Handedness in DanAndPhilCrafts - Slime
A documentation and analysis of the hands that Dan and Phil use in the new Crafts video. Obviously some of this stuff is just due to filming and seating angles, but as with so much else about this video, I think some really interesting things can be intuited from it. Sorry if anyone has already done this!
This whole idea came from a post @lesbaurinkos pointing out that Dan - who's left handed - uses his right hand to sacrifice Phil, and comparing it to this exchange from Glitter Faces:
Phil: If you're left handed, ask a friend.
Dan: Why am I left handed?
Phil: Everybody makes mistakes.
This implies that there is something wrong with Dan's left handedness, and I've seen some suggest that this is what leads him to do rituals with his right. Others still say that perhaps this shows a transition of some sort, so that he is not the same person. While these are valid and interesting readings, I'd like to put forward a different theory.
Traditionally, the left hand has been seen as sinister (literally the Latin word for left, while the right was 'dexter'), so one would think that Dan's left handedness would actually be a boon for a Satanic ritual. It's a mark of otherness, of queerness, that was historically punished by a Christian society who saw it as deviant and wicked.
Indeed, it isn't just Dan who uses a hand different from his dominant one for ritualistic practice. Although we don't see Phil make the cut on Dan's hand, when he holds the knife, he holds it in his left hand.
Likewise, once it cuts to the next shot, the knife is at an angle that suggests it having been put down from his left.
Dan's wound is on his right hand, and he uses this hand for many of the ritualistic elements to come, including - while still in Crafts mode - anointing himself and Phil in slime and holding the knife while telling us that He wants it 'straight from the source'.
This might be because his left hand is out of action due to all that blue slime on it. How did that blue slime get there? First, a word on the slime itself.
The two slimes serve different purposes. Dan's slime is intended to be a vessel and Phil's will be 'fun to touch'. Thus, while the red slime is only for Him, I would argue that the blue slime is for Them. After all, creativity is nothing without friendship.
That homoerotic hand grab with Phil - which squishes together the friendship slime, the same colour as Phil's eyes, as Dan points out - represents 'friendship' as the other force alongside Him. In this hand grab, Dan's dominant hand becomes covered in slime, leaving only his non-dominant hand for ritual purposes.
Interestingly, Phil is using his left hand here (his ritual hand), perhaps a sign of their differing priorities. I won't go into too much detail here, but I've seen others make interesting posts about Phil doing things for Him, and Dan doing them for Phil. This isn't too important here, as it's Dan's deliberate choices after this about which hand to use that become particularly interesting.
Indeed, after this, Dan draws the sigils on the walls with his right hand, and he also walks into the room to complete the sacrifice holding the knife in his right hand. If his right hand is his ritual hand, this makes sense.
However, and I haven't seen anyone mention this yet, he leaves the room with it in his left hand.
I think this is fascinating, since - as with the cut in Dan's hand - we don't see what happens between these two shots. We hear Phil scream and assume Dan has stabbed him as planned, but we don't get to see which hand he actually wields the knife with. Going with my above thesis, perhaps this is because it is muddy and unknowable to what extent Dan is doing this for Him (the right hand) and to what extent he's doing it for Phil (the left).
We can also view this in contrast with the hand cut from earlier, where the discarded knife indicates that Phil completed the whole thing with his left (ritual) hand.
Dan also has a bloody handprint on his shirt, presumably from Phil in his final moments, and it's a right hand print. This is Phil's 'friendship' hand. Despite Phil's ultimate devotion to Him, during the moment of his greatest sacrifice, it is the deep intimacy of this act between the two of them that is most important.
In the final ritual scene, Dan begins by holding the knife in his right hand (his ritual hand).
However, he then holds it in both hands, just as he holds Phil's heart in both hands a moment later. Both ritual and friendship are working together here, and he continues for the rest of the scene to use both hands to anoint them in Phil's heart's blood.
In the final shot, they are stood in their usual formation (Dan on stage right, Phil on stage left) and they each hold an item of ritualistic significance in their non-dominant, ritual hand. Dan holds Phil's heart in his right hand; Phil holds the knife in his left. What they each hold in their dominant hands is each other.
As a few others have pointed out, the rope of Baphomet behind them also evokes imagery of handfasting. That suggests that this is not just a summoning of Baphomet, but also a marriage ceremony of sorts. They are bound not just to Baphomet, but to each other.
A lot of this is, of course, because of their standard way round of sitting, so that their dominant hands are always between them, but it is fascinating that they made the choice to continue with this motif even once they were roaming free.
This is my final thesis, then, that throughout the video they both use their non-dominant hands for acts of ritualistic significance, while their dominant hands become important for their relationship. This is especially true for Dan, whose devotion often seems split between Him and Phil. Dan's left handedness could additionally act as a metaphor for queerness, so it's especially notable the way that this hand is reserved only for Phil.
Basically:
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written for the march foxglove editorial, inspired by this drawing by @noenoaholi and beta'd by @fish-with-more-eyes/mac
There aren't a lot of things Atsumu likes to ignore, but Kiyoomi’s abysmal cooking skills are certainly one of them. Not a single person with working tastebuds or a functional sense of self-preservation would trust Kiyoomi in the kitchen. For the sake of his sanity, Atsumu likes to pretend Kiyoomi wasn’t ordering takeout on the regular before they moved in together.
Although if there’s one thing Kiyoomi can be trusted with, it’s baking desserts and using a blender. Atsumu has no idea why those two out of everything, but Kiyoomi’s cookies are to die for and his chocolate milkshakes are delicious. He’d brag about this if Kiyoomi didn’t have the shitty tendency to mix it up and make healthy drinks too.
They’re pungent, vile and disgusting.
They’re not even easy to make, what with a million and a half ingredients and three thousand steps. Atsumu wants to puke whenever he thinks of how much energy Kiyoomi puts into waking up early and making it for him. Sometimes there’s a lump in his throat choking him up if he thinks about it too long. He shoves the feeling down ruthlessly every time without fail: he doesn’t want to think about it.
Most days Kiyoomi can’t even be assed to get out of bed until the absolute latest he can get away with. And whenever he can, he traps Atsumu there too with his stupid long legs and stupid warm cuddles.
He’s up early this morning.
Kiyoomi’s side of their bed is empty; Atsumu finds him diligently chopping carrots in their kitchen.
“Omi-kun,” Atsumu whines, wrapping his arms around his sadist of a boyfriend and doing his best to resemble a kicked puppy, abandoned outside in the cold rain. “C’mon ya made this yesterday. Do ya gotta make it so often?”
“Drink it.” Unfortunately his boyfriend’s the most stubborn person Atsumu’s ever met. He’s ruthless and heartless. Kiyoomi shoves the glass of green yuck into his hands. “All of it.”
Atsumu sniffs haughtily and graciously pinches his nose; he chugs it all down in one. It’s bitter and foul and Atsumu wouldn’t do this for anyone else in the world.
He pauses.
His mouth is filled with the most disgusting drink while the pieces click into place: he loves Kiyoomi. It’s so on brand for them, he can’t help but laugh a little. Atsumu tunes Kiyoomi’s complaints about what he finds so funny out, and gives him a little kiss over his moles.
He starts planning out the most dramatic way possible to break it to Kiyoomi in his mind. He’s a little nervous, but the urge to make Kiyoomi regret the day he ever thought dating Atsumu would be a good idea wins out. His itch for mischief drowns any fleeting feelings of apprehension easily.
Atsumu’s grateful he can still taste that nasty green drink for the first time. It makes keeping the smile threatening to break out over his face at bay. Kiyoomi calls it his plotting face. Atsumu’s more inclined to call it his moment-of-genius face. His fun face. He’d go so far as to say it’s his handsome face, but that’s just his everyday.
Kiyoomi’s never going to see his confession coming.
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“They’re pretty.”
The words drift through the lazy afternoon air – and Jack lets them. He doesn’t lean into them, maybe, but he doesn’t push against them. He flexes his wingtips slightly, feels the breeze run through the freshly preened feathers. If this were just a week ago, he’d be squirming. The idea of someone seeing his wings, really seeing them, picking apart all the rough edges and cracked pinfeathers, always made him hunch into himself, made him puff up his wings, his chest, to seem bigger than he really was. If you look at me, it’ll cost you. If you look at me, it’ll hurt. That’s the message he’s meant to be sending – but now, all he can think of is Spot, with her veiny, leathery wings running from her shoulders to her back, baring them towards the sun so she can watch the light stain them pink. He thinks of Barney and the way he wobbles whenever he takes flight – and so he rolls backward instead, wings spread like a firework, allowing everyone to stare as he somersaults while others only glide. He thinks of Davey, baring his paper-wings for all to see, the perfect opposite of what Jack’s always been. Look at me, that’s what he’s saying. You don’t scare me. And now Davey’s here, his knees bracketing Jack’s back, his thumb stroking over one of his feathers like he would a precious stone. And it’s hard to feel like anything less than a king for it.
“Thanks.” Jack says quietly. He’s mostly certain he means it. That’s fine – he knows how to work on a ‘mostly’.
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page 1 | page 2 | page 3 | page 4 | page 5 (you are here) | page 6 | page 7 | page 8 | page 9 | page 10 | page 11 | page 12
image desc below readmore
ID:
Where the majority of pages before were in red hues, this is all green and blue and teal, cool colors.
Over the entirety of the page, there is a drawing of Tenzō, naked and loosely coiled in black cords, just as he was in canon flashbacks to his time in Orochimaru's lab. His hair rises from his head as if floating. His expression is neutral. He appears to be the same age as he was in the red pages.
Tenzō's head dominate's panel one. His hair obscures a lot of the panel behind him, but we see a close image of ninja sandals on a tree branch.
"The mission went impossibly smoothly," Tenzō recounts. "I only got injured because we were accosted during our return journey."
Tenzō's torsō rests over panel two. Behind him, to the left, his mokuton branches bind an enemy shinobi to a tree. To the right, Rabbit-Taichō is crouched on a branch and hand-signals at a different Tenzō, one which is fully dressed in his Anbu kit. Tenzō watches, his own hands poised in a seal.
The Tenzō whose body stretches over the page continues, "They were rogue shinobi from the Hidden Rivers. But the mission itself was just gathering intel with Rabit-Taichō, from a lab just east of the border." Much like the black cords, the tails of the speech balloons weave and wrap around Tenzō's body.
The third panel is split by Tenzō's body. On the left, there's a single panel in the red hues of Kakashi's room. On the right, there are rows of lit, fluid-filled tanks.
"A Lab?" Kakashi asks, looking uneasy, on his guard.
"Yes," Tenzō's speech balloons reply. "An old one. Former hideout, but now truly civilian."
Tenzō's legs dangle over the fourth panel. Behind his legs, Tenzō and Rabbit-Taichō observe a fish as it swims in a tank.
"The lab was conducting experiments on the chakra natures of non-summoned fish," Tenzō says.
"We deemed it safe after ten days of study, and several infiltrations."
/end ID
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