#clare’s tedtalks

[clarebear-0925]

The Holy Trinity of Fear-Entity Based Media

HELLO! i am returning to elaborate on this subject because i've been thinking about it for literal WEEKS ever since i made the connection while starting TMA.

So, let's explore this venn diagram in more depth, shall we?

(Apologies for the length of this post but I have MANY thoughts. I know it's long, but please hear me out lol)

First, I want to talk about the world-building similarities since they're what I first noticed and spurred this entire thing.

Imagine the following explanation in terms of the venn diagram above.

Chainsawman:

A Japanese action/horror manga

A universe where fear-based entities (called "devils") exist. Each devil correlates to the fear of a specific concept (with infinite possibilities ranging from tomatoes to the future). They are the embodiment of the fear their name represents.

Each devil thus has its own special abilities and 'theming' associated with its name.

The existences and power levels of the devils fluctuate based on what the the populace is afraid of at the time and how scared they are. They survive and feed off of human's fear.

The devils exist in another 'place' (Hell) that is separate but linked to the our world. However, they can manifest in the real world to attack and spread further fear (and if they die there, they are sent back to Hell in a weakened state). It is currently unknown as to how devils cross over from Hell.

However, the devils CAN in fact permanently die- if they are forgotten entirely by humanity (and thus run out of fear to exist/feed on)

There are a few special types of devils: 1. Primal fears, which embody ancient instinctual fears (darkness, falling) and 2. the Four Horsemen: (Control/manipulation, war, famine, and death), the most powerful of the devils.

There are also many ways that humans can serve, be linked to, and be embodiments of these devils. Beings known as "fiends" (corpses possessed by devils), cases of devil transformations (humans who make contracts with devils and are transformed into monsters to do their bidding) and "hybrids" (humans and devils fused). However each way results in great personal cost/change, like the loss of humanity.

The existence of these devils is a common, well-known fact of society, and one of the main causes of death in this world.

There is a governmental agency tasked with combating devil attacks. The main leader we interact with is a character who manipulates the protagonist throughout the entire series to help them achieve their vision for the world. They are revealed to secretly be one of the devils the characters were supposed to be fighting, and is heavily associated with eye imagery.

Ordem Paranormal

A Brazilian live-streamed horror TTRPG (table-top roleplaying game)

(Disclaimer: for this one, I have only had the chance to watch OPQ and Cellbit's onstream explanations of the lore, so I tried to supplement with the wiki as best I could without getting too spoiled. If I got anything wrong or you think I missed anything, please tell me! I'd love to get your guy's insight on this)

A universe where there are 5 elements (Death, Energy/Chaos, Blood, Knowledge, and Fear) that exist in a place separate but linked to our world known as "the Other Side."

Each element is associated with different monsters, abilities, and general characteristics. Death is associated with distortions in the passage of time, spirals, and an ultimate end. Blood is the element of intense emotions, both positive and negative. Knowledge is the element of discovering, knowing, recording. It wants to preserve balance between the elements since it likes reality as it is. Energy/Chaos is unpredictability, unreality, and transformation. It mostly serves its own entertainment. Fear is the most mysterious- it is the source of all paranormal and has existed since the dawn of humanity- it is of the unknown and the infinite.

Individuals can connect to and form pacts with each of these entities (except for Fear). They gain different supernatural abilities depending on which, but all result in great personal cost and change- usually becoming less and less human in a variety of ways.

The barrier between the two worlds can be weakened through fear. Cultists take advantage of this and attempt to perform rituals that would break the membrane and bring these entities over to our world.

These elements can also just manifest into our world in a variety of different ways, like monsters, paintings, artifacts, etc.

Tthere are independent organizations around the globe who work to prevent these rituals and maintain order. However, the existence of this "other side" and the entities is not known by the wider public.

The organization we follow is headed by an elderly character who has dedicated every single aspect of their life to fighting these elements, stopping these rituals, and maintaining the balance. However he is willing to form connections with those around him, and violence isn't always his first option.

The Magnus Archives

A British horror/tragedy podcast

A universe where entities known as "the fears" or "the dread powers" exist next to our world (separate but linked). Each entity is the embodiment of a different fear that the humans (and animals) of earth feel.

The fears are typically broad (covering multiple specific fears under a wider category) and when manifesting can blend into one another. A good analogy to explain it is the color wheel.

The single entity known as fear has been around since the beginning of the world. However, as humanity developed more complex thought, they split off into different aspects (though they are still in some ways linked).

At the time of the series there are 15 entities (a full list here). The existences and power levels of the entities fluctuate based on what the the populace is afraid of at the time and how scared they are. They survive and feed off of human's fear.

The entities can permanently die, but only if the organisms of the world did too, as there would be no more fear left for them to consume.

These fears can manifest in our world as a number of different paranormal happenings, from monsters to books. They manifest in order to cause fear to feed themselves.

Most of the entities are near mindless- they simply operate to feed, with little to no future planning (with the exception of The Spider, the fear of control and manipulation, whose entire thing is future planning.)

Individuals can connect to and form pacts with each of these entities to become individuals known as Avatars. They gain different supernatural abilities depending on which fear they connect too, but all result in great personal cost, change, and the overall loss of humanity.

Followers of the same fear often gather to form cults. When a fear gains enough power, its avatars usually attempt to perform various rituals that would manifest their entity in our world. This would result in our world transforming into a hellscape of fear for that entity to gorge itself on. (There are also two fears that do not attempt rituals as they prefer reality the way it is. )

We follow an independent organization tasked with recording and categorizing the encounters of individuals with these paranormal events. The two leaders we interact with the most are

A Character who manipulates the protagonist throughout the entire series to help them achieve their vision for the world. They are revealed to secretly be one of the Avatars the characters were supposed to be fighting, and is heavily associated with eye imagery.

An elderly character who has dedicated every single aspect of their life to fighting these entities, stopping these rituals, and maintaining the balance. (However she is unwilling to become attached to those around her, and will ruthlessly do whatever it takes to accomplish her goals.)

Ok, so if you read through these explanations you can hopefully see many of the connections that I drew. The TLDR is: these three pieces of media all feature fear-powered entities that exist in a world separate but connected to our own, but can manifest here in a variety of ways and each have their own unique theming/powers. People can form pacts and become connected to these entities and gain supernatural abilities, but that often results in the loss of their humanity. Rituals are performed by the people connected to these entities in order to manifest them more into our world. Finally, all three stories are centered around the members of an organization tasked with dealing with these entities in some way.

(Also, if you combine the world-building of CSM and OP, it basically results in the world-building of TMA, which is that thought that originally inspired this post)

However, these are just baseline world-building connections. When I first posted about the idea of this venn diagram, I got some tags from @wasabi-ribs proposing a connection between the very themes of these shows in a way I hadn't even thought about.

While I don't feel as though I can accurately speak to the themes of Ordem as much as the other two, I was doing some research (*cough* scrolling tumblr) and saw this post from @just-an-enby-lemon.

And honestly, that sounds pretty damn similar to what I consider to be the main themes of CSM and TMA, aka:

Love and connection alone can't save you, but that doesn't mean they are unimportant, especially in a world full of so much fear, trauma and loss of control and perhaps even your humanity.

Also, the general questioning of what exactly it means to be human, and my age old favorite of the indomitable human spirit even in the face of unfathomnable horror and tragedy.

What is the conclusion or point of this post? I'm not entirely sure. But I wanted to acknowledge the beauty in how such different mediums can be used by people of three completely different cultures to discuss eerily similar themes of humanity and connection (and also very spooky fear entities).

Thank you so much for reading this far and please feel free to add onto this post with anything you think I missed or got wrong. I love talking about the connections between my favorite pieces of media with people! :)

(Also, apologies if this came across as incoherent or rambly in any way, turns out it’s a lot harder to explain this in a console way in writing than to just have the thoughts floating around in your head lol)

[squirrelno2]

the emphasis on shipping in fandom culture is so wild to me to consider because like. there are certain things in jatp that I ship very emphatically, but I literally wrote myself into shipping them. when I was writing my first fics in the fandom, I didn’t plan for julie/luke/reggie or flarrie. I expected willex, because the show gave us that and gave me plenty of vibes to go “ok they like each other and would work together in the long term”. but especially with noncanon ships I always find myself stumbling into them as I plan or write a fic. I do sometimes set out to write a romance, but that’s usually when I’ve been in a fandom for a while and know “ok I like these dynamics and have had thoughts about shipping them in previous works, let’s dig into that.” and then I’m always writing like it’s a persuasive essay! like there are people reading who aren’t convinced about the ship, and I have to show my work.

even working with ocs it’s like, “ok I made this guy to be a friend for this character, but also I think that this particular dynamic would probably lead to romance and/or sex” (this thought brought to you by me knowing I haven’t touched my Jesse Lives au in forever) - actually I would say with ocs it’s most important because holy hell nobody is going to be automatically invested in your oc’s romantic or sexual life but you. you have to do a lot of legwork on that one unless your only intent is more of a reader insert vibe where ppl can imagine intimacy with their favourite character, which means they don’t care about your oc so much as they care about being able to project anyway. they already know why they’d be into this canon character. you don’t need to do anything there (which to be clear you do you, that just holds very little appeal for me for various reasons. live your dreams my friends)

and it’s just weird to me that people will write things where. it’s characters who don’t interact much. and then they don’t put any effort into making the reader ship it? they jump straight to “both characters are yearning and have been since they met” because they ship it, and they don’t require buildup, and I’m like “but how did you get here. why does it matter that they’re doing these things for each other.” and a lot of it tends to be a lack of deep characterisation, so it could be any two guys being gay (or. any ship. i’m maybe thinking about Certain Popular Gay Ships in fandom but also calling out baby me’s destiel obsession specifically. it’s fine no judgment but also fandom has a white gay man problem and that is a different post entirely) - and a lot of it also seems to be like. allosexual people (I assume from uhhh sexytime context clues) and definitely alloromantic people thinking that attraction alone is the legwork. like there’s nothing else to prove about a relationship. they like each other, boom, romance.

when you’re writing a romance, you don’t just have to have the characters woo each other (which. as a reader of both fic romance and original, published romances, let me tell you a lot of writers don’t even do that) - you have to make the ship woo the readers. draw us in. prove to us in word and action that these two care, make each other better (or worse, I write some toxic codependent shit too), that there is some reason to want them together and not settle for whatever preexisting dynamic they have. why does it matter that these people are in love? why are these obstacles worth overcoming? what does it add to a non-romance story to have this ship in it?

I would like romances that romance me, damn it

[kameraadia]

i’m utterly obsessed with your header. yes alec lightwood is a yugoslav communist comrade. this is the book series we could have had if cassandra clare was just a little bit braver.

I hate hate hate hate HATE the reformist narrative pushed by the books (and to some extent the show.) Like no the clave is not reformable it is an inherently racist and oppressive institution. The idea that Alexander lightwood wold choose to uphold this structure and try to “reform” it while having the identities that he does, having the political/historical understanding that he has and having both platonic and romantic relationships with Downworlders is just such a cop out to me. It is a dishonesty to his character that he pursues reform over revolution.

And Magnus also agreeing with this ideology is absolutely detrimental to every other part of his character you have no idea how much I was to strangle CC over this.

Anyway Alec lightwood is 100% a member of the communist party of Idris in my head thank you for coming to my TedTalk. Comrade Alec Lightwood is the only Alec Lightwood I will accept. Canon is dead and I personally hid the body.

Also fun fact the flag is actually some random redditor’s attempt at a Dutch communist flag, my best friend who is Bosniak sent it to me because she thought it looked a lot like the Yugoslav flag, we found it hilarious for some reason and now it’s our matching profile pictures on most social media.

[ploodoe]

I’m five months into my apprenticeship, about time I can start getting free tattoos. I still get sad about the state of my art but it’s already wildly different from before I started. Year and a half to go. It’s finally starting to get warm outside so I’m gonna make my own salsa tomorrow. I quit my job because my boss was apparently a transphobic asshat who embezzled $12,000 from a fucking coffee shop?? Now I work for a cute couple from Mexico using their own ethically sourced coffee beans. But she’s still working 60+ hours a week, between working for knowledge at apprenticeship and working for money at coffee shop. Clare lives with me now and stumpy has cancer and was given a few months to live. Life is coming FAST this has been my TEDtalk see you in 6 months

[hannahsheppardsblog]

Mehta, Dr Clare. “Beyond Boxes: Unpacking the Complexity of Gender.” Www.ted.com, 2018, www.ted.com/talks/dr_clare_mehta_beyond_boxes_unpacking_the_complexity_of_gender. [Accessed 5 Mar. 2023.]

gender impacts our entire life all the way down to what toilets we use

how psychologists have determined gender:

gender occurs along a continuum

psychological androgyny: feeling both male and female

what if gender is feeling a little bit of everything?

gender box suggestion:

birth assigned gender category

current gender identification: the one you chose to identify

gender roles: how much you follow the societal expectations of gender roles

gender social presence: what do you look like: butch/femme/androgynous

gender evaluations: how do you feel about your own and other gender groups

gender salience: how aware you are of your gender in any given moment

gender typed personality traits: assertive/nurturing

gender reference group identity: how similar and psychologically connected you feel to your gender

women and men can both display emotional traits of a different gender. this suggests gender is a scale and multi dimensional

from watching this tedtalk, i have seen that gender isnt as straightforwards as male and female as i already knew and appreciated, but it has made me think about how we can encourage people to step out of these gender personality traits with more confidence and how it might be currently impacting their lives, which ties in nicely with the expectation that men bottle up their emotions. this is a topic worthwhile exploring because it has now come up in multiple areas of my research. i need to find a context in which this occurs to help the project progress.

[helenas-reads]

Post Queen of Air and Darkness

HELLO BOOKWORMS

I CAN OFFICIALLY JOIN THE TDA FANDOM NOW THAT I AM COMPLETE

okay let’s get down to business (cue mulan music)

brutally honest review: (SPOILERS DUH) I don’t know if it was just me, and because I binge read the series (which, I guess, suggests they were really good lmao), I felt that this book was longer than it had to be. I found myself half way through at page 400 being like, okay, can we be done yet?

Thule felt like a book in and of itself. It was like a whole ass adventure there and I felt like I aged ten years when they came back lmao. 

And the battle was a bit confusing for me to follow. Granted, I read the battle sequence at 3am lmao, but still, it was a bit hard to understand. The Julian and Emma into giants thing confused the fuck outta me but okay. I couldn’t picture them as giants lmao I kept imaging like Grubby from Harry Potter or like Clifford the big red dog LOL. 

I absolutely despised Zara so it was painful for me to read the scenes when she had Cortana. Also I hated Horace and the Cohort, which I know is the point, but  just wished the whole battle thing happened earlier. 

Okay, if it wasn't obvious already I’m a huge Blackstairs Stan. I HATED the spell Julian put on himself. I KNOW why he did it but it didn't make it any easier to read. I also just felt like Julian and Emma kept facing obstacle after obstacle and after a while it got to be like, okay, can they just finally be together yet? Idk if that was just me. But anyways, im glad they got to be together in the end. I would've thrown hands if they didn't lmao. 

I loved Alec being the new consul. Jace is my favorite fictional character of all time (btw that statement holds a lot of weight with me LMAO) so I loved getting to see glimpses of him, Alec, and Clary. I also adore Malec and the Malec wedding was everything I dreamed it would be. 

I loved Julian coming back to himself and organizing the whole meeting. And Jace respecting him and having his back. AND when Emma was dying in his arms during the battle, I was visibly crying. That wrenched my heart out. To be honest, that was my favorite scene of the entire series. They agreed to burn together and ugh, that sealed the deal for me. I was done for. 

In conclusion, I liked this book. I loved Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows. 

I would give QoAaD a 6/10. It already had characters I loved, and we got to see character development in a lot of ways (Julian learning it was okay to let go of the kids; they were growing up and had Helen and Aline, Mark, Cristina, and Kieran realizing they love each other and throwing their hearts into their relationship; WE FINALLY GET TO WORSHIP GWYN AND DIANA AND DIANA AS THE QUEEN SHE IS; the new leadership of the clave(Alec and co); and Kit realizing he belongs in the Shadowhunter world(although I wished he made up with Ty).Q

Favorite character: Emma Carstairs

Favorite scene: When Emma *almost* died in Julian’s arms

Favorite book in the series: Lord of Shadows

Book Hangover Score: 7.5/10 *I do be suffering right now... I want a real life Julian so bad :( 

Cassandra Clare is a queen as always; she delivered a book that made me cackle and cry and somehow manage to finish an entire series in five days lmao. There’s not a book of hers I wouldn’t recommend. 

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk. Please let me know what your thoughts were about this and leave recommendations for other books to read :)))))

[1to800]

Happy Birthday!!!!!!! Hope you celebrate well and have an amazing year💕🥳🎉🎉

Omgg~ look everybody *let me brag* this is Clare an absolute angel cake~ the sweetest, loveliest, most amazing sunshine!!! Thank you for dropping in to say this even though I’ve been horrible and downright missing from our messages! I will say that when I read your message that day I really felt uplifted! I even cried (it was a good cry) but I cried and got clowned by my friend for being old and going through my midlife crisis in my teens *please scold them for me, Clare and tell them that you wrote an absolutely angelic message and any wEAk mortal would sob*

sorry for my whole tedtalk - I just really appreciate you so much Clare! You’re the best!! Thank you

[clarebear-0925]

Flowers, Fight Scenes and Isolation: My Prediction for the Future (And Possible Ending) of Jujutsu Kaisen

Hi. So seeing this extra for volume 26 finally spurred me to articulate all of my thoughts on this subject in one place. Sorry for the length, but let me cook.

Here's the big idea: I believe that Gojo is in fact going to come back— but with a major catch.

Lets review the (mostly theme-based) evidence, shall we?

Firstly, throughout the entire series, we know that Gojo has been incredibly lonely, isolated at the top by Jujutsu society,

As summed up by this iconic panel, with just him, vast empty white space, and his title, the only thing that most people know him for/define him by, aka “the strongest.”

We also know that isolation played a big role in his mental state and thinking until his death, and is something that Gege made sure to reemphasize during his last moments in chapter 236.

In this conversation, Gojo expresses the gap he felt and also sets up the connected imagery of him and flowers.

(In addition, I feel as though it is also significant that the person he finally opens up to about his feelings on this isolation is Geto- more on that later).

Next, JJK is commonly nicknamed “jumpkaisen” as a joke by fans due to how often the characters team up against the villains. However, I think this pattern actually has more significance in the overall narrative than being a funny quirk.

Over the course of the series, we have seen all sorts of teamups between a wide variety of characters- like the widespread jumpkaisen nickname suggests, they are an iconic part of JJK's combat.

However, one character in particular is exempt from this trend- Gojo. (and also Sukuna but we’ll get into that later too.)

He is always fighting alone- as an adult, we never see him fight alongside anyone else the way that other characters do. Even the villains note this when planning their battle strategy:

This is is made especially clear in the final battle (especially with the contrast between the mostly solo Gojo v Sukuna fight and the absolute dogpile that is going on in the manga right now).

The only times we ever saw Gojo fighting alongside another person is with Geto in his youth. Geto is also the only person who didn’t him as “the strongest.” Instead, they were the strongest together, and that is reflected in how they fought together.

But then after everything in Hidden Inventory, Geto too starts to see that gap between him and Gojo.

This results in him leaving Gojo, thus permanently isolating him as “the strongest.” (See also the change from "we're the strongest" in the Hidden Inventory Arc to "I'm the Strongest" in JJK episode 2).

We never see him fight with another person after that.

Ok, so now let’s put these two points (Gojo's isolation and its connection to the fight scenes) to serve up a prediction.

I believe that Gojo is going to come back severely weakened to the point that he will finally have to (or be able to) fight WITH others- in particular, the students who he has made it his express mission to protect and nurture so they can go on to improve Jujutsu society.

This would be in sharp contrast to Sukuna, who has continually refused any chance or notion of love and connection, likely due to his belief that it is unattainable due to his strength.

(Serena on TikTok has an amazing and concise video on this topic- go watch it if you're interested in a better understanding)

I also think that this development would be a great way to show that Gojo HAS been successful in his goal to nurture a better future of Jujutsu- rather than the society isolating and systematically breaking students like it did Geto, the students are now all working together to defeat this insurmountable evil.

So, in conclusion, yes, Sukuna will in fact be defeated by the power of love and friendship (and a couple dozen or so black flashes), and it is NOT Gojover.

Also, here is some vital supplemental information (again from the amazing Serena) regarding the flower depicted on Gojo’s cover and the volume 26 extra.

I think the fact that Gojo compared himself to a flower in Chapter 236 as he died, and the fact that the flower in the supplemental (who he is clearly connected to via the cover art) hasn’t hit the ground yet is a very good (and more concrete) sign for his chances of returning.

Thank you for reading and sorry for the length! I would love to know your guys' thoughts on this theory and what you think will happen in the future of JJK! :)

[clarebear-0925]

Hey hey hey I’m Clare, she/her. I am interested in a pretty wide variety of things but the main ones right now are:

Anime (Jujutsu Kaisen, Chainsawman)

The Magnus Archives & Protocol

Minecraft content (Life Series, Hermitcraft)

sort of Critical Role (I haven’t been keeping up with Campaign 3 but I will always be attached to C2)

DC Comics (Jason Todd in particular)

And the occasional bit of Star Wars.

I am also an aspiring Ordem Paranormal enjoyer even if most of the seasons aren’t subtitled yet lol

Anyway I like doing art, theorizing, and talking about crossover potential between the things I enjoy so follow me if you’re interested in that lol

These are the tags for posts from me: #my ramblings (general text posts), #my art and #clare's tedtalks (my analysis/theories)

Also if you are interested in JJK here is a theory I worked on that I’m pretty proud of: HERE