#their components are also kinda amplified here!

[apocalyptic-dancehall]

here's a concept for a fusion thing ig.. they're completely batshit and exist only to annoy the everloving hell out of the jack pack

[jnixz]

Now that I think about it. How would the mental constructs and residents of Otto's mind react to the Psychic Seven? Razputin, except for Nona, has always only entered the mind of people he's just met, whose mind was shattered, or where there no constructs. (The latter in Ford's levels. Even so, Ford barely knows him.) Otto and the rest of the Psychic Seven, though. They're friends who've known each other for years.

Ooooo good question. We never did encounter a Raz mental construct, the best we could have gotten got squished. So we don't really have a concrete sample unless you wanna read on take a bit of hcs from fanfics

I find the presence of autonomous mental constructs fascinating in each mental levels. Likely another separate post. But the idea of talking to your counterpart or the counterpart that would know you is a fun thing to explore. Like literally checking out someone’s perception of someone and how they think they would react to a certain person based on what they know of their relationship.

Going off the rails here for a bit, we could take in the mental constructs that have a human counterpart 

Pn1 

Edgar - Lampita, Dingo and the wrestlers

gloria - Jasper and actors

Pn2 

Hollis - Old colleagues, patients too maybe?

Compton - Goat judges, Tincan Zanotto

Helmut - Feast of the Senses, Maligula

Cassie - Psy 7 Paper Projections, her archetypes

Bob - “Lili”, “Truman”, “Otto”

So there is like, purposefully antagonistic and part of the issue the person is having (pn1s, hotstreak constructs, goat puppets) , or the person’s current perception of the person which is most of the psy 7 constructs. 

I suppose it depends on what kind Otto’s constructs are? Probably the latter since his main issue is not something represented by them. At least in aquato-family-circus obdlc version

In my otto brain level idea I've got like at least 3 types of Psychic 7 representations going on: Media, Broken and Current/Actual. and I’ve got to plans for those still so I’ll have to hold on sharing that.

How would the mental constructs and residents of Otto's mind react to the Psychic Seven? 

I think most residents(if there are any) would act as like how npcs normally react to raz, with no knowledge of who the psychic 7 are and no bias by Otto’s perception. 

As for the more autonomous ones, I think they’d be more friendly, kinda like Cassie’s archetypes knowing Raz and what he is up to. Allies. As for like interaction, I did mention that I think it would be like how Otto perceives this person reacting to this person. As for the counterpart-to-person, maybe like thoughts on what Otto thinks this person is like to themselves. If that makes sense. Like Librarian and her opinion on Counterfeiter.

Hrmm there isn’t much discussion of the psychic 7′s counterpart in aquato-family-circus obdlc version yet other than components are representation. 

There is the okay mental state with the fair, to which we would only see Raz interact with them if ever they appear. 

Then we got the actual psychic 7 possible interactions as they try to help Otto.

If we based out areas of the level to the post I made, it is possible that they would stay in the area where all the rest of whatever constructs there are. Not sure what they are doing there but I like the idea of recruiting these specific constructs to help solve that area’s problems. They’d totally help out like the Feast of the Senses. Maybe they’d build something together to amplify whoever members are helping them calm the other constructs.

Hmmm thinking about it, there could also be like 2 psy7 constructs per trouble area, and they give the hints and additional help for that part. Kind of like Otto’s own way of maintaining the area that are just weakened or something. They could a handle of it when Otto gets his energy back

Hope this makes sense, kind of hard to make something concrete right now. just loose ideas and speculation on the possibilities for that version

[orionsangel86]

“I Think It’s Time For Me To Move On”

...And Other Things That Have Destroyed Me This Weekend...

So there is this common trope within love stories which generally happens at the end of the second act in which everything goes wrong and we all think that the lovers are doomed to failure. Its pretty much standard in every Jane Austen novel, every romantic film every made, every single bloody love story. Go ahead, name one. I guarantee you the break up moment is there.

Within the epic love story of Dean and Cas, there have been many break up moments, and all have had their emotionally devastating impact on the relationship and the show...

But THIS was a different level. 

(For a nice summary of Destiel break up moments and understanding of this trope, @tinkdw​ wrote about it here.)

I didn’t think that there would be another moment within Dean and Cas’s relationship that could hit me this hard. The mixtape in 12x19, the wrapping of Cas’s body in 13x01, and the return of Cas in 13x05 are moments that I consider to be the very top of the scale in making this pairing undeniably romantic. Moments that pushed it beyond a platonic interpretation. These three moments have been the things I cling to when the show has otherwise made me doubt any conclusion to the DeanCas story, and since there hasn’t been another one of those moments since 13x05, until now I have been somewhat nervous that the story was dropped, or being forced back behind a platonic screen. 

15x03 has ripped that screen away. 

Emotional meta under cut...

This entire episode was an emotion fuelled dramatic roller-coaster that killed off three characters including our beloved witch queen in a scene that almost stole the show and practically canonised the SamWitch ship. Rowena’s death should have been by far the most torturous moment for viewers to endure, and it was extremely torturous and had me sobbing on a plane 3 hours into a 7 hour flight. That incredibly heartfelt moment between Sam and Rowena will probably go down as one of the top tear-jerking moments on this show. It was tragic in the best way - the way Supernatural is famous for.

But lets not gloss over the fact that in an episode where THAT should have been the climax, where THAT should have been the emotional highlight and end point, instead we get a further MORE dramatic stand off between Dean and Cas that pulled focus and ripped all of our hearts out just as violently as poor Ketch in the first act (a very clever and smug piece of meta foreshadowing there Mr Berens).

On a meta level, this is HUGE as a writing choice because they MUST know how this looks. This was the climax of the third episode of the finale season. The way Supernatural has always structured itself since Carver era is that the first three mytharc episodes of each season establish the direction of the story and set the foundations for the character level focal points and dramatic key notes to come. 

That the writers have chosen to end the foundation episodes with a DeanCas break up moment that was more dramatic than a Spanish Telenovela has just stunned me and left me reeling because I just can’t see how else this can go. This break up scene absolutely DEMANDS a huge reconciliation of the sort that will be part of the A plot of the season - the FINAL SEASON. Guys. Part of the reason I have been so quiet and so disillusioned with the show during late season 13 and season 14 was because they pushed any Destiel plot into non existent territory - it became kinda irrelevant and Dean and Cas just acted like friends (homoerotic friends yes, and sometimes like an old married couple, but it was mostly played as an afterthought imo), so for this to suddenly be brought to the forefront of the emotional story again is excellent news for us. 

The thing is, like with those huge moments I listed above, the break up scene is basically undeniably romantic when you break it down to its components:

1. It’s only Dean and Cas. 

Once again we have another scene of high stake emotions that excludes Sam. In a platonic reading of the show, it makes zero sense for there to be such a hugely disjointed relationship between Cas and Dean and Cas and Sam given he has known them both for so long now that if they were all “just friends” then surely Sam would also feel the impact of Cas’s choices as heavily as Dean. In a platonic reading, Dean comes across as an asshole, Sam comes across as being weirdly uncaring about his friend of 10 years, and Cas comes across as not even bothering to get Sam’s opinion before leaving. A romantic reading makes sense because quite literally THIS IS A ROMANTIC BREAK UP.

2. The words spoken. 

“Well I don’t think there is anything left to say.”

“I think it’s time for me to move on”

From Cas’s perspective at least, name one time in a piece of media where such language has been used for a platonic breakup sincerely? There have been heartfelt break up songs that use these exact words. (I should know I’ve spent the last 24 hours listening to them all).

That last line in particular is so heavy. It’s the last line of the episode and nothing about it is platonic. This is relationship terminology my dudes. “I need to move on, and get over you.” This is Cas’s bloody Adele song. My heart breaks for him, but if I was his sassy and fabulous best girlfriend right now I’d be sitting him down, sipping a cocktail, flipping my hair and telling him “Babe, you’re too good for him. Good Riddance. Let’s go out, have some cocktails, something pink and fruity. No dive bars for us darling. I’ll take you to Heaven... the fun one in London.”

In all seriousness though, from Cas’s perspective, this was him admitting defeat and giving up the fight for love. How anyone can possibly say Cas isn’t in love with Dean after this, well I just don’t know what show you are watching. This is the face of a heartbroken man who has just accepted that his love is unrequited. 

3. The many faces of Dean Winchester

On the other end of the scale, Dean was mostly silent after his poisonous words “And why does that something always seem to be you?”

Forgive the terrible gif quality I’ve no time for fancy gif work!

Look at his face here. He knows what he said was fucked up and he immediately regrets it. The way he swallows around that regret and then turns away.

and after Cas says that devastating final line and walks away? We get THIS reaction from him:

The jaw clench as he looks down. The sorrow on his face as he realises he has well and truly fucked this up. LOOK

Finally, he looks up, makes himself look up and watch Cas leave. If that isn’t the face of a broken man I dunno what to tell you. Anyone who thinks Dean is totally heartless and uncaring right now needs to reassess because this is NOT the face of someone uncaring. This is the face of someone who has just lost everything. Again. 

4. The FUCKING MUSIC

Seriously. The sweeping heavy drama of the low strings that come in right after Dean says that horrid line, that carry the weight of the look of horror and heartbreak on Cas’s face as they amplify the emotion there. As they blend seamlessly into the slow and subtle version of the Winchester family theme behind Cas’s heartbreaking speech and Dean’s stubborn stoic face hiding a multitude of emotion, until the violin dominates as Cas says “I think it’s time for me to move on” and the Winchester Theme swells to its climax, ripping all our hearts out just like poor Ketch as Dean watches Cas walk out of his life surrounded by darkness. 

I MEAN.

A friend on Twitter reminded us all of this point about the importance of this theme via @justanotheridijiton​ here which is essentially:

“The Winchester theme is not simply an aural marker to let the audience know when and how Sam and Dean love each other (any Supernatural fan knows that is the baseline of their relationship), but to provide narrative information, especially when the image and dialogue are incomplete or inconsistent with the true situation...  Seasoned fans will recognize the theme and its history of being paired with images indicating deep emotional bonding and a desire to do the right thing by the Winchester code. Here we trust our ears over our eyes to reveal the truth.”

So here is yet another key indicator that any surface read that this is actually an ending between Dean and Cas and that Dean really is just an angry asshole is utter bullshit. 

Honestly, this was PAINFUL, but it was painful in the best way. It was 13x01 levels of pain, but this time it was Cas choosing to walk away which makes all the difference. Dean’s greatest fear isn’t his loved ones dying on him after all, but of his loved ones choosing to leave him. This was exactly the kick up the ass Dean needs in order to win Cas back, classic love trope style. 

Hence my excitement at what is to come. Yes we won’t see Cas again until 15x06, but in the meantime I fully expect a good helping of angst and wallowing from a depressed Dean who has to deal with the fact that he has just lost the love of his life and it is all his fault. That he just pushed away the one person who promised they would always stay by his side. That has got to hurt. 

So yeah, this episode emotionally destroyed me, and I’ve only really covered the primary reason, let alone all my feels over SamWitch, Rowena’s death, Belphegor’s taunting of Cas over his deepest fears and then having to suffer through smiting a creature wearing the face of his son until his body was nothing but a burnt corpse... I wonder if Bobo had a bet going in the office over how much he could hurt us all? He was certainly enjoying scrolling through the Supernatural tag on Twitter and liking everyone’s reaction tweets including some brilliant Destiel related ones. I do love Bobo. Our Angst Goblin King. 

If anyone had asked me a few weeks ago what my thoughts were on the chances of getting explicit canon Destiel by series end, I would have said somewhere in the realms of 30-40%, considering it a battle of wills between DabbBerens and CW studio execs who I still feel are against it in general. I would have considered everything that happened after 13x06 as the writers getting a big NO on Destiel from the network and therefore having to pull back on any Destiel related plot points (purely my own speculation on BTS matters of course).

Now I am wondering if Dabb kept fighting the network? If he managed to wear them down into begrudging acceptance? I’m currently up to around an 80% chance of textual canon DeanCas if we continue on this path. If Dean is clearly shown to be mourning and hating himself over Cas next episode, and if this DeanCas dramatic plot line continues to be a focal point of the emotional story arcs... well...

I’m side eyeing 15x07 a lot right now. Only in my wildest dreams would I think that they might actually introduce an old boyfriend for Dean in a “coming out” episode, but the placement, timing, and potential is all there and I’m kind of once again donning the clown mask because I’m just in awe at everything that they are doing. I guess we’ll find out soon enough. In the meantime, I’m gonna paint my face in red and white and wear my rainbow wig and listen to break up songs on Spotify whilst trying to shove my heart back into my chest where Bobo Beren’s gleefully ripped it out with his hands like the demonic angst goblin he is. Wish me luck, I’m not sure I’m gonna get through this season with my emotions intact.

[seafleece]

haha remember that one time i started making a soul eater au because here are the takes:

beau’s a weapon trained by the cobalt soul, a monastery of self-sufficient weapons. as opposed to followers of ioun that would serve as her deathscythes, they believe that by being strong enough to fight alone they ARE her deathscythes

fjord was turned into a weapon by uk’otoa (a kishin egg) both to spare his life and to use him— he’s scared that because he was made by uk’otoa he could only ever be his weapon, but it turns out he can resonate with caduceus

yasha (grigori soul?) became obann’s weapon out of grief after losing zuala (her first meister, they were Not supposed to be partners), she’s been able to find new purpose training to become one of kord’s deathscythes but obann trying to get her back was so they could keep collecting souls to feed an elder kishin, tharizdun, disguised as the angel of irons, a kishin egg

jester’s a meister whose weapon is the traveler (who’s definitely NOT just green excalibur) but she occasionally will fight w beau or yasha if things are getting rough, and because the traveler is isn’t always around (again, definitely not excalibur). beau is convinced that by wielding the traveler, who’s classed as a deathscythe, she’s technically a shinigami (and. is maybe mulling over the idea that maybe, just maybe, she’d be willing to be someone’s deathscythe if it was jester)

caleb’s a witch whose soul was experimented on by trent for. insidious kishin/black blood purposes, probably. the funnier alternative is that he’s a meister and his weapon is frumpkin, and honestly why not both

veth was a human (read: halfling), or at least lived believing she was one until she died (??) and was reborn as nott, a weapon. grew up in a rural area that had zero weapons and that definitely emphasized the demon part of “demon weapon”, so she fled, hoping to find out she could be changed back, which would also mean her child couldn’t be a weapon, because that’s an even scarier prospect. after traveling with caleb she realizes she’s probably always been one and that she is. actually really good at something for the first time in her life it

caduceus is a meister in a family of meisters and weapons specifically in service to the shinigami melora, got stuck at home while the rest of his family left to serve as/wield deathscythes in the fight against an elder kishin that’s always been an enemy of melora’s. after decades of absorbing the idea that he was the weakest, the one to leave behind, he ends up being the one to save his family with fjord as his partner after killing the kishin egg uk’otoa, and it’s all very cathartic

molly was a black blood meister/weapon created from the weapon lucien by the witch vess derogna, but the process kind of backfired, resulting in amnesia. without any knowledge of why he had black blood or what it really was, he traveled with the carnival and used his regeneration/powers as entertainment. black blood also allowed him to essentially control himself both as meister and weapon.

the whole kinda vibe is that none of them are REALLY partners? fjord and caduceus are the closest but they all kinda fly solo and can pair up to resonate in most combos of needed— a lot of the early eps and filler would absolutely be them having issues within the group and it manifesting as an inability to resonate at the most inopportune time. jester and caduceus have some meister ability that works more like an amplifier for the group when they resonate, and caleb is. a full on witch, so he can do all kinds of fun stuff. beau straight up doesn’t transform, her body just is the weapon, yasha becomes either the magician’s judge (which caleb gives a wide berth) or the skingorger, fjord was the sword of fathoms, which changed appearance to include the souls it consumed, but after being killing uk’otoa (and eating his soul) he becomes the star razor, and veth is definitely a crossbow but i think she somehow gains the ability to become a gun ONCE and uses it to shoot beau. i think essek is also a witch, and dunamancy has something to do with the study of the components of a soul and even changing one into another— caleb goes to do this for veth and realizes that underneath the reborn/goblin vs halfling part, she’s always been a weapon. beacons i think pertain more to resonance and allowing it to occur even without a link, kinda acting like. a surrogate soul to resonate with, if you have a mote on you. they can also trap your soul and return it to a new body after you die, but in its most basic form, so you could be a weapon in one life and a meister in the next, and so on. in the current iteration, leylas kryn is a meister and quana is her weapon, but it’s definitely been the other way around in the past. yussa is still a dragon.

[thequietmanno1]

TheLreads MHA 156 replies, part 1

1)“Also, that guy has the power to get bigger depending on the amount of opponents he has, so that sort of explains why he got that fucking humongous when the raid started.”- Well…. Kinda? He was humongous ‘before’ he punched the gate open, hence why those police guys went flying, so presumably he drained a bunch of other people to act as a power boost before he went out and actually engaged everyone so he’d have an advantage before he needed to start draining his opponents, and before the quirk booster activated

2)Huh, interesting- this translation states he needs to breathe to absorb vitality either way, but initially he’s restricted to only those he touches before the drug booster activates, but some other translations imply he just needs to touch the opponent to suck their strength out and thus the AOE effect his quirk gains is a ‘massive’ upgrade that greatly amplifies his utility- guess Horikoshi really wanted to amplify the creepiness of his quirk. May as well finish this now- of the precepts we’ve seen, Rappa was the ‘violence’ aspect of the vices (doy) Tengai was ‘sleeping in high places’ one, aka ‘sloth’- his quirk utility means he literally didn’t need to raise a finger to be useful in battle- well, disregarding the pose he struck every time anyway- and he was content to let Rappa do 90-95% of the actual fighting against the heroes, stepping in only when needed to keep things in their favour. 

Plus, when one lies in a canopy bed- which components of the characters of his name can be taken to mean “The Canopy Wall”- the curtains framing you ‘shield’ you from the world, and a Canopy is a ‘high and luxurious place’ where you can lie back and shut the rest of the world out. Deidoro was the ‘drinking’ vice (double doy) and Nemoto was the ‘false speech’ vice (doy squared)- though ironically his quirk actually prevented others from committing that particular sin in his presence- perhaps, since he’s not affected by his own power, he’s free to indulge in as many white lies and half-truths as he wants to?

 So that means Rikiya here is the ‘Lust” vice aka "I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual activity”. His quirk needs him to lay hands upon his target- and in this translation ‘sniff’ them- to steal their ‘vitality’ for his own purposes, and it makes him bigger as well. Plus, he’s been matched up with the sole all-female team from the beginning and in some translations his dialogue comes across as sexist and creepy, such as when he asks to ‘touch’ Nejire in such a way that makes it clear he’s not taking no for an answer- guess that was another reason she was pissed off at him.

3)“I don’t have anything more to say here, they could very well be siblings for all I know. It’s the mask, my reptilian brain sees the pattern and it refuses to ignore the idea.”-Alternative head canon- there was a discount sale on when Overhaul’s team were buying masks and they got a two-for-one deal on Rappa and Rikiya’s, though both were allowed to somewhat accessorise their final looks which is why their masks look different in the end. 

On the other hand, it’s probably hard to design masks that looks distinctive enough between entire groups without there being some overlap- Pre-leader Overhaul’s initial getup before he upgraded to the Toucan mask looks really similar to Hojo’s one, so it might be that design-wise, both in and out of universe the options were kinda limited without coming across as being ‘too similar’ between members.

4)“Especially that it was only Hadou keeping that guy at bay, all by herself, for at least 20 minutes. Holy crap, that girl isn’t one of the Big 3 for nothing, she probably isn’t even using her full power.”-Well, I’d say Uraraka, Froppy and Ryukyu probably helped out a lot throughout those 20 minutes- they’re still running around and providing support right up till they tag-team chokeslammed Rikiya straight through 3 floors of basement (seriously, how far does the damn thing extend into the neighbourhood?), but the way the fight played out it seems like it was mainly Nejire and Ryukyu playing the heavy hitters, whilst Uraraka and Froppy played support- they were mainly preoccupied with keeping Rikiya’s rampaging from hurting any of the remaining police in the vicinity, after they couldn’t move from being drained in his presence and he was still punching like the incredible Hulk on happy pills, whilst the two pros tried to knock him out or make him burn his reserves of vitality in the process.

 Problem is, it seems that Boosted Rikiya is in a similar position to Overhaul’s healing touch- as long as he’s conscious and there’s people around, he can suck in their energy with a sniff and revitalise himself, whereas everybody else just gets more and more worn down as the fight drags on- you can see that Uraraka and Froppy looks like they need a good few hours’ sleep when they notice the Double Deku switch, but perhaps the one most affected by the fighting would have been Nejire. Going by her quirk’s description, her power is to channel her energy- that is her vitality- into energy shockwaves that corkscrew around into energy tornados that pack quite a punch, but that means she’s been drained of her energy by both Rikiya and her own quirk in the process of fighting him for over 20 whole minutes, since her brute force mid-range attacks were the best defence against Rikiya’s punches and boosted draining touch. 

There were quite a few people who felt that the girl squad got kinda shafted in having their moment in the spotlight, since they’ve been basically holding the line against Rikiya in a no-win scenario off-screen since they couldn’t take him down whilst the quirk booster was empowering him, but once he couldn’t revitalise himself through breathing in their essence he went down like a chump in a single (albeit powerful) blow meaning he basically acted as a massive timewaster that kept the girls from interfering and having their own turn against the Precepts like the rest of the ERP…. Which granted was the entire point of having the precepts fight him, but the explanation and resolution of how their fights been going does leave you feel quite cheated of seeing the girls kiss ass as hard as their male counterparts did, since Rikiya didn’t even manage to seriously wound any of them, just tire them out like they ran a marathon. 

It’s especially glaring with Nejire, given how she’s part of the ‘Big Three” but unlike Amajiki and Miro, didn’t get a solo scene of her overcoming impossible odds to pull victory off like they did. On the other hand, the fact that she’s been basically carrying the team against Rikiya’s rampaging from almost the entire fight despite him having a ‘rock, paper, scissors’ quirk-type advantage over her is pretty amazing in its own way, though it’s clear even she’s feeling the strain by the end of it- perhaps that scene of her getting angry with Rikiya was because having her energy drained at double the amount the rest are means she’s almost out of the goodwill cheer and pep she’s had in her step the whole time she’s shown up previously, so even she can’t stand getting her energy drained anymore and her nerves are getting frayed by fighting someone who’s probably been making sexist remarks at her the whole fight and just won’t stay down no matter how hard she hits him. 

In that Light, whilst it makes sense given using such a quirk would require quite a large reserve of energy to be effective, the fact that Nejire’s still going means she’s got enough juice in her tank to keep partying for days if she’s ever in any celebrations.

@thelreads

[deeisace]

so.

i said the other day i wouldn’t get into how magic works in my version of the HP universe - not, it’s likely, in JK’s, on account of i’m not sure she’s put the most amount of thought into it and lots of the things she has put thought into are sheer absolute nonsense, so let’s ignore her.

Anyway.

I said I wouldn’t, but guess who’s had Thoughts, so I will do.

I will eventually re-write that essay/academic-paper style thing I was gonna do for it, probably, because I’m an absolute nerd, but this below will be ehh, rambly? a bit more informal, in any case, because i’m pretty well tired at the mo - i have Thoughts but little brain left, haha

and, under a read-more on account of it’ll get long, and i think in any case this might not be everyone’s idea of interesting, no?

So. Shall we say. Magic has several components. These being - within yourself, intent (inc. concentration) and power; and without yourself, your wand, the spells already around you, and where you are.

The mechanisms by which magic works are also important - the words and movement through which you signal intent, as needed, and pathways by which it,,, moves? is created? somesuch. Those within your body, akin to veins if that comparison may be drawn, and those without, such as leylines throughout the world.

.

Maybe I should start at the beginning.

It’s lost to the ether, how magic began. Much like the beginnings of life itself, at least to wizarding minds - i have little knowledge myself as to the intricacies of the actual science detailing the beginning of life, which i feel is only to the better when dealing with making up how wizards might think about this sort of thing, no? - there is nothing known about the beginnings of magic.

What we do know is something about how it works and how it has adapted, and been adapted, over time.

Before the Roman invasion, tho it is certain wands were used, the emphasis in what little survives from that time or soon after is on potions, arithmancy (maths magic), runes (used, generally, to extend the use of a spell or to tie it to that particular thing/place), rituals and suchlike. The languages used for spells seems to be very similar to the everyday language of the person/people casting - it was the language of the people and of the land, ensuring that the movement of magic had a clear pathway between the land and the people.

It may be said, here, that a wand is something of a,,, conversion device? i forget the correct term, but you know how with electric, the national grid, the power lines have this big amount of energy going through, and it needs to be changed down so it’ll work in your plug sockets and not blow your phone charger up or smth? A wand’s a bit like one of those things that changes the electric down. Or, it’s a bit like a tv aerial, where is you leave it in one place, the signal’s dead dodgy, but if you take it and idk put it on the roof or somesuch, the signal’s a lot clearer - with the wand in this case being the roof, i think? it’s both of those, the conversion thing and putting the aerial on the roof, at once, really.

So, with the people and the land,,, speaking the same language, if you will, there was some need for the conversion device bit, but less so for the tv aerial bit. After the roman invasion and all that went with it, and also the vikings, and the french, the english offences against wales, ireland, and scotland (and so on and so forth) - the languages have been lost (not entirely, no, in some cases, but to enough of an extent that it has certainly had an effect), the ways of the old magic, the knowledge of it, have been lost, and these in turn have affected the magic that can be cast and the manner in which to do so.

The old rituals, the arithmancy, the building and/or use of such places as stonehenge, giant’s causeway, the ring of brodgar (and other such places i’ve forgotten about myself), these have been abandoned and/or forgotten to various levels. Spells are cast in mangled latin - not the language of this land, nor even the kind of latin in use still by some (tho be that only in church and suchlike, perhaps). Pronunciation is so important as intent, these days (to quote Hermione, “it’s Win-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the ‘gar’ nice and long.”) because we are no longer speaking in a language our land (and so our magic) can quite understand. We need the tv-aerial effects of wands, and to pronouce the incantation as correctly as we can, even tho it’s in the wrong language, to help in a way the magic to understand what our intent is, cut off as it has been with the lack of the old ways.

so cut off we are, from magic in the old sense, that wandless/wordless magic is seen as something only those with a particular grasp of magic (powerful wizards, such as Dumbledore) can perform. Disregarded in the public eye is the wandless and often wordless “accidental magic” of children, who, untrained as yet in the “correct forms” of magic as our current times define it, are sometimes able to forgo such limits, through the brute force, if you will, of their emotional intent - the strong signal of intent (subconscious or not) their emotions broadcast, if i may continue the metaphor, has no need of an aerial-on-the-roof.

---

So, that covers, i think, the language component of the use of magic, the purpose of a wand, and something of the geo-mechanics of magic?

Leylines are like veins, or like the national grid, but for magic, and we can use magic through the focussing of it using our intent (like, i want to charge my phone), our power (like, my phone charger works off this many volts) using our wand (the device that changes the voltage to one we can use and takes it into the household wiring) and the language we use (?? to continue this?? my phone charger,,, has a mini-usb connection? i’m giving up this bit, it’s stopped making sense).

The modern styling of magic is,,, a dodgy voltage-converter thing, causing very dodgy household wiring and combined with the sort of old charger where you have to wiggle the cable to get it to work. If i’ve got my own metaphor-ing correct. I’m not at all sure that I have.

So anyway. Biomechanics!

Just like the land has leylines, and our bodies have our circulatory and nervous systems, there’s something similar to that but for our personal use of magic.

hang on, fuck. firstly this above is over 1000 words (i checked, cs i’m an idiot), and i’ve not written that much for well over a year. and also i just twisted the end off my eyebrow piercing again (i was fiddling with it, cs, as mentioned, i’m an idiot). standby (tho not for long for you) whilst i swear.

right, okay. leylines, veins and,,, whatever fuckin nonsense word wizards decided to call how magic goes.

i’ll use veins an stuff to help explain. hopeful this’ll go better than the electricity metaphor.

So. Your heart, veins, arteries and capillaries.

I’m quite sure none of this is mentioned in canon, really, but at least the magical core is generally a thing in fic that deals in this sort of stuff. This is something like your heart, in a very basic way. (Please forgive the gratituous mangling of science to come.)

oh no, my brain has stopped. i could draw a diagram, tbh. okay uh.

arteries --> heart --> veins --> capillaries

surrounding magic --> magical core --> asks to do a spell --> focussing of magic (--> outcome of spell)

that helps? helps my brain, anyway.

so the magical core draws magic from the person’s surroundings - this is why hogwarts (and many wizarding settlements) was built where it was - it’s on a ley-line, or near one or smth, which makes it easier for children’s developing magical cores to draw magic as needed. tho magic is basically everywhere, and britain is small enough, or smth, that there is little appreciable difference in casting spells in muggle areas versus magical ones, and considering the modern spell-casting methods, the placement of hogwarts is good for those with developing cores.

the magical core is something of a storage unit, or somesuch, and the size of your magical core defines the level of magic you are capable of. not the type, exactly, you understand, but the amount of magic you have to use. tho that said, you can’t make a large jumper if you only have 400g of wool - you might make a small jumper, or a scarf, which will also keep you warm, but not a large jumper - equally so, you might have the magic reserves for, say, a wingardium leviosa but not a levicorpus, or a lumos but not a lumos maxima - or so on and so forth, blah blah blah

when we cast a spell, or attempt to, we’re kinda, asking the magic in our reserves, hey can you come do this thing? (and then, because physics is still a thing, if terribly warped, it’ll like, return to the leylines or whatever i guess, after the spell is dome, idk) and the magic is like, yeah cool, what d’you want me to do? whereupon your like, magical capillaries get involved, which focus the magic down the correct pathways that it turns up in the right shape to do the thing you asked - and then your wand amplifies the signal so there is an appreciable effect, because your modern magical style fucked your shit up.

it’s like, you asked your magic to do a thing, and it only just heard you cs you’re speaking through like, soundproof glass or smth idk, so it turns up with the correct thing but not sure about it, and your wand goes, yep it was that! and then the magic is sure about it, and the spell happens. y’know?

so that’s like, how the average wizard’s spell would go

in the case of squibs, there might be an issue with any one of those things, or more besides, that inhibits the conventional use of magic.

emotional or physical trauma may affect use of magic - like Ariana Dumbledore’s PTSD, or, say your hands were burnt to such a degree as to stop you holding your wand or to block your ‘magical capillaries’ (since our hands is where we focus our magic, where we are taught to, just like we have a lot of, wow GCSE biology was a long time ago, nerve endings? in our hands, for tactile sensation, that’s also where a bunch of our magical capillaries are, too).

or, say we use Neville as an example. His magic has been affected in many ways. Emotional trauma, like what happened to his parents (it’s unknown if he was there, like Harry was, and it’s likely that Harry’s memory of the event is from,,, other factors, so it’s unknown if the particular event caused anything), and the abuse by his family members, and that by Snape. Physical trauma is unknown - beyond his intinctive intent, and therefore accidental magic, to save himself from harm by his relatives, which in fact caused magic to happen rather than inhibited it - whether or not Bellatrix was so deranged at the time as to cast such spells also on him, which would i’m sure have caused something at that age, is also unknown. What is known - Neville, at least for some time, used his father’s wand. Whilst this may be grand for Augusta’s sentimental reasons, it is true what Ollivander says - ‘the wand chooses the wizard’. Using the wrong ‘tv aerial’ will not get you a clear picture, and using the wrong wand will not result in strong or correct spells. He is also disastrous with potions, and a genius with herbology. This may be partially due to,,, the teaching styles of the respective professors - the manner of Snape being such to leech his concentration and the intention from the potion - or yet due to an issue with his “magical capillaries” - that is to say, the herbology ones are well-developed, and communication goes well along those lines, and the potions ones are not so, and so it does not.

Also he’s way autistic and plants are his SpIn, fight me.

---

alright so i’m sure i have more thought, but it’s near 11pm and this is a terrible time to be awake when i have work early tomorrow and things to do besides, so i’ll leave it there for now.

[flakandforay]

Converse High Analysis

this is the analysis for their 3rd mini album, 화양연화 pt. 1, 7th track - Converse High

i will be analysing several components - music, lyrics and choreography

disclaimer: this is just my personal opinion, feel free to disagree. do let me know your thoughts in my ask box

overall: this fun youthful track is produced by namjoon in which he wanted to put in his mixtape initially but instead decided to put inside this album instead to become a group song. not to mention, he even purposely named it ‘converse high’ in which he mentioned in an interview before that his ideal girl in 2015 was one who owned a pair of red high tops converse sneakers which led to the name of the song. 

music: it starts off straight away with the use of cymbals inside, specifically the hi-hats and the use of electrical guitar chords that sound more reggae and hippie in the beginning. namjoon also comes in with an adlib of ‘yeah’ as if to feel the groove of the song and to set the mood. actually throughout the first few seconds of the song, namjoon is using it to his advantage to ride the groove etc and only till 0:10 does he begin the song, but he starts it off softly so as to prepare for the impending drop. not to mention that one could hear jungkook doubling inside towards the end of namjoon’s lyrics and that the beat now includes claps inside in time with the hi-hats. then namjoon wraps up the intro with ‘converse high’, intentionally slowing down so that the drop would have more impact as listeners would listen out to it more.

so jungkook comes in at 0:19 with that sweet voice of his to which at the beginning one could hear this ‘shimmering synth’ as now the percussion and guitar chords are dimmed down to amplify jungkook’s vocals. the key part of this song is ‘woah woah woah’ at 0:28 in which it is constantly repeated throughout this song, giving it its own groove.

jimin then comes in at 0:29 at the second part of the chorus and again at 0:37 with the ‘woah woah woah’. one could notice that the chorus is actually more choppy - in a way, several breaths are being taken to sing the chorus as they time their singing with the beat and also to sustain the ‘woah woah woah’. to be honest, almost all of the vocal line members’ make it obvious that they are taking breaths especially seokjin however jungkook is the one that makes it less obvious that he does so.

and the after this chorus, there is this short piece of drum melody that signals the start of the verses - actually namjoon’s rap and he’s taking it more chill together with the claps of the beat ( the hi-hats and guitar chords are already dimmed down in this verse ). what’s interesting is that at 0:49 with his lyrics ‘f u’, it adds on to his style of rapping here, clearly showing he could manipulate the beat of the song. yet, he repeats the ‘f u’ several times as he makes a statement.

and then at 0:59, namjoon’s part abruptly ends but is quickly overcome with hoseok’s part as he takes the next verse, as the beat accelerates and picks up speed. the claps actually occur every crotchet and it appears to have ‘speed up’ the song because of it occurring every beat but again, i feel that this is just an ‘audio illusion’, the speed didn’t change, it just sounds faster because of how many more beats there are in a bar. hoseok, too, also knows how to play along, easily integrating his laughter at 1:16 as part of the song.

then at 1:18 with that shimmering synth, taehyung takes over the prechorus and instead of claps, what one could hear are the snaps, the snapping of the fingers to be precise but of course synthesized to make it sound more electronic. in this prechorus, one could hear the adlibs of jungkook and jimin inside as they make up for the loss of percussion inside and guitar chords. and at 1:25, that nice vocal riff by jimin and possibly jungkook as it moves on to the second part of the prechorus which is done by jimin at 1:28. then there is that one synth that signals jimin’s entrance. only during this part did the hi-hats actually come back to play together with that descending synth. again there are some adlibs being done here but subtly done as it is only the middle of the song and not towards the end.

and one could hear yoongi’s ‘ack’ at 1:38 before it makes way for the chorus to start at 1:39 with jungkook and to be honest, there is the percussion that’s in time with the words that adds on to the ‘choppy’ feeling that one could hear. seokjin takes over at the chorus at 1:48 to wrap it up with the drum melody at 1:57 to signal the repeated part of the chorus which actually has a lot of jungkook’s adlibs inside, though very subtle, sounding more like riffs. 

at 2:07 it’s yoongi’s part coming through and for some reason, the song sounds as if it picked up speed again because the claps are back again but in quarters, constantly keeping yoongi’s rap in check. not to mention the use of hi-hats are back in again. yoongi’s small adlib of ‘ah yeah’ at 2:14 as well just to fill in the small gap in between. i like how his voice kinda got dragged down at 2:18 as he said ‘numbers’, something called like text painting where his voice goes down in time with the beat also going down - descending for that matter. but that brief pause ends when he comes back in full speed at 2:19 but he seems to be squeezing more words in a bar in this second part of his rap. and he even dragged his last word to tie in to the prechorus at 2:27 with jungkook.

again, nothing much has changed in the prechorus except that jungkook and seokjin are the ones singing this time round. one could hear yoongi’s adlib again at 2:47 before the beat drops for the final time.

one could tell that this is the last chorus with the number of adlibs being done in this chorus specifically by jungkook such as in 2:49 and then at 2:58 where taehyung takes over, one could hear jungkook harmonizing with him. jungkook’s adlibs could be heard again at 2:59 and at 3:01.

that short drum melody is used again as the go for the coda at 3:05 and jungkook’s adlibs again at 3:08, 3:13 and even hoseok contributing by saying ‘ah yeah’ at 3:17 and that nice melodic riff by jungkook at 3:21 and then at 3:23, hoseok’s giggle that just added more to the youth theme. and then one could hear that drum rhythm at 3:25 before namjoon ends off with ‘converse high’

lyrics: the lyrics here are more laid-back, maybe because the song is called ‘Converse High’ and are singing some praises about the brand ( but then again, who doesn't own a pair

also namjoon did mention before in 2015 in an interview that his ideal girl would actually wear a pair of red high tops converse shoes and is seen here in the lyrics in his rap 

흰 티에 청 반바지 빨간 컨버스하이 that’s it

=

White t-shirt, jeans and red Converse Highs, that’s it

note: it is not common for people in Korea to actually say the brand or name of a product hence which is why when bangtan performed this song on Mnet Countdown, they changed it to ‘Lover’s High’ to be in check with the broadcasting rules 

저 하늘 별보단 오늘은 니 신발의 별을 볼래 하하 다 남준이 몰래

=

Rather than the stars in the sky, I wanna see the stars on your shoes Haha, without Namjoon knowing

now in hoseok’s rap, we see the mention of the brand, converse again, even adding his own humour in his rap lyrics by including namjoon inside 

니가 좋아 그래도 컨버스로우는 신지 마

=

I like you but still don’t wear Converse Lows

this part of the pre chorus got me dying, the clear preference for high tops instead of the low cut converse shoes lmao

너의 컨버스하이에 꽂혔나 봐 별 수 없나 봐 나는 wo 너의 컨버스하이에 꽂혔나 봐 너무 좋아 다 자꾸 wo

너의 컨버스하이 I really really want yo 컨버스하이 I really really like yo 컨버스하이 I really really need yo 컨버스하이 컨버스하이

=

I’m so into your Converse Highs I can’t help it I’m so into your Converse Highs I like it so much

Your Converse Highs I really really want yo Converse High I really really like yo Converse High I really really need yo Converse High Converse High

so this chorus and sort of coda talks about how one loves the shoes on that special someone, im here thinking do they dig the person or dig the pair of shoes or the special person they dig wearing those converse shoes being a bonus? 

컨버스 컨버스 i really hate a 컨버스 화려한 니 겉모습에는 말야 검정스타킹에 아찔한 하이힐 그래 그것은 사기야 근데 더 어울리는 것은 조던 numbers Ha 모르겠니 컨버스는 니 매력을 죽이는 옥의 티 아무튼 날 만날 때는 컨버스를 신지마 무엇보다 벗기가 무척이나 힘들잖아

=

Converse Converse, I really hate a Converse When you look all flashy with your black stockings and your high heels That’s just a lie But you look better with Jordan numbers Ha don’t you know? Converses kill your charm Anyway, when you meet me, don’t wear Converses It’s too hard to take them off of you

so yoongi’s rap lyrics are actually funny to me, because he is going against the general idea of a girl wearing converse shoes being attractive, here he states, he rather have them wear jordan sneakers instead of those converse shoes and that they are even harder to take off ( is this suggestive hmmMM ) especially since converse shoes are laced up unlike high heels which could easily slip off

i feel that this song, for some reason, is very appropriate, maybe because of the fact that most youth, whether they own a pair of converse shoes, are very familiar with this brand, especially in Korea. i feel that the moment you own a pair of shoes with laces, you have reached that period of youth - which technically overreaches this whole concept of their album - youth. 

Reference: Colour Coded ©

choreography: the choreography for this one is laid-back, possibly the same level as Boyz with Fun choreography  ( which you could see here )

that cute footwork in the beginning, of course. for some reason they all look like boys who see their crush ( or maybe thats what they were going for ) 

and when the chorus hits, here they are dragging their feet, honestly i think the main point of this whole dance is to literally exaggerate their footwork, possibly because the song title is Converse High. 

i dont know, i just really thought that this whole dance was cute?? 

this part when hoseok comes in, well let’s all admire the formation, all i can just say that this whole dance focuses more on their footwork, highlighting those parts which then become the main point of the dance etc 

a cute dance to be honest 

last thoughts: regardless, i think this is still a fun song, not a hype for sure, but one that could still lift the mood

[Photo Source] Bighit Entertainment  Credits: maxine ☕️ DO NOT REPOST ©

[pan-xichen]

What The Heckin Heck Is Gonna Happen To Keith: a meta I guess

OKAY SO I, like every other Keith stan, am wondering what the heck they’re gonna do with Keith. Post s4 he is no longer a paladin and is a member of the Blade of Marmora, but due to the events of the finale I’m still unsure as to how long that will last. Will the team find out he almost sacrificed himself for them without them knowing? Also something to note: Voltron has not used its sword (I think I’m sorry if I forgot I haven’t watched the season since the day it came out lmao) since Keith has stopped being a paladin. The fact that the sword is basically Voltron’s signature weapon leads me to believe that Keith very likely will end up as a paladin again (unless they did form it without him I can’t honestly remember for sure), but then he’d no longer be able to work with the Blade of Marmora, and one of the current paladins would have to lose their position for Keith to return to a lion.

The scenarios I could see happening are: 

- Keith somehow becomes the leader of the Blade of Marmora and does not return to being a paladin 

-Keith does return to being a paladin, causing either Allura or Shiro to not be a paladin anymore and him to likely have to leave the Blade

- Keith and Shiro co-pilot the black lion when he is not off on missions for the Blade

- the extra lion in the carving of Voltron in s3 ends up becoming Keith’s new lion, forming a powerful extra but non-essential part of Voltron meaning it won’t hurt the team if he has to go off on Marmora missions from time to time 

- the extra lion calls to Allura and Lance returns to the blue lion, allowing Keith to return to Red and Shiro to remain the black paladin (probably also meaning that Keith can no longer run off with the Blade of Marmora)

- the extra lion wants Shiro as its paladin and Keith returns to being the black paladin (less grumpily now that he knows Shiro still has a lion)

(I’m gonna put the rest of this under a cut because it accidentally became 7000 words long oops)

Out of all of these outcomes I have a feeling that the writers will end up going for something that doesn’t make season 3/4′s development for Keith obsolete while at the same time allowing him to still contribute to the story directly. I personally can see scenarios three and four being the most plausible because they would allow for more aspects of his character to be present (blade and paladin) instead of eliminating one or the other. Although, the first one is definitely plausible in terms of Keith’s character and could even be combined with number four. We see him demonstrate time and again that he is a natural leader, despite not believing himself worthy to be one. I do feel as though eventually he will end up (willingly, this time) in a leadership role again after acknowledging that he is worthy of that position.

Scenario three would however feel like they’re just putting him back in for the sake of having him in and likely not really be meaningful (kinda like having Shiro come back so soon screwed up the story a bit for them because they planned to have him gone for much longer), as much as I like the idea of Keith and Shiro as co-leaders. That doesn’t necessarily mean though that they couldn’t be if they were not both the black paladins. I’ve seen a lot of theory about that extra lion in the Voltron carving at the beginning of season 3 being the white lion, which has been an actual canon thing in the past reincarnations of the series. Most of these theories involve Shiro as the white paladin, which I really do like but it feels like he really is meant to pilot Black (even if this might not actually be Shiro at the moment). His struggle to break her from Zarkon’s control was a great plot point from season 2 and both of them starting to heal from their respective trauma together would make for a nice aspect of Shiro’s character arc.

You do also have that Keith was bonded closely enough with Red to have her actually fly out into the middle of space and rescue him, and almost destroy an entire base to save his life. I love Keith as the red paladin, but if the writers still wanted to have him as an active member of the BOM it wouldn’t make much sense to put him back as the literal right arm of Voltron unless the lion switching is a thing that could happen more than once, (Lance moving back to Blue and Keith to Red but when Keith isn’t around Lance pilots Red and Allura pilots Blue) but that would be weird because they’ve put extra emphasis in the past on how important a paladin’s bond with their lion is, and having them be able to do this swap out thing all the time makes that point kinda meaningless. I think maybe the reason why Keith was able to connect with Red from so far away and have her respond when he was in danger might be the same reason why he could feel the blue lion’s energy months before Lance was even there to awaken her, and how he could pilot the black lion in that moment of desperation to save Shiro in s2 ep1. He’s connected to all of the lions in a strange way-- whether the answer to that is simply “he’s an alien” or there’s something else there, (which is what I suspect) remains to be seen, but I believe that his strong bond with Red may have been due to his connection with all of the lions. It still makes me kinda sad to see him not be her paladin anymore because he totally fits as the ‘guardian spirit of fire’, but as of right now the solution to the dilemma of “where are they gonna put keith without cutting him out of the main cast like they did in s4″ is a bit of a narrative corner the writers have backed themselves into that doesn’t logically involve him going back to being the red paladin without sacrificing the new development of him as a Blade of Marmora.

That being said, as much as I like white paladin Shiro (or whatever colour this hypothetical extra lion could be), having Keith be the white paladin would make more sense in my opinion. Voltron already has all of its essential components with five lions, but perhaps an extra lion would turn into a kind of upgrade for the robot. With the lore of the white lion from previous reboots, it might make sense to have that lion allow Voltron to create its own wormholes or even tear into other realities to pass through them, but maybe it just amplifies the robot’s powers. This would give Keith a place on the team while allowing him to still go off on Marmora missions if he is needed with them and not automatically jeopardize the team’s ability to form Voltron. It would also make for an interesting character development in him, as I imagine him seeing that Voltron can still be formed without him might make him feel less needed, but learning that his lion allows Voltron to do more than it could with only five would lift his spirit and make him feel like he belongs again. Maybe it could even include that the black and white paladins were meant to be co-leaders before something happened to the white lion, allowing both Keith and Shiro to donate their strengths as leaders to each other and cancel out some of their weaknesses (Shiro’s ability to remain level-headed under pressure and more diplomatic tendencies mixed with Keith’s passion and quick, creative thinking both at the head of Voltron would make the team an even more unstoppable force and I will fight anyone on this I could write a whole post dedicated to why Keith and Shiro as co-leaders would be beneficial and maybe even crucial to team Voltron’s success).

Technically I could end this here but I have a hypothetical scenario on how Keith becoming the paladin of the extra lion could go down so here have a pseudo-fic:

Keith’s near-death in season four is only foreshadowing to him actually dying... sort of. In the next season, Keith really does sacrifice himself for the greater good, allowing the team to succeed in their mission and deal a significant blow to the Galra empire. Before the battle during which he dies, they discover that there was a sixth lion initially built, but never used, as when it gained sentience it refused to awaken for any paladin. Perhaps this other lion foresaw the events that kickstarted the war with the Galra in the first place, and wanted no part in it, or maybe even wanted to avoid the pain of losing a paladin it knew was going to die. So it refused to function, maybe even flying away to some remote place in the universe (or even a different reality) to wait until its true paladin would arrive. The paladins find the white lion, but predictably it refuses to awaken for anyone-- that is, anyone who is present. Keith is off on another mission for the Blade when they find the lion.

Keith has been having strange dreams about the lion, not knowing exactly what it is. The lion has been trying to communicate with him, but to no avail. His own personal turmoil and lack of self-worth are clogging his thoughts, making it difficult for the white lion to reach him. The lion is brought to the castleship to prevent the Galra from finding it, and they start trying to do literally anything they can to wake it up, but the lion remains silent. It won’t even communicate with the other lions, as without a paladin and after having been gone for so long, it feels as though it doesn’t have the right to do so. Similarly to Keith, who feels as though he has no place on team Voltron.

In the last few episodes of the season, everyone goes into some epic battle again. Keith sacrifices himself so that Voltron can be victorious in a similar way to his near-sacrifice in season four, except the team knows what he’s doing this time. Shiro freezes up when they realize Keith is gone, before screaming and practically rampaging with his lion, cutting down hundreds of enemy ships at once. The white lion roars in frustration, sensing the death of a paladin it never got to bond with, and decides “nope, fuck you, you’re alive”. It launches itself out of the castle, collecting Keith’s broken body from where it’s floating out in space. The initial explosion didn’t end up killing Keith, but it did damage his suit, meaning he could no longer breathe. The lion shows up and uses its own pure quintessence to revive him. The process turns Keith’s hair white, and his irises a golden yellow, but does not corrupt him in the way that Zarkon was, due to the quintessence being pure. He is essentially reborn, like team Voltron’s very own phoenix. 

The loss of Keith has caused the team to get distracted from their goal in their distress, and they’re fighting a losing battle. The white lion suddenly springs up out of nowhere and joins the fray, confusing everyone as they have no idea who is piloting the lion. They win the battle and all return to safety, practically jumping out of their lions and crowding around the white one to see who this mysterious new paladin is. Shiro is lingering behind everyone but still trying to show interest. Everyone has this irrational hope at the back of their minds that somehow it’s Keith, and he didn’t really die, even though they watched his craft explode. A slender figure clad in white paladin armor steps out of the lion, still wearing their helmet. Everyone is holding their breath as the figure slowly approaches them and moves to remove their helmet. Nobody recognizes him at first now that his hair is white and his eyes are yellow, until Shiro finally looks up from where he’d been somberly looking down and says “Keith?” in the smallest, quietest voice he’s ever had. Keith smiles softly as he’s recognized and everyone runs to group hug him. As the others pull away, leaving Keith and Shiro still holding each other, the scene fades out. 

[love-takes-work]

Sugilite: What was Sapphire’s deal?

For a long time since the reveal of Ruby and Sapphire, I’ve been seeing posts that (jokingly or not) suggest that Sugilite’s behavior, as a Fusion of Ruby, Sapphire, and Amethyst, was the result of the rambunctious Ruby and Amethyst dragging Sapphire along for the ride.

I kinda get why people say that, because obviously both Amethyst and Ruby are prone to anger and sometimes lack filters and coping mechanisms. Meanwhile, Sapphire seems so calm and in control. Surely Sugilite was mostly Amethyst and Ruby getting carried away.

But y’all have seen “Keystone Motel.”

“This will pass. She’ll eventually just burn herself out.”

Sapphire, when she’s upset, pretends to be above it all, ignores others’ emotions while denying the effects of her own, and even resorts to shaming those she loves when she’s not happy with their behavior. 

She can be callous. Cold. 

Sapphire is just as responsible for everything that went on with Sugilite as Ruby and Amethyst were. 

Now here’s the thing. Fusions can feel like they’re one being--especially when they get used to being fused--and though they’re “a conversation” and “a relationship,” they’re also capable of functioning like a single consciousness despite that they technically can never quite be “individuals.” So I do hesitate to pick apart “what comes from which Gem” when examining Fusions’ behavior. However, much like you can analyze the traits of a child and surmise which parent they “get it from,” you can sort of do that with Fusions. But there’s another element you have to keep in mind when you do this.

A manifestation of the fusers’ influence on each other.

Guide to the Crystal Gems is the source of this tidbit--a canon source authored by Rebecca Sugar. You don’t really see the “influence” aspect discussed explicitly in the show, but this implies that Fusions aren’t just what their components are, but what they inspire in each other. What they think of each other, what they expect from each other, what they want to be together. What they bring out in each other, regardless of whether that element is usually part of the individuals.

Look at Smoky Quartz. Before they appeared, Steven and Amethyst had just had an arc with a competitive and self-deprecating tone which led directly to forming Smoky for the first time. They literally fought each other over who was the worst, had a discussion of not living up to what they were supposed to be, and aired their grievances over the proper path to improvement.

“Us worst Gems stick together, right?” “That’s why we’re the best.”

Amethyst and Steven literally formed their collective identity based on their low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy. They play it like a big joke, of course, cracking puns and offering distractions, but when Sardonyx presses them during their second appearance in “Know Your Fusion,” Smoky heaps on the self-abuse.

“I guess zero plus zero equals zero. They say two wrongs don’t make a right--I guess I’m living proof that that’s true! I’m just one big super-wrong good-for-nothing dud with a yo-yo!”

Delivered with a smile. 

Supposedly it’s a common trait of youngest children to be the comedian of the family--if you’ve spent your whole life feeling like those who came before you have won all the awards, done it all before you, and met stratospheric goals before you even found your feet, you might feel like there’s no point in performing well, so you joke about it and poke fun at everything, including yourself. Amethyst and Steven have both spent a lot of their lives feeling like the youngest child who’s a bit of a screw-up with whom everyone must be patient. Smoky doubles that feeling, and when they start to feel inadequate, out come the self-deprecating jokes.

Sugilite is more complicated because she’s a three-Gem Fusion, but I’d like to first refer to my “How Fusion Relationships Work” post and assert that Sugilite is far more a relationship of Amethyst and Garnet than she is a relationship of Amethyst, Ruby, and Sapphire. If Sugilite were to internally argue with herself the way Alexandrite did in “Fusion Cuisine,” you’d probably hear Amethyst’s and Garnet’s voices, not Ruby’s or Sapphire’s. I could be wrong, but I think Sugilite is better understood as Garnet and Amethyst’s Fusion. Therefore, to find out what comes from Sapphire and what comes from Ruby in Sugilite, it makes more sense to pick apart where their traits feed into Garnet first.

Sardonyx and Sugilite are both Garnet Fusions. And Sardonyx and Sugilite have both shown an incredible capacity for showing off for Steven. We know Pearl loves to perform, but Sardonyx seeks to impress through grace and precision, while Sugilite is about power. That is likely a strong Amethyst trait--she REALLY wants to be strong, and she thinks Garnet is this incredible pillar of strength. Amethyst’s beliefs about Garnet and desire to be strong would feed into making Sugilite the powerhouse she is.

And Amethyst also has abandonment issues.

“What about ME, huh? I had someone who was always there for ME until she started hanging out with YOU!”

What was Sugilite’s apparent main complaint?

“You left me behind!”

She was left alone with no one to perform for, no one to encourage her or make her feel cool for being strong enough to take out all those pillars.

This seems like an awful lot of Amethyst, but what about Garnet?

“We don’t need to be careful. We just need to be huge.”

Get the job done, Garnet. Who cares about Pearl’s feelings? Who cares if there might be some speed bumps? It’ll turn out with the result we need, and that’s all that really matters.

Well, that’s some Sapphire there.

That’s probably exacerbated further when all the frustration and feeling of being left out was amplified by Amethyst’s perspective, and it’s all directed at Pearl. What might Sugilite be thinking about Pearl? “She’s to blame! She took Steven away and abandoned me! She called me ‘too much’ because she’s just too little! And now she wants me to unfuse just when I’m enjoying myself! She’s probably just jealous Garnet didn’t pick her instead!”

There’s a ton of feeling in there and not a whole lot of thinking. And feeling is something Ruby does extremely well. Meaning she does a lot of it, and she doesn’t think about the past or the future. Now is all she can think about, and her incredibly important, long history with Pearl and any future consequences are beside the point in the face of all that emotion. Sugilite feels hurt and angry and vengeful now. And she has a ton of power that this little Gem Pearl wants to take from her. She won’t let it happen.

But here’s something complicated. Ruby is emotional, but she isn’t selfish. She’s almost entirely selfless. I mean that literally, too--at the beginning of her life with Sapphire, she expressed that it didn’t matter if she was broken because there are tons of her. Even more recently in her life, in “Jailbreak,” she cared about what happened to Sapphire but had no thoughts for herself.

“Did they hurt you?” “WHO CARES??”

And if you listen to her rant about Blue Diamond in “Gem Heist,” Ruby still offers an onslaught of anger that has almost nothing to do with slights against her.

“She’s a shatterer! She yelled at Sapphire, she hates fusion and love!”

Hear that? Blue Diamond had specifically threatened to shatter Ruby, but she doesn’t say “she threatened to shatter me.” She just uses general terms about her being “a shatterer” before launching right into how Blue Diamond mistreated Sapphire and hates their union. And, going back to “Keystone Motel,” it’s more of the same from Ruby: she’s angry not because Pearl personally hurt her, but because Pearl disrespected fusion. Disrespected Garnet.

“It’s FUSION, Sapphire! What’s more personal to us than fusion?”

She’s so, so angry, but it’s on behalf of their relationship, not on her own behalf. She’s not mad at Sapphire for wronging her. She’s mad at Sapphire because this is about fusion. Without fusion, Ruby doesn’t even think of herself as worth something to be mad about. But the fusion she’s contributing to? Wow, nobody better EVER say anything against THAT, or insult it for ANY reason!

So, no doubt this is magnified in Sugilite.

“I AM myself, and I’m SICK of being split up!”

Amethyst’s respect for power, Ruby’s respect for fusion partnerships, and Sapphire’s respect for outcome over process all contribute to Sugilite’s motives. But Amethyst’s sullenness over abandonment, Ruby’s single-minded emotion, and Sapphire’s callousness make those motives manifest in a destructive way.

When Garnet is just Garnet, she has effective coping mechanisms most of the time, at least when it comes to losing control. But Ruby’s EXPLOSIVE emotion is very present in Garnet--we repeatedly see her punch first and ask questions later, or break things just because she’s pissed off. Sapphire’s soft-spokenness and withdrawal from full engagement are also very present in Garnet, and we see her withholding emotion or letting her overconfidence make her stubborn. But she’s balanced, and she carries leadership without cracking, and she rarely makes her problems into other people’s problems.

But when Garnet is part of Sugilite, emotion is streaming in from Amethyst AND Ruby, and neither of those Gems likes to think outside the present. If you said Sapphire’s future vision and composure is “drowned out” by such passionate energy, you wouldn’t be far off, but I think it’s more nuanced than that: Sapphire’s traits manifest differently. Amethyst respects the heck out of Garnet, and Ruby feels like Sapphire matters far more than she does. Sapphire holds a good deal of the self-respect in Sugilite--the part of her that thinks she deserves attention, dignity, and honor. There’s still some aristocrat in her. In Sugilite, that respect is up against an overwhelming amount of self-directed belittling and inadequacy. So you get someone who knows she should be respected but feels that she doesn’t deserve it.

Ruby and Amethyst may be the source of Sugilite’s fury and pain, but without Sapphire’s cold indifference, she wouldn’t have ever posed such a threat. Some of the most brutal aspects of Sugilite may have their roots in Sapphire.

[thekaijudude]

In preparation for Belial: Atrocious

Here are the final fight scenes to relive and remember the raw power of Alien Empera and Dark Lugiel so we can know more or less what to expect from Atrocious

Alien Empera (Mebius Series):

https://youtu.be/-ytCH9xxm1

Dark Lugiel:

https://youtu.be/MVoWtQGsBMM

Vict Lugiel:

https://youtu.be/awTVJTCTn2I

Ok I kinda agree that Dark Lugiel himself really isn’t much of a physical threat (If his fight with taro was of any indication) except for his Dark Spark ability to turn kaijus and ultras into toys and dark-liveing them but the concept of stilling time to halt the progress of living things is kinda there for the theme. (Yeah I also wished Dark Zagi or even Etalgar was used instead but eh).

Perhaps his only redeeming prowess are his arsenal of beams, more specifically the Dark Lugiel Shoot (which is slightly weaker than Ginga Especially) 

They could at least used Vict Lugiel as a fusion component with the same ideologies as Dark Lugiel himself along with the all-powerful Victorium Cannon (which has shown to be able to wipe out an entire mountain) with increased battle prowess (at the cost of speed definitely).

Alien Empera however, was the first evil force to invade the land of light and once went against Ultra Father himself, the Master of Darkness. I can still remember the feeling of awe when I first saw the fight scene when I was a kid, still like watching that scene when he first lands it’s so cool lol.

His Rezolium Ray (Which is able to take out an Ultra in one blow), his absorption cape along with his ESP resistance made him a foe to behold.

In additiom, he has two abilities which are really intriguing that is Darkness Fear (his own pocket dimension) and Ghost Reverse (The ability to resurrect himself albeit inanother host)

Also, his durability is something worth mentioning as he was able to withstand the powerful combination of the Mebium Knight Shoot (a fusion attack), along with the M87 Ray (considered the strongest attack in the universe in Zoffy’s time)  which was amplified with the Specium Redoublizer for a significant period of time.

Belial: Atrocious Expectations:

Im guessing Atrocious is wielding the Giga Battlenizer cause since Dark Lugiel has his Dark Spark and Empera has his Empera Blade (which was on par with Ultra Father’s Ultimate Sword).

With Empera’s convenient abilities and durability, along with the arsenal of Dark Lugiel, its gonna be a tough fight.

Especially now we know that Atrocious has Kei’s organ on his back which is able to draw power from the universe itself via King.

I believe that it is through Empera’s Ghost Reverse ability that he will be able to revive himself (if he still somehow loses)after his defeat at the hands of RMM to come back for the final fight with the true final boss.

I believe that this fusion focuses on not the capabilites of both fusions, but the terrifying combination of the ideologies of their fusion components, instilling darkness in the universe by pausing the cycle of life itself as a means to achieve peace.

[genocidershodan]

Someone on this Star Trek group posted a thread “Name 8 things you thought was wrong with the new Star Trek movies and explain why”.

A lot of you have probably heard me mention that I really hate Into Darkness, but I don’t know if I’ve really talked about why.

Everyone's got their opinion so here's my version.

Basically, Beyond was great, and 2009 was ok. It failed at Star Trek but at least was able to be a good space adventure film. My big problem lies with Into Darkness, which fails miserably at being Star Trek, problems carried over from 2009 and amplified, and fails miserably at being a film.So for the purposes of this exercise I'll focus on Into Darkness but boy oh boy is there so much more than this.

1. MILITARY EMBLEMISM IN MAH STARFLEET. Not much more to say really. It's pretty self evident, the grey uniforms everyone has with the shoulder ranks. Starfleet is not a military organisation, and Gene Roddenberry wanted to completely disassociate Starfleet from military. In designing the uniforms he wanted them to not be recognisable as any type of military uniform, and the command structure of Starfleet is modelled after the Merchant Navy instead of any military.

2. A PORTABLE DEVICE THE SIZE OF A SUITCASE THAT CAN WARP KHAN FROM EARTH TO QO'NOS. This is the dumbest world breaking device I've ever heard of. I don't need to even describe how much this breaks the Star Trek universe.  And the only real function this can seem to serve is so they can have Klingons which leads me right into...

3. A PLOT DRIVEN ENTIRELY BY CONTRIVENCES BUILT AROUND MAKING AS MANY REFERENCES AS POSSIBLE. There's nothing of substance here. It's a revenge story. There's no character arcs, dropped plot threads, nonsensical series of events. During my first viewing of this movie I found myself continually asking "What are you doing? Why are you going there? What is happening?", and 90% of the time the answer is because the plot says so. And the whole thing is jam packed with vapid moments and shout outs. Urgh, why did they copy the kirk/spock hand on glass scene without understanding why it was such a powerful moment. But they screwed it up by reversing the script. (I suppose they thought it was a twist). It's so much more meaningful that Spock put his Vulcan salute against the glass first and then Kirk puts his hand against that, but they fucking screwed it up.And then they just pull a rewind and bring him back because they decided to, for some ungodly fucking reason, test the blood on a bloody tribble. What the fuck is a tribble doing just sitting on the enterprise having random blood tested on it for fucks sake? How the fuck could Khan from the 1990's help starfleet build more advanced ships? Why did they bring back Leonard Nimoy just so he could tell Zachary Quinton that Khan is not a cool guy. god damnit I hate this fucking movie.

4. CHARACTERS STRIPPED DOWN TO THEIR POP CULTURAL OSMOSIS This is usually the hardest to discuss because to be quite frank there's not a lot to most of the characters. Like nothing much is explained about Chekov's history other than he's Russian. Scotty was the Scottiest Scotsmen that drank Scotch. Uhura was calm and friendly and among the most affectionate members of the crew. But I guess the writers now decided she needs to be a sassy black lady. Spock is now struggling to deal with his human side, and also his unemotional tranquility seems to have translated into some kind of meanness. Kirk? What have they done to you? You know back on the show he was poetic, passionate, professional. He was a very by the book captain. Did you guys know that back in his academy days he was much more akin to a bookish nerd than a jock? He even had an upperclassmen who regularly bullied him.

5. THE USS VENGEANCE This is the stupidest design I've ever seen. Why the fuck is it so big? It's designed to be operated by a skeleton crew and even by 1 person. It's so needlessly big. What the hell is it so big for? All that is doing is providing a larger target and larger surface area that requires maintenance. And it's mostly all just empty space. Why isn't it in a smaller compact design allowing for maneuverability where all the components are more tightly packed together with no weak spots like a real Starfleet warship (see Defiance)Why is the bridge now a weak spot from both the top and the bottom?

6. KHAN NOONIEN SINGH'S ETHNICITY Yep, there we go, why won't you cast Indian actors for Indian characters?

7. THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN Come on guys. If a TV show from the 1960's treats its female characters with more dignity and respect than its counter part made today, you've got a problem. Into Darkness doesn't even pass the Bechdel test. Where's Janice Rand? Where's Christine Chapel? Oh and they totally just decided that she only became a nurse because she was one of Kirk's past conquests. Blah. It seems kinda telling that the female uniforms don't have rank bands. 8.THE WHOLE MARKETING REGARDING KHAN.You know, this one kind of sticks as a sore point for me. Because I was one of those few people who said "No, it's not Khan." in the lead up to this movie. I was actually quite convinced it was going to be Gary Mitchell. And I don't really know why everyone was so sure it was going to be Khan. Maybe I'm too naive and actually believed them when they said that it wasn't going to be him. But I went through the evidence and found more to indicate that he wasn't Khan than that he was. (like his ethnicity, but that's a dead horse now). I remember thinking "If it turns out to be a twist that he was actually Khan, that would be the stupidest thing ever." And then I saw the movie, and the reality was so much worse.

[stompsite]

Why Horror Is Scarier With Weapons

Hey, folks. This is the script for my first video. I think I changed a few things here or there during the process of recording, but it should be pretty close. I've never done this before, so I'm kinda nervous, but I hope you enjoy it!

Our favorite games are often the ones that made us feel these really cool, powerful things. How’d you feel when you met your first Colossus or saw Rapture for the first time? I think the best games stick with us because everything about them, from mechanics to presentation, is all about crafting that perfect, powerful moment.

I’ve played so many games that fail to deliver that perfect moment because they’re focused on just one facet of the game, prioritizing one element or idea at the expense of all others.

But then there’s horror.

Horror is, in a way, the perfect genre. Practically every other genre is named after its mechanics--strategy, simulation, shooter, and so on--but horror, in contrast, is all about the experience. Everything in a horror game, from mechanics to sound to presentation, is all about crafting one specific emotion. What emotion is a role-playing game trying to create? I couldn’t tell you, but when I’m playing a horror game, I know that every part is working towards the same goal. This is what makes horror such a fascinating experience.

The problem, of course, is that horror, like comedy, is difficult to pull off because it’s so subjective. We’re all impacted by different things. Not only that, but each person’s personal understanding of ‘horror’ is different.

When Amnesia: The Dark Descent hit in 2010, it was a sensation. I can’t think of many people who didn’t love it. A tremendous improvement on Frictional’s previous work, Amnesia was a chart topper that didn’t just blow minds, it almost singlehandedly kickstarted the YouTube gaming boom and inspired a thousand clones. It was THE game that everyone wanted make videos about, showing themselves freaking out at the game’s many terrors.

In the game’s heyday, one key bit of praise stuck out to me. Practically everyone I knew said the same thing:

“It’s scary because you can’t fight back.”

Something about this has never sat right with me. Six years later, here I am, still thinking about that statement, and it feels just as wrong to me as the time I first heard it. Something about this just doesn’t work for me. As I think about all the horror games that have actually scared me, every single one of them featured a degree of combat.

Before we get started, though, let’s talk about what horror means.

Many people describe horror as that feeling of creeping dread before they see something bad happen. That’s a very powerful emotion, and I totally get the appeal, but there’s just one problem: that’s not horror, that’s a different emotion entirely. That’s terror. Terror is the gradually growing worry that something isn’t right, that chill down your spine as uncertainty grips you. Terror is worrying that you’re about to confront a monster.

Horror is confronting the monster.

If terror is the tense build-up, horror is the payoff. “Horror,” as a genre, then, is a combination of terror and horror. It’s a genre made up of these two complementary emotions, themselves composites of emotions like anxiety and disgust. When someone says they want “true horror” but refers to the creeping dread, what they want is terror, but terror and horror are two halves of the same whole. You can’t have one without the other.

Many horror movie directors use these two emotions to powerful effect. Alien spends a long time building up the terror before Ripley’s horrific confrontation at the end. Halloween runs for over an hour before Michael Myers attacks. Good horror spends a lot of time setting up the actual horrific experience.

But Halloween and Alien both run less than two hours. What about games?

The expectation is that games will last more than two hours. The audience expects a sixty dollar purchase to last a great deal longer than a twelve dollar movie ticket, and games have historically lasted significantly longer than films. Not only that, but the key to a game’s success is variety--you can’t do the same thing over and over with no payoff. All setup, no joke.

To put it another way, one cannot simply scale up the length of things. A great movie can go for a nice 60/40 split, 55 minutes of terror amplified by 35 minutes of horror. That same 60/40 split won’t work for a 40 hour game. 24 hours of terror followed by 16 hours of horror just won’t work. It gets exhausting. The least frightening horror games try to be nothing but terror with just a few seconds of horror, if anything. The pacing has to change.

Some games, like Alan Wake, take the episodic approach; each level is its own self-contained narrative, with its own distinct beats. Other games, especially open world titles, run the gamut of emotion; STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl has elements of horror, but it also features adrenaline-pumping action, melancholy, loneliness, disappointment, and so on.

For a video game to work, you need terror, then horror, then more terror, followed by more horror. The game becomes a roller coaster, with crests and troughs where appropriate. This keeps the game interesting without being exhausted; it keeps players interested while leaving them engaged. Scare players, sure, and then let them confront something horrifying, but tone it back down after that, give them room to breathe, let them start over.

Make sure it’s different every time, too--Resident Evil 4’s power comes from the variety of its encounter design. The emotional beats are similar, the roller coaster has its ups and down, but each up is a new up, and each down is a new down, and that’s why it works where so many other horror games fail.

Whether you have combat or not, based on every horror game I’ve played, length alone dictates that variety and phases of both terror and horror are required to create a complete package; you can’t simply stretch out the same emotion over a longer period of time.

This brings us to the first flaw in the “no-weapons” horror game argument’s armor. A great deal of these sorts of games try to hang on to that single emotion of terror too long--they want you to feel a state of constant, never-ending dread. The problem is that it’s exhausting; it’s why, I think, so many people want to laugh about it on YouTube. It’s hard to take that kind of fear at face value; it’s much easier to turn it into a comedy routine.

But even when weaponless horror games balance the ebb of terror and flow of horror flawlessly, they still lose my interest, and it’s because there’s no way to fight back.

Here’s the idea behind a weaponless horror game: vulnerability generates fear. If you can’t fight back, you’re more vulnerable, and therefore you are more scared. By reducing your options to simply run or hide, a horror game should be much scarier than one where you have a gun. It’s a catchy argument, and an easy one to take at face value, but there’s just one problem: it’s bogus.

The first mistaken assumption at play here is that fewer options make games scarier. The weaponless horror game strips the experience down. It’s all about terror and the only way of solving a problem is either run or hide.

The problem with that assumption is this: the key to great horror is uncertainty. Horror, especially in games, works when it’s dynamic. Something happens, which leads to a new action, but then a complication arises. Instead of mere escalation, a good horror experience is a series of actions followed by consequences that change our understanding of the situation.

Until Dawn has a wonderful misdirect about a character which leads to a discovery that complicates our understanding of the game. We thought we had to deal with one thing one way, but now we have to deal with something else in a completely different way. It still escalates, but not in a linear way. Until Dawn works because variety fuels interest.

The second, even more mistaken assumption of the “weapons aren’t scary” argument is that having a gun makes you feel safe. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Guns add variety to the game and capitalize on a key component of the adrenaline rush that fuels fear: the audience’s urge to fight.

Players with guns have to balance the desire between fight and flight. A weaponless horror game can only offer the player flight.

Not only that, but guns are not empowering. Sure, you could give the player a Frank West-sized arsenal and send him off to fight all the monsters you want, and it would be fun.

Even when the weapon is powerful, like the Smartgun in Aliens, it still serves the vital purpose of keeping the pacing interesting. One moment you’re scared, the next you feel relief as you start killing monsters. All too soon, the gun’s over, and you’re left with memories of that brief empowerment.

Pretty soon, you start to miss it. All you have now is a measly pistol. Fat lot of good that’ll do you. It’s okay to have moments without terror in a horror game. It’s okay to have moments of hope, because terror is that much stronger when your hope is snatched away. Moments of power accentuate moments of fear.

But weapons, especially guns, aren’t always means of power. There is no better foil in a horror game than a gun.

A well-designed weapon in a horror game complicates the decision-making process. It encourages you to come out of your hiding place, makes you question whether you should really flee. In a weaponless horror game, your options are clear. Having a gun makes you ask “can I take him?” followed by “but what happens if I can’t?” and “what if firing this gun alerts other monsters to my presence?” A well-designed weapon in a horror game isn’t an answer, it’s a host of questions. It’s a what-if generator.

A well-designed weapon in a horror game not only introduces uncertainty, it gets you into trouble. Consider the scariest moment in Alien: Dallas enters the Nostromo’s duct system to flush the Alien out, but the Alien takes him by surprise, and Dallas disappears. It’s a moment that only happened because the crew had flamethrowers and thought they could take the alien on.

It’s important to note that the crew was not emboldened by having the weapon; the flamethrower was not an implement of relief. It simply encouraged them to make a decision that cost them Dallas’ life.

Alien: Isolation, a direct game sequel to the film, starts off rough, but most people agree that it comes into its own after you get through the medical wing--or, put another way--most people seem to think the flamethrower makes or breaks the game, which makes perfect sense. Prior to the introduction of the flamethrower, any encounter with the alien is a simple case of run or hide, and the pesky Alien is programmed to always be somewhere nearby, so there’s no escaping for long.

The flamethrower grants you some breathing room, because it can cause the Alien to run away, if only for a moment. This enhances the emotional pacing of the game. Having a flamethrower also means you’re more likely to take risks, like Dallas did, which put you in far more vulnerable positions than you would be if you didn’t have a gun.

But then it does something else.

The early game is not particularly scary, because it’s a case of either hide or you die. Instead of fear for my first few hours, I felt amusement. Aww nuts, he caught me again. Ha ha.

Once I got the flamethrower, however, not only was I taking stupid risks, but I was constantly worrying about ammo. I was taking chances to get more, or I was panicking because I only had 100 ammo and I’d have felt a lot safer with 400.

It’s irrational, sure, that I felt more afraid with 100 flamethrower fuel than with 0, but having the gun meant worrying about inventory. Alien: Isolation was so much scarier when I had to keep an eye on my fuel gauge, when I had to worry about whether or not I could scare the alien off as my tank was running low. Stressing about my inventory made the game just that much scarier.

As if that weren’t enough, sometimes guns complicate situations because you can’t use them. One of my favorite moments in Aliens is when the crew descends into the alien nest but can’t use the guns they have. There’s this unique anxiety generated by knowing that the guns you have will only make things worse.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is one of my favorite horror games because one of the levels gives you a gun, but you’re told not to use it, because you don’t have enough ammo to fight off everyone who arrives after hearing a gunshot. You have a gun, but now you’re terrified of accidentally pulling the trigger and calling down a horde of eldritch monsters on your head. The scariest thing in the level is the gun in your hand.

That’s what guns add to horror, but they have one other benefit.

In games, death means very little. It’s not really death, it’s a means of resetting a fail state.

Try, fail, die, try again.

Horror doesn’t work when you’re not in mortal jeopardy, and if you die frequently, then things aren’t so scary. Likewise, if a situation is predictable, then it loses any sense of risk.

I played a bit of SOMA on a friend’s account and found it boring because it was clear when the designers wanted me to be fearful as opposed to when they didn’t. The opening is creepy, sure, but it’s so blatantly artificial that a momentary startle is easily forgotten. You can stride with confidence through a level.

Having a weapon introduces a system of risk and reward. Instead of walking with confidence through an unconvincing haunted house, a weapon might help keep deaths at bay, reducing the frequency of death, and, as a result, preserving the intensity of the moment.

Losing resources like ammunition, which you wouldn’t have in a weaponless horror game, can make death sting that much more; early on in Alien: Isolation, death simply meant a do-over. Later, when the flamethrower meant it happened less, it mattered more, and the penalty was losing out on that brief bit of luck when you’d found that extra tank of fuel.

So yes, absolutely, weapons can make you confident, but that’s fine, because it makes horror that much better. Confidence leads to far more dramatic decisions. Weapons introduce uncertainty into your decision-making process, and then they complicate everything by giving you more things to worry about. They keep death from becoming rote; if anything, they give it weight. Weapons, especially guns, absolutely make horror games scarier.

I don’t expect you to agree with me, but I do hope I’ve given you some food for thought. Are there resources other than ammo that can be used? Do weaponless horror games really need to be so stale? How can a player be encouraged to make more interesting decisions than simply run and hide?

A weaponless horror game is often a simple one, a game where the only viable choice is to distance yourself from the act of play. Simply hiding in a corner, motionless, waiting for a monster to leave is not as dynamic as searching for ammo or trying to take out a bad guy so others won’t notice. There is no risk-taking. There is little uncertainty. A weaponless horror game relies on jump scares and waiting for jump scares to happen. A weapon means you might approach a monster and suffer the consequences. You might shoot at the monster with your only bullet and miss. Weapons benefit horror because they add variety to the horror experience; they broaden the emotional pacing of the game.

[muggycuphead]

TH!FPA_VB – Lord of Lies and Deceiving

Yo, been a while since I posted something on this account, but here we are, back at it again with a casual VB drawing like in good ol’ 2020

…Though, this time things got built on a different road of events as you can see, not to mention this is a spoiler to what’s to come for VB (but tbh I stopped caring at this point so yea)

First and for most however, there are quite a few questions surrounding this fic’s development I have to answer for our sake (mostly mine since I feel like mold spaghetti for not keeping up on things oml-)

Yes, I once said VB was on the way of getting completed and all that, I know

Problem is, the changes I want to do to the ‘lore’ (if you want to call it that way idk) are also retroactive to the events in the present timeline (aka past events that are mentioned but not entirely shown because ugh-), some characters that have some relevancy on the story but only come up at the very end chapters on VB itself, etc. etc. which are things that I personally find bothersome as its writer and the reason why I’d rather not make the ‘sequel-prequel’ of it where things get explained and all that

Instead, I’ll fuse both VB and TAF (the sequel-prequel’s name acronym standing for ‘The ‘ANOMALY’ files’ fyi) so it can focus on one party alone and I don’t waste any more time than what I already have done so (haha funny cuz me late to party amiriteeeimsorry-)

…And about the format for it, I’ve decided I’ll ‘upgrade’ it to a comic instead since y’know, I do art and it’ll also make my writing simpler so yea

Still tho, I’m kinda paranoic on if I should get going with the prologue by the time I finish its script or not since I don’t wanna make the plot a mess or leave things (important* things) unfolded by accident, but we’ll see how it goes (and hopefully I’ll make it out alive-)

Also, keep in mind that by the moment I’m writing this, I’m stuck in the Friday Night Fuc- I mean Funkin’ fandom, and y’all know what happens when the fandom switching happens…

My concept-creation-obssessive-self starts grinding gears like cuckoo -doesn’t mean I’ll abandon everyone else tho, it’s just that my focus splits on multiple parts and all that balloney

So, now that I did my little defense statement up there, let’s get rolling to the mainpoint down here

First, who’s this spider guy?

Well, he’s a ‘side’ antagonist, more specifically the person DPM is after (but doesn’t realize he is until very later)

His name is Q-Ross Sid, a ‘camel spider’ that lives in the Spider Kingdom as the royal executioner and prison head-guard/-caretaker

He’s what I’d consider to be an ‘anomaly’, since he’s a genetic fusion of graphite (20%), chalk (10%) and correcting fluid (70%), with the graphite being his ‘stabilizer’ component (osseous structure and skin/muscular tissue mostly) and the chalk his ‘cooler’ component (mostly on his defense and assimilation mechanism), not to mention he can only consume either correcting fluid matter derivatives…and/or ink matter derivatives, including living beings (mostly as an energy source and which his body somehow can partially convert into graphite)

…And by that fact alone you can tell that yes, he killed Isea -also known as Dizzy/Izzy Pants Girl (YESss I fINALLY GAVE HER A NICK ASDFGH-) in VB mostly due to her ‘special ability’ and stuff- by Queen Aris’ command. And yes, he can shapeshift, which explains why he got DPM to blame FPM for what happened, this that (but I think you might have figure it out already by the drawing alone so yea-)

However, although at first I thought his ability would be limited to mimick FPM’s appearance only, I now decided to amplify it a little, and instead he can shapeshift into any sketch/graphite-alike/related being, with FPM being his ‘link’ to them most of the time (stalkey tatics are not okey dokey my man but you do you I guess)

Though he can only shapeshift into stickfigs since he doesn’t have that much of ‘color filling’ for a human drawing itself (yeah ik they’re humanized in the story but things will make sense sooner or later I promise, for now just bear with me as we go on on this plz), and he cannot shapeshift into ink/liquid-alike/related beings because they’re not compatible and it’ll only lead him to corrupt his physical form –not meaning he can’t recover from it tho

But he can’t replicate them entirely, as his eyes and the ring are the two main red flags to spot him (but with some contact lenses and a little pocket, it can be fixed y’know-)

As for his robotic arm, it was after a fight that I’ll rather not explain due to not being that relevant; and even thought doctors refused to give him a prosthesis at first since he could simply let it rebuild naturally (yes he can regen too, but in a slower phase bc reasons), he got it anyways due to the fact limbs regen take way longer than physic injuries and/or internal damage (some even assumed that they probably wouldn’t actually regen anyway), which can be a bother on his job most of the time…and maybe out of spite too –he wanna look tough, yo-

Fun fact, during the hype I got from making this bad boi, I ended up attaching him to grandson’s song called ‘Blood/Water’ due to the lyrics kinda resembling his defamatory actions towards FPM (and also his wild and sometimes desperate hunger towards ink beings, yikes)

Second, what’s VB’s main plotline now and why did I expand it?

To resume it in the ‘signature phrase’ I made for the new version (which was also inspired on MARETU’s ‘Magical Doctor’ song –mandoilovethisvocaloidsongcomposerasdfgh)

**THIS WASN’T MEANT TO HAPPEN**

Venomous Bittersweet (which I’ll rename in the future due to the fusion with TAF) started off with a simple plot -FPM going on a mission for himself to get cured from a spider bite he got all of a sudden, but failing in the process (bc plot convenience idk) and CPG is the one who goes to his rescue instead while showing off the things she learned from him, this that, wholesome ending blah blah blah- you know the drill if you read it to end.

But by the moment I began making those little ‘inside stories’ –specially DPM’s backstory explaining why he became so reckless and outgoing- I started to extent myself on how things worked on this AU, even how drawings come to life (ik it’s weird but that’s how I though it to be so ff-), and by such I felt the urge to give almost everything a background story, such as Aris’ reason to kidnap and take control over FPM’s body and mind (and maybe his soul too oops-), the Spider Kingdom’s origin and even the portals and ‘reality deterioration’ in SFPA, passing by DPM’s origins and stuff.

And even if I felt like hitting walls and taking things a little too in-depth most times, I think it did bring some good things for the new plotline I’m going for now

So, in the new story, all the weird, whacky (and disturbing) things that happen after SFPA and during OG VB plotline came by what I’d express as some sort of ‘time-space anomaly’ that made everything slightly unstable on the ‘other side’ of the studio (I won’t explain too much my brain is about to boil rn so take that as you will for now tysm), having a passive (but not unnoticeable) effect on the sketchbooks.

I can’t give much context why, how or where did the anomaly came to be exactly (you can make theories if you like, I’d love to read them 4real <3), but it’s main purpose is to take control over all existing worlds just to corrupt them to its will, to the point there is basically nothing left but despair and desolation to which all entities will be forced to endure and all that edgy jazz.

…And by that, the ‘anomaly’ will create incompatible matter amalgams –ink and graphite being the most coming-to-mind example in the story so far- in order to conquer all the sketchbooks, but as a consequence of this ‘anomaly’s’ arise, new worlds came to be fully developed (in other words, they finally exist as a whole), and with that, new ‘heroes’ are brought into the situation, each representing a type of artistic material alone –watercolor, oil paint, etc-, heroes with which FPM will encounter and interact with, as he’ll also help them in how to use their abilities to fight the baddies and stuff.

And because we need conflict to make things interesting, Q-Ross and DPM indirectly (but kinda) ‘team up’ to fabricate fake evidence and such in order to mess with FPM’s reputation towards the heroes by incriminating him and/or even mislead his actions (confusing wrong by right and vice versa, etc.) (because ink man is salty and corrector ass is a dick by nature –ofc), and even ocassionally with Q-Ross starting the job, just to get DPM to finish it; and sometimes they get the aforesaid characters to hold grudges –if it comes to succeed, or instead making them get more on his side by the same feeling of doubt –if they mess up on something, no matter the size.

As about his sickness, well, it also got a little twist.

We know that new worlds and material compositions come with new squiggle types, and even if ‘dust-related’ types don’t affect him for too long –chalk being the closest example I can bring up-, liquid or clayish matters, such as oil and crayon squiggles respectively, are toxic towards him, so in the way the more he interacts with incompatible squiggles, the more harmed his health condition gets, to the point it grips into the weakest part of his body –his core (I’ll later explain this just…let me get this out first plz), which limits him on doing most things he’s used to do normally.

…And well, the spider bite (which is also an abnormal matter amalgam times two, though I’ll keep it secret for now) was the last nail in the coffin on fucking him up entirely to a new level of corruption (damn is that a stretch I’m seeing-)

Long story short, this was also because I wanted ArPM to have a backstory that’s more than just ‘I’m evil nao bc me get poisond and mindcontrold by spoders out of spite hahahaha-’

Third (and lastly), who’s Ahetzo exactly and what’s his main purpose on the story?

This is a short one

In case you didn’t see my tweet on my Twitter account (here a linkie), this is a side character I made that’s supposed to be some kind of ‘spirit’ or something alike who’s the one in charge of the studio while ya dev boi is gone

In other words, he’s basically like Brad’s subconscious self (IK YIKES- YOU CAN HIT ME WITH THE CHAIR NOW I WON’T MIND-)

…and even though he tried to keep the anomaly thing contained as long as he could while figuring out how to disarm it or at least neutralize it (yes it was there way before, like during fpaw3 events or before so because AU logic lol), the more he tried to condense it, the more it multiplied itself until, well, y’know, shit blew up and everything just sdfghjk’d

And yes, he was the one who released the new worlds to keep the crazy stuff at range, this that

Oml my brain-

And before I finish here, I’d like to make a little ‘self-critic’ regarding my artwork here…and I gotta say, I’m really proud of it on most parts

As I began to retake on digital art lately –mostly due to my slight entering onto the FNF/partially NG communities and other things, I’ve been testing out new techniques and stuffs on GIMP 2 with the ‘routes’ tool and all that (that’s also why it looks almost symmetrical, but don’t fool urself it did took its time-), I even corrected some of the lines to make them sharp and fancy (haha funi joek im so quirkee-)

In here, I wanted to try mixing both solid and blurry shadows as well as replicating a ‘crystalish’ effect –as seen on Q-Ross’ eyes- and some line effects with the ink tool such as the liquid dripping out of Q’s mouth (yes that correcting fluid saliva now stfu-) and the graphite/correctfluid webs coming out of his clawtips/fingertips

And though I haven’t made an official palette for him, I think the colors I picked here suit him well enough in my own idea of such

Overall, I had fun making this, and I love how it came out

Still though, any criticism, opinion and commentary is welcome, both about my art piece and my little showcase over here

That’s all I got for now, see you all later on

K bai-

[estimatemygrade5-blog]

final exam mark calculator

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[flakandforay]

고민보다 Go Analysis

here’s the analysis of the 8th track for the Love Yourself 承 Her album

i would be analysing several components - music, lyrics and dance

disclaimer: this is just my personal opinion, feel free to disagree. i would love to hear your opinions on this, leave them in my askbox.

overall: okay so after listening to this song, it reminded me of 21st century girl and Fun Boyz ( 흥탄소년단 ) - those fun songs that just gets you in a groove tbh. not to mention how the dances for these songs aren't hardcore if you know what i mean. they're pretty much laid-back with only a few hardcore moves etc ( maybe thats why i get the vibe from it ) but either way, id say its a just a fun song and a nice song for them to promote along with their title song, DNA and MIC Drop. i had to listen to it a few times before liking it more than i should lmao but anyway, its a nice song to balance out the whole album asides from the title track with its electro pop, the hardcore MIC Drop with the soft sentiments from the intro and dimples and the outro and now this fun song that other people may enjoy more. truly, what namjoon said in their comeback V live that theres a song for everyone is true. he's not wrong at all.

music: okay, so what got me interested was the beginning of the track. this type of beat isn't that common and comparing with bts’ past songs, the beat is unusual ( but then again, during their early debut up till dark and wild, they were working on the hip hop and hard bad boy image which to me was great because the songs that they had last time were definitely suited for them ) 

so they had 13 seconds of the xylophone ( im pretty sure i heard it before, something similar as it uses mallets to play it ) then it moves on to using this flute, it might be the piri which is a traditional korean flute just in time when jimin comes in after 13 seconds. ( side note: the melody that the piri plays is quite mild, in a way, its not too low or too high, just enough to set the pace etc ) and ho ho, jimin’s starting the song again this time round !!! just like how he started best of me !! anyway what’s interesting is that they kept the first instrument sounds while putting the flute piece to be more dominant in this case but not overpowering jimin’s voice at the same time, interesting though. considering theyre using more instruments this time round.

interestingly there’s no actual bass during jimin’s part, just the same xylophone and flute, well in this case the xylophone is the one that’s keeping the whole song in check. but ahhh those few lines of jimin singing, it’s so relaxed, not too much pressure, like a short teaser. just in time for some few short drum beats as an intro for hoseok’s part at 0:28 ( like a little disclaimer that now it’s going to be a rap part )

anyway hoseok’s part, interestingly his rap here is pretty laidback, then again this whole song is laidback except for maybe the bridge/coda where the hype really intensifies. but moving on, hoseok’s rap lines are interesting because only specific parts are emphasized more such as ‘cruisin’ like Nemo’ where in this case, you can hear there’s a short pause in the beats for the ‘nemo’ to be be louder this time round!! but here the beats underlying it are actually just the xylophone this time round, the flute is removed !!! so guess actually the special characteristic of the song is the flute and done exceptionally well, using the flute in certain parts and not all ( so as to not overuse the flute because to me, the flute can be a bit pitchy if you keep hearing it for a while, considering that in this song it’s being amplified more when it’s being used !! )

but anyway, transitioning from hoseok’s part to jungkook’s part at 0:42, ( a short verse before it goes to yoongi’s rap ) there’s a very minimal use of drums in this case to intro that it’s jungkook’s part, so i it seems like jungkook’s part is a continuation of hoseok’s part ( in a way it’s within the same chunk of lines as the drums used were so short, it’s unnoticeable ) and then again, when it goes to yoongi’s part at 0:49, there’s also a very short use of drums !! and again underlying both jungkook and yoongi’s part, it’s the same xylophone melodies !!

for yoongi’s part, im pretty surprised that his rap was short as compared to the other members and to the other songs, but yet again, he delivers !!! you can hear how his tone changes interestingly, his lines are pretty short, but there’s some space in between his line for that small shout in between of ‘oh’ before he continues his last line where he actually e exaggerated his last word ( screams/cries...? i won’t call it growling or maybe it is ) but then afterwards there’s that short adlibs again of ‘woo woo’ before it goes on to the prechorus with jungkook again at 0:56.

actually here, the sound is being amplified so ive a feeling someone might be doubling jungkook, so in a way there’s someone underlying jungkook’s lines as well!! but actually it’s not all the lines, more of the end of his lines to exaggerate it more. im hearing seokjin’s vocals actually in this case ( and in the live performance seokjin is the one singing this part ) and again, is the same xylophone tune!!!!!! also, there’s actually a short adlib inside where the line repeats jungkook’s line ( kinda of like an extra emphasis ) remember that at 1:08 theres the emphasis on ‘want some’ before jungkook finishes the pre chorus smoothly 

now for the chorus at 1:24 with taehyung’s yolo, but look how slowed down the ;lyrics actually sound though in a way even when it transitions to jungkook’s part and then to seokjin and back to jungkook !!! the chorus is still pretty light in this case !! but you could hear the flute inside here underlying but very minimal!!

then when it comes to the 3rd verse at 1:54!! taehyung kicks it off but the tone of the voice that he's using, ohhhhh its so unique, its not his usual singing voice either and its barely him rapping, idk i find it pretty interesting, its a teasing voice to me!! and of course not commonly used by him! actually, the beats underlying this have more percussion this time round, less off the xylophone, an nice difference from the previous verses.

now to namjoon’s rap at 2:06, the beats used were similar to taehyung’s part beforehand but this time the percussion was bumped up a bit, to give it the extra feel of saying that this is the 3rd verse etc. even namjoon’s rap is pretty laid-back, not much aggression at all needed, he's playing with the rhythm and beats as well, giving 1-2 seconds spaces in between, and that nice short ad-lib at 2:20 to wrap up the rap nicely before moving on to the pre chorus again with jungkook !!!

tbh this part, those extra sounds at the end of the lines, i have a feeling it might jimin doubling, just because of the vocal tone etc before moving on to the chorus again at 2:35 with taehyung to jungkook to seokjin to jungkook again!! although it is to note that seokjin’s vocal tone used is slightly different and jungkook’s as well, its too relaxed in a way that they're saying the words rather than singing them. that same use of percussions before the chorus again as a signal was done well and even before moving on to the bridge at 3:03 with taehyung and seokjin !!

but the bridge is just more of the flute !!! look how tit just added more amplification to taehyung and seokjin’s lines in the bridge and only at 3:18 with jungkook and then jimin finishing up the bridge, did the percussion finally come in!!! but it actually is building up for the coda at 3:32, notice how the percussion used intensified not just from having crotchet beats, but more samples of percussions were used for the coda of them literally singing ‘고민보다’ and of course the characteristic of the flute is still being used !!

you can hear in the coda how the percussion intensified here but yet not overpowering the flute at all!! and then at 3:46, literally only the flute can be heard as the song comes to an end, that same rhythm to end the song till 3:55, a nice touch, kinda reinforcing that the flute is the hero of the song overall - a distinct tune that listeners won't forget.

lyrics: okay so lyrics wise, there isn't much to say because its a pretty chill song - in a way saying that you can spend money on yourself if you want to.

it is known that the younger generations dont really spend much money on themselves apparently, so in a way this song is to comfort the youth to pamper themselves once in a while etc.

돈은 없지만 떠나고 싶어 멀리로 난 돈은 없지만서도 풀고 싶어 피로 돈 없지만 먹고 싶어 오노 지로

=

No money but I wanna go far away I don’t have money but I wanna relax No money but I wanna eat Jiro Ono’s sush

looking at hoseok’s rap, look at how he's trying to explain the dilemma of youths who dont really spend on themselves but they have so much wants that aren't fulfilled. especially since we all now live in a world where time is money, theres barely time for rest

열일 해서 번 나의 pay 전부 다 내 배에 티끌 모아 티끌 탕진잼 다 지불해 내버려둬 과소비 해버려도 내일 아침 내가 미친놈처럼

=

Worked hard to get my pay Gonna spend it all on my stomach Pinching pennies to spend it all on wasting it Leave me be, even if I overspend Even if I break apart my savings tomorrow

now at jungkook and young’s part, they're painting the fact that the youth are working hard, especially since South Korea is known to be one of the countries where workers work long hours in a survey, more than average in a year

they're trying to console those who wants to spend etc

Woo 내일은 없어 내 미랜 벌써 저당 잡혔어 Woo 내 돈을 더 써

=

Woo there’s no tomorrow There’s already a mortgage on my future Woo spending my money even more

then seokjin’s part, look at those lyrics!!!! its nice how they already pointed out how theres mortgage to pay for a house in the future since many aspire to have their own houses etc, working hard to earn to pay for something that hasn't even come yet, saving as much 

Dollar dollar 하루아침에 전부 탕진 달려 달려 man I spend it like some party Dollar dollar 쥐구멍 볕들 때까지 해가 뜰 때까지

=

Dollar dollar Squandering it all in one day Run, run, man I spend it like some party Dollar dollar Till the sun shines through this mouse hole Till the sun comes up

then the pre chorus, okay honestly, this song has so much innuendos and nuances but nice touch there.

lmao, notice how they said ‘mouse hole’ because literally the youth stay in really tiny apartments especially in the city yet pay a lot for them

Yolo yolo yolo yo Where the party yah 탕진잼 탕진잼 탕진잼

=

Yolo yolo yolo yo Where the party yah Squandering fun, squandering fun, squandering fun

so the chorus is pretty much these lines being repeated but ahHHH, again spending money like no one’s business, you only live once kind of message and to think that bangpd wrote the lyrics and song, nice touch there

내 일주일 월화수목 금금금금 내 통장은 yah 밑 빠진 독이야 난 매일같이 물 붓는 중

=

My week goes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Gold gold gold gold¹ My bank account Is a pot with no bottom Every day, I’m pouring water into it

so taehyung’s part in the 3rd verse, nice word play there, because actually, friday = 금요일 and gold = 금, so you know how its friday after Thursday, but they just sing gold, gold, gold.

not to mention how they said that the banks were bottomless pits, spending money whenever

차라리 걍 깨버려 걱정만 하기엔 우린 꽤 젊어 오늘만은 고민보단 go해버려

=

Just break it apart We’re too young to just worry For today, just go instead of worrying

namjoon’s rap lyrics were done well again, bringing back the notion of how youth are young and they shouldnt worry much about spending etc

고민보다 go 고민보다 go 고민보다 go go (everybody!)

=

Just go instead of worrying Just go instead of worrying Just go instead of worrying (everybody!)

and now the bridge and coda being this, to just take risks without worrying much about the consequences just like how youth should be

id say the lyrics were pretty spot on with the message that they want to bring out, nicely done

choreography: like I've mentioned before, this stage is a fun, the 21st century girl vibes and fun boyz stage.

not too difficult dance moves, with only some appearing at the bridge, coda etc.

lots of meme moves as seen in the choreography itself, with the backpack dance etc and the several vines. tbh this whole dance is so cute and lively and goofy, love it

the intro with them appearing one by one 

why isn't anyone talking much about this??? because literally look at them being a small gang, hands on shoulders, wow i need time to process this

and this move, definitely 21st century vibes

the backpack kid move, seriously, how fast can one swing their arms, but its so cute???? ( Reference )

the shoulder shrug !!! prolly shrugging about spending money ( maybe?? )

i need a moment, because wow 

this iconic head bob from a vine ( Reference )

this ending?? uhm rude but wow his eyes are big?? and that jawline oh my

but im still curious as to why they all stare ahh the right though, what is there hmm

last thoughts: overall, i think this is a fun song, like ive mentioned before. but it is to note that this song does not have much doubling involved but then again i feel it would be unnecesary to have so much of it unlike the rest but anyway, like i said this song actually balances out the whole album etc and the message is well delivered, and of course great stages ( even outfits that are so cute, i mean overalls???? ) as usual, the lines given are pretty much fairly given out except for yoongi and the cute dance that everyone is making a challenge of, props to them for making the dance famous wink

[Photo Source] Bighit Entertainment  Credits: maxine ☕️ DO NOT REPOST ©