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reductionisms · 6 months ago

Text

circle, line

A circle and a line look different, right?

What about now?

Time in gintama is a useless subject. Unfortunately, it is also a prerequisite to the gintama-human ontology. Thus, with a heavy heart, I look at lines, loops, and other unlikely time-mechanics in order to construct a gintama time for the gintama-human.

Throughout this pseudoscientific inquiry, I locate gintama time– which I eventually call [time], for lack of better notation– in my thematic abuse of two mathematical concepts: irrationality and uncountable infinity. To give away the end, [time] is an uncountable infinity born in irrationality. Which, even to its own creator, makes little sense.

Finally, this is my defense of the gintama time loop. Why? Well, I like loops and loop-like things, and, after all, we want good things to last, to repeat. So this turns out to be a love letter to algebraic topology. Sorry time loop fiction.

Onto more interesting things.

preliminary time notes

To think about time in gintama, I bracket [real world time] from [the narrative structure of gintama, which follows a time] and [time as characters in gintama experience it, i.e. personal time]. The latter two time-categories reflect [real world time] because gintama is written by an author, who, by virtue of existing, lives in [real world time]. That is, while narrative is fun because you can play with reality to make something new (e.g., time loop, time travel, non-chronological narratives in general), creation still requires building blocks, which are ultimately some sort of known assumption, that inevitably require some understanding of actual Time.

All this to say I look at [narrative time] and [personal time] through philosophies about [real world time], which themselves are not especially real; in other words, my methodology is kind of shit.

the situation– personal time

Otae announces the whole of gintama in chapter one.

This is gintama’s genetic code.

To speak of time here is to note a few things:

1. amanto possess advanced technology;

2. humans are forced to throw away their physical swords;

3. the sword of the soul.

The sword is a tool*; later chapters tell us that it “carries the soul”. So the sword represents, or, rather, is, something irreplaceable to humanity, that relates to the soul and personhood. This much is corroborated by the plot cycle.

With contrast to the sword, time appears impersonal. We conceive of time, at least scientifically, as the movement between past to present, present to future, stretching infinitely before and after, where our existence does not matter to its flow.

But would “time” exist without anyone to observe it?

Alternatively, how can “time” be experienced as time– as a movement– without anything to measure it?

The human must “create” “time”, if only because it would not be “time” without a person to observe and call it as such. What this person perceives, they conceptualize as movement (measurement); and thus there must be a prior position to reference, or, in the least, a default– a memory.

So “time” requires the present to be given by a prior; that is, for “time” to be experienced, the human who observes it needs already given into a past. The past itself (“knowledge” of the histories that make us who we are, “knowledge” of the tools that allow us to intend various things)– i.e., its inherent “given-ness” to us– depends upon it outliving those who live it. Thus various contexts, with their technologies, arts, and writing (though these are not really separable), function also to contain the essential past-as-memory for those who use and engage with them.

Alright, great, but what does this have to do with the dick-and-balls manga? Nothing, really, except for everything. The amanto (with futuristic technology, in futuristic contexts**) force humans to give up their swords. It would be ridiculous to talk about what the “sword” means here. Suffice to say that it carries (an assumed) cultural-historical weight, an (idealized) memory. We would expect that its dispossession disrupts temporality. And it does– hence the “time loop”.

People love to talk about cyclical time in gintama. It is the same situations, over and over again; that no one ages, injuries heal by the next chapter, and, more than serial-typical regressions, that there is a sense that things won’t work, that important change won’t last, that life “just gets worse and worse”. Time as lasting change– or what we like to call “linear time”– doesn’t feel like it exists.

To return to chapter one. Here the central conflict is not actually between amanto and human; it is between Shinpachi and Otae. Their dying father tells them that even if they give up their physical swords (memory, past), they are not to lose the sword in their soul (?unknown). Sword-less Shinpachi resents him. Rather than “cling to the past”, he tries to adapt to the “linear time” of the amanto: he works in modern food service, gives up on the dojo, and, most importantly, opposes Otae.

What does Otae do? We might expect her to inverse Shinpachi, that is, to “embrace” cyclicality, which would be to give up. She doesn’t. Otae tries to adjust, to make a living and survive, but, unlike her brother, she does so also to protect the “thing she can never take back”. This, as Shinpachi points out, is ridiculous, unrealistic, and makes no sense. And yet it is Otae who is thematically vindicated in the end.

From the first chapter, then, we can construct a sense of [personal time (to the characters)]. Again, for change to exist, there must be a prior form; that is, a certain sort of time is what makes change (technological, political, situational advancement) possible. Further, the self is involved in the process of time. Thus when the self is not whole (lacks the sword), time, and thereby change, becomes cyclical. So “time”, to the amanto, advances, because they can work with their external “selves” (technology, worlds, knowledge-memory) to “make change”. But time, to humanity, loops back on itself, is stopped, because humanity is bereft of its self and can only return to the starting point.

We notice that humans still live in a world where time progresses– where time goes on without them. There is a split between the time of the self and the time of the world. Shinpachi decides to do away with memory and join the world-time, the “linear time”, that is, the time of futuristic technology and change; but his sister, who goes along with this and drags the past with her, does much better.

For a more thorough application of this thought, please rewatch the monkey hunter arc.

*It is also (obviously) a dick. **This reveals some connection between the concepts of “tool”, “context”, and time. Though I say so inverse-facetiously, since nothing about gintama can be taken as if it were serious.

time loop– narrative time

So what about infinity?

Personal time is not infinity. In a first sense, it simply is not infinite– characters die. In a second sense, even considering that memory can be (haphazardly) preserved beyond a lifetime, especially in a story, humanity as a whole is finite– there comes a point, eventually, where no one is left to do the remembering. And in a third sense, personal time is still a string of pasts that were once presents, into futures that will be presents; though this finite string might divide into an infinite number of presents, its divisibility renders it still essentially patterned, which is to say that it is not really “infinity”– it is still mathematically countable.

I mentioned a dysfunction of personal time into cyclical (“un-change-able”) personal time. This is associated with sword-less-ness, equivalently memory-loss, equivalently not being a whole self. The fun of stories is that “character” can be projected into the structure of the story itself; it would make sense for cyclical personal time to have some correspondence to, or at least effect on, narrative time, that is, narrative structure.

At this point I should be more general about the time loop.

The time loop is thought to stand opposed to “linear time” in the stagnation-change, lack-presence, circle(hole)-line([censored]) dichotomy. Specifically, the time loop is opposed to “linear time” in the sense that nothing (usually) changes in a time loop. Or, more exactly, change is slow, nothing gets “better” in any real sense. Again, only where time flows “linearly" can we build off of what is prior, can we intend and achieve a future, can we change for the better (or so we assume). Thus the time loop carries a sort of moral condemnation in its very structure— a karmic debt, if you will.

Characters in plots get thrown into time loops because something has gone wrong. Whether or not they are the direct cause, the character must “figure something out”, “learn a lesson”, that is, address the problem that created the time loop, which will almost always be related to a step within the story of their self-development, in order to escape it. The point of the story is to escape it. This is just how stories go.

Then the gintama narrative “time loop” is barely a time loop. It repeats itself, sure, and no one ages, but that’s because no one should age in a wsj serial and sorachi tried to be funny about it. Still, some lingering sense of futility, or maybe just the sheer repetition of the same event for 16 years of serialization, weighs on anyone who reads it. This kind of feels like time loop fiction; there should be a point to the plot cycles. What are they trying to force Gintoki to do, to show us in his character? What are they aiming for, what is driving the “time loop” in the first place?

Takasugi is driving the time loop.

(More specifically, Takasugi’s crushed eye-ball (soul), his eyelid; inaccessible past (memory), is driving the time loop.)

Another clarification. Personal time is time as experienced by the person; it is pure interiority. Thus, while the world moves on– personal time is time as movement– the person may not.

For the person to move on, they must be able to make change, that is, from a prior form, give birth to the next form. This is because only the person can observe, know, and experience “time”, which itself is a movement (a change in position) from past to present, present to future, that is defined by the person. So change and time-as-movement, within personal time, look synonymous.

Further, movement in personal time requires the given past– the memory, from before me, passed down to me by people and places and things and contexts that I outlive– to be held by me, to be part of the “I”, and thus for my bodily self and my non-embodied self to generate personal time together. In gintama, I locate “memory” as the sword. But gintama’s sword is also part of the Self; so personal time in which the Self can move is only born out of a whole self. Equivalently, personal time is not the Self, but it is intimately related to a change that can only be wrought by the Self, which is to say, both my body and my given memory are necessary to the movement of personal time.

In any case, “gin-tama” is about Gin-toki, and, quite literally, his soul, so we would suspect that narrative time is a projection of Gintoki’s personal time. But narrative time cycles weirdly, and Gintoki still has his sword. Alternatively: if Gintoki was not already a Self, that is, if he had to learn some lesson to become a Self through the time loop, how could he have saved any of the endless roster of villains that conveyor-belts around him? So maybe Gintoki holds his sword without remembering– except that he doesn’t, and the story makes this clear (“I haven’t lost a single thing”). He does, however, seem to possess a slightly different personal time. He and his sword remind antagonists of what they’ve forgotten, and these antagonists sometimes move forward with him into the next cycle. In other words, there is some sort of movement, a change, in the narrative, in the structure, associated with each loop.

But cycles stay cycles, up to a very particular moment.

At which point I revert to the most obvious advantage of narrative time: it interacts with the readers. Gintoki “is” a Self (in the sense that an electron is both a wave and a particle), who carries his sword, who remembers, who hasn’t lost a single thing. Yet the time around him repeats the same events, over and over again. Why? Well, in part for the above: every gintama villain needs to learn the same lesson. But every gintama villain is also Gintoki, and even if he remembers, we don’t. To risk being redundant, we, as readers, have no idea what actually happened to him until chapter 519, when it is fished (unwillingly, I think) out of Takasugi’s eyelid.

Then narrative time functions in several senses. It relates to Gintoki’s personal time, but indirectly; more generally it looks like a projection of the Losers’ personal times, where a Loser is one who has lost their sword. Still every Loser is also Gintoki, and every lost sword is lost memory, and even if Gintoki hasn’t forgotten anything– and even if Gintoki carries his past, his sword, with him– we, the readers, don’t. Surely enough, historical time in gintama only begins after chapter 519. The revelation must precede it.

So the gintama time loop is driven forward by whatever it takes for this memory to be revealed. Each iteration brings us closer, but there is no lesson for Gintoki to learn that would speed this up; the heart of it is that he is waiting, he has to wait, for memory to return, for his past to come back to him, and this past is exactly Takasugi.

Why? Takasugi is the past (his eye, his eyelid, is the past); his eye is therefore Gintoki’s sword, the sword of the soul we need for time to move on. But 10 years jump before Takasugi can make the approach, and even then only from behind. Worse, it takes hundreds more chapters for him to work up the resolve to face Gintoki head on. So if Gintoki somehow constrains the world to cyclical time, equally so does Takasugi.

In short, narrative time cannot move until Takasugi’s eye becomes Gintoki’s sword. Thus half of the loop is about Gintoki always standing up again, always waiting for Takasugi to face him, and the other half of the loop, that is, its motivation, is about Takasugi working up the guts, or whatever he does throughout the series, to finally come at Gintoki* face to face. Yes, I’m equating circles and lines, which is silly. But I did this in the beginning anyways. Rewatch the final.

So why does this matter? Readers well-versed in gintama sword theo-ontology may recognize that the sword which is memory is identical to the sword of the human. This is partly because I’ve defined personal time to require the whole Self (the human) to move, which itself requires both the sword-as-memory and its human wielder. It is also because I’ve equated Takasugi to memory instead of treating him like a character (sorry Takasugi). Nevertheless, creation of the human sword (the memory-sword) is now essential to creating time, and creating time is now equivalent to completing the Self, that is, to becoming “human”. Put another way, Shouyou isn’t killed until Gintoki kills him in 519.

More specifically, Gintoki killing Shouyou undoubtedly completes (undoes) his humanity**. It is also the only way for anyone in gintama to have a future, because it creates, gives birth, to time, the time of the series. Further, its revelation births time in the present just as its actuality births time in the past: the Gintoki who swings his human sword, who cries, in Takasugi’s eye, is the one who swings it at him now. Gintama doesn’t actually timeskip until Gintoki kills Utsuro in silver soul.

Then the movement of time, both personal and narrative, requires three things:

1. a memory-sword (the human sword) (the sword of the soul);

2. a human to wield it;

3. and a decision on how to swing

I have discussed one and two to exhaustion. Now we turn to three.

*Gintoki is always Takasugi, in every case. The inverse holds as well. **It also completes Shouyou’s, but that is for later.

in defense of the time loop

Birthing time looks like an escape from the time loop.

This is where the division between time, self, and change becomes essential. Why does the time loop, in many treatments, depress its readers? For the same reason that any tragedy is depressing: fate, un-change-ability, specifically, un-change-ability of things we want to change.

The time loop is a “literalization” of tragedy. The person trapped in the time loop, at best, loses the ability to determine their future, accomplish their projects, do what they want and have it last, that is, to find lasting (exterior) meaning (this is all exterior). At worst, this person carries their incapacity into a loop that is the same tragedy, over and over again, which they are helpless to prevent or change in any way.

This setup is not exclusive to the time loop– other variations could be immortality, reincarnation, oracles, endless linear eternity, et cetera. In every instance, though, the tragedy is that people cannot change the things that matter. And while the time loop usually removes external change to provoke internal change in its protagonist, gintama characters also struggle with the impossibility of changing themselves.

More generally, though, real time isn’t actually cyclical or linear. We move through time, changing form, towards our death– and so the common thought of time is “linear time”, which is really about “linear change” and an inability to “go back”. But time is only known to us, only countable, because of its cyclicality. There are 60 seconds to a minute; 60 minutes to an hour; 24 hours to the day; and then this repeats the next minute, the next hour, the next day; and then the next month, and then the next season, and then the next year; and then it repeats all over again. Time is only measurable, knowable, existent to us because it repeats. If it wasn’t known beforehand, how could we measure the present, the future, against it? And for it to be knowable, it has to be familiar; and for it to be familiar, we must have encountered it before; and here is the inherent repetition– we can’t stop the cyclicality or flow of time anymore than we can avoid our deaths. Real time makes possible our “change” just as it is unchangeable, just as its existence is conditioned on unchangeability.

Gintama is a story, and story time works differently than real time, so maybe in the story we can separate “linear time” (change-ability) from “cyclical time”, from “time loop” (un-change-ability). Even still, what happens after you escape a time loop? Equivalently, what happens after you escape the tragedy? In the usual time loop– at least the usual time loop in our minds– the loop is escaped into linear time, or, more appropriately, it is escaped into the time where linear change is possible. But why is “linear time” the happy ending? Even granted that it exists (which is questionable), what makes linearity better than repetition, that is, why do people love “linear change”?

The Joui 4 lived “linear time” during the war. They fought enemies, and won. They progressed towards something, and believed in it, too; they were the main characters of a power-scaling, battle-shounen manga. And yet, their linear time ended, or more accurately, was never “linear”. Shouyou’s death, if anything, only proved the inherent impossibility of their shounen dreams. So narrative time twists into defeatist cycles, and Takasugi is doomed forever to repeat, and this is probably more accurate to the condition of the actual world they inhabit, because, most importantly, time was always like this, linear change as linear time never existed.

But again, the tragedy was never about the time loop. From its inception, the tragedy has always been about intentionality versus ruination, “I” as capable actor versus “I” as acted upon, and the utter inability of anyone to change any of this. We want out of the time loop because we can’t do anything; we want out because we can’t act out of ourselves to make external change in any way that lasts. Ultimately, we want out of the time loop because we discover that our intentionality actually means jackshit. The world does what I don’t want it to, and traps me in this; I cannot act, and yet it acts on me. My despair at the exterior world which rivets me to itself quickly translates to despair in, at, my self. I can’t make change, so what does being [x person] matter, so this is my fault, so there’s no point in changing myself, so I can’t change myself in any way that matters, because even if I do everything right, there’s no meaningful effect on the world that holds me captive, et cetera. Thus everyone wants out of the tragedy, the time loop.

Including gintama villains, who usually try to get out of it by killing themselves. This never works.

The time loop is tragic because it makes its inhabitants absolutely passive to it and acts on them eternally. The gintama cast is supposedly full of “losers”; its villain of the week, while beating Gintoki, calls him a masterless dog, a ghost, the one who lost, along with the rest of the samurai, et cetera; and the loser here is inherently passive against a winning actor. Nevermind that Gintoki never fought for the Romantic Japan that lost to the amanto– his loss is even more infinite for the narrowness of its scope.

And yet, you’re not supposed to kill yourself.

Escaping the time loop– or, more generally, the tragedy– never guarantees linear time, because we always have to end the book on the happily ever after. So what really happens after you escape the time loop– is linear time actually a relief? Either things start going wrong, which isn’t the linear time ideal, or you achieve every dream, you make possible every impossibility, and come to the end of the infinite series by continuing on within it infinitely. Is that really “happy”?

Alternatively: the cycles of narrative time drive towards the birth of a new time. But the tragedy of the cycles is intentionality/ruination, and the cycles can’t be escaped into their “opposite”. Gintoki, a human, with a human sword, kills Shouyou, and thereby brought forth a new time. And yet, this new time was still cyclical.

Then what’s the solution– killing yourself? Takasugi, repetition Personified, asks this to Gintoki the entire series. Why won’t you stay down?, [Why are you crying?], [Why can’t I comfort you?], Why keep living in this world? Villainy aside, he does have a point– if you look carefully, living in the gintama world is incredibly, incredibly stupid.

Gintoki says: no matter how many times I fall, no matter how many times I fight the same fight over and over again, no matter if it never ends, I will always stand up.

This is the height of stupidity.

[time]

So narrative cycles aim at the revelation of Gintoki’s memory, which would identify sword with eye, tool with wielder, that is, complete the “human”, and thereby give birth to a new (non-linear) time.

Here we get to mathematical infinity.

Mathematical infinity is not a number, or even properly a concept. It’s more like a sign at the edge of a cliff that says, there’s a cliff here, here’s the end of the world– except that this sign also signifies whatever, and everything, that might lie beyond the cliff, which cannot really be called “essence”, or even be said to exist in the first place. In other words, infinity is a marker for a point of no return, that in of itself is nothing.

Some things are said to be “infinite”. Usually, these are patterns. A line is infinite, as is a parabola; but these infinities are predictable, that is, countable, because patterns are rules. Their comprehensibility allows us to treat them like fancy numbers.

Conversely, some functions decompose into situations that are entirely ungraspable. This edge of knowledge, where it devolves into paradox and nonsense, looks like uncountable infinity.

Uncountable infinity is the infinity whose name itself means nothing. It signifies to something that is, by axiom, impossible impossibility, ungraspable. When infinity “interacts” with the mathematical world– or, rather, when we push far enough to reach it– we come to paradox, chaos, and unintelligibility. Certainly, science could advance sufficiently to reconcile the mysteries of particle physics; but the fun of mathematical concepts is that you can define them in any way you like, even if they’re fake. And uncountable infinity is, by my definition, the “thing” that is always uncountable.

So gintama narrative cycles aim at something, while those in cyclical personal times suffer for them. Cycles, better, change-less-ness, correspond to sword-less-ness, to lack of memory, and historical time only “restarts” when Takasugi brings us the past. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

This doesn’t mean our new time won’t be cyclical.

In the end, “time” is associated with sense of Self. This is an unavoidable relation, because time is a human word, in a human language, that describes what is ultimately only known to us as human experience. But “Self” is (itself) a problematic concept. After all, what determines one’s Self? Relatedly, who, and/or what, and/or where, and/or why, gets to possess Selves at all?

Within concepts of Self is often embedded an instinct towards differentiation. The (western philosophical) impulse is to originate this difference in agency: that is, through my free determination of my Will, my Projects, my Actions, and et cetera, I differentiate “I” from “other” and thereby constitute Me. Needless to say, concepts of “agency” are inextricably linked to “change”. Thus, in this particular conception, “time” is bound to “Self”, is bound to “agency”, is bound to “change”, and to invoke any one is to invoke the other three.

Here, “knowing” (as agency) finds itself imperiled. That is, though the “unknowable” would strip agents of acting-ability, “knowing” would also consign existence, life, the universe, et cetera, to determinism. In both cases, “(un)-knowledge” renders the agent passive. Thus someone might long for an unknowable magic in order to undo determinism, just as they might long for the knowledge to successfully determine their life; yet the one who longs for agency could find agency a disappointment, a not-agency. Equally, if the time loop embodies both desires before they collapse into paradox (I can continue into the unknown future if I escape; something is tying me down, my knowledge is insufficient to escape), “linear time” does so as well.

But now we return to infinity, to irrationality, to uncountability, in short, to paradox. The bulk of the previous 5000 words has been to determine that the dichotomy is false. To be straight, knowing and not knowing, agent and non-agent, the linear and the cyclical, are not separable from each other. Their binary is an illusion, and the suggestion of one carries within it the absence of the other; they are synonymous at the exact and every moment they are not. Clearly, this is not not-knowing, and not knowing, and not not-either of them at the same time. I call this uncountable infinity, the mathematically irrational.

The mathematically irrational is paradox. Consider: we can graph, and look at, certain functions, and yet never grasp their value (put x(sin(1/x)) into desmos). Similarly, we know exactly what “pi” is– the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter– and we can define it, use it, find it in every instance. And yet, pi is an irrational number, because its decimals trail off into uncountable infinity. Knowing and not-knowing, united in the same action: irrationality is knowing in not-knowing, not-knowing in knowing, and also neither.

I will be ridiculous and find this paradox in gintama. I want to claim, in the first place, that the self never generated time at all; in the second, that this is never irreducible to agent/acted, knowing/unknown; and in the third, that time is generated by [time]. To do so, we must investigate the moment of its birth, in 519.

the cliff—519

Tools, given memory, etc., together with the persons who hold them, produce an actor-self, a time of possible change (a “linear” time). It is in 519 that Takasugi finally faces the camera.

Now Gintoki grasps the sword (memory, Takasugi). This should give us “linear” time.

But 519 is not so willing. Where we hope for capable agency, we find none. Instead linear/cyclical, active/passive, presence/distance, collapse into irrationality.

Take the archetypical moment. To Takasugi’s why, Gintoki says he’ll stand up. Specifically, he says, too bad– I (you) won’t fall.

Standing up is what Gintoki (a person, with a sword) does. It is how he defeats each suicidal villain, kills Shouyou, and kills Shouyou and Takasugi all over again. This is what the “time loop” would require of him.

Gintama antagonists, those paragons of rationality, tell us that it is irrational.

Otae is also irrational. Her irrationality doesn’t fix anything (⇔escape cyclical time, make change), and she knows so herself– “If I’ll suffer either way, I’d rather suffer protecting it.” 518 chapters later, Gintoki says: “I won’t fall until you [Takasugi] fall, until you stop, no matter how many times it takes, I’ll stand up again… even if I have to walk over my teacher’s corpse, even if I have to walk over your corpse, I’ll protect his disciple, our companion, Shoka Sonjuku’s Takasugi Shinsuke, his soul.”

So Gintoki stand(ing)s up until something– until Takasugi stops, until time is born– in order to protect Takasugi’s soul. This might look like an “end” to the cycle, but it doesn’t feel like one. “Even if I have to walk over your corpse”?

Alternatively, “saving” Takasugi should be the change that the cycles want to make, that would break them in any normal work of time loop fiction. It is “agency” (capable action, material change) at its purest. But Gintoki says he will stand up and kill Takasugi and stand up again. No matter how many times the same thing repeats, no matter if time never moves on, no matter if he is forced to kill the very person he’s trying to protect, Gintoki will stand up. How could Gintoki possibly care about escaping any cycle, when he is the one “perpetuating it”?

So gintama is not actually about escaping the time loop, which is the rational thing to do. Gintama is about, do you have the strength to keep living in the time loop, even if it never ends?, or, do you have the strength to kill your teacher and your friend, and lose everything all over again?, or, do you have the strength to eternally suffer for the thing that can never be taken back? In short: forget the capable actor– gintama is about being foolish, and irrational, and embracing the time loop by standing up.

If we look to chapter one, [standing up] is [protecting the thing that can’t be taken back]. Neither can be appropriately confined to cyclical or linear time. Otae says she’ll suffer either way, and Gintoki says he stands up to protect what Shouyou held precious, Takasugi’s soul.

Otae protects a thing that cannot be taken back. This is the past. Gintoki acts for– and this is also a protecting– the past. Takasugi is, in a literal sense, pierced by this past every moment of his life.

The past that we can recover, that we can fully integrate into ourselves, is the past that can be used to generate the future in “time”. Thus “accepting” the past “to move on” – accepting, making entirely part of oneself, making entirely interior – because only then can the past become knowable, comprehensible, and usable. The person must accept their past to change things, i.e., to make linear time. Time, change, and agency coincide.

Yet Otae’s past “cannot be taken back”. Certainly, even the accepted past cannot be “returned” to. But Otae’s past is the past that pierces Takasugi’s eye– that is, the past whose “revelation”, whose self-same existence, drives the completion/generation of gintama time itself.

So this is the past that “cannot be taken back”, in more than the literal sense. Takasugi is scandalized by its distance, even as he dies satisfied; Gintoki, ever-silent, still loses his composure at its provocation, is emptied by it, cries in 519 (in all of gintama), in 703. It is a past that refuses total use or incorporation; instead it acts on those who carry it, even after person is reconciled to sword (to its memory).

Its paradox in position. Though “the past” is always present (“I haven’t lost anything”, “how long will you keep looking at that crushed eye of yours”), it is simultaneously kept from us by an irreparable distance. Distance, of course, suggests space, which itself suggests a space that is surpassable. But this distance is not spatial– it is temporal. Gintoki carries the past, yet never reveals it to anyone, much less to us; in the end it is Takasugi who has to do the revealing, and even then only after 500 chapters. Further, its revelation actually increases the distance. We grow used to our proximity to Gintoki’s “point of view”, to our role, through him, as protagonist of the story; and here his defining moment is told not through his eyes, but through the eyes of the distant antagonist, whose breaking point is the discovery of the distance between him and Gintoki. Gintoki is reflected– more, revealed to have always been– across a distance that is unsurpassable.

This distance is equally time, because Takasugi and Gintoki were separated always, and only, by “the 10 years”. Takasugi comes to Edo– there is nothing stopping him, spatially, no physical restriction or meaningful law imposed, from making the approach– and yet he cannot make it. Or so we assume. We only know its universal separation axiom: 10 years, a distance between two points that could never be overcome or recuperated.

So the past is across an unsurpassable distance. In this sense, it cannot be taken back. It is simultaneously carried in, pierces, Takasugi’s eye, who struggles because he cannot reconcile it to himself. Just as it is always with him– “every time I look, the beast…”– it is also the one thing he cannot bear to see (your crying face). Though its revelation is necessary to New time, it is also what sent time into irregularity in the first place. And though it is irreparably distant, it pierces every moment of the present, which is to say: it degrades time, it makes things weird.

Its paradox in times. The cliff is pre-originary to everything by narrative position. Gintama narrative cycles press towards its revelation as first dilemma. It is before even the corpse field, before anything else. It drives each time Gintoki swings his sword and reenacts it. The very first moment that Shouyou finds Gintoki, is predated, predicated upon, generated, made possible by, the fact that Gintoki kills him with his sword.

From this past, Gintoki is (in the verb sense). It is ahead of him (in 519) and behind him (before 1). For its sake he “acts” towards a “change” (stands up) that he knows is impossible (“if I have to walk over even your corpse”*). In other words, for sake of this past, Gintoki lives as if he belongs to a “linear” time, even as he knows he doesn’t. The past brings forth itself again.

Finally, its paradox in agency. What is burned onto Takasugi’s eyelid is a single moment he cannot recover or recuperate. Instead, this moment acts on him, it pierces him, against his will. This sort of past is not an empty concept, that could be filled with any given circumstance. Takasugi is tortured because the content matters– because what happens on the cliff that day, matters.

The cliff is not what Takasugi, Gintoki, Shouyou, or anyone else, wanted. Worse, it is not what they fought for: Takasugi to save Shouyou, Gintoki to protect Shouyou’s disciples (in an act that he knows will destroy them), Shouyou to protect his children. Instead Takasugi is stripped of agency, and the eye that would acquire it; in the present he acts on everything because he is, in every moment, acted on. Equally, just as Shouyou tries to protect his students, he destroys them, and Gintoki, who is forced (acted on) to choose (acts on) between two wrongs, two denials of his self** (of linearity), that is, two losses, is the classic agent paradox most of all.

So the past cannot be taken back, and this not only in the sense that no one can return to it. The past cannot be taken back as a memory, nor can it be incorporated as part of the self, nor can it function as the essential memory that projects forward normal time, even as it is known at every single moment. It cannot be domesticated.

Gintoki killing Shouyou, and crying, is unacceptable. It is distance itself, just as it is proximity; it is simultaneously known (Takasugi sees it), unknown (no one can reconcile it), and neither (we still move on). It should not have happened. It is irrationality itself.

And yet, by virtue of being “a past”, in its relation to the present, in its position as driving force of the time of the entire series, it still is time. The human, with the human sword, who cuts off someone’s head, is [time] itself.

Clearly, this is something outside of normal time. The question becomes, who needs to be killed, and where, and why?

The one who gives birth to a future.

*–and he does.

**“No need. They’ll never hold a sword again.”

the future

That Gintoki kills Shouyou is essential.

The start of gintama’s “historical timeline” is the corpse field. Here the time that Gintoki sits in carries a heavy sense of eternity. The moment where Shouyou finds him could be forever; historical time is out of place.

What breaks this time is very particular. It is not that person and sword = human = time in the automatic sense, because Gintoki, who holds a successful sword (“before meeting you, I never lost to an adult”), remains inhuman. Rather, Shouyou, a human (to Gintoki), must give his sword to Gintoki for time to start. This is also what makes Gintoki human. Gintoki, the human, had to be given his humanity– and thereby time– by someone else.

Equivalently, it is not enough for gintama’s [being human] that the right person holds the right sword. Only a human can progress time, that is, give birth to the future, but reconciling self to past, sword to eye, escaping the time loop, is insufficient. That Shouyou finds Gintoki is predicated by the cliff; sword can only become eye through the cliff’s revelation (and the cliff happens concurrently); self and past are reconciled only after Gintoki kills Takasugi; and the Shimura dojo is restored only once the Shimura siblings kill their mentor. It isn’t enough just to hold the sword– you have to actually swing it.

This swing must be something irrational, because everything else is just the natural extension of a person with a sword (it is the person and the sword). Further, the person must make the swing themselves. For it to be a swing they make, they need to choose it. So the swing is a decision made in irrationality.

Swinging a sword at– beheading someone— who is clearly the irrational choice. What goes against the logic of the world, of time, of all the meaning you sought after? Gintoki fought to protect Shouyou’s disciples; but Takasugi tells us that he wanted to save Shouyou more than anyone. Narrative logic says that Shouyou’s disciples should die to save him, and the logic of their linear time– their humanities and their swords– is to rescue Shouyou and progress into the future. Gintoki swings against everything. And cries.

Gintoki stands up, is irrational, for the past that can never be taken back. This past completes his humanity (person, sword, swing) in the moment that it ruins it (he cries). Gintoki kills the one before him(先生) to make them the one behind (into the past); which itself is a loop, is a cycle, but also a line. It is a [being human] that gives birth to an irrational time.

Gintoki kills Shouyou even though it changes nothing. How does this birth time? “Time” comes out of a self, but Gintoki loses his self; “time” is what renders change possible, but Gintoki cannot “save” Shouyou or Takasugi. Certainly Gintoki knows this, and kills Shouyou in spite of it. But how does this bring forth a future at all?

Gintoki does kill Shouyou for something, for some reason, and this is concretely the survival (into the future) of Shouyou’s disciples. Abstractly, though the purpose is less clear– “even if I have to walk over your corpse” – it is still what drives (is the purpose of) every instance that Gintoki, or anyone, stands up.

Gintoki’s purpose is Shouyou’s purpose, and Shouyou dies to give birth to the “future” (a future that is born in irrationality). So when Utsuro comes to kill him, Shouyou sees also Gintoki, and smiles. Sakamoto calls this “hope”.

We are told that Shouyou gives birth to hope– his students– almost as if to invoke the analogy. Shouyou’s disciples– his “children” – are him, because he gave birth to them, and they are not him, because they have a futurity beyond his imagination. Equally, this future is knowable, because the child is you, and time repeats, just as it is not, because the child is not you, and you will not be there to see it. This is the substance of “hope”.

With regards to the structure of his world, his time, and perhaps even his own humanity, Gintoki makes the irrational choice: he stands up. But to stand up is actually for, to give birth to, the uncountable future. Sakamoto tells us that Gintoki “gives birth” to this future in every shounen-bond he ever makes. And here is the paradox, something more generative than irrational dilemma– Gintoki’s “descendants” inherit his soul to be in ways unimaginable to him.

This future pierces every moment, and in the same moment it escapes. Take that Shouyou knows, and cannot know, what his disciples will be. Their possibility is imaginable, in the sense that he can delineate it– “I hope you all find your own bushidous” – but it is also uncountably infinite, because your child is not you and not beholden to your patterns. Equivalently, Otae’s happy memories end when her father dies, but she still keeps the sword of her soul, this unspeakable thing, that past, and it is her purpose in standing up.

Gintoki, with the sword he has been given by a human, kills Shouyou. This gives birth to an uncountable future– uncountable because it is born in irrationality, beyond the possibilities and expectations of pattern, either linear or cyclic– that is an uncountable infinity, and this is [time]. [time] drives, again, pierces, every second of all of time, and in the same moment it escapes. It is also irreparably beyond the one who births it. This is why gintama had to end.

So the human is constituted in the moment of death (⇔the moment of irrational swing), which is to release the future— [time]. In the same moment, humanity, and [time], escapes. But the moment of constitution (⇔ [time]) is what births the next instance of being human, that is, the rest of time.

In the moment before Gintoki’s irrational swing, each [time] was truly infinite. Here possibility is as unthinkable as Gintoki’s heart; there is no better way I can describe this than an uncountable infinity. Gintoki did what he should have (not) (not) have done. Neither he, nor Shouyou, nor Takasugi, Katsura, Oboro, or anyone, could have imagined any possibility for the future that was to come. In its sheer impossibility, this was infinity: the past that cannot be taken back.

But the past that cannot be taken back is also the sword of the soul. By definition, this generates an impossible impossibility, that slips away as soon as it is born; and as the uncountable, that is, the mother of all irrationality, and also its child, [time] has little to say about lines or circles, aside from that they are essentially the same. So gintama never cared about time loops or not: all that matters is if you follow [time] by standing up.

When Gintoki recovers his sword (Takasugi’s eye, Takasugi), he does so amidst a wreckage that looks like pine trees, as Takasugi (the one who finally stood before him, who now will stand behind) dies in his arms. Here, we find that the “cycle” repeats: Gintoki stands up, and the sun rises.

This is the dawn of a new, impossible day.

I don’t think that’s so bad.

#4 months later. i cant articulate the suffering this has brought me. anyways. happy 5 years since 703 LOL #goose tag #gintama

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hellcatinnc · 10 months ago

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Character Birthday Masterlist

This is as many birthdays as I could find for all the games I have played and anime's I have watched. Trust me there are more characters but some have no birthday dates posted. I will update this list as I go but you can always find this on my pinned post to come back and check the birthday calendars for each. I did want to do a calendar itself for each month but when so many have the same birthdate I found this harder to do so chose to just do a master list instead.

There was so many birthdays I had to start a 2nd list here is the link to the 2nd one HERE

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January

1st Natsume Asahina - Brothers Conflict

1st Yuito Sumeragi - Scarlet Nexus

3rd Wataru Asahina - Brothers Conflict

6th Herlock Sholmes - Code Realize

7th Saibara Kamui - Paradigm Parodox

9th Thoma - Genshin Impact

10th Yukichi Fukuzawa - Bungo Stray Dogs

11th Satoru Watabe - Stand My Hero

11th Eisuke Ichinomiya - Kissed by the Baddest Bidder

12th Gary - 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom Of Dreams

13th Hades Aidoneus - Kamigami No Asobi

13th Victor - Mr Love Queens Choice

14th Kosuke Misaki - Tomo-chan Is A Girl

16th Vlad Garfunkel - Phantom In The Twilight

18th Henri Lambert - Piofiore Fated Memories/1926

19th Edgar Allan Poe -Bungo Stray Dogs

21st Sirius Dieke - My Next Life as a Villainess

21st Rui Sagisawa - Nil Admirari no Tenbin

23rd Camus - Uta no Prince-sama

27th Urie Sogami - Dance With Devils

28th Kou Mukami - Diabolik Lovers

29th Kanato Hibiki - Maji Kyun! Renaissance

31st Mozu - Bustafellows

February

2nd Lyney - Genshin Impact

4th Gin Akutagawa - Bungo Stray Dogs

5th Takamasa Saeki - My Forged Wedding

8th Allan Melville - Cupid Parasite

9th Abraham Van Helsing - Code Realize

11th Alhaitham - Genshin Impact

12th Tsukito Totsuka - Kamigami No Asobi

13th Merenice - Cupid Parasite

14th Ren Jinguji - Uta no Prince-sama

14th Hatori Otani - Stand My Heroes

15th Arashi Spring - Scarlet Nexus

17th Soryu Oh - Kissed by the Baddest Bidder

17th Fubuki Spring - Scarlet Nexus

20th Tifalia - Radiant Tale

21st Ririchiyo Shirakiin - Inu x Boku SS

22nd Kei Okazaki - Collar X Malice

22nd Yoshikazu Miyano - Sasaki to Miyano

22nd Monet Tsukushi - Magic Kyun! Renaissance

22nd Misuzu Gundo - Tomo-chan Is A Girl

22nd Louis Asahina - Brothers Conflict

26th Sophia Ascart - My Next Life as a Villainess

28th Light Yagami - Death Note

March

1st Ai Mikaze - Uta no Prince-sama

1st Ryuunosuke Akutagawa - Bungo Stray Dogs

2nd Raeliana McMillan - Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's/M

3rd Ukyo - Amnesia Memories

3rd Yuki Itose - Sign Of Affection

3rd Lindo Tachibana - Dance With Devils

3rd Naomi Randall - Scarlet Nexus

6th Rafayel - Love And Deepspace

7th March 7th - Honkai Star Rail

8th Carol Olston - Tomo-chan Is A Girl

9th Mayuzumi Shion - Variable Baricade

18th Tsugumi Kuze - Nil Admirari no Tenbin

19th Ion - Radiant Tale

20th Sakami Laito - Diabolik Lovers

20th Takeru Totsuka - Kamigamin No Asobi

21st Kanato Sakamaki -Diabolik Lovers

22nd Ayato Sakamaki - Diabolik Lovers

25th Rintaro Tatewaki - Magic Kyun! Renaissance

25th Shiden Ritter - Scarlet Nexus

26th Kamisato Ayato -Genshin Impact

27th Keith Powell - Sugar Apple Fairy Tale

31st Yusuke Asahina - Brothers Conflict

April

1st Kyosuke Tsuduki - Stand My Heroes

1st Scarecrow - Bustafellow

1st Avi - 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams

1st Kodama Melone - Scarlet Nexus

2nd Masato Hanzawa - Sasaki and Miyano

3rd Noah Volstaire Wynknight - Why Raeliana Ended Up Duke's/M

4th Canus Espada - Cafe Enchante

8th Yagami Nayuta - Variable Baricade

8th Rowan - Dance With Devils

9th Kiro - Mr Love Queens Choice

10th Takatoo Tokio - Paradigm Parodox

11th Otoya Ittoki - Uta no Prince-sama

11th Zen Wistaria - Snow White With The Red Hair

12th Toma - Amnesia Memories

12th Ota Kisaki - Kissed by the Baddest Bidder

13th Kagerou Shoukiin - Inu x Boku Secret Service

14th Jinnia - Radiant Tale

15th Jirou Ogasawara - Sasaki and Miyano

15th Hayato Ozaki - Nil Admirari no Tenbin

15th Himari Momochi - The Demon Prince of Momochi House

16th Baileu Ton - Phantom in the Twilight

17th Xiao - Genshin Impact

17th Lori Asahina - Brothers Conflict

17th Enomoto Mineo - Collar x Malice

19th Miyo - My Happy Marriage

22nd Yakumo Sumeragi - Scarlet Nexus

23rd Orlok - Piofiore

24th Ruki Mukami - Diabolik Lovers

24th Masaomi Asahina - Brothers Conflict

25th Baizhu - Genshin Impact

29th Chuuya Nakahara - Bungo Stray Dogs

29th Balder Hringhorni - Kamigami No Asobi

30th Diluc - Genshin Impact

May

2nd Ichiyou Higuchi - Variable Barricade

4th Tsugumi Nazar -Scarlet Nexus

5th Atsushi Nakajima - Bungo Stray Dogs

5th Shougo Ukawa - Nil Admirari no Tenbin

9th Akane Kinoshita - Loving Yamada Level 999

9th Aoi Nanamori - The Demon Prince of Momochi House

12th Mamiya Ayumu - Paradigm Parodox

13th Kaito Sumeragi - Scarlet Nexus

15th Karuta Roromiya - Inu x Boku SS

17th Leo Cavagnis - Piofiore

17th Radie - Radiant Tale

17th Impey Barbicane - Code Realize

18th Aki Myojin - Sweet Punishment

18th Gorou - Genshin Impact

21st Rosso - 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams

23rd Sosei Arakida - Stand My Hero

26th Luke Bowen - Phantom In The Twilight

28th Kaname Asahina - Brothers Conflict

June

1st Ikki - Amnesia Memories

1st Kotaro Yui - Stand My Hero

1st Arataki Itto - Genshin Impact

2nd Shiki Natsumezaka - Dance With Devils

5th Ibuki - Paradigm Parodox

5th Nagi Karman - Scarlet Nexus

6th Anubis Ma'at - Kamigami No Asobi

8th Sasazuka Takeru - Collar x Malice

9th Natsuki Shinomiya - Uta no Prince-sama

9th Syo Kurusu - Uta no Prince-sama

10th Kasane Randall - Scarlet Nexus

11th Lynette Mirror - Cupid Parasite

11th Eita Sasaki - Loving Yamada at Lv999!

14th Renshou Sorinozuka - Inu x Boku SS

15th Anne Halford - Sugar Apple Fairy Tale

17th Shuumei Sasaki - Sasaki and Miyano

19th Osamu Dazai - Bungo Stray Dogs

23rd Cyno - Genshin Impact

23rd Erika Shinohara - Wolf Girl & The Black Prince

24th Katarina Claes - My Next Life As A Villainess

25th Shirayuki - Snow White With The Red Hair

26th Shu - Bustafellows

26th Seto Narukami - Scarlet Nexus

27th Gilbert - 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams

28th Nicola Francesca - Piofiore

30th Shuichi Hishikura - Kissed by the Baddest Bidder

July

1st Gemma Garrison - Scarlet Nexus

2nd Ema Asahina - Brothers Conflict

4th Nathaniel Hawthorne - Bungo Stray Dogs

4th Kyouya Sata - Wolf Girl & Black Prince

7th Fuuto Asahina - Brothers Conflict

7th Il Fado de Rie - Cafe Enchante

7th Tomo Aizawa - Tomo-chan Is A Girl

8th Gonzaburou Tashiro - Sasaki and Miyano

9th Kaveh - Genshin Impact

7th Alice Ichijo - Scarlet Nexus

13th Mitsumori Ichiya - Variable Barricade

13th Reiji Kotobuki - Uta no Prince-sama

13th Kazu - Variable Barricade

13th Joe Sumeragi - Scarlet Nexus

16th Gill Lovecraft - Cupid Parasite

20th Tartaglia - Genshin Impact

23rd Yuma Mukami - Diabolik Lovers

24th Junichirou Tanizaki - Bungo Stray Dogs

24th Limbo - Bustafellows

26th Gilbert Redford - Piofiore

30th Michizou Tachihara - Bungo Stray Dogs

30th Rishe Imgard Wertsner - 7th Loop

August

1st Hikaru Asahina - Brothers Conflict

1st Apollon Agana Belea - Kamigami No Asobi

1st Taiga Hirano - Sasaki and Miyano

2nd Saint Germain - Code Realize

6th Tokiya Ichinose - Uta no Prince-sama

7th Toujou Hibari - Variable Barricade

8th Ignis Carbunculus - Cafe Enchante

10th Mitsunari Baba - Kissed by the Baddest Bidder

15th Louis Anjo - Magic Kyun Renaissance

16th Hanabi Ichijo - Scarlet Nexus

20th Alan Stuart - My Next Life As A Villainess

20th Geordo Stuart - My Next Life As A Villainess

22nd Vilio - Radiant Tale

23rd Tomitsuka Ryou - Paradigm Parodox

26th Victor Frankenstein - Code Realize

27th Kenji Miyazawa - Bungo Stray Dogs

29th Reiji Sakamaki - Diabolik Lovers

29th Zange Natsume - Inu x Boku SS

30th Doppo Kunikida - Bungo Stray Dogs

September

5th Yanagi Aiji - Collar x Malice

5th Zayne - Love And Deepspace

10th Maria Campbell - My Next Life As A Villainess

12th Kagero Donne - Scarlet Nexus

13th Albedo - Genshin Impact

14th Tasuku Kuresawa - Sasaki and Miyano

16th Douglas - 100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams

17th Dante Falzone - Piofiore

17th Teika Ichijoji - Magic Kyun - Renaissance

17th Kasuga - Variable Barricade

17th Araki Mihaya - Paradigm Parodox

19th Yukinami - Paradigm Parodox

19th Hisui Hoshikawa - Nil Admirari no Tenbin

21st Mamoru Kishi - Kissed by the Baddest Bidder

21st Akito Yamada - Loving Yamada Lvl 999!

22nd Subaru Asahina - Brothers Conflict

23rd Dionysus Thyrsos - Kamigami No Asobi

23rd Kent - Amnesia Memories

23rd Tsuki Aoyama - Stand My Hero

28th Rindo Kaoru - Cafe Enchante

29th Ranmaru Kurosaki - Uta no Prince sama

Octomber

7th Makoto Tsuduki - Stand My Hero

10th Banri Watanuki - Inu x Boku SS

10th Luka Travers - Scarlet Nexus

15th Paschalia - Radiant Tale

16th Xavier - Love And Deepspace

18th Shu Sakamaki - Diabolik Lovers

18th Shizuru Migiwa - Nil Asmirari no Tenbin

19th Hoshino Ichika - Collar x Malice

21st Ranpo Edogawa - Bungo Stray Dogs

24th Loki Laevatein - Kamigami No Asobi

24th Arsène Lupin - Code Realize

26th Sakunosuke Oda - Bungo Stray Dogs

28th Azusa Mukami - Diabolik Lovers

29th Kaedehara Kazuha - Genshin Impact

30th Helvetica - Bustafellows

31st Cecil Aijima - Uta no Prince sama

31st Junichiro Kubota - Tomo chan is a Girl

31st L Lawliet - Death Note

November

4th Subaru from Diabolik Lovers

4th Mary Hunt - My Next Life As A Villainess

4th Kyouka Izumi - Bungo Stray Dogs

8th Ritsuka Tachibana - Dance With Devils

11th Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Bungo Stray Dogs

11th Misyr Rex - Cafe Enchante

15th Lucien - Mr Love Queens Choice

15th Karen Travers - Scarlet Nexus

17th Rem Kaginuki - Dance With Devils

20th Zafora - Radiant Tale

21st Thor Megingjard - Kamigami No Asobi

23rd Wriothesley - Genshin Impact

23rd You Hattori - Stand My Hero

28th Luke Foster - Kissed by the Baddest Bidder

30th Shin - Amnesia Memories

30th Kaeya - Genshin Impact

30th Kyoka Eden - Scarlet Nexus

December

3rd Isurugi Taiga - Variable Barricade

3rd Ukyo - Asahina - Brothers Conflict

5th Tauryu - Phantom In The Twilight

7th Gojo Satoru - Jujutsu Kaisen

7th Akiko Yosano - Bungo Stray Dogs

12th Yang - Piofiore

16th Wataru Frazer - Scarlet Nexus

17th Aoi Suminomiya - Magic Kyun Renaissance

18th Neuvillette - Genshin Impact

18th Yuu Kusakabe - Wolf Girl & Black Prince

19th Soushi Miketsukami - Inu x Boku SS

20th Isaku Senagaki - A Girl And Her Guard Dog

20th Itsuomi Nagi - Sign Of Affection

22nd Keiya Uto - A Girl And Her Guard Dog

23rd Akira Kougami - Nil Asmirari no Tenbin

24th Shiraishi Kageyuki - Collar x Malice

25th Challe Fen Challe - Sugar Apple Fairy Tale

25th Akira Kagiura - Sasaki and Miyano

25th Misa Amane - Death Note

28th Keith Claes - My Next Life As A Villainess

28th Arnold Hein - 7th Loop

29th Masato Hijirikawa - Uta no Prince sama

31st Zhongli - Genshin Impact

31st Hyuga - Paradigm Parodox

31st Tsubaki Asahina - Brothers Conflict

31st Azusa Asahina - Brothers Conflict

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astoundingbeyondbelief · 1 year ago

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Kaiju Week in Review (September 3-9, 2023)

I was a bit nervous about GAMERA -Rebirth-; the animation looked dodgy and Netflix has a shaky track record with kaiju shows. I'm pleased to report this is the best entry in the genre that they've put their name on. Good characters, great action (brutal as always), and actual episodic storytelling that effortlessly weaves in elements from the Showa films beyond all the returning kaiju. Watch it immediately.

Tie-ins abound for GAMERA -Rebirth-: a two-part novelization, a manga adaptation, and a prequel manga that sheds some light on [UNBELIEVABLY MASSIVE SPOILERS]. That prequel manga (GAMERA -Rebirth- code thyrsos) is being published online for free in both Japanese and English. You can read the first chapter here.

In unofficial translation news, English subtitles for GAMERA.1999 (1999) and yokaipedia (2022) are now available. The former is Hideaki Anno's making-of documentary for Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris; the latter is a fun, child-friendly fantasy from Godzilla Minus One director Takashi Yamazaki with a big ol' centipede-dragon at the end. (It's also maybe the first Japanese kaiju film I've ever seen with a major Black character.) I haven't gotten to GAMERA.1999 yet, though from scrubbing through it, it seems like a lot of dialogue was just ignored by the translator. Shame, as that's one I've wanted for a long time.

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We have a teaser for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, as well as a premiere date for the first two (out of ten) episodes: November 17. (I am being showered with Media for my 30th birthday.) The big news from this trailer is that John Goodman is reprising his role as Bill Randa from Kong: Skull Island. I assume that's going to be through flashbacks and old recordings only, since he was eaten by a Skullcrawler in that one. We also catch glimpses of two new creatures, a dragon and a crab from what I can tell. The latter looks to be fighting a Mother Longlegs.

Fandango and AMC have added mostly-empty listings for Godzilla 2000 on November 1. Fathom Events screened Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla on November 3 last year; despite randomly showing Tokyo SOS back in March, I gather they're making a tradition out of Godzilla Day. Note that the listed runtime is longer than the film itself. Predictions for the program: another message from Keiji Ota, the 2022 Godzilla vs. Gigan short, and the Japanese version of G2K. Interesting that they're running the last Toho Godzilla film to receive a wide release in the U.S. exactly a month before Godzilla Minus One has a wide release of its own here.

Gamera isn't a meta-defining Godzilla Battle Line unit... but he's Gamera in a Godzilla game, so I've been using him in every match since I unlocked him. He's gearing towards demolishing flying units, with fireballs that deal more damage against them and knock them back. A pity that he's arriving well after those units were at their most dominant.

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons #3 still isn't giving me much to write home about, but the kaiju cult creeping to the forefront intrigues. Also cool to see Ebirah in a starring role.

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Marubeni, one of Japan's biggest general trading companies, put out a bizarre commercial featuring samurai, zombies, a meteor, and a refurbished GMK King Ghidorah. The ad now has English subtitles, and you can watch a Ghidorah-centric behind-the-scenes video here.

I cannot believe I have more Cleopatra Entertainment fuckery to report on with regards to their Shin Ultraman releases, but they're truly trying to take the "Worst Film Company of 2023" title from the members of the AMPTP. Their third attempt at a barebones disc is starting to reach customers... but the ones who already received the initial replacement disc are being told no more will be sent. @starestream is trying to figure out if they'll be selling the third edition on their site, since it seems buying it anywhere else is a gamble. (Physically, the third edition looks almost the same as the first two, set apart only by the "SUBTITLED" text on the disc.) Either way, it's another blow to a movie that truly doesn't deserve this.

#kaiju week in review #gamera #gamera rebirth #godzilla #kaiju #yokaipedia #Youtube

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sanddusted-wisteria · 6 months ago

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Doodle Dump, 1/2024 - 4/2024 (part 1)

So uh...I haven't posted as much on here ever since like, the beginning of this year. Instead, I've been doodling like mad over on the OTAS server and have completely neglected to post any of that over here alsdkjalk. So here's most of the doodles I've done, oldest to newest :> (with wild variations in quality,.,,, a lot's changed in my art skillz in 6 months)

[VERY long post below]

A staring contest, ft. @florisam 's Onyx and @illusidy 's Aerie...queens of the death stare.

Thank @/florisam for this one lol

After a body swap AU where Wis swaps with Qi...Wis has to do manual labor with Qi's wimpy wet noodle caffeine dependent body and Qi's def not taking proper care of Wis's body either... probably doesn't put her hair up if he works with a burner or corrosive chemicals aldkfjl

from a superhero/villain AU, wis is neither hero nor villain...she's the civilian that somehow ends up at the epicenter of every super battle and takes advantage of that by becoming a hero/villain accountant 😂

started drawing some more outfits for Wis, but I never finished them. Will probably get back to these a bit later.

and ofc she's gotta try on Qi's disaster outfit asd;lfkdjlrk

I made Wis a logo! Combined a sprig of wisteria with a pine cone, for her workshop, Fresh Pines. Also made a possible combo logo for her and Qi. Y'know, in case they ever make that multistage rocket + launchpad they've been dreaming about...

Wis would be stoked to get her new stamps :>

Wis as a butler in a maid cafe AU...that I do not have the space or time to fully outline the extent of the chaos within... (inquire in the OTAS server for more info asdlkjlrkadf) Also the first time I drew Wis's clone sisters (which I am aware that I haven't introduced at all on tumblr...I wouldn't blame you if you forgot that Wis is a clone 😂 but SOON I promise)

Ft. @spookemsdukems 's "Builder", it's the mystery gorls! No one really knows where they came from. Well, they know. But they're sure as hell not gonna tell you... (ehhh well wis might tell you about herself if you're friends lol)

asdlfklj based on a quote from an incorrect quotes generator

Initial concepts for one of Wis's clone sisters, the one that ended up in Duvos! Eugh the attempt at a waist up in the bottom right corner still haunts me asdlkfjlkjd Also note that that's not what a real prosthetic AK peg leg would look like, I did these without any real research 💀

Ft. @sunstream7 's Val...no explanation needed i think alsdkfja;sdlkrj

An idea I had about a romance/post-marriage gift that Qi could give you: a necklace with dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin that he managed to synthesize...the neurotransmitters of love <3

Love is the Solution: A special necklace given to you by Qi. The little vial contains a mix of neurotransmitters--the mixture of love. Even though they're trapped inside the vial, when you put it on, you swear you can feel them surging through your nerves all the same. Stamina +15

And I've hit the image limit so this is the end of part 1 a;sldkrjlkjlakfj

#so yeah i haven't been dead asdlkrlakj #i promise i AM still writing tho. just. slooooowly #my time at sandrock #mtas #mtas qi #mtas builder #mtas wisteria #shady learns 2 art #long post

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leaping-laelaps-art · 6 months ago

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I haven't posted in a while because I've been busy with some big commissions but here's a low-quality little guy I made as a secondary element of one of said commissions (generalized conodont):

References and notes:

Following the "standard" for conodont reconstructions, morphology is based on the 3 species with known soft tissues (Clydagnathus windsorensis, Panderodus unicostatus, and the giant Promissum pulchrum) (Aldridge et al. 1986, Gabbott et al. 1995, Murdock & Smith 2021), with details filled in from living hagfish and lampreys based on the assumed vertebrate (and possibly even cyclostome) affinity of conodonts (Miyashita et al. 2019). The count of 7 pairs of gill openings (as in lampreys) is simply because i couldn't be bothered to sculpt more.

Note that the mouth is not depicted as a the usual gaping hole filled with spiny elements but rather as folded tissues nicely hiding any trace of offensive toothiness, much like modern hagfish, which, despite their impressive set of "teeth", have a very kissable (closed) mouth. I understand the didactic value of showing the element apparatus in conodont reconstructions but have always felt a little weird about depicting animals actually swimming around looking like that... but who knows?

Another departure from the usual way of reconstructing conodonts is the inclusion of a single nostril. This is based on the single nostril of extant hagfish and lamprey (to which (eu-)conodonts may be most closely related to) (Miyashita et al. 2019), and also supported by the fact that a single nostril may be part of the ancestral state of vertebrates (Oisi et al. 2013) (assuming conodonts are actually vertebrates, of course).

Anyway, that was a lot of reading and shoddy speculation for a background model. Certainly don't trust any of it, I don't know shit about conodonts.

References:

Aldridge, R. J., Briggs, D. E. G., Clarkson, E. N. K., & Smith, M. P. (1986). The affinities of conodonts—New evidence from the Carboniferous of Edinburgh, Scotland. Lethaia, 19(4), 279–291. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3931.1986.tb00741.x

Gabbott, S. E., Aldridge, R. J., & Theron, J. N. (1995). A giant conodont with preserved muscle tissue from the Upper Ordovician of South Africa. Nature, 374(6525), 800–803. https://doi.org/10.1038/374800a0

Miyashita, T., Coates, M. I., Farrar, R., Larson, P., Manning, P. L., Wogelius, R. A., Edwards, N. P., Anné, J., Bergmann, U., Palmer, A. R., & Currie, P. J. (2019). Hagfish from the Cretaceous Tethys Sea and a reconciliation of the morphological–molecular conflict in early vertebrate phylogeny. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(6), 2146–2151. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1814794116

Murdock, D. J. E., & Smith, M. P. (2021). Panderodus from the Waukesha Lagerstätte of Wisconsin, USA: A primitive macrophagous vertebrate predator. Papers in Palaeontology, 7(4), 1977–1993. https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1389

Oisi, Y., Ota, K. G., Kuraku, S., Fujimoto, S., & Kuratani, S. (2013). Craniofacial development of hagfishes and the evolution of vertebrates. Nature, 493(7431), 175–180. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11794

#dubious speculation #<- i'll be using that tag in the future for reconstructions involving disputable or unsupported personal takes (see notes under the cut)#also no fine attention given to anatomy and proportions for this one #probably don't use it as a reference for anything #conodont #chordate #paleozoic #paleontology #paleoart #palaeoblr #my art

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cloudsspoke · 2 years ago

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La Scaloneta is a...

It’s clear that both fans and players share the same sentiments toward La Scaloneta. “ An incredible group that was put together. When you are at the club sometimes you say, how long is it until you go to the national team? You are happy to be there ”, this is how Paredes defined the squad.

- The 'infamous' Players' Group Whatsapp

Paredes is the one who was in charge of creating the group chat. “ We were following the World Cup group drawing through Whatsapp. No, it’s not called La Scaloneta. The coach doesn’t like the nickname, sometimes we tell him jokingly. We left it (the Whatsapp group chat's name) at ‘Copa America’ because it was created when we play for Copa America ”

(Lautaro and Cuti confessed that a day after the World Cup Final, Paredes renamed the group chat from 'Copa America Champion' to ‘World Cup Champion’).

Another story Paredes told about the group chat was, “ We always talk. Every time one of us has to play we try to watch and talk after the game. There are many times that we have to play at the same time and we can’t, but we always try to look at each other ”

- A lot of times they have to become rival for 90mins, but let's pray for this squad to remain as a "Brother" for a very long time 🤞

- The way they take care of each other

Paredes took a trip down memory lane to the first moment he and De Paul broke the ice with Messi. He said, “ It was during an afternoon when we still had 2 hours before training and didn’t know what to do. And Rodri said, ‘That’s it, let’s grab the cards, mate, and knock on Leo’s door’. The idea is that simple; to play truco, drink mate, listen to some music, and hope he would receive us in the best way. We were lucky he opened the door to his room for us and everything has worked well since that moment "

De Paul on Messi: Having him, everything is easier. On a club level, I only had contact with him once, at Valencia vs Barcelona. Apart from that, I didn’t know him. Given everything he lives through he could be a reserved character, so he surprised me (as it turns out) he enjoys having a mate, listening to a song, and playing truco. We do warm-up games, and I say: ‘Leo, I’ll take you on!’, he loves that. That humanizes him. You can see him like he's from another dimension, but he’s just a person.

Furthermore, De Paul describes his role in the National Team as a ‘spare tire’. I have no problem putting it like that. And I’ll do anything to wear this jersey. With my role, we can cover Paredes and help Messi, everything comes in its own time whether it’s to help Messi to attack, or hold back to cover Paredes. You compliment them.

Messi's praise of De Paul

Between players, it has been well-known that the secret to make Leo (Messi) happy is by treating him normally. However, Cristian Romero said in reality it worked the other way around.

Cuti: Since I joined the National team, Leo always treats me like I am one of them, he made me see how simple it is beyond everything he has won in his career.

"Rodrigo De Paul desde el primer día lo protegió, lo abrazó y lo apadrinó." - Molina's father told the story about how De Paul took care of his son when Molina first time played abroad for Udinese

Molina: I was at my house when Rodri with Correa were the first ones to call me and said ‘Congratulations! You deserve it! I hope you don’t flatter yourself (note: in a joking manner)’. I didn’t understand it until they told me that I had been summoned by the National Team.

Paredes to De Paul: How well we raised these 3 (Cuti-Licha-Moli)

Meanwhile, long before acting as Molina’s ‘godparent’, Rodri was the ‘little brother’ of Ota back when the 2 of them played for Valencia (and they’ve been a roommate since Brazil's 2019 Copa America). Take a look back at their Instagram, there are so many photos of them together both on-off pitch, even after Ota moved to Manchester, the friendship still continued.

- Players' bonding time with Asado

Love how the young ones 'take advantage' by making the elder do the cooking

- Their attention to the injured ones

Players' support for Gio; before, during, and after his comeback from injury

Mac Allister about Garnacho: I'm sure Licha is working on it (persuading Garna to join Argentina) right now

Licha: I'm taking him with me to Argentina

It’s like a cycle of them taking care of each other, one another 💕 Just like how Ota took care of Rodri and Rodri took care of Molina in return. Gio’s presence helped Cuti to adapt when they were both in Tottenham even for a little while. Tagliafico helped Licha while both played for Ajax. Leo welcomed Paredes in the NT and later Paredes (together with Di Maria & Ney) helped Leo adjust to a new life in Paris, and now it’s Licha’s turn to be ‘the old brother’ of Garnacho.

Meanwhile, so many people against Garnacho join the Argentine side, mostly because they are afraid this kid’s personality will ruin the ‘harmony’ within players and all those bullshit talk about him idolizing Ronaldo. Well, in my opinion, I am 100% sure that the second Garnacho misbehaves (if ever), Licha will be the first to reprimand him. For real though, I don’t think there will be bad individuals inside this NT as long as there are players like De Paul, Paredes, and Dibu.

And yes, like Kun said, wish that the more Garnacho spends time seeing Messi play, the faster he will realize who the real GOAT is,

although imo it’s not a crime to choose CR7 over Messi? if Messi can be best friends with Neymar and Suarez (both are Argies’ rivals), then why can’t Garna choose CR7 over Messi? It's only a matter of preference (not loyalty), anyway.

Meanwhile, Haters had a field day over Garnacho's injury news. Too bad we can't see Licha really taking Garna to Argentina.

- The 'dont-touch-Leo-or-I-will-kill-you' movement:

Throwback to Kun's reaction seeing the UCL drawing when PSG, Juventus, and Benfica were in the same group.

Meanwhile… Di Maria (& Messi himself) be like.. 😂

- Different interviews were conducted at different times, but these players shared the same stories about the squad

To quote Paredes: none of them makes a bad face if they have to be corrected, while Dibu said: ‘Acá nadie pone mala cara’

Dibu: One fell and the other ten help him to get up Licha: If they touch one (of us), we all go (to defend him)

De Paul said ‘Everyone knows what they’re expected to do’, similar to Paredes’ statement ‘Each one knows what they have to contribute’

Throwback to September 2019 during the match against Mexico. Argentina got a chance to score a goal via a penalty kick after Lautaro’s shot touched the hand of Mexico player. It’s understandable for Lau to think that he should be the player in charge of the pen kick since he already scored a brace and aimed for a hattrick. But somehow after Lau took the ball from Ochoa, Paredes demanded the ball from Lau and kicked the penalty himself. Paredes eventually scored & celebrated the goal with Lau, and 6 mins later Lautaro succesfully scored a hattrick. After the game, Lau posted a photo of him and Paredes with a playful caption to quickly shut down any rumor about an ‘altercation’ between him and Paredes during the penalty kick.

As for now, for me, it is ironic how people assume bringing Garnacho to the Scaloni squad can bring ‘dressing room drama’. No, it’s not. It’s the fans' ‘toxic’ culture that could destroy this family. The way people start to compete players against each other or criticize players’ World Cup performance while disregarding their roles in the previous tournaments. Yeah, everyone has their own opinion, but acting like they have the right to decide who should join the NT or play as a starter is truly ridiculous.

Paredes was one of the ‘undisputed starters’ on Scaloni’s squad but quickly lost his place after the loss against Saudi Arabia. He accepted his role as a substitute player and helped his teammates from the bench. “ I didn’t arrive in the best physical way and I was aware by not being 100% gonna cost me a lot. The group was above everything and luckily the great teammates (Enzo & Mac Allister) appeared as they played enormously well. I was surprised and very proud of them. ”

Dybala interview with Marca: I needed some time after my injury and I was not yet in the best condition. I wanted to support, be positive with the best energies, and never put an angry or frustrated face for not being played. I made the team feel like they could count on me. And so it was, I felt better and Scaloni trusted me in one of the most important moments.

Lautaro interview with espnargentina: I have discomfort with my swollen ankle and I had to play with painkillers. It’s not the World Cup that I expected (because the injury made him underperform), but Juli’s arrival made me very happy. He’d give the team what I couldn’t give.

I’ve seen many people questioning why then Scaloni didn’t choose a 100% fit player if he knew Dybala, Lautaro and Paredes weren’t 100% fit. The audacity for these people to think like that, because despite their injuries, during the crucial moments, all the 3 of them stepped up and executed their roles perfectly.

What's next?

Scaloni's interview on March 21st: I thanked the players again for winning the title, now it’s time to celebrate but this goes on. And it’s going to cost us more than ever because they are going to want to beat us much more. We need a lot more energy from everyone because everything will be more difficult.

In regards to the national team:

“A new process begins. Those who are world champions don’t have an advantage. The most important thing is that the players don't feel like the owners of the National Team and that the coach is always watching. There are also kids who are going to grow and play at a high level and fight for a place (in the NT)."

Say, we, supporters, love this team. We'd love to see Messi to win more trophies alongside these Muchachos. The closest is that we aim for a Copa America back-to-back champion. This time it will be 10x more difficult because other countries will proly want to beat Argentina just out of spite, just for them to be able to say "WE BEAT THE WORLD CHAMPION, WHERE IS MESSI? WE POCKET HIM, etc etc", like Scaloni said, this squad needs a lot more energy from everyone, and imo that includes US, the supporters.

Why? As I said earlier, fans' toxic culture could destroy this team from outside. What supporters don't easily grasp is the fact that Scaloni can easily kick any players out once they don't perform well and there's better replacement. This fact, the players are fully aware as they said in numerous interviews "In this squad, there's only 1 player who's irreplaceable. Other than Messi, we always have to fight for 1 spot". Specifically, De Paul said this, "I'll do anything to be able to wear this jersey, but if one day I don't play, it's because there are others who play better than me.",

Well, I think it's safe for us (supporters) to love all players equally and love them based on their performance on the pitch. That way if Scaloni decides to drop them from the future squad list we won't be so upset or displeased with that decision because we know that it's because there are other players who (according to Scaloni's better judgment) play better than our faves. If the players can accept the consequences with big hearts (like Lau, Dybala, and Paredes) then supporters need to learn to be respectful toward Scaloni and just pray for the best.

⭐⭐⭐

📌 Bonus gifs+pics

Lovely place, with good feelings, and a happy squad. The return of the KINGS 👑

Because Tumblr can only have up to 30 images in a post, I can't say anything more about this squad, but if you enjoy reading this post you can also click here to similar posts I have already made:

(1) Little Things I love from La Scaloneta

(2) Hilarious & Heartwarming stories about La Scaloneta

(3) Crackhead Muchachos

(4) Full thread about AFA's Tournament de Truco

(5) Full thread about Players' room arrangement (¿Quién duerme con quién?) + more gifs about Messi and the gang

🇦🇷🏆

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