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radioactivemelody · 7 months

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After a long, excruciating wait, our suffering shall end. I literally woke up with this trailer being shown EVERYWHERE.

And it is only natural for me to analyze frame by frame because I'm so, so hyped today. So, let's get into it.

Understanding the new trailer

The trailer opens with a phone call and what appears to be a young girl talking to Homura.

The entire sequence makes me understand that the Magical Girls knows, at some point, what Homura did. They are aware she isn't their Law of Cycles, asking if she can accept the risks and responsibilities.

Now, the risks and responsibilities of what? Of being essentially the replacements for what Madoka Kaname, the Law of Cycles, was? The salvation of all Magical Girls?

Which is promptly replied by Homura, who asks if they can fight against the curse of this world? I still haven't understood what she meant with that. The curse of this world? The witches, perhaps? But she says "curse", not "curses" as in plural. It is just one, singular curse.

Walpurgisnacht.

And then, the trailer begins to show a black and white sequence of Homura. Only Homura, from the anime to the last movie, Rebellion. The voice says there is only one thing she can do and that's love. They call her "Akuma-san", which translates to "Devil".

This part here intrigues me the most. They say she is a Magical Girl they don't know. And keep asking to bring hope, just bring hope, release that girl.

Which strengths my previously mentioned theory. The Magical Girls from the new world appear to have some type of acknowledgement that Homura isn't the Law of Cycles from before. They are asking for her to bring hope back. To bring Madoka back, thus, asking, demanding for her to release that girl. Release Madoka back so she can return to being the Law of Cycles.

They know Homura isn't their savior, that she is a false god who took the place from their true, original goddess and savior. And maybe, they might rally to overthrow her and put Madoka back in her place.

Look how Madoka's name is inside quotation marks. We kind of know post-Rebellion Madoka is just a Madoka without her memories of being a goddess, helpless to fight back because Homura keeps beaming her with a memory-wiping laser. This Madoka is not the original Madoka, just a shell, a reflection of what Homura desires her to be.

…A new Magical Girl? She wields Homura's bow after Madoka's divine ascension, her outfit resembles Homura's and has Mami's ribbons. What the hell is going over here? I saw someone saying that it might be an artificially created Magical Girl by Homura in order to defeat Walpurgisnacht but honestly, I have NO idea.

This frame in particular. Homura's uniform is a tad different from what we are accustomed to see. Also, the umbrella. It resembles way too much the bottom part of Walpurgisnacht's dress. I might be reading it in a nonsensical way but look, the movie is called Walpurgisnacht: Rising, everything counts at this point.

And just like Rebellion, this movie will be gorgeous in the visual aspect.

Aside from everyone getting some improvement in their outfits, we have Sayaka. Oh, Sayaka. She has ribbons(?) in her mouth.

When Homura became the Devil, remember who was the first person from the quartet to see her? Exactly, Sayaka did. In a way, Sayaka is the bearer of the truth. She knows the world they're living in is fake. She knows what happened to Madoka. And yet, she can't propagate the truth. Not even to herself because she can't remember.

Those ribbons in her mouth might symbolize the fact Homura silenced her from telling the truth. And if they end up remembering, she is going to be the first.

Everyone talks about a confrontation between Madoka and Homura but let me enlighten you: a confrontation between Homura and Sayaka. Scene absolutely worthy of every Oscar ever known. This is true cinema.

AND THE CLARA DOLLS ARE BACK!!! And in this scene we have three of them. I tried to identificate them but due to the "simplism" of them, it's kind of hard but hey, I tried! I might be wrong but anyways.

From left to right: Manuke (stupid-looking), Usotsuki (liar) e Warukuchi (slanderer).

Considering the Clara Dolls represent Homura's emotions and flaws… Yeah, our girl is suffering. Prepare for another movie that will wrench your heart beyond recognition.

#when this movie come out all of you are NOT hearing the end out of me #i will rant about it whenever i can #I WAS WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT 🔥🔥🔥🔥#puella magi madoka magica #madoka magica #pmmm #walpurgis no kaiten

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medtech-mara · 8 months

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Welcome to my new series of posts about Cyberpunk RED source material! This time we will be putting the CYBER into the PUNK by discussing everything Cyberware.

Today, though we must start with the basics, I wanted to just show the catalog and let you go on our own way, but I felt it was best to open the discussion. I am willing to answer your questions should you have some in the event you want to roleplaying/write accordingly when Phantom Liberty releases.

Welcome to Blue Remedies Health Clinic, My name is Mara Sterling, and I will be your Ripperdoc today? Have you ever used a Ripperdoc before? I notice you don't have any cyberware at all? Nervous? Don't be! We'll go walk through this together.

What is Cyberware?

Cybertechnology can be purchased almost anywhere. Some of the medical procedures are simple: walk-in types of surgery with minor installations taking place in whatever shopping mall clinics(Bodyshoppe, Fashion/Fusion, and Parts N' Programs are three popular chain stores) still exist, or drop-in medical centers (Docs R Us™... or my clinic Blue Remedies Health Clinic in the Wellsprings) These installations are much like getting your ears pierced. You can even have upgrades and improvements plugged into the old hardware for the cost of the new parts, allowing you to start small (called "stripped" or "economy") and add as you go. It is IMPORTANT to note that you CANNOT install cyberware to a critical injury, it has to heal first.

Where can I get my Cyberware installed?

Any Ripper doc if you are brave enough... Joking aside.. Depending on what cyberware you are wanting to install, depends on where you'd likely go. Don't worry I can guide you through this process with telling you where you'd likely get this cybernetic installed. Mall: means you can literally get the installation done in any mall or street corner bio-mod shop; the equivalent of ear-piercing in the 1900s. There are not as many of these as there were in the 2020s. Clinic: means an actual Medtech in a medical surgery clinic. Most of the installation is automated, but it takes a skilled practitioner to use that gear. Most ripperdocs are at this level. Hospital: means the work requires major surgery and a Medtech capable of doing this kind of work. This also requires a full hospital or the nearest equivalent, which is relatively rare. *Benefits from multiple installations of the same cyberware do not stack unless otherwise noted

"I was thinking about getting a a Sigma frame like Panthera, OH or have a dart eye like Optic from Night Raid! That's so cool!"

Unfortunately, there are prerequisites for some cyberware. Rome wasn't built in a night nor was David Martinez, so you will need to build yourself up to such an upgrade as an exo-skeleton like the Sigma frame, but I can't recommend one enough.

How is there such a thing as too much Cyberware?

Besides the obvious answer if you want to see God under the boot of some Maxtac lapdog? then yes. There are limits on how many cyberware slots your body can have. There will be a display how many slots can be used per cyberware type.

Cyberware types? You mean there are more than 2? I thought it was just cyberlimbs or Kiroshis?

There are 8 types of cybernetics available to the open market. However, your Ripperdoc MAY or MAY NOT have special types of cyberware they've crafted themselves, it never hurts to ask. Currently Avaliable: Fashionware, Neuralware, Cyberoptics, Cyberaudio, Internal Body Cyberware, External Body Cyberware, Cyberlimbs, & Borgware (my personal favorite, but watch out!)

Cool, I've picked out what I wanted, lets get started?

Whoa, hold on, choombatta, you picked some heavy hitters there, do you think you can handle it? If you've recently suffered from major traumas, I like to suggest meeting with a therapist first, your humanity is something to treasure and you won't get very far without it... Well unless you are Adam Smasher, were you born with 0 empathy?

Humanity? Therapy? What's all this GONKED shit?

Each cybernetic you install will cost a bit of your humanity, you are giving up some of your human self in place of machine, that doesn't come free. Fortunate for you, therapy does wonders, it can often help you discern what is the psychosis speaking or you, but without it, I'm sure you won't last 6 months on the street before C-Swat comes for you. It's always recommended that if you install heavy cyberware to see your therapist after. It's also a good idea to see your therapist after any traumatic event that has happened to or if front of you. It's not just the cyberware that eat at your humanity.

Annnnnd that's all for this post! Next post we will start going over some actual cyberware, starting with a personal favorite, Fashionware! I really hope to see some of the work you guys make with the new DLC coming out, and armed with this new knowledge about cyberware and cyberpsychosis (soon™)

#Cyberpunk Red #Cyberpunk RED source material #Cyberpunk 2077 #CPR #CP2077 #Cybernectics #Cyberware #Cyberpunk #cyberpunk lore #worldbuilding

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astrangergivingthestrangewelcome · 2 years

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It Should Have Been Jonathan: Why Swapping Jonathan and Mina's Roles for the Blood Ceremony Makes Dracula a Better Story Both Thematically and Plotwise

Bram Stoker did not write it this way, so swapping Jonathan in is not a headcanon, but rather an adaptational choice that adaptations like Murray Mysteries or fic writers (like me!) choose to make over and over again. Here's why you should engage with this premise.

(No spoilers for those caught up to October 3rd of Dracula Daily)

(non-graphic mention of rape, sexual assault, etc)

The Story As It Is: The Good Points

Jonathan um. Goes Through it this novel. If you hadn't noticed. Mina takes care of him a lot, and after the blood ceremony, Jonathan gets to take care of her. This is very sweet, and I do enjoy that both Mina and Jonathan take turns rather than Jonathan always needing help.

It's not like it's unrealistic. Dracula would totally retaliate against the men fighting against him by targeting Mina. He super would see this as very apt revenge, and he's definitely that brand of sexist that sees women as a prize.

This plot point goes out of its way to frame the actions of the men in excluding Mina as utterly disastrous, which is cool.

Mina as the Victim: What is it Accomplishing + How Did She Get There

Mina spends most of the novel taking care of the people Dracula's victimized. She is a force to be reckoned with, but as Stoker wrote her she is a very good sort of English woman, pious, obedient to the men, respectable, etc. etc. Although she and Lucy have very different characters, when Dracula targets them they serve the same role as good English women who are coming under attack by Dracula, an evil Eastern European man. In Lucy's case he literally kills her and in her place is a hot sexually impure corruption of the original person. Victorian nightmare fuel. In addition, there are all kinds of sexual non-con rape vibes to what he does to both Lucy and Mina. Hot forceful foreign men are invading England and targeting good women. That's the whole fear that Dracula represents.

This manifestation of xenophobia doesn't hold up at all. For me, it's always been the worst element of the novel. I don't find it compelling.

Something else you might have picked up from this update: martyr talk martyr talk martyr talk. While (trust me) Mina is still smart and still given a lot of agency by Stoker to break her own curse, after the blood ceremony, she suffers Very Piously. Like a hair's breadth away from publishing a video entitled "How To Suffer A Tormentor From Hell in A God Honoring Way" on her Youtube Channel.

I personally don't find this interesting. I don't think it holds up. I don't want to see Mina suffer like a Perfect Little Christian. I want to see her kick ass and take names.

In conclusion: the driving forces behind Mina's attack and trauma are at best uninspired and outdated, and there is a very nasty undercurrent of xenophobia and sexism there as well.

I don't love it. I'm either bored or actively turned off by what Stoker is trying to say.

Jonathan as the Victim: What Could It Accomplish?

Dracula choosing to attack Jonathan again would shift the narrative so that it becomes a story about an abuser who will Not Let Go. An abuser who follows across a continent. An abuser who waits until you've just started to recover from the first round of trauma and started to feel safe again to start an onslaught even more vicious and concerted than the last.

I think Stoker laid the groundwork for this twist to be more terrifying and compelling than for Mina to be targeted 2/3rds of the way through. Obviously Dracula is an abuser no matter what, but it so much more terrifying to me to think of him playing a long-term game of cat and mouse over like 6 months with one man, than it is to see him target Mina over the span of three days.

This is also in character for Dracula. I agree with the common interpretation that Dracula continued to target Lucy even when it got ridiculously difficult and dangerous to continue because he can't stand to lose a test of dominance.

If we carry that over to Jonathan there is absolutely no way that Dracula would be ok with learning Jonathan escaped and is recovering. He would Hate that. He would absolutely want to target Jonathan again.

So you remember "I too can love" "tonight is mine" the gaps in the journal? All that abuse that is hinted at and never explored? The same sort of sexual assault motifs that are so present in Lucy and Mina's attacks? The implication that Jonathan was fed on by Dracula? All these hints that Stoker doesn't do anything with or develop further? Well Making Jonathan the one who undergoes the blood ceremony gives us a very natural chance to discuss them again.

In conclusion: Jonathan's history with the Count makes him being the victim (again) a more compelling story. We've watched the Count slowly escalate aggression with him over the course of a novel, and this final attempt to literally claim Jonathan's soul and make him a thrall is the natural conclusion of that. To me those are some compelling stakes

Jonathan being Targeting Makes for Less Plotholes (and less Infuriatingly Sexist Plotpoints)

Not that Mina being excluded is unrealistic or unworthy of engaging with in the original novel but I find it to be such a drag

And actually to a certain point it is unrealistic to me because I think the decision to completely cut her off and stop talking to her about anything comes completely out of left field. Everyone was acting like she'd work with them in some capacity right up until Van Helsing says differently. I find that jarring.

Switching the target to Jonathan eliminates that plotpoint entirely, which I think is cool. Maybe Stoker never would have written Mina as one of the boys, but it's not the 19th century anymore and we can write Mina however we want. I think having a Mina that sticks up for herself and refuses to be excluded is neat.

But on what grounds would they choose to exclude Jonathan? Well I actually think that some obvious solutions present themselves.

Murray Mysteries goes the "Jonathan you have PTSD you shouldn't retraumatize yourself route" which works for them, since it's a 21st century retelling

But I actually think it could potentially make sense for Van Helsing to want to exclude Jonathan, and to need to be secretive about it.

So you know how in the canon Dracula gives Mina his blood partially because his intention was to make himself a spy? The plan was to use an unwitting Mina to his advantage but the polycule bursting in killed that idea.

Well if I were Van Helsing, I would immediately suspect that the Count had fucked with Jonathan at the castle. I mean it would make so much sense wouldn't it? Jonathan was there for two months, he could be compromised in so many different ways.

If Van Helsing had these suspicions, then it would be the natural next step to try and exclude Jonathan from the business as completely and utterly as possible under whatever flimsy excuses he can make up (and this man has been making up flimsy excuses for the whole novel so it's in character).

This adaptational change would lead into Jonathan getting attacked again very smoothly, except in this version, Van Helsing's reasoning has more grounds to it than just Sexism, so he would be not only a smarter character, but also one I'd want to punch less.

I think that makes for a stronger plot

Also it seems very natural to me that Jonathan wouldn't realize he'd been attacked again by Dracula. More natural than Mina not realizing. This man has been having PTSD nightmares and flashbacks about Count Dracula attacking him for the entire summer and early fall. Canonically his trauma made it difficult for him to separate dreams from reality in the past. He would just assume they were particularly nasty dreams.

This would also apply to Mina not noticing Jonathan was being fed on as well. She's used to him not looking well and having bad nights. It would not immediately be apparent to her that this was different that the usual.

In conclusion: Jonathan being the one who is attacked opens the door to other obvious plot changes that create a better story structurally.

Okay You've Convinced Me, I Want to Explore This

Listen to Murray Mysteries! Listen to Murray Mysteries if I haven't convinced you, it's really good and it's the only adaptation I know of that actually adapts the Polycule in a good way.

Read my series! I don't mean to self-promote but if you couldn't tell I feel incredibly strongly about this premise and I don't see people tapping into the potential so I've had to do it myself. Strange Wonders is a series of short stories that explore the plot of Dracula if this change had happened. The goal was to create something that mimicked Bram Stoker's tone and style as much as possible, while being the story I liked better in my head. The first in the series, Uncommon Horrors and Unnatural Hurts is Dracula Daily friendly, and the next in the series The Resilience of the Dawn will be Dracula Daily friendly by October 4th. I'm still updating as well although the story is technically complete and has a climax.

here some would stand between you and death by princ3ssf33t is a great little one-shot fic I've found that deals with the role reversal and features some stellar Jonmina

There is a Pleasure in the Pathless Woods by calliopes_pen is another epic reimagining where both the Harkers are targeted by Dracula

Your fic/art/content here!! Endless potential.

TL;DR

Having Jonathan undergo the blood ceremony instead of Mina makes for richer horror, stronger character arcs, less teethgrinding sexism, and less plotholes. The Dracula fandom should be exploring it more.

#dracula #dracula daily #meta #dracula meta #jonathan harker #mina harker #rape tw #rape cw

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fruitcoops · 10 months

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i just reread "big head" and laughed my ass off, will you do another ego award one pretty pleeeeeaseee? (only if you want of course :))

One of my favorites! Character credit goes to @lumosinlove <3

(Part 1: Big Head)

“The 2022-2023 hockey season has officially wrapped,” Talker announced as he walked backward down the hallway of Gryffindor Arena. “This team had a run for the history books and everyone is so proud—and so grateful—to have such outstanding fans there with us every step of the way. We truly could not have done it without you.

“As a ‘thank you’ for everything you’ve done for us this year, we’d like to continue a very special end-of-season tradition: the Ego Award. Some of you may recall our reigning champion, Heartthrob O’Hara himself, and his fabulously embarrassing stories from last year.” He paused just outside the locker room with a significant look toward the camera. “Those may be big shoes to fill, but rest assured we have found the one person who can literally and figuratively get the job done. Behold.”

He swept the door open with one hand and chaos spilled out in a rush.

“Read it! Read it! Read it!” half the room chanted.

“Eat it! Eat it! Eat it!” the other half cheered.

“I can’t,” came Leo’s distressed answer, red all the way from his ears to his neck as he gripped a wrinkled piece of notebook paper. “You guys, this is such a—”

“Gentlemen!” The room fell silent as Talker spread his arms with a wide smile. “Welcome to the 2023 Ego Award, hosted by yours truly and bestowed upon our sweet baby net angel, the Nutcracker.”

“It’s Knut,” Leo said miserably. “Like the lizard.”

“Hush, Crunchy Peanut Butter. Do you have your punishment prepared?”

Leo turned baleful eyes on the camera. He looked rather like a puppy that had been put outside in the rain, hunched in his stall and surrounded by his carrion-bird teammates. “Save me.”

“Saviors are for the humble. You, sir, were voted off that island. Read.”

“Oh, god,” Leo mumbled under his breath as he unfolded the paper. In the corner of the frame, Finn watched him with unhindered glee. “My name is Leo Knut, and these are my top five most humbling moments with the Gryffindor Lions. Because clearly I don’t suffer enough for this team.”

“Keep that up and you’re getting the Potty Mouth Award, too,” Talker warned.

“You can’t—” Leo rolled his eyes. “Fine. Number five: trying to drink out of the wrong side of my waterbottle.”

“How many times?” Finn prompted eagerly.

“Once.”

A chorus of protests rose up—Leo pressed his lips into a thin line.

“Nine times. Shut up. Number four: losing a kitten in my shirt when we had a shelter visit."

"Two kittens," Sirius corrected. "One went up your pant leg."

"Oh my god, can you not?"

“That one was delightful,” Kasey agreed, nodding along. “Just—honestly, one of my favorite memories.”

Leo smoothed the edge of the page, nose wrinkling like he had smelled something unpleasant. “Is it too late to eat the paper?”

Remus tsked. “We gave you a chance. Not our fault you chose the most painful path.”

A rogue socked foot came into frame and poked Leo on the shin. “Read, Butterball.”

“Number three,” Leo continued, tilting his face to the ceiling in a clear bid for strength. “Getting stuck jumping the boards, falling back onto the ice, slipping when I got up again, and only making it over successfully with the help of two different people dragging me over the edge.”

“Like hauling a bag of bricks,” Logan mused from his place on the floor.

Dumo nodded solemnly. “Or a dead bear.”

“Slip a disc about it, Grandpa,” Leo quipped before glancing to Talker. “If I read the next one without eating this paper, can I skip the last one?”

“No,” the rest of the team answered in perfect unison.

“We all go through trying times,” Finn said with a pat to Leo’s knee. “Look on the bright side: at least it isn’t me this year!”

Leo stared at him for a long, silent moment.

“You astound me,” he said at last.

“Thank you.”

“That’s not a compliment.”

“I’m taking it as one.”

“How did I end up with this award?” He looked around the team with a lost expression. “How is it not Ginger Spice every goddamn year?”

“Because we have to switch it up so we can trauma-bond over mutual humiliation,” Talker informed him. “Also, you’re a little fucker and you can’t hide it from the good people of Gryffindor forever.”

Leo shook his head, but turned back to his notes. “Number two: leaving the ice baths to get my Gatorade, then slipping and falling in my own puddle on the way back.” He closed his eyes. “And spilling the entire bottle of Gatorade on myself. And slipping in that as well.”

“It’s important to me that people know you just laid there for, like, five full seconds,” Kasey added.

“Thanks.”

“Any time, Honeynut Cheerios.”

“After I’m done, can someone bury me under the net? I want to haunt you all for making me do this.”

Several noises of assent followed and Leo nodded.

“Cool. Sweet. I love this for myself.” He cleared his throat and leaned his elbows on his knees. “Number one: I underestimated the weight of my new gear, sat on a stool, and fell backwards off it. I took six and a half people down with me like a bowling ball wrapped in Velcro and foam. Every second of it was caught on camera and replayed through commercial breaks, then late-night television. Harzy, will you do the honors?”

“Of course, Bodacious Nutacious.”

Leo held his arms up and Finn scooped him over his shoulder with a grin as the room erupted into whoops, hollers, and applause. The camera followed the stream of players out and down the hallway; Talker stepped into frame once more, craning his neck to watch Leo and Finn disappear around the corner.

“Thanks for joining us for another year, Lions,” he laughed. “We look forward to so many more. Stay humble!”

#leo knut #finn ohara #logan tremblay #thomas walker #remus lupin #pascal dumais #lions #sweater weather #vaincre #coast to coast #lumosinlove #ego award #social media #lion pride #my fic #fanfic

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cto10121 · 3 months

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Twilight Clown Takes—Part 4

What is it about YouTube and its breeding ground for Twilight clownery???? Some of it is very basic clownery, too. Also, the fake outrage on behalf of the Quileutes by engaging in racist interpretations of the text is…something else. Regardless, there I came upon the feast, and so I shall eat.

“The Wolves Are Savage” and Other Racisms

What.

You mean those same books that described the vampires in the same way as beasts, who not only growl and roar and snarl, but literally cannot smell blood without going literally crazy like sharks? The same books that described vampires as almost entirely solitary creatures who don’t usually form covens (because then they would turn against each other in competition for their human prey? The same books that had nothing but evil red-eyed vampires (James, Victoria, the Volturi) until the very last book of the series where we are introduced to sympathetic non-vegetarian vampires (Garrett, the Amazonians, etc.)?

Meanwhile the werewolves keep their reason and intelligence intact while they’re in their wolf forms and do not suffer from bloodlust. Their dangerousness comes from their youth and inexperience in shifting—the oldest of the pack is Sam at 18 and he was literally the first and only one to do it without help.

The books adore the Cullens. But it makes it damn clear that they (and the Denalis) are the exceptions that prove the rule. Otherwise Twilight vampires are sociopathic beasts and, as Edward explicitly said in book one, the Quileutes are right to keep their distance. And no, this wasn’t by accident or ~bad writing. Meyer is deliberate in her framing, as well as her characterization of the wolves.

Tfw your accusation of racism is racist

Bella asked Jacob if he could stop being a werewolf because she mistakenly thought him and his wolf buddies were literally killing people. When she learned otherwise, she was literally, “Oh, no, Jake, I’m fine with you turning into a giant wolf. That doesn’t bother me at all.” (This is near VERBATIM, not even joking). Bella is a monsterfucker, after all. She’s just not into that kind of bestiality.

Tfw your accusation of racism is racist

Yes, because imprinting is something the wolves 100% have control over and it’s something they can reject. There is nothing random about imprinting at all.

Otherwise—once again—the wolves have vastly more control over their wolf forms than the vampires over their thirst (the Cullens and Denalis excepted). And of course, their body counts are close to zero—compare them to the Cullens and Denalis. Only Sam has injured another human and that was by accident. Even the hothead Paul has no kills or injuries, whereas his counterpart Emmett has at least three.

MORMONISM OMG

Because Mormonism is the only religion that values and reveres close family ties. Only Mormonism supports the patriarchal family and believes in the organization of society through the familial unit. Only Mormonism is heteronormative and actively homophobic. No other culture or religion gives a fuck.

(Also, the Prodigal Son??? Literally the most common and basic Biblical allusion ever. Literally every major writer has alluded to it, including Shakespeare. It is not just a Mormon thing, oh God 😭😭😭😭😭😭 This kind of clownery eats itself).

Bella Hate Dumb Round ♾️

Bella turned down Mike and told him explicitly that it would hurt Jessica’s feelings if she went with him to the dance. She did go to La Push with him and her friends and was happy that it was “so easy” to please Mike. She rescued Angela from having to answer Jessica’s annoying questions about Eric by changing the subject. She helped Angela and Jessica find dresses and explicitly enjoyed their girls’ night out in Port Angeles. She had zero opinion on Lauren until she overheard her shit talking Bella (literally) behind her back. She listened to Jessica’s date with Mike and was glad it went all right.

Bella being mean to her friends is clownery so easily debunked—at worst, she is not particularly close to any of them except Angela. If she was reserved or distant with them, it was because she hates any and all attention to herself, period. It was her first day at a new school where everyone knew each other, and was already overwhelmed with introductions and learning her schedule and teachers’s and classmates’s names. The behavior Edward notices in Midnight Sun does not go against her character in Twilight at all and is a continuation of this self-abnegating tendency.

Edward literally went to Italy to get himself killed by the vampire elite and explicitly said that he could not live in a world where Bella did not exist. Before that, he basically admitted that when he wasn’t hunting Victoria he curled up into a ball and let the despair take him. Meanwhile Bella did not consider suicide (though ~just barely) because of Charlie and Renée. After her one week coma period she did make an effort at keeping up appearances, which included getting all A’s even in her weakest subject, Calculus.

It’s disgusting, all right: A male character who cannot live without his woman. What kind of a message is that sending to our poor impressionable boys???!!!!!

Didn’t Edward literally stop murdering child molesters and pedophiles because his conscience got to him that it was, indeed, still murder? And didn’t at least one clown still complain about how Mormon it was of him to care for human life? Now the clowns insist Edward doesn’t care about humans and humanity at all.

Even if Edward did care only about Carlisle’s disappointment, it wasn’t because he considers himself his perfect son. If anything Edward suffers from the same kind of self-esteem issues as Bella—in New Moon, he flatly denies Aro’s praise/assertion that his self-control puts Carlisle to shame. Edward thinks of Carlisle because he loves Carlisle like a father and thinks the world of him. He did save him from permanent death, after all.

#twilight #twilight clownery #twilight clown takes #anti anti twilight #damn the vitriol toward mormonism is incredible #i’m an atheist so all religions are bollocks to me #we don’t even know how observant meyer is #because honestly a lot of twilight goes against the religious conservatism

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proudfreakmetarusonniku · 3 months

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god i had more depressing rei thoughts.

so we know the second rei idolised gendo? and the third rei pretty clearly hated him? (which like. good on you girl he’s an abuser)

rei is a victim of grooming, both in a non sexual manner in her relation to her roles in gendo's plans, and she’s also heavily implied to have been also sexually groomed by him too. (i'll have to rewatch the series to write my whole analysis on rei as a sexual abuse victim, but if you want the summary as to why i believe this, it’s a mix of her lack of reaction to shinji accidentally sexually assaulting her, her general self objectification disassociation issues general lack of hygeine ect being all characteristics that are specifically common with victims of csa, and finally, like, that one scene in end of evangelion is framed like a rape scene for a reason like that’s a very obvious and direct metaphor)

each sentient rei clone (as in, the three we see in the series, not the soulless hundreds we see in the lcl tank) shares a soul. they’re the same person, even if they don’t have specific memories. so why the sudden shift? i mean, well, the obvious one is that she did kinda spend the last 23 episodes learning that her abuse wasn’t normal and fine. like. that was a whole thing. rei clearly has some vague recollection of things, since she has a sense of familiarity around gendo's glasses, even if she lacks the emotional response the second rei had, so she presumably at least has some idea that her abuse isn’t normal still.

but also like… the first rei was literally a toddler. of course she trusted her adoptive father, enough to repeat the inappropriate words he said to someone else bc she thought it was normal. (and i have Thoughts on that too, but again i am going to make a whole post on that eventually). the second rei was so isolated from the world she didn’t know how to express emotions at all. but the third rei was basically immediately just thrust straight into life without any time for her to be groomed into trusting gendo. she knows him, and has vague recollections of him, but she lacks the emotional bond she was manipulated into the other times. she’s looking at her abuser from an objective lens, and she’s able to see him for what he is.

idk just. thought that was both an interesting thought and sad as shit. rei ayanami suffered more than jesus.

#neon Genesis evangelion #rei ayanami #hope u like my Evangelion analysis posts this is how I talk about all media I like #Csa tw #grooming tw

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bestworstcase · 1 year

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I’ve gone back to rewatch 6x3 (Salem backstory) like three times since I heard of the summer joined salem willingly theory and I just never really stopped to FULLY appreciate how unfairly salem had been treated by the narrative before.. like I literally can’t stop ranting about how she’d not really done anything wrong! A grieving woman pulled the classic childhood “mom said no so I’m gonna go ask dad and pretend I didn’t ask mom” and is cursed with immortality!

She’s a smart woman so when she realized they were fallible she made a plan that would potentially end her suffering/life and instead they ruined her life further… eventually Ozma comes back and she realizes that they together could create *paradise* (her words, she has no desire for ceaseless destruction unlike what the story of her falling into the grimm pool and all said) and replace the brothers as the worlds new deities.

He feels conflicted that there are people fighting/dying to spread their new religion and she says (at 21:51) “you said we needed to bring humanity together, in order to do that, we have to spread our word and destroy those who deny it.” Like that’s what fucks me up! It was *his* idea to unify them via religion which meant all along he was using *her* own suggestion of being gods to create paradise to instead bring *back* the gods that cursed her, the ones that she wanted to replace… she literally just goes on to say “don’t you see? None of that matters anymore” like it literally doesn’t! It wasn’t even her idea to spread it to the degree that it would require killing!

Oz could’ve just enjoyed the freedom to live with Salem forever but instead he withheld his true intentions and even tried to twist her cause when even after everything she went through she wasn’t some sort of bloodthirsty monster, she just wanted to create a beautiful world for the people who already existed and for their new family… Salem is literally so tragic 😢

#TeamSalemDidNothingWrong #…UntilAllOfThatMurderThatCameFromNeedingToPreventHerDeathOrNewTypeOfTortureAtTheHandsOfTheGods #EverythingIsBecauseOfOzma

hgfhdgsk step one COMPLETE!

step two is asking, is salem really being treated unfairly by the narrative? are we meant to take jinn as an objective source? she does begin the tale with “once upon a time”—it’s framed as a fairytale. are fairytales treated as the whole truth in any other narrative context? why does the scene get inexplicably washed in glaring red light when jinn says “salem blamed the end of the world on the gods” in a way that insinuates it’s a lie? why is it ruby, not jinn, who asserts that ozma “has to destroy salem,” and why does jinn grin when she tells him he can’t?

V6 builds from the groundwork laid in V5 regarding truth and deception and the importance of critical thinking—think of all the emphasis raven puts on telling yang she needs to ask questions and stop taking every answer she’s given at face value—and what do the kids do after jinn tells them this tale? they ask ozpin what his plan is, and they ask how they’re supposed to defeat salem if she can’t be killed. ruby actively chooses not to ask jinn any follow-up questions because she’s afraid of wasting the last one (<- this happens AGAIN with hazel in V8, the characters don’t ask jinn what salem wants because they assume that their assumption is correct, and that caps off a subplot about all of salem’s hench people bickering over their wildly different ideas of what she’s planning.)

STEP THREE,

is remembering that jinn is a djinn bound to a magical lamp whose three questions were humorously equated to wishes, and ambrosius makes it clear that he gives people exactly, literally what they ask for, and ruby doesn’t ask jinn to tell them the truth about salem, she asks “what is ozpin hiding from us?”, and then you have to smack yourself in the forehead a bit.

step four is going back to the beginning and paying attention this time. what does salem say about humankind? what does she say about the society ozma built after the great war? how does her tone change from one to the other? what does volume one have to say about the nature of evil? is the conspiratorial, paranoid cult of secrets and lies keeping a comatose young woman in the basement until they find a suitable vessel to overwrite with her soul really people the narrative expects us to agree with? is this a good system? what is it for? who does it serve? is ozpin right and ironwood wrong or are both of them wrong in opposite ways? is salem really describing her own methods, or is she mocking ozpin for the self-sabotaging failures of his? what does the narrative think about chosen ones who try to stand alone against the darkness? how does it engage with the concept of heroism? how is it deconstructing the fairytale ethos at the heart of the huntsman system? are the things the characters believe about the grimm accurate? why aren’t there any grimm plaguing kuo kuana, despite it being the most densely populated city in the world and not participating in the huntsmen institution? how is salem’s part of 6.4 annotating her portrayal in 6.3? why does the narrative show us the rage and terror behind her decision to rush to atlas ahead of schedule before ironwood speculates that her greatest strength is a complete lack of emotion? why does she fly off the handle every time someone lies to her? why does the narrative make such a huge point of establishing that no one knows what she wants and then conclude that subplot with the characters actively choosing not to verify their assumptions? what might the narrative be setting up through salem’s treatment of cinder in V8, through salem losing the power struggle because she won’t commit to punishing cinder for her defiance? why does the woman who loathes the gods and praises humanity’s strength and wisdom and resourcefulness and passion really hold ozma, god’s chosen one, in such contempt? WHY DOES SHE LET HER HOSTAGES GO? and so on and so forth.

step five is rewatching the lost fable again for the nth time and staring at a wall and thinking about “creatures known as faunus bore fangs and claws and were locked away in cages” and “frightened whispers that spoke of a terrifying sorceress who commanded dark powers in the wilds, among beasts and monsters” and putting that together with how grimm are used to symbolize the persecution of faunus and ozpin transparently suspecting blake as salem’s spy and how the world of remnant episodes on grimm and faunus and the faunus origin myths all strongly imply a cultural perception that faunus are sort of grimm-adjacent, and having the oh. OH moment where you realize that salem is a faunus and her arc is intricately connected to the faunus narrative.

step seven is going down the feverish rabbit hole of ‘fairytales of remnant’ and tilting at silver-eyed windmills until your brain is thoroughly cooked, at which point you can start yelling on street corners about how the god of animals was a grimm lady and silver-eyed warriors are psychopomps and summer rose is salem’s second in command and rapidly approaching ozma apostasy arc and ozlem reconciliation because lord knows they deserve it, and so forth, ideally with a bullhorn.

step eight is getting cold-clocked by volume nine tearing the last vestiges of ruby’s faith in the huntsman system to shreds like a pack of rabid hyenas so that she can finally tear herself free of the fairytale cult that tried to eat her

and that’s the normal rwby fan to salem club pipeline in a nutshell.

#rwby v9 spoilers #‘we finally had freedom’ god.#she would have been blissfully happy in that cottage forever

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burr-ell · 11 months

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Also the whole religion bit of fandom criticism is particularly strange, kinda from both ides of the debate imo. The idea that presenting the prime goods as actually evil and Asmodeus is secretly a good guy, wrongfully accused, is somehow an "establishment" stance, when the actual establishment vs anti-establishment stance is literally baked into the traditional dnd theology in the form of the alignment chart, where the explicitly aren't the same thing as good and evil, but rather co-aligned.

That said, I do find the fact that people default to blaming the "culturally christian atheists" as the once primarily vying against the prime gods being good. Atheism specifically is about not believing in divinity at all, not about the perceived mortality of any excising divinity. I really feel that it comes more from lazy media criticism, believing that the "subversion" inherently makes it more clever, occasional annoying reddit atheist aside. Anyway, sorry for dumping theses in your asks. :V

Nah, you're good anon! This is interesting stuff (and I like getting CR asks :D).

To be clear, the reason that I view the fandom debate as a discussion of establishment vs anti-establishment is that a lot of the "what if gods BAD" ideas are presented with a very Twitter-esque anti-authority burn-it-all-to-the-ground attitude; that is not to say that I actually think that's what the totality of the argument is, just that that tends to be the veneer. (And to be fair, some of my perspective on this is colored by Fire Emblem Three Houses discourse, where this is also usually framed around "the system" when it's usually for the reasons we're discussing, but I don't want the lines to get blurred here.)

So I think a lot of the reason why people making these claims with that attitude aren't engaging with alignment is because there are also gods who are chaotic good or neutral and lawful evil; I think a lot of the criticism of the gods is mostly just like, people being mad at Pelor and projecting that onto all of the pantheon. The notion of this actually, canonically being an establishment vs anti-establishment scenario falls apart because I don't think you can really make a decent case for why Sehanine or Avandra are more "establishment" than the guy who runs a wholeass death city built on rigid laws and power structures. I mean...why, because they're considered Good and Asmodeus is considered Evil? Yeah, that tends to happen when one side fights to preserve life and the other side rules over a plane dedicated to the torture and corruption of mortal souls.

That doesn't necessarily speak to whether or not the Exandrian pantheon playing the tropes straight is a good thing, I'm just saying it shouldn't have been a surprise when Calamity Part 4 dropped. We saw what the Nine Hells are like. We saw what Tharizdun did to Yasha and what its influence did to Cognouza. We been knew.

I think you're correct in that most of this ultimately comes from poor media criticism and wanting the subversion of expectations because it would be cool, but I think it's also because people don't want gods who were occasionally not accommodating to Blorbo Of The Month to be validated as "good". I tend to try to be as inclusive as I can to people who have suffered religious trauma, because I always want to respect and affirm that (especially as a religious person, but also because it's just the right thing to do), but I think it's also true that many people who propagate those ideas are not themselves sufferers of religious trauma but are willing to use that as a shield if it's available. And like, notwithstanding the fact that "the god you thought was good is actually bad" has been done often enough that it's no longer a subversion...guys, don't we have entire seasons of HBO's flagship show and half of a bloated cinematic universe to tell us why we shouldn't just subvert expectations for the hell of it?

And I'm not saying that needing everyone to immediately validate your blorbo and/or ship or else they are badwrongproblematic is a sign of emotional immaturity (it is), but I am saying that this attitude crops up most often in the same college kids whose idea of real activism begins and ends with "burn it all down".

#critical role #cr meta #cr discourse #asks #also stop being mean to pelor that's vex's lightbulb dad :(

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arcplaysgames · 1 year

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someone asked me a while about about my ideal persona cast using the P3/P4/P5 casts and i didn't answer because this was back when we just got futaba so i didn't know

now I feel I have a bit more of a handle so

The Protagonist: femmeswap Joker. yes i still want to be able to play a girl so fucking bad and i'm mad the game will not let me. i feel like Joker and FeMC would be tight bc they are both fucking weirdos.

The Best Friend Guy: i am agonizing over yosuke vs junpei but I'm gonna say Junpei because I liked having a bro that much. I like Yosuke but only when he's devastatingly closeted and in love with P4MC. I would be friends with Junpei IRL.

The Uncool Girl: I really like Ann but Yukari was great, she was gay as hell, and she had a very interesting arc. I liked how she gave huge "girl friend who secretly dislikes you and is just being nice" vibes but evolved into an extremely sharp plot catalyst who asked smart questions and was super perceptive.

The Polite Girl With A Family Legacy: Makoto was never in the running here, but Yukiko vs Mitsuru is hard. Mitsuru has nonbinary swagger and a motorcycle, but Yukiko is actually really funny and charming...... I'm gonna say Yukiko by a hair.

The Weird Loveable Dude Who I Personally Wanna Date In Each Game: Yusuke vs Kanji vs Akihiko. god, don't make me pick between Akihiko the Autistic Boxer King and Kanji the literal best character in P4. I refuse to pick. Both win.

Yusuke loses because the game forgot he's a loveable weirdo about 20 hours ago and he's just another voice in cutscenes now and i'm sad about it.

The Navigator: oh my god Fuuka vs Futaba is so fucking hard. I wanted to date Fuuka so bad and she's still the most useful of the actual navigators, she's the only one who just gives you a full scan of the enemies when you ask. but Futaba is a fucking delight and her struggle with agoraphobia and social anxiety isn't played up, it's so on point, yeah I'm gonna go Futaba but Fuuka, I still love you!!!!!

Late-Comer Who Doesn't Get Enough Screentime: i don't want to blow any minds but i think i like Haru the most out of these, I'm really loving her Empress arc. Naoto was super interesting up until they joined the party, then the game got scared to do anything with her. nah.

The Guest Party Member: Shinjiro vs Akechi. SIGHS. it's gotta be Akechi unfortunately.

The Mascot Animal: Teddie, no question. Morgana is a close second but I cried about Teddie. hmmmm but morgana is a cat that lives in your school bag......... NO it's teddie! I can't not reward Sam Reigel for the fucking WORK he did!

The Special Edition Character: Marie. Kasumi has suffered soooooo much from feeling tacked onto the story in an extremely sloppy way. With Marie, that... kind of was perfect given who and what she was, it almost aided in the feeling of her as a superfluous vestigial limb of the game that you opt-into caring about. Also her becoming a weather forecaster was hilarious. Kasumi really really needs some fucking edge.

(also, random complaint, Maruki feels MUCH LESS TACKED ON than Kasumi, so i KNOW they could have done a better job integrating her. whatever.)

Velvet Room Attendant: Margaret. I'm sorry, I'm shallow and she's incredibly hot and that line asking the PC to entangle her in his thread of fate was hot. Also the moment she kisses the PC is great. Sorry Liz.

Bad Vibes Bad Guy: Ryoji vs Adachi vs Akechi. This is impossible because all three of them are atrocious in their own ways. Also, I haven't seen Akechi's dismount yet. HOWEVER..... as fun as Akechi shooting Joker was, and it was very fun, I don't think he comes close to P4MC vs Adachi in Yamano's room. The framing, the cinematography, the sudden shock of his Arcana changing, it was phenomenal. JYB absolutely killed that performance. Adachi.

Last Minute Baddie No One Cares About: Izanami vs Shido vs huh p3 doesn't have that huh. I'm gonna say Shido because no I don't care, but at least he's been mildly set up as the baddie where izanami, all you get is Edogawa giving you a four minute lecture on the creation myth of Japan and then you gotta remember that 40 hours later when the fucking gas station attendant turns out to be evil. It's dumb. At least Shido has backstory with Joker.

that was fun! it's interesting to see the reused tropes and pick which i like.

#persona liveblog

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nono-bunny · 6 months

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I knew Brooklyn and Malibu are probably the second biggest ship after Malibu and Ken, but before watching Big City Big Dreams I had no real frame of reference to who Brooklyn is as a person and what their dynamic is like, but after watching it... Istg literally every single time they're on screen together there's just a completely unmissable romantic undertone???

We KNOW the Barbie staff is capable of writing platonic relationships, because Malibu has tons of platonic friends! So I literally just cannot imagine that this wasn't meant to be gay??? Istg at times the symbolism and chemistry was better than with Ken, and?? I'm genuinely really confused by the whole thing because if they're capable of writing this sort of romantic tension without making it awkward (ugh "do you want to dance?") then why not put that effort towards what is very obviously gonna be the endgame couple? I love Ken, he's great, but things were kinda awkward and a bit cringe before BCBD when it comes to those two, and then they turn around and deliver this flawless romance devoid of any implicit depiction even though I feel like it's unmissable and.. Why was this not done with Ken?

I like Brooklyn well enough, I loved her a lot by the middle of the movie but the way she so easily got played and needed "proof" to believe in Malibu, as if they weren't all goofing off and she had other friends to verify it was an accident even without a video... Like, that was NOT a good look for her, and the movie in general really suffered from just like... Being a movie, actually- it would've made for an amazing series with room to let things develop more, which the staff working on it obviously realized given that there are two seasons of a Double Barbie show, but! My god was the pace here suboptimal lol

Also whatttt the fuck in regards to Emmie's dad, he's AWFUL and that never got resolved and I'm hoping to god that storyline gets continued and that Emmie and Rafa don't get dropped in the sequels/spin offs

Rafa felt off in a way I couldn't put my finger for a while, but I think it's that he just looks way older in comparison to the other three lol. I don't really have any particular feelings towards him otherwise but I'd like it if he could stay relevant and become more than a gay coded fashionista with a dog. For example, he clearly has some theatrical skills and I'd love to see them maybe expand on that rather than chalk it up to this being a musical, because that one song he sang had me more invested in his character than all of his other scenes combined lol, like I was SURE he wasn't gonna take part but then he did and it was great and I kinda want an in universe explanation for that??

Anyway the ending left me feeling like it was very rushed and with a lot of unanswered questions and I'm hoping that the follow-ups to this are good! The beginning/middle parts of the movie were really good but the ending kinda really tanked it. For a movie that did a surprisingly good job with its montages, it still failed to have them in some places where they were SORELY needed and it left it as a weaker story as a result... But it's no big deal to me so long as they manage to make up for the stuff they missed in the sequels, so... Here's to hoping!

#barbie #barbie movies #barbie vloggerverse #barbie big city big dreams

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peggy-sue-reads-a-book · 2 years

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Athena Headcanons:

You may have noticed I don’t talk about her that much

That’s because I’m intimidated by her. I’m not cool enough to be her friend and absolutely neither are you.

I’m telling you she’s fly. Resting face of worldly ennui. Cool Girl Bob TM. Lovely shade of honey blonde. Very cool very smart black square framed glades.

Wears one of Aphrodite’s tears a single pearl on a fine golden chain everyday.

This is what she looks like RN but that golden ratio you’re always hearing about in art class? Yeah that’s her face. It’s the perfect oval. She can wear her hair or glasses literally any way she likes.

Hates bugs

Thinks Apollo is a moron and doesn’t care what happens to him, which is why she texts her baby brother three times a day to make sure he ate a balanced breakfast and isn’t feeling sad.

Often takes the form of a young girl of any age so she can attend schools she wants to support. Her presence just gives the whole scene a boost.

The nicest skin of all the gods. It’s like silk. Her jaw is slightly square which adds character to her face.

Acts as a “guardian angel” to those facing educational violence/discrimination. Even if nothing more than an encouraging whisper.

Has a demigod child with Down’s syndrome. She has her mother’s unmistakeable whit, grey eyes, and honey hair.

Suffered a deep sense of imposter syndrome for thousands of years as a closeted “maiden goddess”

Kinda anxious

Prefers to be with others but engaged in quite activities like board games or cleaning your room together.

She and Apollo had a major falling out during the Trojan war. Making up included Athena coming out for the first time. Apollo gave her a haircut after they talked.

Even with her modern hair and makeup, she prefers her traditional white chiton. After all it was made for her

#greek mythology #athena headcanons #athena #athena fanfiction #light academia #bisexual bob

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stormyoceans · 11 months

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We have so many crazy (and most likely unviable) theories on MorKDay that I need 16 ep of 1.5 hours each, of which 8 ep are a confrontation between Mork and Day, so that all the craziness with their bickering, rapprochement, kisses get into the frame. But knowing Aof, we will get a kiss only in the final ep before the closing credits, PG-13 rating and 10 episodes😭 Knowing this, I already want to cry. This fandom cannot be without suffering💪🤡

NOT TO BE DRAMATIC BUT IF LAST TWILIGHT HAS LESS THAN 12 EPISODES IM KILLING EVERYONE IN THAT WRITERS ROOM AND THEN MYSELF

like i know length doesn't really matter when it comes to make a good show and i'd always rather have quality over quantity, but at the same time god knows i need to be able to unleash all this pent-up derangement over the course of at least three months or i will DIE

SAME GOES FOR THE KISSES. im a very big fan of slow burn and when it's done right i don't necessarily mind getting only one kiss at the end, and while i do NEED morkday to have the most delicious slow burn ever portrayed in television history, I ALSO DESPERATELY NEED THEM TO GET MULTIPLE KISSES I LITERALLY HAVE A LIST OF THE ONES I WANT TO SEE which may or may not include a shotgun kiss. also if i don't get one elicited by a book mork is reading to day like what happened to paolo and francesca in dante's inferno (just you know.. with less tragedy involved) IM SUING

and not to be that person but i think showing how someone with disability has sexual urges and can be perceived as sexually attractive would be extremely important so im never gonna stop manifesting day jerking off to mork's smell and the two of them having at least one intimate scene P'AOF IM IN YOUR WALLS IM IN YOUR FRONT YARD IM IN YOUR HOUSE IM INVADING YOUR MIND

#IM MANIFESTING IM ACTUALIZING IM REARRANGING REALITY #IM SPEAKING THIS INTO EXISTENCE I'VE PLANTED THE SEED AND I WILL SEE THE HARVEST #IM PUTTING ON THE CLOWN SHOES AND IM MAKING GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO THIS FANDOM EVEN IF IT KILLS ME #last twilight the series #morkday #m: ask

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adarkrainbow · 1 year

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A look at Silly Symphonies: Babes in the Woods

And let’s conclude our Silly Symphonies exploration!

After the Three Little Pigs, after the Pied Piper of Hamelin... 1932′s “Babes in the Woods”.

Now you would expect the short to be an adaptation of the titular “Babes in the Woods” story... but no. The Babes in the Woods story is a traditional English tale of unclear origin that took many forms: at first a ballad, it became a Mother Goose nursery rhyme, the subject of popular pantomimes, and then kind of just spread everywhere. And what’s the story about?

It is about two orphan children, who are sent to their uncle’s house. But the uncle is a greedy and wicked man who wants their inheritance money, so while he pretends to his wife that he sends them to London to be educated, secretely he hires criminals to kill them. However the two murderers the uncle hired have a fight, and the “kinder” of the two kills the other. By “kinder” understand - instead of directly killing the children he just abandons them in the wood, promising to return with food but never doing so. The children wandered alone and hungry throughout the woods, until they died, and the robins in the forest covered their corpses with leaves as a form of funeral while the uncle suffered a dramatic demise due to “God’s wrath”, as it is the moral of the tale: if you do wicked deeds such as killing children, God will kill you in return.

... This Disney short has NOTHING to do with this story, as in fact it is an adaptation of the Brothers Grimm “Hansel and Gretel”. A very LOOSE adaptation.

# The introduction of the short presents us with a “Witch Rock”, a rock in the vague shape of a witch, and proposes us to reveal the origin behind this rock. While the narrative voice clearly insists on it being a fairytale-type of story (the use of “Once upon a time”, the description of a world of “fairies and goblins”), the actual framing of the story rather evokes folkloric and local legends. It is very frequent in several parts of Europe to designate specific stones as being a “witch-stone” or a “troll-stone”, because due to its unusual shape they were said by local legends to have been fairies or giants turned to stone for one reason or another. There is a lot of those local legends, not just for stones, but also for other unusual landscape features.

# The story begins with the two titular children, somehow dressed like Dutch old-fashioned peasants, entering the forest. We don’t know why they’re here, but they’re clearly lost. The first segment of the short consists of the kids being frightened by the sudden apparition of birds and rabbits - an owl in the shadow looks like an evil face, the trees’ crooked shapes imitate claws and mouths... If this sounds familiar: yes, you actually have here all the things Disney would later reused for their iconic “Snow-White”. The nightmarish hunt through the forest is already there.

# The children stumble upon a village of friendly little imps. (I know the official descriptions speak of “dwarfs”, but honestly they look too small to be “dwarfs” - if I wrote that in French I would have used “lutin”, but since English doesn’t have an exact correspondance I’ll use the closest thing - “imp” ; or “elves” if you take it as “Santa’s elves”). The imps are here joyful tiny bearded old men all dressed in red with pointy hats, busy merrily working and whistling all day in their village of literal tree-houses ornated with mushrooms and flowers. They drink beer and wash their beards and ride geese and pumpkins... And once more, we actually have here another prototype for Disney’s “Snow-White”: we have here a miniature ancestor to the seven dwarfs. People really underestimate the huge influence the Silly Symphonies had on the “Golden Age” Disney movies.

# While the imps merrily dance and welcome the two children, they are interrupted by the arrival of a witch on her broomstick (broomstick that actually has the end spinning around like helicopter blades - which notably causes the witch to arrive with a huge gust of wind). The scene is very reminiscent of the Wicked Witch in MGM’s “The Wizard of Oz”, from a village of merry little folks disturbed by the arrival of a witch from how everyone looks terrified a her shadow flies through the sky above. The witch herself looks very “traditional”: she is a hunched old lady with a hooked nose and hooked chin, wearing a ragged cape, patched-up dress and pointy hat, all in dull greys and inky black. And, while she doesn’t have yet the greenish “witch skin” (something that would be established by MGM’s “Wizard of Oz”), we can still note that her skin tone is not matching the one of the children - rather having a more sickly yellow to it.

# So far things didn’t felt very “Hansel and Gretel”, right? Well, we arrive to it. The witch lands in the village, and despite the imps fleeing away from her and trying to hide the children, said children are gullible enough to be fooled by her act of kindness. She offers the children to come with her and ride on her broomstick - and the children gleefully agree, fully enjoying their flight through the sky alongside the birds. Of course, we have here a first manifestation of the whole “Don’t trust people with too-nice gifts” - but with a unique twist, in that the witch doesn’t offer a shiny apple or a wonderful candy house (yet) but rather... flying on her broomstick. And this actually taps into the children’s very own fascination with flying, and with flying broomsticks in general. I think this is actually quite a clever idea to just have the seducing offering of the ride of a flying broomstick. It works really well.

# When the witch finally lands, we finally get to the “edible house” part. Like in Hansel and Gretel the witch lures them into her house due to it being made of candy. And, just like we would see in many modern adaptations, the house isn’t just the simple “bread and sugar” house of the original story, oh no! It is a feast of sweets: pies on the roof, candy canes in the garden, ice-cream cones by the windows, pretzels on the walls, giant lollipos springing off the ground... And with one additional elements that I haven’t reused anywhere so far: the roof is covered in giant candles like if the house was a birthday cake.

# But of course, the inside of the house is actually a dull, drab, shadowy lair of stones and chains. Now in the original tale, the witch tries to fatten up Hansel to eat him, and locks him in a cage to do so. Here the animators seemed to try to avoid the gruesomess of cannibalism, and so they reinvented COMPLETELY the witch’s actions. She does have cages in her house, alright... TONS AND TONS of cages everywhere, and if not cages, chains. And in it are looked all the traditional “witchy” animals: bats, lizards, huge spiders, black cats, rats... With one twist. Instead of being the witch’s familiars or allies, these beasts are all screaming and begging for help and to be saved, because as it turns out they are all children that the witch ravished and turned into animals. Why? BECAUSE SHE’S A WITCH THAT’S WHY! More seriously, we find here a typical case of the “simplification of the villain’s motif”, where a fairytale villain (especially if supernatural) will just do things for the sake of doing them, do wicked deeds for the sake of being cruel.

# Interestingly, while the whole turning into animals thing seems like just a way to avoid the cannibalizing of children while playing on the old legend of witches turning people into animals, it does bring to mind another Grimm fairytale: Jorinde and Joringel, depicting a witch who has the habit of turning into brids any girl that stumbles near her home. The parallel between “Jorinde and Joringel” is driven even further by the fact that, when a chained black cat anoys her too much, the witch pours a potion on it that turns it to stone. In Jorinde and Joringel, while the witch turned girls into birds, she rather petrified any boy she could find.

# The witch turns the boy Babe into a spider thanks to her potions, and plans to turn the girl into a rat when she is interrupted by the imps arriving to attack her: throwing arrows at her, riding their geese through the sky, crushing pumpkins on her head... I would like to point out that while the imp-village is a completely new addition by the Silly Symphonies, completely invented, they reuse lots of other “traditional” fairy tale elements, from the pumpkins made iconic by Cinderella to the geese (a nod to Mother Goose?). Even the fact that the imps throw tiny little arrows evoke the legend of the “elf-shots”, the belief elfs could shoot at human tiny hard-to-see arrows that could enter your body without wounding your skin and caused all sorts of diseases.

# After saving the girl, the boy-babe accidentally pours on himself a potion that turns him back into a child, and the Babes proceed to free all the other kids from their transformations (again, we have here another nod to Jorinde and Joringel). And then we have a twist on the Hansel and Gretel ending: instead of pushing the witch into her own oven, the kids here, seeing the witch falling from the sky, place her cauldron filled with petrifying potion under her, turning her into the very “Witch Rock” we saw at the beginning.

So... In conclusion, a bizarre mix of Hansel and Gretel, and Jorinde and Joringel. But why the “Babes in the Woods” title? It is known that throughout history, due to the original story’s shortness, adaptations of the Babes tended to add other elements - though usually the added elements come from the Robin Hood myth, with Maid Marian or Robin himself becoming involved in the child’s wanderings through the wood.

I think we have to look at a previous movie adaptation of the Babes: 1917′s “Babes in the Woods” by FOX Film, a silent short movie that actually was the first (to my knowledge) to have the lost Babes encounter the “Gingerbread House Witch” from the Grimms tales. I won’t make a post about it, but the only main differences I can point out is that in this story the Babes are actually protected by a good fairy that pops in-and-out of the story (notably when they escape the witch’s house, the fairy offers them a nice and rich carriage - leading them to be later captured by bandits, a la Andersen’s Snow Queen) ; and the female Babe doesn’t trick the Witch by pretending she doesn’t know how to climb in the oven, but rather she pretends that the oven won’t be big enough to fit her brother - to which the witch answers “Why, it is big enough to fit myself!” and... you know the rest.

#silly symphonies #disney #fairy tales #babes in the woods #english folktale #nursery rhyme #grimm fairytales #hansel and gretel #jorinde and joringel

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amrv-5 · 1 year

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sorry this is out of curiousity and you totally can not answer it but what is the long fic you’re writing about

ahh hello!! no problem I’m happy to answer (i love.... talking about writing....i will ALWAYS love talking about writing. it fills me with absolute joy to talk at length about themes ideas motifs etc in my writing. even if they’re just ‘what in god’s name were you thinking’ i will ALWAYS love questions!!)!

in general terms, the as-yet untitled Long Fic is just another post-war fic about Hawk and Beej trying to adjust back to life in the States on their own, and eventually finding their way back to each other again. extremely down-the-line, absolutely no supernatural twists, high realism. It’s only stupid long because I’m trying to give that the space it needs to feel real to me, and that amount of space is turning out to be: A Lot.

a broader series of themes & questions (so far lol) are below the cut for mild thematic spoilers, length, and (sorry) minimizing exposure to pretentiousness purposes:

So You Want to Know What the Long Fic is About: A Condensed Thematic Overview of 158K (For Now) of Straight-Up Realist Historical Fiction Where, No Joke, a Significant Portion of That Length is Dedicated Solely to Guys Thinkin’ Real Hard About Stuff, Guaranteed to Make You Say ‘Holy Fuck, I’m Sorry I Asked, Please Just Shut Up’ With Parker, Your Resident Guy Who is Normal About TV

1. Mis- and non-communication.

What happens when you go from sleeping three feet away from your best friend in the world to living so far away a letter takes two weeks on a round trip? How do your methods of understanding each other (and misunderstanding each other…) change? How does or can one maintain closeness when literal proximity is denied? How does somebody handle abandonment when the abandonment in question was unavoidable (i.e. nobody to blame--the death of a mother, maybe, or the end of a shared living situation)?

2. Justice, suffering, and recompense.

This is where the pretentiousness comes in, I know this makes me sound like an asshole I just care about American case law a lot and it infects all of my writing, etc. etc. Anyway. How do we approach ideas of suffering and justice when they fall outside the jurisdiction of an American view of legal culpability? How does one go about trying to seek justice when they are provably, demonstrably hurt, but there is nowhere to direct the blame? These questions are kind of slippery and weird, so I’ll try to frame it more directly: somebody in this story is going to struggle (as they always do in my work) with despair. It is a serious and life-long struggle. How does a person in that situation move beyond ideas like fairness, justice, and being owed relief, to accepting that ‘fairness’ doesn’t really exist in terms of things like personal neurochemistry? And how, then, does that acceptance hold itself in relation to larger forms of human injustice--how does somebody accept their own ‘unfair’ situation as a reality they must bear while continuing to maintain ideological opposition to injustices that can be changed?

3. Empathy and invisible strife.

A little bit of an overlap with the previous set of ideas, but this one flows out of one of my favorite poems in the world, “Musee des Beaux Arts” by Auden (check it out, if you haven’t read it!). The narrator states:

About suffering they were never wrong, The old Masters: how well they understood Its human position: how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;

And then, later:

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

I am compelled by how frequently awareness of strife is set aside in day to day life, especially in American life, and that comes through big time in the Long Fic.

At a psychological level, there’s a certain idea, I think, that it is very evident when people are doing badly; that you will always be able to tell; that the solution is as simple as reaching out, or asking for help. Unfortunately, that is often not the case. Somebody can be having the worst day of their life, be absolutely at the end of their rope, be seconds away from losing it completely, and five feet to the left there could be somebody else making a ham sandwich. So that comes through a lot in the work--this borderline absurdist, tragicomic idea that nobody’s ever really going to know exactly how you feel, and even if they did, they might be too busy doing the crossword to notice.

And at a less granular level, you can apply this (and will see it applied) to the American cultural response to the Korean War, which was incredibly muted. Even though millions of people died, even though the daily suffering of people, especially local civilians, involved was immense, because it was so (to an American domestic point of view) far-off, most people just went on with their lives. People celebrated birthdays, TV shows were produced, city council meetings dragged gaily on.

These things seem inevitable, and the ideas behind them kind of obvious: of course the world keeps turning when bad things happen. People just aren’t built to maintain ceaseless fear, anger, outrage, etc. at tragedy that is not directly affecting them, because they are concerned with the business of being alive. The people that do manage to maintain constant attention to large-scale but abstract or not immediately visible tragedies tend to go crazy, self-immolate, and/or quit their fancy math professorships at Berkeley in order to start direct mail marketing campaigns. Everybody else tends to feel bad about an issue, maybe they’ll see if they can do something small to help, and then they forget about it and keep managing the minutiae of their own lives. Yes, of course this or that issue is tragic--but I’ve got to do my taxes, or I’ve got to hit a deadline, or I’ve got to go to the store. The ploughman keeps working, too busy to investigate the splash. The ship sails on with somewhere to get to.

But then again, even if the logic is sound, from Icarus’s point of view the world has got to seem awfully cold and mean.

#fuck this got long #sorry! hope that explains vaguely what to expect!#and again to clarify: I LOVE QUASTION #never apologize for talking to me about writing i am a little literature freak and i WILL write you an essay about literally anything #in conclusion: it's going to be a weird one but I hope it connects to people #but if you don't have time to read like probably 200K #(and who could blame you)#just read that auden poem and it'll say everything i'm trying to say 10000x faster and better and more beautifully #meta #the long fic #The LitFic Cometh

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breezytealy · 1 year

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With all the chat I decided to watch a "what-if" for the first time in years and - okay, this is god tier I'm sure but still - I'm amazed?

youtube

NO NO NO serious you need to watch even the first five min, just the quality of it - what the absolute hell this is amazing? Some voice acting, there's simple movement on the screen, music, FOLEY, like???? Maybe I'm old and clearly don't watch enough Youtube and this is all very easily doable with three clicks of a mouse but waaa?

To be honest, as much as I've snarfsnarfsnarfed at some premises, judging this as fanfiction is a little unfair as the rules for writing and for audio/visual media are very different, never mind for a different concept entirely. They are telling a story for sure, but so are fan comics and we hold them to their own standard. It's a what-if fanwork, and people more familiar with them than I will be able to judge them within their own context.

I get why writers/readers (including me) don't like them though. I've been flicking through and a lot of them/most ""suffer"" from "tell" not showing by their nature, the "dialogue" can be all over the place in characterisation as it's an account rather than true dialogue, and they feel like "everyone is logical all the time" (outside of the premise), maybe to appease nit-pickers. By that I mean there's a lot of "aha since X and Y then Z" like a theory video, which is pleasing when it falls that way but a no-no to signpost in fic. Given it's a narrated account, the omniscience and far narrative distance makes the story very flat because the author appears to be "in the way", again a writing no-no (unless you're being very deliberate). In some cases very literally as the narrator appears on screen like the video above.

Judging from script alone this feels like a first draft or a detailed outline, or those "can you write my story please" messages lol. But the surrounding execution? Wow. Awesome! And I know in the best ones the writing would have been edited to suit the media. Even on some of the seemingly lower production ones I'm pumped for folks.

But I don't believe working with a fic-writer (i.e. do this audio-visual work with an existing fic to the letter) would work for the same audience. The audience these attract must enjoy the account delivery and the theory video-ness of it? And that's why this is cool because it's yet another way people can create and engage with stories facilitated through new tech. This is a different kind of accessible, one the people who send those "write my fic for me" messages can try for themselves using the very outline they've sent over without having to be as familiar with writing. And it's so cool that more and more people can communicate the stories that they want to, because stories connect us as people.

Yeah, I think there's an argument that reducing stories to seeming outlines takes away from writing, visual and audio literacy (the use of metaphor, colour, panelling, shot framing etc), but honestly I'd want to hear from fans of what-ifs to find out what literacy might be being lost (if any) before opining further.

On a personal note, I love different- and multi-media fan works as a concept even if I don't enjoy certain types. For me, the more immersive the better. And if I could do a decent masculine voice and knew video editing I'd be trying this kind of thing out myself. Maybe not a what-if, but something haha!

#dragon ball super #dbz #sometimes I have a lot of feelings about people engaging in stories #because story telling is such a human thing #and it gives me a lot of hope #or indie poptimism as my spotify unwrapped calls it #even with some of these ??? story premises lmao #Youtube

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