#only under the cut though

[lemongogo]

i just like his long hair ok 🧎

[front-facing-pokemon]

[applestorms]

where is the justice full lyrical analysis GO GO GO

TL;DR i'm of the opinion that many people give light a Lot more credit for being a Paragon of The People than he really deserves in this song, so i'd like to take a closer look at the (english) lyrics here-- not only to understand some of the deeper (highly questionable) ideas light is establishing/implying, but also why it may be especially easy to skip over those more dubious implications, unlike in other DN adaptations. see full analysis below the cut, this is Long.

[Light] Where is the justice When the guilty all go free? Why don’t we lock them up And throw away the key?

direct meaning: light begins this song questioning the effectiveness of the justice system. from these lines, it is clear he is questioning the fact that "the guilty" have the ability to "all go free," though it is unclear if he is criticizing the fact that some guilty parties are able to get away with their crimes or the simple fact that prisoners are free to return to society after serving their sentence.

while the first meaning seems potentially easier to assume, the next two lines perhaps point towards the second, implying that "the guilty," should be locked up forever-- typically, you don't throw away a key just to get it back later.

questionable implications: a couple things here. first, light has an underlying claim here that the meaning of "justice" is purely to punish the guilty, to quarantine them away from the rest of Good society. note that he is making this assumption without any clarification about who these "guilty" parties are, what crimes they have committed or otherwise. second, he is also setting up a kind of false dichotomy, saying that the guilty currently are free but the correct course of action is that they are instead locked away. again, no rehabilitation is possible under this view, and no nuance either.

[Light's Teacher] I see a young man’s anger Burning in your eyes;

direct meaning: light's teacher is pointing out light's naïveté ("young man"), though this criticism is softened somewhat by the fact that he also points out his passion for the subject. note that the light in light's eyes here is "anger," and the connotations associated with that emotion-- action, violence, a lack of clear logical thinking. light burns, quick and powerful, but with little discretion for the details.

implications: by describing light in this way, he is establishing light as a very emotionally-driven character, but also as one who has perhaps not had the time nor experience to fully think through his ideals. light's justice is a naïve retribution.

[Light] What you see is my impatience With your noble compromise;

direct meaning: light pushes back against his teacher's criticism, clarifying that his "anger" is more like "impatience," an annoyance with "your noble compromise." light is not stupid, according to himself, he understands the ways in which the legal system (which he sees his teacher as fully ascribing to) is supposed to work, but questions its effectiveness regardless.

to light, this legal system as it currents stands is a "noble compromise," something that people feel they Must stick to for the sake of upholding their noble character, but ends up leading to a questionable execution of justice, which compromises final judgements. i'm assuming this connects back to this page:

questionable implications: light's primary push in this song is towards a fully black and white justice system, wherein The Guilty are Punished and The Good receive Justice (the ability to see the guilty get punished). he is not willing to concede any gray morality here, no "compromise" ever. he is also very quick to write off the idea that he might be getting too caught up in his own emotions about injustice, ironically a bit of an emotional move.

[Light] Show me what’s right about the wrongs that we allow Real people need to feel protected here and now; This whole damn system’s broken way beyond repair It’s just law Not law and order; Not much good and seldom fair;

direct meaning: light continues to question why the legal system allows for what he sees to be compromises in the execution of justice, arguing that "real people," The Good, have the right to feel protected by such a system. he states his points overtly here: the legal system is broken, it is unordered, it is unfair. nothing good comes of it.

questionable implications: a few points. first, light is once again Very vague about what exactly these "wrongs," are that the legal system is allowing, which guilty are actually going free under which circumstances. second, light is assuming that "real people," which is itself quite frankly an incredibly loaded term when it comes to how dehumanized his view of The Guilty is, do not feel protected by the legal system, that The Good live in fear under a system that fails to guard them against evil.

i think people often get stuck on the line, "This whole damn system's broken way beyond repair," since it has the potential to greatly emotionally resonate, what with its underlying pessimism and cynical view about the world. even in my own views, there are plenty of systems that i think are plenty broken. where this line becomes questionable is again in how vague it is, allowing for many interpretations of exactly how the (legal) system is broken. take note of this not only in the context of how people interpret this song, but also for the next few lines in-context.

[Light's Classmate #1] Laws were made for everyone We’re treated all the same;

direct meaning: a classmate enters the conversation, stating a somewhat basic fact-- that the laws were created for everybody, and that everybody is all treated the same.

EDIT: actually, listening to this again, i genuinely can't tell if this is a classmate or light's teacher again?? regardless, i think my points still stand, just push the part about the other students being convinced by light to a bit later in the song.

(questionable) implications: a third party is now introduced with light's classmate here. this conversation between light and his teacher is not one-to-one-- there are other parties listening in the room who may be convinced one way or another depending on how the arguments go. thus, while this is a somewhat obvious statement on the surface, it is being stated in response to light to get him to expand on his claims.

i'd also like to bring up one point that i think may be relevant moving forward: the difference between normative and descriptive claims. in ethics, we typically use this to describe the difference between claims about how things should be versus how things already are.

light makes a lot of claims in this song that are presented as descriptive, implying that this is simply How The World/Legal System Already Is, that we are approaching a system that is already broken. he also makes a lot of claims about how the world should be, that justice should be this kind of starkly black and white Passing of Judgement-- these are the ones that he is less direct about, and that should be more closely questioned imo. don't mix em' up. anyways,

[Light] Till a lawyer’s tricks can fix the blame; What about the victims Waiting for some justice? How can we turn away And say that's just the way things are? What about the families Hiding in their houses All of them afraid to walk the street at night With all their doors locked tight Tell me where is the justice If there's any justice

direct meaning: light responds to his classmate's previous comment, arguing that the system is equal, but that stops once a lawyer can trick the system into allowing their client to go free. he continues, asking-- "What about the victims / Waiting for some justice?" once again painting The Good as pure, innocent victims, afraid to even walk along at night or leave their houses, living in Fear of evil that the legal system has so cruelly allowed to go free.

a very good couple lines in this section: "How can we turn away / And say that's just the way things are?" light wants change. he sees the system as "broken beyond repair," something that must be fully taken down and rebuilt into something better, to help people.

questionable implications: again, light is making the assumption that people already live in fear of Evil that lurks the streets, Good Families that need to be protected by the justice system. there is a non-zero number of universes where light fails to get the death note and ends up being a vigilante superhero, istg. he is also making the (descriptive) claim that victims do not receive the justice they deserve, presumably since The Guilty are Freed.

an interesting point there, actually-- justice for light is about the victims of crimes, not the perpetrators of them (who, as we already established, he doesn't actually see as "real people," not the "families" that need to be protected).

the one sympathetic point in all this that i find myself drifting back to is that big about actually wanting to change. he makes quite a good point about not assuming that this is how the world Must be-- i just find it unfortunate that his Ideal World is so horrendously flat.

[Light's Teacher] Your simple arguments have all been made before The world's not black and white The choice not either, or

direct meaning: light's teacher once again criticizes light's arguments for being surface level and overly black and white. i also think his point about light's arguments having, "all been made before," can connect to his previous point about light being naïve, that he simply hasn't had the experience to recognize that his supposedly New, Improved ideas for how the system can be fixed have already been presented and argued against.

[Light] Perhaps it's time we drain the color from within Till we're back to seeing black and white And wrong and right again

direct meaning: light argues back, saying that his teacher's push to see the nuance is pushing the compromise too far, that we are losing sight of some kind of true morality, "wrong and right," by taking such an approach.

questionable implications: not just questionable tbh, these lines are the most terrifying thing light says in the entire song. it's not even an implication either, really, he just says it outright here-- light wants a black and white justice system. he thinks the only way in which true law and order can be established is by giving up on nuance entirely.

i'm reminded a bit of han feizi's approach to crafting ideal legal systems a bit here, like the extremes of Two Options: Punishment (Death) or Reward (Everything You Could Possibly Dream Of/Desire). wonder if light's a fan...

[Light's Teacher] Overwrought pronouncements won't improve the paradigm [Light] Till lawyers cutting deals becomes a crime;

direct meaning: another back and forth between light and his teacher, with light's teacher once again calling light out on his "overwrought pronouncements," his strong, but overly emotionally-driven claims while light points again back to his strawman of the Corrupt Lawyer cutting deals to let The Evil Guilty go free.

implications: it interests me that light's teacher doesn't really argue against light's claims here by saying this image of this Lawyer doesn't exist, but instead keeps pointing to light's emotional state, how he's pushing for this so passionately but not really thinking through any of the greater implications of his claims. you could maybe see this as what makes the teacher's rebuttals less strong, that he doesn't seem to be matching light's passion with the same Excitement to meaningfully combat any of his underlying points, but i actually think this is quite a measured and good response. light isn't thinking very deeply about this, he's pushing from anger and trying to get the class on his side. it's a bit reminiscent of far right strategies-- hitting emotional buttons, getting the Crowd on your side, giving people hard hitting lines with little substance but no time to think it through. light really would benefit from trying to understand his emotions but but, i mean. what else is new LOL

[Light and Ensemble] Let the corporations make the regulations And all go unaccountable when everything goes wrong; Let the rich and famous get away with murder; Every time a high-priced mouth piece starts to talk His client gets to walk; Tell me where is the justice? If there’s any justice;

direct meaning: the ensemble is officially on light's side now, singing behind him as he throws out his criticisms of "the corporations," of, "the rich and famous," who can apparently get away with murder. notably, light is making a Money point here-- it's the rich, the corporate, who are able to get away with crimes.

questionable implications: uhh source?? is light trying to say that O.J. getting away with it means that the legal system has to kill all criminals for justice to be served? (#joke, i know, i know, he's japanese.)

this is where the normative vs. descriptive claims thing becomes really relevant to me. light, on the surface, is making descriptive claims about how the world Is-- that corporations decide what is and isn't justice, that anybody rich enough can do whatever they want, so long as they have enough to pay off a lawyer. and he may not be entirely off about all of these claims!! the problem here is instead to be found in his underlying normative claims, that the way to fix this is through a purely black and white legal system.

light presents this argument like he only has to sell you on the first part, on the fact that the System Is Broken and people can get away with horrible acts if they have enough money. at least in this section, he does not clarify What his justice is, or any of the horrible implications his ideal system to "fix" all of this might have, though he bounds those two points up in such a way that it feels natural to accept both.

this is where i think some people get the idea that light is a Comrade fighting Capitalism or some shit. it's quite easy to see and get on board with his descriptive claims about how broken the world is (feels), but lose sight of his underlying normative claims about how this Should be fixed. light doesn't think the problem is capitalism here, that's something You have to bring to the table-- but he keeps his arguments vague enough here that it's really easy to do so.

[Light] Where is the justice [Students] Tell me where? [Light] For all the victims? [Students] Tell me where? [Light] Where is the justice? What good is law that can’t punish those who break it?

direct meaning: similar points from before. again, light describes justice as something that must be found and given to "the victims" (of what?), calling the law useless for its inability to enact (his view) of justice (or what light thinks justice should be).

[Light's Classmate #2] Politicians make their speeches all day long; While judges pushing pencils mostly get it wrong; [Ensemble] Mostly get it wrong!

direct meaning: same thing, but he adds politicians to the list of those corrupt. the only thing i wanna add here is that the bit about "pushing pencils," is quite a nice bit of foreshadowing. anyway,

[Light's Classmate #3] Instead of loopholes for the laws to fall between; Let some good old fashioned payback Grease the wheels of the machine; [Ensemble] Grease the wheels of the machine

direct meaning: another classmate again arguing in favor of light's ideas, saying that we should drop the loopholes and morally gray areas to get some "good old fashioned payback," instead.

questionable implications: the class is really getting on board with light by this point in the song. note the shift also in the ideas they're presenting-- while classmates #1 and #2 were still mostly focusing on descriptive claims earlier, here classmate #3 points more towards light's normative claims about how the legal system should be. "good old fashioned payback," indeed.

also interesting that the claim they reiterate here is light's point about how the Only way a "victim" of [crime] could ever be fully satisfied or happy again is through this kind of state-mandated Revenge, that The Guilty must suffer/die/be locked away forever in order for The Good to live well. there's a lot of arguments against capital punishment to bring up against this point, but considering the length of this post as is, i don't think i really have the space for that =3=" regardless, i think this says a lot about light's worldview as is.

ANYWAYS. the rest of the song is basically just reiterations of the exact same lines light said before, notably including the lines about "families in their houses," and lots and lots of questioning about where that goddamn justice is. so, to end this off, i suppose i'll interrogate those more general points just a little-- both the title of the song itself, and its core themes in the context of the full story.

"Where Is The Justice?" is such a fascinating way of kicking off this musical, particularly in how it characterizes Justice itself as this lost thing that must be Found, setting up the idea that light himself playing the role of KIRA manages to Become Justice (or, his view of it, anyway). it is also interesting in how it show's light's relationship with the people around him, not only in terms of how he gets the rest of the class on his side by the end of the song, but also how his teacher critiques him earlier on. it's kind of a minor point, but i think that back-and-forth alone really does a lot to set up the space that L's character will inevitably fill later in the story, how he matches light's underlying Passion and Temperament (and lack of any care for deeper morals) in such a way that would lead to their mutual demise.

for all my frustrations with how this song is often interpreted, i actually think this is a pretty decent depiction of pre-KIRA light, at least within this format. my main critique is that i think it may perhaps be truer to believe that light never really comes to these kinds of conclusions until after he gets the notebook, but, hey. you can only have so many songs, and you've gotta start somewhere.

that being said... why do so many people so easily accept this song as a Real and Good critique of the justice system, even going so far as to say that musical light is somehow more morally good or righteous than any other depiction? (a point that i certainly Do Not agree with, if this post has somehow not already made that clear).

i suppose, to me, it all comes back to that normative vs. descriptive claims distinction. people emotionally resonate with the problems that light brings up, the evil that he sees in the world, and in particular his pessimism about the structures around us and questions about whether or not they actually do what they should.

what they fail to see, and what he somehow manages to get away through how carefully his arguments are crafted here, is the deeper implications of his solution-- the dehumanization of The Guilty, his dubious claims about the necessity of such a violent and stark Revenge to make the Good, Pure Victims feel truly safe or satiated, and all the many greater harms that come from such a complete lack of any nuance.

i believe it was @moonlarked who also brought up the fact that, unlike most other adaptations, we don't hear light's internal monologue here, meaning that we're not privy to the same kinds of snark or casual cruelty that light has the sense not to say out loud. in that sense, perhaps this song is actually one of the better depictions to show how light Can actually be quite a charismatic and convincing speaker, so long as you don't think too hard about what he's not saying out loud. (maybe that's why L got so insane about him? lol)

[starflungwaddledee]

please draw captain vul realistic birdman next

piece of cake. captain on deck!

[spiderin-space]

I can be as self-indulgent in my swap au as I want . As a Treat .

(Also: suggestive/nsfw words under the cut)

[ghost-in-a-trenchcoat]

I made stickers and a bookmark of the lads for my friend's birthday :)

[skitskatdacat63]

Electoral Prince Oscar

+ process

Included the different layers of hair I do because the hair is always this nebulous thing until I get to the fourth layer or so lol. Also wow no rough sketch!! I wanted to draw him in this AU, but I also wanted to practice drawing real people. I've mentioned this before about drawing but. It's so odd how you feel like drawing a certain thing(in this case, being able to draw a person directly without too much thought) is impossible, and then you reach a point where you're easily doing it without thinking.

As for Oscar's place in this AU. I'm still a little unsure if I'd like him to be a King/Prince of some Italian state(some of which are part of the HRE atp) or if I'd like him to be a Prince Electorate. For now, as you can see, I went with an Electoral Prince, which is the heir to a Prince Electorate. And what is that, you ask. Basically the guys who were apart of the Imperial Diet/Electoral College in charge of electing the Holy Roman Emperor. Getting farther into is too complicated because even I really only started understanding it pretty recently. I haven't decided too much about his role because hes part of a whole other generation, HOWEVER. The plot would probably be something along the lines of him coming to have a "residency" in Seb's court in order to learn more about the buearacracy and his future involvement. Mark is very much an empty nester atp, and eagerly accepts Oscar as his pupil and is eager to show him the ropes. Oscar is shrewd and already politically apt from a young age, but he's very happy to hang around Mark as his mentor, as there's always more to learn! ...among other reasons

[celestialrealms]

Something so soft about Barbatos drying MC's hair for them 🥺

Bonus: You VS. the guy he tells you not to worry about (or, why I don't mind this card was in the guest room of the castle instead of MC's room at Cocytus Hall like on the deflower)

VS.

[clockworkreapers]

Gotta say when it came to twist my favorite was brother riley

Omg yess... its also wild to me once it hits then you look back at vol 1 knowing what happens in vol3- which I'm gonna put below the cut for spoiler reasons SO UH SPOILERS FOR VOL 3

Like I caught it the second time reading and I legit stoped and went "IS THAT WHY HE OFFERED UP THE STORE COMPUTER TO JACK ALL THE WAY AT THE START??" Like the Brother Riley was still the collector its not like he just changed into it. Looking back its just oh you manipulative weasil of course you wanted to subtly nudge Jack into having a written accessible record that you were privy to before anyone else.

Also maybe a theory might as well be just personal headcanon (could be totally wrong im not gonna argue) but I like the idea that the reason Roger sent him the laptop is cuz he totally picked up on what BR was doing and was like oh you wanna play? No no no if anyone is gonna be privy to information on the station and what this human is doing its me, this is my project not yours, hands off. Course the blog is up and out there and we know multiple gods and entities read it anyways but whoever knows that information first probs has a lot of the upper hand to move before the rest of them. At that point only Roger had tabs on him like that prior so BR trying to get a grasp on him too probs got Roger to retaliate. Course it was in the most subtle way possible, cant be too suspicious.

[nitunio]

Momo La'Stiara (Secret) (edit)

He's holding a purple sapphire!

bonus and other versions under the cut

alt + "unaltered" version (can you spot all the differences?)

[unproduciblesmackdown]

(genderly) chill as hell if i was only ever glimpsed / detected like this

[icewindandboringhorror]

More misc. daily life pictures and such

[front-facing-pokemon]

[quibbs126]

So I decided I needed a break from that beach picture I’m working on (yes I’m still working on it, right now I’m making two versions because I thought the lineart and background didn’t match), so I just decided to make this

Yes it is based on the Toy Story meme

Anyways, I did this for two reasons. One, because I realized that Reno and Ceres are basically the instigators of the game’s plot; Reno the first half and Ceres the second half. It’s also different in that Reno was unintentional; he just wanted the power of the Forest Guardian, and accidentally made the Magilith activate, causing Kuro and Fina to time travel and the story to happen. And then later when they get back to the present he’s the person they’re trying to stop from unleashing the Great Disaster. Ceres meanwhile very intentionally instigated the second half of the plot as she was the one to inform the group about the existence of the Magi Key and what it could do, as well as where to find the pieces

Second reason is just that I really want them to interact, because I think it would be really interesting, especially since likely, Ceres knows of their connection, while Reno doesn’t

I have also come up with this alternate plot where the story starts because Ceres approaches Reno and his group and has them start the time travel, which our heroes then get wrapped up in. And in doing so, we see their dynamic, which is basically that Ceres tries to interact with Reno and deep down wants to be close to him, even if she knows she’s just using him for her goals, but meanwhile Reno, whom she does not tell about their relationship (because he absolutely wouldn’t believe her and it’d probably ruin her credibility), sees her as more of a work partner, and while he goes along with her plans he isn’t fully trusting of her. And at the very end where he comes to his senses and turns on her, it does hurt her in a way he wasn’t expecting (he fully believes that Ceres doesn’t care and has no clue why she does), but she ultimately gets him out of the way because her mission is more important than her feelings, and she may or may not reveal to him their true connection

And that whole scenario is kind of one of the other reasons I wanted to draw them together. I’ve just been thinking a lot about the two of them interacting and wanting to draw that

I think I got carried away, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, drawing I made. Well might as well pivot over to the drawing process itself now

So I’m using a different brush here. I was looking for a brush for my big beach drawing, and someone suggested the Syrup brush on Procreate, and I actually had fun with it (and it is the reason I’m making two versions now), so I wanted to use it again here, and I think it turned out pretty well

I will say though, I had no clue what I was doing on the sketch with the bodies. I don’t think it’s super noticeable in the final product, but it was a mess in the sketch. I really need to figure out how I’m drawing anatomy, I swear. I can’t just keep doing guesswork

…You know actually, I don’t think I have much else to say, so I guess we’ll end here. It was a bit of a haphazard description, but I’m scatterbrained, what you gonna do?

I do want to draw more of the two interacting, I just don’t have ideas yet. Maybe in the future though

[infinitelystrangemachinex]

Come on, you know you want to, give us the character bingo for Viktor.

don't mind if i doooo

[silverjirachi]

look i get most rehearsals in my life have not been paid, but when this is supposed to be a paid job and i’ve gotten $20 for an hour long rehearsal in the past, with this same company, $20 for a three hour rehearsal is just insulting.