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itshermocrates · 29 days

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POISON- Ep. 4 Analysis

I have no idea if someone has already done something like this but these two unfortunate souls have been in my mind since I watched the show TWO WEEKS AGO. So I'm gonna share with you this personal analysis of what we saw during the Poison scene in Ep. 4 of Hazbin Hotel.

Again, I don’t know if anyone has already talked about this (I’m not very active on tumblr), but I think that what we see as Angel sings Poison is made not only to tell us how the relationship Angel has with Valentino is but ALSO how it came to be thanks to everything that's happening on screen while he's singing.

Of course the lyrics are also important so I’ll make some reference to those as well, but I’ll focus mainly on what we see. Since I can only add 30 pics in this post this will be a bit difficult but I will try my best.

SOME CONTENT WARNINGS! I'm not sure if this is even necessary but anyways,,, Pychological abuse, abuse, violence, domestic violence, drugs, addiction, sex work, dubius consent, sexual violence, abusive relationship, unhealthy power dynamics, angst, suicidal ideas (hinted), etc.

Now, without further ado, let's begin!

Before the song, Valentino and Angel have a fight in his dressing room. I want to start here because during that fight Angel gets a black eye and we get to see how the walls of his room are filled, not only by security cameras, but also by a lot of eyes that follow Angel wherever he goes inside the room. We will see more of these eyes soon enough.

After that fight Angel sends Charlie back home and we see a bit more of what we could expect from Valentino with his manipulation tactics. The sweet tone and the praise as he embraces Angel from behind, too close and too intimate considering he will be soon forcing him to go back to work.

These are the tricks every abuser uses to manipulate and control the people around them, and it’s what Valentino uses all the time with Angel.

This is the behavior of an abusive boyfriend, a dynamic they have in the present, but once Poison starts, we are presented with their backstory. Now we will get to see how that dynamic is even possible, how these two ended up together and how their relationship started and evolved.

Valentino sits next to the movie director and everyone starts moving to prepare the scene they are about to film. He is the one in control here, the one calling for action again and deciding who does what and when. And just like that we see how Angel's black eye is concealed by makeup, erasing the marks of what had just happened and metaphorically erasing the violence of the relationship he is in now.

Angel closes his eyes in displeasure, focusing on what Valentino wants from him. When he opens his eyes again, his expression is completely different, this Angel without bruises, is not only a version of him from minutes ago, before the fight with Val, or even prior to the abuse… This is the Angel before Valentino.

He walks backwards, as if he was going back in time, moving easily with the playful shamelessness that characterized him back then. When he sings “I’m not above a love to cash in” he was most likely referring to his past as a sex worker or at least, as someone who didn’t mind to sell his affections to get what he needed/wanted. During this time, he would most likely go clubbing every night, since it offered a good way to earn easy money while he had a great time, partying, drinking, consuming…

Angel probably was the type of person who used those who desired him to get whatever he wanted, a game he knew how to play. Even if it could get risky or inconvenient, he was a free soul, he was still in control of what he did or didn't do with all those people, so at the end of the day, he always won. That’s what he believes as he playfully lays back on the setting’s bed again.

That had always been true after all, or at least it was until he came across someone that beated him at his own game. Someone who would take that freedom and control over his own body away from him.

His expression changes again to one of terror when a shadow looms over his body from outside the frame. That’s the silhouette of the men he was previously filming with, but we can also imagine that this figure suddenly changing the way he moves, reacts and feels, was meant to represent Valentino.

After the other actors surround him, and the scene fades to black, we are shown what could have been Angel's previous workplace. A stripclub where he danced for money and probably engaged in sex work in a somewhat safe and controlled environment. Back then he had become popular enough to be "the star" of his own show, and a performer good enough to get a reputation that would eventually reach the ears of one of the most powerful overlords in that district.

Valentino discovered him maybe by chance, or maybe not. Maybe he had heard of Angel Dust and wanted to see for himself if this dancer was as good and pretty as all those people said. And after watching him perform Valentino was the furthest from disappointed, he had enjoyed the show so much that he decided to take a closer look at this Angel Dust’s skills.

He approaches him, maybe as a client, or maybe just as a guy interested in what he had to offer, and although Angel doesn't trust him at first, he ends up entering his game.

He was just another man who wanted to fuck him, one that had enough money to spoil him all he had ever wanted and more. It was quite the opportunity for someone as low in the food chain as him, and Angel had already played with rich men like Valentino before, he knew what he was doing.

So Angel took the bait, and had sex with Valentino. Probably a blowjob in that same club he danced at that served as a test for Valentino.

Now we have a scene with two Valentinos, one that is about to get head from Angel with a video camera on his hand, and another Val standing behind the cameras and lights of what we now know to be another movie set. The first Val we saw, extending his hand before Angel when he finished his performance, was the Val of his past, the one he sucked off the night they met. That was someone Angel thought to be somewhat honest, or, at the very least a man he heavily underestimated.

It's the playful man that winks seductively at him in the set from afar with those red hot eyes he fell for, the same that quickly turns into a different guy with similar clothes (red jacket and white fur) now recording him on set. Someone who quickly became a stranger to Angel, just as he is for us, since we can’t even see his face.

The second Val it's the real one, the one standing next to the movie director watching everything with calculating eyes and a dangerous smile. That's the man who told Angel all those red hot lies he believed to be true, and the one judging with this first meeting if the spider was a worthy investment or not.

Angel proves to be good enough. Valentino likes him, and after that night he starts to actively pursue Angel but he didn’t do that as a simple client. He can tell Angel isn't a common whore, he has talent, charisma and he's been playing this game for long enough to know all the tricks. One can only become so successful in this world knowing how to play their cards well.

It’s obvious then what he has to do to turn Angel into his next movie star. Valentino needs to make him fall in love with him and make him believe that Valentino can love him just as much. This is exactly what he is going to do.

On screen we see how Valentino's sex pollen (he's a moth guys, it has to be sex pollen) starts to fill the scene, and as it expands it engulfs Angel, making us know just how captivated, how absorbed he will end up being.

Note: I know there’s a theory that says that Valentino’s power comes from his saliva or something like that and I haven’t read it or anything, but I do believe the smoke/fog that surrounds him has the same effect as the “sex pollen” trope. Or at least it’s similar.

The red fog expands all over the frame, emphasizing Valentino’s overpowering skills and charisma. When it clears, we see Angel in a different place while he sings the second line of the lyrics “What’s the worst part of this hell, I can only blame myself”.

His expression is one of pure anguish and regret, and he’s saying this while standing in front of Valentino in his apartment. He's talking about how naive he was for believing all of Valentino's lies, to truly believe that what he felt for Angel was love. He blames himself for buying this love story and falling for him so hard it made him very easy to manipulate. He regrets not having seen it before it was too late.

Because when Valentino’s back appears at the left corner of the frame, with an extended hand and smoke-made chains, it’s Angel the one who finally cuts the distance and accepts the chains Val is offering him.

Angel was too blinded by Valentino’s courting, by his sweet words and lovely gestures, but also by the constant push and pull of their dynamic, the flirting, the teases, the seduction. He loved the attention and he loved the sense of control, of power, he could feel when he was with Valentino, an overlord no less, a demon so rich and powerful he could have anyone he could have ever wanted. But Val had chosen him, him of all people.

This brief initial moment represents the regret he feels when he remembers how it all started, when Angel thinks about the beginning of their relationship, a time when everything seemed fine and their sexual chemistry made him lose all sense of reason. Because with Val everything ended up leading him to his bed.

After this short display of regret, we are presented a sequence made to represent the fantasy Angel indulged himself in, an illusion tinted in pink colors and fun costumes. This is the story Valentino had carefully created for him to make him fall in love with him, a story that made the spider feel so good when he was by his side, he could easily excuse any warning sign in his sight.

Because Angel would obviously want to be with Valentino when all he knew about him was his lover persona, a facade that portrayed him as a passionate lover and playful partner, his (soon to be) poison.

They had fun and even when Valentino showed little fragments of his true intentions and personality, Angel was too blinded to notice that he was starting to lose the very game he had considered himself a master of. Valentino and the relationship Angel had with him was addictive, so it didn't matter what happened, Angel always came back. You can think of this as the result of Valentino’s sex pollen, his charisma or a combination of both, depending on what flavor of angst is your favorite.

What we can know for sure, is that they were both performers in their own ways, both players in the game of love, so Angel could have excused and normalized a lot of things he shouldn't have. Knowing their line of work, of course that they could get a bit too intense every now and then, of course things could get a bit out of hand between them, they were just sooo dramatic.

It was that rollercoaster of emotions, the raw intensity of it all what ended up hooking Angel so much. The playfulness that could get a bit dangerous really fast, even if the Valentino he thought he knew would never really hurt him. Right?

A few little details I like about this sequence are the way we get to see Valentino’s home in the background and how the colors of his clothes and body are darker than usual but still lighter in comparison to what we will see in the following scenes, indicating how this was still the “nice” version of Valentino.

In the same way, Angel is playing with the chains bounding his wrists together, not his neck (yet), telling us that he’s playing with fire, quite literally dancing with the idea of being owned by Val, but he is still a free soul. In this moment he was falling hard and quick for Valentino’s lies, but he wasn’t his captive yet.

He’s having fun while being manhandled by Valentino, both physically and emotionally, but he still thinks of it as a game, another part of their sex life and how they naturally work as a couple. It’s exciting, it’s new and Angel loves it.

Not knowing that the longer he stays the more power is giving Val over him. Valentino is starting to show his true colors, in these last frames we can see that his figure is getting darker as Angel is slowly discovering the manipulative side of Val, the controlling and abusive nature he had been hiding from the spider since the beginning.

The push and pull continues as we see their silhouettes dancing, even if in reality this is Valentino pulling from his side of the chain to keep Angel close, to keep him with him.

After the shadows sequence, we get back to the playfulness Angel had shown when he took the chains for himself and started to tease Valentino. Only that this time, Val’s colors are darker and his touch more possessive, more aggressive. He’s groping him and even choking him while Angel sings “I made my choice and every night I’m living like there’s no tomorrow” with a grin, showing us how this was still a game for him.

He made his choice staying with Val because he loved him and he thought he was loved in return, when the moth had been only toying with him from the moment they first saw each other. This is Angel’s greatest regret, the fact that he truly believed Val’s lies, that despite all the warning signs he kept choosing him over and over again.

Choosing to stay, to kneel before Val, to obey him with the promise of a new wave of pleasure, a new high. Just as Valentino wanted him to do as we can see the vicious smile he wears during this entire sequence.

I think the next couple of seconds tells us how, for a while, they were together and Angel was still able to keep his job at the club. He was still allowed to see his friends (his coworkers most likely) and spend time with them, while Valentino made sure to feed all his previous bad habits and addictions, giving him gifts (we know Fat Nuggets was a gift from Val), a lot of money he could spend on a whim and eventually, probably the substances to use as well.

The smile on his face, the smugness of it, makes me think he’s telling his friends about this rich guy that pampers him in every way and treats him like a prince. He has found the ultimate Sugar Daddy, a man that has changed his life forever in the best way possible. Now he can have whatever he wants, party for days without having to worry about not having enough money to eat at the end of the month or a place to stay.

Angel would have used drugs before, maybe occasionally, maybe only at parties, maybe to get the worst bits of his job done, maybe he was already a bit of an addict, but it’s now, when he has the means to consume every night that he definitely becomes one.

Valentino made sure of it.

During this time, Valentino would secure the control he had over Angel, weakening his mind and will by worsening his addiction problem while continuing convincing him of how much he loved him. The parties were incredible, the sex was amazing, and Angel felt on top of the world at every moment. He was “living like there’s no tomorrow” without realizing the higher he raised above the ground, the hardest would be his fall.

And maybe this is just me over analyzing a kinky moment, but after this, after Valentino bites Angel causing him a wince of pain and maybe even making him bleed, everything changes.

They are having sex, far from the flashing lights, they are together as Anthony and Val, as the real person who oftenly hides behind his stage persona. The person who is deeply in love with Valentino, who is vulnerable and allows his lover to hurt him however he wants because he trusts that the pleasure that follows will be worth it.

But after that bite, he’s no longer in bed with Val, he's in the same bed from the very beginning of this music video, surrounded by lights, disoriented and confused… As if he was expecting Valentino to be between his legs and not this stranger.

When he finally comes to his senses and sits, we hear for the first time the line “My story’s gonna end with me dead from your poison”. This was the beginning of the end of their honeymoon phase and the point of no return. Valentino had considered Angel weakened enough to take a step further, and a new part of him is finally uncovered when he carefully introduces Angel to the porn industry. He would do so (probably) while Angel was too intoxicated and definitely too blindly in love to know what he was doing.

Valentino becomes this overwhelming shadow that covers Angel’s body, a silhouette he can’t escape from, and when we are shown what Angel sees, we can no longer see the color of Valentino’s clothes. His colorful persona, his facade of playful lover it’s no longer in place, he has stopped pretending and acting as the good boyfriend the spider had always wanted. Now before Angel there’s only the demon that owns thousands of souls, a vicious drooling smile and sharp red eyes. An overlord to fear and be intimidated by.

The background is filled with filming equipment, and even if Valentino’s body language is meant to appear welcoming, Angel feels terrified. This is not the Valentino he knew, and now he is completely trapped. He can’t refuse now, this is a choice he is being forced to make even if his soul still technically belongs to him.

After being pressured, Angel becomes part of this industry, and although he doesn’t really like it, he still trusts Valentino enough to not run away. The overlord can be scary, but he still believes that he’s safe with him, that if Val is by his side nothing wrong could ever happen to him. And after all, he had done sex work before, right? What difference did it make to fuck strangers for money in front of a camera now?

He’s not comfortable, and every day that intimidating side of Valentino that wasn’t really there before grows darker, fiercer and scarier. Angel had seen the ugliness of Valentino before, as a man, as a possessive boyfriend, as a controlling partner, but never as the powerful demon he truly was. So he still obeys Val and features in a few movies of his choice.

We can see these doubts, Angel’s discomfort and even a bit of his trust in Valentino at the beginning of the next sequence, when they appear on the set of a different movie.

Angel was a performer, he had faked his own pleasure before, he could do it again now, and he could do it while earning way more money. He could do so, because he knew Valentino was there, guiding him, helping him, making sure his lover was safe. He always thought that Val was looking out for him, making sure he was getting the right roles in the right movies, the right contracts, and when he was nervous, Valentino was right by his side to comfort him.

But Valentino had never cared about Angel’s safety. And once Angel started to voice his doubts or show his discomfort, he made sure he couldn’t do it for much longer. The comfort Angel sought for was quickly replaced by something chemical, something that eased his nerves but also left him dazed and disoriented.

It was then that Valentino drugged him, tricked him and made him sign the contract that would leave him with only half a soul inside his chest.

Valentino had fed Angel’s addiction for a long time, adding to the mix not only the illusion of a love story, but also his own drug, his sex pollen, something that numbed the spider’s mind enough to go through all the things Valentino wanted him to do in front of the camera. Oftenly Angel was left too intoxicated to respond, too vulnerable and weak. In his last moments of lucidity he always could see Valentino, his lover, the man he thought would always take care of him, turning his back to him and leave him.

Valentino is the last thing he sees before everything fades to black around him, before he disappears. He’s no longer Anthony or Angel Dust, the stage persona, now the lines between those two different identities blurry beyond repair, and the person he becomes is a little more Angel Dust and a lot less Anthony.

I don’t think that it was just a coincidence that they used a BDSM scene to represent the moment Angel definitely lost control of his actions, his body and most likely also his soul. BDSM is all about power dynamics and the control that’s exchanged between consenting partners, only that, in this case, Angel didn’t really have a choice and there was no consent. This lack of control and safety is emphasized precisely by the type of session Angel is forced into.

He’s restrained in every way possible, he’s tied up, a blindfold covers his eyes and a gag is forced onto his mouth, one that would prevent him from closing it no matter how much he tried. He has no way to end the scene, no way to say a safeword, to complain or to stop what other people do with him or to him.

This is meant to represent the moment he signed the contract, and how he felt every time he entered the set of a new movie after he signed it. He stopped being his own person, he had disappeared, and what had been left of him was nothing but a sex toy for Valentino to control in each of his productions.

Now we see the Angel Dust that survived this state of numbness and dissociation, the one that has consumed Anthony just so he could keep himself alive.

While Angel Dust dances, seemingly enjoying the show, performing as he has always done, in the background screens we see what’s left of Anthony, of the boy feeling trapped and used with no single way out of it. This is accompanied by more fragments of that BDSM scene that changed it all, since that was a traumatic event that repeats itself in Angel’s mind every time Valentino forces him into a new role, a new movie, a new lie.

These frames show us not only the stress Angel is feeling, but also how Valentino is always there to exploit his body in the way he deems more profitable. We know this because he appears in between Angel’s anguish, but also because the same eyes that covered his dressing room walls are in the background while someone fucks Angel from behind.

While this happens we hear again “I made my choice”, a reminder of Angel’s regrets, shame and guilt. In addition the line “Every night I’m living like there’s no tomorrow” now has slightly changed, indicating the shift in Angel’s life and condition as no longer a free soul. What we hear now is “Every night I’m wasted like there’s no tomorrow”.

Where once he was happy, he’s now desperate, begging to get a way out.

We see a bit more of the playful performer, Angel Dust, and the pain of Anthony in the background before Valentino approaches him again like a great imposing figure, putting an end to his show.

The second Angel notices Valentino, distress becomes clear all over his face. He points to the left, outside of what we can see, and when he tries to escape, Valentino grabs him and pulls him closer.

He has finally come face to face with the real Valentino in all his twisted glory and he wants to run away. He knows now that what they had wasn’t love, it had never been, and it’s painful. But he’s afraid of Valentino, he can’t do anything to escape his contract and he now belongs to him (at least while they’re on set).

That last frame with Valentino embracing him, a vicious smile on his face in contrast with Angel’s terrified expression puts an end to their story, to the narration of how they came to be what they are now. After that, we are presented to the aftermath, the Angel that’s no longer intoxicated by his poison and can only dread the many past choices he would like to change.

He is now fully aware that there’s no way out of his hell, that for as long as he is alive he will be Valentino’s toy. He’s destroyed in every way, his mind is a mess too dependent on the drugs Valentino has been feeding him to properly think, and his body has stopped to feel as his own a long time ago.

How could he consider that pile of bones, fur and chemically loosen up muscles as his own? He’s disgusted, drowning in this feeling of helplessness.

And he’s even more grossed out when he notices the remains of Valentino’s poison, his drug, still lingering on his tongue. He’s so lost, he doesn’t even recognize himself. This is not where he was supposed to be, he shouldn’t be in Valentino’s apartment, he doesn’t want to be there anymore.

The substance that once had brought him so much joy, such a delicious bliss, now slips past his lips burning his skin like acid. The itch reminds him of the reason why he’s there, and he can only feel pain. The only cause for most of his problems had always been his addiction. To Val, the sex they had, his poison, the drugs he bought for him…

No matter how hard he tries to get used to this life he has with Val now, he simply can’t do it. It doesn’t matter how many movies he appears in, they are never enough, they will never be enough for the overlord. Because he’s nothing but a tool to make Valentino and the other Vs even richer and more powerful.

That’s Valentino’s business and what initially made him get close to Vox. They complimented each other and together they felt capable of ruling Hell like that was their birthright. A power Angel would never get to know firsthand, because for Valentino he was nothing but another whore to use, exploit and eventually discard.

Angel is sick of it, is tired of living a life he hates, a lonely life full of pain and abuse, all caused by the person he loved the most.

He has spent years trapped in the V Tower, watched by the countless cameras placed in every wall and every corner of his prison. Even when he’s not on set, controlled by Valentino and his team, he feels Vox lenses following all of his movements, and despite the luxury he lives in, every day he goes to sleep wishing to never wake up.

That's all, folks. I hope you liked it, or at least got as sad as I felt while analyzing this. Again this is all what I could understand from that segment of the episode I don't know if y'all already knew this but I did wanted to share it. If you liked this check my bird app account bc there is where I spend most of my online time or my Ao3 profile, although I post mostly Skfs content now <3

#hazbin hotel #hazbin angel dust #hazbin valentino #hazbin hotel theory #hazbin hotel analysis #hazbin hotel episode 4 #valangel #valentino x angel dust #hazbin spoilers #hazbin spoilers ep 4 #I could't remain crying on my own so I came to share #valentino's sex pollen is real #poison hazbin hotel

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ceilidhtransing · 5 months

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This isn't the kind of stuff I usually post about, and I have zero interest in Drama, but I want to talk about a tangential element that the whole James Somerton Debacle has rather highlighted. I saw someone say something along the lines of “who would expect a business grad to have the skill of reading from a variety of sources and synthesising their ideas into good original media analysis content” and like... yeah.

It's such a common refrain to shit on arts and humanities degrees by going “what's that actually teaching you? What skills do you even get from that? It's all useless, it's not relevant to anything, you come out of that sort of degree with nothing but pointless facts on obscure literature or some pish like that”. But no, the distinct skill of learning from a variety of sources and developing the information and perspectives into new unique work of your own is the bread and butter of such degrees, and it is not a skill everyone has.

I feel like those of us who have been trained to do this (or who have developed the skill through their own independent learning outside of an academic institution) have a tendency to devalue it, to forget that it's an actual skill, to assume everyone just does this on the reg. And the idea of simply copying and pasting excerpts from other people's work, without credit, into your work and calling it a day wouldn't even cross our minds as a thing to do, because it's so obvious that the end result would be absolutely terrible, full of points that don't connect, ideas that don't go anywhere, sections that seem to lightly contradict, writing styles that don't cohere. I'm still stunned that anyone would have the audacity to do that, not just on an ethical level, but also on a quality level - is it not obvious that what you would produce by that method won't be very good?

I don't know this person, and I don't want to speculate too much - I don't know whether he genuinely lacks this skill, or if he has the skill and is too lazy to utilise it (though given the standard of his videos, I would hazard a guess at the first, because surely if this was a thing you were good at, your every instinct would be screaming at you to spend a short amount of time just tidying everything up, making it cohere, linking ideas together, doing something to make it better than a load of quotes haphazardly chucked together). What I do know is that this whole incident shows up perhaps better than anything before the very skill that a humanities background gives you, precisely by demonstrating what humanities-style content done without that skill looks like.

Hbomberguy does make the point in his video that creatives often don't value their skills because to them, they're just second-nature; they don't register as skills anymore. And a very similar thing goes on with people with humanities backgrounds. Artistic, creative, literary, intellectual skills get devalued by society all the time. But this stuff is valuable, something that evidently not everyone has or bothers with, and ideally I'd like to see a whole lot less of “but what does a degree like that even teach you”.

#hbomberguy #youtube #humanities #my posts

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inksandpensblog · 6 months

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The Box

I'm finally watching the episode! These are my stream-of-consciousness thoughts through my initial viewing. This isn't thought-out refined analysis, these are just the thoughts as I have them the moment they appear in my head.

They're getting better at the 3d running/walking animation.

Green being the one to notice details, like in The Village.

Civilization!

Green only drew one but then he just has three more? Cartoon magic or stickfigure magic? Or just saving time on a meta level.

This looks like a nice little toh that's a white-filled head, they're ALL white-filled heads (all look like freehanded circles though)

For a given value of "white," I guess, but they're all very light colors. And they all have head accessories. Interesting...

Okay it's kinda funny that nobody would talk to them and the truck is right there. Did they think the color quartet were giving handouts or something? None of them stopped to listen long enough XD

Ooh, so these are some kind of simulation chambers? Looks like they've simulated a desktop art program.

Hmm, so Orange's ability to just have whatever he wants manifest into existence with the stroke of a pencil is unique to him; these guys try the same motions and all they get are regular lines. (Also if Orange can do all that outside then why are they doing these experiments in the simulation chamber? Is it just for safety or can they not do it outside? Shady could use his toolbar outside just fine...)

Orange's drawings were alive, almost from the first line it seems. Before they even took their shape. These ones aren't.

I don't like how coldly they're treating my boy :(

you.

and then they don't even interact?? okay, so...Victim is pretty single-mindedly focused on whatever is about to happen with Chosen, and whatever it is doesn't involve Orange so Orange is irrelevant to him rn. Why bind him then? Where's he going? :(

he went in. by himself. I'm...not sure how to feel about that. surprised? it's not like the thing had a door. though looking at that control-display, it does look like there's something within the chamber itself that's also containing Chosen. Or is that just the bounding box? I think it's a bounding box actually. So this is also a simulation chamber. (this is giving me all sorts of questions about how the artboard recognizes the toolbar icons as graphics while the tools still retain their functions as tools and I'm gonna stop before I spiral)

oh, it did have a door

WAITAMINUTE why is Victim's bounding box 2d and Chosen's 3d???

...oh. so...Chosen's fire registers as a separate graphic from him, then. good to know??

wait what the- just altering the visual is enough to affect his ability in producing that power??

why did we just cut to the hunter sharpening their spear? don't like that. not while you're stealing all my boy's natural defenses.

that one lingering second after Chosen's lasers die out but before he turns around to face Victim is haunting. Bro's been trapped and depowered again.

Okay nitpick but Victim's head isn't changing shape every frame and it's driving me up the wall. Did he have some work done between the last installment and this one?

I can't tell if I'm supposed to laugh or not at Chosen just standing there and tanking all of Victim's hits, and honestly I like that I can't tell, the dissonance is fun. But putting that aside...Chosen just let the dude have at him like it was no big deal. He didn't actually fight back until he decided he'd had enough. I suppose he could've just been confused about why this guy was attacking him...but he doesn't even block or dodge. He doesn't defend himself, his hands aren't even up, he's not even really in a fighting stance, and it takes him a bit to even retaliate. Even after the first one, his body language is just "bruh why." Which. Is an interesting attitude to have when he's trapped and depowered and being punched by a stranger.

Chosen finally counters, and it cuts to the control panel outside, looks like they're about to raise some setting. I've gotta take a break for a meeting, here's my thought: Victim never left the art program, in AvA1. In a very literal sense, he spent his whole life in it. It's where he found all the things that enabled him to fight back. In a weird way, it makes sense that this is where he's powerful, that this is where he's comfortable fighting. (and I know my personal headcanons are about to get blown outta the water but I'm really glad that I was on the right track in regard to this idea. though something I hadn't ever imagined was that he'd rely on other people to supply those advantages instead of obtaining them himself)

Meeting over, back to the episode! (I wonder if the title of this episode refers to the white chamber Chosen is in or the actual bounding box. Given that the mere appearance of a bounding box in Wanted was enough for many of us to clue in to Victim's involvement, even before he appeared in-person at the end of the episode, I'm leaning that direction. Amazing that it only happened once in the series before Wanted and it was already enough of a legacy to make him recognizable. I'm now realizing that in AvA2 the first thing Chosen did even before attacking the cursor was destroy the bounding box. Also realizing that the bounding boxes in this chamber aren't visible, unlike in the test-chambers in the previous scenes.)

interesting...each of Vicitm's limbs are separate graphics with their own bounding boxes, which is how they looked in the Bloop animation course that Alan made, but it isn't how he was in AvA1. Though he was recognized as a single graphic just a few scenes ago, so that might not mean anything.

why, stop, dude we get it you're strong now you've proved your point stop beating him up-

oh good Chosen's still got his own strength, he's fighting ba- what- okay what, can't take what you dish out??

Ooh, I don't think we've seen Chosen actually throw fire like that (instead of just blasting and halting blasts) since the early episodes.

okay, nice to know that Victim actually can dodge on his own

...don't like how little time it took Chosen to start feeling exhaustion...

...don't like how much trepidation the lasso is giving me. that feels like one of the crueler things to use against Chosen; not because we've seen it used against him before (only Victim and Orange have used it themselves, and only Victim has had it used against him, and good grief Orange and Chosen still don't know how Victim is connected to Alan-) but just because...I really don't want him bound and leashed again, he's been through enough of that. still, I had predicted that we'd see him using the lasso at some point in AvA6. I'm not happy I was right. (man, back before we knew Victim would make a proper return to the series I used to love the idea of him using it again. it's like the clearest example of him outwitting the animator and taking his tools for his own use.)

NOT THE NECK- they've never gone there, I don't like this-

oh what they actually- I was not expecting that. whips haven't appeared in the series before. oh I really don't like this.

God he's crawling back- why-

I had to pause. either the group outside just did something with the controls that Victim wasn't anticipating, or...Chosen felt threatened enough to turn his powers on himself and encase himself in ice as a defense. fuck. someone get him out of there. no flight, can't fight, man was pushed far enough he literally resorted to freeze. The Chosen One. I don't think that's ever happened before.

Fuck, that's just too much, I can't even bring myself to feel excited about seeing the duplicates again. though it is good to know that my headcanon about him needing to be in an art program in order to duplicate himself ended up being accurate. we'll see if my headcanon about it being one Victim with five bodies (as opposed to being five Victims) holds up. if they even have a way to show any difference.

[sighs, pulls AvA1 up in another tab] yep, they're all there. lasso, hammer, extended thumbtack (though it doesn't look like a thumbtack here, which is interesting), whatever that chain-accordion thing is, and the ninja star. why are you doing this? man literally froze himself immobile to get you to stop torturing him, just leave him be.

...haHAHAHA! Oh that felt good, that made me smile. Hopefully this means Chosen has recuperated a bit.

the animation of Victim on fire was so nice I completely missed Chosen breaking the ice XD going back to catch that made me realize that the other Victim duplicates literally just...stood and watched the one burning...

don't let yourself get backed into a corner-

OH he escaped the hold, nice-

I didn't realize until the lasso came back that he'd gotten rid of it when he broke the ice :( but before that he actually uses his fire-breath again, which is always nice to see. interesting to see it concentrated in a thin stream instead of just roaring out like usual.

oh yikes why- him on fire-

...don't do it, man...

OH HE OWNED THAT, LET'S GO!!! Great thinking, Chosen! (heh, nothing about this situation remotely resembles that time Chosen grabbed the cursor and forced it to click him free, but I was reminded of it nonetheless. something about the tool being turned against the user, but in such a different way than Victim does it.)

OH HE- ...oh...I was gonna say oh he learned, he adapted enough that he predicted them flipping his fire and he used that- but then they just nullified it immediately...

Victim don't snap the rope like that, we don't need any more implications we already know you're planning to put him in a world of hurt, why can't you just leave him alone now, what are you trying to prove

hh, back to Orange I guess...

MATH SPOTTED, MATH SPOTTED-

oh! they're bringing him to the- okay that makes sense, if it only works when he does it then obviously the next step to figuring it out is gonna involve him.

wait was he- could he not move when the bounding box was picked up?? (also neat that he immediately got worried once he realized he's in a bounding box, dunno if that's because of what happened in the last episode or if it's just because...he spends a lot of time in an art program so he'd naturally be familiar with what they can do and what it means to be inside one)

...well, nice that they at least get his attention before picking him up

oh now you're being friendly, sure. yeah Orange ain't having it.

okay, [picks up pencil] [instant notetaking] was funny XD

aaw, it's swimming around him

oh it knows what the eraser means

...wait it wasn't an electric eel in the last episode-

hexagons- and the power flickered

okay Orange stumbling around trying to stay out of its way makes it clear that he isn't controlling this thing once he's finished drawing it, it's acting on its own. it...it really feels distressed.

hah, they're all cowering. losers.

oh, back to this.

...did you have to make it so personal, Victim?

a chair

...okay not sure why that happened, could Chosen not just...lean forward? I rewound to watch it again and realized he's exhausted again after the slow-mo ends (is that from the slow-mo itself or just his exertion from the fight before the slow-mo?) and he...doesn't even struggle when Victim lifts him by hand with a lasso to the neck. is...is he just ragdolling now? is he at the point where that's his best option for minimizing conflict?

...he is. he's ragdolling. fuck. (damn you cc!Alan for introducing ragdolling in a comedic short-)

...no? no what?? no, he doesn't know anything about the animator? (which we know isn't true, but why would he deny that?) or no, he isn't going to answer?

don't tie him up, please...

oh now he starts struggling?

...back to ragdolling. good grief, the way they animate his legs just swinging even though they can still touch the floor...

...heh, I appreciate his spirit, especially at this point, but...Chosen you kinda just put yourself in a worse position.

...oh, what is that? I don't think we've seen anything like that before. It's got the floppy disk that's used as the "save" icon in many applications, but it looks kinda like a headset.

...a VR headset specifically, I guess.

OH WHAT- okay rad animation, but WHAT

...oh fuck, I've always wondered if there was a way to see the data that would be a stick's memory. FUCK what are they gonna use this for

wait they're bring Orange here?! Or are they just passing on their way back to the cell? but why are they going back to the cell, was the eel too much for them??

...wait, what? signal lost, I assume because Chosen dislodged it enough to disconnect, and then...instead of picking up where it left off it jumps all the way back to Showdown?? was...was Showdown just on Chosen's mind? or is this the memory of him recalling it right before flying to alanspc to entreat Orange's aid? ...or...are memories from beyond the sky-barrier not compatible? that doesn't make sense...

what's with everyone's reactions to Second's powers?

...I forgot Orange's cell is in here. whoops.

oh this is how he finds out??

hands first ("I did that??") and then his eyes ("Chosen was right??")

...and of course. I expected they'd lock him down with extra security as soon as they realized, but. poor guy.

(dammit I purposefully refrained from making a "dark mode" joke, you didn't have to go and put it on the damn control screen)

...and even after that (which, judging by Victim's reaction, even he hadn't known about Second's powers), the animator is still Victim's priority.

oh, this isn't just any clip of the cursor's involvement in Showdown, this is specifically while Yellow was rendering the cursor in.

and then they immediately pan to Yellow which means that observation is actually gonna be relevant, FUCK-

OH FUCK THE WANTED POSTERS

("earnings growth," so they actually do have a business element to them)

aaand the security cameras caught them peeking out of the truck, they literally just started printing the posters and they've already located Yellow-

that fight is mesmerizing. we haven't seen one like this before, as far as direction and setting. plus it's really interesting to see how the four respond. I might look deeper into that later. also that was a cool transition.

and Yellow is dragged off. The story has never had one of the quartet singled out in-universe by the plot like this before. they aren't even apprehending the others.

...of all the sticks to have a lighter, I never thought it would be Victim.

to be continued. good grief.

I have to eat before work so I'll think on all this and say more later.

#animator vs animation #ava the box #animator vs animation spoilers #ava6 spoilers #ava 6 spoilers

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emblazons · 1 year

Text

a post in defense of (a very much alive) S5 Jonathan Byers

under the cut b/c this is more frustrated commentary than strict analysis, and you shouldn't have to read if you don't want to.

I feel like it must have come from the dry spell between seasons, but I have to say it: all of this “Jonathan is gonna die and that means Stancy could happen” stuff lately is not only giving "I just like angst for its own sake," it's lowkey nonsense if you look at it thematically (in context of the Jon/Nancy/Steve madness yes, but especially in context of the Byers family).

—like? Friends.

Given the Duffer’s track record of refusing to fully kill off major characters even when it could have made sense to (cc: Hopper and Max), I don’t think anyone is actually meeting their end, but let’s be SO serious about who is actually likely to get axed: the boy with a mom, brother, step-sister and girlfriend who have been central to every single moment in this show…or the one they've put into a triangle we all thought was over until S4, who they’ve honestly written into a corner, & whose primary drive in four entire seasons was getting a girlfriend and protecting a bunch of teenagers?

I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's just talk Jonathan.

The Duffers (Matt especially) have openly gotten upset at even the notion of Mike dying because "that's depressing" AND "that's Nancy's brother" (showing the familial ties are a HUGE part of what would keep them from ending someone), in addition to them saying they've thought through every imaginable scenario" on who might die—

—and you think its Jonathan whose meeting his end? King of championing "not liking what you don't have to" and the outcasts in all areas from music taste to being queer...after all the Byers have been through and knowing The Duffers write toward championing the outcasts and those who embrace their differences?

That, combined with the fact that the only "evidence" I've ever seen for him potentially dying has been that speech he gave to Will in the SBP somehow being connected to (you guessed it) setting up angst for Will...I'm gonna take a hard and wild educated guess based on the entirety of the rest of the show and say that was literally written so Will could catch a goddamn break, not as a death tag.

The fact that Noah confirmed it wasn't in the Duffer's OG script, was written day of filming + was done because "it was important for people to see will wasn't alone" is evidence enough for that.

Even so, the fact that there are still at least 4 unresolved plots Jonathan is part and privy to makes his death even less likely, because it wouldn't make sense for resolving anything for him to die at all, never mind in the episodes before our supposed timeskip.

Jonathan's messy relationship with Nancy, the fact that he's the only one who actually knows Will is gay, and the fact that he's the only other character who saw & understood the ULTIMATE Chekhov's gun in the form of that painting (on top of also having a longstanding relationship with Mike )should make it clear he isn't going anywhere from a narrative perspective...and I'm not even sure where the idea that he would die popped up, other than fandom warping the canon and projecting onto the plot.

The Duffers have always been clear about not doing things solely for the sake of surprise + not liking things that don't make narrative sense...and Jonathan's death would be both of those things, done solely for shock value.

I just. Be so serious right now. if you want to imagine the weight of Jonathan dying SOLELY for fandom angst DO THAT...but don't pretend like his death in the show wouldn't be the most poorly foreshadowed thing in this entire show, on top of not matching a single theme of the ongoing Stranger Things narrative. ☠️

Put some respect on his name lmao

Bonus: If you really want to talk about character's dying (and not just jump into angst for its own sake): they haven’t given Steve a proper love interest EVER outside of Nancy, made Dustin cry over Eddie instead of staying close to Steve S4, and haven’t ONCE referenced that boy’s family properly more than a few times in passing (and only by Steve himself).

He is the only character who craves normalcy despite this show being about championing the outcast, was supposed to die seasons ago but stayed because Joe Keery was so beloved, and has now been written into a corner where every single person who is central to him (esp Dustin and Robin) either have a new love interest or are worried about something else more than him, which...if you want canonical evidence for a possible death, you're looking in the wrong corner of this love triangle.

#HERE U GO ANON LMAO #my st commentary #jonathan byers #stranger things #he will be alive and well in S5!#single? maybe. but DEFINITELY alive lmao

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why-animals-do-the-thing · 1 year

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I was looking into my local zoo and they say they're zaa accredited, that's not the same thing as aza, right? I was curious if zaa was reputable and whether an accreditation from them really means anything

I think a better question, unfortunately, is "does any accreditation mean anything?" Followed closely by "how can a member of the public tell what it means?"

AKA you've poked to one of my giant projects of indeterminate length that I might, hopefully, maybe, get enough of a conclusion on to start submitting for peer review and publication this year.

Now if you've been following the blog for a while, you're probably thinking wait! Accreditations require standards! So to know what an accreditation means, we could just go read what standards they hold facilities to, right?

...and the answer is yes, but, that won't give you the whole picture for a lot of reasons. Many standards are performance standards: they say what has to be achieved, but don't specify how it's done. That means whether the standard is met is up to a significant amount of interpretation. Maybe the standards are in flux/being updated, and you can't guarantee that what you can find publicly is what's currently being used. Most accrediting bodies allow facilities to petition for variances, and there's no information available about what facilities have ones, for what, and why. On top of that, there's always questions about enforcement, oversight, consistency, anonymous reporting options, and of course, the risk of nepotism and/or politics impacting how accrediting decisions are made.

Here's the thing that never gets talked about, but is really important to know: accreditation is branding. Accreditation groups are trade organizations - they are responsible for advocating for the success of the businesses that are members. Being part of specific "accreditations" is like being in a fancy club. Members get certain perks, non-members don't get those perks, there's in-groups and out-groups, except it's all playing out with regards to federal and state level regulation, legislation, government funding, etc. That's why it's so political - it isn't only about guaranteeing a facility's quality. It's about guaranteeing that they're good enough to be part of the club, and will function and act the way the people who run the club want.

So honestly, at this point? All I can confidently say at this point in time is that accreditation by any entity in the zoological or sanctuary world means that X facility aligns with the ethos/zeitgeist of the accrediting body such that they're willing to stake their brand to it. You can read up on accrediting body to get a sense of what that means - if you do, make sure you look at things like the website and comments they make to the media, because there's a lot of information about organization culture and ethos in that than in just the published standards.

Give me like, six months (I hope) and I'd be able to answer your question with a lot more specifics, but I'm still in the nitty-gritty of spreadsheets and I don't want to speak before my analysis is finished.

#zoo politics #zoo accreditation #AZA being the “gold standard” is a perfect example of meaningless branding within the accreditation space #there's no definition of what it means and you can't tell who it is in comparison to #and it's also pretty silly to tout yourself as better than everyone else when you're in a field with a total of 2.5 orgs #all of whom have different scopes goals and targets #but boy does it make a great sound byte #upcoming research #zoo accreditation project

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rawliverandgoronspice · 11 months

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I absolutely love your analysis of the gerudo and Ganondorf because they put into words what bothers me about how TOTK portrays Ganondorf. That being they remove his agency as a character in favor of having some great evil against the good guys.

[Major story spoilers ahead for the end of the game]

At the end of the game, when you’ve defeated Ganondorf, he swallows the secret stone and becomes a dragon, like Zelda, fully knowing the consequences of what happens when that happens. And it’s just kinda left me with a bitter taste in my mouth? In the context of the story it makes sense, he’s portrayed as a egomaniac who just wants to destroy Hyrule. But compared to other versions of him, this one just feels more openly biased against him and the gerudo, with no reason or justification other than “he’s evil, hate him.” As far as I can tell… They never really show us that he’s done anything horrible or deserving of being feared before the show of fealty cutscene, other than not submit to Hyrule, attack them once, and generally have bad vibes. It feels forced how much they want us to hate him and the people who follow him. I’m not saying character in video games always have to be nuanced or complex but comparing like, Wind Waker Ganondorf next to TOTK Ganondorf…. 🙃 Waste of an excellent design imo.

Heyyy sorry for being a billion years late with this ask!! I was busy finishing the game!!! among other things!!! Thank you so much for your kind words, I'm super happy it resonated with you in that way!

I mean, the whole draconification plot beat doesn't really work for me. Like yeah, sure it's sad that Zelda is now a giant dragon and it's cool to have her soaring above your head while you have no idea where she actually is (a situation that isn't nearly tapped into enough in the narrative imo, like it gets obvious way too fast if you happen upon the wrong memory, etc), and I actually think the whole sequence of you removing the Master Sword from her head was the best scene in the entire game in terms of mood and emotions --even THOUGH it would have been so much better with a stronger story and stronger stakes-- BUT. How does that build up thematically?

I think what doesn't work for the Zelda side of this plot point (I'll get to Ganon next) is that... she doesn't make that choice. It's not like she's being tempted by an easy way out and decides to sacrifice herself for the sake of Hyrule or Link or whoever: she has no choice in the matter. Her powers activate (?? somehow? once and never again also, talk about dropped plot threads), she finds herself in the past, is the passive witness to a bunch of shit that only tangientially relates to her --it's like she's visiting estranged family in a foreign country and watch their drama awkwardly before being dragged into it against her will even though she was just trying to renew her passport and get back home (if there had been any callback to her relationship with her father it would have landed better, but it's just completely ignored so vOv). Then her relatives all die or corrupt or something, and she still can't get back home. What is she meant to do besides draconify? Grow old and die in the past? What would that accomplish?? Her adventures in the past are just basically about solving a shrine puzzle with a particularly weird solution --but the game treats it like a huge sacrifice when it's basically her only way out, and she lost absolutely nothing making that sacrifice (and then she... cries about the weird family drama? sure. Honestly I think it would have worked better if the tears were Rauru's, it's his bullshit everyone is dealing with right? He's the one who feels broken and aggrieved by the whole thing.)

So, if we ignore the draconification precedent builds up to zero thing thematically beyond cheap drama that reveals nothing about neither the characters nor the world, I think Ganondorf's case is a little more compelling because he does make a choice here: dying as he tries to achieve his weird lofty goals (and fail), or postpone his victory eternally by sacrificing his objectives but reject death and defeat --while also barring himself from victory. In a better crafted story, this could be utterly excellent and it feels very Ganondorf to me. BUT, my beef with that plot beat isn't that he chooses the second option, making him kinda active for the first time in the entire game (and makes an appropriate hideous smile: *loved* this second one, the first one didn't land for me but this one really captures the ecstatic insanity and transcendance and desperate madness of the act --I have nothing against Ganondorf offputting smiles and cackles when they feel earned, and the Sonia one just... doesn't to me, it just feels like weird rigging and mesh deformation choices getting out of control).

My problem is that his existence as a dragon contradicts everything we knew about dragons before --both for him and for Zelda. I thought the big issue with draconification was that you'd lose yourself to the act entirely, and would become this sort of organic landmark of infinite power and eternal life but without will to act on your precedent goals and understanding of yourself. But the second the big man becomes an evil dragon, suddenly Zelda zips in to the rescue (apparently remembering who you are? understanding she's meant to fight Ganondorf? I mean, this kind of works emotionally as a climactic ending and the power of love or whatever, again it would have worked better in a better story), and Ganondorf is still very much into destroying the world as well as you and Zelda.

Also, he's very definitively mortal (and he has the stone on his head again? And so if you destroy it you destroy his immortality? why???)

So... What I dislike here is the suggestion that he was somehow so evil and rotten and bad that all of these rare moments of interesting worldbuilding and ambivalence gets completely swallowed in the bossfight logic, making his choice (and Zelda's) completely meaningless in retrospect.

also: let Zelda remain a dragon you cowards, that way Hyrule gets any sort of chance to escape and reimagine its horrying eternal monarchy instead of re-establishing it even harder than before!!!

#totk #totk spoilers #totk critical #asks #tloz #zelda #ganondorf #any change to the statut quo emotionally is so unbearable to this game's writing it's so weird #the dragon thing is a cool idea but I'm not sure it should have involved zelda tbh #if it had been rauru's thing while mineru held ganondorf in place it would have worked better in my opinion #I feel like this leads to much better character arcs and make mineru more of a character #and someone we could connect to much more than rauru #something

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onewomancitadel · 3 months

Text

A smattering of general updates:

I played Tears of the Kingdom. I didn't really enjoy it. I understand why it was popular though; I'm just not the demographic for these types of video games anymore. I didn't find it creatively rewarding and after a time I sat there thinking 'I would rather be writing right now', and since then I have learnt that writing is made easier by doing things which are not writing, because it makes me miss it. My dad also doesn't really like it but for some reason has played hundreds of hours in it. I don't know either - I think he will take anything called Zelda at this point.

I spectated the Doctor Who David Tennant Special and watched some clips of the new season. I'm not a fan of RTD, and not a DW fan anymore (not for a long time), but it was an interesting study in how studios try to attract old and new fans.

I read a lot of books, and that lie people tell you about all books being good for you is a lie, because a cyberpunk anthology of short stories made me so angry I got heartburn. I think people who say that are saying so because they wish that they could read a lot, in which case I say, yes I think reading is a gift and we should engage with it, however, sometimes I get so physically angry from something stupid/bad I've read because bad writers exist that it gives me actual pain. I am reading Howl's Moving Castle right now and it's very joyful; I am very surprised by the liberties the animated film took! However so far I do think both experiences are worthwhile, and if you enjoyed the Ghibli film, I very much recommend checking out the original book if you want to revisit that world again. The prose is straightforward but a little whimsical, and Howl is very, very funny. I have laughed aloud a few times.

Well, you know I rewatched Dark, and it's funny that during my exile I said 'this is like if RWBY got the ending it deserves' and then, er, I found out it's not renewed yet, and that's still up in the air, which for the entirety of RWBY I have only had one true moment of doubt of such a thing, and that was a while ago.

On that topic, yes, I still ship Jaune/Cinder, believe Cinder's redemption is likely, etc., although there are some more external concerns I would wager now than before. Before I thought it very possible to do without any commercial influence, and it depends what compromises they do or don't end up making or having already made. My analysis of Jaune's arc in V9 may not hold water as much (e.g. if you lean towards the view there were rewrites to cater to growing the audience, or perhaps it's two ideas married? I'm not sure) so I'm going to think about it more, and there always has been a tension in RWBY between what is being expected/baited and what is foreshadowed/said/actually happens.

I figured out how to write again and what was blocking me, so there's that. To talk about it a bit more, since my break I have worked every single day on writing. My key takeaways are that you need a delicate balance of delusion and self-doubt to get anything done - you don't know you can do something until you actually do it - and every excuse I invented for not writing was not the reason I was not writing. I can write with a migraine beginning to set in on an uncomfortable desk where I can't even rest my elbows properly on the end of a bed with no back support without aircon in the middle of summer before I've even taken my hair out from bedtime plaits in my pyjamas. I didn't even expect to get my fic done right before midnight, actually I was like 'well lol that's not going to happen, I'll write anyway though, fuck New Year's' because I wasn't doing anything, and then I finished and looked at the time and was like ooooh. I actually completed my goal! So I'm very proud of that. Anyway writing is breathing, to me, I go crazy if I don't do it, no matter what it is, and every single piece of nonsense advice of productivity was not helpful, ever, but I did figure it out. Also admittedly I got a fire burning under me again because I found out I was actually right about Raven, in which case I took that as a sign from heaven I was on the right track. One should hope.

I am excited about Dune Part Two, yes, although I am trying to avoid Villeneuve talking about the film because I know all the marketing is basically directed at people who aren't Dune fans, and I have to see it for myself to see what it's worth. I enjoyed the first film, and Villeneuve seems excited to direct Dune Messiah, in which case I am willing to do whatever possible to make that happen. Because that's about as complete a story you're going to get in a major motion picture adaptation and it would be So Fucking Good.

#seraphina party hour

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thewertsearch · 1 year

Text

Asks Comp - 16/4

I literally did not know The Baby Is You was a thing. To be welcomed back into the comic like this after four months is very on brand for Homestuck.

... and wow, its outro really does match the end of this song, doesn't it? That's even funnier than if he'd snuck some of Megalovania in there.

Ooh, that's another liveblog I'll want to check out when I'm done! I've never actually seen a Worm liveblog before. Adding it to the list myself!

Nothing's really changed since I've been gone! I make a conscious effort not to do much Homestuck analysis off-blog, since I want my journey to be fully documented here.

It's good to be back! I'm looking forward to a full reread when I'm done.

Would you believe I didn't even know there was a book?

I also didn't know the movie had two (allegedly) terrible sequels, which is very funny. Neverending story indeed.

Thank you! I can't take too much credit, though - most of my tagging system has been crowdsourced from askers!

At some point, before we reach the end of the comic, I'm going to have to formalize my approach to liveblogging Homestuck's side content.

What I'll probably do is give each of them the 'lite' treatment initially, but if they turn out to be more canonical than I thought, or particularly interesting to liveblog, I'll 'zoom in', and analyze them properly. We'll see how we go!

Could you imagine the relationship dynamics in your average troll soap opera? The shipping web for a single season would make our heads explode.

It's a fun question. What sort of object symbolizes everything?

The first thing I'd try would be a star chart, Dave's magnifier and a literal planetful of Grist.

Added to the list! Not until later later on, though - I'd worry that the opinions and theories of another liveblogger could interfere with my own, especially if they're talking about it with someone who's already read it!

I would find it hard to disagree.

Do people think Act 1 is pointless?

I mean, it is the slowest Act in terms of pacing, but slow pacing isn't always a bad thing. You sort of have to take it slow when your readers have this much to get to grips with.

...okay, maybe we didn't need quite as many Sylladex mishaps as we got. But we still needed some. Homestuck has a lot to introduce you to.

I always pictured an English accent for Hass - although, interestingly, I didn't picture one for Jade. As a headcanon, I like the NZ one better.

Where did Grandpa grow up again, actually? He was raised by Fake Mark Twain, who was from Missouri - but I don't have a clue what a Missouri accent sounds like, let alone one from a century ago. I have a funny feeling that it's not the accent I'm imagining coming from Jade.

Now that's a ship I'd never have seen coming. Props to Hussie for coming up with something more controversial than my Feferi<>Equius.

All four kids, with four endgame weapons, might be able to challenge Jack's current incarnation - but they're not going to get the chance. You've hit the nail on the head - he's semi-perfect Jack for a reason.

I have several theories for Jade's prototyping, and every single one of them would make Jack even more dangerous than before. It's just barely possible to challenge him now, but things will only get worse.

Read the room, Serket!

Would Vriska have tried to negotiate? She feels like the type of person who'd rather take a beating than admit they're outclassed. Plus, I'm not sure how much she'd have to offer Aradia, who seemed entirely motivated by revenge (and, possibly, secretly motivated by timeline stuff).

All that said, I would have loved to hear Vriska trying to worm her way out of this.

I love it! Please send in the completed house, if you get the chance. That's going to look so cool with a moving meteor.

And they're both easily distractible! This feels like two people who might actually get on surprisingly well, if they were in, say, the same high school class.

It's hard to say what's a rarepair, since I don't know what ships are rare in the fandom - although I'd have a few guesses about the most common ones.

If we're going for a ship with very tenuous connections, I will submit Rose x Feferi for your appraisal. They're both fans of the Noble Circle, and their signature colors are pretty close.

You know what, I'll just review all of your ships. Tavros/Gamzee - PB&J - is pretty cute. [] I'd recommend Miracle Child for a number of reasons, but it does include a well-written Gamtav. Jack/Droog is more <> to me than it is <3. Like One Sundered Star might be influencing that? I'm not really sure. Somewhere I think I saw a Jack<>Droog. Your pre-shipping chart post isn't in the chrono; also, I'm pretty sure the A6A6I5 ask is one of mine. Gamzee/Eridan is a rarepair; I've seen it, but not often, and it's a <> in the fic I'm referencing. Kanaya<>Terezi and Feferi<>Vriska are strange enough that I've never seen them anywhere, really. [] And finally, Vriska and Tavros. These two are the textbook example of why the ashen quadrant needs to exist, and they're a perfect pair for it. [] ~LOSS (8/1/23)

I don't even know if Carapacians have moirallegiance - but those two would definitely work if they did.

Out of all my ships you flagged as rare, I think my favorite is Feferi<>Vriska. I just think they'd gel weirdly well together!

#asks #full liveblog #act 5.2

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stormsbourne · 4 months

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@callmearcturus sent an ask about 13 sentinels and tumblr is functional so you apparently can't edit posts with asks in them on the mobile app. so the ask disappeared lmao. functioning website!

Anyway WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU PLAY 13 SENTINELS: AEGIS RIM:

after the initial intro/prologue which is all kind of railroaded, there's three modes in the game: remembrance (vn style play), destruction (RTS mode), and analysis (dictionary/encyclopedia/event timeline). all three modes are relevant and contain important information. highly recommend checking analysis regularly -- often it will clarify something in a scene or battle that might have been confusing before. in addition some remembrance or destruction chapters will be locked to analysis progression. ideally when you're done with the game you will have 100% in all modes

for destruction mode, pick either easy or hard mode depending on what you want. normal is still pretty easy but makes it kind of annoying to do the rts levels, which are nothing to write home about. in addition don't put off destruction too much. the currency for analysis entries is earned in it, and sometimes progression in character stories will be locked until you clear a certain level. I would try to do a couple levels between remembrance chapters as you feel like it to keep them rolling and avoid having to do 5-10 levels at a time because, again, not that enjoyable. playing more than 3 at a time feels bad to me personally.

one last note for destruction that the game won't tell you: each character has a couple of skills that, when enhanced to +4, will unlock buffed/better versions of the skill. what skills depend on the character, the type of sentinel they have, personal skills, etc. the game doesn't tell you this because it was added for the switch version and patched in later for the others.

there's no right or wrong order to do things! follow a character's story as far as you can if you like them, or split between everybody, it's up to you. there are some stories that are intended to be done later but it will be very clear which because of their unlock conditions. your experience with the game will be pretty unique as a result because of this -- the reveals you'll get or the information you'll receive depend a lot on the order you do things in. this is why it's so hard to talk about this game -- it's difficult to explain what part you're spoiling.

the dub in this game is actually quite good if you were wondering

there's post game endless rts maps if you are one of the few, the proud, the people who enjoy the rts play

go in knowing as little as possible and enjoy becoming the sort of person who makes a pin and string conspiracy board. I'm not sure I've ever played anything quite like it!

#13 sentinels posting

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phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing · 10 months

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youtube

This scene from ch38 is both really cute and really ominous so I'm glad it's easily available now... Some analysis below the cut, don't read if you're not up to date with it. No leaks talk.

I'm reminded of that mantra Seele was repeating in the future vision about Seele living a life of sunshine and flowers in the future. There's SOMETHING here with both Vita and Seele talking about this that tickles my brain...

Seele's point is a promise of future eternal happiness like a fairy tale, while Vita seems to assume someone kind like Seele could only have grown up in a "paradise" just like Salt Snow.

Both wish on Seele a perfect world where a kind soul can thrive without being taken advantage of or hurt... and neither of these are realistic or acknowledge that you have to become and stay kind in spite of the world.

The player knows Vita is wrong because we've seen the kind of hell Seele went through, she's even gotten kidnapped by child traffickers before. As sweet as she sounded, Vita assumed Seele was born in a paradisaical place because she thinks Seele is sheltered.

Not quite looking down on her, but not seeing Seele as a warrior who has Been Through It, assuming things like "she must be scared" because "she must come from a paradise where she has never experienced a crisis". I don't think her intentions with the hug are condescending, but they betray what she's really thinking of Seele at this moment: that Seele is a kind child born in a privileged and sheltered place who hasn't been confronted with reality yet.

Vita does not believe a harsh world can produce kind people.

And this? This combined with Vita's perception of Salt Snow as a paradise full of innocent people that let her experience innocent things too? I think this scene is meant to imply Vita isn't as nice as she seems. Perhaps she wants to be, she expresses a wish to protect her current "innocent" way of life... but...

From Vita's perspective, saving her home is simply something that has never happened before, regardless of whether she means Venus or any bubble she might've tried to settle into. Considering she's still survived this entire time with no companion that we can see, whether or not she's saying the whole truth about her identity and abilities (which she probably isn't), she must have done countless unsavory things to survive, whether it's leaving everyone else behind to run away on a spaceship alone (yeah I don't believe one second she just happened to be doing maintenance) or worse.

Earlier on Vita notes that she's also participating for her own selfish reasons: she feels happy here. What she truly wants to protect, she says, isn't just "paradise", but also "what paradise makes her feel", and that's why she basically calls herself selfish. Additionally, she does want to help and fight back, but I really don't think she believes they'll succeed, hence Seele picking up on this and trying to comfort her with confidence.

She says she's used to working for days at a time to survive, while in Salt Snow she just never had to do that. Crisis mode is her usual. Meanwhile, in Salt Snow, she never even got a career from Prometheus, so who knows what she was even doing all day? It's is a peaceful place that demanded nothing of her besides giving back the kindness she received. Her favorite place in thousands and thousands of years...

Vita assumed a peaceful home was why Seele is the way she is, because Vita was projecting the perceived "innocence" of the people of Salt Snow, who are protected from even death by supernatural forces, on Seele.

Surely, such a kind person, who accepts the burden of a world and people foreign to her, can only be an angel, can only have been born and raised in paradise.

Normal people aren't like this.

Her cynicism is hidden underneath and I think that's part of why she has such an odd and anxious reaction to Seele basically saying she's completely wrong and that she's not so naive... that people in the Origin world came together to protect one another and overcame a crisis... that believing in a solution has worked before, and even left Seele with a positive outlook rather than disillusioned.

To that, she feels conflicted. She doesn't know whether to be uneasy or nostalgic. Is this optimism something she used to have and lost? Or could Vita think that Seele will inevitably be broken down by a failure to save the world?

Seele is living proof that anyone can choose to be kind even when they've been through hell, even if she barely talks about it here, we as the player know about it. Hell, Seele's girlfriends both have a past of violence, and both of them have mellowed out because of her kindness rubbing off on them.

Consequently, considering the mixed uneasy and nostalgic feeling the optimism provokes in her, this means that either Vita can hardly believe in this concept, or she used to and may even think Seele hasn't been broken yet.

Either way, she doesn't seem to even want to think about it, so I can only give it a vague guess.

Considering this worldview however, if Seele is "real", then whenever Vita didn't choose to be kind, it was her own decision that she must take responsibility for, without hiding behind a harsh past or circumstances. I wonder if that's something on her mind...

Vita thinking about an ominous "fate" could also betray that she currently doesn't believe she can choose to be genuinely optimistic and kind and survive it, beyond the act she pulls in Salt Snow as part of blending in with the locals. Perhaps she thinks kindness itself is a fairy tale, and that she can only indulge in it as long as the fairy tale is preserved, that doing otherwise is a pipe dream because she'd just get eaten alive. You need "strength" to be kind and not also taken advantage of, if she's spent a long time largely in a position of weakness for any reason, it's no wonder that'd she'd get hit with a little learned helplessness.

Regardless of the truth of the matter, she readily admits that she's capable of working three days and three nights in a row because it's normal for her, she was the only survivor of multiple worlds, and I don't think it was pure luck that she'd manage to escape all alone on a spaceship.

I think she probably left alone on purpose and abandoned everyone else.

I think Vita's belief that only paradise can birth kind girls strongly implies that she believes she isn't one.

#honkai impact #hi3 #vita #she drives me crazy............

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stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 10 months

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a trailer for Clementine Book Two dropped and y'all... it looks kinda good

T'was a stormy Thursday afternoon as I sat exhausted in my comfy chair after a long day at work, but with the weekend in sight I had little to frown about. Thunder rumbling outside, pitter patter of rain against my window, all cozy enough to make my eyes flutter shut. A nap sounded like a fine idea to start the weekend....

Then I got a notification—the Clementine Book Two trailer dropped. I bolted up from my chair, eyes narrowed down at my phone, and muttered to myself: "Aw shit, here we go again."

Yep. I'm here to dissect a trailer for a book no one wants and share my opinions and theories about it. You can watch the trailer for it here.

Honestly y'all, I think it looks good. I wouldn't say it's great or anything. I'm not THAT hopeful for Book Two. But it's a better trailer than Book One's, that's for sure. The artwork and animations look better and the music slaps.

After having watched it a few times now, I'm starting to question something about myself because I'm not nearly as offended by the existence of these books like I used to be. I still think the games are superior and the comics are indeed flawed, like I stand by all my criticisms, but seeing fans still throw temper tantrums like grumpy toddlers is just... silly? and irritating? At this point, just calm down. If this comic is really that bothersome for you, maybe you should just not look at it? Y'know, for your own well-being?

With that said, onto the screenshots and analysis:

Immediately I gotta point out the improvements in the art. I quite like these shots, there's a definite improvement over Book One.

We see a neat looking walker with either Olivia or a new character lurking behind it, Clementine's crying, and then some silhouettes of who I'm assuming are this new group, or they could be a pack of walkers.

So, I find these shots fascinating. We get a look at a bunch of new characters, and it looks like this new island group is a good mix of ages. We have a kid with an amputated arm, a character in wheelchair- though I believe that first shot kind of looks like Clementine based on the hair and the fact that Ricca and Olivia are there, and that second group screenshot shows a different person using one so maybe they have multiple chairs or something.

I feel like Book One missed an opportunity with the first community Clementine visited, the one where she met Amos and got her new leg. There are other characters there with prosthetics and you'd think Clementine might be interested in speaking to them, y'know? Not many people know what it's like to lose a limb, especially the way she did, and it might be nice for her to related to someone who has gone through a similar experience.

So if Clementine and friends are staying her for a long period of time, I would like to see her talk with that kid missing an arm, or the person using the wheelchair. There's a lot of potential in that.

Also, I do feel like I should bring this up because a criticism I keep hearing about this is the same bullshit I always hear: "A new group with children? The games already did this! Tillie's just copying TFS!"

How many times do I have to read this before I'm allowed to just start grunting disdainly at people?

Like I dunno if y'all have forgotten, but every single season of TWDG had Clementine meet a new group of people, and all of them had at least one kid around her age. TFS didn't invent the concept of a group of kids surviving in the apocalypse, and TWD has several instances of main characters meeting new groups.

Pretty much everything in TWD has been done. If you're gonna be pissy about this comic rehashing previous tropes and ideas, then I better hear you also being pissy about everything post the original TWD comics, and that includes every season of TWDG.

And yes, I get it. It's annoying that Clementine left Ericson and now she's finding a new group. Nothing new is being said here, we've all said it a million times, we know already.

And then there's this:

"but Clem already had a mentor! What about Lee??"

I don't know if you've heard, but Lee's super dead and no longer available for any mentor position.

Luke, Kenny, and Jane were also mentor characters for Clementine in S2. ANF she had Javi. Then in S4 she became the mentor character with AJ. This is a nothing criticism. Hell, you can't even call it that because what it really boils down to is bitching over nothing.

That's what I'm so over. Every time I see someone complain that the comics are just copying the games or whatever, I get irritated because that's not a real criticism. It's people looking to validate their dislike of the comics by making it sound way worse than it really is. You don't have to like the comics, and you can take issue with their existence. There are plenty of things to criticize about Book One that have nothing to do with the damn games, and while I can hope Book Two is an improvement, I am skeptical.

But I'm bored of your "#notmyclementine," it's says nothing new.

ANYWAY... my ranting aside, this must be Miss Morro. I'm curious about her and what her deal is. She's supposedly an "enigmatic doctor" and I'm interested to see if she turns out to be the secret baddie of this book or a red herring.

Ah yes, I'm sure everything on this island isn't going to be super normal, all happy sunshine and rainbows... until it's not. Because that's just how TWD operates.

It looks like they have a nice set up. They have boats for what I assume is fishing, a lot of land, buildings, and are those balloons I see? floating up from a car?? That tells me there's some sort of celebration that's gonna happen.

And it looks like Clementine has her new hat. Not as iconic as her old hat, but I'm sure the sunhat will make a name for itself.

Ah okay. The other thing people were pissy about.

We're still pushing this love story between Clementine and Ricca, just as we did in Book One's trailer.... only for the "romance" in Book One to be lackluster, or rather, nonexistent. As I said in my review, Clementine had more chemistry with Amos than she did with Ricca and that's not great when Ricca's supposed to be the main love interest.

But if we're still doing this, and we clearly are because their hands are touching and we all know that's THE #1 sign of true love, then y'know what? I'm rooting for it.

Don't look at me like that. I'm not letting go of clouis for clemricca, y'all should know better than that. I'm not so weak willed as to think that entertaining the idea of Clementine and Ricca being together in these comics will somehow hurt my love of clouis. The games and comics exist as separate things, it's fine.

I want to see where Tillie takes this. I want to see if Ricca's allowed to be a fleshed out character and not just a place holder love interest. Now that Amos is gone [or is he?] then we should have some free time to devote to them, no?

Also, to answer your question: No, it's never safe to fall in love, this is TWD, don't be silly.

Hmmmm, a dark secret, you say?

I know you're trying to make me think Miss Morro has the dark secret... but I'm suspicious that it's a trick.

Y'all wanna take bets on what the secret of Miss Morro/the island group is? Are they a cult? Cannibals? Doin' weird shit with the walkers? Is this island like the island in Lost and monster bullshit's about to happen?

What's gonna be the twist here, y'know? Tell me what you think, the more absurd the better.

I'm going with the plot twist that they're all genuinely nice people except there's a traitor amongst the group out for revenge... and that traitor is Arvo who got wind that Clementine named her prosthetic after Kenny, remembered how terrible the ending of S2 was, and wants revenge.

That's a lot of walkers.

Looks like a herd will pass through the area... wonder if they just happened by or if someone led them there, hmmm?

Lots of Clementine tears in this trailer, and given she and Ricca are both crying, some emotional shit's probably going down. Maybe they're talking about what happened in Book One, maybe Olivia's just died, maybe Clementine's going more in-depth about her past is ways that will give me a headache. Who knows.

"Clementine has a choice. Keep running and save herself. Or fight a lose it all."

Y'know... I know this won't happen, but a part of me wants a plot twist where Clementine abandons the group and saves herself. I mean, she already abandoned Ericson. She's clearly capable of abandoning AJ for selfish reasons. I would be impressed if Clementine and Ricca just left when shit hit the fan and saved themselves while the island group just burns.

But this IS a YA story, so Clementine's gonna be the hero and sacrifice everything to save everyone, and survive. There's a final book after this so I'm positive that Clementine and Ricca are safe.

Given this kid's crying and we get a close up of the walker's face, I'm predicting that the walker is someone they knew. Or they've never had to kill one before.

Is that.... is that my boy??

My dude?? My guy?? The best character from Book One??

Amos is here, except not really. I'm 99% sure Clementine's dying [again] and is having a dream sequence with Amos telling her she's not gonna die.

Listen, I'm gonna be real with you. I don't think Amos is dead. Unless you show me his corpse or him as a walker, I don't believe he died. Nope. Sorry, but no. You know how this works. Proof, or get outta here with this "Amos couldn't have survived the fall" nonsense. I know he was shoved off a cliff but c'mon. I have to hold out hope for SOMETHING, and that something is the shocking return of an alive Amos.

Also, very interesting that Clementine's seeing him at all. What, no Lee suddenly appearing to her? It's almost like she had a great dynamic and chemistry with Amos over the the rest of the group and his supposed "death" had a big impact on her.

This trailer does a lot better at creating intrigue over what's going to happen. And to clarify, while I'm hopeful that this comic will be an improvement over the first, I'm not expecting it to blow my mind or anything. I'm not expecting it to be great, but I wouldn't complain if it was, y'know?

I already have my copy pre-ordered. I'm prepared to read it ten times so that I can write a thorough "I read it so you don't have to" analysis and review.

And because this has to be said since the trailer's comments are disabled: don't be a dick, y'know? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the trailer and what we know of Book Two so far, but if you're just gonna spew nonsense about hating Tillie or try to convince me she's bad, just... piss off? I don't care, no one cares, come back when you have something of value to add to the conversation. Thanks.

#twdg #twdg clementine #clementine book two

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alittlefrenchtree · 28 days

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It's just so sad when you're stuck with something and you just see everyone out there move on and saying it can't be about that forever. I know, it's true and I understand it. It's just sad for myself struggling to move forward.

But you don't have to? People have been fans of things that have been made and done and finished for a very long time and they're just staying? Of course you're not going to have as much content as before and less people talking about it but your fandom experience can become something else, just as beautiful. I'm sure they are many other rwrb fans who feel just like you and still want to have all the talks, analysis, watch party, fanfic fests, edits sprees, book club and so on. My motto in fandoms has always been to do/create what you want to see. It will flourish around you 🌸

#alft asks

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scaryspears · 7 months

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KK2 Chozen Analysis

I'm not gonna say anything that has already (probably) been said, and I'm just going to make some quick points.

In Karate Kid 2 Chozen talks about honour and so on, and how he needs to reclaim it. Now I've read some opinions on Chozen where people have demonised his actions (for good reason), but I got the impression that they didn't understand him. What I mean by this is that Chozen's culture and perception of honour is different from ours (westerners). He comes from a place where Senppuku used to be a thing, so when Chozen is talking about his honour and stuff... it feels like a double edged sword when we, the audience, judge his character.

To make things technical or complicated depending on your opinion, Senppuku is the act of deleting one-self in real life, and Samurais would do it to avoid dishonouring themselves. If a Samurai did not commit Senppuku then they would be labelled a Ronin which wasn't good. Being a Ronin was a great dishonour, and a worse life than death. There's also Jigai, the female version of Senppuku, though I'm not sure why it was done.

In the Yakuza there's a thing called Yubitsume, where a member would cut off one of their fingers as an apology. Yakuza, as most of you know, still exists today. And there's evidence that members in the 80's and onwards have done this ritual. So with that being said, honour is a touchy subject regarding Chozen and not something that can be easily spoken on as a western audience.

The slight issue in this argument is that Okinawa and Japan are two different places. Okinawa, while a part of Japan is not in Japan. It's an island located between Taiwan and Japan. This makes me believe that how honour is perceived and practised in Okinawa is much different, in the sense that it may have been very important even when Japan banned certain practice before the 50's.

To be fair, I don't know how many teachings of honour were drilled into him, nor do I know when people stopped prioritising it. But just something I wanted to touch on.

Analysis 2:

In the final showdown between Chozen and Daniel I always saw it as a severe thing for Daniel. Not just because they're fighting to the death, but because Chozen is wearing black and yellow, which is something I always deemed to be a Cobra Kai colour before the Cobra Kai show came out and made it red. The only difference between Johnny and Chozen's karate gi is that Chozen has more yellow to his. Chozen's gi even makes him look like he's imitating a snake judging by the patterns, and I've always wondered if this was intentional by the director or whoever designed it.

The diamonds made me think of scales. So when Daniel is going up against him it feels like Johnny Lawrence all over again, just much worse. There's no cheering crowd, and there's no rules.

Before I watched Karate Kid 2 or found out what the plot was I saw this picture of Chozen and thought it was Daniel vs another Cobra Kai member. And then I watched the movie only to be genuinely surprised that wasn't the case. (I was 13-14, but still)

#chozen toguchi #daniel larusso #johnny lawrence #cobra kai #karate kid #karate kid 2 #analysis

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justatalkingface · 1 year

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Hey 👋 I've seen your page and you're really indepth and accurate about bnha, really great analysis. Can I ask you where you think bnha is going as a series? Or like, what messages are trying to be pushed and if they're right or not? Because where we are now it's really hard to tell.

The heroes haven't really learned much about how things got this way, and even when they're told how the villains got where they are, the heroes (and the hero kids) don't really commit to (even attempt to) changing anything to make sure things don't wind up right back where the story is now.

Speaking specifically on the mutant plot you wrote that great critique on, shouji's answer of basically 'shine so bright it makes the racists feel bad' did not seem like a good sign for the future. can I ask how you feel about that part too?

An ask! My first ask! I didn't think I'd ever get an ask, actually. And! And it's a juicy one! Plenty to dig my teeth into here....

Where it's going is simple, yet complicated in a weird way. Where we are, now, Hori has finally decided on a direction and seems firmly attached to it, after zig zagging in messages and themes throughout the entire storyline, so in that sense, the end goal is clear. The problem is he took so long to make up his mind on what even wants that he left himself a giant pile of plot threads to deal with, and I am not only positive he can't resolve them all well, I'm not even sure he can even end them all, they're all so many and all over the place, and so much of it is deeper and complex that the story they're actually in.

This is the reason you're confused, by the way; all the themes, back stories and plot threads that Hori has just... decided to not use, are still there, he just left them hanging. Like Corrupt Heroes, when all the heroes we see are good, Endeavour, the lone asshole, is now defacto redeemed, and even the originally somewhat dubious Mt Lady, who was money obsessed, is fully on the straight and narrow. Everyone talks about 'corrupt heroes' (and acts like Stain has actual depth when what we have is flat out a two dimensional character) throughout the story but we never see them, because Hori realized he didn't actually want to get into how dark that would be. It's why Hawk was killed and replaced by New Hawks, and Deku (like my earlier post, I'm going to be putting a firm line between 'Izuku', and 'Deku', where Deku is a hollowed out version of Izuku, with all his defining traits scraped away to make room for power and The Plot, and Izuku is an actual human being with depth that we haven't seen a long time now) doesn't even blink at Lady Nagant's entire everything, before he revealed she was Good The Whole Time as he defeated her: because Hori abruptly changed directions and all the story build up before that point was suddenly retconned into nonexistence.

The direction Hori seems to have chosen, barring a last second 180, is what I call a 'True Shonen'; that is to say, he has committed fully to the themes of Friendship and Being A Good Person overcoming all obstacles, no matter how ludicrous the odds against it. The ending, then, will be Deku, maybe with some help, killing AFO and Saving The Day, and then Everything Is Better, probably with a timeskip to years later to show how much better everything has become. Now, in theory, that's not a bad thing. In practice, MHA is one of the most theoretically political shonen mangas I've ever seen, and until recently Hori has been trying to thread the line between a normal shonen plotline and the deep ideas and concepts he's introduced, and done that terribly, so there's a lot things that are going to happen that are going to be... awkward, to say the least.

In a True Shonen, for example, the Hero always wins. Not only that, when they reach the full potential of their powers at endgames like this? They get everything they want. Every goal is achieved, with only one or two token sacrifices, and some victories being symbolic or incomplete, and at worst the cost is just themselves. One of the places we're going to run into problems, though, is that Deku has committed to saving Shigaraki. And that is going to happen, Shigaraki will be saved, one way or another.

The problem is Shigaraki himself. Shigaraki was, at the point right before AFO stepped in to conveniently make him helpless and ripe for Deku to vibe on saving, utterly insane in a way I don't know the technical words to describe, but his goal is easy to name: omnicide.

Shigaraki was a fucked up man child that had never had a life, and didn't know how to be a person, until he went through the trials his mentor arranged for him to grow. When he finished and, for lack of a better word self actualized, he gained a goal that was all his for the first time.

That goal was to kill every living creature on the planet, destroy everything on the planet, until there was nothing left. Shigaraki's ideal endgame is a barren world of dust and ash, save for maybe five cities where Japan used to be that his friends live in. These cities have all their stuff, cute prey for Toga to hunt, and possibly some slaves to do things for them (though we're ignoring how that'd destroy all ability to make things like they'd want on a reasonable level, like clothes and food, but whatever), and that's about the only feature left on this bleak, empty world of grey.

Shigaraki has killed, at least, hundreds of people, and is at least indirectly involved in the deaths of thousands more. He has no idea how to live anything near to a normal life. Every one of his skills revolve around killing, or video games.

That is what Deku wants to save, because in the set up we're in, Shigaraki isn't the enemy anymore. He's the rival character, and he just happens to be possessed by the actual big bad. Picture Naruto trying to save Sasuke, if Sasuke was fully possessed by Orochimaru; that's the kind of energy that's happening here. Except, you know, it isn't. They're foils in many ways, but the set up for this kind of situation has never been a thing. That's where the 'kid' in Shigaraki came from, to explain this and skip over years of connections and build up that are sorely lacking to explain why Deku would want to save him.

Not even mentioning what the 'saving' would look like: maybe Shigaraki will go Darth Vader on AFO and mutual kill him, redeeming himself in the process. Maybe Deku will, and I'm not screwing with you, pull the fucking kid out of him, and that kid will just be innocent of Shigaraki's sins. Maybe it'll be like the last chapter of Naruto, where infamous traitor Orochimaru, famed for his human experimentation on orphans, and the ex-leader and founder of a hostile military state, is somehow in charge of the orphanage, and in the same way Shigaraki will just be magically reintegrated back into society somehow. Who knows?

This? This is just one problem with the end we're going towards, and there's plenty more beyond that. Dabi, for example, needs to be saved as well, to resolve Shoto's Endeavor's character arc. He can't just die, he can't just be locked in jail forever, he needs to come to some sort of peace with his family; the story will not end any other way. In it's own way, though, this is almost worse than the Kidaraki thing, since while Shigaraki was basiclly thrown into villainy, without any context on how not to do that, Dabi went willingly to his damnation, but it doesn't matter because it will happen.

So yeah, where we're going is easy. The ride there, though? Woo boy, that's going to be fun.

On the origins of villains and the complete refusal to deal with their causes? Yeah, that's another one of those big threads left to hang: MHA is a theoretically 'real' world, just with super powers in it, and that means it's complicated, and there's politics, and things don't work out for everyone. All of that? Yeah, that's a bunch of stuff Hori just... started ignoring a while ago, and at this point, i would bet actual money he never will really focus on again. Oh, Deku might make some lip service to it at a climatic moment with Shigaraki, and there's probably going to be a time skip with the problems 'solved' (and yet there'll be villains for new/old heroes to face dramatically anyways), but that's it. To realistically deal with the causes of villainy would require a lot of work on things like poverty, mental health, racism in general, and the insane amount of bystander syndrome in the setting, all of which are never happening beyond a surface level take.

Although, now that I mentioned it... man, Hori seems to hate civilians, doesn't he? I'm not really going anywhere with this, I just wanted to talk about that briefly, but the general public is always wrong in MHA, aren't they? Or, really just about anyone who isn't a hero or a villain is both useless and stupid. He uses 'the civilians' exclusively as props to push his message, usually by a hero explaining why what they're saying is dumb and bad, or as scapegoats to try and push the blame on, and it's just kinda weird isn't it?

And oh, the mutant plot. Oh, that response. Anon, you may not know this, but I loathe every part of that, and I would love to tell you why.

Let me sum up briefly his argument and explain why each part is wrong:

We start off with 'Don't be upset and act out about the discrimination you face, or your children will be next.' Like, I'm paraphrasing here, obviously, and equally obviously I'm slanting it negatively. Still, though the way I put it makes it sound like a threat, and maybe in some undertones it is, honestly the main reason this is shit is the fact that they're here means their children are being discriminated against, already. They aren't going to be in a giant mob following a villain, who is famously part of an organization that has destroyed several cities and killed who the fuck knows how many people, against law enforcement and the super law enforcement, unless they really, really think that this is their only way out. That, in the entire setting, with normal police, and the hero system that is loudly broadcasting that they will save you, the only person who is on their side, the only person who can possibly make change happen for them, is Spinner. These are people so trapped and cornered that they're trying to chew their metaphorical arms off to escape, and Shoji is saying there will be an 'escalation' of their situation that has to be a fact of life for them already.

This, somehow, along with city mutants (who according to their own words just a chapter or two ago are de facto living a different life than them and don't understand what it's like to be a country mutant) joining hands with normal humans, is enough to stop them, because.... they get to watch the people they know have it better than them demonstrate their lack of trauma?

Seriously, let me stop here a second. Let's ignore, for a minute, the sheer layers of stupid here, and take this as written: These people are desperate, and feel so abandoned by society that the only person they think is on their side is a villain. They follow him in siege on a hospital against a backdrop of heroes and police. Let's further pretend that this was, some the fuck how, a good argument. Would that even stop them? They're stuck now; they've come this far, in a something far beyond a riot, lead by a defacto enemy of the State. Just stopping it like this and leaving isn't going to make things go back to normal, it's not going to make them better, it's going to screw them over. The second they did this they were committed, because shonen logic aside, do you think law enforcement is going to forget this? Forgive this? Unless AFO wins, they haven't put their cause back by three years, they've fucked up by decades; every mutant is going to be viewed as a villain just hiding how sinister they are. The very act of doing this is tying them, ride or die, with AFO and the League, and burned the bridges behind them. They can't go back now.

Moving on, Shoji then says that, 'the reason you all gathered here, in a small army, isn't wrong, and the fact that you were able to operate beyond the level of a thoughtless animal and stop when I told you too makes it seem to me you were all shining like the fucking Luminescent Baby'. I shit you not, he compliments them on the fact they 'kept thinking'. I don't care what translation ends up official, I can't see any way anything that vein isn't insulting bullshit with the subtext of, 'The fact that you listened to me is why I think you kept thinking, and if you ignored me, you wouldn't be thinking'. Quite a fucking high horse you're on there, Shoji. Oh, and a token black hero then apologizes for being ignorant to their plight, which is just a special touch on top of everything else.

And now for the good part: "Let's use the fact that you're all Luminescent Babies to change the people hurting us! They'll look in awe of how you glow and be so embarrassed that they'll become better people out of shame!"

I'm going to dial back the snark here because this is the meat of the argument, along with the actual question asked to me (lol), and I want to seriously address how bad this is. What this argument is saying, basiclly, is to be perfect, take the high road, and you'll shame your abusers into no longer abusing you, into no longer being racist. In general, this kind of thing, a disadvantaged minority having to be better than their peers for approval, isn't new; this is old as fuck. What this does, all this does, is allow the person in question to keep their job against all the people who hate them and want them to stop getting above themselves. That doesn't solve anything, that is a step: the true change that they're talking about is long, and hard, and complicated. In fact, I can say in total confidence that historically, it is proven that doing this has not, in fact, magically stopped racism or sexism from being things that exist.

Seriously, Hori, what the fuck.

So, yeah, this is pure shit, basiclly. If this was actually how the world proceeded, off this logic, nothing would get better, but again, that logic isn't going to matter with how the story is going; things will be 'better' regardless of what the heroes actually do or don't do to fix the problem.

And... I think that's everything you asked, Anon. Thanks for the ask!

#ask #bnha critical #mha critical #Hori's chronic inability to commit to themes #sometimes the language for what I want to say doesn't exist #so I make it myself #We're going Full Shonen #Hori's deep and unexplained loathing of civilians #izuku is a person #deku is a puppet #Hawks has been replaced by the bodysnatcher New Hawks #The mutant 'arc' is criminally bad #Honestly I'm not sure Anon knew what they were getting into when they asked this #But it's too late for that now #You're saddled up there's no recourse

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day6source · 8 months

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Young K talks about his new album, how music brings people together and his experiences in Brazil

The musician took some time to talk to the HIT team! in an exclusive interview and digital cover for the September magazine! Check it out below:

TIME HIT – “Letter With Notes” is your first album since “Eternal” and your break for military service. How do you feel coming back this time with a new album?

Young K: I'm nervous but excited. I can't wait to share my music with you! I wanted to come back with an album, but I wasn't focusing on a whole one. I only submitted several songs and I think 11 of them were selected.

TIME HIT – Putting the album “Eternal” and your new release “Letters with notes” under analysis, what do you think is the biggest difference between their concept?

Young K: Besides the concept, I think the biggest difference would be the time that has passed. My voice changed and so did my way of thinking. So the story I tell and the words and notes I took must be different in some way.

TIME HIT – You are one of the most famous composers in Korea, with more than 100 songs signed. What is your creative process like when composing songs?

Young K: I always try to compose something that matches the song. So I took another look before finishing and making sure everything is ok.

TIME HIT – Do you remember the first song you composed?

Young K: The first song should be “daydreaming”. A song I wrote on guitar when I was in Canada. It's been 10 years now, so when I look at her, I think she's cute.

TIME HIT – The lyrics you write and the songs you sing have a positive impact on the lives of many people, every day. What's it like to be part of people's lives with your music, to be present in the happy and sad moments of your fans' lives?

Young K: I'm grateful that they take it that way. When I publish my songs and present them to the world, it's like they leave me. It's really up to the fans to choose to listen to them. If they feel something with them, I'm grateful for that.

TIME HIT – What advice would you give to beginning musicians?

Young K: Always do your best, but don't forget to take care of yourself. Be clear about who you are and take time to ask yourself if you are okay. This is for everyone, not just anyone who wants to be a musician.

TIME HIT – You were in college during the release of “Every DAY6” and it was certainly a big challenge! What advice would you give to university students who are going through challenges in their academic life?

Young K: Besides taking care of yourself, experience life. As much as you can. Learn in classes, learn from your friends, learn from every event you may face. Go travel, maybe. Time never comes back, so it's an opportunity you won't want to miss.

TIME HIT – What is your favorite memory while living in Canada?

Young K: Spending time with my dear friends. Talking about nothing important until late at night.

TIME HIT – Is there an instrument you would like to learn? And one that you tried, but gave up on because it was difficult?

Young K: I wanted to play the piano, so I took lessons. But due to lack of time and desire, they took me to this point, which is very close to the beginning. I learned to play a little drums with Dowoon, but I realized it was something I hadn't dreamed of at the time.

TIME HIT – You have had many experiences and achieved a lot in life. What is your dream currently? Something you haven't done or achieved yet, but really want to one day?

Young K: My dream currently is to sing and perform on stage as much as possible. To do this, I have to stay as healthy as possible. Not just me, but you too.

TIME HIT – Latin American fans are a very passionate audience for K-pop. Is there a Latin American rhythm that you would like to incorporate into your music one day?

Young K: We actually tried to incorporate them into some previous songs! I'm still open to challenges.

TIME HIT – Language is no longer a barrier to the power of music. How do you feel with so many fans spread across such distant places and with such different cultures and languages?

Young K: I would like to meet them and sing. It's always impressive to see how this is possible. When they sing together, it really is a different feeling. It makes me want to come back with more songs.

TIME HIT – You have collaborated with artists such as Ben&Ben, Jamie Miller and Park Moonchi. Are there any artists you would like to collaborate with at the moment?

Young K: I'm open to collaborations! Anyone interested, just give me a touch. It would be an honor to do something, anything with Ryan Tedder.

TIME HIT – Your project “YOUNG ONE” is loved by fans and the videos have accumulated millions of views. Which cover did you enjoy recording the most?

Young K: I think recording on a boat was something I could never forget. The song was “Fly Me To The Moon” and the night in Amsterdam was beautiful.

TIME HIT – What is your favorite karaoke or to sing in the car?

Young K: The songs to sing in the car would be the ones I need to practice. I like to spend my time in a car practicing songs I'm going to sing, or warming up my voice.

TIME HIT – Which musical genre do you want to explore a little more?

Young K: Maybe jazz in the future. Jazz is a genre I'm interested in, but have never delved into.

TIME HIT – What memory from your tour do you like most?

Young K: The different energies of different cities. Spending time with the members on the tour bus, and recording “YOUNG ONE” in my free time. And last but not least, the food.

TIME HIT – What is your favorite movie of all time that you would recommend to fans?

Young K: I wouldn't say all time, but one of my favorite movies that I loved most recently was “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”.

TIME HIT – Eating is certainly one of your passions. Have you ever eaten Brazilian food? Is there a Brazilian dish you would like to try?

Young K: I've tried barbecue and loved it. I would like to try Vatapá one day.

TIME HIT – Can you send a message to your Brazilian fans?

Young K: I hope you guys always stay healthy! And I also wish you happiness and luck. If we can meet one day, let the night be filled with passion and love!

#young k #day6 #day6 even of day #kang younghyun #brian kang #album: letters with notes #[the movie he recommended.....please.]#[i did my best w/ putting it in eng but the og is in portuguese if you would like to read it that way as well <3]#[ in the source as always <3]#young k: interviews

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