#basically there’s so much there for a really layered and good story with interesting aspects to explore and they deserve that

[kartsie]

Todd brain rot (and Sheila too I guess)

[sonkitty]

The Sideburns Scheme (Good Omens 2)

(Previous version: The Sideburns Scheme v1)

This post will likely be regularly updated as I process my thoughts.

Last Updated: 03/24/2024

This is short:

This is long:

There is more to to it than above, and we are going to work through that.

Crowley's sideburns change in length in season 2. I have worked out some of how and have some theory on why.

Space

The absolute most crucial thing to understand for my theory is space. Character presence, movement, and likely memory all impact the space, but the space decides the length based on those things. The space is practically a character reading the story with us and making decisions on what length to give Crowley in response.

If you walk away from my post with only one thing and one thing only, I want it to be this:

The Bentley is Crowley's own demon space, and the driver's door to that space is its primary threshold.

Effect

When I refer to the effect, I will specifically mean the changing of the length.

But what is the effect from that?

Each type of length probably provides a benefit of some kind since Crowley takes actions to get them one way or the other. Grasping what that is, is difficult to say the least.

We'll see what each space tells us because the spaces have different readings on Crowley as it is. There are lengths between short and long after all. Short is going to be considered a human space and long enough will be considered a demon space, to simplify things as best I can. I won't say "long enough" every time, just "long" and sometimes I will refer to a "longest-length."

On its most basic level, short trends human, and long trends supernatural with that length increasing depending on the supernatural elements within the space.

Even though the length is what I focus on, the sideburns even change on how full of hair they are, and sometimes aren't even...well, even.

Earthly Objects

So far as my own theories go, Earthly Objects is a large, difficult, hidden game that has findable solvable puzzles in Good Omens 2. It is a layered type of game. The characters themselves are playing it, some with a higher awareness than others. An audience member can play it by trying to figure out how the game itself works. I've played it in my attempts at understanding the sideburns. It is amazingly and infuriatingly complex.

The Earthly Objects game is somehow related to this Sideburns Scheme, which is also a game. Both deal with thresholds so encounter each other. Certain aspects of the Earthly Objects game hint at falsehoods in at least the tutorial sequence for the sideburns.

Even so, the message about how the sideburns worked is still true. This story is tricky like that.

As such, a lot of my analysis is still going to be on what is presented nonetheless. I'll note if and when I have a guess at its deceptive nature.

...

Another important component in my theorizing is that Good Omens 2 is especially interested in these three things: doors, windows, and pockets—especially pockets. We'll be seeing these things a lot within the spaces when studying the sideburns, especially once I get to making more in-depth posts.

The Past

The Season 2 present day storyline is broadly solvable for the sideburns without examining the minisodes.

The minisodes offer other things to examine more closely regarding the spaces themselves, but these things don't really seem to tell you how the sideburns work in the present day. One can look for parallels regarding the hair in the first two minisodes.

By this point, I think the third minisode, the one where Crowley has sideburns in 1941, is intentionally set up as a test because it reverses so much of how the present day sideburns work. When things aren't reversed, they at least don't quite match the season 2 present day. I'm reasonably sure of myself in a lot of this theory for the season 2 present day, so that's why I think this test is doing what it does. I will cover it more once I reach that point.

Still, the Job minisode offers a clue to pay attention to when a roof is around, which then actually gives a clue about the roof of Crowley's car in the ending credits.

Generally, the minisodes suggest to keep an eye out for fire and hats or head gear too.

...

Home Base Concept - The Bookshop

Aziraphale's bookshop is where a lot of the present day season 2 story takes place, and it is nearly a second home to Crowley. Aziraphale himself is an angel, or a former angel.

The bookshop's default reading on Crowley being with just Aziraphale—if later scenes in the story are any indication—is somewhere between short and long, a medium length that gets closer to proper human-space short when in a private room together.

That's a reading that recognizes Crowley as a supernatural entity but still giving something shorter than longer reading around other angels. Most likely, that's because Crowley and Aziraphale are supernatural friends whose relationship is very similar to human partners.

When other angels are around, the bookshop's reading on Crowley increases the length. It's most noticeable from Gabriel, but that's likely because Gabriel is the angel who is around for most of the story.

Muriel shows up later, and Muriel is an angel, yet the sideburns are short. What gives?

The bookshop takes Muriel literally when Muriel claims to be human. It probably helps that Aziraphale literally accepts this claim even if he is fully aware that Muriel is an angel. As such, the reading on Crowley is that being a demon who tends to be around humans and pretend to be human often enough, the sideburns should still be the proper length for this "human" encounter.

Later in the story, Muriel admits to not being human. Crowley acknowledges a full awareness that they are an angel. The next time they are in the bookshop together, both with other angels and alone, the bookshop then gives the longest type of sideburns to Crowley.

After that, the bookshop's not really going to tell us about other specific angels, such as Michael.

The main thing we're told is that other angels who are not Aziraphale are going to make that length longer, with at least Gabriel and Muriel being among those angels. And that lying by claiming to be "human" will make them shorter nonetheless.

So, what does longer mean among the other angels? My general guess based on character behavior and story events when it's on, is that it's also a mark of rank from Crowley's time as an angel before his fall. The reading comes from a latent memory within the angels themselves. The story has repeated implications he was a high rank, seeming to be most specific at "First-Order Archangel" among those implications.

Crowley seems to be in charge among angels. He becomes a decision-maker and ends up directing the action.

When he is with only himself and Gabriel, he is in charge.

When he is with only himself and Muriel, he is in charge.

When he is with only himself, Aziraphale, and Gabriel, Aziraphale might make suggestions but otherwise follows along with Crowley's direction of what to do.

When Crowley is in the bookshop scene with both the powers of Heaven and Hell, he is in charge right up until he says to Aziraphale, "You got this?" Before that, he is quick to deflect a war, and they basically just let him with him yelling, getting the cardboard box, and recovering Gabriel's memories.

There is a moment where it looks like Michael is taking charge by commanding mortals be turned into salt, but Crowley quickly steps in to volunteer to take care of it. Saraqael, who looked ready to do what Michael ordered, abides and lets Crowley escort the mortals out.

Do longest length sideburns do more than mark rank? I suspect they are related to memory, and they are always present during three access points of memory with Gabriel, who has amnesia. Each one is brief, and it's hard to say how much the information given is actually used. One access point is a mix of Gabriel's and God's voice, another is a mix of Gabriel's and someone else's voice who sounds like a woman, and a third access point is that Gabriel took his memory out of a matchbox, no, wait, he took it out first. In the first two access points, Gabriel's eyes turn purple, which seem to be a mark of rank on him as the Supreme Archangel.

Home Base Concept - The Bentley

Did you ever notice how abruptly the encounters with Shax and Beelzebub ended when Crowley was in or near his car? That was weird, right? Here is what I believe happened.

The Bentley has special rules as a space, and each of those encounters ended with Crowley kicking out the other demon, possibly on accident in two of those instances.

The threshold to the Bentley is mainly the driver's door, but the driver's seat acted as one when Crowley was summoned to Hell.

Of note, the sideburns are long in these instances though not at their longest length that happens in the bookshop. Based on Crowley himself, Shax, and Beelzebub, that altogether suggests a default demon reading from the car. It can change, but it has to be managed through Crowley in the season's ending.

Back to the topic of the encounters, let's move on.

Shax at the Door

Crowley placed himself on the threshold and possibly made Shax wait a full hour before answering his phone. When answering, some of his body is touching the roof of the car, which makes it so that he's not touching that door panel exclusively. Then he turns around when he would presumably not be touching his car but at least fully intending to touch it, which seems to suffice for the story. Shortly after, he is leaning against the roof again.

By taking this action, he is allowing Shax closer to the space around the car, so that she can talk to him.

For the shots we are allowed to see him from the front, he is touching the roof, door panel, and sometimes we see the window pane is included the lean as well.

Before he asks, "Is that all?", he stops touching those parts of the car entirely and cannot be seen touching any other part.

Shax disappears from the scene.

By removing the touch from the car, the home base kicked her out. The forced exit seems unintentional.

Summoned by Beelzebub to Hell

Beelzebub uses a fly already inside the car. Crowley did not invite Beelzebub in, but the fly is enough to get their metaphorical foot in the door.

After Beelzebub says, "Hello, Traitor," Crowley makes a hit against his driver's seat, then says, "Oh."

Beelzebub then does not fully manifest in corporal form into the car and summons Crowley into Hell.

Crowley very deliberately leans back and while we can't see his back constantly against the throne during the entire scene, it is implied, bare minimum, he is not leaning forward while on that throne for most of it. He's gathering intel despite his evident reluctance to be in Hell during the scene.

The throne he sits in represents his driver's seat. Even when Crowley seems to want to lean forward, he'll try to not lean too much or he will lean to the side. Until the end of the conversation, he only leans forward off the back of the seat when he asks something ("Is that a new face?" "How?"). As in, he is inviting that part of the conversation into his space. He'll lean most toward Beelzebub's throne, even making sure to place his hand on the seat. The seat is to Crowley's own left, which is akin to the passenger seat in his car.

Crowley never stands up from the throne and only leans too far forward possibly at the end and possibly on accident. Beelzebub's "So if you hear anything, you come to me first, yeah?" is good enough to end the conversation, and that was a conversation where they were not invited. Crowley himself has no further questions and no further interest in actually being in Hell. The intel gathering is done. As such, the space reads that business is done and sends him back to the car instantly, whether Crowley intended for that exact thing to happen or not.

Shax in the Car

Crowley allowed Shax in by not verbally denying her entry and looking at where she would manifest. He kicked her out by non-verbally revving up his car even more after doing it once and giving her a second look. The home base understood it was about to de-activate and kicked her out.

Activation Points for longer sideburns:

The proper border for short and long is hard to explain, but when I say "longer" below, I am looking for length beyond what you see before Crowley enters the coffee shop and walks across the street with Aziraphale when they leave. Both scenes show us multiple angles of his face for comparison to the rest of the season.

Activation Points for longer sideburns:

-The bookshop under the right conditions

-The Bentley under the right conditions

-The pub (dependent on its threshold)

-The music shop (dependent on its threshold)

-Hell (likely qualifying through the Bentley)

-Heaven (assumed, likely qualifying through the pub)

-The park (only slightly longer because of a newspaper door, find out more here)

...

What are the right conditions for the bookshop to make Crowley's sideburns longer?

Within the season 2 present day storyline, longer seems to be a default reading actually. It's more like certain exceptions must not be met.

-No individual angel claiming to be human

AND

-Not in the private room with Aziraphale after encountering Gabriel

AND

-Not alone before an angel activates the effect.

...

The sideburns will be at their longest-length in any significant angel encounter that has an angel who is not Aziraphale and not pretending to be human. Those scenes are:

Scenes with only Crowley and Gabriel

Scenes with only Crowley, Gabriel, and Aziraphale

The overall general scene with angels, demons, and two humans, where Crowley is actively trying to undo a declaration of war.

The scene with Muriel after everyone else has left.

There's a small chance they lengthened slightly after first encountering Muriel, then going to talk to Aziraphale in the private room, but I can't really tell.

The sideburns are long during the ball, some parts being very hard to tell if they have reached their longest-length when there is a stronger focus on Gabriel's presence at the ball.

...

What are the right conditions for the Bentley to make Crowley's sideburns longer?

These conclusions are based on clues from the story itself:

-Staying parked for a long enough time with Crowley inside

-Approaching the car itself being isolated in a familiar area at night

-Standing at the threshold with utmost precision in the season's ending

The sideburns are at their longest-length in the season's ending up to the final cut right before the credits start.

I currently think it is because of a combination of stillness and his left arm's exclusive touch on the threshold. There is plenty more going on with such a touch, but I think those two factors are what are really increasing the length.

..

Activation Points for shorter sideburns:

-Driving the Bentley for a long enough time after de-activating it as a home base. His plants are ensured to be behind him as well.

-Exiting far enough away from the bookshop, assuming the bookshop already activated longer sideburns. This distance expands during the story, explained further below.

-Being present in human spaces. Thresholds can both force and counter this effect, dependent on their design.

-Entering a private room with Aziraphale within the bookshop shortened them from the bookshop's main first floor after encountering Gabriel.

-Being in the bookshop with two humans when Aziraphale enters and before the humans leave in episode 6. There are pocket touches on his pants, but pants pocket touches themselves have not been shown to change the sideburn length. If anything, the sideburn length has been shown to remain as it is during and after pants pocket touches or have other reasons for changing, such as no longer touching a door. He is shown blurred from some distance, so it's easy to miss him. He's to the camera's right behind Nina. Both humans are no longer looking at him. It's a cut that ensures Crowley is briefly visible before the next Muriel scene.

...

Connecting the Two Home Bases

During the specific season 2 story, Crowley regularly parks his car across the street from the bookshop. He himself parks it by the coffee shop in episode 1 twice and in episode 5 once. During episodes 5 and 6, the car remains parked by the coffee shop. Aziraphale also chooses to park the car by the coffee shop near the episode 4. Otherwise, Crowley parks it across the street from the pub in episode 2 and right by the pub in episode 3.

In episode 1, once Crowley reaches the middle of the street and starts to count to ten, the sideburns are a shorter length that better matches before he entered the bookshop.

In episode 2, we see Crowley with longer sideburns right before he crosses the threshold whereas episode 1 showed them still short. At some point he leaves and is seen with short sideburns again, across the street.

In episode 3, Crowley exits the bookshop to interact with Shax. He never crosses the street and remains mostly along the sidewalk. Still, it might be considered further in distance and is longer for the sideburns than seen in episodes 1 and 2.

In episode 4, when Crowley exits the bookshop, his sideburns are again longer than the usual shortness around humans up to that point of the story. Episode 1 is structured to tell us that the sideburns get shorter from the bookshop threshold to the center of the street. Episode 4 shows us the sideburns did not get shorter from the bookshop threshold to the center of the street. They stayed longer.

Why?

Crowley and Aziraphale connected their home bases for when the Bentley is parked across the street, intentionally or not. I think it is intentional, but I have a very loose grasp on a possible reason.

...

So, how did they connect their home bases?

Aziraphale borrowed Crowley's car. Crowley borrowed Aziraphale's bookshop.

Put another way, Aziraphale inhabited Crowley's home base without Crowley for a certain amount of time and over some distance between the two of them. Crowley inhabited Aziraphale's home base without Aziraphale for a certain amount of time over some distance between the two of them. Both time and distance contribute to changing the length from each of these homes.

Crowley and Aziraphale remotely contact each other once during this borrowing phase. Assuming this effect is memory-related, those spaces now share those memories.

When Crowley and Aziraphale take Crowley's plants, living things that inhabited one home base, then another, during this process, they are finalizing this connection.

The plants will now have memories of being in each space, and each space will now have memories of the plants inhabiting them.

I suspect these plants are a key part of the connection that is better covered in my Earthly Objects theorizing, specifically here:

The Pocket Chain Rainbow Connection Part 4 - The Door Trick and The Door Catch

Yes, despite Crowley's seeming reluctance and discomfort with loaning his car, I think forming this connection was intentional from both of them. I'll get into a specific part of how I interpret him agreeing to loan the car when time allows for covering the story scene-by-scene.

All the same, back to my main stuff. My theory is the home base border along the center of the street has disappeared. It is actually more like a radius around the bookshop expanded, but that's the main place the border was understood to exist.

Onto my loose grasp of a possible reason.

This connection—this disappearance of that border—does not protect the rest of the street from the incoming demon invasion when it starts. The demons enter the area without invitation.

After Crowley enters the bookshop for the ball, as best I can tell, no humans are on the street. There is a bunch of fog, and it's dark, and there are demons. Eventually, there will be an angel there, but there are no humans.

Crowley escorts some humans to safety to exit the bookshop. However, when he dismisses them, we don't really see where they go. The story cuts away, and when we are back to Crowley's location, they are gone.

There are other times we've seen Crowley in or near his car with longer sideburns and no humans.

The basic idea is that the space surrounding Crowley's car, that we've been seeing, has split itself into two different spaces at once. One is the Earth where humans do what they do, as usual, but are now not disturbing Crowley while he is in his car. The other is the Earth where Crowley does what he does, not disturbing humans. The spaces then re-merge when the driving time deems it to happen. The "no humans" space is a supernatural-exclusive zone when it comes to angels, demons, and humans.

For whatever it's worth, the only living natural beings I can find in the area are plants, inside and out of the car, and that one fly before Beelzebub shows up inside the car (assuming that fly is indeed natural).

Instead of a person, such as Crowley, being two places at once, one place becomes two places at once. The car being Hell, and the pub being Heaven further support this idea. Each of those spaces are accessed by Crowley when Crowley has the longer sideburns and in that zone to begin with.

The mechanics are confusing with the flies. I don't fully get it, but it probably relates to the car having thresholds in a wider supernatural space.

In the case of the ball, the split didn't just happen by accident or through time alone. Crowley's car is near the bookshop, but he wasn't in it. It wasn't in its usual isolated area. The window is open before the invitations start but closed when he talks to Nina, so we're never shown when it's being switched from open or closed.

There is a very specific point where things start to change, but before that, there are also some specific things that happen. Namely, during each ball invitation shown on camera, Crowley accompanies Aziraphale. He does not say anything during the actual inviting and makes various touches during each scene. These touches generally include earthly objects, self-clothing touches, self-skin-contact touches, and...pockets. Pockets are a big, little thing in GO2 that are beyond my ability to understand or explain.

I'm sorry. It sucks. It really, really sucks that I cannot do better. I've picked up enough to know they're important so am telling you at least that much. Touches and pockets or not, there are still ball invitations, and things still change. Crowley gets his own special invitation that's to the bookshop instead of the meeting.

Once he accepts this invitation, he goes to the bookshop and approaches Gabriel in basically Demon Mode. I'll get into it more whenever I reach the scene itself. You can read what I initially wrote in my past post on the Sideburns: The Sideburns Scheme

Nonetheless, I think Crowley was drawing out his own demonic energy to start the split, a shift from one zone to the other.

The shift is not instant. It's happening while Crowley is out in the street to make sure Maggie and Nina are on their way. The street is growing increasingly foggy as it is getting darker. Fewer and fewer humans are around as time passes.

It doesn't really seem to be completed until Maggie is walking toward the bookshop with Nina not long before her as next-to-last. Maggie herself is a human, but she seems to be a special type of human not explained in the story as to how or why she is different. Nina could be too, even if it's not as obvious. She is next-to-last.

If one excludes Maggie because she is human in some capacity, then it's probably done when Crowley himself enters the bookshop as a means to complete the matter, further confirmed with Shax arriving through the supernatural elevator in the pub instead of wherever the rest of the demons came from. The story referred to such a place as "stairs" when Shax was planning the invasion. An elevator is decidedly not stairs. It definitely raises questions about Shax with that kind of timing and wording.

Another thing about this special zone is that the Bentley is the only car around once the shift is done.

Speaking of the car, Crowley won't just drive away to re-merge these spaces. Not only that, he's not going back into that bookshop despite the indications in the dialogue he would.

Nope.

Instead, he goes to Heaven and spends time there until the war declaration goes off. Upon returning the following day, the merge has happened, either through the time itself or just the reset of the day. Sure, it could be the halo blowing up, but the people aren't shown as being in the street until Crowley himself is visibly there. It could be a combination of these factors too.

So, if Crowley and Aziraphale wanted to protect the street overall from the incoming invasion but somehow still needed this ball to happen with some humans, that's what they did to protect everyone as best they could.

It might even be a trial run for needing to protect Earth on a much bigger scale later.

Now, admittedly, Crowley did seem alarmed by the demons arriving, but both he and Aziraphale have been acting in certain ways to throw off whoever or whatever is reading them throughout this story. There is something about layering and switches they seem to have in the games they play that I don't fully understand.

By making the border expand, that meant that, for the most part, once Crowley entered the bookshop on the implied Thursday, his sideburns could not become their usual shortness around humans until that one fleeting moment mentioned earlier when Maggie and Nina were leaving. Even then, the sideburns quickly lengthened by the next scene. After that, they did not reach their usual shortness around humans until after he had driven for enough time and far enough away from the bookshop. He did not take that action and receive that shortness until right before the ending credits.

I suspect the sideburns do more than all of that since they seem connected to memory in some way.

...

The Bigger Thresholds Trick

This part of The Sideburns Scheme is a significant crossover with The Earthly Objects Game as one of the Threshold Tricks Crowley does during Good Omens 2.

There are three special locations that have thresholds bigger than Crowley, but we'll talk about a certain two first.

Those locations are the pub and the music shop. They are human-specific spaces that make it quite difficult to develop theories like the one about the connection and the other about the existence of a supernatural zone. In these two places, Crowley's sideburns are longer.

During the story, both locations have one thing in common that seems to have nothing to do with Crowley. Both locations have an encounter with a human who remembers a meeting from some years ago and say as much to Aziraphale. Each encounter mentions lights of a similar nature.

And then...there's Heaven. This time, there's no obvious way for a sideburn check. Instead, one is left to guess it's still relevant given the past two locations and noticing the threshold is bigger than Crowley.

I'll be covering these places more in-depth over time, hopefully, but you can again look to my previous post about the sideburns for reference: The Sideburns Scheme

The past post lacks many things about Heaven in particular, but the main one I want to note is Muriel's relevance. As far as my own theorizing is concerned now compared to then, Muriel is someone Crowley trusts deeply. You can find out more on that theory in these two links: Bookend Buddies - Crowley and Muriel (Part 2)

Before I move on from The Bigger Thresholds Trick, here is my understanding of how this part of Earthly Objects works. The sideburns being longer in the pub and music shop is a clue about this particular Threshold Trick.

A threshold being bigger than Crowley is not enough on its own to credit Crowley as having tricked that type of threshold.

Each one has a simple explanation but is done in a more complex way for an audience member playing to try and figure out in a puzzle.

My own conclusions are as follows:

In the pub, he "switched lanes".

In the music shop, he "never let go of the door".

I don't know the true simple explanation for Heaven though as more time passes, I lean most toward "pretended to be arrested". That's because it's emphasized as how he gets in with Muriel. His own dialogue brings it up once he's actually inside the threshold. It has a little rhythm to it. The problem with that solution is that the ideal one would include a noun, such as "buttons" or "cells" or "doorknobs," to represent the Triple. Another good solution would be something like "engaged in misdirection", especially given the context of the entrance scene itself. The "LETTERS" on the right-side door is a potential clue as is the doors closing in so specifically on Crowley's watch. So, I'm not fully convinced "pretended to be arrested" is the answer. It's still the one I lean the most toward as of the latest update.

...

The Season 2 Ending (The Door Trick)

Just like with the bigger thresholds, this part of the Sideburns Scheme actually crosses over with the Earthly Objects game (Threshold Tricks)

I am cutting a lot of content on it in this newer post though, again, you can look to the older one for reference to find more: The Sideburns Scheme

Near the end of episode 6 during season 2, Crowley is seen standing at the door to his car with longest-length sideburns.

For anyone trying to figure out how the sideburns work, that's noteworthy.

Despite how much we've seen Crowley, the car, and humans throughout the story, we've never seen them all combined into this particular context.

Other angels and demons are gone. Muriel is supposedly around but not on screen. Aziraphale and the Metatron have some distance between themselves and Crowley. Meanwhile, Crowley himself is surrounded by humans.

So, a question arises. Why are they this long in this setting?

Well, I already mentioned my answer before, but I'll go over what he's doing because it's rather specific despite how simple it looks.

This character is precise in his choices, whatever this scheme really is.

He is standing incredibly still. He has his legs crossed. The scene is structured to alert us that even though we can't see his feet, they are not touching the edge of the sidewalk—a threshold. He has his right hand fingers in his pocket and his thumb outside the pocket. The camera work ensures we know that he is not touching the window frame despite the incoming angle where we, otherwise, could not know. His left arm is touching the door panel. The door panel is the threshold. It is not an earthly object. He is touching his own space in his own way while watching Aziraphale's departure.

I think the length is due specifically to the stillness and touch on the door of the car.

There is a lot to be said for that pocket touch, which I hope to do eventually in other posts.

My own personal interpretation—not just from the games—but as someone having played them and who has her own thoughts on the story goes as follows:

Crowley is giving everything he has in himself to see Aziraphale off without truly giving his full self up in the process. Aziraphale is going to a place Crowley will not follow. Even so, the demon of the pair has put pieces in place to help Aziraphale from the distance they will have between each other in the foreseeable future. They both contributed to creating and maintaining a connection with each other during Good Omens 2. They also had to work together separately. They both love Earth, and they are going to work to protect Earth in Good Omens 3.

In my view, there's a hidden "Separately Together" theme in Good Omens 2 that one cannot find—or will very much struggle to find—unless you figure out at least some of the pocket puzzles.

Linked to The Door Trick is something truly magical called The Door Catch.

I found it on accident through never fully solving The Pocket Trick.

These are generally the posts I have on The Door Trick itself for now:

The Sideburns Scheme (skip ahead to The Season 2 Ending (The Door Trick)

The Door Trick Visual Representation (GIFs)

The Pocket Chain Rainbow Connection Part 4 - The Door Trick and The Door Catch

...

That's all I'll say for now since I have a lot of posts I want to make to cover parts of Good Omens 2 more in-depth.

Newer posts:

​Episode 1: The Arrival (Links List)

Episode 2: The Clue

Post #17 (permit)

Post #18 (meeting with Shax in the car)

Post #19 (the pub)

Post #20 (crossing street from pub to bookshop)

Post #21 (your boss)

Post #22 (so were the goats)

...

This project is inspired by these posts:

Crowley’s Sideburns & what do they mean?

Ok, I love this theory that it could be some sort ...

[laniemae]

John Milgram 2,5,11, and 12

John has been on my mind a lot recently and I’ve been doing a lot of theories around him his would be interesting.

John 2: I’m not sure I’d you’re referring to only scenes with John or this also includes mikoto but my favorite shots are probably ones of John anyway so it doesn’t matter.

This one is probably my favorite. I love how Mikoto’s portrait here glitches out, but rather than digital glitches it’s a sort of scrapbook arrangement of paper. It’s visually stunning and highly symbolic is probably why I love it so much. I love the idea of the paper representing mikoto/John’s identity and trying to piece it together by rearranging paper and using sticky tape like torn paper but it just not working. And the blue and the red representing mikoto and John’s seperate identities but sharing the same body. And the text of “Mikoto” and “Double” moving around and the skull and the grid which I still don’t exactly know what to make of.

John 5: “If I had stayed a monster… maybe that would’ve been better.” This line broke me so bad. Like I was already crying when I first watched neoplasm but this is where I completely broke down. This line is just so sad ugh. It’s basically John breaking his persona and confessing that he’s been acting being a monster and stuff. And after that quote he paused and said “…what?” Like he was confused he just said that. That line basically confirms everything I suspected about him and it’s just so sad.

John 11: I find it really interesting that he’s basically pretending to be a monster (hence my choice of favourite quote) and driving away people from mikoto to try and protect him. John wants us to believe that he’s a cruel, mass murderer and when he first fronted in neoplasm, threatened Es with violence. But when they treated him as a human, John calmed down, becoming more conversational yet stoic, which is probably his true self while not acting out. And when Es questions this behaviour, he instantly flips back into that persona when he realises he’s gone docile, but he already confessed enough by saying that he “should’ve stayed a monster”.

John 12: this adds on a lot to what I was saying, but i haven’t seen this much people talking about this aspect of John’s character and I was actually going to make a theory post on this in the future but I’ll just give a brief rundown. The way John is treating Mikoto isn’t inherently good. Pushing away people from Mikoto by acting violent isn’t a good thing actually, but John thinks it’s to protect Mikoto. A trait of some abuse victims is that they may lash out at people in a subconscious attempt to push them away, thinking that a close relationship with someone would only bring more pain than healing. This is exactly what John is doing here, only that he’s aware of his behaviour and purposely pursuing that idea. Instead of being the “saviour” he wants to be, he’s inadvertently pushing potential friends and people who can sympathise with Mikoto and willing to help him, away. But in John’s mind relationships like that will only bring suffering. And once again in the scene where Es treats him as human instead of a monster, John breaks down at that sort of treatment, showing us his true colours.

This is such an amazing piece of story telling in my eyes and I’m surprised that lots of people tend to gloss over this aspect. The “John is pretending to be a monster” thing has so many layers and I actually really like how it’s thought out from a narrative perspective and gives insight into his relationship with Mikoto and world view corrupted by abuse and trauma.

[caernua]

re: your arcana post - i literally don't even go here but i live for drama.... if you were ever to do a video essay or even just a write up in a post about the situation.... i want to know what happened, can't resist 👀👀

oh my goodd it's so eerie to explain it to someone who wasn't involved but this silly little mobile dating sim was just an initial passion project from a small team of employees of an indie game developer that was basically given six weeks to turn in something completely self-indulgent and it quickly got a backing on kickstarter around 2016-2017? beyond that it was quite a classic case of a project becoming more famous than its creators expected and it turns into a bit of a mess bc of their lack of experience. and by that i mean they got very close to the fans, and that's bound to open a can of worms. they used to make weekly q&as and you can't imagine what an exciting event that was, oh my god literally everyone was in a discord server losing their shit bc the devs had opened the askbox and we could ask the stupidest questions in the world about their characters and they would answer bc frankly they were very funny and the characters were all like... established in a funny enough way that it was so easy to make good jokes about them.

and i think what makes it very interesting is that the fandom was actually pretty small, but it felt HUGE. those q&as seemed like the most viral posts you could run into when you logged on tumblr but really most of them had a couple thousand notes at best, even when the arcana was at its most popular. it was literally like living in a small village where everybody knew EVERYBODY. if you posted something, high chance everyone in the fandom would see and reblog. it was like a hive mind.

also part of the reason why it felt so huge was bc everyone was churning out fan content like CRAZY, i don't think there was ever any fandom i've personally been in where i've seen so many people create so much damn stuff and frankly i think it's one of its strongest features. idk what it is about this game but everytime i revisit it inspires me so much, suddenly i wanna pick up my tablet after months, i wanna try writing again, etc. it's just wonderful at urging you to create and i have no idea how one even achieves that.

but yea the fandom slowly disappeared partly due to controversies, some of the creators were found to have been into some questionable stuff back in their not so olden days and they stepped away from the limelight, afterwards i believe a lot of the team stepped away from the game altogether. but it was weird because the controversies were constant, not just towards the creators but also within the fandom itself 💀 and given the huge volume of them they of course ranged from reasonable criticism especially regarding the representation of the characters of color, or the absurd microtransaction to stuff like 'his eyes are drawn bigger in this cg so the artists wanted to make him look like a child so this game caters to pedos actually' dkjgdkfj i saw some CRAZY takes and the bad faith criticism definitely overshadowed the reasonable voices in my opinion, it was not balanced at all. they stopped doing the q&as, the posts they made on their official tumblr became way more sanitized, and actually in a way so did some aspects of the game, and little by little it grew quieter.

and now it's... silent. but it's so near and dear to my heart, i think it's an absolutely wonderful game and what i love about it the most is how much it inspires people to create. and i think the reason why is bc unlike in many games like this (at least i think, i'm not sure cause i haven't played many) your character doesn't just suddenly meet every love interests. they have a connection to some of the love interests and a past they don't remember so it's very interesting to peel those layers back, BUT because it's your character the story stays quite vague about the past. so it's incredibly fun to speculate, to create a backstory, etc! that's i think one of my favorite things about it and it's not a coincidence that arcana went on to inspire some fans to venture into the visual novel genre as creators themselves.

and yea overall it just felt like a close positive community (well. mostly really, we are talking about a fandom on tumblr here so) and a super creative and inspiring one. the jokes were super fun, the art was top notch, the writing was also good. so yea i kinda miss it and it's sad to see how empty it seems now? like i see people from 2020 onward go 'ohh i just discovered this game' and i'm like... MY SWEET SUMMER CHILD... YOU HAVE NO IDEA.... YOU HAD TO BE THERE.... and ig i didn't really answer your question bc i kind of glossed over the drama but i went through the whole phenomenon bc i think it was. really interesting to witness 🫡

[chatxkilluaxnoir]

Man, I really regretted looking up Undertale Characters and Undertale Sans analyses on this here site:

Like, there is a reason I avoid doing that more often than not on tumblr (and some other sites), because a lot of the time I just across takes/analyses/etc. that I just really (personally) don’t agree with and/or like.

Even by creators that I can, have, do, and/or did like, and seemingly “well-liked”/”well-accepted” and/or “popular” takes.

Disclaimer:  If you like or agree with any these takes or similar ones; that is fine, we all have different opinions.  I just tend to not really like these takes.

The takes in question.  These are just UT/DR takes and ones I have mainly come across today and fairly recently (some of these takes are actually done by fans of these characters; that doesn’t mean I like or agree with them still though (putting the rest under a “read more” cut, because this gets pretty long, and in case people don’t want to read about these takes):

“Toriel is homophobic” (just uggghh, no.  Just no).

“Sans is useless and/or serves no purpose (in the game, battle, narratively, thematically, and/or etc.)” (basically) (this, just isn’t true at all, and I really, really (like, just a lot), hate this take/these takes).

“Sans is weak” (also hate this take).

“Sans is just some guy and/or a nobody now”, because he now can’t be a badass and cool and powerful and smart (which, he is), while also being dorky and edgy and vague and a generally nuanced and a flawed person with layers.  I guess.  Not allowed.  Talk about fandom over-correction (imo).

“Toriel is just a Mom and basically has no other character traits or flaws.” pretty much (Just no and is a huge oversimplification of her character).

“Chara is abusive/Chara abused Asriel” (Chara, who is also, just a iteral child.  And someone who was probably traumatized and hurt in the past.  Chara wasn’t perfect, but to say this, I just can’t agree with it really).

“Papruys is now the strongest character in Undertale” (he is strong and powerful in his own right, but this is just unfair to the other characters, and is kind of over-stretching stuff imo.  Like some Sans take(s); I also mostly blame this on fandom over-correction).

“To make Paps interesting we now have to make him edgy” basically (less a statement, and more a trend I see sometimes).  There are many ways you can make a character interesting for instance.  And 2nd of all; why try to make a non-character edgy, when we got more actual edgy characters like Sans, Chara, Flowey/Asriel, Gaster I guess, Muffet, I guess, heck, maybe even Toriel, and/or etc.?  Not saying Paps isn’t interesting btw; he is.  Just saying some people seem to only think they can make him interesting by making him edgy.  Not even against edgy Paps completely; I’m not.  Just trying to say there are other ways to do things/you could do things.

“That somehow Flowey/Asriel (and in the case of some fan stories; Gaster too), is a better person than Sans is” (don’t get me wrong, Sans is a morally questionable/morally grey character (and I love that about him).  But the amount the shit he gets sometimes, while arguably, characters who are just as bad, worse, and/or (more) ill-intentioned than Sans get more of a pass is just like, “what?”

“Flowey did nothing wrong” basically (this comment kind of goes hand-in-hand with what I say in the previous paragraph.  I do get he is technically a child still, and he is a good character.  But like, he still did many, many things wrong).

Not really a character, just a take I didn’t agree with at all, “Undertale’s meta aspects and time travel isn’t needed and basically make the game worse, and game would have been just as good, if not better without them”, (and I am like just "????”, about those things.  Those things are so important to Undertale man, and they don’t make the game worse, they make it better.  Like, what do you even mean?)

Etc., etc.

So yeah, really didn’t like these takes at all.  And I mean, AT ALL.

Welp, at least the somewhat sour taste these left in my mouth hopefully helps me more careful while searching for and/or looking up analyses, metas, etc. on tumblr and/or etc.

I have hopefully, learned my lessons now.

[gerardpilled]

would you share some beach boys lore with us?!

I know this is extremely vague, but past the actual music on pet sounds I truly truly know nothing about them

p.s. I just looked them up on spotify and smiley smile is wild

HA! I gotcha! Okay so there's actually a decent amount of stuff that i'm not sure is necessarily interesting on its own or just interesting with the background knowledge of Brian Wilson's life and story. Basically what kinda enamors me to them most is the contrast between how modern people without a knowledge of music history* view them and the behind the scenes reality. Their legacy has kinda been defined to the general public by their appearances and work in the 90s which really pushed the whole "beach! fun! surfing! babes!" aspect of their earlier work while completely ignoring what made songs like "fun fun fun" and "I get around" classics to begin with. Brian Wilson. Which is where the contrast kinda comes in for me. you have all these songs that surface level seem simple and dumb, but even those have artistry to them that made them stand out because someone like Brian Wilson was behind them!

Brian's story is incredibly sad and tragic at times and can be hard to learn about especially as a neuro-divergent person. He made such beautiful and sad sounds while dealing with mental health struggles that society of the 60s were not kind to. He has auditory schizophrenia which inspired a lot of work from pet sounds onward. he eventually had a mental breakdown while attempting to finish smiley smile (ps, he re-produced it 40 years later so go listen to SMiLE sessions instead). A lot of his life and work after that was controlled by his conservatorship under his abusive psychologist.

Anyway yeah i guess that's the starting lore that i find really important. I know it's a person's real life experience, but there's something so tragic about Brian's story and how his art has been bastardized by Mike Love (his cousin and co-beach boy) in the years since leaving the band that kinda hits me hard. Everyone attributes so much to the Beatles when it comes to rock and roll influence because the beach boys were just some silly dudes! I think I heard someone say once that in the Beatles an artist like Paul McCartney had an artist like John Lennon backing him up. In the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson had himself.

If you want a quick and well-made overview, the 2014 biopic Love and Mercy is actually really good! Also if you haven't, listen to pet sounds front to back and really try to hear all the layers and sounds and tiny little details. it's considered one of the best albums ever made and it commercially tanked when it came out. Also Also give a good hard listen to good vibrations. it's the song Brian considers his masterpiece (though i think his favorite is Don't Worry Baby which i would have to agree with) it took actual months to make and i think it was recorded in like 4 different studios because he believed they all specialized in different acoustics

*not an insult to those people i don't expect anyone to know this stuff

[creation-help]

Hello! How are you doing? Hope you’re doing well! I’m not entirely sure if you have gotten the same ask before but: I need help on writing character development. I’m not sure where to start and how to start. It’s something that’s been bugging me for a bit as I write lol.

Thank you so much! =]

What a wonderfully polite ask! Haven't had this asked from me yet so it'll be interesting. I had to think for a bit but this is how I'd go about doing it :]

Firstly: Figure out your character. What kinda character is it, and what's their personality? What part do they play in the story? To make a vague example, if your character is extremely self confident and oblivious to their flaws, to the point that it actively sabotages their life, an interesting character development would be to shake up, or shatter that image. See how it would impact the character. What would make this happen? What would need to happen for them to start questioning their capability in themself? And what kind of experience would get them to realize that, no, they're not as infallible as they think? Again, each character to their own but I used that example for the possible thought processes you could go through. The point is to just figure, and map out, where this character would be interesting to take, and what are your options, realistically. For this part it's important to consider the themes of your story, aka, ideas and concepts that show up often in the story, and/or something you want to tell with your story. Like, what's your story about but not literally. This can greatly help in deciding, for example, whether you should develop a villain for redemption, or towards defeat.

Remember, character development doesn't always need to be about said character becoming a better person! Character development just means that the character undergoes a gradual change through the events of the story, and by the end, you can compare the two versions and see how they're the same person who's just been changed by their experiences. Personally I think it's really important to keep the core soul of your character the same, so it's not them basically just transforming into another person. It's about the interest of putting a character in a situation, that would be so major that it makes them reconsider things or have feelings about something so much that they change. And most importantly, how this particular character would react to the situation in their own way! Whether they themself caused the situation that incites this change, or if it's caused by another character, is also something to consider! If the character themself causes their own character developing incidents, it'll be good to get some self reflection from said character. If it's caused by another character, this can help in exploring their opinion perhaps changing about this other character. Or being questioned.

Another big tip I'd have is to remember the pace and subtlety. Obviously there can be one major event that causes a character to undergo change, but it can also be multiple different occurrences that each have an impact on the character over time. Try not to make the change too sudden (unless your point is to show how dramatically this Thing changed your character. Still, I recommend approaching it with a certain layer of finesse). Obviously pacing is important in any aspect of a story, so remember to space out the character development appropriately to what you want to show. Give them some time. Change can take time, and that's okay.

To recap so far: You need to know your character well, so you can know 1. Where you want to take them, and 2. What would cause them to start developing into one direction or the other. Got it? Good! Now..

How??? - Obviously this varies depending on alot, but. Start with having a certain amount of time establishing who your character already is, before their development. If you want to portray them growing (or corrupting) over the course of the story, it's important to know where we started. Helps to really feel the change and difference ykno? Once you feel that your character has been established, and the real adventure starts to pick up (whatever that may mean for your story/character), you can start to chip away at them. Here's some generic examples of how your character might start changing:

They see/experience something that contradicts with something they never thought to question, or they are angered by something so much that it inspires them to do something, or they are traumatized and shocked by something, or they set out to do something but it doesn't go quite as expected, or they meet someone new who really gives them something to think about, or they learn something new about an already familiar person that gives them something to think about, or they find some interesting place or item, or they have relationship conflicts, or something strange happens that starts changing them (physically) so their self perception is challenged. And so on.

Once you've started with what first shakes the foundations of your character, give it a bit of time to simmer. It can be a long time if your character is stubborn and slow to change, or it can be short if the opposite is true. Explore the possible thoughts and feelings, and conflicts this change may cause in your character. You might have intense denial, or confusion. You might have missteps where the character thinks "What am I even doing?". You can have relapses, a sort of "No no, this is how things have always been, it doesn't change anything!" thingy. You can have revelations and realizations. Learning. Trying and failing. Lots of thoughtfulness. Doubt. Baby steps or attempts at doing something differently. Rewarding experiences for doing something differently. Punishing experiences for doing something differently.

Remember to keep feeding new experiences to your character at a consistent pace to help fuel their development. This may be because the character itself now seeks more of whatever might be causing their development, or because they're just thrown into it. For example if a character is spiraling into a corruption where they just get progressively worse, you need to have events that justify this for the character. If you think a certain experience would have the character react in a way that doesn't make sense for the development you're going for, change the approach. I know it can be hard to figure out more specifically for your particular character but I hope any of this helps to start thinking about it.

It's kinda like mixing paint. You start with one color and think what color you need to add, to make it a different colour. It heavily depends on what color you start out with, and you need to know what color you want to end up with. Then just, add accordingly.

Remember to use other characters for help! They can assist in reflection, talking about things, having their change affirmed or denied and how that impacts the characters, and so on. Other characters, props, places, supernatural aspects occurrences, conflicts, relationships..

Additionally, on the How? part. If you want the development to be gradual and nuanced, take your time with it and little by little, show your character taking different actions, or thinking something new, or whatever else to signify their change. Little by little. Maybe for now, they'll try something new but the next time they feel safer leaning on their old self. Perhaps they try too many new things at once, get overwhelmed (or worse) and retreat to reconsider. Maybe this changes what kind of character they end up developing into, if they had different ideas about that. Any number of ways can do, just remember to have something to show for how your character might be changing. Use it to make the story more interesting!

If it's a sudden, dramatic change, still, remember finesse. Mostly I mean try not to get corny or cliche with it, even sudden changes have their own connotations and consequences. For example, show how your character feels about this sudden thing, and just as if not more importantly, how other characters feel about it. How does this change their perception? Does it cause relationship conflict? Dive into it. How does it psychologically affect your character to change so suddenly like this? Does it cause missteps, doubt, or maybe inspire newfound confidence and strength? Remember to have them also think about their previous state of being, if the development is sudden. Have them reflect why and how they ended up here. Compare. You can use the suddenness of the change for some shock, or angst, or to really drive a point home about something. You can use it for positive things too, depending on what the development is and what environment fostered it. Just remember to show how this change happened, what it causes, and how the character could compare now.

Final recap: 1. Who are you developing into what? 2. What causes this development? 3. Show how the development happens 4. Show effects of development

I also hope you're doing well! You're welcome :]

[nekropsii]

I just wanna say i love your analyses. im not even into homestuck that much and really only pay attention to like 2 characters and the classpect system, but your analyses on the characters and the story are always so interesting to read, and its nice to see someone who is just. so aware of it, especially of the more problematic aspects of homestuck (like its antiblackness, ableism, and the infantilizing of characters like mituna and kankri within the fandom). as a blk person its refreshing to see someone acknowledge it because most of the time i feel like these things are so swept under the rug, especially by other nonblack fans...

besides that, id like to ask. what are your thoughts on sylphs as a class and how sylphs who are doom, void, timebounnd (you know, aspects that are normally seen as "negative") interact with their aspect? i feel like out of any class, they're the ones that are difficult for me to understand. id just like to hear your thoughts!

Aww, thank you so much! This is an absolute DELIGHT to hear. I'm glad my work has held so much value to you!! It really does mean a lot. Glad I'm doing something right in your eyes. :)

Homestuck has been a deep passion of mine for years now, and I find that it's physically impossible to earnestly and completely tackle it without directly confronting the layers of bigotry that Hussie was operating under while writing the comic. The comic is so overtly caked in it that it affects even the most basic meta of it all- foundational parts of the story are infested with it like termites. Classpecting is an example. Even the magic system isn't free of it! I don't see very many people bring that up, but then again, I don't see very many people bring up literally any of the Anti-Blackness in the comic, like... Period. It fucking sucks. But that's what I'm here for, in part. If no one else will do it, then I will- and gladly so, because it really ought to be discussed more.

And, to answer your question about Sylphs of Doom, Void, and Time...

Sylphs either Mend or Create, depending on circumstance. They largely intend to maintain stability of their Aspect within themselves and their session, and are eager to speak about their own perspective + experience with their Aspect, should you let them do so. The presence of a Sylph tends to imply an excess of their Opposite Aspect.

Doom is, largely, the Aspect of Rules, Restriction, and Sacrifice. The job of a Sylph of Doom is to keep these things in check- Mending where it's needed, or Creating where it's needed. To use Sovereignstuck as an example, a Sylph of Doom could take on the role of a Game Patcher/Moderator, making sure the active session follows whatever set rules were given... Perhaps a little too strictly. Void is, largely, the Aspect of Obscurity, Nothingness, and Oblivion. Mending these may require active deceit... Though that's not necessarily a bad thing. An excess of Light is a frightening thing indeed- though largely seen as a positive Aspect, Light is about Chaos and Uncontrollability, and even the slightest amount of unchecked excess of it can snowball and tank a session. Time is, largely, the Aspect of Entropy, Fate, and... Well, Literal Time. The job of a Sylph of Time tends to imply the stabilization and restoration of Timelines. They maintain linearity- keeping the threads of Fate from getting tangled into a terrible mess. Not to bring up Sovereignstuck again, but we also have a Sylph of Time, and she aids greatly in keeping the timeline- and therefore the narrative- straightforward. A Sylph of Time would prevent the story from becoming as much of a tangled mess as Homestuck proper is... Dave was never good at keeping things clean.

I hope these explanations were adequate! Feel free to ask for any clarification you need, thank you for valuing my opinion, and I hope you have a lovely day!

[catty-words]

i’m indian, and i also think that des was so necessary this season. i think there’s some cultural nuance that may go unnoticed for people who aren’t (which is totally not their fault!) but i definitely had pressure on me growing up to befriend and even date indian boys. i’m sure my parents’ reasoning was different than mine, but i honestly really appreciated having someone who Got It. my ex was indian and it was very validating to be with someone who understood the things i was going through and had experienced them with his parents.

there’s also something very specific in how indian moms treat their sons versus their daughters, and rhyah was (unfortunately) a very good representation of that. it's kind of a Thing in indian communities, the boys are such momma's boys and get completely coddled whereas the girls are kind of forced to grow up much quicker. the way my mom treated me and the way she treated my brother were very different. which then leads into my dad being the one to really understand me and ride for me, so looking at it for devi... makes losing mohan impossibly more devastating, as was addressed in season one. but i think the scene in 3x09, an indian mom standing up for her daughter, is huge. there's also the added layer of the community and how gossipy and judgey and nosy they are, and how what nalini did would've definitely gotten out to them. s1 nalini was worried about how she was being seen and talked about (ganesh puja) but s3 nalini cares far more about protecting her daughter and validating her experiences even if it may get her talked about. this also contributes quite beautifully to the finale, where devi wants more time with nalini and nalini doesn't want her to go. des may not have been necessary to reach that point, but his inclusion in the story does make it hit so much harder for me.

i'm so sorry this turned so long! and of course i'm aware my experiences aren't universal and other indian people may completely disagree but i just wanted to share my perspective :) i love your analyses so much, you are truly a gift to the nhie fandom :)

thank you for this ask, and for the compliments! i have Thoughts on all of this, and i’m so sorry in advance for how long this will inevitably be. but your perspective lights up my brain, making me wanna talk about devi/des and nalini and devi & nalini’s dynamic and the role community plays in their lives and i’m kissing you on the forehead.

let's start with devi/des because, as the show itself recognized, they make an exceptional springboard for the exploration of themes!!

i’m indian, and i also think that des was so necessary this season. i think there’s some cultural nuance that may go unnoticed for people who aren’t (which is totally not their fault!) but i definitely had pressure on me growing up to befriend and even date indian boys. i’m sure my parents’ reasoning was different than mine, but i honestly really appreciated having someone who Got It. my ex was indian and it was very validating to be with someone who understood the things i was going through and had experienced them with his parents.

(disclaimer: before we really get into it anything, i do not wish to invalidate your experience as an indian person watching this show, rather build upon it with my findings as an academic mr. abed, but definitely read my take with the grain of salt that i'm a whitey white person and - aside from a handful of novels over the past couple years - nhie is one of the few indian-made-about-indian-identity pieces of media i've consumed.)

here's my hot take: des himself actually offers devi very little in the way of deeper connection to her culture.

a prominent aspect of devi’s fractured identity, of course, is how americanized she is in comparison to the rest of her family. she eats meat and complains about having to wear saris and would rather vacation in aspen than india because it’s the playground of the rich and famous! she shows basically no interest in bridging this divide, either, because any and all participation in hindu culture only makes her feel further away from the picture of high school normality to which she aspires. this exchange from 1.04, for example, is especially relevant to our discussion:

so, it’s telling about the show’s intentions for the relationship that devi and des meet in an episode where devi’s forced to straddle her high school and her hindu identities, with her forced participation in navarathri getting in the way of her doing damage control on her post-paxton image, only to have des help more with the high school damage control than devi’s disinterest in her culture. his callout of her shallow understanding of her own community aside - you’re one of those indian girls who only likes white guys and thinks all indian dudes are computer geeks or cheesy club rats who wear too much cologne - des unwittingly pulls devi closer to that picture of high school normality she’s chasing by being the one to suggest they make paxton jealous. their chemistry overshadows any serious discussion of devi’s mild racism.

this is consistent with the show’s treatment of the relationship across the board, too. on the surface, by merit of being weirdly sort of a combo of [ben and paxton] if [they] were also indian, des is better suited to devi than her past boyfriends. in actuality, he reinforces the shallowness of the ideal devi’s been reaching for this whole time because, for devi, to be with him means to escape out from under herself.

that being said, it’s obviously very relevant to the plot and to devi’s emotional journey that des is indian come 3.09. i think it’s, once again, telling, though, that, after she gets to experience the high of dating a guy out in the open and with her mom’s approval, that feeling of normalcy is quashed under the nuances of participating in indian culture. namely, the special brand of misogyny you outlined so well:

there’s also something very specific in how indian moms treat their sons versus their daughters, and rhyah was (unfortunately) a very good representation of that. it's kind of a Thing in indian communities, the boys are such momma's boys and get completely coddled whereas the girls are kind of forced to grow up much quicker. the way my mom treated me and the way she treated my brother were very different. which then leads into my dad being the one to really understand me and ride for me, so looking at it for devi… makes losing mohan impossibly more devastating, as was addressed in season one.

there’s so much to be said about the show’s relationship to indian-specific misogyny, it probably deserves its own post, so for now i’ll just say this - the fact that something culture-specific drove devi and des apart highlights, in my opinion, the way des fails to provide devi a deeper connection to being indian.

now, let’s switch gears for a moment to talk about nalini. a prominent aspect of her characterization is that she’s secure in the way her culture shapes her identity but feels disconnected from that culture in such a way that brings about an inversion of devi’s own fractured identity. you mentioned ganesh puja, and that episode is the perfect example of the push and pull in nalini’s life where her culture is concerned. she doesn’t have any close friends within the sherman oaks community so showing up to puja means nonstop scrutiny with no refuge from rehashing her still-fresh loss, but it also means spiritual enrichment. for example,

there’s a reason this is a) one of the most emotionally-impactful closing shots of an episode and b) one of my personal favorite moments in the show, and the reason is that nalini’s whole world feels immediate and peaceful - her girls in the close space of the car with her, all of them touched by and processing pandit raj’s words. it represents everything nalini wants. namely, to feel the strong ties to her family facilitated by participation in her culture.

since nalini spends season one so insecure in her ability to rebuild any meaningful sense of family or community in the wake of mohan’s death and devi actively resists inclusion in the community for the way it makes her feel like a loser virgin, nalini and devi find themselves harshly at odds over the cultural divide. both 1.04 and 1.09 feature significant moments of tension - so disappointed in you and i wish you were the one that died that night, respectively. their needs and wants are too antithetical for them to ever find common ground.

then nirmala (my beloved) shows up and provides nalini some security. she both connects nalini and devi back to mohan, as well as makes nalini’s home in india feel closer without uprooting devi from hers. and - not to take away from what you said here -

des may not have been necessary to reach that point, but his inclusion in the story does make it hit so much harder for me.

- because, yes, devi having her first mom-approved boyfriend is a significant turning point in both devi’s journey and devi & nalini’s relationship and he would never have been nalini-approved if he weren’t indian, but !! the hugeness of nalini standing up for devi can and should be traced back primarily to women!!

specifically, the way the four generations of women coming together and fostering a deeper understanding of each other facilitates reflection on what parts of their culture actively harms them and on how participation in the culture could be molded to fit their lives instead of them trying to fit the mold as dictated to them by the culture. there are unreasonable expectations to navigate and harsh and impenetrable social structures in place, but there’s also a safety and comfort in having a community that prides itself on its ability to knit its members closer and closer together.

all that’s to say, i do think des provides something to the story by merit of being indian that no other pre-existing character could have and is, as you put it, necessary to the season. but it’s also essential to my understanding of the show’s themes that he’s not the one who bridges the cultural disconnect in devi’s identity. instead, nalini, nirmala, kamala, and - most important of all - devi herself will be responsible for defining what, exactly, being indian means to her.

[animehouse-moe]

Skip and Loafer Episode 4: Tingling and Scraping

P.A Works and Skip and Loafer are doing it again, and again, and again. They continue to deliver interesting and unique direction and visuals that pile on a delightfully warm sense of comedy and friendship, and is complemented by thoughtful commentary and exploration of the most challenging aspects of being a high schooler. Today, that topic is regrets and expectations.

But who wants to start with the heavy stuff first, I like the cute and fluffy pieces too! Thanks to this episode's direction though, we get a lot of very beautiful scenery. There's a really strong focus that almost separates environment from characters, and lets you soak both up in copious amounts.

It's just so damn beautiful, but the characters can do a good job of distracting you from it. Take, for example, the use of CGI vehicles in the following scene. Unless you're looking at them they don't do anything other than populate the scenery, they just blend in so well with the lighting and color palette. To that end, I feel like P.A Works' use of CGI throughout the series so far has been really well managed. It fills up the layouts and adds life to the background of it all, but isn't enough where you're forced to look at it.

Anyways, moving on, the overall direction. I like it, it walks a fine line, but I like it. It's an episode that focuses far more on the internal pieces of characters so you get a good few close ups, but they do a good job of molding those pieces so that they fit within a "first person" perspective. It's very hard to explain, but basically the way they frame and block characters within a scene is to have viewers look through the eyes of a character, instead of the lens of a camera. It's a subtle piece, and I feel like they could do it better in some other areas, but there's quite a few pieces that stand out and really sell that first person feel.

Just simple things, like this scene of Mitsumi watching the old TV Drama that Shima-Kun acted in. The FoV is more stretched and there's the slightest visual effects to make sure viewers understand they're looking at a screen.

Or scenes like these pairs place us directly behind a character's line of sight (second image is a follow up cut that shows the pair in a single scene).

Stuff like this shows the strong awareness of today's episode director. Without these follow-up scenes, the direction (even though the initial scenes are still creative) can come off as typical or "standard", but the concept of that first person perspective is framed by seeing just how you saw the previous scenes. Really great work that's apparent through the episode.

Speaking of apparent through the episode, the comedy! I love that Takamatsu-sensei found a vehicle for their (non-deprecating) humor and ran with it. The adaptability of space, and its relation to Mitsumi is really felt in this episode. Thanks to that, I've got a newfound appreciation for the comedy and the sort of daydreaming aspect. It's so fluid and creative, and no matter what it finds its roots with Mitsumi which is really nice.

And just to round it out, the technical work on the speeds and movement of the background layers in this cut is so well done. Such a great mimicry of how it actually looks.

Alright, onto the story now! It's really lovely. I appreciate how it tackles the issues so much. It refuses to look at them as an issue that faces a single character, or one that characters can share, and instead brings the sentiment to a more macro scale and portrays it as something that every high school student deals with.

Shima-Kun has regrets, Mitsumi has regrets, Takamine has regrets, even characters like Kanechika are faced with regret and its challenges. And that's what this episode ends up all about, facing those expectations and staring down regret and what you might regret later down the road.

I feel like the above image really puts the whole episode into context quite well. What does it mean to have no regrets? When will you know if you'll regret something in the moment? They're questions without answers, and the curiosity possessed by the teenagers within the series does well to really sell it.

They don't have a real answer to it, nor can they quite put it into words, but instead they can experience it. They can understand how to live without regrets and how to find happiness in every corner in life. Like this scene of Takamine as she looks out the window of the bus

. She's regretting her decisions, she's beating herself up for losing and wasting time. But one little moment with Mitsumi wipes it all away, because the view was worth it. Such a simple thing as a landscape was enough to ease Takamine, and I think it's great. It's not the big moments that make that difference, it's the little ones you might not otherwise experience.

And god do I love how Takamine and Mitsumi are played off each other. They exist as polar opposites in the most important moments, and show how impactful each is on the other to strike a balance between the two lifestyles. Stuff like Takamine studying while Mitsumi eats candy and watches the scenery go by, just really simple pieces that establish that fundamental rift between the personalities of the two.

Surprisingly, something this simple is actually an incredibly important piece of symbolism that ties to an earlier conversation that Mitsumi had with Shima-Kun. Mitsumi used to have expectations and regrets weigh incredibly heavy on her, so bad that it was to the point that she wasn't eating while studying for exams. But one person was able to help carry that weight and let Mitsumi be free.

That's what's happening with Takamine and Mitsumi, an implicit conversation telling Takamine that it's okay to betray expectations and have regrets. That you can fail and not get into the middle school of your choice and still have a wonderful life. It's a really wonderful piece for reassuring people with their whole life ahead of them that they have just that. There's no rush to fill your schedule and do everything possible every waking moment to make sure you get to where you're going. It's all about the journey, or in this case, the bus ride.

And just to top it all off, Takamine really changes quite quickly. What's best about it though is that they show it as a subconscious change before they express it as a thought. They used to have nightmares about being left behind by the bus, but that gets replaced with a wonderful little dream sequence that takes Takamine through the stars.

It's just so... good. It does everything right and wonderful and bubbly and cute and sweet. It takes Takamine's desires and feelings as a high school girl and lays them bare to the viewer in what amounts to a fluff sequence.

And why you might ask? Well, like I said earlier it's a subconscious piece of Takamine, so there's lots of things within it. Take the cat, an amalgamation of the cat Mitsumi picked up earlier and Mitsumi herself. And then there's the idea of looking out the window of the bus at the scenery, and within that there's even paralells/similarities to how Takamine saw Mitsumi when she was looking out the bus.

Okay I promise to tie it off here. After her experience in her dream, we see her cutely mistake Mitsumi for the dream cat, before she follows it up with expressing to Mitsumi that she's not the girl that she thinks Mitsumi thinks she is. I think. But yeah, it's a great little scene that shows the confidence Takamine finds in herself from yesterday's experience to face today head on, and create a deeper relationship with Mitsumi in the process.

Even though we're already this far along I feel like there's a world of things to take in. Like how Shima-Kun speaks to expectations and how family bearing down on you can squash happiness and passion as you strive to live up to expectations and earn their affection. Or how thoughtful Mitsumi tries to be at times like not bringing up Shima-Kun's acting career to him. Or how Mitsumi's come to Tokyo to try and change a foundational issue with rural underpopulation in Japan (really, it's a pretty severe issue these days). It's such a diverse and deep story that you can hardly fit all of the good parts into one post. But you can summarize it with a single sentence.

Skip and Loafer continues to prove that it has incredible understanding and nuance in regards to high school life and how it affects students, depicting a wonderfully romanticized story that continues to stay close to the ground and provide important commentary and messages to viewers.

Though I guess that's more like a paragraph, isn't it?

[icancdramahanfu]

Hello! I am looking to cosplay wei wuxian and/or xie lian(from the donghua) can you please describe the layers of their clothes, I have zero experience in sewing clothes or pattern making and I have no idea where to even begin. Thank you very much!

Hello there, Sorry for the slow reply, I've been distracted by real life and my continued PT for my wrist. But I can type much more normally at least now. As far as Wei Wuxian, I haven't really looked at his outfits seeing that he's got so many different versions in the live action CQL/The Untamed and in the MDZS donghua and manhua as well. I'm not a huge fan of MDZS, so, I can admit I haven't paid much attention to it. I think like most MXTX characters, he relies on a heavy black/red color palette and is pretty open to interpretation. I think focusing on the donghua would be your best bet since when you have to animate someone you would simplify their outfit, but the drama might have more realistic clothing to draw from since and actor wore it. Xie Lian is considerably easier since he wears many layers of white. I think the main thing to realize with all these outfits is that you have a foundation layer and then multiple layers over top with great variations.

The foundation layer (zhong yi) is usually the skin layer in white (cotton/linen) that it is breathable and washable. It seems for a more dramatic effect a character like WWX will have this as black. This is a top and pants combo, but I was lazy and skipped out on pants for my Wen Kexing b/c it was very warm already. I don't use Taobao sites (no Chinese skillz here) but it might be worth your while to look at some of the hanfu retailers to see how they construct their tidy little package outfits.

Like Hanfu Story which has a very good website and plenty of english language descriptions. Even though the colors aren't plain white, this one has a very close match to what XL wears. It has the skirt with the slight pleating like XL and simple sleeves and cut.

It is interesting to note that many of these outfits only sell the top layers, not that base layer.

When it comes to determining the exact layers just look at the neckline, that pretty much lets you know what else is on top of that base layer.

If this is your first time sewing and drafting a pattern, I would enlist the help of a friend who may have more sewing experience. Also, since many of these outfits don't reveal the full aspect of all of their layers, you have to guess what you think is underneath - that is what I did after lots of screen shots from as many angles as possible - or hoping for a zhong yi late night confession scene (as in Word of Honor) which allowed me to nail the sleeve shape for all the layers. I'll do and example with XL since his outfit is much easier.

As we can see here, he's only got two layers.

The inner layer is more form fitting in the torso, with wide-ish sleeves. The skirt portion appears to be pleated, which is why we get a ripple effect in the front. It appears the outer layer is a simple straight hem robe with wider sleeves that he wears very loosely since it flares back. You can't tell from this picture but the left side should also have a slit that runs along the left side of his body to allow for easy movement - it isn't a full rap around robe structure. He has a narrow belt that is tied off with the cyan colored cord and his bandages and basic hat. I haven't watched the donghua for awhile so I can't remember if he also has pants on underneath the pleated skirt. I'd go back and refer to the scene where San Lang notices the shackle on his ankle to see what he's wearing then.

When it comes to picking a layer to draft first for the pattern, it really doesn't matter. You will need to make a mock up and adjust. If you want it to be the inner layer it will need to be the same length but less wide than the outer layer. I just made a pattern and tested it out - it was terrible but hey, I knew where to go from after that. Good luck and hope this helps!

[dolliecworpse]

Aaaa I just discovered this blog and it's really interesting! I don't know too much about xenogenders/neopronouns since they kind of get me very overwhelmed due to my need to Absolutely understand everything and categorize/label stuff when I'm in a community (ex: fandoms, archetypes, tropes) so this might be a dumb question but.. what exactly are titles and what are they used for? And how should someone go about when making a gender-system? I'm asking because I plan on making one for a story and don't really know how to go about it.. anyways, so sorry for this dumb ask! I hope you're well and have a amazing day or night!!! Keep up the great work!!

there are no dumb questions here!! i’ll put the two explanations under the cut since it’z kinda long. sorri abt that! the gender systems i mention have alreadi been created, and i’ve linked them where i mention them if you wanna check them out!!

okk so titles are basicalli a name that describes someone or a certain aspect of them. does that make sense? it’s kinda like a name or pronouns in that they can give someone euphoria and they’re a way of describing a person. like a realli simple one that’z used outside the mogai communiti bc it’s an actual like position would be the prince!! more creative titles that aren’t used in day-to-day life might be “the creator of the heavens” or “(pronoun) who creates life.” these are more creative and descriptive than just a “job” title (i put in quotes bc i’m not sure if being a prince is considered a job LOL. but a more job-like one would be the baker). but yeah, they’re p much used as one would use a name or a pronoun, which is to address people.

as for gender systems, there are a few things that are considered sort of…gender system etiquette, shall we say?

1) think of the concept you want to convey. do you want a gender system where one’s gender is decorated with smth (genderdecorated)? or maybe one where one’s gender is related to certain fonts (genderfont)? then take that idea and turn it into a single word. most gender systems don’t have commonli seen gender endings like -ic or -gender, but just the word. am i making ani sense? i hope so 😅

2) take that word and put gender in front of it!! like with genderdecorated and genderfont. people will replace the word gender with the concept (or with genderfont it’z the font name) name of their choosing. like for example, if they want to coin a gender under the genderdecorated gender system where one’s gender is decorated in cuteness, it would be known as cutedecorated.

3) before we go ani further, check to see if the gender system alreadi exists!!!! look up gender_ in the tumblr search bar, and if nothing comes up, you’re probabli good to go!!

4) the next step is creating the flag template. try to make a unique flag template outside of just straight stripes, if possible. if you’re not sure how to do that, check out this quick tutorial here. if you have ani questions regarding this step, feel free to send in another ask!! below is the greyscale color palette i use for my templates. ik it looks boring, but people will use the template as a base and recolor it! this is commonli done w the bucket tool, but there’s probabli other methods. aniways, here’s the palette. simpli put an image layer into your canvas with this as an image and sample out the colors so that you can use them in your flag!!

ignore the colors above and below the greyscale line, i could onli crop it sm </3 keep in mind that you don’t need to use all of these colors in your template!!! they’re just there if you need them.

5) craft the definition, adding in blanks for people to fill in with the concept they want. for more info on what i mean, check out the coining posts to the gender systems i’ve mentioned above (dw, they’re linked!!) or check out any of my gender system coining posts, which can all be found linked in the pinned post of @bloodygendersystems !! sorri that i’m not great at explaining this part. it’z probabli just best to look at examples.

6) this part is optional, but it’z helpful for people who may want to coin under your gender system. upload your flag template(s) to deviantart!! when saving flag templates straight from tumblr, they get a bit blurri, making them harder to recolor. if this has ever happened to anibodi reading this, dw!! i got you. upload the flag you’ve saved from tumblr to this upscaler website, click the highest upscale option available to you, fill out the captcha, click download, and voilà! it should be readi for you to recolor!! ik the website name is kinda weird, but it’z upscale power is unmatched. i’ve also seen other people use it without issue so it should be good!!! i think it’z also an app, but i’ve onli ever used the website.

7) post your gender system!! if you plan on coining ani genders under your gender system, add the names of them into the post so people know not to coin those ones!! you could say smth like “planning to coin x, y, and z, so please don’t coin those unless i get overwhelmed and say you can.” some people might reblog with genders they’re going to coin as well, so make a mental note not to coin those ones.

i think that’z everithing? lmk if i’m forgetting ani important steps 😅

[telomeke-bbs]

BAD BUDDY – OH, THE ALLEGORY OF IT ALL

This write-up was inspired by something that the ever-incisive @miscellar posted on 27 Sept 2022 regarding Bad Buddy's lack of homophobia (linked here), by the resurfacing of Pran's guitar during my rewatch of Ep.3, and also by a post from the thought-provoking @faillen (which unfortunately I can't track down and link to – my apologies!).

I really wasn't planning to do another write-up of this kind for some time, since we're now in the Bad Buddy rerun season and for the next few months I was only planning to list observations (not any kind of analysis) while going through the episodes in chronological order. Just a bit of light (if long-winded) reporting, avoiding (what amounts to, for me at least) any kind of heavy lifting to do with the messaging behind the media.

I'm actually far more interested in the social, cultural and linguistic aspects of any media I consume, and Bad Buddy is so rich in these it's possible to ignore its weightier content. My preference is for entertainment media to be lighter on the political front, since real life can be heavy enough to deal with. And I've been actively avoiding the heavier stuff in Bad Buddy, for these and other reasons.

But now I think it's time. 😉

It should be clear to everyone by this point that Bad Buddy is very much an allegory for the experience of growing up queer in queer-hostile environments.

The series is fronted by the out, proud and wise Khun Noppharnach Chaiwimol after all, so some aspect of queer messaging was always going to be inevitable in the mix.

(above) Aof Noppharnach Chaiwimol

And part of the genius of Bad Buddy is that its queer themes are interleaved within layers of fulfilling (and sometimes even exquisite) TV drama craftsmanship from all those involved, from the crew, to the writers, to the directors and of course to the actors (with a couple of exceptions perhaps, and I think we can/should forgive the inexperienced newbies among the cast). The queer themes are there, but they're not the eyewhacking coat-of-arms in the center of the tapestry – they're woven unobtrusively into the main fabric instead.

As homophobia is basically absent from their fictional universe, the fact that PatPran's relationship is (eventually) a gay one is – on the surface at least – totally immaterial compared to the other issues dealt out by the narrative.

For example, they have to hide their friendship behind a fake rivalry at university, because their faculties are at war. And then they have to face the hostility of family members – their parents – because their relationship (romantic or otherwise) is forbidden due to the enmity between Ming and Dissaya.

We see Pat trying to live his life as a do-over of Ming's, according to the rules set by Ming himself, rather than on his own terms. And Pran fights to contain the expression of his musical talent, as symbolized by his guitar-playing, because of Dissaya's displeasure with it (I've written-up Pran's side-story in greater detail in my previous post, linked here).

To deal with the pressures that their families and social circles put on them, Pat and Pran are forced to be a certain way, to act a certain way, and to conform to established norms or the needs/wants of others. They deny their authentic selves and their illicit relationship, burying their true natures, in order for there to be peace in their lives and so that they can go about the basics of just living.

But that comes with always looking over your shoulder (that's Pran at the wonton noodle stall in Ep.3!), and resorting to lies and subterfuge in order to get things done (Let's build the bus-stop together! It's for a good cause! But we can't let them know the whole truth, that we're really friends!).

There are so many examples. It's everywhere in Bad Buddy. And if any of this sounds familiar to LGBTQ+ viewers, well of course it's intentional. Because Pat and Pran's lives basically depict – metaphorically – the hostility, hiding, self-denial and performative deception that so many LGBTQ+ people have to grapple with on a daily basis.

But the strife in Bad Buddy from the warring faculties and families, Pat re-living Ming's glory days for him, and Pran's side-story with the guitar, are all allegorical in their messaging of the queer experience – none of the drama or conflict springs from anybody actually being LGBTQ+.

So in the end, making the trauma queer-adjacent rather than queer-centric, all while cloaked in the comfortable fleece-lined coverlet of a Thai BL rom-com, means that even non-LGBTQ+ viewers will be able to identify with Bad Buddy's themes of alienation and othering, as it applies to their own lives.

If you've ever had to face familial, social, religious, or any other kind of pressure because you are different in some way, even if you're not LGBTQ+, it wouldn't be difficult to be empathetic about PatPran's predicament. The fact that the queer aspect is right there embedded in the fabric of the show, without being the cause or focus of the angst, still alerts any viewer to the issues faced by the community, simply by osmosis.

And that's a gentle, yet powerful way of getting the message across, that everyone deserves to be treated with respect, including members of the LGBTQ+ community of course, but really it includes anybody who's disenfranchised, marginalized, or discriminated against for arbitrary, unjustifiable reasons.

I've said it before, and I think it bears repeating, that perhaps Bad Buddy's greatest gift is its normalization of the LGBTQ+ experience, while demonstrating that so many struggles of the human experience are common to us all.

For in looking past our differences to the commonalities that bind us, we take the first step toward creating a world that allows for differences to exist, without the discrimination that harms so many.

Pat and Pran found a way to surmount the opposition in their lives and live their own truth, and in doing so found their way to a very satisfying ending for their love story.

The message to us is that we can live our own truth too – and not only that, but also that we should live our own truth. Because ultimately it's what we deserve – just like everybody else. 💖

[everygame]

Lone Survivor: The Director’s Cut (PlayStation Vita)

Developed/Published by: Superflat Games Released: 24/09/2013 Completed: 28/01/2022 Completion: Saw every ending. Trophies / Achievements: 95%

Well, I got the Vita out for Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, so I might as well play something good on it–although I’m now aware that there’s a remastered version of this coming out too? Sigh.

That said. Lone Survivor is an interesting entry in the survival horror genre as a rare side-scroller and one with a heavy emphasis on actual survival with a hero that needs to eat, sleep and maintain his sanity. It is, however, all a bit obscured (all information is hidden–no status bars for you!) to join a story that is… well, let’s say here that I completed this game all five times and I still have no idea what was going on. It’s heavily influenced by David Lynch–though it never manages to ride that fine line of intrigue to be satisfying–and is probably the weakest thing about it.

It’s a bit weird, really, because the game is generally very straightforward–to be honest, it feels like layering on the hidden information and baffling story was just a way to make the game feel deeper than it is. There are some nicely designed, small maps to explore (well paced to never overwhelm the player with too many options, although the connections between 2D rooms can often be confusing) enemies are dealt with neatly (shoot them, hide from them, or blind them with flares) and the puzzles are simple (if you pick something up, there’s basically only one thing to do with it.) However, keeping your hero alive by choosing what to eat has a Yakuza-esque roleplay charm to it–it’s very rewarding when you’re finally able to make him some coffee, and heartbreaking when you realize you’re going to have to resort to eating “ground meat” to keep him going.

It’s a shame, really, that Lone Survivor layers on five endings that require you play the game with a laser focus on that aspect–everything you do affects your character’s mental health, meaning that you not only have to do things basically exactly right to get the worst/best endings, in both situations I had to grind mental health by robotically doing good/bad things for a while once you’re at the end of the game. And, as a reminder, this is to get endings that don’t really clear anything up (and have unskippable credits! Why!)

Thing is though… the game does tell you to turn off trophy pop-ups and to pretty much ignore this aspect and just play it, and you know what? I agree. I think if you play this once through and just play it the way you want to play it you’ll have a great time. There’s no reason to 100% this.

Will I ever play it again? There’s no reason to 100% this… but I’m depressingly annoyed that I didn’t because I made a choice to eat a tin of beans (as it was all I had for my hero to eat) at one point locking me out of one trophy without basically replaying the game. I shall not be doing that.

Final Thought: As annoying as decisions like unskippable credits are, I have to give props for some peerless visuals. The filter doesn’t make it feel like a retro game at all, instead something quite unique, and the limited animation is used to excellent effect. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s a cat in this who is just perfect and honestly the highlight of the entire thing.

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi, either via a one-off donation (pay what you like) or by joining as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[psychelis-new]

Hi lys, how are you?

angel, melody, silk, rose, film, gorgeous, diamond, valentine, parchment, oasis, sweater.

Hope you're doing great!

Hey :) I had a bunch of complex days (let's say) since leo moon but it seems I'm starting to do better now. Thank you for asking! How are you? Everything's good?

angel; is there anyone you’d do anything for? Right now I'm trying to do anything for me. I know it may sound selfish, but it's not: it's about giving me my self worth back, which is the same worth of anyone else on this planet. I am trying to focus more on how I can take care of myself and how I can make myself happy: if I am not doing this, who will? I cannot depend on others, it would be so wrong. I wanna do anything I can especially for my inner child: they deserve it so much. They deserve to experience real magic for once.

melody; favorite artists? It depends on the type of art. For example I can mention Aivazovky in painting, Erwitt in photography, maybe Nolan as a film director and Idk, there are so many good inspiring artists! It's hard to mention even just a bunch (I cannot do this in music and writing)

silk; what outfit makes you feel confident? Any type of outfit, it depends on my mood. I more commonly wear comfy clothes and shoes but I also like to occasionally dress up. It really depends on how I feel

rose; favorite flower? I'd say white flowers, especially white tulips but tbh I just saw pink roses so... yeah, those too

film; favorite movie/tv show? Since I don't know which movie to choose among my favs, I'm gonna mention one I watched recently: "When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit" and it's basically about children and the shoah (it's based on a book, js).

gorgeous; what do you like in a person? Generally their heart, their mind, their passion/drive to reach their goals, seeing them experiencing what they like and makes them happy, their will to make themselves better. Everyone of us is made of different aspects/layers anyway and I think, each one of us, has at least a part of those layers that is so interesting and loving. And I like that.

diamond; favorite color? Uh.... Black and white? Grey? Blue, purple... Occasionally green. I tend to be attracted by all of these but more often to black, grey and white (especially if it's clothes/items. I rarely get anything red, pink or yellow... despite I have)

valentine; best gift you’ve ever received? This weirdo guy in the bnw pic here on the left. Actually I made the final choice (there were 3 puppies) but he was/is/will be still the best gift I ever received by all means. Thanks to my family, especially my granny.

BUT if we wanna joke a bit more around the answer to this question and talk about the unexpected (never thought I was gonna say what I'm going to say here but yeah, let life surprise you ig): these funny slippers on the right, which Idk what animals are, make a very terrible squishy sound at any step I take but I can't use to knock on doors (long story...), and make me walk about like Krusty the Clown. But are SO warm and I am appreciating them sm these days in which my feet are SO cold. Thanks brother. To be fair, there was another part of the gift (Xmas 2023) which is a Bambi wool-filled sweater that makes me look like a green dwarf with Bambi's ears when I wear it (it has a hood and it's like... oversized?), but that makes for another story.

parchment; favorite book? I haven't been reading for long now and I feel like I may always suggest the same old ones (the few titles I can remember, moreover) so... Okay, let's mention one: "The impossible lives of Greta Wells" by A. S. Greer. And "Silence: in the age of noise" by E. Kagge (so very inspiring and suggested)

oasis; dream destination? Atm, among the many other destinations I'd like to reach, I want to go see the Northern Lights in Iceland (not like right now cause it's still early but yeah...)

sweater; do you prefer loose or baggy clothes? And non-English native speaker me thought they were synonyms lol anyway I tend to prefer and wear loose/comfy clothes. I had my baggy-style period but it apparently ended long ago. Except for the Bambi-sweater. That is like... more than baggy I guess. But yeah.

Thanks a lot for sending, have a great day/night and take care<3

[staringdownabarrel]

Anyway, here's some broad thoughts on the initial Riftwar trilogy.

I'm not really sure if it's really correct to describe this as a trilogy in the strictest sense. Yes, Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon are two parts of the same story, but broadly speaking, they're more like a sequel duology to Magician than they are parts two and three of the same trilogy.

I know there's probably going to be people who read that and point out that a trilogy doesn't need to have an overarching storyline, it just needs to have the same set of characters, and that's fair enough. I don't really agree with that sentiment in this specific example though because everything, or at least almost everything, that Raymond E. Feist has written that's come since this initial trilogy has had that overarching storyline within the duology/trilogy/quadrilogy.

Really, I feel like a better description of this trilogy would be Magician, which has the titular rift war in it, and then the Great Uprising duology (e.g., Silverthorn and A Darkness At Sethanon). That'd be a better description of what the actual stories being told across these books are.

I think it'd also be a better reflection of the actual authorial intent on this point. Initially, Magician was written as a standalone novel, and then Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon written because Feist felt he had more to write about this world. (This is also why it's described as a trilogy, despite my current diatribe of contention about this.) These two books are a sequel story, so it'd make sense to describe them as such.

Still, that's a very nitty gritty point and I'm not really sure anyone else is ever going to care enough about this to really strongly agree or disagree.

My other nitty gritty point of contention is really just a point of contention with the specific editions of Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon more than anything else. Usually when a chapter ends and a new one starts, there's a page break at the end of the chapter. Every other book I own does this; so do most of the other books I've ever borrowed out from a library has done this.

My editions of Silverthorn and A Darkness at Sethanon don't do this. When one chapter ends, the next one will start on the same page. I guess there's nothing specifically wrong with doing this, but I'm not really a fan of it and I just think it's visually better to start a new page when you're starting a new chapter.

In terms of what this trilogy does well, I think it is good that the latter two books start to move away from the very basic fantasy world that Magician set up. Yeah, it's still kind of generic and it never completely gets rid of that mantle even in later books, but I think it does eventually do a good job at building on the foundations.

I am a little bit disappointed that it's just a generic fantasy setting, especially given that I thought the world of these books when I was in high school.

I think a lot of my response to these books now is based around how everything is expected to be this super layered take on its genre that deconstructs this or subverts that or reconstructs something else. Raymond E. Feist has never really been interested in doing that. I forget what interview he said this in, but he did explicitly say that he just ignores genre expectations and writes the stuff he wants to write, which is fair enough.

The other thing influencing this is that I tend to now really like it when a story touches on deeper themes. It doesn't always have to be the most thorough exploration of the themes known to man, or even more than a "Hey, this is a thing that's necessary to make this story work the way it does; read into it what you will" kind of thing.

This wasn't so much the expectation that I had when I was fifteen or sixteen. Back then, I was much more wiling to accept a story on face value, even if it never got into the nitty-gritty of how certain aspects of its setting work, or at least provide enough detail you could extrapolate chunks of it.

Nowadays, I just find it a little bit frustrating when a story doesn't do that as much. I get that some people just want simple escapism, and sometimes all I want is a bit of escapism too, but I think it's possible to do both escapism and have some stuff you can read into.

For the most part, Raymond E. Feist does the escapism part well, but not so much the stuff you can really read into. In fact, there's times when he actively tries to avoid having that kind of stuff in. Slavery, for example, exists in the Kingdom, but it exists only among the same kind of lines that exist in the US's thirteenth amendment (actually stricter--Kingdom prisoners only get enslaved for a life sentence). Free speech is more or less legally guaranteed, except for when a mad king and the villainous duke whispering in his ear try clamping down on it.

So while he does encourage the escapism part, his response to what the Kingdom's government is like is to hand wave it away and say, "Don't worry about that. The people have most of the same rights you do, except the right to vote." I have some issues with that, and I probably will get into it once I work out how to fully articulate my issues with it.

I understand why people would want this, and fantasy does have the reputation of being the escapist genre, but I think it is possible to have it as an ongoing thing that there's certain ongoing political problems that never fully go away, despite everyone's best efforts. Feist has already proven that's he's capable of doing that with the Empire trilogy.

I think I probably would enjoy this more if I was able to switch my mind off a little more and just enjoy the escapism. I can't really do that anymore, unfortunately.

It's also been interesting to see how much Feist's writing style has influenced my own, even after over a decade of not reading his books. Obviously I don't write fiction that much anymore--I mostly write lengthy rants about whatever media I've been consuming lately now--but there are certain stylistic things he does that I've been doing for years.

For example, he has this thing where when he starts a new chapter, the first sentence will be its own short paragraph, and then everything after will be a proper paragraph. This is something I've been doing for years. I'm assuming I probably initially did it to explicitly emulate him because I actually was genuinely a big fan of his books when I was in high school and in the years immediately after, and then just forgot this is where I picked it up from.

There's also times when there's been very specific features of a chapter that I recognise as something I also did in the dogshit short stories I was writing in high school. There was this one point in A Darkness at Sethanon where Arutha and company notice some features of Armengar's fortifications, speculate on their purpose, and then later have them explicitly confirmed by Guy du Bas-Tyra without having brought them up to him.

This is the kind of thing that I used to do as well. I vaguely remember having short stories I wrote in high school where that kind of thing was a part of the plot to characterise someone as particularly perceptive, or even occasionally just to pad out the word length for no reason.

Stuff like that has definitely gotten a "Huh, that's interesting" response from me. I don't necessarily know if I'd go as far as to say this kind of thing is bad writing, especially now I've admitted that it's influenced my own at various points in my life, but it is interesting to see how it has. Usually when I think of books that directly influenced me in some way when I was sixteen, I usually think of the Mortal Instruments trilogy, which actually did influence me both in ways I can explicitly describe (e.g., I drink my coffee black because Clary Fray did; I have a cat named Chairman Meow because Magnus Bane did) and ways I probably never will be able to fully explain.

It's not exactly surprising, though. What'd be more surprising is if this series, which for years of my life I considered to be one of my favourite series ever written, hadn't influenced me at all. I just didn't quite realise the ways in which it had until the last month or so of my life.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now.