#Silly little clown lore drop

[circusfromhell]

I haven't posted much on this account-

So uh

Here's a sneak peak photo for the video I'm working on

[redvelvettecakes1]

LATE WELCOME HOME UPDATE RANT POST !

(⚠️ spoilers for the newest welcome home update that came out march 9th ⚠️)

OKAY SO I ACTUALLY HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO SAY ABOUT THIS UPDATE, IT WAS BY FAR MY FAVOURITE UPDATE SO FAR THAT WE HAVE GOTTEN. before I start however if you guys don’t know how to Access the secret website here is the link if you need it!

FIRST OFF, THESE IMAGESSSSS, THEY’RE ACTUALLY SO CUTE I LOVE JULIE’S CHRISTMAS TREE HAIR SO MUCH 😭 AND THE THIRD PHOTO IS SO CUTE?? LOOK AT THEM ALL TOGETHER, THEY’RE ALL LIKE A LITTLE FAMILY IT’S ADORABLE ☹️

AND THE ARTSTYLE IS SO PRETTY, LITERALLY I LOVE CLOWNS STYLE SO MUCH.

I CAN ONLY SHARE ONE CLIP BC TUMBLR WONT LET ME ADD MORE 😢 BUT OUT OF ALL THE CLIPS WE GOT THIS WAS BY FAR MY FAVOURITE, I WAS HONESTLY SO SHOCKED TO SEE THAT WE GOT FULLY ANIMATED SCENES OF THE CHARACTERS, AND THIS ONE WAS MY FAVOURITE OUT OF ALL OF THEM.

BARNABY AND HOWDY BOTH LOOK SO CUTE IN THS STYLE AND I LOVED BARNABYS EXPRESSIONS, I LITERALLY LOVED BARNABY IN THIS ENTIRE UPDATE TBH, HE LITERALLY CARRIED THE WHOLE UPDATE ONCE AGAIN, HE WAS GREAT AND I LOVE HIS VOICE SO MUCH.

I’M GENUINELY SO HAPPY THAT WE GOT TO SEE MORE OF HIM THIS UPDATE.

AND THIS ANIMATION, THIS ONE WAS ONE OF MY FAVOURITES TOO, THE SCENERY WAS SO PRETTY AND IT REALLY MATCHED THE ADVERT AS IT HAD A VERY COSY FEEL TO IT, I LOVED IT SO MUCH.

WALLY LOOKS SO CUTE IN THIS STYLE, I LOVED THE WAY HE SMILED IN THIS ANIMATION TOO, HE LOOKED SO SILLY, I DIDNT ACTUALLY LIKE WALLY BEFORE BUT NOW HE IS STARTING TO GROW ON ME A LITTLE AFTER THIS, I DIDNT TRUST HIM IN THE FIRST FEW UPDATES AS I THOUGHT IT WAS IMPLIED THAT HE WAS GONNA BE THE BAD CHARACTER BUT AS OF NOW HE SEEMS PRETTY SILLY TOO 😭

but anyways, literally loved this animation too, it was so smooth and pretty, whoever animated these scenes did an amazing job because I loved each one so much

OKAY, I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS PART TOO.

MY JAW LITERALLY DROPPED WHEN I SAW MS. BEAGLE TOO, I REALLY WAS NOT EXPECTING TO SEE HER ANYTIME SOON SO I WAS VERY SURPRISED WHEN I SAW HER APPEAR, I WAS LITERALLY SAYING A BIT BEFORE THIS UPDATE THAT I WOULD LOVE TO SEE BARNABY AND MS. BEAGLE TOGETHER, AND IN THIS UPDATE I WAS SURPRISED TO SEE I ACTUALLY GOT WHAT I WANTED.

they’re my favourite mother and son guys. ☹️

THEY WERE LITERALLY SO CUTE, WHEN MS. BEAGLE GAVE BARNABY A PECK ON THE CHEEK AND YOU CAN ALSO TELL HOW MUCH BARNABY CARES FOR HER, IT’S SO SWEET AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH 😭 I also really loved the fact we got to see more artwork of ms. beagle, she is literally so pretty and her voice is so pretty too, I LOVE HERRR

AND 11 NEW CHARACTERS?? I WAS COMPLETELY SHOCKED BY THIS TOO, I DIDNT EXPECT TO SEE SO MANY NEW FACES IN THIS UPDATE ALSO.

it was really nice to hear more about howdy’s family, AND THERE IS SO MANY OF THEM, HIS FAMILY IS ACTUALLY MASSIVE, I loved all their voices and character designs so much, they were all great, I WAS SURPRISED WE GOT TO HEAR ALL THEIR VOICES TOO, I was completely blown away from this update

THE LORE WE GOT ON EDDIE TOO WAS ACTUALLY CRAZY.

I felt so bad for the guy he was so stressed and exhausted from everything, it was also really sad to see how he was getting frustrated / upset when nobody was coming to visit him 😕 FRANK KEEP YOUR BOYFRIEND COMPANY PLEASE…

It was also really nice to see how worried Frank was for Eddie when Eddie was zoning out, THEY WERE SO WORRIED FOR HIM, I ACTUALLY STARTED CRYING NEAR THE END OF THE 22 MINUTE VIDEO, THE ANGST FOR EDDIE WAS SO SAD, ESPECIALLY THE PART WHERE FRANK STARTED TO WORRY.

anyways, that’s all I have to say for this update, I literally loved it so much and this is definitely my favourite update so far, the voice actors, animators and clown did such a good job with this update and it was definitely worth the extra wait 🩷

[veinsfullofstars]

-trips and drops all my eggs on the ground-

(ID: A small compilation of Kirby series fanart featuring Magolor in various silly and disconnected scenarios, with guest appearances by Marx, Kirby, and the rest of the RtDL team as well. More detailed descriptions and transcripts under the cut. END ID.)

I sketched out most of these months ago while I was playing through KRtDLDX for the first time. The Epilogue was giving me thoughts and the brainworms were feeding. Still, I didn’t really have any big piece ideas for these, so I figured I’d just slap them all into a comp, throw some lines and color on, and call it done. A little loose on context, I admit, but I think they came out okay in the end. I just love drawing this wretched man (and the clown that bothers him).

Sketches started 02/28/23, render started 11/02/23, finished 11/04/23. NOTE: This was originally posted on my deleted account on 11/04/23.

---

Image desc. & transcripts (in no particular order):

-Magolor points to a barrel, smiling pleasantly, and says “Trust me, it’s foolproof! Now get in~” Marx looks on unimpressed.

-Magolor (in his tattered gray outfit) grabs his head with a look of fear on his face, saying “No one told me there’d be consequences to my actions!”

-Magolor (in his Tome Trackers outfit) winks and twirls his mustache, saying “Of course I’m trustworthy! You can tell by my mustache and ridiculously high IQ!”

-Shopkeeper Magolor holding the Gem Apple sapling and giving the viewer a thumbs-up, saying “That’s right! Spin-off games have canon in ‘em! It’s all over for you lore bitches!”

-Magolor happily lifting Kirby by the hands via Helper mode

-a large human hand squeezing a frightened and very unhappy-looking Magolor

-Magolor smiling smugly while the RtDL gang (off-screen save for their hands) all point their weapons at him (see the Knife Cat meme)

-Magolor showing Marx a Gem Apple, a look of wonder in the jester’s eyes

-Magolor weeping and clutching his head as a pair of large hands reminiscent of his Soul form loom around him, ready to grab

-Shopkeeper Magolor smiling with his hands together, an arrow pointing at him reading “no longer evil :)”

-Magolor (in his tattered gray outfit), first standing neutrally, then looking down at his hands, then shrugging with his eyes shut, saying “Oh, well. Time to learn nothing.”

-Shopkeeper Magolor showing off a Gem Apple to the viewer, saying “This apple cured my sociopathy! Imagine what it could do for you!”

-Magolor and Marx sitting back-to-back on the floor, the former fixing a pocket watch with a screwdriver, the latter propped up on his side watching a Minecraft let’s play on a purple childproof tablet; Mags says, “So, anyway, that’s how I lost everything to a baby, went to hell, fought my demons, and ultimately grew as a person.” Marx responds in disinterest, “Uh huh, sure, buddy.”

-Magolor winking at the viewer with a hand on his chest, saying “Of course I have a heart. Several, in fact! In really nice glass jars.”

-Magolor and Marx holding hands (er, well, Mags holding the end of Marx’s hat like a hand), facing away from each other, looking flustered and nervous; an arrow points at them reading “Shhh… they’re on their first date

-Marx smiling innocently at the viewer, eyes shut, one tooth peeking out, waving the end of his hat; an arrow points at him reading “causes problems on purpose”

-Magolor looking at something off-screen, a hand over his eyes as if to block the sun

-a tear in the background shaped eerily like a smile, a goopy drip connecting top and bottom, a blank red eye in the center peering out from within

[super-secret-clown-corner]

catching up on the kabsmp videos rn and i'm having normal person thoughts as usual anyway did you guys ask for a crazy ass idea on where i think the storyline is gonna go because i have a crazy ass idea on where i think the storyline is gonna go (this is gonna get long sorry in advance)

In Which I Lose My Mind Over Some Guy's Minecraft Persona In A Goofy Ahh Lore SMP

cover image for sillies

So. Hear me out. Clown is still the overarching villain of the series. Whatever's happening with Kyle and the void is still """""important"""""" n stuff, but (totally not because i'm biased or anything (i totally am)) that's all a red herring covering up the real threat. The idea I have rn is that Clown is biding his time and finishing up whatever research he had on the void, then when Kyle is defeated, he's gonna swoop in, take the void for himself, and become basically unstoppable which'll lead into season 3 or smth.

Bits Of Info That Makes The Pepe Silvia Meme Cover Relevant

Time to be insane and dump every single bit of potential evidence on why I think Clown's a bigger threat than the others think he is, starting at the very beginning (i'll try to keep this as chronological as possible but i'm busting my brain trying to piece everything together i watched this so out of order at first).

First, obviously, is the whole him killing Pyro bit and betraying him to get to Rae, then killing everyone in the commune. hoWEVER bro just casually tore open a portal to the nether and back and none of the other people in the group can do that. It's kinda hinting that Muu knows how to make portals but other than that the original s1 group has been stuck there since the start (which maybe suggests Muu isn't from this dimension also but that's another thing to unpackage).

a side note here: lincu came from an end portal that clown made for maddy and they NEVER BRING THAT UP AGAIN????????? WHAT

In the Pyro POV that came after that, it was heavily suggested that Clown was originally a conqueror or insanely destructive pillager (not the actual mob) (like come on, "bow before the scythe emblem" or whatever the words are? just write your name in the book you're practically screaming it at this point). Then, when Branzy showed up in that cameo episode, he didn't shut up about how Clown destroyed entire villages and killed a fuck ton of people (i will scream more about this point in a second 😁).

In the Season 2 opener animatic, he dropped his manipulative buddy buddy act the moment the void appeared, stabbed Kaboodle, and fucked off. He was also shown going full aggro on Magic, trying to get information about the void from her. A little while later, he's shown reading books on the void and finds something "perfect" for whatever he's planning (brain explosion).

Looping back to the Branzy cameo, it was revealed that he, Branzy, and Ashswag worked together in a laboratory somewhere in a different dimension researching and experimenting with portals. Ashswag said that Clown pushed him into one they made, which resulted in him glitched out and broken (WHICH OPENS UP ANOTHER CAN OF WORMS ARE THEY SUGGESTING THAT THIS IS ALL ACTUALLY JUST A SIMULATION/GAME LIKE HOW MINECRAFT ACTUALLY IS???????????? holy shit if i think about this for too long i'm gonna have another huge scream fest again).

and THEN in the most recent one as of today (aka A New Issue) it's revealed that Pyro had his suspicions that Clown is otherworldly and unnatural. Bro casually soloed a 100-Piglin invasion. I already had the thought of "oh yeah this guy's definitely not from any of the three dimensions" but the only contradictory thing that popped up for that was he and Pyro used to live together for a bit with the Waste Walkers. HOWEVER with this new information that Clown was just this anomaly that popped up periodically in their group, he's practically screaming that he's not from any of the three dimensions.

BASICALLY. I'M VERY NORMAL RIGHT NOW.

i love overcomplicating silly lore as a pastime

[circusfromhellgoofytimes]

Dropping Lost Lore bc I'm bored

For those of you unaware, Lost is my Sona Silly little Clown boy if you will ↓

(More under the cut)

!!TW!!

Mentions of child abandonment, trauma, violence, & tickles

His mask is like a prosthetic, it's almost in a way a Sally face situation. The only difference is that if you bother him about the mask enough he'll take it off and Traumatize you 😒

When he was younger, he was homeless, not alone, he did have his parents, but his mom went off and found a rich man without him and his dad was beaten to death for begging.

Lost is the ring leaders favorite little freak, there for, he often gets treated better than the others. Some of them hold resentment against lost for that.

Lost never went to school, so he's a little dumb, he was taught how to talk and do basic math, that's about it.

Lost hides Horns under his hat, I'd say it's like a Fizzaroli situation but his horns are very in tact. When he's not got his hat on he has little gold chains on his horns.

If he's in the right mood, he'll pester some of his nicer circus mates for tickles, he flat out asks for the right people. The amount of times he's been wrecked in front of everyone is astonishing. His favorite tease is anything pertaining to how red his ears are, since you can see his face.

Lost once drew a smile on his mask, hated it, tried to get it off, and ended up breaking his mask in the process. No one would look at him until he got a new mask.

Satanist

[worldsbiggestnerd101]

i will forever be grateful that the mascot horror of my choosing - welcome home - is not a video game or even a show, but is, in fact, an interactive website with many secret elements that hide the horror. look what happened to fnaf, to tadc, hell, even poppy playtime now that chapter 3 isn’t complete and utter sludge. like, can you imagine how much worse the welcome home fandom would be if we also had over saturated content farms to deal with?

i was into tadc for a week or two (hyperfixation go brrrrr) and part of the reason i lost interest was because of the fucking content farms. tadc isn’t just an indie animated show with horror elements now, it’s something content farms milk to hell and back! i’ve found my little siblings watching shitty tadc content farm videos! can you imagine what would’ve happened if welcome home was executed in any other format other than its current website? the characters are perfect in terms of color and designs for content farm exploitation. it would’ve absolutely wrecked welcome home as a whole and it would’ve never taken off in the way it did if it’d been in a game or show or anything other than its website.

i keep going back to tadc but it’s just the perfect example of content-farm-ification. tadc lost relevance after, what, a month? sure, it’ll likely skyrocket back up into tumblr’s trending whenever episode 2 drops, but compare tadc’s 40k tag followers to welcome home’s ever climbing 1.2 million tag followers. the welcome home tag absolutely just blew up and kept blowing up after its initial rise to fame in march 2023, but tadc’s tag is still similar in followers to the number it had back in october. i blame it on the fucking content farms. sure, tadc has millions of views of youtube, but how relevant is it really?

sure, the welcome home fandom is generally regarded as shitty thanks to all the fucking idiots who couldn’t listen to clown’s guidelines on nsfw content for the few months before they created a tag for that specifically and because of all the weird as fuck aus people have created, but at least we’re not that. at least we don’t have content farms like fucking lankybox completely sucking the enjoyment out of our media of choice and over saturating the search results we get when looking up the names of our hyperfixes.

i cannot stress enough how grateful i am that welcome home’s main way of being interacted with is its website. lankybox and all other content farms can’t milk that. what small child would want to watch them aimlessly click around the website and try to find all the secrets? how is that marketable? how can you make putting in letter combinations into the url and clicking on everything pops up something to scream at your camera about? answer: you can’t. that’s what’s so great about it. there is almost no possible way anyone under age, what, ten? would want to watch someone interact with the website and uncover its lore which makes it practically useless to every single content farm out there.

so, yeah. once again, thank you clown for making your funny little puppet show horror project a silly website with its own secrets and codes rather than a video game. thank you for executing mascot horror in such a great way that content farms have simply not found a way to milk it in the almost year since its initial explosion in popularity. don’t forget to wave up high!

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Koopa Clown Car

Debut: Super Mario World

In today’s edition of “things from the Mario series that no one really questions because they’re used to it but are really quite weird when you think about it”... it’s the Clown Car! 

If I asked you what our frightening demon king Bowser here would use as a method of transportation, would you answer “a flying propeller capsule with a clown’s face on it”? Probably yes, because it’s so iconic! But why! What is it, even?

It’s called a car, but I think we can confidently say that's not the case (especially when Bowser has an ACTUAL car!) The wiki says it resembles a helicopter, and I suppose that is the closest thing there is, but that’s nothing like any helicopter I know! The propeller should be at the top, for one! 

And the clown face! Oh, the clown face! Without a clown’s icon red nose, mind you! Not just the one face, but a variety of expressions, with blinking eyes and all! Is this thing sentient, or rather, should I be concerned about that, when nearly all objects in the Mario world have faces? I dunno!

Do I sound outraged at all this? I’m really not! I actually quite like the Koopa Clown Car... it’s cute and silly! But Bowser sure looks awfully goofy sitting in there, all snug. Why, the only other thing that would be goofier, would be a hyper-realistic, muddy-textured Bowser in a Clown Car!

Yup, thanks Brawl. Remember when this was in The Subspace Emissary? That was weird!

But if Bowser looks silly using it, then surely it should go to someone else? A character, perhaps, who would fit the aesthetic of a funny flying machine that looks like a toy? Someone quite close to Bowser, even!

Ta-da! Enter the Junior Clown Car, Bowser Jr.’s new personal vehicle as of New Super Mario Bros. Wii! You can tell it’s different since the eyes are smaller, and it’s got more of a smirk than a grin. Besides it being completely adorable that he matches his dad, this little gadget quickly became a staple of Bowser Jr.’s character, appearing alongside him in nearly every game since!

Heck, this thing was so iconic, it even got him into Smash! I’ve seen people who violently dislike this, claiming that it's not “really Bowser Jr.”, or that he should use the paintbrush instead... And to that I say: phooey! They go together like bread and butter! It’s a lot more interesting for this spoiled little kid to pilot a childish mech equipped with all sorts of wacky gadgets! Not everything has to be a reference- sometimes things are just fun! 

The fact is, Bowser Jr. had something of an identity crisis after Sunshine, where they weren’t quite sure what to do with him. And the Koopa Clown Car was fairly underutilized, too... But they came together, and something beautiful blossomed! Shouldn’t we celebrate that? 

Look, it can even play tennis! With boxing gloves! How could you hate this? Do you hate fun? Do you hate folly? Do you hate joy and wonder, hm?

Of course, if you’re an avid Maker of Marios like myself, you likely associate the regular and Junior Clown Cars with Super Mario Maker, where they’re a brand spanking new object unlike anything else! They’re bouncy, you can put anything in there, and you can even ride them yourself! I don’t know why they did this! But it’s pretty great! Look at how HD this render is!

So was the Senior Clown Car (name pending) mostly retired after this? Quite the opposite, my inquisitive reader! It shows up in the very same game that introduced the JCC (acronym pending), in Bowser Jr.’s final boss fight! And here it is in New Super Mario Bros. 2, with all of the Koopalings trying to squeeze in there. How silly! Lemmy doesn't even get a seat!

So alls well that ends well, huh! This bizarre little orb of clownliness made its way into a series staple, and our lives are all better for it! Thank goodness clowns are unanimously loved by all, with no negative connotations in popular culture whatsoever! And thank goodness we’re still not done, because there’s MORE clown cars to talk about under the cut! This post is gonna kill me!

In a certain update for the aforementioned Mario Maker, the Clown Car gets a snazzy new paint job in the form of the Fire Koopa Clown Car (or the Fire Junior Clown Car, in this case)! It can spit out fireballs from its suspiciously puckered lips, letting you basically make shoot-em-up levels! Hot!

Speaking of Mario Maker, you can make the Clown Car do this face by playing as Link, and dropping a bomb while riding it. Uh... Great! Try it on your friends.

RemoCon Geta! Er... Clown. RemoCon Clown. In NSMBWii, Bowser Jr.’s second boss fight involves grabbing a Clown Car of your very own and duking it out in an electric arena! I LOVED this gimmick as a kid, and I’d replay the stage over and over just for this fight! So I guess Mario Maker kind of granted my wish, huh? On a different note, it’s very cute how “RemoCon” is a Japanese abbreviation for “Remote Controlled”. I think it’s more charming than just RC.

In Mario Kart DS, Bowser’s Hurricane kart has a Clown Car motif, but like, as an actual vehicle! Sorry it’s so low-poly. Mario Kart DS is just like that. 

Prefer the more klassic kind of klown? The Koopa Clown from Mario Kart 7 onwards has you covered! Yeah, it’s called that, despite arguably being MORE of a car than the original! That’s actually the Clown Car’s original Japanese name!

Say, that’s an awful lot of Koopalings. Don’t they get their own cars too?

Indeedaroo! Since all the Koopalings exist as alternate costumes for Bowser Jr. in Smash, they all get their very own Clown Cars! But they look a little off, with those cold dead eyes... according to the game’s Palutena’s Guidance, these are a mass-produced kind of Junior Clown Car, which I just love! Bowser Jr. gets preferential treatment for being Bowser’s son, while the Koopalings were... disowned, I guess. Isn’t it fun when Smash makes up new lore like that?

I don’t want to post all those images individually, so enjoy that screenshot of all of them from the wiki. It’s a lot nicer. You can look it up if you REALLY want to! 

And last but not least, it’s an actual clown car! Hey, at least it’s a real car this time!

Dang, that’s crazy. How do they all fit in there? Clowns are wild, man. 

[freakova]

Theory: Abe will NOT remove his stitches in Soulstorm

Since the Soulstorm trailer dropped, I've been thinking about it pretty much 24/7. I adored it and I really want to just talk about it and dissect everything. The stitches scene has got me thinking A LOT as I think it's one of the most interesting parts of Abe's character. So theory time. This is a long post and I am sorry for that. LONG POST. Sorry all but this game means a lot to me and I want to dive deep. Too deep. Let's go. 

So, quick introduction. Abe has stitches in his mouth. It is one of the most vital parts of his design that has been around since the first game’s concept art. The reason he has them is because he cried a lot as a baby due to what was going on around him. (QUOTE: "...The slaughtering of animals in RaptureFarms was affecting him deeply so he was crying a lot....Abe doesn't see the animals dying, he can just feel. He knows that he's in a horrible place."-Oddworld Abe's Origins Art book, which I will be referencing a lot in this) and as a worker and future slave, higher ups saw this as an issue that they didn't need. A runt. And unfortunately, runts are sometimes killed. To keep him alive, Sam (The captured Mudokon Queen/his mama) sews his mouth shut so he can’t cry and can still be sent to work. Abe however, never removes these stitches despite them being practically useless (they’re stretchy and worn; they're no more than a nuisance and something he’s mocked for by others (I.e. he is constantly called “stitch lips”). 

So let's start with the PS trailer, mainly this scene.

The narrator (one of the shamans, guessing the red one in this scene) says “You must find your full voice” and we see short/flashy clips of Abe holding a knife and dragging it over the inside of the mouth to break the stitches. My mind is blown and is 100% mush. It’s implied that he is removing them. But I don’t think he will. Not in soulstorm anyway. 

Firstly worth noting that we can presume that this particular scene takes place near the start of the game. (QUOTE: "...He never took the stitches out. That's where (Soulstorm) begins, with him being told that he needs to grow up and cut out those strings of oppression. He needs to find his voice and be a leader"-O:AO art book) 

With this in mind, look at the rest of the trailer, specifically when Abe is presumably getting his chest tattoo. 

He hasn’t removed his stitches here. He’s having to go to what looks like a shrine to get the new powers and when he collapses, you see the glow of his new tattoo. We can also presume that this part takes place after the stitches scene, as in both scenes we see Abe speaking to the shamans, he doesn't have his chest tattoo but still has his stitches. 

Now, you COULD argue that maybe Oddworld Inhabitants is tricking us and the final cutscenes will be swapped with models of Abe without stitches/tattoos in the final game. (Sometimes trailers will do that to trick the audience or show “early footage”.) I don’t think this is the case personally as these cutscenes look like they’re ready to be a movie; But I do want to point out something else.

Now, if there is one beauty with the Oddworld games is they can go from “emotional” to “clown house” in a second. Just like that when it’s needed. Oddworld is both super deep but super funny. Abe removing his stitches would be a HUGE moment. Now let's look at one of the screenshots we got alongside the trailer. 

This...looks a little silly! Like it's meant to be funny. He’s pulling a funny face as if he’s gnawing and struggling to break the material. Let's be honest, do we really think OI would make a silly “haha he’s struggling” joke over Abe removing his stitches? They’re jokers but I do not believe that they would joke about something as deep as “You are going to remove a very important part of your character”. It however makes far more sense to joke about Abe being unable to remove them and end up pulling silly faces IMO. 

Also worth noting that in that first screenshot, he is removing his left stitches. But in this shot from the trailer, it was his right stitches and in both shots, all the stitches are intact. Why would he change which stitches he cuts out first? Perhaps the joke is he can't remove them and is attempting to cut different sides at different angles?

Now I could just leave that there and be on my merry way BUT! Let me just dive just a little bit deeper. Perhaps too deep but here I am. 

It is clear that Abe has a lot of issues and it’s clear those stitches are important to him. But we’ve never really had full-on reference to them despite them being a vital part of his story. The stitches have been mentioned in interviews though. There’s of course the mention of them in the Abe’s Origins book where Lorne Lanning talks about how they are sentimental to Abe because they were given to him by his mother and they reflect why he got them. (QUOTE: “That’s the only real touch of humanity he ever had in his life, so he never takes those stitches out”-O:AO art book) Quick sidenote; You gotta bare in mind that this is the only time he would have ever seen his mother. She sewed Abe's mouth up so he could not cry. It's such a weird combination of wanting the best for a child but having to do something that is so horrible. "Cruel to be kind" as they say. Abe probably has very mixed, emotional feelings towards Sam because of it. (QUOTE: "We think his mother is cradling a baby but she's actually sewing his lips together while singing a lullaby and also crying herself".-Abe's Origins art book)

The entire reason why Abe has stitches is, in a nutshell, he's empathetic. He doesn't just feel the pain of others of his kind, but the animals from Rapture Farms too and that's what makes him so unique to the other mudokons. (QUOTE: "Abe has something special about him, which leads to why he has stitches, which leads to how empathetic he is. And in that empathy, he’s able to sort of embrace something that is part of their natural heritage and become something that the other guys aren’t necessarily encountering..." -EGX 2017: Lorne Lanning Interview). He's hurtin' and to be honest...so am I...

I want to bring up this interview as well that talks about  things in regards to Oddworld's lore...old yes but an interesting read. Lanning talks about Abe and compares the stitches to people that are blind/dead. QUOTE:  "...He’s holding on to them for reasons he doesn’t really understand. I’ve known people with hearing impairments, vision impediments, physical challenges in one form or another... ...someone says ‘You’re colour blind? We can fix that now!’ and the person says ‘You know what? I don’t want it fixed.’ I’ve witnessed that people hang on to their oddities or uniqueness even though the don’t always logically understand." To me, this is a very interesting take. Abe has this thing that makes his life hard yet he still doesn't do anything because he's ok with who he is. So why would be remove them early in this story? (We’re only in the second game afterall) 

Those stitches are important to Abe. They are something he can’t bring himself to remove because they are a precious reminder of who he is. They are a reminder for him and I just can't see them being taken out in the game where he's mostly going to learn about his people. 

"Find your full voice". 

Yes. Find it. But removing the stitches that brought you where you are now will not find your full voice.

Just as a little bonus, not really part of the theory, just thinking. Here's what I think could happen through soulstorm and maybe later down the road in regards to Abe:

In the "de-stitching" scene, I think they'll make it a serious moment when Abe is given the knife then it will turn comical where Abe has troubles taking the stitches out. Either he will give up and say he can't OR the shaman will just tell him not to (OR. haha. OR the shaman will tell Abe he isn't ready.) Also I think they'll never be mentioned again after that scene but OI? Feel free to prove me wrong.

If they ever DO come out (AKA in a future game) I imagine they'll come out much easier than what we see in the trailer. No stretching or struggling. It will be like a wobbly tooth; it will come out when it's ready.

I imagine Abe will at least keep the stitches when he meets Sam.  This is based on zero evidence I just like to think of angst lol

I have a feeling Abe is going to lose some of his Empathy throughout the series and that may be why you’re given the choice to keep everyone alive in SS. Based on a few things but I won’t digress, just a thought. 

TL; DR? That’s cool. All in all, I don’t think Abe will take those stitches out. Maybe at some point in later games but not now. He's not ready. All in all, I’m crying and can’t wait for Soulstorm.

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: MOVIE REVIEW: Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

(Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.)

BIRDS OF PREY (AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN)— 2 STARS

Yowzers. That’s one long subtitle. What an interesting choice of terms too. There’s emancipation signaling “the act of being freed.”  And then you have fantabulous as its adjective slinging its slang of “remarkably good.” That extra announcement goes from silly to proper in consecutive words. When it comes to the movie being sold, ahem, excuse me, presented, proper is nowhere to be found when the silly is everywhere.  There is certainly fun to be had, but to shoot to fantabulous is going to count as overselling and the liberation most desired will be to escape this fever dream.

To begin planting tongues firmly in cheeks, Birds of Prey is essentially (and let the stretching begin) a break-up movie.  The former Dr. Harleen Quinzel has been tossed to the curb by the off-screen Joker.  This split crushes her previously submissive need to serve and removes the aura of protection she had as the main squeeze of the Clown Prince of Crime.  Once word gets out she’s touchable, seemingly every living former victim, mark, fool, prey, stooge, and sucker that Harley Quinn has ever wronged comes out of the rotting Gotham City woodwork to enact a measure of revenge.

LESSON #1: HOW TO NOT DEAL WITH A BREAKUP— Oh my.  Drama! Drama! Drama! Harley clearly didn’t receive very clear closure from “Mr. J.”  Her responses are drunken benders, purging symbols, and blowing up places she shared with her batty beau.  Even if he returns cackles, talking to an adopted pet hyena isn’t enough. Let the parade of bad decisions begin.  

Being left to her own maniacal whims is where Harley’s emancipation comes into play.  The supporting squeeze is hurt and healing. She is trying to become an independent leading lady.  The movie runs into the same adversity with momentum and purpose. While Margot Robbie is an undoubtedly nuclear radiation star and a blast to behold squawking her crassness, there is not quite enough standalone lore for the Harley Quinn character without the Joker.  Much like having a Venom movie without Spider-Man, something feels missing in this post-breakup evolution.

The supplemental support squad being served in Birds of Prey is a brash bevy of belles all with their own bruised exteriors and damaged souls.  Crossing the hopscotch path of Harley is the high-kicking and high-noted singer Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), grizzled Gotham City detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), the deadly crossbow wraith Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and the teenage thief Cassandra Cain (newcomer Ella Jay Basco).  They are quite the downtrodden rabble who perk up and turn into different people, for better or worse, around Harley.

LESSON #2: HOW TO NOT DEAL WITH ADVERSITY IN LIFE— All four of these less-than-fair maidens have male-imposed obstacles of crap on their respective greasy plates. Cassandra flees an caustic foster father for the streets.  Helena is on a path of gangster retribution revenge for her slain family. Renee is at a professional dead-end below a distrusting C.O. that takes all of her credit. Lastly, Dinah is trapped working for an oppressive boss.  Their collective answers to all of these always include violence rather than savvy decisions. Buyer beware, 95% of the men in this movie are the enemy. Those 95% may deserve it, but good luck with full sympathy for all the bad imitative behavior.    

Everyone’s mutual opposition is Dinah’s boss Roman Sianis.  Played with odd hustle and warped gusto by Ewan McGregor, Roman is an emerging crime lord and seedy club owner looking to rise in the Gotham crime ranks and power vacuum of an absent Joker.  His right-hand henchman is a slow and knife-happy Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina). Those two killers and the crews are after old scores with Harley and a McGuffin diamond stolen by Cassandra connected to Helena’s past.  

If you’re a fan of the comics, Birds of Prey borrows liberties the way Nicolas Cage steals historical documents.  For many, Bumblebee writer Christina Hodson is bastardizing the process of fleshing out who are supposed to be Black Canary, Huntress, Batgirl, Black Mask, and the real serial killer of Victor Zsasz.  If you haven’t figured out from the lessons so far, failures occur more than victories for all involved, well, at least until the tidy and bombastic climax you know is coming wipes some of the blood away for smiles.  This is a movie making questionable creative choices. Buy, hey, whatever works and looks cool for a comic book movie, right? 

Occupying the mind and pace of Harley Quinn begets a little scatterbrained style. That is never this movie’s problem. mother! Cinematographer Matthew Libatique was the right hire to put us in a wheeled chair and spin us around the sets and locations from Her production designer K.K. Barrett.  The high-end carnival action and stunts coordinated by second unit director Jonathan Eusebio are visceral and entertainingly creative.  More riotous than the chipper classic rock of Guardians of the Galaxy, folks are going to jam to hate rock playlist arranged by music supervisor Gabe Hilfer.     

LESSON #3: HOW TO MAKE NOT MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES— Unfortunately, the discombobulation is too much and matches that iffy weirdness of the hit-and-miss treatment of the subject matter.  That goes back to Hodson and the DCEU powers that be. For 109 minutes, we get a whole bunch of “a pinch of this” and “dash of that.” Anything that sticks is something you don’t want like gum on the bottom of your show.  Anything attempting to be meaty feels like it was burnt, dropped on a dirty floor, and then sprinkled with sugar. The goal with the punches and hammer shots is to smash and grab your money. For that, it will work in spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds.

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#857)

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