#that’s a seperate essay

[pianojoy-blog]

Sooo I’ve been dabbling in another cool horror media, mouthwashing goes so hard it’s so good

Super cool how they frame this game with you playing the villain and slowly figuring out that it was you all along. Super disturbing that they started drinking mouthwash for lack of booze.

I highly recommend checking it out, just be warned of very intense subject matter and body horror/gore

[morgulien]

“Tolkien wasn’t good at writing women” well explain this

[yawping-poets-society]

we don't talk enough about cameron's first real scene, where he talks to neil outside his dorm before todd arrives. in case anyone doesn't know what i'm referring to, here's the dialogue from the scene:

Cameron: Hey, Neil, study group tonight?

Neil: Yeah, sure.

Cameron: Business as usual, huh? [turns to leave, then] Hey, I heard you got the new kid. Looks like a stiff. [laughs at his own joke] [Todd enters] Oops. [Cameron leaves]

so let's talk about it!!

cameron opens with the study group question. this is pretty straightforward to me-he knows he's none of the poets' favorite, and certainly not charlie's. neil is his foremost supporter, pretty much the only one who sticks up for him, so this makes sense. he's checking with neil, his 'in' to the group, to make sure he can hang with these guys. he wants to be part of their circle so badly, and that's pretty clear from the get-go.

and then he hits us with this whole "stiff" business. this is a major thing i've seen people use to justify their hate of cameron and i really struggle with that.

because, well...this is SO undeniably awkward. neil tells todd just a moment later not to mind cameron because he was "born with his foot in his mouth." so off the bat, that's not something you say about someone who's consistently rude or who you don't like. that's neil sticking up for cameron. he's saying, sorry todd, he means well, or at least, he doesn't have any ill intentions. cameron's just not got the best grasp of social cues, that's how he is. this is a pretty valid explanation in and of itself, but if you'll walk with me a little further, i've got a deeper theory about why cameron makes this comment.

more than just it being awkward, this casual friendliness, haha, new kid, a mild insult said with much bravado...this isn't really cameron as we see him for the rest of the movie. though he does remain relatively awkward, it doesn't really match his character of being cautious and trying to not stand out, to fit into the group (as we see in his first line). so how to explain this action (because i don't believe the explanation is just: cameron is being an asshole/being awkward)?

to me? this is what cameron thought charlie would say. isn't that almost exactly how charlie always talks about cameron, after all? for a great example, see later in the same scene:

Charlie, about Cameron: What's his specialty, bootlicking?

so maybe cameron believes that this is how friends treat each other. or at least, how they talk about other people to entertain their friends. charlie, while not a stellar student and clearly not liked by the administration, is the class clown, which makes him popular with students at welton. thus, cameron is probably jealous of charlie. he probably wishes he was more like charlie-confident, funny, well-liked, etc. and again, he clearly wants to be friends with neil, and part of their larger group, very, very badly. all of this to say:

i don't think cameron meant what he said about todd.

he's trying to get a laugh out of neil. so what does he do? he does what he thinks charlie-neil's funny best friend-would do. it's not a nice thing to say, but to me, it really just reads as someone who is trying to guess what the appropriate, funny thing to say in a situation is, but doesn't actually know. cameron might not have even really thought the 'stiff' joke was funny. but he thought neil would find it funny, which is really the whole point. cameron is, at the most fundamental level, an unpopular kid who wishes he was well-liked, and is fumbling around blindly trying to find his way there.

[acetheta]

when i see things like this i just laugh cause like. babes did we watch the same show

[lgbtlunaverse]

Just read your post about Nie Mingjue not understanding Jin Guangyao’s excuses not to throw Xue Yang out of the Jin window. I love your insight!!!

May I ask what, in your opinion, was Lan Xichen’s view on all this? Because he is the peacemaker, he seems to side with jgy always, but also can’t possibly know about the demonic cultivation…

(that’s the post, btw. Don’t know if you’ve made more than one) https://www.tumblr.com/lgbtlunaverse/744152124570697728?source=share

I'd argue that lan xichen doesn't really always side with jin guangyao, and related to this exact incident we can later hear him telling jin guangyao not to "provoke" Nie Mingjue anymore, while assuring him that things with da-ge are fine. He's a peacemaker, like you said. His ideal solution is getting everyone to just be nice to each other. And because Nie Mingjue is the one most outwardly angry, his first instinct in any fight is to get him to calm down so they can have a civil discussion or, even better, just drop the subject and pretend it never happened. Since jin guangyao is usually also eager to drop the subject, this means they end up agreeing. But it's more of a sign that their methods of conflict resolution are compatible than a sign that they always agree. (There are certainly times lxc genuinely agrees with jgy and disagrees with nmj! But i'd say it's not as universal as fandom makes it seem)

Indeed, since Xichen also doesn't know about the demonic cultivation, I kind of believe Xichen sort of agrees with Nie Mingjue that Jin Guangyao could get away with killing xue yang�� he just thinks da-ge's way is the wrong way to go about asking that of him– because as far as xichen is concerned, jin guangyao actually was planning on killing Xue Yang!

Remember, after the fight, jgy tells nmj that he'll bring him xue yang's head. To Xichen, this is a satisfying solution, because it gets da-ge what he wants so he can calm down, which is always xichen's goal. If he believed doing this put jgy in serious danger, he might have objected a bit more. But he evidently thinks the risk is minor enough to be worth it for the ultimate sake of peace.

Him stopping nmj is about just that, making sure no one gets killed. And reminding nmj that jgy's family mistreats him, in that light, sounds less like an argument that he can't do it and more of a plea to give him more time to figure things out. (Again, Xichen is always eager to delay or avoid confrontation)

To Xichen, here's what happened: Jin Guangshan refuses to kill xue yang, nmj got really mad at a-yao over that, xichen de-escalated the situation, and a-yao promised to kill xue yang, he just needed time to do so. Yay! Solved! Except then da-ge died. (Yes, jgy killed him, and was never planning on killing xue yang, but xichen didn't know that) And xue yang was freed, but a-yao and he were busy grieving their oldest sworn brother! They kind of had other things going on! And then, some amount of months later, Jin Guangshan died, A-Yao became chief cultivator, and promptly killed xue yang! (He wasn't dead, but xichen didn't know that) Everything worked out in the end, it's only an unfortunate tragedy that da-ge died too soon to see that a-yao really was dedicated to him. 😔

We don't know what his exact reaction was before the nieyao stairs confrontation, but it was probably in the rough shape of xichen very politely asking jgy if he could at least try to convince his dad, and jgy saying he would but he wasn't sure if it'd work. That seems like something they'd do.

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

it fucks me up that like. metal sonic used to have a ton of characterisation and just from his like ten lines in heroes had a ton of complexity and then he just got fucking ignored despite having the potential to easily be the best character in the franchise. like even back in cd his sprites were full of personality! he recreates sonics finger wag before the start of the race! he has his death animation! it’s cute! but it also shows from the start that he's obviously sentient and not a mindless machine. he's cocky and adrenaline-fuelled like sonic, but in a way devoid of any sense of kindness or empathy. and this is expanded upon beautifully in the ova! his characterisation is the absolute highlight of that movie and his suicide at the end is an extremely tragic but extremely fitting end to that version of him.

metal sonic's character is one defined by monomaniacal obsession. he is literally designed only to surpass sonic. from creation, he has known and he always has known he exists only in relation to sonic. he is designed after him, his personality is modelled on him, and he is programmed to view defeating him as his only worth. he's the ultimate character to rival sonic, because that’s all he exists for, in universe. he cannot conceive of an existence that is not devoted to destroying him. this is established as a character trait as early as the ova, and it’s one that’ll be expanded upon as the series progresses.

the ova explores the tragedy of that, but heroes, metal sonic's grand return after cd (after numerous really fucking cool appearances in spin-offs and being a major unlockable in sonic adventure dx bc he is cool and the best sonic character and I have no bias), explores the horror. in the ova, he allows himself to burn to spare sonic, but what if he doesn’t learn compassion and empathy? what if he's still the same cruel, pointlessly violent metal in cd? the metal sonic of the games would not sacrifice himself for sonic's sake. he wants nothing more than to defeat him. he despises him, yet in a way he also wants to be him. sonic is everything he cannot be. both in the sense that he beats him, again and again, but in that he has free will, in that he has friends, in that he has a life.

and, in his most sonic-like moment, metal sonic rebels against his programming.

but this metal sonic is not one that has learnt kindness, like the ova metal. he is angry. he knows nothing but destruction because he is destruction. and he never, ever gives up. he wants to prove to himself that he can defeat sonic, that it was his creator holding him back. that he can be better than eggman, that he can be better than sonic. that he can be sonic. that he is sonic. that the other hedgehog calling himself sonic is merely a fake.

metal sonic, in sonic heroes, is delusional. and not in the sense of “scary insane person woah!” ableist nonsense, he's genuinely, deeply lost in the grasp of a delusion. metal sonic's existence is one that will inevitably lead to severe mental illness. he's stuck in a cycle where he feels nothing but pain and can never achieve what he wants. the concept of metal sonic in heroes is terrifying in his rage, but even more horrific is the idea of being him. despite his arrogance, metal sonic is in pain, and his response to that is to lash out violently. and also to become god.

metal sonic upgrades himself to the point of godhood. he is angry, and he is scared, and he gives that away himself. he states he’s no longer afraid of anything after the upgrades- which leaves some pretty fucking depressing hints as to metal sonic's general mental state before heroes. and this drives him to the point of becoming an almost incomprehensibly powerful being. like canonically heroes metal sonic is one of the strongest beings in the series, he can copy the data and abilities of incredibly powerful beings permanently. he's at least got the strength of shadow and chaos combined which is fucking terrifying. and he loses.

he loses, because what he wants is not something he can get with outmatching sonic in speed and strength. what he deeply desires, though he cannot express it, is something else. personhood. metal sonic desperately asks why he cannot win, and sonic's response is. admittedly the very cheesy title drop of “because we're sonic heroes” but cheese aside, that ultimately sums up why metal sonic could not succeed. metal sonic does not have friends. he doesn’t have freedom or happiness or any sort of sense of self. he cannot ever truly achieve his goals, because to destroy sonic and become him are mutually incompatible. he's forever driven down a self destructive path, one way or the other. metal sonic's existence is, in and of itself, a tragedy.

and all of this is from thirty fucking minutes of screen time. including gameplay.

metal sonic is very obviously a character who takes heavy inspiration from the terminator franchise. and i fucking love terminator, for one, so that’s awesome. but two, the best terminator film will always be terminator 2 because it's as much an exploration of what it means to be human and the concept of fate as an action horror flick, and metal sonic as a character is also at his best when he's used to explore similar themes. he's a character chained to a fate he cannot change, a character so desperate for personhood that can never achieve it, and it’s what makes him so terrifying and intimidating. he's not just a mindless machine, nor coldly logical- he's desperate and has nothing to lose. he's such a formidable foe because he takes risks that are rash and irrational because he's so driven to the depths of his psyche he'd do anything to finally succeed. any competently programmed bot wouldn’t risk itself for an infinitesimal advantage, any mindless drone wouldn’t come up with half the shit metal does, but he is both extremely intelligent and suicidally desperate.

and then after heroes he just kinda became a cooler badnik. like, cool things have happened with him in spin-offs, and of all things 06 was originally planned to have continued his story after heroes as a playable character, but that was cut along with. like half the game. but it’s just sad the main series made such a compelling villain and then just went. “okay but what if we never use him again”.

[lucagray813]

Origami Snakes

I've set myself a couple little origami projects to try this year for my 2025 bingo card square of "try a new craft" - making the Spirits of Wǔxíng (as per my Monkey Talk series) and making the Chinese Zodiac! And as the Year of the Snake is coming up - I thought that's where I would start!

Patterns under the cut if you'd like to give these three a try!

Triangle Snake Pattern

All Green Snake Pattern (YouTube Tutorial)

Yellow Snake Pattern

Where I Found the Patterns

Useful Guide for Folding Techniques

[desperatecheesecubes]

Thinking about how in The Hunger Games the management team was dressing and presenting Katniss and Peeta as a set from the start, even before Peeta told anyone he was in love with Katniss and that became then going strategy. It becomes clear throughout the series that all of them were or become active in the rebellion so it seems clear to me that the intention was just to be subversive. ‘Just the perfect touch of rebellion’ as Haymitch says.

And then of course it all helps them sell the love story.The prep teams would have probably mentioned how Katniss and Peeta reassured each other after the opening ceremonies, how Katniss kissed Peeta on the cheek. Any of the trainers could have spoken about how they were always together for all three days of instruction. There were almost certainly guards watching the two of them on the roof, talking to each other, Peeta giving Katniss his jacket when she’s cold. And there’s no way none of their classmates noticed the two of them watching each other in school through the years. Hell Peetas whole family probably knew about his crush, we know they all knew Katniss.

‘Peeta must have been playing that angle all along’ ‘mostly Peeta really, there’s no question he’s carrying this romance thing on his shoulders.’ Katniss just didn’t get to see all the interviews they did that were telling her side of the love story.

[atanxdoesstuff]

I saw this in a Yakuza vines vid and HAD to draw this

(read right to left)

[a-loose-collection-of-ants]

I think I need to start coming up with my own unhinged and unverifiable history takes. Anyway, Stephen Gerard founded Gerard college because after he bought the first bank of the united states he spent the rest of his life haunted by the ghost of Alexander Hamilton

[yoinkschief]

ffuuCCKK my hyperfixations are hyperfixating again and it's that time where I get violently "LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY INTERESTS PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE" again

This is literally me right now, had to quickly whip out MSPaint to visualize my crippling feelings

I swear the next time one of my interests is brought up I'm making a youtube video essay script about it I need to get it out before I [REDACTED]

[ajdrawshq]

working on pokemon teams (which. already exceed 6 each but i already dont follow that rule anyway) AND pmdsonas for the isat gang and only just finding out the creator drew each of them w 2 partner pokemon ..

[seilon]

just had a simultaneously horrifying and relieving thought. thank god jonghyun was not a western artist. because you just know that if he was, there would be a shitty distasteful melodramatic hollywood biopic about him in about five years, give or take

[absentmoon]

i only have two midterm tests but im so unbelievably stressed abt them

[unmotivatedartistry]

Hello. I swear I Exist I just forgot to the past week because Round 1 Of State Testing Woo

[strawberri-syrup]

hm. my brother and his girlfriend now follow me on goodreads. this will not change how i review books