#the analyses i've seen

[sylvrndoodles]

...

[sirathurheit]

Exactly! Like, my main issue with Soriku as a ship is that it's fans and the content they produce, 60% of the time, at least, treats Sora a lot like certain female characters in cishet ships, ignoring his side of the story, diminishing his importance and contributions and propping him up mainly as a pretty prize to be won or a motivation.

You know, nothing quite captures my time as a member of the KH fandom better than the fact that I just put on the search bar the words "Sora is the best kh character" in hopes of finding some meta or something about my favorite character, and instead the few top posts are either about how cool Riku is, how Kairi sucks and how canon soriku is.

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

Lion King 2 really went "this child never learned to play. His and his siblings' only idea of fun is actual fighting. He only finds amusement in legitimate life-threatening situations. He only learns to have normal fun when he's an adult". Goddamn.

Also can we talk about Kiara getting into situations comparable to Simba's encounter with the hyenas and she thinks they're fun? yeah it could be a defense mechanism ("I laugh in the face of danger" anyone?) but my girl shakes off near-death events with naught but a giggle

[fictionadventurer]

I'm fascinated by the ways in which the things a creator is good at making don't necessarily line up with the kind of art that they respect or even enjoy.

This has haunted me ever since I saw a Youtube video about the downfall of The Band Perry, a country band that I had liked until their music got weird and they kind of fell off the face of the earth. Well, it turns out that they tried to reinvent their image and their style of music several times before the band finally fell apart. When they started, they had this weird Southern Gothic homeschooler style that really worked for them and was reasonably popular, but then they tried to switch to a cooler type of pop music--a style they supposedly admired and enjoyed--and it just did not work at all. They failed because they chased what they wanted to make instead of sticking with the style that they were good at.

It's a tension that's present in all creative work. At one point does "going outside the box" go too far? Can one be happy making good work even if it's not the kind of stuff they like or admire? Are the techniques and styles that are most appealing to us appealing because they're things that we can't create ourselves? As in, our minds don't work that way, so seeing these things from other creators is exciting, but the fact that our minds don't work that way is exactly why we can't imitate those things. Where's the line between creative integrity--pushing yourself to make better things--and pride--wanting to make something more prestigious and impressive instead of humbly making the type of art you're best suited to make? Can one even clearly see what they're best at making, and appreciate the good that's there rather than chasing after styles and techniques that seem better? There are no solid answers, which is why I'm going to be endlessly thinking about this.

[inseparabiles]

My (least) favourite part about writing fic for this ridiculous fandom is trying to play Google PhD for Caracalla's fantasy-convenience syphilis.

You don't get to just have symptoms from every godforsaken stage of the disease at once willy-nilly like you're collecting them in jars for display. Pick one or AT MOST two stages at once and sit with it. Christ.

Let's see what we've got here. Welcome to my unlicensed clinic for fictional people and friends only, but do take this neutral disclaimer that I dropped out of school at 12 so I'm totally a professional and this analysis is medically sound as all hell.

Ready? I'm not.

Primary stage: 2-12 weeks after infection - congratulations, nothing here. I have not checked his privates but the only symptom of the initial stage is the chancre, which lasts for up to six weeks before healing on its own and nothing else exists in this stage so. Clear based on presence of other symptoms.

Secondary: 1-6 months after primary stage. - rash, check - fever, can't measure without touch or thermo but a safe check anyway - sores, yes but in a weird location (how are you getting these on your cheeks exterior, tell me). - muscle aches, check. Have you seen how this boy walks? How he holds his hands? - weight loss, don't know. He's petite, doesn't really look malnourished. - headaches, hard probably. - hair loss, none. Fluffy as fuck. - swollen lymph nodes, again I have no touch contact. Probably though. - sore throat, no complaints and has no issue shouting.

Latent: that stage after secondary, where you kind of just don't have symptoms most of the time, but the virus is getting everywhere. Spine, brain, heart, nerves, organs, everything. Flares are possible but mild. Lasts up to 20 fucking years - our boy is like... 25 at most. Hopeful? Not so fast. Based on all evidence and speculation, I wouldn't give Caracalla's immune system much credit as to its ability to hold the infection at bay and the "up to" numbers are best case scenarios. The lowest range for how long the latent stage can last is three years, but quicker progression is usually seen in AIDS patients, and AIDS didn't exist in 200 AD, so we're ignoring that. Despite this, given the era and its customs and culture, it's perfectly possible that Caracalla's caught his infection in his early to mid-teens, which...

... no symptoms to check against, so, moving on,

Tertiary: Most people with untreated syphilis never hit the tertiary stage, because the infection takes so long to get to this point. Up to 30 years. Yet somehow, Caracalla manages to have tertiary stage neurological symptoms from advanced neurosyphilis while not having the physical symptoms or, sans despair-inducing circumstances, the age to show for it. And while having the definitive second/latent stage symptom of skin rashes, which you do not have in the tertiary stage at all. And you don't get to speedrun this stage either: you can live with this thing for twenty years without dying of it. You don't just hit tertiary one day and die next week. Again, how are you managing all of these cherry-picked symptoms and HOW are you fast-tracking them and yourself to hell SO fast. This is going to be such a long list but here we go: General: - brain damage / dementia / cognitive problems, absolutely. - heart disease, nope. - movement disorders and muscle problems, aside from the forementioned pain, no (clear) evidence. - nerve damage, no evidence. - seizures, none. - vision problems / blindness, none. Neurosyphilis: (can and will develop at any stage, however, symptom progression seems tied to general progression, you don't get to have tertiary stage symptoms with secondary stage disease, etc. Except if you're Caracalla and the gods hate you I guess.) Meningeal: - headache, hard probably - nausea and vomiting, no evidence - neck stiffness, I mean sure but he also sits like a sack of potatoes, differential diagnosis of your fucking posture sucks so much - light sensitivity, honestly Geta suffers more of this than Caracalla does (I think this is Joe's fault and I relate) - vision or hearing issues, still nope - cranial nerve dysfunction, no evidence

Menigovascular: - vertigo, no evidence - stroke, thank gods no - muscle weakness or atrophy, still petite but looks fine, twin comparison checks out

General paresis, early: - mood disturbances / irritability, very much - personality changes, yes (based on Geta's statement) - changes in sleeping habits, unknown - forgetfulness, dear god and how.

General paresis, late: - mood swings, and how - memory loss, yes. - impaired judgement, sorry is laughing at this inappropriate - confusion, yes - delusions, yes - seizures, still no.

GP / psychiatric: - depression, no - delirium, hard maybe - mania, no evidence - psychosis, well on the way there

Tabes dorsalis: - ataxia (issues with coordination), reasonable or strong evidence sans differential (drugs. he's on so many drugs) - nerve pain, probably - bladder control issues, most likely not - outside of differential (script case -> fear) - abnormal sensations, we just won't know - vision changes, still no evidence - pupil abnormalities, none - loss of coordination/reflexes, some sans differential (DRUGS) - neuropathic arthropathy (bone/joint fragmentation), none - problems walking, some

So with all of that out of the way, this boy's manifesting: - none of the initial stage as far as we can tell, so he's had syphilis for longer than six weeks. Great, this really narrows it down, lads. - nearly all of the secondary stage symptoms, including rash, which is not present in other stages, indicating that he's either secondary or latent stage per presentation (1-20 years after infection). - one definitive symptom of tertiary stage syphilis, being his absurd amount of neurological / neuropsychiatric symptoms. Even then it's almost impossible for him to be at this stage under any circumstances, but here we are. TERTIARY STAGE DOES NOT HAVE RASHES OR OUTWARD SYMPTOMS. TERTIARY STAGE IS INTERNAL ONLY. (screams into a megaphone in the general direction of Hollywood) - three symptoms of early general paresis - every single symptom sans seizures from late general paresis (again you can't have this with your other symptoms by ANY standard that I have been able to dig up. Like based on medical law this is literally illegal go straight to fantasy disease jail.) - let's say one whole symptom of neuropsychiatric made out of two halves, with psychiatric disorders manifesting in late stage disease - 2½ symptoms of tabes dorsalis which is whatever, as none of this is technically outside the legal zone of what he's allowed to be experiencing.

WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF DISEASE PROGRESSION BLIND BAG ARE YOU DRAWING FROM. No wonder everyone's so worried about you. You're either going to die an absolutely excruciating and horrifying death in a week or in 50 years and nobody can tell which is it going to be.

The only thing we can say for somewhat certain is that regardless of where his disease progression is headed, his mental state is not going to go back to fine ever again thanks to the plentiful evidence of physical and permanent brain damage from his infection, even if he was pre-latent and experienced a decent degree of improvement in the asymptomatic period - but honestly, as a person of questionable mental and physical state myself, I relate to and accept this. Disability is not a death sentence.

The rest of this though? What the hell. What are we supposed to do with this. Who do I sue.

[thewhizzyhead]

ya know, what made epic the musical such a joy for me personally is seeing it actually develop throughout its 4-5 year long history and I don't just mean like from the ground up and everything. I mean it in a way as someone who immediately clocked Jorge Rivera-Herrans as a fellow playwright heavily inspired by Lin Manuel Miranda's style - which fucking meant of course most of the early publicized drafts of epic were raps because of course they are (this is not meant to be a slight because like I totally get him)!

But like actually seeing Jorge apply the lessons in LMM's writing into his own original style that is befitting to the story he wants to tell - and not only that, he literally took his audience along with him on his journey with every tried-and-tested demo and audition and everything, and the actual pre-production and production process of writing an album is something we don't usually get at all, especially in something as extensive as a musical concept album!

Like what really had EPIC make it's mark on the internet and on musical theatre (especially INDIE MT) is that it was a literal Odyssey of sorts - the creation of this entire fucking thing was a journey from beginning to end and we were all invited to witness it from behind the scenes while also having many artists among fans be a part in its creation one way or another, while also observing how Jay had his own artistic development throughout - from someone whose epic was quite obviously heavily stylized after Hamilton, into an artist whose style he can call truly his own.

I have so much more to say on how and why epic became such an iconic piece of work and perhaps being the first MT work in 2020 to truly define the decade, but all in all let's just say I'm glad to have witnessed the growth of an artist - and I'm excited to see what art this will inspire in turn.

[lilacpaperbird]

If I could free the spn fandom from one illness, I'd choose the compulsion so many people have to present Sam and Dean as opposites in every facet, big or small. There are many preferences they both share, there are many situations in which they'd both feel or act in really similar ways, and there are certain pillars of their personalities that are essentially identical. Trying to always find that "polar opposites/two sides of the same coin" energy everywhere only ends up twisting and misinterpreting their personalities to make them fit that mold. And there's usually one brother who ends up getting the short end of the stick and being transformed into a caricature that has lost any actual connection to his canon self, just so he can be presented as the opposite of his brother

[empressofthewind]

i feel like this is one part of Light's plan that a lot of people overlook when considering Mello's intentions in kidnapping Takada, but in my opinion, it's the one major clue that indicates what he could have been thinking. Light deliberately had Mikami "kill" someone in front of Gevanni so that Near would believe the notebook was real. i couldn't find it stated anywhere, but i believe it's meant to be implied that Mikami talking to himself about the Shinigami was also deliberate - hence why he was obvious enough about it that Rester could lip-read. either way, there was definitely at least one obvious clue that Near and his team missed.

we know for a fact that Lidner fed back all the information about Near's investigation except Mikami's identity, which would include details like Mikami killing someone in public and openly talking about the Shinigami to seemingly no one. so, we know that Mello is well aware of this. Near made an error on the basis that he was too focused on confirming what he already suspected (Mikami's identity as X-Kira) and finalising the details of his ending plan. a piece of evidence such as Mikami using the notebook in public would, to him, be viewed as validation of his deductions, not as new insight to be critically analysed on its own. Mello, on the other hand, did not have this same preoccupation.

Mello had much less personal investment in Light and Near's plans, and much less on his plate without as many eyes looking to him for answers. all he had to focus on was the information he was provided with at any given time. this gives him ample opportunity to consider the facts from an objective point of view, and put the pieces together sometime between December 21st (the day Mikami killed someone in front of Gevanni) and January 25th (the day he announced to Lidner "i guess i'm going to have to do it"). it gives him ample opportunity, too, to realise that the only way to expose the true location of the notebook is for someone to throw themselves into the firing line. his name is already out there, which makes him the perfect candidate.

there's one last piece of evidence that confirms it for me:

THIS line in particular is what seals the deal. we know for a fact that Mello and Near are designed to be the two halves of L. Near says it himself - he and Mello were not capable enough to surpass L on their own, but together, they could. it makes the most sense that Near's win would be the product of Mello catching an error that he couldn't. Near missed this crucial detail by himself, but L as a collective noticed it, because Mello is just as much a part of L as Near is.

[tavina-writes]

briefly going hnnnnnnnng at people misrepresenting genre norms and tropes re: wuxia, but this is tumblr so I am merely going hnnnng and getting on with my day.

But god it does make me tired to behold these misconceptions with my eyeballs sometimes.

[brionysea]

rewatched the nigerian job yesterday and when sophie picks up the white knight motif at the end, nate looks back at parker. because parker started it (of course it was parker, it's iconic) and she must have told sophie about it off-screen. they're already bonding!

[msue0027]

Can i be picky, pricky, mean and bitch a little? Pretty please?

So, I've watched x-men apocalypse (wow, I'm soo early to this party). It was nice, and look, there's my country (so of course I'm gonna have opinions). And well. I've been reading fanfics, and as i skim thru the tags i see Nina Gurzsky, and then again, and hm again, and who tf is Nin... Oh, NINA, as in Erik's daughter. Wait, Gurzsky?

What kind of surname is that? Because it's not Polish. (but we can fix that.)

I know in comics Magda is of Romani ancestry but i don't remember it being mentioned in the movie? So i guess she's polish-polish. And "Gurzsky" looks like she's 4th or 5th generation of emmigrants to america, has let everyone pronounce the name anyhow which led to diff spelling, and doesn't speak polish anymore.

(Really, who came up with that name, I'd like a word. What was your reasoning, your reasearch, the background you came up for Magda? Maybe it makes sense and is justified to be like that? Maybe I'm wrong, don't have all the info, misunderstood something? Then I'm really sorry.)

Nonetheless, let us begin. Gurzsky

So i guess anglophones just skip this surname all together, but let's try to read it. It would be something like goo-zh-ski or goor-zz-ski. Both are bad and hard to pronounce. Why is the "z" there? Why complicate it unnecessarily? Let's drop it (some ppl would do it anyway, even if it being there was justified, it's called simplification and it happens when there's many hard consonats next to each other, or something, i'm half asleep). My brain did it intuitively upon reading this name. It shouldn't be there. There's no reason i could see. So it's Gursky now.

Ehh. How many times? "-ski" is traditional ending of a polish surname, and used to indicate nobility. "-sky" is traditional transliteration from cyrylic alphabet, it's for the russian surnames. (And the ending "-sky" came there from Poland.) (I'm very passionate about that, sorry not sorry. But don't get me started at another polish surname "-cki" bc americans always pronounce it wrong. That “c” is separate letter and not just “k”, and i don't think i can find corresponding sound in english language (so you might be forgiven) and i don't want to bombard you with IPA (never mind, next day me kinda wants, so, it’s like “ts”, or german “z”), especially that it's not main topic of that post. But really, you could put some effort. We know the language is very different from your own, with weird sounds, but please, try. We're gonna love you for that. For one word. Anything really. Well, you already know “kurwa”, so maybe one more. Sorry, i digress.) So, it's "-ski", but not really. This type of surname changes based on gender. "-ski" is masculine, and "-ska" is feminine. Yes, not always, there are women with “-ski” and men with “-ska”, but then it does not flex at all (same form for both genders). You just have to ask. But that's minority. So now it's Gurska.

And surnames don't have to follow general rules of orthography and flexion, they can have their own unique spelling and way of decletion, you need to ask the bearer of the name. But. They still usually do. So looking at that name? It begs to be the deriving from mountains: góry. So it should be Górska. Pronounced: goor-skah. Now it is a Polish name. A good one.

So. I'm gonna use this name for that little family. It's canon for me now. Magda Górska and Nina Górska, and Erik was going under Henryk Górski. (Kinda cute if you ask me.)

Oof, I'm done. That was long. Thanks for coming to my little ted-talk, hope you enjoyed :))

(ps. i have rewatched scenes set in Poland, and Erik actually intrudeces himself as Henryk Górski, which means i was right but also why have a made this long-ass analysis? It was fun tho, and too much of my half asleep brain power went into this not to post it.)

[movietonight]

While there are things to criticise mash for and those conversations are important to have some of what I read can be explained very easily by reminding yourself

It was a TV show

On a budget

From years ago

From America

Written by a variety of human writers

Who used characters and plots to tell stories

Within a certain number of minutes

[bungouchronicles]

Fyodor doesn't have a God complex, if anything he has a savior complex. He doesn't view himself as God or even God-like at all. Instead he wants to and believes himself to be a helper or servant of God, someone to carry out his will and in that way a "savior" of humanity. He believes himself to be something like "God's right hand man", not God himself.

[iamnotawomanimagod]

I love over-analyzing media and I have pulled magnificent theories and headcanons out of my ass on the tiniest crumbs in other fandoms before BUT

y'all might be taking this improvised comedy show that is greatly determined by dice rolls a little too seriously

[inseparabiles]

HELLO FRIENDS JEJDJD sorry i saw ur tag, hope m not disturbing u. What did they cut out from the senate scene? 😭😭🙇🙇👉👈

Oh, you know. Just the unnecessary bits. :))))) That we didn't need to see. That wasn't half of Caracalla's character arc or anything. Mate it's fine don't sweat it

... and you can tell it was filmed too, because of the way the final cut's scene starts from the middle. Like you can tell that the rest of Geta's dialogue in the previous scene is also there by the way his words are sliced together from the middle in the theatrical release.

Which, together with the fact that these were not released as bonus material, makes me hopeful for a director's cut later.

[ghostieblotts]

Might make a better post about this year another time, but before it hits midnight here I want to make a quick post since I feel sappy.

Feeling very grateful for the wonderful people I've met and friends I've made this year, both in person and online. Massive thank you to the SAF fandom for being SO lovely, kind and welcoming - you are all SO cool!!!

Sending so much love to my wonderful mutuals, old and new - you always make my day so much better!!

I hope that 2025 treats you all kindly, and that the new year brings you comfort, happiness, and whatever it may be that you are dreaming of <3