#the perfect shot actually
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she fits this character disturbingly well
#i'm so glad tommy made her go up to show the camera#the perfect shot actually#saddest part is she looks just like an old manager of mine#sskfskdssf#angela giarratana#tommy bowe#courtney miller#smosh
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oh but the clothing choices are SO interesting here.
right when mew finally seems to be letting ray in, mew starts dressing in a style that's awfully reminiscent of ray himself:
meanwhile, right when ray is finally getting to receive the type of affection from mew he's yearned for ages - ray's not dressed the way he usually does for nights out.
in fact if i didn't know any better, i might even say he's dressed up in an outfit that's awfully reminiscent of a style a certain someone picked out just for him:
what a coincidence, that right when mew's external appearance finally seems to imply he's ready to be on the same page as ray...........ray's external appearance has shifted to reflect the lingering influence of someone new.
#something about the way the blue-green of mew's walls is the EXACT same background color scheme from ray's first shot#something about the way ray's shirt colors when he's dancing with mew are a near perfect inverse of the shirt colors sand picked for him#no this is actually good guys. ray needs to have mew. so we can have raysand endgame. no im not nervouslaughing im soo calm rn why do u ask#ofts#only friends series#raysand#sand x ray#ray x sand#only friends the series#sandray
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This one goes out to all the slow burn enjoyers, the dense Y/Ns, and the soft robo jesters that suffer in silence!
Inspired by @bamsara's “Solar Lunacy” fic.
If you feel like reading my ramblings and want to experience more heartbreak for fictional jester blorbos, check under the cut where I detail all the planning behind the frames!
so i heard this song for the first time in a while and the opening lyrics immediately made me think of moon, so i was daydreaming some scenes and then i decided to thumbnail some ideas:
and it all went downhill from there as everything became a metaphor and a parallel to each other, which i will now go into detail on!
you thought the animatic itself was sad?
*writing muse laughs maniacally* IT'S ALL A METAPHOR
Frame 1. "turn down the lights" We start with a back view on Moon. The lights are out, the Moon is out, but we do not see his face. The music and the greyscale atmosphere are enough to establish the weight of the moment and the weight on Moon’s mind.
Frame 2. "turn down the bed" We cut to a shot of Moon's body, kneeling on the ground of the daycare, like a padded cell. Moon’s hands are twitching with the effects of the glitch, with purple sparks coming from his hands. We still do not see his face.
Frame 3. "turn down these voices inside my head" Cut to an extreme close up on the dark half of Moon’s face. Now we see his face, but only a portion of it. His left eye is wide open, red and glitching out. The voices in his head can refer to the glitch but also his repressed feelings. Or maybe it could be Sun's voice in their shared headspace.
Frame 4. "lay down with me" Y/N's hand enters the frame from the upper right corner, lowering down to meet Moon where he kneels on the ground. Only a corner of Moon's face appears on the bottom left corner of the frame, his starry nightcap beginning to cover his glitched left eye.
Frame 5. "tell me no lies" An full shot of Moon on the floor and Y/N standing in front of him with their hand stretched towards him. A light spills out from behind Y/N, creating a boundary between them.
Now we see more of Moon. It is only when Y/N enters the frame—enters his world—that Moon’s body is shown in its entirely. When Y/N is here, he is no longer fragmented. He is whole.
Frame 6. "just hold me close" pspspspsps Playfully, Moon extends his own hand, beckoning Y/N to come closer, to join him. His right hand crossed over his body as he uses the playful gesture to hide his true feelings—to put distance between him and Y/N. His hat continues to cover his glitching left eye. He doesn’t want to worry Y/N.
Frame 7. "don't patronize" In response, Y/N’s hand pats Moon on the head, returning his playfulness. Moon looks surprised by the action. Moon, notably, does not lower his hand—perhaps he has forgotten it or perhaps his invitation is still open.
Frames 8-9. "don't patronize me" Moon rotates his faceplate so Y/N’s hand is touching the side of his faceplate, a more intimate gesture than a head pat. However, his hat is in the way. At this angle, his starry nightcap fully covers his glitchy eye and the dark side of his face, hiding his defect and acting as a veil between him and Y/N. A self-imposed boundary. So close, yet thinly separated. It's better this way. It's safer this way.
The lyrics are broken up by Y/N's arm, both to illustrate how the song is sung ("patronize" is drawn out and "me" is briefly added in before the chorus starts) but also to show how Y/N interrupts Moon's resolve, highlighting the irony between the visuals and the lyrics. Demanding not to be patronized, yet Moon happily accepts this play at intimacy. Don't patronize me, I am weak for it.
This is also the only instance where the red light of Moon's eyes glow and tint the surfaces around it. Visually, it makes it look like Moon is blushing (heavily inspired by @restinsodaroni's art). But also, in this moment of honesty, Moon's intrinsic light spills out, colouring the greyscale world. In this brief moment of honesty, Moon touches the world with his own colours, his own light.
(and this is also where i forgot to clean up the shading on Y/N's arm, but it's okay it doesn't need to be perfect it simply needs to be. And Moon will still love Y/N even if they are a continuity error.)
Frame 10. "'cause I can't make you love me if you don't" A parallel to a frame 4, Y/N retrieves their hand away and immediately Moon is reduced to the corner of his faceplate in the frame. Only now his glitched eye is fully covered by his hat.
The lyrics here (and in the next frame) in particular grow lighter to emphasize Moon's diminishing resolve and agency.
From here on out, the lyrics here are broken up, carrying on this theme of fragmentation. Y/N is pulling away, Moon is breaking up, the words are breaking up. Everything is coming apart.
Frame 11. "you can't make your heart feel something it won't" Y/N turns to leave. The lyrics, broken up as before, highlight the irony of the situation. Y/N, a human, can’t feel something they simply don’t feel. Whereas, Moon, the machine, feels something his code never intended him to feel.
Frame 12. "here in the dark in these final hours" Another full shot that parallels frame 5, as Y/N steps towards the light and Moon leans forward into the space Y/N once occupied. Y/N is leaving—that which makes him whole is leaving. And he is only capable of making it to the boundary where the light cuts into the darkness. The "final hours" suggest it might be the end of Y/N’s shift, or perhaps this scene takes place right before the glitch takes over—the final hours that Y/N has with the true Moon. Either way, time is running out—and only Moon knows it.
There is a contrasting display of body language here. Moon is on the floor leaning towards Y/N with his hand still left out. Whereas Y/N is turned away, walking away, and has already slipped their hand away and into their pocket. Y/N is closed off while Moon is limply open. Y/N is actively moving while Moon is on the floor, waiting, hoping, for that which he lacks the agency to reach for himself.
Frame 13. "I will lay down my heart" A close up on Moon’s hand, rising up again, perhaps to beckon Y/N back once more. This is a slight parallel to Y/N's hand reaching out to Moon. While Y/N can freely reach out and touch Moon, Moon cannot. He can't enter the light and more importantly he can't risk potentially harming his relationship with Y/N—be it through the glitch or by his feelings. He can only lay down his heart—put aside his feelings or hope that someone will pick up his pieces and make him whole.
Frame 14. "and I'll feel the power" Still on a close up on Moon’s hand, now clenched in slightly. This initially was going to have the glitch effects. However, I felt it more meaningful for it to be left without. Leave it up for interpretation why Moon pauses his hand. What is the power that he alone feels and stays his hand?
Frame 15. "but you won't, no, you won't" A parallel to frame 1, a view of on Moon's back with his hand stretched out towards the light, and Y/N walking into the light spilling through the open daycare door.
The placement of the lyrics suggest two different “you won’t”—Y/N who won’t realize Moon’s feelings, and Moon who won’t dare speak them into reality.
Another note on the parallel to frame 1, this time we also see Y/N's back, but it is notably different from our view of Moon's back. With Moon, we literally see inside him through the hole for his loop. However, Y/N is shrouded in shadow, just a solid, obscure silhouette against the bright light of a world Moon—and Sun for that matter—are closed off from. We don’t see into Y/N, just as the Daycare Attendant doesn't have any vantage point of Y/N's life beyond their time at the PizzaPlex. (The unfortunate reality of a being a character made for the purpose of being a vessel for the reader.)
Frame 16. "'cause I can't make you love me" We finally cut to face Moon head-on, frozen in place with his hand stretched out, unable to cross the boundary into the light. His eyes have gone dark. Where we began by seeing bits and parts of Moon, and never seeing his full face—now we, the viewer, see the full Moon, open and vulnerable—unbeknownst to Y/N.
Frame 17. "if you don't" But in the dark, behind closed doors, there is no one to perceive him—no one to receive him. The light dwindles as the daycare doors are closed. Moon stays frozen where he kneels. It is no longer the glitch that plagues him, but a far deeper dread.
But a lone streak of light peaks through the gap in the daycare doors. Perhaps that is just enough. A silver lining. A frail hope. A single, ethereal thread out of darkness and into light.
Thanks for reading and watching!
We'll be back to our regularly scheduled fun and games shortly!
#fnaf moon#fnaf dca#dca fandom#so this idea had me by the throat ever since I heard this song again#I've never done an animatic before but I wanted to give it a shot#the opening lyrics already reminded me of moon right off the bat#but then i kept listening and started thumbnailing some frames#it was actually the frames with moon receiving the head pat and turning his faceplate that convinced me i had to do this lol#the sweetest images resulted in this work of angst#thank you if you read all this!#i promise to post something cute soon to balance things out#and no promises but i will say the second verse of the song is PERFECT for sun#“morning will come and I'll do what's right just give me 'till then to give up this fight” /lyrics#hahaha it hurts :')#crab art#traditional art#digital art#traditionally inked and digitally coloured#animatic
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I've been thinking about this post by @oh-no-its-bird
Obito is perhaps the most well-adjusted fictional man to have ever existed, as it is widely known
#I actually want go paint it in grayscale but i'm doing a few things. i feel like i've been losing my mind this week#Obito Uchiha#Kakashi Hatake#tried to perfect Rin's creepy stare in the background... i think every time she's in bg of a shot she should look a little weird. a bit off#like she's just standing there and smiling but also she seems a bit creepy for no reason
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can i just say. and this is probably a niche hill to die on. that i am so gobsmacked every time someone vaguely hints at the idea that jotaro doesn't care meaningfully for the other crusaders, usually particularly kakyoin and joseph, when those two actually tend to be the ones he reacts to being hurt the hardest
like he cares for his loved ones!!!! that literally plays into his character motives in every single part he shows up in!!! stop lying to me!!!!!!!
#me.txt#jjba#i'm going to ramble in tags actually. excuse me#ok. rereading sdc and so confused at the general perception of jotaro and his friends/family. he's not NEARLY as flat or as dickish#i understand that the anime (particularly the dub) tends to slander him but even then he still clearly cares for them! i'm confused#i also understand that a lot of people dig against jotaro and kakyoin as a dynamic because 'they're popular' and that generally disliking#popular things across media is a thing that i've seen consistently everywhere but the discredit to them simply as a DUO and not even as a#pairing is so..... odd..... like they're considered to be a duo that clicks for a reason. i enjoyed them even before i got into the fandom#every time i see someone say jotaro is overrated/dull i take a shot and assume they're an anime-only or only read the manga like once btw#joseph and jotaro also have a neat dynamic and they obviously both love and care for each other. like they're not going to go around loudly#or anything but literally the entirety of the lovers and the prelude to the dio fight IS jotaro being worked up over joseph getting hurt#equally i don't know if it translates to the anime as much but joseph is VERY complimentary when it comes to jotaro. like he sings his#praises so often and reminds everyone that he's his grandson so frequently (d'arby the gamer is a good example of this). either way it's so#peculiar....... there's not enough avdol and jotaro content btw (also in canon) because jotaro obviously looks up to him and avdol jokes#around with him on the occasion they interact after their intro which doesn't start very well. it's very cute#i do think an important thing to note about jotaro's character is how he acts AFTER his intro because he's so drastically different. early#jotaro and later jotaro aren't the same character and i do not mean this in a character development way. excluding the jail incident he's#completely different and probably shouldn't really be taken into account (especially considering the amount of slapstick in araki's intros)#and i think that's really???? what people center on for his character? Which sucks balls bad!#anyways. i could ramble more about this if asked i have so much to say but sigh. jotaro cares so much for his friends and family he's not a#flat fully cold asshole character regardless of whether you watch the anime or ova or read the manga. you just have poor media literacy#i wouldn't recommend watching solely the anime for his character though. the dub also changes a lot so it's... questionable#i love the anime and it's still important for him though. also adds neat stuff. i need to stop myself. i have many thoughts on the matter#jotaro kujo#joseph joestar#noriaki kakyoin#adding in case anyone sees: i am not saying that he is perfect about this. in fact he is very ass about it with jolyne and holly and that's#very important. he also is in fact an asshole sometimes. NOT as much as you guys are making him though!#please don't get me started on how much of a dick etc people make kakyoin to veer away from the 'woobified' characterizations of him#in fact i think that's bad if not worse because it CLAIMS to be in character. hes a prim asshole at times but not that angry or dishevelled
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Still thinking about Disney's Pinocchio and living in fear that I may never see a movie that beautiful ever again.
#disney#pinocchio#the podcast raved about the beautiful animation#and how it was a huge jump up from snow white#but i didn't think it was going to be *that* big of a jump#everything moves!#everything has texture!#the delicate shading of figaro's fur!#the pov shot from the bouncing cricket's perspective!#all the layers of that beautiful village!#the stars that are actual electric lights!#(and i was right about that so i feel very smart)#the majesty of the monstro sequence with all those waves!#the clocks in gepetto's shop!#i could go on and on#a perfect storm of having so much money and so much ambition#but not enough profit so they couldn't do it again#and that makes me sad
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Erenwol week Day 1
He asked me to accompany him to Yyasulani for the second time… In truth I wasn't sure what to expect, given the state of things but the sudden and uncharacteristic outpouring of emotions as we stood in front of the ruins of his former home, it dawned on me; he didn't want to be alone this time.
Thank you @zeloinator for the prompt list! ~♥
#erenwolweek2024#Final Fantasy XIV#FFXIV#wolship#WoL x Erenville#Erenvahl#this is maybe kind of cheating#since I actually took these shots a while ago#but I really like them#and they were perfect for this prompt.
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something else i thought was really interesting about i saw the tv glow was the way that there's never really talk about like...the pink opaque as fiction/the pink opaque as a creative work - which makes perfect sense since within the movie as a fable, the pink opaque is a metaphor and is moreover more real than "reality," but on the fandom-engagement level it stood out to me!
i'm again speaking from experiences about a generation removed from the 90s/early aughts era and i think there's very much something to be said of modern fandom and the way it's moved into this weird space of desiring validation/"canonicity" from showrunners, much to do with the ease of accessibility to those people. two kids in the jersey suburbs in the 1990s wouldn't be able to just reach out to the pink opaque writers the way that a contemporary audience can dm/reply to/etc. showrunners on social media etc now. but even so, it's a glaring sort of absence - when we see the pink opaque opening theme, the character names show up where you'd expect actor names (and where actor names do show up in the buffy theme, which was a major inspiration). we don't know how long it's been on the air or who created it or where "the county" even is (because it doesn't matter, because the suburbs are the same everywhere forever)
we know it's at least a pseudo-popular series - it runs for five seasons, and merch exists (the episode guide maddy has in the beginning) - but because the film is essentially a two-hander we don't see a wider world engaging with it. because isn't that how it always is? the story is what you make it.
and the streaming version in the third act pushes this even further - it's a different show entirely, again because isttvg is a fable, it's not a literal movie, and it pushes you against a literalist reading. it's different because owen/isabel is miserable and can't even take solace in this thing she loved anymore. it's different because if you watch something alone it's a world away from watching it with your friend. it's different because somebody ripped out its heart.
#i saw the tv glow#isttvg#this is rapidly becoming an isttvg blog. probably due in no small part to the perfect storm of hibike s3 airing Right Now#all this said even though they shot the actual movie in nj the pink opaque itself gives big “filmed in canada” vibes#that summer camp...oh i know they were taking advantage of those vancouver tax credits#natsuki's terrible disco pants
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THIS thing ^ says hewwo. UNIRONICALLY.
#my art#fanart#wiggly#wiggog y'wrath#nerdy prudes must die#npmd#npmd fanart#starkid#team starkid#jon matteson#the way the lighting on this one is so weird because they lit him from both sides. why does team starkid hate me personally#actually i had a rlly hard time finding a screenshot i wanted to reference of wiggly#like tink and nibs i was like oh yeah theres one specific pose that i know i want to do#but tbh most of the time we see wiggly in the proshot is full body shots instead of closeups#and what closeups he did get hes moving a lot or just dont have a pose that makes for a fun portrait composition#gr. whatever#willing to struggle and grind for my perfect special boy#i recorded a timelapse of this that i will be posting.. tomorrow probably#a couple people have expressed interest about my process for these painted portraits#and i loveeee talking about process#<- art major moments
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so i watched og 1979 alien and
#im crying#this clip plus the extremely close shot of the cat looking at some crew member get murdered by the alien was truly cinema#alien the eight passenger#alien 1979#also i watched it because i really enjoyed the 2024 movie#but i didnt know that movie was actually a retelling ??? like its literally the same plot#anyways that was a 1am fun activity. would recommend#alien romulus#alien franchise#alien#this is the Perfect organism btw
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the most accidentally hilarious moment in NATM 3 is as the tablet is dying and Larry is cradling Dexter while the audience has this clear view of Ahkmenrah, a teenager who was murdered thousands of years ago, is very, very, slowly collapsing to the floor as his body reverts to a decayed mummified corpse. And nobody acknowledges it.
#I’m actually not joking it is funny like I can’t help but laugh#it’s such a perfect shot it’s like a meme.#Ahks like “don’t mind me I’ll just slowly decay into mummified remains”#At least carry Dex over there dude 😭#The thing that interests me is the others are wax. They just freeze and that’s that#But Ahkmenrah was an actual guy; died was mummified comes back to life nightly#Something I think about a lot is that Ahk would have to put the wrappings he was buried in back on every night before sunrise#Because it would cause a shit storm if someone opened up his sarcophagus during the day and he DIDNT have them on. and that is hilarious#They’re like his pajamas guys. Suns gonna rise soon time to put on something cozy. And I love that for hi#One can assume he’s taken them off and putting them back on every night he’s woken up in the past 4000 years which does actually make sense#Since you know he turns into back into an ancient corpse which are not known to be sturdy. Probably better to have all that#Natm#night at the museum#natm ahkmenrah#ahkmenrah#Larry Daley#natm Dexter
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belt move: success WE ARE EP.4
#we are the series#we are#thai bl#phumpeem#pondphuwin#pond naravit#i coloured the shot inbetween (yall would notice the difference in colouring in the og scene too) and it looks like a crime doc from the 80#so i might post that for fun later but yeah it does NOT fit this set at all so its alllll a focus on ponds face#enjoy <3#managing to sorta match the first shots with the second row is one of my proudest moments in recent sets ngl#petri gifs#userminty#userspring#usersufa#i need everyone to stop for a second and think about how phum felt butterflies putting on drunk peem's belt on and then started wishing to#try it out again when peem is sober and awake#he realised it was a perfect flirting move and im sure he was all giddy over it#im not normal about this at all actually#pinned post
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Bleach is great because when you tell people (through both oral and written communication) to include their slides in the slide deck, and that they should be able to copy/paste them directly in from either Google Slides or PPT—or, if they prefer, they can compose them directly in the group slides—and you still get multiple people emailing you with PDFs… of their slides… instead of thinking “I cannot fathom a reason on earth why you’d think this was the best way to do this” you can think
“Which shinigami definitely do it like this”
#sasakibe trying to add visual aids to the captain’s meetings and giving up after one shot#mayuri came with 47 slides#yachiru made the 11th’s so extrapolate from there#Byakuya actually paid for a slide theme but he used fonts that weren’t downloaded into sasakibe’s font library#komamura used a different slide transition for every slide#soi fon refused to submit any because she didn’t like the idea of her IP being easily circulated without her knowing#shinji used Prezi 💀#isane made unohana’s slides and they were perfect#Hitsugaya’s were—as he described them—‘fine’ but they drove home the fact that they could have just been an email actually and he had#a minor spiral about this#kyouraku’s ‘accidentally’ included promo for his new book (as serialized in the sc)#rukia made ukitake’s slides and they look identical to unohana’s because she and isane made them together#it would be more accurate to say that Renji and kiyone had a fair bit to do with these slide decks to be honest#which I guess mean’s rose’s were the fucking pdf!!#no brain just bleach#bleach headcanons#boring bleach larp
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forever hilarious to me that tennis is promoted as this prestigious highbrow big-brain sport when most tennis fans these days are like. yeah this is my favorite player. yeah i don't know why they're like that. yes they are stupid. no i will not choose somebody else.
#wta tennis#atp tennis#i feel like the era of...shall we say 'federer-esque' players is waning#which i think can in part be related to the loss of the one-handed-backhand#as the sport moves more toward a necessity for fitness and athleticism players do not put as much emphasis on 'art'#which imo is fine! i think the 'art' of tennis is too protected in some ways. which i maybe will expand on later.#but i think it's too much for the tags of a (mostly) silly post#but yeah you can hear a lot of commentators touch on it#i know nadal even said something abt it recently(ish)#but i think as tennis is gradually less associated with this abstract 'image' (e.g. the obsession with federer's 'grace' and 'class')#players are coming in thinking 'this is a physical battle and i am going to win' and very much leaning into the *competition*#which not to say that they're ignoring/denying the mental aspects at all because i actually do think many players are very strategic/aware#and in truth i think many tennis players ARE actually very smart#but i also think it's less apparent because more and more players are able to just hit the shit out of the ball and call it a day#which leaves you with the occasional shot/point/game/set/match etc where it seems like they don't know what the fuck they're doing#but you think about most sports which evolve in phases#it's very normal for certain player profiles to become more or less popular as the landscape of the sport changes#or as new techniques/strategies are developed#or as new communities/populations become interested!#extreme example but think of like. high jump's fosbury flop. that was one guy!#one guy who changed the entire fucking sport! so it makes perfect sense that tennis is continuing to evolve#given how many unique players have come and gone#and how much the sport is changing externally as well as internally#anyways. this got out of hand but i love sports and i love tennis and i love my brainless players.#this whole post was inspired by rewatching sabalenka v boulter and aryna completely missed an overhead by like five feet. lol#love her <3
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BTS Memories 2016: Making of Blood Sweat & Tears MV Suga and Jimin
#bts#min yoongi#suga#bts suga#park jimin#jimin#bts jimim#bangtan#bangtan sonyeondan#yoonmin#bts gifs#btsedit#my gifs#why did they push yoonmin and taejin so hard in this mv lol#anyway pretty damn proud of these actually#listen also all of these were shot with a piss filter FOR SOME REASON#so yeah I went a lil hard with the blues and magentas#but like… I like it a lot actually lol#I'll gif these parts from the mv as well but like later#i've got a couple more things from this that I wanna gif#i have such a soft spot for these two#like in a non-shippy way#Yoongi is my bias but Jimin pulls a real close second#and then together is just perfection cuz they’re so ridiculous together#anyway#yoongi’s 🍑#bs&t
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Blyke and John: Parallel Characters
I’ve written multiple entries about this,
[x] [x] [x]
But I’m back to make a comprehensive analysis about the glaring similarities between these two. I’ll try not to repeat myself here.
‼️SPOILER WARNING for the whole series‼️ but this mostly focuses on the story before John’s suspension.
Firstly, this scene:
ch. 121
This conversation takes place near the beginning of the Joker arc. It’s after John targets Zeke, after he targets Juni, and the day before he goes after Seraphina’s kidnappers. The timing is important.
“If someone hit your best friend, would you let it slide?”
That question is supposed to remind us what John does to people who hurt Seraphina: hunting them down and sending them to the hospital. Blyke shooting a destructive beam really close to John was an example of a trait they share: they both blow up violently when people mistreat their friends.
John’s downward spiral carries strong themes of hypocrisy. He’s angry at the world, he’s angry at himself, and as a coping mechanism, he chooses to believe that everyone else is as bad as he is. That means that most of the traits he hates others for are the same things he hates about himself. In this scene, Blyke is unintentionally calling out this hypocrisy: “What I did is no different from what you do”.
But Blyke’s just trying to connect with John here, he has no idea what John’s been doing. And John, of course, doesn’t give a shit about what Blyke has to say. This line was here for the audience to notice.
They’re both so similar, but their similarity immediately causes tension between them because, well, John was on the wrong end of Blyke’s protectiveness.
I really love the way this was written— there are so many flashbacks to this scene, but they remember it differently. John remembers the part that hurt him— he’d describe it as “the time that jackass shot a beam at me”. Blyke remembers the part that hurt him, or rather, hurt Remi: “the time that jackass hit Remi for no reason”.
Blyke and John are both hotheaded characters with strong ideals. They’re similar enough that Seraphina points it out:
(ch. 80)
As Blyke grows as a character, he becomes more like John: sticking up for low tiers and speaking out against the injustice in the world. But while Blyke is doing that more, John is going in the opposite direction, until they are fully opposed to each other.
Speaking of Blyke’s character arc, it took me a few rereads to actually understand what part of him changed. His kindness, selflessness, bravery— all of those things were there from the start. Blyke’s character arc was about becoming more aware of his surroundings, and how his carelessness can harm others. Blyke was never malicious, but after X-Rei and integrating more with the school, he becomes aware of people suffering around him and how he unintentionally contributes to it. He becomes less reckless, privy to the flaws in the system he grew up not questioning, and uses his power more responsibly. He even comes up with a more controlled way to wield his ability. The part of Blyke that changes is his maturity.
Part of John’s character arc is also about being careful. It’s not as close of a parallel as other things are, but one of the things that John works on during his redemption arc is holding back. Both of them learn self-control throughout the series, and for John, that means acting early before his emotions spiral out of hand.
Adding onto my first point about the two of them wanting to protect their friends— the fact that they can’t do that makes them both angry and desperate. For most of the story, the “block” that prevents John from protecting Seraphina is in his head. It’s his own trauma that holds him back. The block that prevents Blyke from protecting his friends is, guess what? Also John’s trauma! Parallels abound.
Another thing I noticed in Episode 80 is this:
Notice that when Seraphina says “I’d take that over strength any day,” John is looking at the camera. He’s avoiding Sera’s gaze. Seraphina is saying she prefers honesty over strength. John is very strong, and very dishonest, but Seraphina thinks the opposite because John is so dishonest. John appears to be reflecting on this disconnect.
In relation to this analysis, Seraphina is actually pointing out a major difference between Blyke and John. Beyond that, she’s praising Blyke’s traits, (less strong but very open) above John’s traits, (strong as fuck but a liar with his pants on fire). Furthermore, John really cares what Seraphina thinks of him. Knowing that she would think less of him is the main reason why he spent so much time and effort preventing her from catching his lies.
This leads into my main point here: Blyke is the “goody-two-shoes” version of John. Or, more accurately, the person that John wants to be. Blyke has a clean track record and doesn’t really get into trouble. He is respected and left alone by the school without being hated and feared, he de-escalates conflicts without taking things too far, he doesn’t lose control, he’s someone Seraphina thinks highly of, hell, even his grades are better! Blyke represents everything that John wants to be, and the person that he could have been if he’d gone down a different path.
But, crucially, John is also what Blyke wants to be. Well, not wholly, but his ability? His strength? It’s one of the things John hates about himself, but Blyke wants that strength so desperately that he risks his life for it over and over again.
They’re both desperate to be like each other, even when they hate each other the most. Neither of them have any idea how alike they already are.
I don’t know what Season 3 holds in store for us, but I do hope that John realizes that Blyke embodies who he wants to be, because mutual jealousy would be a very interesting dynamic to explore in my opinion. I also hope that it ends up being something they can bond over, by helping each other accomplish their personal goals. (Blyke being another helper in John’s character arc, and John helping Blyke train.)
A side note: John beat up Blyke four separate times. That’s more than any other character, which is interesting because John’s main rival is supposed to be Arlo. For reference, John has beaten Arlo twice, three times if you count the time when Seraphina intervened, and he only beat him unconscious once. But John beat Blyke to the point of passing out all four times, the worst of which being a shot clean through his chest. (shoulder? Unclear. S1 finale).
It’s odd, isn’t it? Out of everyone, Blyke is the one who John physically hurt the most. John’s only grudge against him is an old memory from episode 33, of an event that didn’t actually harm him. John’s grudge against Arlo is much more serious and again— that’s his main rival. So why is it that he’s so much more violent towards Blyke?
The problem here is that I’ve been thinking about these fights as “John picking on Blyke”. And that’s… kind of true? But while Blyke didn’t start any of these fights, they were all consensual in a way. He didn’t seek to fight John, nor was he ever happy about fighting John, but he was always a willing participant.
(138, 153, 206, & 211)
In three out of these four fights, John didn’t even expect to be fighting Blyke going into it. This is significant because while Arlo is John’s main rival, John absolutely fills that role for Blyke. Blyke’s own agency is what leads to most of these events. The reason, narratively speaking, why they fight so much is not for John’s character, but for Blyke.
For John, his reason for fighting Blyke so much is not narrative but moreso symbolic. John is angry at everyone and everything, but ultimately the person he hates the most is himself. It’s only fitting that the character most like him would bear the brunt of his wrath.
As John is having his positive character arc (suspension and post-suspension), he is becoming more like Blyke, and the two of them reach a point where they’re even more similar than they were at the start of the series.
In the Rowden amusement park, John does start to realize how similar they are:
(249)
Additionally, I want to draw your attention to the parallels between this scene:
Blyke and John’s argument in chapter 249
(which the image limit won’t let me add, scroll until you see red hair.)
And this scene:
Argument in ch. 121 (it’s at the beginning)
Two sides of the same coin.
Furthermore, in the S2 finale, Blyke is shown being taken to Keon. There is an implication that by Season 3, Blyke and John will share Keon-related trauma as well. Despite my pessimistic predictions, I do hope that this is a similarity that can bring them together rather than tear them apart.
#unordinary#I had another point that i had to cut#because it was about the john slaps remi scene#and how like blyke knew he wasn’t gonna miss and hit john by accident but john doesn’t necessarily know that#and that john assumes the worst (blyke was aiming for his head) bc he’s mad#and blyke also assumes the worst (that john hit remi for no reason). But when i was looking for screenshots to back it up#and i was looking for the one panel where john referred to blyke as “that idiotic redhead who tried to blow my brains out”#as proof of john assuming the worst#But then i found it and it doesn’t even say what i thought it said#it says “THREATENED to blow my brains out”#Smh john didn’t even assume the worst. He knew it was jyst a threatening shot even thogh he was mad#And then my whole thing kinda falls apart because blyke assuming the worst is actually just the logical conclusion since he can’t read mind#Like how was he gonna know john was having trauma issues#Yargh okay so i think i cut all the parts that don’t really make sense but it’s late so this is a low quality proofread#Gonna be honest this is NOT structured very well#Theres more to be said about john hating other people for the same reasons he hates himself#and I didn’t quite hit it#but it’s lateeeeeee#something about how Blyke is so similar to john but lacks most of what John hates about himself so John projects his insecurities—#back onto him anyway#Something about in ch 249 when he says something something “because I couldn’t cope with the fact that you guys weren’t actually bad people#Yeah idk im too tired to get into it#blyke unordinary#john unordinary#oh also has something to do with when john says “i may have deserved those classes but they sure as hell don’t” about keon#i think that’s significant#analysis#i have a bad feeling that someone in my notes is gonna purposely misinterpret my “goody two shoes” blyke statement ngl#”did you say that blyke is perfect and john is evil”#like something like that
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