#I like to play a game where I connect the songs into different story lines
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In my brain, Cruel Summer is Augustine’s perspective of her doomed summer romance with James.
#I’m also delusional though so idk#wishingformoredogs#I like to play a game where I connect the songs into different story lines#taylor’s version#taylor swift#august#cruel summer#the eras tour#betty#James#swiftie#August Betty James#folklore#lover#reputation#evermore#speak now#red#1989#fearless#midnights
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Yu-Gi-Oh GX and Alchemy: The Nigredo
So Yu-Gi-Oh GX is the first successful Yu-Gi-Oh spinoff after the original manga and anime ended, and it began two trends, one a long line of anime spinoffs that would continue to make anime original stories revolving around the trading card game and two that each new anime would focus on a new method of special summoning.
When creating an all new Yu-Gi-Oh story with only some input from the original mangaka, Hikokubo Masashiro stated GX focusing on fusion summons was an idea the staff came up with. Hikokubo felt that polymerization and fusion summoning were rarely used during the duel monsters era, and felt that it was a very underutilized but incredibly interesting mechanic that was unique to Yu-Gi-Oh! When he proposed the idea to have the new summoning be fusion focused, Takahashi loved the idea and was extremely enthused by it.
Now the question before we even begin is why am I analyzing Yu-Gi-Oh? It's because it's a shonen anime and this is the blog where we overanalyze shonen.
Yu-Gi-Oh is literally no different from any anime with a power system, it's like Hunter x Hunter except instead of using an ovceromplicated nen system with a lot of rules, the characters instead play an overcomplicated card game with a lot of rules. The same way a character's nen is thematic and telling of their character in Hunter x Hunter, their cards and dueling style is thematic to them in Yu-Gi-Oh! If you can just get over the fact that it's kind of silly everyone's using cards to fight, it's the same as any other shonen anime. They're all using magic cards to fight each other with magic, the cards are a power system, and the power system means something in regards to the characters in a shonen anime.
By Yu-Gi-Oh GX using fusion as its focus summoning method (combining two or more monsters to summon one) it's also thematically about alchemy - specifically physical alchemy solve et Cogaula. Latin for dissolve and coagulate, the process in which through four elemental stage silver is refined into gold and a philosopher stone is created.
The main character of Yu-Gi-Oh GX is also on a journey to become an alchemist, and create the philosopher's stone / the elixirof life. He is also a duelist who uses an archetype known as the "elemental heroes" that fuses heroes based off the four elements (fire, earth, water, air) and also yin and yang (light and darkness) into different combinations to create stronger monster. A character who's strongest card at the end of the first season is called "Elemental HERO Elixir" and requires featherman (wind), burst lady (fire), clayman (earth), and bubbleman (water) to fuse together in order to summon. A character who's art depicts a man wearing gold armor surrounded by the four elements of the Yu-Gi-Oh cardgame in the background.
However, that's only in season 1 and Judai's journey stretches for four seasons. I only used elixir as an example to show that fusion and the elemental hero archetypes are both things that connect Judai to alchemy, and why his journey is to complete the four stages of alchemy and the creation of the philosopher's stone.
I'm also making this post for Kate who is the only person that will read it that Yu Gi Oh GX incorporates Alchemy research as well as A Song of Ice and Fire and RWBY. Because just as with those shows the formula of "Solve et coagula" is stuck to, though Yu Gi Oh GX uses "Fusion" as its main metaphor for dissolve et coagula.
Anyway, Yu Gi Oh GX has four seasons, with four main story arcs which follow the four stages of Alchemy to a T.
The Seven Star Saga: Nigredo
Society of Light Saga: Albedo
Dimmension World Saga (Citrinitas)
Darkness Saga: Rubedo (Red)
These four stages also proceed in order of four elements, which as I said is the same as the four elements of monster cards in Yu Gi Oh.
Fire
Water
Earth
Air
They also all correspond to four colors as long as we're getting the basics out of the way, because color symbolism is important to aclhemy too. These are:
Nigredo / Black
Abledo / White
Cintrinitas / Yellow
Rubedo / Red
For more proof that Alchemy is baked into the DNA of this show, here's a group shot of what are basically the main characters for opening two, and look what colors they are wearing.
Judai - Red / Black
Fubuki Tenjoin and Asuka Tenjoin - White
Manjoume - Black
Sho, Misawa, Kenzan - Yellow
There's also three main dorms Osiris red, Ra Yellow, Obelisk Blue and yes Obelisk Blue is Blue but the uniforms are Blue and White and they're even replaced by the white dorm in the second season. Characters even change what colors they are wearing to indicate progression in their arc, Fubuki is introduced to us as Darkness possessed by his inner darkness and then switches to an all-white uniform by season 2 nigredo -> albedo. Manjoume sheds his blue uniform for Black and stays in the Osiris Red dorm for three seasons after losing his elitism -> entering the nigerdo stage.
Most importanly though Judai our alchemist is the only character to wear red and black, as Red is the color of the philosopher's stone which is Judai's main goal but Judai like Manjoume also wears black underneath to signifiy he too is going through the nigredo stage. Judai is an alchemist attempting the great work of self, and he must start at stage one - Nigredo.
So, to begin with what is Nigredo?
The Alchemy of Darkness - Nigredo
In alchemy, nigredo, or blackness means putrefacation or decomposition. Many alchemist believe that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone all alehmical ingredients need to be cleansed and cooked into a uniform black mater. This is sometimes called "blacker than the blackest black>" Nigredo means putrefecation and decomposition.
It's ruled by the planet Saturn and connected to lead, which is ocnsidered to be the basest and most impure metal. Metaphysically, it is tied to the dragon and the destruction of the dragon, symbolized by decapitation and the skull of the raven.
This is an unpleasant and often violent process, because one must face one's darkest flaws. Because one 'reaps what ones sows" and noen gains likel only to what one loses accoring to the Laws of Isis spoken by the Angel Amnael, to change into a final nature one must destroy its flaws - and thus its whole property - so that it might be remade again. In a lab one must cook all components down to a uniform black matter, which takes no less than fourty days - or one year of high school.
Judai begins his journey wearing inverted colors, black school uniform on the outside and red on the inside. He also is marked in the first episode and season 2 as the Fool. Saio a character with the ability to see the future who plays a tarot themed deck, sees Judai as the fool, the wildcard in which fate can change.
The fool's journey, and the process of alchemy are similiar, they're both things Jung references for the development of the self. Tarot is season 2 territory so all you need to know right now is Judai is the fool in both senses of the word, he is at once innocent and ignorant. His innocence inspires people, and his ignorance causes problems, though that won't be highlighted until season 3. The fool is on a journey to gain wisdom, which is why Judai's first action in the anime is meeting up with a magician (Yugi, who's ace card is the black magician) who gives him guidance by giving him winged kuriboh.
The story of the Tarot is actually a paralel to the alchemist's journey, and the Fool--who begins his trek untouched by the world around him because he sees and understands nothing--is the fledgling alchemist, with his powers and potentials all untapped and unknown. This is a childlike figure in many ways, and the symbolism here is capable of being both that of innocent oblivion and the callous disregard that children (and Judai) are also so capable of. In fact Judai's entire character revolves around the dual faces of the fool, that innocence and ignorance can be the same thing, and that jUdai may not mean harm in his ignorance but that doesn't mean it's not harmful and his ignorance is why he needs to go on a quest for knowledge in the first place.
And Yu-Gi-Oh GX is primarily about Judai's journey. There are other characters who grow up besides Judai, but it is primarily about Judai going on a journey from childhood into adulthood. I will be mentioning other characters here, but when they change it's usually meant to reflect Judai in a way too.
Either way, Judai's role as the alchemist is indicated right away in his first duel, as he uses flame wingman - his favorite card a fusion monster that is specifically a fusion between man (featherman) and woman (burst lady) in order to cook crowler's antique gear soldier which is made of metal. This not only sets up the formula for how he'll win every major duel in the show, fuse weaker monsters into stronger mosnters. It also serves as some early, early foreshadowing for the appearance of the Rebis the fusion of man and woman that happens in the final stage of alchemy. The Rebis in this case being Yubel but that's season 3 territory.
Flame Wingmna's appearance is foreshadowing for Yubel, it's also pretty clearly a Rebis, it's a fusion of a featherman and burst lady, and it also has a dragon head appearaing on one of its arms. It's also the first succesful fusion / attempt at alchemy we see Judai perform in the show and it's what lets him win his first duel. It even appears in front of the moon because Judai played Skyscraper, switching the time in the duel from night to day.
However, alchemy doesn't just happen once. It's a process of continual refinement where the alchemist dissolves and coagulates over and over again in order to purify himself, the same way that Judai's entire sidedeck is countless different attempted fusions of his elemental hero monsters, each fusion serving a purpose in a different situation.
Chemical weddings, the union of opposite elements don't happen once in this show but over and over again. This is important to point out for all three seasons to show how much alchemy symbolism happens in this show and how much alchemy is a continual process.
The Stages of Alchemy
However, before continuing forward I need to say Yu Gi Oh GX is a pretty weirdly paced show, the first 100 episodes or so are setup for a dark deconstruction that happens in the next 90 after that. So Season 1 and Season 2 are both a lot of set up for both changes and alchemical processes that will happen mainly in Seasons 3 and 4. Which as I said, chemical weddings happen multiple times not just once and alchemy may have stages but it's not necessarily a strictly linear process. The series however does still follow the 4-part structure of alchemy and even makes specific references to medieval paintings which describe the alchemical processes.
There are also several allusions to the Splendor Solis - 22 illustrated plates which describe the alchemical process [source]
Which are divided into 4 groups like this:
4 introductory plates - they present the protagonists of the alchemical journey.
7 Parables - they describe the alchemical death and rebirth
7 flaks plates - they describe the alchemical process from a practical point of view
4 final plates - they describe the alchemical process from a spiritual point of view.
Seasons 1 and 2 being one long introduction for the second half of the anime, both include references to the four introductory plates. We'll be covering references to those two as we continue our journey into season 1.
I bring this up now because in episode 3 we are already at our first reference to Splendor Solis, Plate 4 the meeting of the king and the queen, the male and female, the yin and yang, the sun and the moon. The opposition of two equally matched forces, what most call the chemical wedding.
Judai and Asuka in the third episode duel each other over water with both of thme standing on boats. Asuka is the queen of the obelisk blues called that by several characters, and Judai not only quickly becomes the best male duelist in the school he's also on his journey to being a king in season 3. Judai's flame wingman (fire) actually clashes with her Cyber Blader (ice) during the duel atop the water.
Asuka primarily wears white, which is associated with Abledo. She is also associated with water and ice (she uses an ice deck when brainwashed by sartorius in season 2). In Jungian symbolism, the Albedo stage of alchemy is also tied to the union of anima and animus. There will be more time to cover this in my season 2 meta, but just as a starter Asuka in this episode is basically set up to be a female Judai, something compounded upon later in the season.
The basic premise of this episode is that Cronos puts a fake love note from Asuka to Judai in order to try luring Judai into a trap to visit the girl's dorm at night. When Sho gets lured by the trap, Asuka thinking very much like Judai does, doesn't see a potential romantic partner but a potential duel rival.
Asuka's true love isn't boys, but dueling itself much like Judai who for the first two seasons seems either oblivious or weirded out by women showing affection for him and who's primary method of making friends and connecting to people is by dueling others.
Judai and Asuka's first meeting isn't necessarily a romantic chemical wedding, because one happens in season 3 and it's with someone who's not Asuka - but it is still a union of opposites. Anima and Animus is something I plan to cover more in season 2 but basically Jung divides the psyche into two part, the feminine aspects of personality and the masculine aspects and makes the observation that most men aren't accustomed to their feminine side and vice versa. Men must therefore come into touch with their feminine side and integrate their feminine traits into their everyday life in order to become fully realized people.
Judai is basically dueling with the female version of himself, another person who loves dueling above everything else and uses it as a way of conencting with other,s and Asuka even pulls a Judai-like move, she threatens to get Judai and Sho expelled to extort a duel out of Judai because she wanted to size him up as a potential dueling rival.
Asuka also plays the role of the high priestess in the fool's journey, to Yugi's magician. As it's through his encounter with Asuka that Judai gains passive guidance for what his role will be in season 1 - as she's the one actively looking for her brother Fubuki which will lead Judai to the seven stars plotline. In fact, while Judai came to the anbadoned dorm because him and Sho were sharing scary stories, he sticks around and explores it deeper specifically because he heard Asuka make a mention that her brother went missing there.
This leads to the introduction of shadow duels - duels where characters bet their souls on the line and the consequence for losing is being consumed by darkness, otherwords a failure in alchemy.
The entirety of season one is basically one long pattern of Judai who only duels for fun and to connect to other people learning that there are darker sides to dueling (shadow games) and going through one long process of realizing that not everything is for fun and there are times you duel with your life on the line. Or at least, that's what he should be doing but a lot of Judai's development is stalled until season 3. However, that stage is still set up here.
Judai does not really grow a lot in season one, but we have other characters going through their own mini-alchemeical journeys in order to reflect Judai. For instance, each season Judai has a rival / foil that contests with him for the hero role. In season 1 it's Manjoume who thinks he's the one more set up to inherit the next king of games.
Manjoume goes through a pretty common arc for shonen characters. He's suddenly defeated by the appearance of a new rival, he loses all confidence in himself, he goes off somewhere else to train and then returns to defeat the rival that knocked him off his pedestal.
However, that usually happens to protagonists. Manjoume, a rival character, goes through more of a journey than the main character of his own show at least in season 1. Manjoume follows the nigredo formula pretty much to a T.
We see Manjoume break down completely. He loses to Judai even after getting cards from Crowler (his Dragon card is even killed by Judai) he then has a mental breakdown and tries to cheat against Misawa only to lose again and leave the school entirely. Even his deck goes through the process of dissolve and coagulate, as he has to get rid of his old deck and then find 40 new cards in the northern tundra and put together a new deck from scratch. He even returns to Duel Academy wearing black and purple after having gone through the process of breaking down entirely and reforming to signify his change in the nigredo stage.
This is the kind of arc and internal struggles you give your main character so we find their growth and journey compelling, but Judai's basically already a dueling prodigy he doesn't need to become stronger as a duelist. In fact Manojoume's internal insecurities are more at focus in this arc than the main character's too.
Judai is usually the character who duels the main boss, but in season 1 and 2 he rarely if ever feels the pressure to win the same way that Manjoume does in just this one duel with relatively little stakes. In fact if alchemy especially nigredo requires boiling and pressure in order to change the chemical composition of the metal that they're currently boiling, Manjoume is more emblematic of that chemical change -> heat and pressure allowing him to metamorphosize into a new person.
In fact Judai purposefully doesn't talk to Manjoume during this scene because he doesn't feel like there's anything he could say on an emotional level that would help him b/c Judai isn't really mature enough to understand that feeling of responsibility and pressure Manjoume is struggling under - he just tries to work it out in a duel instead.
Season 1 is all about Nigredo, about plunging into darkness but Manjoume who plunges into darkness to find himself and to an extent Asuka who journeys into the darkness to find her brother are the oens who actually experience a change while Judai remains a mostly static character. He is the impetus of change for both of these characters, but he doesn't really change himself just yet.
So Asuka has an exernal objective -> find Fubuki, and Manjoume has an internal flaw -> His insecurity and inferiority complex and both of them need to plunge into darkness in order to remedy these things. Judai doesn't have any objective at all, but because he comes into contact with Asuka and Manjoume he helps Asuka with her quest and Manjoume with his internal insecurity.
From early on Judai despite literaly fighting with a deck called the "Elemental Heroes" is more of a designated hero, then an actual hero. As I pointed out above other characters struggle with the kind of insecurities that protagonists usually struggle with. Judai doesn't need to learn to believe in himself or be a better duelist, he's already a dueling prodigy, that's Sho, and Manjoume's struggles. Asuka is the one who has a personal motivation to save someone because she wants to save her brother, Judai only helps because he wants to help Asuka. Judai is picked to fight once the seven stars start appearing not because he is the most heroic character, but because he is the best duelist.
It's not that Judai doesn't help when someone asks him for a helping hand. He always gives his help when asked for it, but otherwise he's an incredibly passive character who continually "only duels for fun" even when the stakes get higher. He only feels the pressure to win that Manjoume did for one episode after the gauntlet of Darkness Camula and even then it's immediately resolved with a duel against Kaibaman.
However, despite not having the things usual main character have, an outward objective, or an obvious internal flaw that he needs to fix or boil away in the alchemy sense he's still the central character of the show. Fubuki is Asuka's brother, and yet when he appears again it's Judai who duels him.
Yami no Game - Versus Darkness
The first instance of actual plot in this show happens in episode 29 (Yu Gi Oh is a well paced show / sarcasm) when Fubuki / Darkness appears as a member of the seven stars, to challenge Judai for his key, kidnapping his friends and holding them hostage in a volcano for an ante. This entire duel is steeped with alchemy symbolism and is to be honest one of my favorite in the series. It's also Judai's first real "yami no game" if one counts the duel at the dorm and the duel against Jinzo as warmups.
To recap from above, Nigredo is the first step of alchemy, it's usually associated with fire, the color black, and the death of a dragon. This duel takes place in a volcano. A volcano where dragons made of flame rise up from the lava, and Judai's opponent Darkness walks right out of the fire to face him.
Darkness not only hits all the symbols for the first stage of alchemy, his deck also corresponds to this stage. He's running a red eyes black dragon deck, a deck who's ace monster "Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon" gets stronger for every single monster in your graveyard. If Nigredo is initiated by the death of a dragon. They fight on what is basically a graveyard of dragons with dragon spirits constantly jumping out of the lava, the dead spirits empowering Red Eyes Darkness Dragon even further.
Red Eyes Darkness Dragon - Cannot be Normal Summoned/Set. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by Tributing 1 "Red-Eyes Black Dragon". Gains 300 ATK for each Dragon monster in your GY.
Fubuki arrives in practically a storm of fire, promising to melt everything away if Judai doesn't take things seriously. He even calls Judai half-hearted for not realizing what is at stake here. Once again he's applying heat and pressure to try to force a transformation inside of Judai.
It is the first and last time for awhile someone challenges Judai seriously on this level (as most of the seven star matches bar Camula get kind of silly after this) but it also incorporates the Nigredo and the Work of Self, 'if you cannot overcome the blackness and despair of your own self, you will be burned away'. The volcano, the dragon graveyard, red eyes darkness dragon all incorporate the image of the skull, the dragon and the fire which reduces one to black matter.
In a normal narrative this is where Judai would succumb to the pressure like Manjoume did and start to take things seriously, but once again Yu Gi Oh Gx is building up a three season long-con. The one who changes isn't Judai, but rather Fubuki who's internal darkness is purified by the end and we see him return to his usual self, though he'll call upon the darkness again in season 2 and then season 4 because purification isn't' a one and done process.
We're shown other characters around Judai changing, and Judai often being the impetus for that change, but we're not shown exactly why until all the way in episode 45 when Amnael decides to play his hand, because Yu-Gi-Oh Gx is a well paced show (sarcasm).
If we focus on the duels that develop Judai as a character it goes a little something like:
1st duel against crowler establishes his use of fusion
1st duel against asuka - chemical wedding / anima + animus
1st duel against zane - establishes relationship with sho
3 duels against Manjoume - Manjoume's arc
Judai vs Misawa - More for Misawa's arc because it teaches him that isntinct can win against obsessive thinking over strategy.
Judai's 3 shadow duels (vs Titan, vs. Jinzo, vs. the Gravekeepers)
Finally, vs. Darkness / Fubuki
The only duels that really are about Judai as a character are Yami no Games, the ones where Judai is forced to bet his life on the line in a duel because those are the duels that challenge his philosophy that dueling is just for fun and his desire to duel purely for his own entertainment. Basically every other duel that Judai gets into up until this point is for other characters not him, only the Yami no Games int true Nigredo fashion push Judai's arc along as he slowly realizes there are times where he needs to carry responsibility and weight on his shoulders and keep going.
When the pressure of dueling becomes too much for him after Darkness and Camula he does receive an alchemcial bath, in the form of a hotsprings episode where he gets to fight Kaibaman in a low stakes duel which relieves him of the pressure temporarily. Kaibaman is also dressed in white, and plays the blue eyes white dargon the counterpart to the red eyes black dragon.
The impetus for this episode is a dream where Judai sees himself losing against an unknown shadowy dragon, which causes both of his friends to burn away in fire while he's consumed by the darkness as a price for losing the yami no game.
In those last minutes too Judai's more concerned with his friends who are crying out for his help then he is for the fact that he himself is being consumed by the darkness. Something which will come back in season 3, because Seasons 1 and 2 are excellent at setup and foreshadowing if nothing else.
Foreshadowing because there is a scene where Judai's friends do burn away and he does sink into darkness, his nigrido and all his anxieties reflected in this dream here prove true but once again it happens in season 3.
Things that seem like they are neatly resolved in seasons 1 and 2 will always be called back to in Season 3. Judai goes through several mini arcs of "I need to take dueling more seriously" only to revert back to his usual carefree irresponsible attitude, because in seasons 1 and 2 the consequences for Judai not taking thing seriously and messing up aren't as severe as they'll eventually be.
Judai is called to in his Yami no Games plunge the depths of his own personal darkness, Daitokuji leads him to three shadow games to make him realize there are games where real life people can get hurt - Fubuki yells at the top of his lungs not to half-ass this duel or his friends will burn away into nothing. Judai is called to explore those depths of darkness... he just doesn't. Manjoume does, Fubuki does, Asuka does, even Sho and Ryo have an honest conversation about their relationship as brothers when Camula holds Sho hostage so Ryo will lose the duel.
I'd argue there are hints that Judai does have an inner darkness that he's refusing to examine all the way back in season 1 too, because the foreshadowing in this show is excellent. In episode 5 when they're all sharing ghost stories, Judai shares a story about how he thought he could hear the voices of his duel monsters when he was asleep.
Only for Judai to jokingly end the horror story by declaring that he didn't see a thing.
Those who have watched season 3 know that this is a bald-faced lie, because it was right around that age that Judai was given a haunted card by his father that put all of his friends into comas and made it so no one wanted to duel with him let alone be around him. Judai used to be able to see card spirits, until the traumatic incident of one dark card spirit made him cut off his ability to see them entirely. Judai tells Sho half the story, and then blows the rest off as a joke.
This scene is pretty clear season 3 foreshadowing, but also in a sense of alchemy, Judai is failing to confront the darkness here because he remains ignorant of his repressed childhood memory. He muses for a second on the fact that he can remember hearing card spirits when he was younger, but doesn't reflect on why he stopped hearing them because he's coping poorly with that traumatic childhood incident still. Which is why he is so stagnant because even when he's given opportunities too - he doesn't reflect on his past, or even reflect on who he is whatsoever.
This small detail of his backstory doesn't come until season 3 so technically I'm spoiling you, we're given no information at all in season 1 why Judai loves dueling so much and why it seems to be the only thing he cares about not because the writing is bad but because Judai himself never reflects on those things.
As Judai plunged into the world of Yami no Games, he could have reflected more seriously on these things, but he didn't because Judai is also more concerned with other people, and forced to duel to save other people first before himself.
Judai fails to commit nigredo, and this normally would result in reverse alchemy or even character stagnation but that doesn't happen until season 3 - mainly because in season 1 Judai has a mentor to sweep in and kind of fix his mistakes for him.
There's a whole bunch of duels in between this, but really Judai's next plot relevant duel is episode 44 the Seventh Shadow. When Daitokuji goes missing the gang goes out searching for him, only to find that he's facing Daitokuji as the alchemist Amnael and the sevenths star.
There's a billion alchemy references in this duel, because as I said Judai has only three really plot important alchemy duels this season the first being darkness, the second amnael, and the third Kagemaru and so all the symbolism is frontloaded into this one.
First off, Daitokuji carries around an emerald tablet for a millenium item gifted to him by Kagemaru and he also uses this symbol - which resembles the alchemy symbol for the sun, but also a traditional depiction of an ouroboros a snake eating itself.
The ouroboros a symbol that appeared in alcehmy in Graeco-roman egypt, the same era that the Amneal Story appears from. A symbol which ties to the sun, mercurius (hermes) and his caducous staff which contained a male and female snake interlaced.
In Egypt the sun went on a journey to the underworld every night, only to come back to the world of the living every morning. In the duel itself, Daitokuji is long dead, and Judai must in a way kill his mentor as apprentice in order to replace him as alchemist. Daitokuji also comes right back immediately as a ghost, because life and death are an eternal cycle like the ouroboros itself.
Daitokuji goes by the name of Amnael an angel who appeared before Isis to reveal the great mystery to her. Amnael becomes a lover to Isis and reveals the secret to her, but first makes her swear a mighty oath by "fire and water, like and darkness, by fire, water, air, and earth" and a variety of Greek and Egyptian Deities.
The great secret in question:
“So go then, my child, to a certain laborer named Achaab, and ask him what he has sown and what he has harvested, and you will learn from him that the man who sows wheat also harvests wheat, and the man who sows barley also harvests barley. For a nature rejoices another nature, and a nature conquers another nature.”
In other words the great secret of alchemy is that you reap what you sew. In other words alchemy, like chemical reactions is all about actions and consequences.
This also ties to the phrase "as above, so below" which is chanted constantly in the two episode duel against Daitokuji. A phrase which is on the emerald tablet, (borrowing this from Kate). The emerald tablet is also wielded by hermes, so once again, greco-roman / egyptian alchemy lore.
"That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above."
Things in the macrocrosm are mirrored in the microcosm, or in other words BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO BE IN THE WORLD. You have to change yourself before you can change others. The personal change that an alchemist goes through in acquiring the philosopher's stone and finishing a chemical wedding will radiate out to the rest of the world.
This is the role that the master alchemist gives to his apprentice.
Amnael and Judai's duel is basically a crash course of alchemy for dummies. Amnael's card archetype the Alchemy Beasts uses a distillation to summon seven different alchemy beasts which resembles the seven step process of alchemy.
Aretos the time
Ekanos the Mercury
Leon the Lead
Moonface the Silver
Ouoroboros the Bronze
Salamandra the Steel
Golden Homonculus
Coincidentally the number seven shows up a lot this season. The seven stars are the duelists that the main characters have to face in yami no games, probably a reference to the fact that there are seven heavenly bodies in the ancient medieval world, saturn, jupite,r mars, venus, mercury, moon, and sun which also correspond with the seven steps of refining metal into gold listed above. Sun being gold, and again sun being associated with Judai.
While also using support spell cards that reference the nigrido, albedo and rubedo. Before finally using the Macro-cosmos card... which is again covered above changes on the microscale effect the macroscale.
All in the world originates from a single substance altered in various ways to form heaven and earth. Even the world of man known as the microcosmos and the world of the heavens known as the macrocosmos.
So, humans and outerspace are connected?
Amnael then procees to push the sun through three phases, helios - the primordial sun, Helios - Duo Megistus, and Helios - tris magestius. The second stage being a reference to this.
Outside the building where this standard is housed are two men. Their body postures might suggest they are teacher and initiate. The master points to the standard, separated from them by swirling and overflowing waters. There is also a three-step platform leading up to the standard, possibly reflective of the tria prima which all alchemical substances are made from; Paracelsus defined these as Mercury (Spirit), Salt (Body), and Sulfur (Soul)
The master is teaching the student - there are two men, two suns, ad even two babboons in this piece. Sharing and art. Giving and taking. The teacher shares, and the student takes, indicative of the fact this is Daitokuji's final lesson.
In alchemy three suns also appear to show the three stages of aclehmy, the blakckun, white, sun and red sun. The black sun is considered important for the dissolution stage of alchemy. The man holding the flask contianing the golden liquid, made from the four elementsor rather Plate 2 is also referenced in this duel.
Daitokuji is the old man with the flask, the duel also concludes with an elixir created from the four elements of nature. Judai creates elemetal hero elixir by fusing four elemental heroes of different elements in his graveyard. After her reflects upon what he's gained in the past year at Duel Acamdey compared to what he didn't have before - friends.
At which finally Daitokuji elucidates why he chose Judai of all people as his chosen pupil.
"Alchemy 's ability to change all into gold is merely a superficial phenomenon. It's true aim is to change the hearts of people into purer, nobler things."
Judai as we'll find out in season 3 started out the story as a friendless loser, and his desire to connect to others through dueling, causes him to purify the people around him by enduring many trials and tribulations for their sakes.
Amnael is also the first to notice the potential of Judai, and that this potential lies within Judai's darkness. Though, even though Judai is pushed to do a little self reflection in this duel (admitting to himself that he was lonely before he came to duel academy and this is the first time in his life he's had friends) he doesn't actually look inside that darkness towards those repressed childhood memories we were looking at earlier.
If anything while Daitokuji's lesson is a short-term fix, like a bandage over Judai, it doesn't actually help him in the long-run. This is because the reason why Judai is succesful in this season is not really anything of Judai's doing, but because Daitokuji the master rigs it for him. Daitokuji is the one who prepares challenges to increase Judai's strength at dueling, Daitokuji is the one who hands Judai the emerald tablet that lets him make a philosopher's stone during his duel with Kagemaru, Daitokuji is the architect of most of the plot in season 1 and Judai just kind of passively follow his script. Judai is not the alchemist in the first season, he's the apprentice and basically he only makes his first step in his journey by consuming his master and that's in episode 45, when the season is 4/5ths of the way over.
Judai is the alchemist, he's supposed to change others by forming relationships with them the same way that he can fuse two monsters together to form a stronger monster. However, he also has to change himself in order for that to happen and Judai doesn't change through seasons 1 and 2 - he gets by in the short term but it costs him long term development.
Because the duels Judai gets into are always about other people and not about himself. Even the climactic duel of the season against Kagemaru, Judai barely knows who this guy is. Judai's not there by choice, Judai is there because Daitokuji set things up so that his student Judai would defeat Kagemaru the main villain.
Judai's not dueling for himself so we barely learn anything from these duels, and Judai still doesn't really take this duel seriously. The one small thing we get from him is this:
"I feel sorry for you, you can control all the powerful monsters you want, but if you're the one wiping out duel monsters... no one is going to see you as a friend. And that'd make you lonely right? Live as long as you want, but without friends around, it'd just be boring right?"
Which sounds like a pretty shallow statement, but is telling of Judai. Judai had no friends before coming to Duel Academy. Judai gained friends because he was a strong duelist, Sho looks up to him because he's a dueling prodigy like Ryo, Asuka befriended him as a duel rival first, Manjoume only views him as a rival, Ryo sees Judai as someone who's potential for growth surpasses him because Ryo being a perfectionist feels like his perfectionism is stagnant. Judai's only way to connect with people is through duel monsters, and the reason most of these people have an interest in him is because he's a dueling prodigy. Thus, Judai equates dueling with making friends, and believes he has to keep getting into duels like this for the sake of his friends rather than himself.
Judai only wants to duel for fun, but is put into situations where he has to duel with high stakes, because everyone relies on him as the best duelist around, and because he thinks the only reason he made friends in the first place is his skill as a duelist.
Thus, Judai even when forced into these stressful duels, will fall back on his whole "I'm just trying to have fun" thing in order to cope because he's not really here because he wants to but because other people have put him into this situation. Therefore, he doubles down on his own personal enjoyment to convince himself he's here because he wants to and so the pressure doesn't get to him the way he's seen it get to other people like Manjoume.
Judai goes through several trials that seem like Nigredo in season 1. He goes through yami no duels where his life are on the line, challenging his philosophy of only dueling thrilling opponents for fun. He's put through literal trial by fire twice, first by Darkness, then by Daitokuji, situations where he will literally burn away into ash if he doesn't perform. He even duels a Yami no Game with Kagemaru where he forges a philoopsher's stone to create 3 custom cards to win the duel - but once again that's not really Judai who forged it because Daitokuji did it for him.
Daitokuji argues that the true alchemy changes the hearts of other people into nobler, purer things which Judai has arguably done for his friends - but what about his own heart?
Other people around Judai change, and are changed by Judai, but Judai himself for the first two seasons does not change. Even in incredibly plot important duels, and I'm including season 2 as well, because in both cases Kagemaru and Saio Judai wasn't really facing himslf or even a reflection of himself. Kagemaru is Daitokuji's enemy and mess to clean up he passed onto Judai, and Saio is Edo's chilhood best friend who became a victim to the light of destruciton. In both cases Judai swept in to fix things because that's what Judai does, he fights others battles for them because he himself lacks either an internal or external reason to duel - and he doubts his abiltiy to make friends if he didn't go around fixing everyone's problems.
As Above, So Below
It is other characters who go through a Nigrido phase in Season 1. However - their Nigrido phases will be reflected in Season 3. These characters experiencing their own inner turmoils mirror the obstacles that Judai has to face ahead of him.
Asuka
Season 1: Judai helps Asuka searching for her brother who's disappeared into the darkness.
vs.
Season 3: Judai travels into another dimmension to find Johan after he disappears from this world, only to find he's possessed the same way Fubuki is. Judai also blames himself for Johan's disappearance and takes on the burden to save him entrely by himself, like how Asuka leads the search for her brother.
Manjoume
Season 1: Manjoume is completely crushed by his responsibility to always win that his brother's force onto his shoulders.
vs.
Season 3: Judai being told to his face he wont' be able to win because he doesn't carry any burdens or serious responsibilities, because that's what drives people to try hard when they're pushed into a corner. Only for Johan to tell Judai that much like Manjoume is being pressured by both of his brothers, Judai has always had to carry everyone's hopes on his shoulders. When he cant carry them anymore, he has a breakdown that pretty much mirrors Manjoume's season one breakdown word for word.
But, even then I won. The others hope their hopes on me, and I won! But still...!! They're all gone. There really was something missing within me. But what is it? What was missing?
Sho
In season one: Judai basically becomes the replacement for Sho's brother, who he has a poor relationship with and Sho has to face his inferiority complex towards his brother head on.
vs.
In season three: Shoe becomes the trigger for Judai's growth when he rejects Judai entirely and stops calling him "aniki" being the last one to abandon him in the dark world when just about everything goes wrong.
But, I guess I thought wrong. Big bro you've just been dueling to satisfiy yourself. You're not my big bro (aniki). You're not my big bro (aniki).
Fubuki
Judai even becomes lost and faces his inner darkness like Fubuki does, the first person to appear before Judai and challenge him to a Yami no Game. Fubuki who was possessed by a dark version of himself who valued power above everything else and then got lost in that darkness.
Judai has no arc in season one, and instead helps other characters along in their arcs. However, Judai's inability to change himself or confront his own inner darkness bites him when two seasons later.
Judai's arc then reflects aspects of all of their arcs. Sho's afraid that his brother doesn't love or respect him because he's an inferior duelist to Ryo. Judai loses Sho's love and respect. Asuka has to go on a journey into a darkness to find her loved one and fears Fubuki may never return. Judai repeats that same journey for Johan. Manjoume's cracks under the pressure his brothers put onto him to always win because his family's love is very conditional. Judai finally cracks when he realizes a lot of his friendship was built on the very conditional fact that he had to always win duels for them and fight for other people's hopes and dreams and not his own. In season one Judai cleanses Fubuki's inner darkness, in season 3 Judai sinks into his own inner darkness that's been there and ignored all along, and so on.
The nigredo phase is about cleansing your own impurities, and Judai is presented to us like a pure shonen hero who doesn't need to be cleansed so he spends his entire time cleansing other people - only for it to turn out his heart turned out to be darker and more selfish than anyone expected.
#ygo gx#yu gi oh gx#yu gi oh#judai yuki#alchemy#this took all day#and i still have like another one to write#ygx meta#ygo meta
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since sans is of another world, is papyrus from another world too? are they from different worlds but just so happened to end up in the same one, or does papyrus belong to the world of undertale while sans doesn't?
things we know about sans in deltarune:
he has a younger brother, presumably kris' age or not much older considering he's very protective of him and acts like leaving them to hang out alone "in his house" would be irresponsible
that or he's just weird about his adult brother for no discernible reason. which I sincerely hope isn't the case because come on
ironically, while the skelebros house sprite in undertale is named sans' house, the one in deltarune is named "paphouse".
the game value that checks whether you've already talked to sans about his brother in ch1 when you see him again in ch2 is called "paptalk". it's not his full name, but i believe it's safe to assume that sans' as of yet unnamed brother in deltarune is still papyrus.
naming yourself or the vessel after papyrus in the goner maker sequence will get the prompt "an interesting coincidence" and the steam page (i think?) for deltarune says he's "busy" so it's highly lilely he'll play a role in the story.
still, like you said, part of the evidence that sans comes from deltarune is that he dies in a way that's different from every other character in undertale. papyrus included.
something else weird about his death: he's the only character who has color (red blood) in his sprite in the battle screen, which is strictly black and white. this is very obscure and likely means nothing, but there's a weird comment in the undertale crosstitch book about how you can color the battle sprites if you want to diversify things but they "won't be canon". what an interesting thing to say, why would they feel the need to specify that...
thing is, papyrus' death remains much more similar to ye average undertale monster death. so... what's up with that?
papyrus and sans showed up to snowdin one day out of the blue, though it's not explicitly stated, they most definitely got there together.
"where do skeletons come from" is a question posed more than one time, if jokingly, such as by the baby bunny in deltarune
the snowdin residents had never seen them around before. which can also mean absolutely nothing, because they didn't even recognize us as humans lmao
undertale papyrus appears to have never seen the sun before
there's always the "forgettable" check description in the genocide run that haunts my every waking hour.
which is a theme that recurs both in deltarune (the song "don't forget") and in undertale through sans' workshop and the hidden drawing with "don't forget" scribbled on it.
sans has an attack called "gaster blaster". in one of undertale's patches, a bit of dialogue was added when checking the box of attacks in his room if you abort your geno run with his fight about how with his special attack "you surely would've been BLASTED to..." with blasted highlighted in yellow. yeah. safe to assume he has those too.
his paper with Toby's original concept art/details about him had a bit about him having a [REDACTED] named [REDACTED], right under another line that read "has a brother named comic sans". if we take this mysterious presumed relative to be gaster, then his connection to him becomes even stronger
papyrus has a negative reaction to the CORE specifically (he gets inexplicably sad when we call him and he can see it in the distance) but also hotland in general.
Gaster created the CORE and "fell into his own creation". from the way it's phrased, it's highly likely it WAS in fact the CORE, even if it's just vague enough i have my doubts
i really have no idea! I'm heavily inclined to think that the papyrus we meet in undertale is NOT from deltarune/the papyrus we'll meet there, while sans is the same person. this opens some pretty complicated questions to answer, especially from lack of evidence as we're still in chapter 2 out of 7 and we haven't met papyrus yet.
what happens to deltarune papyrus by the end of the game?
if papyrus is from undertale, what happened to UNDERTALE'S sans when deltarune's version got isekaid
exactly how long ago did all of this go down?
sans likely worked with gaster at some point after arriving in undertale, where they found out about the anomaly "our analysis" (which is mostly flowey's work after being resuscitated ie: not in deltarune. the "our" also couldn't have been alphys instead because she gives no indication of being aware of the SAVE powers, the anomaly or time manipulation—though she DID study alternate universes! and she knows sans! interesting coincidence). if so, how is gaster involved with the fate of deltarune NOW, when sans is still there? sure, he was shattered through TIME and space, but wouldn't that constitute a paradox? of course, unless we take "another Him" literally and this isn't the same gaster as the one from undertale
if we go "papyrus is gaster" instead, why does he respond to "papyrus" in deltarune too, why isn't he just gaster (and why does the name "gaster" still crash the game)?
all in all, i DON'T think we have enough material to work with, especially with papyrus. sans had his arc, his lore you could find and piece together with a satisfying conclusion ingame (think of the narrative payback that's finally reaching the workshop behind their house) while papyrus', while still being as much if not even More befuddling, was... all over the place. unexplained. incomplete. you can't piece back much of anything about his past. which is why i have SUPER high expectations for him in deltarune. he's clearly being built up for SomeThing,and i think it's going to be a lore arc just like sans had in undertale, all to himself, while his brother is off having his hotgirl customer service summer with the local goats and... presumably getting sucked into another universe. whoops!
here's a link to the crosstitch page comment, courtesy of @undertale-encyclopedia (you're a godsend to theorists everywhere, thank you so much)
if you're interested in the otherworld/deltarune sans theory, then i cannot recommend @megaderping 's two videos enough, which showcase both its proof AND the contradictions and issues it brings up (HERE'S the original, and HERE's an addendum after some discussion on the previous video). she gathers and mentions pretty much EVERYTHING that made me believe in it in the first place, AND the bits that make me doubt my interpretation of it, though surprisingly i DON'T think they touch on the blood business, which is curious because it's such a big controversy even now. i also owe them and their discord friends credit for the "papvalues" discoveries in deltarune's code, as my hacking and cracking skills are non-existent.
#WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM. AAAA#answered asks#undertale#sans#papyrus#deltarune#otherworld theory#entry log#w.d. gaster#Psst. since you're here. go check out dorked's comic inverted fate. and her latest video on alphys. she's amazing
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9 People I'd Like to Get to Know Better
Thanks @sycamoretrees for the tag!
Last song: I'm going to cheat and go for a whole album. I've been really enjoying Where's My Utopia? by Yard Act recently: deceptively clever stream-of-consciousness lyrics that walk the line between wry irony and passionate sincerity, all set to post-punk beats that you can dance to. (Shout-out to HELLMODE by Jeff Rosenstock and Sorry for the Late Reply by Sløtface too – both brilliant albums as well)
And while I'm breaking the rules, I might as well mention my wrestling playlist that I've been working on! It's a really eclectic mix of songs that remind me of various different things in wrestling – feuds, characters, general vibes etc. It's not finished yet (I'd like to organise it thematically and write some annotations to explain my thinking behind the choices), but maybe you'll find something on there you like!
Favourite colour: it's a tie between blue and purple (especially lilac). Also currently enjoying the yellow-green of the new leaves that are appearing at this time of year!
Currently watching: wrestling, surprise surprise. I'm just about keeping up with AEW and completely failing to keep up with NJPW. Other than that, I've not really been in a big TV/film mood recently. Although I did see Dune Part 2 the other week, which I thought was fantastic. My partner and I have also become slightly addicted to watching Gab Smolders play Nancy Drew games on YouTube.
Spicy/savoury/sweet/(sour)/(salty)/[umami]: since @sycamoretrees set a precedent of adding options, I'm going to go with another write-in candidate: my beloved umami. I am a Marmite fiend and will eat just about anything if it has soy sauce/miso/strong cheese etc in it. I enjoy pretty much all of the above tastes though, especially when combined in interesting ways. If I had to choose between the original options, I probably lean towards savoury; I have extremely strong opinions on crisps.
Relationship status: I've been with my partner for almost 11 years now :) (While I'm here, go check out her fantastic art and tabletop RPG writing at @mortphilippa! Obviously I'm biased, but she's super talented!)
Obsessions:
Too many to mention them all, but here's a selection:
Wrestling (of course): as well as my usual AEW & NJPW, I've watched some CMLL recently, which has been fun. I also recently reached new levels of nerd by emulating King of Colosseum 2, a Japanese wrestling game from 2004, on PC. It's good! Holds up well!
Tabletop role-playing games – an ever-present obsession for me. I've just wrapped up a 4+ year D&D campaign that I was GMing, which is an odd feeling, but I'm so proud of the story we told together. I'm also currently GMing/writing stuff for Cy_Borg, Liminal Horror and Brindlewood Bay, among others! There are tons more I want to run though – too many games, not enough time! (I am always up for conversations about TTRPGs by the way – I could talk forever about them! Hit me up if you wanna chat!)
Puzzle games: more of a recent obsession. I continue to do the Wordle every day, but I've recently been enjoying Connections (sorting words into categories), Heardle Decades (identifying songs from the intros), and Squeezy (a weird game about fitting letters into other words). I'm also going through a bit of a point-and-click adventure phase. Really enjoying Unavowed by Dave Gilbert currently. I'm not usually an urban fantasy fan, so it's a testament to how good the writing is that I'm loving it as much as I am.
Spring flowers: spring has well and truly sprung here in the UK, and I am loving all of the flowers that are popping up everywhere! There's nothing that brings me joy quite like going for a walk and doing some plant-spotting (I'm trying to get better at identifying plants this year! I'm mostly reliant on Google Lens and a bit of inherited knowledge from my Grandma currently)
Oops, that was A Lot! Enough about me. Time to tag some other people! (Only if you feel like it though! Absolutely zero pressure)
IRL friends (I know you all very well already, but I always love hearing what you're up to 💙): @thewaythroughthewoods, @thepenultimaterolo and @mortphilippa (and @unpairedbracket if you fancy it!)
Some Tumblr people wot seem cool (sorry if we've not interacted much – I've not been on Tumblr a lot recently and I'm bad at starting conversations!): @norfkid, @sybilius, @dansedan, @unlikelywrestlingfan, @punkrockpariah
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⭐
suuuuusssshhhhiiiiiiiii my love! Thank you for playing with me, and per our dm conversation you settled on the sex worker bobadinluke au series for the director's commentary ask game. Which is gonna be hard since you were there when I was writing it, I'm not sure what I can come up with that you wouldn't already know/vaguely recall, but I'll give it my best shot.
Right away, I'll say that everyone that knows me has dragged me at least once about my fic titles. I'm not great at coming up with them, and usually just pick something at random. At the time I was writing this series, I had this idea of grouping fics together with some very loose theme. Which is why my dinluke stuff mostly have a mando'a words as titles, the big BDL series are all lines from songs by Frank Sinatra, and this series has titles that are all songs from the 2000s. The songs have nothing to do with the fic, except that the one line I used for the title somewhat had something to do with the fic itself. Which I know drives @bronze-lorica crazy, lololol, and I'm sure she'd not alone.
This series started off as three prompt fills. Three people requested "sex worker" from a list of AUs but asked for different ships, and I decided to make my life easier by setting them all in the same, modern world. This series got me by the throat as I was writing, and I'd post a little more, only to be like "Oh! And another thing..." over and over, until there were 37k words of it.
I knew I didn't want to tell an angsty story with this one-- I love angst but I wasn't in the mood--so instead I went with the idea that Luke's a sex worker that's doing this as a means to an end, and is very clear about when the end will be. So, instead of seeing him hit rock bottom and let that be the motivation for the sex work, it's more transitory than that. This is only a moment in his life that we're seeing, and he's very clear about that.
His sex worker style I sort of based on the persona I take on in my client-facing/customer service jobs. Upbeat and patient. "You can trust me" and "We'll get through this together" vibes. And since I like my triads where everyone is a puzzle piece that fits in together, providing something for each person that's unique and different, it synced up nicely to make Din someone with a repressed/religious fanatic background. Luke's very open and non-judgemental, not to mention competent, energy is like Valium to Din. It lets him soften and be more willing to engage in a way that he doesn't really with his bristly husband. Boba's my gruff, blue collar man and when I hit on the idea of him dealing with chronic pain from an accident at a construction site (the Sarlacc building project, he fell into the pit, natch, and then after I decided that, I couldn't stop hearing Andy Dwyer singing "pit. I fell in it, the pit. You fell in it, the pit. We all were in that pit.") it made sense that Luke was able to help him if he was training to be a physical therapist. After that, it was all a matter of teasing those three connection points in different directions to see how the three of them could provide for each other in unique ways. That's really where the plot (such as it is) came from. Writing it was a really organic, natural process, which isn't normally the case for me. But, I guess, I started off knowing the characters in this incarnation really well (and with faaaaaaar more clarity than usual) so it was mostly a matter of seeing where that would take me.
(link if anyone else wants to play)
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Game Review: Tetris Effect: Connected
General opinion: Positive.
Tetris Effect: Connected is, obviously, a tetris game, with a modern graphical twist. It has classic and VR modes, both of which have their own pros and cons, but are also both worth checking out if you have the ability to. With several different modes, Tetris Effect: Connected offers a lot of different styles of gameplay for varying skill levels.
Starting off, I want to give the game devs credit where credit is due: this game absolutely slaps for it's visuals. A tetris game in the Unreal engine is certainly a choice to make, and they pulled it off really well. Sparkly particles, glowing animations, and surreal visual effects bring a magical experience to a classic arcade game, no matter if you play it in VR or on your screen.
It has both a main campaign where you play through different levels in a story-like sequence, as well as other, more casual AND more intense gameplay options. Marathon modes through themed levels, gimmick modes where you clear "corrupted" blocks or deal with mind boggling effects, and calm modes where you have no game over are all available to play, giving variety for any kind of player.
On top of this, they have colourblind modes of various kinds for the game stages themselves. You can play with classic colours, custom level patterns, or modes that add patterns and colours that make it easier to distinguish the blocks from each other. There's also multiple difficulty levels, ranging from beginner to hard, so you can adjust how many lines you want to clear per level.
The final point I want to praise is the audio experience. It's amazing. There's unique, original tracks made for the game, and the "title song" (used colloquially because it's not actually the title screen song, but it is the one from the first level in the story mode) is ABSOLUTELY incredible in my opinion. Heavy beats that are influenced by the ways you turn, flip, and drop blocks paired with each level having individual themes to them that inspire and match the music playing make it both engaging as well as good to listen to on its own.
And now the negatives...
One major issue I have with this game is that the story mode does not have options for speed, nor do they have a "no game over" setting. This means people like myself, who have visual processing issues as well as mobility issues, have a harder time clearing levels and unlocking the next theme in line. Some levels have rapid speed ups and slow downs that are a bit jarring, and while I understand the fact they might not be able to give the option to not change the speed, I'd have really liked if they'd given an option to have no deaths. It meant, for me, that I got stuck on several levels that I otherwise would have really enjoyed because they went from speed level 3 to speed level 8 or higher all within one lines difference. Having this option for the story mode would have improved the experience immensely for me, as I'm still stuck on the last level in the easy mode.
The only other thing I'd add as a problem is that if you're photosensitive, it could get painful very fast, especially in VR mode. They do have options to turn down or off particles, change graphics settings, etc. but that doesn't change the fact that there are strobing lights on some levels that you cannot turn off.
The above limits the people I can truly recommend the game to, which is genuinely unfortunate, because I know several people who would LOVE this game, if it had the accessibility features mentioned.
Final notes
Overall, it's a great game that brings a really nice, fresh twist on a game that's a decade older than I am. It really justifies itself as an iteration of tetris, much like Jacob Geller has said.
If you liked this review, please go and check out Jacob Geller's video Tetris Effect And Other Games With Immaculate Vibes! It's the video that introduced me to this game, and he makes some really interesting observations on tetris and marble games, and how they interact with their history.
Additionally, I post these in my free time, but if anyone has movie, game, or series recommendations, please feel free to send them in! I really do love reviewing media, and if I can turn this into an actual job it would be incredible.
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Cruel Summer Analysis
So, taylor using bisexual and lesbian lighting during cruel summer is so interesting because I didn't buy that this was about karlie in the way that conspiracy kaylors claim it is but I do recognize the karlie references in the song (karlie was married and had a child by this point... its not confirmation theyre still dating) but the fact that it's about Joe as well really confused the hell out of me but guys okay with folkmore and midnights, I think cruel summer is the opposite side of high infidelity (and bejeweled) and here's why
The song starts with "fever dream high in the quiet of the night, you know that I caught it" which first let's talk about lavender haze being a fever dream high !!! The next line is what immediately connects to high infidelity and bejeweled to me because it's so interesting, I love cheating taylor swift. Okay, here we get "bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price you know that I bought it" this to me immediately connects to bejeweled bridge where she is done talking about the karlie/Calvin situation and she meets Joe for the first time where she is immediately horny for him.
Like, we know when she met Joe, she was begging someone else to put her in the penthouse and not the basement of their heart (Karlie most likely was with Josh and taylor at the same time, probably after kissgate their relationship was never the same... I wanna talk about the conflicting narrative we get about kaylor sometime but not now) and here comes a bad boy who tells her that her aura is moonstone (which is a very pale blue, which we know she sees herself as midnight blue aka deep blue, also in the song she sings she's got a blue feeling) and he is a "shiny toy" which is a call back to better than revenge... very interesting...
maybe she is trying to say that she was flirting with multiple men to get back at "her" and he comes with a price, probably saying that if she chose him she'd had to end the situationship with karlie (glitch vibes) but she's okay with that because she bought the toy anyways.
And the use of the pronoun "you" in the song makes me feel like she's talking about two people and here is why because she starts off the pre-chorus with a very intriguing set of words smashed together. "Killing me slow, out the window, I'm always waiting for you to be waiting below" okay I'm getting so many vibes here from high infidelity here okay
"You know there is many different ways to kill the one you love, the slowest way is never loving them enough" is fantastic because it can really be taken to mean either party in the relationship. Either taylor or her partner wasn't fully present (most likely both) and it slowly killed her because she was always waiting out the window for them to show up below or it can even be more deep and mean that she is in a relationship with Karlie but she wants Joe to be the one showing up at her window, waiting for her below so they can run away together???
It's giving love story vibes right, like the concept of Romeo save me!! And then we get the most bisexual line in the song I think, "devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes" like this is a bait and switch!!! Because in the bridge taylor says I love you but it's not to the angel, it's to the devil omg okay I'm getting a head of myself let's go slow.
"Devils roll the dice" coming immediately after "im always waiting for you* to be waiting below" makes me think she is saying here that her heart was torn between a devil and an angel (i.e. karlie) and she was kind of waiting for you* to show up and show her the you care about her. And the fact that "angels roll their eyes" comes after the devil taking a chance and rolling the die (playing games... omg... playing games... and he rolled the die because he wanted to win but the angel it was too risky so she just rolled her eyes?!?!?!?!?!) And then we get what doesn't kill me makes me want you more, which I'm still like in the high infidelity vibes tbh.
And also "flashback when you met me, your buzzcut and my hair bleached, even in my worst lies, you saw the truth in me" joe not giving a fuck about her relationship and wanting her anyways...? Like he's flirting with her but she is still with karlie but she wants him and karlie is making her feel... tolerated not celebrated.
And I think I'm right because, then the chorus is about how the shape of your body is new but the feeling she has is blue (i.e. what happened during summer of 2016 she met Joe and wanted to be with him but didn't know if she should leave karlie...? Idk I'm not 100 on this but something happened) and then we get the most telling line for me "it's cool, that's what I tell THEM, no rules in breakable heaven" this to me feels like....
She is saying her relationship with Karlie was breakable heaven and there were no rules so everything is cool. But the use of the word "THEM" I THINK she means both the devil and the angel. She tells THEM it's cool, she's fine but they're killing her slowly because she wants more. She wants to be the penthouse of someone's heart, she wants someone to roll the die and take a risk on her, not roll their eyes at her.
Then we get the second verse, "hang your head low in the glow in vending machine, I'm not dying" like she's lying here obviously, this conversation they're having is killing her on the inside. Maybe the first verse is about the devil and the second verse is about the angel, because it's such a contrast right and to me part of the confusion because it kind of feels like she's talking about two different people and I thinking she is... then we get the reason why she is dying (aka being killed slowly by not being loved enough... in the basement of your* heart) because you* say that "we'll just screw it up" in these trying times, we're not trying. Is an interesting line because it seems to me like maybe taylor is asking you* aka karlie here to try with her and karlie is hesitant because they already screwed it up once???
And she changes the pre-chorus again, says cut the headlights (style?) And summers a knife, I'm always waiting for you to cut to the bone. Like, she is waiting for karlie to say something to her that will cut to the bone so here we are getting vibes of neglect and hurt and just toxicity that are unhealthy and not rep of the kind of love that taylor wants. This is where my comprehension of the song used to fall apart but I think with high infidelity/bejeweled, you kind of immediately see what she's getting at with cruel summer tbh.
Because then she says, if I bleed you'll be the last to know but we know that this isn't who joe is (you knew the entire time vibes, grinning like a devil vibes, oh I love Joe so much) but it makes sense with tolerate it and high infidelity and bejeweled actually. Like this relationship she is currently in cuts to the bone because of the things the partner says but they'll be last one to know!!!
Then we get the bridge and this gives me hits different vibes so hard, which is very interesting because hits different is about a break-up but this bridge feels like she's talking to a casual fling almost... because okay "I'm drunk in the back of a car and I cried like a baby coming home from bar, I don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you" but in hits different, we know that the relationship ended so maybe the last part is a double meaning.
I dont wanna keep secrets just to keep you being about having to hide with karlie as well as having to hide her feelings for her "friend" joe????? Maybe karlie and her were broken up that summer and she was flirting with Joe and she caught feelings and this is why the bridge is like this???? Because we get a bait and switch in the bridge when we realize she is talking to the devil, not the angel, in the song. Because like, society wants to be in love with angels right but she really wants the devil (high infidelity vibes... seal my fate... like being with Joe meant it was sealing her fate with karlie who she thought they'd be together forever?) But also because at this point, she snuck in through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal her fate...
She was already living with karlie at that point so why would she have to sneak into the garden gate... unless she was with karlie but also sleeping with joe??? Like, idk, but this to me feels like she didn't mean it in a "snuck in to see you" way but "snuck back in from seeing you" way in high infidelity/bejeweled vibes kind of way because then we get the first time that SHE speaks out loud to the "you," in the song and it's to the devil, not the angel.
Which like, she sets it up so you're kinda on the angel side until the bridge where she says "I love you, ain't that the worst thing you ever heard" and he* looking up grinning like a devil*
Because he rolled the die, took a chance on her heart and made her fall in love with him so he can have her for himself (sealed her fate, he knew all along because he was scheming too, etc etc etc) but the angel all she did was say they'll screw it up and they shouldn't try to make it work again etc etc????
Like, to me it just screams high infidelity/bejeweled/dress bridge vibes????
Cruel summer is the bisexual girl anthem.
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✨🛒🤡✍🏻🎶 for the writing meme! However many of those or few of them you would like I just got overzealous choosing so 😅
(Fanfic Writer Emoji Ask)
✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉
Ah, the dreaded self-compliment. XD I am not good at these.
I think I have gotten quite good at character voices - making them accurate to canon, hearing them in my head, distinguishing them from each other, playing them off each other. Most of my fics are very dialogue heavy and so I think my facility with this makes them stronger by far and I'm proud of that. c:
🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.
There are probably a lot of different answers to this (this is one of those questions where I would love to get a reader's perspective as well). Off the top of my head though - the vast majority of my fic writing falls within the theme of missing scenes - expanding on canon moments or scenarios that could have extra depth to them, filling in gaps not covered by the main story, etc. I enjoy playing with moments where two characters connect over something subtle/non-obvious that they have in common (all of my fics about Jaheira and Karlach's friendship are variations on this for instance).
🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?
In trying to answer this question, I have looked back at my fics and realized that while they often have a lot of humor in them, it's not really laugh-out-loud funny so much as sort of muted and laced through. Honestly, some of my best humorous moments have been in the shorter banter things I've written as part of my liveblogs - this interchange for instance always makes me smile still, and the conversation at the end of this post also.
I do get a kick out of the mental image of Lae'zel yeeting Buddy out of the tent in "Owlbear Vignettes". And I'm also proud of the lightheartedness of Peyter's introduction in "The Two Sides of the Coin" (a fic which is otherwise quite sad):
“Peyter! Ah, stlarn --” Jaheira sneezes and thumps a fist lightly against the wall, shaking her head to clear it. “Peyter, do you never clean this place?”
“What good? It only gathers the dust again.” His high, cheerful voice has no immediately obvious source, but drifts from somewhere within the massive stacks of battered books and shelves of trinkets that crowd the small room on all sides. “You should know, Jaheira, that people are going around saying you're dead again.”
“I am - I have merely decided to come haunt you in particular,” Jaheira says dryly.
“I should be so lucky.”
✍ Do you have a beta reader?
I do! The lovely @cindymeltzer has beta'd a number of fics for me - which is increasingly generous given I'm deep in the Baldur's Gate hyperfixation hole currently, a set of games she has not in fact played but lets me hurl feels at her about anyway. XD
🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?
I don't really. I'm one of those people who has to turn the music down to think clearly, especially if it has lyrics. XD
#ask meme#istibaethoriel#thank you for the ask! :D#sorry it took a min to get the answers out haha#these were fun to think about
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I have a conflicting view on what story High Infidelity is telling.
I see that it's commonly viewed as an admission of cheating but tbh I was never one to track Taylor's "boyfriends". Something about that doesn't hit completely home for me.
My own view doesn't sit right with me either so we're getting a post about it as I collect my thoughts and why I think it is related to Tolerate It.
Lock broken
Slur spoken
Wound open
It starts with these three lines. Lock broken could be taken literally as in a lock broken to her diary which I've seen talked about. Also the lock to her trust has been broken. Can't even get in now if you have the key as you've shattered that for her. It implies some violation of trust.
Slur spoken after this violation. I feel that's not at all slurring words but an actual slur. Whoever violated her trust lashed out calling her a slur in response. (I'm considering her father maybe)
Wound open. A slur from a loved one is incredibly hurtful.
Game token
Ok now this one is interesting to me, game token. You collect a game token from somewhere like an arcade, to use later when you want to play a game.
In the context I'm laying out this implies the violation of her trust revealed something about her that can be used as a token over her. For when they want her to play their game so to say.
Blind hoping
Blind hoping that this violation won't be used against her in the future? Babe I've been there. Hoping that this information that happened across won't be used against you.
You said I was
Freeloading
This is something that makes me question the romantic relationship story. I can see it as a parent "fed up" of their child hanging onto them or their house, or even, hanging onto their guidence as you did as a child. Maybe they expected you wouldn't need that support and viewed their job as done when they raised you to 18 and now you're freeloading off that assumed support. You've been freeloading, now it's time to move out.
(This could be a cultural misunderstanding as I rarely hear that term used in romantic relationship settings)
I didn't know you were keeping count
This adds to the "what of this was a parental relationship" as you would never assume your parents are keeping count of everything they've done for you to weaponize against you later as a way you owe them for it all. Out of everyone you wouldn't think parents who brought you into this world are the ones that are keeping track of what you owe them.
Do you really want to know where I was April 29th?
This date is repeated and must be important, but what if it's used as an example of how you title a diary page? Each page starts with the date you're talking about. Her entry in this date was likely something clearly queer, not able to be read in another context and that's why there's the demand for her to say exactly what she was doing.
Do I really have to chart the constellations in his eyes?
This is the most beautiful way I've seen "connecting the dots" be expressed. Does she really have to tell her father exactly what she got up to on this date. He knows, she knows, he's pushing for her to say it out loud knowing it can never be taken back.
You know there's many different ways that you can kill the one you love
The slowest way is never loving them enough
Here is what convinced me. This line. Now think of Tolerate it. A song about never being accepted, her love not being celebrated. How she has done everything right and still is just tolerated. I'd nearly say it's almost like in that song she's not being loved enough by this parental figure and here we have it.
Tolerate it calls up imagery of being child-like in desperately wanting that parents love and approval. Of knowing they are treating you differently to the point of indifference, just dealing with you around.
High Infidelity is the night her father found out about her possible queerness, a secret girlfriend or something along those lines. They lash out, from that point on everything changes. Everything that was a given of a loving parental relationship became something to be used against her, she was now a freeloader, and Tolerate it is how that'd played out over a longer period of time.
Is this completely based on personal experience? Partly. When my parents found out I was queer everything changed in that relationship. In the house I was tolerated until I left. They praise the bare minimum they did and kept count of everything a parent is meant to do anyway to use it against me if I ever expressed how I was mistreated. How I owed them for that.
I absolutely invite some discussion on this song and the lyrics, has anyone else drawn up something different, a connection to another song?
#ts#taylor swift#gaylor#gaylor swift#ts lyrics#taylor swift lyrics#midnights#high infidelity#tolerate it
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Top 5 Songs!
FINAL FANTASY XIV TOP 5 ASKS!
Oooohhhhhhhh god this is the hardest one for me.....
Okay, from the bottom to the top!
5. "Scream" - Pandaemonium Raids (P6 + P7)
Listen I'm a goth mfer that has a pletora variety of music tastes outside of metal/rock/etc, but this shit hit me so hard especially the lyrics. Not to mention I think it actually fits Ellie's story rather well and her themes.
4. "Your Answer" - Mothercrystal Theme
I came into XIV rather late in the game, having started a bit after Shadowbringers came out, so Endwalker was my first official XIV expansion release. The entire time I thought the big baddie at the end of the epac would be Zodiark, and then it left me thinking "Wait, if it's not him. Then who is it?"
Never have I imagined we'd be fighting crytal mommy herself.
And it was awesome.
3. "Mourning" - Tower of Paradigms Breach
I'm going to be straight with y'all, as this is the straightest I'll ever get: I've never played the Nier games (pls don't yell at me, I know, I'm the worst gamer ever). But my god of all the nier raids this one has to be my favorite as far as music goes. I can't explain it. It just hits my ear in a way that is just *chef kiss*
2. "To The Edge" - Seat of Sacrifice Theme
I'm not someone who typically gets attached to the gamedevs of the games I play, nor am I used to them having such a personal touch on the games they work on. I can't explain why I like this so much, but I think it was the fact that Soken (according to what I heard, if the timing is correct) wrote and composed this while fighting cancer in the hospital gave this song far more emotion than I thought it originally had.
This song definitely also hit different after Endwalker, especially after Venat's line "No more men shall have wings to bear him to paradise. Henceforth, he shall walk.
1. "Close in the Distance" - Ultima Thule Theme
I am going to be straight with y'all again (I apologize), but I am also not typically someone who gets emotional over video games. I came from a lot of communities where you don't really connect or feel for the characters you come across, and if you do, it is VERY short-lived. When I tell you, WHEN I TELL YOU, how much I fucking SOBBED hearing Close in the Distance in full at "that part" of Ultima Thule, it is impossible to describe how I felt.
#cactusxwren#✦ — • queries • ask prompts •#Thank you for the ask!#endwalker spoilers#Also yes I am spoilering this with a tag due to context
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☕️ if Ryan was white he would not get half the hate he does -drylan
Man(gn) you didn't have to get that real.
I really go off down here so fair warning
I blame it half on racists and half on the fact that Ryan's is never actually explicitly, canonically made to return Dylan's (or Kaitlyn's) feelings.
Because Dylan is SUCH A FAN FAVOURITE. Like not just on Tumblr and tiktok but across Twitter and Reddit and YouTube, almost every demographic and brand of player, loves Dylan. Rightfully so, he is wonderful. And if it's not Dylan they love, it's Kaitlyn (because Brenda Song) and it's the exact same situation.
That fucking line where Ryan says "maybe neither" is a HUGE source of the hate @ Ryan. Every let's player I've watched who was invested in the romances is like 😐what the fuck?😐 + The comments all shitting on Ryan, My friends watching me play over discord all hated everything that came out of Ryan's mouth after that ONE LINE.
As much as I love the game. At times it feels like it was written by two different groups of people. One group who cared alot about building characters and having them make decisions that made sense for them, and the other side was just half assing it and just choosing the easiest thing to program, one dimensional decisions that got to the point fastest rather than the best story/character moves.
I've already spoken at length about how rushed the final two chapters were, so I won't do that again but I'm talking about a different side to it.
Some of the writing is wildly mediocre. And Ryan's character in the last third of the game falls into that mediocre writing. The first 60% of the game? Angel. Perfect boy. We get a pretty solid grasp of who he is and what he's all about
Everything past like chapter 6 or 7 as soon as Laura shows up? It's like the writers stopped trying? When Laura arrives he's just used as a point of contention and given all these weird aggressive lines that don't work for what we've been shown about his character at all. And after that he just becomes like a comedy relief/dumb line machine next to Laura's "badass heroine". They just have him say stuff for the sake of saying it.
The only accuracy comes from him sherlocking the Hag of Hacketts Quarry being real and the connection to Silas and being adorably excited over it while also being scared.
What I'm saying is the racism is coming from inside the house. The house being the writers room. And while I'm certain there's people who are harder on him because he's poc, there was definitely some of that energy from the writers as well.
#this is why ryan belongs to us now#the quarry#ryan erzahler#this is a supermassive games hate account#the quarry critical#the quarry ryan#ask#drylan
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Double Life Duos as ABBA Songs
Accidentally put a ridiculous amount of time and thought into this, and can’t get over how good some of these match!! Started out with Honey, Honey and then as I listened to more ABBA some of these veritably punched me in the face :D
Waterloo: Grian and Scar. Repeating of fate and of always being tied to another. A sense of being doomed in an inescapable narrative, trapped together with someone. “The history book on the shelf is always repeating itself” for their continuous connections in the different games. “I was defeated, you won the war.” Scar dying to Grian’s hand in the cactus ring, and this line is immediately followed by “promise to love you forever more” and “couldn’t escape if i wanted to” and “knowing my fate is to be with you”!!!! This is so incredibly on point for desert duo soulmates, always being connected but this time oh so literally. Also “and know it seems my only chance is giving up the fight” along with “and how could i ever refuse? i feel like i win when i lose” for the third life finale??! ARE YOU SEEING WHAT IM SEEING
Winner Takes It All: Scott and Pearl. This is a song about the cold hand of fate, and about one person losing everything while the other gets everything. There’s also a verse about how the loser had felt safe with the winner, like they belonged with them, and how they’d built a home together, but now it’s all gone. “I don’t wanna talk about the things we’ve gone through, though it’s hurting me, now it’s history.” Pearl hoping for a reunion with her past allies, but that’s history now, it’s over. “Building me a home, thinking I’d be strong there. But I was a fool, playing by the rules.” Pearl excited to build her life with her soulmate, but Scott breaks the rules of the game by rejecting her. “The gods may throw a dice, their minds as cold as ice, and someone way down here, loses someone dear.” Do I even have to elaborate?
Super Trouper: Jimmy and Tango. Bright and upbeat song, I think it really suits this kind and optimistic partnership! The theme of resilience and hope for better, despite difficulties faced is so good. It’s about finding support from someone after a long time of misery, and this mutual support giving you the help you need to get started again. “Beams are gonna blind me, but I won’t feel blue, like I always do, because somewhere in the crowd there’s two.” “Lights are gonna find me, shining like the sun, smiling, having fun, feeling like a number one” especially because these two are valuing each other as partners!! they are hyping each other up and they are each others number one :D
Knowing Me, Knowing You: Cleo and Martyn. It’s about the resolute and final end of relationship, a break that you can’t come back from. “Here is where the story ends, this is goodbye.” “ Knowing me, knowing you, there is nothing we can do” and “We just have to face it, this time we're through” which can link to how with their shared tendency to hold grudges, as well their stubbornness and independence, this split really does seem like it will be the end for them. It should be noted that “aha” is a repeated backing vocal motif in this song, which really solidified this choice for me kdsjfgsdfgshldfg
Voulez-vous: Joel and Etho. I feel like the energy and confidence of this song is great for them! It’s very bold and self-assured, and with how cocky and experienced these two are as certified chaos-causers and killers, I think it fits their partnership well. They have mutual respect for each other, and are excited to wreak havoc, which I think really comes through in some of these lines. “ I'm really glad you came, you know the rules, you know the game, master of the scene, we've done it all before and now we're back to get some more.” “ People everywhere, a sense of expectation hanging in the air, giving out a spark, across the room your eyes are glowing in the dark” is SO good for the first episode especially, with all the anticipation of the game to come and then finding their soulmates. (also etho’s red eye probably literally glows in the dark)
Honey Honey: Bdubs and Impulse. It’s such a sweet, loving song, it’s a perfect fit for the newly married couple! The motif and title of honey is fitting for the pet names Bdubs has already given Impulse, and it has lines like “honey, honey, nearly killed me” (for the betrayal in third life and possibility for accidentally killing the other through the soulbond), “honey, honey, don’t conceal it” (’im proud!” ‘i want to shout it from the rooftops!’), “i don’t want to hurt you, don’t want to see you cry”, “stay on the ground girl, you better not get to too high” (impulse worrying about bdubs dying when building like in third life).
Fernando: Ren and BigB. This song is about a bond formed during wartime and a the riendship surviving through the devastation, it’s about true and lasting loyalty! “We were young and full of life and none of us prepared to die.” “If I had to do the same again, I would my friend, Fernando.” “Though we never thought that we could lose, there’s no regret.” “I can see it in your eyes, how proud you were to fight for freedom in this land.” I feel like this celebration of this war born friendship is perfect for these two once-members of both Dogwarts and the Fairy Fort, who have found each other again.
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Execution (Eguzekyuushon): Translator's Notes
When I took on this project for myself to translate Mafu's latest song, I didn't realize what an intensive process it would be to translate something completely from scratch ^^' Luckily, my school had fall break this past week and I've had time to work on this translation between studying for my Japanese and engineering midterms. (And if I counted this as studying for my Japanese written midterm, that's my business, okay?) Truthfully, there are still parts of this translation that I'm not 100% on, and I am still a novice, so I would prefer if people would use this translation merely for reference, rather than some definitive translation (so that my misunderstandings of Mafumafu's intent don't get reprinted all over the internet, ehe). If you would translate certain parts differently, I would love to discuss. 日本語を勉強している学生として、もっと上手になりたい！
Execution is a song I adore for both its lyrical beauty and the incredible instrumental. Really, the melodic/harmonic contours, the instrumentation, the story of the song, and Mafumafu's dream-like voice are just a few of the things that draw me into this song. Particularly in his diction, I wanted to draw out a few of the themes I noticed as I was translating: Noh theatre, Othello, and opposing pairs.
Noh Theatre
Honestly, I'm not extremely knowledgeable about Noh Theatre. However, I have two things to point out. Firstly, the word he uses for farce, kyougen, does at face value refer to a lie or falsehood. But, depending on what characters are written, it can also refer specifically to a theatrical farce presented in the interlude of a Noh play. Secondly, the word I translated as "act" in "as the curtain resists falling on this act" is 幕 (maku), which is both the curtain and the act. So, I wanted to note this as another theatrical connection.
Othello
Although I write it quite ambiguously as "game board" in the first verse, the game board here is almost definitely an Othello board. I consider it to be confirmed, since he mentions Othello later in the song, and he mentions the board as being lined up in black and white—Othello is a game with two opposing player, where one plays as black and the other plays as white. Truthfully, I only recently learned how to play it on iMessage as "Reversi" with a friend, but I can explain that the premise of the game is to outmaneuver your opponent in order to turn as much of the board to your colour as possible.
Other than a game board, Othello is also a Shakespeare play where the eponymous protagonist is manipulated into believing his wife is committing adultery, and resultantly murders her out of rage. Certainly Shakespeare's story of Othello, too, has ties to Mafu's lyricism, as he describes in the song his own distorted love game. Don't you know what murder means?
Opposing Pairs
Throughout the song Mafumafu expresses several dualities. He expresses the duality of Othello with tragedy and comedy and the duality of the self with black and white. The duality I could not convey for the life of me was his use of 裏 (ura) and 表 (omote) in the line "Within the interior and facade of a birdcage are the imprisoned remnants of reality." Ura and omote are complete opposites, with ura expressing the rear, underlying, hidden, "offstage," or internal aspect of an object, and omote representing what is external, surface-level, or some visibly evident principle. In the end, with each word encompassing many abstractions I failed to adequately translate each in a single word T_T Other than that, his language itself encompassed two extremes. 病み可愛い (yami kawaii) which is "sickly cute" sounds very modern, is derivative of 夢可愛い (yume kawaii) and is strongly tied to the modern menhera aesthetic. Then, he gave me a hard time when he used a classical form to express "without believing." I am not yet proficient enough at Japanese to plumb the depths of his lyrical genius, but I was sincerely impressed by Mafu's dedication to this theme in even the extremes of diction he used.
Misc. Notes
Other than that, I wanted to point out a couple other things I noticed while translating. 口封じ (kuchifuuji) which I wrote as muzzling, can also have the implication of murdering someone in order to guarantee their silence. 定め (sadame) which I wrote as fate, does have the meaning of destiny/fate but also rule/regulation, which lends credence to the fact that the laws in this world are decided by powers beyond the speaker’s reach, almost as if within a play. Personally, I think this word also expresses another duality within itself.
Those are all the notes I have for this song. So, I'd like to end by saying that Mafumafu may be on an indefinite hiatus, but of course I still adore him with all my heart. He has cheered me on for nine years, so I will wait for him even if his hiatus were to end up being nine more years, www. Rest up Mafu-kun, and return when you're ready! Remember, your health and happiness are most important!
#mafumafu#mafumafu lyrics#utaite#english translation#execution#translator's notes#novice translator#vocaloid#music#まふまふ
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What do you think of GOT the beat and do you think they are in anyway related to SuperM. They also have 7 members, BoA also seemed to have Taemin's role? As to why she also has Taemin's role, I think you once said TM is like the one controlling them all (SuperM members) and in Stamp on it (GTB's latest title song), the dance break started with BoA standing in the middle and she did this dance and they (GTB mems) saying she's like a dark magician controlling them all
I like the group. I'm pretty impressed with "Stamp on it" MV. It's all about showing off the girls, but it is very well done. And the styling is superb. BoA also got a much better make up and a more suitable outfits this time around (in "Step Back" she looked noticeably older in comparison to the rest).
I listened to the album. Continue to be surprised that Korean female idols have metallic tone to their voices. There are very few exceptions.
I like that super-groups like GOT give an opportunity for older idols to get more time on the stage. I don't know BoA, but I've seen a short clip with her where she expressed her desire to continue to perform. However, she doesn't have enough interest from the young public, if not for LSM owing her, she wouldn't get solo albums, me thinks. GOT won on music shows already.
SM establish new rules for idols, makes their careers longer than in the past. Which means that those neos who decide to stay, will have similar opportunities.
I actually never thought about GOT's connection to SMCU, but now that your brought it to my attention... in the MV commentary video BoA said that Taeyeon's star near the left eye makes it "an odd eye". It was an unusual comment. And now I remember that Seulgi, Karina and Taeyeon had odd eyes in their MVs. We decided it means being under the influence of Taemin, but with still remembering and knowing who they are (and possibly playing double-agent).
BoA is the goddess in SMCU, the good force. When SMCU was introduced, she was observing the others.
GOT girls enter a mansion and are scanned by surveliance technology, which Black Mamba uses. There matrix grid is shown in green as well. In the song they are taunting an interested in them party to come out and face them, enter the game, but warn that "you better watch out". Winter has a line "D-days are coming". There is "Someone can take a rule and change it". Of course the song is about a suitor/possible lover, but it also can be enterpreted (through lore lense) as an adversary (Taemin).
All groups tell the story from different time periods. Maybe GOT Karina has already defeated Black Mamba and any control the latter had on her.
"Step back" doesn't have an MV, however the Stage as space images on the background. So maybe before the real lore, gathering at BoA's planet?
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What is Music if not for Concerts?
youtube
(this site only allows me to put in one of my own files so enjoy the whole concert from YouTube- there will be one file at the end of my own)
Many people who enjoy music usually agree that they either have seen their favorite artist perform live or want to see them live. The reason for this is because people generally feel connected to the artist they see live, or at least more close to. I’m guessing that’s the reason so many Harry Styles fans fly across the country, spending thousands of dollars on him. Honestly, I’m not judging, if I had the means to do that, I would as well; Though for me, it would be to see Machine Gun Kelly play live again. The emotions that poured through my body were overwhelming to say the least.
(from 19 news)
Over the summer, August 13, 2022, to be exact, I had driven to Cleveland, Ohio to see MGK play a sold out show in the Cleveland Brown’s football stadium, FirstEnergy Stadium. It was amazing, possibly even the best show of my life. It started off with a lot of positive energy, which I think possibly fueled the entire rest of the show. The day was considered “MGK Day”, where there was merch and games and his music playing while he was getting some award from the rock and roll hall of fame. Not to mention, the whole city was turned pink as well, in lue of support to Kells. In addition, the mayor of Cleveland presented MGK with a national day, like MGK Day, every year on August 13th, at Kell’s own coffee shop- 27 Club Coffee located in Cleveland.
(family picture :) at 27 club coffee shop )
To start out, there were 3 “pre-show” events including Willow, Avril Lavigne, and Trippie Redd. A lot of people were freaking out about seeing these live performances, though I only knew like 2-3 songs from each of their sets, so I thought it was just okay, like maybe a 7/10. They were entertaining to watch but I was here for MGK more, if that makes sense. I will say, Trippie’s act was kind of insane. Not only did he blatantly get high on stage from a large blunt, it looked like he would sing a little bit then go back backstage to maybe throw up and then rally a bit more. He was also like “wow I’m really fucked up right now” to the crowd as well, making it to me, seem like he just didn’t really care about his fans. It was still entertaining though a plus.
Finally, MGK is up to play. By this point, I’m getting a second hand high from the people in front of us smoking, which you know, makes sense given the crowd. Anyways, the board begins to play a video of a pilot of a helicopter as his stage has a pink helicopter strapped to the top. Born with Horns begins to play AS HE IS COMING OFF A LADDER FROM A REAL LIFE HELICOPTER. It was purely epic and Ithink it was a great way to start his show.
(travis barker and mgk, taken from my iPhone)
He then began to sing his hit songs from both tickets to my downfall and mainstream sellout. In between the songs he would tell a little story, something like this song is for so-and-so and I really want you guys to feel the emotion. I really love this part of the show because it felt like I was really connected to him and everyone singing along made it feel like I was less alone. I think also he did a really good job with his stage presence, while going between a couple hit songs on Binge and Hotel Diablo, he Zip-lined from the top of the stadium to the bottom wearing a Cleveland Browns Jersey with the logo XX on it. The logo stands for everyone stands together and he calls it his XX mob, which basically means we love you for who you are, we don’t care what differences you have as a person, let's embrace them because you’re amazing. I think this can be seen through the way he brings the crowd together; it just feels like a family.
In addition to the zip line he also had three outfit changes, smashed a wine glass on his head, performed with Travis Barker and climbed a pillar as he was singing. To me this feels like he’s really dedicated to a show and really dedicated to pulling something together that his fans would like. I think that’s one of the reasons people really relate to his music is because he put so much effort into his lyrics that people feel connected enough to engage with him as a person; that’s why he puts on the shows that he does and I think that’s why people especially men leave a concert feeling loved and less alone.
(mgk end of twin flame, rocking out, caught on my iPhone)
Reading this you must be thinking, “wow she really loved the show” and yes that is correct, I did.However, I wanted to share my favorite part. My favorite part was when he’s about to sing Twin Flame, which is his ending song; he looks out into the crowd, because he knows his daughter is there, and is like “wow make some noise for my beautiful daughter” and starts praising her which is extremely cute and makes me think he’s such a good father. This is especially cute because the song he sings is about the loss of an unborn child from his fiancé Megan Fox, and how much he loves and cares about his family. Praising his daughter and letting her know that she’s loved before playing this song just goes to show how having to abort an unborn child affects an entire family. I think it just shows his personality really well; it seems like he is a person who has many layers- he grew up poor, got kicked out before 17, parents died and tried to sell his music on tapes to make a name for himself. He should be proud of himself and I don't think he really was until he saw his hometown stadium sold out. It was incredible to see.
Like I said before, that was one of my favorite concerts. MGK played beautifully and sang his heart out. It was fun singing along and feeling like I was a part of a big family. I will 100% be seeing him live, even if that means spending money I don't quite have.
#mgk#machine-gun Kelly#Megan fox#cassie baker#twinflame#born with horns#sad#poprock#poppunk#travis barker#Youtube
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The Quietus, October 4, 2011
Even though her song ‘Video Games’ emerged a couple of months back, Lana Del Rey has already experienced equal parts adulation and suspicion. Here, John Calvert speaks to her about David Lynch, New York and the ghosts that hide behind her ‘white picket-fenced cheer’.
She talks like a dairy queen, like Britney Spears, like a cheerleader. 24 years old and exuding the hardy effervescence unique to healthy American girls, there is nothing in Del Rey’s manner that connects the voice at the end of the line to ‘Video Games’, the YouTube smash hit carried by a purring vocal performance so rich you can feel almost feel David Lynch’s velvet carpeting under your fingers.
That is until I hit playback on my telephone’s dictaphone. Slowly all the years of a weary, haunted youth spent in backwoods New York State unravel from under her bubbly facade, like furtive murmurings on the other side of a door. As per the many doomed chanteuses and dead movie idols she invokes in her cinematic music, it seems Del Rey is a good actress. In true Lynch fashion, beneath her white picket-fenced cheer hide the writhing earthworms that plague her heavy heart.
With increasing frequency, naysayers are testing the walls of Del Ray’s persona, in particular questioning exactly who should be credited for her perfectly realised Valley of the Dolls aesthetic. Amidst universal praise for ‘Video Games’, she’s nevertheless faced the incredulity of everyone from high profile bloggers to broadsheet columnists to disgruntled indie stars (Amy Klein of Titus Andronicus threw her oar in), some of whom are convinced she’s a kohl-eyed marketing ploy and as fake as those eyelash extensions. So in a delicious twist of dramatic irony, it’s precisely Del Rey’s persona – the artifice – that forms her only barrier of defence against the media’s worst advances.
Its a lie, however, to tell the truth. Because it seems her story up to now, if largely less glamorous, isn’t so different to that of the Marilyn Monroes or the Judy Garlands, or indeed Lynch’s own tragic starlet in Mulholland Drive. The story goes: smalltown girl moves to the big city, falls into dark waters, becomes forever imprisoned in the house of mirrors that is the media’s oppressive gaze.
Enter frame the Quietus, at hand to shoot the close-up she may or may not be ready for.
Have you always had a dark side, Lana?
When I was younger I felt lonely… In terms of my thought processes. I had the constant feeling that I thought differently to everyone around me. So, I suppose I felt lonely for a home. I didn’t know where I wanted to be, but I knew I wasn’t there yet. I think that this loneliness set a dark undertone for things to come.
Are you a David Lynch fan?
Yeah. When I was a kid playing in bars in Lake Placid, after every show somebody would come up to me and be like ‘You must be a David Lynch fan!’. At the time I wasn’t up on ‘all things cool’, but I looked into Lynch and quickly became a fan. Although I think the themes he explores are a step further into the extreme than I’m prepared to go.
If you can put it down to one scene, which Lynch moment do you return to most for inspiration when writing? I envisage something like the Mulholland Drive theatre sequence, crossed with the home video of a dead Laura Palmer dancing with Donna on the hill.
Have you ever seen Fire Walk With Me and the scenes where Laura Palmer is in the bar with the lumberjacks, sort of dancing and getting crazy? Well, it’s that frightening sensation of being out of control that really sticks in my mind.
Some of the music in your chosen field of expertise suggests love has more to do with obsession than companionship. For example ‘The End Of The World’ by Skeeter Davis has a creepy What Ever Happened To Baby Jane quality about it. And then there’s your line from ‘Video Games’: ‘It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you / Everything I do’. Does this idea resonate with you?
I really love that [Davis] song, actually. And yeah, that idea resonates with me. Growing up I was always prone to obsession, partly because of the way I am, but partly because after feeling so lonely for such a long time, when I found someone or something that I liked, I felt helplessly drawn to it. I suppose that accounts for some of the creepiness in my music.
Like a fatal attraction?
Yeah. After I was sent away to school when I was 15, I had to start life on my own. So I began looking for that ‘someone’ to hang on to. And if it so happened that I found him, then there have been occasions in the past where I’ve been overtaken by my feelings. But with some of the bad things that come with love, there’s also a lot of good… For example that connection… which I struggle to have with most people. So although there’s a dark side to love, there’s also something really hopeful.
You moved to New York City at age 18. Were you at all inspired by New York’s noirish undertones?
Yeah. The way I experienced New York, for a long time after I moved, was alone and at night, walking the streets. I mean, there are thousands of streets in New York and I know them all. I’d go down to the tip of Manhattan, or even down to Coney Island, then travel all the way back up. Because I come from a place that, geographically, isn’t that stimulating. But New York’s architecture alone is enough to inspire a whole album. In fact, that’s what happened at first – my early stuff was mostly just interpretations of landscapes.
Do you feel yourself change when ‘in character’?
‘Lana’ and ‘Lizzy’ are the same person. I wish I could escape into some alter-ego, just so I could feel more comfortable onstage, but I feel the same as Lana as I do Lizzy.
How was it working with David Kahne [The Strokes, Regina Spector, Paul McCartney] on your debut? He has a background in replicating bygone eras.
It was validating when David asked to work with me, only a day after he got my demo. He has known as a producer with a lot integrity and who had an interest in making music that wasn’t just pop.
In terms of instruction, what was Kahne’s input?
He had a lot of things he wanted done. For example, he was interested in a more traditional vocal style and I wasn’t. He’s also a real scientist, so he had a very particular plan. The album ended up somewhere in between what he wanted and what I wanted.
There’s a theory that the archetype you portray plays to male sexual fantasies?
In the video for ‘Video Games’, I was trying to look smart and well turned-out, rather than ‘sexy’. Of course I wanted to look good, but ‘smart’ was the primary focus.
What inspired ‘Video Games’?
A boy. I think we came together because we were both outsiders. It was perfect. But I think with that contentment also comes sadness. There was something heavenly about that life – we’d go to work and he’d play his video games – but also it was maybe too regular. At the time I was becoming disillusioned with being a singer and was very happy to settle with a boyfriend who I loved, but in the end we both lost sight of our dreams. Maybe there’s something not-so-special about domestic life.
A popular American blog recently published a supposed exposé on you, with accusations of inauthenticity. Do you feel like you’ve had your eyes opened? [At the beginning of the interview tQ apologises in advance for ‘going on a bit’. Lizzy/Lana’s telling response is ‘Better a bore than an assassin…’]
I dunno. If I say anything they’ll just publish something like [speaks like an anchorman reading the headlines] ‘Lana Del Ray Gets Her Feelings Hurt!’. It just seemed that with that one article, they were particularly cruel. Not in a playground/indie/mean way, but in a personal vendetta sort of way. They really made it their mission to destroy me. I’m not a confrontational person, so if that’s going to be my life from here on, I’d honestly rather not sing or have a career.
In an interview with Pitchfork you said that people have offered you opportunities in exchange for sleeping with them. Is this true? At the corporate level?
[Laughs, then becomes tongue-tied]
I mean… uh… uh… I mean things get a little crazy, I guess.
Um… There are some situations when you kind of know.
… I mean, it’s sort of a loaded question.
It’s common knowledge that The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde was, by her own admittance, hopelessly drawn to the bad boys – damaged and dark men. Would that be the case with Lizzy?
Yeah, in the past that has been the case. I think with so-called ‘creative’ people, their particular strain of genius can cause the pendulum to swing too far – into self-destruction and what you could call ‘madness’, which is something I can relate to. So, yes, I was once attracted to that. But that was then. Now I’m looking for something more simple.
You also told Pitchfork that God has saved your life a million times, which strikes me as in opposition to your music. Because, in films based in small town America, religion is frequently a patriarchal, repressive and evil presence, with the archetype you portray acting as a force in subverting it.
I think there’s a division of organised religion similar to what you’ve described. But where I’m concerned, my understanding of God has come from my own personal experiences… because I was in trouble so many times in New York that if you were me, you would believe in God too. When things get bad enough, your only resort is to lie in bed and start praying. I dunno about congregating once a week in a church and all that, but when I heard there is a divine power you can call on, I did. I suppose my approach to religion is like my approach to music – I take what I want and leave the rest.
What kind of ‘trouble’?
Any and all. When I was in New York I had nowhere to live, and I was trying to find a way to be a musician… Just trying to survive, which is fucking hard by the way. So I got myself into a lot of situations I didn’t plan on. [Pauses] I think what I was going for was something beautiful, but I kinda got myself into trouble along the way. Sorry, that’s pretty vague.
But you live in London now?
No, not yet. I’ve been in London for most of the last two years, but I’ll book three months there then go home to New York for three weeks. However, when I’m not working I go see my friends in Glasgow, so I spend my time there when I want to have fun. I’m in Glasgow right now.
Any encounters with [notorious angry drink enjoyed especially in Celtic territories] Buckfast? I like the image of you stabbing someone in a car park.
[Laughs] No, I’m a good girl. I leave the drinking to the boys these days.
Do you feel that the ‘Femme Fatale’ archetype still has the power to tap into ‘male sexual anxieties’ or challenge a patriarchal society?
If I’m honest, no. Not as much as it used to. In the 50s it was a new premise, a new form of female power. I think that these days, plain old intellectualism is a more powerful force than the idea of the femme fatale.
Why is it, do you feel, that so much of ‘Golden Age’ pop placed love, and laterally eroticism, in such close proximity with notions of death? In particular the music of Roy Orbison.
I suppose because, sometimes, love feels like a life or death situation. I mean, losing true love is pretty much as bad as it gets, other than actually dying or losing good health. Most people know that. Most people can relate. As Davis says, it’s like the end of the world.
Originally published on thequietus.com with the headline Original Sin: An Interview With Lana Del Rey.
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