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brainrotdotorg · 11 months

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and today in "fantastic DE moments that you may have missed": almost sneezing on cindy's painting. dont ask me how to get here i was just browsing fayde

YOU - "Would you describe this as one of your signature pieces?"

CINDY THE SKULL - "*Signature*? Oh yeah, pigster. I sneezed while holding a wet brush. Paint flecked onto the canvas, and voila. You don't get more signature than that."

HALF LIGHT - Is that all she thinks it takes to be an artist? Outperform her with her own style. Make it *yours*.

[Fc] *691.YOU - (Tickle the longest of your nasal hairs.

[Fc] *970.HALF LIGHT - You feel the biggest sneeze of your life itching its way to the centre of your face...

[Fc] *271.CINDY THE SKULL - "Uh, what are you doing...?" She looks disgusted, her individual facial features racing to be the most dramatic expression of her disapproval.

[Fc] *327.KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant furrows his brow at another one of your eccentricisms.

[Fc] *764.YOU - "I'm an artist too." (Your nostrils flare involuntarily.)

[Fc] *632.HALF LIGHT - You tilt your head back, close your eyes, and get ready to snap it all forward...

[Fc] *911.CINDY THE SKULL - The coat gets flung over her head as she braces for impact.

[Fc] *581.KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant is desperately searching for a handkerchief.

[Fc] *580.DRAMA - The pre-sneeze hype is unreal.

[Fc] *437.PERCEPTION (SMELL) - The mucous gripping the sides of your nostrils is cheering. All scents and odours seem to have left the world; your nasal chambers have become wind tunnels of *very* ticklish particles.

[Fc] *766.YOU - "AHHH--"

[Fc] *579.HALF LIGHT - But the rest doesn't come. You exhale softly -- no spittle, no shout. It's over. Just like that.

[Fc] *765.CONCEPTUALIZATION - Perhaps not *everyone* is an artist after all.

[Fc] *435.CINDY THE SKULL - "Was that it?" She looks relieved. "Stop playing with your snout and let's get on with this so you can go back to your stinky sty. You still want this painting or what?"

#disco elysium #this is so fucking funny. everything about it #cindy shielding herself with her coat. kim looking for a hankie. the pre sneeze hype is unreal.

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stateswscarlet · 16 days

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Good morning Scarlet, I hope that you're doing amazing!

First of all, I wanted to thank you for all the amount of time you put in explaining the law to all of us and seeing all those success stories, we all know how good of a blessing you are in our life.

So, I've been working on manifesting my ex back for a few months now, more than a year actually, and it's kinda embarrassing to me. I'm naturally a visualizer and have inner convos, but when envisioning scenarios like us hugging, holding hands, and being together again (what I've always done before knowing the law and being in love with him) it feels too good to be true, even if I have a deep understanding of the law conceptually. I know part of this process involves letting go of attachment to the 3D and recognizing that my outer feelings (anxiety, fear) and thoughts (how will he change his mind, he doesn't love u anymore) don't define my true self (the inner man that is being happy and in a rs with him). However, despite this understanding, I still encounter challenges when I attempt to engage my imagination regarding these scenarios. I often feel unfulfilled or disconnected from the vision of us being together.

Furthermore, I've been feeling doubtful about all that lately. Different sources offer conflicting advice - some suggest focusing on feelings, while others emphasize decision-making. I've even studied materials from authors like Edward and watched Tom Kearin (BSW), and while I understand the concepts intellectually and have applied them before with success, I haven't seen significant movement. The only time I experienced progress was when I wholeheartedly believed in my ex's return, even if I wasn't necessarily thinking from the end (focusing on the 3D aka he is going to come back). However, now, as I try to embody the version of myself with him already, I'm starting to lose faith in the possibility of him changing his mind and coming back. Have you ever experienced a similar struggle or doubt in your manifestation journey?

I feel maybe my issue is linked to the "feeling" that I do not understand, do you have maybe some recommandations in terms of source, or YouTube channel or else ? I feel like I'll never succeed in this specific manifestation while I succeeded in others for instance my job and travels... it was so hard for me too bc for more than a year I was jobless and so focused on that, that one day I decided I am going to get a job no matter what and not thinking from the end and it happened while I didn't focused on how I felt, I wasn't like "I need to feel I'm already employed", so I am lost in all of that ..

thank you so much for the kind words!

“working on manifesting my ex back” im really hoping you only worded it like this for simplicity sake to tell me, but please stop identifying with manifesting (at all) or seeing anything as a process bc there is NO PROCESS. there is no work to be, no point A or point B, and no one is coming “back”.

the reason you feel disconnected is because you’re still dominantly believing the 3D as a fact/seeing it as unchanging/dont understand youre SHIFTING TO A DIFFERENT REALITY/STATE and not changing the current one. figure out which one. in other words, youre being accidentally 3D oriented.

“i havent seen much movement” excuse me? wym movement? eradicate that word from your loa vocabulary please theres no such thing as movement. do you HAVE IT OR NOT?

stop looking for more material. no coach or video or book can change how you feel internally if youre just looking for results and refuse to completely drop the outer man and their reasoning.

your sp isnt changing his mind, you SHIFT TO A STATE where you and them are together. the one in the current 3D is NOT the one youre in a relationship with nor will ever be, you have to fully drop that version of him.

if just deciding you have something fulfills you, then so be it. do whatever you enjoy.

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mbti-notes · 25 days

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Hi! I came across this post of yours /post/179222467392/you-once-said-that-you-are-not-a-religios-person and i was wondering what the things are in Buddhist philosophy that u dont agree with? And also how did u manage to tap into the oneness belief? I heard ppl often get there thru ego death by using meditation or psychedelic drugs. Lately I have been into this topic and into getting into that oneness belief and you seem to know a great deal about philosophy!

If you're new here, philosophy is one of my majors. I learned religious philosophy as part of my studies in the history of human thought, so people sometimes ask me about these topics.

- To be clear, I am sympathetic to Buddhist beliefs and I think the religion has a lot to offer people. Buddhist philosophy underwent a lot of change over the centuries as the religion spread through very different cultures. When you dive deep into the scriptures, you'll find some truly wild ideas about multiverses and supernatural beings. It's hard to get on board with those ideas if you are a rational and scientifically minded person.

At this point, there are several different branches of Buddhism that sometimes hold very contradictory beliefs, yet they all still call themselves "Buddhist" (contrast this with Abrahamic religions that splintered three ways). Such contradictions are possible because Buddhist beliefs are almost designed to be impervious to critique. On one hand, this allows for great diversity of thought. On the other hand, it can make the whole thing seem nonsensical.

For example, I don't agree with how Buddhists conceptualize and characterize the human ego. However, as soon as I raise those objections to these Buddhists over here, some Buddhists over there will argue that there are different levels of understanding and many different ways of looking at the ego depending on how far you've gotten in your Buddhist practice. They simultaneously accept and dismiss my objections. Thus, if you want to be Buddhist, you basically have to accept this sort of incoherence and perhaps dismiss it as illusory or the result of small-mindedness.

At the end of the day, whether I agree or disagree with the beliefs is inconsequential, because no objection is really real or pointing to anything permanent. But when all your thoughts and feelings and behaviors can easily be dismissed as unreal, what happens to your life? Whether or not your life is objectively real, it still seems real to you and you have to live it, and the suffering you experience feels real. Can you dismiss it as just ephemera? There has always been an internal debate in the religion about whether one should be apart from or a part of the material world, and I don't think this kind of ambiguity helps people who are already struggling psychologically.

- I guess you could say I came to the belief in oneness first through intuition, then through science, then through philosophy. I think I mentioned before that, as a child, I genuinely believed that everything in the universe was imbued with some form of consciousness (aka panpsychism). It's not an uncommon belief in children because the human mind has a tendency toward anthropomorphism. For example, I would wonder whether stepping on the sidewalk was hurting it. People had to reassure me that if the sidewalk had feelings, its feelings worked differently than human feelings, otherwise, the sidewalk would object in the same way I would to getting stepped on.

Most people grow up and forget about these silly notions, but I didn't. Psychologists say that normal infant development starts at oneness and evolves into individuality. I feel like the world tried to convince me that I'm this separate, discrete, individual being, but I just couldn't believe it. Separation has always felt to me like a very wrong way to be. Who is right, the psychologists or me? I don't know. Maybe a Buddhist would say we're both right and we're both wrong and that neither is seeing the bigger picture.

To me, it seems as though I was born believing in panpsychism because I don't remember a time when I didn't believe it, so there is no actual "origin story" or explanation as to how I came to the belief. If I am capable of consciousness, why wouldn't it be possible that everything else is as well? If I am capable of being conscious of others, shouldn't there be something out there conscious of me? And if consciousness exists everywhere in everything, isn't reality fundamentally relational? In order for these beliefs to stand, I had to possess the underlying belief that everything in the universe is somehow interconnected despite superficial appearances.

Then, I studied science in school and learned that all matter in the universe is made up of the same constituent elements. We are all stardust. At the atomic and quantum level, the boundaries we perceive between objects are difficult to define. As an adult, I studied philosophy and was introduced to the full gamut of human thought and learned that oneness was a key concept in many Eastern religions. Actually, several influential thinkers in the West (such as Jung) were heavily influenced by Eastern philosophy. Philosophical training helped me sharpen and refine my spiritual ideas.

- Yes, some people come to a belief in oneness through psychedelic drugs. Presumably (according to the limited research that has been done so far), these drugs help to "open up the mind" by restructuring it in such a way that expands one's perspective beyond one's narrow everyday ego concerns. Some people call this "ego death", but I don't like that term. As I mentioned above, I don't agree with Buddhist conceptions of the ego, which some secular Buddhists blithely reduce to "ego death = enlightenment". If you read my previous posts on this topic, you'll see why. I don't believe the ego is a bad thing or an enemy to be vanquished. I've seen how aspiring to ego death can go terribly wrong for people. And I've been exposed to different perspectives on ego and believe there are better ideas out there.

#philosophy #religion #buddhism #oneness #ego death #panpsychism #drugs #personal #ask

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mantabanter · 2 months

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Martch 1: self portrait

Reflection and thoughts down below!

I enjoyed doing this. I dont really have a "sona" that I've actually stuck to for the past couple years, which is strange cuz I was very committed to having one when I was younger! Oh well. I decided to try and do something that symbolized me, but the concept ended up too wavy and... nothingy. I find that happens when I try and rely on my head too much to draw. I'm discovering more of the joy of transformational art, as in, mixing real life and imagination rather than feeling like I have to rely on imagination only. Incorporating real life still feels like cheating.

So anyway, I thought, whats more me than me right now? And so I took a picture of myself for reference and just added some more conceptual bits on top. SO no, my signature earrings and my leather jacket and the rest of the bits and bobs I usually think of as aspects of my external personality didn't all make it. But it is me, a version of me, a softer and low effort version of me, which I'll take. Using the colours from the pictures was also funny, because my hair is actually blond right now, but the lighting was so sparse that it just turned out dark again.

For the more conceptual bits, the wolf ears are deeply symbolic of my lone wolf nature and-- haha no thats bullshit I just like wolves. As you'll notice I also have vampire bites on my neck because -- i like vampires too. The skeleton hand I thought looked kinda cool and also my hands been hurting a lot lately and I hate drawing hands. The shirt is a new sweater I got recently. It kinda looks like the lesbian flag and the trans flag had a baby, and was born jumbled with all the colours out of order.

In other self portraits I might have added a bunch of little pins or bubbles to mind map out all my little identity markers - queer flags, age, personality type, random bullshit like zodiacs that i dont even care about - but I think I'm moving away from that kind of thing lately. The concept of the self is more murky than that, and while that kind of clarity brought me comfort once, I've since found it limiting. There are a million versions of me. This gets to be one of them, and thats enough. What it shows and what it conceals is all circumstantial today. I could even argue its a bit uncomfortable because I drew myself more feminine than I would have liked - but theres something in me that responds to it and so I think I'll go with it despite my discomfort. My femininity is apart of me whether I like it or not, and I am determined to like it one day.

Anyway. That's me today. And probably me tomorrow. But probably not me a week from now.

#martch2024 #my art #mantas art #self portrait

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rabdoidal · 5 months

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tag game! 🎧🎶 tagged by @theocannibalism shuffle your music library and share the first 10 songs that come up.

Thanks bud! Shuffling my liked instead of my playlists for fairness ✌️

Waiting For The Weekend by San Cisco: a decent song! I liked it more in uni but it's certainly still musically pretty - it's a little trite to write a love song about drugs being personified, but San Cisco can make anything a sexy indie jam (7/10) Favourite line: And when she's standing right next to me / She's never quite as close as I'd like her to be

Your Dog by Soccer Mommy: a STELLAR song by a band truly so close to my heart - my fav combination in music is a clean voice and dirty bass. also this song also has a fucked up relationship dynamic and its. very Izzy Hands to me sorry (10/10) Favourite line: Forehead kisses break my knees / And leave me crawling back to you

Pulaski at Night by Andrew Bird: another top tier banger but also (shout out to artificial ghost radio listeners) this is my NBC hannigram song its so. like the classical instruments and delusional sweetness makes it feel like a candlelit waltz in a blood splattered suit (10/10) Favourite line: I write you a story / But it loses its thread / And all of my witnesses / Keep turning up, turning up dead

Paint It, Black by The Rolling Stones: truly wild that this is in my likes because its a great song but its like. I don't think I've ever intentionally listened to the rolling stones apart from this? anyway bangers only I always love how dramatic and goth it is (8/10) Favourite line: No more will my green sea / Go turn a deeper blue

Androgynous by The Replacements: this song honestly makes me tear up sometimes, even tho its purely joyful, because it makes me think about how its a song from the 80s that has more kindness and love for genderqueer people than most people do 40 years later. It makes me love being t4t (9/10) Favourite line: Now, something meets boy, and something meets girl / They both look the same / They're overjoyed in this world

Cinnamon Spider by Jack Off Jill: nothing wrong with an alt/goth song about revenge and guilt with weird voice modulated screaming and creepy whispering (7/10) Favourite line: Consumed by hate and guilt, she'll never retire / Too old to fix, too dead to ever acquire

Human Fly by The Cramps: I've been listening to a lot of rockabilly/oldhead goth rock recently and I'm loving the cramps! I've only really heard the big hits until recently, but Human Fly is definitely my stand-out favourite, I love songs that are kinda nasty and maggoty or more conceptual or goofy! It makes it stand out to me (10/10) Favourite line: And baby I won't care / 'Cuz baby I don't scare / 'Cuz I'm a reborn maggot using germ warfare

The Price Is Right Theme Song by Antarctigo Vespucci: I'm a little over listening to indie emo at the moment so I do frequently skip this when it comes on shuffle, but the lyricism is honestly heartbreaking (5/10) Favourite line: Oh my lord, I wish that I didn't know they'll still make TV shows long after I go.

Big Bird by AJJ: I have thoughts feelings comments and critiques of AJJ, but I can't deny that if you want to be in a dangerously bad mood it hits. it completely hits. and I think its interesting that they make songs about taboo intrusive thoughts and criticisms they have of the world, even if i dont always love the song they make in the end (6/10) Favourite line: So I bought a knife / I am a knife / I am a Knife Man

Arty Boy by Flight Facilities ft. Emma Louise: a real vibey party song about being inexplicably into the guy taking photos and smoking at the function instead of dancing - to me it reads as a little comphet, or a little bit bisexual, because the way Emma Louise is singing about the ladies is a lil sus (7/10) Favourite line: And all the girls must be models here, sipping up on margaritas / Twist their bodies so beautiful, making shapes with the music

idk who to tag but if you want an excuse to do this, go with my blessing and pretend I tagged you

#personal #tag meme #music rec #long post

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dogtoling · 5 months

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I see herobrine so now I gotta ask. Which of ur ocs would try and find him, or any other cryptids?

And. are creepy pastas just e-cryptids?

Okay well this is kind of hard to answer. herobrine would likely not exist in splatoon so we're going to assume an in-universe minecraft (i like to propose Brinecraft) parallel with... wait herobrine... you know what he can keep the name now hes like the main character. Anyway first let's assume Splatoon Minecraft (which can be functionally identical to ours but wouldn't be the same game) also has a Herobrine.

First we need to narrow down which of my OCs would be interested in cryptids in any capacity to begin with. this is what my heart tells me

(and of course i have more characters than this, but I omit side characters and ones i dont have little drawings of).

So like my immediate gut feeling was Squl definitely would enjoy the concept of cryptids and horror, but also his parent is a Magnapinna, so I doubt he has much passion for something like that in real life given that in his experience every time there's been a "cryptid sighting" or a scary rumor, it's usually just been his parent.

However for good measure we can make a graph out of this as well

this is subject to change, of course. So in the end, we have six people who definitely would have passion for this kind of thing, and seven people who might, so they're technically not off the table.

In the case of Herobrine of course we need to employ another very specific graph to find out what would be likely:

Now let's see what overlap we have from the gamers and cryptid hunters:

so that's a selection of people who would, potentially, specifically, POSSIBLY seek out herobrine. Or go out at 4am to look for Bigfoot or whatever. Bigfin. yknow that checks out, again, that's just Squl's parent. Again. (Also this selection is mostly 'teens with nothing better to do' and Rodge. Which is hilarious to me)

And finally: are creepypastas just e-cryptids? idk. Yeah I guess. I wrote a several chapter long story in 5th grade where Jeff the Killer Jeff the Kills everyone at the end. I'm not sure online creepypasta is similar to enough to cryptids conceptually that they would have that kind of overlap; I think Slenderman would fall into both though? They might just be closely related concepts. Like dog breeds.

to close it off, I think Graf would by far be the most likely person to intentionally go cryptid hunting. So I guess there's your answer to the first question...

#mailbox #i knew i saved a canvas full of these guys with the background removed for a reason

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volivolition · 2 months

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Any updates on all wip fics? and what is your ao3 username if you have one?

if you don't want to share any info, it's all good

i hope you know how hard i am YIPPEE-ing after getting this ask, I LOVE TALKING ABOUT MY FIC WIPS!!!! YEAHGKJH!!!! <33 my AO3 is also volivolition, but i dont have anything posted there yet :]

TL;DR: I have 4+ WIPs im working on simultaneously: Unstoppable Force Kisses Immovable Object - A Voli/Echem enemies -> enemies with benefits -> friends with benefits -> lovers fic that started as PWP but whoops its not just smut anymore lmao? Meet the Parts that Make You - A "Kim introduced to the Skills" fic! Let's Make It (a) Home - A Skills fic showing the aftermath of the amnesia wiping out Harry's mindspace, with the Skills working together to rebuild it into a home during the Hanged Man case. Mostly domestic fluff. Swept Up in the Feeling - An Empathy-centric fic, originally an excuse to do Skill character studies. Empathy understanding each skill while they do activities together <3 (gained a plot. suddenly.)

ANYWAY!! more info, snippets and musings under the cut!

Unstoppable Forces Kisses Immovable Object Word Count: 18722 Rating: Explicit Okay, so technically this document isn't just one story. It's my catch-all "any Volistry writing goes HERE" containment zone. Like I said, this wasn't supposed to be anything big, I just wanted to write a bunch of drabbles and practice writing smut because I've never done that before. But then the drabbles started connecting to each other and Voli and Echem started falling in love without asking me and so it's like. A whole thing now lmao?

they bring me so much joy. they're so fun to write, because volition will say something so normal and echem will find some way to misconstrue it and volition will bicker and echem will flirt back and volition will sigh and they're so fucking funny to me. they just keep talking, their back-and-forth banter is so natural to write, which is why this fic is so long hkgjh

they learn to balance each other out!! i want them to be soft and witty with each other and i'll. cry about them. if you catch me at the right time i will wax poetic about their relationship but right now they're just being incoherently rotated in my brain.

anyway here's a snippet, i have so much written for this damn fic that i had trouble choosing lmao. it's like. mildly suggestive? but truly nothing blatant, just cutesy shit lmao

Meet the Parts that Make You Word Count: 3886 Rating: Mature This fic is the closest of the four to being abandoned lmao? Or at least I want to finish Swept Up before writing this one, because as it stands I feel like I can't grasp everyone's characters right without doing some character study beforehand. It might also be because I'm currently more obsessed with the Skills instead of the humans, though i still love them.

but yes! Meet the Parts that Make You is a fic after Martinaise, established relationship for KimHarry, where Kim is casually introduced to the skills over dinner, and they document their findings in Kim's notebook over the course of about a week. it's a lot of skills banter and silly moments!! harry can honestly say that every single part of him loves Kim.

here's where they're trying to show off each of their different specialties, featuring Reaction Speed and Hand/Eye Coordination who are my sillies.

Let's Make It (a) Home Word Count: 1896 Rating: Teen+ I think if I want to finish any fic first, I want it to be this one, because it really sets the scene for the rest of the universe of all my other fics. The main gist is that Perception can pull in anything that Harry's looking at into the mindspace, and once they figure this out, most of the skills go "Hey we should bring in more things so we can decorate!"

volition my friend and perpetual spoilsport :3 anyway, different skills affect the object's properties! Perception can pull things in, Interfacing can give it texture, Conceptualization can make it different colors and Reaction Speed can duplicate it. Empathy makes it so the object has the correct feelings attached to it (Dora's letter, for example) and Half Light can immediately destroy the object (Dora's letter, for example).

this fic is basically The Hanged Man case, but from the perspective of the Skills. i think it focuses on some specific skills, but maybe not all of them because I'd die if i had to give each one of them an individual chapter. maybe i'll smoosh some skills together? i love all of them and i want all of them to get some screen time, but it would wreck me lmao

i have a whole Volition scene written out and i think its so fucking gorgeous bro... i love writing. it's like... rebuilding after death, the skills have a kind of blank slate too, you know? they're learning to work together again, regaining memories, making new ones, making a home together. the way different skills need to work together to make an object in the mindspace real. I WANT THEM TO BE A HAPPY FAMILY. AUHG.

Swept Up in the Feeling Word Count: 5103 Rating: This is Mature. Except the Echem chapter. Which is Explicit.

EMPATHY MY FAVORITE SKILL. OUGH. EMPATHY. MY FRIEND. this fic is about Empathy getting roped into a bunch of shenanigans with the other skills, and goes along with it all while better understanding each of them.

so remember when i said I'd die if i had to give each one of them an individual chapter? yeah. that's because THIS is the story where i give each one of them an individual chapter.

24 chapters, one per each skill. Including, but not limited to:

Exercising with Physical Instrument!

Art time with Conceptualization!

Performance with Drama!

Listening to Encyclopedia infodump!

Reminiscing with Volition!! (THEY ARE CHILDHOOD BEST FRIENDS!!!)

Staying up late with Endurance

"Overstimulated Skills Support Group" with Perception

Talking about understanding people vs understanding machines with Interfacing

Talking about understanding people vs understanding specific people with Esprit de Corps

Apologizing to Composure about making their life harder with UNNECESSARY FEELINGS ("as if we don't deal with enough of our own, you bring in other people's emotions for me to hide?" "why do we always need to hide them?" "BECAUSE... :| Just because.")

A Talk with Half Light.

Y'know... with Electrochemistry (there's more to it than just that though lmao)

This fic will be the death of me, with all the skills, but I really really want to do skill character studies. I need to research their lines on Fayde and understand each of them so I can write all of them better.

This is also so I can be obsessed with each of them. Currently I have a lot of faves, but I don't care about all of them yet when i WANT TO!! i want to know each of them intrinsically!! I wrote a bit of the Endurance chapter and I didn't use to care for him very much, but then I wrote the lines

"Endurance is not tired; he can't afford to be. Not when everyone else is. He would stand before any of them, from the first intellect to the last motoric, in order to take a blow meant for someone frailer, less capable of surviving it. He will endure it instead."

and now I'm sympathetic to him. like, ough. If I understand them, then I learn to love them, and that's also why I'm writing it from Empathy's perspective! Empathy feels what other the other skills feel and does bonding activities with them with similar feelings, does that make sense? i really want to learn characterization for each of them, this fic truly is just an excuse for me to do character studies so i know all their character motivations.

BUT. it also has backstory plot now that im invested in lmao? based off of character design that i have. I STILL NEED TO POST MY SKILL REFS. RAUGH. but yeah all of my stories get too big for me really, i always bite off more than i can chew for projects like this lmao.

Other Fics: Skill Body Swap Fic! its shoved into Unstoppable Force's document for the time being, since this is mostly an excuse for Volition/Echem swap (Echem's body is ~sensitive~ if you're not used to it and i love putting voli through Situations. meanwhile Volition's body has the morale health pool in it that echem has to take care of), and ive only written that specific swap, but i think it'd be cool if i swapped EVERY SKILL.

Logic and Drama would be funny hkjgh Drama would 1) immediately slot into the new role and be extremely good at pretending nothing is wrong. What do you mean, he hasn't switched bodies with anyone? That's highly improbable. 2) love saying lies as if they were appropriate conclusions, and actual Logic would be like "That's literally wrong. Stop that."

Empathy and Composure would be interesting! Empathy's body is constantly picking up on everyone's emotions, and also is always on the brink of tears. Composure's body is not made to experience the same emotions, much less the emotions of others. Empathy's cut off from feeling and Composure is struggling not to fucking cry, poor guy.

Shivers and anyone? I just think Shivers should be small and worried about her connection to Revachol. and some other skill is just like "WHY IS THIS SO OVERWHELMING. HELLO??"

i dont know, theres a lot of ways i could go with this, i'll figure it out lmao. if anyone has suggestions for interesting/funny swaps and is even reading this far, let me know

The Sunrise Momentum. I SWEAR TO GOD IF I DONT WRITE THIS FIC. I NEED TO FUCKING WRITE THIS. Volition's vow with Harry that i cry about once per day. VOLITION IS TO HARRY AS HARRY IS TO REVACHOL. AUGH. "I will do everything in my power to keep you alive. I will keep you on this earth." my knight in lavender armor i am OBSESSED WITH YOUUUU!! *vibrates at high velocity*

okay that's about it, thanks for reading my RAMBLES!!

#inland drabbles #volta transmissions #BIG OL POST!! i love talking about my wips. i have so much to say #sorry this took a bit to compile. every time i checked word counts i added a little more to each story and had to keep updating word counts #ad infinitum forever hkgjh I JUST ADDED 500 MORE WORDS TO SWEPT UP JUST NOW WHILE UPDATING IT!! FUCK!!!#sorry this drama chapter is really fun hkjgh ANYWAY!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING!!! ASK AGAIN ANYTIME <33 #it will be shorter next time i promise. probably. lmao??#task: unstoppable force #task: meet the parts #task: let's make it a home #task: swept up #task: sunrise momentum

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bonnieisaway · 1 year

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hi scissor seven fandom. i still have not watched season four and i'm going insane in the membrane so i'm here to discuss how we dont talk about this scene enough

anyway so i was editing again and i got put off because i found this specific screenshot again

and i was put off about it because he smiles here. he smiles. this like absolutely mortifying, fucked up smile. and i went back and now i think it's really fucking cool (atleast by my interpretation)

ANYWAYS: to jog your memory Redtooth just fucking MAIMED Dai Bo and Xiao Fei and now Seven is next- and he has this internal dialogue with 'his past self' in his head. A few episodes before this, Seven says to Dai Bo that he has "An idea" of how he used to be- though, "My memory is still choppy." And this scene, when he looks to talk to his past self, I think illustrates what he can remember now:

We see an unnamed woman dying, and then Seven standing at, presumably, her unmarked grave. Then we see Seven approaching the Killers League- or another building in Xuanwu- and after that, the day the girl in white stabbed Seven. The last 'memory' (though, this one might just be more of a conceptualization of what he thinks he was,) is Seven standing on top of a pile of broken swords and bones, and this is the last 'memory' we see

These, and what Seven has been told by others like Captain Jack, are what Seven uses to form this concept of his past self. Notably, in Captain Jack's nightmares, past Seven is also depicted as smiling- when in reality, he had only ever smiled once, with the girl in white.

'Past Seven' approaches the current him and asks, "You've been looking for me, haven't you?" Which, more literally, would mean Seven's been searching for these memories, and the remnant of who this person was in himself today. The first time we see this Seven's face, he is smiling. This massive, terrifying grin.

fucking christ bro put that away

Seven tells himself that he cannot escape this- he will never escape the Shadow Killers, and he tells himself that he has to let this part of him 'take over.' To be clear, this is not to paint Seven as having a split personality, but more to represent that he is at war with himself. When Seven smiles and slashes Redtooth, that is not a different person, but Seven, what he thinks is, regressing to that person that he used to be.

But notably, I think, this is not the Seven that he used to be. This is, by no means, who he was in the past. Seven, in the past, never smiled, nor had shown any emotion indicating that he took pleasure in these things. The only times Seven is painted this way is from other characters who are inherently unreliable narrators, because they themselves do not know the full story of who Seven was. Season 3, with the help of 'Two Heroes' from Season 2, paints past Seven as somebody who was going through to motions: he did what he needed to do, and that was it. And sometimes, through this, he is compassionate or merciful- though only in a way that is obvious when you have the bigger picture. Beyond this, the 'past Seven' we see here says something that directly conflicts with what he had truly believed: "You cannot escape your past."

Younger Seven does not speak enough to actively say he does not agree with this, but I think he did believe he could because of what happened with the Girl in White. Seven here, in his scattered memories, sees her entirely as a catalyst for him to put his emotions aside. Seven in the past directly betrayed the organization and fought every killer in Xuanwu for her. If Seven believed that he could never escape his fate, that he would never be able to run far enough from the organization, I don't think he ever would have risked everything for the Girl in White. If he never believed that, if his emotions had never won, he never would have walked into what he KNEW was a trap to save her- he never would have done anything and everything for her, because he would have believed it would've been pointless in the end.

This 'past self' that Seven forces himself to embrace, the one that smiles when he draws his sword against an enemy that logically, he should've known was nigh impossible to beat, was never Seven. This was the ideal of who he was, and he himself can hardly even try and stick to this: Not even moments later, he stares down at his sword once again and thinks in silence, questioning who he is.

This past Seven, the ideal of who he was, once again tells him that his emotions will weaken him, but even if that's what Seven had been taught all his life, somehow, through the Girl in White, this belief had began to unravel. And beyond that, objectively, he is wrong about this- this ideal Seven tries to force himself to embody does not stand a chance against Redtooth, and his forced apathy gets him nowhere. Redtooth- who did not even recognize this Seven who smiled at him, but when he stood the same way he did before- directly says Seven's sword must be weaker than he thought.

Green Phoenix says "He's out of practice- that isn't how you use the blade." And, originally, I took this line to sound a bit snooty, because technically, this looks no different than how Seven has used the sword in the past, and fuck if Green Phoenix knows how to use the thing, but I think this line is a lot better when you read it as "That isn't how Seven used the blade." I don't know if that's really how it was meant to be translated, or if I'm looking to deep into it, but it's a nice touch.

Seven does not stand a chance in defeating Redtooth until he forgets what he's told himself, and reaffirms to himself once again: he is not that person he (thought he) once was.

Seven, evidently, still loses here: he nearly pushes Redtooth to his very limit, but this is the closest he gets to defeating him, this is where Seven is his strongest, when he uses his emotions to reaffirm who he is today.

I think Seven is still very much stuck exploring who he once was: and he may not ever truly know that he's never actually been this cold, unfeeling villain, but this episode goes so far to show how Seven learns that he will always choose the island, his friends and his emotions above all else, and the small ways it shows us this isn't even who Seven really was, and it's so so fucking cool and I absolutely adore it.

if i watch season 4 and it actually just smacks me in the face and contradicts everything i say here i'm going to blow up a building also i still haven't watched it so let's pray i dont get notes that spoil it

#scissor seven #killer seven #meihua shisan #wu liuqi #seven #plum blossom thirteen #redtooth #uhhh tags #is it blue phoenix or green phoenix #fuck it the phoenix is a phoenix #thirteen #spoilers #im running out of tags again #analysis #i guess? analysis works? yea? maybe?#i have autism #lol #ok goodnight guys this totally wasnt an excuse to rewatch some episodes

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aristotels · 4 months

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https://aristotels.tumblr.com/post/739069720012161024/when-you-talk-about-the-protag-in-stardew-valley

Hi, same anon. I was trying to give further evidence of your point (i.e. that SDV lets you literally become a landlord), not sure if that came through, but never mind that. I'd like to ask about 2). You said:

you and feral hobo running a commune and splitting income STILL isnt communism, its just cojoined small business practice. communism requires socialist state to first exist, and it covers a broad political and economical system.

Okay, yeah. But "no it can't exist because the government isn't socialist" feels a bit boring. What if we tried to meet the game where it's at? Which is "Feelgood escapism where your grandfather leaves you a farm in your will and escape your crushing job at Corporate USAmerica and live on that farm in a little town full of simple hard work and community, a town that is almost, but not quite, outside of the grasping hands of the surrounding system".

We've established that SDV's depiction of this fantasy is not meaningfully anti-capitalist in any way, but is there a way to interpret that concept in a way that is meaningfully anti-capitalist without removing the core of this initial contrast/struggle?

Especially when realism isn't strictly speaking a constraint. If the game can get away with "You can become a millionaire overnight by selling turnips", I don't think "the town somehow exists with a totally different political organisation than the country it's in" is that egregious, because it's in keeping with the way the game's setting is kinda in a bubble.

Even if the answer is "no, of course not", or "sure, but only if we do something like how the farm is in a completely different country and the struggle against Jojo Corp is now the struggle against imperialism", I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. I'm not particularly attached to SDV, my enjoyment of it has never hinged on it being somehow "progressive". It's just the kind of conceptual game design challenge that tickles me.

How would you redesign SDV to be meaningfully anti-capitalist while trying to keep its core concept recognizable? Can it be done at all, even slightly? etc etc.

well i mean, the thing is that a little town cant exactly exist in its own political bubble, since socialism requires a large-scale operation.

well, while typing this i just remembered a pretty wholesome story on a small scale - and ive mentioned it before, vlak u snijegu by mato lovrak, and its such a pity it wasnt translated. it shows socialist ideals on a small scale, in a group of kids. ill try to make a summary post when i have time.

idk, personally i dont see a way to make an escapist cozy game anti-capitalist. and tbh, i dont even think its necessary for it to be, as long as it isnt marketed that way! socialism involves collectivism and work (well it is centered around workers isnt it) and i mean... that isnt exactly what we think of when we say "escapism fantasy". in those secret little fantasies we want to be privileged and not deal with injustice or corruption or whatever.

the closest to a socialist fantasy i can get is maljčiki by idoli (the song is a banger btw).

i mean, i dont know if that makes for like, an actually interesting cozy game. tbh when i am looking for guilty-escapism, i read p reactionary stuff; theyre just fantasies, after all. its nice to imagine myself as a noble lady from 18th century getting courted by 5 different rich men or whatever. i just think its important to realize the difference between fantasy and reality.

i mean, theres a reason were talking abt sdv here and not harvest moon. harvest moon was never marketed as anti-capitalist, its just a silly game of owning a farm and then like the goddess makes a girl fall in love with you blabla. nobodys exactly going around and saying how anticapitalistic it is.

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beesmygod · 1 year

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I'm glad you watched another playthrough of the devil in me bc sgfs run made it look so bad I wondered if he had missed some absolutely crucial game choice but no I guess it really is just like that

the shit makes no sense. im going to "spoil" it rn but like. you can't spoil this game. theres no twist theres just a fucked up guy who walks at you. the killer was killerman. you win prize money.

like lets do a quick list of what was good ("good") and what wasnt. most of these are just going to be moments or isolated plot elements

THE BAD:

it wasnt as accidentally funny as their previous games. accidentally funny i mean.

it had the audacity to end with someone picking up the h.h. holmes mask (not a thing that exists btw. no one is making these except like custom on etsy. its so fucking suspicious) like "oooh hes going to do it agaiiiin!" but he got chopped up by a boat propeller. no he isnt

the areas and parts where certain players were "supposed" to die were REALLY telegraphed and detrimental to the pacing of an already artificially bloated plot

why was there a dog that hated the murderer living on the island waiting to bite the shit out of him. whose dog was that. why was there dog. cheap emotional fodder tossed in at the end.

the opening kill is legitimately unpleasant to watch. they forgot that the kills are supposed to be gruesome and not stomach churningly sadistic or remind me of holocaust movies

the characters are genuinely awful and boring people who hate each other. not a single lifeline to be had. even the dog shows up too late for you to establish any kind of friendship

the reason why no one has cell phones is because a guy who is tricking them into taking his place as the murder victims just takes them as part of the "experience". they're a fucking film crew lol. theres no way

i legit thought it was going to end up being a team of people bc he was somehow everywhere at once doing the slow jason walk

instead it's one man, an ex-FBI agent who was abused by his mom and gets talked into doing serial murder by the single lamest serial killer monologue ive ever heard in my life. its just a guy who decided to try something different one day. and then i guess he built a murder hotel after faking his death so he could do more murder. this sucks. i dont care about this.

the plot elements are completely random. the animatronics made out of PEOPLE (they apparently did not get the news that they were beat to this idea by a solid near decade) have nothing to do with anything at all. not h.h. holmes, not murder hotel. they're just there for no reason. they barely even get used.

and they had the audacity to show him MAKING animatronics OF THE 5 FILM CREW MEMBERS after they arrived on the island. this game takes place over the course of one day. he did not do this. there is no way. this game stretches the player's suspension of disbelief too far.

the writing on the mom and the serial killer is pathetic lol. its rough to see evil attempted by people who can only conceptualize it in terms of physical violence

oh great another taxidermy guy. thanks

it was just some guy

THE "GOOD"

the ending is so bad that its ballsy. it cuts to a news reporter talking about how they are still finding bodies in the hotel where 5 person groups were tricked into staying so that they could be murdered. the ppl watching the report are interrupted by their friend who tells them her viral video won a contest (dog its 2022 lol) and the prize is that 5 of them get to stay in a mysterious hotel owned by a man with the same name as the guy they were just talking about.

then it zooms into the email the girl got telling her that she won and that one image of h.h. holmes is just in the window

did he make the little graphic announcing she has won? did he deliberately include himself? did he not notice somehow that he was in the picture. did he set up a timer and run up to the top floor so he could be very spooky and mysterious

HOW could he POSSIBLY afford another murder house. the invoice for the first one on the private island is IN THE GAME and its an eye popping amount. he does NOT have another house like where is he getting the money? or getting it zoned? or tricking ANOTHER construction team into building death traps that are suspiciously like the ones on the news

theres a part where a woman is stuck in a closet having an anxiety/asthma attack and the scary murder man gives her her inhaler. for some reason. this is never explained

why did he have ultra specific recordings of his mom commenting on what time he arrives and what page of his baby book he looks at. or what time it is.

theres phonographs and creepy music playing everywhere and no one turns them off like "what the fuck!!!" they're just like ooooh no im being menaced SSOOOO much

why was one of the crew members friends with someone who was strangled by "the campus strangler". as far as i can tell this adds nothing to the story, it just freaks her. as the player i dont care bc the the killerman just finds this out somehow and finds a copy of the paper where they used a photo taken of her, her friend and the strangler. guess which one is the strangler:

how could they identify his fake dead body from "dental records". they explicit say this. did he fucking glue a set of teeth into the guys mouth. is he toothless throughout the whole game. is he wearing fake teeth. im laughing just typing this up. what the fuck

he pulled an hh holmes on the construction crew after they built a hh holmes themed murder hotel for him.

the murder counter. why does it exist. how does it know to update.

im now thinking about how funny it is that he put in a 4th digit. get real dude! no WAY

the director being baited into an obvious trap with cigarettes like he was being hunted by wiley e. coyote was insane. my dude you are being murdered. you know you are at this point. why did you go into the room with only one entrance!!

this:

it was just some guy

#long post

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brainrotdotorg · 1 year

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what's your favourite silly moment for each of the skills?

for volition its def in the 'you're compromised' scene where he 'doesn't add flair' but also has/uses the most nicknames for the other skills

reaction speed has this little comment in the same scene where if your logic is low enough they go 'oh? was someone supposed to say something? well it's just me, swooshing around in here! swoosh :D'

encyclopedia takes the fucking cake with the trivia quiz tho. love his dumbass so much

oh man tall task for me to try and compile EVERY skills personal fave moment but i love them so much i am willing to try. under the cut

logic: god this dude is literally so dry he was the hardest to find good quotes for. i still love him though. the boring stiff. " If you drink this, then you will die. That's a fact. And that's why we're going to save you from yourself and store this as a SELLABLE item. Go sell it at the pawnshop for a profit." after you buy the pure alcohol is pretty funny.

encyclopedia: the innocence quiz. the entire thing. also contact mike.

rhetoric: what could possibly top "say one of these fascist or communist things or fuck off"

drama: lie, sire! for no reason! also any time he really leans into the old-timey speak its so good to me. AND during the payphone prank calls he can suggest that you stir up shit for no reason. love him

conceptualization: lots of truly beautiful lines from our fella concept here but i do also love. when they get silly with it. " It can still be an otherwordly sex-mystery *in your head*. With a dark twist, even." and "Imbecilic. Yes, should the future ever come, it will look deeply imbecilic. Like this guy." and "O WALLFATHER!"

visual calculus: "I'm just a representation of your mental faculties... piecing together any available information." love when they just outright say it lmao. also "Consuming food is mechanical process for him. He doesn't enjoy it, just goes through the motions and moves on." kind of a sad detail about rene that i didnt know about thank you VC

volition: "I don't do flair."

inland empire: "No-no, don't sing the happy song, it's stupid. Sing the sad song, it's profound."

empathy: paging doctor love... " Life doesn't have a *BACK* button. Now get off your ass and speak the truth about Sylvie the Whore." "He's enjoying your little failure. He finds it amusing, he's revelling in the sweaty rage on your face."

EDC: the time he brings up literally right after kim says "officers dont fucking dump old police shit in the river" officers dumping police shit in the river

authority: "The lieutenant is a narcomaniac!" also "Mewling wimp! Pathetic..." and "Show him the ham still got it!"

suggestion: at one point he gets exasperated of harry trying the expression over and over. also "Logic and reason won't work on this old bat. Better go for shameless emotional manipulation. What's a grandmother's deepest vulnerability?"

endurance: a wink shaped growl sounds from your ass. what the fuck is going on in your large intestine harry. ALSO HOLY SHIT I DIDNT KNOW THE TUTORIAL AGENT HAS A UNIQUE LINE IN THE FASCISM THOUGHT CONVERSATION?? forget about föminism im losing my mind.

pain threshold: "Sounds like you were in some real *fundamental* pain there, muscle-man." MUSCLE-MAN!!!! on a sadder note: "Her beauty was like the glowing coil on a hot stove, and yet you felt *blessed* to touch it..." GIRL....... dont do this to me.....

physical instrument: eyes on the ball, dinky winky! also if your logic isnt high enough then HE will be the one to say "Son, you will NOT kill yourself with this. Not today. So we're going to store this as a SELLABLE item. Go sell it at the pawnshop for a profit." about the pure alcohol

electro-chemistry: HE CALLS PI A "sinewy idiot" ohhh my god. delightful. also every time he goes "yum" like when thinking about cigarettes

shivers: MR EVRART IS HELPING HIM FIND HIS GUN. Also the classic "got a brother in the cut, where the wood at?"

half light: oh my god she has so many killer lines. "They ain't got the cojones." she also has lots of nicknames for people. "cum-stain", "fucking ballerina", "they're all dorks." also "Utter the POWER WORDS!" and "Even when you're trying to scare someone, the most important thing is: how does it look on your resume?" AND "*YAWWWWN!* Can you imagine anything duller than a bunch of binoclards yanking each others' knobs?" half light i love you

hand/eye: "My favourite [thing] is the gun." LMAO

perception: she gets upset at one point when rhetoric claims you can smell communism and shes like. um. no. thats not possible. you cant smell communism. i cant find it but it actually happens a few times i think

reaction speed: I NEVER HEARD THE SWOOSH ONE. oh my god that fucking rules. swoosh. my next favorite is when youre talking to sylvie and she turn you down really fast reaction speed is like wow shes fast, what else is she good at? Baseball? Ring-a-bell Quiz Shows? Catching keys in the air? Petting an angry cat? okay queen

savoir faire: slaps one of this dude's arms. this guy can fit sooooo much hustle grindset in him. "You can't hang 'vapour-porn' in the foyer of your chalet." AND HE KEEPS CALLING HIMSELF SAVVY!!!!!!!!! "Hey, money-mouth. Eendracht. The impeccable hustler-provider of the seventh generation. It's showtime with Savvy!" "But Savvy's got your back. Savvy's going to book you a charter flight with eighty birds of prey on board, to a land where the streets are paved with krugerrands and fixed-income securities."

interfacing: i do love his "Told you that you *needed* those chaincutters. Everything is connected. Everything has a purpose." thats less silly and more hopeful in a way i really really like. he's got many delightful lines, and i think is the one that is most clued into the video game-y aspects (dialogue trees, etc) probably the saddest instance of this we see is with the dolores dei dream. "Don't let her. Don't let her go there. You should re-do the topics. Go over *everything*, the things you didn't say before too. Make it go on and on..." wailing. screaming and crying. on a brighter note! when you lose your pen he goes "Nooooo! That was my favourite thing, of all the things you have."

composure: calling reaction speed a "shifty asshole" is pretty fucking funny ngl.

#disco elysium

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imustbenuts · 9 months

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Sombron's Cobra Dragon Form is a call-out to Buddhist Nagas. Or: wait, are Divine and Fell Dragons really that different?

Hello! I'm back with more info dump on the Buddhism going on in Fire Emblem, whee!!

Did you know that Naga isn't just a name given to the well-known Divine Dragon goddess of FE? Did you know that cobras are the original Naga in Buddhism? There's a funny relationship here.

The word, Naga, is originally a sanskrit word for a snake deity. This class of deities are depicted to be wise serpents, and there is a specific one known as Mucalinda who sheltered Buddha from rain and storm as he meditated to attain enlightenment. Which then leads into these depictions:

Nagas can be depicted as multiheaded or single headed, rarer partial or fully humans. Notably in South and Southeast Asian depictions, they are often cobras. Note the flaps on those necks. 100% a cobra.

But as you all might be aware, the Naga we know in Fire Emblem is a western dragon. Her daughter, Tiki, also is a western dragon.

Bonus: Engage Tiki is slightly different in being feathery. This form reminds me more of a jatayu/garuda but im not going down into that rabbit hole it's a WHOLE OTHER SHIT i dont want to explain rn @_@

Lumera of course, also fits into the class of Divine Dragon with a form like this:

Not at all serpent like. Meanwhile, Sombron is a truer depiction for the Buddhist depiction of a Naga with his less eagle-y and more... cobra head. Incidentally, Grima also qualifies as a closer depiction due having no limbs (wings aside iykyk). Left: Sombron. Right: Grima.

So what does that all mean? Well, two schools of thoughts from me.

At the time of development, the original Fire Emblems were always meant for a western lens. Fell Dragons at the time did not exist conceptually, and so the idea of a divine god dragon was decided to have a western look, in order to match the setting of the games.

Currently, this might be playing with the ideas of Dragons and 'true gods'. Fell Dragons are actually a more accurate depiction of the Buddhist Nagas, and Divine Dragons aren't. Based on this, nerds like me can go 'DIVINE DRAGON CONSPIRACY! WE WORSHIP THE FALSE GODS!' while being kinda correct about it as the devs giggle at my loser ass.

For the lore nerds who might have heard of this... The First Dragons. (Link the First Dragons gallery on fireemblem.fandom.com), and the FE multi-worlds. It could be entirely possible dragons are originally some space faring beings who decided to settle down on various FE worlds, having multiple different species with wildly different looks. As time went on, certain species died out while some survived, and took up the mantle of guiding humanity or just chilling and being worshiped.

Methinks Divine Dragons and Fell Dragons are just names given to them by mortals to differentiate either by appearance or factions. Engage has basically shown us that Fell Dragons aren't inherently evil, and there has been cases of Dragons who aren't perfect either.

As a side, because Buddhism falls under the Dharmic family of religion, Nagas are also depicted in Hinduism. Again, they are cobras who can be partial or fully snake and/or human, and are here assigned the domain of the underworld. Sombron's grand upheaval of Gradlon is a major call-out to this root, as his domain can be argued to be underground for the majority of the game. (Or underwater.)

Buddhism is so widespread that it has morphed and mixed with a lot of other culture and religions, and notably it has mixed with China's. Under the Mandate of Heaven, it is said that when an emperor witnesses a Dragon, it is a sign that the heavens have given them an approval and they would turn out to be excellent rulers. Asian dragons are also serpent-like, and this idea has also appeared in Southeast Asia and more importantly spread to this one country: Japan.

At the end of the day, I don't think Engage is keen in asking 'who is the real divine dragon?' but just messing around with those who know. And now you do.

Have fun with this weird knowledge!

#fire emblem #fire emblem engage #sombron #lumera #divine dragons #analysis #meta

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straightfromthetorturedpoetsdept · 9 months

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i am starting to gather my thought about barbie (2023) and I have A LOT of thoughts about Barbieland in particular. spoilers below

first of all, before the movie came out greta gave an interview where she said that the film has a reverse genesis where woman was created first and man came after.

after seeing the film, I'd say Barbieland was created from the male perspective quite literally. There is a scene with the mattel ceo where he kind of boasts about how barbie cured sexism, basically. this is the lie upon which Barbieland is created but here is the thing... because Barbieland is controlled by an all-male perspective from the "real world" by men who have over 40 decades of sexist brainwashing in their heads, they cannot actually conceptualize a world where men and women are truly equal.

that is why Barbieland is set up the way that it is because men in the real world are the ones who are controlling the narrative from start to finish and they cannot imagine a world where both genders exist in harmony. they come into feminism thinking that men have to be disadvantaged in some way because that's what it means to be a "good" ally to women. however, this line of thinking literally breeds resentment in men and I am not fucking surprised someone like Ryan Gosling resonated so deeply with Ken's character arc because I'm sure he felt quite seen by the film as well.

Barbieland is set up from Ken's perspective from the beginning because Barbieland is controlled by Mattel and the board of that company is male, like the board of most companies in america are male. and Barbieland represents what MEN* think feminism is and has done for women, not what women think for themselves.

that much is obvious because even the way the characters are set up in the beginning are very shallow representations. All the Barbies have jobs but they are *defined* by their jobs because to men, once you're a woman scientist, that's all you are to them. They don't have thoughts, feelings, ideas, and opinions beyond "everything is great all the time!" because to men, Barbie is the solution.

OKAY, im getting excited now, when Barbie talks to Ken at the end of the film and she says "stop putting your value in your job, your car, your girlfriend" she is critiquing the very existence of Barbieland itself in that moment. because that is what Barbieland's value is. Barbieland is perfect because to men, all that matters is having the dream job, the dream house, the dream partner and the dream looks. they think that's all there is to being human!!!!!!!!!!

and so when Barbie is played with by a woman who has decades of experience under patriachy, she can finally wake up in her "utopia" and realize that hey, wait a minute! this is not what I think will bring me happiness. I don't care about having these materialistic things nor do I care about being an "alpha female" so why am I pretending like all this shallow shit is making me happy????

and that is why Barbieland changes to Kendom to begin with because the narrative was ALWAYS controlled by the Kens of the world and the movie basically starts there, with the assumption thst girlboss feminism and pink capitalism cured sexism and explores if that actually is "utopia" if it actually is a "dream life."

im going to end it here because i dont want to get too off topic but Barbieland is such a fantastic critique of patriarchy, it's actually insane. I love that Greta tackles it from the male gaze and works within the logic of men in this society to show why their beliefs of gender are severely lacking at the end of the day because they're focused on the wrong issue!!! its not about who has the power to get the job, get the house, get the girl, its about connecting with other people. its about experiencing every single emotion under the sun with everyone around you and talking about your feelings and just living with other humans in harmony.

it's so good, i could cry actually. greta deserves every single fucking award for this film and the writing holy shit.

#if you think this film is an intro to feminism 101 fim im sorry but you're not thinking about it hard enough #and i can tell you dont really focus on men in your gender equality fight because oh my god what are you SAYING right now #barbie was a scathing critique of patriarchy but i fear you cannot see past the pastel pink font the message was written in #barbie (2023)#barbie spoilers #personal

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