#conceptually speaking

[tenshiharmonia]

Okay, I know there are much wilder things happening right now, but am I the only one who'd really like to see Razor Rex' "seven fearsome Corpse Cardinals" ?

[meteorstricken]

A little something about why Ultima is...fascinating...to me.

I consider myself spiritual-leaning agnostic, and am a long-time "Exvangelical". (2020 crushed any remaining vestiges of dogmatic faith I had left. It was painful.)

But now that I'm detached from any obligation to affirm any dogma, my mind has been left to peruse possibilities...and I have to say that there is no system or theory of belief or unbelief that does not disturb or upset me. I refuse nihilism, but the notion of having meaning imposed upon me from without is despair-making. I hold my autonomy precious. Yet at the same time, I am but one small person. To concoct my own meaning feels impotent and masturbatory.

And then there is the issue of divinity. If the divine exists, what are the qualifications for calling it so? What, if anything, differentiates a powerful hyperdimensional alien from what man would traditionally refer to as a 'god'? Are they simply one and the same?

At last, we arrive at the subject of intent. If the divine does exist, the power differential between them and man leaves no room for reasonable, open-eyed trust. What do we know of eternity? We can barely conceive of it. Why should we trust anything it has to say or any of its promises?

Perhaps there might be eons of paradise as some traditions suggest, and the faith of many seemingly rewarded...but then, the carpet is pulled. Annihilation. Destruction. Torment. All souls, totally and utterly consumed. That which belongs to the divine, theirs to destroy.

Truth is more important than anything; than any comfort we might derive, but it's so out of reach. And even where we might think we have it, there's an untold risk of being dangerously, cosmically wrong.

FFXVI's Ultima touches upon all these themes of existential existential terror and uncertainty, and I simply cannot look away.

[mythalism]

genuinely curious how the writers and larger dragon age audience would treat thom rainier if instead of being appropriately* repentant and putting himself in prison he blew up a major orlesian government building to instigate a chevalier rebellion or tried to have someone do some necromantic blood magic ritual involving uncertain danger and possible sacrifices to bring the innocent children he ordered killed back to life

[oncelerfucker]

Yes autonomy is a major theme in Severance. Yes there was a bold and beautiful statement about the autonomy of the innies, Mark S. in particular, at the end of season two. Yes it makes complete sense for Mark S. to have made the choices he did.

And also — trauma and healing from it (or a lack of healing from it) is also a major theme in Severance.

It's very common to view yourself as disconnected from yourself after trauma. Who you were before and who you are after are two "different" people. As such, a huge part of healing from trauma can be working towards seeing yourself as "whole" again. That's not to say that trauma makes one "incomplete" but that for some people beginning to recognize the "ugly" parts of their emotions as part of themself wrt healing from trauma is related to self compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Which I think lends itself to the fact that innies and outies are the same person in the sense that their personalities and emotional patterns shine through regardless of their memories. Because of that I think the way they are treated by each other (innie vs outie) is more reflective of how the characters view themselves than anything else.

For example: Dylan hates himself, but he wants to like himself. He wants to be better, he just doesn't know how (thinking about how it's very heavily implied he has ADHD or another kind of neurodivergence that contributes to the way he struggles). Dylan is uncomfortable with and self conscious about his disregulation. He idealizes the parts of him that he wants to be more like, that he wants to strive for. Of course wanting to believe a part of him that he'll never fully meet is cool is something that is true for himself regardless of if he's at home or at Lumon — he desperately wants to like himself and find something he is good at. That's why he is angry but understanding to himself regarding Gretchen. That's why he gives himself autonomy.

Dylan sees himself and goes "That's a man I may not know, but I recognize him" because he recognizes his emotions and knows who he is despite the ways he may hate it.

Mark hates himself, but he fundamentally doesn't want to change. Mark does not see himself as autonomous because for the last several years he's been the guy that a bad thing happened to who can't confront it. Grief can cause you to strip your autonomy from yourself in real life, the severance procedure is just an extremely literal way of going about it. Mark is comfortable in his suffering. He's stuck in bargaining and depression. He is a man who lives comfortably in his depression hole and only changes his tune when it is theoretically possible to get his old life back. Of course neither part of himself sees the other as an equal — he hates that guy and constantly belittles himself because of his grief. He already doesn't see himself as autonomous so why would he ever view himself that way in any other context?

Mark sees himself and goes "That's a man I refuse to know and refuse to recognize" because he cannot bring himself to recognize his own emotions and understand himself in his emotional complexities.

For some the only way to heal from your traumas is to find a compassionate lense to look at and understand yourself through.

Dylan is beginning to do that without even working towards reintegration.

Mark has completely rejected that despite forcing himself into reintegration. Mark — innie and outie — will continue to lose narratively for as long as he cannot view himself with empathy.

[wuntrum]

plasma ball vibrator...its called the orb

[chorrianderr]

I can't believe it's practically implied by canon that Yoo Joonghyuk is Kim Dokja's everything (brother, friend, confidant and lowkey soulmate figure all in one person) and he idolizes/likes the man so much that his brain can't comprehend the possibility of said feeling being mutual

[aliettali]

look at this glorious ass vase. i feel like I’ve been possessed

[moonshynecybin]

texts vale sends immediately post rosquez proposal

[dennisboobs]

question for all of you who have considered how dennis operates:

when thinking about dennis' POV, how do you handle his internal thoughts*? would you assume it to be the exact same as the way he presents himself externally, do you think the external and internal are conflicting (ie. he'll think one thing and say another), or is it something else?

writers (including those who haven't published anything!) feel free to elaborate in tags/replies/my ask box if you've got some method to your dennis' madness.

this is NOT about how your characterization may differ from canon, it's about how you would write dennis internally vs externally!

*internal dialogue/POV meaning his own narration/input; how he interprets things, any rumination, opinions on a situation, insight to unexpressed feelings. not just internal monologue/thoughts as unspoken dialogue

[brodyfoxxsmassivetits]

I love your Eduardo so much I want to spin him until he gets the dizzy spiral eyes ❤️

meant to get to this ask a bit ago but got burnt out...I however NEVER refuse excuses to doodle my fave

tysm for the ask also!!!per usual :3

various eduardoodles...

also...daduardo....uhh middle ageduardo????? barbecue daduardo...working name

has like a kid or two and shouts at the TV over sports he doesn't care about

I too enjoy Eduardo quite a bit it is cause I am

.strange

[leafatlaw]

This series felt more of an accidental metaphor for capitalism than anything else. But the thing that’s going to be keeping me up at night for a while is how even when given the power to remake the world in whatever way he wanted to, Evbo was still not able to imagine a world without parkour.

This world was all he’s ever known and even when trying to make it better he doesn’t think such a thing as solid ground can exist.

[canary-song]

would a silent film era spiderman speak in captions that just metaphysically implant the words in others brains or would that just. not work outside their universe. do they learn sign? would sign language work?

[fagtainsparklez]

mikhail’s genuinely one of the characters ever. crossdressing exorcist/nun who’s also a famous influencer and whose closeness with his male peer and gender presentation is treated Completely Normally. to the point where it took me like halfway into the arc to realize he is crossdressing. i just thought those were the church’s usual uniforms LOL

[yarrowleef]

hey, hold up, hang on

I was doing some random wiki research about Midnight, and I came across this???? apparently there were bonus info videos released with The Last Hope's ebook?

look, this is decade old info, and maybe everyone already knows and stopped caring years ago but like??? I don't think I knew this?? this is news to me!!!

time stamp 1:00 - 2:10

Midnight was supposed to be the twist villain for OotS?? are u kidding me so much of why I remember the last Hope being anticlimactic is because nothing interesting happened, the bad ghosts had been saying "we're going to do a big attack" for books and books, and then they just did that big attack exactly as we had been told and it was the same as any other Big Battle scene and there wasn't really any more interest to the plot. This kind of plot twist might have actually added something interesting to that book!

And Vicky makes it sound like she had this plan for a long time? it was even going to tie back to Midnight secretly having a hand in the badger attack in arc 2?

THIS!? This is why she told Sol that info about the eclipse?? and then never explained why??? Like!!!! is this why Sol was Like That!?? a guy set up to be a big mysterious deal, but then he didn't really do anything and just fizzled out of existence??? because he was conceived of for an idea that was scrapped before going anywhere, but he was already sort of part of a (presumably already started) plot mid PoT so it was too late to cut him 'cause they still needed SOME minor antagonist there to fill pages, right? .... but he had no where to go and no (good) reason to do anything, no ending, since HIS BOSS, his Motive, suddenly stopped existing as a concept??? bro??? no wonder his random tie to SkyClan felt so unfitting as a reasoning for this kind of villain

Erica!! Erica wtf!! I don't care if it felt absurd, absurd is better then underwhelming! so what if Midnight was nice and helpful to some cats, maybe she has complex feelings about certain clan cats despite still secretly wishing to unleash chaos on the society as a whole for personal reasons, heaven forbid there be a complicated villain :'(

anyway I am going to be thinking about this lost timeline forever.

[kwamiwayzz]

I know this is super cliche but now I'm imagining Flip Side but as a time loop game with Jecka as the player trying to save Nicole/keep her out of trouble (and it would actually be accurate to the title since the player would be seeing Jecka's POV on everything that's happened in the first game and Re-Up).

It's basically just Life is Strange all over again.

Except whenever she plays through a new route, and ultimately tries to make a choice that would help Nicole, sometimes the game would fuck with the player and force it to pick the other option.

The only time it wouldn't fuck with the player is when choosing between saving Nicole during the Suicide Ending or just letting her off herself. But the player wouldn't have this choice until they play/witness all other routes (meaning she'd have to witness her friend off herself the first time).

It would leave Jecka to think about if she should let Nicole give into her mental illnesses (which would eliminate a bad influence in her life) or if she should save Nicole (but be roped into all the trouble experienced from the first two games, and potential future trouble).

No tornado, no butterfly effect or anything--just a dilemma for a teenage girl to choose what would affect her life (for better or worse).

[weekoony]

I am in dire need of more wlw Eleanor (wlw Hex is general, to be honest). I wish I could art to contribute to the wlw Eleanor content