#memetic coping

[lanceketchum]

What I want my friends to say if I have a meltdown in public 😅

[sleepyorchidmonster]

If Amphoreus is a doomed world that's fated to repeat its downfall over and over, and Remembrance Trailblazer has a quill, does that mean we're writing a fix-it fanfic for Amphoreus?

Traiblazer is the writer (GalacticBaseballer_Racoon02), Dan Heng is the beta reader (he has nothing better to do and also wants to encourage Traiblazer's writing), Mem is the mascot/ Ao3 pfp alongside Clockie.

The Hertha is that one genius friend you ask when you need to make sure something could actually work in real life (Dan Heng can help, but sometimes they need to call Hertha to understand how paradoxes and Samsaras work, the whole thing with Coreflames or whether the Trashcans are a memetic virus or not).

Everything that's happening in Amphoreus is just the Ao3 writer curse, like, can you imagine the notes and tags for this fic?

My very bad, NO GOOD, Time in Amphoreus

by GalacticBaseballer_Raccon02

No Archive Warnings Apply, Traiblazer (HSR), Mem (HSR), Dan Heng (HSR), Phainon (HSR), Mydei (HSR), Aglaea (HSR), Tribbie (HSR), Anaxa (HSR), Hyacine (HSR), Cipher (HSR), No beta we die like the Watchmaker, wait dan heng found this fic LETS GOO, yes beta we die like my will to live, pain, swearing, slow burn, friends to lovers, acheron we need you, third wheeling a gay couple that doesn't know they are a couple, anaxagoras? I only know anaxa, trianne is NOT DEAD, I can't translate this to Kremnoan cause their dictionay is nonexistent, shot out to genius society for explaining things to me, actually I'm dead sooo, yes beta we die like me, author wrote this instead of sleeping,

And the notes are all like: "Sorry for the delay, I was fighting Nikador and the Wi-Fi in Kremnos is awful so I couldn't post this chapter in time", "Sooo I'm technically dead (I'll be fine don't worry). Dan Heng will be posting the next chapter soon", " So everyone in the Grove died and both Anaxa and Cerces are reviewing this fic as a way to cope (they found SO MANY TYPOS)", "THE CHIMERAS STOLE MY PHONE AND ORPHANED THE FIC (thank you Silver Wolf for helping me get it back)".

[justabrick]

[I was wondering why Sundowner is your favorite character but here's mine] I just really enjoy how much Sundowner enjoys and loves life -- he's always smiling, and he makes decisions based on him simply wanting to do something or finding something amusing. He's simple like that but also unapologetically genuine, "an honest warmonger" as he puts it. He's fought in almost every war, not because he was forced to, but because he wanted to. It almost makes me think what if he didn't find his passion in war, but found it in something else instead -- maybe science, or music? He could have been a hell of a scientist, teacher or artist if he wanted to -- and the man himself is canonically pretty smart and strategic.

In his boss fight he would even say "if you wanna win, you gotta want it", and he just seems to be having fun in every moment of it. Also, my favorite headcanon is that he is singing his own song while fighting Raiden, since "Red Sun" is basically a love letter from him to the battlefield, and about his passion for life.

Also two other things that I find rather interesting: firstly, he's really old, and you would not expect an old man to be fighting on the battlefield but here he is. Also, he has an extremely unconventional weapon, and somehow I feel like he designed the scissors form of his bloodlust blades simply because he thought they would be enjoyable to use on his enemies on the battlefield. Though many MGR characters use HF blades he seems to be the only one who would heat them up red-hot before attacking his enemies.

I got two answers for this question, one is intelligent, the other - not so much. The long winded answer first though, I'll attach the second one in a reblog.

I like latching onto villainous characters to nose around in their messed up brains and try to come up with an explanation for why they do the things they do and how they ended up like that. I also tend to like the underdogs of the fandom, so naturally Sundowner fits the bill perfectly because he's constantly reduced to a cardboard cutout even when people try to legitimately analyze everyone else without memeing. So, he's unexplored waters in that way.

Okay, onto your points.

The thing about smiling and seeming awfully enthusiastic about the situation, this relates not only to Sundowner but to all other Winds as well. Ask yourself. Would Raiden be truly happy if he fully succumbed to Jack the Ripper? He becomes quite the gigglebox when he goes Ripper, smiling and laughing and all that - just like the WoD.

I think he wouldn't be. The fulfillment carnage brings is shallow and temporary like alcohol or drugs, it does not lead to feelings of accomplishment or true happiness in the long run. But it's all the Winds really have available to them. They're (((very likely))) all indentured to Desperado/World Marshal and they can't ever hope to be free from it because Armstrong plans to get rid of them all. Read this post for details on that.

When people are faced with any kind of anxiety, they really have two general ways of dealing with it. Either they change the situation or they change how they feel about the situation. Sundowner and others can't do shit about their situation, so they need to adopt a mindset that will let them cope with their circumstances, something to protect their ego and feelings from the fact that Armstrong doesn't give a shit about their ideals and is only using them a stepping stone to reach his goals.

Monsoon latched onto memetics to convince himself that nobody is free anyway, Armstrong's bullshit is just nature running it's course. Mistral initially joined for the ideals but never ended up actually believing in them, so she's trying to delude herself into thinking that she loves Armstrong. That way she can still die for his ideals and feel like it's worth it.

And Sundowner is drowning himself in violence to convince himself that it's all he lives for and that he isn't actually missing out on anything in life. It probably started way before Desperado in a less extreme form. He may have had aspirations and hopes for any number of things, but to achieve them he'd need an education and money, something he didn't have. And so, to deal with the bitterness of not being able to continue down the path he actually wanted, he'd take on the sour grapes mindset. "I didn't want to pursue science/art/teaching/etc. anyway, war is my new passion". Since it's something he has to do now, he'd rather love it than hate it. Perhaps he could have dropped out of service once he had money to try and come back to his original aspirations, but change hurts, it's hard to break out of the routine you've grown accustomed to - and for Sundowner war was that routine.

There are actually way more theories I have for why he'd be the way he is but they'd make this post way, waaaay too long and it's not what the original question was about.

So yeah, I like Sundowner for all the hidden details that lay good groundwork for speculation on how he could realistically become so evil. Shame he's reduced to some dumb redneck stereotype so often.

[testudoaubrei-blog]

On the Bell Riots…

“The memetic waiting for a revolutionary event from a fictional TV Series shows how the very idea of revolution has become a hypothetical and quasi religious coping mechanism in contemporary capitalism, in this essay I will…”

[murphysiblings]

no i dont have maladaptive daydreaming & use escapism to cope with all of my problems i just have a memetic virus . yeah like from honkai star rail

[tjemegames]

HSR: Character Build Archive - Erudition

Nous

The Aeon that presides over the Path of Erudition. THEY were originally an omnipotent astral computer that ascended to become an Aeon.

Certain character descriptions may contain story spoilers: Rappa. If you’re not caught up to the most current version of the game, please read them at your own discretion.

Argenti

A classic knight of the "Knights of Beauty" who is piously seeking his missing Aeon Idrila the "Beauty." Forthright and candid, he wanders the cosmos espousing the virtues of Idrila's good name.

unowned: love his character but didn't like his kit enough to pull for him on main. will likely never pull him because of high boothill investment; not currently in need of another physical dps unit

Herta

Member 83 of the Genius Society. The real master of the space station. An incredibly intelligent yet unsympathetic scientist.

under-leveled: lvl 60, e6

partially built: 4/6 maxed relics. boots are fine but head/hand + sphere are cope

need to farm duke (crate body) & salsotto (ice dmg/atk sphere + atk rope)

Himeko

The one who repaired the Astral Express. To witness the vast starry sky, she decided to travel aboard the Astral Express. Her hobby is brewing hand-made coffee.

unowned: himeko, please! please come home to me (on standard), I'm begging you. I'm in desperate need of a 5-star fire dps and you'd be a great fit

Jade

A senior manager in the IPC Strategic Investment Department and one of the Ten Stonehearts. Her Cornerstone is "Jade of Credit."

unowned: wanted to pull during her release but didn't have enough stellar jades after fishing for e4 gallagher. will probably pull during a rerun banner if I haven't already pulled another quantum dps before then

Jing Yuan

The Divine Foresight, one of the Seven Arbiter-Generals of the Xianzhou Alliance, leads the Cloud Knights of the Xianzhou Luofu. A student of the Luofu's previous Sword Champion, though not known for his martial prowess.

freedom! after nearly four months of tweaking, he's officially built well enough for me to leave the duke mines behind. you have no idea how relieved I am to finally be able to focus my trailblaze power and relic xp on someone else

ready to be hypercarried by sparkle: rolled new hand pc & ditched the idea of a crate body bc I have the necessary stats on my other pcs to make up for it; would've had a 99/107 crit ratio if I had swapped, thereby sending myself into a few more months of relic purgatory. this was the better alternative by a landslide

relevant stat change(s): +2.5% crate, +.6% cdmg, -16 atk

Score change: +4 (SS)

SS-tier achieved, let's go! (*^ᴗ^)ﾉｼ

used fribbles combat simulator to see if the final build was compatible with my ideal teams & it exceeded my expectations. this was a very tedious process so l'm feeling great about the end result

no more farming necessary! if I were going to attempt to min-max anything else, I'd aim for duke hands w/more crate on them

haven't gotten s5 geniuses' repose yet: sticking with peaceful day until l've pulled it/before dawn, whichever comes first

final upgrade - 8.8.24 | changelog

Qingque

Diviner of the Divination Commission on the Xianzhou Luofu, and a librarian. Always slacks off and is about to be demoted to a "door guardian."

under-leveled: lvl 60, e4

partially built: 3/6 maxed relics

need to farm genius (crate body + spd/atk boots) & rutilant (atk rope)

Rappa

The Galaxy Ranger, who refers to herself as Dazzling Ninja, became infected with a memetic virus due to an atavistic experiment, causing her to perceive everything in the world in terms of "ninja." To settle the past of blood and tears, and to follow the Dazzling way of the ninja, she is dedicated to hunting down the villain "Evil Ninja Osaru," known to others as Dr. Primitive.

unowned: seems really cool but I'll be passing for now: my account is already very imaginary pilled and I need to put some focus into other elements.

Serval

A Belobog mechanic who used to be a researcher for the Technology Division of the Architects. As Gepard Landau's elder sister, her personality stands in stark contrast to her brother's. She loves an ancient form of music known as "rock 'n' roll" that was popular before the Eternal Freeze.

[redacted]

not sure what I want to do with her yet. I've been going back and forth between running her on 4pc thunder/pioneer; it would be more efficient to farm another 2pcs of pioneer

traded atk ropes with seele bc she needed one w/spd & traded lcs with qingque

need to farm pioneer (hands + spd boots) & decide which planars I want to use

latest upgrade - 8.3.24

The Herta

unreleased (3.0)

skipping for now but I may pick her up at a later date depending upon what she does and who I have on my roster by then

The most recent version of a character's build(s) will be listed here; older build versions can be found on their designated changelog. To avoid word/image limit issues, information on a retired build will be removed from the path archive and a link to the build's changelog will be provided in its place. Changelogs will only be created and maintained for the characters that I actively use; they will be updated whenever significant relic upgrades/changes have been made. Characters that have multiple builds (i.e. additional builds that are non-traditional, niche, or memes) will have a dedicated changelog for each one. Return to Navigation

[walpu]

Lyra & Nana friendship:

➝ Lyra is a sentient shooting star, which lost its brightness and fell into the oceans of Blue

➝ She was trapped at the bottom of the ocean for decades until she was found by Nana

➝ At first Lyra was just a small sphere of almost non-existent brightness. That Nana trapped in a jar

➝ Nana finally realized that Lyra was a sentient being when they returned home one day to find his room walls covered in draws made by the star's powers

➝ Then Nana released Lyra so she could return to the skies. But Lyra didn't seem to want that

➝ Nana threw ‘kicekd her out’ several times, but Lyra always returned

➝ In the end the puppet decided to stay with Lyra

➝ He asked Fuli's for help so that the Aeon could create a memetic body for her friend, a wish they granted

➝ Lyra was the first person Nana established a bond with, as he always had difficulty connecting with other people

➝ It was Nana who encouraged Lyra's talent for art, and the main reason she became an artist

➝ At first she had a creative block to come up with ideas and had to ask Nana for ideas frequently. But over time, she developed better in this regard.

➝ “Excuse me, she asked for no pickles” Nana said while Lyra hid behind him

➝ Lyra is quite shy and socially awkward. She is the secret artist type and is only seen in public with other Vortex members, never alone (she would freak out)

➝ Lyra does little publicly at Vortex, and even less at Lepidoptera. The Ace (Lyra) and The Cat (N. Tesla) are the ones who works the most behind the scenes

➝ She is very melancholic, pessimistic, but she is a dreamer

➝ Both, Lyra and Nana, share a dark sense of humor

➝ It took a lot of insistence from Vortex members to convince Lyra to expose her arts to the cosmos

➝ Lyra also doesn't take part in Nana's violent acts against the IPC but she is in favor of Nana's actions

➝ As Ace she painted several IPC chief heads in shameful sexual positions and spread the drawings throughout the cosmos (Vortex/Lepidoptera members laughed their ass of later as the marketing department strugled to clean their image later)

Lyra 🤝 Nana

Traumatized people who make jokes about their traumas as a way to cope

🪼 -

First of all, Fuli is the real one

Also Lyra's bond with Nana is very cute heartwarming 🥹

[tenebrius-excellium]

I admit that I struggle heavily with my term paper because I cannot define what a meme does and where it fits in terms of language

Is it image or is it text? It's somehow both.

We can have whole memetic conversations but we continuously need knowyourmeme.com as a reference to decode the mysteries. So memes are not exactly a new set of hieroglyphs, which could replace an existing language in its entirety.

It's certainly a type of visual shorthand but it bleeds into normal language as idioms.

We abstract complex memetic content into easy symbols (think Loss or Among Us), but only to prank people and to build community.

Memes can make compelling political arguments and yet, they're mostly just used to humorously cope with absurdity in the mundane

I can't get a grip on this. If someone has an idea on an angle I could work, man, I'd appreciate it!? Cuz I keep working and reworking this thing and getting nowhere. Memes are hard to grasp, not just for me but for the scientists who wrote literal books on memes as well.

I feel like there's something simple there that is just out of reach of my thought process.

Tumblr users are experts on memes, what do we say???

[snowydawn17]

Hyv said “What if a scientist bioengineered a super soldier from infancy but started to feel bad about torturing a child so he infected her with a memetic virus that distorted her ability to perceive reality in order to help her cope and she Knew what she was seeing wasn’t right but she can’t stop or change it bc it’s Embedded In Her DNA” and I just have to live with that concept in my brain now

[ram-de]

fraud

i'm a fraud... the word is so overused in a memetic context, and i know because it's basically a newer slang that i've seen it million times before but whatever. it fits.

just like usual, i think i just realized how i really, really take a lot of things for granted. i walk easily. i eat. i sleep. i just live my life flowing like a fish in a river. but that river is gonna have an endpoint soon. not that it means i'm gonna die (i don't know when but i don't really actively plan for it... thankfully.... for now... i'm joking.), what i mean is that endpoint being graduation.

i'm this close to be a functioning member of society. by definition i'm an adult right now, but i am still depended on my parents to sustain me, to give me all the things i need to live. when i reached that point, i need to be, by my own. find a job. make my own money. manage my own spending. be responsible. it's just so close and yet so... so unknown. i think it's also one of the reason why i take things so lightly? like... maybe a part of me didn't really want to reach that endpoint yet. like i'm not ready. so i'm not, putting all my effort to actually think. to actually prepare.

what's going to happen to me?

oh, sure, it's easy to write. o i'm gonna find a job. i'm going to be responsible. i'm going to magically network myself and have a place in society. but... is that really how easy it is? i'm thinking lightly. although it's a big problem. another reason being when i thought of big, anxiety-inducing things like... future... i turned into a coward and my mind redirect all that uneasiness into distraction. one more day won't hurt. but it did. it going to pay off, all that put-off hurt. and it's going be painful.

i don't know. maybe, or maybe not. i think i'm a lucky person. i grew in a middle-class family, where i live a pretty shielded upbringing. lucky as in, i've never like i need to work for food or shelter or school supplies. and that led me thinking, i've never really had any kind of... hardship... before. would i be fine, when i'm by my own?

the answer is probably not. and i'm scared of that. even in my thesis, i think i just give it my 5%... would anyone hire a 5% kind of guy...? i spend a month reading... and not in a productive way. in a distractive way. i think i'm stupid. perhaps that's a coping mechanism. coping of what i don't know. there's a lot of other things to think of...

ah... what do i gotta do with you, self? you sure you can do it...? because i'm scared. i depend on ChatGPT to help me through my weekly progression. what if i never actually learned at all? what if my progression isn't actually my own work done? can i even be proud of it? it's easy to sleep it off but you wrote it yourself. i wrote it myself. i never faced hardship... even if i would count doing things that made me anxious hardship, i still get back into it and well, i'm still here. i don't know if that counts... the psychologyst would told me to count all kind of steps. so maybe in a way that would also be hardship. speaking of psych... i haven't really consulted... aah... commitment is hard, isn't it? maybe it's not hard, maybe it's just me. maybe something is wrong with me. but i never got an answer. i don't want to think like before again. thinking like i'm broken. maybe nothing is wrong with me. maybe... maybe i just want to do something. no, not maybe. i want to... i want to do. i want to be. i want to want. i want.

but that's me. writing wishes. what's now? what's after?

[bigklingy]

Well I guess this could be sorta fun. Also, spoilers here. 1. It was a Fire Emblem game. 2. No, and all of them but the original FE1 and FE2. 3. Chris Hackney got robbed HARD of Best Performance at the 2019 Game Awards. 4. Azure Moon. 5. Verdant Wind. 6. Azure Moon. 7. I made a tier list on my tumblr a while back but I'm too lazy to search for it. 8. Kronya should've been a recurring villain, instead of dying half a chapter after killing Byleth's dad. Imagine if the BLACK KNIGHT went out like that?? 9. Ahem, "Dimitri's motivation is maxed out." A.k.a "Dimitri goes bananas." 10. Swordmaster for being better than its intended promotion somehow. 11. I forget, which kinda says something. 12. Sofibeth Arts did fanart of a memetic NPC from my first playthrough, Blilda! https://sofibeth-arts.tumblr.com/post/188826204925/thank-to-bigklingy-we-have-discovered-three 13. I don't read 3H fics. Too much discourse. 14. I have a silly Dimitri x Edelgard parody fic. 15. Have a hypothetical P5 crossover in my head. 16. Grappler Hanneman, Seteth, Flayn, Cyril, Alois, Catherine, Shamir, Manuela, Normal Hanneman, Rhea, Gilbert. 17. Ferdinand, Hubert, Edelgard, Linhardt, Petra, Caspar, Dorothea, Bernadetta. 18. Dimitri favourite, Dedue least, everyone else tied. BL are all so good it's hard to choose. 19. Hilda, Lysithea, Marianne, Lorenz, Ignaz, Claude, Raphael... lol I forgot Leonie entirely. (Sorry Leonie fans) 20. Manuela. 21. Sylvain, maybe? 22. Rhea. She doesn't strike me as someone interested in romance at all. 23. Well, Blilda (Green unit in AM Chapter 19 replacing Hilda if she's recruited) is a Female War Master... 24. Yuri I guess? 25. I don't feel Byleth's sexuality is conventional, but I don't have a specific label for it. 26. Dimitri, obvious pick is obvious. 27. Off the top of my head, Ignatz? 28. Bernadetta. While I don't agree with Edelgard ideologically, that's different from disliking the character. Bernadetta, I feel the game ends up fetishizing her abusive past to a disturbing degree. I'm aware this is a hot take. 29. Jeralt, Kronya, Claude, Rhea. 30. ANNA. A character with absolutely zero supports in a modern FE game should not exist. Worse, they're DLC. Skipping all design questions, would require me to look through tons of art and I don't have a good sense of design aesthetics anyway. 37. I seem to remember someone had funny dining dialogue but I forget who. 38. Felix liking cats made me lol. 39. Hilda I guess. 40. Dorothea always offers to join without me even trying. I'm not sure why. 41. Claude ships Edelgard/Dimitri and distributes his fanart and fanfiction during the war as propaganda. 42. Azure Moon has the best writing for Edelgard. 43. Sylvain/Mercedes. 44. Edelgard/Dimitri is HILARIOUS and my coping mechanism when discourse bothers me. 45. Sylvain/Mercedes. 46. Unsure. 47. Hilda. It's really the ONLY one I've done, but it was fine. 48. Hilda/Marianne, I'M SORRY. I just don't see it. 49. Dorothea/Hanneman. WHY is this romantic and explicitly mentions them having children, when his endings with all other students are platonic?? 50. FEMALE BYLETH/MERCEDES, easily. Compared to the other female bi options, I feel this is rarely talked about.

50 Questions of FE3H

The ultimate FE3H ask game - Send me an ask and reblog to play!

What drew you to / made you pick up and play FE3H?

Was FE3H your first Fire Emblem game?  If not, which other games did you play?

Who is your favorite FE3H voice actor?

Which route did you play through first in FE3H?

Which route did you play through last?

Which route is your favorite?

Which side quest / paralogue was your favorite?

What storyline threads should have had more development / been further explored?

What is your favorite scene in the game (can be in the main story or a support convo)?

What’s your favorite combat class?

What’s your go-to weapon or spell in combat?

Post a link / reblog your favorite FE3H fanart (no reposting / credit erasure!!).

Post a link to your favorite FE3H fanfic.

If you’ve posted your own fanart or fanfic, post a link to the piece you are most proud of.

If you are an artist or writer, are you currently working on any new FE3H content (art or fanfic)?  If so, will you share a sneak preview?

Rank the Church of Seiros characters from your favorite to least favorite.

Rank the Black Eagles from your favorite to least favorite.

Rank the Blue Lions from your favorite to least favorite.

Rank the Golden Deer from your favorite to least favorite.

What character do you headcanon as bi?

What character do you headcanon as poly?

What character do you headcanon as ace or aro?

What character do you headcanon as trans?

What character do you headcanon as genderfluid?

What character do you headcanon as another sexual orientation or gender identify not listed above?

Who is your overall favorite character?

Which character do you feel “meh” about?

What character do you not like at all / hate?

What character should have gotten more development?

What characters should have more support options and who should have been their support options?

What is your favorite pre-timeskip character design or outfit?

What is your favorite post-timeskip character design or outfit?

What is your least favorite (or hated) pre-timeskip character design or outfit?

What is your least favorite (or hated) post-timeskip character design or outfit?

Which characters would you like to see switch pre-timeskip designs (for fun)?

Which characters would you like to see switch post-timeskip designs (for fu0?

Who are your favorite dining partners?

Who is your favorite teatime companion?

Who is your favorite / most used combat unit?

What character do you always recruit, no matter which route you are playing and why?

What is a favorite character headcanon (can be one you came up with or one you liked / adopted from someone else)?

Do you have / are you willing to share a possibly controversial opinion or headcanon you have about a character?

Who is your favorite in-game ship (meaning they have supports and a confirmed romantic ending card)?

Who is your favorite headcanon ship (meaning they either have supports but not necessarily a romantic ending or they may have no supports at all)?

Who is your FE3H OTP?

Who is your FE3H poly ship?

Who is your favorite Byleth ship?

What is a popular ship that you don’t care for / don’t like?

What is a general (not necessarily popular) ship that you don’t care for / don’t like?

Which ship do you wish was more popular / had more content available?

[2n2n]

sometimes I think few people think about Amane and Tsukasa's individual traits in relation to one another, or consider they could be as a result of one another. It's simply that Tsukasa is a very clingy/obsessive little brother who is super into Amane, and Amane is, who he is. But these traits are not so unrelated, impossible to connect, or random.... we know Amane is an incredibly jealous, insecure, possessive person. In every single volume, it is constant, his insecurity.

He doesn't want Nene to go to a festival without him to the point of crying (... even despite that it's in honor of Kou's trauma or whatever in Hell of Mirrors, it's all about his feelings)

He doesn't like Nene worrying about Kou and not him. He pouts and pouts,

...then he publicly humiliates her to cope with feeling neglected [effectively, to 'get back at her' lol...]

He doesn't want Kou or anyone else to alter Nene's life

If Nene so much as behaves a little distantly, he's cracking her neck screaming at her to look at him

He's jealous of her pet hamster

Can't give some disembodied hands attention (simply part of his job) without him getting needy and jealous of the hands

If Nene wants to take one afternoon off of toilet duty, he freaks out

He doesn't want her to read fantasy novels or enjoy otome game fantasies (and will humiliate her for having them-- again, a passive aggressive way of dealing with his jealousy, a way of punishing her for it)

at this point will bluntly punish her for making him jealous by ladling water on her to remove her impure thoughts*

in the context of all of that behavior, the obsessiveness, the insecurity, the want to be all Yashiro thinks about,

What an interesting problem to have. What an extreme trait, constantly bleeding into even the tiniest moments, stoked by so much as standing too close to the person he likes.

....or in the most absurd extremes, even someone else trying earnestly to save the person he likes.

why might Tsukasa be singularly obsessed with Amane, his brother who he had spent his entire life with?

If you ask Tsukasa about his favorite anything, even nonsensically, he will just reply 'Amane!' memetically. Don't you think that, given Amane's immense insecurity and jealousy problems, that he maybe enabled this dynamic, himself? Even, that he wanted it? In only 3 months with Yashiro, he's freely throwing all the fits he wants to demand her attention. He feels he is owed it.

You would go insane trying to fathom who 'started this'-- did Amane grow up with a little brother so naturally obsessed with him, that it gave him an unrealistic and extreme bar for 'feeling neglected' and an absolute 0 tolerance for sharing the spotlight or being gracious? By being so obsessed with Amane, did Tsukasa mess up his idea of intimacy, addicted to a crazy degree of attention and praise from a devoted little brother?

or was Amane such a needy and insecure person, that his little brother needed to pay him so much attention and never get distracted, or else he'd be pissy and fussy and negative? Would Amane express jealousy and frustration quickly and easily with Tsukasa, and is Tsukasa so agreeable and submissive to him that he bent his mind all around Amane's insecurity, becoming as obsessive and one-track-minded as Amane wanted By being so demanding and controlling, did Amane contort his little brother into someone who would always give him all of his attention, no matter what?

Or did these two personalities equally enable one another, developing in perfect sync? Perhaps no one 'started it', but this is all they could possibly be to each other, given the other's traits. It falls into place in that way. In the end, you get Tsukasa enshrined as Hanako's possession.

… there is something really funny about Tsukasa having some sort of instant compulsive "AMANE!" answer to even nonsensical degrees like saying Amane is his favorite snack. I know people take it one way or another but I choose to believe that because Amane will express jealousy of a pet hamster, that if you asked Tsukasa his favorite dinner, and Tsukasa said "curry", Amane would get nonsensically jealous that Tsukasa loves something and is thinking about it so hard when it shouldn't matter. Like at age 5 he doesn't like it if Tsukasa is like I LOVE ICE CREAM or MY T-REX TOY IS MY FAVORITE THING, and is passive aggressive and moody until Tsukasa reads the subtext and is like, ohhhhhhh Amane wants me to only, only only ever-ever-ever think about him. Naruhodo.

also * it needs must be remarked that Nene at this point intentionally sets off Hanako's jealous behavior because she likes it. Tsukasa probably likes it too. There's no stopping this beast as his girlies love him just the way he is.

look at how he looks though. Doing What Must Be Done. Fine. You Want To Set Me Off? You Get The Ladle. Creepy.

off the book thought as well: isn't it interesting Tsukasa is a social pariah with no experience, with no skill in being friendly, too weird and unpredictable for most to even make an attempt at intimacy with him?

I wonder how Tsukasa being an outcast and a strange person may have benefited Amane's possessiveness, as well. I wonder even how their mother rejecting Tsukasa may have enabled Amane's sense of completely taking over all of Tsukasa's attention, the only person to love him. It's almost a little luxurious sounding for a guy with a jealousy problem.

[crabcrabcrabmeat]

ten films i love, tagged by @javert

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack (1988) Utterly obvious to die girlies auf tumblr but don’t worry, it’s the only franchise gatekeepy one. God tier animation, OST that gives me heart palpitations, plot symbolically rich in a way that draws me back. Absurdly ambitious and largely pulls it off. Insane. Phantom of the Paradise (1974) I’m a sucker for leitmotifs being re-contextualized and this movie is exactly that. I think a lotta people are put off by musicals because they expect Glee shit, so a horror rock opera that plays w genres is a style that slaps. In fact, it’s style over substance to the point that while the character Beef was made with homophobic intent(?), he makes for killer camp. So influential it buried its own grave deeper, but when my drag career continues proper I WILL have it step out of RHPS’s shadow. Magnetic Rose (1995) This one’s arguably cheating, it’s a short film within a theatrical omnibus and the only one of the trio I rewatch, lol. Better experienced than described, but iirc it’s the first screenplay credit of Satoshi Kon and his style benefits the conceit greatly. The space physics are top tier too. Bound (1996) Genre fiction that fucks. Akira (1988) After watching this for the first time, I wore a rip of it on a USB necklace for like a good month, lol. If you’ve seen so many homages and #aesthetic gifs that its memetically weakened, the manga will be a better vehicle for experiencing the actual plot and themes. (Kaneda isn’t a cool protag! He’s not even in it for a full volume!) But I fortunately got to go into it w next to no preconceptions. Tampopo (1985) One of those art-house pics that’s fun to general audiences. I wouldn’t watch it with young kids or new friends tho given the prawn scene, lmao. The Terminal (2004) Not a masterpiece by anyone’s standards, but it was my fav for years as a child and I’ve been told “thats so you” or “that explains so much” lmao. I still do love seeing how peoples values and coping mechanisms materially shape their world, so, fair! As an adult, i think Tucci’s character holds up the best, his tone is comedically sound while being realistically mundane for an american authoritarian, lol. Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) A breath of fresh air in style and substance. It’s like a vaccine against MCU sludge. God I need to watch more new wave. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970) Again, former obsessions here, not necessarily top quality. The first vignette is the only one that sticks with me, but boy does it! Gold standard for any fanfiction or diagetic media criticism. Mikey and Nicky (1976) Ough. Love me a good tragedy. This one manages to hit so hard it even overcomes Peter Falk being styled (‘styled’) like Columbo—italian accent and all— while playing a jewish gangster lol.) You know that post about how the more serious and well made a story is, the more likely its fandom makes unhinged memes? That’s me every time I make a “full of milk” joke abt this movie or realize it’s fundamentally changed my experience of taking antacids.

Anyways please note that i’ve structured this list so that the first and last entries form a niche parallel. That is to say, a personal fav scene in both Mikey & Nicky and CCA is where the lead guys fistfight and tumble onto the ground in a blur of violence-as-latent-homoeroticism. (George lucas voice): it’s like poetry, it rhymes.

I'm too shy to tag others but mutuals I Am Pressuring U lovingly. U don’t have to write as much as i did tho lol.

[construingseacats]

Part 2! This is a long one!

GUN

I love the choice of Winchesters as the gun kept in the Ushiromiya family. Very iconic.

I think this is one of those scenes that is definitely improved with a greater knowledge of the background - I didn’t think much of it first time round, but when you know how strict the gun laws in Japan are and how much of a big deal ownership is compared to somewhere like America, it really hits you why everyone is taking it so seriously. The funny thing is, I probably could have already interpreted that on my first read due to being British - where they’re also heavily regulated - but when so much of the media you consume is American in origin, you grow really numb to it.

You know, it’s crazy how in the span of just a few years - not even the full decade since last time - a simple phrase can be so entirely ruined.

This is your one allotted acknowledgement of the phrase. I won’t be pointing it out again, although there’ll be no doubt that I’ll instinctively be catching it every time thanks to the memetic brain poison of the internet.

And once again - do you suffer through the truth, or do you retreat to your coping mechanisms? Is one necessarily better than the other, and is that from the perspective of the one who is suffering, or to appeal to those who aren’t? Does it matter?

And scene.

This marks the end of Week 2 for Umireread - although the subsequent write-up posts have bled over into Week 3, something which will no doubt continue to happen as we go forward. I definitely enjoyed this section a lot more than Week 1 - it’s still a lot of setup, but now it’s more towards reasoning and alibis which is far more interesting to read about than the hitherto irrelevant family discussions. Plus, the gardening shed scene was the “big” one that I had to look forward to this week.

I’ll be interested to see how the rest of Episode 1 pans out for me as we finish it in Week 3 - I know I’m very interested in seeing how the Boiler Room reads this time around, and there’s a cute detail which I’m looking forward to pointing out. That being said, I think we’re on a heavy march until the meta sections start to blossom in Episode 2, and we finally get the Red Truth to start tearing into the story with. I probably shouldn’t be thinking too much about early Episode 2 when we still have this final third to go - so let’s keep pressing on, and let’s see what’s left for us here first.

Umireread: Legend of the Golden Witch - Chapter 11: Curtain-rise on Tragedy   

Sun, Oct 5 1986 - 8:45AM

The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.

I joked earlier about Gohda being targeted after Natsuhi was off the table (and how that probably wasn’t the case), but man, the updated character info becomes so much funnier if you approach it with that read. A sarcastic “How unfortunate” and “He was originally supposed to be on duty”. Yasu really twisting the knife there.

Man, her default reaction is to assume she’s being blamed, huh? Like mother like daughter when it comes to trauma reactions, it seems.

Once again, it’s really interesting to read all these scenes where character reactions to the incident are re-contextualised as their anxiety over being an associate.

This one in particular is a pretty fun scene, since you get Nanjo and Hideyoshi trying to reassure each other over the whole thing. Bros for life.

Not quite sure what Natsuhi’s intention is here - go to the study to have a meltdown in private, perhaps?

Kumasawa is having the time of her life once again. Absolutely living for the chance to put on a performance and play things up for the others. I’m actually surprised that this isn’t a huge giveaway of her involvement, since she’s absolutely not taking this seriously, and we’ve already seen her penchant for dramatics during her desires to tell ghost stories on the boat trip.

So - in the preamble for Umireread, I mentioned that I’m applying Death of the Author here, since I feel you lose a lot of the heart of the tale once you open the catbox and rip out the guts. That being said, as much as I don’t want to canonise Our Confession for this read, it’s really hard to ignore. Even with Death of the Author in effect, it does feel like Our Confession is indeed a breakdown of the rules that were in play from the start, so it’s hard to go against them. Mainly, I like the interpretation that the servants were all on board with Yasu’s plan, identifying with their plight and being willing to help with their apparent atrocities as a way for them to do her right. And while that’s obviously true for Genji, it’s hard to read Kumasawa as that here, because she’s leaning so heavily into the “doesn’t realise it’s real and believes she’s taking part in a prank” side of things. We’ll see how it develops over future chapters, but it’s quite noticeable here.

Similar point to the gardening shed, but it’s very funny how everyone involved is so to the point of “Okay, please look at this clue. You got that? You’ve all seen it? Good, now let’s leave straight away.”

Battler had a line here where he went along with it, but yeah, it really is the associates pushing to make everyone leave. So much of Episode 1 can be pieced together if you make note of who is pushing people away from the crime scenes.

Yasu mentally thinking “well, I guess it’s time to break out the corpse.”

It’s very funny that Natsuhi has no idea what to do after Eva barged into the study, and is desperately looking towards Kanon and Genji for a story. The Natsuhi suffering arc continues.

I do wonder if the phones are actually broken at this point, or whether the servants have been meddling with them. Well, obviously they’ve been meddled with by the servants if they’re broken, but I mean that along the lines of “they’re actually still working, but we’re being told they aren’t”.

I can’t help but wonder if the characters so readily believing that Shannon was gushing over George instead of Battler is further commentary on the futility of taking what you see at face value.

There’s a funny line here about how this scenario made Jessica envious - I wonder if this was the instigator for her desire to start pursuing Kanon?

This one’s an interesting line - they don’t put much emphasis on it, but it’s good to see that we’re already tempering the idea of retreating to fantasy as a way to solve problems. It’s been pushed heavily as a coping mechanism so far, but of course, entirely foregoing truth is no way to go through life. You need to know what’s appropriate for any given situation to really be able to help someone.

Interesting how this is brought up again, but this time in a tone that ridicules you for believing it.

At this point, with how prevalent it is, I don’t think this is just intentional misdirection for the sake of the mystery - I think it’s a direct prompt to think deeper about what is going on in the story. It’s not just about accepting or denying what is being said on the surface level - it’s about actively thinking about whether you should or shouldn’t trust what’s being presented to you. It’s not so much ridiculing the idea - which we know to be true - but ridiculing taking the earlier account as fact without reasoning ourselves into it. About working towards a Golden Truth rather than accepting a Red Truth, if you will.

I’m actually a little fascinated by Eva’s game here. She’s playing this so strangely.

Again here - Eva is basically ratting out her fellow culprits. It’s a bold strategy, but I suppose she’s banking on the others overthinking things and believing that it can’t be them?

I suppose her ploy here is to secure her alibi by staying on the attack. When she’s this forward and accusatory when trying to find the culprits, it does make you think “would a guilty person be acting this way?” - of course, if you’ve played any number of social deduction games, the answer is almost always “yes, they’re trying to deflect”, but that’s not something you pick up on as readily in fiction as you do in person.

Umineko is a rare story where they can say this kind of line and get away with it. Usually it’s exceptionally eye-roll inducing when a piece of media goes “this isn’t like one of those pieces of media where X happens!”, but I can make an exception for it when your work is such a thorough deconstruction of the genre as a whole.

I wonder how Eva feels about Battler reasoning himself out of the truth - probably a mix of “God, what an idiot” and “Ha, exactly as planned”.

We’re even calling the double bluff now, how deep does the rabbit hole go?

I think the only reason that Episode 1 is as hard as it is mystery-wise is because of how counterintuitive the killer’s motive is. Battler gets pretty much everything right here, but he then wants to work with an axiom that the killer wouldn’t want to be caught - which is wrong - and so it all falls apart from a bad foundation.

Retracting my former statement about Umineko being allowed to be coy about referencing the genre, Ryukishi’s a total hack.

I do wonder what Higurashi being a canonical story in-universe means for Bernkastel and Lambdadelta existing in the meta realm. Although, to be fair, Umineko is also a story in-universe, so we probably shouldn’t get too held up on this.

You sure about that, narrative? Maria’s just having a good time watching TV, I don’t know what you’re on about.

“Probably” shocked his fellow servants, while they all go “yeah actually we hated that guy.”

Oh hey, a Battler perv moment that I actually don’t mind. It brings a nice bit of levity to the scene. I think the key here is that it’s not actually directed at anyone, so it’s not a “joke” at the expense of someone else’s wellbeing. God I wish the early chapter moments were more like this and less like him trying to grope his relatives.

Legitimately cannot get over Eva’s brass balls where she tries to clear herself by bouncing suspicion back and forth between her and her co-conspirators.

Fully acknowledging the alibi issue as well. As long as you attribute it to unknown motive X, you really do have all the clues you need here to solve everything.

LITTLE GIRL JUMPSCARE

This is a very mean change that’s been added in more recent editions of the game. Like, this CG was in the original PS3 patch I played back in the day, but the fisheye shot of Maria just faded into it. No scary sounds or intentional jumpscare effects to get you. It honestly feels really out of place because Umineko absolutely isn’t one of those stories. I hope there isn’t anything like this that’s been added elsewhere to the game.

Ah, and so we find Maria at her worst, honestly. I think the writing here is pretty lacklustre. While going for a complete personality switch to “creepy little girl” does big up the mystical elements and make the story more mysterious, it cheapens Maria’s character a lot by reducing her to an info dump. This would be far more palatable if they kept it as her over excitedly sharing information about her hyperfixation, or if they kept it in line with the letter reading earlier and had her doing a Beato impression of a time that she was told about all this. Maria immediately jumping from her usual self to “kihihihi foolish humans” just doesn’t feel organic at all - and again, in a story that otherwise so expertly captures the human element of all its characters, it’s a huge let down.

And so we finally learn more about the meaning of the magic circle painted on the shed! I remember being really intrigued by these when I watched the anime at age 13 and again when I read the VN at 17, but the mysticism scared me a little too much so I didn’t want to look into it much further. I have become much more jaded since then, and the demons are now welcome to take me away any day.

I do kind of wish that I had done more research into them, though. It’d be nice to be able to say something more about what’s going on here. Maybe I should have bought some books before jumping into this?

Oh hey

So, there’s actually not an awful lot to say here - if we look up this magic circle, we read this:

The Seventh and last Pentacle of the Sun. If any be by chance imprisoned or detained in fetters of iron, at the presence of this Pentacle, which should be engraved in Gold on the day and hour of the Sun, he will be immediately delivered and set at liberty.

There’s then confirmation of which names are written around it, talking about the Rulers of the Elements. We also get the translation of the Psalm:

Thou hast broken my bonds in sunder. I will offer unto thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call upon the Name of IHVH.

IHVH in this case being the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, used to represent the incommunicable name of the Supreme Being. Umineko does away with these semantics and just says “the Lord”.

With that in mind… There’s actually not an awful lot here that isn’t given pretty much word-for-word by Maria. Not to contradict myself once again and refer to Our Confession, but I do get the impression Ryukishi just used his passing interest in occultism to look up magic circles and demons, go “yeah, I’ll use that” when he finds something interesting, and implant it into the story without much further thought at the time.

I do find the references to the circle being engraved in Gold and escaping the chains of iron to be interesting, however - if nothing else, it feels like a thematic nod to the 10 tons of gold, with the iron being an allusion to the military munitions sealing the fate of the island. I’m not sure the Umineko version references iron specifically, so that might indeed be looking into it too much.

I’ll be keeping an eye on future magic circles to see if there’s any extra information we can glean from the Grimoire - although I suspect all implementations will be similar to this one.

I’ll also be interested to dig deeper and see what real purpose we have behind these magic circles. Are they just there to perpetuate the facade of the witch? Are they done as an ironic slight against Kinzo’s interest in sorcery? Does Yasu have an interest in this herself? Beyond that, how does their use in the message bottles compare to the forgeries? Definitely something worth keeping in mind as we press on.

Funnily enough, I bought a lovely hardback cover of the Lesser Key of Solomon in preparation for this reread, and it’s only when we got to this part that I realised all the magic circles are mentioned in the Greater Key, so I had to rush out and buy another book. Oops.

Rudolf’s talking about occult films here, but honestly, this applies just as well to the heart of the tale. These tales of Rokkenjima are false - but people want to see them, so a lot of effort goes into the forgeries and message bottles. You just have to hope that the intention behind these creations is one of love, not of malice.

Honestly - it’s funny to think that it might honestly be Rudolf’s reassurance here that launches Battler into refusing to believe in witches. Rudolf unironically drives Episodes 2-8 and stops Battler conceding after 1.

YEAHHHHH HERE COMES CORE! Phenomenal detective theme, another one of those tracks that make for quintessential Umineko.

I’m sure there’s something to be said about this line of reasoning and how that means we end up with the Episode 2 Chapel not being a false closed room but instead being the work of small bombs.

We don’t get happy Maria often, I’m making sure to savour it while we can.

Anyway, did you know that there's a limit of 30 images per tumblr post? Guess who only found out about that now! Haha! Whoops! Guess we're splitting this one into two!

[ogradyfilm]

From Our Nightmares: Candyman (2021)

[The following essay contains MAJOR SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

In Bernard Rose’s original Candyman, the eponymous hook-handed murderer is a purely memetic monster; he sustains himself on belief, gaining power by provoking fear and terror in the residents of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green. He is therefore not particularly discriminating when it comes to selecting his victims: anyone that performs his iconic summoning ritual is fair game. Whenever a skeptic dares to utter his name, the nightmare that he personifies becomes flesh; a new chapter of his story is written in blood—and through the perpetuation of that story, he achieves immortality.

The version of the character appearing in Nia DaCosta’s recent sequel/reboot is a different beast entirely. His urban legend is reimagined as a sort of collective coping mechanism—a response to the trauma caused by racial violence, police brutality, and injustice. Whenever an innocent, unarmed Black man is gunned down, beaten to death, or hanged, he is absorbed into “the hive”; his face, his identity, his soul become a part of Candyman’s narrative. He transcends. He is consumed.

Indeed, therein lies the film’s only true flaw: it tempts the viewer to interpret Candyman as a folk hero—a spirit of vengeance and righteous fury, butchering obnoxious white assholes on behalf of the downtrodden and disenfranchised. In theory, his resurrection should be tragic—after all, it occurs at the cost of our hapless protagonist’s life. In practice, however, his climactic slaughter of a group of corrupt, trigger-happy cops is way too cathartic; hearing Tony Todd’s rich, booming voice and seeing his digitally de-aged visage emerge from a swarm of bees is so damn satisfying that the audience barely has time to reflect on the deeper implication that they are, in fact, celebrating the villain’s decisive victory.

Nevertheless, the movie remains undeniably compelling. Like the Clive Barker tales that served as its inspiration, it strikes a fascinating balance between supernatural and mundane horrors. For what, ultimately, is more haunting: a brief, fleeting glimpse of a ghostly apparition in the mirror?

Or the potential for evil lurking in your next door neighbor’s heart?

[A throwback to a series of Halloween-themed posts I wrote all the way back in October of 2012. Click here to read what I had to say about the original Candyman, exactly nine years ago to the day!]

[ernmark]

Juno Steel's Season 3 Finale Thoughts

Whoooooo boy.

Lots of thoughts. Lots of questions.

(spoilers under the cut)

A lot of this might be cleared up when I get my hands on that script, but until then:

Why was Sasha willing to destroy the Curemother Prime in order to kill Juno? That is a specific shot she made, and an incredibly valuable asset to destroy in the meantime. If killing him was more important than preserving the Curemother Prime, why did she attempt to spare him earlier-- or was it one of those 'bring him in alive' situations?

Is the Curemother Prime dead? Dead-dead? Or might some of it have splashed into Juno's open wound and hitched a ride in that weirdo blood of his?

Ruby is a Transformer now??? Like a T-2/Transformer hybrid? Is Juno gonna park on Io and then have the Ruby turn into like a necklace or a belt and just hang out with him so he has someone to monologue to? (Please!!!)

Who's waiting for him on Io (not waiting for him, per se, but he knows that somebody is going to be there)? Alessandra and her wife? Khan and family? Falco? Diamond?

Who set off the signal that lured Dark Matters to them? Right now the implication seems to be Peter, but I'm always up for a twist in the plot. (Peter's collector wanting to push him to actually get his ass in gear, perhaps?)

Who's side is Peter on, really? Was his preemptive escape him going along with that initial deal, or an act of cowardice and betrayal?

-------

Beyond that:

Alien road trip!

Seriously, though: we've seen Juno brought to his absolute lowest when he went out into the desert. We've seen him built back up again surrounded by support and loved ones and learn solid coping mechanisms. Now the scaffolding of that positive environment has been ripped away, and he's left to fend (almost) for himself. But this Juno Steel isn't the same one who came back from Miasma's tomb. He's taking the idea of Peter's betrayal in stride and then setting it aside-- not locking it away, but agreeing to deal with it when the circumstances permit. He's not resorting to self-blame or self-destruction, but taking an active role in getting out of there. He's trusting in himself and his family. And yes, he lashes out at the Ruby 7 for a moment, but it's a fairly brief moment, and then he calms down and they set out to work together.

Holy shit, you all. It's so amazing to see how he's grown.

-----

And really seeing the extent of that growth does in fact require pulling away those supports he's been holding onto. It's the real test, and that means he can't rely on Rita's ingenuity or Jet's wisdom, etc. This is going to be the larger, more extensive version of what we saw in the sewer with Small Fry, and I am so here for it.

But oh god, I hope the others are gonna be okay. Jet has the kind of faith that moves mountain ranges, but he's the one I most fear won't survive this.

Rita... I nearly cried when Rita admitted that she wasn't going to come with them. And of course she made out like it was no big deal, she just needed to take a detour, and of course Juno saw right through it and fought against her plan. But he trusts her, as much as she trusts him. It's a heartbreaking inversion of what we saw in Soul of the People.

And you'll notice that I keep circling around back to the end of the previous season, because there's a lot of parallelism going on. With the vibe I'm getting, this next season might just be the penultimate, if not the last season. It depends on how this next season is going to play out.

We've got this neighboring galaxy thing going on, with the Curemother Prime's origins, the memetic plague, and the Ruby 7-- all of which hearkens back to Season 1 with the Ancient Martians and Miasma.

We've also got a lot of untied strings involving the past. Peter's past, with his first love and his unspeakable debt; but also Diamond, Falco, and Hijikata; we've got the severing of Juno's relationship with Sasha, and what exactly happened that made their paths diverge. We've got Annie Wire-- I don't think we're done with her yet. And I'm still not about to let go of Marcus (aka, the mystery of the person who was mentioned in a S1 throwaway line that you can't even actually hear unless you're holding the script in front of you).

That's a lot of material to pack into a single season, but who knows?