#SHOUTOUT TO THE PEOPLE WHO MADE UP THESE THEORIES

[wikitpowers]

“and that kids is why lucifer is gonna be the villain in twp, ash actually is lucifer himself, kit is gonna have gold wings, clace will get married, cassie is going to kill off a lightwood, thule!kit will be in the wild hunt and morgenthorn will be endgame”

class: [DISMISSED]

[suiana]

❝ I Reincarnated Into a Shitty Chirstmas Romance Movie and My Love Interest is a Yandere?! ❞

✎ featuring my creature, Ezra Valentine :3 this is just ezra being a weirdo, some lore for my game? idk blawg just read it and you'll find out

✎ special shoutout tags to these people @yandere-yearnings @forbidden-sunlight @moyazaika @bun3333s @yanderenightmare @cumtastiics @ozzgin

Your "childhood friend" is a bit of a weirdo, you think.

Staring at you for far too long, lingering touches that suggest that he's more than just a bit interested in you, and the weird random confessions about how he wants to get crushed under the heel of your right shoe...

It's just weird.

You've reincarnated into a shitty christmas romance movie. And your "childhood friend", aka the love interest, aka Ezra Valentine, has a crush on the main character, you. Obviously.

You don't even know why you watched this movie in the first place. Boredom, maybe? Yeah, probably was because you started dozing off after hour 1 of the movie. The movie was... 1 and a half hour long? It wasn't even rated that high. Like a... 6.9 at best.

And now you're stuck here all because you watched this shitty movie with an even shittier plot. Where the main character left the small town for a big city, came back home to celebrate christmas and meets childhood friend, decides to give up big city life because they both fall for one another.

Just like every other damn Mallhark movie. Predictable, boring, absolutely TRASH.

You don't even know why or how you got reincarnated into this damned movie in the first place! Did you fucking pass away in your sleep??? Actually just die from fucking boredom???

Well it's no use thinking about that now because you've been stuck in here for a while now. You think that you're maybe about halfway through the original plot, where Ezra and the old mc were supposed to have some bonding time together and shit. But that's not the case now, because you've changed the plot.

And you're realizing that this "childhood friend" of yours... Is acting a little bit differently.

You don't remember him being that much of a weirdo in the original movie. If you remember correctly,he was just like, a little bit of a shy loser boy who was infatuated with the MC and liked gaming. But now... Now he's, what, a masochist? Or did they just not add that fact into the movie? You couldn't have forgotten. If the love interest was openly a weirdo like he is to you, you wouldn't have dozed off in the first place. Just now, he literally asked to be crushed under your right shoe. Crushed. Under. Your. Shoe. How the hell is that boring? You'd be 101% AWAKE. You love freaks more than anything, damn!

Now that you think about it, he's more than just a bit of a weirdo.

He's been calling and acting like he's your boyfriend. Hell, he acts like a CLINGY boyfriend too. Asking where you're going, clinging to you, giving you those damned boba eyes everytime you talk to others, specifically dudes. Fun fact but you wish he'd stop abusing those eyes of his because fuck, how can you resist him when he's looking at you like that?

Worse of it all, you can't do anything. Not when your key out and helper, Ai, said to act cool and to not arouse any suspicion from him.

Ai's also another character in this movie by the way. His character trope: the hot side character that barely gets screentime and is also sentient. And right now, he's helping you find a way back to your world... Meanwhile you've been stuck in Ezra's apartment under the guise of a mandatory childhood bestie sleepover.

It's been days since you've actually last seen Ai in person because of how much Ezra, your "childhood friend", has been clinging to you. In just the past 3 days, he's made you watch the entire fnaf lore theory THRICE. And not once have you stepped outside his apartment. Not because you don't want to, but because he'd always find some bullshit excuse to keep you with him.

"O-oh but kitty you'd miss this very important scene... Where freddy goes hurhurhuhr"

"Kitty! Kitty you can't leave now! We have to watch it again! What? We watch it more times so it gets engrained into our brains! That's just common sense!"

"Keeping you h-hostage?! I'm not! All friend do this! It's just u-um, friend bonding time! We haven't been around each other in so long you know..."

It's weird. Just plain weird.

Thankfully you still have your phone so you could occassionally sneak a message or two to Ai, informing him of your current situation. As long as that black haired man baby doesn't see everything is fine...

y/n: currently watching a new video, thank gyatt for that

y/n: would actually jump if i have to watch more fnaf

y/n: erm... lowkey think this is worse though... its a video about danganronpa

Ai: don't worry, i'll be there to save you in a bit

Ai: i might have found a way to get you out of here

y/n: fr? ty for that silly goober :3 all while im chilling on the couch having some me time :333 ur so skibidi

"A-ahem! y/n who are you texting..?"

Shit. This damned guy! What does he think he's doing? Just popping up the second you finally have some alone time?! Wasn't he passed out from lunch just minutes ago???

"Erm... Just a friend?"

Ezra stares at you with wide round eyes, lps turning down into a frown before he sits uncomfortably close, pressing his long, lanky body against yours. Always the tall skinny guys that are the biggest weirdos man.

"Just a... friend?"

"Yeah, just a friend."

I mean, it wasn't wrong. Ai really was just a friend to you. Or at least that's what you think. To Ezra and his fucked up mind... Maybe you were abandoning him? And now he's jealous and might want to go batshit crazy on AI?

Haha! No way that would happen! Ezra, no matter how crazy he is, wouldn't go that far! He's just a loser who has an added interest in you now after all!

The look in his eyes say otherwise though.

"But I'm your friend, aren't I?"

Cold, dark, obsessive.

The way he stared at you sent literal chills down your spine. He had never looked at you in such a way before. Pathetic and needy, yes. But never this... Whatever the hell this was.

You back into the fabric of the seat, feeling a cold sweat line the skin of your forehead. All of a sudden, the room feels all too small and it's like you're trapped in his apartment with no way to escape.

It was suffocating.

"I'm the only friend you need. The only one you need, y/n."

You don't really recall a time where he's called you y/n so easily. It's always some stupid petname like kitty. And goddamn it, you wish he'd just say that instead. Hearing him call your name while he's staring into your very soul like this is making you feel like you're about to shit your pants.

"U-uh, okay dude chill out. You're my dearest friend, alright? Look let's jsut go back to watching that danganronpa analysis..."

And just like that, the terrifying aura IMMEDIATELY disappears and you're left with a sopping wet puppy of a man. You decide to make the first move, fiddling with the remote as you stand up and move close to the coffee table. Anythinng to gte away from this weird bipolar guy. How the hell did he develop this? A new character arc maybe?

In the midst of you trying to look anywhere but Ezra, you fail to realize that he had already taken your phone, leaving you with no way to contact Ai now.

"Now you'll never have another friend again..."

"What was that?"

"O-oh I said now you'll never be bored again! Haha!"

Right, totally what he said.

[xxcrystalinerose]

In light of Hades 2 adding new designs and MORE Nyxblings, here's a little face study I did of Chaos, Nyx, and their family. Someone once mentioned that Nyx's children who's got features she doesn't have actually have Chaos' features instead, and I wanted to compare and see which child resembles who more.

Additionally, shoutout to @blood-starved-beast for their post about the age order of Nyx's children because it has helped immensely with the brainrot.

Detailed analysis under the cut.

Firstly, the parents:

For parent and daughter, Chaos and Nyx don't really look the same. However, the cheekbones and jawline that could cut glass is hereditary lol. I wonder if there are other children of Chaos who look more similar to them?

I also like how Chaos' Hades 2 appearance could be a nod to them reconnecting with Nyx and probably wanting to look more "normal" (or as normal as they could get) for the family reunions. The exact same makeup style is cute.

Next up, we have the older children (excluding the Fates, whom we haven't seen yet):

Charon is a tough nut to crack because his portrait is so heavily shadowed and he also wears a bigass hat, so I don't really know his facial structure, but from what I could see, it's more like Chaos'.

Moros' eye shape is weirdly different from the rest of the siblings, but they appear to be downturned and large, which is closer to Nyx's eye shape. While his facial structure is more like Chaos', his eyes in particular make him look softer.

Nemesis actually has a different face structure from Nyx. Her coloring is the exact same (sans skin tone), but not the face. However, her hairstyle is similar, including the updo.

Lastly, the younger children:

It's probably because Hypnos' expression was drawn more comically, but as soon as I take a good look at his new portrait it's made greatly apparent that he and Thanatos are actually identical in terms of facial features. What makes them appear even more different is the hairstyle; Than's go straight down, Hypnos' is fluffy and piled high on his head. They also have similar face shape as Nyx, but with a squarer jawline.

You'd think their hairstyles are radically different. However, this official art of long-haired Than shows that his hair curls at the ends. His hair is straight now, but I'd like to think he straightens it out, because otherwise it would look a bit wavy still.

As for Eris, people keep saying that Nem looks like Nyx the most, but Eris looks astonishingly similar to Nyx. Oh, the irony of looking like the parent you detest.

Summary (and some thoughts):

Face structure-wise, the older children look more like Chaos, while the younger children look more like Nyx.

Of all Nyxblings we've known, only Nemesis has black hair.

Except for Charon, the children's eye art style is reversed between Chaos' and Nyx's (the ones with purple eyes have visible pupils and highlights, while the gold-eyed ones have no visible pupil or highlight).

Where did the curly hair genes come from? The twins are explicitly stated to be fatherless, too. Maybe some other children of Chaos have curly hair? Maybe Gaia, as she was mentioned in Hades 2?

I have a theory that the older children look more eldritch (more similar to Chaos), and only started to look "normal" during Nyx's separation from Chaos, and the cutoff point is Moros, unless Momus is older than him. Would be cool if the Fates are an amalgam of three bodies, because they're triplets and older than Charon.

Thanatos cutting his hair was actually a smart decision because his new hairstyle flatters his face shape more. I'm sorry darling but you don't have game in styling long hair. Too bad he and Moros don't know each other, big brother could've given him tips.

The entire family is hot. Nuff said.

[chongoblog]

GURREN LAGANN [EPISODES 1-6] REVIEW

So last night I watched Gurren Lagann with my boyfriend. I had tried watching it about 6-7 years ago, but I never got past the first episode for whatever reason. Tonight, I made up for that, and we watched the first 6 episodes, and I want to talk about it, because, like, I get it.

First of all, I've never properly watched a Mecha Anime. Never seen Eva, never seen Gundam, the closest I ever got was the Netflix Voltron, which I feel like I don't need to say much more past that. Sen has seen at least a few. He mentioned enjoying Eureka Seven, and specifically the protagonist (he also mentioned I'd like a character named Anemone in that one, so feel free to chew on that, E7 fans). So I won't really be able to analyze this from the perspective of a mecha anime, and there's a chance that some things I talk about aren't unique at all to Gurren Lagann and are just more reason for me to get into more Mecha Anime. (Trust me, I know people who will be more than happy to recommend Gundam anime for me). I'm also pretty new to Gainax, having only seen FLCL about a year or so ago. That said, I know about their reputations (in both positive and slightly less positive ways)

Anyway, now to actually talk about Gurren Lagann. I was going to talk about it episode by episode, but really the only episode that I feel like I need to discuss on its own (which you can probably guess) I can dedicate a section to later on.

So before I talk about the themes and story, I obviously need to give a shoutout to the animation. Turns out Gainax is good at animating. One trend I very much enjoy is seeing a scene that's just a still image with dialogue for a good minute and thinking "oh boy, they're really saving up the budget, huh?". And I hold the theory that part of the reason they made Lagann so drill-centric is because the animators just really wanted to animate the mechas being taken apart. A love of decontructing giant mechas from Gainax, if you will (Note to self: I need to watch Evangelion)

So the Themes. It's pretty blatantly a coming of age story. Every episode opens with "This is the story of a man who has yet to learn his destiny" (paraphrasing here). And the show really leans into it in a lot of different ways. I'm sure there's a few thousand essays out there about all the phallic imagery and Simon/Kamina's relation to sexuality (especially with Yoko), but I'd be remiss to not mention it (and how Yoko never explicitly states which character she is crushing on). My reading of the theme at this point in time is that Simon and Kamina are meant to be two sides of the same coin, possibly even the same person in this allegory, with Simon reaching his coming of age through Kamina. Hell, I think this could even be seen as a trans allegory (a masculine persona pushing Simon to grow into a man and aggressively wanting to "combine" into Gurren Lagann. Food for thought), although I imagine there's overlap between trans allegories and coming of age allegories.

Now before we continue, I feel like I need to talk about Leeron. First of all, I don't know what their deal is in terms of gender, since he's said something about being neither man nor woman, and asked to be referred to as a Queen, and uses he/him. Maybe it's a character that was meant to be non-binary, but the dialogue hadn't become advanced enough in 2007 to make that clear? Either way, Leeron being a big part of Simon's coming of age story is...interesting. In fact, it kinda adds to the trans reading, since a gender-ambiguous character's main function is to help manage and care for Gurren Lagann, which kinda be seen as Simon/Kamina's flamboyant presentation of masculinity, in the same way that gender exploration helps to make way for your ideal gender presentation.

So now I need to talk about That Episode. Episode 5. The one where they visit the village of Adai. What an episode. I'm sure there's plenty of debate to be had about who was right and who was wrong, and frankly it's not a debate I want to go into here. I think the parts that impacted me the most were when the High Priest (whose name escapes me atm) exited the Face God, saying how "he didn't know what he was doing" and later when he admitted he couldn't read. It was sort of beautifully tragic that he probably doesn't remember what led to the circumstances that kept them trapped underground (at least from what I can discern from the lore so far. There's still a lot of questions), but it's what he believes is right. I'm sure I could explain this better, and maybe I will another day. It made me incredibly happy to see Rossiu and the two kids accompany the group.

It also started to make me realize that Gurren Lagann is becoming a found family Katamari, which sheds the opening scene in a new light.

So yeah, this show is pretty damn good. Definitely deserving of the hype. Can't wait to watch more. My favorite Black Sibling is Kiyal (the fang is too cute). Who the hell do you think I am and whatnot.

[biancasaidstfu]

I just wanna say, SLAAAAAY our Fave anon, glad to hear from you again 🥹

And I hope you are doing well these days Bianca ❤️

I don't know who needs to hear this, but if there's one thing that made me real secure in knowing N & L are together is this, the cause of all this drama, the spiraling and the hate people getting on all sides.

The vagueness.

Hear me out, because if there is really nothing beyond friendship between Nicola and Luke, we will never got the easter eggs (as I like to call them), the mixed messages and not to mention, the way they behave.

Their inability to deny that they are more than friends, the ability to say that we are just friends, and the way they keep on using roundabout on clarifiying things makes me real sure that THE feelings is there.

We saw how people around them keep clocking their asses and yet they both gloss it up by referring to Polin when multiple times we all know the interviews were not referring to their characters at all. Shoutout to miss interviewer at SAG who said she needs a happy ending. Plus 100 points for you for that side eye on both Nic and Luke.

I know they said on multiple occasions that they adore and love each other. That's a fact and sometimes it baffles me people in the fandom tend to miss that known fact.

But what I'm saying is that, they can express their love with one another freely and yet its like killing them to say that they are just very very best friends. It makes you wonder why. I have this theory about this but suffice it to say, they have no problem expressing their love and affection with each other but its almost like you have to pluck the moon from Earth to even hear them say, "We are only just great great friends."

That's why that vagueness is what makes me real sure they are together. Because they have no problem saying their love with each other in public and they have like this major problem saying directly the status of their relationship. Given that they all know about the speculation, the romance rumours and more.

Their hesistancy is what makes it more obvious. It's like its going to kill them to even deny that connection between them. They can't even admit it to themselves they are just friends, so it makes me even think what's going on behind the scenes.

And lastly, I see the claddagh rings on her latest selfie. Ireland is my fave among all stops. And the biggest easter egg that I like to keep bringing up is on Nicola's ig post, a picture of her and Luke on Dublin carpet, and she, out of all places, knee-tagged Luke. Up to this day, she never changed it.

Thank you anon ❤️

I totally agree with you. The vagueness and change in behavior are the most telling signs.

[shishishi-sunny]

SPOILERS FOR ONE PIECE CH. 1138

Vibes for this chapter:

Now that my hands have stopped shaking, here are my main take aways. This is gonna be a super long word vomit, so just be prepared:

Shamrock is aware of Shanks (they might have met) and seems disappointed that Shanks likes chilling with ✨the commoners✨

If Shamrock’s sword has the Cerberus-Cerberus Fruit, that means that the theory of Blackbeard having it is debunked

The Shiki-looking figure made a reappearance when Luffy was talking about Shank’s family and seems to be approaching the castle, so we might meet them soon

THE MURAL AND HARLEY

I wonder if there will be a specific character that made the mural, who we’ll be introduced to later. Ripley’s line about ��a child’s dream” stood out to me

Due to the “Three Worlds” that Robin reads about, I’m assuming that it’s basically confirmed that there have been 3 holders of the Nika fruit, that coincided with the 3 world-changing events (the first Nika, Joyboy, and now Luffy)

There are 3 demon-like figures, one for each world. I assume they represent the foe that each Nika rose up against, but are they different? Are they the same? Are they all Imu? Only Oda can tell

And here’s everything I took note of on the mural:

The First World

The forbidden sun — power source? Devil Fruits???

Seems like it caused the separation of the earth and the sky/heavens

Lots of factory imagery

Who were the slavers?

The figures (the slaves) carry sun/starburst things. Are these the forbidden sun? Devil fruits? They seem to be throwing them toward the Second World part of the mural, where “embers of war” are mentioned

BIG SNAKE, SERPENT OF HELL, WHO ARE YOU???

The Second World

“The God of the Forest sent forth demons” — is this about devil fruits? Fruits grow on trees (duh) and then obviously demons = devils. And later, it talks about the Sea becoming enraged

Mentions of people belonging to the Half-Moon and the Moon. What is the difference? Is this referencing the Lunarians?

“Humanity killed the Sun, and then ascended to divinity” — they killed Nika or Joyboy? Seems to be about the Celestial Dragons

“The God of the Sea became enraged” — about the rising of the sea levels?

bruh, the boats look like Enel’s ship. If Enel comes back, I’ll lose my mind

The Third World

Where we are now. The final arc. What we should expect. The future.

References the Void Century and how the Elders and Imu remember what happened and what might happen (“the day of promise”)

“They will surely meet again” Who? The reunion of everything that was separated in the First and Second Worlds? The reunion of all the gods that were mentioned?

The mural is amazing and there are so many details throughout, but especially in this section

Obviously there’s Nika/Joyboy (Luffy) leading an army against a figure that’s probably Imu

Under Imu, there’s a boat with figures in white uniforms — Marines/the World Gov

In Nika’s army, there are figures that represent: giants, minks, lunarians, mermaids and fishmen, samurai/ninja/people from Wano, a robot (Emet?), dwarves/tontatta, Sea Kings/Laboon (the whale), and a ship with a flag that looks like the Alabasta kingdom’s flag (@sabo-torao’s post brought my attention to that, shoutout to them)

There are so many details that I probably missed and so many things that Oda probably hasn’t explored yet, but will and I’m so excited

But TLDR: Oda cooked, Lore Piece is real, this chapter was fantastic, and the final war arc is gonna blow my mind

[captainjonnitkessler]

George Hull was an atheist in the 1860s, and he was pretty pissed off at biblical literalists. In particular, he was pissed off about the gullibility of those who insisted that giants had once roamed the earth, simply because it said so in the Bible.

Hull, a big fan of science and the still-new theory of evolution, decided to do what any rational, science-minded man would do: He spent today's equivalent of $60,000 buying a bunch of stone from Iowa, sending it to Chicago to have it fashioned into a giant statue of a man in absolute secrecy, shipping it to his cousin's farm in New York, burying it there in the dead of night, waiting a year, and then having his cousin hire two men to dig a well in that spot so they could "discover" the giant. Obviously.

He and his cousin set up a tent and charged people for admission to see the "Cardiff Giant" and made absolute bank from the hundreds of people per day that flocked to it. Experts insisted it was a hoax, but many people were convinced it was proof of the Bible's inerrancy. Eventually Hull sold his part-interest to David Hannum for today's equivalent of over $500,000. PT Barnum, the infamous showman and ringmaster, then tried to buy it and when Hannum refused to sell, he made his own copy. He declared his to be the original and Hannum's version the fake, potentially leading Hannum to coin the famous phrase "there's a sucker born every minute". He also sued Barnum, but according to Wikipedia "the judge told him to get his giant to swear on his own genuineness in court if he wanted a favorable injunction".

Eventually Hull proudly confessed to the hoax, putting an end once and for all to the debates about either giants' genuineness. Hull claimed that his intent had been to reveal the gullibility of Christians and to refute anti-science religious fundamentalism.

Then he moved to Colorado and did the exact same thing again, except this time he added a tail and called it the "missing link" between humans and apes.

(Big shoutout to the podcast The Constant: A History of Getting Things Wrong, where I first heard about the Cardiff Giant. If you like weird stories from history you need to check out this podcast it is SO fucking good)

[jennilah]

wanna take a moment to shoutout this channel which is relatively small but growing fast that some of u might enjoy

i enjoy it because i am actually horrendously picky with the movie analysis side of youtube bc im not really here for hot takes and digs and jabs and teases at the things that make me happy, no matter the rottentomatoes scores

and i also dont really care for normal reviews, i enjoy quirkier content. so, unique & silly concepts by people who are genuinely endeared to franchises and the jokes come from a place of real love for the characters and lore

so when Kitten Arcader's videos started getting recommended to me, i was hesitant. but i clicked, and ive been binging all their videos on movies ive seen because holy fuck they are funny as hell & fit all my criteria and are extremely well-edited and deserve more views 👌

theyve made one of these for each Saw film and they only get better and better as they get into the groove. theyre like comedy summaries of each movie but the only analysis is done on each object in the room. and the writing is hysterical. they come up with better trap names than some of the canon ones 😭

& they know about the fan theories & hoffthirst & fanfictions so they are def in the trenches

anyway if you also enjoy that kind of overanalyzing-the-mundane type of humor in general, Any Austin does the same thing but with video games

[thrillered]

"You Know I Mountain Dew It For Ya" | Spencer Agnew x Reader | Pt. 6

Pt. 6: the pod

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You sat at the smosh mouth desk, sipping on a mountain dew kickstart that you stole from Spencer. You figured if you were going to talk about your song you should have mt dew, as fanservice. The crew was finalizing camera settings and waiting for Amanda and Shayne. 

“This kinda sucks” You said, taking another sip of your drink. 

“Ouuu, i’m gonna tell spencer.” Kiana teased. Earning an eye roll from you.

After a few minutes everyone was ready to record. “Hello everyone and welcome back to Smosh Mouth, I’m Shayne.” 

“And I’m Amanda. And today we have a very very special guest, all the way from big hollywood and the desk around the corner from mine, Y/N” 

“Big Hollywood wow” You laughed. 

“You have skyrocketed in fame.” Shayne comments. 

You sighed deeply, “Yeah…” 

“Uh Oh, that doesn’t sound good.” Amanda responds. 

“No no It’s really awesome it’s just been different, I guess.” You began, “I’ve been in the public eye for quite a while now but, obviously, never like this.”

“Let’s rewind a little,” Shayne interjected, “you guys know Y/N, she’s been with Smosh for years now. At this point, dare I say, one of the most loved cast members.”

“Oh stop it.” You giggled.

“Well it’s true, everyone loves you. Especially me.” Amanda jokes.

“I can see the fan edits already. Wait, we need to stare at each other longingly.” You piled on. 

“Anyway,” Shayne laughed, “What a lot of people don’t know, well not anymore, is that you are a musician as well.” 

“Yes, I’ve been writing music my entire life but I started producing my music about a year before I joined Smosh. I got much more serious about it thanks to Josh, shoutout josh.” You explained. “I have a stockpile of songs, I’ve only released a few though.” 

“You have two albums out right?” Amanda asked.

“Yeah I have two albums, three EPs, and three singles, the newest being everyone's favorite Espresso.”

You continued bantering, answering questions and talking about your career. You enjoyed how much both Shayne and Amanda cared about what you had to say, being able to deepdive into some of your music was a lot of fun. You even learned that Shayne listened to your entire discography over the weekend. 

“Let’s get into the juicy stuff” Amanda began, “We sent out a community post where people could ask Y/N questions so let’s get into some of those.” 

“First up is from Gianna L: What was the inspiration behind Espresso?” 

“I really just wanted to make something fun and bright. A lot of my music comes from a very vulnerable place but I’ve just been so happy that this song stems from that. I’ve felt like myself and truly I have smosh to thank for that.” You rambled, “Okay to wrap it up, Espresso was inspired by being confident and loving yourself because it makes you irresistible.”

“I actually love that so much,” Amanda smiles. 

“Yeah that type of thinking is important,” Shayne adds, “I would know, I have a psychology degree.” 

You answered some more questions regarding your creative process and your lyrics. You got to talk about how you make coffee for the whole office almost everyday in regards to the lyric: “That morning coffee brewed it for ya”. Then the inevitable happened.

“The most asked questions are about Spencer.” Shayne began, “For those of you who don’t know, Spencer is the director of the games channel and is often in videos as well.” 

“But most importantly,” You cut Shayne off, “he’s my best friend.” You finished, earning a few ‘awww’s from the room. “Believe me, I have seen the conspiracy theories and comments about “Spenspresso”-- great name by the way. And yes, some of the lyrics were inspired by my dear friend. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without him and since this song is about finding confidence I had to give a nod to my best buddy, one of the people who have always supported me and made me into the best version of myself.” 

You laughed, “I wish I could give a more juicy answer but it’s just a little thank you to my best friend. That doesn’t mean I want the edits to stop, I do love those, and the fan art. Me and Spencer send them to each other constantly.” 

You wrapped up the podcast, hoping confessing your platonic love for Spencer was enough to keep the heat off of you for a while. That is until you stare at Spencer for too long in the next games video and people clip it. 

—

“How was the pod?” Spencer asked, setting his lunch down and sitting in the chair next to you.

“It went well, It was actually so much fun to talk about myself for so long,” You jested. “You’re gonna get an ego boost out of it though.” 

“And why is that?” He asked, quirking an eyebrow and sending you a knowing smirk, the action making the tips of your ears hot. 

“Oh shut up.” You shoved his chair away playfully. He quickly scooted it back to you, even closer than before, your knees bumping each other. 

You both finished your lunches quickly, Spencer opting to head back to his desk to work. You followed him, sitting on a couch near him, scrolling through your phone until you heard a few muffled “fuck fuck fuck”s coming from Spencer. 

You got up and stood behind him looking at his monitor. “What’s wrong?” You asked. 

“Nothing, it’s just an issue with the audio of the last games video, I don’t think it’ll be able to be recovered” He responded, his shoulders tightening as he rubbed a stressed hand over his face. 

You knew Spencer worked really hard on that video, he had been so excited to have the cast play the game and now it seems like it will never see the light of day. 

“I’m sorry Spence,” you said, knowing there wasn’t much you could do to help. Noticing how tense he was you placed your hands on his shoulders and began massaging them, working at the many knots. 

He let out a low groan as you pushed into a particularly nasty spot on his shoulder. As you worked your fingers through his neck and shoulders his groans turned into sighs of relief. 

“That feel any better?” You asked, hoping you could assist your friend. 

He rolled his neck a few times, “Holy fuck, that’s actually so much better. How did you do that?” 

“I took a single massage class in college for a random credit I needed.” you replied, running your fingers through his hair as he tilted his head back to look at you. 

“You’ve gotta do that more often, I feel like I got my damn neck replaced.” He laughed. 

“You just let me know, I learned back, hands, and legs too so..” You trailed off, winking at him, relishing in the pink hue that graced his features. “Lunch is almost over, I gotta go, I’m filming ‘you posted that?’. I’ll see you later, love ya Spency”  You smiled, grabbing his hand and leaving a feather light kiss on his knuckles before walking away. 

“You are so whipped dude.” 

Spencer spun around to the source of the sound, seeing Alex Tran standing on the other side of the desks. 

“God, is it really that obvious?” Spencer questioned. 

“I wish you could’ve seen the googly eyes you were just sending Y/N,” Alex laughed, “Like, the whole office can feel the tension.” 

“It’s not tension if it’s one sided.” Spencer rebutted. 

“One sided my ass, she’s totally into you, has been forever, if I had to guess.”

Spencer thought about Alex’s words. Could you really feel the same way as him? He’s a smart guy, he knows that, so could he really have been so stupid this whole time to think you were just friends? 

[iamnmbr3]

💖

What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

hm. not sure because i feel like no matter how fringe the opinion it will be popular in one corner of the fandom or other. However, I'll go with my opinion on the Sectumsempra incident. I feel that it is not as big a deal as it's made out to be in some corners of the fandom and the bad thing about isn't what people focus on and also it's not even the most morally questionable thing Harry does in the series by a long shot.

I think some people tend to treat it as something Harry did with knowledge and intent, when he didn't. He didn't even use the spell because he dislikes Draco. He did it in a frantic moment of self defense when the first few spells he tried didn't work and he was shouting the first thing that came to mind. The terrible thing is that he was very cavalier about trying out unknown magic. The actual context he used it in - self defense agains a probable Death Eater who was attacking him and had escalated to Unforgivables - is actually pretty understandable. However, had he not walked in on Draco the probable victim of his spell would have been Cormac Mclaggen, who he had actually intended to test it on due to his dislike of him. This is hugely irresponsible, as was his decision to test another spell on Ron. (Though we must remember that his education has not stressed the potential risks of using unknown spells on people.)

Harry didn't know what the spell did and used it only in response to an attack and only after several of his other spells didn't work (btw shoutout to the fact that Draco actually lasted longer in a duel with Harry than any other character in the series except Snape). People sometimes put it into the real world context of a fight between people at school getting out of hand to the point one person nearly dies. But that's not what happened. This is a heightened fantasy context of two people who are now literally on opposite sides of a war getting into a serious fight. Also, although people say Harry didn't feel bad he actually was absolutely horrified by what he has done, so much so that he completely lost his composure in the moment which is a very atypical reaction for him, even in dangerous or upsetting situations. And then he subsequently completely stops investigating Draco even though the fight and what Draco says right before it further substantiate Harry's theories about Draco.

The really notable thing to me is how upset Harry is when Draco is hurt - to the point that he freezes up and panics, which is one of the only times he reacts that way in a high stress situation - and how it is Pansy and not Draco who vilifies Harry. It's also really interesting that Harry could have probably gotten himself out of trouble by mentioning that Draco was saying some super incriminating stuff and then attacked him and tried to use an Unforgivable Curse on Harry (which remember, carries a life sentence in prison). But even though Harry previously brought concerns about Draco to McGonagall, during the whole time she apparently yelled at him over this incident he never brought any of these extenuating circumstances. Given that Lucius is already in jail and the Malfoys have lost their standing in mainstream wizarding society (as well as among Death Eaters) Harry's accusation would probably have been taken seriously and he might well have been able to land Draco in jail. However, instead when Harry sees the vulnerable position Draco is in he backs off.

So yeah Harry definitely made a horrible mistake in this scene, but I see it more as drarry fodder than as evidence of him being a vicious psychopath.

Were this anyone but Draco, I can't imagine Harry reacting in a similar way. I mean, imagine him walking in on some other Death Eater saying a bunch of incriminating stuff and then getting attacked by that Death Eater and injuring the Death Eater more than he intended while acting in self defense. (Remember in book 5 Hermione was the one who had to stop him cursing the Death Eater whose head was de-aged to a baby.)

And the other weird thing is that Harry does other more morally grey things. In book 2 he makes Lockhart go first into the Chamber. If the Basilisk was waiting there he would have been killed. In a moment of anger in book 6 he chokes Mundungus so hard he starts turning blue, and never feels bad about it or apologizes. In book 7 he won't attack Stan with Stunners but he does use them on other Death Eaters, which presumably risks killing them. (There's also his use of the Cruciatus Curse in book 7 which I personally find to be a dumb and ooc scene added for a silly reason and thus just don't count as canon even though it could have been a super interesting moment if done well; but if you do count it, that's wayyy darker than the book 6 scene). I love Harry but he's not just an uwu soft cinnamon roll though I don't think he's an evil psychopath like some parts of fandom do either. He does make some morally grey choices that make his character interesting and complex and flawed, but the bathroom fight in book 6 really isn't one of them imho.

[daz4i]

first of all shoutout to this theory that got me going into this side quest with this idea in mind 🫡

ok now. lemme offer my take on ratio being titankin or otherwise related to nikador in some way

major spoilers for 3.0 ofc

so obvious detail out of the way first

1. why does it look like him. holding a big book n all

2. "rationality"

3. this might be a translation thing but like. the "reason behind their creation" part is so weird. like yeah ig they have "philosopher" in their name but we know they were created by nikador so why would we assume they ever wanted to study universal knowledge. like why bring this up at all. unless-

4. "further spreading madness masquerading as philosophy" when our guy is all about spreading knowledge and. well. philosophy

on the other end of the spectrum we have gnaeus, who says this

like this immediately made me go "Hm. sounds like a certain someone i know" (while ratio isn't about "crushing" but rather "healing", the sentiment is overall the same)

we later find out that gnaeus is actually a fragment of nikador. so. there is a part of nikador that hates foolishness

^actually a sub theory for that, unrelated to ratio (for now): the reason nikador created philosophers at all was for this reason. for all we know the part of them that's gnaeus is the one who made this choice specifically. idk how titans' inner worlds work tho

so we already got two threads connecting ratio to nikador [insert "which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice" meme here]

there's also. him showing up in castrum kremnos. what the fuck was that. like i have my own theories for why that is but it's still such an odd location. unless it was a clue 🧐

now, to give my own take on these connections

in "i once was in arcadia" we meet a furiae archer who falls in love with a human and even goes to live with him in okhema. her whole mindset about strife changes, she doesn't want to fight anymore, she wants... to live, basically. she even ends up turning on her own kin in the end to protect the citizens of okhema

this tells us that the titankin can essentially turn human, and appreciate humanity enough to want to live among them. she even gives us a brief explanation for how their kind talks and thinks

cerces, the titan of reason

this does confirm that they all CAN think and speak. we actually speak to a few of them over the main story, and while they don't quite behave like humans, they do have the basics down at least. and not all of them want to fight, either, like. they don't attack us after that or smth

so. what's to say that a titankin that happens to get into a major overflow of cerces' power, and then also live among humans (or at least watching them) wouldn't eventually completely reverse their bloodthirst?

this is a lot of reaching, so let me attach another thread, which is how many details in cerces line up with ratio

from the voice of constellation:

"They wield authority over ecologies, knowledge, and rationality" "They allow people to study and rest there, and convey their knowledge to the ignorant tirelessly and generously." | pretty straightforward stuff really. sharing knowledge, encouraging people to study, eradicating ignorance. just as ratio does/wishes to do

now another bit that's a bit more reaching (or just a separate theory stuck inside this one. you pick) but if it is indeed connected i will feel like the smartest person on earth, "Cerces graces the world in the form of a grand and holy tree. Where they take root, vegetation spouts to become a massive forest." there is a theory in the starrail universe that's connected to hi3 - and hi3 is clearly relevant in this arc - about the imaginary tree, and how it is the origin of all life. cerces is literally a giant tree that creates life. when it comes to humans and humanoids, as we can see with the titankin, they create "reason", which i believe to be more accurately described as cognition, since there are actual real life theories that define life as the ability to cognize (this is also like the only reason i can think of why they'd connect these two elements together 😭 since as far as i can tell, there isn't any greek god they're directly inspired by, other than maybe athena for reason and pan for nature?)

all this^ extremely long paragraph to say "you know who uses imaginary powers? 👀" (yeah that one's flimsy lmao. BUT! his powers are connected to knowledge too. also this is more like a small detail in this theory ok)

all this boils down to the thought of, what if a certain titankin somehow got cerces' blessing? they managed to develop thought and knowledge all on their own, and so cerces recognized that, gave them powers, protected them, maybe even helped them gain a more human-like form so they could come and go into the garden of wisdom as they please with no disturbance.

which connects to the second thing we need to question - how did he leave amphoreus?

there are a few options there.

1. he left before aquila decided to not let anyone leave

2. aquila doesn't consider him a person/alive (since he is technically made of stone) so they let him through? yeah idk if that's how it works lol but anyway

3. he left in a similar way to what we see herta use at the end of 2.7, aka not leaving through the sky but through a doorway of some sort

4. cerces protected him, somehow

(5?. i've seen smth abt how beings as strong or stronger than emanators can leave amphoreus which is an option too, but. that's a whole other theory that i don't think applies here. might look into it in a future post tho)

so basically how i think it went down:

ratio was created by nikador as a titankin, specifically a furiae philosopher

he gained enough consciousness through the overflow of cerces' power to just. be alive, beyond spreading strife

he started seeking knowledge, as was perhaps his original nature - either through the part of nikador that was gnaeus, or if nikador was just Like That before the black tide

and here we can go down two ways

either cerces recognized this effort and gave him their blessing, or he just. did it all on his own. even straight up built himself a more human looking body maybe.

i'm actually leaning towards that second option because of a certain detail i did not bring up yet - statues. the titankin are literally statues. they go from statues to moving and then back to statues (albeit crumbling ones) once they're killed. you know who else has a Thing with statues......

so going back to the order of things, if i had to guess, i'd say he created statues of a human - either an already existing one, or one he imagined - and somehow, through science or titan bullshit, he imbued himself into this statue so that it functioned like the titankin do in a sense, while still seeming human in any other way

and then he made even more copies of this statue. which connects to a different "what the fuck is up with dr ratio" theory i posted before! i highly recommend checking it out as it does offer some more ideas and information about this whole concept 🫡

after feeling solid enough in his ability to live through these statues, he decided that he's learned everything amphoreus has to offer, and he wants to see the world beyond the sky. he wants to share knowledge he's learned in amphoreus with others, too (perhaps that "solving a planet's energy crisis on his own" bit from this hoyolab article is related to how the express is stopping by here for an energy supply. hm).

if i go back to the "how he left" section from earlier, i'm leaning towards "he left before the black tide and aquila closing their eyes etc etc etc" which is why he hasn't come back to help, as in, he didn't know it happened

or alternatively, he did somehow learn about it happening - maybe even tried to come visit home and found out that he can't even reach it anymore. maybe hoyo is playing 5d chess and are gonna reveal that he placed the divergent universe project in penacony of all places was so he can study memoria in the meantime and thus find a way back home. tho i doubt that :P

as for why i like this theory and hope to see it or a variation of it go down (but i'm not picky, any ratio backstory will do 😩): stories about a non-human character loving humanity so much that they become like them are just so. *crying screaming throwing up punching a wall sobbing on the floor* yeah.

this is a small detail i can't find anywhere else to put but i love thinking abt it. the owl on his shoulder. and all the owl scrolls spread around amphoreus. maybe he created it himself, something to remember home by. or, maybe he took one of those scrolls and reshaped it for himself, keeping a piece of his world at all times.

and there's an extra tragedy there, too - nous. if ratio's original purpose was accumulating more knowledge, but as he gained more consciousness he decided to share it instead, then nous rejecting him is essentially rejecting the existence he chose for himself (one might argue that that's already the case, but like, this adds another layer of sadness okay? 🥺)

i guess the main question is. does it affect the current story somehow? nah not really, at least not as it currently stands. which is why i don't think this will actually go down - at least not in the main story. maybe in a trailblaze continuance or companion mission - but it's still fun to speculate!

thank you for reading and apologies for any grammar issues or typos 🫡 if you have more to add - either more evidence that i missed that might support this theory, or other ways it may have gone down - i encourage you to do so!

[callizinc]

YES.

i don't really mind shipping since it's been a fundamental part of fandom culture since 4ever, but I AGREE WITH YOU. ena is so non-romantic as a franchise that it's very difficult for any ship to have substance, but ahdhejf

a part of me dies when i see the nuances of canon disregarded for the sake of validating a ship. or for the sake of anything, actually. why are we ignoring canon, i ask, a tear sliding down my face.

why is ena a mother? why is ena a species?

seeing dbbq's release bring about a wave of new fans made me so hopeful for more people appreciating this incredible world and its characters, and then just. i see almost the entire fanbase throw away canon. the amount of "it's not that deep"s i've seen is enough to induce a psychotic episode in me

because IT IS deep. art will be intentional forever and always, and it kills meeeee to see people treating this masterpiece like it's a sequence of random events

Anon I am unsure how much i'll have to say on this particular war you've suffered because like i said I've tried really hard to ignore basically every fandom place that isn't my echo chamber #myechochamber Because of this exact reason. Because it's so fucking scary out there. Ojh that is so fucking scary + This post by my mutual eshi Shoutout literally never stops being true

But like. Yeah. 😭 Yeah. I just........ Well what is there to say. .....Yeah. AND THE THING IS. THE THING IS. I may be an annoying contrarian hater. but the truth is This exact thing has happened with everything that's ever existed, and it will continue to happen until the end of time. And well that's just the way it goes.

But tell me why I and i know many others waited 4 years for an extremely artistically talented game rich with beautiful artistry and interesting themes and meanings and just a wealth of amazingly cool things, Only for the majority of fans to either one: ignore it and throw their hands up and say "Lol it's all just random incomprehensibility for fun!!" or Two: to talk about FUCKING ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT ACTUALLY???? EVER?????? HAPPENED???????????????????? 😭😭😭😭😭

Sorry [My glowing red demon eye overtakes me]There are so many nice and whimsical people and mutuals on this blog. Y'all didn't see that. ignore that. But anon a part of me also dies every time i see that . All of those things. Can anyone fucking hear me. Please help me. 😭 I did not wait for 4 years for this to be the popular fandom landscape. (it's ok though....If i waited 4 years then By god i can wait out the storm. We can do this together anon)

Also:

Literally. literally. Literally Say That Shit . Like obviously i don't think the large majority of people who parrot that theory/interpretation are doing it with ANY sort of bad intention, I think they're. Either trying to make a genuine interpretation, or just completely making shit up. and playing toys 😭 EITHER WAY GENUINELY NO BAD INTENTIONS ANYWHERE HERE. I just still think it also Is so sucks and is bad And i hate motherhood headcanons YAYYYY

I also got crucified on twitter once like 2 years for saying I thought a popular fandom theory that awas around my old fandom was misogynistic, so. Maybe i'm wrong truly. It's all ok though. Who remembers my [EXTREMELY LOUD TRAIN SUDDENLY PASSES BY] era. Anyway

I will say some of that theory i've also seen isn't necessarily saying she "birthed the humanboard" but rather the usage of the term "birth" is supposed to be analogous and/or reminiscent of like. A past. ......miscarriage. or sometjing. Sorry i'm realizing how insane I sound as i say this but in my defense That's because this take is also so sucks. If you want the only good ena mother theory ever been made Stream this post by my mutual cube-cumb3r REAL!

Also say that shit, Because assuming children and the typical child adult growth cycle even exists in the ena world , If ena was put in the care of any child she'd get thrown out in 5 minutes for trying to sell pyramid schemes to their parent, yelling swears at the kid for no reason, Or both. #AbortThatThang

[okamiz36]

MORI IS NOT A PEDO. DAZAI IS NOT A WOMANIZER OR 2D. A rant about the BSD universe, characters, and fanfic writers and how people mischaracterize the MCs

SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK NO LONGER HUMAN

Ok so, for those of who don't know in BUNGOSTRAYDOGS ANIME each main character was based off an actual writer and the character's came to be a blend of the universe/anime mixed with the novelist's books. For example, Dazai Osmau wrote the book No Longer Human which explains the tale of a man who had been acting his entire life, struggles with depression, fitting into society and eventually at the end comes out as gay (shoutout to the soukou shippers because this practically confirms the ship is canon). It shows how Dazai is more then a womenizer and comedian whereas in the anime we just take the character at surface level.

I'm a fanfic reader, I enjoy alot of different stories and right now I'm reading StrayBoundIsakai on AO3, amazing fanfic to some extent. I love it and whatnot but they included some notes on NaomiXTanizaki, and like a true fan I've done a bit of reasearch on the books written by the characters (I read crime and punishment+No longer human because those are my favs plus another Dostoyevsky book I can't remember the name of) So y'know it annoyed me to see people claiming that Tanizaki and Naomi are an actual incest couple because they are not. Here's my theory, Tanizaki n Naomi arent real siblings, in the book Naomi by Tanizaki two lovers have to pretend to be siblings to hide from a man who I'm pretty sure forced Naomi into a relationship with him, ill read the book prob tmrw if i got time, and its a common theroy that Naomi in bsd isnt even real, shes a hallucination ofa dead girl made by light snow ability. So one or the other.

We don't have any confirmation as to pretty much any of the BSD characters so we don't know the details between Tanizaki and Naomi as they've been kept secret. BSD is an odd anime because it goes from silly detective to vampire outbreak, to Fyodor is god, but within layers there are so many hidden clues on what the real story is.

Dazai is a tricky one for me because i've read so many theories on him but my favorite is why he abuses Akutagawa. Dazai is abusive to Akutagawa bc if he isnt and praises aku then aku loses his reason to lvie and be better then he alreayd is, akutagawa needs to be told he's a failure, dazais nice to atsushi bc atsushi is already so far broken if he doesn't get praise he'll go insane and suicide or smth similar. Dazai's character and entire personality is within the book no longer human (amazing read would recommend but it will mess you up) people often call him a womanizer but it's him simply trying to fake a personality as to what he deems is the most likeable persona or sterotypical persona. He's not annoying, his entire personality is a facade in which he's just trying to be likeable because he has no clue how he's suppose to act. In the PM/dark era/15 dazai he acted cold and ruthless because that was what was to be expected of him. Dazai has no personality, he's a pathological manipulator, YALL PLEASE READ NO LONGER HUMAN IF YOU ARE A DAZAI FAN.

And then Mori... PEOPLE PLEASE STOP SAYING HE'S A PEDOFILE. I'm going to take context from a reddit thread and the link will be posted because the post I'm quoting omg is amazing helped me so much, "Elise is the character of a short story by Mori, "The Dancing Girl" [a japanese student in Germany falls in love with a 17yo local girl who was poor and danced for a living, they have a complicated relationship until the guy chooses Japanese Moral Integrity over Love and goes back home. The girl realizes she was pregnant and goes mad, the student finds out and has painful regrets because he wanted a child/family and truly loved the girl" "In "The Dancing Girl", in the end the girl was pregnant with the student's child. Could BSD Elise herself be that child? Well, I don't very much believe this actually (imo BSD Mori and Elise don't have a father-daughter kind of relationship, I will elaborate), but anyway it's something that popped up in my mind. 2) I'm sure I read this somewhere, though I can't remember the source rn, that RL Mori himself said that his sexuality is "like that of a child", meaning that he does not really feel sexual attraction but he understands love and affection, and he stated that he loved his wife and children. So, my personal opinion is that Elise could be just that part of him. That's why it's shaped like a child. (+ Little side note idk if it's something worth mentioning but Elise has blue eyes, blonde hair, western outfit... Is she European? Given RL Mori's literary tastes I mentioned at the start, Asagiri might have chosen this specific design on purpose?).  Anyway that brings me to my next point: What is Mori and Elise's relationship in BSD? Like I was saying, Elise is literally a part of Mori, so she is Mori himself, his preferences, the influences he had, etc. He loves and cares for her because he loves and cares for himself. After all, Mori is not shown being "affectionate" towards other kids: there were Q and Kyōka right there but Mori never showed interest in them if not to exploit their abilities. So is BSD Mori a pedo yes or no?? Here we are. I think BSD Mori might be asexual (as for RL Mori, he probably was, but we'll never really know, also who knew about asexuality in 1800-1900s lol). That said, the character is never shown feeling sexual attraction (and reminder that pedophile means sexually attracted to children, y'all say this word so lightly smh). But Mori really says a lot of inappropriate stuff, doesn't he? Fukuzawa was shocked and Elise picks on him. But what if the shtick is that he just doesn't realize that he appears sus to others, exactly because anything he does isn't intended as sexual in his pov? He's a criminal mastermind but he also probably thinks dressing up Elise is like dressing up a doll and saying she's his wife is like playing house."

Asagiri prob just made him seem creepy because guess what HE'S A MAFIA BOSS LIKE WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?! Link is here please read: reddit.com/r/BungouStrayDogs/comments/17zes5z/vita_sexualis/

Reading or watching videos of recaps on the BSD writers made me hate so many fanfics honestly.... I shared all of these thoughts with my friend @kreepyveebs because they wanted to makea Ranpo fanfic and I figured I should also make a post on this.

I'm going to link a channel who made videos on Dostoyevsky's books just because it helps clearify what Fyodor is even talking about/explaining in the books, it's also a psychology channel so I recommend just binge watchin this guy https://www.youtube.com/@unsolicitedadvice9198

Can writers and theorists also please start figuring out what made Kunikida have his ideals, or made Ranpo the way he is? Ranpo wrote black lizards so me and Kreepy have made the theory of he had mafia parents or somehting similar, maybe related to Hiroshi? (im pretty sure i got his name wrong- ack), stop focusing on just the mains, like jeez.

SHOUTOUT TO @kreepyveebs (second ping mwahhaha) THEYRE AN AMAZING ARTIST AND WRITER AND YOU SHOULD 100% FOLLOW THEM IF YOU SEE THIS POST.

oh yeah @unknowntalesbymiles you should enjoy this post so ping for you!

[cleoselene]

Severance reminds me a bit of Twin Peaks in that it's extremely visually unique, like there's this aesthetic that is so carefully curated. It's a puzzle box. There's unsettling feelings and there's humor. A touch of the mystical. Like the plots are totally different but I bet David Lynch loved Severance. Sad he didn't get to see season 2. He was a big fan of prestige television and called them the modern art house cinemas.

anyway, my theory, which is probably not remotely original but occurred to me this episode. Putting it under a tag, but first, what's the deal with all the ancient cars? Even the higher ups at Lumon drive cars way older than mine, and I drive a 2007 PT Cruiser (shoutout to that tumblr user who made a joke about shitty cars once and i put in my tags about my 2007 PT Cruiser and they were like THAT WAS THE EXACT CARE I HAD IN MIND WHEN I MADE THAT POST I HAVE ONE. And then I asked them how many front bumpers they've gone through. Two. I beat it, I've gone through three, lmao. Those fucking PT Cruiser bumpers).

Anyway, spoilery theory under cut

So in the first episode we're told it was five months. Seems reasonable, given the claymation and the also the painting. Those are artforms that take time! And everyone was saying how wild it was after season 2 that Milchik managed to do all that in like 72 hours, on top of hiring and firing and shit.

So my theory? This rebellion has happened before, with these specific people. I wonder if they're wiping innie memories after things go off the rails and then starting over. I wonder if this is even Helly's first time. We know so little about her outie. But it would make sense given stop motion claymation is a LONG PROCESS and a lot of people were pointing out how weird it was to get it all done in a few days after episode two

[lunarriviera]

another thrilling spirealm update

henlo my friends yes it's that time once again where i tell you what is happening on the bizarrely named drama "the spirealm," i am at episode 25 having shotgunned it all weekend and i have thoughts, opinions, and a gabillion screencaps of ruan nanzhu looking stricken, i finally had to stop taking them because he has the exact same face of devastated yearning in all of them and i was filling up my cloud drive. spoilers ahoy! [parts one and two are here if you even care]

as just mentioned, ruan nanzhu spends his time looking either 1) icily indifferent (when people who aren't qiushi are talking to him and/or dying in front of him, to his vast annoyance) or 2) torn asunder by pangs of desire (whenever he's staring at qiushi, who's babbling obliviously about science or clues or absolutely nothing of any importance whatsoever). here is a representative screencap but he has this look on his face pretty much continually, like he's just been hit by a car. a car of love.

it makes me put my head in my hands and scream quietly, i haven't seen a BL actor who understood the assignment this well since zhang xincheng or maybe even z1l. (who all clearly not only read the novel but underlined it, highlighted it, and stuck in colored post-it notes.) when not busy with adoration, he swans around being magnificent in a frockcoat like he's edward rochester, while lin qiushi trails behind him wearing a fit he got out of the goodwill box in his college dorm.

in spite of being besties with a literal fashion icon, at no point does it ever seem to occur to lingling "hm maybe i should dress a bit more formally for my imminent demise inside the doors"—no, instead he proudly wears his ratty sweatshirt with holes in it. which i sort of think might belong to huang junjie. idk maybe qiushi trusts it, and feels safe in it, hey look at that i made it sad.

massive power couple energy. also notice how their outfits are exact black-and-white negatives of each other, the harper's bazaar wedding photoshoot would have been so goddamn lit.

taking a brief moment for a shoutout to this guy. chen fei i don't even know what your fate will be but i already know you deserved better. not only do you patch everyone up with your veterinary knowledge, but i have seen your unrequited love. it did not go unobserved. you would have been a great partner, you're unimpressed by everything and drink your soy milk with chilling apathy. i'm real sorry the theatre gay didn't love you back. you're too similar i guess.

back to lin qiushi who has the worst case of main character energy since harry freaking potter. somehow the game is about him??? he has trauma??? none of this was in the novel and i'm just pretending it's not happening until it becomes impossible to ignore. in the meantime he continues to sympathize with door ghosts because he's just that nice of a guy. (EXCEPTION: nanzhu literally murdered two competitors bc they threatened his darling, and lin qiushi helped him cover it up. i was appalled for like 5 minutes then i shrugged. it's a cutthroat game, the doors change people. also it's like captain mal used to say: if someone tries to kill you, you kill 'em right back.) i have big Theories about what is fixing to happen but for now i will end by relating that lin qiushi has gone into a door alone, because he wants to butch up and be a better partner for ruan nanzhu. and that would be a great idea and super helpful except that nanzhu IMMEDIATELY WENT OUT OF HIS MIND WITH BLIND TERROR. outwardly of course he gives no signs of this (other than hiring someone to protect his fragile boyfriend, which, if lingling figures this out, ruan nanzhu will be sleeping on the sofa forever).

here he is pushing food around his plate miserably at lingling's funeral pre-solo-door party. everyone is having such a fun time.

and here he is standing in front of the door waiting like a dumb wounded animal. i have a feeling if lin qiushi doesn't emerge at 15 minutes on the dot, nanzhu will simply expire on the spot, like a wolf separated from its mate. maybe that's the end of the spirealm JUST KIDDING, we still haven't gotten to the part where they're on either side of a different door wailing at each other. i really need lin qiushi to stop being such a cheery equanimous little frat boy and START SUFFERING, can we get some mutual pining up in this bitch. (also i need his hair to change in the traditional BL post-wedding hairstyle alteration because i can't remember at this point if huang junjie even HAS a forehead under that vast curtain of bangs)

to sum up, we've had a) sexy handfeeding of lychees b) tender cat fur removal from face and c) stalking your pretty boyfriend aggressively against the wall so you can…offer him a packet of disinfectant. in the novel of course nanzhu bites him and yes xia zhiguang absolutely knows that's what he's supposed to be doing here, we love to see it.

oh and also d) "i'll protect you. i'll protect you forever."

SOON: THE THRILLING CONCLUSION. IT'LL BE SO FUCKING SAD. PS unrelated to any of this but the OST SLAPS and i sing along every time now, that opening song is an unskippable cut scene of a banger

PS gonna be sad when [redacted] dies, he's a real card. and that other person dies too. and that third person. shit it's about to get messy

[utdrmv-confession-box]

The problem with that "theories are connected" analysis - as in, "Player not existing has to mean Chara is evil" - is... Frisk.

Frisk's distinction from CHARA is the main focus of Asriel's post-battle discussion, thus, it's at least meant to LOOK like Frisk is the "real" player character.

So the argument doesn't hold up logically, and from what I've seen, it doesn't hold up in reality.

I'm not claiming there *aren't* quite a few people who are just trying to sandpaper the story, reducing Chara to the "ultimate villain" or whatever.

But most people I've seen who vocally deny the player's diegetic existence, don't even MENTION Chara. Because Chara is not relevant to the discussion. And when they do, they often lean sympathetic (Shoutout to @\saveloadreset!).

(Also, quite a few "Player Truthers" DO villanize Chara.)

Same with Kris. Some people do dismiss the intro as a joke and refuse to look beyond the surface. But you can still see quite a bit of "Stop pretending Frisk is like Kris!", as their "resistance" to the player *is* portrayed quite differently.

Even Frisk being treated as a player-insert can't really be assumed. Some point out that The Witcher's protagonist isn't a player-insert, while also not externally puppeted (shoutout to @\saveloadreset again!).

Lastly, the question of "Without the player, how do you explain the point of Undertale having a metanarrative?"...

Does it... NEED an explanation?

A metanarrative is just the story asking the audience to think about how they're experiencing it, usually indirectly. I'd argue the metanarrative is usually LESS strong if it's made direct. (Especially here, but that's another discussion.)

[Mod note: you know the drill by now]