#with Rise and also Ai

[psychedeliclulu]

I'd already decided to romance Rise before I started playing P4G (the choice was between her and Ai)... but even just Rank 5 is worth everything and more asfgddgjjfyeyjdukjff!!1! I love Rise so much! Best Girl 😭😭😭🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻💖💖💖✨✨✨!!

[burnorgetburned]

EVEN MORE CLARA DOLL DETAILS:

So you know how the Dolls have their own distinctive clothes?

Guess who else has their own distinctive clothes!

That’s right. The multiple Homuras are actually Clara Dolls.

And that’s why ‘Homura’ is smiling.

Here they are! The one with the striped hat is Nekura (Gloominess or Pessimism) and the one with the flower is Mie (Vanity).

Here’s their descriptions from the art book.

[The second one to come was Gloominess. Walking out with a tapping sound, she sneered at Good-for-Nothing. “This is Good-for-Nothing! How very unbecoming.” These dolls are only disciples of Freedom, and are devoted to their lust for it.]

[The tenth to come running is Vanity. She exaggeratedly avoids Good-for-Nothing's head and says a few words. “I wouldn't be able to bear dirtying my cape with that sticky blood!” These dolls make fun of the witch's self-mutilation.]

Good-for-Nothing is Homura, by the way, but the Clara Dolls seem to consider Good-for-Nothing to be good for something after all after she splits Madoka. She turns into the Devil, and the Clara Dolls are stated to be “okay” with the Devil. If the young voices in the trailer belong to the Clara Dolls, then they also call her “Akuma-sama” now. Something like Mistress Devil, implying a sense of respect.

[… if they are not summoned, they will simmer. There are orders they will comply with, and also orders they will disobey. What they are and the witch herself's own magic are not well understood.]

At the end of Rebellion, Homura gave Madoka her ribbon back. She declared that they might become enemies in the end. Honestly, I thought that Homura would try her best to avoid Madoka entirely. The trailer suggested that Homura was meeting Madoka, though. Here’s the answer: it wasn’t Homura herself, but Gloominess, who wants freedom.

Now, I’m not sure how this situation works out. Do Clara Dolls have free will? Are they obeying Homura’s orders? Acting out Homura’s true emotions? Is Homura perhaps directly puppeteering them in order to fulfill her goals, or do they act on their own?

I find it likely that it’s a mix of both: some of them obey her, and some of them will try and fulfill her (probably very conflicting) desires, as familiars usually do. Gloominess is likely part of Homura who wants the freedom to talk to Madoka, for example, but Vanity seems to me like a Clara Doll who is obeying Homura. After all, she still needs magical girls to fight wraiths, at least until she finds a way to wipe them out.

[I'm Vanity (Mie). I'm pushing myself to the limit for someone.] And she is, of course. All of the theatrics, the calls, the organization of magical girls. These are things that Vanity is shown to engage in. All of this is for Madoka.

We see with Gloominess, at least, that she seems to be fulfilling a specific desire: in the background are white spider lilies. Instead of the red spider lilies that mean death, final goodbyes, and lost love, white spider lilies mean a hope for the future and a fresh start. Maybe this really is the first meeting for these two in a while, and she wants to be friends again?

Or maybe, being Gloominess, she wants to warn her about something.

[I'm Gloominess (Nekura). Forcing smiles tires me out.]

Then there’s this Homura.

Nothing about her clothes is very different. She is wearing ribbons as Homura in the wraith universe does, but look closely: the ribbons are different. They have some wavy stripes on them, while Madoka’s ribbons are plain. She does not correspond to any known Clara Doll.

However, there’s mentioned to be a fifteenth Clara Doll that is not yet born: Ai, representing love. This could be her. Is it love for others? Or love for herself? I’m hoping it’s the latter, but very likely it’s love for Madoka and her friends. This would explain why she’s trying to fight Homucifer in the poster, as Homura believes that she’s a danger to everyone else.

How can this be? Well, here’s a few options:

- The Clara Dolls are grown-up familiars. They ate souls, and they became a copy of their witch. This is a process that was explained to us in the original series, where some magical girls are stated to farm familiars by letting them eat people so that they would grow souls/grief seeds.

- The Clara Dolls are not familiars, or wraiths, but instead a secret third thing. “What they are and the witch’s own magic are not well understood”, as said in the Rebellion art book. They could be magical constructs of a different kind, but I do think that this would get into overcomplicated explanations quickly, so I favor the familiar explanation.

- The Clara Dolls could be familiars, but instead of eating souls they’re simply powerful enough to change their shape. Their strength is equal to the strength of a magical girl…. when Homura was a witch, before Homura became something more. It could also be energy from the contracts making them stronger. Maybe it’s me being sentimental, but I don’t like the idea of Homura letting anyone’s soul be nommed on.

Now, before there’s a panic about how they’ll juggle fifteen extra characters, here’s a few thoughts:

- Just because they seem different doesn’t mean they’re actually different. It might be that the Clara Dolls are a way for Homura to present herself. As Vanity, she might show off more, or have dramatic flourishes like her throne and her dress. As Gloominess, it might be that she doesn’t believe that her plans will work, so she tries to do what makes her happy. It’s likely that the Clara Dolls are just extra ways to explore Homura’s character. They’re parts of her soul, after all, and right now she is extremely powerful. She might simply want to keep her true self away from humans.

- They could work like projections. Homura wants more bodies to work with, but she has to filter herself through the Dolls’ personalities. This could result in a lot of juicy character interactions, as the things she tries to keep hidden are closer to the surface.

- Will ‘Ai/Mystery Homura’ fight against Devil Homura? Very likely! How can this be when they’re the same person? Well, who hates Homura more than Homura? That’s right. Nobody. Anyone can fight and argue with their self, it’s just usually not on the level that a reality-warper like Homura can manage.

If this is true, there’s plenty of interesting directions they can take it.

- Because the Clara Dolls have a degree of separation from Homura, they can show other characters things that Homura herself has ignored or locked away. Bad memories, affection for her friends, the resentment she must feel - everything from concern to a cry for help can be plausibly shown through them as the actors.

- Manuke (Stupidity) is specifically more naive/sincere than the others. Maybe interacting with this Doll would show the Quintet that there’s something more going on than a Devil who wants to hurt other people.

- If Ai represents a love for other people, Ai can have a strange character arc where she learns to value Homura/herself, and become self-love.

- On the other hand, Ai can represent self-love from the start, and because Homura looks very fucking unhealthy in the trailer, she only wants to stop her because she’s hurting herself. This option plays into the themes of self-sacrifice and happiness, which I believe to be some of the major themes that they’re going for.

- The poster could be misleading and Ai ends up fighting everyone but Homura. I find this the funniest option.

- Homura can hug herself. It’s possible. In fact, every character can hug Homura 15 different times.

Smiles are a Clara Doll’s default expression. We have yet to see Homura smile for real.

Is this going to get very ambiguous and confusing? Probably. But rewatching for details was the fun part in Rebellion, so I’m looking forward to it!

[aseuki]

[SOUL] - The Roche Limit

"A unique convergence of elements...gave a stubborn soul one last chance at revenge."

Marx | Sectonia | Fecto Elfilis

[turtleblogatlast]

Unironically think that each of the bros (+April) don’t actually get how impressive their feats really are so they just do what they do and on the off chance someone comments on those feats they all react like:

[mahoganyrust]

😒Don’t be this person guys, seriously. AI images are cringe as hell. Calling it “ai art” just makes you look like a pathetic wannabe. And it’s annoying and disheartening af for artists like me to see this shii. Plus it spits in the face of all our work that we put online for FREE.

As for the weirdo who posted that - I told you to take it down. You did not. So here we are. And by thoughtlessly repeating my tags (weird since it’s not a repost) you’re also implying that you wrote my fic. You most certainly did not. So I’m double pissed😊

Thanks to the gobsmackingly amazing @midoristeashop for bringing this to my attention. Real artists lookin out for real artists 💪💕

Fighting against AI isn’t always made easy for us, but that doesn’t mean we have to just put up with it. I’m still allowed to throw hella shade XD I’ve already reported it and am waiting for consensus rn. Ik it’s tempting, but don’t add to the report pile, since all it does is clog up Tumblr’s system.

Anyways.

[gg-is-a-loser]

finally finished light bringer so i’m finally allowed to engage with the fandom. look at my sevro and victra yaaaay

[dude1818]

Just watched Ultraman Rising, knowing nothing about the franchise at all. It was very a cute story. 10 minutes in, I was like "oh, we're doing a Bloomburrow" XD

I wasn't a fan of the art style, too caricature-like. I did enjoy the Spiderverse-like flashes of comic book-style (manga-style, I guess) during big hits in the action sequences

One thing I don't get is why, given that the Kaiju Defense Force had the ultimate Jaeger, they never pulled it out until the suicidal last stand. That seems like it would've made things a lot easier

The thing I expected the least was that this baseball kaiju movie was still a baseball movie

[ghost-of-you]

Happy 11 years, 5 Seconds of Summer!

[ageless-aislynn]

Things I achieved today:

Wrote 203 words on "15 Minutes" chapter 11! Yeah, I'm absolutely celebrating those 203 little words because they're 203 words I was beginning to be afraid were never going to show up. 😬🤗

I think I figured out a way where I can go ahead and pre-order the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster! This is also HUGE because I really, really want this thing but thought I couldn't try it because of my concerns about how Georgette will be able to handle the Denuvo Anti-Cheat. However, I realized I do have a way to test that without paying full price for the game: Dead Rising 4 (which I own already) still has Denuvo on it. So... I'm going to do a full backup for Georgette, pray super duper hard, then install and see if I can play DR4. Don't have to play the whole game or anything, of course, but I figure a couple of hours of play should give me all the info I need. If Georgette handles that okay, then I'd say that's the green light for DRDR! It has soooooo many awesome things in it, friends, and I've been dying on the inside at not being able to play it when it becomes available! (If Georgette returns to dying every 10 seconds, then I'll cry quite hard for a while but at least I'll know.)

Frank stared wistfully into the survivor rooms in the original DR, wishing he had a friend. No, neigh, longing to have a friend! 🐎

Cheryl is apparently doing *jazz hands* back at Frank. I'm not quite sure what that means... 🤔😂😉

Here's what she was seeing, though...

I mean, who WOULDN'T want to be Frank's friend, right?

Right???

Ahem.

Anyway! That was plenty for one day, lol! Hope you're doing well, friends, and having a nice weekend! Love to you all! 🤗💖

[asteropewpew]

the way i honestly never expected to like ken sato because his attitude is the exact KIND that i'd steer away from but honestly, the best thing that ultraman rising had ever given me is THIS kind of being obnoxiously self-confident while having the actions to back it up BE a whole loser girl dad

[darklight-owl]

Worst thing the mental illness did was stop me from working on CoU. Absolutely CRIMINAL. You guys could have known who Amala is by now

[dailypokemoncrochet]

I think it's a good thing I been posting my crochets for as long as I have been with various angles and stages of finish and with me holding them and whatever because I feel like if I had only recently started and tried going for a more refined(??) approach to photographing them, at least one person would be like "ai 😒😒" fjsjfjskaojfjfsk

[scificrows]

okay after hearing everyone's opinions on this on this post i felt like a poll was in order! i hope i didn't forget anything! soooo:

[makedamnsvre]

watching all of the internet kill itself . they werent lying abt enshittification

[ikoraswife]

literally gasped upon seeing radegast, skorri, and wu ming in the game. please don’t hurt my babies netease

[vihola]

It's kinda funny that my entire team lost our jobs not because of the war but because of AI. What a time to be alive