#straight up cult vibes i think we gonna be sacrificed

[generalsmemories]

i can have a normal day and suddenly at 3 AM while I wait for melatonin to kick in i get another epiphany but I'm also left groveling on the ground cause of said epiphany

[lotus-mirage]

Trigun Stampede episode 5 liveblog!

Oh already going in with more allusions to christianity, okay.

I feel like I should focus a little bit more on these, but honestly idk who’s speaking and if their philosophies actually are relevant outside of worldbuilding. Here goes anyway!

“We Sinners were cast upon this land when the ark crashed.” -> two important things here. First, the term ‘sinners,’ unless the ark was carrying, like, convicts, this is presumably a basic christian idea that everybody sins during their life. However tonally this doesn’t read like it’s followed with ‘and then everybody is forgiven,’ more like the speaker hates humanity in general, including themselves. Second, probably more important plot-wise. ‘Ark’ - the most likely reading is this is the spaceship that brought humans to the planet. It’s probably not the same one that we saw with child Vash, but since they also had Plants they’re probably related? ‘Crashed’ is an interesting term to use - I’d assumed that the Plants were planned to be used as resources for colonization, as convenient as they seem to be, but I guess it would make sense that maybe the rest of a high-tech civilization just doesn’t know about these guys if they crashed.

Then again, this guy may be totally mistaken, so who knows.  He’s certainly got an agenda of his own already.

It has been 8 seconds into the episode. I need to stop overthinking.

“Angel of Salvation” oh interesting.  I bet somebody’s gonna try to claim this role.

Oh this is definitely a cult, okay.

wait a second isn’t there a whole thing in Christianity about only worshiping God or an aspect of him? Like isn’t that the (nominal) reason for a bunch of denominational splits?? Certainly seems like the focus here is on this angel and not God.

(Actually come to think of it - I have no idea how the worship of saints is factored into... all of that.  Idk if that’s totally relevant though, I don’t think they’re quite deified like this guy seems to be doing)

“Please let the wind blow. Otherwise I...” gonna be relevant later, noted.  Also wow that was interesting background music.

Oh it keeps going I thought I could take a break sdfjgkl okay

Two angels now!  Okay yeah that one seems pretty obvious at least that’s the twins.  Bridge of light, though. Sounds nice, but I suspect it’s rather ominous, esp with it leading them ‘to the land of god’. Like I know that’s kind of how christianity goes but like it also sounds like this bridge might straight-up just kill everybody.  Idk what it could be though.  Also no idea how this guy knows about them!

Also interesting that this is being broadcasted wide enough that they can just pick it up, I’d assumed this was a smaller-scale cult thing, but maybe it’s more widespread?

Oh details! Church of plant worshipers. New? In JuLai? Yeah that checks out.  Assumedly connections to Knives?

Aaand the two people with potentially relevant insight are asleep for this.

Roberto, dude, you good? This is the most animated we’ve seen him I think lol.

Interesting, that place looks a bit like a greenhouse maybe?

EAT THE SACRIFICED CHILDREN, WHAT

Oh it is a death cult

Nope, definitely not a greenhouse lol

Okay interesting now we’ve got meteorological shifts happening

What’s up with this guy’s head?? Is that like a full-on LED display?? It gives him a head-in-a-jar vibe.

Presumably the scenes with the new kid are a flashback?

the framing with the kid running away and every beat the screen size shrinks is really cool, you don’t see that too often!

Oh interesting! So going in I knew Wolfwood had like a limited regeneration/healing thing, but looks like this guy also does, and Wolfwood is surprised about it.  That implies that they’re different factions and the method isn’t widespread, so... guess we’ll just have to see what’s up with that!

Ah.  He delivered the kid back to his impending death.  Wonderful

“If God won’t save you, I will!”

that’s a statement and a half.  You know what, not touching that one.

Aaaand there’s a cross in the background behind him.  Yeah okay.

Incredibly upfront about being a death cult, wow

Uh.  Humanoid robots? Cyborgs? not sure.  but with one of Knive’s allies. Which makes sense, but uh.  Why is Rollo here? I assumed maybe this was part of the sacrifice process, but its dark and there aren’t many people around. If it is, though, I feel like the sacrifices are related to the aforementioned cyborg-looking guys.  Which is horrifying ngl.

ughhh needles

not gonna deal with the fire at all huh

okay. dichotomy of sacrifice and angel. previously the way it’s been used one would assume they’re non-exclusive, but the way she answered that makes me feel like she thinks entirely the opposite. and also that the sacrifices are probably for the angels.

oh lmao more cross imagery. they really don’t let up huh.

ugh more needles hooray

is Rollo the guy they’re fighting now?

huh the angel kid is heterochromatic. could be a design choice, but I guess could be relevant?

oh that looks disgusting. and painful.

yep that’s Rollo.  fun times.

oh that’s ironic.  he can produce wind, but only now that everything is gone. :(

oh.  oh he has self awareness.  oh that’s even worse.

wait, Vash could recognize him??

Twenty years, huh? Yeah that makes sense actually, given the wear on the town. And the story about the massacre.  Sooooo implication: Vash doesn’t age.

But if Rollo was a breakthrough success like that, why’d they just leave him here?

Okay yeah more confirmation he doesn’t age, good to have that solidified. 

Wait. Wait, was this the same religious faction as is going on in JuLai? I’ve been conflating them in my head, but they could be separate. But if the death cult was already well established in the windmill town and Vash was around enough to have a photo of him with a local baby Rollo, how did he not know about it??

“just a monster now” wonder if that’s something he fears for his own future

ah. headshot. can’t say there wasn’t leadup, but uh. oof.

presumably stuff under the mask can’t do the same regeneration/healing we saw before?

“Mercy. There’s no way to return his humanity” Wonder if that is also self-projection.

Wait, okay.  The wind returned after Rollo died.  Symbolic, or like.  Is the implication that the cult was actually onto something?? What.

Okay so further confirmation that it’s all just Knives’ group. Including Wolfwood, which I went into this kind of knowing.

Wait lmao they’re crediting the kill to the gun? The big cross-shaped lazer-firing machine gun with the skull on it? lmao.

Unless they’re using that as a different title for him.  Which would probably make more sense actually.  Which ah. Conflating him and his weapon.  Or could just be his title?

Actually putting that together with the whole Christianity bent gives some weird results not going to lie.  If it’s the gun, well it’s cross-shaped and ends up weirdly implying agency??  If it’s Wolfwood, that implies a couple of different roles.  None of which, as far as I’m aware, tended to tote a cross around. Then again I have not actually read the bible so who knows.

The windmill still works!? That took me off guard, but it is quite an image.

End notes:

I need to stop pausing and going on speculative rambles about stuff that gets elaborated on two lines later.  It has taken me over an hour and fifteen minutes to watch a single episode.  This is just silly.  orz

I think most of the stuff of interest I covered during the beat-by-beat segment. I think the visuals are getting more interesting?  There’s a little less everybody-flopping-around-everywhere, but the animation itself is very good while I find myself more and more interested by the framing.

I’m not actually sure if I knew Vash was somewhere unspecified between unaging and immortal, but I find myself unsurprised. I do wonder about the timeline though.

[mobu-time]

Read the tag and out of curiosity, how would you pacing the broccoli arc for season 3?

lmao I'm sorry you probably weren’t asking me to go so hard on this but uhhh this is my favorite arc and I've got some opinions

Here’s how I’d love the arc to be paced

Episode 1: Youkai Hunting

-Chapter 93

-probably include and end with the Has It Begun? My Era? panels from Chapter 92

Episode 2: Future Prospects + Carried Away

-opening from chp 94 (the youkai getting pulled into the broccoli)

-Chapter 92

   --skip right over has it begun bc it was in ep1 and go straight into next scene

-Chapter 94

-end with dimple leaving after the “eat shit, dimple” smackdown I guess

Episode 3: The Psycho Helmet Cult Part 1(things start to get weird)

-Chapter 95

-if they wanted to, this would be the episode to add in a new scene with Tsubomi or remind the audience that takenaka was a character at one point

   --basically as just a bit of prep for the other two arcs

-either ends where vol13 ends (teru setting out for the broccoli) or ends where the teru fight cuts off (just after dimple reveal)    

   --I think ending with the dimple reveal is the way to go, plus this way there’s a fight scene in this episode and not two in the next one       

Episode 4: The Psycho Helmet Cult Part 2 (things go wrong fast)

-Chapter 96 and 5-6 parts of Chapter 97

-The quest to destroy the broccoli

-The teru v mob fight

-probably end just before or after dimple actually shows up

Episode 5: Dimple and Mob

-The rest of it   

   --@bones pls do go ham with the dimple v psycho helmet fight

Here’s how the episodes fit into your mp100 season patterns, which are Very Correct btw      

I big agree with you about having the youkai hunting as the first episode. It’s a super solid way to start the season. It’s also especially funny bc this chapter starts with a parody of the show’s usual introduction to psychics, replacing “psychics” with “youkai hunters”. It’s a good piece of mob growth+slice of life, at some point Amakusa wonders if the broccoli is attracting spirits that want to use its life energy or whatever (foreshadowing), plus inukawa (who plays a bigger role later in the season) is in it.   

For the second episodes, I would def say it’s just fun stuff for most of the ep, but I think another thing the second episodes do is that they end with something that sets up the third episode and is usually the start of a big chain of events. S1: join BIC, S2: reigen puts up the website, S3: dimple leaves      

Future Prospects is important to include here bc it’s an easy way to reintroduce mezato and the psycho helmet cult plot. It’s also some of Serizawa’s only screen time this arc and we can’t let it go to waste.  

Ep3 is still mostly a mob character study, bc a lot of the chapter is mob dealing with being (or suddenly not being) recognized as the psycho helmet cult leader + reacting to the spread of the cult’s influence in general.

Ep4 is the beginning of mob’s concrete The Broccoli Must Be Removed quest, which continues into Ep5      

Ep5 -Dimple was a friend r.i.p.

Side Note: I desperately want the omake adventures of Hoshino and Asahi to be referenced in some way. Maybe when the shiratori brothers show up they can have a “what are the other awakening kids up to rn?” 10 second bit.  

And now here’s the reason WHY I organized things the way I did, but it’s under a read more bc this post is already too long

So full disclosure: the reason I paced the broccoli arc the way I did is entirely bc it’s my favorite arc and I want them to take their time with it. It’s also an arc that requires a LOT of setup before getting to the payoff, so I’d like the arc to be more like 4-ish episodes instead of the 3-ish episodes you predicted. This isn’t an arc you can just kind of start. Part of why the separation arc worked as well as it did was because they were subtly setting it up all season with little comments here and there between reigen and mob. It wasn’t something that just happened one day. They had to lay the groundwork and build off of it, and this arc isn’t much different. 

Another thing is that the vibe of this arc is one that will take some effort to establish. The slow, creeping influence of the psycho helmet cult is unsettling, and then suddenly getting caught up in the effects of the widespread brainwashing is even worse, but in order for those feelings to really come across we have to spend time with them. Slowly realizing that something is very wrong and then being horrified by it is something that, unsurprisingly, has to develop slowly. And by ‘slowly’ I mean spreading it across two episodes (3-4) instead of shoving it all into one. 

This arc, more so than most of the others, is driven by a complicated combination of emotions that can very easily be misunderstood if they aren’t displayed fully. I know this because when I was reading this arc for the first time I read through it too quickly, and had to start over because I didn’t pay enough attention to what was going on and confused myself. One of the only weaknesses, imo, that the anime has is that they have to cut stuff out. This is usually fine, but sometimes it can have a significant impact on the audience’s understanding of a character. It’s something that happened with ritsu’s arc. It wasn’t really That much different in the anime, but a few lines were cut here and a few shots were skipped there and the result is that ritsu’s fall is a bit harder to actually understand. At least for me, somehow the manga only has a few more lines and yet it makes ritsu’s character and his whole character Arc much clearer. 

I feel like something similar happened in the anime with dimple. There isn’t much aside from a few cut omakes and punching Suzuki in the face that’s significantly different, but a decent amount of time his lines get cut or altered a tiny bit over the course of the series and ultimately the result is that manga dimple is a slightly different, and slightly fuller, character than anime dimple. Idk fam I just watch people’s reactions and I worry that the fact that dimple actually has feelings that can potentially be hurt isn’t something the anime-onlies are prepped for. 

If the anime doesn’t take its time in this arc, and decides to cut some things here and there the way it has in the past, it runs the risk of 1. Being all around harder to follow, 2. Feeling out of character, and 3. Not hitting nearly as hard. Feeling out of character is the riskiest part of all this because mob and dimple ARE acting out of character. That’s the point! They both get carried away and they fight and they do and say things they shouldn’t and usually wouldn’t do, but if it isn’t clear that that’s what’s happening then their behavior can feel confusing or even disappointing. 

One more thing. I love mob psycho fight scenes. I really do think they’re some of the best I’ve seen, and there are a lot of fights in this arc I can’t wait to see animated. It can kinda become a problem though if emotional content screen time is sacrificed for action content screen time. Not to beat a dead horse (or cat in this case), but, uh, *cough* mogami. I’d rather they go ham with the animation in the confession arc and spend more time in this one on the other stuff. 

There’s just a fuck ton of shit that happens in this arc and fitting it all in before episode 6 without rushing anything is gonna be a process. It’s possible, but it’s really gonna take some planning.                

[kosmicdream]

So in the Ghost Kingdom there wouldn't be a lot of pushback against a bisexual woman who willing to fulfill her reproductive roles, but a firmly lesbian woman who didn't want to have kids or fulfill the roles expected of her would run into a lot of backlash, just not necessarily for her interest in women? Sorry for all these super specific questions, I decided my OC is a lesbian and I'm kind of trying to feel things out.

Yeah np! its fun to answer. put under a readmore since this ended up being a bit long lmao

Yeah there would probably be a lottt more push-back for a lesbian woman who didnt want kids or participate in roles expected of her. It might make it difficult for her to also find other partners b/c of the collected social stigma. esp because, i think in general, hekatons will only have 1 partner that they officially ‘marry.” So like two women marry but they might both have a guy on the side that they have babies with, or vice versa where theres a man/woman couple and the dad also has a romantic boyfriend partner. Its ok to be more interested in the partner that u are not having kids with, but generally the kingdom wants u to at least have kids with someone who is ur pal or someone u think u can trust who will be compatible with helping 2 raise kids if u are not like, deeply romantically interested in them. SO that being said, the culture there prob would consider her to be selfish b/c women generally have access to ‘high respecting jobs’ in their society and for her to not take advantage of that is like, insulting. like wtf are you going to DO if you arent going to do your jobs. the ghost kingdom doesnt really run under like.. the same kind of currency system we use, altho they do have some forms of class and value. its basically like 1 ‘bank’/tax system under the rule of the queen/the castle. they use that to funnel towards diff needs for the citizens. so she might not be able to live in the best of areas or have a lot of space bc it might be difficult for her to support herself independently, (just to have access to that, since theres going to be more of an instinct for 'male’ jobs to be.. given to dudes?? cuz there are more dudes than women, generally. they arent gonna be able to take the lady jobs at ALL so they would act like that ‘wouldnt be fair’ for her to be able to take the dude jobs as well??????) She might have to rely on direct family or friends, which can be stressful for everyone involved even if they have good bonds with them. poverty/homelessness are sort of a ‘new’ problem that they are trying to deal with as populations are growing faster than they are able to expand housing, as well as uhh, detonation centers for ppl to go in when they need to die. lol. so theres a greater demand for ppl to do labor and specific jobs rather than everyone just doing w/e they want. so like a lesbian woman who doesnt want kids n just wants to do some job thats considered ‘useless’ would be kind of considered like a “privileged” hekaton not picking up their weight and contributing to the FAMILY. (obviously this is not the case since there seems to be a more social expectation on her, but thats how society would generally view her as being lazy/greedy for wanting to do something different.) since ghost kingdom society is always kinda has a uuhh.. slight cult-like vibe of like? everything they do is for t’he good of the family’ and for ‘laima’s/dievas vision of a peaceful hekaton kingdom’ of their species. if they do not have the ghost kingdom, they will suffer like the hekatons do on the outside. no one wants that. so if ur not contributing to that goal, ur actively being a problem. like.. a blood clot or something lmfao.also she might get told a billion fuckingg times abt all the incredibly selfless things laima has done/sacrificed to keep their species alive and dont u want to make her proud?? ur upsetting our beautiful goddess mommy AND the selfless heroic dievas DIED to protect us ALL. what are u....... a perkons??? dont be like him!!!!!! he’s fucking evil. dont u know all the evil things he does??? he is TERRIBLE he tried to KILL everyone and he’s still out there, killing BABIES. u dont want to be like him DO YOU? are U a BABY KILLER?? HMM??? are u ok with babies being dead??? HUH??? ok, run along now and have some babies. moms everywhere will be proud and all will be forgiven. u might even get to date some moms! mom on mom action! see everyone wins??? ^_^ family/friends might aalso prob be scared she’d end up becoming involved with illegal activity ;;;_;;; which is also sort of a... new thing.. ahh!! evil.. non law abiding/society contributing lesbian hekatons!!!!! who do not want to lay eggs bc they obviously must HATE moms!!!!!  >: ( grrr!!yeah WOW ttly a perfectly peaceful utopia society huh? ttly perfect in every way with no underlying problems here... nope.So i think what ties into the homophobia in the other post i made, is that, its still very obviously still there but like-- not quite as traditionally apparent as we’d consider since bisexuality is wildly considered the “”normal/default”” sexuality instead of being straight. (Mostly b/c everyone is sorta expected to find both Laima/Dievas to be hotness personified.)