i was having a chuckle to myself last night about Gristol, and how his plans are basically:
Restore Ford Cruller's memory
Find Maligula
???
Profit
but then... of course they are, right? this is Gristol we're talking about. Fatherland Follies drives home again and again that he's still operating on a child's logic, a warped and reductive version of the world that he never bothered to grow out of. both of his memory vaults center on the images of his childhood, this idealized version of the past that he clings to no matter what. and that's still how he remembers Maligula, too - as this saviour figure, who rushes in to help him when he's in trouble.
[ID: Two slides from Gristol's memory vault, Glory to Grulovia! Left: Gristol clings to Maligula's back as she summons waves to sweep away his assailants. Right: Gristol and Maligula waving from a balcony as the people cheer. Gzar Theodore brandishes a dagger in the background.]
like so much else, Maligula represents a return to this idyllic childhood - to the peace and simplicity of his youth, when he was free from worries and responsibilities. in his mind, he doesn't need to make any further plans - once Maligula's back, everything will go back to normal. Maligula will make everything better.
...is what i thought, but then i remembered this line:
[Screenshot source. ID: Gristol, in Truman's body, bows on his hands and knees in front of the newly-awaked Maligula. The caption reads: "Yes, High Priestess! I am here to correct the mistakes made by my father!"]
and that's kind of interesting, right?
to be clear: this happens directly after Maligula sees Helmut-in-Gristol's-body, and recognises him. her line before this is:
"Little Gzesaravich! Have you come to pay for your father's sins?"
my first thought was that Gristol hadn't expected to still be in Truman's body by the time he managed to find Maligula, and this was him trying to placate her and buy some time until he could explain the situation. but watching the cutscene back, that's clearly not what's happening here. Gristol is answering as himself, and his response of throwing himself to his knees before her is, as far as i can tell, genuine.
so what is going on here?
in Fatherland Follies, there's this line in the ride narration that stuck out to me:
"Why didn't the Gzar help Maligula in her time of need? No one knows, but historians agree - it is Gzar Theodore's biggest failure."
other lines mention Gzar Theodore's "mistake", and it's wording Gristol himself echoes in the screencap above. evidently, he believes that his father abandoned Maligula, leaving her to her fate at the hands of the Psychonauts, and it was that mistake that lead to them being driven out of the country - that mistake which he seeks to correct. maybe he even feels like he has a debt to repay to her for his family turning their backs on her all those years ago.
the 'High Priestess' thing, though - that's kinda weird, and threw me for a loop the first time i played the game. it took me until my second playthrough to connect the dots, and remember how the room in the Lady Luctopus - Gristol's room - was full of Delugionist scribblings and symbols.
[Screenshot source. ID: left, the walls of the hidden backroom in Gristol's hotel suite, covered in scrawlings of eyeballs and Maligula's name. Right, the pinboard from the hidden backroom. On its surface are photographs and newspaper clippings connected by pieces of string.]
i mean, look at this stuff! he had a whole conspiracy board and everything!
we learn very little about the Delugionists and their beliefs as a whole during the game, but i think drawing the connection here suggests two important things. one: that Gristol was in deep with this stuff. i don't know how he linked up with them - maybe via old family connections, or just good old-fashioned digging (we know he's skilled at worming his way into peoples' good graces, after all) - but it seems likely that he's begun to internalise their ideas, maybe even warping his own memories of events. and two: the Delugionists themselves are, if you'll pardon the pun, pretty far off the deep end.
like... i understand why PN2 didn't go heavy on the "mass-murderer cult worship" aspect of things, in the end, but man this is such a tantalising glimpse into the wider mythos around Maligula. Gristol is proud and haughty and thinks himself above everyone else; the fact that his first reaction seeing Maligula is to throw himself to the ground at her feet says so much about the way he's come to see her. he's not just trying to bring back Maligula, his childhood bodyguard. he's trying to bring back Maligula, the High Priestess of the deluge, the semi-mythical figure whose supporters believe even death couldn't stop. he doesn't even flinch at the way she confronts him, and maybe it's because he's bought in so completely to this deified figurehead, this idea of Maligula; more a living force of nature than a person. and it all comes back to the same place: an abdication of responsibility, not just to the person who protected him when he was little but to this avatar of floods and destruction. Maligula will make everything better.
i'd write more about my thoughts on the Delugionists but that'd be taking a hard turn into speculation, and this is already kind of long and rambling so i'd better end it here. but what an unexpected and evocative line, right? it's some of the only stuff we have to go off of regarding the Delugionists as a whole, but i think it does such a good job of hinting at the wider story - at teasing another layer to the mythos surrounding Maligula, one whose ripples we see throughout the game but which never quite breaches the surface.
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long headcanon list of what the Punch Out!! (99.9%) Wii boxers were like as little kids:
!cw: extremely quick mention of vomiting!
• Macho was that kid that was like "1 2 skip a few 99 100" when another kid was on the swings
•Von Kaiser did nawtt play about painting rocks outside of his teacher's classroom
•Sandman preached "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit"
• ^ Macho was the one that threw a fit
•If you got something you didn't like Piston would give you his/trade no matter how bad the offer was
•Don ran the track as fast as he could to impress the girls
•Joe was that kid playing hopscotch that tripped ate shit and cried
•Hondo was a Skechers kids im so sure abt this
•Aran was that kid that mixed all his food together in the cafeteria into some horrible concoction and would tell everybody he's gonna eat it
•Soda Pop was that one kid that would randomly throw up for NOO REASON in the middle of class
•Macho blocked the entrance to the slide and Sandman pushed his big headass down so that everybody else could have a turn
•King Hippo got told "glue yourself to your seat" by the teacher bcuz he walked around too much so he actually covered his seat with glue and sat in it (this one is based off a real life experience i had im dead srs) (he also didn't gaf and walked around with it still attached to him)
•Kaiser was a library kid 4 sureee
•Bear Hugger was the kid that would get moved from his original seat bcuz he was talking too much but when he got moved he would talk to the other ppl around him just as much
bonus high school hcs:
Hoy Quarlow would get into fights and beat the person he was fighting with their own backpack 😭
Great Tiger was the cameraman for the fights and he would be going pro with it . like he got every angle and that cam didn't shake ONCEE
Aran Ryan was in the back of the classroom on FaceTime slurping on some Cup O Noodles and talking as loud as humanly possible + he was always in some raggedy pajama pants
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HAPPY PRIDEMONTH!!!✨
Made this sticker for our year end expo in my school! ^w^ Its Snufmin with my headcanons for their sexualities and gender identities =D It was based off the end credits i had from my storyboard for a snufmin animatic last pride 2020 hehe >w<
I also revamped the shitpost i made in honor of bi awareness week also on that same year to turn them into stickers as well— so here they are! ^W^
(original)
More stuff down bellow 🕺🕺🕺
HERES THE ORIGINAL DOODLE FROM 2020 FOR PRIDE MONTH!
I personally feel like Snufkin would be nonbinary— as he’s never really cared much about gender and whatever norms there are for them. As his personal philosophy is one which is to be free and is most of the time opposed to conformity, I believe that he would most definitely be non binary. The gay is a given— he and moomin’s yearning for each other is so apparent, albeit his is much quieter— but i believe he would more specifically be in the gray area of the aroace spectrum ;O; probably demiromantic or something. I wasn’t able to fit that in because wahh color-scheme T-T and i really loved the idea of a rainbow colored scarf.
Moomin on the other hand is of course a well known raging bisexual in the fandom HAHAHAHA But I also think of him as a GNC king! ;O; From what I remember in some of the comics, our boi was quite the fashionista in there no matter if it would be considered feminine or masc => same goes with Snufkin with his enby- ness, but I’m still going to have to find those comic strips that i think i discussed with @magnonette and or @flowerbloom-arts those few times in the past hmm :0c
ANYWAYS JUST GONNA SHARE THIS PIC OF ME FEATURING TWO OF MY SCHOOL FRIENDS WHO HELPED ME RUN MY GAY LITTLE BOOTH~! 🥹🥰🥰🥰🥰
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2023 Art Wrap Up :3
IGNORE HOW IT ALL LOOKS SQUISHED LMAO THESE ARE JUST TO BE PLACEHOLDERS
Links to each picture below the cut vvvv
January - "WHERE'S YO HEAD ATTTTTTT"
February - Not a post :(
March - "Now You've Gotta Kiss Me"
April - "Hysterical, Edward"
May - "That Boyyy"
June - "Strip Mafia Tord oml"
July - "I Am So Normal About Fartlord"
August - "Night Scape AU Cover Poster"
September - "Eddsworld's Sexiest Character 2023"
October - "Reflection of Myself"
December - "Biggity Buck Bumble"
November - "Dog Teeth - Tom Reference - Tired"
As a treat here's Tord's
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