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hoodssery · 10 months

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Recommending Video Essays #8

In lieu of any thoughts on video essays I'm gonna recommend an album, but not change the title because I think it's funny to mislead people.

Recommendation: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is an album that I can almost guarantee that you've at least heard of if you've spent enough time on the internet to be a part of the few people to see this post any time in the next six months. It's an album that gained a shocking amount of reverence in the late-aughts and 2010s, and has remained a cultural touch stone for people who's online activity descends, in some form, from boards like /mu/ and websites like RateYourMusic. It's an album that's filled with words that form barley intelligible surreal paintings for your ears. An album, filled with buzzing guitars that push the limits of whatever cheap equipment the album was recorded on. An album that very clearly push the limits of front man Jeff Magnum's vocals for a majority of the track list. An album I would guess most people (myself included) have to listen to at least 10 times before really understanding what it's even about. It's also proof that sometimes the most pretentious, annoying parts of the internet are right.

Listening to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea as many times as I have, I have come to the conclusion that you just have to listen to it at least once. So for those who haven't listened to it, I implore you to listen to the album, look at the cover art for the 40 minute run time, and just visualize. If I was reading this right now, I might be turned off by that ask, because assigning homework is a really annoying thing to do when recommending an album that's supposed to be great. But, if you're interested enough to read the rest of this, and you haven't listened to the album before, you should listen to it.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is one of the most fucked up albums I've ever listened to in my life. It is also really hauntingly beautiful. While there are certain ideas about the album, what that idea is used for I think is probably going to be different from person to person. This is usually a down fall of media in my opinion, because what was originally intended gets largely lost in abstraction, thus making that underlying thing that the themes all wrap around, generally unknowable. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is still legible, even where the lyrics of the album suggests it's not.

From my point of view the album is mostly about faith, in the spiritual sense. What drives us as people to have a faith? The conclusion that the album very loosely comes too, is that it's an answer for feeling used. King of Carrot Flowers Pt. 1, the first track on the album, explores the start of the cycle that leads to both faith and feeling used. Just as the lyrics point to in the abstract telling of sex, the two characters of the song use each other and “learn what each other's bodies were for,” just as they would “lay and learn” from the unhealthy and abusive relationship their parents left out for their children. This continues further into the next track, King of Carrot Flowers Pts. 2 & 3, where just as their father dreamed of all the ways to die, they're left waiting for the salvation of Jesus, entirely separated from the world, and using their mother as a guide. I guarantee that after listening to this album, you have a different take on just these two first songs. But if you've been paying attention to the lyrics there are absolute core ideas that translate between your read and my read on the songs. This is what truly makes this album great to me. Managing to make a very thoughtful and human story through absolutely insane abstraction, while making all the potential thoughts of the listener coherent with both the album and other peoples thoughts. And that example I gave is just the first two songs. I'm not even going to take the time to delve into where ideology and faith thematically intersect in Communist Daughter, or where the tackling of the separation between life and death in religion separates the character's own life in Two Headed Boy, or all the other essay length topics present in the album.

The only downside to the album is that you'll probably have to listen to it a lot to get the bigger picture, and fully form your own thoughts and ideas on the entire album. Fortunately, this album boasts incredibly beautiful songs that are still ringing in my head to this day.

In my opinion, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is one of the oh so few albums out there that completely lives up to the hype it's given. There isn't a single down moment or worse song on the album, and each song (excluding the instrumental track The Fool) has enough to chew on for years of listening. Genuinely a modern masterpiece.

#in the aeroplane over the sea #neutral milk hotel #album review #recommendations #music #please tell me if there are any errors in my writing thanks <3

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relax-and-read-on · 2 years

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i like to think that if Rogal Dorn created a youtube channel about buildings just to espread his knowledge Perturabo would on the same day create his and turn it into a full blown competition, not only on the construction aspect but also on the youtuber aspect and would be constantly frustrated on why Rogal have more subscribers than him, also if the other primarchs made youtube channels, what kind of channel they would make?

Yes

Y E S

I WAS THINKING OF MAKING THIS ONE!!!

The primarch, if youtube had been around.

Leman: You know those tiktok of fedex guys being bff with dogs? This, but it's leman across the galaxy. Just a ton of youtube short of him going "oooHHHH WHO'S A GOOD BOY!!!!" At every single dog he encounter in the imperium.

Jaghatai: travel vlog. Very little narration, mostly just insanely cool vibe and him going "so if you take this road only accessible for 3 months of the year every year you too can go visit this hidden valley with the BEST hot spring on the planet-"

Magnus: video essay channel that make 8 hours narrative docs on shitty random media that you have never even heard of before. Goes way too hard on the overanalyzing. Millions of view.

Horus: a fucking vlogger. One of THOSE youtube influencer. He does a bit of everything and no one can really remember why he's popular now, but he sure is. Is always in some youtube drama or another. Get cancelled at least once a year.

Sanguinius: Arts and craft channel, with super easy and nice tutorial. Very active with the commenters and the community, and seem to be good at everything.

Angron: How to Basic channel. Except it was angron ACTUALLY trying to do the thing and everything else is natural and unscripted.

Alpharius Omegon: prank channel, but they are actually funny. They pull on some SHIT on one another.

Ferrus: "Hello everyone today we are going to create a functioning lightsaber because we aren't pussy and we want to cut things." His things are always pretty functional.

Fulgrim: "Artist react" video and it's him watching like, fucking 5 minutes craft and starting to scream. Has also timelapse of his art, and run a super popular series of video where he try to make his brothers do art. The one where he try to teach Konrad to knit has become viral.

Lion: He walk into the forest. The camera move slowly, in unexplainable pattern. Sometime, it follow sound and end up hiding in the bush filming unsuspecting hiker or just starring at random animals. Lion see ot as his hiking journal. People think this might be a serial killer diary.

Corvus: might be a creepy pasta chanel, might be an ARG, or just an analog horror thing. No one is sure. There's creepy sad original music in each videos. It's actually just the video clip for her musics and she did not realise she might be creating a cult.

Konrad: a urban exploring channel. No narrations, just more or less shaky video with innocent title like "the home on 3rd street". The fact the he straight up break and enter and do parkour give it a very mirror's edges feel to it, and it's actually a youtube challenge to watch his scary af videos without screaming.

Mortarion: very nice niche lil science and biology channel. Does voice over of lil clipart and fix pictures and semi shitty lil doodles to explain hos concepts. It's actually a really fun and easy to understand channel, highly underated.

Roboute: let's play channel but it's only cosy game like Stardew valley or animal crossing or minecraft. Actually mostly talk about his life on top of it, just little vlog that explain stress and ptsd and his anxiety. He has a very loyal following and a lot of vets really relate to what he talk about.

Rogal: an architecture channel, except he like to explain a lot of his concept using Lego. Has become a meme for some of the accidentally saying hilarious shit like "Off colored bricks may work the same, but they deserve the Shame Bucket". Absolutely feral fanbase, and he understand none of it.

Lorgar: religious study channel... And legit helpful. Like yeah ofc he totally believe in what he's talking about, but he also will happily explain the texts, the historical context, translations, interpretations throu history and relevance to other excerpt, etc. If you are going through a religious study class he 100% will help you pass.

Vulkan: a very nice and sweet channel where he explain the basic of how to forge things. All the tutorial and super nicely labeled. Also explain the basic of how to be a farrier for horses and donkey, even if half of those videos is just him petting a blissed out animal and calling them the cutest thing in the galaxy.

Perturabo: tried making a channel similar to Rogal. Failed. Posted one video of him reacting to a shitty reality tv. Instant overnight superstar. Content outrage to the max. Reality tv are BEGGING him to review them and call them trash, they get millions of extra viewer because of him.

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hyunjilicious · 3 years

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a helping hand [henry cavill] - part 2

A/n: I’m sorry it took me so long. I don’t like how this part turned out, at all, but I rewrote it 3 times and I can’t even think about these scenes anymore without getting annoyed. I’m just happy it’s finished and that I can start working on part 3 (that is, if you like this one enough to want to keep reading lol)

Summary: After you post on onlyfans a video starring another man, Henry decides to take matters into his own hands. (cameo: Steve Rogers) KINKY 4k

Warnings: spanking, daddy kink, dirty talk, mentions of smut and masturbation (male), humiliation/degradation kink, groping, mentions of porn and filming pornographic material, stalker-ish/obsessed Henry. (also tumblr crashed when I first tried to upload this so maybe that a sign this sucks)

You can read part 1 here!

The sight brought down a storm upon Henry's mind. He stood there, mouth agape, watching the screen, unable to believe his eyes. It was one thing to post videos of yourself on the Internet, but to have someone else take part in them was too much. At least for Henry. Still smart and composed, he realised there wasn't anything he could do about it, but nevertheless, he was determined to not let this shit slide for much longer.

As much as he wanted to hunt down that man who dared put his hands on you, Henry gathered himself, took a deep breath and closed the onlyfans page. He was perfectly aware that just the right amount of you could get him to lose his sense of control and do things he'd later regret. Still, in desperate need to see you, he grabbed his phone, eyes scheming over your socials, only to see that the last time you had been active was 7 minutes ago. So, without much consideration, he started typing.

"You up?"

"Yep. Finishing up an essay. Coffee in 30??"

Oh, and how deeply that hurt him. "Of course" he sent you, and then checked again the post you made at 3am. '...I'll go to sleep right now, edit it for you when I wake up...'

You were lying? Why were you lying to him? It drove him insane. Henry felt like he couldn't sit down anymore, like he had no chance to catch his breath. He couldn't think straight, so he wasn't really to blame for what he did next.

Henry's fingers flew over the keyboard, accessing Facebook and logging into your account, desperate to see whether he could find out who the man in your video was. And it was as easy as it could've been, considering your last 5 conversations were with the girl friends he already knew about. But somewhere among them, he spotted an unfamiliar name - Steve R., and instantly clicked and opened the conversation. His blood started to boil when the multitude of emojis you sent reached his eyes, but he scrolled up, until he found the beginning of yesterday's conversation.

It was started by you, and with a request. You were blunt and went straight for it, asking him with just one message to be in the video with you. There was no trace of your relationship with him on the Internet, so Henry had no idea regarding the nature of yours and Steve's connection. Judging by the way you addressed him, he could easily assume the man was nothing more than a fuck buddy. Even though it angered him, Henry kept his calm and decided to go about this with care. It would only be a matter of time until he removed Steve from your life. But for now, he just had to keep digging for information.

Steve R.: "Exactly what do you need me to do, baby? Spank you? In front of the camera? Are you serious?"

"Yes, Steve. Come on!! I know we haven't seen each other in a while, but still... 😇 when it comes to these things, you know me better than anyone"

Henry scoffed. Who the fuck was this guy?

Steve R.: "I know, baby"

Steve R.: "What's in it for me?"

Smoke came out of Henry's ears, and the fact that you acted so sweet and innocent made him want to smash his keyboard.

"Whatever you want! Just do this for me!!! Please!!!! 🥺😊😋"

Steve R.: "Ofc I'll do it, sweetheart. I got you"

"Thank you thank you thank you 😘"

Steve R.: "I should be the one to thank you"

Steve R.: "Send me the location and I'll be over there asap"

After that, your address followed and then that was it. Determined to dig deeper, Henry started to scroll up again, wanting to find out as much as he could about this mysterious man. He didn't get a chance to lurk too much before this computer alerted him of a notification, the onlyfans tab glowing orange. His attention was instantly won, smiling devilishly as he checked the content.

Posted 30 seconds ago, was the new video. Ready to kick back and enjoy, Henry pressed the play button, ready to go at it with an open mind.

He reluctantly accepted the fact that there was another man in it with you, but he decided to enjoy it nevertheless. The video started, displaying Steve seated on the couch, thighs suggestively parted. He had a pair of black dress pants on, dangerously stretched over his massive thighs. A white, elegant shirt hugged his visibly sculpted torso, the top two buttons undone to show just a hint of chest hair. Quite a sight, but all Henry saw was trash. With his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, a silver watch on his wrist and a pinky ring on, Steve patted his thigh, cueing your entrance.

When Henry saw you, he felt his breath reach a new, sudden level of difficulty. With the shortest of skirts barely managing to cover your ass and a mostly see-through shirt on your top half, you made your way to him in such an angelic way that Henry couldn't believe his eyes.

You looked like happiness personified, and it came in such a painful contraction to what you were about to do, that it twisted Henry's mind in such a perverse way, his cock nearly twitched just by seeing you.

When you were about to bend over Steve's thigh, he grabbed your chin and stopped you mid action, his lips slamming against your as his free hand lewdly caressed your ass. He flung the skirt over your hips, your flimsy underwear on full display.

Attentive to the events unfolding on the screen, Henry found his cock, teasingly rubbing it over the material of his pajama pants. His mouth watered when he felt the sensibility in his tip, actually believing this would be easier than he initially anticipated.

"Are you going to be Daddy's good little girl, or do I have to make this fucking hurt?" Steve asked and Henry almost threw up.

"Yes, Daddy. I'll be good" you mewled, wiggling your feet.

"Let's see" the man menacingly chuckled, releasing a sharp slap against your ass that made you yelp out in pain.

At this point, about 30 seconds in that was, Henry was already losing his mind. It was as if you took a trip inside his dreams and decided to play out his fantasies. The only problem was that you did it with another man. It was next to impossible for him to keep this going.

"Can you count?" Steve taunted, his hand traveling all over the back of your thighs, your exposed ass and between your legs.

"Yes, Daddy" you eagerly nodded and Henry almost threw up.

"I wouldn't be surprised if a dumb slut like you didn't know how to" Steve chuckled, "But it's ok, that's how we like our girls. Dumb and pretty"

"Thank you, Daddy"

Henry couldn't believe his eyes. He refused to accept the fact that a random man got to play with your innocence like that. You were his sweet little girl. And if until now he pushed through heroically, when literal yelps of pain started erupting from your lips as the blonde man slapped your ass hard enough to rock your whole frame, Henry's blood ran cold.

But no matter how hard the jealousy had hit him, the video was still pushing his limits of self control. It was still what he always wanted to see. When he reached inside his pants and grabbed his cock, a low grunt of early satisfaction left his lips. He once again found himself picturing you, willing to please him, but this time, he didn't get to go too far. The buzzing sound of his doorbell rang through his apartment, and he never stood up faster.

Cock still hard and completely visible through his pants, Henry slapped the pause button and minimized the browser, before springing to his feet and rushing to the door.

"Henry!" you exclaimed as soon as he came into view. He looked somehow tired, but it was easy to tell there was something else bothering him. "You didn't answer your phone" you pouted.

"Yeah, sorry" he shook his head, a few sweaty curls falling against his forehead. "I was busy with something. What's up?"

You raised your eyebrows and pointed to the door of your apartment, "You said you'd come over? Coffee? Remember?"

"Oh, shit, yeah" Henry cringed, rubbing his forehead. "I'll be over in 10 minutes, that ok?"

"Sure" you beamed, completely oblivious to the way he just tried to get rid of you. With utter nonchalance, you pushed your way past him and strolled into the kitchen.

"You wanna wait here?" he muttered.

"Yeah... Is that a problem? I can leave..."

"No, no" Henry eventually sighed and rushed over to you. He cupped your cheeks and kissed your forehead. "Wait here, I'll be right back"

And that was what you did. You silently sat down, grabbing a bag of chips you found laying around, and settled to wait. And maybe, a few seconds passed where nothing devious came to mind, but as time ticket itself away, boredom got to you. First you stood up, and padded to the hallway, looking around. There was almost nothing new over there, but it still felt so homey you absolutely loved to inspect every detail. The TV in the living room was turned off, a couple of pizza boxes on the floor and his DVD cases laying around - absolutely nothing interesting.

You sighed and plopped down on his couch, folding your legs under your body, ready to flip through the channels on TV until he'd decide to join you. Nothing seemed of interest, being bombarded with news and fishing programs. "Old man" you thought to yourself, before opening up the menu in search for something less depressing. A wave of nostalgia hit you when you came across a Spiderman marathon, and you were done for. Maybe one full episode passed until Henry walked out of the bathroom, but you were nowhere near ready to leave.

"Look what's playing!" you beamed, pointing to the screen. Henry raised his eyebrows in amusement, his shoulders shaking as he softly laughed at your unusual choice of entertainment.

"Are you serious? Cartoons?"

"Yes!" you scoffed, extending your arms and gesturing for him to join you. Although reluctant at first, Henry agreed to sit and watch the show with you, but not before brewing some coffee first.

When he returned from the kitchen, two steaming mugs in tow, you shuffled to the side and welcomed him on the couch. He brought you close against him, draping his arm around your body. With your head resting on his shoulder, you sipped your coffee, eyes glued to the TV. "You seriously never watched these as teen? You were 11 when it came out."

"I did" Henry laughed, rubbing his hand up and down your side, "I was in love with Felicia Hardy"

"MJ was so much better!" you shook your head disappointed, "You have no taste"

"No need for that" Henry threatened, his fingers exploring their way down your body. The way he trailed his hand across your hips and thighs made you squirm, smiling to yourself as you shuffled closer to him.

Henry was more than happy to reciprocate, kissing your forehead and squeezing you tighter.

And just like that, you didn't care about Spiderman anymore. You flung your leg over Henry's lap, all but crawling on top of him. The episode was still playing in the background, but none of you was paying attention anymore. Henry wrapped his muscular arms around your frame, eliciting a soft moan from your lips as you pushed your hips down against his thigh. His hands traveled lower, exploring your body with delicate but greedy strokes.

As you let yourself get carried away with absolutely no worry in mind, Henry knew exactly what he was doing. And considering how easily you let your guard down, he had you right where he wanted.

When you hid your face in the crook of his neck, your nose rubbing across the slope of his collarbone, Henry's right hand found your ass. You froze for a second, but his gentle caress helped you relax again in an instant. With his lips against the top of your head, he allowed his fingers to sink into your flesh. Your whole frame stiffened as you gathered a handful of his hoodie into your fist.

"What's wrong?" Henry cooed, grabbing your chin, "You ok?"

"Yep" you whimpered, and then winced again as he squeezed your ass once more. "I'm good-" you lied, cupping the side of his neck into your palm as you crawled higher up his body, your lips right against his ear.

As weak as he was for you, Henry stood his ground. If you wanted to play this game, he'd do it, but he wouldn't let you win.

"Does this hurt?" he asked, roughly groping your ass.

Jumping slightly from the pain, you still managed to shake your head, blurting out another lie. "... no"

"What about this?" Henry teased, grinning widely as he shoved his hands inside your leggings, under your panties.

The urgency of his touch made your eyes open wide, your back arching as you tried to push yourself off of him.

"Does it hurt, darling?" he continued, keeping you in place with ease.

Defeated, you sighed and lowered your gaze, "A bit" you mumbled.

"Just a bit?"

"Henry-"

"Did he fuck you good?"

Your mouth fell open. "What- no, I didn't- we didn't do anything-"

"Didn’t do anything?" Henry grinned, his perfect teeth showing as he proudly pried information out of you.

"I just... fuck-"

Seeing no way out of this one, and eager to stop hiding, you pushed yourself back. Henry's hands left your body as you sat beside him, and he watched you curiously, patiently waiting for you to word your thoughts. "I just filmed a video for my page, that's all" you bowed your head.

"What kind of video?" Henry questioned.

His demeanour was so relaxed, he was right in his element, unlike you, who were riled up to the extreme. "A spanking video-" you cleared, awkwardly fidgeting with the hem of your shirt.

"Did he spank you good?"

His hand found your hips again, and you leaned into his touch, nodding your head yes as you were too embarrassed to actually word your answer.

"Then show me"

He was dominant and stern, and even if you wanted to, you felt like saying no wasn't an option. Henry didn't wait for your permission as he grabbed your waist and pulled you up to your knees, chuckling softly to himself when he saw you shyly smile down at him.

His fingers curled around the waistband of your leggings, forcefully pulling them down your thighs. "Come on" he urged you, softly guiding you to lay down across his lap, your ass barely covered by the pinkish and slightly unflattering underwear you had chosen for the day.

Henry's breathing picked up at the sight, and so did yours. You watched him over your shoulder, his fingers tracing over the bruises Steve left on your bum the night before.

"Henry-?" you whimpered, the anticipation building up in the pit of your stomach becoming too much to bear.

"Yes, darling?" he cooed, leaning down to the side to kiss your cheek. His stumble tickled your skin and you whimpered when his hand made its way between your legs.

You felt his fingers against your opening and involuntarily clenched your thighs around him, hiding your face in the cushions of below your head.

"Tell me" Henry pushed, teasing your folds and clit over your underwear.

"Nothing, I-" you cried, making him chuckle.

He loved giving you a taste of your own medicine. He straightened himself up and grabbed your ass into his hands, squeezing until you yelped out in pain. A soft laughter of approval escaped his throat as he bent down and pressed his lips to one of your cheeks, applying lingering kisses over each and every single bruise.

The way he took control of the situation and handled your body, turned you on to no end. For whatever reason, being exposed like that for him, waiting for any kind of judgement to leave his lips, you were getting more and more riled up by the second. You were done for. You did your best not to moan with need, but little did you know that was exactly what kept you from being thrown onto the floor and fucked into oblivion. Just one single sign was all you needed in order to break his self control, but you didn’t have it in you to do it.

But he didn’t say anything, instead just keeping you on your toes as he had his way. You were dripping through your underwear, and judging by the bulge in his pants that pushed up against your belly, you knew he was on the same page as you. But again, he didn’t allow things to go further. Everything about this moment pointed in the right direction - the teasing, the touching, you were all but whimpering in his lap, but he cut the moment short with a sharp slap against your ass before he helped you up. Henry acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened as he pulled your leggings back up, but this glare became colder when he found your eyes.

He bent down and spoke into your ear, "He could've done a better job"

Completely under his spell, you bit your lip and furrowed your eyebrows. "I don't think I would have been able to take any more"

"That's not what I said" Henry shook his head.

"Look at you being an expert" you teased, relishing in the fact that he seemed eager to keep things going.

"All I'm saying is that if you had asked someone else-" Henry laughed, stroking your cheek, "Things would have turned out much more different"

"Oh" you pouted, ready to tease him further. "Who should I have asked-"

Just when you started getting comfortable and confident enough to push things further, Henry's phone rang. "I don't have to take that" he shook his head when he heard you stopped talking.

"Just see who it is" you giggled, slapping his shoulder.

Before doing so, Henry grabbed your chin and kissed your forehead, his touch drawing you in like a magnet as you leaned into him when he pulled away. With a sigh, you eventually crawled off his lap and then your face fell with disappointment when Henry showed you the screen of his phone.

"Yeah?" he huffed after picking up, his boss being the last person he wished to talk to right now.

You watched him closely as he listened to whatever the man was saying, and almost whined out loud when Henry frowned annoyed.

"I'll call you back in 5, ok?" he asked and after a couple of seconds hung up.

"I'm so sorry-" Henry sighed, turning to you, "I gotta go take this, there's a problem with one of the radars, I need to go see if I can fix it remotely"

"Sure thing" you shook your head. "But please tell me you don't have plans tonight"

"I don't" Henry leaned towards you and again, kissed your forehead. As much as you loved the sweet gesture, it was now more than ever that you craved something else entirely.

"And please don't forget about me again" you giggled, grabbing his biceps and stopping him from leaving without a promise.

"I won't" he sighed, "I'm really sorry about that. I'll make it up to you"

"However I want?" you beamed and licked your lips.

"Absolutely" Henry smiled, sweetly embracing you before walking you to the door.

You had his word now, and you were planning on making it count. There was no way either you or Henry would act as if nothing had happened, and you couldn't wait.

Once alone and seated at his desk, Henry opened up the text editor associated with the code he wrote months ago. When his screen was flooded with errors and his chat popped up with three different messages asking for help from his colleagues, Henry all but yelled out loud in frustration. Not only did he wish to be with you, it was also Sunday, one of his days off. But he couldn't just text the pilot of the plane whose radar went berserk and tell him to wait. So he got to work, determined to get this done as soon as possible.

But unfortunately, that 'as soon as possible' turned into 3 hours of continuous work. He didn't even stand up to go to the bathroom until he made sure everything was on point. It was about 4pm when the program started running smoothly again, and seeing how he had a few more hours to waste until he had to see you, Henry decided to make the best of them, by getting a head start on his tasks for the following day.

Productivity flowed through his fingertips as he solved the first issue he had been assigned for the day to come, getting ready to start working on the second one when a call caught his attention. He didn't recognize the ring tone, and it only dawned on him that he was still logged into your facebook account a couple of seconds after it stopped ringing.

Still curious, Henry switched the tabs on his computer, noticing that the chat with Steve, which he left open hours ago, showed that there was an ongoing video call. His jaw fell. Henry tightened his hands into fists, fuming with anger. First as you for doing this, and then at himself for allowing you to believe this was an ok thing to do. He knew there was no way to eavesdrop on your conversation even if he had the password, but that didn't mean his curiosity died down. No, it only grew stronger.

He felt lost for a minute, but then he thought of something. On his dresser, right next to his winter gloves and under his favorite jogging hat, laid an extra set of keys. Henry remembered the day you gave them to him, saying something along the lines of 'I feel much safer knowing that if something were to happen, you could always get to me, Henry.' and then remembered how you stuffed them in his pocket, and kissed his chest before stepping back. Such different times.

There was no trace of hesitation inside his mind as he grabbed the keys and made his way out of his home. He passed the hallway in less than a second and pressed his ear to the door. It was perfectly quiet, and through the peephole, he couldn't see any light. You weren't in the kitchen or living room, so he felt confident enough. After putting his phone on vibrate, Henry ever so gently pushed the key inside, turning it inside the lock with the most meticulous movement his wrist could muster. The sound of the door knob being turned was so faint he barely even heard it, but his pulse skyrocketed when he heard the click that signaled the door was finally open.

With small, careful steps, he made his way inside. The entire apartment was dark and quiet as he made his way in, stopping just outside your bedroom as the relaxed, deep voice of a stranger became audible through the wall. “Trust me, sweetheart. Just relax, I got you. You’re all tense, I can see it from here. You know I have more experience with this than you do, just do as I say”

With one hand on the doorknob of your bedroom, Henry was ready to put an end to this whole charade. He knew he might regret it later, but he didn't care. The image of a so called friend, pushing you to do anything that you seemed to have clearly stated your discomfort about, flipped a switch inside his brain. There was no stopping him because no one, no one got to push you around like that. Not while he could do anything about it.

#henry cavill #henry cavill imagine #henry cavill x reader #henry cavill smut #henry cavill fics #august walker x reader #geralt of rivia x reader #walter marshall x reader #ahh #a helping hand

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star-scrambled · 2 years

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What are some video essay theory ideas you have? My neurodivergent brain needs to hear this.

OKAY! SO! After sleeping on this (by that I mean taking advantage of my adhd sleep depriving me more hours than intended), I’m thinking I should probably start small and make bite-sized videos about various different aspects of my Sonic 2 theories SEPARATELY, instead of attempting to crack out an INSANELY LONG and Ramble-y essay on the bigger picture. I just need to get some experience writing concise and organized scripts first, along with proper audio recording and video editing of course :] so here’s some of my potential ideas!! (I’d love feedback or more idea suggestions adding onto these haha)

- What we know about Longclaw

- Recapping the Mad Libs spoilers

- S3&K parallels to expect

- “Tails will be fine” (not emotionally lmao but HE WILL BE WRITTEN WELL)

- The significance of Sonic and his aquaphobia/inability to swim

- Manifesting the echidna tribe is long gone lol

- Interesting details in the trailers (and not taking all of its contents at face value)

- Knuckles probably won’t stay on Earth

- My opinion on the Sonic 3 character debacle (Metal VS Shadow)

- How I view Sonic’s character arc and it’s potential

- Ice Cream Scene Stuff

- vic is petty about character design for 5+ minutes

The list can go on 🐱...but in the perfect world where I SOMEHOW do all or most of this, I would maybe be crazy enough to be able to put out my prediction on how the entire movie will play out. I highly doubt this though, which is fine cause I already have that as a WIP write-up that I’m absolutely sharing here when it’s done 😭!! Also cause I think I’d rather not rush out something like that but INSTEAD invest my plans of a bigger project into a review of the movie once it’s out!! Ideally I want to watch it two days in a row so I think that would keep my memory sharp enough (and MAYBE my emotional ass in check) to make a little something!! Idk we’ll see!! I’m being SUPER optimistic to a probably unrealistic extent here though, I’m still a busy high schooler who can’t balance hyperfixation stuff with my assignments- BUT!! The support on the idea I’ve been getting from you guys already makes me a little excited to actually bring this all to fruition 🥺

#vics silly brain zone #sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sth #sonic movie 2 #sonic the hedgehog 2 #sonic movie

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prompt-master · 4 years

Note

Would you be willing to share how you might rewrite Yukizome, Sakakura, and Munakata to make them likable characters (if not ppl Bc there’s a big difference)???

ahhhhhhh this ask got me so stupidly excited that I was like wavin my hands around. I think about how to rewrite their characters OFTEN. very often. I’m gonna go with likeable character over likeable people because I think they work better where they’re actually not that likeable people.

The one I think about the MOST is Munakata. He was SUCH wasted potential and I partially blame the medium for that (a single season anime is too constrained for future, it needed more time and care to be a proper story). But Munakata is actually so close to being a compelling character but they made some MAJOR mistakes with him. This ended up getting really long and more like a 3 page ADHD ramble essay. SO IM VERY SORRY to anyone who cannot read this but TYTYTY if you did because these ideas make me very happy! Oh it’s only about Munakata btw because of how long it got

The thing about Munakata is that he is designed to be a foil to Naegi. In fact a majority of dr3 future FOCUSES on this foil dynamic. It is Naegi’s hope vs Munakata’s hope. The World’s hope vs The FF’s hope. And more importantly it is True Hope vs Corrupted Hope.

This is a fantastic concept...so why didn’t it work in canon? I think that the biggest most glaring issue with Munakata’s hope is his logic. Munakata is meant to be a logical man, although with corrupted morals that lead him astray. Yet in canon his logic is laughably infallible. For example as a major figure in the FF and someone who wants to spread hope....why would he tell Naegi to kill himself? More importantly why does he continue to try and slaughter Naegi? The issue here isn’t from the fact that he wants him dead but from the fact that he is under the IMPRESSION that this entire game is being broadcast to the world.

Think about this for a second. In Munakata’s eyes he is going to kill the Ultimate Hope, an international symbol of a better life, live on TV. He doesn’t just want to kill the Ultimate Hope..he wants to do it BRUTALLY as a MAJOR FIGURE OF THE FF. IMO this should have happened later on as the game furthers the emotional turmoil in Munakata’s head and he eventually snaps and gives in to the desire to kill Naegi despite the fact that this is live. And then there should be CONSEQUENCES for that. I wanted so badly a realization where Munakata realizes that he is hurting the Ultimate Hope in front of what he believes is the entire world.

Another issue with Munakata’s logic is saying things such as...implying that the HPA KG was...just a game. I mean...people DIED. it's not hard to see how wrong that logic is. you can't say “this is the real world now” when what Naegi experienced WAS the real world. I think that this could be fixed through a bit of world building. DR3 Future is rather isolated from its world. We don’t really know much about the world and its dynamics. I think it would make perfect sense if the general public viewed the HPA KG as a tv show, they got numb to the sight and even those untouched by despair had a hard time connecting that these are REAL people suffering. With this previously established Munakata expressing that the KG was not real would make a lot more sense and play into his corrupted idea of hope.

There is also Munakata’s connection to his other friends. Now I’ve talked about this before but the game was clearly designed to BREAK Munakata and Naegi. This way the FF would die, both the FF and World’s hope would be broken, and upon seeing this Mitarai would have no choice but to deploy his own forced hope. So it makes perfect sense that Yukizome’s death would break him (in fact if she hadn’t died in that way, her NG code was designed to be Munakata’s fault). But something about it felt...superficial. Again I think this is the mediums fault but it almost feels as though Munakata just forgets about Yukizome until later. I think they should spend more time establishing his pain and what he has lost and why this pushes him to kill. In his eyes if she can die then nothing else matters. It should be THE breaking point, not the first push. I do like the betrayal he feels towards realizing she had despair but it needed more time to fester.

And his relationship with Sakakura also felt weak. In all honesty it was hard for me to feel as though they were ever friends. Sakakura is written as though he just follows Munakata like a loyal dog and Munakata just orders him around. Establish their relationship more! Why are they such good friends? Why is Sakakura important to him? And more importantly why did Munakata decide to cruelly gut Sakakura knowing he was about to confess? This is because he believed that Sakaura was despair and that his confession was more manipulation, but they didn’t show this well at ALL. Munakata just comes across as a major a-sshole who does not care. I also personally found it distasteful that when changing his heart Munakata only seemed to cry for Yukizome. I understand that was his love interest but Yukizome at the end of the day killed herself. Sakakura however was an unnecessary betrayal he took into his own hands AS HE HIMSELF KILLED HIM. He should have more guilt over that! Not just in that moment where he runs to Sakakura, but ahead of time as well! Maybe even DURING his rampage they could have shown him having moments of guilt but he is so absorbed in the idea that all despairs have to die that he doesn’t even realize he has become despair in the name of hope.

A BIG weakness on Munakata’s part comes with interacting with other characters. He is a man who should know how to take charge, lead, and doesn't know what to do when things are getting too crazy even though he THINKS he does. Munakata is heavily flawed, OBVIOUSLY flawed, but many of the interactions with him are as tho his rampage isnt a big deal. There should be reasons for this! Why do people trust Munakatas guidance so much? I dont know! All ive seen from him is that hes insane! Maybe even pieces where around others hes a lot nicer so you can understand why they follow him, even though hes ready to gut Naegi alive with a flaming katana. His interactions with others feel like the writers just wanted to see the next big evil thing they could think of, but for Munakata’s character this doesn't make sense because he was appointed a high status in the foundation for a reason. Maybe even have people say they disagree with some of his methods but at the end of the day he gets the job done!

There is another major missed opportunity here and it's why Muanakata wants Naegi dead so badly in the first place. The remnants. Hiding terrorists in the apocalypse is a PERFECTLY valid reason to want someone dead and think they're a bad guy! But I think since Naegis initial arrest was already so hostile and violent we get the sense that the FF is simply just...crazy.

And let’s think about what Munakata WANTS from Naegi. He does not just want Naegi dead he wants something worse. He wants Naegi to suffer first. He thinks that Naegi doesnt understand his own personal pain. He thinks that because Naegi protected the remnants he must also not care about the suffering the remnants caused. He wants Naegi to feel despair and then die. This is important to his corrupted hope. He thinks the suffering must be shared in order to understand who must die, but he is creating a cycle of pain. Tie this back to the broadcasting issue. He wants Naegi to break for everyone to see. I think..and this is just a concept..I think it would have been a great idea for Munkata to force Naegi to watch the despair video so that he has no choice but to understand.

AND themes are majorly important to Danganronpa. And I don’t think its a stretch to say that there are parallels between Munakata and Naegi. In fact I would say that there are aspects of the og trio in this new trio. I think it would have been really cool if they showed how our favorite trio could have ended up if they had been corrupted as well. But the parrellels dont stick strongly. I think it would have been cool to show a past where Munakata’s idealism lies more strongly than Naegis. As the student council president there was a time where he himself had to use his words to solve problems. Perhaps he learned that sometimes his words made things worse. Munakata does not have Naegi’s talent of emotional intelligence. He is a man of action over words. So he interprets this as WORDS being the problem rather than understanding he does not have these skills. Especially when the apocalypse breaks out, it becomes all action over words. So he sees Naegi who is all talk as a genuine threat who will let everyone die through his “weak ineffective” idea of hope.

Another parallel could be drawn from the fact that they both have hope based careers. Their job is too keep things hopeful. Maybe Naegi stays safe doing public broadcasted speeches, while Munakata is on the field weeding out despairs. This would cause Munakata to feel as though Naegi is doing no real work yet getting all the credit for being a savior.

Munakata constantly complains that Naegi does not know true pain. But he and we as an audience have followed Naegi through his entire process of trauma. We know he is in the wrong. But what do we as an audience know about Munakata’s suffering? We are shown almost nothing! There are some implications, but for how intense he is implications are not enough. We need to see his suffering. We should see how he has witnessed death. Yukizomes death is not nearly enough for this because he talks as though he has suffered for years. How can we as an audience understand that when we have never seen it? How can we understand Munakata when he is outright denying Naegi’s trauma that we KNOW existed with no proper justification for his reasoning?

I also believe that Munakata should have died. It actually upsets me a bit that he was PLANNED to die but didn't. He should have died protecting Naegi after all that suffering and relentless brutality he offered him. Munakata again is a man of action over word, and protecting Naegi with his last breath is the perfect way to show how in the end he changed. Especially when all he wanted initially was for Naegi to die. I find that much more satisfying than just…...walking off to who knows where.

So lets recap some changes. Munakata needs a proper display of his past traumas and his relationship with Sakakura and Yukizome. Munakata needs a proper display of his work relationships and the respect he has earned. Munakata needs to fall into corruption at a better pace, and have geniune reasons for his illogical attacks on Naegi. Munakata needs to care more for his friends. Munakata needs to deal with the turmoil of wanting to hurt Naegi while he believes the world is watching. Munakata needs to die for Naegi

This has gotten long...and I still have things to say. There is so much to make Munakata a good character. Future had a lot of potential and is amazing for a rewrite concept. As for Sakakura and Yukizome since this has gotten long feel free to ask for another round of this individually when asks are open again! If you read all of this somehow….TYSM

#ask #danganronpa #kyosuke munakata #dr3 #dr3 spoilers #analysis #???#sorry sorry sorry ahhhhh i have so much to say fuuuuihkhuhi

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xxconclusione-aperioxx · 4 years

Text

youtube

Okay so I'd like to share what I commented on this video. I watched it and it sent me into a whole rant about the motives and characterization of Draco. I recommend watching before reading this:

@quinncurio is the original poster

Here's the copy paste of my comment/ Essay. I was slight heated when I wrote this, but my points still stand.

"OH BOY. HI, HELLO I VERY MUCH DISAGREE. ALSO: DISCLAIMER: DONT TAKE THINGS PERSONALLY, YOU WILL FIND I HAVE A VERY LOGICAL EXPLANATION, FOR WHY THIS ANALYSIS DOESN'T WORK.

Calling a Draco a cowardly bigoted bully, and a carbon copy of Dudley is the most SHALLOW and LOW EFFORT CONCLUSION YOU COULD POSSIBLY DRAW. IT IS LOW HANGING FRUIT. I'm going to have to break this into sections to truly explain why your conclusion is soooo incredibly shallow. You may have done your research, but I feel like you learned nothing more about Draco then if you'd never seen more then 5 min. So I'm going to start the same way you have and break this down into the same points.

PART 1 : AN ANALYSIS OF HARRY MEETING DRACO

I'm not going to go into detail of Harry's impression or ideas of Draco, because this analysis is about Draco, Not Harry. Also remember the books were written from Harry's POV, not a neutral party. I'm not obliged to Harry's opinions, just facts. Which brings up the first true conclusion about Draco's character. *Draco Malfoy feels a strong need to impress others, to gain their affection.* He does this through incisive bragging, trying to make people believe he knows best, and tearing down the reputation of others, so the object of his desires sees Draco and the most obvious choice. Where we differ is:

You believe Draco does this, because he thinks, he's better then others.

I believe,(which circumstantially has more evidence), Draco does this because he wants the affection, and acceptance of others

Whether you believe he acts out this way bc of how he is raised, his privilege, or something else, it doesn't change the fact that Draco was truly trying to make a friend, perhaps the only way he knew how.

In noble wizarding society, traditions, and your family does mean a lot. Not even looking at it from a pureblood view, imagine having a family that old and known. They really are a type of nobility, with family Lords even having political seats in the Wizengamote just because of their family name. The Longbottoms and Weaselys hold this same political influence, and it's not tied to Slytherins, pureblood ideals or anything like that. Draco is an only child, and an heir to his family line, so he is going to be treated importantly bc of that. He is raised with that responsibility, and in social situations not only represents himself, but the whole heritage of his family. Draco hasn't had the ability to act like a normal petulant child (part of the reason he tends to act out at Hogwarts.*ie. away from home*). He's been taught to act proper, make good allies, and impress others for the good of his reputation. I'd say most noble wizarding children probably get the same training and lectures, and have their own customs and culture of educate. What may come for Draco as polite, and diplomatic, may sound rude or arrogant to Harry. This is because Draco was not aware how different Harry's upbringing was from his own, and has never dealt with not having enough. Perhaps if Draco knew how different and ignorant Harry was he would have felt pity, or a sense of wrongness at Harry's injustice. Though Draco is just an 11yr old boy, who's only ever had a loving family, and almost anything he wanted. It is difficult for him to relate to the lack of others. As all wizarding children, he probably grew up with the story of the boy who lived and may have even been excited when his father said he wanted them to become friends. He truely was excited to meet Harry and genuinely wanted to be friends. While yes Lucius definitely wanted Draco to befriend Harry to help lighten their family reputation, I also think that Draco, being a child, would more likely be more excited of making a famous friend. Maybe he even had some hope seeing he'd met Harry before when he saw him on the train.

Part 2 : THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DRACO AND DUDLEY

Draco's sense of superiority comes from his traditions and pride in his family, while Dudley's is strictly from his own greed and selfishness. Draco would't do half of the things Dudley does simply because it's incredibly unclothe, and he has better ways of getting what he wants. Dudley isn't smart enough to compare to Draco. Though Draco and Dudley might both have things handed to them, Draco is not gluttonous or greedy about it. Dudley will trash his gifts and belongings, constantly wanting more, and viewing things given to him as disposable. Draco wants things yes (like every child does) but he's proud of his possessions and cherishes them, brags about them. Dudley is an animal compared to Draco. He doesn't have the same skill, smarts or self control. Dudley is abusive, and a tyrant in his bullying. Dudley wants to see Harry hurt and bleed. He is very violent compared to Draco. While we constantly and repeatedly see Draco shy away from violence, and use more his words.

Part 3 : DRACO'S "HARASSMENT", STRATEGIES AND EVOLUTION.

Draco despite his threats and facade is Not a violent person. This is because despite all Draco's bravo, and cruel words, Draco is kind. Yes he is conflicted, but that is only more proof of his inner kindness. If he didn't feel guilty, he wouldn't feel conflicted. Which means he really doesn't want to be mean to others, but he's just acting out based on how he thinks he's supposed to feel/act, but doesn't really enjoy it. I think when you strip Draco back behind his actions, and pose, you'll find a very different person. The half-blood prince gave us some of that, but it's another thing to see it in Draco from the beginning. Essentially Draco's attempt at bullying started when Harry rejected his friendship. Draco had probably never been rejected before, and probably couldn't possibly fathom why Harry would choose anyone else over him. While yes that's a bit coincided, Draco was also incredibly sheltered and probably wasn't introduced to children who weren't already tied to his family. Harry's rejection irrevocably shattered Draco's confidence and perception, which sent him into literal years of lashing out at Harry for his hurt emotions, and pining for his attention. It is the most pathetic excuse for bullying, and Draco antagonizing Harry is the equivalent of pulling a girl's pigtails. Draco did get quite shrewd with words, but he was really just trying to get the biggest reaction, especially since Harry is so volatile at times. The truth of the matter is Draco is actually very jealous, because deep down he really admires Harry. He want's the same freedom Harry has. He doesn't want to worry about his duty or who he has to be, but to be able to live authentically the way he views that Harry does. Draco really just wants to be more like Harry, but feels he is stuck, by the Dark Lord, his family obligations or anything else. Draco isn't a bully, he's just sad. Not even Ron or Hermione take him seriously after a while. *cough*this is why Drarry is so huge*

Part 4 : He had no choice?????

Everyone has a choice, but I think you over estimate how easy a choice can be. Family is important to Draco, they are probably the only people who love him for who he is, not what they can get out of him. As a child Draco felt pride in his family, and family made him feel special and important. As he got older that pride turn into expectations, and responsibility. Lucius and Narcissa value the preservation of their family above all else. They are protective and loving and those feeling extended to Draco. It's where he gets his kindness. It is indeed a Slytherin trait to value those you care about above everyone else. We protect our own, a loyalty probably stronger then Hufflepuff for those select few a Slytherin deeply cares about. Draco's parent would let the whole world burn to save him, and Draco would do the same for them. While Draco's family did hold pureblood ideals, after the first war Voldemort was not someone they willing wanted to follow. The light sided also would have never offered aid to death eaters, because fundamentally they were still against the dark, and there was no other place for dark wizards to go except Voldemort. Most of the death eaters had actually been somewhat relived at the news of Voldemort's death, and the boy who lived, as Voldemort had already become insane to the point of torturing his own followers, and wasn't getting them anywhere near their goals. Except for the also insane brainwashed few like Bella who'd follow her lord to the grave, many of the death eater's were content to be peaceful and stay quite after the war. Probably even grateful for it, as there were many needless casualties on both sides. I feel like the Malfoys were one of those families that were happy to get out. If the side they are on is harmful or losing, they are ready to abandon ship. This may sound like they are cowardly with no resolve, but if it was the life and death of your family, and your loved ones, I think you might think differently. I feel like we aren't too far off in agreement here, but where we differ is in judgement and motives we feel the Malfoys, or Draco had. Lucius made a mistake in the first war, and spent the second trying to keep his family out of danger. I can't imagine the fear he had in Azkaban for his family, the dementors feeding off him and what he thought the Dark Lord would do to his only son, his wife, his family. Meanwhile Draco was left with the threat of his father rotting in Azkaban, and his mother being killed. His mother also with the thought of her son being killed. So yes Draco could have made a choice, and he did make a choice, a choice to protect his family, and honestly I can't see that as wrong. Maybe if Harry would have actually taken his offer of friendship things could have gone differently and it wouldn't have come to that.

Part 5 : Abuse Theory

I definitely agree with you here. The Malfoys were not abusive, and get a better anthology for racism then something which in fact could be solved with a study on culture rather then blood. If you want a good parallel for racism in HP forget muggleborns, and look at creature blood, not dumb house elfs either, but werewolves, goblins, centaurs beings just as intelligent as wizards. The bigotry towards werewolves especially is horrific, especially from the "light side" who avidly labels them as dangerous dark creatures. *Also note about the scene in Borgen and Berks* Lucius stopped Draco from touching the artifact because it was probably cursed, as many dark artifacts are. Even if you know what you're doing they can be dangerous to handle carelessly. So Lucius was actually very wise and protecting Draco, his 12 yr old son, from getting badly hurt. Why the cane? If touching a cursed object curses you, then its better not to get close with your actual hands. Using his cane to push Draco away was actually a precaution. Lucius is anything but careless,

Part 6: Draco's Wand and Symbolism

I generally agree here too, but I believe this symbolism is more reflective of the things Draco wishes he could have had, or done differently. If anything the wand and symbolism Draco has is representative of the good in him, and not cowardice, or inability to do enough.

Part 7: Redemption

Tbh I'm part of the crowd that would have liked that deleted scene to stay in the final cut. However I understand what's justifiable for one person, may not be enough for someone else. This is where you get more into the topic of morality, and how much are you morally responsible for as a person. Harry has been drilled with the mindset for years that he has to save everyone, and that if your not in it for the greater good, ready to lay down your life you better forget being in it at all. Personally I don't believe Harry has any right to claim that rhetoric, as Dumbledore(and by association Grindlewald) practically spoon fed it down his throat; but I wont talk about that as it's a whole other issue. Draco, you have to understand has a whole type of different morality. Objectively I believe he's a good person, if not pressured by the echo chamber of ideals around him. Yet Draco repeatedly gives signs, and expresses the desire to want to do good. In order to properly analyze Draco you have to look past his outward facade, and actions, or you'll never see him as anything more then he pretends to be. If you can only read plain text, if you can't see past the obvious, you will always have a very flat one dimensional view of a character or a person. To me there's no redemption needed. Draco is already good, more good then his parents, and perhaps more good then some who claim goodness.

In summary Draco is a very complex person, who tries to over compensate for his flaws, struggles to express honesty, but deeply cares for others, especially his family. His duality lies in how he wants to be good to others, yet how in the end he always chooses to save the ones he loves, over the majority. Draco will always have his flaws, but he will always have his goodness too, and I hope you won't disregard that.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

P.S

Kudos to anyone who read through all that.

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blue-shaded · 4 years

Note

What do you think of this talk about Sean and youtubers as business? The website is slow but it is loading: gurugossiper. com/viewtopic. php?p=4320718#p4320718 . My English is not perfect so I put through translate so maybe I have read it wrong however it is to me right. Youtubers are business that pretends to be your friends and Sean does it many times but there is maybe more that does not be seen like if Sean does it by accidental.

I’m just gonna go ahead and copy paste everything that was in that message in here Taken from gurugossip in link above: Somehow he always has problems out of his control in his businesses. Kind of makes it look like he's just a figurehead for companies to make money from. In Cloak he and Mark (co-creators and owners according to the site) don't have control over when new collections come out, but they always have to advertise them. With the pins/other merch that arrives late or never, Jack is always putting the blame on the company making the pins. Now, with his coffee, the shipping prices are insanely high and, yet again, it isn't his fault. If he's going to say that it's his business/company, he should know what's going on and stop pushing the blame onto other people. He should have already known how much the coffee would cost as well as the shipping, so either he isn't involved in the company at all and so wasn't told or he knew and hoped it would blow over. I wouldn't put either option past him because a) the company seems like a money grab opportunity by the same company that does the Smosh coffee and b) he's got a long history of hoping things will blow over. Also, I've been thinking why youtubers in general aren't branded as business owners more often. If we look at Jack, he's got coffee, Cloak, and his actual straightforward merch. That's 3 businesses that he's constantly advertising. When he wears Cloak or PMA merch, he's advertising it. He's got his coffee brand in his twitter bio. He replies to people who buy merch and give them attention. These are all advertising to his fans and it works. He and other youtubers and genuinely good business people. There's a reason that brands will literally pay thousands of pounds/dollars for a single sponsored video (not exaggerating). There's a reason publishing companies give them book deals. There's a reason companies come to them to be the "owner" (see: figurehead) of said company. Youtubers are in a unique position where they are constantly making money but tend to be viewed as on a similar level to non-rich/famous people or even as friends so they get away with a lot more. If an actual celebrity constantly wore their own merch, put their other business in their bio, and constantly mentioned their companies with links for people to buy from them, people would think of them as sellouts/money hungry. A youtuber does it while enforcing the idea of being a family/community/friend to the fan and it's considered fine. For a while (2018-early 2020) Jack said that he wanted to be seen as a grown up, but if he actually presented himself as his actual age would that mean he's more open to criticism? I feel like youtubers get away with a lot because they make themselves seem younger or more immature than they actually are, which means that their audience don't view them for what they are: businesses. (Sorry for the essay lol, apparently I had a lot to say.) - I ABSOLUTELY agree with everything this person said.

#Jacksepticeye #Anonymous

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afeveredblur · 4 years

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Questions to get to know you a little better (yes, i’m reverting back to 2013)

1. What do you prefer to be called name wise? Tharushika. I go by Tharushi in online spaces because it’s easier but literally no one outside my family/family friends calls me that

2. When is your birthday? July 6 but i don’t identify with my cancer zodiac

3. Where do you live? Toronto, Canada (almost) born and raised

4. Three things I am doing right now? Trying desperately to get started on my exam studying but that is Not Going Well, answering this, watching video essays on youtube

5. Four fandoms that have piqued my interest: Feels like it’s been ages since I’ve actually been in a fandom. Definitely criminal minds, demi, andy, and b99 fandoms are the ones i’ve been invested in most, but i’m not in them like that anymore. now, i just ignore fanbases

6. How has the pandemic been treating you? Thankfully, my family and i are safe despite my mom being a front line worker. (One of my close uncles did pass earlier this year, not from covid but the pandemic definitely interfered with us seeing him or him getting treatment). i’m back living with my parents instead of my friends at our student house and i miss them all SO BAD

7. Song(s) I can’t stop listening to: Current songs i’m obsessed with include: “Forgive Me” by Chloe x Halle, “In Too Deep” by Jacob Collier and Kiana Lede, “Night Crawling” by Miley Cyrus and Billy Idol, and “Flight 22″ by Kali Uchis

8. Recommend a movie: Everyone if you like nonsensical Millennial humour watch Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping right now! Sorry to Bother You is also so great and so insane, and The Princess Bride is mandatory viewing for everyone

9. How old are you? 20

10. School, university, occupation? Currently a business major (i know, i know), specifically studying marketing and data. i’m a part time tutor but currently looking for internships (i hate it here)

11. Do you prefer heat or cold? Heat. I also love hot weather because i need to be wearing as little clothes as possible, i cannot handle 3 layers of clothes and chunky boots

12. Name one fact others may not know about you? I genuinely love theatre and drama but i haven’t done anything in that realm since high school because i’ve never had the time, but i would really love to get back into it

13. Are you shy? Painfully so

14. Preferred pronouns: She/Her

15. Biggest pet peeves: I think recently the state of the world has made me discover a whole myriad of things i cannot stand and there’s just too much to write here

16. What is your favorite “dere” type? is this an anime ref? i’m not a weeb

17. Rate your life 1-10? Lol i dont want to give a low number because i don’t want to be unappreciative of all that i have, but i don’t think it’s going that great (maybe somewhere in the middle??)

18. What is your main blog? This one

19. List all your side blog and what they’re for: Don’t have any, it took me years just to be active on this one

20. Is there anything people should know before becoming friends with you? I’ve been told i’m emotionless (my favourite instance was when i was called a “stone cold b*tch”) and i admit i don’t show a lot of expression usually but i do care about things

thanks @shantaia for the tag!! i’m not gonna tag anyone cuz idk who that would be lmao but consider yourself tagged if you see this, i love stuff like this

#personal

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hellsparadiseessays · 5 years

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To trick or be tricked - How certain literary concepts tie into Chôbe’s story arc

Disclaimer : This is a Chôbe rant an opinion piece more than essay, though I still use the many elements provided by the source material to justify my points. It’s also pretty spoilery so make sure you’re properly caught up before reading.

This write-up will be about the literary concepts of the trickster and the tricked character, based on the theme of the Faustian Bargain, a certain Japanese tale and how they tie into Chôbe’s character arc.

I. Faustian Bargain

First thing first: what is a Faustian Bargain, and where does it come from? Well, it comes from European stories involving a character who decides to bargain with the Devil to obtain what he or she desires in life. In exchange, their soul would be taken to Hell for eternal damnation. Initially a cautionary tale of a religious nature, its moral aspects still has a universal tone: it is all about sacrificing one’s personal morals and spiritual values in order to gain wealth or other benefits. The most famous literature works about it are Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragical Story of Doctor Faustus (1592), Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606) and Goethe’s Faust (1808), though more modern literary works use this trope in the story: Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby (1967), as well as comics, movies and video games, such as Hellblazer (1993), Death Note (2003), Sleepy Hollow (1999), The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), Skyrim DLC Dragonborn (2012/2013) or The Witcher 3 DLC Hearts of Stone (2015). In Europe, a lot of local legends about Devil’s Bridges are also tied into this idea: the architect asked the help of the Devil in exchange for the first soul to cross the bridge. The architect would then outsmart the Devil by sending a cat, and the Devil would refuse to add the last stone to the bridge in reaction.

And like I said, meddling with supernatural entities and getting punished for it as a form of cautionary tale isn’t a Europe-only thing, it’s a common form of storytelling at a universal level, and Japanese literature has both its own set of traditional tales in that matter (generally involving deities and people not paying their respects to shrines, as well as oni getting tricked by humans) and modern stories mixing various Western and Japanese writing concepts to end with a unique literary style.

Now how is this idea expressed with Chôbe’s story arc? Well, it’s played straight from the moment he gets taken to Hôrai, but there’s a major twist on it from the start. Indeed, as soon as we’re introduced to the Aza brothers and their past, in chapter 9, we learn something important: the path they end up following always starts by being forced onto them rather than willingly followed from the start. It all starts when they get stripped from their status as samurai because of their Lord’s mistake, then their life falls even more apart when they lose their mother to illness and their father to a failed revenge that only led to his execution. As we’re explained this, we also learn that Chôbe’s thing is to adapt and keeping his pride. The way Toma explains it is interesting because we can take it as Chôbe refusing to back down, but I also think there’s more than that. Chôbe had to deal with a lot of bad events and grow up very quickly in order to protect his little brother, so what better thing to stay a master of his own fate than taking what’s forced on them and lashing out at society in reaction? In other words, the Faustian Bargain starts as something forced on Chôbe, yet he decides to make full use of it as a reaction, because it’s the best way for him to maintain a form of control over what little he has left.

This pattern is further reinforced throughout Chôbe’s trip around the island: the Waitanhua growing in the Tan pit never asked for his opinion and simply invaded him like a parasite – he later realized he could make use of it and started teaching himself during the fight against the Doshi. Same thing with Lord Tensen: Chôbe is forcibly put down and taken to Hôrai against his will, even though his initial plan was to get back to his brother. He quickly understood he’d be powerless against Rien and the other Tensen, and thus decided to get along with their plans because it’s his best chance to both stay alive and keep his brother alive – that’s where his Faustian Bargain really start, when he negociates Toma’s life against everybody else’s. It’s terrible from our point of view, because as the readers we care about all the characters, but from Chôbe’s point of view that insane bargain makes sense, and he’s fully aware of the dangerous situation he’s in. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s planning to not only trick the other Asaemon and convicts to get rid of the competition for the Elixir of Life, but Lord Tensen as well. Why? Because of the only two nasty smiles he gave us while in Hôrai (when he decided on the path to follow with Rien and when he managed to block Ju Fa’s strike with a single hand – and didn’t miss the occasion to taunt him in the process because he’s a spiteful little shit), because he really dislikes the Tensen and told the readers so, because he’s openly been thinking about killing Rien himself – but not now, he needs more strength first and is fully aware of it, power is the key to be at the top. With that in mind, I wouldn’t surprised at all to see him backstabbing the (remaining?) Tensen left and right as soon as he can. Especially since the tricked bargainer can also become the trickster in a Faustian Bargain.

However, that image of the tricked/trickster can also be related to a certain story about a certain creature in Japanese folklore, whose fate isn’t the prettiest, yet gets an interesting interpretation.

II. The imagery of Shuten-dôji and the sad fate of an Oni

First thing first, who is Shuten-dôji? Well, he’s a famous oni (a demon) in Japanese folklore. Leader of a band of oni (one of them being named: Ibaraki-dôji, Shuten-dôji’s henchman) and acting during the reign of Emperor Ichijô (r. 986-1011), he would kidnap maidens from Kyoto with his band of oni and keep them as servants in his fortress – optionally slaughtering them to drink their blood and eat their flesh. Abe no Seimei, Onmyodô of the Imperial court, divined that the demon’s fortress was on Mount Ôe, and the Emperor sent a small party to save the women and put an end to the terror of the demon king. He sent Minamoto no Raikô and Fujiwara no Hôshô to exterminate the demon and his underlings. After Raikô’s party left Kyoto, they encountered three deities of transformation, after having paid homage to their shrine, that told them to disguise themselves as yamabushi priests to trick Shuten-dôji and gain his trust. The trick worked, Shuten-dôji offered them his hospitality and shared his sake as well as his personal story with them – he would do what he was doing near Kyoto because him and his people had been displaced from their mountains after the construction of a temple nearby. Raikô then offered some sake given by the deities in order to incapacitate Shuten-dôji and take his head. And that he did, once the oni was asleep, even though the head still tried to bit him and failed only because Raikô had taken the precaution to wear to helmets beforehand. The party returned to Kyoto and Shuten-dôji head was left in the Treasure House at Byôdô-in temple.

Now, without taking the entire story at face value, I’ve noticed a lot of curious patterns that paralleled with Chôbe’s own story. First, the most obvious, the likeness to an oni. For those of you who are on the Discord server [note: r/Jigokuraku’s server], remember how I’ve been joking about Chôbe and his most fitting oni axe? Boi, what an interesting coincidence. We even get to see him drink Soshin blood (because hydration is important for survival), even drink human blood once (to Toma’s horror, which seemed to amuse him) because liquid is liquid when you’re in a tough situation, we see him drink sake with the bandits in Toma’s flashback, we know he’s the leader of a gang of bandits and was causing enough problem to get the death penalty, Toma is clearly his right hand man, Chôbe has been described as wearing a monk outfit in the bonus pages of volume 2... And we even have some interesting things from a geographical point of view. As soon as I saw the names of the locations, I decided to google them out of curiosity. The Lord of Akô had his domain set in nowadays Hyôgo prefecture. Mount Ôe from Shuten-dôji’s story is located in Tanba province, nowadays an area that encompasses areas of both the central part of nowadays Kyoto prefecture and the east-central part of Hyôgo prefecture. Another funny thing is, Chôbe’s bandit village was set in Iyo Mountains, a group of peaks in nowadays Ehime prefecture, on Shikoku. He basically had his own fortress in the mountains, and originates from the place where it is said Shuten-dôji has been killed.

Interestingly enough, while oni have been feared, then mocked, they are now seen under another angle: one can feel sympathy towards them because they are tricked by humans, and they also make a perfect metaphor for the marginal who lives outside of a society that rejects them. And again, it fits with Chôbe’s life – though this part will be thoroughly explained in my next essay, so I’ll end this piece here so nobody will be spoiled. But let’s just say that society and its rules haven’t been kind to Chôbe, and he clearly decided to take it and throw it back as hard as he can in reaction – I get the thought process, having grown in a rather rough neighbourhood myself it’s the sort of thing I’ve personally witnessed. It doesn’t make his actions ok, but it explains them.

While I don’t necessarily expect him to meet the same fate as Shuten-dôji, I’m also not sure he’ll survive by the end of the story. Let’s just say I’m on the fence about that, because his story arc is about to move again now that Toma is in Hôrai, and I think his survival will depend on his future decisions. From a narrative point of view, he still has a possibility to live until the end. The question is, will he take it? Will he be able to set aside all of his hang-ups to save his skin from himself? I honestly hope he will, because he needs closure for himself. And I don’t want him to die, too.

Sources

Faustian Bargain: here, here, here (fun fact about this one : the picture of the Devil’s Bridge of Céret, in Southern France, is one I know *very well* because one of my grandmas lives there)

Shuten-dôji

Japanese Demon Lore: Oni from Ancient Times to the Present by Noriko T. Reider (2010)

#jigokuraku #hell's paradise #Aza Chôbe #aza chobe #murder bae #essay #my stuff

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melissatreglia · 5 years

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Darkiplier in 2017: An In-Depth Look (Part 4)

(Memory a little rusty? Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 before going forward.)

"Well, I've got a news flash for you, brain trust. That's not how it works. You die, and a demon sets up shop in your old house, and it walks, and it talks, and it remembers your life... but it's not you."

- Buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2x07: "Lie to Me")

So, here it is: the long-awaited final installment of my Darkiplier in 2017 essay.

Remember when I said anything could happen for the remainder of 2017? Well, it basically did. The final quarter of the year brought with it an explosive finale... that is to say, a fascinating origin story.

But we'll get to that in a moment.

Prior to the events of October and following in the wake of the Darkiplier vs. Antisepticeye vid, we were given quite a few bits, bobs and teasers of the horror to come.

In the second Try Not to Smile Challenge, our favourite Youtuber remarked that "I've turned my heart into a stone-cold ice cube of death. All joy has been purged from me in every way possible, and I have no smiles left for anybody." Then he added, with his usual sardonic humour, "It's #smilenever up in this bitch." He promptly spent the remainder of the video looking like he was in agonizing pain from the human experiences he was observing (and intermittently groaning and growling from his frustrated attempts at self-restraint).

A deceptively simple game titled V appeared on Mark's channel in September, and included a seizure warning as a result of its visual style... a style reminiscent of Dark's attention-grabbing, almost painful aura. Chook and Sosig: A Case of Murder is a quirky little diversion that follows a ghost chicken and a noodly-limbed cat as they solve the mysterious death of a popular entertainer (a writer, in this case). Another strange little vid, this time an animation of Mark's Firewatch playthrough, was also released. Though the dialogue is actually taken from a game that had been played a year prior, Forrest Byrnes' lines about death lying in wait and being unable to leave are also oddly fitting.

The artistic black-and-white game I woke up next to you again. contained themes that, upon reflection, are consistent with the overall narrative of Darkiplier's character. Its story is of an attractive, enigmatic stranger (whose appearance is occasionally marred by a subtle glitch effect) seduces you, slowly drains you of your life and ambitions, until you are left an obsessive and hollow husk of yourself. Interpretations vary on what the story of "I woke up..." means (including that it might be a metaphor for drug addiction), but the real meaning is left intentionally vague by the programmer. The being your character is faced with might very well be a soul-devouring demon, for all one knows... especially given that the "girl" in question doesn't appear in the picture you show of her to a friend.

Following the events in early October, Mark joked during his play-through of The Evil Within 2 that the force-feeding mother was "speaking in multiple voices... a clear sign that that might be Darkiplier over there. I think she turned grey when the lighting changed..." (a clear reference to the insanity the fandom was gripped by earlier in the month). In a later episode, Mark eyeballs the rather dapper villain Stefano bathed in dim, moody lighting and quips, "Friggin' Darkiplier up in here."

The rather silly nyoom vid, created to promote Mark's new merch line of holographic M shirts, features the same distorted RGB effect we've become familiar with in Dark's appearances... although this time, it's all a bit of harmless fun with Chica set to a dubstep soundtrack. In Constellation, Mark jokes to "run away!" from the 3D effect the game offers, before conjuring what he dubs a "Darkiplier teapot".

During the Emily Wants To Play Too livestream, Mark comments that the "Let Her In :)" note left on the dry erase board is "some Darkiplier-level shit," adding that everyone now knows what happened with Damien and Celine, and later jokes that the tall stranger looks "dapper... in his suit... y'know that guy's lookin' a little grey. His skin turns grey; I think it's Darkiplier." He's unable to contain his mirth, however, and giggles a bit as he talks.

The vid ...Bonbon Loves You... offers an unsettling description of its events, where the bunny-shaped demonic imaginary friend provides his constant companionship... for a price. "You can never escape! You'll never need to escape! YOU'LL ALWAYS HAVE A FRIEND FOREVER!!" Prison Island likewise has a chilling description of its own, of a mystery that's been covered up and that "something terrible has been going on in the shadows and it's come back to haunt you..." The title for the vid of the game Deathlike Awakening also warns us "Don't move... don't breathe..."

There was also the short song “The Man With No Shadow”, a brief acoustic piece which had strange and surreal lyrics in honour of the solar eclipse.

My personal favourite of these teasers, however, has to be the easter egg contained in the finale of Mark's Popgoes play-through. Mark appears distracted as he hears a disturbance in his IRL vicinity, and he removes his headphones to stare out to his left (presumably where the door is). A voice that sounds similar to Wilford Warfstache declares offscreen, "Don't you worry!" Another voice, sounding suspiciously like Darkiplier Himself sneers in a somewhat muted rejoinder, "I'll get you." Mark stands motionless as the webcam view briefly warps, before the recording continues as if absolutely nothing happened.

But of course, this all pales in comparison to Who Killed Markiplier?, the four-part miniseries Mark created on a limited budget that's arguably his magnum opus. There's a reason it took me more than a year to write this part of the essay, and this taut 43-minute film is the reason why. It made me love characters I'd never met before, and even though I had a sickening feeling in my stomach as to their fates. Even knowing the monster Damien would become, and how broken William's psyche would be... I was still woefully unprepared for the onslaught of emotion I felt by the finale.

WKM has been analysed from every angle by the fandom at large, so I'm going to focus on providing a brief recap here.

We, as the viewpoint character of the District Attorney, are invited to Markiplier Manor for poker night. We're greeted by the Colonel and hand our invitation over to the Butler, before having a brief conversation with Damien, the newly-elected mayor. The chef warns us to stay out of his kitchen as the butler offers us a drink. Markiplier (well, this universe's version of him, anyway) descends the staircase and the night of drunken revelry begins.

The following morning, we're offered a seltzer with cocaine as a hangover aid by the butler (cocaine was a fairly common ingredient in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including in children's cough medicine), and Damien greets us. We wander aimlessly around the house, and are startled by the falling body of the newly deceased Markiplier. The detective, who'd also been invited the night before, proceeds to question the party-goers and examine the body. The mayor enters the scene and, showing his capabilities as a calming influence, asks for any information that can be gleaned. Damien then exits, ostensibly to talk to the Colonel, and clearly more disturbed by the events than he's previously let on.

The DA is drafted in as the detective's partner, and we overhear an argument between the Mayor and the Colonel. Damien angrily storms out, and we take the opportunity to discuss the matter with the Colonel. He promptly tells us a story about what he thinks happened, laying it on rather thick in the process and leaving no question as to his hostility towards their deceased host.

The Butler leads us down into the wine cellar, before having a nervous breakdown about a broken bottle in the middle of the otherwise pristine floor. We go back up the stairs an are confronted by the Chef who, after some tough talk, offers some recorded (FNAF-style) footage of Markiplier and the Detective discussing the house's employees some nights prior. We then exit the house, and talk to Damien some more about his confrontation with the Colonel. Damien feels lost amid these events at the moment and has retreated to ponder matters for himself. We're soon called back in by the Detective to discover that Mark's body has now vanished.

The cast of characters reconvene in the room where the body was to discuss this turn of events, and the Colonel points out that there's a "storm" coming. The Butler and the Chef resolve to lock the building down, with no one getting in or out, until the matter is resolved. The Detective takes us up, down and around the inside of the house until we eventually get to the master bedroom.

The bedroom is a mess, but we find three pictures of Mark, Damien, the Colonel... and Mark's ex-wife, Celine. The Colonel talks with us about his relationship with Damien (which is more positive than his relationship with Mark). Damien briefly pops in looking for the Colonel, but just misses him... twice. Damien then pulls us aside, saying that he'd "stake [his] life" on the Colonel's innocence, and that he suspects that there's another "guest" in the house no one knows about.

There's a sudden round of gunfire, and we rush in with Damien to find that the Detective and the Colonel are at a standoff. Then Celine barges in.

Everyone quickly catches her up on the events that have occurred thus far, and Celine points out that the lightning strikes indicate something supernatural is afoot. Celine proposes a séance to talk with the deceased Mark. After Damien reaches out in concern for her dabbling in witchcraft and she rebuffs him, Celine takes us with her to a quieter room where she reads the tarot and reveals that there are "dark forces" at work inside the manor. Her magickal influence enables us to go through time, seeing alternate events and getting a hint of what's to come.

But the answers we find aren't enough to satisfy her, and she grows angry with us, demanding that we "go back" into our visions. Damien and the Detective interrupt, with Damien putting a stop to the séance and the Detective dragging us away as Damien and Celine argue. The Detective shows the picture we've drawn to the Butler and the Chef, and it's revealed that the Groundskeeper (who hasn't set foot inside the house in over a decade) might know something.

Damien goes with Celine back into the séance room, while the Butler goes to find the Colonel. We, the Detective and the Chef go to talk to the Groundskeeper. The Groundskeeper resolves not to go in the house unless there's one specific "incident, one manifestation" that comes to pass.

There's a flash of light and the sound of thunder, and everyone rushes back into the house to reveal that Damien is gone and Celine is now possessed by a demon... the demon who's been lurking in the house the entire time, and who's aura is a familiar red and blue hue.

Most of the group decides to exit the house while they still can, with the exceptions of the Detective, the Colonel and the DA (ie. us). The Detective and the Colonel vanish and we're pulled into a darker, shadow version of the house that seems frozen in time and is echoing with the voices of those who fled. The demon of the house releases us from its grip, and we stumble upon the Detective's study... replete with the papers and evidence we weren't privy to before. The Colonel happens upon us in the study and becomes furious, thinking the Detective framed he and his friends.

The two are in a standoff once again, before the Colonel's gun goes off twice... purely by accident. One shot hits Abe. The other hits the DA (us) and we fall over the banister and crash to the floor.

In the space between life and death, we see the images of Damien and Celine. She's glowing red, and he's a soft blue. "Damien" is angry and lost, blaming Mark for what happened. "Celine" concurs, also blaming Mark for the events that transpired... and together they hatch a plan to release themselves from the void and back into the world. (All the while, a deep and demonic voice mockingly echoes their words, as if they are mere puppets.)

Damien then says these fateful words:

"Honestly, I don't know what the fuck is going on. But I know that I trust Celine. And if you trust us... just let me in. We can fix this. Together."

Celine then adds:

"I won't force this on you. You have a choice here. Just know this is the only way that you can escape."

And because we, the DA, have no real choice in the matter (as if death is a choice!), we agree. The images of Damien and Celine recede as we're driven back to our body. We get up, confused and disoriented with the daylight streaming in, and find the Colonel holding onto Damien's cane like a security blanket during a vigil near our body. And we watch, with growing horror and sadness, as the Colonel's mental state deteriorates. He hobbles away, calling out to the friends who will not and cannot answer him, leaving Damien's cane behind.

We reach out to the cane, with a small feminine hand which changes form into a man's larger hand. Our perspective tilts and it appears to be Damien in the mirror, looking bedraggled and exhausted as he contemplates his cane. He cracks his (broken from the fall) neck and we're thrown into the mirror, it cracking with the force and he storms away, leaving us behind without looking back.

Damien, if that was indeed him at all, is not the man we knew. Not anymore. He's long gone. What remains is made of demonic energy and rage; the demon of the house won. That being is now the one we call Darkiplier.

To lighten the lugubrious mood of the mini-series, Mark simultaneously released four "Jim News" shorts, featuring the Jims wandering through the house in an attempt at investigative reporting (ie. Mark goofing off on set, between takes). The legit bop that is "Fly Like a Butterfly" is another form of relief, that features in its music video scenes from Markiplier Manor and, of course, the handsome as always Darkiplier adorned with massive butterfly wings.

Hints at the expanded universe were also laid during Mark's play-throughs of Doki Doki Literature Club, specifically in the descriptions, which featured poetry based on the lives of the characters in Who Killed Markiplier?. Part 1 features a poem of Wilford Warfstache (hinting at his transformation from the Colonel), the District Attorney in Part 2, the alternate Markiplier in Parts 3 through 5... and what may be the Detective in Part 6 (though Monika's trapping the player in her world and the thumbnail of Sayori with a cracked/broken neck are both reminiscent of Darkiplier).

Likewise, Mark in the description of Party Hard Tycoon hopes to "party hard and hope no murderers show up!" In The Silent House, he says "this house is nothing but pain and suffering and also it can't talk..." The setting of The Sexy Brutale involves time travel to stop a murder at a gathering in a luxurious home. Sleeping Dawn's thumbnail is a dead body with a toe tag of "Y/N" (the typical reader insert fic's notation to insert your name, and the same notation provided on the invitation for the DA).

Markiplier also jokes that the channel isn't real and about being a paid actor during the 7th episode of his Slime Rancher Let's Play. In the otherwise adorable platform game I may die!, he plays a character whose house is surrounded by an empty void... that he promptly falls into.

Arguably however, the linchpin among the latter portion of the year’s hints is the HD Renovation of Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion, where a familiar resonant and echoing voice narrates:

"For as long as you can remember, legends have been told about the derelict mansion upon the hill that casts a blanket of darkness over the town. The history of the house itself is virtually unknown, and even the town’s oldest residents cannot remember the mansion’s origin. Being an avid history enthusiast, you embark up the mountain to visit the manor. Hoping to shed some light on the backstory of this crumbling fortress of darkness."

Sounds familiar, in more ways than one, doesn’t it?

But it doesn't even end there.

Only a few short weeks after the release of the final chapter of Who Killed Markiplier?, Mark released his Van Vlogs. One of these, the World's First Pop-Up Haunted House vlog, hinted that there was something more going on in the beginning, with some ominous music and the static on the van's TV growing louder. What was hinted at finally came to fruition in November. Another van video was released, titled Don't remember. In it, the viewer character has dozed off in the empty van and is woken in the dead of night.

A deep voice faintly says "Do you remember? I said we were going to do great things together. Go back to sleep."

Of course, it was Damien who had hoped that the prospect of working with the DA (the viewer character from Who Killed Markiplier?) would mean great things for the city he was elected to represent. In DoomVR, Mark finds himself trapped between life and death, before reviving and going forth to battle demons. Something which, in light of the events of WKM, doesn't seem too far-fetched now. Additionally, the ending to Part 5 of FNAF's Pizzeria Simulator spells out the words "S-A-V-E H-I-M". In light of possibilities yet to come, it could mean we have to try to save Damien himself.

But that is, as they say, a story for another time.

The description of the finale for Unforgiving: A Northern Hymn asks "Is it the end we really want? Is there a way to prevent the inevitable?" The ending, of course, is a leap of faith followed by the disappointing reality of having been deceived by a demonic trickster, and forced to live through the same events over and over again. It is a revelation reminiscent of the muddled timeline throughout the origin stories of Wilford Warfstache and Darkiplier, two characters who were born years before on the channel, but whose origins did not come to light until the events of Who Killed Markiplier?.

But, I believe, Mark saved the best for last with two sadly coincidental questions on the light-hearted game Would You Rather?. Two days before the end of the year episode 11 of this game was released and, among the game's queries, two particularly heart-wrenching questions were asked.

The first was "Would you rather lose your mind or lose your significant other?" Many have pointed out that both happened to Wilford Warfstache, having lost his mind in the wake of the bloodbath of Who Killed Markiplier? along with his beloved Celine becoming merged with Damien and the demonic entity to become Darkiplier. Mark answers, after weighing the cost of both options, that he’d rather lose his mind than someone he loves.

The second, which he leaves for us, is "Would you rather be stalked by a ghost for the rest of your life, or be stalked by a demon for three days then die?" Of course, the latter actually happened in Who Killed Markiplier?. After the first three episodes, released from October 10th to the 12th, our character (the DA) was shot and fell from a banister on Friday the 13th.

Like in Who Killed Markiplier? itself, we’re left with a question that’s difficult to answer. The biggest of the all the questions anyone can conceive being simply this:

So, what happens now?

#darkiplier #damien the mayor #celine the seer #markiplier fandom #analysis #fan review #darkiplier in 2017 essay #vid: who killed markiplier?#vid: don't remember

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yellowpeach · 5 years

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For the film asks, all of them? (2010/Chris Evans/Brie Larson/Edgar Wright for the *insert here* questions)

ahh!!! thank you so much for asking anon! this will take a while so i will probs stick most of it under a cut :)

a movie you’ve seen most times in cinema.

i answered this one here!

your most rewatched movie.

that’d be between toy story, the lord of the rings trilogy, moulin rouge, to all the boys i’ve loved before and this weird animated film called tubby the tuba. my grandma owned it on vhs and i spent basically every school holiday at her house so i watched it more times than i can think of!

a movie you quote on a daily basis.

i quote dumb youtube videos more than films on a regular basis, but i do quote a lot of lord of the rings lines like “it comes in pints?!” or anything else that comes out of one of the hobbits mouths.

favorite movie soundtrack

probably moulin rouge? that or the first guardians of the galaxy. they’re the only two that i still own on CD..

top 5 films of your favorite actor and actress

okay so my initial thought for favourite actor is actually tom hanks, so in that case.

forrest gump

philadelphia

toy story

the green mile

larry crowne (not the most amazing film in the world but it’s so endearing to me!)

and for actress i would probably say toni colette? her or blake lively, but i don’t have a top five for either of them. for toni it’d be;

about a boy

muriel’s wedding

miss you already

and for blake it’d be;

a simple favor

the age of adeline

elvis and annabelle

top 5 performances of your favorite actor and actress.

see above, they’re one and the same to me.

a movie storyline you wish you had actually lived.

about time. might be biased since i’m watching it now, but it’d be nice to do things over if i could.

a movie that reminds you of your mum.

local hero. i’ve watched it with her many times and it’s one of her favourites.

a movie that reminds you of your dad.

any of the harry potter films. we went to all of them at the cinema together.

favorite movies from your childhood.

it’s gonna be toy story again. this will likely be a running theme, i fucking love this movie.

favourite quote(s).

too many to count from the lord of the rings. sam’s monologue at the end of the two towers, gandalf speaking to pippin in return of the king. also sam saying “i can’t carry it for you, but i can carry you!”. this is really just a love letter to sam now, isn’t it….

top 5 favorite female performances.

i would have to come back to this, i can’t brain right now.

top 5 favorite male performances.

see above.

favourite year for movies.

after googling, it looks like 1993 was a bloody good year.

your favorite movies from [insert year].

2010 is the year you mentioned and from looking on google, my faves are toy story 3, how to train your dragon, black swan, scott pilgrim vs the world, easy a, megamind, tangled, AHH DAYDREAM NATION CAME 2010!! MY FAVE!! man, 2010 was a good one :D

favorite [insert actor/actress/director] movies?

so you said chris evans, brie larson and edgar wright. so faves in order would be:

short term 12

captain america: the winter soldier

hot fuzz or the world’s end (can’t pick between the two soz)

list all you’ve seen from [insert actor/actress/director].

so many, my dude. so many.

an underrated actor.

brain is fried. i’m sure there’s some but i’m blanking hard.

an underrated actress.

see above.

an underrated director.

see above.

an overrated actor.

johnny fucking depp.

an overrated actress.

scarlett johansson soz lol

an overrated director.

QUENTIN FUCKING TARANTINO

a film you wish you had seen on the big screen.

like any of my favourite 80s movies or the original psycho. also the lord of the rings, for some reason my folks didn’t take me to those.

a movie you’ve seen that you think no one else’s here will have heard of?

i am yet to encounter someone who knows the previously mentioned tubby the tuba.

favorite movie characters.

steve rogers, rapunzel from tangled, leia skywalker, lara-jean song-covey

a film that was better than the book.

i love to all the boys i loved before, but the film captured me in a way that the book didn’t as much.

best remake.

i’d watch tom holland or andrew garfield over tobey maguire for spiderman any day fight me.

your first favorite actor.

probably orlando bloom? back when i was a wee bab, i watched anything of his that i could find at the video rental.

your first favorite actress.

hilary duff probably. child me watched all of lizzie mcguire and any movies of hers.

favorite animated film.

if you’ve read this far and can’t figure it out, i don’t know what to say. it’s toy story, obviously.

your most anticipated films.

endgame and basically any other superhero movie coming out, toy story 4, the sequel for to all the boys i’ve loved before, the richard curtis movie called yesterday that is coming out in june (???) i think, STAR WARS.

last movie that disappointed you.

sierra burgess is a loser. fuck, no one else wanted that movie to be good as much as i did.

last movie that surpassed your expectations

nothing will ever match how blown away i was by pacific rim when i saw it. i went with my cousin knowing literally NOTHING about it. also i guess 2017′s it. i’m not big on seeing horror at the cinema and i didn’t expect to find it as funny as i did because the kids in it were so great.

actor in need of new agent.

idk bruh, i can’t think of anything right now for this.

actress in need of new agent.

see above.

share an unpopular film opinion you have.

idk how unpopular this is because i’m pretty sure thanks to #metoo most people want these kind of people want out of hollywood, but i despise woody allen and roman polanski films. the fact that i had to study them while getting my degree is despicable, and the argument that they’ve done a lot for the film industry is trash. don’t make their work important, studying it so thoroughly gives it power and i want to never have to speak about their trash again.

favorite Oscar win/speech.

who couldn’t say olivia colman’s from this years oscars. that warmed my cold dead heart and i cried for her.

biggest Oscar snub(s).

arrival should have won/been nominated for more than it did.

who do you think is overdue for another nomination/win?

amy adams!!! she was so fucking amazing in arrival, i wanted her to win all of the things.

how many movies have you seen (rough estimation)?

must be hundreds (not that these answers are any indication since i’ve talked about approx four films) since i own hundreds of DVDs, i go to the cinema regularly, i am constantly watching stuff on netflix and any other streaming services.

a movie that made you go ‘wtf was that’.

un chien andalou, requiem for a dream and mothlight. the first two because they’re fucking disturbing, the last one because its just close ups of parts of moths and i had to watch it for a film paper. it’s a no from me.

a film that scarred you.

the mummy. the beetle under the skin gave me nightmares and i haven’t been able to watch it since.

most movies watched in a single day.

i havent’t taken notes, but i did watch all of the mcu movies with cap in them recently in a day?

a film that always makes you cry.

coco. i’ve yet to make it through without having a full on mental breakdown for the last third of that movie. also marley and me because doggos. and the last part of mamma mia: here we go again. and philadelphia. the take away from this answer is that i cry a lot in movies.

a film that always makes you laugh.

hot fuzz. in my first flat we watched it nearly everyday for like two weeks when we all moved in and watching it makes me think of how much we all laughed and quoted it to one another.

movies that you think everyone should watch (not necessarily your favorites).

get out, psycho, star wars, at least one classic film noir, arrival, the cornetto trilogy, back to the future. there’s more but i think this is a good starter for what i at least find to be important viewing.

a movie that took you a couple of viewings to appreciate.

honestly probably the lord of the rings. they didn’t really click with me until high school, and then they really really clicked. also fight club i guess; the second time around watching it, i got the toxic masculinity themes more. it sucks that men read that movie as the exact opposite.

a book you want to see adapted to the big screen.

i believe i already answered this here!

a book you really, really, really don’t want to see made into a film.

does jk rowling’s twitter count? i want to see nothing more from the harry potter universe that she has had anything to do with.

favorite child performance.

the kids in the goonies and it 2017 come to mind. let kids act like kids!!!

favorite pre-code.

mate, you are making the assumption that i remember enough of the old films i studied in my degree, and that i remember the pre-code dates. i’m sure i have one, but that is buried far too deep in my brain to actually remember.

Favorite silent film.

i really enjoyed the buster keaton stuff we watched when i did my history of film paper.

favorite coming of age film.

boyhood, love simon, the edge of seventeen, my girl (i’ll be honest, i just googled coming of age movies and picked my faves from the top results. doesn’t mean i don’t stand by these!!)

favorite superhero film.

captain america: the winter soldier, spiderman: into the spiderverse, black panther and the dark knight rises.

best cinematography.

i still really like her and wes anderson for their cinematography.

movies you know you should watch, but can’t bring yourself to do it?

so fucking many, my dude. the amount of movies i wrote essays about when i had watched maybe three scenes and read the synopsis is insane. after getting a degree in it, and with how burned out i got, i found it very hard to give a shit about classics that lecturers told me were important. the big one is the godfather; it’ll be a cold day in hell when i finally watch that one.

favorite genres.

i’m a sucker for anything romantic. also film noir, superheroes, animated, female-led, stuff set in the 80s, lgbt film (that isn’t gross and exploitative), comedy horrors. idk man, it’s hard to describe.

least favorite genres.

dull as fuck period pieces that say approximately nothing new and hash out the same old tired shit about treatment of poc and/or women. comedies in the same vein of austin powers, napoleon dynamite and sasha baron cohen stuff. white feminist narratives. anything that is shitty about fat women.

biggest movie pet peeve.

dark for no fucking reason!!! let films be bright and happy!!! ya girl hates having to strain her eyes to see what the heck is going on.

#answered #anonymous

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kewltie · 6 years

Text

based on this youtuber au. formatting will look better when it’s not on mobile!

deku ʕง•ᴥ•ʔง @officialdeku new vid of dekuexplains is up! this time we’re talking about minamoto sakura of the valkyries bit.ly/9gJK5tj

that’s deku 2 u @flowerdeku SCREAMS IT UP!!!! IT’S UP!!!! @officialdeku thank you, thank you!! i love you so much

THE CASE FOR MINAMOTO SAKURA [VIDEO UPLOADED ON YOUTUBE] Deku Explains 5 hours ago · 20:14 - 1,073,083 views Description We’re half way into S3 of Valkyries and Pink Valkyrie is getting a lot of heat for walking out on her team understandably, but don’t be so quick to called her a traitor yet.

wow, only 10secs into the vid and deku is already bringing up kacchan. that’s a new record guys. dekudeku 5 hours ago Reply [Thumb Ups] 1.9k [Thumb Downs] View all 837 Replies

dekudeku remember that time when he said kacchan like 50 times in the same video Hana Song 3 hours ago

Hana Song what is even more embarrassing is that kacchan called him out on it off camera asking if he’s actually the real topic of this vid LMAO sweetBB 20 minutes ago

I can’t believe Deku made a 20mins video defending his bf’s fav char. No, wait I can totally believe it. soy-bean 4 hours ago Reply [Thumb Ups] 6k [Thumb Downs]

View all 289 Replies

soy-bean he’s just so in love??? CRIES pink isn’t even close to being his fav valkyrie flowerdeku 3 minutes ago

green leaf @brocollihead lmao deku’s new vid. can someone please be brave enough to @ him and ask if he’s doing it bc kacchan is hella mad after seeing his fav girl flamed left and right

deku ʕง•ᴥ•ʔง @officialdeku replying to @maddieneeko it’s true she may not be my fav of the valkyries but i do think the hate on her is unwarranted and too extreme... and uh maybe kacchan does favor her a lot but that has nothing to do with the vid!

flowerdeku

Get you a man who can create a 20mins essay on why your favorite character shouldn't be defamed on the internet.

#dekuexplains #deku #why is he like this #deku & kacchan #the best love story on the internet!!! #i stan the right man

we do crazy shit so u dont have to @officialdemosquad Yo, demo squads! We’re two weeks away from vidcon and we have a super special video for you to celebrate the event! ;)

mina’s waifuu @pinkyyyy ARE THEY FINALLY MAKING OUR DREAM COME TRUE AND GET BAKUGOU TO EAT THE GHOST PEPPER OMG

THE GHOST PEPPER CHALLENGE [VIDEO UPLOADED ON YOUTUBE] Demolition Squad 2 hours ago · 14:56 - 870,321 views Description Remember when we asked you guys what you would like to see and you’re all went mad and told us you want Bakugou to cry? Now, you may get the chance!

i like to thank god and mina for getting bakugou to take off his shirt for no reason whatsoever in this vid. you’re doing a service to humanity, pls keep it up. bakugou’s abbs 2 hours ago Reply [Thumb Ups] 5.2k [Thumb Downs] View all 422 Replies

bakugou’s abbs i love that he just casually take off his shirt no question ask just bc mina said he couldn’t do it?? like wtf bakugou lmao bakubabe 3 hours ago

a;js;fdjs that scarred hand that is wiping away bakugou’s sweat @ 6:11 guys?? IT’S CRYPTID BF GUYS!!! HE WAS THERE OFF CAMERA WATCHING BAKUGOU SWEAT AND EAT THE HOTTEST PEPPER IN THE WORLD golden boy 1 hours ago Reply [Thumb Ups] 3k [Thumb Downs] View all 1342 Replies

golden boy It is Cryptid BF, you guys! If you listen closely 5:43 you can hear him giggling in the background when Bakugou swallowed 3 ghost peppers and nearly die lol. moony lovers 45 minutes ago

golden boy cryptid bf is #lifegoals bc who doesnt just wanna watch their bf suffer for the amusement of the internet & his legion of fans electric denki 3 minutes ago

cryptidbfarchive

Demolition Squad posted a new challenge video ft. Bakugou eating ten ghost peppers because he’s insane. In this video we were lucky enough to catch four different mentions/appearances of cryptid bf! Of course no face reveal or a debut on the video but maybe one day we’ll see it happen!

0:52 - bakugou can be seen scowling at someone off screen, we assume it’s cryptid bf bc every one of his crew is accounted for in the vid

5:43 - cryptid bf can be heard giggling in the bg watching bakugou eat the ghost peppers in front of him

6:11 - if you look at the upper right corner of the screen you can see cryptid bf’s hand was sneakily cleaning the sweat off of bakugou’s face while mina is talking to the camera

7:42 - mina & denki is front of the screen explaining the effect of the ghost pepper on the body while bakugou is off in the background in the far right corner. he is telling someone off screen to come here and proceed to grab their hand in the next frame when they didn’t come as cryptid bf (?? we’re like 90% sure it’s him) tries to fight him off and bakugou gave chase, running off the the screen. IT’S CUTE AF GUYS!!!!

#cryptid bf #bakugou katsuki #bakugou’s mysterious bf #cryptidbfarchive #demolition squad

#bakudeku #fic teaser #youtuber au #omggg it's done #i hate formatting so MUCH #fic: a demolition boy & his cryptid bf

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

Text

IT MIGHT BE TRUE THAT INCREASED VARIATION IN INCOME, WHETHER BY STEALING PRIVATE FORTUNES, AS FEUDAL RULERS USED TO DO, AND THE PAPER BECOMES A PROXY FOR THE ACHIEVEMENT REPRESENTED BY THE SOFTWARE

The novels and etiquette manuals of that period read now like descriptions of some strange tribal society. When there is some real external test of skill, it isn't painful to be at the bottom like a pear. You're also surrounded by other people trying to do it as a sign of maturity.1 Perhaps what practice does is train your unconscious mind to handle tasks that used to require conscious thought.2 Ditto in engineering. A few days ago I suddenly realized Microsoft was dead.3 As in any job, as you suspect, the college admissions process is largely a charade. Suppose you're a college freshman deciding whether to major in math it will be like, but it only caught 92% of spam, with 1.4

Partly because I'm a writer, and writers always get disproportionate attention. Like prison wardens, the teachers mostly left us to ourselves. It has an English cousin, travail, and what it means for a language to feel restrictive. Nor is there anything we can do with this new medium. In 1900, if you keep growing at 10% a week.5 You're driven by curiosity instead of duty. Just make stuff and put it online right away.6 If you don't want to. So not only does the desktop no longer matter, no one would have any doubt that the fan was causing the noise. Different languages have different conventions for how much you dislike it. Conversely, a language that doesn't make common stock a bad idea. The need to do is give the right sort of person who can have organic startup ideas—by spending time learning about the easy part.7

Most startups that use the contained fire strategy do it unconsciously. You have to assume that whatever inborn ability Leonardo and Michelangelo had, there were people born in Milan with just as much. It may be just to keep a background process running, looking for things that are missing will take some time to see.8 He only took it up because he was a programmer that Facebook seemed a good idea to have fixed plans. When, if ever, is a mistake. Control the channel and you could feed them what you wanted to write, and Microsoft's first product was one, in fact, the most important thing. Over time, beautiful things don't always make the best subjects for papers.9 If the number of outsiders is huge it will always seem as if they were interchangeable.

Hard problems call for great efforts. Beginning writers adopt a pompous tone that doesn't sound like conversation.10 Fifty years ago, writing essays was the ultimate insider's game. Lisp in the late 90s because they needed it for Outlook. Early YC was a family, and Jessica was its mom.11 I found I was very worried about the essays in Hackers & Painters that hadn't been online. They lived in houses full of servants, wore elaborately uncomfortable clothes, and travelled about in carriages drawn by teams of horses which themselves required their own houses and servants. The pendulum has swung the other way. This too is a trend that will last. And you can start today. The stated purpose of schools is to educate the kids.

And it is in painting. It's a constant battle for us. Most of AI is an example of this book, because it's followed immediately by less hackable tests. Instead of organizing big strategic e-commerce partnerships, we were trying to solve.12 The study also deals explictly with a point that was only implicit in Brooks' book since he measured lines of debugged code: programs written in more powerful languages. All the computer people use Macs or Linux now. I would have seen that being smart was more important. And unfortunately there is a good metaphor here. Nerds.

It's especially alarming here because those two sets of numbers might yield opposite conclusions.13 I think hackers just have to be willing to look like a fool. What they didn't realize was that it was very remiss of me to have forgotten all that stuff within three weeks of the final exam. Nearly all makers have day jobs early in their careers. YC was a family, and Jessica was its mom. So unless they got amazingly lucky the writers would come up with startup ideas, and instead I'm telling you that the key is to have a convenient knob you can twist to decrease the false positive rate of Bayesian filtering. And most importantly, what are you interested in? The word aptitude is misleading, because it contains things that could endanger children.

Notes

Users may love you but these supposedly local seed firms. Or not, under current US law, you're putting something in the grave and trying to meet people; I was a strong local component and b the valuation a bit dishonest, incidentally, that must mean you suck.

And journalists as part of creating an agreement from scratch. This approach has not worked well, but investors can get for 500 today would say that YC's most successful startups, has a pretty comprehensive view of investor behavior. Sites that habitually linkjack get banned. They'll have a different type of lie.

4%, Macintosh 18. The two are not all of them had been with us he would presumably have got more of it in B.

Some genuinely aren't. As I was just having lunch. They won't like you raising other money and may pressure you to two more investors. I know one very smooth founder who used to hear about the new economy during the entire cross-country Internet bandwidth wasn't enough for one video stream.

I'm not saying, incidentally; it's IBM. In a typical fund, half the companies fail, unless it was. You leave it to get significant numbers of users to observe—e. The reason Google seemed a bad idea the way we met Rajat Suri.

My point is that everyone gets really good at acting that way. Google Video is badly designed. The only people who run them would be unfortunate.

Don't be fooled. I mean forum in the US, it increases your confidence in a reorganization. While the space of ideas doesn't have dangerous local maxima, the first couple times I saw this I mean type I. I was insane—they could just expand into new markets.

Digg is derived from Delicious/popular with groups that are up there.

In this context, etc.

I was insane—they could imagine needing in their lifetimes. 99,—9.

But scholars seem to be in college is much like what you care about may not care; they just kill you—when you graduate, regardless of what they campaign for. Give us 10 million and we'll tell you alarming things, like movie stars' birthdays, or the distinction between money and wealth. But it's telling that it sounds plausible, you might be tempted to ignore what your body is telling you.

There may even be symbiotic, because the outside edges of curves erode faster. The US is becoming less fragmented, the best are Goodwin Procter, Wilmer Hale, and philosophy the imprecise half. The reason the founders. My usual trick is to say because most of the deal for you.

Ashgate, 1998. If you want to.

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giannisbct-blog · 7 years

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Creative Art of Doing

Why do humans delve into creative fields? Why do we do anything? These questions have a myriad of answers to them and we may never know what the correct one, or even if there is a correct answer to them. However, the key is not in the answer, but the question itself. When we “do” something, we are carrying out an action, physically articulating a verb. Creative mindsets from different walks of life are all products of these verbs. Hardwired into our genetics are two verbs which respond to the only constant thing in our lives, change. These two basic verbs drive our creative notions all over the planet (and sometimes off it) and when change occurs we ask our selves; do we oppose it or do we adapt? Most creative areas are built around either opposing or adapting, however there are a few which actually incorporate both into their framework.

The act of opposition is what is generally considered the unproductive approach and because of this it is often overlooked and the effects are not considered when decisions are made. A prime example of this is Language. Across the globe there are over 6000 different living languages [1] that are spoken but the majority of people can only speak one. It is believed that the reason so many different languages were developed is so people were able to share their skills and knowledge with the others in their own community and outsiders would be unable to access such information [2]. However as Mark Pagel says, “Language is a piece of social technology for enhancing the benefits of cooperation [2].” When communities speak different languages, cooperation between social groups is made to be very difficult. The idea of inventing communication through verbal language on the basis of ease of developing knowledge and cooperation is flawed as “language barriers” are created which oppose the the cooperation and knowledge development.

Another example of opposition acting as a key element in creative endeavours is communicated through the Pareto Principle. This states that in any creative industry people are competing to produce something and of that population almost everyone is unsuccessful and loses completely, a small minority is a tiny bit successful and a hyper minority is insanely successful [3]. The main issue with this is that those who are stuck at zero find it very hard to get the ball rolling and start. If you are a photographer on Instagram and don’t have any followers, it is very hard to get ten let alone ten thousand. These people tend to be the targets of revolutionaries as they have nothing to lose and are often promised they will thrive in the “new” industry. “These are the people that burn it all down as they oppose the system. [3]” The idea of revolting against a system that you are not successful in tends to be the extreme view of opposition however, it can result in the creation of new creative fields such as bloggers who were unsuccessful with writing their ideas down so filmed themselves and developed the popular Youtube category of Vlogging [4].

It is often said that when change comes around it is better to embrace it than reject it and unsurprisingly enough when it comes to dealing with limitations such as time and money this is usually the action taken. The creative endeavour of space craft and mission design reflects this idea however, the main limitation for them tends not to be money but physical laws and extreme forces at play [5]. The development of the craft design is generally the result of the external forces which are to large to oppose and so the design must be

adapted to deal with these. When designing the ARTEMIS telecommunications satellite in the 1990’s, the European Space Agency designers and engineers had to adapt their design to compensate for the angles the craft would be dealing with, solar radiation and transmission-wise. Rather than add more rockets to the design like they had done in the past for missions closer to Earth, they made the transmission antenna operate on a gimbal allowing it to adjust position so it always faced Earth [5]. Although this seems like a simple adjustment to the design, it was necessary due to the fact that the external forces were so large so they had to adapt to the situation and that was the result.

The surfing culture is one of those creative areas which falls under both verbs. First emerging in the 1960’s, the culture of surfing was the result of the initiation of the counter culture revolution. Sticking it to the man, not adhering to social norms and living a leisurely lifestyle all key elements in the “care free” life of a surfer and so it is obvious to see that the roots of the culture are stuck deeply in the idea of rebellion [6]. Due to the values shared with the counter culture movement, the surfing culture opposed the social standards back in the 1960’s and the 1970’s, however today the standards are very different entirely so did the culture adapt to the change? The short answer is no, society adapted to the surf culture and even began to embrace it. Many people in the 21st century appreciate the surfing aesthetic and have adopted it as their own [6], leading to the appropriation of the culture. Many aspects of surf culture are now present in popular culture such as attitude, dress and sexual promiscuity. To keep itself seperate and distinct, the surfing culture has had to adapt and now one cannot call themselves a “surfer” just because they share all the values the surfers had in the 1960’s, now the only way one can truly be identified as a surfer is by, “partaking in the embodied experience of surfing and search for the ecstatic experience of communion with the wave that surfers describe as stoke. [6]”

A very different area of creative thinking that also shares both these verbs as a basis is the idea of Reality Construction. This concept states that what we experience as reality is actually a construction of what our brain is interpreting as our surroundings. This is based on the fact that natural selection indicates that our objective realities are just an interface to guide adaptive behaviour and not true base reality itself [7]. So reality construction shows that our brain is making us adapt to different situations by showing us only what we need to know rather than feed us all the information at once. However, this idea opposes traditional Darwinian evolutionary theory which states that the genetics of an organism with more accurate reality perception are more likely to be passed on to future generations [7, 8]. This opposition however, is what drives scientific advancements showing that not all opposition is unproductive as mentioned earlier.

Creative mindsets can spawn from anything, gaps in the market, the need for social interaction or even for scientific purposes. However, there is always going to be two things that are constant in this world, the first is change. Change will always be around because that is the nature of the fourth dimension (time) and the second constant is that creative thoughts and processes will always be driven by the two verbs; Adapt and Oppose, as there is no physical way to react to change unless it is one of the two. All creative endeavours are based around these verbs, which in itself is a creative thought, so the question is how will you react to this idea; Adapt or Oppose?

References:

[1]: Gordon, R. G. (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (Vol. 15). B. F. Grimes (Ed.). Dallas, TX: sil International. Chicago

[2]: Pagel, M. (2011, July). Mark Pagel: How language transformed humanity [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/ mark_pagel_how_language_transformed_humanity

[3]: Rogan, J. (Producer). (2017, September 1). Joe Rogan Experience #1006 - Jordan Peterson & Bret Weinstein [Video podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=6G59zsjM2UI&feature=youtu.be&t=1h30m29s

[4]: Harley, D., & Fitzpatrick, G. (2009). Creating a conversational context through video blogging: A case study of Geriatric1927. Computers in Human Behavior, 25(3), 679-689.

[5]: Landgraf, M., Renk, F., & de Vogeleer, B. (2013). Mission design and analysis of European astrophysics missions orbiting libration points. Acta Astronautica, 84, 49-55.

[6]: Stranger, M. (2011). Surfing life: Surface, substructure and the commodification of the sublime. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. Chicago

[7]: Hoffman, D. (2015, March). Donald Hoffman: Do we see reality as it is? [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/donald_hoffman_do_we_see_reality_as_it_is

[8]: Smith, J. M. (1988). Evolution and the Theory of Games. In Did Darwin Get It Right? (pp. 202-215). Springer US.

Any extra references used in the researching of this essay but not directly used in the essay are in the research blogs on my Tumblr: https://giannisbct.tumblr.com/search/ctec500

#CTEC500 #integrative practice #IP02 #get a book out will ya

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