#the intro transition & parallels between the characters...

[yamsfan]

HARD TO FIND 难寻 (2024)

[the-library-of-theories]

Phantom of Hexcore theory

(Want to see the TikTok version with photos? Here’s the link:)

Before the last episodes, I wanted to put my guess for this show as I’ve began listening to the Phantom of the Opera album and found some relevance to the show. Especially with the intro with Viktor’s parts being parallels to this musical.

To make this short (as possible), let’s put the characters and who they would parallel who. And this may either surprise you or not.

Christine = Viktor

Erik (Phantom) = Hextech/Viktor

Raoul = Jayce

Christine is Viktor not because of the ship (let’s be serious for now, as much as I ship them as well lol), but rather because of the narrative. Both had ambitions regardless when one of them is literally dying that both want to fulfill. And while goals are different, both get a taste of what they want. So close.

This may attract the other two important characters. Erik and Raoul (Hextech and Jayce). Jayce became very close to Viktor, someone who literally saved him from his despair and wants to return the favor in any way possible. But this is where the “phantom” comes in.

Hextech, the duo’s dream of helping their people. It was at first, the dream come true… until it was lost. When Viktor began feeding it his blood, we can see a connection began between Viktor and Hexcore. In reflection to this, this is where Erik and Christine meet. The song “Phantom of the Opera” is a great comparison to Hextech and Viktor’s relationship. Here’s two examples:

“In sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came. That voice which calls to me and speaks my name. And do I dream again for now I find, The Phantom of the Opera is there… Inside my mind.”

“Those who have seen your face draw back in fear. I am the mask you wear.” “It’s me they hear.”

“Your (my) spirit and my (your) voice in one combined.”

This basically is a parallel to Viktor’s arc as he slowly and will eventually become the Phantom… the Herald Machine.

So what will that mean for the rest of the show?

Well right before we get to the predictions, give me a page or couple of slides to put the spotlight on Jayce and Viktor’s relationship.

We know both are very close, to the point Jayce was willing to do almost anything to save Viktor, even fusing Viktor with the Hexcore which ironically enough is the beginning of the transition from Viktor to the Herald Machine. Even many pointed out that in the intro sequence, that Viktor isn’t the one to put the mask one.

Jayce is.

The best song to help explain their relationship is “All I ask of you” which parallels to Viktor making Jayce promise to destroy Hextech.

“Let me be your freedom. Let daylight dry your tears. I’m here, with you, beside you. To guard you and to guide you.”

“Say you need me with you now and always. Promise me that all you say is true. That’s all I ask of you.”

Skip to after Jayce “kills” Viktor, I don’t believe Viktor’s arc is over and I know almost everyone will agree. We know he’ll come back as we think he’ll be. Which is why the song “Masquerade” is perfect to reveal he’s back.

It parallels when the Phantom crashes the party and gives one last warning.

And while most of Viktor is gone, I think a small part of him wonders back to the “simpler” times. Hence parallels to “Wishing you were somehow here again.” Thinking of his relationship with Jayce. His last bit of humanity.

“You were my one companion. You were all that mattered. You were once a friend and father. Then my world was shattered.”

“No more memories, no more silent tears. No more gazing across the wasted years. Help me say goodbye.”

I then think that we’ll have one last stand off between Jayce and Viktor. “The point of no return” will perfectly fit this as they may fight.

“Past the point of no return. The final threshold. What warm unspoken secrets will we learn? Beyond the point of no return.”

The conclusion of this fight is what confuses me a bit, but this will be going off of the ending of the Phantom of the Opera and my ideas.

Perhaps Jayce and Viktor have a heart to heart, should Jayce recognize or break through to what is left of Viktor. Leaving a choice to Viktor to chose. (Down once more…/ Track down this murder). Depending on the results of this, one of these two theories may happen.

Viktor and Jayce will once more team up once last time. Choosing to leave as Christine and Roaul have.

“Say you’ll share with me. One love, one lifetime. Say the word and I will follow you.”

Viktor will escape or die as the Machine Herald in parallels to Erik (Phantom).

“You alone can make my song take flight - It’s over now, the Music of the Night.”

Remember, this is just a theory (a movie theory).

And if none of this happens, well, it was fun.

And if it does…

I am no writer for this series and was just thinking of the nods towards the musical.

[fandomsandassortedgoods]

Thoughts on new Frasier based on first 5 episodes:

keeping old short intro theme A+

keeping outro but remixed A+

keeping intro animation, outro silent skit, transitions cards A+

was wondering how the show was gonna deal with the og Frasier ending with Frasier moving to San Francisco even though it now takes place in Boston and I see he became a talk show host with a funny hat lmao

parallels of somewhat estranged father and son reconnecting after (in both cases) Frasier moved to their city and they move in together, I like it

MARTYYY AHHH ;-; flew out for his grandson..... I wonder if Freddie was inspired to become a firefighter from his grandfather

holy shit Frasier how much money do you have

called it Freddie was gonna be gay, then the show double subverted me with the baby which was pleasantly surprising, I'm usually good at calling sitcoms shot for shot but they got me lol

David is gonna be outright confirmed as autistic one ep just watch

I wonder how Niles feels that his son adores his brother lmao

YES you can very much tell this is Niles's and Daphne's child

idk how I feel about Alan, he's not annoying so far at least

Freddie is great grown up with a total 180 from the mini-Frasier he was as a kid

that said I'm glad they remember his intellectual upbringing and you can see that in stuff like the trivia night episode

delicious irony again in the father/son parallel but this time the dad is snooty and the son is athletic

so far imo David is the funniest character, love us an orphan

Eve is okay, not a huge fan thus far but I'm glad she's not just babybabybaby

Olivia is a bit crazy and I like that

glad we still have the emotional moments in between all the comedy, that first episode got heavy at the end and I'm here for it

overall it feels like a natural continuation from og Frasier even though it skipped what happened in the immediate ending of that show and jumped ahead, likely so we could have adult Freddie in the show and teenage David

not as funny as og Frasier but give it time, it still has that Frasier writing and charm even though characters like Niles and Daphne are very much missed

WHERE ROZ

[claire-starsword]

Watched a full playthrough of Sonic Dream Team, some spoilery thoughts under the cut:

Sonic last line being "glad to have you back" to Cream feels very much like a wink to the 4th wall lmao. While I still suspect her being added late to the game given the intro, the plot was very clearly written with love for her. I adore that every Cream plot is essentially "Cream gets to make a new friend who is something quite buckwild for a little girl to befriend". Otherworldly fire princesses, murder robots, and so on. I would if Gemerl and Ariem showed up together in IDW at some point.

Really wish the cutscenes weren't a bunch of panels flying around too, either do animated cutscenes or lean into the fact you're using still pictures and try to frame it like a comic, making a bunch of awkward slide transition just feels like the worst of both worlds here.

Back to the topic that matters (Cream), I love that "Cheese, get 'em" seems to be a catchphrase of hers now, but it rings very hollow in a game where, to my understanding, Cheese never attacks. To be fair the game seems designed in a way where no attacks other than homing attacks would matter, but it's still a bit sad that her return after pretty much two decades doesn't include her main concept, Cheese feels like just a decoration through the whole game. They could have done something in cutscenes at least, as opposed to making her a damsel in the final battle when the plot already is about rescuing her once. I feel it's a waste to not give her the occasional badass moment when she's a regular character in gameplay, and overpowered in certain games.

I do appreciate that Knuckles is the one to rescue her though, they don't interact much. And him lifting her up in the ending is super cute, though her bland expression in that kinda kills the mood, not the renders' best moment. We also don't get to see a hug between her and Ariem in the end which is evil. The whole thing has so many parallels with Advance 3's extra ending that I expected it to be just as cute. Missed opportunity.

Another thought on the ending is that, Tails is the only character to not have a moment in the final boss battle??? There's kinda of a plot reason for it but it's still quite sad. I do wonder if it's another hint of Cream being added late, if the battle was meant for five characters and they just gave her Tails' section and made up some plot to justify it, but that is pushing the conspiration theory a bit. Her role ended up pretty okay so I don't mind it was a late addition or what, it's just funny to wonder what happened.

[coconut530]

I painted Vi!! Took me so many hours but I did do it :D! I definitely want to try it more, since there are so many beautiful characters and shots in this show.

I also watched S2 yesterday!! GOD it was so good. Things I loved:

New Intro:

The vibrancy of it I am all here for I like it a lot more than the other one (but it’s still cool)

The simple clothing too very cool

Vi smudging her tattoo like what’s that all about

The black rose permeating Ambessa and Mel’s scenes

Mel and the hands

CaitVi scene

Heavy is the Crown…

The light transitioning the title

Heavy is the Crown:

MEL AND JAYCE ARE ALIVE OMG OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG (fully expected them— the whole council to be dead)

The beautiful tension of Jayce looking at Viktor

Freya Ridings’ had the most perfect voice in “I Can’t Hear It Now” for that scene, and the stylization of it was beautiful

CAIT HUGGING VI AND BREAKING DOWN ONLY IN FRONT OF HER AUGHGHHHHHHH

Mel comforting Jayce (Holding Viktor’s cane when she says “I won’t let them corrupt your dream” AUUUGHHHH)

Maddie Nolan you adorable cinnamon roll

Idk why I like the way Vi said “Or are you here just to waste my time?”

“Cait said all that…?” GRRR

The tension leading up to the fight at the memorial was executed so well (And then the fight sent me on an emotional rollercoaster)

The way Cait becomes so badass

The foreshadowing in the council meeting

Watch It All Burn:

The parallel of Jinx setting Silco into the water to Ep. 4 last season

THE OPENING SCENE WITH “SUCKER” BY MARCUS KING WAS A PERFECT INTRO TO THE PEOPLE LEFT IN ZAUN AND ISHA

That song is my current on-repeat (Along with “To Ashes & Blood”)

Sevika and Jinx talking about Silco

VIKTOR AND JAYCE REUNITING AND “YOU’RE ALIVE!” AAAAA

Viktor becoming Arcane Jesus

The way his eyes shift hues is so interesting, like it’s color one point and metallic silver the next it’s really fascinating to watch

Finally Got The Name Right:

“Hellfire” and its animation style were so intense

Ambessa taking down Amara ough I love how Ambessa is animated

CAITVI KISSSSSSS OH MY GOD SQUEALING IT FINALLY HAPPENED THEY’RE SO ADORABLE TOGETHER KAGLAELEGNARPNWENNCMWGURHURAS

The way Caitvi is animated captures the hesitance and acceptance so well

Lest is a very pretty lady

So is Mel but like we all knew that

THE ENTIRE TIME “TO ASHES AND BLOOD” BY WOODKID PLAYS IS PEAK CINEMA

The scene transitions between Jayce and Vi’s storylines are so creative and the song is awesome

ok I didn’t really looove it but CAITVI BREAKUP AAAAAAAAA

Was animated very well tho

WHOEVER TOOK MEL HAS HELL TO PAY

🚨EMERGENCY ALERT🚨 THE HOTTEST WOMAN IN PILTOVER HAS BEEN TAKEN

Ambessa’s regalia is beautiful

The shot of her pounding her chest against a blank blue sky is so powerful

AMBESSA WHY YOU STAGE THE ATTACK THAT’S SO DUMB

Yeah!! There’s all my thoughts. Really looking forward to Act II. I’ll probably get another painting done by then so see you then!!!

[keef-a-corn]

Dat’s right, people, it’s time for ‘Keef watches TFP and you just get the notes!’

This is for season 1, episode 15: Shadowzone

I write down the timestamps, but I watch Transformers Prime on Stan (an Australian streaming service) so they may be slightly off.

ALSO! I try my best to note points for every character, but tend to get a little caught up by Bee (although I think I do a pretty good job with the notes regardless) so do be warned.

~~~~Transition~~~~

00:12 - parallel between Megatron in the last episodes and Starscream now.

00:46 - Megatron noticed the parallel too.

01:10 - one of those moments where being a smexy bicth comes second to his job as a doctor.

01:19 - honestly, Knockout not pushing it shows just how well he knows Starscream.

01:33 - I thought the dark energon was necessary because Megatron needed energon, but his body was no longer comparable to accept anything other than dark.

~intro~

03:04 - I hardly even noticed Bee was there.

03:10 - the thinker.

03:16 - But Megatron was dead during the Skyquake episode. He wouldn’t know that Skyquake would require dark energon. Understandable why they’d assume it’s Megatron, but why would they assume Megatron’s there for Skyquake?

04:03 - this girl is on fiiiireeeeee + giving off ‘friends on the other side’ rn

04:18 - shut up, the way way Bee looks at Optimus and the cheetah meme have the same energy.

04:22 - so they truly are skipping over that angst? It appears I have a future project.

04:23 - Ratchet is the only one who doesn’t put on a game face when he’s addressed. We know why, but it’s nice to note.

04:30 - there’s something so perfect about the way Optimus jumps straight to explaining his decision and turns around to face Ratchet while doing so rather than pulling a classic ‘yes, because we need you’

04:35 - Once again, refreshing to see a character assigned to a position they’re not traditionally assigned to, but still showing passion and respect.

04:39 - How did Bulkhead not realise Miko was up to something?

04:42 - She’s drawing Optimus fighting Megatron.

04:46 - Glad to know someone’s paying attention.

04:52 - I love the way the bots walk, especially Optimus and Bee. There’s something so proper and powerful about it.

05:06 - LMAO

05:14 - Let’s pretend that Arcee couldn’t hear them.. why wouldn’t they yell out to her so she could stop Miko or close the ground bridge before Miko got there?

05:22 - Miko, Miko, Miko… frustrating af.

05:44 - they all have similar walk cycles, but none sync up.

05:53 - Bee dropping back as they walk along could be multiple things, him getting protected, acting as rear support, could also be because he’s the smallest but is walking at a similar pace to the others, meaning he’s covering less ground. Obviously I could be overthinking it too, but if we go that route these notes are completely useless.

05:55 - If you pause it at the right time Ratchet’s head makes it look like Optimus has a huge ass. (Unfortunately I did not screenshot it at the right time)

06:06 - my dude didn’t think to even ONCE call out to the bots and go ‘just so you know, we’re here’

06:18 - that would be my worst nightmare. Don’t have FOMO, just care about my phone.

06:25 - HO MAMMA

06:34 - the fading between the red and purple is so seemless and a nice detail

06:41 - I just need this screenshot to be witnessed. Why is he standing like that?? WHY DOES HE STAND LIKE THAT FOR SO LONG?

06:52 - this line’s so confusing when you forget that his arms are apart of his wings when he’s in his vehicle mode.

07:16 - AHHH THE HEAD TILT!!! Seeing that we’re looking at them from an angle, Bee’s most likely behind Bulkhead, meaning he cannot actually see the humans, but can hear them. + everyone else’s reactions tooooo!

07:27 - While everyone else looks at the ground bridge, Bee looks at the others before the bridge.

07:30 - Ratchet looking fabulous rn.

07:33 - 1. The way his voice echos is a really nice touch. 2. Ratchet using the same tone a parent would rn has me cryin.

08:06 - Starscream went into the ground bridge around the same time the kids did. Why wasn’t he caught?

08:14 - the longer that shot went for, the more I laughed.

08:26 - As soon as Starscream pulls out the dark energon it plays Arcee screaming ‘Tailgate’. Starscream has nothing to do with what happened to Tailgate. I think they were just reusing the sound from when Airachnid killed Tailgate and forgot to edit out the voice line. Upon evaluation, I do believe they’re different sounds. I don’t know why her voice line plays.

08:51 - Bee’s so cute until he breaks the fourth wall. + height difference my beloved.

09:03 - I don’t understand how the bots weren’t affected. Let’s say Starscream got to the otherside, but they kids didn’t, fine. But the bots were still caught in the explosion?

09:26 - You know that would be absolutely traumatising.

10:09 - … what was the point of insulting him?

10:14 - This is what makes it really confusing. How did Skyquake get caught in the shadow zone, but the other bots didn’t??

11:16 - Karma’s a bicth, ain’t she? Jack and Raf didn’t deserve it, but Miko totally did.

12:00 - God do I hate Miko rn. + Aw, Raf’s reaction

12:45 - Yes. In the rocks that are apparently not with you in the Shadowzone.

12:51 - you can hear Optimus trying not to show his panic and worry… and failing.

12:56 - Father and Son right here.

12:58 - with mild Confidence ‘what if you (or we) call them?’

13:35 - Not ‘nothing’. He picked up. He’s alive. It’s that there was no response.

14:05 - kinda disappointed that they didn’t have any other way to message the bots. Feels like there should be a way for the bots to message them and they message the bots, especially for situations where silence is necessary or Bee has to tell Miko or Jack something.

15:38 - Decepticons have parts to spare.

16:10 - Starscream’s arm is enormous compared to the kids.

17:23 - how does he get it open??

17:27 - *mwah* beautiful line delivery.

17:40 - god these line deliveries are stunning.

17:44 - It’s like the shot at the start.

17:46 - why does Starscream have the Crystal out?? What if Knockout saw?

18:35 - Love how either thought the other would be able to tell what Ratchet was saying.

18:47 - saying that as if common sense wouldn’t tell us that if they changed any part of it something would go wrong.

19:02 - aren’t they in a canyon? Isn’t that like one long strip??

19:31 - why would it be yours??

20:15 - glad the plan worked so seamlessly.

20:18 - Why wasn’t Bee sent? He’s Raf’s guardian after all.

20:31 - HOLY SCRAP LOOK AT HOW PRETTY IT IS!

20:34 - There’s literally no reason for Bee not to be(e) present.

20:39 - agreed. Repeat that and also apologise.

20:45 - Optimus smilinggggg

21:04 - a logical assumption.

21:10 - hc is that Knockout promotes self care for everyone (autobots included, but he’s careful when he does it.)

21:18 - I know Skyquake’s a zombie and all, but I feel bad for him.

———————

And that was Shadowzone!

It was alright. I’m not one for the human focused episodes, but it’s alright and a good way to introduce the Shadow Realm (despite how confusing it may have been.)

I thought the way Optimus was portrayed in the episode was good, showing how he cared for the children despite not really being allowed to express worry for their safety. I will admit that Bulkhead, Arcee and especially Bumblebee’s reactions to their charge’s going missing were too weak from any standpoint.

I thought that the Starscream plot line was quite weak as well and I don’t really understand what they were going for.

[sepublic]

Season 2 Teaser for The Owl House?

           So for those of you who haven’t caught up; A few days ago, Dana released an exclusive photo of herself on Instagram, with a cryptically-blurred reflection in her window that was all too conveniently-placed;

           Now, this COULD just be some game she’s playing, but like; Reverse-image searches have yielded nothing, and it hurts no one to speculate! Thanks to @50shades-of-blue, who had the common sense to remember to flip the reflection, we have something more akin to THIS;

           This image bears a decent resemblance to a sequence from the show’s intro, in terms of structuring; We have characters divided and separated by golden bars. This points to Dana’s image being a shot from a new intro for Season 2, either one for an entire season, or a single episode. I say this, because looking at the subject matter… On the very left, we see something vaguely blue, and similar in resemblance to a bile sac;

           This could actually be the Titan’s heart, image below for reference;

           Not only that, but as Blue’s helpful tracing points out, the other two figures in the ‘slots’ bear a resemblance to Owl Mask and Kikimora, the latter having the fingers of her hand-hair splayed out, and the former appearing to take off their mask.

           What little we see of Owl Mask bears a decent-enough resemblance to the Season 2 character that Dana teased, further cementing a connection between the two. Not only that, but we get a glimpse of five (possibly six) colorful symbols above the three character slots, each likely pertaining to the Coven Heads, as shown by Blue’s earlier tracing.

           In particular, you can tell the blue symbol has the same distinctive, U-shaped horns of the Healing Head; And the green symbol bears enough resemblance to the Plant Head, with their dark-green bangs covering most of their lighter-green face. Combined with symbols that seem similar to the Construction, Beastkeeping, and Oracle Heads, the exact layout we’ve seen so far coincidentally seems to match the banner layout seen in The First Day;

           You have from left to right; The Construction, Plant, Beastkeeping, Bard, and Healing Heads! Now, if you look to the very right of the image, there also seems to be a sixth symbol, a bit lower than the others, with what appears to be a purple coloration; This is likely the Oracle Head, especially since it matches with the aforementioned placement of the banners. Now, exact positioning beside, we also know that there are three more symbols obscured, the ones for the Abominations, Potions, and Illusion Heads. If we go by the pattern established by the rest of the image, with the Heads at either end of the display being placed lower than the rest, and the rest being shown in an up-down pattern… Then it seems we more or less have the vast majority of this mysterious screenshot, with some of it blacked out!

           As others such as @preciseprose​ have suggested, there’s a good chance that this is a screen transition, hence why only a specific corner and portion is obscured; Because if this shot parallels the one seen in the Season 1 intro with Willow, Gus, and Amity, which burns away in the middle to reveal King… Then it makes sense that a similar transition would happen with this show, perhaps obscuring from the outside-in this time as a contrast.

           Now, what’s interesting is that this style of shot, once reserved for protagonists and friends/peers of Luz, is now being designated towards lesser-known antagonists associated with the Emperor’s Coven. While this could just be how the Season 2 intro works, with Gus, Willow, and Amity appearing later or earlier, likely closer to Luz; It does make me and others wonder if we’ll get a dedicated intro to the Emperor’s Coven with Belos, front-and-center! I’ve talked at enormous length in the past of Luz and Belos being parallels… And it’d match other Disney TVA shows, such as Gravity Falls, Ducktales, or Amphibia, who had villainous takeovers for their shows’ intros as well!

           This could of course allude to an episode with a heavy focus on the members of the Coven System, specifically Belos and his aides Owl Mask and Kikimora, as well as the Head witches of the Covens he appointed and presumably trusts. This is of course all fascinating and has me even MORE intrigued, but also; The placement of the Titan’s heart alongside Owl Mask and Kikimora suggests its treatment as its own character as well… Which, if it’s a giant heart, it presumably represents and operates as a stand-in for the Titan, perhaps the conduit with which Belos even speaks to it (and vice-versa?) through! AKA the Heart represents the Titan, it IS the Titan, which then suggests that this Emperor’s Coven triumvirate consists of the Titan, Owl Mask, and Kikimora…

           But that’s not the only consideration! I’ve talked before about character parallels in this show… We have Luz and Amity, Eda and Lilith, Owlbert and Lilith’s palisman. I’ve speculated on King and Kikimora being parallels, and even Hooty and Belos… But that always made me wonder; What about Willow and Gus? Do THEY have parallels, associated with the Coven System and its Emperor? And for a while I entertained Warden Wrath and Owl Mask, but lo and behold; I may be right, at least about one of those two, and also in general about parallels! Because if we compare the placements… We have the Titan and Willow, Owl Mask and Gus, and Amity and Kikimora!

           Owl Mask being a parallel to Gus is interesting, because they’re operating as a spy for Belos; And presumably, Illusionists would be great at stealth. I wouldn’t be surprised if Owl Mask used Illusions, albeit to disguise and mask their own presence; A parallel and contrast to Gus, who uses Illusions to create and draw attention and spectacle! Not only that, but it makes me wonder if Owl Mask is also a child prodigy like Gus, if they have issues with being overlooked, and as a contrast to Gus, they’ve embraced this instead of fighting against it…? And Owl Mask is sent to spy on Luz the human, perhaps a parallel to Gus’ own fascination with humans…?

           Then we’ve got Willow and the Titan’s heart. Now, this one interests me… And it makes me think about how Willow is presented with a raw, innate strength, and an uncanny ability to cast magic without summoning a circle nor glyph. I’ve talked before about Willow and Belos having parallels, as they both have distinct shots with their eyes glow green; Could this parallel stem more from a connection to the Titan, than anything else? Then as @aguigenae suggested, instead of Luz (or JUST Luz) being able to speak to the Titan… What if it was Willow? It’d re-contextualize her ability to draw onto raw, magical potential through pure emotions… And similarly, a lot of her spells draw power from the Isles itself in the form of plants, and we know the Isles as synonymous with the Titan!

           With how Belos seems to draw power and spells from the Isles, albeit with fleshy and stone formations… Perhaps Willow serves as a parallel and foil, creating constructs from the Isles as well, but in the form of plantlife! Her being able to speak to plants might provide a medium to contact the Isles they’re rooted in… And as I said before, Willow has shown an unusual ability with magic not unlike how Belos can cast magic, but through his unique form of spheres and orbs. If Willow is associated with the Titan’s heart, perhaps she could speak to it in a way that Belos can’t- Perhaps they BOTH can speak, and this will lead to a conflict with Belos, who seeks to preserve this ‘privilege’? Keep in mind that it’s Willow who openly defies Belos the most by rallying an entire crowd against him- If she’s the face of the revolution, her being able to speak to the Titan could create further parallels and odds between the two!

           Not only that, but… Talking again of Willow and the Titan’s Heart, if the two are parallels; What does this say about the Titan itself? Perhaps like Willow, it’s a being with raw magical power, easily terrifying, and with a connection to nature (as it IS nature in its case). If these characters are dark parallels, then what if the Titan was like Inner Willow, wrathful and fully exploring its dangerous power, having felt harmed and hurt, twisted…

           But what if it was also a Willow who never learned to stand up for herself? A powerful, dangerous witch… But with no true self-esteem, no believe in themselves? What if the Titan was like a Dark Willow, and this self-doubt was what allowed Belos to manipulate it? I’ve speculated before that perhaps Belos has managed to sway and influence the Titan into seeing his way as the right way to handle magic… If it was a dark parallel to Willow, perhaps the Titan is hopeless, thinking there’s nothing it can do to oppose Belos, feeling like it’s smarter than him, as a toxic friend with control; Think Anne and Sasha from Amphibia!

           We might even get a scene paralleling Willow and Amity’s first appearance, with how Amity condescendingly mocks Willow, albeit with potential, if misguided, good intentions. Perhaps Belos is like this- He’s cruel and manipulative of the Titan, but he also genuinely believes in what he’s doing, that this IS the best for the Isles, and that this is how the Titan should have its magic be utilized and taught. But, in absence of Amity, we see Willow’s true feelings of resentment and anger that have bottled up… So what if the Titan was like that with Belos, except dialed up? What if the Titan hates Belos or wants to see him defeated, but isn’t entirely sure if he’s wrong, either…

           So to get into blind speculation, what if- What if the Titan has tried to create a new champion? By going behind Belos’ back and communicating with a new, younger witch, perhaps one that reminds it of Belos before he turned corrupt… What if the Titan is contacting Luz and/or Willow? Hoping to find someone else who will actually speak for them, not just talk over as Belos possibly is doing? Maybe the Titan is trying to foster a new witch, an alternative champion to depose Belos or take over; Or have Belos and Luz/Willow compete, to prove to the Titan who has the best philosophy to magic through their own respective victories?

           And if Belos were to find out… Well, I imagine he might do something drastic to the Titan. He has control and access to its heart- Could he torture it in retaliation, perhaps causing quakes across the Isles that echo the Titan’s throes of agony? Would Belos do something drastic to prevent the Titan from helping Luz/Willow, adversely affecting the Boiling Isles in the process? Similarly, if Belos is a toxic friend to the Titan, perhaps there’s symbolism to his castle built around the Titan’s heart… Kudos to @fermented-writers-block​ for some of these ideas;

          Perhaps it could be interpreted as Belos having an iron grip over its heart, or the Titan building up walls around its heart –thanks to Belos’ encouragement- and letting in only Belos…? Alas, Belos is the one who convinces the Titan to hide itself away and let only him in, because only HE cares, only he knows best… And yet, he’s the one who helped build those walls that the Titan hides within. Ultimately, his castle MUST fall- Especially if it’s being used to exploit and manipulate the Titan’s heart in other, literal ways as well…

          Finally, let’s talk Amity and Kikimora sharing placements. There is of course the obvious implication of romantic feelings, but also… What if, instead, there was this idea of Belos being like Luz to Amity, for Kiki? For Amity, Luz was an outsider who came out of nowhere and changed her life for the better, helped her stand up for herself- What if Belos was that to Kikimora? What if he was an outsider, a human even (before he changed and decayed) that changed Kikimora’s life forever after he appeared from nowhere… The two starting to a prickly start, before truly caring for each other? As Belos encouraged Kikimora to stand up for herself, eventually culminating in her own life improving(?) as Kiki is now second only to him, the Emperor of the Boiling Isles! It might explain why he seems to trust her so much- The two genuinely care for each other and Kikimora feels like she owes everything to him…

           And, to incorporate my own analysis/speculation of Amity; Perhaps Kikimora has placed all of her sense of self-worth into Belos, about how she can help him, because only HE ever made her feel like something! What if as a toxic parallel to Luz and Amity, Kikimora has lowkey become dependent upon Belos- Who, while kind to Kikimora… Kiki still has placed all of her self-esteem not in herself, but in Belos’ approval of her. And while Belos DOES approve and provide support, it’s still dangerously dependent and shows that Kikimora can’t really stand for herself, that she needs someone else as a litmus test to judge her worth as a person.

          Finally, we know Amity is the least talented compared to Willow and Gus; Given how we have the literal Titan and Owl Mask, compared to Kikimora, who caves into Luz’s threats… It’s possible Kikimora is the least powerful amongst the Titan and Owl Mask, but has made up for it with raw determination and skill? After all, she presumably cast the magical cage that all of Luz’s efforts wouldn’t have been able to defeat. Perhaps like Amity, Kikimora had to work hard to prove herself, to earn respect; And like Amity in Episode 3, Kikimora feels a desperate need to hold onto that sense of accomplishment and superiority, and can and WILL retaliate viciously when it’s threatened. To Kikimora, she’s dedicated everything into making up for her own shortcomings, just like Amity- So she despises cheaters, or at least people who undermine that work.

           (I know what some may be thinking- Isn’t Kikimora a King parallel? Well, these parallels work in multiple ways… Amity parallels Luz, but then so too does Belos, presumably. I wouldn’t be surprised if Amity was both a parallel to Luz AND Kikimora, then.)

           And, that’s my general thoughts, analysis, and speculation, all based from this reflection we’ve seen! It’s possible Dana is trolling us, by accident or otherwise, with a videogame screenshot… But hey- It doesn’t hurt anyone if we’re wrong, I say! It’s all in good fun… Besides, if it WAS a teaser from Season 2, and we didn’t give our shot, then we’d all feel like idiots! We may as well take our chance and analyze, because- Just in case…!

[nobody-knose--archive]

i’ve been aching to commentate spirit phone’s commentary for ages. glad i finally got around to it, this was an ejoyable experience. liveblog below the cut

-i'm like half certain i've heard this commentary before. maybe not the whole way through & it was probably actual years ago

-nice hearing stuff like this. in-depth personal view of the album-making process. makes it seem like more of a real thing i could do myself someday

-neil cicierega real person momence

-i could probably go real in depth about neil cicierega/tally hall parallels specifically concerning like. the arc of their musical careers. but i won't, here

-wild how i legitimately don't care much about micheal jackson

-didnt we get a bunch of spirit phone stems from the needlejuice release/his patreon? we could probably hear the funny track he speaks of here in that

-i love hearing musical artists, especially neil cicierega, talking about the meanings of their songs. like, not only has this song been claimed to hell & back by the tumblr gays, but with later ones i just can't see where he gets these ideas from. also, claiming there's any one meaning or plot to a song just seems silly to me

-shoutout to neil reusing a midi from like, 1998, that he made at 12 years old, whose entire melody was reused for the main verses of everybody loves raymond. loved finding that out on my own 2 years ago. now it's common trivia in this fandom. not bad times

-it'd be neat if neil did individual trans tracks here like he did with view monstel, those things are half of why i consider it my favorite album

-it's a lot easier to ignore the creator's intended meaning behind a song when he can't even remember it. thanks neil

-seesaw effect

-and there's my joke all but 1 of my followers wont get. moving on

-what kinds of movie theater lobbies has neil been to where there are arcade machines. i mean im not one to talk but that does sound rather strange

-why do songs' titles even need to be taken from the lyrics. ive never seen that as any sort of requisite. it's like titling any form of prose you can just give it whatever name ya like

-"this part sounds pretty cool right"

-is neil's vocal range only mildly better than mine? with training i could change that

-oh i haven't processed any of the last 25 seconds hold on

-god. a shit ton of vocal modification in this song. it's like neil returned to his roots but with quality this time

-i, as an ace/aro, have never related more to an allohet guy in my life. what is the point of eyes!

-professional humming/whistling takes skill. it's different from the recreational or casual stuff. i'd know

-there's a name for the way sound (especially music) gets distorted when moving past you and i can't remember it but it's probably what neil's referring to here in the way he recorded the intro

(- update: it's the doppler effect no need to tell me cas already did)

-as someone who hasnt seen the rugrats or take me there by blackstreet i'll just say it sounded like a bouncy music box melody. nice to hear a song that messes with the typical scales though. lydian & diatonic.

-that's a rather specific thing to be glad about, but given what he talked about in his last full audio commentary about the jew harp i suppose i'm not surprised

-i know that tmbg song now. listened to it & saw the music video too. yep they're different alright

-where the hell does neil get all these instrumence from anyway

-huh. hadnt heard this part of the commentary before making my oc concerning this song but i like to hear neil's approval concerning part of my interpretation

-i love how ive heard a billion different tellings of this mellified man story from lem dem fans talking about this song and neil's is by far the wildest

-good god that does only make it worse neil

-i love making liveblogs of lemon demon albums. with the fullerenes or tally hall i cant name a specific dude to take out my woes on generally but with lemon demon i can just say neil all the time. i like being on a casual first name basis with this dude ive never interacted with once ever

-is sweet bod the one other than cabinet man with a demo in the bonus tracks? i forget

-holy shit the boston molasses disaster someone call up soapy if it doesnt already know, it'd love this

-two thousand nine. god i miss the fiddle solo. the ver with it is truly the best one

-he pronounces it jeff? i've always read it as gef with a hard g. that's what i get for knowing words that are never spoken aloud

-that's a fun meta interpretation of this ghost story that's over a century old. i like that

-i've noticed neil generally does the same synths across a whole album. it's especially more clear in the earlier ones, and does mean i occasionally mix up songs between clown circus & live from the haunted candle shop

-ah! ancient aliens! my least favorite track on this album. i cant even claim to have the least interest in a popular one i've just generally not liked this one much from the beginning. so im curious to see what neil's got to say, i think ive been in ~new commentary zone for a while now

-anyway. newest update on the loolin not realizing a song's funky time signature front: i think this one's in 6/4. or at least switches a lot between time signatures. granted i dont listen to it very often for the reasons stated above

-see the way neil describes it. eldritch horror upon being visited by the unknown at a time when humanity'd hadn't even yet had a chance to imagine such a thing occurring. should be right up my alley. but the sound itself & many of the lyrics simply turn me away.

-must i specify i don't dislike it? spirit phone is neil's best album it not being my favorite doesn't mean i think it's bad yadda yadda nobody should be surprised by this it's not like anyone in these fandoms reads my liveblogs <3

-granted i think this is. the first bit of spirit phone content i've made on my blog ever. so who knows things can change <3

-the transitions in spirit phone are much less view-monster transition tracks & more extended outros. view-monster's were a bit more intro than outro sure but they also seemed directed upon making a 2-way rather than 1-way bridge between tracks. or something like that

-.............soft fuzzy man is an incredible nickname for a cat. i'd steal that if i werent afraid of introducing my relatives to lemon demon

-jirls

-an underlying metaphor is good enough. the literal side of the lyrics are fun. nothing but agreement here neil my good man

-the transition into as your father i expressly forbid it from soft fuzzy man is the best one in this album

-buddy you ask if a musical idea has been used before odds are the answer is yes in this day & age the question is has it been used in the way you're using it. like sure this soul jazz record from the 60s that was sold out in kansas stores for a week used this bassline that youve found yourself copying. but seeing as youre using it in some angsty garage rock ballad type tune does anybody actually care

-doesn't everybody like to say things in an unhinged manner from time to time

-imagine having a guitar dad, i say, with my dad being a folk accordion/fiddle dad, which is infinitely worse in every way

-i think he was in an actual folk band at some point. idk the 90s were weird

-iron my life?

-m-more intimate? there are a lot of ways i'd describe this song but intimate isn't one of them. granted as your father is negatively intimate so from there i guess you've got nowhere to go but up

-...still glad to see his interpretation kinda supports my oc at least

-the way he says characters in songs shouldn't worry about death really strongly makes me think this is some sort of. thematic continuation of stuck from dinosaurchestra, even if there's no real death in there. interesting. would also mean that the dad from these past 2 songs is named carlos betty (no last name)

-i literally never assumed this was a flute solo. piccolo at best. it's pretty clearly a recorder

-my mom plays the recorder. i wonder if she can play recorder better than neil cicierega

-we can throw a party in honor of the crushing weight of responsibility! i simply won't be the one throwing it because i have enough on my plate already <3

-what the hell does "a sense of intent" mean

-i've never heard rush before however i disagree with neil's understanding of 6/4. 6/4 is meant to have emphasis (onbeat or another term i can't remember) on the 1st & 4th beat of every measure, which is greatly different from a measure of 4/4 then a measure of 2/4. it's why his 5/4 always sounds weird, because while it's recognizable in sequences of 10/4, it's more 2 measures of 4/4 with one of 2/4 tacked on the end. that's also how it's different from 3/4. i don't know much music theory but what i do understand i will fight to the death about

-"canonized" that's. a very interesting term to use when referring to a former president

-from now on i will interpret every love song directed at some unseen "you" to be inviting me to marry them for tax purposes. thanks neil for being an aromantic icon

-ah hell yes hell yes man-made object is my favorite goddam song on this album

-short & sweet & good damn vibes. neil's thoughts on it all are only making it better

-wild how he uses very few vocal effects for a song that he clearly is straining his vocal range for. go off neil

-the qualifier of man-made is a wonderful thing. oldest or biggest thing? oldest or biggest man-made thing? what a incredibly important specification. a world of possibilities lie between the two. oh i love it

-just gets me thinking yknow! what we consider weird/impressive in another species, in our own species- what kind of equivalent to that would there be from an outsider looking in? are there alien versions of the significances we place upon things, that we could never imagine? the limits of the human imagination mean we could never conceive of something else in the world that isn't, in some way great or small, just like us- and are we wrong for thinking that? such a juicy topic i wish there were a name for it because it's kinda hard to explain concisely

-spiral of ants. my second favorite song from this album, in fact. a good one to experience

-the vocals are just another instrument. they really truly are. i wasn't going into this commentary expecting to feel solidarity for neil cicierega in this chili's tonight on more than one occasion but here i am.

-like, his whole stance on interpreting songs is something i agree with almost entirely. you can take it at face value, you can dig to their very depths, you can listen to songs without caring what the lyrics mean whatsoever, and those are all fun. & yeah while any of these people can be annoying as one of the types who enjoys gliding on the surface more than anything i find those who dedicate themselves to figuring out the whole meaning of a song over anything else to be both slightly scary & slightly annoying <3 keep up the good work

-i want to make songs for my siblings the way neil makes songs for his sibling(s)

-spinch

-neil really shouldn't be allowed to be this funny like this whole album youre thinking golly! he's just a normal man this neil cicierega! and then he starts listing the cat hacks jokes & you remember he's had ridiculously consistent viral success with all his humorous endeavors and holy shit it's neil cicierega in action talking about his music. god bless you neil

-you're welcome, no problem, my pleasure. good eveternoon, radio audience!

[unpassive-viewer]

Initial Impression of Shang-Chi: The Ten Rings

I’m back again (not that I’m ever really here anyways) to talk about Shang-Chi. This is just an initial impression, I wasn’t paying attention too hard to this one, and it’s a Marvel movie, so there isn’t usually incredibly nuanced artistic choices to analyze anyways. 

I liked it! It felt very long, but I liked it. Based on the ads I didn’t expect the story line that ended up being followed, but it was cooler than I anticipated. Spoilers Ahead - you have been warned. 

A few points:

1. The score was awesome. It was very immersive, and really drove home the atmosphere. The Anderson Paak song for the outro was a great choice IMO.

2. The visuals. This movie was GORGEOUS. The texture on the dragon? The colour of the souls? The dragon scale armour? The visual effects for the setting? I know it was all green-screened, but it genuinely looked like a vast, incredible landscape. I think this movie does visuals better than any Marvel movie I’ve seen yet. The best comparison that comes to mind is Black Panther - that movie also required a lot of wide shots of the setting in order to do good exposition, but I think Shang-Chi does it better. I’d say it parallels Guardians of the Galaxy, but as a personal opinion I like this movie more. 10/10, genuinely. 

3. The fight scenes. They were very long, but they genuinely rival Winter Soldier and Black Panther on my list of favourite fight choreography. All three movies bring in really unique fighting styles taken from different parts of the world, and are incredibly well choreographed. The climax fight scene in particular I thought was awesome, especially to see Shang-Chi go head to head with his father/the 10 rings. 

4. For an origin story, it was alright. I don’t usually like origin stories, just because I find the dialogue to be very clunky and odd when they’re trying to assemble the back story for every character in the entire film, and with Marvel films you know they have to cram as much into the dialogue as possible for viewers that don’t know their comic books. I still found the dialogue clunky - especially in the intro scenes where Shaun/Shang-Chi and Katy are talking about meeting in high school. No one talks like that, especially not to friends they already know. 

5. The karaoke scenes were so fun, I think they were perfect.

6.  Xialing. Enough said. I checked the actress’ IMDB and this is her only acting credit! Her whole character was so cool. I do still take issue with the way Marvel/Disney goes about the “girl power” bits in their movies. I feel like they are not allowed to be flawed beings in the way that male characters are, and always come with stories of rejection for being a woman in a “man’s world”. It is all quite patronizing. 

7. I LOVED the amount of Mandarin spoken in this movie. I was watching the movie while making dinner, which made it a little hard to keep up, but I thought the way they transitioned between English and Mandarin was really neat. It’s a beautiful sounding language.

8. Any story about overcoming trauma in addition to physical threats is my favourite. Lots of the Marvel movies feel very superficial in the way they deliver the struggles of their main characters, but I felt like the tension between Shaun/Shang-Chi and his dad was pretty genuine.

9. The rings. I’ve heard they’re not used quite so much as weapons in the comics (I’m still on the Spider-Man/Deadpool crossover comics, I’m sorry) but for something that supposedly had to be adapted for the big screen, I think their role as a weapons was done well. 

10. I didn’t feel like Shang-Chi’s father was ancient. He did not give off “I’ve watched empires crumble” vibes. Definite DILF vibes, though. Oof. 

Like I said, I don’t love origin stories, but I am excited to see this character in more movies. I think the rings present something really unique for Marvel to use in the future, especially with the Avengers. I really hope to get a follow-up film now that we know all the characters - it looks like we will see a lot more of Xialing, but I don’t know in what context. I’d like to see them team up again, as much as she is a damn good Fight Club leader. I’d like to see her character rounded out a lot more, and for Marvel to leave the pandering and “girl power” in the first movie. 

As for Shang-Chi and Katy, I think they play off of one another really well, especially in the more vulnerable moments of the movie. They have a really supportive friendship, which I adore. Maybe “saving the world with the power of friendship” is as cliche as “girl power”, but it is (IMO) one of the strongest plot points Marvel has going for them. Steve and Bucky ruined a whole movie when they through three movies worth of “we’re just best buddies” to the wind. Thor and Loki were brothers, but their bond is a highlight of the whole cinematic universe. I appreciate the Captain Marvel/Fury and the Natasha/Fury dynamics, but I am still excited by the potential for a well established m/f friendship in the MCU. There are other things to be said about the habit of big movies to make their male Asian characters somewhat “undatable” (in the context of not making Katy a romantic interest), but honestly I would just follow what Simu Liu wants on this one. I trust him completely with this franchise, he is the backbone of the entire operation. I also think Katy rivals Ned in terms of my favourite MCU best friends.

Bottom line, this is a really strong film for phase 4. I think the sequel will be even better. Every time I think I’m done caring about the MCU, I end up watching another movie and I get sucked right back in. 

I think that’s all I’ve got for now. If you made it this far, thanks! Let me know what you thought of the movie as well! 

4/5 stars

[mmmmalo]

I'm back in Dirk and Roxy's intros because of the soda/head thing and I'm a bit lost. I found what I was looking for, sort of: Dirk captchlogues SORD and a bottle of orange soda flies out, which could be read as an early decapitation joke. This occurs after Dirk fails to catpchalogue the Hella Jeff plush, so... more specifically, it's an early example of Dirk responding to (perceived) failure with thoughts of oblivion? But there's further weirdness

Roxy's description of transportation between fenestrated panels (and how it appears instantaneous to outside observers) is a joke on the action of turning the page in Homestuck: transport from one panel to another, which is instantaneous to a reader (us). Roxy is embodying the function of ==> that bridges the Void between panels (an arrow associated with the other Void player, Equius)

So Roxy gleefully falling in/out of panels is like toggling back and forth between sections of the comic with wild abandon. An image to note

Dirk also has fenestrated wall associations: his glasses are presented as panels, such that zooming into them can function the same as zooming into Roxy's panels, bringing you to the next screen. This is reinforced by ARquius's bow, in which the arrow ==> of panel progression is paired with the shades. (Or even by the Dirk-associated Horuss version, where the bow is replaced by eyes? 8=D)

Dirk and Roxy are linked on the character select screen such that you can read their scenes in either order, perhaps looping indefinitely like Roxy going between the frames (of reference? Trying not to lock myself into a reading prematurely). At least one transition is sealed by reference to the fenestrated panels:

Roxy’s scene ends in the void between 2 fenestrated panels. Dirk’s scene begins with the phrase “You were lodged in the bulbous cleft of paradox space's huge foam ass”. That’s very different kind of Void (maybe) but interesting nonetheless

Dirk’s scene ends with him... walking into the wardrobifier? Or the space left by its absence... no obvious hook to Roxy’s intro upon loop but the matter of the wardrobifier brings in one of my pet theories:

The matter of Roxy and Dirk (and Jake/Jane for that matter) being introduced in pairs has made me wonder if the cherubim were not illustrative of how to read preceding character. Like if the Alphas form cherubic pairs, such that their narratives become interdependent... I guess the matter of social relations doubling as psychic dynamics was already established in Openbound (x), but we haven’t yet pushed that notion further back into Act 6. Granted, the fenestrated panel parallels and the possible Roxy > Dirk scene transition could exist without such a framework, but the wardrobifier-as-point-of-transition reminds me of Problem Sleuth, wherein the protagonist walks into a Space-coded wardrobe, conks out, and wakes up in imagination land as his feminine alter-ego (447).

(Actually the retroactive Space symbol within that wardrobe could be the “nonlinear timestew of Paradox Space” that Roxy alludes to being in following the transition from Dirk? But that’s wishful thinking)

[mochuelovelli]

Fix-It AU for the Moonvasion Arc!

I would like to preface this by saying that this is gonna seem real fanfic-y and for that I am sorry. I want to bullet point some ways to change some aspects of S2 from Whatever Happened to Donald Duck?! onwards.

Whatever Happened to Donald Duck?!:

The segment that shows the McDuck/Duck family tree has Donald Crossed out not because he is captured but Lunaris PLANNED to kill him before going to Earth once he would basically tortured him for information

Donald is tripped by Lunaris which makes him land on Penumbra, allowing him to sneak the device under his hat as it falls off without Lunaris noticing. After Lunaris explains his plan he throws Donald and the scene transpires as normal, save for Don attaching the clamp to Lunaris and finding the remote. 

Lunaris still ends up getting the upper hand and punching Don away but he reveals the remote and presses it. Only for it to, of course, get broken on impact and the rest of the scene transpires normally.

[Here is the biggest change]The rocket DOES end up exploding. It makes it to Earth's atmosphere but of course the bullet hits one of Scrooge's satellite and rickashays back to the moon again. Upon realizing he is going to crash, Donald jumps out but just in time as the blast from the pod knocks him semi-conscious.

Last shot is him falling toward a crater and shows Donald gaining conscious only for him to see he is falling into the moonmite's mouth but doesn't reach beyond making a groan and the scene cuts to black with the jaw snapping sound (alternatively it can just cut to black as he falls)

The Jones Scene ends with Scrooge saying the same line about not paying Donald bills. Only he also adds once closing the door, "Fallacious tightwad, I ain't payin' for some leeching city counselor. I'll find that lad a proper therapist when he gets back. One that doesn't have an arachnoid infestation." *cue spider coming to crawl on Scrooge's face before he chucks it off*

Webby's line is cut down to "Well I guess there really wasn't some big mystery to solve." But the kids' lines stay the same frome there on.

Scrooge gets only Donald screaming "Uncle Scrooge!" before the audio cuts to audio to one of Mrs. Crackshell-Cabera's novelas due to the satellite being damaged(does that make sense? No but neither do moonpeople). You could probably make a suggestive joke here about cruises and Scrooge's line can stay the same. The camera pans up as the line is delivered still but it is just a shot where the moon is in focus. That or it's the satellite falling instead.

Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake! until Moonvasion:

(know it would be a pain in the ass, but I think it be cool to edit the intro to remove/replace Donald during the time he isn't shown in an ep. Though I guess they don't change the intro until season 3 so yeah. Mainly wanted to give the illusion that he is "missing" to scare anyone under 8 that "oh no maybe he is GONE gone just to be a prick

The Golden Armory of Cornelius Coot!

Trim down the Bigtime C plot like a LOT. Maybe end that original scene with Ma Beagle by having Bigtime lean on something (statue, standing on some "moss") and fall down to the caves. 

The cart scene with Bigtime still happens but that cut back from Launchpad and Della doesn't happen until after Della yells at Launchpad when she is flying. (So not the scene where Louie is kicking rocks)

Maybe cut the scenes where Bigtime is bragging about "finding a name for himself" and just have one scene where he ties up the boys and saves his family but they argue and waste time til Della and Webby come back. The end where Ma says BT is welcome back is cut as well, she just says it and then complains about the popcorn

After the scene with LP, Della and Webby, the camera pans up to the sky so a transition to the moon happens. Transition zooms out to reveal Penumbra looking at the Earth with her spear, before she turns upon hearing the moonmite screech and readys herself.

The moonmite is then shown crawling up from a hole at first by itself before Donald's torse is revealed, his hair is a bit longer and feathers are ruffled. Penumbra stands down and looks a bit more open before asking "Did anyone see you?" 

Donald just says no before hopping off, of course falling along with the equipment he brought. The shot is focused on Penumbra looking towards Donald's silhouette as he gets up.

She then asks "How's the leg?" To which the camera cuts back to Donald and we see him in full view, his model is similar to when he is on the island only way less beard and his hair isn't quite as long yet. But the most notably difference is that his right leg from the knee down is now a golden prosthesis. Don responds with "Fine, thanks for making it for me."

Penumbra turns back as Donald is shown to clumsily put the equipment on a nearby table and says "I couldn't have forgiven myself if I let Della's brother die." Donald nearly falls over again before she turns to face him and asks if he is ready to which he nods before they turn and the camera reveals the broken Spear of Selene. Penumbra's voice is heard then saying "Then Let's get you home." Before the ep ends.

The Richest Duck in the World!:

Everything is the same except when Penumbra calls, She says "This is LT. Penumbra calling for her friend Della Duck!-" [Della's Line] "All of your defense satellite just went down for some reason. Della-" Familiar quacking can be heard and Della even questions it before Donald's voice comes on. "Della!" "Donald!" Della parrots as she grabs the SATCOM box. "There's going to be an invasion! He's coming for the kids!" Episode ends the same from here.

[I'll make a second post l8r since I planned this to come out before 10 and it's already almost 1130 so yeah. Literally all these changes are basically to set up a bit of a stronger connection between Della and Donald (as well as giving Donald more screen time) by having the twins mirror each other a bit more. I personally headcanon that like Donald, Della is unlucky as well but in a different way. Where Donald has bad luck everyday of his life which mostly comes in the form of physical harm (secondly it would be emotional harm), Della's bad luck comes in the form where she is just as "lucky" as the rest of her family (maybe discounting Louie) but while she enjoyed 20ish years of adventuring relatively unscathed, she then crashes on the moon after a freak storm happens and is stuck there for over a decade. To me, her struggles on the moon in Whatever Happened to Della Duck?! And The Golden Spear! really showcases her bad luck, almost as if the universe decided to throw the biggest karma bomb at her all at once. But just like her brother she is fuelled with determination and love for her family in order to survive anything, she just has to do it all by herself (another thing which is worse for her bc she doesn't have them) at that point. And it isn't a one and done thing, it's something permit as she now is literally 11 years behind on parenting and the show continues to show her stuggle with that. By having Donald lose his leg and have a journey back to his family that's quicker than Della's (along with having company from nearly the beginning) it parallels that unluckiness the Duck twins have. It also can serve as a plot for future eps (well fake eps lmao). 

Ik that this au wouldn't have been possible as Disney would be really anal about having one of their mascots have a total design change. Unless they really wanted to milk having characters with prosthetics for park days or whatever, maybe it wouldn't be THAT big of a deal aside from some fluff articles. I realize though, it might overshadow Della's trauma so ideally I would hope to figure out or map out an ep where it would be addressed along with some other family issues.] 

[fermented-writers-block]

Why I think the actual Angel is Noelle Holiday

After nine months of research, procrastination, and working out the kinks, here’s a little theory of mine that’s been floating around in my head ever since the end of last November about Noelle Holiday and her potential role in the future of the series. It’s a bit of a long read, but I hope you’ll be willing to indulge me and give this crazy theory a chance.

As a forewarning, the following points I will be bringing up are simply too hefty to make a TLDR for, and it’s quite a long read, but trust me, you’re going to want to read through all of it for it to make sense in the end

Part 1: The Possible Evolution of the Delta Rune

First off, I’d like to look at the Delta Rune itself and a few easily overlooked key lines Gerson says about it:

That emblem actually predates written history.

The original meaning has been lost to time…

All we know is that the triangles symbolize us monsters below, and the winged circle above symbolizes…

Somethin' else.

The meaning and design of symbols can change over time, and it’s likely the same has happened to the way the Delta Rune is currently interpreted compared to when it first came into existence. For example, take a look at these variations of the Delta Rune:

Of these variations of the Delta Rune, these may be some of the oldest or closest iterations of the symbol to the original design, especially the ones from the intro cutscene and Gerson’s shop. The former is presumably from long before the Human-Monster War and thus the oldest version, and with Gerson’s apparent age and how he implies that he studies history, it is likely that the variation in his shop is also as close as can be to the original.

As for how these particular iterations of the Delta Rune fit into my theory, look at the design and positioning of the wings in these probably older iterations compared to likely more modern interpretations:

On the more recent interpretations, the base of the wings are placed around the same level as the center of the circle, and the wings themselves are mostly realistically designed. However, on the older interpretations, the wings are more simplified and stylized with more of an explicit arc to them, and the ‘feathers’ are more blocky with visible and sometimes significant spaces in between. Now keep that in mind when looking at these pictures:

Taking this into account, I think it is possible that - through the help of time and redesigns becoming successively more stylized - what was originally supposed to be a reindeer with antlers slowly got distorted and misremembered as a ‘winged circle.”

And maybe, something like this might even apply to Deltarune’s version of the Delta Rune as well given how several of the depictions of the Angel throughout the game look like the transition point between the older and newer designs, what with the ‘feathers’ being much rounder and closer together while still on an arc-based stylized design instead of a realistic wing-like design:

Part 2: The Origins of Modern Christmas

Now, with that established, let’s take a closer look at Noelle and her family.

Besides the obvious exception of Lancer, she has the most dialogue of all the NPCs, gets two entire scenes to herself in the hospital with her dad and outside her house to flesh out her character and crush on Susie compared to several other NPCs getting only a few lines of dialogue at most, and it is absolutely required to talk to her at the beginning of the game in order to even progress and end up in the Dark World. 

As many other posts than mine have demonstrated, this suspicious level of detail has led a lot of people to theorize that Noelle will be an important character and that she might even be playable later on, a theory which has certainly been helped by Toby Fox’s original concept art of “THE FUN GANG” showing that her character has been in development for a LONG time - perhaps even from when work on Deltarune was just beginning - and that she may have been designed as a main character from the start.

However, much like how the potential origins of Undertale’s Delta Rune point towards the importance of reindeer in the series, I believe the deeper origins behind the names of the Holiday family similarly point towards Noelle’s true role in Deltarune. 

Obviously, the name Rudy is a clear reference to the famous Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and Dess is most likely a reference to how Christmas is celebrated in the month of December. However, as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939 for the Montgomery Ward department store chain, he is actually a relatively new addition to the list of Santa’s reindeer, whom in of themselves are early 19th Century additions to the image of Santa Claus - a figure tracing back to the 4th Century Christian bishop Saint Nicholas.

And on Jesus’ birth being on the 25th of December for Dess’ name, from what I’ve gathered with my google-fu, the event may have actually taken place less on December 25 and more during the fall or spring due to mentions of shepherds tending to their sheep in the scripture as well as from several attempts to connect the Star of Bethlehem with recorded astronomical events.

In fact, it seems likely that - in the 4th Century - the church might have actually chosen the date either because of coming to the conclusion that Jesus’ conception took place on the spring solstice - aka March 25, nine months before December 25 - or because they wanted to increase the popularity of Christianity through adopting and appropriating pagan winter solstice festivals like the Yule and Saturnalia holidays around the same time of year.

On the flipside, Noelle is a name that has a particularly distinct connection to Christmas; specifically, to the one for whom the holiday is named for in the first place rather than a recent secular addition or the general time in which said holiday is celebrated.

From what I’ve seen, Noelle as a name traces back to the French word ‘noel,’ which - alongside referring to Christmas carols - is a variant form of the word ‘Nael.’ This form comes from the noun use of the Latin adjective natalis, meaning of, or belonging to, one’s birth. The noun use (from natalis dies, day of birth) denoted a birthday, an anniversary, a commemorative festival, hence in ecclesiastical Latin the festival of the nativity of Christ, Christmas.

Basically, out of all the names of the Holiday family, Noelle’s is the one that most directly ties into the actual origins of Christmas in how the name’s origins heavily revolve around the birth of Jesus Christ, a major religious figure who was to be a sacrifice for humanity’s sins and to provide a way into heaven.

Considering Toby Fox’s attention to hidden details and deeper meanings and how angels are heavily associated with and are depicted in Christianity - particularly in relation to Jesus - there may be further significance to Toby picking a name that’s typically given to girls born around or on Christmas day. After all, even if it may or may not be the actual day of Jesus’ birth, it is widely celebrated and recognized as such.

However, as you’ll see at the end, I think there’s even another layer of meaning to Noelle Holiday’s name than just this one. 

Part 3: Reindeer in Undertale

On a slightly different topic, while it’s hard to ignore how more prominently featured Christmas iconography and figures in the foreground of the series - what with the introduction of the Holiday family as well as several jokes about “Krismas” and Santa Claus in Deltarune, I believe it may also be important to pay attention to Undertale’s fair share of Christmas-themed details.

Namely, in how a significant amount of them owe their existence to one specific minor character; aka the rather unusually designed Gyftrot.

In contrast to the handful of implications that Asgore is the Underground’s Santa only being implicitly hinted at through extended dialogue and checking his bureau, Snowdin’s tradition of putting presents under decorated trees is blatantly and conspicuously out in the open. 

And as Gift Bear explains if you talk to them, said tradition originated not with wherever Asgore’s Santa outfit and apparent moonlighting came from, but rather came about in the first place as a way to make Gyftrot feel better after some teens decorated his horns.

As to why I am calling Gyftrot unusually designed, it is because of his rounded head and sideways mouth - a trait only seen elsewhere in the DT Extraction Machine, Photoshop Flowey, and Sans’ Gaster Blasters.

Of all the conversations and theories I’ve seen about this strange detail, most people were only able to come up with the explanation that Toby simply liked the design and reused it for Gyftrot just for fun without any deeper meaning to it, or that Toby unintentionally gave it to Gyftrot while making Undertale.

However, a third explanation I found is that Gyftrot’s design may actually be foreshadowing for what Photoshop Flowey’s appearance looks like, what with how Gyftrot actually seems to have a second pair of eyes at the base of his antlers, and how one of the decorations he spawns with is a picture between his four eyes in a very similar position to the television screen on Photoshop Flowey.

To my knowledge, this explanation and comparison has only been made in conjunction by two people, with user u/Peridotthepie providing the explanation and and user u/pleasespellicup providing the following picture in the linked post.

While I can’t see any other possible parallels between the two to fully call this foreshadowing - especially with how the picture decoration isn’t guaranteed to show up on every playthrough and how obscure it is - I’d like to propose the idea that the DT Extraction Machine (and perhaps the Gaster Blasters by extension) may very well be based on Gyftrot or a relative with a similar design in-universe.

After all, not even boss monsters leave behind anything more than a pile of dust when they die, not even a goat-like skull that could be used as a reference, whereas Gyftrot is a living, walking example of such a design, complete with what even seems to be a SOUL-shaped hole in his mouth.

Not only that, but given how attentive to detail and deeper meanings Toby has shown himself to be as well as the increased prominence and importance of reindeer/Christmas themes in general for Deltarune, I find it incredibly unlikely that this design choice was made just for fun or as an accident.

On a bit of a side note, it is interesting that we first learned of the name “Rudy” in a post from September 17, 2017 on Undertale’s 2nd anniversary and alarm clock app.

Considering the apparent parallels between Undertale and Deltarune - for example, the potential connection between Susie and the ‘Suzy’ character mentioned by Clam Girl, who appears to have ties to Gaster - and the implications of the dialogue in that post, it’s likely that Undertale Rudy is also a reindeer just like his counterpart, and I would not be surprised if he was also related to Gyftrot as well.

As for what the exact deeper meaning or in-universe explanation behind Gyftrot could be, it’s too early to tell, but I have the feeling that it likely ties heavily into Noelle’s circumstances in Deltarune and some of the effects of the DT Extraction Machine on Undertale’s plot as detailed below.

Part 4: Determining Other Connections

To explain what I’m talking about, let’s take a closer look at a few key lab entries by Alphys, starting with this one:

ENTRY NUMBER 5: I've done it. Using the blueprints, I've extracted it from the human SOULs. I believe this is what gives their SOULs the strength to persist after death. The will to keep living... The resolve to change fate. Let's call this power... "Determination."*

While not explicitly confirmed, from the name and surrounding context, it is likely that the blueprints Alphys used were for the DT Extraction Machine and that DT stands for Determination, though it is unknown whether Alphys built the machine from the blueprints or if it was already constructed and she merely used the blueprints to operate it.

Either way, as we all know, things went horribly wrong from there. Alphys had accidentally turned those who had “fallen down” into the Amalgamates, created Flowey from the flower whose seeds Asriel had brought from the surface, and fell into a nervous downward spiral while wracked with guilt.

Now, I want to focus on just how the Amalgamates had been created, particularly with these entries:

ENTRY NUMBER 6: ASGORE asked everyone outside the city for monsters that had "fallen down." Their bodies came in today. They're still comatose... And soon, they'll all turn into dust. But what happens if I inject "determination" into them? If their SOULS persist after they perish, then... Freedom might be closer than we all thought.

ENTRY NUMBER 12: nothing is happening. i don't know what to do. i'll just keep injecting everything with "determination." i want this to work.

ENTRY NUMBER 17: monsters' physical forms can't handle "determination" like humans can. with too much determination, our bodies begin to break down. everyone's melted together…

Here, I’d like to draw your attention to a few things. Given the surrounding context, “falling down” seems to be a condition - one that potentially originates from age, injury, or some kind of illness - involving or causes monsters to enter a comatose state and eventually die. 

And in Entry 17, there is the interesting wording of the line “with too much determination, our bodies begin to break down.” From how it’s phrased, it seems that, instead of melting from any amount of Determination in their systems whatsoever, monsters can handle Determination without having to fear of their bodies breaking down, though obviously there’s a cap to how much they are able to handle.

As for why I’m making this particular distinction, it’s because of Noelle’s situation with her father and how it may proceed beyond Chapter 1 in the future.

With the implication that Undertale Rudy had passed away a while ago, Deltarune Rudy’s conversations with and about Noelle, and Deltarune’s apparent theme of choices not mattering - or at least, not in the long run - it seems pretty likely that DR Rudy is suffering from a case of the foreboding coughs of death and that he may even “fall down” later on.

As such, it wouldn’t be surprising if his condition keeps worsening all the way until he ends up on his deathbed/in a coma/legitimately dead no matter what the doctors or Noelle and such do to help, and neither would it be surprising for her to be seriously affected and react in a severe way as a result.

I mean, Rudy openly talks about how everything scares her, even ironically Santa Claus, and as the classroom scene demonstrates, she has trouble mustering up the courage and confidence to assert herself to the point where even Alphys asks her to speak up.

Considering that her father openly talks about how defenseless she is and how he worries about not being able to protect her from his hospital bed, his death/apparently inevitable upcoming death would no doubt drastically impact her, especially if she attempted as much as she could to stop it to no avail. 

Sometimes, one can be driven to desperation to do crazy things as a result of love and worry, and Noelle may very well do the same out of love for her father. If at least some of Undertale’s rules about SOULS and monsters also apply to the world of Deltarune, then there may only be one way - or at the very least, what she feels might be the only option left - in the end for Noelle to potentially give her father the strength to persist and the will to keep living, perhaps even after death.

Or in other words, potentially through extracting enough Determination from a human SOUL to inject into and potentially save her father/bring him back to life. 

If the SOUL we the players control is or is close enough to a human SOUL to work, no other human characters/SOULS pop up later, and Noelle somehow finds out about the power of Determination and becomes resolved to use it, then there may be few - if any - things we will be able to do to dissuade her from going after Kris/wherever the SOUL we control goes.

Now, this is where what I think could be the second meaning behind Noelle’s name points would come into play, and in quite an important way.

For those that don’t know, if you enter Susie, Kris, or Noelle as the creator’s name in Deltarune’s introduction, you get the interesting following response:

“YOU ARE ABOUT TO MEET SOMEONE VERY, VERY WONDERFUL.”

With how anagrams appear to be a major theme of Deltarune in both a naming and worldbuilding sense, it's rather curious that of these three names, only two make any actually sensible anagrams. Kris and Susie can be turned into "risk" and "issue,” but Noelle oddly appears to buck the trend. 

However, I think the answer for this ties back to Lab Entry 17. You see, in toxicology research terms, Alphys had injected more than “the highest dose at which there was not an observed toxic or adverse effect.”

Interestingly, this level of dosage is known as the No Observable Adverse Effect Level, or the term NOAEL for short. And sometimes, when describing and looking for an effect in general than just specifically adverse ones, the term used in toxicology reports is the No Observable Effect Level, or NOEL.

Basically, if Noelle hopes to save her father, she needs to make sure to not inject too much or too little Determination. Otherwise, she’d go below the NOEL, where Ruby would simply not have enough strength to keep living, or above the NOAEL, where Rudy would seem to be fine for a while at first before inevitably melting down. 

And with that, Noelle’s strangely un-anagramable name can be reconciled with Kris and Susie’s, all three names relating to terms often used to describe something problematic in a scientific way.

In fact, one could even say that the terms their names correspond to sound like they would fit very well in a lab or experiment report, perhaps one involving interesting increases in darkness, like an imbalance in Dark Fountains…

Part 5: Conclusions

Of course, I do realize that that last bit is quite a stretch to suggest, even in comparison to the rest of my theory and particularly the latter half of the above section. As of now, there’s no real way of telling how these details actually connect in this way or if they really even connect to each other in the first place, let alone if they even operate on similar enough rules like my theory presumes. 

Heck, with the shortage of clear definitive details about W.D. Gaster, the apparent differences between the worlds of Deltarune and Undertale, and how things may change or have already changed in development in between games and chapters, it’s entirely possible that the series will take a very different direction than the one laid out here.

Perhaps we haven’t even heard of the character who is the actual Angel and everything we’ve seen so far are just red herrings. Maybe Ralsei’s legend will be revealed to have been falsified and he and/or Asriel will turn out to be the Angel like commonly theorized. For all we know, the world of Deltarune might not even precede OR succeed Undertale’s, and it’ll turn out that both worlds are derived from a third, unaltered world/timeline.

But whatever it may be, at the point we currently are at now, I find that my most likely candidate for the Angel is Noelle Holiday. On their own, the details supporting my theory would be easy to disregard and aur tenuous at best when taken by themselves, but when taken together as a whole, it’s hard to deny that they VERY much look like they start to frame a pretty concerning picture about the exact role of reindeer across the entire series. 

I mean, even if stuff like Determination turn out to not exist - or at least, don’t work the same way they do in Undertale at all - in Deltarune, the following general sequence of events seem likely to happen for me; that Rudy might get worse to the point of almost dying/actually dying, that Noelle might turn to something just as equally rather dangerous or desperate as extracting Determination in order to save/bring back her father, and that what she does may involve/cause her to somehow become the Angel.

Besides, like we can see from the introduction to Deltarune Chapter 1, it would be much like Toby to play with our expectations from Undertale and set us up to suspect that Ralsei or Asriel may be the Angel while he sets up the real Angel elsewhere.

After all, just about every good magic trick and literature twist relies on the art of misdirection at least in some part, subtly distracting the audience while the real clues are being built up in plain sight.

Like, for example, using the power of fluffy boys to deflect attention from the reindeer in the background.

[davey-in-a-minivan]

thoughts on the new hadestown drop as I listen the first time (3/3)

IF IT’S TRUE

-I’m not ready for this, so jot that down -”is this how the world is... it’ll always be like this?” NO BABY IT’S NOT -new lyrics and I just ouch -the workers rhythm is giving me full-body shivers again, thanks y’all -STRIKE -these aren’t new lyrics but the whole “the ones who load dice always say the toss is fair” bit is incredibly profound and the relevance to a) Orpheus seeing the circumstances that forced Eurydice’s hands and b) the workers seeing the way Hades has been manipulating and subduing them is Powerful. -”I’m asking you and you and you” call ‘em out -”I believe our answer matters more than anything they say.”/”We stand and listen” I can’t. I can’t. I’m crying now. -Is there anything more powerful than telling someone who has been robbed and mocked and deceived and manipulated and is finally speaking up “we stand and listen”? -We’re standing with him. We’re standing near him. We hear him. -just. the support. the witness. -”I believe that we are many/I believe that they are few/It isn’t for the few to tell the many what is true” -this revolutionary aspect? I didn’t know how much it was needed but WOW. -to every review and news article acting like “Why Do We Build the Wall” is The Politically Relevant song in an otherwise jazzy romantic tragedy... shut up.

EPIC III

-I’M NOT READY -new intro -”Oh it’s about me?” uhh you sound like a cartoon character -Hermes still being encouraging -is this quoting Epic I? -”And I know how it was because he was like me” HHHHH  -and then he hits us with the “la la las” -”Where’s you get that melody?” Patrick Page is incredible. The vulnerability. The surprise, the softness. He can’t be mad, he can’t be suspicious because that song, he knows that song -”Let him finish, Hades” everything I just said for Patrick Page, about Amber Gray too. The raw emotion in this one line is just-- AH -the parallels between Orpheus and Hades are so much clearer than OG Epic III and it’s better than I could have imagined -reharmonizing the ensemble la la las because we haven’t been blessed enough I guess? I love -”Now that he has everything” is less pointed and more pained. different but good. -the new instruments sound less acoustic but they’re so pretty -I’m so sorry Reeve. I doubted you and underestimated you and I was wrong. -Hades’ “la la las” are so soft -Persephone joined in???? -how is it that Anais Mitchell and Rachel Chavkin made, like, every right choice as they adapted and revised? Like, I seriously cannot comprehend the glow-ups when the NYTW version was already so good. They feel the pulse of the story so strongly. LOVER’S DESIRE

-ahhhh this is so pretty -the new la la la melody -this just sounds like love, and happiness, and comfort. -what was that minor shift at the end tho >:0

PROMISES

-he finished it. :’) -”let’s go! let’s go right now!” please do please go go go -”Take me home” -and him admitting all the ways he fails! he’s been brought down to earth, he knows that he can’t be perfect, and he’s not going to promise what he can’t keep -and she understands, because they’ve both failed -”he’ll let us go” HADES DO IT YOU COWARD -this is just,,, such a healthy depiction of love. “Do you let me walk with you?” “I do.” -dibs on singing this at my wedding

DOUBT COMES IN

-pretty sure this is going to emotionally wound me a lot but this intro sure is nice -spooky soundscape. Hadestown won best score right?? better have -WHAT the “la la las” instead of the fates?? huh?? -IS IT BECAUSE HE STARTS OUT BELIEVING -new Fates lyrics to rip my heart up -the pulsing of the drum beat -”Who am I? Why am I all alone?” I’m not the first to say this but he’s echoing the fates doubts from “Wait for me” and that’s just so good and so mean -”Orpheus, are you listening?” this show is SO good about pulling themes and motifs out of what anyone else would leave as one-off lines or issues and the fact that Orpheus keeps not hearing Eurydice because he’s so caught up in singing the gods’ love song makes this especially painful. -side note the Workers’ chorus is just always flawless -he’s not finishing the melody -”Who am I to think he wouldn’t deceive me/just to make me leave alone?” AHH can you imagine how much that would hurt? How twisted that would be? How heartbreaking for Orpheus to reach the surface and realize he walked out of Hadestown, of his own free will, and left Eurydice behind? -”Is this a trap that’s being laid for me?” he sounds almost hysterical -”I used to see the way the world could be/but now the way it is is all I see/ and where is she...” that transition is worth the whole cast’s weight in gold -”I’m right behind you and have been all along” but that’s not enough, they have to be side by side -he can’t hear her. he can’t hear her. -”the darkest hour/of the darkest night/comes right before the--” oh -oh. oh no. -”Eurydice” the way his voice sounds like it’s about to shatter closing notes: guess I’ll go find Road to Hell II and We Raise Our Cups and then cry myself to sleep. ciao.

[bluerosesburnblue]

Hi Liz have you seen the new addition to SR theory where they say that Kairi is a Chirity I would like to hear your thoughts on that because as soon as I saw the post it just gave me a migraine, tbh I think the whole SR theory is nothing more than a bunch of crap. I love hearing your opinion, anyway the whole theory is just trying to push parallels that I think are nothing more than just that. How Kairi became a chirity to help them cross the world line. I'm sorry it probably makes no sense.

I sure have! I know exactly what you’re getting at, don’t worry. I’ve got a few people who alert me of this kind of stuff when it happens so I’ve got stuff prepared already

The whole update is just full of cherry-picked moments, misrepresented facts, and conclusion jumping. And it’s short. So let’s get into why, exactly, it’s a terrible argument

The new post starts off with a recap of something covered in the theory document itself, namely how the KH3 Dive uses imagery from the KH1 intro, which they use in the document to claim that the light is Riku. Now, I already covered this in my debunk posts, but since making those, @qazawsxs2 has brought to my attention a little parallel that the theory writers conveniently leave out. Corroborating what I claimed about the Darksides near-universally representing Sora’s darkness, it turn out that the way the Darkside is introduced in KH3 is framed exactly the same way that it’s introduced in KH1 Dive, where it was unquestionably related to Sora’s darkness. They keep trying to push that the Darkside is related to Kairi through a non-perfect parallel to the KH1 opening, while ignoring what the Darkside is a perfect parallel to. Post proving this: here.

The writer of that post goes on to claim that they’re not saying that Kairi is the Darkside and like… I’m sorry, can you really blame anyone for thinking that’s what you were saying when all they did was apply the same logic you used to prove that the Light was Riku to the Darkside argument? The theory, in no uncertain terms, states that because that Light is where Riku was in the KH3 opening that it is Riku’s light guiding Sora. It’s not a stretch to come to the conclusion that you’re implying that the Darkside is Kairi when the document itself brings up the Riku = Light argument and the only transition to Kairi is:

“And who is it that greets Sora when he breaches the water? In KH3, we get [the Darkside]. In KH1 we get… Kairi.” (pg. 93)

Either the Light is Riku and the Darkside is Kairi, or the Light is only kind of related to Riku and the Darkside is only kind of related to Kairi. You cannot say that your argument applies to only one of those scenarios when you use the same argument to frame both

And again, all of the proposed explanations in the document for the Darkside/Kairi connection state that the Darkside is Kairi in some way:

“So, is this Kairi’s heart? Trapped in The Final World, the brink of death where they all were but a hop skip moment ago? Is she within a pseudo Heartless, like a guise? Is it a possible Xion situation by means of a forced fight to pay a supposed “price” for world hopping in an attempt to save her friends?” (pg. 97)

So, yes, they absolutely did claim that the Darkside was Kairi and now saying that all they were claiming is that there was a connection reeks of backpedaling. And that’s just the start of how disingenuous this post is

The post then goes on to point out the similarity between Sora waking up in The Final World and Sora waking up at the start of KH1. And, sure, I’ll give them that it might be an intentional parallel. It’s not as similar as the callbacks to the KH1 Intro and Darkside are since none of the camera angles are the same, but that absolutely could be an intentional animation parallel

Aaaaaand that’s about as far as the parallel actually goes! Here’s where the pretty blatant cherry-picking starts.

First off, the scenes of Sora waking up aren’t actually as similar as they claim. In KH1, it’s exactly as it is in that post: we see the sun shining, then we cut directly to Sora’s eyes fluttering open… he sits up, looks around, and then lays right back down, but jolts up when Kairi leans over him

In KH3, though, we see then sun shining (which is more zoomed-in than in KH1), and then we get a wide shot of The Final World with Sora’s spectral body. The camera does a closer pan of Sora’s spectral body so that we can see how messed up he is. Then his eyes flutter open when it reaches his face (more zoomed-out than in KH1). He sits up and looks around, using absolutely none of the same camera angles as in KH1 and with the camera using first-person shots way less (if at all, the only one I spotted might not have even been first-person given how The Final World is). Sora then struggles to his feet on his own, world title card appears, and then you get an entire damn walking around gameplay segment before Chirithy even shows up, descending from the sky

So you can already see that a certain theory writer just blatantly cherry-picked the three seconds that you could claim are even mildly similar while cutting out basically 95% of both scenes to try and force a parallel

They then go on to try and make a name parallel. Kairi contains the character “kai,” which is one of the alternate pronunciations for χ that Xehanort references, and they state that, yes, he uses the same character for the alternate pronunciation in Japanese as Kairi’s name does (while the English version subtitles it as “kye”). This could be intentional, yes. Kairi is one of the Seven Princesses of Heart, stated to hold the power necessary to forge the χ-Blade. But you know what they didn’t prove?

That the “chi” in “Chirithy” is related to the same symbol. Because while, yes, Chirithy does contain “chi,” which is how they subtitled the χ in Kingdom Hearts χ [chi], that’s a parallel that only exists in English, just like how the Kairi parallel only exists in Japanese. The “chi” in Chirithy is never pronounced like either of the given pronunciations of χ in either Japanese or English, and it doesn’t use the same characters as the KHχ title does in Japanese

They don’t even give any proof that the “chi” in Chirithy is supposed to stand for the χ. They can’t because if they did they’d have to acknowledge that it isn’t. The claim that both Kairi and Chirithy have the χ in their names only works if you’re relying on “common knowledge” that Chirithy’s name is derived from it, which there is absolutely no evidence of

Hyperbole has no place in an argument, so they shoot their own foot by stating that “THIS IS NOT NOTHING” in all caps about Kairi’s hood

And then they claim that Chirithy and Kairi share a symbol: the star. Technically false. Stars are a symbol of Light in KH. They have been since KH1 where the literal stars represented the light of the worlds. The past Keyblade wielders tasked with defending the Light were given Starlight Keyblades in KHχ, the BBS trio chats about it in the opening when they’re stargazing (which, btw, contains a more obvious parallel to Sora waking up in KH1 with Ven and Aqua than the Final World ever does), and most importantly:

A star-like symbol represents particles of Light in KHχ, called Lux

Which, by the way, is what Chirithy’s symbol actually is. It’s just an all-white Lux sigil. Which makes sense, since they’re supposed to help their wielders collect it

Kairi and Chirithy both have star-based sigils, but only because they’re both derived from Light. Kairi’s being because she’s a Princess with a heart of pure light, Chirithy because they’re intended to help their wielders collect fragments of it. Their symbols aren’t the same, but are simply derived from the same series-wide symbol. A symbol that specifically represents light

Also, they don’t even put any proof that Kairi’s symbol even is a star in that post. If you’re trying to prove a parallel, you’ve gotta put both versions in there. This is the second time it’s happened in that one post alone

And then they end on Sora telling Kairi in KH1 that he dreamed about a “huge, black THING” swallowing him up and then dying via Demon Tornado. Which, like… okay? What are you even trying to say? That because Sora dreamed about dying in the Darkness and saw Kairi, then actually died in the Darkness and saw Chirithy that it’s an intentional parallel? No. Those aren’t even the same Heartless, the scenes aren’t staged the same way, that’s not… that’s not even a parallel unless you stretch your definition of “parallel” like a taffy puller makes candy. It’s not even the first or only time Sora has been swallowed up by Darkness! If this is an intentional parallel, then they all are. Yes, even that time it happened because Maleficent was saving them in KH2. Kairi was secretly a box of ice cream all along. Good job, you figured out Kingdom Hearts

The only connection that Kairi and Chirithy have is that he tells Sora that Kairi’s  holding him together, and even then he doesn’t say her name

You say that the theory is trying to push parallels as something more than parallels, and while I agree, it’s way more than that. They’re misrepresenting canon to try and make parallels that fit their interpretation, parallels that don’t actually exist, and then use them as evidence while conveniently forgetting that while a parallel can hint towards something, it is not always proof in and of itself. That’s their big failing here. There’s a reason I called their evidence “forged” at one point

It’s because they made it all up

[cdyssey]

Hadestown (7/14/19), Act I

Act II

This is largely just me rambling about how much I love Hadestown and how beautiful it was to see live, but I’m going to be heavy on spoilers, so please don’t read this if you want to go in blind!!!

*An overlay pic I did in, like, three seconds on my phone, lol.

Hadestown, a sweeping thesis statement: It was the most beautiful musical I’ve seen in my life, and it touched me profoundly.

Hadestown, a hieroglyphic summary of me during the entire show: 😭😭😭😭😭😭 (I’m srs. I was in tears every three minutes. I cried during the standing ovation.)

Hadestown, Act One:

“Road to Hell” —

What an opening number. My gods—so vivacious and vital and joyfully, deliriously alive.

The first noises you hear in the moments before “Road to Hell” are the sharp clacks of André’s shoes as he makes his way across the stage. Even in a handful of silent seconds, he makes his presence known. Right before he starts the song, he unbuttons his coat and shows his sparkly vest off. I love him???????

Like, I adore how he so perfectly inhabits the role of an omniscient, omnipresent narrator. He’s literally a god walking among men, and that’s such a beautiful take on Hermes.

The stage for “Road to Hell” is set up to be a kind of bar where Orpheus works as a busboy! Orpheus sweeps around cleaning off tables, and Eurydice (Jessie Shelton!!) comes in seeking shelter from the cold. When Hermes announces that it’s the beginning of Orpheus and Eurydice’s tale, they come face to face for the first time and simply stare at each other.

Also, you know how Hermes takes extra care to mention that Orpheus’s mother was a Muse and a friend of his?? I think that tidbit helps set up the friendly, mentor-like relationship Hermes and Orpheus have throughout the musical!!

“Any Way the Wind Blows” —

Okay, this is where I desperately wish that the entire OBC was out because I only remember a couple of things from this song, and that makes me sad. ;-;

But what I can tell y’all is that Jessie Shelton is a brilliant, nuanced Eurydice. Her youth and her scrappiness shine through; her hunger—for sustenance, for hope, for a better life—evidences itself in every note she sings!!

AND THE FATES. MY GODS, THE FATES. I LOVE THEM. Kay, Jewelle, and Yvette imbue them with such chaotic evil energy™. They’re quite sinister throughout the musical, tempting and teasing whomever they’re stalking in turns. I’d literally die for all of them!!

But anyway, in this song, Eurydice lights a candle to protect herself from the cold, and the Fates constantly lurk over her shoulder, pretty much dogging her. It’s here you begin to realize what weight Eurydice has on her shoulders. She knows what’s behind her back. She knows who’s trying to steal her light.

OH, OH, and up to around “Epic I,” keep an eye on Hades and Persephone in the balcony!! They’re playing dominoes together.

“Come Home With Me” —

ASFVDS. The intro to this one is so funny. Hermes tries to play wingman for Orpheus and advises him to be chill and not come on too strong. Immediately afterwards, Orpheus is, like, COME HOME WITH ME. MARRY ME.

(Reeve Carney is a national treasure and should b protected.)

But basically, this song is Orpheus’s proposal song!! Eurydice is skeptical, but she increasingly and incrementally warms up to him.

“Wedding Song” —

OOH, this one’s a jam!! It sounds like something str8 off of a country album.

A lot of it is Eurydice warming up to the idea of marrying Orpheus. She’s obviously at war with what she knows and what she wants—the world she dreams about and the world she lives in.

Sometime during the song, Orpheus sings the “la, la, la” melody to her and inexplicably procures a flower for her. So awed by it and him and the magic they create together with their love, Eurydice melts.

Also, holy heck!!! The staging is really amazing for this one. At some point, Orpheus walks on a bridge of tables to Eurydice. He finishes one table, and one of the company members moves another so that it’s right in front of him.

“Epic I” —

Just so y’all know, every time an “Epic” is sung, I just full on start crying. 😭

“Epic I” starts with Orpheus trying to figure out where the “la, la, la” melody came from, and Hermes tells him it used to be sung by Persephone and Hades. He urges our boy to recall their love story through song.

As he sings, attention is drawn to the balcony for the first time since “Road to Hell” as the gods react to their story being sung. Hades is largely uninterested, but Persephone leans over the balcony to listen to Orpheus, obviously moved.

“Livin’ It Up On Top” —

Is this a good time 2 declare my undying love for Amber Gray and everything she stands for?????????

BECAUSE GODS, SHE’S AMAZING. I saw her in Great Comet as Hélène, and even then, I was impressed by the nuance she brought to what could have been a one-note character in the wrong hands, but her Persephone?????????? Brilliant. Flawless. The love of my life. I’m forever a stan. With her loose (but graceful) limbs and brightly lit eyes, she makes sure you know that Persephone is one hell of a character without even singing so much as a word, but when she does sing?? The power and liveliness in her voice echoes all over Walter Kerr.

Amber 👏 Gray 👏 is 👏 a 👏 powerhouse.

OKAY, back to the song!! This might be a little before it starts or right as it begins, but before she leaves the balcony to usher in spring, she kisses Hades on the cheek. He doesn’t really react, and that broke my heart.

(ALSO, BASELESS CONJECTURE, but you know how Hermes mentions that Persephone is always late?? I’ve always wondered if that’s her parallel to Hades being early. Even though their relationship has stagnated, she doesn’t want to leave him. 😭😭😭😭)

Like “Road to Hell,” this song’s just full of life and fun. Persephone plays around with Eurydice and Orpheus a lot, and it’s honestly the first time we see Eurydice loosen up and let herself be happy.

“All I’ve Ever Known” —

Eurydice and Orpheus make me emo. ;-;

At some point, when she’s singing that all she’s ever known is how to hold her own, Orpheus reaches out for her. She flinches at first, but a couple of verses later, reaches out to him.

When Orpheus sings “I’m gonna hold you forever,” he hugs her from behind and crushes her tightly to his chest, and the relief on her face was just palpable. Oh, my godssssss.

All the while, Persephone is watching them, obviously in love with their love, and Hades is reading a newspaper on the balcony!

“Way Down Hadestown” —

LEGIT ONE OF MY FAVES. GOD, THE LYRICS, THE ENERGY, AND THE ACTING WAS AMAZING.

“Better go get your suitcase packed! Guess it’s time to go!” The Fates sing this mockingly at Persephone, and shortly after this, she slowly bends over in despair, her face hidden, her arms limp.

BUT THEN, and this almost made me SCREAM, she begins to tap her feet to the music EVEN AS SHE’S STILL BENT OVER. ASFCDSS. I love Amber Gray. It’s almost like, depressed though she may be, she can’t help but dance to the rhythm. She does this right up until her next verse.

Throughout the first half of the song, Orpheus and Eurydice are just, like, hella enjoying the music together. They’re snuggling and cuddling, and at one point, they’re lying down at the front of the stage spooning as they watch Hermes, Persephone, and co. dance.

In the second half of the song, though, when Hermes starts warning them about the dangers of Hadestown, there’s a subtle shift. Even though the music is still jaunty, he and Persephone and the company are clearly trying to drill it into the lovebirds’ brains that all that glitters isn’t gold. I used to dislike tht those lines were taken from Orpheus, but now I really appreciate the meaning the change conveys.

Hades shows up in his jacket and glasses and gets a big laugh with his “I missed ya” line. (SPOILER ALERT: PATRICK PAGE IS ALSO THE LOML.)

“Seems like he owns everything.” / “Kinda makes you wonder how it feels...” When Eurydice longingly sings this line, Hades lowers his glasses to appraise her, his interest caught. Orpheus, seeing the way he looks at her, jumps in front of Eurydice as though to shield her.

GOD, this song was good.

(OH, and question? Is the accordion a big part of Hades’s musical motif? I noticed that there’s a lot more of it being played whenever he shows up or is being talked about.)

“A Gathering Storm” —

I’ll talk about this more later, but the lighting work is incredible in Hadestown. Like, in this song, for instance, the blues and grays are sharp departures from how brightly lit the stage was when Persephone was down for spring.

This song is where the ideological divide between Eurydice and Orpheus really becomes apparent as Orpheus grapples with the tragedy that spring is gone, while Eurydice just accepts it. It’s just how it is. He runs to finish his song, while Eurydice runs to find them food and shelter. You can see the fear and and hunger and desperation begin to creep upon Eurydice’s face again. Gone now is the girl who laughed and dance during “Livin’ It Up On Top.”

“Epic II / “Chant” —

“Epic II” is Orpheus trying to finish his song as he continues to piece together why winter came so early! I think Eurydice is offstage for this one, presumably scavenging for food while he writes like he’s running out of time.

I don’t remember WHY it’s so awesome, but the transition from “Epic II” to “Chant” is incredible. (@WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE - RELEASE THE REST OF THE OBC, PLS.)

ALSO, “CHANT.” GOD. This has always been up there in my top five for its lyrics alone, but the staging is insane. If there’s a song in Hadestown that works like a well-oiled machine made up of so many moving parts, then it’s “Chant.”

When Persephone starts singing about how bright and hot it is, she calls attention to the fact that the lighting upon her is exceptionally, painfully bright. Throughout this entire song, her face is shattered with fear and horror as she looks around and takes in what Hades did to their kingdom. It’s heartwrenching, and I CRIED.

The company is absolutely incredible in every song, but I was especially struck by their movements here. Toiling away, they circled the raised pedestal that Hades and Persephone stood on. At one point, their movements were such that they resembled a gear moving.

And also, these acting choices makes me so damn emo: For “Chant” up to “Epic III,” Hades can’t hardly keep his eyes off of Persephone, both when she’s singing to him or he’s singing to her. However, after she’s done singing to him, she nigh refuses to look at him while he sings to her. Patrick and Amber r the best.

When Orpheus sings his first “la, las” in “Chant,” he’s still trying to write his song. In her conversation with Hermes, Eurydice grows increasingly frustrated, as in, How the hell is a song going to save us? She still has a little hope at this point, but it’s quickly waning. The red carnation in her hair, put there by Persephone in “Livin’ It Up On Top” is the brightest item on the stage. (It especially contrasts well with Eurydice’s monochromatic costume.)

ALSO, Jessie went HARD on Eurydice’s high notes. SHE’S SO GOOD, Y’ALL.

In the middle of “Chant” when Orpheus is still trying to figure out Hades and Persephone’s story, Hermes is trying to warn him about the storm ahead, about Eurydice, but he’s so caught up in what he’s doing, that he can’t hear or see anything beyond his lyre and the lyrics.

Towards the tail end of “Chant,” the Fates steal Eurydice’s backpack and coat, really sealing in the apparent hopelessness of her situation. The way Eurydice hugs her arms against the wind made me want to CRY.

“Hey, Little Songbird” / “When the Chips Are Down” / “Gone, I’m Gone” —

It’s either at the tail end of “Chant” or the beginning of “Songbird,” but Persephone is lowered into the ground through the in-stage elevator (that usually symbolizes the ascent and descent to Hadestown), while Hades remains above ground to croon at Eurydice. The entire time she’s lowered down, she stares angrily at Hades until she’s pulled from sight.

TIME TO TALK ABOUT PATRICK PAGE NOW!!! His voice is so unreal—it’s like a sinkhole, so deep and consuming and churning with gravel. I literally can’t imagine any other person doing what he does in the role of Hades.

“Songbird” largely consists of Eurydice trying her best to resist Hades’s temptation, but faltering as he starts to echo her own thoughts. I think he hits the biggest nerve when he guesses that Orpheus is a penniless poet.

“SONGBIRD VS. RATTLESNAKE.” OMG, I didn’t realize that the Fates are the rattlesnake until seeing this song live and watching them sashay across the stage like one. ASDFVDS, I’m so dumb. Anyway, again, and I cannot stress this enough, but the Fates are incredible. If Hades opened the wound, then the Fates drove in the nail, reemphasizing what Eurydice already half-believes.

“THE FIRST SHALL BE FIRST, AND THE LAST SHALL BE LAST. CAST YOUR EYES TO HEAVEN—YOU GET A KNIFE IN THE BACK.” Omg, first of all, these lines go hard, and secondly, with the knife line, Eurydice acts like she’s been stabbed, and her entire face just contorts with pain.

“Gone, I’m Gone” is incredibly affecting. I don’t know if Eva does this live, but Jessie sounded like she was sobbing as she sung this.

When Eurydice decides to descend to Hadestown, the elevator goes down with her and returns with only her flower. I straight up lost it.

“Wait for Me” / “Why We Build the Wall”—

HELLO, AMERICAN THEATRE WING?? WHERE IS REEVE CARNEY’S TONY AND APOLOGY LETTER???? THANK YOU.

At the beginning of “Wait for Me,” Hermes picks up the carnation and twiddles it in his hand until the line “With all your heart?” Then, he places it on Orpheus’s, well, heart.

God, the lamps swinging through Walter Kerr made me weep. That’s such a beautiful staging choice. Rachel Chavkin, wherever you are, I love you.

“Wait For Me” received an extended applause. It most certainly went on for at least two minutes.

God, I love “Why We Build the Wall.” I could drown Patrick Page’s voice and be happy with that life decision. (On a side note, does the intro of this one remind anyone of Johnny Cash’s “Hurt”????)

This is the first song in which Persephone comes down in her Hadestown garb, a black dress, her hair restrained in a net(?). The difference between the bright green and the black is harrowing. All of the energy just seems to be vacuumed out of her. She, Hermes, and the company sycophantically sing when Hades asks them to.

After the instrumental portion of the song, Eurydice ascends on the elevator, arriving in Hadestown. She almost immediately makes eye contact with Persephone, quite obviously feeling the same shock that I did upon seeing the lively goddess clothed in black. Shock turns to horror as she realizes that this isn’t the rest she’d been hoping for. Persephone looks at her sadly as Hades calls her into the office to sign papers.

And oh, God, this musical absolutely ruined me in the best of possible ways. I’ll type up my thoughts on Act II tomorrow!!!

[mysterylover123]

BNHA Rewatch: Episode 27 “Bizarre! Gran Torino Appears!”

mysterylover123

The Internship arc starts off with a bang! Let’s see that Full Cowl, Deku! 

SORA NI UTAEBA! While the song in this intro is kinda meh to me, the visuals are amazing. I love the symbolism for all the events of the ep - tho not gonna lie, this core’s ED is better than the OP. Anyway tho, go punch that wall Deku!

We start with Gran Torino pretending to be crazy. I’ll admit, I’m kinda eh on this bit, though I love  Gran. It’s probably because I found it annoying when Yoda did it, so I find it annoying here as well. (It’s really just my inner fangirl talking. Nobody makes Deku unhappy except Kacchan. Who can get away with it.)

But actually, this sets up an interesting difference between Deku and Luke, though admittedly situation isn’t the same because Deku knows Gran is Gran. But Deku’s response to this is to call All Might to tell him Gran’s gone senile. He’s so empathetic Deku why aren’t you real? (no shade at Luke there,e I love him too. Just not as much).

“I don’t have time to mess around.” Deku did not come to play.

New costume! It’s incredible how much better it is than the old one. Like, not even funny how much better. Day-um, Deku. 

Pfh Gran knows exactly how to piss off Deku: Insult All Might. You clever little scoundrel.

So onto Deku’s character flaws: 1. He’s overly analytical. Deku doesn’t know how to act quickly, partially due to circumstance, but partially that’s just how he is. Hesitant. Over-cautious, over-thinks things. He needs to learn how to take action - and in this arc, he does indeed do so without hesitation, and saves Iida’s life by so-doing. Box 1 checked off.

2. Deku admires All Might too much. Like every MC in BNHA, his Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Tragedy (insert me telling you to read that essay again). It’s a problem because he doesn’t believe in himself. So he needs to learn not to imitate All Might and be his own hero. That one doesn’t really sink in until the PLE arc. But check.

3. Deku is insecure. He has a massive inferiority complex (which fits nicely into his foil’s inf-sup complex,  wouldn’t-cha-know) and doesn’t believe in himself. So he needs to learn to be more confident. (Is it wrong that I want this to end with him breaking through Instrumentality to a chorus of his friends saying ‘Congratulations’?)

Gran is my favorite Teacher, as a teacher, in BNHA. I’m a teaching-major, and I kinda aspire to his techniques. What I love the most is helping students figure it out themselves. Just telling someone the answer doesn’t help them. It’s so satisfying seeing a student make that breakthrough thanks to your guidance.

Now we’re cutting away to Iida’s internship to remind you Iida Wants Revenge. This is a little exposition-y, let’s cut somewhere else.

OK good, the villains! Right off the bat, we’ve got some great Parallels with the Heroes, as Tomura decides to basically Intern with a Pro-Villain. He even calls Stain a pro. Tho Tomura really needs to work on his recruitment strategy. “Stain join us. Cause.” “Bakugou. Join us. Cause”.

I want Deku and Tomura to build a grand Hero-Villain rivalry. Tomura basically hates him for no real reason right now, and I want there to be a good reason. Other than “He’s All Might’s successor”. I want them to be the Joker and Batman of BNHA with a real complex hero-villain rivalry, where one reflects the other. They’re getting there but I want more.

“Bloodlust without conviction is meaningless.” Ooh I love me some Stain. He really elevated this series’ philosophical side with his ramblings on heroism and villainy.

OK am I creeped out by the fact that All for One just said the same thing I did about learning? A little.

Deku is so brilliant and such a fast learner tho. It doesn’t take him long to put it all together. And Gran actually really admires him for that - I enjoy their mentor dynamic a lot, since Gran has some real respect for Midoriya in a different way from All Might.

Bakugou with Best Jeanist! OMG the comedy gold of this. Though I just want to take a sec to gripe about a change from the manga to the anime: Manga! Bakugou does not charge at Best Jeanist and yell at him. He’s not dumb enough to try that on the #4 Pro Hero and his teacher. He sits still and listens to Jeanist’s lecture. The only Bakugo line here that’s from the manga is “Didn’t you make an offer for me?” This completely changes the way we perceive Bakugo in this scene, and in general. Bad change.

 But in Good Storytelling-ville, I like the continuing parallels between the Wonder duo this creates: Izuku interns in a rundown neighborhood with an unlisted hero, Bakugo in Tokyo with a top pro. Izuku needs to learn to control his power and believe in himself. Katsuki needs to learn to be kinder and more humble. Izuku learns his lesson her, Katsuki doesn’t. Parallels!

Kirishima and Tetsutetsu again! 4th kind is ok. He’s probably the least memorable of the internship pros, since his gimmick is simple and his design kinda dull.

Uraraka and Gunhead! I love how well they get along. He’s kawaii and she’s a hardcore badass. Don’t you forget it!

Now for more of Momo’s arc. The Uwabami internship is usually dismissed by fans as Just Fanservice, but think about it in context, and it becomes really interesting. One, the Hero Killer arc is about Stain protesting the commercialization of heroism, so we do need to have a Pro-Hero demonstrate the problematic nature of that commercialism. Uwabami does just that. Two, we need to have Momo’s internship be unfulfilling to her, to complete her downward trajectory (before the Final Exam arc can bring her back up), so it’s useful for further embarrassing and developing her character. 3, it sets up Momo and Kendo’s future rivalry.

I’ll take more about it in future eps where it appears.

Izuku practicing and constantly hitting his face on the wall is one of those things that makes me wonder if either a) he has a secret endurance quirk or b) OFA just naturally ups your durability. How does he still have a face after that.

Here’s a hot take: Izuku with his face smashed up from spending a night with no sleep training in garbage all night is still prettier than any other guy in this series.

One of the reviewers I follow made the comparison between All Might vs Deku’s using of OFA and Korra vs Aang’s role as the Avatar. You know, All Might and Korra, both master the power pretty quickly so they get to be strong fast but lose out on the spiritual connection a bit, while Deku and Aang take their time learning ofa/the four elements, but get as a tradeoff more of the spirit-y side...(ATLA & BNHA. My 2 favorite shows, alongside FMA. I swear these are like, three sides of the same show).

While I’m watching in the Sub this time around, i wanted to note a dub-ism in this scene: it’s localized to ‘hot pastries’ instead of taiyaki. There’s a lot of bits like that, where they take Japanese food and translate it for us dumb Americans. But well, maybe that made sense in the 90s, when there maybe wasn’t as much cultural crossover, but...even I knew what mochi were before watching BNHA (Uraraka’s fave, and the dub always localizes it to ‘sweets’) and everyone has google if they’re confused so why not just say ‘Taiyaki?’ Ah well, it’s a stupid nitpick but still.

Gran’s metaphor here is so great. As a teacher I aspire to learn from this man. Teach me your teaching ways.

“THIS TAIYAKI IS ME!!!!!” Another dub-ism has him say “I’m not really a dessert” I saw a reactor once comment on this ‘Yeah, but you are a snacc, Deku.’ I wholeheartedly agree.

FULL COWLLLLLLL!!!!!!! FYEAH!!!!!

OK so there are a lot of reasons I love Full Cowl. it’s one of the series’ finest moments, emblematic of what makes it cool. And what makes Deku cool. He’s smart, and has to work his way around problems, and this solution was just...it was there, for us and Izuku the whole time, to finally sit up and take notice of. It’s about applying power in a different way. About taking what you can do and doing the best you can with what you’ve got. A big central theme for the series.  

Also dayum that slow pan up Deku’s entire body as he activates it...he just looks good in this arc. Actually, post-cavalry battle Deku in the sports festival arc always looks weird and odd (because he’s beat up and in pain, duh) and prior to that he was mainly just adorable...this arc, however, is his official transition into Best Boy for Reals. He’s just...swoony. and also really cool, smart, and all sorts of great fangirl-y things. 

We end on a confident Deku smile and Daiki’s adorable ‘hai.’ Basically, i really enjoy this episode. A little slow at the beginning, maybe. But that conclusion is amazing and so worth the payoff. It’s even got this amazing rhyme and rhythm to it, cutting back and forth between the different students and teachers and just having themes echo between each other like poetry. It love it.

To close off: ED4, AKA BEST ED EVER!!!! This is seriously, no sarcasm, best ED. So for those of you who don’t know, the story behind ED4 Datte Atashi no Hero is, 1: The Fantasy AU theme comes from the second popularity poll, which came out around Chapter 120/Episode 61 (yes, THAT one) and for which Horikoshi drew the top 10 in fantasy garb. 2: The Song was written by LiSa and was explicitly stated by her to be effectively about Izuku’s feelings towards Kacchan. I wrote a post analyzing it. It is, basically, the anthem for...

BKDK CORNER

“Loose…” Guess who the first person Deku thinks of to create Full Cowling is? If you sad Kacchan, ding-ding-ding!

On an analytical note, I think it’s very, very significant that the first real breakthrough Deku makes in handling his power comes by observing Kacchan and imitating him. This is one of my Top 20 Favorite BKDK moments, even though it’s completely indirect, because of how important that is in the long-run. But what about the Imitation theme? Why is it OK for Izuku to imitate Katsuki, but not All Might? Well, first of all, he does use Gran Torino’s moves as well, but mainly, I think the series is saying with this distinction that it’s OK to imitate someone if you see their flaws and acknowledge them, but if you hero-worship them and see them as perfect, you’re only going to screw yourself over.  This is why Iida imitating Ingenium, Shoto imitating his mom, Deku and Kacchan imitating All Might, and yes, Uraraka imitating Deku, are all so bad for them. If you see someone as perfect, and want to imitate them, you’ll never achieve that in your mind, because you already view yourself as imperfect. So Deku can imitate Katsuki because he thinks he’s a jerk, but also an amazing fighter, and Gran because he thinks he’s weird, but tough.

Also Deku just automatically thinking of Kacchan first is so damn shippy.

BEST GIRL OF THE EPISODE: Uwabami!

RANKER: Ranking the Internship Pros, least helpful to most.

10. Uwabami

9. Mt. Lady

8. 4th Kind

7. Endeavor

6. Death Arms

5. Manual

4. Selkie and Sirius (anime only)

3. Gunhead

2. Best Jeanist

1. Gran Torino! (Deku lucked out)