#liveblogging something i guess

[unmotivated-student]

Ken asked Makoto/Minato if he could take care of his hamster in case he "hypothetically speaking" doesn't make it back to the dorm in the future...

I'm not okay...

ಥ⁠_⁠ಥ

[sunnydayaoe]

making one of fresh's sprites reference this one pose [from this post] cus Ithink its so goofy... post-loveball fresh you have everything HAHA. goofy guy to me...

[completeoveranalysis]

[8]

WAIT

WAIIIIIT

WAIT HELLO ONE MOMENT WE’RE REWRITING THE SECRET CANON HERE

I HAVE TO UNLEARN THE MOST TERRIBLE LORE EVIL WOLVERINE DROPPED ON US UNANNOUNCED ONE TIME 

ARE YOU READY OK DO YOU REMEMEMBER THAT ONE TIME WE SUDDENLY HAD EVIL WOLVERINE JUMP INTO THE PLOTLINE FOR NO REASON TO ANNOUNCE THAT HE CLONED SAKURA AND KILLED HER OFF SCREEN DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT IT WAS AGES PROBABLY (CHAPTER 181, IT TURNS OUT) TO KYLE RONDART FOR NO REASON

AND THAT WAS THE BIGGEST NARRATIVE BETRAYAL TO ME PERSONALLY BECAUSE THERE WAS NO HINT OF THAT ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE PLOT AND THERE WAS NO REASON FOR HIM TO HAVE DONE THAT

WELL! LUCKILY FOR US HE WAS WRONG THE WHOLE TIME

He cloned Sakura for… like, insurance purposes or something. No wait hang on, let me see. I think I originally had assumed that he cloned Sakura so that he would have a back up Sakura just in case anything went wrong. BUT, he explains it this way - that he cloned her the same way he cloned Syoaran but her soul was perfectly copied also. And then he destroyed the original. SO we're now getting the context that he must have assumed that Cloning Result was an incredible success but for the original Sakura it was a complete bust and the original body was not very useful anymore. So he had it destroyed.

It's a bit weird because in that previous conversation Evil Wolverine has with Kyle he still sounds very excited over the fact that both the body AND the soul were perfectly cloned - and so he didn't need the original anymore. I suppose the benefit of this would be... that a manmade body doesn't really deteriorate like a normal one does? And so THAT suited his plans?

But they way Yuuko describes it, it sounds like after he cloned Sakura he put her original soul into the new body and assumed the old body was no good anymore, and had it destroyed. Ie, that only the body was cloned and not the soul. And so Yuuko swept up the contents and could reassemble it, ready for her soul to go back into it later.

But I'm not sure that entirely connects either, because while Syaoran is entirely a man-made creation (which is the reason Yuuko says this is possible at all), Sakura technically was not, originally. Like, she WAS a real person, with a real soul, who had her real body destroyed and her real soul put into a clone body. And it’s the real body that was reassembled with the real soul put back into it. Which is not like Syaoran at all. UNLESS, like Evil Wolverine says, he DID clone both her body and soul, which WOULD make sense as to why she can be reassembled in this way, because the clone soul would not die, and it can be reassembled.

BUT that doesn't seem to be what Yuuko is saying happened.

Like, it quite specifically is not the clone body that is being reassembled here, since that was the empty body we’ve been chasing ever since the Infinity arc, that has now fused into Super Sakura. That body is still there. It’s the ORIGINAL LIVING body that is being reconstituted, and I'm not sure why that is possible. Unless that IS technically possible BECAUSE it was empty - because her soul was transferred into the clone body, in which Yuuko is right and Evil Wolverine is wrong.

UNLESS UNLESS we are also saying that this Sakura, even before Evil Wolverine cloned her, is TECHNICALLY ALSO A TYPE OF CLONE, since with all of reality rewritten (the first time, when Lava Lamp made his wish to save Not!Sakura) she was technically an entirely new person who didn’t exist before (because the original one was trapped in time?), and therefore she kind of WAS created by way of man-made actions. And therefore kind of a clone? Since her name IS Sakura when the original original original Sakura's name was NOT Sakura?

IS THAT WHAT WE’RE DOING? IS THAT THE LOGIC?

OR, like, is she TECHNICALLY a clone by way of the cloning process being done to her, leaving her original body as “empty” and therefore practically the same as a clone body?

IS IT ONE OF THOSE? 

IS IT???

Either Evil Wolverine or Yuuko is wrong about what happened, or there's a translation quirk that happened between their two explanations, but EITHER WAY I’m just going to assume one of my two guesses is right until otherwise corrected by CLAMP. 

MEANWHILE Syaoran is being prompted to choose SO I FEEL LIKE THIS IS A BIG MOMENT THAT THEY WOULD USE AS A CLIFFHANGER

*checks*

YUP THAT’S IT THAT'S THE CLIFFHANGER

[bangchansnaturalcurlyhair]

Day 3 of the Conclave and may I just say the cardinals are looking particularly yaoi today

[milesdadworth]

WHAT was the point

WHAT. WHY WOULD THEY SPECIFICALLY HAVE APOLLO TURN TO PHOENIX AND ASK HIS OPINION WHEN SUPPOSEDLY IN CANON THE MAN IS UNMARRIED.

FUCK OFF, THE ENTIRE WAA KNOW THEIR BOSS IS MARRIED TO THE CHIEF PROSECUTOR LMAO

[mamawasatesttube]

while reading superman comics i ran into this panel of batman with a lead-lined cowl, and it got me thinking.

the comic this is from (adventures of superman #440) has a cover date of may 1988. dr. clair cameron patterson first published findings about the prevalence of lead in gasoline and other parts of common postindustrial life being harmful in 1965, but we only saw legislation passed about leaded gasoline in 1975 (as per wikipedia:)

Starting with the 1975 model year, the United States mandated the use of unleaded gasoline to protect catalytic converters in all new cars.[18] However, Patterson's efforts achieved an accelerated phaseout of lead from all standard automotive gasoline—but not all leaded fuels—in the United States by 1986. By the late 1990s lead levels in the blood of Americans were reported to have dropped by up to 80%.[19] In 1978, Patterson was appointed to a National Research Council panel that acknowledged many of the increases of lead contamination and the need for reductions, but some members argued for more research before recommending action.[20] Patterson expressed his opinions in a 78-page minority report, which argued that control measures in certain sensitive sectors—including all leaded fuels, public water distribution systems, food containers, paints and glazes—should start immediately.[21]

so they definitely would have known lead is a health hazard while making this.. but probably not when it was established that lead everything confounded superman's senses back in precrisis (i assume), so maybe that's a holdover? and also it's very likely that dc just has never thought that hard about these things, simply because lead had been established as the Superman Blocker™ for so long. there is a LOT of lead in these early postcrisis superman comics. the metal men have a Lead Guy, the joker has a bunch of convienent lead coffins to stuff people into, lexcorp everything is lead-lined, buildings in metropolis have lead in them...

which definitely all tracks with like older us city infrastructure Built With Lead In It (and with lex luthor being the way that he is), but still . im actually so curious about the concept of an attitude shift wrt lead infrastructure and lead batcowls, etc., as it relates to increased public health awareness re: lead poisoning. it may be anecdotal, but i feel like in late 90s to 2000s comics, mentions of lead in infrastructure (or costuming) weren't so prevalent? i'll have to pay closer attention as i reread triangle era onwards, i think.

[derww]

i fucking hate (/vpos) 4cvit hes sooooo fucking smart and so fucking cool and sooo fucking interesting but remembering all the things he did on other servers where he played he doesn't seem to be doing almost anything grandiose of his lvl and that's fucking 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 4cvit man cna you do a fucking wormhole v2 i want you to blew minds of everyone

[atopvisenyashill]

IN THIS LIGHT SHE COULD ALMOST BE A BEAUTY IN THIS LIGHT SHE COULD ALMOST BE A KNIGHT.

“in this light” that they’re both in, to be clear - twin flames fighting in the darkness. fighting against the darkness. brienne looking at the ghosts that haunt jaime, from the very real physical threats of the war he helped start to the metaphorical wounds of knighthood, chivalry, and oath-keeping , from the betrayal of realizing your father is not the man you wanted him to be, from his own stupidity, and saying “this is nothing. i can fight them all.” to help him remember the ideals of his youth, to BE the ideal of his youth; an oathbreaker to save the lives of innocent children but it won’t break her soul the way it broke his!! she’s got a beauty that goes deeper than his, and the soul of a knight much more unshakable as well. he dreams of her fighting with him, beside him, saving him, facing down the wrathful dead, and watching as he fails, but knowing she is there and she will do what he cannot!

HE DREAMT IT. HE DREAMT OF HER.

[sisterofthesouth]

last time i reread dq, for some reason i ranked all the books and i put the lake of tears in the second-to-last spot. i don’t know why i did that

[arthursfuckinghat]

Father and son - Horseshoe Overlook

[kushanna]

what gets me about the ushiromiya western names is that they're christmas themed. kinzo sir you do understand you named your sons after santa klaus and rudolph the reindeer right. you cannot have the names klaus and rudolph together and not evoke christmas. i hope you're aware of that cause if my father had named me santa klaus i would also not hesitate in keeping his dead body a secret from the rest of the family

[unmotivated-student]

what if I liveblog the rest of this episode of la rosa de Guadalupe? [i'm bored]

Quick summary of what had happened: some guys bullied a girl because she was "ugly". one of the girls in her class convinced her boyfriend [aka the same guy the other girl is in love with] to make her believe he liked her back just to humiliate her later. After this she wants to take revenge on them.

There is a time skip from many years later where they show the guy who played with the other girl's feelings, they show how basically he is miserable since he had to marry the girl he was boyfriend of [yes, the bully] because he got her pregnant

Then at the guy's job [I think this guy's name is Vince] they announce that a new director would arrive and.... dun dun dun.... [*drum roll*] yes it's the girl he humiliated, but now she's "pretty" [wait, this girl's name Is Marcela].

From here it looks like her plan is to make him fall in love with her to get revenge on him.

"This is where it begins... The revenge of the ugliest girl in the world.." yep, she said that, in a voice-over as she kissed this Vince guy.

Okay, this guy is trash he wants to divorce his pregnant wife [after cheating on her with Marcela I remind you] and then calls her ugly, comparing her to the young/"ugly" version of Marcela even though all she did was say "hey, you're acting weird and our marriage is dying"

everyone here is trash [except the mom... I kinda like the mom...]

outside: "hey, I'm already divorcing my wife, soooo... do you want to marry me?" "yes, i love u (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)" Marcela's inner thoughts: "you fell into my trap you bastard 👹"

Oh, after so many years she's finally lore-dumping her mom about the whole humilliation

THE ROSE HAS APPEARED shit's about to happen

what a great wedding, she revealed everything and humiliated them both AND the other guys who bullied her.. this is how you add excitement to a wedding with a plot twist

Now she's crying, she feels bad for what she did... [a little late for that but what do I know?]

Now the Vince guy is apologizing because he didn't know how much he had hurt her back then and now he didn't want to "lose her" cuz' he loves her [remember guys? they were going to get married about two paragraphs ago] but she said "nah i'm good, good luck with your life and I'm leaving this company."

Marcela is happy now I guess and it's someone's birthday

wait, why did the mom received the divine breeze of enlightenment? shouldn't it be Marcela? *sigh* y'know what? I don't know, I didn't even see who found the rose in the first place

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

Why out of every doctor who plot to do twice did kill the moon make the list

[completeoveranalysis]

OK!

UNHINGED THEORY TIME:

WHO ARE LAVA LAMPS PARENTS?

Criteria for candidates include: (a) his mother's name is Sakura, (b) his mother is a dream seer, (c) they are vaguely Sakura and Syaoran shaped, (d) they end up in the Jam Jar

Potential Answer 1: Cardcaptor Sakura and Syaoran Li, from Cardcaptor Sakura

Hints in favour: Almost everything. Clamp drop constant hints that imply Cardcaptor Sakura, including but not limited to: the world Lava Lamp is 'from' resembles our world, his father's name is Syaoran Li, his mother's magic circle is the same one from Cardcaptor Sakura, his father's sword is identical to Cardcaptor Sakura!Li Syaoran's sword, his magic circle, Touya and Yukito (in 216, his relatives) are shown in ordinary clothing resembling our world, Lava Lamp's mother gave Yuuko the Star Wand, Lava Lamp's grandmother looks like Nadeshiko, Lava Lamp's father is descended from Clow Reed.

Counterpoints: Lava Lamp doesn't seem to recognise Touya and Yukito in the Clow Kingdom, CLAMP wouldn't need to hide their faces if we already correctly know who they are, Lava Lamp doesn't seem to know how Cardcaptor Sakura is related to Clow Reed.

Also: It's a bit dark! Even though Clamp are OVERFLOWING with hints that Lava Lamp's parents might just be the Cardcaptors, it would be a bit of a downer for the main characters for such a sweet and uplifting manga like Cardcaptor Sakura to end up here.

Theory Status: The one the narrative most strongly backs up, but still doesn't feel quite right

Potential Answer 2: Someone from Tsubasa

Hints in favour: THEY DON'T SHOW US THEIR FACES. EVER. Why leave their faces out unless we would recognise?

With this in mind, let us narrow down the potential Syaorans we have seen who could be considered JUST KIDDING THERE'S ONLY ONE: CLONE SYAORAN. He's the only one with an appearance distinctive enough to be immediately recognisable: he has heterochromia.

What if Clone Syaoran is Real Syaoran's father? Which would make Lava Lamp's mother either Clone Sakura or the new Fusion Sakura we just met.

Counter point: That's completely batshit.

Counter Counter Point: Logic in the universe is dying. Also this is CLAMP. It should be completely batshit.

Another Counterpoint: Hiding their faces could be a red herring just to torture us on purpose

Which I have no defence against that is 100% what they would do

Yet Another Counterpoint: Clone Syaoran and Clone Sakura are currently dead.

AND OK I HAVE NO EXPLANATION FOR THAT ONE.

Unless? There is a gap in the timeline where they could have disappeared for a long period of time? Ie, long enough to disappear to another dimensions, have children together, raise them, and then hop in the Jam Jar for an undisclosed number of years? And then time travel to still make it back into the narrative on time?

And - sure! There are MANY holes times where Clone Syaoran disappears from the narrative entirely. Most notably, his magic growth is extreme between the end of Nihon and his reappearance in the Reservoir. Also that was arguably when his soul was restored. So he MIGHT have disappeared, done all that, and still made it back in time to die in the Reservoir.

Also, if that IS the order of events, that would explain why we can never see his face AND ALSO why he still has Fai's eye when fighting in the Reservoir. Because he hasn't died yet.

Big Counter point: Yuuko has never met Lava Lamp's parents. Also, Lava Lamp's parents don't have the power to cross dimensions.

Which, yeah. That seems to rule them out entirely. Yuuko has met Clone Syaoran.

(Unless she means technically, since she wasn't in the same dimension as Clone Syaoran when she first met him in Chapter 1/2, but surely that's splitting hairs.)

So that seems to... rule them out pretty solidly?

Unless Yuuko HERSELF doesn't know exactly who they are, which seems even more unlikely than anything else.

Theory Status: Doesn't compute but I kind of want it anyway

Potential Answer 3: A completely unrelated pair of Sakura and Syaoran

Hints in Favour: It wouldn't counteract with any other facts we have so far, since we know nothing about them.

Counter point: It's boring.

Theory Status: It would work but it would be disappointing.

PS - no confirmations or denials in either direction please and thank you :D

[camfusedly]

So, there I am. At the doctor's office. In the little exam room by myself, waiting for the doctor to return.

And I hear a noise above me.

I look up, and there's a vent up there. And I see something moving in and out of the vent holes.

Naturally, I make a small scream, grab my sweater and coat and run to the other side of the room. I'm thinking bugs. There are bugs, and they might drop on me, and gross.

And so I'm looking up into the vent from across the room, which of course I don't know what it normally looks like, but it looks like, between the slats, there's something in there. And it's something big.

Then the doctor comes back and is like "why are you standing across the room" and I tell her there was a noise and she says "Oh yeah, there's a bird that lives up there. Doesn't pay rent, ha ha."

I look back at the vent, and the something is gone.

Oh yeah, also they tested me for covid and I'm finally negative 🙃 35 days between testing positive and testing negative.

[slimedblr]

i love writing qspiderbit because i get bullshit lines like "The earth turns, the clouds move, Cellbit loves his husband. Go figure." and i have to be normal about that and act like they aren't so in love they'd combust the universe