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lightsaberisms · 1 year

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Karma MV Analysis

Like a lot of people I was watching TN's Insta livestream really excited to watch the premiere before the stream ended and I was left staring at my phone. But the music video came out like an hour after that stream so it didn't matter in the end.

Anyway, I really like this music video and it has a lot of easter eggs so it's time to see if Taylor's been hinting at things three years in advance.

The video opens with a moonstone blue Midnights vinyl from which pink and blue glitter and butterflies fly out of. This can be a callback to the ME! music video where the snake representing Reputation turned into a kaleidoscope of butterflies (kaleidoscope was also theorised to be the title of TS7). This can represent the Midnights era coming to an end through an old way of showing transitions between eras.

The next scene shows Taylor portraying the Greek goddess of justice Themis (mythology is a major theme in this video so that's fun). I've seen a lot of people say that these Roman numerals at the bottom of her statue translate to 1989 but my own research (I say research very lightly) doesn't come to the same conclusion, I guess this is something you can have your own opinions on.

We then see Taylor wearing a devil mask in what looks like the Underworld. When she takes off the mask we see she's wearing a very Reputation inspired look with black lipstick and the hairstyle of that era.

After that, she takes inspiration from The Wizard of Oz by walking down a yellow brick road wearing red shoes, acting as Dorothy in a children's fairytale book. This is the first of a few fairytale references, the second being Taylor lying on top of a giant cat in a blue dress, potentially referencing Alice in Wonderland. Three Grim Reapers dressed in red flip her off and she blows lavender dust at them which transitions to the next scene.

Next we see Taylor sitting in both sides of an hourglass with lavender coloured sand running into the bottom half. This could represent the time in the Midnights era running out and being replaced with Speak Now TV.

There's also a link to the Blank Space music video here with the hourglass briefly turning into a sunglasses shape for Taylor, hinting that 1989 TV will be next.

Then we see Ice Spice sitting on a clam shell in the middle of the ocean holding pink pearls. This might be a reference to the birth of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty who rose from the ocean on a shell.

Taylor lights up one, then three, then five lightbulbs while dressed in gold. This could be a reference to the golden cage scene in LWYMMD (as well as a hint to SNTV and 1989 TV).

The next scene is probably a link to the line “Love you to the moon and to Saturn” which is from seven. I don’t think this has any more of a meaning beyond Taylor and Ice are really good friends. Maybe if you wanted to make a reach you could say this represents Taylor owning her albums produced from 2019 onwards because she’s holding the lyrics from folklore on a leash? What you can be sure about is Taylor and Ice’s zodiac signs in the starry background, you can’t really expect Taylor to not be an astrology girlie at this point.

The thumbnail showing Taylor and Ice sailing a pink boat down a pink river could be inspired by Egyptian mythology. Correct me if I’m wrong but the west bank of the Nile River is associated with the underworld and death, funeral barges and other ships would often sail across the river to represent the sun’s arc across the sky (explaining why the sun is setting in this scene). Maybe Taylor wanted another way of saying she comes back from the dead.

Finally, we have the coffee cup.

There are a few things to unpack here:

- Taylor’s nails are painted blue and then black, possible hinting at 1989 TV and then Reputation TV

- the Roman numeral for 4 isn’t “IIII” it’s “IV”

- the clock is nearly at midnight

Then Taylor sets the coffee cup down on what looks like the piano in the room used for the Midnights photoshoots and the clock strikes twelve, midnight on the dot. This representing the end of Midnights and the beginning of new music.

#taylor swift #midnights #karma #karma analysis

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coladaminx · 4 months

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So are we all in agreement that katsuki is behind that giant door that izuku has locked up tight? because at This point I feel this might be the case 🤔 think about it Izuku is clearly supressing his feelings for katsuki refusing to think about him and he's scared about a power he can't control or get this FEELINGS TO BIG TO FACE THAT HE'S NOT READY TO FACE OR ACCEPT while consciously putting the plan they had and everyone else at stake for one man THIS IS ACTUALLY VERY CRAZY BECAUSE WTF izuku moved away from the floating island to protect kacchan's body THEN to the ocean because kacchan is now on the ground out of commission!! YA'LL HE LOVES HIM!

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concert-bflat · 1 year

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I need to rant about Ivan guys guys I neeed to rant about Ivan (<--- keeps trying to write fics of him but Never finishes him) like God this man is so gay and so in love it genuinely hurts it Hurts and I am Injured by it and the imagrey is Sooo Good (and Yes this is probably me just parroting stuff Everyone has already said before but shut up it's my turn now!! (aka please I've been holding in these thoughts for Months now I must let them out of their cage before one of them Dies)) [Edit I am Not fucking proofreading this I spent 2 hours on it if there is a mistake you Imagined it </3]

Just like,

You can see it in the way he sees the stars in Till. His own hopes for freedom and the only real light in this world that he lost sight of in Till. He is the hope and wish for freedom that he has shut away and repressed and it makes him fall So Hard

Or how you only really see that red in his eyes (after. Almost Dying) when he's with or singing/thinking about how Till has Inspired him, like a fire has been lit inside him. A fire lit in the darkness. . hmm...

even at the end of the song, where he knows full well that he absolutely Crushed his opponent and also knows full well that Till is his next one. I'm sick. I'm so sick.

Or like. When he frees Till and everything is just Engulfed in that red now. How Till has that same fire in his eyes, he and Ivan are on the same page now. They see that same hope for freedom and they both share it. They're running towards the light (like the sky's lighter there, more on that in a sec), hell, the corners of the right side of the screen are literally tinted in LIGHT GREEN. Till's color. God dammit the whole scene is tinted in red and green. They are literally Complementary Colors. I'mmm soooooooo (God these scenes are soo pretty too I was genuinely Stunned when I first saw this)

DID YOU EVEN NOTICE I ONLY NOTICED NOW the Stars are fucking green. You can see it better in some of the Later Images but they are Literally Green because Ivan sees the stars in Till and uuuughsdfbshb

OR LIKE WHEN TILL TURNS BACK?? AND. And that red is no longer in his eyes and before The Realization hits Ivan his eyes are just Glowing with red. Because he was just Filled with that hope. Freedom was, potentially, Right There

Did you guys even notice in that like. 5 frames in the half-second animation of Till turning away he's totally engulfed in his shade of green. Like of Course. That's such a Till thing to do because of Course he's running back he never actually liked Ivan that way in the first place.

And also the lighting of the sky Flips. Because the light has always been with Till. And Ivan's left in the darkness. In the. Haha. Ha. Black Sorrow. Aha *sits down cries*

And Again with this mf's stupid eyes how they revert to just black because that hope's been stripped away again, how it's even reflected in his present self singing as he reminisces on it. Fucking. Ivan's Expression when Till runs away.T here's so fucking much like the irony. Like did he even see Till hesitate or did he just see him turn and run away.

Like the irony that the guy who's always breaking the rules and fighting and defying and clearly hating living in a world like this won't run away with him, who has always been passive and obeying the rules and just accepting captivity and has been repressing his desire for freedom is so Bitter and Awful but also he always Knew this would happen what the Hell was he thinking this was such a stupid idea like

this man gets No Breaks No Breaks Ever oh yeah btw they're facing off against each other in a literal Death Match. That they might've had a Chance of avoiding if they ran away. Ahah. Hh *sob*

Also this art brings me so much Joy as much as it hurts me on a visceral level like. Ivan Always has his eyes on Till but it goes from a fond smile. Like So Fond flat out lovestruck affectionate gaze because he loves this man and loves spending time with him to a grimace once they're on stage. How Till never really changes or really Has Changed, and that's why Ivan loves him as much as he is resentful towards him. How that's what brought them here, to the stage. How Ivan changed for Till and Because of Till but still Till is like a god damn immovable object with how he stubbornly sticks to his ways. There's such resentment but isn't he himself also stubborn for always sticking to Till anyways? Hell, he's singing all about him in Round 3 and loses control over his own emotions and expressions during it I'mmm Guhhh

Also the first image is titled Observation while the second one is titled Decision(? I think). Like mf What are you deciding. What happened Last Time you decided to do something I'm going to punt you into the next planet

Speaking of observing,

Just. How Ivan's Always Observing. I saw one person point out he's like a background character and it's like he sees himself as one too. He is a passive observer in his Own Life. How he watches all the other children in Anakt garden play. How his childhood leading him to Anakt Garden just kind of. Happens around him while he watches indifferently.

How he's always trailing behind Till. Or how he tends to just. Observe quietly and is portrayed as such.

Not to mention how he doesn't appear in the memories of Anyone else's rounds, not even Till's, even when he literally (temporarily) freed him from the city. He doesn't even appear At All in Luka's round even though we get a clear shot of Till getting his hopes and dreams shattered (though it Does parallel another shot of him from Round 2)

And then the One Times he tries to take action. Or start something. It gets rejected and he's resigned to just. Trailing behind again. Because of Course he'll always follow after Till. And of Course he's fucking bitter about it and bitter about himself because he Knew this would happen and Till is Always looking at someone else and that Never Changes but. He just thought for a moment that he could change something. Man.

Oh I forgot to talk about the competitions themselves huh? Wellll, (and I'll Attempt to keep it brief because I've been writing this post for Much too long but)

Till spends his first round singing completely devotedly to Mizi. Hell, his song wasn't even in the program, it's likely- no, almost definitely something he wrote entirely for her, and Ivan has no part in it, just watches bitterly as he passes out after his, er, stunt at the end

And continues to be passed out for almost the entirety of Ivan's song

Oh but he woke up for the emotional/musical climax at least, going over Ivan's most important memory of them together, that's cool at least right?! Surely Till felt something from that

Maybe they can talk something out, or at least acknowledge their relationship in Some way. Maybe Ivan could at least be seen by Till-

Aaand Till's Actual love interest Supposedly gets shot and now he probably thinks she's dead. His attention is turned to her once again, like it's always been from the start. He never really changes huh?

Better luck next time Ivan--

Just. This mf Never Wins and it makes me Laugh as much as it makes me So Sad

Gets hopes and dreams and future crushed by aliens (standard stuff). Sold off in an auction. Put in prestigious singing school and up to that point he hasn't really cared about Anything and has simply been going through the motions.

Meets boy that basically embodies the freedom and hope he used to have. Falls badly in love. Boy loves someone else. Tries to free him and give him the thing he'd surely want most. Rejected. Back to school you go loser.

Oh btw this school is to train you for a competition to the death. Btw you're facing off against that boy you love in the semi-finals of said death competition. And you might kill him or he'll kill you. Because you didn't run away when you had the chance.

Also he didn't sing or think about you at all during his round. In fact I'm pretty sure he wrote a whole ass song that wasn't even registered in the Alien Queue or whatever for someone else. Also he probably has hardly looked at you. Also he was unconscious for almost the entirety of your song. Except for the part where you lost control of your emotions.

Oh but that doesn't matter now because now he thinks the person He likes was just killed. So he's kiiinda gonna be distracted by that. And that might fuck up your round with him. Sorry man

This was Originally a rant about how much I love Black Sorrow's imagery and the portrayal of Ivan's love because this man clearly has Complex Emotions and then Kinda derailed into me just ranting about how many L's he's being handed before getting the executioner's blade. Uhhhhh oops. Congrats on sticking to the end though?

I just love Ivan very much. He is So Bitter and so Horribly In Love and looks up to and is inspired by Till So Much and I wish people explored him on a deeper level/more personally.

I wish I saw more deep looks at Ivan/Till, there's clearly Complicated Things going on there. Hell, we don't even know what Till's pov on the whole thing is aside from that One scene of him hesitating before running away from Ivan. As much as I love fluffy interpretations of them, I (did I mention that I'm an angst addict btw. Could You Tell) wish all their Complexities could be acknowledged. Like how Ivan Clearly puts Till on such a spotlight and it is Such a downfall for him through and through and he Kinda knows it but also What Else does he Have and he really looks up to him Sooo Much (just. Look at them in that official art of them in Anakt Garden !!!) and deep down just wants to run away from this horrible place and wants to run with Till, the Light of his life the fire in the darkness the fucking stars the universe his black sorrow just. Oh My God I need to end this post already I was supposed to be studying but spent those 2 hours Writing instead

But anyways yeah uuhhh long story short? This guy is a gay loser. He tries to look sooo cool and smooth but he is suuuch a gay lovestruck loser and his rose tinted glasses are so thick he can't see shit (I'm pretty sure I quoted that from something (but also no genuinely when I first got into alnst after just watching the first 3 rounds videos and saw Ivan in official art I was So Surprised like "Oh he's actually That kind of mf that tries to look Cool and Hot but is actually just Pathetic and Sad and Gay I thought he was Just Sad and Gay")) he's probably also touchstarved as hell idk and his love is doomed by the narrative (unless Hyuna saves his and Till's asses. Buuut we'll see </333)

Love ya Ivan keep taking L's <3333 mwah

#alien stage #alnst #ivan alien stage #till alien stage #ivantill #tillvan #character analysis #oh my god i spent like 2 hours onthis #i was supposed to be studyinnnggg #and now i need to go to sleep like asap #god damn you ivan #this is karma. but fr this guy just Keeps Losing it's so sad and funny #number 1 homosexual loser <3 #i love this stupid little gay man with his dumb red eyes and his stupid tiny fang #dumbass /affectionate #touchstarved dumbass #okay i need to shut up now #thank you for humoring me alnst fandom

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anonymous-chicken-was-taken · 10 months

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What the Ace Attorney Villains Could Get Charged With (to the best of my research) (in America laws)

Game One

!Disclaimer! I know nothing about law take this with a grain of salt I was just bored.

Frank Sahwit

Burglary - This one is obvious. He was a thief. He stole stuff. How many charges exactly depends on how many he admits to or can be traced back to him.

Breaking and entering - At least one charge from Cindy's case, potentially more depending on any other burglary charges.

Assault and battery - Hitting Cindy with the Thinker. The assault may or may not be aggravated depending on whether it was technically intended to be used in a way that would readily and likely cause death.

Second-degree murder - This one could potentially be brought down to voluntary manslaughter. It depends whether he intended to kill Cindy when he hit her, and if he was in enough emotional distress that hitting her would be semi-justifiable.

Incrimination - In pinning the blame on Larry, he did this.

Fraud - Even if pretending to be a newspaper salesman to steal from people didn't constitute fraud, Payne stated this as his job. This means he lied about his job to the court by saying he was a newspaper salesman. Which is fraud.

Perjury

Redd White

Incrimination - This is when he tried to frame Maya, and when he shifted the blame on Phoenix. This may lead to two charges.

Obstruction of justice - In incriminating Maya, he tampered with the crime scene. Plus, blackmailing a judge is probably illegal and probably falls under this.

Corruption - He was a corporate official, which makes some of this other stuff constitute corruption, mostly the blackmail.

Blackmail - Speaking of, he could be faced with countless charges of this, depending how much could be tied back to him.

Assault and battery - Punching someone in the face multiple times is illegal, kids. So is hitting someone on the head. If Frank gets aggravated for the thinker, so does he. Phoenix's assault probably wasn't aggravated, though, as I doubt his rings/fists would be ruled a deadly weapon considering the intent.

Intimidation - His threat for an "accident" to happen to Phoenix is more than enough to be considered a threat of violence.

First-degree murder - His murder of Mia was completely premeditated. There's little he can do about this.

Criminal threat - Threatening to injure or kill someone is bad. And using flowery language like "accident" doesn't negate it.

Wiretapping - While he didn't actually put the wiretap there, it can be inferred he ordered it. This makes it conspiracy, so there is some shared guilt.

Conspiracy - The wiretapping was a joint effort between him and April. He may try to claim otherwise, but its degree of success is debatable.

Workplace abuse - It's a real good sign when your secretary fears you murdering her like you did to that defense attorney a couple days ago, Redd, I'm sure you could never get in legal trouble for that.

Perjury

Dee Vasquez

Racketeering - Oftentimes, people in organized crime are automatically found guilty of this. This being charging someone for a service they haven't requested (think mafia "protection").

Blackmail - This one is also pretty obvious. Jack Hammer.

Obstruction of justice - This is her tampering with the crime scene when she moved the body. Also potentially when she tried to kill a lawyer involved with the case.

Attempted murder - By proxy, two charges, when she ordered her goons to kill Phoenix and Maya.

Voluntary manslaughter - Hammer was trying to kill her, she's got that justified self-defense plea. Not that it matters much, because...

Countless other mafia-related charges - We don't know the exact details of her mafia connections, but she's entrenched enough to have goons. We can safely say she did a lot of illegal stuff in organized crime.

Intimidation - Mafia goons trying to kill you is pretty intimidating. That and the threats of erasure.

Criminal threat - See above threats of erasure.

Conspiracy - She works together with Sal Manella in the obstruction of justice.

Perjury

Manfred von Karma

Forgery - He's known to forge evidence constantly.

Obstruction of justice - See above. Plus, tazing lawyers and stealing their evidence is pretty frowned upon. So is intimidating witnesses.

Assault and battery - The evidence room fiasco. Potentially aggravated depending on the actual voltage of the tazer and if he lied about it or not, but given they didn't die, probably not.

Theft - He stole evidence from the evidence room.

Intimidation - Brandishing a taser at someone is generally considered this.

Corruption - Being a government official, most if not all this stuff constitutes corruption.

Incrimination - Due to his conspiracy with Yogi, he is guilty of attempting to frame Miles by proxy.

First-degree murder - He sees a gun and a man he doesn't like in the elevator, and he does think about it before doing it. Thus, it is premeditated and first-degree. Also, given his conspiracy with Yogi, he may also be guilty of murdering Hammond by proxy.

Child abuse - Both Miles and Franziska could push for this, even just with what we have explicitly stated. Depending on interpretation and how poor of a guardian he was, this charge could have some serious ground to stand on.

Emotional abuse - Pretty much the same hat as the child abuse charge, only less uncertain.

Criminal threat - I don't know what you want from me, man. He threatens everyone all the time.

Torture - I haven't played investigations yet, but from what I'm looking at, he psychologically tortured a guy, so. That's pretty non Geneva convention certified of him, even if this isn't a war.

Workplace abuse - Again, this is hearsay because investigations, but he's pretty crappy to his subordinates, it seems.

Solicitation - He heavily encourages Yogi to kill Hammond and frame Miles.

Conspiracy - He provides Yogi with the means to kill Hammond, so while there is technically no mutual agreement, he's also guilty of this.

Perjury

Damon Gant

Corruption - As a government official, a great deal of his crimes constitute corruption.

Forgery - A great portion of the conflict of his case comes from the forged evidence he made.

Obstruction of justice - Most of the rest of the conflict of his case comes from the evidence he withheld.

Blackmail - Quite a severe case of it, at that. Multiple years against a single person is nothing to sneeze at.

Incrimination - That's what it was when he made it look like Ema killed Neil.

First-degree murder - He thought about killing Neil long enough to consider the pros and cons of doing so, and went through with it. That's pretty premeditated. A good lawyer may be able to get him down to second degree for Goodman, but it's highly doubtful considering.

Conspiracy - He had Lana hide Goodman's body, and while there was blackmail involved, there was still a mutual agreement. Thus, conspiracy.

Concealment of death - There are a few different names for this, but it's when he had Lana hide Goodman's body. It was unsuccessful, but there were still significant steps taken to have it happen on both their parts, so he may get a partial sentence.

Criminal threat - He makes so many threats.

Workplace abuse - I think using a pipe organ to punish your employees violates some international laws or something. Speaking of which...

Torture - Of the audio variety. Seriously this guy is the police how did this fly for so long that is BAD.

Vigilantism - This is actually very interesting. Despite the fact that he is a member of law enforcement and Joe Darke did kill multiple people, he still used illegal means to bring him to some form of justice. Depending on how much he wanted Darke convicted, it could be argued that his actions constitute vigilantism.

Assault and battery - One case of assault against Goodman, and two charges of battery against Neil and Goodman. Assault is the threat of violence and the means to follow through, and battery is the actual act of violence; seeing as Neil was unconscious, he could not have been threatened. The assault was aggravated, as a knife is a deadly weapon.

Perjury

GAME TWO

#this was fun #ace attorney #might edit later #phoenix wright ace attorney #ace attorney trilogy #frank sahwit #redd white #dee vasquez #manfred von karma #damon gant #crime #laws #crimes #how do I tag this lol #AA villain crimes #analysis #now with aggravated assault

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knightsickness · 2 years

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recognising the theme of grief in jfa is literally so important to getting anything out of it. phoenix and franziska are both grieving miles, though phoenix is depressed by this (refusing to engage with it at all) and franziska is in angry denial. miles is coming to terms with the death of his father and the metaphorical death of his mentor throughout the trilogy, but especially here. pearl is understandably devastated over the loss of her mother, which she only voices when she thinks she’s about to lose maya too. mimi is grieving ini, and her crime is killing the man she sees as responsible for the death of her sister. acro is grieving bat, and while attempting to kill the girl he sees as responsible accidentally kills his mentor. these crimes are supposed to be sympathetic, but not selfless - despite the justification of grief, they acted for themselves, because ini and bat are already dead. adrian and juan are both grieving celeste and both attempt to frame engarde, who they see as responsible for her death - a stance that alleviates both of them of responsibility, that justifies forging a suicide note. is it supposed to? engarde is the subversion to the theme in that he’s a villain who is evil because he enjoys hurting people. he is entirely self-interested, without any facade of grief or reasoning. the situation he puts phoenix in forces him to choose between his ideals (solving the case) and ‘self-interest’ (saving his friend at the cost of an innocent life). the bad ending, in which phoenix allows adrian to be convicted, reflects phoenix’s established tendency to depression and avoidance - after he wins the case, he wanders the streets alone, thinking about it in abstract terms. the good ending - adrian getting justice, pearl reunited with maya, miles and franziska coming to their version of reconciliation - is a hopeful one, opening the possibility of moving forwards

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sfaghetti · 1 year

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I think it's very interesting that whenever someone dear to Franziska gets hurt she has to blame it on someone else to take her anger out on them because she doesn't know how else to cope with being sad and worried

first it's when Miles "dies", and she blames Phoenix for it and takes her anger out on him despite the fact that she didn't know what motives Miles had for "dying", but she has to assume that it's Phoenix's fault because she needs to take her feelings out somehow and it's so much easier to blame a random man than to realize that her father is to blame for her brother's mental health.

then it's when Kay gets a head injury and she loses her memories and she blames this on Miles, despite not knowing how Kay got injured or what happened, but all she knows is that her friend is hurt and she's sad and worried but she doesn't know how to express her feelings in any way that isn't through anger so she HAS to find someone to blame it on and take her anger out on them

#shes such an interesting character #she cares so deeply about those near her but doesnt know how to express her worry over them and it makes me so sad #franziska von karma #kay faraday #miles edgeworth #phoenix wright #ace attorney #ace attorney investigations #please give this girl some therapy #character analysis #i guess?

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 2 months

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Psycho Analysis: Manfred von Karma

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

The Ace Attorney series has no shortage of iconic prosecutors going up against Phoenix Wright in court, but most of them aren’t really Psycho Analysis material. Edgeworth, Franziska, Nahyuta, Blackquill, and even Winston Payne are all simply antagonistic and ultimately are revealed to be good people when it comes down to it, while Klavier Gavin is outright a nice guy—it is his defense attorney brother who’s an irredeemable monster. There are only a small handful of legitimately villainous prosecutors who will be covered, and one of them is the epitome of an anti-villain. But this guy here that I’m reviewing now? He is easily one of the biggest bastards in the entire franchise.

Manfred von Karma is a prosecutor obsessed with the idea of perfection, and he seeks to achieve it both in and out of the courtroom. He’s ruthless, unscrupulous, and will do anything to achieve victory, be it by manipulating and destroying evidence or orchestrating an over-complicated revenge scheme. And on top of it all, he is one of the single most important antagonists in the series; in fact, he kickstarted the entire plot with his actions.

Motivation/Goals: Von Karma is absolutely obsessed with the idea of perfection, and to this end he concocted the most absolute, perfect revenge against the family that tarnished his perfect prosecution record. Gregory Edgeworth got him penalized back in the day, so von Karma seized upon a golden opportunity and murdered him in cold blood, which turned into the DL-6 incident—something that pretty much set the stage for the whole series.

But that’s a bit too mundane for a man like von Karma, so he didn’t stop there! He took in the son of his most hated rival, warped him into becoming a ruthless prosecutor, and then on the eve of the statue of limitations running out on DL-6 manipulated events to get his protege framed for murder, be it that of Hammond or his own father. Von Karma is just incapable of settling for something simple and clean, the man wants to completely and utterly decimate the Edgeworth name’s respectability for the slight against him.

Breakdown: Befitting the final boss of the game, von Karma’s breakdown is absolutely spectacular. Once you finally reveal him as the killer of Gregory Edgeworth because of that bullet he carelessly left embedded in his shoulder, he lets out a massive screen-rumbling roar as images of DL-6 flash onscreen.

Then he smashes his head on the wall, all while ranting about Edgeworth. It is incredibly satisfying to watch this smug bastard fall apart after being so thoroughly trounced by our rookie protagonist, and it really seals the deal on Wright's character development over the course of the game alongside Edgeworth's.

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Final Fate: Von Karma is in a very small pool of Ace Attorney villains we get a definitive word on the ultimate fate of, with most others only getting ambiguous demises at the hands of the judicial system or otherwise imprisonment. By the time of the third game, he is explicitly stated to be “gone from this world.” Whether he was executed, killed himself, or simply died from natural causes is of course left to your imagination, but it’s still reassuring to know the bastard is dead after everything he put the heroes through.

Evilness: On the surface, Manfred seemingly pales in comparison to later villains like multiple murderer Dahlia Hawthorne, professional killer Shelley De Killer, or international espionage master “The Phantom,” as he only ever killed a single person (albeit a very important person, with the killing done out of spite). A single murder isn’t really enough to get a high Evilness score, no matter what the reason is.

But then you think about his decades-long prosecution career where he did literally everything he could to get a conviction. How many innocent people did the Demon Prosecutor send to an early grave despite their innocence? And look at how he adopted the son of the man he killed and warped him into his antithesis just to get one over on the man who put a mark on his perfect record; that shit is beyond diabolical. That’s not even getting into how he treated his own daughter.

I think it’s honestly wild how even with all that to consider, he’s still not the most evil guy in the franchise. He’s a 9/10 on the evil scale, a truly nasty, monstrous piece of work who is theoretically responsible for dozens upon dozens of deaths of innocents, and is most definitely a warped, vindictive bastard.

Final Thoughts & Score: Von Karma is one of the best Ace Attorney villains, but I think he kind of suffers from how the game he appears in is structured. Like this dude is monumentally important to the entire plot, the whole series wouldn’t have happened at all without his actions, and yet he appears in one single case at the end of the game, which doesn’t leave a great deal of time to expand upon him the way the other prosecutors of the series get expanded on. By all accounts, he should be just as pitiful as Redd White is

The thing is, though, that von Karma manages to cram so much personality into his limited time onscreen that he becomes unforgettable for all the right reasons. Unlike White, we get several courtroom segments where we have to contend with his manipulative antics and none of the battles with him disappoint—fitting for the man who taught Miles Edgeworth. And again, unlike White, von Karma manages to have a meaningful impact and presence beyond his only appearance; his daughter is the antagonistic prosecutor of Justice For All, and he pops up in a couple of cases in the Investigations games, one of which is a flashback to the case where Gregory Edgeworth gave him his one and only penalty.

I think what really helps von Karma stand out is just how vindictive he is. Frankly, the sheer insane lengths the man goes to for his revenge is utterly disturbing for something so incredibly petty. So many killers do the deed for equally petty and self-servng reasons, but outside of Kristoph Gavin none of them are as terrifyingly shallow as von Karma and none of them go to the same insane, absurd lengths he does to crush those who he views as having wronged him. He is one of the single pettiest bitches in the entire series.

I think von Karma manages a nice 9.5/10. He’s really only held back slightly by his extremely limited screentime, but he certainly makes the most of it whenever he appears. It’s honestly pretty amazing that the first game managed to have both an excellent significant plot-relevant villain and a pathetic significant villain who barely makes a splash, but any flaws White brought to this game are easily forgotten when Manfred shows up. He’s just a great final boss, plain and simple… or he would be if it weren’t for the bonus case. But that’s a Psycho Analysis for another time.

#psycho analysis #Manfred von Karma #Ace Attorney #Youtube

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bettyshoweduptotheparty · 5 months

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Speaking of Look What You Made Me Do: A MV Analysis (NOT mine)

Write up of original analysis by fists_on_up on TikTok

I need a writeup of this amazing analysis of the LWYMMD song and music video on my blog, but please note it's not mine.

Author mentions that the two verses are about two different things. Verse 1: Kanye and the Snakegate situation ('tilted stage/ the role you made me play of the fool/ no I don't like you')

There is a chandelier on the floor in the bathtub scene. The author interprets this as a reference to Phantom of the Opera, where a falling chandelier is a warning of revenge

During the first chorus, Taylor sits on the throne in front of snakes. Look what you made me do -> become the queen of snakes

Verse 2: 'Kingdom keys, locked me out and through a feast' -> This is not about snakegate. It's about a different vendetta. She's mad about being locked away from something/someone. In the video she is in a golden cage during this scene. She's wearing Karma orange and eating lobster, but there is also a rat on the table, so it's only fake luxury. The cage is surrounded by 7 men dressed in black guarding her.

The interpretation is that these are her public 'boyfriends' protecting her straight girl image, and, as such, she is not in fact in control of her career, hence the golden cage. The Karma orange suit symbolizes the album/collective music she was never allowed to release because it would have destroyed her image. The author also concludes that because this situation and snakegate are both dealt with in this song, that one was potentially orchestrated to cause the other, much like the masters heist was conveniently timed to foil her coming out plans in 2019.

The next scene is the heist scene, where Taylor is shown with 4 women wearing cat masks. This is in direct contrast to the men around the cage, as the women are helping her in the mission, as opposed to keeping her trapped. The door in the vault is also orange, another reference to music that was locked away because she couldn't release it. She is shown with 4 women in both this scene, and the 'dykes on bikes' scene immediately afterwards. The author interprets this as representing the 4 women who actually inspired her music (rather than the men who get credited with it publicly).

The next scene is a real underappreciated gem, it happens really quickly, so you can easily miss it, but Taylor is picturing herself as the leader of this group of women, called the CAT 🐱 MAGNET 🧲 SQUAD. I'm afraid I'll get censored if I spell it out, but you get the idea. (damn, Taylor!!😉)

With how many lesbian references there are in these second verse scenes, I would have to agree that it seems likely that the second verse is about being kept closeted, and she's being incredibly blunt here out of spite.

Next, we move on to a scene that cuts between two things happening during the chorus: 1. Taylor performing with 8 men in I❤TS Hiddleswift shirts, and 2. Taylor cutting the wings of a plane off with a chainsaw. So, what the previous two situations described in the verses made her do, is add an 8th guy to the line up of 'boyfriends' and ground the plane that was meant to be TS6 (as written on the plane). In contrast to the men around the cage that were holding her captive though, Taylor is performing with these guys, they are working for her. So, instead of just being at the mercy of her captivity, she is taking whatever small amount of charge that she can have over this situation. I would also add, as the author has pointed out the fallen chandelier in a previous scene as a warning of revenge, the scene with the 8 men also has three massive chandeliers handing from the ceiling.

The author concludes that the video confirms the Karma album theory (though we didn't have the name at the time) that was scrapped in favour of reputation. And I have to say, it's pretty convincing. But I'd make one amendment, I think because the TS6 plane gets sprayed over to be reputation, it's not an entirely different plane, some of the songs are in fact on reputation, in some form or another. Maybe with some lyric changes, the plane is inoperable after all. And in order to release an album with such heartfelt love songs, it would make sense that she needed to present a 'long term boyfriend' to the public that those songs could be attributed to.

She also says that it very much seems like the story of vengeance that's told here isn't over yet, and Taylor did once say that it would be years, if not decades before this whole music video would make sense to all of her fans. And Karma orange has certainly made a few appearances lately, so could reputation (Taylor's version) finally make way for its big sister Karma? And will it fly this time?

#look what you made me do #taylor swift analysis #tiktok #not my original stuff #reputation #karma

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karma-brainrot · 4 months

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Ever notice how distinctly different Karma looks from the rest of Ace's men?

The rest of them are wearing identical outfits- formal suits that make them look professional. They're also all clearly adults. It's about what one would expect from the subordinates of a man who bought the executive rank.

Meanwhile, there's Karma. A teenager wearing extremely average clothes that clash with the aesthetic of everything else that Ace has. He doesn't quite blend in, does he?

This could just be brushed off as Karma being the Notable Character. He could've simply been designed that way to make people root for him. But even then, that could've been done with a young boy with slightly different semi-formal clothes.

I like to think that this is showing that Karma is fundamentally different from the rest of them.

The other men that Ace kept around were subordinates referred to as a "private force"- which suggests at least some level of respect (not enough for Ace to actually value their lives, but still) that Karma didn't have, based on his description of his life. He started as a slave, and didn't seem to ever be treated as anything more than that.

Their outfits reflect this. The others appear to have a uniform, or at the very least a dress code that they follow. The suits they wear are simple enough for them to clearly be nothing important, but still fancy enough to show that they work under someone rich.

Karma, on the other hand, is essentially just wearing street clothes. He looks like any ordinary person you'd see anywhere you go. The fanciest thing about his outfit is his jacket- and even that looks fairly cheap and average. It's reflective of his low status, and could even highlight his lack of "worth" to Ace.

[Now, I could go on and on about all the theories and headcanons I have about this, but its already long enough with just the primary thought, so that'll have to wait for a later day.]

#karma bsd #bsd karma #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bsd ace #bsd thoughts #bsd theories #bsd headcanons #bsd hcs #bsd analysis #karma thoughts #karma ramblings #ramblings #spreading my karma agenda

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emilover-1 · 5 months

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Fyodor DOES feel empathy… just not as you think.

Fyodor is seen most of the times as someone without feelings or empathy, however that’s just wrong.

He feels the Cognitive Empathy, which basically is the ability to understand other people’s mind and or mental state, both theory of mind and perspective-talking are VERY related (will be talked soon). The cognitive empathy is divided into 4 categories, the categories are:

Fantasy

Tactical

Emotion regulation

Perspective-talking

The fantasy empathy is the tendency to relate to fictional characters, the mental state relates or finds similarity to that fictional character’s mind, both perspective-talking and emotion regulation, it requires for the person to enter the character’s mind and understand them, the emotion the person feels towards the character will variate depending on their emotion regulation.

Tactical empathy is the deliberate use of perspective-talking to achieve their goals, most of the time the people that have the tactical empathy are selfish people, sometimes they use people as tools for their goals, however it isn’t in an aggressive way it is in a psychological way.

Emotion regulation is what allows you to empathize without feeling overwhelmed with the feelings of the person you are empathizing with.

Finally, perspective-talking is the understanding and spontaneously adapt others’ psychological perspectives, there are two levels in the perspective-talking which are:

Level one: it’s the ability to understand that someone else has different views from yours.

Level two: It’s the understanding other people’s physical views.

What does Fyodor have of perspective-talking? The level one which is mental.

Before going to the theory of mind let’s go to an example of where Fyodor has used both perspective-talking and tactical empathy.

Fyodor had started to manipulate Karma since they met, and when Karma saw Ace’s death and Fyodor started to talk about his plan, Fyodor then kills Karma to free him, karma ends up thinking that even though his life was horrible it wasn’t that bad. Karma’s wish was to be free, and his main problem was that he was a slave, for karma it was; to die as a slave or as a free boy, and yet even though he died as a slave, because of Fyodor’s view of death = liberating he died happily (not so much though), his life was horrible, however it could have been worse, which is why he says that. If Fyodor hadn’t killed him, his life would go worse and worse, being a slave of the port mafia despite Ace being dead. What Fyodor used with Karma was the tactical use, it was tactical use in its greatest, he understood Karma’s problem and understood Karma’s views, then manipulated him and used him (making Ace think that Fyodor’s ability was a time controller/space one) for his plan, which directly enters in tactical empathy.

Let’s go now to Theory of Mind.

In psychology, theory of mind refers to being able to understand other people by even understanding their mental state, it also refers to understand that other people have different views, beliefs, desires, intentions and emotions, theory of mind is important for social activities and it is very used for analyzing and or theorizing about other people, also when understanding someone else’s behavior, theory of mind is very similar to empathy and sympathy but it isn’t the same.

Conclusion? Fyodor has tactical empathy and perspective-talking.

Thank you for reading my analysis!

#fyodor analysis #bsd analysis #fyodor dostoyevsky analysis #fyodor dostoyevsky bsd #karma #karma bsd #bsd #bungou stray dogs #literary stray dogs #im dying

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a-rose-for-gold · 1 year

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“The Crocodile”

Okay. I was typing a reblog and it somehow became a rant/spiel, so I’m making a whole post about it.

“The Crocodile” Episode? I know a this isn’t exactly an unpopular opinion, but I’mma say it anyway.

Hook and Milah. Had. It. COMING.

Granted - Hook became cool eventually. But I hated him for a LOT of the series on the grounds of his first impression alone.

Like it’s one thing to run off with a man’s wife. Rumple and Milah weren’t in love and the marriage wasn’t a good one. She put zero effort into their family and taking her off their hands may arguably have been better for everyone.

Seriously. Fuck Milah.

Spinner Rumple tried so hard to be a good husband and father, or at least to make their family work in a loveless marriage, and he deserved better.

But in spite of that, what Hook did to him on the ship crossed so many lines and he totally deserved to get owned for it.

Let’s review:

Concerned husband boards a pirate ship to beg for his wife back, thinking she’s been abducted. Right off the bat: That right there took courage. It always pisses me off when OUAT characters call Spinner Rumple a coward, because he really wasn’t. The world put him through it and he was doing his damn best. Just showing up to the ship of bloodthirsty pirates, knowing that literally all he could do was beg and hope for the best, took guts.

Back to Hook. So this poor guy shows up to ask for his wife back unharmed. And shy of actually hurting Rumple, Hook decides to do quite possibly the cruelest thing he could have done:

Keep letting the spinner think that his wife had been taken against her will and that she was being raped by the whole crew.

If Milah was in on the lie, then in my opinion SHE was the cowardly one here. Not Rumple. You want to abandon your disabled husband and son to run off and live the high life with a pirate? Own your shit.

But no. Instead they pushed the blame onto Rumple and gaslit this poor man into thinking it was somehow his fault.

Yeah - Rumple didn’t pick up the sword when Hook challenged him to a duel over Milah. But let’s think about that for a sec shall we?

We have Rumplestiltskin: An older wool spinner with a disability. Who can’t walk all that well WITH his walking stick - much less without it, on a boat, and during a fight with a sword. Which he’s barely held in his life unless you count the crash-course he got as fodder- I mean a new recruit, when he was drafted into the Ogres War.

Versus Captain Jones: A younger, taller, stronger pirate. An experienced swordsman, comfortable on a ship, and with two good legs. AND with a loyal crew of OTHER strapping pirates who would probably kill Rumple even if by some miracle he DID take Hook by surprise or something.

So really, Rumple had two options here.

Option A: Refuse to fight the bloodthirsty pirate, leave with your life but without your wife, and return home to your now motherless son.

Option B: Fight the bloodthirsty pirate, probably die or at least get badly injured (which could be death within a few days-weeks anyway given his financial situation and living conditions), the pirate takes your wife anyway, and your son is left an orphan who may or may not ever know what happened to you.

So there was no realistic scenario here where he fights off the pirates like a dashing hero and carries his wife home.

What else was he supposed to do?!

Rumplestiltskin is extremely smart. He always was. He knows when to pick his battles and he would have known all of that at a glance.

Refusing to fight wasn’t cowardice. It was common sense.

And yet Hook, this mothafucka, who must have realized all of this too and put Rumple in this situation in the first place, had the gall to act disgusted about it when Rumple refused to “fight like a man.” And then gaslit him into thinking that he was a coward and a fool for making what was obviously the more rational decision.

Now Hook is a pirate. I never would have expected much from him. But that’s no excuse. What he did was fucked. And karma is a bitch.

Stupid Game = Stupid Prize

And yes I know this is a pretty commonly held opinion so it shouldn’t be new to anyone but I rewatched that episode recently and needed to get this off my chest. 😤

#once upon a time #rumplestiltskin #mr. gold #robert carlyle #rumpelstiltskin #Captain Hook #killian jones #milah ouat #character analysis #show analysis #karma is a bitch #anyway 💅#woobie #woobie rumple #spinner rumple #The Crocodile #stupid game #stupid prize #fucked around and found out

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seven-skies-above · 8 months

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ok so to preface my knowledge of buddhist culture/philosophy/anything is very limited

but going by the likely buddhist inspirations rain world uses for ancient philosophy, are the iterators tangential to the idea of bodhisattvas?

from what i could garner off of a brief wiki skim, bodhisattvas (at least those of the mahayana belief/branch) are those who are on the path to achieving awakening for the benefit of all others. The oxford dictionary describes them as capable of reaching nirvana, but delaying doing so in order to save other beings from their suffering.

in a sense, iterators are forced bodhisattvas: enlightened beings designed to never ascend, forced to remain in the hopes of bringing ascension to the ancients. They are designed to achieve awakening for everyone but themselves—self-sacrifice, without the choice that usually comes with it.

artificial bodhisattvas… hmmmm….

#not to mention the fact that rain world’s karma is just a more concrete form of buddhist karma lmao #5 sins = low karma; enlightenment = higher karma #i don’t personally believe that karma affects one’s rebirth in the same way that it does in buddhist philosophy however #my karma theory is kind of insane and also not and that’s a discussion for another day #rain world #rain world analysis #rain world buddhism #bodhisattva iterators #text

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jihnari · 1 year

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zhongchi - the ship that’s ruining my life

disclaimers:

ship what u want. i cannot stop you. i do not care. be free.

this post is an OPINION and you DO NOT HAVE TO AGREE. if reading about why i dislike zhongchi is going to upset you, maybe give this a pass

i do not dislike childe OR zhongli. i just think their ship is silly.

if you are a zhongchi shipper and you choose to read this anyway, this is not written as a personal attack. i said "zhongchi 😒" one too many times and a non-genshin friend said "why do you hate that ship so much" and then i wrote a manifesto

ive never been involved in real fandom drama and idk how it goes but i would like to remain ignorant and free, pls do not attack me over this i am small and nervous and do not mean any harm

part 0: the ship

"who are they and why does this ship exist?" you might ask, if you've never played genshin. on the surface, this is a simple question with a simple answer. the two characters for this ship are in the same place at the same time and their stories overlap heavily. childe is the big bad of zhongli's story arc. (not that zhongli fights him; you, the player character, fights childe.) so they potentially have enemies to lovers, and they are actually friends before some truths come to light and it's revealed they're on "different sides". childe also pays for things for both you (the player character) and zhongli, which people read as caring. [1]

childe/zhongli is the most popular genshin ship on ao3. there are currently 132,000 works on ao3 for genshin impact and 12,735 of those have the ship tag childe/zhongli. that's only 10% of the all existing works, but the second largest ship tag has only 6,600 works, which is half as many.

relevant as an influencing factor is another popular ship early on in genshin's inception. that other ship was the first two hot male characters to have tension and an overlapping storyline, but they turn out to be "related" and a large part of the fandom collectively dropped them like a hot potato. but these fans were already in the fandom, already playing genshin, and they needed someone to ship. so they collectively jumped over to the SECOND set of two hot male characters with perceived tension and an overlapping storyline, i.e. zhongli and childe. the story containing zhongli and childe is 1) permanent canon content and 2) presented relatively early to the player, so zhongchi as a ship is more accessible than other popular ships that don't show up for 50+ hours [2] of gameplay.

furthermore, neither childe or zhongli have many meaningful interactions with other characters, and both characters were very popular upon launch. their initial popularity caused an epidemic, and a subsequent over-saturation of the ship on ao3. [3]

part 1: the characters

zhongli is a retired ex-god who faked his own death so he could have a break and go play at being human in the most mundane way possible. he's spiritually and emotionally an old man. he watches operas and drinks tea, has very expensive taste but no money, and works the front desk at a funeral parlor. he's thousands of years old and not entirely human (more on that later). [4]

childe is in his 20s and an affable general in the evil army. at 14 childe fell through a hole into genshin hell and lived there for a few months and emerged Changed. he can also turn into a demon now, just as a fun side note. upon getting him back, his parents found him to be a very scary menace and they quickly enrolled him in the military. he is the youngest ever person to be made general in the evil army, but this is less due to him being driven by ambition and more being a violent gremlin who couldn't be controlled and who beat up everyone in his path.

in his spare time, childe gets into unwinnable fights and pushes himself to the limit just so he can feel something. he's utilitarian, having grown up poor, and when you ask about his least favorite food he tells you that being picky about food is a bad thing and you should cut that out. he "has money" but it's not his money, it's his government's money. the budget for his evil task is very, very high, and he uses it for mission things though he tends to be pretty loose about what that includes. his mission budget shouldn't matter, but will unfortunately come up later.

childe is diametrically opposed to zhongli and zhongli's city; or he WOULD be but childe is too friendly and zhongli secretly has a deal with childe's boss, paying them to do the evil thing so he can retire in peace. this is a slight betrayal to childe but when it comes to light he isnt upset at zhongli, he's upset at his coworker for being the literal worst. childe is still seen around fantasy china after he tries to destroy it with a meteor[5], and only the townspeople seem to have any hard feelings. zhongli and childe are not canonically depicted as having any hard feelings.

part 2: "making it work"

past the superficial reasons listed in part 0, zhongchi makes no sense to me as a pairing. zhongli is a boring old man and childe barely seems to consider people anything more than NPCs unless they end up having fighting prowess, in which case he tries to fight them and then (if they don't die) considers them friends.

childe is dynamic, always striving to be better, stronger, faster[6]; childe is an adrenaline addict. zhongli is static and intends to stay that way.

the characters have undergone some personality changes to make them fit together better.

zhongli is part dragon(?) so people give him an obsession for pretty things and a massive possessive streak. since he's "broke", childe becomes a sugar daddy type in many works. zhongli is also almost exclusively on top in sexual situations, because duh, old, powerful dragon. [7]

childe couldn't possibly be in a position of power when he's with a older, more powerful male, so he becomes very submissive and swoon-y and teenage girl. the betrayal hurt him *ever* so deeply and he may never emotionally recover. he canonically has a family whom he loves, so people come down on that hard and say he's a real family man and he wants to have a family of his own and obviously he wants to settle down with zhongli and have zhongli's babies.

part 3: losing sight of canon

the further this ship goes, the further we stray from god. [8]

childe is now super rich and loves paying for other people's things, especially zhongli's (forgetting that the money he has was in fact part of his mission budget). the tag "battlesexual childe" is a sortable tag on ao3, but the zhongchi part of genshin has all but forgotten childe likes to fight. zhongli is now possessive to a borderline abusive degree, and childe likes being tied down (metaphorically) to his dragon husband (did i mention they're frequently and casually married? this is the erasermic[9] of genshin).

another side effect of being auto-married by the fandom is that it pushes the domesticity angle of zhongchi. you know, zhongli, an ex GOD OF WAR who COMMITTED GENOCIDE and a childe, a dude so obsessed with fighting that his own family couldnt handle him and shipped him off to the military at 14. them. domestic. what drugs are you on [10]

part 4: dragons

hey. why did so many people have to latch onto the dragon thing? on a personal note, i do not understand the appeal but have no room to judge. on a cultural note, zhongchi is DOING IT WRONG.

in canon, zhongli's "dragon form" is based off of chinese dragons[11]. which makes sense, since the place he's from, liyue, is modeled after china. genshin impact is created by mihoyo, a chinese company.

what im saying is a chinese company writing a chinese game with a character from fantasy china would NOT make this character a western dragon.

western dragons breathe fire, are very aggressive, collect hoards of gold, and are often depicted as greedy and possessive. eastern dragons not only look different, they're associated with water (rain) rather than fire, they're cultural symbols of prosperity and good luck, and they FOSTER HARMONY. i have exclusively seen zhongli's "dragon personality traits" modeled after western dragons, not eastern ones. like. yeah. i get it. the dragons the english half of the fandom is familiar with are western dragons. maybe they don't even know how eastern, and specifically chinese dragons, are different. but that doesnt make them any less INCORRECT.

and hey! seeing dragon eggpreg content makes me want to die[12]. there’s so much. i wish there was less much. this also further encourages the feminization of childe which is :\ must we keep returning the gender norms to fictional romantic relationships

part 5: the ripple effect

the zhongchi version of childe has escaped containment[13]. im unhappy about it. i always know it when i see it because childe is an insatiable uwu bottom who would rather have sex than have a street fight.

because this ship is so hellaciously popular, other childe ships are relatively rare[14]. anywhere you go, if someone is a fan of zhongli or childe, they probably also ship it. i never want to see another piece of zhongchi fanart again and yet, i soldier on. this is my curse. this is my burden. for childe, i must persevere.

in conclusion,

i dont have a conclusion actually i just hate zhongchi, thanks for coming to my ted talk

[1] those people are incorrect.

[2] i didnt look up this number even a little bit, but i feel in my heart that it is accurate.

[3] "only 10%? and you're calling it an epidemic?" yes. yes i am. "don't you think thats a little harsh?" you haven't seen what ive seen. you haven't suffered what ive suffered.

[4] sorry i know the childe section is like four times as long but i just don’t about zhongli like i do childe.

[5] yes i know it wasnt a meteor but this was written to be read fandom blind and ff7 altered my brain chemistry.

[6] Daft Punk, "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", 2001

[7] there are, of course, bottom!zhongli works. the name for this ship is "chili" (dont get me started on the top/bottom dynamic wars within the same pairing, we'll be here all day and i will scream until i pass out). it's more difficult to use ao3 numbers to prove my point here, as i find the tagging of top/bottom dynamics on ao3 to be inconsistent. instead, i will use statistics on zerochan.net. at the time of writing, zerochan has 1,765 images tagged with "zhongchi" and 228 images tagged with "chili". (so, ~90% of the childe/zhongli ship on zerochan is marked as zhongchi, i.e. top!zhongli and bottom!childe.) should i be using only a single data point to definitively say that zhongchi is exponentially more popular than chili? no, i should not; that's what we call bad science. but it illustrates the skew in the dynamics and the clear fandom preference, and this is a rant post not a scientific study.

[8] to some degree, inaccurate fanonizations involving popular characters in a large fandom is inevitable. i understand this. i do not accept this.

[9] erasermic (aizawa shouta/yamada hizashi) is a popular fandom auto-married ship from boku no hero academia. im not a fan of erasermic either but at least it's existence hasn't left a permanent stain on the characterizations of either character.

[10] ok so maybe zhongli could do the domesticity thing given that he's working that mundane human angle, though it would take some effort and learning and guidance. but childe? a house husband? lol. lmao.

[11] to be specific, he's half-dragon half-qilin but everyone seems to forget the qilin part. this isn't unreasonable, given that my experience is with the english speaking part of the genshin fandom, and qilin isnt really a thing that shows up in english media. one time i was watching a cdrama with a friend and the subtitles said "he has a dragon tattoo!" and she started YELLING and we had to pause the show because it wasnt a gd dragon it was a QILIN and they are VERY DIFFERENT THINGs, and then i got a whole rant about how even a unicorn would be a closer translation than dragon and i had to look up qilin's on wiki to follow along with the rant. and thats how i know what a qilin is.

[12] i have a visceral cringe reaction to dragons now, thanks zhongchi. from my favorite beanie baby being scorch to this, how far i have fallen

[13] im sure the same is true for this fanon version of zhongli but i havent bothered to verify.

[14] @ chilumi shippers: ur cool, i like u, i also like ur art it's cute <3 but your fanfiction is not for me u_u

#writing #fandom analysis #as written by a childe main #genshin impact #mentions of sex #rant #childe #tartaglia #zhongli #not zhongchi friendly but not zhongli unfriendly #zhongli is fine #chilumi shippers i see u and you're doing great keep it up i just dont read m/f #woke up today and chose violence #i really did think about letting this stay in discord dms forever but i worked too hard on this argument to let it die in obscurity #might delete later we'll see if the fandom gets vicious #hopefully they will not! but i am kind of inviting bad karma by posting this #i think the flanderization of fictional characters within fandom using traits they NEVER POSSESSED is a really fascinating thing #from a sociological perspective #from a fandom perspective pls stop ur hurting me #fandom telephone

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badgalazzie · 1 year

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Taylor being trapped inside hourglass (specifically GLASS CAGE) wearing yellow (closeted) bondage sitting on top of lavender sand that is slipping away...

Sand obviously symbolizes time, so it’s like she’s running out of time in her „lavender haze” that she created. It can mean something negative. She doesn’t like being closeted and soon she’ll come out.

Then we have a shot where she’s showering in the lavender sand. She seems happy so this is like a positive thing. But is she trying to tell us that she likes being closeted or that she can’t wait to come out and be free so she’s counting down to this moment?

It might also be a parallel to Nothing New lyric video. Taylor see herself as a guiding light to young (queer?) artists. It reminds me of Chely Wright situation.

#gaylor #gaylor swift #taylor swift queer #she gave so many signs #lgbetty #hairpin drop #gaylor proof #gaylor analysis #gaylor theory #karma mv #comingoutlor #mine #badgalazzie

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mania-sama · 3 months

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And what if I want to write another song analysis nobody cares about? You can't stop me. This one's gonna be about how Outrunning Karma by Alec Benjamin fits Itadori Yuuji because it does. It simply does. I know Itadori feels like he'll never atone for what happened in Shibuya, and this song really exemplifies that guilt. I don’t care if people think Alec Benjamin is considered cringe now I do what I want.

"Outrunning karma, that boy / He's such a charmer, all the / bugs and their larva follow / him out to Colorado." -> Itadori is a charmer; he’s really nice, funny, respectful but in a charming, boy-ish way. He has the fabled Unshakeable Spirit that makes him respected by his peers. But this attitude, this charm, this unshakeable spirit, it makes people want to break him. That’s how we get Mahito, the bugs and larva, hellbent on destroying that willpower. That’s how we get his broken spirit, with the weight of thousands of deaths following him no matter where he goes.

"Ten-dozen hearts in a bag / Their bodies lyin', he'll drag / them down to Colorado / A modern desperado." -> He can’t abandon the burden of Shibuya. He’ll take them wherever they go — nothing anybody will do will get him to forgive himself, to let go of the bag of a thousand bleeding hearts. He will always carry their lives with him. I like the second part of the stanza, too, about the desperado. A series of violent crimes, or it could be a reference to the movie: a man is thrust into a dark underground, and in an attempt to rid the world of a drug lord, he leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. I can’t think of a more accurate description/comparison of Itadori’s story.

"And he'll race for miles through the night / he runs because he knows he cannot hide." -> I believe, just for a moment, he wanted to run. Run from the world that made him the vessel of the King of Curses, run from himself, run from the curses and Shibuya and the Culling Games.

"He's never gonna make it, all the / poor people he's forsaken, karma / is always gonna chase him for his lies.“ -> But he knows running would not absolve him of his guilt. Leaving the Jujutsu world will not change the fact that he believes he killed all those people, it will not change anything. The souls of those he failed will always follow him.

“It's just a game of waiting from the / church steeple down to Satan karma / There's really no escape until he dies." -> Just as the lyric says, it’s all a waiting game for Itadori. He has one goal: save Megumi. That was what gave Itadori the will to keep going, after Todo lost his hands and the world collapsed around him. Megumi have him this one goal, and when it’s all over, he will wait for his judgement. There is no escaping his karma for “not being strong enough” to suppress Sukuna until he is finally executed. Only death, only the final judgement, will give him salvation.

"Outrunning karma, that boy / can't run no farther, it's the last days of Sparta, follow / him down to meet Apollo." -> It’s the final fight. The only place he would run was straight to the Culling Games to kill Sukuna, to fight for the soul of Fushiguro Megumi and those that have been killed along the way. In this instance, Apollo was the patron god of Sparta. Even though he was “good”, he could bring mass destruction with the tip of his arrow in the form of a plague. Just as Itadori brings good, but as a vessel, he brought destruction to the city. A plague of curses. Also, as referenced in the chorus. Christianity actually demonized Apollo as a malevolent deity. Evil. If we take this interpretation, it’s still talking about the same instance: Itadori will follow Sukuna until the King of Curses has perished. He was willing to even fight him for all of eternity in Hell, as mentioned when he died and Sukuna forged a pact with him.

"And he'll brace for battle in the night / he fights because he knows he cannot hide." -> He can’t run from Shibuya, he can’t hide, so he will do this one final act and fight. Fight for the lives unrightfully taken under Sukuna’s fingertips, fight to kill Sukuna, fight to save Megumi. This, he knows, is his only fate.

Itadori is so tragic. I really need him to save Megumi and together they can heal, because that’s what they do, right? Save each other from their toxic mindsets. They’ve been doing it since Season 1. They will do it again and again and again.

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