#the color palette for both these shots are the same

[dry-yellow-marker]

are they going to fight with each other? is one going to save the other? are they fighting warwick at two completely different times? what is going on???

[helluvapoison]

Possessive

how the overlords would put a claim on you

ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʕ•̫͡•ʔ•̫͡•ʔ

˚✧₊⁎ Carmilla Carmine ⁎⁺˳✧༚

As much as she loves spending her mornings in bed with you, wishfully thinking she could stay there all day, she can only give you 3 more minutes at best. Being an Overlord and a CEO keeps her rather busy. You’re grown, you can handle yourself (you have to in this world) she’s not keeping tabs on your whereabouts. Carmilla isn’t itching for a fight like these new “up and comers”. Giving you something to protect you when she’s not around simultaneously puts a target on your back. A simple ring with her name inscribed would suffice, satisfying any possessive vices she may or may not have

˚✧₊⁎ Zestial ⁎⁺˳✧༚

Abhorrent is jealousy, driving the younger generations to filth like, ugh, hickeys. Although, on a certain level he does understand. Being in Hell for as long as he has and alone the same amount, he knows all too well the primal need to claim what other’s might steal. One must leave their mark as a warning sign for others. Zestial’s exceptionally charming when he wants something, notably not asking when he presents you with the crisply wrapped gifts. There’s no less than twenty. Boxes upon boxes of accessories and clothes that suit you but hold his color palette, spider and web details to boot. He’s utterly thrilled when you wear them, showering you in compliments and declaring himself the luckiest soul in Hell

˚✧₊⁎ Rosie ⁎⁺˳✧༚

Goodness, have you seen how sinners nowadays go about the whole ordeal? What happened to romance!? Call her old fashioned, but Rosie likes a smidge of glamour in her techniques! She’ll walk shoulder to shoulder with you, holding her parasail over the both of you. She’ll accidentally press her painted lips on your cheek and forget, quickly getting swept up into conversation with someone or the other. It’s fine, no one would question her! Not if they wanted to live anyways. Butterflies swarm her stomach when she notices you haven’t wiped her imprint away, a proud smile spreading across her face. It becomes purposeful as the days go on

˚✧₊⁎ Alastor ⁎⁺˳✧༚

While happy to broadcast newsworthy exploits, sharing his private affairs with the world is out of the question. Of course the appeal of it all isn’t lost on him, he merely doesn’t see the point. Why broaden your horizons of potential dangers by claiming you publicly? To calm that unruly, covetous alien in the pit of his chest? He’s not that selfish! Besides, nothing less than something permanent could truly satisfy him anyhow

˚✧₊⁎ Valentino ⁎⁺˳✧༚

If he doesn’t have eyes on you, he’s working. Those measley hours apart won’t stop him from reminding all of Hell you still belong to him. He doesn’t trust anyone down here. He’ll convince you it’s for your safety that he tightens the collar around your neck. With a hum of approval, Val’s long and slender fingers twist the tag with his name on it. Heart shaped, of course, he loves you after all!

˚✧₊⁎ Vox ⁎⁺˳✧༚

Only the insecure need to put a claim on their person. That’s not Vox, no way! You’re never really out of his sights anyways, what with today’s power of technology and all! The need to brand you goes a different route. He wants everyone to know you’re spoken for, pulling you on camera every chance he gets. He wants them to stare in awe and envy but cast their eyes down when you walk by in public. A slight on you would be a slight on him personally and no one messes with The Vees

˚✧₊⁎ Velvette ⁎⁺˳✧༚

Truthfully, there isn’t much she wouldn’t do. You’re all over her Sinstagram and that says it all. Every runway show, every red carpet walk, every paparazzi shot you’re always beside her. Vel dresses you left and right to match her OOTD somehow. She snaps a pic every single day (sometimes more) to show her followers their favorite couple is thriving and stylish as always! The description never fails to scream how your all hers

[marlshroom]

while combing through mob psycho to find clips for my amv i am making, i noticed a small difference in the way ritsu and mob remember what happened after the highschool bullies attacked them.

when we see mobs flashback, the story is a bit scattered, flashing through mostly static moments loosely pieced together from his hazy memory. the high schooler's faces are hard to make out. the color palette is very washed out, with the core colors being white and desaturated blues, with the red being the most vibrant color, because the key part of his memory is the blood.

[ID: Mob Psycho 100 screencaps showing flashbacks to Mob and Ritsu's childhood accident. The first four are Mob's POV, and they're colored in a glowy blue and white, with Ritsu's blood the darkest and only other spot of color in the scene. We see Mob trying to stop Ritsu from yelling at older kids, Ritsu lying on the ground with a pool of blood seeping from under his head, and Mob looking lost with blood on his cheek. End ID]

in contrast, ritsu has a very clear telling of what happened. the moments are not as static, he remembers what color shirts they were wearing that day, he knows what caused mob to black out, for ???% to wake. the color palette is much more saturated.

[ID: The next four are Ritsu's POV, and they're slightly hazy but in full color. We see Ritsu and Mob struggling while the older kids grapple them, followed by Mob hitting his head against a wall. Ritsu shouts with distress, and black energy and red light suddenly flares up from behind where the bully shoved Mob into the wall. End ID]

i think the contrast is very interesting, especially since both retelling of events happen in the same episode (season 1 episode 5 i believe, where teru is trying to fight mob). one of them has an extremely poor memory, mob can really only infer what happened, he even asks ritsu what he did when he was knocked unconscious. and while ritsu claims that he doesn't remember much of it, his mind is basically plagued from this memory, as much as he would probably like to forget. he thinks about this any time mob is faced with stress. i don't think this was a very groundbreaking discovery, i just love moments like this where i can see how hard people worked on this show and the amount of detail they put in,... they could have very easily just repeated the same flashbacks from mob and add some more contextual shots from ritsus perspective but they chose to make that distinction.... so awesome.

[amygobrrr]

a Jackie Taylor character analysis

or, why—

[I'm serious btw. this is ~3800 words, or about 15 minutes reading time.]

──── ◦✦◦ ────

The Facts of the Case

"For the record... I was trying to save you." Jackie. 1996, 1x02

(Nothing else Jackie ever says sums up who she is more succinctly than that.)

Our first real introduction to Jackie Taylor as a character—the first shot of her bedroom scene in 1x01—is a framed photo of her sitting close to Shauna, at a party. This is also the very first protagonist-centric character scene of the entire show; from the outset, we are told that the relationship between Jackie and Shauna will be critically important to the narrative. They are best friends, it's implied they do practically everything together, and right from their very first scenes we see how important they are to each other.

Yet likewise from the beginning, we see the fractures between them.

Shauna hides her acceptance to Brown from Jackie, and is uncomfortable with the assumption that she will be following her friend to Rutgers. She disapproves of Jackie's boyfriend sneaking out of her room, and is frustrated by Jackie telling her what to wear and who to hook up with. She is visibly upset at seeing Jackie and her boyfriend together at a party, and, on the way home, has sex with said boyfriend.

Jackie makes her boyfriend drop her off from the party first, forcing Shauna to wait much longer to get home. After Shauna chooses a rival plan for survival over hers, she gives her the cold shoulder, even actively tries to make her jealous. Jackie steals and reads Shauna's journal, and outs her pregnancy to the rest of the team. She sleeps with the only eligible man in the wilderness, just to try and hurt Shauna.

Jackie and Shauna may care deeply about each other, but we see them spending an awful lot of time driving wedges into the space between themselves.

So why do they behave this way? Why does Jackie fidget sadly with her necklace, why does she look at Shauna the way she does before giving the necklace to her, why is she so heartbroken over a boy she says she barely even likes, why is she so crestfallen at the idea Shauna lost her virginity without telling her, why does she pull Travis away at Doomcoming and look back at Shauna the whole time? Why does Shauna seem to think Jackie has abruptly backtracked with Jeff, why is she so disapproving when she sees Jackie leave Doomcoming with Travis, or when she sees Jeff leave her house? Why does she look so heartbroken when she sees Jackie and Jeff dancing together at the party? Why are they both so hurt and hardened towards each other at the end of it all, and yet why does Shauna's heart still seize in anguish the next morning?

I believe all of those questions have the same, straightforward answer:

Before the crash, Jackie and Shauna were hooking up with each other in secret, and never mentioning a word of it—let alone talking through their feelings for each other.

──── ◦✦◦ ────

Some Mysteries Are Better Left Unsolved

"[Jeff and I have] been together for so long that if we're each others' firsts, then we'll be linked forever. It's more poetic that way. Oh! That reminds me—I decided on a color palette for our room at Rutgers next year." Jackie. 1996, 1x01

They make an unspoken habit of it; one always dragging the other away at parties after a few drinks under the pretense of mere friendly accompaniment. Jackie is reluctant to go all the way with her boyfriend Jeff; even after four years together, something always holds her back. She knows (or strongly believes, anyway, which is the same thing) that that's not entirely normal, and she wants more than anything to be normal, so she takes it in stages. She builds up to it with her boyfriend—slowly—and with her best friend—less slowly, but more comfortably. And it's fine—because Shauna is a girl, after all. Nothing they do together even counts. It's just fun. It's practice, for the real thing. It doesn't count.

But tipsy trysts alone aren't enough to fully explain the dynamic we see. Jackie had a change of heart regarding Jeff—what happened? Shauna seems a little hurt but also genuinely confused that they're back together at the beginning of the show, and even more so that Jackie intends to sleep with him 'for real' before college. I don't believe guilt over her actions fully accounts for her reaction. No, there is something else here, too; I think that, as important as Jackie and Shauna's clandestine hookups are to their dynamic, just as important is the fact that at some point they end. It's Jackie who puts a stop to them, possibly in the midst of the final time it happens.

I think Jackie, at a party some time around the beginning of the show—and maybe even giddy with the fresh excitement of a game or championship win—allows herself to be swept away in the moment with her best friend. Maybe she catches herself about to push too far with Shauna, about to venture into territory that she would have real trouble pretending "doesn't count," even with alcohol and adrenaline buzzing through her veins. Maybe she catches herself wishing that this could be her normal, that she could be with Shauna instead of Jeff. The specifics aren't what matters.

I think Jackie has long been vaguely aware that what she feels for Shauna falls outside of what you would expect for a friend, even a best friend. Normally, she doesn't give it a second thought; it's Shauna, of course it feels different. This time, though, she has a moment of extreme clarity about what exactly it is they're doing, and what it means that she wants it. More specifically, Jackie realizes what it says about her that she craves everything with Shauna that she cannot bring herself to crave with Jeff.

Jackie is in love with her best friend—and that makes her gay.

Jackie realizes, and the knowledge terrifies her.

──── ◦✦◦ ────

The Necklace

"And, here... it's a good-luck charm. Now nothing can touch you." Jackie. 1996, 1x01

Our attention is drawn to Jackie's heart pendant four times in the pilot episode. In order: we see it on the body of the girl hunted in the cold open, we see Jackie fidget with it after brushing her teeth, we see her fidget with it again during the pep rally, and we see her give it to Shauna on the airplane before takeoff. Three of the four scenes feature Jackie, with only the first finding her absent. That initial sighting certainly seems the most cryptic—we learn very quickly that it's Jackie's necklace, so why is someone else wearing it?

While we would need to see through Shauna's eyes to truly satisfy that question, for now at least the fourth scene—in the airplane—provides an answer: the necklace has nomadic tendencies. Jackie gives it as a protective charm to Shauna, who doesn't seem at all surprised by the gesture. Quite the contrary, exchanging the heart feels more like a known ritual between the two, maybe even first established during the trip to Hilton Head that Jackie references in preamble. (This ritual will be repeated—in the other direction—when Shauna gives Jackie a pep talk in 1x05.) Shauna holds the pendant close, clutching it with her entire fist. The thing seems just as precious to her now as it does to Jackie in the remaining scenes; perhaps it was originally a gift from one to the other?

Regardless of whether or not we are meant to infer that the necklace was a gift, in the pep rally scene we are explicitly shown that Jackie does strongly associate it with Shauna. It's a very brief moment in comparison to the full scene we get on the airplane—just one look exchanged, a set of smiles shared. After the Yellowjackets stream into the gym and line up to victorious music, Shauna looks past Lottie over to Jackie. And Jackie is already looking back, smiling as she plays with the heart pendant. Shauna's own grin widens, full and genuine, until it reaches all the way to her eyes. Jackie savors the look for a moment, then glances away, smile unbroken... her goal seemingly achieved.

What goal?

The bathroom scene is an even quicker blip than the gym, yet I believe it's the most impactful and telling of the four. One single shot with a punch-in. Jackie brushes her teeth quickly and then gazes in the mirror, looking forlorn as she fiddles with the necklace. On its own this one scene is not particularly remarkable—its true significance comes from the two others it glues together.

The scene preceding is the aforementioned bedroom introduction. Jackie is in bed with Jeff and he is clearly pushing their activities farther than she finds comfortable. Jackie fakes it to get things over with, powering through as he tells her he loves her. She lets Jeff think he's doing well... and as her immediate reward is coaxed into reciprocating his advances, and then some.

Jackie scrubs her teeth violently. She is unhappy.

The scene following is the car ride with Shauna where we learn that Jackie has suddenly gotten back together with Jeff. When Shauna brings him up, Jackie laughs and shrugs it off, but not before a flash of nervousness escapes in her chuckle—she tries twice to change the subject away from her boyfriend, only finding success once they pass a sign prompting her to talk shit on the boys' baseball team by singing the praises of the girls' own soccer team. Jackie leans out the window as her best friend rolls her eyes and giggles at her antics.

Jackie whoops for joy. She is happy.

Viewed as a whole, the sequence paints a clear picture: Jackie does not truly want to be with her boyfriend. She is unhappy both while and after she is alone with Jeff, happy while alone with Shauna, and while truly alone between the two encounters, draws some kind of strength from the necklace we know she associates with Shauna. In the car, she is eager to turn conversation away from her boyfriend and onto her best friend.

In her mind, everything she's doing with Jeff, everything she's letting him do with her? She is doing it to save her friendship with Shauna. She is working to build plausible deniability.

"I have a curfew too, you know." "Yeah, but... you know what my parents are like." Shauna and Jackie. 1996, 1x01

Conformity is the only weapon Jackie has against her parents' expectations, and naturally she is an expert in its misuse. Plausible deniability is the only tool at her disposal to avoid scaring Shauna away, and so Jackie picks up a double major. Half her work is already done; it's not like they'd ever talked about what they were doing or what it meant, so she can count on Shauna to never bring it up—as long as Jackie withdraws to the safety of being normal best friends.

If Shauna knew the truth, if she knew what Jackie cannot un-know... she would walk away, their friendship ruined, and it would be Jackie's fault. It would be Jackie's fault for being this way, and so the other half of her work must be undertaken. Jeff is living proof that whatever they've done together wasn't real, that Jackie could never be interested in her friend that way. Jeff, therefore, must stay, so that Shauna will stay. Jackie must be strong, for Shauna.

Each of the three necklace scenes Jackie has in the pilot shows us something very specific about her relationship to Shauna. On the airplane, Jackie wraps Shauna in her love—for protection. In the privacy of her bathroom, Jackie wraps herself in Shauna's love—for strength.

And in the gym, in public, Jackie suns herself in the warmth of their friendship—her strength rewarded.

──── ◦✦◦ ────

Abandonment and the Wilderness

"What did I do? When did you stop wanting me to be your best friend?" Jackie. 1996, 1x07

The thought of Shauna replacing her with another is something Jackie dreads above almost all else. Whether in conflict, in resolution, or both, most of the battles and the skirmishes that we see play out between the two revolve around this fear.

Shauna gets upset and causes trouble at the party in the woods before seeming hurt that Jackie hasn't complimented her, so Jackie attempts reassurance by emphasizing how important their friendship is. Her choice of approach here seems at least partly motivated by a guilty conscience (with a side of projection): deep down, she knows that she is trying to replace Shauna... with Jeff. Jackie feels guilty for ending their hookups in favor of her boyfriend, so she assuages that guilt by firmly stating no, Shauna, you're not going anywhere. Jeff could never be my best friend. Only you. This fight ends when Shauna confirms she understands her importance to Jackie.

(As an aside, the timid "Hi" and "Are... are we cool?" Jackie greets Shauna with after the team-building exercise have such a soft lilt to them that they seem decidedly more than friendly.)

After the crash, Shauna snubs Jackie's plan for survival in favor of Taissa's—so Jackie gets buddy-buddy with Mari. Here, Jackie nakedly projects her fear through her actions: Shauna wants to choose Tai over Jackie, well, we'll see how she likes it when Jackie chooses Mari over Shauna. Things are only patched over between them when Shauna comes to Jackie with extra blankets saying she is scared and needs her best friend. Jackie melts at once.

This next one is not really a fight, but does involve reassurance: when the team grows annoyed with Jackie for not pitching in, Shauna pulls her aside to try and find something she can do. Jackie flunks out of badass butchering school, so Shauna switches gears to attempt a pep talk, which goes badly until she lands on the winning words.

"You taught me how to be like this, you know. You make people think things are gonna be okay, just by showing up and being your dumb, hot, awesome self. At least you always did that for me." Shauna. 1996, 1x05

Jackie softens, but holds firm on putting a knife through a deer knee, which Shauna accepts, but counters that Jackie still needs to find something to do. "We need you, Jackie." Shauna pulls out her trump card—she returns the heart pendant to its place around Jackie's neck. "I mean, you're basically the best, remember?" she says. Jackie preens, and a hug seals the deal.

By the time Taissa leads her ill-fated expedition away from the cabin, Shauna has been sneaking around around conspiring with her for a while, so Jackie jumps on the opportunity to corner her and demand an answer. This fight also happens to be when Jackie finally gives voice to the worry she carries; she openly wonders what she could have done to make Shauna want to replace her. And again, the fight ends not so much when Shauna spills a half-truth, but when Shauna allows her to simply be there. Jackie's relief is palpable as she stays cheerful for her best friend, wrapping her in maybe the tightest hug we see throughout the entire show.

Throughout the entire season, virtually all conflict between Jackie and Shauna can ultimately be solved—in Jackie's view, at least—by a reassurance that they will still be best friends no matter what. That is the core of the matter to Jackie, the driving force behind everything she does; she can withstand any blow, weather any storm as long as her best friend remains by her side. Shauna's love will carry her through.

Jackie fears being replaced, because more than anything... she fears being unloved.

──── ◦✦◦ ────

Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

"It's funny, I used to pretend I didn't know if I loved Jeff, when the truth is: I didn't even like him that much. And I was so mad at Shauna, but now I realize she's right! Friendship doesn't matter. Love? Doesn't matter. They're just things we use to pretend like we aren't gonna end up like dead cabin guy, like rotted-out husks in some bullshit attic. But of course that's how it ends. That's all we are the whole time. It doesn't matter. We're just shells with nothing inside." Jackie. 1996, 1x09

Whatever reassurance Jackie has gleaned by the time of the pregnancy half-confession is shattered once again by the revelations contained in Shauna's journal—and yet, she doesn't seem to give up on Shauna entirely... until the end of their explosive argument.

Jackie spends the bulk of 1x08 and 1x09 depressed, bitchy, and passive-aggressive, yes—but through it all, she tries to make things work. She outs Shauna's pregnancy to lend urgency to Laura Lee's mission, but conspicuously deflects questions about the father, despite having the opportunity to go for the jugular. She does her Doomcoming preparations side by side with Shauna, makes her entrance to the party itself next to Shauna; continues to smile at Shauna when she's not looking.

Jackie doesn't cut ties with Shauna—to the contrary, she gives her multiple opportunities to course-correct. When Shauna confronts her about spilling the secret of her pregnancy to the group, Jackie responds with "It's not really the time to be keeping secrets." While wandering through the forest together picking flowers for decoration, Jackie brings up Rutgers before asking "You ever think about what we'd be doing if we hadn't crashed?" and stating—even more plainly—"What if this is it, Shauna? Everything we did, everything we didn't do? All the mistakes that we made, it's like... permanent." In both cases, Jackie knows what Shauna is still trying to keep from her—Jeff, Brown—and is handing her an opening to come clean.

When Shauna deflects away from her mistakes, Jackie scoffs. "Well, I was naïve. I realize that now," she muses.

Jackie still looks back at Shauna to make sure her friend is watching as she leaves the dance on her way to sleep with Travis; to make sure she cares. Just like she did with Mari at the lake, Jackie is trying to inflame Shauna's jealousy—all the way up until the very end, right up to the moment when uncertainty becomes lost to her entirely, Jackie still holds onto hope that deep down, Shauna cares for her.

In her attic confession to Travis, Jackie contrasts friendship with love—directly after explicitly stating that she never loved Jeff.

She is very obviously talking about Shauna.

Shauna was supposed to be the one person who truly loved her. The one person who loved Jackie, not as a soccer captain (like the team did), or as just a girl (like her boyfriend did), or as the mirage of perfect daughter (like her parents did), but loved her as her, as Jackie. Shauna's journal reveals even that to be a lie.

Jackie sees now... she sees that none of it matters.

The curse of the viewer is that we see what Jackie never does. We see morning light fall on the snow, sparkling. We see Shauna fall on her knees, screaming. We see the inhabited meat shed, and the pyre, and the bacchanal, and the empty meat shed, and the bridge and the uniform and the childhood bedroom. Jackie, however, is neither prophetic nor clairvoyant; all she sees is an incomplete account of Shauna's actions. She certainly doesn't see the whole picture, can't imagine the chain of events that drove Shauna to such extremes. Jackie is hurt, not over Jeff—though he provides her with a convenient excuse to the others—but over what Shauna being willing to sleep with him says to her about how Shauna must view their friendship.

Shauna has told her that love and friendship don't matter. The romantic love Jackie knew she didn't feel for Jeff, the romantic love she believed Shauna didn't feel for her, and the platonic love she believed Shauna did; none of them mattered, none of them ever existed. Jackie shaped herself into a shell by pretending, a shell perfectly tailored to accept what Shauna was willing to give—only to find that what her friend really handed to her was rotting faster than Jackie could build the husk around it. But it's not until the night after Doomcoming that Shauna twists the knife in Jackie's heart, removing any last shred of doubt.

And that, more than anything else, is what breaks Jackie in the end; the knowledge that Shauna never cared for her.

"I'm sure everyone back home is so FUCKING sad to be losing their perfect little princess, but they'll never know how tragic, and boring, and insecure you really are. Or how high school was the best your life was EVER gonna get." "Fuck you." Shauna and Jackie. 1996, 1x10

"I don't even know who you are anymore." "Or maybe you never did." The last words Jackie and Shauna ever spoke to each other. 1996, 1x10

Jackie was trying her best, she really was. She offered Shauna her love in the form of everything she endured to keep Jeff in front of her, and therefore to keep their friendship intact. Shauna knows Jeff is her boyfriend, she knows he's off-limits, and yet she gets pregnant by him anyway. Jeff is Jackie's shield (her beard; not that she would know THAT term), her proof that all is right and she can be normal. Shauna ripped that protection away from her. From Jackie's perspective, she saw Shauna take her love, crush it underfoot, and spit right in her face. Not only does Shauna not love her back the way Jackie wants, but she doesn't love her even as a friend.

Jackie is, at this point, totally convinced that no scrap even of the friendship she was so desperately clinging to really exists. Everything she feels for Shauna is unrequited—everything except, of course, the anger and the hurt. So when her attempt to banish Shauna backfires and she is told to leave instead, Jackie listens; she walks outside to reenact the ending of Romeo & Juliet.

Jackie tried hard, so hard, not to let her baggage—her longing—ruin her most valued friendship, or push away the most important person in her life... and in the end it was all for nothing. She lost her anyway.

Or worse, she never even had her in the first place.

On her way to oblivion, Jackie dreams of being loved.

──── ◦✦◦ ────

──── ◦✦◦ ────

If you read all the way to the end here, you're the best, especially cause tumblr posts are so <--> narrow. I'm sorry for leaving things on such a downer note... but Yellowjackets do be that way.

this has been Jackie's side of things—I have a partially-written follow-up half from Shauna's perspective, but it has proven even harder to stick to some semblance of objectivity when arguing from Shauna's POV than it was for Jackie. if this one resonates with people I might refactor and finish part 2, we'll see.

in the meantime though, if you agree with my conclusions in this essay and hunger for a taste of Shauna's side, check out this "Jackie lives" fic I wrote:

featuring 4k of Tai trying to get Shauna to use her words, followed by 6k of Shauna's words! I wrote it between bouts of working on this (some snippets I cut from the Shauna section for being too un-essay-like made it in there), and it pretty much assumes everything I talk about here, both Jackie's-character-wise and jackieshauna-history-wise, holds true. except, of course, the part where Jackie stays dead lol

later haters (mari and crew)

[pastorfutureletthembe]

Here we go again--

TRIP ABROAD TURNS INTO BUTTERFLY EFFECT

First thing worth mentioning is that the prime color in this artwork is pale blue. I feel like it's quite rare, most of INPLICK arts for Link Click have the same palette: burgundy red, shades of gray and black (except for the whole Surprise Beat thing which is splashed with flashy pink). All but this one:

(probably when they were 17 or sth)

For the sake of the argument, let's say it is a significant distinction to make. The reason is simple: the teaser taking place at the airport and the trailer prove that shit started three years ago, while CXS and LG's graduation trip. If this chronology is correct, then blue probably symbolizes Lu Guang's innocence or happiness. Blue used to paint Lu Guang but now he only sees the world in black, white and red. In the birthday official arts, blue is associated with his character. His flower is freaking Forget-Me-Not; Myosotis.

So yes, that's why I think the color palette here is relevant to the time period we're going to explore in the Yingdu Chapter.

The couch itself is blue when we're so used to the pair sitting on a brick sofa. The cakes and the flowers are the usual shade of red, though.

On the table: red roses in a vase. Petals are all over the place. Ominous. We actually see a roses bouquet in the PV of XETROverthink, held by Li Tianchen.

On the trolley: 1 bottle of wine, 2 CXS's feet, 3 glasses, 4 cakes, 5 individual desserts. The glass half full is Liu Xiao's, since it isn't on the trolley in the original artwork he is absent from. I said it in another post but the plate counts 4 portions, as in 4 antagonists, while the pudding might be Lu Guang's. The cakes are probably metaphors for timelines/curves, clocks dressed as desserts with a red fruit representing a dead Cheng Xiaoshi. V and VI are the only missing parts, just like Qiao Ling's one. CXS put his feet on the trail and I think it's both funny and tragic. I believe the correct saying is "put his foot in his mouth" but in french we say "mettre les pieds dans le plat", which literally translates "to put his feet in the plate" (to say something brutal with no tact or to do something stupid without thinking it through). He has both feet nearing timeline cakes and his head is five inches away from doomed flowers.

On the floor: 1 vintage phone. 1 camera. 2 envelopes, 3 pages of letters. 4 polaroids. Probably: 2 magazines and 3 pages of newspapers. The vintage phone could be relevant to THE TIDES, era-wise. The camera is taking polaroids and two of them are still dark, meaning they just took a shot and are yet to be revealed. The rest must be related to this chapter's plot. So much for holidays, guys (are they investigating CXS' missing parents?)

If you look closely, you'll see four different mentions of time:

Lu Guang's watch (hold this thought)

The polaroid: Big Ben

What looks like newspapers

The hourglass

We also have four mentions of information/communication

Letters

The polaroid: a public telephone box

Newspapers/magazines

Vintage phone (I was wondering why the phone had twelve numbers but after some research, I realized that some of them had # and *)

On another note, I don't know if their hands--

I mean, there's something definitely happening here but let's say for the sake of my sanity that what is supposed to be noticed are the sunglasses. If I'm being honest, this is the real oddity here and the teaser weirdly showed them off?? They're standing out because everything else is so blue for one thing.

They're pink-ish, which is close enough to magenta, so one of Lu Guang's colors (cf. Dive Back In Time). The color itself is weird for sunglasses. Lu Guang doesn't care about fashion, he wants practical. As a girl who loves pink sunglasses, I'll tell you: pink is shit at doing sunglasses' job. CXS told him to wear a cat hat, okay, but did he choose every other accessory?? My guess is that the pink served a purpose in connection with light.

And why is Lu Guang's watch on the other wrist in the artwork? I checked and LG wears it on his right wrist in the donghua and manhua. It can be the opposite for some artworks though... Or blocked from view for some reasons. It's almost as if we're not supposed to know which side is the actual reflection. 👀

Something else is reversed here, actually: the colors AND the pocket of Lu Guang's shirt. It could be a mistake, though.

>>>>> Basically, I think the artwork is telling us that the Yingdu Chapter is going to hurt and make us cry. If we're indeed about to see Lu Guang lose his humanity to try and save Cheng Xiaoshi for the first time therefore destroying worlds, I have no doubt it would be after Infinite Sadness™.

The real question this teaser isn't answering is either we'll go through the original timeline or a rewind. The last episode of season 2 makes me frown. How to be sure that the Lu Guang who dives exists before and not after the events we see unfold for two seasons? Is Yingdu Chapter a flash black or an actual dive itself? Lu Guang seems to be determinate and in a bad mood in the PV after all, could directly happen after one of CXS's deaths.

EDIT: someone mentioned that LG wears his watch on the left wrist when we get images of CXS getting stabbed. (It hurts right here in my meow meow)

[harpieisthecarpie]

Okay not to be analysis georg over Alien Stage but I adore the ROUND 7 (Till vs Luka) art that dropped recently so much. And thus I will be analysis georg

(cw: I lightly and nonexplicitly reference the abuse Till suffered under captivity, including the heavily implied sa.

This is mostly contemplating Till's psyche, how Ivan's impact on Till contrasts the aliens, and art as rebellion against dehumanization. With that comes the possible triggers of Till's story.)

Till's closeup is what compelled me to post at all, because it's a very deliberate choice that speaks to his emotional state going in, and contrasts him strongly against Luka

This is long btw

The closeup focuses on the lower half of Till's face. It draws attention to his mouth and headset mic by mimicking a camera's depth of field to emphasize the yawning space between them, while using the metallic mic as a lure. The lighting sharpens the mic while softening Till.

The emphasis on Till's mouth (and mic) is indicative of a stark emotional shift from Round 6, where crushing hopelessness left him passive and barely singing.

Metatextually, the story being told by completely diagetic music videos ties strongly to the contrast between the aliens who've made the voices of the enslaved humans a commodity and the humans who are only given a voice through song.

There's a reason why music has been used for both propaganda and rebellion throughout our societal conflicts. You can only scream so loud before bystanders tune you out; music compels them to listen.

And I think that dichotomy between authority and autonomy, between the artist as product and as person, within the universe of Alien Stage is going to be delved a lot deeper into with 7.

Till having a hands-free mic and green strap over his shoulder leads me to believe he's going to be playing guitar again. Which we've seen him use for acts of rebellion before.

I saw someone saying the headset was a sign of his isolation, but I see it as him reviving the angry hope he'd extinguished using Ivan's memory. From what I've seen, Till never seemed happy when he had a standing or handheld mic. He's a creative, hands-on guy whose art and rebellions come from when he is able to use those hands.

Drawing, guitar, fighting... there's a reason he was singularly stripped of autonomy in ways we haven't seen happen much elsewhere (that physicality reminds me of Hyuna, I wonder if Luka will notice that). The caging, bodily restrictions, and physical degradation and assault from the aliens singularly target his personhood.

Even in the closeup art there's that possessive ownership, that clear replacement of Person with Commodity. His tears (or sweat) have been pointed out and remarked upon by the aliens. Yet the shot leaves out his eyes, which are often tied to personhood in literature because of how humanizing they are. Dilation, movement, eyelid position, blinking. It's hard to look into a creature's eyes and not understand there's a mind behind them.

The aliens commodify the emotion through his tears but deny the humanity behind them. They dissociate music as art with an artist behind it, even while intuitively knowing how an artist's lived experiences can create compelling music. The aliens want their product, they don't care that art isn't just entertainment to consume. They don't recognize the power music can have. They don't value it enough to truly understand it.

I wonder if this could be analagous to anything in the real world. Hm. Nahhhhhh. ANYWAYS

Till is creating what the aliens want, but the closeup has the same color palette as when he and Ivan were running away during the meteor shower. That shine on the mouthpiece even looks like a falling star.

The meteor shower was a moment of tension. A held breath before a breaking point: you can escape or you can stay trapped, but whatever decision you make you can't ever take it back.

It doesn't matter whether Till believes his last decision to stay was a mistake, he was a different person when Ivan took his hand. And he was changed again when Ivan kissed him before making that stage his death bed. Their death bed, perhaps, since something in Till had to die in order to be revived.

And Till is the only one in that arena who has the memory of running with Ivan under a cascade of falling stars. He is the only one those colors mean anything to. The aliens may be commodifying his tears, but they have no grasp on the emotions behind them. There is something within Till they cannot take, breathed into him by Ivan.

Ivan may have believed his love for Till was shallow, but he gave it freely. One of the reasons I even ship them is because Till has spent all his life in captivity getting pieces of himself carved out by aliens trying to consume his soul, and while Ivan can certainly be fucked up... he has always lain his insides out on a silver platter for Till. Given even the ugly bits over, despite knowing they'd be disregarded.

Till was strangled more visibly for how his humanity spilled out, but Ivan had been slowly suffocating because he refused to let them free. He accepted the role as pet (entertainment product dress-up doll) to keep his humanity safe. He played into the aliens' desires because he refused to give them any parts of himself that mattered.

But he still wanted to be seen, still needed to be known, so he gave them to Till.

And now Till is on that stage again (that had eaten Sua and Mizi and Ivan), carrying fragments of his loved ones that they had slipped into his palms. Quiet moments of joy and despair and fear and love. Bits of themselves they never allowed the aliens to have, that made a home in Till.

And what is love, surrounded by an entire society that refuses to acknowledge your humanity, other than an act of rebellion?

Which I think will be very interesting to see juxtaposed against how Luka seems to be portrayed. With an earpiece seemingly feeding him information, in the cool tones evoking a memory of Hyuna, whose closeup doesn't even deign to glance at his face.

(Though- not to overanalysis georg- it's interesting we get a glimpse at his seemingly gloved fingers. And that their color palettes are both interrupted by a small bit of green. Till's by what I think is a guitar strap, and Luka's by the center of his earpiece- and its sound.)

[s-b-party]

HSR’s Guns & Roses: Analysis of Boothill & Argenti

****Possible spoilers ahead, esp. Boothill’s & Argenti’s lore****

With Boothill out now, I’ve been very intrigued by the Boothill & Argenti duo which I’ve noticed so many details that are similar but also different about them, some of which many people may have already noticed but I still would like to analyze them since it’s been a hot minute since my last lore thread

The main aspects of these 2 characters that I want to talk about are their gameplay, characteristics, and lore/backstories

When we look at their gameplay, some details stand out; for example, both have the same element (physical) but opposite paths when it comes to their DPS roles (Boothill is Hunt which specializes in single target fights & Argenti is Erudition which specializes in dealing dmg to multiple enemies)

Their weapons are also opposites of each other where guns are ranged & the lance is typically used in close combat

This is more of a coincidence which I tweeted about recently but I still think it’s funny that their best-in-slot relics can be found in the same cavern of corrosion

Next we’ll look at their characteristics by which I mean their personalities & designs; off the bat we can see that Boothill has a more gruff personality & if he weren’t censored by his synesthesia beacon, he would be the sole reason for bumping HSR to a higher audience rating; this man probably would not hold back on the expletives 😂)

Meanwhile Argenti is shown to be very kind with his words, often using compliments & praises; typically he speaks with levelheadedness & grace, just like how we imagine a knight would speak

If we think about it, Boothill & Argenti are both very flamboyant characters but in different fonts; just look at their demo trailers as references since they both move like dancers (Argenti looks like he’s in a graceful ballroom dance while he’s fighting the swarm disaster; Boothill straight up MOONWALKS while dodging bullets from the IPC, we literally went from Marilyn Monroe to Michael Jackson 😂)

What accentuates their flamboyance even more is the way they both have spotlights on them at various points of their demo videos

Bonus shot of Boothill being so extra (read: fabulous) while fighting:

They also have very flamboyant designs which makes them stand out (as Boothill explains, they’re both clad in silver which definitely is one of the first things you would notice when looking at them); I don't know how much value silver has in this universe but it is considered a precious metal & valuable to us due to its many uses which is thanks to its malleable nature

Another thing to point out is that Argenti is based off the Latin word for silver argentum; fun fact, the Latin translation is the reason why the symbol for silver on the periodic table is Ag :3

I feel like their color palettes are a bit similar (silver, red, black) but they also have varying degrees for shared colors, specifically red & black; from a visual standpoint, this goes very well because Argenti having more red helps to emphasize his association to roses & Boothill having more black helps to emphasize his identity as “death” (well, for the IPC at least)

Moving onto their lore, although Argenti doesn’t have lines about Boothill, we do get lines about Argenti from Boothill himself; based on Boothill’s voicelines, we can assume that he holds some respect for Argenti as someone to whom he can relate

Their backstories are quite similar when we take a closer look at them

For example, they both have experiences where they lost their homes & the people important to them (damn, HYV really said you’re gonna suffer 💀)

Their respective factions are both noted to be groups of solitary people

Interestingly the factions have different reputations according to the data bank where the Knights of Beauty are looked down upon & the Galaxy Rangers are seen as heroes which may be a bit different from what we’re used to since knights normally have a positive connotation as people who hold chivalry as one of their most important values

Their goals are similar in the way that they both are looking for a specific person or entity: Boothill is looking for Oswaldo Schneider (who is responsible for the loss of his family & home; we might possibly meet him soon since we ended off 2.2 with the cliffhanger where Boothill confronts Aventurine to ask him where Oswaldo is) & Argenti is looking for Idrila the Beauty

They also have their critical turning points in their respective Character Story Part 3 portions

Boothill’s portion talks about his transformation into a cyborg & his adoption of the name “Boothill” which he explains is what they called gunslingers who ended up dead; it is a clear representation of his old self having died along with his loved ones & his home when the IPC destroyed everything

Argenti’s portion talks about his journey as a new Knight of Beauty & the obstacles he faced after having met the knight that was mentioned in his Part 2; here we see his transformation into a Knight of Beauty & his dedication to the path he walks

Before I had mentioned silver being an important part of their designs; here I think is where we see the importance of silver the best (since silver is a malleable material, it can change its meaning for both characters based on their situations)

To reiterate, becoming a cyborg by replacing his body w/ silver represents Boothill saying goodbye to his old self who knew of happier times & his loved ones; for Argenti, the silver that he wears is a sign of his devotion to Idrila the Beauty

What ties their differences so well in my eyes is that silver acts as a symbol of Boothill’s & Argenti’s resolve to accomplish their goals (silver may be malleable but it still can be strong metal & it’s even better since Argenti does talk about his will/faith being unbreakable)

I truly love their dynamic as complementary foils & I really hope that we’ll be able to see more interactions between them in the future since we just only have Boothill’s voicelines about Argenti but considering their goals, it probably won’t happen, at least not any time soon

Let me just say that I only cooked this idea up after listening to Boothill’s demo trailer on repeat…..a normal amount, I’m so normal about him 🙂🙂🙂🙂

Thank the YEEHAW man :3

[solitaryandwandering]

A Ramble: Love in the Big City Eps 5-6

Well, @lurkingshan welcomed me into this house of pain and I set up camp with full awareness of what awaited me. And yet. And yet. I cried so sadly at the end of episode 6. Genuinely, I don't think I've been this heartbroken watching anything recently. Gyu-ho is so wonderful. He didn't deserve Yeong shutting him out like that. But in the end, they just weren't right for each other. Not with all the heaviness Yeong carries with him, now. And poor Yeong. He was never malicious, never truly wanted to hurt Gyu-ho, but he's in so much pain. He's never been in a relationship like this, which asked for so little (yet so much). And so, here are my scattered, discombobulated thoughts.

On the cinematography front, I continued to geek out over how well each director is communicating Yeong's internal and external worlds. The last section saw Hur Jin Ho start to darken Yeong's world around the edges, still taking full advantage of environment and space. In this section, Hong Ji Young is much more economical. We have tighter shots, more close-ups (especially extreme) and fewer wide shots. Since we are much more in Yeong's head we are forced more into his perspective - what he is seeing takes precedence over placing an audience emotionally in a scene. Her direction is less stylized (which is not to say there aren't creative uses of camera) but that's not to say she lacks a stylistic vision. Rather, where prior sections relied more on movement or camera placement, Hong let lighting do much of the talking.

I mentioned yesterday that this section's color palette seemed more muted in comparison. Episode 6 was brighter but saturation didn't really change all that much, at least not from my perspective. What enhanced this perspective was Yeong's clothing, which was almost austere in comparison to how he dressed in the past. He's in dark colors, usually black, with stern or severe silhouettes. I think he's in lighter colors at work but that's it? Those are still pretty washed-out. I was especially taken with his long black coat, which has to have appeared in the past but I didn't notice it like I did in these episodes. It's like he never left the funeral garb behind. His long coat actually reminded me of Yeong Su's coloring style-wise (and of the brown coat he wears during their break-up). But maybe that's just me. I just can't let go of the ways I think we're visually supposed to see him haunting Yeong, especially after that dream sequence in episode 5. His clothing just seems... older. It reminds me of both of his older partners; maybe he feels like he needs to emulate them? Maybe he feels like he's not mature enough? I could also see Yeong Su showing up in the way Yeong broke up with Gyu-ho, though I think Yeong was catching himself from fully leaning into that. He smiled, he didn't answer Gyu-ho's questions or give any empty reasons, and so on. Yet, he still achieved that same cold detachment. Yeong Su is certainly there in the way Yeong carries himself: ramrod straight. Much of his looseness or vivacity in past episodes is gone. Could not get over how dead his eyes felt in this section.

Anyway, back to cinematography. It felt like to me the lighting was creating a slightly blurred effect, like we were seeing certain things in a haze. Obviously this is in one way a reflection of his depression. Sometimes it felt like it was reminiscent of him wading through a fog, of memories, trauma, dissociation, whatever it may be. In both episodes there is also really cool use of illumination of objects, people, or scenes. In episode 5 there's a scene where he is in his mom’s (oppressively dark) place and a single shaft of light cuts across pictures on the wall. Intentional darkening is used just as often as illumination or brightening. I'm pretty sure every time we get an extreme close-up of Gyu-ho's eyes they are cast in darkness rather than light, which is what you would assume would happen if he were, like, gazing into the eyes of someone he loves. But instead, he's in the dark. In one scene he is hanging up curtains in Yeong's apartment and turns from the light outside (towards Yeong in the dark). When we cut to the close-up we can still see a sliver of light behind him which casts him in darkness. He brings light but Yeong cannot receive it. Lighting (or lack of it) in this section more than in other parts colors/represents what Yeong feels, how he sees others, what he chooses to look at or acknowledge.

In line with that, I really appreciated that this director chose not to overly-romanticize this part. I know the original author wrote the screenplay so that is in part why it didn't feel that way but I do think in a lesser director's hands it could have been very easy to lean into Kdrama romanticism. Without having read the book I was concerned this section would feel like fan-service rather than a continuation of the overall story. I am so relieved not to feel manipulated. Beautifully mundane and sad!!

And can I just say, I love what a complicated and real character Yeong is?? I love him so much even while he infuriates me. Even while he allows his past traumas to influence this relationship with Gyu-ho. And I actually wonder about his motivations in pursuing Gyu-ho? He's obviously very attracted to him and has good chemistry with him in general, so it's not that I think he went into the relationship with false pretenses. But he obviously knows it's not the right time for what he feels like he wants, which is a serious relationship. Initially as he walks away from the subway he turns to go back when girls run by him and one screams that her mother will kill her for missing the last train. Is it a “fuck you” to her that he decides to go after him? A feeling that he wants to live his life, pursue happiness in spite of this oppressive grief he feels? So much to untangle there. He's nothing if not fully human.

The last thing I wanted to get out of my head in this ramble was my thoughts about what themes I detected in this section. So here's what I’m thinking of: distance, shame, and honesty/communication.

All throughout this section I just kept hurting at how detached Yeong seemed from himself and everything around him. Completely distanced from his emotions. He goes into the relationship already with distance since he’s fresh off two horrible traumas, especially that of losing his mom. And he allows every small moment of perceived distance (mostly Gyu-ho not sticking to pre-established patterns Yeong has grown used to in his relationship to sex and intimacy) to widen that gulf. Writing is his passion but with each new rejection he allows himself to drown in it and creates even more distance. He's writing out reflections of their relationship instead of living it. Observing instead of feeling. He begins to enforce the distance he felt in his last relationship - all he wants is attention but is unwilling or unable to give it in this go-around. Even in the ways he opens up to Gyu-ho he maintains his fake-happy, carefree persona. Smiles are weaponized as a distancing tool. And in speaking with Gyu-ho he also can't resist making small digs at him about his job or intelligence. Gyu-ho is not given much opportunity to bridge distance even as they move in together. And what can Gyu-ho do when he is constantly rebuffed? He runs away, looks to fill the void with attention from other men. Returns, only for the cycle to begin again. "Constant goodbyes" as I believe Yeong puts it. As soon as their relationship begins he puts them in the rear view mirror. It's like he moves through much of their relationship as a representation of himself rather than as Yeong, himself. A shadow. When he actually places them in the rear view at the end of episode 6 he says "I guess you'll remember me as a joke you once heard a long time ago... The world's dirtiest joke."

Shame was the biggest thing coming up for me in these two episodes. For obvious reasons, of course. The reveal of his HIV (or "Kylie" which is his way of putting distance between himself and the disease, casting it in anonymity) was as shocking as it was expected. As an aside, this somewhat vindicated my personal interpretation of Kim Nam Gyu's death and subsequent empty funeral as a connection to the deaths of gay men with AIDS (including my uncle). I don't actually think they were necessarily trying to draw a line between the two but it hit me like a crowbar over the head so!

But yeah, Kylie is the obvious connection to that theme of shame. HIV in general carries a HUGE stigma globally, so much so that many countries including China (as we saw) have strict rules for travel of HIV+ folks. As far as I can tell in my brief search online, China ostensibly allows HIV-positive foreigners to come to the country but only for a period no greater than 90 days after which they will (and have) deported people. And that's just their official stance. Yeong discovered his status in maybe the worst way possible, in the military from a homophobic doctor, which colors the way he approaches it from then on. Medically discharged (as a reference, in the U.S. HIV-positive people are allowed to serve if they are asymptomatic and have an undetectable viral load, not sure how it is in Korea) he doesn't even tell his queer friends. This part made me so sad. How the queer community can shut other people out for something like this is deplorable especially considering our history. The T-aras demonstrate themselves to be bigoted in their negative regard of those with or suspected of having HIV, literally telling each other to "cover their glasses" when they see someone in the club who has been rumored to be positive. Yeong can’t wrap his head around being accepted for such a thing or as himself in general. Yeong traps himself in assumptions he makes of others and of himself. In some ways, those expectations are reinforced.

I wondered at why Yeong chose to tell Gyu-ho his status before anyone else. A part of me wonders if he intended this as another weapon of distance, so sure of this as being the thing that would cause Gyu-ho to run. I think he was completely unprepared for his total acceptance (he asks to ask for confirmation of his sincerity later in Bangkok) though it did make him happy. And once he has that acceptance he has no idea what to do with it. He is constantly pushing Gyu-ho away, only knowing how to ask for and accept the intimacy that comes with sex (which is - unprotected - what gave him HIV in the first place). He wants that easy fun he felt as a younger queer but is struggling to heal in this undemanding relationship. All Gyu-ho wants is quality time, emotional connection, a place to call home. Yeong has wanted this, needed this in the past but denied it time and time again he doesn't know what to do when granted the opportunity to have it. Gyu-ho doesn't want Yeong to be anybody except himself, gives him space and has healthy boundaries (practically non-existent in past romantic/platonic/familial relationships). He has nothing to fight against except himself and a world that doesn’t want him. Fighting against faceless rejections from publishers and bigoted HIV attitudes and restrictions are abstract battles, larger than just one person. When facing a bland job which wants a certain imagined version of him he can face off against his boss but she doesn't even show up in a way he can solidly face off against (wearing headphones blasting loud music, for instance). All he can do is fight Gyu-ho who doesn't even give him the battle he wants.

Gyu-ho is the first he tells about Kylie and it kinda feels like he’s punishing him for it sometimes? I’m not sure how much he shares about himself with him other than that. I don’t think Gyu-ho knows that his mom had just died when they started dating or about his past with Yeong-su. Gyu-ho assumes he has his life together and says he can’t understand what it is like to want something of your own. Yeong does nothing to dissuade him of the fact. He knows Gyu-ho can tell he's distancing himself and that makes him even more ashamed in himself and makes him lash out. Against the only person who knows his deepest secret and has wholly accepted him for it. How could he not hate himself for rejecting what he's always wanted?

Mi Ae shows up as another specter of his shame, using him as a prop. It is here that he becomes relegated to the "gay best friend" trope. To Mi Ae, he is perhaps the biggest representation of her "dirtier" or "shameful" past. She uses him to appear cooler to her younger sister-in-law(?) without fully claiming their relationship. The sister-in-law even jokingly flirts with him in the bar. Literally flaunting heteronormativity in his face. It does not feel as if he can fully own himself anymore. And when Gyu-ho moves in, they live together in a place Gyu-ho sees as his but was originally Mi Ae's, a place he was abandoned in, a place he tried to kill himself in. Shame festers and breeds in this space.

Honesty and communication is what bridges the gap, what heals shame. Yet, that is what Yeong cannot bring himself to do. He’s unmotivated to make a change in his approach to Gyu-ho and uses reticence as even more of an obstacle to genuine connection. He’s ashamed of himself and thinks of himself as dirty, undesirable. Yeong doesn’t even tell Gyu-ho about the HIV restrictions that keep him from applying to the job in China. Easy way out of their relationship, maybe, but it’s more about clinging to shame (is his shame is his remaining connection to his mom?). And in the end, he can’t even give him an honest break-up. His opinion of himself is so low he can’t help but prove it right. I think he sees Gyu-ho shrink into himself and comes to the conclusion he takes up too much space. ("I wonder why you sleep in silence. Maybe it's my fault. Maybe it's yours. Or maybe it was inevitable.")

In prior episodes Yeong's loves came in pairs: Mi Ae/Nam Gyu, Yeong Su/his mother. I wonder if Gyu-ho is the only love represented here. In prior sections love was more or less freely felt or offered even if toxic or lacking honesty. Unable to crack through Yeong's loneliness. Maybe the pair here is the absence of self-love. Or the absence of Yeong's ability to place his love in something external. In this section Gyu-ho shows him the love he was missing and wanted in prior sections but he is no longer open to it. He cannot show that love to himself. And maybe that's represented in the city, in Seoul. Big, teeming with potential, but also a lonely chasm where souls go to be lost.

Yikes, that was long. Largely nonsensical, I'm sure. I am terrified for how this show will end. This episode more than any other made me want to read the book RIGHT NOW (and make my brother read it). That's the sign of a good adaptation!

[heybaetae]

hi kelli i love the gif set you made for jimin's birthday especially the "choose your album" one. is it possible you could give a tutorial or show how you made the effect? or the imessage one too its so cute!! only if you want!!

thanks anon 💛🥺 that's the first gif i started with when i started making the set because i wanted to make sure i could execute it well lol. i can break it down and show you how i made those, but i won't call it a tutorial since it might be messy lol. i also didn't come up with the concepts, so please note that i took inspo from gifs in sets like this, this, this, and this. since i didn't have any templates for these overlays, i referenced those as a guide for making my own.

i'll put this under a read more because it might be long.

we'll start with this one!!

there are three main things going on in this gif that i'll focus on: a playlist overlay, a cross-fade transition between mutliple elements (background gif, album logos, and years), and the "selected album" switching in conjunction with the transition.

i like to organize all my layers into groups and label them so i can find everything easily if i need to make adjustments, so here is what my layers palette looks like for the finished gif.

i'll break down everything starting from the bottom since that's how you build things in photoshop.

the background gif is two gifs with the same amount of frames and similar camera movement because i thought the transition would look cool if the shot was circling around jimin in both gifs. i applied my sharpen and noise settings to each gif's smart layer, then put them both on the same timeline track. next, i dragged the cross fade transition with the fastest speed (0.25 s) onto the timeline between my gifs.

then i added a few adjustment layers to make it black and white with some contrast and grouped those into a folder labeled as "b&w psd" to keep it organized.

now time for the overlay group!

starting with the "player" folder first, here's what's inside.

two smart objects and a text layer.

the "square outline" layer is essentially just a square that i selected with the marquee tool, then applied a new color fill with the fill at 0% opacity. then i added a 2px white stroke to it, which left me with just an outline of a square. i converted that to a smart object.

the "arrows" layer, i just used the eclipse shape tool (no fill, 2px white stroke) and some custom shape arrows inside. i duplicated those shapes, flipped them, then positioned each skip button where i wanted them before coverting them both to a single smart object as well.

then i added my "choose your album" text at the top of the square, selected around it with the marquee tool on the "square outline" layer, and applied a layer mask to erase where the outline cut through it. i made this all as centered as possible and made these three layers the same length as my background gif on the timeline.

onto the "abums" folder, here's what's inside.

i made two 100px by 100px square shapes and positioned them along the bottom line of the big square outline with equal distance between the center and the corners. all i had to do was resize images of jimin's album covers atop each shape. i also clipped levels adjustments to both covers to make them pop.

the "album outline" layers are just duplicates of the square layers with a 2px stroke in alternate colors per that album's color scheme. i referenced album images and used the eyedropper tool for accurate colors.

to make the strokes visible at different times, those two layers are trimmed on the timeline at the very center of the cross fade transition on the background gif to emulate switching between albums. TECHNICALLY, no, i didn't need to keep the shape layers and i could have deleted them after i positioned the covers + added the stroke to a duplicated cover image instead, but i liked having them as a guide.

anyway it looks like this:

next, came the album title logos and extra text! here are the "logos", "outlines", and "years" folders open.

these are all in seperate folders because i stacked each title logo and it's outline back to back on the timeline in order to add the cross fade transition to them into each other along with the background gif. i thought it would look too abrupt if the logos changed without the same transition.

so i found large png files of each of jimin's album title fonts, made them white, and positioned them in the center. i set the blending modes on each of them to "exclusion", then applied a color overlay set to "color" in those same colors i used for the album cover outlines. i then duplicated the logos and changed the fill to 0%, added a 1px white stroke around them and then nudged them a few pixels away from the real ones for that depth look.

i also added the years each album came out too. i trimmed and stacked them accordingly on the timeline and added the same transition between them all as the one on the background gif.

here is what it looks like on the timeline:

then i converted to frames and saved at 0.05 speed and i was done!

as for the imessage gif...

here's what my layers palette looked like:

i made my background gif blurry so it wouldn't distract too much from the smaller gif and the messages, but i still needed it to look clear. i really lucked out with that shot of jimin against a yellow couch with teal detailing on his sleeve because look how well it matches the color theme!!! AND he's making a hand heart??? score.

anyway, it was mostly about spacing all the imessage bubbles so everything was nice and equal. i didn't think i could make the bubbles look good if i made them manually with the shape tool, so i just searched for imessage bubble pngs online at differing lengths and made the ones i used white before converting them to smart objects. i resized them all to 48px in height and positioned them with 15px gaps between each other (10px from the top and bottom edges of the gif, 15px from the sides). i set them each to "exclusion" and added a color overlay to them set to "color" and chose which teal or gray color to use.

then i added my text on top of them.

the "small gif" folder is just a 280px high rounded square shape with my gif and adjustment layers clipped to it. there's a smaller 3px gap between the small gif and text below it just like an iphone displays images sent with text. i completely scored with this gif too since he's already against a yellow background and he's wearing green, so all i needed to adjust were the tones of those colors to get it as close as i could to the muse colors.

that's pretty much it!!! i hope you found this interesting or fun to read. thank you for liking the set and being curious how i made some of it <3

again, i can't take credit for these concepts. i only tried to recreate them to the best of my own abilities.

[distortedclouds]

MAPPA didn’t make the characters ugly, it’s Wit that made everyone too beautiful - Let me explain!

By far, one of the biggest complaints thrown around when season 4 part 1 of Attack on Titan first aired was how MAPPA made all the characters—especially the female characters—ugly. There’s some merit to that complaint, but not in the way most people were coming at it

Not sure if it’d been said before, but I think the only reason MAPPA’s aot looks “ugly” is because Wit went out of their way to make every too beautiful—unnaturally so

I have a case to make here and will be going over it one element at a time

Colors

Let’s first look at how each studio picks their colors. This is the most apparent in the flashback shots were MAPPA basically reanimated whole scenes in their style

Both studios use three basic “shades” for every same-color surface

For Wit that’s the base color, a darker variation for shading, and then a highlight, used generously on the characters’ hair and faces (sometimes they add a darker shade, but not often)

MAPPA uses a base color, a darker tone for shading, but they also add cross hatching to emphasize the even darker areas, usually around the eyes and under the neck

MAPPA also very rarely use highlights—only in cases where there’s bright light to actually reflects off of the high points of a character’s face and hair

The same can also be seen in the color choices. Wit’s color palette is overall brighter. They almost never go with true black tones for things and texture that are meant to be black

Characters like Mikasa and Levi, who’re meant to have black hair, they’re given either dark gray or a shade of dark brown that looks black compared to everything around it

MAPPA’s color choices are darker, more somber, this includes the hair colors

Another example is Armin and Annie’s hair colors. In seasons 1-3, the colors are so bright they could almost be considered yellow hair, but MAPPA tones it down, giving them more “natural” blond tones

This is applied all over, from clothes to backgrounds

Proportions

To keep things on the less complicated end, I’m dividng art styles on a scale from “realistic proportions” to “chibi” with the first being closer to the sizing and variation of a human body and the latter focusing on bigger heads and bigger eyes compared to everything else

MAPPA’s style, despite still being solidly Anime, is significantly more realistic leaning than Wit’s, which is more “cute”

Starting with the faces, Wit’s faces are less angular and more rounded. They’ve also given the characters bigger and brighter eyes, along with smaller noses and mouths—especially when the character isn’t talking

Meanwhile, MAPPA has a more realistic approach to facial proportions, therefor, less cute

When it comes to body proportions, it’s harder to compare all the main cast members

There's a 4-year time skip so I'll be sticking to adult characters for obvious reasons

The difference in proportions is immediately obvious. Not only are their shoulders wider compared to their heads, but their limbs are also fuller, when Wit kept them lanky. Their arms, legs, and waists feel like they have more weight to them in MAPPA’s style compared to Wit

(I would've done Annie but I couldn't find official full body art from MAPPA)

Effortlessly Gorgeous

It’s perfectly normal to have attractive anime/manga protagonists. They attract a wider audience and they’ll sell more merch if they’re pretty, handsome, or sexy

I think the main problem with Wit is that the characters are made to always look beautiful. Even at their worse: fighting titans, getting thrown off and rolling on dirt, almost dying- doesn’t matter, they’re always made to look gorgeous with glistening hair that's never out of place

This is most apparent in the characters aot presents as being the most beautiful: Mikasa and Annie

In the middle of battle, their hair always falls back neatly into place. They can have dirt or blood on them but never too much. Not to mention, the lip gloss shimmer that almost every young female character in the anime has

MAPPA…

not so much.

This is partially thanks to the cross hatching they use in shading, gives the character’s expressions a more raw appearance rather than elegantly crafted like some Hollywood film

It's not really just a matter of different art styles, it's a bunch of factors coming together that makes something less "cute" and more grown up looking

How do the styles compare to the manga?

It’s really hard to give a straight answer since Isayama’s style changes drastically over the source of 139 chapters

I’d say Wit was able to take more creative liberties with character designs and the style of the artwork simply because Isayama’s style itself wasn’t as developed/refined during the first few dozen chapters

While it’s hard to say about the colors since the manga is in black and white, any colored covers we do get are more muted, even compared to MAPPA. As for shading, Isayama goes strong on cross hatching and I think MAPPA does him justice in that regard

So when people throw a tantrum online that MAPPA made Annie and Mikasa ugly, then, yeah, sure ugly as in less polished and less baby-like, but only compared to Wit

The manga is generally more gruesome in its portryal and Wit, I feel, leaned too much into the style of the late 2000s early 2010s

[mentally-ill-for-bes]

Blue Eye Samurai Analysis Episode 1

As a clarification, the series of this analysis will be done chapter to chapter, having so many parallels between chapters there will be, spoilers. Many spoilers possibly.

Now, as another clarification, I’m not a Japanese person nor someone related to Japanese culture, therefore this analysis will go around narration and characters arcs and parallels. This being said, everything shown here is my interpretation of the show, I'll be more than pleased to talk about different opinions since it's done with respect.

And the last clarification, I will be referring to Mizu as she/her, since it’s what creators and producers refer to. This isn’t intended to invalidate headcanons or other interpretations.

btw, i don’t know how to do gifs, therefore this will be much less visually pleasing than I would like it to be, sorry!!

Now, let’s start!

The first shot of the show is fire, which will be seen later in the relation of fire with Mizu (and later with Akemi); now, fire acts like a visual opposite of the snowflake on the screen. Fire produces warmth, and snow produces coldness.

We continue showing scenes that show the visual opposites of warmth and coldness.

And the paragraph that set up our story.

“In 1633, Japan closed its borders to the outside world. Completely.

Citizens would never see a white face, nor any face that was not Japanese.

A child born mixed race would be considered less than human.

Pitiable. Impure.

Monstrous.

From these times rose a legend.

Of a swordsman. Of a sword.

Of revenge.”

And the way Mizu is introduced is in the snow. Visually, this teaches us her color palette, which is comprised of different tones of blue. But this also makes us relate her not to the snow, but to its coldness. This is reaffirmed by the style of the title, which is blue. Mizu is blue.

Then, she enters the noodle shop, where Ringo is presented in this lightless atmosphere in gray tones. He has a short and unilateral conversation with Mizu. The fact that Mizu doesn’t answer anything nor raises her head to at least see Ringo reaffirms her coldness. But this interaction shows us how despite his violent father; Ringo enjoys serving noodles, he’s satisfied when Mizu devours all the bowl, he enjoys helping.

However, the catalyst for the friendship between her and Ringo is this scene:

“What are you? A dog? You let a dog serve food!”

“Told you. Round eyes. Like a dog”

Sure, Mizu empathizes with Ringo because he’s shown as this sweet and kind character but also because she sees a lot of herself in him. They’re both ridiculed by being compared with dogs for things they cannot control: Mizu for her eyes, Ringo for losing balance, and spilling soup (due to Hachiman being aggressive to one of the girls he bought). At that moment, Mizu wasn’t strong enough to defend herself, but now, she’s strong enough to defend Ringo (and to get the information she wants at the same time).

The next thing we know is that Mizu has been looking for Hachiman due to his possession of a European gun.

“Of course, I’ve heard of you. Never leaves a village without buying one of its daughters.”

Because Mizu doesn’t just empathize with Ringo, but also with the girls he bought.

The next thing we know is that Mizu cuts Hachiman’s fingers, first the index and middle finger then cut the ring and little finger. First, the fingers used to hold a gun.

Then, the fingers he used to slap Ringo and touch the girl’s face. It’s curious how she cuts all the fingers but the thumb, especially when the one who sold the gun is Heichi and then they’ll introduce us to his collection of thumbs.

+ She cutting the fingers resonates with the scene when she cuts Heichi’s hand, but that’s for later!!

Then, as we know, Ringo follows her, she sees in her someone great, but not for her ability with a knife but for her ability to stand up for others. Sure, Ringo says he wants to be a samurai like her and it that moment, he wants that. But Ringo’s arc goes through being great and how, not being the same that Mizu but for being great by his own qualities and strengths.

However, now, Mizu represents a hope for him, a hope that an outcasted as him as be something great.

But Mizu doesn’t want friendship or anything that can deviate her from her purpose.

She found a temple and her pray is clear:

“To a man lost in the dark, an ember can light the way. Thank you for my ember. I was lost without course so long. Please. Let this ember’s light brighten a path from this Heiji Shindo to the men I seek. Please guide my steps until I find them. Please give me the strength to kill them. Or let me die.”

This helps us to understand her character, she has a purpose in life, and it’s achieving it or death. But she won’t let death reach her, literally is need a stronger one that lets her die, because she won’t permit herself that sacrifice.

We pass to a Mizu’s memory of her childhood, where a bully (we’ll later known as Taigen) and his gang persecutes her around the town while it’s raining, more elements asociating Mizu to water.

Mizu’s wearing handmade glasses:

Nice reference to how the first models of sunglasses were, the first sunglasses were created by the Inuit.

Going back to the memory, Taigen’s wearing an orange kimono, even when his representative color as an adult is green.

Interesting, since in color wheel orange is opposite to blue.

So during childhood, Taigen’s definitely an antagonist to Mizu, but once they’re both adults, he’s represented by green. Green is closer to blue than orange is, so I interpret this change of colors as the ability of Taigen to change. During childhood, he’s an antagonist role, but being an adult, he’s at her side (during battle and in the color wheel, lol). And that’s what Taigen’s arc is about, about changing for the better, it wouldn’t surprise if at some moment he starts getting dressed in blue to symbolize he’s at Mizu’s side. Or going back to orange, symbolizing the opposite.

The next character introduced is Swordsfather.

He’s showed under blue lights, his clothes looking blue. Different from Taigen, he’s at Mizu’s side.

But the next thing is shown about Swordsfather is fire, he’s under warmth lights, his clothes looking brownish.

Swordfather’s home is mix between warmth and cold lights. He’s in the middle of it.

This talks pretty well about the duality of the character, Swordfather isn’t associated with a color or an element but metal, metal can change and be rebuilt over and over again. He’s warm and cold at the same time. The same duality that Mizu will have to learn at some point.

But something to notice is that Mizu’s glasses are yellow/orange, while her whole dressing is blueish, only thing that has a warmth color are her glasses. The glasses she use to hide his identity as a racial mixed person.

And the scene!! This obviously puts a romantic background with the gentle music and the slow-mo, but it’s also useful to establish the opposite color palettes they have. While Akemi is surrounded by golden and warmth, Mizu is under the snow, surrounded by cold.

Even when it’s snowing outside, she’s surrouned by golden lights, dressed all in red. She’s associated with femenity, his kimono has flowers in it and she has butterflies and flowers in her hair, accessories made in gold. Totally different to how Mizu’s shown, dressed all in blue but her glasses, with much simpler accessories than Akemi, even when gold is a metal, Mizu’s shown manipulating silver metal’s. They’re opposites.

She’s talking with Seiki about how to talk to her father:

Even when she dislikes his advice (with fair reason) lilting her voice will be something will see she uses against men, like a woman who intends to get what she wants; when she talks to her father, when she meets Mizu, when she talks to shougon’s son.

“—When you speak to him, remember to lilt your voice.

—So, I should speak like a child

—Or like a woman who intends to get what she wants.”

In the end, she convinces her father to allow a marriage between her and Taigen. Saying how he sees a part of himself in Taigen. (If my father ever said he sees himself in my partner I would honestly run lol)

When Taigen’s presented on screen, he’s dressed in green but the scarf, this reminds me of how during his childhood (when he’s totally antagonistic to Mizu) he’s dressed in orange. In the color wheel, green is opposite to red, Akemi’s color, the only thing in Taigen’s outfit that brings him close to Akemi is his scarf and the comb Akemi gives him; both things that will be taken by Mizu.

But we’ll talk about that in the next episodes, for now, let’s focus on Mizu.

Shindo Dojo has a yellow uniform and all the room is iluminated, contrasting Mizu with her blue outfit.

Before defeating all Shindo Dojo, Mizu has a interesting memory about Swordfather, the lines I think has most impact in the narration are these.

“—What is a sword?

—The soul of a samurai.

—It is a line. On one side of the line is life. The other, is death. The edge we forge cuts the line between life and death.”

And this scene:

“—No man can tame this cursed metal.

—Perhaps it doesn’t want to be a sword.

—All metal wants to be a sword.”

It’s our first introduction to a figure of the 4 white men, and the whole background is blue, being in a castle in the water, which I take as a reference to Frowler’s castle in the water but also this bends the things Mizu’s is associated to her “demon” state. Not by an omnipresent narrator, but by her own narration. She doesn't see herself as half-demon half-human, she sees herself as a total demon.

Ending with the memory, she has the coolest fight with all the dojo, until Taigen appears, literally wearing Akemi’s gift, at this point we know that he’s 1. Proud of being Dojo’s champion, 2. Proud of his engagement with Akemi (in that order in specific). He wears his gift as (in my interpretation) a show of power over Mizu, they’re exactly in the same positions as during childhood, Taigen’s standing up looking arrogant and Mizu’s on the floor. But this time the result is different.

In both moments is Taigen who throws away her glasses.

In another great scene of fighting, Mizu gets the information about Heiji Shindo and she cuts Taigen’s hair. Cutting his hair removes from him his status, identity, and the chance of getting married to Akemi. At the same time, he's turning him into an outcast, now ignored and rejected by the masters who praised him before. He goes from being benefited by the system to being affected by the same system he supported and contributed to.

And as I said, Mizu literally takes the comb that represents Taigen and Akemi’s compromise and throws it.

In a more personal sense, it shows Mizu’s empathy along with women. She understands their struggles and she does what she can for them.

At the end of this episode, even Mizu’s sword has a nice edge that looks like waves. This sword is an important element in Mizu’s narrative, as she said, the sword is the soul of a samurai; and even when Mizu doesn't considerate herself a samurai, others do; Ringo considers her a samurai, even Taigen (even when he doesn't admit it) do it. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had a duel the way samurais.

And her sword is just like her, "no man can tame this cursed metal" is what Swordfather said, as no man can tame (what people consider) a cursed human, "perhaps it doesn't want to be a sword" said Mizu, she doesn't want to be a samurai, she wants revenge. But all people keep perceiving her as one.

What will happen to Mizu's sword is what will happen directly to her soul.

[amaru2020]

Color theory in Mean Girls 2024 (and 2004) and why it matters (long post ahead)

So, like a lot of us, I've seen and fallen down the Mean Girls rabbit hole, and say about the outfits what you will, the costume designs actually did a great job displaying symbolism in characters like Regina and Cady through color alone, let me explain

Random Disclaimer: I'm aware that a lot of what I'm about to talk about was utilized in the original, I'm mostly pulling pictures from the newest version since it's the main focus of this post. There will be mentions of the original, but the newest iteration is my main focus today ^^

Let's start with the film's use of Black

Now, we know in Regina's first appearance in the original, she's first seen wearing pink like the rest of the plastics and doesn't wear black until much later in the film (which I will get to don't worry lol) but what's different with this newest version and what I find interesting, is the decision for Regina's introductory outfit to be entirely black.

now you could be saying, "But Amaru, black is sexy, seductive, of course she'd be wearing it." And you're right! But, black also has some different meanings outside of that, which is power.

The first time Regina walks in, time stops. Everyone's eyes are on her, Cady is in awe, and to sum up the musical number, Regina has complete control over everyone. It's seen again when she sits amongst Karen and Gretchen,, but Regina stands out as the only one wearing such a bold black outfit, signifying her control over the two of them. And not to mention the second she gains even more control over the school by creating an entirely new fashion trend, she's wearing an entirely black dress

Now let's talk about the color, Blue and how it ties in with Black

So, when Regina falls from grace and is shunned from the plastics, notice that it's the first time she wears blue. Blue has about a dozen or more different meanings, but the one I'm gonna focus on now is that Blue can be seen as both a conservative and depressed color

Everyone's eyes are on her in this shot, but this time for a completely different reason than in the beginning, and because we brought up how blue can be conservative, we could read this as Regina not only being upset but not wanting to be perceived.

Let's circle back around to Black and why it's important with Cady

The first time she wears black is when she takes over Regina's role within the plastics and makes the final decision on whether or not Regina can sit with the group. Yes, she's wearing blue, which we will also get to, but also wears a black skirt. It's the color palette she wears for the entire second act.

When she's seen wearing all black, it's at her house party while having reign over the plastics and taking the title of the most popular girl in school. It's also when Aaron calls her a clone of Regina, and Janis confronts her about lying. There she has the realization that she has indeed become Regina.

Remember what we talked about with Regina with Blue? Well, let's apply that same logic to Cady.

During a rewatch I noticed how that during "World Burn" and the scenes that follow, Cady is shot from the waist up, only showing the blue part of her outfit, whenever someone brings up the book, or she thinks Janis and Damian are onto her, or even when they ignore her in the gym, you can only see the blue. (Yes, you could argue the angle was used in other shots, but this felt more deliberate, especially with how much the blue stood out against the otherwise dark color palette of other students and the background) Which from before we established as conservative. meaning that not only does she not want to be perceived by Regina, but as the one who wrote in the Burn Book in the first place.

Okay, let's go back to Regina one more time, and talk about her more prominent black outfit, during "World Burn" and when she releases the book for the school to see and causes a riot. (This is also being applied to the original as well)

Since we've established black is a symbol of power, we can see as more chaos descends on the school (as also seen in the original) Regina is placed in the middle of the crowd, all in black. It shows how she has control over people once again through manipulation. Therefore, showing that she's back on top.

And that's it, everybody! Thank you for coming to my TED talk

Sincerely,

someone who has thought about this waaaaay too much after doing extensive color research for a presentation and does a lot of character design

[vendettasfanfictioning]

Sam-coded: Analyzing the parallels between Destiel and Sam's arcs with his love interests.

PART 1: JESSICA MOORE

FOREWORD & DISCLAIMER

With a fan community as enormous as Supernatural's, it is fair to assume that most, if not everything, stated here has already been pointed out or dissected multiple times before—especially considering the long span of time that the show has aired and the three years thereafter. The goal of this post is not to claim these ideas as my own but rather to compile and expand on them.

I also want to add that regarding Jessica, specifically, the canon facts about her are incredibly limited what with her only "real" appearance being at the Pilot episode (though she is referenced and alluded to in multiple episodes all throughout).

That said, she had a critical role in shaping Sam's goals, with emphasis on earlier seasons' Sam's development so it felt fitting to start this series off with her.

There are many instances that the fandom has pointed out cinematic parallels between Sam and Jessica & Dean and Castiel. In this post, I would be elaborating on all of the key points I have found, namely: 1. The scripted meeting, 2. Grieving a lover, and other random findings.

1. IN THE BEGINNING (WITH REGARDS TO GOD'S PLAN)

To start, both Sam/Jess and Dean/Cas were fated to meet to serve a higher narrative purpose.

Frankly, I think that is fucking beautiful, but not only that; it can be argued that, if we were to speculate that Sam met Jessica right after he ran away from Dean and John, then Jessica and Castiel did the same thing. They pulled their respective Winchester brother out of hell/a dark place. (That may just be me talking out of my ass, but it's such a poetic concept, isn't it?)

Most importantly though, both parties were doomed by the narrative, but in polar opposite ways.

(Screenshots taken from 5x20)

Sam was destined to love and then lose Jessica for two reasons: to start the story, and to make Sam go down the "dark" path i.e. adjacent to Lucifer, demon blood, evil. Their story was scripted from the get-go, even before Supernatural decided to go metatextual with God.

(Screenshots taken from 15x17)

On the other hand, Dean and Castiel were never meant to be anything more. God himself says that Castiel was supposed to continue obeying heaven, do what he was told, and it is one of (if not the one) that completely separated the Supernatural storyline from any of Chuck's other drafts.

(GIFs from 15x18 and 15x19)

Furthermore, Castiel's love for Dean and Dean's loss of him marks the end of the story and makes Dean defy the role that God made for him. Admittedly, it's a flawed parallel, as Dean has already moved on from being Michael's Sword and the Righteous Man. To that, I say it only further proves the point; their unscripted "profound bond" directly opposed God's word. It was what should have broken the cycle.

And still, both ended in tragedy. It's just that one was written to end that way and the other wrote itself.

2. THE WINCHESTER BROTHERS ON GRIEF

(GIFs are from 1x01 and 12x23)

This segment can't start any other way than with these iconic shots of the Winchesters holding their brother back from running towards the love of their life (as the lover, in question, dies/walks to their death). These shots are the very reason I started this whole analysis, and they speak for themselves.

Even their clothes are inverted here, because Sam and Dean are experiencing the exact same thing. The grief, pain, and helplessness that comes with losing a partner.

(While compiling these, I stumbled upon the eerie realization that the shots attached above and the ones below have swapped color palettes in a way? Granted, that may just be some editing thing. Technology and video quality aside though, you can't deny that the vibrance of the fire vs. the bleakness of Apocalypse World juxtapose aesthetically well with the shots below. Just another one of those, "is it intentional or did Supernatural just run out of options from the sheer breadth of it?")

(Screenshots taken from 1x05 and 8x07)

This parallel in particular is what makes me believe that Supernatural either has amazing writing or just a terrible retention for continuity and reflection. Because, again, Sam and Dean are going through the same damn thing here: guilt. Specifically, the guilt of their lover's death—how both had reasons to believe they could've prevented it.

Also, these are cinematically shot the same way: Jessica and Castiel by the road, a deadpan stare at the Impala as the brothers drive by, then disappearing from sight at a second glance. How else are we to take this other than Dean grieving a lover the same way Sam grieved for his girlfriend? Did they just forget this scene from 1x05 when they filmed 8x07? (Most likely, yeah, but that doesn't disprove its contribution to the narrative.)

The premise is also similar, damningly so, the only notable difference being the formatting, with season 1's monster-of-the-week almost-standalones and season 8's continuous, over-arcing conflict with hell and the tablets.

(Screenshots taken from 1x05 and 8x07)

At the very core, though, is Sam and Dean with their, "I could have—" statements. Sam had visions about Jessica dying, he could have warned her. Dean had Castiel right there at the portal to exit Purgatory, he could have pulled him out. It is that guilt they must carry around and that burden they must bear.

(Screenshots taken from 1x05 and 8x07)

They even give one another the same damn pep talk. Dean saw that Jessica's death was slowly killing Sam, the same way Sam saw that Dean's return from Purgatory without Castiel was tearing Dean apart.

(Screenshots taken from 1x05 and 8x07)

Lastly, here are the verbal acknowledgements of their grief. Because hey, who am I to try to explain subtext and nonverbatim connections.

2.1. TO BE JOHN WINCHESTER'S SON

In this segment, I would like to point out two of the instances that Sam and Dean accepted being compared to John Winchester, both in regards to losing Jessica and Castiel respectively.

(Screenshots taken from 1x20)

Again, this is what the story was all about. Sam and John could or at least find solidarity in this, as was intended for the plot. (They even mirror God and Lucifer here, which is an entirely different can of worms I am not opening today.)

Keep in mind, Sam's always hated how John raised them, but it is evident that he found some comfort with John given their undeniably specific situations.

(Screenshots taken from 13x04 I talked a little more about this arc here)

Sam openly calls Dean out on his John-esque behavior; an irony in itself given that the brothers have long since established that Sam was the one who resembled John the most whereas Dean was always, "yes, sir!" until the very end.

In this very same arc, there is a concerning increase Dean's alcohol consumption—and the use of alcohol as a coping mechanism in itself, rather than the leisurely treat it recurringly was in the show—which are telling signs for the headspace Dean was in.

They both lashed out in John Winchester ways they've internalized over the years growing up. Sam went down the path of self-destructive revenge-seeking, while Dean lashed out by rejecting being a father role to Jack, becoming the "drill sergeant," instead. These traits were what hurt them as children and were the crux of John's grief over Mary's murder. Round and round the cycle goes.

2.2. TO BE LUCIFER'S VICTIM

(GIFs from 5x03 (a) and (b))

Again, another iconic parallel considering Lucifer's go-to trick to getting what he wants was to pose as the person his victims want the most. Another example of this exact same scenario is when Lucifer appears to rock star Vince Vicente as his dead girlfriend (and Vince ended up saying yes.)

In the earlier seasons, the most obvious choice for Sam was of course Jessica, as Lucifer was desperate to get ahold of Sam as a vessel. That was narratively sound, right? Even though 5 seasons (so about 5 years in canon) have passed since Jessica died, Sam hadn't forgotten her and she remained his greatest weakness.

(GIFs from 15x19)

Then on the flip side, during a time the story's well past the Script and God's most definitely free-styling, Lucifer appears again—and it is on God's orders. The devil chose Dean's weakness (Castiel) to blindside him, so Dean ends up running on emotions instead of questioning it.

This happened right after the episode Castiel confessed, and before the episode that Should Not Be Named... That also speaks for itself, doesn't it? Insane, absolute insanity to me.

3. MISCELLANEOUS: SYMBOLISMS & OTHER COINCIDENCES

(Screenshots taken from 1x01 and 14x12)

This is where I might be reaching, but it's a small observation I noticed while bingeing the Pilot episode. Of course, at the time, production likely didn't even put much thought into Jessica's costume, but it's a funny thing to point out all the same. (I screamed a little about Cas' healer motifs here in comparison to Cesar/Jesse if you're interested.)

(Screenshots taken from 1x01 and 10x09)

They both have the same Look when their boyfriend is talking down on himself, I can't even make this shit up.

+ I'm so frickin' tired I cannot look for screenshots anymore but Jessica's cookies plus Castiel's "you don't understand, I need pie," moment in the convenience store resonate with me.

+ Might edit and add more to this later, for now I sleepge.

REFERENCES

1x01: Pilot 1x05: Bloody Mary 1x20: Dead Man's Blood 5x03: Free to be You and Me 5x20: The Devil You Know 8x07: A Little Slice of Kevin 10x09: The Things We Left Behind 12x23: All Along the Watchtower 13x04: The Big Empty 14x12: Prophet and Loss 15x17: Unity 15x18: Despair 15x19: Inherit the Earth

UP NEXT: SARAH BLAKE

[tonguetiedraven]

Season Three Episode One Thoughts

-Starting in the classroom is a brilliant idea. It gives a good reason for Rin to be reading, makes it clear we're out of summer break, and leads perfectly into Godaiin and doesn't make them have to set up a friendship for those two. We just dive in.

-The Kyoto's trio intro was perfect and the letter was entirely the way I wanted it to look, over the top reactions and all.

-I'm glad we didn't have to see the Amaimon brutalization of Rin. That would have been a bit rough for the first episode back and not having it will make some of the coming violence and gore with the zombies and lab more intense.

-Mephisto's clothes and room made my eyes bleed. Perfect. No notes. Everything is exactly as it should be.

-Liked the color sap of Gehenna and that they used the cgi heads to connect that to the gate for people who don't know about the manga and don't know that's Gehenna.

-The portraits fight was fantastic and I like that they had the same demons in there be the one that attacked Sei earlier. It makes it feel like there was a reason they were doing that mission and is a great setup to allow them to do the mysteries in any order they want. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some of the others pop up later. The bathroom ghost is perfect for closer to the festival with that stuff.

-I like how they didn't spend a lot of time on Yukio withdrawing. They had Rin and Shura both point it out in different ways, and it's a good setup for the stuff later.

-Kuro napping on the table gives me so much joy.

-Hair clip. Just Hair clip.

-The outside eating lunch scene was everything I wanted. All of them hanging out and chatting and Izumo being entirely embarrassed and everyone looking at Rin after the demon shout xD

-The ending with Godaiin taking a moment to show him actively thinking about what demons really are and halflings, and how those drops might change how he sees Rin and whether he should use them and that leading directly to the rest of the group waiting on him and teasing him and wanting him to come for food.

-Mephisto echoing the opening narration with a more cryptic twist.

-The credit shot of the girl's bathroom. The ghost? Or just a nod for us?

All in all, I'm impressed they got that much and they set up so much for later. I really thought they were going to skip all the mysteries and I'm delighted they gave us Konekomaru's moments because honestly, the Illuminati arc and the portrait fight are both huge for him, and he doesn't have an arc of his own and rarely gets the spotlight.

I like the animation and think the palette and style suits Izumo and Shima quite well. I like the strong focus for friendship in the start and the questions about demons and humans they're setting up for later on in this arc. I am very hopeful and I've heard the Japan fans who got to see the first three episodes said the pacing gets better, so I am ecstatic.

It still doesn't quite feel real that we got it after all this time xD It's more than I ever expected and I'm on cloud nine.

[likesunsetorange]

okay so similar to the mikasa ones, here are all the ones for eren and my thought processes behind them!

i think men’s fashion tends to be a little less versatile than women’s fashion by a long shot, so i think there’s definitely a lot less diversity and variation between my eren’s compared to my mikasa’s! i think each of my mikasa’s have a specific “aesthetic” whereas my eren’s more so have more of a color palette/vibe to their style because i think there’s only so much you can do with men’s clothing tbh unless you’re aiming for a super curated aesthetic (e.g. cowboy eren)! so i think they’ll have a lot of overlap tbh, but this is kind of how i envision them all! and again i’ll include the moodboards i’ve made previously!

— 𝐝𝐨𝐥 𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧

i think dol eren and mikasa both have this very “boy next door” and girl vibe to them, like i don’t wanna call them “basic” per se, but it’s a very sort of typical and like almost expected vibe you’d expect of average 24 year olds. for eren, since he works a more physically demanding job, i imagine him being a very casual person. i also just see most guys being casual in general, so wearing a lot of like solid/vintage graphic tees and then whatever random bottoms on a day to day basis if he’s not doing anything special! i imagine the only time he dresses up is when he goes out with mikasa, because she’s the only person who he cares to really impress (hence the chapter about their date), so he’d have some nicer clothes for when he has nice things to attend, but they’re only reserved for things like that!

i see him wearing the most of: t-shirts, hoodies/sweatshirts, the occasional nice button up. idk dol eren would be uniqlo if he were a brand. he is a GOOD QUALITY, LOYAL, and DEPENDABLE! when has uniqlo EVER done you wrong??? like it’s simple but it’s tried and true man, for good reason!!!

— 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧

bodyguard eren is a casual guy but he’s like the emo version in my head lol. like bodyguard mikasa’s colors in my head are red/pink/white, and bodyguard eren’s are black/green/grey—he wears a lot of darker colors essentially! mikasa obviously is the more fashion forward one in this relationship, and eren is def more casual lol, he basically just wears all black or some variation of a neutral outfit bc he’s a very simple and apathetic man lol, he doesn’t really care. but similar to how eren inspires mikasa to dress more casual, mikasa would def play ken doll with eren and buy him clothes lol, so i think he’d dress up a bit more too! but i don’t think she’d ever force him to wear anything he didn’t like, i just think eren dresses casually bc it’s simple and easy, and he’s just a laxxed man.

he would be converse bc i see him begrudgingly taking his shoes off when mikasa pisses him off and he’s struggling to get them off in ample time bc they’re high tops lol

(also there’s a cardigan bc mikasa would so put him in a cardigan lol)

— 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧

okay after model eren, i think e2l eren is the second best dressed, and this is solely because him and mikasa were together for so long LOL, she played build a boyfriend! like his style comes from her! but eventually after being together so long he does sort of develop his own sense of style but like the foundation of his style IS mikasa. so i think his style kinda emulates the same kind of vibe as hers, idk how that translates in male description. he would dress up a little more than some of the other eren’s and probably wear a bit more color too! def has that vacation-y vibe too. also e2l eren is a graphic designer, so he has that artsy boy vibe to him a bit too!

he’d be zara bc mikasa definitely introduced him to zara while they were dating lol

— 𝐜𝐨𝐰𝐛𝐨𝐲 𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧

i feel like this one doesn’t need much explanation, we all know cowboy eren is just a hot, sexy cowboy. he’s a working man and he has to dress accordingly!!!! (and for whatever reason we’re all very oddly attracted to it) (it’s bc it’s eren) but i think for mikasa’s fancier events he would dress up, and occasionally omit the cowboy hat if need be lol

he is boot barn lol. and maybe levi’s.

— 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧

model eren to me is obviously the BEST DRESSED out of all the eren’s, like this is an obvious given. he’s a model! of course he’s gonna be the most fashionable! to me, he screams pretty boy lol, so he’s going to dress and act accordingly lol. it’s one of the main things that mikasa also makes fun of him for too. so i think of his style as very tailored, very classic, but also some fun and a bit more stylized pieces! i think he would wear a little bit of everything, so he would dress super fancy some days, but then have some more casual pieces too! but then once he kind of stays in montana with his family, he’ll def kind of his model mikasa moment and have the little bit of cowboy flare to his style a bit too!

he would be all saints! or some niche expensive brand im probably too poor to afford

— 𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐜 𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧

academic rivals eren is kinda my favorite to talk about bc he’s kinda funny LOL he’s basically frat boy adjacent and it makes me giggle. he’s literally what you’d think of when you’d think of an obnoxious little frat boy in the most stereotypical way (not in the board shorts and polos way tho omg), although he isn’t technically one! his style is definitely pretty casual, so he’d definitely wear a lot of t-shirts and flannels, but since he’s a bit well off, i think he’d wear a lot of stuff like golf wang and more expensive sneakers! i see eren as kinda basic tbh lol he’s a simple man but i think he’d have his occasional indulgences lol (and golf wang stuff is SO comfy). he’s just your tried and true college boy in my opinion!

he would be golf wang & converse (but not for the reasons stated above).

i won’t lie i feel like this one gave me more grief than the one for mikasa did lol like i definitely had to think about it a bit more! men’s fashion is way harder to me so i had to be a lot more considerate about each eren and their vibes, but this was fun!

[twistedfeys]

ParaSenses Update

Hi everyone! We wanted to give you a little update on how the comic is moving forward, along with our work progress! We have a few notes to give for those of you who are interested, and how we plan to keep going in the future.

Art Style

First of all we do want to say that we have found a new work flow that works a lot faster for the both of us! We were struggling in our beginnings to find a consistent art style (that some might have noticed between chapter 1.1 and chapter 1.3) that we do believe we have fully fixed. With this new found style, we are able to work between panels a lot faster.

Something we always wanted was to have our own backgrounds drawn, and our characters shaded. This will take more time to do, but we hope you all understand this artistic decision we took. We did cut corners on any heavy shading to cut back on time, but we want to give the best quality possible.

Chapter Length

The chapters have all been pre-written in advance, and we have realised just how terribly long these have ended up being. However, we do not want to cut them up to the point of releasing five to six panels a week just to push out content.

We will continue to cut our chapters in a few pieces as we have previously done (chapter 2.1, chapter 2.2, chapter 2.3, etc...) but make sure one chapter is fully done to release it ever two weeks. This will give us time to work on the next few chapters, and Patreon content. We still want to release long chapters for people to enjoy even if the time is more distanced, than releasing them in smaller increments.

Character Design

Small changes that will be done for the characters for chapter 2 is their color scheme. A small modification has been done to adjust their tone:

Blair

Blair's colors for his clothes were too clashing with his skin and face. Not only that, the line art was hard to see on his gloves, and we felt that the red was too sharp. We made small modifications on his clothing colors-

-for something much softer!

Xephan

We found a different kind of problem for Xephan. His color schemes completely blends together; his gloves are almost the same color as his hair, his pants are the same tone as his coat... It makes him extremely difficult to color (Avery's note: And I'm the one coloring him. So I remade his color palette.) Unfortunately, I didn't keep a before picture, but here's Xephan in the comic beforehand.

He's blending a whole lot together. I made some very light rearrangement so his glove at least doesn't disappear if it gets in the same shot of his hair.

It's faint, but we didn't want to make something too apparent. HOWEVER. This isn't the last change Xephan will go through. His design is overly complex, and takes too much time to do (Avery's note: Not only that, half the time I receive the line art to color and shade, Xephan is missing at least an element or two.) And so, after the first mission these two will go on, we will reduce the amount of clutter he has on him so it at least doesn't feel out of the blue.

Time Frame

Finally, when it comes down to time before the release of our chapters, we still need more time to work. Life has been hectic on our side, but we've been working everyday to make this happen, and we wanted to show you guys that this isn't a project that's been discarded. We are still working day and night to make it happen. We also have a small animatic coming up in the meantime to thank you for your patience. If you've read all of this, thank you so much for your support, and thank you for our Patreon supporting us. You guys mean the world to us!