#where are my analogical stans at???

[sociguess]

IM GOING INSANE OVER THE ANALOGICAL CONTENT IN THE NEWEST ASIDES SO.

the voices told me to /j

i might end up actually colouring and rendering this later but uhhhhh i just needed to draw them because they’re my faves and they’re so so so so in love btw.

[cr-ok]

contains some spoilers for the ARG

Bill Ci. My Brainrot Guy.

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill List Overview & Entry Syntax

a little disorganized

yell at me if I’m missing codes or if something is wrongly categorized

do not worry about spaces/some punctuation marks (",", ".", "-", "+", "&", "@", parenthesis, quotation marks, and slashes)

i. e. "THEYLLSEE"/"THEYLL SEE"/"THEY'LL SEE" all work & have the same output

site does not accept entries with "?"

all characters are capitalized automatically

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill You All are Wonderful People

Busy_Abroad370 CranberrySoft8335 DCode Dog_core fishy--friend FRAMER_FRAMER Hacker88774770 Global-Pepper-5823 marzinstarz moonwytte mothford ohnoimonfire RiotingSpectre themoonweaversden themysteryofgravityfalls thisisnotawebsitedotcom-com wolsalwastaken

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Where to Click

book button below the screen dagger dial below the screen “McGucket Labs” above the screen gold tooth on skeleton jar link below the prism

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Relevant to The Book of Bill

BOYFRIEND/LONELY/LOVE/MARRY ME/ROMANCE/SOULMATE/TRUE LOVE CRYPTOGRAM CODEX DESTRUCTION IS A FORM OF CREATION SCARY/SPOOKS/SPOOKY/SPOOKEMUPS T. J. ECKLEBURG

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Bill, Past & Present

BABY/BABY BILL/DADDY/LALALA/LALALALALA/MOMMY DIVORCE/BREAKUP/ROCK BOTTOM EUCLID/SCALENE/SCRIMBLES EUCLYDIA FAMILY MATTERS FORGET THE PAST IRREGULAR JUST FIT IN RUBBER HOSE

it ends, eventually

SEVEN EYES TANTRUM THERAPRISM VALLIS CINERIS WELL WELL WELL BEING

three outputs

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Stanford, Past & Present

AD ASTRA PER ASPERA DOES GOD EXIST/FACE OF GOD/FRILLIAM/GOD/HELP ME/IS GOD REAL/IS RELIGION REAL/REVEAL GOD/REVEAL GOD TO ME/SAVE ME/SHOW ME GOD/WHAT DOES GOD LOOK LIKE/WHAT IS GOD/WHO IS GOD EVEN HIS LIES ARE LIES I’M STILL ON YOUR MIND/ON YOUR MIND OROBOROUS SORRY

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Riddles

answers in book

RIDDLE

NO/YES

MOUNTAIN DON'T

LYRE LIAR

HAROLD'S RAMBLINGS

UNION MADE

29121239168518

GREBLEY HEMBERDRECK

A RAT/RAT

3466554

TINSEL SNAKE

TORTURE MENTALLY

XGQRTHX

333 SUNDAPPLE LANE, COZY CREEK, IL, 60714-94611

CAESAR, ATBASH, & VIGENERE/MULTILEVEL MARK

EMMALINE BUTTERNUBBINS/BUTTERNUBBINS

DISPENSE MY ANSWER

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Zodiac

DIPPER

enter five times

FORD/SIXER/STANFORD/STANFORD PINES GIDEON

two outputs

GRUNKLE STAN/STAN/STANLEY/STANLEY PINES/STAN PINES

enter eight times

MASON MABEL - enter thirteen times FIDDLEFORD/FIDDLEFORD HADRON MCGUCKET/FIDDLEFORD MCGUCKET/MCGUCKET PACIFICA PLATINUM PAZ ROBBIE SOOS WENDY

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Bill Addressing the User

BAAAA/SAY BAAAA BLACK SHEEP BOO BERRY DESTRUCTION IS A FORM OF CREATION NAITSUAF

use the button and the knob

UNREALITY

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Canon to Universe

ALGEBRA/GEOMETRY/GREECE/GREEK/SHAPE/SHAPES/MATH/PLATO/PYTHAGORUS/TRIGONOMETRY BABBA/DISCO GIRL BLENDIN/BLENDIN BLENJAMIN BLANDIN/BLENDIN BLANDIN BLIND EYE CLONE/PAPER JAM/PAPER JAM DIPPER/TYRONE DUCKTECTIVE FORDTRAMARINE HECTORING HOTXOLOTL JUST BLENDIN KINGS OF NEW JERSEY KOOK KUBRICK L IS REAL 2401 LOVE YA BRO PINES PORTAL REALITY R34LITY SEVERAL TIMES/SEV'RAL TIMES SUCK IT, MERLIN

use Cipher Font B

WEIRDMAGEDDON YOU'RE INSANE

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Directly from "Gravity Falls"

AM I BLANCHIN' BYE GOLD DEER TEETH FILBRICK

Stans's father's name

FIXINIT1 DUCHESS APPROVES/THE DUCHESS APPROVES HOLOGRAM REALITY UNIVERSE/THE UNIVERSE

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Unsure of the Canonicity

ANALOG HORROR/CREEPYPASTA/HORROR/URBAN LEGEND/URBAN LEGENDS BURNED INSIDE BURNSIDE CARD/MY CARD

two outputs

CURSED CURSE WITTEBANE HEY NERD LIES OCCURREMUSITERUM OWL TROWEL PAPER IS BOOKSKIN SHAVE YOUR GRANDMA

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Ciphertology

CIPHERTOLOGY

two outputs

DIONARAP GOODNIGHT SALLY STOD EHT TCENNOC TOURIST TRAP WHICH RELIGION IS RIGHT YOU CAN'T KILL AN IDEA

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Easter Eggs

ALEX/ALEX HIRSCH/ALEXANDER ROBERT HIRSCH/HIRSCH ANSWER ASSHOLE/BITCH/CUM/CUNT/DICK/FUCK/FUCK YOU/GANG BANG/GLORY HOLE/JIZZ/MILF/PUSSY/SEX/SHIT/TITS/SLUT/TED CRUZ/WHORE BOOK OF BILL/THE BOOK OF BILL CHIP/DORITO/NACHO

jumpscare warning

CRYPTO/DOGE/ELON/FORTNITE/GYATT/NFT/RIZZ/SKIBIDI DEATH DISNEY/DISNEYLAND/EPCOT/MICKEY/MICKEY MOUSE/WALT DISNEY EASTER EGG FUCK YOU ALEX/FUCK ALEX HIRSCH GUN/THE GUN HISTORY

four outputs

HOW DO I DIE? HOW WILL I DIE? I SEE/THEY’LL SEE/THEY’LL ALL SEE IS HELL REAL? IS THERE AN AFTERLIFE/WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I DIE/WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE DIE/WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOU DIE/WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DIE/WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DIE LIFE MEOW/MEOW WOW MONSTER MORALITY NOT A PHASE NOTHING PEAK PINATA OH YES THEY BOTH ONE-EYED KING QUESTION SCREEN SCIENTOLOGY SEASON 3 SEASON 2 SEASON 1 SKELETON SOMETHING TELL ME HOW I'LL DIE TITANS BLOOD TRIANGLE

two outputs.

I'm convinced one is a typo

VIRUS WHO ARE YOU

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Reference to the Show

ABUELITA AXOLOTL BILL/BILL CIPHER/CIPHER/LLIB/LLIB REHPIC/REHPIC

three outputs

BLANCHIN/BLANCHING CARYN

Stans's mother's name

CIA/FBI/NSA CRAY CRAY CRAZ/XYLER DIPPY FRESH GIFFANY

enter this six times

GLASS SHARD BEACH GLOBNAR GRAVITY FALLS JOURNAL 1 JOURNAL 2 JOURNAL 3 MYSTERY MYSTERY SHACK TAD STRANGE TOBY DETERMINED WADDLES

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Cameos

CONSPIRACY GAME THEORY/HELP ME MATPAT/HELP US MATPAT/MATPAT/THAT’S JUST A/THEORY WEIRD

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill Does Not Work; I'm in Shambles

ASS BILL IS SANS BLIND IVAN DRAKE FIDDLEFORD H. MCGUCKET/HADRON FINGERS IN HIS ASS HENCHMAINIACS LEBAM LIGMA LUCIFER MERMANDO OVERLOOK/OVERLOOK HOTEL PLEASE SATAN SEXYMAN SEVRAL TIMEZ SIGMA THEY WILL ALL SEE TOOT TOOT MCBUMBERSNAZZLE TWINK JULY 4/7-4-1921

Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill ⚠︎ 𓁺 ⚠︎ Bill I Have Been Mislead/Fuck You, Internet

BRAINROT BUBBLE

eye in the jar element ID

CUSSES FOURTRAMARINE

spelling error

GOD BUBBLE MCSUCKIT OK KO REPHIC

spelling error

SMALL STILL ON YOUR MIND

incorrectly-remembered

[etheries1015]

AYYE EITHERIES YOU'RE BACK

You're on the stan Lilia path I see? You are a person of culture as well. I was reading about myths and realized that the non-human immortals in Yuu's world is totally different from the faes aka the only non-human immortals in TWST because most of them either love or lust for humans. For example, I have heard that nine-tailed foxes seduce humans to drain their life force, youkais falling for humans, and in my country there are tons of stories where genies fell in love with humans. On the other hand, twst faes are like EWWW humans. Total opposites despite both having magic powers lmao.

Imagine the anti-human faes like general era Lilia, Sebek, and Baul with you, their close friend who's a powerful non-human immortal thing. You have great powers but what pisses them off IS THAT YOU ARE A HUMANSEXUAL 🤯👹😠🤬 Out of all fine faes you decided to flirt with HUMANS

Remember the distracted boyfriend meme years ago? The one where the guy is distracted and admiring the girl in red clothing while his gf is angry right next to him? That sums up your friendship dynamic with the anti-human fae.

I'M BAACKK yesss I am slowly turning into..like..A Lilia stan blog...BUAHAHA. I'm about ready to drop an ungodly amount of money for Lilia merch to fill my hyper fixation. Someone needs to shoot me and drag my corpse outside to touch some grass, or before I make some seriously problematic financial decisions.

I LIKE THAT HAHAHA Reader being a Yokai or succubus of somesort (because i'm hrny 24/7) and so infatuated with humans, being friends with Faes that have no interest in them is very interesting to you. Like. They are so cute when they wriggle around on their two legs with very little going on in their brains...it's less of love for humans, but more of...infatuation? Interest? Kind of like someone who enjoys reading mythology and going down a rabbit hole of mythical creatures they find fascinating.

Lilia- y/n. For a being incredibly talented in many aspects of martial arts and magical properties, I must say I am incredibly disappointed in your choice of whom you bring home at night.

Y/n - I have told you this time and time again, they are useful for replenishing my energy, Lilia! I don't understand what is with the fae of your world that hate humans so much. Aren't they cute? how they crawl around kind of like ants?

Lilia- That's...hmm. I do not agree with your stance, however...your analogy is kind of funny...

Baul, annoyed- I feel that this war should make it fairly obvious why we have such distaste for humans. Why don't you try another species? Beastmen, perhaps? Or even Fae? They have ample amount of magical energy you can also obtain from.

Y/n- that's like telling a meat eater to substitute chicken for chicken-flavored soy products. It just isn't the same! You two will never understand.

Baul, folding his arms- you're lucky you are aiding us in the war. Albiet at the price the shitty humans you like to mingle with despite your martial prowess.

Lilia- and that time you stopped mid battle simply to ask a human if they'd like to sleep with you.

Y/n, shrugging- don't knock it til' you try it

Lilia- ...i'll pass. Go shower, you smell like human stench.

Right to left;

Lilia, immortal/magic being Yuu, humans

HAHAHA thank you for this, it made me cackle

[frogemeat]

A small snippet from the first chapter of my better world au that’s Stan Pines centric because he’s my favorite character!! I would love some advice if anyone has any < 3

Stan has woken up to many different kinds of scenarios in his life. From waking up in an ice bath, to finding out the next morning that the woman he married for tax benefits was actually possessed by a Dybbuk, he’s had good to bad to horrible experiences. But if he were ever asked to rank them, he’d say waking up to the demon that’s been haunting him for over thirty years screaming his name in its final moments was one of the best ways to start his day. Glancing at the shitty analog clock next to him to see the blinking, bright green 3pm, he let out a loud groan. Then he let out an even louder, more frustrated groan when his phone started to vibrate wildly on the motel nightstand.

“Pines.” He grunted, tone flat as he sat up.

“Pinington, did you feel it?” Jimmy asked without missing a beat, the bikers usual gruff voice full of emotion Stan was too tired to figure out,

“Of course you did, anyone even remotely tangled up in the unnatural would have felt it. There’s no way you didn’t,” the other man almost sounded amused at the thought. “Did you really wake me up for this?” The words came out sharper than Stan intended, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care as he made his way around the room, eyes scanning lazily around, searching.

Where the fuck did he put it again? Ah, there it was.

Stuffed between the bullet ridden mirror and the toilet with questionable red stains sat a rather worn and unassuming black duffle.

Throwing open his bag of wonder and oddities he started to rummage through the random assortment of items as Jimmy continued, “Like you weren’t already awake, sweetheart.”

Rolling his eyes at the pet name, Stan let out a scoff. Sure, Snakes may have been right, but that doesn’t mean Stan was going to tell him that.

“I was sleeping like a baby, actually. Was having the most amazing dream where I wasn’t having to talk to a ghost rider rip-off.” Stan couldn’t help but smirk as Jimmy growled in annoyance. He could practically feel the anger radiating through the phone as the other man ground out the next few words. “Fuck you, Pinington. Just wanted to confirm with the thing’s special little boy that it was actually gone.”

“Have to call me something worse than that to piss me off, Jimmy.” Stan replied cheekily, knees protesting as he stood up. “If that’s all you wanted to do, then I’ll have to let you go. I’ve got a hot date that I can’t miss.” Jimmy let out a scoff, and man, it was still so easy to rile up the demon all these years later, “Yeah, whatever you say Pinington,”.

Shaking his head, he pocketed the phone before taking a brief glance into the mirror. Looking only mildly homeless, he deemed himself presentable. Not like the clothes were going to be worn after today, he mused as he made his way out the front door.

[canonizzyhours]

imagine it's 1982 and you really love star wars.

you go looking for other fans to talk about star wars with. you meet someone. "my favorite character is boba fett," they say. "cool! i love boba fett, he's such a great bad guy," you reply. the person you're talking to suddenly becomes deadly serious. "what? he's not a bad guy," they respond. "how could you even think that? what's wrong with you?"

you laugh nervously, thinking this is some kind of jokey deliberate-reading-against-the-text gag, but it becomes clear your new friend is absolutely deadly serious about this. unsure what to do, you try to redirect the conversation to subjects other than boba fett. you try talking about the first movie. but it turns out this person has an entire bonkers reinterpretation of the first movie where it's all about showing how luke and han and leia will be ultimately unable to succeed on their own, thus foreshadowing the eventual arrival of boba fett as fourth co-protagonist. you try pointing out that if there's a fourth protagonist surely it would be lando, and ignoring him seems kind of maybe a tiny bit racist? this goes over even worse.

you start to avoid this person. you seek out other fan spaces. but people who are like this about boba fett keep showing up. you feel increasingly insane every time you talk to them, hearing yourself saying obvious things like "well, uh, that's certainly one interpretation, but i feel like if darth vader has to caution you not to disintegrate people that might be a sign you're a villain?" and having them laugh in your face like this is absurd and offensive. you gradually realize that while most star wars fans aren't like this, everyone normal has learned to politely avoid talking about boba fett and other subjects that trigger the boba fett guys, because nobody wants to deal with them. you learn to only talk about star wars in closed communities that don't have any boba fett stans.

the saddest part of this is that over time it makes it very, very hard for you to enjoy boba fett, a character you used to really genuinely like.

the first trailer for return of the jedi drops. the boba fett guys go nuts, insisting that this proves their ultimate vindication is at hand, despite the fact that actually he's barely in the trailer. "uh, guys, i don't know about that," you say cautiously, kind of alarmed at how they're setting themselves up for disappointment. "i think boba fett might be a really cool character but not actually a super important one, and maybe he's just going to die in a sarlaac pit halfway through the movie and the rest will be about luke defeating darth vader." the boba fett guys respond by screenshotting your posts (social media exists in this version of 1982 for purposes of this analogy. work with me here) to publicly make fun of you. how could anyone possibly be dumb enough to think this, they say.

return of the jedi comes out. boba fett dies in the sarlaac pit. the boba fett stan community goes even more nuts than usual and schisms into a faction who are insisting that this is all part of a plan to resurrect boba fett like jesus in episode 7 and a faction who insist that george lucas has personally betrayed them. some of the latter faction manage to take control of the fan campaign to get more movies made despite the fact that they've explicitly said they don't actually want any more movies.

this is what my experience of ofmd fandom has been like.

#271.

[thelustybraavosimaid]

Bro you just killed my Kid Cudi listening sesh for this. How many times are we going to go over this with you people for fuck's sake

Rhaelya stans hate Sansa because...

Let me stop you right there. I am a Rhaelya, a Jonrya, and a Jon stan. I don't think about Sansa unless I'm forced to. My hyperfixation is on certain characters. Sansa isn't on my radar enough for me to hate her. Like Jon, I feel little else but indifference for her.

Sansa being a hostage makes Lyanna...look like she was a hostage...because there are parallels in both their situations.

But it's *not* a parallel, and here's exactly why.

Rhaegar is not like Joffrey.

Rhaegar actually died with Lyanna's name on his lips, as was confirmed in the official World of Ice and Fire App.

He was also described as a "love-struck prince" by the author himself:

At last I was able to ask him the question I had sent for the tombola. I have always been fascinated by how ASOIAF embodies the theories put forward by Acemoglu and Robinson about countries with extractive institutions (which hamper development). So my question was: Why do you think the political institutions in the Seven Kingdoms are so weak? His answer: the Kingdom was unified with dragons, so the Targaryen's[sic] flaw was to create an absolute monarchy highly dependent on them, with the small council not designed to be a real check and balance. So, without dragons it took a sneeze, a wildly incompetent and megalomaniac king, a love struck prince, a brutal civil war, a dissolute king that didn't really know what to do with the throne and then chaos. Interesting answer.

[Source]

Joffrey had no real love for Sansa. He saw her as an object to mistreat and misuse. He had no empathy and a deep lack of consideration for other people. He had her beaten because it gave him momentary gratification, because he was a psychopath. How is this comparable in any way to Lyanna at the tower of joy?

In fact, the whole point of what we are finding out about Rhaegar through Dany's chapters is to prove that Rhaegar is literally not the monster Robert has been making him out to be. That all Robert has said was due of his blind hatred of him and little more. So again, how is Lyanna's experiences in the tower of joy comparable to Sansa being beaten and harmed as a hostage in King's Landing?

How could this be a parallel, and can you back your claim with anything other than headcanons that have no basis in the books?

There is a reason why the tale of the winter rose was told to Jon specifically — because Bael the Bard and the Stark maiden is analogous to Rhaegar and Lyanna.

George says this about romance:

It's interesting, to get back to this issue of romance that you raised earlier. When I was in Spain a few years ago, I had dinner with a woman — a Spanish academic — and a big fan of both science fiction and romance, and she had read a lot of my stuff because people said I was a very romantic writer. And she sort of launched at me and said, "What are you talking about?! You are not a romantic writer, you know. Nobody ever lives happily ever after in your books!"

I was defending it, saying, "Well, but that's a different tradition of romance. I don't — I'm a romantic writer in the tradition of The Great Gatsby and Romeo and Juliet, and, you know, the Beauty and the Beast. These things don't necessarily have happy endings, but aren't the most powerful romances the unfulfilled romances — the romances where people go their separate ways, but they'll always have Paris, like in Casablanca, one of the films I showed here. You know, they go separate at the end, but they'll always have Paris." And she basically said, "No, you're wrong. They have to be happily ever after together for it to be romance, otherwise it's just sad."

[Source—clip starts at around 03:19]

This traditional telling of romance is shown quite clearly with both Bael the Bard with the Winter Rose and Rhaegar with Lyanna. Bael the Bard's tale was briefly happy:

No. They had been in Winterfell all the time, hiding with the dead beneath the castle. The maid loved Bael so dearly she bore him a son, the song says...though if truth be told, all the maids love Bael in them songs he wrote.

But also ended in tragedy:

"The song ends when they find the babe, but there is a darker end to the story. Thirty years later, when Bael was King-beyond-the-Wall and led the free folk south, it was young Lord Stark who met him at the Frozen Ford...and killed him, for Bael would not harm his own son when they met sword to sword."

"So the son slew the father instead," said Jon.

"Aye," she said, "but the gods hate kinslayers, even when they kill unknowing. When Lord Stark returned from the battle and his mother saw Bael's head upon his spear, she threw herself from a tower in her grief. Her son did not long outlive her. One o' his lords peeled the skin off him and wore him for a cloak." (Jon VI, ACoK)

Rhaegar left to fight in the War of the Usurper, lost and died. Lyanna died giving birth to Jon. And Jon died trying to save "Arya" from Ramsay.

This is what George means by a romantic love story.

And they also love Arya, because...Arya...looks like Lyanna

Or maybe we just like Arya because she's a fantastic character. Idk OP, could be that.

and isn't as hyper feminine as Sansa

This ties in quite well to the misogyny some "fans" of the series have to women like Arya. It's not because Sansa is "hyper feminine" that I don't care for her. I'm just indifferent to her. Femininity has absolutely nothing to do with it. I don't know if you know, but women can and do express themselves in different ways.

therefore her fans think she aligns with Rhaegar

?????????????

because they...hate Sansa and pretend its a love story

That is 100% the way George is taking R+L's story. This is quite literally his preferred telling of a romantic story. One where they share a brief affection for one another despite the eventual consequences, but end up separated, or worse.

Even though the point of Lyanna Stark is that her untold narrative is comparative to both Sansa and Arya

How is Lyanna's narrative comparative to Sansa? The only thing you've given was a non-parallel of being in the Red Keep/tower of joy, but there's nothing to suggest that Lyanna was trapped, beaten, or harmed there.

The king frowned. "A knife, perhaps. A good sharp one, and a bold man to wield it."

Ned did not feign surprise; Robert's hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. (Eddard II, AGoT)

--

For the first time in years, he found himself remembering Rhaegar Targaryen. He wondered if Rhaegar had frequented brothels; somehow he thought not. (Eddard IX, AGoT)

You do not find it strange that the brother of the woman who was supposedly trapped and imprisoned at the tower of joy has no ill words to say about the man who supposedly committed such heinous crimes?

[maxdibert]

Ngl, we need your analyses and posts on TikTok. The amount of brainless people (Marauders fans) spewing such immense shit on this app is crazy. I need more balance on my fyp and they need to be educated about classism and racism

Honestly, I’m not on TikTok at all; I only use it to watch meme videos and stay updated on political news from my country. But I avoid exploring fandoms because I know it’ll just piss me off. I mean, I already get annoyed watching random videos unrelated to that because of the sheer amount of nonsense people spout, so for my mental health, I’ve completely banned myself from watching opinion videos on any topic. The problem nowadays is that people think that just because they have a microphone and a camera, they’re automatically qualified to share opinions about anything, even if they haven’t got the slightest clue what they’re talking about. You hear so much idiocy that your brain feels like it’s going to explode.

One of the things that irritates me the most about the Marauders fandom and Marauders stans is their blatant double standards. They legitimize themselves by claiming to hate JK Rowling and adopt this false progressive mask that capitalizes on the LGBTQ+ community to justify distorting canon. But in reality, it’s just a cheap pinkwashing tactic to trivialize the actions of characters who were, at best, bullies, and, in some cases, outright psychopaths (like some of the Slytherins, who are forgiven simply because they fit neatly into their Pinterest boards). Then they turn around and claim they can’t extend the same leniency to Severus, using completely fallacious and decontextualized arguments that, to top it off, don’t even align with the story’s foundations.

Take the topic of racism, for example. Equating blood purity with racism is an astronomically absurd socio-cultural leap. Racism is a political system established by colonialism and perpetuated by capitalist dynamics. It literally objectifies a portion of the population, dehumanizing them to the point where they aren’t even considered people, but beasts of burden. It’s rooted in the exploitation and expropriation of entire cultures, leading to the enslavement of their people, who were reduced to being property—mere objects of trade and consumption. Starting from that, even mentioning racism in this story feels like a massive insult. There’s no historical precedent of wizards colonizing Muggles, no record of wizards enslaving Muggles, no apartheid against Muggles. Muggle-borns haven’t been excluded from magical institutions due to segregation, haven’t had to attend separate schools, and haven’t been barred from working in magical government. They’ve always had the same rights as pure-blood or half-blood wizards. They’ve had the same opportunities, the same educational foundations, and the same access to jobs and social resources. Claiming that “blood purity = racism” not only reveals a complete lack of basic knowledge about how systems of oppression work (particularly race), but also a crude and pathetic attempt to use a serious and real societal issue as a frivolous token to prop up an argument based on fallacies. I genuinely hope that those who constantly throw around the term “racism” in this context are just kids who haven’t come out of their shells yet because any adult with some life experience and common sense should feel utterly ashamed. And I say this as someone who isn’t racialized—I don’t think you need to be to have some basic common sense or even a minimum level of general knowledge.

Moreover, the racism angle doesn’t hold water because it wasn’t Rowling’s intention. If anything, her intention was to create an analogy with 20th-century fascism, which is basically the big trauma of any standard white European person. And even then, she did a terrible job of it. While Voldemort might initially seem to parallel Hitler, the social reality of the wizarding world as presented by Rowling diverges significantly from the factors that facilitated the rise of fascism in certain countries during the first half of the last century.

For starters, in this case, pure-blood wizards—or even Voldemort’s non-pure-blood followers—aren’t a majority but a minority. This alone is a fundamental variation in the dynamics of events because in countries where fascist dictatorships were established, or at least attempted, the acceptance rate of radical ideas was majority-based or at least had a substantial popular backing. It’s not Muggles who’ve had to hide for centuries, not Muggles who’ve chosen to create their own communities separate from wizards, not Muggles who’ve opted to remain in the shadows. It’s the wizards. Another key difference.

The anti-Semitic rhetoric that gained traction in Nazi Germany was based on the perception of certain minorities (minorities—and this is crucial) as “the other.” This “other” was dehumanized to the point of creating a narrative that turned them into not just enemies but a threat to the general population. This was achieved through relentless propaganda campaigns, aided by an economic crisis and resentment towards the rest of Europe after the sanctions imposed following World War I.

In the case of blood purity, the minority is pure-blood wizards, and the issue stems from their disdain for the idea of Muggle-borns freely participating in their world. Ironically, they fear this could begin to dismantle the insular world they’ve created for themselves and lead to social advancements and changes in their traditions. Voldemort exploits this and directly appeals to the upper classes and powerful families (unlike traditional fascism, which appeals to the masses, not small elite groups) who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. He doesn’t need a smear campaign against Muggle-borns because he’s already capitalizing on the prejudices of the elites he’s targeting. Nor does he need to mobilize the entire wizarding population because, as far as we know, the vast majority either oppose him or remain neutral. Voldemort wouldn’t have won an election; he imposes everything through sheer force.

Even with the parallels Rowling attempts to draw, albeit clumsily, they don’t hold up.

What really bothers me is that both racism and fascism are incredibly serious and complex issues that people in this fandom casually throw around as buzzwords to give themselves an air of importance while engaging in hateful discourse. Ironically, they treat these topics with the same frivolity, lack of depth, and ignorance as Rowling herself did when she tried to shoehorn them into her plot. The very same people who pride themselves on hating JK Rowling fall into the same oversimplifications, the same lack of perspective, and the same privileged, narrow view of social issues as she does. It’s pathetic.

What’s even more pathetic is that this behavior reveals that everything about them and their fandom isn’t progressive at all—it’s just empty performativity, built on shaky foundations, reeking of classism and body-shaming.

And I don’t even know why I’ve written this whole essay—I’ve been drafting an official document on the side, and I got carried away lol.

Anyway, you get what I mean—these people are idiots. That’s the summary. xD

[bearpillowmonster]

Epic Mickey: Rebrushed

I'm an Epic Mickey stan, I would've bought this whether I played it or not, just to support it because I've always wanted more. (mainly, for Oswald!) But so much was planned for this franchise, including a movie and an Epic Donald spinoff.

CHANGES

Looking at this is night and day especially for a dark setting. The graphics weren't bad on the Wii, they were just, well, on the Wii. (which ran at max 720p) And while that's still feasible, it's so nice to see everything smoothed out and relit. They didn't have to go as far as messing with the actual fidelity of it or the custscenes but they make it known what a movie it would've been and we lost boys.

The addition of sprinting, dashing and butt stomping is really what this game needed because the first Epic Mickey was a Wii exclusive and I loved playing it when I first got into it but I found it had faded since then. I came back maybe a year or two ago to try and play it again and I just couldn't bring myself to. I like platforming and the platforming in this game sucked, it wouldn't control right, I felt like I was jumping in a straight line, like barely any momentum. It wasn't quite there for something you do a lot of. And if you fall in the thinner, there's very seldom a platform to catch you so dying sets you back and then you had to walk back so sprinting is just a complete clutch.

You also had aiming to deal with as far as the Wii remote- This review is for the Switch version, yeah, I knew that it would run a little worse than the other consoles but now I have the experience to talk about specifics and I wanted to play it on the go. The darkness I mentioned can be adjusted, not just in brightness but in color and style for color deficiency. You cannot shake the joycon to spin.

There is a choice to use motion controls when you're spraying but that's the only time it comes up, you already have to have the button pressed down and even then you can just use the analog stick, it's really good either way, no complaints. You can also set it if you're standing still and press the down arrow. The framerate…could dip and there was a time or two where it'd get stuck, the load times can be long (but you don't see a loading screen often) it's just weird to me that the game is a remaster of a game from 2010 and actually has the biggest file size on my Switch and even with all that size, has longer loading screens than comparable titles like Super Mario Odyssey.

And this is especially important for this game because you sometimes have to traverse back and forth between Ostown and Mean Street and whatever to get the side quests done (and sometimes main) and every time you have to speedrun the same pathway level (projector) to get there and each time you jump in or out is a loading screen. Seeing as this is labelled as a remake and not just a remaster, they very well could've made a fast travel. There were some instances like that where the sequel had the feature that I wanted and was hoping that it'd be updated in here like so many remaksters are doing now, Last of Us and Horizon for example.

The one thing that did carry over is that you've probably seen the different skins that you get with either preorder or purchase, there are a few unlockable ones as well. They fit well with the 2.5D levels (Brave Little Tailor for 30s cartoons, Steamboat for 20s). There is a photo mode, it's not as customized in the 2D levels but I definitely had fun with it if you can't tell.

It's the same game but it's not one-to-one, for example, the locations of the power boxes are different in Os-Town, scenes like this look different.

Which is a downgrade in my eyes but some of them are very neutral, like the health bar

…that's a choice, I guess, there was no real need to change it. It definitely makes things more textured and seem a little less rough, look at this platform where you find Pete Pan.

Sometimes more detailed and lush, but sometimes it takes from the scene. Little stuff like goo dripping from the ceiling removed, sometimes it's the overall colors and vibes of a level to either lighten or darken. I can't say whether I like one or the other totally more.

THE GAME

Let's talk about the meat because it's 60$ so I'm going to treat it like it as if it was a brand new game, plus I never reviewed the original and I don't talk about it enough so here we go. I'll cover thinner mode in some other post, this is more or less hero mode.

It's a reasonable amount of hours and honestly time as been gracious to it, whether it be the growing cult status or the fact that it's on other consoles other than the Wii because while the combat still leaves a little to be desired, the gameplay overall is a lot more refined in my eyes.

There are times where your paint can't reach an item, it's not a bad limitation but still in sight, it tells you what's reachable by turning green. But this is especially precise and annoying for the ending with the bloticles. I don't get what it is with games and popping bubbles.

Oswald is in this a lot less than I remember, I always thought of him as making mischief for a level but he kind of shows up just to show you your end goal. Towards the second half he appears a lot more though. It's kind of cool how it's all a Alice Through The Looking Glass type thing and Oswald is the White Rabbit. And all things forgotten, Atlantis, Tron…no Black Cauldron (which fits perfectly) and no Treasure Planet though everything that is popular is all mechanical, an artificial imitation and the way Smee is colored makes it look like the concept art, all inverted from the way we know and it's just-

I really like the idea of having different endings correlating to how you played. When I first played this, I tried to hundred percent it first round and paint absolutely every nook and collect every item and to be honest, I found myself doing a lot of the same stuff I did when I started, it's funny, I have the same thought processes but I've come to the conclusion that if I waste my time on just one collectible, it won't be as fun and I won't want to play it anymore and it's been this long so let me finish it. But there are obvious rewards for either path, one of the first I could tell was having a gremlin in a catapult and a chest on the switch. Remove the chest and it launches the gremlin, remove the gremlin and it locks the chest. There are times you can just thinner brush most things and it'll show a negative outlook on the world itself. You can either clean up your mess with paint or take out the trash and destroy it like it never happened.

There are a lot of things to collect and I had fun just looking in every corner though I found that they seem kind of half-and-half, some going by the wayside like the pins and some being cool like the concept art.

[bikenesmith]

ive noticed some engagement on some of my monkees (shit)posts from way back in 2012/2013 — my 14/15 year old self. which is endearing, bc im aware the monkees fandom is still going, and is perhaps even more active than it was in my day. this did remind me of a @fansplaining article by allegra rosenberg / @areyougonnabe that i finally got around to reading earlier this week, the beatles live!

(i have no idea how long some of you have been here, so to recap i was fully obsessed with classic rock bands and 1960s/70s pop culture from like, 12 to 15 years old. profound impact on me in many ways, still love 60s/70s music, culture and history. also lmfao at my fandom of the last near-decade being sparked by a film set in the 60s. the several page video essay script about x-men first class' anachronistic 1960s fashion, which is sooo close to actually being filmed, will likely be the ultimate culmination of it all) the beatles were my first music fandom — while i still have feelings for the monkees [obviously, considering my ~12 year attachment to this url across nearly all of my social media] it is the beatles that i still have brain worms for. a tiny, isolated worm, but one nonetheless. so this article, i had to read.)

i was really taken by this section on the anachronistic modernizing of beatles fandom activities.

It takes a certain stripe of fannish brain to obsess over music from a bygone age instead of modern artists—taking something as broadly popular as classic rock and treating it with all the intimate, loving attention that other fans devote to a sci-fi television show, a fantasy book series, or a cult video game. These fans are cultural archaeologists, working with the materials of the past to create the passion of the present. The phenomenon is not limited to the Beatles. On TikTok, fans place meme tweets on pictures of the Stones and Bob Dylan; celebrate Freddie Mercury’s style; and make Monkees fancams. But the Beatles fandom is still top dog, with a kind of default dominance it retains from the dawn of Beatlemania. On Tumblr, you can find gifsets of Beatles movies, fanart, and the occasional Yoko Ono stan post, side by side with more typically Tumblr-esque wackiness along the lines of Paul McCartney posts tagged “#my twink wife”, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” memes, and toxic yaoi polls.

it made me think about how this phenomenon — the blending of modern fan practices and modern pop culture (fancams, memes, insaneposting, etc) with classic rock fandom is not new (not that allegra insinuates it is — i am speaking generally), but is something that has been around for a while, and is something i participated in quite heavily when it came to monkees fandom. whether it was

editing a music video to the tune of marina + the diamonds

making art of mike nesmith as a genderbent marina + the diamonds analog

not to mention the entirety of the who (slight flashing tw)

creating mockups of a classic rock-themed homestuck/OFF/undertale/earthbound analog:

classic rock icons using homestuck icons as a base

blending classic rock into my ~aesthetic~ blog theme sensibilities:

this video where i did nothing but put the beginning of baby got back over a scene from the first episode of the monkees and the music lined up almost frighteningly well

or creating emo notepad screenshot aesthetic posts with quotes from head (1968)....

i was very invested in engineering (or maybe just yearning for + acting out desires?) a form of classic rock fandom that was "hip" to the modern fandoms i was aware of. this was likely inspired by the fact that monkees fandom at the time skewed older.

i cannot for the life of me find these accounts or screenshots of them, but i think the ultimate expression of this was a collection of twitter accounts i made as mockups of twitter stan accounts, modeled directly off of one direction accounts at the time. complete with icons that were cut-outs of musicians overlayed onto aesthetic background, and descriptions that noted how many times the musicians had interacted with them.

importantly, i could not have sustained this if not for the close friends i had at the time that were around my age and were on my wavelength, that supported it, commiserated with me, made lots — especially on the homestuck parts. even if it was a small thing, in a small fandom, it was a communal effort

idk. its interesting to see that these dreams of mine have now come to fruition.

abrupt stop, no conclusion bc this is just a post not an essay (a comment directed at my autistic ocd self). may be interesting to some of the nouveau classic rock fandom.

[marcussour]

Random thoughts about C3E112:

Loved the Nicolas Cage outfits (even Sam's "John Travolta" nightmare fuel, aka, new sleep paralysis demon just dropped). Also, the mere notion that they're gonna be dressed like that while playing with not one, not two, but three different characters... daunting.

Callowmoore stans, we keep on winning

"I love fruit-based analogies"

"Rocks fall. Everyone dies". I feel you Matt (especially having Sam doing the usual dick jokes but looking like that).

Ashton gaining a fire attack bonus was poetic justice. Same as Orym absorbing Otohan's blade (and passing Vax and matching Percy's dex is wild).

Hey, Ryn's back!

I love Gaz Tomo so much

VOX MACHINA BABY!!!!

Sir, that's my emotional support D&D party.

Not even 5 mins into the second half and the conversation between Keyleth and Vex about Vax already got me crying.

Good to see that Robbie's Cerkonos. I mean, I think we all assumed it considering TLOVM, but good to know still. And also that he gets to make the character his own.

Of course they managed to squeeze a Sun Tree cameo, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Love that Vesper inherited Vex's personality. Also, it's wild to think that she's older than, say, Imogen or Dorian.

"always with the sexual joke, I love a good sexual joke"; "Yes, I have privates" - Cerkonos with the best character development

"THE TRIPLE", dammit Percy

"would you say yes?", "No"

Wonder what happened with Pike and Scanlan's children, where are they?

CENTAURS!!

True polymorph, damn it

Amazing that Keg, of all people, ended up in Scanlan's gang. And amazing that Lionel is there instead of with Tarry

"and now you have a horse penis"

Nah but Scanlan going into THAT type of midlife crisis, on point

So, 22 characters in one episode. Amazing.

Wonder if Liam's gonna join Vox Machina in some ways, or if they're saving him for when/if they save Vax. I want to see Lieve'tel again, but I can understand Liam not being there, also since they're all spinning so many plates.

[babybatscreationsv2]

I watched Deadpool and Wolverine and I have thoughts

Spoiler buffer for people with notifications on

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First of all

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ELEKTRA

I cannot believe I saw my girl Elektra again and yes I would have cried and thrown up if they killed her. If Blade and Gambit are both getting a new movie where's Elektra's?? I say we riot. And I'm only a little bit kidding. Spider-Man needs a new mother figure after all. How about an Elektra/Jessica Drew team up? OMG I'm just realizing they could have put her in the canceled Shang-Chi film. Does the Hand never face off with the Ten Rings? You would think a couple of a martial artist gangs would have a rivalry. We could have been shipping Elektra and Xialing 😭

Okay actual movie thoughts

Yes the car scene was in fact a sex scene and I don't even think that's even debatable. You can't tell me Hugh Jackman threw his head back like that and groaned like he was fucking cumming and it wasn't an analogy for sex and then following it up with a pan away/sunset shot? It was 100% an ode to the many gay writers who hid their desire to penetrate another man through swords, guns, and fangs. Bram Stoker would be proud

Do not watch this movie if you're uncomfortable with inappropriate sexual touching, or language for that matter. Everyone's getting sexually assaulted and it's a joke every time, but at least they call it what it is I guess?

I feel like the amount of graphic sex jokes was to cover for the fact that they were told not to joke too much about drug use. Although choosing to joke about how they can't do coke was possibly my favorite joke, don't ask me why

They sure did let that little people joke in there though... yikes. Disney is really begging people with dwarfism to jump their asses this year

The weakest part of the film was definitely the villain dialog. I guess they didn't want any big plot twisty reveals because man these dudes came out monologing and like who asked? Nobody. Why are they talking so much?

I have a genuine love for Happy becoming the new Stan Lee cameo. I just love that man as a character and it feels right that he has a hand in everything.

I saw someone on here pouting about the photo of Tony and Peter together and how Peter's face was covered BUT ACTUALLY it's a running gag in the comics that Deadpool can't see Spider-Man's face or hear his name. Even if Peter takes his mask off right in front of him the "Marvel censors" hide it from Wade and I hope to god that's why they covered it because it'll be so damn funny if and when they're both in a film together

Speaking of funny, the comedy in this film was so well done. They poured most of the jokes out in the first act and left room for the movie and the characters to be taken seriously. I'm here praying that the other Marvel writers take notes because while I'm a very emotional person who requires comic relief to get through most movies without crying, we all know the humor in Marvel films is getting to be a bit much.

I was holding my breath during the big team up thinking it was going to be Deadpool 2/Suicide Squad all over again, but they actually got to have their hero moment and it was beautiful.

But WTF? Why did Blade and Gambit get a big moment where they show off their skills but Elektra gets half the screen time during the fight and her moment is just her kicking someone? She has magic ninja abilities?? She could have also done something cool?? The martial arts stuff was cool in her stand alone film, it doesn't impress in a crowd of people who know how to fight. At least let her skillfully throw her sais or something, damn.

And how good is Channing Tatum as Gambit? I'm not a Channing Tatum fan or anything, but damn does he nail it.

NICEPOOL I love Nicepool, I have no idea what Deadpool variants exist in the comics because I actually hate multiverse stuff that isn't spiderverse, BUT it's canon that if Deadpool were to stop killing people that he would become pretty again and I love that there's a universe where's he just insanely nice and handsome mostly because I don't think they would ever make a Spider-Man/Deadpool film so at least we acknowledged that this happens, sorta, they don't really talk about why he's pretty and our Deadpool isn't

I love how it was a Deadpool film, but also everyone got their moment. It was barely even about him. He was the vehicle through which Wolverine and Nova and Laura got to tell their stories and it worked really well

I also feel like Wade getting Johnny killed felt weird and mildly out of character. He's an asshole, not a sadist. There's a big difference. If they wanted him dead to get rid of Chris Evans and still have their cameo, it didn't have to be Wade's fault

Wade and Logan recognizing Chris's face as belonging to Steve also sets a precedent for RDJ playing Doom. (It also means that yes people in universe will recognize him and angst will happen, I'm still crossing my fingers that there's multiple Dooms)

I give the whole thing a 4/5 had a good time, few complaints

[asteral-feileacan]

"I know 😔I recall coming across an interview from a showrunner who basically denied Bucky's lack of agency, called him the bad guy, said he needed to be punished for what he's done and then had the gall to say that they hoped trauma survivors felt represented by "what we did for Bucky's trauma".

Excuse me? EXCUSE ME? Bucky was literally captured, experimented on, tortured via electrocution, brainwashed to the point he had no memories and did not even know who he was.... as well as incarcerated against his will for 7 decades and they deny his lack of agency?

Yeah- on some level he does perhaps deserve to be punished but I blame the rich and powerful people who did that to him- and the powerful people who commissioned him to carry out those "missions" far more than I blame Bucky himself.

THEY deserve to be punished more than he does. How do people not get that? Or do the makers of the MCU just love the US government so much they don't understand how messed up it is to blame the person who was lliterally tortured until he couldn't remember who he was more than than the people who tortured and exploited him for their own ends? Sorry if that's too political for you.

Apologies, I've now written a very long post, all because I went back to find the screenshots and got angry about seeing them again XD

I think this is just really problematic for a number of reasons.

First, it's not an "excuse". One of the best things I've ever read anyone say in response to this topic is in this post. Pasted the quotes here:

The analogy is not “if you lost control of your car and killed someone you still need to be responsible for what your car caused”. It is not “if you’re a soldier who followed orders you still need to be responsible for the life you took”. Bucky was not distracted or indoctrinated. He was induced into a state where he had no idea who he was, could barely recall what he did, and where “he will do anything you tell him to”.

The correct analogy is “if someone hijacked your car, tied you up and locked you in the trunk, then drove your car into people, you are not held responsible for what happened to the victims because you were as much a victim as they are”.

I disagree that Bucky deserves to be punished in any capacity for his time as the Winter Soldier, and the quote I pulled from that post explains exactly why in a clearer and more concise manner than I'm about to from a storytelling/character perspective.

So, starting from the end of the first screenshot and moving backwards because I noticed something aggravating:

"I remember every kill. And that means that a part of me was there for one of those."

This is such a POWERFUL sentence. This is a GREAT sentence. This is Bucky admitting his misbelief, which he completely believes, which is not the truth he thinks it is. The misbelief in a character is a device that can elevate the story so much if done well. I mean, this is a man who has suffered one unimaginable cruelty after another, who was tortured and brainwashed to the point that he couldn't remember who he was, to the point that he was controlled into killing people, targets, whomever his handlers wished him to get rid of. And he remembers the faces of every person that the Winter Soldier killed.

That's a hell in and of itself. He's been freed from Hydra, he's recovering himself, he's relearning who Bucky Barnes is, he's trying to figure out who he himself is now in the wake of it all, and in the middle of everything, the world hates and fears him. He hates and fears himself. So the seeds of doubt get planted: why didn't I do more? I could have tried harder. It's my fault.

So he's stuck in a negative feedback loop - no one, not even his own therapist, is helping him to get out of it, and is only perpetuating it. So that's a deeply internalised untruth he can't let go of. He feels guilty.

(Thanks for bearing with me through that) And my point? Spellman in this interview undermines that, intentionally or not.

Stan Lee himself talked to Sebastian Stan about how Bucky is one of the good guys. I'm watching some interviews now, and it's genuinely confusing to me how he has this same point about how it's what Bucky feels about himself, but then in the previous lines he's painting Bucky in this light where it's "an excuse" that Hydra manipulated him. And then I remember the show - again, Bucky is treated so badly by the other characters in this series. That could have been another good storytelling device, but it's the fact that the narrative itself wants Bucky to BE guilty, not FEEL guilty. It's that fact that other characters are put in a good light for dismissing Bucky, and Bucky is put in a bad light for existing. Don't get me started on that therapist.

It's just. UGH. The series had so much potential, and Spellman, despite odd remarks, DOES understand Bucky's psyche in these interviews to some extent. So how did the show end up being such a mess in regards to his trauma, only just managing to scrape together an end note for him there that would have been much more effective if the show had been committed to Bucky, ONE OF ITS MAIN CHARACTERS?

Sebastian Stan, from what I've seen, is pretty much our only saving grace, as I remember reading comments from him that were such a breath of fresh air in the heat of all this.

And you're completely right - Hydra is completely to blame. The government treated Bucky horribly as well, just casting him off while still thinking of him as a threat and doing virtually nothing to help him.

Anyway - I'm so sorry for this lengthy rant. On the upside, now I'm remembering the exact reason that, about a year or two ago, compelled me to start preparing to re-write TFATWS. Maybe I'll go dig out those notes again and give it another shot. That post I linked is brilliant and covers all my gripes in extremely well-composed arguments, and it was worth scrolling through all my posts to find it again XD

TL;DR: The show was nice, but not only could it have been WAY better, it also handled trauma very poorly. As both an avid Bucky fan and a writer, I was and am extremely disappointed. For what it was, it was passable, and I liked it, but it started out on so many deep thoughts about the characters and basically gave up halfway through pretty much all of them.

[invaive]

HOW THEY MET THEMSELVES

the double (2013) – dir. richard ayoade / the stalker song – autoheart / us (2019) – dir. jordan peele / the changeling's mission (day 7) – pathologic / the one i love (2014) – dir. charlie mcdowell / the disturbing consequences of seeing your double – anil ananthaswamy / doppelgänger (2019) – stan douglas / prometheus (i. 191) – percy bysshe shelley

(alt text under the cut)

Image One: A still from Richard Ayoade's "The Double." Simon and James, both played by Jessie Eisenberg, are in a yellow-lit bathroom looking in the mirror. Each one sees himself in the mirror, but both are focusing instead on each other. They're wearing identical ill-fitting beige suits as they stand in front of the sinks, dark shadows being cast all around them as they watch each other.

Image Two: A screenshot from the Genius page for "Stalker's Tango" by Autoheart. The lyrics read "I know, I know, I know I'm always in your place / But don't you see my dear? / I am your doppelganger, I have your face so / Love me, love me, love me, love me / Love me, love me, love me, love me"

Image Three: A still from Jordan Peele's "Us." Red and Adelaide are seated at a desk, surrounded by tiled walls with multicolored paint handprints smeared everywhere. Adelaide is dressed in all white and recoiling from Red, wearing her signature red jumpsuit, who is holding scissors to her chest. Red has a hand on the back of Adelaide's neck, holding her in place, and is watching her with wild, wide eyes.

Image Four: A screenshot of text from Pathologic copied into a text document. It reads, "With my own eyes, I saw my sister whom I had but slight intimations about. Now I don't know which one of us is which. I must be going insane.

Which one of the two stole the other's name; claimed her calling; seized her destiny?

Please define me."

Image Four: A still from Charlie McDowell's "The One I Love." Sophie, played by Elizabeth Moss, is standing outside in a driveway surrounded by lush greenery with her double. Her double looks exactly the same as her down to the clothes as they stand side-by-side. It's impossible to tell which Sophie is the real one and which is the double.

Image Five: A screenshot of text from an article by Anil Ananthaswamy. It reads, "He felt dizzy, stood up, turned around, and saw himself still lying in bed. He was aware that the person in bed was him, and was not willing to get up and would thus make himself late for work. Furious at the prone self, the man shouted at it, shook it, and even jumped on it, all to no avail. To complicate things further, his awareness of being in a body would shift from one body to the other. When he inhabited the supine body in bed, hed see his duplicate bending over and shaking him. Soon, fear and confusion took hold: Who was he? Was he the man standing up or the man lying in bed? Unable to stand seeing his double any longer, he jumped out of the window." The last sentence is highlighted with a mild yellow bar.

Image Six: A still from Stan Douglas's "Doppelgänger." On the left is Alice-1, played by Dionne Audain, with her hands on her head looking panicked. She's covered in a liquidy slime and lit by an orange light with a completely black background behind her. On the right is Alice-2, also played by Dionne Audain, in the same pose. This Alice is covered in slime as well, but she's lit by a purple light and looks significantly more afraid. Behind her is a green background full of analog technology and yellow flashing lights.

Image Seven: A screenshot of text from "Prometheus" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. It reads "Ere Babylon was dust,

The Magus Zoroaster, my dear child,

Met his own image walking in the garden.

That apparition, sole of men, he saw.

For know there are two worlds of life and death:

One that which thou beholdest;

but the other is underneath the grave, where do inhabit

The shadows of all forms that think and live

Till death unite them and they part no more. (Act I, 191-99)"

[End]

[incomingalbatross]

SINCE Beowulf is all about relationships with Uncles of one sort or another, how would you personally adapt it into a Gravity Falls episode?

HM. Excellent question!

So for "Gravity Falls episode" I am adopting the parameters of "could exist in a hypothetical season three." At this point, the first problem we run into is that when you're talking about a guy who beats up sea monsters while swimming for nine days straight, ripping off arms and crushing rib cages, etc., the obvious character for the Beowulf role is Stan. But 2013-era Stan can't be young Beowulf, obviously. And he can't really take on a nephew role regardless.

HOWEVER. Another thing about Beowulf is that it loves non-linear history being told in repeated tangents. And people bragging about past exploits.

So right now I'm thinking you try to mimic that structure by setting a story in Gravity Falls, starting with an analog to the dragon-theft. (I'm comfortable nominating any of the Pineses for the role of "disturbed a dragon for a stupid reason," though I'll admit Stan's the most likely to steal from one.) As they're fighting for their lives, Stan goes "hey, this is just like that time last spring..." cue ripple transition to a flashback and we get Stan heroically punching sea monsters to save, idk, somebody's tavern in a fishing town.

And then maybe a NESTED flashback, if you really want a Young Stan, where he fought a monster or monstrous thug on behalf of a gang he was in for five minutes.

...This flashback also means you could do some of the fun things about Loyalty and Kinship and Good Leadership that Beowulf is doing. You can't bring in actual kinship unless you go all the way back to his teens, because Young Stan was in more of a Wanderer situation, but you can present him as a metaphorical thane to somebody. Closest you can get to Beowulf's relationships with his elders.

And then that narrative proceeds in parallel with the current dragon-fighting, and obviously Stan took the lead in fighting this dragon but when all hope is lost the kids charge in and support him in the slaying, like good Young Kinsmen. And there are TWO of them so Stan doesn't even die!

(Ford... Ford might already be in the dragon's clutches. The mission might be rescuing him. Either that or he's busy doing something else to make sure they'll have a stable base to return to and bandage their wounds, because having someone responsible who's not on the front lines is also a good way to have a happier ending than Beowulf.)

Also, to mimic my first-time Beowulf experience, Stan's nested stories ideally should include a lot of interwoven and impossible-to-track tangents about people we've never heard of. ;P

[theseventhoffrostfall]

relative to your javelin/plumbata post, Tod Todeschi or some other Pollack last name does do a lot of experimental archaeology type videos where he tests stuff like that. Results vary but I respect he will actually try stuff out.

But I am autistically into old smelting and bronze/iron age stuff as well and I think there's a lot of potential on how many things we take for granted now as commonplace used to be extremely limited. Certain foundries and smelters, even if privately owned, would be borderline national secrets/treasures because they could consistently produce good quality metals or knew HOW to build them right. On par with monks sneaking silkworms out of china. We have accounts of Vikings making it as far as Afghanistan specifically to find burial mounds for Indo Persian wootz blades.

The Hittites were pretty good at early Ironworking for example and well-made bronze is probably better than iron except bronze is an alloy and iron can be refined much easier. I know the French weirdly kept refining brass and ARCO brass/other types in the 19th century and while not the same strength as steel the way the US and Brits innovated, French Brass was stronger than anyone else's.

Fuck I mean IIRC the Chinese spent centuries in West/Central asia like the Stans trying to learn how to breed better warhorses because old horses used to be a lot smaller and things like chariots were how you utilized horses in war instead of individually.

There's so much cool shit you can do just around the idea of foundries and smelting and it's not even been 200 years since we really figured out steel and even the 1990s saw a huge increase along with aluminum technology. Even the first Conan movie kinda touched on this with how rare materials were relatively speaking. I'd love to see a period or fantasy related story that deals with a lot of intrigue and logistical concerns like that. A warlord fighting a grueling campaign that makes no sense tactically but it's because he wants to capture a series of foundries that utilize some mythical pass high in the mountains for their bellows, or specifically daming part of a river to create a faster pressure current for a downward falling water wheel for the actual forging.

Prior to modern technologies, making steel was a literal pain in the ass and insanely wasteful. Closest analogy I can think of is raising an entire cow from birth, killing it, and only taking 1 cut of meat from the carcass and leaving the rest. You didnt "make" steel, you made this disgusting lump of iron and carbon as homogeneous as you could and prayed to God that at the center was a nice good hunk of steel you could then forge into an ingot.

Also FWIW it's less that the javelins were designed to break and bend IMO and simply that its a possibility especially in an actual battle. Oakeshott talks about Celtic leaf bladed swords and the front ranks retiring to the rear to bend kinks out of them. I'd say it's less about iron vs steel and more about heat treat and fucking NO ONE figured out actual mathematical heat treat shit until very recently. Toledo made swords (also known as a specific pattern of blade kind of like a thrusting claymore) are famous for having very rigid blades at their base but very flexible and springy at the tips. In the era where heat treat was more like a cooking recipe or an AdMech ritual than hard scientific fact, being able to CONSISTENTLY produce good heat treated blades was a huge sign of quality. Sorry for the autism but I love metallurgical history.

Nah, you're good, big dog. Most of the concepts are familiar to me, but they're good for bringing to the general discussion table without, you know, me having to type all of that out.

But yeah, the main crux of my argument is based on a few things you mentioned. You, as far as I understand it, can't just go off and harden the average stuff you'd have gotten out of a mine in the Roman empire, even after being smelted. You need to tap the famous and rare(esque) deposits of The Good Shit and buy ingots and such from them. Like you said, on a gross scale they can tell by this point how the carbon-iron interaction is working, but they're much less familiar with, like, ingots from bumfuckulum are better than ingots from frottingshire because of the specific nickel and magnesium content or whatever.

And like you mentioned, being able to consistently produce heat-treated steel is a sign of quality, which means your smiths (Roman ordnance smithies-- insofar as any existed-- local dudes who live near the garrison, dude who follows around the army with his dinky forge setup) can't be average smiths, you can only hire big-dick smiths to do their fanciest work, which is pretty stupid to do for an item that, speaking from a soldier's perspective, is gonna handled roughly, barely maintained, and haphazardly reclaimed. Plus it's a long, narrow spike of metal in an army that used shortswords and small-segmented, scale and mail armor. This is like 1500 years before we're good enough at metallurgy to be making rapiers and suchlike, your javelins have a short service life anyway. Just doesn't make sense to go whole-ass on quality from a logistics point of view. It's just that "they were meant to bend in an enemy's shield" makes them sound cool and clever and you cool and clever for knowing that, whereas "they did it to save money and production time" just sounds boring and lame to Joe Average.

On a related topic to something you mentioned, it seems like the understanding is spreading that early iron was of moderate-at-best advantage against good quality bronze work, and lacks several very real advantages that bronze has. It just so happens that bronze leaves you utterly dependent on trade networks to source at least one of those high-demand metals that generally aren't found together, while iron you "just" source and smelt and work. I've seen more and more people suggesting what immediately occurred to me when I read this, which was that not being reliant on trade networks meant you could be a lot more aggressive with relative impunity, and this explains a lot of infamous Iron-age belligerence more than just "they were powerful and vengeful and had Super Swords"

[majycka]

Sharing this lovely article about Kaku-sensei where he basically talks about his influences(lots of horror and mangakas such as Kentaro Miura, Junji Ito, and even CSM's Fujimoto-sensei! he seems friends with him too). He also talks about how he made the characters of Sagirin and Gabimaru where he intentionally wanted them to be unique(me: yes sensei! I whole heatedly agree that you delivered in this one :')). There's also more on the creative process of the series!

This whole interview is definitely a treat to fans/stans of Hell's Paradise. Please give it a read! u.u

(for self-indulgent reasons, under the cut is my fave quotes from the interview!)

Kaku: (About the art mediums he used) I used a combination of Copic markers and acrylic paint for volumes one through five of Hell's Paradise. Before that, I used only Copics. When working analog, you get to enjoy periodically changing what materials you use. Since Jigokuraku Kaitai Shinsho (fan book published in 2021), I've used a combination of Copics and acrylic. I'll use different paper when working with watercolors and even change up my materials if it's fun. Fun is more important to me than efficiency when it comes to materials.

Kaku: (about his OG draft on the series) I don't often start with the setting. For this work, I started with "several pairs of people whose interests aren't aligned are thrown into an enclosed space and forced to work together." That's the framework. In the very beginning, the story was about children sent to a youth detention center and the lawyers fighting for them. From there, through discussions with my editor, we dropped that setting but kept the framework and applied different characters to it. We kept the framework because I've always liked the way human relationships change and wanted to write a story about it.

Kaku: (About our duo Sagirin and Gabimaru!) This is something I imagined from the start of publication. Both Gabimaru and Sagiri have the same values as someone living in the 2020s. This is also the reason the story is set in the distant past during the late Edo period. The people of that time had totally different ideas about ethics and human rights. Despite condemned criminals and executioners being difficult characters to empathize with, if they share our perspective, then we feel close to them, and they stand out as unique characters in an Edo Period setting. From the very start, I felt that made Gabimaru and Sagiri unique.

Kaku: Yes! "The characters take on a life of their own." When I was a newbie, whenever that phrase came up in interviews with manga artists, I thought, "That can't be possible! After all, you made those characters!" (Laughs) But now I think that really is what happens. In fact, it's more interesting when it does.