#why is her design so inconsistant god

[cyberseabunny]

hey guys did you know i have my own moonsona like the other coolkids feel free to add her to the multiverse shes called cybienite

gore warning for last one

[azdoine]

stolen planets

this is a minor point of order, mostly unrelated to the stuff about the River that I'm trying to get to later, but it's an idea I've never seen anyone post about in their consideration of John's empire and agenda.

early on in AYU, while dwelling on her miserable slog through convalescence, Judith mentions overhearing an inscrutable bit of BOE slang:

The stomach pouch was removed on a previous excursion to what they said was an abandoned “steal planet.” I understand that they use the word “steal” for what we would term “shepherd.”

I say slang because why else would you use the present tense verb in place of a past-tense adjective here, if not as colloquialism? however, this slang appears nowhere in NTN, where we spend great chunks of time airing out BOE vernacular.

Reading between the lines a bit, we can easily guess what the BOE troops meant by "steal", because they spend the rest of the short story trying to get Judith connected to one:

The ship was a Gorgon-class vehicle... it was the last time they had tried to design a light craft that still had room for a stele. Blood of Eden must have captured or stolen one intact.

However, this is still an unusual way of speaking; we've never exactly heard of a "stele planet" before, and we know BOE had to get their stele from Mercymorn, as opposed to finding one in the corpse of a flipped planet.

Looking for 'plot holes' and errors in the continuity of a magic system is rarely productive, but if we comb back over HTN, AYU, and NTN, there appear to be some interesting inconsistencies in the presentation of stelae.

In HTN, John describes stele travel as vaguely dependent on obelisk infrastructure, forcing his Lyctors (who can travel freely) to lay down more of them - the reader is encouraged to that stelae are warp drives, and that obelisks define the regions a stele can transit between.

God said, “We came up with the stele instead, and the obelisk, which are less to do with travel than they are to do with transmission. But there will be times in your future when you will have to move unfettered by needing an obelisk, and even times yet to come when you will fulfil the sacred Lyctoral duty of setting obelisks...”

“Where we are going there are no obelisks for a stele to hook on to,” said the Emperor.

Certain asides in AYU and NTN double down on this interpretation, making references to "obelisk anchors", and establishing the need to locate an anchor at one's intended destination before embarking on stele travel:

Someone else said more clearly, How will we know where the anchor is? And the voice said, I’ve given you the blasted co-ordinates, haven’t I? It won’t be in the ship’s stellar registry, so you’ll have to do the input work yourself. And you must follow the route I’ve given you afterward.

“The Ziz isn’t Cohort standard. And it’s not as big on the inside as you think. Look at the windows—see how there’re none on the back end? It’s mostly engine. Not plated either. It’ll get to sublume without many problems … but it definitely doesn’t have room for a stele. Camilla is right. It can’t travel by obelisk anchor.”

However, AYU makes it clear that a stele also has a role to play as an anchor:

Under this duress I told them I understood how the stele worked but had no ability to use it myself... I said one necromancer alone would not be able to use it as an anchor and that it needed to be energised on a thanergenic planet, so it would never be of any use to them.

NTN even seems to flip-flop around, with people locating a stele to anchor onto, and using obelisks like an array of engines rather than to define one end in a point-to-point transition.

"The Warden convinced the Oversight Body, convinced the Sixth House to come with us. We showed them the secret of the installation. We helped them find a stele that would anchor such a big thanergy transition … which means, we helped them move."

"How’d you get it through a stele? With the weight of that thing, you’d never survive River displacement.” “Five hundred and thirty-two obelisks,” said Camilla.

Here's my tinfoil hat for you: if a stele and an obelisk both have similar roles to play in FTL travel - as suggested by their both being named after words for monuments - then the obelisk should have a similar necromantic nature. They may both be similar names for the same thing, or two different versions of the same thing, at least.

If nothing else, given that they're clearly both "anchors" rooted in Fifth House spirit magic, obelisks and stelae must have similar demands for upkeep and maintenance. And how can a Lyctor possibly set up such an obelisk out in space?

We know that each anchor relies on great quantities of freshly oxygenated and thanergy-enriched blood - that is, each anchor is sustained by a thanergenic fluid still flush with thalergy, per Pyrrha's comments to the effect that blood wards are more thalergy-rich than bone wards. Such anchors also have to be charged with power from thanergy-rich planets.

Mercymorn was able to produce an automatic oxygenation unit via the use of flesh magic, but blood cells need external organs to stay alive. For purposes of sustaining a very large anchor with life and death, a simpler option might be to make your runes with very wide chisel cuts or specially treated surfaces, so that they can't be blotted out by debris, and then leave them in a liquid ecosystem. Place them at the bottom of a water basin teeming with microorganisms, and then allow the micro-ecology to start dying off in the same thanergenic background radiation that you're using to charge up the anchor monument.

For example, by carving into the seabed under the salt-water ocean of a dying planet - a stele planet.

[that-guy-sleepy-miles]

Red King Design Notes

I got a single request to explain Red King's design, so I'm going feral! This will have notes based on AU lore (events), 'lore' (character relationships), and things I noticed in the show! (This one is for you, @daikon-dimes <3)

Let's start from the top and move down!

‎Red King's horns!

Firstly, her "Proud Horns"! The color is a deep-red version of DBK's old horn color, and the shape is based on Princess Iron Fan's bull-horn hairstyle!

And then her "Transportation Horns". These are a slightly darker color than the Proud Horns and their shape is based on PIF's hair and also vaguely based on DBK's horns.

That actually brings us to...

Bangs like Mama and Red King's tiara!

Okay, horn lore:

Red King had eaten a monk and then took a killer fucking nap—like she CONKED OUT—and she woke up with big ol bull horns (magical power expression* has to go somewhere, and she's not really using it or feeling anything right then) and she was like "oh, dude, what the fuck", and then freaks out because she can't balance herself anymore

After being freaked out for a while, she demanded that the nearest bull clone get her a mirror.

She looks at herself in the mirror (she's learned how to balance at this point, good for her), she touches her horns, and she goes,

"Heh. Like Mother's hair."

And, even though she and her mother are in the middle of essentially a Cold War, she finds her mother's old tiara and puts her hair around her horns like her mom's… decorative hairstyle? whatever we'd call that. like the way her mom serves massive cunt 25/8—because she loves her mom more than anything else. (No matter how much of a raging ******* PIF is being. God, why is she like that sometimes???)

(The Eternal Fire design has sidebangs that are reminiscent of PIF's but more silky and flowy.)

Bull Fam Huadian and Bindi

The Eternal Slumber design has a huadian (a form of traditional Chinese ornamental forehead makeup, which is located between the eyebrows and sometimes on the cheeks, the temples, and the dimples) shaped like the Demon Bull family crest instead of the traditional flower petals. This is because of the idea that Red Son's "red dot" is a huadian, which I've seen floating around quite a bit, but I'm 99% sure it's a bindi.

It's in the right spot for a bindi and the wrong spot for a huadian, it looks like a bindi and doesn't look like a huadian—it's a bindi. I don't know if this is still going on (people thinking it's a huadian/saying it's a huadian/drawing it as a huadian), but it's a bindi. It's a bindi guys.

(Because of Red Son's tendency for overly expressive downturned eyebrows and the inconsistency of hand-drawn animation, it's hard to tell, but the "red dot" is seemingly intended to be slightly above and between his eyebrows, not high above on his forehead. You can tell on screenshots where it's on his forehead that it's in the wrong spot, it's actually really fun.)

Also, the people on the wiki call it a "forehead dot" and I'm so...

Anyway, in her Eternal Fire design, Red King's bindi returns! This is because her time with MK has "reignited her inferno", and she is returning to herself! With her bindi! Welcome back, pookie bear!!!

and on the note of her "reigniting her inferno", her Eternal Fire design has the same eyebrow makeup as the Red Son minifig!

Her Samadhi Ring

In the Red King AU, Red Son is allowed to keep his/her ring of Samadhi for a number of reasons. Importantly, DBK and PIF let Red Son their ring because it is their power—Red Son was born with the Samadhi Fire, and it's an expression of their power. They are a family obsessed with power for a good while, so in the Red King AU, DBK and PIF felt it cruel to strip their only child of their power and of the remainder of it. The thought also was that, as the creator of the fire, Red Son would have the most incentive to keep the ring safe. They'd certainly never lose it, like some people.

(Fun fact, this means that DBK's nose ring is the other way around like it was in his younger years. That's just a really silly detail, but like... they match <3)

Red King's Hair Highlights (and Their Relation to Red Son’s Magic Expression and the Samadhi Fire)

(By the way, the Eternal Slumber design has more chaotic shines because her hair isn't brushed, and the Eternal Fire design has more uniform/put-together shines because her hair is being taken care of.)

Red King has shiny hair, and that's not just to look cool. To explain why, I had to make a giant post about the LEGO Monkie Kid Magic System. I go in-depth about Red Son at the end of that post, but I'll give a TLDR here:

Red Son has a wholly unique form of expressing magic among demons, gods, dragons, descendants, reincarnations, and everything in-between (the in-between being Red Son himself, MK, Wukong, and Macaque [Red Son is half-god, half-demon; MK was intended to be a mystic monkey but got his genetics messed with; Wukong and Macaque are mystic monkeys outside of any of the 10 species, they just need to be noted here [Their magic is completely conventional, they're just crazy strong]). His body, and specifically his hair, is directly connected to his magic in a way that's different from other characters for reasons we can only speculate.

Because Red King is stronger than Red Son (and has a link to the Samadhi Fire), she has many large hair highlights! Generally, they're condensed into one or two large shapes, but smaller highlights around a large shape are also acceptable. :]

Outfits

Eternal Slumber wears zhong yi (middle clothes), a longer version of Red Son's robe from season 3, and Red Son's sandals from season 3. (I call those house shoes but the model sheet says sandals.)

Zhong yi were worn under normal clothing in Hanfu, and often worn to bed. Some posts about zhong yi: 1, 2, 3. Because Red King is... well... sleeping often but in a regal way, she wears zhong yi instead of modern sleepwear. Her robe is also longer to evoke the fact that it is a robe and she is a king.

Eternal Fire wears a sleeveless version of Red Son's coat with a gold trim. This gold trim is actually because of something on Red Son's page on the Monkie Kid Wiki! Okay, so, I'm so autistic that part of my LMK Special Interest (it's been 4 years, so this is officially a special interest) actually extends to the Wiki... and on Red Son's Wiki page, there is something so fun!!

On Red Son's Minifigure–show comparison, the screenshot used to compare contains a coloring error! Red Son's collar is actually his skin tone! And I LOVE THAT. NOBODY TELL THEM. IF YOU ARE A WIKI EDITOR AND YOU'RE READING THIS, DON'T FIX IT!!!

I love coloring errors and I love mistakes. Not only is there the original coloring error (the mark of a human being; someone worked on this scene and they made a mistake and now we can see it and see them! It's as if their memory is saying hello, and that's why I love coloring errors), but someone else missed it, and now it has been used to represent this character's design as a whole (a SECOND human being!! Hello!! You've been here, and you didn't catch something, and now I'll always remember you were here!).

And that's why I don't want it to be fixed. I know it should be fixed, and I know the Wiki is a source of knowledge, but I also just... love people so much... and I decided to remember the coloring error by giving Red King's coat a gold trim. <3 (I was going to keep it to the collar like the coloring error, but it didn't look good.)

Other notes:

She's wearing armbands like she did when she was a baby because the Eternal Fire design is her "returning to herself."

The ballroom gloves are just sexy like that. Make MK go Looney Tunes. (And the wristbands are for the same purpose.)

S H A N T S

Uhhh that's it! Thank you!! <3 <3 <3 <3!!

[the-blossica-fan]

Blossica and A Nightmare At Green Lake

An analysis made by THE Blossica fan

Why do I love Blossica? Why is it so important for A Nightmare At Green Lake? Would the story be the same without it?

In this long rant I call "Analysis", I will tell you my thoughts, the reasons and MY opinion on this ship and its importance to the entire event.

It can not be yours, and I'll gladly listen to your thoughts and reasons, but here's why it is so important and the story wouldn't be the same without it.

It has been edited, there might be some more changes if I see any inconsistencies.

Let's start by what most people call this ship, Childhood friends to lovers. I've seen a lot of people call it that, and while it's not wrong, it's also not right.

The better term Is "Childhood crush", as Blonney (Jennifer) is Jessica's childhood crush.

Must take into account that Blonney never knew of Jessica's existence, the OG Jessica was Blonney's imaginary friend, Changeling/Jessica just happened to hear it and thought it was Blonney giving her a name.

Why childhood crush? Well, it's pretty easy to know that Jessica's infatuation that persisted through the years is far more than just friendship. From things like reviving all the stories she told, retelling them and even exhausting them for everyone else.

It's also not a secret that she has probably been looking for someone to replace Blonney's space in her heart, which is why no one has ever seen as interesting in her eyes.

In Vertin's words "What happened to those people that accepted to stay with you? When you ran out of available games, they were no longer adored by you. I can stay longer than them, but with no exceptions. I'll become boring one day." These words are a hint to something.

No one can replace Blonney's place in Jessica's heart.

And, what about Blonney?

Blonney is definitely a lesbian, but this is no headcanon, in fact, I'd argue this is definitely canon. From design hints like those hair clips (this is Bluepoch, they pay heavy detail to their models, this is definitely not a coincidence), to even more hidden hints in her stories.

Since a child, Blonney has been writing in her diary stories, but you know what's interesting? Blonney describes the women as beautiful, like in the story about the dead bride.

A bride that looks for other happy brides? Mmm, doesn't it sound weird?

Blonney also describes Anne/Anna in extra detail, as if she had some sort of fixation with her. Let's remember that this description of characters is not only a script, but Blonney's own thoughts written on paper. When she criticizes herself, saying she'll pay for her doings one day, it feels crude and out of place because that is what she thinks about herself: That she'll pay for being a liar and mean (an arcanist and a lesbian)

The event itself also tells us enough for it to not be speculation, but absolutely straight up in your face.

Blonney's denial of her arcanist self (she punched Jason and yelled that she was not an arcanist, for those with internalized homophobia, this is a common reaction. Anger), the iconic couch scene and later on, her discussion with Jessica.

"How many times do I have to tell you how much I hate being called an arcanist", this is similar to a reaction I had before, denial and anger. In this case, and during the entire event, "arcanist" is used as an allegory.

For fuck's sake, Blonney was CUDDLING with Anne right BEFORE the iconic couch scene. Jessica/Anne is the one that made Blonney start to accept that side of herself, alongside with Tooth fairy's guidance; a professional lesbian.

"You seem to really like me. You would jump off a car to rescue me, you protect me, praise me. You would even be happy because I was happy." "Because I've never seen anyone as pretty as you are. You're special, you're different to the rest of us"

Oh God do you see that? This is flirting.

And while some might say Jessica doesn't know what romance and what liking romantically means, I'd argue otherwise.

Jessica does know what romance is

Let me tell you quickly. Jessica said in "The nightmare of green lake", she has met a couple of people who have different relationships with each other. She has even interacted with them, as in, she HAS talked to them. She has 6 people (excluding Michael, Jason and Freddy) in a cave, she knows some stuff.

When she says "I like you", she knows what she means. Her desperation to get Blonney to stay is not only because she doesn't want to be alone, but because she wants Blonney and ONLY Blonney to stay.

It's possible she's not sure she's in love, but she knows her feelings go far more deep than just a normal friendship. Plus, she has lived with Blonney's childhood stories, and those horror stories do have romance (The pathetic bride includes romance, Jessica is the one behind the pathetic bride, she knows). She's not oblivious nor stupid, she's just inexperienced. She knows she likes Blonney more than a common friend (based on how she treats others), and I think she would never like anyone that's not Blonney.

And what about their relationship?

People think they're master and pet, owner and pet, and I don't think they realize how deep that goes. Blonney is definitely in need of a person like Jessica, who fully supports her and her unique ideas. Jessica loves Blonney unconditionally, there's no reason to not think so. Their relationship is perfectly healthy, Jessica loves being adored and treated as a pet by Blonney, and Blonney is happy to see her happy.

That line of dialogue about a collar, despite how sexual it might be, is made out of innocence. They're not just master and pet, they're girlfriends and, don't we all have weird relationships with each other? They're happy, they're good for each other and are what the other needs.

So... What's their importance to the event? Are they really that important?

Yes.

The event wouldn't exist without that crush and romance. If Jessica didn't think romantically of Blonney, the event would be different, she wouldn't try hard enough to just keep Blonney and much less plan to get rid of everyone around Blonney so it's just the two of them.

If Blonney wasn't in denial of her homosexuality (and arcanum?), the event wouldn't be about accepting yourself as you are, it wouldn't be a story about coming out and the morals wouldn't be as impactful.

It would be a lackluster event.

Their relationship with each other is of heavy importance because it's that crush and denial that make up the entire story. The horror is just a side dish, the murderer and all of it, because this is not a horror story.

It's a love story

"I don't care whether my parents allow it or not!"

"I will quickly reveal this true look of mine, and everyone will look at me as if I've done something wrong"

Huh? Are we still talking about arcanists?

These lines are out of place for a 'friendship', or a discussion about staying or not. This is romantic, and especially in the homosexual way.

This true "look" of mine, doesn't it mean love? People do look at same-sex couples as if they've done something wrong, and while Jessica is talking about her changing abilities, we all knows this is about her crush on Blonney and how society would look at her wrongly.

Because, if she truly didn't know about her crush on Blonney which is the basic of all; everyone knows about crushes and romance, then how would she know people would look at her wrongly?

"I don't care whether my parents allow this or not"? Is a line said in ROMANCE. All romance stories with a 'secret romance' have this sort of line, whether straight or gay, this is a basic must-have in this sort of relationships.

She's not only talking about Jessica's changing abilities and arcanum, she's talking about her own blossoming love.

Especially when Jessica asks if Blonney liked her story, she's seeking approval and a hint Blonney will stay by her side, this is a confession. Which is why she gets so down when she gets a "yes, I like it very much". That's not a yes, it's a dismissal, a 'not so important' thing. This is a rejection of her feelings, even if on accident.

And, why does Vertin intervene? Why does she have the talk to Jessica about staying?

Because Vertin more than anyone knows what it's like to let go of a lover, she knows about not being able to confess in time and she knows that if she doesn't intervene, this will be like her and Schneider all over again. Regrets. She's being supportive, she's trying to do what she couldn't do. She's playing cupid.

A place where no one would judge Jessica for her looks, also known as the homosexual suitcase. We all know that no one in Reverse is straight, or at least, 99% aren't. We all know no one would bat an eye if a deer girl was kissing an 80's horror movie girl in the middle of the wilderness.

This is the perfect place for both, Blonney and Jessica, a place where they can be together while not being judged.

And what about Horropedia, Sonetto and Tooth Fairy? What part do they play in this Horror story?

Oh, they're very important as well. In fact, all of them are.

Horropedia, despite interrupting the girls RIGHT BEFORE KISSING, is the reason they're there. Without him, this would be a psychological horror story. And Blonney and him are the wlw and mlm hostility, they're so hating on each other but they do care. Sonetto has helped Blonney in silent ways, not only by helping her become more herself and supporting her fully, something she needed, but she's also an example of someone who's tied down. They've become good friends because they both used to be in similar situations mentally and emotionally.

But out of the two, Tooth Fairy is definitely the most important. She has gone through the same experiences as Blonney. Arcanist living in human society and a lesbian. She knows what Blonney is going through so she's helping, in her own way. She's the one who makes Blonney start to accept herself, to accept the fact that she is the only one Jessica wants and the one who understands her the most. Blonney softens because of both, Jessica and Tooth Fairy.

Tooth Fairy was the key to Blonney's acceptance, and it's because of her talk to Tooth Fairy that Blonney treats Anne better, that she's willing to share more of herself, that she's more physical. It's not a coincidence that after slowly accepting the fact she's an arcanist (lesbian) that she gets more flirty and physical with Anne/Jessica.

This entire event was a way to talk about coming out, and I've watched this event so many times I wrote this out of memory. It feels this way because it's INTENDED to be that way. It's real, it's crude. It's so direct because that's what it is.

A coming out story, a horror story

A love story

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

What's the story of Joan d' Arc from an atheist's perspective?

I'm still deconstructing religion and her story still holds a place in my heart for some reason

Neurological disorder or mental illness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc

Modern scholars have discussed possible neurological and psychiatric causes for her visions. Her visions have been described as hallucinations arising from epilepsy or a temporal lobe tuberculoma. Others have implicated ergot poisoning, schizophrenia, delusional disorder, or creative psychopathy induced by her early childhood rearing. One of the Promoters of the Faith at her 1903 canonization trial argued that her visions may have been manifestations of hysteria. Other scholars argue that Joan created some of the visions' specific details in response to the demands of the interrogators at her trial.

Keep in mind that we don't have to be able to explain her "visions" in order to reject the "explanation" that she was in telepathic communication with a magical space wizard who invented the universe with a magic spell. Or even believe that she had these "visions" at all. We don't have to "disprove" what has not been proven. And the "visions" and their purported supernatural origin are not established, evidence-based fact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc

Many of these explanations have been challenged; the trial records designed to demonstrate that Joan was guilty of heresy are unlikely to provide the objective descriptions of symptoms needed to support a medical diagnosis.

It's true that we can't reliably diagnose her from the trial records. Mostly because people were more ignorant back then and didn't collect the evidence or data which would enable us to use our better knowledge to explain it. But that's not our fault.

But it's also the same reason we can't conclude telepathy with a magical space wizard. What are the "objective descriptions of phenomena needed to support a supernatural explanation"? What are they? And why do medical diagnoses need objective facts, but not claims of supernatural magic?

We can simply ask ourselves, which is more likely: neurological disorder/mental illness, or telepathic communication with a magical space wizard? We know neurological disorders and mental illnesses are real, we have good evidence they exist, even if we don't have conclusive evidence that she had one. We don't have any evidence of a magical space wizard, so the medical diagnosis already has a massive leg up on the supernatural magical explanation.

It's worth noting that the people who reject these more mundane medical explanations for Joan are the same ones who will reject Muhammad's divine communications with Allah, on the basis of it being more likely temporal lobe epilepsy, schizophrenia or regular old fraud. And even reject that "god" told Kenneth Copeland to assemble a fleet of private jets, on the basis of him being an unrelenting, inveterate con artist.

So, in the defenders of this mythology, what you have is inconsistent skeptics who decline to accept similar claims on equally questionable grounds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc

Joan's firm belief in the divinity of her visions strengthened her confidence, enabled her to trust herself, and gave her hope during her capture and trial.

Dumbo's feather strengthened his confidence, enabled him to trust himself and gave him hope. This paragraph is embarrassing, not to mention completely useless.

What this is doing is retreating from "this belief is true" to "this belief is useful." We have to ask ourselves whether what we're interested in is what's true, or what's useful.

A popular retort from the faithful is something along the lines of, why would she allow herself to be burned to death if it wasn't true? You've heard this before in regard to the "persecution" of the early Xians. This is, of course, only a measure of fanaticism, not truth. Islamic terrorists are so sure they're willing to blow themselves up, yet this holds no weight with Xians as far as whether Islam is true.

It's a real shame "god" didn't help her escape her captors as he did the Israelites, though. Him untying her, parting the flames and levitating her to safety would have been an even more compelling demonstration of "god's will" than the predictable outcome of a person being burned to death. But instead, he went, "nah, I'mma be mysterious."

[sanchezsimp]

Here are my random Rick Sanchez headcanons because why not!

TW: mentions of self harm !!

- He cries himself the fuck to sleep every night. If he doesn't, then he drinks until he's asleep, or works on a project. He can't just lay there, he'll overthink and get no rest.

- He often has nightmares about Diane or Morty

- He likes musicals. Because I say so.

- Have you seen how he likes his cereal?? I imagine he likes his coffee hella sugary too- With too much creamer, whipped cream, and rainbow sprinkles on top!

- He totally met and had a crush on Ford Pines. I know I ship them, but I headcanon that when they knew each other, Ford never actually returned that feeling. (I could probably elaborate on some of my Ford headcanons later... Oh! Maybe I can make another post of my headcanons for when they knew each other?) And they broke up (as friends) when Ford decided that Rick is, not only an asshole, but fucking insane.

- More on that last one-- I imagine that Rick would often have revenge fantasies about Prime. Constantly imagining the pain he wanted to inflict on him in graphic detail. (I headcanon that at some point, Ford found out somehow and was horrified.)

- He only stays still when he's overthinking. Otherwise, he's constantly stimming or making stupid noises (whenever he's not talking or occupying himself). He gets extremely fucking bored. He needs constant stimulation, always needs to be doin' something.

- He has scars on his arm and cuts frequently. He cuts in shame of how he's lost his wife, and in shame of the fact that he cares for Morty, because he's so afraid of losing him... And he cuts because it's him who killed her. Not him-him, of course, but I imagine he also holds himself responsible because it WAS himself... in a way. Does this make sense to ya?

- He has to resist the urge to rip his fucking face apart every time he looks in a mirror. Because he doesn't see himself anymore. He sees Prime. And it hurts.

- He HATES mirrors.

- I imagine that sometimes when he's drunk, he's more affectionate to Morty in a rather unsettling way. Like, he'll hug him and praise him, and Morty would be just confused as fuck (at first anyways, until he gets used to it lmao).

- He has green eyes. It just... makes sense to me? I dunno, maybe I'll talk more about my RaM eye colour headcanons later.

- I headcanon that he got like, some sort of crazy hair removal on his pits- 'cause he had a lot in Lawnmower Dog, and in the past in comics (like Flesh Curtains... some of it anyways. Their inconsistency with his hair bothers me.), then never again. Unfortunately. GOD, I miss that hair. (I'm so normal I swear-)

- He knows damn well he looks strange, and there is no actual reason. He's aware he's just a character, and so there is no real WHY he looks like that, it's just character design. And he's fine with that.

- He likes cute things. He just... likes cute things. He adores Morty and he adores adorable animals! I headcanon he has a soft spot for cats specifically. This is also based off of how he had Mr. Frundles and his only defense was "It was cute! FUCK!"

That's all for now- I'll post more of this if this doesn't flop, lol

Thanks for readin'!! And don't hesitate to ask for my random headcanons of other characters or fandoms, I'll be happy to write 'em!!

[angelkitty54]

Thoughts I had on Sally Acorn and her role as "Princess".

Look, there's a lot more active and unconscious sexism in mainstream media then we like to admit and let's face it, Princesses are rarely portrayed as possessing any form of power or authority despite their rank. Neither are Queens for that matter; always considered below the King in that regard. The Patriarchy at work.

And Princess Sally Acorn is unfortunately a victim of such misogynistic tropes.

The problem is, the Archie comic writers were determined to make her into another stereotypical powerless princess, but unfortunately for them, she was fundamentally not designed that way! Sally Acorn was created as the sole remaining heir to the throne; one not only fighting, but leading the fight to take back her kingdom! She was meant to rule, her character being designed to do so in fact. Which is a very large part of why she was so inconsistently written: when she was portrayed as a Princess she was meek and subservient, but as a Freedom Fighter she was fierce, decisive and a proactive leader!

When you really look into her character, Sally was not raised a princess, she was raised as the last remaining heir to the throne, meaning she was effectively raised to be King. And it shows! Sally, even as a child was leading the Freedom Fighters, was a regarded as being in a position of authority by those living in Knothole, she lead negotiations and forged alliances! She was already doing all the things a true Ruler is supposed to do!

Yet the moment her father came back she was effectively demoted to being a hapless little girl. To be fair, it does make some sense to an extent. Sally does not know how to be a princess, at least not by her very traditional father's standards. She's been searching for him for all this time and finally has him back, of course she'd want him to be proud of her. So, naturally, she'd try her best to conform to his desires, but she was always meant for greater things.

That whole thing she had with the "Source of All" and Sword of Acorns just further cements Sally's true place in the royal hierarchy. A literal cosmic or god-like force (whatever was going on there) wanted Sally to be Queen, and add an enchanted sword called out to her, wanting her to wield it? Anyone else getting the Sword in the Stone vibes here? Of course the writers forced her to not want it and give it all up, because reasons I guess, despite going out of their way to show us all how in universe Sally was the One True King of the Acorn Kingdom.

At least her brother and her boyfriend recognised pretty much right from the start who she truly was. Sonic had always campaigned for Sally to return to lead the Freedom Fighters. And Elias tried his best to support her, knowing she was a much better leader than him.

Not to say Elias wouldn't make a good King. He had his ups and downs, but the his character really shone in the Secret Freedom Fighter story arcs. You could really see him coming into his own then. With Elias taking on the role of heir, it frees up Sally to go back to leading the Freedom Fighters. Her authority was always recognised there at least; her own little kingdom as it were.

It's very easy to imagine the Freedom Fighters traveling the world as a kind of superhero team, lead by the power couple that is Sally and Sonic. :)

But if she were to take the throne, it definitely would be nothing like how they represented Queen Sally in the 25/30 Years Later arc. Not just because they completely nerfed her character entirely, also because Sonic never would have become King to start with. Marrying a princess does not automatically make you a king!! You have to already be a prince in your own right, or literally everyone else in line for succession, including your spouse, has to die for you to gain that title! Even then you'd have to have had some sort of claim to the throne to start with!

The highest rank Sonic could have feasibly achieved would be "Prince Consort", but logically his title would have been "The Queen's Husband" given he was a commoner. And let's face it, Sonic would happily be Sally's trophy husband.

But anyways, this has gotten long, so in conclusion:

Sally Acorn is the rightful ruler and One True King of Mobius. She would have made a damn great Princess and Queen if not for poor writing coloured by sexist views. But she is also just as much a Queen while leading the Freedom Fighters!

(And she totally should have kept Excalibur the Sword of Acorns! Tho her energy swords are cool too!)

[forgotten-lumis]

Guys, there’s still hope for purple Kairi to come back, right?

I’m really hoping this chapstick pink thing is all part of like- her “trying to mold herself to be more like Sora so maybe they drift apart less quickly” phase or something, because I personally kinda find it. A very unique color choice. (Especially in Kh2… god…) It literally is just a really red pink, and Sora’s color is actually just red, so it would make sense, no?

Like- why else would they include a slightly more purple pink shoved into some random lines hidden in the bottom right corner of her design, and nowhere else if it wasn’t meant to show her repressing her true self or something! Like- she can’t completely become someone else, but she can certainly try her hardest at it. (Also- this gives me a bit more hope since it shows they haven’t completely forgotten her purple. Please give it back-)

Her true color is literally purple I swear- Her eyes are even purple in like- so much official art- and really inconsistently in the games idk- but still!

Mark my words, guys. She’s going to get her purple back after having trained with Aqua. I mean, dark blue and light pink would make purple, wouldn’t it? That’s not the actual reason, of course, it would really be that she’s rediscovering who she is without the influence of Sora, and also not feeling like she needs him around at all times, or needs to become exactly like him in order to feel safe, and because she’s found a healthier way than this to cope with her trauma- but it’s still funny to think about that way.

Also, the fact that she adopted that Sora-esque pink color in Kh2 is really telling, specifically after she regained her memories and probably started to really feel the effects of being apart for an entire year. That’s when she really started to feel like they were drifting apart. Then the color change only got worse in Kh3- Then she literally turned into him in Melody of Memory in her own brain to fight Xehanort, him being the literal manifestation of her childhood trauma and the transformation being a physical manifestation of her coping strategy thus far, in order to beat him. Also didn’t she literally just yoink Sora’s battle pose- I feel like they’re trying to tell us something here, guys. She wasn’t associated with that color in BBS, or in Kh1. We can literally pinpoint exactly when the shift happened. Anyways- this post is halfway wishful thinking, halfway actual analysis and speculation. I’m going to go drink some water now, and you probably should too. Remember to hydrate, it’s important. 👍

[abacistat]

im currently reading red robin 2009 (i KNOW it took me forever just let me live okay i don’t even. god. this is a judgement free zone actually, justice for us slow comic readers like SORRY i haven’t read every run that has ever been released ever OKAY! im new to this kind of…as in last five months but STTTIIILLLLLL at least i’m reading the comics. not a lot of people can say that. let me be a slow reader.) (that being said i’m on the 10th issue rn ^_^)

ok anyway reading rr09 and i have soo many thoughts on it and so many drawing ideas but i have had a migraine since like. checks clock. tuesday night. it’s thursday morning. i did like a handful of drawing reqs on instagram but i couldn’t even finish them all cause god why does blue light have to make my eyes hurt??? why can’t i stare at my ipad screen with a headache(/s)???? wtf let me draw this is so fucked up. whenever this migraine decides to stop making me it’s bitch though i’ll be forced to finalize my tim design cause i really really really wanna make red robin art but my boy needs to be consistent… he’s so so so inconsistent rn… i’m so sorry. wanna do reference sheets for a lot of characters tbh….

do people do that??? can i just make a character sheet for a character that in fact already exists??? yeah. yeah i can idc if its unconventional actually. and if it isn’t, even better! def core four. def superfam. maybe batfam if i feel nice, like i love the batfam (sorry) but there is way too many of them??? okay anyway this is a really long winded way of saying i wanna come up w a complete tim design and i am asking for headcanons anybody has because i don’t have too too many ideas rn im SORRYYYY </3…it’s also five am so just let me go to sleep. but. yeah send me some tim headcanons i could try incorporating :-) feel free to yap ab them too im such a sucker for reading peoples little character studies <3 like yes how does that girl wearing her hair in a ponytail represent her struggles with femininity??? yeah. yaaayyy! ok gonna sleep now….bye

tldr; tell me your tim drake design hcs

[jazzajazzjazz]

My thoughts on DAV for anyone who gives a shit:

Heavy spoilers under cut (read at your own risk)

Stuff I liked:

* The abundance of book/comic characters that made appearances. I really enjoyed meeting a character and excitedly saying ‘oh it’s [NAME]!’ Evka and Antoine were absolutely wonderful and I adore them and would die for them

* The environments are stunningly beautiful, particularly Treviso. I also love how darkly oppressive and hopeless Hossberg felt. And the Necropolis are you KIDDING ME 😭😍

* Generally speaking I enjoyed the companions and how they were written. Emmrich was absolutely my favourite but I also loved Davrin and Bellara, and I found Neve and Lucanis very endearing also.

* Bellara being more than the token quirky girl was such a wonderful surprise

* The CC is SO fun to play with like wow

* Boss fights are pretty cool

* Act 3 battle in Minrathous was a lot of fun

* English fem Rook’s voice is fantastic and it’s so refreshing to hear a Geordie accent (my own accent, no less!) in DA

* Combat is a lot of fun and for the first time playing a mage in DA I actually felt dangerous.

* Ghilly is just so cool and utterly unhinged. I dreaded her next scene because I wondered what other abominable shit she could possibly do

Stuff I disliked:

* The romances are utterly lackluster. I romanced Davrin and while I adore the man and enjoyed the scenes I got with him there was barely any chemistry between he and Rook. By the time they slept together they had kissed twice (and that was in ONE scene). The flirty lines are barely even flirtatious at all. And why can’t we kiss our LI’s whenever we want? Why would you take that away???

* Why isn’t there any option to just….talk to your companions? Ask them questions? Ask Neve about her most infamous cases, her upbringing, who designed her badass prosthetic. Ask Davrin about his clan, how long he’s been a Warden, and about some of the monsters he’s hunted. Make the companions feel like they have….I dunno, lives?

* Why boast that your game has nudity when it doesn’t even make an appearance outside of the CC? Even then it was just tits?

* Where is the cruelty of Thedas? The injustice? The slavery? The racism? My Rook is an elf from Minrathous for goodness sake. (and don’t use this point of mine to accuse me of ‘fantasising about racism’ like one smoothbrained fuck on reddit did) But if you’re gonna establish that your world has these terrible things and then said terrible things just sort of vanish or aren’t mentioned then it looks like HR was in the room with the writers.

* Taash’s weird ass writing

* Inconsistencies in the quality of voice acting. I’m not talking about audio but the acting itself. Sometimes Neve’s performance was very weak.

* The music is completely forgettable and Trevor Morris should have been brought back. The theme that played during the boss fight with Ghilly made me exclaim (OUT LOUD) ‘The fuck is this shit ass music?’

* Why didn’t Maevaris have her gorgeous blonde curls what did you do to her

* Dorian was just there because Dorian. Same with Isabela. Thank god they didn’t bring Fenris back 🙏

* The Varric twist is just kinda dumb

* Solas doesn’t really act very Solas-y? 🤷🏻‍♀️

* Having to choose between Davrin or Harding felt so forced to me. Making it so the one you pick can die if you haven’t built up their loyalty? Okay, I can buy that. Especially since late act 2/act 3 of this game is very much a DA version of ME2. But I guess Harding will always be my choice because honestly even with the Titan stuff I found her boring

* Basically everything coming back to ‘it was the Elves!!!!’ is boring

* Rendering the previous games obsolete/pointless was a spineless decision made by the writers and I hope they feel bad about it

* The Executors twist is pathetic and ridiculous and I completely disregard it

* We could have had a quest where we rescue/encounter whoever was left behind in the Fade in DAI? Wow fuck you too

Companion Ranking

1 - Emmrich - everything I hoped for and more. He’s eccentric, he’s goth af, he’s almost excessively polite, and he is just an absolute delight to be around. He’s wonderful and I adore him. I will absolutely be romancing him next when I feel like doing another playthrough.

2 - Davrin - I’ll readily admit that I’m a bit biased because Davrin was my LI and is utterly gorgeous but that being said I love him to bits. I love his arc of basically working out how to be a dad to Assan. I love his confidence, and I’m a sucker for a tough guy character with a cute hobby. And I was HELLA invested in getting those damn griffons back.

3 - Bellara - I mentioned above that I was relieved that Bel was so much more than the token quirky girl and my god was she a breath of fresh air. At first I still wasn’t sold on her because of that tonal whiplash in Act 1 but once I gave her the time she needed I related to her more and more.

4 - Neve - Again I may be biased as I played a SD Rook and I love detective characters but I thought Neve was great. Her relationship with my Rook was like that of a big sister and I bought it completely. I love how she wonders aloud about problems and mysteries.

5 - Lucanis - I like Lucanis, don’t get me wrong. But I feel like he’s easily the most half baked and under-utilised companion in DAV by a country mile. So much of him just doesn’t feel finished, and Spite is just….barely there. He deserved better. Also, I get it. He likes coffee. Quit mentioning it all the damn time, game.

6 - Harding - Boring. Simple as that. I didn’t give a shit about Harding in DAI but at least she had a personality? Her whole thing relates to the Titans, one of most interesting pieces of lore in the DA universe, and they managed to make her completely forgettable. 🥱

7 - Taash - Felt like Taash’s entire existence is as an after school special/self insert. Their ‘growth’ was paced weirdly and their hypocritical attitude stinks. They came across so well in Vows & Vengeance and I was really looking forward to meeting them and was very disappointed. They do get better as the game progresses but it felt like it was too little, too late.

Final Thoughts

I don’t think this is a bad game, and I’m an OG DA fan who has been here from the very beginning. I think it’s a much better DA game than Andromeda was as a ME game and I maintain that there are plenty of things to enjoy about Veilguard. I will play it again.

THAT BEING SAID there are a ton of things I had to purposely ignore (retconning, weird dialog, characters acting out of character, etc) in order to enjoy certain parts of the game and I shouldn’t have to do that. It’s very apparent that long term fans of the series aren’t the target audience anymore and that ultimately feels like a betrayal. It stings.

I’m not giving a rating because I don’t do that but yeah those are my thoughts. I genuinely enjoyed most of my time with this game but I mourn what this series has become and what could have been. So much of this game just feels….unfinished.

[atamascolily]

The curious incident of the elephant in the night parade

The Rebellion Production Note includes a sketch of the "pumpkin carriage" that Sayaka and Nagisa ride in as emissaries of the Law of Cycles, which is good because we barely get to see it in the actual movie.

From face on, it's hard to see that there is, in fact, a pumpkin there, because it gets overshadowed by the pink circle behind it. The profile shot is not much better because Madokami's body blocks most of it.

(side note: love how the original Walpurgisncht pennants are re-imagined here, since Madokami moves under her own power instead of being towed.)

I also completely missed the cute little Pyotr (Nagisa's mouse-like familiar) on top!

The pumpkin is an obvious fairy tale reference and an allusion to Homura identifying herself as "the pumpkin" in the Cake Song. In the accompanying text, Inu Curry says that its color should be the same as the one in the Cake Song, but that changed somewhere in the animation process, because the carriage is orange and the Cake Song pumpkin is primarily green. Or is the carriage orange now because the squash has "ripened"? (for what it's worth, there are plenty of kabocha varieties that are green when ready to eat, so IDK if that's why, but it's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head).

Oh, and weirdly, there doesn't seem to be an obvious "door" to the carriage--even if it's folded up/not visible while in motion, it's striking that the window we do see is similar to the same window that has served as a symbolic representation of salvation via the Law of Cycles from the very first scene of the movie. Inu Curry's notes say that the window frame is white, just like that other window.

I had originally wondered why this carriage was necessary, since Madokami was theoretically only going to take Homura's soul away, not her physical body, but based on what happens to Sayaka in the ending of the original series, magical girls claimed by the Law of Cycles can vanish completely (body and soul), probably so they don't leave any unsightly corpses behind, although there appears to be some inconsistencies about this in Episode 12. But the carriage is such a great metaphor, I can't even bring myself to quibble about stuff like that.

So does Homura gets a carriage ride with an escort instead of flying off hand in hand with Madoka, because she's special--or does every magical girl get this treatment now? It doesn't really matter because Homura has her own ideas, but either way, it was a nice thought, I guess? Once again, Shaft goes for "what looks cool in the moment" rather than visual consistency.

In keeping with my ongoing obsession with the "peacock's tail" emblem that keeps popping up, I'll just say that the elephant's tail is the same shape and the knob on its harness has part of the same pattern... which does make sense because Walpurgisnacht uses that motif and this her repurposed elephant familiar.

However, there are some noticeable differences between the original elephant and this new version:

Walpurgisnacht's elephants from the original series and the Eternal recap movie have a different symbol on their sides - a sun-like drawing vs. the circle with cross quarters. There is a cryptic note here that I don't fully understand that says something like "emblem of the window god"--presumably Madokami?--but I'm not confident enough to say for certain what's going on here.

The ears are also different--the original elephant has a plain green ear, while the Rebellion version has a black and white series of diamonds with circles inscribed within them--another one of Homura's motifs, at least in the Rebellion Production Note.

Preliminary designs for Devil Homura's salamander motif featuring the same "diamond with inscribed circle" symbol.

Finally, both elephants' eyes are covered with "button-like" blinders, just like the horse on Homura's boat in the middle part of Rebellion.

Elephants are a symbol of wisdom, so the fact that they're blindfolded here is interesting; there's also the saying "an elephant never forgets" which seems pertinent in light of Rebellion's emphasis on memories. They are also a traditional vāhana ("mount" or "vehicle") of deities in Hindu and Buddhist iconography, which again fits with the mandalas and other symbols of divinity that Madokami and Walpurgisnacht share. However, I should point out that here that in this case, no one is directly riding on the elephant, as is usually traditional in these genres of religious art; the elephant is towing the vehicle intended for Homura's enlightenment/ascension/release and Madokami is not dependent on it for her movements. So, lots to unpack there.

(Also, if I'm reading the Japanese text right in the Rebellion Production Note, Sayaka wanted to use a helicopter instead, can you imagine?)

Another page in the Production Note shows the original design for the carriage, and I'm sad it got cut because it was rad as hell:

Sayaka, rolling up to Homura in this thing: "Get in, loser, we're going to magical girl heaven." *screeching tires*

The title of this post is an allusion to "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" from one of the Sherlock Holmes stories and the "Night Parade of 100 Demons" (Hyakki Yagyō, 百鬼夜行) from Japanese folklore, which parallels Walpurgisnacht's original circus and this smaller remixed version in Rebellion.

[fishfroggshasathermos]

(Inanimate Insanity ep 17 rant)(spoilers)what the hell was that episode what the hell was that episode oh my god oh my god ohm ygod SCREAMING

i clicked on it when it was 1 minute out and i SFDLGJBMNVKJFLDR'EJLDFKJG i had to pause like 10 times to just compose myself after everything this series is INSANE its making me INSANE NOW I KNOW WHY ITS CALLED INANIMATE INSANITY OH MYG OD OH MHY GOD WHAT THE HELL

like legit i was watching the new BURNER episode that came out just before i saw this one, and when i saw the crumbling of the show i was thinking to myself that 'geez i cant trust anything after ii' AND LOOK WHAT VID COMES OUT

im so grateful to the ii team for working on such an astounding show such as this, i truly cant believe its gotten this good and this deep. i became a fan when s2 was just starting out, and i have a lot of fond memories binging the series with my friend all throughout gradeschool. now im in highschool and i still love the show. i hope theres going to be more though !!! im really hoping to get a happy ending for all the characters, or at least some more closure if a happy ending is too much to ask for.

haaaaaaa... now that i got my primary freakout out of the way, maybe ill go ahead and talk about what i liked about this episode

such high quality production as always man like II has been really good when it comes to voice acting, animation, sound design, and im glad theyve been keeping it up

THE WRITING IS ACTUALLY SO GOOD NOW TOO LIKE WHEN FAN STARTED PIECING EVERYTHING TOGETHER I WAS LIKE THIS IS REALLY COMING FULL CIRCLE ??? THEY PLANNED THESE TWISTS IT OUT PRETTY WELL i really like that in a story, shows theyve got intention with their themes

and the themes of inanimate insanity oh man!! i really like the direction the object show community has been going on this sort of meta commentary on the show itself, like i saw when i watched ONE, so seeing inanimate insanity go so much deeper now is a treat

in a way animationepic is mephone?? we are mephone?? everyone watching and making this show is getting a kick out of these characters' drama for entertainment and thats what we found out mephone has done to make them in the first place.. of course we as real people dont hold that responsibiity over fake characters. (which is what cobs and mephone think and must have thought too).

its a show about what is real vs what is fake and ultimately seems to be showing us that the relationships you form with others, those friends that you care about, can never really be programmed or faked out. the contestants rebel against the game and cobs because they want to live freely and because they want to protect their friends. its this love for life and others that makes us all human (well might not be the right word in this case hehe).

I FEEL LIKE ALL THE CONTESTANTS' PERSONALITIES WERE SO WELLSHOWCASED IN THIS EPISODE like their reactions felt real and believable for this kind of news, and everyone got a moment even if small (box was in too!!) (i really wonder if that theory i saw about box being a 'killed' contestant is right-- it seems like there wont be enough time to fit that backstory in but if they make that confirmed that would be so hype)

finding out everyone's personalities were pre-written by mephone4 in the last episode was one thing, but actually seeing them scribbled down in writing was so SJDKLA shocking??? it really slapped me with the reminder that mephone was pretty much just a child who was lonely and made his own friends.. his backstory is something i think about a lot i feel pretty bad for him :((( also imagine being the contestants and finding out god is basically a traumatized four year old boy

for some of the contestants, their programmed personalities i expected: cheesy is unserious, goo is inconsistent, salt is a trend setter and pepper is a trend follower. but a bunch of them came as a really big shock to me!!!

i think candle's said 'must be needed'? actually that works for her arc in iii but its still dangg that was embedded into her..

baseball having 'always strikes out' made me sob cuz THATS why he always seemed to come up short, i always had a soft spot for baseball he seemed to try his best but never really got it right.. and now its cuz he was made that way?

AND SILVERSPOON'S????? 'thinks hes worthless' OH MY GOD this guy this one had a lil kick to it

and does anyone feel like suitcase isnt rlly a backstabber cuz i saw mephone4 put that on her paper, and knife calls her that too but when i was watching those episodes her actions felt less like back stabbing and more like standing up for herself, at least in my view. i could actually rant about suitcase for a lot longer because GOSH my girl does not deserve any of this! im a suitcase supporter for life shes genuinely so nice to people even if they arent well-liked if suitcase has 0 fans i am dead! and she did so well this episode, the dynamic and conflict between her and knife is always *chefs kiss*

the plot was plotting this episode, really felt well-paced and tense, it was really fun to watch the scenes keep bouncing between all these groups of characters and i think they balanced the moving parts really well!

the ending. that goddamn ending. mephone taking cobs' hand again. when cobs extended it i just knew in me phone's face that he was going to accept it. hes still pretty much a young child. only a few months (years now ?) old. hes going to follow his creator because thats the one thing hes been taught and commanded to do. he just watched his whole world crumble around him, everything and everyone he made to escape this man and his cruelty, and he's just going to come back. of course he is. what else could he do now? hes got nothing just like cobs said he would. hes just a child and cant do anything right, cant have any friends that stay and are real and are his own. (the themes of abuse are strong in this one OH MAN)

graaaaaahhh

im really only saying good things yall might think im js a glazer but honestly this show deserves to be glazed ON GOD i would rant more but im getting a bit tired maybe ill edit this when my thoughts plague me with more ii visions at night WATCH THE EPISODE (wait actually u probably did if ur at the end of this post) WATCH IT AGAIN

[kyuuuu]

Finally saw the GGGNK movie

Just an unhinged train of thoughts about the film. Spoilers and stuff. And additional spoilers for Exhuma (2024)

First off, the theme of the movie was hugely satisfying. Instead of brushing over the imperialism of Japan the movie says "there were no glory days, it wasn't an honorable death, this is just a bunch of creepy old men hungry for power"

It's heartwarming that this movie is a story about how Mizuki and Gegero met when this is for the 100th anniversary of the author's birth (who is also named Shigeru Mizuki). Clearly a heartfelt homage, I can feel it from the quality of the film- the story beats, the themes, and the designs all seem inspired by him.

The animation was so smooth and the style was consistent. The Gegero vs Osada scene has good sakuga and the stylistic choice of shaky lines was *French kiss*

Character designs are an odd mix of old school and modern anime, but toned down to fit the setting and mood. I'd rather have the designs align with the old school style, but the modern style is worth it with the crispiness

Sometimes the line art did seem inconsistent with some parts being thicker than the rest but it didn't show up much

Tbh I came to the theaters just to simp for Mizuki and he didn't disappoint. Quite charming lad.

His character arc was slightly unsatisfying but since this is a prequel I know parts need to be cut off to keep his character consistent...

Also he's canonically a pretty boy?? The movie mentions he looks like Sada Keiji and

Damn

He's gives so much openings for asexual interpretations. When Gegero says 'one day you'll find someone who you'll love more than yourself', he does! He finds Kitaro. It's a nice non romantic version of the 'you'll understand love someday' trope

Thank god there's no forced romance between him and Sayo. The movie acknowledges a. the age gap and b. realistically no one would fall for each other in a few days. The 'romance' is mostly a desperate attempt by Sayo to get out of her nightmare while Mizuki is half heartedly playing along. In the end even Mizuki betrayed her by only seeing her as a means for information instead of a person. However, the only thing, and the most important point that differentiates him from the rest of her abusers is that he genuinely apologizes and tries to make amends.

He's usually at his hottest when he's holding a weapon. The gun and axe did something to me. Legit I wouldn't have bothered to go see the movie if it weren't for pictures of him splattered in blood.

Sayo deserved better! I overheard some girls say "they seriously fridged her?" when the movie ended and while I disagree that she's just a fridged woman, she was neglected by the writers

I was bracing for her backstory when the family was introduced. Big, powerful clan in an isolated area? Definitely incest here. I'm not quite sure how to evaluate the handling of CSA but one point I'd give credit for is that they didn't fall into the trap of showing trauma graphically

Her story reminds me a lot of Tezuka Osamu's Ayako. Even the two works' setting (Showa era), a lot of the character roles (monstrous head of the clan, the mad man/woman, the twit sister, callous men in a power struggle) and the themes (conservative values vs new generation) match so I don't think it's a simple coincidence

What a bummer that Mizuki gets over her death so quickly. It feels unnatural how he collects himself so fast after literally having her rage on him for using her feelings and attempt to kill him, then to die in a horrific manner. At least get him a pep talk from Gegero to be able to get a grip again.

And why is there no mention of her when he confronts the head of the clan? The lack of acknowledgement of how Mizuki and the rest of the adults failed her makes the final act feel rather disconnected, to be harsher, weak.

The biggest bummer is that the perspective of other characters are lacking when they all have interesting stories

Osada was one of the characters I was curious before I saw the movie and I was surprised by how little screentime he got compared to the fanart. I was expecting him to be a main antagonist but no, he was a faithful red herring

He's the father of the head in line yet that aspect of him is underutilized. His relationship with Tokiya and Toshiko is virtually unknown, to the point I suspect he wasn't originally supposed to be Toshiko's husband during production and they quickly changed his role. Based on fanart I genuinely thought that he was going to murder Toshiko lmao

And his role as mayor would have been much more of a threat than as an exorcist. I know Mizuki is meant to be the trump card bc he's an unexpected factor, but he could have been a formidable enemy to the duo, pressuring Mizuki psychologically by turning the entire village against him while exchanging blows with Gegero

Overall the experience wasn't bad but I feel like I would have enjoyed it as equally I did in the theater as on my laptop.

It was a lot more consistent than Exhuma but fumbled the execution by an angle of three degrees to fully satisfy me- superior in the drama and mystery aspect but Exhuma's horror and occultism was more intriguing.

That being said it's an unfair comparison since GGGNK has a younger target audience so I imagine if the directors went all out it could have been really, really terrifying. The age restriction was already pushing it when they thought scenes of eyes getting gouged out were okay for children above the age of 12

Hilariously, both are occult horror mysteries that have "Fuck Japanese Imperialism" as their message, despite one being the A-list actor movie and the other being an anime movie for a series obscure outside of Japan. (I could probably make an essay of comparing and contrasting the two's criticism of imperialism, one being from an outsider/victim's perspective and the other being from an insider/perpetuator's perspective.)

Capping off this with a subjective score of 8/10 and an impersonal score of 7.5/10 ig

[zedecksiew]

Tone Is Bullshit

Terrifying.

"Bridewell", the Curse-of-Strahd-but-good adventure that Nova is currently writing and playtesting, features:

unsettling puppet people;

druids who practice bloody sacrifice, Wicker Man style; and

child-brutalising werewolves.

It also features Padru, a forest god shaped like a giant cuddly red panda.

10/10, full marks, no notes. When I encountered Padru during playtests, I was instantly charmed. It was a moment of wonderful relief, a ray of sunshine through cloud cover. In that moment I saw what the fog-ridden, werewolf-infested forest could be. Hope and tragedy.

If Padru didn't look cuddly---if she was all thorny and dark like a death metal album cover---she would've been predictably, boringly in genre, and I would not have cared about her at all.

+

Tone is bullshit.

The film review I dislike the most is the kind of review that docks points for "tonal inconsistency":

"The tone of this movie is all over the place, the characters quip too much, breaks the mood, is this comedy?"

Why be boring? Why not be both?

I wonder whether this has anything to do with being in my context, growing up with horror comedy movies from Hong Kong and Malay-language cinema like "Zombi Kampung Pisang" and "Geong Si Sin Sang". But terrifying monsters are very much A Real Thing, where I live---so entertainment needs the relief of laughter. Maybe this is just personal aesthetic preference.

+

In tabletop game design, especially for games that emulate genre (the horror RPG, the noir RPG, the dark fantasy RPG), there is a strong inclination to go:

It is important to design systems and mechanics that set up consistent tone and mood.

Respectfully: I disagree.

Mood rarely survives contact with players. Unless:

players / the GM are theatrically skilled; AND

your table is strict about enforcing a social contract of The Mood We Are Trying To Create For Each Other.

Gods know I'm ass at both the above. And I am willing to bet that a fair slice of TTRPG players are like me, if we aren't actually the majority.

The thing I consider more important than tone, that never breaks, is meaningful worldbuilding. Concrete details that feel true. Characters and geography that responds in living ways.

Padru is concrete. Our characters could touch her fur. Her soft autumnal red in a drab, monochrome landscape has purpose: she is designed to offer a glimpse of what the forest used to be.

Tone is bullshit. Contrast is where it's at.

Showing me a full reality outside horror makes the horror hit harder.

[chelledoggo]

my Hazbin Hotel first watchthrough

(DISCLAIMER: this post is being typed as i'm watching. there may be inconsistencies in my attitude as i go on.)

🛑SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT🛑

Ep 1: blehhhh...

Ep 2: overall: "eh." villain song was pretty good.

Ep 3: something something something plot plot plot- LOOK IT'S THE SILLY SNEK AND EGG BOYS. 💖 "I'll Be Your Armor/Keeper" was a damn good song, even if at this point in the series i couldn't fucking stand Charlie.

Ep 4: ...okay i'll admit. this one for all its heavy subject matter was... handled alright. was nice to see Charlie finally grow some goddamn balls and show some righteous anger. kinda wanted to strangle Husk here until he actually showed some empathy. "Poison" was a good song, even if Angel's VA was pretty weird and pitchy at points. "Loser Baby" was a good one though.

Ep 5: i feel conflicted as a Christian finding Lucifer so charming. /j /lh also i think Charlie's starting to grow on me. and it only took over half the series. also fuck you Mimzy. the Alastor vs. Lucifer song was a goddamn bop. and "Hell's Best Dad" was beautiful.

Ep 6: WHOA. WHOAAAAAAAAA. WHOA. I FEEL LIKE AN IDIOT FOR NOT SEEING THAT COMING. this episode is hitting all the Christian Universalist and deconstructionist sweet spots for me. and God i love Emily, poor bab. ;~; ALSO YASS ANGEL STICK IT TO THE MOTH MAN.

Ep 7: all my hate for Charlie is gone. i just want her and Vaggie to be happy. i feel so bad for both of them. also "Out For Love" beats the entirety of Steven Universe's soundtrack in every category lol

Ep 8: oh gosh this... ohhh... this was phenomenal... like i started out hating this show and now i'm just itching to see what goes down next season!! i'm glad i stuck through!

misc. notes:

i hate that this series basically requires you to watch the pilot to understand the first episode. luckily i've seen it but...

i like some of the background character designs.

i like the little one-eyed gremlin girl thing.

i know we're supposed to like Charlie but GOD she's annoying. I RECANT THIS STATEMENT

Alastor best character.

i kinda like Sir Pentious. he's silly. and i love his egg boys.

Vaggie's just as done with this shit as i am but the difference is she loves Charlie where as i just want to strangle her lmao.

Velvette's kinda hot ngl.

Camilla too.

seriously though am i supposed to like Charlie? when do i start to like her? I ALSO RECANT THIS STATEMENT.

i feel like i would like Charlie more if she wasn't essentially a ripoff of every "quirky" Disney princess from Rapunzel onwards. AND I RECANT THIS ONE TOO

okay, as of ep 5... i'm starting to not hate Charlie so much.

why do some of the denizens of heaven look like demons?

ep 6 is where this series finally really grabs me ngl. glad i stuck around. i'm on the beginning of the finale as i'm typing this point and i'm excited to see how it concludes.

OH GOD IT WAS WORTH IT

the angels of heaven really do seem to be the "american evangelist/dispensationalist" archetype. they don't know why a soul can't be redeemed after death. they don't question it. they're not allowed to because... it's "breaking the rules" or whatever. as someone who grew up in that kind of environment, that really resonated with me.

[thebigcjart]

Unlike the Khaos post, I'm going to be talking about Jake's land and quest primarily (extensively), as Soter doesn't have much metatextual significance outside of his direct impact on Jake's quest, which is the generally the case for the other denizens except for Kronos and Echidna. Everybody good? Good.

Let's get it:

Soter

Soter is the denizen of Jake Alassa's Land of Armor and Cliffs.

Soter doesn't have as much wacky behind-the-scenes stuff as Khaos, but like all denizens, is still crazy powerful. Also like Hemera and Nix, Soter's color scheme does not match his player's text color. They do have color significance to this session's Cherubs, though, but I'll cover them after I do all the players ;3

Greek/Roman(?) Origins

Not much is known about the Greek god/spirit Soter, or if there is, I have found very little. As far as my research goes, Soter is a god/spirit of safety, preservation, and deliverance from harm. He is commonly associated with Zeus in the Orphic Hymnns, and serves as an overseerer and savior, which suits the Light aspect. The two scarfrobes around him echo the two snakes in a caduceus, a symbol of Hermes/Mercury.

There is a solid chance that I'm making the following up, so please correct me if you know for certain that I'm wrong bc I'm operating off of memory here. I remember reading somewhere that the Roman empire had waystones along roads that looked like the head of a spirit/god of security, to bless travelers with safety and to show them the way. I'm like 60% sure that was the Roman equivalent of Soter? So that ties into the themes of deliverance and preservation that I'm going for. Take that with a pinch of salt, my research is infuriatingly vague there.

Hey, This Guy Isn't Cetus

Yeah, well.

Homestuck is inconsistent with whether denizens are tied to aspect. Sure, Vriska and Rose had Cetus, but that's because their planet was super watery (fit for a sea monster). Both Jake (English) and Karkat had Abraxas, and their aspects are just shy of being as far apart as possible. The only Denizen that is absolutely for certain tied to an aspect is Echidna, with Space. Alli Sharpe (this session's Space player) follows this trend. It's also only implied that Hephaestus is anywhere similar to Echidna. Aradia isn't explicitly stated to have Hephaestus as her denizen, and she is a time player. I go into more detail about why Kronos is a better fit for this session's time denizen in Mark's post, which I'll make later.

Also LOAAC doesn't really have any good places for a sea monster to dwell, now does it? (I suppose I'll compensate with a Kraken pun. Sea also: the Crackening)

There is some alchemical significance with the whole Jupiter/Tin thing, but I'll round all the session's alchemical stuff in one big superpost later. Let's get into the land and quest now.

Land of Armor and Cliffs

Jake's land, the Land of Armor and Cliffs, is an almost entirely level planet with huge cracks and holes running through it, revealing glowing streams of light deep underneath. These are not fjords, like would be found on Mark's land (the Land of Acid and Fjords), as they are not formed by glaciers, but instead through earthquakes in an event dubbed the Crackening. The clay that composes the plateaus is a bright purple, and lush neon pink vegetation lines most of the cracks.

Design

As I stated in the Khaos post, the players' lands in this session follow a specific naming scheme: Land of (Two syllable word dealing with the player's past) and (One syllable geographical feature).

The Cliffs refer to the sheer edges of the plateaus that drop all the way down to the narrow rivers of light that fill the empty space. All of the plant life is concentrated around these areas, though they were like that long before the Crackening (the worldwide tectonic event that split the earth). As such, almost all of the consort settlements are around and some divided by the ravines.

Speaking of, the Armor refers to the consorts, which are turtles. It also is with regard to the fact that the ground itself acts as plated armor for Soter's Lair. Jake's past has to deal with how his mother was a chronic gambler and gambled away all of the money they had instead of paying bills or for necessities. Jake's armor here is the fact that he relied on willful ignorance and pretended like everything was okay instead of confronting his mom. One day, his mom was dragged out of their home by loan sharks, leaving Jake homeless. As a Mage of Light, he experienced/suffered from misfortune and by failing to confront the truth, he lost his home and only family.

The way he as a Mage experiences, suffers, and understands his aspect is very similar to how a Knight might protect themselves from/with theirs. This is a big reason why Dean Casuco (this session's Knight of Rage) and he are able to bond and empathize with each other so easily, and why they have such big influence over each other. In fact, both players' lands and quest are the only ones in this session to deal with war of some kind, but they engage with it in very different ways.

Consorts

The consorts of LOAAC are Turtles. Jake likes turtles. Before the Crackening, the turtles established some pretty developed (and heavily fortified) settlements throughout the dense network of heavily forested... well, forests. This is all before the event, however. Nowadays there's all sorts of disarray. There are (heavily fortified) bridges between plateaus, but something about the light coming from the chasms degrades them quickly.

Quest (and lore drop, because I just couldn't stop typing, I guess)

Jake initially believes his quest is to find out who is planning to assassinate the turtle king and prevent it from happening. Jake spends almost all of his time in the (heavily fortified) Grand Library trying to research the geopolitical history of LOAAC, and must go out to retrieve specific books to put together leads on who it might be. This is where most of the combat happens, as all the different settlements and kingdoms are unwelcoming to all outsiders, which leads to underling buildup around their (heavily fortified) borders.

At this point in the story, Jake and Kane have started to form feelings towards each other. It's some messy combination of Flushed and Caliginous, but humans don't really recognize the latter as romantic anyway, so it's fine (*Laughs maliciously*). They talk a lot in the downtime between getting to their respective destinations, as both of them have a lot of travel involved. There is a lot of conflict between the two, as a result of their entirely conflicting classpects (Mage of Light and Heir of Void), but a big help towards mending these is Kane's alexithymia sort of ensuring honesty. Kane has no clue how they feel, and so emotions don't serve as much of a hinderance clouding their reasoning (or so they think), and Jake has a certain soft spot for reasoning. Kane is also sort of like a project to Jake. If that sounds kind of toxic, that's because it is, but they work it out eventually. Jake craves understanding, and Kane is the unknowable. Hijinks ensue.

Quite early on into this sequence, much earlier than anyone else in their quests, Jake stumbles upon a very rare (and heavily fortified) book that was assumed to be lost, and upon returning it to the Grand Library, it acts as a key, opening up the entrance to Soter's (heavily fortified) den deep within the earth.

Jake finds Soter already awake, when his research concluded that he should be asleep still. He discovers that Soter has been manipulating the world population since the Crackening to become isolated and to put up walls between each other, almost a cross between a helicopter parent and a 1984 "big brother" type entity.

You see, even though Jake confronted his denizen early, none of the denizens in the session are sleeping. In cannon, the denizens are commissioned by Derse to spread pollution and whatnot, then they go to sleep until the player shows up. Here, they all independently decide "screw that" and do things their own way, constantly meddling with their lands. The true enemy of the players' sessions in Homestuck was "always already here" but in this session, this enemy that I have so diabolically not shared with you yet takes a more... "always on the horizon" approach to such prophesied schemes. This empties out the narrative niche for an antagonist, so why not just use the antagonists given by the game itself? A lot. Very a lot.

Soter, the meddling overseer of LOAAC, presents Jake with

The Choice.

Embrace the "tyranny" in front of you. Take your place as this session's damned overseer; render all that is Void known and annihilate with your bonds, or

Let Freedom Reign.

Considering the weight of his options gets him seriously donked up. From there, the threat of assassination seems so small in comparison. Whatever Jake chose, it leads him to his true Quest. He himself begins to isolate from everyone else, and eventually leaves his planet for Skaia after one last lecture from Dean about "not putting up with his egghead denizen's rampant and malodorous bullshit."

The only way anyone learns about this is from the turtle king on LOAAC, who tells Kane that "The Mage is going on a holy pilgrimage to Skaia!" and "That's really all that he told us!" after Kane abandons their quest and reaches LOAAC through the gates. Kane gets more in tune with their powers the more that everyone else forgets about them. Kane is nearing the top of their echeladder, and starts to fade into Void. It gets to the point where Kane begins getting impressions of being elsewhere, nowhere even, sometimes getting bouts of amnesia. This is because they begin to start occupying the empty places around Jake.

Jake cuts off communication with everyone else, and brute forces his way through the other lands, Prospit, any crack or foothold in the session that will get him closer to Skaia; he has to get to Skaia. Throughout this, he starts seeing glimpses of Kane in his peripheral vision. A gap in a bookshelf. In a shadow beneath a tree. In the window of a building. The pause between sentences. He sees their face in a crowd of thousands. He reads their name in almost every empty page. But Jake is nearing the top of his echeladder, too. He starts noticing more, his perception focuses, his senses keener. And Kane starts to go away.

The last time they talked to each other, before all this Choice mess, it was about questions. Kane believes that a truly good question is ruined when it is answered, and Jake vehemently disagrees. Jake argued that everything has meaning; that everything has a purpose. Kane simply laughed and said, "I don't." Kane doesn't know why Jake even bothered with them in the first place, but Jake didn't have the heart to tell them that he was still searching for it. Maybe that's why his eyes hurt so much all the time. Is it because he spends too much time with them open, endlessly flipping through texts or scanning for leads, when any moment not looking for a way to Skaia is a moment wasted? Or is it because every time he closes his eyes, he thinks he sees Kane in that taunting darkness behind his eyelids, unable to speak to him, but forced to remember that he didn't say goodbye, blink after arduous blink. Another question without an answer. Those are getting rarer.

The more powerful that Jake gets, the larger his sphere of understanding grows. Kane has only ever found (lost) themself on the outside of that bubble, looking in. Kane is aimless. They spend a hell of a lot of time going nowhere, and even as quickly as they're going, it's not enough. Maybe that's what Khaos meant by "he might not be found," that Jake might find them first? Another wasteful search for meaning. Those are getting rarer. But what good would that do if Kane can't exist around him anyway? Kane knows better than to ruin that one with an answer. This leads Kane to head off and find an ectobiology lab floating away into the furthest ring via accidentally using their Void powers and clipping into Alli's peripheral vison this time during a zoomed out view of the medium. Y'know, because she's a Seer of Space and can do that. This lab was knocked out of the orbit comprising the Veil of this session's medium near the start of the session during one of Lono's (Lono Anakoni, the Sylph of Hope) Hope Surges she used on Alli when Alli first was hit with her Seer powers. But it had to happen in order for Kane to find it and make everyone's ectobiology clones, and Seers are all about what "has to happen". I'll cover that more in another post. Also I promise that this is relevant to Jake's issues. Anyway, Kane does the ectobiology, I'll cover the specific sequence of events in another another post. The only place left in range for them to get to, though, is Derse (as Derse is also technically in the Furthest Ring). On Derse, Kane meets up with Hiro's and Lono's dream selves, and they direct Kane to one of the transportalizers that would lead to a frog temple, if there was one in this session (more on that in another post). Because there's no valid destination, the destination of choice is like a perfectly generic location in the medium (a default coordinate of sorts). In the same vein of a perfectly generic object. This happens to be the very center of the medium, the core of the battlefield. As this session is not a Null Session, and further, the Green Sun already exists, there is no tumor. It seems that Kane's quest really was to crawl out from the center of a planet.

A Seer's expertise surrounds that which "has to happen," and Jake has learned that he simply does not have as easy access to that information as Alli does. What he does know is that the Mage deals with "what is happening" a whole lot easier, and what's happening right now is very bad. He spends almost all of his downtime looking up at Skaia from Prospit, and it's bad. Yeah, that whole "always on the horizon" guy I was talking about earlier (remember him?), well he's not quite on the horizon yet, but he's getting there, and it's not good. Jake has to get to Skaia. And it's not good enough to just fly up there as his dream self. It has to be his awake self. It has to. He gets impressions from the information around him, allowing him to glean entire books from skimming multiple at a time. His friends haven't stopped reaching out to him. They've actually pestered him more, recently. He can't talk to them. Not yet. Not when he could do something. So he does. His alchemizing equipment is back at his room on LOAAC, so he delves into a new realm of experimentation and research: His fetch modus. By selecting all empty data, he can load an empty card onto a card, then retrieve it, then turn it into storage space and partitions. He duplicates his storage space a lot this way, then he begins captchaloguing anything and everything he can get his hands on. By storing two items, then selecting a string of 8 digits from the middle of their agglutinated item codes to load onto a card, he can essentially design items bitwise. He deduces offhand that there are only 2^48 possibilities in terms of item codes, and there are many dud items that don't even render properly. It takes a lot of effort and fine-tuning, as the only patterns he can tell between items that vary by a single bit are long-winded and not elegant, to say the least. Along the way, he discovers [bixqbx!q], a code for a dual-sided fountain and ballpoint pen named "Riptiditpir" that could turn into a shortsword with a dagger on the other end. That might've come in handy, if he already couldn't see danger approaching a mile away. Literally. For transportation, he settles on [PCHOOOk] which is an-- oh, wait, no that's a violin stuffed with a potted plant, a cinderblock, and.. is that shaving cream? That doesn't fit at all. After a brisk and completely necessary reanalysis of the entire understood system of bitwise alchemy to accommodate the god damned shaving cream, he settles on [PCHOOOOO], which is a rocket pack. Good enough. One last nap though, just for good measure, while the night surrounds him like a cold, distant blanket.

Now that Kane and Jake's sequence of events are nearly lined up, let's smash them into each other like two action figures in a shitty embrace. But not like that at all, actually.

Ascent To God-Tier (Feat. Kane Mendoza)

Jake wakes up during the peak of noon on LOHAW. Again. Its sun burns, but it's a familiar feeling, and Jake has spent a long time this session heavily fortifying himself against the natural degradation that comes with continuous exposure to Light. He dons his rocket pack and shoots up into the sky. Whenever he passes by one of the gates, it's as if he can almost "see" where it goes... except for the seventh gate. Jake has a bad feeling of uncertainty surrounding that one. from there, it's a straight shot to Skaia. As he approaches the huge ball of sky, something is wrong. Are the clouds... darkening? A bunch of small red portals pop up around its atmosphere, almost like shields. Jake blitzes through the calculations in his head. There's not enough time to course correct. He knows how these portals operate. They'll smash him right into the Earth during the Reckoning.

Kane finally peels himself out of the battlefield. Who knew that increasing the complexity of a place exponentially seven times would thin it out some? Not Kane. Kane wouldn't even consider that in the first place. Something's off. Was this place always so... bright? A bunch of chess people fight to the death around them. As chess people do. They don't see Kane walking around, too focused on trying to not die to focus on some weird fleshy person and their cat vaguely drifting on the edge of their vision. Whatever,

Jake forces his eyes shut, hoping to see Kane again, to tell them goodbye. Kane hasn't been there for a long time, though, and Jake knows better than to let something be meaningless. He opens his eyes and faces whatever purpose Skaia has for him, head on and oh, no. he. he just... He just passed them. It was a tight squeeze, too. A shield blocked the gap he flew through maybe an instant after he passed it. A few instants, perhaps? Lucky shot, then. The chances of that... no, he was certain he'd crash. What was Skaia up to? The portals were gone, now. Why did it put up a barrier for him? Why did it let Jake through? Was it some kind of-- Jake crashed hard into a river, injuring himself in the process. --distraction.

No. No, no, nonono. Jake forces himself to stand, falling over on the bank of the river. He couldn't move his arm, his right eye was pooling with blood, and he was certain that he had punctured... something. This place is a chessboard, why are there rocks in the river? Why are there trees?! He has to keep going. He can't die here, he's not allowed to. He has to do this, to preserve this session.

Kane didn't plan this far ahead. Turtle guy said that Jake was going to Skaia. Here's Skaia. What now? Kane wanders around aimlessly. Something about this place wasn't too keen on letting them do any sort of Voidy thing, as if this whole damn planet was being watched. Kane didn't even have full control of it yet. So it probably wouldn't do much of anything. Kane walked for several minutes until they saw something that surprisingly wasn't white, black, or red. It was a yellow stone in the distance with four tall yellow pillars on its corners. Kane started to walk towards it.

Jake was panicking. Blood loss was setting in, and his already limited powers began weakening. Screams from the clashing armies turned to indistinct ringing in his ears, but he had to keep pushing forward. At the very edge of his shrinking field of focus was his destination: His quest bed. There was one on LOAAC too, somewhere, and dying on that would have transported him here by combining with his dream self. But he couldn't do that. That's not an option for him. The closer he got, the less he could see. The less he could know. His bubble...

Kane approached the structure, noticing a stone pillow and the symbol for the Light aspect on it. On the other side of the bed, Jake was dragging himself towards Kane. Kane called out, breaking out in a sprint, but Jake couldn't hear them. Kane reached the stone bed first, and went to hold their badly injured friend.

"Kane." Jake muttered, barely a whisper. "I get it now," He looked up with bloody tears in his eyes. "I finally see you. You're beautiful." Kane tried to help Jake lay down.

"Jake, I don't--" A long blade exited the back of Kane's body. Jake coughed up more blood. Kane looked down at the double-bladed weapon that connected the two of them. Jake had... Jake...? "Wh-Why?" Jake fell backwards onto the bed, bringing Kane with him and driving Riptiditpir deeper into the both of them.

"not everything needs a purpose." Jake sighed.

Kane's death would be meaningless, as it always had to be. And Jake learned better than to argue otherwise. With his last surge of life, Jake pulled Kane into a long, eternal kiss. This is how it was always going to end. The Mage of Light destroys the Heir of Void by revoking them of their nonexistence. This is what Jake saw in the clouds, after all. Jake saw himself kill Kane over and over and over again. This is how he would save this session. This was what he chose. Then again, there really wasn't another option. When matter and anti-matter meet, they cancel out; they annihilate. Jake died with purpose, as he always had to do. And Kane knew better than to argue otherwise.

When someone's awake self dies, their dream self can be utilized as an extra life of sorts, so long as another player kisses the corpse before the injuries have time to affect the dream self, killing them too. When this happens, the person's dead awake self becomes their dream self. This does not work if a player's dream self is dead. Not existing in the first place, mechanically speaking, is not dead.

From this, Kane is revived and becomes nothing. Kane becoming nothing is the Heir of Void moment of all time. Kane becomes a God.

From dying on his quest bed, Jake is revived and becomes a God.

There was a reason that Jake had to die on his battlefield quest bed instead of his LOAAC quest bed. Dying on his LOAAC bed would have caused his dream self to fade from Prospit and appear on this bed before waking up as the God-tiered player. That wouldn't do. Dying like this doesn't happen in cannon, but essentially what it does here is function as a sort of wrong warp. SBURB is a game, first and foremost, so it would stand to reason that it uses game mechanics to achieve its very wacky prophetic paradox bullshit. It takes the locations of the quest beds in an index (LOAAC is 1, Battlefield is 0), and when you die on one, it warps your dream self to the next one in the index by subtracting 1. Following the item codes, it is likely that SBURB operates in base-64. So the location of the "quest bed" that Jake's dream-god self is transported to is the next one after 0. This is called an integer underflow error, and it causes the index to read whatever "location" is at the base-64 8-bit integer limit, which is position 281,474,976,710,656 in the index. Yeesh. Luckily, this happens to be 3 feet to the left. So he doesn't clip into Kane.

God-tier Mage of Light Jake is revived and instantly teleported off of the bed and falls on his God-tier butt. Unfortunately, Kane becoming nothing causes them to have disappeared completely, meaning that this whole scheme would have been utterly pointless if it wasn't fated to happen by wacky prophetic paradox bullshit. Point, Kane. For the rest of their conditional immortalities, Jake and Kane will continue to engage in this game of metaphysical-ontological one-upmanship with meaning/meaninglessness and bicker like an old married couple until the sun explodes.

Jake's "revealment bubble" causes God-tier Heir of Void Kane to stop not existing in front of Jake and they proceed to kiss the shit out of him. Let's give these two lovebirds some space, then, shall we?