#this analysis was soooo well done

[lazyjellyfish300]

And I mean good fucking God.....

Is Kusakabe Conventionally Attractive?

I was recently asked if Kusakabe is conventionally attractive. The short answer is yes. But you know how I am, so here's your 1K word essay on why he is on every level, from the obvious to the subtle and everything in between.

Let's start with the physical. From a scientific perspective, facial symmetry is linked to notions of masculinity and good health -- traits our brains are subconsciously hardwired to find appealing. Kusakabe’s face is sharp, symmetrical, and effortlessly striking. But let's dive deeper. Because the symmetry is what grabs your attention, but his amazing features are what holds it.

Gege draws Kusakabe with very distinctive eyebrows (thank you, Gege). While this may seem random, eyebrows play a significant role in facial aesthetics and attractiveness, especially for men. They provide a frame that influences how Kusakabe's other facial features, such as his eyes, jawline, and cheekbones, are perceived. Also, eyebrows are crucial for non-verbal communication; thicker, well-shaped eyebrows amplify expressions, making Kusakabe appear more charismatic and assertive.

Ah, that jawline — broad, angular, and sharp enough to cut glass. Going back to the science, studies link angular jawlines to higher levels of testosterone, which are associated with traits like strength and dominance. HELLO, DOMINANCE OKAY (Look, I'm not making this up; I read a whole 2018 evolutionary psychology paper on this.)

And we can't talk about Kusakabe's jawline without also mentioning his amazing, magnificent cheekbones. When both of these features are well-defined, they contribute to a strong, chiseled look that’s often considered the hallmark of conventionally attractive male faces. As the jawbone draws the eye up, the cheekbones fix the gaze on the center of the face, giving the viewer a second chance to admire his facial symmetry. Even more science! Skin loses elasticity as we age, so bone structure isn't as noticeable. Higher and sharper cheekbones are perceived to be a sign of youth and vitality. Though Kusakabe is in his mid-thirties, he's still looking young and FINE AF.

Basically, symmetry is the framework, and Kusakabe's features are the elegant finishing touches on a masterpiece.

Kusakabe definitely takes care his skin, and while that’s not a defined feature like the nose or mouth, it still plays a huge role in how people perceive his appearance and appeal. His skin is smooth, with a faint golden undertone from all the time he spends outside fishing. Its the kind of complexion that shows he's in good health and has a top-notch skincare routine he’ll probably never admit to having.

His hairstyle is a little outdated, but it can be considered conventionally attractive because it is well-maintained; the effort behind it indicates he is mindful of how he presents himself.

Is Kusakabe confident and conscious enough to go to Sephora? Drop cash at a high-end salon? Yes, he absolutely is.

His self-care extends to the way he keeps his body in peak condition. He’s in the dojo every day, no matter what he's practicing. And while he’s built broad, with those delicious strong shoulders, under that gi is a man whose lean muscles are toned to perfection.

His attention to detail also extends to his style. The care he puts into his appearance reflects an understanding of how to dress to highlight his best features. The tailored shoulder line, tapered waist, and notched lapels of his suit work together to accentuate his broad chest and torso. This cut creates a sculpted, V-shaped look. (I call it the 'reverse Dorito' because it looks like one, see? ▽). The notched lapel is a modern, classic fit that can easily be dressed up or down because, well, my man is practical.

His trenchcoat is worn open, but it is a really nice coat. It also has a notched lapel, but the notch is deeper. This fit, like his suit, is designed to complement his features. The cut subtly directs attention up to his jawline, a smart choice for his face shape. Plus, it’s perfect for someone both tall and broad, accentuating his frame without trying to make himself look larger than he already is.

Now, let’s shift focus to some of Kusakabe’s emotional traits that also make him conventionally attractive. His leadership mentality is something that naturally draws people toward him. Over the course of the manga, we saw him grow into someone who earned respect without the need to force it. During the meetings for backup plans for Sukuna's fight, for example, he wasn’t just participating; he was leading the discussion from the front. Getting a group of sorcerers to work together couldn't have been easy, but Kusakabe made it look effortless.

His deep love for those around him (despite his attempts to say otherwise) is the driving force behind his dedication to protecting them. Throwing hands with the King of Curses wasn’t about winning; it was about protecting the people who mattered to him, even if it meant sacrificing himself.

Kusakabe isn't just visually attractive — everything about him is. His sharp features and impeccable style stand out, but what really makes him unforgettable is his quiet strength, leadership, and selflessness. It's the balance of confidence and compassion that truly defines his hotness presence.

I DO NOT authorize use of this writing for other writing!

[etheries1015]

Imagine MC with a crush on Lilia, but Lilia is completely oblivious. When asked who MC likes, they're vaguely describing Lilia without name-dropping, and Lilia pouts over it because he thinks they have a crush on someone else

Cute! I can see it already...

*slumber party at ramshackle*

featuring ace and deuce, the wing men, who know you have a crush on Lilia. And Lilia, the oblivious old man who is utterly in love with you but can't seem to wrap his head around your hints. Thus, it was time to finally come clean to him!...to the best of your abilities!

Ace- Soooo...now that we're all settled in.....how about we talk about crushes and stuff, right? *winks at you*

Lilia- Ohoho!! I love a good love story! Now pray tell, (y/n), do you have a particular type or someone who has caught your eye?

Deuce gives you a thumbs up and a nod of confidence

MC, blushing- Hmm... well. I do, actually! He's shorter than average, and he's incredibly silly...He has the most beautiful ruby-colored eyes, and he never fails to make me smile.

Lilia was shocked to get an actual answer and analysis and is becoming increasingly worried. Who was this man?? All he could think of was the fact that you indeed had someone! The description didn't even phase him! He never thought you had a thing for him, but he thought he would notice the signs if you had fallen for someone, which he obviously missed! Woe is he, heartbroken and confused.

Lilia, sweating bullets- I see! He sounds...lovely. Does he go to this school?

Ace whispering to Deuce- Is he really this dense...? They practically described him verbatim!

MC, raising an eyebrow- He does. He's in Diasomnia-

Lilia, plotting for murder- Ah! Then I'm bound to know this person, as vice house-warden! Pray tell, who is it?

MC, confused why he hasn't gotten it yet- hmm. He's a fae.

Lilia, taken aback- A fae? Why, the few fae in diasomnia are... Ah! I think I have an inkling who this mystery crush may be.

MC, nodding and leaning in, getting excited- Yesss....

Lilia- Is it Sebek?

...how he came to that conclusion after the descriptions you gave, will forever be beyond me. And Logic.

Ace- oh come on bro even I'M not that dense! They like you, senile old man!!

MC- Ace!!!

Lilia was internally shocked about the "senile old man" comment, but I digress. Once you become that oblivious, how else could you justify it? You can't.

Deuce, getting up and rushing Ace out the door- Sorry, (Y/N). It had to be done. We are tired of you guys flirting and getting nowhere. Good luck!!

Ace and Deuce leave you and Lilia alone, Lilia with an excited and mischievous smile and a blush upon his cheeks (acting like this after the idiotic display...he has very limited brain cells, but it's okay. We still love him.) And then there was yourself, a blushing mess as the fae waited to hear your explanation... hehe.

[iztea]

OMG M'FINALLY DONE WOOOOO (i was preparin' for the exams so couldn't afford the time to finish this quickly soooo)

you asked for an analysis so here's that n' this uhhh

long and lanky physique

lots n' lots of lasso tool

blur or soft brush on anything

TEXTURES USE EM

lazy backgrounds w/ lasso n soft brush

thin lineart

make shapes w/ lasso tool for shadows n' light

oh my you actually did it😭 i don't even know what to say, I definitely was not talking or thinking of myself when i suggested studying other artists I'm not worthy of this kind of special treatment

you did such a good job, seeing it all laid out like that with that cute lil analysis and everything is really impressive, you absolutely nailed the colors it's exactly how I would have painted it as well; the blood too is very well done! I'm genuinely touched that you've taken time out of your day(s) and gone through the effort on trying out my artstyle of all people and i that hope you..,, had a productive session?😭 ah you're putting me in a difficult spot i can't view or recommend my own art as "study" material but nonetheless i hope it was useful in any sort of way!! good luck on your exams!

[marciaillust]

How long does it take for you to finish drawing?

I'm an artist (beginner) and i unconsciously set unrealistic goals for myself and need a reminder of how long it takes to complete a drawing, Thanks.

Hi! In the context you presented it in, that is a really interesting question, so I'll try to approach it thoroughly. I hope I won't make you roll your eyes too much.

Where to start, where to start... I guess the first thing I should say is that there is a difference between time I spend preforming the action of <drawing>, and the time I spent <working> on a particular piece. The first would be counted in hours, the second one - days. I'm a big believer in slowing things down, and giving things time - going through options, gathering research and references, taking breaks every 1h of sitting and drawing - and seeing things through until I achieve the goal I set at the beginning of the process.

The goals are usually different each time: "quick design", "character exploration", "analysis of an artist's linework and experimenting with the knowledge gained", "creating an aesthetically pleasing image", and so on and so forth. Of course I don't write these down like it's a school assignment, but knowing in the back of my head what I'm actually doing helps me manage my expectations. I also enjoy being conscious of why I create - when I was younger regardless of what I was doing I had the thought "AND IT MUST LOOK GOOD AND PRESENTABLE! BECAUSE PEOPLE WILL LOOK!" ...and I think that obsession is the cancer of creative process.

Since the goals for each picture are different, the time I'll spent on achieving each one will be different as well, because the "satisfactory results" lay in different places. For example, the Marcile sketchpage was created in one afternoon, and took approximately 3 hours. The goal was to play around with a brush that has no opacity forcing my lines to be more decisive. I did that and so it is "finished". There's nothing else I want from it.

On the other hand, the cover of Asterism took about 10 days to create, the goal of which was to make "an aesthetically pleasing cover picture taking colour inspiration from the works of (specific list of artists)". I took my time designing it so that it looks aesthetically pleasing, made sure the anatomy is "correct" (a nebulous statement when it comes to stylised humans), took my time masking, and picking colours, and shading. I wanted it to "look good" to my own eyes so if something was not working I would go back, change it, alter it, move it around... that's the wonderful thing about personal art, you can take as long as you like making something satisfactory.

The funny thing is, with what the Asterism cover actually is (a cellshaded image), it could have been done probably in 4 days by the me 4 years ago. But that person was willing to sit 8-10 hours a day to draw with no breaks, she had little social life, and treated herself as a little circus seal performing tricks so that people clap around her, and the clapping was soooo nice because it meant that people remembered her and she mattered. And it worked for her! For long 10 years! Until her arm gave out, and the reality of never being able to draw again became more tangible than ever, and it's been following her like a fog ever since for the past 4 years. The me today works about 4 hours a day and every hour I take about a 30 minute break. I also don't post half the stuff I draw. There is also another aspect that dictates the speed of creating and that is familiarity with the subject matter. The less you know something, the fast you'll draw it! But as you get to know the intricacies of the process, and see all the building blocks, it will start taking *longer* because you will start accounting for every block. But then you'll eventually get familiar with the blocks and so the time spent on a picture will go down again! The cool yet overwhelming thing about art is that, there are always hundreds of building blocks. Form, composition, ambient occlusion, saturation, hue, light balance, line form...... and those are just the *some* of the generalised *categories*. And each category will have it's own subsection of building blocks! And then those blocks will interact with each other to create completely new area of expertise! This is crazy! Marcille sketch page took me only 3 hours to create because I am already quite familiar with linework - I have drawn 3-4 comicbooks worth of linework. This also means I am familiar with believable anatomy, more or less, which got utilised in the Asterism cover - the main bulk of linework got created during a 3h livestream. So.... what's the answer.... "It's all relative" is so unsatisfactory and probably not what you looked for. But you can draw something in 3 days and kill your body over it. Or you can become an expert in a field and dish the same picture out effortlessly in 8 hours. You can also split that 8h block over multiple days bringing you back up to 3 days. You could even add a whole day of visual research which might make your picture only marginally better. And even if we calculate it in terms of raw working time, pen-to-paper, like a self-inflicted capitalist tumor, that time can fluctuate still due to personal visual library and knowledge base. If I asked Tom Fox how long it takes for him to create his sketch pages his answer would probably be downward of 30 minutes. Yet I need whole 3 hours to create something *less* anatomically correct than him. And so here we are at the end of this perhaps unnecessary essay. And all we learned is this: it depends. Dry, not nuanced tl;dr, my personal timings: single sketch - 30mins; single linework pic 1-2h; Cellshaded illust - 16h; Rendered illust: 20-25h.

[iam-lnt]

Hetamyu is great and here's sort of a......theatrical analysis pov of why

last time i ranted about "hetamyu being great" (👈this post right here) i'm not exactly being clear, and since the production itself has much that I can analyze (already written a 2k article abt the stage 💀) I figure I can do better

So I...analyzed all Hetamyu that I've seen (excluding the live mash-up versions since technically those are more like concerts than theatrical plays) from the following perspectives under cut

(warning: it's long as fuck. I'm not even kidding. I opened the cut myself after finishing it and I felt like I'm going to faint)

I've warned y'all.

Symbolic and innovative staging

Stage is something often overlooked as a regular audience, which, when doing analysis, should not be. Whatever happens in the play happens on the stage, and thus the stage, when being designed, will be closely linked with the play itself. The stage in hetamyu use the classical three-side proscenium stage, which is what one would imagine when saying "a stage".

The stage of hetamyu episodes holds meaning with respect to the historical period/symbolic, thus assisting in story/theme telling. Examples:

The great world: Round middle part of the stage with the spin-able plate in the middle; a callback to the time period (great exploration) and its ideal that the Earth is "round", like the stage. 

In the new world: The big book design in the background can 1) engross the audience in the story as if they’re reading a book themselves, 2) add to the historical sense of the play with the parchment-like material, 3) as the actor themselves move the page it feels like they're telling the story themselves, and also adding onto the fact that if actors flip to the page before, it's like someone's trying to turn back history

The world is wonderful: The high platform behind can be symbolic for its height representing the strength of a nation behind higher than others; it’s also a way to isolate the one on top with those on ground level to highlight a specific character via height

The general staging of hetamyu is progressively more creative. Examples:

The great world: movable stair pieces

In the new world: ngl that book design is pretty good

Fantastic world: use those tall iron rack/frame things to mimic a boat and the hang-down cloth to mimic the Fuji mountain.

That's really something bc often theater production will not choose a realistic display of everything, since all they have is a limited amount of stage (not like, for example, tv series where they have green screen or sth). Choosing a creative yet fitting method to narrate a wider perspective is soooo important and inspiring. Hetamyu, being stories of grand history stories, obviously cannot put a palace, a tank, a wall, or a mountain on stage. So they either 1) leave it blank and up to imagination accompanied by assisting dialogues/actions or 2) use shapes that are alike to the presented view. If done well, you wouldn't even notice that "things are not real", bc despite no realistic object is presented, the whole atmosphere allows your brain to fill the gap--all the reason why hetamyu exceeds expectations in this field.

The use of comedy

It's easy to notice that hetamyu is laughable as hell. Not joking, I cannot finish a play without shaking with laughter somewhere (although it tend to get serious and angst towards the end…will talk about it later), and I'm sure most have similar experiences. This means that comedy is well used in production of hetamyu. I'd like to divide the comedy parts in hetamyu into two components:

--Personality of characters-- This one is easier to understand. The wacky idiots we have in original hetalia manga/anime is basically the source of humor, including but not limited to 

Italy whipping out his white flag

America yelling "I'm number 1"

Which is working well, of course. But one thing that I’m glad is that hetamyu didn’t stop there with the characterization—it expanded on what should be "them being just dumb" and turned them into real and heart-felt characters, such as

Italy preferring peace over war (Grandpa Rome etc etc)

America actually being number 1 in the world and feeling "lonely" (in The world is wonderful. Ah I love that line sm)

Of course we can see that many of the said expansion on characterization is already done in original hetalia, and it’s true, hima already handled their characters well. But my point is that hetamyu did not use comedy solely for comedy, it did not use stupidity/egocentrism/bickering only for the laughter—it's a reflection of unique traits of characters, which in turn makes us love them even more.

--Improvisation-- The script itself purposefully leave out certain parts for the actors themselves to improvise. Now I'm not sure if it's a common thing generally in Japanese theater production of popular anime (I'm guessing it is), but I always love this design. Usually, one play will have multiple points for multiple characters' improvisation skits. 

The actors themselves (from what I've seen in BTS videos) will plan out jokes to tell during these improvisation parts. For one, these skits break the fourth wall well, bc actors would often use irl examples (eg commercials, quotes, songs, films, famous ppl) to mimic and/or cue; for another, it's a weird extension of the character themselves, so it's funny because the characters we know are being weird…either ooc or completely in character. Examples of there improvisation skits include

The great world: America drawing random stuff on a pull-out blackboard and explaining it to everyone when Japan asked. [The improvisation is what would be drawn and how he would explain.]

Fantastic world: How France and England would bicker and exit the stage. [The improvisation is how their arguments would turn to different topics and how France will end their conversation with a one-liner; and also an extended improvisation of the other one-liner Spain commenting on them two]

Expanding just a bit here, these improvisations remind me how Commedia dell'arte (an Italian theater tradition) will have "Lazzi", which is a set sequence of improvisation, in their play production. I think it follows certain steps to create a Lazzi but I…did not do my research on this one, sadly. Also I think it can correspond to "jig" in English. [Sprinkling in random theater knowledge even if this whole post is basically theater knowledge]

Themes, ideals, and conflicts

Typically, a theatrical production will have an "intention" of some sort, which would be what the producers want to tell by staging a play. From the intention derive possible themes and ideals. Conflicts, on the other hand, is used for pushing the plot forward and towards a climax, consequently telling a propelling story (see the classical plot diagram). A arguably successful play will most likely have insightful themes and perceptive ideals along with a well-set conflict to tell the themes and ideals. 

—Themes and ideals via the plot— Hetalia has little plot, or to say a hella lot of plot bc it's the whole freaking history. Thus, hetamyu chooses this approach: tell a story in a certain historical period (or as the show develops, multiple periods). We see hetamyu tell stories of the great exploration, the unification of Italy, the opening of Japan, and so much more. 

What's impressive is…it is hard enough to tell a good historical story, it is harder yet that hetamyu is dealing with nation personifications for god's sake. I commented once before that it's pretty amazing that although there's a decent amount of typical fandom fights in hetalia (just like others), during the course of my being in the fandom, never have I seen once that hetalia meddle with political arguments. It has so much potential for political fights but I’ve seen…none. Like literally how. Hetamyu handled some of the most dangerous topics (like world wars and colonization) and advocated peace over everything. Okay hetalia did that also, but that's another story. Also credits to @thecursedislander for pointing out a possible symbolism of peace = pasta since Italy's supposed "weakness" is actually a brave advocation for peace and cheerfulness, I think that realization broke me somehow.

You'd expect this "history story + peace and love" troupe to, ugh, fade in its usefulness if it's used too many times, and yes the producers of hetamyu noticed that. This is why, when I finished watching Fantastic world, my jaw dropped—hetamyu tackled a problem called "Japan's lack of culture due to recent history, and also it's relationship with his mentor China". Okay that’s impressive as hell bc consider the real world audience and um idk real world politics???? I'm impressed at the production teams' insightfulness in history as well as their dedication to bring a light-hearted and loved show on stage. Like I would often describe to my friend, the themes tackled in hetamyu made me believe that whoever wrote the script must have either a Philosophy or a History degree or sth, because the sort of "realization" brought forth by the telling of themes is just that brilliant and open-minded

—Setting up conflicts— Every hetamyu has a main conflict accompanied by sub-conflicts. Example:

The great world with the main England-America relationship

The world is wonderful with the main North/South Italy relationship, 

Fantastic world with the main Japan inner conflict and his relationship with China, along with sub-conflicts such as Japan-Netherlands or Japan-America. 

This approach is useful because it avoided the show being just a chaotic mess of idiots running around doing stuff. Now it's…a chaotic mess of idiots running around doing stuff and trying to fix their problems/the main conflict. Welp. You get the idea. Essentially conflict pairs help set up a reasonable plot for the 2 hour show to go on while showing all the drama. Also who is in the conflict tells a bit of the theme, like how Japan-China conflict can call back to the theme of culture integration etc. 

Other production elements

Just going over them quickly bc this is already too long…yeah.

Lighting: use of different colors of light to indicate shifting of atmosphere on stage; e.g. iconically the opening scene for The world is wonderful/flashing lights to add to tension on stage/blue to create an atmosphere of freezing cold during Russia's scenes

Music: Not much I can say other than the songs are getting progressively better. Compare those in Singin' in the world and the newest The glorious world and you'll see what I mean. I feel like the composers add more into the instruments, like strings, guitars, keyboards, and stringed their melodies together better. 

Props: Also getting better, and more creative. Like Chibi America's cradle, the HRE hand doll, and all the stuff lying around the stage in The glorious world. 

Actors and casts

This is not my strong point in analysis bc this is technically not included when analyzing a play. But I decided to add this in anyway, because if a play is good enough it can educate not only the audience but also the actors themselves. 

—Specific roles— I like the fact that actors have specific roles when it comes to producing a play; like Russia's actor specialize in telling the oldest corniest coldest jokes ever, Germany's actor being the only voice of reason and thus a good choice for ending improvisation skits, and Italy and America's actors being the absolute kings in chaotic improv. 

—Characterization— I ranted about it once before I think, but the actors of hetamyu giving the characters a new set of characteristics is something I dig so much for. The most obvious one got to be England; his actor Daisuke literally portrayed this supposed gentleman as his original sassy self, which is hella fun. Other actors do similar things, but I'd argue those are harder to spot bc they matched their characters' freak pretty damn well.

—Wholesome, encouragement, and growth— So this whole family of hetamyu cast is wholesome as hell. It's like that with many other shows, in which the cast bond over the experience. With hetamyu it’s better because they have a long time span—the first hetamyu Singin' in the world came in 2015, and the last hetamyu The glorious world just ended touring this year in 2024. 

Also, the break after the first three production (in which they started a live one, thinking that it's the end of hetamyu's production and they're not going to make new shows together…I'm not sure about the reasons tho) and the return afterwards are great opportunities for the cast to bond over.

We can see the growth of multiple cast members, e.g. Ryoki, Italy's actor, was only 16/17 when he first starred in 2015, and bro's now 26 and striving in his career as a singer, and Gaku, Prussia's actor, was a rather new member of the cast (starting from In the new world) and can be quite shy, but other members encouraged him and cheered him on and look at him now! Okay he's still like the bullied kid in the cast but at least he knows he's loved by the fam (/hj). 

One last thing, I like how the main casts won't forget to include the ensemble cast into their improv skits just for fun. Cuz like, without the ensemble the play wouldn't be complete, so even if they're just dancers for background aesthetic and props moving, they're still a crucial part of the play. And I adore the fact that main cast also keeps that in mind. Respect. 

I can go on about the cast dynamic for ages and start a new rant on their acting skills or sth but I'm afraid I've already run too far away from our topic. Point is, show so good the cast is in tears (literally)

Conclusion

I have no good conclusion for all these...(gesture helplessly above)...stuff. So in conclusion hetamyu is awesome and we love hetamyu 4ever.

Also feel free to spill any thoughts & suggestions !! Diverse pov/opinion needed for better analysis and my brain may or may not be deprived of braincells <3 in da hetamyu club we all fam

[toiletpapergolemn]

Mouthwashing Analysis Pt. 1

Reminder: This is my own personal analysis over the game so don’t dictate it as absolute or objectively correct regarding the game’s message. Everyone is entitled to their opinions (unless they’re wrong) and any thoughts that could add to this analysis is appreciated!

Pretty sure this will be divided by parts or not, depending how many thoughts brewed up by the end of this post. I’m gonna discuss about the following:

Analysis of the Title

How and why the plot is constructed

General Themes

Style of the game

How style contributed to plot and atmosphere

Of course, SPOILERS FOR THE GAME! I’m trying to discuss everything and anything I found significant to the plot and overall message of the game. 

Again, this is just for fun and I like analysing stuff! Soooo…

Mouthwashing is a psychological horror game taking place in outer space featuring 5 characters trying to survive with their limited supplies while trying to keep their sanity intact as they wait for help.  Words: 2080

First is the title of the game, “Mouthwashing” which is also the main drive of the crew’s destination of the shipment. But it’s also a trait in the main character. From the start, you could see how much he emphasises how he is the captain, which I found odd since he didn’t need to flaunt it every time someone is questioning his decisions. It was as if he’s trying to convince himself and others that he’s in charge of the situation and trying to get more credibility from others. It seems that Jimmy feels guilty over his actions so he tries to rally the others up to bolster his resolve— both in convincing him that this will make up for all the wrongs he’s done and the satisfaction of finally being on top of the ladder that he felt is finally deserved. 

Jimmy essentially “washes his mouth” from all the guilt and wrongdoings by saying these things with a sense of pressure and tension and conviction. He doesn’t appear to use a tone that would comfort or console the crew (as any leader would in a life-threatening situation), it’s irritated and strained. He hates the fact they don’t fully trust him because he assumes that he has the full capability of being a leader (he has a high ego) and the implication that Curly is still the leader despite what happened to him.

To put it briefly, the crew believed more in a man who’s burnt half to death and entirely limbless more than they believed in Jimmy. You can see that Jimmy is reckless and rash, actions that could’ve been dismissed because of the circumstances, but when it’s a pattern and happens throughout the gameplay, it questions the credibility of his character. Even the fact that the player thought it was Curly’s fault in the beginning strongly proves how much he convinced himself that he’s in the right and he can “fix everything”. 

The entire title is a reference to Jimmy’s actions, how he tries to shove all the words down on everyone’s throat and baptise himself as a clean, free man. 

His character will be explained more when I discuss the rest of the crew as well. Now, we move on to plot and the line of plot.

“Mouthwashing” doesn’t use a linear storyline. It keeps referring back from the past and then to the presumably present with the constant change of who the player character is. It’s disorientating, it’s supposed to confuse people and throw the players off their course. Furthermore, the flashbacks show the POVs of different characters so some information is revealed while others are still hidden away, leaving only the player who knows what’s generally going on. Other than the fact to create a disorientating effect onto players, the change of POVs can also be used to characterise the cast more. The past always being reflected by Curly could be Curly reflecting on his past decisions and rewinding those memories due to his guilt, wishing that he could’ve done things differently or notice Jimmy’s intentions from the start. His idleness towards Anya’s issue, lack of consequences of Jimmy's actions, and dismissing other problems for the sake of peace is what caused the tremor that shook everyone off.

On the other hand, Jimmy always reflects on the present. His guilt grounds him in the current moment because he now faces the consequences of his actions and his fear festers rapidly seeing as he increasingly grows alarm of Anya (Her private discussion with Swansea) and Swansea (He’s the only person who is openly mocking and rejecting Jimmy’s role as leader). Daisuke is a good-natured person followed by his naivety and optimism, Jimmy knew instilling any good intentions, “do the bad things for the good things”, would urge Daisuke to do anything Jimmy needed. Jimmy refuses to look back in the past and see how red his hands became, the only time he looked back on was when he crashed the ship. Because at that point, he believed he could “fix everything” and he believed the role of the leader was bestowed upon him when he noticed how on edge Curly was and how the pressure was affecting him. He deduced he did the right thing, Curly trusted him after all, he was vice captain, his right-hand man. Yet when he came back out and found out Curly curled up at the corner and questioning what he’s done, did he know what he did was wrong and was evoked from bottled up jealousy? Or did he truly believe what he did was right and crashing the entire ship would get rid of his confrontation of his guilt, jealousy, and hatred?

Did he feel he truly deserved that bloated ego after seeing how scared and small Curly is while he finally looked down on him at that moment?

Following that, this highlighted the general themes of the game: taking responsibility and owning up to your actions. None of the message or themes of the game is explicitly stated (unless you count the texts popping on screen) and the player has to piece them together to reveal the truth. This challenges the player’s morals and beliefs, they don’t know the full story and can only be left interpreting from the character’s dialogues, their actions, and Jimmy’s POV. Yes, the game is telling us a story but also sending a message directly to the player. The sudden texts (take responsibility) on the screen are to emphasise Jimmy’s actions but also urge the players to think more critically. Oftentimes, we mark protagonists as the “good guys” that even though they’re bad, we support them along the way because we are controlling them. Therefore, we unconsciously assume we’re doing the “right thing”.

However, in “Mouthwashing”, you’re rapidly changing between the source of the problems (Jimmy) and the one who let it grow (Curly). The message of “taking responsibility” is applied to both characters. Jimmy for being scared of confrontation and believing that he’s doing the crew a deed by taking the mantle as captain (enforcing it onto them) but then puts everyone in danger as he ignores his other actions (Curly and Anya). Curly wanting to “fix everything” after realising what his friend did to Anya while his solution offered no protection or justice for her and basically letting Jimmy scott free from his actions simply because of their “friend” status. 

(Despite Curly’s actions coming from good intentions doesn’t get rid of the fact that Anya was still mistreated by him. Curly didn’t do anything to confront Jimmy or tell him how wrong it was, words of comfort aren’t enough– it doesn’t erase the damage. Pity is not going to fix or lessen the scars people have already been inflicted with. I’ll elaborate more about this statement in my second post.)

Then we move onto the style of the game, it has an “old-game” atmosphere followed by the simple game models. It’s not realistic but human enough. Each scene of the game is off-putting. The lack of music, the thumping of your footsteps, the claustrophobic halls. It creates a daunting atmosphere which is paired with the inevitability of death lurking as well as the optimism of survival. The game takes you out of the miserable moment for a second (Daisuke as a representation for hope, he’s the comedic relief character who’s the “sun” –As Swansea puts it– that beams through the darkness) then pulls you back in to reveal the creeping unavoidable truth of “no one survives in this” and “no one wins in the end”. 

How’d the game be any different in other styles? Realism doesn’t offer the amount of colour contrast the game does, as we all see when a game attempts to be as realistic as possible: colours get too muddy, the values blend together, it takes you out of the immersion. What I also found interesting is the lack of expression, their emotions almost hold nothing– like a blank slate made to fill in for a role. It’s almost dehumanising to see humans so inhumane, instead we rely on their dialogues and body language. To add onto that, their faces characterise them. Anya is the fragile, vulnerable woman in a crew full of men. Swansea as the tough and harsh oldest employee in the cast. Daisuke is casual and laid back, the newcomer in the group who takes things less seriously. Jimmy is interpreted as the stern leader while Curly as the coward who almost harmed his entire crew (until it’s revealed in the end that he’s as human as the others.) This can be how Jimmy and Curly put labels onto them, both can only see what is above the surface. 

If the game plays on perspective, why are there no more POVs from Curly after he was hurt? The only interpretation I could come up with is Curly manages to see behind the crew’s facades. Anya (as seen from the birthday party) can be humorous, her meek behaviour didn’t come from nowhere, it came from being near a source of danger– as the nurse, she also had to take care of everyone (even the bad ones). Swansea is caring in his own way, as the oldest he felt responsible over the crew regardless of who’s the leader and puts their safety over his– he knows how careless Daisuke is and how docile Anya is. Even Anya felt safe enough to cry in front of him. Daisuke is presumably the youngest of the group, so he’s reckless, naive, and optimistic but it’s in regards of everyone’s feelings– he also shows a much more mature side than we realise (AKA worrying over his mother and wanting to take a job so she can be proud, not wanting her to take all the blame for his death). 

Why aren’t there POVS from other characters? Wouldn’t it make the plot and message much clearer? Because the game is about responsibility. You’re playing as a character who refuses to take any accountability for his actions and you’re in no control to stop it even when you’re the player– most importantly, you’re the one doing these things. You’re the one who’s forcing Curly to take those painkillers, you’re the one who crashed the ship, you’re the one who put Daisuke in danger, you’re the one who killed Swansea, and you’re responsible for all the pain inflicted onto Anya. The worst part is? You couldn’t even do anything at the end as you take Curly’s POV and see Jimmy disappear from your view as he ends it all before he could even open his eyes and see past through his delusions. In the end, he even refused to look at Curly anymore while muttering "he’ll fix it". Because Curly is the embodiment of his mistakes, his errors, his guilt. (Ironic how Anya isn’t in the picture, proving how he truly didn’t see her as human) Everything that he didn’t want to be. 

Another style in the game is the significance of sound. The music from the lobby is used as a juxtaposition of your current situation, it’s calm and serene. While the atmosphere outside of the lobby reveals hopelessness as you’re stuck in an empty abyss with no help coming– even now the silence can be heard. Most importantly, Curly’s pained sounds are the only voice from a character in the entire game. The game doesn’t highlight Jimmy pushing the painkillers down his throat, it stresses the noises coming from Curly. I see the blackout screen as Jimmy’s intolerance to see what he has done, only the noises come out because Jimmy is perhaps closing his eyes like he’s avoiding to see Curly as he attempts to "fix him". He can see all the wounds and the stare of one eye unblinkingly looking at him with no emotions, because he feels no judgement from that eye nor does he see the injuries covered up from the bandages. But his words? The one Jimmy looked up to and listened carefully, unlike Swansea's or Anya’s? Now it’s nothing but the pained sounds of choking and his last remnants of what made him human. The only thing left of his “friend”. (Perhaps the fact that Curly doesn’t even look like Curly anymore contributes too)

Okay so this turned out way longer than I thought it would but if you made it this far, thanks for being interested about this long paragraphs lol. I only watched the game once and skipped over to the bits I explained to refresh my memory a little bit. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration that I love the game and find it so entertaining to analyse each segment and find out the meaning behind them.

I’ll say again, don’t take this as objective truth. This is merely how I interpret the story. Just because mine is the longest doesn’t mean it’s the most accurate. The same way as Jimmy saying he’s the captain doesn’t make him a good leader.

I think I'll talk more about characterization and symbolism in the game in my next post, if you look at my paragraph about Swansea a little bit closer– you can guess he’s my favourite out of the others lmao. I hope this was an enjoyable reading though, as it is for me.

[eternalera]

i really wanna make an analysis of just this scene

just cause he fucking SMILED at her. i feel like this proves that soe part of adam actually cares and i really wanna get into it soooo bad cause its done so well and its such a good scene and ughhh

[cryoverlife]

So I made a brief post talking about Ruby and Julius Kane being bad parents and uh... here's the essay.

(quick side rant, omg this post is going to be long)

honestly I really should make a series about it, because after really thinking about it, the Kane Siblings have a severe lack of any good parental care in their life. This isn't exactly abnormal in the Riordanverse, but compared to the other series, which have minimal adult characters (that aren’t dead or immortal), the Kane Chronicles have many adult characters and many of the important ones were there to take care of Sadie and Carter.

Yeah that didn't work out.

I mean there's a lot of facets to the Kane siblings relationships with parental figures. From the... interesting and like definitely racist environment Sadie had to deal with while living with her grandparents to Carter's mental state and identity(?) while living with his dad. there is so much I could over analysis, and I'm not a fan of these books to sit around and reread all day so uh, I'm gonna over analysis all of it.

Eventually, but this post will be long even talking about the more aspect I want to talk about with out dragging the rest of the things I find interesting into it soooo.

When first reading the Kane Chronicles, Ruby and Julius actually seem like good parents. they certainly made mistakes but they do love their kids. and even now, I don't doubt they love their kids. It's just an incredibly interesting scenario where the parents, no matter how much they love their kids, are capable of putting the well being of the world first.

And that's the crux of the issue. Ruby and Julius are capable of being excellent parents, but in the situation they were in, they decide it was either the world or Carter and Sadie and they didn't hesitate to choose the world.

In fact, I'm pretty sure Bast said something very similar to this.

Anyway, I'm gonna start with Ruby and Julius's deaths. Personally, I think saying they abandoned Carter and Sadie isn't actually wrong here. I'm definitely not saying someone dying is abandoning the people they love, but it's the way Julius and Ruby both die and how both situations are almost planned.

Now there's not a lot of cannon conformation about Ruby's death, but I, personally, inferenced that Ruby and Julius predicted that it was a very likely scenario that freeing Bast would mean Ruby's death. Or at the very least they definitely knew the dangers of it.

Unlike Julius, Ruby didn't choose to die, but she did put herself in a situation where it was likely. Did she do it with the best intentions? sure. But I find the whole "we had no other choice" thing dumb. Diviner doesn't seem like an incredibly reliable source of information, and unlike the greek pantheon I'm not aware of any being in Egyptian Mythology that specifically controls fate (feel free to prove me wrong here). The idea that they couldn't have done anything else, is kind of absurd.

I mean they convinced Iskander that banning gods was wrong so like? maybe they should have leaned more into that angle.

Also like, they freed Bast, which good for Bast, but doing that sped up the process that allowed Apophis to get free. Ruby had a couple of visions and the two of them spent the rest of they're lives deciding to not just prevent the apocalypse, but to put that burden on their children's shoulders.

Personally, I think Ruby's death was while unfortunate not a surprise to either of them, considering she didn't really seem to try to survive, denying both Isis's and Bast's help. Maybe she wouldn't have been able to handle the power, but like, she could have tried.

Now the bigger Issue I have is Julius's death, cause Ruby's is mostly speculation on my part, I could be wrong, but uh, Julius planned his death. He brought to kids into what was going to be an incredibly dangerous situation. And yes, he did ask them to stay out of the room, but the idea that he used them to help him accomplish this which would leave them without their one living parent while also implicating them of any potential crimes the mortals might decide had happened (which is canon) is horrible.

Arguably, We have no idea weather or not Julius planned on releasing Set, and having Carter and Sadie host Horus and Isis (though those amulet are suspicious). Personally I believe that he had some idea what was going to happen, he's not stupid, but similarly to Ruby's death he decide to take that chance anyway.

Was it for the good of the world? sure. Was it for the good of Sadie and Carter? no, absolutely not.

Even if the situation hadn't thrown Sadie and Carter head first into a deadly quest it would've have severely traumatized them. They could feel guilt for helping their dad commit a crime (especially if they had no idea what was going on) or get himself killed. It doesn't help that Sadie already had abandonment issues due to him.

But more importantly, (not to say his relationship with Sadie isn't important, but his death has a far larger impact on Carter), he left Carter with no one. Besides for maybe Amos, but not only are the two of them estranged but I can't really think that Julius would've thought Amos would take Carter in. And honestly living with the Uncle you barely remember isn't much better than living with stranger, there no one for Carter to go to.

Julius was Carter's single guardian and his only form of stability and familiarity for six years. Do I think he was a good support system of Carter during those six year? not really, but the fact that Julius was willing to throw Carter to the wolves (the government and the foster system) isn't a good sign.

so yeah, the fact that both Julius and Ruby basically went willingly and knowingly to their deaths is kind of abandoning their kids.

I wish I could say (that's a bad way to phrase this) that Julius had planned the quest to defeat Set but I kinda think that would be speculating a bit to much.

Luckily, it's basically canon that they expected Sadie and Carter to save the world so anything I might say about that isn't at all a stretch.

My biggest problem with them though is that neither of them even mentioned the idea of being magicians to Carter or Sadie. And it;'s not because they're to young, because many magicians learn what they are at a very young age.

It could've been to protect them from The House of Life, but considering how violent and uncontrolled they're magic can get with zero knowledge of it it's seems weird that they wouldn't try to teach them how to control it.

(also It was denying Carter and Sadie a large amount of knowledge about their family and even culture to some extent)

Both of the parents fully understood that Sadie and Carter would have to save the world, and yet despite that both of them died without even hinting at Sadie and Carter's abilities.

And there's a big difference between this and what many of the better parents in the Riordanverse did by trying to avoid telling their kids about their heritage. People like Sally and Natalie Chase did it with the intention of trying to protect their kids as long as possible. Sure, it didn't help but they either weren't given a chance to fully explain when the kids were old enough or tried to but it came a bit late (for reasons they couldn't control), Ruby and Julius fully understood that Carter and Sadie would be put in a lot of danger and didn't even inform them of that the gods existed.

Yeah technically most of the Riordanverse parents did that, but there is a big difference in the lives of demigods vs magicians. Telling a demigod about the greek god would also mean having to explain the fact that they being hunted down by monster, which is not something you should tell your seven year old, especially if the real danger is going to come a bit later. Magicians don't actually have a lot of danger associated with them, Carter and Sadie are sort of an exception to that. Like sure, don't tell them about the saving the world part until they're older (Not that Julius even tried) but like tell them about the magic part, my goodness.

Sadie and Carter learned all of this on a really dangerous quest, while trying to save their dad who had planned his death, and in the end they were forced to make a decision between their dad and the world. A decision they didn't really get to make because of the situation and Julius's plan had already made it for them.

Sadie and Carter were shoved into a dangerous world with arguably less help than any other Riordanverse character (excluding the MC series, cause they all died to find out about Norse gods). Like at least the demigods had a camp to go to, Carter and Sadie had a world wide society on their heels, a possessed uncle, a clay person having an identity crisis (which wasn't even over the fact she wasn't real) and a single cat goddess who was forced to ditch like half-way through the book.

Julius legit went "Hey sorry I planned on dying, why don't you almost die to try and save me even though it's useless and than find out me and your mother planned out the worst way to give you the burden of saving the world along with a bunch of responsibilities you don't want *cough* Carter wanting nothing to do with being in charge *cough*.”

I could complain that they also encouraged and helped Sadie and Carter do dangerous stuff (give them a dangerous criminal while knowing he would escape) but unfortunately that’s a common thing parents in fantasy books do.

Like, if they’re kid is already in a dangerous situation and they can’t get them out of it or the kid has to much of a guilt/ hero complex, then better they try to help their kid as much as possible to try to protect them, then forbid them from doing anything which will lead to the kid trying to do everything themselves and getting into more danger.

course the reason Carter and Sadie are in so much danger is because of their parents.

actually Ruby and Julius have a lot of similarities with the gods when it comes to parenting. Cause problems, help your kid a minimal amount after forcing them to fix the problems you caused for you.

Are Julius and Ruby bad people? No. In the end they’re doing what they think is best for the world, which no one can really blame them for that.

they simply faced the love one vs world challenge and had to choose the world.

The thing is being a bad or good person doesn’t usually have anything to do with being by a good or bad parent.

a bad person is capable of being a good parent and a good person is capable of being a bad one.

Trying to save the world does make Ruby and Julius good people, but at the expense of their kids mental, emotional, and physical health. And no matter what the reason, anyone who willingly chooses to put their kids in that type of situation, isn’t a good parent.

anyway, that was really long, so any of you that actually read that entire thing, thx for reading my over analysis.

[snaxle]

i want to get back into weather (<- that sounds soooo alien trying to be human and has only read about small talk) and i don't know where to start, the last time I was like engaging with weather beyond like.... checking it to decide how to dress i was in elementary school over a decade ago. so uh any good recommendations on books, websites, youtubers etc?

these wont have the best explanations but hope you check them out! note that these youtubers generally focus on weather in the united states, so right now i dont have recommendations for youtubers outside of the us at the moment. these arent necessarily all of them, but for the most part if you just kinda wanna use them as background noise you can.

Alferia - aspiring meteorologist, posts in depth analysis videos breaking down severe storms

HIGH RISK Chris - storm chaser, posts analysis videos breaking down severe weather, as well as uploads his own chases that he participates in

Celton Henderson - storm chaser, posts analysis videos breaking down severe weather events, as well as uploads videos of his own chases he's done

TornadoTRX - storm chaser, posts analysis videos breaking down severe weather as they happen

June First - storm chaser and mechanical engineer, he primarily posts analysis videos breaking down severe weather events, mainly tornadoes and hurricanes

Reed Timmer - storm chaser and extreme meteorologist. he is a very well known chaser and has been in multiple tv shows surrounding chasing tornadoes

Freddy McKinney - storm chaser

Ryan Hall, Y'all - storm chaser and weather analyst, he primarily just posts videos regarding just daily weather updates throughout the united states

Max Velocity - weather analyst, he also just primarily posts daily videos regarding weather updates for the united states

[queers-gambit]

I LOVE the Black Dread. It's soooo good. She'd be stubbornly undecided. I think she'd find Jacaerys irritating and even more annoying than Aemond. It might add insult to injury that even though he doesn't look like a Targaryen he's (for the most part) been given everything she should have been given despite sharing the same reasons she was not (if that makes sense). Also, how will Vermax ever entice Balerion into friendship or romance? Vermax, though cute, is a measly offer of companionship. However, she may be team Rhaenyra. Aemond on the other hand is a handsome prospect. He's a dragon rider who might acknowledge her as a Targaryen because she is a legitimate child like the Velaryons and he'd be enamoured that she claimed Balerion of all dragons. he'd be intrigued, probably into her and slightly jealous. Vhagar and Balerion have history as well. That could sway Balerion and in turn sway her. Daemon would probably admire her as well...but she seems like she'd be DONE with all of their shit. Before she picks a side she seems like she'd need payback for not being acknowledged or included before.

love this take. love this message. love the thought and consideration, the analysis. love that you picked up on a lot of the foreshadowing soon to come!

i'm working on part two which is gonna finish setting up a lot of the plot and details, and THEN we'll get into the more specified bonding moments between her and Aemond / Jace.

really excited to see what you guys think! keep the messages coming! all my love 🖤

[nereidprinc3ss]

making this anonymous because i want to be a sneaky girl… i fear you’ll probably know who i am and if you know pretend u don’t because she’s not me i promise LOLLLL but i liked part 7 a lot i really liked how there was a big emphasis on how they’re doing this because they love each other i thought that was really sweet 😭 i think for me personally i’ve always had this thought of if a man wants to have sex with me he sees me as an object, so i’ve always kinda opposed the whole sexual thoughts thing but while reading dybmn (not to say blah blah fanfic cured me blah blah blah) it helped me realize you can have those thoughts and feeling for someone while simultaneously loving them and that doesn’t make you a bad person, i appreciated how much that showed in part 7.

(ALSO COULD BE TOTALLY WRONG ABT THIS NEXT PART DONT CANCEL ME I KNOW THE DYBMN ARMY ANALYSIS THESE FICS TO PIECES SO IF IM WRONG PLS IM SORRY this is just what i gathered)

what i think made this part different from the rest (besides the loss of virginity thing) is that if i’m not mistaken this was not only readers first time having sex, but spencer’s first time having sex with someone who mutually feels the same way about him COULD BE SOOO WRONG but with the whole elle thing and then him just having a slut era where he hooked up with a bunch of women i just assume he’s never had sex with someone who is in love with him but i’m sorry if i am missing something 😭😭 obviously they did like hand and mouth stuff first but they were both under the impression they either felt differently about each other, or weren’t aware of it yet. so i thought it was really cute how they kept saying i love you because i’m sure having that emotional factor changes sex but what would i know LOLLL it was just special to me💕 anywho im done yappin now, have the most perfect night!!!!

OK OMG IM GONNA TALK ABT THIS UR BRAIN IS SOOOO HUGE

that was one of the most important parts to get across for me. i think porn and smut have really fucked with people’s perceptions of sex and obviously i am contributing to that in my own way but i REALLY wanted to write something where it was so clear that the love came first and was far more important than the sex, but also that they intertwined so much, like the sex was an EXPRESSION of love. and also even though reader has been beggginggg spencer to fuck for like ever, in MY opinion she subconsciously wasn’t actually ready for it until now. she basically wanted to have sex because she was worried abt what other people thought and wanted to appease her insecurities but for both of them, having sex was really about love which is always my attitude towards it as well, i am very anti hookup culture being the dominant way people connect and obviously do what you want but i hate that now it’s the expectation that you aren’t or even shouldn’t get attached to the person you’re sleeping with. so basically this is propaganda and me furthering my own agenda. i don’t think sex has to be “dirty” or warrant guilt at all, it can be something (we’re getting corny🚨🚨) that is JUST for you and your partner, not performative, and done because you truly love each other. like to me that’s so romantic—eliminating all outside influence and being very private bc it’s this one incredibly intimate thing you share only with each other. obviously this will not be everyone’s perspective but i find monogamy and commitment soooo sexy lol like make each other feel special!! that is so cute!! choose each other and share things you wouldn’t share with anyone else!!!! i love it!! sex when u love someone has like nothing to do with our societal perception of sex and it sucks that we’ve like bastardized it so much

[alien-til-i-stage]

TBH ID LVOE TO SEE U. LIKE. DO A FULL ANALYSIS ON ROUND 3 FOR IVAN?? if not thats okay ur js so cool bro...

AHHH I LOVE THIS QUESTION ROUND 3 IS ONE OF TOP FAVORITES RIFHT BEHIND EOUND 6

and even better yet I already did a pretty in depth analysis that i will break down for you rn. I wont analyze the song this post but if you want id be willing to in a later post heheh

(Ok so, this wouldve been done like yesterday but when i finished this analysis i forgot to save it and went to do smth else and when i came back IT WAS ALL GONE soooo there thats…..)

Round three starts off with Ivan and an unnamed character going on stage, from this episode we can see Ivan’s character being displayed throughout the song.

Some things that are displayed clearly is Ivan’s love for Till and his lack of rebellious spirit. However even this has layers of complexity I think needs to be explored.

Above, we see Ivan hanging off the building by an alien, while the other kids walking away or turning their backs to them. While he hangs off the cliff he looks up at the sky, staring at the stars instead of the alien himself. Next we see a closeup of his face as a shadow passes over him, however the stars still reflecting in his eyes.

Because it seems like Ivan is the only kid being hung off the building, we can assume this is because he did something that the aliens considered wrong. Perhaps either disobeying them aggressively or just not listening, this results in him being punished.

We can also see the other kids standing away from Ivan, almost as if trying to seperate themselves and turning their backs to him. Perhaps out of the guilt that they cannot help him.

This all leads Ivan to the lesson he learns this day. Rebellion will get him punished, he will be hurt if he doesn’t listen. In fact, this is the only time we see him being punished in his youth, showing how Ivan was able to escape punishment and physical abuse by listening to what the aliens wanted of him.

Another detail to point out is the way the shadow falls over his face. We see him bruised and crying, most likely to previous physical abuse we did not see, implying that this isn’t the only time he’s been punished.

I believe the shadow falling over his face is supposed to represent the mask Ivan wears his entire life. After this scene we constantly see Ivan being “perfect” and up to the alien’s standards. The shadow represents the mask he put on and the lesson he learned, in order to survive he must obey.

However he continues to look at the stars, something that is correlated with freedom to Ivan. I believe this is supposed to represent Ivan’s inner desires of freedom. How, despite putting on the mask and valuing his life over desires, he still has the want for freedom. He doesn’t want to be chained and masked his entire life, the desire is never taken out of him, despite him losing his own person by putting on the mask, the desire to be free is never lost.

After this scene, we continue onto these four shots that happen right after the other. He stands in the same position in each scene and doesn’t move unless he must do something. I believe this isn’t literal but rather metaphorical, instead representing his mask. He stands there, dull, and adapting to whatever sitaution he’s in, sitting at the table if needed, holding a trophy when he must, singing with everyone else, this scene is supposed to show how he does not do anything other then what he must.

Its hard to read him because he stands there with the same look on his face, as if his face itself is the mask as it never changes. This would also go to show how well this mask is for Ivan, how good he is at masking himself. He does not express his inner thoughts, he does not do what he wants, he does not move however he desires, instead he only does what the aliens want, shown by his unmoving stance in all of scenes above, he does not make any unnecessary moves, standing in place instead.

It can also be noted that despite the location changing in each picture, Ivan still holds the same position no matter what. I believe this is supposed to represent how, again, he believes no matter what he cannot take off his mask. In the auction, after he’s been bought, after he’s in Anakt Garden, he has banned himself from taking off the mask, continuing to be the perfect person that is demanded of him in order to survive, even if he won’t be punished for simply living in Anakt Garden, seen by Mizi and Sua. This shows how deeply the scene of him hanging off the building has impacted him, it influenced his entire life.

Right after this, we see Ivan standing alone in Anakt Garden, he is standing in the same position as always and he is alone. Next the red flowers pass by his face and Till runs past him. Till continues to chase the flowers into the dark corridor and Ivan watches, before following Till into the corridor.

This scene can perfectly describe their relationship and dynamic. Ivan, as we can, is alone and standing still. As already stated, him standing still is symbolic of his mask. Him standing alone is also symbolic of how alone Ivan truly is. Because of his mask he is unable to make those connections, as there will always be a wall seperating him from that.

However the only to get close to Ivan is Till. He brushes past him and that’s when he suddenly moves. He only looks at him at first, standing from afar, before following him. This is most likely symbolic of how the only person that was able to get the mask off of Ivan was Till. We know this because it was stated before that he seems to become immature and childish around Till, showing how it’s only around Till that he is able to remove said mask. He moves from his position and follows Till, something he never had to do, but something he chose to do. A decision that was finally his. I also think Ivan first watching Till from afar, then following is supposed to mirror how, later, Ivan watches both Till and Mizi stand against the guard dog. How he just simply watches first.

We commonly see Till with red flowers. These red flowers are representative of Till’s love and admiration for Mizi. When we see Till brushing past Ivan and chasing the flowers, not even paying attention to Ivan, this represents how Till continues to follow and chase after Mizi, ignoring the others around him, even if they are right next to him.

Till following the flowers to the corridor, ignoring the darkness of the path, is symbolic of how far he is willing to go for Mizi. It’s similar to the scene of Till rejecting Ivan and running back to Anakt Garden, despite it being the darkest route he could go. He continues to follow Mizi no matter where she is, even if it’s dangerous. And while Till follows Mizi, Ivan will follow Till. He also follows Till down the hall, similar to how, despite not having to, he goes back to Anakt Garden.

Right after this scene, we cut to a room thats assumed to be where the hallway lead them to. We see Mizi and Till in front of what looks to be a massive guard dog like alien. Ivan stands far away, where he isn’t seen as he watches on. Mizi is scared, seen by how she holds herself and stands in shock and Till looks hurt. He’s sitting on the ground as if he was just struck and Ivan continues to watch on.

As Till stands up, we see flashes of falling stars suddenly appearing while Ivan continues to watch Till, and once he fully stands up we can see as Ivan’s pupils dilate.

We can see, in later offical art, that this alien might not be a guard dog but rather a pet or companion given to Ivan. While it isn’t clear, we commonly see pictures of Ivan getting close to the alien or even in its mouth. The relationship between Ivan and this alien is unclear, in fact the entire existence of this alien is unclear. Such as, why is the alien attacking or scaring both Mizi and Till? If it’s supposed to be something related to Ivan, why is it hurting other humans?

The existence of this alien dog cannot be disputed, because this is the moment Ivan fell in love with Till. But it is curious about the entire situation. So let me try and break it down.

I mentioned before that Ivan seems to have a relationship with the guard dog, but I don’t think it’s a literal relationship. The guard dog is most likely trying to keep the kids out of something, however it is unclear what. If thats the case, then it would be strange that Ivan is friendly with this guard dog. I think, instead, Ivan sees himself in this guard dog.

He sees Till fighting, or trying to at least, against the dog. Something that *does* happen between him and Till during this point. The two of them get into fights because Ivan instigates to grab Till’s attention to him. He sees Till being hostile with this alien, something he believes Till is with him. Not to mention, this alien must be alone often. It’s job is to guard something, meaning it must be kept seperate from other aliens and humans and it must keep it up. It’s job is to keep others away. Ivan can relate to this as to him, his job is surviving, which indirectly results in him being alone. I believe the art of Ivan with the alien is not to say he has a relationship with the alien, but because he sees himself in him.

I also think that this is also symbolic of their relationship. How Ivan is there watching and observing Till, just seeing him in general, however Till does not notice him. He doesn’t look back at where Ivan is, because he doesn’t know he’s there. Instead he’s focused on whats in front of him right now. An alien and Mizi, similar to him focusing on his hatred for aliens and his love for Mizi.

I believe after Ivan sees this with Till and falls in love with him, he recreates this scene in his mind. We can see this with the scene above where Ivan looks at whats happening, instead this time he looks different. Before he looked with a curious gaze and intrigue, not too worried or emotionally invested. However now he’s shown with a gripped hand on the wall, with the wall showing obvious signs of damage due to someone gripping it repeatedly. We also see the eyes of Ivan, how it’s focused and this looking much more crazed then last time.

While this could also be literal, showing Ivan might be leading Till here and watching him, replaying the scene in reality, but I believe this is more then likely a scene he replays in his head, for multiple reasons.

Till would stop believing what Ivan says after a while, in fact its most likely that it was Mizi who got him in that corridor. Perhaps he followed her in there and got in that situation. Unless it was about Mizi, its more then likely that Till wouldn’t have even listened to anything Ivan says. I think the change in looks, like the hand gripping the wall and his eyes are supposed to represent how much he repeats this scene in his mind.

And as always, for every Ivan analysis we must talk about this scene.

We see as Ivan takes Till out of his restrains, showing him out of Anakt Garden. The two of them are shown running away from the building, getting far away from Anakt Garden. Yet, Till stops. He lets go of Ivan’s hand and stops in his tracks, suddenly he is scared and realizing that by leaving, he is leaving Mizi. Ivan is hurt as he watches Till running back to Anakt Garden, and he smiles. His smile is full of hurt but he is still smiling. We cut back to the stage where we see Ivan, now he is taking off his mask and finally showing his true feelings, the memories are making him emotional. However he quickly put the mask back on and finishes his song.

This whole scene is very literal, but it’s still worth analysizing. This goes back to the idea Till would follow Mizi anywhere. Just as he follows the red flowers down a dark corridor, he follows Mizi in Anakt Garden. This is a very confliciting for Till to do, it’s not as easy as it seems for him. In that moment when he lets go of Ivan’s hands, thats when the realiziation of everything suddenly hits him. He realizes that by leaving Anakt Garden, he is leaving Mizi. He looks up at Ivan in fear and guilt as he turns around and leaves him, not looking back. This shows that Till is aware of the weight of the decision he made. He knows what he lost, you can see him debating and struggling with this as he stands away from Ivan.

In the scene above, we can see both Ivan and Till running away together, they are holding hands and laughing together. This shows that while Till did reject Ivan and being free with him, the problem was never being with Ivan, in fact it seems he was excited for it. But the problem was leaving Mizi.

Speaking of this, we can see as the two of them are leaving, it’s important to note what they are specifically doing. Till is watching the skys, rushing forward in order to reach freedom, while Ivan watches Till, he is not looking towards the skies but focusing on Till and his reaction, this shows their priorities.

Till would’ve loved to be free, if it was with Mizi and not Ivan. Ivan would’ve loved to be with Till, even if it meant to be enslaved.

We see this pan out as Till runs back to be with Mizi. He wanted freedom, just not with Ivan. This hurts Ivan, now fully knowing his love is unrequited and as he watches Till leave him, he continues back. He is fully aware at this point that he is not loved back, and most likely will never be. But that isn’t what matters to Ivan, what matters to him is Till. He would be willing to be enslaved if it meant to be with him.

[irritablepoe]

ok, i know i've done this analysis before though it has been an addition to another post of mine and most people only see the first post - soooo i'm gonna list the main points on here again

ok first i was like - this looks like fyodor, right? like the hair, the wound, the white clothes, and ofc the fact that he is nailed to a cross. fyodor sees himself as a kind of messiah, so it would make sense for him to think that he's dying for the sins of others. he also lies his actions and his life into god's hands as in "he's doing what god would want". come to think of it, fyodor's death might be fyodor's way of "cleansing the earth of sin" but i don't know if he sees it that way. anyways, i'm going to explain now why i think this is fyodor up there and why i think this scene already foretold fyodor's death.

now, there's so much to find in the light novel. we see fyodor at the end of the untold origins adaption and this might be a very obvious hint that fyodor's death is foretold in untold origins already. but the stage play reveals a lot, too.

first of all the stage play's summary is "an angel who murders", specifically an angel that kills their own kind.

that sounds an awful lot like fyodor doesn't it? he wants to kill all ability users after all. Now, i see fyodor in the murderer here, but i also see him in the victim bc of the following quote.

fyodor has been stabbed (not with a knife but yk), he fell with the helicopter, and he was poisoned. The heavy water could possibly count as strangulation but that might be me reaching. while most of this could also connect to dazai, he was shot by fyodor, not stabbed. it could potentially also relate to sigma, who fell with the elevator, was strangled by teruko and one could potentially say he was poisoned by fyodor's memories. also there is nothing unique about the ways they are murdered. fyodor sees sigma as an ordinary man. i'm kinda torn on this.

"if it was an angel, they would use the devine blade in their hand" like come on...

it's said in the stage play that there are 12 victims. someone in the other post mentioned that there were 12 apostles, though i don't know how this would make much sense in this context other than the connection to fyodor, that sees himself as jesus 2.0

ofc ofc there's also the judas x jesus dynamic between nikolai and fyodor here. nikolai being the one that wants to kill fyodor and "hires" dazai to do just that. though ofc nikolai regrets it immediately. also if we connect the 12 apostles that would be the 12 victims of the play or rather of fyodor, nikolai would've been beyond those victims, too. he was supposed to die.

also, i know this is about murakami BUT "the killer became the victim"!!!

idk if i have a final point here other than "look! this is connected!", but thank you anyways for everyone that commented on the last post, i included a lot of your points as well (if you want to be tagged, i'll do that ofc :3)

thank you for reading!

[brw]

soooo any in-depth thoughts/analysis on the recent x-force comic?

Ooooh okay, so I've definitely already ranted far too much to @elvain and @positivelybeastly but yes, I have quite a few, on various levels of complexity. The main thing that really stands out me is this; we have followed Hank for 50 issues of this, and a solid chunk of Percy's Wolverine. We have been in his head at different stages, and observed his thought patterns and his reasoning at different intervals, however weak or out of character those are. Not once did he ever mention or even think about Simon. So it really does stand out that without a moment's hesitation or consideration, he gave his life for Simon. No messing around, no second thoughts... because it was Simon, and Simon specifically. He would have never in a million years done that for anyone on Krakoa. He was willing to permanently ruin his relationship with Jean and with Emma and with so many people he cares about, but not Simon. Simon, he will throw himself in front of time and time again. Even if you're not reading these two as romantic, the literal actual text is clearly that Simon is on a higher tier of emotional importance to Hank, even the worst version of Hank, than anyone else. That stands out. Intentional or not, that is what happens! The only person who could get Hank to stop thinking about Krakoa or about mutantkind's survival above all ethics or morals was Simon Williams.

Now, Percy doesn't write a particularly strong Simon. While Simon is a pacifist, he also kind of fucking hates Logan, and I really don't think even pacifist Simon wouldn't tell Logan to get the fuck out of his face here.

(also, Simon is like 6'2. What the hell is Logan standing on to make him seem so tall?)

And I know for a fact that Percy hasn't read these issues because it doesn't make any sense to write Hank the way he does if he actually has this much knowledge... BUT. But. It does stand out to me how willing Simon was to put himself in front of that gun/nuke thing, because Simon has done that before, and he has died from it. He dies in issue one of Force Works to protect earth from the Kree Ionic Cannon, which comes across as a reference to the comic event Operation: Galactic Storm, where Simon fails to stop a bomb going off that kills many Kree soldiers and this trauma permanently changes the tone of the 1991 Wonder Man series.

Simon has become someone very willing to sacrifice himself to protect other people, because the fear of being responsible for so many deaths has outweighed his fear of dying himself. Anyway, after Force Works, we see Simon's funeral in Tales of the Marvels: Wonder Years, and Hank is briefly interviewed and shown at that funeral, and he looks absolutely miserable.

And it is just... does Beast Prime remember this? Remember how difficult it was to lose his best friend? Hank becomes increasingly reclusive and focused on curing the legacy virus at the expense of his friendships during the 90s; is this part of this? Does this influence just how quick of a decision it was, to put himself and his life in front of Simon once again sacrificing himself for the benefit of others?

As I said, I do not think Ben has read either Force Works or Wonder Years, because why would you read those for this and not any Hank McCoy comic ever, but it does remind me of those moments and there's just. a lot of parallels there I enjoy.

However, I do feel frustrated slightly by the decision made to literally blow up Hank from the 80s–2020s? That's 40 years, and a lot of people have contributed to Hank in that time. Morrison, Whedon, Lobdell, Gillen, Waid, Ewing, Wells, Claremont, and hell, even people who's Hank's I don't like very much, like Bendis or Fraction, they all still had at least something to contribute to the character and it feels wrong that so much of that history is just. gone. Is Percy's writing worth this loss? Has he made any interesting statements about Hank McCoy as a character to justify steamrolling over 40 years of history and established lore and character development? Abigail Brand, gone from Hank's memory. His time travel shenanigans, gone. Dark Beast, a vague comment. Breaking through the door of Avengers mansion to kiss Simon on the floor and give him red roses, also gone. Becoming feline, to the sands of time. It's just depressing that so much has been cut out because writing an actual redemption arc would require having positive thoughts about Hank and we know Percy doesn't have those. I suppose I'm also just generally against the idea that villains have to die to be redeemed, anyway; is it not more interesting and more complex when someone has done so many horrible things as Hank had done under Percy, and he still is capable of change? Why can he only prove that capability in death? It feels like a very lazy way out and I really hope MacKay or someone gives Hank those memories back because so many wonderful and interesting dynamics have been lost because of it and I don't want them just to roll over it as if it hasn't happened.

But it does still really stand out that. Hank was willing to give everything up for Simon, and Simon specifically. Simon was the first person Defenders era Beast could think of that would make things better, that he felt safe talking to, and Simon is the one and only person Beast Prime was willing to die for, to put all the rest of his motivations and impulses on hold for and give up his life because he couldn't bare to lose his friend again.

And now the new Hank is living in Simon's small, one bed flat in L.A.

He's not helping the X-Men fight Orchis or the sentinels, or help X-Force with the Sabertooth problem... no, he's followed Simon to L.A. despite being covered in fur. That's true love if I've ever seen it.

It is also absolutely hysterical how little X-Force did in their own finale. Because did Hank give up his life because he felt regret over what he did for them? Did they successfully inspire change or successfully stop him in any way other than drag a sentinel to bother Simon and Hank? No! They didn't do anything! Logan stabbed Beast Prime but that didn't stop him, Simon being at risk and being in danger did! The combined forces of X-Force and a giant sentinel are not enough to stop Hank McCoy but the actor from Arkon IV is. Not because Simon even spoke to Beast Prime, or because he's thought about Simon once in the past 5 years, but because it was impulsive. Hank loves Simon so deeply that he will give his life for him even at his very worst, even after 5+ years of no contact and no thoughts about him. That's the actual closing statement of X-Force. How much Hank McCoy would do anything for this d list lame actor/underwear model.

[swiftfootedachilles]

you wanted more asks, so I'm here to deliver!

-favorite gallavich canon scenes?

-what are some favorite headcanons for them that you have? missing scenes, what ifs, etc.

-favorite characters besides gallavich?

-storyline you would have liked to seen/favorite storyline that the show did well?

-favorite fic tropes that make you just go fuckin feral?

-five things you think needed to be fixed/changed/improved about the show? gallavich related or just in general, dealer's choice

😘😘😘

rubbing my greasy paws together getting ready to type out an essay

ummmm uh okay lemme think.... the s1 juvie scene (CLASSIC!!!), all their scenes working at the kash n grab together, mickey finding ian and taking him home, club kiss, like all of South Side Rules pre-sammi fucking everything up, dock scene, literally all of their s7 scenes tbh, prison reunion scene, "I WANNA BE WITH YOU" "you dont get to be," mickey wasting his break getting noodles in the food court for ian instead of making ian get his own lunch, fiance shenanigans, "i only make toast for husbands with jobs," STEALING THE AMBULANCE AND MICKEY GETTING SO TURNED ON THEY IMMEDIATELY HAVE TO FUCK AND MICKEYS KNEES BUCKLES WHEN IAN PUSHES HIM AGAINST THE AMBULANCE, coworker husband shenanigans, "youre such a fucking barbarian" "thank you☺️," being SOOOO cute at their anniversary party together. so honestly all of their scenes

i love all the deleted scenes i literally need the show editors to go to prison for what theyve done. i especially love the original scripts for the s5 deleted sex scene/ians dream and their s5 breakup. favorite headcanons are autistic!mickey, casual D/s dynamics, not-so-casual D/s dynamics, 🏳️‍⚧️trans gallavich🏳️‍⚧️, hobby artist!mickey, ian becoming the new vee of their neighborhood (ghetto nurse!ian), annoyingly clingy codependent!gallavich being gross in front of everyone, s6 canon divergence where mickey doesn't go to prison bc wtaf was that, s5 canon divergence with no breakup bc that literally made no sense

ummm i love liam hes the true golden child. mandy. uh ethel i would've LOVED to see more of, and the other milkovich siblings. sheila. karen was a REALLY complex character that never really got more than surface-level analysis from the show writers. debbie and her journey as a child obviously struggling with bpd. i do like carl turning his life around and kinda fulfilling many of the dreams ian had growing up. i kinda wish they did more with kev than just "haha kentucky appalachian guy is stupid" like that whole family reunion arc of his was so fucking weird and honestly embarrassing of the writers. also we..... never really learn about vee's family? theres a whole episode dedicated to meeting kevs stereotypical family, and vee gets.....becoming a believer in the american voting system??? and of course svetlana. missed opportunity after missed opportunity with her character - but hey at least they didnt kill her off like isidora wanted⁉️⁉️🥴

really really wish the writers gave a fuck about showing ian coming to terms with his trauma of being groomed and abused. he never learns that what he experienced was abuse. i feel like if caleb can call mickey abusive, then surely ian wouldve mentioned something about literally any other relationship hes had and caleb or trevor wouldve been neen like "uhhh you should see a therapist about that thats really super fucked up that you were victimized like that as a CHILD"

ohhhh the fic tropes. my #1 is always bdsm i am a bdsm gallavich truther until i DIE!!!! um i like canon divergence fics (sometimes). domestic fics. post-s11 married life. learning to grow together as a couple after being off-and-on for like a decade, autistic!mickey!!!! trans!mickey and t4t gallavich!!!! aus where ian and mickey are actually dating starting s1-3 and are out to the gallagher/mandy. uncle!gallavich shenanigans. taking liam on adventures shenanigans

OK SO. FIRST AND FOREMOST I WOULD FIX THE FUCKED UP JUDICIAL SYSTEM IN SHAMELESS fionas/mickeys/ians court shit was so fucking unrealistic and BAD. how the FUCK did fiona get like 60 days in jail + house arrest for possession of a schedule ii drug and attempted manslaughter AND STILL KEPT CUSTODY OF THE KIDS.

literally what the FUCK did mickey get charged with. did he plea? what the fuck kind of plea is 16 years when the person you assaulted ALSO ASSAULTED YOU and is also a COMPLETELY unreliable witness/victim. youre telling me he wouldnt take his chances in court? as if debbie wouldnt be the perfect witness to prove his INNOCENCE? and bianca was dead and frank wouldnt even give half a fuck to testify to seeing mickey lock sammi in the trailer. literally no proof that ever happened. no proof he drugged sammi because it was FAR too late to test her blood and see how much of each drug she had in her system. just her testimony that she drank soda then fell asleep lmao. any defense lawyer would have an easy time getting him acquitted entirely, at most getting a refusal to comply with officers and disturbing the peace for running from sammi and then trying to kick her when the cops showed up to arrest them

literally what the fuck is ians trial. HE PLEADS NOT GUILTY BY REASON OF INSANITY (WHICH NO LAWYER WOULD EVER DO BECAUSE OFC HE WOULD BE FOUND GUILTY WHEN HE CHOSE TO STOP TAKING HIS MEDS) AND IS FOUND GUILTY. OF ARSON. A CLASS X FELONY IN ILLINOIS. IN THE COMMISSION OF ANOTHER FELONY (KIDNAPPING.) AND HE GETS LIKE 2 YEARS IN PRISON YOUVE GOTTA BE FUCKING KIDDING ME. he could have gotten LIFE for that shit in the real world. i hate this shows pisspoor attempt at a legal system SOOOOO BAD. i stand by my belief that it wouldve made much more sense if he pled guilty and got put in the Chicago-Read Mental Health Center for mentally ill offenders. like he literally thought he was the gay Messiah what do you mean hes in a regular prison. plus it would've been much more interesting to see mickey in this environment - IF everything up to s9 was kept canon. otherwise he would only be able to visit ian like in s5, unless he found a way to get himself committed ?? idk it just makes much more sense than ian in regular prison

the attendees of their wedding. who the hell were those people. people from ians club ing days?? trevors friends???? i mean maybe. i assume sandy just went to every gay bar and passed out flyers saying there was a big gay wedding. it would've made much more sense if mickeys siblings were there especially mandy but what the hell ever. it's not like iggy literally has multiple scenes where he's supportive of mickey being gay and dating ian. WHATEVER. IT'S NOT LIKE THE GAY JESUS FOLLOWERS SHOULDNT HAVE EVEN BEEN THERE AT ALL SINCE THEYRE SHOWN LITERALLY ABANDONING IAN AFTER HIS ARREST AND IT WOULDVE MADE MORE SENSE FOR THE MILKOVICH BROTHERS TO BE OUTSIDE TO KEEP TERRY OUT. FUCKING WHATEVER I GUESS!!!

throw away the shitty homophobic gay man writer and let those 2 bi ladies write s11 gallavich. they were the only ones who wrote decent storylines. fr that gay guy needed to be fired SO BAD i can't believe he wrote the dumbass "who's the wife/bottom/submissive of our relationship" 11x3 plot AND the 11x7 orgy. HE SUCKS SO BADDD??? get rid of that stupid shit. give me more of ian and mickey in the growing pains of their relationship looking for jobs and dealing with the death of terry and trying to find common ground of their plans for the future and mickey being stubborn and scared without being "accidentally" an egregious stereotype of autistic people. LET HIM STIM AND GO NONVERBAL AND LET IAN LEARN TO GIVE MICKEY HIS SPACE WHEN HE'S OVERWHELMED GOOD LORD

[silencefromafar]

I'm back with another half-baked TROP analysis post, this time to dissect some aspects of the season finale. I will be focusing more on the events surrounding the fall of Eregion and comment briefly on the other storylines because, well, let's be honest, there was not much going on there.

Beware of mammoth post under the cut

So we begin Episode 8 already in Khazad-dun with King Durin III awakening the Balrog. When I first read the title 'Shadow and Flame' I was convinced that the Balrog would be the climax of the episode, Durin's Bane and all that being such anticipated event to LOTR fans. And as much as I found the dialogue between the two Durins really touching, the Balrog appearance itself was kinda bland. I didn't feel a sense of true menace like I felt while watching the fellowship desperately running for their lives. Probably because it seems like to escape the Balrog they just had to... close the opening? Second Age Moria's Balrog apparently just wants to sleep without uninvited dwarves barging into his bedroom. If you just leave and close the door he won't come after you. 🤷

Balrog box ticked, now we move to the Stranger and the Dark Wizard of Rhûn. This whole sequence felt like something done in a hurry, everything feels weird and flat. So the Dark Wizard comes out with some bad acting and with 'Hey, wanna hang out with me so we can overthrow Sauron to take his place as Dark Lord?' *wink wink* 'No? Then take these CGI rocks! Dark Wizard out!'. I won't even comment on the sand peop- I mean, the nomads comedic exit. I say only that Gandalf and the proto-hobbits deserved better. This was supposed to be the big reveal of the season, right? The Stranger is Gandalf! Instead, it felt more like an after thought. I really hope they can bring back the good writting to these storylines since theirs was my favorite part of season 1.

Gandalf test ticked, now we go back to Ereg-I actually had to come back and edit this because I forgot about Númenor. Ok, so I loved Míriel's sea trial, it was so beautifully done and it gave me hope that we would see the Faithful forces start to fight back and some actual power struggles going on. Since season one we have been told that Númenor is divided but we don't get to actually see it playing out (I guess if you count that MAGA guy making that speech about immigrants stealing their jobs...). All it took for Pharazôn's faction to get rid of the Faithfuls was a piece of paper written by God knows who. Míriel's trial was simply unnecessary. You could have it cut out from the narrative and it wouldn't make a difference. If a piece of paper was all it took, Pharazôn wouldn't even need to say that Míriel used dark arts to survive. He could have touched the Palantír at any time, let's be honest: he would never abstain from using such a powerful device solely based on political values. His political values are power. *sigh* At least we got Narsil, that was a good fan service.

Now back to Eregion, the dramatic and action core for the season and the only storyline that got a proper development (or did it?). So one shot sequence and Galadriel captured back by Adar's Orcs, yeah. It was a nice touch that they showed her rescuing the same people that appeared previously on Sauron's illusion. She uses the Nine to bargain with the Orcs and the scene ends with her delivering a witty line. Cue to... Celebrimbor's torture. Yep. We go from that quip to a torture scene. There's so much weird stuff coming from Galadriel's deliveries in this episode... But I will come back to that later.

Back to Annatar and Celebrimbor, the outstanding part of the season. The whole torture scene with the dialogue between them was so emotionally heavy! Celebrimbor's lines were soooo good! I mean Dear Lord this is what I want from this show! It was SO good I transcribed it:

"Your only craft is treachery! So pure it shall betray the very hands that forges it! [...] No. No, hear me. Hear me, Shadow of Morgoth! Hear the dying words of Celebrimbor! The Rings of Power shall destroy you. And in the end, I foresee, one alone shall prove your utter ruin! [...] You are their prisoner: Sauron, Lord of the Rings."

The way we see the spear in Sauron's hands start to tremble while Celebrimbor spells his doom right before he strikes out in rage? Get. Out.

In death, Celebrimbor finally triumphs over Sauron. His will prevailed. He didn't give up the location of the Nine rings, enduring all that torment under Sauron's hands to buy time for Galadriel to get the rings away from the city. And this is why Galadriel delivering a quirky one-liner right before such a poignant scene leaves a bad taste in my mouth. For surely Galadriel knows what's going on after her last talk with Celebrimbor. She certainly could imagine what fate awaited Celebrimbor. But whoever wrote her lines didn't seem to be in the same room where Celebrimbor's scenes and dialogues were written, not only because of the glaring disparity in quality but also because of the tone deafness, the lack of awareness about what's the emotional state Galadriel is - or should be - in.

We still have another box to check: the Southlanders. I like Isuldir and Estrid, but my favorite part was Theo and Isil talk. Poor Theo just needs an adult parent figure, ffs bring Arondir back to his boy before Sauron shows up offering him a ring. 🥺 Anyway, something something Kemen is in Pelargir and I hope Berek kicks him right into Mount Doom's fiery pits.

BACK to Eregion: Celebrimbor is dead and Galadriel is brought before Adar who we see has been healed by Nenya just by WEARING IT. This is huge! We see Adar's fair elf form but once again the show skirts around revealing his old elven identity by having Adar outright reject it and give Nenya back to Galadriel. Now I have a problem with how the show dealt with Adar's arc conclusion because they had been setting up everyone and their mothers to have confrontations with Adar. The guy had a waiting list with Sauron, Arondir and Elrond on it. And all of them lacked emotional depth. I mean, don't get me wrong, I felt for Adar, being killed by the children he loved so much. It was incredibly cruel of Sauron, but also kinda impersonal? Even more compared with their interaction back in season 1 where Saurbrand almost finishes Adar. Anyway RIP Adar, I will miss you.

Now to the main event: Sauron x Galadriel. First thing I would like to point out is the use of Dutch angle. This is used mostly to convey that something is wrong, it is meant to leave us weirded out. So it's worth noticing that the show changes to Dutch angle at the moment the Orcs present Galadriel to Adar. The camera goes back to regular angling only after Galadriel picks up the blade to attack Sauron. Could it mean that Sauron was already around while Adar and Galadriel talked? Was he listening to their conversation? I'm not sure what they intended with this yet. But it is also worth noticing that right when the orcs arrive carrying Glûg and Adar leaves her side to see him, Galadriel pointedly puts her hand on her chest (a gesture that has been repeated enough times so we know it means something) and breaths heavily. When Sauron finally appears, the camera work gets even weirder: here we see Sauron and Galadriel with the use of shot and reverse shot. This is filming 101: shot and reverse shot are used to show characters interacting face to face. But then we see that Sauron is actually behind Galadriel. What exactly were they going for with this? I have some ideas but tbh at this point I'm not completely sure it wasn't another editing mistake so I will try to not read too much into it. :/

There are several posts about Sauron's line about not wanting to harm Galadriel, so I will not delve into it. I truly believe that he meant it at that point. Instead, I want to focus on something that I haven't seen be addressed: right after Sauron sees Nenya on Galadriel's finger, he demands that she hands it over... and the Nine. Now HOW TF did Sauron know that Galadriel had the Nine Rings of Men???? This is such a glaring gap in the narrative. Celebrimbor endured torture and still didn't reveal the rings location. By the time that group of orcs captured Galadriel outside the city Celebrimbor's torture was still going on so there weren't any Orcs working for Sauron yet to send him word. Was Sauron in her mind? But then if he could access her thoughts so easily why waste so much time on trying to extract information from Celebrimbor? Unless he could only do so after she put on Nenya back on her finger? If so, why would he want Nenya back? Isn't it better for him to have her using it so he can influence her? Why send her visions to attract her to Eregion and not do the same with Gil-Galad and Círdan if he wants the elven rings back? Or does he want only Nenya? Then why only Nenya? The show brings up many questions and offers no answers. I really hope that they don't just brush it all aside. Anyway, I have already expressed my views on their fighting scene here if you all are interested. I will only comment that I like the idea of Sauron using the same crown that killed him to forge a blood bond by piercing Galadriel with it. If Sauron talking directly into Galadriel's mind and the interesting camera lens use are anything to go by they might be setting up a scenario where they can interact through a mind connection. I hope they go in that direction.

P.S.: That shot with Sauron holding Fëanor's hammer, where the hell did he get that??? I mean, the last time we saw that hammer was when Celebrimbor yeeted it thru the window when he tried to hit Annatar with it 🤷

P.S.2: That epilogue was way too cringe :/

P.S.3: I realized that I probably sound like a hater lol I swear I'm not. I really got invested into the show watching season 2. I watched episode 1 twice because it was so good! To me S2 was a significant improvement compared to S1. For the most part. Notable exception being the the last two episodes. And I really hope they can get back on track and figure out how they want to tell this story.