#another eden brainrot is real

[its-short-for-jackalope]

lol okay, hi.

i know ive been memeing about it tonight but i have some actual serious thoughts & feelings about Pulp Musicals rn so I'm going to ramble!

⚠️ This will contain spoilers for the first episode, The Great Moon Hoax !

Okay so one of my favorite, favorite songs in this episode is "John's Choice." (I will be listening to it on loop while I make this post.)

I love the whole song but I absolutely adore the part when Herschel is telling the crowd that the story is true. He adopts the phrasing that is familiar and easily recognizable after the "Great Astronomical Discoveries," we've heard, but now we hear it from his perspective, and my god it doesn't seem like it would do much but the shift in pronouns (he to I, his to my, etc) is SO impactful! (Especially when you're listening for the first time and you're expecting him to reveal the hoax like he'd said he was going to!) It gave me major chills the first time I heard it, and I still get chills every time. Every time.

Another bit that makes me go insane is when we get the line "I pointed it at the moon, our companion," and then the chorus/ensemble chimes in with "Always there, watching us, from Eden to Edinburgh. As we grow..." and then Herschel picks it up again with "As she glows," and he keeps going. But here it's the ensemble that gets me.

In "Great Astronomical Discoveries, Pt. 1" it's just Samuel and Rose singing those lines. Now, we're hearing the crowd singing them, and I think that's really cool and interesting. To me, it really reflects how it's a story that's grown and been passed around a lot, that people have been talking about it and telling each other. The crowd chiming in is like when someone interrupts to finish a story they already know by heart, or when people start singing along to a beloved song that's being played by a stranger in the street.

The crowd that's gathered at The Sun already know this story, and they start singing with Herschel because they already know all the words. It's not just his story—it has become theirs, too. And that just does something in my brain. Like.. it shows how much this story about the moon means to everyone, how important it is. (As Margaret says: "So many people have nothing to believe in...") They're so happy that Herschel is saying it's all real that they can't help but tell the story with him. And the way they whoop and cheer when he says it's true? That's beautiful.

...aaaaand also pretty tragic and heartbreaking if you think about the fact that we all know it really IS a hoax, haha oops, but we'll just not think about that right now, okay? okay. 😅

Of course, I can't ramble about my favorite things in this song without a huge shoutout to Curt Mega for his amazing singing. He puts so much feeling into this song in his roles as Benjamin and John. As Benjamin, we get to hear his vindication, frustration, and impatience, as well as his anger when his plan backfires. As John, singing about his made-up telescope, we can hear so much passion. Herschel's really trying to sell the story now, and I'd say he does a damn good job of it. (Sorry Benjamin!)

Basically, this song really lets Curt show off, and I am so grateful for that because my ears and my brain have been blessed. Thank you Matt, thank you Curt. 🙏🖤

now that I'm done rambling for the time being, I am currently in the middle of an art project that I'm hoping to finish tonight, so I'm gonna try and get back to that. If anybody else wants to add their thoughts, I welcome it!!! please, come experience brainrot with me!!!! :D

someday I'd love to make more posts like this (but hopefully better and more organized) so we'll see if that actually happens lol. I love this show so much. I wanna talk/write about it. 😍

[viridiave]

Octopath but make it Pokemon

Indulging in a little crack because I lost to that fucking direwolf several times in a goddamn row so let's go Pokemon AU 

You play as Kit probably but not only are you a fatherless protagonist you don't have a mother now either

So idk man maybe he just stumbles into Flamesgrace and they were like 'tf are you stumbling around without a pokemon for here go fetch kid 

And this is how Kit gets a church-sanctioned starter pokemon

Archbishop Josef's like 'hey you should totally challenge my daughter Ophilia she's a Gym Leader on the side' 

Minutes before getting poisoned 

So Kit challenges the slightly neurotic sister who's having a bit of a meltdown over the rituals that now have to be rescheduled but like who reschedules a religious event this important?? 

And her whole gimmick is Friendship Evolutions 

Including a very protective Espeon 

She tells him to move onto the next gym down south in a hurry as she goes back to check up on her dad and Kit's like aight 

She ends up following him after that cuz not only has she been sent on forced leave but now she's also carrying the literal flame of gods that protects the world from devastation unites all people within their nation 

And Kit's very cool with this because he's seen how much ass she can kick 

So they make it to Atlasdam to make a stopover and while Ophilia's taking care of her business she tells Kit to challenge the local Gym Leader 

The problem was that their local Gym was underground and that the Gym Leader was currently preoccupied with being in Ace Attorney Investigations 3 rather than Pokemon Rogue and Noble like the script tells him to so Kit helps him with that first 

This Gym Leader uses Fossil Pokemon and will not stop talking about literally everything no matter what he did 

So not only is Kit getting his ass kicked he's also being given a lecture on gemstones and theft laws 

Kit swears Cyrus's Archen looked apologetic when the professor started talking about rock formations 

Kit wins, which is great, because that got the professor to stop talking and instead congratulated him on his win 

So Kit meets up with Ophilia again in the square, and they're about to head out when they see Cyrus again at the gate with a briefcase and the explanation that he got booted out of the academy on false charges of p*d0philia and is now out to look for a book 

'Professor it's been literally half an hour since I stepped out of your gym what the hell were you DOING' 'A lot can happen in half an hour, as it turns out! Now where to, fellow travelers?' 

Ophilia and Kit now have to deal with the lectures that they are too polite to try and interrupt 

They hoof it down to Rippletide where they witness a robbery 

And in no time at all they were dragged by the ears by a tiny merchant with surprising strength to drug the culprits 

Kit, Ophilia, and Cyrus decide to commit crimes, and perhaps Cyrus is a little too excited at the prospect of drugging pirates 

So they succeed and kick the pirate's asses- and meet this cool guy Leon Bastralle why they were at it 

While they were having lunch at the tavern after this whole thing the merchant plops herself down next to them with a grin and says 'sooooooooooo wanna challenge the Gym?' 'there's a Gym in this town???' 

Tressa decides to take this moment to flex her team of shiny Pokemon- including like three different Meowths that all throw money at Kit's Pokemon 

They may be Bifelgan incarnate but they stand no chance against Kit's protagonist powers so Tressa gives him the badge 

Right as they exit Rippletide Tressa just decides she wants to travel like that cool merchant that saved them earlier so her parents just take care of the gym they guess??? 

Point is they're a lot richer now in the routes between Rippletide and Cobbleston where oh hello- there's been a kidnapping 

They all help out this burly big dude named Berg and Cyrus keeps throwing him and the gigantic sword on his hip suspicious looks 

But it's not until they confront the baddies and Berg's Aegislash pops out that Cyrus squeals in delight because aREN'T YOU THE UNBENDING BLADE OH MY GODS THEY SAID YOU WERE DEAD CAN I TROUBLE YOU FOR AN INTERVIEW OVER TEA LATER- 

Meowth's out of the bag and Olberic comes clean about his past after they rescue his not-kid 

Cyrus does not leave him alone after this. Because on top of being a professor he's also just one massive history nerd. Olberic is surprisingly alright with this arrangement. 

He's also surprisingly okay with leaving his massive technicality of a gym leader status to the leader of the dude they just took in for murder and pillaging because hey didn't Gaston's men literally skin a dude alive for his wallet 

But Olberic has a revenge quest to go on so it's fine

 TL;DR: Kit is on a journey with a funky starter Pokemon, and instead of being sorted by type the Gym Leaders have gimmicks cuz why not

Ophilia has friendship evolutions, Cyrus has fossil pokemon, Tressa has shiny pokemon, and Olberic is uhhhh Double Battles, I guess 

Does this have a Part 2? No. not yet anyway. 

[bbnibini]

ahh solovers who were there around the time of launch for obey me (or at least, were there when season 1 was the only season) seem to also have had a knack for satan it seems~ me too! the very first posts i made on obm tumblr were analyses on what we knew about satan. how his unicorn symbol on the RAD council room banner might represent the loss of purity through the consumption of knowledge in the garden of eden; how he may feel less real than his brothers due to his birth being inherently tied to their loss of purity, being born of ever-growing hatred and misplaced “righteousness”.

pretttyyy sure solovers may have a thing for bringing justice to those who cannot speak for themselves, but enough about satan...

when season 2 rolled around and solomon showed us the dagger in the very first chapter i was begging for it to be for diavolo </3 now that i have a broader picture of diavolo as a person, i no longer harbor hatred for him, but i am still a bit wary. he hasn't had the chance to properly interact or connect, but no one seems to hold him accountable for the things that he's done wrong. i can also blame that on the poor writing from the devs, though—unless he's purposefully machiavellian underneath his lightheartedness... which he is, imo. he's lovely in all of his rightful glory but a lot of the things he's done don't sit right with me. curse that angel event that traumatized everyone once it came out like wtf sjdbksjw, good food tho! it just makes me think back to lucifer's chapter A ur devilgram where diavolo actually sounds fairly reasonable with his views. similar situation as satan before the devs changed...him...all for the fandom at the time :((

you're right, though! barbatos is someone who will turn his head away and choose to not speak with you, and we've seen how sharp-tongued simeon can get. solomon hasn't shown an ounce of bitterness towards anyone, if i recall correctly--even demons. he holds a reasonable perspective on them, and doesn't really force mc into that perspective, either. he only tells them what he believes and nothing more.

seeing so many mischaracterized posts of him makes me go [enter infinite negative keysmash here], but then i remember that i can just create my own fanfic & art content whether it be for the fandom or for my mc's lore, huhu

on another note, do you remember when the first april fools rolled around and everyone unanimously agreed that satan was the cause of all of the apps and profile pictures turning into cats? or how solomon didn't get a birthday event due to the then undateables turning into nowdateables a few days prior, but he still had his woeful birthday dialogue? good times... (╥﹏╥)

also!! never apologize for writing too much because i'm someone who has too much writer's brainrot for both the media I'm into and oc lore (whether it be my own or someone else's), so i totally get the “i want to say everything that i could possibly talk about in 6 hours and condense it into bite-sizes portions so i won't scare my new friends away” phase ♡ because me too tbh

Ooh, that's interesting! My reason for liking Satan back then was a lot more shallow--he just looked like my ultimate favourite character in one of my favourite franchises: Proto Arthur from the Fate series. I had a phase when I was really into Fate and the Arthurian legend, and Satan just managed to stay my favourite for a while because we share a lot of similarities and hobbies (reading books, liking cats, being obsessed with puns etc haha). He isn't my favourite now, of course. But I still really like him as a character. I really love the lore about him being a part of Lucifer gaining his own individuality, and his parallels with Arthur where he's insecure about being "boring", similar to how some Fate fans who did not read the light novel series and played the Prototype games assumed Arthur is just some "pretty boy with a boring personality".

(spoilers for Obey Me main story and devilgrams under the cut)

I am still quite baffled about that too, though I like everyone in the Obey Me cast now. I did notice Diavolo's machinations are not really seen negatively in the fandom, along with some inconsistencies with his character--one of the more recent events where the cast grew animal ears when they lie being one of them. I vaguely recall Diavolo saying that he hated lying and never lied, so I just found that weird because that isn't true at all. And the term "hating lying" is just really vague. Either way, I think one of the reasons why the fandom is a lot more forgiving with his schemes is because he left a favourable impression at the start. Solomon and how he was introduced wasn't the same.

Personally, I like how nuanced each of the cast is. The examples you described are actually the reasons why I think I personally like them, or perhaps why a lot of their fans like them as well. I love the OM cast because they're neither good or bad people. They're just people--they make mistakes. They're not perfect, they hurt each other etc. That applies to Solomon as well. What I don't like is how unforgiving the fandom is to Solomon's own nuance when all the other characters are also purposely morally grey. They always assume the worst of him when there's so much evidence that suggests he isn't a bad person. Questionable actions and decisions? Maybe. But all of the cast (except Luke perhaps) were the same.

I believe Solomon had been distrustful of demons before the MC changed his perspective. In hard mode, I recalled he made a pact with Asmodeus because he found out he was Lucifer's brother. There's also an official chart that the official OM social media posted where it showed how the cast members think of each other and Solomon's chart labelled all the demons as "toys". I don't think that applies now, but I am assuming OM didn't know what to do with Solomon and fumbled on his characterisation, hence there's so much inconsistencies about him. I feel like he was meant to be "seemingly questionable but misunderstood" and he had always been planned to be romanceable at some point (I mean...he's always been looking after the MC since the earlier main story), and they might have planned to give an explanation on why he acted the way he acted from the start, but by the time he was romanceable, it was too late. The fandom already formed impressions of him (of the unfavourable kind) and they started doubling down...with ambivalent results.

HAHAHA imagine trying to hide your love for Solomon for years. Couldn't be me. c': Back then, it was harder to defend him because everyone unanimously agreed he's "shady". I'm glad he's getting more appreciation now.

Haha! I was actually so sad he didn't get a birthday event when he became romanceable. I was sad for a while and got even sadder he was barely present in events. So when the circus event dropped, I swiped my card hard and ranked xD. It was a crazy time haha. I'm still mad I held back and didn't get his top-up card before. I'm curious what the "You are Evil" devilgram is about. I'm assuming DnD, which I have no clue about.

Same here! I like seeing you rant here in my ask. Glad to see another launch player because most of my friends who played with me since launch quit. :( And thanks for sending an ask! <3

EDIT: I forgot to mention I agree that the potential for a deeper plot in the Chapter A devilgrams was an opportunity lost. Belphie's Hide and Seek was one of my personal favourites. I believe the only chapter A UR I'm missing is Luke's.

[idealnreal]

Maruki Palace over-analysis (pt.1)

Thank you for @appleyjuiceboy​ for helping me out with this and entertaining my brainrot. and to @goalexstark​ for requesting this :D Now buckle in, put on gentle madman, and a whole lot of insanity under the cut

So the best place to start is outside the palace. Specifically, the external architecture of the palace. It’s clearly very contemporary even futuristic in its design, while holding an organic form. It’s design reminds me of rotating tower concepts with the way the first half of the tower curves and twists. And the palace itself does seem to rotate and shift, especially the components in the top half -- accentuating the organic and dynamic futuristic design. However, in comparison with most contemporary and organic architectural designs, the external architecture isn’t minimalist. There are various components, that make the design seem chaotic and even Extra. Of course this is a palace, and we should expect that.

The middle section of the palace is a twisting glass ‘stairway’, surrounding a golden almost ‘woven’ like structure. There is an elevator shaft running through the middle of it. This elevator leads to the garden of eden section of the palace. While the peak is a hologram of a globe, surrounding an amorphous golden form -- that seems to be the source of the light. Strangely enough we don’t see the tree of eden from outside. That would’ve been neat. But alas. The we come to the rotating rings, bound by these golden ‘wires’, and have these camera lenses attached to them.

So, the architectural style of the lab is futuristic, organic and dynamic -- and completely whack. This reflects how he thinks that his new reality is also effectively a new way, a new future -- breaking past the confines and rules of even the most contemporary of architectural design, and breaking past the confines and rules of life and reality.

All throughout the exterior of the palace there are these limelights and cameras, rotating about, focusing it’s lenses. This alludes to how he gives each patient his full attention, to be the centre of attention, to be in-focus. Alternatively, it could also suggest an over protective, surveying/ supervising mental state -- ever watchful for anyone in pain.

The entrance’s design, in comparison with the rest of the exterior, seems very straightforward. If you take away the glass atrium, the grey structure in the middle would actually be very imposing. The gold ‘wires’ arcs also surround this area, giving it an organic and dynamic design. Note that these aren’t doors, but an elevator. From the get go, Maruki is taking patients up, above ground.

Stepping out of the elevator, from the dark and up a flight of steps, into the light, we are greeted by a flight of doves-- accentuating the idea that the entrance hall is an open-aired space despite being indoors. This becomes a theme across the palace, going back and forth from high-ceiling and open-aired sections, to very closed and claustrophobic corridors. There are also those golden ‘wire’ arches decorating the ceiling of this entrance hall. In contemporary architecture, big atriums and open-aired spaces are meant to promote airflow and natural light, to give visitors a sense of ease and relaxation, while also being a respite from any harsh conditions outdoors. The sound of the doves taking flight add on to the peaceful and calm atmosphere.

Like all information boards, Maruki is showing people the benefits of his research, how it works, and most importantly, evidence that it does work -- that it is for the best. The amount of detail and the number of charts on these boards suggest that he is being transparent with his research -- and that it is scientifically proven. Of course, no one real (beyond the phantom thieves, shibusawa and the professor) has read this research. The people outside who’s cognitions he had changed, did not need to read this research -- they only needed to wish for happiness. Even so, these boards reflect his belief that if people know about his research, about how it works, they can be convinced into accepting his help. The cognitions who talk in the entrance hall also tell the PT to give it a try, and were understanding of any hesitance and were reassuring.

Also notice that the walls of the hall are lined with flower-beds, specifically wildflowers -- Calling back to Rumi’s love for the wild-flower field and Maruki’s youth with her. It also fits into the open-ness of this section that these are not potted deliberately arranged plants, and it would seem that these flowers just grew out in the patch of dirt and grass left for them.

Here, we come to the reception hall, where there are a few components to note. The first is probably the huge fan topping off the very high glass ceiling -- again, adding to the idea that this palace is all about natural light, air circulation and a breezy peacefulness. Then we have those golden wires/cable things (they actually remind me of computer cables), wrapped around these cameras and helping to prop them up and move them. THese cameras are also propped up by these black thin wires -- and the gold and the black -- hinting that there is more going on here. On the huge cameras themselves, now they seem more like surveillance cameras than the camera lenses outside. Adding credence to the idea that this is a big brother type situation, but one that is just reALLY keen on making sure everyone isn’t suffering and is happy.

The design of the reception itself is well organised, with lined benches and the calling numbers on full display. When i first played this section i thought that this was more like a hospital -- not a lab.

The next section is this green house looking area, with a tree and a garden in the middle and four TV screens. We don’t know if these screens are meant to play memories of anyone who comes by but that’s what we see-- Sumire walking in as her father is crying over Kasumi’s body. Importantly, after this section we see a cognition of Kasumi who sees and waves at Sumire, and then once we meet Maruki, he shows us another video from Sumire’s POV of the accident. Also the room we see the cognition of Kasumi and meet Maruki is a gymnastics arena.

This is important because we know that this is Maruki’s palace, and not Sumire’s. How is it that these POV memories are in this palace, and that Maruki would have a cognition of Kasumi? Of course one can argue that he created these memories and the cognition of Kasumi based on what he knows of Sumire/Kasumi -- and was doing this to manipulate her. But this definitely isn’t the case. He has never met Kasumi, and from what we can tell, he only had one session with Sumire, who didn’t really give any details of the accident itself to Maruki, or speak of her father to him. I doubt that Sumire as Kasumi would’ve spoken to Maruki about the accident after -- as she was more concerned about her gymnastic performance.

Perhaps this will get to personal headcanon territory, because the game doesn’t give us any answers on this. So Maruki is definitely an empath, and while that doesn’t give him the affinity to gain other people’s memories -- I believe that with Azathoth’s power and with this palace, it does. We know that he can see into people’s minds and know their pains and wishes -- which would very likely come in the form of memories -- whether it be persona users or mementos dwellers. Also, being an empath means that he can feel what another is feeling. Or rather if i can describe it -- letting someone walk through the door and change the furniture around. This is Maruki’s palace, and yet he is allowing Sumire to walk in and see her own memories from her point of view. Therefore, while i think that Maruki has access to some of these memories, they’re supplemented and brought into focus by the presence of Sumire. At least that’s what my hc is.

Speaking of the gymnastics arena, we arrive at our first colour switch of this palace. Dark purples and violets. It doesnt look like the walls or floors are purples/dark -- but instead some purple light, and that the big lights aren’t turned on on purpose. Like discussed before, this seems very much like Sumire’s section of the palace -- and Maruki allowing her to ‘move the furniture’

Something else to note thanks to juicedup14 from twitter for these translations of the banners, tickertape/crawler text, “We’ll watch over you always” “ The ideal reality you haven’t seen is waiting for you” “ May the world be a happy place where no one suffers”

And these posters, translated “ Let’s keep our hearts healthy”.

After a week we return to the palace and head to the Auditorium. This time, this is definitely Maruki’s section of the palace. Unlike the Arena, the Auditorium is a circular and bright hall, flanked all around with seats and podiums and screens for presentations. Yes, Maruki’s cognitions of people are fuckin creepy, but this is where they are the creepiest. They’re all sitting in rows, faceless and happy -- and have their hands together clapping. There is also a hologram of the globe topping off the ceiling -- like the hologram globe outside. This is where Maruki’s research will and has gained global recognition -- presented to thousands, and seen as the panacea to all ills and suffering of the world.

I went into more detail in my analysis of the shadows, but tldr; the cult-like vibe this palace, and especially this room, gives. However this ‘religion’ is founded on research, factual and scientific evidence. Which is why we have those presentation screens and all the information boards in this first third of the palace. And given how his research has been suppressed and ignored for years, it makes sense if those cognitions are his converted detractors, his followers, as well as his ‘patients’. Maruki doesn’t deny wanting his research to be recognised, and this is what this room is dedicated to. But like he says, and ultimately what the rest of this palace will show -- Maruki wants to heal the world at whatever the cost.

And with this i’ll probably close this off here. I reckon this will be one of four or five parts, kinda split to how the game splits this palace. This will be a long and wild ride ladies gents and enbees. Oof.