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cosmosrival · 4 years

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there it is! kama interlude analysis by a kama fan!

WELL. LIKE IT SAYS IN THE TITLE: this is just my own thoughts!! youre free to think whatever u want !! i am just putting my own knowledge into words because i genuinely love kama, and i would like for kama’s depth to be understood by the NA fandom a little more!! i try to stay as close as possible to their character in everything i do because i believe that the more in character they are, the funnier/more interesting content ppl will produce.

and hopefully i understood them well ???!!!! HOPEFULLY ?!

i will be screenshotting the translated reddit post under this read more and stop whenever something i find interesting to develop pops up ! or else it’ll get way too long lol if you wanna read the interlude for yourself heres the link!

with that said, let’s go!!

kama’s interlude begins with guda passing the hell out because of exhaustion and then waking up in a dream sequence where kama treats them to some relaxing adventures, stuff to take their mind off heavy things!! first dream sequence is kama roleplaying a highschool setting where they’re dating.

i like this because they openly admit that its an illusion, breaking the immersion but as long as youre okay with roleplaying, they’ll continue it LOL at some point, caesar mentions the student council president and arjuna appears behind him

since this is an illusion that kama made, i’ve been wondering about the fact that the way servants conduct eachother in this interlude is mostly because that’s how kama envisions they would act in a highschool setting, in an amusement park and finally with eachother (mostly for confirmed couples such as siegbryn, consort yu and her hubby etc...). suzuka and sei being gyarus is obvious, but arjuna as the student council president... is so cute???!!! i MEAN IT FITS ?! THATS A GREAT IDEA KAMA!!!! ANYWAY

this is kama’s first monologue and since they’re primarily the god of lust, all of the more vanilla stuff they mentions such as sharing a pair of headphones embarrasses them since its so tame. ITS CUTE !!! kama expects you to be horny in class !! what are you doing thinking about hand holding !!! medusa saves u from that tho with a direct reference to her relationship with kama’s vessel

this is interesting !! and reassuring !!! i think that kama as a character has a lot of depth and just reducing them to “sakura” would be a waste and this interlude shows how different they are from her. but they’re also similar! sakura went through a lot just like medusa says and kama does have trauma related to shiva. its not the same circumstances but the same kind of suffering which explains the nuance here. and what i like about chaldea is that there’s been multiple instances where its been proven that servants can grow thanks to their relationships with guda (most common example: leveling up your bonds) BUT ALSO, saint graph evolution (alts). and as a kama fan i’d like to see them happy someday and this interlude as a whole is proof of their healing/coping because of the time they spent in chaldea and how they interact with others. more on that later ! here, they don’t recognize medusa which is normal since they’re not sakura (someone else entierly), but...

they care about her ! because of sakura’s influence being a part of the servant called Kama(assassin). the difference here is important !! but i’ll come back on this in a bit. quick mention to the greek cupid <3 kamadusa nation we were fed (i clap by myself because im the only one who has 57575757557 kama rarepairs-----)

kama is a delinquent whos horny in class but still takes a few notes, enough to do well on their tests! and thats tea<3 smart horny lazyass !! theyre a gift

SO ARJUNA WAS OUT FOR BLOOD ????? ANYWAY, this is right after the actual fight against weirdo terrorists, and im happy to know that kama DOES enjoy a good fight (as proven in their voicelines as well) but theyre not a farming unit because it’d be too much work (single target NP..)...!!!!!!! lavish god of love....

FINALLYYYYYYYYYYY THE REAL DEAL !!!!!!!!!!!! “it feels wonderful to be your girlfriend” christ, kamadeva was so used to being a husband and a good lover, it reflected in their servant version.... but ree what do u mean by servant version???

I MEAN THE OBVIOUS !! kama explains it very well in the screenie just above !

“You know very well how servants work.”

KAMA ASSASSIN (the servant in your chaldea) is neither KAMADEVA or SAKURA MATOU or MARA. they’re a MIX OF PARTS OF THE THREE. creating an entierly new person(in this case, servant) !!!! it might sound like i’m repeating myself, but this is important!!!!!!!!! i will say this multiple times so people remember it !!! and if u already had this figured out: GOOD JOB I LOVE U !!!

Kamadeva (the god) has many stories, ones where he was born from concepts (dharma and shraddha), one where his parents are brahma and sarasvati, one where his parents are vishnu and lakshmi, stories about his reincarnation after his death where his parents are krishna and rukmini, his love with Rati and so on. We all know Sakura’s backstory since this is nasuverse. And Mara is a demon, an entity that tried to corrupt Buddha and prevent him from reaching enlightenment/stray from the path. Kama assassin has parts from all of these entities which explains why they have a vague longing for Rati, why they have a soft spot for Medusa and why they have an affinity with Kiara(and also like talking about corrupting u !).

they then mention how a japanese highschool setting is fun and all i have to say is: i’m gonna make an indo fam delinquent vs student council au out of this one folks !!!!!!!! i gotta !!!

OK next

TIME FOR THE SECOND DREAM SEQUENCE WHICH I WAS VERY VERY VERRRRRRRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYY AFRAID OF BEFORE THE TRANSLATION CAME OUT.

THE PART WHERE KAMA ACTS LIKE YOUR CHILD.

well with their stage 1 it was expected but without the translation i have to say that i was scared shitless! because people hate thinking! and even if kama clearly tells you that it’s a charade, u know a JOKE. A DREAM SEQUENCE. DONT BE A CREEP. KAMA INTENDED FOR IT TO BE WHOLESOME. i know some ppl wont use their brains. but u know its fgo and degenerates are everywhere.

anyways. family bonding time ensues until another monologue appears!!

exactly like before, kama mentions myths that belonged to kamadeva. Meaning that the Kama in our chaldea isn’t the Kamadeva we know and is not Pradyumna either but the fact that the writers chose to have kama acknowledge it is very reassuring !!! Because it means that they’ve chosen to make it a part of their (complicated) history. Kama says that Pradyumna is the myth about themself they know the least, once again proving us that the Kama in our Chaldea (Assassin) is a different entity and that they were summoned to the throne upon their death, the moment they were burned by Shiva’s flames and became Ananga, in any case they’re still familiar with all of their own myths. it allows us to keep heroic spirits separate from their original myths. Obviously! And in the case of pseudo-servants, it allows us to keep them separate from their vessels. Cuz this is a fanservice japanese game. Andddd the fandom likes forgetting this fact quite a lot i’ve noticed. As a person who loves thinking about tons and tons of headcanons for fun, this allows us a lot of space ! Because this is fate/grand order at its base. Nasuverse.

I’m glad that the interlude explains it so clearly, it’s very good !! Because the majority of myths from every culture are confusing, family trees are confusing, names are confusing, powers and attributes are confusing... its a mess !!!! the fgo characters we know are just cut from their own respective timelines/historial figures so the writers can organize themselves more easily. Like cutting halves from a big cake. Kama (Assassin) is the Kama that died from Shiva’s flames and became the universe ONLY. In Nasuverse, Arthur Pendragon is a woman. Anastasia Romanov NEVER had a demon familiar named Viy in real life despite the creature being part of russian folklore. u know ! im russian i can testify dude !!

hopefully everyone got this bc i wont be explaining this any further dude, its exhausting !!!!!! bangs my hands on the table !!!!!

ANYWAYS kama mentions “eternal pain that turns [them] into ash” being their key element. Their trauma is at the center of their heroic spirit self, what they are as a servant. This suffering is tied to everything they do, why they’re so lazy, why they’re so lax, why they’re so detached from their job. But they’re not detached from their role. And “job” and “role” have different connotations here. They refuse to work as a cupid because of obvious reasons. BUT. They’re not detached from their role as the God of Love, as the God of Passion. The embodiment of those feelings. This whole interlude is proof ! They’re giving u free therapy because they Love you. Passion. They feel your love. Passion. They acknowledge how much fun you’re having. How passionate you are about certain things. They might seem extremely detached and hateful, but they aren’t. They’re one of the most empathetic servants there is. And their ability to love everything, even the things they hate is what makes them so miserable. Because it’s a part of them. Because the concept of Kama in hinduism is linked to them. Be it lust or simply the passion born from anything you do where you’re enjoying yourself. (quote: “ the term also refers to any sensory enjoyment, emotional attraction and aesthetic pleasure such as from arts, dance, music, painting, sculpture and nature “. R. Prasad (2008), History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization )

... I’d like to say that this contrast with Mara is interesting. And that i’m glad the writers chose to add in Mara to the kama assassin Beast mix.

Because the anger Mara feels can become a drivepoint for Kama. I’ve always believed that anger and sadness are two sides of the same coin, it’d explain how layered Kama is and how valid their emotions are. Constantly torn between love and hate. An eternal grudge (i don’t deserve to be hurt like this) and an eternal misery(maybe i do deserve to be hurt like this).

i wish they were my roommate <3 oh fuck ree got emotional wait where were we.

OH YEAH

i think kama saying that they dislike being involved with other indian servants because theyre linked to shiva is a feeble attempt at trying to keep up a strong front because they still love them in the end. cuz that’s how kama is ! after a while they’ll get bored of bullying ganesha and ashwatthama. they’ll get interested in rama because their respective mythos are linked even if their servant selves have no connection. hell, at the end of the interlude they talk about parvati and how they themself changed and realized things. BUT OH WELL, THATS STUFF FOR ANOTHER POST HEHE thats just ree wanting kama to b happy yall move along !!

.....THIS ISNT A COLLEGE STUDENTS ROLEPLAY BUT ITS A CUTE JAPANESE COMPANY BOSS/UNDERLING SETTING AND ITS CUTE SO I THINK KAMA WEARING A PENCIL SKIRT AND POURING U ALCOHOL IS CUTE. CUTE.

further proof of kama’s overflowing affection and what i detailed above!! hopefully u all knew this one simply from reading this interlude/their profile page and dont need me to write it down for u. HOPEFULLY !!!!!

(I START BEATBOXING VERY RAPIDLY AND RUNNING TOWARDS YOU) KAMA IS A SADIST AT THEIR CORE AND I WILL NEVER STOP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! they’re easy to fluster because theyre not used to being so vanilla, but whats underneath is how they truly are !! a beast turned servant, the sweetest sadist !! theyre very mature and this interlude is so well written (wipes my teears

this is directly linked to what i explained above, by burning you away, you’ll melt into nothingness just like they did. When they were the universe, they felt both everything and nothing.

But was it really relief ... ?

... IT WASNT.

AND PARVATI SAVES THE DAY !!!!!!! phew!! thank u paru, it’d still like to be able to touch kama’s huge titties and i cant do that if i turn into ashes (falls down the stairs

ok she summoned lovey dovey canon couples to annoy kama since they’re exhausted of seein them!!

...............(I TAKE OUT A KNIFE) TAKE THAT BACK. DONT TALK TO THEM LIKE THAT. TAKE THAT BACK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ohhhhhh im obsessed i love when theyre angry<3 i love when theyre fighty <3 i think they should beat the living shit out of a boxing bag DAILY to let out some of this steam. they’d be a monster on the ring... aaa kama in training boot y shorts aa a .. .uughg hg ouu... (you all shove me into a locker)

ok this is interesting !! i think that the interlude showing us that parvati feels a semblance of guilt is character dev. proof for what i mentioned before!! in ookuu parvati felt quite ..unsympathetic to me, even if kama is a beast who wants to annihilate humanity, when u think about it, at their core their grudge is because of her and shiva’s betrayal. and here, she properly apologizes for making kama so upset. this is heartwarming to me since i dislike thinking that members of the indo fam hate eachother :( same goes for arjuna and karna, at some point i’d like for them to act like bros normally and finally be comfy. but anyways !!

u wake up from the dreams and da vinci, mashu and paru are here to tell u whats going on. But its fine bc u remember everything and u have to go thank someone for helping u out!!!

CUTE !!!!!!! THEY CARE ABOUT U !!!!!! but whether it be because of their role or because theres a deeper meaning is entierly up to your own interpretation because...

of what they say here.

and here !!

ohhhhhhhhh this is so important !!!!!!

this is actual proof of kama’s growth as a servant and how servants evolve in chaldea !! chaldea is not the same as a grail war, its a special, cut-off place and thats what makes it even more relaxing to think about. Everytime u summon a servant in ur chaldea u give them a chance to have fun with you, to have fun with other servants, to make amends, to start from scratch, to discover things they would’ve never known in their time (movies, video games, tons of different foods etc...), u give them a chance to relax. to grow !! this is the headcanon that im most attached to and im glad to see it be confirmed in the interlude of a character i love tbqh i had to stop and talk about that.

everyone say thank u kama !! can we roleplay a college roommate coffee shop slowburn au next time <3

ANYWAYS if you’ve read it this far: thank you !!! im sorry if you expected something very serious, im not that type of person hehe im jus here to have fun and look at things i like, and the interlude itself was quite lighthearted and refreshing. By talking about the myths and all of kamadeva’s stories, the writers basically gave lore nerds a huge thumbs up like... “its ok now !! u can go ape now !! go be insane<3 love u<3″ and all of this kama characterization GENUINELY makes me so happy because i think they really needed that. kama assassin... (i blow a kiss to the sky) is a little mess of a servant... a god, human crumbs and a demon... a total mess... im in love with them...

..............tho now the wait for a summer alt where they interact with the entire indo fam begins (im sitting in a chair unmoving)(i have a gun in case minase begins acting gross

#ree's fgo hcs #kama #WONT TAG THIS ONE AS A WHOLE BC IM... A LIL SHY TO BE HONEST #its just a kama fan rambling bro....... jus a kama fan liking the interlude man.....#like i said at the beginning of the post its just my thoughts<3

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phemonoi · 4 years

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Philosophy | Divine Madness

Plato's Phaedrus.

I wanted to start with this dialogue because even if it comes kind of late in history of antiquity, it really describes a very important part of greek tradition that influenced later philosophy and was very much present in romantic poetry and art. It's also a very pretty dialogue and one of my favorites. The Phaedrus of Plato was written in his midlife, around the 370 B.C. It presents his famous allegory of the Chariot, where he states that the soul has “wings” and explains how it becomes material, but mainly the dialogue is about love and the Madness of the Gods, which will be my specific focus here. This dialogue has been wrongly treated as mainly aesthetic, but the truth it's a theological dialogue with many spiritual additions, because love was for Plato a spiritual thing, not just an art or a satisfaction.

☀️ Synthesis

So let’s establish a little bit of context. The dialogue takes place in the countryside, and its actors are Socrates, as usual, Phaedrus, and Lysias (although he’s just mentioned). Lysias is a famous sophist, meaning he’s a speaker, and Phaedrus has a copy of one of Lysias’ most recent speeches, that after a lot of teasing and insistance, he ends up reading to Socrates. The speech verses about how it’s best to establish erotic relationships with a loveless person, rather than do it with a passionate lover. What Lysias says is that the loveless person won’t end up attaching to you, and the relationship won’t create gossip, involve jealousy, and it will much certainly allow for a larger selection of other lovers. Socrates is actually very sarcastic so he replies to this conclusion that Lysias should’ve written about the benefits of being the lover of an older or poorer man rather than a younger and richer one, and his words would be a good cause for the whole city. However, Socrates demostrates why he disagrees with Lysias, pointing precisely at the divine nature of passionate love. So in a very, very beautiful manner Socrates discusses why it's more beneficial to be loyal rather than a hoe lol. The dialogue treats the knowledge of the Gods and the nature of passion, how it comes to our souls through Eros, and helps us get closer to the divine and experience Them. This speech of Socrates is called the palinode.

☀️ The immortality of the Soul

First of all Socrates points at the immortality of the soul. To prove the existence of the Soul —of course, with the scientific knowledge available to them in their time—, Socrates points out movement. Things move because of a force, or because of will. For him, the sole observation that the Cosmos is full of movement and it's constantly advancing is enough proof for the existence of will and force, and thus the Soul. It's as easy as follows: things that move because of an external agent move by force and lack a soul, like stones, for example, or leaves. Things that move because of will have a soul and are bound to excercice it. For Socrates, the sun seems to move by will so it's evident that he has a soul, a much more complete soul than ours, bigger, and that makes him divine. The being that moves by will won't stop living, he says, because his movement must be continuous; if we move by will, but we die, then there's a part of us that doesn't die; our souls are divine and immortal. The body is a receptor of the soul, since movement by its own is the escence of the soul, and drive by force the escence of the body. So basically Socrates is saying you have soul because you can choose, you can think, you can move by will, and things that don't have a soul are less complex and can't do all of this. A body moved by will is animate, a body moved by force is inanimate.

Socrates then explains that the Universal Soul rules over the inanimate matter, and makes its evolution through the cosmos, manifesting itself under a million different forms. He speaks also of the wings of the Soul, that carry with them what is heavy (the material body) to the superior regions, where the Gods reside. This means that the Soul participates in divinity, through vibration. To explain it with a more modern concept: low vibes get you closer to matter, high vibes get you closer to the Gods. He also mentions that the Gods can't be defined by reason because reason is a human thing; nature lacks it, the universe lacks it, it's ours, and it's entirely theoretical.

Socrates also speaks of Himeros, God of desire and love; the feeling of exaltation that comes from him elevates the soul and helps it recover its wings. Socrates says:

“This affection, love, mortals know as Eros, the winged God; but the immortals know him as Pteros, the giver of wings.”

☀️ Theia Mania —the madness of the Gods

Remember what Socrates said about reason being unable to define the Gods? In Phadrus, Socrates exchange human intelligence for something greater and more beneficial: divine madness.

I know this is supposed to be our main topic, but really: Plato doesn't really say much about it. However, according to Thomas Taylor (who you should definitely read if you ever wonder about Plato, because he was an expert on the matter and openly pagan), Plato was usually exalted and inspired by divine madness when writing, specially dialogues like this one¹.

So as we had discussed in the summary, the dialogue starts with a discussion between Socrates and Phaedrus on Lysias' speech about choosing a non-lover rather than a “mad” lover. Phaedrus agreed that the mad lover will cause problems because he is so drunk in passion, that he cannot control himself: however, the non-lover will be satisfying enough, perhaps a bit cold, but won't cause troubles because he won't be invested in the relationship. As we know, the cause of desire is Eros. But Eros is a God, Socrates says, and Gods cannot be the cause of harm, ever. So the desire that the God has inspired in the mad lover must then be of good nature, beneficial and excellent. This madness of love, then, leads in the end to the highest kind of philosophical cognition.

There is two types of madness: the human type involving an internal state of psychic disharmony, and a divine type, involving possession by a God. Socrates says that the divine type of madness is always good, and we can see it in the Pythia, the priestess of Apollo. He says that when magicians try to read divine symbols or interpret certain phenomena, like the shape of the clouds or the sound of the birds, this is a type of wondering of the future that lacks divine inspiration because it uses human knowledge and it's more possible to fail. However, when the Pythia is possessed and inspire, it has been proven that her prophecies are true, and they do happen; she is actually losing control of her body to let the Divine enter her mind. These prophecies have always been beneficial to humankind, so this madness of the Gods is good and is real.

There is four types of divine madness, Socrates says:

Ecstatic Madness: caused by Apollo and Dionysos. Mantika, the prophetic madness of Apollo, and Telestika, the ritual madness of Dionysos. Then there's Inspirational Madness: caused by the Muses and Aphrodite. Poetika, the artistic madness of the Muses, and Erotika, the passionate madness of Aphrodite and the Erotes.

This madness spontaneously adapts itself to its producing cause, imitating a divine power, and thus necessarily becomes magnificent, vehement, and exuberant: for such are the characteristics of it's source².

Ain't this beautiful? The idea of divine madness will be later developed by neoplatonists and adapted to a set of practices called theurgy, which will presume the aid of achieving such unity with the Gods.

☀️ Observations

When reading on this topic, one must be careful and check the sources. Plato is a philosopher thats has been thoroughly misinterpreted and edited across history by both atheists and christians. Most authors will tell you he was a monotheist, or even an atheist. He wasn't: Plato was the product of his time and his culture, and a polytheist. When he speaks of divine madness and the Gods he does so literally, as he's a faithful and pious philosopher. His metaphysics are pluralistic and this dialogue is an evidence of such.

On another topic, we can see divine madness across many cultures in human history. The possession by a God always leads to a greater benefit and is good and pleasurable. So one can judge many experiences based on this: the possession by a lower spirit wouldn't bring forward the same results, emotions and characteristics that the possession by a Divine agent would.

So I want to know, if you've come this far, what do you think about Plato's approach to Divine Madness? do you have any thoughts on this concept? Please add your comments, I'll be glad to read them!

I hope this post has helped, there will be more ☀️💫🌻 A sidenote: this post and the whole series of Philosophy of the Gods is being made in devotion to Apollo, as he is the God of Philosophy, my patron God as a disciple, and was the God of Socrates.

Sources:

¹ Plato, Phaedrus, spanish edition (Gredos).

² Thomas Taylor, Introduction to Philosophy and Writings of Plato, The Prometheus Trust Edition.

#hellenic pagan #theoi #hellenic polytheism #hellenic polytheist #aphroditedeity #hellenic paganism #pagan #apollodeity #greek polytheism #hermesdeity #dionysosdeity #divine madness #theia mania #plato #phaedrus #philosophy of the gods

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frillshark-fr · 4 years

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having a site where gijinkas are baked into lore and part of official art stuff sounds like a really good idea on the surface since it’s combining dollmakers and petsites (and shapeshifters), two (three) different things i like a lot, but i also really enjoy robust genetics mechanics in pet sites ......... but the moment i tried applying them to humanoids it really easily turned from Gijinka Pet Site to Eugenics Pet Site, which is. obviously bad. that could go really, really fucking badly. im going to continue hashing this out under the cut since i ended up writing basically an essay on this thing literally no one cares about but its FINE

i really want to find a way that gracefully bridges these concepts but anything I can come with is still like, breeding humans for aesthetic appeal/”better genes” at the end of the day? which.... eighgjghhg. eieighghd. The more I thought about how to handle stuff like body type, gender, race/skin tone (especially that one. especially that one) etc the more complex and bad it got

I still feel like there’s a way to have a “pet” site with collectible customizable humanoid characters but it’d have to rely heavily on randomly-generated characters with additional customization on the part of the player (giving a character a haircut and an outfit, for example, is not eugenics), without any kind of breeding going on, which is more like one of those mobile gacha anime character collecting games with an additional customization component rather than the Pet Site that I want. that could still be fun, actually, but it’s just not what I want

I don’t even think “site mechanics =/= lore”* would solve it, since even if the official lore of the world is that it’s all natural two-consenting-adults-having-a-good-time thing in lore, in the real world it’s still players picking and choosing genes they think are Good or Bad and breeding to select/avoid them, which reads really badly. it’s fine on sites like FR since there’s no actual human element to them and we’re not giving arbitrary value to the genes of actual living human beings, it’s just colorful pixel lizards with no real analogue to any actual group of people :v

just because i fear someone will say this if i don’t preempt it: maybe i could avoid some of the worst of it by doing a huge dumb cop-out and making all the characters have non-human skin tones, but a) like i said. that’s a dumb shitty cop-out and basically just as bad for a variety of reasons b) my own aesthetic taste . i just. don’t like non-human skintones on humanoid characters. this is my fantasy pet site that doesn’t nor will ever exist and i get to choose the aesthetics. if undel is allowed to not like dragon pants, im allowed to not like blue people

*(side tangent: i think giving fan-lore to site mechanics on FR, like the auction house and exalting, is kinda dumb. i know exalting does have official lore, but the auction house doesn’t, and it doesn’t need any, it’s completely outside the text and serves only for player interaction and we don’t need to loreify everything guys it’s just a game mechanic it’s jUST A GAME MECHANIC)

BUT i really want to make a hypothetical-site in the same lore vein as FR where there are no human(oid) caretaker avatars like Dappervolk and others... Where it’s less of a “pet” site where you pretend to take care of little animal friends, you’re building up a group of people (or groups of people!) who all have complex relationships with each other... sandbox style creative environment with just enough scaffolding to let players go wild with their own ideas and ample opportunity for character creation rather than something thats strictly Pet Care... Which is a little different from a Pet Site at that point I think? A new branch on the evolutionary tree of Pet Sites, less of a Pet Site and more of a Character Site?? Maybe that’s why I vibe with FR more than other pet sites, since it’s only kind of a PET site. I wouldn’t call any of my dragons PETS, they’re closer to OCs, yknow? and that seems to be the draw for basically every FR player I know. theres room in the world for an evolution of this concept and id LOVE to be able to take part in making that, but it also sounds extremely difficult and i have no idea where one would even begin

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rapidlychangingfandoms · 4 years

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Do you ever just overthink video game abstractions that exist purely for the purpose of gameplay? Me neither! Also, heres a list of headcanons for what Sora’s abilities would be like if he was consistent

Firstly, how I am basing these: Since the games seem to be kinda conflicted on how well he does certain things, I’m going to be basing them first on 1, as his main aesthetic and what comes naturally, then 3 as its the latest, 2 since its the last mainline, and then all the fun title games that has him.

His normal keyblade style, in its most simplest form, is a sort of “wack them with magic” philosophy. A lot of the things he can do is imbue his keyblade with the magics(stuff like gravity break from kh1), where the spell is enhancing the swing. Its based on really quick, light strikes (based on the fact he is the speed medal in Ux, and the fact the games are vague enough).

Whenever he uses more magical methods, they usually are more bursts of power than tightly controlled and woven spells(This is primarily crap like Tornado, Lethal Frame and Holy, big displays of power, kinda seems like its barely under his control). He does have more varied magic than people give him credit for, and kept a good understanding of how to combine them from castle oblivion. Has Spark, all the main title elements, with aero being its kh3 variant. Powerful magic, and it climaxes with the grand magics, a burst of one elemental spell. Cannot fine tune any one elements or really control them beyond what they normally do.

His more unique abilities come from the ability to connect with hearts, both of the people’s and the worlds. Also side note i do believe that Sora got the x-blade from xehanort at the end of 3. Anyways, his ability to connect with peoples hearts is what allows him to summon them, and usually empower them somewhat, elevating them permanently above disney status. For example, Bambi. That dear deer would have started out as a lost heart, which Sora connected with. Now, if there had been no summons, Bambi would likely just be able to, say, lick wounds closed better than normal. But after helping Sora, he is able to recharge the spirit(mp) and health of people by jumping around them, bringing forth the nature of the world in bounties of light. If thats not an upgrade I don’t know what is.

However, when Sora’s heart connects with worlds, it forms what the majority of his fighting style is built around: Extreme Adaptability. In this head canon novelization overthinking excercise, keyblade transformations are in fact the result of Sora’s heart connecting permanently (and Sora does keep his keyblades, no getting oblivion 10 times) with the world, or some other person’s heart. Im just gonna say theoretically every bond can have a keyblade to explain why Halloween can have both Pumpkinhead and Decisive Pumpkin, one is the bond with the world the other the bond with Jack. These bonds can be tapped at will to unleash keyblade transformations, with stuff like Lady Luck turning into a deck of cards or Three Wishes turning into a flaming bouquet, with moogle upgrades allowing for more forms (going off the khux evolution system because aesthetics) and at the peak level 10 equivalent it gets the finisher.

Going away from combat, he has one of the most fine tuned senses for the keyhole of sleep, seeing as he uses it more as a way to visit friends, and the fact he has been able to enter it since before he got the keyblade. I’d even go so far as to say he might be able to go to the realm of death casually now, seeing as he managed it in the kh3 station. He has managed to make the station of awakening into his own little corner of it, residing within his heart and being able to roughly communicate across the bonds that it holds. This is mainly based on his entire schtick being his friends, and also is based on the fact that Yen Sid mentioned that Sora had the ability to connect to people on a level much weaker but still akin to summons when he gave him meow wow (according to my interpretation of the scene).

He also is pretty handy with the metaphysical keyholes littered around the world. He has a knack for opening the gates between or whatever the kh2 keyholes are, and is also able to add a metaphysical keyhole to doors like we saw with monsters inc.

#sora #kingdom hearts 3 #kingdom hearts #kh #kingdom heart #*slaps sora’s head* this boy can fit so many headcanons #honestly why did i do this #good boy sora dies on command #borders between realms? thats for nerds #gravity deserves better #keyblade transformations and keyblade evolution are so cool tho

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3ternaln0w · 5 years

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Journalist Jaroslaw Kowal interviewed Luton for Dni Muzyki Nowej Festival, Jan 2019.

Jaroslaw Kowal: Is that correct that “Black Box Animals” were written and recorded in various places across the Europe? How long did it take to make a whole album?

Rob: Yes, That’s correct. The whole thing took about 7 months, If I remember well.

Attilio: I think we had a clear vision from the beginning, it’s been a delicate and complex process but at same time everything was quite instinctive and so, step by step, we ended up at the crucial part of the album and for what I remember the last month was something really intense.

J: Was it initially planned to record music in several places or did You made that decision spontaneously?

R: It wasn’t initially planned, but since I was traveling quite a lot in Europe at that time, at some point I just realized it was way more enjoyable and spontaneous writing/composing on the road, getting ideas whilst hiking in the wilderness instead of being isolated in a studio like we normally do, so I personally tried to keep that way as much as possible. It was like a back and forth nature/studio.

A: Being all the time in a studio could be extremely boring and unproductive, sometimes. The fact the Black Box Animals was recorded in several different places is in my opinion what makes this music authentic and possibly with a so called wild character. So even without planning that much, that happened eventually.

J: “Black Box Animals” is a very dark album, with field recordings included and many different instruments, yet I wouldn’t call it a 100% experimental music - there’s a lot of melody in it. What is a perfect balance between those two worlds that for many musicians are opposite and can’t be combined?

R: Melody was already part of the intuition when Luton thing started, but at the same time nothing was really planned as we were open to the different explorations and sonic practices. I remember when I initially spoke about the idea to Attilio, I was probably way more into the orchestral part of the package but the bigger picture eventually came to us ended up in this sort of collision between those two worlds, strings and abstract electronics. We weren’t interested in being stuck in a single genre or label, though. In this terms we probably see Luton like a sort of open laboratory.

A: Neither do I consider Black Box Animals as a 100% experimental album and even the use of field-recordings is something marginal in my opinion. Creating compositions for classical instruments, sometimes even really ancient ones like russian zithers for example, and blend them with their opposite in terms of nature of sound, that was the main effort in this case. The contrast between a certain dark atmosphere that permeates the whole work and melody is just the natural consequence of the process in itself.

J: Is experimental or improvised music actually evolving? Do You see it changing across last five-six decades or is it more or less the same? On the other hand pop music - which is often seen as music without a soul - is clearly changing year after year. That makes me wonder, which of those is actually more progressive?

R: That’s a tricky question. I’ve never considered pop music a thing without soul, anyway. Music is music but also it is much more than that. We could discuss about that for a long while now and I’m pretty sure that would be very exciting to find out where every word could lead us at some point, the language-like stuff would come out, but at end of the day, I don’t really believe separateness is a great idea, so if you relate the word “experimental” in a John Cage way, thats perfectly fine by me then. We experiment with sounds. That’s what we do and lots of musicians in every genre do, after all. Everything else changes all the time and nothing really ends. It’s not like the world’s gone to shit now and stuff like that, almost the opposite I’d say. It’s a feedback loop, we -as human beings- don’t really need to put some language on it.

A. I personally think that experimental music is always in a never ending evolution. There are several artists keep going in really interesting directions, and this for me means looking for a personal expressive code, basically. But, in my opinion, there’s an annoying downside in contemporary music which is in the difficulty to perceive distinctly the artistic value from the marketing side. Marketing has nothing to do with quality in music or in art in general. Everybody knows that but unfortunately is really frequent that poor and soulless music are sold as sensational hype in really closed circuits, which is something we don’t really like or support honestly. About pop music, well, my preferences are often limited to what I used to listen to when I was younger, so for me it has an almost exclusively emotional value.

J: You are both from Italy, but at Your facebook page Stockholm is set as a home town. Are You located there at the moment and why did You decided to leave Italy?

R: We’ve been to Stockholm a couple of times. We were involved in a sound residency in electronic music at Ems Studios, a truly magical place with an extraordinary vibe and amazing staff. We recorded massive amounts of raw sounds and crazy “bleep booops shshshs trtrrtrtr” (…) from this incredible Buchla modular synthesizer but nothing from those sessions really ended up Luton, eventually. Sad story. But a couple of tracks in the album were recorded there and especially “Sodermalm Phantom Cab” is something really influenced by our Swedish adventures at EMS studios and good times spent together in Sweden. Said that, I’ve been living in Manchester (UK) for a couple of years now and Attilio lives in Southern Italy. There’s not a really specific reason why I have decided to leave Italy I’m afraid, I guess I was interested in leaving my comfort zone for a while at that time.

A: The connection between Black Box Animals and Stockholm is something really strong and without our time spent together in Sweden, our music would not be made in this way, I’m pretty sure. I personally have always lived in Catanzaro, a small windy city in the deepest south of Italy. But generally speaking, traveling is always a great inspiration for the musical composition. However, I tend to always come back to my hometown. I’m going to spend at least three months in Madrid in Spain in the next few months and I am curious to see what this will bring to my music.

J: Stereotypically Italy - or even whole southern Europe - is seen as a sunny place with parties from dusk till dawn, but Your compositions are very far from that. Is it actually that rare to hear Italian band playing so dark and melancholic music?

R: It seems we’re definitely far from that then ahah, but yeah lots of music from Italy it is indeed. It’s not that rare at all. And If you have the chance to check out some experimental music from ‘60-70s too, Archivio Rai or early minimalism, Luciano Cilio, and many others, well, that’s not sunny music at all. Speaking about melancholia, well could be probably because of a sort of mediterranean DNA, couldn’t be? It’s a cultural thing or something like that I guess. But yeah, sun is good. FACT!

A: What Roberto said is true, I believe that the melancholic connotation of music reflects a character, but it is something really difficult to explain with words indeed. Søren Kierkegaard said: “if you ask a melancholic what reason he has for his condition, what do you know what is it, I can not explain it? “Therein lies melancholy’s infinitude.”

J: I’ve seen Your rider and it seems that You have a very clear idea of how Your live shows should look like - no front lights, just monochromatic light behind You or completely dark room with the smoke. I can see how it fits music from “Black Box Animals”, but do You need that only for visual aspect or does it help You get into right mood? Is it somehow helping You on stage?

R: Something truly interesting happens when you listen, performing or doing things in the darkness and/or in self-imposed situations/conditions. I mean, it doesn’t have to be complete darkness, but we try to avoid any interference from music, like visuals, heavy lighting or too many things going together at the same time. Maybe in the future could be different, we are open to explore different ways actually.

A: Darkness is something really helpful to stay focused, but also for meditation and contemplation in general, and I believe it can facilitate people joining any kind of experience. In regard to the live show we would like not having any kind of aesthetic or sensory impulse to interfere the sound. This is also really helpful for us to play in the right condition in order to enter in our dimension. A black box.

J: First sentence in Your bio states that “Luton is an anti modernist duo” - is that because modernism is mostly about realism and it seems that Your music is more about “magic”?

R: That was a statement by Attilio so I would like to ask him if he could explain to us. But yes, about magic, what could I really say? I really do like the idea about that, if you ask me. Music or I would say sound primarily is magic indeed to me, like a primitive force or an invisible spirit world that I pretend to comprehend, and in my mind disturbing a system that I can’t understand and see what happens, well that’s what I call an experiment. At the same time the nature of sound is really similar to botanic or biology. With sounds you can say these big abstract things, something you can’t express with the alphabet. When the word fails the magic happens. Paying attention, contemplation, contradiction, moving all things back where there is nothing is probably my subconscious purpose. And -in this purpose- nature of sounds is my white light, my teaching voice.

A: You should add something really crucial to what you said, Rob. Capitalist Realism, the book by Mark Fisher was a great inspiration for the making of the album. We both are into Fisher vision of the modern life, and we are sadly observing that the widespread feeling of resignation and unhappiness that permeates our lives in general really depends on the capitalistic system and the neoliberalism that has changed any aspect of the social sphere. So work and life, social and real life became inseparable, capital follows us when we sleep, and unfortunately as you can imagine music and arts are included in the symptoms of our current cultural malaise too. Luton is anti-modernist in the sense that we try to reject our frustration of dealing with a so called entrepreneurial fantasy society, by trying to support ourselves to the ritual, the shamanic, the primitive, but also the anarchist side of the music, possibly without being attached too much to something in particular in terms of genre or hype.

J: It’s a bit of a cliché to call an album a soundtrack to non-existing movie, but “Black Box Animals” sounds very cinematic. Did You draw any inspirations from cinema art?

R: I personally studied cinema and wrote about that quite a lot when I was younger, so most probably thats still a big influence to me, but yeah we are both inspired by movies for sure. In terms of sounds, I think the way I worked with the orchestral part in this album is what makes the whole thing very cinematic, stuff like 4d sounds, spatialization, timbres etc. We are now interested in a different approach for the new material which is slightly more like painting or drawing abstract lines but with sound dynamics. You have to capture the right thing, but you don’t know what the right thing means exactly. Most of the times, I have not any clue about what’s going on, I’m just one of those dots between all these abstractions around me like a string extending from the top of my head to a distant cloud or star. It’s really odd.

A: Ours is a cinematic music for sure. Rob and I often discuss ourselves a lot about cinema and we constantly share different point of views about that. This in fact has played an important role in our friendship, I must say. For a song of the album, “Sodermalm Phantom Cab”, we asked Ion Indolean, a young Romanian filmmaker, to direct a videoclip. His style is in some ways similar to new Greek neorealism. We would also like to experiment with other forms of cinema and filmmakers in the near future.

J: What I’m quite sure is that dance and theatre are inspiration for You - both of You have experience in that field. How different is that to writing music without a script You need to fit to?

R: They are, indeed, especially contemporary dance personally. Writing music for commissions is challenging, sometimes frustrating, not always rewarding but you generally learn a lot from it which is good.

A: Experience I had with dance and theatre helped me to develop the ability to adapt my sounds to a context that was almost completely unknown to me. I find it much easier to express myself with self-defined limits. The work I did for Luton was facilitated by the complexities of previous experiences.

J: There are lots of the instruments on “Black Box Animals”, but I guess it’s not possible to bring them all on a live show? How different is this material live to what can be heard on album?

R: Thats considerably different. I would say the album is more like a sort of slow journey whilst the live version maybe a bit more like a black vortex, and consequently more physical, droney and abstract, but also we’re trying to get the job done with some reiterative piano moments in between and we’ll see how it goes. Does it make sense? I don’t know, everything is a process indeed.

A: At this stage we should prepare ourselves to the darkest side of Luton. However, there will be the presence of the piano which is something we’re really into at the moment.

J: What struck me the most is that You’ve started Luton just recently, but it feels like You understands each other perfectly. Were You a friends before starting Luton?

R: Well, I think we impersonate each other in a way, as we actually met each other only twice in the real life and we also live in different countries. But -you know- in Luton we’re just two guys swapping these sort of messy lines on a white canvas, making a lot room for fuckery if you know what I mean. For me that makes sense and it’s way more interesting and flexible that being in the same room jamming on ideas or having strict roles. There’s a kind of mix between mistery, alchemy and playfulness between us and I think we really enjoy.

A: We live in different countries, that’s a fact, but that doesn’t make much difference. Sometimes our level of interaction might be really intense and so our conversations. This is one of the positive sides of the internet age, after all. We’ve known each other for several years but in my opinion he’s like a childhood friend of mine. Connections between people have something mysterious and impossible to understand on a deep level, sometimes.

J: In January You’ll perform in Poland for the first time. Do You have any favorite artists that comes from here?

R: Penderecki and Eugeniusz Rudnik.

A: Apart from Penderecki, I enjoyed the music of contemporary ambient-experimental musicians like Gregg Kowalsky and Jacaszek.

A mention for my friend Nicholas Szczepanik too, American but with Polish origins.

J: Thanks for Your time.

R: Thanks so much, guys

A: Dziękuję, do widzenia.

#festival #luton #blackboxanimals

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viralhottopics · 7 years

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What is the future of design in a Snapchat world?

Image: snapchat

Lets be honest: Snapchat has defied conventional design aesthetic and user experience.

By any objective measure, the app should not have been a successful endeavor. Yet, here we are. Snapchat is one of the most popular interactive platforms in the digital space. It has more users than LinkedIn, Pinterest, or Twitter, and its daily video views have increased 400% year over year.

The app is poised to continue its explosive growth because it gives the end user something that they didnt even know they wanted and now cant seem to live without. As someone who believes in the value of design, this disconnect has always intrigued me.How could something that breaks traditional aspects of design be so popular?

Our Approach

This question illuminates the evolution of design value. Outside of tried and true methods, smart visual aesthetics and well-thought user experiences, designing for the Snapchat world (and frankly, the future) has become more about what resonates with humans and their needs and whether or not it works.

But why does it work when you break the rules? It works because people are human and they have unique needs. Designers need to consider this above all else. The other piece thats interesting is Snapchat exists not because the apps experience is great, but because of immediacy, informality, and instant video. It allows people to create content that requires no thought, no editing, and no polish an approach users have clearly found increasingly irresistible.

At Ready Set Rocket, we believe the success of Snapchatdespite its deficiencieshints at a new definition for what “good design means.

Good design is distinctive, coherent, and effective (even if it isnt traditionally attractive)

You can see this principle in action in other places as well. Reddit, for example, has long prioritized authenticity and content over aesthetics and also continues to thrive. For them and many others, good design means thinking bigger, not thinking perfect a lesson we should all pay attention to.

The same goes for meme culture. Memes have aided in the liberation of amateur visuals. Theyre quick, down and dirty, unpolished graphics yet highly effective at communicating a thought or emotion across a range of demographics.

So how do you design in this new world? We give our team three key pieces of advice.

1. Be Courageous

Always try something new. Just because an approach is out there and established does not mean its the right solution.We are a young discipline in a young industry, and while its tempting to fall back on whats been tried and proven, thats not always the best answer for the problem you are trying to solve.

This requires swapping perfectionism for experimentation. For some brands, this means being ugly to get a response (thinkBloomberg Businessweek) or being distinct even when that appears unpolished at first blush (seethe new Met museum logo).

Its our responsibility as designers to push the boundaries for the right solution, especially since in many cases, the right solution doesnt exist yet.

2. Design for the forest, not the trees

Yes, perfect kerning on one layout is great, but what really makes something successful these days is how well it works across multiple touches. Thats why, when jumping into design, an approach we encourage on our team is getting 80% done as quickly as possible before polishing.

One way we encourage this is with an exercise called Crazy Eights. Adapted from Google Ventures, this practice challenges designers to use pencil and paper to rapidly sketch 8 potential solutions to a design problem in 8 minutes before stepping back to decide on an approach.This forces us to identify the right direction before getting too far in the weeds, resulting in more strategic designs and a more efficient process than the traditional polish-as-you-go workflow.

Throughout this process, focus on multiplicity. A single experience is the result of many design pieces working together in a beautiful way. This, of course, requires more complex thinking. However, the ability to apply one consistent vision across many working parts is ultimately the key to creating an evocative experience.

A great example is Maple, David Changs premium Manhattan food delivery service. From the site and app through to the food containers and vests for delivery, the experience is absolutely seamless. While the design is clean and simple, its clear that most of the thought and energy has gone into ensuring every single detail of the customers journey is impeccably guided. The result is absolutely best-in-class.

3. Remember: Its for everyone else, not just for you

Empathy. Something every designer needs to consider above all else. As designers, were making websites, apps, things for real human beings who have specific mindsets and goals. We often forget to put ourselves in someone elses shoes and instead focus on what it looks like or how it functions in a vacuum versus in real life.

End-to-end, good design doesnt need to be overly complicated but rather should aim to solve a larger challenge. Casper, the mattress company, does an impeccable job at turning empathy into design that works in the real world. They leveraged a real human truth (mattress shopping sucks and delivery is difficult) to develop a simply designed, smart product and even more delightful shopping experience.

Beyond this, the makers of Casper didnt have to design a product that fit inside of a box to simplify the lives of everyone else despite cost implications on the companys bottom line. They did it anyway.

Conclusion

Design in a Snapchat world is design with a much larger definition. As technology continues to evolve, so too do user expectations and the necessity of crafting coherent experiences with multiple touch points across lots of different media. Keeping up requiresthinking in systems rather than thinking in standards putting design in a position to have greater impact on a business than ever before.

Basic systematic rules, such as visual consistency and clear UI, used to guide every designers approach to creating an app or website. These were obvious goals for any given project. Not necessarily easy to accomplish, but accepted across the board as what to strive for. However, all that is changing.Technology trends and user expectations are constantly in flux, forcing major shifts in design thinking.

Following the rules is no longer a prerequisite to success, and as weve seen with the overwhelming popularity of Snapchat, breaking them can even be an effective strategy.

Cole Sletten is Creative Director at Ready Set Rocket, a full service Digital Marketing Agency that specializes in Digital Marketing Strategy, Search Engine Marketing, Web Design, and more. Cole specializes in the fusion of strategic brand thinking and empathetic interaction design, as well as leads high-end digital projects for RSR’s wide range of clients, from the live-action immediacy of sports brands to the style of top fashion retailers and the data-driven complexity of finance.