries that glorify dharmic religions and Hindutva? Like I've heard 'Hinduism is the oldest religion on Earth' and 'Hinduism/Buddhism are just so much more enlightened than savage Abrahamic religions' and 'how could there be war and oppression in India? Hindus don't believe in violence' from white liberals and it certainly seems *convenient* for Hindutva propaganda, at least.

Not stupid at all! Historically, orientalism precedes modern Hindutva. The notion of a unified Hinduism is actually constructed in the echo of oriental constructions of India, with Savarkar clearly modelling One Nation, One Race, One Language on westphalian nationhood. He will often draw on Max Mueller type of indology orientalists in his writing in constructing the Hindu claim to a golden past and thus an ethnostate.

In terms of modern connections you can see the use and abuse of orientalism in South Asian postcolonial studies depts in the west that end up peddling Hindutva ideology –

The geographer Sanjoy Chakravorty recently promised that, in his new book, he would “show how the social categories of religion and caste as they are perceived in modern-day India were developed during the British colonial rule…” The air of originality amused me. This notion has been in vogue in South Asian postcolonial studies for at least two decades. The highest expression of the genre, Nicholas Dirks’s Castes of Mind, was published in 2001. I take no issue with claiming originality for warmed-over ideas: following the neoliberal mantra of “publish or perish,” we academics do it all the time. But reading Chakravorty’s essay, I was shocked at the longevity of this particular idea, that caste as we know it is an artefact of British colonialism. For any historian of pre-colonial India, the idea is absurd. Therefore, its persistence has less to do with empirical merit, than with the peculiar dynamics of the global South Asian academy.

[...] No wonder that Hindutvadis in both countries are now quoting their works to claim that caste was never a Hindu phenomenon. As Dalits are lynched across India and upper-caste South Asian-Americans lobby to erase the history of their lower-caste compatriots from US textbooks, to traffic in this self-serving theory is unconscionable.

You can see writer sociologists beloved of western academia like Ashish Nandy argue for the "inherent difference of indian civilization makes secularism impossible" and posit that the caste ridden gandhian hinduism is the answer as though the congress wasn't full of hindutva-lites and that the capture of dalit radicalism by electoralism and grift is actually a form of redistribution. Sorry if thats not necessarily relevant I like to hate on him.

Then most importantly is the deployment of "Islamic Colonization" that Hindu India must be rescued from, which is merely cover for the rebrahmanization of the country. This periodization and perspective of Indian history is obviously riven up in British colonial orientalism, see Romila Thapar's work on precolonial India. Good piece on what the former means if you've not engaged with it, fundamentally it posits an eternal Hindu innocence.

[lillysaurus12]

"I've been working on a unified theory, If I make it through tonight, everybody's gonna hear me out!!"

Lemon Demon and Long Legs?? its like Christmas for gay people !

[jenlrossman]

So I've been thinking about Miles O'Brien and how he was basically the same in the regular universe and the mirror universe

Why did they do that? They even had another character mention it

Could this be why he is the most important man in Starfleet history? Not because he did anything important himself, necessarily, but just by existing as some sort of… dimensional constant, what if he helped someone figure out like, the Grand Unified Theory of how the universes work?

Because we know from Strange New Worlds, there are other dimensions aside from the regular one and the mirror one. There's an entire dimension where everything is musical theater

What if, in every permutation of the multiverse, the one constant is Miles Edward O'Brien?

Just an ordinary guy, blue-collar worker, good dad with the occasional traumatic experience. He doesn't rise to power, he isn't evil, he doesn't sing more than the average person

He isn't a villain, but he doesn't think of himself as a hero either. He doesn't go off and do amazing things every day, and he doesn't want to. He's gay but not really and only for a couple dudes, the same way he is straight but only for one or two women

He's just that guy you can rely on to fix the ship and occasionally do something heroic but mostly he just wants to have a drink with his friends, do a little homoerotic LARPing, not get killed or tortured, and go home to his family

In. Every. Universe.

He is what everyone thought the Higgs boson would be

Miles O'Brien is our God particle that explains the universes

[siaclaw]

YOU WON'T SHIFT: THIS IS WHY AND HOW TO SOLVE IT.

Normally, in this type of post, you might expect an insufferable and endless list of methods or changes that are supposedly recommended to achieve reality shifting. And we've read enough of that already. At the same time, I am surprised that no one—or at least not that I've observed in my nearly five years in this community—has addressed the fact that our greatest enemy is the version of Shifting that has been imposed on us. YOU are not the problem, nor is your method, your subliminals, or even your level of hydration. The issue is your CONCEPT of Shifting.

Our body consists of different systems that work simultaneously to ensure its proper function. It’s NORMAL to have doubts and not fully believe in the practice until you experience it yourself because this indicates that you’re healthy, and your body is doing its job of protecting you from potential threats. Our defense mechanisms help us avoid, as much as possible, deception, disappointment, or any trigger that could lead to a negative individual reaction. Therefore, it’s healthy to have doubts, and truly, you CAN’T FIGHT them. However, you can reprogram your brain to understand the “threat” as an ally.

This process can be as complicated as desired, involving meditations or daily exercises. Nevertheless, I have found success simply by reframing the concept of Shifting with something that brings me stability and a sense of security.

For this reason, I will introduce my way of theorizing Shifting in a more scientific or rational manner, beyond the idea of literally "traveling" through realities—or even using that term—which unconsciously projects an impossibility because we view it as fiction or a physical process when it is not.

It is believed that the Universe is composed of three types of substances: normal matter (or common matter, the kind we are used to), "dark matter," and "dark energy." In other words, our Universe is formed by matter and ENERGY (among other unexplored concepts such as time). Normal (or common) matter is made up of the atoms that form stars, planets, humans, and all other visible objects in the Universe.

In quantum physics, there is a theory known as the interpretation of "parallel universes" or "multiverses." According to this interpretation, every decision we make creates a split in reality, forming a new branch of the universe where alternative outcomes occur. This suggests that infinite versions of ourselves could exist, living different variants of our lives. Different universes would be distinguished by their vibrational and energetic frequencies, which, when materialized, account for a situation different from the one we live in within our Universe.

Everything in the universe has a molecular vibration; nothing is at rest. Everything moves, vibrates, and circulates at different "frequencies" that interact with each other. You VIBRATE because you are made of atoms and molecules that respond to ENERGY.

Our brain operates through patterns of electrical activity that generate brain waves. These waves are classified into different frequency ranges.

An interesting hypothesis is that consciousness is not confined to our brain or body but is part of a universal unified field—a kind of energy network that transcends the barriers of space and time. It is an abstract concept and not a quantifiable property.

This field could act as the "bridge" that connects our different versions in parallel universes. In this model:

You are not your physical body but an expression of this field at a specific frequency.

Your "other versions" in different universes are manifestations of the same consciousness, tuned to different frequencies. Thus, although they seem separate, all versions are united on a fundamental level beyond time and space.

If we assume that each reality has its own "frequency," we could theorize that certain mental states, such as those achieved through deep meditation or technologies like Hemi-Sync, could allow the brain to align with a specific reality, popularly referred to as the "desired" one.

These vibrations create a sort of "universal energy field" in which everything is interconnected. Our consciousness, as part of this field, also has a frequency.

Our consciousness could act as a receiver, similar to a radio. This radio does not physically move from one place to another but adjusts its frequency to capture signals already present in the environment. These signals are the different "realities" of the multiverse, and we experience the one corresponding to the frequency we are tuned to.

Situation one.

Situation two.

By tuning to a specific frequency, your consciousness "collapses" that reality as your current experience, much like how the observer in quantum physics influences the collapse of the wave function.

Intention plays a crucial role. If our consciousness acts as both an emitter and receiver of frequencies, directing it with clear intention could help align our perception with the desired frequency. Therefore, intention is needed, much like someone who wants to change the channel on a radio. However, without faith, the change does not happen because if the intermediary does not believe they can change the channel or that the desired channel exists, then the proposal arising from the intention does not take place. This is simply because your brain does not perceive it as viable.

Understanding that Shifting is a part of us—because we are parts of the Universe—leads us to the idea that it is not fantasy, and certainly not impossible. Instead, it all depends on you, as the intermediary between the antenna (your consciousness) and the radio channels (the parallel realities, already confirmed, by the way), truly seeing yourself as capable of interfering and changing. And it is as simple as that. The complexity arises from how you perceive Shifting. If you continue to see it as travelling (concept that our unconcious mind interpret as difficult or complex) rather than a simple choice between listening to Taylor Swift or the latest news (under the radio metaphor, of course), don’t be surprised if you remain without shifting for many, many years to come. With this being said:

HAPPY SHIFTING!

[noneorother]

The grand unified theory of Good Omens S2, Hangs on a double meaning - Answering why .5 + .5 = 25 lazerii *The end?*

Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3 l Part 4 l Part 5 l The end?

Welcome to the end of the Bonkers Meta Series featuring your favourite Art Director/Clue detective. This is it! I'm going to wrap up this series as well as I can with what I think really happened, the final 15 and why Crowley says the things he says. Meta, Spoilers, Beware! All that. “Armageddon only happens once, you know. They don't let you go around again until you get it right.” 

If you've read my Metatron post you'll know that I thought there were *at least* two time loops with tweaks to achieve different outcomes, seeing as we seemed to be presented with two versions of events a lot of the time, two similar lines of dialogue, double meanings for lines etc etc. If you want a really good recap of a lot of the Clues that have already been compiled already you can go through them here. Yesterday I added my own : The columns in front of the bookshop get stained by a demon, and the stain stays and goes. But why do we care?

Here's my final thesis using the context I'll put together below :

The Metatron is changing the past and the present on earth using the book of life. He's forced a time loop of the last few days at least 50 times over a period of (realtime) months to get the outcome he wants : the separation of Aziraphale and Crowley to allow him to complete the second coming. It only worked once. Let me explain.

1) Not time skips, but stitched loops

My theory about the columns goes like this : a demon touches the right column in the attack on the bookshop, and dirties it. The problem is, in every episode we get multiple versions of the column that are dirtier or cleaner. Why? Because a demon has been touching that column in *more or less* the same place and getting it dirty over time, but the effects on the bookshop only layer every loop and reset, instead of being erased. The layering aspect is super important and I'll get back to it. For now, if we take it that the column gets dirtier over many loops, we now know what we are seeing : a bunch of different time loops stitched together to create a sense of time moving forward in a way that we can understand the story, but that skip forward and backward through the loops. Cleaner column = earlier loop. Here's discussion about clock hands if you want evidence, some even saying the hour hand seems to be going backwards in the first episode or the last, or even that the minute and hour hands must be backwards to make sense. If we think of time skipping ever forward and actions getting deleted (as some have said), then clocks going backwards makes no sense. But if we think about it as a time loop where things and actions are ever being tweaked and changed, then OF COURSE the times won't make sense anymore. People don't show up at the same time if they don't do the same thing they did before. The biggest time discrepancies I've seen in a single scene are A) Crowley's phone and watch being an hour apart in S2E1 and B) Inside the bookshop between Gabriel's fly flashback in S2E6 and him and Beez holding hands, there's an hour difference on the clock. I think that by the time we get to very late loops, some things are happening up to an hour later in the day. A simple example we are shown up top is the Eccles cakes. They are there in the first part of S2E1, but then they are no longer there somewhere along the way. In the first loop we see an ordering action/receiving Eccles cakes action, which takes *longer* than just not doing that and going straight to the shop, so that loop will be slightly later. It gets infinitely more complicated the more loops you are looking at, and we have at least 50 of them. How do I know that?

2) A 25 lazerii miracle

If we know that effects on the bookshop are cumulative and don't reset (because columns), then let's try this idea on for size : Aziraphale and Crowley have been performing the same half miracles on the same spot for 50+* loops, and each times they are layering and getting stronger. .5 demon + .5 angel = .5 angelic miracle x 50*ish loops = 25 lazerii miracle goes off in heaven on the latest loop. Shax then confronts Crowley in his car about a mighty miracle, so we're in a loop here where we've layered quite a lot, but not the last loop because he still has the original glasses/ *but also* Crowley's sideburns are long. Compare it to the scene directly after, and how sunny and bright it is. We're in a later loop and and earlier loop simultaneously.

3) Crowley's been testing So I've been searching for a *reason* that Crowley wears a turtleneck in S2E2 and thren new glasses and changes sideburns, and he seems to be up to some pretty crafty spy stuff, seeing as 1) he seems thrilled by it, and 2) he won't shut up about it (How will our hero cope? Jane Austen, nasty piece of work, master spy) There's also this Clue :

Crowley has a secret, as we know everyone with their hands deliberately in their pocket does in the series. I think Crowley knows before Aziraphale that something is wrong, because he's getting little snippets of memory and feeling, and so he's going off to try and change things about himself, the Bentley and the shop to remind himself in the next loop and leave himself clues or change outcomes if he fails to escape. In the early loops it seems like a fun spy mission, but by the end he's pretty tired and jaded that he doesn't seem to be making any headway on his own.

It *also* explains him throwing books and canapés on the floor in the bookshop to see if it changes in other versions. The problem being that Gabriel keeps cleaning everything up and reorganizing the titles to Crowley can't tell if it's his system or not. (lolsob)

It makes this line seem like he can't fit the loop pieces together anymore, and is trying to make headway without any information, rather than a pre-fall reference.

And this line probably much later in the loops (New sunglasses, long sideburns) :

Okay so! To recap : Everyone gets reset every time, and they make different choices because of past and present edits. But, most heavenly and hellish things don't obey earth laws, and therefore things like miracles start layering, and memories start seeping through the loops. (Point 4 is optional but absolutely hilarious, so I'd like to think it's worth speculating about)

4. The flaw in The Metatron's plan

There's a huge flaw in The Metatron's plan however, and it's that Heaven and Hell don't work like earth does. He's spent so many loops trying to get the result he wants, that he doesn't know that something crazy is *also* happening in hell. Every loop, Shax is emptying out the legions of demons until they barely have enough low level lackeys to go up at all. Hell is understaffed because no new people come into hell in the loop from earth, and they're sending all the demons that aren't subject to the reset into battle. This isn't a negotiation, it's a montage.

So the attack on the bookshop isn't one attack, but waves, and the waves get less powerful each loop. Stitched loops would also explain why Shax now hands Crowley his mail again in the last attack after *just* handing it to him on the park bench, like, 4 days ago in an earlier loop.

I don't have evidence for this directly, but if The Metatron put Maggie together with Nina successfully only in the last few loops, then she's fighting in the bookshop only a few times, and doesn't invite the demons in any other times, which might be why the only evidence is the column, and not books being ruined. But, it might also explain why the demon Eric gets discorporated a bunch of times in a row, he's doing it later and later in each loop. (These are kind of contradictory thoughts, I know.)

5. Aziraphale realizes too late. When I wrote part 4 of this series I was pretty awed by the fact that Aziraphale managed to figure out the Metatron was rewriting things after only hearing him say ONE LINE of dialogue. However after more thought, I think that he's been getting close to the truth a bunch of times by communicating with Crowley in previous loops. In each successive loop he tells Crowley later and later, and it's been getting them reset as punishment each time they figure it out together. By the end they barely communicate at all, because they can feel the danger. Watch his reaction here, in what we can assume is a *very late or last loop (because of the time on the clock)*

He stops himself from interrupting and telling Crowley something important he's just realized : that he's seen Gabriel and Beez get together before. "I know what this means..." 6. Saraqael is helping both sides without them knowing We see Saraquael helping Crowley immediately with the trial when she finds him in heaven. Why would she help Crowley without having ever met him before as a demon? The exchange of "Crowley I remember you, we worked on the Hosehead nebula together" and "I meet a lot of people, (*he doesn't say* I don't remember you)" is a code. They are both trying to communicate what they remember like spies on a bench in St.James park. Who recognizes who, who's trying to stop this madness. Maybe once Crowley gets to heaven this time he's seen multiple trials with multiple endings, and Saraquael has seen them too, I don't really know. BUT she's also communicating with Aziraphale at one point. Look at Saraqael in this scene again about the 25 lazerii miracle. She *remembers the book slap* and then the *looks* at Aziraphale in regards to Gabriel.

Yeah Gabriel, IT NEVER F*&?%ING WORKS IN ANY LOOP SO STOP DOING IT. - Saraquel, probably. Are Saraqael and Aziraphale testing later/earlier in the loops as well? Is this when the miracle was weaker? Who knows! 7. The Metatron job offer was many, many offers

It's really hard to tell with all the pieces of the puzzle moving around, but I think I can count 7 job refusal loops by Aziraphale in the last fifteen minutes. Here's a summary 1) Chinwag with Crowley in the room 2) We should go for a walk instead, here's a coffee 3) You don't have to answer immediately 4) Go tell you friend the good news (This is the important one), it's the last one where he tries to convince Crowley to come with him 5) I need to take care of my bookshop 6) The Metatron puts Muriel in charge of the bookshop, but Aziraphale wants to take something with him 7) Aziraphale straight up runs out to Crowley with "I think I-" 4, again) The Metatron takes him out of the bookshop. "Ready to start"?

Trying to screenshot all that would be insane, so just go rewatch it with all this in mind, and look at how the lighting changes inside of the bookshop and the jump cuts to different angles, and how his face resets every time. It's HEARTBREAKING. 8. The argument

I'm so blown away by the acting and writing (as well as the art direction) in this show, and it all comes to a head in the final argument. Many important lines have double meanings in series 2, because everyone is trying to speak in secret code to not get caught. Especially in the final loops.

In the last loops, we have an Aziraphale who is moving ever closer towards accepting the Metatron's offer, with the straw that broke the camel's back being he could restore Crowley as an angel**/save him; and Crowley who is moving ever farther away, by having to hide all of his Clue gathering, and confiding less and less to Aziraphale in each loop.

Check out the double meanings going on in this whole exchange if you consider that they are trying to save each other using secret codes neither one of them can hear. It's so shattering. Especially when you consider they've probably made it to this argument at least twice, and Crowley convinced him the first time. Why do I say that, you ask? 9. No Nightingales

Because I think Crowley remembers a loop where A Nightingale Sang was playing when they kissed, and Aziraphael didn't leave, but he knows they aren't in that version anymore. 10) I'm a demon, I lied. I'll probably post more abut the secondary characters because Shax, Furfur, Michael, Uriel and Nina etc all have roles to play, but for now, this is it.

----------------------------------------- Thanks so much for reading the gigantic post. If you disagree with my thoughts, or think this is terribly wrong, that's totally fine! I won't be offended. Without a real season 3, everything is just ether. Fingers crossed. I'd also like to thank The Ineffable Detective Agency, @embracing-the-ineffable, @cobragardens, @indigovigilance, @yowlthinks and more for inspiring me and feeding my brain with posts. *Loop numbers could actually be 25+ if you think that .5 demon mircales + .5 angelic miracles pour register as 1 whole miracle in heaven, I just didn't want to go into that in the main review. **The Metatron's meddling in the past seems to me trying very much to highlight to Aziraphale how *good* and righteous Crowley is, despite being a demon, in order to convince Aziraphale that joining him in heaven is a real possibility, and he should push for it.

[fazbear-ent-official]

Does Phone Guy call you every day saying "What can I say when the truth comes out of my very own mouth? I've been working on a unified theory - if I make it through tonight, everybody's gotta hear me out!"?

ngl i don't listen to half of his messages, he really needs to start a podcast instead of saturating people's voice-mail

[s1lv3rp4w3dc4t]

I've been working on a unified theory /lyr

my favorite things have active fandoms rn I'm overjoyed. my target audience for content is NO ONE. it is ME.

[mvmnbnv]

You seem pretty sensible so I'd be curious to hear your thoughts, if you're up for it?

Don't know about you, but I'm at a point where I'm just too stressed over all the things we've been teased about for s2 (whether Arcane trailers or LoL's game trailers, the merch). I see people fighting over Jinx&Vi and Cait/Vi all over the place and, though I want both to work out, I'm more worried about what the writers will do with Vi herself, outside of her relationships with them. Because right now, it looks like pain and more pain and it breaks my heart to see her like this.

I'm soooo worried about her and her arc. I've had this theory for the longest time that she prophetised her own trajectory with what she accused Vander of in s1, that she herself will become "comfortable living in someone else's shadow". Vi's character has been kinda stagnant since Arc 2 because S1 was mostly about building up to Powder fully becoming Jinx, and Vi's core motivation centered around saving Powder. In a way, her own path was for someone else, not herself.

With what we've got so far, it seems that the writers will do the same in s2 but her new motivation will be helping/protecting Caitlyn which I feel won't be nearly as impactful as it was with Jinx and worse, it might make Vi feel like she has no real agency of her own except pick herself apart for other people? It's not super compelling for a story arc.

Cait and Jinx seem to be getting arcs that really revolve around them and Vi is not really needed for either of those arcs. Cait is set on revenge, and Jinx has become a symbol for freedom. Those are interesting arcs that can truly change and develop those characters and I'm really excited for those. But Vi? Every glimpse we've seen so far has her linked to other characters (heck, her new skin apparently has her crying eating a cupcake ffs). She might become an enforcer for Cait, I fear she might be fighting Jinx for Cait also, and then she goes on a self-destructive path where she hallucinates Cait.

Which btw... On the surface, the pit-fighter clip seems super interesting, a culmination of everything that Vi is struggling with, all the pain she's endured finally catching up to her and swallowing her whole... On the surface you see how much Vi is suffering ... BUT with the small signs liking her spiral to Cait and their potential break-up... well it worries me that the spiral is actually mostly about Cait which would be complete BS, honestly. I hope they go way deeper than that because Vi deserves her trauma to be explored with care and be about HER, not about someone else.

My point is, from where I stand, it seems like Vi shifted from yearning/living for Powder to yearning for Cait and ... well I hope the writers went much further than that and gave Vi a story of her own that doesn't involve her being torn up between Cait and Jinx over and over again. And if they do that after the pit-fighter clip, the writers are heading to a place where Vi won't be stuck in other people's shadow and starts living for herself. I do think this is what they are going for, though.

With that said, I do have a good feeling that Vi will absolutely shine in Act 3, once the Noxus vs PnZ kicks in, because she is the unifying bridge between Jinx and Cait and thus Piltover and Zaun. I just hope it's not going to be misery porn until that point though.

Is that really too much to ask?

(pfiou, sorry for the rant, hope you have a good day/night though)

hello! thanks for being interested in the thoughts of lil old me!

honestly im probably where you are right now for a lot of reasons. And if im being honest i could barely even stand how they wrote vi last szn, and the points you brought up (i didnt know about the whole vi skin crying eating a cupcake tho) make me worried for her.

Last szn she was practically spineless when it came to jinx and it was so annoying to watch. jinx was at a point where she'd almost killed her and literally kidnaps her and drives her so mad she starts screaming and cursing at her by the end and you mean to tell me vi's just all "aaw powder its okaay" by the end??? uh no...if i was vi and spent all that time looking for you and trying to mend our relationship only for you to have almost killed me and be warmed up to the man that killed my dad...nah id be livid. theres so reason vi shouldnt be upset with her by the end, but instead shes just sad about it... like bro she should be angry for so many reasons. ofc shell always love her sister, and i want it that way, but she has every right to be mad at her.

and the way her character revolves around cait this szn from the looks of things is equally irritating. like vis depressed and losing her shit hallucinating cait and cait only...which already feels like a red flag in where they wanna go with her. what about powder and how she failed her in her mind? what about vander and how she possibly dissapointed him in her mind? what about her parents hell?? how she probably failed them too in her mind? there are so many different ppl for her to be thinking about that would give her agency but no...just cait...they were even going to put a cupcake on the back of her biker jacket, which everyone thought was cute, but i thought it was one, annoying, and two, super frustrating, which made me glad they didnt, but the fact they even thought about it is just...like theres no way in hell cait hasnt probably fucked her up emotionally with this whole crusade for jinx, but one of the thoughts that go through their head is that?? and the way they did her with jinx last szn makes me not hopeful in that regard if cait has hurt her. and amanda's thing for "unrequited love", or at least explaining how she listened to a song about it while writitng for them and that was the exact reason why she liked it...i might actually throw up...no hate to her directly but fuck...

my hope is that they acknowledge this as the character flaw that it is. my hope is that i end up feeling about her how i felt about armin from aot at first. he annoyed me at one point, but it was only because he was out of his element. once he stepped into what he was supposed to be doing, he became one of my favorites and i rooted for him every step of the way. vi is already my favorite but that fact makes me irritated with the way they write her. but back to my hopes for her i hope it isnt like this forever. ive made posts about it before but i want her to realize that she cant please everyone and do what SHE thinks is best. i want her to do things for her own reasons. as far as her living in the shadows, i dont think it will be forever. she's literally piltovers enforcer and arcane is about how we get to that point. she'll probably wind up doing something that makes them see her as their hero like how jinx did with zaun. it could even be done the same way where she doesnt give a flying fuck about the city but it just happens that she did something that they found revolutionary anyway. we see her and ekko fighting noxus in the trailer and her carrying someone on her back while rushing away from noxian arrows, so maybe it has to do with that. but yea i just pray for her character this szn

[hyrule-in-a-pokeball]

A BIG OL' GANONDORF THEORY (TOTK)

This gonna be a long one, kids

I've just got a bunch of thoughts on Ganondorf. I'll categorize them or something

GANONDORF CAUSED HYRULE'S UNIFICATION A great war of some kind has been mentioned a few times in Zelda canon. most notably in OoT. 9 years before the events of OoT kick off, a great war comes to an end, but not before orphaning a baby who gets adopted by a tree. 9 years after this war, the leaders of the Gorons and Zoras consider the King of Hyrule to be a close friend, with the leader of the Gorons even considering him an honorary brother. With OoT being erased, why is this important? Because the legend that is OoT is based on the historical fact shown in TotK. Real events that were embellished and re contextualized over time. Well, here's what the legend tells us about history... At one point in time, Hyrule was divided. Each race seemed to be a different kingdom, but there didn't seem to be any tension among them. But then something happened that forced them to unite. Or rather...

Someone Ganondorf has always been bent on ruling Hyrule, but I think his invasions weren't targeted solely on the land of the Zonai/Hylians, but also the lands of the Gorons, Zora, and Rito. Basically all the lands that aren't a barren wasteland. He probably planned to take over each region and unite it all under one glorious Gerudo banner. Alone, they may have all had trouble fending off the Gerudo army. I believe that with a common and very powerful enemy in the form of the Ganondorf-lead Gerudo, King Rauru was able to convince the Gorons, Rito, and Zora to unite with him under a single Hyrulean banner, thus creating the unified kingdom of Hyrule and forming a solid, united opposition to the Gerudo invasion.

GANONDORF'S STONE ENHANCED FORM

We skip forward in time a little. The war has ended and Ganondorf is swearing fealty to King Rauru, but thats just so he can get in and move about freely without suspicion even though he's the world's most suspicious looking man. It works though. He kills Queen Sonia and steals her sacred stone, the power awakened from which causes him to transform

The sacred stones, as explained, do not give powers to their holders, but instead greatly amplify powers that were already present. But what they ALSO don't do, is cause a physical transformation in their users. None of the other stone holders were shown to change form when using the power of their stones. And its not like his stone was extra special. It was literally the same stone Sonia was using. So why did Ganondorf change form when he came into possession of one?

Because his power is not his own.

While Zelda inherited her powers from her ancestors through blood, Ganondorf inherited his as a result of being the product of Demise's cheeky curse. While Demise is dead and gone, his power lives on in Ganondorf, and so it was Demise's demonic powers that were amplified by the stone. As a result, Ganondorf's form changed to reflect those demonic powers.

But that might not be all that changed. You see, after his demonic powers awakened, his goal changed a bit. While he was still hell bent on ruling Hyrule, he now also wanted to wipe out every living person within the kingdom, supposedly to replace them with the monsters he summoned, and "Cast the world into eternal night" He even turned on his own people, the Gerudo, as in the scene in which Rauru grants the soon-to-be-sages their sacred stones, Ruto states "We just received word that the last free village in the Gerudo desert has fallen..." So the demon king's armies were attacking everyone indiscriminately on his command. I think he truly became a demon, and possibly something in his psyche changed as a result.

THE 8TH SAGE

Those who hold Sacred stones were deemed sages. Zelda and Sonia were the sages of time. Rauru, reflecting his roll in OoT, was the sage of light. Nabooru was changed from the sage of spirit to the sage of lightning. Darunia was the sage of fire, Ruto; the sage of water, and Mineru was the sage of spirit. Saria and "forest" being completely replaced by a nameless Rito and the element of Wind. Sonia dies, so the sage count is 7.

When the stone bonded to its holder, stylized Japanese kanji would appear on it. This is most visible with Nabooru/Riju's stone

Its up-side down and partially wrapped around the stone itself, but that is the Kanji "Kaminari" meaning "Lightning"

When Ganondorf steals Sonia's stone, the kanji for time "Toki" disappears and is replaced with this

Its side ways and partially obstructed by his hand, but when he uses his power, we see the symbol flash in its proper orientation

Yami. Darkness. (funnily enough it also means "Gloom")

If holding a secret stone makes one a sage, then Ganondorf is the sage of Darkness, a being in direct opposition to Rauru; the sage of light

[lightparty-fullparty]

Can't possibly be me Zenosposting again - what is this a day ending in Y?

Anyway, I've been thinking about the murder boy again. This has mostly spawned from my replaying of the Stormblood patches and seeing Amnesiac Yotsuyu, which sparked a bit of a Nature vs Nuture debate between me and my friends.

Basically, my question for this post is "How much of Zenos' whole deal is Nature (aka He was just born like that) and how much of it is Nuture (aka the enviornment he grew up). Some of you might content to say Nature and leave it at that, which is a completely valid outlook to have. But for me there's just one... teeny... tiny... little detail that has sent me on a wild consipriacy theory of a ride that's resulted in this post. Emet-FUCKING-Selch.

Listen to me, listen okay? I cannot, CANNOT ignore the fact that this absoulete motherfucker (affectionate) is Zenos's cannonical Great Grandfather. Who was very much alive and kicking during his childhood. Emet-Selch or Solus zos Galvus whatever moniker you wanna give the man, is an Ascian. One of THE Ascians. Not only that, he's 'The Architect" the guy who's job it is to design and engineer the calamities meant to rejoin the Shards of the World back together again. What does he do to achieve this? He builds empires, he starts wars, manipulates people and situations to result in untold elemental chaos. Iirc correctly he's responsible for causing all eight calamities that have occured so far in FFXIV. (Eight got undone but I'm still counting it).

Now for this post I'm going to be focusing mainly on the Seventh, Eighth, and Fourth Umbral Calamities. (Which are the ones coincidentally we're told the most about in game). This Calamities all involved Empires. The Allagan and the Garlean, both of which Emet-Selch was responsible for creating. From the Allagans we have the creation of Dalamud, Cyrus Tower, and the Ultima Weapon. As well as an extensive history of biological research. Cloning, Gene Splicing, Mutation and so on. (A sundered mortal's attempts at creation magjicks perhaps?) The Garleans too, have a notible history of biological research, they draw a lot of their modern technology from Allagan design. No coincidence there given Emet-Selch's involvement. But we've seen them use genetic mutation, cyber augmentation, and cloning (Emet-Selch's shadow the hedgehog ass clone bodies because he refuses to look like anyone other than his unsundered self). The also so a lot of research into the Echo. Hydalyn's mark for her champions, and soul maipulation. (Ala Mihgo Dungeon and In From the Cold Duty both points of note for examples of the Soul being manipulated here - physically torn out of the body).

"Now Gengar " - I hear you ask - "What does this have to do with Nature vs Nuture or Zenos?" Well, I tell you, everything really. Hear me out. Emet-Selch designed the Garlean Empire to be the perfect chaos causing conquest force. They have no ability to use either, making them initially vulnerable as a people to the rest of the races. Building up a tasty, tasty resentment and need to feel superior. He sent them marching to 'reclaim their home' and then to 'unify the three contents under their superior peaceful, organised leadership'. The 'Savage Races' summon evil primals and weild evil distructive magjiks. He gave them a perfect cause and reason to hate everyone else. He gave them magitech to level the field and make them supieror at combat. Garlemald as a nation is the perfect war machine. Allagan 2.0 if you would. And Zenos is the perfect 'Champion' to lead that nation into battle. To spark that next Calamity. Look at the guy. Garleans might be on the taller side (depending on the character. Cid is a shorty), but Varis and Zenos are HUGE. Emet-Selch isn't nearly as tall as either of them despite being a blood relation. Which makes me think there was some of that Allagan/Garlean/Ancient playing with genetics and form at work. Make them bigger, more durable, stronger, more intelligent.

It's like Captian America. You want the perfect solider. And a perfect solider for Emet-Selch would also need to be cold, ruthless, manipulative.

There was a post I saw a while again about Mecha Pilots. And OP pondered on the idea of physcially having your brain and body contiditoned to love battle. To love destruction and killing and fighting.

Do you see where I am going with this?

You want someone bloodthirsty enough to cause a Calamity for you, you need them to feel nothing for their fellow man. (Insects all of them. Disappointing. Found Wanting.) You need them to find such overwhelming joy in battle that no other earthely pleasure can compare to it. (Brilliant. Blinding. Trandsenant Moment.)

No attatchments. No emotions, Just violence. I offer to you dear readers, that Emet-Selch carefully modified Zenos' litterally brain chemistry. Making him predisposed to a lack of empathy and his brain releasing those pesky joyous chemicals during battle. Inflicitng and feeling pain. I offer the theory that Zenos has literally been built for combat. If you cut him open, his bones and muscles and organs would be so alienly perfect. Denser, perfectly optimised. Exceedingly perfect. His brain remapped for pattern recognistion and quick skill building, Easy to train in the art of slaughter and tactics. Unable to forge the emotional connections that would only serve to hinder him. (To isolate him from family).

What evidence to I have? Outside of Emet-Selch's known history of building Empires? Easy. I already know he's done this kind of thing before.

Vauthry. The baby Emet-Selch mutated into half a Lightwarden. Able to command the Sin Eaters and ensured would be raised into a tyranically, childish, king. To keep the First from Uniting. To ensure the Eighth Umbral Calamity would continue along it's march to completion.

Why wouldn't Emet-Selch have done as much to Zenos too?

[rainbow-journalist]

Hey, do you like horror art, blood, gore in general? Aus based on horror movies?

Tw: topic about bloody arts, in case anyone here doesn't like reading about it.

Also spoilers from Rain Code, Pink blood, Body with bandages, Light Body Horror

⚠️⚠️⚠️

Oh, I like, my first exposure to violent art was when I was younger, and I was obsessed with My Little Pony. Hah, great start huh? I always loved watching those videos of speedpaint, The artists made the drawings from scratch, with awesome background music, and in the end, they made a bloody work of art. The last gore art I saw from these videos left me completely shocked at how the artist put so many almost realistic details into it. I've tried making violent art before when I was in the Five Nights at Freddy's fandom....But, my style is a bit too cute (?) for me to be able to make anything violent enough.

Now about Horror Aus, I also like it, I've been thinking about "what if" scenarios or bad endings that could have a hint of violence in it.

I was wondering, what if Makoto was a failed experiment? Could he kill all the scientists at the government research facility and be a danger to society? The scientist guy in this art would probably be killed in a very violent way.

I was looking at this insane sprite of his a few days ago and I was thinking, "Man, what did the Unified Government do to him to get him to this point? What happened to him in these 3 years ?" I was also wondering what would happen to him if he had actually killed Yuma in the mystery labyrinth in chapter 5, Would he continue with the lies? How far would he go on with his wrong doings? I think it would be a terrible ending. About an alternate timeline where he would have been an experiment failure.....

I was thinking some vibes of Sadako from Ringu movies....Long hair covering his face, while wearing a worn-out dirty robe. And what is this in his hands? Oil, or rotten blood?

Well, I'd probably make it clear that he wouldn't be a zombie. (Although the AU of Makoto being a zombified, defective homunculus is cool and sad.), He might or might not, eats human flesh, can walk in the sun, a perfect weapon gone wrong from the UG. You guys could make your theories about what could have gone wrong for him. Also, I'm aware that he might look like a walking corpse here. 0 - 0

I was also thinking about making him like a ghost from Japanese folklore who would chase Yuma, but then I thought: "Nah, him continuing to be an immortal homunculus but a failure is worse."

I was also wanting to make his body with bandages, and wow, he looks terrible here. Maybe I'll do more violent art of him in the future? Since I've been getting some inspiration lately, like:

Fanfics of the artists here that address his traumatic past

Sadako Yamamura (Ringu/movies)

Sachiko Shinozaki (Corpse party/game)

Kaede ( Elfen Lied /Anime)

Ellen (The Witch's House/game)

Bloody Arts

Zombie and Lab AUs

You know, sometimes I think horror Aus can be more sad than scary. Also, I'm still practicing some things from my drawings, like blood, yet.

I think Makoto himself, and his other versions would feel uncomfortable around this failed version, And maybe this version would try to kill him because he was the perfect and the original? Imagine a bloody fight between two immortal creatures.

I think something like that could happen. This version of him might act on primitive instincts.

Putting a mask on your "twin's" face, because the other doesn't like to see his own face, and it's always covered by hair or a dark shadow. So a mask is better, huh? I liked knowing that he created these masks himself.

If you're curious about what his face looks like, through all that hair of his that ended up growing too much from the gap, this is the result:

An empty, tired, expressionless look, and also a sense of being erased and ghostly. Sometimes he seems to be staring into space, he must know very well what is happening to him. And I know, his hair growing out too much during the failure gives off a vibe of Izuru Kamukura.

I decided to keep his cute little face even in this version, sometimes his little face might be deformed or covered in blood. Also the contrast of fragile and vulnerable to a bloody scenario is interesting.

[addermoray]

I kinda want to start one of those DBZ RPGs we used to have when we were kids.

The ones hosted on random Geocities websites or forums. The ones that didn't feed and nurture an addiction to instant gratification because scenes and adventures would be played out over the course of months, training took you out of the action for days to weeks, and it was all done over e-mail or forum posts.

As some of you may know, I've been doing a series of write-ups (very very slowly) titled "The Unified Theory of Ki." They don't really serve any purpose. They're just my overthinking a lot of Dragon Ball related elements to bring them into alignment in a functional system that both aligns with the work's canon and works as a system within the context of itself.

I kinda want to put it towards something like this. I've got a pretty good idea of how I'd balance everything out, perks to give various species and what not. And I'd want to do it on a basic web 1.0-ass site, of course. Sadly, I don't think the effort would reap the kind of interaction that would justify itself.

Plus I don't even know how one goes about making a web 1.0 site in the year of our lord 2024.