#theres such a fun juxtaposition

[iliterallydecepticanteven]

I'm going back through my phone notes and I remember I was gonna write a fun kinda tongue in cheek TFA fic of Ratchet dealing with various interfacing related injuries and getting fed up with them all. Like Autobot-Decepticon truce situation, and he's gotta deal with stuff like Lugnut coming in with shattered optics because Strika sat on his face too hard, and Bulkhead comes in with minor electrical burns and arhythmia because Bumblebee accidentally shocked him, and Shockwave and Blurr coming in with friction burns in embarrassing places for reasons you can probably figure out. Like fun non-serious but embarrassing injuries. Then the punchline would be Ratchet getting a broken hip because he fell off the berth in the middle of getting busy with Arcee and the other medics desperately trying not to laugh while patching him up. That's for sure going on the future fics list.

[zemnarihah]

hey.

[notedchampagne]

Trick or Treat! I haven't read tlt yet, and I'm sure I would like it, but my pet peeve is that most of the "synopses" I see are basically just "lesbian necromancers in space!" and even the back of the book that I've seen just doesn't give me much of an idea of the plot? I'm sure I would like it, but it's hard to know what it's actually About 😔

treat. thats a similar gripe i have as well! i think its good for attracting an audience but it doesnt do much to get them hooked aside from "it has lesbians in it". if you want to get a genuine tlt fic rec from me i wrote this in goodreads. yes sorry i started a goodreads i just needed to keep track of what books i read:

the locked tomb series is about the horrors of love, the tragedy of relationships beyond romance, why codependency is not as fun as you think, the joy of sacrifices, how imperialism affects culture affects people affects imperialism, and most importantly: the humor of not knowing what the fuck is going on. i PROMISE you that tamsyn ties all of these together perfectly.

gideon the ninth is about the intimacy of hating someone youve known your whole life, the all-consuming desire to make something out of yourself and how it can destroy you if youre not careful, how no man is an island, and how you are not immune to propaganda. it is also a murder mystery. i ALSO promise tamsyn writes this all in efficiently.

throughout the series, muir's gimmick is choosing the person least equipped to narrate objectively: the points of view are opinionated, ignorant, humorous, and challenging to get through if you're someone that asks "can this PLEASE be explained now??" she sets up dominoes in seemingly random places at random times, and then knocks it all over in a beautiful cascade of information that makes you feel thrilled and sick. the series is incredibly rereadable from the layers of foreshadowing and theming between all three (soon to be four) books, but for your first run you HAVE to be patient. you HAVE to be willing to be entertained. the payoff of being invested in this series is glorious; it's red-string 'am i crazy' hype. i have a google doc listing off theme connections and details that i started for fun. the characters are MEAN, which i value with my life. gideon and harrowhark are 17 and 18 years old and they act like it: they're funny, theyre self-flagellating, theyre bitchy, theyre unreasonable, etc etc. every character flaw is consistent with their being.

my biggest gripes with the series is that the worldbuilding is too weak for what i can see it being and the memes can be a little niche. the setting and necromancy is moreso a tool for the characters, so theres a lot of beautiful tidbits and descriptions, but you're not going to get any rules or meta beyond surface-level aesthetics. personally, "lesbian necromancers in space" does not cut it for me. if you were raised catholic though, this book might strike a chord with you. if you were raised catholic AND you are a lesbian, youre the target audience. i hope you have fun YOU WILL LIKE THIS SERIES/BOOK IF YOU LIKE: tragedy, character juxtaposition, the teen butch struggle, the exploration of love and toxic dynamics, mystery, sci-fi written like a fantasy novel, catholic theming, death theming, enemies to lovers but worse, freaky white girls, dyke drama, lesbians that have problems bigger than dyke drama, swordfighting, character duos, morally gray characters YOU MIGHT NOT LIKE THIS BOOK/SERIES IF YOU DISLIKE: being confused, being left in the dark for too long, unreliable narrators, morally gray characters, loose/light worldbuilding

[pinazee]

If you’re so smart, then why are you dead?

To start, heres a list of scientists that some characters were named after:

Lisa Meitner (physicist, bad bitch)

Otto Hahn (physicist)

Kurt Gödel (mathematician) (shawn was sort of correct with the pronunciation)

Robert Goddard (physicist)

William Shockley (racist)

I thought this was an accident because James seems to snicker after but apparently it was planned by Dulé’s stand in Gyle (Gile?)

Gus really should have known this was Avogadros number if he took any kind of chemistry.

Were they originally going to have Shawns mom a cop too and thats why he said he was born with “an extra normal amount [of paranormalevolance]. Two cops to be exact.” I have a vague memory of someone mentioning it on a commentary.

I wish they had let Juliet have a little more participation in the solve and therefore the victory. Or better yet, gave her a separate case to solve on her own so we saw her really get a win under her belt. She could still ask Shawn for advice, or maybe while he’s doing his whole psychic episode bit to give her a clue she solves it without him, and Shawns left standing impressed. But also, you’re telling me that she wasn’t the primary when she went undercover at the sorority??

The way Dulé says “i never got carsick a day in my life!” ABSOLUTELY SENDS ME

But what really made the Gusters keep him from going? Was it just their overprotectiveness? Was shawn really his only friend? Are they still trying to protect him from the truth?

Somehow i got it in my brain that Shawn was responsible for Gus not getting in. I think i headcanoned that so hard i made it feel true lol i thought Shawn knew the whole time (i mean he must have seen Gus practicing and being extra anxious about something) and he somehow convinced his parents that Gus wouldn’t have been happy there. maybe part of that was true, but little Shawn just didn’t want him to go.

Either way, if the Gusters were actually concerned about quality of life, then they chose Gus’s happiness over his success which is such a juxtaposition to Shawn and his dad.

Or maybe they visited the school and saw a kid getting shocked and said fuck that.

Here’s another instance of Gus looking for where he went wrong in life. If only he’d spelt aggiornamento correctly, if only he’d gone to Meitner. Gus seems so unhappy with himself, and theres this underlying narrative happening that Gus might actually be depressed. Like in 9 lives when he’s convincing himself he’s happy, or in down the stretch when Shawn says Gus needed a victory more than him at the moment. This poor guy spent so much of his life being told he would go far, that he could do anything, so when he didn’t, he felt like a failure. And I don’t think that was his parents fault necessarily, i think he put that pressure on himself, simply because it was expected. He was the gifted kid who burned out, and now he’s settled into something safe, reliable, and unfulfilling.

Then you have this chess match with Shawn and Henry and we see Shawn demonstrate his own genius. But the juxtaposition here is that shawns pressure was external. Shawn also had the potential to go far but that ultimately isn’t what he strives for. Shawn just wants to have a good, fun life. Probably because his dad sucked the fun out of everything (let the kid call the knight Dwight, jesus henry).

Sidenote: I’m obsessed with finding this blonde guy in the background now haha

[molluskmirage]

The clashing contrast of Etoiles and Bad’s fighting styles are very fun as they’re on polarizing ends of the spectrum.

Etoiles is very much of the ‘bushido’ way. You train to be skilled but your skills have rules and codes and honor. Fights in pure brute to brute skill is considered both the right and the ‘fun’ option for Etoiles and lack of chance to flex these skills causes depression.

Bad is very much a hunter, in specific a ‘human’ type hunter. He uses his wit and tenacity (‘being a nuisance’) to overcome ‘prey’ much greater then himself. He thinks tactically and uses every resource to cause damage mentally, physically, and emotionally, no tool is left untouched. Points and fun for bad come from creativity.

In the ‘quiet’ moments not in combat Etoiles always eager to spar at any opportunity, playfully beating up on anyone in his vicinity. Bad always eager to discover a new elaborate way to trick or tease those he cares for.

how this plays out narratively is very fun as well for Etoiles’s fighting style and mentality it goes along with him achieving the greatest shield and greatest sword. To him only he can protect others for he has achieved the best, through his merit and skill.

for Bad upon hearing of the code sword’s effects immediately came up with a device (basically a weaponized battle backpack) of simple tools available to everyone that could counter the sword’s effects, because for bad when he hears of a challenge he lights up and schemes to overcome, never saying to himself that his weaknesses can keep him from competing.

Both Etoiles and Bad are persistent, for Etoiles it means becoming stronger for Bad it means defeating by any means by any source. For Etoiles Bad’s fighting style is considered ‘dirty’ ‘not honorable’ and ‘not fun’. Where Etoiles has high respect for Bad is that Bad is highly trained and puts a lot of effort into what he does, while an opposing end to Etoiles it still takes just as much effort to pull off in a substantial way and Bad does that, the love and passion and work put in are the same for both. Both reserve themselves against others that aren’t willing to partake in going against them in non combat settings. While Etoiles picks up on what is the same for him within Bad, Purgatory was a show of how there styles are in direct conflict with one another.

Order vs chaos.

Its very entertaining to have these two pairings as again in their respective fields they’re both very great at what they do but they both of course do so differently to one another the clash is fun.

They haven’t really had the chance to actually clash too much, purgatory being the biggest opportunity and kind of realization moment thus far but the chord that is similar is still too strong for them to have a chance at opposition just yet (I feel theres plenty of opportunity for it to happen at some point down the line which Id be happy for because I love juxtapositions particularly in ones where neither is right or wrong just different. Very cool stuff!)

[luxxsolaris]

The issues (and non-issues) of bimbocore

This little discussion is coming off the back of a thought (rant) I shared on another blog a few weeks ago, largely where reinvented bimbo started compared to where it is now and why is everyone blaming Chrissy Chlapecka?

the resurgence of the 'bimbo' aesthetic in the early 2020s embarked as a movement of reclamation, a way to assert that there was actually nothing demeaning about a barbie-esque appearance and to remove the power from stereotypes used against us, essentially centring the Bimbo in a queer, left-wing ideology.

If you were to ask a modern Bimbo why hot pink? Why bedazzled? Why perform this exaggerated caricature of femininity? You might end up in a seemingly unrelated discussion about the modern Western political landscape. Bimbo culture has essentially emerged upon the heels of the controversies surrounding feminine experiences and bodily autonomy across the United States- women feeling that they are being confined to a specific performance of femininity, that the government is regulating their femininity, may tell you that the idea of bimbo culture is a satirical backlash to the ideas of what a modern Western woman should be and what she is expected to be. She is nothing more than a doll to the culture that surrounds her and her response is to take what is expected of her and make it a performance a juxtaposition of what she is expected to be and what she is and make them hate her for the femininity she is presenting. And thats exactly what Lauren Pantin said in her short update newsletter - ' If you’re going to punish me for being a woman anyway, I’m going to be the silliest, brattiest, potty-mouthed no-no of a woman you’ve ever seen. I’ll be the dumbest bitch on earth! Where’s my crown!"

Ask another bimbo and she'll tell you that her bimboism stems from the movement to satirise consumerist culture and misogyny, aiming to remove the stigmas around hyper-femininity. Essentially, allowing women to empower themselves through their femininity (rather than the popular idea of in spite of their femininity cough cough inlog cough) and giving women ownership over their sexuality and their body in ways that actively combat the misogynistic standards held against them- oftentimes gearing it towards queer people. It's a new-wave feminist movement designed to avert the male gaze through women appearing as these caricatures of traditional femininity whilst emphasising their own dominance and independence as support for women's right movements.

So it's a kind of sartorial rebellion against oppressive politics and culture? Well, it was at first. And to many it still is, however, as with all trends rooted in a sartorial culture the meaning tends to get lost in the shares and reposts as it expands across social media. Those who just happen across the culture or see nothing but images of it scattered across the internet arent likely to understand that this aesthetic is also a political performance, it will become a bimbo resurgence!... but not effectively hold the same weight and meaning that the movement was intended to hold.

One way to look at this is the trend of " girl [activity]" . Trends like girl maths, girl dinner, explaining things to the girlies. Now let me get it straight theres nothing wrong in finding a little fun in these trends- girl dinner was cute, as someone who loves cooking I loved seeing what everyone was making for their dinner until it got overrun by the 'I only had iced coffee today' brigade. Sometimes I'll see a girl maths video about how if I pay in cash its basically free since the number on my bank account didn't change and I laugh because thats logic I have applied to purchases before. There's little funny things and behaviours that people will have in common, and they're being labelled as 'girl [blank]' because it is predominantly groups of women discussing them and finding a little fun in it. But again, as trends reach a wider audience their initial intention becomes lost along the way and generalisations start to set in. TV shows and radio hosts have entire segments explaining girl maths, it has become cute and quirky to explain political landscapes in terms of shopping and makeup, and bimbo culture has become less of a satirical performance and instead commonly assumed as a Karen Smith- esque personality reminiscent of the 'dumb blondes' of the early 2000s.

Removing this sartorial protest from its context can be seem as damaging, especially in the way that social media currently presents aesthetics surrounding sexuality to young people. As bimbo culture reaches a wider audience it's likely to fall into the hands of young people who are, let's face it, not going to care about the deeper meaning. Young people are likely to see celebrities, tiktok personalities, attractive people in general donning their hot pink promiscuous outfits and feel inclined to join in on what is presented to them as nothing more than the newest fashion trend.

One of the key movements of bimboisim is to embrace feminine sexuality and overcome the stigmas about women expressing their sex and sexuality and sartorially this is represented by the micro mini skirt and the skimpy shirt. Society has had no difficulty pushing teenage girls to grow up rather quickly by presenting them with teen magazines in the y2k era talking about how to get a bigger bust or butt, social media promoting the attractive body type the attractive face the attractive makeup the attractive style of clothing that will settle their pubescent insecurities and validate them in the eyes of a society run by men. Young women are ridiculed for their bodies not being developed enough at 15, for not being sexually active at 16, must have lived the life experiences of drugs and alcohol and sex and heartbreak at 17 and are then turned into high school girl fucks random guy porn at 18. Removed-bimboism has become part of the problem in which young girls not only feel the need to dress promiscuously and express a sexuality that they still haven't fully explored in order to feel validated as an active part of society but also have to present themselves as stupid in order to seem funny cute and quirky. The idea that women are only able to understand complex theories if they are presented in terms of fashion and shopping and makeup is a stereotype enforced by tv and movie comedy that women have worked endlessly to overcome, and the reclamation of bimbo culture should not actively counteract the progress of feminist activity. You don't have to be smart to be a modern bimbo by any means, in terms of intelligence the movement is centred around a more relaxed approach to success that counters the ideology of the girl boss movement- you don't HAVE to be a huge success or overwork yourself to hell and back to validate who you are as a woman.

Modern bimboism set out with the comfort of knowing there is no pressure to understand everything, you might need something explained in your own terms, you might just be a little fucking stupid sometimes but there is no active harm in not always understanding. That, however, has been twisted through these trends discussed prior to make it seem like all bimbos (and by misogynistic extension, all women) are just not as smart as men. Which, as we know, is likely to be emulated by young people as it reaches a wider audience.

So it's understandable why there is concern over bimboism. But at what point does critique of bimboism begin to drift into the right wing? Blaming women who dress provocatively simply for being women who dress provocatively is not the answer, in my opinion, to the issues with the bimbo culture. There is (to the chagrin of many) nothing wrong with an adult women expressing the ownership of the sexuality that she was granted the right to express through the liberation of women, sex and queerness.

Tensions have been rising within more radical groups, or groups who are of the tendency to reject feminine presentation in regard to what they perceive as an active threat to the reputation of women. There has been a desire expressed across social media sites by these women that 'all women' should refrain from direct expressions of femininity and reject all social norms expected of women under the assertion that it 'makes us all look bad'. There is a lot to be said about the ways in which misogyny utilises stereotypes and generalisations of what is considered 'feminine behaviour' to degrade women, however, it is highly pretentious and internally misogynistic a notion that the very idea of feminine expression is to be at fault. The ideology begins to attack individual women, expressing that their online content is to blame for the ways in which men treat women, or that children have become so oversexualised.

In a way this reflects the puritan standards of online censorship frequently weaponised by the right wing in order to oppress further marginalised groups. 'Think of the Children' has been used time and time again as a way to bastardise protests of queerness, of sexual liberation of racial equity and it is being weaponised now again just as it was across the 70s against women who dare to be 'immodest' . It goes without saying that people who create content online are not responsible for the actions of teenagers who in the midst of discovering their sexuality, may seek out more mature content- not just for sexual gratification, but a newfound interest into how adults express their sexuality as a way to help them navigate expression themselves. To place limits on how women are allowed to dress or express sexuality is to revert to the ideas of puritanism that existed prior to the (well, partial) liberation of the marginalised people.

Is bimbo culture perfect? No, it's been washed out as a mimicry of early 2000s internalised misogyny. Is it worth hating on random women? No, there issue is more centred to how misgyny is so deeply rooted in our society that we are happier to blame women for the stereotypes forced upon them than to actually comment on how society cultivates these ideas.

[d1gnan]

here's a little deep dive on the fight club necklace / my process in general hehe

i put like way too much thought into all my jewelry and this is about to be the most in depth ive actually ever gone about my process so sorry in advance 4 how long winded i am

(and if ur new to my jewelry i get everything secondhand and i upcycle so i source from places like estate sales/thrift stores/antique malls/ebay/shop frum peoples personal collections etc )

i think the necklace and the original paper street bracelet i made speak the same visual language as the paper street house pretty well because i sourced most of it from some of my oldest and most visually ornate jewelry finds.

a lot of the beads from this one are actually from this really dope older lady i knows collection/more specifically from a costuming warehouse in nyc and the jewelry is just so ornate and crazy and out of style, i imagine they were once worn by the kind of people that wouldve gotten their soup peed in so its kind of fun to reclaim them for something like this

when i went to go look thru my stash i was specifically thinking of chipping wallpaper and pulling anything that evoked that to me-kind of corny for a second, but i love beat up old houses visually and theres something so cool about the juxtaposition of ornate/destroyed. layerS and layers of beautiful print made sad and irrelevant by its surroundings. these (the houses and the jewelry) were luxurious and cool and trendy at one point and now theyre completely obsolete and funny. i honestly think the whole thing screams tyler durdens philosophy also

( a beautiful thing destroyed, the performance of put-togetherness+ wealth, putting stake in material goods+trends only for them to be completely stripped away by time )

but anyway yeah when u put these glamorous old things together with stuff like keys and charms that don't match and mix gold/silver, you get this really lived in and sick junk drawer effect, and when you pair pale whites with pale greens it can kind of give a souring/moldy/aged look

little more specific callouts tho for references (left to right)

golf club charms r pretty obvious

the green engraved stone i grabbed immediately because it gives the old wallpaper feeling i was going for

theres this golden charm that's kinda like a kitschy grandma charm, it says "1 minute/1 hour/1day/1week/1year/1leapyear/1century" and i put that as a reference to "this is your life and its ending one minute at a time"/"i am jacks wasted life" and i also think it works on another level/kindamatches with fight clubs irony since its like supposed to be a cutie love commitment idk at least 2 me hahaha

the little step ladder charm and the key i added so that it would read as yeah a dirty old unfinished house/kinda a visual junk drawer..the key i got at an estate sale (i got a bunch and had to make key soup to clean them all)it opens something somewhere

the dog vaccination tag is there both as a reference to the guy that they threaten but then also slightly as a nod to the narrators wacked self esteem the whole like puppy dog obsession aspect IDK

theres a little P and S charm for paper street

the freshwater pearl at the end and the plastic bone shaped bead are kind of supposed to give teeth/bones like subconsciously, i tried a kind of similar thing when i made jewelry based off of pearl from X and tried to make like a rotting looking necklace

theres a little coke bottle cracker jack toy on there too, if ur trying to condense fight club into symbols, glass bottles pop up in my brain so i wanted to find something like that and i got lucky. theres also a little green telescope cracker jack toy thats kind of rusty and i picked it up for how well it matched what i was going for visually but i feel like it could also be a space monkeys thing

any way thanks for looking at this, like i said this is the deepest ive ever gone into depth about my process, but this is why im so drawn to creating jewelry it feels like taking a picture or finishing a puzzle i just do it in a really specific way and it always feels fresh and new when i start a new project, (i definitely dont always have this much to say i promise) but any way hope this was cool

[we-out-here-simping]

i wanna know how you wrote kiss it away honey, because i read it twice and there's something in the writing that fucks with my brain so bad, i don't really know how to explain it but it confuses the hell out of me and it's just so good

oooo i LOVE this question!! tysm for asking and i'm sorry this took me a while to answer

i'm so so sooo glad people really like this fic bc its so special to me! i feel like i really hit the jackpot when i wrote i really am so so proud of it!

i'm not quite sure if this is an answer but here have my ramble <3

to a certain degree its supposed to be a take on a general x reader fic, where the reader is worried or going through something and the character just does everything right and fixes everytging. so i guess, reader really is a self insert for me because when i first thought of this fic i was having an awful time and just wanted to cry in this guys arms. but somehow that got demented into the monster it is now!

it really is just one of those fics that gets better with on the second read, if i do say so myself. when i do put the part 2 out, i think re reading this will i think give u a lot of 'oh shit' moments (again, if i do say so myself)

the writing style is so fun to do. actions/emotions are written in very concise, short sentences. theres a lot of repetition for impact ofcourse we love her. both sort of add to the vagueness and ambiguity of it all that messes with your brain.

theres this juxtaposition of their more mundane and domestic moments as well as the very fucked things happening behind the scenes yk like murder and what is practically gaslighting your partner and yourself. Fun!

i feel like the way steve is written in this fic is so interesting. his devotion towards the reader is unparalled and unending. when @procrastinationprincesses was reading this fic for the first time, she mentioned how crazy it is that steve is dating what is practically his god, because the reader created him. and i think about that a lot lol

this is a bit embarassing to admit but around the time i was writing it, i was hyperfixating on a lot of the five nights at freddy's lore lmaoo like i was watching video essays that were multiple hours long so, many of the sentiments seeped from it. one particular one is one of the characters promises one dying character that he wil 'put him back together' which paralells 'he's the only one who could ever fix you' in the fic if that makes sense?

another thing that affected the tone of this fic was the fact that i always had to listen to mitski's "my love mine all mine" everytime i sat down to write. and i still have to do that when i try to get into the mood for part 2. the fic isnt necessarily based on it but the vibes are very much there

another thing i might have subconsciously taken from def was wandavision. i think that is self explanatory in of itself.

one of my fave lines i've ever written def has to be "silence was unbearable when it wasn't mixed in with your heartbeat" :( bc thats crazy i ate that i fear

[thehandwixard]

I wanna hear why you think kh2 hasbeen strange because as far as i know it's supposed to be the most popular one

maybe part of it has been adjusting to the new battle system when i actually really enjoyed what kh1 1.5 version brought to the table. felt streamlined and simple but not in a way that took away the punch... kh2's battle system is VERY bloated at the start and it feels much less satisfying to hack and slash so far. itll probably get better though.

i find myself less willing to sit through story scenes as well from the disney worlds. theres far too many of them for too little payoff, since the world stories are split into many parts so you can return later. in theory thats good and fun, but so many of these cutscenes are explaining minigames or the plot of the movie. mulan world is like. extremely infuriating. its a really really bad world

despite mine and EVERYONE's gripes with re:chain of memories, i can see the bones of the combat system and theyre pretty nice, and also it was doing interesting stuff from the beginning with its story in both the disney world and the overall plot, and it had reasons for these things to not be interconnected. kh2 feels disconnected and handholdy in a way it has not earned. its just been strange.

its a real shame because i, again, like everyone, ADORE where kh2 goes with its story, but i feel like kh1 overall did more with less in making the disney worlds mean something. so far at least. its just a really strange uhh... juxtaposition. between the opening and what you're dropped into. however, i have high hopes for tron world

the drive forms are fun though. kh2 is like. a very toys game... and in some ways thats pretty fun, and in other ways im like... im not really here to look at toys and look at set pieces from the movie that half the time the game isnt giving the time of day to depict in a cool way anyways. the energy is just off.

[pawphin]

here is my buzzcut season tpn amv from a while ago :]] this is still my favorite thing ive ever made

explanation of scenes matching lyrics under the cut for fun! because its fun to analyze stuff

"the men, upon, the news, they try to tell us all, that we, will lose"

this was the first time i had ever made an amv and when i saw that line the first thought i had was isabella, so i just used the first clip i saw of her. i also used the ray right after and tried to edit it so it synced with the rhythm.

"but it's so easy, in, this blue..."

thought process: blue. norrayemma. yes.

"...where everything is good."

ray hands norman the thing hes been working on for the past six years, the tool that will help them escape and find a "good" place for themselves. he's giving norman another chance. to symbolize the start of this, i added the clip where norman activates the tool.

after this, theres a short instrumental break where it flashes between scenes of characters interacting, and i wanted it to represent the strength of their bonds and the desperation in normans attempt.

"and i'll never go home, again"

MY FAVORITE PART. again with the desperation, i edited two clips of norman running up the wall and then cut to an unsteady shot of the house, trying to represent how easily their plans could fall apart.

i then let it cut to my favorite shot in the anime which is norman standing at the top of the wall, with nothing but a giant cliff in front of him. and in that moment, norman realizes he will never go home again. that his fate truly is sealed, and all he can do is accept it and help emma and ray and the others as best he can.

"place the call, feel it start."

i cut between emma and ray while theyre at the tree hoping for norman to succeed. to them, this is only the beginning. the plan will succeed. but to norman this is the end.

"favorite friend. and nothing's wrong when nothing's true."

the first part, "favorite friend," doesnt really match the lyrics with the scene itself that well but i will say that i tried VERY heard to sync rays smirk and emmas blink with the beat of the song.

the second half, "and nothing's wrong when nothing's true," is another one i really like, where emma and ray's confidence is immediately torn to shreds at the sight of isabellas smirk. there is no being ignorant anymore. everything is wrong when everything is true, and norman giving them their last perceived group hug is what makes it official.

"i live in a hologram with you."

my favorite lyrics in any song ever. honestly this was also more just a visual thing, with ray expressing silent contentment, norman expressing shock and horror, and emma expressing confidence and her steel-will. i think the hand holding is norman putting his hand on emmas, which reinforces the "hologram" emma finds herself with when norman is gone.

i also had to add ray and norman laughing because i love them and its a cruel juxtaposition to what just happened 0.2 seconds earlier.

"we're all the things that we do, for fun"

this part is meant to be a flashback of sorts to when they were still blissfully unaware and happy just playing tag in the forest all day. i also didnt realize how norman-centric this amv was until now lol

"(and i'll breathe, and it goes.)"

i think in the original song this is meant to be calming in a way. like after taking a deep breath you forget your worries for a little bit. in the amv i segwayed from happy fun moments to the horror of discovering connies body because i imagined the horror of trying to take a normal breath after that. its like how you always blink unconsciously but the moment you start thinking about it, it becomes a task.

"play, along. make believe it's hyper-real."

the first part is easy, emma playing along with isabella so she doesn't suspect her.

i love the second line, "make believe it's hyper-real," because that line basically encompasses tpn as a whole. before they knew the truth, they lived in their own little world with artificial rules and limitations. but they were happy. and now they know too much to be blissfully ignorant once more, no matter how much they'd like to return to their old lives. i wanted to show this by contrasting their first plans to escape with norman getting shipped out.

(it also reminds me of emma saying "e-magic-nation" instead of "imagination" in a letter to norman, so i love it even more)

i included the ringing of ray's bell after this to kind of snap the viewer out of it before the final lyrics played. i tried to sync it as best as i could but movie maker is so mean

"but i live in a hologram with you."

the last part of this amv shows emma turning the tables on ray who is fully ready to martyr himself. when ray is holding the lit match, there is no reflection in emmas eyes. but when she's holding it theyre fully ablaze, and it cuts to a determined emma and a shocked ray reacting to norman's "hologram."

norman will always be there, will always be there to guide them, even if only in mind and spirit. the lyrics suggest something darker, but i wanted to end it on a positive note where emma and ray are able to overcome their setbacks and push forward with norman to guide them.

[bmpmp3]

ive loved it since i first heard it in project diva x years ago, but listening to Tsumi no Namae again (with slightly higher quality headphone audio rather than my vita speakers <3 ) i didnt realize just how crazy the production choices of this song is. wait hold on lemme hashtag musicpost for a minute. im busting out the timestamps

immediate tone setting. bagpipes??? or something like that right out the gate which is wild. clock winding, gear crunching, and real human woman whispering (i think in english but ive never been able to find official lyrics of that section) as well <3 im a sucker for using human voices with synth voices i think it adds a lot of neat texture

the instrument choices lean into a fantasy musical-esque soundscape for obvious reason (the whole song is basically a little original fable or myth type story complete with trickster goddesses and breaking fate's curses etc etc) but the composition is plenty pop rock which is a fun juxtaposition im always a fan of but like SPECIFICALLY those drums that start around a minute in. im not sure what it is, the speed? how loud and hard the drums are? it works so well to give it a forward momentum while also being a bit uncanny. maybe im just imagining how tired the drummers arms would be hitting at that speed and with that amount of power for this long........ but yeah it gives it this unexpected, sorta otherworldly feel, like its just a fraction of a fraction faster than you'd assume. theres like hints of clapping and stuff in there too i think? so much all together but so so so good

and speaking of how tired those drummers arms would be, i do love that this song is six and a half minutes, i love stuff over 5 minutes like YES i am going to waste SO MUCH TIME staring into space and listening really hard (i like to listen to songs on loop <3 half an hour is gonna go away in just a few plays) i love love love love love it

1:38 mark THE BANJO????

1:43 ouuhhhh that we-will-rock-you-type boom-boom-bap-type clap-clap-stomp percussion. ouhhhhhh yesssssssssssssssss.

1:50 the banjo and the flute are now making out in the background. they are making out sloppy style

2:00 there's like this drum breakdown thats incredibly poppy and rock-y which also goes back to the like fun blends of instrument choice and composition

2:23 am i crazy or is there like a tiny tiny little bit of like a static sound as a piece of percussion in this quieter bit... love a mix of fantasy with digital artefacting

2:45 IS THAT A HINT OF SOME MANNER OF BASS INSTRUMENT IN MY LEFT EAR I HEAR..........

3:50 WHAT is that little sound near the right.... it sounds like one of those medieval instruments but i cant remember which one.... and the banjo has made a return

3:58 THE BASS COMING IN ON THE LEFT

4:35 okay the whole bridge section is crazy but first of all. the dynamics between the deep bass-y sounds going between the two ears.

4:40 and what on EARTH is THAT. like a glitchy static-y bit of vocals going on both sides. AND the flute-y sounding thing is going NUTS up there

4:45 and this is what always makes me lose my mind. that really REALLY deep, circular, almost string sounding instrument? is that a god damn hurdy gurdy. i dont know much about instruments can you tell...... BUT for real that like again adds this haunting, extra bit of synthetic uncannyness to the medieval fantasy fable story

5:18 WHAT is that long like droning sound. is that also bagpipes. whats that classical piece thats supposed to teach you how to differentiate the parts of an orchestra. i need to drill that in my head im fighting for my life out here. ANYWAY those background notes with also these bits of like chattering? people talking or playing?

5:24 RANDOM BIT OF MEDIEVAL VIOLIN

6:08 and ending off with the glittering little chimes.... awesome

i dunno just holy shit man. this song goes everywhere it wants to. theres a banjo.

[musicaltheatregirlsandsongs]

Musical Theatre Song Contest: Round One D

Submitter’s propaganda under the cut

Letters

one of my friends said it has a “pirate ass beat” when I made him listen to it. anyway it slaps :3

look everyone makes fun of the "natalie natalie natalie" part but its funny and in character, and theres so much other stuff in the song too. theres the whole bit with pierre doing unhinged math to prove napoleon is satan and declaring he's going to kill him. i also just really like the line "i see nothing but the candle in the mirror, no visions of the future, so lost and alone"

have you HEARD the harmonies. they make me feel things. also iT IS NAPOLEON

If I Had My Time Again

it's the two ways to see reliving your life! its so! hopeful and so sad at the same time!! phil has been thinking only about himself for so long! rita does not even need to go through everything he does to see that to live again should be used for good and loving!

I love the song! The lyrics are great juxtaposition, with it also being humourous a little bit. Phil is so done with being in the time loop and he believes he's tried absolutely everything and Rita's like "I think I would try all the things :D" She's positive about the whole thing and Phil is just so very done but they have a nice day together because her positivity's just infectious. My favourite line I think is from Phil "I've started 700 fights, and if you knew the endless nights, that I have wasted getting wasted contemplating different ways to suicide" just the rhyming and the way it sounds when Andy Karl sings it and I could do a whole analysis if I see it in the bracket to expand more if you want!

[xfictionx0]

Occult Encounter at the Mall

I was hanging out with my friend, Emily, I usually call her Em, and her friend group. We were in her car listening to music, on our way to the mall. Em and her friends are really cool. They’re all into video games, anime and nerdy stuff like me. 

We arrive at the mall. Em’s driving is kinda wonky, but we get to our destination in one piece, thankfully🙏  We walk in to the mall. Straight to a clothes store. I notice they only have women’s clothes. Is it just me or is it always hot in clothes stores? I almost build up a sweat from just standing there. But luckily we didn’t stay there for too long. I start to remember I kinda hate shopping, but then we walked to this store were they have all sorts of pop culture stuff like games and comic books and such. It’s way more fun to look in these kinds of stores in my opinion.  

We start getting hungry so we decide that we should get something to eat. We go to the food court. It has several restaurants and chains circling a big open space with tables and seats. Me and Em get a hot dog each. While her friends got some boba tea, a pizza and a quesadilla, which they shared. While we wait in line for the food, one of Em’s friends comes back, she had bought a sweater. It looked pretty cool. A knitted sweater with a gothic inspired cemetery, crows and flies flying around in the air while the ground was infested with rats and worms. I thought it was a cool juxtaposition with the knitted, cozy, warm crafting method, mixed with the dark, harsh, cold realities of the design.

Then we got our foods and went to sit down and enjoy our meals.  

After a while we get done eating and start to discuss what to do next. None of us gets any specific idea, so we just hang around and chat for an hour or two. All of a sudden music starts blasting from the speakers. They’re playing Gangnam Style. And a person starts dancing on the open floor right in front of us. Suddenly others starts to join in. I can’t believe it. I realize it’s a flash mob. Im like; What the hell is going on? Have we been transported back to 2012??

Em told me that there was too many people there and that her anxiety was going wild. So we decide to leave. Her friends wanted to stay and see the show though. Which was no problem. On our way out we walk past this one store. I ask if they’re ever going to restore this shop, I can’t remember last time I saw it open. 

Theres shutters over the entrance, but it has some holes in it so I try to shine the light from my phones flashlight in there to get a better look. But it’s still too dark to really see anything. Then my friend tries to be funny and tries to spook me, so she jumps on my back, making me drop my phone in to the store. «Nice, what do we do now?» I try to stretch my arm into the store through the shutter holes, but the openings are to small to fit my entire arm. As I try to make my arm fit I notice the shutters are kinda shrugging off the floor. I try to lift them and they fly up. Someone must have forgotten to lock them. 

No one else were nearby, everybody in the mall were probably to preoccupied with the flash mob. So we walk inside. I grab my phone off the floor. I shine my phone on the stand I vaguely see next to me, and there I see all these games and statues. This store used to be a GameStop. All GameStops in my country are now closed down. Which is sad😿  This store must have been closed down since the start of the 2010s, at least. Because the shop was filled with games for the xbox 360, Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii. Did we actually travel back in time or what is even happening right now? 

I started remembering I used to go to this store all the time when I was just a kid. It was such a blast from the past. Like a rush of nostalgia. The games were scattered on the shelves, like half of them had been cleared for the shut down of the store. They still had some solid games though, like Super Mario Galaxy, the original Red Dead Redemption, Assassins Creed: Brotherhood, Black Ops, God of War 3. They also had box sets on the top shelves. The ones you could preorder and get a statue with the game, or some times other miscellaneous thingys. I couldn’t believe that these things were just laying around there. Em was also pretty awestruck. 

Em immediately rattled on about how cool it all was, but also wondered why this would still be here. I had no idea, but I knew one thing. I wanted to check out the backroom. I always wondered what was on the other side of that door. It was located behind the counter. When I was small only the employees were allowed entrance. I always wondered what was on the other side when they would go check if they had a game or something.

I walked up behind the counter to the door. I laid my hand on the door handle, and pushed it down. Of course, it was locked. I turned around and flashed the flashlight of my phone on the counter. There was a computer and two monitors on the top of the desk, it didn’t work anymore. Beneath it were some drawers. I went through them. They were filled with game discs. I noticed that there was a key chain down in the corner of the one drawer. Maybe one of the keys could fit the door.

One of the keys did fit. I opened the door, and inside I saw a red ouroboros surrounding an inverted pentagram made out of Celtic knots, with an ankh in the middle of the pentagram. There were candles in each of its corner, half burned down. Each of the points of the pentagram pointed to its own symbol. I had to search them up and try to find them when I got home, so hopefully these are right. Under the middle downwards point of the pentagram was an alchemical solar symbol. At the middle left point was a Sri Yantra symbol. In the upper left corner the cross of saint Peter, i.e. an inverted cross. In the upper right corner was the sigil of Lucifer. And at the middle right point the I’itoi symbol. Pretty weird.

When Em came in behind me she didn’t say anything. She then said she wanted to get out of there now. So we left.

[ghoulsbeard]

hes kind of my pick for having the mark in the world of my head bc of the magic implications & he would take it the best (sadly). ultimately mikal is there as part of supplies coordination because she is one of the few willing to give them a shot and she knows soooo many people + she’s a Friend of sera’s the juxtaposition there is fun :) + her encyclopedic knowledge of relevant surfacer politics & red jenny stuff is inevitably an ace up Josephine’s sleeve in times of trouble. plus she can be there chatting with dagna :’) kits slaughtering templars. scouting on behalf of a few dalish hunters. idk. they call him ms. sidequest

Well i should say ‘my pick’ of the people posted here. i played every single origin theres like 6 other people who would do very well but 🤐

[cleromancy]

YEAH LIKE... I DON'T THINK THERES ENOUGH EXPLORATION OF JASON AS SIR NEVER-MET-A-FIRE-HE-COULDNT-THROW-KEROSENE ON. the makes it worse guy!!! bc like Jason CAN be so completely earnest but thats on rarer occasions, most of the time he's an absolute cunt. and he is playing mind games like you wouldn't believe, jason would be winning the chess match even WITHOUT eating the pieces but baby he just does it for the love of the game!!!!

and honestly im really interested in like. the juxtaposition btwn that and jason being a little bit obsessed with tim in the way where. god, post-resurrection jason is SO lonely and SO unwell about it. and like i said originally all these comics are bad to the point where I don't necessarily expect other people to incorporate them into their interpretation of jason so if someone wants to be like "actually i think jason should think tim sucks and be deeply unimpressed with him" ykw thats fair. but i mean. god. okay i mentioned all of these in my original post but im going to actually post panels now to talk about hang on. (atp im less in conversation with the person im reblogging from and more just rambling again lmao, sorry)

but god i do think its SO funny that canon post crisis jason actually thinks pretty highly of tim, the guy he repeatedly wipes the floor with

teen titans:

like. okay so first of all I understand that jason having delved into fucking tim drake lore to find this out was not an active characterization choice, it was bad writing. jason knows this bc the reader knows it. but in-universe this is not like. common knowledge. talias opinion on tim drake begins and ends with "spends too much time on those computers of his." he could access various peoples files on tim but to extrapolate this level of *correct* information from what ppl would feasibly write down or even know in the first place? HES THOUGHT ABOUT THIS A LOT.

AND HE DOESNT BELIEVE ITS POSSIBLE BC HE THINKS ITS JUST SO. VERY. IMPRESSIVE. its so goofy like its sooooo goofy!!!!!

compels me though.

gonna be honest. i just don't think jasons capable of being normal about that. and then he ends the comic being like "well im just going to think about this a regular amount." let me know how that works out for you baby

"hes good" [footage not found]

like...when did you suss that out jay? was it before or after you beat the ever loving crap out of him?

robin:

this is also like. immediately before and after two things im just like heehoo i dont see it. (the first being wanting to use kids as fodder and the second being tim saying jason thinks like a blunt instrument, although the second one honestly i can still work with. tim thinking jasons a moron is funny, honestly, and itd be fun to see a version of robin 177 where tim gets his ass royally kicked for underestimating him after YEARS of mentally rewriting his understanding of jasons robin years so his imagined narrative conveniently supports Jason not being good enough). god honestly this arc was almost as much of a trash fire as bftc. fucking ulysses pulled the red robin suit out of the dumpster jason left it in to go harangue tim, which i had completely forgotten about

anyway

jasons so fucking annoying. god bless.

(side note: i love that "still." like. jason is taking the adoption and name change *exactly* as seriously as it deserves and also zeroing RIGHT in on a weak spot. classic jason.)

bftc:

and tim proceeding to hit jason with the crowbar... this is a good fucking ship. i fucking wish these comics were good

AND I MEAN-- i only read as much into the picture wall in lost days as i do bc i already ship it but like. its there. it sure is fucking there.

anyway what we have here is like. the Jason-Liker's Dilemma, where its like we have to cherry pick through bad comics and massively inconsistent characterization to decide what we'll incorporate into our personal canon and this is really one of those where. even though the actual canon is pretty clear that jason thinks highly of tim and keeps seeking him out im not going to argue with anyone who wants to be like "postcrisis jason hated him actually" bc like. whos to say, maybe the comics youre pretending exist would have actually been good instead of bad.

but to ME these instances took root in my brain and now im just like. jason todd wants to crack tim open like an otter with an oyster jason wants to crawl inside him like a tauntaun jason needs to get RIGHT UP IN THERE and figure out what the fuck his deal is. and i think it is very interesting to contemplate how he would go about doing this if given the opportunity.

this is getting way too long....... im just going to send it. lol

the fact that preboot jason never found out tim took jason red robin costume once he "got fired" (-tim, only in the privacy of his own head)/"graduated" (-dick, well-meaning)/"got thrown out with the other garbage" (-damian, hilarious)/"left" (-tim out loud, ignoring them both)

the way tim (reliable narrator) was like. yeah this costume is already tainted and i have to be willing to do morally gray things to prove bruce is alive. so thats why im wearing it. because its tainted. this is the most logical course of action and also the only reasonable explanation i retroactively landed on for a decision i already made

tim also having no way of knowing what the universe jason GOT THAT COSTUME IN WAS LIKE OR WHAT BRUCE DID FOR JASON IN THAT UNIVERSE

and its like well MY interpretation is that. yeah of course he wants to take on one of the outcast's identities to bring bruce back. and then of course hes going to just hang it up when bruce comes back because hes going to stop feeling like an outcast just as soon as bruce comes back and everything goes back to normal. This definitely doesnt signify a major change in the status quo or his role in the family (he *is* still family they signed the papers and everything, they gave him the name, it wasnt just pity its real hes still family he *is*, he hasn't been cast out, he *hasnt*) or his priorities or-- its temporary. when bruce comes back everything is going to be better and he wont need this suit anymore and hes going to hang it up just as soon as he stops feeling this way and everything is going to be fine.

smash cut to bruce upon his return doling out one (1) hug and immediately fucking off on a globe trotting vanity project and Tim just left staring after him like Oh. okay

(and like bruce was never like. going to be able to magically fix anything even if he *had* any interest in doing so. this was not a reasonable expectation tim had. some of the shit tim is losing his absolute marbles over does not actually even *need* to be "fixed." to be excessively clear.)

anyway i think jason "do you really think youre that good" "so work *with* me" "join me. be my robin" todd deserved the chance to really gleefully dig his fingers into every single one of those sore spots. GO FOR IT JASON. MAKE HIM WORSE

also like. god battle for the cowl was so unserious on every possible level but can you imagine if dick at the time had been like "i still cant figure out how he GOT OUT OF PRISON. he used the jla codes! how did he even get those!" and tim (guy who gave jason the fucking codes in robin 182) was just like

yeah. weird

[dykeyote]

why is nova bad rep?

nova is a travesty to me bc shes very fun and i really enjoy her as a character in every way besides the things i think are uncomfortable and the bit with the haircut is objectively the funniest way to handle a trans char and also says a lot abt gender in jv's time period which i find very interesting!! there are good things abt nova and there are even good things abt her being trans and i do not think she is written to b intentionally mean spirited but like in my personal opinion the way they go about like ..... the specific way they write her fixation on nureyev isss uh quite poorly handled and sort of uncomfortable? it can call to mind some sort of unfortunate stereotypes about the idea of trans women harassing and coercing cis men and it isnt great

and like ive said jv has trans characters who absolutely can also brush up against being unintentionally transphobic due to being pretty shitty people but Dont end up Actually being so, and i think theres a few reasons for that that nova fails to dodge - for one thing, their transness is never ... Highlighted in any way while theyre doing the shitty stuff. which isnt to say theyre not explicitly trans - they absolutely are, cecil is pretty clearly stated to be identical to cass and has a very feminine voice and pilot uses they/them pronouns the entire time. we Know that theyre trans, but theres never any scenes that explicitly .... Point Out their transness in any explicit way, so when they do their shitty stuff we arent necessarily Fixated on their transness its not being called to attention . nova has an entire scene that points out the fact that she Is a trans woman . and itd still be uncomfortable if it wasnt there and i dont think the scene is inherently bad on its own its funny i like it but in context it does make it feel More iffy 2 me because it is explicitly Reminding you that yes dear listener!! she is trans!! in a way that other trans charas who are shitty ppl arent

another thing is that the main people that those other two examples are put in juxtaposition with is juno, who is also trans. JUNO is the one who calls cecil an apartment complex of demons, JUNO is actively trying to take down pilot. it makes it feel less like a Trans Thing to be fucked up because the person going hey, this is fucked up youre the worst, is Also trans . and we can go to cecil for another more relevant example of this which is that cecil is kinda obsessed with juno too!! hes a little bit of a freak abt him!! but it doesnt feel like a trans thing because because juno is Also trans and hes like normal . nova doesnt Have that because he rfixation is very specifically on nureyev who is, as far as we know and can presume, a cis man. she is being juxtaposed by a Cis character instead of a Trans one. which is worsened by the fact that "trans woman harassing a cis guy who is not interested at all and is taken" is again not great either

and like you could change all those issues of course but tbh you dont even need to?? yeah itd be better if the subject of her affections was trans or if less attention was called to it but like literally you could also just write her like normally . tbh . you could literally just write her normally and make her not feel so pushy and like it would be fine . you could still make her have a huge thing for a cis guy character and make said cis guy character uninterested and just not write it in the specific way that they do that to me personally feels sort of unsavory especially given that she is the first like . canonical explicit trans woman in jv (as far as i remember) . its not hard to write characters normally is my conclusion