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pocketdaan · 11 months

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Termina Analysis + Theory: Sun VS Moon

"Monologue With The Moon", "Under The Sulfur Sun", "Gods That Dance In The Night" - words that greet you as days pass in Fear & Hunger Termina.

On the third and last, the O and D clash into each other like two entities engaging each other in a battle.

I think that's exactly what's happening.

In F&H2, there's been several hints of the Sulfur God and Rher having a disagreement. It goes deeper than Festival hijacking. They are the main gods that dance in the Termina night - not out of affection, but of feud.

Sulfur / Sun God:

God of "Hatred" and "Absence of good"

Tied to subconscious desires to do harm.

"Ascends" humans as a way for them to achieve strength untethered to morality.

Wants humans to abandon the "good" parts of their personality, to strip away their humanity.

Focused on exposing hidden truths (or subconscious desires) to cast away their limitations.

Rher / Moon God:

God of "Trickery" and "Dreams"

Tied to subconscious desires in general.

"Moonscorches" humans as a way for them to see the darker aspects of themselves that they refuse to accept.

Wants humans to stay mortals, to fully be humbled by their humanity.

Focused on exposing hidden truths (or subconscious desires) to fully understand oneself's limitations.

It is not a stretch to say the two Gods could be at odds. Their views on humanity's future are almost the antithesis of each other.

This could even be hinted at through the hand-drawn letters:

The letters in Gods alternate between a letter from the Moon phrase and the Sun phrase. It could've had G from Monologue and D from Under, yet it was chosen to alternate.

Additionally, snakes in the F&H universe are symbols of deceivers, and both first letters from Moon and Sun have a snake. You can even see the difference between the O in Moon compared to the O in Gods - the Moon phrase has its hand-drawn letters faded out, except for the one with a snake.

Alone, these are inconsequential. Combined, and with context of the lore, these could be deliberate choices. They can foreshadow the feud between Rher and Sulfur, as well as how Sulfur deceives the contestants to believe that the Prehevil Terminas were for Rher's sake (as opposed to him being gone).

So, why didn't Rher stop the Sulfur Cultists from hijacking the Termina Festivals? Was he truly absent enough to not take notice until too late?

It's possibly because of the chains behind Per'kele.

Whether the chains are from the Termina Festivals rule of 'no interference', or if they come from Sulfur actively preventing Rher from coming in, it isn't made clear. What we know is that he came down to see what the fuss was about only after the chains were broken.

We see his traces move toward the player, initiate a 'battle', then simply fly away when disinterested. The disinterest makes sense if Rher was mostly gone from the world. However, coming down the instant the chains were broken seems to imply he had wanted to interfere despite his hiatus and simply couldn't beforehand. Him being able to observe hijacked Terminas can make sense of one of his titles: The Ever-Watching God.

And that would all support the possibility of a feud between Sulfur and Rher, as a hijacked Termina can be notable enough for The Moon God to momentarily break his hiatus.

We aren't told when Per'kele started worshipping Rher, however we know he's been using Rher's powers to recruit Termina victors. In fact, his wording implies he was also a mortal recruited through winning a Termina.

According to him, Termina Festivals are as natural as the forces of nature. To have it be usurped by a Rher follower gone rogue sounds like a betrayal of the highest decree. And to have that rogue follower twist Rher's gifts for the Ascended God whose goals specifically clash with Rher's own goals...

That, I think, is why Rher came to check.

He wasn't there to battle the player. It may not even be a battle from his perspective. Just as God of Fear and Hunger couldn't help but damage the player once she merged with God of the Depths, the 'attacks' from Rher could be an effect of being in close proximity to an Old God.

Rher could've wanted to do a quick pop in and out. That's why the text specifically states his disinterest, as opposed to Gro-goroth humoring the player for resisting and Sylvian simply letting you go.

---

For a plot that seemingly has the Moon God as a central antagonist, Rher turned out not much related to these Terminas.

A comment from the Monologue With The Moon OST points out,

At first i thought the name of this track was a mistranslation, as one cannot have a "Monologue" (A speech by one individual) "with" something (as that implies more than one participant). However, with the reveal that Rher is actually not there, it makes perfect sense.

And I think that's a good observation that extends to the full quote:

"Monologue with the moon under the sulfur sun."

"Talking to the illusion of Rher's presence under the Sulfur Cult's deception."

#fear & hunger #fear and hunger #f&h #rher #sulfur god #sun god #per'kele #f&ht #Termina Festival #my analyses #my theories #Termina Theory: Sun VS Moon #part of this is analysis but the meat of it is theory

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eemoo1o-tfrmoo · 9 months

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Snotlout Jorgenson and the art of defiance*, defamation, and daddy issues

* I will be including his demeanour as a doormat alongside this. I will not be discussing his dissipation in this post as well.

Today, I will be studying Snotlout in (RTTE) and his issues with rule abiding and control management and how his relationship with his father affects this.

The episodes in particular I will be deriving my sources from are:

Reign of Fireworms (1x07)

Team Astrid (2x01)

And, Darkest Night (6x10)

Additionally, an episode I will also be looking at, though only briefly, includes:

Big Man on Berk (1x05)

Firstly, we look at Reign of Fireworms for his acts of defiance towards leadership, with his vast background of defying Hiccup in reference.

(Wow, Tumblr really ate the quality on my already crunchy gif.)

Admittedly, this is a shy example in comparison to anything else I could have picked. Snotlout is known for defying orders and challenging leadership (with Hiccup and later Astrid respectively). However, what makes this episode so different is how Snotlout is so indecisive over the twins’ leadership. Allow me to put a pin in that for later.

Unlike other instances of rejecting leadership, Snotlout reacts similarly to the other riders over the twins’ new roles as Island Rulers, but the main difference between Snotlout and the others is that Snotlout seems to hold no filter over the matter, which is shown with how he is the first to protest, insult, attempt to rebel, and even propose to off the twins.

However, unlike the rest of the riders, Snotlout’s perspective on the twins’ leadership is quick to change when —

The twins give him a job that he likes: “sergeant at arms”.

This job is significant, and as such a role of power. This is seen throughout the episode where Snotlout is the one to throw all of the other riders (save from the twins, but eventually including himself) in jail.

Snotlout is the only one of the riders (with perhaps the exception being Fishlegs, but we don’t see much of that) to take his job, and the twins’ ridiculous rules, the most seriously.

However, once he throws himself in prison — claiming that “he was framed” — he is quick to side with the other riders’ rebellion again.

The main rule that Snotlout is seen sticking to most is the “no S” rule. At first, he seems adverse, with the twins calling for his as “Notlout”, and him completely missing the point, asking who that is and shrugging.

However, once fully embracing his role as “egeant at arm”, Snotlout is heard attempting to remove any S’s from his speech as often as he can. Until he throws himself in jail.

The “throwing himself in jail” aspect of the episode is only used to get the riders all together again, and as a gag, but if we look at it more earnestly it’s sort of telling of how seriously Snotlout took the role and how he was playing into the role so much that he became a different person from his regular self.

Such evidence could be seen in how he claims “I was framed!” instead of “I wa framed!”.

I’m not implying that I think Snotlout has DID, but I am implying that I think his father (and other adults of Berk) — and the first movie — has something to do with this.

As far as I recall, in the first movie, Snotlout was the leader of the teens, and bully of Hiccup. I think it’s also implied that he’s the teen (or all of the teens are, excluding Hiccup) who’s well revered as being what a Viking should be for being strong and hard-headed, but now those are the characteristics that many on Berk frown upon him for. (The civilians even cheered for his death in the Defenders of Berk finale — another gag at Snotlout’s expense.)

I believe it’s also said or at least implied in the first film that Hiccup wants to be like the other kids, specifically Snotlout, and that Snotlout and Astrid were a thing, though the latter seems more expendable for my point to be made.

Now, Thawfest seems to be the only place where Snotlout can prevail over Hiccup (resented family name aside), and as such live up to his father’s expectations to some degree. We even see this inferred with how Snotlout is panicking in the final race over how “he can’t lose”.

We move onto the Defamation element of my analysis, with the few points I’d just made, and as such we skip to the episode Darkest Night.

In this episode, each of the riders (with the exception of Astrid and Hiccup) pitch each of their ideal realities if they’d never gone to Dragon’s Edge.

In Snotlout’s reality (after intruding on the ending of Fishlegs’) is one where he is promoted from Berk’s official weapon tester to their official weapon inventor.

Comparatively, this would be like a drug tester suddenly becoming a pharmacist, or a stunt man inexplicably becoming a choreographer.

The original job (weapon tester) in and of itself is telling of how Berk now views Snotlout. And while no one really mentions how dangerous or implicative the job actually is, we can see for ourselves the danger the job includes in both the twins’ reality and Race to the Edge’s first episode (as the twins’ reality starts off with a clip from the first episode where they place a wheelbarrow of sharp objects next to Snotlout’s pile of pillows whilst he’s testing out a catapult).

I don’t think this job would have been distributed to anyone smart enough to decline it, or at least well-liked enough to dissuade the distributor of said job to offer it to that person. As such, the job is very implicative in how Berk views Snotlout, whether he’s aware of it or not.

Now, in the episode, with the promotion Snotlout gives himself, he emerges from an explosion which is reminiscent of how the first film introduces the rest of the teens, only this time Snotlout is alone.

Unlike the others’ unrealistic realities, Snotlout’s is more like a fantasy than anything.

Not only does this fantasy feed into Snotlout’s egotistical point of view (as this is entirely centric on him, and other characters that are shown in this fantasy don’t pass the Snotlout-based Bechdel test), but we are also reminded of the time when Snotlout was well-liked: the first film, before Berk befriended dragons (though the dragons are still their friends in Snotlout’s fantasy, because as defamed as Snotlout’s image now is in contrast, I don’t think he’d give up Hookfang for the world — inexplicable explosion in the beginning of his fantasy aside), and even in Astrid’s alternate timeline where Berk hadn’t befriended dragons, and Snotlout is also well-liked by Stoick and others.

Firstly, Snotlout states that he invents this superweapon, though what is depicted is an unimaginatively unusable combination of all pre-existing weapons, though in the fantasy everyone adores the ‘invention’. I have the sense that while this isn’t stated to compete with Hiccup’s fire-sword, it is an attempt, because in the real world Hiccup inadvertently overshadows Snotlout in every possible aspect. Even Thawfest, however fleetingly.

In Snotlout’s fantasy, Gobber — who is very infamous for not taking Snotlout seriously or viewing him with any high regards — is the first to interact with Snotlout the Inventor by being completely enamoured with his invention, and praising him profusely on it.

When Hookfang appears in the fantasy just after, his tongue is hanging just marginally out of his mouth and his pupils are large and rotund, and he flies off whilst allowing Snotlout to remain standing on him.

The pupils of a dragon are shown time and time again to be easy tells of their mood. Narrow for hostile or under the influence of mind control (via Death Songs, Bewilderbeasts, Red/Blue/Green Deaths, so on), and wide/large for comfortable, adoring or even playful, as well as under the influence of dragon nip.

However, what makes Hookfang’s expression here most odd — as fantastical as it is — isn’t the very adoring way it’s depicted, but rather the shape of his pupils. We’ve seen Hookfang’s pupils dilated before, but they aren’t ever as round as they are here.

The dragon with the roundest and largest pupils that we know of is actually Toothless (the Night Fury, and as such the Light Fury). While Toothless’ pupils go a bit squarer as the movie series goes on, in the way they are depicted in Race to the Edge they are round, and as such so are Hookfang’s here.

This is obviously another way of showing that Snotlout wants what Hiccup has. In a way, he wants Hookfang to see him like Toothless sees Hiccup.

(A note worth adding us that in Snotlout’s fantasy, there’s even a metal statue of himself on Hookfang which he kisses the cheek of. This feeds into the egotistical side of things, but also serves as a callback to the Riders of Berk episode When Lightning Strikes.)

There’s also this golden, smoky hue over Snotlout’s fantasy which is lacking in the others’ concepts for an alternate reality, which perhaps could symbolise how this is an ideal, self-serving idea, and that these would have been golden memories for Snotlout, if they were to exist.

Next, we see Astrid fawning over Snotlout and then, the moment he is to land, his father scoops him up and says “You make me proud to be a Jorgenson, boyo!”, which is a recurring theme in Race to the Edge with how Snotlout expresses a true desire to hear this.

Which brings us, briefly, back to season one, with the episode Big Man On Berk.

In short, as stated in @jesse-the-writer’s post here, Snotlout seeks validation from men he deems strong, such as Thor and Dagur, due to his faulty relationship with his father.

He idolises them (Dagur more so in and before Riders and Defenders of Berk than after), in a manner similar to how he idolises his father, and in doing so he ignores how they write him off (Thor and Dagur), or forget his name countless times after being corrected (Dagur), or even insult his dragon (Thor) by laughing it off awkwardly and sometimes agreeing.

And all of the above is reminiscent of how Spitelout treats him (mostly in Riders and Defenders of Berk, but in a few instances of Race to the Edge also).

Psychoanalytically, the way parents treat their child pays a big role in how they view and act in relationships. This source focuses on romantic relationships, however some key elements can be attributed to platonic relationships, also.

“For instance, if your parents were not very affectionate and hardly ever hugged or kissed you, you may have an aversion to affection as an adult.”

I recall in the Defenders of Berk episode Scauldy, that when Astrid finally returns Snotlout’s affections/serial flirting (albeit in an insincere but well-acted way), Snotlout is immediately deterred and as such disgusted by her advances.

This is seen again with Ruffnut in the second and third film, and how he is quick to move on from and disregard her when she finally shows interest (albeit in both him and Fishlegs).

This shows that Snotlout actively pursues relationships (assumably romantic) where he is led to believe that his affections will not be returned or where they outright are not. Seeing as Spitelout, too, is not very affectionate, this could be a direct cause to Snotlout’s inability to find mutual affection very favourable or at the very least pleasant.

(A note worth mentioning is that in the season six episode Mi Amore Wing, Snotlout is the most visibly disgusted by the extreme affection shared between Mala and Dagur.)

Now, the most important question: is Snotlout aware of his father’s bad parenting? For that we go to the episode Team Astrid.

(The true villain of How To Train Your Dragon was Hiccup all along.)

Well, of course he is.

I think there’s something to be said for the change in Snotlout’s design. I won’t go too much into the theory here, but when Snotlout was younger he looked more like his father which shows that back then he was probably more blindsided to his father’s bad parenting ethics.

However, now that he is older he looks less like his father (squarer jaw, lighter skin, less freckles, shifted teeth), albeit still related in some way, which could be seen as a metaphor for how Snotlout is still looking up to his father, but is more aware than what he once was about what is so inherently wrong in their relationship (if not directly).

(This theory of mine also includes the idea as to why Spitelout has Deadly Nadder over a Monsteous Nightmare, which is briefly explained in the tags of this post here.)

As such, Snotlout clearly wants revenge that “the world owes him” (a line which could also double as him being owed for passing this opportunity up to actually listen to one of Hiccup’s orders, a trait which he gets better at in most instances as Race to the Edge goes on).

The way that Snotlout also puts emphasis on “I” and “him” here also implies that this is what Spitelout’s influence and presence over him is: a means to correct and shape him in a way that puts him down and never allows him to meet expectations, at least not fully. As such, this affects his ego and desire to be known, seen, as well as his view on relationships that hold a mutually professed affection whilst he still craves and shows a longing for his father’s approval and praise which deters him from anyone else’s (causing him to seek out relationships that are not mutually beneficial).

However, while I believe that Snotlout and Spitelout’s relationship isn’t beneficial to either parties, and as such toxic but not purposefully so (in fact I can imagine Spitelout’s relationship with his own father having been quite similar, but there is no evidence to support this, as far as I recall), I do not believe that it is inherently parasitic (otherwise I would be quoting the twins’ ramble about such relationships from Living on the Edge).

To sum up this analysis, I bring you these points:

Defamation: Snotlout was once well-liked amongst other Berkians for being strong and courageous but since Hiccup befriended the dragons Snotlout has since been pushed aside for the reasons he was once held in high esteem for.

As such, this makes him envious of Hiccup, and Hiccup’s relationship with Toothless, as Hiccup is now the one that everyone likes.

Defiance: This means that he is all too willing to prove and make a fool of himself due to this as well as trying to show to his father that he can amount to his expectations, and as such disregard most orders.

This makes Snotlout very willing to abide rules when he his put in a position of power above others, as seen in Reign of Fireworms. However he can sometimes get too carried away and disassociate himself from the role the more seriously he takes it.

Daddy issues: His and his father’s relationship is the reason why he chases relationships that treat him as the underdog despite his own ego, that either have him pursuing the forever unreciprocated (i.e. Astrid, and later Ruffnut) or even those that he idolises but is always disregarded (like Thor and Dagur), which could be seen as him trying to recreate his and his father’s relationship or perhaps search for the affection he has never properly received, but is immediately deterred once potentially finding or receiving it.

A part of Snotlout sees what is wrong with his and his father’s relationship, as seen with how he wishes to enact revenge through treating his father as he did him.

I think that the damage caused to Snotlout and his relationship with his father isn’t entirely reversible, I do believe that their relationship could reform. However, I don’t think them finding a means of doing so is entirely possible.

#httyd #race to the edge #snotlout jorgenson #character analysis #spitelout jorgenson #big man on berk #thor bonecrusher #reign of fireworms #team astrid #darkest night #analysis #my analyses #fuck spitelout #spitelout neutral post #hookfang #gifs #original post

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reversia · 2 years

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BRUNO DURING THE VISION: ANALYSIS

Maybe someone before me has already written about this, but when I was making this gifset, I noticed some things.

1) Bruno doesn't look at the vision with his eyes, unlike Mirabel. In this gif, we can see her turn her head to the picture, while Bruno keeps looking straight ahead.

This suggests to me that he doesn't see his visions with his eyes; it is as if they are projected immediately into his brain (like hallucinations?). But at the same time, apparently, he doesn't lose his normal vision, because then he notices the butterfly already with his eyes. So, what is it like to see with both eyes and brain at the same time? It seems to me that it should be uncomfortable at the very least.

2) Next, we see him lower his eyes and squeeze them shut, and then let go of Mirabel's hands.

And in this gif

we see him tilt his head rather sharply and almost clench his hands into fists, while almost touching his head with them at the same time. And in these frames (I tried to choose the best ones) you can see him clenching his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut quite well.

And the picture of the vision becomes dim and almost disappears.

And, you know, you can clearly hear his loud breathing when he starts to speak, and even a short phrase is only given to him on the second try.

So the only conclusion is... It hurts him. It really hurts, and probably hurts a lot. This is not an assumption, not a headcanon, not a theory. It's a fact. Because if he was upset about another bad vision, why would he let Mirabel go and clench his teeth so hard? In the next gif, we don't see that anymore

but here, look at the effort with which Mirabel lifts him up. It's hard for him to even lift himself up...

And his phrase "I gotta stop" makes me think he probably means "I gotta stop OR something bad will happen to me".

But then we see his strength gradually return to him once he realizes he sees something good. So here's my headcanon: bad visions wear Bruno down, and good visions, on the other hand, give him strength. The only problem is that he's only seen bad visions most of his life...

So my point is this... We didn't need Jared Bush to confirm that Bruno's visions exhaust him. We just needed to take a closer look at this scene…

#I cried now it's your turn #encanto #bruno madrigal #disney #my analyses

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tokiro07 · 9 months

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I think one of my favorite things about Undead Unluck is how thoroughly it integrates its cast and its power system

There is literally no way that one can exist without the other, as the powers that everyone has are simultaneously the driving force of their character development and the benchmark of said development

Every Negator's life is defined by how their ability brought them tragedy, either in a single horrible event, an ongoing insecurity in their day-to-day life, or a mixture of the two. Their abilities are their origin and the source of their pain, but struggling against or embracing that pain allows each of them to grow and evolve their abilities into something new by a change in perspective and experience

Fuuko's Unluck killed her parents (and hundreds of strangers), which led to a life of isolation and longing, both of which shaped her eventual interactions with Andy and the rest of the cast, and it was her ability to analyze and accept what Unluck really means to her that she was able to make it a part of her identity and use it to her advantage. Fuuko as we know her would not exist without Unluck, and Unluck as it exists would not exist without Fuuko, as it would look entirely different in the hands of another character

I feel like I must have seen it elsewhere, but I can't think of any other manga that so perfectly joins those two concepts

Even One Piece doesn't really marry its power system to its characters very much. Yeah, Luffy's Gum-Gum Fruit is iconic and gives him a lot of his charm, but Luffy as a character would not be fundamentally changed if he didn't have it. It fits him thematically because, like his personality, the Gum-Gum Fruit allows him to act freely and bounce back from any bad situation, but his Fruit does not inform his characterization, it merely reflects it. Someone else using it would likely have different results because of their personality, but probably not too drastically. Haki is similar; Luffy has Conqueror's Haki because he has the personality to use it, not the other way around, and this sort of thing is consistent across the series. Characters' abilities are reflections of who they are, but no one became who they are because of their abilities. If you took out Devil Fruits and Haki, I think you'd still end up with mostly the same story just with less interesting fights

Hunter x Hunter, which has likely the most robust and well-defined power system in any shonen manga (if not all of manga), does something very similar, as Nen abilities are created almost exclusively by the user. Whereas Devil Fruit often happen to carry symbolic weight for the characters, Nen abilities reflect their users because they illustrate the user's intentions, priorities, convictions, and imagination. Kurapika's chains give him a lot of versatility, giving him a useful weapon in essentially all situations while carrying a ton of risks to reflect how little his own life actually means to him; his quest for revenge is extremely self-destructive, but damn if he hasn't put a lot of thought into it. However, if you took Nen out of the equation, you'd still be able to illustrate Kurapika's ingenuity and drive solely through his actions, which Togashi managed to do just fine in the several arcs that took place prior to the official introduction of Nen

On the flip side, something like Jojo has surprisingly light characterization unless you're really looking for it. Thanks to Araki's very strange way of conveying dialogue and exposition, with everyone having the capacity to say a completely deranged non-sequitur and explain esoteric scientific or pseudo-scientific trivia, it's not always easy to get a firm handle on everyone's personalities. However, Stands are a manifestation of the inner spirit of their user, so you can use a Stand's ability to analyze and come to understand the characters themselves. At a glance this seems to do the same thing as DFs and Nen, but to me the Stands themselves are used to better understand the characters, whereas HxH uses the characters to develop and understand the power system

Again, it's not like you could take out Stands or Nen or Devil Fruit, but nothing that occurs within technically requires those systems be in place as they are. Any power system could have technically worked, like Luffy could have used Nen or a Stand to rubberize his body or Jotaro could have gotten a DF that lets him stop time. They would require a lot of changes to fit with the overall design of their respective stories, but the cast wouldn't really be that different

Luffy fights DF- and Haki-users to change the systems they represent, but defeating them will not affect his ability to use his DF. In UU, defeating God will (presumably) remove the Rules altogether; defeating the source both clears the Negators of the "curses" that have plagued them for so long while also forcefully changing the systems of the world as a whole. It's two birds with one stone, and serves as a great example of narrative utility

#undead unluck #fouryearsandananime #analysis #my analyses

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mp3minded · 5 days

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Ozzy: My Analysis.

This was a long time coming, because from the very first time I played his route (which also happened to be the first I completed the season to the end with), I knew Ozzy was a fundamentally interesting character that I'd want to dedicate a whole essay for, because it's one way I like to show my affection for these characters 🥺

(Problem was, I felt like I wouldn't of been able to do him justice before, but after my final research run, I don't think that's a road block for me anymore.)

One thing about his route is, no matter how you approach it, there'll always be a level of pain to it. I think the only exception to this is if you tell him, in paraphrase, "I'm interested too, but I'm not ready to commit yet," when he confesses to MC after the Doghouse Challenge, because that option allows MC the best of both worlds.. those two worlds I've experienced first-hand, I'll detail below.

If you tell him "I feel the same way," that day, it'll be held in the back of his mind that, at-least some point in time, he was your #1 choice (even if you end up choosing someone else in the end)

The pain waiting for MC on this path is, of course, how directly affected she is by everything that happened after her shock fake-dumping. (I even liveblogged my reaction to a lot of it, when I consciously paid attention to everything happening outside of Ozzy and MC's bond, within my #my exp tag, early March.)

Him patching things up with Grace, which she revealed to MC during Casa Amor

What he did during Casa, in reaction to seeing MC again in the postcards, (which didn't paint her in a positive light), which was a skinny-dip threeway kiss (which he IMMEDIATELY regretted)

Not breaking things off with Grace as soon as he should've after Casa (in my opinion), which I think should've been that first morning when all the OGs woke up together in the villa again, at the latest

And, on the topic of the Casa drama.. one moment I really like is, even if MC chooses to "play dumb," when piecing together what likely happened.. Ozzy couldn't keep her in the dark for too long even when he first considered it, which to me is so cute 🥺💗

@operationnope brought up some very good points when I asked her opinion on the situation. Being reminded of a very core part of Ozzy's character amidst the hurt was just what I needed 🥴 even if he fumbles along the way, he still wants to do right by all of the involved parties, and that includes Grace.

And, that leads me to what my final research run was all about.. seeing what his route is like when you friendzone him instead, before Casa. And, holy hell. I thought it would've been easy enough, but that came with its own unique set of challenges.

@ariendiel I remember at one point just thinking, "this is probably the closest to the Noah route experience I'll ever feel," and I know y'all Noah stans had it even tougher because there was no way to even couple up with Noah at all, outside of the disaster recoupling 😭 y'all don't get enough credit for REAL 🥺💙

It was a very isolating path, where even Ozzy flips back and forth between acknowledging MC's interest in him after all, with her actions, to "I'm friendzoned" mode. Everyone else, including Grace, just brushes off everything MC does, with the clear exception of the final recoupling.

And that all applies even after I told Grace that it could become a thing still, him and MC together 💀

On the one hand, yes I can sympathize with Ozzy's position in this scenario. But also it's like, Ozzy.. read the room! 😭🥺

Or, alternatively...

...from what I can tell from this difference of his dialog after the final recoupling.. he was reading the room, and was just trying to play it very cool with MC.

So, what is the overarching theme with Ozzy no matter how you approach his route? *checks the melted inked note on my arm* ..something about not knowing how to handle being in love for the first time, with the very real possibility of (total) rejection.

And, this song sums up his route to a T 🥺 and y'know what, maybe I did feel myself fall for him all over again as I was listening to it, on this last run 😭

#sorry for the redacted MC name djdhdsbhs‚ i wanna use her for fic writing and i'm not ready to reveal her name yet 🤭💜#i really love her and ozzy's dynamic 🥺#i'm chuffed to have an analysis post for ozzy finally 🥰💗#litg ozzy #litg s6 #litg double trouble #litg #love island the game #my analyses

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sophieeeikli · 1 year

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Blood & Brothers: A Close Reading and Analysis of Dante Émile's "Dioscuri"

Blood and Brothers: A Close Reading of “Dioscuri” by @orpheuslament. By Sophie E. Eikli. Available on Substack.

The world is formed anew, as is our vocabulary. Tumblr poet Dante Émile begins his piece with a title, Dioscuri, which holds no meaning as can be divined through English language save for a single title given to a unique dynamic. The word refers specifically to that dynamic of those poorly fated twins from Greek mythology; Castor and Pollux. They are the masculine in the divine-and-mortal set of twins, having been born alongside Helen and Clytemnestra out of the nonconsensual union of Zeus and Leda. The word itself comes from the Greek ‘Dioskouroi’ meaning ‘Sons of Zeus’. The word may also whisper of similarity to the English ‘obscure’, something which is definitely present in the piece by Émile.

The piece begins in conversation with a seemingly invisible speaker. “Your blood is my blood is your blood is my blood,” uttered by an unknown voice to an unknown recipient. This sentence is repeated twice more in the poem, at the middle and at the closure. The pronoun ‘your’, is also repeated steadily over the course of the piece, while “I” is never named- save for the invisible, yet heady I present in the repetition of “my” in the line which has already been named. This proves the existence of a first-person speaker kept tantalisingly out of the reader’s grip, without revealing its identity. Is it Émile commenting through his own work, projecting to a specific person in an act of poetic espionage? Is it Pollux to his mortal and less radiant twin? Is it Castor to the son born as what he is not; glory and divinity? My suspicion is that the truth lies somewhere between the latter options, and that the unsureness is deliberate. Castor and Pollux’s blood is the same, not just genetically but in reality. The line “your mother never looks you in the eye” could indicate that it is Castor speaking to Pollux, but this is something that cannot, and should not be, confirmed. Although fraternal, they both carry the traits and evidence of a fated conception.

Aside from its title, the poem walks a fine line between pretentious and relatable as the meat of its text keeps it grounded in modernity. There are no heady Greek words, nor are there Latin ones. And yet it brims over with the past. Émile begins by thrusting the name of Castor into the present in an act of bait-and-switch, placing the two of them in the setting of a motel bathroom, and yet the present is scarcely mentioned again. The poem laps back through time, going from a “motel bathroom” to the reflection of their “once [having been] a light to sailors” until the devastating final blow that delivers Castor and Pollux to Hades. The piece exists within a context of Greek antiquity. The present is not gone, but it barely registers against the weight of the past.

To all who grazed the Tumblr poetry sphere of the mid-to-late 2010’s, tell me if this sounds familiar: Dionysus in the present, owning a bar. Aphrodite, a stripper. Zeus, a marine or some other authority.

Those who had a Tumblr account in the mid-2010’s may be aware of the pervasiveness of Classical Greece within the poetics of that time. Many of them are gone now, their blogs reduced to half-memories and deactivated urls. While some of them, such as New Zealand’s Darshana Suresh, went on to publish a book, I have no idea if any of them continued to write. Because of time, and disappearance, and ghosts, I cannot find the exact poems to reference. Therefore, I can only ask for your belief in the fact that one thing was almost always present in a Tumblr poet’s portfolio: the Ancient Greeks in the present, haunted by a lack of belief. This is not a denigration of that poetry in the slightest; as a teenager I found myself uniquely represented in the ambitious poetry of fellow teenaged and young adult poets who often suffered with mental health problems of their own. It was also a heavily queer environment, in which there was no question at all regarding the relationship between Akilles and Patroklus. There existed a genuine artistry and love for the source material that marked it as an artistically unique subsection of poetry.

Another uniting force for the Tumblr poet community was its metaphorical patron saint; Richard Siken. An absolute crescendo of his time, Siken released the collection Crush when he was barely 19 in 2005. Even today his work entertains a sense of immortality, often being used in so-called web weaves (e.g; “Sorry / about the blood in your mouth. I wish it was mine.”(Little Beast)). Even I have a not-so-hypothetical desire for a Siken tattoo on my left arm. His work is manic, bordering on surrealistic as he blends time and space, but more than anything it is intensely physical. There are many, many times in Crush where the word ‘blood’ is used. Hearts are swallowed, cows fall from the sky like rain, houses and people are burned at regular intervals. There is also a very heavy presence of second person in his poetry.

In several ways, Dioscuri feels like a testament and subversion of these things. There is the heavy presence of the past within Émile’s poem, but it is manipulated in a way that contrasts those poems from 2015. Unlike the pieces of which I think, which could alternately place Dionysus at a bar or Ikaros in a First World War fighter, Émile begins in the present and pushes backwards into the past. The thick love of these brothers is constant and unbearable, with Pollux eventually resolving to pull his mortal brother with him into the stars. The language, too, leans progressively more into the Antique with epithets such as “God-sent white bird” – which is interestingly used to describe the “dove” that “you once buried”, rather than another white bird which is their father in the myth of Leda. – being paired with reflections on the soul dualism (“A soul splits in two, / that which has always been yours to share”) which Plato credits to Zeus in his Symposium. While a line near the beginning of the poem asks “Who in Hell knows who speaks first”, the ending describes one waking “Down in Hades.”

And yet the present does exist, reaching through Pollux’s grief for his brother killed in Troy. “I’m not reaching Heaven if it’s not with my brother,” he says to his “old man”, Zeus. While it could be a meditation on the skies to which Castor and Pollux eventually become stars, Heaven’s capitalisation leads one to wonder whether it is not a reflection of the immortality of that brotherly bond, pushing back out from that motel bathroom at the beginning of the poem. Whether it is not Pollux’s bloody and codependent love for his brother that breaches time, space, body. There is blood all over this poem, and inside of it.

There is blood everywhere, and one cannot help but notice that some of it belongs to Richard Siken. Some of the lines seem to be subconscious redirection of Siken’s images. Although it may be overreaching, one could see the “wild horses running through your hair at night” as an honouring of Siken’s “How it was late, and no one could sleep. The horses running / until that they forget that they are horses.” (Scheherezade). There is also something very resemblant in the demand to “Keep the shattered moonlight under your pillow”, which could resemble the physicality of Siken’s “Look at the light through the windowpane” (Scheherezade). Faces don’t just become bloody, but are bloody already. A bloodied fist meets a pre-bloodied nose. Catastrophe is written into the DNA of the poem right until the fateful cry of mortal Castor: What have you done, what have you done. Not a question, for the answer is known by both. The answer is them both.

For such is the love of brothers and of twins in Émile’s poem. Their love is codependent and damaging, but no more damaging than the conception that made them. The poem demands that one apologise to their mother while simultaneously reminding that “it’s not your fault if things always end this way”. They hide under covers in the motel just as they hide together in the night sky. They guard each other in every reality and every plane.

To end, I have only one request of our dear poet:

Tell me how all this, and love too, will ruin us. Tell me we’ll never get used to it.

Credits given to:

Dioscuri by Dante Émile

Little Beast, Scheherezade & others by Richard Siken

Darshana Suresh and other Tumblr poets

#poetry #spilled ink #poetry analysis #orpheuslament #richard siken #classicsblr #my writing #my analyses #long post

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sadanduncertain · 8 months

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If what we are reading on Astarion's grave is correct, and he was only 39 years old when he died, that adds an entire new level of tragedy to his character. Not only was he extremely young and emotionally immature by elven standards, but he had barely even lived before he died. It's no wonder that he doesn't remember anything about his past when we ask him about it — 39 years is a small drop of water in comparison to 200 years of abuse. There is simply nothing to remember.

#putting my literature degree to good use #i'm analysing this man like bacteria under a microscope #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #astarion #bg3 astarion #baldur's gate

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buggachat · 10 months

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honestly just in general it's very exhausting to try to analyze media that is literally meant to be analyzed, only for the replies to be filled with people arguing not against your analysis, but against the premise that the media can be analyzed at all.

i don't even know what to say about it without starting to really betray my frustration, so i'll just settle with— just don't engage with analysis posts? I'm serious. if you're typing a response to a media analysis post, reread what you've written and ask yourself "is this comment/response against the very concept of analyzing the media at all?" and if the answer is yes then delete it all and go sit in the shame corner. throw your curtains away if you want to so bad and stop telling me that I'm not allowed to hum and haw at the fact mine are blue

#ml fandom salt #I suppose #and no amount of adding ''stop telling me to not analyze the media'' on my analysis posts stops people from saying it anyway #and yes. the leaks count. stop telling me that the existence of outdated leaks invalidates all analyses of the completed material #and no. just like every other time i've said this. me saying that i don't care about the leaks is not an invitation for you to try to #convince me to care about the leaks #do i tag this spoilers? it feels weird to. i mean this to be a vague overarching thing about media in general #also of course any ''or maybe the writers are just bad'' arguments ALSO are included in this. YOU guys have been my bane since FOREVER #would you guys consider commenting on fanart with ''umm.... drawing seems pretty pointless lmao'' rude?#i know this is not the first time i've made a post like this and i'm sure it won't be the last

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myaoiboy · 3 months

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Death Stranding gender talk you say? Count me in.

Oh, I'm so glad someone asked about MPreg: A Hideo Kojima Game :3c

I'm going to put a quick CW in here for a medical-setting image of an umbilical cord. It's pretty mild, but I think doing side-by-side images will be helpful for illustrating what I'm talking about. Also, big spoilers for anyone that hasn't finished the game, obviously

Literally everything in Death Stranding is so very tied to parenthood and especially the pregnancy and birth parts. Yes it's technically a metaphor for the creative process but also it's, uh, incredibly visceral. So I'm gonna start here with Sam, but damn everyone in this game has some gender going on.

Can we talk about how Bridget chose the same name for both her other half/fictional daughter AND for her adopted son? I feel like not enough people mention the fact that "Amelie's" "real" name is Samantha America Strand, and everyone just calls her Amelie. Maybe because it's fucking weird to have two kids named Sam and Samantha?

The fact is too, that the two Sams aren't the only ones with gender-ambiguous names in the game...we don't know Lou's gender until the very end! The use of gender-ambiguous names for the only two main characters that you as the player can actually interact with feels hella meaningful.

In fact, the game intentionally lets us think that Lou/BB is a boy for most of the game! Cliff refers to his BB as "him" in one of the first cutscenes we see of him, very early on. The game also lets us believe, for some time at least, that there's a chance that the memories are BB/Lou's, and that Lou is Cliff's baby. We don't know this isn't true until near the end of the game! Why didn't any of the characters point out this contradiction before then? I'm not sure, at least not yet. Very open to thoughts on this. It doesn't feel like the MO of the game to have a gender reveal at the end for shock value.

Anyways, let's get in on point one obvious: like I already said, this is an mpreg game. There's...there's no way around it. A dudes carry a fetus attached to them by an umbilical cord (which they make VERY viscerally look like a real umbilical cord btw, between the color/texture/the additional cable along the outside).

I feel like "haha it's the mpreg game" has probably been done to death but I love it so much specifically because of the implications that it makes and the puns that it plays on.

Sam is a delivery man. He's called "The Great Deliverer" or "The Man Who Delivers." And the last scene of the game, the last line before we flash-back for the postgame, is...?

Literally childbirth! It's...delivery. It's Sam delivering his own child, after making a trek by foot across the continental US carrying a difficult pregnancy. "The Man Who Delivers" is a double entendre throughout the game, just like "strand" is ('strand' like rope or hair, 'strand' as in a portion of a larger network, 'strand' as in stranding, like the beach, etc).

So like, what the fuck, right? Why do we have Mpreg: Hiking Simulator? What the HELL is going on in there?

So. America, right?

If there's anything Kojima really loves to talk about, it's America. American identity, imperialism, national myth, etc. Death Stranding is just the most recent and blatant of these. And, of course, one of the most popular American Myths are the story of the founding fathers, right up there with manifest destiny.

So we have this game where Sam is both literally becoming a father after carrying a surrogate pregnancy, and also metaphorically becoming a father by re-founding America. In that way we can see, through his experience of pregnancy, the trials of (re-)founding America.

Okay, great, cool, Sam is a male mom, wonderful, so glad that technology has progressed to this point, we stan. Maybe we don't stan the use of American nationalism as a tool so much but look at the healthy baby glow <3.

But I also want to contrast this with the only other BB we really see in the game. Yeah, baby, it's Higgs time!!! And I am going to make a comparison that is going to seem batshit insane. Bear with me:

I was skeptical myself when I first saw this comparison, but I've been converted into a believer for a few reasons.

The visual. While imo it wouldn't be enough on its own to make a case, I have to admit that his hood is similar to some popular depictions of Mary

Higgs is literally a male prophet of a goddess of extinction. He essentially considers himself her messenger,

While Sam gets his BB from another person, and it's also a live fetus, Higgs gets his from Amelie, as how god gives mary jesus immaculately

Much like Amelie's reveal that her "soul is a lie," the "baby" that she gives higgs is a twisted effigy. He carries his god(dess)'s physical form, but as she is a goddess of extinction with no remaining soul of her own, it will never grow.

i'm willing to believe higgs is a virgin, for the bit.

Okay okay I gotta stop for now because it's 1 AM but like, consider it, mayhaps.

#anyways i love the mpreg game i love extinction goddess i love evil little egyptaboo higgs i love autistic king sam porter bridges strand #death stranding #sam porter bridges #samantha america strand #amelie death stranding #bridget strand #Lou Bridges #lets talk about mpreg #higgs monaghan #my analyses #analysis or something

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carnirat · 1 year

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Re-reading the Envy fight scene in Gluttony's portal made me realize how much Edward cherishes life: How deeply the death of Nina affects him, how he tries to keep up his moral to never kill (this is especially emphasized in fma '03), how he sees 48 and 66 as human even if they don't consider themselves as such, how taken aback and upset he is when he realizes the talking faces on Envy used to be people and how difficult it was for him to use Envy's philosopher's stone to escape Gluttony's portal, how in awe he was when the baby was born in Rush Valley, his rants about how alchemy has never been able to create life but humans can do it within their own bodies. He blurs the line of human and not human and even considers those with little humanity left as human beings even if they themselves find it ridiculous. I don’t think anyone sees humanity the way he does.

#fullmetal alchemist #fma #fmab #fma brotherhood #fullmetal #fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #fullmetal alchemist manga #edward elric #fma edward #fma 03 #i guess this is an analysis...#fma meta #fma analysis #idk if thats what this is lol #my analyses

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pocketdaan · 1 year

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Moonscorch is both the right and wrong term for why Daan "transforms" into Pocketcat, imo.

right, in that Pocketcat is a servant of the Moon God and Daan's being transformed via Moon God methods alongside the Moonscorchification Beam lighting him up.

wrong, in that Daan wouldn't have had Pocketcat haunting him if Daan hadn't experienced a fucked childhood trauma + gotten involved with Sulfur Cultists, so this isn't his Moonscorch form in an ideal world where Daan didn't go through those.

For sure it's not the same type of Moonscorching that others go through, though. Their Moonscorch is meant to expose what's inside but Pocketcat has always been outside of Daan.

(Long theories and analyses under the readmore...)

If you strip them away from the context of Old Gods and look at them as separate people, Pocketcat and Daan aren't much related. Aside from vague connections like upperclass life / their attire / pocket-hand. And while Pocketcat can embody an abuse cycle (in the sense of Daan doing things based off of his childhood experience), that's what Pocketcat is, with or without Daan. He's more of an external thing.

That Moonscorch transformation scene... Pocketcat is crawling out of Daan's body like a parasite slowly sapping the life out of its host. I think it's less of Daan becoming convinced and more of Daan submitting to Pocketcat's wills. When the last sentence goes "The mask and jacket fit you perfectly!" it's not what Daan's thinking/feeling. "Daan" isn't an entity in that body anymore.

Daan's passivity (in the narrative of his story) could be one aspect of having a Blank Soul, but not necessarily that Pocketcat deals have a Blank Soul requirement. I think Pocketcat's shown to be a capable enough parasite to thread his way through a person's insecurities regardless of the soul type.

I also think the thing that shows the core of Daan's insecurity is actually unrelated to the Pocketcat transformation - it's how Pocketcat's Room changes to a murder investigation.

Daan ever only turns to Pocketcat's deal when he feels hopeless at discovering the truth behind his fiancee / father-in-law's murder, he wants to be useful in ways he couldn't back when he was a kid abandoned by his parents. This is the 2nd time he's lost people around him to Old Gods. On top of grieving the life he'd never have with his new family, it's been tearing his old wounds open.

If he were Moonscorched without Pocketcat interference, I think it'd be something similar to restlessly searching for answers while being haunted by childhood traumas. Becoming Pocketcat'd through Moonscorch puts much emphasis on the childhood trauma and no outward signs of investigative behaviors - 1 insecurity is paid attention to in the context of Pocketcat's prey preferences, who was already like that before Daan was born. So, yes, it doesn't feel like a proper Moonscorch by Termina standards.

#fear and hunger #fear and hunger daan #fear & hunger #f&h #pocketcat #my analyses #my theories #I am rambling too much while sleepy as always

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eemoo1o-tfrmoo · 5 months

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bit of a hot take but gustav should've gotten torch the typhoomerang after torch hit that growth spurt

the only reason he had was given fanghook was because he was copying snotlout and it sealed his fate as recurring gag rather than realized character like stoik or gobber

In the books, the Monstrous Nightmares are said to be reserved for chiefs and sons-of-chiefs — the best of the best — and in the first movie this is repeated with:

“And then, there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. [They have this... nasty habit of setting themselves on fire.]”

(The use of “nasty habit” here makes it seem as bad as smoking (literally) or nose picking and I love that.)

In the books, that fact is beaten into us with how, a) Toothless isn’t a member of the chieftain’s preferred species, and b) Fireworm, Snotlout’s dragon, is. (And so is Hookfang, Stoick’s dragon in the books, partnered by the Gronckle Newtsbreath.)

So seeing as this “only the best Vikings go after [Monstrous Nightmares]” is set up in the franchise just as in the books (albeit never really spoken of again, there is a wonderful fanfiction about it, though), I think it’s quite poetic that Snotlout and his little brother Gustav both have Nightmares! They’re the best!

And who doesn’t have a Monstrous Nightmare that you’d expect to because “only the best Vikings” go for them?

Stoick certainly doesn’t. Nor does Gobber, or Dagur, or Heather, or even Spitelout!

(Sure there’s background characters just to fill a scene in HTTYD 2 and 3, but that’s that… oh, and there’s Sven but let’s just say he’s the best whiner and get it over with. YOU RUINED THE METAPHOR, SVEN-LY!)

I headcanon that Hiccup sees himself in Gustav a bit (Gustav is, after all, a hiccup, even if never explicitly stated in canon), and seeing as he couldn’t get a Night Fury, the Monstrous Nightmare being for “the best Vikings” was probably a good next choice… plus his idolisation of Snotlout (that RTTE kind of ruined) swayed his decision a bit, but that’s also because he was only “trained” in training a Nightmare, anyway!

And I love The Flight Stuff (Fanghook’s debut episode) because it’s so cute! B-plot with the twins is stupid, but look! Hookfang is good with kids! Cute!! The taming of Fanghook is also uncouth and unconventional, but that’s also Gustav to a T anyway!

I love their relationship, because Fanghook is so sweet and you could say that after Gustav is told to let him go but it’s revealed he doesn’t, it’s almost like forbidden friendship of sorts, huh? Huh?

Granted, he could have had that with Torch but what’s done is done. The boys ever are adorable.

In fact, as for the ‘copying Snotlout’ situation: I agree! That’s exactly why they did it. But it’s fun to think of metaphorically, annnd… he was also only thirteen! It’s just a throwaway line, but in @otwdfanfic’s fic Once There Were Dragons on AO3, Gustav says this (yes, I know it isn’t canon but it made me realise this), and Gustav’s whole story line is dedicated to the finding of Fanghook!

Cute cute cute. They love each other to bits.

TL;DR: I respect this HC but I’m a nerd who loves the “true bond / soul bond” shit and so I’m just digging my heels into the gravel and clinging onto the protein-filled-whatever with my teeth.

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