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thesherrinfordfacility · 5 months

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another batshit theory for the ages...

though tbh it's just a summary that interweaves a variety of them. it's long and rambly im sorry

so @booksandmate added this increíble addition to what was honestly meant as a half-hearted shitpost, and then allowed me to pepe-silvia at them in their DMs, but it's been spinning in my head ever since - because if we consider if crowley had managed to reach ten before the lightning strike, and managed to control his temper... well, what would have happened?

but that's not necessarily what im looking at here, specifically. i am however gonna start with ep1 and the lightning strike, because im somewhat dogged by nina's words in ep6 that now suddenly feel like a healthy helping of foreshadowing:

that everything started with the locked-in-the-coffeeshop-incident, which of course was precipitated by crowley losing his rag, summoning (?) lightning, and it bouncing off the café.

noting a couple of things: the lightning definitely appears to originate from crowley, right? it may well be calling like-to-like, but either way the lightning starts in him, and we suddenly then have either a) a bolt summoned from the heavens, channeled through him, and hitting the café, or b) two bolts, one of which relays back and forth from the heavens, and a further bolt rebounded on the café.

but what... is the point? im relatively on the team that it could just be building crowley-lore, playing into the "crowley is a very powerful demon 💅" characterisation, and it has the ultimate byproduct of kick-starting the events of the s2 plot; like @booksandmate said, without crowley counting to ten and controlling his anger, we wouldn't have the above, wouldn't have nina and maggie locked in the café, etc etc. but.

this locking-in business could easily, i hubristically presume (albeit less exciting, admittedly), have been written as caused by something else, or not occurred altogether (and maggie would still have shared with aziraphale that she thinks she's in love with nina, gave her the LP etc)... so why specifically did it require crowley, and such a raw display of 'demonic' power?

with that in mind, do we assume it serves a different purpose, or at least has another layer? well, we collectively seem to be surmising the latter, given god's words in the job minisode:

do you know the rules of the heavens? did you set the constellations in the sky? can you send lightning bolts and get them to report back to you?

obviously the last two now, in retrospect, seem very significant in the context of what we find out about crowley in both s1 and s2; he created nebulae and hung stars and planets, and now can seem to summon lightning. i originally wondered if it were simply a message to crowley or at least the audience that god was still watching, and had not forsaken crowley at all, but i do now ponder if its something more.

the first one is iffy, but actually... well, it definitely seems that crowley has the better measure of heaven than aziraphale or indeed anyone else has - what its motivations and limitations are, to say the least. even his line about the bees; in this respect, he is deeply perceptive of the intragroup dynamic of heaven in a way that the angels are not. and then, if we hypothesise about crowley in a pre- to post-fall context, that he Only Asked Questions, an action that may turn out to have precipitated the Big Bad, then yeah - maybe crowley does in fact know the rules of the heavens, and learnt it the hard way.

and this doesn't even take into account the whole general parallel between job and crowley in receiving undue punishment "and not even to know why". whilst i do still hold that the minisode flashbacks may well be crowley's POV, that is largely irrelevant; we know crowley displaces his emotions surrounding the fall/god onto his plants in modern day, and we are immediately introduced to the minisode with the display of him doing the same to job's goats.

either way, i think that we can be reasonably certain that whilst maybe unintentional at the time, god's words were a direct mirror to events unfolding/character history revealed for crowley at the very least in s2. even if we step outside taking god's action/inaction literally in job, and see it as a parable, it's a lesson that sometimes suffering occurs for no reason, that the universe is not always explainable and certainly not always good, but trust in god and god's power. icky to think about, at least for me, but the same passage (job 41, god's answers) then brings me to my next thought: the matchbox.

i wrote a follow up to a fab post looking at where i feel the matchbox might come into play (specifically, job 41:19 that is inscribed on the side of it), but here is the précis of sorts:

given that the matchbox features the quote before being dropped in heaven, it was potentially placed there in the pub as a long-standing direction for gabriel 'for when the time came', a mark of omniscience

the passage itself may refer to the leviathan as per job, but imagery-wise refers to the heaven trial in s1, where crowley-as-aziraphale spits out fire at the archangels

it's the last thing gabriel reads before he heads down to earth. he still thinks it's aziraphale (ie. heaven is presumably not aware of the body-swap at that point), and so heads to where he knows aziraphale will be - the bookshop - to seek... protection?

if the message however was put there by god, who is omniscient (and the narrator of s1), they would have been directing gabriel towards crowley, not aziraphale... crowley who is homeless living in his car, but whose own last sanctuary is that same bookshop

and lastly, it seems that it's only crowley that is able to unlock gabriel's memories... we know that crowley definitely has some kind of hypnotic, trance-like power, and this might be key... especially as gabriel then starts recounting memories (and prophecies...?) that he wasn't present for - only god, job, aziraphale and crowley.

(tbh, i then wonder how far the 'signs from the almighty' might extend to buddy holly playing in that bar, for beelzebub to introduce the concept of music to gabriel, 'information in a tuneful way'.)

i also want to pay some attention to the 25-lazarii miracle, because im still obsessed by the idea that the miracle didn't quite work as intended, or at least not in the way crowley ends up describing in ep6. summary:

gabriel took his gabrielness and put it in the fly, and the fly followed him into the bookshop and continued to chill there quite happily for all of s2

michael and shax seem to be able to sense gabriel to varying degrees - michael in ep2, and shax in ep3 - where i think it's possible they're sensing the consciousness of gabriel stored in the fly. in any case, they are all able to perceive and acknowledge jim as a inconsequential human, which in any case goes directly against 'not noticing' him in that form

when aziraphale and crowley do the miracle, they hold hands with jim - where gabriel definitively isn't - and attempt to hide gabriel. but if gabriel isn't in there, and it didn't work on jim, and yet a miracle still registers up in heaven, what did the miracle actually do? did it hide someone else?

if god is somehow channelling themself through jim, as we see in ep2 and ep3, did the boys - in fact - hide god?

but then, now that im thinking about, would a miracle of that magnitude only take 25 lazarii? what if instead it's the son of god, who has the power of words to give eternal life? the power, when he returns, to grant humanity eternal salvation, or eternal punishment? john 6:68 (yes, the verse number struck me dumb for a minute):

hold that thought (sorry) for a minute though, because the lightning strike came before hiding anything... so, does the lightning serve a different purpose, in the wider narrative? well, let's consult matthew 24 and break it down:

lighting strike? ✅* (more on this later on)

carcass around which eagles (or vultures depending on the version) gather? im gonna hazard a ✅

or considering the more metaphorical:

sun shall be darkened, moon will not give her light? bit of a stretch, but darkness fell pretty quick in ep5, certainly more rapid than would be warranted for 6.30pm, and lasted that way, presumably, until the demons had all been eviscerated... so, tentative ✅ (though given the green lighting... it could have all just been the demons, sure)

stars from heaven, and powers of heaven will be shaken? not too sure on the stars, unless you potentially count it in with the above darkness thing, but the metatron making a surprise appearance would suggest that the powers definitely be shooketh ✅

if we look at verse 30, this suggests that this hasn't happened just yet; that whilst we may be gearing up towards the second coming, it hasn't actually happened*, and this is where we'll lead into s3.

but if we continue matthew 24 (discussed in this post and this post too by @paperbunny):

days of noah: okay so yeah this could well be a literal flood, and tbh i still think (i wear glasses, so full disclosure ok) that that little snippet behind aziraphale in the first link looks like an optical illusion of a flood, but the chapter continues to clarify a little more about what was happening before the great flood, that humanity will exist in a similar bliss until the second coming arrives... so, a tentative ✅

eating and drinking ✅ there is a lot of eating and drinking imagery in s2, no doubt, but i feel like the coffee and eccles cakes in ep1, before the lightning, play a potentially major part here* (again, more on this later on)

marrying and giving in marriage ✅ if you take into account the whole maggie/nina subplot, gabriel/beelzebub subplot, and then The Big One that is crowley's marriage proposal in ep6

one shall be taken, the other left ✅ 💀 i don't need to explain this surely

two women grinding at the mill, one shall be taken, the other left ✅ ...ish. grinding maybe as a reference to how maggie and nina end up in the café together, working together, then visit crowley and end up Not Getting Together for Good Reason, but where crowley leaves them is that maggie is back in the record store, asleep (and waiting for nina to heal)

but where i come back to the *s is twofold:

nina says eccles cakes would calm someone down. aziraphale seems to consider it, and believe her. he takes the eccles cakes with him, deliberately hands them off to crowley so he can open the door, and the last interior shot before crowley loses his mind is the cakes, untouched, on the table. we know aziraphale seems to have a knack for unconscious miracles/reality manipulation, so what if by believing the eccles cakes would in fact calm crowley down, they actually magically take on the attribute that they would calm him down? im calling this diversion-from-matthew-24 #1

and then the lightning strike itself; crowley fails to rein in his temper, and the lightning shenanigans happen... but matthew describes that it cometh from the east, and shineth unto the west... but in crowley's case, the lightning strikes the bookshop, which lies to the east (going by the compass in aziraphale's bookshop) (actually technically north-east i guess)... diversion-from-matthew-24 #2.

this where im wondering a few things, as a culmination of all of the above...

did god foresee a good portion of all of this, and the events that follow, and warn gabriel ahead of time to seek out aziraphale and crowley via the medium of the matchbox?

does crowley, having not eaten the cakes, summon lighting because he did not Calm Down, constituting as the first sign of the second coming - and was just a wee bit ahead of schedule?

and did he botch it, à la s1 baby swap, by it hitting the coffeeshop instead of the bookshop (going to the east, not the west)? and is the lightning reaching upwards towards the heavens significant?

did crowley's lightning summon jesus, yank his... spirit? soul? out of heaven, and bring it earthside, and it attached itself to jim, currently a vacant vessel?

aziraphale and crowley hide said jesus spirit inadvertently with the 25 lazarii miracle, expecting to hide gabriel?

when jim goes all purple-eyed-mystic-meg, is that jesus speaking? speaking as an omniscient being with his mother's voice, and prophesying the rest of the second coming with "a tempest... great storms"?

and yet, despite this, all the signs of the second coming continue throughout s2, and possibly even kick-start the last judgement, with the various mentions of people going missing? hell being understaffed?

if you've made it this far, kudos

#im literally just doing this so the multiple theories might flow somewhat cohesively #feel free to ignore tbh it's a mammoth post and barely coherent #good omens #s3 narrative spec #crowley meta #25 lazarii theory #second coming/last judgement theory #i have not fully proof-read this - pretend you do not Perceive the Errors

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verladyweek · 5 months

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FAQ & General Information

Who can participate in Verlady Week?

Everyone can! You do not need to pass some sort of Verlady shipping proficiency test and it does not matter whether you have been interested in them for years or have just recently discovered them: if you think this event looks interesting and you’d like to be a part of it in some way or another, you are more than welcome to join in on the fun!

What kind of contributions are allowed?

Everything is allowed! Fanart, fanfic, moodboards, memes, shitposts, playlists, headcanons, wips and snippets, poetry, image manipulations and collages, posing your tsums or action figures and taking a picture - there is literally no limit and no restrictions! If you have a fun idea for any of the prompts, go ahead and do it!

What are the minimum requirements for a contribution?

To have fun! Aside from that, absolutely none. There are no minimum word counts or language restrictions and a stick figure drawing will be just as cherished, celebrated and loved by this blog as a fully rendered artwork. All of you are amazing and cool and deserving of some spotlight! We are here to share our love for Vergil and Lady and no matter how much or little you wish to contribute, you are welcome to join in and celebrate with us.

Are there any content restrictions?

No. This event is and forever will remain open to all flavours of Verlady: the good, the bad, the dirty, so to speak. You are allowed to share the most tooth-rotting and wholesome fluff as well as the raunchiest, most depraved PWP you can think of. Dark themes as well as Dead Dove content are allowed. The one single rule every contributor will have to follow through meticulously is to. Tag. Your. Stuff. Thoroughly.

I feel uncomfortable when I see [content] on my dashboard…

And you are so valid! This is why it is so important for everyone to tag their contributions properly - so that you can practice self-care and filter it out! We want to share our love for Verlady together, and we also want to respect each other’s boundaries. When sharing and reblogging contributions, this blog will follow a strict convention of “content warning: [content]” in the tags and you are, at every single point in time, allowed and encouraged to reach out and send a message requesting any content you’d like to be added to the tag list. (Anon asks are always enabled, and you will not need to justify why you would like a certain tag to be added.) The default warnings like “content warning: dub-con” etc. are already part of the tag list, but if you have any more obscure triggers that others might not even consider potentially upsetting, please do not hesitate to request additional content descriptor tags for your convenience!

Why are there so many prompts per day?

Because sometimes one prompt sparks joy but another prompt doesn’t - the prompt list is designed to give you some variety and you can fill as many prompts as you want and as little as you like! Feel free to stick to one prompt only, or to throw everything together into one prompt fill.

Can I combine prompts from multiple days into one fill?

Knock yourself out my friend! The prompts are meant to inspire and if you feel inspired, then they have fulfilled their purpose.

Can I submit my own already published work as contribution?

Yes and no. Fanworks already published that just so happen to coincide with one of the prompts are, of course, allowed to be reblogged by yourself if you feel like you have already created the perfect fit to one of the prompts, however, this blog will only reblog and share content created specifically for this event! That can be something entirely new, made completely from scratch. That can also be a continuation to the thing you have already made and want to expand upon (i.e. a new chapter of a fanfic/new entry to a series, the continuation of a comic, a new fanart to accompany another you have previously made, etc.)

Do I have to participate each day?

No! You participate as much as you want and as little as you like! We all have obligations IRL and sometimes they get in the way of fun things like Verlady Week. You are more than welcome to try and participate each day, but you are just as welcome to only participate on one single day, and just as welcome to not participate at all and just sit back and enjoy and share the things other people want to contribute to the event.

Do I have to be a creator to participate?

No! There will be prompts geared towards people who do not feel confident sharing something they have created. You can still spread the love if you want to!

I really want to do something for a prompt but I think I might not make it in time for the event week.

I feel you! Worry not, friend, for late entries will still be accepted and shared and showered in love. Best case scenario, this event will become a recurring annual thing and I will see your new entry to the event even if you stumble across the prompt list for 2024 in 2025 and still felt inspired to create and share - but at the very, very least I will guarantee you that the event tag (#verladyweek) will be monitored up until December 31st. If you want to be extra sure your late contribution is seen, please feel free to tag @verladyweek in your post.

Where can I share my contributions?

Verlady Week is on Tumblr and AO3. Be sure to tag #verladyweek and feel free to ping @verladyweek to make sure your contribution will be seen and shared by the event account. (There might eventually be an active Twitter account as well, but you will be informed ahead of time if it comes to that. For now, don't bet on it.)

I have a question that was not answered in this post.

Please feel free to reach out and submit an ask, you are never a bother!

-- Mod Sonder

#faq #general information #verlady #vergil x lady #verladyweek #dmc vergil #dmc lady

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foundationsofdecay · 4 months

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A couple of more aimless thoughts. Ended up longer than I anticipated, does this count as an actual lore post or is it still a rambling shitpost? Idk lol

I'm just curious about the "turn me into your mannequin and I'll turn you into my puppet queen" line in Ascensionism, the word choice of "mannequin" in particular. There's connections to lyrics like "just a stoic statue fit for nobody" from Rain, which support that - sort of a picture of him being featureless underneath the mask and anything else Sleep may adorn him with (though if he's fit for nobody then it sounds like She isn't picking out anything that can fit him, girl get the seamstress back in, those measurements are all fucked up!) and perhaps there are lines about being frozen or stuck in place in general that could be related, though off the top of my head nothing is jumping out.

Mostly I was thinking about that in contrast to this one line in Like That, where he's depicted as a marionette: "New weapons to cut those final strings / Just to watch me fall back". There's a post in there about the different ways Vessel 'falls' in all the albums, which I actually do have a draft for which I'm working on, but it's interesting to have these contrasting images of Vessel as a marionette, which is highly articulated and easy to manipulate in really complex ways if you know what you're doing, and then him as a mannequin, something that doesn't move at all and very rarely has any joints or points of articulation. Unless you've got something for art that has more flexibility, they're really just there to stand there and look pretty while you dress it up and show off your own creations to others, often with the goal of enticing them to purchase your wares (or acquire more followers). Grim metaphor, but it does also make me picture Vessel with the lipstick and pink nails and rose gold chains and ripped lace (sigh) described in Ascensionism in addition to the skirt from Kay/Wren's lovely fanart, so that's a plus.

Tangent aside, though, it's just interesting how many different ways Vessel is described as... not a toy, at least not every time, but still something that has no apparent form or function without someone else there to provide/do it for him. Where his entire purpose, his only use or worth, is to benefit someone else. The puppet bits are especially like that (anyone want to make sock puppets of the guys btw?) where you have the implication that even though he's speaking, it's really just Sleep's words coming out of his mouth, which does match with the general premise of him using his words to worship and spread Sleep's message.

#sleep token #this hangover has my brain completely scrambled. with extra pepper please and add a few drops of hot sauce for funsies

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nephrastar · 1 year

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Honestly convinced that, barring maybe tumblr, bigwig social media has collapsed damn near all of my social circles.

All this shit about figuring out the algorithm, all this shit about analytics, SEO, about view time, about follower count... I just fucking hate it all now. Social media basically turned the internet from a wild west with pockets of peaceful and interesting communes to a monolithic walled city where the only thing that matters is numbers. And if you get big numbers, congrats you get to be famous!! But only if you can keep those numbers going.

And let me tell you from personal experience-- 9 times out of 10, when you post something to social media at "the right time of day" with the intent of getting some clout, your post just... Does not get clout, most of the time.

Any post that goes viral is a benefactor of circumstance. In my almost 20 years of being on the internet, the one and only thing I've ever posted that went viral was a shitpost on Twitter of me memeing on a restaurant because they had a tip limit on their app and they along with many other food and adjacent companies were being criticized for not paying their employees a living wage. This was in 2022. Last year. I learned nothing from having hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets, and have not had anything nearly as popular since. I promoted my art Twitter in the replies, but you wanna know what that did?

Absolutely FUCKING NOTHING. I didnt make any money as a result of piggybacking that viral tweet. I didn't have people clamoring for what i had to offer. And it was then when I realized that getting big numbers anywhere will ultimately amount to jack and shit. And Jack had long since left town.

That may sound like i was upset that i didnt become internet famous overnight. I honestly wasn't, but there's a point to be made here-- the chances of your platform becoming big and internet famous are about as good as your acting landing you a breakout role in a Hollywood film. You're competing with hundreds of hours worth of content per second on most platforms, and depending on the site, their algorithm, which may or may not be controlled by real life humans.

Nobody can know for certain what types of videos will be hits on YouTube anymore. not even YouTube staff know what will be hits anymore because their algorithm is a machine learning AI, and creating any content at all with the intent of beating the algorithm or making faceless computers happy will lead to burnout. And when that content doesn't make the big numbers, you're probably going to feel like it's your fault when it's really not. this goes for any social media site that uses similar methods to "curate" their user's site experience.

And I've seen far too many people i know fall into this trap, which may as well be gambling. Getting good numbers so you can get that nice dopamine hit. Then maybe you hit a jackpot. Then you're just outright delighted. So you do the same thing you did before. But it doesn't make big numbers this time. Was it something you did? Ah well. Post again. Nothing. You adjust how you post and when to post. Maybe what to post, even. But still... Your content isn't doing well. You may as well be playing slots at a casino, except instead of losing thousands of dollars you're losing time. Time that, honestly, would've been better spent doing something you legitimately like to do.

The way i see it, make content like the algorithm doesn't exist-- make videos infodumping about your special interest like view counts dont matter, draw art and post it with the same energy a 5 year old has when they show off their macaroni art to their parents. Make the music you want to hear played during a thunderstorm.

Make the content that you want because you like the idea of it existing. At the end of the day, that content is FOR YOU! It has value because you poured your passion and love into it, and no amount of Algorithms or influencer courses or viral content will ever change that. And if that does eventually lead to you being notable and successful, then congratulations! You have a large audience that's cheering you on and encouraging you to do what you love.

#vent post #Neph does a vent

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lokilysolbitch · 1 year

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My new fixation is bad poetry

and its making me think about how to define art and poetry and what makes poetry good etc but I can't go back and find my sophomore english teacher and rant about it so I'm making it yalls problem. but mr c if ur in here pls read also what do you mean thats one way to skin a hamster. thats not how it goes what are you talking abou

first of all, ive finally figured out my current definition of art: records of the human experience or just experience in general. so yes paintings and poetry but ALSO tiktoks or a decorated room. idc if you think its stupid there are remnants and references to human experiences ALL OVER those. so basically if it left a mark at any point, its art. maybe not always "good" or skilled, deep, etc but it is art (to me)

secondly, what is poetry? the same sophomore english teacher asked this at the beginning of a unit and the class was struggling. every time we listed a requirement for poetry he went "is that necessary though?". "it has to rhyme" "does it?" "it has to be deep" "does it" "it needs to have words!" ".....does it?" man idk i was 15 and sleep deprived

but now im less sleep deprived and i have an answer. I would consider poetry a spectrum (but not necessarily flexible. i wouldn't say you have to bend it's meaning to make something fit) but also playing with language, to be playful with it and have fun with it, to use it as a toy in a way. using language in a way different from its intended use. so writing a personal narrative about a deep topic? not poetry. maybe you had fun with it but thats still its main use. to make words rhyme, to alliterate, to use words just plain wrong? probably poetry. its still a spectrum. and im aware this means that saying something like "yew nork/glass fork" would count as a shitpost and poetry while "Ill love you and ill never stop loving you" doesnt and um i dont care i said what i said--

this would also mean most books and speeches would have little bits of poetry in there and i stand by that too. maybe the entire thing isnt poetry but bits of it could count. i came to this conclusion on the meaning of poetry because i saw too many "aesthetic" free verse poems that were just. tweets. you coulda just made it a sentence and posted it for free. there was no attempt to play with language. you just used it the way you were supposed to. its just a quote.

im definitely going to add more onto this about what i think poetry critics miss sometimes and why formal teaching of poetry is flawed but not all in one post bc its a lot. However i have one last concept to attempt to define. this one has always made me the angriest

GOOD VS BAD POETRY/ART

where do i even start. maybe we should just get rid of these terms completely and make people say what they mean. is it good or did he just use literary devices correctly. is it good or is it genuine. is it good or is it deep. is it good or is it entertaining. is it good or do you like it. is it good or is it popular. is it good or is it complex. is it good or is it creative.

ive been saying since i was i was maybe 12-13 that even though good does not have a solid stable meaning, there is still a sense of what good is. We know what its supposed to be. classical music, Edgar Allen Poe, Da Vinci are good. sure most people barely know or understand or care about these things other than one piece of work they can recall because they had to look at it in highschool that time and the teacher seemed to appreciate it. and we know that reality tv, messily hand drawn animals, and half assed near unintelligible tiktok skits are bad.

but....wait we like those though

ive come to the conclusion that while still shifting, "good"'s meaning in scholarly settings tends to come down to whatever those somethingth century european dudes and what the modern smart looking guys deemed intelligent. and in colloquial settings, what everyone likes.

many pretentious types will say rap is bad and the subject matter is crude and the same way im sure some old european guy would have said or has said traditional african music is too weird and primitive to be respectable.

now. i dont really listen to rap intentionally. if its in there its in there. I used to be pretentious and after changing i just never got too deep into it BUT. i listened to a Nicki Minaj song one time just to see and yeah it was not family friendly but dear god was it clever. the way she'd drop the most genius alliteration-personification-allegory-englishvocabword and then just keep it moving like im not gonna have to stop and ponder the seven layer reference to bedtime hanky panky. its smart. its creative. its complex. and so many rappers can write about the same topics over and over and still come back with a new way of phrasing it. its genuinely impressive

but so many still wouldn't consider it good.

the term good when it comes to art, while having somewhat of a meaning is still useless. make your own personal standards for what is important for you to see in art. its kind of silly for us to collectively decide "okay this art? we like it. this is good" and then go to a different community (age group, culture, race) and go "were going to show you the new gold standard for good! its what we liked! you dont do it like this?? then yours is bad!". historically thats never been a good move

what i find important with poetry (and by poetry i mostly mean song writing bc i dont even read poetry like that) tends to be "is it a poem? or a sentence/paragraph". everything other than that just has to do with my taste and what I prefer in the moment. and it goes the same for everyone else. there's no universal good or bad with art. its just what a dominant or culturally respected group of people said was important.

limericks are bad tho jesus told me/j

TL;DR: i think anything that records an experience is art. i think toying with language mostly makes it poetry, and i think its weird people create little boxes for good and bad and make everyone else adhere to it

#poetry #poetrycritic #creative writing #formalapollooffering #instagrampoetry #instapoetry #art #philosophy #songwriting #bad poetry #rap #writing analysis #literature #ididntproofreadthis #infodump #hyperfixation #adhd #literary device #handmadeorganicpost

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mostspecialgirl · 7 months

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the doctor has ordered more OC rambling

feeling guilty for giving Kane so much trauma that I keep making more people immortal so he doesn’t have to suffer so much and in turn realizing I left behind my only character who was initially supposed to survive in the first draft (so sorry, stitches) so now I have to go write about that whole mess

pictured: ancient first drawing of stitches and more recent mspaint redesign

i think itd be really fun to do a little doodle of everyone in island isolation to pair up with a 300* years later version where there’s only 5 of them left

*(unofficial timeframe)

How the fuck does time even work in the relicverse like obviously ive vaguely worked it out but the demiurge just being able to pluck people from the stream of time as he pleases and characters who persist through multiple series due to immortality really fucks with everything in a way where i have to sit down sometime and properly hash out an ultimately meaningless timeline because i’m not sure any of the relicverse is ever going to get released (bar i am gary. bar alejandro. bar in shadows. bar the insiders youtube shorts. Okay. Maybe some of it will)

i just kind of feel like my cute little universe has turned into something so monstrous it’s impossible to think about anyone else wrangling it so i just keep feeding it more and more to be self indulgent because literally no one is hearing about these stories or characters aside from myself. tell me why the fuck mona and abraxas are working for ninestrike as planewalkers after in shadows with cronus as a provisionary shade attending the savant’s grove ball racing to steal the same relic qiyama and alejandro are after. Isn’t in shadows about some weird kid and a death god. isn’t alejandro a shitpost webtoon about trying to draw funny faces. you aren’t even supposed to know planeswalkers exist until the end of devil’s manner with Father. Until the last act of alejandro’s qiyama arc with Voxel. and why do i have the time to write about Father and his role within hundred nights who aren’t even relevant to any massive story i’ve planned out unless you want to count insiders and heavenless circulation in which they’re pretty much still just glorified set dressing

pictured: old material of father and voxel, and the latest one i have of them together

eventually at some point I’m sure I’ll be able to meet the right person to infodump about the relicverse to over the series of multiple nights and pray they will be so invested in it that we may share in its beauty eternal. that somehow sounds more feasible than actually getting all of this released in a timely manner. i’m only one girl and i’ve somehow made something fit for an entire platoon of staff

trying to focus back up on specifics here i’ve been focusing more on hundred nights lately, which i’m glad about because despite the fact I always come back around to getting super fixated on something i promised myself i eventually would, each time i’m always a little afraid i’ll never get super invested in it and have to force myself to work it out. but thankfully i’ve written enough super interesting (to me) characters into the top positions (bogdana, judge, father, prawn, chacha, etc) and their relation to their opposition who i’m invested in as well who are also fun (agenor and the 6 monsters)

however, i feel like now in contrast the planeswalker association (their main opponent) have started to seem much less exciting and i haven’t gotten around to fleshing them out as much as id like. i really have to tuck in sometime and give one or two of them really traumatic backstories or make their powers cooler. as much as i love characters like ging, metal and indus, i feel like together as a unit they haven’t truly come together enough as i would like. i’ve been thinking about throwing a member of the berezaiti clan in with them or focusing on guan liang and the greater planeswalker society to try and stir up my interest but i’m not ready to try when i’ve got my current opportunity to work on the hundred nights guild.

pictured: the time i tried to doodle chacha and judge and got so wrapped up in trying to manifest a great design for chacha i ended up forgetting the fact i was doodling, and the planeswalker association heads from the Relationship Chart

It’s kind of funny how little i’ve been drawing the insiders despite my undying passion and love for them, but i’ve become really satisfied with where they are right now and can just rotate them in my mind doing their daily shenanigans forever now. but in general, i’ve just been writing so so so so much shit instead of drawing lately. sorry about that. i’m a drawing account, aren’t i? thank you to the one person who reads this shitty indecipherable ramble to the end. i’m sorry you chose to read all of this!!!

pictured: the famous Ist Floating Head i should finish and my favorite doodle of mona and cronus

#leastspecialgirl #relicverse #stupid oc rambling

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hrokkall · 1 year

Note

Magnificus!

HELL yeah I was hoping I’d get to talk about this guy I love shaking him like a towel.

Favorite thing about them: This is more of me admiring the attention to detail in this game (intentional or not) but his personality and card game system go hand-in-hand so well. Mox in general is a wild system. No one knows how to use it, you have to predict your opponent’s moves ahead of time, and it doesn’t work very well with the other systems outside of specialty cards but is exceptionally powerful when meticulously planned and utilized correctly… I don’t think I need to say where I’m going with this.

Least favorite thing about them: I’m not going to say the wizard torture because that’s a cop-out (and honestly the Scrybes all doing heinous shit because they all genuinely feel they have to is part of what makes them compelling villains). Instead I’m going to say the fact that we know absolutely nothing about this guy. I’m all for mysterious ambiguity in characters but it’s really tough to work off of absolutely nothing. Also the fact that he doesn’t canonically wear a wizard hat. He should wear a wizard hat. Give him a wizard hat.

Favorite line: I don’t think I have one. I do want to know what the fuck he was going to say before he disappeared in Act 2 though.

brOTP: I don’t think they’re friends in the slightest but the paint droplets outside of her clearing in Leshy’s domain seem to imply that Magnificus and the Woodcarver have talked at some point, maybe frequently. Again, despite that, I don’t think they’re friends—Woodcarver desperately wishes the Scrybes would leave her alone (she’s already not the most fond of Leshy, much less another self-proclaimed god waltzing in to interrupt her peace and quiet) and Magnificus is just as neutral on her as he is with everyone else who isn’t an immediate threat—but they’ve talked often enough about damage control from various takeovers that there’s at very least no hostility. Which is about the most you can ask for in this sort of situation.

Having said that I can’t see Magnificus being casual friends with anyone in his current state. I think even if someone wanted desperately to be friends (see: Goobert) he’d try everything possible to subdue them because he’d immediately assume they’d interrupt his 12-step-plan-for-the-future in some way or another—he has a plan for just about everything and he really doesn’t want someone else to throw a wrench in that. He knows via future vision they’re not going to try and usurp him but he can still never be too cautious. Not much reasoning with this guy.

OTP: I know I’m missing the point of the “pairing” part in OTP but for all four Scrybes the Scrybe Polycule is going here. Or just any of the other Scrybes in general. I like them in a “studying them under a microscope” kind of way. They’re probably never all going to get their shit together to make things work again but it’s the thought that counts (not really considering they’re all perpetually fistfighting each other but hey). Maybe one day they’ll stop trying to kill each other. Huge step in the right direction.

nOTP: I haven’t seen any ships with Magnificus aside from him + other Scrybes so I don’t have anything to put here (for all I know there’s a huge Inscryp shipping community and it’s all just flown under my radar. I have no idea).

Random headcanon: I’ve already talked about his claws, I’ve already shitposted about him turning his head like an owl… so instead of taking a natural progression into anything else I’m going to take a sharp left and say he’s resistant to most forms of magical damage. His hair is fireproof, a poor conductor, insulating against the cold, negates acid splash damage, wards away necrosis—you name it, it’s probably going to bounce right off. This does, however, leave a pretty glaring weakness to just… punching him. If you can manage to skirt around his constant premonitions enough to get close and you can lift more than 30lbs above your head, you can probably just snap him like a twig.

Unpopular opinion: Where do I even start. Even liking Magnificus is an unpopular opinion, somehow. I’m pretty sure I’ve already said the long version of this in another post so I’ll keep it short: people are way too harsh on this guy. Yeah he’s evil and awful (obviously—I’m not going to sit here and say torturing college students isn’t fucked up), but he’s not really worse than the other Scrybes. All four of them are operating on levels of blue and orange morality and making one of them out to be unequivocally evil while forgiving another one who does almost the exact same thing (looking at you, P03) is super boring. Either make them all super fucked up and evil or give them all a chance to recognize the severity of their actions—let’s not stand on the fence on this one.

Song I associate with them: I haven’t really found many songs that capture whatever he’s got going on very well, probably because it’s pretty damn specific. Mr. Magic by Reliqa is good for something harsher/an outside perspective, or Visions by Sea Wolf for a (long before canon) pre-canon Magnificus. As a bonus… I was going to try and avoid multiple songs by the same artist too but fuck it. Whose Eye is it Anyway??? by Jhariah is too fun to not mention.

Favorite picture of them: I really like his act 2 overworld sprite, it’s so ridiculous-looking

#Re: Inbox #naturallydark #Hi Nat #Ask meme #Every time I post about Magnificus I have to get my baseball bat ready #I have to make sure to REALLY aim before I swing at the hornet’s nest. You know how it is #Last one for tonight. Probably. There’s more in the inbox though #Having said that I’m still taking these I’m just slow at answering them; go for it if you still want me to ramble about a character

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if-confessions · 11 months

Note

Reader - sorry to those authors, but I really hate it when they put every single one of their posts in the general ‘interactive fiction’ tag. I end up blocking half the blogs that do it and scrolling right by the rest :/

Tumblr wilderness into action, where there is no real rule and the tagging "conventions" would probably not be followed anyway...

It is true that the tag is flooded with essentially everything barely related to Interactive Fiction nowadays, from questionably relevant asks to essentially shitpost polls.

With the #interactive fiction tag being the one-stop-for-all to find IF games*, it's not surprising some authors will tag everything this way to gain more followings or some sort of interaction***. In other terms, to stay relevant**. Even if that means flooding the tag with random stuff and burying other people's projects... *people use tags as a way to organise their posts, more than trying to be seen. **no shade to those authors doing this, it is a marketing strategy, even if a frustrating one for the targeted users. ***also not a guarantee to get interaction...

What do you think should be/not be allowed in the #interactive fiction tag? Should we have a consensus on a tagging etiquette? If so, how do we go at it?

Under the cut is my answer to the first question... so just me theoretically gatekeeping stuff because I can. And because no one will end up following those point, anyway.

What I think should be in there:

Project introductions (obviously) and teasers

Project updates (added content, change of status, etc...) and update teasers

Dev logs/periodical check in

Reviews (<- there's not enough of those)

Interactive Fiction resources (theory, history of the genre, gameplay systems, program resource lists [not tutorials, I would put that in #coding if or something], communities [discords, forums...])

Event announcements [Competitions, Jams, Award ceremonies...]

Interactive Fiction discourse (a.k.a. callout posts about community shenanigans, sometimes we need to be shown we are the black kettle)

Recommendations lists

Patreon/Ko-fi/Commission posts

What I think is irrelevantly tagged as interactive-fiction:

Asks in general (sorry, but we don't need anons proposing to characters...) save for the ones related to the categories above

Polls, same as for the asks. Unless it's directly related to above, nope, pass. Results of polls as well.

Just art posts (like portrait, settings, background, random doodles, etc...) that do not fall in any of the categories above UNLESS the project is a VN or asset heavy IF.

Inspo posts. Nope nope nope... That counts for playlists or pinterest-like mood boards* *unless it's character introductions, then see below

One like post about how much [coding/writing/marketing/other IF activity] is annoying/the worst/etc...

Those conga-line/tagging posts about personal questions

Organisations lists for tags/prompts/other pages, or FAQ

Honestly, the ask posts are the main ones flooding the tag. That's probably the most annoying one out there.

What I am on the fence about:

Character introductions: does this count as a teaser? Honestly, probably more in the irrelevant pile.

UI screenshots: kind of an update, also kind of superfluous...

Fan art stuff: from the author, I'd say no... but from the fandom, yeah...

Snippets/Prompts: eeeeehhhhh... does it count as like a teaser for the writing to expect in the game? or bonus content? except non-canon shit (that goes in the nope pile)

Bonus content.

I'm probably missing some types of posts... but there it is.

Do you have to follow this? No. I don't make the rules about what you should tag or how you should tag it. Do you think this is horseshit? Comment on the post (or send an ask)

#confession time #if-confessions #tagging etiquette

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willowjay07 · 1 year

Text

I posted 1,256 times in 2022

That's 1,256 more posts than 2021!

76 posts created (6%)

1,180 posts reblogged (94%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@lastsona

@thesoftboiledegg

@indigayghost

@hazelnut-u-out

@4x01

I tagged 164 of my posts in 2022

#writblr - 8 posts

#fml - 7 posts

#youtube - 6 posts

#meme - 5 posts

#writing - 5 posts

#iran - 3 posts

#iran protests - 3 posts

#masha amini - 3 posts

#kanye west - 3 posts

#shitpost - 3 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#either way it was a pretty dick move to make them canon in the last episode send castiel to superhell before dean could respond and not hav

My Top Posts in 2022:

God help us all.

6 notes - Posted December 2, 2022

This is what’s going on in my head at all times.

7 notes - Posted November 29, 2022

My thoughts on Nandermo

I know their relationship is currently toxic, but I want both of them to improve before they get together. I want Nandor to stop being an ass. I want him to treat Guillermo with the respect he deserves / like an equal. Hopefully Derek will turn Guillermo into a vampire, and Nandor will have no choice but to treat him like an equal. Guillermo wouldn’t be his familiar anymore. He’d be a vampire like all of the other residents in the house. He wouldn’t be their servant, he’d be their equal.

I also want Guilermo to stop taking shit from Nandor, and stand up for himself more often. He should snap at Nandor for casually insulting him, he shouldn’t have to do all the chores in their house, he shouldn't have to do all of the hunting, and he should be more independent. He needs a life outside of being Nandor’s familiar.

I think both of them do love each other. Guillermo has had opportunities to turn into a vampire. He’s killed so many vampires that I’ve lost count. He could’ve just let them bite him, kill them, then drink their blood. I think he even had some vampire blood saved in their refrigerator at one point. He could’ve just drunk it and left, but he stayed. If he didn’t love Nandor, then why else would he stay?

Guillermo could’ve left years ago, but he didn’t. He’s risked his life so many times to protect Nandor, he rescued him from that cult, he tried to cheer him up when they were de-programming him (“It’s me, Nandor, the world’s greatest vampire!”), he made little puppets of him and Nandor, he was holding the puppets when Nandor left, he killed a whole room full of vampires to save his friends, Guillermo said Nandor should be proud of who he is when Nandor was complaining about his vampirism, and Guillermo confesses to killing the Baron when they’re on trial.

I think Nandor, well, I’m not exactly sure what his problem is. I think he has repressed his feelings for Guillermo because he’s just a familiar. All of the other familiars didn’t last long. They’re supposed to be viewed as servants and nothing more. Nandor does love Guillermo, but he has trouble expressing it. He could be afraid of what the other vampires would think if he started dating Guillermo. He’s also self destructive, so that’s not good. .

He puts up an uncaring facade, because Guillermo is “just a familiar” (and a vampire slayer). There are cracks in his facade though. He asked Guillermo to stay with him until he falls asleep, he made Guillermo a glitter painting (and Guillermo hung it up in his room), when they were fighting the sire Nandor prematurely yanked Gullermo away and went to fight it himself, Nandor says he’d been very unhappy since Guillermo left, he gave him a day off each week, I could hear the worry in his voice at the night market fight when he says “I think I killed my friend”, he said Guillermo has been a great familiar, he called Guillermo his friend, and Marwa kisses Guillermo after Nandor wishes she would like what he likes.

Plus, I’m sure Guillermo being a vampire slayer didn’t help. In season 4, it’s revealed that a vampire having a relationship with a vampire slayer is very taboo. The guide got her job as a punishment for it. When everyone found out Guillermo was a vampire slayer, they wanted to kill him, but Nandor wouldn’t let them.

I think Nandor has been searching for love since season 2, and it’d be ironic if the love of his life was right in front of him the whole time. Minus his self destructive behavior, it would explain why all of his attempts at finding love have been unsuccessful. They’ve known each other for 13 years. They’re each other’s best friends, and Guillermo is really all Nandor has. He and Laszlo bicker, he and Nadja argue about the Vampiric Council, and nobody likes Colin Robertson. Of course he would grow to care for him even if it’s not in a romantic way.

I think Nandor hasn’t turned Guillermo into a vampire yet because his perception of time is different, and he’s afraid Guillermo will leave him. In the first episode, Nandor thought Guillermo had only been there for 2 years. Nandor thinks the only reason he stays is because he wants to become a vampire. It’s why Nandor gets do agitated whenever Guillermo brings it up. He doesn’t want him to leave. Guillermo has left before (twice I think). He’s afraid Guillermo will leave permanently, and not come back if he does get turned into a vampire.

ALSO: Sean called Guillermo Nandor’s boyfriend when he and Laszlo were selling pillows (or something)

And there’s this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQZENyKutdk&t=203s

TLDR: I want both of them to improve themselves and their relationship before they get together. Guillermo needs to become more independent, and Nandor needs to stop being such an ass. Nandor needs to treat Guillermo like an equal, and Guillermo needs to have a life outside of being Nandor’s familiar.

I’m sorry this is so long. It was supposed to be way shorter. This took a couple hours. My crappy internet went down when I was writing this (I hate it with a passion), and I had some time to kill. It kills me to write a few paragraphs for school, but I’ve got no problem writing a two page essay about Nandermo of all things. I’ve recently developed an unhealthy obsession with the show, and I’m rewatching it. I regret nothing.

8 notes - Posted October 8, 2022

15 notes - Posted October 23, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

18 notes - Posted August 30, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #my shenanigans

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goblins-riddles-or-frocks · 2 years

Note

vi what is going on omg

I don’t even know, it’s bizarre!

Basically my original point was that sometimes when people in fandom have a favorite character, they tend to bend over backwards to justify every single thing they’ve ever done. Or to explain why they’re Not Bad Actually.

This gets… thorny with the Millennium characters in Hellsing. I know the quick argument is to say “Well no one is claiming Millennium characters don’t suck.” Which true! The thing that fans seem to want to argue the most is that their faves aren’t actually Nazis. And what I see happen most often is people starting to add qualifiers about what makes a real Nazi, in order to absolve their anime characters. And it can, and often does, quickly slide into actual Nazi apologist rhetoric. You can get the typical “just following orders” type excuses and even more convoluted “well what does a swastika mean, really?” arguments.

Millennium characters are explicitly, in canon, literal WWII Nazis. When you start splitting hairs over that, it’s really uncomfortable!

And honestly I have seen a lot of it over the years. On tumblr, on reddit (sooo much on reddit jfc), on Discord servers— that I promptly left lmao. I have no intention though of randomly tagging people who I feel have posted distasteful things or getting into fights with them. I don’t have the time or the interest!

But that one person apparently felt the need to make their outrage over me complaining about something on my own blog into everyone’s problem. They seem determined to believe that I am like, personally harassing and policing anyone who likes Millennium characters? Anyway I literally could not care less who likes them, and that is not what I meant by Nazi apologism.

They’re definitely not characters I care about? I find them kind of boring and distasteful outside of their roles as villains/what they thematically represent for the other characters, so I don’t personally write fic or meta stuff about them. But like I’ve literally also made dumb shitposts and jokes about Millennium characters. I cannot state enough how much I do not care about someone deciding to RP as or write fic for them. I have a job, I pay taxes lmao. It’s not my problem.

Anyway I blocked that person so they’d stop trying to talk to me, and then instead they decided to do a weird callout post esque screencapping of my post thread, even though it’s literally all public and in a single post. I’m not sure what they’re trying to accomplish? But the entitlement and sealioning is incredibly funny.

On a semi related note, someone else also told me that apparently a blog in the replies to my post had a call out post written about them? I literally don’t know anything about that lol I only vaguely recognize the url as someone who’s sent me asks in the past. We’re not mutuals, I don’t know them. Sorry?

I don’t typically get into fights on tumblr, and I wasn’t trying to get into one now! I can literally count on one hand the number of times I’ve gotten into tumblr drama over the like decade I’ve been on this site with various accounts. But yeah apologies for spamming the dash with nonsense omg

#nazis for ts #@ my followers really really sorry for making you watch this nonsense play out lol #this is what I get for engaging with their initial reblog of my post #hellsing #I’m not walking back anything I said though #I stand by it 🤷‍♀️#anyway I’m going to try not to spam about this anymore unless something egregious happens #discourse #i ramble sometimes

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scrawnydutchman · 2 years

Text

Moon Knight: The Dangers of Being a Symbol

*Spoilers ahead for the Moon Knight series on Disney+ and minor spoilers for the comics*

The MCU has yet to show any signs of slowing down in 2022. Not only is Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness less than a week away from release as of this essay, but Moon Knight has it’s 6th (and I think final?) episode of season 1 coming this wednesday. Going into Moon Knight I didn’t know what to expect. I like to consider myself a pretty big Marvel fan as I’ve been reading and drawing the comics and playing the video games since I was a kid, even before the MCU started rolling out with the first Iron Man in 2008. But even so I knew basically nothing about Moon Knight for some time and when he DID occasionally surface on my feed somewhere (be it a trailer for the show, a screenshot of the comics or a weird shitpost about him bullying Dracula for money) it usually left me with more questions than answers. After checking out the show and reading the comics I can safely say that being left with more questions than answers is . . . . . KINDA the appeal of Moon Knight . . . and it works shockingly well.

What I once wrote off in my own head as “Marvel’s answer to Batman” suddenly became not only a complex and original character and world in its own right, but quite possibly the most refreshing and original superhero I’ve watched/read about in recent years. Moon Knight is unlike anything I’ve seen before in this genre. It is an absolute mindfuck; with a narrative as fluid as vodka that is so topsy turvy that it constantly leaves you questioning what is and isn’t real. I haven’t had a superhero bend my imagination to this degree in quite some time and I definitely recommend it to any readers who are interested in a surreal adventure. I’m thoroughly enjoying “Moon Knight: The Complete Collection” and encourage others to check it out.

On top of all of that though, Moon Knight offers some keen insight on the superhero genre itself. It dissects the very idea of dressing up in a costume to represent a higher concept of justice or hope or what have you . . .and what that does to a human being. Moon Knight is certainly not the first superhero comic to tackle the topic of mental health but it DOES stand out for putting it in the forefront the way it does. To delve further into this point, we should get the synopsis for what Moon Knight is all about out of the way:

Marc Spector is an ex soldier turned mercenary who one day takes up a job from his employer to accompany a team of archeologists and raid an Egyptian tomb. Things quickly go south, however, as it turns out Marc’s employer had plans to kill everyone at the site and take the treasures of the tomb for himself. Marc tried to stop him but failed to protect any lives and ended up getting mortally wounded in the process. On the brink of death, Marc suddenly hears a voice. It is the voice of Khonshu, the Egyptian God of the Moon to whom the tomb belongs. Khonshu offers Marc a deal: If he swears to be Khonshu’s fist of vengeance against those who would hurt the “travelers of the night” (which is a fancy way of saying the innocent), Khonshu will save his life. Marc agrees and is reborn as “Moon Knight”, The fist of Khonshu with abilities like super strength and fast healing and weapons like clubs and moon shaped blades.

So on the surface it sounds like a generic superhero origin story, right? Just a simple explanation for why this guy has his powers and weapons. However, those who are familiar with Moon Knight will know that I left out a very important detail that gives Moon Knight an edge over other superheroes with his storytelling.

Moon Knight . . .has Dissociative Identity Disorder. Different personalities are in control of his body at different times. He isn’t just Marc Spector the disgraced mercenary. He’s also Steven Grant the charismatic millionaire. He’s also Jake Lockley, the ultra violent cab driver. And apparently Moon Knight and Khonshu count as separate personalities too: making for a total of 5.

Having such an unpredictable and often unwieldy mental illness causes Moon Knight to have a rocky relationship with his friends and superhero allies. It challenges the relationships he holds most dear on an intense level, to a point where he often scares away the people who matter most to him.

So this just begs the question . . . why did Khonshu choose Marc Spector to be his fist of vengeance? Did Khonshu know Marc was such a damaged human being? The answer . . . is a resounding yes. Khonshu chose Marc BECAUSE he is damaged. It is his broken mind that convinced Konshu he would be an ideal candidate for the role. But what makes a damaged individual fit to be a superhero?

Despite me selling what sets Moon Knight apart from other super heroes, he isn’t THAT much different from them when you stop to think about it. Khonshu represents something that a lot of gods from a lot of different pantheons represent. He also represents what a lot of superheroes represent with their costumes and their storylines.

He represents an idea. A concept larger than any human being. He represents a specific philosophy: a distinction between what is right and wrong and how to respond against evil. In turn, his chosen avatar also represents this. Moon Knight becomes Khonshu’s brand of justice made manifest.

But how does a human being go about representing a concept that is larger than themself? What does it do to a person to serve an unknowable god or to serve ANY kind of abstract concept? What does a person have to be to give themselves fully to that philosophy and to that cause?

the answer . . . is crazy.

Khonshu wanted Marc to be his fist of vengeance because Marc meets what a person would have to be in order to do so. Not only does he have the combat training from his time as a merc . . . but he’s mentally unstable enough to be easily manipulated by and he’s self loathing enough to do anything for redemption.

Sounds really fucked up, doesn’t it? It’s a mentally ill man being used like a puppet by a sanctimonious and abusive God. The man loyally endures it for the most part because, despite the fact that being the fist of Khonshu cost him everything, he feels as though there’s nothing else going for him. He would rather be Moon Knight than Marc Spector.

This right here is the reason why Marc often finds himself on the opposite end of where the rest of the Marvel heroes are. He has difficulty earning their respect because of all this.

But honestly . . . . aren’t all superheroes slaves to their code?

Think about Batman. Batman made a swear on the deaths of his parents that he would rid Gotham City of the evil that took their lives. He takes his oath VERY seriously. But despite his training and his gadgets and his brilliance as a detective, Batman has set himself up for failure. He will NEVER rid the world of evil. For as long as there are those with evil intent in their heart evil will always be committed. Batman fights a battle he cannot win. He knows that. But it doesn’t matter. He has committed himself fully to his ideals and will not compromise anything for his mission. It’s no secret that his one man crusade has taken an enormous toll on everyone he loves. It gets his sidekicks killed and it breaks the heart of the one guardian figure he has left. But even so, he cannot stop. And his mind suffers all the more for it just like Marc Spector’s. When you really boil it down, the only difference between Batman’s mission and Moon Knight’s mission is that Moon Knight’s mission talks back to him.

Same can be said about Spider-Man. Peter Parker suffered immeasurable loss the day his Uncle died and it was his fault for not doing the responsible thing. Now he has committed himself fully to his mantra “with great power comes great responsibility”. From then on, Peter is punished for trying to have a life outside of his mission. His loved ones die at the hands of his villains, he spends less precious time with his Aunt May and often times he has to break up relationships with the women he loves because association with him ruins their life. But can Peter ever give up? Can be ever put himself first for a change so that he can be there for the people he truly cares about and live a normal, happy life? Of course not. For he has great power; and with great power comes great responsibility.

Much more often than not heroes are born from tragedy and commit themselves fully to a failing mission in a desperate need for redemption. But they are still human beings. Bound to make mistakes. Bound to be wrong. Bound to hurt others even if they don’t mean to. How can flawed beings take on such absolutist ideals? They must give themselves absolutely. To do so is to be mad. To give so willingly to such a mission it appears to some degree you must be broken from the start.

That’s why Khonshu loved that Marc was such a damaged individual. Khonshu knew that no well adjusted person would ever seriously take this responsibility.

We’d like to think that superheroes are the best of us and that they are awarded their power specifically for that. But honestly, they’re mainly just . . . . sad. You never hear about a superhero free of baggage and just wants to do good for good’s sake. Even boy scout heroes like Superman and Captain America have SOMETHING that is conditioning them into sacrificing their chances for a good life, whether it’s being the sole survivor of a planetary genocide or being a man who was pulled out of his time and now has nothing else to live for . . . but the mission.

All of this is why I REALLY appreciate the current take on Moon Knight. It isn’t your typical “lucky guy comes across fantastic power and decides to fight crime” story. It fully explores the more grim implications of all this. Khonshu isn’t like the wizard Shazam where he chooses champions for their nobility. The writer doesn’t pretend Khonshu is this pinnacle of goodness or ethics. Khonshu is a monster who uses individuals as tools for his agenda. And Marc isn’t his champion because no one else is worthy of such power. It isn’t Mjolnir. Marc is his champion because he doesn’t resist Khonshu’s will . . . no matter how much it piles on to Marc’s already immense guilt.

The saddest part is . . . Marc never really deserved any of this. He made a poor choice when he was a child and it ended up costing him more than he realized. That’s it. With proper care and love he could have been a healthier person. But instead he is burdened with carrying the blame for his masters, be it the Moon God . . . or his mother. The happiest ending for Marc is when he doesn’t have to be Moon Knight or any other of his personas anymore . . . but I doubt that will ever come. It’s always about the mission.

#moon knight #mcu #moonknight #marvel #marvel comics #superhero

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