#could it be foreshadowing plot points of part two perhaps??????

[abucketofweird]

I don’t have the time to write it all out or to do the research but I would love to see some analysis of polin compared to the myth of Euros and Psyche that was referenced in episode 4 of season 3!

I just don’t know the myth well enough which means I would have to do a lot more research to fully grasp the nuance that I believe exists within this frame of reference!

[stillness-in-green]

Project Update/Survey of Interest: The AFO Retcon Essay

Having cleared out the inbox, I thought I'd let everyone know where I am on one of the big projects I've been alluding to for a long while now, the big meta post/essay arguing that the possession plot (and therefore AFO as primary endgame villain) is, in so many words, a big stupid retcon. That essay is - for reasons I'll get into shortly - on the brink of a major change in focus, so I'd also like to gauge how much interest people have in its potential new form. Because it would be another huge one, make no mistake.

(Hit the jump.)

So, I recently started dabbling with a new word processor program and thought I'd try learning the ropes with the retcon essay; I then spent the better part of two weeks combing through chatlogs and my blog archive trying to compile all the evidence I'd want to consider to make that argument. Two nights ago, I looked at the list I had - almost fifty bullet points! - and had the horribly demoralizing realization that...

...You guys, I just don't think I believe it anymore.

Now, that's not to say I've come around on the possession plot, because I definitely haven't! Rather, my trust in Horikoshi as a writer has been so badly eroded by the state of the writing in the endgame that I no longer think even the earlier material is reliable evidence for where the story was going.

To pick the most prominent example, I always regarded AFO telling Best Jeanist at Kamino that his quirk "wouldn't suit Tomura" as one of my strongest pieces of evidence that the possession plot had not been in the cards at that time. After all, who in hell cares what quirks would or would not suit Tomura if AFO's plan, as stated in Chapter 380, was that he would wholly subsume Tomura's will?

Now, however - and Chapter 380 is a big part of this, too! - I look back on that moment and just think, wearily, "Was that ever true, or was Horikoshi just lying to us already, and the only difference between then and now is that back then the lies could hold for hundreds of chapters, whereas now they're revealed within a matter of pages?"

A chat friend letting me vent suggested that perhaps the line was just intended to foreshadow Shigaraki getting All For One (and therefore all the quirks held within it) and Horikoshi just didn't think through all the implications AFO's phrasing had on how that plot was going to go. That may be true, and it's a more generous read than I could muster at the time, but the end result is the same: If I can't trust that the writing was ever an accurate reflection of the characters and their intentions, I can't in good faith construct an argument relying on that writing.

What I think I can do, however, if people are interested, is broaden the overall thrust to something much bigger than just AFO.

I'm currently toying with the idea of a treatise-in-four-parts about the problems in the endgame. Each part would cover one major branch of related issues - they might need to be broken down into sub-parts themselves, if they run long enough! The whole thing would likely be much longer and more involved than my chapter posts; think something more like the PLF mass arrest essay. Following are my current ideas for how those four parts would fall out, as well as some example talking points for each:

Part 1: Shigaraki and the PLF. Would cover Shigaraki as a villain and what he and the forces he'd amassed circa the end of My Villain Academia stood to bring to the endgame, both ideologically and tactically. Would also cover where they actually wound up and some considerations as to why.           Example Subpoints: Demanding accountability from Hero Society rather than just focusing blame on singular evils; Shigaraki as representative of all previous Villains; the MLA's shift in portrayal between MVA and the endgame; the ludicrous string of nerfs Toga was subjected to; whether the MLA was only ever intended to be a mass of numbers to whittle down the equally massive numbers of the Heroes or whether they were reduced to that after poor reader reception.

Part 2: All For One's Impact. Would focus on the sharp drop in moral complexity AFO both suffered himself compared to his pre-Tartarus characterization and inflicted on the endgame both himself and with the caliber of minions he brought to the story.           Example Subpoints: AFO's inconsistent characterization; the moral reductiveness of the Demon Lord as endgame Villain; AFO and Yoichi's personal history; Vestige mechanics; the impact of AFO's inconsistency on Ujiko's portrayal; the Sekoto Peak Problem; the characterization and handling of the Tartarus escapees.

Part 3: Team Hero Is The Fucking Worst. Would focus on the multitudinous problems with the presentation and methodologies of the Heroes in the endgame. Might be two parts if it gets long enough that I decide to split it up into, like, one part on the adults/Pro Heroes and one on the kids or something.           Example Subpoints: The story's bad faith attempts to portray agents of government authority as scrappy, determined underdogs; why it's impossible to believe that the current heroic cast will be able to enact a satisfying resolution to all the structural problems the story has raised; That Stupid Fucking Mech Fight; the constant refusal to let consequences stick to the Heroes; the way the story both undercuts and oversells Deku as a protagonist, and the impact that has on the broader narrative; One For All and more Vestige Mechanics; The Problem of Hawks; the hospital riot; the Todoroki family's inaction.

Part 4: Other Issues. A catch-all area for anything else I trip over that doesn't fit in any of the categories above, or problems of a more meta-narrative sort.           Very Preliminary Example Subpoints: The lazy portrayal of civilian characters; meta-narrative examples of the unreliability of BNHA's late-stage writing, from simple errors overlooked in the highly demanding grind of Shonen Jump serialization to the much more damning abuse of the reader's expectations of the comic medium; idk probably lots of other stuff, I Have Many Problems.

That said, I now have to ask, how interested are you all in a project like that? A fair amount of it would be recycled from my chapter posts, but obviously it would cover stuff I never got to in those, and would be able to be written with more hindsight (especially if it's written mostly or entirely after the series ends!), as opposed to the constant problem of reacting to the story week-to-week.

I basically stopped writing the chapter posts for reasons of incessant negativity, and obviously, this would be more of that, but I mind the negativity a lot less when it's A) able to be more comprehensive and focused than meandering and piecemeal and B) in the form of a large project I can work on as I have the energy for it rather than a brand new project every single week. And, as I trust stuff like MVA In Memoriam and On Heteromorphobia make clear, I do like the idea of putting together a good, comprehensive, easy-to-reference tract on all those problems, as opposed to just letting my issues remain scattered across multiple years of chapter thoughts and bnha critical tags!

That said, it's a big project, and I do vent about these issues pretty constantly with chat and irl friends, so if there's not much interest from followers here, I would not find it hard to just let the whole thing go and turn my eyes to less intimidating fare instead.

(Current other projects include the usual roster of BNHA fic, another mid-length meta piece in the mode of the BNHA vs. Helck comparison from a while back, this time on Mamoru Hosoda's Belle, and a horrible temptation to try and write something thoughtful and even-handed about demons in Frieren: Beyond Journey's End to combat the reductive-ass takes on both sides of the argument I've been seeing all over the internet since its anime started. Also, every week I go without seeing a single damn MachtxGluck fanfic on AO3 is a week I get closer to trying to figure out a way into writing it myself.)

Do let me know! Also, feel free to chip in with anything you'd like to see me specifically talk about in an endgame analysis!

[aliensupersyn]

An Ajin Manga Review: Discussing the Art

Part 1: Art Style in Relation to Storytelling

I entered this manga not knowing the first thing about it. I was scrolling through Manga4life after catching up on Hunter x Hunter and came across Ajin on the highest rated filter. I read through the comments and saw the praises for the story. I was collecting a number of different titles to read through and chose Ajin to begin my series of readings.

Why did I choose Ajin as a starter? What stood out to me about Ajin was its art. For many mangaka, the art begins somewhat immature and the artist hones their skills throughout the serialization. For example, there's a noticeable change in Tokyo Ghoul, Bleach, Naruto, HxH, etc. Ajin began with a recognizably polished art style thanks to Gamon Sakurai. The lines were confident and the scenes were already challenging in a way a veteran artist might be expected to execute. I was grabbed immediately!

These two pages are both from the first chapter. Note the details on the folds of clothes, the sneakers, the officer's ear, and his uniform even. I have not come across many manga who's art begins with dramatic detail in the most mundane things such as clothing, at least not in such a way. I'm reminded of how in sports manga, the mangakas take a lot of time to detail a player's shoes, because those have importance to the sport itself.

To clarify, Ajin still went through a maturity in its art. Obviously, there was a change when the original writer Tsuina Miura left. With Sakurai having more control over the story, it's clear his change in story affected the characters and art style as well. For example, Kei Nagai goes from a rounder more doe-like appearance to sharper and straighter lines. His original design fit alongside his character portrayal as an innocent kid unfit for the severity of the story's premise; Kei was perhaps meant to be pitied in the original story.

After Sakurai became the writer, Kei changed into an untrustworthy character who could shift personalities, utilizing both the younger look of the first volume, and the more confident and mature appearance Sakurai had created. Sakurai says that after volume 1, he "tried to move the art gradually closer to [his] own style" (ch.83, pg. 82). I recognize Kei's purposeful tonal changes as a creative method to transition the manga into Sakurai's own style and design changes that he had decided for the story.

Below, this series of pages illustrate first the differences between Kei in volume one and two. Then, the ways Sakurai uses both the softer and sharper designs to convey a transition of his character.

Finally, in chapter seventeen, page seven, Sakurai commits to the shift and reveals this new design and characterization to be the "real" Kei all along. Nakano comes to the same realization as the reader.

Sakurai used Kei's earlier more pitiful appearance to show Kei's softer mask that he wore to hide his true, more cold and calculative nature. After the moment between Nakano and Kei, the later design remains more consistent and total. Personally, I enjoy the later design more than the first and what it implied for the story. Along with a change in Kei's character was a change to the story's tone as well. Sato became more devious, and so did Kei. These character changes, in a way, foreshadowed the extremes in which the plot would take as well.

Though, still I would have enjoyed the closer relationship that was foreshadowed for Kei and Kai. I mean, look at these pages and tell me you don't see a budding homoerotic romance on the rise!

To round out my thoughts, I enjoyed the first premise, but overall enjoyed the second premise even more. In the next review, I'll dissect Sato's character and how he was handled from an authorial point of view. I just needed to discuss the art style change and what it implied for the story, especially Kei, as he plays an important role for the overall tone of the story.

[chirpsythismorning]

Rick Conroy's Recent Rentals:

Teen Wolf (1/2/3)

As a refresher, this is a shot from 4x02: Vecna's Curse. Robin, Max, Dustin and Steve are using the video store's database to look through the most recent rentals of all the Ricks in town as hints for which one Reefer Rick is, so that they can get his address and track down Eddie.

Unfortunately for them, this selection here from Rick Conroy didn't give off 'reefer' vibes and so they moved on to the next one.

However, luckily for us, this could very well have been hinting at events that are either already happening in s4, or are perhaps still yet to fully come to fruition in s5.

2. Teen Wolf (1985)

This is easy/hard because although it could be fairly simple, it could also be complex, to the point where it may very well go even further than this film. So I guess I'll just humor the implications, both simple and complex, because why not.

The entire plot of Teen Wolf revolves around a protagonist who is tired of being average, only to find out that he's actually the opposite of average: a frickin' werewolf.

There are a lot of possibilities for where elements of this film could align with certain concepts in the show. I even feel like it could be related to a specific arc on the most basic level (ie. Sixteen Candles = Birthdaygate).

Ironically, something I also noticed related to this, is that in the same episode we get the Rick selection with Teen Wolf, we also see the poster for it in the exact same spot as the Sixteen Candles poster was at the end of s3. We even see the letters ARC(ADE) in the right corner of the frame for both (probably just a coincidence, but a cool one at that).

Notice the pole going straight through the Teen Wolf poster here? More on that later...

Initially, I was going to just associate this film with the storyline related to the basketball team, because we do see a prominent arc related to basketball in s4, and so that felt like an easy way to pinpoint that reference?

However, I did feel sort of inclined to dig deeper, and this is because the other two films from this specific Rick selection connects to Will's character more than any of the other characters arguably.

Basically, after being stumped with the Teen Wolf mention, and intending to just stick with the simplicity of how the reference could apply to s4, I moved on to Romancing the Stone, only to find out it screamed Will, and so a part of me began wondering if it could be more complex than it seems when it comes to this reference.

And so, what exactly would Teen Wolf (1985) have to do with Will and his present/future arc, assuming that these three movies are indeed related to his character?...

Well, Twelvegate.

Just take a look at the film's slogan at the top of the movie poster:

He always wanted to be special. But he never expected this!

Upon rewatching this scene I also noticed there are twelve Ricks total...

As many of you probably know, there has been a decent amount of imagery with Will's blocking being obstructed by rods/poles/stakes, etc. (ie. Phineas Gage). So the fact that a pole interferes with the poster for TW could also be intentional in its attempt to give it some association to Will.

Here are the several other shots we get of the TW poster in this same episode:

I remember so much discourse about how this shot above was foreshadowing Max's confrontation with Vecna, which I do still fully believe to be the case. However, now I'm also rethinking about how that claw representing Venca looks just a little too aligned with the TW poster to not at least be a little bit intentional...

Look at Dustin and Max's bikes! They're blue/yellow directly in front of the poster!

And that's that on that!!

Though, if I’m being honest, this all still felt a little too simple to me.

The poster with Michael J. Fox opening up his shirt to reveal the title Teen Wolf also reminded me of the official reveal that Vecna was 001? Where the UD vines sort of scatter to reveal the number on his wrist...?

While it could be relevant as a potential hint for Will only now discovering as a teen that he has powers/is connected to the lab, similar to the protagonist of Teen Wolf only now discovering as a teen that he is a werewolf, I still want to try to take it another step further.

Now, going back to the basketball plot in s4, because I do think there still could be some connections between the show and the basketball theme in the film, is that there's actually a really layered connection to Teen Wolf going on here. And it has very me intrigued.

Although, this connection can be easily overlooked, as it's not related to the 1985 version, but actually the 2011 drama series, loosely based on the 1985 version, which goes by the same name...

As it turns out, Mason Dye’s most notable role before he was cast as Jason Carver in s4 of Stranger Things, was his role as Garrett in s4 of Teen Wolf.

So I guess the casting department decided to typecast tf out of Mason, by giving him the role of a character in a storyline potentially inspired by elements from the movie Teen Wolf? A role which also happens to be almost identical to his role in the series Teen Wolf?

Jason Carver character description in Stranger Things: popular basketball player ends up hunting down Hellfire Club (ALSO peep his #12 jersey... yep.)

Garrett character description in Teen Wolf: popular lacrosse player ends up hunting down Scott's pack

This also reminded me of the Duffer's talking about the casting of Amybeth McNulty. For those who don't know, Amybeth starred in Anne with an E (2017-2019), which is a drama series based on the book Anne of Green Gables (1908). There's also a well known TV mini-series based on said book which came out in 1985. After casting for Vickie was announced, the Duffers revealed that they were fans of the AOGG book and the mini series as kids (which is why the book was referenced in the show a few times), but also made a point to add that they were big fans of AWAE.

This is interesting to me because I feel like TW and AWAE are the kind of shows that have a bad rep (mostly deserved for TW atp), but specifically because of how they present themselves on the surface?

Werewolf teens and a talkative red-haired girl in braids don't exactly scream quality TV to most people? Which like, fair enough. Not to mention, both adaptations were based on stories that were very popular in the 80's, being modernized for future audiences. And so a lot of people hated them for that reason alone, without even giving them a second glance.

However, within the context of the Duffers, who are well known film nerds, who literally watch anything and everything under the sun, I think it's possible (and even likely) they watched Teen Wolf the series.

Arguably, TW's most impressive narrative moments come from season 3b. Which interestingly enough brings us back to the main focus I had for this post, which is how exactly this could all relate to Will.

Answer?

Will being possessed by the Mind Flayer is EXTREMELY void-Stiles coded:

Void-Stiles is easily recognized as one of the strongest arcs in the entire series, and for good reason. S3b season truly tested the limits of Dylan O'Brien's talent, along with a lot of other elements in the show just really hitting the mark that season. The story-building, the vibes, and the acting from the cast overall was pretty good, making it well regarded as a fan favorite (sound familiar?).

At first it starts with Stiles sacrificing himself, essentially dying for a short period of time, only to come back to life, but to have also left a door open in his mind. This door (ajar) makes Stiles vulnerable to the Nogitsune (an evil spirit that feeds off of chaos, strife and pain), who of course takes advantage and attaches to Stiles.

Slowly, Stiles starts experiencing an inability to focus, sleepwalking, vivid dreams during the day, while also not being able to tell the difference between dreams and reality. Eventually this leads to the Nogitsune gaining control, who then starts to have more influence on Stiles' behavior, leading him to trick his loved ones around him into believing that it's him by acting like Stiles at times, when really it's the Nogitsune. He uses Stiles' body as a vessel to wreak havoc on the town of Beacon Hills, but also specifically Stiles friends/family.

He even goes as far as to make Stiles do things like twist a sword into his best friends chest, then finally detaches himself from Stiles' body only to in that very same moment kidnap Lydia (his love interest), and ending in a battle with him orchestrating the attempted murder of an entire floor of a hospital, along with successfully killing a beloved main character.

While I do think it's possible we could see some similarities between these storylines here (we arguably already have), something I realized a while back when researching for birthdaygate, was that it did remind me a great deal of Stiles' arc in s6a of TW.

What makes this arc kind of ironic in the context of this post, is that there are some parallels to Back to the Future...

Basically everyone forgets Stiles existed, to the point where he's completely erased from reality, including photographs (Back to the Future reference). Other details about him, like his name and his connection to the people around him, is what plays a big part in his return (including radios being used between realms to communicate with him... yep).

As it's happening, Stiles starts going up to everyone he knows, first casual friends, and slowly down the line to people that mean the most to him. Suddenly his best friend doesn't know him, then his dad, finally the only person left who remembers him is Lydia, only for him to be taken and for everyone to forget (including Lydia). And this was basically the big cliffhanger that closed off the first episode of the season, with it being a guiding force to them getting Stiles back in the following episodes.

Now, I just want to make it clear that I do NOT think that this is how s5 is going to play out, like barely, if at all.

My main purpose for this post was to look at the simple and complex in relation to this reference and how it could relate to what is to come, in any shape/form.

Like, we know they draw a lot of inspiration from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (along with 100+ films and more). And yet still, that doesn't mean we're expecting the show to play out exactly like it does in those stories.

What we're expecting is some inspiration & parallels.

S5 is said to be drawing a lot of inspiration from s1-2, which are two seasons most tied to Wills disappearance and possession.

Clearly in the case of this reference, there are A LOT of possibilities for what this could be hinting at related to Will's arc in particular.

I'm excited, but also terrified to find out what...!

[tiktaalic]

ok in terms of Plot and What Not how does gomens s2 stack up against season 3 of ted lasso. which was also shockingly plotless and at times nauseatingly directionless

OH. hm. I think Ted lasso has the edge in several respects. Because while it was very plotless there was still the looming Big Game. Guys we have a Big Game coming up. There was no Big Game in good omens. It was just. Oh we have this one plot piece to puzzle out but it’s not really a priority or time sensitive. And if all else fails we can always bail out. It would have been trite and it wouldn’t have entirely fixed it but if there had been some sort of arbitrary time limit set in good omens I think it would have tightened up the ship so it felt more like a television show and not two men doing six hours of improv. Something like oh and btw you have a week to return Gabriel before heaven explodes without his source of power and also we kill you. Or Gabriel going idk much but I do know that in one week something huge and possibly terrible is going to happen :-).

Also. Ssssssssssigh. Ted lasso was funnier. I think I’m awarding a lot of points to Ted lasso based on the ep where Jamie drags Roy around going let’s do tourism! Because I did have fun in those parts. I honestly didn’t have a lot of fun in gomens i was just. Flabbergasted. The entire run time. Nazi zombies? Sure. Gay David tennant son? Alright. Twenty foot tall crowley? Why not. Why not do that. Might as well happen. I’m trying to think of what happened in the show and that’s like. It. It either needed more or less flashbacks. If there were more they would have had to be firmer anchors to what was currently happening. If there were less they would have to be doing stronger character work.

Ted lasso is much more moralistic so loses points in that regard but there was also the episode where aziraphale was like graverobbing? bad and wrong! I retract my statement. Graverobbing is fine and perhaps even a virtue. I think Ted lasso Feels more misogynistic and racist because they do their overtures to We Have Solved Every Problem. Great job team. Gomens makes no overtures to this it just has cardboard cutouts of characters in the background swaying gently in the wind. I also. Think Ted lasso does stronger character work :|. Every character in Ted lasso has at least one or two flanderizable characteristics that fill them out enough that I see a character and know what their Niche is in a conversation / scene. I could passably nail anyone’s patter for a few sentences. Good omens is . Again. Two guys and scenery. There’s no patter to imitate.

ALSO. Sory for being a bad gay person. I was more entranced by throuple bait than azcrow bait or I guess. Azcrow Foreshadowing. Throuple bait was like oh Aw they’re growing as people together :) . Azcrow bait was someone marching up to their mark planting their feet on it and reading off the script still in their hands to say Have you noticed that you act like a couple with this man? Now it’s none of my business but you act like a couple with this man.

[thenightling]

This is my review, thoughts, and theories from the latest episode of Interview with The vampire. Episode 4 of season 2. I think the showrunner mistakes unnecessary twists as being clever. So here are the twists I anticipate. 1. I suspect Santiago's maker was Nicolas. We keep going back to Santiago's story. By the way, it's trite and very CW that the story of what happened to Santiago's maker, from being "killed" for breaking one of their laws, to finally revealing the law he broke was making a vampire without permission... this is very CW when plot points like that are unnecessarily drawn out. It pulls me out of the story and reminds me that this is TV writing. And yet they had the audacity to pretend it's "Soapy" to reveal that Lestat was involved with the theatre coven? 2. It's pretty clear that the visions of Lestat are NOT hallucinations like the showrunner tried to make us believe in the first episode of season 2. He's obviously astral projecting to Louis. He' been telling Louis things that Louis did not know such as how long Lestat was an actor, and what he had sewn into his suit pocket. 3. Though I really would like the reveal that Armand messed with Louis's memories, I'm starting to wonder if this lazy showrunner and writing team are keeping the soft woobified version of Armand and the one who messed with Louis's memories was Marius to sabotage the interview and protect the vampire race. This would be a major deviation since Marius was amused by Lestat's rock career in the books.

4. It looks like they're going to change why Claudia was condemned, perhaps foreshadowing that her being condemned is because she makes Madeleine into a vampire.

While I'm on the thought did anyone else go "Ah, yes! This was written by a man who knows nothing about womanly anatomy and behavior!" when Madeleine commented with surprise and apparent suspicion about Claudia's breasts still being small two years after they met. That was... weird... She might as well have said "This is unnatural! We've known each other for two years and your titties aren still small to medium sized! Why aren't they Dolly Parton sized yet?!" Claudia is played by a nineteen-year-old. A dress maker would know some people have small breasts. Also they're not THAT small! Just because you say something doesn't make it true. Claudia didn't need to give a war time explanation for her size. I haven't grown since I was thirteen. I'm five foot one and forty-two-years-old. And I didn't get my first period until I was fifteen. So Claudia being apparently sixteen and small chested should NOT be gaining attention from the dress maker. Yet again the show had a ridiculous amount of smoking. Why the Hell was hallucination / astral Lestat smoking? Madeleine talkin about the boy Yahtzee. "He paid with food and cigarettes." I think if this show runner could make the rats smoke he would. By the way, I STRONGLY suspect that Lestat may be in Paris, perhaps being held prisoner. Hmm... Have we actually ever seen the rats in the body disposal thing? That would be stupid though. Anne Rice's vampires, in the novels, don't eat. I know they did here but it would still be stupid that he wouldn't cry out to Louis "Hello! I'm here!" Now I'm imagining some idiotic "He was so starved for blood that he ate the flesh from the corpses, looking for whatever drops might remain." Yeah, they would do that... It also looks like there will be a theatre uprising and Santiago's group will be who condemn Claudia. And Armand truly won't be able to stop it. (I'm guessing the show runner missed the parts in the books and the subtle clues in the movie that Armand was actually behind it. He seems to miss a lot of what's important in the books, like he only read a poorly written wiki entry. Unless all of this is false memories? How would Louis know about the calls Santiago made while he and Claudia were not around? Who told that part?

Finally, why are the theatre vampires upset at Louis for living like a human? I thought that was the entire point of the vampires LEAVING Armand's Satanic coven under the cemetery? They used lines about Lestat for Louis here. Why? Lestat already taught Armand's followers that they can live like humans two centuries earlier. Why recycle the plot?

And why are they still following the Satanic coven rules? Sabbats? The Theatre is supposed to be secular.

[elrielbaby]

Bryce & Azriel are not mates. I get that people don’t like the idea that they just ‘decided’ they were mates & if that were the only scene we had of them being mates I would understand it to a certain extent - but every single theory post I’ve seen seems to forget a few very important details. (Contains Crescent City spoilers)

Ruhn & Bryce have a whole conversation that lasts approximately 2 pages where Ruhn comments on the fact that their scents have merged & how Hunt is going ‘ballistic’ in the way the Fae do when they’re true mates in their bodies & souls. And he was suspicious even before this from what I remember, saying how Bryce smelt different.

SJM has to be careful with how much happens in Prythian during the cross over. Why? Because she has two more books in the ACOTAR series (plus at least one novella if not two) that she has already set up the plot for. I know antis don’t like it but Elriel have four books worth of build up & foreshadowing. For something so integral to happen in another book series would be extremely arrogant on Bloomsbury & SJM’s part. Casual readers may not have read Crescent City (I know if I wasn’t on tik tok I would have probably only read TOG) & some people may not have liked Crescent City so they didn’t continue after the series or DNF’d it. Either way, they’d have to assume people had read that series before carrying on with ACOTAR & that just seems like an incredibly poor writing choice to me.

Following on from my last point, whatever does happen in CC3 has to be quickly and easily explained in ACOTAR5 (assuming the plot follows on from those events - which I assume it will to avoid SJM spoiling too much for the upcoming series or writing herself into a corner plot wise) in order to not spend too long on it - because then you get the opposite problem for readers who have read CC3 - it would be annoying to spend more than a page or two on something you’ve already read.

Now, imagine. Let’s say, Bryce & Azriel are mates. Given where ACOSF left off, you’re going to have a bunch of confused readers- who could sense something was building up with Elain for it to have fizzled to nothing or for Azriel to have found his mate in another book? How does that work? We have so many unanswered questions. Why did Azriel & Elain act so mate like to each other, for one? Do they still have feelings for each other & if not, why not? Amongst the so many other unanswered questions we have.

This is an argument that I have with G*ynriels as well, when I say that Elain’s book is next with Azriel as LI - and they say yes but they’ll both move on from each other to G*yn & L*cien in that same book. How do you expect SJM, in one single book, to deal with not one, not two but four love interests in one single book AND fit in a plot somewhere? This is without even mentioning that SJM herself has said each book focus’ on one couple - it will have the same lay out as Nessians book (dual pov + happily ever after for said couple within the same book)

Then we have the CC3 plot just on its own. It’s covering (as far as we know) two worlds. Bryce is currently in a world where she can only communicate with two people. She has to find a way to communicate with Aidas, perhaps travel to Hel, & get help. That’s all incredibly complicated stuff. Ruhn, Hunt & Baxian are in Midgard going through god knows what. Ithan, Declan & Flynn have rescued Ariadne, and Ithan has just freed the unnamed Fendyr heir. Thats without going into whatever is going on with Tharion. Where is SJM supposed to drop the bomb that Bryce & Hunt aren’t mates, she’s actually mates with this random guy that she can’t even talk to from a different planet? We’ve got too much to find out without adding that to the mix.

SJM herself has said, that this trilogy is Bryce & Hunts love story. Adding in a different mate doesn’t really fit with that narrative, particularly when the book doesn’t even support it.

I could go on and on about how this just isn’t going to happen & I love crackships I truly do! But it’s when people try & insist that it’s going to happen, then laugh at me for trying to say that actually I think Elain & Azriel are mates or at the very least endgame.

[discountalien-pancake]

Mmkay. So I didn’t hate it. I definitely didn’t love it. I don’t feel like my time or money were wasted on reading this book. I also feel that this book would have greatly benefited from several more rounds of editing. This was very much a book that could have been good. And not in the way that people say it about SJM’s books. There was a clear, sense-making plot progression, purposeful foreshadowing, follow-through on all the Chekov’s guns (well, most, but the last one i think is probably resolved in the sequel which I probably won’t read?).

The problem was I found myself hurtling through the book, and not in a good way. I wanted it to get to the damn point. So much of Kadou’s point of view is spent dithering within these gratuitously overwrought panic attacks. There’s just so much and so many of them that it actively interfered with the progression of the narrative, not simply of in-world events. Everything would just grind to a halt while Kadou spends two or three paragraphs self-flagellating, carry on for half a page, and then more self-flagellation. There were multiple chapters of entire days, sometimes multiple days or even a month, crunched down to just lengthy descriptions of Kadou being a helpless, shivering wreck, interspersed with one-sentence summaries of all the important official business he’s carrying out as a prince on probation.

And then we’d swap povs and get Evemer’s rundown of the exact same events again but from his perspective. And it makes sense to do this once or twice, so that we can get out of Kadou’s head and see things more objectively. But the fact of the matter is that this book could have been a solid 50k words shorter and lost nothing of the plot or even the character development.

I feel like I’ve only been saying negative things, so here’s what the book did well: it established a very diverse cast who are all treated respectfully by the narrative. It established that there were a great many cultures coming into contact with this region, though I would have liked to see more people from those regions rather than just mentions of the material culture. It established that nonbinary folks are a normal, common presence within society and didn’t make a Big Deal out of any of it. The politics were mostly reasonable except for what I feel was a deeply contrived set-up. There was a lot of thought and care in the handling of the power imbalance between Kadou and Evemer, though I still feel that it failed to convince me that they have an equal partnership. You mileage may vary on that point. Evemer, in my opinion, was a delightful and very endearing neurodivergent character (definitely on the spectrum, probably a bit OCD). The author definitely did a lot of research on textiles and garment construction even if I can’t quite agree with their taste.

Would I recommend this book? Maybe. Depends on the person. I think if you like the bodyguard/prince trope, you might be able to gloss over more of the issues than I did. Perhaps you will be more sympathetic of the Anxiety Goblin prince than I. I fully admit I have little patience for characters like that. If you want a queer romance between an anxious prince and his demi, autistic bodyguard, then you’d probably enjoy it. You might find Kadou’s narrative cathartic. IDK. On my part, I found Evemer sufficiently compelling to finish the book despite the other flaws.

[gillianthecat]

I was in a weird and oddly vulnerable mood yesterday, so instead of watching the three new episodes of the shows I was "supposed" to watch and risk feeling disappointed* by them, I rewatched the first To My Star. I think I wrote right after my first viewing that it would probably become one of my comfort shows, and apparently it has :-)

First of all, I think I loved it even more the second time. And it was better than I remembered. I still didn't think it was perfect, but parts that had seemed disjointed previously seemed more coherent this time, and I could see how much of the characters' arcs she was setting up from the very first moment.†

This was my first rewatch after seeing To My Star 2, and I'm amazed at how much of the groundwork for the sequel was already laid out in the first show. The two really feel like a coherent whole. I had previously decided that TMS2 was basically fanfic of the first one, and while I don't think that's wrong exactly, TMS is very clearly setting up everything that happens in TMS2. All of the character traits and issues that lead to the conflicts and struggles of TMS2 are already present in TMS, they merely become bigger and less ignorable.

Even little things that seemed like comedic throwaway moments or relatively minor scenes turn out to become major relationship issues or important plot points in the sequel: Things like Seo-joon teasing Ji-woo about not believing he'd been in a relationship before and Ji-woo being so closed-lipped about it, Seo-joon's attempts to smooth everything over with money, Ji-woo's dislike of accepting money from him, even Seo-joon's cooking video.

There were several lines of dialogue that are basically previews to some of the most significant conversations in TMS2. Ji-woo tells Seo-joon "You're not considerate of other's feelings and say what you want to say. I'm envious of it," which is a foreshadowing of what he says after the relief of finding that little girl is safe, just before their desperate kiss: ""How could you be so honest about everything? How can I ignore you now?"

And their fight just before Ji-woo moves out of the house (this is how he deals with conflict! He runs away!) is the basic conflict that permeates TMS2.

J: "Everything that happened between us... Thinking about it made me feel disgusted." S: "This doesn't make sense all of a sudden. There's something wrong, isn't there." J: "When I'm with you, I feel like I'll be put in danger."

Ji-woo misdirects and lies about his feelings, he gets overwhelmed by the bleed-through of Seo-joon's fame, he thinks he can protect Seo-joon by pulling away and leaving him. And Seo-joon knows something doesn't add up, but he can't figure out what. This is what starts the events of TMS2, and it foreshadows many of their conversations.

I don't think I realized how consistent the characters were between shows, or how similar the overall tone of the two shows was. I think the first time I saw TMS I was expecting a more traditional BL and that colored my perception. But upon rewatch, its style - it's treatment of the two main characters, the world around them, even the aesthetics - has a lot in common with TMS2. And I don't think it's just a Hwang Da-Seul thing, the To My Stars are much more similar to each other than they are to either Blueming or Where Your Eyes Linger. Now I'm curious if Hwang Da-seul had written them both together, or if she only thought of the sequel after the first one was a success. It's starting to feel as if they were conceived of as one unit.

Anyways, I could write a lot more words about all the threads and themes that carry through to TMS2, and perhaps I will, but not today.

*I did make myself start The Eclipse, but I felt so irrationally betrayed that the kiss was just a fantasy that I decided I wasn't in the right headspace and gave up for now after the first quarter. I have been loving all three of these high school shows so much, and I don't want them to do anything to make me stop loving them. This is one of my first experiences devoutly following a series week to week (and my very first experience reacting to it as part of a community), and I didn't realize how much I would bond to these shows. Usually I binge things and process it all immediately, and in my own head. Don't get me wrong, overall it's been a wonderful experience watching them this way, I just didn't want to push it yesterday and ruin things for myself.

† I had planned to enjoy TMS mindlessly, but apparently these days I'm incapable of watching something without writing out my thoughts on it.

[purrincess-chat]

I heard you were comforting sad Adrinette shippers and I came as fast as I could.

honestly I'm so tired of the fandom drama. Once again had to block people because apparently Adrinette is boring and generic and then dating is destroying the love square development. Like I don't know how to say this but, Adrinette dating doesn't ruin the development, that is the development. Now people are saying that the love square has been destroyed. All from their not fav side getting together?

Hugs for all the tired Adrinette stans. People turned on them so quickly and for what?

You are so right, nonny. Adrinette dating is the development for the square. The dynamics changing was always bound to happen. That's how development works. What would be boring is if they stayed the exact same. People have been begging for something to happen between them for 4 seasons, and now when something has finally shifted and changed people are clinging to the old ways like "how dare the writers change them, they were perfect the way they were!!" Make it make sense, yall.

I'm still trying to see the boring part of Adrinette dating. Every episode I have watched this season has been so interesting and emotional, and it has made me fall in love with them all over again because they're so precious. And the show finally delving into their characters and addressing issues so they can come closer together and deepen their bond??? Hello??? That's so good??? And needed? Literally how is Adrinette becoming more comfortable with one another to a point where Marinette is confident around him instead of stammering and Adrien finally having someone he can lean on for support with his whole family situation bad for the love square? Literally how? The kids are finally getting the opportunity to love each other openly and be together. That's what we have all been waiting for since s1. Just because it wasn't a side some people wanted doesn't make it bad writing. The writing this season has been better than all of the past seasons. There is linear plot, character development that sticks, a deeper look into the villains motives, people making moves all over the place, foreshadowing. Literally everything we've asked for this whole time.

Some people just need to accept the fact that this is canon now, whether they like it or not. They can either live with it or move on. If the show no longer appeals to them because *checks notes* the flagship of the show got together, and there are "other shows that do high school romance way better" then perhaps they should go watch one of those shows instead. I've lost interest in shows before too, but rather than whining about it to people who still enjoy it, I just stopped watching. It's really that simple. And all of the hate and vitriol spewed at Adrinette and Adrinette stans for having the ✨audacity✨ to defend their enjoyment of canon and how this development makes sense with everything the show has given us up to this point is actively making the fandom worse. Like good god it's the same two people, arguing why it's unfair that Adrien and Marinette got together when it should have been Marinette and Adrien getting together is the stupidest shit. And actively shitting on people just for liking canon and making actual real people feel bad for enjoying a show about fictional teenagers just because it didn't turn out the way some people wanted? Shit behavior. Absolutely shameful.

Don't feel too bad about having to block people, nonny. Do what you have to for your peace in fandom. We can hang out here and have sleepovers and talk about how wonderful the love square being canon is while eating snacks and braiding each others hair. ❤

[the-spoopy-ghost-of-raejin99]

Some actual g-witch spoilers and theories this time.

With the actual reveal of Eri being a part of Aerial and the implications that Prospera is using Quiet Zero for her sake, I'm beginning to believe that Prospera didn't actually like, physically stuff Eri into Aerial. My guess is, since Quiet Zero has something to do with datastorms, and Prospera says Eri is waiting "beyond the datastorms", it's possible that Gundam pilots who experience datastorms might leave digital imprints behind, and that's where Eri essentially comes from. Whether this was intentional on Prospera's part or simply something she took advantage of after something happened to Eri offscreen after the prologue is unclear, but I'm willing to bet the latter.

Part of me wonders if this means we'll see similar versions of others, like Elan 4 (there's some weird foreshadowing in the new OP where one half of Elan's reflection has 4's earrings, the other has 5's) or Eri's dad, maybe even Sophie. Some are more likely than others, but I wouldn't write it off. Exactly how they would still be around, we would have to see, but if Eri's consciousness was somehow saved, it's possible that at least Sophie (who was affected by Aerial's mini Quiet Zero) might have been saved too.

This is highly speculative so I'm not 100% about this idea, but given Prospera wants to use Quiet Zero to create a world where Eri can be happy, it's possible Prospera wants to pull a technological equivalent to Code Geass's Ragnarok Connection and turn all of humanity digital to have them join Eri. We'll have to see as the plot moves forward what she's actually planning, but given who's writing this, I wouldn't be surprised.

Also seen some folks say that Eri/Aerial was the one actually fighting and that Suletta wasn't doing anything, but I don't think this is true. While I think Aerial is capable of controlling itself, I think Eri's main function in combat is controlling the GUND bits and giving Suletta the benefits of the GUND format without her having to go through the issues with the datastorms. I believe Suletta is the one doing the primary piloting, but it's likely she wouldn't be as effective in another Gundam. My assumption is eventually she'll unlock the ability to use the GUND format the same way Eri does in the prologue, based on the ED foreshadowing.

Some things I'm not sure on:

-Why Eri was so intent on killing Sophie. It could be as simple as either she was trying to stop Sophie from killing Suletta or that in her current form she doesn't think the way a regular person would, but it seemed a bit extreme how far she went.

-Eri seemed a bit different. She's wearing the same exact space suit she did in the prologue, but perhaps it was just different animators working on this scene, but Eri looked slightly older than in the prologue. Like I said, it could just be the animation, or it might be a hint that whatever caused Eri to become like this happened perhaps a year or two after the prologue.

-Suletta's exact nature. There's three main possibilities: Suletta is legitimately Prospera's second daughter (unlikely, since I don't think after the proglogue she would have stopped to have a kid later down the line), she's a clone of Eri, or, most likely, she's an enhanced person made to resemble Eri like the Elans. The last one is the most probable but they really haven't delved too deeply into it yet.

-The number of GUND bits Aerial has. Belmeria seems to explicitly point out that Aerial has 11 bits, which is an odd thing to note if the specific number didn't indicate something important. I'm not sure if it was simply to imply that something with that many GUND bits should be impossible to use without datastorms, or if, like some people have theorized, each bit has its own "personality" implanted into it and she knows a little something about where they came from. Hard to tell, but I could just be reading too much into that.

[tranquilspot]

John: Read Colonel Sassacre's text.

Long post ahead! TW/CW: unabashed sexism, misogyny, racism, call to murder as a 'joke', aged like milk content

Block of text n°2. Get ready to get the old timey dictionary, cause I sure will do a loooot of research.

Before reading the text itself, let's analyze the picture. There's Mark Twain (Colonel Sassacre in this universe) in the middle with a silly magician hat on top and an engraved sun. On his left and right, surprisingly two versions of The Fool arcana.

The Fool represents new beginnings, freedom, innocence, a free spirit. Pretty accurate for John. There's also several clowns: entertainment, playfulness, tricks, but also mockery, illusion, humiliation. I'm saying this because it's relevant. We'll see it much later, during different points in the story. On the bottom, two masks, both smiling. One a demon, perhaps the Devil itself. Which is also a major arcana: obsession, dependency, powerlessness, limitations when it's upright. In reversed it's independence, revelation, reclaiming power, reclaiming control. Very interesting. Let's keep it in mind for later. I have no idea for the other mask, it would be easier if I knew the origin of the 'borrowed' pictures that constitutes this montage. At last, two writing tools that could represent freedom of speech, creation and imagination. The word colonel was added on one of them.

Welp, that's enough dilly dallying on the image, let's dig right into the text now. *grumble mumble I have to manually write it grumble mumble*

Hell's bells, we are having a mighty sporting time of it!

"Hell's bells" is to express anger, surprise or irritation. I'll bet it's surprise here. let's see the rest of the sentence. I haven't find a direct explanation for 'sporting time' but I suppose it means 'dynamic good moment'?

Hold fast, my intrepid fellow pranksmiths! We've merely nicked the mahogany of our japing chests.

Pranksmiths is such a cool term :D So if I understood correctly, this means: "Hold on my fellow pranksters! We've barely scratch the surface."

If I may direct the incisive ogle of your beagle puss to the wriggling regency of rubber bugs […]

Wait wait wait so many new words here!

A sharp eye, okay, of our joke glasses (the one with the funny nose and mustache), and hey! First time seeing 'wriggling', that's mostly used in troll culture. Sassacre was married to the baroness, not sure how much he knew about trolls but I don't think the use of 'wriggling' is a coincidence here. Betty Crocker was already mentioned too. There's miiight be a small chance that this peculiar plot element existed early in the story. 'Regency' is to govern, hmm 'wriggling regency of rubber bugs'. See it's not trivial! Bugs, insects that govern. Sneaky early foreshadowing~

[…] plastic parasite, squirming serpents, pliable pests […]

:0 I know it's common repulsive animals, but look closely. We have bugs, immediately followed by parasite (opinion on his wife perhaps?), followed by a snake (Lord English), and 'pests' are aften rodents. Not sure where does the last one fall in the metaphor. Reading too much into it? Maybe, maybe not.

[…] and every such order and phyla of creepy crawlies!

I'm curious to see what 'order' means in this context. Perhaps 'and such things'? Also phyla! Hello brand new word. Oooh I see, like two branches of the same group of things. Junction! And creepy crawlies! I literally on the picture but i forgor. It's self explanatory, crawling little bugs. This confirm, or at least solidify, my theory on Colonel Sassacre's book to be a parody, autobiographic, but now hinting at what we are to expect from this comic, in terms of plot points and characters (trolls, a tyran parasitic sovereign, snake species..)

Land sakes alive, we are cooking with petrol now!

'Goddamn, now we're talking!' We're half-way through the introduction, of the book I mean! Can't wait to reach the end of Act 1, which is only a part of the 'tutorial'.

In further exhibits we shall dwell on artifice useful to your exploits.

Alright, not very complicated to understand.

Is your pappy's rod and reel handy?

What? *long search* Oooohhh like a fishing rod and thread. I thought that was an innuendo *sweat* I mean it isn't above Hussie to not do it. 'Handy' here means in your hand, or near it.

What about a bit of iron cord; it shouldn't prove elusive.

Are we talking about cord made of iron, or the cord of a iron, the appliance? If it isn't rare to find it I'd say the latter.

Bring those writhing rascals to life, […]

Uuuuuuuhhhhh..

and set the nerves of some old maid to the wreck of Hesperus!

Okay what the fuck old man!! Not only it is misogynist but you take delight in scaring to death a poor woman that didn't ask for it? Bring them to life.. what the heck does that entails? Wait it's rubber bugs and such, so you're not electro-stimuling them, how does cord + rubber work? Whatever, what's more interesting is the mention of another entity, Hesperus. One we never hear about either in the story nor the community itself. It's a titan, embodying the evening. Right between Hemera, the day, and Nyx, the night.

However here it is not about the god itself, but rather a poem, the Wreck of Hesperus. It's the short story of a skipper who board a ship with his daughter and didn't listen the warning about a hurricane. Long story short, the ship crashes and sink, dude dies and the corpse of the girl is found still mangled to the remains of the ship. That's horrifying. What the fuck, it went from 'let's have a jolly time with plastic toys' to 'what if we made scream a maid like a terrified girl on a sinking ship, sounds like fun!'. He really wants to scares a woman to death.

Do you have a bothersome aunt who never seems troubled to find ways with your sunny afternoons? A broad, splintery fence— a bucket of white wash, perhaps?

Sir this is a crime, he's calling for violence and murder. That's a feminicide happening soon! What the fuck, how in HELL is this book not censured, or BANNED?! This is 2009, doesn't someone check books before publishing them?

By gum you'll fix her wagon!

I'll fix your face, time shenanigans be damned! What is it with dudes fixating on other people's ass?!

Also, whitewash is a mixture, and "covering up a scandal" too. Smells like subconscious slip of his wrongdoings~

God this is tedious and awful to read. Almost there!

And what of that tawny gent who puts his lackadaisical lean near the sarsaparilla font?

It feels like a lot of made up words. I mean yeah words don't come from trees or the 'Great Book of All Words and Those Yet to Come', but I can't imagine people using them on a daily basis.

Ok, 'lackadaisical' is showing little effort or enthusiasm, 'sarsaparilla' is either a climbing plant (east asia) or a drink based of said plant. Between the sarsaparilla and the mahogany, him knowing such foreign flora gives me rich traveling dude and colonialism vibes.

You'll have that listless octoroon find the spring in his step just yet!

That's a lot of stuff that I don't understand, but I do know that an octoroon is mixed (ethnicities). "The word octoroon signifies a person of one-eighth African ancestry." according to Wikipedia. Gonna add racism to the old man bingo. Listless means lethargic. As in 'lazy african pests'. Yep it's racist alright. When does it takes place anyway? 1910/20-ish?

Alright lemme think and recontextualize all of it, I suck remembering events and dates so I need time. My grand-grandmother was born in 1912, year and day of the Titanic sinking I think.

The expression "sakes alive" was popular in 1930~1950, and its earliest use was 1860. So I kinda narrow it down.

After a good while I found this screenshot I took in 2019, couldn't find user pepple :/and princeofhope haven't posted anything since 2014. I couldn't even find the original post. But yeah, by relying on this graph it does make sense. [I wish I could properly credit pepple, if they're still there] —>

[cheesey-rice]

Theory on the Soul in Deltarune. (Warning for spoilers on all routes.)

In case you didn't know already, there are two routes in the new Deltarune chapter. I think each one gives us a different perspective on Kris's motivations and their relationship with the soul that inhabits them.

I think the important thing that underpins my take on the game is assuming that the two other lighters who accompany you in the game, Noelle and Susie, are used to voice perspectives that Kris as a silent protagonist might share but be unable to express. This is a common tool used in silent protagonist RPGs, but if you don't agree with it my take might not hold much water for you.

I'll start out by talking about a fairly regular pacifist playthrough of this part. The main scene I'd like to discuss is the one at the end, where it is discussed that opening a dark fountain could bring about the Roaring.

Because it's pretty obvious that we are to think Kris is the "Knight" sneaking off to create these dark fountains with their knife, some people think that they intend to bring about the Roaring. I think their intentions are far less malicious than such a theory assumes.

Because the main thing is that we know that Kris as a character cares about the people in their life. They have a loving relationship with their family and take care of their friends automatically without us prompting them. When Susie consistently alludes to wanting to stay friends with Kris throughout the pacifist rounds, I assume these feelings are reciprocated. I also assume that most of the feelings Susie expresses about the dark world, that it's cool and fun and easier than the real world, are also feelings felt by Kris.

There's also another layer we can see to Kris's feelings about the dark world that comes from their own reactions. We know that Kris is a weird kid in real life, a lonely kid who looks up to their older brother and doesn't have any trophies on their wall like he does. In the dark world, Kris does get trophies on their wall in the room Ralsei makes for them. In the dark world, Kris is a confident, accomplished leader who can make as many friends as they want to thanks to help and guidance from a goat who is very similar to their older brother who they can't contact because of the internet currently.

It isn't really a ground breaking conclusion to say that Kris probably likes the dark world just as much as Susie does, as she talks only of how she wants to go back and have another adventure. Because Kris is the one making the dark fountains, one can see that the worlds are made for them. Made for their adventure with friends in a world makebelieved out of all their childhood toys and imaginings.

We also know that Kris has the ability to walk around, slash tires, eat pies, and make dark fountains without any input from us at all. They don't need us for that and have the ability to take us out whenever they want.

So if the theory that they resent the soul that controls their actions held true, why would we still be in control? Why would they choose to let us do that?

This is where it's important to consider Noelle in the alternate route, whose inner feelings we are often privy to due to Kris's strong understanding of her from childhood.

The alternate route is activated by forcing Noelle to kill people in the dark world. At one point, Noelle asks herself why she's following Kris's commands when they're asking her to do such awful things. The conclusion that she draws is, "but I keep getting stronger... They're just trying to make me stronger."

If this is the reason Noelle obeys Kris, then perhaps in turn we can extrapolate that this is the reason Kris obeys us.

Because we get results.

No matter which ending you get, Kris had an adventure, became stronger, defeated enemies it would have been impossible to go up against without us.

We also see that in scenes where we don't help Kris, where we aren't in control, they often suffer at the hands of these enemies. How Susie hit then against the locker in the first game, howthe King almost strikes them down after they help Susie, how Spamton would have killed them all alone in the basement if their friends hadn't interceded.

Kris wants to be cool and strong and have a fun adventure. For that reason, they are relying on another, external force to make their choices for them. To make choices that will matter.

In the Pacifist run, Kris gets their wish. A fun adventure with their friends where no one has to get hurt. Kris can just sit back and enjoy as a friendly dark power holds their hand through the whole thing.

In the alternate route, however, we see the start of a darker path. One where the dark power with hold over Kris makes malevolent choices that make them question themselves. Is this really the right thing?

We see this hesitation in how other characters react to Kris in this route. After Kris and Noelle kill Bertly, Susie notes that Kris's expression seems to be off some how. That something seems wrong with them, even offering to heal them because of it. Later on, Noelle notes that she sees some other voice coming out of Kris, something scary that she needs to investigate, foreshadowing a continuation of this plot in later chapters.

Kris experiences some amount of turmoil due to the actions of the player. But they still open the dark fountain and put the soul back into themselves later.

How do they justify that to themselves?

Think about Yoshi. If you talk to Garrison's descendent at his grave, they tell you that Kris drops Yoshi into the pit on purpose to complete a level in the video game. In video games Kris is already the kind of player that can distance themselves from necessary sacrifices.

Maybe they justify it to themselves the same way Noelle does at first. It's in the dark world, things are different there, it doesn't matter, it's not real. I'm still getting stronger. Isn't this what I wanted? Who cares if Berdley is dead, he sucked anyway, let's close our eyes and not even look so toby doesn't have to draw the sprite when we hide his body in the wire closet.

Perhaps the resign themselves to it, acclimate to it, become numb to the traumatic event in order to justify carrying on, like Flower or Chara in Undertale might be assumed to on a genocide run.

Because that's what having the soul allows them to do. It allows them to carry on.

On the notion of Noelle carrying on her investigation, it would be interesting to me if the endgame of deltarune turned out to be a fight where all the friends whose levels you raised by killing turn on you and try to either a) save Kris from you, or b) stop a Kris who is too far gone into apathy. That ending would seem sort of karmic to me so I would enjoy seeing it. I think a battle where you play as Kris but try to make them lose to their friends in a pacifist run ending might be interesting too seeing as they are the "knight" and all and are being set up as the big bad.

So basically my actual theorizing boils down to a) on pacifist run you're like Kris's replacement older sibling cajoling them into making friends on a little video game adventure and they're trying so hard to make you stay, or b) you take the alternate route and are just kind of traumatizing Kris into thinking murder is ok if they get to be cool and have fun adventures.

I also have some things to say about how Ralsei takes on Asriel's place of influencing Kris to experience empathy and when you follow those actions Kris is reminded of their big brother who they love and how the alternate route makes Kris cut themselves off from that empathetic power as part of maintaining their own self justifications but I should just make a different post if I'm gonna talk about that.

TLDR; Kris just wants to have a fun adventure like everyone else, I don't think they resent our control but are instead actively seeking it out to make their life easier.

[zombiewheeler]

foreshadowing in the rebel robin podcast?

hey, so i was listening to the rebel robin: surviving hawkins podcast last night and i found three things that could foreshadow robin's relationships and plot points in season 4.

warning: this contains very mild spoilers for the rebel robin podcast. nothing major, just some details.

here is the link to the podcast, btw: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB7-8jH-zbBsp4KgYIvWuFjhAY_YPNCn7

the first thing i found was in the first episode, around the timestamp 15:40. robin is talking to her english teacher, and she says, "better to ask for forgiveness than permission." that has to be a parallel to nancy, who says something extremely similar in s3e3: "we ask for forgiveness, not permission." this obviously shows some similarity in robin and nancy's personalities, mindsets, etc. maybe the two of them are more similar than they think, and perhaps they'll even bond over their shared morals and develop a strong bond.

the second thing i found was in episode two, around the timestamp 17:21. robin is telling her english teacher that she feels like she has no friends and that everyone at hawkins high is exactly the kind of person they seem to be. her teacher tells her that there are some people at hawkins that could surprise her. right as he tells her to come up with at least three people to consider befriending, nancy walks into the classroom. is it really a coincidence that nancy happened to stop by at that exact moment? it was obviously supposed to mean something. hopefully, when robin and nancy interact more in season 4, they'll surprise each other. robin already has some preconceived notions about nancy that are not very positive, but maybe she'll take more of a liking to nancy than she expected to, just like how it was with her and steve.

the very last thing was not about robin and nancy - it was actually about eddie. this is most likely a reach, but there is a part in episode 4, around the timestamp 13:08. robin is asking her english teacher if he's into any unexpected hobbies - "baking, knitting, street racing... satanism." she literally mentions satanism. that along with the "welcome to hawkins hell" sign in s3e8 and other mentions of the satanic panic of that era could mean something more. dungeons and dragons is often associated with satanism, and there is a popular theory that, when strange things occur in hawkins, people will point their fingers at the hellfire club - the one that eddie's in. the show's subtle nods to satanism could be foreshadowing a huge plot point for eddie and the dnd club.

that's all! let me know your thoughts. i can't wait to see robin and nancy interact in season 4, i think that they have so much potential.

[prismartist]

Ponk’s discoveries and what they mean

Y’all haven’t been paying attention to Ponk and it shows. /lh

He has made many discoveries in his recent streams that are just begging to be talked about, and I, as the resident maker of farfetched theories, will take up the job of compiling and connecting them to the current lore.

For those who don’t know, Ponk recently built up the lore of Not A Very Good Town Town, aka the village that went mad, through a book he found in the basement of Jack’s (the potato farmer, not Manifold) Ye Old Farmhouse, written by Jack himself. And it reveals some interesting information.

There’s going to be a few sections for this post: first, breaking down what is in the journal, then theories as to what exactly happened to the village, and how these discoveries can tie into the current storyline.

The journal

For one, Jack seems to have interacted an entity that’s eerily similar to Foolish. In the first page there’s an entry that reads:

“Day 790 The strange man is back, his body made of straw but eyes of emrald.”

On the second page as well, it mentions:

“Day 800 A NEW LAND! A land that uses sand as stone! Gold.... GOLD EVERYWHERE!”

Which, of course, probably pertains to Foolish’s desert home, which also has a significant amount of gold due to the Egyptian theme.

But why would we get Foolish lore from Ponk of all people, instead of the totem god himself? Well, Ponk was the first person Foolish interacted with on the server aside from Dream, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they talked more after that and collabed for lore.

But anyways, now we move on to the more interesting section:

“Day 840 The Strange man has returned his name still unknown... BUT! he has brought a caravan of good! he talks about ancient magic and gifts 21 statues transported in make shift boats.”

Jack then goes on to describe that the statues are “calming” for him, before the next entry, written ten days later, show a disturbing shift in attitude.

“Day 855 CATS I HEAR CATS, CATS IN THE WALLS IN THE WALLS”

And another one five days later:

“DAY 900 murder... the cats murder ,,, the people I showed Shrimpy my satues he seems too intrested BUT THEY ARE MY SATUES”

Now those who saw the episode know that Jack and Bob (Shrimpy) turned out to be the murderers of the “canon round”. Seeing as those two people were the only ones exposed to the statues as we know, it’s logical to assume that the statues were the reason they went mad.

And this is backed up by the next entry:

“Day 905 SUDDEN URGE TO MURDER, THAT HELGA WOMEN IS TEMPTING BUT DAMN HER HUSBAND NEEDS TO GO BY ANY MEANS NESS…..”

Then there are two blank pages before the journal concludes

“Day 1040 Just me and Shrimpy and the cool statues life is good go od goo d g ood go odgood g oodg ood go odg good goo dgood goo dgood g ood good good good goodgoo d go od g ood go od dgo od g oo go od go o d - JACK”

It’s creepy as shit. But moving on.

There’s a lot of questions to be asked here. Why did Foolish–if it is Foolish–visit the Town? Why exactly did he gift a bunch of statues that drove Jack and Shrimpy to madness and murder? Why are there cats in the walls?

(Well, cats are very significant to Egyptian culture, even to a cult-like status, but that’s for another post.)

There are a few possibilities.

What exactly were the effects that Foolish had on the Town?

(Here’s the farfetched theories part lmao)

The simplest (and let’s be honest, the most likely) theory is that the statues probably had way too much power that caused people to become overprotective over them. Foolish just didn’t realize and wanted to give some nice gifts, but the statues drove Jack and Bob to insanity after being exposed to them for way too long. So they killed everyone.

However, considering certain factors, there is another possibility, specifically surrounding:

The “non-canon” round.

Did Karl say that it was a practice round and thus not canon? Yes. Am I suggesting it’s canon anyway for the sake of this theory that probably won’t be true? Also yes.

Besides, Karl probably also didn’t plan for TVTWM to be influential to the storyline, but because of it his character’s now a time traveler and Ponk is pulling out more lore so.

I think Foolish came by and gifted the statues, the first round did happen, and he brought them back to life after the first game. But the resurrection affected Jack and Bob, driving them to madness à la gothic horror lit character that just saw something they weren’t supposed to. Perhaps their attitude became cult-like, praising Foolish, thus the overprotectiveness over the statues as they were connected to the god, or they were of the opinion that “Hey no, everyone’s supposed to be dead,” and then sought to make that true once again.

“But then what about the first round, where everyone also died?” You may scoff at the ridiculous theory, poking my chest accusingly. “Why were the killers different?”

Well, I have a simple answer for that.

Egg.

“What, the egg again-“ I know, I know, it may seem tiring tying everything back to the egg, but hear me out.

In another one of Ponk’s streams, “Dreams of potatos?”, at 58:15 (correct me if wrong) Ponk had a dream where Mayor Jimmy was saying disjointed sentences to Jack, scolding him, telling him to stay away from Helga, and also something about burning Miles Memeington being burned at the stake for being a witch (????). At the end of it, Jimmy turned to the camera.

And his eyes were red.

Which, of course, is a telltale sign of being infected by the egg.

The egg being the main plot right now, seeing as it can easily be connected to the “Red-Eyed Village Wars”, and the fact that it is known to control people to murder, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to point to it as being the cause.

It also helps that Jimmy was only a character from the first round; in the “canon” round, Bad had changed his character to some sort of constable or something.

So the egg may have controlled Jimmy and Cornelius, the murderers in the first round, to kill everyone, Foolish then came along, resurrected everyone murdered in the first round, gotten rid of the egg’s influence, and then left. Then whatever effects the statues had on Jack and Bob took affect.

Alternatively, the statues may have been the ones to resurrect the dead, or have been given as protection from any threats, but became haywire for one reason or another. They influenced Jack and Bob to protect the statues at any cost, and they took it too far. Which may seem a little hypocritical as the egg literally does the same thing, but fire fights fire and all that.

And, just like with Karl, if Foolish has had to deal with the egg before, it makes sense why he’s so averse to it now.

Current lore

Now, how does this tie into the current storyline?


Aside from the egg, if resurrection and items do affect one’s psyche, then maybe that’s the same reason why Schlatt and even Dream–the only other two who know how to resurrect–acted the way they did, becoming apathetic to the wellbeing of other people.

Also, it is worth noting that in the basement where Ponk found the journal, there were 21 villagers in boats, the same amount as the statues. Thus Ponk concluded that they are the statues. And Foolish does have an affinity for villagers, if King Toad is any indication. This implies that Foolish can not only bring dead people back to life, but can also grant life to objects that never lived in the first place. Or, they were once living, but had their life taken away from them before getting it back for one reason or another. If Foolish really has this much power, it could be foreshadowing for future events where those powers will be utilized.

About the bloodvines, if Foolish has defeated them before, there’s a chance he may do it again. Unless something goes wrong and he accidentally drives a few people to madness.

(or maybe they were predisposed to madness, who knows-)

TL;DR

Foolish may have interacted with Not A Very Good Town Town before to save them from the egg and resurrect the dead, driving Jack and Bob to insanity as a consequence. Thus he could have a lot of power and will be the one to potentially defeat the egg once again.

[brushstrokesapocalyptic]

it’s time for the “overanalyzing one-off lines” show!

so the very first thing magnus says when he sees pit in chapter 2 of kid icarus: uprising is as follows:

“Well, I didn’t expect to see an angel here. Hope this doesn’t mean I’ve kicked the bucket.”

now, i’m not sure if you’re aware, but that’s a really weird thing for someone to say, and it’s even more weird that no one comments on it. pit and palutena go on talking about unrelated things, as if that’s a totally normal and expected thing for magnus to say.

now, if you’re like me, you probably also didn’t really react to this line the first few times you saw it. it’s the second chapter, kiu has a lot of slightly-odd lines which turn out to be foreshadowing. me, personally? my first thought was “oh, i guess angels are probably associated with escorting the dead to the afterlife,“ and then i moved on.

they’re not, though. that’s what reapers do. and there’s no way humans have these two races mixed up. just fucking look at them.

do they look anything alike to you??? no. they don’t. which raises the question of why, exactly, magnus said that.

now, we don’t know a lot about angels as a whole. pit (and by extension dark pit) is emphatically not the gold standard of angeldom. we can assume he looks fairly ordinary for an angel, seeing as no one has trouble identifying him as such. beyond that, though, a lot of what we know about angels comes from what pit isn’t. for starters, he can’t fly. and there’s something else, too, but i’ll get to that later.

before that, though, i’m gonna go through the various unsubstantiated comments made by people with a dubious level of authority on the subject. (incidentally, i sourced these screenshots from the wiki— much more convenient than trying to dig through youtube for every single random conversation.)

without any further ado! let’s get into it!

Angels as Messengers

Gaol: Aw, Palutena’s little messenger boy. And Magnus, it’s always a pleasure. (src)

in the specific context of overanalyzing magnus’s first line, this is an important sentence to pick out. magnus and gaol are both humans, both with presumably a fairly similar history as mercenaries up until gaol got stuffed in a suit of armor. but while magnus makes a weird comment about death, gaol calls pit a messenger.

and pit agrees with her!

Viridi: I wish I had an angel to do my bidding. It’s like having an intern.

Pit: I’m not an intern. I’m a messenger of the gods!

Viridi: Poor Pit. Don't you know that the definition of angel is "errand spirit"? (src)

this particular conversation is the most insight we get into angels as a whole, i think. viridi thinks of angels as like divine interns, there to do little tasks for gods, and palutena doesn’t exactly disagree with her. pit says they’re specifically messengers, which lines up with biblical mythology. i could see the traditional role of angels in the world of KI being exactly that, showing up to tell the humans what the gods have to say because the gods themselves are too busy being petty jerks to do it themselves.

The Angel’s Code of Conduct

Magnus: You go in fully dressed? Don't you at least want to change into a...swimming tunic or something?

Pit: Oh, no no no! The angel's code of conduct says that we must always be ready for duty.

Magnus: I guess you wouldn't be an angel if you didn't do things by the book. (src)

Pit: Hey! You know the angel's code of conduct! I need to be prepared at all times! (src)

another random little thing is the angel’s code of conduct. without a larger sample size, we can’t know if it’s a real thing or just an excuse to save on laundry, but apparently it’s against the rules to not be on call at all times. in pit’s case, the duty he has to be ready for is doing palutena’s dirty work, but it can easily mean just about anything— including, of course, being a messenger.

No Warrior

Chariot Master: But you are no warrior, angel. Tell me, why do you fight?

Pit: I fight for Lady Palutena. And I fight for the people under her protection!

Chariot Master: That's not reason enough for an angel. (src)

remember how i said there was something else weird about pit? the chariot master seems to think angels aren’t very prone to battle— or perhaps even that they’re actively opposed to it. this lines up well with the idea that they’re supposed to be messengers, peaceful go-betweens for gods and mortals. this does not line up well with pit, the adorable weapon of mass destruction.

and it also does absolutely nothing to explain the question driving the whole existence of this post.

you know what does kinda lean towards an explanation?

No Other Angels

Pit: Do all gods have their own angels, like you have me?

Palutena: No, I don't think that's necessarily the case. (src)

i said before that the Intern Pit conversation had the most illuminating information on angels. this is what i was actually referring to. on its own, it’s pretty innocuous, but it’s just as weird as the magnus line. shouldn’t pit know about other angels, seeing as he is one himself? but he doesn’t know if there are other angels.

the only angels we ever see are him and his clone. no one ever directly references the existence of other angels, they only make general statements about what angels as a whole are like— statements which clearly don’t apply to pit, meaning they’re not just extrapolating based on the one angel that definitely does exist.

the one time someone does comment on the hypothetical existence of other angels, palutena gives a vague answer to the tune of “no,” the topic is changed, and no one brings it up again.

let’s go over everything i’ve established about angels up to this point. they can fly, they’re peaceful messengers of the gods, and pit is the only one that seems to exist as of the start of KIU.

it should be pretty obvious at this point what answer i’m dancing around, if it wasn’t obvious from the start. pit is the only angel around because all the other ones are dead. the reason why magnus said what he did is that his thought process went something like this:

See an angel.

Think “Aren’t angels extinct? Is that a ghost? Am I a ghost? I sure hope not.“

Make a quip about that.

Move on with his life, because he isn’t dead and evidently neither is this guy.

i’m not gonna pretend i went into this post with the intent of any other conclusion to that mystery. anyone who’s bothered glancing over a plot summary for the original kid icarus can draw that conclusion. it’s certainly what i did, reinforced by fics by people who had the same thought!

the truth, however, is that this was all a trick to get you to read my analysis of the theoretical nature of angels as a race. now that you’re invested, i’m going to dramatically throw aside my cape and reveal my TRUE FORM: telling people that fandom consensus is wrong, and my ideas are cooler and better than everyone else’s and you should all throw roses at my feet and bow before your king.

(or just, y’know, take it as the subjective analysis that it is. whatever floats your boat.)

Hot Takes

the original kid icarus does not actually tell you about angels going extinct. here’s the wiki article with the full text of the backstory, just for convenience, so you know what i’m on about for the rest of this post.

so, the part of the story that i think gets misinterpreted is this part about palutena’s army.

Medusa led a surprise attack on Palutena's army which could barely fend off the attack. Palutena's army suffered major losses and was heavily defeated in the final battle.

specifically, i think a lot of people interpret said army as having been made up at least partly of angels. sure, in the actual game it consists entirely of centurions, but you have to take old NES games with a grain of salt. i know i don’t buy for a second that pit was part of palutena’s guard before the original game (he was just too goddamn young), there’s nothing wrong with reinterpreting things.

recall everything i established about angels already, though. this is the hot official lore, from the game everyone knows and loves. angels are messengers, and if the chariot master is to be believed, never warriors. pit is an outlier. palutena’s army consists of centurions, not angels. if medusa wiped them out, it wasn’t because they were fighting for palutena.

(and honestly, i don’t think angels are necessarily associated with palutena exclusively. sure, she’s got the wing imagery, and she’s got the one known surviving angel working for her, at least up until pittoo is born. but angels are messengers of the gods, not messengers of palutena. again, pit is an outlier.)

which all brings us to the real question of this post.

what the FUCK happened to all the other angels? why is there only pit? why does magnus act surprised to see a messenger of the gods, and make a quip about being dead, if not because angels are otherwise extinct?! WHO KILLED THEM, AND WHY?!

thus concludes the “over analyzing one-off lines“ show. see you next, uh, maybe at some point if i feel like it!

(also another thought i had but couldn’t find room to fit it in properly: the gods don’t really act like angels are all extinct, but i feel like that can be explained through the sheer scale of a god’s lifespan. if we assume they were wiped out sometime around the original kid icarus (even if not as palutena’s army) then that’s a whole twenty-five years. that’s a long time for us humans, but for a god, that might as well be last tuesday. “yeah, i know what angels are like. sure wish i could have one. too bad palutena’s got a monopoly on the one single angel that medusa didn’t manage to wreck.”)