#Subverse Game

[wombocombo4x3]

I Think I Installed The Wrong Atomic Heart...

[strangesmallbard]

they’re all aimed at the first guy btw

[lopposting]

me tryna not get pressed over youtube vidya over pino souls story

[inkblotsonmyhands]

***SPOILERS FOR THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES (HUNGER GAMES PREQUEL) BY SUZANNE COLLINS***

suzanne collins just repeatedly pulls the best of a given genre, and what i love about tbosas is that it completely subverts the manic pixie dream girl trope.

the story opens with coriolanus snow, small-minded in his outlook, traumatized by war, starving, struggling to make his way in the world where nothing but his name holds value. he meets lucy gray baird, and instantly, she's the classic manic pixie dream girl. she sings, she wears a rainbow dress, she believes in the goodness of people, despite the fact that her life is as difficult as it gets. in standard trope fashion, she and snow are bound to each other by plot devices: he's meant to be helping her with something, but in reality she has more to help him. she says that nothing they can take from her is worth keeping—because everything she has doesn't have a name. this directly contrasts snow's position where his last name is all he has.

over time, snow begins to realise just how dire her situation is, gets actively more and more concerned about her dying, and eventually falls in love with her. she expands his world, she charms him (and everyone else), and quite literally saves his life. snow believes in debts, and when he owes his life to her, he cannot help but appreciate her for it. she falls for him too—she believes he's a good person, possibly because he's the only one in the capitol to be even remotely nice to her, combined with her genuine belief in goodness and apparent tendency for somewhat toxic relationships.

that's where the subversion starts. despite falling for snow, lucy gray's life does not revolve around him. the song she sings in her interview is about her past relationship, which greatly irks snow who has become incredibly possessive of her. possessiveness is often depicted as a desirable trait in stories with a mpdg angle, but suzanne immediately shows it as controlling and somewhat sinister, despite the story being from snow's pov.

they both end up in district 12, lucy gray as a victor, and snow as a disgraced peacekeeper. it's here that suzanne fully veers away from the more tropey aspects of such a relationship. snow enjoys listening to lucy gray sing, but is constantly upset when she doesn't sing about him, possessively thinks of her as "his girl", and clearly wants control over her life. he doesn't even enjoy all her music, disliking the more freestyle non-lyrical pieces that lucy gray and the covey clearly take a lot of pleasure in. when lucy gray takes him to the lake and meadow, snow enjoys it but hates the birds, mockingjays, that lucy gray loves. typical mpdg arcs often involve the the nature-loving girl taking the city boy to a peaceful outdoors place, showing him all the things she loves about it, and making him love them too. snow never loves the mockingjays and even makes a sport out of shooting them, and thus never appreciates the true reason why lucy gray loves that place. he appreciates it for her as his possession, but not for the freedom that it all represents. he gets increasingly uncomfortable as he starts to realise that free-spirited lucy gray no longer is dependent on him in her own turf, while he still owes his life to her.

when snow kills billy taupe and lucy gray says that this makes up for her saving his life, we see the shift truly happen. snow's debt has been repaid, and his love for lucy gray begins to fall apart without the debt tying him to her. her rebellious tendencies aggravate his capitol heart, and he starts being unable to confide in her when he does things such as inform the capitol of sejanus's escape plan.

in the final scene in the woods, we watch it all unravel. they're both equals, having killed three people each, but snow attempts to lie to lucy gray about his third kill and she realises it. she retaliates by running away and setting a snake on him. snow retaliates to that by chasing her with a loaded gun. he drowns the evidence of his second kill, frees himself of any ties to his dark past, and returns to the capitol where he believes he belongs, forgetting lucy gray and anything he learned from her.

the manic pixie dream girl does not save the desolate boy. it was never her intention to and it was not her life's goal. the boy could never be saved by anyone anyway; the only thing that might have saved him was himself, and suzanne displays repeatedly how he was never truly willing to broaden his perspective right from the start.

i love this because typical mpdg stories make the boy a victim and the girl burdened with healing him and saving him from going down a dark path, but here, it is repeatedly emphasized that snow is a victim of his own making and lucy gray goes through his life on her terms only, trying the change him out of care and the goodness of her heart but leaving him and prioritising herself when she realises that there is no point.

to summarize, lucy gray does not wear a necklace of rope besides the dead man; instead, she flees.

[suitmana]

i will be the first to admit that this might be reaching a bit. also discussions of religious concepts in lgts ahead

so catholicism in lgts is explored through the struggles of living in a small catholic town like kieferberg, and literally everything about walpurga, the forest deity turned saint. but imo there's also something to be said about how elise obtains the tender flesh: this might be a reflection of the sacrament of the eucharist as understood during the medieval era.

but what is the eucharist anyway? 

in catholic doctrine the eucharist is supposed to be the body of christ manifested through transubstantiation: the transformation of bread and wine into his flesh and blood respectively. this is based on the events of the last supper in the bible, wherein before his death jesus offers his body to his disciples through the bread and wine that they share. thing is, current understanding of transubstantiation is moreso in a metaphysical sense: catholics who do believe in it don’t actually think that they’re eating jesus’ physical body.

that wasn't always the case with medieval catholicism, however. there were theorists like st aquinas and berengar who argued for a metaphysical transubstantiation, but powerful church officials like cardinal humbert (who actually forced berengar to recount his claims) also believed that the faithful partaking in the eucharist were actually eating the literal, physical flesh and blood of jesus. there was quite a bit of concern too because of this: the body of christ, torn apart and chewed on by not just the faithful, but potential sinners? 

the average catholic of that time probably didn't care much for the specifics of how transubstantiation worked (either way, the bread is/represents jesus, whether or not that was physical or not), but the point is there was an ongoing debate—if only among high-ranking church officials and theologians—about what the eucharist really was. now keep in mind that aforementioned literal physicality of the eucharist, and how similarly that plays out to the relevant witching hour segments in lgts.

i want to first highlight the scene where the crows in murim's domain rip out parts of elise's hair for the wheat testament:

and the aftermath:

they sure are hungry, huh? and the way they get at elise is pretty violent, judging by her screams and the sounds of tearing flesh. their carnal hunger, expressed through their lines and the violence in how they form the wheat testament from her hair, brings to mind similar fears of an animalistic, near sacrilegious ingestion of a certain sacred body turned bread, only this time realized in a demonic trial. in other words, the entire trial subverts christ's supposed physical presence in the bread. besides, it's stated outright that elise is meant to physically combine a piece of her body—her hair—into that wheat. 

she does just that in the windmill:

her hair baked into the (apparently unleavened) bread is the tender flesh that the crows hungered for, that would eventually find its way onto ozzy's table.

so the process of acquiring the tender flesh seems to imitate that transubstantiation in the celebration of the eucharist. if that's the case, i wonder why ozzy and his minions would design them this way…

btw here's my sources for medieval transubstantiation (despite my unhinged rambling i did do a bit of research):

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23964057 (Ego Berengarius by Chadwick, H., 1989)

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/some-later-medieval-theories-of-the-eucharist-9780199658169 (Some Later Medieval Theories of the Eucharist by Adams, M. M., 2010)

[kimbapisnotsushi]

reasons why the aftg cast would make such a good howl's moving castle (og dwj book version) au

sophie and neil have the same hair color

howl and andrew have the same hair color

andrew being a "monster" and howl being "heartless", and all it takes is someone to see right past that (albeit being a bit dense about it at first)

on that note. both neil and sophie being incredibly dense overall ("oh he must love miss angorian very much!" vs "doesn't mean i wouldn't blow you")

neil is a mouthy little shit and you can't tell me that wouldn't work great for yelling at inanimate objects and turning them magical

instead of howl going back to visit his niece and sister in wales we could have andrew visiting nicky and aaron instead. or aaron and katelyn and their kid?

renee instead of calcifer, maybe, although i'm not quite sure what kind of deal they'd have for this to work out

riko would make the perfect witch of the waste. he's just as dramatic and showy and full of it

hmmmm but the real villain all along was the fire demon who had the witch's heart . . .

anyways. robin in place of michael?

NEIL'S UNCLE IS LITERALLY A HATFORD. HATFORD. HATTER. NEIL COULD STILL BE A HATTER.

i still want the whole angsty tragic backstory tho so i'll figure out how to connect that later

jean and kevin in place of wizard suliman and prince justin (in the sense that the witch wanted suliman and justin to create the "perfect man" vs how riko wanted the "perfect court")

instead of having siblings to fuss over him the way martha and lettie do with sophie neil has matt and dan

WAIT. KEVIN AS HOWL INSTEAD AND ANDREW AS CALCIFER. NEIL WHO MAKES THE DEALS WITH ANDREW. ANDREW WHO IS PROTECTING KEVIN AND NEIL.

and THEN we can have jean and jeremy in place of suliman and justin?

okay hold on i'll have to adjust some things but. i think i can make this work

i mean any way you look at it sophie bickers with both howl and calcifer and neil bickers with both kevin and andrew. it works.

[bees-tes-blog]

idk I think I would be more interested in tes lore if any of the unique stuff was actually incorporated in the games in any way

[carlyraejepsans]

with toriel and asgore it's like. they're both flawed and their flaws parallel one another, but they're not EQUALLY flawed... like..... come on......

[caliburn-the-sword]

i CAN'T keep reading y/a dystopian fiction and then being surprised EVERY single time when the young sweet loveable character dies. i nearly CRIED in maths today and it wasn't because i was getting my marks back. in the future i will make sure to not get attached to the kid character ever again

[cannibalmetaphor]

something interesting I think in cinema is how gendered the descent into violent madness is. generally, the man is cold, vacant, empty. he is violent in an emotionless way. I’m thinking patrick bateman, I’m thinking funny games. and yet the woman’s descent into madness is so full of emotion. it is a build up of feeling. its release is cathartic. you are rooting for her, you are empathetic for her, you understand why she does what she does. when you watch female centric horror films as a woman - such as the black swan, or may, or perfect blue, or possession, or phantom thread, or even pearl - you are always aware that in another world, they could be you. women’s violence in cinema is always subversive. male violence is often just a reflection of our reality.

[annalyticall]

I miss Mob Psycho 100

[fragmentofmemories]

while i was drawing characters for [REDACTED] i was thinking "hey i should probably draw a maid with short, purple hair and have her be the innkeeper."

then i remembered eou did that and i've never sulked so hard before...

[touchoffleece]

Based of that one screenshot from the trailer for the Indigo Disk a few days back

(Edited meme for easier reading of wall of text^) pretty likely spoilers below the cut for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC:

I am not sure if that was Kiran because I haven't finished The Teal Mask but I got far enough to guess something like what the trailer hinted at was coming based off how much Juliana/Florian/MC was getting put on a pedestal from Kieran. I only got to the part where Grandpa talks to MC and Carmine about the family secret, so I might be wrong. My hopes are that if that was Kieran at least when we get to Blueberry Academy we get Carmine as a friend. 🤧

[mirror-ralsei]

PREDICTIONS: Ralsei

or, why this pile of rock is going to tear my heart out

Ralsei is a Titan.

"The unending pillar of darkness that gives my body form" dedication in Ralsei's manual matches Ralsei's description of Titans "tak[ing] form from the FOUNTAINS"

Ralsei's body completely disappears when downed

Ralsei was first completely shadowy and amorphous within his hooded cloak, then a bit more defined but still shadowy under his hat, before finally settling on a more visible form at the end of Chapter 1

Just before removing his hat, for a couple of frames Ralsei's sprite changes his paw color from black to white. As well, where Ralsei previously had black paws in various animations such as clapping or spell use, they are now white in Chapter 2. These suggest that Ralsei's shadowy appearance is not simply caused by the shade from his hat.

Ralsei's initial description is a somewhat ambiguous "Dark-World being"

Unlike normal Darkners, Ralsei does not turn to stone and can seemingly teleport between Dark Worlds at will

Ralsei is the sole denizen of Castle Town, an area seemingly abandoned or evacuated, where Titan-like eye marks and darkness covers the land

Ralsei knows a lot about the Roaring

"Do not be alarmed... I am not your enemy." is one of Ralsei's first words to Kris and Susie

Ralsei wants to redeem himself for participating in the last Roaring by stopping it from happening again.

Again: Ralsei is the sole denizen of Castle Town, an area seemingly abandoned or evacuated, where Titan-like eye marks and darkness covers the land

Ralsei’s portrait/sprite when talking about the Roaring seems haunted

Ralsei says “I...I’m sorry!!! I repent!!!” in the generally foreshadowy Poppup dialogue

However, Ralsei is an unwitting pawn in a greater villain's scheme.

Ralsei is characterized as overly keen to follow orders.

Poppup dialogue: “Ralsei moved to click on an ad with a bunny on it teaching you how to make friends... ...and accidentally clicked on an ad of a machine gun that appeared over it!” / “Ralsei tried to click on an ad with a castle on it... ...but it was actually an ad for a company that demolishes buildings with bazookas!”

Again: Poppup dialogue: “I... I didn’t mean to do it... I... I’m sorry!!! I repent!!!”

In order to fix his mistakes or save the world, Ralsei may sacrifice himself, perhaps becoming the Waterfall statue in Undertale.

Undyne states "That statue's been here forever... No one knows where it came from." This description seems similar to Gerson's explanation of the Delta Rune: "That emblem actually predates written history. The original meaning has been lost to time..."

The statue is greyscale and cracked, like Darkners such as Lancer when turned to stone

The statue has horns, like Ralsei (note that the direction of Ralsei's horns varies across sprites/portraits and concept art, sometimes being turned inward and other times outward)

The statue is associated with the song "Memory," which is associated with Asriel, who appears connected to Ralsei

The statue in Waterfall may have been part of the original Royal Memorial Fountain before Mettaton's statue replaced it

If so: Ralsei is associated with all three concepts of a "Royal Memorial Fountain," being a prince who is made from a Dark Fountain and, as "memory" is a prevalent theme in Deltarune and Ralsei sings its "Don't Forget" motif in battle, with remembrance as well

Other things:

Ralsei appears self-aware in the same way as Jevil and others.

"(SAVE and take a break anytime you want, OK?)"

"Even if it's not real, you can still have fun, right?"

"It seems like it was just a corrupted program."

There may be multiple "Ralsei"s in some way.

“They [two Ralsei plushes] are both correct. Both beautiful.” (Toby Fox on Ch 1 Livestream)

“Every Ralsei is equally beautiful.” (Toby Fox on Ch 1 Livestream)

“I just wonder what... being “Ralsei-like” even is...?”

Unknown: why does Queen not notice Ralsei?

“How Thoughtful You Two Have Come To Help Me / Kris, Susie / Which One Of You Wants To Be The New Knight”

“Hey Was There A Third Guy?????????”

“I Will Miss Each Of You / Noelle, Your Un-needed Honesty / Susie, Your Foolish Bravery / Kris, Your Chill Vibes / ... / B...Burghley?”

Unknown: why does Ralsei (seemingly) know about the ThornRing?

"..." if given

(screenshots: 1 2)

DISCLAIMER: this is a predictions post, just laying out the predictions that i have currently and my personal reasoning. eg. i am by no means the first or only person to consider titan ralsei rofl

[anarchy-in-new-vegas]

I just got reminded about one of the funniest bits of lore from the Assassin's Creed games. Canonically, they confirm the real world conspiracy theory that the dead guy in Hitler's bunker at the end of WWII isn't Hitler, but actually his body double to be true in the game world. However, after killing his double, Hitler walks out of the bunker to escape and is immediately killed by an Assassin. Like he gets about 200 feet into his plan to fake his death and escape capture before getting stabbed in the neck and dying.

The early games loved conspiracy theories so much that you expect them to play this straight and have Hitler get away, but no. He tries. He dies.

[gebo4482]

Subversive Memories