A look at Playwright's design
This was meant to be an analysis but it became so unserious midway. And yes I'm using this whole thing as an excuse to tell everyone that Playwright wears high heels.
Some elaboration (may contain spoilers for IS2) :
1. didn't have any space for it but need to note that he has beauty marks!! two of them.
2. he often draws blood for his blood ink, so he's probably anemic further suggested by his pale complexion and premature gray hair.
3. the gap in his sleeve is probably to make drawing blood easier
4. the low blood volume from frequent blood draws causes low blood pressure. tight clothes help improve blood circulation
5. he covers up most of his body parts, so we can't tell if he has any visible scars or more importantly, oripathy crystal formations. he seems to be infected though, based on the relic descriptions
6. gloves makes it unclear if he has any scars, corns or calluses. someone who writes so often ought to have calluses. it could be that his gloves themselves are to prevent calluses. Personally, I think writing with gloves on is very difficult. props to him for always writing with gloves on
7. Black and white hair. I think this is either indicative of his cat breed, a sign of stress or anemia, a reference to the black cat in Poe's short story Black Cat, or all of the above. You can refer to my previous post to know more about Playwright and the Black Cat.
8. Ribbons. so many ribbons. boy why do you love ribbons so much. the ribbons are mostly blue and black, but there are other colours too. he also ties the longer parts of his hair with them.
Interestingly, having a lot of ribbons is a characteristic shared by Ms Christine, another character related to Phantom. in Ms Christine's case though, it was Phantom who gifted her all the ribbons. Could it be that Phantom also gifted the Playwright all these ribbons? or the other way around?
10. trademark small_ryuzaki's hypnotic eyes. among all small_ryuzaki characters we have, this is the most apparent with Cantabile and Erato. he also has eyebags, implying that he hadn't slept well in a good while.
9. High heels - probably a fancy formal wear, but I like to think otherwise. HC that Playwright wears high heels because he doesn’t want to look short when standing next to Phantom, a towering 185 cm pole. Imagine Rhythm in Literature EP but Playwright is ~15 cm shorter. Wouldn’t it be cute? I love this shortie.
Update: he wears high heels (and so do most other Troupe members other than Blood Diamond) because tragic actors wear buskins
11. Blue quill - The Writer's Tongue, a relic that foreshadowed the Playwright's death. he never lets go of it because he never stops writing. maybe when he finally achieves his vengeance, he'll be able to let go.
12. Blue accent - his design perfectly contrasts Blood Diamond's. I have been thinking, why the Blood Diamond outfit? why not Phantom's default outfit? This may be because the current default Phantom isn't the real Phantom, but rather a shell of who he used to be. To the narrative as a whole, "Phantom"'s character is meaningless without the troupe, so in order to fully grasp his character, you have to look at his identity within the troupe. "Blood Diamond" may be the troupe's puppet, but he's also their star.
There are other significance of the colour blue that I covered in this post.
13. "Tear of the Departed"
this relic that belongs to the dead/retired elite operator shares the same shade of blue, and similar themes to Playwright's: associations with fire and creation, and heroic qualities. I might be jumping the gun, but its an interesting food for thought
14. I actually don’t know anything about cat breed or British shorthair or whatever. He’ll always be a black cat shaped gremlin in my heart.
15. Glasses are really versatile. First, you can have glasses-wearing girls take them off and suddenly become beautiful, or have girls wearing glasses flashing those cute grins, or have girls stealing the protagonist's glasses and putting them on like, "Haha, got your glasses!" That's just way too cute! Also, boys with glasses! I really like when their glasses have that suspicious looking gleam, and it's amazing how it can look really cool or just be a joke. I really like how it can fulfill all those abstract needs. Being able to switch up the styles and colors of glasses based on your mood is a lot of fun too! It's actually so much fun! You have those half rim glasses, or the thick frame glasses, everything! It's like you're enjoying all these kinds of glasses at a buffet. I really want Phantom to try some on or Mouthpiece to try some on to replace his mask. We really need glasses to become a thing in the Crimson Troupe and start giving them away for free. Don't. You. Think. We. Really. Need. To. Officially. Give. Everyone. Glasses?
That's about all, I think. Will add more if I find anything else to add later.
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more substantive thing about Glass Onion and then i think this is all my thoughts: i really liked something i feel was clearly shown in the flashbacks but not outright stated, which was that andi knew damn well miles bron was a dumb huckster.
that's what she wanted him for. she needed that ability to throw himself into his latest shill with total commitment, because of his need to believe in his own hype. the 'reality distortion' of his hard sell.
she knew that to get what she wanted out of life, she needed to harness that confidence of a mediocre white man we all talk about.
that it would open doors that would stay unmoved in the face of all her brilliance, and polish, and perfected rich bitch voice.
there's a lot of these guys out there, and she picked a dumb one because she planned for him to be the front man to her mastermind. (apologies to paul mccartney lol i don't mean to impugn your intelligence.) a smarter man would have had his own plans, would be harder to use as a mouthpiece for her better ones. she would have needed to find an actual partner and not a tool, and she didn't trust like that.
duke wasn't actually wrong to say they were all playing the same shitty game and andi lost. i mean, he was morally wrong but he wasn't incorrect.
like blanc says, she thought that because she was better than bron, because she was the genius and he was the cheap con artist, he wasn't dangerous. and in the end that was where it all fell apart.
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Prompt 175
Talon -William Cobb, that was his name once, he remembers that much at least- stares down blankly at the small child who is clinging to its -his His HIS- pant leg, tiny claws digging into the cloth and gripping onto the armor. It he freezes, unsure as to how to react. With Hunts or Orders, the talon knew exactly what to do. Entertain. Kill. Simple.
Talons were supposed to kill witnesses, he- IT knows this, especially as one of the oldest talons that belonged to the Court. Yet the talon hesitates, something stopping it from doing so. The child looks up at it, something oh so familiar about the motion, with blue-green eyes before burying their face against its- his?- leg.
“'̵m̸ ̵c̴o̷l̵d̸…” the child-chick… spoke? Not-spoke. Something else, familiar-yet-not. But cold, he knew that. Cold was bad, it meant sleep, not rest but a deep frozen sleep that took time to awaken from. A dangerous thing. A thing not-talons didn’t wake up from.
The chick -Hadn’t he had a child once, all that time ago- whined, bringing its-his attention back to them. Talon could wait to return to the Court for a few hours more- the task it had been given was already complete-and keep the Cold away from the tiny chick. Just for a little bit.
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as a guitar player I am delighted by the choices in glass onion involving miles bron playing guitar. when you first meet him, he is playing "blackbird". the thing about this song is that it sounds complex and impressive but is actually really easy to play - it's just moving the same chord shape around with the same picking pattern. it is one of the first songs most people learn when they are first picking up the instrument. it's an excellent metaphor for who miles is as a person - a dipshit whose success is entirely based on convincing people he is a genius.
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