#maybe that could be it - in that ironic meta kind of way

[myothertardisisonthemun]

There's a big hole in our toilet room wall which Dad cut out after it got water damaged. (Shower leaking).

But can't have dust and muck leaking out, and a big ugly hole in the wall. We were having people over. So I covered it.

Sadly, you can't acually do the puzzles without puncturing the newspaper. But you could at least do it in your head

[schoolmysteryno69]

META ANALYSIS - Mitsukou (part 1)

General topic - how they’re written as a one of the romantic couples in the story

Before I start, I need to say few things:

1. I’m not native english speaker. I’m probably going to make a lot of errors and mistakes, mix times, have a lacking vocabulary etc. Please be ready for it. I want to write my meta post anyway, so I would be happy if you will stay to the end with me!

2. If you do not like Mitsukou/hate this ship or anything like that - maybe this post it's not for you. It's totally okay to ship different thing and like different things, I don’t mind. My post is not a starter for a discussion tho, I’m not interested in discourses, argues and hate. I don’t really plan to “prove” anything to anyone or force you to change your mind, whole post is only MY analysis and my point of view. You are not obligated to feel the same way I feel, to see things the same way I see them. 

3. I’m not interested in proving if Mitsukou is going to ever be canon or anything. I don’t know that. I’m also not going to analyze if they’re ever going to be a CANON COUPLE or an ENDGAME COUPLE. It’s only about if they’re written as a romantic relationship, and being written as a romantic couple =/= being a canon couple, they’re a lot of pairs in media that definitely are written as a romantic relationship without them being together ever or being an endgame. I’m not going to speculate about endgame, especially when one of the characters is supernatural and one is a human. 

Okay, I think we can start now!

Let's start from the beginning. Because my first language is not english my post may be a little bit chaotic, putting all my thoughts in at least some order and with at least some sense it's actually hard, haha. In part 1 I will try to cover the first meeting between Kou and the ghost of Mitsuba.

So!

They first met during chapter 18. And it was meeting between Kou and ghost of a Mitsuba Sousuke, so it wasn’t our currently Mitsuba - it worth to mention they're not the same person, even if they are extremely similar, share a lot elements of their personalities, they look nearly the same, and current Mitsuba even share some dead Sousuke's memories because of School Mystery No. 4 Shijima Mei and her Picture Perfect arc. Still - not the same person and Mitsuba Kou met in chapter 18 is not the current Mitsuba. 

At the beginning they're not really that much written as a romantic, their short arc was more like something starting Kou’s personal arc and his development. He got some background, some motivation, some angst, he changed. For most part Kou behaved pretty normal, just like himself - a selfless, lively boy that really wanted to help a lonely, sad ghost that Mitsuba was. (he wasn’t traumatized yet). Even if some of their interaction could be readed with a shippy glasses, there wasn’t anything that was inherently romantic about them. 

I think it's kind of ironic how this is literally their first panel in the manga. Mitsuba literally looks like some kind of eldritch horror and he says “Did you forget about me?”. Yeah Kou, did you? This quite sums some elements of their arc. We know that Kou actually did forget about Mitsuba, who was one of his classmates. Also, Kous' trauma, related to everything that happened to Mitsuba, hunts him for the rest of the story. He also, clearly has a problem with recognition of both Mitsubas, with dealing with Ghost Mitsuba death and with the idea of forgetting someone and leaving someone. We also know that, when current!Mitsuba was made by Tsukasa, he didn’t remember Kou. That's why this quote here is very ironic. 

There is nothing really to analyze here but I find it funny. Yeah, you quite literally just haunted the wrong guy and it’s going to be a problem for you and said guy for the next 15 volumes of the manga. Good luck. 

Even after calling Mitsuba an “evil spirit” Kou still tries to help him and even decides to “take the big tough guy approach” to make Mitsuba feel safer about him. Kou is not really “the big tough guy”, even if he tries to pose as one. He is a 14 yo kid with kind of fucked up situation in life, even, if he doesn’t recognize it yet. 

Maybe you could learn something from Kous stupid earning, mr. boy who DIED in the car accident.

It's definitely not an accident that Mitsuba died hit by a car and Kou has a BIG earning with a big caption “TRAFFIC SAFETY”. Even after reading all chapters up to 103 I’m not really sure how I should interpret this exact symbolism in their relationship, but it's definitely done on purpose by the authors. I think it may symbolize that Kou, with a “traffic safety” earning will save Mitsuba, who previously died in a traffic accident from dying another time? Like, now Mitsuba have Kou by his side and maybe Kou will manage to keep him safe. His earning is mentioned by Mitsuba too many times, it's done so we can notice it, for sure. And I wonder how it turns out. 

It’s the first time Mitsuba suggests that Kou either has some kind of feelings toward him, tries to do something dirty towards him or something similar. Every time he just jokes or tries to provoke Kou or something like that. At first I thought it's just how Mitsuba is, some people love to joke like that, but then I noticed, later in the story, that Kou is quite literally the only person Mitsuba ever does this to. Sure he does not have many friends “his age” but still during the manga it would be possible for him to behave like that toward other characters, but he does not. He jokes like that only toward Kou and I think during the next parts of my writing I will point it out more.

Even after 20 minutes of insulting he is still concerned about Mitsuba. That's so funny and sweet. 

Yeeeaaah sure it totally does not relate in any way to the fact that ghost Motsuba got to die after taking a photo of KOU out of everything yeeeeaaaah nada nope. It's crazy how the authors planned this because Hanako really started as some kind of funny manga about kids and ghosts and supernatural things, but the angst we get later is actually top notch and kinda scary. There was few moments I really had to like, stand up and walk in my room because of the emotions I felt after reading.

Look how happy he is with the idea of being a model to the Mitsubas photos. He is bright, smiling and even blushing. The next ironic thing is how he cried after actually seeing a picture of himself made by Mitsuba. Also I like how prominent his earning is here.

Mitsuba is very particular, he really made pictures only of animals, plants and other non-human things. That's probably why his photo of Kou hit me like a train. That's literally narratively confirming that Mitsuba saw Kou as something (someone) he likes, someone that is important to him. Kou also realized it after seeing the picture, that was one of the reasons why he was so devastated.

There are few things about that whole scene I would like to point up. The first are doves. Mitsuba, especially Ghost Mitsuba, is often presented with doves as a form of his symbolism. Doves and cherry blossoms are probably the most prominent symbols of his character. I’m not really that good when it comes to symbols, but I think doves symbolize things like peace, but also some form of innocence/purity and love. Some sources also say about transformation and spirituality. I think one of the reasons for choosing doves is to symbolize how he didn’t deserve to die like that, that his soul is actually good and seeks for peace. In Kou’s eyes he is also someone innocent, definitely. Especially when we are talking about ghost Mitsuba at the beginning of a story. 

ALSO I’m pretty sure birds are foreshadowing to current!Mitsuba being made from the school mystery no. 3 who looked like a bird and who current!Mitsuba gained a lot of his characteristics from. Current!Mitsuba hair looks like feathers, his hand looks like talons etc. He is heavily associated with birds from the beginning. Even if Ghost!Mitsuba is associated with doves more and current!Mitsuba with ravens or crows. 

The next thing about this scene is Kou finally realizing he knew Mitsuba and it hit him. Understanding that Mitsuba actually KNEW Kou and it was Kou who didn’t remember him probably made him feel remorse and generally really bad about himself. That’s not a nice thing if you forget about a boy who was with you in a class, and the fact that ghost Mitsuba actually tried to talk to him and asked him “Did you forget about me”... It's hard for me to even imagine what Kou felt at that moment. 

Also, Mitsuba surely didn’t know about Kou being from an exorcist family, so he wouldn't expect that Kou will take direct action after meeting a ghost lol. If it comes to Mitsuba, I’m pretty sure it was very scary.

I wish we could see more of them like that. Just like two boys having fun with each other. I love angst, trust me. But I think they deserve rest and to just have a chance to play and talk a be… normal for once. Everytime when they get a chance to have fun they’re cute and hilarious together. 

Rain can symbolize sadness and hard emotions soooo yeah, I’m not surprised it started raining. I think it sort of symbolizes feelings of both Kou and Mitsuba here.

They’re going to the third floor and I’m sure it's foreshadowing to Mitsuba becoming a School Mystery no. 3. 

I’m still impressed how much foreshadowing is during their first meeting (chap 18-20). Like the birds, nr 3, traffic safety earning, motif of remembering/forgetting etc. You could also think that photography would be something like that but… it's not. Photography becomes a thing that is helping recognizing human/ghost Mitsuba from current supernatural Mitsuba. They’re similar but not the same person. Photos were one of the main characteristics of the original Mitsuba, both in this arc and during a moment with Mitsubas mother later. It was always about photos, but it's never about photos when it comes to our current Mitsuba.

Yeah, that kind of explains why Kou didn’t remember him immediately, even after seeing how Mitsuba looks and hearing his surname he should know. Because, like, Kou should remember him, they were in the same class, sit close to each other etc. But the mask that Mitsuba created was so strong that made him nearly imperceptible (like, you know, a ghost hah) and at this point tbh I don’t think Mitsuba liked it very much. He is actually a pretty bold and cocky person and all of this probably bugged him. Of course he wasn’t bullied, but was it worth becoming somebody different, somebody boring and bland to others? I think there is some form of regret. But also I don’t think that ALL of this was a mask, because Mitsuba definitely has some of a calmer and more sweet side to himself, he showed it a lot of times.

He tries to fix it up by recognizing him now for who he is. With both his positive and negative aspects, even if he points out mostly his flaws. Still, this is the Mitsuba he met, the Mitsuba he knows and the Mitsuba he IS GOING TO remember. Mitsuba he befriended now. It actually means a lot for Sousuke. He is dead, he may have thought that it's the end for him and for all of his relationships he ever had. Its funny how Mitsuba said he is a ghost because he still wanted to do photos, but the truth is he wanted relationships, but the true ones. Not based on his “fake” nice self, but on real him with all his flaws and that's why he haunted other students rather than just… go do photos or something. He tried to connect to others, because he subconsciously thought relationships and friends he had when he lived weren’t really true and real. It’s ironic how it resembles the current!Mitsuba in Picture Perfect act. 

Kou started to realize who Mitsuba was and how tragic his situation was, he started to empathize. Kou has a martyr complex, so he wanted to help Mitsuba any way he could. It was also shown that he does LIKE Mitsuba even with his twisted personality, Kou said it himself and it surely means a lot for Mitsuba who wasn’t liked before for his true personality. That was probably the moment Mitsuba felt a real bond towards Kou and become attached to him. 

And Kou even blushed a few times.That would still be read as platonic and sweet tho!. I think it was, personally. The most important thing during their first meeting was, of course, how it ended, because, in my opinion, it was a moment when most (not all tho) Kou's mental problems started. There was still his family, of course. Teru loves Kou very much, but still his mentality and behavior was a root for Kou’s low self esteem and some other elements of his personality, tho I think it may be a topic for a whole different post.

In this small arc, in my opinion, the moment that was the beginning of me perceiving them as written as one of the couples, a romantic relationship was this exact moment:

“I don’t know… maybe something important to me?” 

And also a moment when Kous saw this picture for the first time, when he developed photos, and how this cracked him.

Generally, becoming friends with Mitsuba was very important to Kou. Not only because he wanted to help him (and, internally, also making Kou feel better about himself) but also it was probably the first time when… Kou may feel somewhat special? He always was in the shadow of Teru, he wasn’t an “official” exorcist, he wasn't going to missions in the town, he wasn’t very strong (Hanako literally KO’ed him without a sweat and Kou couldn't do much to Hanako), the girl he got a small crush on (Nene) clearly had something with Hanako… Kou was always pushed back and now, with Mitsuba, he made an actually special relationship between the only two of them. He felt NEEDED, and we all know how much Kou desperately needs to feel NEEDED. In his own mind, he was the only one that could help Mitsuba and that understood Mitsuba, that's why Mitsubas ghost death was so hard for him. He finally got something special for himself and he couldn't even protect it and he let lonely, poor ghost tragically vanish. That's some trauma for you.

I’m not going to write much about Mitsubas feelings there because it was Sousuke Mitsubas feelings - and currently I’m going to focus more on a School Mystery Mitsuba. Tho Sousuke definitely perceived Kou and his help as something special to him. That's where their fated bond started. 

“You can help me develop them tomorrow and then… I think I’ll be okay”.

Yet we can’t see his eyes when he speaks, and that suggests he thinks something different that what he speaks. Not showing eyes is a common motif to show that a character is lying or saying something he does not think or hiding something. Here is just like that - it’s not about photos, it's about KOU. It’s because of Kou he is going to be okay, not because of the photos he took today. Something changed for Mitsuba when Kou recognized him for someone he actually is and wanted to become friends with him. For Mitsuba it means a lot because when he was alive he couldn’t get true friends and real relationships with others. 

Yeah walk walk trauma baby. I know I mention  ‘trauma” a lot when it comes to Kou, but the whole manga is like a one big parade of traumas for this boy and it's not even funny. I’m not surprised he is starting to become more and more insane with every next arc. Especially in the Night Out small arc we can clearly see how detached from actual reality Kou starts to be and how he stops recognizing differencs between supernatural and real word, good and evil, selfless and selfish behavior etc. It’s all the result of the traumatic situations he was put in for like 16 volumes straight. And he is bearing it A LOT WORSE than Nene is.

Ouch. 

“You wished for people remembering you but now youre happy with just a one person?” That hits hard but also I’m angry at Tsukasa, like leave that boy alone.Even one person can make a change in someones life, and thats what Mitsuba felt at a moment. For Kou he was someone, he was real, he had a personality, Kou recognized him and that gives him a true sense of identity. For him it was enough

You met like half of a day before and you are calling him your friend and fighting for him with an unknown dangerous supernatural who looks exactly like your other friend. Bruh that's some dedication. Kou is desperate to save Mitsuba, but Kou is generally desperate to be a savior. He tries to “save” Nene a lot of times even if it’s not really necessary, because Nene also has other friends and people who support her and is pretty clever and capable of bearing problems on her own (most of the time). Yet Kou still treats Nene like some damsel in distress that need his protection when it's CLEARLY not like that. Sadly, Kou mostly fails anyway. He fails now with Mitsuba and if it comes to Nene, if she needs saving, the person who (usually) saves her is Hanako. Kou rarely has something he can actually do and it's cracking him up mentally.

Yeah, “I’m supernatural who grants wishes” not “I’m a ghost of a boy who once lived in this town”. Yeah. It was right here from the beginning.

I just hope it’s not a form of foreshadowing.

His last words were “Minamoto-kun”, it's so sad. On this last panel he actually looked a little brighter than on the previous panel of his transformation, and that's because he looked at Kou. 

I need to say, seeing a person you treat important to you and calling a friend dying in a horrible way and hearing their last words being your name must be pretty stressful. It would probably haunt me for a long time and I’m sure Kou is still affected by it.

On the 20 chapter cover Mitsuba is together with the rest of the main squad (Nene, Hanako, Kou). It was pretty weird back then - he literally died and looks like he was going to be a one-arc character that started Kous character development, but this cover was a hint that it's going to be different and Mitsuba, probably, is going to play a whole different role in the story. He, also, had a hand around Kous head and nearly touched his hair gently - its a symbol of intimacy. 

That was a proof how strong, narratively, their relationship is and is going to be during the progression of a story. And, in my opinion, a foreshadowing to Mitsubas feelings. Because I think currently, our Mitsuba is aware of his feelings toward Kou, but I’m going to cover this topic a little bit later. 

On this cover there is a lot more symbolism,especially with Hanako and his role in the story, but it's also a thing for a whole different post. 

What Tsukasa said was that Mitsubas wish was ‘“ want to stay with my friends forever and ever”.

That’s literally what I said earlier. 

It’s a recurring topic with current!Mitsuba and his relationship with Kou.  Mitsuba feels lonely and… Kou also feels lonely. Even if he has a brother, father and friends (Nene and Hanako and other school friends) Kou is incredibly lonely because of his inferiority complex. He desperately needed to be needed, needed to be special to someone, needed to be important to someone, and that person was Mitsuba. Right now, he is the most important person to Mitsuba and that's both good and very bad for Kou. Good because he finally feels like someone important and someones one and only, but bad because of how traumatic his relationship with Mitsuba is to him and how unhealthy it is. And by it I don’t mean  they’re toxic or bad people - they are kids who want to be loved and who want to have their place in the world. But Mitsuba is a monster, he is a supernatural, whos life is stained away by his instinct, who needs to eat other monsters and who does not really… have any actual bright future and Kou is traumatized boy with low self estem, problems with his selfworth, with martyr complex and some sort of suicidal tendencies. They have a lot to work out.

Kou is going to be a supernatural / is going to try to be a supernatural / is going to be forced to be supernatural - hint number one. 

Yes, I will go back to this topic, because I’m literally scared of it so much. It's prominent during the whole story that Kou is foreshadowed to have a plotline related to becoming supernatural in some way. And when this topic is touched it's usually related to his plotline with Mitsuba. I’m kind of scared of HOW it’s going to happen or if it’s going to be only a try or Kou really will become supernatural in some way. But it's too much of a recurring topic of Kous WHOLE character arc to not being important and to not happen. It's even hard to call it foreshadowing, its literal hints everywhere. 

Kou spent with Mitsuba literally… one day, outside of being in the same class for a while (Kou didn’t even remember this time THAT much, time they spend together this day was more important) and yet he CLINGED SO HARD to the idea that Mitsuba is his “friend”. He desperately needed to be wanted, needed, to have a special bond, to being able to help, to save someone. And yet he lost Mitsuba at this moment, he couldn't do shit to save him, he was absolutely… just useless during a fight. It affected him a lot. 

During the scene when Hanako “kills” Mitsuba, there are sakura petals. They’re heavily associate with Mitsuba and are one of his symbols:

This scene, narratively was a scene that said to us he is GONE. For good. It was a “goodbye” for him and Kou, he is dead. That's all. At this point we couldn't know we are going to meet current!Mitsuba, so we could thing that is the end of Mitsuba and the beginning of a Kous arc. And… it was both of these things but in the whole DIFFERENT meaning. Of course it was goodbye to the Sousuke, he is dead, he can’t come back. Of course it was a beginning for Kous development. But… it was also a beginning for our current!Mitsuba, for slowly progressing Kous insanity as an effect of his trauma and the beginning for Mitsuba and Kous actual arc and relationship. We thought it was the end but it was actually the beginning that changed… the whole Kou, to be honest.

I think it's related not only to Mitsuba but to Hanako, too. Imagine what Hanako could feel at that moment. He is a ghost and a supernatural who know how doomed he is and he only protects school and Nene. But Kou said it's bullshit and clearly believes in what he says. Sadly, Hanako is so stubborn.

One of the symbols related to Kou is a lion. Lions may symbolize a lot of things, like strength, courage but also - protection. Just like Kou tries to protect everyone and tries to be strong and courageous for others. I actually think it suits him quite well. Lions also symbolize the sun and it was shown a few times that Kou is like a sun to Mitsuba.

At some point of a story he is definitely going to do some crazy shit I’m telling you. He really tries to believe that he can find a way to change how the world works and it can end up good but.. it can also end up INCREDIBLY BAD. It’s not that good to mess up with life and death and when you cross up a border there is no coming back. With every arc the manga is becoming a little bit more dark and serious with topic it shows and och boy I’m kind of scared for Kou and Mitsuba.

You can literally hear me crying. It was probably the first moment in the manga that actually had any impact on me, I was really like… I had to stand and walk for a bit before reading. Kou sees a photo of himself and remembers Sousuke saying “Who knows? Maybe something important to me?” and starting crying was like. I wanted to cry too. I can’t even imagine what Kou felt at this moment, it was probably absolutely heartbreaking. 

This small arc finished with chapter 20.During the next arc, Kou, already  affected by Mitsubas death, gets to know that Nene also has a shortened lifespan and it's going to die very shortly. That wasn’t too good for his mental state and he literally fixated on a goal in saving her. When Kou learned about Nene’s situation, Hanako even related it to Mitsubas situation, so we can clearly understand these two examples are related to Kou. He doesn’t want this situation to happen again.

“Just like with this boy, there is nothing you can do” - Hanako you little shit

But yeah. Again Kou understands how useless he is. How weak he is, how he can’t save anyone the way he is. How he could do nothing about Mitsubas situation and how he can’t do nothing about Nene’s situation. That's tragic. And it's clear Kou doesn’t know what to do about it. Thats why, when current!Mitsuba appeared, he started to find such a ridiculous (and unhealthy) solutions to Mitsubas (and Kous) problems. He don't know what to do but desperately needs to do… something. Anything. To help, to be important. 

It's sad. He said he dont know what he is gonna do, but HE WILL DO SOMETHING. And yet… we know how it all goes for him. He is a brave kid, who is determined and wants others to be happy and alive. 

He even tried to stop a kiss between Hanako and Nene after reading Nenes book and failed. He always fails.

There is also an special page

It is titled “Love stories” that should be about Mitsuba. And it contains both Mitsuba and Kou. It's just a joke, but I need to point out that Mitsuba generally wasn’t shown to be interested in any girl during the progression of the story or never talked about it in general. He also does not crush on Nene, even when both Hanako and Kou felt something toward her at some point in the story.He also talks about how cute he is A LOT and I’m going to say something about it someday, but not now.

I think it's enough for part 1! I think I covered everything I wanted for their first meeting. Let's see at Mitsubas resurrection in the Hell of Mirrors!

[flatwoods-mothman]

love that you ship sayosuki, but i’m curious. why sayosuki? i just mean that natsuri seems like the more popular ship even though (i think) that sayosuki is better

Thank you for the message!

Oh boy, this is gonna be a long answer. I hope that’s alright

Sayosuki is by far my favorite DDLC ship (surprise!), one of my favorite ships ever and if I ever had a “comfort ship” it would be the one. I’ve had Sayosuki brainrot since I was obsessed with the game in 2018. Of course on the surface level there’s the “cute pink girls are cute together” angle and that they’re my favorite characters and those are certainly components but why  I love it so much runs deeper than that. To me, I think Sayori and Natsuki suffer the most over the course of the game. Not to say the other characters have presidential pardons from the pain train, but the story of the game highlights the innate tragedy present in both of these characters. Sayori believes herself to be undeserving of happiness or care from others while paradoxically craving those things and puts up a carefree mask to distract others from it. Natsuki goes through it during essentially the entirety of Act 2, as she gets neglected by her father, Monika, Yuri, the player character and from a meta perspective: the game at large. (Natsuki in Act 2 in general is so interesting and I may or may not have an Act 2 Sayosuki fic in the works). Ironically while these characters are at their lowest, it’s also when their most admirable traits are presented. Sayori’s self-hatred is contrasted with her genuine care and love for her friends. When Natsuki drops her abrasive mask, she’s actually a very kind and empathetic person (showcased in her cupcake date at the end of Act 1 and in her note about Yuri’s behavior in Act 2). I think these traits compliment each other well and I think they would bring out the best in each other.

I like to imagine a post-game scenario where these two broken girls who acknowledge and love these parts of each other and could support each other and help each other heal after all the shit they’ve gone through. Natsuki would admire the way Sayori makes everyone happy and I think she would try her best to make her happy as well. Sayori would provide a space for Natsuki where she would be accepted for her interests and would love to hear her talk about them. And maybe they could share some cookies along the way.

Not to mention how hyped I was for their sidestory when DDLC Plus was announced and how I was smiling and kicking my feet the whole time when I played it. I loved enthusiastic Sayori was to get closer to Natsuki (and she says she loves her ahhhhhh) and how they communicated at the end was so sweet.

I feel like there’s a lot more reasons why I love it so much but this response is already long enough as it is, I hope that satiated your curiosity anon :)

[thevindicativevordan]

Thoughts on the new announcements on absolute comics

Anonymous asked: Hello! How are you feeling? What do you think of the new creative teams DC announced for October?

Anonymous asked: So ! What are your thoughts on the All In initiative and the new creative teams for the existing books like Action ?

txtmasterblast asked: On a scale of 0 to 10, how much are you looking forward to the upcoming Absolute Universe line?

Thought I'd save this for SDCC since there are still some rumored books that are yet to be confirmed, but I can save my thoughts for when those are officially announced. Short version is that this is extremely exciting.

Dawn of DC was DC playing it safe, and they botched the initiative because of how they spammed low quality events like Knight Terrors. Now they're stepping up to the plate and trying to tap into the energy created by Marvel's Ultimate Universe and the Energon Universe. They're trying to take a big swing and hit a home run. After multiple attempts by Didio to create something like this, it's downright ironic that Snyder finally is the one to do it given the two of them clashed at the end of their tenures. Once again Snyder seems to be trying to infuse the DCU with the essence of Metal, and at least this version appears to revolve less around Batman. I won't lie, hearing Snyder name drop Doomsday Clock and talk about "Darkseid Energy" in the promo video made me cringe.

The success of Hickman's Ultimate Universe and the Energon Universe came because they broke free of the usual shared universe comic nonsense. The Maker is an evil Reed Richards who eliminated all the heroes who couldn't be turned in order to build his perfect world. Energon was a reboot with no prior knowledge required. Simple! If the Absolute Universe requires me to know about the "Metaverse", throw it the trash because it's doomed. If the first issues of these books are not able to be read standalone with zero prior knowledge required, it's going to fail. The All-In one shot should tell us why this universe exists, what the pitch is, but it needs to be free from the kind of esoteric meta commentary which has poisoned DC for the last decade or so. Darkseid meddles with an Earth in order to understand his foes better is an easy concept to grasp. Don't make it any more complicated than that.

Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder & Nick Dragotta - Least exciting of the bunch. Unless Snyder is going to radically change up his writing style, we know how his Bruce sounds. Even without the wealth Batman usually has, I expect this will feel very familiar. Since I've dropped all the other Bat books however, I plan on getting this and two others for my Bat fix. Snyder has teased that Scarecrow and Bane are the two Bat villains he wished he could've done more with during his first run. Scarecrow is my favorite Batman villain and the thugs in the ashcan look like thugs of his to me. I think this Batman will be juicing himself with Venom, explains why he's huge, which is a much better justification for why Bane seeks this Batman out than anything they've come up with elsewhere. That logo sucks but I assume it's because this Batman has to make use with whatever he can scavenge, maybe that is a literal bulletproof plate to guard his chest which he shaped to look like a Bat as best as he could.

Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson & Hayden Sherman - Thompson was a fan of the Azz/Chiang New 52 Wondy up until the reveal about the Amazons being rapists. Between the reuse of the silver/red color combo for this Wondy's armor, and how she doesn't have access to Paradise Island or other Amazons, I'm getting very similar vibes. I was a fan of Azz's run even though I acknowledge he "broke" her in several ways, I'm up for a second stab at a Wondy like that with Thompson. Tattoos show Hecate's symbol from Historia, perhaps this Wondy got her powers from Hecate only? My theory is Hippolyta went with her Bana sisters to war, and was never Queen of Themyscira. When she had Diana then, it was in Man's World. If this is dark urban fantasy Wondy, that would make for a good contrast with King's current political thriller run.

Absolute Superman by Jason Aaron & Rafa Sandoval - Bizarro arc was great, Sandoval is one of the best artists in DC's roster, I'm all in (hehe). No Fortress is a shame but since Bats and Wondy don't have their bases either I accept it. No family and no home is particularly intriguing. Seen a lot of speculation about what that entails, from this Superman being raised in an orphanage like the Action #1 origin, to Kal being sent from Krypton when he was old enough to remember it. If it's the latter then Absolute Kara will likely be dead, since she would overlap too much with this Superman. I love the design, grey suit with Morrison's first All-Star shield that Quietly only drew for one panel is a peak look. Hairstyle reminds me of Corenswet's "Clark" hair only longer, also reminds me of Anakin/Luke Skywalker which might be exactly the intention. His "cape" appears to be made of solar energy, perhaps this Superman has trouble controlling his powers? His solar battery biology might work differently here, with him "leaking". Or perhaps he even has a different powerset entirely? Seems like he can channel power into his arms/fists, if we get heat/ice fists instead of vision/breath, that would be the kind of silliness I love. Don't think this Superman will be paired with Lois, which frankly is a good thing. All the other major Superman projects focus on the Clois romance, for this to stand out I believe Absolute Superman needs to be dating other people. Since he seems to be a drifter, Aaron might eventually have him travel to other planets, where we could get Maxima or someone entirely new.

Other books have leaked and are probably right considering Bleeding Cool accurately called the Trinity, but I'll wait until they get revealed officially - likely at SDCC - before giving my thoughts.

For the mainline universe:

Justice League - Superman is apparently building a new JL that will be going after Darkseid and reshaping the cosmic hierarchy of the DCU. If DC had any brains left in their collective heads they would give this book to PKJ, but he's denied being on JL. Ram V still has a book to announce, maybe it's him? I would've said Waid but without Mora I don't think he'd take the job. Aaron is a possibility albeit not one I'd want. Seen some people say Lemire, and he did write the JL crossover with his Black Hammer verse. Please let it not be Taylor.

Superman - Mora joining the book took me by surprise, that is sure to have generated major fuming from certain corners. Doomsday arc is going to be a joy to look at

Action Comics - Waid and Henry are finally announced. Action going weekly was unexpected however. Only question I have is, does this mean Waid is staying on past that one arc? Not clear but since he will have more issues that the previous three Superstars I would assume so. Bitter as I am over PKJ getting kicked off before he could tell the Aethyr story he was building up to, Waid bringing in Morrison's Phantom King does make me happy.

Detective Comics - Taylor taking over made me breathe a sigh of relief. For now he remains quarantined to the Batbooks and Elseworlds.

Nightwing - Watters and Soy are going to finally give us the epic run Nightwing deserves. Watters deserves to be a "big writer" and with any luck this will be what elevates him to that level.

Batman & Robin - Damnit PKJ, you really going to make me read a mainline Bat book? Fine but you better continue the Olgrun plotline through this somehow. In all seriousness with Zdarsky and Taylor being on the other books I expect this will be the best mainline Batman book on the stands. Every previous time PKJ has written Batman has been enjoyable, and I trust him of all writers to do something different with Batman. Let this be the book that gets the general DC audience to take notice of how good he's been elsewhere.

Titans - Nah.

Green Arrow - Wish Montos luck, he deserves to be one of DC's A-List artists, but not interested in Green Arrow.

Exciting shake-ups are on the way, going to have to start trimming my pull again. Anything that doesn't wow me is getting dropped because I need the cash for all those Absolute books, which appear to be stacked creatively.

[anhed-nia]

I remembered the oddity of two different movies simultaneously appearing about Christine Chubbuck, who notoriously committed suicide during a live news broadcast, and I remember the Rebecca Hall movie quite well--I've seen it more than once and I admire it--but I couldn't quite recall whether I had seen the documentary. I'm not even sure if I can use the word "documentary" to describe the film about Kate Lyn Sheil preparing to play Chubbuck in a movie that is fictional; that is, it only exists within the confines of KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE which, despite real interviews with real people about a real event, is a total contrivance whose goal is to interrogate tabloid journalism and the delusion that we can ever know the "authentic self" of a public figure. I think that's what the filmmakers have said, anyway, although I'm not sure the message is always so skillfully delivered. I mean, I don't get the sense that the casting of Kate Lyn Sheil is supposed to be ironic, even though she seems almost uniquely unqualified for the role, down to the fact that her mousy little voice is barely up to the challenge of a mild argument let alone the professional skill of anchoring a news program. But I think the hardest thing for me about this meta-movie is that it starts to feel like there are only two options in addressing a story like Chubbuck's: you can either reduce her to a string of ignorant, sexist cliches for maximum entertainment value (obviously bad), or you can accept that she is essentially unknowable. And frankly, I think the Rebecca Hall movie proves that there is a middle ground where you can perform thoughtful experiments with empathy.

Like no, of course no sensationalistic news item should be treated like the whole truth about someone, but KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE is overloaded with people spitballing about why Christine killed herself in a way that only serves to remind you that if you are seriously depressed and all your dreams are falling apart in your hands and you cannot trust or respect the world around you...well, then you really might be as alone as you feel, because no matter how loudly you shout what your problem is, the non-depressed majority will never, ever understand you. Worse than that, they might make a whole movie that makes you sound kind of shallow and ungrateful and maladjusted, where they all reassure each other that there is just no way to relate to you. I think it's a big problem that the narrative of depression is so often told by outsiders who ultimately don't really get it, although I don't know what solution to propose other than that people should try harder to listen to each other. Or at least admit that they're operating without much imagination for other people's feelings.

Maybe I'm overstating things because I find what we know (or think we know, yeah yeah) about Christine Chubbuck really easy to understand, and relatable to a not insignificant degree. And KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE just reminded me that if I were to ever reach an extreme conclusion about my life, I could almost be sure that whoever survived me wouldn't have much to say about it except that it was selfish and irrational and any testimony that I left behind is impossible to take seriously. Like the Rebecca Hall movie might not be the TRUTH-truth, but it makes a pretty thoughtful, educated attempt to interpret things, and I don't feel there's anything wrong with that. I keep thinking about this David Sedaris essay that somebody described to me, that I haven't even read so yeah there's another layer of manipulated reportage for you, but it stuck with me: Five of the Sedaris children used to torment the sixth mercilessly, and despite the amount of detail David gives about that, he still manages to act confused about why the bullied sibling turned out all messed up and suicidal, unlike the other kids who made the most of their opportunities in life. David Sedaris may well be an unsympathetic egomaniac, but in my experience it really does happen that someone is not doing well and absolutely all of the evidence is out in the open, and the public and alleged loved ones of that person are happy to talk about their suffering like it is just incomprehensible and possibly even worth shitting on. So yeah, sorry to be a bummer on this beautiful Sunday afternoon but maybe the ultimate reason not to kill yourself is that no one will ever get it no matter what you say or do, and they might even be rude about it after you're gone.

PS I have no idea how much good these things actually do, but I feel like I might as well put one of the many helplines out there at the end here:

[baltears]

idk how else to describe this like i think the kind of traditionalist/hyperliteral read of buffy not catching feelings for spike until late s5/s6 just misses the level of iron grip buffy keeps on her feelings. apropos of nothing other than seeing this read one too many times and im not up on my buffy meta scholarship so forgive me if im making the same points everyone and their mother has been making for the past two decades

keeping tight control over her feelings is not something buffy started doing after a certain point, it's a behavior she has coming into the pilot bc we see that at that point there's already a level of emotional distance between her and joyce (not only re the slayer stuff and the later retconned-in betrayal & invalidation trauma from being thrown in an institution when she tried to tell her parents the truth, but also for instance the intensity of buffy's distress over the divorce). she already has a home life consisting of not voicing most of her difficult and 'close to the chest' emotions. when she tries to be genuine in a way that asks for space for her frustration or anger or more 'selfish' feelings, this is often not met with understanding (worth mentioning that giles does a MUCH better job on this than joyce for the most part, but other characters including willow and xander respond poorly a substantial number of times). as a result she is well practiced at suppressing emotions that are too inconvenient or complicated to feel acceptable to verbalize, so she tends to just kind of whistle past things that feel hard to tackle until she reaches a point where she can no longer bear to ignore them. this is a core part of her canon characterization that is also visible at many points in buffy's relationship with angel (s3 comes to mind, when she spends a good chunk of the season operating under the convenient belief that they're in a functional platonic friendship when she subconsciously knows they are still too hung up on each other for that to be feasible). so like we know this is something buffy does. it is not at all unusual for her to feel things that she keeps beneath her conscious awareness + does not allow herself to process and admit to having felt until well after the fact.

this takes me to the oft cited point that from the first time she interacts with spike, there is a different vibe happening than is typical for buffy and vamps. it just feels very obvious to me that from basically minute one (or maybe more accurately from their first fight, when she isn't so much on the back foot) she registers him on some level as a person who happens to be really interesting and hot, but has a fairly easy time of it keeping this feeling out of her conscious awareness bc 1) he's also an unsouled vamp, meaning she can choose to dismiss his personhood as nonexistent and his personality as mere performance or game-playing (ie he is not a 'real' person, therefore the relationship need not be acknowledged as 'real' either – taken to extremes in s6 when she has to actively abuse him and continually reaffirm his lack of humanity and lack of worth in order to sustain the self-told belief that she doesnt see or experience his personhood and doesnt feel a human connection with him), 2) they're mortal enemies, 3) he likes to be really annoying on purpose + as a vampire also has a baseline level of generally acting like a bit of a creep, and 4) for much of their relationship she has other romantic objects on whom she can more acceptably focus her attention (insert reference to spuffy being a queer coded relationship here).

i think this state of noticing-slash-not-noticing persists from 2.03 through s3&4 and into season 5. by then she is so good at studiously ignoring how weird and flirtatious and intense their dynamic has always been that the revelation that spike is now acting very obviously like hes in love with her, to the extent that someone else could notice, takes her totally by surprise. getting more specific idk how else one could possibly explain how her ass was acting in something blue pre-spell, like i absolutely canNOT see buffy behaving like that around any other vamp literally ever. they were both being so unceasingly annoying with their creepy little flirty back and forth that both giles and willow were completely over it and just wanted them to shut up and stop paying so much attention to each other. ig the point im getting at is i think it's weird and dont get it when ppl seem to read buffy's character as if shes basically just saying the things she feels and vice versa rather than like regularly and even habitually lying to herself, bc i just don't think that's in line with the character that we're shown. buffy SAYS for a very long time that she doesnt care about spike and basically says and does everything possible to deny that she has any attachment to him at all, but frankly i think the level of aggression and frequency with which she expresses variations on that sentiment in and of itself gives the lie to that idea. anyways i think she was down bad pretty much immediately and just took a very long time to let herself notice

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

honestly, the more i think about it the more certain i become that winds of winter and specifically the kings landing plot/vale/gc plot will significantly parallel the dance of the dragons (mainly the end of the dance).

others have already made great metas on this lol

i think cersei’s downfall will resemble alicent’s. im sad but certain that both tommen and myrcella will be killed (maybe paralleling aegon and rhaenys deaths?). i’m kind of hoping the sand snakes will go through character development and not choose revenge… but i kind of doubt it. i’m sure that cersei will definitely break down even further tho. that’ll be interesting and horrifying to read.

tommen will certainly die first, leading to myrcella being crowned. i think it’s likely that tommen is killed by the sand snakes, but i think myrcella will be killed during the fall of kings landing to (f)aegon. i wonder if the sand snakes try protecting her and fail?

i highly doubt that dorne is going to join (f)aegon. i think arianne will see the truth and will be able to successfully maneuver her way back to dorne. (tho i think she’ll have a run in with aurane which would be cool to read). however, (f)aegon will think that arianne is on his side. i’m worried that lady lance wont leave with the dornish party tho…

anyways, after the fall of kings landing cersei will likely be locked up as she won’t be considered a threat. but this won’t be enough to stop the crazy that will be childless cersei.

the high sparrow will certainly support (f)aegon.

i’m 50/50 on whether margaery marries again. i am worried that margaery will get jaehaera’d :/. i think it’s certain that she’ll be held hostage tho. what if she goes the helaena route… yikes… that’s a sad thought.

at this point in time i think the starks will hold winterfell once again and the freys will have be destroyed. the tullys will probably hold the riverlands again.

euron will be causing absolute havoc in the reach.

i think the vale plot in winds will resemble what happens during the dance. harry and robin will both probably die, so i think littlefinger, who’d be in trouble at that point, would try to gain power through sansa. so i think the knights of the vale will make their way to kings landing with sansa with the intent of making her queen.

this is where the tourney at ashford theory comes into play. though jonsas have it completely wrong, as (f)aegon will be the one taking the place of prince valarr. i’m a bit iffy about sansa marrying (f)aegon due to sansa’s marriage to tyrion… but it could be annulled i suppose? but would the high sparrow do that? i think it’s possible.

i wonder what will happen to trystane and the sand snakes tho? i do think that the sand snakes are savvy enough to be able to escape on their own but trystane worries me :(. and he’s gonna be devastated by myrcellas death.

anyways if the plot does move in this direction then i totally expect to read many littlefinger vs varys showdowns.

this will definitely be a false dawn tho. euron will likely be making his way to kings landing and i’m fairly certain that he will sit on the iron throne at some point. bet this is when cersei is able to rise again.

i’ll admit that this prediction for winds has many holes in it. i may be misremembering some stuff as well and i likely haven’t considered all variables either, so take everything i just stated as a vague prediction.

some questions i’m asking myself rn lol: would the tyrell army go down that easily (or maybe varys friends in the reach will help the golden company win the battle?)? will sweet robin really die :(? baelish won’t be able to try and take back the north bc the starks will hold it once again, and going north would mean definitely giving up his hold over sansa… so wouldn’t trying to make sansa the new queen make more sense? since he’d still be able to isolate her and she’d likely need to depend on him? but wouldn’t going to kings landing again be dangerous for him? well if his and varys interests line up then maybe not… but would the knights of the vale follow him? i guess if both harry and robin died then they’d be totally lost too…

[gffa]

Okay I have a maybe dumb question you might have answered before but I've seen a few posts around that rub me the wrong way about how Anakin would be arrested/punished for his murder of the Tuskens and I'm really not sure how that would work? Kicked out of the Order maybe but he was on Tatooine outside of Republic jurisdiction killing a group of people already very much ostracized and othered (as shown in other media like the BoBF where people shot them out train windows or something, I don't remember exactly). So I'm not sure who would press charges or anything like that anyway??

And like I am by no means defending his crimes, like at all, but I just don't see how he would be punished for that through the Republics judiciary system? And the context of the movies and shows don't really imply that he would be arrested or anything either unless I'm missing something (which is so very possible). I always felt its more intended as a horrendously, cruel and vengeful action that serves as a way to convey Anakin’s inevitable decent/turning to the dark side. Not something to be interpreted as a secret, covered up crime he would be punished for. But Idk. So sorry if this is confusing!

Hi! There really is no clear answer to this because you're right, I don't think it would be able to be punished through the Republic's judiciary system, because Tatooine was not part of the Republic. And we don't really know what kind of extradition laws the Republic would have with an organization like the Hutts, how much they would abide by those things. Further, the Jedi kept their dealings in house, because they were the ones who could really judge how much the Force would have been an influence, like that was a huge point of The Wrong Jedi arc, that the Jedi were desperately trying to keep Ahsoka, but the Republic came down hard with an iron fist, because that's what Palpatine was maneuvering them towards. There's no answer here because it begs the question--do the Hutts know and would sue for extradition? Do the Hutts even care in the first place? Do the Hutts even have a case if this is a Tusken matter? I don't think the other Tusken tribes would care to sue for extradition, so they'd just let it go. And how much is Palpatine sticking his fingers into this mess, because he wants to break Anakin? I don't think the Jedi would kick Anakin out, that's not really what they want, they want to keep Jedi in the Order, that's why Palpatine had to twist their arms so hard with Ahsoka, until it was that or break the entire Order and Ahsoka would have been accused of not getting a fair trial if they'd forced the issue. In supplementary material, their reactions to someone falling to the dark/doing something terrible is that they want to bring them back to the light, they don't want to punish them, they want to help them. The only time they'd expel someone is if they were putting people's lives at risk because of the choices they made and it wasn't a situation where they could reasonably intervene, just dangerous choices being made. Like Prosset Dibs tries to kill Mace and he just says it's our duty to help him back to the light and, in the meantime, he's on library duty. And, ultimately, all of that isn't really important because it's not the story being told, it's an act of cruelty that had Anakin losing control of himself, giving in to the rage (which makes it easier to give in again next time) and doubling down on how he refuses to accept that sometimes people die and we can't always stop it, no matter how hard we try. It's a super interesting avenue to explore in fic and meta and I've seen it done in really cool ways a few times, but there's no hard answer in canon as to what would have happened, because that wasn't the purpose of including the scene. Usually, that avenue being explored is about character exploration, because the political framework is too vague to really have a concise answer.

[karouvas]

hello since I feel like u have some good takes on trc lore/can be a bit crazy w it

thoughts on my personal headcanon that Declan killed Niall?

I don’t think HE did it but organised it. Obviously Declan was a part of Nialls criminal world and probably knew more than Niall thought he did for a teenager, but my thought is that he knew Niall already had a hit out of him from the grey man and made it so that Niall didn’t think the grey man was going to kill him when he drove up to the Barns. Personally, I just feel like it’s unlikely that Niall would’ve let the grey man kill him that easily (I.e, tire iron and not a gun). Declan already knew about Niall potentially wanting to use Ronan for the greywaren etc and as we saw in TD3 he has been secretly very protective and loving over ronan plus very much hated his dad/niall def traumatised him and thus leading to him wanting to kill him to stop more harm coming to Ronan. I feel like if I read td3 more than once I could maybe back up some with Declan’s thoughts on his dad but overall I feel like his immense hatred and then regret signals that maybe he had something to do with his death, plus his need to take care of ronan and Matthew afterwards.

idk maybe this isn’t backed up very well with the trc/td3 lore but just thought it was an interesting thought

Oh I definitely think that’s an interesting idea and could see some canon basis. I feel like I would believe Declan on some level had suspicions about the plot to kill his dad and kind of .. did not take the steps he could have to make sure it didn’t happen, and then blocked that pre knowledge out, more than I would necessarily believe he organized the whole thing. Either way I do think the fact the Lynch brothers memories were canonically altered leaves room for playing around with what actually happened there, the unreliability of Niall’s story and their memories from a time when they were traumatized combined with literal magic at play. You could take that in a lot of directions creatively for sure and poke holes in how much we actually know about the backstory. I also read an interesting post meta-ing on the possibility of Declan being sexually abused by Niall, and while it’s not a headcanon / reading I like feel so strongly about I want to adopt as my canon, I could definitely see where that was coming from, and it would fit in with this picture as a motive. Regardless of that parentification to make up for the guilt definitely tracks.  

Also though disclaimer that I like Declan and find him interesting but he isn’t a character I have deep emotional attachment to or am creatively enamored by like some other chars in this verse / I’m not a diehard stan, so this might come from a more removed perspective than you were looking for as opposed to brain rot. But yeah I think there are absolutely interesting ideas to dig into there.

[agirlprince]

Spinning Roses: The Cycle of Abuse in Revolutionary Girl Utena

This may not be the most comprehensive meta but my best friend and I were talking about the show and it got me thinking about cyclic abuse, abusive patterns, and how this applies to Akio and Anthy primarily. General RGU trigger warnings and major spoilers lay beneath the cut so be cautious! 

The first question: What's interesting is later (I think the beginning of s2) Anthy makes a throwaway line on how akio has become like her father.... AND IT'S NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN  Really made me think if he was good as a prince.... He's really more like a "king" now right? As the head of the school??

Akio as a King: Akio is a king now and maybe he stopped being able to be a prince when he became an adult because a prince is a boy (not looking at how nobility really works but looking at it from a fairytale perspective) which is extra interesting because when he met Utena and gave her the ring he was not yet a man and in the eternal flashback he kept being shown as different ages...of boyhood. Not as he is now.

Akio’s position as chairman solidified him as king - ruling with an iron fist but he's chasing the memory of prince hood (of boyhood) and forcing these boys into a "princely" role with the duels and then destroying them and they all lose their chance at princehood when he shows them adulthood (the trauma sex car) they're truly out of the game at that point. He shows them adulthood and the all have a final duel and lose.

(Side Note): It's also interesting that Juri is a duelist as a girl of her own merit but she's a lesbian and thus can occupy a prince role. Nanami is only a duelist as an extension of her brother until the end when she ditches the second sword and fights on her own merit. But I digress because this could be its whole own separate post.

Second Question: But then what does it mean for Anthy  what was happening what'd he do??? Was it worse than first thought?? Was she inherited??  Why'd they have her in that little dress

Anthy and Dios - The Trouble With Princehood: So what does Akio’s eventual King status and Anthy’s role as the Rose Bride mean for the children they used to be? Let’s look at some relevant threads from the anime:

Anthy as a "witch" - she wanted her brother to herself, right? She wanted him to be her prince.

Anthy became a "witch" as a child after she "locked her brother up for herself"

Remember the shadow girls play when the dad says "come keep my daughter company she's lonely and it's Christmas Eve" there's only one kind of company he would be keeping a girl in the middle of the night which is fucked up on its own because he WAS still a child

Akio says to Anthy at one point, "Why must you continue to torture me?” which is very telling in terms of where he lays blame and is a potential hint as to why he labels her (unfairly) as a witch

If you're not a princess you're a witch and princesses are pure, right? And princesses only ever go to bed with their prince (and typically this would be when she's a queen)

In RGU our characters are reflections of either Anthy, Utena, or Akio

If we take the swords as a metaphor for eternal suffering and pain and sacrificing your own innocence and purity not literally swords…

Then the theory is that Dios was also probably being sexually abused (parallels to Touga and Touga is Akio in our cycle format) and Anthy having always been observant probably witnessed this and came to the thought process that if she wanted to be her brother's princess she would need to sleep with him. She sacrificed her innocence and her purity to "make her brother love her" and take her away from all other princesses to save HIM from the abuse, right?

He was probably selling himself to support them and to protect Anthy from the abuse the same way Touga did for Nanami) and Anthy interfered with that to protect HIM but that made her a witch (a succubus, a siren, a Lolita).

Alternatively Anthy sacrificed herself to the mob for her brother...instead of having sex with him she may have sacrificed herself to the CLIENTS of the prince because he was too sick/hurt to do so. Which....a thousand swords, right? I'm not saying a literal 1,000 but I am saying that sacrifice was probably the most traumatic thing anyone has ever been through. She's scared of crowds. Their faces blend together. This really doesn’t imply anything good.

Not to say that's ALL Dios did. I'm sure he did work for whomever. Build things, run errands, do chores for a little bit of pay etc. I'm sure he was chivalrous and valiant and made young girls feel special and maybe saved a couple from a bad fall or saved someone's life (he was protecting his sister, young girls probably reminded him of Anthy) and got a princely reputation...but what do adult men do to princes that they're resentful of because they lost that in their adulthood? The same thing Akio does to Touga, and Saionji and countless others. And it's implied he is used to selling his body (the chairman's wife) to get what he wants. Touga is again a parallel here.

Regardless, Dios agonized over it and hated her for it and abused her because of it but she's trapped, right? Because now she's a witch. And because now she’s ruined and nobody will ever love her. And she "did this to herself" even though she was a small girl and didn't understand adult behaviors or what she was doing but she's smart enough to know that she made this decision (and takes the blame for it even when it was not her fault) and that she has no choice now but to live with it.

She "ruined the prince" she "tempted him to do something taboo and unprincely" etc OR she ruined herself and his image of her and now must be punished for it because he feels so incredibly guilty and she’s his outlet for that. He blames her because he can’t live with himself if he sees it as his fault.

(Side Note): With regards to the dress, I think it was was symbolic of her "selling herself" to Dios and others; it's VERY likely that after they had sex and/or the mob situation he started selling her off to adults as well. It was clear they were poor. And she's "ruined" now. The dress is red for a reason.

This is what makes Anthy the Rose Bride. The spoils to the winner. A possession, an object, a “heartless doll”. She accepts her place because she is trapped by her sacrifice and her pain and her prince is dead and now there is nobody to save her. Kings rule, they don’t save.

She is disillusioned and jaded and I’m constant agony but that’s not to say that she doesn’t understand the game now, because she does. And she tries to save people from it. I stand by that the tricks on Nanami (while hilarious and often deserved) they were meant to teach her a valuable lesson and to guide her away from the path that Anthy took that she is blindly following. And it works.

This is why Nanami says "I'm not like you!" to Anthy. Because Nanami said no. She said she didn't want her brother that way. That was never what she wanted. At most she had a child-like crush on him based on admiration and adoration that would have faded over time if he treated her nicely and normally and she continued socializing with her peers because it is NOT abnormal for little girls to idolize their fathers or brothers and little girls to declare they will marry their brothers/fathers one day because all they know is that marriage = love. They don't have a proper understanding of romantic or sexual love as children, and they shouldn’t. It is an adult’s job to appropriately guide a child’s love and affection not abuse it.

Something Eternal: Dios showed Utena something eternal...right? Anthy's eternal suffering. He showed her being repeatedly stabbed with swords...which throughout the history of literature has almost ALWAYS represented penetration. She probably witnessed Anthy being raped, actually, and Dios showed her this "an innocent girl, a princess" to show her what happens to little girls who are witches.

Except that Utena just saw a little girl being hurt and vowed to become a prince that would save her and she DOES she becomes a prince who is willing to save a "witch" and loves her regardless of what she's had to do to survive, which is all Anthy needed. Someone to believe she was worth loving. Someone to validate her personhood and her agency. All girls are like the Rose Bride - but none of us want to be.

Abuse is a cycle; most abusers were abused children themselves. Dios is the abused child. Akio is the abusive adult. Dios is the prince. Akio is the King. The morning star. Lucifer. The fallen Angel. He has tasted the fruit of knowledge (adulthood) and he has forced the fruit on others. The roses keep spinning.

[kitschke]

ok so we know that twitter seems to be where the "ignore previous instructions" response to chatgpt bots originated, where it actually worked because the bots take in tweets as prompts.

and we know people have tried to do that here on tumblr with little success bc...maybe political bots aren't as prevalent? i guess technically you Could make a bot that takes in a tumblr post as a prompt, but in all honesty i haven't really seen evidence of political bots on here or at least not popular ones. not entirely sure but it's kind of a joke when ppl say "ignore previous instructions" here because it's just not really a thing as much. and there's been this meta/ironic version now where people purposefully sound like chatgpt to make some kind of joke at the expense of whoever said "ignore previous instructions" in earnest.

but now im seeing these (right wing) political accounts on instagram, full of reels where the caption is...on it's face, ai-generated. like, it might have one sentence related to the given political stance but most are straight up irrelevant paragraphs of rice krispie recipes, car specs, etc. no one in the comments seems to be acknowledging them at all.

so my question is: are these actual chatgpt accounts suffering from prompt injection? or people ironically pretending to be a bot for the bit? if it's the former, how the hell would an instagram bot even suffer prompt injection, in the caption no less?

and if it's the latter, if ironic chatgpt talk has entered the conservative sphere as some way to bait liberals to call them out as bots or something (?), then i guess the joke is dead.

[theyellowgreninja]

oh no im theoryposting now

Just saw a post (by @dotdotdotdotsometingidk) involving this panel from skypeia:

Luffy is clearly the Sun God (Nika), as per the fruit and whatnot. So who are the representations (champions? reincarnations?) of the other three mentioned here? [im gonna word vomit my thoughts here]

My first thought is, from a meta/narrative perspective, it would make sense that the other gods are the other emperors, but I'm really struggling to find which yonko is which god (Buggy, for example, who we know a lot about at this point, isn't really any of these). If I had to pick, I would say Shanks is the rain (the only one who can swim), Blackbeard is the Earth (............idk it feels better than forest), which leaves Forest for Buggy.

Ooh, but Ryukugyu (? spelling -- Green Bull) is literally a forest. And Magma is pretty earthen, as far as known devil fruits go. And (and this one is a stretch, but) Rain is the result of gravity, which covers Fujitora. ... oh wait Kizaru would be the Sun god then, to fill out the admirals. Are there 2 sets of representations?

Maybe the 4 gods are all Straw Hats? Jinbe could be rain, feasibly (what with the water and all), and Usopp could be forest (plants), which leaves... idk Zoro to be Earth? Zoro/Jinbe/Sanji kinda have a Land/Sea/Air thing going on, sorta...? But Usopp is so out of place next to Zoro and Jinbe lmao. crackpot theory: those 4 get conquerors haki

Is Law rain? I'm thinking of that one line at the start of Wano Act 3 where Law says he's "unmatched in the rain" or something to that effect... In which case, Kidd is Earth (earth is a big magnet ig???), and another Supernova is Forest? Hawkins???

Or Dragon is the God of the Rain? And these 4 gods all have particular mythic-zoan devil fruits? (I say Dragon is Rain because he caused a thunderstorm in Loguetown to save Luffy. Did he do that because he learned the truth of the Gum-Gum Fruit?) In that case, where are the other two Mythic-Zoans? Does Ryukugyu have the Forest one? Or is there a different fruit that would give you plant powers? And what would Earth be? Whitebeard's fruit? Caribou's fruit? Or one we haven't seen yet (a rock-rock fruit maybe?)

This being the grouping of four is kind of strange. It makes me think of the air/fire/water/earth elemental structure, but it's all kinda jumbled and obfuscated. Like, Rain would equal Water, but ironically I think Forest equals Earth and Earth equals Fire (and then Sun equals Air). Or maybe Forest equals Air [Photosynthesis makes O2?] and Sun equals Fire (and then Earth equals Earth and Rain equals Water). Or Rain equals Air [falls from sky] and Forest equals Water [plants need water??] (Sun = Fire, Earth = Earth)? No matter how I try to align it, there's always one of two out of place. Very frustrating (and fun).

or maybe the other gods arent real. and this is just some worldbuilding. but theoryposting is fun lmao and the sun god did already come back up in a big way.

[cyvonix]

Cyv Reads Homestuck - Act 6 Act 5 Wrapup

Guys, I feel lied to.

I somehow gathered the gist that what I just read through was supposed to be one of the worst parts of this comic. Maybe Homestuck fans are just really harsh or dramatic or something, because I got the impression I was in for some truly heinous shit.

And instead, I get an act full of interesting meta commentary, constant utilization of the medium to do cool shit with the format, genuinely super well done, emotionally driven character writing, and a pretty consistent forward momentum of an ever-escalating narrative. What the fuck??? Did I drastically miscalculate the consensus on this act, or am I in the minority here? Either way, everything I said completely stands.

The alpha kids are fucking awesome imo. I don't care what anyone says about the melodrama being boring teen bullshit or whatever, they have unique and insane stories that I think deserve to be explored in this level of emotional vulnerability and it was satisfying to finally see some catharsis happen. People seem to dislike the trickster mode stuff, and ironically, I think the kinda person I'm talking about is one of the things that segment is poking fun at. The trickster arc, while also being really fucking funny and absurd and bizarre and fun tbh, somehow also does something kind of profound in that it shines a light directly at the characters flaws and internal struggles: Jane's inability to come to terms with her romantic feelings, Roxy's delicate sobriety on the verge of a relapse, Jake's oblivious, self-centered behavior, and Dirk's propensity towards self-critical introspection to the point of self-sabotage and even self-loathing. A mirror is held up to all the kids, who up to this point were using the framework of the game to hide and delay these issues in any way they could, and afterwards are essentially forced to face them head on and finally own up to some of the things they'd been desperately pushing down. So yeah I unironically love trickster arc fuck yall lol. I have some other detailed thoughts on the alpha kids if you wanna see, in this post.

The meta storytelling also remains just as important as it was in the previous act, but now extends past Caliborn and into the rest of the cast as well. With the way things are going - Caliborn's slow rise to power as he gathers the Felt members and learns how to use different powers, and the gang's discovery of the strange Sburb artifact that seems to have far-reaching implications concerning the fabric of the story itself - it's beginning to become clear that what the characters may be fighting for is the real-world, metatextual right to continue existing and decide how that happens. Almost as if the party who wins will decide the fate of the webcomic itself.

Even within the purely textual story below and meta elements, things are becoming really grand in an awesome way. We've finally reached the point where characters from different sessions are intermingling and aiding in each others' journeys to the fullest degree, and with the meteor and ship finally reaching the new session, I only expect this to ramp up as we enter the final stretch. I talked a lot about the emotional storytelling of the alpha kids, but the same remains true for all the others as well. I find Rose especially compelling at this point, seeing the way Roxy is finally beginning to cope with her alcoholism, and the way her Rose, obviously predisposed to the same issues, is only just beginning her journey with substance abuse. It's heartbreaking to see it get worse and worse as she clearly puts more of a strain on her and Kanaya's relationship, when just a few acts ago it was one of the cutest and most pure displays of romantic interest, but it tracks with Rose's character and feels like a step that has to happen for her. And in the department of the villainous forces at large, the Mekara's remain a giant fucking question mark that is equally amusing as it is terrifying, and the various agents at work are coalescing to ensure a devastating challenge for our heroes. Can't wait to see how any of this will be dealt with as it certainly seems the high point in intensity is upon us, or at least approaching very quickly.

If I did have to complain about anything, I guess I would say that most of the alpha trolls and even most of the beta trolls barely make an appearance or mean anything. Some get very fun, if small, roles, and the fusion sprites were definitely a fun thing to see, but... man it really feels like we did not need as many characters as we have right now when most of them could have basically had their role merged into a single, other character. I'm not surprised seeing as I found the majority of the alpha trolls to be fairly uninteresting, one-trick joke characters and the story has trouble getting 12 trolls into meaningful positions, let alone 24, but I'm still not sure what the purpose was in even introducing us to so many characters when most will essentially be background characters anyway. Maybe I'll be proven super wrong and they'll be like, the most developed and awesome and complex and important characters ever!!!! (but I really doubt it.)

Anyway though, I'm still just having such a blast with homestuck and I'm really happy to be able to say that. We're genuinely in the home stretch now - Act 6 Act 6 with about 2,000 pages remaining. I may just wait until the very end to do another wrapup post and review my time with the work as a whole, that way I can read through with less interruption between the sub-acts, but obviously I'll still be making posts often as I read live, so still look for those :)

[green-thunder1]

More MK was not banished during the dark matter trilogy propaganda (and ways to make the idea that he was more believable) because I have decided to interpret the crap out of these characters and the franchises whole map like I'm possessed by a very livid DS light novel protagonist.

Remember the battleship? Remember the Meta-Knights? The group of guys who named their group after the guy? The group who were each individually named by Meta Knight himself (in the light novels)? The ones who defied orders, not in spite of their loyalty to their leader, but because of it? Even if he told them not to try again, they would've over and over.

Would they not have been exiled if he was? And, more of a personal bias I just have the distinct feeling none would be willing to return. Captain Vul, however, is an enigma among the crew, and of the 2 not named after weapons, is harder for me to understand. That is a mathematical error not even anime Dedede is dumb enough to make, so have you figured a workaround for this? Something like MK refusing to allow them to get further involved in this and being absolutely firm and unwavering on it will resolve this and the previously problem entirely.

Speaking of, now we need to go to Meta Knightmare theory and Dedede's consistent "jerk with a heart of gold" characterization. They go hand in hand in this.

The choice to make Dedede, a character whos been depicted outside of the anime (where he's a parody of Japanese politicians) as a bit of a tsundere, as a complete ass at the beginning clearly means you missed a major part of him as a character. He was still kind despite his stupid decisions. And Meta Knightmare theory says he was willing to exile someone prone to, and even traumatized by nightmares from the one place (that he knows of) where he wouldn't have to deal with that problem. He would not do that. Also the theorists write him flipping on a dime and that's definitely a more Meta Knight trait (again, light novels). If you think I'm about to say "he isn't dumb enough to exile someone for treason when they could just commit treason elsewhere," you're wrong. I absolutely believe Dedede is dumb enough for that at least.

Now Meta Knight himself is a bit complex to understand, even for me, so we'll skip to the part where I explain the map. First, we need to know that maps labeled Popstar and maps labeled Dreamland are intentionally distinct throughout the series. You know what DL3's map says? Popstar! It ain't Dreamland!

Ironically enough, it's the subgame that created this theory that directly contradicts it. It'd be so much more believable if it was just Kirby's Adventure before Amazing Mirror.

At least nobody has grossly misinterpreted Squeak Squad, the blatant Meta Knight helps King Dedede game, yet. At least it can't get any dumber in that regard. Of course, it might even happen by the time this post goes up, which would be hilarious.

Maybe someday someone will figure out a way to make it actually work and fully characterize all the scenes we'd need for it. That'd be neat, I'd really like this theory to work someday.

[spacemonkeysalsa]

Idk trying to be measured or something?

Debates on bg3fandomcritical got me thinking about wanting to write more meta on queerness, also I have an opinion, it seems.

Ages ago I made a short silly post that was the beginning of a word document that I've not added much to since about reading BG3 as a queer text.

The post was about how I have been playing too much BG3 to write about BG3, but that I really wanted there to be more meta on it. I wanted this so that I could selfishly read it, without having to do any of the writing myself.

Specifically, I wanted more about queer themes in the story, and the way characters express queerness. And I wrote that after the very first time I saw someone else complaining about BG3 not being queer enough. How it just hadn't done enough or gone far enough and actually wasn't even gay at all, now that they thought about it.

I was confused, but not as confused as they were because it turns out they hadn't played the game, and didn't really know anything about it besides what they'd seen in some memes. They thought the extent of the queerness in the game came down to being able to customize your character, and romance whoever you want.

And I don't want to dismiss that, because I actually do think that's worth exploring as a queer element itself, and not just because of the medium; the plot of the game is all about struggling against an autonomous collective that just assigned you this procreative role against your will. So, with that in mind, I actually do think having some say in your gender, gender expression, and sexuality isn't thematically insignificant, in that doing anything else would be contradictory (and super ironically serve as a counterpoint) to the overall message and theme of the game.

Ultimately, the story presents a kind of library of babel (tldr on the library of babel is that it's a library where every book possible exists, somewhere, and most of them are unreadable nonsense you can literally waste your whole life going through the shelves trying to find a book that makes sense but you probably won't because the statics are against you, so you just get to go mad knowing that all your favorite books and a perfect autobiography of you exist here somewhere, along with a perfect autobiography of you in which you are replaced with a bag of marbles etc.), albeit very scaled down which I hate saying because the whole point of the library of babel is that it's both infinite and finite (its an analogy for the universe and the pointless search for meaning within, maybe I should have included that with the tldr) scaling it down messes that up, but it is by necessity because we can't conceive of infinity and we certainly can't program it, though the modders are sure gonna try it.

We can imagine hundreds, thousands of new scenarios every day, and that can keep going until we're dead. And so far, that's kind of been my relationship with the game. I'm constantly starting new playthroughs with new characters with new backstories and taking everything I've learned to create a slightly different scenario, and the game really plays into that by accommodating my imagination to a pretty broad extent. But, like, I could easily slip into a tangent never to return, so I'm just going to shift back over to what I'm really trying to say before I get lost: Being vague about character sexuality for each of the romanceable companions, is actually really important and purposeful writing in this context. Most of what we do get from them is very vague, blink and you miss it moments, flirting with another NPC, or casually referring to a past partner with certain pronouns, or euphemisms. If they were too firm about their preferences, that would influences the "most likely scenario" in this library of babel context. At a minimum making each of the characters open to any scenario with any partner (under the right conditions) is something that they would have had to consider and I think they narrowed the possibilities as much as they ever should have. Death, choice and moral alignment acts as a hard litmus test, and a point of no return threshold for certain characters, but apart from that, you're free to romance who you want, and you're free to headcanon whatever sexuality you want onto whoever you want, and you're free to change your mind next playthrough.

There are some characters who are explicitly pansexual. Halsin is the very best example of this, because he's very direct, talking to the player character about past romantic and sexual relationships. But past romantic and sexual relationships aren't definitive, so even then, his explicit pansexuality is also negotiable, because everything is written to be negotiable. For my own part, I think having a headcanon sexuality for certain characters that you prefer (or even that you can't mentally/emotionally separate from them) besides pansexual is totally fine. I'm bisexual, and that could easily influence how I feel about it personally, which is that I can imagine any of these characters with partners of any gender. It does not feel weird to me in any context to imagine any one blurbo getting hot for anyone else. But if you've got a headcanon sexuality for them that's different, more exclusive, then cool.

At this point I've romanced every character in the game, most of them a few times, and each time I'm in character creator planning the run and thinking about who I'm going to romance this time, I have to take a minute to consider whether I'm playing M/F/N this time around, and every possibility is always on the table for whoever I'm romancing.

But, I wouldn't call this playersexual, because I think we should have retired that term before it had the chance to come into popular use again. I've complained about this before, but as I remember it, this was the word that Bioware invented to make excuses about why certain characters (the one that was really egregious was Jack, a canonically pansexual woman) just weren't available to romance unless you played as the opposite sex.

And don't cite the deep magic to me. I remember. I grew up in a house that always had fox news going, it's one of the reasons I'm so angry all the time now, and I don't care about Bioware's shareholders. I do think it was cowardice you aren't going to convince me otherwise.

The counterpoint is that the utility of "playersexual" is as a writing criticism. The idea is that characters in a video game should feel like real people, and that being able to (functionally/effectively) project something onto them (like sexuality) isn't something you can do with a real person, so it shouldn't be something you can do with a well written character.

First of all, I don't think that well written characters necessarily need to feel like real people. Orin doesn't feel like a real person and I love it, I love the way she's written, I think its great. And to feel like a real person, a character doesn't need to be like a real person. No one is like Karlach, at least on a physical level, but she feels very real because clever analogues.

But, I don't really want to go all the way back to the assumptions that a lot of these opinions rest on, and how they don't hold up. Let's skip to the part where a lot of people think these characters should have a fixed canon sexuality that's evident and unchangeable in their gameplay and mechanics, if not in the actual writing around them. Meaning you can only romance certain characters if you chose a gender they canonically prefer in character creator, all the way at the beginning of the game, or that to romance certain characters as another gender, you have to get a cute little Abigail "realizing something about myself" inclusion.

And that's one way to go about it, but I don't think its automatically worse writing to simply not do that. I don't think purposefully allowing for any scenario in this context is bad writing, I think it's playing into the above themes. I think if you want to only ever romance a character as one gender or another, because of how you perceive them, you should do that. I romanced Minthara as a man the first time around, and didn't think it felt weird at all, but now that I've romanced her as a woman, I'm probably just going to stick with that going forward because I liked it more. That happens. Having headcanon that a certain character is a certain sexuality or has specific preferences, isn't wrong, and isn't contrary to how the game was written and programmed.

But for sobbing out loud can we please just use the term pansexual instead of playersexual? It's accurate and gets the point across and doesn't have all that baggage attached to it.

[myfancastings-blog]

A lot of these episodes are playing it safe and to me it seems kind of boring. The “What If” concept should be experimental. They should take chances that they can never do with the movies. And since it’s animated they could go bigger.

They should have it episode where Thanos won after endgame. A new universe were the heroes who try to stop them don’t exist. But somehow other marvel characters would take up the mantles of those heroes in this universe. Like Luke Cage becoming the Captain America. Peter parker becomes the punisher after uncle Ben and aunt May are killed by gang violence. Killmonger gets abducted instead of Peter Quill and grows up to become the leader of his own planet that he calls Wakanda.

For that “die hard” inspired Christmas episode. It would’ve been interesting if Justin Hammer hired different mercenary’s to be part of his goons. Like taskmaster, Killmonger and the ghost. That way like the original “Die hard” We see a unlikely hero like happy hogan defeat enemies that are powerful than him. Just like how John McLean was a ordinary New York police officer and not a muscle up action hero like Schwarzenegger.

They can even go deeper to adapt comic book storylines. Since they have the right to the X-Men property. They can adopt the age of apocalypse story. Or any of the countless interesting stories from the comics. And based on the fact that they introduced a brand new character. They can incorporate many other marvel characters from the comics that has never been introduced in the movies yet.

Also don’t see you needs to tone down with the quippy dialogue for every project. The thing that the comic book share universe used to do was that every book had their own tone. daredevil was serious. The punisher was dark and spider-Man had light moments, until A life lesson Peter had to learn came up. There were different types of X-Men books that varied in how they were written. Basically there was some thing for everyone because everything was different but still were connected.

The problem with the MCU, because of the first avengers movie is that everyone has to be funny. And that ruins the audience’s suspension of disbelief. A lot of these writers who do this think they’re being smart and Meta, but really it’s stupid and lazy story dialogue writing.

Also I’m not a fan of the cel shaded animation. To me it feels too uniform. It would be interesting for a anthology show called “What If” to have different animation styles for each episode.

For example a anime style episode that features Shang Chi. Or a CGI animated episode with Iron Man. Or maybe go more experimental with a claymation Christmas episode.

This can also help give work to different animation companies, Who are desperate for work.

Like I said the “What If” concept should be experimental an interesting. But these guys are playing it safe by doing bland within the box story writing.