#plotting and analyzing again

[eyeswaitingfortuesdaynight]

going to try to catch up to my dash later but like.....was re-reading parts of a different translation of the orv webtoon (i know i need to finish reading the actual novel shut uuuuuup brain and let me look at and enjoy the pretty art) and like, i'm thinking about some of the kdj backstory crumbs

a) kdj did complete his military service, and was unlucky enough to be picked to be on the front lines - assuming he means the DMZ, which would be a nightmare and dangerous for several reasons that i won't get into because while i know a little about north-south korea relations, i'm not gonna pretend to be some kind of expert

b) despite his horrendous life thus far, kdj considers his time in the military to be the actual worst???? (the welcome prison sort of disproves this since it uses the scene of his dad's murder - but this might a 'most traumatic' vs 'most hated' situation, in that there's a sort of silver lining to his dad's death in that he doesn't have to deal with the guy anymore, so kdj might not completely hate it, but he doesn't seem to think of a single good thing about his military service) funnily enough, the way he worded it makes me think he actually hates his time in the military more than he hates BEING IN THE SCENARIOS????? probably an agency thing too tbh along with a fanboy thing

c) anyway. his army advisor? recruitment person? career counsellor? whoever it was, they actually RECOMMENDED that kdj stay in the military after his mandatory service. which means he probably wasn't completely terrible. he might have been...good? at this point in his life, it's probably not an exaggeration to say a) this is the first thing kdj is concievably good at and succeeded with (aside from reading) and b) first place that actually wanted him to stay. there's also a steady paycheque in the army i imagine. BUT HE ACTUALLY LEFT. HOW MUCH DID HE HATE THE MILTARY????? probably a lot if the military all died and were mostly useless in ORV lol

d) ok. so. it's pretty clear that all the orv characters with significant screentime are some kind of mirror to kdj's various aspects while also being their own characters and exploring various tropes within this sort of power fantasy light novel genre. ysa = ideal reader and fl, lgy = kid!kdj, sys= kid!kdj but a girl so it's just seperate enough from himself to look past his self-hatred and actually like her, etc. etc. lhs is obviously military!kdj. like...an au where kdj decided to stay in the military. so we can probably extrapolate some characteristics of military!kdj by looking lhs. so military!kdj was probably:

doormat (because if kdj stuck with the military despite hating it because of someone's else suggestion...mega doormat)

pretends he's not traumatized by the military ( he is)

INCREDIBLY and HILARIOUSLY salty about being single and perpetually maidenless

somewhat competent soldier who follows orders well (doge)

SO FUCKING JACKED HOLY SHIT. HOW FIT WAS KDJ IN THE MILITARY I NEED TO KNOOOOOOW

anywho. my conclusion is that military!kdj knew he was good at being a good little soldier boy and hated every second of it, so he left when it was no longer required, even if it dumped him back into uncertain job prospects, esp. with his reputation still following him.

(all this dovetails quite nicely with my background and headcanons for spy!kdj, so this works out for me to confirm there is an arguably textual basis for kdj being competent in the modern military - which is a sort of drawback compared to the warrior lifestyle the scenarios almost demand for The Drama™️)

(also side note: i think i'm going to have to skim red candy and take notes as to when various side characters from vulture show up so i can flip to their scenes right away when i need to remember how they act/speak for a scene. official lehzin english version is apparently a bad translation, which pains me since that's the uncensored version, so i'll refer back to the OG scanlation with light sabers 😭 i might compare the translations like i do with the various ORV webtoons and novel)

[lokiusly]

ok but when will Loki and Mobius have their “you give me cookie got you cookie” moment?

[peachiseas]

Played the keyframes demo... many thoughts that i will be keepin to myself 😌

<<<< wants to talk about the gameplay in an analyst way

[night-heron-writes]

The World of Spy x Family: Spy Radios

We don’t see a ton of Twilight/WISE’s spy gear in the show, and even less of the SSS’s counterintelligence gear, but what we do see blows me away. The attention to detail in this anime and manga is impressive. I’ve been able to research and clearly identify everything except the WISE HQ set of screens/radios (mostly bc we only get a zoomed out perspective of that), and it all matches up to what would have been used during the Cold War and in West and East Germany.

Let’s start with Twilight’s own radio kit. In the manga it looks like this:

And in the anime it’s practically identical, with only a few knobs and things moved around:

Now, it’s not exactly identical to it’s real-world counterpart, but it’s astoundingly close. The Spy x Family version just looks a little sleeker.

This is an ESK-52/Type 41 Amateur Radio Set, produced by the West German company Telefunken for the West German Intelligence Service, or the Bundesnachrictdienst. It was first produced in 1952,and was primarily used during the Cold War.

The Type 41 is a type of stay-behind radio set, used by spies who stayed behind in other countries to gather intelligence. For secrecy reasons, spy radios were often marketed as “amateur radio sets” to make them seem less suspicious. The Type 41 comes inside a suitcase, and is fully capable of both receiving and transmitting morse code messages over radio frequencies. It came equipped with headphones that look very similar to the ones portrayed in Spy x Family:

And now for the SSS. In Episode/Chapter 1, when Anya accidentally sends the message with her location and a challenge. In the manga, we can barely see it because of all the speech bubbles, but here’s what we can see:

The anime gives us a much clearer shot:

This one looks pretty close to its real-world counterpart, the R-353. You can see that the anime/manga simplified things a little bit, but overall they look very similar:

The R-353 was a Soviet-manufactured spy radio set, also used by other Warsaw Pact countries, such as East Germany. In East Germany, it was used by the government, and by the Stasi in particular.

The R-353 was one of the most sophisticated Cold War Soviet spy radios, with the capability to receive and send morse code signals over radio frequencies, which  could be sent manually, semi-automatically with the numerical dial, or completely automatically by magnetic tape.

Now, on to the tricky part: WISE HQ. Here’s what it looks like in the manga:

and in the anime:

As of yet, I’ve been unable to concretely identify anything in these pictures, although I strongly suspect the the cabinets with rotors are Bombe Machines, which look like this:

Bombe machines were used to brute-force the Enigma machine during WW2, and i’m not sure how WISE would have got a hold of any, since every single Bombe machine the British had was destroyed after the war to maintain secrecy. Perhaps WISE got a hold of a Polish Bombe machine and are trying to break Ostania’s ciphers?

Trying to play I Spy with the radios and other equipment in these panels/screencaps of WISE HQ has been tricky. The shots are all zoomed out, making it nearly impossible to see any identifiers. My best guess is a combination of radio transceivers (transmitter/receiver combination) and Telex machines (teletypewriters - think telegraph but combined with a typewriter and outputting ASCII characters rather than Morse code).

Without more detailed and close-up shots of the equipment in WISE HQ, I can’t make any guesses as to the specifics of the machines.

In conclusion, I continue to be blown away by the attention to detail in this series, in both the anime and manga. Even things we see maybe once or twice are very well thought-out, and there are so many layers to dig through, from the geography all the way to the spy gadgets that have maybe ten seconds of screentime or one manga panel.

Edit: all info on the historical spy gear i talked about can be found at cryptomuseum.com. I highly recommend checking it out if you’re interested, they have done a very thorough job of documenting things.

[actual-corpse]

Watching Avatar the Last Airbender...

Politely reminded of the time people wanted my head because I said that ATLA ruined storytelling because some people can't fucking think critically of media before trying to tell you what's so good about it.

I LOVE AtLA! Adore it! But like.... A majority of people watched Zuko switch sides and said, "Damn... What if we redeemed ALL the villains?" Without realizing Zuko wasn't a true villain in need of redemption.

But... The Redemption Game isn't truly JUST the fault of AtLA... There was a shift in the Moral of the Story. Idk how to explain it bc I'm half asleep, but like...

[aromanticannibal]

The pattern is that people straight up do not read™. or they read a 3-5 tweet summary of what happened and treat it as if they did. or because shonen expectations based on "the classics" is bullshit and significantly rotted people's brains when deciding wether an ending is good or not.

Which could be nothing right

yeahhh. i will forever regret reading the last chapter through leaks because it was a dreadful experience, and watching everyone ever shit on it for like a week after genuinely made me want to just get off the internet forever or something because i felt like an idiot for liking the ending (all this is my fault for getting too invested in both tumblr and mha etc etc).

All the "it's rushed" and pacing complaints barely matter to me at this point because you just cannot feel the pacing of something correctly when you're reading it exclusively through leaks. you can't absorb info like that. And don't get me started on the number of complaints and criticisms I've seen of the last chapter that are just provably bullshit (I saw someone say Izuku didn't get a statue lmao. yes he did, you just read the fucking leaks and watched twitter drama unfold instead of reading the actual chapter i fear).

[sonicattos]

I'm just imagining baby Tails getting scared by something, and on instinct, Sonic walks over to him, picks him up and begins gently soothing him by gently bouncing him in his arms and purring.

Baby tails has never felt so comfy. He fits so much better in his larger older brother's arms. He falls asleep there, and Sonic is so happy

yes i love this!!

..he’s baby..

ramble ↓↓↓

i couldn’t articulate it (and still can’t), but, what made me so crazy about it last night was that this tails likely 2-4 years old here.

(in sonic frontiers sage says that tails had known sonic for most of his life, and if he’s still 8 in that game then that means he’s known him since he was 3 at oldest, meaning that’s how old he is in sonic 2, but then again we don’t know how old anyone is currently so this is just speculation/hc)

point being, sonic knows tails can handle things on his own, but this tails is a little baby.. so he’s probably really protective of him… and baby tails, who already looks up to his sonic, sees this GIGANTIC and powerful sonic in front of him and is even more inspired. (not saying that classic sonic wasn’t enough, it’s like a “cool!!! two sonics!!” ordeal)

also wanna talk about how if my theory on how old the classics are is true, then modern tails and classic sonic should be close in age. doesn’t really matter that much ik no one cares besides me, it’s just interesting to me..

[multishipper-baby]

I finally decided to try out character AI and it was honestly such a good decision. Not because of the roleplay aspect, exactly, but to gauge how far AI is when it comes to writing. And I can safely say it's still a while until it can make things on its own.

[potatoes-tomatoes]

I’ve been goin thru a steven universe rewatch since last week and… wow. Wow this show is revolutionary for queer voices. It was eye opening seeing everything unfold again.

It’s been wonderful experiencing the show with fresh eyes. I started the show, saw the premiere of the show, followed it and finished it while I was still closeted and bigoted. I saw the reveal of Garnet being a fusion, being love, and was initially disgusted and disappointed because I was TAUGHT to be disgusted and disappointed.

The residual bigotry flares up at times… but it’s not me anymore. Well it is, but it’s like.. the MEMORY of me seeing that moment through my old eyes. I do my best to not feel shame, but to understand and forgive myself and enjoy creating a new experience watching SU.

now that I’m (somewhat) open, I’ve been able to enjoy the show and appreciate how much it’s done for queer voices since. I… saw Ruby and Sapphire’s wedding for the first time, I saw it— not with my hands barely covering my eyes. What a triumph that this show inspired others to let queer ppl share their stories, experiences, hopes, fears, love, without shame! Steven Universe isn’t perfection— it’s flawed, beautifully flawed, like the people who made it, the people who watch it, and the characters in it. If the road it paved wasn’t perfect, then all the better for newer voices, newer stories to be like, that limestone thingy in roman rock to reinforce it. To make it better. to make like, longer gay roads! pff shit I think I was trying to be poetic and metaphorical or something, but I hope my point came across. I just have big feelings right now. I didn’t realize what SU did for this lil baby queer. It’s so inspiring

[likecastle]

Is it a hidden clue in the text, or are the writers just not that deep?

[c0rpsedemon]

insane 2 me that eiyuu senki has a translation b4 fate/stay night does

[shararan]

What's with this sudden uptick in "any fanfic depiction is a deliberate slight against the source material that should be condemned" I'm seeing across fandom in general and how the fuck do I opt out of seeing it

[genderkoolaid]

like if you saw the barbie movie & felt like it was putting into words feelings about womanhood you haven't seen represented, and that it's take on gender is something necessary and important. im glad it could do that for you but you like, DESPERATELY need to engage with feminism more because this movie did not say anything that hasn't been said a million times on feminism Facebook meme pages. and personally I think it was very well made & enjoyable & even had a very beautiful message on being human & what that means. and I don't think this movie could've been made without engaging with feminism because of Barbie's cultural impact. but this is not really a Feminist Movie (nor should it be expected to be!), as much as it is a movie where feminism is part of the plot.

just saw the barbie movie with my friend & really enjoyed it! however i already have seen some extremely Cis Straight Woman takes on it & its feminism lol

[hypewinter]

Hear me out! Danny finds his human form slowly getting more eldrich as he gets older (and more powerful) and ends up going to Gotham where people are way less likely to ask questions!

Sadly when the people of Gotham see Danny, oops my shadow has eyes now, Fenton they just assume he's gonna be a new Rouge!

Que the bat fam watching Danny waiting for him to make his move, over-analyzing everything he does. Mans can't even buy a new laptop without Bruce breathing down his neck about it

This would be an issue if Danny wasn't such a little troll, and he starts buying more obviously ominous things only to openly use them in improperly boring and normal ways. Like buys a death lazer and can be seen using it to make toast, buys a cursed box full of death themed artifacts and uses it as a coffee table, that kinda stuff.

Every time the bat's assume 'this is it!' And gets ready to take him down, only to see Danny setting up a new 'coat rack' made of kriptonite

Even better when they see him tinkering on some kind of doomsday device, the kind that looks super evil and dangerous and even has a red count down timer on the front and- it's a fucking air frier again! He already has three! Why does he keep making air friers?! Obviously this must be some kind of scheme

I raise you: Danny starts selling his things out to random citizens (they've all been intensely screened). The bats panic thinking this is an attempt to cripple Gotham in one fell swoop. Nope. Ms. Randall just really needed a new air purifier and Danny had a toxin dispenser that was just collecting dust.

I imagine though that he might start to notice that the bats are focusing on him a little too much which is a problem considering there are things going down in Gotham that actually need their attention. But at the same time, our resident ghost boy isn't ready to stop being a menace just yet. So what does he do? Kill too birds with one stone.

Whenever Danny catches wind of a new plot going down, he does something to draw the bats's attention to it. Two Face planning a robbery? Suddenly Danny is showing up to the bank everyday to work on the vault (he offered to reinforce it for free). The bats get so suspicious they focus hard on the bank and discover Two Face's plot before he can do anything.

The bats pat themselves on the back while Danny giggles in the background. Wonder how long it will take for them to figure out what's going on.

[roaringheat]

Sadie give me a chance pls pls pls

[gh0stsp1d3r]

⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪ That’s not a thermometer.

cw: fem!reader, they’re also married, anxiety, pregnancy, doubts of being a good father, mentions of daddy issues, but mostly fluff

A/n: the people REALLY wanted more nerd!rafe… and my baby fever is crazy rn so… this is curing it

MASTERLIST

A few weeks ago, you’d been panicking at the thought of it. As you stood there, waiting in the bathroom for the lines to show up, your mind ran wild.

What if you were pregnant? Would Rafe stay? Or would he be scared and leave?

No, you told yourself. Rafe was better than that.

You saw the two lines, and you just about passed out. Oh god, oh god. You took another test, just to be sure. Positive again.

You swallowed the lump that had formed in your throat, Rafe knocking on the bathroom door while clearing his throat.

“Y/n? Are you okay? You’ve been in there a while.” He asked, voice full of concern. The movie buzzed on in the background, but it was long forgotten at this point.

“Uhm- yeah! I’m- I’m fine!” You replied, taking both tests in your hands, looking around the bathroom. You thought of tossing it into the trash, but Rafe was very oddly observant. He’d probably notice it while he was taking out the trash or something.

You shoved it into the pockets of your hoodie, telling yourself that it would be okay, and that Rafe wouldn’t know anything as you opened the door.

He had a small frown on his face, leaning against the doorway.

“What’s wrong?” He asked you, immediately sensing something was off. You wished he couldn’t read you so well, sometimes.

“I’m alright.” You repeated, him quirking an eyebrow, pushing himself off of the doorway.

“Alright.” He replied, although not convinced at all. He decided not to press any further, sitting down on his bed. You sat down next to him, your head still spinning and swirling.

He laid down, waiting for you to do the same. When he looked at you, however, you were completely zoned out, your eyes glossed over and your face unreadable.

“Hey,” he spoke quietly, putting his hand on your thigh. You jerked slightly, turning to him with wide eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re looking a little pale…” he noted, moving his other hand onto your forehead.

You gave him a tight lipped smile, nodding as you pushed his hand off of your face. “I’m finee, Rafe. Quit worrying about me.” You told him, going to lay down with him in an attempt to act normal.

“I can’t help it.” He replied, kissing the side of your head, pulling you closer to him, his arm now lazily slung over your stomach.

The movie became less and less interesting, Rafe speaking over it at times and saying how the main character was “pissing him off.”

“Oh, are you serious? Whoever wrote this movie sucks. This doesn’t even make sense. The plot is all over the place and they just completely mischaracterized their own character.”

You didn’t reply, already knowing how deep he analyzed these movies and shows. Usually, you’d agree or laugh with him about it, but today you didn’t. You were quiet the entire time, actually.

Rafes worries grew. ‘Did I do something?’ He thought, replaying every moment with you recently. He couldn’t think of anything. So, he remained quiet after a while, deciding to not bother you.

He felt you slowly grow more limp in his hands as the movie played on, slowly dozing off with your head resting against his shoulder.

He had a soft smile on his face, glancing at you. That smile faded when he felt something cold touch his hands, dropping from your pockets. He furrowed his eyebrows, feeling the shape of it. At first, he thought it was some thermometer. He had felt the body of it, nothing more.

Why would there be a thermometer in your pocket?

He glanced at your sleeping figure once more, before moving his hand and pulling the object out from underneath the covers and your body.

That’s not a thermometer.

His eyes widened and his grip loosened on the object, dropping it for a moment. He quickly reached over your form, grabbing it and holding it close to his face as if it was unbelievable.

He examined it closely, looking over the two lines multiple times. He swallowed, looking back down at you. He sighed quietly, putting his hand on his forehead and staring up at the ceiling.

Okay, he wasn’t upset at you. He was more so confused and worried. He thought for a moment, would a child really be that bad? He had taken his father’s business over now, money pouring in like it was nothing. That wasn’t a problem. The main thing he was worried about was how good of a dad he’d really be.

He wouldn’t leave this child, god no. He knew that much. He loved you far too much.

Plus, you’d spoken about this before. Neither of you were against the idea, he just didn’t think it would be this soon.

But, living his whole life without a proper father figure screwed him up more than he’d like to admit. He didn’t know how a father should act, how a father should really treat a child. What if his child ended up like him? What if he needed to go to anger management and fucking therapy all because of Rafe?

His thought were interrupted when you began to squirm around in your sleep, your eyes beginning to flutter open. You saw Rafe staring at you, his eyes glossed over. He gave you a small smile, moving the hair from your face.

You gave him a tired smile back, and for a moment, he made you forget about everything else. When his arms wrapped around you again, there was nothing else in the world.

“I love you, you know that?” He rasped out quietly.

“I love you too.” You replied, although very confused at the random statement.

He pulled away, looking you in your eyes for a moment. He sat up slowly, you furrowing your eyebrows worriedly at him as you did the same.

“What’s wrong?” You asked him, him shaking his head.

“I..uhm..” he pulled out the test, letting it speak for itself. It was like the words had gotten stuck in his throat.

“Oh.” You mumbled, dropping your gaze down.

“I know this probably isn’t how you wanted me to find out.” He spoke, you looking down at your lap still, avoiding his gaze. “And I want you to know-“ he paused, looking at you.

“Y/n.” His hand moved, grabbing your face in his hands, moving closer towards you. You looked up at him finally, tears brimming your eyes.

“I love you.” He repeated. Those words meant more to you than he could imagine at the moment. You started full on sobbing, him wrapping his arms around you, letting you cry into his shoulder.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. We’ll be okay.” He told you in a murmur, your hands bunching up the fabric of his shirt.

“I love you.” You cried out, him letting out a quiet laugh, continuing to let you cry.

“Hey, hey,” he spoke when he heard nothing but little sniffles coming from you. You pulled away, looking at him again. He brought the pad of his thumb, wiping away any remaining tears.

“I meant it. I- I really, really wanna be here for you. For the both of you. Okay? I’m gonna- gonna get my shit together, ��m gonna… figure it all out.”

“Thank you.” You replied quietly, him giving you a soft smile, pulling you in for another hug.

“You’re gonna be a really good dad.” You murmured against him, him smiling at the thought of it. With those simple words, all his anxiety was eased.

“You’re gonna be the best mom.” He retorted.

You giggled at him, leaning up so you could kiss hm.

When you pulled away, you both got back down into the sheets.

“You know, I think it’s gonna be a girl.” You told him quietly, him tilting his head to the side.

“Well, you’d probably be right. Most people think that the likelihood you’ll have a boy or a girl is inherited through the father… considering that I’m literally the only boy in the family, then, you’d probably be correct.”

“I’m trying to be cute and you’re spewing facts at me.” You teased him, him shrugging.

“Well, you knew about the deal when you decided to marry me.” He pulled his hand out from under the covers, showing the ring on his finger.

“You should have put it in your vows.” You replied.

“How would I word that, exactly?”

“I, Rafe Cameron, promise to never stop giving you extremely random science facts, even when you’re pregnant.” You spoke in a deep, mocking voice. It made him laugh out loudly.

“I do not sound like that.”

“You kinda do.” You laughed.

Rafe shook his head with a soft smile, and he knew, despite everything he’s gone through and everything that’s happened, if it led him to you, he’d do it 10 times over again.

Taglist:

@moonssyrup @koibleufish @anamiad00msday @wearemadeofstardust0 @10ava01 @mileyraes