#they aren't affected by the loops because they're not a part of the pieces of the world that's looping in the first place

[mantisgodiveblog]

You guys have no fucking clue how much we have to correct our character names here, btw. We'll be writing something and we'll think to ourself "oh yeah, the time loop guy, the guy who's in the time loop, we have a whole ass character named loop right" and then The Time Loop Guy's name is Siffrin and Loop is an entire different character that we're not even entirely sure is in the time loop, per se, as much as they're meta-aware and existing on a slightly different angle of reality to most of the people here. Their name's, like, been at least halfway reassigned to Dandelion in our brain. We swear we're gonna, like, call them Bonnie or Isabeau or some shit some loop and then not catch it in time. We've got Character Roulette Syndrome.

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck Ch.177 thoughts

[Sick in the Head]

(Contents: Rule lore speculation, nostalgic gushing)

Undead Unluck really is the new One Piece, cus we're nearly 200 chapters in and we're still getting basic worldbuilding lore. We first heard the term "Master Rules" in ch.97 (it took me a shamefully long time to find that page too, I skimmed the entirety of 101-132 before realizing it was right after Ruin's introduction), and while I think we all kind of guessed that the Master Rules were the ones that God intended to shape the final product, the revelation that they're meant to be absolutes really changes the game, doesn't it?

Long-time followers may recall my worry about what would happen to the world if Spoil were to be neutralized because it would throw off the nutrient cycle, but then I chalked it up to the world updating and compensating for the loss

This is also what I thought happened in ch.124 when Andy got hit with an Unluck blast of magma after having killed UMA Magma; Andy questioned it, Fuuko said not to worry about it, but I could never get past it, and I always justified it as a different liquified substance in the Earth's mantle to allow the tectonic plates to move or whatever other purposes magma has, but...nope! It would seem that Magma was a Master Rule (albeit outside of the top 10, cus he went down pretty easy), so its neutralization didn't affect the state of the world itself

This also means that the Seasons are explicitly not Master Rules, which I speculated would be the case a long time ago since there was a quest specific to their neutralization, implying that they were not Rules that Sun deemed necessary for their perfect world. I do wonder if perhaps this time the Seasons aside from Autumn are Master Rules, though, since there must not be any intention of introducing Revolution and initiating Ragnarok this time (doing so would only destroy the world, and this is the last loop, so that would defeat the purpose)

Some of you may recall that I actually once suggested that Autumn was intended to be a part of the final world specifically because it was the only Season that Sun didn't ask for the neutralization of, and then expressed shock that Autumn was set to be neutralized in 101 as that contradicted that earlier evidence, so I think it's pretty fun to learn here that the Master Rules, despite appearing on that tablet, aren't permanently set in stone between loops. Like in Yugioh, the Master Rules are updated along with the particularly big updates to the meta (the introductions of new card types there, the reset of the loop here), presumably based on the events of the previous loops

One question does haunt me here, though: if the Master Rules are chosen after the previous Ragnarok, and they existed before the Quests started...does that mean that Juiz was lying about the function of the tablet after all? I suspected she did for a while since the tablet was only ever mentioned by her as a way to justify how she knew about Ragnarok before it occurred, but now we're learning that some of the Master Rules are completely unrelated to the success or failure of the quests? Are any of the 101 related to it? Are only the first 10 prior to it, since Apocalypse says they're the ones added in "the initial stage"? It's a subtle inconsistency, and one that doesn't really change much of anything, but until Tozuka comes right out and explains the exact procedure, it's going to be nagging at the back of my mind

It's ALSO interesting that Sick remembers Juiz; we never got any indication that the previous UMAs could remember anything between loops, but Sick refers to Juiz directly. Is this a quirk of the top 10 Master Rules, all Master Rules, or the final loop? I hope Tozuka answers all of these questions in the volume releases if not the series proper, I live for this kind of thing

Oh, then there's the fact that Sick looks human. Not even in a subtle, human-shaped monster kinda way like Seal, but like actually human. Again, a Master Rule trait, or a Sick trait specifically? That big X across his chest is clearly meant to denote that he's the 10th Master Rule, so do all of the top 10s have a Roman numeral? Is Move a Master Rule, or are his Roman numerals meant to convey that dice are used to determine how far you move in games?

Despite the fact that Apocalypse told us that the Master Rules are different each time, it should be noted that there is plenty of room for overlap; Ruin told us pretty plainly that Sick was a Master Rule last time by saying that there was meaning in his illness, as there are no mistakes in the Master Rules

I'm willing to bet that Death is always the first Master Rule chosen, as otherwise, everyone would be passing through the loops since they would be incapable of dying. Since they can die, that must mean Death exists and is chosen for one of the permanent slots very early, possibly even before the initiation of the loop itself

To talk about the chapter itself, I adore the color page and the final page; they're such celebrations of the story so far and so perfectly call back to the beginning of the series to get us excited for the anime. Medaka Box did the same thing for season 2, bringing back the Front Six in their original outfits to advertise their upcoming anime appearance, and this is clearly doing the same thing. Seeing Void in his armor, Gina with her hat, Shen and Mui with their gloves, it's all so nostalgic!

And let's not forget: THAT'S OUR ISSHIN, BABY!!! Probably. I guess it's possible that XII is still kicking after all this time, but I'm decently sure that's Haruka, and I'm excited to see what's different about her this time, if anything. She should only be about 16 this time, so she should have a few differences to her build or demeanor, I would think

Finally, not to beat a dead horse, but...GOD DAMN, LEILA! "[The best thing in life would be] the three of us being together always"??? You can't tell me this ain't poly!!! You CAN'T (forgive the pun) rip this away from me, Tozuka!!!

I'm pretty shocked that I'm not getting much to say on Rip unlocking Unrepair, though. Like...the scene itself was pretty underwhelming, to be honest, I guess mostly because everyone in context knew more or less what was going to happen, so there wasn't a ton of room for surprise or suspense. I guess I thought that Rip was going to get Unrepair while fighting Sick, not awkwardly recreating the previous circumstances, though I guess that's just how God works, huh? Hopefully I'll get to dive more into RIp's character when he gets Blade Runner, which weirdly wasn't a part of this chapter considering how much focus it got last week

I'm really looking forward to the Sick fight, and since it's starting in Phase 2, I'm willing to bet that this is going to be our second Phase 3 fight as well. I have no idea what that will entail, but I'm looking forward to it, almost as much as I'm looking forward to the anime in just a couple of days!!!

[its-captain-sir]

Oh we doing Chicago Style lore I Gotta get in on this. 6, 15, 21, 22, 76, 78 AND special bonus you pick a question you wanna answer if you'd like heheh

6. Is there a battle nexus? Is it a respected facility or operated by criminals?

Oh man I haven't really thought of the battle nexus before...... tbh if I include it I'd like it to be a part of their space arc maybe, so leaning towards it being more of a respected facility, or at the very least an institution that is very clear about how it operates even if some of the rules aren't great

15. Is the Hamato clan history relevant? How did the clan originate?

It's SUPER relevant, much of the plot stems from the story of the Hamato clan. The clan originated from a much larger clan actually that was set to be inherited by two twin brothers. They disagreed on how to run the clan so they split it into two, one called the Hamato and one called the Foot. I don't want to go too much into the specifics of the rest of the history of the clans since I'm planning on a little art piece involving that soon, but basically the two do become enemies and even more important, the Hamato clan are designated as the liaisons between the human and mystic worlds. When Saki defects to the Foot and Yoshi seems to be shirking his duties, a bunch of yokai leaders commission for the turtles to be created to continue to have protectors of the Hamato bloodline. So yeah big effects on the story even just beyond the later fighting with Saki and the Foot over the Shredder armor hakdhskdh

21. Do the turtles time travel?

I know I definitely want them to cause that's a classic tmnt trope at this point but I don't know what that would entail. I really am a sucker for the stuff that loops, like whatever they did in the past affects their existence in the present and because they exist in the present they're able to go back and do those actions in the past, it was always destined to happen, etc. So it'd probably be something along the lines of that + just some fun stuff like always :)

22. If there is a battle nexus, who fights in it?

If I go with it being attached to the space arc, I think all the turtles might end up fighting in it, either on purpose or accidentally. I'm really attached to battle nexus champion Mikey so if they fight he's definitely winning the whole thing hakdhskdhsk 16 years old and champion of the universe(multiverse??) <3

76. Who is your favourite character?

HMMM THIS IS A HARD ONE..... it's like an even split between Leo and Raph, they're so compelling to me..... gives them problems forever and forever.

78. Tell us something you want to share about your au/iteration!

I think of the story for this iteration as split up into 4 main arcs! Each arc is based around a specific turtle and has a major conflict associated with it as the focus, though obviously all plots and character development continue to varying degrees throughout the course of the story. But anyways, in order they are:

Raph - conflict is Foot/Shredder based, deals with the past catching up to them and the cycles of past vs present. Big focus on Raph and Leo's strained relationship and the lengths Raph is driven to for his family, culminating in [REDACTED]

Donnie - conflict centered around the hidden city, marked by delving into mystics even more than before and uncovering secrets of the yokai world and their creation. Donnie's efforts start to unveil the larger webs

Mikey - conflict based on the Krang and associated space adventures (certain time related shenanigans also come to a head), involves truly stepping into the larger world and universe and continuing to follow the threads. Mikey reflects a final coming of age and shaking off forces seeking to control them

Leo - conflict with the pantheon (hello idw fans <3), embodies the final culmination of taking their lives into their own hands and refusing to be used as pawns. Addressing the issue of their influence is the last step Leo needs to take as a leader.

As for a bonus question, I'll answer:

39. Is there a Karai/Miwa?

Honestly? Maybe both! Karai for sure exists in this au, she's the turtles' cousin and ends up on their side of the Foot/Hamato conflict after a while, but I might also have Miwa in there as a person totally removed from most of the plot as Tang Shen's daughter. Not quite sure on that yet though

[greatwyrmgold]

I have strong opinions about translating songs, derived in large part from listening to a lot of anime song covers. And I've been thinking about this because of "Useless Angel," the recent official English version of "DadadadaTenshi".

For comparison, here's the original Japanese. English subtitles are available.

Now, if you compare the official English lyrics to the translation of the Japanese lyrics, you'll notice a few things. The first is that the English grammar and pronunciation are...not exactly how a native speaker would say any of that. (It's not as bad as "Your Affection," you can definitely tell it's supposed to be English, but...writing the lyrics on screen is appreciated.)

Once you get around that, you'll notice that the lyrics are very different. For instance, the tenshi overcomes her uselessness with angelic power, while the angel uses her angel powers to overcome her flaws. Similar vibes, but the literal meanings are pretty different.

But if you were listening to the Japanese lyrics, you'll notice that the English lyrics sound very similar. "Dame [×4] na atashi wo; aishitene!" doesn't mean quite the same thing as "Darn it [×4] not a perfect girl; 'I love you' back!", but it has the same meter, same stressed syllables, and similar phonemes. "Useless Angel" doesn't always sound like it was written in English, but it does always sound like it was written with the melody in mind.

Most Anglophone anime song cover artists (or whoever they get their translations from) don't do this. They get a literal translation from some source or another, then find some way to contort that translation into the song's length, and that's it. Sometimes they don't even bother swapping synonyms around to make the syllable count match; they just get close enough and give some words extra notes or vise versa.

And that sounds like shit!

Lyrics aren't just a sideshow playing alongside the melody; they are the medium through which we hear the melody. Having lyrics that sound wrong—whether because of mismatched syllable count, mismatched syllable stress, or just trying to force words to blend together when they don't—is like playing an instrumental piece with out-of-tune instruments. Sometimes not even the right instruments—like, they didn't have a drummer, so the spare bassist just strummed their bass when the drummer should have hit a drum, and argh string instruments are terrible at percussion why are you doing this?

Song lyrics are not prose, they're poetry. They're art. Much like how anime subtitles should convey the essence of what the dialogue means over a literal translation of the words in the script, and much like how anime dubs need to follow the lip flaps even if that makes them deviate farther from the original Japanese, song lyrics need to be translated in a way that follows the song, that conveys the essence of how the song is supposed to feel.

Anyways, I can't stand most English anime covers, especially covers of songs I like. By contrast, I've been listening to "Useless Angel" on loop for days, interrupted mostly by "Dadadada Tenshi". Half of its lyrics are mumbled word salad, but none of them sound wrong.

[stenka-razin]

Ok, Terminator Zero won me back some in the end. It still has issues, but I do think it's arguably the best Terminator thing since T2. That's a low bar, and I think it may oversell how good this is, but it isn't bad. Spoilery stuff below, but I would say worth checking out.

Ok so the best thing is that, while flirting with the same fucking premise all the movies have done, even when they take place in the future, it does pull away from that midway. It sets up another stop the future from changing man vs. robot fight, but it pivots into essentially an open hearing about whether humanity even deserves to survive. It's an angle that none of the movies proper has taken. We created the evil AI, have we tried not making it evil? Have we tried getting it on our side?

The approach to time travel is pretty much the opposite of the original film's stable time loop, but it's much better the timey wimey crap all the subsequent films have pulled. Straight up, you cannot change your past, all trips to the past yield new timelines. It's frustrating for a second, because like, well why the fuck even do this, but they do cover that. Eventually. More on the pacing later. But yeah, the time travel mostly holds. The goofiest part is probably them talking about all the subsequent attempts made to change history which like... well if it never fucking works why did they try it more than 2 times? It also raises the inevitable question, how do you target timelines? Like Malcolm + Misaki, Eiko, and the Terminator all travel back to the same timeline? How does that work? Presumably Malcolm and Misaki, traveling to the farthest point back would make a new timeline. But that wouldn't affect Eiko's future, so when she goes back, why would it be a timeline with Malcolm and Misaki if they weren't originally in her past? Same with the Terminator. You should have three distinct timelines with future people running around. So nevermind, Time Travel is once again dumb. But they don't totally lose me, because thematically they use it to illustrate that the point of life is not knowing the future.

Pacing yeah, I don't know if this is a problem per se, but the way it buried what the fuck is happening was very annoying. I've been jerked around before. You throw a lot of mystery box shit at me, I'm going to assume you have no idea what the hell you're going to do with it all. That soured me at first. I feel like 30 minutes into the first Terminator you had a crystal clear understanding of everyone's motivation. Ahnold is looking up Sarah Connor's and killing them. He's obviously trying to kill Sarah. By the end of the first big fight Kyle Reese is expositing about future killer robots and shit. To it's credit, Zero does pick up all the pieces and gets them together, but I was juggling all this crap in my brain hoping to god this wasn't going to be like Lost or some crap.

Visually? I loved it. So with all the philosophizing, I was reminded of the Netflix Godzilla Anime trilogy. Those sucked. They took what should have been a slam dunk (Godzilla in a medium where you aren't limited with what you can do on a live action set) and gave us virtually no Monster action to look at. This doesn't do that! In fact it does a shitload of cool ass ideas that the live action Terminators don't! The Terminator modifies itself once in the past. The reveal is actually a shock because it's not an A list actor shown way in advance so people will watch the movie. GORE. Ton of gore!! So many cops get got, and it's bloody as hell.

So embrace the unwritten future! Watch a Terminator thing that isn't the same fucking crap again and again. No Connors? No problem! Oh also I watched it in Japanese, but Timothy Olyphant is apparently in the dub so that's kind of cool.

And since you've read to the end, here's a fun anecdote. My friend's dad dated Linda Hamilton's twin sister in high school (they're from the Eastern Shore!). When the family watched the Terminator, his wife fucking death glared his ass all during the sex scene.

[time-variance-archive]

Welcome to the Time Variance Archive blog

This archive is dedicated to analysing the Disney+ Loki series and its various narrative themes.

Most of the posts here will be mine, but I'll also reblog and share posts and articles from other websites that I find interesting.

If you want to join me on this adventure, I'll be more than happy to publish your asks and submissions as long as you follow the guidelines.

Master list of my posts :

What makes a Loki a Loki ? a metaphysical response to the nature of variants

Hard worldbuilding vs soft worldbuilding

“There are no Time-Keepers” : why does it matter ?

What Sylvie (and Sylki) means to me.

Character appreciation post : He Who Remains

He Who Remains is the embodiment of the statu quo

Ramblings and predictions for season 2 regarding the multiversal war

Doylist analysis of the time loop scene : what narrative purpose does it serve ?

A short analysis of Loki and Mobius

Me infodumping about Ravonna Renslayer's story in the comics

My stance on the Loki vs Sylvie battle of opinions

Loki's fear of uncertainty and chaos

Sylvie and the devil symbolisms

Theory : all the Lokis in the Void are redeemed Lokis

Another analysis of Sylvie’s arc : understanding the complexity of systemic issues

Trying to explain some "plot holes" with evidence and complete bs of my own invention ^^

A heartfelt tribute to Victor Timely

Tags :

general writing : posts about creative writing and litterary analysis. Not directly related to the Loki series.

watsonian analysis : analysis from an in-universe pov

doylist analysis : analysis from a writing pov

headcanon : theories and personal interpretations not directly confirmed by the show

metaphysics : meta posts using metaphysical concepts (hey, my philosophy degree didn't get me a job, but at least I can flex on Tumblr)

loki series criticism : negative aspects of the show and potentially triggering materials

character analysis

tags by characters

Rules :

This blog is a drama-free zone. We're here to share our love for the Loki series, not our bitterness towards the fandom.

Sometimes, analysis includes criticism, and that's okay. However, all criticism must be in good faith : bad writing isn't the same as not liking something, and not every unexplained thing is a plot hole.

No ad-hominem attacks, either against other fans, cast and crew member or characters. All characters matter and they're all beautiful pieces in this narrative machine.

While it is important to acknowledge social issues in fandom, this blog won't include any controversial topic. The reason is simple : minorities aren't monolithic blocks. I've met all sort of poeple with all sort of opinions on the Internet, and while trying to validate someone's grievances, you might end up hurting another person. Also, I don't have the authority to talk about those issues, and might accidentally say something offensive. If you are curious about those issues, I would invite you to visit other blogs curated by poeple personally affected.

Finally, this is a nerdy blog. Media analysis doesn't always have to be factual and serious. Go wild and put on your tinfoil hat !

About me :

My main is queen-of-meows. I created this side blog because the tagging system on Tumblr is bad and I often lose my own posts. Also, I wanted to have a clean blog where I can curate a masterlist.

A few infos about me, so you know where I come from.

Other fandoms : Doctor Who, Final Fantasy VII, Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I also like Steven Universe. I am not really a MCU fan. I watched some of it in a casual way, enjoyed part of it, got bored with other parts. This is not a MCU negative statement, I just don't really vibe with everything. I am more into some specific comics (generally linked to the Loki series).

Music : I really love Nightwish. It's not really relevant, except when I will randomly post Nightwish songs that remind me of the Loki series, or quote Nightwish. That's how my brain works. I also really love Akira Yamaoka, many independant artists I know from Youtube and some old Lana Del Rey songs, as well as game and movies OST.

Books : I love Neil Gaiman and my new year resolution was to read all of his books, including the least famous ones. As a teen I was obsessed with His Dark Materials. Parallel dimensions ? Multiversal love story ? Mission to kill the supreme creator . Hmmm, maybe there is a pattern somewhere ^^.

My ships : Sylki is my main ship. My other main ship is Ravonna/Mobius. It's a very rare pair but have my reasons to ship them. But I also enjoy reading Lokius fanfictions, and looking at cute Lokius fanarts. I'm a multishipper and I don't mind the ship as long as I enjoy the story.

@ladylowkeyed

@bushs-world

@mareebird

@spoonietimelordy

@asgardian-viking

@storyplease

@honeyx666x

I might add poeple if I see you liking my posts !

[mascoloc]

Sound Reflection

Thus far my all time favorite audio remix of my life would have to be two pieces by Pogo. The first is his Hook remix called Bangarang and the second is Toyz Noize. Bangarang will always have a special place in my heart because 1. Robin Williams, duh. But 2. Hook was a big part of my childhood and a movie I watched a lot, so it will always evoke emotions of nostalgia etc out of me. I'm a big remix girl, those are the pieces that affect me those most or that I consistently consume or engage with that aren't necessarily traditional music. This is mainly because of TikTok so those Corn remixes or Chrissy Wake up remixes get stuck in my head quite easily. They're short, catchy, and easy to replay which makes them so easy for your brain to put on loop.

I would say beyond sound bites on TikTok I listen to music for about an hour a day. I normally play a mindless podcast before I go to bed. I rotate between one from Jessi Smiles and Lily Marston called, "Do We Know Them?" and The Philip DeFranco show when I actually want to learn about what's going on. I also listen to Spotify on my daily commute. Recently Illenium has been on repeat, especially the songs, "Sad Songs" and "Crashing." To be honest, I get over stimulated very easily and have sensory issues, so I'm not a huge sound person in general because I'm so sensitive to it. I'd say music that goes back to the basic instruments are more to my liking and they can be backed by some effects but rely heavily on strings or keys or vocals (think Bruno Major, Cody Fry, The Lumineers). Not to be emo, but I think my theme song right now would be "Modern Loneliness" by Lauv. I think it does a good job emulating relevant issues for my generation. That or "Hate Myself" by dodie. No, I'm not super depressed, I just really like songs where the lyrics touch on issues and perfectly describe complex feelings that not everyone deals with (ie. mental illness).