#either literal or metaphorical

[theodore-sallis]

“…Man-Thing!” Savage Tales (Vol. 1/1971), #1.

Writers: Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway; Penciler, Inker, and Letterer: Gray Morrow

[afterthelambs]

I'm not sure if I believe the "Wakaba Isshiki did unethical experiments" theory in the fandom, but I do think this is the biggest proof of it in-game:

Because how the hell would she know that?

The first explanation is that she did experiments by sending people into palaces and then testing what happens to them if the palace collapses. Which is messed up for obvious reasons.

The second explanation is that she did NOT test it, meaning she was just making shit up. Which is funny but also would make her a terrible scientist. This explanation is less believable because everything else about her research is too accurate.

There's also a theory that Wakaba did unethical experiments on Akechi specifically. I'm not sure I believe that, since the evidence for it is pretty shallow (like the featherman game scientist experimenting on grey pigeon). But this scene is once again the biggest argument you could make for that theory. The researcher in the image above refers to palaces by their correct term 'palaces', which they say was based on Wakaba's research. But that's only something you would know with firsthand experience of the metaverse. And the only person they know who could access the metaverse was Akechi (that we know of, but i dont think Shido would rely only on Akechi if there were other options).

So yeah this scene is very sus. It's most likely the writers didn't think too deep about the implications. There's no way they wanted Futaba's mom to be sketchy, right? But even if it's not intentional, the scenes and their implications still exist. So in conclusion those theories make sense, I get it, and I don't blame anyone for headcanoning them and having fun. And tbh anyone involved with cognitive psience was portrayed as some degree of unethical (maruki for example), maybe this is just on-brand

[rainbowsuitcase]

Finished the second season of What If and I need to say something about Peggy.

I feel like her story isn't really "What if Peggy Carter was Captain America" but more "What if Captain America was a woman." I feel like if they put a random female character into that suit, the story would have stayed the same.

Because Peggy doesn't really have a character. She's a badass woman. She's a strong female character who can get by on her own and yay! Feminism!

Sure.

She's not a character, she's an archetype. And given what archetype she is, I was honestly surprised that they kept tying her back to Steve. Even in the actually alternate storylines of the last two episodes, they kept bringing up Steve and tying her motivations back to him. Everything we learn about Captain Carter is somehow connected to Steve.

If Steve doesn't exist, her story doesn't really work. Her character exists to be a badass independent female superhero and the creators couldn't even do that right.

The creators keep shoving her and Steve together like a little kid playing with dolls and I need them to find new toys to play with, because these ones are old and worn down and broken.

You broke it, you don't get to play with it anymore!

[bdor1995]

people in this fandom are so allergic to openly admitting they want harrow and gideon to get together by the end of the series bc they dont think it would be ~thematically appropriate or they wanna look like theyre over ~shipping or whatever. Well im here to say i am selfish and i DO want gideon and harrow to get together at the end AND have it be thematically appropriate. Por que no los dos and all that.

[bonefall]

I can't see how the writers still think Skystar's a good person. Like, twelve year old me liked him and thought he was interesting, but I was like twelve. And even I knew he was an irredeemable asshole after Moth Flight's Vision. If a twelve year old can figure this stuff out I have no idea what these grown ass writers were doing.

DOTC has a thesis, stated in The First Battle, that really explains everything.

"Fear and Greed" is just a fake-deep way to reinvent a Good and Evil dichotomy. Because Clear Sky's abuse comes from a place of fear, it means it's not malicious, unlike a "greedy" cat.

He can be "soothed," ergo, he's a fundamentally good person.

Post-First Battle, the books are focusing constantly on his feelings, how sad it makes him to not be trusted, how happy he is when people are on his side. All while he continues to screech at people who tell him what to do, manipulate and mistreat his son, and even still beats and mauls those who offend him.

But because it's "fear," that doesn't matter. That's a justification, an excuse. The writers don't seem to believe in good and bad actions as much as they do good and bad people. True 'evil' comes from a person who hurts others for the wrong reasons, like 'revenge' or malice.

It's abuse apologia. Plain and simple.

The truth is that abusers don't think of themselves as evil people, and everyone, even you and me, is capable of being toxic or abusive. Talk to those who have been abused and we'll tell you; we often stayed because we "saw the good," or even felt responsible for them. Abuse can be passed down through generations because the kids come to believe the way they were treated was normal and okay.

If you go through life thinking that abuse only comes from evil/greedy people, you won't see it when it happens right in front of you. Fundamental good and evil is childish. Abuse comes from fear all the time.

Abuse is about power and control. Fear of rejection, of losing someone, of pain, those are all very common motivators as the abuser tries to stop them from happening before they even begin. It doesn't MATTER that your abuser is in pain too, you NEVER "deserved" what they did in an attempt to break your legs so you wouldn't run.

But... we can all change. Even the worst of us. It's never too late to stop hurting others, move on to a better life, but some people never will. Skystar loves his power, and he keeps that power no matter how many times he misuses it.

He has no reason to change as long as his cruelty rewards him with status and authority.

But the writers are incapable of recognizing that, because for this entire arc, they were stuck in an absurd view of the world in terms of Fear and Greed. Abuse can be excused if he did it for the "right reason," and that makes him "fundamentally different" from the truly evil villains, Slash and One Eye.

Hopefully, it now makes more sense to you.

[macksartblock]

Omg classpects??? 👁️👁️ Can you tell more about that au, pls?

I can tell you it’s so very dumb

[cuteniarose]

Personally I find it really funny that based on what the twins said in the Book 2 finale re: having to tell their mom about what happened to Unalaq, it's literally canon that Unalaq's wife a) exists, b) is alive, and c) is just chilling in the Northern Water Tribe

She took one look at all the spirit fuckery her husband was getting up to and went "Well that's none of my business" and honestly I respect that

[weedgrinderfullofteeth]

you stan ken kaneki cause hes hot. i stan ken kaneki cause of the metaphorical way his agony about being a ghoul and living in a body that requires him to betray not only societal norms but also his own moral code in order to survive in a world where he is viewed as 'less than' by society at large relates to being trans in a conservative, 'anti-trans' environment, to internalized transphobia, the absolute body horror of dysphoria, and how refusing to live ones truth can ultimately become ones downfall. we are not the same

[nomohmoss]

oh how i hate the theory that the pale princess and the six pygmies is about cataclysm in khaenri'ah like it Doesn't Fit

[corfisers]

love that he looks at doumeki's whole deal and recognizes how ultimately pointless and misplaced his self-flagellation and attempts at "atonement" are, but then frames his own suffering as some deserved punishment. funny how that works.

[mewtwo24]

So like??? I don't know if I understood this correctly, but the music wwx plays to settle Wen Ning's aggression at the beginning of the first volume is the wangxian song lwj composed and sang/played for him when they were in the cave as kids???

Like. You're telling me that wwx's instinctive focal point of comfort is lwj and lwj was just expected to be normal about all of this.

I'm. rotating this in my head as we speak wwx you're so aksjldfgdhjskjghkfjdh

[zappedbyzabka]

In some universe nearby, Johnny is an 80s/90s rock femboy potential groupie getting sloshed and sweaty at a concert until his eyeliner runs then stumbling to a hotdog stand.

[no1ryomafan]

So I finished mazinkaiser awhile ago after months of procrastination on it and for one reason or another I’m not gonna give my solid thoughts on it but there is one specific thing I wanna point out, not as a critique but more so a confusion. That being: I find it weird how Mazinkaiser isn’t the turning point for Mazinger where they finally go “hey the robot is sentient” because it’s not yet near the end literally EVERYONE talks to Venus A as if shes actually a person:

I’m not saying this as a criticism for the reason of my already biased to vaguely sentient robots-because as much as I prefer this angle with mecha, I understand not every and all mecha can approach this because sometimes the robot is JUST a narrative tool and not a character, which is fine-however I’m confused with Mazinger of all things didn’t take this approach when there’s already so much emphasis on Mazinger being tied to gods. I mean, apart from the fact the robots are based off Greek Mythology and there is a constant message of “will it become God or Devil” which feels like it warrants this enough, it would start to make sense if the robot grew sentient because Mazinkaiser is treated as the ULTIMATE Mazinger. (And where have we heard a case where the “ultimate” form of a robot starts to be the one that displays more self awareness *cough* GETTAH🗿)

Especially also within this ova- it seems to do stuff on its own accord to PROTECT Koji, like going on auto pilot as he’s knocked out and somehow keeping him safe from being burned alive in magma, but I cannot tell if this IS a indicator Mazinkaiser is actually sentient or if it’s just all auto pilot. Oh and it’s a more minor thing but also just- the human poses Kaiser and Venus take during the beach episode… I cannot tell if that’s something they wanted or if their pilots just posed them comfortably because lines seem to blur with the robots just being treated as the extensive of the pilots. (Venus is literally based off of Sayakas appearance after all)

It’s just weird Nagai never went this route and just stuck to metaphorical stuff, when it feels like SOMETHING he would do given the nature of his stories and yet the only fully sentient Mazinger media I know is Zero. Of course I still have such a limited window on Mazinger so if this is me actually being wrong please feel free to correct me, but I still will never not find it weird Mazinkaiser lacks this aspect asides from maybe vague allusions to it that may or may not be implying it. Maybe if I ever rewatch it or find more Mazinkaiser content specifically I’ll be able to piece things together a bit more.

[prophetofthemuse]

The thing with me being a shepard is that the only wolf I have to worry about protecting my flock from is myself.

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

ok I’m not caught up yet, but from the moment I first watched it, I have not stopped thinking about that scene in Hell’s Paradise where they arrive on the island and notice all the different flowers in the forest looking so beautiful together, but then observe that all of these flowers do not belong together in the same place, and suddenly what we first saw as beautiful is now unnerving and chaotic.

And then I recently saw Annihilation which has an insanely similar scene where they arrive in the Shimmer and notice all the different flowers looking so beautiful together, but then Natalie Portman observes these flowers do not belong together on the same vine, and same deal: now we’re a little scared of them.

Although in HP the flowers are there (I assume) because of Tan, and in Annihilation they are there because they’ve been cancer-fied, in both stories, the chaos that began with unnatural beauty continues to unravel reality into more chaos until everyone involved is certain they’re in hell.

and frankly, I keep noticing that unnatural beauty/plurality everywhere in our society today, multiplying chaos with no end in sight

[cruelsister-moved2]

cant tell you how fulfilling and comforting it feels to be in a classroom full of women being lectured by a woman on the work of other women about subjects who are also women like i just got a small taste of what men are experiencing every day of their lives its intoxicating