#pico commentary

[pico-farad]

I finished season 1 of Vrains and it was cool but I thought it needed about 2 billion more secret identity shenanigans

More Secret Identities AU

extended thoughts below

So I went into a deep dive in my last two posts (1, 2) about all the problems I had with Vrains, and you'd think I didn't enjoy it, but in fact as I was watching, there was a separate, parallel version of Vrains that was playing in my head, a Yugioh I think we were robbed of and which fixes every problem I had with the first season, and that is Secret Identities AU.

Yusaku needs FRIENDS

This is YUGIOH.

This dynamic is everything I wanted from Vrains. Yusaku developing unexpected fondness for these bozos who think he needs a defense squad. I want Miraculous Ladybug levels of secret identity shenanigans. I want Yusaku slapping his duel disk every time Ai tries to blow their cover.

This AU sprung forth from the scene in the duel club where he shows Naoki his decoy deck. Having Yusaku passing as a bad duelist is 1) so funny, but 2) Yusaku needing to maintain his low profile is a useful contrivance for other characters to get more duels, and 3) I think it would be a really fun one-off episode where Yusaku has to duel using his bad deck. When he wins, Naoki is so proud he cries.

Having Yusaku actually have to interact with the other characters in the real world opens up Greek play levels of dramatic irony. The crux of a secret identity story is that every single interaction builds up anticipation, because you the viewer know that the other party is being deceived, and that the tension will snap when the secret is revealed.

I have zero anticipation about Playmaker's identity being revealed, because Aoi would be like "oh.... I guess he goes to my school" and Go would be like "have I seen that guy before?" But SIAU Playmaker? My guy is making friends just so he can betray them. Insane.

Go needs A ROLE IN THE STORY.

I said in my first post that Go isn't a rival or a best friend character. SIAU fixes this by making him both simultaneously.

Having him be the ace of the duel club is a natural replacement for his whole hero of the orphans schtick, while placing him directly the circle of relevance with the other characters. Instead of being disgruntled that the orphans suddenly like Playmaker more than him, he's disgruntled that Naoki and the duel club mooks are fawning over Playmaker -- which is actually just Naoki's character anyway.

I would kill for a big dramatic moment where Go learns that Playmaker and Yusaku are the same person, and even though Go feels betrayed that Yusaku has been deceiving him, he stands by Yusaku anyway because they're friends.

With a secret identity story, every conversation is working on multiple levels because each character is working with asymmetric information. You get these fascinating, layered scenes of two characters talking past each other because they cannot give up their secret.

Which would go especially hard with Go and Yusaku, because Go has legitimate criticisms of Playmaker in canon and Yusaku has legitimate reasoning behind the things he does, and as Go Onizuka and Playmaker they could never come to an understanding on them, but as Go and Yusaku, two friends in duel club, that door becomes open to them.

Aoi needs WRITING THAT ISN'T A TRAINWRECK

I made a whole post on this. Basically every problem would be solved if Akira doesn't know that she's Blue Angel. There's no reason for her to lose grotesquely against Yusaku, or have her basic autonomy called into question constantly. 

Having her actively deceive her brother is delicious. Like I said in my last post, it's so obvious how Akira's overprotectiveness has taken its toll on Aoi, and pushed her into developing this other persona, Blue Angel. I want this absolutely dysfunctional sibling relationship so badly. The Blue Angel vs. Zaizen duel would make me lose my mind.

And a secret identities setting works so well with the potential themes of VRAINS as a stand-in for the internet and Blue Angel as an idol. Give me that Perfect Blue Satoshi Kon good stuff. Give me those themes about identity, and the different lives we live, outward and inward, online and offline.

This also helps Akira's character, because I think he would be much more interesting and relevantly positioned in the story if he stayed a SOL Technologies baddie. SOL Technologies has very little presence in season 1 despite being critical to the story. After Zaizen is replaced by an irrelevant clown, they don't do anything but send out mook AIs to get destroyed. By having a three-way standoff between Yusaku's squad, the Knights of Hanoi, and SOL Technologies, both Hanoi and SOL Technologies become more compelling. They've both got all the reason in the world to want to take down the other. Zaizen vs. Revolver or Spectre? That's good shit.

And don't get me started on how I would turn Revolver into a Secret Identities character.

[thcbcys]

╰─ 💕 ❝ Eeeeee!!!! Guys he touched my hand today!!!!!!!!!!! ❞

[stories-of-the-multiverse]

Darnell? Getting the popcorn. The fucker.

[thebananwithaplan]

"Guess it's a lot common for people to just see their own duplicate these days, huh?"

" :D "

"I'm gonna take that as a 'yes'. "

[bimboothefool]

𝐂𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬

Here you can take a look at what upcoming projects are on the horizon. It’s all archived here for the convenience of the circus goers. A sticky note is attached to one of the shelves, it reads last updated on May 12th, 2025.

𝐑𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬

- A Captain’s Treasure (Yandere!Foxy x Security Guard!Reader) [Coming Up Soon]

- Pico x Protective!Reader (He’s really your guys’ favorite huh lol)

- Boo’s Scott Pilgrim Character Pick x Reader Art

- Written in Red Ink (Yandere!Norton Campbell x Reader)

𝐀𝐫𝐭/𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐬

- Nothing at the moment

𝐎𝐧𝐞-𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬/𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬

- The Yellow Rabbit’s Betrothed (Yandere!William Afton x Reader) (B-Day Gift for Roseyful) [Coming soon]

𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐬

- So This is Love (TWST x Reader) [Ch. 3 is being written]

𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐨𝐧

- Patreon Tier Comics

𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬

- Enderman Gijinka Video w/ Commentary

[lycankeyy]

hi!! i'm interested in reading your FNF + pico's school fanfic because i love your other work (i think about amanita the paras every day and i am a huge semicolon enjoyer), but i don't know very much about either piece of media. is there a baseline level of knowledge about the sources that i need to read your fics? if so, do you have any recommendations on learning more about the games and/or your characters and universe?

Hi Hayes what if I cried what then /silly

So as you probably know considering you read Semicolon is that my approach to sandbox-style media is "take everything we know, try to find unique ways to interpret it, and have fun with all the leftover space". In a funny way, PS and FNF are about as good for this as creepypastas (probably why the fanbases have such insane overlap).

Additional good thing - being browser games, these games are short. You can breeze through the entire Pico's School catalogue in, like, an hour and a half, provided you're decent at old flash "point to shoot gun" style games. If not it's easy to find playthroughs of each on YouTube. FNF is a rhythm game and presently a demo, so it's equally quick to go through.

In true sandbox fashion, though, these games don't have a lot of lore themselves. Most of That is revealed through word of god. Thankfully those are meticulously documented on their respective wikis. Honestly I think half of what got me into these games is how fun it is to read the character trivia LMAO

As for Funkycule specifically, I don't think there's a lot you need to know outside the baseline knowledge about both source materials (basic plot and characters of Pico, characters and original plot of FNF). I have admittedly gone Off The Rails at this point with stuff I have added we are approaching critical mass of "these are basically my ocs but I'm too autistic and hyperfixated to make them my ocs" JDKQJDK. I do my best to put important posts in the funkycule tag

Hopefully that covers anything you might want to know?? Tbh I've been high-key considering making a commentary video playing through the Pico series for people who don't want to play it (for understandable reasons) while also giving explanations for word of god lore. If enough people are interested I might make that NDKQJSKS

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

The originality of an era is not measured by the content of its ideological systems but rather by its "selective will," that is, according to the interpretive grille it interposes between preexisting contents and their "modern" treatment. The passing of a message through the hermeneutic filter of an era produces two results of a semantic kind: the first, aiming at the very organization of the cultural structure of the time and hence located outside it, is set forth as a complex and subtle mechanism of emphasis or, on the contrary, of suppression of certain ideological contents; the second, which operates in the very interior of the cultural structure, is set forth as a systematic distortion or even a semantic inversion of ideas which pass through the interpretive grille of the era. […] The "selective will" of the Italian Renaissance pays a good deal of attention to the often fastidious works of its thirteenth-century precursors in order to fit them into its own system of interpretation. It is not purely out of kindness that Marsilio Ficino, whose treatise on love [i.e., De Amore] was written for use by a descendant of Guido Cavalcanti, sets forth in detail some of Cavalcanti's erotic theories. As one of the principal representatives of the fedeli d'amore, Guido Cavalcanti developed an empirical psychology of Eros that does not differ essentially from that of Ficino. The case of Pico della Mirandola, which we shall analyze in chapter 3, is more complicated: it would be called a striking example of the Oedipus complex if that term had not fallen into disuse through repeated abuse. Stimulated, or rather irritated, by Ficino's little masterpiece on love, Pico abandons all courtesy and tries to refute it in toto. That is why he attacks Guido Cavalcanti for lacking profundity and holds up as a model for a love poem a canzona by his own friend Girolamo Benivieni on which he undertakes a commentary. The example of Pico is highly significant. The young man forgets what elsewhere he reveals he knows only too well, in particular that a cultural era is not defined by the content of the ideas it conveys but by its interpretive filter. It demands of Guido Cavalcanti that which Ficino, more subtle in this respect, would never have asked: to wit, that he already use the Platonistic interpretation of the fifteenth century! Benivieni's Canzona only differs from a canzona by Cavalcanti in that it furnishes directly to Pico della Mirandola the interpretation he would have made even in the absence of the poem because it was his own interpretation of Eros in general. The Platonistic reading of Cavalcanti signified, to Ficino, a hermeneutic bias which also allowed him to pay tribute to a precursor and to the ancestor of someone he liked [i.e., Giovanni Cavalcanti]. [...] As for the rest of it, there is no great fundamental difference between Ficino's and Pico's theories, although Pico latter constantly censures Ficino for the vulgarity of his approach to questions of love.

From Ioan Couliano's Eros and Magic in the Renaissance (nb: I added in the two "i.e."s)

I'm fucking screaming - the paragraphs about Debate Me Pico - I want to send it back in time to both Marsilio and Pico then record their live reactions to it

[inkandpaintsnowleopard]

These cool ones too!

I love how Pump's eyes look like vinyl discs

That way the blood-lookin’ substance is drawn is SO nice here

I’ve run out of commentary I think but yes I like this. I like the angle on the Pico drawing

[animutate]

viewing picos school as like satire or commentary on the media portrayal of columbine in the 90s just DOES NOT WORK in my opinion its more just shock content. it was meant to shock and provoke just like assassin just like club a seal just like telebubby funland before it. it is about those things but its just not like that you know what im trying to say. it was something edgy to attract negative attention after getting angry emails blaming his website for causing violence. it was trying to be like postal

[chorusfm]

Modest Mouse Announce Cruise

Modest Mouse have announced the “Ice Cream Floats” cruise. Modest Mouse and Sixthman, the leader in festivals and music cruises for more than two decades, is excited to announce the inaugural voyage of Modest Mouse Presents Ice Cream Floats, a four-night, roundtrip cruise sailing March 5-8, 2026 from Miami, FL to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, aboard the Norwegian Pearl. Priority Presales for members of Modest Mouse’s Ice Cream Party fan community begin April 14. First Round Presale Sign-Ups are available now through April 10 at 11:59 pm (ET). Presale (Early Booking Times) run April 14-18. Final Round Presale Sign-Ups will conclude April 20 at 11:59 pm (ET). Public On-Sales begin April 22 at 2:00 pm (ET), exclusively at www.modestmousecruise.com. The first 400 cabins booked will secure an onboard photo opportunity with Modest Mouse. Bookings are available for just $100 down per person when they make reservations before June 5 or while cabins last.   Modest Mouse Presents Ice Cream Floats will bring the Ice Cream Party – the only political party you can trust – to sea for the first time ever. Modest Mouse fans will float on a profound musical journey featuring intimate live performances, crazy curated activities, and so much more. Modest Mouse will be accompanied on board by a star-studded lineup, including Portugal. The Man, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Mannequin Pussy, FIDLAR, Built to Spill, Tropical Fuck Storm, Ugly Casanova, The Black Heart Procession, comedian David Cross, and more to be announced. Further highlights of the immersive musical adventure will include “Mouse Stardust Theater 3000,” where members of Modest Mouse sit down with guests in the Norwegian Pearl’s wondrous Stardust Theater and give live, brutally honest commentary alongside truly unique films; “AMMA – Ask Modest Mouse Anything,” a live Q&A with members of Modest Mouse featuring questions submitted by the cruisers themselves; “Storytime with Isaac Brock,” in which guests will gather ‘round in crisscross-applesauce fashion to hear Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse read through children’s books with more character than you can imagine; live DJ sets by Modest Mouse & Friends; the unique ��Parade of Freaks,” where Modest Mouse travels through the ship with a gaggle of the silliest and most eclectic freaks and creatures; plus a wide array of other once-in-a-lifetime artist experiences. In addition, all who sail on the inaugural Modest Mouse Presents Ice Cream Floats will receive a limited-edition band-autographed poster.   The Norwegian Pearl will provide everything needed to make Modest Mouse Presents Ice Cream Floatsthe most stirringly sumptuous cruise vacation ever, with fully stocked bars at (almost) every corner, tasty dining options, the Pool Deck (with multiple hot tubs), Pearl Club Casino, Mandara Spa, Body Waves Fitness Center, Sports Court, and much more.   Beyond the onboard experience, Ice Cream Floats cruisers will have the chance to enjoy a day of adventure in Puerto Plata (officially known as San Felipe de Puerto Plata), the ninth largest city in the Dominican Republic and the capital of the province of Puerto Plata. Guests can enjoy spectacular city views atop the 2,600-foot-high Pico Isabel de Torres mountain, explore the 16th century Fortaleza San Felipe, or visit the Amber Museum, a museum filled with a unique collection of valuable Dominican amber which is semiprecious tree sap that has hardened for millions of years capturing many fossils of plant and insect life. Please note: Shore excursions will not be available until 4-6 weeks prior to sailing. Cruisers will be able to book an excursion upon receipt of their official booking number. --- Please consider becoming a member so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/news/modest-mouse-announce-cruise/

[theuniverseawakens347]

You paid Al pedia to document “[she] lives in filth when I saw her car”

…when he’s NEVER SEEN THE CAR EXCEPT FOR NOV 18TH WHEN HIM AND LILY SALIZAR CAME OVER TO FILL OUT SSI AND CBESS “PAPER WORK”

…probably trying to stick me into another institution like you did AMY, and get me heavily medicated by Timothy pelyco prescriptions

Also Timothy you told me the last shot of the first weekend ( number 4) was 3 months lasting

AND THEN ran blood work AND love ultra sound on me the mid of the second week when you moved me to the solo room.. AND YOU ALSO BARGED IN THE NIGHT BEFORE DISCHARGE TO TELL ME I WAS BEING DISCHARGED WHICH IS HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE AS A DOCTOR AND OUT OF PROTOCOL

…then on discharge day you gave me a “prescription” referral for UZEDYA ( risperidol) to take on 11/13 THROUGH EXODUS ON THE EAST SODE OF TOWN… SOUNDS LIKE THE SAME EXODUS BC ON WASHINGTON IN CULVER THAT YOU HAD ME GO TO WHEN I DISCHARGED FROM ST FRANCIS … and had the audacity to tell me

“ I think you’ll like this place they have your angel numbers”

Rubbing it in my face and taunting me but calling me delusional when I confront you.

BITCH.

AND I RECIEVED UNJUST CARE THE FIRST TIME WHERE THE “DOCTOR” JESUS TOLD ME “YOU DID DIE IN YOUR CAR ACCIDENT “

AND THE SECOND TIME THE WOMAN LOTERALLY TRIED TO BELITTLE ME AND 5150 me AGAIN THAT HOWARD HAD TO STEP IN AND CALM HER DOWN BECAUSE I WAS PROVING FACTS ABOUT THEIR FACILITY BEING BULLSHIT.

YPU TOOK ME TO CEDARS TO GET “LAB WORK” done but told them I was a drug addict so they did the absolute MOST in refilling my 1 week prescription and after that the pills I got from CVS OFF PICO AND SAN VICIENTE WERE CHANGED TO “GENERIC” is what you told me…MY SECOND FULL REFILL.

AND TWO DAYS INTO TAKING THE PILLS YPU DOUBLE DOSED ME WHICH I TOLD HOWARD AND HAVE PROOF ON. AND THEY MADE ME EXTRA LOOPY AND WONKY AND YOU SAID YOU HAD TO GIVE ME MY PILLS EVERYDAY TO MAKE AURE I WAS TAKING THEM WHICH I ALSO HAVE WITNESS TO AND WHY YOU PLANNED TO SEND ME TO CLARITY BECAUSE YOU KNEW ( AND RIVER) THEY HAD TO WATCH ME TAKE THE PILLS JUST LIKE THE PAYCHWARD AND IF I MADE COMMENTARY ABOUT THEPILLS NOT BEING RIGHT THEY DIDNT CHANGE ANYTHING

COMPLETELY OVER LOOKED ME HAVING ALL FORMS OF SIDE EFFECTS FROM DEPOKOTE.

FROM WEIGHT GAIN,

HAIR LOSS

PERIOD LOSS

LACTATION / PREGANANCY SYMPTOMS

Lack of sleep ( so you add 100 mg of Benadryl) to the mix for shits and giggles)

And then had Baylee give me unnecessary amounts of trazadone at clarity cause they wouldn’t let us have Benadryl due to “ getting addicted”

[barkercast]

418 : Commentary Classics - The Midnight Meat Train

Edit: We've brought back this commentary classic from 2016 to give it a proper episode number while Jose is moving and we're putting final touches on our interview book.  

Thanks for joining us once again for our last audio commentary and stretch goal for the 2015 "Fundraiser III: Hell on Earth" Midnight Meat Train.  Rob, Ryan and Jose get together to talk about this unflinching horror movie directed by Ryuhei Kitamura.

Sponsor: Don Bertram's Celebrate Imagination

Show Notes

Regarding the Eight-Pointed Star

Eight Pointed Stars – The eight pointed star appears in spiritual traditions from many different cultures across the globe. The eight pointed star began to appear in Islamic art in the Middle Ages. It is referred to as khatim or khatim-sulayman, meaning “seal of the prophets”.

 From <https://www.google.com/search?q=8+pointed+star+significance&oq=8+pointed+star+significance&aqs=chrome..69i57.3975j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8>

The Meat packing district in the city.

24-hour neighborhood located on the far west side of Manhattan Location: Pico Rivera, California, USA (slaughterhouse scenes)

Metro Station - 7th & Flower Streets, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Metro Station - Vermont Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

http://wheresthejump.com/jump-scares-in-the-midnight-meat-train-2008/

http://www.nysun.com/arts/midnight-meat-train-lionsgate-nearly-butchers-its/83002/

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Vinnie-grabbing-Gascoigne-testicles-Poster/dp/B004ZUP3EY

 https://clivebarkercast.com/2016/02/23/concept-art-from-the-midnight-meat-train/

https://clivebarkercast.com/2015/10/07/retro-review-the-midnight-meat-train/

  Possible Midnight Meat Train Alternate Ending Image

Keyart Movie Poster Image 

Ryan's signed and illustrated movie poster. 

The Clive Barker Podcast (or @Barkercast) is an independent  editorial fan site and podcast that is not affiliated with or under contract by Clive Barker or Seraphim Films.  This is a labor of love by the fans, for the fans.

  web www.clivebarkercast.com

iTunes (Leave a review!), Stitcher,Libsyn, Tunein, Pocket Casts, Google Play, DoubleTwist and YouTube.

 Facebook and Join the Occupy Midian group

Twitter: @BarkerCast | @OccupyMidian

  New episode of the Clive Barker Podcast

[thebananwithaplan]

"I knew he'd be goin' for that Victory Royale!"

[stories-of-the-multiverse]

“... I love my boyfriend... But he keeps acting like a sad cat everytime I won’t let him drink paint water.”

[vitriolics]

"tag your jumpscares!"

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Today in Marsilio Blogging

(from Laus Platonici Philosophi: Marsilio Ficino and His Influence)

Pico out here starting fights with Ficino because Ficino's interpretation of the Symposium (and his own personal philosophy on Love, Beauty, and Truth) is just a touch Too Gay.

a) Pico. I'm not entirely sure you have a leg to stand on. Like. I'm just saying rightly, or wrongly, you and Poliziano were the hot gossip at U of T's Renaissance department for years

b) leave the small, eccentric, and love filled philosopher alone. he suffers.

c) more seriously - I mean, there's weakness in Ficino's commentary on Symposium but that's because I don't think he ever meant it as a serious philosophical text but as a love letter to Giovanni Cavalcanti. Hence why he was aligning Guido Cavalcanti (Giovanni's ancestor)'s poetry to the first books of Plato's Symposium when that comparison is quite weak, to say the least.

The whole thing of Guido Cavalcanti=Socrates is so Ficino can be Plato to Giovanni's inherited Socratic role setting their own relationship as a grand philosophical inheritance (in addition, adding some semblance of legitimacy to it. Look! our Plato was Like That with his Socrates so I can be Like That with my Giovanni).

Also, it's not as explicit but there's allusions/references Ficino makes to the rather #It's Complicated romantic friendship of Guido and Dante. e.g.:

d) This is a complete aside and just about Pico and Ficino's head butting on matters philosophical and theological, but:

Reading anything by Ficino with a strict, logical manner with a logical end goal of X or Y is never the best way to approach his work. It's ecstatic. It's meditative. It's meant to be sunk into and swam in as a contemplative exorcise.

Ficino is an experience, not a exorcise.

As Linda Proud notes in her chapter in Friend to Mankind, 'Fellow Philosophers', [Ficino argues that] "If a man writes of divine frenzy, he must have experienced it; if Plato wrote the Parmenides under divine frenzy, then to read and understand, a man must bring himself to a similar condition."

Pico wrote solid, sound philosophical/theological arguments--being a man well steeped in the classic Aristotelian methodologies. Ficino was steeped in them as well, or had been in his primary education, but by temperament and interest and ultimate end goal of what he wanted to achieve he broke rank with that approach.

And naturally, Pico knew Ficino, they were good friends, they ran in the same intellectual circles, so of course Pico knows this. But at the same time, it's quite funny how clearly Ficino's indirect approach to language and argument drove him up the absolute wall with annoyance.

(And when I say friends, they were good friends to the very end. They were just friends who argued--often in a quite fiery and hot tempered manner--over Plato. As one does.)