#where are my analogical stans at???

[soc1850]

IM GOING INSANE OVER THE ANALOGICAL CONTENT IN THE NEWEST ASIDES SO.

the voices told me to /j

i might end up actually colouring and rendering this later but uhhhhh i just needed to draw them because they’re my faves and they’re so so so so in love btw.

#tss spoilers #sanders sides spoilers #thomas sanders #sanders sides #virgil sanders #fanart #virgil anxiety #logan sanders #logan x virgil #i love them #my art #analogical #sanders asides #ANALOGICAL FANS HOW WE FEELIN??? #they’re in love it’s canon #told me themselves #where are my analogical stans at???

[canonizzyhours]

imagine it's 1982 and you really love star wars.

you go looking for other fans to talk about star wars with. you meet someone. "my favorite character is boba fett," they say. "cool! i love boba fett, he's such a great bad guy," you reply. the person you're talking to suddenly becomes deadly serious. "what? he's not a bad guy," they respond. "how could you even think that? what's wrong with you?"

you laugh nervously, thinking this is some kind of jokey deliberate-reading-against-the-text gag, but it becomes clear your new friend is absolutely deadly serious about this. unsure what to do, you try to redirect the conversation to subjects other than boba fett. you try talking about the first movie. but it turns out this person has an entire bonkers reinterpretation of the first movie where it's all about showing how luke and han and leia will be ultimately unable to succeed on their own, thus foreshadowing the eventual arrival of boba fett as fourth co-protagonist. you try pointing out that if there's a fourth protagonist surely it would be lando, and ignoring him seems kind of maybe a tiny bit racist? this goes over even worse.

you start to avoid this person. you seek out other fan spaces. but people who are like this about boba fett keep showing up. you feel increasingly insane every time you talk to them, hearing yourself saying obvious things like "well, uh, that's certainly one interpretation, but i feel like if darth vader has to caution you not to disintegrate people that might be a sign you're a villain?" and having them laugh in your face like this is absurd and offensive. you gradually realize that while most star wars fans aren't like this, everyone normal has learned to politely avoid talking about boba fett and other subjects that trigger the boba fett guys, because nobody wants to deal with them. you learn to only talk about star wars in closed communities that don't have any boba fett stans.

the saddest part of this is that over time it makes it very, very hard for you to enjoy boba fett, a character you used to really genuinely like.

the first trailer for return of the jedi drops. the boba fett guys go nuts, insisting that this proves their ultimate vindication is at hand, despite the fact that actually he's barely in the trailer. "uh, guys, i don't know about that," you say cautiously, kind of alarmed at how they're setting themselves up for disappointment. "i think boba fett might be a really cool character but not actually a super important one, and maybe he's just going to die in a sarlaac pit halfway through the movie and the rest will be about luke defeating darth vader." the boba fett guys respond by screenshotting your posts (social media exists in this version of 1982 for purposes of this analogy. work with me here) to publicly make fun of you. how could anyone possibly be dumb enough to think this, they say.

return of the jedi comes out. boba fett dies in the sarlaac pit. the boba fett stan community goes even more nuts than usual and schisms into a faction who are insisting that this is all part of a plan to resurrect boba fett like jesus in episode 7 and a faction who insist that george lucas has personally betrayed them. some of the latter faction manage to take control of the fan campaign to get more movies made despite the fact that they've explicitly said they don't actually want any more movies.

this is what my experience of ofmd fandom has been like.

#271.

#ofmd #fandom critical #canonizzyhours

[etheries1015]

AYYE EITHERIES YOU'RE BACK

You're on the stan Lilia path I see? You are a person of culture as well. I was reading about myths and realized that the non-human immortals in Yuu's world is totally different from the faes aka the only non-human immortals in TWST because most of them either love or lust for humans. For example, I have heard that nine-tailed foxes seduce humans to drain their life force, youkais falling for humans, and in my country there are tons of stories where genies fell in love with humans. On the other hand, twst faes are like EWWW humans. Total opposites despite both having magic powers lmao.

Imagine the anti-human faes like general era Lilia, Sebek, and Baul with you, their close friend who's a powerful non-human immortal thing. You have great powers but what pisses them off IS THAT YOU ARE A HUMANSEXUAL 🤯👹😠🤬 Out of all fine faes you decided to flirt with HUMANS

Remember the distracted boyfriend meme years ago? The one where the guy is distracted and admiring the girl in red clothing while his gf is angry right next to him? That sums up your friendship dynamic with the anti-human fae.

I'M BAACKK yesss I am slowly turning into..like..A Lilia stan blog...BUAHAHA. I'm about ready to drop an ungodly amount of money for Lilia merch to fill my hyper fixation. Someone needs to shoot me and drag my corpse outside to touch some grass, or before I make some seriously problematic financial decisions.

I LIKE THAT HAHAHA Reader being a Yokai or succubus of somesort (because i'm hrny 24/7) and so infatuated with humans, being friends with Faes that have no interest in them is very interesting to you. Like. They are so cute when they wriggle around on their two legs with very little going on in their brains...it's less of love for humans, but more of...infatuation? Interest? Kind of like someone who enjoys reading mythology and going down a rabbit hole of mythical creatures they find fascinating.

Lilia- y/n. For a being incredibly talented in many aspects of martial arts and magical properties, I must say I am incredibly disappointed in your choice of whom you bring home at night.

Y/n - I have told you this time and time again, they are useful for replenishing my energy, Lilia! I don't understand what is with the fae of your world that hate humans so much. Aren't they cute? how they crawl around kind of like ants?

Lilia- That's...hmm. I do not agree with your stance, however...your analogy is kind of funny...

Baul, annoyed- I feel that this war should make it fairly obvious why we have such distaste for humans. Why don't you try another species? Beastmen, perhaps? Or even Fae? They have ample amount of magical energy you can also obtain from.

Y/n- that's like telling a meat eater to substitute chicken for chicken-flavored soy products. It just isn't the same! You two will never understand.

Baul, folding his arms- you're lucky you are aiding us in the war. Albiet at the price the shitty humans you like to mingle with despite your martial prowess.

Lilia- and that time you stopped mid battle simply to ask a human if they'd like to sleep with you.

Y/n, shrugging- don't knock it til' you try it

Lilia- ...i'll pass. Go shower, you smell like human stench.

Right to left;

Lilia, immortal/magic being Yuu, humans

HAHAHA thank you for this, it made me cackle

#twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland headcannons #baul twst #Lilia vanrouge #twst headcannons

[thelustybraavosimaid]

Bro you just killed my Kid Cudi listening sesh for this. How many times are we going to go over this with you people for fuck's sake

Rhaelya stans hate Sansa because...

Let me stop you right there. I am a Rhaelya, a Jonrya, and a Jon stan. I don't think about Sansa unless I'm forced to. My hyperfixation is on certain characters. Sansa isn't on my radar enough for me to hate her. Like Jon, I feel little else but indifference for her.

Sansa being a hostage makes Lyanna...look like she was a hostage...because there are parallels in both their situations.

But it's *not* a parallel, and here's exactly why.

Rhaegar is not like Joffrey.

Rhaegar actually died with Lyanna's name on his lips, as was confirmed in the official World of Ice and Fire App.

He was also described as a "love-struck prince" by the author himself:

At last I was able to ask him the question I had sent for the tombola. I have always been fascinated by how ASOIAF embodies the theories put forward by Acemoglu and Robinson about countries with extractive institutions (which hamper development). So my question was: Why do you think the political institutions in the Seven Kingdoms are so weak? His answer: the Kingdom was unified with dragons, so the Targaryen's[sic] flaw was to create an absolute monarchy highly dependent on them, with the small council not designed to be a real check and balance. So, without dragons it took a sneeze, a wildly incompetent and megalomaniac king, a love struck prince, a brutal civil war, a dissolute king that didn't really know what to do with the throne and then chaos. Interesting answer.

[Source]

Joffrey had no real love for Sansa. He saw her as an object to mistreat and misuse. He had no empathy and a deep lack of consideration for other people. He had her beaten because it gave him momentary gratification, because he was a psychopath. How is this comparable in any way to Lyanna at the tower of joy?

In fact, the whole point of what we are finding out about Rhaegar through Dany's chapters is to prove that Rhaegar is literally not the monster Robert has been making him out to be. That all Robert has said was due of his blind hatred of him and little more. So again, how is Lyanna's experiences in the tower of joy comparable to Sansa being beaten and harmed as a hostage in King's Landing?

How could this be a parallel, and can you back your claim with anything other than headcanons that have no basis in the books?

There is a reason why the tale of the winter rose was told to Jon specifically — because Bael the Bard and the Stark maiden is analogous to Rhaegar and Lyanna.

George says this about romance:

It's interesting, to get back to this issue of romance that you raised earlier. When I was in Spain a few years ago, I had dinner with a woman — a Spanish academic — and a big fan of both science fiction and romance, and she had read a lot of my stuff because people said I was a very romantic writer. And she sort of launched at me and said, "What are you talking about?! You are not a romantic writer, you know. Nobody ever lives happily ever after in your books!"

I was defending it, saying, "Well, but that's a different tradition of romance. I don't — I'm a romantic writer in the tradition of The Great Gatsby and Romeo and Juliet, and, you know, the Beauty and the Beast. These things don't necessarily have happy endings, but aren't the most powerful romances the unfulfilled romances — the romances where people go their separate ways, but they'll always have Paris, like in Casablanca, one of the films I showed here. You know, they go separate at the end, but they'll always have Paris." And she basically said, "No, you're wrong. They have to be happily ever after together for it to be romance, otherwise it's just sad."

[Source—clip starts at around 03:19]

This traditional telling of romance is shown quite clearly with both Bael the Bard with the Winter Rose and Rhaegar with Lyanna. Bael the Bard's tale was briefly happy:

No. They had been in Winterfell all the time, hiding with the dead beneath the castle. The maid loved Bael so dearly she bore him a son, the song says...though if truth be told, all the maids love Bael in them songs he wrote.

But also ended in tragedy:

"The song ends when they find the babe, but there is a darker end to the story. Thirty years later, when Bael was King-beyond-the-Wall and led the free folk south, it was young Lord Stark who met him at the Frozen Ford...and killed him, for Bael would not harm his own son when they met sword to sword."

"So the son slew the father instead," said Jon.

"Aye," she said, "but the gods hate kinslayers, even when they kill unknowing. When Lord Stark returned from the battle and his mother saw Bael's head upon his spear, she threw herself from a tower in her grief. Her son did not long outlive her. One o' his lords peeled the skin off him and wore him for a cloak." (Jon VI, ACoK)

Rhaegar left to fight in the War of the Usurper, lost and died. Lyanna died giving birth to Jon. And Jon died trying to save "Arya" from Ramsay.

This is what George means by a romantic love story.

And they also love Arya, because...Arya...looks like Lyanna

Or maybe we just like Arya because she's a fantastic character. Idk OP, could be that.

and isn't as hyper feminine as Sansa

This ties in quite well to the misogyny some "fans" of the series have to women like Arya. It's not because Sansa is "hyper feminine" that I don't care for her. I'm just indifferent to her. Femininity has absolutely nothing to do with it. I don't know if you know, but women can and do express themselves in different ways.

therefore her fans think she aligns with Rhaegar

?????????????

because they...hate Sansa and pretend its a love story

That is 100% the way George is taking R+L's story. This is quite literally his preferred telling of a romantic story. One where they share a brief affection for one another despite the eventual consequences, but end up separated, or worse.

Even though the point of Lyanna Stark is that her untold narrative is comparative to both Sansa and Arya

How is Lyanna's narrative comparative to Sansa? The only thing you've given was a non-parallel of being in the Red Keep/tower of joy, but there's nothing to suggest that Lyanna was trapped, beaten, or harmed there.

The king frowned. "A knife, perhaps. A good sharp one, and a bold man to wield it."

Ned did not feign surprise; Robert's hatred of the Targaryens was a madness in him. (Eddard II, AGoT)

--

For the first time in years, he found himself remembering Rhaegar Targaryen. He wondered if Rhaegar had frequented brothels; somehow he thought not. (Eddard IX, AGoT)

You do not find it strange that the brother of the woman who was supposedly trapped and imprisoned at the tower of joy has no ill words to say about the man who supposedly committed such heinous crimes?

#asoiaf

[lonelysa1lor]

hope it's ok to pop in, jon and ford would really be an interesting dynamic. i feel like ford would be suspicious of jon at first but warm up to him eventually, maybe?

HIHI :D

yea Jon would also be wary of Ford. Mostly because he'd give off avatar of the hunt vibes and literally carries around weapons all the time. Ford has a thing where he views people like experiments and things to be studied other than people, he forgets to consider how the person feels about certain things in hope of gaining information about them. This works real well with Jon, living archive of fear, Sims [sarcasm].

But once they get through all of that I think they'd be pals. Both got tricked into ending the world after all. Both went on long journeys for answers in hopes of stopping an apocalypse and got tons of scars along the way. They both hold a ton of guilt over how they treated others in the past and have a "its my fault so I'm the only one who can fix it" mentality. In other news I think Martin and the Stans would get on like a house on fire. Martin is trapped to be around annoying sailors for the rest of his life. Dipper would attempt to catalogue the fears, then of course get more confused when he's given the soup/colour analogy.

#tma #gravity falls #crossover #stanford pines #jonatham sims #crossover raaaaaa

[asteral-feileacan]

"I know 😔I recall coming across an interview from a showrunner who basically denied Bucky's lack of agency, called him the bad guy, said he needed to be punished for what he's done and then had the gall to say that they hoped trauma survivors felt represented by "what we did for Bucky's trauma".

Excuse me? EXCUSE ME? Bucky was literally captured, experimented on, tortured via electrocution, brainwashed to the point he had no memories and did not even know who he was.... as well as incarcerated against his will for 7 decades and they deny his lack of agency?

Yeah- on some level he does perhaps deserve to be punished but I blame the rich and powerful people who did that to him- and the powerful people who commissioned him to carry out those "missions" far more than I blame Bucky himself.

THEY deserve to be punished more than he does. How do people not get that? Or do the makers of the MCU just love the US government so much they don't understand how messed up it is to blame the person who was lliterally tortured until he couldn't remember who he was more than than the people who tortured and exploited him for their own ends? Sorry if that's too political for you.

Apologies, I've now written a very long post, all because I went back to find the screenshots and got angry about seeing them again XD

I think this is just really problematic for a number of reasons.

First, it's not an "excuse". One of the best things I've ever read anyone say in response to this topic is in this post. Pasted the quotes here:

The analogy is not “if you lost control of your car and killed someone you still need to be responsible for what your car caused”. It is not “if you’re a soldier who followed orders you still need to be responsible for the life you took”. Bucky was not distracted or indoctrinated. He was induced into a state where he had no idea who he was, could barely recall what he did, and where “he will do anything you tell him to”.

The correct analogy is “if someone hijacked your car, tied you up and locked you in the trunk, then drove your car into people, you are not held responsible for what happened to the victims because you were as much a victim as they are”.

I disagree that Bucky deserves to be punished in any capacity for his time as the Winter Soldier, and the quote I pulled from that post explains exactly why in a clearer and more concise manner than I'm about to from a storytelling/character perspective.

So, starting from the end of the first screenshot and moving backwards because I noticed something aggravating:

"I remember every kill. And that means that a part of me was there for one of those."

This is such a POWERFUL sentence. This is a GREAT sentence. This is Bucky admitting his misbelief, which he completely believes, which is not the truth he thinks it is. The misbelief in a character is a device that can elevate the story so much if done well. I mean, this is a man who has suffered one unimaginable cruelty after another, who was tortured and brainwashed to the point that he couldn't remember who he was, to the point that he was controlled into killing people, targets, whomever his handlers wished him to get rid of. And he remembers the faces of every person that the Winter Soldier killed.

That's a hell in and of itself. He's been freed from Hydra, he's recovering himself, he's relearning who Bucky Barnes is, he's trying to figure out who he himself is now in the wake of it all, and in the middle of everything, the world hates and fears him. He hates and fears himself. So the seeds of doubt get planted: why didn't I do more? I could have tried harder. It's my fault.

So he's stuck in a negative feedback loop - no one, not even his own therapist, is helping him to get out of it, and is only perpetuating it. So that's a deeply internalised untruth he can't let go of. He feels guilty.

(Thanks for bearing with me through that) And my point? Spellman in this interview undermines that, intentionally or not.

Stan Lee himself talked to Sebastian Stan about how Bucky is one of the good guys. I'm watching some interviews now, and it's genuinely confusing to me how he has this same point about how it's what Bucky feels about himself, but then in the previous lines he's painting Bucky in this light where it's "an excuse" that Hydra manipulated him. And then I remember the show - again, Bucky is treated so badly by the other characters in this series. That could have been another good storytelling device, but it's the fact that the narrative itself wants Bucky to BE guilty, not FEEL guilty. It's that fact that other characters are put in a good light for dismissing Bucky, and Bucky is put in a bad light for existing. Don't get me started on that therapist.

It's just. UGH. The series had so much potential, and Spellman, despite odd remarks, DOES understand Bucky's psyche in these interviews to some extent. So how did the show end up being such a mess in regards to his trauma, only just managing to scrape together an end note for him there that would have been much more effective if the show had been committed to Bucky, ONE OF ITS MAIN CHARACTERS?

Sebastian Stan, from what I've seen, is pretty much our only saving grace, as I remember reading comments from him that were such a breath of fresh air in the heat of all this.

And you're completely right - Hydra is completely to blame. The government treated Bucky horribly as well, just casting him off while still thinking of him as a threat and doing virtually nothing to help him.

Anyway - I'm so sorry for this lengthy rant. On the upside, now I'm remembering the exact reason that, about a year or two ago, compelled me to start preparing to re-write TFATWS. Maybe I'll go dig out those notes again and give it another shot. That post I linked is brilliant and covers all my gripes in extremely well-composed arguments, and it was worth scrolling through all my posts to find it again XD

TL;DR: The show was nice, but not only could it have been WAY better, it also handled trauma very poorly. As both an avid Bucky fan and a writer, I was and am extremely disappointed. For what it was, it was passable, and I liked it, but it started out on so many deep thoughts about the characters and basically gave up halfway through pretty much all of them.

#bucky barnes #the falcon and the winter soldier #tfatws critical

[invaive]

HOW THEY MET THEMSELVES

the double (2013) – dir. richard ayoade / the stalker song – autoheart / us (2019) – dir. jordan peele / the changeling's mission (day 7) – pathologic / the one i love (2014) – dir. charlie mcdowell / the disturbing consequences of seeing your double – anil ananthaswamy / doppelgänger (2019) – stan douglas / prometheus (i. 191) – percy bysshe shelley

(alt text under the cut)

Image One: A still from Richard Ayoade's "The Double." Simon and James, both played by Jessie Eisenberg, are in a yellow-lit bathroom looking in the mirror. Each one sees himself in the mirror, but both are focusing instead on each other. They're wearing identical ill-fitting beige suits as they stand in front of the sinks, dark shadows being cast all around them as they watch each other.

Image Two: A screenshot from the Genius page for "Stalker's Tango" by Autoheart. The lyrics read "I know, I know, I know I'm always in your place / But don't you see my dear? / I am your doppelganger, I have your face so / Love me, love me, love me, love me / Love me, love me, love me, love me"

Image Three: A still from Jordan Peele's "Us." Red and Adelaide are seated at a desk, surrounded by tiled walls with multicolored paint handprints smeared everywhere. Adelaide is dressed in all white and recoiling from Red, wearing her signature red jumpsuit, who is holding scissors to her chest. Red has a hand on the back of Adelaide's neck, holding her in place, and is watching her with wild, wide eyes.

Image Four: A screenshot of text from Pathologic copied into a text document. It reads, "With my own eyes, I saw my sister whom I had but slight intimations about. Now I don't know which one of us is which. I must be going insane.

Which one of the two stole the other's name; claimed her calling; seized her destiny?

Please define me."

Image Four: A still from Charlie McDowell's "The One I Love." Sophie, played by Elizabeth Moss, is standing outside in a driveway surrounded by lush greenery with her double. Her double looks exactly the same as her down to the clothes as they stand side-by-side. It's impossible to tell which Sophie is the real one and which is the double.

Image Five: A screenshot of text from an article by Anil Ananthaswamy. It reads, "He felt dizzy, stood up, turned around, and saw himself still lying in bed. He was aware that the person in bed was him, and was not willing to get up and would thus make himself late for work. Furious at the prone self, the man shouted at it, shook it, and even jumped on it, all to no avail. To complicate things further, his awareness of being in a body would shift from one body to the other. When he inhabited the supine body in bed, hed see his duplicate bending over and shaking him. Soon, fear and confusion took hold: Who was he? Was he the man standing up or the man lying in bed? Unable to stand seeing his double any longer, he jumped out of the window." The last sentence is highlighted with a mild yellow bar.

Image Six: A still from Stan Douglas's "Doppelgänger." On the left is Alice-1, played by Dionne Audain, with her hands on her head looking panicked. She's covered in a liquidy slime and lit by an orange light with a completely black background behind her. On the right is Alice-2, also played by Dionne Audain, in the same pose. This Alice is covered in slime as well, but she's lit by a purple light and looks significantly more afraid. Behind her is a green background full of analog technology and yellow flashing lights.

Image Seven: A screenshot of text from "Prometheus" by Percy Bysshe Shelley. It reads "Ere Babylon was dust,

The Magus Zoroaster, my dear child,

Met his own image walking in the garden.

That apparition, sole of men, he saw.

For know there are two worlds of life and death:

One that which thou beholdest;

but the other is underneath the grave, where do inhabit

The shadows of all forms that think and live

Till death unite them and they part no more. (Act I, 191-99)"

[End]

#reading 'the double' rn and therefore thinking a lot about doppelgängers and what they mean #the double #the double 2013 #autoheart #us 2019 #doppelgangers #pathologic #the one i love #stan douglas #prometheus #web weaving #parallels #mine

[incomingalbatross]

SINCE Beowulf is all about relationships with Uncles of one sort or another, how would you personally adapt it into a Gravity Falls episode?

HM. Excellent question!

So for "Gravity Falls episode" I am adopting the parameters of "could exist in a hypothetical season three." At this point, the first problem we run into is that when you're talking about a guy who beats up sea monsters while swimming for nine days straight, ripping off arms and crushing rib cages, etc., the obvious character for the Beowulf role is Stan. But 2013-era Stan can't be young Beowulf, obviously. And he can't really take on a nephew role regardless.

HOWEVER. Another thing about Beowulf is that it loves non-linear history being told in repeated tangents. And people bragging about past exploits.

So right now I'm thinking you try to mimic that structure by setting a story in Gravity Falls, starting with an analog to the dragon-theft. (I'm comfortable nominating any of the Pineses for the role of "disturbed a dragon for a stupid reason," though I'll admit Stan's the most likely to steal from one.) As they're fighting for their lives, Stan goes "hey, this is just like that time last spring..." cue ripple transition to a flashback and we get Stan heroically punching sea monsters to save, idk, somebody's tavern in a fishing town.

And then maybe a NESTED flashback, if you really want a Young Stan, where he fought a monster or monstrous thug on behalf of a gang he was in for five minutes.

...This flashback also means you could do some of the fun things about Loyalty and Kinship and Good Leadership that Beowulf is doing. You can't bring in actual kinship unless you go all the way back to his teens, because Young Stan was in more of a Wanderer situation, but you can present him as a metaphorical thane to somebody. Closest you can get to Beowulf's relationships with his elders.

And then that narrative proceeds in parallel with the current dragon-fighting, and obviously Stan took the lead in fighting this dragon but when all hope is lost the kids charge in and support him in the slaying, like good Young Kinsmen. And there are TWO of them so Stan doesn't even die!

(Ford... Ford might already be in the dragon's clutches. The mission might be rescuing him. Either that or he's busy doing something else to make sure they'll have a stable base to return to and bandage their wounds, because having someone responsible who's not on the front lines is also a good way to have a happier ending than Beowulf.)

Also, to mimic my first-time Beowulf experience, Stan's nested stories ideally should include a lot of interwoven and impossible-to-track tangents about people we've never heard of. ;P

#i am just riffing here feel free to give commentary #going for a little of the structure a little of the themes and MOST of the monsters #asks

[majycka]

Sharing this lovely article about Kaku-sensei where he basically talks about his influences(lots of horror and mangakas such as Kentaro Miura, Junji Ito, and even CSM's Fujimoto-sensei! he seems friends with him too). He also talks about how he made the characters of Sagirin and Gabimaru where he intentionally wanted them to be unique(me: yes sensei! I whole heatedly agree that you delivered in this one :')). There's also more on the creative process of the series!

This whole interview is definitely a treat to fans/stans of Hell's Paradise. Please give it a read! u.u

(for self-indulgent reasons, under the cut is my fave quotes from the interview!)

Kaku: (About the art mediums he used) I used a combination of Copic markers and acrylic paint for volumes one through five of Hell's Paradise. Before that, I used only Copics. When working analog, you get to enjoy periodically changing what materials you use. Since Jigokuraku Kaitai Shinsho (fan book published in 2021), I've used a combination of Copics and acrylic. I'll use different paper when working with watercolors and even change up my materials if it's fun. Fun is more important to me than efficiency when it comes to materials.

Kaku: (about his OG draft on the series) I don't often start with the setting. For this work, I started with "several pairs of people whose interests aren't aligned are thrown into an enclosed space and forced to work together." That's the framework. In the very beginning, the story was about children sent to a youth detention center and the lawyers fighting for them. From there, through discussions with my editor, we dropped that setting but kept the framework and applied different characters to it. We kept the framework because I've always liked the way human relationships change and wanted to write a story about it.

Kaku: (About our duo Sagirin and Gabimaru!) This is something I imagined from the start of publication. Both Gabimaru and Sagiri have the same values as someone living in the 2020s. This is also the reason the story is set in the distant past during the late Edo period. The people of that time had totally different ideas about ethics and human rights. Despite condemned criminals and executioners being difficult characters to empathize with, if they share our perspective, then we feel close to them, and they stand out as unique characters in an Edo Period setting. From the very start, I felt that made Gabimaru and Sagiri unique.

Kaku: Yes! "The characters take on a life of their own." When I was a newbie, whenever that phrase came up in interviews with manga artists, I thought, "That can't be possible! After all, you made those characters!" (Laughs) But now I think that really is what happens. In fact, it's more interesting when it does.

#hell's paradise #jigokuraku #hell’s paradise: jigokuraku #yamada asaemon sagiri #gabimaru the hollow #tatsuki fujimoto #kentaro miura #junji ito #yuji kaku

[thegirlwhowrites642]

I really love ron i do, fandom has put him through shit for a long time. But now a days i feel ron's fans has become what hermione's die hard fan used to be. I visited some blogs most of them were shitting on ginny( this thing is quite vicious on quora)and harry too in some( less than ginny OFCOURSE) Some even tried to alleviate ron and harry's friendship at the expense of ginny. What gets me when people said harry and hermione are more imp to ron than ginny. And OFCOURSE ginny will be only second to ron in Harry's life. I used to like hermione really but because of her arse worshipping fans i sort of drifted apart from her and now i am worried same thing will happens with ron.

Yeah, I noticed this too.

I was in the Marauders fandom for a very long time so I knew in general what was going on with the trio era side of the fandom, like the crazy Hermione stans but I wasn't involved. I always really liked Ron and I always felt bad for the treatment the fandom gave him. But then when I got into the trio era side of the fandom a few years ago I found out that Ron's stans had become insane too.

It's one of the reasons I've never been able to get into the romione fandom despite the fact I've always really liked romione, it's too much a combination of two incredibly obnoxious fanbases.

As for who is more important to whom, in HBP there's a whole theme about Harry choosing Ginny over Ron. And in the last two books, it's made very clear that if Ron really needs to choose between Harry and Ginny, he is going to choose Ginny (and I'm pretty sure Harry himself would kill him if he didn't). One of the things it's important to understand to comprehend the evolution of Ron and Harry's friendship is that when Harry properly falls for Ginny, their friendship changes forever because for the first time, there's a person they both care more about than they care about the other. Ron and Harry have four proper confrontations in the books, and three of those are about Ginny, and there's a reason.

If you are a Ron stan you should be the first to acknowledge this, because it's super important in order to understand the fight in the tent, to truly understand where he is coming from in that argument.

It really sucks when a character you like has obnoxious fans. Though, I think the Hermione and the Ron stans come from two different places.

If I had to make a political analogy, I'd probably say that Hermione's fanatics are a far-right cult while Ron's stans are a minority that got radicalised after years of oppression.

But to be clear, I don't think this was the case for the person who reblogged my post expressing their opinion (if that was the post that brought you to write this ask), they seemed quite polite and not unreasonable even if I disagreed with them.

[kellyvela]

D*NY stans think battle of bells will be between cersei & joncon. I've seen ppl theorising that KL will be ashes when Dny arrives in Westeros because cersei will blow it up with wildfire ("as KL is her city" 🤭). Dny stans substitute cersei in every theory that is negative for dny (they call cersei as Aerys 2.0 🤭)

*GRRM over the years talking about aunty, her pets and burning cities to the ground*:

A Dance With Dragons spends quite a lot of time in Essos, which is kind of the analog to Asia and the Middle East in the world the story takes place in, as opposed to Westeros, which seems to owe a lot to Western Europe. When I was reading about Dany, who has become a light-skinned, foreign ruler of an exotic land, it reminded me of The Man Who Would Be King, the Sean Connery and Michael Caine movie that is based on a Rudyard Kipling story. Do you think about these parallels — colonialism, the “white man’s burden” — when you’re writing? I’ve said many times I don’t like thinly disguised allegory, but certain scenes do resonate over time. Other people have made the argument, which is more more contemporary, that it might have resonances with our current misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. I’m aware of the parallels, but I’m not trying to slap a coat of paint on the Iraq War and call it fantasy. When civilizations clash in your books, instead of Guns, Germs, and Steel, maybe it’s more like Dragons, Magic, and Steel (and also Germs). There is magic in my universe, but it’s pretty low magic compared to other fantasies. Dragons are the nuclear deterrent, and only Dany has them, which in some ways makes her the most powerful person in the world. But is that sufficient? These are the kind of issues I’m trying to explore. The United States right now has the ability to destroy the world with our nuclear arsenal, but that doesn’t mean we can achieve specific geopolitical goals. Power is more subtle than that. You can have the power to destroy, but it doesn’t give you the power to reform, or improve, or build.

—GRRM - Vulture - 2011

“I mean battles and wars interest me too - and medieval feasts interest me. And you know I’m creating a whole world here and every facet of it. As I get to it I try to approach it as realistically as I can, but ultimately as I said before, it’s it’s the human heart in conflict with itself. It’s what makes Cersei Lannister the way she is, and is she capable of learning and changing? What drives Dany? With Dany I’m particularly looking at the… what effect great power has upon a person. She’s the mother of dragons, and she controls what is in effect the only three nuclear weapons in the entire world that I’ve created. What does it do to you when you control the only three nuclear weapons in the world and you can destroy entire cities or cultures if you choose to? Should you choose to, should you not choose to? These are the issues that fascinate me. I don’t necessarily claim to have answers to these. I think exploring the questions is far more interesting than just me giving an answer and saying to the reader, here’s the answer, here’s the truth. Now think about it for yourself, look at the dilemmas, look at the contradictions, look at the problems, and the unintended consequences. That’s what fascinates me.”

—“Interview exclusive de George R R Martin, l'auteur de Game Of Thrones” de -Le Mouv’- 2014 - [Transcription]

How do you analyze this question of power? I think I was struck by the reading of the Lord of the Rings. I find that Tolkien is a little simplistic on the subject: at the end of the book, Aragorn becomes king, and we learn that he ruled in a wise and just way for a century, for he was a good man. But I read history books, I'm contemporary news, and I'm convinced that being a good man is not enough to make you a great leader. Because governing is a delicate exercise that makes you constantly make difficult decisions, solve problems where there is no good solution, that would solve everything by magic. Those are profound questions for the human race. And then there is the war, another subject that is close to my heart, I was a conscientious objector at the time of the Vietnam War, and this question still concerns me. I look at what is happening in the Middle East, with the Islamic State, and I can not help wondering: who are these monsters, these modern orcs? Who can be sympathetic to them? And yet, fighters say thousands to join them. More seriously, what motivates them? And how should we fight them? If I were Daenerys Targaryen. I could ride on my dragons and eliminate them in the flames. But is death the only solution we have to offer? How react to another who is so radically alien to us? These questions are very difficult - and I do not pretend to have the answers. Because there is no simple answer to these questions.

—Lire Magazine - April 2015

He was asked to comment about the differences between the book and show characters, particularly Daenerys. GRRM ignored all the other characters and talked only about Daenerys - he said that the show one is older because there are laws in USA that prevent minors from having sex scenes so the decision was made to age Daenerys. Otherwise, book Daenerys and show Daenerys “are very similar” and “Emilia Clarke did a fantastic job”. (I guess he can’t really say negative things about the show, can he?)

—GRRM Q&A - St. Petersburg, August 2017

GRRM: “People read fantasy to see the colours again,” he says. “We live our lives and I think there’s something in us that yearns for something more, more intense experiences. There are men and women out there who live their lives seeking those intense experiences, who go to the bottom of the sea and climb the highest mountains or get shot into space. Only a few people are privileged to live those experiences but I think all of us want to, somewhere in our heart of hearts we don’t want to live the lives of quiet desperation Thoreau spoke about, and fantasy allows us to do those things. Fantasy takes us to amazing places and shows us wonders, and that fulfils a need in the human heart.”

The Guardian: And the dragons?

GRRM: “Oh sure, dragons are cool too,” he chuckles. “But maybe not on our doorstep”.

—The Guardian - November 2018

Esquire: How will Fire & Blood deepen our understanding of Daenerys and her dragons?

GRRM: This is a book that Daenerys might actually benefit from reading, but she has no access to Archermaester Gyldayn’s crumbling manuscripts. So she’s operating on her own there. Maybe if she understood a few things more about dragons and her own history in Essos, things would have gone a little differently.

—Esquire - November 2018

Sitting down with news.com.au in New York City, Martin dropped dark hints to the suffering awaiting the war-torn world of Westeros as the battle for the Iron Throne reaches its peak.

“I have tried to make it explicit in the novels that the dragons are destructive forces, and Dany (Daenerys Targaryen) has found that out as she tried to rule the city of Meereen and be queen there.

‘THE POWER TO DESTROY’

“She has the power to destroy, she can wipe out entire cities, and we certainly see that in ‘Fire and Blood,’ we see the dragons wiping out entire armies, wiping out towns and cities, destroying them, but that doesn’t necessarily enable you to rule — it just enables you to destroy.”

—GRRM - Fox News Channel - November 2018

John Howe: Can I ask you why Dany is a princess and not a prince?

GRRM: I made this choice a long time ago, I think I wanted to play a little with the genres and reversed things a little, and of course in my head the expression "mother of dragons" is much better than "father of dragons". There is also this link with the woman who gives life, who transmits lives, carrying a gigantic power of death, of fire, of destruction. There are very powerful metaphors in there.

—Dragons! (2/4) Dragons d'Occident, la figure du mal [2018] - Video - Translation (last quote).

WELT: Again: We know what will happen to the Mother of Dragons. How do you want to surpass that in a novel – with an alternative literary version?

GRRM: Counter question: How many children did Scarlett O'Hara have? In Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind” she had three children. But in the cinema version of the novels she only had one child. Which version is the only one valid - the one with one or the other with three children? The answer is: neither. Because Scarlett O'Hara never existed, she is a fictional character, not a real person, who would have had real children. Or take “The Little Mermaid”. We know her from the fairytale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen and from the Disney movie. Which one is the true mermaid? Well, mermaids do not exist. So you can chose the version that you personally like the best. Changes are inevitable in this process. Even if the adaption is as faithful to the literary source material as it was the case with “Game of Thrones”.

—GEORGE R. R. MARTIN (“Die Leute kennen ein Ende – nicht das Ende” - WELT 2020) - Translation.

[…] The role of Daenerys is a difficult role, particularly in the pilot, because Daenerys begins as a frightened little girl. She’s thoroughly dominated by her brother, who humiliates her and sexually assaults her. He’s selling her to this fierce guy and she’s frightened but during the course of that comes into her own power. She suddenly grows from a girl to a woman and starts to realize that she does have power and authority. There’s a transformation that’s incredible the entire course of the show. You have to find an actress who can do both parts, who can be very convincing as the scared little girl in the beginning, but also very convincing as the “I’m gonna kick your ass and burn your city to cinders” woman that she becomes by the end. It’s challenging and it was a hard part to cast.

—GRRM - Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers by James Andrew Miller (NOVEMBER 23, 2021). Full quote here.

The Targaryens are also an ancient house but they're not an ancient Westerosi house. They knew that destruction was coming to Valyria and went far away from the capital city and the settled on the volcanic island of Dragonstone. They were dragon lords in Valyria. Now dragons are really formidable and they can turn the tide of a battle. It flies, it's difficult to hit, it breathes fire, against which most knights and men at arms have little or no protection. So if you have dragons, that's were the nuclear option analogy comes in. You're hard to mess around with. So the dragons and fear of dragons was one of the things that made the Targaryens very secure in their power.

—Before the Dance: An Illustrated History with George R.R. Martin | House of the Dragon (HBO) - August - 2022

*aunty stans*: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Read more here:

Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Queen of Ashes

#anon asks #grrm #aunty #dragons

[littleeyesofpallas]

Got a fun ask from @macchiato-dreaming22.

I'll be honest I'm kind of weird in my relationship with headcanon and fanfic in that I'm kind of not all that engaged with characters as characters, if that makes sense? I'm not the type to get hung up on "he would not say that" sort of quibbles, or really dwell freefloating in the spaces inbetween canon characterization the way a lot of fanfic writers, or RPers, or stans or shippers or whatever else you'd call it do. I can appreciate the need or the preference to do so but it doesn't really call to me the way it seems to to them. So what I tend to do is try and round up all the otherwise loose bits of canon trivia and try and piece them together, only loosely speculating about things that havent happened based on their adjacency to things that have. I dunno if that makes any sense at all as a distinction...

Anyway point being is that the fact that I've never thought very hard about how old the Visored are individually/relatively sort stems from that M.O. but also I can definitely figure out what my own existing headcanon would imply is the answer to that question, and so that's what I'm going to do.

(And to be clear I'm not really going to fuss about the ages, relative or otherwise, within the strict canon of completed manga so much as I'm going to take my headcanon/AU for the character concepts and run with things from there. That might not make sense right now, but it should clear itself up as I get going.)

oh boy this got long...

So as a refresher on the AU I never wrote: Given their introduction between vol.21-26, my headcanon is that the Visored were never a bunch of gotei captains and lieutenants, they were a bunch of humans, each became something like a substitute shinigami in their own right, and then had those powers taken from them, at which point Urahara conveniently appeared and took advantage of each of their desperation to get their powers back to experiment on them, working out the system he'd eventually use on Ichigo. So it's not only the hollow aspect as an impurity, but the fact that they (re)obtained their shinigami skills in spite of being stripped of their substitute shinigami status that makes them criminals. But in the process, each of them would either be abandoned or otherwise escape Urahara's "care" and/or observation.

Given the implicit consequences of the Shattered Shaft method, and Bleach's general world building, the elephant in the room we never had addressed was that because Ichigo and in this interpretation of their premise, the Visored, all had their soul chains severed, thus separating their soul from their body, making them ghosts. That in mind, I consider them all to have stopped aging when the Visored process took place, and THAT is where I anchor most of them to certain time periods based on their basic design and sense of style. (technically I do sort of head canon them as all having been turned in the 1970s, thus ~30years prior to the start of Bleach, which is, ya know, the right age for the father of a 15yo to have been about 15 30 years ago... but if i just left it at that it'd be kind of boring, so I'm letting these age ranges drift a little, if only to make this whole thought experiment more interesting.)

So for starters, I associated Shinji with the British Jazz-Rock and Mod scenes of the 1960s: the hair, the teeth, the ugly ties, the scolor scheme, even the trenchcoat he wore the one time at random, the only thing he was missing was a moped. I also very specifically think of him as a Pete Townshend analog for some reason. So given that he passed as a 15yo highschooler in Karakura, I'm going to say I think he was 15 when he was turned in 1965, so it aligns with The Who's release of the song My Generation. So that puts Shinji's birth in 1950.

The easiest to nail down actually would just be Mashiro, since she clearly borrows from very Himitsu Sentai Go-ranger specifically, but also Kamen Rider more generally. That puts a cap on how old she could be at 1975 as the airdate of the original Super Sentai series. It's hard to judge her age considering she's so distinctly childish, but it's kind of implied that even supernatural aging aside, she's immature for her age. It's an arbitrary call to make, but I'm gonna say she was 10 in 1975 when the tokusatsu thing left an impact on her, but got turned when she was older and just never grew out of it. So born 1960.

Another somewhat straight forward one to pin down is Kensei, who I associate with the Vietnam War, and implicitly the 1969 lottery draft, and the US Military occupation of Okinawa as a launch pad into Vietnam. Although historically the actual draft applied only to those born between 1944-1950, making any draftee who deployed in 1970 at least 20yo, and I see the Visored as kind of explicitly teens, so I'll say he wasn't drafted but volunteered and was 18 in 1970 and when he was turned. That makes him born in 1952.

(I could have alternatively nailed him down to the 1980s bosozoku scene on account of his later theming, but the super distinctive cargo pants, combat boots, short hair, and a rubber grip combat knife all point to more of a military theme than a biker thing --also there's some military motif in one of his random attacks to boot. Although arguably that style of knife grip is even more modern, but I don't get the impression Kubo was thinking about it that hard, just about whether it gave off the right (para)military vibe.)

Funny enough Risa is one of the harder ones to really tie to a time period, as her classic sailor-fuku could be placed anywhere from the 1920s to the 1980-90s when they started falling out of style. Notably though they have a stronger association with middle school than high school, and Risa is also a pervert, so I want to say she's wearing it as a fetish thing, rather than as an actual student. That in mind, the school girl fetish really took off in the 80s and hit its peak in the 90s just before social awareness and political actions to try and curb the trend started being put into place. (Oh and I forgot, her Visored mask is a Gyan from Mobile Suit Gundam, so that already caps her at 1979.)

(I was also going to add something about Comiket and the birth of the doujin market, but that actually overlaps with this timeline already so it doesn't really narrow things down at all. It's pretty arbitrary but I'm gonna pin her to 1984 as the date the term "Cosplay" was first used. Assuming she was also 18 at the time, that makes her born in 1966)

(There's ALSO a weird thing in one of her attacks, and the general style of her shikai, and very very loosely a possible Chun-li reference that all seem to suggest she's got a bit of a chinese thing going on too? but I don't see how it gels with the rest of it, and it's just kind of a deadend to look further into. Technically there's a whole character type of the fujoshi/female otaku being very into chinese historical/fantasy, so like... maybe that because ti woud mesh with the general otaku vibe of the school girl uniform??? Theres a reason I didn't pursue this angle...)

Rose, I could try and triangulate the whole bishounen trend in 70s shoujo manga, but I'm gonna be lazy and just say he's the same age a Bjorn Andresen and born in 1955 as that more or less lands him right smack dab in the timeframe I would've ended up pinpointing anyway, give or take. For technicality's sake I'll say he was turned at 17, thus technically qualifying him as a proper bishounen and not just bidanshi, making him turned in 1972.

Hacchi is so hard to work with in this context... So long as this is all just headcanon anyway I'm gonna let go of even loose anchors to canon and just say his whole tux getup is a host club thing. (I know that doesn't quite feel right, even to me, but I gotta pick something instead of just juggling "maybes" and "sortas" for forever... I can't really match the look to much else eotherwise... Like a wedding caterer maybe? One half of a classic Japanese standup comedy act? Some kind of a stage magician?) Host clubs only really took off in the late 90s, peaking in the 2000s. Considering the range of dates on the other members this does kind of afford him the chance to be older, although it's sort of weird if he's the only physical adult in the whole group... If I call him 25 at the tail end of the slow decline post 80s bubble economy pop, around 2002, then that makes him born in 1979. (if i shift that back to the start of the pop in 1992, it slides him more in line with the others at 1957, but then he's kind of out of the range of the host club thing.... I dunno, man, Hacchi's an enigma... He really is maybe the absolutel single biggest wrench in this whole thing, which is a damn shame because he's maybe my favorite visored.)

(love that the little cartoon in the sweatpants was the exact thing that showed up when i googled guudara[ぐうたら]:"lazybones; good-for-nothing; idler; slacker; loafer")

It took me a second to remember who I'd missed. Love and his weird slacker, drop out, tracksuit thing scream 80s to me, and technically the whole adidas tracksuit look was in fact a 70s-80s thing. it's a much less specific kinda look than some of the others where it can be tied to specific characters, titles, and authors, or historical events... I'm gonna go out on a limb with this one and just tether it to 1984 and the release of the Run-DMC album, if only because they're the only specific names I can tie to the tracksuit look, rather than just a general casualwear trend. If Love was, say, 17 in 1984, he'd have been born in 1967.

And then that just leaves Hiyori.... Hers is such a general look that I have like zero idea where to place it. It falls into a similar time span as Love's with the track suit thing. but then she's got that mountain hick country bumpkin sorta thing going for her, which suggests she's kind of out of style, so then is her tracksuit look sort of out of date? She very specifically has some general parallels with Kumiko, in the manga Gokusen as a homely, spunky, firebrand kinda gal. If I consider that Gokusen came out in 2000, and had Kumiko be 23yo, then if I map that onto Hiyori, she'd have been born in 1977? But clearly turned very early as she's by far the youngest of the Visored physiologically.

BDAY - name (age apparent/real)

MAY 10, 1950 - Shinji (15/55)

JUL 30, 1952 - Kensei (18/53)

MAR 17, 1955 - Rose (17/50)

SEP 8, 1957 - Hacchi (25/48)

APR 1, 1960 - Mashiro (16/40)

FEB 3, 1966 - Risa (18/39)

OCT 10, 1967 - Love (17/38)

AUG 1, 1977 - Hiyori (13/28)

I guess the only thing I'd do to manually tweak these is nudge a few years around to more evenly space them out... Maybe make Mashiro a Visored before Kensei, because I feel like that's how their some of their conversations in the early arc pointed. I can't figure out if I feel like Hiyori gives off the vibes of being the first or the last recruited Visored... I like that she bosses others around like she has seniority, but also she seems like the most inexperienced and rough around the edges, as well as the overt comparison to Ichigo. Although actual age-vs-apparent age aside, the order in which they were actually recruited into the ramshackle gang they are is a timeline all its own.

Again though, I think of the Visored as that ramshackle band of undead kids squatting in an abandoned factory hoping the samurai death cops don't find them, or the mad scientist that threw them into a hole in the first place --half of them convinced that the whole process was a mistake and who just want to not have a monster inside them anymore, and that the hogyoku is the key to turning them back, but then at least Shinji secretly convinced that he's just a god in the making and wants to hougyoku to push the transformation even further.(ala the general thrust of the Fullbringer premise) The ones Ukitake betrayed for the sake or balance and order, ala his yinyang theming. The one he's secretly using ichigo to monitor via the substitute badge. Rather than just a bunch of weird coworkers who had one bad night and then just sat around doing nothing for like 100 years.

(Again, see all the odd little details of how they were introduced that later got steamrolled or just outright ignored: Urahara and Isshin talking as if they're not in touch with the Visored. Hiyori's between-two-worlds talk with Shinji emphasizing the line between humans and shinigami. Hiyori and Shinji having signs of a practiced recruitment process they're using with Ichigo. Kensei not being at all familiar with Mashiro's training process. Kensei thinking Orihime slipping thru the barrier could've been another visored, as if it's just assumed there are an indeterminate number of others out there unaffiliate with them. etc... yadda yadda.. I've made this post somewhere before, right? or has it only ever popped up in bits and pieces?)

Anyway all that just to reiterate that this whole exercise is less preoccupied with trying to make any particular "sense" out of the manga's canon backstory, and more just a pulling on loose threads of my own headcanon.

(Oh, and because there wasn't any better place to throw it in there: in this headcanon, Shinji was Isshin's substitute 30 years ago.)

#bleach meta(?) #bleach headcanon #bleach au #bleach rewrite #should'a/could'a/would'a #god what happened we've become so unmoored from the text #every divergent meta post i make #i take a step further toward becoming totally incomprehensible #this got weird and dumb FAST #one of these days i should just go down the timeline #and just outline my alt Bleach plot in its entirety #but that sounds like effort

[thelady0fshalott]

you really missed the point of x-men ’97 if you think it’s endorsing great replacement theory. when THE VILLAINS are the ones spouting great replacement theory, that means the show is rejecting it! do the writers need to spell it out for you to make you understand? moreover, marvel’s mutants have always been the next step in human evolution. they aren’t only a persecuted minority; they’re literally the future of the human race. if you have an issue with that, take it up with the creators of x-men. that element has always been there. i guess you just didn’t notice until now.

So I want to take a moment and try to thoughtfully respond to the comment I got from Anonymous on my “Really Disney?” post. I do want to make it clear that I get it, no one likes it when something they enjoys is criticized. I’m not saying people shouldn’t like X-Men97, or the X-Men in general. I’m saying little thought and less skill went into writing the most complex part of X-Men97’s plot and when the bad guy says something truly horrible and uses examples as to the truth of his clams and our heroes instead of refuting what he says, instead of showing that this one person has a twisted and warped view on the world and reality, our heroes agree with the villain that his theory is correct but he shouldn’t be afraid because the right kind of people are doing the replacement, this is a problem.

I’m now going to address the argument in the comment I received one section at a time. I have put the comment in green to make it easier to see what I'm responding to.

Anonymous starts their response with “you really missed the point of x-men ’97 if you think it’s endorsing great replacement theory. when THE VILLAINS are the ones spouting great replacement theory, that means the show is rejecting it! do the writers need to spell it out for you to make you understand?” (Anonymous).

First off, just because a villain says it that does not make it false, heroes must refute the villains claims, which does not happen in X-Men97. The opposite is actually true. Jean confirms that yes, Mutants are replacing humans, Cable and Bishop also confirm that this is what happens in the future. Further, the villain in the show has examples of mutants replacing humans and taking their jobs (a major part of the replacement theory). This fascist theory would be fine as a villain dog whistle if the heroes engaged with him and showed how the theory is flawed, wrong and not truly happening but they don’t do that.

“moreover, marvel’s mutants have always been the next step in human evolution. they aren’t only a persecuted minority; they’re literally the future of the human race.” (Anonymous).

Second the argument in the comment agrees and supports that yes the replacement theory is the point of the show when it insist that humans will be replaced with mutants as the next stage of human evolution. Quote “… marvel’s mutants have always been the next step in human evolution… . They’re literally the future of the human race.” (Anonymous). Now lets address the shows chosen analog for mutant and human evolution future pathways, Neanderthals. As I mentioned in my post, “Really Disney?” Neanderthals were not replaced by humans, they Integrated and intermarried with modern humans and almost everyone on earth are decedents of these two branches marrying. (Fun fact most people have between 2-4% Neanderthals DNA). The theory that Neanderthals were replaced by humans was debunked some time ago and is just bad science, since the show is already doing such a bad job at pretending its 1997, and since it’s in a world where space-ships exists I feel they could afford to use good science even if it wasn’t proven at the time the show is set.

Lets also discuss the comments claim about mutants always being “the next step in human evolution. they aren’t only a persecuted minority… .” (Anonymous). I’m not claiming that mutants are only a persecuted minority, however, Stan Lee the man who invented mutants has said in many, many interviews that he invented mutants as an analog for the civil rights struggle happening in the 1960’s. Specifically mutants, like many oppressed groups, are marginalized because of the way they were born, not anything they’ve done. Yet, Stan Lee also wanted them to be heroes, who didn’t stop trying to help and ultimately fight for equality and integration. Further Christ Claremont who had the longest run on writing the X-Men (almost 2 consecutive decades) and basically defined most of the famous characters also wrote them as an analog for civil rights and the struggle for integration. These stories are more complex and explore what it is to be different and what it is to be human. I’ll make my point more clearly, in essences, yes, mutants were invented as an analog to civil rights, which though it has made great leaps since the 1960’s is an ongoing fight and more relevant today then every. So the statement about “they aren’t only a persecuted minority” is misinformed and reductive if this foundational aspect of the X-Men story is ignored.

“If you have an issue with that, take it up with the creators of x-men. that element has always been there. i guess you just didn’t notice until now.” (Anonymous).

As for the last statement I think I’ve already explained pretty well above how in fact those “element” have not always been there. They aren't there in the comics written by the two men who created and then defined who the X-Men were, its not in X-Men92, X-Men Evolution, its not there in the Fox Movies (aside from First Class which uses the out of date 1960’s science as period accurate misunderstanding.) Its just not in most of the media.

When the heroes don’t accurately refute the bad guys statements and instead say, yes we are replacing humans and we’re mutants which makes us better so we are the right kind of people doing the replacement this is not okay.

To be fair I don’t think the writer was trying to actually push fascist propaganda, the problem is the writing was done so poorly one can’t easily tell its not fascist propaganda, and that’s where the issue for me lies. In reality I’m sure that the writer wanted to do another tired Revenge Fantasy narrative. However, they tried bringing in heavier themes they didn’t have the skill to handle and ended up being crushed by them.

Again, I get it no one likes it when something they enjoys is criticized. However, I think its important to say that little thought and less skill went into writing the most complex part of X-Men97’s plot and when the bad guy says something truly horrible and uses examples as to the truth of his clams and our heroes instead of refuting what he says, instead of showing that this one person has a twisted and warped view on the world and reality, our heroes agree with the villain that his theory is correct but he shouldn’t be afraid because the right kind of people are doing the replacement, this is a problem.

As for the suggestion of taking it up with the creators I guess my question would be which creators? I have no problem with Stan Lee and Chris Claremont’s handling of the X-Men for the most part.

Finally if anyone is interested in the history of the X-Men and what makes up who the X-Men are at their core I’ll suggest a very informative and good documentaries, see the links below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_6qVaux1d0 Chris Claremont's X-Men

#X-men97 #Ask #X-men 97 #X-men

[thesinglesjukebox]

LIL NAS X - "J CHRIST"

You know who ELSE hit 'em with something vi-i-ral? (No, not us. Yet.)

4.44

Nortey Dowuona: Mark 8:30: Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. Todrick Hall, who slowly built up a career from performing on cruises like the Royal Caribbean and at amusement parks, went on an extensive press run to promote his Wizard of Oz themed album in 2017 and spoke about himself as a figure who could inspire young gay black boys like him. And to this day, I have never seen critical engagement with his work in any of the spaces I read criticism -- in fact, on this very website, he's been used as an example of pandering! Lil Nas X is in the same predicament. He's now pandering by reminiscing on his old glories of causing controversy: a tweeter who needs to stick to Twitter/Bluesky/Mastodon/his mama named him Twitter imma call him Twitter; a forgotten controversy of 2021 who had a song with NBA YoungBoy that even NBA's core fans don't remember; the token rapper for people who have rightly sworn off most of rap despite being a pop singer. He no longer has the grace of being given a chance to try for the pop career he so desperately wanted -- he is now already a relic. And the strange off-key pulsing added by Gestaffelstein, who previously handed KaYYCYY a grace period of Kanye-buoyed attention that evaporated when he demanded his due credit and had The Weeknd doing his best to sully their names by failing to properly dom, does not make their analog-first techniques more of a winner with a less abandoned or embarrassing figure. It Was Written, the sophomore album for Big Nas, was planned to be a hard street record with Marley Marl, but he kept putting it off, not heading out to meet, not finishing songs, hearing them on the real in the world, which led to him instead getting Steve Stoute and the Trackmasters to make him shiny pop rap that could sell. Every choice Big Nas has made has followed this format. The hopeful reading of this little anecdote is that Lil Nas will, after the flop of "J Christ" and having to apologize for the pointless, homophobic backlash, change tack and not hit us with something viral, but hit us with something good.  [4]

Leah Isobel: The Lil Nas X backlash was inevitable. I wasn't big on Montero, but that album's promotional cycle did an admirable job of balancing big thematic ideas with controversy-generating stunts and sticky, immediate hooks; watching that shit happen was like watching someone tightrope walk over a lion's den. It was impossible to believe that he was doing it, and yet there he was, the "Wranglers on my boooooty" guy, parlaying Twitter standom into actual stardom. But stans are able to weaponize anonymity in order to judge without being judged (by others, at least) in return. After earning two #1s off the same album, Lil Nas definitively lost any freedom from judgment, while still using stan tactics -- hyperbole, irony, detachment, camp -- to deliver serious ideas. The public is thus split into those who don't understand his language and think his provocations are dangerous and empty (conservative Twitter), and those who do understand his language and think his provocations are boring and empty (gay Twitter). What "J Christ" indicates is that both camps are wrong. The return to "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)"'s religious iconography indicates an artistic interest in interrogating who is allowed exaltation and why; the return to "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)"'s terse, two-chord harshness and yell-sung hooks indicates an artistic palette. While I'm sure Lil Nas X knows that titling a song "J Christ" after releasing a video where he gives Satan a lap dance will cause outrage for some and eyerolls for others, I don't think he's aiming to be provocative at all, but rather to reestablish himself as an actual musician instead of a random Barb with a record deal. I hope it works out for him! The song is okay. [5]

Ian Mathers: If you were wondering whether any of us here at TSJ would need a reminder that some people may, in fact, consider this song/video offensive, I'm happy to admit to it. Not going to get into an essay on which types of references to ol' oily Josh are considered appropriate and which aren't, but certainly in the comments you can see a fair bit of motivated reasoning at work. Anyway, once again counting my blessings in terms of not having any particular baggage there, I can just appreciate that Lil Nas X continues to keep his singles compact and catchy as hell. I imagine the meta/self-aware level hits better if you like the rest of the song, too. [8]

Rachel Saywitz: Like the son of god himself, Lil Nas X is back with a not-so-VIYEEYIYEEROAAALLL mid-tier track. There’s a bit of heft to the beat that I don’t mind, but little else to grab my attention, and the verses are pretty atrocious—you can’t just make up rhymes like “eizz-ight” and “wiz-ay” without any lyrical payoff! A lot has been said about whether Lil Nas X is just milking his past reputation as an attention seeker, sacrificing quality artistry with cheap shock value. The thing is, quality artistry hasn’t exactly been his best trait, but “J Christ” and its video aren't even delivering shock value—they hint at virality but don’t actually do anything to achieve it. Also, I won’t take points off for biblical inaccuracy, but let’s be honest—most of the “celebrities” featured in the music video are not going to heaven. +1 for the much-improved choreo though! [5]

Jacob Satter: The returns on the Lil Nas X project continue to outpace expectations at near Oppy levels. Who among us in 2020 expected this kid to be even slightly relevant in the post-COVID radio landscape? Yet here we are, in a world where Montero gets two million spins a day riding a riff a beginner piano student can play with one finger. The pearl-clutcher of a video obviously represents most of the viral appeal; remove the provocative imagery and you're left with little more than a thudding bounce and a nasal whinny. But I like a thudding bounce and a nasal whinny! [6]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Bitch, be humble.  [4]

Dave Moore: I will always root for Lil Nas X -- I think "Old Town Road" was world-changing, and the follow-ups showed charm and occasional brilliance. He's very good at internet. But I wonder if for all his savvy he fundamentally doesn't really know what he's doing? Here he's riffing over a "Humble"-type beat, and it's just a mess, not to say bad (he's never been bad). But I'll give him a pass, now and maybe forever. You do you, friend.  [6]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: “Humble” already sounded dated by the time it came out, so it is fascinating to hear a track that—seven years on—makes it sound like it actually aged well. [3]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Sort of a reverse Streisand Effect at work here – the more he tries to give us something "viral" (geriatric phrasing, btw) the worse he is at achieving that goal. This is not just a step down from his hits but from his misses, too; the last time he tried this follow-up hit shtick he at least got Tay Keith & Take A Daytrip to produce, not Gesaffelstein doing a middling 2018 Tay Keith impression. The raps are uninspired, but they've never been too inspired – what really recedes here are all of the trappings, both musical and cultural, that allowed his 2021 run to succeed in spite of his limitations. At least give us a hook! [3]

Mark Sinker: It’s not even like I’d know if something actually was viral-as-success these days — who does know this? how do we now agree on this? — but there’s something just a bit too smug about the claim, which the jigsaw of the languid here-I-am elements of his voice and and then the beep-boop grind of the close don’t actually dispel. V-i-i-i-i-ral. Don’t say this.  [5]

Andrew Karpan: I’ve always had the somewhat contrarian opinion that Lil Nas X is actually out there making music that is interesting and moving on its own terms, which is probably why I can’t relate to the criticism that he’s now simply trying too hard. “J Christ” is a song of pure pop star resentment, a refusal to engage that comes off as slight and inauthentic but nonetheless feels like the point of the larger Nas X proposition. Similarly, the riff on Mike Will’s “HUMBLE.” beat feels strangely inspired, like a carrying on of a conversation about rejecting the demands of a certain kind of performance.  [7]

Katherine St. Asaph: Critics seem reluctant to consider Lil Nas X as a pop star rather than a living meme. Yes, Lil Nas X also seems a little reluctant to do so, but it's remarkable how much of the critical reception of "J Christ" treads the same topical ground as SatanicPanicTok. Isn't part of what distinguishes a music critic from a tabloid aggregator an openness to musical technique and a determination to be trolled less? Is this a delayed backlash to the pop conversation getting crashed by former Twitter stans? (If so, be realistic about where the next generation of pop stars will be coming from.) Is Lil Nas X just that good at trolling? Because he's not that bad at being a pop star. "J Christ" was produced with Black Skinhead's Gesaffelstein -- once the subject of glowing profiles about "[rejecting] bullshit and [pushing] his artistic vision forward," subsequent bullshit notwithstanding -- and has at least as expensive-sounding a sound as, say, Doja Cat. The song not only has a hook, but almost exactly the same hook as "Old Town Road," just sped up and sproingified. If anything, people should be calling this a retread! Speaking of retreads, as for the much maligned "viral" line: Kendrick Lamar's "HUMBLE," which this very much bites, contains the oft-quoted (and, unless I'm misremembering, not much maligned) line "my left stroke just went viral." It is at least somewhat plausible that Montero is deliberately referencing it, as Eminem did before him. (Then again, Lil Nas X made a TikTok exhaustively detailing every reference in "J Christ," and that isn't on it -- but then again, the TikTok only covers the video, perhaps out of a suspicion that video parodies are less likely to draw the expensive ire of the Marvin Gaye estates of the world than musical ones; and also he might be trolling.) And I like the beat. I like the hooks (but would like them out of my head at some point soon). I like the magisterial costumes and the choreography, forgiving quick cuts and all -- if Tate McRae can get plaudits for her very mid choreo, surely this should be in the conversation too? I like how Lil Nas X comes off as his own sports announcer on a stream that's 1 second behind -- is he gonna hit 'em with the high note? (Though the high note could use some more hit; it's not exactly a Mike Breen bang.) I liked Lady Gaga's "Judas," too. As a standalone song. [6]

Tim de Reuse: I am going to exclusively talk about the hook in this blurb. Fourteen notes: EDEDEDEDEDEDCA. Bouncing up and down, a nauseating ricochet, and then resolving, over and over again, slamming itself into a dour minor chord over and over. The little B-flat in the bassline adds a horrible sickly color that clashes with the playground-chant melody, giving it absolutely no foothold in the rest of the song. The effect is discomfort: the melodic equivalent of not being able to get comfortable in bed no matter how many times you turn yourself over. It is audacious in its anti-hook properties. It sounds like it desperately does not want to get stuck in your head. Indeed, the only thing I will remember about this song is how pitifully average a pitch that "high-igh" note is. [1]

Alfred Soto: The most conventional track on which Lil Nas X has ever rapped, "J Christ" demonstrates that should he have released it in 2017 it might still have crossed over. Those high notes sound like no one else's, and when he croons it still rocks me on my heels. I wouldn't want more tracks like "J Christ," but he's going for brand preservation here. [6]

Taylor Alatorre: "I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity." The long arm of pop history has so elevated John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remark that its surrounding context has fallen into obscurity, even though the quoted sentence is the one that first made it onto a U.S. magazine cover. The full quote drives home that Lennon, more than questions of theology, was consumed with the idea of longevity – if a modest Nazarene carpenter had managed to forge an unbroken chain of recognition and influence for nearly two millennia, would the same be true of the boys who sang "Can't Buy Me Love"? In the decades after the Beatles broke up, there was Jesus Christ Superstar and Life of Brian, and "Like a Prayer" and South Park, and by 2013, the shock factor of Lennon's remark had worn off to the point that the title of Kanye West's Yeezus was one of the least controversial things about it. He released a song titled "I Am a God," listing "God" as a featured artist, and all anyone wanted to talk about was the damn croissants! So what exactly is the problem with Lil Nas X baptizing himself in the same secularized Gospel as countless creatives before him? Well, mainly it's because "J Christ" isn't actually doing that. In fact, it very purposefully isn't doing much at all other than serving as a skeletal blueprint for a self-directed music video (which, in full disclosure, I deliberately avoided watching until after this blurb was published). The song's title is not in reference to a creative resurrection, which is nowhere in evidence anyway, but instead to the fact that the world had gone 15 months without hearing any new Lil Nas X music. 15 whole months! Does that even qualify as a hiatus, much less one that's worthy of analogy to the Pascal mystery? Similarly, the awkward truncation of the Messiah's name is neither a targeted act of blasphemy nor a veiled assertion of His divinity – it's something that had to happen in order for "get the gays hype" to work. No doubt this particular juxtaposition was intentional, but as braggadocio it falls flat, because in 2024 there is no pop star on the planet who is incapable of getting at least some cohort of gays hype. As outrage bait, though, it checks the box, in an "I have read the terms and conditions" sort of way. More than anything, and in spite of its striving, surface-level brashness, "J Christ" sadly diminishes Lil Nas X into a smaller and pettier-seeming figure than ever before. While Lennon and Kanye were insecure about how their earthly legacies would measure up to the Greatest Story Ever Told, Lil Nas X seems primarily worried about how long his face will stay up on YouTube's trending page. He shrinks underneath the shadows of past provocateurs, wanting to be Kanye without wanting to be Kanye, borrowing Gesaffelstein as if expecting a yassified "Black Skinhead," then somehow not telling him to start over when he serves up this bloodless "HUMBLE." rehash. He tries to act as his own paparazzi, asking the questions he would like us to ask of him, in the same way anxious teenagers used to write anonymous questions to themselves on Tumblr. And he forgets the cardinal rule that if you mention Mariah and "high note" in the same song, you damn well better bless us with an actual, no-holds-barred high note attempt. "J Christ" is two-and-half minutes of evasion, self-negation, and fretful, aimless gesturing, all united under the theme of "except not really." It's politically motivated heresy, except not really; irreverent self-parody, except not really; a bid for hip hop royalty, except not really. A rebirth, yes, if regression counts. [0]

Will Adams: In fairness, it's hilarious to imagine if the actual second coming of Jesus Christ looked like this: reliant on old tricks, superficially flashy, nothing much to say. [4]

Edward Okulicz: "J Christ" has the sound of an artist who's looking in the rear-view mirror at his improbable peaks behind him as he drives, while simultaneously trying to draw them on a canvas. Lil Nas X excelled as a practitioner of épater, but I think the world must be so used to that that it feels like it wouldn't even have been shocking in 2004, let alone 2024. Basically, a victim of his own unapologetically ambitious, queer, ludicrous success. Maybe there's nowhere left to go? [3]

Thomas Inskeep: I suspect the harshest review one could give LNX is also the most accurate one for "J Christ": basic. [4]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

#lil nas x #j christ #music #pop #pop music #music writing #music reviews #music criticism #the singles jukebox #Youtube

[beautifulpersonpeach]

What do you think of new jean’s’ latest EP?

*

Ask 2 (quick ask):

Last year you said XG is a group you like. What do you think of their comeback? Grl Gvng is my fav from them rn. Then Tippy Toes. Do you still like New jeans btw? Ever since you said to watch how kpop stans treat NJ I've been checking the reactions and discourse and you've been right on the money. Again. You could make real dough from predicting how things play out in kpop fandoms.

***

Hi Anon(s),

Get Up by NewJeans is a solid 8/10.

Every song on the EP is an earworm and I've been streaming the album since it dropped. There's no other 4th gen girl group that gets me excited for new music lately, more than NewJeans. XG is a distant second (anon in ask 2, all they've put out so far is a couple of singles which I think are very good, but the actual comeback is in late September so we'll see).

The stand-out songs on the EP for me are Cool With You, New Jeans, and ASAP, but every song on the EP is doing very well (except ASAP that most people seem to hate right now. But I suspect that will change with time.)

My theory of NewJeans' overarching concept being Alice in Wonderland, was confirmed for me in their visual album as that's the throughline idea in all the MVs, despite their very different themes.

The Powerpuff Girls / New Jeans intro being the most obvious analog, starting the EP with taking bunnies inside the imaginary world of NewJeans' townsville, reiterating that they aim to "make you feel like you're in a game", that this sound and vibe is what to expect, etc.

Super Shy which follows the girls within their universe where they're already known and loved (the callback to Attention at the start of the MV which people are already dancing to)

ETA is the first obvious reference to the parasocial attachment that NewJeans continues to highlight in their music. Just as in Ditto, it's self-aware with a morbid and surreal undertone to it. The MV director Shin Woo-seok, has also said the MV plot lesson is centered on how rumours can be used and weaponized regardless of whether they're based in fact. Which... again, just brilliant considering everything about how k-pop stans operate in general.

Cool With You & Get Up are the climax of the EP in my opinion, and in them we see the most interesting and sophisticated expression of identity conflict and reconciliation in parasocial attachments, using the story of Eros/Cupid and Psyche. Get Up, according to Ador, is only an interlude in this EP but will serve as the sonic blueprint for their next album. And this also confirms another pattern I've noticed. Min Heejin has been using one song from each album to hint/tease the dominant sound for the next. So, what I mean is:

1 - In NewJeans (debut EP) Cookie was a slight departure sonically from the other songs on the album, but sounds very similar to OMG which followed.

2 - In OMG (singles album) Ditto sounded nothing really like OMG (the song) but its UK garage + Baltimore Club combo sounds more like the full fledged expression of D&B that we see in Super Shy, Cool with You, and other songs in Get Up.

3 - And now in Get Up (2nd mini album) we hear that their next album project will sound a lot like Get Up (the song).

ASAP is easily my favourite song on the album. It reminds me a lot of Close Your Eyes. As the outro, here NewJeans doesn't hint at it anymore, they show you that you're Alice, and that you're already well and deep within their beautifully fantastical wonderland. There's just enough horror elements in the MV to keep you alert even though everything about the song is meant to lull you into a dreamlike illusionary state. It feels childlike and nostalgic.

If it were up to me, I'd nominate Get Up for every Album of the Year award. And I have to give kudos to Ador for not just collaborating with PPG by borrowing their trademarked characters and visuals, (which is where most k-pop groups and companies would've stopped at), but by finding a way to incorporate even the PPG theme song into their music. Whoever realized that a nostalgic cartoon has one of the most recognizable beats in the Drum & Bass genre and thought to repurpose it in their music, that person should get a raise.

I'm aware k-pop stans have tabled their usual complaints, tried getting various controversies to stick, from claiming Min Heejin was pushing terrorism to claiming that Hoyeon (the respected South Korean actress most known from Squid Game) was involved in making porn in front of minors... thankfully, the facts won (in more sane corners of k-pop fandom) and none of that bullshit really stuck. Now the only complaint I'm still seeing around is that the songs are too short, but again, it just drives home the fact as I keep saying, k-pop stans really have no idea what they're talking about. It's one thing to wish the songs were longer for your own enjoyment, but one of the characteristics of the D&B and Garage genres is their length, because they are percussion-driven and repetitive, songs in those genres are typically shorter.

Also, aside from a handful of other girl groups, NewJeans is producing some of the most fun, interesting, and engaging choreographies I've seen in a hot minute.

*

My favourite still in the entire visual album:

Hoyeon is built like a goddess, my gosh.

*

Ador needs to be given their due. They know what they're doing and I hope they continue having the freedom and cash to fully flesh out each of the girls' talents in NewJeans, because all five girls are incredibly talented. I'd love for Jimin to work with them somehow, Yoongi too (both as a collaborator and in a production capacity). I'm looking forward to seeing more from them in every possible way.

#newjeans #newjeans get up #min heejin #jimin #yoongi #ador #hybe #kpop #kpop music #music asks #bpp music posts

[sleepsentry]

oh, how do you feel about the same coin theory?

Oh man don't even get me started-

I'll be honest, it's one of the few au's I genuinely can't stand, even the kinder takes, I just do not vibe with at all.

Short answer:

I like my Stans and Bills, veeeeeery very separate.

Long answer:

Yes it's partially because I ship billford, obviously that's gonna sour my view a little but that's only one of a few reasons.

Idk I think it's cause I don't like how it drags stan deeper into a conflict that was never his, he's had his hero moments you know? He doesn't need even more golden boy treatment. Literally.

God knows the fandom has given him enough spotlight, he's not the main character though, I don't like it when people treat stan like the be all and end all of the conflict.

It also feels very dismissive of ford, and his whole side of the story, not only that but it burdens him with even more bloody anguish.

It feels like, as silly as it sounds, ford becomes the wife in a bad American sitcom, bearing the brunt of the emotional beatings and never being given a bloody break.

In these aus, Ford never gets to wake up from the nightmare he's been fighting for the better part of his whole life, and now the universe is literally bending over backwards to rob him of a moment's peace, and it's dragging his family down with it.

Kinda feels like ford is trapped in Hell repenting for the sin of not participating in his brother's pity party when the world was at stake.

It does a 180° turn on the whole story, right at the end, just to reiterate the same themes and emotional beats with an even heavier emphasis on Stan than there already was.

It also reduces Stan and Bill to superficial similarities that where very obviously just theory bait. Robbing them of their individual roles as characters all for some cheap angst.

It especially reduces Bill to a vague presence or manifestation of trauma rather than a villain in his own right, all to pile even more trauma onto poor little stanny. Bill's trauma becomes stan's trauma but not vice versa. It's excessive.

It may be called "same coin theory" but one side of "the coin" is waaaay more "polished" than the other if you catch my drift.

It could just be the earlier Hell analogy, or maybe my lack of sleep, but it feels weirdly christian? stanny's paying for his brother's sins...I guesse...?

I know this sounds very (overly) harsh and I do not mean to discredit anyone who enjoys the idea or has dedicated a lot of their time and energy to it.

I do not want to make it seem like that's all a waste.

This is my personal list of reasons for why I can't even get into the idea, and that in no way indicates the actual value of the fanworks depicting it.

As critical as I sound here, I'm not trying to pretend I know better. I just... I get really carried away sometimes and get very obnoxious about it.

Thank you for the ask and apologies for the rant, hope it at the very least was an interesting read. ( . _.')

If you actually read the whole thing, wow! Good for you go get some water or a snack if possible you deserve it.

Good lordy those takes reached a fever pitch- spicy spicy stuff happening in my sleep deprived little brain I'll tellyouthatmuch-

#gravity falls #gravity falls au #same coin theory #stanford pines #bill cipher #stanley pines #not art #asks and answers