#thinking about the ultrakill metaphor

[muslimasexualanarchist]

@smthone

This is for my thoughts

[televangelizt]

another "maybe im pointing out the obvious" but the fleshy mass keeping the earthmover in place like. has to be hell right? i assume hells keeping it still for v1 and any other robots trying to get through but God. ultrakill has just been littered with imagery of being trapped.

on the topic of the earthmover- the fact that the liquid at the bottom of its fleshy insides is corpses (and just the fact it has to run on blood alone) makes me just think about all of those atrocities. like- we're all talking about the inherent horror of the guttermen being powered by prisoners of war being fnaf'd but like this is that on a MASSIVE scale. the fact it leveled cities too, so the bodies had to be from that. it destroyed homes and the people who lived there we just fed to the giant war machine, the metaphors so in your face its insane.

i dont know just. smthn smthn the leviathan being the writhing bodies from within the river styx and the mannequins filled with the tortured bodies of sinners and the guttermen and the blood being fuel and just. the fact that hell mass creates demons. and hell mass looks like flesh.

[transmasculineswag]

Transmasc Swag Polls- ROUND 1

Propaganda and other info under the cut.

CANONICITY LEVELS-

DANIIL: Because I Said So GABRIEL: Subtext/ Coded, Word of God

MEDIA?

Pathologic (and other related media), Ultrakill

DANIIL PROPAGANDA- he's a man that wants to defeat death, I think he would defy his assigned gender. Also mad scientist, mad doctor? Definitely has synthesized t for himself. 100% Also the snakeskin coat, the red cravat, the fact that he was shorter in the original game. THE PLATFORM SHOES. All just made my brain go WEE-WOO that is a trans gay man. [Pollrunner's Note: He's such a cunt lmao]

GABRIEL PROPAGANDA- His story is a confirmed to be a big metaphor for being queer in some way in a catholic environment of sorts (I do not know its proper name) that punishes people who are different, like being queer + it’s one of the devs’ headcanons

Guy’s an archangel who once worked for the council, but then you, a literal robot, kick his ass twice and gave him a sexual awakening (read: realize that his hatred towards you after the first fight was actually passion and that he has been lied to his entire life) then killed the council who lied about being the voice of God, ruled Heaven with an iron fist, and are generally a bunch of jerks.

[a-bit-lonely]

Ive discovered that doodling my blorbo from my games talking about what im studying as i study helps quite a bit actually.

So heres some of my doodles of Mirage Ultrakill having sociology opinions with explanations of the sociology stuff under the cut.

Doodle 1

Doodle 2

Doodle 3

doodle 4

Doodle 1

Secularization theory is a sociological theory which was originally thought up by Emile Durkheim. It basically says that as a society gets more modern, the religiosity of the people in that society declines, eventually leading to the complete disappearance of religion.

This theory was based on several inaccurate assumptions. Namely: people are less religious now than they were in the past, and scientific thought will inevitably lead to a decline in religious belief. As it turns out, neither of these assumptions are accurate...

But because this theory was introduced in the early days of sociology, it was just kind of accepted as fact even though there was no data to really support it.

Over time sociologists began doing studies on religiosity and found some major flaws in secularization theory. There wasn't evidence to support its conclusions despite decades of study, new religious movements continued to emerge in societies which were supposedly secularized, and religion remained an important influence in politics globally.

Anyways, Mirage Ultrakill strikes me as the kind of person who would hear about secularization theory and get excited because she's a bit of an asshole who thinks that religious belief is a comfort blanket shielding people from reality. Basically: Mirage Ultrakill strikes me as a reddit atheist.

Doodle 2

This doodle is right next to my notes on a concept coined by Thomas Luckmann called "invisible religion".

Don't get me wrong, Luckmann has made great contributions to sociology. He wrote The Social Construction of Reality which was hugely influential and also good shit. But... invisible religion does not make sense to me.

Rather than using a more accepted definition of religion, Luckmann made his own which asserted that religion is thought or action above an animal level. So, dear reader, if you are transcending your biological nature, then you are doing a religion. Eating with a fork? That's religion. Reading words? Religion.

To be fair to Luckmann, he was writing Invisible Religion at a time when Secularization theory was still widely accepted. At the time it was also believed that religion acted as the social glue that held society together, so Luckmann was trying to explain why society wouldn't fall apart as religion disappeared. And his explanation was that actually being human is religion.

But yeah, I reckon Mirage Ultrakill would be mean to him.

Doodle 3

This doodle is next to my notes on pluralism (pretty much just multiple religions existing in the same time/place). Specifically next to a section referring to pluralism as a "marketplace of ideas" which is a phrase I've heard far far too many libertarians throw around.

So basically, this doodle was a visceral reaction to seeing the phrase "marketplace of ideas". Honestly, it makes sense as a metaphor in this context as long as it isn't extended to far.

Doodle 4

This doodle was next to my notes on a section of my textbook that was talking about medieval monks (honestly why it was talking about that isn't too important, it was just some stuff about discrediting secularization theory). Anyway, did you know that a lot of Monasteries also brew a lot of beer and have done so since the Middle Ages? I think that's cool.

Anyway, this doodle happened because I was bored and Mirage Ultrakill strikes me as an underage drinker (which you minors out there should not be doing btw, it doesn't end well).

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 3 - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

Gabriel

Well he's an angel so I'm taking him being catholic as canon. There are a lot of themes in the game that point to catholisism specifically.

He's so fucking funny. he listens to nine inch nails and quotes one of the songs in a fight basically "fight me like an animal". he and v1 kind of have this yuri thing going on. he has an official bodypillow. hes a metaphor for being excommunicated and no one gets him like me and my friends do

The *true* Catholic experience is leaving the church and having a gay awakening, ask anyone

its debatable if Gabriel truly believes he's "the one true savior" or is mocking the idea of it

ok im actually gonna write some gabe propaganda bc despite what you may expect from a game called ULTRAKILL theres a lot to be said about his character and how catholicism is represented

Gabriel is a genuinely caring person who struggles to square his desire to help people with his duty as an archangel. He's the only one in Heaven trying to make things better for those in Hell, but his faith is used to manipulate him into committing atrocities against the people he used to protect (see the "TRAITOR" mural in 4-2)

he only realizes his mistakes after losing everything and being sentenced to death, but he still decides with only a little time remaining to try and make things right. for the sake of spoilers i will just say that the measures he takes are... extremely drastic and very enjoyable. i just really like the idea that even facing the end of all living things, no matter how steep your crimes, it is never too late to fix your mistakes. you are never unworthy forgiveness.

hes also SO FUCKING GAY for this dumb little robot. it mauled him so hard he tasted his own blood and he fell in love right there. theres no way this guy has a normal healthy relationship to pain he is soooooooooo fucked. i love him. please vote for Gabriel "patron saint of gay lapsed catholics" Ultrakill !!!!!!!!

Shadow

In sonic destruction (the AI generated fan thing snapcube made a while ago) shadow was catholic or something which I think is reallyyyyyyy funny

Ok listen. I know this is a stretch but hear me out. He says “oh my God” in the Twitter takeovers so we know this is a possibility. I see him as a Christ-like figure because I saw his whole confrontation with Mephiles and was like “this is a thing that happened in the Bible??” and the pose Mephiles shows him in is literally like a crucifixion and Mephiles is meant to be a demon / false prophet reference. And also he’s called a demon in Shadow The Hedgehog 2005 then the guy who calls him that is like “I was wrong I’m sorry” and that also reminds me of a thing with Jesus in The Bible. But the biggest reason is his whole thing with Maria cause I think he’d come to earth and hear Ave Maria once and convert to Catholicism idk he’s like we’re comforted by a female familial figure named Mary sometimes called Maria?? And her color is blue????? Heck yeah I’m in because I Will Cry. Also feel free to share this as propaganda obv even if he doesn’t get in the bracket just. It’s funny.

I feel like he’d battle a lot with being seen or portrayed as a demon and how the aliens he’s related to very much look and act like demons idk lmao- and also I feel like confession would just be good for him I think he needs it for his mental health

There is a debate on the lovely website tunblr that Shadow T. Hedgehog is an allegory for Jesus Christ.

He is Jesus, idk what to tell you. He lived, he was sealed away, he was awakened again and deemed the ultimate lifeforms, he’s angry but not evil, does what he believes is best for people and the world at any given time. Total loser.

[microraptorreactor]

Spire analyzes actual ultrakill canon.

So this is a rant post, but I feel like getting my thoughts about the actual canon story of Ultrakill out.

So lets start with V1's character ark, or lack of one. V1 isn't really a character, V1 is a literal camera with a gun. We have a total of two (maybe three, if you count the Earthmover book) lines of dialogue from V1, mostly just serving to point the player in the right direction. But what's fascinating about V1 is that it is a narrative tool, despite being a non-character.

V1 represents violence. It is the embodiment of the war that made it, and it serves as the stand-in for the never-ending cycle of bloodshed that is caused by war. It is made to destroy, and it knows no other purpose. That is the roll V1 plays in the story of Ultrakill. I think, as a metaphor for war, V1's 'character ark' has probably ended in 7-4. It finally found its purpose, and the circle has closed.

But this game isn't about V1. Its about Gabriel. Or Gabriel is the closest to a main character that this game has. People have talked about his first defeat a million times and done it better then I could, but the main point there is his loss to V1 shook his worldview, but didn't actually change him in any significant way. In 6-2 he's defeated, but he likes it. He sees this little blue ball of malice and violence and (let's be honest here) it turns him on. He doesn't know what to do with the fact that he's attracted to something he thought (and was repeatedly told) was horrid. That shakes him. So what does he do?

Gabriel joins it. He murders the council and returns to hell. He finally realizes that through all the hurt he caused (to Sisiphus, Minos, ect) he's no better then the machine. So he marches right back down, to lay side-by-side with the enemy in the casket he built himself. He knows he will die. We know he will die.

And V1? Also going to die! Because what happens when hell is empty? The robots have wiped out the top layers, we can't go back. And unless machines suddenly take up sustainable hunting practices the rest of hell is going to be soon to follow. Think about the enemies we see in the later levels, there's been fewer and fewer husks as the game goes on. Most enemies are demons or machines. Sure it's because of game design, but machines wiping out the weaker sinners is a great explanation for it. Either V1 is going to starve down there or something else is going to kill it. To be honest, I think V1 is going to curl up and die in a corner like a wounded animal. I don't think its going to get a big showy death, this world is far to cruel for that.

There's also the tragedy of V2, but that's a whole other rant + I have an entire fucking fanfiction series about that. Basically I think poor guy was never going to get far. It's just another victim of V1's random violence, murdered without a second thought and looted for parts. V2 dying horribly and never being brought up again was kind of the point of its character, to establish how little this world cares. To V1, V2 wasn't anything special. It was just another source of blood.

[swimsauce]

How the Acts of Ultrakill reflect Gabriel's character arc

ACT 1 - Infinite Hyperdeath: This one may be a bit of a stretch as Gabriel is still a vague figure in this act. He's only alluded to in texts and pictures, but the one thing V1 sees is the suffering he has left in his wake. We see the eternal punishment he has inflicted on those living there ,such as the "friend" he left in Limbo, or Minos and the Lust denizens. The eternal death and suffering he has wrought, I think infinite hyperdeath is more of a metaphorical term. Hyperdeath for the magnitude of death/suffering and infinite for the (supposed) length of punishment. Gabriel is the one inflicting the infinite hyperdeath upon Hell. Eventually the status quo he upholds is ended in his humiliation and defeat at the hands of V1.

ACT 2 - Imperfect Hatred: More obvious imo. Throughout act 2 we continue to see more layers of hell, more of the influence of Gabriel's actions, etc etc. But this is all in the past, as the audience knows he is presently seeking revenge against V1 and must now "right his wrong" for humiliating heaven. But the twist is that while he is upset and angry about his predicament, he is also is freed by it. He enjoys it. He is “ecstatic” to fight V1 (proof here ), to finally have someone to challenge and fight on his own terms. What he thinks is his "perfect hatred" for V1 is at its core an imperfect hatred, because it wasn't hatred to begin with. It was passion. He then channels this newfound understanding to destroy the governing body that was controlling him and sets back out to Hell.

Act 3 - Godfist Suicide: Now act 3 prob won't be out for a bit, but I think this title is what solidified that all the acts are actually just about Gabriel. The right hand of God the Father, the godfist, is no longer connected to God’s light and is dying. He’s choosing to die, to commit suicide than live as a tool. Barring any twists I think its clear where his arc is heading, to die in a blaze of passionate glory by fighting V1 one last time ( unless some twist happens and he doesn't die/ is reborn, fights something or someone else, idk)

TLDR; While V1 may be the audience POV character, Gabriel is the protagonist in that he is going through a character arc, supported by the acts of the story/game.

[luxlightly]

I truly wish I could prevent myself from having Sebastian Solace and Pressure be my special interest. It's just so clear I want the game to be something it isn't and it's just going to constantly fall short of that.

Being autistic means I notice patterns really well. I recognize repeated symbols and extrapolate information from them very well. It's why I always seem like I'm clairvoyant when it comes to video games. I recognize themes and extrapolate from them and often end up doing so very accurately. I enjoy doing that.

And Pressure is based off of games that heavily encourage doing that, Ultrakill and SCP foundation. Games where there's a huge underlying lore going on that every design and writing choice is meant to contribute to.

Pressure does that to an extent, but the world is only really as deep as what's on screen and not much further. Which, to be clear IS NOT A BAD THING. There's nothing wrong with implying a larger world but not actually having it fleshed out and just leaving it up to player interpretation.

But, as someone who enjoys digging deeper and who expects the game to be more like something like Ultrakill, it's driving me insane.

There's so many things that have the potential to be so interesting and hint towards really really cool possibilities, but none of them mean anything and they by and large boil down to "it looked cool" or "it would be funny".

For instance, there's a monster called The Angler which is a sort of angler fish face with 3 light blue glowing eyes, two in the normal positions and one extra above the right. Sebastian also is an angler fish creature with 3 light blue glowing eyes in the exact same position. They're the only 2 characters in the game to have this eye set up and the only two characters (aside from other variants of the angler monster) that are related to angler fish.

So I immediately assumed "clearly we're meant to draw a connection here. There's a redacted thing in Sebastian's file that he was combined with. We must be intended to assume it's the angler. That seems obvious."

Nope. No connection. Total coincidence. I don't even know if there IS an official answer for what the redacted entity in his file is. It may just be an excuse to include whatever design elements they want without needing to justify them. It feels like, if your most important npc and your most common enemy have such glaringly similar design elements but no connections at all, it's at least slightly bad design. The immediate assumption with two creatures based off the same animal is that there's a connection. If there's not, you need to be very specific about distancing them in terms of their design, not giving one the most defining feature of the other.

Sebastian also wears a coat he sewed an extra sleeve onto for his 3rd arm. Which is a little design element I really love. It shows he must have found this outfit. It wasn't made for him. It's an easy way to visually explain why he's not in a prison uniform. These aren't his normal clothes. He must have found or stolen them.

Except he's a 60 foot sea monster whose humanoid section is still at least double the size of a normal human being. So where on earth did he get the clothes??

In something like Ultrakill, those kind of design things would be there to tell a story. We'd immediately be told that something else in this place is Sebastian's size that isn't Sebastian.

Except we aren't being told that. And we aren't being told that there's a connection between him and the angler monster. We're not really being told anything more than what's in the document system. Anything beyond that is metaphorical set dressing. There's a constant feeling, for me anyway, of finding brightly colored boxes with bows on top and then being told "Why did you think there would be something inside? Why can't it just be a cool box with a bow?" Sure it can. It's just you made it look like something that would normally have something inside it. It makes it hard to appreciate the pretty box when it looks so much like a present.

Which, again, IS FINE. There's no reason a game has to have things that will never be relevant to the plot fleshed out behind the scenes. It's truly fine and sometimes even better for design and story decisions to be based on "it looked good" and "it sounded cool" instead of needing some big explanation for everything all the time. My qualms here aren't with the game itself, but with the fact I am fixating on it despite clearly wanting it to be something it isn't and isn't trying to be. It's extremely frustrating.

[nitrosodiumfmp]

Media Like Sinister

As part of our initial research, we have to look at books/movies/etc which are thematically similar to our game. I have primarily chosen media concerning trips to the underworld, a genre known as katabasis, a Greek word I believe.

Obviously the most classic example of this would be the Divine Comedy, a 3-part narrative poem concerning a man (Dante) and his trip through Purgatory, Hell and Heaven. It's an interesting look at the medieval view of the afterlife, and has proved very inspirational for various games (see ULTRAKILL). However, beyond basic theme, it's not too relevant.

Searching for "movies where people go into the underworld" mostly gives you films related to a 'downward spiral' story motif, i.e. a character's fall from grace, or their descent into a criminal underworld, in the more metaphorical sense. Once more, it's not very relevant. Most of my inspiration has come from other games, after all.

The closest movie I can think of to my concept is As Above, So Below. In it, some explorers go into the Parisian catacombs to look for the philosopher's stone, and end up in hell, which is filled with ghost manifestations of their guilt and cave demons, naturally. It does mirror a lot of themes with Sinister, i.e. greed, illusion, death, mythology, and its environments are mostly catacombs, with skulls, flaming torches and cobwebs adorning every wall - very in line with some of my original ideas. It's still not a one-to-one replication, and it's not something I'm taking any inspiration from whatsoever.

What I am taking inspiration from, however, is the Greek myth of Sisyphus. In pop culture, he's mostly known as the man forced to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity, but there is more to his myth. In life, he was a devious and cunning king; on one occasion in specific, he had betrayed the word of Zeus, and so the god sent Thanatos (death) to chain him up in the underworld. Sisyphus took this as an opportunity, tricking Thanatos into demonstrating the chains on himself, at which point he restrained Death and escaped. This, of course, meant that nobody could die anymore, further interfering with the natural order. Once Thanatos was once again unfettered, Sisyphus was caught and punished for his hubris. For thinking that he could outwit the gods, he was sent to Tartarus, where the rock-pushing visual of him comes from. The idea of death just not working is a very primally strange idea - the distinction between life and death is the most basic requirement for a living being to, well, be living. In most forms of media - books, movies, et cetera, once a character dies, they're dead. Video games are the outlier, where you can respawn over and over, even changing the past and future with multiple savegames. Most games don't address this, but I want to in Sinister. You keep coming back because you're in the afterlife already - there's some interesting philosophical discussion that could be had there too, i.e. where does a ghost go when it dies?

I have a good feeling about this project. It's very layered and interesting.

[raptorrobot]

Can we know a bit about your inspiration behind Icarus, if you don't mind? He just seems so well thought out and interesting and I would love to know!

oh boy. strap in. you've opened the floodgates

a couple months after i got into ultrakill, i found myself really really liking the trends of the (currently) two canon prime souls; human figures in greek mythology that have a twist in their story that reverses part of the narrative of their mythological counterparts. i.e, minos being a benevolent and kind king in ultrakill as opposed to mythological minos being cruel and uncaring -- and ultrakill sisyphus relishing in his punishment and using it to his advantage rather than suffering in eternal torment as mythological sisyphus does. i LOVED the concepts going on there, and wanted to play with it myself.

out of all the more well known human figures in greek mythology, i found myself most intrigued by the idea of making an icarus prime work. what convinced me to commit to it was the poem rewriting icarus, which served as a MASSIVE inspiration for his character (and a line of which is present in violent sun's fic summary as a little shoutout !).

the first ever character decision i made for icarus was that the 'twist' to his story would be him setting his wings ablaze on his own volition rather than it being a mistake at the fault of his hubris. there's something so insanely visceral and intriguing about that concept and it locked me the fuck in.

the part about him being an archangel prior to becoming a prime soul stemmed from wanting to integrate the other aspects of mythological icarus into this icarus' story. most of his major character beats are semi-vague metaphor for it;

• being promoted from virtue to archangel: flying too close to the sun

• being killed and his soul condemned to hell: falling from the sky

i still wanted to remain as close to canon ultrakill lore as possible (in which archangels do not have souls, and therefore cannot become prime) so i made my own little loophole to get around it with him being a chosen 'experiment' of sorts to promote a human souled virtue into an archangel. it's not perfect, but i like to think that it works well enough !

his relationship with gabriel is literally entirely self indulgence. icarus could've worked perfectly fine as a character on his own with no connection to gabriel, but man.. i'm a simple girl who is a sucker for weird religious guilt-centric pining where neither party knows how to deal with what they're feeling. i always knew that gabe would be the one to kill him (another trend with the canon prime souls that i wanted to follow), and i wanted a way to make it HURT. deep connection that gets broken through few choice actions is always a fun outlet for that.

i also just thought it would be kinda sweet if gabriel took this timid little archangel under his wing cuz he felt bad for him and then started actually liking him !! and i enjoyed the idea of exploring how gabe differentiates kindness as acted by the word of god and kindness acted upon from his own will, and how that would carry over to how he feels about icarus. i could write a whole fucking essay on the complexities of how i wrote their relationship but i will spare you all of that (for now)

this is only scratching the surface really, there's SO much more that inspired his character and story from music to one-note bits that evolved into genuine character beats. i consider icarus one of my finest creations and i'm glad that some of you care enough about him to let me share that passion with you <3

[c365]

Hehehe I love messing around with this Sam voice Ngl, whatever the hell happened to God in Ultrakill (whether he died or dissapeared or something) reminded me of this quote. I think it goes hard. Generally, it questions about what will happen to people's worldview/habits/what consequences will happen when there is no more God (metaphorically; when people no longer follow God) (at least that's how I interpret it without needing to get super philosophical). In Ultrakill's case, the literal absence of God caused a bit of mayhem, and indirectly leads to Gabriel changing perception on his existence as the Hand of the Father (whom he now presumes to be dead). God jumps the ship -> machines fuck up Hell -> one machine in particular makes Gabriel realize the Council sucks ass and he goes goblin mode (and becomes Atheist /j) Consequences, how will the citizens of Heaven face the fact that God fucked off, the council is dead, and his archangel is going to die? The aftermath of rallying against machines? I will bet that they did not know any of this before Gabriel made an announcement, There will be an absence of leadership, and maybe the whole Heaven/hell concept will fall apart all together Idk it's a far stretch. A silly ramble. Connecting 2 completely random things together quote source here

[fjelln]

well.

----- (+13 plus words)

the shoulder is so, so broken

some things i have made since last...

not so sure abou the new guy. im unsure if the metaphor of an angel really works here... and how it fits afterwards. but at the same time im curious if i should extend this character into their own thing. the three are intrinsically tied, but baphomet is significantly independent and could maybe exist on his own. but actually i think it would be worthwhile to highlight that he cant, and neither can they be without the others, not wholly. and so i might develop him more, at least enough that naming him wont release him from my mind.

thinking about it, the angel as a metaphor works best if it is transitioned and works in the narrative as a yearned past rather than the present. im not being objective about it, though. i just prefer that

angel metaphor.. haha. can u tell im too invested in ultrakill yet. it almost makes me sick of my own creativity. how much of it is really mine? oh well. how does one get better except by doing and recognising? no point in fretting over it. still though. he is abandoned by his god! and im thinking,. havent we fucking heard this already

i realise im still so obsessed with the idea of perfect art... now in its fundamentals if not the end image. its never going to happen. why do i stifle what could be unfettered expression for such futile and unreachable things like perfection? there are worse in things in that idea than being imperfect. why cant i just do and fail and get better, why must i land from 6 stories in a full sprint. i feel like i already know the answer

[monsterfuckeronestrogen]

I like one picture of Gabriel in a dress and then oh suddenly now tumbler thinks I'm smart enough for posts about the themes and metaphors or whatever of ultrakill ugh

[corpsegirl-sephie]

Name? Sarah

Pronouns and gender? she/her and just your garden variety trans girl (your garden's really nice btw, the cucumbers taste great)

Sexuality? lesbian

Country? Romania (someone get me out of this hellhole)

Top 5 fandoms? I rarely interact with the fandom side of things I'm into but let's see some stuff I'm into, in no particular order: slay the spire, the Spiderverse movies, chainsaw man, ultrakill, and for the last one... can you been a fan of your own projects you might never release despite your best intentions? Cause if so I'm gonna count this comic that's been floating around in my head for over a year now called miracle. Otherwise I'm just gonna go with the bag of milk games (milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk and milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk)

What is your most forbidden snack? I remember seeing this photo of what I think was plutonium or something like that that looked like so kind of orange flavored gummy and I wanted to eat it so fucking bad so I'm gonna go with that

Would you pet a bug? I think I'd just crush the poor little thing so no

Share a weird fact/story about yourself with the class. I once drank ketchup straight from the bottle in much the same way an alcoholic would take a swig of vodka

What does the color blue taste like? Sour gummy worms but very mild for some reason idk don't ask me to explain it's just what my mind conjured up

What is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? I don't have a lot of memorable sightseeing to share but once I went on a really long car ride and saw like 8 bears along the way and I really liked seeing all of them so I'll go with that

What is the stupidest thing you've ever done? You might think it's the ketchup drinking but I'd say it's actually that time I bit into an onion like an apple just to see what it would be like (the answer is bad. really bad)

Stupidest thing you've seen/heard someone else do/say? I once had to explain to someone that just cause you can't feel pain doesn't mean you're immortal

Hyperfixation song? Ghost and Pals - End-World Normopathy

Is there any meaning behind your profile picture and/or username? My profile picture is a character I made that's both a really idealized version of myself and a visual metaphor for the mental illness severely fucking with my capacity to function, while my username is an oversimplication of all that previously mentioned mental illness into the deliberately very understated "sad"

Dream career as a child? Much like most things about me as a child I can't remember that very clearly but I think it was paleontologist cause I really wanted to dig up dinosaurs

Dream career as an adult? Comic artist or maybe animator

Thoughts on cilantro? I honestly don't even know if I've ever had anything with cilantro on it

Have you ever been banned from a location and if so, why? I'm too scared of conflict to ever do anything that might get me into trouble so no

What is your cursed food combination? Despite what questions 8 and 11 might have you think I don't really eat anything weird on a regular basis. I'll let you know my little sister used to eat scrambled eggs with ketchup though

Trans rights? We've heard so much about trans rights recently when are we gonna do some trans wrongs? (Yes. Absolutely)

Ok I don't really know that many people here and the few I do know seem to already have been mentioned sooo idk I guess if youre following me and see this on your dash pretend I tagged you? Idk I hate to not participate properly but I have no one to tag I'm afraid

“I just came from r/196” ask game

Saw another post. I think I should invite y'all to one of our longstanding traditions. Answer the questions then tag 10 (or more) people. I'll go first.

Name? Frankie

Pronouns and gender? he/they/it, transmasc

Sexuality? Lesbian

Country? USA

Top 5 fandoms? Bungou Stray Dogs, Cosmere, All for the Game, Fundiesnark (not a series but I'm too deep in it to not consider it a fandom), .....the tornado fandom? (they're my special interest)

What is your Most forbidden snack? The preserved bones at the Atlanta Bodies Exhibition. They looked so crunchy...

Would you pet a bug? If it's big enough, it is pettable.

Share a weird fact/story about yourself with the class. I like to drive around rural areas and photograph old, sometimes abandoned locations in the dead of night. I have been literally chased out of towns by foot and by car on two separate occasions. The second time this happened, "See You Again" by Miley Cyrus came up on shuffle and that's the soundtrack my friend and I tore out of town to. Also every "guy" I've dated except for my most recent ex (who has big egg energy) is a lesbian now.

What does the color blue taste like? Creme brulee

What is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? The appalachian mountains of Tennessee in the middle of summer. There's kudzu everywhere. On the backroads, there were several old, dilapidated Baptist churches barely hanging to the side of the mountain. I wonder how many of them were still in use.

What is the stupidest thing you've ever done? Short version: my friend's house almost got broken into by this dude who'd been stalking us for months while we were home alone. Instead of calling the cops, we decided to confront him with a bow and arrow (me), a hatchet, and a baseball bat (him). The plan was that if it went badly, we would simply throw his corpse into one of the many lakes in the neighborhood and let the alligators eat his remains (this was Florida). Why? Because we were afraid of having our home-alone privileges revoked. Luckily for us all, the guy fucked off and we never saw him again.

Stupidest thing you've seen/heard someone else do/say? My ex thought that Jackalopes were real. Also, a nurse I was doing rotations with apparently thought that "Witness Protection" was for Jehovah's Witnesses.

Hyperfixation song? Young Enough + Bleach by Charly Bliss

Is there any meaning behind your profile picture and/or username? Profile pic; I'm transmasc and I'm currently obsessed with TriStamp. Username; It was my fake internet name when I was like 13. I won't change it because I want my mutuals to recognize me, and because I do have a viral post associated with this name.

Dream career as a child? Doctor (funnily enough I'm now in nursing school)

Dream career as an adult? Professional Jester. Not a comedian. I just want to be some weird little guy who dresses silly and you can hire me to roast your boss at work parties.

Thoughts on cilantro? Delicious

Have you ever been banned from a location and if so, why? I honestly can't remember? Probably... but in recent memory I've mainly banned people from places.

What is your cursed food combination? Pineapple on a hotdog with grilled onions. It Slaps.

Trans rights? TRANS RIGHTS

Tagging: @rocket-mankoi @mostlymarco @atleast8courics @jazzlike39 @gemsweater72 @limbobilbo @ameliaaltare @redcrane112 @theoneofwhomisblue @twinkenjoyer @theultimatecarp and anyone else who wants to jump on

[catholic-character-tournament]

Finals - Resurrect Bracket (Losers Bracket)

ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to [make it to the finals]

Propaganda below ⬇️

Gabriel

Well he's an angel so I'm taking him being catholic as canon. There are a lot of themes in the game that point to catholisism specifically.

He's so fucking funny. he listens to nine inch nails and quotes one of the songs in a fight basically "fight me like an animal". he and v1 kind of have this yuri thing going on. he has an official bodypillow. hes a metaphor for being excommunicated and no one gets him like me and my friends do

The *true* Catholic experience is leaving the church and having a gay awakening, ask anyone

its debatable if Gabriel truly believes he's "the one true savior" or is mocking the idea of it

ok im actually gonna write some gabe propaganda bc despite what you may expect from a game called ULTRAKILL theres a lot to be said about his character and how catholicism is represented

Gabriel is a genuinely caring person who struggles to square his desire to help people with his duty as an archangel. He's the only one in Heaven trying to make things better for those in Hell, but his faith is used to manipulate him into committing atrocities against the people he used to protect (see the "TRAITOR" mural in 4-2)

he only realizes his mistakes after losing everything and being sentenced to death, but he still decides with only a little time remaining to try and make things right. for the sake of spoilers i will just say that the measures he takes are... extremely drastic and very enjoyable. i just really like the idea that even facing the end of all living things, no matter how steep your crimes, it is never too late to fix your mistakes. you are never unworthy forgiveness.

hes also SO FUCKING GAY for this dumb little robot. it mauled him so hard he tasted his own blood and he fell in love right there. theres no way this guy has a normal healthy relationship to pain he is soooooooooo fucked. i love him. please vote for Gabriel "patron saint of gay lapsed catholics" Ultrakill !!!!!!!!

Doomguy

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PUT DOOMSLAYER IN HERE

In the books he’s canonically Catholic. Haven’t played enough of the games to know but I think they keep it vague in the games. The books are pretty divergent from the games in some ways though so idk

Literally insane. Kills demons because of murder of pet rabbit. Traps himself in hell to give demons more whoopass.

In addition to being Catholic, Doomguy is canonically celibate, meaning he is, in fact, eligible to become the Pope. He’s also very proficient in exorcisms, if “blasting demons into a bloody mess with a shotgun” counts as an exorcism.

Literally kills demons & his universe’s equivalent of Satan

HE GOES TO HELL like 5 times to fight demons and protect earth. He’s also canonically celibate.

[allshitstaken]

Spoilers for Act I and Act II of Ultrakill

Theory for act III of Ultrakill:

The title of the act is "Godfist Suicide",

The last arm that V1 is going to get, as seen from the terminals, is a golden/yellow arm.

the only character I can think of that has a golden arm is Gabriel, or as we see from how the coucil members look like, any angel with armor

[Picture #1: Gabriel's arm]

[Picture #2: Counselor's arm]

I'd say it's safe to assume that taking someone's arm is enough to tell you that the someone you took it from has died, or at least has been damaged severely. Defeated, in short.

Saying that the "Godfist" part of the title is related to this (because "God" "fist") is a stretch, but I don't think I should exclude this part from the theory because of the implication that someone important will die in act III.

Although, there's this other word in the title of the act the accompanies "Godfist" and this word is "Suicide".

My theory here splits in three possible outcomes:

Gabriel kills himself for an unknown reason, and V1 desecrates his corpse by taking his arm.

Some/every angel/s in heaven kill themselves for finding out about God's death

"Suicide" is but a metaphor for the fact that Gabriel killed the council and is going to die because of it. Hence the last counselor stating "B-b-but the Father's light! Without me you cannot hope to reconnect with it! I-i-if you kill me, you'll be dead in a matter of hours!" If you kill me, you'll be dead in a matter of hours

I personally believe more in the 1st and 3rd outcomes.

I'd like to hear what others think.