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alyakthedorklord · 10 months

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Ectoplasm = The Primordial Soup

I have Thoughts/Headcanons about the Infinite Realms I want to put down somewhere

The concept of Infinity is really really interesting on a metaphysical sense and to have a REALM titled after it? I want to know MORE. What is it? Is it purgatory? An end? A beginning? A funhouse mirror? Or all these possibilities in one, as it is truly Infinite?

Fanon-wise, especially in crossovers, the ghost zone/infinite realms is a truly infinite realm that connects to every universe out there. It serves as the Main Realm of the Dead, the sea in which all the other realms of the dead are floating in, right? When Danny is written as the King of this Realm, he is often placed at the top of the chain of command, above hades/hell/whatever demon or deity the author sees fit. The crown and ring literally grant (quoted from the show) “infinite power,” so Ghost King Danny is OP for a Canon Reason.

We are also using the fact that its a ghosts obsession that keeps them on that plane. Its their obsession that powers them, they are so attached to this one thing that the ectoplasm around them forms into what they want. Aka, power of belief. Belief is what makes the ghosts exist, and the concepts exist, and as we often see in writing, the many religions that the realms of the dead belong to.

(Edit: We see this in the wide array of personalized powers each ghost has, in thier wildly different appearances, every haunt and island tailored to them.)

With all these powers gathered in one place, what is the REASON that the infinite realms is as it is?

What if the infinite realms, and ectoplasm itself, is the primordial soup? What if every universe is formed first from a being of the infinite realms? What if the beings that created those worlds are just… primordial ecto entities. Playing in the sand. Over time growing in strength and detail until they became Gods of their own worlds, seperate from the infinite realms even as these worlds were born from it? All that remains are doors into their dollhouses, windows into their dreams, and the belief of the souls they made came back through and made more gods, more spirits. Souls come through those doors, back into the cycle.

This would explain why Danny Phantom Ghosts are different from traditional/normal ghosts in whatever crossover your using. Because they are ghosts, but they’re more akin to itty bitty primordial spirits.

The rivers of the dead, the Styx, the Nile, souls they travel back through the infinite realms before reentering the cycle or dropping off at thier final destination. But sometimes, as a soul is traveling, and their connection to something is strong enough, and their will is strong enough, they catch hold of primordial soup/ectoplasm, create a body of it, and escape the cycle of Life and Death. They become mini gods of their own obsession.

This ALSO explains ghost king by right of conquest and the head canon that ghosts bond by fighting! Not only are they basically indestructible, but the power of your will and strength of your character is a DIRECT link to how powerful you become. Winning in a fight demonstrates your stronger connection to the fabric of reality and your hold on your own existence. The flavor of that connection really helps Ghosts figure each other out.

Also, to become an Infinite Realms Ghost you have to be the kind of stubborn bastard who looks at the fabric of reality itself and goes “Actually? You work for ME now. Lets go.” They are all confrontational assholes.

The primordials don’t explain Shit to the tiny spirits so they go, “ah. I ghost. This is Ghost zone. This is normal afterlife.” And they don’t know that this is a place of creation, because all they know is that this is a place of death. But they make islands and lairs and domains of which they control, thier own Miniature World they are god of. They collect weaker spirits, who fit thier aesthetic and fill out their worlds. (Uniform/crowd ghosts often band together to form a group identity, acting as a support system for those who might fade easier. And definitely not Ease of Animation. Im putting lore here, yep. Main Character Syndrome is a Health Benefit/Status symbol in the infinite realms.

Anyways, eventually the secret of what exactly the infinite realms are is hidden away.

But as King, and Ancient of Space…

Danny is in charge of organizing all these universes. These galaxies, these tiny works of art.

He is so excited for when he’s old enough to make his own.

Im sure ill be editing this when I have energy for anything other than a stream of consciousness.

#danny phantom #dp prompt #dp x dc #ghost zone #danny fenton #LORE #Danny phantom was criminally under explored #the possibilities are endless

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tma-entity-song-poll · 4 months

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Battle of the Fear Bands B1R4: The Spiral

The Distortionist:

This one was submitted twice, so I've added both pieces of propaganda below:

"Very Michael coded- a song about distortion and mirrors and nothing being what it seems."

"Just look at it okay. The title is perfect. The song itself is about a person who uses lies to get what they want and tries to cover up the cracks with more and more lies as it falls apart around them. The music video shows their body physically twisted around to visually show their twisting of the truth. And, of course, the wonderful lyrics, "Madness, it's madness/ Oh it's sickening, it's sickening/ You know, it's unfair, it's unfair/ How you distorted my reflection" which just screams Spiral."

youtube

Red Signal:

"A song about reality just completely falling apart."

youtube

Lyrics below the cut!

The distortionist:

(Something doesn't quite line up) Tears laced with cyanide flow through the cracks of a Mirror shattered long ago

And sure, I'm the one who swung the metal bat But hey, I can't control the urge! Nobody's gonna blame me for that

Impossible, impossible

Twist 'n turn it right around The details never safe or sound The truth projected through a lens with nothing proving otherwise

Now, take the time to realize, despite what you believe The victim of a massacre was none other than poor me

Surely you can see the problem I don't wanna lose my own reflection A deplorable perception of me Was none other than an image of you

(One, two, three, wait)

You're making a wreck of broken glass and leaving me a fuckin' mess! Bending light in a way that shows exactly how the story goes

Whimsical, dear, your lies are clear, now, who the hell would've ever guessed? Play my games and abide my ways, there's no way you can compensate

A monster, monster, monster, monster Now, run away, run away, run away I- I'm a monster, monster, monster, monster Now, run away, run away, run away Now, you're the monster

A glimmer of betrayal Changes my mind The odds against your favor, forever

Ignorant atrocities and colorless apologies This isn't what it looks to be I'm not as cruel as you see me

Take the time to realize, despite what you may see The mirrors cracked themselves and I was cut on the broken shards, and how I bled

Stuck in a spotlight brighter than the smile no one ever saw Bending light in a way that shows the truth that left our friends in awe

Whimsical, dear, your lies are clear, now, who the hell would've ever guessed? Play my games and abide my ways, there's no way you can compensate

Madness, it's madness Oh-ho, it's sickening, it's sickening You know it's unfair, it's unfair How you distorted my reflection

In all this madness, it's madness Oh-ho, it's sickening, it's sickening You know it's unfair, it's unfair How you distorted my reflection You know it's too late

You're lost in a world of funhouse mirrors, twisted for eternity Bending light in a way that shows refraction of hypocrisy

Whimsical, dear, your lies are clear, now, who the hell would've ever guessed? Play my games and abide my ways, there's no way you can compensate (One, two, three, break)

Tears laced with cyanide flow through the cracks of a Mirror shattered long ago

And sure, I'm the one who swung the metal bat But hey, I can't control the urge! Nobody's gonna blame me for that

(One, two, three, break)

Red Signal:

Y'AI 'NG'NGAH, YOG-SOTHOTH H'EE-L'GEB F'AI THRODOG UAAAH OGTHROD AI'F GEB'L-EE'H YOG-SOTHOTH 'NGAH'NG AI'Y ZHRO

[Another minute of chanting]

And the walls begin to tear. Not the walls of the train, but those of a false and hollow reality, twisting in its thrall to Yog Sothoth, the key and the gate through whose cascading rainbow being the train has passed. Yog Sothoth who is the Bifrost, and whose dread invocation now shattered, drags them towards the roiling nuclear chaos of the mad deamon sultan at the centre of reality. A billion screaming squamous things approach, oozing and crawling through the shattered tatters of a sane world. All the doors are open now.

#tma #the magnus archives #poll #the spiral #the mechanisms #ghost and pals #Youtube

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dark-elf-writes · 5 months

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Hayato looks at Bakugou and sees a twisted fucked up reflection of himself. A world where he was praised for his fancy Quirk (Spark, able to create sparks he uses for dynamite.) where his parents spoiled him instead of hurt him. Where he was told he deserved it because he is the best. Not because he worked for it. Not because he bled for it.

They aren’t the same and he nearly murders Kirishima who says it, laying it out how they’re different. But god are they the same to.

(Bakugou isn’t happy being told he’s spoiled but once it gets pointed out suddenly his actions stop being so forgivable by the class)

THIS

This is pretty much the entire Hayato basis of their mutual hate relationship, because Hayato doesn’t care that much about Bakugou but he hates the pieces of him that are too similar. It’s like the worst kind of funhouse mirror. The horrible reality of what might have been. The realization that just for a second he wanted it.

(It would have been so much easier if his parents had spoiled him. Had treasured him. The life of a spoiled mafia prince would have been so much better than the half feral street rat he was at eight or leaving the only place he had ever known to cross the world in the hopes someone might actually want him.

He would never regret meeting Tsuna. Never regret everything he had done to get him there standing at the tenth’s side.

He only wished he hadn’t needed to suffer so much.)

It’s loathing for that piece of him that made him hiss the words at Kirishima. Made him spit them between clenched teeth like he couldn’t wait to be rid of their taste.

“I am nothing like him.”

He isn’t. He can’t be. Tsuna wouldn’t want him if he was. He wouldn’t be worthy to stand at Tsuna’s side if he was.

Kirishima’s eyes widen, realizing perhaps he had lit a fuse he couldn’t put out, but Hayato wasn’t done.

“That little fuck who has never been told no in his life? That has never once been told that he was anything but the best? I’d die before i let myself be like him.”

He turns on his heel, shoving through the door and past Baseball Freak’s reaching hand. Fuck all of them. He needs a god damn cigarette before he blows something up.

#the elf talks #reborn #mha #bnha #katekyo hitman reborn #not pictured:#Hayato pissed and smoking on the roof while Nezu pretends not to notice #and the several walls he pinches on the way too the roof #rehab class au

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splathousefiction · 1 month

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Thinking casually this evening about the hyper-connectivity of The Modern Internet and how it's broiling ever closer towards overt puritanical fascism because a single evangelical group (Exodus Cry) is strong-arming payment processors, and randomly remembered bathroom wall graffiti.

Always anonymous, it was an effervescent and disgusting way to shout into the void. You had "Jesus Saves" next to public contact information of queers. You had slurs and ongoing arguments that lasted until they were literally buffed out of the steel panels or painted over. Depending on the locale, the walls would be thick with the words of people long dead. Carved into the wood, granting them a fleeting immortality in a vacuum. Coated in piss, grime and shit, but still there after all this time.

Long after the words themselves had been wrote over, blacked out, buffed out, coated and pissed on. Something of those people remained. If you took the effort, if you peeled back the swastikas and Sherman Williams, something was writ that said "I was here, I existed, I was real. Remember me, please god".

And.

I don't remember the last time I saw that kind of graffiti.

I don't remember the last time I was in a truck stop and I saw "ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY, JOHN DOE SUCKED MY COCK RIGHT HERE". I don't remember the last time I saw poetry, pictures, art, stickers, arguments so trivial, insults so fucking obtuse in nature that you had to be there, man. Every time I stop for a piss or shit in public now, it's all clean. The walls are bare. They didn't just patch the gloryholes, they replaced the entire fucking wall.

The world has grown sterile and strange and persistent, an entirely liminal space with a corporate logo sign over the door when you walk inside. FFS, the doors don't even chime anymore. And used to, you could at least avoid this gross, brutalist corporatizing by escaping online. You had escape hatches into the unfiltered insanity and beauty of human nature so long as you had a modem.

Maybe the art sucked, maybe the ramblings were incoherent. Maybe it was someone just calling me a [Litany Of Slurs here] for having a different opinion. But in the filth and grime and shit and piss of the world, I was still able to feel something. I could be traumatized and laugh my head off and cry my eyes out in the course of an afternoon.

I had a choice.

We had a choice.

But gone is the bathroom graffiti. Gone is the reality of choice, and in it's place is a convincing funhouse mirror of curation. The paths towards learning new things, being exposed to new ideas and concepts and ways of life have been made clean, clean as those steel walls between the toilets. They put guard rails up so you don't accidently hurt yourself on enlightenment and damnation. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, et al.

It's not just us freaks, geeks and faggots either. That's the really depressing part. The internet has become so grossly corporatized that life saving resources, educational opportunities and more are now being blocked in schools, public libraries and sometimes by demand of the state. You can't do research, you can't find new art, new music, new ideas without a fucking VPN anymore just to access legitimate and legal resources.

And for what? To what end? So some corporate entity can have a 5% increase in earnings that quarter?

Evil isn't always some dude with a cape and a mask cackling. It's not always some elderly senator begging for us to bomb more people. Sometimes, evil is a slow poison that rips the soul out of something. Sure, what's left still walks and talks and smiles, but it's off, man. And so it will limp along until it's violently fish hooked into the Akira-like fleshmass of some corporate interest.

Denying the grime, piss and shit of human existence, denying us a chance to experience the ugly, the mundane, the horrific and the divine in equal measure is to deny us an inherent path towards understanding ourselves. Safely curated corporate spaces don't beget curiosity and questions-it holds a pillow over both of them in their cribs, applying pressure until they stop flailing. Then it tries to sell you the pillow at a discount.

It takes the multi-faceted splendor of the human experience, and shoves it in a sterile room with other similarly-minded people. It bolts the door from the outside, and by the hour begins reducing the oxygen within. It gets sold as some kind of cleanse in one of those instagram ads you see, posted by a robot with art created by AI and at no point in any part of this series of Posting Good Capitalism was a human touch ever involved.

Capitalism kills in meat space, and it's being predictably successful in online spaces as well. They're not just blocking access to DIY HRT and queer history, they're removing any evidence of it from servers. They're seizing your ability to buy drugs (if you want, as a consenting adult). God forbid if you want to look at porn (again, as a consenting adult) anywhere south of the mason-dixon line.

The net isn't just getting cleaned, it's getting made sterile through a slow series of psychological assaults on our very existence.

So before the whole shit-house goes down in flames, a few things.

You gotta keep being openly, loudly fucking weird. If we're going to be subjected to data curation from AI, your posts have to be so openly radioactive they'd make the flesh slip right off an entire advertising department. You gotta make a CEO afraid you're gonna shit on his desk and piss all over his paper work. Who cares if you get bullied or people think you're cringe. Fuck, at least you'll be you. At least you'll be authentic. At least you'll be fucking human and feel something.

And.

If worse comes to worse.

And you find these words somehow, some way, buried beneath the off-white eggshell paint, carved right into the sheetrock above that freshly-cleaned porcelain.

we were here, we existed, we were real. Remember us, please god

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drbased · 8 months

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I watched this really, really good analysis of always sunny and I agreed with all of it, but she had to sneak the obligatory 'Charlie is a nonbinary icon' in there. Here's why Charlie being nonbinary would destroy one of the entire conceits of the show:

As she says, IASIP is a satire; it holds up a funhouse mirror to society and says, 'this is how you look' so we laugh but also can think about our actions and beliefs. In this satire, Mac, Dennis and Charlie represent the three facets of maleness and masculinity:

Dennis: Dennis represents rape culture, sexual insecurity and tyrannical narcissism

Mac: Mac represents hyper-masculinity, the 'naturalising' of patriarchy through religion, and the misogyny and homophobia that come with that

Charlie: Charlie represents audacity. Charlie is disgusting, uneducated and gullible. But he has absolutely no shame, he has zero self-awareness and no insecurity. He believes that he's owed the waitress despite offering nothing of value; he simply deserves her because he wants her.

Frank is the glue that binds them together. Frank is, in many ways, all of them combined: the lechery of Dennis, the bigotry of Mac, and the audacity of Charlie. But he has a confidence that they don't; he is more successful than they will ever be, because he puts the effort in. At the end of the day, Frank shows that even if these guys actually tried they'd still be abhorrent people with failed relationships living in squalor; this isn't a case of 'failed masculinity' holding the three men back; the values they all share are rotten to the core.

Painting Charlie as nonbinary misses the whole point; he's supposed to represent the more respectable face of masculinity - someone who is on the surface nicer, more respectful of women, who has romantic ideals and simple dreams, who toils stoicly with no delusions of grandure. He's supposed to represent the family-oriented, respectful, humble male. A good salt-of-the-earth working man. But in reality, as anyone who has met a man will verify, your chances of meeting a genuinely humble man are slim. He might be 'humble' in the sense that he does the shit jobs that no one else can do, but that never stops him from indulging in ridiculous schemes, from assuming that he knows how to be a lawyer, from stalking his chosen woman. He is demonstrably actively proud of his working-man status.

If you say he's nonbinary, or any gender other than male, the satire is lost; you concede that these traits aren't masculine enough and therefore aren't male enough. If you say he's nonbinary, you concede that he is sufficiently kinder than the others to 'opt out' of maleness (and yet terfs are the 'men bad' ideology 🤔), and his stalking is now seen as a genderless belief and activity rather than one that has an incredibly clear history of being something men do to women.

This is a more extreme version of how 'nice guys' present themselves; they believe that because they're not like Dennis (they don't actively seek to rape women), or like Mac (they don't make misogynistic comments and insults to a woman's face) then they must be the respectful form of maleness, which is Charlie. But Charlie's form of maleness doesn't stand in contrast to the others; it merely represents another facet to maleness that works together with them. After all, if those forms of masculinity contrasted each other, then the characters would argue all the time that the other is being disrespectful to women. But none of them care. If anything, they stand a united front against women like The Waitress, they will join forces to torture Dee, they will accept Dennis as a rapist as long as they don't have to think about it too much. And that's how misogyny operates in the real world; men may have contrasting beliefs about what 'counts' as misogyny, but ultimately they will all protect each other in the end. At the end of 'The Nightman Cometh' they all gather round the heartbroken Charlie, as if what he did was a sincere gesture of love to a human being, and not a comically obvious attempt at manipulation. It's deeply cruel and misogynist to paint Charlie as anything other than a man.

#I use maleness and masculinity interchangeably because I simply Do Not Care #my writing

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twocubes · 10 months

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Hi! okay beyond criticizing that particular narrative formulation i'd love to hear you elaborate on what you meant by the sublime, and what it would mean for a work to reach beyond the cognitive funhouse mirrors versus staying calustrophobic. The way you described toxic information environments that seem to trap us within our minds' illusions versus that which allows us to see beyond ourselves was particularly interesting. I would love to explore this sense of things if you have more to say about it!

especially because I feel as though I(we) are forced to navigate others' perceptions, judgements, before my own, i often feel as if who i really want to be and how i really want to percieve and act are overwritten by the social context of what others expect or insist i am and it really bothers me how seemingly easily i can be silenced like that. which is to say, I often feel as if I am trapped within just that sort of illusory layrinth and I am not confident i can reliably find that window.

i was almost definitely using the word wrong but i can try to elaborate here maybe? let's see...

...how do i put this.

like i said, we use other people to extend our perception. our knowledge of the world is first and foremost gathered from other people's observations, and only on a few points, comparatively, do we proceed entirely from first-hand observations

the problem with those sorts of funhouse mirror environments is, most precisely, that people are refusing to serve that function. you are asking for help and being denied. that is Lying. not saying untruths (one can lie by omission) but more, failing to do us the social goodwill of just allowing us to know things by their eyes rather than just our own.

it's like. an evil to do that. you blind the other person. but it's a weird contagious social evil. it turns back on you, because they, in turn, cannot help you see.

ok. similarly, who you are is exactly like. what people around you expect from you. if you are "a plumber" people expect that you "can do some plumbing". if you are "funny" people expect that you "can make them laugh". if you are "powerful" people expect that you "can get people to do things". etc. if you want to be the thing then others need to be expecting the thing from and you need to do the thing for them, right.

there is a similar betrayal, of sorts, when others expect from you things that you cannot provide/do not want to provide/do not enjoy providing, or when they refuse to allow you to be depended on for whatever. identity is set by them, and if they refuse you that, then... on some level you cannot be what you should be.

ok. in those posts, the way i was using the word "sublime" was for stuff that like. comes from outside of that. it doesn't need to get to you directly from outside — you can perceive it through others, like everything — but the point is that it is from outside of us. from reality. it is... everything that is to be observed actually, like, really observed rather than made up. it is what comes of observing the world honestly, in a way that is interested in serving the function of observation to you. you peek into something and we sometimes call that something reality. i'd say it is the undeniable, but... no, you can always deny it. it would just be either dishonest or incorrect to do so.

this is... i mean usually the sublime isn't taken to mean "literally everything that exists inasmuch as it is not yet conceived of by our minds". like, that's... probably a result of a peculiarity of the way that i conceive things; i tend to expect that anything anywhere observed in enough detail with enough honestly would go entirely beyond our ability to describe. so, forgive me :Y

so. how can we, in a work, escape from this?

well, a first reflex would be to say that we can't. stories are told by people, certainly you're not going to escape from perception by reading something someone made up, yada yada yada

i don't think that's correct. i mean like i said, you can perceive the sublime indirectly, that's fine.

my tendency personally is to think of fiction as like, worked exercises. like, the author wrote a story, they have some premises and ideas regarding how the world works, those get crystalized into the way the world works in the story, and i get to consider those things. that's... the little glint of the sublime that every story has, to me. it's indirect sublime, of course, but that's fine.

so, when you say "well this works this way because i need it to for the drama" it's like. unsatisfying. you're not serving The Function.

so my imo for this is that you should Follow Your Own Rules. like, you've posited a world, that works in a certain way by certain rules that you've agreed about with the reader, and you need to Commit To The Bit. you can arrange things for me before the story starts to get something compelling, sure, but within the story you do not accede to convenience. if your principles lead somewhere you don't like, you cannot flip over the table. putting a god in there that makes the story work the way you want it to counts as flipping over the table.

or... something. idk. thats my thinking r/n.

#sorry this post is a bit long

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nelsonsmynickname · 1 year

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So I’ve been thinking a lot about The Winchesters and have some ideas that have sort of settled in my brain, mostly focused on thematic elements of importance. I have two of note I want to talk about:

1. Containers, vessels, or spaces used to trap, control, or destroy monsters

The monster box is the ONLY thing we know of that can kill the Akrida. It can also destroy other demons and was watched over by the loup-garou in its lair

La Tunda has a lair located in a commune, which is a controlled space from which people are discouraged from leaving. The essence of La Tunda is captured in a vial by the leader of the Akrida

Bori Baba has a bag which can trap victims. It serves as her home lair

Mars Neto is tied to an amphora that grants him his invulnerability. An amphora is a type of vase container, often used to store wine

Mac and the soucouyant are trapped in a cave-in

The mothership, of course, has the Malak box which can contain various forces.

This theme of containers seems really crucial to our overall plot. Why so many containers? Who or what is trapped or needs to be trapped?

2. Illusions or mind manipulations

Bori Baba makes you destroy the item you seek in order to escape her. This is a type of mind manipulation or mind game forcing you to face your fears and let go of them

Mars Neto traps victims within an illusion of their own trauma background.

The Akrida can use a mind control toxin that traps you inside your own mind. Similar to a djinn, it takes a dreamwalker to get victims out of the mind trap

The loup-garou is a type of shapeshifter, which while not an illusion has similar thematic concepts with the shifting of reality

Demon possession happens frequently, with John being possessed by Mac who feeds off of his anger and mental turmoil

Illusions and mind games or mental manipulations are frequent occurrences on the show. Perhaps something in the overall plot is tied to illusions or mind traps?

Now let’s get to episode 7, which is titled Reflections

When I think about reflections, the first thing that comes to mind are mirrors. Mirrors are present in a ton of lore and mythology. Narcissus saw himself in a mirror and fell in love with his reflection. Alice traveled through the looking glass into another world. In Supernatural, mirrors were used as a container for Bloody Mary.

Some cultures and religions believe mirrors can trap a dying soul. A broken mirror can break a soul. Mirrors can serve as portals for ghosts. Essentially, mirrors have long been used both as traps and as pathways from one world to another.

Mirrors can also be used to glimpse the future or other places in the world.

Mirrors are associated with the truth. Frequently, glamours or other illusions can be shattered by mirrors. Mirrors can see into your soul, which is why vampires can’t be seen in mirrors. In Supernatural, mirrors let you see the truth of changelings, sirens, and wraiths, as well as shapeshifters.

BUT mirrors are also associated with obscuring the truth. Mirror mazes and funhouse mirrors are sources of illusion, in which the truth is hidden.

So what does all of this mean? I have no answers but I have suspicions that the long game of this prequel will involve some sort of monster container either being used or being broken open, and the breaking of an illusion. Perhaps the illusion of Heaven Dean is greeted with at the end of the show?

#thewinchesters #dean winchester #akrida #winchester

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galsinspace · 10 months

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Barbie movie thoughts

I love talking about things at length so I gotta write down my Barbie movie thoughts

The Barbie movie intentionally does not have a grand message or mission statement. Within the movie, the character Barbie does not solve any problems in the real world because outside of the movie, the product Barbie can’t do that. Positive things can be done with Barbie, like representing a diversity of people, but ultimately Barbie can’t solve societal problems because she’s just a toy. She represents society, including positive changes in society, but those changes never happened because of Barbie.

So many details of Barbie becoming visibly “imperfect” as soon as she starts to “malfunction”! When she’s visiting Weird Barbie in her blue outfit, her bra is showing through the fabric and there are a few hairs out of place. When she’s leaving for the real world, her braid is unravelling! So many little things to discover on a rewatch! It’s fun but also a representation of how women’s appearences are scrutinized by others and themselves.

The movie is also incredibly rewatchable just because of how FUN it is! There’s always something happening, it’s always visually interesting,and it’s just funny and enjoyable!

The character are also all so CHARMING

The Kens, even through their patriarchy arc, are likable and super fun to watch and make for a really sympathetic portrayal or how men get sucked into “manosphere” type thinking through their own insecurities, leading them to base their sense of self on external status symbols, but this does not actually solve their problems or even make them happy. I think this is also represented in Ken’s line about initially thinkingthe patriarchy was about horses and losing interest when he realized it wasn’t: it’s a funny little joke but it’s also a metaphor for how he thought this would make him happy, but it didn’t.

The Barbies are also likable and super fun to watch! And they represent womanhood in a similar way, with a bubbly girly environment where all the ladies love and support each other, but also parodizing really negative aspects like everyone acting like cellulite is the worst thing that can happen to you.

I think it’s essential to understand the residents of Barbieland as dolls who are like a funhouse mirror of humanity

Is it really their fault that anything goes the way it does? They are the way they are because of how people play with them. Barbie doesn’t understand that she’s hurting Ken’s feelings. She doesn’t seem to notice that he’s trying to kiss her. She’s never even considered where the Kens live. But did she have the capacity to?

I think in the end when she apologizes to Ken, that’s a sign of her becoming more human and developing a better understanding and more agency.

And that’s another reason there isn’t suddenly equality in Barbieland in the end: the other Barbies aren’t as aware and human as main Barbie, and Barbieland is still a funhouse mirror of reality representing how problems can’t be solved overnight and sexism is a pervasive issue that takes constant work over decades and centuries to overcome.

And Barbie doesn’t belong there anymore! She’s left Plato’s cave!

This has been talked about a lot but I thought it was just so beautiful how the movie twice took the time to just let Barbie take a deep breath and take in her surroundings and feel. You don’t see a lot of calm, introspective movies like that. You really get a feeling for what’s going on in Barbie’s head in that moment, making her feel so much more like a subject to empathize and identify with than an object to watch on the screen. And I think it’s especially rare to see women being written like this, like a real thinking person.

Speaking of dolls vs people:

I think the CEO and his group of besties businessmen are so comedic because they, too, straddle the line between doll and human! As representatives of a corporation, they are dependant on public opinion and perception and in that way also bound to only mirror society! Their issues are solved once the situation in Barbieland is solved, their opinion on Normal Barbie immediately changes with a prognosis of profit, they’re not thinking acting people they’re DOLLS

The old woman at the bus stop is as confident as the Barbies initially are (“I know I’m beautiful” and “Yes, I deserve this Nobel Prize!”) but without being as “perfect” as they are - her confidence comes from experience, and probably isn’t as easily disruptable as the Barbies’s.

The “deprogramming speech” is a fun little plot device but it’s also a representation of how women try to go along with the patriarchy believing that they can “win” according to its standards, not realizing that the system is rigged against them.

The Barbies had no built up “immunity” to patriarchy but neither did the Kens. They all fell for it, thinking it would be good for them (”It’s like my brain’s on vacation!”) but then quickly abandoning it when it fell apart upon closer inspection (this shit isn’t even about horses smh)

The scene where Barbie insists she isn’t smart or beautiful, complete with voiceover about how this is clearly not accurate, is perfect because we can see it’s bullshit. Even while she’s convinced she’s not good enough, we can see that she’s wonderful and it’s so obvious to us. Her feelings are real and familiar, but we are overwhelmingly and lovingly told that they’re also just wrong.

as @stardatewow pointed out to me, Sasha was wearing a pink top in the last scene :) she’s still herself and presenting herself in her own style, but she’s now gone through that step of “pink isn’t actually evil” that many girls know :)

love this movie

#barbie #barbie movie #barbie spoilers

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starreadssstuff · 1 year

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I know the end prt 3- Takatora Samura

Warnings: canon violence, blood, bruising, angst (future parts) g*ns, Niragi (nothing bad will happen, in this fic or any), angst LMK if I missed anything!!

Authors Note - I finally got around to part three YAY!!! im so happy that I got to it. I will update “clingy” when I get the chance but if you have anything that you want to see in that fic or this one let me know!! love, star 💜

Since the beginning of the borderlands, it was the constant fighting for your life, it was triggering but you met people you liked along the way that made this mess a bit easier. What never go easier was the nightmares evey night. They were constant,waking up in the normal world and get ready in your empty apartment. You exit the house to see its night time and you see the billboards showing you to the direction of a game. At first you think is harmless so you joining “whats the worst that could happen?” But as you enter the game you find yourself trapped in a never-ending maze of mirrors. At first, it seemed like a harmless funhouse, but as you wander deeper into the maze, you realize that the mirrors are reflecting versions of yourself that are not quite right. Some are distorted and twisted, while others are cold and lifeless. The longer you stay in the maze, the more the mirrors seem to close in around you, trapping you in a never-ending cycle of distorted reflections. You begin to feel like you're losing your mind, unable to distinguish reality from the reflections. The only way to escape is to find the one true reflection of yourself, but with each wrong turn, the chances of finding it seem to slip further and further away. You finally find the right one and the exit is opened up infornt of you. You still feel like youre losing you mind, not really ready for that mindboggling experience. You run out and see a table in the complex you had entered, this table had a small receipt printer that had printed out a paper with Y/N L/N on it an an “exparation” date on it. Its weird and you dont know what type of game this is but you need to get out. It's safe to say that you didn't, and still haven't gotten out.

All that said, you found your now best friend, lily, and have been shown around the “borderlands” as she calls it. It was weird at first but you get used to it after a while. At the beach you were like a fish out of water, iconic but true nonetheless. You didnt know anyone and everyone seam to think you were a target. When you came around they all scatterd like emptied seashells on the sand. It was worrying and you didnt know why, you had been there for a week and hadnt played any games so what was the fuss? No one seamed to be like that around lily so what had everybodys panties in a twist? It was tring until you found out why. This had all happened because of him. He had threatened every one to stay away from you. Why? What was the reason? Did he hate you that much? He didnt even speak to you so why did he care about who you acquainted yourself with? If he needed to say something to you then why not handle it like the grown man that he is. As you march up to him lily is tring to get you attention to stop you, youre resisting like hell, determined to get an answer. “We need to speak Last Boss” you say to him, in a stern yet polite way. He agev you a questioning look like if he didint know what had happened. You walk away but hear him follow you. Everyone parts open a way for you and him to walk through because nobody had ever heard anyone speak to THE LAST BOSS like that before so it was a miracle that you weren't sliced in half already.

“Are you the one that has been threatening people to stay away from me?” you say as soon as you get onto the roof top. He slowly nods, not really used to being treated like this, he wasnt going to hurt you by any means. He just wanted to keep you safe so he did what he did.

P.S sorry for the cliffhanger! stick around and find out what happens next in ~I know the end~ Takatora Samura

#takatora samura #aib #alice in boderland x reader #alice in borderland #i love himmmm #my husband #alice in borderland season 2

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squidhominid · 5 months

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So I've been thinking about capitalism

So, as some people know, before I became the queer anarchist squid lady that you all know and love, I was, um. A teenage libertarian.

That's. Not great! But in combination with my disabilities it gives me some interesting perspective about the interplay between capitalist systems and disability, that I kind of feel like are worth talking about.

See you under the cut for a discussion about techbro nonsense and how it can be seductive in the right context to disabled people.

Now, as I've said before, libertarianism is sort of like, a funhouse mirror version of socialism. Libertarians believe in equality and in the need for social progress, they just, wrongly, believe that capitalism should be the vehicle to get there, and that the obstacle to getting there is government over-regulation.

The thing that's interesting, and that I think is worth talking about, is how this interplayed with the fact that I'm disabled, and how I viewed disability accommodation.

As some know, I'm unable to drive. My vision is too poor, my attention span is too poor, and, honestly I have serious doubts about my motor skills being up to par either. Nowadays if you asked me I'd tell you the solution would be better public transportation, but when I was younger, I had completely bought into the promise of things like Waymo. The idea of self-driving cars was transfixing to my younger self.

You could argue a part of that is due to American cultural indoctrination about the car as a symbol of agency. It was also because, in my experience, travel by bus is far slower than travel by car. Either way, I was so lost in the American late-stage capitalist soup that I didn't realize the actual solution - trains.

And this, I think, explains why things like Elon Musk's Boring Company are so alluring. Trains have a negative image to the average American, and cars are seen as an emblem of American freedom and agency, like the gun (oh boy that's an entire discussion on its own), and so people get swept up into the narrative of cars-as-public-transit, because they either don't realize public transit would have those benefits too, or they place outsize value on the car itself, be it due to the aforementioned agency, or due to a desire for privacy.

The ultimate realization of this, of course, is Elon Musk admitting that he only pitched the idea of the Hyperloop as a poison pill to kill the California high speed rail project, because he didn't want to share a train with other people.

But there's another example of a pie-in-the-sky hypercapitalist dream technology that I think preys outsize on disabled people. And that's Meta's pitched idea for the metaverse, or any metaverse concept that involves supplanting or augmenting reality.

Of course, there are platforms like Second Life, VRChat, Neos VR, Resonite... Platforms where, either officially or unofficially, you can make an income off of paid assets, like custom avatars. When combined with the fact that these are immersive social platforms, especially when VR gets involved, these platforms suggest that one can use them to replace the 'real world'.

To the disabled, this is a swan song - no longer do you even NEED that self-driving car, you can live an entire remote life. If income from these platforms isn't enough to sustain you, you could get a remote office job, and just use social VR in your downtime, or you could find a way to get passive income, by making something people will have a continuous need for, like music on Spotify that's safe to use in Twitch streams, or video game engine asset packs. There's lots of ways to approach that problem, but it's out-of-scope of this post.

To get back to the point, Meta's pitch for their metaverse is like this concept on overdrive. A world where everyone is wearing an AR headset at all times, and as a result, anyone can remote into any location through a sort of VR telepresence. If your friends are somewhere, and you can't be there, say you're sick, say you're disabled, say you have a baby or a partner to take care of, for any reason, you can just start a group call with them over VR, and you'd 'be there' without being there.

Of course, this leaves a lot of unspoken issues on the table. How would this necessarily work? They would need to make and maintain a digital spatial 'layer' over the real world, that people would access, be it using an AR headset in person, or a VR headset remotely.

They aren't going to set up depth cameras all over the world to capture the environment on an ongoing basis, so would they do this using the cameras on peoples' headsets? What if someone was wearing a headset and doing something private, like reading a note from someone? Then someone in VR could invisibly sneak up behind them and read it. What about countries with strict privacy laws, like Germany?

It's a siren song for the disabled, sold on a dream, but that dream is built on implicit and explicit violations of social norms, and it's turtles privacy violations all the way down.

I don't have anywhere I'm really going with this. I just, wanted to get it all out onto paper, because I've been thinking about how leftists will call technologies like self-driving cars, hyperloop, the metaverse, etc, things like pipe dreams by the rich, or the 'torment nexus' (a future technology originating as a cautionary tale against creating it in a sci-fi novel), but I think that misses the intersectionality of how these technologies can be seductive to people that, if they were feasible, would benefit from them.

The operative part of that sentence being 'if they were feasible', and my point being that they either are not, or are not without massive drawbacks, making them a siren song and ultimately destructive.

But who cares as long as Elon and Zuck are making billions off the back of impossible dreams, right? /s

#rambling #long post #politics #virtual reality #self driving vehicles

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daily-waffle · 3 months

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The Daily Waffle: An Exercise in Futility and Satire That Knows It

By Hamish Burger

In a precedented move that has left nobody impressed or amused, The Daily Waffle, a newly minted satirical news outlet, has launched its inaugural article: a self-interview with its founder, Hamish Burger, who somehow manages to ask and answer his own questions. The topic? The inherent meaninglessness of meta commentary and satire, a theme so recursively self-referential that readers may need a moment to remember whether they’re actually reading news or a parody of a parody.

Hamish Burger Sits Down with Hamish Burger: An Interview with Myself

Hamish Burger, the visionary behind The Daily Waffle, decided that for their first piece, they would delve deep into the existential void that is meta commentary in satire. “It seemed only fitting,” Burger states, interviewing himself in a dimly lit room that may or may not exist. “After all, what's more satirical than a satire site acknowledging its own futility right out of the gate?”

Q: Why start The Daily Waffle?

A (Burger): Well, Hamish, I thought the world needed another voice that says, ‘Hey, we’re all just shouting into the void, but at least we’re doing it with a smirk.’ There’s something beautifully pointless in creating yet another platform for satire, especially one that critiques the very act of critiquing through satire. It's like a snake eating its own tail, but the snake is also made of satire.

Q: Isn’t that a bit...redundant?

A (Burger): Absolutely, and that’s the beauty of it. We’re here to add another layer of irony to the already overcrowded party of cynicism. If satire is meant to mirror society, we’re the mirror reflecting a mirror, reflecting yet another mirror. Eventually, you forget what was being reflected in the first place, and it all just becomes a blur of self-aware commentary that leads nowhere.

Q: Do you worry people might miss the point?

A (Burger): Which point? The point that there might not be a point? Not at all. If anything, I hope it sparks a moment of reflection, a brief pause where they consider whether they’re laughing at the satire, the meta commentary on satire, or just the absurdity of it all. If they’re confused, I’ve done my job.

Q: Is The Daily Waffle always going to satire satire?

A (Burger): Heavens, no! While we revel in the absurdity of meta-commentary, we’re not bound by it. To continually satirize satire would be like... perpetually reheating a waffle until it’s inedible. No, we aim to cast our satirical net wide, ensnaring the various absurdities of life, society, and yes, even ourselves. Satirizing satire is just the starting point; reality, with its inherent grimness, provides ample material. After all, if satire is a distorted mirror to reality, we’re here to make sure that mirror is funhouse-quality.

Q: So, why call it The Daily Waffle?

A (Burger): Ah, the name! In a world obsessed with decisiveness and clarity, we embrace the art of waffling. Not just as a delicious breakfast option, but as a philosophy. Each day brings new uncertainties, new indecisions, and yes, new topics to waffle on about. Our name reflects our commitment to exploring the multifaceted, often contradictory nature of life. Plus, it’s catchy and slightly makes you hungry, doesn’t it?

Q: What’s next for The Daily Waffle?

A (Burger): More of the same, really. We plan to continue diving deeper into the rabbit hole of self-referential humor, until we either reach some form of enlightenment or confuse ourselves so much that we forget we’re a satire site and start reporting real news by accident. It’s a fine line.

Q: Hamish, is Hamish Burger a real person?

A (Burger): The question hits me like a truck. Am I real? If I weren't, how could I be here, asking myself this? If I'm not real, then who's writing these words? The panic sets in. The walls of the dimly lit room seem to close in on me, the existential dread thick in the air. Of course, I'm real. I must be. The very act of questioning my existence is proof of it, isn't it? Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." Well, I write satirical articles, therefore I am...?

Q: Have you ever eaten a burger?

A (Burger): This was a very rude question and I find it to be in incredibly poor taste. I am terminating this interview.

In Conclusion: The Waffle Goes On

And just like that, The Daily Waffle's inaugural self-interview ends not with a whimper, but with a bang. Hamish Burger's abrupt departure leaves us pondering the ethics of self-cannibalistic humor and the boundaries of taste in satire. As for The Daily Waffle, it promises to continue serving up its unique blend of satire, self-reflection, and existential musings, one day at a time.

Whether or not Hamish Burger has ever consumed a burger remains a mystery. But what's clear is that The Daily Waffle is here to challenge, amuse, and perplex its readers, one existential crisis (and waffle) at a time.

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samuelbandarizadeh · 1 year

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Us - Jordan Peele

Jordan Peele’s cinematic works are brilliant and are great watches for any audience looking for creative themes, great visuals, storylines, or even a more profound social justice-related message. His film Us does not fall short in this regard in any way and is something I truly enjoyed every second of. The film revolves around Adelaide and her family and their experiences while on a summer trip. Adelaide during her childhood years accidentally walks into an abandoned mirror funhouse where she has an extremely traumatic experience. While in this abandoned mirror funhouse she bumps into something, thinking that it is a mirror, however, it is another girl who looks sinister, and before we know what happens next the scene abruptly ends there. Flash forward years later, Adelaide is married with kids and is now on vacation in Santa Cruz with her family. However while on vacation this girl from the mirror house comes back and this time with other people who are exact doppelgangers of Adeliade’s family. The doppelgangers known as the Tethered are looking to kill Adelaide and her entire family in a fight for their lives. Adelaide and her family throughout various scenes are seen fighting for their lives a common representation of the theme of survival of the strongest. We find out the Tethered are a group of beings that live below the earth and are trying to make it to the other side by Red, Adelaide’s doppelganger, killing Adelaide. In a huge turn of events, we find out that years ago Red was the girl who was captured and taken and Adelaide was the true tethered that had been living in the real world in place of Red. So in reality Red was just trying to get her life back by killing the real tethered Adelaide. This brings about a profound message of inequality in today's society. Unfortuanlyty today, we may also permit injustice towards others who seem far from us in our own environment. Perhaps we convince ourselves that those others (the tethered) aren't truly like us, allowing us to ignore them and move on with our lives. However, Jordan Peele and Us, are saying the opposite. People who have a comfortable life and think others are far away from them would think differently if they ended up being on the other side where they are struggling and feeling the pains of inequality. In truth, while we all think Adeldiade is the protagonist and hope that she kills Red, the so-called Tethered and antagonist, we are found to be mistaken and in doing so we are rooting to maintain a system where the upper class survives and the lower classes banish.

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tma-entity-song-poll · 5 months

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Battle of the Fear Bands B1R1: The Spiral

The Distortionist:

This one was submitted twice, so I've added both pieces of propaganda below:

"Very Michael coded- a song about distortion and mirrors and nothing being what it seems."

youtube

Discord:

"Discord would make a fantastic spiral avatar- the embodiment of chaos and the warping of reality."