Malik's death in Revelations was tragic and violent enough as it is, but if you take into account how Altaïr's relationship with Malik began, it feels very targeted on Abbas's end.

Think of how it began with Altaïr's worst mistakes, getting his younger brother killed and Malik's arm ripped off. I'm sure Abbas was there to see him nearly expelled from the brotherhood, I'm sure he heard the fate of the Al Sayf brothers. Only for Altaïr to take that horrible mistake and its consequences and become the best possible version of himself, from unable to handle any responsibility to becoming the youngest mentor the brotherhood ever had. Even his relationship with Malik would go from animosity to close and trusted friend. You could argue that Malik was his GREATEST friend, other than Maria and his own children. The kind of growth and maturity it would take from both of them to get to that point is frankly astounding and for all Ubisoft's faults I think AC1 and Revelations did their due diligence with that

And then Abbas took that all away from him and never let Altaïr move past those mistakes he worked so hard to correct. How do you think he felt, being sent the severed head of the man started his journey with by severing one of his limbs? The mistakes of his youth cost Malik his arm, and now they've cost him his life in such a way that defiled and violated his body even more horrifically, after Malik trusted and loved him like a brother.

I like to think that Malik died protecting Sef from wrongful execution and defending Altaïr's honour. That the man who faced some of the bloodiest consequences of his past mistakes kept his youngest son safe and his reputation intact at the end, even at the threat of death for himself.

Hell, I imagine Malik was a bit of an uncle figure for Darim and Sef growing up. Perhaps the very thing that got him executed in the end was trying to keep Abbas's blades away from Sef.

just… Goro Miyazaki starting his animation career with having a son kill his father, the king of a kingdom where magic is disappearing, and run away and Hayao (possibly ending) his career with a young boy refusing to take on his family’s powerful legacy over a magical world, knowing the world would die without him in favor of not abandoning his family and choosing to live contentedly in the mundane world…

So I can't get over AOT finale and after reading son many opinions, one thing that catches my attention is that it is said that Isayama is a genius for referencing Schindler's List. But the thing is: since the beginning he has been referencing different works of art.

When Eren in his titan form carries the rock on his back in Shiganshina, it is a reference (in design) to Atlas (a titan) carrying the world ball on his back.

When Historia and Eren are in the Reiss chapel, there is a reference to the representations of Jesus crucified and also to the representations of La Pieta (which at the time led me to think of Eren as the redeemer of the Eldians, but in a more twisted way. If the Eldians are the devil, he would sacrifice himself for them to free them from sin).

There are also references to Goya, like Dina devouring Eren's mom is a clear reference to Saturn devouring his son (Goya's most famous paint); but also, if you know Goya's work, you'll probably know his famous aquatint The sleep/dream of reason produces monsters (in spanish we use the word "sueño" for both "sleep" and "dream") which talks about how when humans abandon the reason and only have fantasies, monsters are created. And tbh, there was a moment, I don't know if during the 3rd or 4th season, when I wondered if AOT captured that idea: Eren has dreams, fantasies, but not reason.

And finally, don't forget Plato's Cave myth. What happens in Paradis (the Cave) is the shadow of what's happening in the continent (the outside world). As in this myth, people of Paradis lives in the cave and they only knows that reality, but Paradis reality (it is the shadows) is not the real reality (the outside world).

Hi guys! I'm working on my first video essay, and it's going to be an in-depth analysis of Magic of the Heart seasons one and two by Good Boy Audios. I'm still in the research stage, but I want some insight from the audience! I want to include some commentary on the impact it had on listeners of the series. I want something a little more comprehensive than what's available in the comments, and don't want to just project my personal opinions. I have a few questions!

1. Did you ponder the themes of the story as you listened? If the answer is yes, what would you say they were?

2. What did you think of the story unfolding through two separate perspectives?

3. Did the series defy or subvert your expectations at any point? If yes, what were those moments, and how did you react to the subversion of your expectations?

Answer in comments/reblogs/dms/whatever. Let me know if you're OK with me quoting your answers in the video!

Well the comics did a good job squandering any sympathy and shiz for dicklander, and the show too. I only feel bad for his child self. His grown ass can get attacked by rabid kryptonian dogs for all I care.

i disagree.

and look, i ain't gonna tell you how to feel boo, i can't obviously. i can only spew out nonsense and hope i might reach you or someone else who comes along to read my long winded bullshit.

but while both renditions are pieces of shit, i feel so much for comics homie too if not more. he's even more whoobie than show homie but gets dismissed but i digress.

throughout the story, we're made to feel *suspicious* about the claims on homelander or that his story may have more than meets the eye. ennis presents it point blank. he doesn't tell the reader how to feel about homelander, or anything, or anyone. he makes it clear how billy feels, how other characters feel, but he also certainly makes it show that things aren't quite adding up about him and billy's claim. he presents the story and lets *you* the reader feel (which is what real *good* writing does)

BUT it's framed out in a way to make the reader realize he *wasn't* this big bad awful guy he was made out to be, a piece of shit sure, but and not the real monster they were after, that billy was fuckin' wrong (like his dumb ass always is), that his end and final point in the story was manipulated, coerced by outside force, and not truly justified as a result.

leik, this guy got his WHOLE LIFE fucking RUINED, his whole self image, gaslit into fucking oblivion to *believe* he was a bad guy until he *became* a bad guy, after literally never once getting a *choice* for anything, ever, at all, at any point in his whole gotdamn life.

this boi never had a chance... and even after ALL that. people STILL want to control or punish him when he lacks one major vital thing that would warrant him *actually* deserving that.

AGENCY. fucking agency, the answer is agency, homelander has none of it, never has, and still does not have it. (he pretends to but it's not quite the same, the lack of it is what makes him a ticking time bomb)

you seem like someone to really value your own agency so idk, i feel like you should get that??

BUT GOTDAMN LET THE BOI JUST FUCKING BREATHE AT LEAST ONCE PLEASE????

UGH

just try to imagine if every single choice in your life was made *for you* by *someone else*, and that's homelander. and it doesn't stop into adulthood, it just turns into a fucking fucked up conservatorship beside someone who wants to kill you, oh yeah, and stunted growth so you never get a chance to really grow up and feel like or be your own person either.

like i'm not kidding, he might as well be a child STILL in that regard and it is super fucked up how often people exploit and groom him that way. i don't care if he's fucking 16, 40, or in his 70s, the man *ain't* grown like he should be and *needs* the space to actually *grow* before we decide to fucking judge him, else we're no better than his abusers.

and when a kid commits a crime, it's the parents/guardians that are brought up on charges/trial. there is a *reason* for that.

homelander's very clear lack of sanity/mental capacity and vought being his 'guardian'/conservator?? (if he even is a real legal person...) would put him under this spectrum of bullshit, and baby i don't want to say it's ableist not to acknowledge this, but...

i mean if i'm being real, it kinda sorta is...?? wait... HOLD THE--- FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!! OH MY FUCKING SATAN--it IS!! and I JUST GOT WHIPLASH FROM WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THE BOYS FANDOM WHEN IT COMES TO HOMELANDER.

this motherfucker is *CRIMINALLY INSANE*, emphasis on that last fucking part, in every sense of the word *CLINICALLY*. and when that happens, even the fucking laws in the fucked ol' U.S. of A. DO NOT 'punish' a mofo by regular 'incarceration', they still order institutionalization but with a HOSPITAL for TREATMENT. (granted there are a whole mess of other problems in this country that still do not handle this properly jesus fucking christ--)

ABLEISM! it's fucking ableism that doesn't let fandom recognize this!! EVEN some of the people who claim to love him!!

except THEN make it WORSE on top of everything *because* of the stunted growth and vought AND limited personal agency and... fuck me... UGGGGGGHHHHHHH--

but THAT is homelander. and uh... yeah. yeah, you'd probably lose your gotdamn mind too, i don't think ANYONE could walk out sane, realistically speaking. pain is easy to say we'd walk out clean from, and then we all turn into pussies the *second* it's our turn to deal.

and the whole point of the twist is to rob you of any satisfaction of his death and make you angry at his circumstances rather than at him. again, ennis doesn't explicitly *tell* readers how to feel because it's more of a graphic novel but...

i personally think the show is aiming to recreate this effect because if they can pull it off (and manage to make an entire population feel like utter ableist shitheads for wanting him dead), then they'll be pulling off some kinda magical MAJOR amazing heist of the feels for the ages that will *hopefuly* be enough to push society in some better directions than its current state (man, we really could not have asked for a better time for this series... holy shit--)

as much as it pains me, *this* was why he was killed in the comics. not just for... ugh, sadness, realism... but because it was *part* of the lesson in exemplifying what was actually wrong.

man i am just way too fucking hyper analytical with this shit and also sometimes SO SLOW i--

I prompt you to elaborate on the idea of deliberately making something in a story boring, for I an always interested in your analysis.

In The Boys (Comic version, which I have complicated but more-positive-than-most feelings about) Garth Ennis very deliberately wrote most of the superhuman combat scenes as short, brutal affairs in which whoever was more powerful or better-equipped would just slaughter the other side in a matter of seconds; if the sides were more evenly matched it was then a matter of who swung first. To my memory, there were only a handful of fights blocked like fights instead of like curbstomps. This was in service to Ennis's artistic vision; violence as a swift, brutal thing, only glamourous in the sense of black-comedy dismemberments or the grim satisfaction of being alive when the other guy isn't, and with the majority of all conflicts playing out through via prep-work and intelligence-gathering done in advance of the first punch being thrown.

It was an aggressive refutation of how superhero fights go in more straightforward superhero fiction, with clever tricks, drawn-out dramatic brawls, violence as a palatable form of spectacle, something marketable after-the-fact. A lot of the fights the titular team got involved in consisted basically of jumping distracted supes; one of Homelander's jobs was to just unceremoniously decapitate any earnest upstart supervillain and then have the marketing team at Vought write a comic portraying the fight as something with genre-typical stakes. To this day, I feel like there was a level of honesty about violence in this portrayal. In real life, it's not fun!

But! It did introduce some problems. Namely, a series in which almost every single fight is something Nasty, Brutish and Short created, for me, a form of doublethink about how seriously we should even take the Vought capes as threats. A series in which every fight is deliberately uninteresting (if you aren't entertained by curbstomps) is a series in which every fight is deliberately uninteresting, and from there your enjoyment of the series rides or dies on how interesting you find the non-fight political intrigue, character dynamics, and so forth. The version of Garth Ennis who isn't writing capes is, in my opinion, pretty damn good at that other stuff, so I inched through.

The show patched the majority of my difficulties. It retained the broad thesis that cape fights would largely be curbstomps, and the other broad thesis that capes would largely be useless or counterproductive at their supposed role, but combined this with a number of actual fight scenes. It made Butchers team significantly less powerful, with a significantly greater focus on the sneaky bastardry necessary to flip assets and find weaknesses. It made killing any given supe much, much more of an endeavor, something genuinely very difficult and impressive, and it made every given supe death much more of a plot point or a character beat than it would have been in the comic. The supes being less interesting than typical for their genre, that was preserved- but the situations involving supes that we, the audience, are privy to? All very interesting still!

Now on the other side of the spectrum, you've got Worm, and you've got Jack Slash-as-an-examination-of-Joker. "Your philosophy is ill-considered and fake deep, and you aren't funny" is actually a fairly common clapback against The Joker within officially published DC comics properties, but it butts up against the fact that he's taken pretty seriously as a threat regardless of that fact! Jack Slash is an attempt to reconcile that, to figure out how someone as LOlrandom as Joker could last longer than three minutes as a serious contender, and the answer is "subtle secondary powers that puff up his win rate, in a way that his self-absorption prevents him from recognizing as anything but his own innate talent." He's blatantly shallow. Everyone talking to him is palpably rolling their eyes within the text, but he's got the brute-force necessary to undercut anyone trying to one-up him (Theo's interlude, Tattletale in the parking garage.) It's called out multiple times that's it's mysterious that he's doing so well when he's so mediocre. The candidate he picks for the 9 is a dud. He can't come up with anything more interesting for Cherish than having her do all the other tests over a second time. His big comeback is just Slaughterhouse 9! But More of them! Fuck Yeah!

But! Despite the text being aware of how shallow he is and how thin his ideas are, all of his ideas keep working. It doesn't matter that it's edgelord bullshit- it's edgelord bullshit that everyone else is forced to take seriously and respond to, which is where the actually-great character work in the S9 arc happens. And at this point I think there are basically two camps within the audience. Camp one consists of people who, despite Jacks clear shallowness, nonetheless are entertained and engrossed by the batshit combat scenarios he masterminds, even if he shouldn't be able to mastermind them. I am a counselor at Camp One. Camp Two consists of people who call bullshit on the ability for such a shallow guy to mastermind all that crap and bend everyone to his will, who don't really find anything redemptive in the eventual reveal that it was powers-enabled because they still had to sit through the implausible bullshit. This is a position I have no choice but to respect because it's the position of my cousin, who I adore and want to remain on good terms with at family gatherings. The things we do in service of family, amiright

Umataro Tenma built Atom and failed twice as a father.

Yes by abandoning Atom but also thinking Tobio could be replaced.

And he knows it.

Maybe he didn't just abandon Atom because he couldn't grow.

I think he's ashamed.

Ashamed that he thought of his only child as a replaceable object.

And now the fate of the world and robotkind was placed on this android with the mind and face of a nine year old.

It's like Tenma dragged Tobio from the grave to make him suffer again.

And he can't believe he did this. It hurts to watch.

hey tumblr i made an autistic little video about disco elysium look look here u go its very short and i am very stoned go nuts

idk what the boy and the heron is Actually™️ about i know it’s supposed to be a really personal work for miyazaki but personally to me it was just. something about the idea of the magical world being untrustworthy and dangerous and Wrong and yet so beautiful and for some reason so attractive. why are you following the heron? because i have no choice. but aren’t you scared? that’s besides the point. and the idea of the ideal outcome being just outside of reach in that magical realm becoming something you accept, going back to your world knowing not everything is gonna work out perfectly because it’s okay, in the magic world didn’t either, in fact it was magical and otherworldly and yet it crumbled but we were fine and so we will be fine in this one too. the idea of the magical realm being just the “other” one and the original one with its flaws and its beauty and its arms wide open being the one you're excited to come back to. idk something about the inevitability of both tragic outcomes not being a bittersweet thing but just a sweet thing. a gentle, heartwarming tale to retell again and again because that's the only way to revisit it. why am i crying!!!!! WHY AM I CRYING

I do love the netflix avatar in my own way because it provides me with enrichment in the same way brain puzzles do for chimps. Like something is WRONG here and it's your very special job to figure out why! And then you will get juice reward!!

Blue Eye Samurai: regarding Mizu’s “plot armour” or her “ridiculously over-powered” abilities.

“Mizu is way too overpowered, it doesn’t make sense.”

I feel like a lot of people don’t realize just how much the mind over matter mentality plays a roll in Mizu’s “abilities”. Mizu isn’t the best because she’s physically the strongest, or had the best training, or the most experience, or whatever. Mizu is the best because she has single-minded focus and immense tenacity that borders on psychotic due to how intensely dedicated to revenge she has been for almost all of her life. All the years she spent training, all the time she spends taking out enemies, she is being driven by single minded focus and iron willed determination that never wavers. She has been sharpening and honing not just her body, but her mind, for exactly this. She has dedicated her entire life to her quest for vengeance, and in her own words, there is no room in it for anything else.

People also seem to be making a lot of assumptions about what kind of training and how much training Mizu has or has not had. As the audience, we’ve only been shown bits and pieces of Mizu’s past, which includes her experience learning martial arts. Asking shit like “how is she so good with a sword if she’s only self taught?” is like asking “how can she read and write if Master Eiji is blind?”. The answer is that Mizu has obviously learnt these things from more than one source, but documenting her entire education in detail doesn’t exactly serve a purpose to the narrative. We are explicitly shown in one of Mizu’s flashbacks that she’s been practicing with a wooden sparring sword since she was very young. It’s actually her child self that we see in that brief particular flashback. Not her teen/tween self, her child self. She’s also following the movements and instructions of an older man that is clearly a skilled samurai or warrior of some kind based on context (which y’all love to ignore). Besides, who else would want/need a sword from a master sword-maker besides an expert swordsman? How many skilled fighters from all over Japan have come to Master Eiji’s forge hoping for a blade, and wait with nothing better to do but train while their blade is being made? How many of them have divulged information about certain fighting styles (like Shindo-Ryu, which Mizu was familiar with despite never having been to the dojo before). Or practiced around her and with her? We are clearly shown through Mizu’s flashbacks that receiving training from a visiting client has not been unusual for her throughout her apprenticeship with Master Eiji, and her little spar with Blood Soaked Chiaki was no one time event. Yet Mizu is never given the benefit of the doubt by the audience, despite context clues indicating that she should be.

“Taigen has way more training in an actual dojo, so why is Mizu better?”

Whereas Taigen, while he was determined to become more than just a fisherman’s son and was driven to rise through the ranks of the Dojo and become a skilled samurai, did not have that same desire or determination to hone every part of himself to be the most deadly weapon he could possibly be, like Mizu did. Taigen believes in the samurai code of honor and upholds it in his own way (preventing him from learning how to “fight dirty” so to speak) and he also had a life outside of his training (he had a social life, he drank, he partied, he snuck around a lot to see Akemi presumably, etc). In fact, we actually never see Taigen practice, train, learn, hone his skills, or anything (to my recollection) throughout the whole season, until he’s bested by Mizu in combat. I’m assuming Taigen had to work quite hard for several years to become as good as he is, but I get the sense that ever since he has been regarded as a prodigy he has allowed himself to get cocky and maybe a bit too comfortable. He has always been the best and always thought himself to be the best, so he never needed to give 150% effort when he fought. In fact, as he got older and more practiced, and it became more and more apparent how much better he was than everyone else, he probably stopped giving his 110% and allowed himself to get a bit comfortable putting in 100% effort, and then eventually 80% effort (which is part of the reason why I think he’s so pissed he lost to Mizu in their first fight, because he knows he could have done better: been less cocky, been more tactical, more driven, etc).

We also never see Taigen meditate or mentally or physically prepare himself the way we do with Mizu. Mizu will pray before a major upcoming battle, not because she’s religious, but because she’s mentally, emotionally, and spiritually preparing herself. We even see Mizu submerge herself in very cold ocean water (during the winter mind you) as a ritual/practice of sorts that serves to center herself and prepare mentally and physically for what’s ahead when she feels herself getting “too emotional” or too stressed or unfocused or even just slightly off kilter. Mizu sacrifices every part of her life, so that she can be the deadliest version of herself possible. She has no social life. She has no friends, or significant others (Mikio aside). She has no other activities to participate in, because she’s been completely alienated and thus being anything but the best is not an option in her mind because she has no options. She tried married life. She had the best possible life that she could have had as a biracial woman in Edo era Japan. She did as she was told by her “mother”. She showed her true self to Mikio, just as he desired. Yet the blood and vengeance still caught up with her. She has no other options anymore. Pursuing revenge is the only thing she knows how to do, because every other avenue in life has been cut off from her. So she has to be single-mindedly focused on her vengeance, which means being as skilled and as dangerous as she can possibly be. She has no hobbies or jobs or responsibilities beyond sword-making (which allows her to become as familiar with the blade as possible) and training herself. If she has extra time, she uses it to practice, to train, to improve, to simply maintain peak performance. Such as when she was hacking through those trees in episode 2. Afterwards, we see Taigen attempt to replicate her training (by cutting down trees with his sword). Though even then, it was more about curiosity and trying to suss out Mizu so he could gauge her skill level, then it was about actually honing his own abilities (until episode 3 when he practices with Chiaki’s broken blade). Which does count as training in its own way (assessing your enemy), but my point still stands. Taigen does not have the same unwavering focus and force of will that Mizu does (partially because he does not actually want to kill Mizu, as we do see Taigen go cold blooded with focus when he kills Heiji Shindo, but those are whole other discussions).

“Mizu just has ridiculous plot armour, that’s the real reason she survives every encounter.”

I feel like people that think Mizu has ridiculous plot armour are just not at all familiar with the Samurai or Western/Cowboy sub-genres at all, or even action as an overarching genre on its own. I don’t believe I have ever engaged in a single piece of action media in which the protagonist didn’t have “plot armour” in some way. Basically half of all male protagonists from any and all modern western action movies ever, have been way too over-powered and been able to take a ridiculous amount of damage that should have killed them multiple times over. These action heroes (who in western media are almost always cis-het white men) have ridiculous plot armour in the most classic sense. Yet no one complains when it’s a white man. Only when it’s a queer-coded biracial woman of colour. Shocking.

In fact, you could argue that every main character in every fictional story ever told has plot armour to a certain degree, because having an entire narrative revolve around one character is inherently “unrealistic” and therefore the main character has plot armour, yes? No? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Oh, and on the topic of the samurai genre specifically (and many martial arts based action media) there are certain genre specific tropes that are nearly integral to the genre. One of the most prominent being the samurai/ronin/warrior/martial arts master that is “ridiculously over powered”. It’s literally part of the genre. In fact, the western/cowboy genre is quite similar to the classic samurai genre. Now, how many westerns have you watched in which Clint Eastwood or John Wayne shoot 5+ guys with one pistol before any of the guys they shoot even get a shot off? A lot I bet. Is that not the definition of “over-powered” and “unrealistic”? Or is it just a genre trope, or even perhaps, a genre staple? No one thinks Arthur Morgan (Red Dead Redemption 2) is over-powered. No one thinks that Joel (The Last of Us) is over-powered. In fact, when the TLOU show came out, people actually complained that Joel, the fifty-something year old man that has been living in a post apocalyptic wasteland for 20 years, was not badass or strong enough (he kills dozens of humans and super zombies and he’s legally a senior). So, who is the “judge” of what is and is not realistic in action media that borders on sci-fi/fantasy based on how “over-powered” the protagonists “realistically” are?

“It’s just weird that Mizu is so powerful when other characters within the story are not. It makes Mizu such a Mary Sue.”

Okay… so, with all that in mind, let’s circle back to where I started when referring to Mizu as someone driven by unwavering determination, and how that affects her “abilities”. That facet of her personality and motivation is nothing new when it comes to the action genre, especially for protagonists of revenge storylines. Think of Kill Bill or John Wick. Why does John or the Bride keep going and keep winning even when they are constantly getting injured and always fighting. Is it because they are simply that much better than everyone else? Yes and no. No, because they are not superheroes (technically), but also yes. Because their single minded determination and need for revenge drives them to push that much harder than anyone else on their skill level. They are the best, but they win against everyone else that is also “the best” because they want it more. They need it more. Mind over matter. They are willing to endure what others are not through sheer will and pure cold rage. Mizu, Beatrice Kiddo, John Wick, and so many more similar protagonists in action-revenge narratives don’t keep winning and keep getting back up no matter how inured they get because they are just “that much stronger and more talented than everyone else”. Yes, they are extremely skilled and would probably be one of the strongest and most deadly combatants/killers in their respective universes regardless… but their refined skill and raw talent and power are not the only reason they win. Their unwavering force of will, extreme determination, ice cold fury, and single-minded focus on revenge is what drive them to be that much tougher. Their tenacity is their superpower. They want to win more than their opponent does. They need to win, because this is their one and only goal in life as of now. Mizu (Blue Eye Samurai) Beatrice (Kill Bill), John (John Wick), they all share a philosophy in life when it comes to their revenge, which basically boils down to “Either I kill you, or I die trying. There is no middle ground, there is no negotiating, no other choice, no path of least resistance, no other goal or motivation. You will die, because I ain’t fucking dying until you do.”

Mizu doesn’t have plot armour and she’s not over-powered. She is an archetypical protagonist of the action-revenge narrative and the samurai/western genre as well. She arguably even has better reason to be completing the feats that she does than John Wick or The Bride, because the medium of Blue Eye Samurai is animation and not live action, and the genre borders on magical realism far more than Kill Bill or John Wick. Now, how many anime protagonists (probably almost all male) can you think of that are “ridiculously over-powered” especially compared to any live action counterparts, but no one complains about it? Why does no one complain about it (aside from misogyny)? Because the medium of animation inherently has different “rules”, expectations, and set standards for suspension of disbelief, than the medium of live action film or television. For example, is it ridiculous and unrealistic when you’re watching a Looney Tunes cartoon and Bugs Bunny’s legs pinwheel in super-speed for 3 seconds straight before he starts running, or when he runs off a ledge and gravity just lets him hang there for a sec so he can look straight at the camera before he falls? No, it’s not “unrealistic” or emersion breaking, not even a little, but why? Is it because any of those things seem even remotely probable or “realistic”? Of course not! It’s perfectly acceptable because the medium, genre, target audience, atmosphere, art/animation style, narrative choice, storytelling style, and more, have all established that Bugs Bunny defying physics is normal in Looney Tunes, and therefore not a “plot-hole” or “unrealistic”. In fact, if Bugs Bunny or Tom and Jerry didn’t defy physics in ridiculous ways all the time, then it feels far stranger and off-beat than if they did. Same goes for pretty much all action anime. If the characters in those stories were strictly limited to what is 100% humanly possible in real life, most of those animes wouldn’t even have storylines anymore. They’d be turned into completely different content that may be unrecognizable from the original source material. Or wouldn’t even have any material anymore because all the characters would be dead after their first fight scene. So why is Blue Eye Samurai being held to a different standard?

Now, do y’all get it yet?

I can't remember who it was but someone did tell me once to take first scenes of a piece very seriously as they are there to set the tone and the mood for the entire or at least most of itself.

In Disco Elysium the beginning immediately throws us as deep as it possibly can. Between a literal conversation with your brain that you will *never* win, waking up naked and weak in a destroyed room, being able to die within minutes because you "dare to challenge the lightbulb"... Yeah there is a lot.

And people have talked about it, yes. Those alone set a tone perfectly on their own for the rest of the Player's experience. But I don't think people talk enough about The Expression scene in the similar depth.

First of all, not every Player will get a chance to immediately trigger the scene. Similarly, there is so much content a Player *will* miss. The game is extreme in its possible paths to take.

But even after you do, your Skills immediately rush to stop you and make you second-doubt yourself. They will do that countless more times.

However, it is The Expression that tells us the most, even if at the time we are yet to understand it.

You don't know what it is. You don't know why you are making it. But you do. Even if you manage to figure out what and why, you still are going to struggle with it. It is here to stay. It is off-putting and you hate it but it is an inherent part of you.

And it defines you. It defines the Protagonist, whose name is yet unknown for you. You may know basics and yet you know shit. But the more you get to know, it doesn't make it any easier nor enjoyable. You are off-putting, creepy and no matter how much you try, people will hate you for that. You can have the entire world as your motivation but that same world will push you back. You are stuck in this situation. Just how you are stuck with The Expression.

Well, that is just not true. You can get better. You can get people to like you or even look up to you. And similarly you can get rid of The Expression if you try enough. It may take some time but you *will* do it if you so desire. It may seem impossible but why not go for it?

The Expression scene, other than being surreal and bizarre in excellently executed way sets up your entire journey and how it will feel. You are an off-putting middle aged man who knows shit. But it can get better if you decide you wish for it to get better. So why not go for that ending?

Of course, the Player can get rid of The Expression even by a sheer lucky roll. In fact, you can fade The Expression before even getting to know what the hell it is (which is what I managed to do on my Second Playthrough). But then you are left without any answers. It was a hard check and you passed it. And yet it feels like losing it and wandering somewhere else would give you more answers to your situation.

You are only left to wonder. How much did you lose? Are other Checks the same? Is it even worth it to make some of them? Your choices matter more than you may realize for now and being The Completionist Route is not going to be the way to go this time.

It is an amazing scene. One that at the time might not be fully understood by us. But it trully will set a tone for the rest of the game, no matter how it will go in each Player's experience.

I need Duke Thomas and Cameron Kim to meet like yesterday. DC give me a Signal and City Boy team up please!

hmm one take i have on saltburn is that it isn’t a film you have to find your way through a maze to figure out, but instead is exactly what you see.

it’s about oliver being fascinated and obsessed with felix. in my opinion, it’s like the lines blurred for oliver of how much his desire to weasel his way into felix’s life because of his attraction/obsession vs how much is his desire to become wealthy like felix. oliver wasn’t a bitter poor person wanting to get revenge on the rich. oliver wasn’t even POOR. he came up with a tragic backstory for felix to believe and play into the wealthy’s “i have the power to save them” ego trip.

it’s fair to say oliver did what he did in a way to become felix. it’s like the question of “do i want to be with you OR be you???”. oliver even questions about if he was really even in love with felix (which yes i do believe oliver was in love with him). but anyways back to my point— oliver staying even after felix’s death proves that there was some intent to become felix. he doesn’t want to change the imbalance between the rich and the poor; he just wants to become rich and that’s it. he found a way to do that and he worked, as he puts it, to get what he wants. the rich always tell the poor “work hard and you can be me one day” and so oliver did his own version of that by weaseling his way into a rich boy’s life and finding the cracks within a family that uses their wealth to mask up. oliver says “no natural predators” and i think something we have to think about is how the rich vs poor is a man made predator vs prey system. therefore, there’s flaws within it and the imbalances can be manipulated. like there’s different levels of wealth and poverty. oliver portrays himself as prey (we could even say the deer antlers is symbolism to that) to the predators (the catton family // think about the cold-blooded quote from venetia). except they’re human. he’s not actually a deer and they’re not a group of hungry carnivores. the catton family portrays themselves as liking oliver and oliver uses that to his advantage. he takes control of the imbalance because he wants wealth for himself. he becomes a predator (remember the “no natural predators” quote). so yeah, saltburn discusses classism but in a “i want to be wealthy and i’m obsessed with this wealthy boy at college and i’m going to become what he is because my attraction to him makes me want everything about him regardless of what that entails”.

so much (for) stardust is literally the album of a generation. it perfectly encapsulates the widespread mindset among millennials & gen z post-Covid.

“the shell’s empty, there’s no point to any of this, it’s all just a, A random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes”

“I’d never go, I just want to be invited”

“we’re told we gotta get ahead, yeah, no matter what it takes / but there’s no way off the hamster wheel on this rat race”

but the album isn’t just nihilism, either. it’s perfectly summed up once more in The Pink Seashell, “so I take pleasure in the detail.”

“the view’s so pretty from the deck of a sinking ship.”

“feeling so good right now, til we crash and burn somehow”

“they don’t know how much they’ll miss, at least until you’re gone like this”

in this album fall out boy is saying “hey, it sucks. we know this, we hear you, we feel the same, but there are still things to enjoy, still love to make. the only purpose in your life is what you give it, and that’s okay.”

An interesting thing about how The Boys handled the Black Noir face reveal is that it completely recontextualizes his previous presence on the show as an intimidating but zany stoic weirdo. Season One Black Noir is fundamentally a kind of guy- “faceless cipher with specific, amusing, discordant, out-of-nowhere tics” is a specific species of comic-relief character. The grim-and-silent enforcer inexplicably being an incredible piano player, or really into Japanese tea ceremonies, provides extremely funny whiplash. Any trait at all becomes discordant and funny when the sum of the character is “emphasized traitlessness.” (This is also where The Pyro from TF2 derives a lot of comedic mileage from- even beyond the pyrovision reveal.)

And then you get the backstory episode, and the comedic potential of all the previous sight gags becomes ash on the wind. 

He isn’t wearing a mask because he’s an eccentric weirdo, he’s wearing a mask he hates because it’s the only way to remain marketable with a disfiguring injury in an industry that unpersons people with physical imperfections- and in the flashback sequence you can see the exact second he arrives at this conclusion after he’s been injured and resignedly puts the mask back on. His more eccentric mannerisms and his pyrovision-style hallucinations are directly tied into the massive (and racially motivated!) brain damage he took at the hands of Soldier Boy. He very much does not “not identify as any race.” I suspect that his incongruously "refined” hobbies- the piano, the tea ceremonies- are directly downstream of his one-time goal of being a positive role model; his incongruous breakdown in the aftermath of the compound V reveal is definitely tied into that, into the reveal that everything he could have become to the public would have just been a lie as well. I don’t think there’s a single thing he’s involved in that doesn’t come across completely differently with the context season 3 adds. Even the gag where he pointedly throws that candy bar away finds a referent in how Stan Edgar would eat peanuts in front of him as a dominance thing.

I think this is illustrative of one of the two possible terminal states of characters like this. You can bite the bullet and ground and contextualize their behavior by giving them a backstory, which upends your ability to use them as a pure comedic object. Alternatively, you can arrest them indefinitely as the Funny Weirdo Who’s Just Like That, at the cost of becoming kinda one note. I recall something similar to what happened to Black Noir happening to Deadpool on the comics side of things; a boom-bust cycle of stories that use his amnesia, swiss-cheese brain and body horror for pure comedy, followed by sincere examinations of the existential horror of having to live that way. And honestly, the main reason Pyro Tf2 hasn’t had this happen to them is that Valve couldn’t advance a story if you took their families hostage; if they were at all capable of keeping the comics moving forward at a reasonable clip, we’d have had heartwrenching context on why Pyro is Like That around 2018. But eventually, you gotta pick. You gotta commit to something. The mask has to come off. So pick wisely, and pick something that’ll maximize the amount of air sucked in through teeth as audience members start connecting dots.