#of the particularly unhinged variety

[thisiswhereikeepdcthings]

To clarify: This is not a case of both universes existing simultaneously. This is an inexplicably-dropped-into-an-entirely-different-universe crossover.

This is not necessarily about which is your favorite character out of these (although it could be. Who am I to tell you what to do here). This is about what would be the most chaotic, the most cursed, the most barely-justifiable plot-wise. The worst, if you will.

And, since there are far more than ten characters I can imagine dumping into the world of Batman and the Justice League with no valid reasoning, there will be more.

Honestly this might be the worst one yet but to see more options

[tossawary]

I do like time travel fics for a variety of reasons. It can be fun to see a "perfect run" fix-it fic running through the canon storyline again. There is a little suspension of disbelief required for some of them, because at some point, the little changes for the better or big tragedies averted should start to mess with the world. Very good time travel fics take this Butterfly Effect into account.

It is VERY fun to think about time-traveling characters who immediately break the plot, because they fail to or don't even try to keep things on a certain track. I love seeing authors use this jumping point to explore entirely new directions for canon. It's off-roading time!!!

Some characters are happy to work within the systems of their worlds. They'll put up with the little indignities of having do to things again and are able to act their way through a redo. (And apparently have incredibly good memories, like, damn.) The cost of keeping things roughly the same is something that they're willing to pay in order to reap specific benefits at the end of the journey.

Other characters would prefer to break the systems of their worlds. They have no patience to play by someone else's rules if they have the power to do otherwise. They may think that the world is broken as it is and needs to be changed. They may be unable to let certain injustices happen again no matter the cost to their ability to predict the future. (I admit, I have a preference for this, because I think it's more interesting, and if the protagonist is a heroic figure, I like the idea that every single life is worth trying to save if you can try.)

Anyway, this is all to say that I just read the last 100 chapters of "Naruto" and apparently Naruto was the only person keeping Sasuke from following through on his unhinged and vague supervillain plans at the end there. If you sent Sasuke back into the past, let's say from a battle with Kaguya going poorly back to the Uchiha massacre or something, and he retains his adult body or any of his abilities (full Sharingan + Rinnegan)? I cannot see that Sasuke trying to give Konoha a shot again. I don't think he trusts like that anymore.

I think he would immediately 1) kill Itachi if Itachi forces him to do it and he can't convince Itachi to join his side, 2) kill Danzo and any ROOT agents who get in his way, (2.5) kill Zetsu and Madara if he can find and catch them, and also Obito if Obito forces him,) 3) kill or try to kill the Third Hokage, and potentially 4) try to declare himself the new Fifth Hokage. Winning a lot of these fights just by taking eeeeeverybody by surprise. Or something like that, you know? I think he'd at least try to immediately do some reckless revenge murder.

If time-traveling Sasuke is stuck in his child body for a redo, and can't set himself up as the new dictator of Konoha or the new shared enemy of the shinobi world or whatever, then I think that he might just run off and join Orochimaru again. I think he would make early deals with Orochimaru for the relative freedom that offers.

Like, Sasuke just does not strike me as a particularly stable person who gives a shit about maintaining a comfortable life for everyone around him. He does not care about Konoha's image. He does not want to settle complacently into a comfortable life within this corrupt state. I think he'd rather drag out the rot and set everything on fire than sit through the frustrating false civility of politics or go to school again, if he had any choice in the matter.

A time-traveling Sasuke would not behave like a time-traveling Naruto or Sakura! So, if I had to do a time-traveling Sasuke, I'd probably reach for the "break-it" rather than the "fix-it". Konoha struggles to deal with this new, mysterious, Rinnegan-wielding Uchiha who appeared out of the middle of an incomplete massacre, just killed the Hokage, and declared himself the new one, completing the Uchiha coup at the eleventh hour. (People are saying he looks like Uchiha Izuna come back to life, apparently???) Oh, shit, someone secretly go get Tsunade and Jiraiya right now, fuck.

[liminalpebble]

Peb's Unhinged Halloween Party! 🎃 🍂 ☕️ 🕯 👻 😈

My dear sweet, beautiful feral folks,

SAS, Holy Order of the Sacred Mango, Loki's Subjects, Blessed Followers of Eddie Spaghetti, Wives of the Feral Raccoon Munson Boy, Geta's girls, and Hux hoes,

I cordially invite you, once again, to Peb's Unhinged Halloween Party with all our favorite fictional men.

The beautiful ancient mansion is decorated festively and the music is a-blarin.

Loki, hasn't shown up yet, the diva (or maybe he has, knowing his disguise skills we may never know). Either way, I'm sure he won't be able to resist a grand entrance of some variety.

The ghost of Thomas Sharpe mingles on the vast marble dance floor, forlorned and handsome, wondering if any of these beautiful living creature would do him the honor of a waltz.

Hux, our brutal little red-headed general, has hidden himself away in the library with the best of the scotch. He's brooding about being dragged here, but I'm sure the right person could crack his shell delightfully.

One particularly villainous man with deep black eyes and the golden robes of an emperor is strutting around. When you tell him, “nice costume,” he only grins maniacally and give you a filthy laugh.

Eddie has already polished off a six pack by himself and is hanging from the chandelier dressed as Dio, and belting out Holy Diver..uh...maybe...we should help him?

I'm very honored to be your host yet again. I'm at the top of the staircase, dressed all in red as Wanda/The Scarlet Witch and holding up a glass of red wine in a toast to all of my lovely friends.

Enjoy! And let me know what you're bringing and wearing and up to at this gala event.

Much Spooky Love!

Peb! 🪨 🖊 💜

P.s. Feel free to tag and share! I can only tag so many and it's a mess anyway, so please...the more the merrier.

@sweetsigyn @lokisgoodgirl @goblingirlsarah @gigglingtiggerv2 @smolvenger @little-wormwood @coldnique @muddyorbs @lokischambermaid @ladyofthestayingpower @mischief2sarawr @icytrickster17 @anukulee @acidcasualties @mochie85 @mischiefmaker615 @loopsisloops @somnambulic-thing @azula-karai-27 @sailorholly @thenerdyoldersister @thedistractedagglomeration @darkficsyouneveraskedfor @marcotheflychair @textsfromthetva @loz-3 @eleniblue @word-wytch @sarahscribbles @infinitystoner @joyful-enchantress @jennyggggrrr @elegantkoalapaper @alexakeyloveloki @fictive-sl0th @unlucky-number-13 @buttercupcookies-blog @glitchquake @veemoon @leelei1980 @userchai @fairyysoup @babygorewhore @bettyfrommars @morby @queenofstarsign85 @munson-blurbs @lemongingerart @fandxmslxt69 @eddiesxangel

[lilixxmoon]

Some unhinged astrology opinions:

I have delved deep into learning astrology in the last two years, and after looking at a variety of charts and comparing them to my real life experiences, here is a brief list of my favorite vs unfavorite placements in general. Note: This relates to my chart specifically but if you have similar placements as me you'll probably feel the same way. *I have a lot of Cancer/Leo energy*

Least Favorites:

Libra Moons 🔮 A controversial pick but I have to say my piece. Having your moon sign in Libra is considered a pleasant placement and indictive of a peace seeking person. However, the insatiable need to be such a people pleaser makes me really ticked with this placement. Initially it's pretty hard to dislike any Libra placements, as their gifted chameleons that are known for being harmonious, attractive, and diplomatic. All good things. But in the moon sign I have found these people to be especially needy of everyone's approval that it's to their detriment. Their lack of individuality and independence is a sore point that doesn't get talked about enough. If you have heavy Aquarius placements l think this is a tough placement to relate to even if they are trine air signs. Beware of Libra moons in relationships, they tend to change themselves to fit the perfect person they think their partner wants. While in some cases that sounds great, in a toxic person this placement can play out extremely manipulative. They will go to great lengths to bend and twist who they are in an effort to get the approval of the ones they seek. I once heard it referred to as the gold digger moon sign. Even in men they may charm you but watch out for those lingering eyes, they can be a flirt and more easily transform around all the women they pursue. It's a gift for them but a warning for everyone else. If you have this placement you know it's true lol don't lie. Fire placements in birth chart will help confidence and hopefully subdue some of this toxicity.

Gemini Sun 🔎- Not too much to say here. This probably has to do with my Cancer Sun. Gemini's dual nature is so wild to me in general but especially in the sun placement, they can be fickle and petty. If you bruise the ego of a Gemini sun, I have seen things get nasty. Talk about they sure can dish it but they sure can't take it. On one hand, I hate admitting how much I dislike this placement since it's one of the most popular placements among some of the most talented entertainers! But in real life, some of that allusion and spark wears off that you see on screen. Gemini sun's dual nature is tough for a lot of the other zodiac signs especially if you have heavy Taurus placements. If you have a Gemini sun, hopefully you have some more earth placements to ground this fidgety energy a bit better. Just remember to check that ego and you'll be more loved for that entertaining curious soul rather than despised.

Aries Venus 💥- Out of all the Venus signs, this is definitely one that I tend to have some beef with in general, even when it's someone I have a non romantic relationship with. Here Venus is in its detriment. An Aries Venus can manifest as someone who falls in love fast, and falls out of love just as fast. All the fire sign Venus can be difficult since they tend to "burn" through a relationship quickly and suffer from this need for lots of stimulus. However, Aries in Venus I have noticed can be particularly challenging because they have a tendency to ghost, run, or even engage in some secretive behavior, but above all that I find people with this Venus sign to have a childlike quality that can quickly turn from endearing to just out right annoying. Unconventional relationships and lifestyles might best suit an Aries Venus. Relationship stuff aside, please explain to me how people with this Venus can be so passive aggressive??? Fire energy is generally more direct but I have noticed that to be the opposite with this sign, which is odd.

Top Favs 🌼🌷💟

🎀Pisces Venus - Where do I even start with how beautiful this placement is. I am jealous I don't have it. I've heard this placement be criticized for it's boundless nature, the love of this placement can lack conventional boundaries in relationships. In my opinion though everyone will probably feel a bit better if they have at least one Pisces Venus in their lives. They just give such an abundance of love, empathy, kindness, and joy to the one's they care about. True empath and healer placement. This placement is so romantic and dreamy. They're just so pure of heart. Hopefully this placement doesn't have anything weighing it down in an overall birth chart. I think this is a lovely placement and if you hurt a Pisces Venus your probably the problem not them.

🌙Cancer Rising - This is my favorite rising sign especially for girls. I just love the witchy, mermaid like aesthetic of this placement. The big eyes!!! Oh it's just so pretty. Is it any wonder that this is the placement Margot Robbie has? I also love Taurus Risings, but first place for me has to be cancer. I mean I am a Tumblr girly and Tumble aesthetic in it's prime was definitely giving Cancer Rising vibes. I know it's not for everyone but idk for me it's that cuteness this placement has too. Cancer risings look like fairytale princesses to me with their glowy skin, and round baby doll faces. It breaks my heart that so many Cancer risings may not see how beautiful they are right now since it's so trendy to have buccal fat removal from your cheeks. Their youthful ingenue appearance is precious to me even if it's not on a trend. More love to round faces.

💚Aquarius Mercury - Few people are in my opinion as naturally witty and entertaining as an Aquarius Mercury. Intelligent, bold, and unique. People with this Mercury sign seem to have so many natural talents. This Mercury sign is usually the best conversationalist in any social setting as well as a savvy spokesperson in any work setting. Not everyone can keep up with the deep mind of this Mercury sign. So they can be unfairly labeled as being too kooky, or far fetched in their ideas. Aquarius is a tough sign in general since it is ruled by Saturn and can be associated with progressiveness, independence, and even rebelliousness. However, in Mercury Aquarius seems to be a great placement for anyone that wants to be a jack of all trades or wants to think outside the box and try new things. Most likely an Aquarius Mercury is sure to be an interesting individual with a signature flare that stands out. I personally find these individuals fascinating.

[kamenstranger]

A review(?) of Dandadan

Starting these reviews off is always the hardest part, but it often comes to me after some time filling out the rest of the article. Dandadan has been stubborn in that regard, so much so I've been trying to figure out where to start with this series since it first came out.

I began reading DDD before tankōbon's were being printed, hell before it even made it to NA digitally (There were translations in Europe which got them early iirc.) Then batches starting coming out, and I still have those original single chapters from Sept. 5 '21

I became captivated, but, like its namesake, describing why I enjoy DDD is daunting in how esoteric it all is.

The general plot is straightforward on its own: Momo Ayase, the granddaughter of a spirit medium, though circumstance meets with an occult obsessed otaku, Ken Takakura, and, yes, he's named after exactly who you think, which drives the Takakura obsessed Momo nuts. She calls him Okarun, which I will also be doing for the rest of this.

Okarun's big obsession is UFOs and aliens, which he believes in, but not ghosts. You see where this is going. Hi-jinks ensue, both go to hot spots for each others interest and what do you know, Momo gets abducted by Aliens and Okarun is possessed by a geriatric genital biting speed demon.

Feel free to re-read that last part a few times.

Suffice to say, Dandadan gets fucking nuts almost as soon as the first chapter, but we're not even close to how off the rails this series gets.

I'll save you the details of how they deal with the Turbo Granny, but I will say the mythos and rules surrounding the various spirits, urban legends, cryptids and aliens is handled with a shocking amount of intricate care. If you're like me, you grew up surrounded by a plethora of Unsolved Mysteries, caught UFO Files as it was airing, maybe you even had some of those Forbidden World books laying around from the 80s before getting into stuff like Yokai. Even though I don't really engage with that sorta thing outside Weird NJ nowadays (It stops being fun when people in public office are into conspiracies-- particularly of the nazi variety like lizard men and flat earth)

The narrative and aesthetic appeal of them has stuck with me.

Anyone that's read my Kamen Rider reviews would know how much of a sucker I am for that quintessential cryptid look, which Dandadan has plenty of along with just being absurdly unhinged and hilarious.

The first two volumes do a fantastic job setting up the limitations and powers of spirits in particular, eventually resulting in part of Turbo Granny's soul being trapped in a Meneki Neko and leaving her speed abilities with Okarun. Unfortunately, Okarun only got 1/3 of his bits back.

So now have two super powered protagonists touched by the supernatural and the unearthly on the search for…missing nuts. Or I guess testicles that look like magic golden orbs of power. That's seriously how we're kicking this off.

And yes, there is a basis for that in mythology called Kintama. If you're familiar with Gintama you probably knew that.

But beyond that basic set up… where the fuck do I even go from there? The series is far more than OTT action and good monster lore, but it's also hard to delve into the how and why of its overall qualities. Sure The supernatural and sci-fi bits are fantastic, and the comedy is wonderful, but it's a by product of the real core of Dandadan: the interpersonal relationships of the characters. Surprise.

Which yeah, if it wasn't clear from the get go, DDD has a romantic angle between Okarun and Momo.

Under the monsters, dick jokes, and the completely unhinged nature of everyone and everything is an oddly captivating and flat out adorable love story between our two leads, one that slowly unfolds but is challenged by the various shake ups from monsters, invaders and cast additions that occur to hinder that development; or in some cases push it further by bringing the two closer.

Okarun in particular very well might be one of my favorite interpretations of the Otaku with a heart of gold. He's a legitimately sweet person, cares for people, he trains his ass off to earn mastery over his powers to make things easier on Momo and to keep up with the ever increasing threats they face. In a sea of otaku power fantasy characters, it's nice to be reminded that characters with limitations and weaknesses to be overcome or dealt with are still showing up.

He's also just a total sweetheart to Momo.

And it's pretty clear even early on that the feeling is mutual. Momo is easily flustered whenever a cute girl gets a little too chummy with Okarun, or strings him along. She even retaliates in some cases.

Momo is also about as dorky as Okarun (As seen above) just in different ways, which makes the two complement one another while also contrasting in how much of a hot head Momo can be.

For a series that gets as bonkers as DDD, Momo's grade A shit talking "too stubborn to admit her feelings" gruff Gyaru personality helps ground the series with a rather realistic portrayal of a girl her age-- albeit one with psychic abilities and goes through some extreme struggles much later in the series.

In fact one of the more overlooked aspects whenever I read about Dandadan is how surprisingly dark the chapters start to get in the 80s onward. Because despite the major kick off involving Okarun having his balls stolen, the series is capable of being very sardonic.

For all the absurd fun like giant enemy crabs or the Flatwoods monster as a Sumowrestler, and even a daikaiju way later, you also have things like human sacrifices and tragic ghost stories which are treated with a heavy tone that is never undermined by that off-kilter comedy. You even see tones of that with Turbo Granny of all things, involving the trapped spirits of butchered girls.

Don't misunderstand, however, the series is first and foremost a romcom with horror elements, but sometimes the horror shines through in surprising ways. That nuance is also seen in the rest of the cast, which I've yet to talk about much because one of the biggest challenges of this whole thing is figuring out how.

Talking about Dandadan beyond the very bare basics of the opening chapters is difficult without spoiling something, it's part why I was hesitant to review it back when I first started reading, despite how enamored I was. For one thing, focusing on any one aspect would be a gross oversimplification, doing a disservice to how each angle of the series is handled. Conversely, delving into Dandadan as whole would mean recapping the story arcs and events because Dandadan has some of the most tightly woven threads I have seen in some time. I can barely graze the surface of why character dynamics work or are unique before inevitably getting into a full blown synopsis and spoiling character arcs and entire narrative structures, which is… frustrating, to say the least.

For example, I can't really give you a good look at Aira Shiratori without getting deep into how she's a schoolmate of Momo and Okarun, gets into a rivalry with Momo because Aira thinks she's a demon while viewing herself as "The special one"; a delusion made stronger when she gains her own demonic powers which is basically Sedusa. But over time she forms a bizarre friendship with the two over their trial and tribulations, while also dealing with the massive weight of guilt over cruel rumors she spread about Momo. But that really doesn't even begin to tell you how much of an absolute fucking perfect little bitch she is, and yet what an enjoyable dork she becomes. To do so would be to just tell you everything that happens in her story, which, while not complicated, is tied heavily into the narrative.

It's a similar scenario with Jin "JiJi" Enjoji, Momo's first crush, which you can imagine the upset that causes; one that's pretty goddamn funny because the dude, while handsome, athletically fit and arguably the strongest of the entire cast, has the personality of a goddamn muppet. So Okarun's getting all strung up on a guy even more goofy than him.

In a nice subversion, his relationship with Okarun develops into something surprisingly positive pretty quickly, if not without complications due to a fairly dark story with his character, which pushes Okarun even further in his training after Jin gets his own possession. And it also makes it all the more hilarious that the chipper muppet baby has a secondary Shadow the Hedgehog cracked to 11 persona that's a legit threat.

Then there's Kinta "Kinny" Sakata who is basically if Okarun was even more socially inept and a dipshit Gunpla addict who tried really hard to be a Jojo. His strengths is a vast knowledge of sci-fi tech and a chuuni like ability to imagine entire fantastical constructs; quite handy when mind reading alien nano machines enter the picture. It also helps break up the monotony of everyone else having or developing some sorta supernatural power.

And then we have Vamola, a character I literally cannot say a single thing about without giving away massive plot points. I can't even show a photo because her design itself contains spoilers. Just know that her story is when shit really hits the fan and will be a gut wrenching read while also having the most Battle Manga goodness.

What I can at least tell you is that for as much as Momo and Okarun are the main protagonists, Jin and Aira get damn good focus and are fully formed characters in their own right, they're not just a monkey-wrench thrown into the fray. I mean, they are also that, but they add to those elements while being more than a foil to our main heroes developing relationship, making the story much more varied and expansive than a supernatural will/won't they. Vamola especially in that area.

If there's one takeaway from this it's that Yukinobu Tatsu is capable of creating a great, varied cast full of humor and impeccable chemistry. (not to mention a lot of cheescake that shouldn't work as often as it does.) I'm constantly surprised with how masterful all the different pieces come together to create a compelling dynamic in this deranged Sci-Fi, Supernatural comedy mishmash. Hopefully I can convey a little bit of that Dada-esque appeal despite my spoiler aversion.

What's a lot easier for me to get across without spoilers, however, is the drop-dead gorgeous artwork. Good god is this series beautiful to look at.

Tatsu has a backround in, uh, backgrounds, and it shows on just about every page. Any one side panel has more detail than most double-page fight spreads in other books, and when they do a splash page it is breathtaking.

The fact this is a Weekly series is goddamn insane and… honestly kinda makes me a lowkey worried about their work ethic. But a lot of panels feature just the character on simple stark backgrounds (And some pages feel a little heavy on the reference material, if you get my meaning.) But even so, it's hardly a sacrifice for the impressive amount of work that goes into each chapter and how just about every other page has at least one impressive environment to gawk at.

Not only is the detail impeccable, but the layout, timing and expressions are goddamn phenomenal and a big part of making the series legitimately funny. That same talent translates seamlessly to high energy fights and impactful creepy moments.

This truly is one of the most compelling reasons to read the manga. At the time of this writing we're 5 episodes in the Science Saru anime and I want to make clear I'm enjoying it and do highly suggest watching it. I think their high octane stylistic approach is, in many ways, perfect for the series. There's clearly a lot of love put into translating page to screen best they can. Realistically, I know there's no way you could completely capture Tatsu's style 1:1, especially with what the industry is nowadays. The budget and man power it would take for that wouldn't be worth it.

But that sense of scope, scale, the depth, shading and a ton of small eccentricities is something unique to the manga and a big part of why it works. If you only know the anime then I think you're missing out. Plus you've got 8 volumes to read up on.

But also still watch the anime, I'd love a season 2. Hopefully with a bigger budget. Frankly, they're gonna need it.

That said, while I have praised and gassed up Dandadan, I should mention it has a number of trappings that by all means should not fly with me. As previously stated, there's a lot of cheesecake, and I like cheesecake, but it can bog down stories like this and they're a dime a dozen in the manga and anime world. At first glance DDD can look like that from the outside. There are so many instances of things that are annoying in other works, schlocky things (derogatory) that are sell themselves only on the limp-dicked exploitive elements like Fan service. Make no mistake, Dandadan is schlocky (complimentary) but it's also incredibly endearing not only outside those aspects, but in them. At least for the most part. I have to imagine it's aware of the more stupid indulgent elements but wisely plays them straight while at the same time employing a cleverness many other series fail to have.

For example, the characters are comically stripped very frequently, even (and usually) during otherwise semi-serious moments like battles (although not if the stakes are dire.)

But the cheescake is always balanced out by the other qualities. Hell, the cheesecake is often imbued a certain charm that is funny in itself or oddly sweet, which certainly becomes more true in the later chapters. Think more Cutie Honey and less Highschool of the Dead in terms of how it's handled.

A big hand in that is they're not afraid to get silly with all the characters, especially the girls, so it typically feels more tee-hee fun. They're almost if not equally goofy in their own ways and that does a lot in keeping it from being obnoxious. And ya know, they also have real developed personalities and relationships outside just having their clothes blasted off, which also happens to Okarun if that wasn't clear. Actually it's worse because he usually loses everything, and the same is also true for Jin.

It's so audacious in every aspect that I simply can't fault it. I mean, I also wouldn't fault anyone not gelling with it, but I just sorta expect it and roll with it for a series this absurd. I'm a critic, not a goddamn puritan. I know exactly what it is, and it's doing it far better than most. It is, at worst, background noise.

That's not to say the series handles all of its exploitative elements well. Rather infamously the first chapter has an almost not quite sexual assault for Momo. It's… not as bad as it sounds-- in part because it doesn't happen and also the situation is so absurd. Honestly I think there's been a bit much blown out of proportion with it. Still, the over the top nature of an Alien with a metal syringe dick getting his comeuppance by having it bitten off by a granny speed-demon can only mitigate the general grossness of the implication so much and I still wince at it. It's the only part of Dandadan that dips into a level a cheapness it otherwise sidesteps in most other endeavors. Thankfully, it happens early on, but it also isn't a great first impression, especially if you didn't have more chapters or episodes to view at the time, leaving you to wonder just what the hell kinda story this is.

It's worth noting some of the other early chapters have bumps here and there, but nothing quite on the level of chapter 1, and those parts are ironed out overtime to be a lot more palatable. Compare how chapter 3 handles T&A to chapter 26 and you'll know what I mean.

Aside from that, however, there is at least one semi major stigma I have against Dadadan's otherwise enjoyable self indulgent nature, which is that a lot of the monster designs are painfully derivative. And I mean DERIVATIVE. Just about every alien creature in this series is an Ultra Kaiju.

Oh Shin Godzilla in the case of Nessie.

And, look, I get homaging stuff you like. Dr. Slump has loads of references, Patlabor has references to Ultraseven, depending on which version of Urusei Yatsura you're looking at it's loaded with them, Project A-KO has them, Eva is a love letter to Jissouji Ultra (along with flat out copying a few fights from various 70s mecha anime) and even something like Bocchi The Rock is at least a quarter references. References are not the problem. Well, maybe a little, but I'm not gonna get Orson Wells on you here.

Regardless, its hard not to think that maybe they could've dialed it back a little bit.

The Z'gok in Gundam is based on Alien Zarabe but it's doesn't look like a knock-off version of it. But the Dover Demon in Dandadan looks like "original the character" Kanegon that turns into Baltan. Because it is.

Like come on, man. Even the Space Pirates in Metroid aren't this blatant.

Why this sticks out to much is because the art is so damn impressive but the design aspect is lacking in certain areas. I'm willing to give leeway for some designs if they're based on folklore elements like Ghosts, Yokai, and crypids. You want to make them recognizable, but can still work in cute references or original ideas without being as glaring as "we have Ultra Seijin at home." For what it's worth, I guess Dada knockoffs with Pegassa eyes are better than generic greys. But while it's cute at first, I felt it got irksome by the time I saw Shin Godzilla… and then Hipporit as a subterranean shows up. Then a tail-less xenomorph. And Alien Guts, and a Metal Gear, and Elecking, even an Alien Zarabe.

A lot of those do end up as cannon fodder so I can understand not wanting to put a lot of work into stuff that ends up being one offs. I can't deny the art looks incredible and hype as fuck. But man, it gets distracting sometimes, especially when Gomora shows up at one point with the body of Red King and later on they end up making that a major deity in an alien culture. It's not played as a joke at all. It is one of the most dead serious chapters… But it's still just an Ultra Kaiju. Sometimes I'm reading Dandadan and I'm having a great time and I'm getting all the referential designs, and I don't *hate* this, but in the back of my head all I can think of is that line in Akibaranger.

And on some level I do get how that borderline level of infringement adds to the absurdity, how the near mono focus of a singular love for Tsuburaya is charming. Hell, it's even refreshing in some ways considering how that hasn't really been a thing in Japan since the 80s. But it does still get a bit much from the sheer volume.

I think on some level Tatsu knows this because in the more recent chapters the Serpo Aliens are primarily depicted in their disguised forms and the fake Gomora gets a slight redesign in later appearances that's a lot more generic. I sort of get the impression things that were maybe meant to be one off gags ended up becoming reoccurring elements, but given the tone and humor of the series that's really hard to tell, for better or worse.

Although kudos to Science Saru saying fuck it and making the opening to the anime one big Ultraman reference. They know what they're doing.

All that said... I don't really know where to lead off from here. Dandadan is still ongoing, currently at about 170 chapters in Japan, while the anime is still currently airing the first season. So I can't really give a full review of either. Likewise, for all I know the series could go completely off the rails at some point-- in a bad way, I mean.

As it stands I'm still finding enjoyment out of this series and now seems good a time as any to suggest everyone check it out. There's multiple manga out, it's easily available digitally, there's the anime across multiple platforms in NA, we've got figuarts coming out. It's good to see.

I was long over due for look since first reading those Glitter screen-grabs some years back.

Funny enough, this late August I visited my Girlfriend in Illinois and got to see 8 volumes of Dandadan on the shelf in a comic shop, that was a nice surreal experience for something that wasn't even available digitally in NA when I first started reading it.

What I didn't realize at the time was when I took a photo of them on the shelf, it was September 5, three years to the day I got the first few chapters. So yeah, it was time for this to happen.

Given the on going status of DDD, I'll certainly be revisiting the series for a future look at and proper review. Until then, I encourage you to read the manga and see if you see what I see. It might not be some super deep narrative, but it is most certainly unique and well worth your time.

As always, thanks for reading.

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Miscellaneous Mammals

I apologize for the lateness -- I was about halfway through the Aberdeen Bestiary section at the end, then I caught a glimpse of the clock and realized that if I didn't get some sleep immediately I was going to be dead on my feet at work the next morning. So I had to postpone the rest until the next evening.

Very much in the home stretch now, only two left after this if I remember correctly. These are all the mammals that didn't make it into the main event (mane event... wait I'm just stealing jokes from Lion King now). Anyway.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you might be slightly less confused after visiting https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting.

All of these delightful critters are described in this post:

And next week's delightful critters for all comers to draw are in this post:

Now. Art below the cut.

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has once again done the entire roster. A lot of these are pretty great, and I particularly like the ones with a kind of paleo-art prehistoric vibe. I also just think the Klosweisht, Revklogwat, and Gershatrea have a charm to them. See the linked post for a little detail on each.

@pomrania (link to post here) decided to work a couple of this week's creatures into their Drawtober prompt -- they also posted them separately at this link here, if you want to know which is which, but the complete scene is just too good to pass up. I have no idea what the backstory for this scene might be, but I bet it's interesting.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) has also done the whole roster here. I'm enjoying the dedication here to showing the beasts doing whatever characteristic behaviors the entry ascribes to them; it gives this whole thing a certain dynamism. Particular shout-out to the dichotomy shown by the depiction of the Raenwegguk's wild thoughts and that of the Ngibealgul forgetting its wild nature. (Also thank you for the alt text.)

@wendievergreen decided to do all the ones with horns, so here you go. I think there's a striking variety here; each looks very different from each other one. I think the Shrobshong looks particularly interesting, but it appears to be having some difficulty.

@coolest-capybara picked two to really focus on -- the Thokragosk and the Kamyaweneg. (I believe the former is on the left and the latter on the right.) They're both based on moles, naturally: we can see the star-nosed Thokragosk being produced from the earth and the golden Kamyaweneg digging in darkness. I really like it; I didn't see these as a dichotomy of this sort, but maybe I should have.

They also did a second drawing with smaller illustrations of some of the others:

Honestly I think these are all great entirely because of their slightly unhinged nature. By which I mean, in all of these it looks like the artist decided to just Go Weird With It and it works. I think my favorite is the Klosweisht because, well, I just don't even know what to do with it but I love its impish charm.

All right, the Aberdeen Bestiary:

Shmeashagg

So I'm not actually sure whether this illustration is supposed to be this thing or the leopard itself, but... check that out, huh?

Anyway, this is the pard. If it mates with a lion, the result is a leo-pard. Why, where did you think leopards came from?

Also does it have a tattoo on its shoulder there? What is that?

Goggaerker

This is on one of the missing pages from the Aberdeen Bestiary, so I had to get the image from the Ashmole Bestiary instead.

Now, I'm not an artist, so I have no room to criticize, but what is this bush that appears to be just a rectangle of thick grass? And is that spear-wielder mid-dance, or did the artist not realize the second foot doesn't reach the ground until it was too late? Nice Stylized Trees though.

Also, this is the antelope.

Brotkarske

This one is on the other side of the same page as the antelope, so we're still in the Ashmole Bestiary.

A lot of things not to like about this scene; I can't help but notice that this unicorn (I assume everyone clocked this one immediately) looks more like a dog than a horse from the neck down. I'd also like to make note of the spear-wielder's goofy fin-hat.

Blue people like the axe-wielder are not hugely uncommon in medieval illustrations -- it's often kind of a weird stylized way of depicting people of color. Probably something to do with how in some European languages there's semantic overlap between "black" and "blue".

Revklogwat

Still in the Ashmole Bestiary -- there are a few pages of the "Beasts" section missing from the Aberdeen Bestiary all in a cluster, and we're moving through them here.

So yeah, I'm sure we all recognized the griffin as well. (Griffon? Gryphon? I can never settle on which variant I should be using.) The question here is what's going on with the pig? They look like they're embracing.

Honestly I'm not sure if the (brief) entry explains it or not. The Ashmole Bestiary doesn't have a translation, so I pulled the text for missing entries from the similar-but-not-identical Bodley MS 764, which does not appear to mention any pigs. Anyone comfortable with Latin paleography can check out the digitized Ashmole Bestiary and let me know.

...wait, hang on, I just double-checked Bodley MS 764, and in that one the griffin is holding a horse, which is mentioned in the entry. It's still an awkward pose, but in that one the horse is biting the griffin, so it's obvious it's supposed to be a fight. "Griffins eat horses" is not an uncommon thing, I think, so that's all fine...

Why is this one a pig?

Shrobshong

So I assume the idea was to show this thing falling off a hill, but they decided to draw a small symbolic hill next to it to give the general impression of what they meant? It looks like it's about to do a headstand. And I'm not sure why it has paws on its front legs but hooves on the back.

Oh, and it's the ibex.

This one also appears to be tattooed.

Biklanokyo

There's a bit of confusion in the bestiary tradition on whether the unicorn is separate from the monoceros. The Aberdeen Bestiary treats them separately. Behold its mighty mono-horn.

Nutogsheag

Some of you may have correctly recognized that this one shares some notable attributes with our very first entry, the Wutugald. And indeed, the leocrota (nobody ever agreed on how to spell the damn thing) is another telephoned hyena.

Raenwegguk

To fill in the redactions:

The boar gets its name, aper, from its wildness, a feritate, the letter f being replaced by a p; for the same reason, it is called by the Greeks suagros, meaning wild. For everything which is untamed and savage we call, loosely, agreste, wild.

Redacted them just in case anyone's Latin was good enough to recognize aper at a glance. I don't know how accurate the rest is.

It kind of fits that the medieval Europeans thought of the boar as almost archetypically "wild", "untamed", and "savage".

I cheated a bit on this one -- the second half of the entry is from Bodley MS 764 because I liked the unruly thoughts.

Klosweisht

Back in the Ashmole Bestiary because some vandal cut the illustration from the page in the Aberdeen Bestiary.

Okay, the entry says "bullock", but I'm really hoping the one in this illustration is a cow. Or, well, a bullock is a young bull, so maybe we're supposed to be looking at the calf.

This one's kind of misleading because it's specifically describing the version of this animal supposedly found in India, which is of course much different from the type of bull that the European author is familiar with.

The redacted etymology is as follows:

The bullock is called iuvencus because it undertakes to help man in his work of tilling the ground, or because among pagans it was always a bullock which was sacrificed to Jove - never a bull. For in selecting sacrificial victims, age also was a consideration. The word for bull, taurus, is Greek, as the word for ox, bos.

Kregichmon

I... don't have an illustration for this one. It turns out it doesn't occur in the Aberdeen Bestiary, but I pulled it from Bodley MS 764 along with the ones that were genuinely missing. It's the buffalo, though.

Thokragosk

I call this one, "Forsooth My Cat Hath Stolen All My Orbs So That I May Ponder Them No Longer". However, according to the transcription, this is a mouse gathering grain. I think it's interesting that the illustrator has never gotten a good look at a mouse.

I like that the bestiary entry for mice includes spontaneous generation, because that is one of the silly bits of early quasi-science that I find very charming. Not sure what that business about their livers is though.

Kamyaweneg

I think everyone probably recognized this one as the mole. Honestly I think the picture for it is cute.

Apes

Most of these have no pictures. There is one illustration for the Generic Ape, and we already did that one. All the different types of apes are denied imagery, except one that we'll get to.

Ghrastasag

This is the circopeticus. Which... I guess is a fictional tailed ape? Literally the only thing that comes up on Google for circopeticus or circopetici is bestiary scraps that just say "ape with tail".

bestiary.ca lists the spelling cericopithicus in its Ape entry, which does come up on Google but only as a name for the Generic Bestiary Ape (i.e. it's described as a fictional type of ape that [insert details from bestiary Ape entry here].)

Rigfengtog

This is the cynocephalus. The Aberdeen Bestiary calls them cenophali, but I'm pretty sure they mean cynocephali and bestiary.ca agrees with me. Which is... interesting. Because in other texts, cynocephali aren't apes, they're people with dog heads. Someone decided to kick them out of the Human Club. Does this mean we have to de-canonize St. Christopher? I'm pretty sure the church has made their opinion on non-human saints clear... I mean, I don't agree with it, but I'm not Catholic, so my opinion is probably irrelevant.

Ngibealgul

This is the... sphynx.

🤨

^ I don't know how to type emoji on my laptop, so I had to go find that one and copy-paste it because I felt so strongly that it's needed here.

Are we just simianizing any mythical beast that can talk?

Gerskatrea

This one gets its own image.

This one is the satyr. Which kind of falls into the same category as the last two, but at least it makes more sense as a critter to be pongified than the sphynx.

I guess whatever it's doing there is what the entry meant by pantomime.

Maerdradli

Fizzling out on another one that's kind of a shrug, this is the callitrix. More or less the same sitation as the above cericopithicus -- you now know more or less everything there is to know about it.

I will say that, while I don't speak either language, I recognize enough Greek & Latin roots that this name has me considering going back for another raised-eyebrow emoji. Why'd you name it that, mr. naturalist? explain yourself.

i don’t think that smushing those roots together is grammatically sound but still. gives me pause.

[delimeful]

mere monstrosity (3)

warnings: spider, mild blood & injury, remus-typical death and gore mentions, misunderstandings

-

Remus knew this place was going to be the perfect new home the moment they entered the walls.

It hadn’t looked like much from the outside, sure, but the hollow wall interior was absolutely littered with enough cobwebs and old spiderwebs to mummify a borrower.

As someone with a twin brother to torment, Remus mentally tucked that visual away for future pranks and/or lifelong trauma.

“Oh, excellent,” said the unwitting future victim in question, looking at the nails driven into the wood in a classic borrower staircase pattern. “That’ll make exploring much easier. Maybe we’ll have neighbors!”

Roman was, as always, an incurable optimist. The two of them didn’t tend to have neighbors for long. Remus couldn’t imagine why; he was a delight, and Roman was funny enough to be tolerable.

Case in point, he ran a hand along the metal lining of one of the smaller support beams and grimaced at the thick coat of dust and grime. “Perhaps not the cleanest of neighbors.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Remus replied, shooting his brother an unhinged grin before hurling his pack directly at him, knocking him clean over. “Dibs on the biggest crevice!”

“Oh, you mudstained scourge of the earth—,” Roman started, shoving the bag off himself and scrambling to his feet.

Halfway up the wall, taking the precarious nail stairway two steps at a time, Remus made one of his top five favorite obscene gestures and continued up and around the corner with glee.

The spooky aura only intensified as he scampered down the narrow pathways, shadowy corners with the barest glints of spiderweb strands tucked into every nook and cranny. No corpses yet, but one could always hope.

Roman’s voice had already faded into the distance; Remus had always been the faster between the two of them, particularly with his complete lack of regard for safety when it came to parkouring around any and all potential obstacles.

His Royal Slowpokeness would catch up eventually. How long it would take depended on how soon he remembered to ditch his own pack now that they were out of the elements.

There was a little peephole cleverly carved into a knot of this wall’s baseboard, and Remus paused to take a gander.

A fairly normal living room, to his disappointment. With any luck, the humans would still be entertaining to watch. If they weren’t, Remus wasn’t above sowing a little discord and watching the resulting fallout.

Moving on, he noticed that there were corpses cropping up now, even if they were only of the small insect variety. They didn’t seem as desiccated as the earlier webs; was there still a spider living here? A whole cluster of them, even?

Roman would have an aneurysm. Remus grinned at the idea, hauling himself up onto one of the higher support beams and peering down at the musty dark below as he skipped along it.

There probably weren’t really that many, especially since Remus hadn’t seen even a teensy tiny one yet. Not that he had to tell Roman that.

“Um,” a voice ahead of him started, “please don’t freak out.”

Now, there was a sentence that almost always preceded something interesting and/or freaky! Remus’s head snapped around with eager anticipation.

It took a moment to spot them properly— Remus had assumed the voice was coming from another borrower, and had started scanning the area at his eye level or lower, since he was on the taller side for a borrower.

As it turned out, he should have started high.

Because lurking in the shadows over the next support beam was a stranger that was a good arms’ length taller than Remus. One that had about half a dozen too many legs to be your standard borrower.

“Holy shit, it’s Spiderman!” Remus crowed, nearly vibrating with excitement.

The stranger looked like something out of an old storybook, with a mostly normal upper half stacked on top of a sizable tarantula body. They were wearing a patched up hoodie, but from what he could see, the transition from human to spider was seamless, like one of those part-horse people from the fantasy movies their last house had been so into. A spider centaur.

They didn’t seem set to charge at him like some more aggressive breeds of spiders would, expression pinched but not angry. Their front legs were lifted slightly in defensive alarm, but their human arms were also lifted, palms out, in a ‘don’t attack’ sort of gesture.

Or a preparation to attack, if they could shoot webbing from their hands like the spiderguy from the movies.

Either way, Remus strode closer, his grin widening to painful. “What are you? Do you live here? Do you eat borrowers? Are you going to dissolve my organs?”

The spidercentaur skittered back slightly, eyes going wide. This was a fairly standard response to Remus, really, but he couldn’t deny a tinge of pride at the fact that he could induce it in even spider monster creatures considerably larger than him.

“No!” he blurted, spider legs lifting higher for a moment before they regathered their wits. “I mean, no, I don’t eat people. I’m— I’m not going to hurt you.”

Sounded like there weren’t any mummified borrowers already here after all. Bummer.

“Aw, boo,” Remus said, slowing his pace slightly in hopes of making his new friend less skittish. This was one neighbor he absolutely didn’t want to scare off. “You’ve really never wanted to bite any annoying new neighbors?”

Spiderguy blinked a few times, but ultimately answered, “I don’t typically have neighbors long enough to get annoyed by them. Not ones my size, anyhow.”

If most borrowers couldn’t handle Remus, it made sense that they wouldn’t properly appreciate a horrifying spidercentaur as a wallmate, either. Wait, did that last bit imply they’d felt the urge to bite annoying humans? Oh, this was going to be so fun.

First, though, they needed to be reassured that their days of accidental terror-induced isolation were over. They’d figure out pretty quickly that Remus was harder to scrape off than chewed gum on the bottom of a shoe. Grosser, too.

“Well, you’re in luck!” he informed them, bounding forward once more with the half-formed intention of standing on his toes and attempting to sling an arm around their shoulders. “I consider myself something of a professional nuisance, so you’ll have opportunities abound to get annoyed and—!”

Spiderguy’s expression went alarmed, and they reached forward with the first syllables of a warning on their tongue, but Remus had already stepped forward and found nothing but empty air.

He toppled off the support beam with a comical screech, and felt his downward momentum stalled for the briefest moment by the unmistakable sensation of clinging spiderweb.

The angle of his descent changed, but the velocity didn’t, and he barely even registered the change before he was slamming, skull first, into something solid enough to make him see stars.

Wow, he thought in his last half-second of consciousness, it looks like I was the mummified borrower corpse all along.

—

Roman had utterly and totally lost track of his wayward twin.

This was both a common occurrence and a deeply unfortunate one.

Especially since there might be other borrowers living here. Ones that were in no way prepared to face the full impact of Remus’s unexpected presence without Roman there to soften the blow.

“Remus!” he tried to shout, but it came out as more of a wheeze as he pushed himself up the latest set of stairs. “I’m going to write you out of my will, you atrocious little abomination!”

No response. Not even the distant ruckus of Remus flinging himself over lethal falls with gleeful abandon.

They were so going to get kicked out within the day. Roman was tired of running around in the muck and dodging errant wildlife at every hour, dammit! He wanted to take a day-long nap, drink some tap-cold water, and steal cute fabrics from humans! Probably even in that order!

Huffing in frustration, he strode forward, shivering with disgust as a web strand grazed his arm.

This place was practically cloaked in them; his desperate hope that they wouldn’t have to deal with any creepy crawlies was dying a slow, agonized death the further he went.

If anyone did live here, they might be just as content with the disgusting and distressing as Remus was. The thought made him shudder. One of his brother was more than enough for the world. In fact, he’d rather deal with the spiders.

Half a foot ahead, where the hall ended, movement caught his gaze. Roman stopped dead.

A single, huge, hairy appendage was poking out from around the corner. After a moment, another joined it. And another.

Roman took it back. He took it back so hard.

Despite his sudden realization that two of Remus would be fine actually, the unmistakably arachnid legs continued to edge out in front of him, bringing with them a round thorax that was almost as big as him on its own.

Swallowing thickly, Roman reached up to silently grab the hilt of his sword. He suddenly wished he had something more versatile than his classic sewing pin saber.

The tarantula crept further into view, and Roman blanched at the sight of a very non-arachnid head and torso attached to the spider, its form slightly bent over as it slowly dragged something along with it.

Forget weird neighbors. There were actual monsters in this house.

It was only years of practice keeping his volume down even in the most heated of arguments with his brother that let him wrangle down a shriek loud enough for humans three houses over to hear.

As a result, the actual sound he produced was something like a strangled yelp, too quiet to make it past the walls, but more than enough to make the monster’s head snap around.

“Uh,” it said eloquently, and dropped what it’d been dragging around the corner. “This isn’t what it looks like?”

The odd thump of it hitting the ground finally tore his gaze away from those too-many legs, and Roman looked down to see Remus.

His brother, uncannily silent. Face slack and body unmoving. Half of him covered in thick strands of webbing.

There was blood trailing down one side of his face.

Roman wasn’t sure precisely what his face did in response to the sight, but it was telling enough to make the monster scramble back a few steps, hands raising in faux-innocence.

His former terror had transmuted into something sharper. Something far more dangerous.

“Hold on, I swear—,” it started.

Roman drew his sword, and it was smart enough to stop talking and start running.

—

Virgil was going to die from the stupidest misunderstanding imaginable.

He scrambled down the nearest set of support struts so quickly he almost tripped over his own legs, ignoring the instincts shrieking in the back of his mind that demanded he go up.

A very determined borrower could get just about anywhere a spider could climb, and if Virgil got cornered, he was screwed.

A stab from a pointed skewer like that wasn’t guaranteed to hit one of his lower organs on the first try, but the odds were uncomfortably high. It would be a slow, painful, internal-bleeding sort of death.

No, what he needed wasn’t some shadowy nook to get trapped in. He needed open space, the unsheltered kind that most wall-dwellers avoided like the plague.

Mostly because it was just as likely to get one killed as the plague. If this had happened a month ago, Virgil wouldn’t have even dreamed of a plan like this. He would have gladly taken the inevitable stabbing over rushing out into the humans’ living room, scurrying over the exposed carpet for all to see.

Especially since he knew exactly who was sitting at the desk in the corner of the room at this time of day, right on schedule.

The other borrower was still following him with the sort of intensity that suggested he wanted nothing more than Virgil’s head on a pike.

Seeing as he looked eerily similar to the borrower that Virgil had been lugging around the bloody unconscious body of, the assumption was probably pretty spot-on.

The entrance he was seeking was dead ahead, and he couldn’t help the surge of relief as he bolted through it, tearing the wallpaper a little further in the process. It felt unnatural to reveal himself so brazenly, but Virgil imagined being stabbed would feel worse.

He didn’t actually have to go all the way over to the desk, not when any borrower with sense would surely stop at the doorway, but he didn’t know what else to do, and his nerves were already too fried to feel his usual anxiety about interacting with a human.

Wait. Any borrower with sense—

Virgil twisted to check over his shoulder, and yelped at the sight of his pursuer, still right on his tail.

“Are you crazy?” he demanded, his heart pounding as he scrambled away on half-numb legs.

“Nobody tries to murder my brother and gets away with it,” the borrower shouted at him, lifting his sword higher as he charged.

Virgil flinched back, sure that he was moments away from sharp, blinding pain—

A shadow fell over them, and he opened his eyes in time to see the borrower’s expression drop into sheer terror before a wall slammed between them with a ground-shaking thump.

Virgil’s limbs curled up automatically, even as he recognized the interceding wall— an oversized hand. He followed the connected arm up, craning his neck to stare up at the face of the human looming over them.

Oh. The humans looming over them.

“Stop that immediately,” Logan commanded, his expression just as thunderous as his voice. His other hand was cupped, hovering just shy of Virgil as though entirely prepared to bodily shelter him from danger.

It should have felt dangerous, but when Virgil’s legs moved, it was to shuffle just a little further under the shadow of that protective hand.

Standing behind Logan, Janus looked Virgil over intently for a moment before sliding his narrow gaze towards the borrower.

“I’d listen,” he leaned forward over Logan’s shoulder with a sharp-edged smile that promised nothing but trouble. “Unless, of course, you’d prefer to try your luck with a more willing opponent.”

Virgil felt a sense of foreboding as he watched the situation begin to spiral entirely out of control. He’d fled the walls in the hopes that with some distance forced between them, the situation would defuse enough to explain the misunderstanding. Instead, he’d gotten his pursuer pinned under the attention of two blatantly pissed humans.

So much for good first impressions.

[sometimes-love-is-enough]

HiIII II min, what are you reading/watching/listening to at the moment, i need recs

QUITE A LOT. i am reading and watching and playing and listening to. A LOT. I'm kind of astounded that I'm actually doing all this at once, but here we go -

Books:

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - y'all already know what this one is about. I'm here to tell you that it's brilliantly done with a genuinely engaging writing voice and style, and a terrifyingly good unreliable narrator. If you're up to stomaching the obvious pedophilia, I fully recommend it.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville - slightly racist biologically inaccurate whale hunting. For people who know nothing about whales. I've been on a classics kick recently, I'm trying to get my way through a lot of the big 'classic' books and this is what feels like the final boss. It's good, but it's dense as all fuck, and I'm struggling despite being very close to the end with it. I don't recommend this one quite as much, but it's good enough for me to stick with it.

Sacred and Terrible Air by Robert Kurvitz - this is the Disco Elysium novel, translated from Estonian by a variety of lovely people. It's good, but it's also pretty dense - maybe not as much as Moby Dick, but it makes it hard to read in large chunks. I'm reading it alongside my beloved @lifewithoutrainydays, and i really need to put more time into it.

S. by Doug Dorst - fucking fascinating book. It's presented as a book called 'Ship of Theseus' by an author that doesn't exist, and it looks and feels like an actual old library book, complete with scribblings in the margins (that form a whole other meta story on top of the book itself), postcards and printouts jammed in between the pages, and an old library label on the spine. Still trying to figure out how to read it, but plucking away at it in-between all my other endeavors.

Our Bloody Pearl by D.N. Bryn - a.k.a., me trying to step out of my comfort zone and read some recommendations, and not quite clicking with it. Found family pirate-siren trauma-recovery story. I like the things being done with communication difficulties, but on the whole it feels a bit too fanfiction-y, which is not something I tend to like in my original fiction. I'd recommend it if you're a fan of that sort of thing, though!

Comics:

Awful Hospital: Seriously the Worst Ever by Bogleech - the author says they've never read Homestuck. I don't know if I believe them. A glorious gruesome surreal hellish trip through a very very bad hospital, seriously the worst ever, and beyond! I'm pretty early on but enjoying the fuck out of it. I don't know where it's going and I'm scared to find out.

Doctor Strange: Fall Sunrise by Tradd Moore - I read this ages ago, but finally have it in printed edition, and that rules because everything about this FUCKS SEVERELY. the art style is unhinged and brilliant, the writing is weird and beautiful, and the plot is........ the weirdest thing Doctor Strange comics have ever done since Into Shamballa, actually. i'm taking it slow this time because i want to savor every panel.

The Apothecary Diaries (manga edition) - this has been on pause for a bit, because everything else I was reading distracted me, but it's good and it's open in another tab right now, so I'll include it. Murder mysteries in an ancient Chinese court, starring the weirdest poison-obsessed apothecary girl who has ever existed. She poisons herself for fun and gets excited over particularly deadly toxins, I love her to death.

Games:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - I loved the books and the show, so I figured it was about time to actually play the games. I'm a tiny bit addicted to it at this point. It's a good fucking game. I like killing monsters and I like playing Fantasy Magic The Gathering and i really really like the battle music. I'm 100%ing this one or I'm dying in the process.

Lobotomy Corporation - has fallen a bit by the wayside because of the Witcher, whoops, but I do fully intend to get back to it at some point. I know there's some less-than-great stuff going on vis-a-vis the creators, but I'm not really engaging on that level. I'm just enjoying it as an SCP-like creature-management simulator. There's some very fun anomalies with very fun writeups in this one, and I enjoy the mental challenge of figuring out what makes them all tick.

Listening to:

Critical Role, Campaign Three - I'm not utterly obsessed with it, but it's a nice long chunk of listening for me to get my evening routine done to the sound of.

And on my podcast 'I'm all caught up, but I regularly listen when new episodes come out' list are: The Magnus Protocol, Dungeons and Daddies, The Adventure Zone, and Apocrypals.

Watching:

The X-Files - all of it, start-to-finish, because I have somehow managed to avoid all spoilers of a sci-fi cultural touchstone all this time, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes. I love some fucked-up monster-of-the-week sci-fi.

[noodyl-blasstal]

Blupjeans Week Day 1

It's @blupjeansweek! Blupjeans week last year was the thing that encouraged me to start writing fics, so it's been fun to play with it again! Like last year, it's loosely connected (so far anyway!). So, now I'll stop blethering and here's some words. Day 1 - refuge

16 hours to go.

16 hours until he tanked his viva, fucked up everything he’d been working for, and his supervisor says he hadn’t ever believed Barry was capable, he just wanted his fees... Well, John would definitely say that if Barry could get hold of him but it had become abundently clear over the course of his postgrad research that John wasn’t the easiest guy to reach. Which might not be a problem if it wasn't his literal job to support Barry through his PhD.

At this point Barry hadn’t heard from him in two weeks despite a variety of progressively more panicked emails. The last conversation they had was John's particularly un-comforting statement that Barry should “...expect majors" because "it’s not the worst thesis I’ve ever read, but it certainly isn’t the best.” Barry's secondary supervisor hadn’t even bothered to show up for that meeting, so it was anyone’s guess what his take was. Barry assumed it wasn’t great.

He grabbed the pot from the coffee machine he’d abducted from the kitchen a few days ago and perched on his desk instead. He debated swigging straight from it, that seemed more efficient than using a mug, plus, his hand seemed to be shaking a bit and he didn't want to risk trying to pour it into a mug then into himself - he needed every drop to keep him awake long enough to work out how to fix this disaster.

“Knock knock! This is your 16 hour anxiety check in.” Barry’s door creaked open, but Lup didn’t appear. “Barrrrooollllld?” She sing songed, then added hopefully “...have you finally decided to sleep?” 

“Come in Lup.”

“Damn, you’re still up.” Oh, of course she was disappointed. She was probably sick of having to baby him through his anxiety. “...Not that I don’t want to see you, I was just hoping you were getting some rest.”

Barry held up the coffee pot in a cheers motion then took a swig from it. He was fine, this was fine, but if Lup left in disgust he could get back to scribbling increasingly unhinged and hard to read annotations on his sticky notes and trying to work out how to pull this disaster over the finish line. 

"Doing totally fine, huh?” Lup eyed him disapprovingly. “Barry, you have to take a break. You're going to crash in the middle of it if you keep this up. You've got what, like 15 and a bit hours?" She waited for him to nod in affirmation. "Cool, then you've got time to sleep."

He didn't have time to sleep, he had to try and plug the holes in the sinking ship that represented four years of his life. Suddenly Lup was in front of him, he hadn't noticed her moving, but she had appeared and was gently prying the sticky note monstrosity he hadn’t realised he’d picked up out of his hand. "No, I need to…"

"Sleep." Lup said. "You need to rest. There isn't a single thing in here you don't know. It's fucking brilliant, no, don't argue with me, I've read it." Barry snapped his mouth closed, he wanted to protest, but he wasn't entirely sure he could remember what he was arguing with, there was no fight left in him. "Now give me the coffee pot, Barold." He gripped it more firmly. No, not even for Lup. He couldn't relinquish this, it was the only thing keeping him awake. Lup raised and eyebrow. “Barold, don’t make me full name you. I'll do it! Hand over the pot.” Lup held her hand out expectantly.

"I'll fall asleep."

"That's the idea my guy. C'mon, gimme the sweet sweet bean juice. You don't need that where you're going."

"Where I'm…? Where am I? I'm here." Barry looked down to check.

Lup used his moment of confusion to swipe the coffee pot. Usually it wouldn’t have worked… probably, okay, it would have, but slower and he would have protested more. Right now his hands felt too heavy to even think about taking evasive action. "Yoink!" Lup said triumphantly, holding it aloft. Then he blinked and she didn't have the coffee pot any more. Maybe she magicked it somewhere? Barry turned his head to try and find it, and then she was tugging at his hand. "Not here, Bear, somewhere comfy."

"The chair's comfy, it's ergonomic." He paid a lot of money because the guy in the shop was really confident about that.

Lup snorted and tugged harder. "Barold Jorts Bluejeans, you're coming with me." 

"My name isn't…"

"...Ssssh." Lup might have been laughing. Barry wasn’t entirely sure, maybe it was him actually? Should stand? Oh, actually, he was up and moving and Lup still had hold of his hand and maybe she didn't have to let it go and she could just keep holding his hand and he could hold hers and maybe she’d have a nap with him. They stopped.

"This is your room." Barry wasn't entirely sure how they'd got there, time was doing strange things. 

"Yup, cha'girl decided you couldn't be left unattended in yours, it's too full of anxiety, even if I get you to sleep you'll marinade in it. So, we're here." Lup pushed the door wide.

Her bed had developed some kind of blanket canopy, there were string lights strewn around, and he could hear the soft patter of rain even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. "It's… this is… magic. You made it all magic."

"Uh huh, now get in." Lup lifted a corner of blanket, it revealed a whole mess of pillows and blankets waiting inside. The bed looked so cosy, so inviting, so much better than his boring bed. He shouldn't, he really shouldn’t, he should study more, he couldn't afford to get off track. "That’s it, Bear." Oh. He was in the process of crawling in, and he was comfy. He flopped bodily into the bed and everything smelled of Lup’s orange body wash. Maybe he could just live here.

"I should do more prep." He mumbled, and sank into the pillow nest, rubbing his face on a soft fleece blanket. 

"Uh huh." Said Lup. 

"There's… I need to… you see, I have..."

"I'll wake you up in a few hours, sleep tight, Bear."

“Sleep tight Lup.” Barry mumbled from the depths of his blanket cocoon.

Part 2 here.

[talenlee]

Union Carbide's Value

The images of this article are ads. They’re ads for a company called Union Carbide, which proudly promoted themselves through the 50s and 60s for the way their chemical plants and development projects were capable of transforming the world. They could bring pesticides to your community, kill the bugs and help you be self-sustaining as a culture, a promise they started in South America, and then made a big, active push to start doing in India.

These ads are now, absolutely unhinged to look at, not just in the 1960s put-your-whole-butt-into-the-project industrial futurism represented by the hands of a vast white man reshaping the world to his wants, but they become even more messed up when you understand what this company wound up doing, and who it wound up hurting, because of its choices.

Content Warning: I’m going to talk about the Union Carbide gas leak disaster in Bhopal, India. It is an incident in which a lot of people were exposed to a dangerous chemical that killed and injured a lot of them (a lot). I’m not going to go into grisly detail and I don’t intend to go in-depth on the process of the accident.

Spoiler Warning: The bad guy is capitalism, again.

In 1984, a pesticide plant built and maintained by a company called Union Carbide India Limited, which was, coincidentally, 50.9% owned by the American company Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation, suffered a catastrophic gas leak that released a chemical agent known as methyl isocyanate (MIC) over the towns around the plant.

This chemical is colourless but has a sharp, pungent odour, which is useful for detecting it as it creeps into your system. One of the things this chemical does that I didn’t know there was a term for was that it’s a lachrymatory agent, which if you recognise that word, you know it because it’s a thing cops throw at you. MIC is not the agent in tear gas, but it’s the same kind of thing that aggravates the eyes and tear ducts. This stuff is safe only up to a volume of .004 ppm, or ‘parts per million’ – a very small amount. You can’t smell it until it hits 5 ppm, at which point it’s gotten real dangerous in how it messes with your body, particularly your nerves.

Notably, MIC is heavier than air, meaning that it crept along the ground as it leaked from the plant, which just so happens to have made it really dangerous to anyone who was low down to the ground compared to standing up, such as children or people sleeping on or near the ground.

Union Carbide’s leak happened at night.

Bonus: It’s flammable.

Arranged around the Bhopal plant were a variety of towns that were made up of people who were there to work for the plant or serve the people who were working for the plant, and of course, their families, which included elders and children. The population around Bhopal was hard to precisely quantify (the central government not being one with a ton of perfect information), but the estimates put it at around 500,000 people living in these spaces who were exposed to the MIC.

Note: That’s not ‘how many people, total, were there.’ That’s how many people the estimates are confident were exposed.

This is one of the reasons why the Union Carbide gas leak in Bhopal is regarded as the worst industrial accident in history.

This is one of those stories that I feel are well-known if you know anything about it at all; you’re either a very normal person whose experience of massive national industrial disasters is about the things you’ve seen in the news or mentioned in other media, or you’re like me and you pay attention to podcasts or Youtube channels or books about how some things went catastrophically wrong somewhere or other, in a sequence of texts that seems to present the idea that maybe capitalism is just bad at taking care of people, weird, I’m sure there’s no particular reason for that.

When it comes to large-scale disasters, especially given its potential environmental impact and recent TV series bringing it back into focus, the general vibe is that Chernobyl was ‘one of the worst disasters in history.’ Which, make no mistake, Chernobyl is and remains one of the worst disasters in history, but it’s in a way we have a hard time measuring, because we tend to look at disasters in terms of their immediate deadly outcomes.

Wikipedia picks a range between 95 deaths and 4,000 deaths for Chernobyl, which is again, a simplification of its values. But in raw dead, we can point to Chernobyl killing about 4,000 people based on whatever pixies Wikipedia gets its information from. To contrast with that, the estimated dead from the Union Carbide leak in Bhopal starts at 3,787 dead, near the height of estimates for Chernobyl. When you look at the people individually impacted, Pripyat, the city by Chernobyl had a population of 49,000 people exposed to the potential harm of the reactor. The Bhopal gas leak impacted again, half a million people.

One really easy thing to point to is that Chernobyl happened in a Soviet state and the victims were white, while Bhopal is a very clear example of an American, capitalist company that messed up in a way that killed a lot of brown people. Make no mistake, the racism is part of it, and the normalcy of it too – after all, companies have accidents sometimes, oops, guess that’s just part of it.

When I wrote about Chernobyl I talked about how hard it was to properly consider the scale of the disaster because of the way actual immediate deaths were rare while an enormous number of people were heavily impacted by the disaster in ways that shortened their lives. Bhopal is kind of so much worse because also, yeah, a lot of people died, and also the land around the place was really permanently damaged, and the harm was so vast there was no way to really address it, and also because the harm was so vast, well what are you going to do about it, not like Union Carbide could fix the problem they caused with their negligence.

The system of systems in which we live is one where half a million people injured is an acceptable problem because once it’s happened, it can’t be addressed. Causing problems on such a vast scale is acceptable, because you can’t do the one thing that makes it right (which is give them money). It’s a vision of justice that is purchased, that all things in life can be measured and weighted in terms of their relationship to money. If they hurt enough people enough, then there’s no way they can reasonably make good on that, they can’t afford to pay it back, and so…

That’s just gotta be okay.

Maybe the government will help you.

This kind of externality is pretty normal under capitalism. In 1952, a weather event meant that the pollution that the city of London was generating settled down on the city for a few days, creating a severe weather event that killed somewhere between 10,000 to 12,000 people. Turns out that was just enough people dying that the government could make a good case for starting a set of laws to address that and make it so the air in London was livable, and it only took four more years to get that done.

Union Carbide is still around, you know. The company was acquired by Dow, because its stock price was hurt a lot by the disaster they caused in Bhopal (and the disaster they caused in West Virginia, and disaster they caused here in Australia over land damage). After the Union Carbide Gas Leak Disaster in Bhopal, they sold off brands they had to try and generate money, which includes Glad trash bags (which we use) and Eveready Batteries (which I’m sure I have some of in the house). They were bought out by Dow, for stock.

They were worth 11 billion dollars when they were bought, and now they exist as just a part of Dow. They made about 4 billion dollars in 2019, which is down overall. Turns out you just can’t make the same kind of profits as you could when you were able to cut enough corners that half a million people were exposed to your flammable tear gas leaks.

It’s enough to make you wonder how these systems can be captured, can be punished, can be made to address the violence they do. Is it right to murder a company? Is it right for the state to execute them? If the company isn’t responsible, what about the person in that company who made the choice? If they did so, knowingly, how many people is the threshold for your personal willingness to kill in the name of maximising profits?

About 5 million people a year die thanks to abnormal temperatures.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[thisiswhereikeepdcthings]

The winners of each of the seven polls, plus the three non-winners with the highest total vote count.

See the other polls here

[dustedmagazine]

Marika Hackman — Big Sigh (Chrysalis)

Photo by Steve Gullick

Marika Hackman’s “No Caffeine” is a cool temperature frenzy, stylish and poised and clinging to a ledge by its fingernails. The artist sings with a clean, uninflected purity about COVID lockdown induced psychosis, her voice a balm but the lyrics anything but soothing. “Occupy your mind, don't stay home/Talk to all your friends, but don't look at your phone/Scream into a bag, try to turn your brain off/ Make an herbal tea, don't throw up,” she chants, serene despite the agitated pulse of bass, the skittery angst of snare that push the song forward. It’s close to diva pop, especially in the chorus, but of a particularly unhinged variety. The slick of pop, the raw of self-immolation sit right next to each other in a fascinating bipolar opposition.

As the single intimates, Marika Hackman had a rough time in the early 2020s and is just now making her way back. The artist was on a roll in 2020, hot off the release of her breakout Any Human Friend and finished with a tour (the last date was March 5, 2020, just before the lockdown started). But like many artists, she found the combination of anxiety, isolation and tedium anathema to creative progress. She couldn’t write for months. A covers album, with stripped down, drum-machine, acoustic guitar and keyboard versions of Radiohead, Elliott Smith, the Shins and Grimes songs, served as a reset, and now comes Big Sigh. It’s a very good set of songs, sleek and wrenching at the same time.

I like the wobbling uncertainty of the guitar riff on the title track, an off-balance lick that reminds me faintly of Nirvana. Like Cobain & Co., Hackman has a way of careening from skin-flaying self-scrutiny to raging pop choruses, though she cloaks both extremes in a chilled, premeditated prettiness. “Hanging” though nearly whispered and couched in introspective piano chords, puts a luminous coating on dysfunction and disease. The verse fairly shimmers, but the imagery in it is brutal. Croons Hackman, “I'm going home to intubate/'Cause every time we talk I suffocate/Remember when you said I'm a disease/And how you'd like to kill me in your dreams.”

You can trace Hackman’s lineage through a lengthy list of songwriters who have made art out of women’s suffering — Fiona Apple and Courtney Love, come to mind, but also Sinead O'Connor — but that doesn’t lessen the pull of Big Sigh. Here’s an artist who’s been through the fire and came out different, damaged and beautiful.

Jennifer Kelly

[fervency-if]

How would the ROs play interactive fiction games if someone asked them to try them out? Like style of playing, approach romance etc!

The Physician would make the choices that she felt were most morally sound regarding her own real-life opinions, to see what would happen to herself if she was in the situation of the game. It wouldn't be a full self-insert, but the character would be quite similar to her, and she would most often play as a bisexual woman. Romance wouldn't be too important, but if there was a character that she felt was compatible to her own, she would go for it.

Aubrey's character (who would most of the time be a bisexual man, but he would probably play as other genders, too) would flirt with and seduce every character that could be flirted with and seduced. Overall, he would make the most unhinged choices, and then he would be shocked and appalled when it came back to bite him. He just died badly? Actions have consequences? The very nerve! All in all, his playthroughs would be pure chaos.

Vesa would just have fun, trying out plenty of different things, playing as a wide variety of characters that she put much thought into beforehand. Definitely role-playing, and getting quite immersed. When it comes to romance in the games, that, too, would vary, but I'm sure that she would very much enjoy romancing characters overall.

Narciso would make the choices that he felt were the most logical and clever for the situation. He would strive for a good and fair outcome for his character. He wouldn't be particularly interested in romance.

Roswhen would like to play as someone very good, pure, and wholesome. It would feel rewarding to them to see all the good that came out of it - they would want their character to be popular. They would absolutely love to romance and befriend other characters, having a lot of fun with that, picking the people who would most appeal to them in real life to romance. They would most often play as a bisexual, non-binary person, but switch it up from time to time.

Elan would play as characters that were very different from himself - like a cheerful, lesbian woman, or a composed, aromantic asexual non-binary individual. It wouldn't be fun at all to play as himself, he thinks. He would try to make immoral choices from time to time, but if his character was too cruel, he would get a guilty conscience and feel bad, at least if they got called out. He would try out romances from time to time, because that is a fascinating subject to him.

[haggishlyhagging]

The Dionysian solution for women, which is violation of our own Hag-ocratic boundaries, is The Final Solution. To succumb to this seductive invitation is to become incorporated into the Mystical Body of Maledom, that is, to become "living" dead women, forever pumping our own blood into the Heavenly Head, giving head to the Holy Host, losing our heads. The demonic power of Dionysian deception hinges on this invitation to incorporation/ assimilation, resulting in inability to draw our own lines. To accept this invitation is to become unhinged, dismembered. Refusing is essential to the process of the Self's remembering, re-fusing.

The madness which is the Dionysian Final Solution for women is confusion—inability to distinguish the female Self and her process from the male-made masquerade. Dionysus sometimes assumed a girl-like form. The phenomenon of the drag queen dramatically demonstrates such boundary violation. Like whites playing "black face," he incorporates the oppressed role without being incorporated in it. In the phenomenon of transsexualism, the incorporation/ confusion is deeper. As ethicist Janice Raymond has pointed out, the majority of transsexuals are "male to female," while transsexed females basically function as tokens, and are used by the rulers of the transsexual empire to hide the real nature of the game. In transsexualism, males put on "female" bodies (which are in fact pseudofemale). In a real sense they are separated from their original mothers by the rituals of the counseling process, which usually result in "discovering" that the mother of the transsexual-to-be is at fault for his “gender identity crisis.” These "patients" are reborn from males. As Linda Barufaldi suggested, this fact was symbolized in the renaming of the renowned transsexual of tennis, Renée (literally, "re-born") Richards, whose original first name was Richard. The rebirthing male supermothers include psychiatrists, surgeons, hormone therapists, and other cooperating professionals. The surgeons and hormone therapists of the transsexual kingdom, in their effort to give birth, can be said to produce feminine persons. They cannot produce women.

The seduction of women—including feminists—into confusion by Dionysian boundary violation happens under a variety of circumstances. A common element seems to be an invitation to "freedom." The feminine Dionysian male guru or therapist invites women to spiritual or sexual liberation, at the cost of loss of Self in male-dictated behavior. Male propagation of the idea that men, too, are feminine— particularly through feminine behavior by males—distracts attention from the fact that femininity is a man-made construct, having essentially nothing to do with femaleness. The seductive preachers of androgyny, of "human liberation," dwell upon this theme of blending. When they put on the mask of Dionysus, the Myth-Masters play the role of Mix-Masters. "Mixing Up the Victim" is the name of their mime.

The illusion of Dionysian freedom, then, drives women into madness. As defined by Honor Moore, M-A-Dness is Male Approval Desire. She writes:

M-A-D is the filter through which we're pressed to see ourselves— if we don't, we won't get published, sold, or exhibited—I blame none of us for not challenging it except not challenging it may drive us mad . . .

It is true that the Apollonian mask of god drives women into madness, but this is the madness of one who sees the face/ mask of the Destroyer, and who desires his approval because she knows she needs this in order not to be raped, maimed, starved to death, imprisoned, murdered. This is a clearheaded M-A-Dness. But the Dionysian method is to break the boundaries that make such methods in our madness possible. Dionysus, the "gentle-man," merry mind-poisoner, kills women softly. Male Approval Desire, under his direction, lacks a sense of distance from The Possessor. The Dionysian M-A-D-woman desires the approval of her god because she loves him as herself. She and he, after all, are two in one flesh. She and he are of one mind. She has lost her Self in his house of mir-rors, and she does not know whose face she sees in her beatific visions.

Thus Dionysus drives women mad with his femininity, which appears to be a relief from the stern masculinity of Apollo. Kerényi points out that Dionysus "was called Pseudanor, the man without true virility' —not to speak of all his joke names such as gynnis, 'the womanish,' or arsenothelys, ‘the man-womanly.’ This is the ultimately deceptive glorification of femininity, convincing women that it is desirable for men and also desired by them, luring females into forgetting the falseness of femininity, blinding us to the fact that femininity is quintessentially a male attribute.

-Mary Daly, Gyn/Ecology

[yuurivoice]

If you plan on it when will the other boys get yandere versions?

One or two might get featured during October, but I want to vary things and not just do yandere for spooky season, it'll be a variety of tropes.

And frankly, I don't feel that I enjoy or am particularly great at coming up with unique and interesting yandere tropes. Doing more than a handful means I'm going to end up sounding very same-y in my content and the way it's written so I think it'll be a case of less is more.

What's MORE likely is a few AU slices where it's just dramatic and intense, not necessarily strictly yandere. I've found that most people are actually just seeking intensity vs. specifically yandere content, so just because I'm saying "not yandere" doesn't mean there's not potential for boys getting a little unhinged and intense in a variety of ways.

But holy shit I've already got a whole lot of work to do, so we'll see when/if any of that happens.

[watching-pictures-move]

Put On Your Raincoats | The Fashionistas (Stagliano, 2002)

In the Rialto Report’s interview with John Stagliano, I remember him citing this as the artistic highpoint of his career. This is notable for being shot on film in the early 2000s, when I think such a thing was getting rarer in the hardcore genre, and swept the AVN Awards the year it came out. So it’s definitely White Elephant Art as far as porn goes. And while I’m being a little harsh and I don't have the greatest sense of the genre during this particular era, I don’t think it speaks well for its state that in the ‘70s and ‘80s we were getting genuinely stylish films with daring subject matter, while in the 2000s we’re getting something that looks like a TV show you’d catch at an off hour and where a good chunk of the plot hinges on the hero Rocco Siffredi navigating a DVD menu. (Speaking of White Elephant, I assume that’s what he calls his equipment. Elefante Bianco.)

And I do think to an extent the higher production values work against Stagliano’s artistic instincts. The features of his that I’ve seen… all the way through… were firmly in the gonzo style that he pioneered, with longer takes and free flowing camerawork that roved to whatever attracted his eye. Namely butts. That still happens here, but with film cameras, that I assume are heavier and limited in how long a shot can go, the visual style at times seems a bit neutered. You might hope this would result in some storytelling discipline, and there is a decent amount of plot here, but this is also over four hours long. (I watched it over a few days, I’m not a maniac.)

I’ve also alluded to Siffredi being pornography’s equivalent of Klaus Kinski, a quality I find off putting and is very much on display here. Some of this falls into matters of personal taste, and I’ll concede that the first sex scene here, between Siffredi and his neighbour, I found pleasingly energetic up until the halfway point when it tipped over to a level I found excessively rough. I do think it’s a bit jarring how stiff and dead-eyed he can be in the story scenes and how aggressive and unhinged he can be during the sex scenes, and the way that first sex scene is followed immediately by a deer-in-the-headlights expression is particularly severe in its whiplash. But from a narrative perspective, he’s supposed to be intrigued and seduced by the titular Fashionistas into the world of BDSM and rough stuff, a dynamic he very much fumbles.

So I was struggling with this early on, but I was eventually won over, and a lot of the credit goes to Belladonna. Whereas a lot of the other performers here are very polished in both their appearance and their screen presences, she has a naturalistic, unassuming quality that radiates a certain warmth. This movie is in part a story of her learning to stand up for herself to her dominant girlfriend and boss Taylor St. Claire (who navigates the tricky territory of being both regular mean during the plot and hot mean during the action), and I think had it been framed more consistently from that angle and concluded less abruptly, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. I should also note I found her bangs, gap teeth and skull sweater super cute, so perhaps I am not being entirely clinical in my appreciation of her performance. Also, as anyone who’s seen her in action can attest, she’s a freak in the sheets, so no matter how rough some of the later scenes get, she credibly remains an active participant, which makes the proceedings a lot more enjoyable.

I’ll also say that I found the sex scenes after the first one a lot more enjoyable, thanks to a greater emphasis on sexual variety and the changing up of dynamics, sometimes within the scene. Again, some of this comes down to matters of personal taste (I guess I prefer when ladies are meting out the roughness instead of dudes), but I think Stagliano occasionally produces some clever ideas, like when he cuts between Belladonna stripping and then being dominated by Taylor St. Claire and a DVD where Belladonna is being dominated by another woman. This is also the scene when his visual style seems the most on point, the camera moves and use of shadows working with the flow of the action, particularly during Belladonna’s initial strip routine. (The ass closeups are a particularly appropriate choice in this case.) So it’s my favourite part of the movie, although the later sex scenes are not without visual or erotic interest.

Other notes:

The other significant male character is Siffredi’s assistant, played by Manuel Ferrara. I know he has his fans too, but he mostly seems to be in this for Siffredi to outact. That being said, I don’t think the standard porn trope of ensemble casts is too much of a detriment here, as most of the sex scenes are centred around one or more of the main characters, and Siffredi is more charismatic when he plays off some of the better actors in the cast, especially when he gets to drop some Italian.

Siffredi at a few points looks pretty sharp in a white suit, but then when he visits a sex club gets called out by almost everyone he meets for dressing inappropriately for the setting.

This, being a product of the early 2000s, is very much couched in the era’s ideas of cool. Not necessarily a bad thing, as the groovy alt rock song that plays during that Belladonna / St. Claire sex scene works out pretty well. And Stagliano’s editing is more conservative than the nu metal style of filmmaking popular in the mainstream at the time.

This being about fashion, there is, not unexpectedly, a flamboyant gay fashion designer who wears a necklace that says “BITCH”, although the character is generally depicted likably. As far as the fashion in this movie goes, it is not to my personal taste, but I guess it suits the story.

Given how much of the story hinges on some DVD menus, the menu design here is pretty amazing. But even better is the cover of the tabloid magazine capturing Siffredi’s personal troubles, and the scene where Belladonna draws devil horns and a Van Dyke on his picture using a graphic design program.